This study assesses 7- to 12-year-old children's abilities to understand the figural and metrical aspects of rhythm. Tasks were developed to assess children's ability to (1) make figural and metrical descriptions, (2) interpret figural and metrical descriptions, (3) produce the metrical hierarchy through drumming, (4) describe the metrical…

In the comprehension approach to second language instruction, the major procedure is to provide students with comprehensible input, which it is the students' responsibility to understand. The aim is to encourage nucleation of the target language, that is the crystallization of the rule system. Teaching procedures focus on strategies for implicit…

This report reviews evidence that there are differences between oral and written English that lead to differences in the skills and knowledge necessary to comprehend them. Three categories of differences are considered in an attempt to derive specific, testable hypotheses: differences in the physical nature of speech and writing, differences in…

Describes an automated device for teaching and testing the pronunciation of a language to a non-native speaker without the assistance of a trained teacher. This device was developed at the Research Institute of Logopedics and Phoniatrics at the University of Tokyo. Available from SIGLASH, c/o ACM, P.O. Box 12105, Church St. Station, New York, NY…

The concept that a child's potential reading level can be measured via listening comprehension has at least one major shortcoming: it is of doubtful worth for children in grades one through three. First, reading comprehension and listening comprehension are not approximately equal early in a child's schooling. In fact, it seems that they generally…

Experimental research on the environmental conditions that promote generative language learning is reviewed. Recombinative generalization is introduced as a process that enables individuals to express and to comprehend novel utterances. This review focuses on the use of a miniature linguistic system paradigm to explore how recombinative…

The effects of making ratings of idea importance, saliency, or textual imagery on story recall was investigated with 180 students (second and sixth grade normal students and mildly mentally retarded adolescents). Ss in eighteen groups attempted to recall a story presented auditorially and in print either before rating on a textual variable…

Intended for use with secondary school students, a course on effective listening has material for an 18-week course to meet daily for a minimum of 45 minutes. The objectives are to build an awareness of the factors that will affect listening ability and to build the kind of aural experiences that can produce good listening habits. An integral part…

Although nonverbal behaviors have been shown to be learned, meaningful, systematic, and sometimes culture bound, kinesics, the science of body behavioral communication, has been a neglected factor in second language instruction and research, particularly in the area of academic listening. This paper describes steps taken to develop materials,…

A study explored whether cues given in advance of messages presented through noise were effective for increasing comprehension. Specifically, the study examined whether (1) relevant cues increased overall listening accuracy and (2) irrelevant cues impaired listening by introducing distortions into the processing of messages or simply decreased the…

Currently available British and American materials for teaching English listening comprehension to non-native speakers are covered in this bibliography. Most items listed include student's workbook and teacher's manual, and most are accompanied by tapes. Materials are grouped under four headings: (1) materials whose primary focus is conversation,…

The relationship between speech and print is essentially asymmetrical and changes as the reading ability of the child improves. For the child who has succeeded at decoding, the asymmetry implies that commonalities between speech and print are more important than their differences. Three hypothetical observation points illustrate the similarity…

The study explored the differences in the abilities of 20 learning disabled (LD) students (6-8 years old) and 19 normal Ss to perform on listening tasks. In phase I, performance levels were assessed on the Goldman Fristoe Woodcock Test of Auditory Discrimination and a listening comprehension skill battery (the Durrell Listening-Reading Series,…

THIS STUDY ATTEMPTED TO DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT GIVING PUPILS SPECIFIC INSTRUCTION IN THE SKILLS OF PURPOSEFUL LISTENING WOULD IMPROVE THEIR LISTENING ABILITY. NINETY RANDOMLY-SELECTED SEVETH-GRADERS WITHOUT HEARING IMPEDIMENTS AND OF COMPARABLE INTELLIGENCE WERE DIVIDED EQUALLY INTO THREE GROUPS. THE ISOLATED-CONTROL GROUP RECEIVED INSTRUCTION…