A British woman recounts her difficulties in developing the ability to understand humorous French while living in France. (AM)

Investigates the effects of two plans on elementary school children's listener behavior in a referential communication setting. The design systematically varied the presence and absence of instructions about a plan to engage in comparison activities and instructions about a plan to request more information if the speaker's message was ambiguous.…

Outlines a teaching technique whereby students are taught writing skills through the use of sound effects. (MAI)

Provides examples of listening comprehension tests used in England which take into account communicative skill testing. (AM)

Using mystery and detective fiction in the classroom proved to be an effective method of improving the reading, listening, and comprehension skills of below-average high school readers. (MB)

The rate of speaking in words per minute is a function of three independent variables, namely, articulation rate and the number and durations of pauses. The present study varies each of these components separately in a factorial design in order to determine how the listener combines them into a global impression of speech rate. (Editor)

Describes what a teacher learned when she asked her first-grade students weekly to recall what the teacher said to them. Notes lessons learned from doing this--children's work, behavior, attitudes and lives are all mixed together; children are listening even when they seem inattentive; and every category of response was connected to the teacher's…

This study investigated ratings of amplified speech quality characterized by peak clipping, a common form of distortion in hearing aids, with eight college students having moderate/severe hearing losses. Both clipping level and interaction of the frequency-response shaping with clipping level significantly affected perceived speech quality. A…

Examines multimodal processing and its implications for listening skills development in a foreign or second language, and discusses how multimodal processing, as it relates to listening skills development, can be supported by multimedia technology. Highlights include visuals, text, video, schema, and chunking. (71 references) (Author/LRW)

Notes that phonemic restoration is a powerful auditory illusion. Points out that when part of an utterance is replaced by another sound, listeners perceptually restore the missing speech. Several paradigms measure this illusion and explore its bottom-up and top-down bases. Findings reveal that acoustic properties of the replacement sound strongly…

Examines the effects of classroom acoustical problems on children, including those at risk for underachievement. Suggests ways to optimize classroom listening, especially through sound-field classroom amplification. (SK)

Offers guidelines for white people on listening to people of color speak about their experiences of race. Asserts that: (1) today's society is situated within troubled forms of power, and it is in that context that most stories of race are spoken, and (2) today's society is laced with dehumanizing notions of pathology, and it is in that context…

Explores the effects of self-regulation strategies on 35 undergraduate students' perception of a listening situation. Selects three different metacognitive strategies for closer investigation: interest management, asking pre-questions, and elaboration techniques. Finds that results support the hypothesis that these strategies, when appropriately…

Describes the polyphonic nature of the discursive field of education and the interplay between various contexts and contextual resources. Videotapes eight preservice teachers over a 6-month period as they talked with a tutor. Adopts the concept of intertextuality as a method to identify the polyphony of different voices. Finds some students have a…

Reports on an investigation of listening strategy applications by Grade 7 students learning French. Examines types of strategies used and differences in strategy use by more skilled and less skilled listeners while they listen to authentic texts in French. (Author/VWL)