Compares the importance of role taking and the logical operations stage of child development in predicting children's understanding of the purpose of television advertising. Research on children's comprehension of television commercials is briefly reviewed and the subjects of the study, as well as the study methodology, are described. (Author/JL)

Areas of knowledge having impact upon teacher effectiveness include content knowledge, knowledge of the "human factor," and knowledge of "conceptualizing." An illustration of an instructional problem and how knowledge about conceptualizing is related to the problem is provided. (CJ)

Children listened to stories which contained anomalies produced by violating semantic restrictions or based on conflicting propositions at two points in a story. The capacity to detect violations of sentences developed more rapidly than detection of violation of discourse. Children's developing capacity to integrate and store story structure is…

Discusses a staff development program for nurses at an acute care hospital, aimed at responding to patient comments. Elements included (1) listening skills before training, (2) a formula to help nurses respond empathetically, (3) a pre- and posttest, (4) a followup class, and (5) program evaluation. (CT)

The two studies described in this monograph were designed to generate new ideas about the development of children's metacommunicative understanding and comprehension-monitoring abilities. Older subjects were more likely than younger subjects to detect inadequacies in communication; furthermore, younger children responded differently to…

Reports the findings of a survey commissioned by the Speech Communication Association's Task Force on Assessment and Testing. Concludes that many states are including speaking and listening skills in curriculum and assessment programs but that much work still needs to be done to develop an integrated oral communication program. (PD)

Reports the results of a study that compared the effects of instruction in sentence combining to instruction in sentence reduction or element identification on growth in listening and reading comprehension. (AEA)

Describes 10 methods that have proven successful in improving the comprehension skills of problem readers, including the use of pictures, cloze-type exercises, and repeated readings. (FL)

This study shows that variations in paralinguistic stress cues, based upon Chafe's given--new and contrastiveness notions, can also influence which frameworks subjects use in comprehending ambiguous passages. Educational implications of schematic-triggering phenomena are discussed. (Author/GK)

Measures of comprehension of the content indicated no significant difference in the amount of information each group of students retained when the historical or biological content was presented to their particular group aurally at an expanded, normal, or compressed rate of speech. (Author)

Describes a French language course at the advanced level arranged for a group of Austrian railroad employees and based on the use of prerecorded excerpts from radio news broadcastings. Gives an account of the steps and tasks involved in progressing from a global interpretation to full comprehension. (MES)

Discusses the use of radio news broadcasts as instructional materials, citing some of the advantages they afford the user. Advantages include the homogeneity of mass media language, the frequency of news flashes, and the opportunity for individual work on related newspaper articles. Illustrates steps to move from global to total comprehension.…

Language comprehension performance on the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL) was investigated using three modes of test administration with 24 four-year-old children representing various categories of cognitive tempo. Results indicated that all Ss had similar expressive language abilities. (Author/SB)

Describes five uses of the overhead projector in English as a second language classes including crosswork puzzles, giving directions, dictation, spots as a way to consolidate the comparative and superlative using different sized examples, and other geometric shapes. (BK)

Authors discuss strategies for keeping classroom control. These include nonverbal communication, the importance of listening, and participation in youth groups. The section concludes with a report from a school that instituted leadership courses and boosted its DECA membership dramatically. (CT)