Forty-eight physically handicapped students in grades 1 through 6 were compared on the basis of their comprehension of talking book materials played at three rates. An analysis of covariance with repeated measures found a significant difference in favor of expanded speed over compressed speed; but neither resulted in comprehension significantly…

Discusses the significance of communication in the present-day world and the various factors affecting the comprehensibility of spoken English. Warns aqainst stressing fluency at the cost of correct pronunciation and against dogmatic preference for certain varieties of English. (IFS/WGA)

Delineates five developmental listening comprehension stages second language learners pass through: (1) streams of sound, with no comprehension; (2) word recognition within the stream; (3) phrase/formula recognition; (4) clause/sentence recognition; and (5) extended speech recognition, or general comprehension. The discussion illustrates the…

Describes four basic methods for developing aural comprhension, namely, guided and independent comprehension of details and of the whole. For each of these, appropriate classroom procedures are described, with examples. Suggestions are given for the teacher for preparing his/her own taped texts. (IFS/WGA)

During oral and silent reading, retention was related to segment length and existence of sentence boundary. Next limits on retention were tested by increasing segment length and difficulty. Performance of less skilled readers was uniformly low; performance of skilled and older readers was again affected by length and sentence boundary. (Author/CP)

There is a tendency for students studying a French lesson to lose the positive effects gained during the listening and speaking phase when they read the "Lecture" sections of their texts. A study of six beginning level French texts shows that the "Lecture" is difficult for students and not systematically graduated in difficulty. (PJM)

Reaction time to detect a phoneme target in a sentence was faster when the target-containing word formed part of the semantic focus of the sentence. Sentence understanding was facilitated by rapid identification of focused information. Active search for accented words can be interpreted as a search for semantic focus. (Author/RD)

Findings from a study of Black third grade children in Washington, D.C., show that the production of certain Black English and standard English features in a school setting were minimally associated with the oral reading, silent reading, and listening comprehension levels of these students. (Author/EB)

This article discusses a study designed to obtain some information regarding the nature of the awareness children have of their own articulatory activity and the level of mental development at which this awareness appears. (Author/CFM)

An adult seeking to increase his listening comprehension in French complains about the lack of adequate materials. This situation is compared to that of learning Chinese, where materials are plentiful and geared to independent study. (AM)

Presents a list of vocabulary items peculiar to French Canadian news broadcasts, intended for developing listening comprehension skills. (AM)

Reports on a Listen-Read Program exposing children to a variety of language in sound and print through the coordinated use of books and listening centers; a study of the program indicated higher scores on a standardized reading test resulted from children's listening to the text while they read. (HOD)

A study investigated effects of visuals use in interactive multimedia instruction in a college-level unit on listening skills in communication. Subjects (n=140 students) were randomly assigned to two treatment groups (use of visuals/no use of visuals). Results indicate no significant difference between groups on cognitive or listening tests…

This study investigates the phenomenon that listeners of English were surprisingly accurate at predicting the temporal end of a sentence when only given the part up to the "potentially last word," that is a noun before an optional prepositional phrase of varying lengths. Results of four experiments using either French or English are given. (35…