Native English speakers' and foreign students' perceptions of 14 English intonation signals, recorded free of verbal context, show foreign students may be misinterpreting or missing much information communicated with nonlexical signals. (Author/MSE)

The instructional designer in language instruction can choose a central function (e.g., describing) and build a teaching unit around it. The process involves choosing a situation that best displays the core function, determining possible secondary functions, discussing the personalities involved, and determining the formality or familiarity of the…

Describes research findings from a three-year curriculum research and development project involving developing English language materials for science education students at Ains Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. Materials concentrate on comprehension skills of listening and reading and are taught by a cassette tape player in conjunction with…

Intended for teachers of secondary level learning disabled students, the paper offers guidelines for five areas of language instruction--vocabulary, listening comprehension, conversational skills, abstract language usage, and ability to adjust language to different social situations. (SW)

Describes an experimental project where taped stories were presented to secondary pupils for their formal responses. Responses were correlated with age, IQ, and reading ability. In general, older students had higher appreciation and awareness scores, independent of any formal ability factor. Texts of these Australian stories are appended.…

Gives practical suggestions for grading of tests so students are treated fairly and so that test results reflect goals of course. Criteria are validity and reliability. Grades should be established before grading begins. (Author/BK)

Describes use of debates to teach English as a second language students how to separate the relevant from the irrevelant in written and spoken English and the mental discipline to use only pertinent information. (BK)

Introduces a recorded skit entirely based on the responses of one speaker, the lines spoken by the other being suggested by the context or left to audience's imagination. Suggests this material for use with advanced students and proposes various classroom activities leading to a reconstruction of the dialogue. (MES)

Reports on research that (1) suggests that phonetically ambiguous pairs (ice cream/I scream) have been used inaccurately to illustrate contextual effects in word segmentation, (2) supports unitary rather than exhaustive processing, and (3) supports the use of the concepts of word frequency and listener expectations instead of top-down, multiple…

The early and continued use of semantic, syntactic and contextual clues in recognizing mispronounced words was demonstrated in an experiment involving preschoolers, grade school students and college students. Errors in highly predictable words and contexts were most easily recognized by all regardless of reading ability. (PMJ)

Describes an oral literature program that motivated children to read more and better books, provided them with meaningful, literature-centered reading and listening practice; expanded their knowledge of their literary heritage; enhanced their reading comprehension; and sharpened their reading, vocabulary, and listening skills. (FL)

Receiver difference indices were developed to describe comprehension of organized and disorganized spoken messages. Comprehension was measured by a multiple-choice test and data analyses allowed for the interpretation of different indices of receiver comprehension in a variety of messages conditions. (Author/MH)

Finds that dictation exercises are insufficiently used in foreign language teaching. They serve many purposes, e.g., in tests, as introduction to texts, and in recollection exercises. They may have various forms, such as dictation with blanks to fill in, transcription of song texts, etc. (IFS/WGA)

Radio dramas deserve wider use in foreign language teaching because of their important place in current Anglo-American literary production, and also for their pedagogical value of providing training in auditory comprehension. Suggestions are given for obtaining materials. (IFS/WGA)

"The Man Who Escaped," a radio crime drama with 25 episodes, was used in a ninth-grade English class. Two class hours are described. The texts used are given and suggestions for teaching are added, along with evaluative commentary. (IFS/WGA)