Five young adults and three junior high students, with moderate mental retardation, were trained first to label characters verbally and then to enter the characters into computers, calculators, or checkbooks. Almost all subjects were able to generalize the use of verbal labels and key-entry skills across tasks and settings. (Author/JDD)

Identifies how the number of practice and feedback sessions affects the development of select interpersonal communication skills. Finds that acquisition of interpersonal communication skills can be positively affected by the use of behavior modeling that includes video feedback, behavior rehearsal, or a combination of both. (MS)

Describes a college-level skills training program for reticent communicators. Details major aspects of the program, including recruiting students for training, screening students for admission to the program, training instructors, and organizing and teaching the course. (MS)

Discusses and describes incrementally organized instructional strategies for teaching students of French how to hypothesize. The method uses the naturally occurring phenomenon in "La Vie Conjugale," a French short story by Michelle Maurois. Instructional activities designed to help students master this function are described. (MSE)

Discusses two problems related to the use of online catalogs: (1) staff training has not kept pace with new catalogs, resulting in a lack of search expertise in staff and patrons; and (2) users expect instant access to materials found in the catalog. It is argued that these problems must be addressed to adequately serve library patrons. (CLB)

Four steps in facilitating pragmatic language development in young hearing-impaired students are discussed, including identifying communication behaviors, coding a child's conversation, putting the school environment to work, and charting progress. A pragmatic communication skills taxonomy and a grid of age-linked pragmatic communication skills…

Examination and comparison of the changes in movement trajectories of two initially naive American Sign Language (ASL) students during an introductory ASL course found that their movement pattern increased in speed, symmetry, and replicability and grew more constrained in amplitude as the semester progressed. (Author/CB)

As an orientation to the actual composition process, learning-disabled students should be taught methods for the development and organization of ideas. Strategies are presented for helping learning-disabled students improve composition skills by improving flexibility in vocabulary and sentence structure and by planning and sequencing ideas and/or…

An experiential speechreading course was designed to supplement traditional speechreading courses by providing 30 hearing-impaired college students with real-life communication experiences. The course increased student self-perceptions of communication success in real-life situations, compared to 30 control subjects. (Author/JDD)

Retrograde writing, the technique of telling events in a narrative passage in reverse order while maintaining a coherent progression of thought, is a stylistic exercise that can make foreign language writing instruction more interesting and effective. (MSE)

The study examined whether variation in mothers' use of information-seeking and confirmation questions predicted variation in auxiliary and copula development in five specific-language-disordered (SLD) preschool children. Mothers of SLD children who used proportionally more information-seeking questions were found to have children who showed…

Views writing instruction as the techniques and approaches used by the teacher, as well as the learner's whole experience in the writing classroom. Drawing on research on writing in both first- and second-languages, an analysis focuses on the different aspects of writing instruction. (61 references) (Author/VWL)

Examines the degree of fidelity required of a computer simulation to ensure maximum transfer of training. Simulators used in the military services for training pilots are described; relationships between fidelity, transfer, and cost are explored; and feedback to the student and measures of training effectiveness are discussed. (nine references)…

Recommends restructuring of schools to foster more effective learning and development of higher order thinking skills. Emphasizes instructional strategies, teachers' roles and responsibilities, and accountability. (FMW)

Summarizes results of two workshops conducted at 1987 and 1988 conferences sponsored by the National Society for Performance and Instruction which involved skills in estimating training development costs. Baseline and adjusted estimates are explained, results are compared with a similar workshop conducted in England, and recommendations for…