Discusses style-developing assignments in which students simulate the characteristic features of a distinctive manner of speaking. Suggests using impersonation as an invention strategy (e.g., by adopting a controversial persona position), and to encourage stylistic fluency through parodies, dialogues, or polyphonic essays. Also suggests using…

A discussion of the role that interpersonal interaction plays in the perception and interpretation of oral expression looks at language styles, the use of the body for communication, the speaker's perspective on the audience, and the importance of oral skills in politics, business, and job seeking. (MSE)

Suggests having students in fiction writing classes record overheard dialogue to develop a sense of realistic speech. (MM)

Describes language laboratory program designed to help learners to move from comprehension of a spoken text through definite phases to their own utterance. Material used is an off-air recording from French radio. (Author/BK)

Problems arising from using ESL materials which rely heavily on contractions (orthographic phenomena) to present blendings (phonological phenomena) are identified. Discussion of the contractions of be, have, not, the modals, and several blending patterns will help teachers exploit orthographic clues in teaching pronounciation. (PMJ)

Lists 15 criteria for evaluating the procedures to be used in the assessment of student listening and speaking skills. Prefaces the list with statements concerning predictability and the relationships among the language arts. (RL)

Describes a number of nonnarrative films and suggests ways to use them to integrate media into subject areas, to teach production techniques, to critique films and other visual productions, and to develop good visual taste. (DD)

Discusses one first-grade teacher's use of collections in the classroom for the purpose of enhancing children's vocabulary, questioning, and oral presentation skills. (BB)

Examines causes and types of stuttering and its emotional and social aspects. Suggestions for helping students overcome stuttering involve (1) giving children undivided attention when speaking to them; (2) providing a relaxed atmosphere; (3) encouraging polite speaking manners; (4) sensitizing all children to stuttering; and (5) providing…

Presents some solutions to the problem of working with new limited English proficient students in a junior high school developmental reading class. Characterizes the plan as similar to that used for beginning English speaking reading. (RS)

This guide is intended for use in an eight-session course designed to develop the presentation skills required of persons employed in the manufacturing and service industries. The course is structured so that, upon its completion, students will be able to accomplish the following: identify the traits of good and bad speakers; research and organize…

Empathic listening is central to almost all human communication processes. "Feeling with" another is the heart of empathic listening: it includes a cognitive understanding of what the other is communicating plus a sensitivity to their state of emotion. One possible approach to utilize in the teaching of empathic listening is to begin a…

Successful speech should rest not on prepared notes and outlines but on genuine oral discourse based on "data" fed into the "software" in the computer which already exists within each person. Writing cannot speak for itself, nor can it continually adjust itself to accommodate diverse response. Moreover, no matter how skillfully…

Student congress is a speech activity in which students act as a legislative assembly, write and debate bills, and learn parliamentary procedure. It allows the teacher to make points about advocacy, ethics in persuasion, contemporary issues, and the workings of a democracy at the same time that students develop a feeling of control and mastery,…

This teacher's guide corresponds to the text that is the first of a series of four units concerning language skills for Spanish speakers of limited English-speaking ability in grades 6-9. The text includes a variety of learning experiences designed to develop competence in the student's cognitive and affective skills derived from the following…