A review of problems with using such manual communication systems as cued speech, fingerspelling, Signed or Manual English, American Sign Language, and Pidgin Sign provides a rationale for using a combination of American Sign Language and Pidgin Sign and a few markers from Signed English for a Total Communication system. (CB)

This article highlights the fact that to date, emphasis has been upon promotion of the expressive communication skills of a person with a learning disability and challenging behavior. It is suggested that practitioners need to pay closer attention to the neglected and largely unmet need of receptive communication difficulties. (Contains…

Post structural reader theories--i.e., theories that focus on the reader/viewer rather than the text as the creator of meaning--are considered in this paper in terms of their application to educational media research. Some key concepts of reader theories are defined as follows: (1) reading is the process of creating meaning while viewing an…

This paper reviews the literature on the role of judgment and collaboration between clinicians and researchers to identify and instruct students with reading difficulties, particularly reading difficulties based on either underlying core deficits in phonological processing or poor language comprehension. For students with speech-sound based…

The performance data of individuals with Alzheimer's on language comprehension and expression tests are presented and discussed in the context of possible contributions from impaired working memory functions. It is argued that diminished scores result primarily from attenuated span capacity, difficulty focusing attention, encoding, and activation…

This review describes the theory behind two new measures of spoken word recognition for children with sensory aids, the Lexical and the Multisyllabic Lexical Neighborhood Tests. It then summarizes data concerning the tests' word familiarity, interlist equivalency, and test-retest reliability. Results indicate that deaf children with cochlear…

The challenges faced by deaf students learning English are very different from those of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students. These differences include the amount of linguistic input, motivation, language attitudes, and the use of a visual-spatial language. (38 references) (Author/CB)

The impact of a disordered phonological system (expressive or receptive) on language development is examined. Research results and guidelines are presented for identification of critical intelligibility and phonological awareness deficiencies and for intervention. Options for expediting intelligibility gains and research findings on enhancing…

Defines "listening comprehension" and discusses both its role in the process of first and second language acquisition and the modes of language processing presumed to operate in listening comprehension. Presents specific teaching strategies and material incorporating listening comprehension in the foreign language classroom at all levels. (SED)

The third of four documents reviews research on assessment in three domains (receptive language skills, expressive language skills, and perceptual and cognitive processes) as the most likely to predict subsequent language development of young children who have yet to speak their first word. Section II focuses on assessment of hearing sensitivity…

Communicative proficiency, defined as native-like ability to use the language as a medium of two-way communication, is most effectively and efficiently achieved through instruction emphasizing development of listening and reading comprehension skills, and virtually excluding training in production. The comprehension approach avoids the teaching of…

A review of the research on learning-disabled students suggests that these students often exhibit language deficits that are not readily obvious. These language deficits create problems in understanding social interactions and written and oral directions as well as problems in expressing ideas both orally and in written form. The term language…

This article outlines key components of a medical evaluation of a child who is not talking. Factors to consider during diagnosis and screening are discussed, including the presence of mental retardation, hearing impairments, autism, cerebral palsy, and other disorders. The physiology of speech/language disorders in children is also examined.…

The concept of social representations, which was developed by Moscovici in 1984, suggests new ways of understanding the social processes that underlie communication between individuals. A social representation is a set of concepts, statements, and explanations originating in daily life in the course of inter-individual communication. The purpose…

A review of the literature on a variety of issues related to testing vocabulary knowledge in a second language addresses these topics: problems in estimating vocabulary size, including the related questions of what constitutes a word, how a sample should be selected, and what are the criteria for knowing a word; sampling the basic and specialized…