Research is reviewed on the ability of language-disordered children to select and modify their speech based on the listener and the situation. Among conclusions drawn are that language-disordered children, in general, are sensitive to listener characteristics as well as situations appropriate to their level of linguistic development. (CL)

Interpersonal deficits in three mildly mentally retarded adults were treated via a conversational skills training program. For two of the three Ss studied, results indicated substantial increases in target behaviors with sequential introduction of the treatment strategy. Overall conversational ability, however, showed no practical improvement from…

"Fast Track" is a pseudonym for an accelerated, advanced language arts program for verbally gifted and high potential students in grades 6-8. The critical thinking model used for "Fast Track" was gleaned from Coalition of Essential Schools founder Ted Sizer's Habits of Mind: significance, evidence, connections, perspective, and supposition, as…

A proposed reconceptualization of inherency as practiced in debate and argumentation theory. (CH)

Discusses the importance of teaching effective speaking, listening, and interpersonal skills. (JOW)

This paper outlines a clear rationale for developing speaking and listening as part of the curriculum for young children and highlights several approaches which teachers can adopt to promote effective talk: dialogic teaching (an interactive approach to developing learning through talk) will be explored as a way to counter the initiation, response,…

This book is an attempt to understand the extension of rhetoric in many directions, not only as a subject matter but also as an analyzing, organizing, and liberating agent. Chapter One is intended as a general introduction to rhetoric, with some account by means of illustrations of its possibilities within what is an expected range. Chapter Two is…

Results of asking 30 nonprofessionals for reasons speakers were judged to be retarded or not indicated that quality of speech (articulation, prosody, etc.) and the structure, content, and coherence of discourse are more important than sentence-level grammatical features in forming impressions of cognitive competence. (Author/DB)

James E. Murdoch's contributions to the arts were widely diversified. Aside from acting, the man was interested in both the practical and theoretical aspects of elocution. The thread of continuity which existed between elocution and interpretation became apparent to Murdoch through his analysis of the works of Sheridan, Walker, and Rush, the…

Contrastive stress production patterns of 20 moderately to severely hearing-impaired children, aged four to 18, were compared with those of 20 normal-hearing children, aged three to six. Analyses of judges' responses to the speakers' audiotapes recorded during a conversation-based task yielded evidence of similar production patterns for the groups…

The paper presents a review of the constituent skills and environmental factors which influence the initial onset and continued acquisition of requests for information in normally developing children to provide the foundation for a protocol for assessing and treating children impaired in requesting information. Specific assessment and treatment…

A descriptive study of the incidence of semi-intelligible or better speech among 108 National Technical Institute for the Deaf students with congenital hearing loss greater than 91 decibels is presented. (Author/PHR)