As part of a project to improve education in the basic skills, this report reviews the research literature in order to specify skills in the areas of reading, listening, speech, writing, handwriting, spelling, and mathematics. For each area, preliteracy, basic-literacy, and career-literacy levels of the skills are discussed and summarized in chart…

The methods and objectives of teaching Arabic in the Arab world are outlined here. In elementary school (ages 6-12) about 1/3 of the instructional time is allotted to teaching Arabic. It aims to provide the child with basic skills in reading, conversation and writing. The speech taught is that of modern Arabic used by educated speakers. Reading…

The "silent" classrooms of yesterday are no longer appropriate for today's educational needs. Students require a learning experience rich in oral language, and schools are being asked to educate them for work that requires analytic competence and collaborative interactive skills. A revised curriculum and new teaching strategies are…

Research on second language learning has shown that several myths about how children learn languages exist. Among these mistaken ideas are that: (1) children learn second languages quickly and easily; (2) the younger the child, the more skilled he will become in acquiring a second language; (3) the more time students spend in a second language…

The efforts associated with the communication competence movement, both within and without the Speech Communication Association, have done much to promote the inclusion of listening and speaking skills in the public schools to date, but areas remain where progress is still needed. Over the past 15 years, the most significant change has been the…

Developed by classroom teachers, instructional supervisors, school administrators, and personnel from institutions of higher education, this course of study guide outlines the language arts skills and concepts to be taught at each grade level (K-12) in Alabama schools. It is intended as a content outline to be used in planning the language arts…

Intended for teachers and administrators who wish to assess student oral communication needs before designing an appropriate program, this guide provides a review of tests for measuring acts of speaking and listening. The guide surveys and discusses procedures for assessing speaking and listening skills among school children and focuses on…

This report identifies the school variables (facilities, materials, equipment, class size, time, and scheduling) and teacher competencies that contribute to achievement in the basic skills. Gleaned from a literature review, the opinions of experts, research data, and identified student outcomes, the materials that accomplish the two goals are…

Results from three small-scale investigations of specific aspects of bilingual schooling as well as results of a more traditional large-scale evaluation of bilingual education programs in downstate Illinois are presented. The three small studies were designed to assess natural language in the classroom, compare criterion-referenced versus…

A packet of three speech assessment instruments has been organized to assist classroom teachers in creating instructional programs that provide adequate oral/aural language experiences for their students. The Koziol-Cercone Assessment of Speaking Skills judges student ability to orally communicate the content of a message. The Koziol-Cercone…

A feasibility study has been conducted in Australia to investigate school and teacher objectives and practices in the development of oracy, to determine oracy skills agreed to be important, and to assess the feasibility and desirability of testing competence in oracy. The need for oracy assessment arises from a need for schools to account for…

This publication describes 97 classroom activities that employ the newspaper as an aid for teaching language arts skills. The activity ideas are grouped according to four categories: creative writing (ideas for writing such pieces as news accounts of events in stories and poems, letters to the editor, and reviews of books and television programs);…

This publication includes five papers that were presented at a language communications conference that emphasized integrating the language arts at elementary and secondary school levels. Walter Loban stresses the importance of classroom language activities that involve children in genuine purposes and that link language to thinking. Charles R.…

This paper discusses several commonly used maximum performance tests of speech production, including phonation volume, maximum phonation duration, maximum fricative duration, fundamental frequency range, maximum expiratory pressure, maximum closing force, and maximum repetition rate. The published normative data, adequacy of these data for…

This revised language arts curriculum framework lists the content standards for writing; reading; and listening, speaking, and viewing. The writing section's standards are designed to help students employ a wide range of strategies as they write; use different writing process elements appropriately to communicate to different audiences for a…