In speech perception, children give particular patterns of weight to different acoustic cues (their cue weighting). These patterns appear to change with increased linguistic experience. Previous speech perception research has found a positive correlation between more analytical cue weighting strategies and the ability to consciously think about…

"Review of Adult Learning and Literacy: Connecting Research, Policy, and Practice, Volume 6," is the newest volume in a series of annual publications of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) that address major issues, the latest research, and the best practices in the field of adult literacy and…

East Asian students, the largest international student group in US higher education, are as a group typically known to be silent or reticent in class. This survey examined views of East Asian international graduate students concerning required academic listening and speaking skill levels in their university courses, their own difficulties in…

A study was conducted of teacher perceptions of classroom student speaking opportunities at Cook Junior High School in Cypress-Fairbanks I.S.D. during the spring of 1995. Fifty-four academic teachers of language arts, reading, math, science, and social studies were given a questionnaire to answer according to their attitudes concerning…

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…

A review of literature in the speech communication field from 1978 to 1983 reveals developments emerging in the area of forensics, while a review of the contributions to theories of debate analysis reveals advances in both policy systems theory and in hypothesis testing. Although much of the research is directed toward forensics educators, it is…

Divided into two sections, this report describes research on the range and degree of assessment of students' communication skills in colleges and universities and includes the following findings: (1) of the 384 respondents from college speech communication departments, 45 reported using large-scale, uniform testing of students; (2) these…

Eight different activities are suggested for the foreign language conversation class in order to vary the textbook emphasis. Among the suggested situations are a "last people on earth" session, sensitivity sessions, descriptions of paintings or photos, an improvised drama, and a mock trial. (CHK)

Aware of the societal problems stemming from a lack of communication skills, the American public is pressing for instruction in speaking and listening in the schools. This response is reflected in the speaking and listening competency recommendations in many national reform reports. Such reports include "A Nation at Risk" by the National…

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,…

To examine political debate formats with regard to past usage and future possibilities, an analysis was made of the format features of the 1960, 1976, and 1980 general election presidential debates. Also analyzed were the formats used in the primary debates for Democratic presidential candidates in 1976 and for the Republican presidential…

Intended for use by managers, this guide is meant to focus attention on communication skills and to provide a new approach to improving interpersonal communications. The authors divide these skills into two categories--listening and speaking. Effective listening entails skillful use of paraphrasing (any method of showing the speaker what his or…

Discusses the semantic field of "expression" and the implications for the teaching of oral and written expression. (Text is in French.) (AM)

This paper describes the components of the interdisciplinary, kindergarten through grade twelve communication skills program developed by educators in the Lincoln, Nebraska, public schools. The paper contains (1) a brief discussion of the background of the communication skills program; (2) an overview of its characteristics; (3) statements of the…