Examines the performance of ethnic minority students on Rubin's CCAI, with a view toward discovering potential cultural biases embedded in the instrument. Concludes that such biases appear to exist. (MS)

This study investigated the accuracy and types of interpretations that fifth, eighth, and eleventh graders gave to 24 editorial cartoons in four issue areas and the effect of intelligence on political cartoon interpretation. Numerous misinterpretations and no interpretations indicates assumptions that cartoons are an effective teaching medium…

Uses a synthetic family strategy to demonstrate the operation of caregiving transactions with children judged either "difficult" or "easy." A total of 96 elementay-age boys were paired with unrelated mothers for videotaped interactions. Results focused on socially competent child behavior patterns. (CI)

Comparisons were conducted to assess the impact of levels of communication apprehension (CA) on students in a traditional hybrid basic course against students placed in freshmen interest group (FIG) settings. This investigation assessed the impact of the FIG classroom at an open admissions 4-year college on reduction of communication apprehension…

Discusses the configuration of a department's position within a university system. Considers organizational issues, such as periodic self-evaluation, and argues that conversations concerning these issues should not wait for a full organizational analysis but should be a continuous activity. (MS)

Reviews studies positing gender differences in communicative styles and documenting differences between boys' and girls' classroom behaviors, along with feminist critiques of such studies. Also investigated are perceptions of secondary students of English as a Second Language (ESL) about gendered speech. (53 references) (LR)

Examines communication and motor skill learning from the perspective of research on teaching. Discusses research design for laboratory motor learning, applied motor learning, physical education teaching, and contributions of each to knowledge of motor skill learning, concluding that teachers are important in structuring and communicating…

Investigates effect of computer-aided instruction (CAI) on acquisition of communication skills. Sketches a tutorial of the basic communication structure. Recommends confining CAI to cognitive learning because CAI cannot advance communication skills. Maintains that integrating CAI in social arrangements will allow the computer to remain an…

Finds that female students rated female faculty especially high across five teaching dimensions and male faculty comparatively lower, whereas male students did not evaluate male and female professors as significantly different. Finds that assessments of faculty were further influenced by the strength of students' gender schema and that gender…

The communication technology and policy section of the Proceedings contains the following 11 papers: "The Battle for the Net Frontier: Technology and Policy in an Age of Hype and Sensationalism" (Jan H. Samoriski); "Uses and Gratifications of the World Wide Web" (Barbara K. Kaye); "Comparing Consumer Feedback Channels:…

This volume of an annual collection presents 14 essays relating to instruction in the basic communication course. Essays in the collection are "Using Interactive Video Instruction to Enhance Public Speaking Instruction" (Michael W. Cronin and William R. Kennan); "Interactive Video Instruction for Teaching Organizational Techniques…

This paper reports on a study that explored the possibility of measuring distance education classes using the Media Sensor, a device designed to sample and record various electronic impulses generated during a distance education session. Research questions explored: (1) the ability of the Media Sensor to identify patterns in the audio and video…

A study analyzed some of the characteristics of junior high students' oral communication behavior that accompanied the assignment, production, and evaluation of a writing task. It involved fieldwork in three junior high school English classes--first in a six-month pilot study and then in a year-long period of observation. Through direct…

Research reports on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical applications of research are provided in this status report covering the period of January 1 through March 31, 1983. The 16 reports deal with the following topics: (1) the influence of subcategorical mismatches on lexical access, (2) the Serbo-Croatian…

Over the past fifty years, the speech communication discipline has confronted more frontiers than most. Earlier frontiers involved a preoccupation with physiology and an application of electricity to speech communication in a myriad of ways. Another reliable source of frontiers and one that led to fragmentation or a speech department of unified…