In 1981, James Coleman reported results of a study indicating that private schools were superior to public schools. He claimed that supporting private schools through tax credits or vouchers was in the interest of society. To explore the possibility that differences attributed to schools might be due to differences in student skills, motivation,…

Developmental trends in the effects of expectations regarding agent/action matches on judgments of sentence acceptability were investigated. Five sentences reflected expected relations ("harmonious") and five contradicted them ("contrary"). Twelve subjects each were in grades 4 through 8 during year 1; the same 60 subjects…

Oral responses of 180 male and female undergraduates to scenarios containing positive-loving, neutral-informational, and/or negative-rejecting (male) child communications were obtained and scored along 25 specific categories, as well as a global rating of acceptance/rejection of child. A factor analysis generated six factors, which, along with the…

Noting that an increasing number of rape victims who seek alternatives to police procedures do so because of the insensitive behavior of the investigating police officer, this paper provides a model of interpersonal communication skills that will enable police officers to better relate to and support the victims of rape. The areas covered in the…

The study examined the attitudes Mexican American parents had about the best and worst ways for school personnel to communicate with them about typical school situations. Bilingual interviewers questioned 130 Mexican American parents in the East Los Angeles area to gather data relating to 3 sets of variables which were then correlated and…

This book is a collection of fourteen papers presented at the communication colloquium of the University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee, during the 1967-68 academic year. The essays have been organized into three sections. Section I: "General Perspectives on Communication" contains presentations which are addressed to basic theoretical and conceptual…

Examined was the language and communication development of 1,381 severely subnormal students in 19 schools in northwest England. (CL)

Describes a project that considers: how one's ability to produce non-native linguistic intuitions develops during adult second language acquisition; how non-native intuitions relate to the emerging of one's receptive and productive abilities in a second language; and what may be the appropriate empirical methodologies for collecting and analyzing…

The study measured hearing-impaired (N=106) students' reception of language presented via five modes: oral, aural, manual, oral-aural;, and simultaneous manual and oral. The simultaneous manual and oral and the manual modes received the highest ratings. Results are discussed in terms of theories of cognitive processing and selective attention.…

Four severely/profoundly hearing-impaired preschool children (ages 4-5) were given six vocabulary tasks (receptive, associative, and expressive) involving auditory and visual sensory modalities. Data confirmed that lipreading (visual modality) could be substituted for speech. However, for novice lipreaders, words with auditory-visual confusions…

Developmental changes in specific types of fantasy play and the relation of role taking, egocentrism, and receptive vocabulary were examined in two- to six-year-olds. Both frequency and duration of material and ideational fantasy play increased with age, but play patterns differed. Data suggest developmental progression from object to person…

Investigates how feedback from a listener helps kindergarteners attend to message quality and how such feedback affects speaking and listening skills. Results indicate that kindergarteners learn to assess message adequacy by observing listeners flounder with inadequate messages.(Author/AS)

Attempts to identify deficits in object knowledge specific to the autistic syndrome. Examines the correspondence between sensorimotor and play behaviors and language in mentally retarded and normal children. Determines whether these correspondences are different for autistic, mentally retarded, and normal children.(Author/AS)

Presents areas of agreement among professionals on research and theory in language teaching as it is applicable to classroom methodology and contrasts these with assumptions held by many teachers and laypersons. Considers the practical implications of these points of accord and presents recommendations for teacher training and the development of…

Reacts to Michael Canale's paper, "Considerations in the Testing of Reading and Listening Proficiency," concentrating on three areas: (1) the nature of the receptive skills and the requirements of a valid instrument to measure them, (2) the design features that are consistent with his test design principles, and (3) adaptive testing…