Proposes an agenda for organizing and incorporating a foreign language's cultural aspects into the language curriculum and explores how faculty development, undergraduate and graduate study, and research are affected by the addition of this important element. (CB)

Describes two assignments of benefit to students who are either in the full-time work force or entering it: (1) using the job search memo (which involves collecting the information, writing the report, and using the assignment), and (2) analyzing a problem in the workplace or in an organization to which they belong. (EL)

Compares genders' style and quality in written communication. Finds no significant differences, and suggests any gender-specific markers might be limited to verbal and nonverbal communications. (MS)

Describes experiences of United Kingdom's Open University blind students involved in "Computing and the Blind" project. Microcomputer applications described include braille-to-text transcription, word processing, and computer programming. Each application's use of software designed for commercially available microcomputer systems with…

Electronic mail is becoming more and more common in contemporary organizations. Despite the technological sophistication of e-mail, questions remain regarding the value of the innovation for organizations. The assumption that the presence of e-mail, in and of itself, obviates internal communication problems is inaccurate and problematic. This…

This paper explores behavior patterns that inhibit effective communication in everyday, educational, and business cross-cultural settings. Opportunities to change these inhibiting patterns, metaphorically referred to as "stumbling blocks," into building blocks or tools for successful intercultural understandings are discussed in the…

Intended to help international business people create business documents of style and substance for correspondents in many different cultures (correspondents whose second or even third language is English), this guide is extremely useful for the millions who travel internationally, work abroad, and correspond with business people in other…

A family therapy session was analyzed to understand how verbal and nonverbal behavior are related to the therapeutic process. (KW)

Examines models and treatment approaches for communication apprehension: (1) conditioned anxiety--systematic desensitization; (2) negative cognitive appraisal--cognitive modification; and (3) skills deficit--skills training. Provides direction for future treatment research. (PD)

The common ground process is an ongoing effort for inviting, scrutinizing, debating, and selecting ideas or making decisions about improving schools. Superintendents should assign a full-time communications person to executive staff, create a communications team, conduct a full-scale communications audit, listen better, urge the silent majority to…

Arguing that physician/patient and librarian/user communications are similar, this article compares medical and reference interviews, focusing on physician or librarian attitudes and behaviors as it presents a series of verbal communication issues and outcomes. Offers suggestions to avoid communication problems at the reference desk, improving…

Ethnographic research at 2 work activity centers for mentally retarded clients revealed that 16 production supervisors and 9 adult basic education teachers differed in their connotations of the term "functioning." Teachers defined functioning in narrowly academic terms, whereas supervisors defined it as a set of mental, physical, and moral traits…

A Michigan State senator discusses institutional relationships with the state legislature and communication problems between institution and government that interfere with policy and budgeting processes. (MSE)

Surveys, focus-group interviews, observations, and journal writings of 11 Canadian student teachers revealed sources of stress during the teaching practicum: role clarification, expectations, conformity, time, evaluation, assignments, peer discussions, and inconsistent feedback. Student teachers identified communication, conformity, initiative,…

Nine focus groups were conducted with a total of 14 special education teachers of students with mild disabilities (grades 5 through 12), 15 parents of such students, and 14 classroom teachers. Participants identified six major homework-communication problems. These involved initiation, frequency, timing, consistency, follow-through, and clarity…