Livingston College of Rutgers University, N.J., has established an Urban Communications Teaching and Research Center. Using an interdisciplinary approach, it offers an innovative approach to the study of communications systems in urban society, consolidating course offerings, independent study, internships, community service and research. Its…

The purpose of the study was to engage college supervisors in analysis of the verbal interaction they employed in conferences with student teachers. Subjects in the study were 14 pairs of college supervisors-elementary student teachers in the Dept. of Elementary Education at a state college in New York during the spring semester of 1971. An…

Explores the nature and functions of conflict, its role in fundamental individual and social life processes, and its theoretical relationship to communication from a system-theoretic perspective. Indicates a distinction between conflict and para-conflict, and suggests that the latter is characteristically the object of study in speech and…

A survey of 86 persons using non-speech communication systems with retarded clients was conducted to determine which non-speech communication methods they used with which kinds of communication impaired populations. (SBH)

Vocation-rehabilitation client and significant-other (SO) family-member pairs were interviewed separately to determine factors and perceptions contributing to discussion of disability-related problems and conflict arising from these problems. Clients reported more discussion of problems and more mutual agreement than their SOs. (Author)

Attempts to refine the concept of indirect communication by distinguishing a number of different forms of indirect communication such as hinting, suggesting and insinuating. (MH)

The role of Russian as the language of intercommunication in the ethnically diverse peoples of the Soviet Union is examined. (DE)

Sources of variation in clinicians' diagnostic communication to parents of 37 mentally retarded children were identified and examined. (Author)

Reports on a study that describes the areas in which the communication skills of secretarial students in law offices, legal secretaries, and lawyers can be improved. (KS)

Provides strong support for the hypothesis that as communication reticence increases, expectations of success in communication situations decreases. Investigates the predictive utility of employing multiple measures of reticence as compared to single operationalizations. (NKA)

Stresses the importance of teaching not only the linguisti aspects of a foreign language but also the gestures used by native speakers of the language. Several examples (some accompanied by sketches or photographs) are provided of gestures used by native speakers of Italian. (CFM)

Analyzes results from 38 distraction studies. Concludes it is necessary to distinguish between communication-relevant and communication-irrelevant distractors. Suggests the effect of communication-irrelevant distractors on attitude change is minor. (MS)

Offers suggestions for overcoming the fear of speaking in public and rules on how to give effective presentations. (SRT)

The article offers suggestions that teachers can use to help redirect angry parents to more productive paths. Suggestions stress the importance of listening to engender trust and defuse anger and clarifying the central sources of parental anger. (CL)

Considers the phenomenon of a single utterance having different illocutions at the same time, depending on the relationship between the speaker and different hearers and the differing amounts of shared knowledge among the conversation's participants. (MSE)