Researchers and educators have developed an interest in language development. Their studies focused on the cultural context in which language is learned and developed and its relationship to cognitive development. This article reviews the researchers' definitions on oracy and its social facets of language learning. Specifically, it reviews studies…

Three experiments examined the relation between language acquisition and other symbolic abilities in 18- and 26-month old infants. Infants' ability to learn either words or symbolic gestures as names for object categories were compared across age groups. Findings indicated that infants at both ages learned novel words as symbols for object…

The major purposes of this investigation were (1) to contribute to existing research on the preschool child's comprehension of disclaimers in television commercials, (2) to identify specific standard or modified disclaimers that are understood by preschoolers, and (3) to determine logical relationships between study variables. Disclaimers were…

High level thinking abilities extend beyond just command of facts and concepts. More crucial is idea use and refinement through discourse encounters. Thinking in classrooms is served by dialogic teachers who understand and use the right discourse tactics and designs. Effective discourse will usually be accompanied by: (1) extended idea exchanges;…

A battery of assessments to determine the potential contribution of tactual aids to the acoustic perception and speech identification of young deaf children was developed. The tasks were developed so that they could be implemented with standard audiometric equipment and applied to subjects of varying age and to different types of tactual aids.…

Fiesta Project provides a classic example of action anthropology in broadcasting. The project involved the research and production of a Spanish language public television series designed to attract, retain, and realistically help a Mexican American audience in southern Arizona. The project used anthropological research in initial program…

Receptive fingerspelling performance for words in isolation and context was measured at 10-foot interval distances from 10 feet through 60 feet in 83 hearing-impaired college students. (Author/PHR)

Partially hearing (N=16), deaf (N=20), and normal hearing (N=10) children's ability to say, write, and comprehend the same sentences were compared. Among results were that the partially hearing made more errors in both the spoken and written conditions than hearing subjects who were two years younger. (Author/DB)

The article describes development in Illinois of the Department of Rehabilitation Services Sign Language Assessment Tool. The instrument is designed to evaluate the level of receptive and expressive sign language proficiency of rehabilitation personnel serving the deaf. (DB)

Two social factors and their interactive effects were examined as possible influences on children's detection and reporting of inconsistent statements. Factors were the stated intention and the age of the speaker. (PCB)

Studies indicated that a single experience of retelling a story after listening produced a small improvement in kindergarten children's comprehension and that this effect could be increased by frequent practice and guidance in retelling. Appended are a story reading and retelling guidesheet for students and directions for guiding retellings for…

Reasons that students have trouble developing their reading skills in Russian include: (1) reading comprehension is regarded as unimportant; (2) teachers discourage the surmising of meaning; and, (3) it is difficult to remember Russian words unless their elements (roots, prefixes, and suffixes) are recognized. (SED)

Effects of receptive vs. expressive training of category labels on acquisition of generalized referential labels by six prelinguistic severely mentally retarded children (5-19 years old) were investigated. Data indicated that receptive training resulted in more accurate generalization to novel category members than did expressive training.…

The article describes the use of the Dynamic Audio Video Instructional Device (DAVID), designed to provide receptive sign language practice via interactive television for the staff at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Examples of lessons are presented to illustrate principles of interactive computer assisted video instructional…