As communication/English curricula pass from a period of great diversity to one of greater centrality, educators need to find a more reasoned direction to guide curricular decision making. Many of the current reports on the state of education refer to the importance of oral communication skills, but such skills have not received their rightful…

A description of the use of flowcharts in teaching students of English as a second language (ESL) to "map" dialogue for conversation begins with a review of the literature concerning the flowchart form and content. Conversational form and logic and the discourse chart designed by Mohr and adapted for this study are discussed. The classroom…

The propositions and inferences in a narrative story can be classified into two sets: the structurally explicit are those concerned with the central theme or structure of the story, and the incidentally explicit deal with information peripheral to this theme. This study compared readers and listeners from grades three and five in their…

This research is part of a longitudinal study designed to compare measures of first-grade oral language with reading achievement at various grade levels. The original study constructed ten measures for oral language from interviews with 100 first graders and compared those measures to the reading achievement of the subjects at the end of first…

This study was designed to develop an instrument to measure comprehension of oral-language syntactic structures, to establish the validity and reliability of the instrument, and to determine the nature of the relationship between comprehension of syntactic structures in oral language and reading comprehension. The Comprehension of Selected Oral…

The acquisition of the copula and auxiliary "be" forms of "am,""is," and "are" was studied with 16 children. Spontaneous social speech samples were obtained from each child. One child's speech was sampled for approximately one hour per week from age 2;5 through 4;0, and for one-half hour per week from age 4;1 to 5;0. A second child's speech was…

The ontogenetic development of human vocal utterances and their role in early interaction processes were studied with a three-month-old baby. Recordings were made of infant vocalizations in the home and the sounds were classified. During a five-minute segment between the mother and infant, the infant produced 59 utterances, 93 percent of which had…

Initially, many children use language with enthusiasm and apparent ease, but this lively use of language is sharply curtailed shortly after they begin school. This can be attributed to teachers' monopolizing continued discourse. A study explored the idea that increased student oral participation by more students at a higher level of thinking would…

Four scales developed by Marion Monroe for recording, describing, analyzing, and rating children's oral language skills are described and presented in this paper. The skills assessed by the scales are first described as follows: (1) how a child thinks, as revealed by the quality of ideas; (2) how a child thinks, as revealed by definition of words;…

The discussion and activities in this booklet are designed to "tune in" language arts teachers to children's language so that they appreciate and respond properly to student language development. Chapter topics include responding to authentic/inauthentic child language, keeping records of children's spontaneous language and relating the words to…

This final report contains information on the Saskatoon Pre-School Project, which was part of a more comprehensive research and development project designed to develop effective services for educationally handicapped children in rural areas around Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Canada). One chapter of the report provides an account of the planning,…

The introduction of poetry into psychotherapy in the Western (European American) tradition and a growing interest in connections between the fine arts and the healing arts have prompted investigations of the parallel uses of poetry in other cultures. Examples of how three native American groups (Oglala Sioux, Piman, and Navaho) have used poetry in…

Noting the growing number of foreign students in colleges in the United States, this paper argues that communication educators should devote more discussion to the development of oral proficiency in those students. This paper (1) discusses the significance of the problem facing educators and foreign students, (2) examines the language training of…

The national Language Development Project in Australia, an undertaking concerned with informing teachers on matters to do with language, language development, and language and learning, is described in this report. The various sections of the report establish the project's purposes; offer discussions of developments in thinking and research of the…

This study assessed oral language readiness for reading of second-grade students in French and English monolingual and bilingual programs in Canada. The 220 students enrolled in French monolingual, English monolingual, immersion bilingual (90/10) and balanced bilingual (50/50) programs were tested with the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts and the Oral…