This study provides evidence for the warranted assertion that classroom practices will be enhanced by awareness of how non-linguistic modalities of the face, hands and vocal intonation contribute to cohesive and cooperative strategies within social groups. Both the history and observations of non-linguistic communication presented by this study suggest that visual, kinesic, and spatial comprehension create and influence social fields and common spaces, yet our language for these fields and spaces is impoverished. This knowledge has been submerged and marginalized through history. At the same time, through time, despite this submersion and marginalization, interrelational and intrarelational synchrony and dis-synchrony, centered on and by the communicative body, occur in social settings in ways that can be considered from both historical and observational perspectives. Building on recent theory by Damasio, Donald, Noddings, Grumet, Terdiman, and Nussbaum, the historical concepts and classroom observations presented here evidence that social values such as caring, loyalty, and generosity are sometimes understood, implicitly and explicitly, through the exchange, perception, and interpretation of non-linguistic signs. By understanding how the face and hands and rhythm and pitch of the voice create cohesive and cooperative social values in learning spaces - separate from racial, ethnic, and intellectual differences - this investigation recovers a submerged knowledge in order to offer a new logic for understanding social process. In turn, this new logic hopes to further transformational practice in the learning and teaching arts and sciences.

The scientific problem of the dissertation: what attitudes on characteristics of linguistic communication competence dominate among physical education teachers considering their attitudes both on linguistic communication competence, and on communication in social situations? The research object – attitudes on linguistic communication competence and communication in social situations. The scientific solution of the research object that corresponds the research subject is oriented to the detection of verbal communication competence in native (Lithuanian) speech of physical education teachers as well as to the evaluation of their attitude on communication in social situations. The aim of the research was to disclose physical education teachers‘ attitudes on pedagogical communication as the determinants of pupils‘ approach to physical self-education. The following statements substantiate scientific novelty of the research: in theoretical aspect the competences of a physical education teacher in revealing the role of linguistic communication competence in native (Lithuanian) speech were analysed, the peculiarities of the attitude of physical education teachers on communication competence were revealed, the features of the attitude of physical education teachers on communication in social situations were evaluated, the links of the attitude of the components of physical education teachers on linguistic communication competence in native (Lithuanian) speech and the attitude on... [to full text]

Aphasia is a language disorder resulting from damage to brain areas that control language expression and reception. Clinically, the narrative production of Persons with Aphasia (PWA) provides valuable information for diagnosis of aphasia. There are several types of assessment procedures for analysis of aphasic's narrative production. One of them is to use quantification systems, such as the Cantonese Linguistic Communication Measure (CLCM; Kong & Law, 2004) or the Main Concept Analysis (MCA; Kong, 2009), for objective quantification of aphasic's discourse. The purposes of this study are (1) to translate the MCA and CLCM to a Taiwanese Mandarin Main Concept Analysis (TM-MCA) and a Taiwanese Mandarin Linguistic Communication Measure (TM-LCM), respectively, and (2) to validate them based on normal speakers and PWA in Taiwan. In the pilot study, a total of sixteen participants, eight certified speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and eight normal speakers, were invited to establish the Taiwanese Mandarin main concepts related to the four sets of sequencial pictures created by Kong in 2009. The language samples from eight normal speakers were then used to determine the informative words (i-words) in the picture sets. In the main study, thirty-six normal speakers and ten PWA were recruited to perform the same picture description tasks. The elicited language samples were analyzed using both the TM-MCA and TM-LCM. The results suggested that both age and education affected the oral discourse performance. Significant differences on the measures in TM-MCA and indices in TM-LCM were noted between the normal and aphasic groups. It was also found that overall aphasia severity affected the picture description performances of PWA. Finally, significant correlations between some of the TM-MCA measures and TM-LCM indices were noted. In conclusion, both the TM-MCA and TM-LCM are culturally appropriate to the Taiwanese Mandarin population. They can be used to supplement standardized aphasia tests to help clinicians make more informative decisions not only on diagnosis but also on a treatment plan of aphasia.