Although there is agreement in the literature that memory is required for language, there is disagreement as to whether certain memory abilities are prerequisite for language. There has been a significant amount of research in the field of memory development as it relates to language; however, little research has been done in the area of memory and language development in the preschool aged child. This study examined two aspects of auditory memory and language development in the preschool child: (a) the auditory memory abilities of delayed language children versus normal language children, and (b) determining if there is a relationship between auditory memory and language development. The subjects used in this study included 14 ''normal talkers" and 14 children with "slow expressive language development'' (SELD), as determined by the Language Development Survey (Rescorla, 1989) given when the subjects were between 24-34 months of age. When the subjects were 3 years-old they were given the verbal and digit imitation section of the Preschool Language Scale (PLS) as a measure of auditory short-term memory. The results were compared with the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language-Revised (TACL-R), the Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) and the Northwestern Syntax Screening Test (NSST-E) all given at age three. A further comparison was made with the PLS and the Test of Language Development-Primary (TOLD-P) and the DSSJ given at age 4. The Spearman rank correlational statistic was used to determine if a significant relationship existed between memory and language development as seen on the PLS (age 3) and the other language measures given at ages 3 and 4. This study showed that SELD children performed more poorly on verbal and digit memory tasks than their normally speaking peers. Correlational analysis revealed that the PLS-Digit and the PLS-Sentence memory recall tasks were significantly correlated with the DSS given at the same point in time for the normal group, and between the PLS-Sentence and the NSST-E given at the same time for the SELD group. This suggests that a relationship exists between memory and expressive language at the same point in development. Because the relationship exists at the same time, and not across-ages, these findings seem to support the theory that language and memory are related in development, but memory skills at one time do not predict language skills at another. As language and memory seem to be related at the same point in time, testing auditory short-term memory skills in children with language delays will not add new information above what is learned in language testing itself. Further research in this area might investigate whether, as some literature suggests (Kail, 1990), teaching memory strategies to young children with language delays may improve language learning.

The confidence to communicate orally with others is the first requisite for verbal interaction. Anxiety which occurs in anticipation of speaking with others or while engaged in speaking hinders interaction, and is referred to as communication apprehension. This study examines levels of communication apprehension among a sample primary school population and the possible relationship between such levels and frequencies of nonverbal behaviors called self-adaptors that may be associated with the anxiety. Greater awareness of communication apprehension in children is justified in light of research that suggests it is negatively related to academic achievement in elementary school students. A four-month field~study was conducted in a Northwestern suburban elementary school by the researcher who had taught in the school for the previous seven years. The hypothesis tested was that a positive correlation exists between levels of communication apprehension and displayed self-adaptor behaviors. The study employed methodological triangulation, using both quantitative and qualitative data. An established self-report measure (MECA) consisting of a 20-item questionnaire suggesting various communication situations was administered to 42 third grade students and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Students scoring one standard deviation above the mean were identified as communication apprehensive (CA). Nervous behaviors called self-adaptors were tallied using a researcher developed measurement tool (UBSSF), and the frequencies of these behaviors correlated with the results of the self-report measure to find the predicted association. The hypothesis was not supported in this study. Complementary qualitative information also provided substantial data. This included classroom observations and videotapings of students in small group work sessions, individual recorded interviews of the CA students using film elicitation and interviews with their classroom teachers, field notes (general notations, oral data from teaching specialists, and additional demographic information), and continuing information from the apprehensive students following the conduct of the study. All qualitative data was examined for cross-situational consistency thought to be associated with communication apprehension. Significant evidence for a correlation between levels of communication apprehension and frequency of self-adaptor behaviors was not found. However, this study contributed to a greater understanding of CA by challenging currently held views on communication apprehension. Also, through the use of method triangulation, quantitative and qualitative forms of self report provided some evidence for the crosssituational consistency of CA. Communication apprehensive students were found to be aware of their anxieties and able to verbally address their fears. The phenomenological interpretation of CA student and teacher interview texts facilitated the reconstruction of the participants' perspectives. Finally, suggestions by the researcher addressed the training of teachers to raise their awareness of communication apprehension and to provide needed accommodation of CA students in the classroom.

This thesis examines the contribution made by the U.S. print media to the development of Nelson Mandela's public persona. The period studied is from 1985 to June, 1990. This thesis explores the following questions: 1) How did the public persona of Nelson Mandela evolve in the dominant U.S. print media; 2) How do these stories, in content and form, serve to establish Nelson Mandela as a public hero; 3) What cultural myths structure the news stories of Nelson Mandela that serve as the interpretative framework for public belief and action? Data for analysis were drawn from The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Wall Street Journal. Each newspaper has a daily circulation of over 1 million. It was found that during the period studied, the development of Mandela's public persona occurred in two distinct phases: 1985 to mid-1989 and late 1989 to June, 1990. Analysis reveals that the media relied on narrative form to create an image of Mandela which invites the reader to accept, believe in, and support Mandela and his cause. During these phases the media established Nelson Mandela as a hero and celebrity for their reader audience via a number of rhetorical practices. These include: the introduction of Mandela as a legend and hero among black South Africans; the practice of surrounding Mandela with mythical reference; establishing Mandela as an individual who subscribes to many traditional American values and; the serial reporting of pseudo-events. Implications of the study and suggestions for further research in the areas of textual analysis, policy analysis, and audience analysis are discussed.

Organizational change often involves the creation of work teams. This research examines how the creation of self-managed work teams within a particular organization affects perceived communication. Previous research suggests that self-managed teams would socially construct a different view of the organization especially as it relates to power than would those in traditional organizational departments. Attitudes about communication and power within the organization are analyzed in nine self-managed teams and five traditional departments. This analysis is conducted through both qualitative and quantitative means. Group comments and discussions are used in a qualitative analysis. Multidimensional scaling is used to reveal underlying attitudinal differences the self-managed teams and traditional departments may have about others within the organization. Two different scales are used to measure perceived attitudes about relationships to management and others within the organization. The first scale is modified from a family communication patterns instrument and is used to measure the analogous equivalent of the supervisor/subordinate (parent/child) relationship within the organizational family. The second scale explores the perceptions of cooperativeness, competitiveness, and independence between groups. Finally, a value ranking is used to measure perceptual differences the groups have about the organization's view of the customer. The results of this research suggest some differences exist between the two groups regarding perceptions of power and management Differences about perceptions related to boundaries suggests self-managed teams will construct a different reality as a function of their group. Results regarding perceptions of others and perceptions of the organization's view of customers were mixed. It cannot be strongly concluded that these differences exist as a function of the self-managing teams or because of the types of jobs members in self-managing teams hold. Due to a number of constraints researching in this particular organization, further examination and validation of findings were not possible. Most of the teams, for example, had been together for only two months. A possibility for future research may include some longitudinal studies.

This study addressed a need to identify the effectiveness of in-branch, employee administered training programs. A comparison of various training methods and a ranking of the effectiveness of those methodologies would enable managers to make informed training design and purchase decisions. The purpose of this study was to determine the differences between four training methods as evaluated by post-training assessment scores. This study also sought to determine the following: 1) did all four methods significantly impact short term material recall?, and 2) did gender impact training effectiveness? The training methods studied were: video; study guide; video plus study guide; video and study guide plus reinforcement meeting. A control group was used to obtain a pre-training baseline. One hundred eighty two employees who worked at one of twenty randomly selected Portland, Oregon branches of a large, regional bank participated in the study. Each branch utilized one of the five randomly assigned methods in a scheduled staff meeting. After completing the training, each participant completed a post training assessment testing material recall. The control group completed the assessment without participating in training. Analysis of Variance tests were used to determine if significant differences existed between: 1) the mean scores of the control group and the training methods, 2) the mean scores of the training methods themselves, and 3) the mean scores of males and females. A significant difference was found at the .05 level between the mean scores of the control group and every training method except video. There were no significant differences between the mean scores of the four training methods. There was not a significant difference between the mean scores of males and females. There was also no significant difference in method effectiveness based on gender.

Previous research has indicated that speech and linguistic variables develop concurrently. When one aspect of speech and linguistic development is delayed, there are typically associated delays in another area as well. This interactive relationship has been studied extensively in the context of phonological and syntactical development, as well as fluency and syntactical development. The relationship between intelligibility and linguistic proficiency has not been studied as extensively. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between varying levels of intelligibility and length and complexity of language in preschool-aged children. Mean length of utterance was correlated with the mean percentage of intelligible words in a continuous speech sample. The following questions were addressed: 1. Does a significant positive correlation exist between MLU and percentage of intelligible words in a continuous speech sample? 2. Are there significant differences in the correlations of MLU and percentage of intelligible words between four groups of young children with a range of intelligibility levels: mild, mild-moderate, moderate-severe, and severe? A continuous speech sample was collected from each of the subjects. Children were separated into four groups based on intelligibility ratings of mild, mild-moderate, moderate-severe, and severe. These ratings were based on the percentage of mean intelligible words in a continuous speech sample. Correlations between mean length of utterance (MLU) and the percentage of intelligible words (PIW) were obtained using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Regression analysis was used to determine whether a significant difference exists between the correlations for the four groups of intelligibility. An overall significant positive correlation was found between MLU and PIW when the four groups of subjects were combined. Significant correlations were also found between MLU and PIW for the groups with intelligibility ratings of mild and mild-moderate. No significant correlations were revealed between the two variables for the moderate-severe or severe groups. Regression analysis indicated no significant differences in the correlations for the four groups of intelligibility. This resulted in a failure to reject the null hypothesis that the correlations among the four groups of intelligibility levels will be the same.

Children with slow expressive language development often catch up to their normally developing peers in expressive language, but may still exhibit difficulties with metalinguistic skills. Research shows that children who have difficulty with phonemic awareness also have difficulty with reading, which is important for success in school. Speech-language pathologists assist children who have difficulty with expressive oral language and facilitate language development in children who have difficulties with learning metalinguistic skills, such as phonemic awareness. The purpose of the present study was to compare the phoneme segmentation skills in three groups of children: (a) children with a history of oral expressive language delay (HELD) (n= 22) who were identified as toddlers with slow developing expressive language, but caught up to their normally developing peers by first grade; (b) children identified as toddlers with slow developing oral expressive language and by first grade still maintained the expressive language delays (ELD) (n= 7); and (c) children who were identified at age two as developing normal oral expressive language and maintained normal oral expressive language development (NL) (n= 23) in first grade. The children participated in a phonological segmentation test. The study answered four questions: Is there a significant difference among the three groups of children in the number of correct responses on a phonological segmentation test at ( 1 ) the one phoneme level, (2) the two phoneme level, (3) the three phoneme level, and ( 4) the total number of correct responses. Utilizing an ANOVA test, a significant difference was found among the groups at the two phoneme level, with a trend toward a significant difference at the one phoneme level. Other significant differences were not found. The difference at the two phoneme level was between the ELD group and the normal group, as well as between the ELD group and the HELD group.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the sensitivity of the CID Everyday sentences, with competing cafeteria noise, as a measure of the real life receptive communication difficulty experienced by subjects with hearing loss limited to frequencies above 2000 Hz. In order to establish normative data the speech discrimination test w~s given to 38 normal hearing subjects (aged 19-46). Second, the discrimination test was given to 12 hearing impaired subjects (29-64), who also completed a self-assessment questionnaire, the Hearing Handicap Inventory for Adults (HHIA). The results were analyzed to determine: (a) if there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the normal hearing and the hearing impaired subjects, and (b) if there was a significant correlation between the hearing impaired subjects' scores on the discrimination test and those obtained on the HHIA. The investigation revealed that a statistically significant difference (p=0.04) existed between the mean scores of the two subject groups on the discrimination test. The hearing impaired subjects averaged about 9% below the normal hearing subjects. Although there was a weak to moderate correlation between the hearing impaired subjects' scores on the discrimination test and their scores on the HHIA, it was not statistically significant. It was concluded that, with further research, the CID Everyday sentences, with competing cafeteria noise, have potential merit as a speech discrimination procedure to quantify the hearing handicap produced by a high frequency hearing loss.

This thesis investigates metaphoric structure revealed during discussions about conflict, and poses the general question: What conceptual metaphors do married individuals use to structure their marital conflict? Theoretical issues of metaphor analysis and general issues of conflict management are reviewed, providing a background for the study's approach to data collection and analysis. Eight married individuals were interviewed. Interviews were tape recorded. The interview schedule was structured around issues of topic, setting, process, response, and communication of typical, as well as a most recent, marital conflict. More specific probing followed respondents' comments. Using techniques of interpretive analysis, transcripts from the interviews were analyzed for emergent metaphors. Data from the transcripts coalesced around the topics of structural, ontological, and orientational metaphors. Implications for conflict management and marital counseling are discussed. Finally, in view of the study's limitations and strengths, the thesis concludes with suggested directions for future research.

The study of self-disclosure has been developed and elaborated mainly in the United States, and only a few studies have directly examined self-disclosure in the Japanese cultural context. This study was designed to extend the study of self-disclosure to Japanese culture, and using the concept of ingroup and outgroup relationships, examine the relationship between the level of self-disclosure and perceived social attraction in initial interaction between Japanese strangers. Based on the literature on self-disclosure and features of Japanese culture and communication, two hypotheses were constructed: Hl: For the ingroup members, the high discloser will be perceived to be more socially attractive than the low discloser. H2: For the outgroup members, the low discloser will be perceived to be more socially attractive than the high discloser. As respondents, a total of 328 Japanese college graduate and undergraduate students living in the Kansai area in Japan participated in the research. The data collection instrument consisted of McCroskey and McCain's (1974) social attraction scale and a culture-specific scale of social attraction constructed by the researcher. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and ~ tests were used to test the two hypotheses and interaction between the two variables. In addition, to test gender effects, the data were analyzed by using three, three-way ANOVAs. The results of the data analyses revealed that in initial interaction between Japanese strangers, the level of self-disclosure was a main factor in determining the stranger's perceived social attraction. Low self-disclosure led to positive evaluation of perceived social attraction, and high self-disclosure led to negative evaluation of perceived social attraction. The results also suggested that the stranger's group identification mediated the relationship between the stranger's level of self-disclosure and perceived social attraction. Ingroup membership produced greater perceived social attraction than did outgroup membership. Thus, the highest perceived social attraction was produced by the low disclosing stranger identified as being an ingroup member. Further, Japanese subjects distinguished ingroup and outgroup membership for low self-disclosure, but not for high self-disclosure. No significant effects due to gender were found in this study.