Evaluating referential communication games for teaching speaking and listening skills

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Abstract
Recent attention to improving children's speaking and listening skills has resulted in the inclusion of oral communication in the Office of Education's definition of “basic skills.” This paper focuses on communication games and activities which can be used to teach these “informing” skills (also known as “referential communication skills"). The paper begins with a brief review of research on referential communication. A set of eight criteria are proposed for evaluating curriculum materials intended to teach speaking and listening. These criteria are applied to existing curriculum materials which make use of communication activities. In an effort to bridge the gap between research and practice, a number of communication games which have been used in referential communication research are examined. Application of the eight criteria to these research activities suggests that some of them have considerable potential as prototypes for curriculum materials. Future directions for the development of curriculum materials for teaching speaking and listening are suggested.