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Designed to be used with the New Zealand curriculum framework, this slide presentation defines "information literacy," gives an information literacy overview, proposes 10 questions that students need to ask themselves, and provides student educational objectives for information skills. The report presents an essential skills assessment formula for primary (years 5 and 6), intermediate (years 7 and 8), and secondary (years 9 and 10) grade. It offers examples of definitions and discusses persuasive language and positive, negative, and neutral writing for intermediate and secondary grades, as well as ambiguity for secondary grades. It then focuses on evaluating information in text and finding information in prose text for intermediate and secondary levels. Contains 13 references. (NKA)

When evaluating the utility of a psychological test for clinical decision making, both the psychometric properties of the test (i.e., the reliability and validity of the instrument) and the ambiguity of the language by which test results are interpreted or communicated need to be considered. Although each has been studied independently, to date the two have not been related. This paper discusses each of these sources of "interpretive error" with the goal being the development of a model that could systematically relate these two sources of error to the process and outcome of test interpretation. In an example using this new model together with optimistic good-hearted assumptions favorable to tests, it was found that the effect of ambiguity was to more than double the probability that those who test positive will be incorrectly classified. It is suggested that the practice of using non-numeric statements of likelihood be stopped. Instead, results of tests should be presented in tabular form with one row for each diagnostic category. Examples of these tables are provided. It is further noted that there is a significant professional need to move toward empirically supported expertise in test interpretation. Contains 24 references. (Author/MKA)

Although positive effects of children playing video games have been found, recent research suggests that exposure to violent video games may lead to an increase in aggressive behavior. This study investigated the effects of playing violent versus nonviolent video games on the interpretation of ambiguous provocation situations. Participants were 52 third- and fourth-grade children. Children played with either a very violent video game, "Mortal Kombat II," or a relatively nonviolent video game, "NBA Jam: TE," for 13 minutes. Following the video game play, children were read five stories in which a same-sex peer caused a clearly negative event to happen but the intent of the peer causing this negative event was ambiguous. After each story, children were asked a series of questions about the peer's intent, subsequent actions, and whether the peer should be punished and how much. Responses were coded in terms of amount of negative and violent content. Results indicated that children playing the violent video game responded more negatively on three of the six ambiguous provocation story questions than children playing the nonviolent video game. These data suggest that playing violent video games leads to the development of a short-term hostile attribution bias. (Author/HTH)

A study explored the implications of a rhetorical approach to professional education in business--specifically, how a social constructivist view of language might change how students learn concepts and theories of business. It focused on undergraduate education in management, with data drawn from a case study of a student in a pilot version of an advanced writing course which introduced some basic rhetorical concepts to be applied to undergraduate majors and areas of professional study. Data sources include instructional materials, reading materials the student selected, multiple drafts of the papers submitted, written comments by the instructor and by an outside reader, and written reflections by the student. In the first assignment students read samples of professional discourse and wrote analytical papers discussing coherence. The second assignment asked students to undertake original investigations of a person, situation, or event that would serve to test or illustrate a theory in their major--for the student in question, "participative management." The expert reader proposed several changes in wording in the student's paper, wording which qualified the unambiguous conception of management theory. The view of language as a transparent medium strongly shapes students' educational experience, leading them to unwarranted confidence in the theories they are taught. These misconceptions can be confronted head on by introducing explicitly rhetorical perspectives on language in professional education. Findings generally support the claim that linguistic assumptions influence students' understanding of theories and have a significant impact on their professional acculturation. (Contains notes and 11 references.) (NKA)

A study investigated whether children and adolescents use commas and the principle of Late Closure to guide sentence parsing decisions as adults do in processing syntactically ambiguous sentences. The study consisted of three experiments, conducted similarly but with different subject groups: 24 university students; 24 fourth-graders; and 19 sixth-graders. In each, subjects read sentences containing different arrangements of pre-posed and main clauses and comma use, and answered simple comprehension questions, all presented on a computer using a self-paced, one-word moving-window procedure. Results indicate that all groups had shorter reading times on the main clause verb in late closure sentences than in early closure sentences, supporting the domination of late closure parsing strategy. While results for adults supported the predicted patterns of comprehension speed involving closure and comma, they were not statistically significant. The fourth-graders appeared not to use information about the comma to override the late closure parsing strategy. The sixth-graders were clearly sensitive to the late closure strategy, but did not use comma information as effectively as did adults. Reading times were similar to those of fourth-graders. Four figures and one table support the data. (MSE)

A study investigated how asking students to evaluate a poem-reading task stimulated their autonomy as learners. Subjects were 51 Japanese university students of English. During one 90-minute class period, students were given a brief poem with pre-reading, reading, and post-reading tasks. The poem, entitled "40-Love," had ambiguous references to both love and tennis. Pre-reading tasks included identifying their feelings in anticipation of reading a poem, telling what they think poems are usually about, and identifying their feelings about poetry in English. Tasks during reading included answering questions about the poem's content, choosing an alternative title, and responding to questions about non-literal content and message, and what happens after the period of the poem. Post-reading tasks inquired about enjoyment of the poem and perceptions of the tasks, and invited students to make up an original question about the poem as if they were teaching others. It was found that a generally negative attitude toward poetry was replaced by a more positive one, despite a general perception that poetry is difficult, unclear in meaning, and more difficult than prose reading. Students also showed an eagerness to go beyond the level of the assigned task. (MSE)

A study revisited the question of the causes of interpersonal equivocation, arguing that, although the previous research of Bavelas and associates has shown conclusively that interpersonal communicators in avoidance-avoidance binds equivocate to avoid the bind's dilemma, researchers have largely ignored other conceivable antecedents of interpersonal equivocation. The study attempts to experimentally demonstrate the existence of other such antecedents. Subjects, 153 university students recruited from communication classes, responded to forced-choice scenarios which manipulated the level of situational formality (informal or formal) and interaction phase (initial or middle). Additionally, subjects completed a modified version of the MAT-50 as a measure of their ambiguity tolerance. Their responses were scaled for equivocation by comparing them to the equivocation rankings assigned to the possible choices by a panel of judges trained in its basic definition and dimensions. Results indicated subjects equivocated more in formal situations and ambiguity tolerance interacted with both formality level and interaction phase to influence equivocation. Specifically, the differences in equivocation from informal to formal situations and from initial to middle phases of the conversation were greatest for those lowest in ambiguity tolerance. Findings are discussed in light of speech accommodation theory (SAT), a model for guiding new research into equivocation. Research could be extended by studies examining ambiguity tolerance and its impact on equivocation; by exploring other individual traits that might be predictive of equivocation; and by exploring whether communicators have a perception of situational characteristics. (Contains 2 tables of data and 40 references; an appendix contains "model scenarios.") (NKA)

A culturally-based approach to learning adopted by many Japanese students is hypothesized, and it is proposed that while it is effective in many areas of learning, it may hinder second language learning. Japan's politico-economic structures, geared toward efficiently manufacturing competent workers, encourages a psychology of procedure that tends to formalize knowledge and the learning experience. Common traits among Japanese students are identified: passivity in the learning process; preference for rote memorization and low tolerance for ambiguity; difficulty with self-expression; an unwillingness to stand out; preference for an either/or examination format, with unambiguously correct answers; lack of concern for generalizing; and extreme concern about examinations. Japanese students are encouraged by classroom practices to regard knowledge as fundamentally a list of facts, which should come in predetermined, easily memorized forms; only testable knowledge is legitimate, and knowledge should be authorized. Classroom techniques for language instruction in this context are offered. Contains seven references. (MSE)

Philosophy was created by accident out of nothing. The verb "to be" can be confused with "to exist." The accidents of the fact that the "copula" is both a transitive and an intransitive verb are sometimes thought to have plagued ancient Greek thinking until Aristotle discovered logic and thus saved the world from thoughtless "copulation." From this perspective, dividing "logos" from "ontos" makes language reliable, and thus real thinking becomes possible. Conversely, if "to be" cannot be distinguished from "to exist," then thinking clearly or speaking in a straightforward fashion is not possible. The accident of the copula made philosophy possible because its effects made the creation of nothing possible; further, if nothing is possible, then anything is possible--a prospect that disturbed the Eleatics and the sophists as much as it did Aristotle. Investigation allows two claims to be made: (1) the Eleatics and the sophists appear to have been grappling with the effects of the copula even if they did not manage to fully or explicitly distinguish between existence and predication; in other words, the Eleatics and the sophists were trying to deal with the copula's ability to create nothing and render all descriptions uncontrollably metaphorical; and (2) philosophy did not succeed where the Eleatics and the sophists failed because if it had succeeded, then ontology would have disappeared. (Contains 12 references.) (TB)

This paper describes ethical considerations in the use of strategic ambiguity in organizational communication. Ambiguity is defined as "experienced ambiguity" and is distinct from uncertainty and equivocality which are properties of a stimulus. Strategic ambiguity is the use of "calculated ambiguity" in organizations to achieve objectives. Analysis of field data gathered in a division of a Fortune 100 company supports the proposition that teleological assumptions often underlie the use of strategic ambiguity in organizations. Classroom experience with the use of strategic ambiguity suggests that the use of strategic ambiguity in a deontological framework requires that senders' intentions, the effect of the message on receivers, and alternative communication strategies all be considered. In conclusion, strategic ambiguity is a valuable communication strategy in organizations that requires explicit consideration of ethics when used in a deontological framework. As future research on communications in organizational environments improves understanding of ambiguity, the information should be used in the classroom. (Contains 17 references.) (RS)

Based on personal experience, this paper examines the ambiguities of the Likert-type 5-point scale in learning strategy elicitation. Four parallel questionnaires consisting of the same batch of 20 items taken from the Oxford scale (1990) were administered among a group of 120 tertiary level, non-English majors in China. Questionnaire 1 used the Oxford scale without specifying dimensions of reference. Questionnaire 2 told the respondents to choose their answers by comparing with their peers in the same grade. Questionnaire 3 asked them to select their present behavioral frequency as compared with their own past learning experience in secondary schools. In questionnaire 4, subjects were told to check off the relevant frequency of a behavior by comparing its frequency of occurrence with that of other language skills. Results showed that out of the 20 items used, 13 were significantly different among the four questionnaires. Methodological implications for questionnaire research are discussed, and suggestions for future research are proposed. (Contains 25 references.) (Author/NAV)

The nature of literary translation and ways in which it differs from other forms of translation are examined, looking at practical difficulties, challenges, and satisfaction in the profession of literary translation. The difficulties discussed include suggestions about how to get started, legal questions of copyright, and choice of text. Challenges include cultural differences, specialized vocabulary, authors' use of figurative language and language play, translation of dialects within a standard-usage text, interpretation and translation of ambiguities, literary translation as an art form, and the delicate balance between translators' duty to accuracy and their duty to art. The rewards mentioned include opportunity for artistic creativity, sense of co-creation with the author, language "play," and the possibility of material success. (Author)

Sociopragmatic ambiguity (SPA) is claimed here to differ from other, better-known types of ambiguity, in terms of its locus, cause, and effect. SPA is characteristic of whole-discourse features rather than of lexical items or phrases. The ambiguity is one of social rather than ideational or semantic meaning. It is claimed that SPA arises through an identifiable interaction between two maxims (confluence), in which two maxims enjoin the same speaker behavior. Two examples are discussed. The first, choice of code in intercultural conversations, represents a situation where more than one choice of maxim is available; when it is not obvious to the hearer which maxim lies behind that choice, SPA results. The second instance is the choice of second person pronoun (e.g., "tu/vous"), a well-known example of SPA that can also be explained as arising through maxim confluence. Contains 17 references. (Author/MSE)

If social constructionism would seem to encourage collaborative learning, it is not hard to understand why feminist instructors would align themselves with this philosophical position. In "Women's Ways of Knowing," however, M. Belenky, B. Clinchy, M. Goldberger and J. Tarule present quite different feminist justifications for collaborative learning. "Connected teachers"--the kind most appropriate for women students--"try to create groups in which members can nurture each other's thoughts into maturity." While social constructionists and the authors of "Women's Ways of Knowing" both ask students to see themselves as authorities and both lead students to construct new knowledge, the first suggest collaborative activity should center around conflict, and the others suggest it should center on connection. The difficulty with the latter view is that it could be construed to advocate female passivity; the only safe classroom for women would be one that invites critique and engagement. How can the instructor allow the uneasiness that will inevitably arise through conflict and still ensure that students feel that they can speak honestly and passionately? One way would be to make a place for ambiguity in the classroom. If students can acknowledge that constructing new truths takes time, they need not push for closure in discussions. According to "Women's Ways of Knowing," ambiguity is helpful to the woman student. (TB)

"Contrary-to-face-value" (CFV) messages, which can only be understood from a contextual instead of a text-based approach to communication, have caused many problems in communication between East Asians and North Americans. A typology of CFV communication, as identified in the Chinese culture, is proposed in this paper. Four forms of CFV communication are constructed on the basis of the following two dimensions of CFV communication: internal motivation (other-serving or self-serving) and external speech (saying "yes" for "no" or "no" for "yes"). Previous communication research has addressed the concepts behind other-serving CFV communication, although the self-serving CFV communication has been addressed in only a few studies. The typology proposed covers a wide range of CFV communication in a relatively parsimonious way. Though confusing to outsiders, each of the four forms can be justified from an insider's perspective. A table listing the four categories of CFV communication is included. Contains 12 references. (Author/RS)

This paper explores how teachers of public relations can help students tolerate the many ambiguities inherent in public relations practice. The paper first reviews the literature regarding individual differences in communication, tolerance-intolerance of ambiguity, and individual differences in teaching. The paper then reports the findings of two exploratory studies conducted at a large state university in Florida that investigated the effects of tolerance-intolerance of ambiguity in the teaching of public relations, including the use of a client-based, case study technique to increase tolerance of ambiguity among students of public relations. The paper concludes that the goal of increasing tolerance of ambiguity in public relations, at least in the classroom, is possible. (Nine tables of data are included; a list of 68 references is attached.) (Author/RS)

Both the speaker and hearer of a conversation can make use of ambiguity to achieve their special purpose in a given situation. The strategies stemming from pragmatic ambiguity offer distinct advantages to speakers and hearers. When dealing with ambiguity, linguists have concentrated on the source of ambiguity and how to analyze it. References to ambiguity among pragmaticists, however, has been sporadic. Strategies of ambiguity include deliberate ambiguity as well as intending two meanings simultaneously. These strategies, especially the second, are frequently adopted by creative writers to form word play. A third strategy, invoking words or phrases with both a literal meaning and an idiomatic meaning, are used commonly by joke tellers and humorists. Strictly speaking, this strategy is deceptive in nature. A fourth strategy involves openly meaning one thing by hoping to communicate a second, more hidden meaning. Besides these strategies for speakers, the hearer can achieve a particular communicative goal through pragmatic ambiguity as well. Examples from "The Silence of the Lambs" and "Roseanne" demonstrate how a listener can act as if an offensive utterance was actually ambiguous, thus forming a tactful response. In these ways, ambiguities, which at first seem to be defects of language, in fact offer the speaker and hearer a number of strategies for meeting particular communicative goals. (Thirteen references are attached). (HB)

Findings from a study that investigated the consequences of role conflict, role ambiguity, and demographic and organizational factors on work satisfaction and somatic complaints are presented in this paper. Data were derived from a survey administered to 225 Taipei (Taiwan) junior high school administrators, which elicited 211 responses (a 93 percent response rate), and interviews conducted with 16 survey respondents. Findings indicate that role conflict contributes strongly to both dissatisfaction with work and reported health problems and that role ambiguity has little additional effect. Broader work responsibilities--participation in decision-making, boundary spanning, a heavy workload, and supervisory responsibility--moderate the negative relationship between role conflict and work satisfaction. A typology for correlates of role stress is developed and presented, based on the theme that role conflict was related to virtually every variable measured; and role conflict may have profound effects. Whether or not the reported role conflict and ambiguity are a function of administrators' personalities or of Taiwan's unique cultural, organizational, and political context is unclear. Six tables are included. (41 references) (LMI)

Four studies investigated when children became able to detect that the words of a story could support multiple interpretations. Each subject saw two eight-sentence stories of each of four types (no-cause, unbiased, biased-proximal, and biased-distal), designed to support multiple interpretations. After reading or hearing each story, the children were asked a series of questions. The studies examined recognition of alternative interpretations and children's developing appreciation of ambiguity and false belief in story texts and their developing appreciation of others' perspectives. Subjects in the first study were approximately 60 second-, third-, and fourth-grade students, while 48 second- and fourth-grade students were subjects in the other 3 studies. Results indicated that: (1) younger children tended to have difficulty reinterpreting a text after an initial interpretation; (2) although they realize the text is ambiguous, they are less likely than older children to explicitly identify alternative interpretations after making an initial interpretation; (3) they are also less likely to appreciate the causes of another's differing interpretation; and (4) children in both grades frequently had problems understanding that another might hold a false belief or inaccurate interpretation about the story events. Findings suggest that young writers may overlook the possibility that a reader may have a different interpretation, or a false interpretation, even though they possess the ability to recognize multiple interpretations. Therefore, children may need explicit instruction in recognizing alternative interpretations in their writing. (A sample story and four figures of data are included.) (RS)

A study investigated the role of prior knowledge in ambiguous text interpretation by directly measuring readers' knowledge of, and level of involvement with, three distinct topical domains that could be assigned during reading of an ambiguous passage. Subjects, 52 athletes of average or above average reading ability competing in one of three interscholastic spring sports (tennis, golf, or softball/baseball) for one small rural and one large suburban Illinois high school, read an ambiguous passage that could be taken to be about any of the three sports, free-wrote about the passage, and answered a series of multiple-choice questions which included five randomly ordered choices representing aspects of either tennis, baseball, or golf. The investigation offered some interesting insights, for example: (1) evidence for a prior knowledge effect due to group membership was observed especially in the case of baseball players; (2) the golfers and tennis players, despite direct participation, demonstrated somewhat less domain knowledge of their respective sports than they did of baseball; (3) and across subjects, high positive relationships were observed between each sport's respective prior knowledge and level of involvement scores. Findings suggest that the conclusions of earlier ambiguity studies should probably be reconsidered in light of the complex interrelationships that appear to exist between prior knowledge and level of involvement variables. (One table of data is included; 12 references are attached.) (RS)

The role of context in language is so obvious that, paradoxically, it often goes unnoticed by students who are studying it. Newspaper headlines (real and contrived) can be used to demonstrate to students the context dependency of language. The simplest version of such a demonstration takes 5 minutes; the longest version takes about 20 minutes. Students in two classes were presented with a demonstration. Fifty students in the first class read the headlines to judge their reality; 48 students in the second class assessed whether the headlines were real and were asked to generate interpretations of others. Results indicated that when students were told only to read the headlines, they tended to identify the obvious meanings of the headlines, even when the intended meaning was not the obvious one. The different forms of the demonstration are useful in different ways, depending on how much time is spent on the topic of ambiguity. The short version is suitable for a quick demonstration of some fairly general points; the longer versions generate results that lead to deeper discussion of the role of context in comprehension. (One table of data is included; the short and long versions of the demonstration are attached.) (RS)