Written for researchers and graduate students, this book--a collection of essays by cognitive scientists, socio- and psycholinguists, and English, reading, and language arts educators--explores theoretical and research questions associated with the relationships among oral and written language, listening and reading, and speaking and writing. The four parts of the book are designed to highlight critical contrasts: "The Language of Spoken and Written Discourse"; "Processing Strategies: Rhetorical, Social-Situational, and Contextual Constraints"; "Processing Strategies: Perceptual and Cognitive Demands in Listening and Reading"; and "The Acquisition of Literacy and Schooling." The thirteen chapters consist of: (1) "Comprehending Oral and Written Language: Critical Contrasts for Literacy and Schooling" (Rosalind Horowitz and S. Jay Samuels); (2) "Spoken and Written Modes of Meaning" (M. A. K. Halliday); (3) "Properties of Spoken and Written Language" (Wallace Chafe and Jane Danielewicz); (4) "Rhetorical Structure in Discourse Processing" (Rosalind Horowitz); (5) "Episodic Models in Discourse Processing" (Teun A. van Dijk); (6) "The Role of Context in Written Communication" (Martin Nystrand); (7) "Listening and Reading Processes in College- and Middle School-Age Readers" (David J. Townsend, Caroline Carrithers, and Thomas G. Bever); (8) "Prosody and Structure in Children's Syntactic Processing" (Peter A. Schreiber); (9) "Processing Strategies for Reading and Listening" (Joseph H. Danks and Laurel J. End); (10) "Factors That Influence Listening and Reading Comprehension" (S. Jay Samuels); (11) "From Meaning to Definition: A Literate Bias on the Structure of Word Meaning" (Rita Watson and David R. Olson); (12) "Language, Speech, and Print: Some Asymmetries in the Acquisition of Literacy" (Charles A. Perfetti); and (13) "A Comparison of the Two Theories about Development in Written Language: Implications for Pedagogy and Research" (Sandra Stotsky). (MM)