When kindergarten, second-, and fourth-grade children judged and repeated sentences that varied grammatically, the older children produced more accurate judgments, but no age differences were noted for repetition. Unbiased judgment accuracy correlated with prereaders' reading readiness scores, providing evidence for the relationship between the…

Examines the effects of speaker sex, socioeconomic status, ability, communication apprehension, ridigity, and question type on the incidence of 16 style markers and on verbosity in simulated job interviews. (EKN)

Using standard classical conditioning and concept-formation paradigms, research showed that all phones of a phoneme were considered "the same" by linguistically naive speakers. Results also supported the notion of the phoneme as a unit that functions in speech perception. (RL)

Describes an experiment designed to investigate the characteristics of speech addressed to children and to determine if they are distinctive enough to be perceived as a special register. Explains how evidence for specialness was found in the judgments of observers exposed to messages addressed to different categories of listeners, including…

Describes some of the difficulties involved in conducting language evaluation tests in Edinburgh, Scotland. Reports some results of a pilot study. (RL)

Explores the relationship between degree of accent in the English of Mexican American speakers as assessed by native raters, and the social judgments of raters toward accented speakers. Results of the study are discussed in relation to Giles and Powesland's (1975) incremental theory of class-related standard. (Author/MES)