Previous studies using artificial languages suggest that sentence production can be guided by verb-specific as well as verb-general statistics present in the language input. Here we investigated whether the statistical properties of ongoing input in the speakers' native language systematically affected their sentence production. Three experiments…

Lexical competence is considered as an important indicator of language proficiency. While learning vocabulary, learners need to remember various aspects of knowledge about the word (e.g., meaning, form and use). Many vocabulary learning strategies have been proposed to help learners consolidate vocabulary knowledge. Among them, grouping words…

In this article we report on early rhythmic discrimination performance of children who participated in a longitudinal study following children from birth to their 6th year of life. Thirty-four children including 8 children with a family risk for developmental language impairment were tested on the discrimination of trochaic and iambic disyllabic…

Structural priming (or syntactic priming) is a speaker's tendency to reuse the same structural pattern as one that was previously encountered (Bock, 1986). This study investigated (a) whether the implicit learning processes involved in long-lag structural priming lead to differential second language (L2) improvement in producing two structural…

When speakers refer to the same referent multiple times in a conversation, they tend to follow established patterns of usage, known as "conversational precedents." Research has found that listeners expect speakers to follow precedents, and that this expectation guides their search for referents (Barr, D. J., & Keysar, B. (2002). "Anchoring…

A method is proposed in which nondefined Chinese characters may be uniquely classified thus making them compatible for machine translation. An optical-digital device is used to locate nondefined geometric shapes within Chinese characters via spatial filtering techniques and cyclic cross-correlation. Seventeen nondefined geometric shapes are found…

This document contains 21 reports on speech research relating to the following areas: phonology, speech development, speech perception, phonetics, short-term memory of tactile stimuli, reading, linguistic and paralinguistic interchange, computer processing of EMG (electromyographic) signals, pitch determination by adaptive autocorrelation method,…

Paraphrase, as it reflects the processes of remembering rather than those of forgetting, implies that language is best transmitted in one form and stored in another. The dual representation of linguistic information that is implied by paraphrase is important for storing information that has been received and for transmitting information that has…

Overall and specific tasks involved in learning a foreign language and the factors that promote or retard learning are considered. To apply theories of learning and teaching, behavioral objectives for the learner must be considered. A macro-level learning theory is useful in conceptualizing reasons for student success and failure and in…

With a Finnish-speaking majority and a Swedish-speaking minority, Finland offers a striking contrast in the kinds of cross-linguistic influence that can occur in the acquisition of English in a multilingual setting. While much previous research has looked at the differences between Finnish and Swedish influences, our study compares Swedish…