Data derived from the spontaneous speech samples of 64 first grade Negro children (32 from an inner city ghetto and 32 from a racially integrated middle income suburb of the same city) were examined to determine whether the difference in socioeconomic circumstances affected (1) the use of nine structural patterns of English and confusion in the…

This report, covering the period from July 1 to December 31, 1974, is one of a regular series on the status and progress of studies concerning the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical applications. The manuscripts in this report include: speech perception, speech recognition through spectrogram matching, phonetic…

While sequencing of speaking turns occurs in both adult and child systems, the adult system is elaborated by nonverbal signaling of speaker/listener roles and is constrained by expectations of speaking turns responsive to a shared topic. Children's speaking turns are not accompanied regularly by nonverbal signals; the speaker role does not require…

This study addressed the extent to which performance on selected verbal and nonverbal measures contributed to the prediction of inflection learning with 20 normal boys (ages 4 to 5). Results suggested that inflection learning may be tied more to other language abilities than to nonverbal cognitive skills in normally developing boys. (DB)

The Children's Language Assessment-Situational Tasks (CLA-ST) was developed to collect language samples within a normally operating classroom. The language is taken on a cassette tape recorder, which is placed at the foot of a small table. At this table, in a committee setting, four children are engaged with a teacher in an activity similar to…

This report is one in a regular series on the status and progress of speech research. The 11 manuscript topics are: towards a theoretical reassessment of the role of proprioception in the perception and control of human movement, interarticulator programing in stop production, the beginnings of speech, proofreading errors on the word "the," the…

TWENTY HEAD START PRESCHOOL CHILDREN WERE GIVEN THREE LANGUAGE TASKS DESIGNED TO MEASURE THEIR LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT--(1) A PRODUCTION TASK REQUIRED THE CHILDREN TO ENGAGE IN FREE SPEECH. THE CHILDREN WERE ASKED TO ANSWER A QUESTION, TO DESCRIBE A SERIES OF PICTURES, AND TO RETELL A STORY. THE FREE SPEECH OF THE CHILDREN IN RESPONSE TO THESE…

Several types of narrative errors are discussed that were found in the course of an analysis of stories collected in casual settings from a number of American speakers in undirected conversation. The approach to the question of error correction is sociocultural; the emphasis is on the motivation for the error correction. This paper explores the…

The need for an index of development by which second language proficiency could be expediently and reliably guaged has been acknowledged by both second language (L2) teachers and researchers. In two previous L2 studies, the search for an index of development centered on an examination of learner written performance. In an attempt to construct an…

An understanding of the structure and function of discourse in social communication and in its internal representation to the individuals is sought in this multidisciplinary collection of papers. The approaches are divided into theoretical orientations and empirical orientations. The theoretical papers deal with: (1) comprehension in conversation,…

This study explores the relationships between a child's discriminatory abilities in the areas of pitch, intensity, rhythm, timbre, and tonal memory and his capacity to comprehend and speak the Spanish language. The Spanish accent is analyzed on the basis of intonation, stress, sinalepha, and phone production. These factors were tested both in…

In a written discourse consisting of a string of "psychological paragraphs," there is in each such psychological paraqraph a "head" structure containing the topic which derives from the deep structure of the discourse. That "head" assertion differs from all other assertions in the psychological paragraph in that it carries new information. The…

This article deals with the issue of gaining proficiency in oral expression in a second language. A functional approach to teaching oral proficiency is outlined, an approach which focuses on the audience as a determining factor in the speaker's linguistic output. Claims in the article are based on an experiment in the teaching of oral proficiency…

It is possible to communicate effectively in a second language in spite of highly deviant pronunciation and grammar as long as messages are semantically coherent and message forms are reasonably appropriate. Until now, research in second language acquisition has focused principally on the processes through which non-native speakers move towards…

The Washington State Core Competencies Project is designed to implement competency-based adult education in the state's 38 adult basic education programs. A model curriculum was developed and field-tested over several years. The resulting curriculum outline of core competencies for English as a Second Language, level 2, is presented here. The…