Pragmatic language difficulties, including unusual filler usage, are common among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study investigated "um" and "uh" usage in children with ASD and typically developing (TD) controls. We analyzed transcribed Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) sessions for 182 children…

The current study investigates the expression of progressive and habitual aspect in second language Spanish, integrating theoretical insights from usage-based and concept-oriented approaches to second language acquisition, along with quantitative sociolinguistic methods. To address the full breadth of forms involved, the study examines variation…

This corpus-based study provides a baseline of complex word usage patterns in the spontaneous speech of English preschool children to ascertain the characteristics of their derivative vocabulary before literacy development affects language skills. Frequencies of suffixed derivatives produced by (N = 243) children aged 2-5 and their caregivers were…

Contexts of limited input such as trilingual families where a language is not spoken in the wider community but only by a reduced number of speakers in the home provide a unique opportunity to examine closely the relationship between a child's input and what she learns to say. Barnes reported on the relationship between maternal input and a…

Purpose: There is a paucity of information detailing the phonological skills of Spanish-English bilingual children and comparing that information to information concerning the phonological skills of predominantly English-speaking (PE) and predominantly Spanish-speaking (PS) children. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship…

Examines the relationship between speaker and hearer in linguistic communication. (LG)

Urges extended and broadened use of error analysis in school activities because observing how children perform during varied literacy activities can allow clues to their linguistic rules for using oral and written language and the sociolinguistic rules children are discovering in the classroom. (DF)

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…

The Japanese Keigo system is the whole of the grammatical rules related to expressions of respectful or pejorative feelings concerning all persons involved in speech acts. This article proposes a new approach to the problem of teaching this system at the elementary level. (CLK)

The results of a study in which eight black kindergarten children responded to a set of structured tasks designed to elicit linguistic constructions which characterize Black English are presented and discussed in this Southwest Regional Laboratory (SWRL) technical note. Some of the children responded with a high rate of nonstandard realizations;…

Argues for a more active role for the college English instructor in helping students write and speak standard English more effectively. (SW)

Studies the distraction potential of 45 written usage elements, traditionally considered errors, for 2 different educated reading audiences: postsecondary business communication teachers, and executive vice presidents in large firms. Finds that the usage errors least distracting to both audiences were lexical elements and the use of an adverbial…

Literary artists manipulate language. If educators could develop in their students the same sense that language is manipulable, they could help them to better appreciate literature. Emily Dickinson's poem "I Like to See It Lap the Miles" could be approached by changing it on several levels--graphics, phonics, syntax, and semantics--and…