People use different communication patterns based on the context and who they are addressing. These differences, known as linguistic register, are common across human speech and recognized early in development. Here, we examine 4-11-year-old American children's (N = 227) ability to use linguistic registers to determine a speaker's addressee as…

Background: As delays or disorders in early language and communication are the most prevalent symptom in children with disabilities, early screening is crucial to promote prevention, early diagnosis, and intervention. However, to the best of our knowledge, no screening tool is available for the joint assessment of early language and social…

In this study we show that the perception of lateral variants by Puerto Rican listeners changes according to who the listener believes is speaking. Puerto Rican listeners heard sentences with target words featuring either rhotic [voiced alveolar tap or flap] or lateral [l] (amo[voiced alveolar tap or flap] -- amo[l]) codas, a sociophonetic…

Many individuals with autism experience challenges using language in social contexts (i.e., pragmatic language). Characterizing and understanding pragmatic variability is important to inform intervention strategies and the etiology of communication challenges in autism; however, current manual coding-based methods are often time and labor…

Developing sociolinguistic competence in Arabic can be a complex process given how Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and Colloquial Arabic (CA) are used within a changing sociolinguistic environment in Arabic-speaking communities. Findings from empirical research suggest that second language (L2) Arabic learners who receive multidialectal training in…

Aptitude is a hypernym used in training and practice-based contexts to refer to a person's natural or acquired ability to do something. It tends to be an attribute that is 'forward-looking', i.e. referring to a person's probability of achieving success in the future. This paper adopts a retrospective perspective in looking at the 'success…

Pragmatic competence is an indispensable aspect of language ability in order for second and foreign language (L2/FL) learners to understand and be understood in their interactions with both native and nonnative speakers of the target language. Without a proper understanding of the pragmatic rules in the target language, learners may run the risk…

This paper examines how Northern Thai (Muang) children are socialized into the discourses and practices of respect in school, a process that indexically links Standard Thai to images of polite and respectful Thai citizenship. Focusing on the socialization of politeness particles, the paper examines how cultural models of conduct are taken up,…

Using a grounded theory approach, this investigation addresses how an interdisciplinary research (IDR) team negotiates meaning and struggles to establish and sustain a sense of collective communication competence (CCC). Certain communication processes were foundational to building CCC, such as spending time together, practicing trust, discussing…

Focuses on sociolinguistic competence--the ability to produce and understand the appropriate remark at the appropriate time--particularly language variability and how teachers often deal with it in instruction. Highlights linguistic variables, teacher-talk characteristics, and rate of speech. (Author/VWL)

Focuses on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence by second language learners during a period of study abroad. Various aspects of sociolinguistic competence are discussed and some of the principal factors that affect it are described. (Author/VWL)

A series of activities to help junior high school students build a conceptual model of communication. Through games and reading selections, students become familiar with dialect and jargon; consider the thesis that language is behavior; and understand how easy it is to fail to communicate with other people. (Author/AV)