One of the several causal mechanisms for errors made by adult second language learners is interference from the native language. This paper attempts to account for the cognitive nature of interference by proposing two psycholinguistically based principles that will explain various types of production and perception errors made of second language…

A test of the ability of adult Japanese and Korean students to perceive correct and misarticulated /r/ involved tape recordings of native English speakers and the students themselves. Comparison of the results "subjects made more errors perceiving their own speech" with similar research on first- and second-language acquisition has pedagogical…

In a study of aural skills, this paper investigates the relationship between second-language learners' aural comprehension of fast, spoken English and their exposure to systematic listening instruction and to television and radio broadcasts. Data from 709 university-level Korean students show that systematic listening instruction has a powerful…

THIS DOCUMENT IS THE FIRST IN A SERIES REPORTING ON PROGRESS OF AN EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH PROGRAM IN SPEECH CONTROL. THE TOPICS DISCUSSED ARE--(1) THE DISCONTINUITY OF AUDITORY DISCRIMINATION LEARNING IN HUMAN ADULTS, (2) DISCRIMINATIVE CONTROL OF CONCURRENT RESPONSES--THE RELATIONS AMONG RESPONSE FREQUENCY, LATENCY, AND TOPOGRAPHY IN AUDITORY…

This paper describes the various barriers to comprehension that learners may encounter when viewing feature films in a second language. Two clusters of interfacing factors that may contribute to comprehension hot spots emerged from a quantitative analysis of problems noted in student logbooks. One cluster had a strong acoustic basis, whereas the…

By means of the Kay Elementrics Visi-Pitch and a split screen, students are able to compare their voice traces with the model's, thereby seeing prosodic, phonemic, and allophonic distinctions they were unable to hear. (PMJ)

Because listening is a vital part of language learning, listening skills should be developed as a learning mode. Pre-listening skills should be taught just as pre-reading skills are taught. Children in command of the auditory perceptual abilities which contribute most to listening will transfer these abilities to increasingly difficult listening…

Analyzes the effect of training on perception of English vowels by native speakers of Basque and Spanish. University students who took a training course in English phonetics completed questionnaires and vowel perception tests. Findings confirm that training exerts a positive effect on the perception of English vowels and that this effect is also…

Recent research in experimental phonetics seems to provide evidence for a clear division between language units and speech units. Many researchers have suggested that the consonant-vowel (CV) syllable may be a universal unit of speech production and perception, while language units become criterial only at higher levels of processing. In second…

A study to assess the feasibility of the use of low frequencies for teaching foreign language to the hearing impaired is described. The subjects were unimpaired Japanese students, aged 18 and 19, in beginning French language study. Recorded sentences translated into English, French, and Mandarin Chinese were combined in various ways and presented…

TEACHER, STUDENT, AND CURRICULUM ARE ALL SUBJECT TO EXAMINATION IN THIS REPORT TO DETERMINE EACH ONE'S ROLE IN CREATING THE FOREIGN LANGUAGE UNDERACHIEVER, DEFINED AS A STUDENT WHOSE LANGUAGE GRADES DIFFER MARKEDLY FROM HIS OVERALL GRADE-POINT AVERAGE. THE IDEAL SETTING FOR THE INVESTIGATION WAS KING CITY, PSEUDONYM FOR THE ACTUAL CITY, WHERE…

Research into the psychology of perception can uncover important discoveries for more efficient learning. There must be increased understanding of the processing of input and the pre-processing of output for improved language instruction. Educators must at the present time be extremely wary of basing what they do in the foreign-language classroom…

The Auditory Discrimination in Depth (A.D.D.) Program suggests that there is a direct relationship between auditory discrimination or auditory perceptual ability and the development of competency in language and literacy skills. (Auditory perceptual ability is defined as the ability to discriminate individual phonemes and to track their changing…

This report presents an evaluation of a bilingual education program in which English-speaking children receive most of their school instruction in French. The paper discusses details of the program and curriculum and reports on the tests conducted to evaluate the program. Results are presented of tests examining English and French language skills,…

This book serves as a guide for the native and non-native speaker of English in overcoming various problems in articulation, rhythm, and intonation. It is also useful in group therapy speech programs. Forty-five practice chapters offer drill materials for all the vowels, diphthongs, and consonants of American English plus English stress and…