This article suggests applying the methods of linguistic investigation which dialectologists use in field work to the systematically programmed training of foreign language teachers in hearing and correcting the phonemic deviations in their students' pronunciation of the target language. (Author/FB)

The concept of Thai soundex system for name search as method of information retrieval is developed and evaluated by extending and modifying Odell and Russell soundex system to fit specific characteristics of Thai language. Thai consonants, letter codes, and evaluation of system in name file of 61,215 records are highlighted. (EJS)

Presents study involving university Spanish students testing predictive power of contrastive analysis in terms of accuracy of predicted hierarchy for persistence of phonological errors. Results show problems involving allophone use or nonuse are more persistent than those involving phoneme use or nonuse, and the degree of difficulty of a sound…

Reading disabled children were given direct instruction on a medial vowel sound, practice on monosyllabic words containing the sound, and specific transfer training on nonsense syllables. Word attack strategy was varied for the five treatment groups. The initial bigram strategy yielded significantly better performance on transfer words. (Author/BW)

Describes method for teaching conversational language by seeking to improve pronunciation, stressing the use of the target language during class meetings, presenting useful vocabulary, exposing students to certain customs, and instilling in them the confidence to use language skills. (BK)

Offers teachers a number of suggestions dealing with acronyms, post-graduation advice, vocabulary in social context, and pronunciation of regular past tense verbs. (AEA)

Describes research concerning the facilitation of pronunciation accuracy of sixty-one non-native speakers of English. The sample consisted of Arabic, Japanese, Persian, and Thai speakers. Twenty variables were considered. (Author/POP)

This paper gives a complete account of vowel nasalization in Standard Polish. A distinction is made between obligatory and phonostylistic processes. Phonostylistic evidence may serve as a basis for making unambiguous decisions about the structure of underlying representations, intermediate phonological forms, and assimilation of borrowings to the…

Describes a classroom technique for improving the pronunciation of adult English-as-a-Second-Language learners that is based on using stress and pausing in the same manner as native speakers of English. Dramatic improvement in pronunciation may be quickly achieved by showing learners how stress and pause are related to parts of speech and sentence…

Reports an experiment contrasting word-onset gating with results when words were gated from their word endings. The study demonstrated a significant recognition advantage for words gated from their onsets. The overall results support the position that the perceptual advantage of word-initial information can be understood within a general…

Presents insights into how language research develops, with particular focus on the extent to which syllable-timing is a characteristic of the New Zealand English speech of certain ethnic and social groups. The discussion examines the development of hypotheses, methodological challenges and the importance of considering alternative interpretations…

Reviews literature from the fields of psycholinguistics, communications, and social psychology that has examined the effects of speech accents on interpersonal attitudes, casual attributions, and subsequent behaviors. Links selected findings to the filed of counseling to show that these findings can inform service delivery, particularly counseling…

Identified changes in 48 nonnative speakers' (NNSs) pronunciation over a period of 12 weeks as a result of the type of instruction they received--global, segmental, and no specific pronunciation instruction. Implications for pronunciation instruction are drawn from the results. (Author/VWL)