Facilitative effects of bilingualism on general aspects of third language (L3) proficiency have been demonstrated in numerous studies conducted in bilingual communities and classrooms around the world. When it comes to L3 phonology, however, empirical evidence has been scarce and inconclusive in respect to the question of whether and/or how…

This paper reports the investigation on the students' competence in identifying stress patterns of English polysyllabic loanwords, measured in the form of stress marking on a written test, in relation to their actual performance in two oral-reading tasks: (1) reading the target loanwords in English sentences, and (2) reading those words in…

In a series of seven studies, this paper examines acoustic characteristics of the spontaneous speech production of the English dative alternation ("gave the book to the boy/ the boy the book") as a function of the probability of the choice between alternating constructions. Probabilistic effects on the acoustic duration were observed in the…

Are there consistent markers of atypical prosody in speakers with high functioning autism (HFA) compared to typically-developing speakers? We examined: (1) acoustic measurements of pitch range, mean pitch and speech rate in conversation, (2) perceptual ratings of conversation for these features and overall prosody, and (3) acoustic measurements of…

Results arising from a prosodic and interactional study of the organization of everyday talk in English suggest that news receipts can be grouped into two categories: valenced (e.g., "oh good") and non-valenced (e.g., "oh really"). In-depth investigation of both valenced and non-valenced news receipts shows that differences in their prosodic…

The current study investigated whether bilingualism affects the processing of sub-lexical representations specifying the sound structure of words. Spanish-English bilinguals, Mandarin-English bilinguals, and English-only monolinguals repeated English tongue twisters. Twister materials had word or nonword targets (thus varying in whether lexical…

Cumulating evidence suggests that the establishment of high-quality phonological representations is the "cognitive precursor" that facilitates the acquisition of language (spoken, signed, and written). The authors present two studies that contrast the nature of bilingual profoundly deaf children's phonological representations derived…

This study investigated Spanish-speaking learners' awareness of a non-distinctive phonetic difference between Spanish and English through a delayed mimicry paradigm. We assessed learners' speech production accuracy through voice onset time (VOT) duration measures in word-initial pre-vocalic /p t k/ in Spanish and English words, and in Spanish…

Purpose: Several acoustic cues specify any single phonemic contrast. Nonetheless, adult, native speakers of a language share weighting strategies, showing preferential attention to some properties over others. Cochlear implant (CI) signal processing disrupts the salience of some cues: In general, amplitude structure remains readily available, but…

The development of Spoken English in Pakistani teachers training institutions working in public sector has never been assessed. This study explores the extent of improvement in English speaking skills among prospective teachers of one year teacher education program at three public sector universities in Punjab, Pakistan, where English is the…

Watching foreign language programmes and films with captions (same-language subtitles intended for the deaf and hard-of-hearing) has been shown to assist learners in phonetic retuning, vocabulary acquisition and listening comprehension [e.g. Mitterer and McQueen, 2009. Foreign subtitles help but native-language subtitles harm foreign speech…

At the hospital, nurses' telephone calls to doctors mostly revolve around obtaining doctors' intervention in a medical case. To achieve this, nurses need to make the doctor's intervention relevant, by explicitly requesting it or, more indirectly, by reporting a medical problem. Two recorded telephone conversations have been selected for analysis…

This study examined potential differences in vocabulary found in picture books and adult's speech to children and to other adults. Using a small sample of various sources of speech and print, Hayes observed that print had a more extensive vocabulary than speech. The current analyses of two different spoken language databases and an assembled…

An increasing number of deaf children with additional disabilities receive a cochlear implant (CI). International studies on cochlear implantation in deaf children with additional disabilities show less and slower speech and language gains, but improvement in overall quality of life. In order to qualify the concept of quality of life this study…

Word finding difficulties are often seen in children with language difficulties. Their problem is readily observed and has led to investigations of its nature and encouraged attempts at intervention. Semantic errors in their naming suggest that their knowledge of items is poorly developed and that therapies to strengthen it may be effective.…