Vowel production of a 14-month-old girl was studied over a 6-month period. Sixty percent of the vowels were produced correctly. A complex pattern of vowel preferences and errors was partially related to prespeech babbling preferences and strongly related to word structure variables (monosyllabic versus disyllabic). (Author/JDD)

The hypothesis was tested that adults have difficulty learning the pronunciation of a second language because atmospherically conducted vocal feedback is masked by the speaker's bone-conducted feedback. A technique delaying atmospherically conducted feedback until bone-conducted feedback was completed was found to help learners modify German…

A parallel distributed processing model of visual word recognition and pronunciation is described. A key feature is the assumption that there is a simple, uniform procedure for computing a phonological representation from an orthographic representation for irregular words as well as regular words. (SLD)

Describes some of the current research on Brazilian Portuguese phonology. Various techniques are discussed that analysts utilize to investigate Brazilian Portuguese nasality. (49 references) (CB)

Examined the reactions of 83 Anglo-American undergraduates to Anglo- and Hispanic-American-accented speakers supporting or opposing the English-only movement in California. Results found that respondents were happier when the Anglo source argued against rather than for English exclusivity, and that respondents' happiness was not affected by…

Examination of the pattern of word stress in Nigerian Standard English suggests that progressive stress shift is the primary cause of the difference in stress assignment between Nigerian Standard English and British Standard English. (13 references) (Author/CB)

Use of poetry is recommended as a means of making French phonetics instruction more interesting and rewarding, and some classroom activities and techniques are outlined. The role of phonetics in current language-teaching methodologies is examined, and special considerations for beginning-level language instruction are discussed. (MSE)

Examination of native Chinese Mandarin speakers' identification of monosyllables that included oral and nasal stops representing English/Mandarin contrasts and noncontrasts in syllable-initial/-final positions found that the presence of nasal as opposed to oral stop consonants in the syllables appeared to be the most significant factor affecting…

Individuals from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds can have subtly variant communication styles that members of the dominant culture fail to recognize and often misunderstand. In an increasingly diverse world, librarians must become aware of these differences for more effective communication. (13 references) (EA)

A questionnaire surveyed how multilingual speakers in Singapore express their social identities through language, how they relate to their language, and how they perceive the various English accents to which they are exposed. Respondents related more to the local Singapore accent than to British or American English. Implications for the…

Native Speakers of English and Dutch teachers of English judged the English pronunciation of two Dutchmen, resulting in a fairly large area of consensus. In a second experiment, native English speakers and Dutch speakers of English judged the English pronunciation of both experienced and inexperienced Dutch speakers of English. (15 references)…

Argues that the distribution of lexical stresses in Macedonian and Polish follows from the architecture of metrical theory and can be accounted for by adopting revised obligatory branching (ROB) feet. These are feet where the head dominates an accented syllable and the nonhead may dominate any kind of syllable. (17 references) (JL)

Using French, English, and Hungarian accents, and from 1 to 4 voices, students in a Hungarian French language class dramatized and presented 32 versions of a Guillaume d'Apollinaire poem. Factors that varied in the presentations included the number of participants, recitation patterns, tone of voice, props, and physical movement. (MSE)

Discusses the importance of emphasizing speech and pronunciation in English-as-a-Second-Language classrooms. Examines factors driving the new movement in speech and pronunciation teaching, potential learner problems, first steps in program planning, setting realistic pronunciation goals, current directions in instructional focus, an approach…

Presents a comprehensive analysis of lexical-stress variation in British and American English. A comparison of the pronunciations of all 75,000 entries in a dictionary by John Wells (1990) yields 932 stress-divergent words. The list of words is appended. (Author/VWL)