The overall role played by hypercorrection in the literature on language change, language variation, and second language acquisition is reviewed. The paper argues that hypercorrection is not a completely unified phenomenon, citing an empirical study showing that quantitative methods applied to qualitative hypercorrection necessarily involve…

It is argued that anglicisms in Canadian French cover a much broader spectrum than in any European variety of French, with traits of the English language incorporated into spelling, pronunciation, morphology, syntax, lexicon, and phraseology. A typology of these features is proposed, with examples. (Author/MSE)

Four strategies for English-as-a-Second-Language teachers to use with adult students include sell yourself and your course; use relevant materials and activities; raise language awareness; and provide opportunities for practice and feedback. (Contains 11 references.) (LB)

This article uses data from the random sample telephone survey portion of the Survey of Oklahoma Dialects to explore the spatial diffusion of linguistic innovations in Oklahoma. The data show that, although some linguistic innovations diffuse hierarchically, others diffuse contrahierarchically, whereas still others diffuse in complex patterns that…

Pronunciation is reexamined from a "top-down" perspective that shifts the focus of attention in language instruction from individual phonemes to suprasegmentals and other features of the larger context of utterances, including prosody, phonological fluency, voice quality, and gestures. (57 references) (Author/LB)

Examines the effects of other linguistic structures on the process of phonological downstep (where pitch declines during the course of utterances) in Japanese. It is concluded that the downstep process involves not only a phonological aspect but two other aspects, metrical and rhythmic. (23 references) (JL)

Focuses on "stress-timing" in language rhythm, in which there are approximately equal intervals of time between stressed syllables. Discusses English as stress-timed, a belief established in pedagogical descriptions of English pronunciation, taught in teacher-training courses, and used as the basis for pronunciation exercises. Suggests that a…

Describes English learners' views on the acquisition of the phonetic component of English by focusing on (1) their awareness of the difficulty and importance of English pronunciation, and (2) their beliefs about influential factors in the acquisition of pronunciation and their attitudes towards English accents. Examines differences in phonetic…

Discusses a course and accompanying test for teaching spoken English in India. (Author/VWL)

Examined the effect of regional accent on children's processing of speech. Children ages 4 to 7 were tested on their ability to repeat and define single words presented in their own and another accent. Word comprehension was significantly reduced in the other accent. Younger children performed less successfully and showed different error patterns…

Describes activities that have been used to teach pronunciation to English-as-a-Second/Foreign Language students<-song and video<-and provides a template that can be adapted and revised for different populations and settings. Shows one way of using song recordings and short video segments from popular television programs to practice intonation of…

Evaluated attitudinal and affective responses toward accented English based on variation in role identity and intelligibility. American English was preferred; intelligible foreign accents resulted in more positive attitudes and affective responses compared to foreign accents that were unintelligible. Friends were viewed more positively compared to…

Discusses English pronunciation features in the anglophone countries of East and Southern Africa. Focus is on restructuring of the STRUT vowel to /a/,/i/, and /e/ epenthesis, and short tone groups.(Author/VWL)

Analysis of the speech habits of Spanish language instructors at the University of Southern California revealed that native Spanish speakers, as well as near-native Spanish speakers, sometimes produce labiodental [v] as an allophonic variant of Spanish /b/. Quantitative analysis by the VARBRUL statistical program indicated that linguistic, social,…

Discusses the difficulties Egyptian students of English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) have in learning English pronunciation. Some of these problems are related to stress, while others are related to intonation. Most, however, are related to the differences between English and Arabic. (Author/VWL)