The purpose of this study is to test the commonly held assumption that younger children are superior to those who are older in learning to speak a second language with a good accent. Students from the elementary, junior high, and college levels are tested after receiving identical instruction in German phonemes. Post-test results indicate that…

This project began with a theory about the prediction of errors in childrens' attempts to pronounce utterances modeled for them by adults. Subjects were children from 15 to 54 months old in all positions in the family. The sample from each child was an unprompted utterance judged to be an attempt to say something in English. Differences between…

Discusses problems and issues in naturalistic (non-school) acquisition of the phonology of a second language (L2). The data come from a longitudinal study of four German-speaking siblings learning English as a second language within an English-speaking community without classroom instruction. (KM)

The second volume of a series of textbooks designed for young students of French is reviewed by examining how the dialogs, phonological information, grammar instruction and notes, exercises, characters and their language, cultural information, and photos and documents correspond to the authors' expressed instructional intentions. (MSE)

Describes how visual displays of their English speech patterns can be used to help native Chinese-speaking students to improve their English pronunciation. The distinct advantages of the technique over the more subjective teacher evaluations of students' pronunciation are discussed. (CB)

Discusses how "technique" and "strategy" for teaching oral expression have their origins in a wide variety of communicative acts and their components. (MSE)

Discusses different characteristics of conversational English, including: pronunciation, ellipsis, use of "you" as a general pronoun, hesitation markers, subject-verb agreement, pronoun agreement, verbs, modifiers, comparisons, euphemisms, idioms, slang, and phatic/ritualistic expressions. (Author/CB)

Describes the main components of a structured program of word attack for students who have difficulty recognizing long words, noting that the most essential component of the program is a set of rules for predicting pronunciation. (HOD)

Researchers followed 2 language minority children through their first 2 years of school, examining the influence of their parents and of school practices. Two cohorts of minority language students were followed from the beginning of kindergarten to the end of first grade. Students were observed once a week in their classrooms. Researchers kept…

This CD-ROM is intended for native speakers of English who teach pronunciations to learners of English as a second language. It is not a traditional phonology course but provides experiences to help teachers understand the difficulties faced by learners. It also includes examples of learners' speech, with suggestions for how to deal with…

This study investigated how educated non-native speakers of English perceive three distinct accents of American English (Eastern; African American; and Southern) and make judgments of the speakers' background, intellect, ability, and character that might affect their employment overseas. Subjects were 53 native speakers of Turkish, (44 females, 13…

This curriculum guide, almost entirely in Spanish, outlines adult basic education course content to be taught in a Spanish-language high school equivalency program. The course is designed to help students prepare for the General Educational Development (G.E.D.) exam in written expression. The guide begins with a Spanish skills placement test.…

This paper reports on two phases of a study of a group of advanced TEFL (teachers-of-English-as-a-foreign-language) students. To raise their awareness of the importance of discourse intonation while they were receiving teacher training, this study focuses on examining their sociocultural and psychological inclinations in the choice of phonological…

This book is a talking tour of American English. Short easy-to-read essays explicate the key features that make American speech so expressive and distinct. The tour begins in the South, home of the most easily recognized of American dialects, travels north the New England, then west to the Midwest, and on to the far west and Alaska and Hawaii. In…

Advantages and disadvantages of songs in the language classroom. (FWB)