Recent years have witnessed the growing presence of artificial intelligence in language learning apps. Against this backdrop, this technology review provides an overview of the affordances of Speeko and discusses its potential in developing English-as-a-foreign-language students' public speaking skills.

Creating its own learner corpus, this research proposed to analyze and classify the transition markers used in solo presentation by 30 Thai engineering students based on Hyland (2019)'s Marker Categorization in Textual Metadiscourse. This research also aimed to identify and compare the quantities of individual transition markers among three groups…

Personality has been found to have significant connections to language. Ranging from impacting narrative style, to informing expectations about others based on linguistic factors such as accent, personality affects both language comprehension and production (Oberlander & Gill, 2004; Van den Brink et al., 2012). However, research in this area…

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions (e.g., face mask wearing and social distancing) on individuals who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (D/HH). The study aimed to describe perceptions of challenges and valued resources to inform efforts to mitigate negative consequences of the pandemic. A…

This systematic review evaluated the effect of speech interventions with the addition of speech generating devices on vocalizations of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and complex communication needs. This review synthesized information across 18 studies published in the past three decades (1990-2023) with the primary focus on the…

This Dissertation addresses findings from a qualitative case study. The researcher provided a) training and b) analysis of the follow-up performance of a Peer Mentor from the Student Success Center at an Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI), at The University of Texas at San Antonio. Following the training, prepared by Charles Ernest Wright, the…

This study primarily aimed to investigate the Communication Apprehension (CA) experienced by students at the Rajamangala University of Technology Lanna (RMUTL) Phitsanulok, Thailand in the context of their English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes. A total of 281 students from three faculties--Business Administration and Liberal Arts (BALA),…

Objective: Prephonatory vocal fold angle trajectories may supply useful information about the laryngeal system but were examined in previous studies using sigmoidal curves fit to data collected at 30 frames per second (fps). Here, high-speed videoendoscopy (HSV) was used to investigate the impacts of video frame rate and sigmoidal fitting strategy…

Purpose: Word learning difficulties have been documented in multiple studies involving children with dyslexia and developmental language disorder (DLD; see also specific language impairment). However, no previous studies have directly contrasted word learning in these two frequently co-occurring disorders. We examined word learning in second-grade…

Purpose: Individuals with cerebellar ataxia (CA) caused by cerebellar degeneration exhibit larger reactive compensatory responses to unexpected auditory feedback perturbations than neurobiologically typical speakers, suggesting they may rely more on feedback control during speech. We test this hypothesis by examining variability in unaltered…

This study formalizes and compares two major hypotheses in speakers' choices of referring expressions: the topicality model that chooses a form based on the topicality of the referent, and the rational model that chooses a form based on the informativity of the form and its speech cost. Simulations suggest that both the topicality of the referent…

Purpose: Dynamic pitch, which is defined as the variation in fundamental frequency, is an acoustic cue that aids speech perception in noise. This study examined the effects of strengthened and weakened dynamic pitch cues on older listeners' speech perception in noise, as well as how these effects were modulated by individual factors including…

This investigation examined the existence of interconnectedness between developing linguistic subsystems. Spontaneous speech samples were collected from 31 typically-developing Greek-speaking toddlers across two age levels, at 28 and 36 months. Correlational analyses were performed synchronically and predictively, revealing significant positive…

The influence of visual impairment (i.e., blindness or low vision) on the development of children's speech sound production has undergone some speculation for over half a century. Children learn to produce speech sounds by utilizing and integrating several cognitive-linguistic and sensory-perceptual processes, which may include processing visual…

Purpose: Word recognition in quiet and in background noise has been thoroughly investigated in previous research to establish segmental speech recognition performance as a function of stimulus characteristics (e.g., audibility). Similar methods to investigate recognition performance for suprasegmental information (e.g., acoustic cues used to make…