The comparatively small vowel inventory of Bantu languages leads young Bantu learners to produce "undifferentiations," so that, for example, the spoken forms of "hat,""hut,""heart" and "hurt" sound the same to a British ear. The two criteria for a non-native speaker's spoken performance are…

Quiet children form the largest group of learning-disabled students in the schools. This booklet is designed for teachers who wish to help such children. The first section provides a summary of current theory and research concerning reasons children are quiet, different kinds of quiet children, the phenomenon of communication apprehension, and…

The contrast between written language and oral language did not really begin to attract attention until second language teaching defined as its goal the acquisition of a communicative tool rather than a literary tool. This focus on communication made necessary the distinction between language used for oral communication and language used for…

This paper discusses some theoretical aspects of contrastive phonetics. A fundamental problem in contrasting the sound structure of two languages is the question of equivalence between the two sound systems. There are four possible criteria: (1) similar spelling; (2) similar phonetic description and transcription; (3) use of phonological criteria;…

The book presents information on the use of oral history as a classroom device. The first chapter discusses the evolution of oral history from a practice intended to preserve information on noted Americans to a way of preserving recollections of older Americans about the past. The second chapter explains why interviewing members of their own…

The primary objective of this course is to initiate students in the most important techniques of oral expression, such as conferences, discussion groups (debate, forum, symposium), and improvisational acting with the purpose of achieving the degree of oral expression that will help them find the means to express themselves orally with clarity,…

Brief discussions in this pamphlet suggest educational and career opportunities in the following fields of speech communication: rhetoric, public address, and communication; theatre, drama, and oral interpretation; radio, television, and film; speech pathology and audiology; speech science, phonetics, and linguistics; and speech education.…

Surveying 75 years of accomplishment in the field of spoken recording, this reference work critically evaluates commercially available recordings selected for excellence of execution, literary or historical merit, interest, and entertainment value. Some types of spoken records included are early recording, documentaries, lectures, interviews,…

The experimental program in remedial composition described in this interim report was designed on the assumption that students could best learn to write minimally acceptable compositions by imitating paragraph and essay models which have been divided into a series of incremental steps. The objectives of the program were to develop a heuristic…

In this study, 240 fifth-grade students were tested to determine possible relationships between their self-perceptions of oral communication skills and their personal-social adjustment as estimated by their teachers, their peers, and themselves. Measurement instruments used were a Communication Inventory (constructed for this study and validated…

Few instruments have been developed for evaluation of expressive vocabulary in early childhood. This project attempted to develop an instrument sufficiently structured to call forth appropriate verbalization yet varied enough to elicit a wide range of responses, and to use the instrument to test whether socioeconomic class groupings can be…

Designed to help teachers improve instruction at the beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels for non English speakers and other foreign born adult students, this handbook contains suggestions and ideas for developing language skills and imparting knowledge necessary for good citizenship. Chapters cover objectives and adult characteristics,…

Bilingual education projects utilizing various literary genres--fables, folk, and animal tales--as the stimuli for written and oral English activities have aided Mexican-American children in overcoming English language handicaps. During the three summers such an English program was undertaken with children from a Mexican-American disadvantaged…

This is the first of five volumes of recorded, transcribed conversation of 150 Spanish children from Madrid. Some 25 hours of normal, unrehearsed conversation serve as a linguistic corpus illustrative of vocabulary development at a specific age level. Half-hour recording sessions were made in groups of three, consisting of boys or girls from the…

This is the second of five volumes of recorded, transcribed conversation of 150 Spanish children from Madrid. Some 25 hours of normal, unrehearsed conversation serve as a linguistic corpus illustrative of vocabulary development at a specified age level. Half-hour recording sessions were made in groups of three, consisting of boys or girls from the…