Discusses the role of Anglo-Norman in the history of French and English. Points out that evidence exists to indicate that the French used in England between the Norman Conquest and the end of the fourteenth century is a more complex subject than current writing on the subject suggests, especially in regard to the history of the English language.…

Examines the extent to which talking helps learning in a convergent group discussion task, where the students' goal is to construct predetermined "true justified knowledge." Analyzes instances where the same group of Malaysian students, studying on a higher education program in the United Kingdom, both succeeded and failed to arrive at the truth.…

Illustrates how the separate economic and political development and the ensuing lack of contact between Hong Kong and Guangzhou over the last 50 years have resulted in quantifiable tonal differences in the Cantonese spoken in these two cities. (16 references) (Author/CK)

Investigates reasons for raters assignment of particular scores on a speaking test through the use of a method called "concept mapping." Based on results, suggests that information gained from this method can be used in rater training to emphasize key rating criteria that have been deemphasized or overlooked by raters to improve the validity of…

Explains how the author teaches her first graders to write and the steps that go into her writing program. Suggests that whatever children can talk about, they can write about, and whatever they can write about, they can read about. Organizes her literacy program according to this. Presents eight oral language activities that are adapted from…

Focuses on the measurement of lexical richness. Lexical richness is often measured either by the traditional type-token ratio or by its square root variant, the index of Guiraud. Proposes two methods that have advantages over traditional methods. Computed indices for the lexical items used in an oral text by two groups of Turkish-German…

Examines whether computer mediated communication can help learners improve their oral proficiency by comparing the performance of three groups of learners (a control group, a synchronous CMC group, and an asynchronous CMc group) on three oral discussion tasks during the course of a semester. Number of idea units and words, lexical richness and…

Two experiments examined the effect of single-modality (sound or text) and bimodal (sound and text) presentation on word meaning, as measured by both improvements in spoken word recognition efficiency and recognition memory. Both native and nonnative speakers of English were tested. Concludes simultaneous text presentation can aid novel word…

Examines speech samples of a boy 2;4 to 2;11 to determine the relationship between speech disturbances and language production process development. Disfluencies were randomly distributed during the first half of the observation period, then concentrated in function words and sentence initial words, reflecting an emerging speech component dedicated…

Discusses four general areas of linguistics studies that are particularly relevant to literacy issues: (1) discourse analysis, including text analysis, spoken and written language, and home and school discourse; (2) relationships between speech and writing, the distance between dialects and written norms, and developmental writing; (3)…

Examines vowel harmony in the "Gaucho dialect" of the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Informants from four areas of the state were studied: the capital city (Porto Alegre), the border region with Uruguay, and two areas of the interior populated by descendants of nineteenth-century immigrants from Europe, mainly Germans and…

Describes a developmental project in Maori, designed to investigate the feasibility and reliability of teacher-based assessment of the oral component of a national examination of Maori language in New Zealand. Particular focus is on the development of a culturally appropriate assessment style that respects Maori traditions of knowledge, learning,…

An English-as-a-Second-Language teacher describes an exercise she uses with a class that meets only once a week. This exercise is to encourage students to use their language skills with each other, and to express themselves about topics of interest to individual students and the entire class. (CB)

Investigation of speech of Baghdadi men and women showed that, in Baghdad, the prestige variety of spoken Arabic was in the direction of the standard, and that more women than men favored this variety. However, in the past, when Baghdadi women had less access to standard Arabic, men more often spoke a dialect approximating the standard variety.…

Analysis of doctor-parent-child interactions in terms of facework and politeness theory revealed that discourse was a matter of continuous negotiation between participants. Doctors' provision of indirect and direct information to parents was best understood sequentially because they changed approaches according to parent understanding. (20…