Responds to Bowey's comments on an earlier article--"Rhyme, Language, and Children's Reading." Here, the statistical model used in the earlier analysis is clarified, and it is asserted that the new analysis presented by Bowey supports the hypothesis that children's sensitivity to rhyme/alliteration and reading is independent of general…

Exploration of the usefulness of a visual preference technique for assessing word comprehension in infants demonstrated increases in comprehension from 8 to 14 and 14 to 20 months; established longitudinal stability of comprehension from 14 to 20 months; and showed a profound effect of stimulus salience and the lack of sex differences in word…

States that the study of world literacy experience illuminate literacy issues that are often sidelined or ignored in the United Kingdom. Discusses literacy and oral language, literacy and religion, and literacy and gender. (JOW)

Discusses two phonological features of standard French, mid-vowels and mute e, with respect to their formal description. The wide variation involved in the use of these features by native speakers is presented, and the way that this variation adds to the complexities of language learning and teaching is examined. (JL/Author)

Examined how Italian day-care teachers (N=5) spoke to young children and adjusted their language according to age and size of groups. It was found that teachers made both structural and functional modifications of language according to childrens' ages and the size of groups, with group size exerting a greater influence on the features of the…

Analysis of longitudinal data on the phonetic development of Swedish infants (N=4) from 1 through 17 months of age showed five distinct stages in early vocalization development: glottal; velar/uvular; vocalic; reduplicated consonant babbling; and variegated consonant babbling. Comparison with infants of differing linguistic backgrounds indicated…

Investigated how prosodic cues in motherese assisted infants' language acquisition. Infants oriented longer to speech interrupted at clausal boundaries than to matched speech interrupted at within-clause locations. The prosodic qualities of motherese provided infants with cues to units of speech that corresponded to grammatical units of language.…

Re-examines research literature supporting the idea that infants and young children simultaneously learning two languages mix elements from the two languages. It is argued that, contrary to most extant interpretations, bilingual children develop differentiated language systems from the beginning and are able to use their developing languages in…

Vowel production of a 14-month-old girl was studied over a 6-month period. Sixty percent of the vowels were produced correctly. A complex pattern of vowel preferences and errors was partially related to prespeech babbling preferences and strongly related to word structure variables (monosyllabic versus disyllabic). (Author/JDD)

Proposes that the optional subject phenomenon in early child language arises because children have not yet acquired the morphological elements (primarily modal and tense) necessary to distinguish subject-taking verbs (e.g., finite verbs) from their non-subject-taking counterparts (e.g., infinitives). (Author/CB)

The use of self-questioning strategies with orally presented materials was studied for 32 college students (30 females and 2 males). Results suggest that practice in a self-questioning information-processing procedure can effectively improve college students' comprehension of lectures. (SLD)

Analyzes preschool class circle time from an ethnographic perspective. Findings suggest that rules, guidelines, expectations, and roles in the event change over time. (RJC)

Describes some of the current research on Brazilian Portuguese phonology. Various techniques are discussed that analysts utilize to investigate Brazilian Portuguese nasality. (49 references) (CB)

Describes conversation activities that can help students experiencing difficulty in French oral language increase confidence and speaking skills. Small groups of students form conversations around key words, and then expand the conversation for larger groups, incorporating more words and structures. (CB)

Examines American Sign Language (ASL) in the context of the orality/literacy debate and issues of language and cognition. Posits that ASL is a natural language independent of English, and asserts that examining other modes of language use can illuminate the nature of discourse in both oral and written forms. (MM)