In the American southwest, Pueblo Indian tribes have managed to retain their languages and cultures far longer than many American Indian tribes who have suffered complete language loss as a result of historical oppression, displacement and annihilation. In more recent times, however, Pueblo Indian tribes have faced tremendous pressures to abandon…

Intonation, long thought to be a key to effectiveness in spoken language, is more and more commonly addressed in English language teaching through the use of speech visualization technology. While the use of visualization technology is a crucial advance in the teaching of intonation, such teaching can be further enhanced by connecting technology…

Reading skills in hearing children are closely related to their phonological processing skills, often measured using a nonword repetition task in which a child relies on abstract phonological representations in order to decompose, encode, rehearse in working memory and reproduce novel phonological patterns. In the present study of children who are…

This article presents the results of a study conducted in Anchorage, Alaska, that evaluated the accuracy and efficiency of using voice recognition (VR) technology to collect oral reading fluency data for classroom-based assessments. The primary research question was as follows: Is voice recognition technology a valid and reliable alternative to…

This study focused on Japanese linguistic features that contribute to producing the paragraph-length and extended connected discourse that is expected at the Advanced and Superior levels in ACTFL oral proficiency interviews (OPIs). From 15 Japanese OPIs at the Intermediate-High through Superior levels, 3,062 predicates were identified. Frequent…

While testing children for readiness to enter Kindergarten using the Peabody Individual Achievement Test-R and interview probes, a pattern of responses developed indicating that some of the children were continuing to process answers to questions and to formulate elaborations to statements long after the testing had moved to other questions and…

Background: Several studies have shown that family members of children with autism have elevated rates of spoken and written speech and language problems. Aims: This study asked whether there was also a greater rate of siblings with autism among probands with specific language impairment. Methods & Procedures: The probands in this study were 158…

Although the primary use of the speaking section of the Test of English as a Foreign Language™ Internet-based test (TOEFL® iBT Speaking test) is to inform admissions decisions at English medium universities, it may also be useful as an initial screening measure for international teaching assistants (ITAs). This study provides criterion-related…

"Sound Foundations," a literacy curriculum designed to teach phonological awareness to preliterate children, focuses exclusively on phoneme identity (that is, different words can start and end with the same sound). It works from the principle that phonemic awareness is necessary but not sufficient to reading, which depends on the…

"Waterford Early Reading Level One"[TM] is an emergent literacy curriculum that uses computer-based technology to prepare children for reading. It begins with a tutorial to familiarize the child with the computer and mouse and a reading placement evaluation to assess and determine whether a child should work on "Level One"…

Comprehension is the ultimate aim of reading and listening. How do children develop the ability to comprehend written and spoken language, and what can be done to help those who are having difficulties? This book presents cutting-edge research on comprehension problems experienced by children without any formal diagnosis as well as those with…

English Language Development (ELD) and Academic English Development (AED) curricula in most public schools lack a communicative method and consist mostly of dry, meaningless grammar lessons devoid of relevance and authentic context. The purpose of this project is to develop guidelines to teach English language to elementary school children…

It has been observed that there is a strong association between the inherent (lexical) aspect of verbs and the acquisition of tense-aspect morphology (the aspect hypothesis; Andersen & Shirai, 1994). To investigate why such an association is observed, this study examined the influence of inherent aspect and learners' first language (L1) on the…

We examined how children with and without oral language (word-finding) difficulties (WFD) perform on oral reading (OR) versus silent reading recognition (SRR) tasks when reading the same words and how lexical factors influenced OR accuracy, error patterns, and nature of miscues. Primary-grade students were administered an experimental reading…

This article presents results from 2 studies comparing 3 approaches to teaching vocabulary during storybook reading: (a) contextual instruction, based on connecting words to their use in books and to children's personal experience; (b) analytical instruction, which enhances contextual instruction with semantic analysis of words in contexts other…