This work treats some of the important issues encountered in an attempt to synthesize natural sounding English speech from arbitrary written text. Details of the systems that interact in producing speech are described. The principal systems dealt with are phonology (intonation), phonetics, syntax, semantics, and text-view (discourse). Technical…

A Computer-Assisted Language Analysis System (CALAS) was developed as a syntactic and semantic analyzer of machine readable text in English. CALAS includes a set of computer programs, an algorithm for implementation, and human editors who assist the computer and its programmer in the processing of data. Data analysis is accomplished in three…

This report shows that verbal routines are not easily acquired by adult second language learners and it identifies some of the specific problems they have in acquiring routines. Empirical data concerning the role of verbal routines, (that is, fixed expressions which have been acquired as memorized wholes), in adult second language performance are…

This study investigates cooperation in conversation among group members at five educational levels. In groups of six (three males and three females) second-, fifth-, ninth-, and twelfth-graders and college students met for 10 meetings of 20 minutes to an hour's duration. Members decided discussion topics and procedures. These meetings were tape…

This paper offers a detailed discussion of materials developed for the Chicago Mastery Learning Reading with Learning Strategies (CMLR/LS) program, an upper elementary program in which appropriate learning strategy instructions are embedded within the text for each assigned task. Its purpose is to provide researchers and educators with a…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 23 titles deal with a variety of topics, including the following: (1) the effects on reading comprehension of a number of reader-related factors, including lookback during studying, oral versus silent reading modes, reading…

A study is presented that considers the narrator's knowledge of conventional schemata for stories and the cognitive factors which seem to be affecting the selection and organization of material for narration. Children ranging in age from 3 years 10 months to 7 years 4 months were asked to watch a video tape cartoon and recount the story to a…

Previous studies of children's judgments of culpability have usually involved asking children questions about hypothetical actors presented in stories or on videotape. The current study attempted a naturalistic study of attributions of blame by observing children in spontaneously occurring remedial interchanges, situations in which an interactant…

The following papers of relevance to second language instruction are compiled here: (1) "Bilingual Math in a Monolingual Classroom: A Field Study," by Elizabeth M. Baricevic; (2) "Ideologie et pedagogie: reflexions sur le manuel de francais au programme de '3e annee secondaire' en Algerie," by Jeanne Adam; (3) "Pedagogic…

This manual attempts to establish a hierarchy or sequence within the study of syntax. It is to serve as a textbook, and has as its aim the discussion and explanation of the structure of the correct "properly formatted" sentence. The approach is to begin with "text" and gradually work down. This tendency to begin syntactic research with the global…

The edited transcript of an informal panel discussion about discourse conducted by the Discourse Linguistics Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research Association is presented in this pamphlet. The transcript also includes comments by the chairperson and by audience members. Among the topics covered in the discussion are the…

The story recall abilities of 26 dyslexic children were tested, using a story schema representation previously used in research with normal children. Comparisons within the disabled reader group found significant differences in story schema knowledge, but comparisons between normal and disabled readers revealed no significant differences. However,…

This study proposes that avoidance of a structure by a second language learner can only be claimed for instances where it can be demonstrated that the learner "knows" the avoided language form and that native speakers are expected to use a particular form in that context. Research is reviewed, particularly a study by J. Schachter (1974) in which…

Speech errors have been used in the construction of production models of the phonological and semantic components of language, and for a model of interactional processes. Errors also provide insight into how speakers plan discourse and syntactic structure,. Different types of discourse exhibit different types of error. The present data are taken…

Seven objective measures of language production--number of words, T-units, subordinate clauses, clauses of all types, words per clause, words per T-unit, and clauses per T-unit--were applied to 269 compositions written by seventh, ninth, and 11th graders to test assumptions about the relationships between quality of writing and students' age and…