Reaction time to detect a phoneme target in a sentence was faster when the target-containing word formed part of the semantic focus of the sentence. Sentence understanding was facilitated by rapid identification of focused information. Active search for accented words can be interpreted as a search for semantic focus. (Author/RD)

The language which is spoken and abilities in its social use are critical individual attributes in association with access to life chances. Sociolinguistic variables have been neglected by sociologists and language related social problems are neither recognized nor understood. (Author/RLV)

The need for assessment of the extent to which second language immersion programs develop students who have a good command of both languages is described, and a method is proposed for measuring bilingualism. A report is made of an application of this unit of measurement. (RM)

Contributions of the methodological procedures and principles offered by Labov and Gumperz are evaluated, especially regarding the problem of observer effect in community-level investigations of linguistic minorities. The need for accountability and openness in data collection and analysis procedures is emphasized. (39 references) (Author/LB)

The bilingual discourse strategy of alternating languages as language game boundaries is examined, and language alternation is argued to be one of the features of bilingual discourse according to which speakers negotiate where one language game ends and the next one begins. The iconicity of the patterns of language alternation (discourse,…

Interviewed primary caregivers of 99 Alzheimer's patients about existence and appearance order of linguistic symptoms to study disease effects on communication. Found that prevalence of linguistic symptoms strongly correlated with order of symptom appearance. Discusses symptom prevalence and order of appearance in relation to onset of…

Investigated how well nonnative speakers (NNSs) could modify their output toward comprehensibility when interacting with native speakers (NSs) and NNSs, noting how often modified comprehensible output (MCO) was other- or self-initiated. Picture-dictation and opinion-exchange task data indicated that most repairs were self-initiated. NNS-NNS…

Inconclusive evidence that second-language learners understand a foreign language better than they speak it led to a study of the comprehension of native and nonnative speakers. Results indicated that second-language learners speak better than they understand. The paper discusses three conditions for learning: overt activity, emotional…

This study examines the on-line processing of sentences with movement using an auditory anomaly detection task (after Boland, Tanenhaus, Garnsey, & Carlson, 1995). Eight agrammatic aphasic participants (four of whom had undergone treatment focused on comprehension and production of filler-gap sentences) and 24 young normal participants listened to…

Purpose: The authors' purpose was to explore the nature of the link between hearing loss (HL) and language impairment in adolescents with mild-to-moderate hearing loss (MMHL). Does language performance (generally or in certain areas) normalize at adolescence? Method: The language skills of 19 French-speaking adolescents (ages 11-15) with moderate…

This article explores young children's facility in phonological awareness tasks requiring either the detection or the articulation of head, coda, onset, and rime subsyllabic units shared in word pairs. Data are reported from 70 nonreading children and 21 precocious readers attending preschools. Prereading children were able to articulate shared…

Reviews the relationship between linguistic theory and language teaching. The suggestion is made that a teaching approach should not be based completely on one theory, be it structuralist or generative. In selecting an approach, the teacher should draw selectively on various linguistic theories, on educational psychology, and on practical…

Asserts that language mastery should be judged separately from knowledge, reasoning ability and personality traits. Recognition of and communication of intention are discussed as key factors in language mastery, and the skills of reading, speaking, writing and comprehension are described as independent skills. (RM)

The Cooperative Principle posits four general ways in which a speaker is expected to be cooperative: (1) quantity--make a contribution no more and no less informative than is required; (2) quality--say only that which one both believes and has adequate evidence for; (3) relation--be relevant; and (4) manner--make a contribution easy to understand.…

Children with language delays often manifest low rates of self-initiated expressive language, particularly in school settings. Children with mild to moderate language delays appear to develop this pattern as a means of coping with situations in which they believe they are unable to perform or may perform poorly. Interactive language training…