Hebrew constrains the occurrence of identical consonants in its roots: Identical consonants are acceptable root finally (e.g., skk), but not root initially (e.g., kks). Speakers' ability to freely generalize this constraint to novel phonemes (Berent, Marcus, Shimron, & Gafos, 2002) suggests that they represent segment identity-a relation among…

After examining several conceptual elements of peer-assisted learning and peer tutoring, this article presents a study analysing the effects of peer tutoring--with fixed and reciprocal roles--in the improvement of curricular competence of Catalan language skills, self-concept as a writer and satisfaction with pedagogical assistance. The results,…

Native nonverbal voice properties may interfere with the learning of vocalics of a second language; this is especially true for adults. Without proficiency in and understanding of these patterns, practice of the language will be uncomfortable and frustrating. (MSE)

Suggests that an arbitrary placement of young children in bilingual programs without adequate prior assessment to detect actual language needs and competencies may be less productive than immediate English instruction. (RB)

A study was conducted in which a series of stories was used to teach six four- to five-year-olds to identify objects as "nouns," attributes of objects as "adjectives," and actions as "verbs." All the children appeared to have well-formed semantic fields for the three form classes. (Author/RM)

Among the most important questions in psycholinguistics today are the following: By which processes does man organize and understand speech? Which are the smallest linguistic units and rules stored in the memory and used in the production and perception of speech? Are the same mechanisms at work in both cases? Discussed in this paper are…

The author endeavors to penetrate the "mists o f mentalistic myth" which enshroud the "very real, solid, and substantial results of generative or transformational linguistics." In attempting to clarify and clear up misunderstandings about theories of grammar as put forth by Chomsky (whose practice, the author feels, is "superior to his description…

Acceptance of responsibility for their written expression can be encouraged in college students through oral games which emphasize the linguistic sensibility they possessed as children. The basic elements of good written language (pleasing sounds, repetition, word play, surprise, climax) are often paralleled in riddles, game rituals, and other…

The author of this paper presents three arguments (philosophical, empirical, and linguistic) to make his point that the computer, far from being worthless with words, offers the brightest hope for the future management of the verbal processes so important in counseling and guidance. Philosophically, he argues, there is no deep support for bias…

The minimum linguistic competence required of an English teacher must be sufficient knowledge to assess continuously the role of direct teaching of linguistics in the classroom; to express, directly or not, views about the nature of language and the structure of English which accord with the best scholarship available; and to counterbalance the…

The objective of this paper is to combine the viewpoint of model-theoretic semantics and generative grammar, to define semantics for context-free languages, and to apply the results to some fragments of natural language. Following the introduction in the first section, Section 2 describes a simple artificial example to illustrate how a semantic…

The major purposes of this study were: (1) to determine whether deviant articulation interferes with communication, (2) to determine whether deviant articulation is negatively evaluated, and (3) to determine whether clinicians and laymen differ significantly in their response to deviant articulation. Four groups were formed by randomly assigning…

A sample of 90 children drawn from kindergarten, second grade, and fourth grade participated in a study of ability to decode ambiguous and unambiguous verbal messages. Subjects were read 12 message stems, each followed by a question pertaining to the contents of the stem. For half of the messages, the meaning of the questions was unambiguous; for…