The purposes of this study were to analyze the pronunciation of pupils and teachers to determine the deviation from the expected pronunciation for each group, and to determine the influence of dialect on reading performance of pupils. A random sample of 20 first grade pupils and 20 elementary teachers from four small, rural, all-white elementary…

The test performance of 120 Anglo, black, and Chicano third- and fifth-grade children is used to demonstrate the similarities between the processes of diachronic and ontogenetic language change. The instrument used measured the range of knowledge of several grammatical structures. Analysis and interpretation of results suggested the gradual…

This study investigated the linguistic characteristics of speech addressed to the child and the features of the verbal environment critical for learning language. The study focused on the prosodic and paralinguistic features of adult speech to the young child. Adult speech directed to children was compared to other kinds of systematic speech…

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…

This study investigated the quantitative and qualitative differences in the responses of children aged four, six, and eight to four kinds of questions; cognitive memory, convergent, divergent, and evaluative. The subjects, 48 boys and girls, were from advantaged homes and had attended, or were attending, nursery school. Each subject was shown a…

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the awareness and application of Black English features by writers and producers of materials for young children which represent black characters in a fictive setting. The study was limited to materials which were available to inner city children in Cleveland, Ohio, through libraries. Fifty-three fiction…

Phrasal verbs occur frequently in written and spoken English and may be difficult for non-native speakers to understand and produce, particularly when parts of the phrasal verb should be separated and when they should be adjacent. The study reported here analyzes natural data in context to determine whether the word order of the parts of a…

A study was conducted to determine which approach for vocabulary development--isolated word lists, context clues, or a combination of both--would yield the best results. One sample of 17 sophomores used isolated word lists. The second sample of 20 freshmen used context clues to determine word meaning. The third sample of 13 sophomores used a…

A synchronic structural description is presented of Haitian Creole as spoken in the Port-au-Prince-Jacmel area, concentrating mainly on phonoloqy and morphology. Historical information and commentary are presented on diglossia and illiteracy, two intertwining sociolinguistic problems of Haiti. A detailed analysis is presented of the Creole sound…

The variety of language produced in school was examined with regard to the functions for which children use language and to elements of the context, emphasizing activities in which children engage and the expectations held by teachers and children. Language data was gathered from twelve children who wore a concealed, wireless recorder and were…

A review of the literature on Black English was made to determine what information is available and to assess the credibility of the information. The review covered the years from 1865 through the first half of 1975. More than 75 documents were identified as potentially informative in the area of investigation. The linguistic features of Black…

This study attempted to answer five question: do black inner-city students at the first grade level associate Vernacular Black English (VBE) with black speakers and Standard English (SE) with white speakers? Do black inner-city students prefer VBE or SE? Is there a significant relationship between the self-concept of these students and their…

A study exploring native English-speakers' and advanced Chinese English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners' beliefs about how a face-threatening speech act, refusal, should be expressed is reported. The two major research questions of the study were: how native speakers of English and Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) differ in their…

Cloze procedure, a testing method which systematically deletes words in written prose and then measures the accuracy of the information is reviewed from a historical viewpoint. Redundancy is placed in a verbal context and can be noted on three separate levels of language: (1) surface syntactic structure; (2) deep syntactic structure; and (3)…

Twenty-four English speakers from various regions of India were tested for the intelligibility of their speech. Recordings of speech in a variety of contexts were evaluated by listeners from the United Kingdom, the United States, Nigeria, and Germany. On the basis of the resulting intelligibility scores, factors which tend to hinder…