Purpose: Background noise and voice problems among teachers can degrade listening conditions in classrooms. The aim of this literature review is to understand how these acoustic degradations affect spoken language processing in 6- to 18-year-old children. Method: In a narrative report and meta-analysis, we systematically review studies that…

Research has revealed the extent and mechanism of the relation between language (dominated by alphabetic systems) and students' mathematics learning, but when it comes to Chinese language (an orthographic system), nature remains elusive. In this meta-analysis we aim to quantify the size of the relation between Chinese language and mathematics and…

Background & aims: Difficulties understanding spoken language are associated with several social and academic risks in school-age children and adolescents with developmental language disorder (DLD). Still, interventions for this group have received little attention, and there are no reviews focusing on oral language comprehension interventions…

This article presents a review of research that has investigated ways of measuring implicit and explicit knowledge of a second language (L2), focusing on grammar. It begins by defining implicit and explicit knowledge in terms of a distinguishing set of criteria. Two ways of investigating implicit knowledge are discussed -- through experimental…

Background: Fast ForWord is a suite of computer-based language intervention programs designed to improve children's reading and oral language skills. The programs are based on the hypothesis that oral language difficulties often arise from a rapid auditory temporal processing deficit that compromises the development of phonological…

Describes how two conversants can jointly produce a single syntactic unit, such as a sentence, discussing the types of sentences achieved through joint production, the single utterance construction format, syntax for conversation, interactionally relevant features of talk, and the resources needed to complete an utterance-in-progress. (37…

Approaches the analysis of proper names from the point of view of communication. An attempt is made to show that the various uses of proper names can be accounted for in terms of the assumptions the hearer makes about the speaker's thought as expressed through her utterance. (Author/VWL)

Considers the application of neural network concepts to traditional natural language processing and demonstrates that neural network computing architecture can: (1) learn from actual spoken language; (2) observe rules of pronunciation; and (3) reproduce sounds from the patterns derived by its own processes. (Author/CB)

Examines cognates (lexical items from different languages that are identified by bilinguals as being the same thing), arguing that the Cohort Model effectively explains cognate properties and that cognates should be defined in terms of their structural representations and the processes that activate and select them. (79 references) (Author/CB)

Examines native language transfer in second-language comprehension and production in relation to the different demands that the four language modalities make on the second-language learner and focuses on the different roles played by context and potential knowledge in comprehension and production. (53 references) (Author/CB)

Analysis of several types of faulty language selection in polyglots revealed that production errors were not a result of limited vocabulary or language deficiency but rather to interlingual code-switching based on the polyglot's differentiations between dominant language, foreign language, and weak language. (20 references) (Author/CB)

Explores the development in children of dual-level phonological processing. The study suggests that even language-delayed six year olds form underlying representations composed of morphophonemic segments. Differences in performance between the groups studied (first graders, young adults, language-delayed first graders) are discussed. (55…

Many second-language learners in their early stages of development are known to make an extensive use of prefabricated formulae. These formulae are extracted holistically from the input and memorized by rote. Learners can learn to use expressions that are far beyond their current knowledge of syntax and vocabulary, by guessing their meaning from…

Discusses four general areas of linguistics studies that are particularly relevant to literacy issues: (1) discourse analysis, including text analysis, spoken and written language, and home and school discourse; (2) relationships between speech and writing, the distance between dialects and written norms, and developmental writing; (3)…

Exploration of the role of listening comprehension in facilitating second-language learning includes discussion of the auditory perception of language, listening disadvantages for second-language learners, the need to concentrate on lexical knowledge rather than ear training, minimum word knowledge requirements, and lexical ignorance as a major…