A discussion of women's oral discourse patterns focuses on the uses made of minimal responses, hedges, and tag questions. The analysis draws on transcriptions of conversations among a group of women friends over a period of months. It is proposed that the conventional treatment of these forms as "weak" is inappropriate in all-female…

It is useful to stress the similarity of the linguistic system that underlies oral and written language, but the whole language approach fails to take into account the real and significant differences that exist between oral and written language and the different purposes for which they are used. Children need explicit guidance and support in…

If sociolinguistics involves the specification and analysis of sociological, interpersonal, and pragmatic variables at issue in given language-use situations, and discourse anaysis is the observation and analysis of both linguistic and paralinguistic features of speech events within these situations, there are at least three areas in these…

The Bilingual Oral Language Test (BOLT-English) was pilot tested in January 1976, field tested in April 1976, and again in October, November 1976, on a population of more than 3,000 students in the San Francisco Bay Area, Pomona, Riverside, and Palm Springs, California. Results reported include concurrent validity values of .9 and .86 when…

Communicative competence in a given language is not guaranteed by competency in the understanding and use of linguistic structures. As part of the testing corpus of an individual's communicative competence in a second language, an oral proficiency interview may provide some insight into the individual's communicative ability in a variety of…

A morphological analysis of a French language corpus focuses on patterns of truncation, shortened versions of multisyllabic words, in modern spoken usage and in the language used in newspapers. Specific examples of truncation are included.(MSE)

The study investigated the effectiveness of a pragmatic language function protocol with a sample of 240 normal preschool children, aged 2-5, in a structured setting. The protocol was shown to be used reliably and was sensitive to differences in the mastery of language skills of normal children of different ages. (Author/JDD)

A study examined the control of selected areas of French grammar by 40 students at 4 different levels of university language study. Improved performance was found at each successive level of study, but significant discrepancies were also found within levels. Implications for instructional and curricular improvement are discussed. (MSE)

Various acoustic measures of speaking rate were calculated for 40 adult speakers of New Zealand English (NZE). These measures were then compared to a group of 40 adult speakers of American English (AE). Results of the analysis identified significantly faster overall speaking rate and articulation rate for the NZE group compared to the AE group. No…

When a child has some hearing loss, a great number of interdependent factors of human development, and more particularly linguistic development that come into play, is apparent. From a school perspective, some requirements can be met in order to make school the best place to enhance this linguistic development, while at the same time the deaf…

Active spoken mastery of a foreign language all too often remains an illusive wish on the part of language learners. There is a tendency to seek the causes of non-fluency and accurate speech outside the classroom, for example, too little involvement, interest and time investment on the part of learners. In this article Manuela Macedonia asserts…

This paper explores two related factors which influence variation in duration, prosodic structure and redundancy in spontaneous speech. We argue that the constraint of producing robust communication while efficiently expending articulatory effort leads to an inverse relationship between language redundancy and duration. The inverse relationship…

Virginia's assessment of student learning outcomes has been lauded by national organizations for its respect of institutional autonomy while providing meaningful information on student learning outcomes. Virginia recently implemented a process by which each institution's plan to assess student learning outcomes are evaluated by peer institutions.…

"Phonological Awareness Training plus Letter Knowledge Training" is a general practice aimed at enhancing young children's phonological awareness, print awareness, and early reading abilities. Phonological awareness, the ability to detect or manipulate the sounds in words independent of meaning, is a precursor to reading. Phonological…

S. Pixy Ferris and Hilary Wilder discuss the changes that are occurring in teaching and learning in a world where teachers and students are increasingly products of two different learning cultures. Adopting the linguistic theory of Walter J. Ong, they see teachers as part of a print paradigm of learning whereas they propose that students are…