The traditional recommendation for sequencing speaker and listener instruction has been to teach listener skills prior to teaching speaker skills. In a review of the research literature prior to 2011, Petursdottir and Carr (2011) concluded that research did not support this recommendation. We reviewed the most recent research on the efficiency of…

Phonology represents an important part of the English language; however, in the course of English language acquisition, it is rarely treated with proper attention. Connected speech is one of the aspects essential for successful communication, which comprises effective auditory perception and speech production. In this paper I explored phonemic…

This paper reports a quantitative study on gender differences in attitudes when learning oral skills via technology. The study was conducted at Tafila Technical University, Jordan, with 70 female and 30 male students, to find out if female students are better and faster in learning a language than male. Specifically, it seeks to investigate…

Most young children begin developing language skills at a rapid pace, early in their lives. Children with Down syndrome, the most common known genetic cause of intellectual disability, typically experience delays in language development that persist as they grow older. Parents and teachers can naturally reinforce the language skills of a child…

This article discusses the benefits of using stories in language teaching and ideas of how to use stories in the classroom. The authors believe that stories can help solve the problems caused by limited resources and are good ways to teach culture. They describe types of stories and how they can be used in teaching speaking, listening, reading,…

A study focused on types of talk between parents and children as predictors of development of skills such as narrating, explaining, and describing. The study investigated some measures of home language environment and their relationships with literacy outcomes. Eighty-four 3-year-old children from low income families in the Boston (Massachusetts)…

Four scales developed by Marion Monroe for recording, describing, analyzing, and rating children's oral language skills are described and presented in this paper. The skills assessed by the scales are first described as follows: (1) how a child thinks, as revealed by the quality of ideas; (2) how a child thinks, as revealed by definition of words;…

This discussion of speech development in infants and toddlers with hearing impairments considers selection and ordering of speech targets; the place of audition in speech teaching; and teaching methods for specific speech elements. Guidelines include helping caregivers internalize strategies to help the child use residual hearing and utilizing an…

This study found that naturalistic conversation training improved the spontaneous speech production of two children (ages three and four) with speech production disabilities. (Author/DB)

Over 175 activities are described for helping children with autism in the following areas: auditory development (discrimination and memory); concept development (body concept, body in space/direction, size, time, shapes, same/different, color, numbers); social development; speech and language development; and visual-motor integration. The purpose,…

Research shows that a very large percentage of Japanese university students are apprehensive about communicating orally, to the degree that their fear may be debilitating, weakening their effectiveness as oral interactants in social and classroom situations. This uneasiness with speech has been culturally ingrained for centuries. Children are…

To gather information to assist policy makers, curriculum designers, and classroom teachers in planning and delivering language and reading instruction that will promote success in school of children from complex language backgrounds, a 6-year longitudinal investigation begun in 1978 tracked approximately 250 Spanish-speaking children from low…

This study investigated the effectiveness of a natural environment language training procedure that combined the mand-model procedure and the time delay procedure for the acquisition of noun signs and for the spontaneous use of the signs acquired. One autistic boy, aged 5 years, 4 months with no verbal imitation skills and few movement imitation…

THE STUDY CONCERNED TRACING THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY IN THE SAME GROUP OF SUBJECTS FROM KINDERGARTEN THROUGH GRADE 9. THE RESEARCH WAS BASED ON A STUDY OF THE PATTERNS AND BEHAVIOR OF THE SUBJECTS' SPEECH AND WRITING AND THEIR COMPETENCE IN READING AND LISTENING. SUCH INFORMATION IS USEFUL IN CURRICULUM PLANNING AND IN DEVELOPING…

This book provides an overview of research and thinking on age-related dimensions of language acquisition, intended for students, researchers, and educators with some experience in linguistics and applied linguistics. The first chapter introduces the variety of issues associated with age and language acquisition. Chapter 2 examines the evidence…