This research report examines the pronunciation that children give to synthetic words containing vowel-cluster spellings and analyzes the observed pronunciations in relation to common English words containing the same vowel clusters. The pronunciations associated with vowel-cluster spellings are among the most unpredictable letter-sound…

The task of any phonetic theory is to determine the form of a phonetic component by establishing the internal and external constraints on that component. The phonetic component itself converts linguistic knowledge of the structure of the speech act into time-varying commands suitable for control of the articulatory mechanism. Performing involves…

The two papers in this booklet comprise part of the research in the Hungarian-English Contrastive Linguistics Project, which is concerned with investigating the differences and similarities between the two languages with implications for second language acquisition. The first paper compares the obstruent clusters in English and Hungarian,…

This paper presents a linguistic discussion of play-languages--designated as ludlings by the author and tentatively defined as the result of a transformation or a series of transformations acting regularly on an ordinary language text, with the intent of altering the form, but not the content of the original message, for purposes of concealment or…

In order to investigate whether the reading process develops similarly in languages where grapheme-phoneme relationships are more consistent, or where there is less word-order constraint, than in English, oral-reading-error analysis was extended to a language other than English. Errors evaluated were made by five Colombian second graders and six…

Describes research on decoding and reading strategies involving three six-year-old migrant children learning to read in French. (AM)

A highly reproducible scale of difficulty of word identification tasks was identified for both good and poor readers: consonant-vowel combinations and short vowel words were learned first. Long vowel words, special rule words, and nonsense words were more difficult. Reading instruction should parallel this sequence since it follows learning…

Discusses how language cues are used in the reading process, describes a means of evaluating a learner's effectiveness in processing these cues, and suggests ways to help foster more effective reading strategies. (Author/RK)

Supports the view that letter-name knowledge aids the child in learning to read. (RL)

The system of deriving baby speech from adult speech is discussed. The theory is based on the system of consonantal replacements. (NCR)

Discusses the steps involved in and the preparation necessary for learning to read (decode) and to comprehend what is read. (JM)

Synthesizing a diverse group of studies, author argues that reading disability is not a unitary phenomenon but can result from deficiencies in different psychological processes. Based on the points at which an individual's reading breaks down, she presents a fourfold classifications scheme capable of categorizing all poor readers. (Editor/RK)

Tagmemic theory, with its insistence on the necessity of three perspectives--particle, wave, and field--can be used to provide a more accurate statement of a contrastive analysis of phonemes in two languages. Examples illustrate how teachers can use these three perspectives in their work. (CB)

Attempts to prove that users of American Sign Language (ASL) do perform within a closed system of manual and nonmanual sign production features (phonemes and distinctive features). Deaf signers are quite capable of creating nonsense words as well as communicating with signers of other languages through pantomime and other paralinguistic features.…

Three types of metalinguistic awareness and their relation to socioeconomic status, vocabulary, reading readiness skills, and reading acheivement were longitudinally studied in a sample of 40 kindergartners and 43 first graders. The three metalinguistic tasks were highly interrelated until the effects of oral language comprehension or vocabulary…