Analyzes the various factors affecting the decline or the maintenance of the distinction between /e/ and /E/ in Poitou, France. (AM)

A phoneme confusion matrix consisting of 1,620 spontaneous speech errors was analyzed. It is shown that there is no tendency for linguistically unmarked consonants to replace marked consonants and that sound segment errors almost always involve the movement of unitary segments and not the movement of component distinctive features. (SW)

Reports on research indicating that the results of a study conducted by D. D. Johnson and R. L. Venezky (reported in the Summer 1976 issue of this journal) are not generalizable to nonproficient adult readers, suggesting that the vowel cluster pronunciation preferences of adult readers vary as a function of reading competency. (GT)

Reports on two experiments, one performed on infants, the other on adults, designed to examine the issue of categorical perception of speech contrasts in infants in relation to linguistic processing and the innateness theory of speech perception. (AM)

A teaching strategy is outlined for coping with the phonological variability inherent in the nature of an ever-changing language. The basis for the strategy is an understanding of sound change in language and of the language level (as opposed to dialect level) goal of the student. (Author/RM)

Investigates the development of reading and spelling skills in French. Finds that, in first graders, the role of phonological mediation was confirmed and that a complexity effect for spelling but not reading was observed. Discusses findings in light of U. Frith's, J. Morton's, and P. Seymour's models. (PA)

Presents a theory of reading and a justification in the form of a defense of a highly generalized approach to the different forms of reading and of a lexical approach to receptive grammar. The article also addresses the question of the usefulness of models in general and this one in particular, specifically with relation to foreign-language…

Noting that in previous research, the linguistic status of the unit has often been confounded by its size, five experiments were conducted to provide a better test of the linguistic status hypothesis. Results supported the linguistic status hypothesis by indicating that effects of linguistic level on phonological sensitivity cannot always be…

A study involving 17 fourth graders identified as poor readers found the strongest predictors of work attack skills were phonological awareness and grammatical judgment. The combination of phonological awareness, grammatical judgment, phoneme manipulation, and rapid naming of digits accounted for more than half of the variance in word recognition.…

Investigated how learners' perception of second language segments is affected by their first language by examining native Korean and Japanese speakers' perception of nasal segments in English. Also examined the perceived relationship between English syllable-final nasals and Japanese categories to provide insight into why one of the contrasts was…

Examines young children's ability to use simple morphological relations among words as a source of information about the words' spelling. Found that children used morphological relations among words only to a small extent. Suggests that although phonology plays an important role in early spelling, young children can also use other sources of…

Describes word-learning activities for first graders, devised to help at-risk readers make discoveries about the alphabetic system. Discusses why these discoveries are important for students' progress in learning to read and spell. (SR)

Assessed the degree of orthographic learning in homophonic choice, spelling, and target naming tasks with second graders. Found that processing of target homophones was superior to that of their homophonic controls and found a substantial correlation between orthographic learning and number of target homophones correctly decoded during story…

A 2-year study involving 103 kindergarten children tested five predictive models for early reading achievement. Results indicate a predictive model combining letter identification, phonological awareness, and rapid automatized naming was the best predictor of early reading achievement. There was no practical, significant difference between fall…

Examines phonological recoding in reading by highly skilled English and French bilinguals. In general, slow second-language (L2) readers were not more dependant upon phonological recoding than L2 readers, L2 presented a heavier working memory processing load for slow readers, and different phonological effects existed for French and for English.…