The aim of the study was to analyse speech perception of children with cochlear implants (N=29) and children fitted with traditional hearing aids (N=20). One- and two-syllable words were presented auditorily in a forced choice minimal-pair discrimination task. The children repeated the word and pointed to the appropriate picture presented on…

Background: Speaking rate has implications for both clinical practice and an understanding of normal and disordered communication processes. Fundamental information on speaking rate is required by the clinician for the appropriate management of those disorders with disturbances of rate or those in which rate modification strategies are applied.…

A study describing Finnish phonetics and analyzing prosodic properties is reported. Subjects were two female 17-year-olds, speakers of standard Finnish and well acquainted with each other. Data were drawn from two sources: a conversation between the two, in which one described a picture so the other could draw it, and one a set of stories narrated…

Private speech is speech overtly directed to a young child's self and not directly spoken to another listener. Private speech develops differently during fantasy play than constructive play. This study examined age differences in the amount of fantasy play in the preschool classroom and in the amount and type of private speech that occurs during…

Examines the potential usefulness of various procedures employed to measure the adaptation in frequency rate of fluency failure, adaptation in temporal rate of speech, and automated analysis of on-off speech patterns in differentiating stuttering from cluttering. (SCC)

The article deals with various interference factors affecting aural perception and articulation, such as: similarity of the foreign sound to the native sound, different combinations, differences of articulation, significance of correct perception of sounds, etc. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

This article attempts, through a study on the acoustic and the perceptual level of the contrast between two Dutch vocalic phonemes, to present a rigorous methodology for contrastive phonetics to be used by language teachers. (Text is in French.) (AM)

This study attempted to clarify the kind of correlations that can be found in the speech behavior of high-risk children in comparison with children without neonatal risk complications. The study concentrated on the articulatory ability of 430 five-year-old children with neonatal risk complications; it applied a cross-disciplinary diagnosis (child…

An analysis of Old English phonology examines two traditional sound changes, the First and Second Frontings, that have been analyzed by different linguists with rather abstract theories. These analyses are refuted, and a more concrete and realistic treatment is proposed for each. Examination of Anglo-Frisian Brightening, or First Fronting, raises…

In order to ascertain the effect of different demands on cognitive processes as reflected in speech rate, pause and hesitation phenomena, 90 young men, 45 native speakers of English (U.S.A.) and 45 native speakers of Spanish (Mexico), were asked to retell a story presented in one of three ways: (1) film plus narration; (2) film only; (3) narration…

Gives the results of a survey showing that the age factor, rather than the learning situation, is the predominant variant in learning the pronunciation of a second language. As Eric Lenneberg suggested, puberty may indeed be an important turning point in language learning ability. (TL)

Underwater intelligibility of three standard word lists is evaluated in two experiments. Results indicate that words which are equated for difficulty in normal conditions are likewise equated under water. Phoneme distortion was examined in a multiple choice test which showed fricatives and place of production to be most affected under water. (SC)

Based on research supported by U.S. Office of Education Contract No. OEC-5-10-154.

Current opinion regarding the nature of the young child's representation of two or more languages is that there is one system during the earliest stages of development. This paper explores theoretical and methodological difficulties underlying this issue. Theoretically, it is questioned what is being claimed about the child's cognitive capacities…