The book represents oral communication as a wide spectrum of speech events ranging from daily perfunctory comments to highly structured, formal speeches. The introductory chapter summarizes various approaches to the study of the communication process. The subsequent chapters present: (1) elements of communication language structure, language…

An extensive review of the literature on the relationship of speech articulation to reading and other language skills has revealed few studies in which relevant variables were clearly defined and carefully controlled. Results of past investigations fail to provide conclusive data due to the lack of consistency in defining disability groups, lack…

Reported are the results of the National Speech and Hearing Survey conducted to estimate the prevalence of speech and hearing disorders in the public school populations, grades 1-12, in coterminous United States, and to obtain descriptive information about normal and abnormal speech and hearing behavior. Results of the survey, involving…

Analyzed was the performance of 36 third grade children with various reading and articulation skills in blending selected syllables across three modes of presentation. Ss were divided into three groups: one with normal reading and speech skills, one with below grade-level reading skills and normal speech skills, and one with grade-level reading…

The dynamics of a learner's acquisition of foreign language pronunciation and the characteristics of the primary stage of foreign language study are discussed. Teaching procedures are outlined which are designed to promote phonetic expertise in the early months of foreign language instruction. (SW)

Measurements of lingual two-point discrimination, oral form discrimination, and alternate motion rate of the tongue were made in 15 adolescents who had normal articulation, 15 adolescents who misarticulated /s/, and 15 adolescents who misarticulated /r/. (Author)

Understanding spoken English is often difficult for students of English as a second language because words are run together. Some of the common types of word blendings are: final consonant sounds, links with beginning vowel sound, same consonant is shared across word borders, and similar consonants blend. (SW)

After 20 second-grade lisping children were taught to articulate /s/ and /z/ correctly, each child invited three classmates to a session in which classmates could earn tokens contingent on the target child's correct articulation. Target children in groups using a response cost procedure produced significantly more correct responses. (Author/KM)

Conversational speech samples from 33 two-year-olds were analyzed to determine word and syllable shapes produced, inventories of initial and final consonantal phones, and percentage of consonants correct. A profile of the normally developing two-year-old's range of sounds and structures is presented to aid assessment of young children with…

Techniques for alleviating language students' fears of listening to themselves and making themselves heard and understood, using reading aloud, are presented and illustrated. (MSE)

It is asserted that the teacher and learner of a foreign language must learn to direct his attention to the auditory phenomena of the new language. Several auditory exercises in which some of the basic parameters of speech are involved--number, order, duration, pitch, vowel quality--are described. (RM)