This paper presents a comparative analysis of the sounds in American English and Brazilian Portuguese in order to focus on the problems that Brazilian students may encounter when learning to speak English. The comparative analysis of the consonants, vowels, and diphthongs describes how a given sound is pronounced in both languages. Particular…

This collection on speech research presents a number of reports of experiments conducted on neurological, physiological, and phonological questions, using electronic equipment for analysis. The neurological experiments cover auditory and phonetic processes in speech perception, auditory storage, ear asymmetry in dichotic listening, auditory…

This book, uniting the material from numerous lectures on communication theory, is designed to serve as the introduction to a series entitled "Studies in Communication," which will appear during the next few years. It is not intended for the expert in each of the many fields related to human communication, but, rather, it is designed for the…

This textbook has been designed for courses in practical phonetics for beginning students. The point of view is that general phonetics is a primary skill of great importance to language students who want to acquire a fluent and accurate spoken mastery of a language in adulthood, as well as to linguists who need it as a basic tool of their…

The purpose of the study was to devise a program of speech retraining for the college-bound Negro student that could be effected in a relatively short time and be implemented by a typical college speech department. The subjects were black students, recently graduated from high school, attending the Upward Bound program at the University of South…

This report on speech research contains papers describing experiments involving both information processing and speech production. The papers concerned with information processing cover such topics as peripheral and central processes in vision, separate speech and nonspeech processing in dichotic listening, and dichotic fusion along an acoustic…

Drawing a distinction between lexical and phonological variation reveals differences in sociolinguistic patterning. A comparison of dialects within the Durham, England speech community is discussed on these levels. Phonetic motivation, speech style, and social and situational factors are shown to interact in complex ways in connected speech…

Testing of a second-language phonological acquisition model with four beginning learners of Spanish supported the claim that transfer processes decrease over time while developmental processes increase and then decrease. Analysis also revealed a hierarchical organization of processes in second-language acquisition and an interaction of the native…

Review of neurolinguistic and psycholinguistic research regarding older (over 40 years of age) second language learners suggests classroom implications for dealing with this population's pronunciation problems and ways to capitalize on their superiority to younger students in terms of higher order linguistic processing. (CB)

Describes a summer program in France designed to teach French to Americans using teaching techniques drawn from dramatic arts courses. The theory behind Ionesco's method is that the living language of the theatre facilitates linguistic and communicative competence in students. (MSE)

Prelinguistically deafened children (n=28) with cochlear implants performed imitative and structured spontaneous sampling speech tasks. Results found children who had used implants for at least two years acquired some intelligible speech; children who received implants before five years of age showed greater benefit than later recipients; and…

Eighteen language/learning-disabled adolescents were compared with 18 nondisabled adolescents and 18 linguistically matched nondisabled preadolescents on requesting assistance from listeners who vary in power and familiarity. The language learning-disabled adolescents were sensitive to social and contextual features and modified their requests…

Explains the use of a computer-assisted language-learning tool that utilizes acoustic data in real time to help Japanese second-language learners improve their perception and production of English consonants. The basic features of the speech-learning software that runs on a networked workstation and is used for pronunciation training are…

This transcript of and guide to a two-cassette course designed to assist Filipino immigrants in erasure of their foreign accents can be used for either individual or group study. Narrative and taped demonstrations of American English that pinpoint typical phonological barriers and pronunciation difficulties are outlined. The author's own system of…

Intended to introduce instructors to a number of sources for helping students improve their speaking habits in voice and articulation courses or in courses in acting, interpretation, or public address, this annotated bibliography contains 38 entries in two main groupings: (1) texts and instructional materials; and (2) reference sources for…