Research reports on the nature of speech, instrumentation for the investigation of speech, and practical applications of research are included in this status report for the January 1 - March 31, 1979 period. The reports deal with the following topics: an articulatory synthesizer for perceptual research; the perception of an oral-nasal continuum generated by articulatory synthesis; coarticulation and theories of extrinsic timing; orthography and the beginning reader; aspiration amplitude as a voicing cue for syllable-initial stop consonants presented monaurally and in dichotic competition; stop-consonant place perception with single-formant stimuli; vowel duration change and its underlying physiological mechanisms; the psycholinguistic basis of linguistic awareness; some effects of later-occurring information on the perception of stop-consonant and semivowel; perceptual equivalence of two acoustic cues for stop-consonant manner; syllabic coding and reading ability in word recognition; acoustic cues for a fricative-affricate contrast in word-final position; apprehending spelling patterns for vowels (a developmental study); perceptual centers in speech production and perception; and the influence of vocalic environment on perception of silence in speech. (DF)