Recent studies in corpus linguistics have revealed apparent inconsistencies between the prescriptive grammar presented in EFL textbooks and the type of grammar used in the speech of native speakers. Such variations and learning gaps deprive EFL learners of the actual use of English and delay their oral/aural developmental processes. The focus of…

Analysis of progression in spoken English by newcomer migrant-background learners has traditionally oscillated between formal assessment of oral proficiency and ethnographic description of naturally occurring peer discourse. This paper reports on data gathered from a longitudinal study of newly arrived students with English as an additional…

Hyper-articulation of vowel and consonant contrasts is often reported in infant-directed speech (IDS), but is not universal cross-linguistically, and may be a side-effect of speaking rate. This study investigated the voicing characteristics of the four-way oral stop voicing contrast in Nepali IDS. Both lead and lag time of word-onset/g,…

Background and aims: Humans communicate primarily through spoken language and speech perception is a core function of the human auditory system. Among the autistic community, atypical sensory reactivity and social communication difficulties are pervasive, yet the research literature lacks in-depth self-report data on speech perception in this…

Suggests an alternative approach to the teaching of indirect or reported speech. Deixis is proposed as a means of clarifying the anomalies of reported speech. The problem is assessed from a grammatical and semantic point of view in the reporting of statements (as opposed to the reporting of questions or commands). (GLR)

Proposes a more explicit description for reported speech in English grammars and English as a second language textbooks, with emphasis on: a clear differentiation between direct and indirect speech using prosodic, syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic criteria; the role of deixis in explaining the internal syntactic adjustments in indirect speech;…

This study is a modest attempt to use three Korean primary school children and their English diaries as go-betweens to mediate in an apparent dispute between the founding fathers of socio-cultural theory about the nature of language and language awareness. According to Bruner, Vygotsky holds that mediation by others and self-mediation of written…

A study analyzed responses of 20 children with and without language impairment to two narrative genres, oral narratives and emergent readings, elicited in the children's homes. Subjects were 2-to 4-year-old preschool children from the metropolitan area of a mid-sized midwestern city: 10 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 10 with…

The purpose of these two studies was to examine the state of pre-service and in-service literacy training, self-efficacy, and clinical practice of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and speech-language pathology programs in the United States. Study one analyzed course descriptions and available syllabi from a sample of 50 accredited graduate…

The basic timescales governing animal life are generally determined by body size. Pauses in naturally occurring human speech were investigated to determine if pause timescales are also sensitive to body size. Reported is an analysis of pause duration allometry in recorded interviews of 61 athletes. Pauses were divided into three classes based on…

Apart from speaking competence and vocabulary used, refusal strategies play an important role in a communication scenario. This paper investigates how Thai students realise the speech act of refusals to the initiating acts of suggestions, offers, requests, and invitations with regard to the status of the interlocutor. To achieve this objective,…

Adolescents with developmental language disorders (DLD) often no longer receive support services when they reach secondary school although many studies show persistent educational needs (Conti-Ramsden et al., 2018; Kolonko & Seglias, 2008; Romonath, 2003). To date, personal assessments of their support services by students themselves have…

Research indicates that the fear of public speaking is an extraordinarily common phobia and that a significant portion of the population experiences some form of anxiety over public speaking. Although there is a great deal of research available on the etiology of public speaking anxiety, there is far less research available on interventional…

A study examined the use of three linguistic features imitating speech found in two groups of direct-mail marketing texts, in order to show differences in the ways U.S.-based and transnational efforts exploit readers' expectations regarding "literate" versus "oral" modes of expression. Two groups of sales letters, 25 U.S.-based…

Research has noted that virtual reality (VR) environments can lessen language learners' foreign language anxiety (FLA). However, previous research has relied primarily on participants' qualitative opinions, leading to a lack of studies empirically assessing how VR impacts anxiety and, consequently, second language (L2) oral production. This pilot…