In a study of the differences in male and female descriptions of nine photographs, picture type was found to be an important variable. Twelve male and 8 female college students were asked to describe each of the photographs. Picture type was rated as high in interest to males, high in interest to females, or high in interest to both. Responses…

Native English speakers' and foreign students' perceptions of 14 English intonation signals, recorded free of verbal context, show foreign students may be misinterpreting or missing much information communicated with nonlexical signals. (Author/MSE)

This study compared tone choice in parallel readings of scripted dialog by 12 speakers of British English and 12 learners of English from Korea, Greece, and Indonesia. It found that the nonnative speakers failed to use rising tones for socially integrative purposes in the way observed in the data from native speakers. Contains 27 references. (MDM)

The Kutchins are a group of Athapaskan Indians who live in an area between the East Fork of the Chandalar River in Alaska and the Mackenzie River in Canada. Eight main groups were classified by Osgood (1936) and McKennan (1965) added a ninth group, Chandalar Kutchin. The present study is based on material collected during the summer of 1972 in one…

Discusses similarities and differences between vocal music and spoken language. Uses for vocal music to aid in the phonological instruction of Russian are suggested. (LMO)

In two experiments, mothers told their infant and an adult a story that involved target words, and women taught an assembly procedure involving novel terminology to another adult. In speech to infants, mothers positioned focused words on pitch peaks, but in speech to adults, the emphasis was more variable. (BC)

Presents comparison of Cantonese and non-Cantonese students' expressed judgments of two samples of speech produced by same person but presented as coming from two different speakers. Although all students thought the better speaker would have a better chance for social advancement, Cantonese subjects who spoke with heavy Cantonese accents were…

Examines the role of tone choice in the classroom communication of international teaching assistants. Compares the tone choices of native-English speaking and nonnative ITAs during their classroom presentations, finding important differences in both the numbers of tone choices and the way tones are used. (Author/VWL)

Comparison of how English and Spanish speakers express contrastive emphasis revealed that, while English speakers used pitch and intensity, Spanish speakers used changes in syntax and lexicon as well as pitch and intensity in showing contrasts. (CB)

A study investigated the importance of three elements of intonation (tone units, key, prominence) in three readers of English radio news. Results indicate intonation is used to present the structure of information as the speaker intends it to be interpreted. Intonation functions can be categorized simply under a few discourse functions easily…

This bulletin points out the differences between the sound systems of Vietnamese and English that will be likely to cause difficulties for the Vietnamese student of English, and outlines the most effective ways of helping the student overcome these difficulties. The guide also includes a section on how to adapt existing ESL materials and a listing…

Focuses on the roles of text-structuring metadiscourse and intonation in signalling in larger-scale organization of academic talks. Compares the occurrence of metadiscoursal and intonational signals of organization in authentic undergraduate lectures and in talks in English for academic purposes listening materials. (Author/VWL)

This paper argues that the origin of the tonal accents in Low German, Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian can be explained on the basis of segmental circumstances, that they may be considered as secondary in the historical development of these languages, and that they arise when the redundant tonal transition in centering diphthongs becomes distinctive…

Question development in English as a second language in four native Spanish-speaking children is described. The English questions initiated by four children differing in English proficiency (two limited English speaking and two fluent English speaking) were examined at two points in time to determine how question use changes in the syntactic,…

The purpose of this guide is to: (1) point out those differences between Black Tai and English which will cause difficulties for the Black Tai-speaking students of English, and (2) outline the most effective ways of helping the student overcome these difficulties. The first section is a contrastive analysis of the phonologies of Black Tai and…