A discourse analysis of videotaped teaching demonstrations by 18 Korean and Chinese teaching assistants reveals these non-native speakers of English lack the mastery of those cues, such as prosody and topicalization, that allow native speaker/listeners to perceive intended relationships among the ideas presented. (DJD)

Identifies indicators of register or style in selected portions of two lectures presented in American Sign Language, and in the interpretations of each made by two interpreters. The indicators used are speaking rate, pausing, syntax, intonation, and lexical choice. Transcripts of data are included in Appendix. (Author/LMO)

A study investigated requests as speech acts in "Zulu English," the English of Zulu first-language speakers, seeking to explain miscommunication in interactions between Zulu- and English-speakers by pointing to pragmatic transfer as one possible cause. Data were collected by means of a series of discourse completion tests in Zulu, Zulu…

This study explores the effect of information focus on the size of the unit decoded by a reader. Sixty students chosen at random from average reading groups in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade levels were studied. Each subject read orally 36 thematic sentence frames presented in random order. Each frame contained a point at which the visual display…

Describes processes of facilitation involved in exolingual conversation (interactions between persons who are dynamically adjusting their respective linguistic performances) between foreign language learners and native speakers, concluding that such behavior is dynamic and creative, and incapable of being described and defined within predetermined…

One of the most remarkable aspects of the babbling of some babies is that it is produced with intonation contours that sound very much like adult sentence melodies. This study reviews the literature and examines longitudinal data collected from seven children. Some of the non-adult-like syntactic uses made of intonation by children for…

The collection of essays on phonetics and phonology, entirely in French, includes: "Le calcul de la frequence intrinseque. Necessite du rapport a une ligne de reference" (calculation of intrinsic frequency; necessity of a line of reference) (Conrad Ouellon); "Caracteristiques microprosodiques de duree et d'intensite en lecture et en…

Most studies of language acquisition overlook the fact that a child learns language in the context of acquiring the social skill of conversing known as "turn-taking." The few studies of verbal turn-taking in children suggest that prosodic features (suprasegmentals) and turn-taking skills are integrated by the age of two years, nine months, and…

A study investigated the linguistic behavior of three groups of speakers in reacting to accusatory complaints: (1) native speakers of Italian residing in Italy (SI); (2) native speakers of Canadian English residing in Toronto (CE); and (3) speakers of Italian residing in Toronto, first-generation immigrants, defined as speakers of Italian as a…

Nine papers on Yupik Eskimo prosody systems are presented. An introductory section gives background information on the Yupik language and dialects, defines prosody, and provides notes on orthography. The papers include: "A History of the Study of Yupik Prosody" (Michael Krauss); "Siberian Yupik and Central Yupik Prosody"…

The casual conversation of six pairs of Japanese and six pairs of American colleges students was analyzed for evidence of two related aspects of conversation management: the linguistic characteristics of utterance units and back-channel strategies. Utterance units are defined as those occurring between identifiable pauses or breaks in tempo.…

This paper compares the tone systems of Vietnamese and English, with emphasis on the teaching of English as a second language. Rising, level, high, low, and falling tones are identified for English. Vietnamese has all of these except the last. While in Vietnamese, tones are predictable in the sense that tones and words go together, English tones…

The material in this book is the result of an investigation to determine how to teach English intonation effectively and to find the smallest number of patterns which could be used as a basis for initial drills in the language. The book presents a statement of the structure of the English intonation system in relation to the structural systems of…

This paper points out some linguistic and stylistic features of Black English as spoken by children and discusses the occurrence of particular language patterns. Examples of distinct intonation patterns, paralinguistic effects, language rhythm, and other phonological features are all considered. A statistical survey of particular age-group usage…

The sounds of Standard Indonesian, or Bahasa Indonesian, used in official government and private communication, are presented here. The place and manner of articulation and the distinctive features of consonants, vowels, diphthongs, and vocalic combinations are thoroughly explained through text, illustrations, and charts. Variants of…