Story retelling is suggested as a method to evaluate children's ability to comprehend, organize, and express language. (MKM)

Describes experiments that examined the effects of orthographic similarity on lexical decisions and compared decision times to words when they are preceded by unrelated words. Results indicate that lexical decisions about spoken words were shown to be influenced by the spelling of an immediately preceding item. (SED)

An interview with David Olson concerning his current research on the relation between the oral conversational language of preschool children and the formalized language of written texts. (RAE)

Considers the application of neural network concepts to traditional natural language processing and demonstrates that neural network computing architecture can: (1) learn from actual spoken language; (2) observe rules of pronunciation; and (3) reproduce sounds from the patterns derived by its own processes. (Author/CB)

Argues that pragmatics should expand its research interest to include not only the study of how speakers perform speech acts but also the investigation of instances where they decide not to perform them, referred to as the "opting out" choice. (CB)

Analysis of a one-year-old's speech in two different speech contexts (dialogue vs. crib-monologue) yielded striking patterns of co-occurrences involving verb morphology and forms of self-reference. (Author/CB)

Examines the age at which and the form in which children produce speech acts which commit them to a future action. Results revealed that all of the four- to 11-year-olds produced directive speech acts, but only the older children used the explicit performative verb "promise" to reassure the hearer of their commitment. (Author/CB)

Argues that the standard of correct pronunciation is what educated native speakers actually say, not what they think they say and not what dictionaries prescribe that they are supposed to say; therefore educated Southern pronunciation is correct and should be labeled so. (SR)

A comparison of vocal development in deaf and hearing infants indicates that well-formed syllable production is established in the first 10 months of life by hearing infants but not by deaf infants, suggesting that audition plays an important role in vocal development. (PCB)

The article discusses the links between storytelling skills and history, with particular focus on Black History Month, and also lists resources and describes storytelling activities. (CB)

Describes a study of the use of the terms "will" and "gonna" in the speech of two three-year-old girls. The results suggest that one of the functions of "will" and "gonna" is to impart different causal relations to the two practices of "undertaking" and "planning." (HTH)

It is suggested that students of French should be exposed to the richness of a living language by introducing them to all possible outputs and underlining the importance of the interjection in oral discourse. A number of common interjections and usage situations are outlined, and some teaching methods are discussed. (MSE)

Reviews the concept that the melodic features of language play a major role in a child's acquisition of both oral and book language. (FL)

Describes teaching methods using videotape recorder in which students are taped acting out dialogs. Then tapes are shown to, analyzed, and evaluated by the class. Finally, students write an essay on one aspect of the tape. (BK)

Believes current audiolingual approach to foreign language teaching lacks opportunities for spontaneous speech. Author shows why this is and offers suggestions such as oral exercises and games to compensate. (Author/BK)