Discusses recent research on social interaction and literacy (the notion that substantive talk is a primary means for becoming literate). Discusses social interaction as a means for learning, as part of literacy periods, and as a means for integrating learning across the curriculum. Discusses the effects of social interaction on literacy learning.…

Analysis and comparison of speech samples of advance English-as-a-Second-Language learners before and after a 6-month residency in Great Britain found that the use of a battery of 12 readily quantifiable performance variables could help to identify fluency improvements in individual learners and had the potential for providing objective assessment…

A classroom approach that brings oral and written language learning closer together is outlined. The strategy focuses on proper pronunciation using minimal pairs and uses exercises designed for listening and visualization, production, discrimination, re-use and reinforcement, and computer-assisted instruction. (MSE)

The quantitative methodology of GOLDVARB is used to examine the variable distribution of lexical noun phrases representing core arguments of the verb in a corpus of spoken French and Spanish. The distribution is shown to conform to a grammatically and pragmatically motivated pattern known as Preferred Argument Structure. (Contains 26 references.)…

Describes a system of teaching English as a Second Language to infants and children that has been tested in Israeli primary schools. Topics discussed include learning spoken English only; starting at as early an age as possible; learning in smaller groups; and the use of audio courses and accompanying printed materials. (Contains six references.)…

Tested the hypothesis that accented speech heard at a reduced rate would sound less accented and more comprehensible than speech produced at a normal rate. In two experiments, English native-speaker listeners rated a passage read by 10 high-proficiency Mandarin learners of English. Findings suggest that a general speaking strategy of slowing down…

Twenty-two Spanish-speaking children ages 3 to 6 years participated in an elicited production study designed to test whether children's ability to produce subjunctive relative clauses related to their ability to pass a false-belief task. Results indicated a strong correlation between children's ability to use the subjunctive mood in relative…

Investigated the links between second-language classroom anxiety and second-language writing anxiety, as well a their associations with second-language speaking and writing achievement. Findings suggest that second-language classroom anxiety is a more general type of anxiety about learning a second language with a strong speaking-anxiety element,…

Investigated differences in oral-language development, emergent literacy skills, mathematical reasoning and concepts, and behavior for full-day versus half-day kindergarten students in the Irving (Texas) Independent School District. Found statistically significant advantages for the full-day program, particularly for English-speaking students.…

Illustrates how tasks can be used systematically as context for developing learners' knowledge about language, skill in using language, and teachers' ability to teach. Outlines role for tasks in language learning, identifies limitation in previous studies of tasks to promote learning, and suggests need for tasks to lead learners to integrate…

This study compared the spontaneous oral narratives of 10 underachieving and 10 achieving gifted eighth graders. Results found significant differences across the dimensions of story length, episodic integrity, story grammar, and sentence complexity between the two groups, suggesting the presence of narrative language problems in underachieving…

Investigates differences between college students' reading and listening processes in conjunction with variation in oral-based or literate-based language style. Finds that: listening required less cognitive effort than reading, irrespective of language style; listeners and readers alike best comprehended oral-based discourse; and that reading was…

Details the influence of English on British Sign Language (BSL) at the syntactic, morphological, lexical, idiomatic, and phonological levels. Shows how BSL uses loan translations, fingerspellings, and the use of mouth patterns derived from English language spoken words to include elements from English. (Author/VWL)

Evaluates the claim of uniform size and shape restrictions in prosodic development using a cross-sectional database of English-speaking children's multisyllabic word productions. Suggests children's increasing faithfulness to unstressed syllables can be explained by different constraint rankings that relate to edge alignment, syllable structure,…

An overall examination of the two forms of oral proficiency testing currently in use in most language teaching programs across the country: the oral proficiency interview and the simulated oral proficiency interview. Test administration, response elicitation, and rating procedures are examined comparatively, and a general overview of the…