In this study, 114 kindergarten through third grade teachers were surveyed using The Survey of Preparedness and Knowledge of Language Structure Related to Teaching Reading to Struggling Students to investigate how teachers perceived their preparedness to teach emergent and struggling readers, their knowledge level in the areas of phonemic awareness and phonics, their certainty of their knowledge level, and the extent they were able to define and apply this knowledge. Two groups of schools were compared. In one group, 60 teachers were using a school-wide, code-based reading program (CBRP), and in the other group 54 teachers were not (NCBRP). Both groups averaged 63% on the survey, and no significant differences existed between the two groups on levels of preparation or knowledge base. CBRP teachers believed they possessed more knowledge than the NCBRP teachers, although, they did not. The majority of teachers did not possess the necessary code-based reading knowledge, concepts, or skills to teach beginning and struggling readers. Thus, teacher preparation programs continue to fall short in providing teachers with adequate training on English language structure.

No description available.

Phonotactics are the restrictions on sound sequences within a word or syllable. They are an important cue for speech segmentation and a guiding force in the creation of new words. By studying phonotactics, we stand to gain a better understanding of why languages and speakers have phonologies. Through a series of four experiments, I will present data that sharpen our theoretical and empirical perspectives of what phonotactics are and how they are acquired.The methodology is similar to that used in studies of infant perception: children are familiarized with a set of words that contain either a few or many examples of a phonotactic sequence. The participants here are four-year-olds, and the test involves producing a target phonotactic sequence in a new word. Because the test words have not been encountered before, children must generalize what they learned in the familiarization phase and apply it to their own speech. By manipulating the phonetic and phonological characteristics of the familiarization items, we can determine which factors are relevant to phonotactic learning. In these experiments, the phonetic manipulation was the number of talkers who children heard produce a familiarization word. The phonological manipulation was the number of familiarization words that shared a phonotactic pattern.The findings include instances where learning occurs and instances where it does not. First, the data show that the well-studied correlation between phonotactic probability and production accuracy in child speech can be attributed, at least partly to perceptual learning, rather than a practice effect attributable to repeated articulation. Second, the data show that perceptual learning is a process of abstraction and learning about those abstractions. It is not about making connections between stored, unelaborated exemplars because learning from the phonetic manipulation alone was insufficient for a phonotactic pattern to generalize. Furthermore, perceptual learning is not about reorganizing pre-existing symbolic knowledge, because learning from words alone is insufficient. I argue that a model which learns abstract word-forms from direct phonetic experience, then learns phonotatics from the abstract word-forms, is the most parsimonious explanation of phonotactic learning.

A case study of American Sign Language (ASL) acquisition revealed an emerging phonological system influenced by biological, cognitive, and linguistic factors. A hearing child (SJ), acquiring ASL from her Deaf parents, was videotaped over seven sessions between the ages of 1:0 and 2:1. Of the 1,699 manual behaviors observed, 804 were lexical items, or signs. All signs were phonetically coded. Detailed analyses were undertaken to discover acquisition patterns for the three major parameters of ASL signs (handshape, hand location and movement). / Overall, SJ's signs were well-formed and adhered to ASL phonological constraints. Location primes were produced accurately, due to SJ's knowledge of the structure of her body. Errors occurred with body parts that were not perceptually salient. Movement parameters were not mastered by SJ during the period of study; no systematic set of substitutions was observed. Handshapes were produced with low accuracy. SJ relied on a small set of maximally contrastive handshapes (i.e., (5,1,A)). These handshapes represent the convergence of ease of production, distribution in the target language phonology, and perceptual salience. SJ used three processes to fit target handshapes to her emerging phonological system: spreading of selected fingers, changing of selected fingers from a marked to an unmarked set, and changing to an open position. These processes reflect anatomical and perceptual preferences as well as linguistic influences. / SJ's sign production showed a small improvement in accuracy and a marked reduction in variability between the ages of 1:0 AND 2:1. Visual feedback did not affect the sign accuracy. A passive hand was more likely to be added to one-handed signs produced outside the visual field, possibly increasing tactile feedback. Path movement and horizontal-place primes were more accurate when tactile feedback was present. There was no evidence that SJ used lexical selection or imitation as strategies for phonological acquisition. / Finally, many of the same factors that influence phonological acquisition in speech guided SJ's acquisition of handshape primes. Her acquisition of location primes, by contrast, did not resemble processes observed in phonological acquisition in speech.

Zulu belongs to the Nguni group of the Southern Bantu languages, which are spoken throughout Southern Africa. Other groups are the Suthu and the Shona, which are spoken in the interior, whereas the Nguni languages are spoken towards the south-east coast, Xhosa in the eastern part of the Cape Province, Zulu in Natal and Zululand, and Swazi in Swaziland. Swazi represents a distinct variety of Nguni speech known as "tekela", characterized by t in place of Zulu and Xhosa z, ts or tf and dz or dv in place of Zulu and Xhosa t and d, and by other phonetical characteristics, but Zulu and Xhosa are so similar that they are linguistically dialects of the same language. However, they have important separate literatures and are generally regarded as separate languages. For these reasons and for the more real reason that it is in tonal structure that they differ most greatly, this study excludes Xhosa and concentrates on Zulu only. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1966.

No abstract available. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, Durban, 1996.

Ura, a minority language spoken in Papua New Guinea, appears to be a candidate for eventual extinction, with an estimated 1,900 speakers, very few (if any) of them monolinguals. Any language is a unique vantage point from which to see humanity and our world in its various facets, and preserving endangered languages seems at least as worthy a pursuit as the many efforts globally at saving endangered species of flora and fauna. Also of great importance is the revitalisation (or first-time facilitation) of identity, esteem and dignity for speakers with regard to their language (and, inseparably, culture). This thesis gives an overview of the sociolinguistic context of Ura, followed by a description and analysis of the phonology of Ura, and then addresses of some of the morphophonology. Features explored include vowel centring and harmony, phonologically and morphophonologically conditioned epenthesis, and diachronic and synchronic alternations. The final chapter provides practical application of the issues discussed as they would relate to an Ura dictionary, and includes samples of the suggested wording and format of introductory notes and entries. It is hoped that what is currently in progress or completed in the Ura language in terms of records, translation, literacy and linguistic analysis (of which this thesis is a part) will facilitate and support progress towards strength and vitality that will not perish.

This thesis examines the occurrence of Canadian Raising in Manitoba, using acoustic-spectral analysis. Factors such as lexical frequency and morphological complexity are examined to determine their role in Canadian Raising production within the sample population. One of the key findings is that what are usually analyzed as “raised” phones in pre-voiceless context are considerably shorter than non-raised (pre-voiced) phones, but do not exhibit substantial differences in terms of vowel quality. A method of multiple-timepoint spectral analysis used to achieve this finding is described in detail. Examination of raising-like diphthongs before /ɹ/ indicates that vowel duration differences exist in different contexts. There is some indication that morphological complexity is related to variants of “raised” phones, such that complex morphology is correlated with longer duration.

The main goal of this thesis is to investigate the nature of an optional consonant deletion process, through an articulatory and acoustic study of word-final consonant clusters in Persian. Persian word-final coronal stops are optionally deleted when they are preceded by obstruents or the homorganic nasal /n/. For example, the final clusters in the words /næft/ “oil”, /suχt/ “burnt” and /qæsd/ “intention” are optionally simplified in fast/casual speech, resulting in: [næf], [suχ], and [qæs]. What is not clear from this traditional description is whether the coronal stop is truly deleted, or if a coronal gesture is produced, but not heard, because it is obscured by the adjacent consonants. According to Articulatory Phonology (Browman & Goldstein 1986, 1988, 1989, 1990a, 1990b, 1992, 2001), the articulatory gestures of the deleted segments can still exist even if the segments are not heard. In this dissertation, ultrasound imaging was used to determine whether coronal consonant deletion in Persian is categorical or gradient, and the acoustic consequences of cluster simplification were investigated through duration and spectral measures. This phonetic study enables an account for the optional nature of the cluster simplification process. A general phonological account is provided for the simplification of coda clusters with rising sonority, and the acoustic and articulatory investigation focuses on the simplification of clusters with coronal stops. Ten Persian-speaking graduate students from the University of Ottawa and Carleton University, five male and five female, aged 25-38 participated in the articulatory and acoustic study. Audio and real time ultrasound video recordings were made while subjects had a guided conversation with a native speaker of Persian. 662 tokens of word-final coronal clusters were auditorily classified into unsimplified and simplified according to whether they contained an audible [t]. Singleton coda consonants and singleton /t/s were also captured as controls. The end of the constriction plateau of C1 and beginning of constriction plateau of C3 were used to define a time interval in which to measure the coronal gesture as the vertical distance between the tongue blade and the palate. Smoothing Splines ANOVA was used in a novel way to compare tongue blade height over time across the three conditions. The articulatory results of this study showed that the gestures of the deleted segments are often still present. More specifically, the findings showed that of the clusters that sounded simplified, some truly had no [t] gesture, some had gestural overlap, and some had reduced gestures. In order to explain the optional nature of the simplification process, it is argued that the simplified tokens are the result of two independent mechanisms. Inevitable mechanical and physiological effects generate gesturally reduced and overlapped tokens whereas planned language-specific behaviors driven by phonological rules or abstract cognitive representations result in no [t]-gesture output. The findings of this study support the main arguments presented in Articulatory Phonology regarding the underlying reasons for sound patterns and sound change. The results of this study are further used to examine different sound change models. It is argued that the simplified tokens with totally deleted [t] gesture could be the result of speakers changing their representations based on other people’s gestural overlap. This would be instances of the Choice and Chance categories in Blevins’ (2004) CCC sound change model. The acoustic results did not find any major cues which could distinguish simplified tokens from controls. It is argued that articulatory data should form an integral part of phonetic studies.

This thesis examines the occurrence of Canadian Raising in Manitoba, using acoustic-spectral analysis. Factors such as lexical frequency and morphological complexity are examined to determine their role in Canadian Raising production within the sample population. One of the key findings is that what are usually analyzed as “raised” phones in pre-voiceless context are considerably shorter than non-raised (pre-voiced) phones, but do not exhibit substantial differences in terms of vowel quality. A method of multiple-timepoint spectral analysis used to achieve this finding is described in detail. Examination of raising-like diphthongs before /ɹ/ indicates that vowel duration differences exist in different contexts. There is some indication that morphological complexity is related to variants of “raised” phones, such that complex morphology is correlated with longer duration.