Robert J. Scholes

The Nature of Comprehension Errors in Broca's, Conduction and Wernicke's Aphasics

The purpose of the study was to ascertain if Brocas aphasics have a comprehension defect which is dependent on syntactic relationships, to ascertain how this comprehension defect, if present, is different from that seen in Wernickes and conduction aphasias. Twenty-six aphasic patients (nine Brocas eight conduction, nine Wernickes) and eight controls were given a test which helped differentiate comprehension errors caused by syntactic incompetence from those caused by lexical incompetence. Wenickes aphasics made significantly more lexical errors than each of the other groups. There were no significant differences between the lexical errors made by the other groups (Brocas, conduction, and control. There were no significant differences between Brocas and conduction aphasics, however both these groups made more syntactic errors than the controls.

Defects of immediate memory in Broca's and conduction aphasia.

Abstract It has been suggested that the repetition defect seen in conduction aphasia is caused by an auditory immediate memory defect. The purposes of this study were the following: to ascertain whether the finding of an auditory immediate memory defect in conduction aphasia could be replicated, to ascertain whether Brocas aphasics have a similar type of immediate memory defect, and to ascertain whether a relationship exists between immediate memory and comprehension of spoken language. Digits were either spoken or presented visually to Brocas and conduction aphasics. An analysis of span scores reveals that within each group there were no significant differences between the modes of presentation or the response modes. There were no significant differences between the aphasic groups. Comprehension of spoken language significantly correlated with digit span scores.

Developmental changes in the linguistic performance correlates of reading achievement

Abstract The present study evaluated the hypothesis that measures of linguistic skills differentially contribute to the variability in reading achievement at different ages. Linguistic skills that develop earlier and are more important for earlier phases of reading were predicted to contribute more to the variability of reading achievement at earlier ages (5–7) than at older ages (10–12). Conversely, linguistic skills that develop later and are more important for later phases of reading were predicted to contribute more to the variability in reading achievement at older ages (10–12) than at younger ages (5–7). To test these developmental hypotheses, measures of language skills with different developmental rates were administered to cross-sectional samples of disabled and nondisabled readers at three mean ages: 5.5, 8.5, and 11 years. Reading group differences were apparent at each age on measures assumed to develop earlier, thus failing to confirm the first prediction. However, these measures may not have been sensitive to linguistic skills important for beginning reading. Reading group differences on measures of later developing language skills were apparent only for older readers, thus confirming the second prediction. The latter age-dependent relationships provided additional evidence for developmental changes in the linguistic correlates of reading achievement.

The Role of Grammaticality in the Imitation of Word Strings by Children and Adults.

The ability of Ss to imitate sentences differs significantly from their ability to imitate nonsentential word strings of equal length. This study asks about the importance of suprasegmental features and the approximation to sentencehood of the stimulus word-string for the sentential and nonsentential imitation strategies of children and adults. Citation form word strings of various types were presented to adult and child Ss, and errors in the imitations were noted and analyzed. For adults, the absence of suprasegmentals had no effect on the Ss ability to differentially handle sentential and nonsentential sequences. For very young children (3 yr), all string types are treated similarly. Within a very short time, however, the child acquires the adults ability to use grammatical cues for sentencehood.

The Case against Phonemic Awareness.

This paper presents a series of arguments concerning the notion that an awareness of the sub-syllabic (‘phonemic’) segments of speech is a factor in the acquisition of literacy skills. It will be claimed that such an awareness is not an untutored aspect of one’s linguistic consciousness, but, in fact, a limited consequence of acquiring literacy in an alphabetic script. In addition, it will be shown that any positive correlations between phonemic awareness and reading skill are based on a definition of reading that is misguided and potentially harmful. n n n nThe paper reviews selected recent literature and research on phonemic awareness in literate and illiterate speakers, the relationships between letters and speech sounds, and variations in the definition of reading employed in this work. n n n nContre la conscience phonemique n n n nPreoccupes par les etudes rapportant les echecs generalises des eleves dans l’apprentissage de la langue ecrite, les agents de l’education des etats-Unis ont pris en compte les avantages et les desavantages de deux methodes concurrentes d’enseignement de la langue ecrite, la methode phonetique et la methode du langage entier (Whole Language).xa0Le langage entier met l’accent sur les relations pouvant exister entre l’ecrit et le langage alors que l’approche phonetique porte sur les relations entre l’ecrit et la parole. n n n nUne composante de l’approche phonetique pour l’apprentissage de la lecture est ce qu’il est convenu d’appeler la ‘conscience phonemique’. On soutient que les locuteurs se distinguent quant a leur conscience des segments infra-syllabiques de la parole (phonemes) et que de telles variations contribuent de maniere significative au developpement de l’habiletea relier les lettres aux sons du langage et, en consequence, a assurer le succes de l’apprentissage de la lecture par l’entremise de la methode phonetique. Les enfants presentant une faible ‘conscience phonemique’ sont alors entrânes a isoler et a manipuler de tels segments, un tel entrainement devant faciliter les acquisitions en lecture. n n n nCe texte veut demontrer que la conscience des segments infra-syllabiques de la parole n’est pas l’une des composantes non apprise de la conscience de la parole, mais plutot une consequence tres limitee des methodes phonetiques. Plus loin, il est soutenu que les formes ecrites et parlees de l’anglais comportent une faible relation entre elles et que l’opinion voulant que l’ecrit soit mieux compris en traduisant les graphemes en phonemes est peu judicieuse et potentiellement prejudiciable a l’acquisition et l’utilisation des habiletes propres a l’apprentissage de la langue ecrite. n n n nCe texte concerne exclusivement la langue anglaise. Les lecteurs francophones qui partageraient les idees emises ici apprecieront sans doute la lecture du chapitre 6, La representation graphique du langue tire du travail monumental de De Saussure, Cours de linguistique generale.

Phonemic interference as a perceptual phenomenon.

The paper reports the results of a series of experiments in which a set of synthetic vocalic stimuli were presented to speakers of various languages under two conditions. In the first condition, the subject was asked to decide whether or not the sound heard was like a vowel sound of his native language and, if so, to give an example word containing that sound. The examples were then grouped by the subject so that all examples of the same vowel sound were put together. This procedure results in a categorization of the stimuli closely resembling a vowel phoneme inventory of the subjects native language. In the second condition, the subject was asked to repeat the experiment, responding in reference to English vowel sounds. It was found that his English responses are predictable from his native language responses and not from the inventory of English vowel phonemes.

Hemispheric function and linguistic skill in the deaf.

Abstract The nature of hemispheric processing in the prelingually deaf was examined in a picture-letter matching task. It was hypothesized that linguistic competence in the deaf would be associated with normal or near-normal laterality (i.e., a left hemisphere advantage for analytic linguistic tasks). Subjects were shown a simple picture of a common object (e.g., lamp), followed by brief unilateral presentation of a manually signed or orthographic letter, and they had to indicate as quickly as possible whether the letter was present in the spelling of the objects label. While hearing subjects showed a marked left hemisphere advantage, no such superiority was found for either a linguistically skilled or unskilled group of deaf students. In the skilled group, however, there was a suggestion of a right hemisphere advantage for manually signed letters. It was concluded that while hemispheric asymmetry of function does not develop normally in the deaf, the absence of this normal pattern does not preclude the development of the analytic skills needed to deal with the structure of language.

On functors and contentives in children's imitations of word strings

Young children (mean age 3 years, 11 months) were asked to repeat word strings presented from tape. The strings varied in length from three to five words; in sentencehood in that some were well-formed sentences, some were anomalous, and some were syntactically deviant; and in word types in that some strings contained all real words, some contained real function words plus nonsense items, and some contained real content words plus nonsense items. The results of this experimentation suggest that childrens differential imitation of contentives and functors is accounted for by an “identify and retain contentives” strategy and that the principal criteria for the classification “contentive” are phonological form and semantic function.

Age and education in oral language skills

A battery of tests of various metalinguistic abilities was administered to children who were good and poor readers and to nonreading adults. The purpose of the study was to discover any such skills that might discriminate purely maturational factors in language acquisition from factors having to do with the development of reading skill. The results suggest that (a) there are no changes in analytical linguistic abilities between the ages of 5 and adulthood in nonreaders, (b) the ability of readers to analyze words phonologically and morphologically appears to be gained during the early years of reading experience, and (c) some syntactic skills previously associated with late cognitive maturation seem to be more causally tied to reading experience.

Developmental Comprehension of Third Person Personal Pronouns in English.

A review of relevant literature indicates a gap in the available data on the normal acquisition of the animate third person personal pronouns of English. In this study a comprehension task (picture verification) employing this class of words was run on 100 children from three to seven years of age. The results show that comprehension of these forms beyond chance level first appears at age five with continuing improvement through ages six and seven. Separate analyses of the comprehension of the semantic components of the forms — i.e., Gender, Number, and Case - suggest differential acquisitional curves for these aspects, with mastery of the Gender distinction appearing to lead the other two.