Ruth Huntley Bahr

Spelling patterns in preadolescents with atypical language skills : Phonological, morphological, and orthographic factors

Several investigations have considered the spelling abilities of children with reading disability; however, the spelling patterns of children with a language learning disability (LLD) have been largely ignored. This study examined the spelling error patterns of three groups of children who met strict inclusion criteria—those with a known LLD (n = 8), chronological-age-matched peers (CA; n = 8), and a younger spelling-age-matched group (SA; n = 8). An experimental spelling measure was specially designed and administered to elucidate the underlying linguistic features (clusters, digraphs, etc.) and linguistic classifications (phonological, orthographical, morphological) of misspellings. Based on inferential statistical analyses, a general pattern was that the LLD group and the SA group always differed from the CA group, whereas the LLD group performed similarly to the SA group. This finding lends credence to the hypothesis that children with an LLD, like children with reading disability, are delayed in spelling development rather than following a deviant developmental process. However, a qualitative analysis indicated two specific patterns. First, the LLD group had more trouble than did the SA group in representing the basic phonological structure of words, when complexity was increased by word length or linguistic structure. Second, in contrast to the SA group, the LLD group had greater omissions of inflected and derived morphological markers. These findings point to the critical role of morphology as the mediator between and form and meaning.

Spanish and English Proficiency in the Linguistic Encoding of Mental States in Narrative Retellings

Abstract The present study investigated whether differences existed among 28 sequential bilingual children, ages 9–11 years, with varied English proficiency, in their clausal and nonclausal choices for encoding subjective concepts in narratives in both Spanish and English. The subjective categories examined were perceptual action, psychological action, and private state reports. Despite a significant difference in age between the two proficiency groups, results present evidence for similar patterns of ability and variability in the syntactic encoding of subjective categories. Both proficiency groups expressed private state reports most frequently across languages; however, English language use might have influenced the proportion of subjectivity category use. Furthermore, differences between proficiency groups were not found for a measure of clausal complexity, but differences in clause type usage and aspects of nonclausal complexity were attributed to the language of retelling. Patterns of performance reinforce the importance of assessing children in both Spanish and English.

Bilingual spelling patterns in middle school: it is more than transfer

This study examined the Spanish and English spelling patterns of bilingual adolescents, including the cross-linguistic effects of each language, by applying a fine-grained measure to the differences in spelling in naturalistic writing. Spelling errors were taken from narrative and expository writing samples provided by 20 Spanish–English bilingual adolescents (n = 160). Errors were coded by categories (phonological, orthographic, and morphological) and specific linguistic features affected and then analyzed by language and genre. Descriptive analyses noted similarities and differences among error patterns in both languages as well as language transfer (i.e., borrowings and code-switching). Statistical analyses revealed language differences in proportions of misspellings across linguistic categories. More fine-grained analyses indicated linguistic feature patterns that were shared across languages and unique to each language. Finally, borrowing, while infrequent, was noted more frequently in English compositions. This investigation appears to demonstrate that spelling, when approached as both a cognitive and linguistic activity, is complex since multiple knowledge systems must be coordinated. The use of triple word form theory to analyze misspellings in emerging bilingual writers suggests that discerning patterns of misspellings in each language provides more insight than does transfer alone into the extent that phonology, orthography, and morphology are becoming unified.

Issues in forensic voice.

The following article provides a general review of an area that can be referred to as Forensic Voice. Its goals will be outlined and that discussion will be followed by a description of its major elements. Considered are (1) the processing and analysis of spoken utterances, (2) distorted speech, (3) enhancement of speech intelligibility (re: surveillance and other recordings), (4) transcripts, (5) authentication of recordings, (6) speaker identification, and (7) the detection of deception, intoxication, and emotions in speech. Stress in speech and the psychological stress evaluation systems (that some individuals attempt to use as lie detectors) also will be considered. Points of entry will be suggested for individuals with the kinds of backgrounds possessed by professionals already working in the voice area.

Dichotic listening and sentence repetition performance in children with reading difficulties

ABSTRACT Numerous investigations have identified weaknesses in speech processing and language skills in children with dyslexia; however, little is known about these abilities in children with reading difficulties (RD). The primary objective of this investigation was to determine the utility of auditory speech processing tasks in differentiating children with RD from those with typical reading skills. It was hypothesized that children, who perform below grade level in reading, would also show poorer performance on both dichotic listening and sentence repetition tasks because of the reciprocal influences of deficient auditory speech processing and language abilities. A total of 180 Hungarian-speaking, monolingual 8-, 9- and 10-year-old children, with and without RD, participated in dichotic listening and sentence repetition (modified by noise and morphosyntactic complexity) tasks. Performances were compared across ability groups, age and gender. Children with RD evidenced significantly poorer performance than controls on both tasks. Effects for age and gender were more noticeable in students with RD. Our findings support the notion that reading deficiencies are also associated with poor auditory speech processing and language abilities in cases where dyslexia is not diagnosed. We suggest that these tasks may be used as easy and fast screening tests in the identification of RD.

Not all /r/s and /l/s are the same: Classification of errors in children with cochlear implants versus normal hearing

Purpose: As children acquire speech sounds, they progress from clear substitutions, to “intermediate forms” (covert contrasts), to adult-like productions. However, there is evidence that this progression may be different in CI users as compared to NH children. Identification of intermediate forms is dependent upon rating scales that are sensitive to fine phonetic detail, such as visual analogue scales (VAS). This study uses both traditional VAS and a new 3-dimensional rating scale to explore differences in the /r,l/ productions of young children with and without hearing loss. Methods: Correct and error productions of /r,l/ were extracted from a standardized articulation test for nine congenitally deafened children who received cochlear implants (CIs) prior to age 3 and their speech age-matched controls. Stimuli were shortened to nonsense syllables to prevent real-word bias. Listeners rated these productions on both a VAS and a triangular scale, which allowed listeners to rate phone quality as a multi-dime...

L2 use and stimulus complexity in perceived acceent ratings

Listener perception of accentedness has been shown to be influenced by experience with L2 (measured by length of residence in US). However, frequency of L1 use and degree of linguistic complexity (defined by the number of non‐native phonetic features targeted) may provide more insight into the role of experience in the perception of accentedness. Three groups of listeners (monolingual English and Spanish [L1] speakers divided into two groups of high and low use of English [L2]) rated the accentedness of bilingual speakers who spoke with varying degrees of accentedness. The speakers read sentences adapted from Magan (1998) to include linguistic aspects likely to be difficult for native Spanish speakers. Listeners performed similarly in rating speakers degree of accent. Amount of daily L1 use only influenced the ratings of the slightly accented group; the high‐use bilingual group rated these speakers as more accented than the native English group, regardless of level of linguistic difficulty. These results ...