The role of private speech in the transition from collaborative to independent task performance in young children

This study was designed to examine the following central Vygotskian hypotheses about the functions of preschool children's private speech: (1) that private speech facilitates the transition from collaborative to independent task performance, and (2) that children's use of private speech is conducive to task success. Age-related changes in children's use of private speech were also examined. Forty preschoolers, ranging in age from three to five, completed a selective attention task with scaffolded assistance given from an experimenter when needed. In an effort to overcome several methodological limitations found in previous research, a new microgenetic method of analyzing speech-performance relations based on assigning task items to discrete categories reflecting six possible co-occurrences between private speech (item-relevant speech, item-irrelevant speech, silence) and performance (success, failure) was introduced. Results were that (1) item-relevant speech was used more often during successful than during failed items while the opposite was true for item-irrelevant speech; (2) children were more likely to use private speech on successful items after scaffolding than they were on similar items not following scaffolding; (3) after scaffolding, children were more likely to succeed on the next item if they talked to themselves than if they were silent; and (4) hypothesized curvilinear, age-related patterns in children's item-relevant private speech and silence were found, however, only when analyzing speech during successful items. Implications of this research for preschool teachers and parents are discussed.     

关于汉语辞格研究的再思考

当代汉语修辞学越来越重视用各种理论和方法,从各个不同的角度研究汉语各种修辞现象,然而无论如何,汉语辞格始终是汉语修辞学不可忽视的重要研究内容。在研究汉语辞格时,应该合理地认识和摆正汉语辞格在汉语修辞方法体系中的地位,注重汉语辞格研究方法,弄清汉语辞格理论史和汉语辞格史的关系,关注从属于整个汉语修辞学研究的汉语辞格研究形态,彰显汉语辞格研究的鲜明特色。     

Private speech in children with ADHD and their typically developing peers during problem-solving and inhibition tasks

This study compared private speech of children with ADHD and normal controls during problem solving and inhibition tasks. Thirty-two children (16 children with ADHD and 16 matched controls) aged 6–11 years participated. Consistent with previous studies, children with ADHD produced more task-irrelevant and task-relevant external private speech than control children during problem-solving tasks, but did not differ in their use of task-relevant internal private speech. During the inhibition/attention task (Continuous Performance Test-II), children with ADHD produced more task-relevant external and more task-relevant internal private speech, suggesting that they may have employed a less mature strategy to aid in self-regulation. The educational implications of the current study are that there should be an increased awareness of the developmental nature and functional significance of private speech and how private speech usage may differ in children with ADHD.     

语音识别技术及应用

语音识别技术近年来得到了飞速的发展并且在越来越多的领域得到了广泛的应用。隐马尔可夫模型(HMM)语音识别技术是一种基于训练数据提供的概率自动构造识别系统的技术,主要用于大量词汇的语音识别,而且具有良好的识别性能和抗噪性能。因此,一般的语音识别系统都采用基于HMM的识别方法作为其基本算法。本文列举了语音识别在教学中的应用示例来分析其基本算法。     

Approval and Disapproval: Infant Responsiveness to Vocal Affect in Familiar and Unfamiliar Languages

In a series of 5 auditory preference experiments, 120 5-month-old infants were presented with Approval and Prohibition vocalizations in infant-directed (ID) and adult-directed (AD) English, and in ID speech in nonsense English and 3 unfamiliar languages, German, Italian, and Japanese. Dependent measures were looking-time to the side of stimulus presentation, and positive and negative facial affect. No consistent differences in looking-time were found. However, infants showed small but significant differences in facial affect in response to ID vocalizations in every language except Japanese. Infants smiled more to Approvals, and when they showed negative affect, it was more likely to occur in response to Prohibitions. Infants did not show differential affect in response to Approvals and Prohibitions in AD speech. The results indicate that young infants can discriminate affective vocal expressions in ID speech in several languages and that ID speech is more effective than AD speech in eliciting infant affect.     

Understanding the role of private speech in children's emotion regulation

Self-regulation includes both cognitive and affective components, but few researchers have investigated how these components interact to better explain self-regulation. The purpose of this study was to investigate how children's private speech, which is typically related to cognitive ability, was utilized during an emotion-eliciting task. By examining the social and private speech that occurred as children coped with a frustration task, a better understanding of how children regulate their emotional displays can be achieved. Children's speech, emotional expressions (sadness and anger), and emotion regulation strategies (distraction and self-comforting) were coded during a frustration task completed by preschool-aged children (N = 116). Children's social speech to mothers and private speech were transcribed. Children's private speech was categorized according to five mutually exclusive categories: vocalizations, inaudible muttering, task-irrelevant, negatively valenced task-relevant, or facilitative task-relevant. Sadness was associated with more social speech and negatively valenced task-relevant private speech, whereas anger was associated with less distraction and facilitative task-relevant private speech and more vocalizations and negatively valenced task-relevant private speech. Additionally, private speech predicted unique variance beyond that explained by the emotion regulation strategies and moderated the relations of emotion regulation strategies to both anger and sadness. These empirical findings support theoretical propositions that language is a factor in children's emotion regulation. The implications of these findings include support for the encouragement of private speech in the classroom because of its relation to emotional, in addition to cognitive, regulatory functions.     

论广告言语行为的构成性规则

以言语行为理论为视点,对广告给予了言语行为的价值认证。同时指出广告言语行为的构成性规则是广告研究的首要任务,因为它可以为广告生活提供更为根本的服务。     

How does reading performance modulate the impact of orthographic knowledge on speech processing? A comparison of normal readers and dyslexic adults

Studies on proficient readers showed that speech processing is affected by knowledge of the orthographic code. Yet, the automaticity of the orthographic influence depends on task demand. Here, we addressed this automaticity issue in normal and dyslexic adult readers by comparing the orthographic effects obtained in two speech processing tasks that are or not sensitive to strategies developed by participants. Our finding showed that while participants’ performance in a metaphonological task, which is known to be strategy prone, was affected by their orthographic knowledge regardless of the childhood diagnosis of dyslexia or of their actual reading-related skills, this latter factor significantly modulated the orthographic influence found in a more natural speech recognition task. The finding supports the claim that while any individuals who know a reading code are able to resort to their orthographic knowledge when they process speech, a more profound modification of the speech processing system by the orthographic code takes place only in readers who have reached a certain level of reading expertise.     

演讲语篇中说话者的元语用意识与元语用选择

根据Verschueren提出的语言顺应理论, 选用美国HACC大学的美籍华裔心理学教授高永明的演讲为语料具体地分析演讲者在演讲语篇中所表现出的元语用意识与元语用选择.本文认为演讲者的元语用意识对于表达意图,交显主题,使演讲富有感召力和说服力发挥着重要的作用.     

英语演讲能力的渐进式提升——一项基于大学英语口语教学的行动研究

通过对合作演讲与个人演讲的对比研究发现,演讲者在合作演讲时表现得更为自然和自信;展现出更好的语言运用能力,即语言的表达更准确、流利,词汇的运用更丰富;同时观众的参与程度也更高。研究结果表明,合作交流的口语训练模式能够有效地缓解演讲者的焦虑感,可运用于大学英语口语教学。     

浅析言语交际艺术

现代人的交流方式越来越多,但是最原始的言语交流还是最为普遍的。它在社会交际中处于一个非常重要的位置,不仅是在我们日常的生活中需要应用到,而且在一些重要的场合比首先言语交际有两个原则即合作原则和礼貌原则。而在言语方面是要做到言语的真诚,言语的得体以及言语的委婉。而且,我们也需要在言语交际的情况之下注意即兴交际,言语拒绝以及跨文化交际的智慧和艺术。     

探析乔布斯演说辞中的语篇衔接

运用系统功能语法框架下的衔接理论,分析苹果公司前总裁乔布斯2005年在斯坦福大学一次毕业典礼上的演说辞中语法衔接和词汇衔接两种衔接手段的巧妙运用。通过对乔布斯演说辞的语篇衔接分析,探讨了衔接在增强语篇逻辑性,增添语义感染力等方面的作用。加深理解衔接手段在演说辞中的运用,有助于演讲者有效地谋篇布局,精准地传递演讲信息,增添演讲的文字感染力;同时也能加深读者和听者对演讲内容的领悟,正确领会演讲主题精华。     

基于谱减的双元指向传声器阵列语音增强

设计了一种结构简单的用于语音增强的双元指向性传声器阵列,利用阵列中不同方位阵元对目标信号和干扰信号的增益不同的特点,有效估计噪声信号的功率谱,再利用传统谱减算法的思想,实现语音增强。实验结果表明提出的算法是有效的,与经典的谱减算法相比具有更佳的语音增强效果。     

Engaging ADHD students in tasks with hand gestures: a pedagogical possibility for teachers

This study examines the effects of teachers' speech and hand gestures on the task performances of students with Attention‐Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Forty‐five 7½‐year‐old students clinically diagnosed with ADHD participated in the study. The students were asked to solve three sets of puzzles. The teachers supported the students in the tasks by using three different scaffolding modalities: speech‐only, gesture‐only and speech in conjunction with gestures. The results indicate that when the teachers used the scaffolding that contained gesture components (either speech scaffolding in conjunction with gesture scaffolding or gesture‐only scaffolding), the ADHD students were more responsive, focused longer on the tasks and were more successful in completing the tasks. Moreover, teachers' representational and deictic gestures were found to be the most effective gestures in scaffolding. This study suggests that when teachers' hand gestures are used together with speech, they are a powerful pedagogical means to engage ADHD children in tasks.     

Intonation and communicative intent in mothers' speech to infants: is the melody the message?

This study explores the power of intonation to convey meaningful information about the communicative intent of the speaker in speech addressed to preverbal infants and in speech addressed to adults. Natural samples of infant- and adult-directed speech were recorded from 5 mothers of 12-month-old infants, in 5 standardized interactional contexts: Attention-bid, Approval, Prohibition, Comfort, and Game/Telephone. 25 infant-directed and 25 adult-directed vocalizations were electronically filtered to eliminate linguistic content. The content-filtered speech stimuli were presented to 80 adult subjects: 40 experienced parents and 40 students inexperienced with infants. The subjects' task was to identify the communicative intent of the speaker using only prosodic information, given a 5-alternative forced choice. Listeners were able to use intonation to identify the speaker's intent with significantly higher accuracy in infant-directed speech than in adult-directed speech. These findings suggest that the prosodic patterns of speech to infants are more informative than those of adult-adult speech, and may provide the infant with reliable cues to the communicative intent of the speaker. The interpretation of these results proposed here is that the relation of prosodic form to communicative function is made uniquely salient in the melodies of mothers' speech, and that these characteristic prosodic patterns are potentially meaningful to the preverbal infant.     

谈高职英语专业学生英语演讲能力的培养

社会经济发展越来越要求高职英语专业学生拥有良好的英语演讲能力。培养高职英语专业学生的英语演讲能力,应充分利用课堂教学阵地和校园文化平台,从提高英语语言水平、强化演讲心理素质、增强创新思辨能力三个方面着手。     

汉语二语语音韵律的听辨实验与教学研究

语音是语言学习的重点也是难点.海外的汉语语音教学,缺少现实的语言环境,学生们在规则指引下比较容易习得单字调,但是一旦进入语流,仍然普遍存在洋腔洋调的现象,这是教学中没有重视连续语流的韵律结构造成的.多数学者认为,在构成语音韵律的音长、音高、音强三要素中,音高是决定汉语语音自然度的主要因素.然而,我们通过对德国学生汉语发音的听辨实验发现,音长对于汉语语音的自然度同样重要,音长偏误也是产生洋腔洋调的主要原因之一.因此,对外汉语教学在训练单字调的同时,更要重视训练多音节词的音高与音长模式.本文结合第一作者在澳大利亚的对外汉语教学实践,提出了一些行之有效的语音教学方法.     

Kindergarten Teachers as Models for Children’s Speech

A comparative analysis of kindergarten teachers’ speech with each other and with their students in the classroom demonstrated significant differences on several measures of speech complexity. It was found that adult speech to children used shorter sentences, more simple sentences, and fragments, and fewer compound, complex, compound-complex, and elaborated sentences than adult-to-adult (A-A) speech. On vocabulary measures adult-to-child (A-C) speech showed a lower type-token ratio score and larger percentage of usage of words found in the first thousand most frequent words in the Thorndike-Lorge list. The implications of these results both for language and cognitive development are discussed.     

谈灰色言语信息的认知特征和应用

自从“灰色”概念引入语用学研究领域以来，它在言语交际中的正负作用越来越被人们关注。从认知语言学的观点出发，正确把握灰色言语信息的特征，可以更加深刻地理解灰色话语的形成机制．有意识地设置或排除它．从而让其更好地为言语交际服务。     

Common Themes and Cultural Variations in Japanese and American Mothers' Speech to Infants

This study explored both universal features and cultural variation in maternal speech. Japanese and American mothers' speech to infants at 6, 12, and 19 months was compared in a cross-sectional study of 60 dyads observed playing with toys at home. Mothers' speech in both cultures shared common characteristics, such as linguistic simplification and frequent repetition, and mothers made similar adjustments in their speech to infants of different ages. American mothers labeled objects more frequently and consistently than did Japanese mothers, while Japanese mothers used objects to engage infants in social routines more often than did American mothers. American infants had larger noun vocabularies than did Japanese infants, according to maternal report. The greater emphasis on object nouns in American mothers' speech is only partially attributable to structural differences between Japanese and English. Cultural differences in interactional style and beliefs about child rearing strongly influence the structure and content of speech to infants.