LINGUIST List 6.1384

Tue Oct 10 1995

Qs: Catalan Society, Syllable Frequency,Accent Improvement,SLA

Editor for this issue: Ljuba Veselinova <lveselinemunix.emich.edu>

Directory

1. Maria F Cubas-mora, question
2. Tom Gyllenspetz, Syllable frequency?
3. David Sperling, Pronunciation suggestions?
4. Terry, FWD: SLA Problem: Russian Speaker

	Hello, does anybody have the address of the North American
Catalan Society? I would very much appreciaty if somebody could give me
this information.
	Thanks,
	M.F. Cubas

linguist,

I am looking for a list of syllables in the English language and their
 frequency.
Would you know where to find one or who to ask?

Thanks,

Tom

I need some help (my sincere apologies if this is a FAQ). I will soon be
teaching a course on "accent improvement" to ESL students living in Los
Angeles and am looking for suggestions on effective material. A big
thanks in advance!

Dave Sperling

I have just been speaking to a friend of mine who has an adopted daughter
from the former Soviet Union. She lived in a Russian orphanage until she
was 10 when she moved to the United States. She has been here for almost
two and a half years. During her time here she has been totally immersed in
English. Her adoptive parents speak no Russian and she had no contact with
any Russian speakers until six months ago when her brother was adopted by
the same family.

This child's English is totally fractured. After two years she has not
mastered yes/no question formation, uses did consistenly as a past tense
particle (I did go yesterday.) and has severe pronunciation problems. I am
no expert in 2nd language acquisition but it seems to me her English should
be much better than it is. She is not shy. She chatters constantly. For
some reason, she just doesn't seem to notice the difference between her
speech and everyone else's.

In addition, her mother says that she cannot read in any language. She has
almost lost her Russian and it seems likely that she will end up not being
a competent native speaker of any language. Her mother thinks that she has
a learning disability that is hindering her language development.

Has anyone ever heard of a case like this? Where can we go for information?
YOu can reply to me personally or to the list if you think it is of enough
general interest.

Cheryl Pavlik
capavliksover.net