Conversational Speech Behaviors

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses conversational speech behaviors. The prevalent mode of articulation by both first-language learners and by adult users of a language is conversational speech. The discoveries of sharp contrasts between naturally occurring speech and single-word articulations elicited in imitative tasks, picture-naming tests, and so forth probably come as no surprise to anyone. Virtually all tests of articulation demand imitative or picture-naming sorts of speech. The rationale for the use of such instruments is becoming more and more suspect now that evidence from studies of conversational speech is available in the literature. It is increasingly obvious that these sorts of diagnostic and therapeutic points of view should be abandoned for procedures that reflect more directly the kind of speech actually produced by the individual in his everyday environments. It is to the construction of these individualized programs for treatment that future work in conversational speech analysis should be directed.