Development of speech fluency over a short period of time: effects of pedagogic intervention

This study investigates the effects of a short-term pedagogic intervention on the development of L2 fluency among learners studying English for Academic purposes (EAP) at a university in the UK. It also examines the interaction between the development of fluency, and complexity and accuracy. Through a pre-test, post-test design, data were collected over a period of four weeks from learners performing monologic tasks. While the Control Group (CG) focused on developing general speaking and listening skills, the Experimental Group (EG) received awareness-raising activities and fluency strategy training in addition to general speaking and listening practice i.e following the syllabus. The data, coded in terms of a range of measures of fluency, accuracy and complexity, were subjected to repeated measures MANOVA, t-tests and correlations. The results indicate that after the intervention, while some fluency gains were achieved by the CG, the EG produced statistically more fluent language demonstrating a faster speech and articulation rate, longer runs and higher phonation time ratios. The significant correlations obtained between measures of accuracy and learners’ pauses in the CG suggest that pausing opportunities may have been linked to accuracy. The findings of the study have significant implications for L2 pedagogy, highlighting the effective impact of instruction on the development of fluency.

Multi-sensory treatment for children with developmental motor speech disorders

What this paper adds? What is already known on the subject? Multi-sensory treatment approaches have been shown to impact outcome measures positively, such as accuracy of speech movement patterns and speech intelligibility in adults with motor speech disorders, as well as in children with apraxia of speech, autism and cerebral palsy. However, there has been no empirical study using multi-sensory treatment for children with speech sound disorders (SSDs) who demonstrate motor control issues in the jaw and orofacial structures (e.g. jaw sliding, jaw over extension, inadequate lip rounding/retraction and decreased integration of speech movements). What this paper adds? Findings from this study indicate that, for speech production disorders where both the planning and production of spatiotemporal parameters of movement sequences for speech are disrupted, multi-sensory treatment programmes that integrate auditory, visual and tactile–kinesthetic information improve auditory and visual accuracy of speech production. The training (practised in treatment) and test words (not practised in treatment) both demonstrated positive change in most participants, indicating generalization of target features to untrained words. It is inferred that treatment that focuses on integrating multi-sensory information and normalizing parameters of speech movements is an effective method for treating children with SSDs who demonstrate speech motor control issues.

The role of Planning Aid England in supporting communities’ engagement in planning

In considering the position of community engagement within planning in a time of neo-liberalism and a context of ‘neo-communitarian localism’ (cf. Jessop, 2002; DeFilippis, 2004), this paper reviews the role and relevance of Planning Aid in terms of its performance and aspirations in guiding and transforming planning practice (Friedmann, 1973; 1987; 2011) since its inception in 1973. In doing this we reflect on the critiques of Planning Aid performance provided by Allmendinger (2004) and bring the account up-to-date following on from past considerations (e.g. Bidwell and Edgar, 1982; Thomas, 1992; Brownill and Carpenter, 2007a,b; Carpenter and Brownill, 2008) and prompted by the 35 years since the University of Reading produced the first published work reviewing Planning Aid (Curtis and Edwards, 1980). Our paper is timely given renewed attacks on planning, the implementation of a form of localism and reductions in funding for planning in a time of austerity. Our view is that the need for forms of ‘neo-advocacy’ planning and community development are perhaps even more necessary now, given the continuing under-representation of lower income groups, minority groups and to allow for the expression of alternative planning futures. Thus further consideration of how to ensure that Planning Aid functions are sustained and understood requires the attention of policymakers and the planning profession more widely.