Voluntary control of involuntary utterances is an approach to improving verbal output in people with Voluntary control of involuntary utterances is an approach to improving verbal output in people with severe nonfluent aphasia whose speech typically is limited to the stereotypic production of a few real words. Oral reading of participant-produced utterances forms the basis of VCIU, and the sequence of tasks moves from reading aloud to confrontation naming to conversa- tional use of the words or phrases. Thus, VCIU shifts the participant from being able to produce only automatic, nonpropositional speech to being able to perform speech acts that are more and more voluntary and/or propositional, with the outcome being the ability to intentionally use spoken language for everyday communication. severe nonfluent aphasia whose speech typically is limited to the stereotypic production of a few real words. Oral reading of participant-produced utterances forms the basis of VCIU, and the sequence of tasks moves from reading aloud to confrontation naming to conversa- tional use of the words or phrases. Thus, VCIU shifts the participant from being able to produce only automatic, nonpropositional speech to being able to perform speech acts that are more and more voluntary and/or propositional, with the outcome being the ability to intentionally use spoken language for everyday communication.