English titles of medical research articles (RAs) are of great importance, the quality of which can, to a certain degree, affect impact factors of the articles, because many readers will make a decision as to whether to read on after reading titles. However, the special genre has not been extensively studied to date. This paper is designed to…

Gives an elementary description of German syntax which is coherent and provides students with finite, countable categories: (1) the predicate, (2) its nominal complements, and (3) modifiers. Analyzes each category and gives examples with teaching suggestions. (EKN)

This study investigates if negotiation can affect syntacticization in the learning of second language (L2) syntax. Evidence from a number of studies has suggested that linguistic modification occurs during negotiation, but no research has examined if such modifications assist the learning of syntax in a second language. This study examined to what…

Ten language-impaired children, aged 4-6, were found to exhibit more pronounced syntactic deficits than 10 normal children matched by mean length of utterance. Language samples were analyzed with respect to: grammatical marker need index; grammatical marker error index; and grammatical marker errors for nouns, verbs, bound, and unbound forms.…

Sixty-two quantitative, lexical, and syntactic features in a corpus of 160 English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) texts were identified and counted, producing 28 text variables that were compared with ESL proficiency levels of the writers. Results suggest pedagogical implications for ESL composition instructors. (Contains 12 references.) (LB)

Describes a study designed to determine the differential effects of text with and without logical linguistics connectives (e.g., because, since, as a result) on developmental college readers' comprehension. Results strongly suggest that text with explicit connectives facilitates readers' ability to make inferences. Discusses implications for…

A newly revised parent questionnaire for the assessment of vocabulary and syntactic development, the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory-Toddlers, was evaluated. Concurrent validity correlations demonstrated high validity for parent report in both domains and some ability to differentially assess the two. (Author/DB)

Linguistic performance of 7 children (mean age=68 months) with spina bifida, hydrocephalus, and average intelligence was evaluated. Subjects dealt with the semantic-pragmatic requirements of linguistically posed problems in an age-appropriate manner. Performance declined as task demands increased but no more than performance of nondisabled…

Three young children with borderline to moderate mental retardation were taught the action-object form using milieu language intervention. Subjects learned to generatively produce action-object combinations in nonobligatory conversational situations as requests for objects/actions and as declaratives, and also began to respond correctly to probe…

In a survey, 130 English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students were asked to describe the meanings of English tenses in terms of time concepts used in ESL grammar texts. Results suggest that grammar teaching utilizing descriptions of time accepted in English-speaking communities to explain usages and meanings of English tenses can limit learner…

This study examined the relationship between 20 hearing-impaired sixth and seventh grade students' ability to write syntactically correct sentences in two formats, one structured and one unstructured. Students generated more syntactically correct sentences in the structured format with little correlation between performance on the two formats.…

A survey of native Spanish speakers from both Spain and Latin America found that the choice of predicate adjectives governing "tough" constructions in Spanish (e.g., "el libro es facil de leer") varies by individual, but some patterns did emerge that suggest "tough" constructions and "it is" constructions…

Writing samples of 295 primary school children improved in productivity, syntax, and level of abstraction from grade one through three. The writing of learning-disabled children who were matched with average reading ability primary-school children indicated no significant differences in productivity, but problems in syntax (especially morphology),…

A theoretical framework is presented for understanding difficulties in foreign language learning, based upon a linguistic coding model that hypothesizes deficits in phonological, syntactic, and semantic information processing. Incidence of linguistic coding problems in 22 college-enrolled or college-bound students who petitioned to have the…

Methods for teaching students to recognize and manipulate structures of cohesion in reading materials are discussed. Teaching students to connect text involves a strategy that combines reading and writing in student- and teacher-directed activities. An example illustrates how the strategy can be applied with specific course content, a ninth-grade…