This article describes the lexical and syntactic development of written narratives in 24 deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students aged between 8 and 18 and takes into account how their varying linguistic backgrounds may predict their written performance. All participants use spoken Swedish, but the study also considers their proficiency in Swedish…

We investigate the development of text reconstruction abilities in Hebrew-speaking children, with a particular focus on verbal passive constructions. The acquisition of verbal passives in Hebrew is a late developmental milestone, closely tied to the expression of event semantics. The current study explores how narrative and informative text genres…

Deaf individuals usually face more challenges in reading and writing, because they are often deprived of adequate spoken input from their infancy. Research on the language features of deaf individuals' writing is abundant. However, their language structures have as yet been unexplored. In order to address this subject, this article uses the…

Many people from Turkey emigrated to European countries as a result of the bilateral agreements signed between Turkey and related countries after the 1950s. The temporary travels to these countries left their place to permanent settlements, and the Turkish children living there were faced with the danger of alienation from their mother tongue and…

"The Oxford Handbook of Deaf Studies in Literacy" brings together state-of-the-art research on literacy learning among deaf and hard of hearing learners (DHH). With contributions from experts in the field, this volume covers topics such as the importance of language and cognition, phonological or orthographic awareness, morphosyntactic…

The acquisition of the aspectual difference between the preterit and imperfect in the past tense and the acquisition of the contrast between subjunctive and indicative mood are classic problem areas in second language (L2) acquisition of Spanish by English-speaking learners (Collentine, 1995, 1998, 2003; Salaberry, 1999; Slabakova & Montrul, 2002;…

Semantic discourse features of written narratives of 49 hearing impaired children (10-15 years old) were examined in an analysis of the relationship between form and meaning in the writing of both hearing and hearing impaired Ss. Syntactic and semantic written language growth appear to be qualitatively and quantitatively different in the groups.…

This document reviews some of the indices of language development which have been constructed since the Anderson study of 1937. In addition to the findings of Anderson, the T-unit proposed by Hunt (1965), the measure of T-unit length and mean number of sentence-combining transformations per T-unit developed by O'Donnell, Griffin, and Norris…

Proposes a model of syntax in which marked structures are conceived as the realization of modes of control that regulate the informational flow of the text at points of threatened discontinuity. Describes two of these modes, found in children's writing, which are concerned with relations of logic and focus. (Author/SED)

Reports on several syntactic studies and suggests that switches by mode in writing strategy may be developmentally beneficial. (DD)

Reports on a study that examined the effect of intended audience and mode of discourse on the syntactic complexity of compositions written by sixth- and tenth-graders, and that attempted to determine whether there were increases in syntactic complexity from grade 6 to grade 10 for each audience and in each mode. (DD)

The written compositions of 11-year-olds in Great Britain's National Child Development Study were analyzed using the T-unit length as a measure of syntactic maturity and composition length as a measure of productivity. Results are discussed in relation to cognitive and linguistic development. (Author/RM)

A review of the literature reveals that increased syntactic maturity is developmental growth properly associated with elementary and junior high school students and that measuring this maturity will not prove that an individual writer is skilled or unskilled. Improved style, unlike increased syntactic maturity, is not quantifiable growth, though…

Patterns and possibilities of free modifiers in written composition were studied. One purpose of the investigation was to help students communicate more effectively in writing. A more specific purpose was to determine if complicated syntactic elements used as free modifiers could be lifted from the complex subject of grammar and be presented as…