Despite a long debate and the accompanying call for changes in the past few decades, grammar instruction in college English classes, according to some scholars, has remained largely "disempowering,""decontextualized," and "remedial" (Micciche, 2004, p. 718). To search for more effective and empowering grammar teaching, this study explores the use…

The domain of inquiry by literacy researchers has expanded greatly over the past generation. Literacy researchers now address out-of-school literacies, multimodal texts, literacy across the curriculum and other important issues. Research on literacy development has become even more important in the high stakes assessment environments in today's…

A study concluded that significant differences did exist in the inclusion of females when using masculine/generic as compared to neutral/generic nouns. (DD)

Indicates a strong relationship between the various aspects of language proficiency and social class and race and discusses the complex relationships among aspects of language proficiency. (RB)

Investigated the relationship between feelings of comfort and maturity of expression revealed by inner-city preschool Black children in three situations: with a familiar teacher, with the mother or principal caretaker in the home, and with a chosen peer. (DD)

Examines the process of question development in a second language. Shows that with greater English proficiency (1) there was less reliance on syntactically simple construction, (2) questions about personal information and actions and intentions questions increased, (3) requests for factual information and classification questions decreased. (SRT)

Significant correlations, especially between the black and white groups, and black and Hispanic groups, indicate that all groups show similar types of non-standard English usage and generally with the same frequency. (Author)

Analysis of adult discussions reveals a lack of fit between pedagogical grammars and actual usage. (JH)

Reviews the present status of the categories developed by the Writing Research Unit at the University of London for classifying discourse function. (HOD)

A study of the language usage of 80 middle school students revealed no significant difference between the sexes on any measure of syntactic maturity; however, boys deviated from standard usage somewhat more frequently than did girls, and boys produced more words in oral language while girls produced more words in written language. (ET)

Examines arguments in favor of the notion of dialect interference in writing; offers counterevidence and explores an alternative explanation for apparent dialect interference in writing. Concludes that pedagogies for teaching writing skills to native speakers of English that assume dialect interference are theoretically wrong, pedagogically…

Reports on a study of the oral and written English syntax of both Gaelic/English bilingual and English monolingual fourth- and ninth-grade students on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. Concludes that the use of English syntax by bilingual speakers was equal to or (in one measure) superior to that of monolingual speakers. (ET)