An evaluation measure (EM) guides a learner's choice of grammar when more than one is compatible with available input. EM must be universal, so children receiving comparable input acquire comparable grammars. It must favor the choices children actually make. The theoretical shift from rule-based grammars to principles-and-parameter-based grammars…

The research presented here uses theoretical constructs of formal syntax to account for performance data in agreement production. The phenomenon examined is object interference in French, i.e., incorrect agreement of the verb with the object. In the first experiment, interference is shown to occur in object relative clauses despite the absence of…

Research at the interface of bilingual development and child language disorders has increased greatly in the past decade. The purpose of this article is to highlight the theoretical and clinical implications of this research. Studies examining the similarities in linguistic characteristics between typically developing sequential bilingual children…

By analyzing different language tests currently in use for elementary school children, the article criticizes psychometric means of evaluation and ideas about language and language acquisition resulting from psychometric evaluation. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Six children were studied from the age of 6 months to 1 year and 6 months to chart their developing comprehension vocabularies from the first to the 100th word. Observational data were used in the first instance to identify newly comprehended words and then controlled testing was carried out for each word to confirm and expand the observational…

Analysis of data from studies investigating the effectiveness of a parent report form for assessing children's early language development showed that the vocabulary checklist had substantial validity, and that it helped parents to provide a valuable overall evaluation of their children's language at 20 months. (Author/CB)

Intended for elementary school language arts teachers, this paper outlines some recent work in the area of cognitive functioning and shows how this highlights the necessity for great care in fostering a child's language competence at two different stages: very early childhood and early to middle primary school. Following an introduction, the paper…

Reports on a two-part study of second-grade African American students' uses of various forms of the /-s/ suffix, replicating J. Torrey's 1972 study on the correlation of language and educational achievement. Findings suggest the need to reflect diversity and flexibility in design and implementation of assessment and instruction materials and the…

This paper discusses how the vision of the child as a member of a community has been reflected in and has helped shape recent research in language arts education in early childhood. The paper discusses how researchers in language arts education have focused on (1) a range of genres (socially defined language events), including how children use…