Shin and Mill (2021) propose four steps children go through when learning "variable form use." Although I applaud Shin and Miller's focus on morphosyntactic variation, their accrual of evidence is post hoc and selective. Fortunately, Shin and Miller recognize this and encourage tests of their ideas. In support of their work, I share data…

Purpose: Spoken language sample analysis (LSA) is widely considered to be a critical component of assessment for child language disorders. It is our best window into a preschool child's everyday expressive communicative skills. However, historically, the process can be cumbersome, and reference values against which LSA findings can be…

Linguists use the concept of "diglossia" to describe any sociolinguistic situation where a low-prestige dialect coexists with a high-prestige one and these dialects are used in different social spheres. Recent observations on Reunion Island have challenged this view because people mix French and Creole extensively in the same utterance…

In order for schools to develop systematic and realistic strategies for extending children's linguistic repertoires, it is imperative that teachers and allied professionals have access to scientifically informed accounts of the variable but structured nature of the everyday speech used by children. Because there is insufficient information…

This annotated bibliography provides information concerning audiovisual aids available for use in teaching and teacher training in language variation. A variety of topics are covered, including regional dialect studies, language change, language acquisition, social dialects, and language in education. Each entry includes the name of the product,…

The following articles are included in this anthology on Chicano speech: (1) "Mexican Spanish," D.N. Cardenas; (2) "The Archaic and the Modern in the Spanish of New Mexico," J. Ornstein; (3) "Problemas Lexicograficos del Espanol del Sudoeste," A.M. Espinosa, Jr.; (4) "Associative Interference in New Mexican Spanish," J.B. Rael; (5) "Some Aspects…

This research report deals with the transformations of stimulus sentences that primary grade speakers of Hawaii Creole English (HCE) made when they were asked to repeat sentences said to them in Standard English. The test used was the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) Standard English Repetition Test (SERT) which was administered to the 21…

Results of a study are discussed which involved first grade black children who produced multiple instances of linguistic variables. The suggestion is made that the standard English "is" and "has" in certain constructions have been reanalyzed as nominal inflections. (RM)

This article reviews the situation of the instruction of French in Quebec, in terms of the role of French and attitudes toward standard and non-standard varieties of French, the acquisition of French by native French speakers. Bidialectal instruction is suggested as one way of dealing with non-standard varieties. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

The paper examines interpretive aspects of English non-uniformity among fifth and sixth grade Native Americans at Laguna Elementary School, Laguna, New Mexico. Speaker assessments of instances of uninflected "be" are ordered to form an implicational scale. The variability in the students' assessment pattern is compared to previous inter-ethnic…

Linguists and psychologists have disagreed concerning the development and nature of children's social perceptions of others on the basis of speech differences. The present study sought to determine in what ways 8- and 9-year olds from different socioeconomic backgrounds might react to dialect differences. Ninety-two randomly selected 8- and…

This volume is a collection of articles which are concerned with the field of applied linguistics. Part One, "Language and Linguistics," includes two articles: "Language" and "The Relevance of Linguistics." Part Two, "Linguistics and Spelling," consists of one article, "Sounds and Spellings; Spellings and Sounds." Part Three, "Linguistics and…

The frequencies and co-occurrence distributions of some of the prosodic features in the speech of children are discussed. The emphasis is on the determination of systems and structure of non-segmental lectal variability in the children's speech without primary reference to function. The primary data consisted of selected episodes of connected…

It is essential that language arts students in teacher education programs learn more than just facts about language, such as grammar, dialect, and so on. Future teachers must be taught how language, especially the child's language, affects the teacher, the child, and the child's achievement in school. These prospective teachers should learn what…

Selected phonological, morphological, and syntactic evidence from two hours of tape recordings of conversations of a four-year-old Native American New Mexican was examined to determine its value in assessing the child's bidialectalism. (Author/SW)