Studied the dinner table conversations of 22 families with young children. Analyzed utterances for language-focused terms. Reported that metalinguistic uses exceeded pragmatic uses. Found that during routine social interactions, parents provide children with potentially important information about the communicative functions of language.…

Child acquisition of Mandarin was studied with four middle class families from Taipei, Taiwan. The 2-year-olds were taped at home playing with their families. Two of the children were taped for short periods (7 hours and 9 hours), while the other two children were studied biweekly for 14 months, which resulted in 71 hours of transcribed child…

Reports on an action research study to determine the possibilities of extending language development opportunities for 26 male 4 to 5-year-old students. Describes teaching methods used, including story telling, questioning, and drama. Explores issues that emerged during the study and evaluates teacher behavior. (CFR)