This dissertation draws on both qualitative and quantitative approaches to investigate the linguistic practices of teachers and children who are learning Mandarin Chinese as a Heritage Language (CHL) in two dual immersion preschools in California. CHL children have been interpreted as novice members in local speech communities who actively explore…

Although children's use of speech registers such as Baby Talk is well documented, little is known about their understanding of Foreigner Talk, a register addressed to non-native speakers. In Study 1, 4- to 8-year-old children and adults (N = 125) heard 4 registers (Foreigner Talk, Baby Talk, Peer Talk, and Teacher Talk) and predicted who would…

Because of the syntactic differences between Spanish and Quechua, Quechua-speaking children must make major word order adjustments to learn the Peruvian Spanish taught in school. This study investigates whether the order or time sequence in which these changes are adopted reflects any general constraint, or is in any way predicted by a theory of…

Examines ways in which meaning is extracted in authentic language contexts and claims that whatever level of language people use deviates from some putative ideal. Such deviant use of language is common to everyday conversation. Examines two common contexts in which authentic but deviant language is the medium of communication. (Author SED)

This report is intended to provide information regarding the bilingual child to persons in early childhood education who are involved with bilingual children. The first section discusses the nature of language. A section on linguistic diversity discusses the origins of dialects, their relative value, speech styles, and code-switching. A section on…

Examines the role of "routines" and grammatical patterns in first and second language acquisition by children and adults, specifically with regard to syntactic structures. (Author/AM)

An ongoing longitudinal study, 15 years old at the time of publication, is reported. It is a sociolinguistic, developmental study of the acquisition of two languages, Spanish and English, by a boy from birth, with data drawn from direct observation and occasional tape recordings of speech. An introductory chapter outlines the objectives and method…

Formal definitions are one example of "decontextualized" language use, in which reliance on background knowledge shared with the interlocutor is minimized, and use of conversational devices is avoided. Definitions of English nouns by 137 second- to fifth-grade children, about half of whom were non-native English speakers, were analyzed…

It is possible to communicate effectively in a second language in spite of highly deviant pronunciation and grammar as long as messages are semantically coherent and message forms are reasonably appropriate. Until now, research in second language acquisition has focused principally on the processes through which non-native speakers move towards…

This volume presents seven papers on topics about second language instruction, language research, and applied linguistics. titles include: "Grammar and Its Teaching: Challenging the Myths" (Diane Larsen-Freeman); "Cross-Cultural Writing and Rhetorical Styles: Toward a 'Socially Realistic' Contrastive Rhetoric" (Yamuna Kachru); "Mother, I'd Rather…