Presents a variety of social contexts for verbal interaction between adult and child and between children. Discusses the variations in interaction caused by different contexts, as well as features that are consistent across contexts. (HTH)

This study traces the syntactic interference of the dialect of 176 black children (grades 1-6) living in south-central Los Angeles when they attempt to speak standard English in the school and correlates the amount of interference with certain socioeconomic variables. Syntactical interference items investigated include verb agreement, tense,…

This article describes a study attempting to correlate language style in elementary school children with sociocultural factors. (Text is in French.) (CDSH/CLK)

The development of linguistic politeness in 7- and 9-year-old Italian children was examined. A total of 80 subjects, 40 males and 40 females, produced requests according to different contexts which were graphically presented. Factors considered for such contexts were: sex of the speaker; sex of the addressee; status of the addressee, either peer…

Surveys recent research in language acquisition, emphasizing the views of M. A. K. Halliday. (RL)

Equally divided by sex, grade level, and socioeconomic status, 360 subjects were used in two major experiments. Experiment 1 (Sentence Recall) attempted to answer three questions: (1) What are some of the developmental differences between standard and nonstandard speech? (2) To what extent are these differences sex and social class bound? (3) To…

This observational study examined code switching, the alternation of language or dialects to convey social meaning, in 6-year-old Spanish-English bilinguals. Specifically, the study attempted to determine which of the five variables were associated with code switches: physical setting; type of activity; characteristics of the addressee (age,…

An ethnographic study was made of a student-led speech event in an ethnically mixed combined first- and second-grade classroom. In an activity called "Sharing Time," general rules governed appropriate ways of behaving, but no teacher rules governed ways of speaking, topic, or amount of time at talk. Collected over a 5-month period, data…

In addition to the communicative end served by language learning, there is another objective: the discovery, by the student, of the system and the workings of his native language. The values of this objective include: (1) formative value: the possibility of achieving a better understanding of the fundamental and uniquely human phenomenon which is…

Bernstein's theory of the relationships among social class, language "codes," family/school social structures, and school success is discussed, as is Labov's rejection of the "verbal deficit" concept. A relevant experiment is described. (Available in microfiche from: Carfax Publishing Company, Haddon House,…

This study of code switching among Puerto Rican children attending a New York City public school focuses primarily upon the correlation between interaction rules, as perceived by the participants, and code switching. Code switching strategies of a seven-year-old boy, an eight-year-old girl, and a 10-year-old girl in the bilingual third grade class…

In a study of the language behavior of "Head Start" preschool children, their parents, and their teachers, researchers taped and analyzed the phonology, grammar, and vocabulary of these three groups and then interviewed the teachers to determine their concepts of the children's and parent's language difficulties. Teachers recognized such problems…

This paper describes the past assumptions about the mismatch of child language and school language, noting the distance principle, the characteristics of language interference and the various treatments that have been hypothesized. Past research involving language mismatch and reading is reviewed, and it is noted that even though the best evidence…