Offers a critical review of arguments for and against T-unit analysis in second language research. Maintains that T-unit length is a valid measure of syntactic complexity and a true index of overall development in second language acquisition. (PMJ)

Described is the development of the Test of Syntactical Abilities (TSA), an instrument for measuring deaf children's ability to comprehend and produce syntactically correct written sentences. (Author/IM)

Explores the phenomenon of post verbal alternation in English double object constructions and presents a statistical model for predicting the position of the indirect object in instances where alternation is unconstrained. The study includes analysis of a large set of written and oral American English data using a parametric multiple regression…

Written language requires prior knowledge of many foundation language skills. Students with language learning disabilities find it difficult to integrate language skills into academic writing assignments. Exceptional educators can teach foundation writing skills through certain underlying components of language, that is, phonology, morphology,…

Some 2700 Belgian students (grades five through twelve) participated in this study of the relationships between linguistic features of passages and passage readability estimated from cloze procedures. Clozed versions of each of 60 test passages were prepared and administered to students at various grade levels. Twenty-five linguistic features of…

This is the fourth and final report in a series dealing with the impact of the modes of discourse (description, narration, exposition, and argumentation) on written syntactic complexity at the elementary school level. The first three reports dealt in turn with the three grade levels involved in the study (third, fourth, and fifth grades). This…

To write well is not a singular ability; it utilizes critical thinking, creativity, and a feeling for language. An examination of a number of pieces of writing by elementary school pupils shows that some are highly imaginative while others are informative reports, simple statements of events, colorful descriptions, or various forms of poetry.…

This paper explores the meanings and distribution of the perfect in contemporary American English prose, with reference to problems encountered in teaching English as a second language. The English perfect comprises forms traditionally called present perfect tense, past perfect tense, and perfects of the infinitive, gerund and present participle.…

Recording, narrative, exposition, and argument were hypothesized to present writing tasks of increasing cognitive and verbal complexity. This was investigated by obtaining writing samples in each mode from a stratified sample of 128 Australian sixteen year olds. The cognitive-complexity hypothesis was supported by data concerning the relative…

Analyzes intermediate English-as-a-second-language learners' (N=63) written responses to high and low cognitive level questions. Results indicate that although the degree of linguistic inaccuracy remained stable, the higher order of cognition increased both the amount and the order of syntactic complexity of written English responses. (Author/CB)

Reveals that in the average number of words per T-unit, the complexity of basal reader passages generally exceeds that of children's oral language, and that none of the basal series studied exhibited a graduated increase in average number of words per T-unit among passages in the same reader. (FL)

Reviews recent research about the use of passive verbs and suggests they are useful constructions for writers of all ages. (Author/RB)

Special issue devoted to research and the teaching of French in the elementary school. (VM)