The divisions in transformational grammar into surface and deep structure give rise to the hypothesis that imitative-repetitive drills will never go beyond the surface structure, and that an explicit verbalization of underlying structures will result in better achievement and proficiency in second language learning. The Project described here,…

When Israeli four- to six-year-olds (N=120) wrote pairs of nouns sharing a syllable and sentences sharing either mainly nouns or mainly verbs, analysis indicated that the older the children, the more their invented writing reflected common linguistic elements and length of utterance. Nouns were represented in children's written productions earlier…