Asserts that basic writers must learn to consciously manage written patterns to become better writers. Reviews six studies focusing on lexical and syntactic differences between written and spoken English, and suggests focal points for teaching writing patterns to basic writers. Examines two case studies which demonstrate writing pattern…

This descriptive study analyzed the emergence of the imperfect in the written production of 30 beginning learners of Spanish. The analysis focused on the use of the imperfect and the morphological marking of state verbs. The results follow the patterns predicted by the aspect hypothesis (Andersen and Shirai, 1994), and support some refinements of…

Reviewed are research and literature related to language development in culturally different children, and reported are results from a study of the written language of 120 fifth grade students randomly selected from four schools that varied in racial populations. It is explained that Ss came from schools which were 96% Black, 62% Black, 30% Black,…

This paper reports on a study in which the speech and the writing of college freshmen were compared. Spoken samples were gathered from classroom discussion; written samples were taken from pieces written on the discussion material in a later class session. Spoken and written samples from an "A" student, a "B+" student, a "B" student, and a "C"…

A study explored the relationship between oral and written patterns produced by a group of black college freshmen enrolled in remedial writing classes. Forty students were asked to produce, in formal language style, both oral and written summaries of a reading selection. The data were analyzed to determine (1) the extent to which patterns,…

AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA, TEACHERS USE INSTRUCTION IN LANGUAGE AS THE BASIS FOR INSTRUCTION IN COMPOSITION AND LITERATURE. FOLLOWING THE PRINCIPLES OF FRANCIS CHRISTENSEN, THE TEACHERS CONCENTRATE FIRST ON THE WRITING OF SENTENCES, THEN ON WRITING PARAGRAPHS. THE FINAL WRITING AND STUDY OF WHOLE THEMES ILLUSTRATE THAT THE DEVICES WHICH CONTROL…

Seven objective measures of language production--number of words, T-units, subordinate clauses, clauses of all types, words per clause, words per T-unit, and clauses per T-unit--were applied to 269 compositions written by seventh, ninth, and 11th graders to test assumptions about the relationships between quality of writing and students' age and…

A delineation of the differences between speaking and writing should clarify the functions and possible future of prose. Speech has a speaker to provide language with inflectional stress and a visible audience to respond immediately to that language. On the other hand, prose ("an art of written language")--which is separated in time from an…

A corpus-based approach is used to describe types of spelling errors, concluding that there are a variety of sources for the differences in the sound system of English and the first language of the students in the study. The teaching of spelling and the inclusion of a contrastive analysis approach in English courses are advocated. (20 references)…

Samples of written language were collected from 140 congenitally deaf children at grade levels 3, 5, 7, and 9. The samples were then subjected to error, quantitative, and transformational analysis. Findings suggested a relationship between the order in which the deaf child acquires the rules of his language and the ordering of rules in a…

Two articles on sentence construction and eight on the paragraph comprise this publication. Francis Christensen contributes four articles on (1) the use of loose, cumulative sentences, (2) sentence openers, with illustrations from Hemingway, (3) a generative rhetoric for the paragraph, and (4) the formation of principles of paragraph composition…

Prepared as part of a series applying recent research in oral and written communication instruction to classroom practice, this booklet focuses on how children and young adults make meaning in speech and writing and on ways teachers can encourage their language development. Following a brief introduction, the first major section of the booklet…

Designed primarily for the middle-level literacy worker, this monograph is intended for use as a training manual in preparing literacy teachers. The book is a general introduction to linguistics that discusses the following topics: defining the scope of linguistics, choosing the language for literacy, developing a written language, producing…

When the English teacher understands his "place" as being an "office" that he holds in relation to his students and the lives they live with their language, he will abandon the abstract and often irrelevant "domains" of English and avoid repeating in the classroom what culture has already done for the students. As he intervenes in their education,…