Using a miniature linguistic system with five morphological rules and a 98-word lexicon, this experiment determined that explicit-deductive learning was more effective than implicit-inductive learning for the acquisition of categorical rules by 61 college student subjects. (87 references) (MDM)

Examined the effects of daily grammar reviews and correction feedback on student performance in a college-level Spanish culture and conversation course. Results found that although the plus-grammar group significantly outperformed the nongrammar group on grammar-focused instruments, both groups performed equally well on an essay. (47 references)…

Describes syntactic variation in West African English with examples from West African English literature and identifies and describes subjectless sentences, deletion of the -ly morpheme in manner adjuncts, omission of function words, reduplication, tag questions, substitution of prepositions in idiomatic usage, and focus constructions. (53…

Compares the effectiveness of five grammar/style analysis software packages in analyzing business students' writing. States that the software exhibited differences in correctly identifying mechanical and style errors, avoiding misleading error messages, and providing remedial advice. Warns that no similar empirical tests have been done previously.…

Spontaneous speech samples from 10 Swedish children were analyzed grammatically. The five subjects (age five) with specific language impairment (SLI) differed from controls in their more restricted usage of word order patterns and number of grammatical errors. Their speech also showed frequent omissions of grammatical morphemes. Results suggest…

This paper examines the role of hypotheses in several introductory science texts, including the various elements normally associated with hypotheses, such as: assumptions, generalization, and prediction; observation and experiment; and induction and probability. It discusses the major types of hypotheses: theoretical, statistical, and heuristic.…

When it comes to explaining English verbs' patterns of regular and irregular generalization, single-network theories have difficulty with the former, rule-only theories with the latter process. Linguistic and psycholinguistic evidence, based on observation during experiments and simulations in morphological pattern generation, independently call…

An examination of the planned and unplanned production of 24 nonnative-speaking teaching assistants indicates that there is a greater difference between the 2 conditions in the degree of discourse marking than in grammatical accuracy. Findings suggest that explicit marking is a crucial element in the comprehensibility of nonnative-speaker…

Examines current educational thinking about the development of children's writing, story structure and its functional components, and economy in writing. Strategies that teachers and teacher librarians can use to improve students' work are suggested, and an annotated bibliography of seven childrens' stories is provided. (eight references) (EA)

Using video-recorded class activities, analyzes the teaching method used in a French grammar lesson given in Northern France to a class of 25 students of 6-7 years old. The "catechistic teaching style" employed involves an interactive question-and-answer format. Enumerates advantages and disadvantages of this style. (KS)

Examines four kinds of language learning-related behaviors (LLRBs) in the home conversations of 6 English children studied for 6 months from age 2.6 years. The role of LLRBs in frequency and range and in the frequency of grammatical productions during spontaneous revisions is addressed. (44 references) (GLR)

Offers sufficient responses to 60 of the most frequently made errors in German grammar, plus 13 punctuation rules, and proposes that the instructor hand out this list to the students and henceforth "tag" language errors by the corresponding number, then have the student correct them and resubmit the assignment for a better grade. (GLR)

It is shown that many students' errors in second-language learning are based on conclusions that they are drawing from faulty and incomplete information in textbooks, whereas other "errors" are the result of normal language learning strategies and occur in systematic patterns. (LB)

The development of the expression of grammatical categories in German in Turkish and German children attending a bilingual day care center in a multilingual speech community in Berlin is examined. Results indicate no evidence that pragmatic categories precede syntactic ones, but some evidence shows that grammatical markers develop first as…

Local inversion in English and Chichewa shows remarkable similarities that can be explained by hypothesizing the same underlying argument structures and principles for mapping argument structure roles into syntactic functions. However, profound typological differences between the two languages defy analysis within a widely assumed architecture of…