Three studies of the development of gender competence in elementary and intermediate level learners of French as a second language are reported. The findings support an emerging rule-governed process of gender assignment related to the learner's development of skill with the language's underlying phonological system. (11 references) (MSE)

Discusses the "sore-finger" form of multiple choice test items. "Sore finger" items employ authentic texts making use of the rules of text grammar, achieve high discrimination levels, and show a high validity for several subtests, especially style tests. The use of sore finger items in German nationwide English and German tests…

The role that talk plays in socialization, social development, and possibly cognitive development is described. Research on talk is categorized as follows: studies that consider talk as a tool for investigation; studies that focus on development of grammar or language acquisition; and studies that fall between those extremes. (LB)

Takes readers to a second grade classroom to see how children's meanings of a story grow as they engage in a variety of related activities. Discusses how the meaning of a story grows to become multifaceted as children use the story for different personal and social purposes in the classroom. (MG)

A study investigated the effectiveness of teaching French cleft constructions (e.g., "qui est-ce qui...) by three methods: in a contextual presentation; traditionally; and in a presentation influenced by syntactic theory and explaining the internal structure of the phrases. Results suggest formal grammar instruction should focus on familiar…

A small-scale survey of adult native speakers of British and North American English found that a majority of speakers of the latter prefer the simple past tense in (what the author calls) the category of "past with current relevance." (five references) (CNP)

Twenty-eight adults with Down's syndrome and 28 adults with retardation of unknown origin responded to a language elicitation test. The adults with Down's syndrome exhibited an almost universal failure in mastering individual elements of the auxiliary verb system. The nature and source of biological constraints on language learning and…

The hypothesis defended is that negative data and explicit data result in a type of knowledge that is not to be equated with linguistic competence. The specific claim is that only positive data can effect the construction of an interlanguage grammar comparable to the knowledge system characterizing the results of first-language acquisition. (60…

A survey of native Spanish speakers from both Spain and Latin America found that the choice of predicate adjectives governing "tough" constructions in Spanish (e.g., "el libro es facil de leer") varies by individual, but some patterns did emerge that suggest "tough" constructions and "it is" constructions…

The author of a new French grammar textbook focusing on the best use of language to express meaning is interviewed. Topics include theories that have influenced the grammarian, distinction between grammar for instruction and grammar for reference purposes, aspects of writing a grammar textbook, and attention given to oral language. (MSE)

A study with 80 Saudi English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) students found that EFL learners performed better on temporal clauses that occurred initially in the sentence than those that occurred finally. The EFL learners faced problems similar to those of first-language learners. (29 references) (Author/LB)

Elementary teachers can use folktales to teach story structure. After students read a folktale, they can brainstorm for story ideas, create and revise outlines and drafts, edit their stories in pairs, complete a final version, then construct and illustrate a book. A student page teaches how to plan a folktale. (SM)

In response to a paper by P. Yoder (EC 220 946) that examined relationships between maternal questions and language-disordered children's later usage of auxiliary and copula verbs, this letter argues that Yoder's results were influenced by the analytical procedures used and that a reanalysis suggests a slightly different set of relationships among…

Story grammar is a recent area of research related to an interactive conceptualization of reading. A study of 70 sixth-grade students studying English as a foreign language (EFL) suggests that direct instruction in story grammar helps students abstract a story's episodic sequence and metastructure. Sample texts are appended. (Contains 21…

This study examined use of connectors in oral narratives of 27 adult American learners of French, classified into four groups according to length of instruction and learning environment (classroom, immersion, mixed). Results show patterns of acquisition generally similar to those of children learning French as a native language and…