Learning a language is an "attitude"; particularly in the primary grades, the teacher must use the procedures and materials best suited to develop a favorable attitude, provide enjoyment, stimulate curiosity, promote acquisition of linguistic and communication skills. Skits, songs, games and audio-visual techniques are suggested. (Text is in…

An outline of a method of teaching negative expressions, use of a short home film of an event familiar to students, suggestions for use of authentic documents in the language class, and examples illustrating the use of classified ads are treated in this "A comme" section. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Interview data and psychometric test results of 93 profoundly prelingually deaf adolescents and their families were factor analyzed to determine relationships between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental variables. The first factor loaded on measures of general cognitive skill, language, speech, social class, family size, and communication.…

Examination of the phonological acquisition of a young girl whose parents spoke two Cantonese dialects indicated that she acquired neither parents' dialect, supporting the claim that children use all available input in acquiring language rather than limiting themselves to a primary language model. (Author/CB)

This study of final-consonant repetitions in the speech of a young child supports the notion that some speech disfluencies may result from parental attempts to accelerate phonological development. An analysis of 12 half-hour-long observations over a year is presented and discussed in terms of the home environment. (Author/KM)

Justifies including dinosaurs as a topic in the curriculum for young children if approached from the inquiry processes of science exploration. Suggests that this topic encourages observational, classification, and communication skills and the ability to compare, hypothesize, and derive conclusions. (AS)

Two language ability tests are discussed: the Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale (REEL), measuring language competencies from birth through 36 months and the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL), for children ages three to seven. Their efficacy in identifying language delays and in establishing criteria for effective…

Examines the verbal interactions of one teacher with young children (three to five years old) in a preschool classroom through an analysis of her questions and dialogue. Results indicated this teacher asked questions encouraging open, extended conversations, and maintained natural and child-centered conversations with children. (Author/BB)

Investigation of the perception and production of English voiceless fricatives in normally developing monolingual 3- to 5-year-olds (N=12) partially supported the hypothesis that certain sound substitutions by older children are perceptually based substitutions, typified by poor discrimination, while others are phonetic substitutions--phonemic…

Investigation of fourth-, sixth-, and eighth-graders' knowledge of derivational morphology and the relationship between that knowledge and their ability to spell derived words, found that, while there was a strong developmental trend in both the mastery of derivational morphology and the spelling of derived words, spelling performances lagged…

Reviews research and empirical evidence to refute three first language acquisition myths: (1) comprehension precedes production; (2) children acquire language in a systematic, rule-governed way; and (3) the impetus behind first language acquisition is communicative need. (Author/CB)

Examines current spelling research from the perspective of one individual kindergarten student's creativity with sounds and writing. Stresses the importance of encouraging young children to explore written language in their own way. (RWB)

Discusses the social and linguistic problems of children living in Sweden who have at least one Italian immigrant parent. (CFM)

Identifies context variables in written composition from theoretical perspectives in cognitive psychology, sociology, and anthropology. Considers how multiple views of context from across the disciplines can build toward a broader definition of writing. (JD)

Offers an organizational perspective designed to illuminate processes of symbolic development in both normal and abnormal populations. Focuses on the symbolic system of Down Syndrome children. Data support the claim that the symbolic system of these children is intact. (RWB)