The purpose of this study was to test the effects of an experimental method of instruction upon the cognitive development of disadvantaged first grade children. The hypotheses formulated were: (1) there is no difference between the medians of the control and experimental groups or between the numbers of subjects in each group placing at the…

This research report examines the pronunciation that children give to synthetic words containing vowel-cluster spellings and analyzes the observed pronunciations in relation to common English words containing the same vowel clusters. The pronunciations associated with vowel-cluster spellings are among the most unpredictable letter-sound…

Three language models (Staats, Lenneberg, and Piaget) are reviewed, and implications for reading are suggested. Staats' behaviorist stance maintains that imitation, mediation, generalization, and discrimination are key concepts in language learning behavior. Critics contest the importance of these concepts and claim that behaviorists cannot fully…

Any theory of language acquisition must take into account the actual speech heard by children during the acquisition period. When 8 well-educated mothers were tape-recorded talking to their daughters, ages 16 to 30 months, it was found that their speech differed significantly from that spoken to another adult. The mothers used a more restricted…

This study of written language development and instruction of elementary school children found that realistic approaches are needed in teaching language usage, dialects, and registers. These approaches should include a nonrepetitive instructional system accounting for different linguistic abilities, a diagnostic evaluation of children's written…

Language as an identifiable cognitive behavior must be studied in relation to identity and memory, all of whose structures undergo progressive changes as the child develops. The organization of the development of the organism depends upon relatively ordered structures of growth, following foreseeable pathways or creodes. The processes occurring…

The basic scope of this document is a study of the emergence of a linguistic standard for England. It is stated that this was essentially an unconscious process, a recognition of an existing social situation, which took place during the 15th century. A differentiation is made between speech characterized as standard and that characterized as…

Discussed are several studies that have examined the effect of sex differences on learning to read. Various findings have suggested 1) sex differences in anxiety manifest themselves early in children's academic careers; 2) girls tended to perform better on readiness measures; 3) boys scored significantly higher on a criterion test administered…

The results of the administration of the Preschool Language Scale to two succeeding classes of Head Start children (N 174) in a large, heterogeneous school district are reported. The scale is an individually administered instrument divided into receptive and expressive language areas. All children were administered the Preschool Language Scale,…

This collection of studies is divided into four parts. Part one is concerned with aspects of maternal communication as it relates to regulative and instructional contexts. Part two focuses on aspects of the speech of five year olds, with Hawkins examining choices within the nominal group, Turner and Pickvance examining expressions of uncertainty…

The pleasures and benefits of talking to one's self are presented in the context of self-understanding. The types of "self-talk" noted are writing, the trying out of future conversations to one's self, and soliloquizing before groups of people. Futhermore, speculation about the relation of the right and left hemispheres of the brain and…

Investigated were aspects of language development (association, memory, comprehension, and production) in three groups (50 individuals per group) of deaf adolescents who were variously trained by the pure oral method, the combined oral-manual method, and the Rochester fingerspelling method. One hearing group was matched with the deaf in age, and…

This paper presents a linguistic discussion of play-languages--designated as ludlings by the author and tentatively defined as the result of a transformation or a series of transformations acting regularly on an ordinary language text, with the intent of altering the form, but not the content of the original message, for purposes of concealment or…

The hypothesis that disparities in children's associative responses are due to differences in verbal achievement was tested. Also tested was the assumption that for black inner-city children, conventionality in associative responding is accomplished at the expense of increasing verbal repertories and elaborating the meaning of words of varying…

An anthology of literature on elementary school language arts concepts is presented. Its purpose is to provide specific content that may help prospective and practicing teachers to recognize the role of language content in teaching. The anthology is divided into seven parts. Part One presents a general picture of the language arts curriculum that…