Speech, language, and composition professionals should take a leadership role in working toward a national public policy on language. The declining rates of literacy and educational achievement in AfroAmerican communities serve as evidence that such a policy is needed. However, the policy would govern language teaching and language use throughout…

The document contains summaries of papers and ensuing discussions presented at a 1985 symposium on exceptional American Indian children and youth. The opening address (by Beverly Valley, a parent and school board member) stresses the role of parents and the need for less culturally biased testing. Two papers deal with parent and family…

This study investigated the effectiveness of a natural environment language training procedure that combined the mand-model procedure and the time delay procedure for the acquisition of noun signs and for the spontaneous use of the signs acquired. One autistic boy, aged 5 years, 4 months with no verbal imitation skills and few movement imitation…

A Papago grammar, intented to help Papago and other junior high, high school and college students learn and appreciate the language and give linguists an overview of the language, contains background information on the language and the book, two grammar units, a unit of five conversations in Papago, and a section of supplementary material. Text…

A study examined the match between the vocabularies of children of different ethnic and socioeconomic status groups and the school vocabulary revealed by readability formulas and word lists. The Spache 1040 and the Dale 769 readability formula word lists were used as indicators of school vocabulary in the early primary grades, and a corpus of talk…

The report concludes that education of persons who are deaf in the United States is characterized by inappropriate priorities and inadequate resources. Among deficiencies identified are the failure to implement available preventive and early identification procedures, monitor educational programs, and use tools of advancing technology. Specific…

The middle school and junior high school years are extremely important ones in the language, cognitive, and personal development of students. During this time, students should begin using longer sentences with more sophisticated embeddings and showing greater awareness of audience and organization in writing, speaking, listening, and reading. At…

Intended for parents of deaf blind preschoolers, the document contains a correspondence learning program which offers guidelines on stimulating the child's development. An introductory section gives preliminary instructions, an introduction to sign language, and a list of resources for deaf blind children. Twelve lessons follow with information…

Written in Spanish, the document contains a correspondence learning program for parents of deaf blind preschoolers. An introductory section gives preliminary instructions, an introduction to sign language, and a list of resources for deaf blind children. Twelve lessons follow with information on: the parent's role in teaching the child, visual…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 17 titles deal with the following topics: first- and second-language oral reading of Mexican-American children; language development of Chicano and Anglo kindergarten children; teachers' perceptions of black dialect; elements of…

Several studies have begun to investigate the claim that children can make most phonological discriminations when they begin to speak. This paper investigates how well children aged 2;3 to 2;11 can discriminate between pairs of minimally different real words, and it shows that the results are affected by how well the children know the words. It is…

This article explores the hypothesis that members of a minority group whose language is other than English are fossilizing their second language patterns in an effort to retain stronger ties with their native culture. An investigation is conducted in which eight undergraduate students of the University of Texas at San Antonio have served as…

This paper proposes a broad outline of a variable model of language development and explores several particulars of such a model in the language behavior of four two-year-old children. The process by which information about language is progressively transformed and integrated rather than merely being added together can be seen in the shifting…

THE STUDY CONCERNED TRACING THE DEVELOPMENT OF LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY IN THE SAME GROUP OF SUBJECTS FROM KINDERGARTEN THROUGH GRADE 9. THE RESEARCH WAS BASED ON A STUDY OF THE PATTERNS AND BEHAVIOR OF THE SUBJECTS' SPEECH AND WRITING AND THEIR COMPETENCE IN READING AND LISTENING. SUCH INFORMATION IS USEFUL IN CURRICULUM PLANNING AND IN DEVELOPING…

Migrant children experience special physical, mental, and emotional problems that can adversely affect academic success; and, because the school is frequently the only public agency directly in contact with migrant students and their families, it is in a unique position to alleviate those problems and to improve conditions. Migrant students need…