Present school programs place considerable reliance on the results of standardized language tests both as placement and diagnostic devices, yet the validity of these tests is open to question. Certain questions arise in light of current theory and research. To what extent are currently available measuring techniques useful for identifying the…

Spontaneous speech performance of ethnically diverse children was investigated by linguistic measures and teacher evaluations. Interview data was collected from 144 elementary school children, comprising equal white, Chicano, and black subsamples evenly divided among lower and higher grades. Speech evaluators were 60 white teachers. Analyses…

The objectives of this study were to examine a body of data collected by five graduate students at the University of Texas at San Antonio and to determine, after a careful analysis of the transcribed utterances, whether all instances of language alternations can be truly considered code-switching strategies and whether those that can be so…

This article investigates the acquisition of a variety of standard English (SE) by children whose first language is Hawaii Creole English (HCE). The hypothesis was made that, in a speech community with high prestige and low prestige codes, learning the dominant code would not adversely affect performance in the first language. The subjects, in…

A study was conducted to compare the language of preschool children from low-income homes to that of their parents, as affected by the adult participation in training sessions planned to encourage language development. The study was conducted in three preschools in the Detriot metropolitan area. A total of 96 children from ages 2 1/2 to 5…

American and Canadian research is reviewed concerning the language needs of native primary students entering English schools from homes where a language other than English is spoken, and a study is reported that contrasted the language performance of children entering school from homes where only English is spoken and from homes where a language…

This paper empirically examines one aspect of Basil Bernstein's sociolinguistic account of educational failure, a code thesis wherein a restricted code is defined as giving access only to "particularistic" meanings and an elaborated code is defined as giving access also to "universalistic" meanings. According to Bernstein,…

Communicative competence, the ability to use a language effectively in unrehearsed transactions with native speakers, must be the ultimate goal of language teaching. Drills and repetition of patterned phrases do not, in and of themselves, lead to real language use. We should begin giving students opportunities to use language in unrehearsed,…

This publication is a compilation of the papers presented at the 1974 Washington Language Testing Sumposium. The volume also includes much of the discussion that followed each paper. The participants were an international group of language testing specialists from academic institutions, research centers, and government agencies. The primary focus…

A study of two public school kindergarten classes in New York City, heterogeneously grouped according to ethnic origin and social background, revealed that the maturity and fluency of the children's language varied according to the type of classroom activity in which they were engaged. From observational recordings of teacher-class interaction, it…

This report is one of a regular series on the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical implications. Manuscripts and extended reports cover the following topics: (1) "On Learning a New Contrast," (2) "Letter Confusions and reversals of Sequence in the Beginning Reader:…

This project seeking to develop sound methodological research techniques for second-language is based on an initial pilot study which (1) identified and classifies the utterances of a child learning Spanish as a second language, and (2) determines whether there are any significant trends in the observed order of learning of kernels and transformed…

Research findings regarding speech errors made by second language learners and affective reactions to native speakers as a basis for error correction are considered. A research design is presented for investigating sensitivities to 15 types of grammatical errors typically made in speech by American learners of French. Findings of the research are…

The purpose of this study is to compare the English syntactic structures produced in spontaneous oral language and the receptive English syntactic and vocabulary skills of bilingual Spanish and Indian children and monolingual Anglo-Americans, all of whom qualify for Title I elementary schools (Grades 1-6). People in Action, the Northwestern Syntax…

The purpose of this research was to develop methods to study the effects of context on children's comprehension and production of temporal terms such as "before,""after,""next,""then," and "but first." A longitudinal study, using naturalistic and traditional laboratory methods, and three…