Children's acquisition of the mass-count distinction in English was investigated. In order to determine whether children approach the distinction as a morphosyntactic or a semantic distinction, 88 monolingual children aged 3-9 years were asked to judge the acceptability of 32 sentences containing "much" or "many" with 8 types of nominals. The…

The absolutive voice is a fact of life for Guatemalan children who speak the Mayan language K'iche' and one that enters their verbal lexicon fairly early. Data suggest that by the time the children are 3-year-olds they have encountered several instances of verbs that alternate between active and absolutive forms, which may supply the evidence…

Two theories of speech appear to parallel each other closely, though one (E. Nuttall) is concerned mainly with speech from a functional perspective, and the other (F. Williams and R. Naremore) presents a developmental hierarchy of language form and function. Nuttall suggests there are two main origins of speech: sounds of discomfort (cries,…

Two experiments investigated preschool children's use of the words "big" and "little" in three different ways (normative, perceptual, and functional) and in different contexts. The first experiment tested the sensitivity of 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds to relational standards by asking them to judge an object's size in relation to…

It is proposed that, in contrast to Chomsky's argument, it is possible to arrive at an empirically grounded definition of innate linguistic competence that guides the child in the construction of grammar, particularly when this process is viewed as developmental. This approach treats language acquisition as a process of change. It is suggested…

These workshop materials describe an approach to teaching children about dinosaurs. The lesson centers on a story written by Dr. Edith Bondi and illustrated by Shawn Turung, entitled "Just Like People." The story, appended, consists of 36 ways dinosaurs are similar to and, occasionally, different from human beings. Illustrations, too,…

Theories of the acquisition of word meaning among children are reviewed and a case study of one child is reported. Three models of how the young child associates words with underlying concepts and conventional meanings are noted. While one model proposes that children initially overextend word meanings, the other two models propose that new words…

Weekly spontaneous imitations and spontaneous productions in the speech of two language-impaired males (3-4 years old) were compared over a 10-week period until MLU (mean length of utterance) approached or exceeded 2.0 morphemes. Although imitation was extensive in both boys' output, consistency of imitation over time differed for both and was…

The paper reports on a case study of the language environments of two severely involved, non-oral cerebral palsied preschoolers. Observation of interactions, comprehension development, acquisition of productive signals and of use of supplementary communicative devices revealed deviances in language directed to severely multiply physically…

The paper reports on a two-part longitudinal study of the English language competencies of deaf students for whom total communication through manual coded English (MCE) was the primary method of instruction. In Part I of the study, the performance of three groups of deaf Ss who used MCE was compared with that of three groups of normal hearing Ss…

The paper reviews research on cerebral hemispheric functioning and considers the implications for instruction of the deaf. The nature of right and left hemisphere function and communication is addressed, as are findings on cerebral asymmetry for aspects of language processing. Studies on hemispheric specialization of hearing impaired persons…

Discusses the differences between first language learning and second language learning, examines arguments for and against an early start in second language learning and surveys recent and current practices in second language learning and teaching. (Author)

Compared 13 deaf adolescents with deaf parents and 13 deaf adolescents with hearing parents on the Test of English As a Foreign Language. Results are discussed in terms of implications for teaching strategies for deaf children. (DP)