It was hypothesized that the cognitive structures which underlie performance on class-inclusion tasks also underlie reading comprehension of the stated or inferred main idea of a paragraph, and that performance on three-dimensional class-inclusion tasks developmentally precedes performance on two-dimensional class-inclusion tasks. Ten kindergarten…

Proposals currently being debated for a reform of the examination system at 18+ in England and Wales, and comments on the proposals, are presented to aid in future planning of language courses in Northern Ireland. The context in which the new proposals arose is briefly examined. The following three standard course proposals are diagrammed for…

This manual for the Marianas Test of English Achievement (MTEA) provides a description of the tests, directions for administration and scoring, a discussion of the interpretation of scores, and norms based on all 1,780 children in grades 6 through 9 in the Northern Marianas Islands in October 1977 and May 1978. There are two equivalent forms of…

In order to answer the question as to what can be done with video that cannot be done with sound-only recordings, the role of the visual channel of communication in interaction is examined. This examination is based on the experience of foreign language teachers who have been using video in the classroom for five years. The point is made that in…

The assessment of teacher attitudes toward nonstandard dialects in the classroom is the major focus of this research. A Black English attitudes test was developed consisting of the "Black English Speech Varieties Attitude Test" and the "Black English Teacher Attitude Scale." The speech varieties test measures attitudes toward standard and…

This document reports the findings of a study of children's comprehension of stories containing inconsistent information. The subjects were 84 children in kindergarten and the second, fourth and sixth grades. Twelve subjects from each grade listened to two stories and twelve other subjects from grades 2, 4, and 6 read two stories. Each subject was…

THIS SPEECH PRESENTS THE FINDINGS OF A STUDY OF THE VERBAL RECALL ABILITY OF 102 HIGH AND LOW SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS (SES) CHILDREN IN THE PRIMARY GRADES. THE HIGH SES SUBJECTS ATTENDED A UNIVERSITY SCHOOL IN AN UPPER-MIDDLE-CLASS SUBURB, AND AT LEAST ONE OF THEIR PARENTS HAD ATTENDED COLLEGE. THE LOW SES SUBJECTS WERE IN A COMPLETELY NEGRO SUBURBAN…

In perceiving speech, a hearer may divide the utterance into predictable units. In the present investigation of these units, an alleged phenomenon (the resistance of the hearer to perceive extraneous auditory stimuli) was employed. It was argued that this resistance caused the hearer to perceive the irrelevant stimulus, if at all, primarily at the…

The nature of conversation as communication is explored in its psychological, linguistic, and didactic aspects with particular reference to the learning of French as a second language. Major emphasis is placed on psychological and linguistic theories. In the didactic section, the problems, value, and methodology of conversation classes are…

Metacognition refers to an individual's knowledge concerning his/her own cognitive processes. Children's metacognitive strategies were examined in a study predicated upon R.J. Spiro's hypothesis that subjects tend to reproduce (literally recall) text information in formal situations and to reconstruct (inferentially recall) it in informal…

This series of colored, illustrated alphabet cards contains all the letters of the Spanish alphabet with illustrations to show their sounds. On the reverse of each card, or series of related cards, is a short story, along with some activities and games designed to reinforce the sound of the letter. The material is intended to develop language…

The instructor's manual accompanying the student text "FSI Portuguese Programmatic Course" has two functions: it offers the teacher suggestions as to how to use the student text, and it provides a guide to the recorded portions of the student text. The guide contains a script for all of the Portuguese that has been recorded and does not already…

This is the seventh in a series of technical research reports by Harvard Project Zero which study artistic creation and comprehension as a means toward better art education. This study summarizes the content and practical procedures of a series of lecture-performances in different arts performed before a target audience. The lecture-performance…

The oral interview may be viewed as a criterion-referenced test for making either/or decisions about functional use of spoken language. Speech production can be tested by either the oral interview or the Valdis (1972) "Performance Objectives for Speaking," and dialogue between the two systems can be profitable. Current literature on…

A developmental model of literacy based on language and cognitive skills is presented in this paper. Two independent learning strands suggested as major factors in achieving literacy are learning to understand language by eye (reading) as skillfully as one can understand language by ear (auding) and learning to use the printed medium for literacy…