A somewhat modified version of a paper presented at the annual conference of the National Association for Foreign Student Affairs, May 1969. (FWB)

Attempts to make peace between the "code-breakers or those who believe that teaching reading is clueing students to the system of turning print into their already-familiar language, and the "meaning-pursuers or those who believe that teaching reading is more than the pronunciation of sounds and should include the significance of the passage,…

A study was undertaken to separate elements of maternal speech heavily influenced by the children's language levels from those representing the mothers' consistent style or strategy for "teaching" language. A striking similarity was found between speech mothers used with their daughters and that used with their daughters' friends. (MSE)

The receptive and expressive "wh" interrogative performance of 20 language-delayed children (4.3 to 6.4 years old) was compared to available normative data. These findings suggest that the delayed children develop the same order of acquisition and rules for questioning as normal children, but at a slower rate. (Author/SEW)

The language of sportscasting is analyzed in terms of register variation, first by locating the register by successive approximations to a characterization of occasions of use, then by identifying syntactic characteristics: simplification, inversions, heavy modifiers, result expressions, and routines. Sports announcer talk is described as a…

Presents the results of a study in which reading-retarded children aged 8-to-12, whom previous research had shown to be deficient in their knowledge of pronomial reference rules, received oral presentations containing three kinds of adjective complements. The performance of the test group relative to a control is discussed. (Author/JL)

Reviews and discusses experimental and observational research on the function of the social environment of the child in the mastery of syntactic regularities during language acquisition. Theories based on modeling, imitation, and reinforcement are addressed. A 73-item reference list accompanies the text. (Author/JL)

Investigates the question of T-unit length stability in informative discourse written by freshmen near the end of an intensive course in college writing. (HOD)

Total scores on the screening test from the Test of Syntactic Abilities for 382 hearing impaired persons (8 to 19 years old) were significantly related to hearing threshold level, number of multiple handicaps, age, educational setting, method of communication, and hearing and usage. (Author)

An analysis of descriptive and narrative passages written by 45 first-semester college freshmen early in the semester suggests that mean T-unit length is not a stable individual trait either within the descriptive mode or across description and narration. (GT)

Experiments conducted with freshman composition students suggested that (1) the repeated use of a control stimulus passage does not result in increased syntactic complexity; (2) both overt and covert cues elicit more complex writing than do no-cue situations; and (3) the effect of overt cues seems to be retained, at least across a short duration.…

A description of the sign language used in a Mexican village shows its parallels with other sign languages, its similarity to the folk gestural system of Mexico and its distinguishing aspects. Examples illustrate its syntax, grammar and lexicon. (PMJ)

The validity of using phoneme monitoring techniques to measure syntactic processing in French was validated by two experiments. Significant differences in the reaction times of 80 French-speaking academic professionals to phonemes immediately following reversible subject relative clauses and those following object relative clauses demonstrate the…

In comparing original text and translation, the teaching goal should be the comparison of alternative forms and structures, in the native and the target language. Specific problems in translating jokes and comic strips are examined. Suggestions are given for dealing with morphology, syntax, and semantics. (IFS/WGA)

Discusses a compromise between functionally based material and traditional grammatical approaches by suggesting the adoption of a more communicative approach to structurally based material. Using the present continuous tense as an example, the unnaturalness of traditional classroom dialog is shown; sample remedies are given. (PJM)