An autosegmental account of the child's acquisition of grammatical tone in Sesotho, a southern Bantu language, is presented. The following theoretical questions are addressed: (1) When and how does the child figure out that Sesotho is a tonal rather than intonational, stress, or accentual language?; (2) How does the child acquire tonal rules?; and…

A study investigated how Samoan adults use genitive constructions in comparison with use by four young children. Results suggest that while adults and children both favor a clausal strategy of highlighting the affected object in a manipulative activity scene, Samoan children have difficulty exploiting the grammar of genitive noun phrases to encode…

In contrast to many senior education programs, the senior program at Triton College (TC) has as one of its aims bringing together younger and older students in both noncredit and credit courses without neglecting the need and desire of many older adults to learn in their own age group. The term "older students" is loosely defined at the…

This study was conducted in the Connecticut public schools during the l989-90 school year to determine why it is so difficult for urban school districts to recruit and retain teachers. The specific purpose was to identify policy-manipulable variables that predict changes in self-efficacy beliefs within first-year teachers in urban schools. This…

The hypothesis of positive skew in distributions of response to creative thinking tasks was studied. Data were obtained from examinees' responses to problem-solving tasks in three published studies of creative thinking. Subjects included 23 fifth graders (12 females and 11 males), 29 high school students (10 females and 19 males), and 47 female…

To determine how often children falsely report being sexually abused, this study asked professionals to indicate the percentage of children with whom they had worked who had made false reports. In addition, this study examined the variables that might be associated with the percentage of false allegations reported by professionals. The factors…

A causal model of reactions to violence that incorporated the role of attribution processes, emotions, in-group bias, and cognitive development was studied with children 8-12 years old. Participants were 121 third and sixth graders who attended a private elementary school in southern California. In groups of six, subjects were presented one of a…

Parents, educators, psychologists, and linguists are concerned about the effects of bilingualism on children, particularly young children. Although it is generally agreed that the minority-language child should develop bilingual and bicultural competence, there is disagreement concerning the role the two languages should play in the child's early…

Reading encompasses a wide range of verbal processes, among them such simple verbal processes as word decoding, letter recognition, name retrieval, and semantic access. The question is whether simple verbal processing differences are adequate to account for general reading ability differences. Across different verbal domains and different ages,…

Microresearch of the type performed by W. Loban and K. Hunt was used to describe two functions of macroresearch methodology--reporting and classifying--of the type conducted by J. Britton. This was done by contrasting the use of nine linguistic features of writing produced by four groups of students in each of the functions. The features were…

A study assessed the communication skills of practicing lawyers in order to determine whether they had needs that could be met by the speech communication discipline. Specifically, the study investigated (1) the importance lawyers attached to certain communication skills, (2) how proficienty they considered themselves to be in using those skills,…

This paper presents the results of an educational equity program designed to reduce racial and sexual stereotyping at all grade levels among students. The project was instituted in a southeastern United States school district in 1981. Following evaluations in 1980-81 and 1981-82, this present study was conducted: (1) to determine whether…

Colleges and universities are having to design instructional formats for both traditional and nontraditional, second career individuals. To compare the learning styles and other related educational factors (e.g., test preferences, educational goals) of traditional and nontraditional students at the University of Akron (Ohio), 154 traditional…

The study examined correlates of self-esteem in 54 adolescents and young adults (ages 12-22) with spina bifida. Core issues identified were the relationships of global self-esteem and perceived competencies in specific areas, perceptions of control, and identification with the physically handicapped. Relationships of self-esteem to age, gender,…

The validity of inferences drawn from readiness tests used to place children in a regular or a 2-year kindergarten program was investigated. Data from nine school districts in Virginia were used in the study. The study explored technical characteristics of four commonly used readiness tests: the Brigance Kindergarten and First Grade Screen, the…