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)

A study was done to test the effect of teacher verbal clarity on the academic achievement of college students. Teacher clarity variables included: (1) clear transition; (2) emphasis on content; (3) vagueness; and (4) additional unexplained content. Results indicate that additional research in the area is needed. (JN)

Offers examples of appropriate and improper use of the passive voice in technical communications and gives suggestions for using these examples in technical writing classrooms. (RL)

Describes two research programs on the syntactic abilities of hearing impaired and normal hearing individuals. The first program involved deaf students acquiring English structure; the second involved the construction of the Test of Syntactic Abilities and its application to deaf, hard of hearing, and normal hearing students in the United States,…

Discusses the importance of helping college composition students to become stylistically competent. Cites a study comparing the essays of 32 college students and 27 skilled adult writers; concludes that syntactic maturity correlates with writing quality and that teachers should begin instruction by emphasizing syntactic skills. (RL)

Proposes an alternative to transformational grammars, based on the notion that a grammatical system should be open to psycholinguistic interpretation, and disallowing grammatical transformations, dealing instead with the information content of sentence surface structure. (Author/AM)

The effects of speech rate, intonation, and sentence length on children's ability to imitate sentences were examined. Results indicate that adult speech is more readily imitated by children when intonation is normal, sentences are short, and speech rate is close to that of the child. (Author/AM)

An experiment investigated the retrieval processes involving a noun with an adjective. Results suggest that a noun's meaning is retrieved in conjunction with an adjective when the phrase describes a familiar concept. (Author/AM)

Token reinforcement and remedial feedback were made contingent upon writing correct sentences containing prenominal adjectives only, then adverbs only, then prenominal adjectives plus adverbs. When the instructional package was implemented, all Ss demonstrated significant increases in response rate, accuracy, and percentage of correct sentences,…

Discusses the problems of Japanese students learning to read German; their two years of German at the university are inadequate. A "profile" of minimum reading competence is presented, followed by suggestions for teaching, including vocabulary, sentence structure, and types of text exercises. (IFS/WGA)

Suggests using a sentence construction game to make basic writing students more aware of their linguistic ability and more comfortable dealing with grammar. Indicates that the experience helps students in revising their writing and introduces the experience of working creatively and playfully with language. (TJ)

Seeks to determine whether young children use different strategies than do adults in clausal processing. Subjects were 20 three year olds, 30 four year olds, 20 five year olds, and 30 undergraduate students. (MP)

Elaborates on and updates the article "Derived Noun Phrases in Spanish Containing Locatives" by John P. Wonder and Alberto Eraso Guerrero (1976). Gives a detailed description of the uses of "ser" and "haber" in the locative expression. (NCR)

Significant differences were observed between sentence length used by children in speaking and the length of sentences in primers and first reader textbooks. (JD)

Suggests an instructional technique called sentence building as a means of developing the ability to write more complex sentences and to read more complex sentences with understanding. (MKM)