The prediction that young Chinese- and English-speaking children should exhibit parallel performance in their use of null arguments was investigated using an elicited production task. The hypothesis that early English allows null subjects was upheld; the argument that early English is a discourse-oriented language like Chinese was not upheld. (26…

The effect of five types of topical structure (including initial sentence element, mood subject, and surface subject) on the item difficulty of reading comprehension questions was investigated. Results indicated differences in the item difficulty of questions according to the type of topical structure on which the questions were based. (21…

A study of the use of phrase-terminal extension particles in Montreal (Canada) French analyzed composition, sociodemographic patterns of occurrence, and discourse functions of 76 particle types in 4 distinct classes. (MSE)

Presents a study of the grammatical subjects as used in scientific discourse. Provides evidence that the grammatical subjects in a sample of scientific discourse are markedly long. Identifies three pressures that operate on scientists to produce such markedly long grammatical subjects. (HB)

The Broward County Elementary Foreign Language Program (grades K-5) provides English-speaking students with an understanding of Hispanic cultures, an opportunity to learn the Spanish language with emphasis on oral communication, and a positive attitude toward learning languages. (LB)

Presents tips for teaching English-as-a-Second-Language students. Suggestions, complete with information on materials required, include preparing dialogs, poems on feelings, and sentences that grow. (LB)

Four experimental studies were designed to test, in Norwegian, the hypothesis that children's non-adultlike interpretations of pronouns may be partly attributable to a lexical factor interacting with the A-Chain Condition. (Author/VWL)

Investigated the source of agrammatic aphasic patients' difficulty comprehending semantically reversible sentences. Found approximately equal distributions of three distinct patterns. Results conflict with explanations of comprehension failure which state that a single pattern of performance on sentence structures characterizes comprehension of…

Discusses a school study of the evolution of a child language. A software program was developed to challenge Italian children in sentence structuring, motivate their sentence production in a game, provide feedback on the linguistic structure and the game context, and classify linguistic productions. (26 references) (Author/CK)

Investigated patterns and strength of connections between English dative verbs and the double-object dative argument structure in native-speaker production. Subjects completed three written production tasks using dative and other verbs from different semantic classes of verbs. Results show alternating dative verbs varied in patterns of connection…

In this study, African American English (AAE)-speaking children's comprehension of 2 different types of double negative sentences was examined and contrasted with that of a comparison group of Standard American English (SAE)-speaking children. The first type of double negative, negative concord, involves 2 negative elements in a sentence that are…

Conversational indices of language impairment were used to investigate similarities and differences among children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and children with typical development (TD). Utterance formulation measures (per cent words mazed and average number of words per…

A pilot study provided insight into difficulties experienced by 143 Yr. 2 B.Ed. students in Scotland, writing in a science education context. In studying writing, an 'academic literacies' approach was adopted, focusing on social aspects in addition to identifying flaws. In over 20% of assignments, tutors' assessments identified a need to structure…

To compare Japanese autistic children's use of semantic knowledge and theory of mind with mentally retarded and typically developing children's, they were tested on their comprehension of active and passive sentences and false belief understanding. Autistic children were sensitive to plausibility levels of semantic bias as were 4-year-olds with…

When presented with several time-compressed sentences, young adults' performance improves with practice. Such adaptation has not been studied in older adults. To study age-related changes in perceptual learning, the authors tested young and older adults' ability to adapt to degraded speech. First, the authors showed that older adults, when equated…