Reviews the concept that the melodic features of language play a major role in a child's acquisition of both oral and book language. (FL)

Describes some of the major structural features of the modern Japanese written language as they are manifested at the level of graphology. (FL)

Summarizes changes in the Japanese script from 1900 onwards, emphasizing those made after World War II in an effort to simplify the script. (FL)

A resource teacher describes a unit on basic research writing designed to help her junior high-level mildly handicapped students communicate better through writing. The unit incorporates library visits, note-taking instruction, and revision for a final draft. Related activities include journal writing and vocabulary work. (CL)

Surveys three current perspectives on audience, exploring the strengths and weaknesses of each without arguing for the superiority of one view. Provides a conceptual framework that will clarify some of the things composition theorists can mean when they talk about the writer's audience. (FL)

To help hearing-impaired children develop their linguistic competence, a computer system that can process sentences and give feedback about their acceptability was developed. Suggestions are made of ways to use the system as an environment for interactive written communication. (Author/CL)

Examination of the simplified characters adopted in the People's Republic of China shows that all such characters have been created based on phonetic, graphic or semantic principles. This paper discusses phonetic simplification and lists characters followed by their simpler forms. (CHK)

This article discusses the orthographic problems of representing Slavic surnames in Spanish, and provides examples from Russian. (Text is in Spanish.) (CLK)

This study attempted to determine the overlap between two word lists, one derived from written sources (The Great Atlantic and Pacific Sight Word List) and one constructed from oral language (Newman-Bailey List). It is suggested that differences between children's spoken words and the words in school texts may be more fancied than factual.…

Report on an experiment at the University of Maryland. (DD)

Discusses the idea of using graffiti as a technique for teaching a poetry course and improving classroom communication. (RB)

Part 13 of a continuing series. (SK)