A study of the oral language of Native American children indicates that many are not proficient enough in English to learn to read. Suggestions are given for language development. (MKM)

In a study, Tagalog-speaking children, 3-, 5-, and 7-year olds, demonstrated better mastery of patient-focus (passive) than agent-focus (active) sentence structure. These results were attributed to the children's strategy of interpreting the first noun of a sentence to be the agent of the action. (SW)

A report on the state of the research in bilingualism among children to determine whether or not first and second languages are acquired in the same way. Several studies are described and classified; usage, pronunciation, interference and the question of dominant language are discussed. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Study is made of five problem categories arising from use of national languages in training or education: linguistic, technical, educational, economic, and political. Conditions which appear necessary for the success of such changes involve planning, flexible rate of introduction, and synthesis of linguistic reform with other educational reforms.…

Children in grades 1-3 were asked to retell and explain a series of riddles. Ability to recall riddles was not predictive of ability to explain them. Three cognitive factors seemed to determine level of riddle competence. Implications concern the relationship of riddle competence to reading ability and metalinguistic facility. (CHK)

An experiment on children aged 2 to 7 led to a critical evaluation of Piaget's implicit contention that young children use determiners anaphorically. It is suggested that the importance of young children's processing procedures on the linguistic environment has been underestimated in Piaget's interactive epistemology. (CHK)

The author presents the theory, based on longitudinal audiovisual observations of infants, that language develops from an expanding and differentiating interactive communication system in which infants and adults, and often older children, are participants. (SBH)

This article examines the relationship between linguistic analysis and the psychology of language acquisition in current language teaching practice and illustrates how an awareness of this relationship may lead to new classroom approaches and techniques. (CHK)

Learning a language is an "attitude"; particularly in the primary grades, the teacher must use the procedures and materials best suited to develop a favorable attitude, provide enjoyment, stimulate curiosity, promote acquisition of linguistic and communication skills. Skits, songs, games and audio-visual techniques are suggested. (Text is in…

An outline of a method of teaching negative expressions, use of a short home film of an event familiar to students, suggestions for use of authentic documents in the language class, and examples illustrating the use of classified ads are treated in this "A comme" section. (Text is in French.) (AMH)

Interview data and psychometric test results of 93 profoundly prelingually deaf adolescents and their families were factor analyzed to determine relationships between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental variables. The first factor loaded on measures of general cognitive skill, language, speech, social class, family size, and communication.…

Examination of the phonological acquisition of a young girl whose parents spoke two Cantonese dialects indicated that she acquired neither parents' dialect, supporting the claim that children use all available input in acquiring language rather than limiting themselves to a primary language model. (Author/CB)

This study of final-consonant repetitions in the speech of a young child supports the notion that some speech disfluencies may result from parental attempts to accelerate phonological development. An analysis of 12 half-hour-long observations over a year is presented and discussed in terms of the home environment. (Author/KM)

Justifies including dinosaurs as a topic in the curriculum for young children if approached from the inquiry processes of science exploration. Suggests that this topic encourages observational, classification, and communication skills and the ability to compare, hypothesize, and derive conclusions. (AS)

Two language ability tests are discussed: the Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale (REEL), measuring language competencies from birth through 36 months and the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL), for children ages three to seven. Their efficacy in identifying language delays and in establishing criteria for effective…