This is one in a series of eight discussion pamphlets produced by the Writing Across the Curriculum Project dealing with some of the issues connected with writing in the schools and their relation to learning. This pamphlet is concerned with various aspects of the Bullock Committee Report. The first section maps the various ways in which teachers…

Three questionnaires are offered as language planning aids. These instruments measure variables in language background, language behavior, and language policy, particularly in situations where two or more dialects of languages are used. The first questionnaire asks 60 questions designed to form a language background profile of an individual. The…

This pamphlet is the fifth in a series of ten stemming from the view that language is central to learning, that teachers can gain insights into their work and into learning by examining the language of the classroom, and that current language theory can be the means to such insights. The pamphlet reports on a case study involving a twelfth grade…

Research on learning and conditioning suggests that verbal response modification does not occur in the absence of the subject's ability to define verbally (1) the response-reinforcement relationships and (2) his intention to change his behavior in the direction of reinforcement. This seems to be true for operant conditioning of verbal behavior,…

Most of the papers in this collection were presented at a conference on language problems of the developing nations at Airlie House, Warrenton, Virginia in November 1966. This conference was one of the several organized and sponsored by the Committee on Sociolinguistics of the Social Science Research Council in its effort to promote…

This paper provides a summary of the proceedings of a public lecture and a seminar conducted by William F. Mackey, on "Options for Language Promotion by Means of the Education System" and "Implications of Bilingualism," including the question and answer sessions. Part one, summarizing the lecture, discusses the role of the…

The purpose of the report is to explain why so many different types of people in so many different parts of the country need languages in their work, and why students planning their education in preparation for certain kinds of careers should be aware of these needs. The focus is mainly on language as an auxiliary skill, on the careers in which…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the linguistic differences in the spontaneous speech of language-deviant children in two very different situations. Spontaneous speech samples of eleven five-year-old language-deviant children were obtained from: (1) the traditional adult-child therapy situation using appropriate stimulus materials; and…

A social and linguistic history of the English language is presented in this book. Part 1, "History and Language," discusses such topics as the aims of language history, the beginning of language, grammars, and language meaning. Part 2, "Words and Meanings," explores Old English, Middle English, the establishment of modern English, creating new…

Forty randomly selected school children, in four treatment groups of ten each (each comprised of children from the 5, 8, and 12 year age levels) participated in a study to determine the extent to which the capacity for information processed by a child increases in amount with development. Apprehension span (perception and transformation of aural…

Although many would like to see the monolithic structure of society altered to allow cultural pluralism to flourish, it should be realized that for at least the next generation, large segments of minority citizens will remain in a socially and economically disadvantaged status, penalized because their life styles and languages differ from the…

One of the central questions in the study of bilingualism is the degree to which it is possible for a group to maintain their language even when accepting other cultural values. There are numbers of cases of peoples who have managed to develop a modern industrial society without giving up their national language; this is difficult, but possible. A…

The purpose of this research was to frame a hypothesis accounting for the observed behavior of particular children in a contact language area, in an attempt to understand their linguistic learning processes. The community involved was the township of Benque Viejo at the Guatemalan frontier, and the four informants, aged 10-13, spoke varying…

Three million children being schooled in the educational system of America are expected to forego the use of their native language while in the school environs and accept English as the mode of communication. To assess the effect of mode of language instruction on the student's concept of self as well as student achievement in reading, the…

The structure, complexity, and peculiarities of the English language are examined in this book, which begins with a discussion of the nature of language. Chapters are devoted to (1) naming--"Language as Answer to a Need"; (2) grammar--"Language as Economy"; (3) words--"Language as the Finding of Minds"; (4) etymology--"Language to Stretch Brains…