The purpose of this study was to assess the roles of oral language and phonological awareness on reading performance in grade 3 bilingual students. Several hierarchical models assessed the best predictors of third grade English and Spanish word attack, word identification and reading comprehension. Predictor variables were measures of phonological…

This study investigates the cultural and educational ideas of the French deaf poet-teacher Pierre Pelissier (1814-1863) who was an instructor at the Paris Deaf Institute from the early 1840s until his death in 1863. As a young man, Pelissier became interested in composing poetry and through his verse, captured many of the social frustrations…

The internal use of language during problem solving is considered to play a key role in executive functioning. This role provides a means for self-reflection and self-questioning during the formation of rules and plans and a capacity to control and monitor behavior during problem-solving activity. Given that increasingly sophisticated language is…

A significant gap in emerging literacy intervention with preschoolers relates to a skill that is crucial to later reading comprehension-the ability to engage in inferencing. This article presents a theoretical rationale for fostering inferential language during book sharing with preschool children, and provides research-based ideas for how this…

Although questions concerning the effects of literacy on society, culture, and the mind remain problematic for anthropology and psychology, considerations of the role played by orality, literacy, or other media in creating different communicative potentials between writer and reader, should not seem out of place in the discipline of rhetoric. Hugh…

Ways in which mothers adjust the explicitness of their speech to the capabilities of their children were explored among 38 mothers and 40 of their children. All children ranged in age from 1 1/2 to 3 1/2 years. Children were grouped by mean age in 6-month intervals, with eight subjects per group, and paired with their mothers. Each mother-child…

Assessment of spontaneous language samples for word-finding characteristics of language-disordered (N=28) and non-disordered (N=28) 7- to 12-year-olds indicated that non-disordered subjects produced significantly more total verbalizations and a greater modified mean length of utterance score than the subjects with word-finding problems. (CB)

Analysis of Italian speakers' lexical substitutions, including errors and acceptable choices, when expressing spatial reference in English-as-a-second-language indicates that these substitutions do not occur randomly, but are informed by principles of lexical simplification. (CB)

The development and present status of "Chicano Calo," a mixture of Spanish and English spoken in Mexico and the Southwestern United States, is surveyed. Originally a Romany (Gypsy) language, it is preeminently oral and has become fashionable in most sociocultural strata, but particularly among younger males to reflect mild rebellion.…

The paper reviews studies on decoding's role in reading comprehension problems among learning disabled students and suggests that a subgroup exists of students with good verbal intelligence but who overrely on prior knowledge in processing written language. Distinctions between oral and written language factors are made. (CL)

Describes use of popular music in the target language as springboard for various pedagogical goals such as discussing grammatical forms, discussing content of songs, and comparing singing styles. Students also learn more about modern music of target language. (BK)

Treats orality and literacy in two ways: (1) examines the ubiquitous problem of moving from oral expression to writing, and (2) considers briefly the new, secondary orality that surrounds viewers on radio and television. (JMF)

Reviews studies to date on rate-controlled speech recording in foreign language teaching. Research indicates great potential and lack of a theoretical structure for such practice. (Author/BK)

Discusses utterances that are evoked in particular events and demonstrates that they require a frame semantics account, and in particular, an analysis in terms of scripts. The article also reveals some word-like properties of these constructions and argues that boundedness is a matter of degree. (15 references) (Author/CK)

Presents observations concerning the meaning of discourse particles, based on the comparison of an item in one language with its functional equivalents in another. The article considers three languages: English, French, and German, and concludes that contrastive analyses can only indicate certain aspects that must be verified by further…