Discusses the underlying theory and pedagogical rationale of sentence combining and of accessibility, the relative ease with which a text can be read. (HTH)

Concludes that first grade boys in a basal reader program supplemented with phonics instruction learned reading skills and read with comprehension as well as those in an intensive phonics program. (FL)

Discusses two studies of English speakers' understanding of the English spelling system. Comparative analysis suggests that seven-year-olds are as sophisticated as adults in extracting many of the linguistic factors which influence stress assignment, but they lack the "heterogeneous" structure of the lexicon that is characteristic of the…

Investigated the effects of valence, session of delivery, and order of delivery on receiver ratings of feedback credibility. Collected data from personal growth groups. Positive feedback was readily accepted. Negative feedback was significantly more accepted when received in later sessions, and when preceded by positive feedback. (Author)

In a comparison of normal readers and dyslexic readers who had been less successful with other late developing rules of oral syntax, both groups demonstrated knowledge of the rules for interpreting adjective complements. The only major difference was that the dyslexic readers were less likely to perform without error. (Author/MJL)

Reexamines two current, popularly held views about reading: the relative importance of word perception versus the reader's attention to the larger syntactic and semantic redundancies of the text. Some recent findings suggest the seriousness of the difficulty for those who cannot read high-frequency simple words. (Author/DB)

Illustrates the pitfalls of French grammar and syntax by reproducing a student's composition, which mangles the language. Draws from similarly frustrating experiences and from a "New York Times" article entitled "The Fumble-rules of Grammar" to compile a list of "General Principles for the Improvement of Oral and Written French Expression." (MES)

Describes a language program designed to allow a 4-year old autistic child to acquire skill across a variety of sentence types. Training focused on teaching combinatorial and semantic properties of grammatical morphemes, thus enabling the child to use sentences, instead of single words and rote phrases. (Author/PJM)

Discusses problems encountered in teaching French relative pronouns and proposes norms for grammatical presentations at three levels of learning: elementary, intermediate, and advanced. Selection of the relative pronouns to be taught at each level is based on an analysis of frequency lists, on students' age and aptitude, and course goals. (MES)

Studies the developmental stages deaf children pass through in acquiring the adult forms of pronominal classifiers in American Sign Language. Data were obtained on production, comprehension, and imitation from nine children aged 3 to 11. Complexities of classifier usage influence the learning strategies used. (PJM)

Describes two studies of which one analyzes syntactic complexity in writing samples by secondary and postsecondary students, while the other correlates the syntactic dimensions revealed by the former with measures of cognitive style. Correlations indicate an association between complexity and analytic cognitive style. (MES)

An approach to language textbooks evaluation based on objective criteria and relying on data easily obtained by means of computers, such as word frequency lists, is proposed. The importance of vocabulary acquisition in language learning is emphasized. Accordingly, word selection and rate of repetition are seen as central evaluation criteria. (MES)

Discusses the theoretical foundation for Ferguson's correlation between speed in detecting syntactic errors in written English and acquisition of the listening comprehension skill. A detailed analysis of Ferguson's procedure is given along with references to other pertinent literature. The original conclusions are questioned. (AMH)

The influence of the oral input of five deaf mothers on the language development of their two-year-old children was investigated. The results indicated that children, when cognitively ready, need little exposure to the normal model language to learn to speak during the early stages of development. (Author/DLS)

The most frequently noted difference in the abilities of tenth graders and college seniors to recall sentence connectives was the college students' ability to engage in free recall and rewriting, indicating that such a task would be a good predictor of mature use of transformational sentence connectives in the study of English. (JD)