Language is viewed as a nonhomogeneous hierarchical system, where complex correlations between a psychological/social dimension (external) and a linguistic dimension (internal) permit measurements of the stability and acceptability of its structures. Frequency of occurrence and integration in the system are presented as the key factors in the…

Illustrates variation affecting the position of pronouns in complex verb phrases among native French speakers. Describes the methods used to verify the hypothesis that there exists a correlation between individual hesitation and lack of consensus in the community. Analyzes data from questionnaires administered to 551 persons in Switzerland and…

Examines the contributions of linguistic research and linguistic theory to the teaching of languages proposinq a reevaluation of pedagogic concepts and models. Argues that so far theorists have ignored some important aspects of language, such as the esthetic and expressive elements of discourse, the situational constraints and the semantic…

The ability of children between the ages of two years and four years, eight months, to produce locative pre- or postpositions was investigated in English, Italian, Serbocroatian, and Turkish to discover universals of conceptual and communicative development. (Author/AM)

Reports on an experiment describing the lexical development of a hearing child with a deaf mother and hearing father. Data confirm previous findings that (1) sign emerges before spoken word, (2) acquisition stages are similar in ASL and spoken English, and (3) the child initially develops one lexical system. (Author/AM)

Discusses the revolutionary reorientation taking place in English teaching, the responses to it found in the Bullock Report, and studies of the effects of language attitudes in teaching that have been undertaken and that still need to be undertaken. (GT)

A study was carried out to compare the degree of intelligibility between native and non-native varieties of educated English. (CFM)

Examines some problems involved in compulsory second language instruction on the secondary level, and suggests some approaches to second language instruction that stress cognitive development and awareness of language. (AM)

Descriptive grammars based on sets of rewrite rules were constructed to summarize the structure and organization of 120 entries in a second grade student's journal of class news. These rules illuminated the relationship between experience, abstraction, and generation of structure, and the use of structure to express complex thoughts. (PMJ)

Presents results of a study that sought to test the pronunciation problems of a large number of American students in a beginning college-level French course. Learner difficulties over a 15-week period were used to create a hierarchy of minimal contrasts representing major, secondary, and minor problems for the students in learning French sounds.…

Describes recent efforts that have been made to overcome barriers to the successful implementation of sociolinguistics in early education, barriers involving acceptance of research by the schools, attitude and teaching method changes by teachers, and the needs of the children themselves. (DS)

Presents results of research of the use of simultaneous communication in deaf schools and its accuracy in representing English grammar. (AM)

Reports on an investigation into the gestural repertoire of a deaf child raised in an oral environment. (AM)

A schema-based framework for representing knowledge and prose organization was studied. Testing of a script pointer and tag hypothesis confirmed that memory discrimination is better for atypical actions in a passage than for typical script actions and that there is no memory discrimination for very typical actions. (SW)

References to the study of behavioral organization of face-to-face interaction are arrranged in alphabetical order by author. A subject classification of works in the bibliography is appended. (EJS)