Concludes that teachers should spend more time on improving and developing oral language skills, and reading practitioners and researchers should develop diagnostic tools for assessing oral language in relation to mastery of reading skills. (RB)

Presents evidence that young children's comprehension of the locatives "in", "on", and "under" is, at least in part, contextually determined. Children were given tasks with verbal instructions which were either contextually congruent or incongruent. Results are interpreted in terms of the non-linguistic as well as linguistic strategies apparently…

Suggests methods for promoting competency and growth in composition. (RB)

Identifies, organizes, and discusses research suggestions from "Literature Search in Reading" on such topics as language development, learning to read, and the reading process. (RB)

Twenty preschool children and their mothers were observed interacting verbally in an unstructured situation. Close mutual adaptation of both partners was demonstrated. Correlational patterns allowed the abstraction of primitive and advanced clusters of language-teaching/learning behaviors. (JMB)

Students can learn to listen by relating music to everyday experiences. Through their own sense of imagery and through language development, they can focus on basic concepts of music. (Editor)

Describes the benefits of having students tape their own stories for use by the entire class. (RB)

Provided are some illustrative clinical uses of J. Muma's "dump" and "play" communication model (EC 073301), said to be most applicable to the less handicapped child who has "trained language" but needs to be taught interpersonal communication skills. (LS)

Schlesinger defends his theory that grammar is acquired not merely through linguistic input but by observing that utterances are paired with appropriate situations, thereby learning the agent/ action relationship. Stemmer argues that word order learned by children is semantically determined. (CK)

Contradicts a theory that second language learning is necessarily an identical process to native language learning, and cites some of the differences, with relevance to language instruction. (CK)

A large body of research documents the positive impact of sociodramatic play on children's language development. Through the social interaction that takes place during sociodramatic play, children develop the ability to express thoughts in a logical sequence, share ideas about events in which there is not shared context, and develop vocabulary.…

Reports and explains the results of a conference on how children learn to read and proposes some principles for teaching beginning reading. (RB)