Discusses a model for teaching reading and writing in which skilled language users provide support for new language activities in context. Gives examples of typical classroom activities that provide too little or too much support for natural language growth and of activities with a balanced instructional "scaffolding." (HTH)

Reports an investigation of the most appropriate tutorial setting for the generation of natural urban child language for experience stories. Concludes that the condition that tapped the most profuse linguistic performance for student-created reading material among Black sixth grade students was tutoring by a White adult professional teacher. (FL)

Five educational leaders--Millie Almy, Carolyn Burke, Jean Berko Gleason, Donald M. Murray, and Neil Postman--offer reflections on significant developments of the 1970s in the areas of reading and writing, their hopes for the 1980s, and references that constitute required reading for elementary language arts teachers. (ET)

Presents evidence revealing the complexity of young children's language understandings with regard to spelling patterns, parts of speech, and vocabulary; points out that teachers must build upon the language knowledge that children bring to school. (GT)

The development of German proficiency by a three-year-old Australian boy living in Germany was monitored for a five-month period. His command of German negation is reported. The study is seen as bearing on issues in first and second language acquisition, such as competence and interference. (JB)

The study involved (1) a sociolinguistic description of Spanish/English use by 10 children (ages two to three) and eight mothers in two different bilingual preschool contexts (instruction and freeplay), and (2) an experimental attempt to encourage the use of Spanish, using Spanish "immersion" in a freeplay setting. (Author/DS)

The behavior of 32 mothers during an object-retrieval game was analyzed in terms of the hints and clues they used to direct their children's attention; age-related differences were found in the type of information offered. (Author)

Judgements about the acceptability of anomalous and non-anomalous sentences were elicted from children between the ages of 2;0 and 5;0. The aim was to see how the children's direct experience might affect their recognition of semantic constraints, and how far their experience would generalize. (Author)

Investigates the similarities and differences in individual approaches to the linguistic organization of narrative. The study identified strategies used, including thematic subject, nominal and anaphoric. Findings reveal that a variety of strategies was adopted by all age groups and that ability to maintain a strategy across the narrative's…

Analyzes monolingual Spanish- and German-speaking children's production of target consonant clusters at early stages of acquisition from a phonological representational perspective. At the beginning stages, target clusters are reduced to a single consonantal position, due to lack of branching of the syllable constituents. At later stages, cluster…

Compared 100 three-year-olds with speech delay of unknown origin and 539 same-age peers with respect to 6 speech disorder variables; also examined abnormal hearing in a subset of 279 children. Found significant odds ratios only for low maternal education, male sex, and positive family history; a child with all 3 factors was 7.71 times as likely to…

Presents a diary-and-videotape study of the production of phonological segments by a Spanish-English bilingual child. Results reveal a consistent separation of the phonological systems of the two languages from the earliest period, with minimal interference at later times. (17 references) (Author/CK)

Explores how a group of children and their teacher use their language knowledge to create a make-believe context. Shows how participants collaborate to construct dramatic experience and use language to describe their relationships, roles, and situations. Data are derived from a drama in which the participants wait for an event to occur. (16…

Discusses variation in interlanguage and suggests two hypotheses to explain such variation as multiple internal representations of a form and processing errors. Suggests that second language learners can initially represent new forms as prototype schemas, and that such non-discrete representations are a third source of variation in interlanguage.…

This sequential analysis tested the relative extent to which several adult utterance types elicited conversational replies from eight developmentally delayed children (mean age 53 months). Among findings were that child replies of any length were elicited by adult topic continuations more than by any other adult utterance type. (Author/DB)