Proposes a revision and expansion of Schumann's (1978b) model of pidginization as it relates to second language learning. A distinction is made between sociocultural aspects of the pidginization cycle and the acquisitional processes of pidginization, creolization, and decreolization. (Author/AM)

Presents three sets of data (signs from the "Dictionary of ASL," 1976; loan signs; and case histories of specific signs) that demonstrate the involvement of the "knuckle-wrist connection" with American Sign Language phonology. (AM)

When kindergarten, second-, and fourth-grade children judged and repeated sentences that varied grammatically, the older children produced more accurate judgments, but no age differences were noted for repetition. Unbiased judgment accuracy correlated with prereaders' reading readiness scores, providing evidence for the relationship between the…

Revealed a statistically significant difference between alcoholic and nonalcoholic oral syntactic performance, with alcoholic subjects committing greater numbers of syntactic and semantic errors than nonalcoholics. Indicated a deficiency in the integrative and descriptive aspects of alcoholics' oral language performance. (RL)

Presents a system for coding and analyzing dialogue involving preschool age children. Each participant assumes roles of initiator and responder and is evaluated according to different scales. Illustrates the system through recorded dialogue between mothers and their three-year-old daughters. (Author/BK)

The conventions inherent to language are explored, and demonstrations, engagement, and sensitivity are discussed as factors present in all learning situations in which a person learns to master these complex conventions. (HTH)

Discusses two basic areas of difference between British and American English, namely the complementation of certain participles and the complementation of certain verbs. Complementation after "concerned" and "interested" is illustrated by several examples taken from speech and from newspaper advertisements. (AMH)

Presents evidence from artificial language experiments in support of the "marker hypothesis," i.e., that natural languages contain elements that signal the presence of syntactic constructions and that the absence of such markers would render a language virtually unusable. (Author/AM)

Reports results of a longitudinal study testing the acquisition of restrictions of the use of pronouns in children, first as 9 year olds and later as 11 year olds. (AM)

Reports on a conference on the importance of oral language in language instruction and research. (RL)

Sketches Noam Chomsky's conception of language, the ways it can and should be studied, and how it works as a scientific enterprise. (Author/GT)

Examines the temporal reference of Spanish verb forms by using a simple time axis showing five points of temporal reference. (NCR)

Measurement (using Carol Chomsky's methodology) of the acquisition of five complex English structures by adult Israeli and Egyptian learners reveals that first and second language learners of English encounter similar difficulties. The creative construction hypothesis can be applied to second as well as first language acquisition. (PMJ)

Six tentative conclusions about the role of extrinsic feedback in interlanguage fossilization are presented and discussed in light of hypotheses made by Virgil and Oller regarding this phenomenon. Extrinsic factors are those characteristics of the learner which are oriented toward the environment and which act as the interface between the learner…

Reviews research on writing and talking, concluding that the common contention that oral language forms the basis for pupils' written language in the middle grades must be qualified. (GT)