This manual describes the Montana Early Literacy Project, its model and components, and its replication in a variety of early childhood settings: special and general education preschools; Head Start classrooms; and specialized childcare centers. Using five components, the model demonstrates how to develop literacy and language skills in young…

This book provides a summary of past and cutting-edge research on the acquisition of language by young children. It lends support to the behavioralist paradigm of language acquisition, namely, that maternal rewards and corrections should be integrated with perceptual, cognitive, and social learning conceptualizations in a skill-learning approach…

Most deaf children are born to hearing parents. Many of these parents have little or no knowledge of deafness and what it means for their child, themselves, or their family. This book introduces parents of deaf children to the aspects of deafness they will want to know more about. The book can be read as a whole, as it is designed to take a…

This paper discusses how to use stories to promote beginning communication and language in students with severe communication and/or cognitive impairments. It describes a layering approach for building emergent literacy and augmentative and alternative communication skills. This layering approach is used with professional staff to introduce…

Provides annotations of research studies in the areas of language, literature and media study, writing, and English teacher education. (HOD)

Four teachers from diverse early childhood environments formed a teacher research group to learn more about children's language and literacy development. This article discusses the formation of the group, the value of teacher research for understanding children's language, and the lessons learned by the participating teachers that enhanced their…

Investigates early literacy acquisition in Turkish with its phonologically transparent orthography and regular letter-sound correspondences. Findings reveal that such orthography fosters the early development of word recognition skills and that phonological awareness contributes to word recognition in the early stages of reading acquisition. (33…

The following recommendations are made to assist multidisciplinary teams in developing educational programs for second-language learners: diversify the team and offer training; compare student performance in native and secondary languages; consider factors associated with second-language acquisition; employ alternative assessments; identify life…

Studies low-achieving fifth-grade readers to evaluate the feasibility of a cross-age reading program and to clarify implementation details for a large-scale project. Finds that quantitative results and qualitative data suggest that cross-age reading programs are a promising way to help poor readers to improve their reading. (MG)

A discussion of language policy formation and planning in South America focuses on the highland indigenous sectors and covers the following: colonial languages; immigrant languages; and indigenous languages, including planning, acquisition planning, and corpus planning. (Contains 83 references.) (LB)

A discussion of language policy formation and planning in South Africa covers the following: the sociolinguistic complexity of the country, language-related national problems, language in nation building, current policy, and language planning agencies. (Contains 75 references.) (LB)

Examines from a Vygotskian perspective deaf children's private speech, i.e., speech that is spoken aloud (or visibly performed) but that is addressed to no particular person. Findings are consistent with Vygotsky's notion of the robustness of the phenomenon and its ontogenesis in early social communication. (33 references) (LR)

Reviews studies suggesting benefits of block play for literacy development that provides actual reading and writing experiences. Suggests that block play centers can be literacy-enhanced with materials that are authentic, useful, and appropriate, including: thematic books, magazines, architectural blueprints, envelopes, and adding machine tape.…

This paper presents a cultural model of deafness, describing the experiences of a deaf child as enculturation into a deaf world. The implications of this view on social, cognitive, and linguistic development are explored through description of BoMee, an adopted Korean deaf child being raised in a multilingual, multicultural environment.…

This article examines issues in language assessment in children exposed to two languages, including arrested language development in preschool children, arrested development and language loss in school-age children, effects of educational policy (especially the devaluation of non-English languages) on bilingualism, problems in primary language…