The first section of this paper discusses recent writing research and the basic elements of language development. The second section describes a program which used a sentence-combining method as an activity-based experience for language development. A six-month study involved all fourth graders at Powell School in Mountain View, California. The…

A paraprofessional was trained to provide an individualized reading, math, and language arts program to a 9-year-old educable mentally retarded boy in a regular classroom. A 5-month period of reading sessions with the classroom teacher emphasizing oral reading and comprehension contingent on word acquisition and imitation training for word…

This dissertation abstract summarizes a research study which investigated the hypothesis that bilingualism in children would result in: (1) increased ability to analyze syntax; (2) acceleration in the time of arrival of the stage of concrete operational thinking; and (3) an increase in cognitive flexibility or ability to mentally shuffle material.…

Because of the active interest of English teachers in standardized tests and the increased use of such tests to measure student performance, the emphasis section of this issue of "The English Record" contains articles addressing this subject from several perspectives. A report of a survey on standardized testing in New York State sets the scene,…

How linguistic principles can be incorporated into reading instruction was shown by examining the interrelationships of certain linguistics ideas to learning to read. First, the acquisition of oral language was discussed as to the developmental stages: phonological, morphological-lexical, and syntactic. It was suggested that reading instruction…

Three hypotheses concerning the degree to which understanding of various conjunctions is related to reading comprehension were tested. Four instruments, two standardized tests and two designed for the experiment, were administered to a stratified sample of Mansfield, Ohio, fourth-grade students. The first hypothesis--that there is a significant…

The manual attempts to bring changes into the way in which manual communication is currently used by deaf adults or in some schools for the deaf, in order to bring manual communication into a closer parallel to the English language so that signs can be used to teach English to the language handicapped deaf person and particularly to adult…

With the help of a consultant and the special teachers, a teacher aide provided language development work in primary and intermediate classes for educable mentally handicapped children. Speech activities and a language development kit were planned. The aide's role differed in different classes, but as the year progressed she worked more with…

A Parent-Child Center Program was designed to test the theory that a major cause of a disadvantaged child's academic problems is the lack of proper maternal support. The 10 subjects for this study of program effectiveness were black, without husbands, and each had a 1 1/2 to 3-year-old child. Mothers met twice a week for 6 weeks in a 2-part…

Ways that the teacher can make communication skills instruction relevant to the learner are emphasized. It is suggested that teachers (1) learn more about our language structure, (2) study the particular environment and language of students, (3) emphasize strategies of word attack in context rather than teach lists of individual sight words, (4)…

Contained in this record of proceedings are (1) workshop reports on priorities in research and recommended actions concerning black rhetoric, campus conflict, community relations, speech education for the disadvantaged, language and speech acquisition and development, and field studies; (2) a keynote address, on "Student Activism and Academic…

This study examines some variables that may affect two aspects of syntax in Head Start children; the use of descriptors and the use of complete sentences. Thirty-six children were assigned to six experimental conditions in a design which varied adult verbal modeling, feedback, and sex. Children given adult verbal modeling produced significantly…

This 3-year longitudinal study is exploring readiness skills of children between 5 and 8 years of age and proposes a design for curriculum development. In this study, generalized concepts, visual-motor triordination, visual and auditory discrimination, visual and auditory memory (imagery), and oral language usage, are identified in order to…

The visual-auditory integrative ability of 12 language delayed children with nonspecific etiologies was compared with that of 12 normal children matched for age, sex, and IQ. A battery of tests measured auditory-visual integrative ability, visual motor ability, and perception of frequency distorted speech. Significant differences were found…

In this study, the Peabody Language Development Kit, originally designed for culturally deprived and mentally retarded children, was tested to see how it affected the psycholinguistic abilities and beginning reading development of normal children. Ninety-seven kindergartners were randomly divided into an experimental group who used the Peabody Kit…