Questions asked by parents of 12 young hearing children were compared with those asked by hearing parents of 17 preschoolers with deafness who used various linguistic input models (i.e., oral English only, cued speech, signed/manual English). Similar parent questioning strategies were found among groups matched for mean length of utterance.…

It is argued that reading aloud to children in school is an important vehicle for developing a child's feelings and their correlative values. In response to possible charges of indoctrination, the author draws a parallel between first-language learning and the learning of a repertoire of feeling. (seven references) (Author/LB)

PEECH (Programing for Early Education of Children with Handicaps) is a center-based program combining child-initiated and teacher-directed activities for children with mild to moderate disabilities, ages 3-5. Results of an evaluative study at the demonstration site and replication sites revealed participants' improvement in receptive and…

Explores role of discourse functions in children's use of "because" ("perche" in Italian). Disputes of 172 preschoolers were analyzed in terms of interactive move, argumentative strategies, and communicative acts. Results showed causal connective tends to co-occur with justification acts and may work as device introducing new information and…

Sixty Korean speakers of English who had lived in the United States were tested for their ability to judge the grammaticality of English sentences in 12 grammatical categories in a reaction-time task. Findings suggest that a sensitive period exists in second-language (L2) acquisition as evidenced by faster performance by early-learner L2 groups.…

This study presents evidence for the psychological reality of the Subset Principle as a determinant of the acquisition of Governing Category Parameter settings for English anaphors and pronominals. Prelingual deafness was used as a natural experiment in the acquisition of English in the presence of variably impaired access to English language…

This paper describes the expressive communication and language of seven hearing mothers and their infants with deafness. Mothers who signed most frequently reported that other family members and friends were also learning and using signs. Frequency of infants' sign production at 18 months correlated with frequency of mothers' sign production when…

Evaluation of the Kent Scoring Adaptation, which determines developmental ages in several domains based on an infant's performance on the Bayley Scales of Infant Development, with 27 at-risk infants supported the concurrent validity of the cognitive, language, and, to a degree, social domains of the Kent procedure but not the fine and gross motor…

Two sociocultural value clusters that predict an English-as-a-Second-language and an English-as-a-Foreign-Language approach are juxtaposed, respectively, to English language acquisition management. The two approaches are described in educational terms and related to the changing functions of English in the world and to national language…

Reviews research on the effects of television viewing, particularly educational programing, on preschool children. Describes a study conducted in Athens, Greece, of television's impact on language development in kindergarten children; and of the impact of mother's educational level on child's language ability and television-viewing habits. Details…

In two experiments, mothers told their infant and an adult a story that involved target words, and women taught an assembly procedure involving novel terminology to another adult. In speech to infants, mothers positioned focused words on pitch peaks, but in speech to adults, the emphasis was more variable. (BC)

Analyzed "if" sentences in conversations in the homes and preschools of four-year-old children. Parents and teachers used "if" more often than did children. Children and parents did not differ in the proportion of "ifs" that had the linguistic properties of a conditional premise. (BC)

Studied the relationship of family background and child care quality to preschoolers' cognitive, language, and social development. Concluded that family background variables were significant predictors of children's cognitive and language development, and that child care quality variables significantly predicted social adjustment and were a…

This paper discusses language in use, focusing on English, including definitions of language as well as how it has been and how it should be taught inside and outside the classroom. Impact of this information on the process of evaluation of hearing-impaired students' language is also considered. (Author/PB)

Suggests that sociolinguistic knowledge is realized from the beginning of language use. The roles of formulaic language and of interactional consequences are described as explanations for the acquisition of style-switching. (30 references) (Author/JL)