Sex differences in cerebral organization and functioning, and the apparent superiority of males in spatial ability are examined in this paper. Attention is given to several kinds of cognitive and perceptual tasks in which sex differences in spatial ability have been shown to exist; among these are tasks involving: (1) recall and detection of…

An ESEA Title III project in language arts, this program emphasizes instruction tailored to the individual learner's needs. In the fall of 1974, Southside Elementary School, Crestview, Florida, adopted the program which is described and evaluated in this paper. Program components include team teaching in an open space classroom; the use of…

This is a study of the processes involved in second language learning in which the principal subject was an Iranian child who learned English in the United States without formal instruction. Some of the questions dealt with in this study include: what motivates language learning in a child; what makes the linguistic structure of a language more or…

This article reviews the relationship between ethnicity and early academic success and examines the rationales of several ethnic groups for the education of their young children. An implication is made that "all" American children reflect cultural group diversity. It is recommended that early childhood educational programs should be…

The author considers the issues of linguistic diversity (distribution of variation within communities) and linguistic distance (degree of variation between varieties within a system or between variety systems). He seeks to emphasize the usefulness for further development of distance studies of the concept of language area (Sprachbund), the…

This paper summarizes the findings of three studies used to develop a language assessment instrument and to explore the relationships between language, cognitive development, and reading achievement in poor children. A sentence repetition task provided scores for function word omission, function word correct and reconstruction word correct. These…

An overview of Noam Chomsky's theories about transformational grammar and phonology is given. Since Chomsky was interested in characterizing what it is to know a language, the ways in which we demonstrate knowledge of our native language are discussed in detail. Particular emphasis is placed on describing how the transformational approach actually…

Although there is a proliferation of educational programs aimed at improving language, there have been only meager attempts to produce measures for diagnostic and evaluative purposes. The project herein described is an attempt to devise a test that could be used: (1) to identify specific speech deviations of black ghetto students in order that…

Essential considerations about non-standard usage and developmental-educational needs of disadvantaged children between the ages of three and five years are discussed along with the ideal roles of teacher, paraprofessional, and parent in developing language programs. Means for designing and outlining a language development program for teaching…

Few instruments have been developed for evaluation of expressive vocabulary in early childhood. This project attempted to develop an instrument sufficiently structured to call forth appropriate verbalization yet varied enough to elicit a wide range of responses, and to use the instrument to test whether socioeconomic class groupings can be…

These transcriptions of children living in a suburb of Paris represent and illustrate linguistic behavior and interests of the average nine-year-old French child. Seventy-nine children in groups of three were recorded in 30-minute periods of free conversation and 10-minute periods of play. Analysis reveals more than 30 centers of interest which…

The present level of understanding of the psycholinguistic processes and capacities underlying the child's acquisition of language is reviewed in this publication. In the first chapter, linguistic theories, biological characteristics of language learning, and the distinctions between language competence and language performance are discussed. The…

Bilingual education projects utilizing various literary genres--fables, folk, and animal tales--as the stimuli for written and oral English activities have aided Mexican-American children in overcoming English language handicaps. During the three summers such an English program was undertaken with children from a Mexican-American disadvantaged…

This study analyzed the vocabulary, listening, speaking, and pre-reading skills of a kindergarten class to identify the factors contributing to language development and the interrelationship of children's language skills. The 21 children were tested individually three times during the year, and case studies were compiled from monthly language…

This book is concerned with language as it is used by the teacher, as it affects the learner, and as it can function to integrate the curriculum. Douglas Barnes, in "Language in the Secondary Classroom," discusses the student-teacher language interaction in 12 sample lessons, and analyzes the importance upon student learning of the languages used…