This study attempts to determine relationships between the home experience and English language abilities of first grade children from three ethnic groups of varying socioeconomic status (SES) and degrees of bilingualism. The sample consisted of 155 first graders from Navajo and Pueblo Indian communities and from rural Spanish American homes who…

It has recently been noted that Negro children, especially those of lower socioeconomic status, have a language system whose phonological and grammatical rules differ in predictable ways from the rules governing the standard English used by most white Americans. Four features of Negro non- standard American English have been noted with predictable…

This report evaluates California's ESEA Title I compensatory education program for 1969-70 and disseminates the results of activities designed to strengthen the educational programs for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. While most of these activities were planned for those disadvantaged youngsters regularly enrolled in grades K-6,…

The ideas expressed in the major speeches and by the 29 discussion groups at the 1972 conference of the Illinois Association of Teachers of English are summarized in this publication. The theme of the conference was "Reading, 1972." The speeches and discussions covered a wide variety of reading and reading-related English and language…

A curriculum guide for the language arts program, grades kindergarten through 6, of the Darien, Connecticut, Public Schools is provided. The guide contains the following sections, which are color coded to indicate whether they are appropriate for Grades kindergarten through 6, kindergarten through 3, or grades 4 through 6: (1) The Student Centered…

This investigation sought to learn about the oral and written language behavior of students from kindergarten age through grade 7, and to determine the validity of different analytic techniques for measuring children's development in control of syntax. Language samples were collected from 180 children (grades K-3, 5, and 7) by having the children…

The designation of the Japanese word class "joshi" (in English known as particles, post-positional case markers, or relationals) by the term te-ni-wo-ha can be traced to the early superimposition of the Chinese writing system on Japanese speech. Because of the structural differences between the two languages and the existence of elements in…

This paperback looks at the problem of linguistic deprivation, a problem which is compounded by the restricted opportunities for language development in the schools, even those using modern and innovative methods. Chapter one looks at the contexts at home and school where the child acquires the linguistic tools he needs, and thereby sheds light on…

This article provides a discussion of current topics in psycholinguistics and of the current research on these problems. The author discusses current thought on the biological foundations of language and the problem of universals. If human language is a species-particular achievement contingent upon a biological endowment, there should be certain…

The purposes of the Huntsville-Madison County Education Improvement Program were: (1) to develop and demonstrate a curriculum that would improve and enrich the skills, attitudes and thinking processes of the disadvantaged preschool child; (2) to develop in-service programs that would afford teachers and other personnel better understanding of the…

The language skills category of objectives of the Appalachia Preschool Education Program as measured by the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA), is discussed. The point is made that one of the difficulties associated with evaluating language development is the loose fit between available theoretical and operational definitions of…

In India, the use of language dialect and style, like many aspects of Indian thought and life, follows a continuum from the ritually pure and worthy of respect to the ritually defiled and unworthy. In North India, according to adult informants, Hindi is spoken at school, in formal business contacts or government offices, in formal ceremonies; it…

This paper points out some linguistic and stylistic features of Black English as spoken by children and discusses the occurrence of particular language patterns. Examples of distinct intonation patterns, paralinguistic effects, language rhythm, and other phonological features are all considered. A statistical survey of particular age-group usage…

This paper considers a number of diverse contexts in which English is learned as a second language and in which nonstandard dialects arise because of social and linguistic factors. The varieties considered here are immigrant English, indigenous-minority varieties of English, pidginization and creolization, local varieties of non-native English,…

This study is concerned with the acquisition of social awareness of language differences in preschool children, particularly their awareness of the differences between black and standard English (BE and SE). Awareness is defined as a type of sociolinguistic perception involving three related abilities: (1) discrimination (the ability to…