Sociolinguistic attitudes of 160 high school students, 160 parents or other adults, and 40 high school teachers were studied through questionnaires administered in four South Carolina schools. Results indicated that a majority of students and teachers felt that dialect differences interfere with communication in the classroom, but that eradication…

This study investigated the interrelationship of articulation and receptive and expressive language performance by 306 children in kindergarten and first and second grade in Fort Collins, Colorado, with regard to age, sex, and socioeconomic level. Fifty-one males and 51 females from the sample group were tested on three pairs of tests: the Arizona…

This study compared the vocabulary of the period from 1943 to 1945 to the vocabulary of 1975. In addition to a direct comparison of word use, an indirect comparison was made using Thorndike's word list in the "Teacher's Word Book" (1931). The 1975 vocabulary, based on frequency of word appearance, was derived from 93 speeches made by students in…

This study examines linguistic form and communication style in working-class and middle-class black preachers of two types: those who are not seminary trained, who preach spontaneously, and those who are seminary trained, who read from a prepared text. Ten sermons were tape-recorded in natural settings at two churches in Washington, D.C. Analyses…

The purposes of this study were to develop an informal language inventory for classroom teachers to use in screening a child's speech, to have classroom teachers use the inventory with students to determine if they could use it, and to determine if teachers would use the assessment form after they had had some experience with it. The development…

The purpose of this study was to measure the extent to which 121 Kansas elementary school students in grades one, three, and six understood masculine generic nouns to include females. An original measurement instrument was constructed which consisted of two forms, identical with regard to pictures and format but differing in the inclusion of…

The primary goal of the present study is an exposition of the structure of Mam, a Mayan language of the Mamean group. Mam is the most widely spoken of the four Mamean languages, and has been roughly estimated to have a quarter million speakers located in the departments of Huehuetenango and San Marcos in Guatemala and in the state of Chiapas in…

This study examines those factors that have contributed to the introduction and development of the teaching of English in the Philippine educational system. By virtue of its educational policy, the American colonial administration started using it as a medium of instruction. Optimism ran high among Filipino leaders, especially the nationalists,…

In speaking a child sometimes makes constructions in which a sequence of separate utterances expresses a semantic relation not expressed by either utterance. These "vertical constructions" are the main point of this study. Previous studies of construction in child language have largely dealt with sentences. In this study, sentences are…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects that an instructional program in Black English would have on the acquisition of knowledge of Black English phonology and grammar by teacher participants, and the attitudes of teacher participants toward the speakers of Black English. The sample consisted of two groups from the same basic…

The variety of language produced in school was examined with regard to the functions for which children use language and to elements of the context, emphasizing activities in which children engage and the expectations held by teachers and children. Language data was gathered from twelve children who wore a concealed, wireless recorder and were…

A review of the literature on Black English was made to determine what information is available and to assess the credibility of the information. The review covered the years from 1865 through the first half of 1975. More than 75 documents were identified as potentially informative in the area of investigation. The linguistic features of Black…

Twenty-four English speakers from various regions of India were tested for the intelligibility of their speech. Recordings of speech in a variety of contexts were evaluated by listeners from the United Kingdom, the United States, Nigeria, and Germany. On the basis of the resulting intelligibility scores, factors which tend to hinder…

A study analyzed the use of Basque and Spanish by 36 bilingual teenagers enrolled in a Basque school in Spain, based on results of a survey. The history and present situation of the Basque language are outlined, and the importance of the revival of the Basque language by those who learn it in school is highlighted. Complete technical data from the…

This work is intended to find replies to practical questions, such as how well native speakers of Spanish are decoded by native speakers of English, which errors interfere with decoding by the listener, and what the implications of the study might be for teaching. Fifteen Chileans were asked to tell stories in English, and several panels of native…