The basic purpose of this study was to establish association values for nonsense words to be used in learning experiments with children from culturally-different backgrounds. Responses to 50 stimuli (44 nonsense and six real words) individually administered to 164 children from kindergarten, day care, and nursery school settings, representing two…

In an analysis of the research literature on specific teacher behaviors which focused on oral language or speaking, no studies were found which could meet fully the criteria proposed for inclusion. Sources of problems lay in (1) the absence of an explicit theory of language underlying the study or series of propositions; (2) the failure to get…

This inter-disciplinary approach to the subject of non-verbal communication includes essays by linguists, zoologists, psychologists, anthropologists and a drama critic. It begins with a theoretical analysis of communicative processes written from the perspective of a communications engineer, compares vocal communication in animals and man, and…

A study of the speech process was conducted. The process is described as one closely linked to the one involved in the problem of the serial order in behavior. It is pointed out that in the speech of young children the grammatical relations that are properties of elementary underlying sentences appear in the grammatical meanings. Six examples of…

In keeping with the objective of the Navajo Reading Study, to investigate the feasibility and effect of teaching Navajo children to read their own language first, it was decided that more needs to be known about Navajo children and the language they know. Thus, between October 1969 and June 1970, 22 adult Navajo interviewers recorded free…

Productive application of linguistics to the field of reading has made necessary the formulation, revision, and expansion of theories and models of reading to incorporate relationships among stimulus characteristics of writing systems and response components of phonological, morphological, syntactical, lexical, and affective systems. These…

Progress in an extensive, linguistically oriented program of research on child language development is reported. The ultimate purpose of the research is to contribute to a general theory of human language behavior; more immediate goals are the increased understanding of language development processes and improved characterizations of particular…

It is essential that language arts students in teacher education programs learn more than just facts about language, such as grammar, dialect, and so on. Future teachers must be taught how language, especially the child's language, affects the teacher, the child, and the child's achievement in school. These prospective teachers should learn what…

Spontaneous full passives and related constructions from 234 children aged 2;0 to 13;11 and elicited passives from 262 college students were analyzed. Full passives were classified as reversible (The dog was chased by the girl), instrumental non-reversible (The lamp was broken by [or with] the ball), or agentive non-reversible (The lamp was broken…

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 article discusses the psychology of second language learning, and specifically comments on Gantier's book on the teaching of foreign languages. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

Describes some of the research being done by the Center for the Study of Reading, a federally sponsored center established to pursue research into the processes underlying the development of reading comprehension by children in grades three through eight. (MKM)

Phonological development in children is described in terms of four stages; (1) preverbal vocalization and perception (birth to 1;0); (2) phonology of the first 50 words (1;0 to 1;6); (3) phonology of simple morphemes (1;6 to 4;0); and (4) completion of the phonetic inventory (4;0 to 7;0). (CTM)

The development and normal variability of children's speech is described, particularly in the periods of 18 to 24 months and 24 to 36 months. Vocabulary growth, speech articulation, and sentence construction (complexity and grammar) are major topics. Causes of speech problems are listed and a bibliography is included. (CTM)

Basal readers are supposed to be easy for children to read, but sometimes their language is so unnatural that it's more confusing than helpful. (MKM)