This textbook covers two years' work intended for grades seven and eight. The book is divided into approximately 150 carefully planned lessons for each year's work. These lessons are grouped into chapters, each composed of a series of related units that center on a common theme. The material on which conversation and written exercises are based…

Reviews the literature concerning the importance of a child's oral language in learning to read. (JM)

Considers the possibility of a relationship between oral language and reading. Includes an extensive list of references. (JM)

The evolution of lay literacy, the pervasive set of assumptions taken for granted by those who participate in a literate society, is traced from the 12th century. Research on the forms and assumptions of lay literacy over the change from an oral to a written to a computer society is urged. (MT)

Thirty-three kindergartners from two social classes were tested on an array of prereading and oral language skills. Prereading skills were found to be highly intercorrelated and to relate to ability to provide decontextualized definitions for words. Oral language measures of decontextualized skill correlated within task, but not across tasks. (PCB)

Suggests that code-switching is not only a neurolinguistic process but also a psychological phenomenon with substantial reference to personality structure and dynamics. The bilingual's personality as a "code-switcher" is tentatively defined. (Author/CB)

Compares the ways native and non-native speakers listen to English. Results indicated that native speakers could bias their listening from context but that non-native speakers could not. (CB)

Although "Received Pronunciation" (RP) has been recommended for years as the most suitable form of British English for first and second language instruction, it is not easiest nor most appropriate accent for foreigners to learn. Linguists, phoneticians, and teachers should overcome their fascination with the accent of elite minority and…

Analyzes data regarding children's early talk about past experiences, resulting from longitudinal home observations of five working-class mothers and their two-year-olds. Results indicate that children talked primarily of negative past events, especially those involving physical harm, and that during this period temporally-ordered sequences…

An examination of concerns about and suggestions for revising the ACTFL (American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages) Oral Proficiency Guidelines indicates that confirmatory empirical research and determination of the relative absence or presence of components are needed. (CB)

Argues that as long as classroom grammar is couched in vague or technical terms, it is not "basic" enough to help students with genuine literacy problems. Discusses how the grammar of students' speech can be sufficient for students' writing when properly brought to their conscious attention. (HTH)

Summarizes Huey's and Vygotsky's characterization of inner speech and posits that Vygotsky's description of the inner speech process is optimal for explaining the role of oral language in the reading process despite objections from psycholinguists regarding the disparity of speech between silent and oral reading. (FL)

Describe studies in which day-long recordings were made of nine-year-old children's spontaneous speech. Results indicate that: (1) children aged five to 15 speak some 20,000 words of discourse per day in about two to three hours of pure speaking time; (2) they have an active vocabulary of some 3,000 word-form types. (SED)

Analyzes several texts of Italian poetry to show that signs in poetic language are visual and that they may function independently of their relationship with spoken language. Maintains that poetic language is motivated in its visuality and that it is iconic in a fundamental way. (FL)

Describes an investigation into the relationship of schizophrenic thought disorder to measures of repetition that include phrase units, proximity of repetitions, and word frequencies to determine whether such measures distinguish schizophrenics from non-schizophrenics and to what extent they are associated with certain attributes of schizophrenia,…