Examines the slow growth of a body of knowledge about how information can best be communicated without necessary reference to overt persuasion, from Henry Day's "Art of Rhetoric" through contemporary explanatory rhetoric. (FL)

Describes the related processes of metaphoric production and comprehension as they are represented by students in the five-to-eleven year age range. Offers guidelines for incorporating the exploration of metaphor in elementary school language programs. (HTH)

This paper is an invitation to critically engage in the discussion of "indigenous knowledges" and the implication for academic decolonization. Among the issues raised are questions of the definition and operationalization of indigenous knowledges and the challenges of pursuing such knowledge in the western academy. The paper draws…

Every spoken linguistic system shared by a community has structurally related regional variants. For example, the variant of the present day French for "soixante-dix" is "septante" in eastern France, Belgium, and the French-speaking community of Switzerland. This suggests that Proto-Romance has regionalisms. Using the…

People explore their world in many ways: they observe, they read, they ponder, they write, they listen. They also turn to others and intentionally engage them in their own attempts to understand. It is this turning-to-others that is the focus of this book, with reference to children. An act of inquiry is defined in the book as "a language act…

Describes writing as a technology that changes thought processes and verbal expression and suggests that language and literature teachers become familiar with the processes of primary orality and literacy. (AEA)

Concludes that not all functions of oral language develop to the same extent in readers and nonreaders and that this is not related solely to IQ. (FL)

Discusses comparative analysis of spoken and written versions of a narrative to demonstrate that features which have been identified as characterizing oral discourse are also found in written discourse and that the written short story combines syntactic complexity expected in writing with features which create involvement expected in speaking.…

Presents data on frequency of use of "ritualized speech" and "sociocentric" and "egocentric" phrases in middle- and working-class adolescents. Results show no overall social class differences but two classes differ from student speakers. Suggests differences in speech patterns may be determined by "local"…

Examines the linguistic experimentation of children in three different age groups by means of their use of word games. (HTH)

Results of a study of 38 preschool children observed and videotaped during performance on a jigsaw-puzzle task indicate that puzzle solutions accompanied by a high rate of verbalizations were judged as more proficient, solved with a high rate of puzzle-solving moves, and completed in a shorter period of time. (Author/RH)

Examines the different spoken conditional verb forms used with reference to future time as manifested in the speech habits of those Mexican Americans living in Houston. The frequency with which certain variant forms appear indicates a definite trend in the evolution of linguistic change. Within this linguistic context, the imperfect subjunctive…

This study was designed to analyze the use of communication strategies, particularly circumlocution, by speakers at the intermediate high and advanced levels of oral proficiency in Spanish. Analysis of learner discourse found that advanced speakers, more than intermediate high speakers, rely on a range of second-language-based strategies that…

Examines acquisition of the Philadelphian short "a" by 3- and 4-year-old children. Despite the complexity, the children generally matched the short "a" distribution of both their parents and adult Philadelphians interviewed in the mid-1970s. Results indicate that even the youngest community members are actively participating in…

Examines onset, atrophy, and possible interaction of a set of patterns in the speech of a child acquiring French and English. Examines how data bear on the question of whether the bilingual child has two distinct production phonologies from the earliest stage. Tests recent claims consonant harmony patterns. (Author/VWL)