This study elucidates specific contextual factors important to decentration. Verbal utterances of 24 dyads of children (aged 6) and adults while communicating in a standardized problem-solving situation were analyzed according to egocentric versus decentric language categories and compared to child-child dyads. (Author/BS)

Examines the effect of adult recasting in sign language on the acquisition of specific syntactic-semantic structures by deaf children aged 9 to 76 months. Results indicated that recasting triggered the acquisition of new syntactic-semantic structures in American Sign Language and English, evident in the spontaneous production of previously…

Describes a program adopted by five native Indian bands in British Columbia in which parents promote their children's early language and reading skills in the home. (FL)

Presents a psycholinguistic analysis of young children's performance in Japanese before, during, and after a two-month stay in Japan from the perspective of Vygotsky and the Soviet school of psycholinguistics. Looks at the social function of their utterances, the types of regulation involved, and strategic functions that may be intended. (SED)

Concludes that providing black children with the inspiration, correct environment, and materials can allow them to express themselves in the ways they know best. Offers suggestions for teachers working with dialect speakers and a list of reading materials. (FL)

Concludes that children's discourse production is organized according to a schema that is discourse specific but modality general. (FL)

This original comparative study explores two central questions in the study of first language acquisition: What is the relative impact of structural and functional determinants? What is universal versus language-specific during development? The study addresses these questions in three domains of child language: reference to entities, the…

Reports on a study to validate the use of the Picture Potency Formula for predicting the extent to which pictures will stimulate story production. Twenty-four children were asked to tell stories about pictures rated by the formula as being high, medium, and low potency pictures. Discusses potential uses for the formula. (FL)

The connections between language, reading, and cognitive development are considered, along with a method of teaching reading to young hearing impaired children. Principles underlying the Mount Gravatt Research Project in Australia that developed language based reading books for normally hearing children (2.5 to 6.5 years old) are examined. (SEW)

Explores the relationship between early speaking and writing skills by investigating how children use referential ties (personal pronouns, demonstratives, and comparatives) to build coherence in their oral and written stories. Discusses findings and implications for developing children's communicative competency. (PD)

Discusses a model for teaching reading and writing in which skilled language users provide support for new language activities in context. Gives examples of typical classroom activities that provide too little or too much support for natural language growth and of activities with a balanced instructional "scaffolding." (HTH)

Reports an investigation of the most appropriate tutorial setting for the generation of natural urban child language for experience stories. Concludes that the condition that tapped the most profuse linguistic performance for student-created reading material among Black sixth grade students was tutoring by a White adult professional teacher. (FL)

Five educational leaders--Millie Almy, Carolyn Burke, Jean Berko Gleason, Donald M. Murray, and Neil Postman--offer reflections on significant developments of the 1970s in the areas of reading and writing, their hopes for the 1980s, and references that constitute required reading for elementary language arts teachers. (ET)

Presents evidence revealing the complexity of young children's language understandings with regard to spelling patterns, parts of speech, and vocabulary; points out that teachers must build upon the language knowledge that children bring to school. (GT)

The development of German proficiency by a three-year-old Australian boy living in Germany was monitored for a five-month period. His command of German negation is reported. The study is seen as bearing on issues in first and second language acquisition, such as competence and interference. (JB)