This report describes the steps by which ethnographic literature was explored for cross-cultural differences in the role of language with particular reference to its acquisition and use by children. The exploration is put in the context of ongoing work in the development of a systematic guide to field studies of this sort. A principal effort of…

This study was conducted to explore the ability of children (6 to 12 years of age) to understand certain relatively complex relationships as they are commonly signaled syntactically in our language. It was hypothesized that development in language performance during this age range was, in some measure, a function of a growing ability to comprehend…

The eight articles in this volume reflect the increased tendency in recent years to consider problems of language acquisition and language pathology in the context of basic research and theory. They also reflect the two major approaches to language development: the transformational-linguistic approach which puts its emphasis on an innate…

Noam Chomsky's numerous criticisms of formerly well-accepted beliefs about the nature of language learning (e.g. in his review of Skinner's "Verbal Behavior") have led to a diversity of views regarding the potential application of transformational theory to the teaching of English as a second language/dialect. It seems clear, moreover, that his…

The First Lincolnland Conference on Dialectology, held at Eastern Illinois University in March 1968, was attended by linguists and speech pathologists specializing in the areas of speech science, dialects, articulation disorders, language development and language disorders. The purposes of the conference were: (1) to review research dealing with…

The papers included in this publication were delivered at a conference initiated by the Centre for Information on Language Teaching in April 1971. Each of the four papers represents a distinct but related interest. The first, "The Language Barrier to Education" by B. Spolsky, examines sociological effects of differences between the language…

Assuming that an infant's first stage of verbal communication is melodic and the result of controlling the motion of the vocal cords, a question arises concerning the second stage in development. Is it the shaping of the oral cavity of the direction of the articulators? The author's observation of an infant through his first year of development…

This study hypothesized that recent experience with a set of words is a strong influence on selecting words in an appropriate context where other lexical items are equally available for selection, i.e., recency training should significantly increase the probability of occurrence of words chosen to fill gaps in structured sentences. Two experiments…

A manual concerned with communication and the development of communicative skills in general is presented. Specifically, it deals with the significance of speech in its relation to reading. The point is made that a child's awareness of self as an individual and as a worthy human being emerges in direct relation to this ability to express himself.…

The verbal discourse of Yakima children was examined. Conversations with nine Yakima and nine non-Indian children, ranging in age from 3 years 10 months to 5 years 11 months, were tape recorded. Four of the non-Indian children lived on the Yakima Reservation and attended the same preschool program as the Yakima children; the other five lived in…

Factor analysis accounts for most of the variance in adult ratings of concepts with adjectives. Affective reactions are present in young infants, but still to be explored is how the stable adult factor structure develops from these reactions. Three questions are investigated in this study: (1) is this factor structure present in 3- and…

In this paper early and later development of knowledge of syntactic structures and this development in language-disordered children are reviewed. Theories that have been presented to account for syntactic development (cognitive, cognitive-semantic and social-environmental) are discussed. Early developmental data indicate that there is not a…

This paper is concerned with the Aristotelian notion of "universal" as applied to phonological phenomena. It is claimed that speech production in children and adults, in normal and deviant speakers, and in a variety of languages, can all be described according to the same universal phonological rules which constitute the universal process of…

Examines the role of "routines" and grammatical patterns in first and second language acquisition by children and adults, specifically with regard to syntactic structures. (Author/AM)

Discusses the progress in the number of innovations and neutralizations in the pronominal system of Warlpiri, an aboriginal language spoken in central Australia. The changes are analyzed by age-group usage, and patterns of the changes are suggested. Part of a sample interview in presented. (Author/LMO)