The purposes of this study were to determine (1) whether there is a developmental sequence in children's acquisition of metalinguistic abilities and (2) whether the acquisition of these abilities is related to Piagetian operations. Word awareness served as the measure of metalinguistic ability. An attempt was also made to determine whether the…

Photographs and anecdotal narratives tell stories of concept and language learning by six deaf four-year-old children. Through the misfortune of deafness it was possible to study some matters of learning and communication which involve only the language of action. The author also makes observations about the principle of choice as it contributes…

A definition of bilingualism can include speakers of different languages as well as those who speak several dialects or several sub-varieties of dialects in the same language. Most speakers are able to practice code-switching, whether it is from language to language or dialect to dialect, and the processes involved in such a capability may be the…

This paper explores the questions of how and why children learn names for things. The acquisition of reference is set within a broader discussion of linguistic representation, which defines language as a system functioning in a three-way relationship among the individual language user, the world of experience, and the social community. It is…

This book presents some language studies which have been conducted with children from lower socioeconomic and minority groups over the past four years (1972-1976). These and other studies indicate that children who live in poverty can succeed in school and that, when these children do not succeed, it is due more to a failure of the school to…

The purpose of this study was to synthesize a category system for observation of communicative functions in children's speech and to test that category system by recording observations of interactions within a first-grade classroom. The observation system which was designed attempts to account for all factors of a communication situation and to…

This paper reports on a study of the acquisition of subject and object relative clauses by monolingual French speaking children aged 4-10 years, in Rimouski, Quebec. The children were tested for their comprehension of six types of relative sentences. A coordinate sentence control test was administered. An adult control group was also tested on the…

The diagnostic problem presented by children without obvious neurological, cognitive, genetic, emotional or environmental basis for their atypical or delayed language development is discussed. One unresolved issue is whether the deficits of such dysphasic children are linguistic or are more fundamental cognitive or perceptuomotor deficits. A…

In dealing with children's language, this document provides a picture of how language is considered in child development, how children differ in their use of language, and how attitudes about children's language tend to be developed. The document may be used for any inservice program on children's speech (directly observable vocal behaviors),…

This paper outlines the syntactic structures which represent a stage in the cognitive development of children, and focusses on an aspect of cognitive development known as conservation. The cognitive components of conservation are presented as the primordial base for the set of syntactic structures which map or mirror them. Piaget proposed four…

In this study wordless picture books were used to assess cultural differences in three groups of children. (MKM)

Parent support teams can provide help to parents during the crucial early years of children's language development. (MKM)

Based on a study of 50 children between the ages of 3;0 and 5;6, the reasons for the differential difficulty of various forms of "who,""why,""when," and "how" questions are postulated. (EJS)

A comparison of three models of language learning: the Creative Construction Hypothesis, the Interlanguage Hypothesis and The Approximate Systems Model. Evidence is provided to support the hypothesis that the third model which incorporates both functional and linguistic analysis describes second language learning and explains why learners progress…

A description of language acquisition and second language learning by adults in terms of method and achievement. Some socio-psychological and neurophysiological reasons for the possible differences between children and adults are briefly discussed. There is a sizable bibliography. (AMH)