Provides a statistical portrait of residents of the United States who speak a language other than English, including the degree of their fluency in English. The analysis is based on the microdata files from the 1990 Census of Population. The data reveal that a continuation of current migration patterns will result in both linguistic concentration…

Uses experimental and control group data to show that students' correction of grammatical and lexical error between assignments reduces such error in subsequent writing over he semester without reducing fluency or quality. Further examines how error correction should be done. (Author/VWL)

The "fourth grade slump" in reading comprehension still exists. Among poor children, low comprehension ruins their chances for academic success. Among all children, comprehension scores are stagnant. Research indicates that key to both problems is systematically building children's vocabulary, fluency, and domain knowledge. To improve reading,…

Production of complex sentences was studied in two men with agrammatic aphasia. The influence of training question production (wh)-movement structures on untrained wh-movement structures and on noun phrases (NP)-movement structures was investigated. Results indicate that movement to an argument position, as in NP-movement, is distinct from a…

Examines the effects of English language proficiency and levels of reasoning skills of Hispanic English language learners and native English language speaking students on their acquisition of science content knowledge as measured by a state-wide standardized science test. Suggests that the levels of English language proficiency appear to influence…

A study examined the ability of 10 two-year-olds to produce minimal pairs of novel trisyllabic words with primary stress on the first or second syllables. The syllables contained dissimilar or similar vowel contrasts to determine if segments affected omission. Omission was more frequent for the first syllable of weak-strong-weak word pairs.…

The semantic differential technique was used to reveal the dimensions describing 4 adults' judgments of 140 conversation samples involving preschool-aged children. Analysis of the association between six speech/language behaviors and judgments on dynamism, maturity, and appeal found that level of phonological accuracy was the only speech/language…

The editor of a treatise encouraging the use of American Sign Language for both school and home instruction and communication with the deaf discusses the instructional trends leading to the theory, differences between the suggested instructional methods and previously used methods, and responses to the treatise. (10 references) (CB)

Finds that, among 544 fourth-sixth graders, Chinese-Americans identified as fluent English proficient or reclassified as such after bilingual education equaled or surpassed non-minority classmates in reading, language, and mathematics achievement scores, but showed intragroup differences by socioeconomic status, point of origin, dialect, and years…

A multilanguage project for development of a foreign-language curriculum is reported along with the teaching method that has evolved from it. The method is represented primarily in a set of "mini-courses," each being a short introduction to a given language. (Contains 34 references.) (Author/LB)

This article presents a survey and analysis of Examiners' Reports on French written papers, looking specifically at difficulties in using verbs appropriately. It draws on evidence from second-language acquisition research to determine the nature of the problem and hypothesizes links between the decline in written accuracy and the rise in oral…

The nativelike linguistic competence of an adult second-language learner of Egyptian Arabic who was first exposed to the target language after the close of the critical period is examined to determine what factors differentiate her from less successful naturalistic adult acquirers. The role of internalized grammar is discussed. (Contains 43…

The speech of a sample of Chinese and Korean nonnative speakers of English (n=30) was evaluated by raters of the Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit (SPEAK) for a degree of fluency and by a computerized silent-pause-detection program. (35 references) (JL)

Hyperfluency, defined as discourse that is inappropriate and incompetent in the target audience's estimation, and its relationship to composition pedagogy are discussed. It is argued that hyperfluency can signal the growth of an individual's linguistic resources. (16 references) (Author/LB)

This study of 20 stuttering and 20 nonstuttering preschool children found that stuttering children scored lower on 7 out of 8 language measures, with no significant intergroup differences on articulation proficiency or fluency. There were few significant correlations between measures of stuttering rate, speaking rate, and language performance…