The main concern of this report is the nature of the reliance by children on prior native language (L1) knowledge in naturalistic, untutored second language (L2) acquisition. It is suggested that L1 reliance is systematic, in that specific conditions have to be met within the child's L2 development before he or she will, or can, draw on previous…

Studies conducted with middle-class balanced bilinguals in "additive" environments, where both languages are prestigious, have generally reported that bilinguals showed a higher level of cognitive performance than monolinguals. In these studies, bilinguals showed higher levels of general intellectual skills, higher levels of divergent thinking, a…

This issue of The Journal of Social Issues is devoted to nine articles on the topic of bilingualism written by authorities in the fields of linguistics, anthropology, sociology, psychology, and education. The authors and their topics are: (1) Dell Hymes, "Models of the Interaction between Language and Social Setting," (2) Joshua A. Fishman,…

An empirical study of the way children talk about art experiences is described and the meaning of this talk in terms of the cognition it represents is investigated. The criteria serving as the basis for creation of content analysis categories are subject matter, sensory elements, formal properties, technical competence, expressive elements,…

It is the task of educational linguistics to describe and analyze language education in all aspects. With respect to the Navajo Reading Study, it is within the realm of educational linguistics to develop and make available information that will permit the Navaho people, working through their own institutions, to make informed decisions about…

This evaluation report presents the details and results of an experimental, compensatory language program designed to improve the standard English language facility of young aboriginal children on the assumption that this would contribute to improvement in reading and other aspects of academic performance. The pilot program was administered during…

The bilingual education program in a given community should be based on a sociolinguistic assessment of that community, and community members should be involved in assessing the surrounding bilingual reality and in deciding whether they wish to mirror that reality in the biliteracy program. This paper presents alternatives for bilingual programs…

The purpose of this study was to develop a method for assessing aspects of the cognitive functioning of young children from their symbolic play. Subjects were 60 children, aged 3 to 5 years, from middle-class and lower-class families. The study was conducted in two phases, with the following objectives: (1) to identify and analyze aspects of…

This article argues that courses in linguistics should be included in all teacher training programs, whether the students are training to be general teachers or language teachers specializing in Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL) or Foreign Languages in the Elementary School (FLES). Details of lectures and assignments for two topics,…

Children from the German minority in Denmark were studied as part of a longitudinal sociolinguistic research project. Most spoke the Jutland (a Danish) dialect and picked up German as a second language when they started preschool, resulting in code-switching and interference in some cases, which appear to be manifestations of linguistic creativity…

The parameter-setting model of universal grammar provides a basis for integrating two theories of second language acquisition: contrastive analysis and creative construction. The elicited responses of adult native speakers of Spanish and adult native speakers of Japanese were examined. The head-initial/head-final parameter was the principle…

Compared caregiver-child discourse surrounding information and narrative picture books with twelve 4-year-olds. Found that discourse surrounding the informational book was greater in quantity than for the picture book, and contained more cognitively demanding questions, more conditional clauses, and more interactions involving reasoning and…

Originally developed as part of a project for the Department of Defense Schools (DoDDS) system, this learning package on language learning and the young child is designed for teachers who wish to upgrade or expand their teaching skills on their own. The package includes an overview of the project; a comprehensive search of the ERIC database; a…

One of four packets designed to help day care providers work with handicapped children and their parents, the booklet describes a workshop aimed at stimulating children's language. The workshop centers on the Preschool Group Evaluation Checklist which assesses the following factors in group language experience: role of the adult (verbal…

Several studies have begun to investigate the claim that children can make most phonological discriminations when they begin to speak. This paper investigates how well children aged 2;3 to 2;11 can discriminate between pairs of minimally different real words, and it shows that the results are affected by how well the children know the words. It is…