Three characteristics of school writing activities that may make it difficult for students to learn to write with skill and enthusiasm are identified in this paper. They are: the solitary nature of most writing tasks, a lopsided emphasis on low-level details of text such as grammar and spelling, and the isolation of writing from reading in the…

Readings are presented on the topic of linguistic pluralism in the United States. A section on some speech communities in the United States introduces major American language varieties, and representative studies show the central role of language in the maintenance of community identity. The section on variation within speech communities focuses…

This paper discusses the role of attention to uncertainty in mediating the transition from sensorimotor activity to language. It is proposed that language from the very beginning is used to resolve uncertainty by selectively marking points of change, deviation from the familiar or choice from among alternatives. Several research findings are…

Based on an examination of research on the language acquisition of children, the articles in this book are organized into three interrelated sections. Section one, "Language and the Young Language Learner," focuses on what and how children learn as they begin to acquire their language. The topic of language differences is also explored. Articles…

The formal and substantive traits of the television program, "60 Minutes" reflect characteristics manifest in Daniel Boorstin's conception of the "pseudo-event." Through both the verbal and visual imagery presented in the context of a narrative format, this television news magazine illustrates the significance of mass media…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether teachers of English in Florida agree with one another on the status of disputed items of English usage and whether the factors of sex, years of teaching experience, academic degree, and teaching level affect the attitudes of English teachers toward usage items. Analyses of data collected from 723…

To express that a degree of one event is conditioned by (or paralleled by) a degree of another, the "the...the..." construction with a comparative after each "the" is used. Examples include sentences such as: (1) the more dangerous mountains are to climb, the more challenging they are; (2) the more often a man has been in…

Recent studies of folk biology clearly reveal the detailed empirical knowledge of living things which is an important and characteristic element of pre-scientific cultures. This paper attempts a contribution to the study of such systems of knowledge by analyzing the comparable skills of a few American birdwatchers. The process of identification of…

The categorizations which humans make of the concrete world are not arbitrary but highly determined. In taxonomies of concrete objects, there is one level of abstraction at which the most basic category cuts are made. Basic categories are those which carry the most information, possess the highest category cue validity, and are, thus, the most…

In this analysis of prior knowledge and bilingual literacy, it is suggested that the basis upon which cognitive decisions are made and nonvisual inferences are drawn comes from the background knowledge that the reader possesses as tacit or prior knowledge. It is claimed that the only model that can account for the pluralistic nature of language is…

This study explored the relationships between parents' reports of their children's play with imaginary playmates at home and (1) observational ratings of children's imagination, positive emotionality, concentration, social behavior and use of language during free play at nursery school, and (2) parents' records of their children's television…

THIS ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE AS AN ESSENTIAL PART OF HUMAN LIVING TREATS THE PROBLEMS INVOLVED IN MAKING ACCURATE STATEMENTS ABOUT PEOPLE AND THE WORLD. LANGUAGE HABITS WHICH MISREPRESENT FACTS OF LIFE ARE DISCUSSED, AS WELL AS LANGUAGE HABITS WHICH PRODUCE "CORRECT-TO-FACT" EVALUATIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS. SUBJECTS OF CHAPTERS ARE (1) THE…

A 15-minute interview was conducted separately with 2 5th grade boys (1 Caucasian, 1 Negro) who were matched on IQ and 4 pupil characteristics; home background, personality, social behavior, and academic ability. A semantic differential scale was constructed for the 4 characteristics, and 5 disability labels were assigned to each child:…

This discussion delineates five criteria for judging the usefulness of linguistic and psycholinguistic theories. To be of value, a theory must suggest ways of teaching and evaluating language use, it must account both for the meaning of sentences in context and for meaning generated by the relationship between sentences in text, it must allow for…

This study incorporated a correlational methodology into an experimental context to determine the functional components of rehearsal strategies in children's discrimination learning. The subjects for this study were 120 fifth- and sixth-grade children attending two elementary schools located in middle-class areas of Ogden, Utah. According to the…