An overview of the economic policy, political structure, and four official languages of Switzerland is presented. The following topics are discussed: (1) economic expansion without natural resources, (2) linguistic diversity, (3) Swiss-German, and (4) politics and governmental organization. (PMP)

Samples of written language were collected from 140 congenitally deaf children at grade levels 3, 5, 7, and 9. The samples were then subjected to error, quantitative, and transformational analysis. Findings suggested a relationship between the order in which the deaf child acquires the rules of his language and the ordering of rules in a…

Two independent pilot studies in Britain investigated the effect of the Initial Teaching Alphabet (i.t.a.) on the creative expression and verbal skills in written composition of young children. The Staffordshire study compared a normal week's free compositions written by 54 children using the traditional alphabet with the compositions of a similar…

School children (N=218) who have not yet attained moderate reading fluency were tested for their awareness of a fundamental relationship between our writing system and speech: that the sounds of speech are represented in writing. Children were shown a long and short word written on a card (e.g., mow and motorcycle), and asked which word…

This paper presents a summary of the decisions made by the members of the Marianas Orthography Committee and contains recommendations and general rules for official and formal adoption into the writing system of the Chamorro language throughout the Mariana Islands. The committee presents the general rules with the hope that they will be followed…

The purpose of this study was to test whether it would be preferable to present acculturation materials to "chronically unemployed" blacks orally or visually (written). Two hypotheses were tested: (1) blacks with low reading skills who receive an oral version of acculturation materials will perform significantly better than similar…

Concern during the past decade with educational failures of urban Negro children suggested the need for empirical evidence demonstrating whether or not students use identical grammatical and stylistic structures in both speech and writing. Fourteen black, inner city junior high students, all of whom speak "black English," were interviewed for…

This second year volume of a 3-year course in Chinese includes a textbook, vocabulary, and character lists. A student workbook has also been designed (see FL 002 777 ). The text provided dialogues and practice in vocabulary, translation, questions, writing, and language patterns. Ideas for homework are also included. The book is divided into…

One hundred and ten college students, placed in 22 problem solving discussion groups, interacted for three fifty minute periods each. Three trained observers systematically recorded the interaction. Group members were classified as being task or socio-emotionally oriented and the functional leader in each group was identified by role category.…

The purpose of this study was to locate those measurable criteria of responsiveness to language which have not been utilized to any significant extent in standardized tests. The project involved creating a testing instrument, reviewing of the instrument by a panel of experts, and applying the resultant test to a small population of college…

The multiple choice technique can test written and oral comprehension and linguistic competence at beginning and intermediate levels. Examples of test items concerning sounds, stress, vocabulary, and structures are presented, and brief comments on the items are included. (SW)

Explores the social meaning of literacy in communities and suggests that elementary teachers can enhance literacy learning by linking writing instruction to the culture of the community as well as to the functions served by writing in the community. (SKC)

Teaching organizational strategies to language-disordered children can improve comprehension and formulation of written language. The semantic organizer approach involves activating and organizing prior knowledge, understanding text structure, and developing organizational strategies with both a verbal component and a graphic-structure component.…

Shows that native-speaking Arabic readers produce search functions that are radically different from the search functions of readers whose script uses the Roman alphabet (RAs). The processes used by Arabic readers are more akin to the processes used by RAs when searching arrays of shapes. (Author/LMO)

Examines how quantification is expressed in written English. Suggests ways of defining the categories of meanings a learner might need to be able to express and the linguistic devices used to realize these meanings. Categories of quantification are included. (Author/LMO)