THE WRITTEN AND SPOKEN LANGUAGE STRUCTURE OF FOURTH- AND SIXTH-GRADERS WAS ANALYZED TO DETERMINE THE INFLUENCE OF CERTAIN VARIABLES. DATA WERE OBTAINED FOR 300 CHILDREN WHO WERE ORGANIZED INTO 3 GROUPS--WHITE CHILDREN IN GRADES 4 AND 6, AND NEGRO CHILDREN IN GRADE 4. COMPARISONS WERE MADE BETWEEN THE LANGUAGE OF THE GROUPS, TYPES, SEX, GRADES, TEXTS, AND REGIONS. SCORES FROM A VARIETY OF MEASURING DEVICES WERE ANALYZED. THE RESULTS REVEALED THAT MOST CHILDREN USED BASIC LANGUAGE STRUCTURES, AND THAT THE LANGUAGE STRUCTURES USED BY CHILDREN ARE RELATED TO THE PURPOSES OF THE CHILDREN AND THE REGION FROM WHERE THEY COME. IT WAS CONCLUDED THAT TEXTBOOKS DO NOT USE LANGUAGE THAT IS MUCH SUPERIOR TO THE SPEECH USED BY CHILDREN. (RS)