THIS STUDY INVESTIGATED THE EFFECT OF CERTAIN ORAL-AURAL-VISUAL (OAV) STIMULI PROCEDURES ON DEVELOPMENT OF ACHIEVEMENT IN WRITTEN COMPOSITION (AND OTHER ENGLISH SKILLS) OF NINTH-GRADE STUDENTS IN BURRIS LABORATORY SCHOOL, BALL STATE UNIVERSITY. THE STUDY WAS BASED ON THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE PROFICIENT WRITER SAYS AND HEARS AT A SUB-VOCAL LEVEL WHAT HE IS WRITING, AND IN THE PROCESS OF PRODUCING ACCEPTABLE WRITING HE TESTS WHAT HE WRITES AGAINST HIS INGRAINED VERBAL PATTERNS. THE OAV PROCEDURES, DEVISED TO PERMIT THE STUDENT TO REINFORCE THE PROCESS OF WRITING WITH HIS EAR, DEPEND ON USE OF TAPE RECORDERS AND OVERHEAD PROJECTORS. A YEAR'S STUDY USING A PRETEST-POSTTEST CONTROL GROUP EXPERIMENTAL GROUP DESIGN, RESULTED IN SIGNIFICANT MEAN GAINS IN WRITING, READING, LISTENING, AND ENGLISH USAGE. A SECOND YEAR'S STUDY, WITH STUDENTS STRATIFIED BY UPPER, MIDDLE, AND LOWER ABILITY LEVELS, REVEALED THAT OAV-TAUGHT STUDENTS HAD CONSIDERABLY HIGHER MEAN ACHIEVEMENT SCORES THAN COMPARABLE MEAN SCORES GIVEN IN NORM DATA FOR THE TESTS USED. THE OAV APPROACH SEEMED TO BE EQUALLY EFFECTIVE AT ALL ABILITY LEVELS. RATING OF SAMPLE COMPOSITIONS WITH AN EXPERIMENTAL EDUCATIONAL TESTING SERVICE RATING FORM PROVED INCONCLUSIVE FOR BOTH STUDY YEARS. EVIDENCE GATHERED DOES NOT SUGGEST THE OAV PROCEDURES HAVE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENTIAL ATTITUDINAL EFFECT. THE GENERALLY POSITIVE RESULTS OF THIS STUDY INDICATE OAV PROCEDURES ARE A PROMISING TEACHING APPROACH. (AUTHOR)