THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO COMPARE SENTENCE-COMBINING TECHNIQUES OF PUPILS USING THE INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET (I.T.A.) WITH THE TECHNIQUES OF PUPILS USING TRADITIONAL ORTHOGRAPHY (T.O.). THE INVESTIGATION CONSIDERED--(1) WHETHER I.T.A. PROVIDES A LINGUISTIC ADVANTAGE IN THE WAY PUPILS ADD GRAMMATICALLY TO THEIR SENTENCES, (2) WHETHER THERE IS EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT HOW THE BASIC TEXTS READ BY PUPILS MAY INFLUENCE THEIR CORRECT USE OF GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES, (3) WHAT THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ORAL AND WRITTEN RESPONSES SUGGEST ABOUT PUPILS' ACQUISITION OF SYNTACTIC CONTROL, AND (4) WHETHER BOYS' AND GIRLS' RESPONSES DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX FIRST-GRADE, WHITE STUDENTS OF ABOVE-AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE, ACHIEVEMENT, AND SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS WERE SUBJECTS IN THE STUDY. APPROXIMATELY 300 WORDS WERE COLLECTED FROM THE WRITING OF EACH PUPIL, AND AN APPROXIMATELY EQUAL NUMBER OF WORDS WAS COLLECTED FROM THE ORAL RESPONSES OF 60 RANDOMLY-SELECTED STUDENTS AMONG THESE SUBJECTS. TRANSFORMATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE ORAL RESPONSES INDICATED NO SIGNIFICANT VARIATION BETWEEN THE I.T.A. AND T.O. GROUPS IN THE USE OF SENTENCE-COMBINING TRANSFORMATIONS. HOWEVER, ANALYSIS OF THE I.T.A. GROUP'S WRITTEN RESPONSES REVEALED ADVANTAGES IN SENTENCE COMBINING--(1) FEWER SENTENCES CONJOINED AND "AND," (2) SLIGHTLY MORE EMBEDDINGS OF TRANSFORMS WITH DELETIONS, AND (3) SIGNIFICANTLY FEWER FAILURES PER 100 SENTENCE-COMBINING TRANSFORMATIONS. THE GREATER GRAMMATICAL DENSITY OF CLAUSES IN THE TEXTS USED BY THE I.T.A. GROUP PROBABLY AIDED BY PUPILS IN ACQUIRING THE LATTER TWO ADVANTAGES. MODIFIERS, PREDICATES, T-UNITS CONNECTED BY "AND," GENITIVES AND COORDINATES OF NOUNS WERE USED MOST FREQUENTLY IN BOTH THE SPEECH AND WRITING RESPONSES OF BOTH GROUPS, INDICATING EARLY ACQUISITION AND MASTERY OF THESE FORMS. NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN SENTENCE-COMBINING TECHNIQUES WERE FOUND BETWEEN THE BOYS' AND THE GIRLS' RESPONSES. (RD)