The study reported in this dissertation was conducted with the cooperation of the San Antonio Independent School District as part of the Language Research Project (formerly the San Antonio Language Research Project), Department of Curriculum and Instruction, the University of Texas. (For the author's descriptive abstract of the project, see AL 002 445.) Chapters in this document are (1) Introduction; (2) Review of Related Literature; (3) Description of Research Design, Procedures and Data Analyses; (4) Statistical Analyses of the Hypotheses; (5) Summary, Limitations, Conclusions and Recommendations. Appendixes contain (1) Prerecorded instruction for students who were tested; (2) Sample of Sanborn sound tape record; (3) Visual presentation of testing procedure; (4) Scoring sheet; and (5) Rating form supplied teachers in order to determine relationship between numerical scores and teacher ratings. A bibliography concludes the work. (AMM)