When asked to judge as correct or incorrect three categories of sentences (those with errors similar to their own patterns, those with common "baby errors," and correct sentences), four-year-olds made significantly fewer corrections of errors similar to their own, suggesting that children learn their own errors. (MSE)

Poses questions about language and learners, both child learners and teacher learners. (JL)

This study lends support to the modes of speech continuum and points to a relationship between linguistic and communicative competence. Results indicated that communicative competence of preschoolers increased with age and suggested a hierarchy from context-centered through topic-centered probes. Correlations with linguistic competence indicated…

Examines materials in the ERIC system related to children's early oral language and the transition from home language to the more formal language used in school. Offers activities for a classroom climate that is responsive to children's oral language development needs. (HTH)

Concludes that, with the exception of number of adverb clauses per T-unit, the oral and written language of first grade children was similar in syntactic complexity. (FL)

Examines notions and examples of instruction that can inhibit language growth, arguing that reading and writing curricula can be designed so that children are provided the freedom to explore language and grow as language learners in much the same way they learned oral language. (HTH)

Examines within an experimental paradigm phonological selection and avoidance patterns of infants and discusses the role of these patterns in early lexical acquisition. (EKN)

Discusses the establishment of a morpheme-per-utterance (MPU) index as opposed to the standard mean-length of utterance (MLU) for measuring the linguistic proficiency of two- to three-year-old Hebrew speakers. (EKN)

Errors in reading and speaking are not the result of failure to comprehend or communicate. Rather, such errors are "miscues," which show the effects of psycholinguistic processes that have taken unexpected turns. The nature of these miscues reveals the underlying cognitive schema that guide a person's comprehension and verbalization. (Author/SJL)

Presents a longitudinal study of six children which investigates the relationship between language development and the development of nonverbal representation. Concludes that the results suggest an interrelational hypothesis and proposes an interpretation in terms of reciprocal interaction between the two parameters. (Author/MES)

Describes ERIC resources that present research on children's language usage and development and that suggest activities for the promotion of language development. (ET)

The early and continued use of semantic, syntactic and contextual clues in recognizing mispronounced words was demonstrated in an experiment involving preschoolers, grade school students and college students. Errors in highly predictable words and contexts were most easily recognized by all regardless of reading ability. (PMJ)

If the basic operations hypothesis (EJ 184 227) is interpreted as a general principle governing acquisition of all movement rules, it may obscure the fact that children distinguish between unbounded and local rules. Error patterns support this distinction, lending credence to theories with separate status for the two rule types. (Author/RD)

Presents an outline for a theory of syntax acquisition, surveys other approaches to language acquisition, and addresses the following methodological issues: (1) the relevance of linguistic theory to the model; (2) how the model is tested; and (3) the domain of the theory. (Author/AM)

Ninety children between the ages of three and six described objects which differed on three simultaneous dimensions, using adjective combinations appropriate to the dimensions. Each child performed an imitation, comprehension, and production task. (Author/CFM)