Showing papers on "Written language published in 1994"

Literacy: An Introduction to the Ecology of Written Language

Abstract: Preface. 1. An Integrated Approach to Literacy. 2. Talking About Literacy. 3. The Social Basis of Literacy. 4. Literacy Embedded in Language. 5. Languages and Literacies. 6. Configurations of Language. 7. Writing Systems and Other Notations. 8. Points in History. 9. The Roots of Literacy. 10. Emergent Literacy. 11. Public Definitions of Literacy. 12. School Practices. 13. Adults and World Literacy. 14. Some Implications of an Ecological View. Notes. References. Index.

Social worlds of children learning to write in an urban primary school

Abstract: Presents the results of a two-year ethnographic study of K-3 children who do not tell stories in the written language format valued by most early literacy educators. Their literacy learning, particularly their writing development, is portrayed as a social process in a complex social world.

The Missing Foundation in Teacher Education: Knowledge of the Structure of Spoken and Written Language.

Abstract: Reading research supports the necessity for directly teaching concepts about linguistic structure to beginning readers and to students with reading and spelling difficulties. In this study, experienced teachers of reading, language arts, and special education were tested to determine if they have the requisite awareness of language elements (e.g., phonemes, morphemes) and of how these elements are represented in writing (e.g., knowledge of sound-symbol correspondences). The results were surprisingly poor, indicating that even motivated and experienced teachers typically understand too little about spoken and written language structure to be able to provide sufficient instruction in these areas. The utility of language structure knowledge for instructional planning, for assessment of student progress, and for remediation of literacy problems is discussed.

The Effects of Simplified and Elaborated Texts on Foreign Language Reading Comprehension

Abstract: Linguistic simplification of written texts can increase their comprehensibility for nonnative speakers but reduce their utility for language learning in other ways, for example, through the removal of linguistic items that learners do not know but need to learn. This study was conducted to test the hypothesis that elaborative modification observed in oral foreigner talk discourse, where redundancy and explicitness compensate for unknown linguistic items, offers a potential alternative approach to written text modification. We randomly presented 13 reading passages to 483 Japanese college students in one of three forms: (a) native baseline, (b) simplified, or (c) elaborated. Comprehension, assessed by 30 multiple-choice test items, was highest among learners reading the simplified version, but not significantly different from those reading the elaborated version. The type of modifications to the texts interacted significantly with the kind of test item used to, assess comprehension—replication, synthesis or inference—suggesting that different kinds of text modification facilitate different levels of comprehension.

ESL Versus Mainstream Classes: Contrasting L2 Learning Environments

Abstract: Language minority students are often placed in mainstream, English-medium classrooms long before they develop the degree of language proficiency necessary to compete on an equal footing with native speakers of the school language. With the ever-increasing presence of such students in U.S. schools, ESL and content-area educators are working to better integrate their respective curricula and instructional roles. In order to accomplish this integration, significant instructional differences in these two contexts must be identified, and systematic comparisons must detail how L2 learners fare in each of these instructional environments. What do students lose and gain in their transition from ESL to the mainstream? This question was addressed in a 3 ½ year ethnography of the L2 learning experiences of newcomer students attending a high school in northern California. The study, which followed 4 Chinese ethnic immigrant students as they made the transition from ESL to mainstream classes, contrasted patterns of spoken and written language use in classrooms, identified significant differences in the content and goals of the ESL versus mainstream curricula, and documented language instruction and feedback in both contexts. Both contexts were also evaluated in terms of the socializing features of schooling, such as counseling and peer networks. As in many other U.S. public schools, the isolated and marginalized position of the ESL program in an institution that otherwise made no adjustment for nonnative speakers produced a makeshift system in which there was no appropriate instructional environment for learners of the school language.

Is Written Language Production more Difficult than Oral Language Production? A Working Memory Approach

Abstract: Is written language production more difficult than oral language production? Probably, yes. But why? Several experiments were conducted in order to test the impact of low-level activities involved in writing on the performance of higher-level activities also involved in writing. Three assumptions were made: (1) the capacity of working-memory is limited, (2) every component of writing has a cognitive load, and (3) every increase in the load devoted to the activity of one component would lead to a decrease in the remaining resources available for the other components. These low-level activities are more resource-consuming in children than in adults because children have not yet automated these activities. So, it was hypothezised that the difficulties encountered by children in dealing with the low-level activities would have a negative impact on the performance of higher activities. To test that hypothesis, a serial recall paradigm was used. Adults and children were asked to recall series of words,...

Lexical teddy bears and advanced learners: a study into the ways Norwegian students cope with English vocabulary

Abstract: This article is based on a two-part investigation into the ways Norwegian advanced learners – first year university students and upper sixth-formers – cope with English vocabulary in their written language. The study looked at both ‘wrong words’ found in translation texts and ‘different words’ found by comparing the vocabulary elicited by Norwegian students and English native speaker sixth-formers in response to specific test questions. The principle aims of the investigation were: 1) to establish how learners make wrong lexical choices and what effects these have on the discourse, and 2) to see to what extent Norwegian students use native speaker-like collocations. The findings indicated that these learners depend heavily on the familiar, either by choosing words and phrases closely resembling their first language or those learnt early or widely used, or by dividing their English vocabulary structure along Norwegian lines, leading to one-to-one translation equivalents. This report highlights this learner dependence on ‘lexical teddy bears’ and suggests how it has come about, what effect it has, and how it may be overcome.

Cognitive overload and orthographic errors: When cognitive overload enhances subject–verb agreement errors. A study in French written language

Abstract: Three experiments were carried out to test the hypothesis that cognitive overload enhances the occurrence of subject-verb agreement errors in French. Highly educated adults were presented orally wi...

An introduction to children with language disorders

Abstract: TABLE OF CONTENTS PART ONE: ASPECTS OF NORMAL LANGUAGE AND COMMUNICATION Chapter 1: LANGUAGE AND HUMAN COMMUNICATION: AN OVERVIEW COMMUNICATION Language Speech Extralinguistic Aspects of Communication A Bit More about the Relationships among Speech, Language, and Communication COMPONENTS OF LANGUAGE Phonology Semantics Syntax Morphology Pragmatics COMPREHENSION AND PRODUCTION COMMUNICATION MODES Auditory-Oral System: Hearing and Speech Visual-Graphic System: Reading and Writing Visual-Gestural Systems BIOLOGICAL, COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL BASES OF HUMAN COMMUNICATION Biological Bases of Communication Cognitive Bases for Language Social Bases of Human Communication SUMMARY Chapter 2: NORMAL LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT: A REVIEW THE PRELINGUISTIC PERIOD: THE FIRST 12 MONTHS Prelinguistic Communication Development Prelinguistic Vocal Development THE FIRST WORD PERIOD Phonology Semantics Pragmatics THE PERIOD OF TWO-WORD UTTERANCES Semantic-Syntactic Development Types of Two-word Utterances THE PRESCHOOL YEARS AND BEYOND Phonology Semantics Morphology Syntax Pragmatics LANGUAGE, LITERACY, AND EDUCATION Emergent Literacy and Preliteracy School SUMMARY PART TWO: CHILDREN WITH LANGUAGE DISORDERS Chapter 3: TODDLERS AND PRESCHOOLERS WITH SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT IDENTIFICATION OF CHILDREN WITH LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT Mental Age, Chronological Age, and Language Age Normal Variation, Normal Distribution, and a Statistical Approach Social Standard Clinical Markers Challenging and Changing the Child's Language Performance Risk Factors for Language Problems AN OVERVIEW OF SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT Delay versus Disorder Subgroups of Young Children with Specific Language Impairments A Label for It and Reasons for It Prevalence Predicting Spontaneous Recovery from Early Language Delay LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN WITH SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT Some Language Precursors Phonology Semantics Syntax and Morphology Pragmatics and Discourse Socialization and Psychosocial Factors Narratives IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERVENTION Assessment Intervention SUMMARY Chapter 4: LANGUAGE AND CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES Mona R. Griffer Vijayachandra Ramachandra AN OVERVIEW OF CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES Labels and Terminology Prevalence Risk Factors The Natural History of Learning Disabilities LINGUISTIC ISSUES RELEVANT TO LEARNING DISABILITY Metalinguistic Skills Differences Between Spoken and Written Language Differences in Developmental Expectations for Language Knowledge and Use COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS IN CHILDREN WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES Semantics Grammar Narratives Pragmatics Reading Writing IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERVENTION Issues in General and Special Education Psychosocial Problems and Reactions The Collaborative Service Delivery Model A Traditional Service Delivery Model Intervention Strategies SUMMARY Chapter 5: ADOLESCENTS WITH LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT AN UNDERRECOGNIZED GROUP WITH SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS Personal and Societal Costs of Adolescent Language Impairment Reasons for Neglect and Underrecognition LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT Fo Form Content Us Use CHARACTERISTICS OF ADOLESCENTS WITH LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT ASSESSMENT Identification Language Assessment INTERVENTION Principles in Determining Intervention Objectives Factors in Implementing Intervention Objectives Service Delivery SUMMARY Chapter 6: LANGUAGE AND CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES Mona R. Griffer AN OVERVIEW OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES Definition Causes and Types of Intellectual Disabilities THE DELAY-DIFFERENCE CONTROVERSY LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES Research Issues Pragmatics Comprehension Semantics Syntax Speech Production LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN WITH DOWN SYNDROME Comprehension Semantics Syntax Pragmatics Speech Production Phonological Awareness and Literacy Rate of Language Learning Use of Imitation Explanations for Specific Language Deficit in Children with Down Syndrome IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERVENTION Social and Legislative Influences Facilitating versus Compensatory Intervention Developmental versus Remedial Logic Language-Cognition Relationships Pragmatics and Pragmatic Relevance Goal Attack Strategy Caretaker Interaction Materials Selection Comprehension Lexicon Syntax Intelligibility and Speech Production SUMMARY Chapter 7: LANGUAGE AND CHILDREN WITH AUTISM Mona R. Griffer Vijayachandra Ramachandra AN OVERVIEW OF CHILDREN WITH AUTISM Diagnostic Criteria Prevalence Associated Problems What Causes Autism? Heredity Natural History of Autism COMMUNICATION IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM Early Communication Preserved Abilities Impaired Abilities The Concept of Asynchronous Development IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERVENTION Assessment Service Delivery Special Considerations Intervention Models S SUMMARY Chapter 8: LANGUAGE AND CHILDREN WITH AUDITORY IMPAIRMENTS Mona R. Griffer OVERVIEW OF HEARING-IMPAIRED CHILDREN AND HEARING LOSS Types and Differing Degrees of Hearing Loss and their Effects Age of Onset of Hearing Loss and its Effects Stability of Hearing Loss Other Contributing Factors and their Effects Parental Hearing Status Early Identification Concomitant Deficits Background Noise ORAL LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND LITERACY CHARACTERISTICS: AN HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Syntax and Morphology Semantics Pragmatics Speech Production and Intelligibility OTHER AUDITORY IMPAIRMENTS Central Auditory Processing Disorders (CAPD)\ Auditory Neuropathy/Auditory Dys-Synchrony INTERVENTION AND MANAGEMENT APPROACHES Technology Aids and Sound Amplification Systems Educational Approaches/Communication-Language Intervention SUMMARY Chapter 9: LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTICALLY-CULTURALLY DIVERSE CHILDREN Li-Rong Lilly Cheng CONCEPTS OF CULTURAL DIVERSITY CONCEPTS OF LINGUISTIC VARIATION CONCEPTS OF SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF LINGUISTICALLY-CULTURALLY DIVERSE CHILDREN Hispanic-American Children African-American Children Asian-American Children Native American Children A MATTER OF POVERTY Poverty in the U.S. and Globally Culture of Poverty ISSUES IN ASSESSMENT Testing Bias Differential Diagnosis of Communicative Behaviors IMPLICATIONS FOR INTERVENTION Intervention for Language Differences and Language Disorders Intervention for Language Differences Intervention for Linguistically-Culturally Diverse Children with Other Disabilities SUMMARY Chapter 10: CHILDREN WITH ACQUIRED LANGUAGE DISORDERS Cynthia R. O'Donoghue AN OVERVIEW OF ACQUIRED CHILDHOOD APHASIA Definition Types of Acquired Brain Injury Associated Problems LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND LANGUAGE RECOVERY LANGUAGE CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN WITH ACQUIRED APHASIA Early Recovery and Language Impairment Later Recovery and Residual Language Impairment ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN DEVELOPMENTAL AND ACQUIRED LANGUAGE DISORDERS IN CHILDREN IMPLICATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT AND INTERVENTION Assessment Social and Legislative Influences Augmentative and Alternative Communication Behavior Disorders Intelligibility Developmental versus Remedial Logic Facilitating versus Compensatory Intervention Returning to School SUMMARY Chapter 11: LANGUAGE AND OTHER SPECIAL POPULATIONS OF CHILDREN Mona R. Griffer Vijayachandra Ramachandra LANGUAGE AND GIFTED CHILDREN An Overview of Giftedness Language Characteristics of Gifted Children Language in Disadvantaged or Disabled Gifted Children Implications for Intervention LANGUAGE AND CHILDREN WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT An Overview of Visual Impairment Language Characteristics of Blind Children Implications for Intervention LANGUAGE AND CHILDREN WITH NEUROMOTOR IMPAIRMENT Children with Cerebral Palsy Communication of Other Children with Neuromotor Impairment LANGUAGE AND CHILDREN WITH CLEFT PALATE An Overview of Cleft Palate Language Characteristics of Children with Cleft Palate LANGUAGE IN CHILDREN WHO STUTTER An Overview of Language Problems in Children Who Stutter Implications for Intervention SUMMARY PART THREE: LANGUAGE INTERVENTION Chapter 12: ASSESSMENT APPROACHES TO AND PURPOSES OF THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS Determining if a Child Qualifies for Services Deciding if a Child has a Language Problem Identifying the Cause of the Problem Identifying Deficit Areas Describing the Regularities in the Child's Language Deciding What to Recommend TOOLS AND PROCEDURES Gathering Information from Others What to Assess Methods of Assessment INTELLIGENCE TESTING SUMMARY Chapter 13: CONSIDERATIONS FOR LANGUAGE INTERVENTION CONSIDERATIONS IN INTERVENTION Normal versus Not So Normal Processes Developmental and Nondevelopmental Intervention Rules and Regularities Controlling and/or Reducing Language Complexity Comprehension or Production Focus of Intervention and Picking Intervention Targets Usefulness of Intervention Content Reinforcement and Generalization Child Characteristics Metalinguistics HIGHLIGHTING INTERVENTION TARGETS Multiple Exposures Distributed versus Massed Trials Suprasegmental and Rate Variations Input Modality Variations PROCEDURES AND TECHNIQUES TO FACILITATE LEARNING OF LANGUAGE TARGETS Before the Child's Utterance After the Child's Utterance Response Dialogues So Which Ones Should We Use? APPROACHES TO INTERVENTION Direct and Indirect Intervention Group and Individual Intervention Three Language Teaching Methods Service Delivery Models PUTTING IT TOGETHER SUMMARY REFERENCES AUTHOR INDEX SUBJECT INDEX

Whole Language Intervention for School-age Children

Abstract: From more to less: language learning as a whole to part process. From less to more: a model of language organized along the situational, discourse, and semantic dimensions. When more is less: the effects of context oral and written language. When less is more: intervention for the early elementary level child. Deriving more from less: developing implicit understanding of language.

The Development of Orthographic Processing Ability

Abstract: When children learn to read, their success is determined by a number of factors. Some determinants of success are found in the environment, including the intensity, duration, and quality of the reading instruction provided, and the nature of the oral and written language the child must attempt to master. Other determinants of success are found within the child. Examples include maturational readiness (the majority of 6-year-olds can learn to read whereas few 2-year-olds can), fluency in oral language, and an interest in reading (for summaries of the reading literature, see Adams, 1990; Crowder & Wagner, 1991; Rayner & Pollatsek, 1989). During the past decade, a great deal of progress has been made in our understanding of beginning reading in general, and in the areas of phonological and orthographic knowledge and processing in particular.

Reading Proficiency and Orthography Evidence from Hebrew and English

Abstract: We conducted two experiments to test whether the orthography of readers’ first or second languages affects their reading time and comprehension in each. In both experiments, very skilled bilinguals read texts translated from Hebrew to English, or from English to Hebrew. Half the texts were originally written in Hebrew and the other half in English. In the first experiment, 24 native Hebrew speakers read two passages of four texts in the Hebrew version. Each read one of the texts voweled and the other one unvoweled. Twelve native English speakers read two passages from the same four texts in English. Participants in the study were either students or teachers at the University of Haifa. The English native speakers read the EngLish texts significantly faster than the native Hebrew speakers read the same texts in their Hebrew version. The origin of the text (English or Hebrew) and vowelization were nonsignificant, as was any interaction between the main factors. The comprehension of the Hebrew voweled texts was nearly significantly better than was the comprehension of the Hebrew unvoweled texts. In the second experiment, 24 advanced bilingual, Hebrew native speakers read two passages in Hebrew (one voweled and the other unvoweled) and two in English. Again, the reading time in English was significantly shorter. Post-hoc comparisons showed that readingtime was shorter in English than in unvoweled Hebrew, but not shorter than in voweled Hebrew. Comprehension of English was not significantly different from comprehension of voweled Hebrew, but was significantly better than comprehension of unvoweled Hebrew.

Towards a More Universal Understanding of the Developmental Dyslexias: The Contribution of Orthographic Factors

Abstract: Goethe wrote that only in the process of learning another language can we begin to understand our own (1810) We suggest in the present chapter that Goethe’s insight is as applicable to our understanding of written language, as oral language There exists an “implicit universalist claim” among many American researchers that their view of the reading development process, which is usually based only on the English language, describes general development of reading in all children (Wimmer & Frith, 1991) We will argue here that a similar, implicit-universalist claim dictates our notions about the causes of reading failure

Sociocultural approaches to language and literacy : an interactionist perspective

Abstract: 1. Introduction to the Volume Part I. Context: 2. Introduction to the Section 3. An interactionist approach to the analysis of similarities and differences between spoken and written language Larry Smith 4. Repair in spontaneous speech: A window on second language development Hanery Shonerd 5. Struggling for a voice: An interactionist view of language and literacy in Deaf Education Sherman Wilcox Part II. Mediation: 6. Introduction to the Section 7. Nonverbal factors in the interpsychic to intrpsychic internalisation of objects David McNeill Karl-Erik McCullough and Martha Tyrone: 8. An ecological approach to the emergence of the lexicon: Socializing attention Patricia Goldring Zukow and Kelly R. Duncan: 9. Learning how to explain: the effects of mother's language on the child Maria Silvia Barbieri and Liliana Landolfi 10. Developing the representational functions of language: the role of parent-child book reading activity Carolyn P. Panofsky 11. The implications of Vygotskian theory for the development of home-school programs: A focus on storybook reading Patricia A. Edwards and Georgia Earnest Garcia 12. Vygotsky in the classroom: An interactionist literacy framework in mathematics Pat Cordeiro Part III. Functunal Systems: 13. Introduction to the Section 14. Adults learning literacy: The role of private speech in reading comprehension Juan D. Ramirez 15. From 'Paj Ntaub' to paragraphs: Perspectives on Hmong processes of composing Francine Filipek Colignon 16. Toward a definition of law school readiness Michelle Minnis.

A prospective study of the relationship between phonological, semantic and syntactic skills and specific reading disability

Abstract: Although it is well established that a relationship exists between specific reading disability and spoken language difficulties, the nature of that relationship remains controversial. In the study reported here, the performance of poor readers was firstly compared with that of matched good readers on a series of spoken and written language tasks on three assessment trials 12 months apart, and secondly to that of younger average readers. Five experimental tasks were used to measure the readers' phonological processing skills, and three subtests from the CELF-R were selected to measure the students' syntactic and semantic skills. Reading accuracy and comprehension ability were assessed by the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability-Revised. The results showed that 8–10-year-old poor readers performed poorly in all three linguistic areas concurrently, and that these difficulties persisted. However, the important finding from this study was that while the good readers demonstrated no significant difference between their phonological processing skills and their semantic/syntactic skills, the poor readers' ability did differ according to skill area. The poor readers' phonological processing skills appeared to be particularly impaired, a finding which was further enhanced by results from the reading-match comparison. The results are discussed in terms of current theories of reading disability.

Joining Together in Literacy Learning: Teenage Mothers and Children.

Abstract: L iteracy learning is a process that has its roots in the home, beginning in infancy with the child's exposure to oral and written language (Goodman, 1986; Hiebert, 1988; Teale, 1986). Through numerous demonstrations and interactions with parents and caregivers, children begin to construct knowledge about and strategies for using print. Case studies attest to the profound role that extended parent-child interactions around print play in children's literacy development (Baghban, 1984; Clark, 1984; Lass, 1982). Such interactions seldom involve direct, formal instruction; rather, through jointly constructed experiences, children master a set of sustained patterns which serve as a basis for their subsequent acquisition of written language (Heath, 1983; Snow & Goldfield, 1982). In Vygotsky's (1978) notion of the zone of proximal development, children are seen as internalizing the processes practiced through participation with adults to advance their individual skills. For Vygotsky, the fundamental vehicle of social transaction provides children with opportunities to participate beyond their own abilities in a shared thinking process, appropriating what they contribute in these experiences for later use. Studies exploring the nature of parent-child interactions in literacy learning have focused, to a large extent, on storybook-reading activity in the home (Edwards & Panofsky, 1989; Ninio & Bruner, 1978; Snow & Goldfield, 1982; Yaden, Smolkin, & Conlon, 1989). Such studies describe how parents may assist children's learning by inventing routines that help to control children's focus of attention, match tasks to their abilities, and arrange the environment so that the children can solve problems that are a little bit beyond what they could do on their own. While storybook reading is posited as a central vehicle for literacy development, children and their parents also engage in a range of other activities which are literacy embedded. Print mediates many family activities, such as shopping for groceries or paying bills (Anderson & Stokes, 1984). Though such activities are not staged for children's benefit or adjusted to their level of expertise, parents tacitly guide their children's participation in these "socially assembled situations" (Laboratory of Comparative Human Cognition, 1983), initiating them in the standing rules for behavior in a wide variety of social and print-related settings. Thus, a family's influence in children's literacy learning involves far more than the provision of books or leisure-time reading; it also involves the development through shared activities of ways to handle day-to-day print events which work concurrently to enhance children's learning about written language. This process of guiding children's participation (Rogoff, 1990) presumes intersubjectivity-a sharing of focus and a mutual understanding between people. And it is here that parents seem particularly well placed to play an important teaching role. Sharing the child's world, the parent can facilitate linking new situations to more familiar ones and drawing connections from the familiar to the novel-tasks viewed as essential for cog-

Written expression in boys with attention deficit disorder

Abstract: 32 boys, between the ages of 8 and 13 years, were identified on four teachers' and parents' rating scales (including the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-III for ADD) as showing attention deficits and hyperactivity (ADD + H; n = 10), attention deficits without hyperactivity (ADD - H; n = 11), or without ADD (attention deficits controls; n = 11) All subjects were administered Bender's Visual-motor Gestalt test and the Written Language Assessment The ADD + H children produced significantly more errors on the Bender-Gestalt test, and both groups with attention deficits had lower (poorer) scores on most of the written language subtests Results were interpreted as providing evidence that these children possessed significant limitations in their writing, copying, and composition

Language disorders and learning disabilities in school-refusing adolescents

Abstract: Objective We undertook this study to test the hypothesis that school-refusing adolescents hospitalized on an inpatient psychiatric unit have more language and learning disabilities than diagnosis-, age-, and sex-matched psychiatric controls. Method The Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement-Revised (WJTA-R), the WISC-R, the Adolescent Language Screening Test, the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals-Revised, and the Test of Language Competence (TLC) were given to a group of well-characterized, primarily depressed school refusers and matched psychiatric controls. Results We found that school-refusing adolescents had significantly lower WISC-R verbal intelligence scores, lower Math and Written Language subscale scores on the WJTA-R, and lower scores on the TLC than nonrefusers. School refusers were found to have a significantly higher incidence of both language impairments and learning disabilities than controls. Conclusions We infer that academic and communicative frustration and the adolescent's resulting inability to meet the academic and social demands in the school environment may play a role in the etiology of school refusal.

The Japanese Language: An Introduction

Abstract: This guide offers English-speaking learners a systematic overview of the Japanese language. It deals with the essential points of pronunciation, the writing system, vocabulary, grammar and discourse, and aims to complement Japanese language courses by bringing the various components of the language together in a general framework. The book also discusses practical issues such as the role of Romanization and the use of character dictionaries, and gives due attention to the informal style. Addressed primarily to undergraduate learners, the book will also be of interest to teachers and to other readers who wish to obtain a general picture of this increasingly important language.

Method and apparatus of translation based on patterns

Abstract: A device which translates a written source language pattern of a first language to a target language pattern of another written language, which includes a computer with a memory. There are a plurality of translation patterns stored in the memory. Each translation pattern includes a source language pattern; a variable that is identified with a portion of the source language pattern; and a target language pattern which is a translation corresponding to the base source language pattern. The variable is either a singular variable which corresponds to a singular source language pattern, or a nested variable which corresponds to a nested source language pattern. Each nested source language pattern is a combination of two or more singular source language patterns. A portion compares a text sentences to one or more nested source language patterns and singular source language pattern to determine if there is a match between the text sentence and the nested or the singular source language patterns.

First language use in EFL writing: planning in Turkish vs. planning in English

Abstract: This study examined English compositions written from plans in English and Turkish. Seventy-eight Turkish university students from two different proficiency levels (intermediate and advanced) wrote on three different assigned topics: a Turkish culture-specific topic, a topic related to American/British culture, and a more general topic. The study investigated: 1) if there were differences between the plans written in Turkish and English and the resulting compositions which correlate with the topic and proficiency level; 2) If there were differences between higher- and lower-proficiency writers in terms of plan and composition scores for the three topics and if so, whether these differences could be attributed not only to the proficiency level but also to the language used for the plan. In addition, student responses to a questionnaire about their writing experiences in Turkish and English and their attitudes towards planning in Turkish or in English were analyzed. The findings indicate that the language used for the plan did not make a significant difference in the quality of the plans written by higher-proficiency students on the three topics but did have an effect on the plans written by lower-proficiency students on the Turkish and American/British culture-specific topics. Moreover, the language of the plan did not make a significant difference to the resulting compositions for either group on any of the three topics. Furthermore, as was expected, proficiency level affected the quality of plans and compositions, but the language used for the plan had no significant effect on the differences between higher- and lower-proficiency writers in terms of plan and composition scores. Student questionnaire responses helped to explain the results of this study.

An analysis of persuasive discourse: Learning how to take a stand

Abstract: The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to determine the effects of instruction on students’ persuasive writing at two grade levels (3rd and 5th), and (b) to determine the categories and types of written persuasion used by students at four grade levels (3rd, 5th, 10th, and 12th). The first objective, determining instructional effects, was accomplished by specifically instructing students in oral and written argument/persuasion. There were no significant main effects for instructional strategy or for the presence of the oral interaction component. The second purpose of this study was to categorize students’ written persuasive responses and to determine grade and gender differences, if any, in the nature of the responses given. Weiss and Sachs’ (1991) classification system was used. There was no significant main effect for gender, but there was a significant main effect for grade. Students in Grade 3 did not use Compromise at all, whereas 10.8% of the 12th‐grade students’ responses utilized Compromise. S...

The Magic of "Once Upon a Time"

Abstract: Speech-language pathologists increasingly use narratives in their oral and written language instruction with students who have language learning disabilities. Twenty narrative teaching strategies w...

Reading Chinese and Reading English: Similarities, Differences, and Second-Language Reading

Abstract: Any theory of the relation of reading processes to orthography must be able to account for the reading of Chinese, an orthography used by more people than any other in the world (Hoosain, 1991). Because Chinese orthography differs radically from the alphabetic systems on which most of our conclusions about the cognitive psychology of literacy have been based, the study of Chinese provides opportunities to test the extent to which universal characteristics of the human mind constrain the way any written language is processed and to identify ways in which readers may have adapted their processing to variations in the language they read. Answers to these fundamental questions are beginning to emerge as more scholars who are fluent in Chinese become involved in literacy research.1

Literacy and Language Analysis

Abstract: Contents: Preface. Part I: Literacy and the Constructs of Language. Section A: Introduction. R. Bugarski, Graphic Relativity and Linguistic Constructs. Section B: Literacy and the Phoneme. L.C. Ehri, How English Orthography Influences Phonological Knowledge as Children Learn to Read and Spell. R.J. Scholes, In Search of Phonemic Consciousness: A Follow-Up on Ehri. P. Prakash, D. Rekha, R. Nigam, P. Karanth, Phonological Awareness, Orthography, and Literacy. Section C: Morphology. R.J. Scholes, On the Orthographic Basis of Morphology. Section D: Literacy and the Sentence. J. Miller, Spoken and Written Language: Language Acquisition and Literacy. P. Karanth, M.G. Suchitra, Language Acquisition and Grammaticality Judgments in Children. R.J. Scholes, Utterance Acceptability Criteria: A Follow-Up to Karanth and Suchitra. Part II: Literacy and the Context of Language. D.R. Olson, Writing, Literal Meaning, and Logical Proof. P.G. Meyer, The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Writer: On the Pragmatics of Written Communication. P.G. Patel, Ancient India and the Orality-Literacy Divide Theory.