THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO COMPARE THE COMPLEXITY OF WRITTEN COMPOSITIONS OF FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS IN A LINGUISTICALLY-ORIENTED LANGUAGE ARTS PROGRAM WITH THE COMPLEXITY OF THE WRITTEN COMPOSITIONS OF STUDENTS WHO WERE TAUGHT TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR. AN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP AND A CONTROL GROUP WERE EACH COMPOSED OF 32 STUDENTS AND WERE EQUALIZED ACCORDING TO SEX AND THE RESULTS OF THE LANGUAGE SUBTEST OF THE STANFORD ACHIEVEMENT TEST. TEACHERS WERE SIMILAR TO EACH OTHER IN AGE, TRAINING, EXPERIENCE, AND EDUCATIONAL PHILOSOPHY. STUDENTS WROTE TWO 1000-WORD COMPOSITION SAMPLES, ONE DURING THE FIRST MONTH OF THE STUDY, THE OTHER IN ITS NINTH MONTH. EACH SAMPLE WAS ANALYZED BY T-UNITS TO DETERMINE CHANGES IN COMPLEXITY. RESULTS OF THIS ANALYSIS INDICATE THAT FIFTH-GRADE STUDENTS CAN UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPTS OF STRUCTURAL AND GENERATIVE GRAMMARS RELATIVELY EASILY, AND THAT SUCH KNOWLEDGE CAN ENABLE THEM TO PRODUCE LONGER SYNTACTIC STRUCTURES OF GREATER COMPLEXITY AND TO USE A WIDER VARIETY OF TRANSFORMATIONAL OPERATIONS THAN STUDENTS TAUGHT TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR. THUS, A CAREFULLY PLANNED AND EFFECIENTLY TAUGHT LINGUISTICIALLY-ORIENTED LANGUAGE ARTS PROGRAM FOR THE UPPER ELEMENTARY GRADES MIGHT ACCELERATE THE RATHER UNIMPRESSIVE PROGRESS THAT HAS BEEN MADE BY TRADITIONALLY-ORIENTED GRAMMATICAL APPROACHES TOWARD IMPROVING STUDENTS' CONTROL OF SYNTAX. THIS DISSERTATION IS AVAILABLE ON UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS, ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN. (DL)