This brochure is intended to be a useful tool for assessing students' development along a continuum of oral language growth as well as for providing information about the competencies that students are expected to learn in second-fifth grades. On the continuum in the brochure, descriptors list specific behaviors that detail students' development…

This brochure is intended to be a useful tool for assessing students' development along a continuum of oral language growth as well as for providing information about the competencies that students are expected to learn in preschool and first grade. On the continuum in the brochure, descriptors list specific behaviors that detail students'…

The study of 30 young children with Down syndrome found that, compared to controls, subjects looked more often to the face of the social partner but less often to nonfocal toys. The more positive affect displayed toward people and the shorter the average looks to the partner's face, the higher the subject's verbal language skills. (Author/JDD)

Reexamines two plausible explanations of why vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension are so highly correlated. Describes and analyzes the "instrumental" and "knowledge" hypotheses of word meanings. Additional positions on vocabulary instruction are also presented. (ML)

Use of challenge questioning is an approach to stimulating classroom conversation in a foreign language. Students ask questions, based on a reading selection, whose answers are not clearly given in the text. The instructor or other students are challenged to respond, and spontaneous conversation is facilitated. (CHK)

Twelve learning-disabled (LD) children (ages 9-11) with language impairments performed more poorly on 3 verbal metaphor tasks and a visual metaphor task than 12 LD children without language impairments, who, in turn, performed more poorly than 12 nondisabled children on all but the visual task. Context variations had no effect on performance.…

Attention is given to the characteristics, identification, and remediation of language disorders frequently associated with learning-disabled students. Characteristics include off-target responding, inaccurate word selection, neologisms, referent errors, topic closure, and sequencing difficulties. Remediation involves self-concept building,…

Discussed is the importance of engineering students having effective communication skills so they will be able to discuss their work, present their findings, and propose a course of action. Suggestions for organizing and delivering presentations are included. (KR)

Advocates the use of incidental vocabulary learning to assist students in vocabulary expansion and reading comprehension. Addresses the issues of the number of words students would have to know to make substantial gains and what type of word knowledge is necessary to facilitate reading comprehension. (ML)

Stories were read daily at school and home to 32 children, aged 3-10, with severe learning difficulties. After eight months, almost all of the children showed improvements in verbal comprehension greater than gains of a comparison group, and the older children showed improvements in verbal expression. (Author/JDD)

The study evaluated prediction of language quality using 3 approaches (neurodevelopmental, cognitive, and combination) with 37 developmentally delayed children (ages 5-9). Results indicated that these children had language and speech delays that showed substantial relationships to their verbal cognitive abilities and fine motor skills, in addition…

This study compared the spoken and written English errors of 20 severely hearing-impaired postsecondary students with intelligible speech but poor English language. Writing samples exhibited a greater number of function word errors than did speech samples; there were no significant differences in content and structure errors. Implications for…

Intended to serve as a model to aid school districts in developing and reviewing their language arts curricula, this curriculum guide for the elementary grades lists in parallel columns topics/concepts, learning outcomes, and sample learning objectives for language skills in the areas of oral communication, reading, and writing. Topics and…

Intended to serve as a model to aid school districts as they develop and review their language arts curricula, this curriculum guide for secondary school lists in parallel columns topics/concepts, learning outcomes, and sample learning objectives for language skills in the areas of oral communication, reading, and writing. Topics and concepts…

An oral language continuum designed to help elementary students develop techniques for a variety of speech situations, learn to listen, and learn to be aware of the responsibility of the speaker is presented. The continuum is divided into four sections. Student needs, implications for teaching, and suggested activities are arranged sequentially.…