The construction of general linguistic theories is subject to errors of fact and perspective. The theoretical linguist is inclined by the nature of his work to fall into such errors because he/she is obliged to generalize about many languages on the basis of research done in one or a few. The scope of this task inevitably leads to a failure to…

AN INTRODUCTION WHICH STATES THE PURPOSES OF AN EVALUATION OF FLES PROGRAMS AND STRESSES THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN VALUE JUDGMENT AND EVALUATION IS FOLLOWED BY A DISCUSSION OF THE RELATION BETWEEN EVALUATION AND CURRICULUM. TEST AND MEASUREMENT PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATING FLES PROGRAMS ARE THEN SUGGESTED. A CONCLUDING SECTION INDICATES THE DESIGN OF A…

The purpose of this project was to make a preliminary investigation of the processes of second language acquisition by children, adolescents and adults, and to develop a methodology appropriate to the study of second language learning. In the development of the methodology, applicable techniques from first language acquisition research were…

In this report, previous studies are reviewed in order to reconsider the assumption that lower class black children are generally deficient in their ability to produce syntactically elaborated speech. Though several studies have seemed to confirm the elaboration-deficiency hypothesis, the evidence presented is not convincing. Specific critiques of…

Confronted with the problem of determining the frequency of syntactical patterns in present-day written Australian English, the author employs a method of analysis which produces an output in the form of a two-dimensional line diagram showing all the syntagms comprising the sentence under analysis. For the remaining problem of sorting the diagrams…

Type/Token Ratios (TTRs) frequently fail to discriminate between children at widely different stages of language development, and may fall as children get older. Such effects are caused by a negative, though non-linear, relationship between sample size and TTR. Standardization of the number of tokens before computing TTRs is recommended.…

A study of school effectiveness for language minority students, authored by Virginia Collier and Wayne Thomas, is criticized as having two serious flaws. The first is that its methodology is a simple descriptive cohort analysis, seen as unscientific and producing misleading results because: each grade consists of different students; the number of…

Informal interviews with educators, administrators, employers, researchers, and civil rights attorneys indicated that three general areas of focus were apparent: conceptual variables (about what language learning and maintenance actually means); social variables (family, socioeconomic status, sex, age, region, politics); and attitudinal variables.…

The study examined 120 bilingual Mexican American and 24 monolingual Anglo American (pre-K-1) children's comprehension of 26 relational concepts by manipulating the natural language to separate and evaluate cognitive and linguistic variables. Six hypotheses were proposed as operating principles applicable to, but not necessarily limited to,…

Review of research on multilingualism in England examines recent responses to multilingualism within the national education system and growing tension between education policy and research. Notes research weaknesses in 1980s (inadequate study of language pedagogy, over-reliance on self-report data, treating Caribbean languages separately) and…

Recommends an approach to computer-assisted language learning and development activities that addresses the total instructional system, including non-technological components. Eight procedural steps, based on an input-process-output model, are described for developing, refining, and evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of CALL teaching…

The quantification of communication network integration provides valuable information for the study of language change in very small rural communities such as Grossdorf, Austria. The approach is particularly relevant when study of aggregate group behavior has failed to yield results due to small sample size or group internal inconsistency. (26…

Recommends that students conduct ethnographic studies of language in their own communities. Emphasizes that the focus ought to be conventions of speaking and writing, as well as conventions that govern the conduct, the "texts," of a culture. (RAE)

Describes three methods for research on the second-language writing assessment process and the kinds of questions these methods can answer. Methods include direct observation, ethnographic observation, and studies of the relations between ratings and objective measures of various textual characteristics. (JL)

Seven noted researchers each describe a different orientation to research exemplified in their own studies and currently predominant in the teaching of English to speakers of other languages. The statements consider aspects of language behavior, frameworks for interpreting curricula or culture such as classroom interaction or ethnography, or…