Research in the Teaching of English

Abstract

A number of research studies in language and reading have been reported recently with a significant increase in the amount of research in language. Loban's thirteen-year study of language development, the only extensive longitudinal study that has been conducted during recent years, accumulated a mass of data on the linguistic behavior of 211 subjects from Kindergarten through Grade 12. Hypotheses tested included determining whether the growth in children's language follows a predictable sequence, and whether the velocity and relative growth in language ability can be ascertained and precisely predicted. The data were obtained from oral interviews, written compositions, reading tests, intelligence tests, listening tests, tests in the use of subordinating connectives, teachers' ratings, lists of books read, and miscellaneous other sources (12). Greathouse investigated the extent to which the relationships exist between children's verbal associative learning ability and seven indices of student ability to verbalize. Thirty-two students in third grade and thirty-four in fifth grade were randomly selected from six schools in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Sources of data included