1. A child who cannot speak, read, and comprehend the English language. He is unfamiliar with the common English language words that are necessary for normal progress in the first grade. 2. A child who is from a family whose annual income is $3,000 or less. Question-any intellectual exercise calling for a response. (59:2) Minimal terminable syntactic unit or T-unit-a single predication together with any subordinate clauses that may be related to it. (39:20) It may be a simple or a complex sentence, but not a compound sentence. According to Loban (43:6) , it may also be an answer to a question which lacks only the repetition of the elements of the question to satisfy the criterion of independent predication. Garbles-words not included in the T-unit or minimal terminable syntactic unit. (39:6) Vocabulary diversity-a count of the number of different words spoken. (92:490) Total Word Count-the number of words in the language sample. False starts, abnormal redundancies, and noncommunicative repetitions were not counted. The word "and" was also excluded when it was used to connect a series of sentences. (50:39) »«•«! "( If};':-.' Scope and Limitations This study was restricted to an analysis of the verbal responses of seventy-two children who were enrolled in twelve kindergarten classrooms of the Lubbock Independent School District, Lubbock, Texas. Attention was focused upon the length of T-units, vocabulary diversity, and total word count. No attempt was made to evaluate usage, style, or kinesis. Although the study was concerned with spoken structures, phonological analysis was not included. Pitch, stress, and juncture are recognized by the researcher, but were not chosen for utilization in the study. The investigation reported only total word count, vocabulary diversity, and mean T-unit length. The type of stimulus for eliciting oral language consisted of slides prepared by the researcher. Specific, predetermined questions were asked each group of six kindergarten pupils. A limited time for answering questions was set. It is possible that allowing more time, changing group size, submitting different questions, or using a type of stimulus other than slides would have produced different results. The language samples did not necessarily show what the children might have done under other conditions or what they were capable of doing. The results show only how these
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