One hundred-thirty students were analyzed in this study to discern if there is a significant difference between good and poor readers when the subjects arc grouped as advantaged or disadvantaged. The P/S Oral Language Inventory was used and responses from subjects were considered as paradigmatic or syntagmatic. When these results were subjected to an Analysis of Variance, measureable dif ferences were noted.The data are used as background for a proposed frame of reference for both advantaged and disadvantaged learners. In such a frame the individuals would share a common reference base.The lack of verbal fluency among the disadvantaged students has been cited in many recent studies (Thomas 1962, Filmer 1967. They communicate among themselves quite easily but when it comes to formal education the breakdown is disastrous. Is it that the teacher doesn't understand them or that they do not understand the teacher? What is it that a child from an advantaged background brings to school that helps him make the formal schooling connection significantly more times than his disadvantaged counterpart? The authors are aware of the physiological, psychological, social and emotional factors present when any individual or group is measured for achievement in a school setting. This study was undertaken to ascertain whether or not any measureable differences could be identified, in verbal behavior, as a possible indication of thinking patterns.More specifically is there a difference in the paradigmatic-synta?-matic responses between high and low achievers in reading as identified by a classroom teacher? Is there a significant difference, advantaged socio-economic versus disadvantaged, between good and poor readers?Twenty-five second, third, and fourth grade teachers were asked to identify six or seven of their poorest readers and six or seven of their best readers. Several from each group were then randomly selected to take the P/S Oral Language Inventory. Each subject was asked to go with the examiner and orally respond to thirty stimulus words with the first word they thought of when they heard the stimulus word. No trials were given, no other directions stated.
Research studies in the verbal production of a broad spectrum of subjects indicate that a certain type of verbal behavior (paradigmatic) was present in subjects who had achieved some success in formal schooling, while low achievers displayed a type of verbal response classified as syntagmatic. The author states that the "products" of the intellect requires a mastery of units, relations, classes, systems, transformations, and implication, and describes the implementation of a "product" scale in teaching the visual discrimination of letters.
In 1919 Gray (1) studied the uses which high school teachers made of reading during supervised study periods. His approach was interesting. First he requested the teachers of the University of Chicago High School to name the various ways they employed reading in the preparation of assignments. Twenty-nine uses of reading were stated by these teachers. Gray next submitted the list of twenty-nine statements to 250 teachers "representing all departments of typical high schools." Teachers were asked to check the five uses of reading which they believed to be most important in preparing assignments in their departments. The replies obtained were recorded by departments and the results expressed in "terms of percentages. Gray found that the uses of reading varied widely from department to department. Since 1919 there have been a number of significant changes in American secondary education. First a much larger percent of American youth is presently enrolled in high school programs. Secondly, the curriculum of the typical secondary school has been greatly broadened. Finally, during the past decade there has been increasing recognition that provisions for systematic reading
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