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THE PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO COMPARE SENTENCE-COMBINING TECHNIQUES OF PUPILS USING THE INITIAL TEACHING ALPHABET (I.T.A.) WITH THE TECHNIQUES OF PUPILS USING TRADITIONAL ORTHOGRAPHY (T.O.). THE INVESTIGATION CONSIDERED--(1) WHETHER I.T.A. PROVIDES A LINGUISTIC ADVANTAGE IN THE WAY PUPILS ADD GRAMMATICALLY TO THEIR SENTENCES, (2) WHETHER THERE IS EVIDENCE TO SUPPORT HOW THE BASIC TEXTS READ BY PUPILS MAY INFLUENCE THEIR CORRECT USE OF GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES, (3) WHAT THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ORAL AND WRITTEN RESPONSES SUGGEST ABOUT PUPILS' ACQUISITION OF SYNTACTIC CONTROL, AND (4) WHETHER BOYS' AND GIRLS' RESPONSES DIFFER SIGNIFICANTLY. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIX FIRST-GRADE, WHITE STUDENTS OF ABOVE-AVERAGE INTELLIGENCE, ACHIEVEMENT, AND SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS WERE SUBJECTS IN THE STUDY. APPROXIMATELY 300 WORDS WERE COLLECTED FROM THE WRITING OF EACH PUPIL, AND AN APPROXIMATELY EQUAL NUMBER OF WORDS WAS COLLECTED FROM THE ORAL RESPONSES OF 60 RANDOMLY-SELECTED STUDENTS AMONG THESE SUBJECTS. TRANSFORMATIONAL ANALYSIS OF THE ORAL RESPONSES INDICATED NO SIGNIFICANT VARIATION BETWEEN THE I.T.A. AND T.O. GROUPS IN THE USE OF SENTENCE-COMBINING TRANSFORMATIONS. HOWEVER, ANALYSIS OF THE I.T.A. GROUP'S WRITTEN RESPONSES REVEALED ADVANTAGES IN SENTENCE COMBINING--(1) FEWER SENTENCES CONJOINED AND "AND," (2) SLIGHTLY MORE EMBEDDINGS OF TRANSFORMS WITH DELETIONS, AND (3) SIGNIFICANTLY FEWER FAILURES PER 100 SENTENCE-COMBINING TRANSFORMATIONS. THE GREATER GRAMMATICAL DENSITY OF CLAUSES IN THE TEXTS USED BY THE I.T.A. GROUP PROBABLY AIDED BY PUPILS IN ACQUIRING THE LATTER TWO ADVANTAGES. MODIFIERS, PREDICATES, T-UNITS CONNECTED BY "AND," GENITIVES AND COORDINATES OF NOUNS WERE USED MOST FREQUENTLY IN BOTH THE SPEECH AND WRITING RESPONSES OF BOTH GROUPS, INDICATING EARLY ACQUISITION AND MASTERY OF THESE FORMS. NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN SENTENCE-COMBINING TECHNIQUES WERE FOUND BETWEEN THE BOYS' AND THE GIRLS' RESPONSES. (RD)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert