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A study of spontaneous language use by elementary school children and teachers in a wide range of classroom activities used a combination of observation, audiotaping, videotaping, and interviews to examine more closely the role of dialect diversity in elementary education. The study provides a more accurate and complete record of classroom life than previously provided as a framework for dialect interference study. The site school was in northeast Washington, District of Columbia; observation occurred in the kindergarten and fourth and sixth grades. The dialect spoken was Black English. The focus traditionally placed on children's language ability in the classroom was placed on language functions. Evidence of dialect interference in communication was not found, although a clear awareness of dialect diversity was found in both children and teachers. Also, a wider range of language functions and a greater volume of student talk occurred in settings where dialect features occur and appear to be acceptable. The results raise further questions about dialect use in the classroom, and further research is recommended. A bibliography is included, and appendices include interview schedules for each grade, an inventory of language functions, a protocol transcript, and the teacher interview questionnaire concerning language diversity and classroom discourse. (MSE)

1Highways and Byways in Sussex

By E. V. Lucas

A very personal and opinionated wander through the Sussex of around 1900, illustrated with anecdotes, literary and poetic quotations, gravestone epitaphs and a gentle sense of humour. The author colours the countryside with his nostalgia for times past and regret for the encroaching future, his resentment of churches with locked doors, and his love of deer parks, ruined castles and the silent hills.<br><br>(I must add my apologies for my attempts at the Sussex dialect in the chapter on that subject.)<br><br>[This book is of Reading Grade of 9.55 (i.e. equivalent to 9½ years of U.S. education. Reading Ease score of 63.72 (on a scale from 100 to 0 .. where 65 is easy, 30 a little hard, 0 difficult). These are Flesch-Kincaid readability scores.]

2Animals of the Past

By Frederic Lucas

Prior to the emergence of paleontology and comparative anatomy as scientific disciplines at the end of the 18th century, it was generally known that there were species of animals that had disappeared completely. The term "extinction" originally applied to the extinguishing of fires or erasing of one's debt. It was not until 1784 that the term extinction was used to denote the complete eradication of a species of living being. In 1901, Frederic A. Lucas penned an overview of vertebrate animals whose only evidence of being remained in fossil records. The book focuses primarily on vertebrate animals, from fish to mammals. - Summary by Jeffery Smith