Oral and Written Language

TR 5. Properties of Spoken and Written Language, by Wallace Chafe and Jane Danielewicz. Chafe and Danielewicz discuss important linguistic features that characterize different types of spoken and written language, from dinner conversations to academic papers. Taking into account the cognitive and social demands made on speakers, listeners, writers, and readers in their interactions, they analyze the reasons for these language differences. May, 1987; 27 pages; $4.00.
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TR 9. Individual Differences in Beginning Composing: An Orchestral Vision of Learning to Write, by Anne Haas Dyson. Looking in depth at three first graders during classroom journal time, Dyson explores the interconnections of the children's speaking, writing, and drawing as indications of their developing acquisition of written language. Her analysis reveals the complexity of the writing acquisition process, as the three symbol systems interact in different ways for the different students. August, 1987; 28 pages; $4.00.
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TR 11. Punctuation and the Prosody of Written Language, by Wallace Chafe. Prosody--rises and falls in pitch, accents, pauses, rhythms, variations in voice quality-- while a salient feature of spoken language, is not fully represented in written language. Reporting on a study of younger and older readers, Chafe explores the relationship between what he calls the covert prosody of writing and the principal device that writers use in order to make it at least partially overt, the devise of punctuation. October, 1987; 32 pages; $4.00.
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TR 15. Negotiating Among Multiple Worlds: The Space/Time Dimensions of Young Children's Composing, by Anne Haas Dyson. In this examination of the drawing, talking, and writing of kindergartners, first-, and second-graders, Dyson focuses on children's growing awareness of text time and space as they develop as authors of fictional prose. This study questions the developmental appropriateness of traditional assumptions about "embedded" and "disembedded" language and about "narrative" and "expository" prose. May, 1988; 36 pages; $4.00.
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TR 49. Visions of Children as Language Users: Research on Language and Language Education in Early Childhood, by Anne Haas Dyson and Celia Genishi. In this report, Dyson and Genishi review recent research on oral and written language development in early childhood. They discuss how a vision of young children as active participants in a community has been reflected in and has helped shape research themes and current issues in language arts education. June, 1991; 30 pages; $4.00.
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TR 53. The Case of the Singing Scientist: A Performance Perspective on the "Stages" of School Literacy, by Anne Haas Dyson. This article offers a case study of a young African-American child in an urban K/1 classroom who used writing activities to perform, rather than simply to communicate. The child's assumptions about written language and texts conflicted in revealing ways with assumptions undergirding a "writing workshop" approach. The study examines the links between oral performance, literacy pedagogy, and the use of the explicit, analytic language valued in school. September, 1991; 34 pages; $4.00.
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OP 2. What Good is Punctuation? by Wallace Chafe. Based on Chafe's study of punctuation and the prosody of written language, this paper discusses ways that punctuation reflects both a reader's and writer's "internal voice." The paper offers insights for teachers and learners about the assumptions that lie behind the use of punctuation in writing. November, 1987; 6 pages; $3.50.
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OP 3. Drawing, Talking and Writing: Rethinking Writing Development, by Anne Haas Dyson. Based on Dyson's studies of primary grade children engaged in journal writing, this paper discusses how children move among and negotiate multiple worlds: the text world they create on paper; the social world that they share with their peers; and the wider experienced world of people, places, events and things. Children's texts thus become increasingly embedded in their lives. February, 1988; 26 pages; $4.00.
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OP 32. From Prop to Mediator: The Changing Role of Written Language in Children's Symbolic Repertoires, by Anne Haas Dyson. Using illustrations from an ongoing study of literacy development among African-American children in an urban school, Dyson examines how children's use of written language changes during the early childhood years. She argues that there is no linear progression in written language development; rather, written language emerges most strongly when it is embedded within a child's total symbolic repertoires, including drawing, playing, singing, dancing, and storytelling. Further, she cautions against the uncritical use of writing process pedagogy with young children. September, 1992; 22 pages; $4.00.
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