Connie, Jeff

re: meta-language, I believe that there IS research from Australia on that
point -- I can try to find out. In any case, there is LOTS of anecdotal
evidence to support it. Children GO FOR language -- it's power, and they
know it. They love to learn big words (and like to be positioned as
authorities at home).

I also think the plan to advocate LANGUAGE in the curriculum rather than
grammar is a great idea. But I would argue even further than Bill to put
language "back" in a thematically integrated, child-centered curriculum --
or at the very least, to use the subject of language to introduce topics and
problems that are compelling to students: communicating authority or lack of
authority; sounding 'like' a someone (doctor lawyer confused person or
whatever) -- in short, focusing on language and social life, where students'
intuitions about and 'natural' interest in language are grounded.

It wouldn't surprise me if math and grammar were cognitively linked --
they're both really visual -- that is, abstract visual, emphasizing
relations among things. Judy


Judith Diamondstone  (732) 932-7496  Ext. 352
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1183