Connie wrote:

"I was intrigued by a recent posting suggesting that not only do children
learn
to understand and speak a language more readily than adolescents and adults,
but
they also find it easier to develop the metalanguage for talking about
language.  Is this supported by research?  Another issue that intrigues me:
I
find that students who are really good in math are usually good at
grammatical
analysis.  Have any of the rest of you noticed such a connection or read
research on it?"

I the one, Connie.  In terms of prepubescent children learning to speak and
understand language more readily than older persons, that has been quite
firmly established by research everywhere.  For a quick overview, I suggest
Clark, Eschholz, and Rosa's "Language Introductory Readings," Part II.  As
to the learning of linguistic metalanguage, I was simply extending
(unscientifically) the previous idea because metalanguage is, indeed,
language.  I could be wrong.  I don't know of any research that specifically
deals with the learning of metalanguage.  In terms of anecdotal evidence, I
have tried such terminology out of several small children (some of them my
own) and have been gratified at how it comes back at me weeks or months
later.  Of course, their understanding of such terms is primitive,
generalized, and incomplete; but, once the term is in their vocabulary, they
can refine it for more mature use.  That's true of just about all of the
language learning in early childhood.  "Dog," for instance, might first be
generalized as any four-legged creature with fur and teeth.  Later, it might
be separated from "cat" on the basis of absence or presence of slobber.

As to the math question, I have noticed it, too.  I'm a little embarrassed
when college math majors succeed in my writing classes better than my own
English majors.  It happens often.  I've sometimes made the assumption that
I'm too much the curmudgeon in regard to analytic detail.  Math students
seem to crave and produce focus, completeness, order, and correctness.  Put
in other words, these are the four classical "topics."

Jeff Glauner
Paark University