SENTENCE-COMBINING AND DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLINGUSITICS: A CRITIQUE OF SEVEN SENTENCE-COMBINING TEXTBOOKS
Abstract
Research done on many grade levels indicates that sentence-combining is a valuable tool for helping students increase the syntactic maturity of their writing. However, much of that research also suggests that the technique works best with elementary and junior high school students and with those already proficient. Needed now are investigations into areas which might suggest ways to improve sentence-combining programs so that they may better help all students increase their syntactic fluency. This study investigated the field of developmental psycholinguistics in order to discover principles of language learning applicable to sentence-combining. From this investigation developed a number of simplified but reliable principles of normal syntactic development. Chief among these is that all language learners pass through essentially the same stages of syntactic growth both in speaking and writing. Others of most value to those interested in language development include the following: (1) In elaborating the basic subject-verb-object sentence pattern, youngsters usually develop sentence final position first. (2) One of the first transformations performed is coordination of independent clauses. (3) The earlier elaborations are prepositional phrases, prenominal adjectives, adverbial clauses, restrictive adjective clauses, and noun clauses in complement position. Only later, if ever, will speakers and writers produce nonrestrictive and reduced adjective clauses, verbals, derivations, and nominative absolutes. (4) Mature writers produce writing with identifiable syntactic characteristics. Their sentences average about 24 words. Few conjoined structures, noun clauses, and nomial infinitive phrases appear. Many sentences begin with adverbial and coordinate sentence openers. Many adverbial prepositional phrases, noun plus participle structures, modified objects of prepositional phrases are used along with much free modification. Seven commercially available sentence-combining textbooks were reviewed in order to determine whether their sequence of instruction reflected this natural order of syntactic acquisition. The books reviewed were Christensen and Munson's The Christensen Rhetoric Program: The Sentence and the Paragraph, Strong's Sentence Combining: A Composing Book; William's Style and Grammer: A Writer's Handbook Transformations; O'Hare's Sentencecraft: An Elective Course in Writing; Daiker, Kerrek, and Morenberg's The Writer's Options; Rippon and Meyers' Combining Sentences; and Romine's Writing Sentences: A Self-Teaching Guide to Grammar, Structure, and Sentence-Combining. The conclusion reached in this part of the study is simply that none of the authors followed "nature's timetable" in ordering their materials. This fact suggests that a developmentally ordered text should be written and tested. It well might be that such a text would provide a more accessible approach to full syntactic control, if not for everyone, at least for those whose command of language is most uncertain.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Language arts
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