I couldn't find Nathan Bierma's article, entitled "Study finds clues to how we learn language," online. He discusses a new study by Janet McDonald, a psychologist at Louisiana State University, in the "Journal of Child Language." It found language clues in "working memory" and sound perception. They defined working memory as the ability to store words in your short-term memory as you hear them.

The researcher found that children with better working memories could recognize certain kinds of grammatical errors better, including errors in word order and a missing "-ing" in the present tense in sentences such as "The little girl is play with her dolls," where "play" should be "playing."

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Meanwhile, children with better sound perception did better at flagging errors such as a missing "do" in a question like "What you think?" When just a single syllable determines whether a sentence is grammatical or not, sound perception is the key to mastering the grammar, she concludes.

She then gave a similar series of tests to adults and found similar results.

The investigator concludes that there are factors other than grammatical knowledge that are important to grammatical judgment, such as a working memory or sound perception. She says that when educating children you should not only look at the language they are learning, but also at the brains of the learners. For example, she suggestions that even the way teachers give tests, such as repeating questions or setting time limits, can affect performance just as knowledge can.

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Originally posted by Kalleh:
For example, she suggestions that even the way teachers give tests...

Is this a test itself?

Would confusing homonyms be included here?

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Would confusing homonyms be included here?

... if and only if inflectionations and other typographications are also inclusive ......

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jerry thomas,

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For example, she suggestions that even the way teachers give tests, such as repeating questions or setting time limits, can affect performance just as knowledge can.

I would have thought that that was obvious.

The trick, of course, is to devise the test in such a way that those other factors are useful in separating the good student from the bad.

Found at least an abstract of the study: wish I could read Bierma's article. I have one kid whose working memory is unusually good (when young, scored particularly high on those tests where someone reads you a paragraph & you repeat as much back as you can...). All 3 sons are musicians, & have unusually good sound perception, & speak & write rather well- but the one with good working memory also has the unusual ability of being able to spell any word he's ever seen, & demonstrates an articulate grasp of grammar.

sounds like being in your family is to have constant intellectual inspiration, bethree !!