Items Vol. 30 No. 3 (1976)

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL

VOLUME SO • NUMBER S • SEPTEMBER 1976 605 THIRD AVENUE· NEW YORK, N.Y. 10016

Postchildhood Modifications of Linguistic and Social Competence

by Allen D. Grimshaw and Leah Holden •

A CHILD'S ACQUISITION of and increasing control over rules for the production and interpretation of speech and other social behavior is a truly remarkable phenomenon. It is even more remarkable since the greatest part of this control seems to be achieved at a tender age. The focus on the extremely compacted processes of language acquisition and socialization and of the learning of interpersonal skills in the early years has led to the relative neglect of the continuing acquisition and refinement of linguistic and social skills.

The fact that learning of language and of interpersonal skills continues throughout life has become increasingly recognized in recent years, and research is now under way by scholars representing several disciplines and a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives. Under the auspices of the Council's Committee on Sociolinguistics, a small conference of linguists and social scientists was held in Brown 'County, Indiana, N ovember 14-16, 1975, to explore this emerging interest and att~mpt to identify critically relevant research issues. l • Allen Grimshaw is professor of sociology, Indiana University; Leah Holden is a graduate student in the same department. A member of the Council's Committee on Sociolinguistics, Mr. Grimshaw was responSible for organizing the conference reported; Leah Holden acted as rapporteur. The authors wish to thank William Corsaro, Charles Fillmore, Marilyn Lester, and several conference participants for- extensive critical comments on a draft of this report and several other scholars for providing unpublished papers for use at the conference. This report (which has been much condensed for reasons of space) cannot be considered a complete record of the meeting, a definitive statement of the problems and prospects of an area of SCholarly activity, or even as representative of a joint position statement or a reflection of consensus.

It does represent a preliminary, if often inadequate, formulation ot some important issues seen by the participants as central in the discussion. For the most part, no attempt has been made to assign credit to individuals for specific ideas.

Conference participants included anthropologists, linguists, psycholinguists, sociolinguists, sociologists, and an English professor interested 1

A number of things are "known" about the continuing elaboration and extension of .grammatical rules learned in early childhood. Linguists have reported on continuing incorporation of lexical items into vocabulary, on the appearance of more complicated syntactic embedding, and on the learning "Of second. and additional languages. Sociologists have told us ~ that behavioral patterns change in response to membership in different peer and reference groups (a shift from dependence on parents, to dependence on peers, to autonomy in middle life, itself replaced by dependence on a variety of caretakers in the later years). But linguists in language. Committee members in attendance included Allen Grimshaw, Rolf Kjolseth, and Gillian Sankoff. Other participants were David Bleich, Indiana University; Charles Bird, Indiana University; Ursula Bellugi, Salk Institute (La Jolla, C~.lifornia); Courtney Cazden, Harvard University; Jean Berko Gleason, Boston University; Erving Goffman, University of Pennsylvania; Leah Holden, Indiana University; Keith Kernan, University of California, Los Angeles; Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, University of California, Los Angeles; and Eugene Weinstein, State University of New York, Stony Brook.

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Post childhood Modifications of Linguistic and Social Competence-Allen D. Grimshaw and Leah Holden Japanese Studies-Robert J. Smith and Susan J. Pharr A New Committee on Gifted ChildrenAlvia Y. Branch Current Activities at the Council -The impact of television viewing -Longitudinal methodology in the social sciences -New subcommittee on education indicators Fellowships and Grants Recent Council Publications

have not told us much about (1) in what areas of competence are changes most likely to occur; (2) what are motivations for those changes; (3) how they are learned; (4) what are the cognitive and grammatical constraints on changes (and perhaps physiological constraints); (5) what social contexts facilitate or inhibit change. Sociologists have not provided answers either to the analogous questions about acquisition of social interactional rules or to those having to do with the functions of skills added as individuals progress through the life cycle (e.g., adolesecent speech and occupational jargons as bouridary maintaining and solidarity enhancing mechanisms). All of these topics were discussed during the conference.

For purposes of our necessarily truncated report, we present a sampling of the range of subjects and ideas covered in the course of the conference.

SOME BASIC ISSUES IN ACQUISITION Readers will note that the bulk of the illustrative material in this section is drawn from examples of continuing learning of sociolinguistic and/or social interactional rules rather than of changes in individual grammars (on the difference between learning linguistic and sociolinguistic rules, see Cazden 1973). This apparent imbalance reflects topics discussed at the conference and an emergent realization that concentrated learning of the several types of rules may occur at different stages in the life cycle. While productive and interpretive speech capacity changes throughout life, there appears to be evidence that such learning is far more compacted into the very earliest years than is true of that of social and sociolinguistic skills. Payne (1975) has shown that major changes in the grammar become increasingly difficult with maturation--even though there may be great pressures for change on older children and adults.

In contrast, some participants believe there is suggestive evidence that important learning of social interactional and sociolinguistic (selectional) rules also begins at a very early age, but that the pace and scheduling of this learning varies considerably. This variation is a consequence of what data are available for a child for the construction of social interactional and sociolinguistic grammars. Speech data for construction of grammars of languages are available for virtually all children.

However, exposure to analogous social interactional data (e.g., interaction with significant others of widely varying social characteristics in situations with widely varying goals) or sociolinguistic data (e.g., interaction with significant others using different dialects and/or registers) varies considerably by location in the social structure in terms of such characteristics as family orga34

nization, class status, and area of residence. It thus happens that some persons will learn some social interactional or sociolinguistic skills much later than others (or perhaps never). This variation occurs within as well as across societies.

Most studies have viewed the acquisition process as one in which language learners construct grammars on the basis of data in the world around them; little attention has been paid to reasons why some things seem to be learned more easily than others--the assumption seems to have been that differences in development reflect differences in ability and in complexity of new grammatical structures. Participants in the conference discussed several questions about social relational and psychological (noncognitive) influences on the process.

We were reminded, for example, of the ease with which children everywhere learn their mother tongue and certain social amenities (such as "Thank you" in our society) as contrasted to the difficulty in assimilating second and higher order language instruction or explicit training in specialized social behaviors in the years beyond childhood. The former are learned fairly "easily" (from a child's point of view even mother-tongue acquisition can be marked by chagrin, great effort, embarrassment, frustration, etc.); the latter are taught but frequently not learned. One explanation offered was that the first language is learned in conditions of emotional need, and teaching of second and higher order languages is frequently imposed on potential learners in periods of rebellion and in contexts of coercion. Another interpretation suggests that there is a functional economy in the learning of langauge and of the rules of social behavior; that once enough has been learned to permit speakers to communicate and to manage social relations, energies are then expended on other activities. Related to this notion is one that suggests that there are simply more attractive things to do as people "grow up" and that continuing learning of some sorts simply loses out in the competition for time resources.

Learning versus being taught: A related question, which participants agreed deserves more attention than it has hitherto received, is that of explicit instruction versus implicit acquisition (see Cazden 1973). There are some things which, as adults, we can remember having learned. While different theories of learning focus on varying dimensions of the process, we all believe that we can identify instances of learning by imitation, by trial and error, and through explicit instruction. Some fairly explicit instruction both in language and for other social behaviors continues through life. Small children get more of this than more mature individuals do, the exhortations of Captain Kangaroo on "Please" and VOLUME

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"Thank you," the warnings of adults that "nice" boys or girls don't talk in certain ways, the instruction of teachers about number agreement, verb forms, and the like. Military personnel are instructed in how to produce and when to use "command voice"; presidents are instructed in how to address the Congress; and so on. In each of these and countless other instances corrections are offered for mistakes and positive sanctions are given for successful performances. Moreover, although being able to do something often precedes learning a scheme of interpretation for it (or at least being able to articulate the latter), we sometimes know how things are to be done before we know why-and that knowing, even about saying "Thank you," can be very complicated.

There are other politeness formulae or social amenities that people do not remember learning, and there are many instances in which some are never learned.

In addition to instruction in classroom settings, there is also a great deal of explicit instruction which takes place routinely in casual settings, and which may be offered either by peers or by older persons who "have been there." This kind of activity ranges from general advice ("Go right in there and tell what you thinkdon't leave anything out") to specific coaching ("Now when he asks Y, you reply Z"). Retrospective coaching allows for rehashing of interaction-gone-wrong, where errors in strategy and possible alternative approaches can be pointed out.

Rote "learning" is associated with explicit pedagogical techniques which in recent years have come to be severely criticized. Nonetheless, "rehearsal" is a useful concept in understanding how language and other skills continue to be acquired in different life periods and settings. There are several types of rehearsals in which speakers engage, including at least (I) practice for ritual or dramatic performances, e.g., rehearsals for weddings or for performances of King Lear; (2) premonitored talk, or joint practice, prior to entering a social setting, or in preparation for a general type of social setting; (3) rehearsal in a speaker's head during ongoing talk-the kind of thing that happens in some conversational "contests"; (4) isolated practice, silent or spoken (e.g., the type that is done by individuals anticipating crises in interpersonal relations).

As with coaching, there are two time orientations; prospective (rehearsals) or retrospective (redoings); in actual conversation they are often intermingled (as in the distinction between future-oriented, "When I see him ... " and past-oriented, "When I saw him ... ").

When children are together in our society (just as when conference participants gather) they do rehearsals -of accents heard on television, of varieties of direcSEPTEMBER

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tives, of conversational openers. Adolescents engage in same-sex rehearsals of cross-sex conversations. The very old may practice strategies for establishing and maintaining social relations. Much of this rehearsal is fairly open, and auditors are frequently asked to evaluate performances. We know little, however, about the social norms which encourage or prohibit practice of certain kinds of verbal performances.

Critical ages or periods for learning: There is no evidence that the ability to acquire language is lost at any age_ There is some evidence that lexicon, for example, continues to expand throughout an individual's life (D. Sankoff and Lessard 1975). There is evidence, too, that some "missed" learning can be picked up at later ages. Genie, the physically abused and socially and linguistically isolated child studied by Curtiss et al.

(1974), has learned much but by no means all of what she had missed during her traumatic isolation. The fact that she has not filled in some parts of her grammar does not mean, of course, that such learning is impossible.

Although some learning is clearly cumulative, we know little about what constraints there may be on delayed learning, or what, if anything, can only be learned after particular levels of physiological, psychological, or social maturation are reached. Similarly, the mastery of many sociolinguistic skills (e.g., things as different as the accomplishment of condolences or the "civilized" termination of relationshi ps and more specific skills such as irony or euphemism) requires a prior understanding of subtleties of social relationships as well as competence with linguistic forms. Current research provides no satisfactory answers to either the question of the existence of critical periods or, if they exist, what their bases are.

LANGUAGE CHANGE AND SOCIAL CHANGE Universal rules of linguistic and social behavior (whether metatheoretical or substantive) should not, by definition, change. System-specific rules, including categorical rules, do change (Labov 1972a); this raises the interesting question as to how violations come to be accepted and in some instances to represent new rules. 2 Scholars from each of the social sciences have propounded theories of societal change, but there is nothing approaching consensus on a theory (see, e.g., Moore 1963; Ponsioen 196q). Linguists have long been interested in questions about change (see, recently, Weinreich, Labov, and Herzog 1968; Labov, Yaeger, and Z Some participants were skeptical of the utility of Labov's distinction. seeing the rules of a grammar as falling along a continuum from highly variable to ("for all intents and purposes') invariant rules. To them. the measurement of location on the continuum is interesting-as is the question of how the "categorical" rules come to be changed.

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Steiner 1972; Stockwell and Macaulay 1972); there is no consensually accepted theory within linguistics.

Some changes, like the lexical reduction discussed by Friedrich (1966) and those in Tok Pisin discussed below, occur within historically demarcated periods (sometimes within single generations) and may be experienced by individuals; other changes, like the Great Vowel Shift, extend over periods of centuries and are not consciously experienced by naive participants. The same differences in rapidity and awareness of change hold, of course, for other social change. Most adults now living can identify major social changes (including many of revolutionary magnitude) which have happened in their own lifetimes. There are also more gradual, though no less pervasive, changes which have taken place, e.g., in the organization of family life in response to the industrial revolution; in shifts in the status of women and children; and so on. In this section we will talk primarily about language change; it will be realized that analogous changes occur in the structuring of social relations and processes, and that similar questions must be asked about each, viz.: (1) what or who changes; (2) what or who introduces and carries through the changes; (3) how does change occur; (4) what is the order of change.

Two levels of language change were discussed: (I) changes in the grammars- (and productive speech patterns) of individauls in new settings, whether those new settings are social (e.g., through class mobility), developmental (resulting from chronological movement through the life cycle) or geographical (movement across dialect or language boundaries); (2) changes in "languages" themselves (using language here as a surrogate for statistical norms of rule distribution). There are differences, of course, in the rate and characteristics of changes in languages which are "isloated" (e.g., the Great Vowel Change in English) and in languages in contact (e.g., pidginization or the standardization of creoles such as that described by Sankoff; see below).

One interesting question is that of who introduces change into speech patterns. Labov (1972b) examined this question, if somewhat indirectly, in his Martha's Vineyard study; Sankoff, one of the participants in the conference, has specifically asked about adolescents versus adults in the contribution of innovations in Tok Pisin (TP), an English-based pidgin-creole spoken in Papuan New Guinea.

As an illustration of a change for which adolescents appear to have been principally responsible, Sankoff briefly reviewed the findings reported in G. Sankoff and Laberge (1973) on the introduction of tense markers into TP. As late as perhaps 20 years ago, future time was indicated in TP by a series of optional adverbs, usually 36

in sentence-initial position. One of these, baimbai (derived from "by and by"), has been reduced to bai or btl, which is now an obligatory verbal prefix used as an auxiliary by creole speakers (the oldest of whom were teenagers in 1971 when the study was carried out). It is used less consistently by adults (second-language speakers of TP), and its status for them as an auxiliary is equivocal. A lexical item has been encapsulated into a grammatical morpheme and has undergone a major change in its syntactic role-apparently in one generation. While it is impossible to determine whether the reduced form was originally introduced by the younger generation, it is clear that the wholesale adoption and generalization of the future marker has been their doing.

In this case, then, children and particularly adolescents are the leading edge of change.

In contrast to this change is an innovation in syntax that does not show noticeable differences between pidgin and creole speakers (see G. Sankoff and Brown 1976). A marker (ia) for bracketing off relative clauses appeared quite recently and apparently has as its source the demonstrative ia. Many Austronesian languages (some of which are the native languages of pidgin speakers) have been described as having similar systems. In this case, the younger generation does not seem to be ahead of its elders, which tends to suggest that this change has been generalized by pidgin speakers, possibly under the influence of their native languages.

While these data suggest that both younger (creole) speakers and older (pidgin) speakers are capable of generalizing syntactic change, there are nevertheless generational differences in speech which are attended to by TP speakers. Sankoff reports that adults admire the children's effectiveness in language use-they say the kids "speak straight" (in contrast to their own periphrastic usages).

The (unanswered) question about the greater success of the young in introducing certain language changes is related to another interesting question-that of distinguishing cognitive as contrasted to social bases for changes in the production of individual speakers. Several sorts of changes have been identified, e.g.: (1) change by analogy (e.g., the regularization of English verbs); (2) change through learning errors (e.g., sound changes where the source is failure to reproduce a target model); (3) change through the addition of rules (e.g., the case of TP reported above). These essentially cognitively-based changes must be theoretically' integrated with changes consequent from speakers' attempts to "talk like" positively-valued social others.

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to address the knotty problem of integrating facts and theoretical perspectives about continuing language (and other social) acquisition and socialization with those about language (and other social) change. Linguists will have to provide convincing descriptions of both the restructuring of individual grammars through the course of the life cycle and of the grammars of languages over time and under different conditions of language contact and social change. Psychologists will have to provide information on the cognitive processes involved in individual acquisition and continued learning. Neurolinguists will have to identify neural constraints on the ordering of initial acquisition (and possibly on later relearning). Anthropologists and sociologists will be called upon to identify the social supports and constraints which operate to facilitate or inhibit both initial and continued acquisition and the occurrence or nonoccurrence of change. The outlines of a !esearch agenda are beginning to emerge.

LANGUAGE VARIATION There are at least three ways in which vanation in language is of critical interest to students of language in use. The first of these, which has a long history in linguistics, involves the description of variations in register (style), code, and dialect within languages or the distribution of languages themselves and the relations of that differentiation and distribution to the speakers' geographical and social location, including in the latter socioeconomic attributes such as class, ethnicity, age, and sex. A second concern has to do with the command over variants by individual speakers and the relationship of presumed differences in repertoire to social variables.

A third interest, associated with variation in the speech production of individual speakers across situations (e.g., with different ends, topics, settings, and interlocutors) will be discussed in the following section on language functions and the development of communicative competence, broadly conceived.

Each of us lives in a world in which there are relevant others who speak differently from ourselves. For many people, in many situations, the differences are seldom remarked, and there is probably only modest resocialization in speaking behaviors as the years pass (there are social accompaniments to the aging process so that there will always be sollie resocialization in social interactional patterns). For many other people, however, important changes continue through life. The identification of these changes, their sources, and their linguistic, sociolinguistic, and social implications, raises a number of theoretically interesting questions, several of which came SEPTEMBER

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under discussion at the conference. Among these questions we have selected two for brief discussion in this report: (1) what social and/or linguistic bases can be identified for the acquisition of productive as contrasted to passive or interpretive competence in new variants; and (2) what is the relationship between adding new sounds, words, phrases, etc., on an item-by-item basis and adding rules or strategies for producing new sounds, words, phrases; under what conditions does the former lead to the latter?

(1) Productive versus passive competence: Native speakers of American English can understand Standard versions of the language anywhere in the country; however, only some of those who move across dialect boundaries after childhood become productively competent in the new variant to which they are exposed (Payne 1975).

Weinreich (1953) identifies cognitive, emotional, and social sources for interference; the same kinds of influences doubtless constrain the acquisition of interpretive and/or productive competence. There are situations, moreover, where passive competence never leads to productive competence but may, itself, be acquired in early adulthood and subsequently improved. G. Sankoff (1970) has described such an instance in a discussion of New Guinea dialects. Intelligibility tests showed that adolescents (age 12-20) understood a related dialect rather poorly, young adults (age 20-30) did much better, but were themselves surpassed by those in the 30-40 group, demonstrating that ability to comprehend another dialect of one's language is related to increased exposure to it, and can occur well after childhood.

(2) "True" competence versus "routines": Many people know a few words or phrases in a foreign language; many children and adults can "do" bits of foreign accents; people may "dress up" their speech in dealing with those from whom they seek services, particularly in telephone conversations or other brief encounters. There are special registers associated with communication across ethnic or age categories (viz., foreigner talk and baby talk; see, e.g., Ferguson 1971). Aside from these special cases, people frequently attempt to adjust to interlocutors who speak (or who the speaker believes speak) different variants. The motives for such attempts vary widely, from condescension, to attempted solidarity, to deceit.

There is a continuum from command over items in a language or dialect without the ability to generate new forms to productive competence. People seem to have remarkable capacity for learning long and involved lists on an item-by-item basis. Some lists may come to provide the basis for more abstract and productive rules; others may continue to be stored as itemized lists. Deriving a

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productive rule from lists of items is presumably a way to move toward competence in a language, dialect, or register. We do not know what constraints, social or cognitive, there are on such a process, what conditions facilitate it, or to what extent speakers can achieve real competence in a new system in this fashion. s

LANGUAGE FUNCTIONS AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE Children's rapid acquisition of a wide range of grammatical (phonological, syntactic) skills has been widely documented and discussed. A developmental problem less frequently mentioned has to do with the (presumably) parallel development of skills children acquire which allow them to use their developing linguistic skills effectively in social interaction. A central question now becomes: how do children and adolescents (and adults) come to use the linguistic resources at their command to manage increasingly complex interaction in diverse social settings? An adequate answer to this question requires both a theory of the development of linguistic abilities and a theory of the development of social knowledge.路 Consider one example. Adolescence in our culture is often characterized as a time of trying on new identities--indeed a time of "identity crisis." When a person moves into new social spheres, new ways of speaking-one facet of new ways of presenting oneself-must be acquired. The ability to function linguistically and socially in bureaucratic settings, or in dating relationships, for instance, must be acquired in order for one to become a fully competent member of a differentiated social world.

Young children use role play for (among other things) experimenting with various roles, some of which they may eventually occupy (parent, teacher, doctor, etc.), some of which they will likely not (puppy, princess, witch, etc.). Older children, adolescents, and adults continue to practice the kinds of talk associated with various roles and situations, but the form of the rehearsal probably changes. As noted above, little is known about rehearsals, particularly in older age groups, but they would 3 Bolinger (1976) argues that the most important process in language acquisition is a constant cognitive processing of basically memorized material, some of which leads to the construction of rules, but much of which does not.

4 A number of studies underscore the importance of studying children's speech in its natural loci-the settings that have most salience for the speakers, especially the peer group. As reported by, for example, Cook-Gumperz and Corsaro (in press) and Ward (1971), linguistic patterns look very different when children talk to adults than when they interact with peers.

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seem to be an important resource in the development of adult identity.

Closely related to the management of identity is the notion of the management of status, especially within peer groups. Several verbal strategies are available for producing a sense of status differentiation. One of these, the use of directives, appears in nursery school-age children:s role play (Corsaro 1976; Sachs and Devin 1976), and m the talk of older children (reports by Kernan and Mitchell-Kernan at the conference on their research).

A~ot~er strategy for enhancing status in some groups is skIll m verbal dueling or in ritual insults (Abrahams 1972; Labov 1972c; Mitchell-Kernan 1972), which require mastering both a linguistic form and a stock of social knowledge which prescribes the content of the insults.

This approach to the study of language acquisition, focusing as it does on language use, leads nicely into the study of how individuals acquire a range of registers or dialects in which they can function competently. That people practice the kinds of talk appropriate to roles they will never occupy in their "real" adult lives seems not to be merely wasted effort when we consider that, in addition to the dialects and styles they can function quite well in, they also command a number of "voices" they can get along in for very short periods of time; they may use these for play, for limited service contacts, etc. The fact that a speaker's linguistic socialization involves practice with a variety of registers allows us to view adult speakers' ability to switch styles and codes not as an isolated or peripheral skill; rather, it must be accounted for by any fruitful general theory of language acquisition.

Very young children tell jokes and stories and play with poetic features of language such as rhythm, rhyme, and alliteration, but we usually think of adult-like skill with stories, jokes, and poetry as developing in later childhood and adolescence. Genuine creative use of language requires productive ability within a form. We do not know how persons move from the ability to memorize and recite stories and poems to the ability to create them. Moverover, there may be differences between the ability to report an actual event and the capability to create a fictional account. The latter would seem to require a generative social competence not necessarily needed to do retellings of experience. Finally, people recognize that some individuals are better than others at composing stories and poems. Again, we do not know what processes are involved in acquiring these skills or why so~e persons excel in them.

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hood. Bellugi told us路 about a truly remarkable case of the development of an aesthetic genre within a language community. She has been studying the development of a poetic tradition within our own time, in the sign language used by deaf people in America-American Sign Language. She has studied not only folk art, such as lullabies and children's games, but also the emergence of a poetic tradition in the hands of some talented deaf poets. She studies translations from written English to American Sign Language, and the subsequent molding of poetic form from "straight" styles of signing; poems created in American Sign Language and written English simultaneously; and finally, poems which were created in American Sign Language only. Her work shows how individuals are able to add a stylistic genre and create poetic devices, and how a whole language community is able to develop rather quickly a whole new body of stylistic principles and strategies.

Children begin quite early to tell stories (Sacks 1972), including narratives of personal experience; that is, stories which tell in sequential order some series of events that happened to the teller (Labov and Waletzky 1967). The work of Kernan and Mitchell-Kernan presented at the conference suggests that older children increasingly use organizing devices to render their narratives gestalt-like and coherent. They are finding that second and third graders use an orientation section to set the scene for their narratives less often than do fifth grade and older children. Similarly, while the older children set the scene in the orientation by using paraphrases, repetitions, and elaborations--all of which function to straighten out the semantics of the narrative-the younger ones use those same devices more often to get themselves back on the track in the course of telling the narrative. In short, the older group has developed strategies for explicating the sense that is to be made of their narratives. Since a great deal of casual, everyday talk consists of speakers recounting personal experiences, many opportunities exist for studying changing strategies of recounting through childhood into adulthood and on into old age.

Another thing people do with talk is to invoke social rules, express intent, give reasons--in short, to convey a sense of their perceptions of the order in the world and of their position in it. Weinstein reported differences among children in three age groups in their ability to articulate rules of exchange. He characterized the world of the three- and four-year-oIds studied as one of "affect, need, and supplication," in which possibilities of negotiation and compromise are blocked by the abo sence of articulated rules that might provide a basis for them; the world of the seven- and eight-year-olds as one SEPTEMBER

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of "strict ruledness," where the expectation is that the articulated rules will be followed in a quite literal way; the world of the eleven- and twelve-year-oIds as one of "free negotiation," in which cooperative activity is facilitated by the spontaneous introduction of articulated rules of exchange to resolve ambiguities in the experimental game. (Many readers will see a parallel to Piaget.) Clearly, changes in the ability to articulate rules of conduct have important consequences for what actually becomes possible in conduct.

Many children are not, by adult standards, tactful II; moreover, there is considerable variation among adolescents and adults in their management of directness and tact or, as one participant put it, in the creation of more inferential space between what is meant and what is actually said. For example, there are some very interesting, and some very complex, dimensions of literality and abstractness in the giving and acceptance--or rejection --of directives. Children fairly early learn the importance of power relations in deciding whether to disagree.

The subtleties of disagreement and polite demurrer as replacements for "You're crazy" or "I won't do it" seem to appear later. A somewhat specialized but interesting response to adult directives is exemplified in exchanges such as the--following: Parent: "This is absolutely the last time I'm going to tell you ... " Twelve-year-old: "Good!"

Children usually respond in desired ways to such adult utterances as, "Shall we clean up now?" Adults, while they may refuse the implied suggestion or order will ordinarily justify the refusal (although responses of the type above may be used humorously if properly marked).

Yet, some quite young children make what can be interpreted as intended violations, as when a five-year-old is told, "Your floor is just covered with junk," responds "I know" or "Here's a clean spot." Adults, then, would like to see children temper disagreement through movement into abstraction, preferably using some kind of fudge ("I'll do it later") rather than a direct refusal (Holden 1976). There are questions here having to do with, e.g., (I) the learning of moral rules, including possibly an initial rejection of insincerity followed by B We don't know whether children operate according to different sets of politeness considerations from adults or whether they have sim路 ply not developed tact. For example, Cook路Gumperz and Corsaro (in press) report that nursery school children may terminate interaction by walking away, which to an adult would be an affront. They may, on the other hand, orient to other markers of politeness and tact which adults are not able to recognize. Without some notion of chilo dren's oriented路 to features of politeness and rudeness, we can't claim that they aren't tactful, only that they don't follow adult politeness rules.

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the learning of tact, or; (2) the relation of such behaviors to the adult conflict mode of "taking things literally." e Tact is also a consideration in correcting or not correcting real or imagined errors made by others. It is possible that tact about errors may be related not only to individual learning but also to language change. Social interactional violations (particularly those that may be seen as injurious and necessitating "repair" [vide Goffman 1971]) seem to be more noticeable, more reportable, and more likely to be corrected than, e.g., mispronunciations or many syntactic lapses occurring in ongoing conversation. 7 Even when speech errors are noticed, they are frequently unchallenged; if such errors become systematic, they are a potential source of linguistic change. We know very little about either errors or sanctioning behavior. Questions such as (1) whether there is differential tolerance at different life periods; (2) who or what can be corrected and/or ridiculed, and (3) who can do it-may turn out to be important for an understanding both of ongoing acquisition and socialization and a number of interesting issues in social control.

One final example. A variety of appropriateness constraint which seems to be associated with late adolescence and early adulthood in the specific context of the academic world is "depersonalization" of speech. In the course of four years of undergraduate school, some young people learn to switch from examples of personal experience to invocation of experts, as in "Piaget says .... " In the academic subculture there may even be a ten• Another class of skills has to do with the development of inferential abilities. Participants in social interaction must be able to draw infer· ences from what is literally said. While. as Garfinkel (1967) has shown. the potential range of "meanings" for any utterance is infinite. the range of what will pass as interpretations for all practical purposes is actually limited by the nature of the situation. the relationship of the in teractants: etc. The ability to read appropriate meaning from a statement. to determine how seriously and how literally a statement should be taken. is expected of competent adults. How these skills are acquired. indeed whether they are acquired. remains an open question.

At some point and by some means, children learn not to respond to statements literally ("Is your mommy there?" "Yes" or "Do you know what time it is?" "Yes') but to hear what is entailed or implied in what is literally said and to respond appropriately (by adult standards).

(On literality and directives in U.S. English. see Ervin.Tripp 1976.)

7 This very tentative observation only hints at some profound and complicated questions. It seems likely that social violations are corrected when injurious or potentially so to in·group members. Linguistic viola· tions are probably corrected when seen as injurious or potentially so to the self.image of the linguistic in·group (including the case in which individual variation is seen as preliminary to changing membership) .

This problem is very much complicated by the fact that linguistic and social interactional rules are different in as yet unspecified ways. We don't know. for example. which social interactional rules may be uni· versals. A further complexity is that social norms have a moral dimen· sion which even prescriptive grammars do DO~.

40

dency to judge character on the basis of the amount of self-reference, with too much being negatively valued.

For some groups, the citation of proverbs or folk sayings may be functionally equivalent to the citation of experts. Small children, of course, continually invoke powerful others, as in, "Mommy says. , ." or "Teacher says .. ,"; the latter are still personal referents. Other children cite an abstract "generalized other" in, e.g., "Everybody gets a higher allowance." Yet, while it is acceptable for college students or scholars to say, "Freud says ... ," the same citation from children is likely to be interpreted as smart-alecky (and youth are likewise denied legitimate use of proverbs in some societies).8 There are several dimensions to this differentiation in reference and some interesting implications for both the study of continuing language development and that of social control. Shifts occur, in the production of some but not all speakers, from the concretely self-referential to the' abstract, and from person-related to impersonal authority figures (e.g., from Mommy, or my teacher, or my boss "said," to Weber or Bloomfield "said"). Invocation of reference may be used both for explaining one's own behavior and for supporting one's claims of fact or interpretations, Thus, there appears to be in American society a period in life when "reifications" come to be taken seriously and a rhetoric einerges in which defects in life and inexplicable constraints both come to be increasingly attributed to what one participant called "system, program, and bureaucracy." There are, moreover, additional implications of this differentiation and change for wider questions of social control. Readers familiar with the work of Bernstein (see especially Bernstein 1971, pages 143-169) will recognize both the parallel between the distinctions suggested in referential modes to his distinctions among imperative, positional, and person-oriented social control systems, and the relevance here of his claim of associations between these modes and the acquisition of restricted and elaborated codes.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Here is a listing of some issues raised in this discussion and some directions for research they seem to imply. l. What kinds of rules change? We tend to talk rather loosely about linguistic and interactional "rules," a term which actually glosses a wide variety of skills, strategies, 8 Old people start doing self·referencing again. Two interpretations are made: (1) they're getting childish; (2) they are wise and their experience has some special weight that legitimates their referencing.

An alternative explanation of the shift. at least in the middle class world of North American society, is that greater power permits greater self·reference among mature adults.

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prescriptions, constraints, etc. Various kinds of rules may be acquired, maintained, and changed quite differently throughout life, possibly reflecting vari'ations in the place of different kinds of rules in the organization of linguistic and social grammars. Studies of continuing language socialization should reflect in important ways on theories of what rules are and how they are organized.

2. What gets acquired? The outlines and much of the detail of the grammar of a speaker's mother tongue clearly are learned at a very young age. Speakers of all ages sometimes learn second (and higher-order) languages; speakers of all ages (but particularly younger ones) acquire new phonological systems (or parts of new systems) within languages. The bulk of postchildhood learning, however, appears to be in the enrichment of repertoires and the acquisition of appropriateness systems. There may be a shift over time from an emphasis upon the acquisition of linguistic competence to an emphasis upon a broader communicative competence.

With regard to the acquisition of strictly linguistic rules, we can ask whether adolescent and later modifications affect central or peripheral components of grammar. We can say with some confidence that later developments in pragmatic, sociolinguistic, and social interactional rules go on at the core of a speaker-actor's grammar.

3. When does learning and relearning take place?

Some of the inspiration for the conference reported on in these pages resulted from a fruitless attempt to find a satisfactory literature on postchildhood language acq uisition and / or the con tin uing socialization of adolescents in this society. Adolescence is a period of considerable expansion of linguistic and social competence in this society; "adolescence," however, may be a culturally bound (North American) conceptual category. There are less sharp age breaks elsewhere-and less insulation of very small children from a full range of influences and situations. If, as claimed above, continuing socialization is responsive to linguistic and social environments, it may be that the answer to the "when" question means identifying the chronological age at which members of a society enter into particular social relationships and roles. The life cycle can be looked upon as expanding and contracting access to life domains and social space. Continuing socialization then becomes largely a consequence of opportunities and exposure rather than of any inherent maturational process.

4. How does learning and relearning take place? Here we are thinking of learning and relearning of linguistic and social interactional skills generally. Do old rules ever disappear completely? Do speakers sometimes maintain multiple rules for doing the same thing? Can duplicate rules be contradictory and, if so, how are the conSEPTEMBER

1976

tradictions resolved in behavior? It seems likely that the addition, replacement, modification, and duplication of rules may all operate at various times and on various kinds of linguistic and interactional rules, but this is again an empirical question, and a particularly tricky one. At this stage of the game, it is hard to say even how to pose such questions as research problems, or to say with confidence what kinds of evidence are needed.

5. What is the relationship between individual and aggregate change? A central issue addressed at the conference is the relationship between an individual's grammar-a psychological entity-and the grammar of a language-a social entity. Some participants maintained that constraints on both are the same, while others claimed that some things a language can do (e.g., radical reanalysis) an individual's grammar cannot. Whatever that relationship turns out to be, it is clear that the answer to this question awaits, among other things, information on how an individual's grammar changes throughout life. We simply do not have enough information about the ongoing acquisition of language functions and sociolinguistic strategies, for which there is probably no critical age. Although the analogy was not drawn, the same kinds of issues can be raised regarding social change on both the individual and the aggregate level.

The lack of longitudinal and comparative data is a principal obstacle to needed work on the relationship between continuing language socialization and aspects of language variation. As noted, there are a number of excellent studies of variation by social location. There are very few developmental studies of individuals or cohorts of individuals as they move through any extensive part of the life cycle (although some children have been followed for short periods). Until such studies have been undertaken, many of the questions we have discussed here will remain moot.

References Abrahams, Roger D. 1972 "Joking: The Training of the Men of Words in Talking Broad." Pages 215-240 in T. Kochman (editor). Rappin' and Stylin' Out. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Bernstein, Basil. 1971 "A Sociolinguistic Approach to Socialization: With Some Reference to Educability." In Volume I of Class, Codes and Control. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

Bolinger, Dwight. 1976 "Meaning and Memory." Forum Linguisticum I, 1 (August).

Cazden, Courtney B. 19711 "Problems for Education: Language as Curriculum Content and Learning Environment." Pages 1!15148 in Daedalus, Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 102, No. 11, Summer.

Cook-Gumperz, Jenny and William A. Corsaro. In press. "Social

41

Ecological Constraints on Children's Communicative Strategies."

In J. Gumperz (editor). Social Action in Language. New York : Academic Press.

Corsaro. William. 1976 "Young...(;hildren's Conception of Status and Role." Paper presented at lhe-7lst Annual Meeting of the American Sociological Association, August.

Curtiss. Susan. Victoria Fromkin. Stephen Krashen. David Rigler. and Marilyn Rigler. 1974 "The Linguistic Development of Genie." Language 50:528-554.

Ervin.Tripp. Susan. 1976 "Is Sybil There? The Structure of Some American English Directives." Language in Society 5:25-66.

Ferguson, Charles A. 1971 "Absence of Copula and the Notion of Simplicity: A Study of Normal Speech. Baby Talk. Foreigner Talk. and Pidgins." Pages 141-150 in D. Hymes (editor). Pid· ginization and Creolization of Language. London: Cambridge University Press.

Friedrich. Paul. 1966 "The Linguistic Reflex of Social Change: From Tsarist to Soviet Russian Kinship." Sociological Inquiry (Spring) 116: 111-57.

Garfinkel. Harold. 1967 Studies in Ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice·Hall.

Goffman. Erving. 1971 Relations in Public. New York: Basic Books.

Holden. Leah. 1976 "Producing Reasonableness in Conversation."

Unpublished manuscript.

Labov. William. 1972a \"The Internal Evolution of Linguistic Rules." Pages 101-171 in Robert R. Stockwell and R.K.S. Ma· cauley (editors). Linguistic Change and Generative Theory.

Bloomington. Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Labov. William. 1972b "The Sod.al Motivation of a Sound Change." Pages 1-42 in Sociolinguistic Patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

Labov, William. 1972c "Rules for Ritual Insults." Pages 120-169 in D. Sud now (editor). Studies in Social Interaction. New York: Free Press.

Labov, William and Joshua Waletzky. 1967 "Narrative Analysis: Oral Versions of Personal Experience." Pages 12-44 in June Helm (editor). Proceedings of the American Ethnological So· ciety Annual Meeting. Spring 1966.

Labov. William. M. Yaeger. and R . Steiner. 1972 A Quantitative Study of a Sound Change in Progress. Report on National Sci· ence Foundation Contract 9S-1I287.

Mitchell-Kernan. Claudia. 1972 "Signifiying and Marking: Two Afro·American Speech Acts." Pages 161-179 in John Gumperz and Dell Hymes (editors). Directions in Sociolinguistics: The

Ethnography of Communication. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

Moore, William E. 19611 Social Change. Englewood Cliffs: Pren· tice-Hall.

Payne. Arvilla. 1975 "The Reorganization of Linguistic Rules: A Preliminary Report." Pennsylvania Working Papers on Lin· guistic Change and Variation 1:6.

Ponsioen.J. A. 1965 The Analysis of Social Change Reconsidered.

The Hague: Mouton.

Sachs. Jacqueline and Judith Devin. 1976 "Young Children's Use of Age-appropriate Speech Styles in Social Interaction and Role-playing." Journal Of Child Language 3:81-98.

Sacks. Harvey. 1972 "On the Analyzability of Stories by Children."

Pages 325-345 in John Gumperz and Dell Hymes (editors). Directions in Sociolinguistics: The Ethnography of Communica· tion. New York: Holt. Rinehart and Winston.

Sankoff. David and Rejean Lessard. 1975 "Vocabulary Richness: A Sociolinguistic Analysis." Science 190:689-690.

Sankoff. Gillian. 1970 "Mutual Intelligibility. Bilingualism and Linguistic Boundaries." Pages 839-848 in International Days of Sociolinguistics. Rome: Institut Luigi Sturzo.

Sankoff. Gillian and Penelope Brown. 1976 "The Origins of Syntax in Discourse: A Case Study of Tok Pisin Relatives."

Language 52.3 (September).

Sankoff. Gillian. and Suzanne Laberge. 1973 "On the Acquisition of Native Speakers by a Language." Kivung 6:32-47. Reprinted in abridged version in D. DeCamp and I. Hancock (editors). Pidgins and Creoles: Current Trends and Prospects.

Washington. D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 1974. pages 73-84.

Stockwell. Robert P. and R. K. S. Macaulay. 1972 Linguistic Change and Generative Theory. Bloomington. Indiana: Indiana University Press.

Ward. M. C. 1971 Them Children: A Study in Language Learning. New York: Holt. Rinehart and Winston.

Weinreich. Uriel. 1953 Languages in Contact: Findings and Problems. New York: Linguistic Circle of New York. Reprinted in 1963 by Mouton.

Weinreich. Uriel. 1969 "Problems in the Analysis of Idioms."

Pages 23-82 in J. Puhvel (editor). Substance and Structure Of Language. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Weinreich. Uriel. William Labov. and Marvin Herzog. 1968 "Empirical Foundations for a Theory of Language Change." Pages 97-195 in W. P. Lehmann and Y. Malkiel (editors). Directions for Historical Linguistics. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Japanese Stud ies

by Robert J. Smith and Susan J. Pharr· 1974, the Joint Committee on Japanese Studies (JCJS) began developing a new research agenda for the three to four year period ahead. 1 The new initiatives aim at developing a full range of research foci IN

THE FALL OF

• Robert J. Smith is cochairman of the Joint Committee on Japanese Studies. cosponsored by the Social Science Research Council and the American Council of Learned Societies. He is Goldwin Smith professor of anthropology at Cornell University. Susan J. Pharr is a political scientist who serves as staff for the Joint Committee.

42

that challenge existing theory and are explicitly com· parative.

1 Members of the committee are Gerald L. Curtis. Columbia University (cochairman); Robert J. Smith. Cornell University (cochairman); Karen W. Brazell. Cornell University; Robert E. Cole. University of Michigan; Ellis S. Krauss. Western Washington State College; Misao Miyoshi. University of California. Berkeley; Kinhide Mushakoji. Sophia University; Tetsuo Najita. University of Chicago; Hugh Patrick. Yale University: Seizaburo Sato. University of Tokyo: KolO Yamamura.

University of Washington; staO: Susan J. Pharr.

VOLUME 110, NUMBER II

Because of the emphasis on an exploratory approach, many of the topics identified for research will be examined in a series of workshops rather than in a single full-scale conference. Hopefully, the workshop setting will provide a somewhat greater opportunity for developing, refining, and integrating findings on a given problem than is possible at a major conference where completed research is presented.

Much planning of the committee has centered on the theme of conflict in Japan. In most scholarly work to date, Japan has been viewed as a basically consensual society. Social science theories of conflict have been thought to have limited applicability for analyzing Japanese society. Numerous changes taking place in Japan today, however, challenge the appropriateness of this view. The committee over the past year has been concerned with exploring the theme of conflict in Japan through a variety of interrelated activities.

A number of scholars are exploring the topic as it applies to contemporary Japan, focusing on conflict and conflict resolution in interpersonal relationships and in small groups, and conflict within and between groups and organizations in Japan, particularly those in the national political arena.

Another group of scholars is examining the theme of conflict historically, addressing itself to the tensions, polarities, and oppositions that affected the course of developments in Japanese society from late Tokugawa to the end of the Taisho period.

Another project explores concepts of time and space in Japanese culture and aesthetics. In three workshops, a small group of humanists is meeting to consider the problem area. A major aim of the series is to draw upon current theories of aesthetics to study the Japanese experience.

Two workshops will look at innovation and technology transfers in Japan, focusing on the process by which technologies from abroad are adapted to Japanese needs.

Several additional projects are in various stages of planning. One will deal with japan's early modernization in the sixteenth century. Organized by John W. Hall, Yale University, and Kozo Yamamura, it will bring together U.S. and Japanese scholars to consider developments in this controversial period of Japanese history.

Another, a workshop on the city in Japan, was completed in April. Papers presented at the workshop dealt with such topics as historical migration patterns and demographic change, social stratification, crime and social control, deviance and social pathology in cities, and attitudes of the urban labor force.

Virtually all the activities described above involve SEPTEMBER.

1976

both American and Japanese scholars. In addition, however, the JC JS has developed a number of research projects that foster even more extensive interaction between members of the American and Japanese scholarly communities. The JCJS has a long-standing collaborative relationship with a Japanese counterpart organization, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (see Items, March 1975). In cooperation with JSPS, a number of collaborative projects are under way. A binational conference on U.S.-Japan relations from World War I to the Manchurian Incident was held in January 1976, on Kauai, Hawaii. James B. Crowley, Yale University, and Hosoya Chihiro, Hitotsubashi University, were cochairmen for the conference. A collaborative project on the Occupation of Japan, organized by Robert E. Ward, Stanford University, and Yoshikazu Sakamoto, University of Tokyo, is currently being developed. A binational planning meeting was held in the fall of 1975, with funds provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

A long-term binational project on the influence of socializing agents on cognitive functioning, communication styles, and educability of children in the United States and Japan was completed in June. Robert D. Hess and W. Patrick Dickson, Stanford University, and Hiroshi Azuma, University of Tokyo, cooperated in the project.

This article has focused on new research initiatives of the committee. Through its subcommittees and other programs, the JCJS is involved in a number of additional areas. A Subcommittee on Japanese Language Training Study has completed a report on Japanese language training in the U.S. A new task force on research and development in Japanese language training will carry forward the work of that subcommittee. A Subcommittee on Grants for Research makes awards for postdoctoral research relating to Japan. Fifteen such awards were made in 1975-76. Screening and Selection Committees for the International Doctoral Research Fellowship Program for Asia (formerly, the Foreign Area Fellowship Program) determine awards for dissertation research in Asia. In 1975-76, the program supported seven students conducting research on Japan. A regional seminar program provides scholars located outside major area centers with opportunities for regular scholarly contact. Through its research planning activities as well as through these programs, the committee works to meet the needs of the Japanese studies field and to advance research in the social sciences and humanities.

43

A New Committee on Gifted Children

by A lvia Y. Branch •

and a half there has been considerable discussion within the Council of the major issues and trends in research on gifted and talented individuals-discussions that have led to the establishment of a new Council committee, the Committee on Gifted Children.

Giftedness is a complex phenomenon, one involving not only the extraordinary ability of a single individual but also the interaction between that individual and cultural, social, and educational influences. Thus, as might be expected, academic fascination with the study of the gifted has had a long and interesting history, one culminating recently and notably in the first World Conference on Gifted Children which was held in London in September 1975. 1 At this conference, representatives of 51 nations, coming from all points on the globe, convened in order to discuss the status of provisions for the gifted within their own countries and to listen to research reports presented by invited speakers. Many of the questions raised in this forum were political, in the senSe that they involved the allocation of scarce human and financial resources. Because measures designed to enhance the educational experiences of the gifted student may result in a loss of resources available to improve the quality of the education of the average student, educational planners are often faced with difficult choices. Obviously, these issues were of greatest concern to those representatives of nations which had not (or had only recently) attained near-universal literacy. Nevertheless, the tension between support for the gifted student and support for the average student was reflected in the reports of representatives of all nations. The most crucial questions to emerge from the addresses of the invited speakers, however, were ones which involved the definition of giftedness, and the need for new approaches to its conceptualization. In large part, it is with this latter set of issues that the new Council committee will be involved.

Many of the early 20th century scientific studies of giftedness, following Francis Galton's Hereditary Genius (1869) and greatly influenced by the political climate of the times, examined ethnic and national differences in DURING THE PAST YEAR

• The author is a social psychologist who serves as staff for the Committee on Gifted Children.

1 See Joy Gibson and Prue Chennells (editors), Gifted Children: I_ookillg to Their Future. London : Latimer New Dimensions, Ltd., 1976.

44

intellectual ability. A second major line of inquiry for early work in this area stemmed from Freudian thinking on artistic, creative genius, according to which similar imaginative processes are involved in both genius and insanity. However, the systematic study of giftedness can be said to have come of age in the 1920s with the inception of the monumental study by Lewis M. Terman (1877-1956) of the characteristics of 1,528 California schoolchildren who scored 140 or above on the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. This measure was developed originally by French psychologists to be used in the identification of those children unlikely to benefit from schooling, but it was revised several times by Terman in order to make it a more appropriate instrument for use with a native, white, American population.

Beginning with sample selection in 1921, Terman and his associates mounted a virtually unequalled program of longitudinal research in which the development of these individuals was monitored from adolescence through childhood and into middle age.

In addition to measures of intellectual functioning, extensive data on the psychological, social, and physical characteristics of these individuals, as well as on their career choices and achievements, have been examined at regular intervals. While the findings from this work, presented in the five-volume Genetic Studies of Genius (1925-1959),2 are far too numerous to be summarized here, some of the most valuable of them confront highly resistant notions of the gifted individual as a curiosity, greatly advanced in intellectual development but often socially inept, physically underdeveloped, and emotionally unbalanced. Rather, quite the opposite is the case in the Terman sample: Writing in 1954, Terman said: " ... children of IQ of 140 or better are appreciably superior to unselected children in physique, health, and social adjustment; markedly superior in moral attitudes ... Follow-up of these subjects . . . show that the incidence of mortality, ill health, insanity, and alcoholism is in each case below that for the generality of corresponding age .... " S Z These volumes were all published by the Stanford University Press.

They are: L. M. Terman, et ai., Mental and Physical Traits of a Thousand Gifted Children, 1925; C. M. Cox, et ai., The Early Mental Traits Of Three Hundred Geniuses, 1926; B. S. Burks, et ai., The Promise of Youth: Follow-up Studies of a Thousand Gifted Children, 1930; L. M. Terman and M. H . Oden, The Gifted Child Grows Up, 1947; L. M. Terman and M. H. Oden, The Gifted Group at Mid-Life: Thirty-five Years' Follow-up Of the Superior Child, 1959.

3 Lewis M. Terman, "The Discovery and Encouragement of Excep. tional Talent," in Walter B. Barbe and Joseph S. Renzulli (editors).

Psychology and Educatiorl Of the Gifted. New York: Irvington Pub· lishers. Inc., 1975. page 9.

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Subsequent studies, employing more sophisticated sampling procedures, and observing a more diverse sample of students, have generally supported these findings. For instance, Project TALENT, a nationwide survey conducted in 1960 and involving 450,000 secondary school students, examined the characteristics of those students scoring in the top two per cent on standardized achievement and aptitude tests. Like the Terman students, they were more actively involved with extracurricular activities, elective office, and athletics than were average students. However, they seemed much less likely than the Terman students to be achieving at a superior level in high school, to have plans for postsecondary education, to have outstanding college experiences, and later to enter high-income, high-prestige occupations.

The high level of interest in giftedness represented by the Terman studies has not been consistently maintained, however, and subsequent progress in the accumulation of knowledge has at times seemed agonizingly slow. In the 1950s, national attention was again focused upon the most able of the student population, and once again the snail's pace was quickened. With the Soviet Union's launching of Sputnik I, the United States was thrown into a concerted attempt at regaining its former hegemony with respect to the production of scientists and engineers. According to Tannenbaum, as at Pearl Harbor, public education had been caught napping at the time of a surprise enemy attack. 4 The response was massive: Students who might otherwise have selected a major in the arts or humanities were encouraged to seriously consider mathematics and science. For their part, educators were encouraged to raise the standards for academic performance which they customarily maintained, and to quicken the pace at which students were allowed to proceed through learning materials.

The educational experiences of all students were influenced by these currents. In view, however, of the belief that the gifted student possesses a higher than usual potential for contributing to the good of society, it was upon this population of students that many of these innovations had their greatest impact. Most important of all responses to this challenge were the temporary alliances forged between scholars and educators, joined in the creation of a new curriculum (most notably in science and mathematics), one geared toward imparting the fundamental concepts in a discipline and involving the student in more active inquiry-"leaming through • Abraham J. Tannenbaum. "A Backward and Forward Glance al the Gifted." in Walter B. Barbe and Joseph S. Renzulli (editors). Ps)'· chology and Education of the Gifted. New York: Irvington Publishers.

Inc .• 1975. page 22.

SEPTEMBER

1976

discovery." Unfortunately, few of these reforms were fully incorporated into the ongoing educational programs of the day, and within an amazingly short span of time, the fervor, the special classes, and the administra· tive innovations had fallen into disuse. In their stead, the educational needs of new populations began to command the attention of governmental agencies, educators, and social scientists. With the advent of the 1954 Supreme Court ruling, Blacks (and later, other minorities) increasingly looked to the schools as a primary vehicle for access into the wider society. During this period also, the educational needs of the mentally retarded and children with learning disabilities began to be diagnosed and redressed. As a result of these and other similar trends, there was a period of considerable decline for the systematic study of giftedness, one which has only recently begun to be reversed. One harbinger of renewed interest in the gifted was the establishment in 1972 of the Office for the Gifted and Talented within the U.S. Office of Education, which has the express goal of increasing substantially the numbers of gifted students receiving a "qualitatively different" and appropriate educational experience.

Within the Council, active efforts leading toward the establishment of the Committee on Gifted Children began in March 1975. At that time, the Council responded positively to a request from the American Psychological Foundation suggesting that the Council be responsible for the disposition of funds made available from the estate of Esther Katz Rosen, a clinical and consulting psychologist who had had a long-standing dedication to children and their educational experiences. Her wish was to have the bulk of her estate used for "the advancement and application of knowledge about gifted children." Since that time, the Council has been engaged in a number of activities intended to begin summarizing existing knowledge and efforts with respect to this subject matter, and to make plans for future activities which would indeed bring about new and vigorous research activity in this field. Among these activities were two exploratory meetings conducted with Council staff, social scientists, and educators who have been associated with various aspects of research on giftedness. The first of these meetings, held January 16-17, 1976, was most concerned with the definition of giftedness; 5 the second, 5 Those attending the first meeting were: James E. Blackwell. Uni· versity of Massachusetts; David H. Feldman. Tufts University; James J. Gallagher. University of North Carolina; Howard E. Gardner. Vet· erans Administration Hospital (Boston); Howard Gruber. Rutgers University. Newark: Daniel P. Keating. University of Minnesota; Phillip Kilbride. Bryn Mawr College; Halbert B. Robinson. University of Washington; Julian C. Stanley. The Johns Hopkins University; Michael A. Wallach. Duke University; Alvia Y. Branch. David Jenness.

Eleanor Bernert Sheldon, staff.

45

held April II, 1976, dealt with the nature of educational provisions for the gifted.'

Definition of giftedness Research summaries attempting to assess the state of the art with respect to scientific knowledge of giftedness have repeatedly cited the definition and the identification of gifted individuals as crucial to the future of research in this field. The definition adopted by the U.S. Office of Education for its report to the Congress on the education of the gifted and talented illustrates many issues which could be profitably addressed by future research. According to this definition, the gifted and talented are those individuals "who by virtue of outstanding ability are capable of high performance ... Children capable of high performance include those with demonstrated achievement and/or potential ability in any of the following areas, singly or in combination: general intellectual ability, specific academic ability, creative or productive thinking, leadership ability, visual and performing arts, psychomotor ability." 7 At the January meeting, the consideration of the implications for research of such a definition facilitated wide-ranging discussion.

Concern was expressed both at this meeting and in other forums that there not be a premature foreclosure of the definition of giftedness. The talents and abilities that a given society values and is willing to reward has always been a function of the prevailing Zeitgeist, and thus subject to fluctuation. It may well be that our ability to meet the future will require the identification and nurturance of new forms of giftedness. The spate of investigations seeking to identify and nurture early forms of creativity share, to some extent, a similar rationale: In addition to the identification of those who are facile in the acquisition and manipulation of old knowledge, it is also important to be able to identify and nurture those individuals capable of providing unique answers to problems, reformulating them, and ultimately creating new knowledge. Though studies sug8 Those attending the second meeting were: Gwendolyn J. Cooke.

Baltimore Cit)' Public Schools; John F. Feldhusen. Purdue University; James J. Gallagher. University of North Carolina; Jacob W. Getzels, University of Chicago; Larry Gross, University of Pennsylvania; Daniel P. Keating, University of Minnesota; Jean C. Lave, University of California, Irvine; David R . Olson, Institute for Studies in Education (Toronto); Irving Sigel, Educational Testing Service (Princeton, New Jersey); Dorothy A. Sisk, University of South Florida; Abraham J. Tannenbaum, Teachers College, Columbia University; Alvia Y. Branch, Eleanor Bemert Sheldon, staD. T Sidney P. Marland, Jr., Education of the Gifted and Talented: Report to the Congress of the United States. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 19i2, page 10.

46

gest some overlap in such abilities, they may nevertheless be sufficiently distinct to warrant separate investigation.

While the participants at this meeting felt that inclusion in the definition of giftedness of such specific skills as leadership ability held some promise, they recognized that the knowledge base on which future researchers can draw is limited. Even in the realm of intellectual functioning-where the research evidence is most impressive -the participants thought it profitable to speculate about what might be the implications of modifications in the way intelligence has traditionally been operationalized. The foundation for speculations of this nature exists already in the work of the American psychologist J.P. Guilford, who conceptualized intelligence as comprising multiple abilities only some of which are tapped by the traditional measures, and in the work of Jean Piaget, who emphasized the interaction between the organism and the environment in the achievement of universal intellectual advances.

There was considerable discussion of the individual differences approach to the study of giftedness, an approach which has until recently enjoyed the exclusive attention of researchers interested in this topic. The individual differences approach generally assumes a normal distribution of abilities such that a small percentage (between two and five per cent) of the general population can be expected to exhibit a high degree of skill. Thus, the task becomes one of the identification of members of this select population, the study of the processes according to which they acquire and utilize knowledge of the world, and the use of administrative facilitators to nurture the development of their abilities. As evidence of the explanatory power of the individual differences model, adherents point to the vast differences between the mental retardate and the individual with an I.Q. score of 150 or better.

A somewhat different approach, one emphasizing the importance of social variables, was discussed by the participants. Important issues from this point of view include the belief that high levels of competency can be developed, that the reaction of significant others is important to the recognition and subsequent expression of talent, and that cultural differences in valued abilities and the availability of role models are also important considerations in the study of giftedness. From this point of view, the notion that the accomplishment of the gifted individual is the exclusive accomplishment of a single mind without reference to the historical or societal context in which it occurs needs substantial alteration.

A third and related perspective from which the study of giftedness was discussed is the developmental perVOLUME

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spective, one which would examine the implications of Piagetian notions for the study of giftedness. From this perspective, the study of the development of the precocious child may reveal with unusual clarity the processes of universal stage advance which all individuals go through. Attention would be given not only to the gifted individual but also to the characteristics of the field of knowledge he masters and the system of instruction in which he must operate. In order to study such questions as the developmental antecedents of adult achievement, late blooming, and appropriate points of entry for intervention, the longitudinal study of gifted individuals was suggested and discussed with respect to problems of generalizability posed by the influences of historical periods and individual differences.

Educational provisions for the gifted Among the goals for the second exploratory meeting was the beginning of a dialogue among the several parties interested in the education of gifted individuals. Invited participants included teachers of the gifted, trainers of teachers, administrators of innovative programs, researchers responsible for evaluating curriculum materials, and individuals involved in the generation of social science knowledge about the gifted. They met with Council staff in order to discuss the relationship between the unique features of educational programs for the gifted and developments in the relevant research literature.

Special programs for the gifted were found to vary widely, but are most likely to contain either one or both of the following components: (1) acceleration, and (2) enrichment. Acceleration allows the gifted student to advance according to academic ability: early admission to first grade, skipping grades, exposure to subjects usually reserved for students at higher grades, and early admission to college are all examples of this form of provisions for the gifted. It is generally considered that acceleration is probably the most effective means of providing for the educational needs of gifted students; nevertheless, school administrators have been quite resistant to acceleration (especially "radical" acceleration) and have relied instead upon "enrichment" activities of various kinds. It is in connection with enrichment programs that the research on creativity has had the greatest impact on the education of the gifted child.

Creativity research was once thought to hold great promise for research on gifted children, especially as

SEPTEMBER

1976

disenchantment with the use of I.Q. scores increased. In recent years, however, the construct validity of creativity research has been called into question. There is little evidence to support a conclusion that divergent thinking ability, more than any of a number of abilities such as general intellectual ability or task engagement. is the defining element of creativity. In addition, more work needs to be done to establish the predictive validity of such tests for adult achievement. Nevertheless, it is upon this body of research that many educational programs for the gifted are based. Many such programs provide accelerated curricula in various academic subjects such as the sciences, mathematics, and the arts, but rely to a great degree upon enrichment activities, designed to increase creativity. Participants pointed this out as an instance where there had been some significant correspondence between developments within social science research and educational programs for the gifted, but that the implementation, perhaps, had not been accomplished with as much thoughtfulness and evaluation of appropriateness as could be desired. A similar assessment was made with respect to the development of curriculum materials for the gifted, and programs for the training of teachers of the gifted: that with some noteworthy exceptions, they lacked the conceptual framework needed to make them optimally effective.

On the basis of these meetings and extensive discussions with many other individuals and groups identified with research on giftedness, the Council has invited Robert R. Sears, professor emeritus of psychology at Stanford University, to be chairman of the new Committee on Gifted Children. The following individuals will be the initial members: James J. Gallagher, a psychogist and director of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center at the University of North Carolina; Howard Gardner, a psychologist and codirector of Project Zero at Harvard University; Daniel P. Keating, a psychologist at the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota; Jean C. Lave, an anthropolo. gist at the University of California, Irvine; Halbert B. Robinson, a psychologist at the University of Washing路 ton; and Julian C. Stanley, a psychologist and director of the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth at the John Hopkins University. The committee will meet in the fall in order to develop a program intended to rekindle active research interest in the field. At the time of this meeting, the appointment of the membership will have been completed with the designation of a developmental psychologist interested in the application of the Piagetian model to the study of giftedness.

47

Current Activities at the Council The impact of television viewing The Council's Committee on Television and Social Behavior recently sponsored two conferences on the impact of television viewing_ The entertainment functions of television _ Most research dealing with the mass media generally. and television in particular. has focused on direct or mediated learning from communicaton messages_ In so doing. it has overlooked the fact that most deliberate exposure to television is motivated by the desire to be "entertained." We know little about the nature of entertainment and its psychological and social psychological consequences_ What is it about entertaining materials that provides positive incentives for people to seek them out? What are the by-products of "being entertained." particularly of its emotional components? What are its immediate and long-term consequences? In what way. if any. does the purely entertainment function of television help or hinder the mediation of other effects of the message and of other subsequent behaviors?

With these questions in mind. the Committee on Television and Social Behavior convened a study group under the direction of Percy H_ Tannenbaum on October 24-25, 1975. The main agenda items for the meeting were to ascertain the current status of conceptualization and research in the field. to learn what the main research needs seem to be, and to exchange information among the participants about their current research interests. A conference report is being prepared for publication in late 1977.

Members of the study group were Paul Ekman, University of California. San Francisco; Seymour Feshbach. University of California, Los Angeles; Gerald S. Lesser. Harvard University; William J. McGuire. Yale University; Paul E. McGhee. Fels Research Institute; Harold Mendelsohn, University of Denver; Je路 rome L. Singer, Yale University; and DoIf Zillmann. Indiana University. In addition. several members of the committee participated in the discussions: Leo Bogart.

Newspaper Advertising Bureau; Hilde T. Himmelweit, London School of Economics and Political Science; Aimee Dorr Leifer, Harvard University; Jack M. McLeod.

48

University of Wisconsin; Stephen B. Withey, University of Michigan; staD: Ronald P. Abeles.

The portrayal of Blacks on television.

In American society, television may be a major source of information about other racial and ethnic groups. This information is often incomplete and stereotyped and may lead to misconceptions about one's own and other racial or ethnic groups. In addition, television presentations may influence the self-concepts of children and adults whose racial or ethnic groups are depicted in a simplistic and stereotyped fashion. These attitudes and self-concepts mayor may not promote the mental health and positive social functioning of television viewers. As yet. little is known about the importance or functions of television in the formation of such attitudes and self-concepts or about the way in which people deal with such information.

The Committee on Television and Social Behavior sponsored a meeting on February 6-7, 1976 to consider the social forces that shape the portrayal of Blacks 011 American television, the potential consequences of this portrayal for Blacks and whites. and means of more actively involving social scientists. particularly minority social scientists, in the production of television programming and in studying the effects of television. The meeting was organized by Irving L. Janis, Yale University; Aimee Dorr Leifer, Harvard University; and Chester M. Pierce, Harvard University. The conference participants were: Gordon Berry, University of California. Los Angeles; James E. Blackwell. University of Massachusetts. Boston; Sherryl Browne Graves, New York University; Mary S. Harper, National Institute of Mental Health; Morris Rosenberg.

University of Maryland; staD: Ronald P. Abeles.

Longitudinal methodology in the social sciences Questions concerning social change and human development are of fundamental concern to social scientists. In the past decade, the longitudinal data required to investigate many of these issues have become more available to researchers and a variety of methods for the collection and

analysis of such data are currently being developed and utilized throughout the social sciences. For example, psychologists and demographers are investigating the relative contribution of cohort. time of measurement, and maturation to observed changes. Many sociologists are exploring modifications of Markov process models to describe social change processes more adequately. Economists and political scientists are elaborating various time series models for the analysis of aggregated data. There are efforts in all these disciplines to develop methods that will account for measurement error and will provide causal models of change processes.

This situation of relatively intense activity on the methodology of longitudinal research contrasts markedly with that which existed 10 to 20 years ago. At that time, there were few longitudinal data sets available to researchers and computers were just developing the capacity to analyze large. multivariate, longitudinal studies. Throughout the social sciences there was an awareness of the immense methodological difficulties involved in longitudinal research. Many of these early concerns focused upon problems of sampling. sample maintenance. and data management, and the inadequacy of available analytical techniques was widely recognized. In 1970. a group of British social scientists 1 addressed themselves to the difficulties of longitudinal research and defined some areas for future consideration.

There is obviously a need to review methodological techniques which are employed in each of the social sciences to resolve various problems encountered in longitudinal research. An interdisciplinary consideration of longitudinal methods could define the types of dynamic analyses that are possible with different types of data: cross-sectional. retrospective, panel, multiple cohort panel. and repeated cross sections. In particular, it would be useful to establish guidelines to suggest when the increased cost and effort of a longitudinal design seem justified. to indicate measurement and analysis strategies which are appropriate for vari1 Wall, W. D. and H. L. Williams. Longitudinal Studies and the Social Sciences. London: Social Science Research Council, 1970.

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ous types of research questions and, with respect to the design of new longitudinal studies, to specify criteria for determining the appropriate number of measurement points, the intervals between these points, and the types of time-related data that need to be collected_ Apart from the development of broad guidelines for longitudinal research, there are specific methodological problems that are currently receiving considerable attention but which could benefit from: (a) a sharing of different disciplinary approaches, (b) a specification of when certain techniques are appropriate, (c) a designation of problems that appear to have no reasonable solutions, and (d) the development of new techniques. This work could improve the methodology of research with longitudinal data in such problem areas as the measurement of change; the modeling of change processes; accounting for missing data; and distinguishing the relative contribution of maturation, time of measurement. and cohort to observed changes.

For some time now, the Council has been concerned with these issues in the methodology of longitudinal research. Informal consultations have been held with many researchers and during the past six months three exploratory meetings have been held. Small groups of statisticians and researchers from several disciplines who have worked with longitudinal data were convened at the Council in January.

March, and May. These groups discussed a wide range of methodological problems. although a consistent theme was the need to develop and clarify methods which utilize the unique potential of longitudinal data. Some of the discussions stemmed from presentations of longitudinal data.

Sociologists Aage S~renson and James S. Coleman described their research upon

the determinants of income and occupational status. John R. Nesselroade, a psy¡ chologist at Pennsylvania State University. presented data on personality development and change and another psychologist. Robert B. McCall of the Fels Research Institute (Yellow Springs. Ohio). discussed his findings concerning the development of mental behavior. Economists James J. Heckman of the University of Chicago and Robert J. Willis of the National Bureau of Economic Research (Stanford) described their data on the labor force participation of women. Other participants in these meetings included Douglas A. Hibbs. Jr.• Department of Political Science. Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Jacob Mincer. Department of Economics. Columbia University; Burton Singer. Department of Mathematical Statistics. Columbia University; Seymour Spilerman. Department of Sociology. University of Wisconsin; and Nancy Tuma. Department of Sociology. Stanford University.

These meetings have begun to identify those aspects of longitudinal methodology in need of further development. as well as to indicate those areas in which there is currently considerable methodological innovation. In some instances. these are methodological concerns which reflect the substantive interests and research histories of specific disciplines.

For example. economists and political scientists frequently work with highly aggregated longitudinal data which contain a relatively large number of units with relatively few measurement points.

In contrast. psychologists often employ data from a small number of respondents. but with numerous repeated measures.

The determination of appropriate techniques to analyze longitudinal data depends to some extent upon these factors

of sample size and frequency of measurement. However. there are many methodological problems of concern to all disciplines. The estimation of cohort effects upon change measures. the assessment of the impact of repeated measurement, and (he development of multivariate causal models are three such problems.

The meetings held at the Council during the past year have revealed the importance of incorporating knowledge and competencies from several disciplines in any attempts to review and improve the methodology of longitudinal research .

The Council is reviewing a number of activities to support and stimulate developments in this important area of research methodology.

New subcommittee on education indicators The Council's Advisory and Planning Committee on Social Indicators has established a Subcommittee on Social Indicators of Education. The members are Arthur L. Stinchcombe. chairman (University of Chicago). C. Arnold Anderson (University of Chicago). William Coffman (University of Iowa). James S. Coleman (University of Chicago). Christopher Jencks (Chicago. Illinois). and Natalie Rogoff Rams~y (Institute of Applied Social Research. Oslo).

The subcommittee will examine the measurement of educational processes. institutional changes in education. and the interactions between the education system and other major social and economic institutions and activities in American society. The first meeting was held in March 1976. Roberta Balstad Miller, staff associate at the Council's Center for Social Indicators. is staff to the subcommittee.

To our readers: Items is correcting its mailing list. If there is a post card attached to this issue. kindly fill it out and return it. If there is no post card attached. simply drop us a note and tell us if you would like to receive Items.

SEPTEMBER

1976

49

Fellowships and Grants GRANTS FOR EAST EUROPEAN STUDIES The Joint Committee on Eastern Europe-sponsored jointly by the Council and the American Council of Learned Societies-has announced the awarding of postdoctoral grants to the following individuals: Caleb M. Clark, assistant professor of government, New Mexico State University: The theory of economic dependence in Eastern Europe: Relations with the U.S.S.R. Melvin Croan, professor of political science, University of Wisconsin: Leadership and systemic change in East Europe Antonin Dostal, professor of Slavic languages and literatures, Brown University: The beginning of Christianity among the Slavs: A textual investigation of the Euchologium Sinaiticum Barbara Jelavich, professor of history, Indiana University: Russia and the formation of the Romanian national state, 1828-1878 Inga Markovits, lecturer in law, Stanford University Law School: Socialist vs. bourgeois law: The case of East and West Germany Kleofas H . Rundzjo, instructor in Russian and Polish, Orange Coast College: East European contributions to modern art Sarah M. Terry, assistant professor of political science, Tufts University; chairman, Operating Committee, Russian Research Center, Harvard University: The Oder-Neisse boundary in Polish politics, 1943-1950 Jozo Tomasevich, professor emeritus of economics, San Francisco State University: War and Revolution in Yogoslavia, 1941-1945, Volume 3, The Partisans Laura D'Andrea Tyson, assistant professor of economics, Princeton University: An analysis of unemployment and inflation in Yugoslavia

Modern Greek Debra Jo Kaufman. teaching assistant, Folklore and Mythology, University of California. Los Angeles Judith A. Korey, Ph.D. candidate, Catholic University of America. presently instructor of music. Federal City College Robert S. Nelson, graduate student. Art History, New York University (presently junior fellow, 'Dumbarton Oaks) Stephen W. Reinhert, graduate student, History, University of California. Los Angeles Joseph E. Sheerin, professor of classics, Assumption College

Polish Paul Body, teaching and research associate, City and Regional Planning, Ohio State University Daniel N. Nelson, assistant professor of government, Franklin and Marshall College

Romanian Thomas D. Cravens, graduate student, Linguistics, University of Arizona Ella Fry, graduate student, Linguistics, University of Florida

Serbo-Croatian Naomi Berkowitz, graduate student, Slavic Languages, University of Washington Amy Geoghegan, teaching fellow, History, Kent State University Cheryl Kariya, graduate student, Slavic Languages, Harvard University Greta Swenson, graduate student, Folklore Institute. Indiana University

Sloven ian The following persons have been awarded grants for the study of East European languages:

William W. Del1byshire, associate professor of Slavic languages, Pennsylvania State University

Albanian Victor A. Friedman, assistant professor of Slavic linguistics, University of North Carolina

GRANTS FOR SOVIET STUDIES

Bulgarian Ruth Magdalino, graduate student, Byzantine History, University of London (presently junior fellow, Dumbarton Oaks) Czech Nancy B. Fowler, graduate student. Slavic languages, University of Michigan Olga Peters. graduate student, Slavic linguistics. Yale University Marilyn J. Webb, part-time instructor. History. Morningside College Hungarian Elizabeth M. LaCava. graduate student, Uralic and Altaic studies. Indiana University John T. Ririe, graduate student. Hungarian Studies, Indiana University 50

The Joint Committee on Soviet Studies-sponsored jointly by the Council and the American Council of Learned Societies-has announced the awarding of postdoctoral grants to the following individuals: James M. Curtis, associate professor of Germanic and Slavic studies, University of Missouri: Philosophy and criticism in Russia. 1915-1930 Mark G. Field, professor of sociology, Boston University: Soviet psychiatry and the polity: A case of the "medicalization" of deviance Edgar Goldstein, M.D., clinical assistant, Karen Horney Clinic (New York): Psychiatric evaluation of sociopolitical dissidence in Soviet society Donald W. Green, assistant professor of economics, University of Pennsylvania: The macroeconomic role of the annual plan in the determination of investment, capital formation, and production in the U.S.S.R. VOLUME

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Christopher D. Jones. assistant professor of political science.

Marquette University: Soviet military intervention in East Europe since 1948 Gail W. Lapidus. lecturer in political science. University of California. Berkeley: Social research and Soviet policy Carol A. Luplow. assistant professor of Russian. Dartmouth College: The works of Isaac Babel

Shimon Redlich. assistant professor of Jewish studies. University of Pittsburgh: Soviet policies and Jewish nationalism during World War II Michael S. Swafford. assistant professor of sociology.

Vanderbilt University: Social stratification in the U.S.S.R. Lynn Visson. assistant professor of Slavic languages. Columbia University: The poetry of Sergei Esenin

APPLICATION DEADLINES fOR COUNCIL FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS Applications are now being accepted for fellowship and grants offered by the Council for the academic year 19771978. Awards will be made for both dissertation research and work at the postdoctoral level under several different programs. Those fellowships and grants that are confined to foreign area research are offered under programs sponsored jointly by the Council and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS).

Final dates for filing applications (listed below) vary by program. Prospective candidates are urged to initiate correspondence well in advance of the deadlines. A brochure describing the fellowships and grants offered is available on request from the Social Science Research Council. Fellowships and Grants. 605 Third Avenue. New York. N .Y. 10016.

Postdoctoral Research Training Fellowships. Deadline 101' applications: Decem be,' 15, 1976.

International Doctoral Research Fellowships are awards for dissertation research in the social sciences and the humani路 ties to be carried out in AFRICA. ASIA. LATIN AMERICA AND

THE CARIBBEAN. THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST. or WESTERN EUROPE. Sponsored jointly by the SSRC and the ACLS; administered by the Council. Aplication deadline: November 1, 1976.

Postdoctoral Grants for Research on Foreign Areas in the social sciences and the humanities are sponsored jointly by the SSRC and the ACLS. I. Administered by the Council are programs for AFRICA. CONTEMPORARY AND REPUBLICAN CHINA. ECONOMY OF CHINA. JAPAN. KOREA. KOREAN COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH GRANTS. LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN. LATIN AMERICAN COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH GRANTS. THE NEAR AND MIDDLE EAST. SOUTH ASIA. SOUTHEAST ASIA. Application deadline for all programs: December 3, 1976.

2. Application deadlines for grants programs administered by the ACLS are as follows: CHINESE STUDIES. December 1,1976; RESEARCH ON EAST EUROPE. December 31, 1976; TRAVEL TO EAST EUROPE. February 15, 1977; STUDY OF EAST EUROPEAN LANGUAGES. February 1, 1977; RESEARCH ON THE SOVIET UNION, December 31, 1976.

GRANTS FOR ADVANCED TRAINING IN CHINESE STUDIES The American Council of Learned Societies has announced a program of postdoctoral grants. funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. to sustain and advance competence in Chinese studies by providing scholars with opportunities to maintain and improve teaching and research skills through advanced language training, further specialization in one's field, or the acquisition of new or improved disciplinary training in the social sciences and humanities. Emphasis in this program is on training. rather than on research, and applicants are asked to describe the nature of the training requested and state how it is expected to contribute to their intellectual growth and productivity.

Eligibility is restricted to persons in the area of his路 torical or contemporary Chinese studies, who. at the time proposed for tenure. will be within twelve years of receipt of the doctorate and will have taught for at least three years. Awards will not normally exceed $12,000, and the amount will be prorated according to the length of tenure.

Grants of two kinds will be made: (1) Postdoctoral internships for advanced training at major university centers of Chinese studies These internships will be available only to scholars SEPTEMBER

1976

who need to relocate at a major center during the tenure of the grant. Prior consultation by an applicant with the center at which he wants to be associated will be necessary, and the application materials will include a reference form to be completed and returned to the ACLS by the scholar at the center with whom the applicant intends to work. Minimum tenure for the internships will be one semester or two quarters.

(2) Postdoctoral fellowships for language and other training in East Asia It is expected that these fellowships will usually be given for the improvement of language skills (Chinese or Japanese). and fellows undertaking language training will normally be required to affiliate with a language teaching center in East Asia; applications for other kinds of field training will also be accepted. The minimum tenure for the fellowships will be six months.

The deadline for applications for both programs is December 1. 1976.

Application forms are available from: Office of Fellowships and Grants American Council of Learned Societies 345 East 46th Street New York. New York 10017 51

Recent Council Publica tions ..4pplrinlf Soeial P'relaololfr: Implieation, lor RNeareh. Praetiee. and Traininlf. ed-

The Formation 01 National StatN in We'tern Europe, edited by Charles Tilly.

Mutual Imagell: E"ay. in ..4merican.Japa. ne.e Relationll, edited by Akira Iriye.

ited by Morton Deutsch and Harvey A. Hornstein. Product of an international conference sponsored by the Committee on Transnational Social Psychology (1964-74). Hillsdale. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. 1975.287 pages. $12.95.

Studies in Political Development 8. sponsored by the Committee on Comparative Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 1975. 711 pages. Cloth. $22.50; paper. $4.95.

Papers from a conference sponsored by the Joint Committee on Japanese Studies.

June 11-15. 1972. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1975. S04 pages. $15.00.

Oeea,ional Paper. on Korea, edited by Balle Bae1c",.ound Item, lor U.S. Hou.ehold SUM/ey" edited by Roxann A. Van

Dusen and Nicholas Zill. A publication of the Center for Coordination of Research on Social Indicators of the Social Science Research Council. Washington.

D.C .• 1975. 6S pages. $2.00.

E"perimental Te,ting 01 Public Policy: The Proceeding, 01 the 1974 Social Sci· ence Re.earch Coullcil Conlerence on Social E"perimenu, edited by Roben F.

Boruch and Henry W. Riecken. Product of a conference sponsored by the Committee on Experimentation as a Method for Planning and Evaluating Social Intervention. held in Holderness. New Hampshire on August 19-21. 1974. Boulder.

Colorado: Westview Press. 1975. 145 pages.

Cloth. $13.25.

James B. Palais and Margery D. Lang. A publication of the Joint Committee on Korean Studies in cooperation with the Institute for Comparative and Foreign Area Studies. University of Washington.

Seattle. Washington. (No. S) June 1975.

88 pages. (No.4) September 1975. 76 pages. No charge.

Latin America and the United State,: The Changinlf Political Realitie" edited

by Julio Cotler and Richard R. Fagen.

Product of a conference sponsored by the Joint Committee on Latin American Studies. November SO-December S. 1972.

Stanford: Stanford University Press. June 1974. 428 pages. Cloth. $17.50; paper. $4.95. (Spanish language edition published by Amorronu Editores. Buenos Aires. Argentina.)

Political Leadership in Korea, edited by

Dae-Sook Suh and Chae-Jin Lee. A publication of the Joint Committee on Korean Studies. Seattle. Washington: University of Washington Press. 1976. 272 pages. $9.50.

The Limi" 01 Change: E •• aYII on Con· lIervative ..4lternative. in Republican China, edited by Charlotte Furth. A pub-

lication of the Joint Committee on Contemporary China. Cambridge. Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. 1976. 426 pages.

Social Science Re.earch Council: Publica· tion., 1929-1975. New York: Social

Science Research Council. 1976.

SOCIAL SCIENCE RESEARCH COUNCIL 605

Incot"porated Directot"s, 1976:

BRIAN J.

In

THIRD

AVENUE.

the State 01 Illinois. DecembeT 27. 1924.

NEW

YORK.,

N.Y.

10016

,ot" the purpose of advancing r'esearch in the social scimca

L. BERRY. PETn B. DEWS, ROBERT EISNER. LEON D. EpSTEIN. JACOB

1-

FELDMAN. CUFFORD GEERTZ. PHILIP W. JACUON.

HAROLD H. KELLEY. LAWRENCE R. KLEIN, FRANKLIN W. K.NIGHT. WILLIAM H. KRUSKAL. OTTO N. LARSEN. CHARLES E. LINDBLOM. GARDNER LINDZEY. LEON LIPSON. CORA BAGLEY MARRETT. HERBERT McCLoSKY. SALLY FALIt MOORE. MVRllAY G. MURPHEY. PAUL H. MUSSEN. GUY H. ORCurr. SAMUEL C. PATrERsoN. JOHN W. PRATT. AuCE S. ROSSI, PEGGY R. SANDAY, ELEANOR BERNERT SHELDON. JANET T. SPENCE. ALBERT J. STUNKARD. JOHN

M.

THOMPSON. HARRIET ZUCKERMAN

OlJicers and Staff:

ELEANOR BERNERT SHELDON.

President;

DAVID JENNESS. DAVID L. SIU.5.

Executive Associates;

RONALD P. ABELES. ALVIA Y. BRANCH,

ROBERT A. GATES. MARTHA A. GEPHART. LoUIS WOLF GOODMAN. PATRICK G. MADDOX. ROBERTA B. MILLER, ROWLAND L. MITCHELL. JR •• ROBEIlT PARKE. PATRICIA R. PESSAR. SUSAN J . PHARR, PETER B. READ. DAVID Sf.IDMAN, DAvm L. SzANTON; MARTHA W. FORMAN, ERlN~ V. RONNAN.

52

Financial Secretory;

NANCY L. CARMICHAEL,

Assistant TreasureT;

CATH-

Librarian

a....,.,