The Spanish Syntax Of The Pre-School Spanish American: The Case Of New Mexican Five-Year Old Children

Author

María Estela Brisk

Publication Date

11-8-1972

Abstract

Recent studies of the acquisition of syntax have revealed that it is not fully developed by the time a child enters first grade. In preparing and implementing bilingual programs for Spanish speaking children, then, it is of interest to know at what level of development the Spanish syntax of these children is. This study tries to determine the level of development of a rural and an urban group of five year old Spanish-American children from New Mexico. A surface syntactic analysis as well as a review of interference, dialectal, and developmental features of the speech of these children constitutes the core of this study.

A comparison between the performance of the New Mexican children with existing grammatical analyses of Spanish manifests what aspects of the Spanish syntax these children have not yet acquired. Comparing the syntax of the rural and urban group, and of these New Mexican children with a group of Texan children, one arrives at the conclusion that the level of development of the syntax of Spanish-American children differs with the various groups.

Document Type

Dissertation

Language

English

Degree Name

Educational Leadership

Level of Degree

Doctoral

Department Name

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy

First Committee Member (Chair)

Garland Dee Bills

Second Committee Member

Mari-Luci Jaramillo

Third Committee Member

David Lawrence Bachelor

Recommended Citation

Brisk, María Estela. "The Spanish Syntax Of The Pre-School Spanish American: The Case Of New Mexican Five-Year Old Children." (1972). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/educ_teelp_etds/469