Study of the language development of Ute Indian children
Creators: name: Lundgren, Henrik George
Publisher: name: University of Utah
Year: 2012
Subjects: Ute Indians

description: The purpose of this study was to analyze three  aspects of language development (grammar, receptive  language and expressive language) in Ute Indian children  so as to have more insight into their problems and thus  be better able to recommend specific programs for English;  language development.  The review of the literature discussed (1) the  American Indian and his education? (2) the Ute Indians?  (3) the culturally disadvantaged? (4) bilingualism? (5)  language•  The subjects consisted of sixteen randomly selected  full-blood Ute Indian children from the kindergarten  classes and an equal number from the third grade. The  purpose of the testing was to discover any significant  differences between the scores of these children and the  norms.  Sixteen average white children were selected randomly  from the same classes as the above Indian subjects (eight  from the kindergarten and eight from the third grade).  These children were tested in order to determine if they  were handicapped in language development by attending  public schools with a large group of Indian children.  The Utah Test of Language Development and the  Grammatic Closure subtest of the revised (1968) edition of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities were  administered to all subjects in that order. One fourth  of the Indian subjects were retested on both measures.  Twelve null hypotheses were then analyzed by means  of nonparametric statistics. The significance level set  for rejecting the null hypotheses was the .05 level.  It was shown that kindergarten Ute Indian children  scored significantly below the norms on all language  measures used. Their scores reached the .001 level for  expressive language, the .05 level for receptive language,  and the .05 level on grammar.  The third grade Indian children scored below the  norms at the .05 level on the expressive language section,  but showed no significant difference for receptive scores.  Their grammar scores, however, were below the norms at the  .001 level of confidence.  Caucasian kindergarten children scored significantly  above the norms for the total UTLD language score at the  .05 level. There were no significant differences, however,  between their grammar scores and the norms.  The third grade white children's scores did not  differ significantly from the norms on either the UTLD  or the grammar test.  Within the limits of this study, the investigator  concluded that grammar seemed to be the greatest language  deficiency among Ute Indian children. All of the Indian children also displayed a weakness in expressive skills.  Receptive language, however, seemed to constitute their  area of least difficulty. White children attending public  schools with a large percentage of Indian children are not  handicapped in the acquisition of language skills.  Several recommendations that could help eliminate  these language deficiencies in the Indian group were made.  They included acquiring materials like the Tweedy Visual  Lingual Reading Program or the Peabody Language Development  Kits that would make language acquisition enjoyable. It was  also suggested that expressive language be developed through  discussions about experiences in the child's environment.  Finally it was recommended that the curriculum of the older  children who have not had the benefits of the above mentioned  programs be revised so that they can receive extra language  training in place of other class subjects.