The purpose of this investigation was to examine syntax comprehension by poor and average prereaders in first grade and poor and average readers in second grade, to determine whether a relationship exists between reading ability or reading readiness and comprehension of syntax. Subjects were 55 first-grade children and 56 second-grade children of average or better intelligence, measured by the Goodenough-Harris Drawing Test. In October 1975, each child was individually tested on the Primary English Sentence Test--23 randomly ordered statements of varying syntactic complexity and 46 questions, 2 questions relating to each statement. Results showed a significant difference, in the comprehension of oral syntax, between average and poor readers in second grade, between average first-grade prereaders and average second-grade readers, and between poor first-grade prereaders and average second-grade readers. There was no significant difference between average and poor first-grade prereaders, between average first-grade prereaders and poor second-grade readers, and between poor first-grade prereaders and poor second-grade readers. Young children's tendency to personalize answers was the most conspicuous factor that emerged from the testing. (Author/JM)