Self-regulation is a set of abilities and skills that allow an individual to adjust their emotions, behaviors, and cognitions to meet demands. These sets of skills are obtained over an individual's lifespan, but the acquisition of these skills is highly regarded in early childhood and is a predictor of academic achievement. Students use…

Increasingly, national stakeholders express concern that U.S. college graduates cannot adequately solve problems and think critically. As a set of cognitive abilities, critical thinking skills provide students with tangible academic, personal, and professional benefits that may ultimately address these concerns. As an instructional method, writing…

Reports on a study of young children's abilities to discriminate between two chords played as the accompaniment of a melody and played alone with no melody. Finds that age, type of stimulus, and the interaction of these two variables affected children's performance significantly. (CFR)

Reports on a study of 128 talented singers, ages 8-11, to determine the effects of age, sex and melodic/harmonic patterns on pitch-matching skills of children. Finds no significant differences between age and sex groups and significant differences among pitch-matching tasks. Suggests a task hierarchy for children's part-singing. (CFR)

A discussion of pronunciation instruction in English as a second language begins with comments on preparing for pronunciation work in the classroom and goes on to examine the rhythm of English and the characteristics of intonation. The chapter on preparing for pronunciation work focuses on: accounting for learner variables, motivating learning,…

This book provides an overview of research and thinking on age-related dimensions of language acquisition, intended for students, researchers, and educators with some experience in linguistics and applied linguistics. The first chapter introduces the variety of issues associated with age and language acquisition. Chapter 2 examines the evidence…

Ten speaking and listening activities designed to improve the intercultural communication skills of intermediate and advanced learners of English are presented. The activities are based on seven goals of cultural instruction: (1) sense of culturally controlled behavior; (2) interaction of language and social variables such as gender, age, and…