The purpose of this literature review is to present the arguments in support of conceptualizing deaf children as 'English Learners', to explore the educational implications of such conceptualizations, and to suggest directions for future inquiry. Three ways of interpreting the label 'English Learner' in relationship to deaf children are explored:…

Details findings indicating that most early linguistic competence is item based. Maintains that language development proceeds without evidence of system-wide syntactic categories, schemas, or parameters. Suggests that findings are not easily explained by the development of children's skills of linguistic performance, pragmatics, or other external…

This brief overview of child language acquisition begins with a discussion of the affective and cognitive dimensions of the transition period from babbling to speech. Three theories of language acquisition--reinforcement theory, social learning theory, and "innate mechanism" theory--are reviewed. Several theories of the function of language,…

Argues that Piaget's cognitive stage theory complements psycholinguistic theories of fluent reading by clarifying how readers acquire and then use prior knowledge. Suggests that, in this light, teachers may want to rearrange the order and manner in which they present units from basal readers. (FL)

The problems with using Piagetian theory to explore language-thought relationships are two-fold. First there are methodological problems, including the lack of experimental controls and the lack of uniform criteria by which cognitive operations are identified. A second difficulty is the questionable practice of interpreting child language…

Examines the prevailing theories of reading comprehension: the psycholinguistic model, schema theory, and the skills model. Discusses their implications for instruction. (FL)

A review of the literature and research studies supports the psycholinguistic position regarding the acquisition of reading skills in that a positive correlation exists between the act of reading to children and their eventual reading achievements. (JN)

Discusses the concepts of linguistic awareness and metalinguistic consciousness and their development in individuals, and shows how making a distinction between the two concepts can be useful to linguists, particularly in the areas of first and second language learning. (CFM)

Summarizes recent trends in French developmental psychology, including those regarding (1) cognitive development as it relates to Piaget's theory, (2) psycholinguistics in preschool children, (3) social interaction, and (4) the structuring of time and space by infants and toddlers. (Author/RH)

Discusses research results that demonstrate that nonlinguistic symbolic deficits of language-impaired children may actually reflect resource allocation constraints and cross-modality deficits. Discusses implications of studies that contrast symbolic action development in normally developing children with that in children with specific language…

An examination of studies concerning the functional organization of languages in the bilingual brain discusses several variables. Factors that may contribute to the organization of language include age, language proficiency, literacy, reading skills, type of script, language specific factors, social acculturation, teaching method, and style. (CJ)

The convergence of several lines of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic research suggests possible explanations for age-related influences on language acquisition. These factors, which include cognitive development, sociocultural context, affective factors, and language input, can be helpful to language educators. By being alert to the cognitive…

Researchers from several disciplines have contributed to the realization that context or social situation varies in regard to a child's language acquisition. Children acquire both linguistic competence, the unconscious understanding of grammatical rules, and communicative competence, the understanding that language is used differently in different…

This paper presents a summary of recent investigations on cognitive development through the first and second language in a bilingual program. The "Glossodynamic Model" of language learning is presented as a basis for explaining how the child's cognitive and affective development are enhanced by bilingual stimulation. (Author/SJL)

A discussion of the biological and developmental issues in early second language learning first looks at psycholinguistic research on brain growth patterns and the relationship of first and second language learning. Focus is on three phenomena observed in the self-organization of living systems: selection of input data; organization of specialized…