Providing a comprehensive survey of cutting-edge work on second language learning, this "Handbook," written by a team of leading experts, surveys the nature of second language learning and its implications for teaching. Prominent theories and methods from linguistics, psycholinguistics, processing-based, and cognitive approaches are…

Adult English language learners who lack print literacy or experience with formal education encounter a unique set of challenges in their lives and their efforts to learn English. Educators and policymakers are similarly challenged by how best to help these adults acquire English literacy. This paper reviews a variety of research, including that…

Recent research within the framework of existential sociolinguistics is reviewed, and its implications for the interpretative processes of reading are discussed. It is argued that comprehension through language is based largely on the role that the assumptions of the speaker and the social expectations of the hearer play in symbolic interaction.…

It is argued that an area of linguistic research ripe for exploration is how the speaker actually makes use of linguistic knowledge in the production or reception of utterances. It is proposed that speech production is a lexically driven rather than semantically driven process and that the speaker's procedural competence is lexico-syntactic in…

Provides evidence for the utility of schema-based frameworks which assume that schemas and scripts organize information, aid in comprehension, and guide information retrieval. (FL)

A study of learning strategies in second language learning, of both English and other languages, presents a theory of the role learning strategies play and uses it to examine specific studies and to integrate research results. The research and theory described here are based on a cognitive information processing perspective of human thought and…

Examines whether young children make explicit references to beliefs, ideas, thoughts, and intentions. Relates that three-year-old children correctly distinguish between real and mental items and that they think and dream about things that are not real. Concludes that conceptual development theories portraying early development as concrete and…

A brief review of the history of cognitive style research and a summary of definitions and terminology used by investigators in the area are presented. Most of the research on cognitive style has been motivated by work from three major groups: Witkin and associates; Holzman, Gardner, and associates; and Kagan and associates. Various definitions of…

The proceedings of the fourth colloquium of the Groupe de recherche en didartique des langues (Language Teaching Research Group) include eleven papers and four synopses. The papers, three in English (E) and the rest in French (F), cover these topics: cognitive presence in language teaching/learning (F); interlanguage and metalanguage (F);…

This study, reported entirely in French, investigated reasons for deaf secondary students' delay in acquisition of reading skills. The study examined relationships between the students' individual cognitive styles, use of Quebec Sign Language, reading in French, and reading strategies. Subjects were 24 students enrolled in one school, paired in a…