Investigates differences between adolescents and older adults in their explanations of linguistic metaphors. Adults displayed a synthesizing, integrative perspective, while adolescents displayed an analytic perspective in their explanation of metaphors. (Author/SS)

Acquisition of the words "this" and "that" was tested by a comprehension and a production task with children aged 4 and 7. It was confirmed that children would learn the spatial contrast between the words and apply it from the speakers viewpoint; non-egocentrism was not deemed necessary for correct use. (CHK)

Discusses the possibility of introducing the booklet "Now Listen Carefully" (Volk und Wissen, Berlin 1975), which contains 72 texts. A topical arrangement of the texts into teaching units is attempted, and hints on method are given. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)

Deals with problems arising in teaching English in the Hauptschule ("practical branch" secondary school, grades 7-10). Discusses, among other things, cultivation of the ability to understand the FL as a means of motivating the slow learner, with English teaching oriented toward projects and practical matters. (Text is in German.)…

Five experiments are carried out to determine the comprehension of passives by children. Results obtained demonstrate that comprehension rests on knowledge of syntactic structure. V - NP were interpreted as verb-object. Passives lacking a preposition were interpreted as actives. Competence in passives may be at a high level before performance is…

Three studies tested the ability of children of different ages to comprehend spoken sentences while viewing pictures that differed from the sentences according to some plausible combinations of actor, action, and beneficiary. In the first two studies, involving a total of 140 subjects, nine contextual conditions were used, including sentence only,…

AN EXPERIMENT WAS CONDUCTED IN A TYPICAL SCHOOL SITUATION TO DETERMINE IF VARIATIONS AMONG TEACHER PRESENTATIONS OF LISTENING TESTS (READING ABILITIES) HAVE DIFFERENT EFFECTS ON THE RESULTS OF THESE TESTS. LISTENING TESTS WERE ADMINISTERED TO PUPILS OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, AT THE HIGH SCHOOL, JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, AND…

This study investigated developmental changes in children's recall of televised central and incidental content. Central content was plot-relevant; incidental content was peripheral to the plot. Both content types were classified at two levels of production features, high salience and low salience. High salience features were high action, loud…

This book concludes a six-volume review of research and theory on learning and cognition. Its six chapters cover the following topics: theories of semantic memory, comprehension and memory of text, coding processes in memory, perceptual learning from reading, speech perception, and the organization and core concepts of learning theory and…

Sixteen children (aged 14 to 26 months), who were reported by their parents to overextend, were tested for overextension in both language production and comprehension. The children were first asked to name each of a series of pictures of inappropriate exemplars of the words they were reported to overextend. Those words that were overextended, a…

Rhetoric, reasoning, and reflection are discussed as the tools which enable a reader to distend the experience of reading to its greatest limits. Rhetoric is interpreted as the facility which allows the reader to understand both the necessary "how" and "what" of an author's work. Eleven cognitive processes used in written material are defined and…

The lack of existing research on the cognitive processes in reading is discussed. The definition of cognitive processes, appropriate measuring instruments, concensus concerning the activity to be measured, and problems inherent in the materials and the reader are cited as limitations that are responsible for a shortage of research. Implications…

Comprehension is seen as involving meaningful communication between author and reader. Different degrees of comprehension such as literal comprehension, evaluation, reorganization, and reaction are discussed, and experience, intelligence, language development, and decoding skills are noted as important factors which influence reading…

This paper reports on a study of the acquisition of subject and object relative clauses by monolingual French speaking children aged 4-10 years, in Rimouski, Quebec. The children were tested for their comprehension of six types of relative sentences. A coordinate sentence control test was administered. An adult control group was also tested on the…