The proficiency in vernacular has long been a methodological ethos pervasive among field researchers and--despite new dynamics of fieldwork--still overshadows discussions related to collaboration with translators and interpreters, which are either marginalized or hidden within the category of a 'research assistant'. The purpose of this study is to…

Several aspects of the measurement and analysis of event-related brain potentials are explained in this introduction to a special issue, and some interpretation issues relevant for language studies are discussed. This article provides background for language researchers not familiar with the methodology. (Contains 42 references.) (Author/LB)

Examines language effects in class-inclusion performance with 224 children ages 3 through 12 by comparing the standard Piagetian question with two alternate question forms. Overall, the findings were inconsistent with the Piagetian assertion that logical inability produces errors in comparing subclasses; inclusion performance was a function of…

Noveck (2001) argued that children even as old as 11 do not reliably endorse a scalar interpretation of weak scalar terms ("some", "might", "or") (cf. Braine & Rumain, 1981; Smith, 1980). More recent studies suggest, however, that children's apparent failures may depend on the experimental demands (Papafragou…

Five methods for studying the process of reading a text are presented, and a model for discourse processing is outlined. Discourse processing refers to comprehension of the meaning underlying the verbal message. The methods discussed here investigate the reading process as it occurs, and focus on the amount of time taken to complete a task or…

The use of verbal report procedures as a research tool for gaining insight into the language learning process is discussed. Specifically, having second language students complete think-aloud protocols when they take cloze tests can provide useful information about what is being measured and how it has been learned. Use of such introspective…

In the first part of this study, we measured the alignment (relative to segmental landmarks) of the low F0 turning points between the accentual fall and the final boundary rise in short Dutch falling-rising questions of the form "Do you live in [place name]?" produced as read speech in a laboratory setting. We found that the alignment of…

A study explored the use of a text-copying task for the determination of syntactic constituent structure. It was predicted that the task would be a naturalistic, reasonably direct, and sensitive psycholinguistic research method. In two experiments, 70 subjects wrote out copies of typed passages. The points where they paused and looked back to the…

This study investigated the sensitivity of the pupillary response as an indicator of average mental load during three language processing tasks of varying complexity. The tasks included: (1) listening (without any subsequent comprehension testing); (2) speech shadowing (repeating a message in the same language while listening to it); and (3)…

In most computer-assisted-language-learning (CALL) projects, research forms an important part of the development process. However, this research frequently goes unnoticed by the academic community, and developers often fail to receive academic recognition for the research component imbedded in their development projects.(Author/ER)

A study of the relationship between university-level second language development and previous language and other experience is described. The study, in its early stages at the time of writing, is being conducted at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland, and involves students of French, German, Italian, and Spanish. This report describes the subjects…

Current models of spoken-word recognition describe access to lexical representations in terms of activation and decay. This research investigated an important aspect of activation: the impact of processing time. The results showed a separable impact of time and signal on the activational state of lexical elements. (34 references) (Author/CK)

This paper reports the results of a University of Canberra Library survey of student research knowledge, skills, tools and resources. Students are experiencing difficulties interrogating databases, the internet and library catalogues because of the lack of consistency in terminology and various methods of interrogation. This research was an…

The 7th International Conference on Education Data Mining held on July 4th-7th, 2014, at the Institute of Education, London, UK is the leading international forum for high-quality research that mines large data sets in order to answer educational research questions that shed light on the learning process. These data sets may come from the traces…

The collection of essays on language contact and language conflict includes: "Language Choices: Contact and Conflict?" (Martin Putz); "Language Ecology: Contact Without Conflict" (Peter Muhlhausler); "Towards a Dynamic View of Multilingualism" (Ulrike Jessner); "A Matter of Choice" (Florian Coulmas); The…