Background: Although a large body of research has investigated teachers' reading-related knowledge and associated pedagogical practices, comparatively little is known about these factors in parents. Therefore, the present study examined the association between parental reading-related knowledge and feedback during child-to-parent reading. Methods:…

Background & Aims: The present study examined how phonological and lexical knowledge influences memory in children with specific language impairments (SLI). Previous work showed recall advantages for typical adults and children due to word frequency and phonotactic pattern frequency and a recall disadvantage due to phonological similarity…

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that conversational perspective-taking is a determinant of unfamiliar ambiguous idiom comprehension. We investigated two types of ambiguous idiom, decomposable and nondecomposable expressions, which differ in the degree to which the literal meanings of the individual words contribute to the overall…

This article reports on an individual differences study that investigated the role of implicit statistical learning in the acquisition of syntax in children. One hundred children ages 4 years 5 months through 6 years 11 months completed a test of implicit statistical learning, a test of explicit declarative learning, and standardized tests of…

The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis according to which theory of mind competence was a prerequisite to ambiguous idioms understanding. We hypothesized that the child needs to understand that the literal interpretation could be a false world representation, a false belief, and that the speaker's intention is to mean something else, to…

The basic objective of the present study is to investigate EFL Saudi prospective teachers' ability to translate culture-bound expressions and their translation strategy awareness. The study attempted to answer two questions: (1) To what extent are EFL Saudi prospective teachers able to translate culture-bound expressions? (2) To what extent are…

The author argues that a child is linguistically sophisticated by the time he starts school and that his language should be respected even if it does not fit the correct" pattern of the school. (MM)

Ten four-year-old boys explained how a toy worked to "high varbal" and "low verbal" two-year-old boys. Results showed that the listener's linguistic ability and conversational responsiveness influenced preschoolers' speech modifications. (Author/JMB)

Investigated toddlers' acquisition and use of nonsense verbs in passive and active voice. Children used various strategies to answer questions designed to elicit voice changes but did not usually change verb construction. When passive and active constructions were primed, older children were able to use an active-introduced verb in passive…

Four nonstandard linguistic features used by five black children, ages 6-11 years, in 14 conversations were recorded and transcribed. The interviewers included male and female adults, Negro and white. The four nonstandard linguistic features were multiple negation, and absence of the Z suffixes marking noun plural, possession, and the third person…

THE STUDY ATTEMPTED TO RELATE THE DEGREE OF SPEECH FLUENCY TO SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS AND BEHAVIORAL PATTERNS OF THE SPEAKER. THE FORM OF THE SOCIAL RELATIONSHIP ACTED SELECTIVELY ON THE SPEECH POSSIBILITIES OF THE INDIVIDUAL AND AGAIN IN SOME WAY THESE POSSIBILITIES CONSTRAINED BEHAVIOR. THE SOCIAL STRUCTURE TRANSFORMED LANGUAGE POSSIBILITIES INTO A…

THE STAGES OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION ARE PRESENTED. THE FIRST STAGE OF LANGUAGE ACQUISITION OCCURS IN THE CHILD BEFORE THE AGE OF 2. CHILDREN LEARN FROM THOSE AROUND THEM. THE SECOND STAGE OCCURS WHEN THE CHILD STARTS TO ASK FOR THE NAMES OF OBJECTS. HE IS HELPED MOST BY THE PERSON WHO SHOWS HIM SEVERAL OBJECTS OF THE SAME NAME. THE CHILD THEN SEES…

Describes the different stages through which children learn to speak, how they break the language down into its simplest parts, and then develop the rules they need to put the parts together. (GA)