This paper describes a close-up investigation of four advanced language learners' engagement with strategy instruction (SI) materials specially designed to enhance efforts to fine-tune comprehension and production of academic vocabulary. The learners first completed a measure of learning style, and then provided introspective and retrospective…

The present quasi-experimental study investigated which component of processing instruction (PI) is responsible for its beneficial effects and whether EFL learners with different learning styles similarly benefit from PI components. In doing so, a sample of 67 first-year students took part in a study with a non-equivalent control group…

The current study aims to investigate how Field independent (FI) and Field-dependent (FD) cognitive styles modulate bilingual language control during a joint language switching task. The cognitive styles were measured by the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT). The FI group with a preference for autonomous information processing was sensitive to…

The present research aimed to investigate how field-dependent and field-independent learners perceived and processed information when they were engaged in an implicit foreign language learning task and to explore differences between them in this regard. The majority of studies in the pertinent literature have adopted quantitative methods to date.…

The effect of learning preferences on reading comprehension and motivation/attitude has been researched thoroughly in the field of education as a new approach to learning. However, these three elements have not been studied simultaneously using the Dunn & Dunn's preferred learning style theory. Therefore, this study aims at analyzing the…

This study investigated whether vocabulary delays in toddlers with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) can be explained by a cognitive style that prioritizes processing of detailed, local features of input over global contextual integration--as claimed by the weak central coherence (WCC) theory. Thirty toddlers with ASD and 30 younger,…

In an English Foreign Language learning context, where access to native like use of metaphorical language is limited, gaining this ability becomes challenging. For many years, foreign language educators didn't pay much attention to idiomatic language and assumed that idioms could only be taught through rote learning. For this reason, they face…

Using script-based tracking to gain insights into the way students learn or process language information can be traced as far back as to the 1980s. Nevertheless, researchers continue to face challenges in collecting and studying this type of data. The objective of this study is to propose data sharing through data repositories as a way to (a) ease…

This dissertation will focus on the processing and learning of abstract, phrasal argument structure constructions. Chapter 1 provides the theoretical framework for abstract constructions, and illustrates the importance of such representations in speakers' linguistic knowledge. Chapter 2 reviews the evidence for meaning being associated with…

"School Success for Kids With Dyslexia and Other Reading Difficulties" provides parents and teachers with goals that will meet the needs of students who are struggling with reading, leading them to work through their difficulties and enjoy reading. It includes information, assessments, and techniques that parents, teachers, and school…

Mastery of grammatical gender is difficult to achieve in a second language (L2). This study investigates whether persistent difficulty with grammatical gender often observed in the speech of otherwise highly proficient L2 learners is best characterized as a production-specific performance problem, or as difficulty with the retrieval of gender…

To improve vocabulary learning and teaching in ELT settings, two questionnaires are designed and directed to more than 100 students and teachers in one of China's key universities. The findings suggest that an enhanced awareness of cultural difference, metaphorical competence, and learners' autonomy in vocabulary acquisition will effectively…

The aim of this study is to discuss the interaction of linguistic complexity and morpho-syntactic development in foreign language learners. The analysis of morpho-syntactic structures was carried out within the framework of Processability Theory (Pienemann 1998). To capture the level of complexity we investigate the following: sentence length,…

Reports a study on coding operations during visual word recognition. Subjects made lexical judgments about words and nonwords when phonological recoding was either beneficial or detrimental to making decisions; the phonological model was used by subjects when helpful. This supports a dual retrieval model of word recognition. (Author/PJM)

Two experiments studied how people determine relationships among family members. In one experiment, subjects were to determine relationships in hypothetical families. In the second, the families were in the subjects' experience. It was determined that memory was organized in terms of parent-child relations together with knowledge of which members…