Grammatical priming of picture naming was investigated in Kiswahili, which has a complex grammatical noun class system (a system like grammatical gender), with up to 15 noun classes that have obligatory agreements on adjectives, verbs, pronouns and other parts of speech. Participants heard a grammatically agreeing (concordant), nonagreeing…

We report on a prospective longitudinal research programme exploring the connection between language acquisition deficits and dyslexia. The language development profile of children at-risk for dyslexia is compared to that of age-matched controls as well as of children who have been diagnosed with specific language impairment (SLI). The experiments…

We hypothesize that the conceptual relation between a verb and its direct object can make a sentence easier ("the cat is eating some food") or harder ("the cat is eating a sock") to parse and understand. If children's limited performance systems contribute to the ungrammatical brevity of their speech, they should perform better on sentences that…

Data on typically developing children suggest a link between social interaction and language learning, a finding of interest both to theories of language and theories of autism. In this study, we examined social and linguistic processing of speech in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and typically developing chronologically…

The relatedness of phonological coding to the articulatory mechanisms in visual word recognition vary in different writing systems. While articulatory suppression (i.e., continuous verbalising during a visual word processing task) has a detrimental effect on the processing of Japanese words printed in regular syllabic Khana script, it has no such…

This article reviews research on the behavioral and molecular genetics of reading and, where available, spelling. Recent research is summarized, suggesting that reading and spelling appear to share a common genetic basis, and that dyslexia lies on a genetic continuum with normal variance in reading skill. Research also suggests that while many of…

Swain (1985) pointed out the need for increased modified output in the classroom in order to encourage learners to engage in more syntactic processing and, thus, make more form-meaning connections. Research in content-based instruction (CBI) ( Musumeci, 1996; Pica, 2002) has revealed few occasions of pushed modified output from learners.…

The current position on speech and language intervention for children who have pragmatic language impairment (PLI) is limited by a lack of evidence to support practice. Two intervention outcome case studies of children with PLI, aimed at establishing efficacy, are presented in this paper. Standardized language tests and conversational sampling…

In order to investigate second language (L2) processing at ultimate attainment, 20 first language (L1) English and 20 L1 Dutch advanced to near-native speakers of German as well as 20 native Germans were tested in two experiments on subject-object ambiguities in German. The results from a self-paced reading task and a speeded acceptability…

Forty-one papers on language research and linguistic theory from the annual conference address these topics: linguistic philosophy; aspects of phonetics and phonology; topics in syntax; aspect; topics in semantics; topics in discourse analysis; sociolinguistics and language contact; historical linguistics; metatheory; and interdisciplinary…

A model for testing listening comprehension in English as a Second Language is discussed and compared with the Test for English Majors (TEM). The model in question incorporates listening for: (1) understanding factual information; (2) comprehension and interpretation; (3) detailed and selective information; (4) global ideas; (5) on-line tasks…

A study investigaged: (1) whether learners of English as a Second Language can attend to meaning and form simultaneously; (2) how the nature of the linguistic form might affect processing for meaning; and (3) whether the learner's ability to focus on particular linguistic features is affected by whether or not those features have been acquired.…

A study investigated the extent to which five Japanese indirectness strategies, used to make indirect requests, transfer to situations in which Japanese learners of English make indirect requests in English. The effects of language proficiency on this transferability were also examined. Subjects were 37 Japanese learners of English as a Second…

This paper identifies a feature of human brain neural nets that may be described as the principle of ease of processing (PEP), and that, it is argued, is the primary force guiding a learner towards a target grammar. It is suggested that the same principle lies at the heart of Optimality Theory, which characterizes the course of language…

In a study of the processes used to compose a story, 12 Portuguese/English bilingual adults created narrations for 2 published, wordless picture stories and, while viewing a videotape of their narration, recalled aloud the processes they used in constructing the stories. One study was narrated in Portuguese and the other in English. The narrations…