Bilingualism is associated with lifelong cognitive benefits that correlate with facilitated achievements in subsequent language learning. Second language (L2) instruction as well can promote the development of cognitive abilities involved in language learning, and among these, L2 input processing. Crucial to L2 acquisition, input processing is the…

We examined free recall and metacognitive judgments of ambiguous sentences studied with and without clues to facilitate their comprehension. Sentences were either studied without clues, with clues meaningfully embedded, or with clues following a 10-s interval delay. After presentation, subjects made judgments of comprehension (JCOMPs) or judgments…

This volume brings together leading authorities from multiple disciplines to examine the relationship between brain development and behavior in typically developing children. Presented are innovative cross-sectional and longitudinal studies that shed light on brain-behavior connections in infancy and toddlerhood through adolescence. Chapters…

The purpose of this paper is to familiarize readers with Vygotsky's theory on verbal regulation of thinking skills, to describe related research and applications of the theory, and to explore its relevance for researchers, parents, and educators. (MT)

Suggests that the ability to process narrative information is fundamental to understanding human psychological development. Notes that a culture's system of understanding and interpreting the world is carried mostly by stories and texts. Explores how narrative understanding can be modeled in Fuzzy Trace Theory by using the principles of this…

Examines various kinds of linguistic and psychological information for their pertinence to the arrangement of grammatical information in teaching beginners in English as a Second Language. It is claimed that the psychological information on learning processes is as important as linguistic analysis of the target language. (Author/AMH)

Assesses the hazards of models of cognitive development and the positivist views of language that support them. Considers how alternative views of language and learning can help develop a method of teaching that views reading and writing as interpretation and the making of meaning. (RBW)

Preschool children were given a memory task that required repeating a list of animal names and a sentence imitation task. Results confirmed a relationship between word span and language imitation in younger preschool children and the notion of a memory constraint on early spontaneous language. Increasing mastery of linguistic rules appeared to…

Investigates the role of intraverbal learning (a process through which semantic knowledge is acquired from purely linguistic information) in preschool children's acquisition of semantic concepts. Shows that the relative effectiveness of pictorial and intraverbal information depends on the child's age, the type of information supplied, and the…

Sound play is important to child language development in that it contributes to the phonetic substrate, it is a factor in phonological development, and it is something to be learned as part of the socially acceptable use of language. Sound play progresses in three stages: (1) babbling, in which a gradual acquisition of phonetic units is built up…

Presented is an experiment investigating children's awareness of regularities in physical phenomena and their capacity for expressing these regularities. Hypothesized and confirmed is that children can use statements with the form and purpose of a physical law. Cartoons related to Archimedes' principle (and connected gravitation and fluid…

Examined the use by children of the Novel Name-Nameless Category principle, under the framework that lexical principles are acquired in a developmental sequence. Results indicated that the particular principle was not available at the start of lexical acquisition but that exhaustive categorization ability and a vocabulary spurt occur…

Scholars from varied disciplines--first language (L1) acquisition, second language (L2) acquisition, composition research, and cognitive psychology--have found a high level of permeability in their search for more effective classroom models of writing instruction. Among the most influential work in this area has been Stephen Krashen's theory of L2…

This paper discusses four kinds of reasons for studying child language. The first of the four, biological reasons, includes the desire to understand our own species and its place among other living things in the universe. The common human faculty for communication, the variability in language building, and the similarity of human communication to…

An overview of current theories of reading and the acquisition of literacy skills by children is presented. A research framework in which reading can be described in terms of the processes employed in other language uses is introduced and used to explain the failure of some children to learn to read. An ongoing research program is described that…