Discusses several philosophies of linguistics and semiotics that debate the importance of words and their relationship to signs, language as the primary modeling system, and the historical primacy of verbal versus visual communication. Describes human communication as both language-based and nonverbal, both aspects inviting arbitrary and abstract…

This article reviews research on the role of symbolic, referent, and instructional variables on the acquisition of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) symbols by individuals with autism and severe speech and language impairments. Two vignettes illustrate findings of the review. (Contains references.) (Author/DB)

Although many authors have mentioned examples of how black usually connotes a negative evaluation and white a positive evaluation, the literature on the topic has not yet included an attempt to list examples comprehensively. Those which are cited here come from a wide variety of sources: primarily from dictionaries, books of slang, and personal…

Seventy-two grade 8 students were randomly assigned to one of four experimental groups. One group studied five programed lessons in structural grammar, written without use of symbols or diagrams. A second group studied the same content presented with a symbolic notation to represent the grammar concepts. A third group studied the same content…

Teachers (N=39), administrators (N=9), and a speech therapist working with deaf students rated 240 competencies for teaching English as a symbol system. The top 38 competencies involved practical teaching skills and techniques. Competencies related to the oral-aural method, theory, and background information about deafness were not given high…

Teaching with films has largely been limited to the attainment of the simpler educational objectives such as factual and perceptual motor skills learning. Here is an attempt to define the characteristics of filmic communication in order that it may be applied to more complex educational aims. Language and filmic symbolism are compared to…

As children begin to grasp the basic functions of literacy, they become engaged in meaning-making that alternates between and/or combines oral language, written and printed symbols, drawings, and other formats. This article examines the benefits to children of an integrated approach to literacy, highlighting the Reggio Emilia approach, and offers…

New approaches are needed if educators are to deal successfully with the problem of teaching children to learn to read words well. Interesting questions come to the fore if those who seek solutions to this difficulty regard the reading of words as a subset of the wider problem of reading the class of visual signs in general, which includes (1)…

This document presents some of the major challenges facing Developmental Psychologists. Research revealed that middle class children tended to respond in classification tasks to objects and pictures as equivalents, whereas low class black children tended not to do so. The reason for this was investigated. This investigation of the course of…

The fifteen essays collected here are grouped under three sections, each dealing with a different, but related theme. The first section, exploring the relationship of literature to the human being, includes "The Jinnee in the Well Wrought Urn,""A Dialectic of Aural and Objective Correlatives,""Metaphor and the Twinned Vision," and"Voice as Summons…

This longitudinal study investigated the ways in which two groups of eight students used spreadsheets to represent and solve algebra problems and related this to their previous arithmetical experiences and evolving use of symbolic language. The spreadsheet environment supported students to move from specific to general thinking. Includes story…