Language is infinitely productive because syntax defines dependencies between grammatical categories of words and constituents, so there is interchangeability of these words and constituents within syntactic structures. Previous laboratory-based studies of language learning have shown that complex language structures like hierarchical center…

The general purpose of this study is to increase, in a classroom environment, formal communication by using reading and writing. Our research focuses on reading as a means to develop the writing of a good précis, which in its turn contributes to improve: 1) memory, vocabulary and grammatical-syntactical structures, in brief, the organization of a…

The case-study aims to examine the effectiveness of training of morphological structure on the spelling of compounds by a spelling-disabled primary school student. The experimental design of the intervention was based on the word-pair paradigm and included a pre-test, a training program and a post-test (n = 50 pairs). The Training Program aimed to…

This paper compares explicit instruction in second-language Spanish with a control treatment on a written picture description task and a timed auditory grammaticality judgment task. Participants came from two intact, third-year US high school classes, with one experiencing a week of communicative lessons on the Spanish clitic "se"…

Despite substantial correlational evidence of a relationship between morphological awareness and reading ability, there has been only limited intervention research conducted to document the effects of morphological awareness on various literacy outcomes, particularly reading comprehension, and almost no research comparing the relative…

"Constructions" are the central unit of grammatical analysis in cognitive linguistics. In formal linguistics "construction" referred to forms that were projected from lexical items rather than from an autonomous syntax. Thus, an expression, "I danced the night away" requires an intransitive verb in a transitive construction provided "away" is…

This study examined the relationship between 20 hearing-impaired sixth and seventh grade students' ability to write syntactically correct sentences in two formats, one structured and one unstructured. Students generated more syntactically correct sentences in the structured format with little correlation between performance on the two formats.…

Four individuals with agrammatic aphasia were trained to comprehend and produce filler-gap sentences with wh-movement. Two participants received treatment first on the least complex structure (who-questions), and 2 received treatment on the most complex form (object-relative constructions). Object-relative training resulted in robust…

Two children, aged six and nine, with moderate mental retardation were taught syntactic rules for combining known and unknown words into two-word utterances. The use of receptive teaching with imitation of the target phrase facilitated both generalized receptive learning and transfer to production in both subjects. (Author/JDD)