Updates a list (originally published in 1963) of "survival" or essential words--words so important for survival and success in everyday life that everyone should know them. Notes that recognition of these key words and phrases may require non-English-speaking individuals, disabled readers, and adult literacy students to use rote memorization for…

Two empirical studies set out explore the relation between breadth and depth of word knowledge and to link these concepts with language acquisition and frequency of language input. The studies found that there was no conceptual distinction between breadth and depth of vocabulary, and that breadth and depth were affected by the same factors for…

Examines several points supporting the argument for increased emphasis on vocabulary, including: the consequences of an increased emphasis on phonics; limited school promotion of vocabulary development; the sequential nature of vocabulary acquisition; and defining an essential vocabulary for high school graduates. Emphasizes the need for a more…

Uses students' amusing vocabulary mistakes to discuss vocabulary development. (SR)

Assessed 2-year olds' ability to use semantic context to infer meanings of novel nouns and to retain those meanings. Found that children learned majority of novel words; however, they occasionally failed to choose the correct corresponding picture for a novel noun even when they understood the verb; also found a significant retention of newly…

Assessed the language development of 2,898 pairs of 2-year-old twins born in England and Wales using the MacArthur Communicative language Development Inventory, which assesses vocabulary and grammar. Moderate heritabilities were found for both. (Author/VWL)

Investigates the relationship between phoneme segmentation ability and the development of orthographic representations. Finds that children who were most well equipped to perform phoneme segmentation tasks acquired the new reading vocabulary significantly faster than those who were less phonemically aware. Provides strong support for the thesis…

Discusses how students need independent word-learning strategies that they can transfer across a wide variety of school and personal texts. Suggests that what appears to work best in word learning is direct instruction in new vocabulary, typically offered prior to reading, through a combination of activities that engage students in discussion and…

Addresses how phonological regularities of the native language are mastered. Explores consequences of the assumption that the architecture of the speech perception system includes a fast phonological prepossessor that uses language specific prosodic and phonotactic patterns to chunk the speech stream. Shows that as vocabulary size increases, more…

What should parents of a child who stutters do if their child speaks more than one language? Research shows that a child's language skills can affect his or her fluency, according to the nonprofit Stuttering Foundation of America. However, it has not been proven that speaking two languages in the home since birth causes stuttering. If the child is…

Previous investigations comparing auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) to words whose meanings infants did or did not comprehend, found bilateral differences in brain activity to known versus unknown words in 13-month-old infants, in contrast with unilateral, left hemisphere, differences in activity in 20-month-old infants. We explore two…

The authors investigated whether the meaning of visually presented words is activated faster for early-acquired words than for late-acquired words. They addressed the issue using the semantic Simon paradigm. In this paradigm, participants are instructed to decide whether a stimulus word is printed in uppercase or lowercase letters. However, they…

Vocabulary is important, yet instruction in word meaning is often tedious and ineffective. This article presents motivating and time-efficient strategies for introducing and practicing the meaning vocabulary students will encounter across subject areas and texts in school. In the "Semantic Impressions" word-introduction strategy, students write a…

A teacher wanted to know whether mnemonic strategies would be useful for high school students with learning disabilities. Over a 6-week period, this teacher taught the students SAT vocabulary words using either a traditional instructional approach or pictorial mnemonic keyword strategies she had developed. At the end of the instructional period,…

This paper reports on the progress made by a small group of fourteen 11-year-old children who had been originally identified as being precocious readers before they started primary school at the age of five. The data enable comparisons to be made with the performance of the children when they were younger so that a six-year longitudinal analysis…