Describes a study which examined the effectiveness of four methods for teaching word meanings. The context method was found to be more effective than the use of category labels and dictionary practice. Associating new words with familiar synonyms was also supported. (MKM)

Notes that traditional methods of teaching vocabulary development do not reflect the learning patterns of basic writing students. Suggests ways of modifying vocabulary instruction to help remedial students. (RL)

Outlines reading activities that can be correlated with children's literature; focuses on the development of vocabulary, syntactic, and graphophonic skills. (MAI)

The article describes a reading program for gifted high school students which includes speed reading, vocabulary development, spelling, advanced study skills, and a research paper. (PHR)

Presents practical strategies for helping bilingual students understand idioms and figurative expressions in their second language. (MKM)

Demonstrates the transactive nature of the cloze procedure; emphasizes reading as a thinking task and setting purposes as the key to efficient reading. Describes exercises to stimulate readers and to develop in them a conscious awareness about processing strategies. (AEA)

Describes a group discussion process for helping students make use of the vocabulary that normally lies dormant in their minds. (TJ)

People of ages 4, 6, 8, 10, 20 and 70 years named pictures selected to represent the entire range of lexical consensus among 20-year-olds. Consensus within each group increased with age, up to 20. Data indicate words coding culturally important events are acquired earliest. (CHK)

Reviews the content of the courseware contained in "EXITO: Survival Spanish," noting that this course is divided into 10 chapters and contains material typically covered in a beginning Spanish course (e.g., vocabulary units including greetings, family members, time expressions, etc.). The primary strength of the EXITO program is that it is a…

Age 3 follow-up data are presented for sample of 34 toddlers diagnosed between ages of 24 and 31 months with expressive specific language impairment. Late talkers made more rapid progress in lexical development and in descriptive, explanatory, and definitive use of language than in syntactic and morphological language. Toddlers who'd been more…

Examined mothers' accuracy in predicting the responses their children gave and the scores they achieved on two standardized vocabulary tests. Findings indicate that the overall estimates by mothers of language-impaired children were more accurate than those by mothers of language-normal children. (28 references) (Author/CK)

Examined relationships between early vocabulary composition, early language use, and properties of mothers' child-directed speech at 10 words. Found that, when the effects of the child on the mother at 10 words was controlled, there was a negative correlation between mothers' production of speech illustrating word boundaries and the percentage of…

Errors in naming pictures were studied for 12 children followed from age 15 months to 22 months and for 60 children of similar ages at three different levels of vocabulary development. An increase in naming errors was found with sudden increases in productive vocabulary, suggesting interference from previously retrieved words. (SLD)

The purpose of this study was to shed light on the issue of strategy training in second language learning. Investigated the effect of metacognitive strategy training through the use of explicit strategy instruction on the development of lexical knowledge of English-as-a-Foreign-Language students. (Author/VWL)

Two cohorts of same-sex twin pairs were assessed on grammar and vocabulary. Findings indicated that vocabulary and grammar correlated strongly at 2 and 3 years in both cohorts, with a consistently high genetic correlation between vocabulary and grammar at both ages. Findings suggest that the same genetic influences operate for vocabulary and…