Discusses construction of the Hebrew Communicative Development Inventory (HCDI), an adaptation of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (MCDI). The HCDI was administered to a stratified sample of Israeli mothers of 253 toddlers. Results are presented and compared with scores from the MCDI. Results indicate that conclusions concerning…

Language and reading outcomes at 13 years of age were examined in 28 children identified at 24 to 31 months as late talkers, all of whom came from middle--to upper-class socioeconomic status (SES) families and had normal nonverbal ability and age-adequate receptive language at intake. Late talkers were compared with a group of 25 typically…

To improve and activate the vocabulary of EFL learners, an alternative to common advice in trying to use them in speech can be invited. As two quite different methodologies in writing pedagogy are process and product writing, it is of concern to find which holds more promise for the vocabulary improvement. Product writing pedagogy encompasses…

A group of 21 hard-of-hearing and deaf children attending primary school were trained by their teachers on the production of selected consonants and on the meanings of selected words. Speech production, vocabulary knowledge, reading aloud, and speech perception measures were obtained before and after each type of training. The speech production…

Although most principals do not teach reading, it is critical that they know how reading should be taught, especially in the primary grades. A growing body of research gives an increasingly clear picture of effective reading programs. It indicates that most young children need instruction in five reading areas: phonemic awareness, phonics,…

Jim Burke is a master at making pedagogical principles accessible with practical teaching aids, most notably graphic organizers. In this article, he asks two questions, "What can teachers do that makes a difference for all students, that meets them where they are and helps get them where they need to be as reader and writers--as students?" and…

This study examined parental report as a source of information about toddlers' productive vocabulary in 105 low-income families living in either urban or rural communities. Parental report using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory-Short Form (CDI) at child age 2;0 was compared to concurrent spontaneous speech measures and…

The role of grammatical knowledge in second language (L2) lexical processing is far from clear. Providing evidence from a recent introspective study, this paper seeks to demonstrate the significant contribution that such knowledge can make to inferring the meanings of unfamiliar words while reading, and to possible consequent acquisition of L2…

As language learning involves the acquisition of thousands of words, teachers and learners alike would like to know how vocabulary learning can be fostered, especially in EFL settings where learners frequently acquire impoverished lexicons, despite years of formal study. Research indicates that reading is important but not sufficient for…

In this article, Aline Wolf discusses the challenges of teaching elementary reading at present time. She also raises her concern not only about the declining of reading skills, but also about the declining number of books that students actually read which creates a dilemma for teachers. She believes that the Montessori community must give priority…

Purpose: There is a substantial minority of children for whom lexical retrieval problems impede the normal pattern of language development and use. These problems include accurately producing the correct word even when the word's meaning is understood. Such problems are often referred to as "word-finding difficulties" (WFDs). This article examines…

Background: Children who have poor vocabulary knowledge are at risk of wider language weaknesses and reading comprehension difficulties, which will impact upon their educational achievement. The central question addressed in this paper is how best to teach new vocabulary items to these children. Aims: To investigate the effects of two different…

This study examined the effectiveness of two factors in second language vocabulary teaching: (1) presence or absence of a text; and (2) use of a variety of explanation types. The study's context was three 9th grade and one 10th grade class of English-as-a-Second-Language students in Hong Kong. All classes were taught by different teachers. Their…

This guide is a collection of practical ideas for teaching vocabulary and vocabulary development skills to learners of a second language. Most are contributed by teachers of English as a Second Language, but the activities may be appropriate for teaching other languages. Each idea is described briefly, with information given about appropriate…

Developed as part of the ABCs of Construction National Workplace Literacy Project, this instructional module teaches word attack skills for use in understanding technical terms encountered by persons employed in electrical and instrumentation occupations. The following topics are covered: the principles of structural analysis, word parts and their…