Tests Pine & Lieven's (1993) suggestion that a lexically-based positional analysis can account for the structure of a considerable proportion of children's early multiword corpora. Results reveal that the positional analysis accounts for 60% of the children's multiword utterances and that most other utterances are defined as frozen. (33…

Examines marginal and end comments written on the first drafts of essays of advanced university students of English as a Second Language in terms of their pragmatic goals and linguistic features. Findings indicate the importance of helping students process feedback successfully and providing text-specific feedback. (65 references) (Author/CK)

Examined the strength of the association between language exposure estimates and vocabulary learning for simultaneous bilingual infants with differing patterns of exposure to the languages being learned. Findings revealed that the correlation was strong, even for children whose language environments changed by more than 20% between observations.…

Reports on the exploratory phase of a computer assisted language learning project designed to provide a package enabling students of German as a second language to develop their reading and writing skills, learn new vocabulary and syntactical structure, and enhance their competence in the production of text commentary. (Six references) (Author/CK)

Examines the nature of language diversity in the small, isolated community of Ocracoke Island, North Carolina, where a lone African American family has resided for over 130 years. (57 references) (Author/CK)

Reviews some history of how lexical representations have acquired an important role in sentence processing research. Discusses relevant issues, including the importance of timecourse information in theorizing; the importance of frequency information in theories of sentence processing; and the question of the grain of frequency information. (42…

Compares the acquisition of the English to- and for-dative alternation by native-speaking English, Japanese, and Korean children. Investigates whether second language learners (L2) like native language learners overextend the double-object variant and whether L2 learners, like L2 adults, transfer properties of the native language grammar.…

This concluding article of an issue focused on the interaction of phonology with other aspects of language and language learning discusses findings that indicate the importance of considering these aspects when devising remediation strategies for a single domain. The need for future research is emphasized. (Contains 7 references.) (CR)

Determines that the complexity of syntax does not significantly affect reading comprehension of native and non-native English speakers when reading technical writing. Finds no significant differences between subgroups reading an authentic computer science text and those reading a syntactically adapted text, either in comprehension or in speed. (MG)

Reports the results of an analysis of conversations among bilingual adults designed to determine the nature of code switching. Categories for the analysis are proposed, syntactic constraints on code switching are discussed, and code switching as a conversational strategy is considered. (24 references) (CFM)

Reports a longitudinal study in which first drafts on one assigned topic and one self-selected topic were collected once a year in grades one-three, and were analyzed for story structure, syntax, and cohesion. Finds no significant differences between the writing for the two tasks except in the area of cohesion. (SR)

In this commentary on Linda Siegel's paper (EC221505), it is argued that a minimum level of general ability is needed for successful reading performance. Above this threshold other kinds of intelligence are required and more important is the contribution of verbal efficiency, which is predicated on the covariance of phonology, morphology, and…

An overview of contemporary Hispanic dialectology, focusing on phonological phenomena, syntax, classification schemes, and bilingual communities, demonstrates that dialectology has long ceased to be the collection of innumerable surface deviations. It is suggested that dialectology is a theoretical discipline searching for universal principles to…

Aims to heighten teacher awareness of the semantic, syntactic, and phoneme-grapheme transfer problems that Chinese students face. Provides teaching suggestions involving phonology, vocabulary, syntax, and morphology. Urges reading teachers to use the visual modality to help make the transfer to the English script system more successful. (RS)

Investigated how verb causality in question formulation affects the locus of causal origin for answers. Hypothesized questions formulated with action verbs cue the logical subject of the question sentence as the causal origin for answers. Reverse tendency was expected for state verbs. Verb type in question formulation was found to affect…