Online professional development (OPD) has potential to improve teacher quality by improving teachers' knowledge and instructional practices. These changes, in turn, have potential to improve student achievement. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of scientific research on the effects of OPD on teachers and, more importantly, on students. This…

The present study adds to the computer-mediated communication (CMC) literature by exploring oral learner-to-learner interaction using Skype, a free and widely used Internet software program. In particular, this task-based study has a two-fold goal. Firstly, it explores possible differences between two modes of oral CMC (audio and video) and…

Adolescents' time spent messaging, exploring websites, and studying on the computer increased between 2003 and 2008. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement, this study examines how such changes have influenced individual achievement and behavior from childhood to adolescence. Greater communications and…

Novel word learning in the context of shared storybook reading has been primarily investigated with monolingual children, while experiments with Hispanic dual language learners (DLLs) are less prevalent. This exploratory study investigated the extratextual stylistic behaviors of storybook reading that promote novel word learning in DLL…

The relationship between nonword repetition ability and vocabulary size and vocabulary learning has been a topic of intense research interest and investigation over the last two decades, following the demonstration that nonword repetition accuracy is predictive of vocabulary size (Gathercole & Baddeley, 1989). However, the nature of this…

This study explores different frequency effects on children's interpretations of novel noun-noun compounds (e.g. "egg bag" as "bag FOR eggs"). We investigated whether four- to five-year-olds and adults use their knowledge of related compounds and their modifier-head relations (e.g. "sandwich bag (FOR)" or "egg white (PART-OF)") when explaining the…

This study examined compound awareness in relation to Chinese children's vocabulary acquisition and character reading. Two aspects of compound awareness were investigated: the ability to identify the head of a compound noun and the ability to construct a new compound word from familiar morphemes. The compound awareness tasks, along with rapid…

Traditionally, vocabulary was neglected in language teaching programs and curriculums for the sake of grammar and other parts of language. Nowadays, however, researchers have realized that vocabulary is an important part of language learning and teaching and worthy of attention and research. A proliferation of studies done on vocabulary can be…

This meta-analysis examines the effects of vocabulary interventions on pre-K and kindergarten children's oral language development. The authors quantitatively reviewed 67 studies and 216 effect sizes to better understand the impact of training on word learning. Results indicated an overall effect size of 0.88, demonstrating, on average, a gain of…

This article describes the use of Latin-derived words and terms used in chemistry, and explores the meaning of these words, so as to lead to a better understanding of these words, so commonly used in the teaching of chemistry. As the article shows, there are many such words, and with some elementary knowledge, a greater meaning is given to these…

We investigate the development of word order in German children's spontaneous production of complement clauses. From soon after their second birthday, young German children use both verb final complements with complementizers and verb-second complements without complementizers. By their third birthday they use both kinds of complement clauses with…

The present study sought to clarify the relations amongst serial decoding, irregular word recognition, listening comprehension, facets of oral vocabulary and reading comprehension in two cohorts of children differing in reading level. In the process, the components of the simple view of reading were evaluated. Students in grades 1 (n = 67) and 6…

Natural reading development gradually builds up to the adult vocabulary over a period of years. This has an effect on lexical processing: early-acquired words are processed more quickly and more accurately than later-acquired words. We present a connectionist model of reading, learning to map orthography onto phonology to simulate this natural…

This study examines the effect of input modality (video, audio, and captions, i.e., on-screen text in the same language as audio) on (a) the learning of written and aural word forms, (b) overall vocabulary gains, (c) attention to input, and (d) vocabulary learning strategies of beginning L2 learners. Twenty-six second-semester learners of Russian…

The purpose of this article was twofold: (1) to explore the feasibility of the regression discontinuity design (RDD) in response-to-intervention implementation research and (2) to expand upon the limited research on vocabulary instruction for kindergarten students who are at risk for reading failure due to limited vocabularies. This pilot study…