Recommends a method of teaching Russian vocabulary that focuses on new words in context and on their structure: root, prefix, suffix, sound changes, and borrowings. Sources for teachers are given in the bibliography. (LMO)

A local California school developed a program to meet language needs of first graders (70 percent of whom were from minority groups.) The program stresses basic concepts, vocabulary development through categorization and sensory experiences, and many opportunities to practice verbal skills with peers. (DB)

Contributors (1) offer suggestions about using the newspaper for vocabulary development and involving students in problem solving activities, (2) describe a course designed for parents who want to help their children with reading, and (3) discuss the names of diacritical marks. (FL)

Transformational mnemonic strategies have been effectively used to enhance associative and serial list learning of borderline subjects classified as mentally retarded. Recent applications have involved concrete and abstract native-language vocabulary, numbered or ordered information, and digit span recall. (CB)

Outlines an approach to vocabulary selection for computer-assisted language instruction that presents target language lexical items not as individual entities but as elements in a variety of semantic, morphological, morphosemantic, pragmatic, and interlinguistic relationships. (Author/MSE)

Reports on the visit to Japan of a 60-year-old man who had last been there over 40 years ago. Relates several amusing anecdotes about language fluency and Japanese customs, mostly based on the changes a language undergoes in the passage of many years and the importance of an up-to-date vocabulary. (NKA)

Records an interview with Pit Corder, retired chair of Applied Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh, in which he reflects on the implications for language teaching and learning of recent research into second language acquisition and language transfer, as well as on the status of applied linguistics in the mid-1980's. (Author/SED)

Provides a brief overview of S. Krashen's language acquisition theory. Examples of exercises on French-English cognates are provided, and the role of cognates and of exercises on them in relation to the monitor theory is discussed. (SED)

An experimental FLES program in Lati, designed for a rural community elementary school in North Carolina, aims at improving and increasing students' English vocabulary and exposing them to a different culture. It was also hoped that students would be motivated to continue their study of foreign languages, cultures, and the humanities at the high…

Elaborates on the conjecture that the words used in speech and writing have a powerful effect on perceptions of what is said and written. Reviews three distinct goals of instruction that are designed to promote students' expressive vocabularies. Suggests approaches for promoting students' active use of words. (ML)

Presents an approach to vocabulary instruction that serves to increase knowledge of word definitions, to provide semantic links to words, and to promote greater facility in using words. Reviews studies associated with the "fertile vocabulary" instructional plan and discusses program results and benefits. (ML)

Reexamines two plausible explanations of why vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension are so highly correlated. Describes and analyzes the "instrumental" and "knowledge" hypotheses of word meanings. Additional positions on vocabulary instruction are also presented. (ML)

Discusses two experiments designed to clarify the cognitive functions of mnemonics in fact learning. One presents subjects with a single attribute mnemonic, providing only the perceptual link, while the other presents subjects with a two-stage model serving the cognitive functions of providing a perceptual link followed by a meaningful link. (MBR)

Describes semantic mapping, an effective strategy for vocabulary instruction that involves the categorical structuring of information in graphic form and requires students to relate new words to their own experience and prior knowledge. (HOD)

Proposes four guidelines to help educators evaluate vocabulary instruction: (1) instruction should help students relate new vocabulary to their background knowledge, (2) instruction should help students develop elaborated word knowledge, (3) instruction should provide for active student involvement, and (4) instruction should develop students'…