Examines the meaning of subject specificity, a crucial aspect of teaching and assessing critical thinking. Discusses a number of distinctions, including a distinction among domain, epistemological, and conceptual subject specificity. Outlines future research needs. (FMW)

Investigated the effects of cue adequacy on second language learners' ability to infer and remember the meaning of new words. Subjects who received cue-adequate sentences reported greater ease in word inference, scored higher in inferring and remembering the contextual meanings of new words, and better retained the contextual meanings of targeted…

The effects of semantic and syntactic complexity on the reading comprehension of content-area prose were investigated among 92 adolescents with learning disabilities. Subjects who read passages that had been modified syntactically or both syntactically and semantically exhibited improved comprehension. Semantic modifications alone did not affect…

Examines the performance of normal and disabled readers in recognizing whether orally presented letter strings represent real words. Finds that disabled readers have difficulty in making available the full range of semantic cues when processing stimuli in an acoustic form, supporting a verbal-processing deficit hypothesis of reading disability.…

Hearing-impaired speechreaders use linguistic context to compensate for the poor visibility of some speech movements. Constraints on spoken language enhance speechreading performance and help compensate for the paucity of sensory data. The largest effects come from linguistic constraints imposed by sentence context--syntactic, semantic, and…

Compares the effects on the knowledge structure of the learners of using two different Mindtools--semantic networks and rule-based expert systems--for representing the content of a course. Results showed that students in the semantic network class possessed more hierarchical knowledge structures than the other group. (Contains 29 references.) (JLB)

In a review of two decades of vocabulary research, it is noted that vocabulary has moved from "poor relation" to "guest of honor" status in language teaching. Research areas include specialized bibliographies, vocabulary acquisition, vocabulary teaching, course materials, and lexicography. Future research directions are suggested, including…

Examines a computer-based corpus that provides the data for a comprehensive investigation of clitic climbing in written and spoken modern Spanish. The results are based on nearly 15,000 tokens with 32 different main verbs from a computer corpus of 3.5 million words from ten countries. Clitic climbing is more common in spoken than in written…

Two experiments investigated the processing and representation of Dutch compound words as a function of their semantic transparency. The results provided clear evidence for the sensitivity of the lexical processing system to morphological complexity, independent of semantic transparency. (50 references) (MDM)

Discusses the indirect style and vocabulary that many Japanese use when expressing themselves in English, explaining how the sequencing of information expressed in Japanese differs from the usual sequence in English. Also reviewed are the social norms that affect how Japanese communicate in English. (five references) (MDM)

Provides an overview of current research on grammatical, phonological, semantic, and pragmatic development in African American English child language, as opposed to adult or adolescent language, and discusses the implications of these findings for professionals involved in second-dialect instruction, speech-language assessment, or intervention…

Describes a study of undergraduates that explored the technique of progressive disclosure of information as a type of interactive illustration using paired associates. Noninteractive stimuli versus progressive stimuli are compared, and progression as a technique that provides a visual link to help create a semantic link and facilitate memory is…

The use of a semantic differential measure to investigate the institutional image of Tufts University (Massachusetts), both internal and external, is reported. The study focused on (1) differences between the current and desired image, and (2) differences among alumni, current student, and other constituencies' views of the institution.…

A major obstacle students encounter in their study of mathematics is the language of the discipline. The words used to convey mathematical concepts are foreign and conceal the notions that they are intended to reveal. Discusses this problem and presents suggestions to help make students sensitive to and aware of the precision required to…

Discusses the language development in individuals with Down's syndrome in both early childhood and adulthood, and outlines intervention programs to assist language development in these individuals not only in their early years but throughout their lives. (71 references) (CFM)