Reports on 5 experiments investigating the effect of blocking words according to semantic category on ordered recall in adults and young children. (Author/RM)

Three experiments were conducted to examine the relations between retrieval and encoding in a levels-of-processing framework. (Author/RM)

Language appears at multiple levels of representation in memory. In most cases, languages have a particular system of sounds (phonology), meaning (semantics), form (orthography), and common usage (pragmatics). For a bilingual speaker, these appear for two different sets of concepts. Sometimes, these concepts overlap, as is the case for…

Students learning a second language commonly confront insurmountable obstacles in the language acquisition process, due to the ineffectiveness of traditional, grammar-first methods. This creates detrimental effects on the learner and his or her self-esteem. Existing literature contains information about problems created by traditional approaches,…

A study examined (1) the decision-making processes used by Korean learners of English as a second language (ESL) to make requests in different situations, and (2) how the learners describe those processes. Subjects were 30 Korean students, 15 males and 15 females, enrolled in an intensive English program at a midwestern university in the United…

Highlights a research study indicating that children can spontaneously impose linguistic structure on their communication, even in the absence of a conventional linguistic environment. Subjects (16- to 50-month-old deaf children) had normal social environments but severely restricted language environments because of their disability. (JN)

The speech/language pathologist's role in planning and executing a program for autistic children that emphasizes the development of communication and interaction skills is addressed. Journal Availability: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, 10801 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD 20852. (SEW)

A study of children's structuring of complex sentences requiring mood choices is reported. The objectives were to provide data for an understanding of sentence construction problems and to form a better idea of the acquisition of the intrinsic linguistic contrasts in the Spanish modal system. (MSE)

Presents the results of a study in which reading-retarded children aged 8-to-12, whom previous research had shown to be deficient in their knowledge of pronomial reference rules, received oral presentations containing three kinds of adjective complements. The performance of the test group relative to a control is discussed. (Author/JL)

The results of two experiments serve to extend the processing-time explanation of content effects and to indicate that context effects are greater when reliance upon phonological input is increased as compared to predominant reliance on the direct visual access route to the lexicon. (FL)

Reports on research intended to determine whether easing the cognitive processing load by having writers deal with contextually familiar material improves fluency, grammaticality, and complexity of the writing. Overall results tend to indicate that writing does improve when the material is culturally familiar. (EKN)

In two studies, sixth graders (Study 1) and fourth graders (Study 2) listened to or read a text. Some students were asked to imagine pictures of the material. Oral presentation of the material produced better results than written-only forms. Fourth graders benefited more from mental imagery than did sixth graders. (Author/JJD)

Discusses children's acquisition of non-nominal, abstract words and argues that the use of these words parallels the child's cognitive development in trial-and-error problem solving and in development of insight. (EKN)

Native users of American Sign Language manipulated sentences in four ways: sign them at slow rate, parse them, make relatedness judgments of pairs of signs taken from each sentence, and recall the sentences. Hierarchical performance structures for each of the sentences were highly similar across tasks. (Author/RD)

Children listened to stories which contained anomalies produced by violating semantic restrictions or based on conflicting propositions at two points in a story. The capacity to detect violations of sentences developed more rapidly than detection of violation of discourse. Children's developing capacity to integrate and store story structure is…