Argues that composing and comprehending are process-oriented thinking skills that are basically interrelated, and suggests ways that these skills can be taught. (JL)

Offers suggestions for developing interactive language programs for classroom use using a microcomputer, and cites educational principles involved: concern is production of language; children learn language by modeling; computer is motivating factor; and student should not be passive receiver of computer program. A program entitled "Writing…

The responses of students, asked to retell stories they had read, were studied through language miscue analysis. The research yielded insights in how readers: (1) predict the author's message; (2) form concepts essential for comprehension; and (3) relate stories to their cultural background. Implications for classroom instruction are discussed.…

The results of a word recognition study are compared to those of a sign recognition study in order to determine which aspects of lexical access are comparable in speech and sign, and which are specific to each of the two language modalities. The "gating paradigm" was used in both studies. (Author/AMH)

Developmental changes in the interaction between word order and structural cues were investigated. Hebrew-speaking children between 4 and 10 years old interpreted noun-verb-noun utterances. Both word order and structural cues affected interpretation by all subjects, though the role of structural cues increased with age. (Author/DB)

Two research areas, schema theory and linguistic theory, are described which have contributed to theories about language comprehension. Models of language comprehension conceptualized by Roger Schank, Carl Frederiksen, and Walter Kintsch are discussed in relation to the research and evaluated for practical use in reading instruction. (Author/PP)

This study had two purposes: (1) to determine when children distinguish ambiguous from precise messages and when they can resolve ambiguity through additional questioning, and (2) to identify whether implicit messages were more difficult to identify than explicit ones. All children found ambiguous messages significantly more difficult to…

It is argued that cognitive/academic language proficiencies in first and second languages are interdependent and empirically distinguishable from interpersonal communication skills. This analysis is applied to the interpretation of data on the effects of bilingual education programs and on the age issue in second language learning. (PMJ)

Discusses the process of native language learning and explores the relationship between it and second language learning. It is suggested that in a language curriculum, the initial emphasis should be on receptive skills. Accuracy, appropriateness, and fluency in communication are discussed, as well as instructional modes for training in these…

Investigates the effects of morphological boundaries and the voicing characteristics of the following consonant on the duration of stressed vowels produced by hearing impaired adults. They do not vary the duration of stressed vowels in accordance with the durational recording observed in normal speech; however, this deviance is systematic. (PMJ)

Reports evidence that some students have reading problems because of instructional emphasis on reading as "exact word reproduction," or of student tendencies to focus too keenly on word-attack skills. (RL)

Writing demands the simultaneous control of several skills: focus and logic, as well as spelling and grammar. The central writing skill is to look at what has been said and see how it can be improved by drafting and redrafting. (MLW)

It was hypothesized that distinctive verbal processing styles would be characteristic of different social classes and different sexes, and that these differences could be largely explained by earlier socialization experiences. (BW)

Discusses the implications of the tendency of adult second-language learners to develop a well-structured, simple form of language outside the classroom, i.e. the Basic Variety (BV). Focuses on the structural properties of the BV, the status of these properties and the reasons why some structural properties of "fully fledged" languages are more…

Discusses the relative merits of feature versus model based semantics for the interpretation of verb phrases in English, French, and German. The article concludes that the simplicity afforded by features is offset by the depth of analysis achieved with event models that are additionally able to support a sophisticated approach to machine…