Notes that students new to technical writing frequently have difficulty grasping the essentiality of technical definitions and learning how to create appropriate definitions. Suggests that exercises centered around a term that is lapsing into obsolescence offer some productive solutions to this common instructional problem. (RS)

Examines whether vocabulary acquisition in a foreign language by inferring the meaning of a word from its context makes an important contribution toward the retention of the word in question so long as the meaning is correctly guessed. (49 references) (GLR)

Tested children in grades one, three, and five on their knowledge of a large sample of words. Found that comprehension of derived words improved dramatically from grade one to grade five and that words consisting of more than two morphemes were not well known by first graders but were relatively better known by fifth graders. (BC)

Comments on the research by Anglin reported in this monograph by considering two points. First, discusses possible problems in defining what a word is. Second, examines some problems with the methodology in vocabulary development research that involves testing individuals' knowledge of words by sampling words from dictionaries. (BC)

Explores the influence of reading comprehension on the acquisition of word meanings from context and compares it to the effects of local context characteristics, such as proximity and directness of context clues. Indicates that reading-comprehension level and prior main-concept knowledge facilitate vocabulary learning from context. (DSK)

Aims to give a thorough analysis of the morphosyntax produced at the outset of multi-word speech, with a classification of free language produced at 2 years by 27 French-speaking children. A classification performed with word sequences reveals surprisingly adult-like sequences of syntactic categories of words. (Author/VWL)

Reports on the early phonological development of six children learning Finnish. Primary focus is on their production of multisyllable targets. There was a tendency to reduce the last element of long words. Results also indicated that the segmental factor may influence the deletion pattern: the syllable that contained a stop was produced,…

Discusses measures of infants and toddlers developing vocabularies. Suggests that what is needed are norms derived from observations of typically-developing bilingual children, followed up by measures of concurrent and predictive validity. (Author/VWL)

Investigates the relationship between second language learners' (L2) vocabulary size and their affix knowledge and attempts to find out the order of affix acquisition. Results show that L2 learners affix knowledge correlated with their vocabulary size and that affixes could be ranked in terms of accuracy order. (Author/VWL)

Investigated whether and when children establish various semantic relations between old and new words. Fifty 2-year olds were taught labels for objects previously referred to by an overextended term. Findings are discussed in light of theories of lexical development, particularly with regard to conceptualizations of constraints on the acquisition…

Describes a vocabulary activity the author uses in first-year composition classes which is effective, interesting, and fun for students who write an ongoing serialized short story with required vocabulary words chosen weekly from assigned student readings. (SR)

Explores the role of vocabulary in reading development and suggests some classroom-tested approaches for nurturing students' vocabulary development and interest. Discusses vocabulary growth, vocabulary and concept development, and active processing of vocabulary. Discusses applications and examples of active-process vocabulary instruction,…

Demonstrates how students who use background knowledge, context, morphology, and dictionaries learn words more effectively. Adapts a vocabulary web consisting of eight identical bubbles to provide students with a word map, intertwining most of the elements to clarify word meaning described by J. M. Harmon as essential to vocabulary instruction.…

Examined children's ability to draw on functional information to predict the similarity of function across exemplars and to extend new words from an initial exemplar to one of two others. The cognitive difficulties associated with judgments concerning material function are discussed in relation to additional factors that could lead children under…

Describes a vocabulary project in which developmental college students created and distributed word lists to the class, and provided and administered quizzes for their word lists. Finds that students who participated in the 1000-word project scored significantly higher on the Nelson-Denny Reading Test than students who studied vocabulary using…