After reviewing previous research on the acquisition of vocabulary through contextual clues, research carried out with 429 students in the upper grades of an Italian elementary school is discussed. (12 references) (CFM)

Examines pseudofamiliar words--words that English learners think that they know but do not. These are words with a deceptive morphological structures, idioms, false friends, words with multiple meanings and "synforms." This lack of awareness is claimed to be inducive to faulty comprehension. Some teaching implications of these problems are…

Examines the relationship between maternal-report measures of referential vocabulary and observational measures of referential vocabulary and usage in 8 first-born middle-class children at 50 and 100 words. Results indicate that, although this measure can be reasonably reliable, such measures tend to exaggerate the relative importance of common…

Describes a process for presenting and learning new vocabulary in middle-grade classrooms that focuses on context, questions involving interpretation, and using the word. (SR)

Provides evidence for developmental changes in the composition of the lexicon, reflecting a shift in emphasis from reference, to predication, to grammar. Findings show that the study of qualitative variation in lexical style is confounded by quantitative variation in rate of lexical development. Tables are appended. (Contains 42 references.) (JP)

Despite replicating previous findings of a relationship between maternal descriptiveness and the proportion of nouns and maternal directiveness and the proportion of verbs in children's early vocabulary, this study of eight mother-infant dyads revealed no relationship between differences in mothers' interactional behavior and differences in the…

The effectiveness of two language treatment methods, modeling versus modeling plus evoked production, in promoting productive vocabulary in three late-talking toddlers was compared. Two subjects differed as to which particular treatment method was associated with better performance. Neither treatment method was effective for the third subject.…

Word learning by young children is viewed as a problem deriving from the use of forms of discourse texts. Uses of causal and temporal terms in private speech by a child studied longitudinally from 1;9 to 3;0 are analyzed from this perspective. (Contains 38 references.) (JL)

Eighteen children (mean age 10.2 years) with mild mental retardation were pretested on a variety of measures and then instructed on Piagetian concepts twice per week for 4 months via a learning set technique. When posttested at semester's end, the children had, with few exceptions, mastered the concepts and made significant gains on the Peabody…

An investigation of the effects of integrative and instrumental motivation on the learning of French/English vocabulary demonstrated that both types of motivation facilitated learning, and that computer administration of an attitude/motivation test battery did not detract from the internal consistency reliability of the subscales. (19 references)…

This study reports data on form classes (e.g., nouns, verbs, modifiers) of the early vocabulary of an English-speaking boy with autism, to determine whether his language acquisition was referential or expressive. Results are compared with norms for normal and Down's syndrome populations. The predominance of nominals suggests a referential language…

The language classroom activities described include work with TV programs (interviews, cooking demonstrations, scenes without soundtrack); exercises with passe compose and passe simple verb tenses; descriptions of available French cassette programs; and use of texts on scientific subjects to build reading for meaning. (CNP)

A correction procedure, including interruption, physical guidance, verbal instruction, and repetition, was used to train five students with severe/profound mental retardation to reject unmatching referents to their gesture mands. Trainers are urged to assess student response when items not matching the referent of a prior request are offered.…

Comparison of 2 methods of presenting novel words, either preceded by a pause or in normal prosody, on initial word comprehension of 20 5-year-old children with language impairments (and 2 control groups matched for either age or mean length of utterance) found no effect for presentation method. (Author/DB)

Reports on a study undertaken to determine whether or not the characteristics of effective inservice could be documented in an experimental study to have an effect on use of process-oriented vocabulary and reading comprehension strategies in the classroom. Finds that the study confirms initial expectations about the qualities of effective staff…