A study identified the homophones most commonly used in children's writing and showed how the relative use of specific homophones changes as writing skill develops. Homophones appearing in Rinsland's "A Basic Vocabulary of Elementary School Children," a vocabulary list compiled from a national sample of children's writing in grades 2…

Studies of the acquisition of word meaning and the semantic features involved have been mostly confined to noun categories and polar adjectives. Investigation of the semantic categories underlying verb forms has implications not only for theories of child language acquisition but also for theories of semantic structure in general. Experimental…

This manual is designed to accompany the Peace Corps student's texts in the Chichewa language. It contains three parts: (1) a discussion of basic concepts in language teaching and learning, including theoretical background, major language teaching methods, language acquisition, and sociolinguistics; (2) an outline of the materials and methods that…

The first four articles of the Spring, 1981 issue of this journal focus on aspects of vocabulary instruction in elementary schools. The first article provides teachers with a sourcebook for teaching vocabulary. Weaknesses in vocabulary instruction and specific activities for developing vocabulary in depth, including questioning strategies,…

Reflecting the interdisciplinary emphasis that reading comprehension has received during the past decade, the articles in this volume deal with both the processes involved in reading and the instructional practices used in teaching it. The six articles devoted to reading processes deal specifically with the following topics: schemata,…

A cross-cultural educational research study involving 12,500 students in 13 countries is described, with particular emphasis on one aspect of geographic literacy--place vocabulary skills. Place vocabulary is defined as that component of vocabulary that is concerned with places which are proper nouns and capitalized to show their importance. The…

With emphasis on the exciting aspects of language learning, this vocabulary improvement mini-course aims at presenting words in ways that are relevant, communicative, and enjoyable for the college freshman. Advocating a multisensory approach to vocabulary that involves a "hear it, say it," then, "read it, write it" sequence, the mini-course offers…

Data are presented from one subject (J) that show a gradual development of the complexity of words in terms of syllable structure and degree of phonetic similarity of co-occurring consonants. During the age range of 1;9 to 2;6, J's data show a highly systematic progression of stages, each characterized by fewer restrictions on the number, order,…

Texts in spoken Standard Chinese were developed to improve and update Chinese materials to reflect current usage in Beijing and Taipei. The focus is on communicating in practical situations, and the texts summarize and supplement tapes. The overall course is organized into 10 situational modules, student workbooks, and resource modules. This text…

This 10-unit volume dealing with historical events in Indonesia is used in the advanced phase of the Indonesian Basic Course for United States military personnel. The objectives of the course are: (1) to relate the significant history of the area, (2) to expand the student's vocabulary, and (3) to develop the student's linguistic skills. The ten…

This 8-unit volume written in Bahasa Indonesian is intended to acquaint United States military personnel studying Bahasa Indonesian with Indonesian geography and geographic terminology. The text, used in the third phase of the Basic Course, aims to: (1) relate significant content about the area, (2) expand the student's vocabulary, and (3) develop…

This Chinese-English glossary provides a ready-reference to all lexical items introduced in the 180 lessons of the Chinese-Mandarin Basic Course. The contents are arranged alphabetically from Chinese to English. Each entry has a reference number that corresponds to the lesson number of the basic course in which the item was introduced. (NCR)

IN PREPARATION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF A GENERAL FREQUENCY WORD LIST IN GERMAN DESIGNED TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE INTERMEDIATE AND ADVANCED LEVELS OF READING IN THE GERMAN CURRICULUM, A COMPUTER-BASED WORD COUNT WAS BEGUN IN AUSTRALIA'S UNIVERSITY OF ADELAIDE. USING MAGNETIC TAPES CONTAINING (1) A TEXT OF OVER 100,000 RUNNING WORDS, (2) 1,000 MOST…

FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS FROM THE EARLIEST LEVELS THROUGH GRADUATE SCHOOL NEED TO JOIN FORCES TO DETERMINE OBJECTIVES AND DEVELOP CONTINUITY OF STUDY. TOO OFTEN COLLEGE FRESHMEN PLEAD INADEQUATE PREPARATION AND ARE PERMITTED TO DUPLICATE WORK ALREADY SATISFACTORILY PERFORMED IN HIGH SCHOOL. IF PRE-COLLEGE TRAINING PLACED GREATER EMPHASIS ON THE…

THE INITIAL QUESTION IN THE TITLE IS ANSWERED THROUGH SIMPLE EXPERIMENTS FOR CULTURALLY DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. MUSCLES, RUNNING, WATER, WIND, STEAM, FAST BURNING AND ELECTRICITY ARE FOUND TO "MAKE THINGS GO." USING THESE BASIC DISCOVERIES, VOCABULARY IS BUILT UP BY WORKING WITH DIFFERENT WORDS RELATING TO THE…