The assumptions underlying the classfication rule-learning description of concept acquisition are critically examined. An alternative characterization of what it means to have a primacy hypothesis and Gibson's position that knowledge of the world is a product of direct perception are discusssed. (Author/RD)

Brown's (1979) assertion that frequency of input is not a significant variable in language acquisition was evaluated through a reanalysis of Brown's data. Frequency of parental speech input was found to be highly related to frequency of production. (Author/AM)

Suggests practical ways of teaching functional communication on the elementary level. This approach provided opportunities for students to practice communication skills in exercise settings. Recommends a sequence of activities for teachers: observe patterns of child communication, isolate communication functions, design instructional objectives,…

Illustrates secondary level speech communication class activities intended to teach the communication functions of ritualizing and sharing feelings and to develop students' competencies in understanding and using the functions in group and interpersonal contexts. (JMF)

Two experiments investigated the relationship of verification to the answering of yes-no questions. Subjects verified simple statements or answered simple questions. Various proposals concerning the relative difficulty of answering questions and verifying statements were considered, and a model was proposed. (SW)

This article discusses the various definitions that have been given to English for Special Purposes (ESP) and concludes that ESP should refer to programs designed for groups of learners who are homogeneous with respect to aims and whose specific learning objectives have been quantified and stated in communicative terms. (Author/CFM)

A study is reported that explores possible developmental differences in conceptions of learning among people with different learning experiences. The data, obtained from interviews with 90 people from 15 to 73 years old, and with 6 to 17 years of schooling, indicate distinctive differences in conceptions of learning and study methods. (Author/JMD)

Description of the Laboratory School, its objectives, and how it provided a testing ground for Dewey's philosophy that history is useful as an analytical tool. Examines Dewey's belief that children gain insight into the principles and complexities of their own society by tracing historical origins and development through the process of…

Students with an internal locus of control functioned well under a variety of conditions while students needing extrinsic reinforcement functioned well only when feedback was provided by the experimenter. (MM)

The premise of equipotentiality, which has been widely adhered to among learning theorists, states that the laws of learning should not vary with the use of particular stimuli, responses, or reinforcements. Investigates this premise. (Editor/RK)

Evidence is presented to support the hypothesis that informal and formal environments contribute to different aspects of second language competence, the former affecting acquired competence and the latter affecting learned competence. Data is presented that suggests that the classroom can be used simultaneously as a formal and informal linguistic…

Reviews Piaget's theory of cognitive development and discusses how science concepts can be taught to secondary school students at different cognitive levels. (MLH)

Students (N=14) in a geomorphology course took an objective geomorphology test, the tree construction task, and the Standardized Concept Structuring Analysis Technique (SConSAT) version of concept mapping. Results suggest that the SConSAT knowledge structure dimensions have moderate to good construct validity. Contains 82 references. (DDR)

Examines how professional chemists and undergraduate chemistry students respond to chemistry-related video segments, graphs, animations, and equations. Discusses the role that surface features of representations play in the understanding of chemistry. Contains 36 references. (DDR)

Discusses the scarcity of research on the characterization of the second-language (L2) initial state, where "L2 initial state" refers to the starting point of nonnative grammatical knowledge. The article emphasizes that exploring the mechanisms of "development" of interlanguage requires an understanding of what a particular stage changed "from."…