This paper explores the influence of field independent-dependent cognitive style on second language test performance, especially as it relates to performance on the integrative type of measure known as the cloze test. Approximately 250 college students enrolled in a first semester Spanish course formed the sample group for this correlational…

One of the prevalent misconceptions that severely limits the possibilities of curriculum change in schools is the belief that theory has no direct relevance to pedagogical problems and that what is really needed are practical ideas for classroom instruction. Serious curriculum change requires an explicit dependence upon improved applications of…

Operation Rewrite, a program developed for use in English instruction in Quebec (Canada), is a constructive teaching-learning method for increasing students' linguistic competency in written discourse. The program provides middle and secondary school students with structured exercises to study and rewrite, using the author's exact format but with…

This annotated bibliography focuses on the fields of cognitive anthropology and sociolinguistics. Topics covered include: (1) classroom ethnographies; (2) conversational and discourse analysis; (3) ecological and sociological approaches to the study of education and schooling; (4) ethnomethodology; (5) communication and speech act theory; (6)…

Noting that the lack of prosodic information in printed text may be a source of difficulty for children who are learning to read, this paper explores the features of language underlying the acoustic and perceptual segmentation of sentences into meaningful units. Using evidence from studies in speech production and perception, the paper addresses…

This research suggests a possible diachronic explanation for the emergence of OVS (Object-Verb-Subject) as basic sentence word order in Carib languages. The application of afterthought grammaticalization patterns to explain diachronic change in the position of subject necessitates some modification of Hyman's and Venneman's hypotheses. Neither…

Linguistic and cognitive competencies of preschoolers were revealed by interviewing them about routine activities. It was found that freeing preschoolers' speech from constraints inherent in talking about the immediate context results in their demonstrating control over a variety of language-related skills that are generally assumed to be beyond…

Recent studies on written communication have emphasized the importance of discourse organization and rhetoric for the learning of reading and writing in a foreign language. This paper describes an attempt at a contrastive study of specialized discourse in French and in English. A corpus of medical articles all on the same subject has been analysed…

Linear syllogisms present two premises, each describing a relation between two terms. The individual's task is to infer the relation among the three terms of the linear syllogism, and then answer a question about one or more of these relations. For example, "John is taller than Bob. Sam is shorter than Bob. Who is the tallest?" Students…

The majority of the languages spoken in Papua New Guinea are highly diverse, belong to many unrelated groups, and are spoken by small language communities. This situation has resulted in widespread multilingualism and the emergence of "lingue franche," including the police-type, such as Hiri Motu. Hiri Motu, adopted as a symbol by the…

A study was conducted to test whether three, four, and five-year-old children would be better able to use either static or dynamic properties for grouping objects, and whether performance under these conditions would be better than when no property was given. One of the two study tasks, the free sort, also used by Rosch et al. (1976), asked…

Skilled and unskilled writers were given detailed information about an urban planning project and then read a letter from an influential, interested, and potentially hostile writer requesting information about the project. Each writer was next asked to generate all the ideas needed to answer the letter, organize a framework for the letter from a…

The research reported here focuses on one aspect of the communicative environment, namely vocabulary. The central question motivating this research was whether there are social class and ethnic group differences in the vocabulary used in the home and in the school situation. A corpus of talk was searched for the use of words from four standardized…

A study was conducted to identify the capacities of young children to demonstrate differential communicative responsiveness to normal children (same age and older) and to older, retarded children of an equal mental age in the context of a collaborative problem solving task. Eleven normally developing children (aged six to eight years) were the…

Progress that has been made in second language research in the last two years and future directions in the research methodology of second language studies are discussed. In order to examine the continuation and expansion of current research, the research reported by Schumann (1976) is compared with current research as represented by the titles of…