Discusses how the different conceptions of a "private world" between native English speakers and native Chinese speakers can result in misunderstandings. The study examines the semantic structures of two Chinese categories, "si" (i.e., private, selfish, illegal) and "gong" (i.e., public, unselfish, official). Results…

Investigates the fate of "u"-stem endings in Slavic languages. Findings indicate that the collapse of a paradigm is gradual and that the morphemes involved do not lose their grammatical meanings, although they may develop additional ones at later stages. The development of additional grammatical meanings is carried out in concert with…

Investigated the relationship between oral language and early reading development by administering to 39 children a broad range of oral language, background, and reading ability measures in kindergarten and first and second grade. Overall, semantic abilities, not phonological awareness, predicted second grade reading comprehension. Phonological…

Uses the semantic differential method to survey student attitudes toward a new "writing for print media" course in New Mexico State University's journalism department. Finds that students gained confidence in themselves and their professional potential when exposed to highly professional requirements. Shows that this longitudinal method…

Presents an analysis of code switching in the interaction between Japanese as a topic prominent language and English as a subject prominent language, using English sentences uttered by Japanese-English bilingual speakers in North America. A comparison is made with the early English interlanguage of a speaker of Hmong, another topic prominent…

Examined effects of short-term memory, age, and reading ability on the instructional effectiveness of imagery during reading of sentences among fourth and sixth graders, half of whom were instructed to construct images representing sentence meanings. Half were uninstructed. Imagery instructions had a positive effect on learning efficiency among…

Studies the effect of the use of the male generic on imagery. Finds that male bias is higher in the masculine generic condition than in the unbiased condition, and that male subjects are more male-biased than female subjects. Discusses findings in terms of linguistic relativity, prototypicality, and activation of multiple meanings. (FMW)

Evaluated the effectiveness of using a hypertext/hypermedia environment for the teaching of second language Spanish vocabulary in a semantic mapping format among 48 high school students who had never studied Spanish. Results found no significant difference between semantic mapping and traditional word listing approaches to vocabulary development.…

Examined the ability of Grade 8 intermediate and advanced learners of French to collaboratively complete a text reconstruction task, focusing on the students' discussion of the form of the message they were constructing. Results indicated that students gained awareness of gaps in their existing knowledge and links between the form, function, and…

Different models of spoken word production make different predictions regarding the extent of effects of certain word properties on the output of that model. This article examines these predictions with regard to the effect of these variables on the production of semantic and phonological errors by aphasic subjects. (60 references) (Author/CK)

This article discusses word definitions within the context of language development in school-age children and adolescents. It explains the importance of the ability to define words, reviews the growth of word definition during school years, describes standardized tests, and offers suggestions for expanding the normative database for word…

Discusses some aspects of the Japanese language that look inexplicable at first but that turn out to be explainable by pragmatic principles shared with English. Focus is placed on how the Japanese choose a particular word to use in a sentence involving indirect quotations, when the words would be synonyms in other languages. (20 references) (GLR)

Studied emergent literacy in Hebrew by analyzing nursery and kindergarten children's attempts to write and read pairs of nouns. Found that, with age, children's sensitivity to phonology increased and sensitivity to semantics decreased and that these sensitivities played a greater role in literacy acquisition than did sensitivity to morphology. (MM)

This paper discusses five language roots of reading: phonology, syntax, semantics, short-term and long-term memory, and auditory segmenting. Teachers are urged to focus early school experiences toward development of these five skills to reduce the incidence of reading difficulties. Specific teaching suggestions are offered. (Author/DB)

Explores the nature of language from a linguistic viewpoint and describes how mathematics can be seen to be a foreign language by students. Describes how natural language reading strategies provide language-specific problems to mathematics teachers. (MDH)