Six experiments explored how native and non-native Spanish speakers process article-noun sequences in real time, using eye movements as a response measure. Can listeners use gender-marked articles ("la" and "el", the feminine and masculine forms of "the") to rapidly identify familiar and novel nouns? In Experiment 1, adults who learned Spanish as…

Vocabulary notebooks are frequently advocated as a way for students to take control of their vocabulary learning (Fowle, 2002), with the added benefit of improvements in vocabulary learning (Schmitt and Schmitt, 1995; Laufer and Nation, 1999). The study described in this article attempts to lend empirical support to these claims, by investigating…

The theme for the 58th annual conference of the Association of Literacy Educators and Researchers (ALER) was Bridging Cultures Through Literacy. In the first section of the Yearbook, Parker Fawson's presidential address captures the unique nature of ALER and its role in his professional development, and then moved beyond to capture the changing…

These proceedings contain the papers of the 14th International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in the Digital Age (CELDA 2017), 18-20 October 2017, which has been organized by the International Association for Development of the Information Society (IADIS) and endorsed by the Japanese Society for Information and Systems in…

A writing activity using both English and Spanish words will help develop vocabularies for the students in a foreign language course, especially if the activity is centered around a holiday. (JH)

The underlying semantic structure of the complete lexicon of four Hebrew-speaking infants at the one-word stage of lexical development was examined. Particular attention was given to the timing of word acquisition and the patterns of identified relationships among words. Three types of interrelationships among early words were explored: (1)…

THIS "EXERCISE BOOK" CONTAINS VOCABULARY DRILLS AND QUESTIONS BASED ON THE TWENTY LECTURES OF THE READER VOLUME. FOR EACH LECTURE UNIT THERE ARE TWO VOCABULARY DRILLS AND A LIST OF 20 QUESTIONS TO BE ANSWERED. THE FIRST VOCABULARY DRILL IS COORDINATED WITH THE VOCABULARY LISTS OF THE LECTURE BOOK, AND CONSISTS OF THE NEW VOCABULARY ITEMS USED IN…

RECENT RESEARCH ON LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT WAS REVIEWED, AND THE DIFFICULTIES OF TRANSFORMING DEVELOPMENTAL RESEARCH INTO PRESCRIPTIONS FOR EDUCATION WERE DISCUSSED. RESEARCH FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PRESCHOOL TEACHING WERE MADE UNDER THE FOLLOWING HEADINGS--(1) THE ACQUISITION OF GRAMMAR, STRUCTURE OF LANGUAGE, (2) THE ACQUISITION OF…

Two studies were undertaken within the framework of learning set or learning-how-to-learn methodology, with comparable sets of stimuli which varied from trial to trial rather than remaining constant. Two randomly assigned groups of tenth grade students used a different four-word set of difficult vocabulary items each day for 15 days. Time taken…

This article discusses in general terms derivational aspects of English vocabulary. Citing examples of Anglo-Saxon origin, the author provides a glimpse into the nature of the interrelatedness of English, German, and French vocabulary. (RL)

Presents 21 ideas for teachers to consider in developing children's vocabulary. (MKM)

Explains how to create a file of useful student-centered language learning modules with four-by-six cards. Modules can focus on vocabulary development, completion drills, or sequential arrangement of information, can be adapted to any age level, and can be inexpensively augmented, or discarded after use. (Author/DJD)

Two studies examined the ability of 22 deaf high school students to instantiate (select appropriate word meaning from context) particular exemplars of general nouns and to use those instantiations as retrieval cues. Among results were that subjects could instantiate when asked to do so but did not do so spontaneously. (Author/DB)

Findings from studies exploring role of joint attentional focus in children's acquisition of language indicated that language of 24 mothers and their 15- to 21-month-olds inside episodes of joint attentional focus involved more utterances, shorter sentences, more comments, and longer conversations than outside of episodes. Also, object references…

Recommends the teaching of the acquisition of "potential" vocabulary, i.e., of new words through mastery of the principles of word-building and the use of analogy. "International" words are also included. Suggestions are given to the teacher for systematic work leading to mastery of potential vocabulary. (Text is in German.)…