Children aged 3, 6, 9 and 12 years were asked to name and sort 25 different drinking vessels. Results showed three stages: (1) they ove rextend the term "cup"; (2) they focus only on certain perceptual properties; (3) they show growing awareness of functional properties and hence the vagueness of the boundary. (Author/RM)

Systematic vocabulary instruction accelerates reading progress; improves one's thought processes; and provides progress in originality, organization, and choice of words. Some school districts have experimented, with some success, with teaching Latin as a way of improving vocabulary. In addition, several studies have indicated the value of a…

Children's understanding of the epistemological terms "know" and "guess" was investigated in two studies with four- to ten-year-old subjects. Two adult players guessed at the location of a ball hidden in one of two boxes. On each trial the child was asked questions about "knowing" and "guessing" both before and after the guessing took place.…

Twenty children aged 3;0 to 3;10 were studied for behavior related to the acquisition of a single new word ("chromium," which was presented as designating the color olive green). The research was conducted in three cycles: prior to exposure to "chromium," at the time of a single encounter with that word, and about a week after the first encounter.…

This study investigates the vocabulary development of preschool children in the five programs of the Mt. Druitt Early Childhood Project, New South Wales, Australia. A Vocabulary Assessment Task was designed to tap the customary style of reference used by preschool children in response to familiar objects, and to test the qualitative levels of the…

LITERARY TRANSLATION IN THE CLASSROOM CAN PROVOKE DISCUSSION WITH GREAT PEDAGOGICAL VALUE EVEN THOUGH A DEFINITIVE TRANSLATION IS NOT THE GOAL. A VERSE FROM HORACE AND ONE FROM DU BELLAY ILLUSTRATE THE POSSIBLE CHOICES OF VOCABULARY AND PHRASING WHICH EVEN TWO RELATIVELY STRAIGHTFORWARD LINES PRESENT. AN ALERT TEACHER CAN BRING OUT SUBTLETIES OF…

THE IMPROVEMENT OF INSTRUCTION IN READING FOR EVERY CHILD IN THE ENGLEWOOD PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM WAS THE GOAL. TEACHERS OF INTERMEDIATE AS WELL AS PRIMARY LEVEL PUPILS WERE CONFRONTED WITH SEVERAL QUESTIONS--(1) HOW MANY OPPORTUNITIES ARE PROVIDED FOR EACH PUPIL TO EXPRESS HIS IDEAS IN A DIGNIFIED FRAMEWORK TO ONE OR TWO OF HIS PEERS, TO HIS CLASS,…

This technical lexicon for elementary school communication skills instruction was compiled from high-frequency words in six previously compiled technical lexicons: grammar, composition, spelling, handwriting, reading, and literature. Following a description of procedures used in preparing the lexicon, three appendixes provide student terms,…

One of a series of instructional materials produced by the Literacy Council of Alaska, this booklet presents information on how to save choking victims. Using simplified vocabulary words and sentence structure, it describes (1) the phenomenon of choking, (2) how to tell when a person is choking, and (3) how to use the "bear hug"…

Four age levels of 80 learning disabled (LD) students (7.5-8.11, 9.0-10.5, 10.6-11.11, and 12.0-13.5 years) participated in an examination of syntactic maturity and vocabulary richness in their oral language. Ss were shown two films without the sound turned on, and were then tape recorded as they told the story of the film in their own words.…

Ninety-three third and 78 fifth grade students participated in this study of the effectiveness of four methods of teaching word meanings: association method, category method, context method, and dictionary practice. Students were taught twelve words a week for eight weeks, with the performance score on weekly evaluation tasks as the dependent…

Analyzing the studies of the vocabulary of children, it was found that one aspect of vocabulary has not been studied in Great Britain--the availability of words. The main aim of the investigation described here was to find out the availability of the basic words from 11 centers of interest. As the length of time allotted to each center of interest…

The 2 approaches considered in this study for the construction of an English language arts program for Indian children are direct observation of children's language patterns and item-analysis of children's responses made to diagnostic test items. Some 225 children in grades 4 to 7 of an integrated elementary school on Vancouver Island, Canada,…