An experimental FLES program in Lati, designed for a rural community elementary school in North Carolina, aims at improving and increasing students' English vocabulary and exposing them to a different culture. It was also hoped that students would be motivated to continue their study of foreign languages, cultures, and the humanities at the high…

Elaborates on the conjecture that the words used in speech and writing have a powerful effect on perceptions of what is said and written. Reviews three distinct goals of instruction that are designed to promote students' expressive vocabularies. Suggests approaches for promoting students' active use of words. (ML)

Presents an approach to vocabulary instruction that serves to increase knowledge of word definitions, to provide semantic links to words, and to promote greater facility in using words. Reviews studies associated with the "fertile vocabulary" instructional plan and discusses program results and benefits. (ML)

Reexamines two plausible explanations of why vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension are so highly correlated. Describes and analyzes the "instrumental" and "knowledge" hypotheses of word meanings. Additional positions on vocabulary instruction are also presented. (ML)

Discusses two experiments designed to clarify the cognitive functions of mnemonics in fact learning. One presents subjects with a single attribute mnemonic, providing only the perceptual link, while the other presents subjects with a two-stage model serving the cognitive functions of providing a perceptual link followed by a meaningful link. (MBR)

Describes semantic mapping, an effective strategy for vocabulary instruction that involves the categorical structuring of information in graphic form and requires students to relate new words to their own experience and prior knowledge. (HOD)

Proposes four guidelines to help educators evaluate vocabulary instruction: (1) instruction should help students relate new vocabulary to their background knowledge, (2) instruction should help students develop elaborated word knowledge, (3) instruction should provide for active student involvement, and (4) instruction should develop students'…

Specifies some of the different word learning tasks students face, describes different levels of word knowledge, notes three types of costs involved in instruction, and discusses the costs and benefits of some specific methods of vocabulary instruction. (HOD)

Studied across a 16-month period, young children of deaf parents showed accelerated early language development, on the average producing their first recognizable sign at 8.5 months, their tenth sign at 13.2 months, and their first sign combination at 17.0 months. Findings are inconsistent with previously reported patterns of synchrony between…

Describes a reading technique for college writing and a method of teaching word structue. (HOD)

Concludes that direct teaching of vocabulary by forming networks between students' existing schemata and the new words was more effective than dictionary work or context study. (HOD)

Describes a metacognitive approach to improving vocabulary. The method trains students to establish a network of relationships among words and relate the words to personal experiences. (HOD)

Divides texts into two groups, the first of which teaches a selected group of words; the second teaches strategies for learning vocabulary as well as teaching a selected group of words. (EL)

Poses and answers several questions parents and teachers have about the value of invented spelling. (FL)

Describes a thinking skills program in Oklahoma that has brought about a significant rise in achievement test scores. Teaching strategies are based on the premise that students learn new things based on the resemblance between new and familiar words and ideas. (TE)