Arguably the largest obstacle freshmen face in their mathematics courses is their unfamiliarity with the language of mathematics. Addressing this problem right at the start seems like a sensible strategy, as comprehension of mathematical communication helps students in all mathematics courses they will take. In this paper we discuss general…

Purpose: This study investigated vocabulary growth from 18 to 24 months of age in young children with repaired cleft palate (CP), children with otitis media, and typically developing (TD) children. In addition, the contributions of factors such as hearing level, middle ear status, size of consonant inventory, maternal education level, and gender…

This study described and analyzed the vocabulary of 4 current, best-selling core reading programs and developed word lists based on these analyses. Results showed a good deal of similarity but also some significant differences among the programs. Across grades 1-6, all of them included a substantial number of tokens (approximately 380,000-660,000)…

As physics teachers, we possess many items (e.g., demonstrations, online exercises, and even stories) in our pedagogical toolkits. In this paper, I propose and explore one such item that I have found particularly useful and pedagogically significant--the "integrated vocabulary boost." In what follows, I will address what I mean by such…

Purpose: Scholars have long noted that retention improves significantly when learners frequently test themselves on the new material rather than engage in continuous study with no intermittent testing. In this study, we apply the notion of repeated testing or retrieval to the process of word learning in preschool-age children with and without…

We developed a sustained content literacy intervention that emphasized building domain and topic knowledge from Grade 1 to Grade 2 and evaluated transfer effects on students' reading comprehension outcomes. The Model of Reading Engagement (MORE) intervention emphasizes thematic lessons that provide an intellectual framework for helping students…

The study aimed to reveal the effect of the infographic display style (fixed, animated, and interactive) on learning and retaining the vocabulary of the Noble Quran among third grade students. The study sample consisted of 112 male and female third grade students and were distributed into three groups the students' learning test was designed to…

Purpose: There is evidence suggesting that aerobic exercise immediately after vocabulary training can improve word recall in school-age children. This work examined whether the previously identified word-learning benefits associated with exercise can be extended to preschoolers. Additionally, we evaluated whether the effects of physical activity…

Awareness of vocabulary learning strategies has been identified as crucial in supporting learners' vocabulary development. Using interview data from 21 adolescent first language speakers of English identified as gifted students in the U.S. education context, I analysed the vocabulary learning strategies that they used to learn, remember, and make…

Given the significant role vocabulary plays in second language acquisition, how to help learners acquire vocabulary has always been a concern for educators. Despite the general consensus that beliefs influence learners' behaviour, limited research effort has been devoted to the exploration of English as a second language (ESL) learners' beliefs…

Usage-based approaches to additional-language acquisition have identified numerous determinants of language learning, two of which were the focus of our study: frequency and cue contingency. Specifically, we examined how an immersion experience may impact sensitivity to these two determinants as reflected in the production of 4,808 pairs of nouns…

Though Mandarin Chinese dual language immersion (DLI) has been growing rapidly in the U.S., research on this population is still rare. This study explored cross-language transfer of expressive oral vocabulary knowledge and definition skills among students in a Chinese DLI program. We found significant within and cross-language relationships of…

How do children succeed in learning a word? Research has shown robustly that, in ambiguous labeling situations, young children assume novel labels to refer to unfamiliar rather than familiar objects. However, ongoing debates center on the underlying mechanism: Is this behavior based on lexical constraints, guided by pragmatic reasoning, or simply…

Research has shown that second language (L2) learners generally lack multiword expression knowledge, and L2 researchers and practitioners have tried various techniques to assist L2 learners to acquire it more efficiently. This study adopted an under-researched technique-- repeated oral reading--to enhance the retention of high-frequency multiword…

Children's daily contexts shape their experiences. In this study, we assessed whether variations in infant placement (e.g., held, bouncy seat) are associated with infants' exposure to adult speech. Using repeated survey sampling of mothers and continuous audio recordings, we tested whether the use of independence-supporting placements was…