Reports on successfully using letter writing and dialogue journals in a classroom where the children's writing tended to be remarkable similar because they did not insert their personalities into their writing. Their writing grew individualistic, and their vocabularies improved through invented spelling. (SKC)

A study examined the effect of authentic language materials on cultural identification and language production of kindergarten children, especially in relation to classroom structures and routines as they appear through ethnographic analysis. (MSE)

Present results of a longitudinal study of vocabulary development as it takes place in a classroom setting involving elementary-level Swedish-speaking learners of English. The study used spew tests requiring pupils to write down as many words as they could in one minute that began with a given letter. (Author/LMO)

Allan Glatthorn, author of "Curriculum Renewal," makes specific recommendations for the content of the English "mastery curriculum," grades 5 to 12. These include guidelines for the six strands of the English curriculum: literature, language, composition, speaking and listening, critical thinking, and vocabulary development.…

Poor readers often know only the most common meanings or nuances of multimeaning (polysemic) words frequently encountered in reading materials. Teacher-directed, systematic vocabulary instruction must focus on specific problem areas. A three-step plan for teaching multimeaning words is proposed, emphasizing recognition and classification of word…

Four instructional activities for language learning are described, including a unit on body-related vocabulary and expressions using the names of body parts, reading headlines, reading an entire literary work, and "reading" pictures. (MSE)

Four activities for language learning are presented, including: an exercise in compound word formation; television program production; a puzzle made of text fragments; and organizing a trip to France. (MSE)

Reports on a study that investigated whether computer-assisted instruction is as effective and efficient as teacher-only instruction in helping children with severe learning difficulties master a basic sight vocabulary. Concludes that children can significantly improve their sight vocabulary with minimal daily individual instruction and that the…

Study compares the vocabulary generated from writing samples of 52 first-grade children in two whole language classrooms with vocabulary contained in the basal reader program. Concludes that whole language instruction does not limit children's exposure to systematic repetition of important vocabulary. (MM)

Four severely/profoundly hearing-impaired preschool children (ages 4-5) were given six vocabulary tasks (receptive, associative, and expressive) involving auditory and visual sensory modalities. Data confirmed that lipreading (visual modality) could be substituted for speech. However, for novice lipreaders, words with auditory-visual confusions…

Outlines a series of humorous classroom activities and games using novel combinations of words and word parts for vocabulary development. (MSE)

Argues that primary grade level teachers must provide activities which promote thinking skills before expecting achievement in map, globe, and graphing skills. Provides examples of activities which may be used to promote the basic thinking skills which underlie all school work. (JDH)

To assess the relative strengths of mothers' education, parenting styles, and children's preschool experience in predicting children's verbal attainment scores, this study used data derived from a cohort of 5,362 children born in March, l946. Although preschool experience was an independent and significant predictor of verbal attainment scores,…

Reports on data collected in nine age ranges from 18 months to 71 months that examined children's ability to understand emotion-descriptive adjectives when used by adults and their own use of these words in productive vocabulary. (HOD)

Describes some of the current views in semantics and semantic development and discusses the implications for vocabulary instruction. Explains the major theories of word meaning acquisition in children and lists researched variables of word meaning development. Offers examples of instructional strategies for effective vocabulary development. (ML)