This practical guide on foreign language learning presents concrete suggestions on how to become a more effective and successful language learner. Suitable for use by both students and teachers, the book, divided into three parts, discusses language and language learning, learning strategies, and learner aids. Part 1 discusses the language learner…

Two studies designed to establish classification procedures and the reliability of a learning strategy screening procedure were conducted, using 184 third and 173 fourth graders from a middle-class suburban school district as subjects. A 10-minute learning strategy screening was administered during which subjects reported which of six generic…

This paper contends that efforts at educational reform must focus, above all, on the instructional encounter between teachers and students. The argument is presented in triadic sequence: three basic assumptions about learning, three interrelated models of the instructional process, and three practical approaches to promoting cognitive achievement.…

This paper examines problems involved in designing an integrated system to teach and assess critical thinking skills in the classroom, and describes the Monitor Achievement in Pittsburgh (MAP) Critical Thinking Project, an attempt to draw upon research from diverse disciplines in developing an effective pilot project in the Pittsburgh public…

This module (part of a series of 24 modules) is on the impact of interaction among students in a learning situation on achievement, cognitive development, and social development. The genesis of these materials is in the 10 "clusters of capabilities," outlined in the paper, "A Common Body of Practice for Teachers: The Challenge of…

Two experiments examined the cognitive resources used by readers in sentence modeling (summarizing the propositions in a sentence) as a function of reader task and of sentence complexity. It was predicted that encoding a sentence into memory for later recall would require more cognitive resources than reading a text to answer immediate questions,…

Recent studies of reading and writing instruction suggest that literacy instruction is easily distorted, incorporating measures of achievement that do not reflect students' mastery of the process of understanding, reading materials that are ill-structured and divorced from any real communicative intent, and exercises in subskill learning that…

The aim of this study was to investigate the strategies leading to test item responses in 60 young (20-25 years) and 60 middle-aged (35-40 years) adults, whose highest level of education had been either secondary, technical or university. Subjects were individually administered a 12 item test similar to Raven's Progressive Matrices, and were…

By identifying speculations concerning cognitive abilities and cognition's relation to culture, this paper outlines some of the work surrounding basic writers and speaking-writing relationships. Beginning with a discussion of the differences between speaking and writing popularized by Mina Shaughnessy, the paper goes on to examine studies that…

The manual designed to accompany an orientation seminar for students concerning language learning processes and strategies and the design of their program includes materials for five sessions, in three sections. The first section covers language learning and acquisition in general and contains a survey of the participants' foreign language…

Error analysis is considered both a part of the methodology for the psycholinguistic investigation of the second language acquisition process as well as a part of the teaching-learning methods and materials re-evaluation process. The language acquisition process is a dynamic process governed by the principles of hypothesis formulation, testing and…

The errors of 187 bilingual students, aged 10 years, 11 months to 19 years, 8 months were analyzed as they studied English as a third language. Errors were categorized with two major learning strategies in mind: transfer and overgeneralization. Types of errors were related to degree of bilingualism, English proficiency level and age of the…

Discusses a study which was designed to examine if spatial-visual skills are related to learning the volume concept and if a particular mode of presentation for teaching volume is preferable for students of differing spatial ability. Results indicate that students of low visual orientation benefit if volume is taught before area and length. (ML)

Discusses some of the benefits of having students work cooperatively toward a shared goal. Suggests that teachers become involved in research in this area and become associated with the National Science Teachers Association's Every Teacher a Researcher (ETR) program. Lists various types of research projects teachers could undertake. (TW)

Describes study of two online graduate courses designed and delivered via a computer conferencing system at Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE). Advantages and disadvantages based on student responses are examined, new learning strategies for computer-mediated courses are discussed, and topics for future research are suggested.…