An experiment on children aged 2 to 7 led to a critical evaluation of Piaget's implicit contention that young children use determiners anaphorically. It is suggested that the importance of young children's processing procedures on the linguistic environment has been underestimated in Piaget's interactive epistemology. (CHK)

Presents some reasons why more emphasis should be placed on the mastery of the rhythmic features of the target language in foreign language teaching. An account of an important recent theoretical contribution to the description of the principles underlying English speech rhythm is included. (SED)

Examines the listening comprehension of English-as-a-second-language learners by answering the following questions: (1) How do learners acquire information when repeatedly exposed to the same material? and (2) What influence will dictation practice exert on and to what degree is dictation practice related to the acquisition of meaning? (SED)

Discusses a preliminary and sketchy hypothesis of second language comprehension based on empirical investigations into strategies and processes specific to second language comprehension. (Author/CB)

Reviews research and empirical evidence to refute three first language acquisition myths: (1) comprehension precedes production; (2) children acquire language in a systematic, rule-governed way; and (3) the impetus behind first language acquisition is communicative need. (Author/CB)

Discussion of ways in which second-language learners' processing of and interaction with narrative and expository texts affects their performance on cloze tests suggests that researchers and teachers interpreting these tests should not assume that such tests only assess language ability. (CB)

Investigates the role of intraverbal learning (a process through which semantic knowledge is acquired from purely linguistic information) in preschool children's acquisition of semantic concepts. Shows that the relative effectiveness of pictorial and intraverbal information depends on the child's age, the type of information supplied, and the…

Investigates the development of awareness of conversational principles in preschool, first-, and third-grade children by presenting them with short stories ending with a verbal statement by a story character. Results suggest that children's understanding of conversational principles improves considerably between preschool and first grade.…

Describes three experiments that examined the processing of speech by dyslexic readers. Compares their performance with that of age-matched and reading-ability-matched controls. Shows that dyslexics have difficulty with the nonlexical procedures involved in verbal repetition. (HOD)

Investigates the relative influence of speech and pointing gesture information in the interpretation of referential acts among children averaging three and five years of age and adults. (HOD)

In three experiments, fifth graders and college students watched a videotaped peer model executing two differentially effective associative-learning strategies. Observation of the model did not result in the consistent use of that strategy by fifth graders. College students did appear to benefit from the observational-learning opportunity.…

Explores the extent to which key concept words are accurately identified by secondary school students. Research results on concept definition recognition from student groups in English-speaking Tasmania and Hindi-speaking India are compared. Linguistic hypothesis are presented and analyzed. (ML)

Describes a study of wait-time (the pause for thinking after questions and answers) for first-year high-school Spanish and French students in both their native and target languages. The average duration of wait-time was 1.91 seconds after questions and .73 seconds after responses. Wait-time was longer after questions in the native language. (SED)

Describes some reading comprehension exercises developed for university-level students whose native language is not English. By keeping the ultimate focus on meaning, rather than on strict grammatical correctness or "dictionary meaning," it is hoped that students will become better able to develop awareness of how meaning is conveyed, not only in…

Discusses the hypothesis that pupils who read and understand a first language text (in this case, Romanian) fairly well, will be able to improve their reading and understanding of a second language (German) text after having learned and exercised certain reading strategies in both languages. (SED)