Contends that visual presentations of story elements can enhance poor readers' comprehension. Supports the claim by presenting a study on a mapping readiness approach to improve comprehension. (FL)

Examines "pseudoborrowing" of some English words into the French vocabulary. Considered the prestige language of Western Europe, English is viewed as a social hallmark of higher education; thus, even a modest knowledge and use of English reinforces this attitude. However, also suggests a modification of this concept, noting a reciprocal prestige…

Lack of awareness of the concept-scale interaction problem frequently causes misuse of the semantic differential technique by educational researchers. Evidence is presented to demonstrate the interaction, and a simple method of mitigating the problem is suggested. (Author/AV)

The cloze technique is very flexible and can reinforce reading skills and encourage writing. (JH)

This article discusses the nature of translation as a linguistic phenomenon, and the pros and cons of its application to second language instruction. (CLK)

Classical research operations in the cognitive sciences concern categorizations as well as classifications, and have been strongly influenced by nomological approaches. As a consequence, information processing has been explained with reference to syntactic-semantic models. Because of an absence of structural implications, personal interpretations…

This report examines the feasibility of scoring essays using computer-based techniques. Essays have been incorporated into many of the standardized testing programs. Issues of validity and reliability must be addressed to deploy automated approaches to scoring fully. Two approaches that have been used to classify documents, surface- and word-based…

This paper describes a proposal for an interoperable metadata model, based on international standards, that has been designed to enable the description, exchange and sharing of multimedia resources both within and between cultural institutions. Domain-specific ontologies have been developed by two different ISO Working Groups to standardize the…

This analysis focuses on the question of whether or not pictures or illustrations are language. Discussion focuses on the differences between pictures and language, with attention to structure, geometry, grammar, rules of interpretation, and semantics. The case is made that pictures are not language essentially because: (1) they do not have…

This document presents a brief overview of the history and origins of mainly European family names from the 1100s forward, and is envisioned as a one class-period session for secondary or college English teachers and those interested in semantics. Sections included are history of naming, reasons for naming, guidelines for name origins, and special…

"Ombudsman" is derived from the Swedish word meaning agent or representative. It has come to denote a trusted commissioner or agent who looks after the interests or legal affairs of a particular group. Through their unique access to information and investigative authority, ombudsmen often bring endemic problems within child serving systems to the…

Discusses the numbing of creativity our society encourages and suggests elements of a creative behavior program that aims to increase the creative behavior of adults. (TO)

This tongue-in-cheek article writted by the late Fred Barnes was first published in May 1967. It is being reprinted in this issue as a reminder that useful educational research avoids the pitfall of pointlessly massaging the obvious. (Editor)

To determine equivalence of problem perception over audio, video, and transcript media, 10 interview segments were presented to subjects to rate under two conditions. Semantic differential showed differences between emotional and educational/vocational problems. Audio and video media were equivalent while transcripts evoked more devalued…

The experiments reported here investigated the influence of two variables upon recognition memory for nouns. (Author/RK)