Reviews several references focusing on words and phrases in the American language which have nautical origins (sailing, whaling, navigation, ship-building and others) and have since lost their nautical connections. Also includes examples from the references such as "slush fund", "posh", and "windfall." (JN)

Children listened to stories which contained anomalies produced by violating semantic restrictions or based on conflicting propositions at two points in a story. The capacity to detect violations of sentences developed more rapidly than detection of violation of discourse. Children's developing capacity to integrate and store story structure is…

One hundred high school students completed semantic differential ratings of themselves in general and in four roles: student, athlete, son/daughter, and best friend. Results suggest that self-concept is better conceptualized as multiple and differentiated rather than as unitary and global. (Author/RH)

Details a study showing that for young children, proactive semantic cues were the most helpful in reading. Reveals also that the children made miscues displaying semantic associations across cue types. (FL)

Discusses a sequential, three-stage model of how nonliteral expressions are understood, as proposed in recent linguistic, philosophical, and psychological studies. Testing the model's implication that nonliteral meanings of sentences are ignored whenever literal meanings are plausible, finds evidence that both meanings are processed simultaneously…

For 235 ninth-grade students, intercorrelations of Guilford's structure-of-intellect (SOI) tests and of three measures of critical thinking were factor analyzed. The study reveals the viability of using SOI constructs involving cognition and evaluation of semantic content as likely explanatory components of critical thinking. (Author/AL)

Explores the meaning of the term "communication" vs. "mere talk" in selected instances of American speech about interpersonal life. Analyzes two case studies and transcripts of the Phil Donahue Show. Also discusses communication as ritual and ethnography as a form of communication inquiry. (PD)

The kind of semantic information that facilitates relearning was investigated. The paradigm consisted of three stages: (1) learn a list of number-word pairs; (2) return for a retention test; and (3) relearn a new list of pairs that have various kinds of semantic relatedness to the originally learned pairs. (Author/CTM)

A sample of boys of Australian and Italian descent was divided into groups according to silent reading comprehension scores. The students' oral reading was recorded and the resulting miscues categorized. When oral reading accuracy was examined, the lowest level Italian group read more accurately than the equivalent Australian students. (Author/MLW)

Describes study developed to measure the effects of structural versus grammar practice using the computer as the practice medium. Data supports contention that retention is a function of the meaningfulness of one's learning experience. Suggests the computer has great potential as practice medium in second language acquisition process. (Author/BK)

Analyzes the positive contributions of TV to language learning, especially on the semantic and cultural levels. Compares TV with film strips, discusses the advantages and disadvantages of the two media, and points out the technical and methodological obstacles to a more widely spread use of commercial television for instructional purposes. (MES)

Tests the hypotheses that superiority of semantic over phonetic encoding increases with age, and that the superiority of multiple-dimension encoding over single-dimension encoding emerges with age. Elementary, secondary, and graduate students judged words on various dimensions of the semantic differential in an incidental memory task. (Author/SS)

A study was conducted to measure the effect on reading comprehension of forcing attention to different levels of analysis. Results indicated that for adult fluent readers, and--to a lesser extent--for children, attentional orienting tasks affected the amount and type of information recalled from reading a paragraph. (MKM)

Mathematics is often referred to as a language. This paper attempts to explore the implied meanings of such statements and to outline a rationale for utilizing the language-structure of mathematics in mathematics instruction. (Author/MK)

Valid measures of achievement need must consider both specific discipline and motivational factors within each discipline. Four factors influence a student's achievement need: self-concept of ability, attitudes toward teachers, teacher expectations, and future value of courses. (CP)