It has been suggested that good readers make better use of semantic/syntactic information and use relatively less graphic information than do poor readers. To test these hypotheses, minor visual alterations were inserted in words in connected text. Fifteen good and 15 poor readers at the fourth-grade level read two of the altered Passages orally.…

Examines some aspects of syntactic and semantic variation in the Arizona Tewa speech community, including the speech community members' perception of variation, with a view to exploring the implications of this variation for the study of language change and the anthropological study of language structure. (AM)

Attempts to suggest a set of verbal labels which could be used to describe occupational characteristics, as perceived by grade 9 students, and to group these labels into parsimonious clusters. Also obtains a set of bipolar-adjective scales for use in measuring perceptions of occupational characteristics. (Author/RK)

Critically examines papers by Wellman and Estes, Olson and Torrance, and Hall and Nagy. (AEW)

Two experiments indicating that children's linguistic generalizational biases change from a semantically-based system to a syntactical-structural system provide evidence for a semantic-relational bias in children's early grammars and support the notion that children's generalizational biases shift from a semantic-relational basis to a…

Outlines an approach to using the translation of French songs in English as an effective and enjoyable learning activity for students of French. Steps include: respecting rhythms; finding and respecting meaning; respecting style; respecting sound; respecting your choice of intended listeners; and respecting the original version. (CB)

Examines the development of cohesive discourse among second language learners in light of native speaker discourse norms. Previous studies of cohesion in second language acquisition have failed to consider restrictions on the distribution of cohesive devices in English. Two of these restrictions are discussed. (Author/DJD)

Compares the reading processing strategies of native and proficient nonnative speakers of Chinese. At the word level natives show a phonological strategy, while nonnatives mix phonological and visual processing. At the sentence level natives mix visual and semantic strategies, and nonnatives prefer visual processing. (LMO)

An etymological comparison of Taiwanese words and their Mandarin equivalents revealed that 30 percent of words found in sampled running texts have different etymons, with a high percentage of same etymons between Taiwanese and Mandarin content words and a lower rate of same etymons between Taiwanese and Mandarin function words. (Author/CB)

Compared effects, for illicit drug abusers, of five 16-hour unstructured marathon groups, and five matched, randomly selected control groups. Used semantic differential consisting of the specific adjective pairs and the evaluative scale of the concept My Real Self. Marathon group members rated some adjective pairs differently and rated the…

Examines the challenge posed by the naturalist philosophy of language--the view that the meanings of symbols are fixed by the environment. Compares the naturalist philosophy with that presented in an activist Native American essay that argues for the preservation of traditional native languages. (SRT)

Deals with the issue of sentence processing in a second language (L2) showing how L2 learners resolve the problem of competing factors of syntax, semantics, and pragmatics in the processing of L2 utterances. The results of a study involving sentence interpretation by L2 learners of English are presented. (Author/SED)

Describes two experiments that examined word recognition processes of second, fourth, and sixth graders. Shows that older children use meaning frequency to narrow the amount of information kept active following word recognition. (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)

A study of dictionary usage strategies used by 89 college students of Spanish indicated that beginning and intermediate students favored a search strategy based on lexical form, while advanced students used a more successful semantic-based strategy. The data are analyzed against the Vygotskyan theory of human development and self-actualization.…