An American studying for his master's degree in French in France reflects on the experience of advanced second-language learning. The discussion focuses on the stage at which interaction with others replaces formulation of sentences as the primary task and on understanding the power of word choice. (MSE)

Analyzes use of term "professional" in educational documents. Reevaluates term's use in context of contradictory official signals about perceived worth of Scottish teachers and teaching. Concludes term's function principally ideological, its meaning appropriated by parties at interest, resulting in conceptual misunderstanding of…

Eye-movement registration was used to examine the influence of the semantic complexity of addition and subtraction word problems on response time and eye-fixation patterns of 10 high-ability and 10 low-ability second graders. Data provide evidence of the crucial role of semantic factors in word problem solving. (SLD)

The role of four cues in the assignment of actor role in Arabic was studied. Fifty-four sentences representing all possible permutations of the cues were presented to 100 native speakers of Arabic who were asked to identify the actor in each sentence. (Contains 41 references.) (JL)

Analyzed personal pronoun use in 36 scientific journal articles, focusing on how use of personal pronouns may reveal writers' perceptions of their own role in research and their relationship with expected readers and the scientific/academic community. Use of first-personal plural pronouns was most common, with a number of semantic references and…

Presents two empirical case studies concerning the role of individual differences in searching through a spatial-semantic virtual environment. Discusses information visualization in information systems; cognitive factors, including associative memory, spatial ability, and visual memory; user satisfaction; and cognitive abilities and search…

Reports on a study that analyzed and compared a restricted set of full-text articles from a sub-specialty of biochemistry in terms of co-occurrences and co-absences of words. The consequences for the lexicographical approach to generating artificial intelligence from scientific texts are discussed. (JAK)

A study investigated the syntax and semantics of the word "until" in Standard British English and Singapore English. While the word is used similarly in the two languages, it has uses in Singapore English not available in Standard Spoken English, paralleling the word "dao" in Chinese and suggesting a substrate influence that is…

Combines contextual parameters with media language studies, focusing on the sports domain in the print and broadcast media in British, Indian, and Ghanaian English. The article examines the link between the sports register and the media version of actions. Findings confirm that media are a considerable differentiating factor. (18 references)…

Studied the relationship between modified oral input and the acquisition of word meanings by Japanese high school students. Results include a strong relationship between comprehension and word meaning acquisition was only evident in a test replicating learning format; and rate of word acquisition was faster with the premodified input. (54…

Examines the acquisition of tense-aspect morphology in children acquiring English. The article found that children start using past inflections with achievement verbs and progressive inflections with activity verbs. Results indicate that early development of tense-aspect morphology is influenced by the inherent aspect of the verbs. (56 references)…

Cross-cultural communicative competence requires more than learning the language; social cultural competence also is necessary. Challenges beyond semantics (word connotations), beyond phonology (significance of subtle pronunciation differences), beyond pragmatics (relating to cognitive style), and beyond translation (the cultural imperatives of…

Pepi Leistyna's book "Presence of Mind" discusses how schools of education deter teachers from understanding the world's complex political, historical, social, and economic realities. Educators must develop what C. Wright Mills called the "sociological imagination." Developing critical consciousness and varied, multicultural…

A cross-sectional study with Dutch first language learners from Grades 2,4, and 6 was conducted to investigate their ability to derive word meaning from written context. Used a multicomponential measure that involved the percentage of correct attributes, inclusion of false attributes, and contextualization. (Author/VWL)

Happe (1993) proposed that theory of mind (ToM) understanding was necessary for comprehension of metaphorical expressions. The current study investigated the role of both ToM and language ability in metaphor understanding. Ninety-four children aged 8-15 years with communication impairments were grouped according to language ability and autistic…