Writing is an essential academic skill. Effective writing is a complex process requiring the skillful use of techniques and strategies (Zimmerman and Reisemberg,1997). Unlike skilled writers, struggling writers lack certain strategies and techniques that could help them become effective writers. The present study investigates the effectiveness of…

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of using vocabulary flash card on Iranian pre-university students' vocabulary knowledge. The participants of the study comprised 50 female learners. They were randomly assigned into two homogeneous groups each consisting of 25 learners. The control group received the traditional treatment…

This paper illustrates the research design (including the pilot study) of a work-in-progress study aimed at examining the potential of bilingual podcasts for the vocabulary acquisition in Italian as an L3 in the Austrian school context for beginning learners. The longitudinal study tries to link findings of the Lexical Approach (Lewis, 1993, 1997)…

Predictors of age 10 spelling and reading comprehension skills in both Chinese and English from vocabulary knowledge, phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming (RAN), and word reading at age 8 were tested in this longitudinal study of 141 Hong Kong Chinese children learning to read English as a second language. The correlation between…

This study investigated the relation between teachers' (N = 22) use of sophisticated and complex language in urban middle-school classrooms and their students' (mean age at pretest = 11.51 years; N = 782; 568 language minority and 247 English only) vocabulary knowledge. Using videotaped classroom observations, teachers' speech was transcribed and…

Vocabulary instruction is a critical component of early language and literacy programs. Vocabulary skills in the early elementary school years are strong predictors of later reading achievement and there is a correlation between vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension. Children who have limited vocabulary in kindergarten are at high risk of…

This study investigates aspects of validity of an alternative measure of productive vocabulary. Lex30, developed by Meara and Fitzpatrick, is a word association task that claims to give an indication of productive vocabulary knowledge. Previous studies of Lex30 have assessed test-retest reliability, performance against native speaker norms,…

This study considered the efficacy of a differentiated approach to vocabulary instruction for learners with word-finding difficulties (WFD) in the speech and language pathologist's room. Using a pretest-posttest design to study treatment outcomes, 10 second graders with WFD received first semantic-based vocabulary instruction (S) and then…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a composition program, Composers in Public Schools (CiPS), on cognitive skills essential for academic success. The underlying hypothesis is that composition instruction will promote creative expression and increase performance on music-specific skills such as music reading, as well as foster…

A major reading-achievement gap exists between English language learners and English-only students. In order for ELLs to experience school success, they must achieve English language proficiency. This article presents why vocabulary acquisition plays the most vital role in ELLs' learning of the English language. Factors include the severity and…

The purpose of research described in the current study to investigate the impact of structure knowing on two types of test, i.e. word-meaning test and fill-in-the-blank test, their correlation and procedures on both short-term and long-term retention of vocabulary items. The importance of the present study, to test the condition that learners are…

Language plays a crucial role in the classroom. The use of specialized language in a domain can cause a subject to seem more difficult to students than it actually is. When words that are part of everyday English are used differently in a domain, these words are said to have lexical ambiguity. Studies in other fields, such as mathematics and…

Providing appropriate language support is important for all students and essential to the success of English Language Learners (ELLs), struggling readers, and students with learning disabilities. In a mathematics classroom, the support includes the ongoing development of everyday vocabulary--such as names of fruit and actions such as skipping--and…

We assessed the effect of specificity of speaker information about an object on three-year-olds' word mappings. When children heard a novel label followed by specific information about an object at exposure, children subsequently mapped the label to that object at test. When children heard only specific information about an object at exposure,…

There is evidence that semantic prosody, a novel linguistic theme, should attract much attention in ESL/EFL (English as a second/foreign language) vocabulary learning and teaching. Research suggests that inappropriate word choice arising from ignorance of semantic prosody is common among ESL/EFL learners (Wei, 2006; Xiao & McEnery, 2006). This…