This study examined the relationship between viewing an infant DVD and expressive and receptive language outcomes. Children between 12 and 15 months were randomly assigned to view "Baby Wordsworth," a DVD highlighting words around the house marketed for children beginning at 12 months of age. Viewings took place in home settings over 6 weeks.…

Purpose: To examine the effect of a systematic vocabulary instructional technique in African American 2nd-grade children with below average vocabulary skills. An additional goal was to examine the role of book type in the retention of novel vocabulary words. Method: Using an adapted alternating treatments design, storybooks were used as a source…

A large body of research supports the efficacy of learning strategies employed in the acquisition of second language vocabulary. However, research also indicates that many such strategies are underused or misused by learners and, further, that any effort to integrate learner training in the use of such strategies into classroom instruction faces a…

Linguistic accuracy plays an important role in the quality of written texts, yet the explicit teaching of linguistic form--particularly grammar--for the purpose of improving learners' writing has generated an ongoing debate. Furthermore, students' voices about their learning are often ignored because they are perceived as not knowing what they…

Adolescent English-language learners (ELLs) encounter increasingly difficult academic language as they progress through school. This article describes the design of an after-school intervention, Language Workshop, created to help middle school ELLs build their knowledge of academic vocabulary words. Evidence-based principles of vocabulary…

This paper outlines the strengths and weaknesses in both short-term and long-term memory in Down syndrome, and the implications of these patterns for both other aspects of cognitive development and underlying neural pathology. There is clear evidence that Down syndrome is associated with particularly poor verbal short-term memory performance, and…

This study examines the nature of the involvement load (Laufer & Hulstijn, 2001) in second language (L2) lexical input processing through reading by considering the effects of the reader-based factors of L2 reading proficiency and background knowledge. The lexical input processing aspects investigated were lexical inferencing (search), attentional…

Humor calling attention to the field of educational technology's propensity to generate meaningless jargon. (LS)

This article describes the development and validation of a test of vocabulary size and strength. The first part of the article sets out the theoretical rationale for the test, and describes how the size and strength constructs have been conceptualized and operationalized. The second part of the article focusses on the process of test validation,…

Although the use of "text coverage" to measure the intelligibility of reading materials is increasing in the field of vocabulary teaching and learning, to date there have been few studies which address the methodological variables that can affect reliable text coverage calculations. The objective of this paper is to investigate how differing…

Student performance on critical-thinking applications on standardized tests in a southwestern U.S. state has been low for several years. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to explore how one school district prepared students for critical-thinking applications on standardized tests. The study was informed by cognitivism and…

The purpose of the current study was to test the efficacy of a supplemental phonological awareness focused intervention delivered by community-based paraeducators with preschool children (M = 4.73 years) in eight Head Start classrooms in the rural Midwest. Participating children were randomly assigned to small groups within classrooms, which were…

Research Findings: This study compared the unique effects of training low-income mothers in dialogic reading versus elaborative reminiscing on children's oral language and emergent literacy. Thirty-three low-income parents of 4-year-old children attending Head Start were randomly assigned to either dialogic reading, elaborative reminiscing, or a…

Acquiring vocabulary in L2 is rather a difficult and demanding process and most of the language learners wish to know which vocabulary learning method and/or activity is more beneficial or even the best one; however, the responses to this question vary and there is no clear-cut answer though there are some various suggestions and conclusions drawn…

This paper presents the findings of a study to explore pre-service teachers' beliefs about learning English and the stability of these beliefs over time. Participants were 25 pre-service teachers (11 males, 14 females) enrolled in a Bachelor of Education (TESL) programme. The Horwitz (1987) Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI), a…