This case study analyses two written texts produced by an ESL learner either side of a five-week genre-based teaching intervention. The second text was judged to be of a much higher quality by two independent markers in a previous study. The question arising is: what exactly has improved? The analytical tools of systemic functional linguistics are…

This experimental investigation replicates previous investigations of the effects of left margin screen background color hue to signal lesson sections on declarative knowledge and extends those investigations by adding a measure of structural knowledge. Participants (N = 80) were randomly assigned to receive 1 of 4 computer-based lesson treatments…

The following pointers can help people learn and remember new words. First, try to guess the meaning of the word from the way it's used. At least part of a word's meaning can be determined from the context of the sentence. To find out exactly what the word means and where it comes from, look it up in a dictionary. To get at the meaning behind the…

Discusses the varying meanings and etymologies of the following Spanish terms: apurar, mas nada and nada mas, empecinado, refistolero and facistol, botar, and sabroso. (Text is in Spanish.) (CHK)

Software programs which help students' vocabulary development are described. (CB)

The use of color in speech therapy for adult aphasics is suggested to prolong attention span. Two other techniques, instant definition and over-training, which are helpful in relearning vocabulary words are described. (KW)

Suggests that becoming aware of the origins of common words and learning how more sophisticated words relate to historical developments can help students learn vocabulary. (RAE)

Responds to an article on the use of artificially developed sign language for the teaching of biology, and discusses the inaccuracies presented concerning the Technical Signs Project, which emphasizes the collection of existing signs rather than the artificial development of signs. Sign guidelines based on naturally developed signs are appended.…

Discusses the value of bilingual dictionaries. Using a list of common words drawn from several broad categories, the author attempted to find these words in the Collins-Robert and the Harraps dictionaries. Both dictionaries have very similar results although the Harraps performs slightly better in terms of correct entries. The proportion of words…

Examined whether infants succeed in mapping novel adjectives applied ostensively to individual objects and to other objects with the same property. Found that infants hearing a target labeled with novel adjectives were more likely than those hearing no novel words to choose a matching test object when all objects were drawn from same basic level…

Analyzes the linguistic notion of procedural vocabulary, proposing that several different vocabulary concepts are part of this type of vocabulary. The paper discusses the role of procedural vocabulary in discourse, suggesting that the concepts of schema and procedure are relevant for describing this type of vocabulary and categorizing it into two…

A theoretical perspective on acquiring sight vocabulary and developing meaningful vocabulary is presented. Dual Coding Theory assumes that cognition occurs in two independent but connected codes: a verbal code for language and a nonverbal code for mental imagery. The mixed research literature on using pictures in teaching sight vocabulary is…

An expert on vocabulary instruction, Allen reviews what we know as a profession to be of value to students and offers three types of practices that demonstrate meaningful vocabulary instruction. She also describes how vocabulary words can be used as a rich source of assessment. (Contains 1 figure.)