This essay explains two ways in which "the rural" serves as context. The common way interprets the rural lifeworld as an impediment to certain projects and goals, thus framing "the rural" as a subjugated and diminished reality. The other way is called "the rural circumstance" in order to situate the rural lifeworld as…

Forty five-year-olds compared two arms of an L-shaped figure on-axis or perpendicular to axis inside circles of different diameters. In making perceptual judgments about the relative length, the children tended to describe the on-axis line as longer. The context model of visual anomalies was supported. (Author/CM)

The duration and timing of the context is which letters occur is shown to influence the perceptibility of the target in experiments demonstrating that early on enhanced word presentations and pronounceable-pseudoword contexts increase letter perceptibility. The perceptibility of letters in strings sharing several or few letters with words is…

In a series of experiments, young children were asked to compare the quantities of classes of objects under two conditions: (1) when one of the classes of objects is a subordinate of the other (the traditional class-inclusion problem), and (2) when the terms refer to exclusive sets but different levels of generality. (Author/RH)

Trained 3-month olds to move an overhead crib mobile while one of two musical selections was played, and assessed retention one or seven days later in presence of same or different music. Found that infants displayed one-day retention regardless of musical selection. At seven days, retention was seen only when test music matched training music.…

Uses data from studies comparing Western and Non-Western societies to support the argument that study of intracultural diversity in concepts of rights and duties will contribute to the study of diversity between cultures. Notes that individuals participate in multifaceted social experiences, developing distinct goals, interests, and perspectives;…

Investigates the age effects on the abilities of older and younger adults in Canada to use contextual information to resolve ambiguous pronouns. Findings reveal that both groups were equally influenced by the contextual information available, although older adults responded more slowly and were less accurate than the younger adults. (50…

Examines syntactic choices available to journal article writers for making reporting statements and the conditions governing such choices. The article investigates the way in which the choice of theme affects the syntactic form of the reports. The resulting syntactic forms are shown to be associated with the function of reports in their contexts.…

Presents information regarding how North American teachers of Spanish can use authentic texts in Spanish to introduce some measure of cultural authenticity to their students. The article suggests that instructors need to use strategic orientation to reading tasks in order to overcome any possible cultural mismatches. (seven references) (Author/CK)

Examines the modifier "quite" to determine how it is used and understood. The article examines published pedagogic materials, investigates reader interpretations of authentic samples, and analyzes the practices of experienced writers. The analysis shows that "quite" is highly context-sensitive and has an essentially indeterminate epistemic…

Examines the role of theory in second language teacher education. The article argues that for theory to make sense to teachers, it must be situated in the context of their own thinking. The study cites the creation of professional development schools as one way to provide teachers with a context for theory. (20 references) (Author/CK)

Compared spelling procedures of normal and reading-disabled French-speaking children matched for reading achievement. Found that, at the lowest reading level, word frequency effects were absent and phonological context effects on rule application were seen only in normal readers. As reading ability improved, word frequency and phonological context…

Notes that speech intelligibility has traditionally been measured by presenting words mixed in noise to listeners for identification at different signal-to-noise ratios. The words are produced in isolation or in sequence contexts where the predictability of specific items can be varied. Emphasizes that the technique provides valuable data about…

Describes a study that explores the perceptions that children (N=36) have about what it means to engage in mathematics. The study, which took place in reform-minded classrooms, concludes that children have a variety of perceptions and most do not feel that success is determined by speed and accuracy. Contains 20 references. (DDR)

Focuses on listening activities in the second-language classroom. After discussing problems related to listening and listening as a test versus listening as a learning experience, the article suggests that the teacher exploit what is known about the language and the world to make listening part of a learning whole as opposed to a distinct…