Describes the characteristics of academic language (mature expository prose; the formal English of college textbooks). Discusses theoretical and practical issues involved in the procedures for selecting and teaching academic vocabulary, and suggests teaching ideas, techniques, and materials. (RL)

Suggests an exercise to help students stop using incorrect word forms, which involves students in choosing a word, defining it, using it correctly in a sentence, and finding five other words using the original word as a root. (TJ)

Laments the lack of attention given to interference in vocabulary learning as contrasted with that accorded to interference in the communicative function of language, because the former is of greater qualitative importance. Gives examples from several languages showing the origins and bases of interference. (IFS/WGA)

Suggestions are made for classroom activities to improve children's language skills. (JD)

Through exposure to materials of good literary quality, listening and speaking vocabularies are enriched, leading in turn to the natural development of a meaningful reading vocabulary. (MB)

A production-based method of investigating children's understanding of deictic verbs is described. Use of "come/go" and "bring/take" by 4-7-year-olds is compared with Clark and Garnica's 1974 study. Data reveal different facts about verb acquisition processes and order. (CHK)

Consists of transcripts of self-help tapes, numbers three and four in a series on vocabulary improvement, dealing with prefixes and roots. (JM)

Three studies examined the developmental relationship between early linguistic and cognitive achievements. Findings showed that children's ability to classify objects in a spatial or temporal order was independent of advances in productive vocabulary growth, suggesting that developments in categorization and naming depend on abilities in addition…

Explains that homophones, homographs, and homonyms provide opportunities rather than obstacles in learning. Notes that the verbal art form of puns depends mightily on homophones, homographs, and homonyms. Provides a sampling of resources that explore homophones, homographs, and homonyms. (PM)

Shows English-as-a-Second-Language educators how vocabulary teaching can become humanizingly meaningful through the use of techniques inspired by some of the interdependent traditions to peace, and to make a plea for ESL teachers and learners to humanize their repertoires of best practices in vocabulary teaching and learning. (Author/VWL)

This article reviews methods for assessing vocabulary of young children with hearing impairments including naturalistic observation, parent report measures, and standardized vocabulary tests. It also describes procedures to assess word-learning processes. Cautions on the use of assessment tools with this population are reviewed and suggestions are…

Presents three examples of how basal reading programs miss opportunities to build word and world knowledge: lack of focus on systematically building essential knowledge and vocabulary during teacher read-alouds and discussions aimed at building background knowledge; wasting time by including too many lessons on formal reading comprehension skills;…

Examines students' ability to understand definitions of novel verbs--in 2 experiments upper elementary students received definitions of pseudowords paired with sentences using those words and evaluated use as appropriate for definition given. Finds students' judgments about these sentences were not substantially different from chance, suggesting…

Presents a situated based computer-assisted language learning system named VIDYA. The principles discussed include use of mastery learning in the situated learning context, student modeling of language constructs, dynamic courseware presentation and a generic courseware evaluation technique. Summarizes the present status of VIDYA. (24 references)…

Describes how television commercials can be put to use in teaching English-as-a-Foreign-Language vocabulary. (Author/VWL)