Demonstrates the transactive nature of the cloze procedure; emphasizes reading as a thinking task and setting purposes as the key to efficient reading. Describes exercises to stimulate readers and to develop in them a conscious awareness about processing strategies. (AEA)

Describes a group discussion process for helping students make use of the vocabulary that normally lies dormant in their minds. (TJ)

People of ages 4, 6, 8, 10, 20 and 70 years named pictures selected to represent the entire range of lexical consensus among 20-year-olds. Consensus within each group increased with age, up to 20. Data indicate words coding culturally important events are acquired earliest. (CHK)

Reviews the content of the courseware contained in "EXITO: Survival Spanish," noting that this course is divided into 10 chapters and contains material typically covered in a beginning Spanish course (e.g., vocabulary units including greetings, family members, time expressions, etc.). The primary strength of the EXITO program is that it is a…

Age 3 follow-up data are presented for sample of 34 toddlers diagnosed between ages of 24 and 31 months with expressive specific language impairment. Late talkers made more rapid progress in lexical development and in descriptive, explanatory, and definitive use of language than in syntactic and morphological language. Toddlers who'd been more…

Examined mothers' accuracy in predicting the responses their children gave and the scores they achieved on two standardized vocabulary tests. Findings indicate that the overall estimates by mothers of language-impaired children were more accurate than those by mothers of language-normal children. (28 references) (Author/CK)

Examined relationships between early vocabulary composition, early language use, and properties of mothers' child-directed speech at 10 words. Found that, when the effects of the child on the mother at 10 words was controlled, there was a negative correlation between mothers' production of speech illustrating word boundaries and the percentage of…

Errors in naming pictures were studied for 12 children followed from age 15 months to 22 months and for 60 children of similar ages at three different levels of vocabulary development. An increase in naming errors was found with sudden increases in productive vocabulary, suggesting interference from previously retrieved words. (SLD)

The purpose of this study was to shed light on the issue of strategy training in second language learning. Investigated the effect of metacognitive strategy training through the use of explicit strategy instruction on the development of lexical knowledge of English-as-a-Foreign-Language students. (Author/VWL)

Two cohorts of same-sex twin pairs were assessed on grammar and vocabulary. Findings indicated that vocabulary and grammar correlated strongly at 2 and 3 years in both cohorts, with a consistently high genetic correlation between vocabulary and grammar at both ages. Findings suggest that the same genetic influences operate for vocabulary and…

Presents a study of the acquisition of English-as-a-Foreign-Language vocabulary through academic listening. Explored the effects of EFL proficiency and lecture comprehension on vocabulary acquisition as well as the relationship between vocabulary gain and the following factors: frequency of occurrence, types of word, type of word elaboration, and…

Presents vocabulary building strategies to assist young adolescents in better understanding the mathematical concepts being presented to them. Specifically describes: (1) a verbal and visual word association strategy; (2) concept circles strategy; and (3) use of the strategies. Notes that the modified vocabulary strategies have positive results…

Compared outcomes of traditional direct instruction and pictorial worksheets with that of a hands-on approach using objects, word cards, and definition cards to teach vocabulary words with multiple meanings to public school third graders. Found that the hands-on students made significantly greater vocabulary progress than direct instruction…

Examined the role of phonological memory and phonological awareness in foreign language word learning. Measures of phonological memory and phonological awareness were administered to 58 Chinese-speaking 4-year-olds four times over 2 years. Results suggest phonological memory may support foreign language word learning but phonological awareness may…

The teacher of a preschool class for deaf and hearing impaired children describes a project that used videotape recordings to increase parental involvement. Videotapes containing the sign vocabulary of upcoming teaching units as well as videoclips of various portions of the children's day in school were produced in the classroom and sent home to…