Adult and child L2 acquisition of syntax-semantics interface phenomena must be compared with monolingual L1 acquisition of the same phenomena in order to assess the possible effects of interference and transfer. However, this "L1A touchstone" can also be misleading because non-grammatical mechanisms that interact with such interface phenomena may…

Vocabulary acquisition is a critical component of academic language. This aspect of the school curriculum seems to be more difficult for language learners to acquire. This study therefore examines the language arts conceptual framework and the instructional activities for vocabulary development in a second grade mixed classroom with a view to…

Productive vocabulary composition is investigated in 17-month-old children who are participating in an ongoing longitudinal dyslexia research project in the Netherlands. The project is searching for early precursors for dyslexia and follows a group of children who are genetically at risk for dyslexia and a control group during the first 10 years…

Presents five articles on multi-language programs in early childhood education: "Bilingualism/Multilingualism and Language Acquisition Theories" (Evienia Papadaki-D'Onofrio); "Training and Supporting Caregivers Who Speak a Language Different from Those in Their Community" (Joan Matsalia and Paula Bowie); "Language Immersion Programs for Young…

Interest in U-shaped development has itself undergone a U-shaped progression. Twenty-five years ago, interest in U-shaped development was high. This interest was evident at a 1978 conference in Tel Aviv on "U-shaped Behavioral Growth" that resulted in the publication of a book of the same title 4 years later (Strauss, 1982). The breadth…

For infants and toddlers, education and care are "two sides of the same coin." The author briefly reviews current research on the importance of relationships to cognitive development and early language and literacy. Instructional strategies that are most appropriate to the early years include "intentionality" and "scaffolding." Intentionality…

The literature on the prevalence and stability of preschool problems of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity suggests a number of links to early literacy skills and broader school achievement. Developmental considerations in the assessment of preschool ADHD are reviewed in this paper, along with evidence for the stability of symptoms over…

This article presents an interview with Professor Alan Davies who was born in Wales, studied at Oxford University and Birmingham University, and taught in Scotland at the University of Edinburgh, completing 40 years this year. Professor Davies has travelled widely to give invited talks and seminars, participate in applied linguistics conferences,…

The primary goal of this research was to identify those factors that may contribute to anxiety, and those factors that may reduce anxiety in an attempt to understand more fully the role that anxiety may play in learning a foreign or second language. This study utilized the qualitative research tradition, the phenomenological interview, with the…

Three experiments assessed the contributions of age-of-acquisition (AoA) and frequency to visual word recognition. Three databases were created from electronic journals in chemistry, psychology and geology in order to identify technical words that are extremely frequent in each discipline but acquired late in life. In Experiment 1, psychologists…

These are findings of theoretical interest from: (i) follow-up of a case study of a precocious reader; and (ii) normally developing readers who served as comparison groups. The precocious reader was first reported when 2-3 years of age (Cognition 74 (2000) 177). From 3 to 7 years of age her precocious reading development continued, her word…

This article discusses issues in measuring lexical diversity, before outlining an approach based on mathematical modelling that produces a measure, D, designed to address these problems. The procedure for obtaining values for D directly from transcripts using software (vocd) is introduced, and then applied to thirty-two children from the Bristol…

Emerging phonological awareness was compared in two groups of 3.5-year-old children belonging to the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study of Dyslexia (JLD): children with familial risk of dyslexia (at-risk group n = 98) and children without such risk (control group n = 91). Four computer animated tasks were used: Word-level and Syllable-level Segment…

The relationship between late-talkers' language development and reading and spelling outcomes was examined in children with and without familial risk for dyslexia. The late-talking subgroups were defined using parent- and test-based assessments of receptive and expressive vocabulary and grammar at 2 and 2.5 years as intake criteria. The language…

Computation can have a profound intellectual impact, like the alphabet thousands of years ago. Using computation, people can begin to outline cognitive structures that will revolutionize the way they learn, although, especially at universities, the dreams must sometimes lag behind their potential due to limited funding. Ultimately, however, the…