A language-levels model was used to analyze written narratives. The results have implications for instruction and for documenting change in the story-writing performance of students with and without special needs in the area of written language development. This study was based on stories written at midyear by 277 students (224 typical learners…

The current research compared two accounts of the relation between language and false belief in children, namely that (a) language is generally related to false belief because both require secondary representation in a social-interactional context and that (b) specific language structures that explicitly code meta representation contribute…

The research reported here tests the claim made in the Input Processing approach to second language (L2) acquisition that interpreting the meaning of language form is essential for learning. This claim has been put forward as an underlying part of the pedagogical package known as Processing Instruction (PI) (VanPatten, 1996, 2002a, 2004). Two…

In recent years, teachers and schools in Australia have been struggling to keep boys engaged in language programs, especially beyond the years of compulsory language learning. This is a concern not just for Australian educators, as very similar concerns have been raised in other English-speaking countries. The clearest indicator (i.e. the one…

The incidence of Spanish-speaking children who require language and education services is increasing. Language testing of these children requires assessment instruments that are linguistically, culturally, and developmentally appropriate. However, most of the currently available Spanish-language instruments are limited in number and are designed…

Mediated learning describes what parents and teachers do to teach and includes four components: (1) intent to teach; (2) competence; (3) transcendence to promote high level thinking; and (4) mediation of meaning, helping children to focus on the importance of what is being focused on. Mediated learning is assumed to be universal for all cultural…

Purpose: To scale language milestones in a group of 527 children to provide an instrument for screening language development. Procedure: The questionnaire regarding these milestones was completed by parental report. It was evaluated whether the scaled milestones satisfied the assumptions of the Mokken item response model. Results: The scalability…

In Northwest Cameroon, the emergence of literacy in the mother tongue is providing minority language communities with new alternatives for learning and communication. To some extent, these alternatives are shaped by existing literacy practices in English, as English is the language of formal education. However, new spaces are also emerging in…

Play behaviors of infants who had normal hearing or were deaf were observed during free play with their mothers, at ages 9, 12, and 18 months. Participants included 15 dyads of children who were deaf and mothers who were not, 15 dyads of children and mothers who were both deaf, and 15 dyads of children and mothers who both had normal hearing.…

To examine language outcomes related to language acquisition and academic readiness, this study followed a group of toddlers with slow expressive language development (SELD) through their kindergarten year. Subjects were 27 children between 20 and 34 months who produced fewer than 50 words or no 2-word combinations on L. Resconla's (1989) Language…

An interactive multimedia program to facilitate the acquisition of reading, writing, and overall communication skills in children with significant language delays was developed and evaluated in Sweden with two studies. Participating in the first study were 11 children (ages 6 to 13) with autism, 9 children (mean age 13) with mixed disabilities,…

An analysis of literature on second language learning identifies four approaches in the literature, each of which can make a unique contribution to the understanding of the second language learning process, particularly as it pertains to limited-English-proficient students. The four approaches are explained and illustrated with examples from the…

A study examined the effects of the use of sign language in young hearing children's language development. The study tracked a class of 19 Maryland students from their first week of prekindergarten over the 2-year period that ended with the last week of their kindergarten year. Subjects received sign instruction during the prekindergarten year and…

Analysis of research literature shows both important commonalities and differences between how children learn to read and how adults can be taught to read in literacy programs. Both the narrow and broad definitions of literacy are legitimate for specific purposes. The narrow definition identifies literacy acquisition with learning how the writing…

The question of why some second language learners are more successful than others is examined from two different approaches. One looks at the social distance between the speakers of the target language and the learner's native language and, on one hand, the resulting learner and target-language-speaker attitudes and, on the other hand, the type…