Maternal infant-directed speech in Mandarin Chinese and Turkish (two mother-child dyads each) was examined to see if cues exist in input that might assist infants' assignments of words to lexical and functional item categories. Results show that sets of distributional, phonological, and acoustic cues distinguishing lexical and functional items are…

Describes one student teacher's experiences developing the literacy skills of a 13-year-old boy from the former Soviet Union who had poorly-developed first-language literacy skills and difficulty with English. After defining and describing linguistic development in general, the paper explains how the student teacher made tutoring effective and fun…

Examines the development and implementation of the Minority Language and Culture Teaching (MLCT) model in the Netherlands. MLCT allows non-indigenous pupils to receive instruction in the language of their country of origin for a limited time during their regular Dutch education. Outlines various theoretical arguments for and against the program.…

A survey of critical theory as it relates to understanding of the "language problem" at South African higher education institutions discusses implications of the belief that factors inherent to individuals are key elements of language acquisition, as well as the construct that successful language acquisition is an asocial, acultural, and…

Promotion of literacy is one of the easiest and most beneficial ways to form collaboration among parents, teachers, and community. This article offers ideas from teachers, professional organizations, and the U.S. Department of Education on how to develop parent participation in the promotion of literacy at children's various levels of development.…

This article presents a framework that identifies areas of expertise necessary for mainstream teachers to be prepared to teach in classrooms with native and non-native English speakers. Currently, explicit attention to the linguistic and cultural needs of English Language Learners (ELLs) is lacking in most teacher preparation programs. A recent…

This study systematically examines the strength of the connection between synchronous CMC and pragmatic instruction by measuring the effects of three types of synchronous group discussion (written chat [WC], oral chat [OC], and traditional face-to-face [FF] discussion) on the acquisition of the speech act (refusals of an invitation) in the target…

The paper examines two types of texts, personal experience narratives and expository discussions, dealing with the shared theme of interpersonal conflict. Both were produced by the same 80 subjects, participants in a crosslinguistic study on developing literacy: gradeschoolers aged 9;0 to 10;0, twelve-to-thirteen-year-old junior high school…

This article describes the development of a computer-based assessment system for children in early childhood programs, The Indiana Assessment System of Educational Proficiencies: Early Childhood (IASEP: EC). Skills in five developmental domains (i.e., cognitive, communication, social, sensory motor, and self-help) were selected and content…

The early childhood years serve as an essential foundation for subsequent literacy development. Despite the increased attention given to children's early literacy development, gaps remain in our understanding of what is actually taking place in child care programs across the nation. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to assess the extent…

In this article, the author shares vocabulary development activities for young learners. These activities channel students' energy and make learning more effective and fun. The author stresses the importance of giving young learners a good language-learning experience, and the challenges of teaching young learners who are not literate in their L1.…

A rationale for a novel approach to remedial reading for struggling readers, including students labeled with intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, attention deficit and behavior disorders, below average language development, and those described as reluctant or resistant readers is presented. It is suggested that struggling readers find…

Responsive Teaching is an early intervention curriculum designed to address the cognitive, language, and social emotional needs of young children with developmental problems. This innovative intervention model was derived from research conducted primarily with children with Down syndrome and their mothers. Results from these studies indicated that…

Background: English-speaking children with specific language impairment (SLI) perform more poorly than their typically developing peers in verbal working memory tasks where processing and storage are simultaneously required. Hungarian is a language with a relatively free word order and a rich agglutinative morphology. Aims: To examine the effect…

A program was implemented to involve 10 parents in helping their preschool children with language delays. Monthly parent support groups were held, and 10 professional speakers lectured to parents on child development topics. Parents were trained by a speech language pathologist to be language facilitators for their children. Parents were also…