Proposes and illustrates a method of identifying key words in text, and leads from this proposal to the notion of key key words (words that are key in many texts). Notes that a key key word has associates: words that are key in the same texts as a given key key word. Notes that these associates can be grouped together in clumps. (18 references)…

Stresses that learning to understand and speak a foreign language is the acquisition of a skill, not of a system of abstract knowledge. Primary objective is understanding through a receptive, semantic approach, which incorporates rising expectancy level, discrepency feedback levels, and confidence in later speech production. Suggests incorporating…

Examines the effects of learning words grouped in semantic sets, using Japanese words paired with artificial words. A principal finding was that there was a main effect against learning semantically related words at the same time. The article concludes that presenting students with wordlists of new words in semantic clusters, rather than in…

Analysis of an adult's self-study of Hungarian pinpoints lexis as the major learning priority. Personalized, real-message practice tasks appeared vital for motivation and for input to become automatized. The crossing of two linguistic thresholds appeared crucial--the gaining of a large stock of word-roots and the ability to read authentic texts.…

Develops the idea of a phonetic-access dictionary by which the isolated spoken word is looked up directly in a phonetically transcribed lexicon of either the tradlitional hard-copy or the more flexible magnetic-media form. Typical applications and benefits to the EFL learner are presented. (58 references) (Author/CK)

Reports on the effects of meaning negotiation on young children's acquisition of English-as-a-Second-Language word meanings while they listened individually and in small groups to directions containing words unknown to them and to encouragement to negotiate their understanding of the directions. Results show that the children varied in their…

Study of 11-year-old Swedish-speaking learners of English (N=21) reading two passages from an English fairytale for meaning found that the subjects mainly made use of two knowledge sources (their mother tongue and previous knowledge of the tale) to comprehend the tale. (Author/CB)