Two hundred job application forms from retail, food, service, and light industry were analyzed for vocabulary. Frequency and relative rankings were revealed for 131 words which were found on at least 80 percent of the forms. (CL)

Assesses various Fuhriman, Burlingame, Kivlighan, and Richards articles (1990) as interesting and informative, but offers two criticisms. First, authors made same vocabulary/same meaning assumption about articles they reviewed and did not discuss differences in experiences and truths that might lie behind same vocabulary. Second, they did not…

According to research findings in English-language teaching, vocabulary acquisition is not given enough attention. As a result, second-language learners are caught in a difficult situation in reading comprehension. This paper proposes helping English-language learners develop basic vocabulary so that that they can read effectively. The approach to…

Describes the rationale and development process for basic German vocabulary lists and compares entries from Pfeffer's Grundstufe, based on a corpus of spoken language, and Baldegger's Kontaktschwelle, a criterion-referenced vocabulary based on communicative needs of certain groups. Examples are given. (LMO)

Ten games and activities designed to teach basic vocabulary to primary grade children are described. Basic Bingo, Word Hunt, Categories, and Scrabble are among the activities presented. (CL)

This bibliographic essay reviews sources that aid in the planning and management aspects of local area networks. Areas covered include system components; basic vocabularies; planning issues, including needs assessment, peripheral sharing alternatives and costs; and management issues, including purchasing, operating systems, installation, network…

Investigates the relationship between traditional and simplified characters of Chinese to determine the systematic ways in which traditional forms are simplified. The one thousand most frequently used characters and their simplified forms, if any, are listed in order of frequency of use. (DJD)

Updates a list (originally published in 1963) of "survival" or essential words--words so important for survival and success in everyday life that everyone should know them. Notes that recognition of these key words and phrases may require non-English-speaking individuals, disabled readers, and adult literacy students to use rote memorization for…

A study reveals that lexical borrowing in Spanish, from a variety of languages including Latin, French, Italian, Greek, Arabic, Provencal, and Catalan, accounts for 41 percent of the basic Spanish vocabulary, with variation in source according to historical period. (MSE)

Eight studies that explored the effects of vocabulary instruction on subsequent reading comprehension found an increase in work knowledge but only a few studies reported any reading comprehension improvement. Methodological and instructional differences across studies are examined in an attempt to account for the different results. (Author/PN)

After examining how Dolch developed his list of 220 basic sight words and identifying major criticisms of this list, the author reports two studies undertaken to revise the Dolch list. Five advantages of the revised Dolch list over the original are identified and discussed. The revised list is included. (Editor/SJL)

In a corpus of the most frequent French words, phonetic rules relating the end of a noun to gender are simplified, and morphological rules governing the gender of suffixed nouns are illustrated. The stratified presentation is offered to teachers for classroom use. (Author/MSE)

Claims students' use of the cliche is unavoidable and relative to culture, place, and time, and that the cliche can, and often does, communicate efficiently. Suggests six techniques such as extending, inverting, punning, and combining, that combined with some imagination, can turn cliches into small teasures. (NH)

The verbs in Gougenheim's Basic Dictionary are regrouped according to three classifications (synonyms, antonyms, and association) and organized according to semantic fields. Exercises designed to emphasize these relationships are suggested. (MSE)

Describes a strategy, useful in content area classes as well as English classes, which concentrates on using writing as a means of developing students' automatic ability to use basic sight vocabulary. (SR)