A study examined the effects of valency (associative value representing the number of two-kanji words containing the first-positional kanji of the word) on recognition of two-kanji words in Japanese. Frequency and valency of the first constituent kanji were significant factors for word recognition, and frequency of the first constituent kanji was…

A method for measuring attrition of communicative competence is introduced and illustrated using data from spontaneous multiperson conversations of Spanish L-3 subjects from Ghana. The method involves creation of a multifactor index using defined temporal variables, frequency counts of selected verbal behaviors, and grammatical information, and…

Previous research has been inconsistent in supporting any one model of idiom comprehension. This study found evidence of the effect of familiarity on reading times for sentences containing idioms, as well as new evidence that literalness affects reading times and that both familiarity and literalness exert interactive effects. (22 references)…

Three studies compared development of orthographic representations in children learning to read English, French, and Spanish, using nonsense words rhyming with real words, similar in phonology only, or unlike real words. Results are interpreted in terms of the level of phonology represented in the orthographic recognition units being developed by…

In a study attention in second-language learning, four groups of beginning learners of Spanish (n=83 total) completed one of four crossword puzzles designed to isolate the effects of alertness, orientation, and detection. Results lend strong empirical support to one theory of attention, while indicating short-term effects of detection. (Author/MSE)

An auditory technique for studying semantic priming and lexical access, single-word shadowing, was applied in three separate experiments: priming in word pairs; priming in sentence context; and comparison of priming in children aged 7-11 and elderly adults. Results indicate that, because shadowing works across ages and does not require reading, it…

A study compared results of referential communication and perspective-taking tasks for 10 high-functioning autistic adolescents and young adults and matched normally developing controls. Autistic subjects showed significant communicative dysfunction and qualitatively different communicative interactions. Possible explanations: deficits in "theory…

In a study of development of automaticity in second-language word recognition, 105 English-speakers speaking French performed multiple lexical-decision tasks, and differences in coefficient of variation of lexical decision reaction time were compared cross- sectionally and longitudinally. Results confirm that with extended learning experience, the…

A study tested models concerning syntactic categories in early multiword speech by investigating overlap in contexts in which children (n=11) used determiner types. Results indicate children have little knowledge of relationships between different determiner types, suggesting development of an adultlike syntactic determiner category may be…

Preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLIs) and two groups of linguistically normally developing children described motion and change-of-state scenes while viewing a video, and patterns of verb use were analyzed. Although SLIs relied heavily on general all-purpose verbs, normally developing children used them more. SLIs made more verb…

A study investigated children's understanding of the formal and functional aspects of written Chinese in an orthographic acceptability judgment task and a creative spelling task. Subjects were 60 Hong Kong children ages 4 to 9. Results suggest that learning to read and write in Chinese is not accomplished by rote learning of characters but through…

Phonetic skills and vocabulary size were investigated in 37 toddlers identified with specific expressive language impairment and 20 comparison toddlers. Results indicate significant differences in numbers of consonant types and tokens, although the most frequently present consonants were consistent across groups. No predictive relationship emerged…

Examines the effect of adult recasting in sign language on the acquisition of specific syntactic-semantic structures by deaf children aged 9 to 76 months. Results indicated that recasting triggered the acquisition of new syntactic-semantic structures in American Sign Language and English, evident in the spontaneous production of previously…

A study investigated word recognition processes of Greek/English bilinguals in relation to linguistic and syntactic differences in the languages, then compared those processes with those of monolinguals. Bilingual readers performed differently in the languages, conforming more to monolingual patterns in their native language (Greek), interpreted…

A study investigated differences in English word recognition in native speakers of Indonesian (an alphabetic language) and Chinese (a logographic languages) learning English as a Second Language. Results largely confirmed the hypothesis that an alphabetic first language would predict better word recognition in speakers of an alphabetic language,…