Describes a study in which investigators attempted to provide an example for approaching vocabulary development from a theoretical basis and tried to provide empirical support for some techniques presently used in teaching word meanings. (Author/HOD)

Describes an investigation designed to prove the causal ordering between vocabulary and comprehension skills of primary grade pupils. (HOD)

Reviews "The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition" by Margaret G. McKeown and Mary E. Curtis. Focuses on three questions involving vocabulary acquisition: (1) What does it mean to know the meaning of a word?; (2) How does knowledge about word meanings develop?; and (3) What is the relationship between vocabulary knowledge and comprehension? (MM)

Details two experiments that assessed the effect of vocabulary difficulty on three measures of text comprehension--free recall, summary recall, and sentence recognition. (FL)

Investigates how Hispanic bilingual students' knowledge of Spanish vocabulary and ability to identify Spanish-English cognates relate to their comprehension of English expository text. Finds that performance on a multiple-choice test was related to students' ability to recognize cognate relationships, as was the relationship between Spanish…

Concluded that the incorporation of new words into the educable mentally retarded child's reading vocabulary can be enhanced by the phonological pairing of content and function words. (RB)

Investigates the effectiveness of the Vocabulary Overview Guide in improving vocabulary comprehension and retention. Concludes that, compared to traditional methods of listing words and studying definitions, the guide increases vocabulary comprehension, retention, and metacognitive awareness. (MM)

Examines proficient and less proficient high school comprehenders' use of strategies as they read three passages with different top-level structures: collection, causation, and comparison. Finds that both groups of readers use similar strategies. Finds that proficient comprehenders use more previous knowledge on the collection passage and more…

Investigates the relationship between the relative difficulty of passages and the number of unknown words in passages. Finds little support for the theory that free reading results in large vocabulary growth. Calls into question the practice of devoting large amounts of classroom time to free reading if the purpose is to increase vocabulary or…

Examines differences in secondary students' vocabulary learning from inconsiderate (text characteristics that inhibit learning) and considerate contextual information. Reports that contextual information in natural text may be inconsiderate for word learning, but students may be satisfied with partial/erroneous knowledge. (MM)

Contains a list of 46 references. (RB)