Surveys modern language and cognitive theories and their implications for the teaching of undergraduate composition. (JL)

Emphasizes that, in order to comprehend, a reader must chunk the many words of a sentence into meaningful groups of words. Offers suggestions for developing "thought units" in the upper grades. (FL)

Discusses prevailing ideas of how children learn language and addresses the argument of rules versus analogies in learning to form the past tense of verbs. Cites cases involving connectionist models. (ML)

This article reflects one session of a course in thinking and communicating for Pace University (New York) faculty. The purpose of the course was to heighten awareness that language can seriously misrepresent events which it describes, thus affecting students' ability to perceive, evaluate, and make day-to-day decisions. Beginning with a concrete…

Reviews cases which support the view that parts of the left hemisphere control languages, no matter how it is expressed, while right-side regions are involved only in skilled nonlinguistic movements and perceptions. Compares recent findings with previously held theories. (ML)

Presents results of an experiment seeking relationships between motor activities and more central language production processes. Concludes that the same motor program was used for occurrences of repeated morphemes in the experiment. Reports that nonrepeated morphemes were recovered from verbal memory while the preceding repeated morpheme was being…

Teachers tend to give directions that their pupils can follow correctly. Children are better able to process increasingly complex directions as they get older. (Authors/CJ)

Readers as well as writers compose meaning. Using the same characteristics essential to effective writing--planning, drafting, aligning, revising, and monitoring--readers react creatively with the text. In response to the author's intention and their own knowledge base, they decide what they want to get from their reading. Constantly renegotiating…

Current research on information processing suggests that short term memory plays a central role in the sorting and manipulation of text information during reading. Because an entire text cannot be processed simultaneously, successive "chunks" or units of information enter the short term memory where they are compared to the reader's previous…

In order to foster awareness of the auditory characteristics of learning disabled students and the essential skills involved in effective listening, this paper suggests teaching strategies to improve listening skills that include both individual and whole class activities specifically geared to learning disabled students. The first section of the…

An analysis of the skills involved in listening comprehension and techniques for developing them in students looks first at elements of the general process of interpretation, showing the essential importance of the interpretative functions as contrasted with simple comprehension of sounds and decoding of meaning. The first section looks at…

As a result of a program of research about cognitive processes involved in learning to read and write among 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year old-children, this book attempts to get teacher-researchers to think through the implications of recent insights into literacy and literacy learning. The first section examines instructional assumptions; proposes a new…

Three elements of the reading process--presence, mediation, and ego response--help students discover their own ontological, intellectual, and psychological role in bringing forth literature's meanings. Students experience a dramatic shift in their ability to make sense of literature as they become increasingly conscious of these three elements.…

Argues that early childhood experiences with processes as diverse as language, mathematics, emotion, and music determine which neurons grow and remain active in the brain. Early exposure to these processes results in receptive programming. Discusses the implications for schools, teachers, and parents. (MJP)

In recent characterizations of reading and writing, the distinctions melt into each other so that one definition serves for both: both are the creation of meaning. In the act of creating meaning, readers become writers and writers become readers. While reading is primarily receptive and writing is primarily productive, fluency in reading is very…