A semantic-relatedness test and a cloze-type/sentence-completion test compared meanings ascribed to spatial prepositions by adult native English and advanced English-as-a-second-language speakers. Non-native speakers differed from native speakers in the semantic boundaries ascribed to the words, with the differences deriving from weighting…

Conducted to determine whether use of computerized file-management programs can enhance the development of information processing skills, this two-treatment experiment found that seventh through twelfth grade students in the computer-using/structured activities group received significantly higher mean scores than the…

The development of the concept of word is discussed in terms of specific advantages that might be available to bilingual children when compared with their monolingual peers. Three studies are reviewed in which bilingual children show more advanced understanding of some aspects of the concept of word than do monolingual children (Author/LMO)

Examination of existing empirical and theoretical literature suggests there is no conclusive support for the existence of a critical period for human speech learning. Assumption of a critical period may inhibit the search for testable hypotheses concerning observed adult-child differences in second language production. (Author/LMO)

Studies the development of word-retrieval speed and its relationship to reading in 72 average and 11 severely impaired readers in kindergarten through the second grade. (HOD)

Investigates second grade children's ability to understand the use of deictic terms (devices in language that convey information about the communicative situation) in three types of tasks: oral language, written language, and picture selection, and concludes that the difficulty of a word with deictic content depends largely upon the discourse…

Finds that sixth- and eighth-grade students were equally able to participate in discussions of books, answering many questions at interpretive and evaluative levels of thinking. (HOD)

Presents the results of a study of the recall performances of developing young readers compared across the three language reception modes of listening, oral reading, and silent reading. The effects of the difficulty of the reading material and of sex differences are discussed. The texts used are appended. (Author/JL)

Points out and challenges the imbalance between the recognition and development of intuitive wisdom versus the accumulation of factual knowledge. Makes a clear distinction between the overlapping concepts of knowledge and wisdom, and between the paradigms of logical scientific inquiry and intuitive understanding. Outlines an intuition training…

Provides a model of the rhetorical problem, based on the study of writing as a problem-solving cognitive process; describes three major differences between good and poor writers revealed by a protocol analysis study. (DD)

Planning, teaching, and post-lesson reflections of three student teachers of mathematics were compared with those of three cooperating teachers with whom the student teachers were placed. Differences were accounted for by the assumption that novices' cognitive schemata and pedagogical reasoning skills were less well-developed than those of expert…

The effects of teaching with analogies on students' conceptual understanding and explanations of educational computing were examined with three groups of preservice teachers in a computer literacy course. Students who were taught using complete analogies were found to have a better grasp of computing concepts than those taught using undeveloped…

Investigates the types and depths of cognitive complexity that 11th-grade readers of high, average, and low reading ability exhibited when given either text-based comprehension questions or reader-based journal response writing assignments. Finds significant differences between the groups in type and depth of cognitive complexity, engagement with…

The ability of 78 disabled and nondisabled second, third, and fourth graders to discriminate between syllables that were vowels and syllables beginning with liquid and plosive consonants was studied. The results suggest that children with reading disabilities experience a deficit in processing phonemic information within syllables. (SLD)

Reports a study of Japanese students learning English in Japan. Supports the notion that the necessity to communicate forces learners to notice linguistic problems, and that noticing a problem can push learners to modify their original input. Through this cognitive process, learners acquire second languages, especially the ability to produce oral…