We report results from children learning to read in one of four different languages: Croatian, English, Estonian and Swedish. The languages all have an alphabetical script but vary greatly on the dimension deep-shallow (or complexity-simplicity, or opacity-transparency), i.e., how close orthography and phonology are related. These languages also…

This article discusses the findings of an empirical study that investigated the writing practices in a multilingual, rural, fourth-grade classroom in Kenya. The study was undergirded by Bakhtin's heteroglossia. Analysis of texts indicated that these emergent multilinguals used multiple semiotic resources to maximize the chances of meeting the…

The present paper derives from a PhD study investigating the nexus between Grade 4 textbook vocabulary demands and Grade 3 isiXhosa-speaking learners' knowledge of that vocabulary to enable them to read to learn in Grade 4. The paper challenges the efficacy of the four current definitions of "word" for generating high frequency words…

Cross-language effects on reading skills are of particular interest in the context of foreign language immersion programs. Although there is an extensive literature on cross-language effects on reading in general, research focusing on immersion students and including different dimensions of reading acquisition such as reading fluency and reading…

As a still growing area, Language Learning Strategies (LLS) research needs to expand so that it covers different contexts and age groups. Previous research shows that most of LLS research is conducted in ESL contexts and the majority looked into strategies of adolescents and adults. Consequently, strategy taxonomies as well as the inventories…

Describes a study designed to determine whether children's conceptualization of the component sounds in words is influenced by knowledge of the words' spelling using real and made-up words. Shows the phonemic segmentation skill may be a consequence of as much as a prerequisite to learning real words. (Author/BK)

Strategies used in the writing process by fourth grade students were studied by eliciting miscues in sentence combining writing samples. Following the procedure used by Goodman in the elicitation of miscues in reading, students were required to perform writing exercises slightly above their expected ability. Writing samples were collected from 9…

Two experiments involving Chinese 2nd graders and 4th graders investigated the use of subcharacter information to learn to pronounce unfamiliar semantic-phonetic compound characters. Experiment 1 confirmed that children can use the information in both tone-different and onset-different characters to learn character pronunciations and showed that…

Previous research has shown that adults tend to narrow the meanings of words encountered in context, a process that has been termed instantiation. In the present study, 60 first and fourth graders selected pictures which best represented the meanings of sentences read to them. The sets of pictures included three examples of a target word in each…

To determine whether or not students in grades 2 and 4 comprehended materials written with patterns that appear frequently in their speech better than materials written with patterns that appear infrequently, two reading comprehension tests were devised by the investigator. Subjects were all second- and fourth-grade classrooms from two similar…

Metalinguistic skill is the ability to assume an objective attitude toward language. Metalinguistic awareness is less easily acquired and appears later developmentally than speaking and listening skills. What one needs to know to perceive and use language is not necessarily the same thing that one needs to know to reflect on and comment on…

In order to understand more fully how young people process written language, miscues made by fourth grade students in both the reading process and the writing process were studied. Miscues which occurred in signaled sentence combining exercises were compared with miscues in reading determined by procedures developed by Goodman and associates. The…

Writing miscues of three Hispanic children were compared to those of their classmates in this study. Miscues were obtained through samples of writing taken from difficult sentence combining exercises. Results of the comparison suggested that the Hispanic American children did not make writing miscues that were qualitatively different from those of…

Concluded that factual questions appear to inhibit the higher cognitive processes of grade 2 and grade 4 subjects, while the interpretive questions stimulate the higher cognitive processes. (DD)