Effects of semantic versus syntactic constraints on resolution of Hebrew heterophonic-homographic words were examined at three reading skill levels. Fourth-and sixth-grade students and a group of adults read aloud sentences containing two types of heterophonic-homographs: noun-noun (e.g., BYCH [Hebrew characters] is read as beitsa 'egg' and bitsa…

Two studies examined the role of input distribution in English construction learning, by child learners from a Mandarin first-language background, and the extent to which phonological short-term memory and awareness predicted such learning. In the first study, 4th-grade students of Mandarin Chinese (N = 121) learned the English object-cleft…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a technology-based intervention (LanguageLinks: Syntax Assessment and Intervention®; Laureate Learning Systems, Inc., 2013) to improve reading comprehension for d/Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) elementary students. The intervention was a self-paced, interactive program designed to…

Several studies on children and adults with and without linguistic impairment have reported differences between verb and noun processing. The present study assessed whether noun and verb bases affect differently children's reading of derived words. Thirty-six Italian good readers and 18 poor readers, all 4th or 5th graders, were asked to read…

This study reports evidence of cross-linguistic influence (CLI) that surfaced from English compositions of SiSwati learners of English in Swaziland, where English is a second language. Although CLI has been studied widely in other languages, it has not been studied in SiSwati and English, and its implications for instruction are not known.…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a visual strategy that of chunking or visually bracketing phrasal verbs in sentences in short stories. A descriptive case study design was used for this study to compare the two instructional strategies. In this study, stories were presented to 14 severely and profound deaf students…

Knowledge of compound word structures in Chinese and English was investigated, comparing 435 Chinese and 258 Americans, including second, fourth, and sixth graders, and college undergraduates. As anticipated, the results revealed that Chinese speakers performed better on a word structure analogy task than their English-speaking counterparts. Also,…

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of story novelty (active verbs, less familiar characters, vivid adjectives, and surprising story endings) on the reading comprehension of 48 seven- to 11-year-old boys without clinical diagnoses of learning disabilities. The optimal stimulation theory provided the basis of the study, predicting…

This paper describes the theoretical framework, as well as the development and testing of the intervention, "Comprehension Tools for Teachers" (CTT), which is composed of eight component interventions targeting malleable language and reading comprehension skills that emerging research indicates contribute to proficient reading for…

This paper describes the theoretical framework, as well as the development and testing of the intervention, Comprehension Tools for Teachers (CTT), which is composed of eight component interventions targeting malleable language and reading comprehension skills that emerging research indicates contribute to proficient reading for understanding for…

This study investigated children's understanding of unfamiliar noun and verb definitions in tasks that were manipulated for syntactic and semantic properties of definitions. The study was also designed to examine the relation between understanding word definitions and the skills of syntactic awareness and making inferences. A total of 117 children…

The ability to define a word with accuracy and precision is an important skill that has been associated with academic achievement. This study investigated the feasibility of conducting a lesson on formal word definitions to improve children's definitional production. The participants were 18 children in grade 4 (mean age: 9 years; 8 months) who…

This study compared the use of English past tense in a group of Spanish-English bilingual children with language impairment (BLI) to younger groups of bilinguals with typical and atypical language development reported in an earlier study. Ten children with BLI enrolled in 3rd-6th grade participated. Children supplied 12 regular, 12 irregular, and…

The masked priming paradigm was used to examine the role of the root and verb pattern morphemes in lexical access within the verb system of Arabic. Three groups participated in the study: grade 6 dyslexics, a reading-level-matched group and grade 6 normal readers. The first group consisted of: 28 grade 6 reading disabled (RD) students, 8 girls and…

The English verb "be" has always been a perceived problem for Chinese ESL learners, however, few studies have been conducted with a specific focus on the interlanguage "be" of Chinese ESL learners. This paper examines the variable use of the English verb "be" of 270 Hong Kong primary school children for developmental…