The importance of context in vocabulary learning is evident from two common-sense observations: what a word means often depends on the context in which it is used, and people pick up much of their vocabulary knowledge from context, apart from explicit instruction. Available evidence supports a relatively strong version of each of these…

The paper examines the role of morphological (word) cues in reading and considers the implications for deaf students. Theories on the importance of decoding and morphological comparison in competent reading comprehension are reviewed, and studies on how successful deaf readers learn morphological cues are described. Findings show that deaf readers…

Describes the development of a 99-word multiple meaning word list and offers activities designed to develop children's knowledge of multiple meaning words. (FL)

Compares the effectiveness of two types of classroom vocabulary instruction with a noninstruction type homework assignment. (FL)

Illustrations of authors' contextual clues to word meaning. (RD)

Reading ability is a combination of four major skills (word identification, vocabulary, comprehension, study skills), internal influences (experiences, interests, language and cognitive abilities, health goals), and external influences (material complexity, reading environment). Teachers can enhance their students' reading capability by…

Children aged 2 1/2-4 were asked questions containing comparative and superlative forms of adjectives in pairs designated as unmarked/marked or positive/negative. Differences in frequency of correct responses were greater between unmarked/marked pairs than between positive/negative pairs. No evidence appeared for a marking explanation of adjective…

Describes a method of increasing vocabulary recognition of Chapter 1 elementary students by using mastery words from basal programs, sight word cards, and modified cloze stories. (MG)

Word learning in a supported-learning context is described for 30 preschoolers with specific learning impairment (SLI) and 30 controls. Daily production probes assessed number of words learned and daily posttest assessed comprehension of the words. A minority of children with SLI learned to produce significantly fewer words. (Author/CR)

Based on the idea that knowing which words to use and how to use them are keys to an individual's getting the most from his or her mind, this book aims to improve people's vocabularies. To find out which words should be known, research into the vocabularies of educated adults was conducted by "The Princeton Review." Newspapers from…

A study examined the effects of word type and frequency of exposure on the incidental learning of unknown words in context. A target word pool of 60 words was selected to ensure unfamiliarity to the subjects, 110 male and female average fifth-grade students attending three private elementary schools in New York City. Students were randomly…

Because of the positive correlation between vocabulary size and reading fluency in a second language, every effort should be made to increase students' recognition vocabulary. Vocabulary-building techniques include: (1) phonic and morphological analysis of words, (2) cognate recognition, (3) contextual analysis, (4) matching sentence halves and…

Ability to distinguish "ask" and "tell" in Spanish was studied with five groups of native Spanish speakers: adults, 7- and 10-year-olds in a full bilingual school and 7- and 10-year-olds in a non-total bilingual school. Increased age, bilingual schooling and presence of contextual clues enhanced performance. (CHK)

Two experiments were conducted to study one facet of verbal intelligence--the ability of adolescents and adults to use a lexical decomposition strategy to define prefixed words. Subjects in grades 8, 10, 11, and college were given a multiple-choice vocabulary test. Results provided partial support for a theory of internal context use. (Author/LMO)

Finds the test useful but criticizes its lack of generalizability of norms and the absence of reliability, validity, or normative information for the Spanish version. (FL)