Describes a study that was conducted to examine the effects of captioned video material of varying difficulty on intermediate and advanced English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students' comprehension with videotaped episodes presenting low and high audio/video correlation. Captions were found to be more important for low audio/video correlation. (17…

Examined how exposure to a program of fractal computer graphics affected the perceptual sensitivity of sixth-grade students (n=197) to the natural visual environment. MANCOVA analysis of collected data and students' written responses to questions indicated that environmental perceptual sensitivity was higher for subjects exposed to fractal images.…

We investigated the relationship between three potential markers for reading difficulties (phonemic awareness, verbal short-term memory, and rapid automatized naming) and students' responsiveness to Reading Recovery instruction. At pretest, students' most prevalent weakness was on phonemic awareness, but more than half were below average on rapid…

The "Central Dogma" of genetics states that one gene, located in a DNA molecule, is ultimately translated into one protein. As important as this idea is, many teachers shy away from teaching the actual mechanism of gene translation, and many students find the concepts abstract and inaccessible. This article describes a unit, called Genetics…

Memory and information processing were studied with public school students, aged 10-15, who had educable mental handicaps (n=60), trainable mental handicaps (n=60), and no mental handicaps (n=60). Study participants completed a picture recall and relocation test, in order to determine if differences existed between the groups based on…

Most children's books are filled with pictures, yet when schools design curricula to teach writing, they often ignore the role of visual images in the writing process. Historically, methods for teaching writing have focused on text. Even relatively recent techniques like brainstorming and story webbing still focus on verbal information. In some…

This booklet is geared towards persons with autism of all ages who would benefit from enhancing their communication systems through the use of aided communication. It recognizes the importance of an effective expressive communication system to aid them in expressing thoughts and maintaining some power and control over decisions in their lives.…

This paper discusses how presentation software can be used to design custom materials for a variety of people with special needs, including children and adults with low vision, people with developmental disabilities, and stroke patients with cognitive impairments. Benefits of using presentation software include: (1) presentation software gives the…

A study investigated the language transfer hypothesis in the specific area of second-language spelling. Data collected from 84 secondary school students learning Spanish as a second language show that in general, performance in English spelling is the best predictor of performance in Spanish spelling. Other variables included performance on a…

Because analyses of reaction-time data are sensitive to aberrant observations and violations of statistical assumptions, a new approach is suggested. In this empirical approach, one applies the same criteria to the problem of selecting a statistical method as one uses to select among alternative experimental procedures. Six criteria are presented…

A study examined aspects of the acquisition of spatialized morphology and syntax in American Sign Language (ASL) learned natively by deaf children of deaf parents. Children aged 2 to 8 were shown story books to elicit narratives, and the resulting use of verbs contained morphological forms not appearing in adult grammar. Analysis of the creative…

The articles in this journal focus on the teaching of composition at the secondary and college levels. Separate articles deal with the causes of poor proofreading by students and methods for teaching proofreading skills; the use of folklore as an aid to teaching composition; techniques for overcoming students' fear of failure in the writing…

To determine whether students gain more knowledge and stronger impressions from reading a play or from viewing the play on videotape, two groups of college students were presented with an excerpt from Arthur Miller's "Incident at Vichy." One group was to read the excerpt and the other group was to view the same excerpt from a public…

The impact of news film on children's learning was investigated by presenting 193 fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh grade students with one of two versions of a newscast. The children viewed a videotape of a newscaster introducing film reports of six stories or listened to the newscaster reading the news stories. The children provided responses…

THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE OPTIMAL COMBINATION OF STIMULI AND THEIR TIMING FOR LARGE INCREASES IN RECOGNITION VOCABULARY IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE AFTER STUDENTS HAVE MASTERED THE BASIC STRUCTURE OF THE LANGUAGE WAS THE SUBJECT OF RESEARCH UNDERTAKEN WITH STUDENTS ENROLLED AT THE GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF LANGUAGES AND LINGUISTICS. FOLLOWING A…