In accordance with an English Department decision to change from the Purdue English Placement Test to the Cooperative English Test, the Research Office of El Camino College (ECC) coordinated changes for scoring and computer operations while attempting to maintain the existing student placement system, preserve the ratio of students assigned to the…

This paper gives the results of a controlled experiment on word association. The purpose was to establish norms of commonality of primary descriptive adjective responses to common nouns. The stimuli consisted of 203 common nouns selected from 10 everyday topics of conversation, approximately 20 from each topic. There were 350 subjects, 50% male,…

Eleven crossword puzzles, designed to give the student practice with the correct spelling and usage of those words needed to indicate his mastery of the concepts and understandings taught in business courses, are contained, with answer keys, in a teacher's packet. Any puzzle can be reproduced by ditto or by transparency for classroom use. There is…

To discover whether linguistic retardation shows itself in vocabulary concerned with orectic characteristics of children and whether a relationship exists between linguistic retardation and orectic immaturity, children were studied (ages 8 to 16) from 11 schools for the hearing impaired. Discussed as background is the general linguistic…

The Quinmester course on words gives the student the opportunity to increase his proficiency by investigating word origins, word histories, morphology, and phonology. The course includes the following: dictionary skills and familiarity with the "Oxford,""Webster's Third," and "American Heritage" dictionaries; word…

Cooperative classroom structures create more positive student attitudes and interpersonal relations. Their effect on student learning is less clear. TGT (Teams-Games-Tournament) is one cooperative-competitive classroom structure which facilitates learning mathematics and language arts. A study applying TGT to third grade reading classes is…

Describes two experiments that were designed to test the effectiveness of a microcomputer-based vocabulary program for high school students. Pretest and posttest methodologies are described for learning-disabled, remedial, and general students, and results for the experimental and control groups are compared. (18 references) (Author/LRW)

Presents suggestions for getting infants and toddlers dressed for outdoor winter activities, an opportunity to build self-help, social, and vocabulary skills. Suggested outdoor activities include using sand toys, riding in buggies or on sleds, and building paths, caves, and benches. Also provides suggestions for making homemade toys and for…

This article describes how a first-grade teacher used poetry to provide students of diverse ability levels with reading and language activities that stimulated their interest and improved basic skills. Activities with poetry included reading the poems aloud individually and as a group, discussing and analyzing the poems' words and meanings, and…

Discussion of text segmenting and comprehension highlights a study of elementary students in Australia that tested two hypotheses, one concerning reading abilities and one concerning information processing skills involved in syntactic analysis. Tests that measured vocabulary, comprehension, and processing skills are described, results are…

The effects of number of score groups and inclusion/exclusion of the studied item were examined in an empirical evaluation of the Mantel-Haenszel technique (MHT), using 3,795 elementary school students who took the SRA vocabulary test. Inclusion of four or more score groups yielded stable alpha estimates with the MHT. (SLD)

Reviews current research on free voluntary reading and discusses its benefits for vocabulary development, reading ability, writing style, spelling, grammar, pleasure, personal discovery, and literacy. Positive correlations are made between free voluntary reading and academic achievement and second-language acquisition. Eleven relevant documents…

Describes a study of English writing by Norwegian English-as-a-foreign-language learners. Language problems on different linguistic levels are analyzed and the theory of compensatory strategies is used to explain the process behind the production. Results show that less proficient learners have a higher number of grammatical, orthographic, and…

Discusses evidence that social understanding informs word learning in infants. Asks: (1) Is genuine social understanding necessary for word learning?; (2) Are social clues criterial for infants' learning?; (3) Can word learning proceed without aid of social understanding?; and (4) Is social clue processing too difficult for everyday word learning?…

Foreign language instruction is known to develop better critical thinking skills in children. Therefore, the teaching of foreign languages should be promoted so that "all" students may attain better creative, divergent, critical, and analytical thinking skills. Research done in past years on cooperative learning models has consistently shown that…