bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The effect of sign language rehearsal on deaf subjects' immediate and delayed recall of English word lists
Authors: Bonvillian John D. , Rea Cathleen Althaus , Orlansky Michael D. , Slade L. Allen
Published: December 2008

The relationship between sign language rehearsal and written free recall was examined by having deaf college students overtly rehearse the sign language equivalents of printed English words. In studies of both immediate and delayed memory, word recall was found to increase as a function of total rehearsal frequency and frequency of appearance in rehearsal sets. The serial recall curves in both memory experiments evidenced a primacy effect, which was interpreted as resulting from increased rehearsal of the words in the initial positions over the course of the list. In contrast to findings from previous short- and long-term memory studies with normally hearing subjects, neither a recency nor a negative recency effect was found. High imagery words were rehearsed and recalled slightly more frequently in immediate memory, but there was no effect resulting from the different imagery values of the stimuli in delayed recall. These results are discussed in relation to current conceptualizations of memory and of linguistic processing by deaf individuals.
The frequency of cohesion weakness in psychiatric syndromes
Authors: Bartolucci Giampiero , Fine Jonathan
Published: December 2008

The percentage of unclear cohesive ties in the conversation of schizophrenic speakers is significantly higher than in a group of psychiatric patients with mixed diagnoses, mostly affective disorders. This measure of cohesive weakness is not related to the verbal IQ of the patients.

This finding was obtained in patients who were not prejudged to be thought disordered and was based on the analysis of all of their utterances during a ten minute interview. It is concluded that cohesive weakness is a more frequent characteristic of the language of schizophrenic speakers, compared to its incidence in the conversation of psychiatric patients in different diagnostic categories, with the possible exception of manic syndromes.
Discourse characteristics of reticent children
Authors: Evans Mary Ann
Published: December 2008

This study contrasted the interactions of less talkative children and their teacher with those of their peers during classroom “Sharing Time.” Seven reticent children and seven normal peers were observed and audiotape-recorded during 15 sessions across the school year. In addition to speaking less, reticent children engaged in less complex speech than their peers: They spoke more often about objects in the “here and now,” spoke about one topic at a turn, and spoke in shorter utterances. Questions were more frequently directed to the reticent children, but while peers responded to these questions as invitations to contribute further to the topic, reticent children frequently failed to respond to them in like manner. It is suggested that both anxiety and subtle language delays may contribute to the poorer discourse skills reticent children display.
Awareness of words as phonological entities: The role of literacy
Authors: Kolinsky Régine , Cary Luz , Morais José
Published: December 2008

Illiterate, unschooled adults were tested on their notions of word length. Experiment 1 showed that only about half of them performed very poorly on a task requiring the production of a long/short word. They were clearly inferior to formerly illiterate, unschooled adults. The illiterate group also broke up neatly into two subgroups, one performing perfectly or very well, the other failing completely or almost completely, when required to match the written and the oral form of long/short words. Similarly, Experiment 2 showed that about half of the illiterates were unable to choose the longest of two names when presented with drawings of objects. The results suggest that learning to read, though not strictly necessary, plays a decisive role in the development of the ability of many individuals to focus on phonological length.
An interactive modeling technique for acquisition of communication skills: Separation of “labeling” and “requesting” in a psittacine subject
Authors: Pepperberg Irene M.
Published: December 2008

An African gray parrot, previously taught by an interactive modeling technique to vocalize labels for several objects and instances of color and shape, was similarly taught to employ the vocalization “want” before an object label so as to discriminate functional “labeling” from “requesting.” The parrot's use of “want” subsequently generalized to novel situations. There was no decrease in the accuracy of labeling ability during training, a problem that arose when nonmodeling techniques were employed with chimpanzees. The results suggest that the procedure might be applicable to intervention programs for humans with specific communicative deficits.
The responses of language disordered children to indirect directives in varying contexts
Authors: Shatz Marilyn , Shulman Marsha A. , Bernstein Deena K.
Published: December 2008

Language disordered children's responses to sentences that can carry directive import were examined under varying contextual conditions. In the first experiment, sentences were presented in a neutral context; in the second experiment, two different kinds of sentences provided linguistic contexts for test sentences. Taken together, the results of the studies indicate that language disordered children are qualitatively much like normal children with regard to early response behavior. They show evidence of an early action response strategy and some ability to take context into account. On the other hand, they do appear to have more difficulty both in generating informing responses and in utilizing information from prior linguistic context. A possible reason for this latter deficit is suggested.
The effect of repetition on the discrimination of asserted and implied claims in advertising
Authors: Bruno Kristin J. , Harris Richard J.
Published: December 2008

A method was tested for teaching people how to identify implied claims in advertising and keep from remembering them as asserted facts. The experimental group received a detailed training session, while the control group participated in a comparable session not dealing with implied claims. Subjects then heard a series of ads with critical claims either asserted or implied and rated a set of claims for their truth value. Results showed that, when subjects heard the same ads two, seven, and nine days later, they increasingly recognized that implied claims were implied and rated them less true than directly asserted claims. Results were related to previous research and consumer education.
Applying psycholinguistic concepts to the treatment of an autistic child
Authors: Blank Marion , Milewski Janet
Published: December 2008

This paper describes a language program designed to allow an autistic 4-year-old child to acquire, in a near simultaneous manner, skill across a variety of sentence types. The training, which was focused on teaching the combinatorial and semantic properties of grammatical morphemes, resulted in the child's developing and using sentences whereas he had previously been limited to single words and rote phrases. The improvement occurred across a variety of settings and encompassed both elicited and spontaneous language. As expected from the autistic syndrome, those areas of language functioning requiring social skill (e.g., sustained dialogue) showed continued deficits.
Individual differences in early child phonology
Authors: Leonard Laurence B. , Newhoff Marilyn , Mesalam Linda
Published: December 2008

Three studies are reported that deal with individual differences among children in the use of consonants during the early period of phonological development. The findings indicated that (1) children differ in their early phonologies, yet these differences do not extend beyond certain limits, (2) the linguistic environment cannot account for a number of these phonological differences, and (3) such differences are due in part to the fact that children's use of sounds varies considerably with the lexical items being produced. Modifications in theories of child phonology are suggested in order to account for these findings.
Phonological analysis of four Down's syndrome children
Authors: Stoel-Gammon Carol
Published: December 2008

Several studies have reported that the articulatory abilities of Down's syndrome children are poor, but have provided little detail on the nature of the articulation problem. This paper presents a phonological analysis of the spontaneous speech of four Down's syndrome children, ages 3;10–6;3 including a) the phonetic inventory of each subject, b) a comparison of target consonant phonemes and the subjects' renditions of these phonemes, and c) a characterization of the subjects' errors in terms of phonological processes. The findings indicate that 1) although the subjects are capable of producing nearly all the consonant phonemes, correct production is often limited to a particular position within the word, 2) the phonological processes which account for the errors of the Down's syndrome subjects are similar to those reported for young normal children, and 3) the phonological abilities of the four subjects are comparable to, or better than, their general language ability as measured by MLU.
Perceptual constancy for phonemic categories: a developmental study with normal and language impaired children
Authors: Tallal Paula , Stark Rachel E. , Kallman Clayton , Mellits David
Published: December 2008

Six synthesized consonant-vowel syllables, three containing the phoneme /b/ in different vowel contexts and three the phoneme /d/, were presented randomly to developmental dysphasics and normal children. The ability to recognize that these six acoustically different stimuli shared two common phonemic categories (perceptual constancy) was investigated using nonverbal operantly conditioned response techniques. Results showed that although several children in both groups had difficulty with the task, the dysphasic group's performance was significantly poorer than the controls. Whereas the normal children improved significantly with age, the dysphasics did not. The results of this study suggest that speech perception, rather than being fully developed in infancy, changes throughout language development. By using procedures which have proven suitable for testing infants, with young children at various stages of language development, more might be learned about how the acoustic signal is encoded into speech and language and how this encoding changes throughout development or is disturbed in language disorders.
Individual differences in second language learning
Authors: Genesee Fred , Hamayan Else
Published: December 2008

The purpose of the study was to investigate individual differences in French language achievement in a group of grade 1 anglophone students attending a total early immersion program. A number of different predictor factors were used to predict achievement in French language arts, listening comprehension and oral production; achievement in English reading was also assessed. The predictor factors included indices of the students' attitudes, personality traits, non-verbal reasoning ability, degree of field independence and school-related behavior. Multiple regression techniques were used to analyze the associations between the predictor factors and the results of the achievement tests.

Teachers' ratings of the students' behavior along with the cognitive factors of field independence and non-verbal reasoning ability were found to be positively correlated with achievement in French language arts and listening comprehension. The cognitive factors were also found to correlate positively with achievement levels in English reading. No significant predictors emerged in the case of oral production. The findings are discussed further in terms of their pedagogical implications.
On correlating aphasic errors with slips-of-the-tongue
Authors: Buckingham Hugh W.
Published: December 2008

It has been stated that the study of aphasia tells us little or nothing about normal language. On the other hand, it is commonplace to consider that slips of the tongue do. In this paper I show that many kinds of aphasic errors demonstrate precisely what slips in normals do. Consequently, it is not unreasonable to consider that the study of aphasia can indeed shed light on normal language processes as well as aphasic processes and can be handled in a framework designed to account for slips of the tongue in normal speakers. Similar “editing” mechanisms are needed for explaining the structure of errors produced by both aphasics and normals. Finally, it is suggested that this approach can help us further understand what is not abnormal in aphasia in general, as well as highlight the ways in which distinct types of aphasic “slips” can characterize different syndromes. Consequently, we will have gained additional information regarding the nature of aphasia itself.
An Invited Article Facilitating linguistic skills in children with specific language impairment
Authors: Leonard Laurence B.
Published: December 2008

This paper presents a critical review of studies designed to teach language production skills to children with specific language impairment. The evidence reviewed suggests that a number of training approaches are effective, often resulting in gains that exceed the rate seen in normal development. Close analysis of children’s post-treatment usage reveals that these gains go beyond rote learning, and may even result in response classes that are different from those seen in the adult linguistic system. The chief limitations in these training studies are that children seem to make use of the target linguistic form only in untrained utterances that share certain topographical features with the utterances used in training, and that there is little evidence that children’s use of the target form will extend to speaking situations that bear little resemblance to the training/testing situation.
Choosing the languages of subtitles and spoken dialogues for media presentations: Implications for second language education
Authors: Lambert W.E. , Boehler I. , Sidoti N.
Published: December 2008

This study explored novel ways of using the media for education, especially second language instruction. Various combinations of visual and auditory presentations of messages were compared, for example, both written script and spoken dialogue in subjects’ first language (L1), or script and/or dialogue in a second laguage (L2), and so on. Subjects were elementary pupils with advanced training in L2. The dialogues of radio programs were transcribed, permitting such combinations as: dialogue in L2, script in L1 (the normal subtitling format); dialogue in L1, script in L2 (reversed subtitling); both dialogue and script in L1 or in L2; and so forth. On L1 and L2 tests of memory, certain combinations (e.g., reversed subtitling) were much more promising for the development or maintenance of second language skills, or for literacy training, than was conventional subtitling. Theoretical and practical inplications are discussed.
Children's use of gestural and verbal behavior in communicative misunderstandings
Authors: Wilcox M. Jeanne , Howse Paula
Published: December 2008

This inquiry examined strategies used by young children when receiver feedback indicated that their gestural communicative attempts were not understood. The children were grouped according to their vocabulary sizes and number of coding rules for two-word utterances. The results indicated that the children, although capable of semantically equivalent verbal behavior, tended to persist in the use of a gesture when experiencing communicative failure. The gestural persistance was not found to be related to the children's lexical or syntactic abilities. It was concluded that the children may not have realized that a verbal behavior can serve as a replacement or an adjunct to a gestural communication.
Second language reading in fluent bilinguals
Authors: Favreau Micheline , Segalowitz Norman S.
Published: December 2008

Many bilinguals, who are fluent second language users in normal commmunicative situations, nevertheless read more slowly in that language. The present study examines whether this performance difference is specific to reading or whether its occurrence is accompanied by similar differences in the auditory modality. Fluent English and French bilinguals were required to adjust the delivery rate of spoken first and second language texts so as to maximize speed of delivery while maintaining full comprehension. The results showed that the pattern of listening rates for the second language relative to the first mirrored the pattern of reading rates. The results are discussed in terms of their implications for second language reading research.
An invited article: Phonological recoding and reading acquisition
Authors: Jorm Anthony F. , Share David L.
Published: December 2008

Phonological recoding is commonly viewed as a back-up mechanism when word identification using the visual pathway fails. A second more important role for phonological recoding is as a self-teaching mechanism by which the child learns to identify words visually. Although phonological recoding may play a minor role in skilled adult reading, it plays a critical role in helping the child become a skilled reader. This article reviews the evidence relevant to these issues. The first section examines evidence on the role of phonological recoding in the development of word identification skills and reading comprehension. The next section reviews evidence showing that children with reading disabilities often have deficits in basic phonological processing skills. The third section deals with the nature of the reading problem in such children which, it is argued, is consistent with the proposed developmental analysis of the importance of phonological recoding in learning to read. The article concludes with a discussion of the teaching implications of these conclusions.
Language development, metalinguistic awareness, and emergent literacy skills of 3-year-old children in relation to social class
Authors: Chaney Carolyn
Published: December 2008

This is an investigation of the relationships among selected aspects of normal language development, emerging metalinguistic skills, concepts about print, and family literacy experiences in 3-year-old children who vary in their socioeconomic backgrounds. Forty-three normally developing children, whose family incomes ranged from under $10,000 to over $100,000, were given 4 tests of language development; 12 metalinguistic tasks measuring phonological awareness, word awareness, and structural awareness; and 2 measures of literacy knowledge. The children's family literacy experiences were described following a parent interview. The data analysis had two main purposes. The first was to examine the family literacy experiences of the children using a qualitative analysis. The second was to describe, in a quantitative way, the relationships among family literacy experiences, socioeconomic factors, language development, metalinguistic performance, and concepts about print. The interview data revealed that, while parents varied in the emphasis they placed on literacy activities, all of the children were at least somewhat involved in literacy activities at home; family report of literacy activities was associated with family income. Quantitative analyses revealed that amount of family literacy involvement and the children's race were related to oral language development, and language development was the most powerful predictor of metalinguistic awareness. When language development was controlled statistically, family literacy and socioeconomic factors had negligible effects on metalinguistic skills; however, knowledge of print concepts was related to metalinguistic performance, especially in the phonological domain, and was associated with the children's family literacy experiences, maternal education, and race.
Interhemispheric learning and speed of hemispheric transmission in dyslexic and normal readers: A replication of previous results and additional findings
Authors: Vellutino Frank R. , Scanlon Donna M. , Bentley William L.
Published: December 2008

Two studies evaluated the interhemispheric transmission deficit explanation of reading disability comparing second- and sixth-grade poor and normal readers on learning and discrimination tasks that involved hemifield presentations of visual stimuli. In the first of these studies, in the main poor readers performed below the level of normal readers on paired associates learning, regardless of the visual field in which the stimulus appeared, thereby replicating previous findings. In the second study, no differences between reader groups were found on time taken to indicate presence or absence of a simple dot stimulus. It was concluded from the combined results that deficiency in inter-hemispheric transmission is not a significant cause of reading disability.
Naming latencies as evidence for two modes of lexical retrieval
Authors: Goodglass Harold , Theurkauf Jean C. , Wingfield Arthur
Published: December 2008

Data are reported for response latencies to naming pictures of objects which show a systematic relationship between naming latency and two measures of item difficulty. Of primary interest was a reanalysis of full latency distributions on a picture-by-picture basis to explore the possibility that overall mean latencies could in actuality be composed of multiple independent latency populations. Results are discussed in terms of “automatic” versus “voluntary search” modes of word retrieval.
Temporal or phonetic processing deficit in dyslexia? That is the question
Authors: Tallal Paula
Published: December 2008

Katz, Healy and Shankweiler investigated poor and good readers' performance on two order recall tasks which were differentiated by the extent to which phonetic memory strategies were employed. Contrary to their predictions, they found that poor readers were significantly impaired on both tasks. They attributed this unexpected finding to the rate at which stimuli were presented. However, results of studies that have experimentally manipulated rate of stimulus presentation in order recall tasks have demonstrated the opposite results to those predicted by these authors. The results of the present study support the hypothesis that poor readers are impaired in recalling the order of rapidly presented successive events.
The effects of language proficiency on memory for input language
Authors: Berkovits Rochele , Abarbanel Joan , Sitman David
Published: December 2008

The tendency to translate from a weaker to a stronger language was investigated as a function of proficiency in the nondominant language. Three groups of native Hebrew speakers with varying degrees of proficiency in English read passages of alternating English and Hebrew sentences. Subjects identified a following recognition sentence as either “identical” to a sentence read in the passage, a “translation” of a sentence read in the passage, or “new,” and then rated their confidence. The results showed no evidence for translation processes; with respect to “identical” and “translation” pairs, none of the groups was more accurate in recognizing sentences originally presented in their dominant language. These findings, which parallel those of an earlier study in which nonfluent bilinguals were tested auditorally, reflect similar psycholinguistic mechanisms underlying nondominant language processing in speakers of different levels of proficiency. The results were related to the distinction between automatic and controlled processes involved in dominant versus nondominant language processing.
The comprehension of idioms: The effects of familiarity, literalness, and usage
Authors: Cronk Brian C. , Schweigert Wendy A.
Published: December 2008

The relationships among the familiarity of an idiom's figurative meaning, the likelihood of its literal meaning (literalness), and its usage were explored. Previous research has been inconsistent in supporting any one model of idiom comprehension, although certain factors have been found to affect reading times of sentences containing idioms. Consistent with this research, familiarity was found to have a significant effect on reading times for sentences containing idioms. A significant new finding is that literalness affects reading times. Additionally, it was found that familiarity and literalness exert interactive effects, suggesting a common underlying mechanism. The results are interpreted as supporting a model of idiom comprehension in which a single phrase processor simultaneously computes figurative and literal meanings of idioms.
The relationship of form and meaning: A cross-sectional study of tense and aspect in the interlanguage of learners of English as a second language
Authors: Bardovi-Harlig Kathleen
Published: December 2008

The task of all language learners is to match form and meaning. This study investigates the associations of form and meaning in the developing tense and aspect systems of adult learners of English as a second language. A cross-sectional study of 135 learners at six levels of proficiency was conducted using a cloze passage and compositions on the same topic. The interlanguage tense and aspect systems can be characterized as showing high formal accuracy, but relatively lower appropriate use across all levels. During the period when appropriate use lags behind formal accuracy, learners seem to associate form and meaning through alternative interim hypotheses related to lexical aspect and discourse function.
School performance and adjustment of Greek remigrant students in the schools of their home country
Authors: Hatzichristou Chryse , Hopf Diether
Published: December 2008

This study explores the adjustment of Greek remigrant students in Greek public schools after their families' return to Greece from the Federal Republic of Germany. Teacher and self-rating instruments were used, and achievement and language competence data were obtained. The sample consisted of 13- to 15-year-old junior high school students in northern Greece. The remigrant students were divided into two groups (“early return” and “late return”), based on the year of return to Greece. The control group consisted of all the local classmates of these students. Remigrant students (mainly late return) were found to experience difficulties mainly in the language/learning domain and less in the interpersonal and intrapersonal behavior domains.
Differential pragmatic language loss after closed head injury: Ability to comprehend conversational implicature
Authors: McDonald Skye
Published: December 2008

Two experiments in which 2 closed-head-injured (CHI) subjects and 12 non-brain-damaged control subjects took part investigated the capacity to comprehend indirect speech acts. In the first experiment, the subjects were required to interpret conventional indirect speech acts. One CHI subject, but not the other, had trouble rejecting the literal meaning. In the second experiment, the subjects were required to interpret the meaning behind two literally conflicting sentences. While the control subjects interpreted these as representing a sarcastic exchange, the CHI subjects were unable to provide an adequate explanation. The results were interpreted in terms of common cognitive deficits after closed head injury.
What is learnable in manually coded English sign systems?
Authors: Schick Brenda , Moeller Mary Pat
Published: December 2008

It has been suggested that manual sign systems designed to represent English are unlearnable because they are not natural languages. In order to examine this premise, the present study examines reading achievement and expressive English skills of 13 profoundly deaf students, aged 7;1 to 14;8, who were educated using only a manually coded English (MCE) sign system. Linguistic structures selected for analysis were designed to reflect unique characteristics of English, as well as those common to English and American Sign Language, and to obtain a broad picture of English skills. Results showed that the deaf students had expressive English skills comparable to a hearing control group for some features of English that reflected syntactic and lexical skills. They showed substantial deficits in inflectional morphological skills that were not predictive of the complexity of their language. The results reveal which aspects of MCE appear to be learnable and which appear problematic for deaf students.
Sentence interpretation in bilingual speakers of English and Chinese
Authors: Liu Hua , Bates Elizabeth , Li Ping
Published: December 2008

This study examines patterns of transfer in the sentence processing strategies displayed by Chinese-English and English–Chinese bilinguals. Our results indicate that late bilinguals display strong evidence for forward transfer: late Chinese–English bilinguals transfer animacybased strategies to English sentences; late English–Chinese bilinguals transfer English-like word order strategies to Chinese. Early bilinguals display a variety of transfer patterns, including differentiation (use of animacy strategies in Chinese and word order strategies in English) and backward transfer (use of L2 processing strategies in L1, a possible symptom of language loss). These unusual transfer patterns reflect a complex interaction of variables, including age of exposure to L2 and patterns of daily language use. Implications of these findings for the critical period hypothesis are discussed, together with some new hypotheses concerning the interaction between acquisition of L2 and maintenance of L1.
Consequences of transfer out of early French immersion programs
Authors: Bruck Margaret
Published: December 2008

Former French immersion students who had transferred to an English program because of academic difficulty and poor adjustment were assessed after their first year of total English education. Their cognitive, academic, linguistic, and social psychological status was compared to that of children who had remained in the immersion program despite academic difficulty. Academically, both groups showed similar improvement. Behaviorally, the transfer children continued to be deviant and to show poor attitudes and motivations. After one year out of French immersion, the transfer children maintained previously acquired second language skills. The data suggest that the child's basic cognitive and affective characteristics rather than factors associated with language of education influence academic achievement as well as school- and language-related attitudes and motivations.
Word recognition processes of poor and disabled readers: Do they necessarily differ?
Authors: Seidenberg Mark S. , Bruck Margaret , Fornarolo Gail , Backman Joan
Published: December 2008

Children assessed as reading disabled are often thought to use decoding processes that differ from those of nondisabled children. This assumption was examined in a study that compared the word recognition skills of a group of clinic-diagnosed reading disabled children with those of good and poor readers. Subjects read words and nonwords containing either regular or homographic spelling patterns. Regular patterns have a single pronunciation (e.g., -UST) while homographic patterns have multiple pronunciations (e.g., -ONE). Analyses of the errors, latencies, and types of pronunciations indicated that while the performance of the poor and disabled readers differed from that of the good readers, the two below-average reader groups were very similar. The reading disabled children exhibited decoding processes similar to those exhibited by younger nondisabled readers. The results suggest that many children who meet the diagnostic criteria for reading disability may be indistinguishable from nondisabled children in terms of actual reading performance.
Review of agraphia and a proposal for an anatomically-based neuropsychological model of writing
Authors: Roeltgen David P. , Heilman Kenneth M.
Published: December 2008

Previous models of agraphia have been descriptive and have emphasized the association of agraphia with other disorders such as aphasia and alexia. Such models have frequently led to inconsistent descriptions of specific agraphia types. These inconsistencies have made clinical-anatomical correlations difficult. Recent studies of agraphic patients with focal cerebral lesions have made it possible to develop a new model of writing based on specific neuropsychological mechanisms. In addition, results from computerized tomography have helped delineate probable anatomic substrates for many of these mechanisms. It is hoped this model provides a means for a better understanding of the mechanisms and anatomy underlying the agraphias as well as a better understanding of the relationships of the agraphias with aphasia and alexia.
“Alligator eats cookie”: Acquisition of writing and reading skills by deaf children using the microcomputer
Authors: Prinz Philip M. , Nelson Keith E.
Published: December 2008

This research investigated the effects of microcomputer technology on the acquisition of writing and reading skills in 32 deaf children between the ages of 3.2 and 8.5 years. The children used a special interface keyboard which builds in perceptual salience and animation of color pictures and graphic representations of signs from American Sign Language (ASL). The learning mechanism underlying this novel instructional system is responsive, interactional, and exploratory, reflective of the way in which most children acquire a first language. Results have demonstrated improvement in writing, reading, and general communication skills. These advances are attributed to exploratory learning -not solely programmed instruction – which allows the child to investigate at will the representation of various printed forms which relate to the child's own primary mode of communication.
Lending a helping hand: Linguistic input and sign language acquisition in deaf children
Authors: Prinz Philip M. , Masin Louise
Published: December 2008

This study examined the effects of adult “recasting” in sign language on the acquisition of specific syntactic-semantic structures by six deaf children between 9 and 76 months who were primarily at the one-sign utterance stage of development. In “recast” replies in conversation, the child's utterance is redisplayed in an altered sentence structure that still refers to the central meanings of the first sentence. Syntactic-semantic structures targeted for input intervention by teachers and parents using recasts included subject–verb relations, attribution, negation, subject–verb–object relations, conjunction, and conditionality. Recasting triggered the acquisition of new syntactic-semantic structures in American Sign Language and English which were evident in the spontaneous production of previously non-used sign utterances.
Comprehension of indefinite pronouns and quantifiers by hearing-impaired students
Authors: Wilbur Ronnie B. , Goodhart Wendy C.
Published: December 2008

Deaf students' recognition of indefinite pronouns and quantifiers was tested using written materials in the form of comic strips that provided pragmatically appropriate context. One hundred and eighty-seven profoundly hearing-impaired students, aged 7–23 years, served as subjects. There were significant developmental trends for both the indefinite pronouns and the quantifiers, with the quantifiers significantly more difficult than the indefinite pronouns. A comparison of the results with predictions drawn from theoretical linguistics and with predictions drawn from Developmental Sentence Scoring (Lee, 1974) data for hearing children indicates that theoretical predictions are more accurate for hearing-impaired students. This may be due to differences in methodology (DSS reports spontaneous spoken language; the present study reports comprehension of written English) and to educational practices with hearing-impaired students.
Deficient syntactic control in poor readers: Is a weak phonetic memory code responsible?
Authors: Byrne Brian
Published: December 2008

Groups of good and poor readers at second-grade level were tested for comprehension of adjectival constructions of the John is eager/easy to please types and of center-embedded relative clause constructions. The poor readers were inferior to good readers in understanding O-type adjectives (easy) but not S-type (eager). As well, they were poorer at comprehending embedded sentences, but only when the sentences described improbable events, ones which reversed the normal subject/object roles. When either noun could, on pragmatic grounds, assume either role, both groups fared equally well. The results are interpreted as casting doubt on recent assertions that deficient use of a phonetic memory code underlies the syntactic inferiority often seen in poor readers. A more pervasive linguistic immaturity is suggested as being involved.
Requesting strategies of learning disabled children
Authors: Donahue Mavis L.
Published: December 2008

Learning disabled children's pragmatic competence was examined on a task which allowed for the separate assessment of linguistic and social knowledge, that is, the ability to appropriately vary politeness and persuasive strategies as a function of listener status. Learning disabled and nondisabled children made requests of four imaginary listeners varying on the dimensions of intimacy and power. Learning disabled girls produced more polite requests than nondisabled girls to all listeners. Learning disabled boys produced a smaller variety of persuasive appeals and fewer appeals which represented sophisticated levels of listener perspective taking. Learning disabled boys' politeness and the elaboration of their persuasive appeals exhibited variations as a function of listener features, but attended to dimensions different from those reflected in nondisabled boys' requests. It appears that learning disabled boys produced less appropriate requesting strategies than nondisabled boys, even though their repertoire of linguistic forms for conveying politeness was not deficient. These results are discussed in terms of the interdependence of the social and linguistic knowledge underlying pragmatic development.
Memory for stories in language-impaired children
Authors: Graybeal Carolyn M.
Published: December 2008

Memory for content, or gist recall, was studied in groups of normal and language-impaired children, matched on age and sex, using a story recall task. The children were pretested for their ability to comprehend individual sentences in the stories. Following a practice session, two test stories were read to each child and oral recall was requested immediately after each story. The content of the recall protocols was analyzed into propositions and scored for accuracy, organization, and temporal ordering. The results showed that the groups differed primarily in the amount of accurate recall, with the language-impaired group recalling considerably less than the normal group. It was concluded that language-impaired children do exhibit deficits in gist recall for material which is within their linguistic grasp.
Early action word acquisition in normal and language-impaired children
Authors: Schwartz Richard G.
Published: December 2008

The acquisition of words referring to three types of actions was examined in normally developing and language-impaired children using a nonsense word paradigm. Fourteen language-normal and 10 language-impaired children whose speech was limited to single-word utterances served as subjects. The children were presented with 12 experimental words in 5 sessions over a period of approximately 3 weeks. The experimental words referred to actions that were classified as intransitive, transitive and specific to a particular object, or transitive but performed on 4 different objects. The children in both groups produced few of the action words. However, the groups differed in their comprehension of the three action word types. Specifically, the language-impaired children did not exhibit differences in comprehension across the different types of actions. The language-normal children, however, comprehended fewer words for intransitive actions than for the other types. The implications of these findings for characterizations of early lexical acquisition and for the nature of specific language impairment are addressed.
Aspects of linguistic awareness in reading comprehension
Authors: Bialystok Ellen
Published: December 2008

The relation between reading comprehension and linguistic awareness is discussed in terms of a set of processing skills common to both these activities. Two metalinguistic skill components are identified and examined for their relative contribution to reading comprehension. The general hypothesis is that these skill components explain a significant portion of the variance in reading comprehension. The two skill components are operationalized in terms of a battery of metalinguistic tasks, each of which is claimed (by means of task analysis) to rely primarily on one or the other processing component for its solution. A study is reported in which 8-year-old children are tested with these metalinguistic tasks, general measures of intelligence, and a test of reading comprehension. The results show that the relation among performance on the metalinguistic tasks is strongest for those tasks relying on the same processing skill component and that one of these components is most significant in determining the child's level of reading comprehension. These findings are interpreted in terms of the underlying linguistic processes involved in reading.
Learning words from context and dictionaries: An experimental comparison
Authors: Fischer Ute
Published: December 2008

This research investigates the independent and interactive effects of contextual and definitional information on vocabulary learning. German students of English received either a text with unfamiliar English words or their monolingual English dictionary entries. A third group of subjects were given both text and dictionary entries. Subjects used each target word in an English sentence and then translated their sentences into German. The translations showed whether students had understood the meaning of a target word and permitted the specification of comprehension strategies. Subjects who had received text and dictionary entries tended to favor the dictionary and thus performed no better than students in the other experimental groups. Subjects learning words from context replaced unfamiliar words with familiar words conforming to contextual constraints. Subjects in the dictionary group commonly substituted a relevant part of the definition for the headword. Lexical errors occurred for different reasons: substitutions in the dictionary condition were unconstrained by context; substitutions in the text condition were not sufficiently constrained by context. The study shows that information about the contexts in which words are used is crucial for acquiring an adequate understanding of word meanings.1
Second language reading research: Problems and possibilities
Authors: Koda Keiko
Published: December 2008

A major purpose of this article is to examine first language (L1) reading theories from second language (L2) perspectives and, in so doing, to uncover significant research voids related to L2 problems. The article first considers the unique aspects of L2 reading in order to identify dimensions in which its theory must differ from accepted L1 constructs. It then discusses three fundamental distinctions that separate L1 and L2 reading: (a) the consequences of prior reading experience; (b) the effects of crosslinguistic processing; and (c) the compensatory devices stemming from the efforts of learners with limited linguistic knowledge to solve comprehension problems. Finally, several pedagogically oriented research themes which may be helpful in evaluating the instructional utility of current L2 reading theories are delineated.
Sentence processing in language-impaired children under conditions of filtering and time compression
Authors: Stark Rachel E. , Montgomery James W.
Published: December 2008

Nineteen language-impaired (LI) and 20 language-normal (LN) children participated in an on-line word-monitoring task. Words were presented in lists and in sentences readily comprehended by younger children. The sentences were unaltered, tow-pass filtered, and time- compressed. Both groups had shorter mean response times (MRTs), but lower accuracy, for words in sentences than words in lists. The LI children had significantly longer MRTs under sentence conditions and lower accuracy overall than the LN children. Filtering had an adverse effect upon accuracy and MRT for both subject groups. Time compression did not, suggesting that the reduction in high-frequency information and the rate of presentation exert different effects. Subject differences in attention, as well as in linguistic competence and motor control, may have influenced word-monitoring performance.
Is the relation between phonological memory and foreign language learning accounted for by vocabulary acquisition?
Authors: Service Elisabet , Kohonen Viljo
Published: December 2008

In an earlier study, Service (1992) found that phonological short-term memory, reflected in the ability to repeat English-sounding pseudowords, was a good predictor of learning English as a foreign language over a period of three school years. This study attempts to find out to what extent foreign vocabulary learning is the critical learning process related to pseudoword repetition accuracy. Regression analyses on repetition data and learning measures revealed significant correlations between pseudoword repetition and foreign language learning, even after a measure of general academic achievement had been partialed out. In a fixed-order multiple regression analysis – with predictors entered in the order of general academic achievement, foreign language vocabulary, and pseudoword repetition – no additional variance in any foreign language measure studied could be accounted for by pseudoword repetition in the third step. When vocabulary in the second step was replaced by performance in foreign language essay writing or the correct reproduction of dictated discourse – both highly related to overall foreign language performance – repetition significantly increased the proportion of accounted variance, especially for two foreign language vocabulary tasks and a listening comprehension task. Phonological memory may, therefore, be specifically related to foreign vocabulary learning.
Attributing mental states to story characters: A comparison of narratives produced by autistic and mentally retarded individuals
Authors: Tager-Flusberg Helen , Sullivan Kate
Published: December 2008

This study investigated narrative abilities and their relation to theory of mind in autistic and mentally retarded subjects, who were matched for their linguistic competence on standardized measures of comprehension and production. We asked 27 autistic, 27 mentally retarded, and 17 normal subjects (whose age range matched the verbal mental age ranges of the developmentally disordered groups) to tell the story from a wordless picture book. Following their spontaneous narratives, a set of probe questions was asked about the story characters' feeling states. The autistic and mentally retarded subjects were also given a standard test of false belief. The main findings were that, when closely matched on language ability, no significant group differences were found on measures of narrative length, use of lexical cohesion devices, and mental state terms. On the probed questions, the autistic and mentally retarded subjects gave fewer appropriate emotion responses than the normal subjects, and the autistic subjects had difficulty explaining the emotional states correctly. For the autistic sample, the narrative measures were significantly correlated with performance on the theory of mind task. The findings are interpreted in terms of the contributions of both linguistic and social–cognitive factors in narrative ability.