In this study of more than 1,000 typical and at-risk elementary Arabic-speaking students in Oman, we explore relationships between pragmatic (and other) language skills, literacy, cognition, and behavior and the degree to which demography impacts performance on associated tasks. We found, in most cases, that females performed better than males,…

Since language is a biological trait, it is necessary to investigate its evolution, development, and functions, along with the mechanisms that have been set aside, and are now recruited, for its acquisition and use. It is argued here that progress toward each of these goals can be facilitated by new programs of research, carried out within a new…

RESEARCH PROJECTS IN PROGRESS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN'S CENTER FOR RESEARCH ON LANGUAGE AND LANGUAGE BEHAVIOR ARE OUTLINED IN THIS REPORT. EACH PROJECT DESCRIPTION INCLUDES A BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE PURPOSES, SCOPE, AND DESIGN OF THE RESEARCH, AS WELL AS AN ACCOUNT OF THE WORK ACTUALLY UNDERWAY. THE NAMES OF THE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS ARE ALSO…

This paper indicates the relevance of psycholinguistic research to the study of the interpretation process. Citing selected experiments that demonstrate some of the possibilities for extending research into the language experience of the interpreter, the paper argues that such an approach might lead into examining the experience of imagery,…

Argues for a cognitive psychological approach to second-language learning that emphasizes the importance of the development of automaticity and the process of restructuring. It is suggested that language practice can lead to both increased, and occasionally decreased, performance levels, which cognitive psychology may help researchers to…

To measure the effectiveness of an intervention program of language development, it is necessary to understand childrens' knowledge and use of grammatical structures. In both standard and dialectal English, grammar rules are learned without formal instruction for forming the negative, interrogative, and other parts of speech. A mental…

The study involving 56 hearing and 24 deaf children (9-11 years old) sought evidence of language knowledge in deaf children extending beyond formal instruction, and consequently suggestive of a functional generative language system. (Author/SBH)

A study was conducted to examine some of the cognitive and linguistic factors that influence metaphor comprehension in young children. Presupposing that (1) the similarities between the topic and the vehicle in a metaphor comprise the metaphor's ground, (2) salience is the degree of prominence of a characteristic in relation to a concept, and (3)…

Individuals previously identified as language-bound (LB) and language-optional (LO) participated in a series of experiments to study verbal fluency. The two groups showed a striking similarity in the number of responses they produced for categories with constraints at various levels (word form, word content, sentence, interpretation). This…

Research supported in part by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation. (DS)

In a supplement to Sasaki's 1993 study, six of the same participants took different types of second-language proficiency (SLP) tests, a foreign language aptitude battery, and an intelligence test. Results revealed differences in information processing between the high and low SLP groups. (Contains 35 references.) (Author/LB)

Practice on cognitive tasks, such as word recognition tasks, will usually lead to faster and more stable responding in a second language. An analysis is presented of the relationship between observed reductions in performance latency and latency variability with respect to whether processing has become faster or whether a qualitative change, such…

A study examined the differences in the appreciation of language ambiguity as represented in the word play of children aged 6 through 11 years. In six weekly play sessions, students were read stories containing many lexical ambiguities and pictures and were invited to verbalize and to draw similar ambiguities. Criteria necessary to the…

As a result of a program of research about cognitive processes involved in learning to read and write among 3-, 4-, 5-, and 6-year old-children, this book attempts to get teacher-researchers to think through the implications of recent insights into literacy and literacy learning. The first section examines instructional assumptions; proposes a new…

Investigates the metalinguistic ability of monolingual or bilingual children between five and nine years of age on two language tasks (grammaticality judgment and correction). (HOD)