This paper provides an overview of second language acquisition (SLA) research over the past several decades and highlights the ways in which it has retained its original applied and linguistic interests and enhanced them by addressing questions about acquisition processes. After discussing disciplinary contexts (SLA research and applied…

Research supported by a grant to the senior author from the Australian Research Grants Committee. (DD)

Research supported by a grant from the Office of Naval Research. (DD)

Research supported by grants to the University of Minnesota, Center for Research in Human Learning, from the National Science Foundation, the National Institute for Child Health and Human Development, and the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota. (DD)

Discusses communicational aspects of Rorschach data. (RS)

Infants learn their language by first determining, independent of language, the meaning which a speaker intends to convey to them, and by then working out the relationship between the meaning and the expression they heard. (Author)

Selects technical and popular writings from three scientists in each of four fields, and finds differences in the visual-verbal imagery which each field uses. (MB)

The ways that children and adults use their limited cognitive processes in comprehending the complex input of a second language are discussed, and an information-processing approach to second-language learning is proposed and supported in a number of areas of second language research. Implications for research and teaching are examined. (MSE)

Indicates that the way different languages reduce speech to script affects how visual information is processed in the brain, suggesting that the relation between script and speech underlying all types of writing systems plays an important part in reading behavior. Compares memory performance of native English/Chinese speakers. (JN)

Discusses four aspects of listening comprehension citing supportive research: (1) what is involved in listening comprehension, (2) whether it be taught, (3) how it is related to reading comprehension, and (4) what other factors affect listening comprehension. Provides recommendations for teaching. (HTH)

Kindergarteners without number conservation ability were found to rely on the nonlinguistic strategy of choosing the greater amount in tasks requiring the choice of more and less. Mature semantic knowledge of "more" was found to precede that of "less." (Author)

Delineates a study showing that jurors arriving at different verdicts differ in the way they compute verdicts from a common evidence base rather than in the structure of their evidence bases. Concludes that the legal system's distinction between evidence comprehension and verdict deliberation is a defensible one. (Author/FL)