I continue here the long-standing discussion on the familiar topic of whether subconscious language acquisition is more powerful than conscious language learning, with a focus on vocabulary, adding recent studies as well as older ones I missed in previous publications on this topic (e.g. Krashen, 2004).

Second language research and classroom practice have tended to sideline reading in favor of an emphasis on the oral language development of the English Language Learner (ELL). First-language (L1) reading research is well developed but has limited usefulness to the teacher or researcher interested in second-language (L2) reading. Developing L2…

In reading research, studies on good and poor reader characteristics abound. However, these findings remain largely scattered in applied linguistics and cognitive and educational psychology. This paper attempts to synthesize current theory and research on the topic in the past 20 years along 3 dimensions: language knowledge and processing ability,…

Examines basic properties of selected orthographies of various languages and suggests that they play a crucial role in transferring reading ability across languages, especially if the language systems are quite different. (FL)

This paper argues that metaphor comprehension is an interactive process that involves reliance not only on the metaphorical linguistic input but also on the linguistic and situational context in which it occurs. A pilot study indicated that even preschool children appear capable of using the information provided by the linguistic and situational…

This study investigated kindergarten, first, and second grade children's ability to make linguistic judgments about sentneces that were either correct or disrupted along semantic or grammatical lines. Sentences on the judgment task were created according to clearly specified rules utilizing grammatical features that could be transformed into…

Children, four, six, eight, and twelve years old, and adults participated in a study of judgments of syllable similarity. Subjects listened to a disyllabic nonsense unit (the standard) followed by two comparison stimuli; they were then asked to choose the comparison stimulus "most like" the standard. Changes between the comparison stimuli and the…

An overview of research on implicit speech from 1868 to 1970 is presented. Various studies are reviewed in which a variety of mechanical devices were used to examine the physiological changes that occur during silent reading. Edfelt's use of a mingograph in 1950 was considered a breakthrough, along with his conclusion that efforts to eliminate…

Productive application of linguistics to the field of reading has made necessary the formulation, revision, and expansion of theories and models of reading to incorporate relationships among stimulus characteristics of writing systems and response components of phonological, morphological, syntactical, lexical, and affective systems. These…

This study was designed to examine how the form class and position of a word in a sentence influence the ability of primary-grade students to use available context to correctly guess an unknown word. Forty-three second-grade-level readers were asked to read orally four cloze passages that had been constructed from first-grade-level, basal reading…

Reports on children's mastery of one type of sentence structure which is derivationally complex and which has been shown to be psychologically complex as well, given the criteria of both comprehension and acceptability to the native speaker. (HOD)

Describes two studies of word meaning acquisition among children. Concludes that (1) even very young children can learn new words and their meanings on basis of linguistic expressions and in absence of direct experience with referents, and (2) that particular forms of discourse (e.g., narrative and dialogue) can render new meanings more accessible…

Concludes that there is a general language comprehension deficit in poor readers. (DD)

Explores three explanations for the lack of a relationship between oral language development and reading ability. Presents data which provides evidence for each of the following sources of explanation: (1) inappropriateness of measures used in previous studies, (2) differences between written and spoken languages, and (3) the distinction between…