We propose a previously unexamined factor instrumental in learning vocabulary accounting for the differences between learning a native and a foreign language: the development of critical thinking in adolescence. We hypothesize that the difficulties experienced in foreign vocabulary development result from the learner's readiness to question new…

This study examines the outcomes of a US-based six-week summer professional development program for 19 Taiwanese teachers of Mandarin Chinese as a Foreign Language. The goal of this funded program was to facilitate international teachers' understanding and application of the "World-Readiness Standards" for Learning Languages (National…

Discusses the elements of the language learning process, i.e., language experience, the learner, mental processes, comprehension, learning, the capacities the learner brings to the process, and the conditions for learning and elaborates on their implications for second language teaching. What must occur before the learner moves across the gap…

The controversy over the optimal age for learning a second language is discussed, examining, from the perspective of Piagetian theory: (1) the argument which suggests that children have an advantage in language learning; and (2) the arguments which states that adults have an advantage in language learning. The first part provides an overview of…

Sixty middle school students, half average-achieving and half with learning disabilities (LD), were assigned to either a positive or neutral mood induction condition prior to receiving instruction in elementary Hindi language (to control for effects of prior knowledge). Across a two-week period, the LD students in the positive condition performed…

Exploring psycholinguistic factors which bear directly on student achievement in language instruction in college, this article concludes that programed language instruction has no negative influence on student attitudes. The author directly links learning rate to the learner's attitudes while focusing discussion on results of an attitudinal…

As a reissue of a popular book written in the 1920's on the principles of language study, this work is included in a series of publications devoted to language and language learning. The methodology prescribed centers upon nine fundamental principles: (1) initial preparation, (2) habit forming, (3) accuracy, (4) gradation, (5) proportion, (6)…

Selected papers presented in this book are: "Changing Concepts of Self-Direction in Learning" (Long); "The Transition from Learner-Control to Autodidaxy: More than Meets the Eye" (Candy); "Self-Directed Learning and the Theory of Adult Education" (Jarvis); "On the Theme and Variations of Self-Directed…