Reports on a study of metacognitive strategy training for reading in English as a Second Language. The study indicated that such training was effective in enhancing second language reading, although the measured effectiveness of training was influenced by the way reading was measured and differences in students' learning styles. (62 references)…

This paper argues that schema theory and discourse analysis demonstrate that flow charts, grids, and tree diagrams are the most effective models of how the mind organizes ideas in information sets. It shows how each of these frameworks can be used as the central device in an integrated model of language learning. (15 references) (MDM)

Describes the "Competition Model" (Bates and MacWhinney, 1982) dealing with second-language sentence processing by bilinguals and research that has further developed theories dealing with the model. (CB)

Compares the results from monolingual children with object omissions in bilingual children who have acquired two languages simultaneously. Claims that the difference between monolingual and bilingual children is due to crosslinguistic influences in bilingual children. (Author/VWL)

Comments are provided by ten authors in response to an article on language separation and crosslinguistic influence in bilingual first language acquisition. (Author/VWL)

Responds to comments by various researchers on an early article presented in the same issue of this journal, claiming that language separation and crosslinguistic influence coexist in bilingual first language acquisition. (Author/VWL)

Presents the ALEXIA system, a lexical-learning environment for French as a second or foreign language, and describes its network module, which can automatically build graphs of certain lexical semantic relations. (Author/VWL)

The present study investigated the effects of intensive recasting on second language learners' use of the Japanese aspectual form -te i-(ru) using a time-series design. Four college classroom learners participated in 8 conversational sessions, with the researcher providing recasts during the middle 4 sessions, and 2 of the learners also…

The effects of topical coherence on the comprehension of two groups of non-native (Finnish) users of English and a control group of English native speakers were observed, with reaction times from a visual word monitoring task as the dependent measure. The experiment examined the ability of intermediate and advanced second language students to…

This paper argues that visual aids should be used in teaching and testing language. It has been scientifically demonstrated that visuals allow for greater cognitive mapping and navigating in an environment. Visuals are a good and useful tool for examination purposes, because they lead the learner to draw out language from their own knowledge and…

Cognitive sciences are discovering many things that educators have always intuitively known about language learning. However, the important point is actively using this new information to improve both students learning and current teaching practices. The implications of neuroscience for educational reform regarding second language (L2) learning…

First-semester Spanish students were encouraged to acquire vocabulary through small- and large-group oral activities plus semantic mapping. A second group participated in similar oral activities but did not perform semantic mapping. A comparison of the two groups suggests a trend toward the effectiveness of semantic mapping as a strategy that…

Styles of thinking and learning are relevant for understanding and testing foreign-language aptitude. This article emphasizes one particular theory of styles, the theory of self-government, and discusses the nature of styles, gives some history of the concept of styles, describes styles in theory, describes measures of styles, and discusses the…

Reviews factors influencing reversals of expectations for language-learning outcomes. This article touches on psychological and neurological data regarding individual differences in language-learning mechanisms and focuses on cross-linguistic psycholinguistic analysis that indicates that different target languages offer a wide variety of learning…

Examination of factors underlying cross-language transfer in metaphor interpretation among bilingual (Spanish-English) 7- to 12-year-olds indicated that metaphor interpretation ability was higher in the older subjects. The level of metaphor interpretation was most strongly related to cognitive-developmental variables that were interdependent…