Provides a description of a classroom procedure incorporating small group work to help students develop critical thinking skills. (DF)

Reports on three investigations concerning the acquisition of a third language in bilingual immigrant students in Germany and Sweden. The results suggest that immigrant students who always use Swedish at home but have passive knowledge of their first language clearly perform better in English than do Swedish monolingual students. (SL)

Discusses the concept of learner strategy in relation to language learning. Proposes that these strategies can be subdivided into four categories: strategies for coping with target language rules, strategies for receiving performance, strategies for producing performance, and strategies for organizing learning. Stresses the encouragement of the…

Discusses two experiments designed to clarify the cognitive functions of mnemonics in fact learning. One presents subjects with a single attribute mnemonic, providing only the perceptual link, while the other presents subjects with a two-stage model serving the cognitive functions of providing a perceptual link followed by a meaningful link. (MBR)

The Second Language Learning in the Primary School Project was developed to explore ways of providing for the special language needs of children from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. The project focused on language skills, first-hand experiences, extensive use of spoken language, and children working together. Examples of this…

Offers adaptations of content area reading techniques that can help teachers integrate mainstreamed children into small groups with other members of their classes. Techniques include (1) the Jigsaw strategy, (2) the list-group-label strategy, and (3) the small group structured overview. (FL)

Discusses how children get to the point where they can, in the school setting, begin to learn languages effectively. Argues that language awareness needs to be related to the aim of improving language learning and examines how language awareness might be incorporated into both elementary and secondary school curriculums. (SED)

Describes a study that factor analyzed questionnaire data and compared factor scores of good and poor college-level readers to determine the text-learning strategies of each group. Results, which indicate poor readers rely heavily on study strategies without an understanding of the text to be studied, have implications for remedial reading…

Purposes of the study were to determine whether training children to compare different parts of text improves detection of text errors and whether self-controlled training of comparison produces more durable use of the strategy. Children offered a self-instructional routine monitored comprehension better than did subjects given minimal training.…

Describes semantic mapping, an effective strategy for vocabulary instruction that involves the categorical structuring of information in graphic form and requires students to relate new words to their own experience and prior knowledge. (HOD)

Role-playing games and simulations offer revolutionary ways to learn and solve problems. Some games/simulations that can be used to explore and evaluate possible futures are described. The future of educational games is also discussed. (RM)

Proposes four guidelines to help educators evaluate vocabulary instruction: (1) instruction should help students relate new vocabulary to their background knowledge, (2) instruction should help students develop elaborated word knowledge, (3) instruction should provide for active student involvement, and (4) instruction should develop students'…

Specifies some of the different word learning tasks students face, describes different levels of word knowledge, notes three types of costs involved in instruction, and discusses the costs and benefits of some specific methods of vocabulary instruction. (HOD)

Assesses the hazards of models of cognitive development and the positivist views of language that support them. Considers how alternative views of language and learning can help develop a method of teaching that views reading and writing as interpretation and the making of meaning. (RBW)

Argues that the comprehension of metaphor depends on recognition of the similarities and differences in the semantic features of the words representing both sides of the metaphoric equation. Suggests that inexperienced poetry readers are usually unable to analyze these semantic features without assistance. Outlines a strategy for helping these…