In the Keynote Article, "The Interface Between Bilingual Development and Specific Language Impairment," Johanne Paradis considers issues and evidence at the intersection of children learning two languages and primary or specific language impairment (SLI). The review focuses on morphosyntactic evidence and the fit of this evidence with maturational…

Two experiments examined the effects of phonotactic probability and neighborhood density on word learning by 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children. Nonwords orthogonally varying in probability and density were taught with learning and retention measured via picture naming. Experiment 1 used a within story probability/across story density exposure…

This article discusses the impact of the advent of primary English on the development of College English in China. The advent of English in primary schools as a teaching subject has brought about a downward shift of focus of the English education system in China. Basic English education will be accomplished in primary and secondary schools. The…

The growing number of students needing additional language support requires extra time in the hectic schedule of a typical science teacher. The good news for busy teachers is that several researchers and educators have crafted methods for using "sheltered instruction" to meet the unique needs of English language learner (ELL) students:…

The papers in this special issue of "Language and Cognitive Processing" on the neural bases of language production illustrate two general approaches in current cognitive neuroscience. One approach focuses on investigating cognitive issues, making use of the logic of associations/dissociations or the logic of neural markers as key investigative…

This study examined the development of rapid automatised naming (RAN) components (i.e. articulation time and pause time) in English and Chinese, and their relations to English reading comprehension, in Chinese English immersion students at Grades 2, 4 and 6. Results indicated that pause time rather than articulation time was highly correlated with…

In a mixed-methods study, which included surveys of 247 parents and 151 teachers, the researchers investigated the modes of communication used by children with cochlear implants and the role of signed communication in the children's lives. Findings indicated that 15%-20% of the children in the parent surveys and approximately 30% of the children…

Second language acquisition studies can contribute to the body of research on the influence of language on thought by examining cognitive change as a result of second language learning. We conducted a longitudinal study that examined how the acquisition of Spanish grammatical gender influences categorization in native English-speaking adults. We…

This review explores challenges and barriers to parent-child interaction which leads to language development in the first 3 years of the child's life. Seven databases yielded 1,750 hits, reduced to 49 evidence-based studies, many of which still had methodological imperfections. Evidence was quite strong in relation to socio-economic status,…

Young English-speaking monolingual and bilingual adults were examined for English proficiency, language use history, and performance on a flanker task. The bilinguals, who were about twenty years old, were divided into two groups (early bilinguals and late bilinguals) according to whether they became actively bilingual before or after the age of…

In the present study, the natural and simultaneous first language acquisition of a German-Italian bilingual boy and an Italian monolingual girl from 1;8 to 2;1 are analyzed and compared. The investigation focuses on the rate of acquisition and the size and composition of the productive lexicons. At the end of the observation period, the bilingual…

The purpose of this design experiment was to research, test, and iteratively derive principles of word learning and word organization that could help to theoretically advance our understanding of vocabulary development for low-income preschoolers. Six Head Start teachers in morning and afternoon programs and their children (N = 89) were selected…

This review explores the literacy difficulties experienced by prelingual, profoundly deaf, sign-dominant adults. A critical overview of the existing literature identifies the importance of understanding their language experiences and word-coding preferences. Findings challenge the notion that a permanent lack of audition from birth prevents…

Cross-linguistic findings have shown that Danish children's early receptive vocabulary development is slower relative to children learning other languages. In this study, we examined whether Danish children's acquisition of inflectional past-tense morphology is delayed relative to Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish children. Our comparison of data…

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effectiveness of e-book activity for vocabulary acquisition and story comprehension among kindergarteners at risk for learning disabilities (LD) as opposed to typically developing (TD) children. Participants included 136 children aged between five and seven (M = 71.2; SD = 5.64, in months),…