It is an undeniable fact that storytelling makes a remarkable contribution to the domains of child development at an early age since it is stated that storytelling is the original form of teaching. Firstly, the contributions and effects of storytelling techniques to the cultural, cognitive, linguistic, socio-emotional and psychological domains of…

Examines the emergence of the present perfect in the interlanguage of instructed adult learners of English as a Second Language. Findings indicate that adding a new inflection in the tense/aspect system requires establishing new form-meaning associations as well as revising existing ones. (44 references) (Author/CK)

Maternal infant-directed speech in Mandarin Chinese and Turkish (two mother-child dyads each) was examined to see if cues exist in input that might assist infants' assignments of words to lexical and functional item categories. Results show that sets of distributional, phonological, and acoustic cues distinguishing lexical and functional items are…

Presents a replication of experiments which found that input practice is better than output practice for comprehension skills, and no worse than output practice for production skills in a second language (Spanish). Findings reveal that these patterns are obscured when the testing time and the morphosyntactic nature of the structure in question…

The past 20 years have seen research on language acquisition in the cognitive sciences grow immensely. The current paper offers a fairly extensive review of this literature, arguing that new cognitive theories and empirical data are perfectly consistent with core predictions a behavior analytic approach makes about language development. The review…

This book provides a summary of past and cutting-edge research on the acquisition of language by young children. It lends support to the behavioralist paradigm of language acquisition, namely, that maternal rewards and corrections should be integrated with perceptual, cognitive, and social learning conceptualizations in a skill-learning approach…

Presents a longitudinal study of teacher talk that examines the use of affective particles in the language of the university-level elementary Japanese as a foreign language classroom. Results reveal that affective particles are used far less frequently in the classroom language analyzed than in ordinary conversation and that significant…

The eight titles in this document include the following: "Comprehension and Input Processing as Useful Terms in the Field of SLA" (number 28) (Teresa Cadierno); "On the Role of Instruction in SLA: Research Results and Theoretical Explanations" (number 29) (Teresa Cadierno); "Can Writing Be Taught" (number 30) (Stuart Greene); "Academic Listening"…

Discusses pre-linguistic and linguistic stages of language acquisition that are part of a continuum of receptivity and communication every child experiences in the first 3 years of life. Suggests parents assist language development by being sympathetic to each developmental turning point, providing the right emotional climate for expression, and…

The purpose of this manual, which accompanies a video program, is to provide general background information for foreign language teachers who are, or soon will be, teaching in total, partial, or two-way immersion classrooms. Part of a series of video programs, this manual highlights current theories, issues, and questions about second language…

A list of suggestions for the content-area teacher dealing with limited-English-proficient students is designed to help increase the comprehensible input provided to the students. A brief introductory section reviews theory underlying the approach. Subsequently, nine lists outline specific classroom activities (speaking/listening), teacher…

This booklet describes key principles of and research on teaching additional languages. The 10 chapters focus on the following: (1) "Comprehensible Input" (learners need exposure to meaningful, understandable language); (2) "Language Opportunities" (classroom activities should let students use natural and meaningful language with their…

Suggests ideas on how visuals and video-texts such as TV commercials and talk shows can enrich foreign language curricula; provide students with exposure to language in various contexts; develop socio-linguistic competence in a foreign language; provide models of pronunciation, intonation, rhythm and accent; and reduce anxiety in the classroom.…

Experimental second language acquisition research typically investigates the effectiveness of instruction in terms of overall group gains. A particular instructional method may not, however, benefit all learners uniformly. This study, conducted in a New Zealand secondary school, establishes whether there is any relationship between the…

The question of whether the English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) classroom is an environment that promotes input, feedback, and the production of output that is necessary for successful second language learning is addressed. Such questions have arisen within the context of a growing emphasis on communicative activities and student-to-student…