Designed to assist educators in making a more knowledgeable selection of reading methods and techniques, this paper integrates the findings of eye processing research with classroom reading practices. Following a review of eye movement and visual processing research, the paper presents a discussion of research on the process by which a reader…

The central feature of language is symbolic meaning, and the act of reading is a part of the symbolic process that characterizes human life. Meaning occurs as a result of interpretation in a context, not as a result of response or reaction. Signs have a literal meaning in a specific context, while symbols have a figurative meaning in an implicit…

A study was conducted to test the validity of the Linguistic Features Hypothesis, which predicts that unmarked personal pronouns will be learned first by children, yielding the following order of acquisition: first person before second, followed by third; singular before plural; and subjective case before objective or genitive. A review of the…

Much recent research into college writing has focused on syntactic measurements. Significant problems inherent in such use of these indices arise for their validity at and beyond the college level and center on the terms "maturity,""complexity," and "growth.""Maturity" has not been satisfactorily defined, nor has the level of competence been…

THIS PAPER IS THE FIRST IN A SERIES PRESENTING THE FEATURES OF SYSTEMS DESIGNED FOR COMPUTATIONAL LINGUISTICS AT THE LINGUISTICS RESEARCH CENTER (LRC) OF THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN. ONGOING RESEARCH IS EXPANDING THE APPLICATION OF THESE SYSTEMS TO INCLUDE NOT ONLY NATURAL LANGUAGE BUT PROGRAMING LANGUAGES AS WELL. THIS PAPER DISCUSSES…

STORIES DICTATED BY STUDENTS FROM GRADES 1 AND 2 OF SCHOOLS IN A POVERTY AREA OF TUCSON, ARIZONA WERE TRANSCRIBED BY CLASSROOM TEACHERS AND ARE REPRODUCED WITH ACCOMPANYING SEMANTIC ANALYSES. ANALYZED FOR BASIC PREDICATION FORMS AND MAJOR FORM-CLASS CONCEPTS WHICH ARE CONTAINED IN THEM, THE STORIES ARE PRESENTED TO SHOW (1) DIFFERENCES IN THE…

Concerned with the study of lexical changes, this unit for grade 9 is intended to develop the student's understanding of several specific ways in which the meanings of words change, of the interpersonal relationships and the social values which cause such change, and of general concepts related to language change. Discussion questions, lectures,…

In a previous study by the investigator, it was determined that the lowest socioeconomic strata of pupils valued leadership significantly higher than did the upper socioeconomic group. This follow-up study attempted to determine whether pupils with similar connotations of leadership were more likely to be democratic leaders or autocratic leaders,…

A study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of simulation for presenting critical teaching problems and the effect of exposure to simulated critical teaching problems on student teachers. The study had three major phases: (1) identification of critical teaching problems, (2) development of a simulated fifth grade situation, and (3)…

In this study, prediction of success in programed learning for students of different personality types was only minimally successful because the dependent variables, which were test scores and final grades, correlated r = 0.52. Ninety-seven 10th and 11th grade mathematics students were individually given the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale which…

High on the list of today's educational priorities is the effective programing of pictorial stimuli as language teaching tools. The value of any image depends on its content of information, and essential for clear comprehension of any picture are the principles of causality, parallelism, and contrast or negative comparison. Both artist and teacher…

Comprehension of the quantifiers "some" and "all" was studied with 202 children, three to nine years old. Thirty-two quantifier sentences dealing with descriptions of circles and squares were presented to the children. Wooden objects were presented to some children to see if results were affected by the choice of abstract objects, but no…

This paper suggests that traditional syntax describes a sentence's syntactic structure, and that verb valence theory describes a sentence's semantic structure. According to this theory, a verb has a certain valence, or power to attract a certain number of "adjuncts." It is further shown that a given semantic structure can be converted into…

This study examined the ability of junior high school students to use advance information when making semantic category decisions. The subjects, eight good readers and eight poor readers, identified paired words as "same" or "different" in category, with some words more highly associated with the category than others--in the "fruit" category, for…

These short summaries of the reports from the National Institute of Education's Conference on Studies in Reading are intended to reflect accurately the general areas of research recommended by each of the 10 panels taking part in the conference. Each panel focused on a particular problem in reading, identifying general approaches, suggesting…