This paper explores and discusses the concept of reading comprehension from two major perspectives. One perspective is based on the theory that reading comprehension constitutes a pattern of skills. The other perspective is based on a psycholinguistic view of reading: reading as a language process. Strategies for gaining comprehension during…

Early childhood learning of language has led some to postulate innate knowledge of an abstract symbolic linguistic system. However, if the child's abstract understanding initially requires concrete support in the form of agreement of the message with his nonlinguistic experience, the indication would be that the development of syntactic…

This 40 item questionnaire was developed to measure students' attitudes toward police officers. For the first 28 items the students read a statement and select a response ranging from agreeing strongly to disagreeing strongly on a five point scale. The students indicate their attitudes toward police on a scale of semantic distance between pairs of…

A result of a three-week reading institute at Northern Illinois University during the summer of 1974, this publication consists of papers focusing on various aspects of reading from a psycholinguistic perspective and strategy lessons to be used in the development of effective and efficient readers. The contents include five sections: "Moving to…

The focus of this study was on the effects which knowledge of semantic components may have on recall. It was hypothesized that after an introduction to discourse structures immediate recall would improve and recall which was delayed for one week would improve. Thirty-four unpaid volunteers between the ages of 16 and 26 were recruited and randomly…

The basic learning theory underlying this study is that not all language needs can be accounted for by a prediction of the possible language situations in which a person will engage. This paper proposes a way of resolving the problems of determining what is grammatically necessary as a sound basis of all language use and what constitutes a…

This document proposes a new meaning for the term postsecondary education: (adult learning through an accredited or eligible institution). Following a preliminary definition, this paper suggests some related issues in the milieu of higher education, then explores several of the abstract arguments for a new meaning. Aspects of the Education…

This book explores the theory and technique of faking it in America, referred to as the B.S. Factor. Chapter 1 discusses the Factor as a substitute for lies, causing a subtle skewing of sense, a distortion of logic, without ever becoming an actual lie. Chapter 2 breaks the B.S. Factor into styles or systems of thought and language such as…

This study a) compared the anxiety levels of three groups of student teachers just prior to and immediately following the student teacher experience and b) ascertained whether or not the concept of student teaching changed in pleasantness during the teaching experience. Two groups of students (N=36, N=15) were instructed through traditional…

Abstracts of 23 addresses given at the Sixteenth Annual Conference on Linguistics are presented in this report. The papers given at the conference deal with French, American English, English, Japanese, Cantonese, Latin, and Proto-Indo-European and cover a wide variety of topics, including dialectology, form classes, grammar, and semantics. The…

This book is an introduction to linguistics, written for the beginning student. Among the topics explored are speculations about the origins of language, its nature, how it grows, and how it changes. Other topics include what is essential in the structure of language, the similarities and differences among languages, how the varying patterns of…

A technique of measuring meaning was developed to allow the quantification of the meaning of a concept to a respondent. For purposes of this research, a set of scales based upon the language patterns of a large city public school children was developed. A brief review of Di Vesta's work in the development of semantic differential scales is…

Research conducted to determine the effect of certain measurable characteristics of written material upon speed of memorization is presented. The characteristics studied fall into four classes: (1) Load measures reflecting informational density, (2) Length measures based upon number of syllables, words, kernel sentences, clauses, or sentences in a…

This study investigated semantic aspects of children's language as it is related to emotional expression. Children's ratings of vocabulary items categorized as expressing happy, sad, loving, angry, confident, and scared feelings were examined in three different ways: in isolation, in verbal contexts, and accompanying pictures of emotional…

In order to establish whether voice pitch and evaluative meaning play any significant role in affecting message learning (as demonstrated by listeners' recall) at the morphemic level of communication, 48 freshman students in a basic speech program participated in this study. Through individual headsets, students listened to tapes containing an…