The language situation of immigrants to Australia, or social bilinguals, is distinguished from that of second language learners, or cultural bilinguals. The former lag behind in employment and school achievement. The solution proposed entails learning English, though both children and adults appear to reach a plateau in learning after initial…

In this review of the research on how current computer learning environments can foster the acquisition of complex cognitive skills, two issues emerge: (1) what cognitive accomplishments are likely in the computer environment; and (2) what factors predispose students to benefit from the environment. (MBR)

How do some students extract complex information from advanced reading materials while others struggle to find the meaning of even simple passages? What characteristics do strategic readers exhibit that others don't possess? Unlocking the cognitive strategies of exceptional readers means finding ways to teach every student to read strategically,…

Drugs are an important life concern of adolescents, yet statistics show alarming and disturbing increases internationally in drug abuse. This paper reports on research that examines how adolescents cognitively process information about drugs. Four 17-year-old girls at a Catholic college in Sydney, Australia participated in a two-phase experiment…

The immediate stimulus for this collection of papers was a conference, Self-Access and the Adult Language Learner, organized by the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CILT) and the Language Centre of the University of Cambridge in December 1992 at Queen's College, Cambridge. Several 1-day conferences on the same theme were…

This book describes the major differences between men and women in cognitive or problem-solving abilities and discusses the possible biological contributions to such differences. The book argues that sex differences in cognitive patterns and in motor skills arose out of complementary evolutionary histories of men and women and that evidence for…

The research reported here focuses on the cognitive processes involved in creole genesis: relexification; reanalysis; dialect levelling; and parameter setting. The role of these processes in creole genesis is documented in a detailed comparison of Haitian Creole with two of its major source languages: French, its main lexifier language, and…

This case study describes how one autistic learner, an 11-year-old boy, became a co-researcher with university literacy instructors to investigate how hypermedia can help him develop language and literacy skills. Data was collected for one year from video taping, journal notes, interviews with teachers and parents, test scores, and student…

This study analyzes examination questions and papers in 12 academic departments and seven faculties at a Kenyan (Africa) state university between the 1989-1990 and the 1994-1995 academic years, charging that the findings reveal impoverished university training. The paper argues that the emphasis in most examinations is on the lower mental skills,…

Adolescents, ages 11-12 and 13-14, were tested for maturity of judgment about stability-change situations and about time perspective. (CP)

Contrasts the consistency, the self-concept, and the new look formulations of cognitive dissonance. The study demonstrates that dissonance occurs when a behavior and its consequences contradict an individual's self-concept. Findings both support and diverge from various aspects of the three formulations of dissonance phenomena. (LSR)

Presents the results of two studies where children were taught to identify textual cues, syntactic and semantic, in order to locate main ideas. The children also built graphic representations of these structures and were taught relevant questions to ask regarding comprehension. Results showed significant improvement, especially with older…

Delineates a generalized difference between men and women in approaches to ethics. Reiterates Carol Gilligan's theory that men generally believe in a morality of rights whereas women subscribe to a morality of relationships. Discusses other aspects of this dichotomy including ideas of good, evil, and sin. (MJP)

Investigates the potential interaction of conceptual representations and linguistic systems during language acquisition. The study examined language-thought interactions in American, Finnish and Polish children, focusing on the conceptual and linguistic development of space and time. Findings reveal that spatial and temporal linguistic systems and…

Provides specific and useful guidelines for utilizing learning styles to increase instructional effectiveness during choral rehearsal. Broadly identifies students as either "analytical" (inductive reasoning) or "global" (deductive reasoning). Includes a chart containing specific rehearsal activities designed to interest each group. (MJP)