Studies the role played by native language transfer and task formality in the second-language acquisition of the Spanish voiced stop phonemes /b d g/ and their spirantized variants to identify specific problems affecting learners. Results indicate that native language transfer markedly inhibits acquisition of the voiced spirants. (21 references)…

Four adults with brain injuries were trained to use written checklists that identified potential in-home hazards. The checklist alone was sufficient to increase appropriate responses to many hazards, and individualized task analyses, subsequently faded to natural conditions, remediated the others. Generalization occurred to some degree, and skills…

Presents a model for evaluating performance-based instruction that is intended for use by human resource development/performance technology professionals. Highlights include goal setting; program design and implementation; evaluating the use and impact of training; instructional tasks, including sequencing; quality of student products; and…

Two studies of three youths (ages 12-14) with severe mental retardation, who used aggression and self-injury to avoid difficult instructional situations, found that simple commands interspersed among more challenging instructional trials were effective at increasing the learners' responsiveness to instructions and decreasing levels of problem…

In this study, metalinguistic ability is studied in terms of dual skill components: control of linguistic processing and analysis of linguistic knowledge. English-Swedish bilinguals (n=38), assigned to two groups according to relative proficiency, and 16 Swedish monolinguals, aged 6 to 7 years, received three tasks: symbol substitution,…

Describes the CTP (Cooperation, Technology, and Performance) model and explains how it is used by the Department of Veterans Affairs-Veteran's Benefit Administration (VBA) for training. Discusses task analysis; computer-based training; cooperative-based learning environments; technology-based learning; performance-assessment methods; courseware…

The effect of the presence of cafeteria noise on the perception of native English and Mandarin-accented speech was assessed in a sentence-verification task and a sentence-transcription task. The outcomes of both tasks indicated strong adverse effects of noise on the intelligibility of many of the accented utterances. (Author/JL)

Reports findings from a study that investigated the group interaction patterns of overseas Malaysian students in a British undergraduate program. Discusses the theoretical issues underlying the study. Findings and categories of idea framing, which arise from the analysis of group interaction data are highlighted. (Author/VWL)

Investigates the contribution of markedness and learning principles to second language (L2)acquisition. Korean language learners of English completed a written sentence-combining task and a written grammaticality judgment task. Results show subjects acquire English relative clauses in the same order and suggests that L2 learners have dual access…

Offers additional means of evaluating parent speech by examining frequencies of individual nouns, verbs, and descriptors, and examining the learning task presented to children. Study one examines transcripts from the CHILDES database of English-speaking parents' speech to children at five developmental levels; study two examines 50 transcripts of…

Discusses the productivity and work days of white collar workers. Topics include productivity improvement; task analysis; the amount of time spent reading, and how to reduce it by improving writing skills; time spent in meetings; empowered time management; and sustaining a climate for change. (LRW)

Presents results of an exploratory study on advanced-level French second language (L2) learners' metalinguistic awareness. Specifically, learner performance was examined carrying out three steps of a written and oral grammaticality judgment test. Subjects' ability to identify and correct an error, and to provide the rule, were examined, and…

Three experiments examine the acquisition of word-initial consonant clusters by adult second language learners. Native speakers of Spanish acquiring English participated in a metalinguistic judgment task, a perception task, and a production task. The judgment task indicates that beginning, intermediate and advanced second language learners have an…

Background: There is growing literature suggesting that some children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) can show a significant bias in attention away from left space. Here we examine mechanisms that may underpin these effects in both clinical and non-clinical child populations. Unilateral spatial inattention…

Cognitive theories disagree about the processes and the number of abilities involved in transitive reasoning. This led to controversies about the influence of task characteristics on individuals' performance and the development of transitive reasoning. In this study, a computer test was constructed containing 16 transitive reasoning tasks having…