Effect of response practice variables on learning spelling and sight vocabulary

Four experiments were conducted to examine variables associated with response practice as an instructional technique for individuals with intellectual disabilities. In Experiment 1, the effect of the cover component in the "cover write" method was evaluated, as were the comparative effects of written versus oral practice of spelling words by rehabilitation clients. The results showed that the cover procedure generally did not enhance performance over and above that produced by practice alone, and written practice generally was not superior to oral practice. Experiment 2 demonstrated that less response practice (i.e., five times) was as effective as more practice (i.e., 10 and 15 times) for teaching spelling to adolescents with developmental disabilities. Experiments 3 and 4 also showed that even less response practice (i.e., one time) was as effective as more practice (five times), and irrelevant practice following errors was as effective as relevant practice for teaching spelling and sight vocabulary to adolescents with behavior disorders and developmental disabilities, respectively. The findings suggest that a parsimonious procedure of limited response practice and positive reinforcement may be effective for the tasks and populations studied.     

Cross-script phonological priming with Japanese Kanji primes and English targets

Two experiments investigated whether Japanese–English bilinguals have integrated phonological stores for their two languages using a masked phonological priming task with Japanese Kanji (logographic) primes and English targets. In both experiments, lexical decisions for English target words were facilitated by phonologically similar Kanji primes. Furthermore, the size of the phonological priming effect was uninfluenced by the participants' English proficiency or target word frequency, which suggests that the priming effect arose from feedback from sublexical phonological representations to lexical orthographic representations. Because of the orthographic and phonological differences between Japanese and English, these findings provide particularly strong support for the Bilingual Interactive Activation (BIA+) model's assumption that representations are integrated across languages.     

Using mnemonic images and explicit sound contrasting to help Japanese children learn English alphabet sounds

Although mnemonics have been shown to be effective in remembering letter-sound associations, the use of foreign words as cues for English phonemes had not been investigated. Learning phonemes in Japan is challenging because the Japanese language is based on a different sound unit called mora (mostly consonant-vowel combinations). This study investigated the effectiveness of using mnemonic images utilizing Japanese words as cues for the phonemes, and explicit sound contrasting of phonemic sounds with morae they could be confused with, in facilitating children's acquisition of knowledge about alphabet letter-sound correspondence. The participants were 140 6th-grade Japanese students who were taught phoneme-consonant correspondence, with or without the use of mnemonics or explicit sound contrasting. Analysis of the students’ pre- and post-instruction assessments revealed significant interaction effects between types of instruction provided and instruction phase, indicating better performance in letter-sound association as a consequence of the inclusion of both mnemonics and explicit sound contrasting.     

Phonological and morphological consistency in the acquisition of vowel duration spelling in Dutch and German

In Dutch, vowel duration spelling is phonologically consistent but morphologically inconsistent (e.g., paar-paren). In German, it is phonologically inconsistent but morphologically consistent (e.g., Paar-Paare). Contrasting the two orthographies allowed us to examine the role of phonological and morphological consistency in the acquisition of the same orthographic feature. Dutch and German children in Grades 2 to 4 spelled singular and plural word forms and in a second task identified the correct spelling of singular and plural forms of the same nonword. Dutch children were better in word spelling, but German children outperformed the Dutch children in nonword selection. Also, whereas German children performed on a similar level for singular and plural items, Dutch children showed a large discrepancy. The results indicate that children use phonological and morphological rules from an early age but that the developmental balance between the two sources of information is constrained by the specific orthography.     

非英语专业大学生短文写作元认知发展的一般特点

对1043名大学生(有效被试1012人)进行英文写作元认知、自我效能、成就目标、价值、内控性的测量,旨在了解非英语专业大学生英文写作元认知各维度的一般性发展特点。结果发现:语言策略、作文标准、准备性和计划性上存在年级差异;对作为作者的自己的优点的了解、对作为作者的自己的缺点的了解、语言策略知识、元认知体验、计划性、准备性、调节性上存在性别差异;在英文写作自我效能、价值、成就目标、内控性高分组与低分组间元认知水平差异达到显著性,且高分组具有较高的英文写作元认知水平。     

Suggested Greek translations of expressions in the experimental analysis of behavior

Greek-English and English-Greek translations of expressions in the experimental analysis of behavior are presented. Included is a short discussion of some of the problems which arose, partly because of the mentalistic nature of Greek science.     

初中生英语词汇记忆策略的研究

通过对134名初中三年级学生英语词汇记忆策略的问卷调查以及记忆不同难度的词汇时所使用的策略的分析,发现初三学生以使用机械的、一般性的记忆策略为主;优生比差生更善于选用具体的词汇记忆策略;词汇记忆难度增大时,选择和使用多种策略的频率与人数有所增加。     

English-speaking children's comprehension of relative clauses: evidence for general-cognitive and language-specific constraints on development

Children must possess some ability to process input in a meaningful manner to acquire language. The present study reports on data from an experiment investigating 3- to 5-year-old English-speaking children's understanding of restrictive relative clauses manipulated for embeddedness and focus. The results of the study showed that English-speaking children acquire right-branching before center-embedded structures. Comparisons made with data from Portuguese-speaking children suggest general-cognitive and language-specific constraints on development, and with respect to English, a clause expansion approach to processing in development.