- Theory and Principles

This study is designed to investigate growth in the salient features of meanings of individual lexical items in four narrow semantic domains across age levels within the elementary school years and within two language groups, English and Spanish. Semantic development is studied through the process of equivalence formation, which is the ability to group discriminably different things and to treat them as 'the same' or 'alike' in some way. In addition, the developmental trends of elementary schoolchildren are compared with adult models in each language. [Method; discussion of results.] Results show that (1) age is a major factor in semantic development; (2) widely divergent responses (and semantic development) were found with regard to noun items and verb items; (3) two different native-language groups experience highly similar semantic development patterns, indicating that native language is not a factor in the results of this study (probably because the subjects had similar backgrounds and experience). (1977), This article examines the structure of semantic memory models. These are shown to have certain common features: a low capacity buffer which holds acoustic input that has been decoded into morpheme structure, the construction of 'semantic objects', and the storage of these in long-term memory. The decoding and encoding processes embodied in these models are detailed and the specific limitations of models as accurate representations of the structure of memory are indicated. Several implications for the teaching of foreign languages can be drawn from the study of semantic memory models and research in retention: (1) methods for teaching comprehension should be structured so as to promote a learning shift from conscious coding to automatic coding; (2) it is desirable for foreign-language learners to acquire a good listening comprehension ability with little production ability at the outset of their training; (3) new syntax and vocabulary should never be introduced simul-taneously in comprehension or production building activities; (4) the use of native-language analogue patterns for the introduction of vocabulary is desirable in the early stages of language instruction; (5) syntax patterns which give direct representations of simple semantic relations should be learned and automatised first, and (6) initial production activities should not depend heavily on pattern practice and substitution drills, since assembly of vocabulary and syntactic relation is largely bypassed by such exercises, their main effect being to smooth out the level of phonetic sequencing and realisation. on a radically different approach to examining in modern languages, which has been tried out with some success. Graded tests in language proficiency, similar to tests used to assess musical skills, are employed. CSE to beyond A-level. An exam related to pupil's should help to motivate the less able, as graded tests success after only two or three years of language learning, rather than five years. The tests might also boost languages other than A discussion of Hornby's work on verb patterns. Hornby lists and grades these patterns according to difficulty. While his method is undoubtedly successful, it produces a pageful of symbols which are unwieldy for the student to handle. This article suggests a way of dividing the list into five meaningful sections and a way of telling from Hornby's labels what kind of structure is being described.