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THE TWO FOLD PURPOSE OF THIS STUDY WAS TO (1) INVESTIGATE THE RELATIVE EFFECTIVENESS OF GRAPHEMIC AND PERCEPTUAL REPRESENTATIONS IN TEACHING CONCEPTS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE WORDS, AND (2) DETERMINE WHAT HAPPENS UPON PRESENTING SUCH REPRESENTATIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF OTHERS. FOR THE PURPOSES OF THIS STUDY, A PERCEPTUAL REPRESENTATION WAS DEFINED AS "A COLOR OR A LINE-DRAWING" OF AN OBJECT, AND A GRAPHEMIC REPRESENTATION AS AN "ENGLISH NAME FOR A COLOR, GEOMETRIC FIGURE, OR AN OBJECT." STUDY PARTICIPANTS WERE 136 SIXTH-GRADE PUBLIC SCHOOL CHILDREN. USING VARIOUS TREATMENTS, THESE CHILDREN WERE TRAINED FOR LISTENING COMPREHENSION OF 12 JAPANESE NAMES FOR COLORS AND OBJECTS, AND THEN TESTED FOR UNDERSTANDING OF THESE JAPANESE WORDS IMMEDIATELY AFTER TRAINING AND 1 WEEK LATER. READING COMPREHENSION WAS ALSO TESTED (ABILITY TO READ THE JAPANESE WORDS IN ROMANIZED SPELLING). FINDINGS INDICATED THAT PERCEPTUAL REPRESENTATION TRAINING RESULTED IN BETTER LISTENING AND READING COMPREHENSION THAN GRAPHEMIC TRAINING. TRAINING WITH OR WITHOUT DISCRIMINATIVE CONTEXT DID NOT RESULT IN SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN COMPREHENSION. (JH)

AN EXPERIMENT WAS DEVISED TO TEST ASHER'S HYPOTHESIS OF A TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE, WHICH STATES THAT LISTENING COMPREHENSION FOR A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CAN BE ACCELERATED IF STUDENTS ARE REQUIRED TO EMIT A RESPONSE WITH THE ENTIRE BODY. THE SUBJECTS WERE 88 COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO HAD NO PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF JAPANESE, NO FLUENCY IN A LANGUAGE OTHER THAN ENGLISH, AND WHO WERE NOT LANGUAGE MAJORS IN COLLEGE. THE 67 WHO COMPLETED THE TRAINING WERE HOMOGENEOUS IN LANGUAGE-LEARNING ABILITY, AS EVIDENCED BY TESTS GIVEN BEFORE THE STUDY. THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP WAS INSTRUCTED THAT A VOICE ON A TAPE WOULD GIVE A COMMAND IN JAPANESE. WHEN THE SUBJECTS HEARD THE UTTERANCE, THEY WERE TO IMITATE THE ACTIONS OF THE INSTRUCTOR IN THE CLASSROOM. THE THREE CONTROL GROUPS LISTENED TO THE SAME COMMANDS BUT RESPONDED BY (1) WATCHING THE INSTRUCTOR, (2) LISTENING TO AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION, AND (3) READING AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION. THE RETENTION OF THE EXPERIMENTAL GROUP TENDED TO BE HIGH AND SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER THAN THAT OF THE CONTROL GROUPS. THE RESULTS ALSO INDICATED THAT THIS STRATEGY PERMITS THE STUDENT TO HAVE EXTREMELY HIGH LISTENING COMPREHENSION FOR NOVEL UTTERANCES, WHICH HAS IMPORTANT IMPLICATIONS FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING. THIS ARTICLE IS PUBLISHED IN THE "INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF APPLIED LINGUSITICS," VOLUME 3, NUMBER 4, 1965. (KL)

Phonetic symbolism implies that there are intrinsic relationships between sounds employed in words and the meanings of the words. Research in phonetic symbolism and how it operates has implications for foreign language learning. Such research seeks to determine whether one's capacity for correctly guessing the meanings of words in another language (made possible by phonetic symbolism) is an endurable characteristic or something temporary, and whether one's capacity to guess the meanings of words in another language influences one's facility in learning those words. Experiments reported here seek answers to these questions and apply the answers to the subject of vocabulary selection in elementary foreign language textbooks. (VM)