Language Development and Meaning.

This article examines how children developed language and arrived at meaning during reading instructions in the U.S. in the 1940's. Several studies indicated in general that: 1) meaning is not inevitably arrived at; 2) misunderstandings are likely unless great care is exercised; 3) precise teaching of meaning is desirable; 4) meaning is more difficult in proportion to the abstractness of the topic; and, 5) at least part of the difficulty may be the result of obscurity in the language of instruction. In addition, certain studies dealt with the relationship between language and mental development or maturity.