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The ability of children to process words printed in a second language was studied over the course of a school year as the children acquired increasing familiarity with the language. The children, ranging in age from 5 to 15 years, represented four ability groups with respect to their reading skills in their first and second languages. A picture-word interference task assessed the degree to which children processed word meaning automatically. The task required children to name pictures in their first language while ignoring distractor words printed within the pictures' borders. On same-language (SL) trials, the printed distractor words appeared in the child's first language. On cross-language (CL) trials, the distractor words appeared in the child's second language. The results indicated that second language words were automatically processed to the level of meaning early in the course of second language reading instruction. Both the pattern and the amount of CL interference generally matched that for SL trials. The common pattern of interference for both the SL and CL manipulations across several conditions that varied the picture-word meaning relation suggested that a superordinate conceptual representation served both language lexicons. (Author/AMH)

1Boy Crusoe

By Allan Eric

Also published as" A Yankee Crusoe" . A 15 year old hard working and studious farm boy finds the lure of adventure on the seas as a merchant seaman more than he can resist. This is his story. " I was born in a little town in the State of Maine, near the close of the Civil War. My boyhood life did not differ materially from that of the average farmer's son in the remote country districts of New England--except, perhaps, that I read more and thought more. Hard work on the rugged soil, two terms each year in the little yellow country schoolhouse, a day's fishing now and then filled the early years of my life full to over-flowing. " What he gets is enough excitement and adventure to overflow his wildest dreams. How he experiences disaster and uses his wits and knowledge to overcome every problem makes for a great read. - Summary by Phil Chenevert