This is a position paper modelling the domain of linguistic literacy and its development through the life span. It aims to provide a framework for the analysis of language development in the school years, integrating sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic notions of variation, language awareness, and literacy in a comprehensive model. The paper focuses on those aspects of literacy competence that are expressed in language as well as aspects of linguistic knowledge that are affected by literacy competence, tracing the route that children take in appropriating linguistic literacy as part of their cognitive abilities and examining the effect of literacy on language across development. Our view of linguistic literacy consists of one defining feature: control over linguistic variation from both a user-dependent (‘lectal’) and a context-dependent (modality, genre, and register) perspective; of one concomitant process: metalanguage and its role in language development; and of one condition: familiarity with writing and written language from two aspects: written language as discourse style – the recognition that the kind of language used for writing is essentially different from the one used for speech; and written language as a notational system – the perception and growing command of the representational system that is used in the written modality. Linguistic literacy is viewed as a constituent of language knowledge characterized by the availability of multiple linguistic resources and by the ability to consciously access one's own linguistic knowledge and to view language from various perspectives.

Few researchers would doubt that ultimate attainment in second language grammar is negatively correlated with age of acquisition, but considerable controversy remains about the nature of this relationship: the exact shape of the age-attainment function and its interpretation. This article presents two parallel studies with native speakers of Russian: one on the acquisition of English as a second language in North America (n = 76), and one on the acquisition of Hebrew as a second language in Israel (n = 64). Despite the very different nature of the languages being learned, the two studies show very similar results. When age at testing is partialed out, the data reveal a steep decline in the learning of grammar before age 18 in both groups, followed by an essentially horizontal slope until age 40. This is interpreted as evidence in favor of the critical period. Both groups show a significant correlation between ultimate attainment and verbal aptitude for the adult learners, but not for the early learners. This is interpreted as further evidence that the learning processes in childhood and adulthood not only yield different levels of proficiency but are also different in nature.Age effects in (second) language learning are widely acknowledged, but their exact nature remains controversial, in particular, the concept of a critical period for second language acquisition (SLA). In about the last 15 years, numerous arguments against the critical period hypothesis (CPH) have been formulated: a few studies have failed to find a clear correlation between age of acquisition and ultimate attainment; many more researchers accept the negative correlation as a fact, but they argue that it is attributable to a confound between age of acquisition and one or more other variables, such as length of residence, age at testing, the nature of the input received as a function of age, the extent to which education was provided in the second language (L2) or the first language (L1), the (lack of) motivation to integrate fully with the L2 society, or simply the amount of practice

Enalapril attenuated the decline in renal function and reduced the extent of albuminuria in normotensive, normoalbuminuric patients with type 2 diabetes. Further research is needed to determine whether this treatment forestalls the development of overt nephropathy.

Melatonin and 5-methoxytryptophol (ML) were measured in human pineals (38 controls, 16 subjects with Alzheimer's disease). Time of death had a major influence on the indole concentrations with significantly higher melatonin levels occurring at night (22.00-10.00 h) and significantly higher ML levels occurring during the day (10.00-22.00 h). This daily variation disappeared in both the older subjects (55-92 years) and in the Alzheimer patients (55-89 years).

The study explores the interface of language typology, universal predispositions, language awareness and school instruction through the examination of two morphological domains in Hebrew: linear formation of stem-and-suffix words and nonlinear Semitic formation of root-and-pattern affixation. One hundred children, adolescents and adults were administered five tasks testing awareness of roots, morphological patterns, stems and suffixes in inflection and in derivation. Two major findings are reported and analysed: awareness of linear constructions emerges earlier than awareness of nonlinear forms, and stems (roots and word stems) are easier to construe than affixes (morphological patterns and suffixes). The paper discusses the inter-action of language acquisition and use with linguistic awareness, and the effect of tasks on different degrees of morphological awareness in Hebrew.