Progress in the Use of English after 22 Years by Children of Chinese Ancestry in Honolulu

In performing an ordering-for-search task, 70 kindergarten, 140 second, and 140 fourth grade boys and girls used category membership of items more frequently if they had previously observed a presentation of the items grouped by category than if they had manipulated the items themselves. However, the latter was more helpful than prior observation of the items in random order, except for kindergartners. Category membership was used as frequently with words as with photos, not only in the ordering-for-search task, but in a delayed recall task as well. Type of material had only a few specific effects on performance of these tasks.     

Assessing handwriting speed of children biliterate in English and Chinese

The assessment of multiliterate handwriting performance is rarely reported despite increased globalization. The present study describes the psychometric properties of a handwriting speed test developed for children who are biliterate in English and Chinese. This included interrater reliability, test-retest reliability, interitem correlation, construct validity, and concurrent validity. The test's reliabilities between two raters and over a 1-wk. interval were high with ICCs ranging from .89 to .99. Interitem correlation between the English and Chinese items was .87. The presence of age trends but not sex differences was a positive indicator of the test's validity. Correlations of .91 and 1.00 between the Chinese and the English items of the Handwriting Assessment Tool with the Chinese Handwriting Speed Test and Handwriting Speed Test, respectively, provided evidence of concurrent validity. These preliminary results showed the Handwriting Assessment Tool is reliable and is a potentially useful handwriting test for children biliterate in English and Chinese. The feasibility of assessing biliterate handwriting speed performance with the same set of scoring criteria for different writing systems was supported.     

The use of English stress assignment rules by children taught either with traditional orthography or with the initial teaching alphabet

This experiment examines children's use of spelling conventions as a guide to pronunciation, and their ability to handle stress assignment rules. The subjects, 7-year-old school children, of whom half had learned to read and write using traditional orthography (t.o.) and half had learned using the initial teaching alphabet (i.t.a.), read out short simple sentences each containing a two-syllable nonsense word. The grammatical category and the spelling of the nonsense words were varied systematically. It was found that, in assigning stress, both groups of children were influenced by phonemic and grammatical features in a manner similar to that predicted by Chomsky and Halle (1968), but they differed in their handling of the silent final e. It was the i.t.a. children whose use of this orthographic device was more in accordance with Chomsky and Halle's theory, despite their relative lack of experience with it. A comparison with Smith and Baker's (1976) adult subjects indicated substantial differences between adults and children, particularly in their treatment of words with a lax final vowel.     

Rowed to recovery: the use of phonological and orthographic information in reading Chinese and English

To examine how readers of Chinese and English take advantage of orthographic and phonological features in reading, the authors investigated the effects of spelling errors on reading text in Chinese and English using the error disruption paradigm of M. Daneman and E. Reingold (1993). Skilled readers in China and the United States read passages in their native language that contained occasional spelling errors. Results showed that under some circumstances very early phonological activation can be identified in English, but no evidence for early phonology was found in Chinese. In both languages, homophone errors showed a benefit in measures of later processing, suggesting that phonology helps readers recover from the disruptive effects of errors. These results suggest that skilled readers take advantage of the special features of particular orthographies but that these orthographic effects may be most pronounced in the early stages of lexical access.     

Productive use of the English past tense in children with focal brain injury and specific language impairment

In this study, 22 children with early left hemisphere (LHD) or right hemisphere (RHD) focal brain lesions (FL, n=14 LHD, n=8 RHD) were administered an English past tense elicitation test (M=6.5 years). Proportion correct and frequency of over-regularization and zero-marking errors were compared to age-matched samples of children with specific language impairment (SLI, n=27) and with typical language development (TD, n=27). Similar rates of correct production and error patterns were observed for the children with TD and FL; whereas, children with SLI produced more zero-marking errors than either their FL or TD peers. Performance was predicted by vocabulary level (PPVT-R) for children in all groups, and errors did not differ as a function of lesion side (LHD vs. RHD). Findings are discussed in terms of the nature of brain-language relations and how those relationships develop over the course of language learning.     

Strategies in landmark use by orangutans and human children

Landmark use has been demonstrated in a variety of organisms, yet the manner in which landmarks are encoded and subsequently used appears to vary between and sometimes within species, even when faced with identical landmark arrays. In the present experiments, orangutans and human children were shown a square array of identical landmarks and were trained to locate a hidden goal in the centre of the array. In Experiments 1 and 2, the search space appeared to be discrete, with white gridlines dividing up the space, and in Experiments 3a and 3b, the search space was uniformly coloured, making it appear continuous. In all experiments, following training, subjects were given a single expansion test, to determine their landmark strategy use, based on peak search activity. The orangutans appeared to use absolute directional vectors from individual landmarks, with peak search activities on the inner corners of the square array, and they used this strategy persistently. In contrast, human children showed two landmark-based strategies, absolute directional vectors and a relational or “middle” strategy, with the majority of children starting their search in the middle region. Although some children, especially young children, persistently used one strategy like the orangutans, many changed strategies when the original one failed to yield the hidden goal.     

A qualitative study of body image and appearance among men of Chinese ancestry in Australia

Little is known about the body image of non-White men living in Western countries, even though it has been suggested that they may be more at risk of body image concerns, especially if they internalize Western ideals. This study focused on identifying the main body image and appearance themes among 15 men of Chinese ancestry in Australia using semi-structured interviews and grounded theory. Moderate muscularity was the preferred ideal and height dissatisfaction was shown to be the primary concern. The majority was not invested in achieving muscularity and had a “holistic” approach to their body image that included concerns about hairstyling and clothing. In addition, the men were influenced by both Asian and Western ideals, and this included comparison targets with both Asian and Western men. Further studies are needed to assess the extent of men's body image and appearance concerns, and the role played by Asian and Western influences.     

Discrimination of English and French orthographic patterns by biliterate children

We investigated whether young English–French biliterate children can distinguish between English and French orthographic patterns. Children in French immersion programs were asked to play a dictionary game when they were in Grade 2 and again when they were in Grade 3. They were shown pseudowords that contained either an English spelling pattern or a French spelling pattern, and they were asked to decide whether each pseudoword should go in an English dictionary or a French dictionary if it became a real word. Comparison groups of monolingual English children, monolingual French children, and English–French bilingual university students were also tested on the task. French immersion students in both grades were above chance in discriminating between the two types of pseudowords but were well below adult performance on the task. Measures obtained in kindergarten showed that early print knowledge had some ability to predict later ability to discriminate between the orthographic patterns of the two languages. Further analyses indicated that exposure to print in each language in Grades 1 to 3 was strongly related to discrimination performance. The findings are interpreted as being consistent with the statistical learning hypothesis.     

Raising healthy children through enhancing social development in elementary school: Results after 1.5 years

This study examined results of a comprehensive, multifaceted longitudinal school-based prevention program called Raising Healthy Children (RHC). RHC focuses on enhancing protective factors with the goal of promoting positive youth development, reducing identified risk factors, and preventing adolescent problem behaviors. Participants included 938 elementary students from first or second grade who were enrolled in 10 area schools in the Pacific Northwest and randomly divided into two groups, those receiving RHC and peer controls. Analyses were conducted 18 months after implementation and focused on academic and behavioral improvements within the school environment. Results using hierarchical linear modeling showed that RHC students, compared to their peers who did not receive the intervention, had significantly higher teacher-reported academic performance (t ratio=2.27, p<.001) and a stronger commitment to school (t ratio=2.16, p<.03). Similarly, teachers reported that RHC students showed a significant decrease in antisocial behaviors (t ratio=−2.43, p<.02) and increased social competency (t ratio=2.96, p<.01) compared to control peers. Regression results from parent-reported outcomes also showed that RHC students had higher academic performance, β=.082, t=2.72, p<.01 and a stronger commitment to school, β=.080, t=2.45, p<.02. Results from this study and their implications for early and long-term prevention are discussed.     

Sex differences in landmark learning by children aged 5 to 12 years

Previous research has shown that men and boys learn routes faster and with fewer errors than do women and girls. Research with adults suggests that men use Euclidean cues when learning a route, whereas women use landmark-based strategies. The strategies used by children have received little study. In Exp. 1, 50 boys and girls, ages 5 to 12 years, were shown a map that contained only landmarks (no streets or roads) and were asked to learn a route consisting of 23 of the landmarks. The children used a pointer to trace the route on the map to a criterion of two successive trials without errors. The performance of boys and girls did not differ significantly on this route-learning task on three measures (number of trials to reach criterion, total time to reach criterion, and total number of errors). In Exp. 2, 52 boys and girls, ages 5 to 12 years, were shown the same map as in Exp. 1 and were asked to learn a route consisting of 12 landmarks. The children traced the route by picking pictures of landmarks in the correct order from a stack of cards with pictures of landmarks on them. Girls made significantly fewer errors than boys on this route-learning task in Exp. 2, and a significantly larger number of girls than boys completed the task. None of the boys in the 5- to 6-yr.-old age group learned the route. When Euclidean cues were minimized in Exp. 2, boys made more errors and took as much time as girls to reach the criterion of two successive correct trials.     

Imitation of synthesized English and nonEnglish vowels by children and adults

Imitations of 15 synthesized vowels, some like English vowels and some not, were obtained from nine adults and ten 6-year-old children. Estimates of the first three formant frequencies (F ₁ , F ₂ , and F ₃ ) were made from spectrograms of the vowel imitations. The reliability of reproduction was assessed by calculating standard deviations for five imitations each of ten of the synthetic stimuli. Generally, both the intrasubject and intersubject variabilities were greater for the children than for the adults. However, the differences in intrasubject variability between the two groups often were not much greater than the difference in measurement error which would be expected for voices of different fundamental frequencies. Subjects tended to reproduce the nonEnglish vowels less reliably than the English vowels, although the adults were less influenced by phonetic familiarity than were the children. Vowel familiarity appeared to be especially important for reliable reporoduction of the F ₂ frequency. Plotting of the imitation data for English vowels in a F ₁ –F ₂ plane with linear dimensions revealed a fairly systematic clustering for the four age-sex groups of men, women, boys, and girls, but the group clustering was not so systematic for the imitation data for the nonEnglish vowels.This work was supported by Public Health Service Research Grant NS-HD-12281.     

Structured tutoring for at risk children in the early years

I estimate the effects of a program of one-to-one instruction (tutoring) in reading and language for at-risk children in grades 1–3. Thirty college and graduate students tutored more than 100 elementary school students during Spring, 1991. Tutors were trained in the techniques used by Reading Recovery and Success for All. Program effects were large and positive. Across all tutored students, 10 hours of tutoring increased ITBS scores by .25–.30 of a grade-equivalent. Students with above-average attentiveness and participation during tutoring averaged a gain of .66 of a grade-equivalent after 10 hours tutoring. Tutoring also showed a positive effect on teachers' judgment of students' conduct. I conclude that, properly trained, nonprofessional tutors offer a cost-effective means to increase the reading performance of at-risk children in the early grades.     

Preschool language exposure and use: A comparison study of dual-language learners and English monolingual children

This study explored the language experiences of dual language learners (DLL; n = 19) and English monolinguals (EM; n = 13) in preschool classrooms where English is the primary language of instruction and many home languages are present. Using the Language ENvironment Analysis™ system as a primary tool, we quantitatively analysed an average of 34 hours of recordings collected over 5–8 days for each participating child (M_age = 52 months) in six classrooms. Results showed that, during a typical preschool day, DLLs spoke as much as EMs but received less adult talk overall and had more 5-min segments with zero adult–child conversations than their EM peers. Follow-up analyses revealed that teachers generally talked less when children initiated the conversations than when adults initiated the conversations, and this pattern was particularly evident for DLLs. Study implications and future research are discussed.     

预期想象对拖延的影响:想象过程和想象结果的效应分离

摘要 为了考察预期想象对不同拖延水平个体拖延行为的影响,本研究采用一般拖延量表(General Procrastination Scale)选取高拖延被试和低拖延被试,要求被试在进行模拟现实的拖延任务之前分别对任务过程和任务结果进行预期想象,比较不同拖延水平的被试在预期想象作用下拖延行为的变化。结果表明：(1)在两组被试中,相比于无想象条件下的拖延行为,对任务过程的预期想象增强拖延行为,对任务结果的预期想象削弱拖延行为;(2)对任务不同成分的预期想象所引发的情绪与拖延行为的变化相关显著。这说明情绪和预期想象是影响拖延的重要因素,合理地操纵对任务不同成分的预期想象可以有效干预拖延行为。     

Differential Sensitivity to the Gender of a Person by English and Chinese Speakers

Can a linguistic device of a language orient its speakers to a particular aspect of the world and result in increased sensitivity to that aspect? The question was examined with respect to the biological gender marker in English and the lack of it in Chinese. In Experiment 1, English and Chinese participants listened to stories and answered gender and non-gender related questions immediately after. It was found that, relative to the non-gender-related questions, the English participants were much faster and more accurate than the Chinese participants in answering the gender-related questions. In Experiment 2, English and Chinese participants were asked to determine which of two pictures matched the sentence shown immediately before. Relative to the non-gender-related sentences, the English participants were less slower and more accurate than the Chinese participants in responding to the gender-related sentences. The findings support the view that language can have an effect on information processing in human cognition.