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.     

中学生英语词汇记忆的策略训练研究

词汇记忆在中学英语学习中有着举足轻重的地位。本研究从策略入手 ,致力于探索记忆策略训练对英语词汇学习的积极效果。研究者在综合前人的策略分类观点和参照英语词汇学习本身特点的基础上提出了五种基本策略 ,并对之作了训练研究。从训练结果可知 ,这些策略若训练充分得当 ,能大大提高学生的词汇记忆成绩。研究者还对如何在英语词汇学习中运用策略帮助记忆提出了一个粗略的模型。从该模型中 ,我们可以清晰地看到词汇记忆的整个过程 ,以及影响策略选择和使用的各种因素     

图画与中、英文字词识别加工的比较

通过对不同材料进行加工的比较来探讨人脑的信息加工机制是认知心理学采用的主要研究方法之一。本研究采用了两个实验。实验一比较了图画、中文和英文字词在命名和分类任务中的差异。结果发现:中文是介于图画和英文之间的一种符号系统,在命名任务中,英文反应最快,图画反应最慢,中文居中;而在分类任务中,反应的快慢趋势却截然相反。实验二进一步探讨了言语及非言语信息的表征结构及加工特性,使用了图-图、图-字、字-图、字-字此四种组合材料进行命名一致性和语义分类两种任务,结果发现:字特征组(字-字,字-图)在命名一致性判断任务中的反应优于图特征组(图-图、图-字),而在语义一致性判断任务中则相反,这一结果很难用双编码理论和共同编码理论来解释。语词信息对语音码的接通是直接的,而对语义码的接通却是间接的,图画信息反之,而且由于某种策略产生了图特征组与字特征组的区别。     

焦虑在歧义容忍度与英语学习成绩之间的中介作用分析

本研究采用问卷法,选取石家庄市210名普通高校大学生为被试,探讨了焦虑在歧义容忍度和英语学习之间的中介作用。结果发现:(1)在英语学习成绩方面,高歧义容忍度的学生显著优于低歧义容忍度的学生,中歧义容忍度的学生显著优于低歧义容忍度的学生;(2)高、中、低不同歧义容忍度的学生,在焦虑水平上存在显著差异。(3)焦虑感中介作用分析发现,焦虑在歧义容忍度和英语学习成绩之间关系有完全中介作用。     

A serious misunderstanding: synchronicity and the generation of meaning

Abstract: This paper points to the problem caused by the fact that numerous academic ‘Jung studies’ are conducted on the basis of the English translation of Jung's works without any knowledge of his original texts and illustrates it with the misconstrual that Jung's concept of synchronicity suffered in the studies of many recent authors, as exemplified by two articles in the September 2011 issue of the JAP. The translation of ‘sinngemäße Koinzidenz’ as ‘meaningful coincidence’ seduced those writers to take synchronistic ‘meaning’ as meaning the meaningfulness of life or even as ‘transcendent meaning’, which is incompatible with Jung's synchronicity concept, and to replace Jung's strictly intellectual project of establishing an explanatory principle for synchronistic events (in addition to the principle of causality for all other events) by the fundamentally different project of focusing on the impact that such events may have for the experiencing subjective mind, on ‘human meaning‐making’, and, with a decidedly anti‐intellectual bias, of hoping for ‘shifts into non‐rational states of mind’.     

Political Rhetoric,Immigration Attitudes,and Contemporary Prejudice: A Mexican American Dilemma

Abstract

The authors examined political candidates' social stereotypes of Mexican immigrants in mainstream media accounts. From those popular themes, they formed semantic differential scales, which they administered to participants (N = 201) with 1 of 4 scenarios describing an illegal immigrant: of Mexican vs. English Canadian descent and with vs. without several parking tickets. Consistent with contemporary theories of prejudice (J. F. Dovidio & S. L. Gaertner, 1996), the participants indicated the greatest agreement with the pejorative themes when the immigrant described was of Mexican descent and had accumulated parking tickets. Psychologically, the parking tickets served as a nonethnic rationale for discriminating against that ethnic group. The authors discuss the social and public policy implications of Mexican immigration as a political phenomenon.     

高中英语学习策略量表编制与Rasch多维度分析

当前,语言学习策略已成为我国中学英语教学的一项重要目标。该研究通过科学设计的问卷,调查了406名高三学生的英语学习策略掌握情况,并进一步分三个分维度、十个子维度,进行了深入的分析。研究表明,问卷提供的多维度的详细信息可以帮助详细了解学生对策略的掌握情况,从而进行有针对性的指导。同时,问卷的设计,维度划分等,也为研究人员,高中英语学习策略的教材编写和教学提供可靠有用的参考。     

Teaching letter sounds to kindergarten English language learners using incremental rehearsal

Proficiency in letter–sound correspondence is important for decoding connected text. This study examined the effects of an evidence-based intervention, incremental rehearsal (IR), on the letter–sound expression of three kindergarten English language learners (ELLs) performing below the district benchmark for letter–sound fluency. Participants were native speakers of Hmong, Spanish, and Polish. A multiple-baseline design across sets of unknown letter sounds was used to evaluate the effects of IR on letter–sound expression. Visual analysis of the data showed an increase in level and trend when IR was introduced in each phase. Percentage of all non-overlapping data (PAND) ranged from 95% to 100%. All participants exceeded expected growth and reached the spring district benchmark for letter–sound fluency. Results suggest that IR is a promising intervention for increasing letter–sound expression for ELLs who evidence delays in acquiring letter sounds.     

Generational patterns in Mexican Americans' academic performance in an unwelcoming political context

Research has shown that immigrant students often do better academically than their U.S.-born peers from the same ethnic group, but it is unclear whether this pattern holds for Mexican Americans. We examined the academic performance of four generations of Mexican American students from 5th to 10th grade looking for generation differences and explanations for them. Using data from 749 families, we tested a model with 5th-grade variables that differed by generation as potential mediators linking student generation to 10th-grade academic performance. Results showed that immigrants were academically behind at 5th grade but caught up by 7th. Only economic hardship mediated the long term relation between student generation and 10th-grade academic performance; maternal educational expectations and child language hassles, English usage, discrimination, and mainstream values helped explained the early academic deficit of immigrant children. The results identified potential targets for interventions to improve Mexican American students' academic performance.     

阅读教学在大学英语中作用

英语阅读教学对大学生综合能力的培养有着至关重要的作用。由于英语阅读教学的现状,我们有必要对英语阅读教学进行研究并且提出阅读的策略,原则和阅读技巧,以提高学生的英语阅读能力。