Balancing between deaf and hearing worlds: reflections of mainstreamed college students on relationships and social interaction

This qualitative study of the social aspects of mainstreaming from the perspective of deaf college students indicates that for some students, social adjustment to college is complicated by experiences of separation and alienation from both deaf and hearing peers. Data were collected through open-ended interviews with deaf students who had little or no previous experience with or exposure to deaf culture or language before their arrival at a mainstream college environment. Feelings of isolation, loneliness, and resentment were most intense during orientation and first year, when alienation from the deaf student community appeared to be caused by lack of sign language skills, unfamiliarity with norms and values of deaf culture, and perceived hostility from deaf peers. Simultaneous experiences of separation from hearing peers appeared to be caused by physical barriers inherent in the classroom, residence hall, and cafeteria environments, as well as by discrimination from hearing peers, who tended to stereotype deaf students. Findings suggest that those involved in the administration and delivery of postsecondary programs for the deaf should investigate the experiences of students who arrive on campus without knowledge of sign language or familiarity with deaf culture and evaluate currently existing programs and services designed to meet these students' needs.     

The relationships between reading processes and English skills of deaf college students

This research project investigated the relationships between various working memory (WM) recoding processes and English language skills in a sample of 86 prelingually deaf college students from varied educational backgrounds. Part 1 reports the results of a short-term memory (STM) experiment and a Recoding Strategies questionnaire. The STM results suggested that, for most deaf students, neither the speech, sign, or visual codes are as efficient as the speech code of hearing persons for the purpose of maintaining English linguistic information in WM. However, the ability to use speech-based recoding processes was positively correlated with WM capacity, and the use of sign recoding was found to decrease as the ability to make efficient use of a speech recoding strategy increased. In addition, the questionnaire data suggested that neither the speech nor sign recoding systems provide the majority of students with a complete internal representation of English surface structure grammatical information in WM. There was no evidence that the use of sign language in education interfered with the ability to develop a speech recoding strategy, or that knowledge of American Sign Language (ASL) negatively influenced the acquisition of English skills. The overall pattern of results suggested that WM processes and recoding strategies may be influencing grammatical processes, and the acquisition of English skills, in distinctive ways.     

高职英语专业建设的几点思考

如何培养满足企业和社会发展所需的高职英语专业人才是高职教育者探讨的热点,高职英语专业建设和改革也成为必然。笔者从专业设置、实训、师资队伍建设三个方面提出一些看法。     

Personal factors that influence deaf college students' academic success

Research tells us that academic preparation is key to deaf students' success at college. Yet, that is not the whole story. Many academically prepared students drop out during their first year. This study identified entering deaf college students' personal factors as assessed by their individual responses to both the Noel-Levitz College Student Inventory Form B and the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory, second edition (LASSI). Entering students in 3 successive cohorts (total n =437) participated in this study. Results show that in addition to entry measurements of reading and mathematic skills, personal factors contributed to the academic performance of students in their first quarter in college. The Noel-Levitz provided the comparatively better predictive value of academic performance: Motivation for Academic Study Scale (e.g., desire to finish college). The LASSI also showed statistically significant predictors, the Self-Regulation Component (e.g., time management) and Will Component (e.g., self-discipline), but accounted for relatively less variability in the students' initial grade point averages. For this group of underprepared students, results show that personal factors can play a significant role in academic success. Deaf students' personal factors are discussed as they relate to other first-year college students and to their subsequent academic performance and persistence.     

Adjunct aids in instructional prose: a multimedia study with deaf college students

A computer-based science lesson was administered to 144 deaf college students grouped into low, middle, and high reading ability levels. Five instructional conditions were compared: (1) text only, (2) text and content movies, (3) text and sign movies, (4) text and adjunct questions, and (5) all of these together (full condition). The low reading level subjects in the adjunct question and full conditions demonstrated immediate, factual learning performance comparable to that of the high reading level subjects in the text-only condition. These and other results of this investigation suggest the compensatory potential of adjunct aids and associated mathemagenic activities to improve factual learning from instructional prose for low reading ability students.     

在大学英语教学中如何激发基础较差学生的学习兴趣

学困生是客观存在的,其产生的原因复杂化,在大学英语教学中,仍然存在基础较差的学生,如何激发他们的学习兴趣特别重要,也是提高英语教学整体质量的关键所在。因此,本文从不同角度入手客观阐述了在大学英语教学中如何激发基础较差学生的学习兴趣。     

English proficiency,course patterns,and academic achievements of limited-English-proficient community college students

Over the past decade minority students' access to and achievements in higher education have been of substantial interest to educators and researchers. Students who are of limited English proficiency (LEP) may also be considered disadvantaged, although few studies focus on them as a minority group. This research was conducted at a community college to examine the independent and interactive effects of several key demographic and academic variables on academic achievements (persistence, credits earned, and GPA). The primary independent variable, labeled GROUP, combined students' placement test results (English as a second language, regular remedial English, or no test results) and course-taking patterns (registered or did not register for ESL courses). Logit and other multivariate statistical techniques were employed. Results indicate some differences in achievement by GROUP category in concert with age, sex, or ethnicity, but no consistent pattern was found. LEP students did not differ significantly in academic achievement from the total student population. It is suggested that LEP students comprise an eclectic population with diverse educational goals and competencies, who use the community college for a variety of reasons. As institutions struggle to balance access and open enrollment, placement testing and registration requirements, and available resources, the efficacy of treating all LEP students alike must be examined.     

大学生英语学习现状的分析与思考

本文通过对思茅师专在校专科2003级200名同学进行抽样调查,分析了大学生在英语学习中存在的问题和不足,揭示了造成学生英语应用能力差的重要原因,提出了大学英语教学改革的思路和建议。     

优化大学生价值观教育的几点认识

大学生价值观教育须立足于当代中国社会现实和大学生价值观之现状,通过设定科学的价值目标,选择适当的教育方法,寻求合理的教育路径,使被教育者的价值追求不断地由"实然"切近于"应然"。因此,优化价值观教育这三方面的要素,并使这三个环节构成前后相继的有机过程,就成为提升大学生价值观教育有效性的重要条件。     

高等融合教育背景下的聋生大学英语课堂探究

我国现阶段的特殊教育已逐渐走向开放化、融合化,无论从教育公平的角度还是聋生个人发展、社会发展、高等教育资源整合等角度来看,聋生高等教育融合化都是高等特殊教育的必然趋势。大学英语是聋人大学生必修课程,聋生在融合的大学英语课堂进行英语学习是必然的也是可行的。     

SIOP教学模式与大学英语的学术英语转型

当前高中毕业生的英语水平提高较快,社会需要"专业+英语"的复合型人才,高校教育国际化程度提高,从基础英语转向学术英语的大学英语教学改革势在必行。本文旨在分析当前大学英语教学存在的问题,提出学术英语转向的课程改革方案,探讨SIOP教学模式对大学英语教学改革的积极作用。     

Learning styles of deaf college students and instructors' teaching emphases

Six learning style dimensions of the Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Style Scales (GRSLSS) were examined in this study with 100 deaf college students. In addition, six corresponding scales of teaching emphases were administered to the 16 instructors of these students. Student mean scores were higher for the dependent, participative, collaborative, and independent dimensions than for the competitive and avoidant styles. The participative learning style correlated significantly with course achievement and course interest, which suggests that an emphasis on active learning may be desirable. For instructors, as with students, the mean scores for teaching emphases were found to be higher for the collaborative, dependent, participative, and independent dimensions. the similar patterns of results for students and teachers suggest a correspondence between the learning styles and the teaching emphases.     

Relatedness between jobs and academic majors: its relationship to academic involvement of college students

The study considered 10,072 third-year college students in Taiwan who had paid jobs while studying and found that students who worked in jobs related to their academic majors scored significantly higher on the academic involvement scale than students working in unrelated jobs. In addition, the effect of relatedness between jobs and majors did not interact significantly with either the effect of working on/off campus or the effect of working part-time/full-time.     

从“中国英语”的视角对国内大学英语教学的几点思考

作为一种英语变体,“中国英语”可以为当前大学英语教学存在的问题提供反思和解决的思路.从“中国英语”的视角对国内大学英语教学在语音、词汇和文化3个层面存在的问题进行了思考,并提出了相应的解决思路;认为在国内大学英语教学中不妨教点“中国英语”,学生也不妨学点“中国英语”.     

Predictors of academic and social integration of college students

This study extended earlier research based on Tinto's 1975 model of student college attrition by investigating patterns of student social and academic integration across institutional types. This study found that different college types were characterized by different patterns of student participation in the social and academic life of the college. Personal characteristics and overall climate associated with each institutional type explained statistically significant but modest amounts of the variance in student participation in specific campus activities that help define campus life. Moreover, several personal characteristics were related to students' campus behavior differently across institutional types. Findings are discussed in terms of their implications for student recruitment and retention.     

大学生学业倦怠现象及对策研究

大学生代表着最先进的流行文化,是推动社会进步的栋梁之材,是国家未来建设的后备军,但目前在很多同学身上都出现了学业倦怠的情况,这严重影响了大学生的学习素养和自身发展。本文针对这一现象进行客观行为描述、原因分析以及探讨对策研究。     

Assessing the writing of deaf college students: reevaluating a direct assessment of writing

The NTID Writing Test was developed to assess the writing ability of postsecondary deaf students entering the National Technical Institute for the Deaf and to determine their appropriate placement into developmental writing courses. While previous research (Albertini et al., 1986; Albertini et al., 1996; Bochner, Albertini, Samar, & Metz, 1992) has shown the test to be reliable between multiple test raters and as a valid measure of writing ability for placement into these courses, changes in curriculum and the rater pool necessitated a new look at interrater reliability and concurrent validity. We evaluated the rating scores for 236 samples from students who entered the college during the fall 2001. Using a multiprong approach, we confirmed the interrater reliability and the validity of this direct measure of assessment. The implications of continued use of this and similar tests in light of definitions of validity, local control, and the nature of writing are discussed.     

对彝族地区大学英语写作课教学的思考

大学英语写作作为一种书面表达形式, 是实现语言交际功能的重要途径之一, 对学生而言, 写作直接反映了学生学习和掌握英语语言的能力。本文就制约彝族地区学生写作水平提高的因素进行分析, 对培养学生大学英语写作能力的方法、途径进行探讨。