A prediction model of foreign language reading proficiency based on reading time and text complexity

In textbooks, foreign （second） language reading proficiency is often evaluated through comprehension questions. In case, authentic texts are used as reading material, such questions should be prepared by teachers. However, preparing appropriate questions may be a very demanding task for teachers. This paper introduces a method for automatically evaluating proficiency, wherein comprehension questions are not required. This method assesses a learner＇s reading proficiency on the basis of the linguistic features of the text and the learner＇s reading time. A reading model following this method predicted reading proficiency with an ER （error rate） of 18.2%. This ER is lower than those of models proposed in previous studies. Furthermore, the ER of the authors＇ reading model for various learner groups classified by their RS （reading speeds） was examined. The result of this examination showed that the error rate was the lowest for the group of learners with fast RS.     

A Study on English Reading Teaching With Cooperative Learning By Means of Task-Based Teaching in Higher Vocational Education

Higher Vocational Education(HVE) is an important component of higher education in our country.The English Curriculum Standard of HVE considers promoting the students’ reading comprehension as one of the most important goals in English teaching.Task-based CL emphasizes the importance of education as a vehicle for teaching citizens to live cooperatively in a social democracy and teachers are not the only sources of knowledge and students should be able to help each other and learn in an interdependent way.The heart of cooperative learning is student-centered.Therefore,task-based CL can overcome the shortcomings in traditional teaching models,and the goal of improving reading comprehension can be achieved for the teachers of reading by realizing the mental process of reading comprehension and how prior knowledge can enhance a reader’s interaction with the text through CL.This thesis consists of five parts.Part one,two and three briefly introduces the background and significance of the study,definitions and models of cooperative learning and reading comprehension.Part four and five are the key sections of the thesis,which introduces the hypotheses,subjects,instrument,procedure of the study and the analysis of the results of the study.Part five draws the conclusion of the study.     

Usability design strategies for children： Developing children＇s learning and knowledge in decreasing their dental anxiety

This paper presents an example of how usability design strategies for children can be designed into educational material using CD-ROM based multimedia application for assisting parents and teachers to develop children＇s learning and knowledge in decreasing as well as motivate children aged 7-9 years old to reduce their anxious feelings towards dental treatment. In this paper, the authors provide usability design strategies for children in designing the information interfaces and presentation of a PMLE （persuasive multimedia learning environment）. PMLE is designed based on the six design categories of guidelines for children which have been applied to this study： general interaction, text, multimedia, navigation and search, graphical user interface and content. The results authors were able to on presenting this PMLE to 240 primary school children selected at random show how the decrease children＇s dental anxiety and motivate the children to get ready for dental visit.     

On Affective Strategies use in College Students' Autonomous English Learning

Autonomous study emphasizes the learner’s initiative,enthusiasm and creativity.In all fields of education,there is growing emphasis on "learner-centered" teaching methods and the ability of learner autonomy.Many experts and scholars have found that learning strategies plays an important role in English language learning,but the importance of affective strategy use in English learning is often ignored by people.Therefore,this paper focuses on the frequencies of affective strategies use in English learning and their relationships so as to enable college students to use positive affective strategies effectively to improve their autonomous learning ability.     

＂E-book flood＂ for changing EFL learners＇ reading attitudes

This paper was intended to investigate the effects of using e-books （or texts with multimedia support） in an ERP （extensive reading program） on EFL （English as a foreign language） learners＇ attitudes toward reading in English. In a junior high school in northern Taiwan, 109 students from 3 intact classes were recruited in the 10-week ERP of e-books. Each class was introduced to a list of 140 selected e-books for the reading program; each student was then encouraged to read e-books after school, with the target of reading 4 e-books every week. The degree of changes in reading attitudes was assessed by using the reading attitudes scale （Stokmans, 1999） before and after the e-book ERP. In addition, the teacher＇s class notes of the students＇ reading behaviors and reactions as well as their spontaneous oral or written feedback were analyzed to be triangulated with the quantitative data. The results showed that the e-books had positive effects on the students＇ attitudinal changes in all dimensions of reading attitudes, namely, utility, development, enjoyment and escape, as well as in all the cognitive, affective and conative components. The results also showed that the features of the e-books, especially oral reading, highlighting, animations and music/sound effects, were considered important to change their attitudes. The implementation of interaction and learner control in the e-books guaranteed positive attitudinal changes as well.     

The Influence of Grammatical Competence on Reading Comprehension

With the development of globalization,English has become one of the most popular languages in the world.In many non-English-speaking countries,English teaching and learning occupies a very important position in their foreign language education.Grammar teaching is an indispensable part of English language teaching in EFL context like China;however,in recent years,grammar teaching has been more or less neglected.Without doubt,grammatical competence is one of the major factors that influence reading efficiency.This paper mainly focuses on examining how a learner’s grammatical competence influences his or her reading comprehension,starting with a comprehensive review of the grammar-related factors involved in reading comprehension.     

Learning is a Lifelong Obligation

When you see the topic, you may grow curious. Why do I say that learning is a lifelong obligation. In fact, from the time we were born, we were faced with a learning task. A baby learns how to eat, speak and walk. Afterwards he, at his six or seven years will go to school to learn reading and spelling. In the same way, an adult has to learn the basic skill of communication.     

Different influence of contextual educational factors on boys＇ and girls＇ reading achievement

The results of lEA （The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement） PIRLS 2006 （Progress in International Reading Literacy Study） has showed that Latvia has the 6th largest gender gap in reading literacy scores and that is an indication of a serious problem of education in this country. The purpose of the paper is to find out reasons behind boys＇ low achievement to help improve their reading literacy. The proposed hypothesis is that boys and girls are differently affected by the same factors. If that is so, teachers, parents and other education practitioners should be aware of this fact to adapt reading literacy studies for both genders at maximum efficiency. In this research, PILRS 2006 data are used and different structural equation models are created to find out which factors have the most influence on boys＇ reading achievement. Structural equation modeling （SEM） is based on achievement scores and student and parent questionnaire data. The model formed using all population data was applied to boys＇ and girls＇ data separately to observe different influence of the same factors on students reading achievement scores. The comparison of standardized coefficients of structural equation model among five countries （Spain, Russian Federation, Lithuania, Latvia and Trinidad and Tobago） has been performed. Running the same model over different boys＇ and girls＇ data of different countries has showed that the strengths of relationships among the variables are similar. It was expected to observe noticeable differences between SEM coefficients of boys＇ and girls＇ data, but it turned out that big gender differences in reading achievement does not mean big differences in standardized coefficients of structural equation model and vice versa. It is found that school environment has greater impact on boys reading literacy.     

Fostering Learner Autonomy by Developing Learners’Strategies in The Classroom

This paper intends to discuss how to develop the learners’autonomous English learning abilities through strategy teaching.The problems of learning strategies were analyzed.Developing learners’strategies through classroom teaching is an efficient way to foster learner autonomy.The results prove that using the content of regular classroom teaching,which is a meaning ful context for the development of responsibility,can not only enhance the learning effect,but also save time for strategy training.The teacher’s guiding role in autonomous learning should never be ignored.Developing autonomous English learning in voca tional colleges in China is a long-term pedagogical goal.     

Academicians＇ self-efficacy in the application of TEC learning curriculum instructional design in Malaysian public tertiary education

This research is attempted to examine universities＇ academic staffs＇ curriculum instructional design in the teaching and learning process in applying the technology enhanced classroom （TEC） learning. The universities have embarked on a costly project to create an innovative and creative learning and teaching environment to promote and establish a state-of-the-art, smart, efficient, effective and high quality education. The teaching and learning culture of universities have great influence on determining the level of students＇ achievement. Seven dimensions of public universities in Malaysia were examined to determine the percentage of academic staffs＇ self-efficacy in the application of TEC learning. There is a significant difference among factors concerning the academic staffs＇ self-efficacy in their teaching and learning processes in the classroom management. Their self-preparedness in using the provided technology is closely related to the experiences and practicality of the teaching materials. This study represents an addition to the extant literature on universities＇ academic staffs＇ self-efficacy in the application of TEC learning. Academic staffs＇ self-efficacy in using TEC learning instructional design is of the utmost important to disseminate knowledge to students, which will also fully help utilize the government＇s effort in providing technology to the additional instructional design, so as to achieve high quality education and technological enhance education to pave the way to achieve a techno-education environment for all public universities in Malaysia. This study provides furtber groundwork to assist existing tertiary educational managers to improve smart teaching and learning environment and to retain high quality academic staffs in the day-to-day classroom curriculum.     

Addressing cognitive processes in e-learning： TSOI Hybrid Learning Model

The development of e-learning materials for teaching and learning often needs to be guided by appropriate educational theories or models. As such, this paper provides alternative e-learning design pedagogy, the TSOI Hybrid Learning Model as a pedagogic model for the design of e-learning cognitively in science and chemistry education. This model is hybridized from the Piagetian science learning cycle model and the Kolb＇s experiential learning cycle. The TSOI Hybrid Learning Model represents learning as a cyclical cognitive process of four phases： translating, sculpting, operationalizing and integrating. A major feature is to promote cognitive processing in the learner for active learning proceeding from inductive to deductive. Design specificity in science and chemistry education is illustrated in terms of instructional storyboarding for the developed research-based e-learning product. Learners＇ cognitive ability for example positive concept achievement will be addressed as part of the research data collected.     

Second Language Lecture Comprehension: Student's Perception, Problems and Strategies

The ability to comprehend academic lecture is an important part of the necessary proficiency of tertiary level students for whom English is a second or foreign language. The purpose of this research is to investigate the lecture-perceived experience of one non-nativespeaking learner who attending her English medium lecture course in the first semester in New Zealand. It describes how the learner perceives the lecturing experience, the problems she encounters and the strategies she use to overcome these problems.     

Preliminary Exploration on English Reading Strategy of Senior Middle School

Reading for most people is the main means to gain knowledge and the importance of it has already been widely accepted.Also,it has been regarded as the most necessary foreign language skill in most countries’ teaching syllabus of colleges and middle schools,which requires the learners to master it badly.So how to explore teaching theory of foreign language reading has become an important task for study of foreign language teaching methods.In this study,some reading theories and reading strategies provided can be helpful to developing senior middle school students’ linguistic ability and improving their reading efficiency.     

What Does Teaching in Samoan Bilingual Classrooms Look Like？ Observations as Evidence-Based From a New Zealand Professional Learning and Development Perspective

This paper reports on the instructional practice of teachers who have similar language and culture as their students in a bilingual cluster （Cluster A） involving three schools and seven teachers in delivering the curriculum to year 0 （5-year-old） to year 8 （12/13-year-old） students. The 30-40 minutes baseline observations conducted on teachers＇ instruction during a reading session were part of a Ministry of Education＇s （MOE） professional learning and development project （in progress） to increase student achievement in English literacy in these classrooms through evidence-based in-class facilitation. We hypothesized that teachers in these bilingual classes were perhaps not making optimal use of children＇s prior knowledge, particularly their linguistic and cultural strengths, to increase robust and in-depth oral discussions for understanding the texts during the reading lessons. The baseline observations were coded under exchanges known to enhance reading comprehension and specifically related to vocabulary, checking, incorporation, extended talk, awareness, and feedback, and were analyzed for the purposes of： （a） feeding back to teachers what their instruction looked like; （b） creating discussions around teachers＇ strengths and weaknesses that had arisen out of the instructional and student achievement data; and （c） identifying professional development needs for teachers and their students. It was found that teachers and students＇ discussions around a concept or word were limited and that students＇ oral strengths were not fully optimized for understanding. We report here the first phase involving Samoan teachers teaching Samoan students in Samoan bilingual classrooms. The second phase is in progress with the last phase starting midyear. The findings from these two phases will enable some discussions to be made around shifts in instructional practice, if any, their impact on student achievement and how these might be sustained.     

Examining Samoan language development in Samoan bilingual students＇ understanding of texts in English

This paper examines language development of Samoan students in bilingual contexts in Aotearoa, New Zealand. In the absence of valid and standardized assessments tools in Samoan, one was designed to test reading comprehension and oral language development for Samoan students using common narratives as a base. For reading comprehension, the tool used a listening comprehension format to avoid possible decoding limitations and provided a gradient of difficulty with a surprising drop in both oral and reading comprehension at year 7. This drop was attributed to a change in competencies of some students entering the bilingual classroom at year 7. For example, the mixed levels of both L 1 （Samoan） oral and L1 （Samoan） reading comprehension within and across years of schooling likely reflects the varied provision in the Samoan bilingual classes and the variations across cohorts in different degrees of bilingualism. We argue that this might be due to the make up of the two schools of which one was an Intermediate school of years 7 and 8 students and, the other was a full primary school with students from years 4 to 8. The patterns suggest two general instructional needs in Samoan bilingual classrooms. One is the need to develop metacognitive components and the need for deliberate and explicit instruction to build awareness of strategies and effectiveness. The other is the ubiquitous need identified in reading comprehension instruction generally to develop vocabulary both through oral and written forms. There was a highly significant relationship between L 1 oral at L1 reading comprehension levels reflecting a general relationship found in other studies of monolingual in L2 （English） contexts.     

The Impact of Teacher Education Programs on In-service Teachers in China and USA

Beliefs about knowledge, learning and teaching are assumed to impact teachers＇ practice （Brownlee, 2004; N. Entwistle, Skinner, D. Entwistle, ＆ Orr, 2000）. A change of beliefs is an important step for teacher learning, but it is often seen as difficult if not impossible （Cooney, Shealy, ＆ Arvold, 1998）. This study investigated the impact some teacher education programs from China and the USA had on the teachers＇ beliefs and teaching strategies and how these teachers integrated the acquired knowledge and teaching strategies in their practice. Researchers were particularly interested in investigating teachers＇ ability and willingness to use the strategies congruent with constructivist learning theory in their classrooms.     

On the Development of Learner Autonomy in Art Majors through Metacognitive Strategy Training

Learner autonomy is considered as one of the key educational goals in all the countries of the world since 1980s.In China,developing learner autonomy is particularly emphasized in College English Curriculum Requirements.Some researches have been made on developing learner autonomy,which seem to prove that the training of language learning strategies helps to develop learner autonomy.But because the traditional teaching method has been dominant in universities,college students,in particular art majors are passive and lose interests in English.Consequently,English teaching method must be reformed and learn er autonomy must be developed.In the relevant researches on learning strategy training and the development of learner autono my,the subjects are not involved in art majors.So the author tries to make a research in the field by combining with her teaching experience.Developing learner autonomy in art majors through the training of metacognitive strategies may lay the basis for their future learning and development,which is important for the college English teaching of art majors.Key wrods:learner autonomy;art majors;metacognitive strategy training     

On teaching strategies in second language acquisition

How to acquire a second language is a question of obvious importance to teachers and language learners, and how to teach a second language has also become a matter of concern to the linguists＇ interest in the nature of primary linguistic data. Starting with the development stages of second language acquisition and Stephen Krashen＇s theory, this paper puts forward teaching strategies： analyzing learner characteristics, signing classroom contracts, creating learner-centered classroom, setting language goals, integrating theory with practice and building learner motivation.     

Teaching and learning in kindergarten

Teaching and learning in kindergarten is related, on the one hand, to the principles, methods and forms of teachers＇ work that should optimally contribute to pre-school child development and learning, and on the other hand, to the issues of the developing their reasoning and other aspects of their personality. It is for this reason that the responsibility of kindergarten teachers, in view Kindergartens must strive to ensure quality teaching and of instruction and learning of young children, is huge. learning environment for very young children, which in addition fosters an atmosphere of pleasure and comfort. This paper aims to present the significance of instruction and learning of pre-school children today, in particular that within the institutionalised education （in kindergarten）. The author＇s points of interest were how instruction and learning of young children in kindergarten was perceived in the past and the contemporary view on modern instruction and learning ofpre-school children in kindergartens.     

A Case Study of the Characteristics of an Autonomous Learner:Take an Adult English Learner for Example

This study based on researcher’s adult oral English teaching experience,takes an adult English learner as a case study to explore the characteristics of an autonomous English learner.From analysis of data (observation and teaching diary),this study elaborates three common characteristics of an autonomous learner:(1) Firstly,an autonomous learner has a high motivation;(2) Secondly,an autonomous learner is good at trying different learning strategies,especially metacognitive strategy to manage learning proceeding.(3) Lastly,an autonomous learner readily takes charge of their own learning by making plan and reflecting on it.Meanwhile,this study presents teacher’s role as a facilitator and consultor and some factors that need taking into consideration,offering a precious experience for future’s fostering of autonomous English learners.