Transfer of Native Language——A Minor Role in Second Language Acquisition

This essay deals with the long controversial issue of whether transfer of native language has a major or minor role in the second language acquisition.Based on a brief introduction of all the literature regarding the language transfer in SLA and investigated through a deeper look into the main theories on the role of native language,the essay points out that the role of transfer of NL is evidently far from being as definite or dominant as it is supposed to be.The essay asserts that language universals but not the NL facts were found to play the leading role in the transfer.It holds that Universal Grammars are functioning in determining where language transfer occurs,and thus comes to its conclusion that the role of transfer from NL is inferior to that of UG in SLA,which explains why among second language learners there has been a remarkable common experience that language learners in the early stages will produce in the target language linguistic forms which can be related neither to their mother tongue nor to the target language.     

English‐medium Content Courses in Non‐English Higher Education: a study of lecturer experiences and teaching behaviours

Abstract

One important factor concerning the internationalization of higher education might be the adoption of a common language as the medium of instruction. For non‐English speaking countries this language tends to be English. Though educational institutions in Europe have already started to conduct (parts of) their curricula in English it is still not clear what effects this change of instructional language will have either on the lecturers involved or on the quality of their instruction. The present article is an attempt to provide an answer to these questions, based on Dutch experiences.     

Cross‐cultural adjustment of Native‐speaking English Teachers (NETs) in Hong Kong: a factor in attrition and retention

This paper argues that, despite government support in financial and contractual matters, ongoing problems of retention of Native‐speaking English Teachers (NETs) in Hong Kong stem, in part, from problems of cross‐cultural adjustment. The paper reports a small‐scale qualitative investigation into the experiences of NETS in Hong Kong and finds problems of cross‐cultural adjustment of the NETs themselves, the host schools and the government’s induction practices. The paper reports a diversity of problems in cross‐cultural adjustment and a variety of ways in which NETs handled them. The argument is made for increased and differentiated attention to be given to the cross‐cultural adjustment of NETs, for greater social networking and for reducing the isolation and cross‐cultural stresses that they experience. It is suggested that this might attenuate the problem of high NET turnover in Hong Kong.     

Modes of governmentality in an online space: a case study of blog activities in an advanced level Japanese‐as‐a‐Foreign‐Language classroom

This article discusses the validity of the incorporation of online communication in language education classes as a practice free of power politics. By examining blog activities in an advanced‐level Japanese‐as‐a‐Foreign‐Language classroom at a university in the USA, we show that the blog’s postings and readers’ comments evoke certain modes of governmentality – practices that shape one’s conduct – and define the space of a particular blog. This article illustrates two kinds of space created in blogs: that of language education in which ‘native speakers’ dominate ‘non‐native speakers’; and that of information exchange with less fixed relations of dominance, although participants’ behavior is regulated nonetheless. We suggest involving students in analyzing blog comments so that they can understand, and respond to, how the mode of governmentality works outside the classroom and how to transform relations of dominance that manifest themselves in online spaces.     

Evaluating the Madrasa preschool programme in East Africa: a quasi‐experimental study

This study investigated the effect of preschool experience (two types of preschool: Madrasa and non‐Madrasa) on the cognitive development of children in East Africa. In the three countries studied (Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania/Zanzibar) preschool education is burgeoning and government standards are being set. This quasi experimental evaluation used four subscales (block building, verbal comprehension, early number concept, picture similarities) adapted from the British Ability Scale II (BAS II; discussed by Elliot, Smith and McCulloch in 1996 Elliot, C.D., Smith, P. and McCulloch, K. 1996. British Ability Scale (BAS), Berkshire, , UK: NFER‐NELSON.  [Google Scholar]), and three (verbal meaning, exclusion, closure) from the African Child Intelligence Test (ACIT; discussed by Drenth and colleagues in 1980 Drenth, P.J.D., Van der Vlier, H., Muinde, N.P., Otaala, B., Omari, I.M. and Opolot, J.A. 1980. Jaribio akili mtoto Afrika. [African child intelligence test.] [in Kiswahili], Amsterdam: Free University of Amsterdam.  [Google Scholar]). The development of 423 children was studied at pre‐test (entry to preschool) and at post‐test 18 months later. Hierarchical regression showed that children with both types of preschool experience performed better than the home (comparison) group; however, children attending Madrasa Resource Centre preschools achieved significantly higher scores overall.     

Reading and Comprehension: a longitudinal study of ex‐Reading Recovery students

The paper reports the results of a longitudinal case study conducted in Australia and New Zealand. The study compares the reading and comprehension age of children in their fifth and sixth years in school. Reading and comprehension ages of 121 children who had Reading Recovery intervention at age 6 were compared with those of a Comparison group of 121 children, drawn from the same classes who, at age 6 years, had been better performers in literacy. Reading and comprehension assessment was conducted with the use of the Neale Analysis of Reading and analysed by means of a t‐test. Results show that the mean reading age of ex‐Reading Recovery children was nearly 12 months superior to that of the Comparison group and that the mean comprehension age was nearly 13 months superior at very highly significant levels. The results strongly suggest that Reading Recovery tuition at age 6 years enabled the 121 ex‐Reading Recovery children to make greater progress in literacy than children in the Comparison group.     

How preschool children learn in Hong Kong and Canada: a cross‐cultural study

This paper reviews literacy learning conducted in two laboratory preschools in Hong Kong and Canada, and examines the link between cultural values and educational practices. Both preschools maintain that a constructivist view of child learning underpins their practice. However, the author's experience in these two settings illustrates how similarities and differences are identified in the scope, focus, implementation strategies and learning outcomes of the activities observed. Reasons for these findings are explored from the perspectives of cultural values and societal beliefs in education of the East and the West, and how the constructivist ideology is espoused in these settings. Implications of this cross‐cultural comparison on the issue of ‘best practice’ in early childhood education are discussed.     

The Use of the Internet in Science Teaching: A longitudinal study of developments in use by student‐teachers in England

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of developments in use of the Internet by science student‐teachers on Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) courses in five higher education institution–school partnerships in England. These are 1‐year, full‐time, teacher training courses for graduate scientists. The aim of the research was to examine changes in attitudes to, and use of, the Internet to support science teaching and the perceived challenges and barriers to practice in schools, against a background of high national expectations reflected in the qualification standards of the teacher education courses. The research has involved nearly 600 student‐teachers, representing between 7% and 8% of those training on PGCE science courses in England, and has employed mixed methods, with questionnaires serving as the main basis for analysing trends, and focus groups and case studies used to gain deeper insight to the particular issues identified. The process has been an iterative one, with the outcomes of each year’s research being used to inform further research and course developments in the institutions involved. The findings indicate that attitudes and confidence in use of the Internet have improved over the period, with evidence of increased application directly in the classroom. However, in addition to some of the generic technological issues that may hinder developments in the use of Information and Communication Technology in schools, there are continuing concerns relating to limited pedagogical guidance and availability of good role models. The implications of this for developments in science teacher education programmes are discussed.     

Investigating learners’ use and understanding of peer and teacher feedback on writing: A comparative study in a Chinese English writing classroom

Existing comparative studies between peer and teacher feedback in English writing classes have predominantly used frequency measures of peer and teacher feedback in learners’ revisions to suggest their relative values for developing learners’ writing proficiency. However, learners do not necessarily understand the feedback that is used in their redrafts.This study distinguished learners’ use from their understanding of peer and teacher feedback. Eighteen Chinese university English learners participated in the study for sixteen weeks. Three research methods were adopted: (a) content analyses of learners’ use of feedback, (b) stimulated recall interviews on learners’ understanding of feedback, and (c) interviews on the factors that affected learners’ responses to feedback.The findings suggested that the learners used more teacher than peer feedback in their redrafts. However, interviews with these learners revealed that they used a larger percentage of teacher feedback than peer feedback without understanding its significance or value. Student interviews uncovered learners’ passive acceptance of teacher feedback and the facilitative role of first language use in peer interaction.This study suggests that learners’ understanding of feedback should be taken as at least an equally important factor as learners’ use of feedback in examining the relative value of peer and teacher feedback for developing learners’ writing proficiency.     

Becoming transnational: exploring multiple identities of students in a Mandarin–English bilingual programme in Canada

Guided by post-structural perspectives of identities as processes of becoming and transculturation and transnationalism, this study explores how multilingual students in a Mandarin–English bilingual programme form their sense of identities in a dynamic process. Multiple forms of data are collected, including observations, interviews and documents. The findings indicate that multilingual students are mobile, namely, they move across linguistic, cultural and ethnic spaces of interaction. In addition, they challenge the dominant discourse of any fixed and hyphenated identity and take up transcultural and transnational identities that allow their comfortable circulation among different worlds. This study calls for a need to unfold children's multiple and mobile identities and explores new possibilities for life.     

Social competence,cultural orientations and gender differences: a study of Mandarin–English bilingual preschoolers

This study investigated whether host and heritage cultural orientations were associated with Chinese preschoolers’ social competence and whether such associations varied across gender in Western contexts. Ninety-six Chinese-Australian children aged 36–69 months from 15 childcare centres in Sydney participated in the study. The General Ethnicity Questionnaires were modified to obtain a parent report of children's orientation to the host and heritage cultures. Social competence was assessed using teacher reports on the Behaviour Assessment System for Children-2 (BASC-2) with four composite scales: Externalising, Internalising, Behavioural Symptoms and Adaptive Skills. Host culture orientation was negatively associated with Internalising, Behavioural Symptoms and positively with Adaptive Skills in the overall sample. When analysed by gender, host cultural orientation was found to be positively associated with Adaptive Skills for boys and girls and negatively associated with Externalising and Behavioural Symptoms only in girls. Heritage cultural orientation was not associated with the BASC-2 composites either in the overall sample or by gender. The results indicate that host culture has a stronger relationship with social competence than heritage culture, particularly for girls.     

‘Second‐class Priests with Second‐class Training?’: a study of Local Non‐stipendiary Ministry within the Church of England

A doctoral study is reported, of action research on the motivation of 12–14‐year‐old religious education pupils in England. An earlier master's dissertation gives the basis and cues a developed conceptual framework including adolescence, creativity, ethnography, pedagogy and iterativity. Four cycles of praxis are traced. The emergent factors in pupil motivation are dialogue with difference, existential and ethical interest and personal significance. Recommendations for religious education pedagogy are advanced but their epistemological status as possibilities for change, subject to assessment and refinement in successive contexts, is kept in view. A critical discussion integrates the recommendations with elements of current religious education debate and then reviews the study's methodology in the light of current discussions of the nature of action research. The article concludes with remarks on the power of action research as a teacher development tool.     

Self‐perception of gifts and talents among adults in a longitudinal study of academically talented high‐school graduates

Definitions of giftedness and self‐perceptions of abilities were examined among adults who have been participating in a longitudinal study of academically talented students since their high‐school graduation in 1988. For the present study, participants answered open‐ended questions and completed scales measuring adult giftedness and adult self‐perceptions of abilities in 12 different domains. Gender differences in perceptions were examined. When participants were asked if they believed they were gifted in high school and now, more men than women responded affirmatively to both questions. Further, significant gender differences were identified for perceived competencies in four areas: job competence, nurturance, athletic competence, and morality. Implications of the findings and directions for future research are discussed.     

Self‐esteem and National Tests in Years 2 and 6: a 4‐year longitudinal study

ABSTRACT This 4‐year longitudinal study measured the self‐esteem, reading and mathematical attainments of four cohorts of children on two occasions‐‐in Year 2 and again in Year 6. All Year 2 children(N = 842) in five randomly selected primary schools within one Local Education Authority (LEA) comprised the sample, of which 588 were present in Year 6. The Lawseq questionnaire (Lawrence, 1982), Mathematics 7 and 11 (NFER, 1987a, b) and the Primary Reading Test Levels 1 and 2 (France, 1981) were administered to this sample. Results showed that Cohorts 3 and 4 had the lowest self‐esteem scores in Year 2 and the highest in Year 6 (significant at the 0.1% level). Attainments in mathematics were stable over the 4 years, but reading comprehension means were significantly higher in Year 6 than Year 2 (at the 0.1% level). Discussion centres on the age effects of self‐esteem responses as well as the effects of context and domain specific factors on self‐esteem.     

The developmental trajectory of biliteracy for Chinese–English adult EFL learners: a longitudinal study

Reading and Writing - Previous research is seldom addressed to biliteracy relationship for adult learners in the foreign language context. The present study was a repeated-measure design in a...     

Communication apprehension in a first language and self‐perceived competence as predictors of communication apprehension in a second language: A study of speakers of English as a second language

This study addresses the communication apprehension of the non‐native English speaker in the U.S. Previous studies which have examined the implications of communication apprehension (CA) for bilingual, non‐native communicators have generated results which indicate that trait‐like CA is consistent across first and second language‐speaking situations. However, none of these studies have probed the cause of the cross‐linguistic consistency of CA. This research is designed to provide a scientific explanation for the etiology of CA by applying the communibiological paradigm to CA theory and research. By selecting the situational constraints of international students, this study tests a theory based on proposition 4 of the communibiological paradigm (Beatty & McCroskey w/Valencic, 2001, p. 128): “Environment or ‘situation’ has only a negligible effect on interpersonal behavior.” The results of this study replicate the strong relationship previously observed between CA in a first language and CA in a second language. It also found that the genetic markers employed (Eysenck's Big 3 temperament variables) predicted first and second language CA approximately equally. The results indicate that, although both first and second languages are learned, the CA associated with them most likely is not.     

Universality of Socio‐moral Development: a cross‐sectional study in Poland

The concept of friendship has had a great deal of attention within recent years from philosophers. However, this attention restricts itself to friendship between adults and rarely considers the issue of friendship between children. The issue of friendship and how we socialise with others ought to be an important concept for education, yet schools rarely take the forming, nurturing and nourishing of friendship beyond helping to deal with disputes between friends when they disrupt school life. I wish to argue that whilst friendship is critical to the development of character and can properly be seen as part of ‘an invitation to the moral life’, it also has value in and of itself as part of the flourishing life.