Disentangling the impact of semantic and formal factorsin the acquisition of number inflections: Noun, adjective and verb agreement in written French

In written French, the acquisition of the nominal plural (-s) occurs earlier and faster than the acquisition of the verbal plural (-nt) (Totereau, Thevenin & Fayol, 1997, Learning to Spell). The reasons for this difference are not well known. The objective of the present research is to test two alternative hypotheses, which may provide an account of this difference by exploiting a particularity of written French: The agreement of adjectives. According to the first hypothesis, the nominal plural is acquired before the verbal plural because it is semantically grounded, unlike the latter. According to the second, the early emergence of noun agreements is due to the fact that -s occurs more consistently than -nt. These two hypotheses lead to different predictions, that can be tested empirically, with regard to the agreement of adjectives. These predictions were studied in three experiments using sentences recall or completion tasks presented to children from 7 to 10 years old. The results confirm the semantic hypothesis but reveal an impact of consistency on performance.     

从二语习得角度看大学专业课程双语教学

大学专业课程双语教学模式已经是我国大学专业课程教学的主要内容之一。专业课程双语教学除了能有效提升学生的外语能力外,还能有效提升学生运用英语思维学习掌握专业知识。本文论述了国内双语教学的问题及主要模式,指出从二语习得的角度进行专业课双语教学的可能。     

The effect of self-explanation and prediction on the development of principled understanding of chess in novices

The present study was designed to test the effect of self-explanation and prediction on the development of principled understanding of novices learning to play chess. First-year psychology students, who had no chess experience, first learned the basic rules of chess and were afterwards divided in three conditions. They either observed (control condition), predicted, or predicted and self-explained the moves of the computer playing a chess endgame of King and Rook against King. Finally, in the test phase, participants had to play the endgame against the computer and were required to checkmate the opponent King. Apart from their test performance, the conditions were compared on quality of move predictions in the learning phase. The self-explanation condition showed better understanding of the endgame principles than the two other conditions, as indicated by the move predictions in the learning phase that more often exemplified correct application of chess principles. Moreover, participants in the self-explanation condition more often checkmated the black King in the test phase than participants in the two other conditions. However, no differences emerged between the prediction and observation condition. This study showed that, even for novices, providing self-explanations stimulates the discovery of domain principles of chess.     

Reading and writing to learn in secondary education: online processing activity and written products in summarizing and synthesizing tasks

The research reported here employed a multiple-case study methodology to assess the online cognitive and metacognitive activities of 15-year-old secondary students as they read informational texts and wrote a new text in order to learn, and the relation of these activities to the written products they were asked to generate. To investigate the influence of the task, students were required to perform two different tasks which differed in complexity and familiarity. The first task was reading a single text and making a written summary of it, while the second consisted in reading two texts and making a written synthesis of them. To gather information about how students construct meaning from informational texts, we asked students to think aloud as they read and wrote in order to provide us with information about their comprehension and composition processes. We also examined their reading and writing activities during the tasks. The results show that to a large extent secondary school students lack the cognitive and metacognitive processes that would enable them to make strategic use of reading and writing. They also show that, although there are no major differences in the way secondary school students tackle these different tasks, those who create the most elaborate products evidence a more recursive and flexible use of reading and writing. The most obvious conclusion as far as the repercussions of these findings are concerned is that there is an urgent need for work on tasks of this kind in the classroom.     

Alphabetic access route in beginning reading acquisition in Portuguese: The role of letter-name knowledge

The present study investigates Ehri's (Ehri & Wilce 1985; Scott & Ehri 1990) hypothesis that knowledge of the alphabet enables children to learn to read by processing and storing letter-sound relations in words. In particular, it examines whether letter-name knowledge facilitates the learning of spellings in which the names of one or more letters can be heard in the pronunciation of the words. Preschool children who could not read any word out of context were divided into two groups on the basis of their ability to name the letters of the alphabet: one group knew the names of the letters while the other did not. Both groups were taught to read two types of simplified spellings: visual spellings, that is, spellings whose letters did not correspond to sounds in the pronunciations of the words but which were visually more salient (e.g., X_QKO for the word cerveja), and phonetic spellings, that is, spellings whose letters corresponded to sounds in the pronunciation of the words (e.g., CRVA for the word cerveja). In all phonetic spellings, the name of at least one letter could be clearly heard in the pronunciation of the words. Results corroborated Ehri's hypothesis. The children who did not know the names of the letters learned to read the visual spellings more easily than the phonetic ones. On the other hand, the children who knew the names of the letters showed the opposite pattern, that is, they learned the phonetic spellings more easily than the visual ones.     

The effects of written attempts prior to correct visual presentation on spelling acquisition and retention

Students learned difficult spelling words via three different teaching methods. They either saw the correct spelling before attempting it, or could attempt to spell the word once, or several times, prior to viewing the correct spelling. Results showed that attempting to spell and test the words before viewing them facilitated acquisition of the words. The teaching methods did not differentially influence long-term retention. The locus of the effects of some teaching methods, when the words are thoroughly learned, is to be found during initial acquisition rather than evidenced in retention. Asking students to generate and test spellings prior to correct presentation facilitates encoding and acquisition of the correct spelling.     

情感因素对二语习得的影响

在二语习得的过程中,情感因素和认知因素并不是两个对立的因素,它们亦都无法独立影响语言学习。情感因素在语言习得的过程中作用颇重。积极的情感因素会使语言认知系统处理最佳状态,起到激智作用。因此,关注语言学习中的情感因素能够使语言学习更加有效。本文着重从情感因素的四大方面进行了分析很阐述。     

The role of output speech in literacy acquisition: Evidence from congenital anarthria

A case study of literacy acquisition in acongenitally speechless child (SM) isreported. In spite of a complete oral apraxia(due to bilateral focal brain damage), SMdeveloped normal intelligence and acquired complete mastery of reading and writing skills.Furthermore, both his verbal memory andmetaphonological skills were surprisinglypreserved. However, he showed a relativeimpairment in writing non-words. Theimplications of these findings for thedevelopmental interactions between language andliteracy are discussed.     

省略结构的儿童语言获得研究

本文通过实验研究儿童省略结构的获得。本文所讨论的省略结构指的是"也是"结构、"也+情态动词"结构以及空宾结构。这三种结构在汉语生成语法有关的讨论中常常被笼统地称作VP省略结构。本文的研究发现,前两种结构的句法语义表现和英语等语言中的VP省略结构比较相似,因为其解读遵守平行原则,即要求省略部分与先行部分的句法和语义对等;而空宾结构的表现则不怎么像VP省略结构,因为其解读可以不受平行原则的制约。支持这一分析的证据来自我们的实验研究,实验结果显示4岁儿童和成人解读"也是"和"也+情态动词"结构遵守平行原则,而解读空宾结构不受该原则限制。该项研究还发现3岁儿童还不具备区分这三种结构的能力。本文认为这三种结构的解读涉及句法和语义的跨模组运算,而跨模组运算能力的成熟要受到年龄因素的限制,这一研究结果为语法发育论提供了证据。     

西方企业反收购的经验和启示

西方企业的反收购措施的部署大致可分为两类：预防性和主动性的。预防性的措施是为了减少财务上成功的敌意收购的可能性,而主动性的措施在敌意报价后采取。我国企业的反收购尚处于起步阶段,反收购体系不完善,我们可以借鉴西方企业成熟的反收购策略,进行一定程度的变异,移植到我国特有的国情中。     

克拉申二语习得理论在大学英语听力教学中的应用

我国的大学英语听力教学一直存在着诸多问题,教材缺乏时代性,听力课缺乏互动,学生学的聋子英语,哑巴英语。本文从克拉申的输入假设与情感过滤假设理论出发,联系听力课堂教学实践,加大语言输入,降低情感过滤从而提高大学英语听力。     

高三英语阅读教学目标达成度的探索和实践

阅读是英语教学的重点和难点 ,对已有一定阅读基础的高三学生 ,阅读应以提高正确率和阅读速度为目标。作者以“三步目标法”作为高三阅读教学目标达成度的训练方法 ,取得了较好的效果     

试析1943年美国国会与政府在UNRRA协定上的冲突与妥协

1943年美国第78届国会提出了授权政府为联合国善后救济总署（UNRRA）拨款的联合决议案。国会和政府围绕这个议案的争论,比较集中地反映了战时国会两院,特别是参议院的主要观点,为罗斯福政府制定战后国际和平组织的政策设定了原则框架,而且对战时和战后美国国际组织政策的制定和执行发挥了重要影响。     

大学生英语口语错误及其自我修正研究对口语教学的启示

文章以《中国学生英语口笔语语料库》中的口语语料为数据来源,对中国大学生在口语表达中的错误及其修正情况进行了分类统计和分析,并据此提出了一些纠错策略,对于阐明中国大学生口语错误中存在的一些规律,切实提高他们的口语水平有积极意义。     

Self-assessment of writing in independent language learning programs: The value of annotated samples

The availability of multi-media technologies in education has made the option of independent learning increasingly attractive. Whilst independent learning presents learners with a more flexible learning context, it also presents new challenges in assessment in that the onus is placed upon the learners themselves to monitor and evaluate their own learning.This paper reports on the development of an approach to learner self-assessment which aims to facilitate the self-assessment of performance on extended-response writing tasks. Whilst such tasks are typical within current approaches to communicative language learning, a review of the self-assessment literature reveals no precedent for how actual task performance might be effectively and reliably self-assessed. A methodology was therefore developed which used annotated samples of learner-produced texts, where the annotations would elucidate both the criteria by which performance should be judged and the standards expected, thus enabling learners to assess their own performances by comparing their work with these samples. The methodology was trialled on a small sample of students. It was found to be both reliable and useful, allowing students not only to accurately evaluate their own performance but also to learn new language skills from the samples.     

汉语主题结构与L2学生过渡阶段中介语错误

非英语专业过渡时期大学生英语写作中的典型错误主要是汉语主题结构投射的影响,尤其是汉语连动兼语结构、汉语双主语结构、汉语存在句结构及外围主题结构等汉语主题突出结构句式是过渡时期中介语错误的主要成因。过渡阶段增强学生元语言意识,注意输入的质与量及了解英汉语言特征差异是十分必要的。     

从经济战到石油外交——20世纪70年代日本对中国大陆的石油贸易

中日两国曾在第二次世界大战期间打过一场经济战,但这场战争结束20多年后的1978年,双方又签订了《中日长期贸易协议》,展开了石油贸易。文章在论述这一协议交涉的政治过程之后,从日本的“经济安全保障”战略、中国大陆的外汇战略以及当时牵制前苏联与日本共同开发秋明油田及建设第二条西伯利亚铁路战略的角度着重考察在石油贸易背后所隐藏的政治外交问题。     

个体差异中的动机因素对二语习得的影响

个体差异是客观存在的个体因素,个体差异因素中包括认知风格、个体智商、学习动机、学习风格和学习策略等等个体差异因素,其中最主要的还是学习动机。而这一因素在很大程度上影响着第二语学得,对英语的教学也起着至关重要的作用。该文主要论述的是国内外对动机类型,动机对第二外语习得影响的研究以及激励学习动机的策略。     

从普遍语法到心理模块——先天论视角下的认知构成性假说

人类的认知活动是先天的还是通过后天经验的构建或者是两者共同作用的结果,这个问题至今仍没有完全解决。近来先天论的复活恰恰暗示了一种新的研究趋势。作为先天论的领军人物,乔姆斯基的普遍语法假说和福多的思想语言、心理模块假说对认知活动的产生和发展都进行了阐述,并且为先天论的复活提供了有力的论证。