A Brief Analysis of Negative Transfer of Chinese on the English Writings

Based on the researches of language transfer,contrastive analysis and error analysis,this paper tries to investigate the negative transfer of Chinese on Chinese students’English writings from the perspective of syntax.During one and a half months’teaching practice in Shannxi Hanzhong No.1 Middle School,the author lived through the real teaching process and found that there were lots of problems in students’English writings.The author makes a contrastive study of the different characteristics existing in Chinese and English languag es at the level of syntax,and analyses the typical syntactic errors appearing in the 60 students’English compositions collected from one or dinary class.These syntactic errors are caused by the negative transfer of Chinese.The purpose of the investigation is to study in what pat tern students have been influenced by Chinese in their English writings.Based on the findings and analysis of the mother tongue transfer on English writings,some implications are also provided in order to help minimize or eliminate the interference of negative transfer of the Chinese in students’English writings and improve the teaching and learning of English.     

An Investigation of English Writing Anxiety Among English Majors

With Daly,Horwitz and Y-S-Cheng’s theoretical model of second language writing anxiety as research framework,this thesis surveyed English majors’English writing anxiety.Findings of the present study show that all of the English major stu dents experience English writing anxiety.There is no significant difference in English anxiety among students from three different grades.There is significant difference in English writing anxiety between the students who hold positive attitudes towards English writing and those who hold negative attitudes towards English writing and there is significant difference in English writing anxi ety among students who rated their English writing good,average and bad.Results from the qualitative study show the reasons why there is little difference in English writing anxiety among students from three different grades.What’s more,it is shown that the poor writing skills,cognitive anxiety,test anxiety and erroneous beliefs toward English writing are the main sources of Eng lish writing anxiety.     

On Applicability of Face——Saving Theory in China

Brown and Levinson’s face theory is a theory of interpersonal relationship. It has successfully explained the influence of "face"in people’s daily communications. The theory is built on the basis of western culture and ignores the cultural difference of "face"in China. It is not free from limitations the absoluteness of which exerts a checking effort on its universal applicability. This paper probes from the perspective of the influence of context and culture that the application of Face-Saving theory in actual communications in China, especially from those restrictions on the use of negative face in China.     

Investigation of Students＇ ICT Skills in Terms of Different Variables in a Technical and Vocational High School for Girls

This study aims to measure girls＇ technical and vocational high school students＇ information and communication technology （ICT） skills and to investigate these in terms of different variables. The singular and relational survey model was used in this study. The sample composed of 119 technical and vocational high school students. The data were collected through a paper-based survey composed of two parts. In the first part of the survey, there are 15 items about personal information and demographic information about the participating students. In the second part, there is a scale about ICT skills. The data were analyzed by Statistical Package for Social Sciences （SPSS） Version 21.0 by means of percent, frequency, mean, mode, median, Mann-Whitney U, and Kruskall-Wallis test. The results showed that there were no significant differences in the technical and vocational high school students＇ ICT skills with respect to gender, class level, experience in the use of computers, frequency of using the Internet, working style, learning style, and motivation style. As for the ＂number of aim using the Internet＂ variable, a significant difference in the ICT skills scale was observed.     

Needs Analysis of English Culture Background Introduction in Spoken English Classes

With globalization there is an increasing need for spoken English for Chinese college students. However, the situation of the teaching system of spoken English in most universities in China is not satisfactory. Influenced by the exam-oriented teaching system, great importance has been put on English grammar and the skills of reading and writing. As a result, students’enthusiasm in improving their spoken English is diminished. Actually, students need some knowledge about English culture background before they can communicate effectively. It is significant for teachers to find out the students’wants and lacks during their spoken English study. Besides, attentions should be paid to English culture background in spoken English classes by both teachers and students. This paper mainly aimed at finding out the needs of students for English culture background in spoken English classes based on the theory of needs analysis.     

An Evaluation on Coursebook (Cambridge English for the Media):A Case Study

Coursebook is an essential part in English language teaching. Evaluating a coursebook is very helpful task for teachers’ development. This paper reviews three methods of evaluating coursebook, which are the impressionistic method, the checklist method, and the in-depth method. Then the author adopts the hybrid of these three methods mentioned to evaluate a coursebook - Cambridge English for the Media - used by some Chinese students in a one-year exchange programme in UK. Questionnaire and semi- structured interviews are carried out with the students to get their views about the coursebook. At the end, this paper compares teacher’s view with the learners’based on the data from the questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The results of this study show that there are conflicts between the teacher’s views and the students’on the coursebook.     

The Vocabulary Reality from Elementary School to High School in China

The purpose of this research is to examine how large English language vocabulary is used in elementary,middle and high schools in China in order to plan for teaching how much English vocabulary college students learn in the first two years to develop general English ability.One corpus is used to examine how many high-frequency words are included in elementary,middle and high school English vocabulary and Vocabprofile and Text Lex Compare of on-line tool-http://www.lextutor.ca/are used to.There are three interesting points arising from the analysis of the three word lists.First,most of the words consisted of basic-level words.Second,from analysis of the degrees of word repetition,students only learn 2208 new words and there are1812 repeated words in the three stages.Third,from analysis of how much coverage of the three vocabulary families each of the three base lists provide,99.9%of the running words are in base word list one,two and three.Based on these viewpoints,basic words should be identified scientifically and educationally for Chinese learners of English.     

International Migration for Educational Purposes——A Study of Chinese Students Studying for a Master Degree in the UK

This study was initiated by dramatic increase of international migration for educational purpose. The paper aims to investigate the reasons behind Chinesel students’ choice of studying in the UK from two different aspects of ’push’ factors and ’pull’ factors.The study was carried out among Chinese students studying in the university of Bristol, Cardiff University the University of Edinburgh. Both questionnaire and interview were used in data collection. The general findings showed that students’ study destination choice was influenced by ’push’ factors from students’ home country and ’pull’ factors from the host country.     

A study of the inspiration of content schema in Higher vocation students English Reading Teaching

On account of the difficulties appeared in the higher vocational students’English reading comprehension,the author connected these difficulties with four schemas included in the schema theory,and according to content schema,made an experimental study on reading test.Through data contrast and analysis of two groups’reading test results,the author concluded the content schema had certain significance for the higher vocational English reading teaching practice.     

A Corpus-Based Study of the Use of Verb DO in L2 Hong Kong University Students Writing

It is found in the study that there is a big difference concerning the overall frequency of Do with Hong Kong students using much more DO in their writings than native speakers.Besides,Hong Kong university students tend to overuse the verbal operator DO,which is contrary to Qi Yan’s study(2006).At the same time,they also misuse Do;When Do is used as de-lexical verb,Hong Kong students share the same characteristics with the study of Fu zhuqin(2006),that is,they allow more freedom to collocate with more Nouns,some of which are inappropriate collocates in native English.The potential reasons for these problems might be illustrated as overgeneralization,mother-tongue interference,and lack of vocabulary etc.Based on the findings,the paper presents two pedagogical implications about vocabulary teaching and learning:the content of vocabulary teaching should be extended and enriched,and the corpus-based vocabulary teaching methodology should be integrated into class practices.     

Diversity in education using blended learning in Sarawak

One of the objectives of Malaysia Ministry of Education is to provide educational opportunities for all Malaysians. Are education opportunities given fairly to all Malaysians who come from two big regions and divided by the South China Sea？ The web infancy era, where the World Wide Web （WWW） is blooming fast, has changed the new millennium teaching and learning process tremendously. Although the online learning can reach to students regardless of their location and backgrounds, human contact is still very important in traditional face-to-face learning. Blended learning course comprising online learning and traditional face-to-face learning components is an effective teaching and learning method, where it combines the best from both worlds. Blended learning courses only started a few years ago in Malaysia higher learning institutions to give everybody equal opportunities to study. The key acceptance of blended learning approach and continuing improvement is students＇ satisfaction. This study focused on students＇ satisfaction related to the nine components of blended learning （course content, technical, flexibility, community learning, motivation, sharing, feedback, complementary learning and personalized learning） from two locations： urban and rural areas. The study employed a mixed method consisting of a survey questionnaire distributed first to collect the quantitative data and followed by the interview to refine and explain the data. The population of the study consisted of students who enrolled in the Mathematics Blended Learning Course in Sarawak state in semester July-November, 2007. Census was used in the study. The survey instrument was developed and validated using Rasch model. The semi-structured questionnaire was used in qualitative data collection. The quantitative data was analyzed by using SPSS v 14.0 whilst the qualitative data was coded by using NVivo software. Results from the quantitative data showed that students were satisfied in all nine components regardless of the location. The grand mean of all components also indicated that respondents were satisfied with blended learning course. This result was supported by the qualitative data.     

An Investigation of Factors That Contribute to Student Satisfaction From Online Courses＂ An Example of an Online Accounting Course

Although most courses are offered in the traditional synchronous way where teaching and learning mainly take place in the classroom, the Internet has proven to be an effective tool in learning. The demand of online courses is constantly growing, however, there is a paucity of research of online delivery success factors, especially of accounting courses. The aim of this paper was to investigate＇the factors that contribute to student satisfaction from online teaching and learning of an accounting course. This study was conducted at a university in the United States （U.S.） amongst 80 students enrolled in an online accounting course over a period of two semesters. The quantitative data are based on the students＇ course evaluation forms of the instructor＇s teaching and overall satisfaction with the course. The findings suggest that the students found the asynchronous online teaching and learning interesting and challenging. The factors that mainly contribute to student satisfaction include the instructor＇s preparation for the course and her availability to students, the clear grading criteria, the assignment which they found useful, and the other resources that were available online. They value the least the development of writing skills. Additionally, this study proposes that there is a positive significant correlation between the instructor＇s overall performance and the overall student satisfaction from the course. The instructor＇s performance, availability, and easy to use technology enhance the learning and teaching from online pedagogies.     

Improving the reading ability of science students through study groups and multiple intelligences

This study explored the effects of appropriate pedagogical skills （study groups and multiple intelligences） on students＇ efficiencies in reading skills. It employed a factorial design using three variables. A sample of 90 science students choosing from three intact classes were involved in the study. Data analyses were carried out using mean, standard deviation, analysis of covariance and multiple classification analysis. Findings revealed the significant difference in performance of the groups taught using study groups and multiple intelligences methods.     

A study on motivational factors of students in German Language Teaching Department at Trakya University

There are many definitions, views and theories for motivation. This study aims to state expressly what type of motivation factors according to the students＇ grades affects the students of German Language Teaching Departments （Turkey） negatively or positively. How the external and internal factors affect the students of German Language Teaching Departments in terms of motivation will be determined in this study. A questionnaire has been given to the students （freshman, sophomore, junior and senior classes） of Trakya University German Language Teaching Departments （2008） to collect data for showing the motivation profile of these students. The questionnaire has been transferred to SPSS program except quantitative analysis. The frequency and the percentage distributions of the data have been calculated with the aim of determining the students＇ views. In conclusion, it is possible to state that German Language Teaching Department students have been affected by the positive and negative motivation factors and the achievements and failures of these students could vary depending on the different reasons. On the other hand, the students of German Language Teaching Department have attributed important roles to the lecturers. Many features of the lecturers have affected the students＇ motivation positively.     

Research proposal Interviewees’ non-observance of Gricean maxims in BBC political interviews

For the interviewees’ unique identity interviews with political figures in the Western society are always interesting programmes for the general public. Political interviews also attract much pragmatics study. In this article a study is proposed to look into political interviews from a BBC program in the perspective of Gricean maxims. For the sample data interviewees’ non-observance of Quantity, Relevance, Manner,and Quality is calculated and analyzed.The data analysis indicates in the political interviews the maxims of Quantity and Relevance are much more violated.     

A Sample Science Education Activity in Multicultural Environment

In this study, a sample activity developed in the workshops called ＂Science education in multicultural environment＂ of the program ＂Integrative teaching in multicultural environment＂ was presented. Workshops about varied subjects were carried out by participants representing four countries and participants developed teaching materials by getting benefit from elements special to their cultures in the ones related to science teaching. Two students from Belgium, one student from Denmark, one student from Latvia and five students from Turkey participated in the study and three Turkish academicians conducted the workshops. The outcomes of the study were evaluated by presenting them to all participants. The workshops were designed to help students learn instructional strategies and draw upon their prior learning experiences in order to apply effective multicultural education teaching activities. Emphasis is also placed on understanding the varied backgrounds and needs of students.     

On Strategies to Motivate College Students in English Class

Students in their early 20s are energetic,focusing on something they are really into.Unfortunately,English is not one of their interests.Some students may have face problems to speak up.This article aims at analyzing the roots of students’keeping silent in class and coming up with practical ways to make the students realize how important and interesting English can be,to create harmonious atmosphere for everyone to feel at ease and free to speak up anytime in the class,to combine evaluation with students’performance in classroom activities and to differentiate the students according to their different features,assigning them different activities to fulfill.     

Gender Difference in College English Reading Strategies

The purpose of the study is to investigate the influence of gender difference on the use of reading strategies in CET-4 by non-English major students.The result revealed that although female students use most of the reading strategies more often than male students,there are no significant differences in the overall use of the reading strategy between male and female students.     

Student Choice in English Study

There are three student-centered approaches introduced in this essay. The first one focuses on the design of syllabuses that relate specifically to an analysis of students’needs. The second one is about the provision of classroom activities that encourage more student participation. Last one is concerned with allowing students a greater role in the management of their learning, by providing opportunities for student choice in the method and scope of study . These can contribute a lot to Chinese English class in the situation where many so-called students-centered approaches which mislead many teacher.