English community school teacher education and English as a second language in Papua New Guinea: a study of a practicum

This article explores community (primary) school teacher education in the subject, English, at a Papua New Guinea (PNG) teachers' college as manifested in end‐of‐year English lessons in practicum rounds of pre‐service community school teachers. English is the official language overlaid on 700 indigenous languages in this country where reconstructionism informs policy decisions. Given this, the importance of success in English in schools is not to be underestimated. The research focuses on the implementation the knowledge, skills, strategies and materials acquired by pre‐service English teachers in a coastal province in PNG in the context of a number of public statements on educational policy and practice. It examines the impact of these as indicated in lesson plans and supervisors' reports.     

Making reasonable adjustments for pupils with special educational needs and disabilities: pre‐service teachers’ perceptions of an online support resource

The Equality Act called on British schools to ‘avoid as far as possible by reasonable means, the disadvantage which a disabled pupil experiences’. Teachers, therefore, must be creative and flexible in order to meet the needs and optimise the capabilities of all pupils. Using focus group interviews, this article explores the influence of an online resource on pre‐service teachers’ perceptions of making reasonable adjustments for children with special educational needs and disabilities. Pre‐service teachers appeared committed to making reasonable adjustments, with reports of the online resource being particularly influential on their planning and assessing progress. The influence of the resource was less significant on those pre‐service teachers with previous experience of making reasonable adjustments.     

Measures for inclusion: coping with the challenge of visual impairment and blindness in university undergraduate level language learning

This paper develops from previous research ( Orsini‐Jones et al., 2005 ) and reports on the experience of three students, two visually impaired and one blind, reading languages at Coventry University, on the adjustments made to meet their needs and on the challenges encountered on their learning journey both from their point of view and from the point of view of the staff involved. It focuses on three students' experience of their languages course and considers the challenges they met in each of their years of study. It concludes by evaluating these students' language learning journey at Coventry University, reporting on their feedback on their experience and on whether or not they feel that staff have successfully catered for their individual needs. It is argued here, as in the previous related work ( Orsini‐Jones, et al., 2005 ) that ‘there still exists some tension between the reasonable anticipatory adjustments that lecturers can put in place and the necessary ad hoc ones that will be needed for a disabled student with very specific needs’.     

Code‐switching in US ethnic literature: multiple perspectives presented through multiple languages

For the multilingual author, switching between two or more languages is not an arbitrary act, nor is it simply an attempt to mimic the speech of his or her community; code‐switching results from a conscious decision to create a desired effect and to promote the validity of the author's heritage language. This article looks at code‐switching in literary texts between Spanish and English, English and Chinese, and English and Jemez, a Native American language. Incorporating native and heritage languages along with English within a literary work, usually through code‐switching, creates a multiple perspective and enhances an author's ability to express his or her subject matter.     

My language autobiography: a critical view

In this article I critically examine both my spoken and written language acquisition. I present the advantages and disadvantages of being a Chinese/English bilingual. Through my own language acquisition experience, I suggest that language education in China may put emphasis on learners' subcultural diversities since China is a country with numerous sub‐dialects, and language education also needs to reconsider the balance between first and second languages.     

Reading in able and disabled readers from around the world: same or different? An illustration from a study of reading‐related processes in a Swahili sample of siblings

Erratum . Journal of Research in Reading 29:2, 252 In this article, we discuss two characteristics of the majority of current behaviour‐ and molecular‐genetic studies of reading ability and disability, specifically, the ascertainment strategies and the populations from which samples are selected. In the context of this discussion, we present data that we collected on a sample of Swahili‐speaking siblings from Tanzania. With this sample, we (1) explore the efficiency and practicality of the single proband sibpair design and (2) provide data on the predictability of reading and spelling performance using reading‐related componential measures in a novel Swahili‐speaking sample. Specifically, we present the selection criteria, discuss the pattern of behavioural and behaviour‐genetic results obtained on the sample and compare these results with those available in the literature. We report behavioural and behaviour‐genetic correlations in this sample that are comparable with other studied samples in other languages, and discuss the similarities and differences. Thus, we demonstrate the suitability and effectiveness of the single sib ascertainment method for genetic analyses of reading ability and disability in novel samples in previously unstudied languages.     

The S‐Machine: An Alternative Approach to Teaching Assembler Programming

The demand for assembler language programmers has dropped dramatically over the past 20 years with the advent of structured programming languages and the accessibility of hardware features from high‐level languages. Nevertheless, a course in assembler language programming is often the first, and sometimes the only, introduction a student has to a machine's hardware. For this reason alone, assembler language programming courses should not be removed from a curriculum; instead, they should be kept and taught in conjunction with modern software engineering practices. This article describes an alternative approach to teaching assembler language programming. Whereas the students are still introduced to a machine and its assembler language, they are required to write several low‐level library routines they used in introductory courses (such as ACM CS1 and CS2). Furthermore, the S‐Machine's support software allows students to study the internals of an assembler, a librarian, and a linker.     

Modern Languages in the School Curriculum: a philosophical view

This article is based on an analysis of two types of argument, called utilitarian and educational respectively, which are commonly used to justify the teaching of modern/foreign languages in schools. Serious flaws are identified in the utilitarian arguments often employed to defend the teaching of modern languages and different educational arguments which might be offered as justification for their inclusion in the school curriculum are distinguished and appraised. The paper concludes with a consideration of the implications of the foregoing analysis for the place of modern languages in the school curriculum.     

从功能翻译理论视角析英汉互译中的文化因素转换

英汉互译不仅是英汉两种语言之间的转换。从深层次上讲更是两种文化之间的交流和变通。在进行英汉互译的时候译者要具有双语文化意识，并参照功能派翻译理论，必要时要进行文化因素方面的调整，以便使译文能被目的语读者理解和接受，从而达到译文与原文的功能对等，使语际交流取得成功。     

古巴比伦时期土地买卖活动述论

古巴比伦时期，土地买卖活动成为一种比较普遍的私人经济活动。由于原始材料的缺乏和古代语言文字的障碍，国内学术界对古巴比伦时期土地买卖的研究，多年来一直没有取得大的进展。对于土地买卖的一些基本问题，如土地面积、价格等也一直模糊不清。作者根据最近发表的土地买卖楔形文字泥板契约，对土地买卖契约的基本模式、土地面积、土地价格、交易双方的身份等几个方面进行了分析研究。     

Oral traditions: An aid to implementation of mother tongue-based multilingual education in the Philippines’ basic education programme

English and Filipino (Tagalog) are the official languages of the Philippines. English is taught in schools and used as a medium of instruction as early as kindergarten. Because it was originally imposed by Western colonialism, its use in academia has been criticised as discriminatory to regional and indigenous languages other than Tagalog, which are not generally used in higher education and have therefore not been allowed to develop as academic languages. In 2012, the Filipino Department of Education issued Order No. 16, series of 2012, also known as the mother tongue-based multilingual education (MTB-MLE) order. Following its recent adoption in public schools, the MTB-MLE policy has already run into some difficulties that challenge its output. Among these is a lack of instructional materials, as most available textbooks are written in English or Filipino. This article explores the potential of oral traditions as instructional tools in basic education. There have been extensive efforts by folklorists to collect, record and publish folk epics, myths, legends and tales. An essential aspect of this research is the recording and publication of materials in the original versions or languages used by native informants from indigenous communities. For the past ten years, the author has conducted field research with indigenous communities in the southern regions of Mindanao. This has yielded a collection of folk literature recorded in the languages of the indigenous communities studied. This collection has been translated into Bisaya, one of the major regional languages of the Philippines, and into English. These texts have considerable potential as classroom learning materials. The publication of these indigenous literature texts makes knowledge of indigenous language and culture available to basic education learners, as well as to the general public. The publication of mother tongue reading materials will also help promote knowledge of, appreciation for, and proficiency in the use of these languages.     

Community Languages and Anti‐racist Education: the open battlefield

The shift from a multicultural to an anti‐racist perspective in education left the issue of community languages aside. There seem to be four reasons for the persisting marginal position of community languages within anti‐racist education in Britain: (1) the gap between the theoretical concept of anti‐racist education and its implementation in practice; (2) the prevalent mainstream doctrine; (3) the pervasive international hegemony of English language; and (4) the political devaluation of ethnicity approaches. The 1988 United Kingdom Education Reform Act, along with the European integration and its accompanying Eurocen‐trism, appears to marginalise the community languages even further.     

Toward a Definition of Heritage Language: Sociopolitical and Pedagogical Considerations

Foreign language enrollments in the United States are experiencing a shift from the traditional European foreign languages toward the less commonly taught languages. Moreover, increasing numbers of students now have some degree of bilingual proficiency in the language that they are studying. As a result, much recent attention has been given to the issue of heritage language instruction by both researchers in applied linguistics and practitioners in language pedagogy. This article argues that the concepts of "heritage language" and "heritage learner" need clarification and should be placed within a larger national policy perspective. Pedagogical and sociopolitical issues surrounding the current heritage language debate are examined from a crosscultural and historical perspective. The article ends with some specific policy recommendations for the role of heritage languages and foreign languages within the current strategic context.     

新疆汉译地名的用字与读音

利用收集到的各种资料，阐述了新疆汉译地名用字和读音两方面存在的问题，并针对这些问题提出了一些建议。     

Making a Science Education Video: a teacher trainer's perspective

This article explores the area of teacher‐training by video‐led distance learning materials. The focus is on the role of educators in the process of developing a video programme for in‐service teacher training in the area of science, in the context of an overall plan of in‐service teacher training. Illustrations are given of the tension between creative ideas and pragmatic consideration, the demand of the medium and the subject matter, the criteria adopted by educationalists and those used by producers. Some practical points are made about techniques devised to communicate specific ideas which are hopefully of some relevance not only to educators but also to professionals in educational television.     

The development of the special educational needs coordinator role in a higher education setting

UK higher education appears to have generally been slow to adopt an organised means of provision for special educational needs for its students. This may be due to the fact that, historically, relatively few disabled students entered UK higher education. However, there is a growing number of disabled students entering UK higher education institutions, and the figure is likely to increase. It is therefore important and, under the UK Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (2001), legally binding, that UK higher education institutions make appropriate adjustments to their activities so as not to disadvantage or discriminate against disabled students. In this article Mark Taylor examines the development of the special educational needs coordinator role in a higher education setting based upon a two‐year case study in a UK university.     

Access to local books: the effects of Read Malawi from a children's rights perspective

Children in low‐income, postcolonial countries such as Malawi have few opportunities with quality reading materials that promote independence as readers. In this study, we argue that access to locally produced text relevant to linguistic and cultural contexts is a fundamental human right for children throughout the world. Situating this study within the intersection of research on children's rights and complementary reading materials, we analyse data from a project in Malawi. We consider the ways in which a respect for children's educational rights – specifically, their rights to access information via children's books – can help them develop their biliteracy. Additionally, we examine how the Read Malawi program contributes to Malawian children's literacy development in both national and official languages. Our findings suggest not only a humanistic need for quality complementary books, but also the empirical justification for books in the hands of children; in particular, an interconnected relationship between borrowing books from school and engagement with Read Malawi was found, especially when we explore children's English proficiency. Through Read Malawi, this study exemplifies what a quality literacy intervention can do in supporting children's Chichewa and English proficiency and improving their rights to quality education.     

Language Policy in British Colonial Education: Evidence from Nineteenth‐Century Hong Kong

This article examines the evolution of language‐in‐education policy in Hong Kong during the first six decades of British rule (1842–1902). In particular, it analyses the changing roles and status of the English and Chinese languages during this formative period in the development of the colony’s education system. The textual and statistical data presented in the article provide a corrective to the claim that the British imposed English on their colonial subjects and in the process rode roughshod over the indigenous languages. The evidence suggests that Hong Kong’s education system provided opportunities for native students to attend purely Chinese schools, purely English schools or mixed‐medium schools. Although the British apparently attached more importance to English teaching, they were generally at pains to emphasise that English should not be studied at the expense of Chinese. The findings indicate that language policy (be it Chinese or English in orientation) was always tied in some way to Britain’s political and economic interests in the region.     

One body and two heads: girls exploring their bicultural identities through text

This article examines the literacy practices of two groups of bilingual 11–13‐year‐old girls from different UK communities. Through discussion of the girls' talk about their reading and writing, the article explores their use of text in both their ‘non‐dominating’ languages and in English, as well as giving examples of the ways in which the girls use text to demonstrate and consolidate their identities as bilingual and bicultural individuals     

Discovering Functional Programming Through Imperative Languages

The pedagogical desirability of functional programming is effectively swamped by an overwhelmingly imperative‐language‐oriented culture. Because a meaningful subset of the functional paradigm is accessible within imperative languages, it is possible to identify a subset of Modula‐2 that characterizes the functional paradigm subset. A series of list‐processing problems and their solutions in the Modula‐2 subset provides students with ample exposure to the practice and theory of functional programming. Extension to the full functional paradigm and migration to specialized functional languages are managed, in the worst case by initial pseudo‐Modula‐2 programming involving hypothetical extensions supporting higher‐order functions and polymorphism. More powerful solutions to this problem are foreshadowed, in the form of preprocessor implementations of Modula‐2‐ and Ada‐derivative functional languages.