Attitudes and Psycholinguistic Aspects of First Language Maintenance among Russian‐Jewish Immigrants in Israel

ABSTRACT This study investigated the social attitudes and academic skills in Russian and Hebrew of Russian‐Jewish immigrant students in northern Israel. The Russian community in Israel is unique in that its members maintain their language and culture and always show their singularity as a strong cohesive ethnic group. A total of 60 participants took part in the study. They answered an attitude questionnaire and the following tests in Russian and Hebrew: working memory, oral cloze, visual condition, phonological condition, orthographic condition, word attack, word identification and spelling test. Further, for validation of attitudes results beyond self‐report questionnaires, 30 open interviews were conducted. The results indicated that these Russian new immigrants were inslrumentally oriented towards learning Hebrew. They possessed moderate anxiety and did not learn Hebrew for army service purposes or to integrate into Israeli society. Their attitude towards the class‐learning situation was not very positive. The results of the linguistic skills in Russian and Hebrew indicated superiority of the former. Regression procedures indicated that only the spelling test score of the Russian language was a significant predictor of Hebrew word recognition.     

A new methodology, an old story? Gender differences in the “draw-a-computer-user” test

Gender differences in computer-related attitudes have been reported in school children of all ages. Females express more negative attitudes than males when asked to explicitly endorse attitude statements. This gender difference may be compounded by females expressing attitudes consistent with their psychological gender. This study uses an art-based methodology to assess the computer-related attitudes of 395 primary school children (aged 5 to 11). A significant difference occurs in the gender drawn by the children. Whilst 30% of females draw males, only 4% of males draw females. Additionally, older females draw proportionally less smiling faces. These results are consistent with more traditional assessments of attitude which indicate that females’ attitudes towards computers become more negative as they progress through the educational system. The art-based methodology also identified similar proportions of females holding negative attitudes as do more traditional assessments, suggesting ecological validity for the gender differences in computer attitudes. The implications for computer-related education are discussed.     

普拉东诺夫创作中铁路主题的流变

铁路是人类科技创造的杰作,它的出现对人类社会生活及思想意识产生了巨大影响。在俄罗斯文学中,铁路主题也是随着铁路的产生而出现的。但俄罗斯作家对铁路的态度却大相径庭。俄罗斯著名作家普拉东诺夫因对铁路有着特殊情结,他有关铁路主题的创作也更加独树一帜。在他的作品中既有对铁路的崇拜之情,又有对铁路的冷静看待。     

俄语视听说教学改革初探

传统的俄语视听说教学模式仍以教师讲解语言知识及用法为主,忽略了对学生运用俄语进行交际活动的培养.鉴于此,在分析传统教学方法存在的问题的基础上,提出视听说教学改革的构想,以期提高学生的俄语实践应用能力.     

互联网资源与大学俄语教学

随着计算机技术的发展,多媒体手段与互联网资源在外语教学中日益被广泛利用。在此基础上,大学俄语的教学也打破了传统上单一模式。充分利用互联网资源,能够有效地提高大学俄语的教学效率,丰富并完善传统的教学内容,学生也能学到地道纯正的俄语。互联网资源推动了大学俄语教学的发展。     

Assessing positive attitudes toward older and younger adults

Meaningful intergenerational interactions between older and younger adults are rare outside of family relationships. Interventions to increase positive intergenerational interactions are growing, but finding appropriate measures of attitudes toward both younger and older age groups is difficult. Many measures assessing attitudes toward older adults can remind participants of negative stereotypes of aging and are rarely used to assess attitudes toward younger adults. We adapted Pittinsky, Rosenthal, and Montoya’s allophilia measure to assess attitudes toward younger (18–25 years old) and older (over age 65) adults. In the first study, 94 traditional college age and 52 older adults rated older and younger adults. The allophilia measure distinguished between younger and older adults’ attitudes toward each age group. In the second study, we compared the age-related allophilia measures with seven traditional measures of attitudes toward older adults. Forty-seven traditional college age students completed measures. As predicted, correlations between allophilia toward older adults and the traditional semantic differential measures were weak (i.e., r = |0.15|or less), whereas correlations with general attitudes toward older adults were more moderate (r = 0.59 or less). Correlations between allophilia toward younger adults and the traditional measures were primarily non-significant as predicted. The allophilia measure differentiated between the five domains of positive attitudes toward younger and older adults and was not highly correlated with measures of more negative attitudes toward older adults. Results suggest that the allophilia measure can fill a need for a measure of positive attitudes toward older and younger adults.     

Learning to allow temporary failure: potential benefits,supportive practices and teacher concerns

The main problems faced by Russian education and consequently by trainers of school teachers are the question of values, along with finance and the legacy of Soviet power and of the Russian tradition. These problems are illustrated by the position in Petrozavodsk, Republic of Karelia. Methods of recruiting young teachers, their supply and the institutions in which they are trained are described, and a significant mismatch is discovered between training and the employment patterns of graduates. Deep-seated cultural attitudes towards the status of institutions, training methodology, curricula and workload are revealed which would inhibit the adoption of procedures common in W estern countries, even if that were thought desirable. A need for the considerable extension of joint activities, most of all extended work placements for teacher-trainers, is perceived; the aim of this would be to build up 'global' attitudes in Russia and extend Western understanding of the Russian tradition.     

Motivation in the Junior Years: International perspectives on children's attitudes,expectations and behaviour and their relationship to educational achievement

This paper reports findings from a large-scale international investigation of a number of factors that are considered to impact upon educational motivation and achievement. Following on from an earlier investigation of adolescent attitudes, the present study involved a detailed survey of nearly 3,000 children, aged 9-10 from districts in England, Russia and the USA, together with teacher reports and the employment of a test of basic mathematical computation. The Russian sample scored significantly more highly on the computation test and showed no large tail of underachievers, as was the case with the other groups. Findings from the survey indicate that many of the differences found in the earlier adolescent study are equally true for younger children. The Russian children were less likely to express satisfaction with their abilities or workrates, were more positive towards school, more likely to see education as intrinsically valuable and tended to spend significantly more time on homework tasks. Data obtained also suggest that the Russian sample experienced classrooms with far less disruption and stronger prosocial peer influences than did the English and American children. Teacher understandings of what is considered to be acceptable behaviour appeared to differ, however. The paper notes that the Western samples overestimated their teachers' views of their ability while the Russian children provided underestimates. Possible reasons for, and implications of, these differential teacher messages are discussed. The paper concludes by examining the implications of the findings from the study for increasing motivation and achievement in countries with very different sociocultural contexts.     

Does students' machismo fit in school? Clarifying the implications of traditional gender role ideology for school belonging

How much students feel at home in school predicts academic outcomes. In view of the gender achievement gap, it is worth examining the gendered pattern of this school belonging. Studies on school belonging, however, have barely acknowledged possible obstructive effects of traditional gender role attitudes of individual students and student cultures. This study examines the relationship between gender role attitudes and a sense of school belonging among a sample of 6380 students from 59 Flemish schools at the start of their secondary education. The results of multilevel analyses indicate that boys show less sense of school belonging than girls, as do students with more traditional beliefs about gender roles. Moreover, student attitudes related to gender roles are strongly shared at the school level, so that we can speak of a gender role student culture. Students enrolled in more traditional gender role student cultures reveal less school belonging.     

Russian and American college students' attitudes,perceptions and tendencies towards cheating

The literature reports that cheating is endemic throughout the USA. However, lacking are international comparative studies that have researched cheating differences at the post-secondary business education level.This study investigates the differences between Russian and American business college students concerning their attitudes, perceptions and tendencies towards academic dishonesty. The study found significant differences between Russian and American college students' behaviours and beliefs about cheating. These findings are important for business educators called to teach abroad or in classes that are increasingly multinational in composition.     

从《白轮船》看艾特玛托夫创作的双重文化内涵

艾特玛托夫是一位受俄国传统文化和吉尔吉斯民族文化双重影响的作家。以他的代表作《白轮船》为例,从文化的角度分析他创作的特点——吉尔吉斯民族的浪漫情怀和俄国现实主义传统的完美结合。     

试析俄罗斯初等教育向四年制过渡的必然性

20世纪末俄罗斯教育战略性重建与初等教育的改革息息相，而初等教育的改革又是围绕传统教学体系与发展性教学体系并存下的三年制逐渐向四年制过渡所产生的一系列问题而展开的。本文主要从初等教育由三年制向四年制过渡的必要性和可行性两方面剖析了这一趋势的必然性，并侧重对艾利康宁－达维多夫发展性教学体系创造始人之一达维多夫对此问题的研究成果作一介绍，从而使我们对俄罗斯初等教育改革的现状及其趋势形成较深入全面的认识。     

俄语语法教学中的形式语法与功能语法

从宏观的角度,可以把俄语语法分为形式语法和功能语法。传统的形式语法存在一些弊端,在对形式语法的反思和批判中产生并发展了功能语法。当代俄罗斯功能语法流派众多,百家争鸣。把功能语法与形式语法完美地结合并有效地运用到我国的俄语语法教学实践中,是俄语教学工作者为之奋斗的目标。     

Attitudes of high-school students taught using traditional and reform mathematics curricula in middle school: a retrospective analysis

This paper presents findings from a larger research project that provides insight into the attitudes of high-school students who were taught using different types of mathematics curricula when they were in middle school. A total of 44 12th-grade students from 10 high schools in the same urban school district were interviewed. Eighteen (41%) of them had been taught using a reform curriculum in middle school and 26 (59%) had been taught using a more traditional curriculum. Using Di Martino and Zan’s three-dimensional model for attitude, we found that the high-school seniors who had been taught using the reform curriculum in middle school harbored attitudes toward mathematics that differed significantly from the attitudes of those who had been taught using a traditional curriculum in middle school. Our analysis of the student interviews culled seven themes that provide fine-grained information about the students’ attitudes toward mathematics. Significantly greater percentages of reform students than traditional students had a relational Vision of mathematics as opposed to an instrumental Vision; however, there was no significant difference between the proportions of reform and traditional students who had a positive Emotional Disposition toward mathematics or a positive Perceived Competence in mathematics.     

'The Kids are Doing All Right': Differences in parental satisfaction,expectation and attribution in St Petersburg,Sunderland and

Comparative studies of attitudes in different countries have resulted in the claim that parents in the USA and England tend to have unrealistically positive views of their children's schools and academic performance. Low expectations, together with a belief in the importance of natural ability, it has been argued, lead to low standards and reduce striving to succeed. The present study builds upon earlier investigations of children's attitudes, beliefs and behaviours in Sunderland, Eastern Kentucky and St Petersburg by surveying parental perspectives. Findings from these three regions reinforce earlier findings about English and American complacency and the more demanding nature of the Russian context. In line with our earlier studies, and contrary to the suggestion of a number of writers, an emphasis upon effort, rather than ability, was a strong feature of the English and American responses, although it is pointed out that such beliefs may not actually result in high work rates. The paper concludes by suggesting that the important role of parents in instilling important attitudes and behaviours in their children is undermined by the current emphasis upon schools as fundamentally responsible for ensuring high levels of achievement.     

Acceptance of self,acceptance of others,and preferred teaching approach

One hundred and eighty-one teacher training students sat three attitude measuring instruments to investigate the relationships between attitudes to self, attitudes to others and attitudes to educational practices. Clinical studies within the ambit of Rogerian psychotherapy suggest that a relationship between self and other attitudes should be positive. Substantial and statistically significant positive correlations, in the order of p<0.01, emerged consistently in this study between attitudes to self and attitudes to a range of others and to progressive child centred educational practices. Self acceptance level would seem to be an index of attitudes to a wide range of others. This relationship provides a principle of utmost importance for human relationships since the application of psychological processes to enhance the self concept should facilitate as a corollary a decrease in interpersonal tensions and inter group conflict. This relationship is of particular consequence in the teaching context since teaching is a sharing of self with others. The results of the study suggest that those with low self acceptance prefer (p<0.01) to avoid close encounters with pupils and prefer a more traditional formal teaching style.     

应用型本科院校二外俄语教学模式的探讨

随着中俄关系的发展与深入,两国在政治、经济、教育、军事、文化等方面的合作越来越频繁,对俄语翻译人才的需求越来越大,本科院校的俄语专业学生数量已经不能满足市场的需求,应用型本科院校的二外俄语学生是强大的后备力量。为了适应新形势的发展,应用型本科院校需要以培养应用型人才为目标,改革传统的二外俄语教学模式,提高学生的俄语应用能力,培养复合型外语人才。     

Persuading teachers to reexamine the innovative elementary science programs of yesterday: The effect of anecdotal versus data-summary communications

Two anecdotal and two data-summary communications were prepared to test the effect of the communications on preservice teachers' attitudes toward supplementing traditional, textbook-based science programs with either SAPA or SCIS. The results of the investigation in which the communications were used indicate that communications of an anecdotal nature were more effective than data-summary communications in changing the attitudes of preservice elementary teachers. Also, attitudes changed by anecdotal communications were found to be less susceptible to dissipation than those changed by data-summary communications.     

Attitudes of Business Faculty Towards Two Methods of Collecting Teaching Evaluations: Paper vs. Online

Business professors were surveyed to determine their attitudes towards two methods of collecting students' teaching evaluations of faculty--the traditional paper-and-pencil method conducted in class and the online method conducted via the Internet. Faculty preferred the traditional paper method, mainly because they believed it would produce a higher and more accurate response than the online method. Faculty characteristics were examined to determine whether they were related to attitudes towards the online method of collecting teaching evaluations. No characteristics were found to be significantly associated with attitudes towards the online method. Suggestions for future researchers are offered.     

Traditional Chinese Values and Attitudes of Chinese University Students toward People with Intellectual Disabilities

The purpose of the study was to explore relationships between traditional Chinese values and attitudes toward people with intellectual disabilities. A total of 534 college students in China participated in the study. Two instruments that measure Chinese values and attitudes toward people with intellectual disabilities were used. Results indicated that the value of cultivation of virtues (benevolence, humanity, and a sense of justice) was positively related to attitudes toward people with intellectual disabilities; and that the values of social traditionalism and cultural inwardness (cultural superiority and intolerance) were negatively correlated with attitudes toward people with intellectual disabilities. Additionally, university students majoring in special education or with more knowledge of disabilities had more favourable attitudes toward people with intellectual disabilities than university students majoring in regular education or with little knowledge of disabilities. Implications of the findings are discussed in the context of socio‐economic environments in China.