The Linguistic Sciences or Language Education: Some Aspects of Scientific Research Usable in Education

The constant concern demonstrated for language education and in particular the attention devoted to the problems of language and communication, among all the other many problems that beset the school today, derive from the predominant and primary role that they play in the school curriculum as a whole.     

Assessment by employers of newly graduated civil engineers from the Islamic University of Gaza

The evaluation process is very important to identify and recognize the strengths and the weaknesses of graduated students. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance of the newly graduated civil engineers from the Islamic University of Gaza in Palestine. The methodology was based on questionnaires and informal interview. The population of this study consisted of 35 contractors and 7 Owners. The questionnaire was developed to evaluate the quality of the Islamic University civil engineers who have obtained their degrees in the past five years. The evaluation involved several aspects such as practical, social, ethical, technical writing, communication skills, and computer skills. The results indicate that most of the Islamic University civil engineers have some practical problems in construction sites. On the other hand, they have several strong characteristics such as computer skills, ability to develop themselves, and an understanding of ethical responsibilities. Some recommendations and suggestions are proposed to improve the performance of the graduate civil engineers in the practice.     

Relative importance of professional practice and engineering management competencies

Problem: The professional practice of engineering always involves engineering management, but it is difficult to know what specifically to include in the undergraduate curriculum. Approach: The population of New Zealand practising engineers was surveyed to determine the importance they placed on specific professional practice and engineering management competencies. Findings: Results show that communication and project planning were the two most important topics, followed by others as identified. The context in which practitioners use communication skills was found to be primarily with project management, with secondary contexts identified. The necessity for engineers to develop the ability to use multiple soft skills in an integrative manner is strongly supported by the data. Originality: This paper is one of only a few large-scale surveys of practising engineers to have explored the soft skill attributes. It makes a didactic contribution of providing a ranked list of topics which can be used for designing the curriculum and prioritising teaching effort, which has not previously been achieved. It yields the new insight that combinations of topics are sometimes more important than individual topics.     

Form or Content?——A dilemma in teaching EFL writing

In the 1970s, the EFL profession generally began abandoning grammar-based methodologies in favor of approacheswhich focused on communication as the goal of language learning. Affected by this trend, the process approach to writing (asopposed to writing as a product) was introduced. Yet EFL. teachers themselves are faced with some obstacles when applying thetheory. This article analyzes some factors that hinder students from focusing on content when writing, and suggests in conclusionthat teachers should not be too impatient; rather, they should take students' level into consideration and allow students to have atransitional stage to get themselves prepared.     

英语教学中跨文化交际能力的培养

通讯技术的迅猛发展和经济的全球化,使得跨文化交际成为当代人们生活中不可或缺的一部分,因此越来越多的研究者开始关注英语学习者的跨文化交际能力。基于对文化与交际、语言与文化之间关系的系统分析,以及对跨文化交际的界定,探究了跨文化交际能力的培养策略。     

Building the Cognitive Bridge: Children,Information Technology and Thinking

In the UK, approaches to developing, encouraging and extending children’s’ thinking are of considerable professional interest. Teachers and researchers have explored a number of different strategies. These are categorized in recent Department for Education and Skills (DFES) guidance into three broad areas: philosophical, cognitive intervention, and brain-based learning approaches. Within all these approaches, spoken language has been identified as essential for collaborative learning of any kind and in some, information technology is also seen as a potentially supportive collaborative medium (McGuiness, 1999).This paper takes the form of a case study of children aged 10–11, from two Primary schools and considers the place of diagrammatic software in supporting children’s’ exploration and representation of ideas. The case study provides some concrete examples of ways in which the children made links between their discussion of ideas and their visual record. Children were recorded as they worked together to produce their map and as they reported to their peers on its completion.Data were collected over a six week period using observational schedules, field notes, and pupil feedback. The analysis of maps themselves was a central concern as this as techniques for this are not yet fully established, although some significant work is available (e.g. Mavers et al., 2002) The study showed the ease with which all pupils adapted to the use of the software.     

Linguistic influences on professional communication and recognition: A study of chemists and engineers in two Quebec universities

Linguistic influences on networks of professional communication and recognition among engineers at two Quebec universities were examined. It was hypothesized that chemists and engineers affiliated with the French medium University of Montreal and the Ecole Polytechnique would be less active in research and more likely to obtain scientific recognition locally and to feel professionally unrecognized outside Quebec compared to their colleagues at McGill University. The findings suggest that the localizing effects of using a medium of scientific training which is not the predominant language of international scientific communication and recognition (French) are ambiguous. Although chemists and engineers at the French medium institutions were less active researchers, their language of professional communication with other scientific communities was English and there was little sense of isolation.This research has been supported by grants from the Canadian Council and the Ecole Polytechnique of Montreal. The authors also wish to thank Miss Madeleine Palmer, Miss Daniella Quiniou and Miss Rosalba Casas for their help in data collection for this paper.     

跨文化交际中的非语言交际的特点及其功能

通常人们谈到交际时首先想到是语言,而很少注意非语言交际在人们交往中的作用.然而,非语言交际作为一种交际工具在人们的日常交往中却起着非常重要的作用.文章通过对其特点及功能的阐述,使我们意识到其作用及重要性.从而也使我们更充分地体会到人们在交往中所表达的复杂而丰富的含义以求达到更好的交流效果.     

自闭症儿童的语言障碍类型及其语言训练

语言障碍是自闭症儿童最显著的特征之一,而语言沟通和社会交往有着密切的关系,语言沟通存在障碍会影响其社会交往功能。自闭症儿童如果能够克服语言障碍,对其回归主流社会有很大的帮助。文章依据前人经验总结对自闭症儿童的语言障碍类型进行了划分,并根据划分的三种大方向类型提出了相应的训练方法,旨在对自闭症儿童言语语言问题提供帮助。     

Factors Influencing Postsecondary STEM Students’ Views of the Public Communication of an Emergent Technology: a Cross-National Study from Five Universities

Recent efforts in the science education community have highlighted the need to integrate research and theory from science communication research into more general science education scholarship. These synthesized research perspectives are relatively novel but serve an important need to better understand the impacts that the advent of rapidly emerging technologies will have on a new generation of scientists and engineers including their formal communication with engaged citizenry. This cross-national study examined postsecondary science and engineering students’ (n?=?254 from five countries: Austria, Finland, France, Israel, and USA) perspectives on the role of science communication in their own formal science and engineering education. More broadly, we examined participants’ understanding of their perceived responsibilities of communicating science and engineering to the general public when an issue contains complex social and ethical implications (SEI). The study is contextualized in the emergent technology of nanotechnology for which SEI are of particular concern and for which the general public often perceives conflicting risks and benefits. Findings indicate that student participants’ hold similar views on the need for their own training in communication as future scientists and engineers. When asked about the role that ethics and risk perception plays in research, development, and public communication of nanotechnology, participants demonstrate similar trajectories of perspectives that are, however, often anchored in very different levels of beginning concern. Results are discussed in the context of considerations for science communication training within formal science education curricula globally.     

从“好听顺口”原则谈语感

在我们使用语言的过程中, 特别是在使用母语的过程中, 我们有着一整套的完善机制使我们使用符合语法、逻辑的语言达到交际目的。在这套运作机制中, 语感起到了很大的作用。在英语学习的过程中, 如何培养良好的语感, 帮助我们达到交际目的, 是许多学者关注的热点。因此, 从认知心理、二语习得和一般性的语言教学规律出发, 在语感的基础上提出好听顺口原则并尝试对其在语言教学实践中做出分析, 探索在英语教学中运用该原则科学、系统地培养良好的语感。     

英语教学中跨文化交际能力的培养

通讯技术的迅猛发展和经济的全球化，使得跨文化交际成为当代人们生活中不可或缺的一部分，因此越来越多的研究者开始关注英语学习者的跨文化交际能力。基于对文化与交际、语言与文化之间关系的系统分析，以及对跨文化交际的界定，本文试着探究跨文化交际能力的培养策略。     

A Selected Review of the Underpinnings of Ethics for Human Performance Technology Professionals -Part Two: Professional Resources

Professionals serving as internal and external consultants, whether as performance technologists, human resource development facilitators, training specialists, organizational development change agents, or quality improvement engineers, are uniquely positioned to influence ethical awareness in the workplace. Yet it is unlikely that they will be able to exert much influence without knowledge of the factors that influence ethical behavior in organizations and knowledge of ethical decision making. Although the literature on ethics is proliferating, little of it is directly related to performance improvement professionals. Those who want to educate themselves in ethics have been left to their own devices. Part One in this series of two articles presents a review of key ethical theories and research. Part Two is a list of references available for those who are ready to examine the ethical responsibilities of HPT professionals, who have encountered ethical issues, who want to include an ethics audit in their needs assessment tool box, or who need to suggest ethics-related solutions to performance problems.     

From communication to verbalization: Language practices in kindergarten

Most children attend kindergarten very early in western societies; in fact, they are inserted in different contexts of socialization (family, school and/or other day-care). In what are these contexts of socialization different for linguistic abilities that they contribute to develop? How can the young children adapt themselves to these differences? These questions are discussed considering theoretical interactionnist approaches, and some analyses of communication practices in french kindergarten. Perspectives are released for a discussion on a pedagogy of oral language with young children.     

Participation in the ICT era: Implementation without humiliation, misconception and false consciousness

The national language of Tanzania is Kiswahili. However, Tanzania has two official languages: English, introduced in colonial times, and Kiswahili, the actual lingua franca spoken by 99 per cent of the population. Kiswahili websites and internet content are gradually increasing, and equipment is becoming more affordable. The research reported on here shows that especially academic staff with good knowledge in information and communication technology (ICT) are using Kiswahili more than others. This gives hope for the future. The language of instruction in Tanzania??s higher education is however English only, resulting in students having to attend lectures and produce their coursework in a language they are not proficient in. Investigating whether University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) staff and students regard themselves as participants and contributors in a knowledge society, the author??s findings suggest two simultaneous processes: (1) There are still remnants from the colonial system in terms of education and language; (2) At the same time ICT-competent staff and students already do participate in the ICT era in Kiswahili and tend to use Kiswahili in their work and studies. A high number of respondents say they use Kiswahili in most of their ICT communication. There is reason to ask: is the notion of English being the only ICT language possibly decreasing? This article builds on fieldwork conducted at UDSM in 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2011, in connection with the research project ??ICT and Language in Tanzanian Higher Education??.     

The aesthetics of ethical virtues and the ethical virtues of aesthetics

My paper concentrates on that small part of Dewey’s ethical theory that deals with the personal virtues of character. Even more narrowly, I focus on a single section of Dewey’sEthics titled “The Conception of Virtue in Reflective Morality.” I do so because my primary concern here is not so much with the virtues Dewey discusses, important as they are, but with how he believes they should interact. If I am correct, Dewey thinks that when the virtues of character are interacting as they should, the result is an open dynamic harmony that fits his classical definition of beauty. Dewey’s understanding of virtues and their dynamic interaction breaks down the barrier between art, and ethics. Given that it is reflective morality that we are considering, that means Dewey is breaking down the barrier between cognition, art, and aesthetics as well. I conclude with some reflections as to why for Dewey what we often think of as personal virtues may only be comprehended in terms of a community wherein the same aesthetic principle of open dynamic harmony. I briefly discuss why alterity is as important as ipsiety for the pluralistic democrat.     

Our Language: (Re)Imagining Communities in Ukrainian Language Classrooms

Drawing upon video recordings from two fifth-grade Ukrainian classrooms and interviews with children four years later, this paper examines these classrooms as sites for socializing learners into an imagined community of Ukrainian speakers, the extent to which children took up identities as members of this community, and the potential effect of this identification on willingness to learn and use Ukrainian. Microanalysis of classroom interaction illustrates how teachers drew upon prevailing discourses of language and nation in ways that both presupposed and sought to create children’s membership in an imagined national community whose core practices included affiliation with Ukrainian as “our language.” However, interview data reveal that while children readily aligned with this imagined community and voiced its language ideologies, they positioned themselves as peripheral members or alternatively reimagined an alternative, multilingual Ukrainian community.     

Language development: A complex,systematic, and natural process

Conclusions Although we do not understand very well what the processes are that contribute to language development, it is clear that communication plays a central role. As children strive to become increasingly skilled at communicating their ideas (White, 1959), as they have increasingly complex ideas to communicate (Piaget, 1955), and as they encounter an increasingly diverse set of people with whom to communicate (Brown, 1973), they must learn to use language which is richer and more flexible.When children come to school or to a day care center they already know a great deal about language. They have readily and actively mastered words, sentences and forms of communication which they need in their own family and community. In their new environment—the school or center—children's language development can further be fostered by adults who are receptive to children's efforts at communication. Adults who encourage children to use language in new ways, who attend to what children mean to say and who recognize that children's errors are often not mistakes, are likely to play a positive role in children's language development.Janet H. Kane and Karen Sheingold are on the Staff at Bank Street College of Education.     

Imagery as a private audiovisual aid

Mental images are conscious representations of our knowledge of the world. Like audiovisual aids in instructional programs, they can be intentionally and systematically used as the informational base for cognitive operations and as an aid to new learning. They permit one to make judgments, computations, and inferences that depend upon world knowledge. They can be consciously manipulated for problem solving and creative purposes. They can be used as learning and memory aids in numerous tasks, including foreign language learning where they function as a kind of private voix et image program that provides referential contexts for the language in the absence of the referent objects and situations themselves. Experimental evidence is cited to support these claims.     

That’s so homophobic? Australian young people’s perspectives on homophobic language use in secondary schools

Abstract

It is generally accepted that hearing homophobic language can be detrimental to the well-being of same-sex attracted young people. Writing Themselves In 3, a survey of Australian same-sex attracted young people, found that almost half of the respondents reported hearing such language on a regular basis, and considered it offensive. Less is known however about heterosexual young people’s experiences. Homophobic language use is often assumed to be motivated by prejudice, but this topic has not been well studied. Using interviews and an online discussion with young people aged 16–21 years, this study explored heterosexual young people’s perspectives on homophobic language use at school. Contrary to the framing often used in anti-homophobia education, the meaning of this form of language was seen to largely depend on the context in which it was employed, frequently functioning to reinforce masculine gender norms, particularly for popular male students. Furthermore, while many heterosexual participants in this study used homophobic language regularly, they did not see themselves as homophobic and viewed school policies against the use of homophobic language as largely ineffective. Findings suggest that heterosexual young people may respond more favourably to anti-homophobia education if these programmes acknowledge the variety of meanings and functions of language commonly understood to be homophobic in character.