Effects of Ninth Graders' Culture-Specific Schemata on Responses to Multicultural Literature

Abstract

The effects of ninth graders' culture-specific schemata on their responses to multicultural literature were investigated. Data collected from students (N = 76) in 4 ninth-grade English honors classes included written responses to prompts on participants' (a) self-identified culture(s), (b) self-selected level of cultural development, and (c) responses to 3 multicultural stories. J. A. Banks's (1981, 1997) Typology of Ethnic Identity was adapted for use as a response measure. Findings revealed that students' self-ratings of cultural awareness were often accurate, that their awareness of their own cultural backgrounds sometimes aided in entering a literary text and sometimes did not, and that the students benefited from using typologies to analyze their own development and their responses to literature.     

Editorial

This article shows that an awareness of students' use of their own experiences and a consistent promotion of critical literacy skills throughout a child's, adolescent's, and adult's life strengthens awareness of the social, political, economic, and cultural implications of education. The article expands on John Dewey's (1938) theory of experience as the means and goal of education to show that middle school and college graduate students use their different levels of both personal and academic experience to respond to and interpret similar issues in the same text. Specifically, the authors discuss their use of Roald Dahl's (1983) The Witches to show how teachers might approach a children's book as the backdrop for teaching different age groups an increased awareness of gender issues, the effects of stereotyping, and the influence of popular culture on students' lives. They argue that educators need to use creative teaching strategies to provide opportunities for students at all educational levels to expand their literacy skills. The final section of the paper provides possible ways in which teachers can use literary texts at various levels to engage students not only with the material itself but also connect the text with their personal/ professional experiences and their own literacies.     

浅论语言偏离意识与文学教学

传统的文学教学忽视学生在文学意义构建中的主体地位,不利于培养学生独立解读文本的能力。读者的主体地位、文学语言的偏离意识为学生文体意识的培养提供了理论依据。文体意识的培养可以帮助学生通过对文学作品语言的分析作出有理有据的判断。但文体意识的培养在整个文学教学中也只是一个重要的部分,并非全部。     

试论文学作品在跨文化教学中的意义和作用——以五篇文选为例

文章的主要目的是提出并探讨汉语作为第二语言教学中文学阅读的一个新视角和定位,即通过文学作品的阅读来提高二语学生的跨文化交际能力。文章在概述三个理论依据的基础上,节选五篇文学作品并分析其在跨文化教学中的作用和意义。文章认为,文学作品生动有效地传授有关的文化知识和交际规约,提高学生的跨文化交际意识,培养学生的跨文化对比的视角,从而达到提高学生跨文化交际能力的目的。     

理工科类学生英美文学意识与能力的培养

由于语言和文学以及文化的天然内在联系,大学英语教学中不可能忽视学生英美文学意识与能力的培养。然而,面对文学意识与基础十分薄弱的理工科类学生,如何在教学实践中培养他们的英美文学能力,进而提高他们的英语综合素质,这是一项值得英语教育者研究的课题。本文将从教学实践出发,结合Halliday语言功能学说中有关文学层面观的理论对理工科类学生文学能力培养的途径予以探讨。     

Developing understanding through confronting varying views: The case of solving qualitative physics problems

This study explored high school students' collaborative efforts in solving qualitative physics problems. It aims to investigate whether and how confronting students with varying views help to improve their problem solving skills and develop better understanding of the underlying physics concepts. The varying views were provided to 18 Year 12 students by requiring them (a) to work in dyads on three problems during which they had to consider and confront each other's ideas; and (b) to consider, in a feedback session, multiple solutions to each problem, comparing the solutions with their own and reflecting on their mistakes. The study adopts Marton's emerging theory of awareness as its theoretical underpinning- that the varying views would bring to students' focal awareness and enable them to discern the different critical aspects of the problem situations and this would help them to develop conceptual understanding. The results show that confronting students with varying views have positive effects on students' learning, thus lending support to the theory of awareness.     

文学在外语教学中的重要性

文学作品在外语教学中起着十分重要的作用。它是了解一个民族的习性、心理状态、文化特点、风俗习惯、社会关系等诸多方面的最生动、最丰富的材料。尽管近年来,出现了“重语轻文”的现象,但笔者认为教师如果注重培养学生的文学兴趣,提高他们对文学的鉴赏能力,会使人们不断认识到文学在语言学习中的重要性,而且在课堂教学中将取得令人满意的教学效果。     

Promoting intercultural understanding and reducing stereotypes: incorporating the cultural portfolio project into Taiwan's EFL college classes

Learning about foreign language (FL) cultures is becoming an important objective in the FL curricula and national standards of different countries throughout the world. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of the cultural portfolio project on: (1) students' concept development in their perceptions of the target language culture and their own; (2) students' evaluation of stereotypes towards English‐speaking cultures; and (3) students' self‐awareness and perception of EFL (English as a foreign language) and cultural learning process. Data were collected from students' cultural portfolio projects, classroom observation, and interviews. Results indicate that through the cultural portfolio project, students engaged in active learning, gained insight into specific aspects of the target language cultures and became more aware of the diversity within these cultures, and developed their ability to think critically instead of automatically accepting cultural information.     

Contribution of phonological,morphological and orthographic awareness to English word spelling: A comparison of EL1 and EFL models

The purpose of the present study was to examine the contribution of metalinguistic skills—as measured through orthographic awareness, phonological awareness, and morphological awareness—to the English spelling ability of Grade 8 Chinese students who study English as a foreign language (EFL group) and of third graders in the U.S. whose first language is English (EL1 group). The two groups were initially matched through calculating the Flesch-Kincaid reading level of Chinese EFL students' textbooks and then through propensity score matching, taking into consideration various predictors. Using multiple regression and dominance analysis, we compared the models of metalinguistic awareness that predict English word spelling between the two groups. We found that orthographic awareness and morphological awareness were uniquely related to spelling for the EL1 group, whereas morphological awareness, orthographic awareness and phonological awareness were uniquely related to spelling for the EFL group, after accounting for the effect of vocabulary. Further analysis of relative importance of the predictors showed that orthographic choice was the dominant predictor for the EL1 group and inflectional morpheme production was the dominant predictor for the EFL group. The importance of metalinguistic awareness in acquiring English spelling in both EL1 and EFL groups is discussed.     

文学语言的功能结构

文学语言在刺激人的头脑时,会导致一个虚拟的文学形象世界在意识中建立,从而将自己与科学语言、日常语言区别,开来。文学语言的这种独特功能与它的能指结构和意义所指结构、以及两者结合而形成的文学语言的整体结构有关。     

Improving Spoken and Written English: From research to practice

This paper will argue that skills development need be neither low-level nor mechanistic, but can be concurrent with, rather than detracting from, any typical English studies curriculum. It contextualises an innovative approach to teaching and learning, which has been developed at Anglia Polytechnic University over 3 years (January 1997 to December 1999). In particular, it describes a practical course entitled Varieties of Speaking and Writing, which aims to raise the standard of students' language awareness and use through the study of a variety of extracts from literary and non-literary writing. It addresses some fundamental pedagogical issues: how to improve undergraduate writing skills; how to train and assess undergraduates' speaking skills; and how to ensure that the acquisition of these advanced skills is relevant and enjoyable to undergraduates studying English Literature. Skills development viewed this way embraces fundamentally sound pedagogical principles, which are concerned with encouraging student autonomy and an appetite for life-long learning.     

Orality and Literacy,Intimacy and Alienation: The eternal,internal, contradictions of teaching composition

This is a personal account of a college English teacher's continual examination of the sacrifices demanded of his students when they enter writing classes. It is an attempt to encourage students to maintain a critical awareness of the loss of their oral culture and see the limitations of the gain from the literary culture that they immersed themselves in when they began their school career. Literary resources are examined, specifically the writings of Franz Kafka, to illustrate the nature of oral and literate cultures and the demands of each. There is an account of the author's first day at public school as an illustration that helps him to devise teaching methods that acknowledge the validity of students' rebellion against school (literacy) while at the same time developing ways for students to be more accomplished writers.     

Attitudes towards science: A review of the literature and its implications

This article offers a review of the major literature about attitudes to science and its implications over the past 20 years. It argues that the continuing decline in numbers choosing to study science at the point of choice requires a research focus on students' attitudes to science if the nature of the problem is to be understood and remediated. Starting from a consideration of what is meant by attitudes to science, it considers the problems inherent to their measurement, what is known about students' attitudes towards science and the many factors of influence such as gender, teachers, curricula, cultural and other variables. The literature itself points to the crucial importance of gender and the quality of teaching. Given the importance of the latter we argue that there is a greater need for research to identify those aspects of science teaching that make school science engaging for pupils. In particular, a growing body of research on motivation offers important pointers to the kind of classroom environment and activities that might raise pupils' interest in studying school science and a focus for future research.     

A Canonical Correlation Analysis ofBehavior Problems and School Achievementfor Different Grades,Sexes, and Races

Abstract

Using education survey data from 6,883 Grade 6 students in 148 schools and from 6,868 Grade 8 students in 92 schools in New Brunswick, Canada, the author applied student and school characteristics to explain differences among students and schools regarding students' sense of belonging to school. Results of hierarchical linear modeling showed that in Grades 6 and 8, discrepancies in students' sense of belonging were mainly within schools, rather than between schools. At the student level, sense of belonging in both grades was affected more by students' mental and physical conditions and less by their individual and family characteristics. Students' self-esteem was the single most important predictor of their sense of belonging, followed by their health status. At the school level, school climate (academic press or expectation in Grade 6 and disciplinary climate in Grade 8) was more important than school context in shaping students' sense of belonging.     

Succeeding at junior high school: Students’ reasons,their reach,and the teaching that h(inders)elps their grasp

How do we support students through their difficult transition to secondary school? Perceived value for and perceived ability to be successful during secondary school are a crucial part of any answer to this question. These perceptions and their interaction with classroom instruction are at the heart of many issues students face in this challenging new learning environment. Seeking to address these issues head-on, the current study modelled the shared role of motivation (intrinsic/extrinsic) and self-efficacy beliefs within mathematics, native and foreign language achievement across first-year secondary school studies at six schools in Japan. Modelling included pre-post subject achievement and students' instructional experiences. Longitudinal latent structural equation modelling was undertaken for each of the subjects to examine the interplay between students' motivational and instructional experiences across one academic year. Findings support the shared role of intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy within achievement (βs = 0.1–0.24), and reciprocal relationships between perceptions of instruction and students’ motivations/beliefs (βs = 0.15–0.21). Results also suggest different patterns of motivation-belief and motivation/belief-instruction interconnections across the three subjects of study researched. The pervasive role of instructional experiences for students' motivation-beliefs (from teaching to self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation, βs = 0.14–0.21) highlight the powerful role of teachers in these critical environments. Implications for theory and practice arising from the results and the integrative model utilised are discussed.     

Teachers' Perceptions of Their Students' Gender Roles

Abstract

Attitudes and perceptions of teacher behavior regarding students' gender roles were investigated. A questionnaire was administered to 221 Israeli teachers and responses were analyzed according to gender and education setting. Results indicate no extreme egalitarian or chauvinistic responses. In general, elementary school and female teachers gave more gender egalitarian responses to questionnaire items in comparison with male and secondary school teachers. Only 15% of teachers in this sample had attended courses on gender equality. Over 50% of teachers did not respond to the question concerning their school's gender policy. Those findings may reflect a relative lack of teacher awareness concerning the in-depth nature of gender stereotypes and their overall influences. Results may indicate compulsory courses and seminars on gender self-awareness during teacher training.     

Predictors of Chinese reading and literacy skills among Chinese school children: a 3-year longitudinal study

Abstract

This study aims to identify the predictors of Chinese reading and literacy skills among Chinese school children in Taiwan. Participants recruited in the study were 182 Grade 1 elementary school students. First, data were collected on these students’ literacy skills, which comprised morphological awareness, orthography processing, visual perception skills, phonological awareness, and rapid automatised naming. In Grade 2, data were collected from these students on their word decoding skills, which comprised character recognition and reading fluency. Finally, in Grade 3, data were collected on the Chinese comprehension skills of the same students. A structural equation model examined the direct and indirect effects of students’ literacy skills at Grade 1 on their reading comprehension at Grade 3, with students’ word decoding at Grade 2 acting as a mediator. Results showed that reading comprehension of students at Grade 3 was predicted by their literacy skills at Grade 1.     

Teaching Writing to Students With Attention Deficit Disorders and Specific Language Impairment

Abstract

The self-regulated strategy development approach to instruction was used to help 3 middle school students who had learning problems, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and specific language impairment, learn a strategy for planning and writing expository essays. The composition strategy helped students to consider their topic in advance and to use text structure knowledge to develop 5-paragraph essays. Regular education teachers provided instruction to the target students in inclusive classrooms; special education teachers facilitated the writing program. A multiple-probe design across students (R. D. Horner & D. M. Baer, 1978) was used to assess the effects of the strategy. Instruction had a positive effect on the students' approach to writing and overall writing performance. Four weeks following instruction, students' papers remained improved and were still longer and more complete.     

Modeling Change in Student Attitude Toward and Beliefs About Mathematics

Abstract

The authors used data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth to investigate variables related to change in students' attitude toward and beliefs about mathematics in middle school and high school. Using hierarchical linear modeling techniques, the authors modeled variation in students' rate of change with variables associated with student characteristics, instructional experiences, and environment. They also identified variables that differentially affect change at different levels of secondary school (i.e., middle school vs. high school) and for different affective dimensions (i.e., attitude toward mathematics, beliefs about the social importance of mathematics, and beliefs about the nature of mathematics). Results showed a substantial negative change in students' attitudes toward and beliefs about the social importance of mathematics throughout secondary school. However, students' notions of the nature of mathematics did not change throughout secondary school. The authors identified variables related to change and found that they differed according to the level of secondary school and affective dimensions.