Relative Effects of English Proficiency on General Admissions Tests Versus Subject Tests

The increasing linguistic diversity of the United States student population has brought to the forefront problems in the interpretation of test scores for non-native speakers of English in graduate admissions. The degree to which test scores reflect English proficiency was studied using data on N = 451 students whose native language was Spanish. They had taken the GRE, English proficiency tests, and the PAEG, a test in Spanish used for admission to graduate schools in Puerto Rico. Regression analyses revealed that the proportion of variance explained by the English proficiency terms (independent of developed skills measured in Spanish) was highest for the GRE verbal test (34%), lowest for the quantitative test (8%) and intermediate for the analytical test (16%), the Psychology (18%) and Biology (17%) Subject tests. These findings are discussed in light of efforts to increase access to higher education for Hispanic students.     

Predictors and outcomes of early versus later English language proficiency among English language learners

The development of English language learners (ELLs) was explored from kindergarten through eighth grade within a nationally representative sample of first-time kindergartners (N = 19,890). Growth curve analyses indicated that, compared to native English speakers, ELLs were rated by teachers more favorably on approaches to learning, self-control, and externalizing behaviors in kindergarten and generally continued to grow in a positive direction on these social/behavioral outcomes at a steeper rate compared to their native English-speaking peers, holding other factors constant. Differences in reading and math achievement between ELLs and native English speakers varied based on the grade at which English proficiency is attained. Specifically, ELLs who were proficient in English by kindergarten entry kept pace with native English speakers in both reading and math initially and over time; ELLs who were proficient by first grade had modest gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native English speakers that closed narrowly or persisted over time; and ELLs who were not proficient by first grade had the largest initial gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native speakers but the gap narrowed over time in reading and grew over time in math. Among those whose home language is not English, acquiring English proficiency by kindergarten entry was associated with better cognitive and behavioral outcomes through eighth grade compared to taking longer to achieve proficiency. Multinomial regression analyses indicated that child, family, and school characteristics predict achieving English proficiency by kindergarten entry compared to achieving proficiency later. Results are discussed in terms of policies and practices that can support ELL children's growth and development.     

Predictors and Outcomes of Early vs. Later English Language Proficiency Among English Language Learners

The development of English language learners (ELLs) was explored from kindergarten through eighth grade within a nationally representative sample of first-time kindergartners (N = 19,890). Growth curve analyses indicated that, compared to native English speakers, ELLs were rated by teachers more favorably on approaches to learning, self control, and externalizing behaviors in kindergarten and generally continued to grow in a positive direction on these social/behavioral outcomes at a steeper rate compared to their native English-speaking peers, holding other factors constant. Differences in reading and math achievement between ELLs and native English speakers varied based on the grade at which English proficiency is attained. Specifically, ELLs who were proficient in English by kindergarten entry kept pace with native English speakers in both reading and math initially and over time; ELLs who were proficient by first grade had modest gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native English speakers that closed narrowly or persisted over time; and ELLs who were not proficient by first grade had the largest initial gaps in reading and math achievement compared to native speakers but the gap narrowed over time in reading and grew over time in math. Among those whose home language is not English, acquiring English proficiency by kindergarten entry was associated with better cognitive and behavioral outcomes through eighth grade compared to taking longer to achieve proficiency. Multinomial regression analyses indicated that child, family, and school characteristics predict achieving English proficiency by kindergarten entry compared to achieving proficiency later. Results are discussed in terms of policies and practices that can support ELL children's growth and development.     

Comparison of bilingual children on the WISC-R and the Escala de Inteligencia Wechsler Para Ninos

A comparison was made of bilingual Puerto Rican students' scores on the WISC-R and the Escala de Inteligencia Wechsler Para Ninos to see whether there were any differences in scores based on the language in which they were tested. These children were determined to be equally proficient in English and Spanish, based on scores from the Dailey Language Facility Test. There were no significant differences between the Full Scale and the Verbal Scale scores on both tests, but significant differences were found between the Verbal and Performance Scale scores on both tests. Caution in testing bilingual children before determination of bilinguality, as well as further research into development of intelligence tests for individual culture groups, is recommended.     

新课程背景下的高中生英语语感的培养——以人教版NSEFC的Reading课为例

学生英语语感的培养,是在一定的语言环境中,经过听、说、读、写、译各种形式,让他们接触丰富的语言材料,在掌握大量词汇的基础上,自然地把语法现象内化,从而达到熟练运用的目的。该文从高中英语阅读教学中存在不利于英语语感培养的问题入手,探讨如何更有效地培养高中生的语感。     

Language proficiency and language policy in South Africa: Findings from new data

This study explores new data from 2008 on language proficiency and labour market outcomes in the context of South Africa's language-in-education policy. We show that the economic returns to English language proficiency are large and higher than those to home language proficiency for the majority of employed South Africans. This helps explain why there is little incentive to switch to an African language as the language of instruction in schools. However, we show also that African adults are significantly more likely to be proficient in English if they are proficient in their home language. This finding supports the arguments of additive bilingualism, which identify the benefits of extended mother-tongue education for the acquisition of second-language skills.     

Helping ELLs Meet the Common Core State Standards for Literacy in Science: The Impact of an Instructional Intervention Focused on Academic Language

Abstract

The goal of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an intervention—Quality English and Science Teaching 2—designed to help English language learners (ELLs) and their English proficient classmates develop academic language in science, as required by the Common Core State Standards. The intervention consisted of supplementary instructional materials and professional development. Participants included 1,309 students, of whom 353 were ELLs. Sixty sections taught by 15 teachers in seven middle schools were randomized within teacher to the intervention or the control condition. Treatment effects were tested separately for academic language and science knowledge. For the whole group, results indicated posttest differences favoring the treatment group sections were statistically significant for academic language and science. For ELLs however, posttest differences favored the treatment group for academic language only. Follow-up analyses investigating implementation found that treatment fidelity was related to gains in both academic language and science knowledge for the group as a whole and for ELLs. Effect sizes suggest the intervention was promising in promoting the academic language in science of both ELLs and their English proficient classmates.     

An institutional approach to English language proficiency

As the university student body becomes ever more diverse, the place and nature of English language provision is coming under unprecedented scrutiny and is the object of greater regulation. Today, more than ever before, institutions of higher education are being called to account for the way in which they support this diverse population in respect of their English language provision. Increasingly, auditing bodies are expecting universities to demonstrate a commitment to supporting students adequately in this area and to be able to articulate a systematic process for doing so, along with a sound rationale and conceptual framework. This has put pressure on English-medium universities everywhere to review their English language provision and to develop creative and theoretically-informed solutions to what is perceived by many in the sector as a complex and very pressing issue, particularly given its financial ramifications and its importance in terms of the student experience. This article describes one such initiative at the University of South Australia, outlining both its conceptualisation and issues around its implementation.     

Distance Education: The Experience of the University of Puerto Rico/Río Piedras Campus

The Río Piedras campus is the flagship institution of the University of Puerto Rico. It has made several attempts, throughout its history, to establish a distance education environment. None have succeeded. A new grass-roots movement is developing, which is conscious of the past history. Nevertheless, it is moving forward because it is situated in a conscious process of organizational culture change. Theory E and Theory O, developed at the Harvard University School of Business to analyze organizational change, is used to analyze the change process occurring at this academic institution.     

A think‐aloud study of strategy use by EFL college readers reading Chinese and English texts

This study used a think‐aloud approach to compare reading strategy use in the first language (L1) and non‐native language (L2) among 36 English as a foreign language (EFL) college students at different reading levels. The participants took an English proficiency test and participated in two individual sessions in which a reading test and a think‐aloud task were administered separately in Chinese and English. Cross‐language transfer theory and the linguistic threshold hypothesis were used to conceptualise the similarities and differences in L1 and L2 reading strategies. This study found more frequent and diverse strategy use in English than in Chinese. Similar patterns of meta‐cognitive strategy use were evident in both languages. The applications of certain meta‐cognitive and support strategies served as indicators that differentiated more‐proficient from less‐proficient readers. The present study extended previous questionnaire studies and suggested that English reading instruction should be informed by this line of research to provide instruction on effective reading strategy use for EFL learners.     

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??.     

Don't speak to me in English: Communication apprehension in Puerto Rico

Comparison of communication apprehension levels of Puerto Rican college students with U.S. mainland students indicate the Puerto Ricans are much less apprehensive about communication in their native language than are the U.S. students but are much more apprehensive about communication in English. Additional findings indicate that apprehension in a first language is a much better predictor of apprehension in a second language than is self‐perceived competence in that second language. It is suggested that the problem of communication apprehension must be addressed by second language teachers if students are to be taught to be truly bilingual.     

《集宁师范学院学报》2014年第36卷总目录

文学语言要高于普通的生活语言,文学的起源不可能与语言的起源同步。从各种早期文学样式的特点来看,不同文学样式的产生与语言的差异性运用有关。当区分了原始的歌属于音乐艺术而不属于文学艺术以后,从语言运用的角度看,中国最早能够产生的原始文学样式,是原始故事和原始宣讲。     

The Choice of English as Medium of Instruction and Its Effects on the African Languages in Nambia

In 1995 Birgit Brock-Utne was asked by NIED (National Institute for Education and Development) in Namibia to make a study of the situation of the African languages after Independence in 1990. Five years later the study was followed up by Halla Holmarsdottir as her thesis for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Comparative and International Education. The study was supported by the Nordic Institute of African Studies. This article is built on both these studies, which shows that the enormous work that has gone into making English the official language of Namibia, has born fruits. However, Holmarsdottir in her 2000 study also found that teachers overestimate their knowledge of English and in fact recent teacher graduates are not significantly more proficient in English than those who have been teaching for some time. Both studies reveal that many people around the country have grave concerns that the Namibian languages are losing a battle against English. One notable example of this development is the drop in the number of students studying African languages at the University of Namibia. In 1995 there were 100 students taking Oshindonga, and in the academic year 1999–2000 there was one.     

Defying expectations: Vocabulary growth trajectories of high performing language minority students

We investigated general vocabulary and academic vocabulary growth trajectories of adolescent language minority students using an individual growth modeling approach. Our analytical sample included 3161 sixth- to eighth-grade students from an urban school district in California. The language minority students in our sample were classified as initially fluent English proficient (IFEP), redesignated fluent English proficient (RFEP), or limited English proficient (LEP) students. The analytical sample was not a nationally representative sample and included a great number of Asian students and students who receive gifted and talented education. Students were assessed at four time points on a standardized measure of general vocabulary and a researcher-developed academic vocabulary test. On both vocabulary measures, IFEP students slightly outperformed English-only (EO) students on average, and EO students scored higher than RFEP and LEP students at baseline. RFEP and LEP students showed slower rate of growth than their EO peers in general vocabulary. While both EO and language minority students showed summer setback with general vocabulary knowledge on average, the magnitude of summer setback was not as great for LEP students. In academic vocabulary, all subgroups of language minority students showed more rapid rate of growth than their EO peers. Only the REP students experienced a change in the learning trajectory during the summer months. We discuss the implications of these findings for all language groups.     

Colonialism demystified: a semiotic reading of Puerto Rico in a social studies text

This study uses semiotics to analyze the presentation of Puerto Rico in a fourth‐grade social studies textbook. A process of distortion and omission legitimizes certain perceptions about society and its institutions and ignores or devalues others. The anlaysis reveals the successive myths which naturalize the contradiction of the United States’ colonial relationship with Puerto Rico. The theory of semiotics has implications for educators and minority communities, who might use it as a critical pedagogy.     

Examining the Validity of Standards-Based Assessments for Initially Fluent Students and Former English Language Learners

To date, assessment validity research on non-native English speaking students in the United States has focused exclusively on those who are presently English language learners (ELLs). However, little, if any, research has been conducted on two other sizable groups of language minority students: (a) bilingual or multilingual students who were already English proficient when they entered the school system (IFEPs), and (b) former English language learners, those students who were once classified as ELLs but are now reclassified as being English proficient (RFEPs). This study investigated the validity of several standards-based assessments in mathematics and science for these two student groups and found a very high degree of score comparability, when compared with native English speakers, for the IFEPs, whereas a moderate to high degree of score comparability was observed for the RFEPs. Thus, test scores for these two groups on the assessments we studied appear to be valid indicators of their content knowledge, to a degree similar to that of native English speakers.     

初中英语高效课堂教学的构建策略探析

对于初中学生而言,英语是非常重要的一门学科,通过英语的学习,可以增强学生对英语语言的应用能力,同时也能够让学生在未来的社会发展中更加熟练地开展跨文化交际活动。但是中国学生缺乏先天的英语语言学习优势,很难流畅自如地切换英语和母语的使用,因此英语学习效率非常低下。那么在现代化教学革新的背景下,教师必须深入地剖析英语课堂中存在的实际问题,将低效课堂转化为高效课堂,让学生在英语课堂上可以掌握更多的英语概念性知识,提升学生的英语水平。     

Special education placement decisions made by teams and individuals: A cross-cultural perspective

The present study looked at whether special education placement decisions made by teams are superior to those made by individuals. The investigation was conducted in Puerto Rico to determine whether the benefits of the cooperative group process exist in another culture. Results indicated that teams in Puerto Rico generated significantly less variability (i.e., errors) in their placement decisions than did the same specialists acting independently.