Paid Educational Leave in Scotland

Same language subtitling (SLS) refers to the idea of subtitling motion media programmes (television and film) in the ‘same’ language as the audio. This simplest of additions in existing television programmes, especially film songs and music videos, can make a quantum contribution to the improvement of reading skills of over 325 million neo-literate people in India. Song videos are watched with great passion all over India, in every state and major language. Earlier work on SLS reported that it was found to enhance the entertainment value of televised songs for both literate and neo-literate viewers. This paper discusses a controlled experiment to ‘measure’ the impact of SLS on the reading skills of disadvantaged school children. The results confirm that SLS of film songs leads to reading skill improvement, thus reaffirming the enormous potential of this simple and economical approach for mass literacy skill development in India.     

Reading,syntactic, and working memory skills of bilingual Portuguese-English Canadian children

The purpose of the study was to examine the nature of language, memory, and reading skills of bilingual students and to determine the relationship between reading problems in English and reading problems in Portuguese. The study assessed the reading, language, and memory skills of 37 bilingual Portuguese-Canadian children, aged 9–12 years. English was their main instructional language and Portuguese was the language spoken at home. All children attended a Heritage Language Program at school where they were taught to read and write Portuguese. The children were administered word and pseudoword reading, language, and working memory tasks in English and Portuguese. The majority of the children (67%) showed at least average proficiency in both languages. The children who had low reading scores in English also had significantly lower scores on the Portuguese tasks. There was a significant relationship between the acquisition of word and pseudoword reading, working memory, and syntactic awareness skills in the two languages. The Portuguese-Canadian children who were normally achieving readers did not differ from a comparison group of monolingual English speaking normally achieving readers except that the bilingual children had significantly lower scores on the English syntactic awareness task. The bilingual reading disabled children had similar scores to the monolingual reading disabled children on word reading and working memory but lower scores on the syntactic awareness task. However, the bilingual reading disabled children had significantlyhigher scores than the monolingual English speaking reading disabled children on the English pseudoword reading test and the English spelling task, perhaps reflecting a positive transfer from the more regular grapheme phoneme conversion rules of Portuguese. In this case, bilingualism does not appear to have negative consequences for the development of reading skills. In both English and Portuguese, reading difficulties appear to be strongly related to deficits in phonological processing.     

University Education in a Bilingual Country: The Case of Finland

Focusing on the situation of Åbo Akademi University, a Swedish-language higher education institution in bilingual Finland, this article discusses the problems of operating higher education institutions in two or three languages in a country in which 11 percent of the population are Swedish speakers and 89 percent are Finnish speakers, with many who are bilingual. Finland has two monolingual Swedish-language universities plus a monolingual School attached to the bilingual University of Helsinki. In addition to the latter, five other institutions, four of them highly specialized, are bilingual. The remaining institutions are monolingual, operating in Finnish. Most of the Finnish higher education institutions are increasingly offering programmes in English. Institutions offering courses in Swedish co-operate among themselves in the provision of full course programmes. The three universities in Turku, where Åbo Akademi University is located, co-operate in offering joint programmes requiring students to work in Swedish, Finnish, and English. Although multilingualism works well in Finland with a minimum of friction, the author concludes that a monolingual university, if affordable, is the best safeguard for minority linguistic rights.     

Revitalising Indigenous Languages in Homogenising Times

The world's linguistic and cultural diversity is endangered by the forces of globalisation, which work to homogenise and standardise even as they segregate and marginalise. Here, I focus on the struggle to conserve linguistic and cultural diversity among Indigenous groups in the United States. Native languages are in drastic decline. Yet even as more Native American children come to school speaking English, they are likely to be stigmatised as 'limited English proficient' and placed in remedial programmes. This situation has motivated bold new approaches to Indigenous schooling that emphasise immersion in the heritage language. This article presents data on these developments and their impacts on students' self-efficacy and school performance, analysing these data in light of critical theory and current knowledge in the field of bilingual education. Indigenous language reclamation efforts must not only confront a legacy of colonialism, but also mounting pressures for standardisation and English monolingualism. I conclude with an examination of these power relations as they are manifest in the struggle for Indigenous self-determination and linguistic human rights.     

The Differences of Business Communicative Language between China and Britain

Language is the product of social being. The communicative language between China and Britain need be familiar with two spo ken and written languages as well as solid educational experience. There are a lot of oral speaking in both Chinese and English. Due to the regional culture, history culture, customs ,religious belief and historical allusion varied, the oral speaking also presents lots of cultural differ ences. By comparing the linguistic behavior in oral speaking between English and Chinese, this paper tries to discuss the difference between them and the cultural otherness it reflects. Study shows that language and culture are connected and infiltrated with each other, culture is re flected in concrete linguistic behavior.     

Predictive validity of the IELTS in an English as a medium of instruction environment

As access to a university education has increased globally, there have also been increases in the number of universities that use English as a medium of instruction (EMI) and in the number of non‐English‐speaking students studying in English‐speaking countries. Correspondingly, the English language proficiency of students studying in EMI environments is becoming increasingly significant. Using a large sample of 953 undergraduate students at an EMI university in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), this paper examines the predictive validity of the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) as it pertains to the academic success of students as determined by grade point average and addresses implications and appropriateness of further language support. Results indicate that IELTS scores are a meaningful predictor of academic success, especially in the EMI environment that exists in the UAE. Lower than the IELTS guidelines, an IELTS 6.0 seems to be a key benchmark that predicts academic success. It may be that this more moderate English proficiency score is a better fit for non‐English‐speaking countries, but that further language support embedded into degree programmes is necessary except at the highest proficiency levels, and that a bilingual option should be considered at the lowest proficiency levels.     

关于幼儿园英语教学模式的思考——《幼儿英语教学模式研究》课题研究报告

对幼儿园英语教学模式的研究发现，学前英语教育应创设积极的双语环境和氛围，按照语言自然习得的原理，遵循儿童学习语言的规律，让儿童在语言学习的关键时期接触到不同的语言和文化，从而激发他们学习第二语言的兴趣，培养他们注意倾听、积极学说、大胆开口的良好学习习惯，以及初步的英语日常口语交际能力和初步运用英语进行简单思维的能力，使他们身心发展更加健康、和谐、完整，也为他们今后的进一步学习奠定良好的基础。     

Learning to apply numbers to nature

Working within the framework of a Wittgensteinian view of number, I exp the learning of English speaking and Yoruba speaking children as they work towards mean ful use of number names. I find that English speaking children and Yoruba speaking child appropriate different types of concepts in their development towards number use. The conc differ because the types of material objects that English speakers and Yoruba speakers tal differ. It seems that monolingual Yoruba speaking village children might be slower in apprc ating concepts associated with number use in Yoruba than their bilingual compatriots monolingual English speaking children, and that the bilingual children's learning is enhance their bilingualism.     

Phonological awareness in monolingual and bilingual English and Greek five‐year‐olds

This study examined and compared levels of phonological awareness in monolingual and bilingual English and Greek five‐year‐olds. Sixty‐eight children from Britain and Cyprus, matched on the basis of age, gender, non‐verbal and verbal IQ, were assigned to four groups: two bilingual (English‐Greek, Greek‐English) and two monolingual (English, Greek). Performance of the four groups on a set of six phonological tasks was compared. Bilingual children were given both English and Greek versions of the tasks; monolingual children were given the phonological tasks in their mother tongue only. Given the results of previous research, it was predicted that bilingual children would show higher levels of phonological awareness than monolingual. The children tested in Britain were already being taught to read in school, whereas those tested in Cyprus were not. On the basis of previous research, it was further predicted that there would also be effects of learning to read in an alphabetic language, such that the bilingual children tested in Britain would show higher levels of phonological awareness at the level of the phoneme than their counterparts tested in Cyprus. Results showed that the bilingual English‐Greek children significantly outperformed the monolingual English children, but this pattern was not replicated in the bilingual Greek‐English/monolingual Greek comparisons. This difference is discussed in terms of the bilingual enhancement effect, which, according to the present data, seems to occur only when bilingual children are exposed to a second language that is phonologically simpler than their first language. Results also showed that English‐Greek bilingual children performed significantly better than Greek‐English bilinguals, especially on tasks requiring phoneme awareness. This accords well with suggestions that learning to read in an alphabetic language promotes this level of phonological awareness.     

Profiles in Bilingualism: Factors Influencing Kindergartners’ Language Proficiency

Three common assumptions concerning bilingual children’s language proficiency are: (1) their proficiency in two languages is usually unbalanced; (2) low socioeconomic status (SES) indicates low proficiency in both languages; and (3) encouraging parents to speak some societal language at home will promote its development. Examining the vocabulary scores of 282 bilingual Singaporean kindergartners (167 Chinese, 70 Malay, and 45 Tamil), the current study found that these young children were evenly divided among four language profiles: strong in ethnic language (Chinese, Malay or Tamil) or English, strong in both languages, or weak in both. Children with high proficiency in both languages were proportionally represented in the low, middle and high SES groups, demonstrating the achievability of strong vocabulary in two languages for children of different SES. However, low SES children were most at risk for low proficiency in both languages, although many achieved high proficiency in ethnic language or both. Middle and high SES children were most likely to demonstrate low ethnic language with high English proficiency. Children mostly exposed to one language from different sources generally showed strength in that language. Children exposed to both languages at home were most likely to show low proficiency in both languages, although plenty of children exposed to both languages developed high proficiency in English or both. These results affirm previous findings that SES and home language exposure influence bilingual children’s proficiency. Implications include the importance of teachers assessing bilingual children’s proficiency in both languages and collaborating with parents to develop bilingual children’s vocabulary.     

双语教学与大学英语教学改革

我国高校的双语教学是以提高外语(主要是英语)水平为主的教育,其目标是培养大批能同时使用母语和英语进行交际的复合型专业人才。高校双语教学为打破大学英语教学的严重的应试倾向开辟了道路。要搞好双语教学,必须借鉴国外的成功经验,采用依托式教学模式。教师能用全英语讲授专业课,学生达到中等以上英语水平,是搞好双语教学必备的条件。     

Parallel literacy classes and hidden strengths: learning to read in English,Urdu and classical Arabic

The aim of this article is to explore young bilingual children’s early literacy experiences in three different languages, English, Urdu and classical Arabic, and in three strikingly different types of classes in England. It draws on a larger ethnographic study that sets out to discover what kinds of advantages or additional strengths bilingual children might bring from their community literacy practices and from their experiences of learning to read in two or more languages simultaneously into their English literacy lessons. The main focus of the article is on one bilingual boy, Ikram, of Pakistani background, who at the beginning of the study was 5 years old. The participant observations in these three different types of classes and audio and video tapes of some these lessons show that at the age of 7 Ikram has begun to read in three languages. I argue that in doing so he is developing additional strengths that are generally overlooked. These new types of literacy strengths derive from the fact he is learning to read simultaneously in three languages. Yet they remain hidden within his English lessons.     

全球信息共享与发展壮英双语教育的构想

在全球经济一体化的时代背景下，在壮族地区中小学开展壮英双语教育具有超越一般学科教育的意义。推行壮英双语教育需要解决的理论问题主要包括：接受外来化与树立民族自信心和自尊心的关系，保存民族化传统与处理好化认同的关系，在具体实施壮英双语教育课程体系时，涉及经费、师资、教学手段等困难和问题。通过壮汉、壮英双语教育的课程改革，使更多的壮族学生实现壮汉英三语兼通，将会加快壮族社会实现现代化的进程，推动壮族地区经济的腾飞。     

Cross‐Linguistic Lexical,Grammatical, and Discourse Performance on Oral Narrative Retells Among Young Spanish Speakers

This study investigated relations among microlevel and macrolevel domains of oral narrative retells within and across the languages of Spanish‐speaking bilingual children. Fifty‐six first and second graders (M_age = 7 years, 3 months) were assessed on a retell task in Spanish and English. Two statistical analyses were conducted: (a) correlations within and across microlevel lexical (number of different words) and grammatical (mean length of utterance‐word and subordination index) domains and (b) hierarchical regression to determine the influence of microlevel domains on a macrolevel discourse score. Results highlighted a number of significant within‐ and cross‐language correlations, and identified vocabulary as a significant predictor of macrolevel discourse scores within both languages, while grammar was a predictor within English only.     

Bilingualism,Biliteracy, and Learning to Read: Interactions Among Languages and Writing Systems

Four groups of children in first grade were compared on early literacy tasks. Children in three of the groups were bilingual, each group representing a different combination of language and writing system, and children in the fourth group were monolingual speakers of English. All the bilingual children used both languages daily and were learning to read in both languages. The children solved decoding and phonological awareness tasks, and the bilinguals completed all tasks in both languages. Initial differences between the groups in factors that contribute to early literacy were controlled in an analysis of covariance, and the results showed a general increment in reading ability for all the bilingual children but a larger advantage for children learning two alphabetic systems. Similarly, bilinguals transferred literacy skills across languages only when both languages were written in the same system. Therefore, the extent of the bilingual facilitation for early reading depends on the relation between the two languages and writing systems.     

西昌市民族中学彝英双语教学调查研究

近年来，凉山彝族自治州彝族地区的民族教育一直受到教育界人士的关注，在党和政府的支持和帮助下，彝区的教育不断得到改善和发展，尤其是两类体制的彝汉双语教育取得了明显的成效。随着社会的发展，英语的重要性逐渐被彝区人民所认识，开始探索如何在彝区克服英语教学中的局限，培养双语、多语综合性人才之路。凉山彝族自治州西昌市民族中学适时开展了彝英双语教育的教学实践，借助彝语母语的优势来学习英语，克服了彝族学生对英语的恐惧心理，提高了学生的英语水平，达到了事半功倍的效果。     

Bilingual Infants Demonstrate Advantages in Learning Words in a Third Language

Prior research suggests that bilingualism may endow infants with greater phonological flexibility. This study investigated whether this flexibility facilitates word learning in additional languages (n = 96). Experiment 1 compared 18‐ to 20‐month‐old monolingual (English) and bilingual (English/Mandarin) infants on their ability to learn words distinguished by click consonants from a Southern African language, Ndebele. English–Mandarin bilingual infants were sensitive to Ndebele click contrasts, but monolingual English infants were not. In Experiments 2a and 2b, we investigated whether enhanced bilingual sensitivity extended to analogous nonlinguistic labels: hand claps and finger snaps. Although discriminated by infants, neither group distinguished words labeled by hand claps and finger snaps. Results suggest that bilingual infants' sustained openness to non native contrast may facilitate the uptake of words in distant languages.     

Bilingual effects on cognitive and linguistic development: role of language, cultural background, and education

A total of 104 six-year-old children belonging to 4 groups (English monolinguals, Chinese-English bilinguals, French-English bilinguals, Spanish-English bilinguals) were compared on 3 verbal tasks and 1 nonverbal executive control task to examine the generality of the bilingual effects on development. Bilingual groups differed in degree of similarity between languages, cultural background, and language of schooling. On the executive control task, all bilingual groups performed similarly and exceeded monolinguals; on the language tasks the best performance was achieved by bilingual children whose language of instruction was the same as the language of testing and whose languages had more overlap. Thus, executive control outcomes for bilingual children are general but performance on verbal tasks is specific to factors in the bilingual experience.     

高等院校双语教学探析

双语教学一般是指高等院校在教学过程中使用汉语和外语进行教学的活动。我国的双语教学,存在双语教师严重短缺、务虚多于务实、高收费重于高质量、学生缺乏相应的英语训练和课堂语言不当等问题。必须改革现有的双语教学,这样才能达到其真正目的。