Reader and nonreader conception of the spoken word

The development of the concept of word in readers and nonreaders was investigated. Five reader and nonreader male students from four age groups (6.5–7.5; 7.6–8.5; 8.6–9.5; 9.6–10.5) were tested using the procedures developed by J. Downing and P. Oliver (Reading Research Quarterly, 1973–1974, 9, 581–586). Results from an analysis of variance indicated significant effects for reading levels (p < .001), age (p < .05), stimuli (p < .01), and a significant interaction between reading level and stimulus class (p < .05). Evidence indicates nonreaders may be confused about the differences between a short word and phonemes, syllables, sentences, and long words.     

Learning to assess and evaluate complex realities

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability -     

Influence of eye gaze on spoken word processing: an ERP study with infants

Eye gaze is an important communicative signal, both as mutual eye contact and as referential gaze to objects. To examine whether attention to speech versus nonspeech stimuli in 4- to 5-month-olds (n=15) varies as a function of eye gaze, event-related brain potentials were used. Faces with mutual or averted gaze were presented in combination with forward- or backward-spoken words. Infants rapidly processed gaze and spoken words in combination. A late Slow Wave suggests an interaction of the 2 factors, separating backward-spoken word+direct gaze from all other conditions. An additional experiment (n=15) extended the results to referential gaze. The current findings suggest that interactions between visual and auditory cues are present early in infancy.     

英语口语课堂教学成功的关键

成功的英语口语课堂教学需要注意三点:运用建构主义理论指导口语教学;交际分组,克服班大人多困难;实现互动,达到积极表达目的。     

When half a word is enough: infants can recognize spoken words using partial phonetic information

Adults process speech incrementally, rapidly identifying spoken words on the basis of initial phonetic information sufficient to distinguish them from alternatives. In this study, infants in the second year also made use of word-initial information to understand fluent speech. The time course of comprehension was examined by tracking infants' eye movements as they looked at pictures in response to familiar spoken words, presented both as whole words in intact form and as partial words in which only the first 300 ms of the word was heard. In Experiment 1, 21-month-old infants (N = 32) recognized partial words as quickly and reliably as they recognized whole words; in Experiment 2, these findings were replicated with 18-month-old infants (N = 32). Combining the data from both experiments, efficiency in spoken word recognition was examined in relation to level of lexical development. Infants with more than 100 words in their productive vocabulary were more accurate in identifying familiar words than were infants with less than 60 words. Grouped by response speed, infants with faster mean reaction times were more accurate in word recognition and also had larger productive vocabularies than infants with slower response latencies. These results show that infants in the second year are capable of incremental speech processing even before entering the vocabulary spurt, and that lexical growth is associated with increased speed and efficiency in understanding spoken language.     

Learning a practice through practise: presenting knowledge in doctoral spoken presentations

Learning to ‘become doctor’ requires PhD candidates to undertake progressive public displays – material and social – of knowledge. Knowledge in doctoral pedagogy is primarily realised textually, with speaking and writing remaining as the primary assessment rubrics of progress and of the qualification. Participating textually begins, in a public sense, with the Confirmation of Candidature presentation/paper and culminates in a Viva Voce/dissertation. Drawing on linguistic ethnographic observations and analyses, this paper uses practice-based perspectives to examine a doctoral candidate practising to present knowledge publicly in a university research centre. The paper focuses on sociomaterial shifts in the trial run and final delivery of the two presentations examining how the candidate is initiated into new actions in response to these changes. Findings reveal how the candidate engages with collective understandings of the practice of presenting knowledge provided by feedback from her doctoral ‘friends’. Learning a practice through practise highlights the importance of participating as learning and learning as participating. This is particularly so in a time of change for doctoral pedagogy, when honing a practice collectively is argued to be advantageous in a localised setting that recognises and fosters the benefits of participation.     

Learning to solve addition and subtraction word problems in English as an imported language

This paper reports an intervention phase of a design study aimed to assist second-grade Filipino children in solving addition word problems in English, a language they primarily encounter only in school. With Filipino as the medium of instruction, an out-of-school pedagogical intervention providing linguistic and representational scaffolds was implemented with 17 children. Pre-intervention, children experienced linguistic difficulties and were limited to conceptualising and solving simple additive structures. Post-intervention interviews revealed improved performance and understanding of more complex structures, but only when linguistic difficulties were minimised. The study identified socially and culturally driven barriers to learning: superficial strategies, children’s engagement, and learning in an urban poor context.     

口语教学中的口语技能的培养探

口语教学的基本任务就是通过训练培养学生的口语技能去发展学生的口语能力。如何注意学生的个体差异,为每个学生提供主动积极参与教学活动的保证：如何促使课堂中多种类型信息交流和及时反馈的产生,加强教师对学生、学生对教师、学生对学生多边多向的交互作用,真正达到情感交流、自然交往的目的。本文就此进行了初步探讨。     

英语口语教学策略

在阐述英语口语教学的重要性、实现英语口语交际的必要性的同时，着重探讨了如何开展交际活动、如何实现口语交际、如何通过剧情化与角色表演学习口语等问题，为英语口语流利交际的实现提供了具体的操作方法。     

怎样提高中专生英语口语表达能力

中专生英语口语表达能力是中专英语教学的重点,也是难点,为了解决这个问题,本文提出了朗读、背诵、复述、表演、利用有利条件进行练习等方法以提高学生的英语口语表达能力,并提出了几个解决怕说错而不敢说英语心理障碍的方法。     

提高非英语专业大学生英语口语技能之浅见

提出了目前非英语专业大学生实际英语口语交流能力不理想的问题 ,分析了他们口语能力滞后的原因 ,并就如何提高他们的口语技能提出几点建议     

如何正确评价私塾问题

私塾作为中国传统教育的重要组成部分,对中华化的传承与创造,发挥过料大的作用,对于继承和宏扬中华传统化,促进教育改革,全面实施素质教育,仍然具有一定的借鉴价值。     

The modality effect in a mobile learning environment: Learning from spoken text and real objects

The finding that under split-attention conditions students learn more from a picture and spoken text than from a picture and written text (ie, the modality effect) has consistently been found in many types of computer-assisted multimedia learning environments. Using 58 fifth-grade and sixth-grade elementary school children as participants, we investigated whether the modality effect can also be found in a mobile learning environment (MLE) on plants' leaf morphology, in which students had to learn by integrating information from text and real plants in the physical environment. A single factor experimental design was used to examine the hypothesis that students in a mixed-mode condition with real plants and spoken text (STP condition) would pay more attention to the real plants, and achieve higher performance on retention, comprehension, and transfer tests than the single-mode condition with real plants and written text (WTP condition). Whereas we found that participants in the STP condition paid more attention to observing the plants, and achieved a higher score on the transfer test than participants in the WTP condition, no differences were found between the conditions for retention and comprehension test performance.     

Children's sensitivity to intraword redundancy in spoken words.

Kindergarten, third-grade and fifth-grade children were tested on a same-different auditory discrimination task. Stimuli consisted of familiar and unfamiliar 3-letter words which were subdivided into high and low positional frequency word pairs. Analysis of correct same and different judgments supported the hypothesis that prereaders who have had normal language experiences develop sensitivities to intraword-redundancy relations. Children made significantly more correct same or different judgments when word pairs were high rather than low in summed positional frequency.     

英语口语教学初探

传统英语口语教学存在不少问题.如何提高英语口语教学水平是摆在广大口语教师及学生面前的一个严峻课题.