Language Transfer and Cultural Transfer in College Students’ Writings

Culture and language are the two notions relating closely with each other.One certain language may show the existence of one unique culture,and vice versa.The consequences are that language learning must involve the acquisition of one’s culture.This paper focuses on the role of language transfer in college students’ writing from the cultural perspective,expecting that the studying results could benefit both teachers and students in the process of foreign language learning.     

On Cultivation of Students’Communicative Competence in Language Teaching

Communicative competence is a very important concept in second language acquisition.It is of great importance to develop students’communicative competence in language teaching.Cultivation of students’communicative competence should be conducted in different stages of language teaching,including syllabus design,materials design,teaching training,teaching activities,etc.     

A Discriminant Analysis of Students’ Work Values

This study examined the power of Super’s work values in discriminating between engineering and liberal arts students. Three analyses were performed, one for each of the different factors of the work values. The major findings were: all three dimensions discriminate effectively between the two programs, the work values which discriminate in favor of liberal arts students tend to focus on general aspects of the work, and the work values favoring engineering students are values relevant to specific aspects of their perceived jobs. The implications of the findings are discussed.     

Development of Math Attitudes and Math Self-Concepts: Gender Differences,Implicit–Explicit Dissociations,and Relations to Math Achievement

Three hundred and ninety-one children (195 girls; M_age = 9.56 years) attending Grades 1 and 5 completed implicit and explicit measures of math attitudes and math self-concepts. Math grades were obtained. Multilevel analyses showed that first-grade girls held a strong negative implicit attitude about math, despite no gender differences in math grades or self-reported (explicit) positivity about math. The explicit measures significantly predicted math grades, and implicit attitudes accounted for additional variance in boys. The contrast between the implicit (negativity for girls) and explicit (positivity for girls and boys) effects suggest implicit–explicit dissociations in children, which have also been observed in adults. Early-emerging implicit attitudes may be a foundation for the later development of explicit attitudes and beliefs about math.     

Teachers’ Role in College English Teaching for Students Majored in Arts and Sports

With a view to keeping up with the new developments of the reform of college English teaching at present,college English teaching for students majored in arts and sports is also appealing to be improved further.And to deepen the teaching reform,teachers,who are the mobile one of the most important factors in English teaching,should follow the principles of providing different guidance for students majored in arts and sports and instructing them in accordance with their aptitude to meet the specific needs of individualized teaching.Thus they have to change their roles and can gain the inspiration from the following contents.     

Science and Language Teachers’ Assessment of Upper Secondary Students’ Socioscientific Argumentation

Researchers and policy-makers have recognized the importance of including and promoting socioscientific argumentation in science education worldwide. The Swedish curriculum focuses more than ever on socioscientific issues (SSI) as well. However, teaching socioscientific argumentation is not an easy task for science teachers and one of the more distinguished difficulties is the assessment of students’ performance. In this study, we investigate and compare how science and Swedish language teachers, participating in an SSI-driven project, assessed students’ written argumentation about global warming. Swedish language teachers have a long history of teaching and assessing argumentation and therefore it was of interest to identify possible gaps between the two groups of teachers’ assessment practices. The results showed that the science teachers focused on students’ content knowledge within their subjects, whereas the Swedish language teachers included students’ abilities to select and use content knowledge from reliable reference resources, the structure of the argumentation and the form of language used. Since the Swedish language teachers’ assessment correlated more with previous research about quality in socioscientific argumentation, we suggest that a closer co-operation between the two groups could be beneficial in terms of enhancing the quality of assessment. Moreover, SSI teaching and learning as well as assessment of socioscientific argumentation ought to be included in teacher training programs for both pre- and in-service science teachers.     

An Analysis of Cultivation of College Students’Interpersonal Ability

In modern society,good communicative ability is very important;it plays an important part in communication.But as college students,who enter into the society newly,their interpersonal range is expanded constantly;to a certain extent,there are some communication disorders which many students’worries in life and study are relevant to.So this text will analyze the poor communicative ability from internal and external factors.And then give several suggestions about how to cultivate the college students’communicative ability.     

On the Cultivation of College Students’ Ability of Translating

Translation is a kind of communicative function of language behavior.In English teaching,translation capabilities must be one of the purposes of our teaching.As a teaching activity it aims to lay a good foundation in English for students and effective teaching methods,but also comprehensive language skills,students study the benchmark one.     

On Developing College Students’ Ability of Reading Comprehension

Reading has become one of the four essential skills in English study,without reading,it is difficult for the students to support independent and self-directed learning.With the arrival of the Information Age,our reading materials gradually change from paper materials to electronic ones.So it becomes more and more important for college students to speed up their reading and develop a good reading habit in order to acquire as much information as possible.     

Matching Society Values: Students’ views of biotechnology

The rapid growth of biotechnology knowledge during the past decades has made it necessary to rethink the contents of the school curriculum and has provoked a consideration of the ethical and social issues related to the use of biotechnological applications. With the financial assistance of the European Union, the European Initiative for Biotechnology Education was set up to develop units for use in the member the countries, organize the translations of these between the many languages involved, organize in‐service courses for teachers, implement the materials in schools, as well as carrying out related research.

This paper gives some findings of Spanish researchers when identifying and exploring the different cultural contexts in which biotechnology teaching and learning is embedded, being mainly concerned with the emerging attitudes and values of the students regarding such issues. After gathering information through case studies during the implementation phase, a questionnaire was developed in an interactive way by teachers and researchers in various stages, based on what students said.

The results identify four main values: the “principle of the natural”, the “principle of the welfare”, the “principle of the technological solution” and the “principle of the individual decisions”. Their interaction and dichotomy are discussed, as well as the problems teachers face when having to deal with topics beyond those immediately related to science     

The Role of Parental Math Anxiety and Math Attitude in Their Children’s Math Achievement

The present study investigated the antecedents and consequences of children’s math anxiety and math attitude. A total of 595 students aged 10 to 15 years (5th to 10th grades) and 1 parent of each (mother or father) participated in the study. The study was conducted in India, with the study sample drawn from schools in South-West Punjab. Math anxiety of parents and their children was measured using the Mathematics Anxiety Scale Short Version (MARS-SV), the Mathematics Anxiety Scale for Elementary School Students (MARS-E), and the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale for Adolescents (MARS-A). Math attitude was assessed with the Attitude Towards Mathematics Inventory (ATMI). A math achievement test was constructed for each grade level based on their curriculum. Path analyses were conducted to test the suggested conceptual model, and the results indicate that parental math anxiety and math attitude act as precursors to their children’s math anxiety and math attitude and further influence the math achievement of their children.     

An Experimental Design--Role of Daily Report in Improving MiddlSchool Students’ Speaking Ability

At present, the common problem in English teaching of middle schools is that students lack of good oral communication skills. In order to improve students' communicative competence, we put forward the research topic of"using daily report to im?prove English speaking skills of middle school students". After doing this, the students' classroom learning atmosphere is active, and the enthusiasm for participating in teaching activities is significantly improved, and they are willing to speak or communicate with students or foreign friends. At the same time, it promotes the teaching level and scientific research level of teachers.     

The Effects of College Students’ Personal Values on Changes in Learning Approaches

Many studies of changes in learning approaches have used data from different age groups at one point in time only (Gow and Kember, High Educ 19:307–322, 1990; Watkins and Hattie, Br J Educ Psychol 51:384–393, 1981) or have analyzed the effects of just two or three factors using single level analytical techniques (Cano, Br J Educ Psychol 75:203–221, 2005; Duckwall et al., Res High Educ 32(1):1–13, 1991; Jay and Love, NCSSSMST J 7(2):4–8, 2002; Loo, Educ Psychol, 17(1/2), 1997; Watkins and Hattie, Hum Learn 4:127–141, 1985; Zeegers, Br J Educ Psychol 71:115–132, 2001). This study employs multilevel modeling as a more appropriate technique for the analysis of longitudinal data to examine factors influencing changes in the learning approaches of 153 international undergraduate students over a 3-year period. Specifically, using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), the effects of personal values (level-2) on learning approaches and changes in them over time (level-1) are examined. Results show no changes within students in the deep and surface approaches to learning but a significant decline for the achieving approach, particularly for students who previously experienced a more formal teaching authority. Furthermore, students’ personal values in terms of security, achievement and hedonism affect the achieving approach while no effects emerge for the personal values of tradition, conformity, universalism, self-direction and stimulation. Finally, these effects can be observed while no significant effects emerge for gender, discipline and ability.     

Exploring Bilingual Uyghur-Chinese Students’Social Use of Language inside and out of Classroom

This paper examines language use inside and out of classroom of Uyghur students from the middle schools for both Han and ethnic minorities in Urumqi, Xinjiang, China. A total of 341 Uyghur students between 12 and 15 years of age, attending 3 middle schools for both Han and ethnic minorities in Urumqi, responded to questionnaires requesting information about their language backgrounds, their use of language at school (inside and out of classroom) and in the wider community, their self-perceptions about their linguistic competence in Uyghur and in Chinese and their attitudes towards Uyghur, Chinese and towards bilingualism. The results, in general, demonstrated a positive attitude towards bilingualism, and there was a trend towards favoring the use of Chinese both inside and outside classroom. The implications of the findings for language policy and planning in education are discussed.     

On Cultivating Students’ Ability of Listening Comprehension in Senior High School in the Northwest of Guangxi

Nowadays, the role of listening course is changed and listening teaching begins to gain high priority in foreign language learning and teaching. However, the English level of students in China is still poor, especially in the northwest of Guangxi. One of the reasons is that teachers in senior high schools have a tendency to ignore listening, because they think that listening is time-consumed. They have to finish the teaching scheme punctually, though listening is the basic and important skill among the other three skills, listening teaching gains no large progress.     

Is Technology the Answer? Investigating Students’ Engagement in Math

Abstract

As technology has spread in schools, we know little about how technology mediates the performance of primary-aged students and their engagement in mathematics. Given the well-established link between achievement and engagement, understanding the impact of technology on engagement can inform practice. This study examines how technology might impact second graders’ engagement in mathematics using IXL, a math intervention administered on the iPad, as compared to a traditional paper–pencil approach. Although there was not a statistically significant difference in the pre–post student engagement surveys, the teacher focus group described increased student independence using technology and found it easier to differentiate and provide corrective feedback, while helping students build fluency.     

Influence of Tibetan Language and Culture on Tibetan College Students’ EFL Learning

Nowadays teaching English as a foreign language is becoming more and more important in Tibetan education. Since Ti?betan education system is complicated, Tibetan college students are facing many proble...