Lexical inference in L2: predictive roles of vocabulary knowledge and reading skill beyond reading comprehension

The current study examined the predictive roles of L2 vocabulary knowledge and L2 word reading skills in explaining individual differences in lexical inferencing in the L2. Participants were 53 Israeli high school students who emigrated from the former Soviet Union, and spoke Russian as an L1 and Hebrew as an L2. L2 vocabulary knowledge and decoding accuracy predicted L2 reading comprehension, which in turn was strongly related to lexical inferencing abilities in the L2. In addition, decoding accuracy predicted additional variance in lexical inferencing, beyond the role of reading comprehension. These findings support the idea that beginning L2 readers with more precise and efficient lexical representations demonstrate better lexical inferencing abilities, most likely due to the increased automatization of word reading, which frees up resources for higher level processing. These results suggest that lexical inferencing from text in the L2 might be limited not only by vocabulary knowledge and higher order comprehension processes, but also by basic decoding skills.     

Map Room to Data and GIS Services: Five University Libraries Evolving to Meet Campus Needs and Changing Technologies

Programs for geospatial support at academic libraries have evolved over the past decade in response to changing campus needs and developing technologies. Geospatial applications have matured tremendously in this time, emerging from specialty tools to become broadly used across numerous disciplines. At many universities, the library has served as a central resource allowing students and faculty across academic departments access to GIS resources. Today, as many academic libraries evaluate their spaces and services, GIS and data services are central in discussions on how to further engage with patrons and meet increasingly diverse researcher needs. As library programs evolve to support increasingly technical data and GIS needs, many universities are faced with similar challenges and opportunities. To explore these themes, data and GIS services librarians and GIS specialists from five universities—the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Texas A&M, New York University, North Carolina State University, and California Polytechnic State University—with different models of library geospatial and data support, describe their programs to help identify common services, as well as unique challenges, opportunities, and future plans.     

The Effects of Sports Media Exposure on College Students' Rape Myth Beliefs and Intentions to Intervene in a Sexual Assault

An online survey was fielded to freshmen living in residence halls at a northwestern university in the United States. Structural equation modeling was used to investigate the structure of relationships among exposure to mainstream sports media, rape myth acceptance, and intentions to intervene in sexual assault situations while controlling for gender traits. Given that prior research suggests men and women differ in their beliefs about sexual assault, analyses were performed on male (n = 111) and female (n = 241) respondents separately. Among women, exposure to sports media was positively associated with rape myth acceptance, which in turn was negatively associated with intentions to intervene in sexual assault situations. Among men, consuming sports media was negatively associated with intentions to intervene in a sexual assault. The findings suggest that exposure to some sports media may be negatively associated to individuals' intentions to intervene in a sexual assault.     

Curating the Library Exhibit “Russian Revolution: Actors and Witnesses” at Harvard University: A Collaborative Experience

ABSTRACT

Tasked with organizing and promoting an exhibit of Russian Revolution-related materials from Harvard University’s vast library holdings in a relatively small space, the curators faced both advantages and challenges. This article describes the curatorial choices and logistical solutions reached via a collaboration between staff at several units across the university: Houghton, Widener, and Fung Libraries, the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and the Weissman Preservation Center.     

Russia and the Low Countries: An International Bibliography 1500–2000

Abstract

The single most difficult situation publishers have faced since the depression and hyperinflation of 1991-1993 was the financial crisis which began on August 17, 1998. Prior to August 17, Russian publishers were on track to produce a record number of titles. After August 17, production plummeted. Yet by March of 1999 the industry was reviving, and as of May production had returned roughly to pre-cri-sis levels. The August crisis was a severe test for the publishing industry, but the rapid recovery demonstrates its vitality. The authors discuss monographs primarily, but serials are also included. They also explain why caution is necessary when using official Russian publishing statistics since 1991 and how such statistics can still be useful.     

An Elementary School form of the Dogmatism Scale

The Dogmatism Scale for adults was adapted to provide an instrument for use in studies on the organization of belief-disbelief systems of children in grades four-six. The paper-and-pencil scale contains 50 items of the forced-choice type. It can be administered to groups. A summated-rating scoring system is used to determine a respondent’s placement along an openminded-closedminded continuum. When administered to 485 pupils in grades four through six in all five elementary schools in a central Indiana city of about 7, 000 population, the instrument’s reliability coefficient was found to be . 67. All items discriminated between low and high scorers at P <. 05.     

Facing Facts: Can the Face-Name Mnemonic Strategy Accommodate Additional Factual Information?

In 3 experiments, undergraduates used their own best method (control) or an “imposed” face-name mnemonic strategy to associate 18 caricatured faces, names, and additional facts. On all immediate tests (prompted by the faces), and on the delayed tests of Experiments 2a and 2b combined, mnemonic students statistically outperformed control students on name and political affiliation identification measures as well as on name-affiliation pairs. Interference issues were examined in the latter 2 experiments. The study findings replicate prior positive findings with the face-name mnemonic and demonstrate that additional factual information can be successfully added to the face-name mnemonic strategy through implementation of the present mnemonic format.