The fluency principle: Why foreign accent strength negatively biases language attitudes

Two experiments tested the prediction that heavy foreign-accented speakers are evaluated more negatively than mild foreign-accented speakers because the former are perceived as more prototypical (i.e., representative) of their respective group and their speech disrupts listeners’ processing fluency (i.e., is more difficult to process). Participants listened to a mild or heavy Punjabi- (Study 1) or Mandarin-accented (Study 2) speaker. Compared to the mild-accented speaker, the heavy-accented speaker in both studies was attributed less status (but not solidarity), was perceived as more prototypical of their respective group, disrupted listeners’ processing fluency, and elicited a more negative affective reaction. The negative effects of accent strength on status were mediated by processing fluency and sequentially by processing fluency and affect, but not by prototypicality. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.     

Sponsored and contest modes of social reproduction in selective community college programs

Theoretical constructs derived from the work of Turner (1960) and Hopper (1971) are discussed to clarify how community colleges may contribute to the social reproduction—the perpetuation and legitimation—of inequalities in wealth, power, and status. Data collected on two selective-entry community-college-allied-health-career programs are presented to illustrate the utility of examining the structural effects and ideological bases of educational programs in terms of contest and sponsored modes of social reproduction. Findings indicate that ethnic group inequalities are reinforced in both programs, but in different ways. In one program, nonwhites are discriminated against at the admission stage; but when they are admitted, white and nonwhite students receive equivalent sponsorship toward completing the degree. In the other program, nonwhites are not only less likely to be admitted, but among those admitted, nonwhites are more likely to drop out or be eased out before completing the contest. The ideologies of implementation and legitimation drawn upon by key gate-keepers to explain each program appear to correspond to the systems of social reproduction evidenced in the respective program's structural effects.An earlier version of this paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, April 11–15, 1983.     

Pedagogical Bricoleurs and Bricolage Researchers: The case of Religious Education

This article reconceptualises school teachers and pupils respectively as ‘pedagogical bricoleurs’ and ‘bricolage researchers’ who utilise a multiplicity of theories, concepts, methodologies and pedagogies in teaching and/or researching. This reconceptualisation is based on a coalescence of generic curricular and pedagogical principles promoting dialogic, critical and enquiry-based learning. Innovative proposals for reconceptualising the aims, contents and methods of multi-faith Religious Education in English state-maintained schools without a religious affiliation are described, so as to provide an instance of and occasion for the implications of these theories and concepts of learning. With the aim of initiating pupils into the communities of academic enquiry concerned with theology and religious studies, the ‘RE-searchers approach’ to multi-faith Religious Education in primary schools (5–11 year olds) is cited as a highly innovative means of converting these curricular and pedagogical principles and proposals into practical classroom procedures. These procedures are characterised by multi-, inter- and supra-disciplinarity; notions of eclecticism, emergence, flexibility and plurality; and theoretical and conceptual complexity, contestation and context-dependence.     

Adverse childhood experiences and childhood autobiographical memory disturbance

OBJECTIVE: To examine relationships between childhood autobiographical memory disturbance (CAMD) and adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) which are defined as common forms of child maltreatment and related traumatic stressors. METHODS: We use the ACE score (an integer count of eight different categories of ACEs) as a measure of cumulative exposure to traumatic stress during childhood. In a cross sectional analysis we assess the relationship of the ACE score to the prevalence of CAMD in a sample of 9,460 relatively healthy adults evaluated for wellness care at a southern California health maintenance organization between August 1995 and March 1996. In addition, we examined possible secular influences by examining association among each of four birth cohorts. Logistic regression was used to obtain the adjusted relative odds of CAMD associated with increasing ACE score. RESULTS: Overall, the age-standardized prevalence of CAMD was 18% (men: 15%; women: 19%). As the ACE score increased, the prevalence of CAMD increased in a graded fashion for both men and women (p for trend <.0001). After adjustment for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and education, adults with an ACE score >or=6 were 5.9 (95% CI, 4.4-7.9) times more likely to have CAMD compared to adults with an ACE score of 0. The prevalence of CAMD increased with each successive birth cohort, and graded relationships between the ACE score and CAMD were observed among each of the four birth cohorts though no statistical difference in the association was found across birth cohorts. CONCLUSIONS: The accumulation of ACEs across several domains is associated CAMD among men and women and in each of four birth cohorts. Further research is needed that describes the prevalence of CAMD in population-based samples and that examines whether impaired memory is a marker for persons neurobiologically affected by multiple forms of child maltreatment and related traumatic stressors.     

Simple Marketing Techniques and Space Planning to Increase Circulation

In the academic Information Commons, the frontline staff are key library assets. This article demonstrates one example of frontline staff observing, analyzing, and modifying user behavior using simple marketing techniques and space planning. James Madison University East Campus Library personnel increased circulation of books by increasing the visibility of the book collection. Minor furniture changes in the lobby, adding rotating themed book displays and providing digital and print signage, produced a dramatic effect. Circulation numbers essentially doubled for the lobby browsing book collection and markedly increased for books highlighted in the displays.     

A Survey of Behaviour Support Services

The following paper is a summary of findings from a survey of behaviour support services (BSSs) across twenty six LEAs. The survey was carried out as part of a post-graduate study into evaluating behaviour support and focussed on three broad areas: service structure and organisation, philosophy and approaches, and central concerns.     

Language attitudes toward varieties of English: An American‐Japanese context

To our knowledge, no data exist on attitudes toward speakers with Japanese accented varieties of American English, an area of profound significance given increasing American‐Japanese contacts across a wide range of applied contexts. This “matched‐guise” study provides such by eliciting Americans’ reactions to a Japanese male talking on two different topics (aggressive versus neutral) using four language varieties (viz., standard, moderate‐accented, heavy‐accented, and disfluent). Speaker evaluations on status, attractiveness, and dynamism traits confirmed certain predictions based on the literature, but some surprising, yet interpretable, patterns emerged in this new domain of American‐Japanese inquiry. Specifically, it was found that Japanese‐accented speakers were evaluated in manner unlike all other non‐standard accented speakers of American English, except those of British and Malaysian background. It is suggested that perceptions of social group competitiveness may be responsible for this pattern of results which, in turn, is discussed in terms of its applied ramifications.