A Cross-linguistic Comparison of Phonological Awareness and Word Recognition in Turkish and English Comparaison entre la reconnaissance phonologique et la reconnaissance des mots en turc et en anglais Una comparación lingüística cruzada de la Conciencia Fonológica y del reconocimiento de palabras en turco e inglés

Phonological awareness has been demonstrated by numerous researchers to be one of the most powerful predictors of subsequent reading success. By considering these predictors as a starting point, the relations between children's phonological awareness developed at the pre-reading stage and their reading skills were examined and the influences of the features of various language systems and orthographies upon children's phonological awareness and subsequent reading abilities were studied. The results are important for developing new methods for teaching reading. In this research, besides studying the relationship between the development of children's phonological awareness and their subsequent reading skills, how the children's linguistic and orthographic characteristics of English and Turkish effect phonological awareness and subsequent reading success were also analysed. The aim was to recommend the most appropriate method for teaching reading and writing to children acquiring literacy in Turkish. The research was designed as a survey model. The participants of the study were 94 Turkish students (46 girls and 48 boys) attending two public primary schools and two public kindergartens in Istanbul during the 1994-95 educational year and 44 American students (17 girls and 27 boys) at different ages attending a public primary school and its kindergarten in Duluth, Minnesota. In this study, their scores in letter identification tasks (upper-case and lower-case letter identification), letter usage tasks, decoding tasks and various phonological awareness tasks were compared. Turkish and American students' scores in all tasks, as to grade, language and language unit variables were also analysed, and two-way ANOVA and correlations were also obtained. Whether grade, language and language unit independent variables and their interactions cause significant distinctions between the groups' scores was examined. The results of this study indicate that while Turkish kindergarten students are less successful than American students in the decoding tasks, Turkish primary school students score higher compared with American children at the same grade level. When the scores of Turkish and American students in phonological awareness tasks were compared, it was found that Turkish students scored higher in both grade levels than American students and it was ascertained that, particularly as the children became literate, the phonological awareness ability of Turkish students increased considerably. These results point to how the spoken language affects the development of phonological awareness and the contribution of this ability to learning to read in alphabetic writing systems. Il a été établi par de nombreuses études que la reconnaissance phonologique est l'un des prédicteurs les plus puissants de la réussite ultérieure en lecture. En prenant ces prédicteurs comme point de départ, on a examiné les relations entre la reconnaissance phonologique développée par les enfants à l'étape de la pré-lecture et leurs compétences en lecture, ainsi que l'influence des caractéristiques phonologiques et orthographiques de certaines langues sur la reconnaissance phonologique des enfants et leurs compétences ultérieures en lecture. Les résultats sont importants si l'on veut élaborer de nouvelles méthodes d'enseignement de la lecture. Dans cette étude, en plus de l'examen des relations entre le développement de la reconnaissance phonologique des enfants et leurs compétences ultérieures en lecture, on a analysé les conséquences des caractéristiques linguistiques et orthographiques de l'anglais et du turc sur la reconnaissance phonologique et la réussite ultérieure en lecture. L'objectif était de recommander des méthodes appropriées d'enseignement de la lecture et de l'écriture aux enfants de l'enseignement primaire turc. L'étude a été conçue sur le modèle d'une enquête. Les participants étaient quatre-vingt quatorze élèves turcs (46 filles et 48 garçons) de deux écoles primaires publiques et deux écoles maternelles d'Istanbul pendant l'année scolaire 1994-1995, et quarante-quatre élèves américains à divers âges (17 filles et 27 garçons) d'une école primaire publique et sa section maternelle à Duluth, Minnesota. Dans cette étude, on a comparé les notes qu'ils ont obtenues lors de tâches d'identification des lettres (reconnaissance des minuscules et des majuscules), tâches d'emploi des lettres, tâches de décodage et diverses tâches de reconnaissance phonologique. On a également analysé les notes obtenues par les élèves turcs et américains pour toutes les tâches, par variable d'année d'études, langue et unité de langue, et des analyses de variance et des corrélations dans les deux sens ont été obtenues. On a étudié si les variables indépendants d'année d'études, langue et unité de langue et leurs interactions causaient des distinctions significatives sur les résultats des groupes. Les résultats de cette recherche indiquent que, bien que les élèves turcs de maternelle réussissent moins bien aux tâches de décodage que les américains, les élèves turcs de niveau primaire obtiennent de meilleurs résultats que les américains de même année d'études. Lorsqu'on a comparé les notes des élèves turcs et américains en matière de reconnaissance phonologique, on a trouvé que les élèves turcs avaient de meilleures notes, aux deux niveaux scolaires, que les américains, et on a observé que, surtout à mesure que les enfants apprenaient à lire et écrire, la capacité de reconnaissance phonologique des élèves turcs augmentait considérablement. Ces résultats indiquent comment la langue parlée affecte le développement de la reconnaissance phonologique et le rôle joué par cette capacité dans l'apprentissage de la lecture dans les systèmes d'écriture alphabétiques. Numerosas investigaciones han demostrado que la conciencia fonológica es uno de los predictores más poderosos del éxito para leer subsiguiente. Teniendo en cuenta estos predictores como punto de partida, se examinaron las relaciones entre la conciencia fonológica de los niños desarrollada en la fase de prelectura y sus habilidades de lectura y se estudiaron las influencias de las características de los diferentes sistemas de lenguaje y de las ortografías en la conciencia fonológica de los niños y las habilidades de lectura subsiguientes. Los resultados son importantes para desarrollar métodos nuevos para enseñar a leer. En este trabajo de investigación, además de estudiar la relación entre el desarrollo de la conciencia fonológica de los niños y sus habilidades de lectura subsiguientes, también se analizó cómo las características ortográficas y lingüísticas del inglés y del turco de los niños afectaron a la conciencia fonológica y al éxito para leer subsiguiente. El objetivo fue recomendar el método más adecuado para enseñar a leer y a escribir a los niños que estuvieran aprendiendo a leer y a escribir en turco. El trabajo de investigación se diseñó como si se tratara de una encuesta. El número de participantes fue de noventa y cuatro alumnos turcos (46 niñas y 48 niños) de dos escuelas primarias del estado y de dos jardines de infancia también del estado de la ciudad de Estambul durante el curso académico 1994-1995 y de cuarenta y cuatro alumnos americanos (17 niñas y 27 niños) de diferentes edades que asistían a una escuela primaria del estado y a su correspondiente jardín de infancia en Duluth, Minnesota. En esta investigación, se compararon los resultados que obtuvieron en las Tareas de Reconocimiento de las Letras (Reconocimiento de las Letras Mayúsculas y Minúsculas), en las Tareas de Utilización de Letras, en las Tareas de Decodificación y en varias tareas de Conciencia Fonológica. También se analizaron los resultados de los alumnos americanos y turcos en todas las tareas, en lo que respecta al grado/curso, lenguaje y variables de la unidad de lenguaje y también se obtuvieron correlaciones y "two way ANOVA" (análisis de variaciones bidireccionales). Se estudió si el grado/curso, lenguaje y las variables independientes de la unidad de lenguaje y sus interacciones causaron diferencias importantes en los resultados de los grupos. Los resultados de esta investigación indican que aunque los alumnos turcos del jardín de infancia tienen menos éxito que los alumnos americanos en las tareas de decodificación, los alumnos turcos de enseñanza primaria obtuvieron mejores puntuaciones comparados con los alumnos americanos del mismo nivel de curso. Cuando se compararon los resultados de los alumnos americanos y turcos en las tareas de conciencia fonológica, se encontró que los alumnos turcos obtuvieron mejores puntuaciones en ambos niveles de curso que los alumnos americanos y se estableció que especialmente a medida que los alumnos aprendían a leer y escribir, la habilidad de la conciencia fonológica de los alumnos turcos aumentaba considerablemente. Estos resultados indican como el lenguaje hablado afecta al desarrollo de la conciencia fonológica y la contribución de esta habilidad para aprendar a leer en los sistemas de escritura alfabética.     

Improving students' pronunciation through accent reduction software

This study aimed to find out whether integrating accent reduction software in advanced English language classes at the university level would result in improvements in students’ pronunciation at the segmental and sup‐rasegmental levels. The study made use of a quasi‐experimental research design. Two classes at the Department of Foreign Language Education at Middle East Technical University in Turkey participated in the study. Whilst one class (the control group) followed traditional instruction, the other class (experimental group) followed instruction which integrated use of accent reduction software in a multimedia language laboratory. Based on the results of the study, it is suggested that especially in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) settings where natural target language input is scarce, technology has a lot to offer, and EFL learners may be provided with exposure and practice/interaction opportunities in the target language through specifically designed software programs.     

“绿色条款”在实践中的新发展与绿色贸易壁垒——从WTO争端解决实践看GATT第20条

在WTO争端解决实践中,GATT第20条“绿色条款”的适用范围有了许多新发展：可适用于基于产品生产工艺、生产方法而采取的措施;可适用于为保护生物资源而采取的措施;也可适用于与保护可用竭自然资源这个合法目标之间有实际联系的措施。“绿色条款”在实践中的新发展极易被新贸易保护主义滥用,从而为绿色贸易壁垒提供合法的“多边外衣”。     

Teaching Undergraduate Mathematics on the Internet

This is Part 2 of a two-part study of how APOS theory may be used to provide cognitive explanations of how students and mathematicians might think about the concept of infinity. We discuss infinite processes, describe how the mental mechanisms of interiorization and encapsulation can be used to conceive of an infinite process as a completed totality, explain the relationship between infinite processes and the objects that may result from them, and apply our analyses to certain mathematical issues related to infinity.     

Improving the precision of the keyword-matching pornographic text filtering method using a hybrid model

With the flooding of pornographic information on the Internet, how to keep people away from that offensive information is becoming one of the most important research areas in network information security. Some applications which can block or filter such information are used. Approaches in those systems can be roughly classified into two kinds:metadata based and content based. With the development of distributed technologies, content based filtering technologies will play a more and more important role in filtering systems. Keyword matching is a content based method used widely in harmful text filtering. Experiments to evaluate the recall and precision of the method showed that the precision of the method is not satisfactory, though the recall of the method is rather high. According to the results, a new pornographic text filtering model based on reconfirming is put forward. Experiments showed that the model is practical, has less loss of recall than the single keyword matching method, and has higher precision.     

Theory Competition and the Process of Change

The reasons why many educational change initiatives have little impact are often framed in terms of either a poorly designed process on the part of the change initiator, or in terms of problems with the attitudes, skills and/or knowledge of those responsible for implementation. In this paper, we seek to integrate these two perspectives more closely by focusing on their interface and the competing theories frequently held by the change initiators and implementers. This concept of theory competition is illustrated with a case of a national literacy initiative in New Zealand in which the change initiators wished to raise the achievement of low performing students through the development of “learning-centred” leadership in schools and evidence-based practice. The desired outcomes were not achieved because theories about what it means to be a successful leader in such a situation, the data needed to undertake the type of evidence-based analysis envisioned and school personnel beliefs about the target students were understood differently by those responsible for initiating the change and those responsible for implementing it.