英语教学中文化教学的必要性和可行性

英语教学中文化教学的必要性体现在：国内外关于跨文化交际以及语言与文化之间关系的理论论述已不少见，但实际教学效果并不如人意。统一原则的缺失和具体策略的模糊是其主要原因。其可行性体现在：宏观上树立合理的．原则和微观上找到合适的策略。     

谈中华民族共同语的历史变迁(上)

中华民族共同语的形成与发展可分为先秦、两汉、魏晋南北朝、隋唐宋、元明清以及近现代六个时期;由于政治、经济、文化各方面因素的影响,各个历史时期的民族共同语呈现出不同的特点,从先秦雅言、两汉通语到六朝时期共同语的南北分化,以及中古时期的中原雅音(正音)、近古时的官话,再发展到现代汉语普通话,中华民族共同语经历了几千年的变迁;现代汉语普通话是在元明清以来官话的基础上逐步发展形成的。     

此时彼刻

坐在大厅临窗的一个角落,等我的lan-guageparter。透过窗,阳光融融的味道,洒在身上!微微合上眼,闪入脑海的是干洁透亮的泰达图书馆休息吧:沿着墙角的一排棕榈,隔着透明的玻璃墙,是汩汩涌动的环形水池,还有不远处的喷泉广场和漫漫的草坪。开发区的空气总是好得让人不知所措,所以对在学院旁草坪上挥霍仅有的闲暇总是觉得无可厚非!每天让耳朵超负荷地听歌,葱头提醒我要尽量用音箱,要用顶好顶好的耳机。于是知道,原来放任自己是能赢来关爱的。越发地上瘾,像个耍小花招讨大人疼爱的小孩,不时地从死党们那里窃一点关爱,偷一丝疼惜!好久没去K歌了,…     

The Integration of Common Core and Response to Intervention: Supporting Vulnerable Readers in a Time of Sophisticated Standards

The Common Core State Standards and Response to Intervention are significant contemporary educational initiatives that have emerged largely in isolation from one another. We argue that an integration of these initiatives is beneficial. We trace the independent development of these two initiatives and offer suggestions for how they might fruitfully transact, fully supporting vulnerable readers in their efforts to master sophisticated standards. Results from a school implementing these initiatives as an integrated whole are discussed.     

Mindfulness,coping self-efficacy and foreign language anxiety: a mediation analysis

This study sought to explore the relationship between mindfulness, coping self-efficacy (CSE) and foreign language anxiety (FLA) among a sample of 295 Iranian English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. Further, the capacity of CSE in mediating the relationship between mindfulness and FLA was tested. The participants were administered self-reported questionnaires. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilised. The results of SEM analysis showed that higher levels of mindfulness were associated with lower levels of FLA and greater CSE. In addition, it was found that CSE could partially mediate the relationship between mindfulness and FLA. Implications are discussed.     

How can a clinical research approach contribute to knowledge-building for the teaching profession?

This article explains what clinical research is and why it is necessary. The term ‘clinical’ refers to an academic way of solving practical problems. Clinical research starts from a view of science that not only acknowledges the value of rational analysis and empirical research, but also acknowledges the need for human skills and connoisseurship. In education, skills and connoisseurship can be developed by being responsibly engaged in classrooms. The (tacit) knowledge acquired in classrooms enables researchers to perceive more relevant factors in practice and enables them to understand the problems of teaching better. Clinical research is a type of action research in the sense that it acknowledges the epistemic function of doing, thus emphasizing the need for integrating scholarship and craftsmanship.     

‘We are more than EFL teachers – we are educators’: emancipating EFL student-teachers through photovoice

The prevailing pedagogical orientations of English as a foreign language (EFL) education in Spain oppress learners intellectually in ways that are counterproductive to their learning. As a reaction to this, 129 EFL student-teachers (STs) took part during the 2013/14, 2014/15, and 2015/16 academic years in a workshop which drew on the methodology of participatory action research and on photovoice as a data-creating strategy, in order to emancipate these STs intellectually, boost their EFL development, and offer an alternative critical model for their future EFL teaching. The research was assessed collectively through a variety of qualitative strategies. Results showed that the photovoice workshop created a rich and meaningful context for EFL learning, one which enabled the STs to fully actualize their intellectual potential by producing knowledge collectively, thereby setting a memorable educational example for their own future teaching.     

Development of lexical tone awareness in Chinese children with and without dyslexia

This paper describes two studies that examined the lexical tone awareness of Chinese children both with and without dyslexia at different primary school ages.Study 1 examined the contributions of lexical tone awareness to distinguish children with and without dyslexia with respect to their Chinese character reading skills. Two hundred and seventy Chinese children participated in Study 1. Ninety of these were children with dyslexia (equally recruited from second, fourth, and sixth grades). Moreover, ninety children functioned as a chronological-age control group, and an additional ninety children functioned as a reading-level control group. The participants were tested for nonverbal intelligence, Chinese character reading, and cognitive-linguistic skills and lexical tone awareness. Our results revealed a later developmental ceiling in Chinese children with dyslexia than in those without dyslexia. Furthermore, children’s lexical tone awareness could serve to distinguish children with dyslexia from typically developing children in all primary school years.Study 2 compared the lexical tone awareness and Chinese character reading skills of Chinese children with dyslexia both before and after introducing the Perceptual Training Method. The participants in this study consisted of all the participants with dyslexia from Study 1, and the measurements were the Chinese character reading test and the lexical tone awareness task from Study 1. Our results revealed that only second-grade children with dyslexia gained substantially from the training on both lexical tone awareness and character naming, whereas those in the fourth grade obtained a significant improvement only on lexical tone awareness.     

“Crossing the Rubicon”: Understanding Chinese EFL students’ volitional process underlying in-class participation with the theory of planned behaviour

An extended model based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) was used to study Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) students’ in-class participation. The model included the core TPB constructs (behavioural intentions, attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control/self-efficacy) and 2 additional constructs (foreign language classroom anxiety and face-saving) frequently discussed in the literature about Chinese EFL classroom dynamics. A total of 199 Chinese students enrolled in a Sino-American international branch campus were surveyed. The results of a partial least squares (PLS) path modelling analysis revealed that attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioural control/self-efficacy, and face-saving explained 46% of the variance in intentions to participate in English in class. Perceived behavioural control/self-efficacy fully mediated the negative indirect effect of foreign language classroom anxiety on intentions. Pedagogical implications and future directions are discussed for implementation purposes.     

The Perfect Marriage? – Language and Art Criticism in the Hong Kong Public Examination Context

Art education in Hong Kong has undergone various changes in response to educational reform. In art assessment, a major change in the Hong Kong New Senior Secondary (NSS) Curriculum is the inclusion of art criticism as a compulsory component of the new public examination. Assessing students’ abilities to interpret art in an art criticism public examination context is a critical issue in Hong Kong because the new senior secondary curriculum and assessment has brought attention to the role of written language in the art examination paper. This means the examination assesses not only students’ abilities to interpret art, but also their language abilities required to respond to art in written form. Since this new mode of assessment of art criticism has been published a number of issues have appeared. Recent studies show that teachers and students perceive this development negatively and they believe that the written format will assess students’ written language abilities rather than their critical abilities. These findings challenge the justification of the new art assessment policy and raise questions about the role of written language in responding to art. This article aims to raise the issue of the marriage between language and art criticism in the Hong Kong public examination context. It argues and examines the relationship of language to art interpretation, reasoning in the assessment, and issues in the public art criticism examination context. The issues addressed in this article provide opportunities for researchers and policy makers to reconsider and refine the new form of examination.