Back to Search | Help | Tutorial Search Within Results | New Search | Save This Search | RSS Feed
Sort By: RelevancePublication Date (newest to oldest)Publication Date (oldest to newest)Title (A to Z)Title (Z to A)Author (A to Z)Author (Z to A)Source (A to Z)Source (Z to A)
Use My Clipboard to print, email, export, and save records. More Info: Help 0 items in My Clipboard
Now showing results 1-10 of 7619. Next 10 >>
1. English-Major Community College Presidents: A Narrative Inquiry (EJ867050)
Author(s):
Frankland, Tammy
Source:
Community College Review, v37 n3 p243-260 2010
Pub Date:
2010-00-00
Pub Type(s):
Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Peer-Reviewed:
Yes
Descriptors: Community Colleges; College Presidents; Undergraduate Study; English; Majors (Students); Career Development; Reflection; Personal Narratives
Abstract: The purpose of this narrative inquiry was to discover how six community college presidents who were undergraduate English majors construct the stories of their academic and professional journeys. Findings were synthesized using three themes--boundaries, connections, and transformations--as an interpretative framework. The selected presidents crossed boundaries, made connections to ideas and people, and transformed their thoughts and actions as found in the descriptions of their academic and professional experiences. Data analyses determined that the content and context the presidents' stories uncovered relationships between their experiences, their beliefs about higher education's purpose, and their understanding of the community college mission. (Contains 1 table.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract
Related Items: Show Related Items
Full-Text Availability Options:
More Info: Help | Tutorial Help Finding Full Text | More Info: Help Find in a Library | Publisher's Web Site
2. Language and Literature Division, Faculty of Education, Hong Kong University (EJ866693)
Qin, Xie; Andrews, Stephen
Language Teaching, v43 n1 p108-112 Jan 2010
2010-01-00
Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Descriptors: Foreign Countries; Departments; Schools of Education; Universities; Chinese; English; Literature; Language Research; Educational Research; Interdisciplinary Approach; Conferences (Gatherings)
Abstract: The Language and Literature Division (LLD) is the largest of the six divisions of the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong (HKU). It is currently home to 34 academic staff, who specialize either in the fields of Chinese Language, English Language and/or Literature Education, and to 60 full-time and 28 part-time doctoral students, who are researching a wide range of topics including subjects as diverse as corpus-aided language learning, task-based language teaching in primary schools, the English writing of Chinese undergraduates, and the impact of school-based assessment. Staff are very active in conducting their own research, much of which is rooted in classrooms and focuses on issues that directly concern the teaching and learning of languages, such as reading literacy, school-based assessment and assessment for learning in English Language, the teaching of Chinese characters, and good practices in English Language Teaching in Hong Kong secondary schools (see http://good-practices.edb.hkedcity.net/). Colleagues in the English Language area have played important roles in the HKU Strategic Research Theme "Language in education and assessment". This initiative brought together staff from a range of disciplines in various forms of language-related research collaboration, culminating in two large and highly successful international conferences in June 2008: one focusing on language awareness and the other on language issues in English-medium universities (see http://www.hku.hk/clear/). Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract
3. Lexical Frequency and Exemplar-Based Learning Effects in Language Acquisition: Evidence from Sentential Complements (EJ863702)
Kidd, Evan; Lieven, Elena V. M.; Tomasello, Michael
Language Sciences, v32 n1 p132-142 Jan 2010
Descriptors: Sentences; Verbs; Language Acquisition; Grammar; Cognitive Processes; Children; Recall (Psychology); Cues; English; Task Analysis
Abstract: Usage-based approaches to language acquisition argue that children acquire the grammar of their target language using general-cognitive learning principles. The current paper reports on an experiment that tested a central assumption of the usage-based approach: argument structure patterns are connected to high frequency verbs that facilitate acquisition. Sixty children (N = 60) aged 4- and 6-years participated in a sentence recall/lexical priming experiment that manipulated the frequency with which the target verbs occurred in the finite sentential complement construction in English. The results showed that the children performed better on sentences that contained high frequency verbs. Furthermore, the children's performance suggested that their knowledge of finite sentential complements relies most heavily on one particular verb--"think," supporting arguments made by Goldberg [Goldberg, A.E., 2006. "Constructions at Work: The Nature of Generalization in Language." Oxford University Press, Oxford], who argued that skewed input facilitates language learning. (Contains 3 figures and 1 table.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract
4. Effect of Language Proficiency and Executive Control on Verbal Fluency Performance in Bilinguals (EJ863004)
Luo, Lin; Luk, Gigi; Bialystok, Ellen
Cognition, v114 n1 p29-41 Jan 2010
Descriptors: Monolingualism; Vocabulary Development; Language Proficiency; Bilingualism; Cognitive Processes; Role; Verbal Ability; Language Fluency; English; Expressive Language; Receptive Language
Abstract: We use a time-course analysis to examine the roles of vocabulary size and executive control in bilinguals' verbal fluency performance. Two groups of bilinguals and a group of monolingual adults were tested in English with verbal fluency subtests from the Delis-Kaplan Executive Function System. The two bilingual groups were equivalent in their self-rated English proficiency but differed in levels of receptive and expressive vocabulary. We hypothesized that the difference between the two bilingual groups in vocabulary and between the monolingual and bilingual groups in executive control would lead to differences in performance on the category and letter fluency tests and dissociate the roles of vocabulary knowledge and executive control in verbal production. Bilinguals and monolinguals performed equivalently in category fluency, but the high-vocabulary bilingual group outperformed both monolinguals and low-vocabulary bilinguals in letter fluency. An analysis of the retrieval time-course functions in letter fluency showed dissociable effects of resources available at the initiation of the trial, considered to reflect vocabulary size, and ability to monitor and retrieve new items using a novel phonemic-based word searching strategy, considered to reflect executive control. The difference in slope of the best-fitting curves reflected enhanced executive control for both bilingual groups compared to monolinguals, whereas the difference in the starting point of the logarithmic functions reflected higher levels of vocabulary for high-vocabulary bilinguals and monolinguals compared to low-vocabulary bilinguals. The results are discussed in terms of the contributions of linguistic resources and executive control to verbal performance. (Contains 2 figures and 4 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract
5. A Purple Giraffe Is Faster than a Purple Elephant: Inconsistent Phonology Affects Determiner Selection in English (EJ863000)
Spalek, Katharina; Bock, Kathryn; Schriefers, Herbert
Cognition, v114 n1 p123-128 Jan 2010
Descriptors: Phonology; Nouns; Grammar; Language Processing; Context Effect; English
Abstract: The form of a determiner is dependent on different contextual factors: in some languages grammatical number and grammatical gender determine the choice of a determiner variant. In other languages, the phonological onset of the element immediately following the determiner affects selection, too. Previous work has shown that the activation of opposing determiner forms by a noun's grammatical properties leads to slower naming latencies in a picture naming task, as does the activation of opposing forms by the interaction between a noun's gender and the phonological context. The present paper addresses the question of whether phonological context alone is sufficient to evoke competition between determiner forms. Participants produced English phrases in which a noun phrase's phonology required a determiner that was the same as or differed from the determiner required by the noun itself (e.g., "a purple giraffe"; "an orange giraffe"). Naming latencies were slower when the phrase-initial determiner differed from the determiner required by the noun in isolation than when the phrase-initial determiner matched the isolated-noun determiner. This was true both for definite and indefinite determiners. The data show that during the production of a determiner-noun phrase, nouns automatically activate the phonological forms of their determiners, which can compete with the phonological forms that are generated by an assimilation rule. (Contains 2 figures and 2 tables.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract
6. The First Steps in Word Learning Are Easier When the Shoes Fit: Comparing Monolingual and Bilingual Infants (EJ867433)
Mattock, Karen; Polka, Linda; Rvachew, Susan; Krehm, Madelaine
Developmental Science, v13 n1 p229-243 Jan 2010
Descriptors: Phonetics; Novelty (Stimulus Dimension); Infants; Monolingualism; French; Bilingualism; Experiments; English; Code Switching (Language); Phonemics; Hypothesis Testing; Pronunciation
Abstract: English, French, and bilingual English-French 17-month-old infants were compared for their performance on a word learning task using the Switch task. Object names presented a /b/ vs. /g/ contrast that is phonemic in both English and French, and auditory strings comprised English and French pronunciations by an adult bilingual. Infants were habituated to two novel objects labeled "bowce" or "gowce" and were then presented with a switch trial where a familiar word and familiar object were paired in a novel combination, and a same trial with a familiar word-object pairing. Bilingual infants looked significantly longer to switch vs. same trials, but English and French monolinguals did not, suggesting that bilingual infants can learn word-object associations when the phonetic conditions favor their input. Monolingual infants likely failed because the bilingual mode of presentation increased phonetic variability and did not match their real-world input. Experiment 2 tested this hypothesis by presenting monolingual infants with nonce word tokens restricted to native language pronunciations. Monolinguals succeeded in this case. Experiment 3 revealed that the presence of unfamiliar pronunciations in Experiment 2, rather than a reduction in overall phonetic variability was the key factor to success, as French infants failed when tested with English pronunciations of the nonce words. Thus phonetic variability impacts how infants perform in the switch task in ways that contribute to differences in monolingual and bilingual performance. Moreover, both monolinguals and bilinguals are developing adaptive speech processing skills that are specific to the language(s) they are learning. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract
7. Interactive Dynamic Assessment with Children Learning EFL in Kindergarten (EJ867586)
Lin, Zheng
Early Childhood Education Journal, v37 n4 p279-287 Jan 2010
Descriptors: Intervention; Program Effectiveness; Kindergarten; English; Second Language Learning; Evaluation Methods; Preschool Teachers; Interaction
Abstract: This paper reports on a study of interactive dynamic assessment undertaken by children learning English listening and speaking as a Foreign Language in a kindergarten. It investigates how an interactive dynamic assessment could be designed to assess young English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners, what information such an interactive dynamic assessment may generate about the language program and the participating children, and how such information may promote children's EFL learning. Instead of being context-independent and solely form-focused, this interactive dynamic assessment is contextualised within an English intervention program and incorporated with a pre-formulated set of supportive mediations for the participating children. The study shows this interactive dynamic assessment differs from traditional non-dynamic assessments in that it includes the assessor's mediation and thereby generates the information about the participating children's needs for and potential responses to mediation. It also demonstrates the potential of an interactive dynamic assessment in promoting children's EFL learning and supporting teaching EFL. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract
8. Phonological Knowledge Guides 2-Year-Olds' and Adults' Interpretation of Salient Pitch Contours in Word Learning (EJ869800)
Quam, Carolyn; Swingley, Daniel
Journal of Memory and Language, v62 n2 p135-150 Feb 2010
2010-02-00
Descriptors: Phonetics; Linguistics; Word Recognition; Phonology; Intonation; English; Pronunciation; Toddlers; Adults; Vocabulary Development; Vowels; Knowledge Level
Abstract: Phonology provides a system by which a limited number of types of phonetic variation can signal communicative intentions at multiple levels of linguistic analysis. Because phonologies vary from language to language, acquiring the phonology of a language demands learning to attribute phonetic variation appropriately. Here, we studied the case of pitch-contour variation. In English, pitch contour does not differentiate words, but serves other functions, like marking yes/no questions and conveying emotions. We show that, in accordance with their phonology, English-speaking adults and 2-year-olds do not interpret salient pitch contours as inherent to novel words. We taught participants a new word with consistent segmental and pitch characteristics, and then tested word recognition for trained and deviant pronunciations using an eyegaze-based procedure. Vowel-quality mispronunciations impaired recognition, but large changes in pitch contour did not. By age 2, children already apply their knowledge of English phonology to interpret phonetic consistencies in their experience with words. (Contains 4 tables and 5 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract
9. Socio-Economic Status, Cultural Diversity and the Aspirations of Secondary Students in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne, Australia (EJ870062)
Bowden, Mark P.; Doughney, James
Higher Education: The International Journal of Higher Education and Educational Planning, v59 n1 p115-129 Jan 2010
Descriptors: Cultural Pluralism; Foreign Countries; English (Second Language); Second Language Learning; English; Secondary School Students; Student Surveys; Academic Aspiration; Parent Aspiration; Parent Attitudes; Parent Child Relationship; Higher Education; Socioeconomic Background
Abstract: Using data from a recent survey of Australian secondary students, we find that those from higher socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to aspire to attend university. The same can be said for students who do not speak English at home. We find that students with an ethnic minority background are more likely to perceive higher levels of support from parents. However, we find that all students believe they receive encouragement from their parents to do well at school (rather than discouragement or disinterest), and that there is little difference in the level of importance placed on the views of parents between students from English and non-English speaking background. While interest in university education is strong across all socio-economic groups, particularly for students who do not speak English at home, there is a considerable gap between aspirations and enrolment levels. We suggest that this "aspirations gap" is larger for students from low socio-economic backgrounds. This analysis also supports growing evidence that the postcode methodology for allocating socio-economic status to individuals is unreliable. Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract
10. Interactive Printouts Integrating Multilingual Multimedia and Sign Language Electronic Resources (EJ869933)
Kanev, Kamen; Barneva, Reneta P.; Brimkov, Valentin E.; Kaneva, Dimitrina
Journal of Educational Technology Systems, v38 n2 p123-143 2009-2010
Descriptors: Interaction; Educational Resources; Multilingualism; Multimedia Materials; Dictionaries; Sign Language; Electronic Publishing; Young Children; Hearing Impairments; Educational Methods; Japanese; English; Technology Uses in Education; Communication Strategies
Abstract: In this article we outline our previous implementations of multilingual multimedia dictionaries and discuss possibilities for adding new functionalities and expanding their coverage. Independently developed sign language dictionary resources are further explored and considered for inclusion in an integrated multilingual multimedia dictionary with video support. Print-based interfaces for direct access to digital content are implemented and a novel concept for dynamic linking to printed documents based on mapping of printed and digital content is proposed. Printed texts in different languages and language independent images are used as interface components for addressing diverse multimedia content including sign language and lip reading multimedia resources. Finally, enabling learning and its social dimensions are discussed in the context of the contemporary technological advancements and innovative educational methods and approaches. (Contains 14 figures.) Note:The following two links are not-applicable for text-based browsers or screen-reading software. Show Hide Full Abstract
Help
Help