Self-Directed Learning in Preparatory-Year University Students: Comparing Successful and Less-Successful English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alghamdi, Fatimah M. A.

2016-01-01

There is consensus among those involved in teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in the Saudi educational context that students' achievement in language learning is below expectations. Much research has been directed towards finding the reasons for low achievement amongst learners. However, very few studies have looked at parameters of…

eTwinning in Language Learning: The Perspectives of Successful Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Akdemir, Ahmet Selçuk

2017-01-01

This study aims at investigating the effect of eTwinning, an innovative way of cooperative learning, on language teaching. A qualitative research design is preferred in order to explore the experiences of language teachers who have completed successful eTwinning projects. To this end, 7 ELT professionals (4 female, 3 male) from different cities of…

Interactive Book Reading to Accelerate Word Learning by Kindergarten Children with Specific Language Impairment: Identifying Adequate Progress and Successful Learning Patterns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Storkel, Holly L.; Komesidou, Rouzana; Fleming, Kandace K.; Romine, Rebecca Swinburne

2017-01-01

Purpose: The goal of this study was to provide guidance to clinicians on early benchmarks of successful word learning in an interactive book reading treatment and to examine how encoding and memory evolution during treatment contribute to word learning outcomes by kindergarten children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method: Twenty-seven…

Finding the Key to Successful L2 Learning in Groups and Individuals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lowie, Wander; van Dijk, Marijn; Chan, Huiping; Verspoor, Marjolijn

2017-01-01

A large body studies into individual differences in second language learning has shown that success in second language learning is strongly affected by a set of relevant learner characteristics ranging from the age of onset to motivation, aptitude, and personality. Most studies have concentrated on a limited number of learner characteristics and…

First Language Proficiency and Successful Foreign Language Learning: The Case of High School Students Learning French as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gnintedem, Antoine

2014-01-01

This study investigated whether there was a correlation between first language proficiency as measured by the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT II) Reading and Language Arts and foreign language proficiency as measured by the French Language Proficiency Test. Data for the independent variable, first language proficiency, was collected from the…

Students' Attitudes and Motivation for Learning English at Dokuz Eylul University School of Foreign Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Öztürk, Kadim

2014-01-01

Attitudes and motivation are two of the key factors in second language learning since positive attitudes and high levels of motivation are considered as the predictors of a successful learning process. This study aims to reveal the relation between university preparatory students' attitudes towards learning English and their language learning…

Co-occurrence statistics as a language-dependent cue for speech segmentation.

PubMed

Saksida, Amanda; Langus, Alan; Nespor, Marina

2017-05-01

To what extent can language acquisition be explained in terms of different associative learning mechanisms? It has been hypothesized that distributional regularities in spoken languages are strong enough to elicit statistical learning about dependencies among speech units. Distributional regularities could be a useful cue for word learning even without rich language-specific knowledge. However, it is not clear how strong and reliable the distributional cues are that humans might use to segment speech. We investigate cross-linguistic viability of different statistical learning strategies by analyzing child-directed speech corpora from nine languages and by modeling possible statistics-based speech segmentations. We show that languages vary as to which statistical segmentation strategies are most successful. The variability of the results can be partially explained by systematic differences between languages, such as rhythmical differences. The results confirm previous findings that different statistical learning strategies are successful in different languages and suggest that infants may have to primarily rely on non-statistical cues when they begin their process of speech segmentation. © 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Successful L3 Learning in a Study Abroad Context: A Personal Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Róg, Tomasz

2017-01-01

Studying abroad may seem like an unparalleled opportunity to learn a foreign language. Massive exposure to the language, chances for interaction with native speakers, and cultural immersion appear to create excellent conditions for language learning. Yet, most available research indicates that study abroad (SA) participants rarely achieve…

Defining Content and Language Integrated Learning for Languages Education in Australia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cross, Russell

2014-01-01

While there is much that Australia has done well with respect to languages education, many problems still persist in terms of mainstream provision of quality languages programs, attaining real outcomes and gains in language learning, and in relation to retention of students studying languages through to the senior years of school. The success of…

Experimenting with an Integrated Syllabus Design in Modern Languages.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Towell, Richard

1991-01-01

Describes a university's experimental task-based French program that successfully integrated foreign language learning more fully with the learning of interpersonal skills and nonlinguistic content, although some language skills, especially those needed for advanced written language and translation, appeared to suffer. (14 references) (Author/CB)

Understanding Successful and Unsuccessful EFL Students in Chinese Universities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gan, Zhengdong; Humphreys, Gillian; Hamp-Lyons, Liz

2004-01-01

Unlike success in first language acquisition, success in learning a second or foreign language is considerably more variable. Recently, second language acquisition researchers have called for more integrative research on individual difference factors. With this goal in mind, this study followed a larger, quantitative study of the links between…

Difficulty in Learning Similar-Sounding Words: A Developmental Stage or a General Property of Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pajak, Bozena; Creel, Sarah C.; Levy, Roger

2016-01-01

How are languages learned, and to what extent are learning mechanisms similar in infant native-language (L1) and adult second-language (L2) acquisition? In terms of vocabulary acquisition, we know from the infant literature that the ability to discriminate similar-sounding words at a particular age does not guarantee successful word-meaning…

The Impact of Phonetic Instruction on the Oral Proficiency of English Language Learners in a Cooperative Learning Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Hsuan-Yu

2009-01-01

Oral proficiency is an important goal in second language learning not only for communication, but also for developing reading and writing skills. Use of cooperative learning (CL) strategies has been shown to successfully improve second language learning in many cases for its focus on individual accountability and positive interdependence (Kagan &…

Supporting English Second-Language Learners in Disadvantaged Contexts: Learning Approaches That Promote Success in Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Warren, Elizabeth; Miller, Jodie

2015-01-01

In the Australian context, children living in disadvantaged circumstances, whose second language is English, are one of the groups at risk of failing in mathematics. This paper explores the impact purposely developed learning activities (Representations, Oral Language and Engagement in Mathematics Learning activities) have on pupils' mathematics…

Understanding Presence, Affordance and the Time/Space Dimensions for Language Learning in Virtual Worlds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nocchi, Susanna; Blin, Françoise

2013-01-01

Notwithstanding their potential for novel approaches to language teaching and learning, Virtual Worlds (VWs) present numerous technological and pedagogical challenges that require new paradigms if the language learning experience and outcomes are to be successful. In this presentation, we argue that the notions of presence and affordance, together…

English Language Learning Strategies Reported by Advanced Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Juyeon; Heinz, Michael

2016-01-01

The purpose of the present study is to investigate effective English language learning strategies (LLSs) employed by successful language learners. The participants in this study were 20 student interpreters enrolled in the graduate school of interpretation and translation in Korea. Data on LLSs were collected through unstructured essay writing, a…

Designing Strategies for an Efficient Language MOOC

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perifanou, Maria

2016-01-01

The advent of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has dramatically changed the way people learn a language. But how can we design an efficient language learning environment for a massive number of learners? Are there any good practices that showcase successful Massive Open Online Language Course (MOOLC) design strategies? According to recent…

Latina/os in Rhetoric and Composition: Learning from Their Experiences with Language Diversity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cavazos, Alyssa Guadalupe

2012-01-01

"Latina/os in Rhetoric and Composition: Learning from their Experiences with Language Diversity" explores how Latina/o academics' experiences with language difference contributes to their Latina/o academic identity and success in academe while remaining connected to their heritage language and cultural background. Using qualitative…

Large-scale Cortical Network Properties Predict Future Sound-to-Word Learning Success

PubMed Central

Sheppard, John Patrick; Wang, Ji-Ping; Wong, Patrick C. M.

2013-01-01

The human brain possesses a remarkable capacity to interpret and recall novel sounds as spoken language. These linguistic abilities arise from complex processing spanning a widely distributed cortical network and are characterized by marked individual variation. Recently, graph theoretical analysis has facilitated the exploration of how such aspects of large-scale brain functional organization may underlie cognitive performance. Brain functional networks are known to possess small-world topologies characterized by efficient global and local information transfer, but whether these properties relate to language learning abilities remains unknown. Here we applied graph theory to construct large-scale cortical functional networks from cerebral hemodynamic (fMRI) responses acquired during an auditory pitch discrimination task and found that such network properties were associated with participants’ future success in learning words of an artificial spoken language. Successful learners possessed networks with reduced local efficiency but increased global efficiency relative to less successful learners and had a more cost-efficient network organization. Regionally, successful and less successful learners exhibited differences in these network properties spanning bilateral prefrontal, parietal, and right temporal cortex, overlapping a core network of auditory language areas. These results suggest that efficient cortical network organization is associated with sound-to-word learning abilities among healthy, younger adults. PMID:22360625

Research Says / Tap ELLs' Strengths to Spur Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodwin, Bryan; Hein, Heather

2016-01-01

On the surface, learning a second language may seem to be a simple one- to two-year undertaking. Research shows, however, that it's a far more complex endeavor. This article considers the depth of learning required to become academically proficient in a second language. For instance, language learners learn the basics of reading in a second…

Thai Learners' Linguistic Needs and Language Skills: Implications for Curriculum Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ulla, Mark B.; Winitkun, Duangkamon

2017-01-01

Learners' success in language learning always has implications for curriculum and instruction. Thus, it is important to take into account the kinds of learning experiences that these learners will find helpful in learning English as a foreign language; and, highlight them when planning a curriculum and adapting classroom activities. This study,…

Mapping Successful Language Learning Approaches in the Adaptation of Generic Software

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hourigan, Triona; Murray, Liam

2006-01-01

This paper investigates the use of a generic piece of software, the "Copernic Summarizer" (www.copernic.com) as a language learning tool and considers two discrete pedagogical approaches used as part of its integration within the context of teaching and learning a foreign language. Firstly, this paper will present a brief overview on the emerging…

Pre-Service Teachers' Uses of and Barriers from Adopting Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samani, Ebrahim; Baki, Roselan; Razali, Abu Bakar

2014-01-01

Success in implementation of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) programs depends on the teachers' understanding of the roles of CALL programs in education. Consequently, it is also important to understand the barriers teachers face in the use of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) programs. The current study was conducted on 14…

Design and Implementation of BusinessApp, a MALL Application to Make Successful Business Presentations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Calle-Martínez, Cristina; Yanes, Lourdes Pomposo; Pareja-Lora, Antonio

2016-01-01

Little by little, (or, simply, MALL) is taking force in the field of education, as it supports language blended learning and language learning ubiquity. The study presented here belongs in the Social Ontology-based Cognitively Augmented Language Learning Mobile Environment (SO-CALL-ME) research project, whose final aim is to design and create…

Improving English Listening Proficiency: The Application of ARCS Learning-Motivational Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Jianfeng

2015-01-01

Language learning motivation is one of vital factors which strongly correlates to the success in second language acquisition. Listening proficiency, as one of the basic language abilities, is paid much attention in English instruction, but presently the college English listening teaching is a weak link in English language teaching in China, which…

Integration in CLIL: A Proposal to Inform Research and Successful Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Llinares, Ana

2015-01-01

Research on content and language integrated learning (CLIL) has expanded substantially in the last 10 years. While research interests have predominantly focused on language learning outcomes and the comparison between CLIL and English as a foreign language (EFL) students' competence in the foreign language, recent studies have called for the need…

Learning Words for Life: Promoting Vocabulary in Dual Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gillanders, Cristina; Castro, Dina C.; Franco, Ximena

2014-01-01

Vocabulary development plays a critical role in young dual language learners' success in school. As teachers become aware of how they use language in the classroom, systematically teach specific words in a variety of ways, and learn about dual language learners' level of English acquisition and sociocultural experiences, they can help…

When Language Experience Fails to Explain Word Reading Development: Early Cognitive and Linguistic Profiles of Young Foreign Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hu, Chieh-Fang; Schuele, C. Melanie

2015-01-01

Although language experience is a key factor in successful foreign language (FL) learning, many FL learners fail to achieve performance levels that were predicted on the basis of their FL experience. This retrospective study investigated early cognitive and linguistic correlates of learning English as a foreign language (FL) in a group of…

Language Specialists' Views on the Academic Language and Learning Abilities of English as an Additional Language Postgraduate Coursework Students: Towards an Adjunct Tutorial Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fenton-Smith, Ben; Humphreys, Pamela

2017-01-01

As in other Anglophone nations, a large percentage of Australia's postgraduate international students come from English as an additional language (EAL) backgrounds, and many require development of their academic language and learning (ALL) capabilities to successfully navigate a higher degree. This paper investigates those capabilities through the…

Mobile-Assisted Language Learning and Language Learner Autonomy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyddon, Paul

2016-01-01

In the modern age of exponential knowledge growth and accelerating technological development, the need to engage in lifelong learning is becoming increasingly urgent. Successful lifelong learning, in turn, requires learner autonomy, or "the capacity to take control of one's own learning" (Benson, 2011, p. 58), including all relevant…

The Relationship Between Artificial and Second Language Learning.

PubMed

Ettlinger, Marc; Morgan-Short, Kara; Faretta-Stutenberg, Mandy; Wong, Patrick C M

2016-05-01

Artificial language learning (ALL) experiments have become an important tool in exploring principles of language and language learning. A persistent question in all of this work, however, is whether ALL engages the linguistic system and whether ALL studies are ecologically valid assessments of natural language ability. In the present study, we considered these questions by examining the relationship between performance in an ALL task and second language learning ability. Participants enrolled in a Spanish language class were evaluated using a number of different measures of Spanish ability and classroom performance, which was compared to IQ and a number of different measures of ALL performance. The results show that success in ALL experiments, particularly more complex artificial languages, correlates positively with indices of L2 learning even after controlling for IQ. These findings provide a key link between studies involving ALL and our understanding of second language learning in the classroom. Copyright © 2015 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Crossing Geographies of Language Learning--The Case of "A Successful Pupil"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Koivistoinen, Hilkka Anneli

2015-01-01

This study focuses on the social actions taken around English language by a 12-year-old Finnish schoolboy, Simo, and his family members in the course of living their everyday life at home. The paper asks how everyday life learning opportunities are related to both in-class and out-of-class English-language learning. The multiple data (e.g. media…

Do Peer Tutors Help Teach ESL Students to Learn English as a Second Language More Successfully?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lyttle, LeighAnne

2011-01-01

This research study tries to understand the information processing model and social learning theory in regards to teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) to Spanish speakers by using peer teaching methods. This study will examine each theory's concepts and frameworks to better comprehend what teaching methods support English language learning.…

Early and Late Language Start at Private Schools in Turkey

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cepik, Saban; Sarandi, Hedayat

2012-01-01

This study examines the interaction effect of age in L2 attainment. It explores whether success in foreign language learning at early childhood grades varies depending on age. It also addresses the beliefs of foreign language teachers regarding the variables under review. Eighty-three 11 year-old language learners who started learning English at…

Strategic and Organisational Considerations in Planning Content and Language Integrated Learning: A Study on the Coordination between Content and Language Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pavón Vázquez, Víctor; Ávila López, Javier; Gallego Segador, Arturo; Espejo Mohedano, Roberto

2015-01-01

Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is generally recognised as a fruitful example of bilingual education. However, success in CLIL may not be straightforward and may require the establishment of coordination between content and language teachers. The aim of this study is to investigate if content and language teachers are able to plan…

Second Language Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese Vocabulary: Context of Learning Effects

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lan, Yu-Ju; Fang, Shin-Yi; Legault, Jennifer; Li, Ping

2015-01-01

In an increasingly multilingual world, it is important to examine methods that may lead to more efficient second language learning, as well as to analyze the mechanisms by which successful learning occurs. The purpose of the current study was to investigate how different learning contexts can impact the learning of Mandarin Chinese as a second…

Learning in Complex Environments: The Effects of Background Speech on Early Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McMillan, Brianna T. M.; Saffran, Jenny R.

2016-01-01

Although most studies of language learning take place in quiet laboratory settings, everyday language learning occurs under noisy conditions. The current research investigated the effects of background speech on word learning. Both younger (22- to 24-month-olds; n = 40) and older (28- to 30-month-olds; n = 40) toddlers successfully learned novel…

Predictors of Spoken Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Patrick C. M.; Ettlinger, Marc

2011-01-01

We report two sets of experiments showing that the large individual variability in language learning success in adults can be attributed to neurophysiological, neuroanatomical, cognitive, and perceptual factors. In the first set of experiments, native English-speaking adults learned to incorporate lexically meaningfully pitch patterns in words. We…

Six principles of language development: implications for second language learners.

PubMed

Konishi, Haruka; Kanero, Junko; Freeman, Max R; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy

2014-01-01

The number of children growing up in dual language environments is increasing in the United States. Despite the apparent benefits of speaking two languages, children learning English as a second language (ESL) often face struggles, as they may experience poverty and impoverished language input at home. Early exposure to a rich language environment is crucial for ESL children's academic success. This article explores how six evidenced-based principles of language learning can be used to provide support for ESL children.

A Deep Look into Learning Strategy Use by Successful and Unsuccessful Students in the Chinese EFL Learning Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Qingquan, Ni; Chatupote, Monta; Teo, Adisa

2008-01-01

This article focused on the investigation of the differences in the frequency of language learning strategy use by successful and unsuccessful first-year students of a Chinese university. The study found that successful students used a wider range of learning strategies for EFL learning significantly more frequently than unsuccessful students. It…

Learning Languages: The Journal of the National Network for Early Language Learning, 2001-2002.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rosenbusch, Marcia H., Ed.

2002-01-01

These three journal issues contain the following articles: "Japanese at Mimosa Elementary School" (Azusa Uchihara); "A Successful Keypal Project Using Varied Technologies" (Jean L. Pacheco); "Promoting a Language-Proficient Society: What You Can Do" (Kathleen M. Marcos and Joy Kreeft Peyton); "Journal Reflections…

A Study of User's Acceptance on Situational Mashups in Situational Language Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huang, Angus F. M.; Yang, Stephen J. H.; Liaw, Shu-Sheng

2012-01-01

Situational awareness and mashups are two key factors influencing the success of situational language teaching. However, traditional situational language teaching cannot smoothly conduct relevant learning activities in changing learning context. This study developed a situational mashups system for detecting users' context and proposed a research…

Integrating Computer-Assisted Language Learning in Saudi Schools: A Change Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alresheed, Saleh; Leask, Marilyn; Raiker, Andrea

2015-01-01

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) technology and pedagogy have gained recognition globally for their success in supporting second language acquisition (SLA). In Saudi Arabia, the government aims to provide most educational institutions with computers and networking for integrating CALL into classrooms. However, the recognition of CALL's…

The Relationship between Emotional Intelligence and Productive Language Skills

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Genç, Gülten; Kulusakh, Emine; Aydin, Savas

2016-01-01

Emotional intelligence has recently attracted educators' attention around the world. Educators who try to investigate the factors in language learning achievement have decided to pave the way to success through emotional intelligence. The relationship between emotional intelligence and language learning is the major concern of this study. The…

Identifying Affirmative Beliefs about English Language Learning: Self-Perceptions of Thai Learners with Different Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Tuntiga; Rajprasit, Krich

2015-01-01

Theoretically, beliefs about English language learning have a psychological factor, such as predicting the rate of success or failure among learners in the classroom context. However, learners with different levels of language proficiency may perceive such beliefs in a different way, which may lead to the development of special needs, in terms of…

Underserved populations in science education: Enhancement through learning community participation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gray, Jennifer Emily

A positive relationship between college anatomy students' achievement and academic language proficiency in the context of a learning community was established. For many students the barrier to learning science is language. A relationship exists between low academic language proficiency and lack of success among students, in particular failure among at-risk minority and language-minority students. The sample consisted of Anatomy classes during the Fall semesters of the academic years, 2000, 2001, and 2002 at a community college in Central California having a high percentage of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Students from each semester participated in the academic language proficiency and science achievement studies. Twenty-two of the Fall 2002 students (n = 65) enrolled in the Learning Community (LC) that included instruction in academic language in the context of the anatomy course content. Fall 2002 students (n = 19) also participated in Peer-led Support (PLS) sessions. Fall 2001 students participated in a textbook use study (n = 44) and in a Cooperative-Learning (CL) (n = 35) study. Students in the LC and Non-LC groups took the academic language assessment; their results were correlated with course grades and attendance. Fall 2002 students were compared for: (1) differences regarding self-expectations, (2) program impressions, and (3) demographics. Fall 2001 student reading habits and CL participation were analyzed. Results identified: (1) selected academic language tasks as good predictors of science success, (2) a significant positive relationship between science success and participation in support interventions, (3) no differences in self expectations or demographic characteristics of participants and non-participants in the LC group, and (4) poor textbook reading habits. Results showed a significant positive relationship between academic language proficiency and science achievement in participatory instruction.

The Prediction of Success in Intensive Foreign Language Training.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carroll, John B.

After a review of the problem of predicting foreign language success, this booklet describes the development, refinement, and validation of a battery of psychological tests, some involving tape-recorded auditory stimuli, for predicting rate of progress in learning a foreign language. Although the battery was developed for more general application…

Research Agenda: Language Learning beyond the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reinders, Hayo; Benson, Phil

2017-01-01

Most language learning research is carried out either in classrooms or among classroom learners. As Richards (2015) points out, however, there are two dimensions to successful learning: what happens inside classrooms and what happens outside them. Rapid development of online media, communications technologies and opportunities for travel has also…

Combining Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing to Assess Literary Text Comprehension

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balyan, Renu; McCarthy, Kathryn S.; McNamara, Danielle S.

2017-01-01

This study examined how machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) techniques can be leveraged to assess the interpretive behavior that is required for successful literary text comprehension. We compared the accuracy of seven different machine learning classification algorithms in predicting human ratings of student essays about…

Perspectives from the European Language Portfolio: Learner Autonomy and Self-Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuhn, Barbel, Ed.; Cavana, Maria Luisa Perez, Ed.

2012-01-01

Using constructivist principles and autonomous learning techniques the ELP has pioneered innovative and cutting edge approaches to learning languages that can be applied to learning across the spectrum. Although articles on the success of the ELP project have appeared in some academic journals, "Perspectives from the European Language…

Successful Language Learning in a Corporate Setting: The Role of Attribution Theory and Its Relation to Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kálmán, Csaba; Eugenio, Esther Gutierrez

2015-01-01

Attribution theory (Weiner, 1985) and self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) have been explored as contributors to L2 motivation (cf. Dörnyei, 2001) but have never been studied quantitatively in concert. In addition, students' attributions for success in learning a foreign language have never been measured through the use of a…

Differential Relationships between Language Skills and Working Memory in Turkish-Dutch and Native-Dutch First-Graders from Low-Income Families

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bosman, Anna M. T.; Janssen, Marije

2017-01-01

In the Netherlands, Turkish-Dutch children constitute a substantial group of children who learn to speak Dutch at the age of four after they learned to speak Turkish. These children are generally academically less successful. Academic success appears to be affected by both language proficiency and working memory skill. The goal of this study was…

Supporting Independent Learning Environments: An Analysis of Structures and Roles of Language Learning Advisers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mozzon-McPherson, Marina

2007-01-01

This article examines the contribution of language learning advisers to the creation of synergy in specific learning spaces and considers advisers' roles in relation to the development of successful learner self-management (LSM). Starting with an historical overview of the evolution of the self-access centre at the University of Hull, the article…

Teachers as Awakeners: A Collaborative Approach in Language Learning and Social Media

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Plutino, Alessia

2017-01-01

This paper provides an overview of the successful pedagogical project TwitTIAMO, now in its third year, where micro blogging (Twitter) has been used in Italian language teaching and learning to improve students' communicative language skills, accuracy, fluency and pronunciation outside timetabled lessons. It also explores the background and…

Case Studies of Multilingual/Multicultural Asian Deaf Adults: Strategies for Success.

PubMed

Wang, Qiuying; Andrews, Jean; Liu, Hsiu Tan; Liu, Chun Jung

2016-01-01

Case studies of adult d/Deaf or Hard of Hearing Multilingual Learners (DMLs) are few, especially studies of DMLs who learn more than one sign language and read logographic and alphabetic scripts. To reduce this paucity, two descriptive case studies are presented. Written questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, and self-appraisals of language-use rubrics were used to explore (a) the language and literacy histories of two adult Asian DMLs who had learned multiple languages: Chinese (spoken/written), English (written), Chinese Sign Language, and American Sign Language; and (b) how each language was used in different cultural communities with diverse conversational partners. Home literacy environment, family support, visual access to languages, peer and sibling support, role models, encouragement, perseverance, and Deaf identity all played vital roles in the participants' academic success. The findings provide insights into the acquisition of multiple languages and bi-literacy through social communication and academic content.

Measuring Language Mindsets and Modeling Their Relations with Goal Orientations and Emotional and Behavioral Responses in Failure Situations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lou, Nigel Mantou; Noels, Kimberly A.

2017-01-01

Some people ascribe successful language learning to an innate aptitude that cannot be further developed, at least after a certain young age (i.e., an entity mindset), while other people believe that language learning ability can be improved (i.e., an incremental mindset). The purpose of this research is to (a) introduce the Language Mindsets…

Oral Language and Reading Success: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beron, Kurt J.; Farkas, George

2004-01-01

Oral language skills and habits may serve as important resources for success or failure in school-related tasks such as learning to read. This article tests this hypothesis utilizing a unique data set, the original Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised norming sample. This article assesses the importance of oral language by focusing…

Age of second language acquisition in multilinguals has an impact on gray matter volume in language-associated brain areas.

PubMed

Kaiser, Anelis; Eppenberger, Leila S; Smieskova, Renata; Borgwardt, Stefan; Kuenzli, Esther; Radue, Ernst-Wilhelm; Nitsch, Cordula; Bendfeldt, Kerstin

2015-01-01

Numerous structural studies have established that experience shapes and reshapes the brain throughout a lifetime. The impact of early development, however, is still a matter of debate. Further clues may come from studying multilinguals who acquired their second language at different ages. We investigated adult multilinguals who spoke three languages fluently, where the third language was learned in classroom settings, not before the age of 9 years. Multilinguals exposed to two languages simultaneously from birth (SiM) were contrasted with multinguals who acquired their first two languages successively (SuM). Whole brain voxel based morphometry revealed that, relative to SuM, SiM have significantly lower gray matter volume in several language-associated cortical areas in both hemispheres: bilaterally in medial and inferior frontal gyrus, in the right medial temporal gyrus and inferior posterior parietal gyrus, as well as in the left inferior temporal gyrus. Thus, as shown by others, successive language learning increases the volume of language-associated cortical areas. In brains exposed early on and simultaneously to more than one language, however, learning of additional languages seems to have less impact. We conclude that - at least with respect to language acquisition - early developmental influences are maintained and have an effect on experience-dependent plasticity well into adulthood.

Neural Correlates of High Performance in Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Macedonia, Manuela; Muller, Karsten; Friederici, Angela D.

2010-01-01

Learning vocabulary in a foreign language is a laborious task which people perform with varying levels of success. Here, we investigated the neural underpinning of high performance on this task. In a within-subjects paradigm, participants learned 92 vocabulary items under two multimodal conditions: one condition paired novel words with iconic…

3D Talking-Head Mobile App: A Conceptual Framework for English Pronunciation Learning among Non-Native Speakers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ali, Ahmad Zamzuri Mohamad; Segaran, Kogilathah

2013-01-01

One of the critical issues pertaining learning English as second language successfully is pronunciation, which consequently contributes to learners' poor communicative power. This situation is moreover crucial among non-native speakers. Therefore, various initiatives have been taken in order to promote effective language learning, which includes…

NEW! Re-Purposing TV Ads for Building Vocabulary-Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alm-Lequeux, Antonie

2004-01-01

Learning strategies have received a lot of attention in recent years. Many books have been written for both teachers and students, outlining strategies of and for the successful language learner. The research in this area confirms that the conscious use of learning strategies enhances language achievement and proficiency. A well-developed strategy…

Word Learning in Adults with Second-Language Experience: Effects of Phonological and Referent Familiarity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon; Van Hecke, Stephanie

2013-01-01

Purpose: The goal of this research was to examine whether phonological familiarity exerts different effects on novel word learning for familiar versus unfamiliar referents and whether successful word learning is associated with increased second-language experience. Method: Eighty-one adult native English speakers with various levels of Spanish…

Above and beyond the Syllabus: Transformation in an Adult, Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Stacey Margarita; Nelson, Barbara Mullins

2010-01-01

While many students in a foreign language classroom are successful at learning the prescribed curriculum, they may never move beyond the grammar and vocabulary to experience transformative learning. On the other hand, students who do not achieve proficiency may experience a perspective transformation as a result of studying a foreign language.…

Language Learning: A Worldwide Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christian, Donna; Pufahl, Ingrid U.; Rhodes, Nancy C.

2005-01-01

Numerous reports and articles have decried the mediocrity of U.S. students' foreign language skills and have called for improved language education. One study that looked at foreign language education in 19 countries suggests several characteristics of successful foreign language programs: starting early, providing an articulated framework,…

The beneficial role of memory reactivation for language learning during sleep: A review.

PubMed

Schreiner, Thomas; Rasch, Björn

2017-04-01

Sleep is essential for diverse aspects of language learning. According to a prominent concept these beneficial effects of sleep rely on spontaneous reactivation processes. A series of recent studies demonstrated that inducing such reactivation processes by re-exposure to memory cues during sleep enhances foreign vocabulary learning. Building upon these findings, the present article reviews recent models and empirical findings concerning the beneficial effects of sleep on language learning. Consequently, the memory function of sleep, its neural underpinnings and the role of the sleeping brain in language learning will be summarized. Finally, we will propose a working model concerning the oscillatory requirements for successful reactivation processes and future research questions to advance our understanding of the role of sleep on language learning and memory processes in general. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Brain signatures of early lexical and morphological learning of a new language.

PubMed

Havas, Viktória; Laine, Matti; Rodríguez Fornells, Antoni

2017-07-01

Morphology is an important part of language processing but little is known about how adult second language learners acquire morphological rules. Using a word-picture associative learning task, we have previously shown that a brief exposure to novel words with embedded morphological structure (suffix for natural gender) is enough for language learners to acquire the hidden morphological rule. Here we used this paradigm to study the brain signatures of early morphological learning in a novel language in adults. Behavioural measures indicated successful lexical (word stem) and morphological (gender suffix) learning. A day after the learning phase, event-related brain potentials registered during a recognition memory task revealed enhanced N400 and P600 components for stem and suffix violations, respectively. An additional effect observed with combined suffix and stem violations was an enhancement of an early N2 component, most probably related to conflict-detection processes. Successful morphological learning was also evident in the ERP responses to the subsequent rule-generalization task with new stems, where violation of the morphological rule was associated with an early (250-400ms) and late positivity (750-900ms). Overall, these findings tend to converge with lexical and morphosyntactic violation effects observed in L1 processing, suggesting that even after a short exposure, adult language learners can acquire both novel words and novel morphological rules. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

University Student and Teacher Perceptions of Teacher Roles in Promoting Autonomous Language Learning with Technology outside the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lai, Chun; Yeung, Yuk; Hu, Jingjing

2016-01-01

Helping students to become autonomous learners, who actively utilize technologies for learning outside the classroom, is important for successful language learning. Teachers, as significant social agents who shape students' intellectual and social experiences, have a critical role to play. This study examined students' and teachers' perceptions of…

Brief Report: Fast Mapping Predicts Differences in Concurrent and Later Language Abilities among Children with ASD

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Venker, Courtney E.; Kover, Sara T.; Weismer, Susan Ellis

2016-01-01

This study investigated whether the ability to learn word-object associations following minimal exposure (i.e., fast mapping) was associated with concurrent and later language abilities in children with ASD. Children who were poor learners at age 3½ had significantly lower receptive language abilities than children who successfully learned the new…

Effects of Language Learning Interventions in Pre-School Children: A Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gasteiger-Klicpera, B.; Knapp, W.; Kucharz, D.; Schabmann, A.; Schmidt, B.

2009-01-01

The aim of the present contribution is to evaluate and discuss the impacts of language learning interventions in pre-school children with German as a first or a second language. The sample consisted of 864 children in intervention groups and 294 children as a comparison group within two successive cohorts. The instruments used were the SSV (Grimm…

Tutorial Computer-Assisted Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Heift, Trude; Schulze, Mathias

2015-01-01

"Sometimes maligned for its allegedly behaviorist connotations but critical for success in many fields from music to sport to mathematics and language learning, 'practice' is undergoing something of a revival in the applied linguistics literature" (Long & Richards 2007, p. xi). This research timeline provides a systematic overview of…

Intrinsic Functional Connectivity in the Adult Brain and Success in Second-Language Learning.

PubMed

Chai, Xiaoqian J; Berken, Jonathan A; Barbeau, Elise B; Soles, Jennika; Callahan, Megan; Chen, Jen-Kai; Klein, Denise

2016-01-20

There is considerable variability in an individual's ability to acquire a second language (L2) during adulthood. Using resting-state fMRI data acquired before training in English speakers who underwent a 12 week intensive French immersion training course, we investigated whether individual differences in intrinsic resting-state functional connectivity relate to a person's ability to acquire an L2. We focused on two key aspects of language processing--lexical retrieval in spontaneous speech and reading speed--and computed whole-brain functional connectivity from two regions of interest in the language network, namely the left anterior insula/frontal operculum (AI/FO) and the visual word form area (VWFA). Connectivity between the left AI/FO and left posterior superior temporal gyrus (STG) and between the left AI/FO and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex correlated positively with improvement in L2 lexical retrieval in spontaneous speech. Connectivity between the VWFA and left mid-STG correlated positively with improvement in L2 reading speed. These findings are consistent with the different language functions subserved by subcomponents of the language network and suggest that the human capacity to learn an L2 can be predicted by an individual's intrinsic functional connectivity within the language network. Significance statement: There is considerable variability in second-language learning abilities during adulthood. We investigated whether individual differences in intrinsic functional connectivity in the adult brain relate to success in second-language learning, using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging in English speakers who underwent a 12 week intensive French immersion training course. We found that pretraining functional connectivity within two different language subnetworks correlated strongly with learning outcome in two different language skills: lexical retrieval in spontaneous speech and reading speed. Our results suggest that the human capacity to learn a second language can be predicted by an individual's intrinsic functional connectivity within the language network. Copyright © 2016 the authors 0270-6474/16/360755-07$15.00/0.

Incidental Learning of Gender Agreement in L2.

PubMed

Denhovska, Nadiia; Serratrice, Ludovica

2017-10-01

Incidental learning of grammar has been an area of interest for many decades; nevertheless, existing research has primarily focused on artificial or semi-artificial languages. The present study examines the incidental acquisition of the grammar of a natural language by exposing adult speakers of an ungendered L1 (English) to the gender agreement patterns in Russian (a language that was novel to the learners). Both receptive and productive knowledge and the mediating role of working memory (WM) in learning were measured. Speakers of the ungendered language were able to successfully acquire receptive but not productive grammatical knowledge in a new language under incidental exposure. WM was engaged in production but not in a grammaticality judgment task in the incidental learning condition, indicating cognitive effort during knowledge retrieval.

A Web-Based Blended Learning Environment for Programming Languages: Students' Opinions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yagci, Mustafa

2017-01-01

A learning environment which increases the desire and efforts of students to attain learning goals leads to greater motivation and success. This study examines the negative and positive opinions of students regarding the effectiveness of the learning process and students' success in a computer programming course in which face-to-face and web-based…

Autonomous Language Learning against All Odds

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gao, Xuesong

2010-01-01

Conceptualizing learners' individuality as dynamic and contextually situated, this paper reports on an inquiry that examined the genesis of a disabled learner's success in learning foreign languages on the Chinese mainland. Using source texts such as the learner's published diaries, letters and her autobiography, the inquiry revealed that language…

The Blended Learning Environment on the Foreign Language Learning Process: A Balance for Motivation and Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isiguzel, Bahar

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study is to determine the effects on motivation and success within the application of blended learning environments in the foreign language class. The research sample is formed by third grade students studying in the tourism and hotel management programs of the faculty for tourism and the faculty of economics and administrative…

Executive function predicts artificial language learning

PubMed Central

Kapa, Leah L.; Colombo, John

2017-01-01

Previous research suggests executive function (EF) advantages among bilinguals compared to monolingual peers, and these advantages are generally attributed to experience controlling two linguistic systems. However, the possibility that the relationship between bilingualism and EF might be bidirectional has not been widely considered; while experience with two languages might improve EF, better EF skills might also facilitate language learning. In the current studies, we tested whether adults’ and preschool children’s EF abilities predicted success in learning a novel artificial language. After controlling for working memory and English receptive vocabulary, adults’ artificial language performance was predicted by their inhibitory control ability (Study 1) and children’s performance was predicted by their attentional monitoring and shifting ability (Study 2). These findings provide preliminary evidence suggesting that EF processes may be employed during initial stages of language learning, particularly vocabulary acquisition, and support the possibility of a bidirectional relationship between EF and language acquisition. PMID:29129958

Sleep and Native Language Interference Affect Non-Native Speech Sound Learning

PubMed Central

Earle, F. Sayako; Myers, Emily B.

2015-01-01

Adults learning a new language are faced with a significant challenge: non-native speech sounds that are perceptually similar to sounds in one’s native language can be very difficult to acquire. Sleep and native language interference, two factors that may help to explain this difficulty in acquisition, are addressed in three studies. Results of Experiment 1 showed that participants trained on a non-native contrast at night improved in discrimination 24 hours after training, while those trained in the morning showed no such improvement. Experiments 2 and 3 addressed the possibility that incidental exposure to perceptually similar native language speech sounds during the day interfered with maintenance in the morning group. Taken together, results show that the ultimate success of non-native speech sound learning depends not only on the similarity of learned sounds to the native language repertoire, but also to interference from native language sounds before sleep. PMID:26280264

Sleep and native language interference affect non-native speech sound learning.

PubMed

Earle, F Sayako; Myers, Emily B

2015-12-01

Adults learning a new language are faced with a significant challenge: non-native speech sounds that are perceptually similar to sounds in one's native language can be very difficult to acquire. Sleep and native language interference, 2 factors that may help to explain this difficulty in acquisition, are addressed in 3 studies. Results of Experiment 1 showed that participants trained on a non-native contrast at night improved in discrimination 24 hr after training, while those trained in the morning showed no such improvement. Experiments 2 and 3 addressed the possibility that incidental exposure to perceptually similar native language speech sounds during the day interfered with maintenance in the morning group. Taken together, results show that the ultimate success of non-native speech sound learning depends not only on the similarity of learned sounds to the native language repertoire, but also to interference from native language sounds before sleep. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Group Work in a Technology-Rich Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Penner, Nikolai; Schulze, Mathias

2010-01-01

This paper addresses several components of successful language-learning methodologies--group work, task-based instruction, and wireless computer technologies--and examines how the interplay of these three was perceived by students in a second-year university foreign-language course. The technology component of our learning design plays a central…

Problem-Based Learning: An Experiential Strategy for English Language Teacher Education in Chile

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Muñoz Campos, Diego

2017-01-01

The Chilean education system requires English language teachers to be equipped with non-conventional teaching strategies that can foster meaningful learning and assure successful learners' performances in diverse and complex settings. This exploratory, descriptive, research study aimed at discovering the perceptions of 54 pre-service teachers…

Language Instructional Issues in Asian Classrooms.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mee, Cheah Yin, Ed.; Moi, Ng Seok, Ed.

This collection of essays exemplifies the universal theme that competence in language is key to success in learning and in life. The research studies reported in the collection offer insights into the challenges of literacy learning in Asia: social, cultural, and linguistic factors that sometimes constrain the teacher's approach to instruction.…

Balancing Generalization and Lexical Conservatism: An Artificial Language Study with Child Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wonnacott, Elizabeth

2011-01-01

Successful language acquisition involves generalization, but learners must balance this against the acquisition of lexical constraints. Such learning has been considered problematic for theories of acquisition: if learners generalize abstract patterns to new words, how do they learn lexically-based exceptions? One approach claims that learners use…

English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies that Work

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferlazzo, Larry

2010-01-01

This unique new perspective and method for teaching English Language Learners is the proven result of the author's community organizing career and his successful career in the classroom. Great teaching is about facilitating intrinsic motivation and self-directed learning. It's about giving students the opportunity to learn by doing and encouraging…

The relationship between English language learning strategies and gender among pre-university students: An overview of UMS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kiram, Johannah Jamalul; Sulaiman, Jumat; Swanto, Suyansah; Din, Wardatul Akmam

2014-06-01

This study aims to analyze the effects psychological gender differences on the relationship between language learning strategies and their proficiency in English language for pre-university students. Previous researchers found that the more employment of language learning strategies, the more successful the learners are and those with higher level of strategy use are female rather than male. In this study, fifty-six pre-university students (22 males, 34 females) of University Malaysia Sabah participated in this study. Oxford's Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) self-report questionnaire was adopted to identify the students' language learning strategies, whereas their proficiencies were based on their Malaysian University English Test (MUET) results. Pearson's correlation coefficient, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the t-test were utilized to make statistical interpretation about the relationship. The knowledge obtained from this study will be helpful for future studies on how to improve the quality of learning and proficiency in English.

School Leavers with Learning Disabilities Moving from Child to Adult Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) Teams: SLTs' Views of Successful and Less Successful Transition Co-Working Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCartney, Elspeth; Muir, Margaret

2017-01-01

School-leaving for pupils with long-term speech, language, swallowing or communication difficulties requires careful management. Speech and language therapists (SLTs) support communication, secure assistive technology and manage swallowing difficulties post-school. UK SLTs are employed by health services, with child SLT teams based in schools.…

What predicts successful literacy acquisition in a second language?

PubMed Central

Frost, Ram; Siegelman, Noam; Narkiss, Alona; Afek, Liron

2013-01-01

We examined whether success (or failure) in assimilating the structure of a second language could be predicted by general statistical learning abilities that are non-linguistic in nature. We employed a visual statistical learning (VSL) task, monitoring our participants’ implicit learning of the transitional probabilities of visual shapes. A pretest revealed that performance in the VSL task is not correlated with abilities related to a general G factor or working memory. We found that native speakers of English who picked up the implicit statistical structure embedded in the continuous stream of shapes, on average, better assimilated the Semitic structure of Hebrew words. Our findings thus suggest that languages and their writing systems are characterized by idiosyncratic correlations of form and meaning, and these are picked up in the process of literacy acquisition, as they are picked up in any other type of learning, for the purpose of making sense of the environment. PMID:23698615

Individual Factors and Successful Learning in a Hybrid Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arispe, Kelly; Blake, Robert J.

2012-01-01

What personality factors make for a successful hybrid L2 learning experience? While previous studies have examined online learning in comparative terms (i.e. Which format is better: in class or hybrid?), this study examines certain personality and cognitive factors that might define the ideal hybrid language learner. All informants studied…

A Working Model for Assessing Spanish Heritage Language Learners' Language Proficiency through a Placement Exam

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fairclough, Marta

2012-01-01

Having a clear idea of the knowledge in the heritage language that a student brings to the classroom is essential for a successful language-learning experience; for that reason, research in heritage language education has been focusing increasingly on assessment issues, especially language placement exams. Professionals debate whether assessment…

Do neural nets learn statistical laws behind natural language?

PubMed

Takahashi, Shuntaro; Tanaka-Ishii, Kumiko

2017-01-01

The performance of deep learning in natural language processing has been spectacular, but the reasons for this success remain unclear because of the inherent complexity of deep learning. This paper provides empirical evidence of its effectiveness and of a limitation of neural networks for language engineering. Precisely, we demonstrate that a neural language model based on long short-term memory (LSTM) effectively reproduces Zipf's law and Heaps' law, two representative statistical properties underlying natural language. We discuss the quality of reproducibility and the emergence of Zipf's law and Heaps' law as training progresses. We also point out that the neural language model has a limitation in reproducing long-range correlation, another statistical property of natural language. This understanding could provide a direction for improving the architectures of neural networks.

Do neural nets learn statistical laws behind natural language?

PubMed Central

Takahashi, Shuntaro

2017-01-01

The performance of deep learning in natural language processing has been spectacular, but the reasons for this success remain unclear because of the inherent complexity of deep learning. This paper provides empirical evidence of its effectiveness and of a limitation of neural networks for language engineering. Precisely, we demonstrate that a neural language model based on long short-term memory (LSTM) effectively reproduces Zipf’s law and Heaps’ law, two representative statistical properties underlying natural language. We discuss the quality of reproducibility and the emergence of Zipf’s law and Heaps’ law as training progresses. We also point out that the neural language model has a limitation in reproducing long-range correlation, another statistical property of natural language. This understanding could provide a direction for improving the architectures of neural networks. PMID:29287076

Self-Instruction and Success: A Learner-Profile Study.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jones, Francis R.

1998-01-01

Interviews with adults experienced in foreign language self-instruction generated profiles of language experience at learner and self-instructed language-token levels. Results showed separations between languages with and without self-instruction. The most effective learning route was starting with classwork. Ab initio self-instruction produced…

Changes in and the Relationship between Language Learning Motivation and Self-Concept in 11-14 Year-Old Students in Hungary: A Longitudinal Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Péter-Szarka, Szilvia

2012-01-01

Motivation to learn foreign languages is a significant determinant of successful language acquisition. The subject has been widely researched in the past, and since the early 1990s a great deal of empirical research related to the classroom environment has been proposed to expand theory into everyday classroom practice. I present an empirical,…

Non-linguistic learning and aphasia: Evidence from a paired associate and feedback-based task

PubMed Central

Vallila-Rohter, Sofia; Kiran, Swathi

2013-01-01

Though aphasia is primarily characterized by impairments in the comprehension and/or expression of language, research has shown that patients with aphasia also show deficits in cognitive-linguistic domains such as attention, executive function, concept knowledge and memory (Helm-Estabrooks, 2002 for review). Research in aphasia suggests that cognitive impairments can impact the online construction of language, new verbal learning, and transactional success (Freedman & Martin, 2001; Hula & McNeil, 2008; Ramsberger, 2005). In our research, we extend this hypothesis to suggest that general cognitive deficits influence progress with therapy. The aim of our study is to explore learning, a cognitive process that is integral to relearning language, yet underexplored in the field of aphasia rehabilitation. We examine non-linguistic category learning in patients with aphasia (n=19) and in healthy controls (n=12), comparing feedback and non-feedback based instruction. Participants complete two computer-based learning tasks that require them to categorize novel animals based on the percentage of features shared with one of two prototypes. As hypothesized, healthy controls showed successful category learning following both methods of instruction. In contrast, only 60% of our patient population demonstrated successful non-linguistic category learning. Patient performance was not predictable by standardized measures of cognitive ability. Results suggest that general learning is affected in aphasia and is a unique, important factor to consider in the field of aphasia rehabilitation. PMID:23127795

Early Language Learning and Literacy: Neuroscience Implications for Education

PubMed Central

Kuhl, Patricia K.

2011-01-01

The last decade has produced an explosion in neuroscience research examining young children’s early processing of language that has implications for education. Noninvasive, safe functional brain measurements have now been proven feasible for use with children starting at birth. In the arena of language, the neural signatures of learning can be documented at a remarkably early point in development, and these early measures predict performance in children’s language and pre-reading abilities in the second, third, and fifth year of life, a finding with theoretical and educational import. There is evidence that children’s early mastery of language requires learning in a social context, and this finding also has important implications for education. Evidence relating socio-economic status (SES) to brain function for language suggests that SES should be considered a proxy for the opportunity to learn and that the complexity of language input is a significant factor in developing brain areas related to language. The data indicate that the opportunity to learn from complex stimuli and events are vital early in life, and that success in school begins in infancy. PMID:21892359

Do Foreign Language Learning, Cognitive, and Affective Variables Differ as a Function of Exceptionality Status and Gender?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bell, Sherry Mee; McCallum, R. Steve

2012-01-01

Relationships between foreign language learning and four characteristics--anxiety, aptitude, attitudes and attributions for success--were investigated for 95 students enrolled in introductory level Spanish classes at a large, southeastern university in the United States. Examination grades resulted in significantly positive correlation with an…

Environmental Factors Affecting Computer Assisted Language Learning Success: A Complex Dynamic Systems Conceptual Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marek, Michael W.; Wu, Wen-Chi Vivian

2014-01-01

This conceptual, interdisciplinary inquiry explores Complex Dynamic Systems as the concept relates to the internal and external environmental factors affecting computer assisted language learning (CALL). Based on the results obtained by de Rosnay ["World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution", 67(4/5), 304-315 (2011)], who observed…

A Principled Approach to Utilizing Digital Games in the Language Learning Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baierschmidt, Jared

2013-01-01

Empirical research into the use of digital games for educational purposes has shown promising results such as increased learner motivation, improved learner retention of information, and increased learner interest in subject matter. Furthermore, in the field of language learning, digital games have been used successfully in a variety of ways such…

Evaluating a Web-Based Video Corpus through an Analysis of User Interactions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caws, Catherine G.

2013-01-01

As shown by several studies, successful integration of technology in language learning requires a holistic approach in order to scientifically understand what learners do when working with web-based technology (cf. Raby, 2007). Additionally, a growing body of research in computer assisted language learning (CALL) evaluation, design and…

The Potential for Mobile Learning in English as a Foreign Language and Nursing Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Davison, C. J.

2013-01-01

This paper investigates the application of mobile technologies to support learning in a specific field: nursing education for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, which is the context of the author's institution. Using a qualitative meta-synthesis methodology, factors from published literature that facilitates success in mobile learning…

Social Networking Sites and Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brick, Billy

2011-01-01

This article examines a study of seven learners who logged their experiences on the language leaning social networking site Livemocha over a period of three months. The features of the site are described and the likelihood of their future success is considered. The learners were introduced to the Social Networking Site (SNS) and asked to learn a…

Anchors Aweigh: The Impact of Overlearning on Entrenchment Effects in Statistical Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bulgarelli, Federica; Weiss, Daniel J.

2016-01-01

Previous research has revealed that when learners encounter multiple artificial languages in succession only the first is learned, unless there are contextual cues correlating with the change in structure or if exposure to the second language is protracted. These experiments provided a fixed amount of exposure irrespective of when learning…

Resting-state low-frequency fluctuations reflect individual differences in spoken language learning.

PubMed

Deng, Zhizhou; Chandrasekaran, Bharath; Wang, Suiping; Wong, Patrick C M

2016-03-01

A major challenge in language learning studies is to identify objective, pre-training predictors of success. Variation in the low-frequency fluctuations (LFFs) of spontaneous brain activity measured by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) has been found to reflect individual differences in cognitive measures. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the extent to which initial spontaneous brain activity is related to individual differences in spoken language learning. We acquired RS-fMRI data and subsequently trained participants on a sound-to-word learning paradigm in which they learned to use foreign pitch patterns (from Mandarin Chinese) to signal word meaning. We performed amplitude of spontaneous low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) analysis, graph theory-based analysis, and independent component analysis (ICA) to identify functional components of the LFFs in the resting-state. First, we examined the ALFF as a regional measure and showed that regional ALFFs in the left superior temporal gyrus were positively correlated with learning performance, whereas ALFFs in the default mode network (DMN) regions were negatively correlated with learning performance. Furthermore, the graph theory-based analysis indicated that the degree and local efficiency of the left superior temporal gyrus were positively correlated with learning performance. Finally, the default mode network and several task-positive resting-state networks (RSNs) were identified via the ICA. The "competition" (i.e., negative correlation) between the DMN and the dorsal attention network was negatively correlated with learning performance. Our results demonstrate that a) spontaneous brain activity can predict future language learning outcome without prior hypotheses (e.g., selection of regions of interest--ROIs) and b) both regional dynamics and network-level interactions in the resting brain can account for individual differences in future spoken language learning success. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Resting-state low-frequency fluctuations reflect individual differences in spoken language learning

PubMed Central

Deng, Zhizhou; Chandrasekaran, Bharath; Wang, Suiping; Wong, Patrick C.M.

2016-01-01

A major challenge in language learning studies is to identify objective, pre-training predictors of success. Variation in the low-frequency fluctuations (LFFs) of spontaneous brain activity measured by resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (RS-fMRI) has been found to reflect individual differences in cognitive measures. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the extent to which initial spontaneous brain activity is related to individual differences in spoken language learning. We acquired RS-fMRI data and subsequently trained participants on a sound-to-word learning paradigm in which they learned to use foreign pitch patterns (from Mandarin Chinese) to signal word meaning. We performed amplitude of spontaneous low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) analysis, graph theory-based analysis, and independent component analysis (ICA) to identify functional components of the LFFs in the resting-state. First, we examined the ALFF as a regional measure and showed that regional ALFFs in the left superior temporal gyrus were positively correlated with learning performance, whereas ALFFs in the default mode network (DMN) regions were negatively correlated with learning performance. Furthermore, the graph theory-based analysis indicated that the degree and local efficiency of the left superior temporal gyrus were positively correlated with learning performance. Finally, the default mode network and several task-positive resting-state networks (RSNs) were identified via the ICA. The “competition” (i.e., negative correlation) between the DMN and the dorsal attention network was negatively correlated with learning performance. Our results demonstrate that a) spontaneous brain activity can predict future language learning outcome without prior hypotheses (e.g., selection of regions of interest – ROIs) and b) both regional dynamics and network-level interactions in the resting brain can account for individual differences in future spoken language learning success. PMID:26866283

"If We Lose Their Language We Lose Our History": Knowledge and Disposition in Maori Language Acquisition Policy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Albury, Nathan John

2018-01-01

Localising knowledge and dispositions helps to predict the likely success of top-down language policies. In so far as language acquisition is a pillar of language revitalisation policy, then community perspectives on learning a minority language deserve attention. This article presents the knowledge, dispositions, and ideas of around 1,300…

Listening to Learners: An Investigation into "Successful Learning" across CLIL Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coyle, Do

2013-01-01

This study is part of longitudinal research undertaken in 11 secondary schools across two countries, based in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classrooms with 12-15 year olds. The aim was to listen to learners, provide them with a "voice" to analyse their perceptions of "successful learning" and to undertake participatory research…

Reflections of the Role of Motivation on Learning English for Successful College EFL Learners in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cheng, Ching-Mei; Cheng, Tsui-Ping

2012-01-01

While a number of studies have investigated the relationship between motivation and foreign or second language learning outcomes, the process of how such motivation transforms into successful learning outcomes is relatively unexplored. Interviewing a group of four participants, this study seeks to understand how college English as a Foreign…

Emotional Intelligence in Language Instruction in Oman: The Missing Link?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Balasubramanian, Chandrika; Al-Mahrooqi, Rahma

2016-01-01

The field of English Language Teaching (ELT) has long sought to identify traits of good language learners, in an effort to teach these traits to less successful language learners (Rubin, 1975). Emotional Intelligence has recently come to the forefront of research on language learning and teaching, and is now increasingly recognized as an important…

[Multilingualism and child psychiatry: on differential diagnoses of language disorder, specific learning disorder, and selective mutism].

PubMed

Tamiya, Satoshi

2014-01-01

Multilingualism poses unique psychiatric problems, especially in the field of child psychiatry. The author discusses several linguistic and transcultural issues in relation to Language Disorder, Specific Learning Disorder and Selective Mutism. Linguistic characteristics of multiple language development, including so-called profile effects and code-switching, need to be understood for differential diagnosis. It is also emphasized that Language Disorder in a bilingual person is not different or worse than that in a monolingual person. Second language proficiency, cultural background and transfer from the first language all need to be considered in an evaluation for Specific Learning Disorder. Selective Mutism has to be differentiated from the silent period observed in the normal successive bilingual development. The author concludes the review by remarking on some caveats around methods of language evaluation in a multilingual person.

An Emerging Pedagogical Approach to Teaching Pragmatic Formulas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zavialova, Alisa

2017-01-01

A good mastery of a range of formulaic sequences appears to be an important component of successful language learning (Wood, 2015; Wray, 2002). Certain formulaic sequences, known as pragmatic formulas, play a vital role in developing second language pragmatic competence, as they are crucial for successful speech act realization (Bardovi-Harlig,…

Differential relationships between language skills and working memory in Turkish-Dutch and native-Dutch first-graders from low-income families.

PubMed

Bosman, Anna M T; Janssen, Marije

2017-01-01

In the Netherlands, Turkish-Dutch children constitute a substantial group of children who learn to speak Dutch at the age of four after they learned to speak Turkish. These children are generally academically less successful. Academic success appears to be affected by both language proficiency and working memory skill. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between language skills and working memory in Turkish-Dutch and native-Dutch children from low-income families. The findings revealed reduced Dutch language and Dutch working-memory skills for Turkish-Dutch children compared to native-Dutch children. Working memory in native-Dutch children was unrelated to their language skills, whereas in Turkish-Dutch children strong correlations were found both between Turkish language skills and Turkish working-memory performance and between Dutch language skills and Dutch working-memory performance. Reduced language proficiencies and reduced working-memory skills appear to manifest itself in strong relationships between working memory and language skills in Turkish-Dutch children. The findings seem to indicate that limited verbal working-memory and language deficiencies in bilingual children may have reciprocal effects that strongly warrants adequate language education.

Learning Styles and Preferences of Jordanian EFL Graduate Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ababneh, Sana'

2015-01-01

This paper presents the results of a comparative investigation into the learning styles of successful and unsuccessful language learners. Subjects of the study were seventeen graduate university students at Yarmouk University, Jordan. They were categorized as "successful" or "unsuccessful" learners, on the basis of their final…

The Knowledge and Perceptions of Prospective Teachers and Speech Language Therapists in Collaborative Language and Literacy Instruction

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wilson, Leanne; McNeill, Brigid; Gillon, Gail T.

2015-01-01

Successful collaboration among speech and language therapists (SLTs) and teachers fosters the creation of communication friendly classrooms that maximize children's spoken and written language learning. However, these groups of professionals may have insufficient opportunity in their professional study to develop the shared knowledge, perceptions…

The Power of Language, Learning and Socialization: Romani and Ebonics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eckert, Eva

2017-01-01

This article draws attention to the role one's language plays in socialization and explains the misunderstandings and conflicts over integration of the Roma in the Czech Republic. Recognizing the role of home language leads to successful socialization. By not demanding that schools account for home language in the process of teaching, the Roma…

Statistical Learning of Two Artificial Languages Presented Successively: How Conscious?

PubMed Central

Franco, Ana; Cleeremans, Axel; Destrebecqz, Arnaud

2011-01-01

Statistical learning is assumed to occur automatically and implicitly, but little is known about the extent to which the representations acquired over training are available to conscious awareness. In this study, we focus on whether the knowledge acquired in a statistical learning situation is available to conscious control. Participants were first exposed to an artificial language presented auditorily. Immediately thereafter, they were exposed to a second artificial language. Both languages were composed of the same corpus of syllables and differed only in the transitional probabilities. We first determined that both languages were equally learnable (Experiment 1) and that participants could learn the two languages and differentiate between them (Experiment 2). Then, in Experiment 3, we used an adaptation of the Process-Dissociation Procedure (Jacoby, 1991) to explore whether participants could consciously manipulate the acquired knowledge. Results suggest that statistical information can be used to parse and differentiate between two different artificial languages, and that the resulting representations are available to conscious control. PMID:21960981

From a Perspective on Foreign Language Learning Anxiety to Develop an Affective Tutoring System

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Hao-Chiang Koong; Chao, Ching-Ju; Huang, Tsu-Ching

2015-01-01

According to Krashen's affective filter hypothesis, students who are highly motivated have their self-consciousness. When they enter a learning context with a low level of anxiety, they are much more likely to become successful language acquirers than those who do not. Affective factors such as motivation, attitude, and anxiety, have a direct…

Student and Teacher Success: The Impact of Computers in Primary Grades.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drexler, Nancy Gadzuk; And Others

This paper discusses the impact of computers on student learning as reported by teachers participating in a study of a computer-based language arts instructional program for the early elementary grades--the Apple Learning Series: Early Language (ALS-EL). Although they found the program difficult to evaluate, some teachers stated that the ALS-EL…

Learner's Attitudes towards Online Language Learning; and Corresponding Success Rates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cinkara, Emrah; Bagceci, Birsen

2013-01-01

Online teaching has long been a key area of interest recently in every field of education as well as English language teaching. Numerous hardware tools, such as, mp3 players, mobile devices, and so on; and software applications, such as, podcasts, wikis, learning management systems, and so on, have been used in distance and online instruction and…

Content-Learning Tasks for Adult ESL Learners: Promoting Literacy for Work or School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ewert, Doreen E.

2014-01-01

Teachers of English as a second language (ESL) are often on the frontline of working with adult ESL learners who are facing a difficult developmental pathway to academic and/or economic success. These learners come to the task of learning English with widely varying schooling experiences, degrees of first language literacy, and English language…

Internet-Based French as a Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning: Academic Success and Opinions on FFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Erkan, Senem Seda Sahenk

2017-01-01

In the 21st century, globalization and technological developments in different domains of life have accentuated the importance of multilingualism and multiculturalism in studying English and French as foreign languages in different countries of the world, including Turkey. This research is aimed at determining the effects of learning vocabulary in…

The Study of Motivation in Library and Information Management Education: Qualitative and Quantitative Research

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perez-Sabater, Carmen; Montero-Fleta, Begona

2012-01-01

The application of new technologies and media has changed the concept of teaching and learning, offering effective and attractive possibilities to the educational system, particularly to the learning of languages in specific contexts. Educators in general will agree on the importance of motivation as a key to success in language acquisition as it…

The Effect of Zipfian Frequency Variations on Category Formation in Adult Artificial Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schuler, Kathryn D.; Reeder, Patricia A.; Newport, Elissa L.; Aslin, Richard N.

2017-01-01

Successful language acquisition hinges on organizing individual words into grammatical categories and learning the relationships between them, but the method by which children accomplish this task has been debated in the literature. One proposal is that learners use the shared distributional contexts in which words appear as a cue to their…

Adult Language Learners: Context and Innovation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Ann F. V., Ed.; Strong, Gregory, Ed.

2009-01-01

"Adult Language Learners: Context and Innovation" presents instructional practices that are particularly successful with adults. Adult language learners are goal oriented and direct their learning to fulfill particular needs or demands: to advance their studies, to progress up the career ladder, to follow business opportunities, to pass…

Word Recognition and Vocabulary Understanding Strategies for Literacy Success. Bill Harp Professional Teachers Library.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sinatra, Richard

This book lets readers see how children and youth learn words in the oral and written languages--and how teachers can best assist learners in the understanding, reading, and writing of words for successful literacy development. In the book teachers learn the differing rationales for using sound/symbol or phonics approaches in word learning, for…

Processing prosodic structure by adults with language-based learning disability.

PubMed

Bahl, Megha; Plante, Elena; Gerken, LouAnn

2009-01-01

Two experiments investigated the ability of adults with a history of language-based learning disability (hLLD) and their normal language (NL) peers to learn prosodic patterns of a novel language. Participants were exposed to stimuli from an artificial language and tested on items that required generalization of the stress patterns and the hierarchical principles of stress assignment that could be inferred from the input. In Study 1, the NL group successfully generalized the patterns of stress heard during familiarization, but failed to show generalization of the hierarchical principles. The hLLD group performed at chance for both types of generalization items. In Study 2, the intensity of stress elements was increased. The performance of the NL group improved whereas the hLLD groups' performance decreased on both types of generalization items. The results indicate that NL adults are able to successfully abstract the complex hierarchical rules of stress if the prosodic cues are made sufficiently salient, but this same task is difficult for adults with hLLD. The reader will be able to understand: (1) the difference in the ability of hLLD and NL adults to process stress assignment in an implicit learning context and (2) that typical adults can abstract complex hierarchical rules of stress assignment when provided with strong cues.

Learn Locally, Act Globally: Learning Language from Variation Set Cues

PubMed Central

Onnis, Luca; Waterfall, Heidi R.; Edelman, Shimon

2011-01-01

Variation set structure — partial overlap of successive utterances in child-directed speech — has been shown to correlate with progress in children’s acquisition of syntax. We demonstrate the benefits of variation set structure directly: in miniature artificial languages, arranging a certain proportion of utterances in a training corpus in variation sets facilitated word and phrase constituent learning in adults. Our findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms of L1 acquisition by children, and for the development of more efficient algorithms for automatic language acquisition, as well as better methods for L2 instruction. PMID:19019350

Culture and Language Teaching through Media

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tanriverdi, Belgin; Apak, Ozlem

2008-01-01

The topic of teaching and learning culture has been a matter of considerable interest to language educators and much has been written about the role of culture in foreign language instruction over the past two decades. ESL students whose success in a new environment is conditioned not only by their mastery of the new language, but also, and…

Teachers' Use of Linguistic Scaffolding to Support the Academic Language Development of First-Grade Emergent Bilingual Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lucero, Audrey

2014-01-01

Research suggests that teachers need to scaffold emergent bilingual students as they develop the complex language associated with school success. This may especially be true in dual language settings, where children are learning two languages simultaneously. In this study, therefore, I investigate the linguistic scaffolding practices of…

The Learning of Chinese Idioms through Multimedia Storytelling Prototype

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Ee Hui; Hew, Soon Hin; Choo, Siew Hwa

2016-01-01

In recent years, the growth of China has successfully boosted the Chinese language to be studied by people from different language-speaking societies. The Chinese language has become the most preferred second or third language among non-Chinese native novices due to the great development of China and global economic change. The Chinese idiom is…

Electrophysiological Correlates of Error Monitoring and Feedback Processing in Second Language Learning.

PubMed

Bultena, Sybrine; Danielmeier, Claudia; Bekkering, Harold; Lemhöfer, Kristin

2017-01-01

Humans monitor their behavior to optimize performance, which presumably relies on stable representations of correct responses. During second language (L2) learning, however, stable representations have yet to be formed while knowledge of the first language (L1) can interfere with learning, which in some cases results in persistent errors. In order to examine how correct L2 representations are stabilized, this study examined performance monitoring in the learning process of second language learners for a feature that conflicts with their first language. Using EEG, we investigated if L2 learners in a feedback-guided word gender assignment task showed signs of error detection in the form of an error-related negativity (ERN) before and after receiving feedback, and how feedback is processed. The results indicated that initially, response-locked negativities for correct (CRN) and incorrect (ERN) responses were of similar size, showing a lack of internal error detection when L2 representations are unstable. As behavioral performance improved following feedback, the ERN became larger than the CRN, pointing to the first signs of successful error detection. Additionally, we observed a second negativity following the ERN/CRN components, the amplitude of which followed a similar pattern as the previous negativities. Feedback-locked data indicated robust FRN and P300 effects in response to negative feedback across different rounds, demonstrating that feedback remained important in order to update memory representations during learning. We thus show that initially, L2 representations may often not be stable enough to warrant successful error monitoring, but can be stabilized through repeated feedback, which means that the brain is able to overcome L1 interference, and can learn to detect errors internally after a short training session. The results contribute a different perspective to the discussion on changes in ERN and FRN components in relation to learning, by extending the investigation of these effects to the language learning domain. Furthermore, these findings provide a further characterization of the online learning process of L2 learners.

The Effect of Peer and Teacher Feedback on Changes in EFL Students' Writing Self-Efficacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruegg, Rachael

2018-01-01

Literature from education, educational psychology and second language acquisition has consistently found that self-efficacy is a key factor leading to increased language learning success. Students with more self-efficacy are claimed to have higher motivation and to expend more effort in the learning process. On the other hand, those with less…

The Relationship between Gender, Motivation and Achievement in Learning English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Becirovic, Senad

2017-01-01

This study deals with the research into the relationship between gender, motivation and achievement in learning English as a foreign language. A good command of English is of paramount importance for an individual to be successful in numerous aspects of life such as professional, personal and educational. The aim of this research was to determine…

The Relationship between Self-Confidence and Learning Turkish as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tunçel, Hayrettin

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study is to identify whether there is a relationship between learning Turkish as a foreign language, and to what extent, if there is such a relationship. A screening model was used in this qualitative research study. Finding out the existence of a relationship between the subjects' self-confidence, and their success in learning…

Learners' Anxiety in Audiographic Conferences: A Discursive Psychology Approach to Emotion Talk

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

de los Arcos, Beatriz; Coleman, James A.; Hampel, Regine

2009-01-01

Success and failure in language learning are partly determined by the learners' ability to regulate their emotions. Negative feelings are more likely to frustrate progress, while positive ones make the task of learning a second language (L2) a more effective experience. To date no significant body of research has been carried out into the role of…

Teaching and Learning: A Key to Success. The ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series, Vol. 10.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Westphal, Patricia B.

The numerous innovations in foreign language teaching during the past ten years indicate that the profession is reaching toward syllabi in which students would learn to master and apply creatively a fairly limited body of material built around basic linguistic and cultural concepts. This theme is apparent in the syllabi, or subject-matter content…

Beyond Linguistic Proficiency: Early Language Learning as a Lever for Building Students' Global Competence, Self-Esteem, and Academic Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Livaccari, Chris

2013-01-01

It is no exaggeration to say that language learning is the very foundation of global competence and the most deeply effective way for students to be able to "investigate the world, recognize perspectives, communicate ideas, and take action," which is the definition of global competence developed by Asia Society Vice President for…

The Motivational Dimension of Language Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lamb, Martin

2017-01-01

Motivation is recognized as a vital component in successful second language learning, and has been the subject of intensive research in recent decades. This review focuses on a growing branch of this research effort, that which examines the motivational effects of language teaching. This is pertinent because, despite enhanced mobility and…

Categorical Coding of Manual & English Alphabet Characters by Beginning Students of American Sign Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoemann, Harry W.; Koenig, Teresa J.

1990-01-01

Analysis of the performance of beginning American Sign Language students, who had only recently learned the manual alphabet, on a task in which proactive interference would build up rapidly on successive trials, supported the view that different languages have separate memory stores. (Author/CB)

Acting out: Using Drama with English Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bernal, Penny

2007-01-01

High school teacher Penny Bernal reflects on the success of using drama in her English Language Development classroom over the past ten years. She shares various steps for preparing a play as a means of promoting language learning and literacy, such as familiarizing students with language intonations through toning activities, practicing stage…

Engaging Low Performing High School French Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leopold, Amy

2011-01-01

Acquiring a second language in the United States is not something that many American citizens accomplish. Research has attributed an array of factors to student motivation, engagement, and success with learning a foreign language. However, low performing and struggling students that take foreign language and the strategies used to motivate them…

Integrated, Independent and Individual Learning Activities, First and Second Grades. Summer Learning Activities, Second and Third Grades. Boston-Northampton Language Arts Program, ESEA - 1965, Projects to Advance Creativity in Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baldwin, Virginia

The purpose of this document is to help teachers stimulate children and provide successful learning experiences in order to develop positive self-concepts. Part I contains lists of suggestions of activities for unsupervised work at the following centers: (1) language, (2) chalk, (3) math, (4) measuring, (5) music, (6) games, toys, and puzzles, (7)…

Morphological learning in a novel language: A cross-language comparison.

PubMed

Havas, Viktória; Waris, Otto; Vaquero, Lucía; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni; Laine, Matti

2015-01-01

Being able to extract and interpret the internal structure of complex word forms such as the English word dance+r+s is crucial for successful language learning. We examined whether the ability to extract morphological information during word learning is affected by the morphological features of one's native tongue. Spanish and Finnish adult participants performed a word-picture associative learning task in an artificial language where the target words included a suffix marking the gender of the corresponding animate object. The short exposure phase was followed by a word recognition task and a generalization task for the suffix. The participants' native tongues vary greatly in terms of morphological structure, leading to two opposing hypotheses. On the one hand, Spanish speakers may be more effective in identifying gender in a novel language because this feature is present in Spanish but not in Finnish. On the other hand, Finnish speakers may have an advantage as the abundance of bound morphemes in their language calls for continuous morphological decomposition. The results support the latter alternative, suggesting that lifelong experience on morphological decomposition provides an advantage in novel morphological learning.

The Concept of Learning Japanese: Explaining Why Successful Students of Japanese Discontinue Japanese Studies at the Transition to Tertiary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oshima, Ryoko; Harvey, Sharon

2017-01-01

Student attrition and falling tertiary education enrolments afflict languages education across the "inner circle" English speaking world. In the southern hemisphere, in New Zealand and Australia, Japanese has become one of the most successful languages of education. However, numbers of students are now declining. This paper examines why…

Blended Learning Experience in a Programming Language Course and the Effect of the Thinking Styles of the Students on Success and Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yagci, Mustafa

2016-01-01

High-level thinking and problem solving skill is one requirement of computer programming that most of the students experience problems with. Individual differences such as motivation, attitude towards programming, thinking style of the student, and complexity of the programming language have influence on students' success on programming. Thus,…

Construction of the Questionnaire on Foreign Language Learning Strategies in Specific Croatian Context.

PubMed

Božinović, Nikolina; Sindik, Joško

2017-03-01

Learning strategies are special thoughts or behaviours that individuals use to understand, learn or retain new information, according to the point of view of O’Malley & Chamot. The other view, promoted by Oxford, believes learning strategies are specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, and more transferrable to new situations of language learning and use. The use of appropriate strategies ensures greater success in language learning. The aim of the research was to establish metric characteristics of the Questionnaire on learning strategies created by the author, in line with the template of the original SILL questionnaire (Strategy Inventory for Language Learning). The research was conducted at the Rochester Institute of Technology Croatia on a sample of 201 participants who learned German, Spanish, French and Italian as a foreign language. The results have shown that one-component latent dimensions which describe the space of foreign language learning strategies according to Oxford’s classification, have metric characteristics which are low, but still satisfactory (reliability and validity). All dimensions of learning strategies appeared not to be adequately defined. Therefore, we excluded compensation strategies and merged social and affective strategies into social-affective strategies into the unique dimension. Overall, this version of Oxford’s original questionnaire, based on Oxford’s theoretical construct, applied on Croatian students, clearly shows that current version of the questionnaire has poor metric characteristics. One of the explanations of the results obtained could be positioned in multicultural context and intercultural dialogue. Namely, particular social, political and economic context in Croatia could shape even foreign language learning strategies.

Helping Learners Succeed: Activities for the Foreign Language Classroom. Language in Education: Theory and Practice, No. 36.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Omaggio, Alice C.

In response to the need for dynamic foreign language materials with a communicative focus, this report addresses the relationship between learner characteristics and success in language learning. It suggests that a self-pacing individualized option should be available to students to deal with unique problems. The problems may be dealt with by…

Word learning in adults with second-language experience: effects of phonological and referent familiarity.

PubMed

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon; Van Hecke, Stephanie

2013-04-01

The goal of this research was to examine whether phonological familiarity exerts different effects on novel word learning for familiar versus unfamiliar referents and whether successful word learning is associated with increased second-language experience. Eighty-one adult native English speakers with various levels of Spanish knowledge learned phonologically familiar novel words (constructed using English sounds) or phonologically unfamiliar novel words (constructed using non-English and non-Spanish sounds) in association with either familiar or unfamiliar referents. Retention was tested via a forced-choice recognition task. A median-split procedure identified high-ability and low-ability word learners in each condition, and the two groups were compared on measures of second-language experience. Findings suggest that the ability to accurately match newly learned novel names to their appropriate referents is facilitated by phonological familiarity only for familiar referents but not for unfamiliar referents. Moreover, more extensive second-language learning experience characterized superior learners primarily in one word-learning condition: in which phonologically unfamiliar novel words were paired with familiar referents. Together, these findings indicate that phonological familiarity facilitates novel word learning only for familiar referents and that experience with learning a second language may have a specific impact on novel vocabulary learning in adults.

Word learning in adults with second language experience: Effects of phonological and referent familiarity

PubMed Central

Kaushanskaya, Margarita; Yoo, Jeewon; Van Hecke, Stephanie

2014-01-01

Purpose The goal of this research was to examine whether phonological familiarity exerts different effects on novel word learning for familiar vs. unfamiliar referents, and whether successful word-learning is associated with increased second-language experience. Method Eighty-one adult native English speakers with various levels of Spanish knowledge learned phonologically-familiar novel words (constructed using English sounds) or phonologically-unfamiliar novel words (constructed using non-English and non-Spanish sounds) in association with either familiar or unfamiliar referents. Retention was tested via a forced-choice recognition-task. A median-split procedure identified high-ability and low-ability word-learners in each condition, and the two groups were compared on measures of second-language experience. Results Findings suggest that the ability to accurately match newly-learned novel names to their appropriate referents is facilitated by phonological familiarity only for familiar referents but not for unfamiliar referents. Moreover, more extensive second-language learning experience characterized superior learners primarily in one word-learning condition: Where phonologically-unfamiliar novel words were paired with familiar referents. Conclusions Together, these findings indicate that phonological familiarity facilitates novel word learning only for familiar referents, and that experience with learning a second language may have a specific impact on novel vocabulary learning in adults. PMID:22992709

Bridging Literacy Practices through Storytelling, Translanguaging, and an Ethnographic Partnership: A Case Study of Dominican Students at Bronx Community College

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Parmegiani, Andrea

2014-01-01

This article reports on my attempt to use storytelling as an entry point into academic discourse in a learning community designed to meet the learning needs of ESL students who recently emigrated from the Dominican Republic. Based on research suggesting a correlation between academic success in a second language and first language literacy skills,…

Algebra for All and Its Relationship to English Language Learner's Opportunity-to-Learn and Algebra I Success Rates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Veith, Velma

2013-01-01

English as a Second Language (ESL) learners' access and achievement in Algebra I was examined to determine whether ESL students continue to be denied equal opportunity-to-learn (OTL) as a result of unnecessary tracking practices. In this quasi-experiment, a pre-post retrospective comparison group design was used to determine the effects of the…

[Changes in hemispheric asymmetry under intensive foreign language instruction].

PubMed

Bykova, L G; Smirnova, T I

1991-01-01

By means of dichotic listening test the study of perception dynamics was conducted in 20 persons during their intensive learning of French and German languages. Before the beginning of learning in all subjects, except three ones, the left hemisphere dominated in relation to verbal functions. In the process of learning in 84% of subjects activization of the opposite hemisphere was observed. In persons with the same initial level of language knowledge the success in colloquial practice was by expert evaluation as higher as bigger was the shift of the right ear coefficient at learning. The latter makes possible to evaluate quantitatively intellectual efforts spent in the process of learning. The authors suggest that such psychophysiological control of perception could be a support in solution of the problem of optimization of learning with the use of individual approach.

A Data Definition Language for GLAD (Graphic Language for Databases).

DTIC Science & Technology

1986-06-20

basic premises. These principles state that a DBMS interface must be descriptive, powerful, easy-to use and easy to learn . This thesis proposes a data...basic premises. These principles state that a DBMS interface must be descriptive, powerful, easy to use and easy to learn . This thesis proposes a data...criteria will be the most successful. 9 If a system is hard to learn , of those capable of mastering the system few may be willing to expend the time and

Flashcards and Guided Visual Vocabulary Practice: Experiences of Students with Learning Disabilities When Introduced to Concrete Spanish Nouns

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tolbert, Joshua B. L.; Lazarus, Belinda Davis; Killu, Kim

2017-01-01

Successful inclusion of students with learning disabilities in foreign language courses has been problematic, likely due to factors such as heightened anxiety and individualized learning challenges which are characteristic of those with learning disabilities. These learning characteristics often necessitate that multisensory strategies be employed…

Learning from Consistently High Performing and Improving Schools for English Language Learners in Boston Public Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tung, Rosann; Diez, Virginia; Gagnon, Laurie; Uriarte, Miren; Stazesky, Pamela

2011-01-01

This study is part of a collaborative project entitled "Identifying Success in Schools and Programs for English Language Learners in Boston Public Schools". The companion to this report, entitled "Improving Educational Outcomes of English Language Learners in Schools and Programs in Boston Public Schools", provides a…

Successful Use of CALL Software: An Investigation from the User's Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scagnoli, Norma; Yontz, Ruth; Choo, Jinhee

2014-01-01

This study explores the use and implementation of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software in graduate professional education. The investigation looked into self-reported information on graduate students' use of ESL (English as a Second Language) software to improve language skills and their competencies in professional English…

The Implementation of Language-Immersion Technology, Kindergarten through Grade 5: A Multiple-Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brady, Tina

2016-01-01

Increased interest by political leaders and parents in educating linguistically competent U.S. students to compete in the global society has emphasized the need for early foreign language learning for all students. Language education researchers have identified core elements of sustainable long-term successful programs that begin in elementary…

Culture, Attributions, and Language Anxiety

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lim, Hye-Yeon

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study is to move beyond the more traditional focus on individual characteristics as they relate to anxiety in the use of a foreign language. In order to do this, cultural characteristics, perceptions of the cause of successful learning, and foreign (English) language use anxiety were included as the major variables. Three…

Using Ready-Made Materials for Teaching Idioms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tran, Thu H.

2011-01-01

Because idioms are omnipresent in the authentic language students are exposed to, to successfully comprehend and produce natural language, learners of a second or foreign language need to possess a good knowledge of idioms and competence in idiom use. This paper examines the approaches to teaching and learning idioms. A discussion of the…

Modeling social learning of language and skills.

PubMed

Vogt, Paul; Haasdijk, Evert

2010-01-01

We present a model of social learning of both language and skills, while assuming—insofar as possible—strict autonomy, virtual embodiment, and situatedness. This model is built by integrating various previous models of language development and social learning, and it is this integration that, under the mentioned assumptions, provides novel challenges. The aim of the article is to investigate what sociocognitive mechanisms agents should have in order to be able to transmit language from one generation to the next so that it can be used as a medium to transmit internalized rules that represent skill knowledge. We have performed experiments where this knowledge solves the familiar poisonous-food problem. Simulations reveal under what conditions, regarding population structure, agents can successfully solve this problem. In addition to issues relating to perspective taking and mutual exclusivity, we show that agents need to coordinate interactions so that they can establish joint attention in order to form a scaffold for language learning, which in turn forms a scaffold for the learning of rule-based skills. Based on these findings, we conclude by hypothesizing that social learning at one level forms a scaffold for the social learning at another, higher level, thus contributing to the accumulation of cultural knowledge.

Educational Success Prediction Instrument 2nd Version: A Foreign Language Perspective on Readiness to Take a Beginner High School Foreign Language Online Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sparks, Lynne Marie

2017-01-01

Online foreign language course offerings have grown exponentially in secondary and post-secondary schools during the last two decades. Although numerous instruments and surveys exist to assess readiness for a student to take online courses, insufficient research has dealt with the particularities of learning a foreign language online. This study…

Interactive Book Reading to Accelerate Word Learning by Kindergarten Children With Specific Language Impairment: Identifying Adequate Progress and Successful Learning Patterns.

PubMed

Storkel, Holly L; Komesidou, Rouzana; Fleming, Kandace K; Romine, Rebecca Swinburne

2017-04-20

The goal of this study was to provide guidance to clinicians on early benchmarks of successful word learning in an interactive book reading treatment and to examine how encoding and memory evolution during treatment contribute to word learning outcomes by kindergarten children with specific language impairment (SLI). Twenty-seven kindergarten children with SLI participated in a preliminary clinical trial using interactive book reading to teach 30 new words. Word learning was assessed at 4 points during treatment through a picture naming test. The results indicate that the following performance during treatment was cause for concern, indicating a need to modify the treatment: naming 0-1 treated words correctly at Naming Test 1; naming 0-2 treated words correctly at Naming Test 2; naming 0-3 treated words correctly at Naming Test 3. In addition, the results showed that encoding was the primary limiting factor in word learning, but rmemory evolution also contributed (albeit to a lesser degree) to word learning success. Case illustrations demonstrate how a clinician's understanding of a child's word learning strengths and weaknesses develop over the course of treatment, substantiating the importance of regular data collection and clinical decision-making to ensure the best possible outcomes for each individual child.

Assessing segmentation processes by click detection: online measure of statistical learning, or simple interference?

PubMed

Franco, Ana; Gaillard, Vinciane; Cleeremans, Axel; Destrebecqz, Arnaud

2015-12-01

Statistical learning can be used to extract the words from continuous speech. Gómez, Bion, and Mehler (Language and Cognitive Processes, 26, 212-223, 2011) proposed an online measure of statistical learning: They superimposed auditory clicks on a continuous artificial speech stream made up of a random succession of trisyllabic nonwords. Participants were instructed to detect these clicks, which could be located either within or between words. The results showed that, over the length of exposure, reaction times (RTs) increased more for within-word than for between-word clicks. This result has been accounted for by means of statistical learning of the between-word boundaries. However, even though statistical learning occurs without an intention to learn, it nevertheless requires attentional resources. Therefore, this process could be affected by a concurrent task such as click detection. In the present study, we evaluated the extent to which the click detection task indeed reflects successful statistical learning. Our results suggest that the emergence of RT differences between within- and between-word click detection is neither systematic nor related to the successful segmentation of the artificial language. Therefore, instead of being an online measure of learning, the click detection task seems to interfere with the extraction of statistical regularities.

Boys' and Girls' Attribution of Performance in Learning English as a Foreign Language: The Case of Adama High Schools in Ethiopia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tulu, Geberew

2013-01-01

The main aim of the study was to examine students' attribution of performance in learning English as a foreign language at Adama town government high schools and see into its pedagogical implications. It aimed at investigating the perceived causes of success and failure of boys and girls. In order to meet the objectives of the study, data were…

The influence of linguistic and musical experience on Cantonese word learning.

PubMed

Cooper, Angela; Wang, Yue

2012-06-01

Adult non-native speech perception is subject to influence from multiple factors, including linguistic and extralinguistic experience such as musical training. The present research examines how linguistic and musical factors influence non-native word identification and lexical tone perception. Groups of native tone language (Thai) and non-tone language listeners (English), each subdivided into musician and non-musician groups, engaged in Cantonese tone word training. Participants learned to identify words minimally distinguished by five Cantonese tones during training, also completing musical aptitude and phonemic tone identification tasks. First, the findings suggest that either musical experience or a tone language background leads to significantly better non-native word learning proficiency, as compared to those with neither musical training nor tone language experience. Moreover, the combination of tone language and musical experience did not provide an additional advantage for Thai musicians above and beyond either experience alone. Musicianship was found to be more advantageous than a tone language background for tone identification. Finally, tone identification and musical aptitude scores were significantly correlated with word learning success for English but not Thai listeners. These findings point to a dynamic influence of musical and linguistic experience, both at the tone dentification level and at the word learning stage.

Statistical word learning in children with autism spectrum disorder and specific language impairment.

PubMed

Haebig, Eileen; Saffran, Jenny R; Ellis Weismer, Susan

2017-11-01

Word learning is an important component of language development that influences child outcomes across multiple domains. Despite the importance of word knowledge, word-learning mechanisms are poorly understood in children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined underlying mechanisms of word learning, specifically, statistical learning and fast-mapping, in school-aged children with typical and atypical development. Statistical learning was assessed through a word segmentation task and fast-mapping was examined in an object-label association task. We also examined children's ability to map meaning onto newly segmented words in a third task that combined exposure to an artificial language and a fast-mapping task. Children with SLI had poorer performance on the word segmentation and fast-mapping tasks relative to the typically developing and ASD groups, who did not differ from one another. However, when children with SLI were exposed to an artificial language with phonemes used in the subsequent fast-mapping task, they successfully learned more words than in the isolated fast-mapping task. There was some evidence that word segmentation abilities are associated with word learning in school-aged children with typical development and ASD, but not SLI. Follow-up analyses also examined performance in children with ASD who did and did not have a language impairment. Children with ASD with language impairment evidenced intact statistical learning abilities, but subtle weaknesses in fast-mapping abilities. As the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis (PDH) predicts, children with SLI have impairments in statistical learning. However, children with SLI also have impairments in fast-mapping. Nonetheless, they are able to take advantage of additional phonological exposure to boost subsequent word-learning performance. In contrast to the PDH, children with ASD appear to have intact statistical learning, regardless of language status; however, fast-mapping abilities differ according to broader language skills. © 2017 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.

Does Variability Across Events Affect Verb Learning in English, Mandarin and Korean?

PubMed Central

Childers, Jane B.; Paik, Jae H.; Flores, Melissa; Lai, Gabrielle; Dolan, Megan

2016-01-01

Extending new verbs is important to becoming a productive speaker of a language. Prior results show children have difficulty extending verbs when they have seen events with varied agents. This paper further examines the impact of variability on verb learning, and asks whether this interacts with event complexity or differs by language. Children (aged 2 ½- to 3-years) in the U.S., China, Korea and Singapore learned verbs linked to simple and complex events. Sets of events included one or three agents, and children were asked to extend the verb at test. Children learning verbs linked to simple movements performed similarly across conditions. However, children learning verbs linked to events with multiple objects were less successful if those events were enacted by multiple agents. A follow-up study rules out an influence of event order. Overall, similar patterns of results emerged across languages, suggesting common cognitive processes support children’s verb learning. PMID:27457679

Teaching American Indian and Alaska Native Languages in the Schools: What Has Been Learned. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peacock, Thomas D.; Day, Donald R.

This digest considers issues, possible solutions, and successful efforts in dealing with Native language loss, maintenance, and restoration in American Indian and Alaska Native communities and schools. The preservation and maintenance of the remaining 210 tribal languages is a major cultural and education concern in Native communities. The problem…

CLIL and Non-CLIL Students' Beliefs about Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sylvén, Liss Kerstin

2015-01-01

This article presents the findings of an innovative qualitative study involving one CLIL (content and language integrated learning) student and one student in a parallel, non-CLIL strand at high school level in Sweden. The aim of the study was to investigate differences in students' beliefs about language. The success of second (L2) and foreign…

Vocabulary Teaching in Foreign Language via Audiovisual Method Technique of Listening and Following Writing Scripts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bozavli, Ebubekir

2017-01-01

The objective is hereby study is to compare the effects of conventional and audiovisual methods on learning efficiency and success of retention with regard to vocabulary teaching in foreign language. Research sample consists of 21 undergraduate and 7 graduate students studying at Department of French Language Teaching, Kazim Karabekir Faculty of…

"Languagizing" Their World: Why Talking, Reading, and Singing Are So Important

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hirsh-Pasek, Kathryn; Golinkoff, Roberta Michnick

2018-01-01

Language is the single best predictor of later success in school and beyond. Using new findings in the science of learning, this article outlines 6 basic principles that will help parents and caregivers interact with children in ways that grow important language skills. Creating environments that nurture these principles gives every child a chance…

A Sociolinguistic and Sociocultural Approach to Attitudinal Dispositions of Graduated Students toward the Business Japanese Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Özsen, Tolga; Özbek, Aydin

2016-01-01

Effective usage of nonverbal and verbal communication in Japanese such as gestures, mimics, silence and employing grammatical or lexical honorifics plays a significant role in determining the success of foreign language learners in obtaining their intended employment. This study examines the second language (L2) learning of politeness and social…

English Learning Strategies of Various Nations: A Study in Military Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Solak, Ekrem

2014-01-01

How successful learners learn English has been one of the primary interest of scientists and researchers in recent years. Therefore, this study aimed to determine what language learning strategies the military personnel from different nations used while learning English. 56 subjects from 14 different nations deployed in three different military…

Investigation of Turkish EFL Learners' Attributions on Success and Failure in Learning English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yavuz, Aysun; Höl, Devrim

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attributions of Turkish EFL learners on success and failure in learning English as a foreign language with different variables such as gender and level of English proficiency. To investigate the attributions of the participants and gather the relevant data, a questionnaire including 38 items and…

Articulation of sounds in Serbian language in patients who learned esophageal speech successfully.

PubMed

Vekić, Maja; Veselinović, Mila; Mumović, Gordana; Mitrović, Slobodan M

2014-01-01

Articulation of pronounced sounds during the training and subsequent use of esophageal speech is very important because it contributes significantly to intelligibility and aesthetics of spoken words and sentences, as well as of speech and language itself. The aim of this research was to determine the quality of articulation of sounds of Serbian language by groups of sounds in patients who had learned esophageal speech successfully as well as the effect of age and tooth loss on the quality of articulation. This retrospective-prospective study included 16 patients who had undergone total laryngectomy. Having completed the rehabilitation of speech, these patient used esophageal voice and speech. The quality of articulation was tested by the "Global test of articulation." Esophageal speech was rated with grade 5, 4 and 3 in 62.5%, 31.3% and one patient, respectively. Serbian was the native language of all the patients. The study included 30 sounds of Serbian language in 16 subjects (480 total sounds). Only two patients (12.5%) articulated all sounds properly, whereas 87.5% of them had incorrect articulation. The articulation of affricates and fricatives, especially sound /h/ from the group of the fricatives, was found to be the worst in the patients who had successfully mastered esophageal speech. The age and the tooth loss of patients who have mastered esophageal speech do not affect the articulation of sounds in Serbian language.

Examining the Relationship between Interaction and Linguistic Outcomes: Is the Online Learning Environment a Viable Alternative to Traditional Classroom Instruction for Beginning Language Learners?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flesvig Bruland, Nicole

2013-01-01

Many in the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) agree that interaction is a critical component in the process of second language acquisition (Hatch 1978; Long, 1996; Pica 1994). According to Long (1996), second language (L2) learners have the best chance of successful L2 acquisition when placed in an environment in which conversational…

Fostering Language Acquisition in Daycare Settings: What Does the Research Tell Us? Working Papers in Early Childhood Development, No. 49

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Beller, Simone

2008-01-01

The ways in which children learn a language--be it their mother tongue or their second language--can have a strong influence on their success in school. Researchers in linguistics and early child development have tried to determine the factors that can help and hinder language acquisition in young children, with some conflicting results. In this…

The Effects of Web 2.0 Technologies Usage in Programming Languages Lesson on the Academic Success, Interrogative Learning Skills and Attitudes of Students towards Programming Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gençtürk, Abdullah Tarik; Korucu, Agah Tugrul

2017-01-01

It is observed that teacher candidates receiving education in the department of Computer and Instructional Technologies Education are not able to gain enough experience and knowledge in "Programming Languages" lesson. The goal of this study is to analyse the effects of web 2.0 technologies usage in programming languages lesson on the…

Cognitive biases, linguistic universals, and constraint-based grammar learning.

PubMed

Culbertson, Jennifer; Smolensky, Paul; Wilson, Colin

2013-07-01

According to classical arguments, language learning is both facilitated and constrained by cognitive biases. These biases are reflected in linguistic typology-the distribution of linguistic patterns across the world's languages-and can be probed with artificial grammar experiments on child and adult learners. Beginning with a widely successful approach to typology (Optimality Theory), and adapting techniques from computational approaches to statistical learning, we develop a Bayesian model of cognitive biases and show that it accounts for the detailed pattern of results of artificial grammar experiments on noun-phrase word order (Culbertson, Smolensky, & Legendre, 2012). Our proposal has several novel properties that distinguish it from prior work in the domains of linguistic theory, computational cognitive science, and machine learning. This study illustrates how ideas from these domains can be synthesized into a model of language learning in which biases range in strength from hard (absolute) to soft (statistical), and in which language-specific and domain-general biases combine to account for data from the macro-level scale of typological distribution to the micro-level scale of learning by individuals. Copyright © 2013 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Students as Doers: Examples of Successful E-Learning Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tammelin, Maija; Peltonen, Berit; Puranen, Pasi; Auvinen, Lis

2012-01-01

This paper discusses learning language and communication activities that focus on students' concrete involvement in their learning process. The activities first deal with student-produced blogs and digital videos in business Spanish. They then present student-produced podcasts for Swedish business communication learners that are meant for speakers…

Evaluating the Effects of a "Student Buddy" Initiative on Student Engagement and Motivation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Motzo, Anna

2016-01-01

Motivation is one of the most important factors which influences second language learning (Dörnyei, 1998; Gardner & Lambert, 1972). A support mechanism which reinforces student motivation through encouragement, social interaction, feedback, sound learning environments and good teaching is crucial for ensuring successful learning. This is…

A Winning Combination

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Henrichs, Erinn L.; Jackson, Julie K.

2012-01-01

Establishing classroom routines that provide students with the opportunities to learn and successfully apply the language of science is a daunting task. With minor variations, research has shown that effective and comprehensive vocabulary programs share four common elements: they are rich and varied language experiences; they teach well-selected…

The Community College: Bridge or Roadblock to Higher Education for US Adult Immigrant English-Language Learners?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Janis, Thomas

2013-01-01

While community colleges have been accessible for adult learners with an immigrant and an English Language Learning (ELL) background, there is a gap between preparation and academic success on the college level among these students. Within community colleges, older adult English as a Second Language (ESL) students have the lowest first-semester…

The Benefits of Multilingualism to the Personal and Professional Development of Residents of the US

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kroll, Judith F.; Dussias, Paola E.

2017-01-01

In the past two decades, new research on multilingualism has changed our understanding of the consequences of learning and using two or more languages for cognition, for the brain, and for success and well-being across the entire lifespan. Far from the stereotype that exposure to multiple languages in infancy complicates language and cognitive…

Writing in French in Secondary Schools in England and Germany: Are the British Really "Bad Language Learners?"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gruber, Alice; Tonkyn, Alan

2017-01-01

It is widely assumed that the British are poorer modern foreign language (MFL) learners than their fellow Europeans. Motivation has often been seen as the main cause of this perceived disparity in language learning success. However, there have also been suggestions that curricular and pedagogical factors may play a part. This article reports a…

Infant Information Processing and Family History of Specific Language Impairment: Converging Evidence for RAP Deficits from Two Paradigms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choudhury, Naseem; Leppanen, Paavo H. T.; Leevers, Hilary J.; Benasich, April A.

2007-01-01

An infant's ability to process auditory signals presented in rapid succession (i.e. rapid auditory processing abilities [RAP]) has been shown to predict differences in language outcomes in toddlers and preschool children. Early deficits in RAP abilities may serve as a behavioral marker for language-based learning disabilities. The purpose of this…

The Exploring Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition and Common Main Gaps in the Current Studies of Vocabulary Acquisition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fazeli, Seyed Hossein

2012-01-01

Vocabulary can be a key factor for success, central to a language, and paramount to a language learner. In such situation, the lexicon may be the most important component for learners (Grass and Selinker, 1994), and mastering of vocabulary is an essential component of second/foreign language teaching and learning that has been repeatedly…

On the Road to Science Literacy: Building Confidence and Competency in Technical Language through Choral Repetition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hohenshell, Liesl M.; Woller, Michael J.; Sherlock, Wallace

2013-01-01

In order to be successful, students must acquire the language of science for both oral and written communication. In this article we examine an oral language learning technique called choral repetition for its role in building literacy in the context of an animal physiology course. For 3 weeks, the instructor conducted choral repetitions of nine…

Bilingualism: A Pearl to Overcome Certain Perils of Cochlear Implants

PubMed Central

Humphries, Tom; Kushalnagar, Poorna; Mathur, Gaurav; Napoli, Donna Jo; Padden, Carol; Rathmann, Christian; Smith, Scott

2014-01-01

Cochlear implants (CI) have demonstrated success in improving young deaf children’s speech and low-level speech awareness across a range of auditory functions, but this success is highly variable, and how this success correlates to high-level language development is even more variable. Prevalence on the success rate of CI as an outcome for language development is difficult to obtain because studies vary widely in methodology and variables of interest, and because not all cochlear implant technology (which continues to evolve) is the same. Still, even if the notion of treatment failure is limited narrowly to those who gain no auditory benefit from CI in that they cannot discriminate among ambient noises, the reported treatment failure rate is high enough to call into question the current lack of consideration of alternative approaches to ensure young deaf children’s language development. Recent research has highlighted the risks of delaying language input during critical periods of brain development with concomitant consequences for cognitive and social skills. As a result, we propose that before, during, and after implantation deaf children learn a sign language along with a spoken language to ensure their maximal language development and optimal long-term developmental outcomes. PMID:25419095

The Multilingual/Bilingual Dichotomy: An Exploration of Individual Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thompson, Amy S.

2009-01-01

Bilingualism (Sanz, 2000), motivation (Pintrich, 1989), and language aptitude (Grigorenko, Sternberg, and Ehrman, 2000) are crucial individual differences that contribute to successful adult language learning. Since Gardner's (1985) seminal work on motivation, many studies have shown that motivation is dynamic and that it affects language…

Remediating Language Deficient/Dyslexic College Students: An Interview with Robert Nash.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lundquist, Arlene J.; Nash, Robert

1988-01-01

Robert Nash responds to questions concerning his personal and professional background, the Simultaneous Multisensory Instructional Procedure for Teaching the Complete Sound Structure of the Language, problems associated with dyslexia, the social/emotional impact of learning disabilities, and the University of Wisconsin's Project Success for…

Language (Policy) Matters!

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kozleski, E. B.; Mulligan, E.; Hernandez-Saca, D.

2011-01-01

Public education has a vital role in ensuring that this and subsequent generations are successful in a global, multilingual economy. In this What Matters brief, we examine how teachers, students, parents, and communities in our nation's schools can create rich opportunities for students to learn. Language (Policy) Matters! includes information and…

The Development of Social Relations during Residence Abroad

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mitchell, Rosamond

2015-01-01

Language students in the UK undertake their "year abroad" with high hopes for a linguistic and social "immersion" experience. However, past research shows that language learning success, while real, can be uneven, and that many Erasmus exchange students form social relations largely with other international students. New…

Language experience narratives and the role of autobiographical reasoning in becoming an urban science teacher

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rivera Maulucci, Maria S.

2011-06-01

One of the central challenges globalization and immigration present to education is how to construct school language policies, procedures, and curricula to support academic success of immigrant youth. This case-study compares and contrasts language experience narratives along Elena's developmental trajectory of becoming an urban science teacher. Elena reflects upon her early language experiences and her more recent experiences as a preservice science teacher in elementary dual language classrooms. The findings from Elena's early schooling experiences provide an analysis of the linkages between Elena's developing English proficiency, her Spanish proficiency, and her autobiographical reasoning. Elena's experiences as a preservice teacher in two elementary dual language classrooms indicates ways in which those experiences helped to reframe her views about the intersections between language learning and science learning. I propose the language experience narrative, as a subset of the life story, as a way to understand how preservice teachers reconstruct past language experiences, connect to the present, and anticipate future language practices.

Interactive Book Reading to Accelerate Word Learning by Kindergarten Children With Specific Language Impairment: Identifying Adequate Progress and Successful Learning Patterns

PubMed Central

Komesidou, Rouzana; Fleming, Kandace K.; Romine, Rebecca Swinburne

2017-01-01

Purpose The goal of this study was to provide guidance to clinicians on early benchmarks of successful word learning in an interactive book reading treatment and to examine how encoding and memory evolution during treatment contribute to word learning outcomes by kindergarten children with specific language impairment (SLI). Method Twenty-seven kindergarten children with SLI participated in a preliminary clinical trial using interactive book reading to teach 30 new words. Word learning was assessed at 4 points during treatment through a picture naming test. Results The results indicate that the following performance during treatment was cause for concern, indicating a need to modify the treatment: naming 0–1 treated words correctly at Naming Test 1; naming 0–2 treated words correctly at Naming Test 2; naming 0–3 treated words correctly at Naming Test 3. In addition, the results showed that encoding was the primary limiting factor in word learning, but rmemory evolution also contributed (albeit to a lesser degree) to word learning success. Conclusion Case illustrations demonstrate how a clinician's understanding of a child's word learning strengths and weaknesses develop over the course of treatment, substantiating the importance of regular data collection and clinical decision-making to ensure the best possible outcomes for each individual child. PMID:28419188

Motivation, Strategy, and English as a Foreign Language Vocabulary Learning: A Structural Equation Modelling Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zhang, Yining; Lin, Chin-Hsi; Zhang, Dongbo; Choi, Yunjeong

2017-01-01

Background: In spite of considerable advancements in our understanding of the different factors involved in achieving vocabulary-learning success, the overall pattern and interrelationships of critical factors involved in L2 vocabulary learning--particularly, the mechanisms through which learners regulate their motivation and learning…

Focus on Collaborative Learning. Classroom Practices in Teaching English, 1988.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Golub, Jeff; And Others

Written by English teachers considered successful in directing collaborative learning, this collection of essays focuses on the effective use of collaborative learning in the English language arts classroom. The essays and their authors are, as follows: (1) "None of Us Is as Smart as All of Us" (Dana Herreman); (2) "Collaborative…

Building Corpus-Informed Word Lists for L2 Vocabulary Learning in Nine Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charalabopoulou, Frieda; Gavrilidou, Maria; Kokkinakis, Sofie Johansson; Volodina, Elena

2012-01-01

Lexical competence constitutes a crucial aspect in L2 learning, since building a rich repository of words is considered indispensable for successful communication. CALL practitioners have experimented with various kinds of computer-mediated glosses to facilitate L2 vocabulary building in the context of incidental vocabulary learning. Intentional…

Evidentiality in Language and Cognition☆

PubMed Central

Papafragou, Anna; Li, Peggy; Choi, Youngon; Han, Chung-hye

2006-01-01

What is the relation between language and thought? Specifically, how do linguistic and conceptual representations make contact during language learning? This paper addresses these questions by investigating the acquisition of evidentiality (the linguistic encoding of information source) and its relation to children’s evidential reasoning. Previous studies have hypothesized that the acquisition of evidentiality is complicated by the subtleness and abstractness of the underlying concepts; other studies have suggested that learning a language which systematically (e.g. grammatically) marks evidential categories might serve as a pacesetter for early reasoning about sources of information. We conducted experimental studies with children learning Korean (a language with evidential morphology) and English (a language without grammaticalized evidentiality) in order to test these hypotheses. Our experiments compared 3- and 4-year-old Korean children’s knowledge of the semantics and discourse functions of evidential morphemes to their (non-linguistic) ability to recognize and report different types of evidential sources. They also compared Korean children’s source monitoring abilities to the source monitoring abilities of English-speaking children of the same age. We found that Korean-speaking children have considerable success in producing evidential morphology but their comprehension of such morphology is very fragile. Nevertheless, young Korean speakers are able to reason successfully about sources of information in non-linguistic tasks; furthermore, their performance in these tasks is similar to that of English-speaking peers. These results support the conclusion that the acquisition of evidential expressions poses considerable problems for learners; however, these problems are not (necessarily) conceptual in nature. Our data also suggest that, contrary to relativistic expectations, children’s ability to reason about sources of information proceeds along similar lines in diverse language-learning populations and is not tied to the acquisition of the linguistic markers of evidentiality in the exposure language. We discuss implications of our findings for the relationship between linguistic and conceptual representations during development. PMID:16707120

Handicapped Students Learn Language Skills with Communication Boards.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Detamore, Kristie L.; Lippke, Barbara A.

1980-01-01

Communication or picture boards are described as a successful alternative method for teaching language skills to mentally handicapped students. Reasons for using the communication board are pointed out, procedures for adapting the boards to meet classroom and student needs are considered, and requirements for board design are reviewed. (SBH)

Environmental Peace Education in Foreign Language Learners' English Grammar Lessons

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arikan, Arda

2009-01-01

English language teachers create contexts to teach grammar so that meaningful learning occurs. In this study, English grammar is contextualized through environmental peace education activities to raise students' awareness of global issues. Two sources provided data to evaluate the success of this instructional process. Fourth-year pre-service…

Learning Vocabulary via Computer-Assisted Scaffolding for Text Processing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Jia

2010-01-01

A substantial amount of literature regarding first language (L1) acquisition has shown that reading for meaning significantly contributes to vocabulary expansion and strongly relates to overall academic success. Research in the English as a Second Language (ESL) context, however, has presented mixed results, in particular for recent immigrant…

Novel Morpheme Learning in Monolingual and Bilingual Children

PubMed Central

Gross, Megan; Sheena, Enanna; Roman, Rachel

2017-01-01

Purpose The purpose of the present study was to examine the utility of a novel morpheme learning task for indexing typical language abilities in children characterized by diverse language backgrounds. Method Three groups of 5- to 6-year-old children were tested: monolingual speakers of English, native speakers of Spanish who also spoke English (Spanish-L1 bilinguals), and native speakers of English who also spoke Spanish (English-L1 bilinguals). All children were taught a new derivational morpheme /ku/ marking part–whole distinction in conjunction with English nouns. Retention was measured via a receptive task, and sensitivity and reaction time (RT) data were collected. Results All three groups of children learned the novel morpheme successfully and were able to generalize its use to untaught nouns. Furthermore, language characteristics (degree of exposure and levels of performance on standardized measures) did not contribute to bilingual children's learning outcomes. Conclusion Together, the findings indicate that this particular version of the novel morpheme learning task may be resistant to influences associated with language background and suggest potential usefulness of the task to clinical practice. PMID:28399578

Language learning without control: the role of the PFC.

PubMed

Friederici, Angela D; Mueller, Jutta L; Sehm, Bernhard; Ragert, Patrick

2013-05-01

Learning takes place throughout lifetime but differs in infants and adults because of the development of the PFC, a brain region responsible for cognitive control. To test this hypothesis, adults were investigated in a language learning paradigm under inhibitory, cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation over PFC. The experiment included a learning session interspersed with test phases and a test-only session. The stimulus material required the learning of grammatical dependencies between two elements in a novel language. In a parallel design, cathodal transcranial direct current stimulation over the left PFC, right PFC, or sham stimulation was applied during the learning session but not during the test-only session. Event-related brain potentials (ERPs) were recorded during both sessions. Whereas no ERP learning effects were observed during the learning session, different ERP learning effects as a function of prior stimulation type were found during the test-only session, although behavioral learning success was equal across conditions. With sham stimulation, the ERP learning effect was reflected in a centro-parietal N400-like negativity indicating lexical processes. Inhibitory stimulation over the left PFC, but not over the right PFC, led to a late positivity similar to that previously observed in prelinguistic infants indicating associative learning. The present data demonstrate that adults can learn with and without cognitive control using different learning mechanisms. In the presence of cognitive control, adult language learning is lexically guided, whereas it appears to be associative in nature when PFC control is downregulated.

The Good Language Learner: Another Look.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Reiss, Mary-Ann

1985-01-01

A study of the learning techniques and strategies of successful learners revealed these strategies: monitoring which often involves silent speaking, attending to form and meaning, guessing, practicing, motivation to communicate, and mnemonics. It also revealed a high tolerance for ambiguity in successful learners. (MSE)

Representational Technologies and Learner Problem-Solving Strategies in Chemistry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCollum, Brett; Sepulveda, Ana; Moreno, Yuritzel

2016-01-01

Learning within the sciences is often considered through a quantitative lens, but acquiring proficiency with the symbolic representations in chemistry is arguably more akin to language learning. Representational competencies are central to successful communication of chemical information including molecular composition, structure, and properties.…

Human inferior colliculus activity relates to individual differences in spoken language learning.

PubMed

Chandrasekaran, Bharath; Kraus, Nina; Wong, Patrick C M

2012-03-01

A challenge to learning words of a foreign language is encoding nonnative phonemes, a process typically attributed to cortical circuitry. Using multimodal imaging methods [functional magnetic resonance imaging-adaptation (fMRI-A) and auditory brain stem responses (ABR)], we examined the extent to which pretraining pitch encoding in the inferior colliculus (IC), a primary midbrain structure, related to individual variability in learning to successfully use nonnative pitch patterns to distinguish words in American English-speaking adults. fMRI-A indexed the efficiency of pitch representation localized to the IC, whereas ABR quantified midbrain pitch-related activity with millisecond precision. In line with neural "sharpening" models, we found that efficient IC pitch pattern representation (indexed by fMRI) related to superior neural representation of pitch patterns (indexed by ABR), and consequently more successful word learning following sound-to-meaning training. Our results establish a critical role for the IC in speech-sound representation, consistent with the established role for the IC in the representation of communication signals in other animal models.

Language Lateralization Shifts with Learning by Adults

PubMed Central

Plante, Elena; Almryde, Kyle; Patterson, Dianne K.; Vance, Christopher J.; Asbjørnsen, Arve E.

2014-01-01

For the majority of the population, language is a left hemisphere lateralized function. During childhood, a pattern of increasing left lateralization for language has been described in brain imaging studies, suggesting this trait develops. This development could reflect change due to brain maturation or change due to skill acquisition, given that children acquire and refine language skills as they mature. We test the possibility that skill acquisition, independent of age-associated maturation can result in shifts in language lateralization in classic language cortex. We imaged adults exposed to unfamiliar language during three successive fMRI scans. Participants were then asked to identify specific words embedded in Norwegian sentences. Exposure to these sentences, relative to complex tones, resulted in consistent activation in the left and right superior temporal gyrus. Activation in this region became increasingly left lateralized with repeated exposure to the unfamiliar language. These results demonstrate that shifts in lateralization can be produced in the short-term within a learning context, independent of maturation. PMID:25285756

Attributions to Success and Failure in English Language Learning: The Effects of Gender, Age and Perceived Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Genç, Gülten

2016-01-01

The main purpose of this study is to analyze Turkish tertiary level EFL learners' attributions to success and failure and the effects of gender, age, and perceived success on their attributions. The results indicated that EFL learners respectively attributed interest, ability, task difficulty, effort, luck and the influence of teacher and school…

Strong systematicity through sensorimotor conceptual grounding: an unsupervised, developmental approach to connectionist sentence processing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jansen, Peter A.; Watter, Scott

2012-03-01

Connectionist language modelling typically has difficulty with syntactic systematicity, or the ability to generalise language learning to untrained sentences. This work develops an unsupervised connectionist model of infant grammar learning. Following the semantic boostrapping hypothesis, the network distils word category using a developmentally plausible infant-scale database of grounded sensorimotor conceptual representations, as well as a biologically plausible semantic co-occurrence activation function. The network then uses this knowledge to acquire an early benchmark clausal grammar using correlational learning, and further acquires separate conceptual and grammatical category representations. The network displays strongly systematic behaviour indicative of the general acquisition of the combinatorial systematicity present in the grounded infant-scale language stream, outperforms previous contemporary models that contain primarily noun and verb word categories, and successfully generalises broadly to novel untrained sensorimotor grounded sentences composed of unfamiliar nouns and verbs. Limitations as well as implications to later grammar learning are discussed.

Eye Gaze and Production Accuracy Predict English L2 Speakers' Morphosyntactic Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McDonough, Kim; Trofimovich, Pavel; Dao, Phung; Dio, Alexandre

2017-01-01

This study investigated the relationship between second language (L2) speakers' success in learning a new morphosyntactic pattern and characteristics of one-on-one learning activities, including opportunities to comprehend and produce the target pattern, receive feedback from an interlocutor, and attend to the meaning of the pattern through self-…

ALTEC Learning Games: Successful Integration of Learning and Gaming

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bacon, Melanie A.; Ault, Marilyn M.

2009-01-01

Of the 53 million K-12 students in the United States, 93%, or 51 million, of them play video games (Etuk, 2008). ALTEC Learning Games utilize the excitement of video games to engage students and provide teachers authentic online resources that reinforce skills in math and language arts. Our recent work was partially supported by a partnership with…

The Influence of Learner Strategies on Oral Presentations: A Comparison between Group and Individual Performance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chou, Mu-hsuan

2011-01-01

Cooperative learning has frequently been used in language classrooms, from in-class task-based group work to group presentations. Research suggests that cooperative learning provides mutual support, as well as successful and effective learning outcomes of tasks. The present research addressed a number of problems discovered in group oral…

Propose but verify: Fast mapping meets cross-situational word learning

PubMed Central

Trueswell, John C.; Medina, Tamara Nicol; Hafri, Alon; Gleitman, Lila R.

2012-01-01

We report three eyetracking experiments that examine the learning procedure used by adults as they pair novel words and visually presented referents over a sequence of referentially ambiguous trials. Successful learning under such conditions has been argued to be the product of a learning procedure in which participants provisionally pair each novel word with several possible referents and use a statistical-associative learning mechanism to gradually converge on a single mapping across learning instances. We argue here that successful learning in this setting is instead the product of a one-trial procedure in which a single hypothesized word-referent pairing is retained across learning instances, abandoned only if the subsequent instance fails to confirm the pairing – more a ‘fast mapping’ procedure than a gradual statistical one. We provide experimental evidence for this Propose-but-Verify learning procedure via three experiments in which adult participants attempted to learn the meanings of nonce words cross-situationally under varying degrees of referential uncertainty. The findings, using both explicit (referent selection) and implicit (eye movement) measures, show that even in these artificial learning contexts, which are far simpler than those encountered by a language learner in a natural environment, participants do not retain multiple meaning hypotheses across learning instances. As we discuss, these findings challenge ‘gradualist’ accounts of word learning and are consistent with the known rapid course of vocabulary learning in a first language. PMID:23142693

The Language of Mathematics: Learning to Read Mathematics for Understanding and Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Im, Yang Ok

2013-01-01

The intention of this project was to explore the effect of utilizing basic reading skills to promote student growth in mathematical literacy among middle school students. Mathematics was approached as a linquistical language and teachers utilized decoding skills as the treatment. This study used a nonequivalent control group quasi-experimental…

Crossword Puzzles for Chemistry Education: Learning Goals beyond Vocabulary

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuriev, Elizabeth; Capuano, Ben; Short, Jennifer L.

2016-01-01

Chemistry is a technical scientific discipline strongly underpinned by its own complex and diverse language. To be successful in the problem-solving aspects of chemistry, students must master the language of chemistry, and in particular, the definition of terms and concepts. To assist students in this challenging task, a variety of instructional…

English as a Global Language and Education for Cosmopolitan Citizenship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Guilherme, Manuela

2007-01-01

Due to the overriding power of World English in the global economy, media, academy, entertainment, etc., EFL education has become a crucial curricular element in the educational systems of developing societies. English language learning has therefore been portrayed either as a fundamental tool that unquestionably brings professional success or one…

Implementing Technology in the Classroom: Paths to Success and Failure.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harvey, Glen; And Others

This paper discusses the change process experienced by teachers participating in a study of a computer-based language arts instructional program for the early elementary grades--the Apple Learning Series: Early Language (ALS-EL). The study explored ways in which the teachers were implementing ALS-EL in their classrooms before attempting to…

Going to the MALL: Mobile Assisted Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chinnery, George M.

2006-01-01

Practically since their availability, a succession of audiovisual recording devices (e.g., reel-to-reel, VCRs, PCs) has been used to capture language samples, and myriad playback and broadcast devices (e.g., phonographs, radios, televisions) have provided access to authentic speech samples. The espousal of audiolingual theory in the 1950s brought…

How Transitional Probabilities and the Edge Effect Contribute to Listeners' Phonological Bootstrapping Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sohail, Juwairia; Johnson, Elizabeth K.

2016-01-01

Much of what we know about the development of listeners' word segmentation strategies originates from the artificial language-learning literature. However, many artificial speech streams designed to study word segmentation lack a salient cue found in all natural languages: utterance boundaries. In this study, participants listened to a…

Equity in Spanish/English Dual Language Education: Practitioners' Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sugarman, Julie Sarice

2012-01-01

Dual language programs have been shown to be one of the most successful models for closing the achievement gap between English-speaking and English-learning students, which can be considered a strong indicator of educational equity. However, questions remains about how equity is achieved within these programs and what equity means to…

Assessing Language for Literacy: A Microanalysis of Children's Vocabulary, Syntax and Narrative Grammar

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scull, Janet

2013-01-01

This paper examines the oral language resources that enhance children's reading and comprehension processes. Using data from a study of 16 children, the microanalysis of the three more successful readers, identified salient factors from the individual children's learning profiles that were observed as associated with their positive comprehension…

The Balancing Act of Bilingual Immersion

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hadi-Tabassum, Samina

2005-01-01

Hadi-Tabassum believes having a separate life context for each language she learned in childhood enabled her to switch easily among five different tongues. She states that the success of dual immersion bilingual programs is largely dependent on whether they immerse students in each of the involved languages separately and help students have a…

The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades K-8: Behaviors and Understandings to Notice, Teach, and Support

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinnell, Gay Su; Fountas, Irene C.

2007-01-01

The authors advocate that a high-quality curriculum is an important first step toward good teaching and successful learning. Good curriculum comes from knowing what students can do, can almost do, and need to learn how to do as readers, writers, and language users. In this book, the authors combine their experience and learning in literacy…

Sampling over Nonuniform Distributions: A Neural Efficiency Account of the Primacy Effect in Statistical Learning.

PubMed

Karuza, Elisabeth A; Li, Ping; Weiss, Daniel J; Bulgarelli, Federica; Zinszer, Benjamin D; Aslin, Richard N

2016-10-01

Successful knowledge acquisition requires a cognitive system that is both sensitive to statistical information and able to distinguish among multiple structures (i.e., to detect pattern shifts and form distinct representations). Extensive behavioral evidence has highlighted the importance of cues to structural change, demonstrating how, without them, learners fail to detect pattern shifts and are biased in favor of early experience. Here, we seek a neural account of the mechanism underpinning this primacy effect in learning. During fMRI scanning, adult participants were presented with two artificial languages: a familiar language (L1) on which they had been pretrained followed by a novel language (L2). The languages were composed of the same syllable inventory organized according to unique statistical structures. In the absence of cues to the transition between languages, posttest familiarity judgments revealed that learners on average more accurately segmented words from the familiar language compared with the novel one. Univariate activation and functional connectivity analyses showed that participants with the strongest learning of L1 had decreased recruitment of fronto-subcortical and posterior parietal regions, in addition to a dissociation between downstream regions and early auditory cortex. Participants with a strong new language learning capacity (i.e., higher L2 scores) showed the opposite trend. Thus, we suggest that a bias toward neural efficiency, particularly as manifested by decreased sampling from the environment, accounts for the primacy effect in learning. Potential implications of this hypothesis are discussed, including the possibility that "inefficient" learning systems may be more sensitive to structural changes in a dynamic environment.

Oral Reading Miscues of Hispanic Students: Implications for Assessment of Learning Disabilities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miramontes, Ofelia

1987-01-01

The study analyzed oral reading miscues in both first and second reading languages of 20 Hispanic successful and 20 learning disabled readers in the intermediate grades. Significant differences were found for English reading in grammatical relationships, comprehension, and grammatical function. (Author/DB)

End of Grant Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium, 2015

2015-01-01

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has built a comprehensive learning and assessment system in English Language Arts/Literacy (ELA/L) and mathematics, the components of which work together toward the goal that all students leave high school prepared for postsecondary success in college or career through increased student learning and…

Analytical learning and term-rewriting systems

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Laird, Philip; Gamble, Evan

1990-01-01

Analytical learning is a set of machine learning techniques for revising the representation of a theory based on a small set of examples of that theory. When the representation of the theory is correct and complete but perhaps inefficient, an important objective of such analysis is to improve the computational efficiency of the representation. Several algorithms with this purpose have been suggested, most of which are closely tied to a first order logical language and are variants of goal regression, such as the familiar explanation based generalization (EBG) procedure. But because predicate calculus is a poor representation for some domains, these learning algorithms are extended to apply to other computational models. It is shown that the goal regression technique applies to a large family of programming languages, all based on a kind of term rewriting system. Included in this family are three language families of importance to artificial intelligence: logic programming, such as Prolog; lambda calculus, such as LISP; and combinatorial based languages, such as FP. A new analytical learning algorithm, AL-2, is exhibited that learns from success but is otherwise quite different from EBG. These results suggest that term rewriting systems are a good framework for analytical learning research in general, and that further research should be directed toward developing new techniques.

Difficulty in learning similar-sounding words: a developmental stage or a general property of learning?

PubMed Central

Pajak, Bozena; Creel, Sarah C.; Levy, Roger

2016-01-01

How are languages learned, and to what extent are learning mechanisms similar in infant native-language (L1) and adult second-language (L2) acquisition? In terms of vocabulary acquisition, we know from the infant literature that the ability to discriminate similar-sounding words at a particular age does not guarantee successful word-meaning mapping at that age (Stager & Werker, 1997). However, it is unclear whether this difficulty arises from developmental limitations of young infants (e.g., poorer working memory) or whether it is an intrinsic part of the initial word learning, L1 and L2 alike. Here we show that adults of particular L1 backgrounds—just like young infants—have difficulty learning similar-sounding L2 words that they can nevertheless discriminate perceptually. This suggests that the early stages of word learning, whether L1 or L2, intrinsically involve difficulty in mapping similar-sounding words onto referents. We argue that this is due to an interaction between two main factors: (1) memory limitations that pose particular challenges for highly similar-sounding words, and (2) uncertainty regarding the language's phonetic categories, as these are being learned concurrently with words. Overall, our results show that vocabulary acquisition in infancy and in adulthood share more similarities than previously thought, thus supporting the existence of common learning mechanisms that operate throughout the lifespan. PMID:26962959

Acoustical Barriers To Learning: Children at Risk in Every Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nelson, Peggy B.; Soli, Sig

2000-01-01

This article reviews relevant literature on acoustical barriers to successful learning and provides guidance for school personnel making decisions regarding classroom facilities. Effects of noisy classrooms on young listeners, second language learners, and those with hearing loss are discussed. A rationale for the classroom acoustics standards is…

Attribution and Learning English as a Foreign Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peacock, Matthew

2010-01-01

Learner attributions, perceived causes of success and failure, have received little attention in EFL research. Attributions are categorized as either internal (for example effort) or external (for example luck) and may affect how students learn about and impose order on their world. We investigated the attributions of 505 university students in…

An Investigation of Pronunciation Learning Strategies of Advanced EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hismanoglu, Murat

2012-01-01

This paper aims at investigating the kinds of strategies deployed by advanced EFL learners at English Language Teaching Department to learn or improve English pronunciation and revealing whether there are any significant differences between the strategies of successful pronunciation learners and those of unsuccessful pronunciation learners. After…

Involving Parents in Children's Learning: A Strategy To Raise Standards in an Inner-City Primary School.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smart, Pat

1998-01-01

Describes a strategy to raise standards in a British inner-city school through parent involvement in learning and decision making and the recognition of religious and cultural diversity. Communication, particularly with language minority parents, is vital to the program's success. (SLD)

Attempting to "Increase Intake from the Input": Attention and Word Learning in Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tenenbaum, Elena J.; Amso, Dima; Righi, Giulia; Sheinkopf, Stephen J.

2017-01-01

Previous work has demonstrated that social attention is related to early language abilities. We explored whether we can facilitate word learning among children with autism by directing attention to areas of the scene that have been demonstrated as relevant for successful word learning. We tracked eye movements to faces and objects while children…

The Benefits of the Proprioceptive Method Used in Learning English via Facebook by Thai Government Officials

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cedar, Payung; Singhara, Itdharom Mitsuvan

2017-01-01

Good listening and pronunciation skills lead to successes in foreign language learning. The main purpose of this study was to examine the benefits of adopting the Proprioceptive Method in learning English by Thai local government officials with the help of Facebook. A seventeen-day training course was implemented, comprising two days of…

A Correlation Study among Achievement Motivation, Goal-Setting and L2 Learning Strategy in EFL Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Han, Jing; Lu, Qingsheng

2018-01-01

Achievement motivation as one of the most important parts in learning motivation indicates a concern with success in competition with some standard of excellence. Learners who are highly motivated to learn a language are likely to use a variety of strategies. Besides achievement motivation, goal setting, a very important cognitive mediator between…

Clinical learning environment and supervision of international nursing students: A cross-sectional study.

PubMed

Mikkonen, Kristina; Elo, Satu; Miettunen, Jouko; Saarikoski, Mikko; Kääriäinen, Maria

2017-05-01

Previously, it has been shown that the clinical learning environment causes challenges for international nursing students, but there is a lack of empirical evidence relating to the background factors explaining and influencing the outcomes. To describe international and national students' perceptions of their clinical learning environment and supervision, and explain the related background factors. An explorative cross-sectional design was used in a study conducted in eight universities of applied sciences in Finland during September 2015-May 2016. All nursing students studying English language degree programs were invited to answer a self-administered questionnaire based on both the clinical learning environment, supervision and nurse teacher scale and Cultural and Linguistic Diversity scale with additional background questions. Participants (n=329) included international (n=231) and Finnish (n=98) nursing students. Binary logistic regression was used to identify background factors relating to the clinical learning environment and supervision. International students at a beginner level in Finnish perceived the pedagogical atmosphere as worse than native speakers. In comparison to native speakers, these international students generally needed greater support from the nurse teacher at their university. Students at an intermediate level in Finnish reported two times fewer negative encounters in cultural diversity at their clinical placement than the beginners. To facilitate a successful learning experience, international nursing students require a sufficient level of competence in the native language when conducting clinical placements. Educational interventions in language education are required to test causal effects on students' success in the clinical learning environment. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Field Dependence/Independence Cognitive Styles: Are They Significant at Different Levels of Vocabulary Knowledge?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rostampour, Mohammad; Niroomand, Seyyedeh Mitra

2014-01-01

Cognitive styles influence the performance of language learners and can predict their success in the process of language learning. Considering field dependence/independence cognitive styles, this study aims at determining if they are significant in English vocabulary knowledge. A number of EFL university students took part in the study. The…

Teachers' Attitudes and Technology Use in Indonesian EFL Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cahyani, Hilda; Cahyono, Bambang Y.

2012-01-01

The use of technology in education deals with two major aspects: mode and content. Nowadays, second-language teachers have the options to use technology, either web-based or non web-based, to help learners learn the target language (content) successfully. This paper aims at reporting research findings on the types of technology that the teachers…

Bilingual Life in a Multilingual High School Classroom: Teaching and Learning in Cantonese and English.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldstein, Tara

1997-01-01

Explores how Cantonese-speaking math students and their teacher use different languages to achieve academic and social success in their multilingual classroom in Toronto. The article discusses inter-ethnic tensions related to the use of languages other than English and raises questions regarding the advantages and disadvantages of multilingual…

Perceptual Training of Second-Language Vowels: Does Musical Ability Play a Role?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghaffarvand Mokari, Payam; Werner, Stefan

2018-01-01

The present study attempts to extend the research on the effects of phonetic training on the production and perception of second-language (L2) vowels. We also examined whether success in learning L2 vowels through high-variability intensive phonetic training is related to the learners' general musical abilities. Forty Azerbaijani learners of…

A Conflict between Experience and Professional Learning: Subject Teachers' Beliefs about Teaching English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gleeson, Margaret; Davison, Chris

2016-01-01

Secondary schools in Australia have long benefited from state policies aiming to increase the academic success of English language learners (ELLs). Complementary pre-service and in-service teacher education programmes have been implemented to raise the expertise of subject teachers who teach ELL students. However, subject teachers may not be…

Implications from Self-Efficacy and Attribution Theories for an Understanding of Undergraduates' Motivation in a Foreign Language Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsieh, Pei-Hsuan Peggy; Schallert, Diane L.

2008-01-01

Although studies on self-efficacy and attribution have independently contributed to the motivation literature, these two constructs have rarely been considered together in the domain of foreign language learning. Here, 500 undergraduates in Spanish, German, and French courses were asked to report whether test scores represented a successful or…

Connecting English Language Learning and Academic Performance: A Prediction Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kong, Jadie; Powers, Sonya; Starr, Laura; Williams, Natasha

2012-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of English language proficiency and academic reading assessment scores to predict the future academic success of English learner (EL) students. Data from two cohorts of middle-school ELs were used to evaluate three prediction models. One cohort of students was used to develop the prediction…

Using Video Modeling to Teach Young Children with Autism Developmentally Appropriate Play and Connected Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scheflen, Sarah Clifford; Freeman, Stephanny F. N.; Paparella, Tanya

2012-01-01

Four children with autism were taught play skills through the use of video modeling. Video instruction was used to model play and appropriate language through a developmental sequence of play levels integrated with language techniques. Results showed that children with autism could successfully use video modeling to learn how to play appropriately…

Hi-LAB: A New Measure of Aptitude for High-Level Language Proficiency

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Linck, Jared A.; Hughes, Meredith M.; Campbell, Susan G.; Silbert, Noah H.; Tare, Medha; Jackson, Scott R.; Smith, Benjamin K.; Bunting, Michael F.; Doughty, Catherine J.

2013-01-01

Few adult second language (L2) learners successfully attain high-level proficiency. Although decades of research on beginning to intermediate stages of L2 learning have identified a number of predictors of the rate of acquisition, little research has examined factors relevant to predicting very high levels of L2 proficiency. The current study,…

Exploring the Relationship among International Students' English Self-Efficacy, Using English to Learn Self-Efficacy, and Academic Self-Efficacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Chih-hsuan; Harrison, Jamie; Cardullo, Victoria; Lin, Xi

2018-01-01

One of the major challenges for international students to pursue academic goals in the United States is English language proficiency, which often negatively affects academic success. Even students with confidence in their English language proficiency encounter challenges using English in class. Previous research indicates self-efficacy positively…

Case Studies of Multilingual/Multicultural Asian Deaf Adults: Strategies for Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Qiuying; Andrews, Jean; Liu, Hsiu Tan; Liu, Chun Jung

2016-01-01

Case studies of adult d/Deaf or Hard of Hearing Multilingual Learners (DMLs) are few, especially studies of DMLs who learn more than one sign language and read logographic and alphabetic scripts. To reduce this paucity, two descriptive case studies are presented. Written questionnaires, face-to-face interviews, and self-appraisals of language-use…

Sensory grammars for sensor networks

PubMed Central

Aloimonos, Yiannis

2009-01-01

One of the major goals of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments is to interpret human activity sensed by a variety of sensors. In order to develop useful technologies and a subsequent industry around smart environments, we need to proceed in a principled manner. This paper suggests that human activity can be expressed in a language. This is a special language with its own phonemes, its own morphemes (words) and its own syntax and it can be learned using machine learning techniques applied to gargantuan amounts of data collected by sensor networks. Developing such languages will create bridges between Ambient Intelligence and other disciplines. It will also provide a hierarchical structure that can lead to a successful industry. PMID:21897837

The Benefits of Multilingualism to the Personal and Professional Development of Residents of The US.

PubMed

Kroll, Judith F; Dussias, Paola E

2017-01-01

In the past two decades, new research on multilingualism has changed our understanding of the consequences of learning and using two or more languages for cognition, for the brain, and for success and well-being across the entire lifespan. Far from the stereotype that exposure to multiple languages in infancy complicates language and cognitive development, the new findings suggest that individuals benefit from that exposure, with greater openness to other languages and to new learning itself. At the other end of the lifespan, in old age, the active use of two or more languages appears to provide protection against cognitive decline. That protection is seen in healthy aging and most dramatically in compensating for the symptoms of pathology in those who develop dementia or are recovering from stroke. In this article we briefly review the most exciting of these new research developments and consider their implications.

Successful and Practical Intercultural Communication Techniques.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dresser, Cynthia H.

Techniques for teaching students to use a variety of language and communication skills to improve participation and success in cross-cultural situations are outlined. The approach evolved in the context of the Naval Postgraduate School at Monterey, California, in which foreign military officers must learn strategies for effective communication in…

Second Language Teaching and Learning in the Net Generation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Oxford, Raquel, Ed.; Oxford, Jeffrey, Ed.

2009-01-01

Today's young people--the Net Generation--have grown up with technology all around them. However, teachers cannot assume that students' familiarity with technology in general transfers successfully to pedagogical settings. This volume examines various technologies and offers concrete advice on how each can be successfully implemented in the second…

[Hygiene requirements for the level of intellectual intensivity loads in foreign language learning].

PubMed

Ivashchenko, S N

2013-01-01

The material of this article provides information about the basics of hygiene conditions and nature of intellectual loads of students of secondary schools in the perception of information in a foreign language. Are the most favorable conditions for the successful training of perception and assimilation of information supplied in the course of the learning process in one foreign language or some more different ones? It was found that the process of perception and assimilation of educational information in foreign languages is associated with some degree of mental and emotional stress of students. At the same time, the effectiveness of the learning process depends on the degree of stress. Certain parameters of the psychological and emotional stress students usually have a stimulating effect on their central nervous system. Another level, the psychological and emotional stress of students on the contrary, causes a braking effect of functional activity of the relevant structures of the central nervous system of students and reduces the effectiveness of training.

Predictors of Success with Writing in the First Year of School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mackenzie, Noella; Hemmings, Brian

2014-01-01

Language and literacy skills are instrumental to success at school and early success with writing is a key factor in literacy development. By eight years of age, children spend up to half of their school day engaged in writing tasks suggesting that those who find learning to write difficult may be disadvantaged. The ability to hear and record…

Curriculum considerations for enhancing baccalaureate learning for international students.

PubMed

Pardue, Karen T; Haas, Barbara

2003-01-01

International students studying nursing in the United States present unique teaching opportunities and challenges. Student language, culture, and academic expectations are major factors for faculty to consider in delivering international education. An RN to BSN program provides baccalaureate completion study for registered nurses residing in Israel. Students can choose to complete the final semester in the United States. Israeli nursing students demonstrate a strong collectivistic orientation to their academic work. Issues related to English language fluency and academic paper preparation were identified. Success in international teaching endeavors is facilitated when faculty carefully evaluate course materials and assignments. Clarity of language, cultural expectations, and availability of academic resources are important considerations for promoting student success.

Ten Steps to Conducting a Large, Multi-Site, Longitudinal Investigation of Language and Reading in Young Children

PubMed Central

Farquharson, Kelly; Murphy, Kimberly A.

2016-01-01

Purpose: This paper describes methodological procedures involving execution of a large-scale, multi-site longitudinal study of language and reading comprehension in young children. Researchers in the Language and Reading Research Consortium (LARRC) developed and implemented these procedures to ensure data integrity across multiple sites, schools, and grades. Specifically, major features of our approach, as well as lessons learned, are summarized in 10 steps essential for successful completion of a large-scale longitudinal investigation in early grades. Method: Over 5 years, children in preschool through third grade were administered a battery of 35 higher- and lower-level language, listening, and reading comprehension measures (RCM). Data were collected from children, their teachers, and their parents/guardians at four sites across the United States. Substantial and rigorous effort was aimed toward maintaining consistency in processes and data management across sites for children, assessors, and staff. Conclusion: With appropriate planning, flexibility, and communication strategies in place, LARRC developed and executed a successful multi-site longitudinal research study that will meet its goal of investigating the contribution and role of language skills in the development of children's listening and reading comprehension. Through dissemination of our design strategies and lessons learned, research teams embarking on similar endeavors can be better equipped to anticipate the challenges. PMID:27064308

Learning Partners: Escribamos! Leamos! Juguemos a las Ciencias! Juguemos a las Matematicas! (Learning Partners: Let's Write! Let's Read! Let's Play Mathematics! Let's Play Science!)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Office of Educational Research and Improvement (ED), Washington, DC.

This Spanish-language document consists of four single-sheet sets of guidelines developed by the Family Involvement Partnership for Learning to assist parents in facilitating their children's elementary school success. The front part of the sheets describes general ways parents can support their children, including modeling writing, reading aloud,…

An Understanding of the Role of Socio-Cultural Learning: Using the Past To Maximize Potential for Future Academic Success.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wallace, Beverly A.

This paper examines the plight of the child with a learning disability who enters a classroom to hear only a foreign language, to misunderstand the accompanying nonverbal signals, and to see only alien symbols written on the board. This child with a learning disability will have difficulty in the classroom unless the teacher applies the basic…

Language at Three Timescales: The Role of Real-Time Processes in Language Development and Evolution.

PubMed

McMurray, Bob

2016-04-01

Evolutionary developmental systems (evo-devo) theory stresses that selection pressures operate on entire developmental systems rather than just genes. This study extends this approach to language evolution, arguing that selection pressure may operate on two quasi-independent timescales. First, children clearly must acquire language successfully (as acknowledged in traditional evo-devo accounts) and evolution must equip them with the tools to do so. Second, while this is developing, they must also communicate with others in the moment using partially developed knowledge. These pressures may require different solutions, and their combination may underlie the evolution of complex mechanisms for language development and processing. I present two case studies to illustrate how the demands of both real-time communication and language acquisition may be subtly different (and interact). The first case study examines infant-directed speech (IDS). A recent view is that IDS underwent cultural to statistical learning mechanisms that infants use to acquire the speech categories of their language. However, recent data suggest is it may not have evolved to enhance development, but rather to serve a more real-time communicative function. The second case study examines the argument for seemingly specialized mechanisms for learning word meanings (e.g., fast-mapping). Both behavioral and computational work suggest that learning may be much slower and served by general-purpose mechanisms like associative learning. Fast-mapping, then, may be a real-time process meant to serve immediate communication, not learning, by augmenting incomplete vocabulary knowledge with constraints from the current context. Together, these studies suggest that evolutionary accounts consider selection pressure arising from both real-time communicative demands and from the need for accurate language development. Copyright © 2016 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Early Childhood Educators' Understanding of Early Communication: Application to Their Work with Young Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brebner, Chris; Jovanovic, Jessie; Lawless, Angela; Young, Jessica

2016-01-01

Young children need rich learning experiences to maximize their potential. Early childhood educators (ECEs) working in childcare have knowledge of individual children as well as skills and professional knowledge that afford opportunities to provide language-rich environments for learning. To successfully work in partnership with ECEs,…

E-learning Constructive Role Plays for EFL Learners in China's Tertiary Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shen, Lin; Suwanthep, Jitpanat

2011-01-01

Recently, speaking has played an increasingly important role in second/foreign language settings. However, in many Chinese universities, EFL students rarely communicate in English with other people effectively. The existing behavioristic role plays on New Horizon College English (NHCE) e-learning do not function successfully in supplementing EFL…

Repetition across Successive Sentences Facilitates Young Children's Word Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwab, Jessica F.; Lew-Williams, Casey

2016-01-01

Young children who hear more child-directed speech (CDS) tend to have larger vocabularies later in childhood, but the specific characteristics of CDS underlying this link are currently underspecified. The present study sought to elucidate how the structure of language input boosts learning by investigating whether repetition of object labels in…

Learning Communities: Beliefs Embedded in Content-Based Rituals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartel, Virginia B.

2005-01-01

This article addresses the underlying beliefs needed by teachers of young children if their learning communities are to be successful and self-sustaining. The relationships of language arts and social studies content to specific academic, social and literary rituals are discussed in the context of classroom examples in the United States. Trust and…

Teachers' Beliefs and the Integration of Technology in the EFL Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

García Chamorro, Martha; Rey, Lourdes

2013-01-01

Over the past few decades, information and communication technologies have been integrated into the language teaching and learning scenario with relatively great success. Accordingly, teachers' role in this process is fundamental in order to make this integration really relevant for students' learning. This paper reports the results obtained in a…

Coupling Changing Student Demographics with Evidence-Based Leadership Practices: Leading Hispanic Friendly Learning Organizations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Farmer, Tod Allen

2012-01-01

The study assessed the need for learning organizations to implement evidence-based policies and practices designed to enhance the academic and social success of Hispanic learners. Descriptive statistics and longitudinal data from the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) and the National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition…

Developing Media Literacy Skills for Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

James, Jessica Everett

2014-01-01

Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD), such as emotional disturbances, and speech or language impairment, attending high schools located in the rural Mississippi Delta lack media literacy skills that could impact the student's ability to successfully graduate from high school. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify…

Human inferior colliculus activity relates to individual differences in spoken language learning

PubMed Central

Chandrasekaran, Bharath; Kraus, Nina

2012-01-01

A challenge to learning words of a foreign language is encoding nonnative phonemes, a process typically attributed to cortical circuitry. Using multimodal imaging methods [functional magnetic resonance imaging-adaptation (fMRI-A) and auditory brain stem responses (ABR)], we examined the extent to which pretraining pitch encoding in the inferior colliculus (IC), a primary midbrain structure, related to individual variability in learning to successfully use nonnative pitch patterns to distinguish words in American English-speaking adults. fMRI-A indexed the efficiency of pitch representation localized to the IC, whereas ABR quantified midbrain pitch-related activity with millisecond precision. In line with neural “sharpening” models, we found that efficient IC pitch pattern representation (indexed by fMRI) related to superior neural representation of pitch patterns (indexed by ABR), and consequently more successful word learning following sound-to-meaning training. Our results establish a critical role for the IC in speech-sound representation, consistent with the established role for the IC in the representation of communication signals in other animal models. PMID:22131377

Using Stories to Extinguish the Hot Spots in Second Language Acquisition, Preschool to Grade 1

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soderman, Anne K.; Clevenger, Kay G.; Kent, Ian Gregory

2013-01-01

Many U.S. classrooms today have at least some children with limited abilities to understand and express themselves in English. Two critical factors spell success or failure for teachers who have dual language learners (DLLs) in their classrooms: the teacher's understanding of and respect for the initial difficulties in learning a second language…

Fostering Autonomy through Syllabus Design: A Step-by-Step Guide for Success

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramírez Espinosa, Alexánder

2016-01-01

Promoting learner autonomy is relevant in the field of applied linguistics due to the multiple benefits it brings to the process of learning a new language. However, despite the vast array of research on how to foster autonomy in the language classroom, it is difficult to find step-by-step processes to design syllabi and curricula focused on the…

EFL Learners in the Digital Age: An Investigation into Personal and Educational Digital Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin Kizil, Aysel

2017-01-01

To gauge the success of integrating technology into classrooms which is among the popular topics in the field of language learning, there is a need to understand how end users, language learners, use technology and bear the characteristics of digital learner as claimed for the current generation of learners. To this end, this study collected data…

Educators' Perceptions of Using a Language Acquisition Program to Close English Learners' Achievement Gap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leake, Alecia Ronneice

2017-01-01

For many years English learners (ELs) have lagged behind native speakers of English in the academic community. In an era of accountability, the pressure to achieve and maintain Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) status is increasing the burden of success on ELs, especially when trying to learn a second language. The population of English learners is…

The Power of Beliefs: Lay Theories and Their Influence on the Implementation of CLIL Programmes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Huttner, Julia; Dalton-Puffer, Christiane; Smit, Ute

2013-01-01

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) is one of the most dynamic pedagogic trends in language teaching in Europe, and yet, the enthusiasm with which this innovation is implemented by stakeholders and "made a success" is not fully understood. In this paper we argue for an investigation of CLIL implementation as a form of…

Visual sign phonology: insights into human reading and language from a natural soundless phonology.

PubMed

Petitto, L A; Langdon, C; Stone, A; Andriola, D; Kartheiser, G; Cochran, C

2016-11-01

Among the most prevailing assumptions in science and society about the human reading process is that sound and sound-based phonology are critical to young readers. The child's sound-to-letter decoding is viewed as universal and vital to deriving meaning from print. We offer a different view. The crucial link for early reading success is not between segmental sounds and print. Instead the human brain's capacity to segment, categorize, and discern linguistic patterning makes possible the capacity to segment all languages. This biological process includes the segmentation of languages on the hands in signed languages. Exposure to natural sign language in early life equally affords the child's discovery of silent segmental units in visual sign phonology (VSP) that can also facilitate segmental decoding of print. We consider powerful biological evidence about the brain, how it builds sound and sign phonology, and why sound and sign phonology are equally important in language learning and reading. We offer a testable theoretical account, reading model, and predictions about how VSP can facilitate segmentation and mapping between print and meaning. We explain how VSP can be a powerful facilitator of all children's reading success (deaf and hearing)-an account with profound transformative impact on learning to read in deaf children with different language backgrounds. The existence of VSP has important implications for understanding core properties of all human language and reading, challenges assumptions about language and reading as being tied to sound, and provides novel insight into a remarkable biological equivalence in signed and spoken languages. WIREs Cogn Sci 2016, 7:366-381. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1404 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Native-likeness in second language lexical categorization reflects individual language history and linguistic community norms.

PubMed

Zinszer, Benjamin D; Malt, Barbara C; Ameel, Eef; Li, Ping

2014-01-01

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNERS FACE A DUAL CHALLENGE IN VOCABULARY LEARNING: First, they must learn new names for the 100s of common objects that they encounter every day. Second, after some time, they discover that these names do not generalize according to the same rules used in their first language. Lexical categories frequently differ between languages (Malt et al., 1999), and successful language learning requires that bilinguals learn not just new words but new patterns for labeling objects. In the present study, Chinese learners of English with varying language histories and resident in two different language settings (Beijing, China and State College, PA, USA) named 67 photographs of common serving dishes (e.g., cups, plates, and bowls) in both Chinese and English. Participants' response patterns were quantified in terms of similarity to the responses of functionally monolingual native speakers of Chinese and English and showed the cross-language convergence previously observed in simultaneous bilinguals (Ameel et al., 2005). For English, bilinguals' names for each individual stimulus were also compared to the dominant name generated by the native speakers for the object. Using two statistical models, we disentangle the effects of several highly interactive variables from bilinguals' language histories and the naming norms of the native speaker community to predict inter-personal and inter-item variation in L2 (English) native-likeness. We find only a modest age of earliest exposure effect on L2 category native-likeness, but importantly, we find that classroom instruction in L2 negatively impacts L2 category native-likeness, even after significant immersion experience. We also identify a significant role of both L1 and L2 norms in bilinguals' L2 picture naming responses.

Native-likeness in second language lexical categorization reflects individual language history and linguistic community norms

PubMed Central

Zinszer, Benjamin D.; Malt, Barbara C.; Ameel, Eef; Li, Ping

2014-01-01

Second language learners face a dual challenge in vocabulary learning: First, they must learn new names for the 100s of common objects that they encounter every day. Second, after some time, they discover that these names do not generalize according to the same rules used in their first language. Lexical categories frequently differ between languages (Malt et al., 1999), and successful language learning requires that bilinguals learn not just new words but new patterns for labeling objects. In the present study, Chinese learners of English with varying language histories and resident in two different language settings (Beijing, China and State College, PA, USA) named 67 photographs of common serving dishes (e.g., cups, plates, and bowls) in both Chinese and English. Participants’ response patterns were quantified in terms of similarity to the responses of functionally monolingual native speakers of Chinese and English and showed the cross-language convergence previously observed in simultaneous bilinguals (Ameel et al., 2005). For English, bilinguals’ names for each individual stimulus were also compared to the dominant name generated by the native speakers for the object. Using two statistical models, we disentangle the effects of several highly interactive variables from bilinguals’ language histories and the naming norms of the native speaker community to predict inter-personal and inter-item variation in L2 (English) native-likeness. We find only a modest age of earliest exposure effect on L2 category native-likeness, but importantly, we find that classroom instruction in L2 negatively impacts L2 category native-likeness, even after significant immersion experience. We also identify a significant role of both L1 and L2 norms in bilinguals’ L2 picture naming responses. PMID:25386149

Clustering and Candidate Motif Detection in Exosomal miRNAs by Application of Machine Learning Algorithms.

PubMed

Gaur, Pallavi; Chaturvedi, Anoop

2017-07-22

The clustering pattern and motifs give immense information about any biological data. An application of machine learning algorithms for clustering and candidate motif detection in miRNAs derived from exosomes is depicted in this paper. Recent progress in the field of exosome research and more particularly regarding exosomal miRNAs has led much bioinformatic-based research to come into existence. The information on clustering pattern and candidate motifs in miRNAs of exosomal origin would help in analyzing existing, as well as newly discovered miRNAs within exosomes. Along with obtaining clustering pattern and candidate motifs in exosomal miRNAs, this work also elaborates the usefulness of the machine learning algorithms that can be efficiently used and executed on various programming languages/platforms. Data were clustered and sequence candidate motifs were detected successfully. The results were compared and validated with some available web tools such as 'BLASTN' and 'MEME suite'. The machine learning algorithms for aforementioned objectives were applied successfully. This work elaborated utility of machine learning algorithms and language platforms to achieve the tasks of clustering and candidate motif detection in exosomal miRNAs. With the information on mentioned objectives, deeper insight would be gained for analyses of newly discovered miRNAs in exosomes which are considered to be circulating biomarkers. In addition, the execution of machine learning algorithms on various language platforms gives more flexibility to users to try multiple iterations according to their requirements. This approach can be applied to other biological data-mining tasks as well.

[A comparative analysis of the brain activity during the traditional and intensive forms of learning foreign languages].

PubMed

Bykova, L G; Bazylev, V N

1994-01-01

By means of dichotic test the comparative research of the brain activity in dynamics in 84 adult students was conducted during their traditional (36 persons) and intensive (48 persons) learning of foreign languages. By different methods of learning the reliable distinction of the hemisphere's asymmetry was not detected. By both methods in the reliable majority of students the activation of the hemisphere opposite to the one dominating initially was observed. The correlation between the maximum quantitative shift of the right ear coefficient and the level of success in colloquial practice by the same initial level of language start and initial comparable size of memory was revealed. The authors discuss the possibility of the individual map composition for every student using the results of dichotic tests in dynamics for the help in the profession of a teacher.

Toddlers learn words in a foreign language: The role of native vocabulary knowledge

PubMed Central

Koenig, Melissa A.; Woodward, Amanda L.

2013-01-01

The current study examined monolingual English-speaking toddlers’ (N=50) ability to learn word-referent links from native speakers of Dutch versus English and secondly, whether children generalized or sequestered their extensions when terms were tested by a subsequent speaker of English. Overall, children performed better in the English than in the Dutch condition; however, children with high native vocabularies successfully selected the target object for terms trained in fluent Dutch. Furthermore, children with higher vocabularies did not indicate their comprehension of Dutch terms when subsequently tested by an English speaker whereas children with low vocabulary scores responded at chance levels to both the original Dutch speaker and the second English speaker. These findings demonstrate that monolingual toddlers with proficiency in their native language are capable of learning words outside of their conventional system and may be sensitive to the boundaries that exist between language systems. PMID:22310327

Dynamic Influence of Emotional States on Novel Word Learning

PubMed Central

Guo, Jingjing; Zou, Tiantian; Peng, Danling

2018-01-01

Many researchers realize that it's unrealistic to isolate language learning and processing from emotions. However, few studies on language learning have taken emotions into consideration so far, so that the probable influences of emotions on language learning are unclear. The current study thereby aimed to examine the effects of emotional states on novel word learning and their dynamic changes with learning continuing and task varying. Positive, negative or neutral pictures were employed to induce a given emotional state, and then participants learned the novel words through association with line-drawing pictures in four successive learning phases. At the end of each learning phase, participants were instructed to fulfill a semantic category judgment task (in Experiment 1) or a word-picture semantic consistency judgment task (in Experiment 2) to explore the effects of emotional states on different depths of word learning. Converging results demonstrated that negative emotional state led to worse performance compared with neutral condition; however, how positive emotional state affected learning varied with learning task. Specifically, a facilitative role of positive emotional state in semantic category learning was observed but disappeared in word specific meaning learning. Moreover, the emotional modulation on novel word learning was quite dynamic and changeable with learning continuing, and the final attainment of the learned words tended to be similar under different emotional states. The findings suggest that the impact of emotion can be offset when novel words became more and more familiar and a part of existent lexicon. PMID:29695994

Dynamic Influence of Emotional States on Novel Word Learning.

PubMed

Guo, Jingjing; Zou, Tiantian; Peng, Danling

2018-01-01

Many researchers realize that it's unrealistic to isolate language learning and processing from emotions. However, few studies on language learning have taken emotions into consideration so far, so that the probable influences of emotions on language learning are unclear. The current study thereby aimed to examine the effects of emotional states on novel word learning and their dynamic changes with learning continuing and task varying. Positive, negative or neutral pictures were employed to induce a given emotional state, and then participants learned the novel words through association with line-drawing pictures in four successive learning phases. At the end of each learning phase, participants were instructed to fulfill a semantic category judgment task (in Experiment 1) or a word-picture semantic consistency judgment task (in Experiment 2) to explore the effects of emotional states on different depths of word learning. Converging results demonstrated that negative emotional state led to worse performance compared with neutral condition; however, how positive emotional state affected learning varied with learning task. Specifically, a facilitative role of positive emotional state in semantic category learning was observed but disappeared in word specific meaning learning. Moreover, the emotional modulation on novel word learning was quite dynamic and changeable with learning continuing, and the final attainment of the learned words tended to be similar under different emotional states. The findings suggest that the impact of emotion can be offset when novel words became more and more familiar and a part of existent lexicon.

Typological Asymmetries in Round Vowel Harmony: Support from Artificial Grammar Learning

PubMed Central

Finley, Sara

2012-01-01

Providing evidence for the universal tendencies of patterns in the world’s languages can be difficult, as it is impossible to sample all possible languages, and linguistic samples are subject to interpretation. However, experimental techniques such as artificial grammar learning paradigms make it possible to uncover the psychological reality of claimed universal tendencies. This paper addresses learning of phonological patterns (systematic tendencies in the sounds in language). Specifically, I explore the role of phonetic grounding in learning round harmony, a phonological process in which words must contain either all round vowels ([o, u]) or all unround vowels ([i, e]). The phonetic precursors to round harmony are such that mid vowels ([o, e]), which receive the greatest perceptual benefit from harmony, are most likely to trigger harmony. High vowels ([i, u]), however, are cross-linguistically less likely to trigger round harmony. Adult participants were exposed to a miniature language that contained a round harmony pattern in which the harmony source triggers were either high vowels ([i, u]) (poor harmony source triggers) or mid vowels ([o, e]) (ideal harmony source triggers). Only participants who were exposed to the ideal mid vowel harmony source triggers were successfully able to generalize the harmony pattern to novel instances, suggesting that perception and phonetic naturalness play a role in learning. PMID:23264713

Assessing the Success Rate of Students Using a Learning Management System Together with a Collaborative Tool in Web-Based Teaching of Programming Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cavus, Nadire; Ibrahim, Dogan

2007-01-01

The development of collaborative studies in learning has led to a renewed interest in the field of Web-based education. In this experimental study a highly interactive and collaborative virtual teaching environment has been created by supporting Moodle LMS with collaborative learning tool GREWPtool. The aim of this experimental study has been to…

Advances in natural language processing.

PubMed

Hirschberg, Julia; Manning, Christopher D

2015-07-17

Natural language processing employs computational techniques for the purpose of learning, understanding, and producing human language content. Early computational approaches to language research focused on automating the analysis of the linguistic structure of language and developing basic technologies such as machine translation, speech recognition, and speech synthesis. Today's researchers refine and make use of such tools in real-world applications, creating spoken dialogue systems and speech-to-speech translation engines, mining social media for information about health or finance, and identifying sentiment and emotion toward products and services. We describe successes and challenges in this rapidly advancing area. Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Using the Communication in Science Inquiry Project Professional Development Model to Facilitate Learning Middle School Genetics Concepts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baker, Dale R.; Lewis, Elizabeth B.; Uysal, Sibel; Purzer, Senay; Lang, Michael; Baker, Perry

2011-01-01

This study describes the effect of embedding content in the Communication in Inquiry Science Project professional development model for science and language arts teachers. The model uses four components of successful professional development (content focus, active learning, extended duration, participation by teams of teachers from the same school…

Classroom-Based L2 Vocabulary Learning and Comprehension: Replications of Lesaux, Kieffer, Faller & Kelley (2010)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durgunoglu, Aydin Yücesan; Bigelow, Martha

2017-01-01

The field of language teaching and learning is in dire need of replications of vocabulary and comprehension research with diverse populations of learners. We propose for replication one large-scale vocabulary intervention carried out successfully in a middle-school with monolingual and multilingual students. This study was carried out several…

Teaching Introductory Programming to IS Students: Java Problems and Pitfalls

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pendergast, Mark O.

2006-01-01

This paper examines the impact the use of the Java programming language has had on the way our students learn to program and the success they achieve. The importance of a properly constructed first course in programming cannot be overstated. A course well experienced will leave students with good programming habits, the ability to learn on their…

Learning Online: A Comparison of Different Media Types

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kößler, Franziska J.; Nitzschner, Marco M.

2015-01-01

Based on research about humor, foreign languages, and instructional design, in the current study we examined whether successful learning is related to using different types of media. We compared the comprehension of an economic concept in novices (N = 82) under three conditions: a Wikipedia article, a funny, and a serious YouTube video. The media…

Academic Performance and Learning Style Self-Predictions by Second Language Students in an Introductory Biology Course

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Breckler, Jennifer; Teoh, Chia Shan; Role, Kemi

2011-01-01

Academic success in first-year college science coursework can strongly influence future career paths and usually includes a solid performance in introductory biology. We wanted to know whether factors affecting biology student performance might include learning style preferences and one's ability and confidence in self-assessing those learning…

More than Just Language Advising: Rapport in University English Writing Consultations and Implications for Tutor Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Cynthia

2015-01-01

Adopting a case study approach with multiple data sources, this paper explores the ways in which rapport is built, and its impact on the learning process based on five successive writing support consultations between a native English-speaking (NES) tutor and her second language (L2) tutee in a Hong Kong university. With reference to the prepared…

The Best Ways of Teaching English to Children: Using Children's Operas in Teaching to 5- to 6-Year-Old Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Achkasova, Natalya

2013-01-01

This article invites teachers to consider how to strengthen links between English, music, arts, and acting, maximizing the potential for children to become successful language learners at a young age. It will show how children's opera can act as a catalyst for learning and using the language. The findings demonstrate that teaching English with a…

Project Success for the SLD Child, Motor-Perception Activities.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wayne - Carroll Public Schools, Wayne, NE.

Presented is a curriculum guide for a perceptual motor program which was developed by Project Success (Nebraska) through a Title III grant for language learning disabled elementary level students in kindergarten through grade 3. The program is said to be arranged in a hierarchy of skills ranging from simple to complex and to be written so that the…

Using Foreign Virtual Patients With Medical Students in Germany: Are Cultural Differences Evident and Do They Impede Learning?

PubMed

Walldorf, Jens; Jähnert, Tina; Berman, Norman B; Fischer, Martin R

2016-09-27

Learning with virtual patients (VPs) is considered useful in medical education for fostering clinical reasoning. As the authoring of VPs is highly demanding, an international exchange of cases might be desirable. However, cultural differences in foreign VPs might hamper learning success. We investigated the need for support for using VPs from the United States at a German university, with respect to language and cultural differences. Our goal was to better understand potential implementation barriers of a intercultural VP exchange. Two VPs were presented to 30 German medical students featuring a cultural background different from German standards with respect to diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, ethical aspects, role models, and language (as identified by a cultural adaptation framework). Participants were assigned to two groups: 14 students were advised to complete the cases without further instructions (basic group), and 16 students received written explanatory supplemental information specifically with regard to cultural differences (supplement group). Using a 6-point scale (6=strongly agree), we analyzed the results of an integrated assessment of learning success as well as an evaluation of cases by the students on usefulness for learning and potential issues regarding the language and cultural background. The German students found it motivating to work with cases written in English (6-point scale, 4.5 points). The clinical relevance of the VPs was clearly recognized (6 points), and the foreign language was considered a minor problem in this context (3 points). The results of the integrated learning assessment were similar in both groups (basic 53% [SD 4] vs supplement 52% [SD 4] correct answers, P=.32). However, students using the supplemental material more readily realized culturally different diagnostic and therapeutic strategies (basic 4 vs supplement 5 points, P=.39) and were less affirmative when asked about the transferability of cases to a German context (basic 5 vs supplement 3 points, P=.048). German students found English VPs to be highly clinically relevant, and they rated language problems much lower than they rated motivation to work on cases in English. This should encourage the intercultural exchange of VPs. The provision of supplemental explanatory material facilitates the recognition of cultural differences and might help prevent unexpected learning effects.

Motivation, strategy, and English as a foreign language vocabulary learning: A structural equation modelling study.

PubMed

Zhang, Yining; Lin, Chin-Hsi; Zhang, Dongbo; Choi, Yunjeong

2017-03-01

In spite of considerable advancements in our understanding of the different factors involved in achieving vocabulary-learning success, the overall pattern and interrelationships of critical factors involved in L2 vocabulary learning - particularly, the mechanisms through which learners regulate their motivation and learning strategies - remain unclear. This study examined L2 vocabulary learning, focusing on the joint influence of different motivational factors and learning strategies on the vocabulary breadth of adolescent learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) in China. The participants were 107 tenth graders (68 females, 39 males) in China. The data were collected via two questionnaires, one assessing students' motivation towards English-vocabulary learning and the other their English vocabulary-learning strategies, along with a test measuring vocabulary breadth. Structural equation modelling (SEM) indicated that learning strategy partially mediated the relationship between motivation (i.e., a composite score of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation) and vocabulary learning. Separate SEM analyses for intrinsic (IM) and extrinsic motivation (EM) revealed that there were significant and positive direct and indirect effects of IM on vocabulary knowledge; and while EM's direct effect over and above that of learning strategies did not achieve significance, its indirect effect was significant and positive. The findings suggest that vocabulary-learning strategies mediate the relationship between motivation and vocabulary knowledge. In addition, IM may have a greater influence on vocabulary learning in foreign-language contexts. © 2016 The British Psychological Society.

The Now-or-Never bottleneck: A fundamental constraint on language.

PubMed

Christiansen, Morten H; Chater, Nick

2016-01-01

Memory is fleeting. New material rapidly obliterates previous material. How, then, can the brain deal successfully with the continual deluge of linguistic input? We argue that, to deal with this "Now-or-Never" bottleneck, the brain must compress and recode linguistic input as rapidly as possible. This observation has strong implications for the nature of language processing: (1) the language system must "eagerly" recode and compress linguistic input; (2) as the bottleneck recurs at each new representational level, the language system must build a multilevel linguistic representation; and (3) the language system must deploy all available information predictively to ensure that local linguistic ambiguities are dealt with "Right-First-Time"; once the original input is lost, there is no way for the language system to recover. This is "Chunk-and-Pass" processing. Similarly, language learning must also occur in the here and now, which implies that language acquisition is learning to process, rather than inducing, a grammar. Moreover, this perspective provides a cognitive foundation for grammaticalization and other aspects of language change. Chunk-and-Pass processing also helps explain a variety of core properties of language, including its multilevel representational structure and duality of patterning. This approach promises to create a direct relationship between psycholinguistics and linguistic theory. More generally, we outline a framework within which to integrate often disconnected inquiries into language processing, language acquisition, and language change and evolution.

The Efficiency of Different Online Learning Media--An Empirical Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Köbler, Franziska J.; Nitzschner, Marco M.

2014-01-01

In the current study, it was examined whether successful learning is related to using different types of media. We compared the comprehension of an economic concept in novices (N = 82) under three conditions: a Wikipedia article, a funny, and a serious YouTube video. The media were presented in English which is a foreign language to most of the…

Motivation: The Road to Successful Learning (La motivación: el camino para un aprendizaje exitoso)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Espinar Redondo, Rocío; Ortega Martín, José Luis

2015-01-01

This research has the aim of highlighting the importance of motivation in the process of learning English as a foreign language. For that purpose, some factors that affect motivation are described, using as a starting point the answers obtained from a questionnaire given to students in their fourth year of compulsory secondary education. The main…

Sabemos y Podemos: Learning for Social Action. Adult Education Curriculum. English Edition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Rachel

This adult education curriculum, part of the Aprender Es Poder (To Learn Is Power) program, explores the themes of school success for Latino children, expands the work options and improves the working conditions of Latino adults, and identifies community issues. It is meant to be a resource for English as a Second Language Literacy and adult basic…

The Transfer of Online Instruction to TESOL Candidates' Perceived Self-Efficacy of Teaching English Language Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Baseri, Shelly Hannah

2013-01-01

The ability of teachers to transfer what they have learned in a teacher education program to the classroom has been found by numerous researchers to contribute to students' successful learning (Bransford and Schwartz, 1999; Darling-Hammond, 2005). Additionally, teacher efficacy, or a "teacher's belief in his or her capability to…

East learns from West: Asiatic honeybees can understand dance language of European honeybees.

PubMed

Su, Songkun; Cai, Fang; Si, Aung; Zhang, Shaowu; Tautz, Jürgen; Chen, Shenglu

2008-06-04

The honeybee waggle dance, through which foragers advertise the existence and location of a food source to their hive mates, is acknowledged as the only known form of symbolic communication in an invertebrate. However, the suggestion, that different species of honeybee might possess distinct 'dialects' of the waggle dance, remains controversial. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether different species of honeybee can learn from and communicate with each other. This study reports experiments using a mixed-species colony that is composed of the Asiatic bee Apis cerana cerana (Acc), and the European bee Apis mellifera ligustica (Aml). Using video recordings made at an observation hive, we first confirm that Acc and Aml have significantly different dance dialects, even when made to forage in identical environments. When reared in the same colony, these two species are able to communicate with each other: Acc foragers could decode the dances of Aml to successfully locate an indicated food source. We believe that this is the first report of successful symbolic communication between two honeybee species; our study hints at the possibility of social learning between the two honeybee species, and at the existence of a learning component in the honeybee dance language.

East Learns from West: Asiatic Honeybees Can Understand Dance Language of European Honeybees

PubMed Central

Su, Songkun; Cai, Fang; Si, Aung; Zhang, Shaowu; Tautz, Jürgen; Chen, Shenglu

2008-01-01

The honeybee waggle dance, through which foragers advertise the existence and location of a food source to their hive mates, is acknowledged as the only known form of symbolic communication in an invertebrate. However, the suggestion, that different species of honeybee might possess distinct ‘dialects’ of the waggle dance, remains controversial. Furthermore, it remains unclear whether different species of honeybee can learn from and communicate with each other. This study reports experiments using a mixed-species colony that is composed of the Asiatic bee Apis cerana cerana (Acc), and the European bee Apis mellifera ligustica (Aml). Using video recordings made at an observation hive, we first confirm that Acc and Aml have significantly different dance dialects, even when made to forage in identical environments. When reared in the same colony, these two species are able to communicate with each other: Acc foragers could decode the dances of Aml to successfully locate an indicated food source. We believe that this is the first report of successful symbolic communication between two honeybee species; our study hints at the possibility of social learning between the two honeybee species, and at the existence of a learning component in the honeybee dance language. PMID:18523550

To Investigate ESL Students' Instrumental and Integrative Motivation towards English Language Learning in a Chinese School in Penang: Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hong, Yee Chee; Ganapathy, Malini

2017-01-01

Malaysians have long realised the importance of being competent in English as one of the success factors in attaining their future goals. However, English is taught as a second language in Malaysia, and it is not easy to teach under such a foreign context, because authentic input may not exist beyond the classroom, especially in Chinese private…

Creating Schools That Support Success for English Language Learners. Lessons Learned. Volume 1, Issue 2

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stepanek, Jennifer; Raphael, Jacqueline

2010-01-01

The past two decades have brought the second largest wave of immigration in U.S. history. This has led to a rapid and unprecedented influx of immigrants to the Pacific Northwest as well as a rise in the number of English language learners (ELLs) in schools. Between 2002-2003 and 2007-2008, the Northwest's annual growth in ELL enrollment was nearly…

Reading Fluency beyond English: Investigations into Reading Fluency in Turkish Elementary Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yildirim, Kasim; Rasinski, Timothy

2014-01-01

Reading fluency is one of the underlying factors of successful language curricula and it is also one of the defining characteristics of good readers. A lack of fluency is a common characteristic of struggling readers. There is a growing body of research that demonstrates proficiency in reading fluency is important for success in learning to read…

Dogs’ Body Language Relevant to Learning Achievement

PubMed Central

Hasegawa, Masashi; Ohtani, Nobuyo; Ohta, Mitsuaki

2014-01-01

Simple Summary For humans and dogs to live together amiably, dog training is required, and a lack of obedience training is significantly related to the prevalence of certain behavioral problems. To train efficiently, it is important that the trainer/owner ascertains the learning level of the dog. Understanding the dog’s body language helps humans understand the animal’s emotions. This study evaluated the posture of certain dog body parts during operant conditioning. Our findings suggest that certain postures were related to the dog’s learning level during operant conditioning. Being aware of these postures could be helpful to understand canine emotion during learning. Abstract The facial expressions and body postures of dogs can give helpful information about their moods and emotional states. People can more effectively obedience train their dogs if we can identify the mannerisms associated with learning in dogs. The aim of this study was to clarify the dog’s body language during operant conditioning to predict achievement in the test that followed by measuring the duration of behaviors. Forty-six untrained dogs (17 males and 26 females) of various breeds were used. Each session consisted of 5 minutes of training with a treat reward followed by 3 minutes of rest and finally an operant conditioning test that consisted of 20 “hand motion” cues. The operant tests were conducted a total of nine times over three consecutive days, and the success numbers were counted. The duration of the dog’s behavior, focusing on the dog’s eyes, mouth, ears, tail and tail-wagging, was recorded during the operant conditioning sessions before the test. Particular behaviors, including wide-eyes, closed mouth, erect ears, and forward and high tail carriage, without wagging or with short and quick wagging, related to high achievement results. It is concluded that dogs' body language during operant conditioning was related to their success rate. PMID:26479883

Word reading skill predicts anticipation of upcoming spoken language input: a study of children developing proficiency in reading.

PubMed

Mani, Nivedita; Huettig, Falk

2014-10-01

Despite the efficiency with which language users typically process spoken language, a growing body of research finds substantial individual differences in both the speed and accuracy of spoken language processing potentially attributable to participants' literacy skills. Against this background, the current study took a look at the role of word reading skill in listeners' anticipation of upcoming spoken language input in children at the cusp of learning to read; if reading skills affect predictive language processing, then children at this stage of literacy acquisition should be most susceptible to the effects of reading skills on spoken language processing. We tested 8-year-olds on their prediction of upcoming spoken language input in an eye-tracking task. Although children, like in previous studies to date, were successfully able to anticipate upcoming spoken language input, there was a strong positive correlation between children's word reading skills (but not their pseudo-word reading and meta-phonological awareness or their spoken word recognition skills) and their prediction skills. We suggest that these findings are most compatible with the notion that the process of learning orthographic representations during reading acquisition sharpens pre-existing lexical representations, which in turn also supports anticipation of upcoming spoken words. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Characteristics of body constitution and their relations to success in learning].

PubMed

Vikhruk, T I; Vikhruk, A Ia; Churganov, O A; Kolotov, V Ia

2004-01-01

Somatotype, finger dermatoglyphic pattern type, emotional stability level and foreign languages learning successfulness have been analyzed in 297 male cadets (aged 17-20 years) of the Military Institute of Physical Training. The cadets studied most frequently belonged to macrosomal and mesosomal somatotypes. In the study of finger patterns, loops were found to be most common (61.5% of all the patterns), while ringlets (33.4%) and arc patterns (5.1%) were less frequent. The amount of ulnar loops increased, while that of ringlets became less in the direction from micro- to macrosomal type. Almost half (46.9%) of the cadets appeared to be ambiverts, 30.8% were intraverts and the rest were extraverts. Loop patterns on all the fingers to a greater extent were found in cadets with high level of neuroticism; the cadets having lower neuroticism level were characterized by a combinations of loops with arcs on the left hand and arcs with ringlets on the right one. The cadets differing in foreign language learning successfulness level were different in their dermatoglyphic patterns and, especially in the prevalence of pattern combinations. So, among the excellent pupils the loop-arc combinations were 2.7 times more common and combinations of all three types of patterns (arcs, loops, ringlets) were 1.4 times more common.

Frames of reference in spatial language acquisition.

PubMed

Shusterman, Anna; Li, Peggy

2016-08-01

Languages differ in how they encode spatial frames of reference. It is unknown how children acquire the particular frame-of-reference terms in their language (e.g., left/right, north/south). The present paper uses a word-learning paradigm to investigate 4-year-old English-speaking children's acquisition of such terms. In Part I, with five experiments, we contrasted children's acquisition of novel word pairs meaning left-right and north-south to examine their initial hypotheses and the relative ease of learning the meanings of these terms. Children interpreted ambiguous spatial terms as having environment-based meanings akin to north and south, and they readily learned and generalized north-south meanings. These studies provide the first direct evidence that children invoke geocentric representations in spatial language acquisition. However, the studies leave unanswered how children ultimately acquire "left" and "right." In Part II, with three more experiments, we investigated why children struggle to master body-based frame-of-reference words. Children successfully learned "left" and "right" when the novel words were systematically introduced on their own bodies and extended these words to novel (intrinsic and relative) uses; however, they had difficulty learning to talk about the left and right sides of a doll. This difficulty was paralleled in identifying the left and right sides of the doll in a non-linguistic memory task. In contrast, children had no difficulties learning to label the front and back sides of a doll. These studies begin to paint a detailed account of the acquisition of spatial terms in English, and provide insights into the origins of diverse spatial reference frames in the world's languages. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Learning to perceive and recognize a second language: the L2LP model revised.

PubMed

van Leussen, Jan-Willem; Escudero, Paola

2015-01-01

We present a test of a revised version of the Second Language Linguistic Perception (L2LP) model, a computational model of the acquisition of second language (L2) speech perception and recognition. The model draws on phonetic, phonological, and psycholinguistic constructs to explain a number of L2 learning scenarios. However, a recent computational implementation failed to validate a theoretical proposal for a learning scenario where the L2 has less phonemic categories than the native language (L1) along a given acoustic continuum. According to the L2LP, learners faced with this learning scenario must not only shift their old L1 phoneme boundaries but also reduce the number of categories employed in perception. Our proposed revision to L2LP successfully accounts for this updating in the number of perceptual categories as a process driven by the meaning of lexical items, rather than by the learners' awareness of the number and type of phonemes that are relevant in their new language, as the previous version of L2LP assumed. Results of our simulations show that meaning-driven learning correctly predicts the developmental path of L2 phoneme perception seen in empirical studies. Additionally, and to contribute to a long-standing debate in psycholinguistics, we test two versions of the model, with the stages of phonemic perception and lexical recognition being either sequential or interactive. Both versions succeed in learning to recognize minimal pairs in the new L2, but make diverging predictions on learners' resulting phonological representations. In sum, the proposed revision to the L2LP model contributes to our understanding of L2 acquisition, with implications for speech processing in general.

Read My Lips: The Importance of the Face in a Computer-Animated Tutor for Vocabulary Learning by Children with Autism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Massaro, Dominic W.; Bosseler, Alexis

2006-01-01

A computer-animated tutor, Baldi, has been successful in teaching vocabulary and grammar to children with autism and those with hearing problems. The present study assessed to what extent the face facilitated this learning process relative to the voice alone. Baldi was implemented in a Language Wizard/Tutor, which allows easy creation and…

Hearing versus Listening: Attention to Speech and Its Role in Language Acquisition in Deaf Infants with Cochlear Implants

PubMed Central

Houston, Derek M.; Bergeson, Tonya R.

2013-01-01

The advent of cochlear implantation has provided thousands of deaf infants and children access to speech and the opportunity to learn spoken language. Whether or not deaf infants successfully learn spoken language after implantation may depend in part on the extent to which they listen to speech rather than just hear it. We explore this question by examining the role that attention to speech plays in early language development according to a prominent model of infant speech perception – Jusczyk’s WRAPSA model – and by reviewing the kinds of speech input that maintains normal-hearing infants’ attention. We then review recent findings suggesting that cochlear-implanted infants’ attention to speech is reduced compared to normal-hearing infants and that speech input to these infants differs from input to infants with normal hearing. Finally, we discuss possible roles attention to speech may play on deaf children’s language acquisition after cochlear implantation in light of these findings and predictions from Jusczyk’s WRAPSA model. PMID:24729634

Teaching All Geoscience Students: Lessons Learned From Two-Year Colleges

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baer, Eric; Blodgett, Robert H.; Macdonald, R. Heather

2013-11-01

Geoscience faculty at 2-year colleges (2YCs) are at the forefront of efforts to improve student learning and success while at the same time broadening participation in the geosciences. Faculty of 2YCs instruct large numbers of students from underrepresented minority groups and many students who are the first in their families to pursue higher education. Geoscience classes at 2YCs also typically have large enrollments of nontraditional students, English language learners, and students with learning disabilities.

Dogs' Body Language Relevant to Learning Achievement.

PubMed

Hasegawa, Masashi; Ohtani, Nobuyo; Ohta, Mitsuaki

2014-02-27

The facial expressions and body postures of dogs can give helpful information about their moods and emotional states. People can more effectively obedience train their dogs if we can identify the mannerisms associated with learning in dogs. The aim of this study was to clarify the dog's body language during operant conditioning to predict achievement in the test that followed by measuring the duration of behaviors. Forty-six untrained dogs (17 males and 26 females) of various breeds were used. Each session consisted of 5 minutes of training with a treat reward followed by 3 minutes of rest and finally an operant conditioning test that consisted of 20 "hand motion" cues. The operant tests were conducted a total of nine times over three consecutive days, and the success numbers were counted. The duration of the dog's behavior, focusing on the dog's eyes, mouth, ears, tail and tail-wagging, was recorded during the operant conditioning sessions before the test. Particular behaviors, including wide-eyes, closed mouth, erect ears, and forward and high tail carriage, without wagging or with short and quick wagging, related to high achievement results. It is concluded that dogs' body language during operant conditioning was related to their success rate.

What Can Lexical Tone Training Studies in Adults Tell Us about Tone Processing in Children?

PubMed Central

Antoniou, Mark; Chin, Jessica L. L.

2018-01-01

A growing number of studies on the acquisition of lexical tone by adult learners have revealed that factors such as language background, musical experience, cognitive abilities, and neuroanatomy all play a role in determining tone learning success. On the basis of these findings, it has been argued that the effectiveness of tone learning in adulthood depends on individual differences in these factors. However, it is not clear whether similar individual differences play an analogous role in tone learning in childhood. Indeed, relatively few studies have made comparisons between how adults and children learn lexical tones. Here, we review recent developments for tone learning in both adults and children. The review covers tone training in a range of contexts, including in naive listeners, in native speakers of other tone languages, in listeners with varying levels of musical experience, and in individuals with speech and hearing disorders. Finally, we discuss the parallels between adult and child tone learning, and provide recommendations concerning how findings in adult tone training can provide insights into tone learning for children by accommodating the needs of individual learners. PMID:29410639

From Domain-Generality to Domain-Sensitivity: 4-Month-Olds Learn an Abstract Repetition Rule in Music That 7-Month-Olds Do Not

PubMed Central

Dawson, Colin; Gerken, LouAnn

2009-01-01

Learning must be constrained for it to lead to productive generalizations. Although biology is undoubtedly an important source of constraints, prior experience may be another, leading learners to represent input in ways that are more conducive to some generalizations than others, and/or to up- and downweight features when entertaining generalizations. In two experiments, 4-month-old and 7-month-old infants were familiarized with sequences of musical chords or tones adhering either to an AAB pattern or an ABA pattern. In both cases, the 4-month-olds learned the generalization, but the 7-month-olds did not. The success of the 4-month-olds appears to contradict an account that this type of pattern learning is the provenance of a language-specific rule-learning module. It is not yet clear what drives the age-related change, but plausible candidates include differential experience with language and music, as well as interactions between general cognitive development and stimulus complexity. PMID:19338982

Profiling Perceptual Learning Styles of Chinese as a Second Language Learners in University Settings.

PubMed

Sun, Peijian Paul; Teng, Lin Sophie

2017-12-01

This study revisited Reid's (1987) perceptual learning style preference questionnaire (PLSPQ) in an attempt to answer whether the PLSPQ fits in the Chinese-as-a-second-language (CSL) context. If not, what are CSL learners' learning styles drawing on the PLSPQ? The PLSPQ was first re-examined through reliability analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) with 224 CSL learners. The results showed that Reid's six-factor PLSPQ could not satisfactorily explain the CSL learners' learning styles. Exploratory factor analyses were, therefore, performed to explore the dimensionality of the PLSPQ in the CSL context. A four-factor PLSPQ was successfully constructed including auditory/visual, kinaesthetic/tactile, group, and individual styles. Such a measurement model was cross-validated through CFAs with 118 CSL learners. The study not only lends evidence to the literature that Reid's PLSPQ lacks construct validity, but also provides CSL teachers and learners with insightful and practical guidance concerning learning styles. Implications and limitations of the present study are discussed.

L'environnement pedagogique: source de difficulte dans la maitrise des habiletes phonetiques en langue seconde (The Learning Environment: Source of Difficulty in the Mastery of Second Language Phonetic Skills).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Champagne, Cecile

1984-01-01

Research is reported that showed phonetic and phonological training to be given peripheral attention or neglected in second language instruction in one geographic area. It is suggested this neglect stems from (1) low teacher and student expectation of success in attaining a native-like accent, and (2) assumptions that a non-native-like accent will…

Reinforcing Success: Using Lesson’s Learned from Foreign Aid Delivery to Plan Theater Security Cooperation in Africa

DTIC Science & Technology

2009-04-01

Africa is a questionable undertaking because of the expansive size and complexity of the cultural and political landscape. “You can drop the United...powers decided, bears no relationship to cultural or tribal ties within national boundaries. Hundreds of different languages and dialects are spoken in...Africa. Language is one of the main mechanisms for defining culture , for binding people together. In Nigeria alone, over 500 distinct dialects are

Confidence in the Knowledge Base of English Language Learners Studying Science: Using Agency to Compensate for the Lack of Adequate Linguistic Identity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hayes, Aneta L.; Mansour, Nasser

2017-04-01

Changes in the cultural and linguistic environments of learners are often associated with identity shifts. The aim of this study was to explore what identity shifts occur when science students from Bahraini national schools transition to an international university. The role of two aspects of learner identity—that is, English proficiency and science background knowledge, was examined in this study. Focus groups and semi-structured interviews were conducted with students and with university lecturers. The analysis suggested three conceptual themes of (1) reliance on science knowledge, (2) the auxiliary role of professional language and (3) adequacy of student learning strategies, demonstrating what subjective meanings the participants ascribe to the interplay between science knowledge and linguistic ability. The findings suggest that despite the lack of adequate linguistic attributes, the students are still able to successfully learn science in the context of language change. It is also implied that through strategically utilising their academic background in science, students preserve their identity as successful learners from school through to university. We conclude that agency plays a separate role in transition and is not a sole function of identity. We also contest the idea of language as a necessary attribute of one's identity as it was perceived by our participants to be an advantage and an auxiliary tool rather than a requirement.

Seamless Language Learning: Second Language Learning with Social Media

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Lung-Hsiang; Chai, Ching Sing; Aw, Guat Poh

2017-01-01

This conceptual paper describes a language learning model that applies social media to foster contextualized and connected language learning in communities. The model emphasizes weaving together different forms of language learning activities that take place in different learning contexts to achieve seamless language learning. it promotes social…

How Do Young Deaf Children Learn to Read? A Proposed Model of Deaf Children's Emergent Reading Behaviors. Technical Report No. 329.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andrews, Jean F.; Mason, Jana M.

Evidence from a nine-month longitudinal study of deaf children's early attempts at learning to read provides the construct for an instructional model that stresses that even though the children may have, at the least, a meager expressive sign language vocabulary, they can be lead successfully through the holophrastic or one-word stage of reading…

Success Factors 40 Years Later: The Pioneer Postsecondary Program for Students with Learning Disabilities, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and Executive Function

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fox, Laurie

2013-01-01

In 1970, this first program supporting college students with language-based learning disabilities was a radical pioneer. While an exemplar for 40 years, there are fresh challenges today in the form of competition for diminished numbers of 18 year olds. To better understand what helps and what matters to students, research needs to go beyond most…

Non-Formal Education for a Culturally Isolated Student in a Remote Area: The Case of a Thai Student Who Received Learning Assistance via the Internet

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maruyama, Hideki

2015-01-01

This article describes how a language minority student developed through flexible online learning assistance for the entrance examination of a Japanese public high school. The simple camera function of a digital tablet helped the isolated Thai student attain success in developing academic skills and self-esteem. The case also shows the insight…

Questioning and metacognitive thinking: On-line and off-line assessments in understanding the role of prompting/questioning and metacognitive thinking in a digital learning environment

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Schroeder, Mubina Khan

In science education, the use of digital technology-based learning can help students struggling with difficult concepts such as the movement of molecules. While digital learning tools hold much promise for science education, the question arises as to whether or not such technology can serve as an adequate surrogate for the teacher-student interactions that theorists like Lev Vygotsky (1978) underscored as being critical to learning. In response to such concerns, designers of digital curricula often utilize scaffolds to help students as they learn from such programs. Using a simulation designed to teach students about the concept of diffusion as an example, I examine the effect of including prompting language in the learning sequence of the simulation. The use of prompting language in digital curriculum appears to be successful because it elicits science students to reflect and metacognise about their learning, lending support to Vygotsky's (1978) ideas of teaching and learning involving outer and inner dialog. However, findings from think aloud data continue to underscore the importance of human linguistic exchange as a preferable learning paradigm.

Syntactic learning by mere exposure - An ERP study in adult learners

PubMed Central

Mueller, Jutta L; Oberecker, Regine; Friederici, Angela D

2009-01-01

Background Artificial language studies have revealed the remarkable ability of humans to extract syntactic structures from a continuous sound stream by mere exposure. However, it remains unclear whether the processes acquired in such tasks are comparable to those applied during normal language processing. The present study compares the ERPs to auditory processing of simple Italian sentences in native and non-native speakers after brief exposure to Italian sentences of a similar structure. The sentences contained a non-adjacent dependency between an auxiliary and the morphologically marked suffix of the verb. Participants were presented four alternating learning and testing phases. During learning phases only correct sentences were presented while during testing phases 50 percent of the sentences contained a grammatical violation. Results The non-native speakers successfully learned the dependency and displayed an N400-like negativity and a subsequent anteriorily distributed positivity in response to rule violations. The native Italian group showed an N400 followed by a P600 effect. Conclusion The presence of the P600 suggests that native speakers applied a grammatical rule. In contrast, non-native speakers appeared to use a lexical form-based processing strategy. Thus, the processing mechanisms acquired in the language learning task were only partly comparable to those applied by competent native speakers. PMID:19640301

Syntactic learning by mere exposure--an ERP study in adult learners.

PubMed

Mueller, Jutta L; Oberecker, Regine; Friederici, Angela D

2009-07-29

Artificial language studies have revealed the remarkable ability of humans to extract syntactic structures from a continuous sound stream by mere exposure. However, it remains unclear whether the processes acquired in such tasks are comparable to those applied during normal language processing. The present study compares the ERPs to auditory processing of simple Italian sentences in native and non-native speakers after brief exposure to Italian sentences of a similar structure. The sentences contained a non-adjacent dependency between an auxiliary and the morphologically marked suffix of the verb. Participants were presented four alternating learning and testing phases. During learning phases only correct sentences were presented while during testing phases 50 percent of the sentences contained a grammatical violation. The non-native speakers successfully learned the dependency and displayed an N400-like negativity and a subsequent anteriorily distributed positivity in response to rule violations. The native Italian group showed an N400 followed by a P600 effect. The presence of the P600 suggests that native speakers applied a grammatical rule. In contrast, non-native speakers appeared to use a lexical form-based processing strategy. Thus, the processing mechanisms acquired in the language learning task were only partly comparable to those applied by competent native speakers.

Incidental acquisition of foreign language vocabulary through brief multi-modal exposure.

PubMed

Bisson, Marie-Josée; van Heuven, Walter J B; Conklin, Kathy; Tunney, Richard J

2013-01-01

First language acquisition requires relatively little effort compared to foreign language acquisition and happens more naturally through informal learning. Informal exposure can also benefit foreign language learning, although evidence for this has been limited to speech perception and production. An important question is whether informal exposure to spoken foreign language also leads to vocabulary learning through the creation of form-meaning links. Here we tested the impact of exposure to foreign language words presented with pictures in an incidental learning phase on subsequent explicit foreign language learning. In the explicit learning phase, we asked adults to learn translation equivalents of foreign language words, some of which had appeared in the incidental learning phase. Results revealed rapid learning of the foreign language words in the incidental learning phase showing that informal exposure to multi-modal foreign language leads to foreign language vocabulary acquisition. The creation of form-meaning links during the incidental learning phase is discussed.

Socialization into science: An ethnographic study in a field research station

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Calovini, Theresa Ann

While the place of language in building the tasks and activities of the science classroom has received attention in the education literature, how students do the work of affiliation building through language remains poorly understood. This dissertation is based on ethnographic research in an apprenticeship learning situation at a biological field research station. I carried out this research with five undergraduates apprentices. I focus on how the language used in this apprenticeship situation positioned the apprentices with science. Issues of access and diversity in science education have motivated this research but this point can be missed because the five apprentices were all fairly successful in university science. They had all secured their job for the summer as paid research assistants. Yet, even with these successful students, science had a complicated place in their lives. I draw on Gee's (1999) notion of Discourse to understand this complexity. I focus on four Discourses--- Science, Knowing about the Animals, Senior Projects and RAships, and Relationships ---which were important in the apprentices' learning about and socialization with science. I try to understand the inter-workings of these four Discourses through a detailed analysis of three conversations involving one of the participants, Michelle. Michelle's use of narrative emerged as a linguistic resource which she used to explore dilemmas she experienced in the tensions between these four Discourses. Michelle was in many ways an ideal apprentice. She did her job well and she sought and received expert advice on her Senior project. Nonetheless, Michelle faced obstacles in her pursuit of a career in science and these obstacles related to language use and her use of narrative. I show how her use of narrative either facilitated or impeded her learning, depending on the context of the interaction. My analysis of Discourse points to important issues in language use by both students and teachers, with broad implications across a range of teaching/learning contexts. I describe multi-genre science reports as a pedagogy that might allow flexibility for students' representations with science, a flexibility that might be necessary given the complicated ways science plays out in the lives of students.

PROGRAMMED INSTRUCTION AND LANGUAGE LEARNING.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

LUELSDORFF, PHILIP A.

PROGRAMED INSTRUCTION, A TEACHING METHOD WHICH INCORPORATES (1) A DETAILED SPECIFICATION OF TERMINAL BEHAVIOR, (2) A CAREFUL SEQUENCING OF THE MATERIAL INTO GRADED STEPS, AND (3) THE REINFORCEMENT OF STUDENT RESPONSE, WORKS MORE FAVORABLY IN CERTAIN INSTRUCTIONAL MEDIA THAN IN OTHERS. CARROLL AND SKINNER BELIEVE THAT SUCCESS IN PROGRAMED…

Blueprint for Success: An Energy Education Unit Management Plan.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Energy Education Development Project, Reston, VA.

This energy education unit contains activities and classroom management strategies that emphasize cooperative learning and peer teaching. The activities are designed to develop students' science, math, language arts, and social studies skills and knowledge. Students' critical thinking, leadership, and problem solving skills will be enhanced as…

Learning to Speak Math

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Demski, Jennifer

2009-01-01

The presence of a bilingual educator is proving pivotal to the success of technology initiatives aimed at developing Spanish-speaking students' grasp of both the concepts and the language of mathematics. This article features Ginny Badger, a teaching assistant at Glenwood Springs High School in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, who sacrificed her…

The Importance of Women's Literacy in Language Stabilization Projects.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gomez de Garcia, Jule; Olson, Maureen; Axelrod, Melissa

Experiences with indigenous people in Mexico and New Mexico illustrate that there are cultural and situational constraints on women's literacy. A participatory demonstration in linguistics in which the demonstrator is largely silent highlights the group dynamics of learning communities that develop in successful literacy and stabilization…

Who Mentors Hispanic English Language Learners?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

De La Cruz, Yolanda

2008-01-01

Ten Hispanic university students enrolled in higher education courses were interviewed and considered successful despite the lack of support they received in learning English during their primary and secondary education. Analysis of the questionnaires and personal interviews reveal four major types of mentors who supported and motivated them to…

Caring Closes the Language-Learning Gap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borba, Mary

2009-01-01

Educators sometimes misjudge immigrant families' ability to contribute to their children's school success, especially those of English learners (August and Shanahan 2006). However, families powerfully influence the academic achievement of their children, and most take a strong interest in what happens in schools (Au 2002). Cummins (1986, 2003)…

Setting the stage for master's level success

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roberts, Donna

Comprehensive reading, writing, research, and study skills play a critical role in a graduate student's success and ability to contribute to a field of study effectively. The literature indicated a need to support graduate student success in the areas of mentoring, navigation, as well as research and writing. The purpose of this two-phased mixed methods explanatory study was to examine factors that characterize student success at the Master's level in the fields of education, sociology and social work. The study was grounded in a transformational learning framework which focused on three levels of learning: technical knowledge, practical or communicative knowledge, and emancipatory knowledge. The study included two data collection points. Phase one consisted of a Master's Level Success questionnaire that was sent via Qualtrics to graduate level students at three colleges and universities in the Central Valley of California: a California State University campus, a University of California campus, and a private college campus. The results of the chi-square indicated that seven questionnaire items were significant with p values less than .05. Phase two in the data collection included semi-structured interview questions that resulted in three themes emerged using Dedoose software: (1) the need for more language and writing support at the Master's level, (2) the need for mentoring, especially for second-language learners, and (3) utilizing the strong influence of faculty in student success. It is recommended that institutions continually assess and strengthen their programs to meet the full range of learners and to support students to degree completion.

A Comparative Study Teaching Chemistry Using the 5E Learning Cycle and Traditional Teaching with a Large English Language Population in a Middle-School Setting

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McWright, Cynthia Nicole Pendleton

2017-01-01

For decades science educators and educational institutions have been concerned with the status of science content being taught in K-12 schools and the delivery of the content. Thus, educational reformers in the United States continue to strive to solve the problem on how to best teach science for optimal success in learning. The constructivist…

A Critical Appraisal of Foreign Language Research in Content and Language Integrated Learning, Young Language Learners, and Technology-Enhanced Language Learning Published in Spain (2003-2012)

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dooly, Melinda; Masats, Dolors

2015-01-01

This state-of-the-art review provides a critical overview of research publications in Spain in the last ten years in three areas of teaching and learning foreign languages (especially English): context and language integrated learning (CLIL), young language learners (YLL), and technology-enhanced language learning (TELL). These three domains have…

Language Learning Strategies and Beliefs about Language Learning in High-School Students and Students Attending English Institutes: Are They Different?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saeb, Fateme; Zamani, Elham

2013-01-01

This paper reports a comparative study exploring language learning strategy use and beliefs about language learning of high-school students and students attending English institutes. Oxford's (1990) strategy inventory for language learning (SILL) and Horwitz's (1987) beliefs about language learning inventory (BALLI), were used to collect data.…

Cultural Competency Training in the United States Marine Corps: A Prescription for Success in the Long War

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-06-13

CULTURAL COMPETENCY TRAINING IN THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS: A PRESCRIPTION FOR SUCCESS IN THE LONG WAR A thesis presented to the...of military units that demonstrated cultural awareness while conducting operations in a foreign land. After presenting a review of the current...Marine Corps Center for Advanced Operational Cultural Learning (CAOCL), advocates teaching Marines enough of a language to do the things they need to

Predicting academic success among deaf college students.

PubMed

Convertino, Carol M; Marschark, Marc; Sapere, Patricia; Sarchet, Thomastine; Zupan, Megan

2009-01-01

For both practical and theoretical reasons, educators and educational researchers seek to determine predictors of academic success for students at different levels and from different populations. Studies involving hearing students at the postsecondary level have documented significant predictors of success relating to various demographic factors, school experience, and prior academic attainment. Studies involving deaf and hard-of-hearing students have focused primarily on younger students and variables such as degree of hearing loss, use of cochlear implants, educational placement, and communication factors-although these typically are considered only one or two at a time. The present investigation utilizes data from 10 previous experiments, all using the same paradigm, in an attempt to discern significant predictors of readiness for college (utilizing college entrance examination scores) and classroom learning at the college level (utilizing scores from tests in simulated classrooms). Academic preparation was a clear and consistent predictor in both domains, but the audiological and communication variables examined were not. Communication variables that were significant reflected benefits of language flexibility over skills in either spoken language or American Sign Language.

Encouraging Autonomy and Preparing for IELTS: Mutually Exclusive Goals?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Barrett-Lennard, Siri

1997-01-01

Suggests foreign students in Australia may not be getting preparation needed to integrate successfully into university study. Research is reviewed that indicates these students not only need help preparing for the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) but also with learning at an Australian university. Academic preparation courses…

Explaining Errors in Children's Questions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rowland, Caroline F.

2007-01-01

The ability to explain the occurrence of errors in children's speech is an essential component of successful theories of language acquisition. The present study tested some generativist and constructivist predictions about error on the questions produced by ten English-learning children between 2 and 5 years of age. The analyses demonstrated that,…

Raising a School-Ready Child: A Family Guide

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fong, G.; Hisatake,T.; Chang, W.; Choy, A.; Nemoto, M.; Yuen, S.

2010-01-01

School-ready children are children who are prepared to learn successfully in school. These children show growth over time in their physical, social and emotional, language, and cognitive development. They also show increasing interests in new experiences and in mastering new skills. Getting "school-ready" starts long before the weeks or…

RIDEing Vocabulary: Using Etienne Wenger's Community of Practice Theory to Master Word Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schiera, Rachel

2016-01-01

Students' success in vocabulary learning is best gauged by authentic use of the targeted vocabulary in conversation and writing tasks. A vocabulary teaching approach that emphasizes meaningful repetition, relationship building, and concrete experiences encourages language development. This article explores a multi-age, multi-grade learning…

Resource-Based Intervention: Success with Community-Centered Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Torrey, Michelle Kerber; Leginus, Mary Anne; Cecere, Susan

2011-01-01

In this commentary the authors share their experiences on the design and implementation of community-centered early intervention programs in Prince George's County, MD. Their aim in designing community-centered programs was to provide infants and toddlers opportunities for learning, language, and motor development in natural environments with…

Ideas for the Working Classroom. Classroom Practices, Vol. 27.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gill, Kent, Ed.; And Others

Based on successful classroom practice, the 31 essays in this book describe methods for teaching English and language arts while increasing students' self-esteem and respect for others, awareness of social issues, appreciation of literature, understanding of connections among disciplines, and involvement in their own learning. Essays in the book…

From Action to English: Reality in the Classroom.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuern, Guenther

1982-01-01

Describes use of total physical response as a teaching strategy in English-as-a-second-language classes. Students act out commands from teacher with no initial emphasis on oral production. This approach makes a lesson more real to students and physically involving them makes for more successful learning. (Author/BK)

Cognitive Training and Initial Use of Referential Speech.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahn, James V.

1984-01-01

Profoundly retarded 3-10 year olds (N=24) were divided into three groups: two cognitive training programs--object permanence or means-end--and language only. Results of pre- and posttests revealed that the cognitive training approaches were successful in enabling the majority of Ss to learn to use speech. (CL)

Achievement Attributions of Preparatory Class Learners in Learning English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Paker, Turan; Özkardes-Dögüs, Alev

2017-01-01

The aim of the study is to find out the achievement attributions of preparatory class learners studying at preintermediate and intermediate levels for their perceived success or failure, and to investigate whether there is a significant relationship between achievement attributions of learners, their gender and level of language proficiency. The…

The relationship between novel word learning and anomia treatment success in adults with chronic aphasia.

PubMed

Dignam, Jade; Copland, David; Rawlings, Alicia; O'Brien, Kate; Burfein, Penni; Rodriguez, Amy D

2016-01-29

Learning capacity may influence an individual's response to aphasia rehabilitation. However, investigations into the relationship between novel word learning ability and response to anomia therapy are lacking. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the novel word learning ability in post-stroke aphasia and to establish the relationship between learning ability and anomia treatment outcomes. We also explored the influence of locus of language breakdown on novel word learning ability and anomia treatment response. 30 adults (6F; 24M) with chronic, post-stroke aphasia were recruited to the study. Prior to treatment, participants underwent an assessment of language, which included the Comprehensive Aphasia Test and three baseline confrontation naming probes in order to develop sets of treated and untreated items. We also administered the novel word learning paradigm, in which participants learnt novel names associated with unfamiliar objects and were immediately tested on recall (expressive) and recognition (receptive) tasks. Participants completed 48 h of Aphasia Language Impairment and Functioning Therapy (Aphasia LIFT) over a 3 week (intensive) or 8 week (distributed) schedule. Therapy primarily targeted the remediation of word retrieval deficits, so naming of treated and untreated items immediately post-therapy and at 1 month follow-up was used to determine therapeutic response. Performance on recall and recognition tasks demonstrated that participants were able to learn novel words; however, performance was variable and was influenced by participants' aphasia severity, lexical-semantic processing and locus of language breakdown. Novel word learning performance was significantly correlated with participants' response to therapy for treated items at post-therapy. In contrast, participants' novel word learning performance was not correlated with therapy gains for treated items at 1 month follow-up or for untreated items at either time point. Therapy intensity did not influence treatment outcomes. This is the first group study to directly examine the relationship between novel word learning and therapy outcomes for anomia rehabilitation in adults with aphasia. Importantly, we found that novel word learning performance was correlated with therapy outcomes. We propose that novel word learning ability may contribute to the initial acquisition of treatment gains in anomia rehabilitation. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Early development of abstract language knowledge: evidence from perception–production transfer of birth-language memory

PubMed Central

Cutler, Anne; Broersma, Mirjam

2017-01-01

Children adopted early in life into another linguistic community typically forget their birth language but retain, unaware, relevant linguistic knowledge that may facilitate (re)learning of birth-language patterns. Understanding the nature of this knowledge can shed light on how language is acquired. Here, international adoptees from Korea with Dutch as their current language, and matched Dutch-native controls, provided speech production data on a Korean consonantal distinction unlike any Dutch distinctions, at the outset and end of an intensive perceptual training. The productions, elicited in a repetition task, were identified and rated by Korean listeners. Adoptees' production scores improved significantly more across the training period than control participants' scores, and, for adoptees only, relative production success correlated significantly with the rate of learning in perception (which had, as predicted, also surpassed that of the controls). Of the adoptee group, half had been adopted at 17 months or older (when talking would have begun), while half had been prelinguistic (under six months). The former group, with production experience, showed no advantage over the group without. Thus the adoptees' retained knowledge of Korean transferred from perception to production and appears to be abstract in nature rather than dependent on the amount of experience. PMID:28280567

Tone Attrition in Mandarin Speakers of Varying English Proficiency

PubMed Central

Creel, Sarah C.

2017-01-01

Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine whether the degree of dominance of Mandarin–English bilinguals' languages affects phonetic processing of tone content in their native language, Mandarin. Method We tested 72 Mandarin–English bilingual college students with a range of language-dominance profiles in the 2 languages and ages of acquisition of English. Participants viewed 2 photographs at a time while hearing a familiar Mandarin word referring to 1 photograph. The names of the 2 photographs diverged in tone, vowels, or both. Word recognition was evaluated using clicking accuracy, reaction times, and an online recognition measure (gaze) and was compared in the 3 conditions. Results Relative proficiency in English was correlated with reduced word recognition success in tone-disambiguated trials, but not in vowel-disambiguated trials, across all 3 dependent measures. This selective attrition for tone content emerged even though all bilinguals had learned Mandarin from birth. Lengthy experience with English thus weakened tone use. Conclusions This finding has implications for the question of the extent to which bilinguals' 2 phonetic systems interact. It suggests that bilinguals may not process pitch information language-specifically and that processing strategies from the dominant language may affect phonetic processing in the nondominant language—even when the latter was learned natively. PMID:28124064

Language promotion for educational purposes: The example of Tanzania

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rubagumya, Casmir M.

1991-03-01

Kiswahili is one of the most widely used languages in East and Central Africa. In Tanzania, where it is the national language, attempts have been made to develop it so that it can be used as an efficient tool of communication in all sectors of the society, including education. This paper shows that although Kiswahili has successfully been promoted as the medium of primary and adult education, at secondary and tertiary levels of education, its position is still precarious. The notion that English and Kiswahili are in complementary distribution is rejected. It is argued that the two languages are in conflict, and that those who are in a better socio-political/economic position have more control of, and better access to, English. In such a situation the right question to ask is not in which domains English is used, but why it is used in such domains and who uses it. The paper further argues that the present sociolinguistic environment makes the use of English as a viable medium unsustainable. For this reason, insistence on the use of English adversely affects the learning process. It is suggested that if Kiswahili became the medium of education at secondary school level and English was taught well as a foreign language, this would help to promote both languages without jeopardising the learning process.

Python to learn programming

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bogdanchikov, A.; Zhaparov, M.; Suliyev, R.

2013-04-01

Today we have a lot of programming languages that can realize our needs, but the most important question is how to teach programming to beginner students. In this paper we suggest using Python for this purpose, because it is a programming language that has neatly organized syntax and powerful tools to solve any task. Moreover it is very close to simple math thinking. Python is chosen as a primary programming language for freshmen in most of leading universities. Writing code in python is easy. In this paper we give some examples of program codes written in Java, C++ and Python language, and we make a comparison between them. Firstly, this paper proposes advantages of Python language in relation to C++ and JAVA. Then it shows the results of a comparison of short program codes written in three different languages, followed by a discussion on how students understand programming. Finally experimental results of students' success in programming courses are shown.

Age of acquisition in sport: starting early matters.

PubMed

Hernandez, Arturo E; Mattarella-Micke, Andrew; Redding, Richard W T; Woods, Elizabeth A; Beilock, Sian

2011-01-01

Although the age at which a skill is learned (age of acquisition [AoA]) is one of the most studied predictors of success in domains ranging from language to music, very little work has focused on this factor in sports. In order to uncover how the age at which a skill is learned relates to how athletes cognitively represent that skill, we asked a group of skilled golfers who learned to play golf before (early learners) or after (late learners) the age of 10 to take a series of putts on an indoor putting green. Golfers putted in isolation (single-task condition), while monitoring a stream of words presented over a loudspeaker (dual-task condition), or while being instructed to attend to specific aspects of their golf swing (skill-focused condition). Early and late learners putted equally well in the single-task and dual-task conditions. However, in the skill-focused condition, golfers who learned earlier performed worse than those who learned later. The results are consistent with the notion that AoA influences the manner in which sports, like other domains such as language and music, are represented in memory.

LEARNING SEMANTICS-ENHANCED LANGUAGE MODELS APPLIED TO UNSUEPRVISED WSD

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

VERSPOOR, KARIN; LIN, SHOU-DE

An N-gram language model aims at capturing statistical syntactic word order information from corpora. Although the concept of language models has been applied extensively to handle a variety of NLP problems with reasonable success, the standard model does not incorporate semantic information, and consequently limits its applicability to semantic problems such as word sense disambiguation. We propose a framework that integrates semantic information into the language model schema, allowing a system to exploit both syntactic and semantic information to address NLP problems. Furthermore, acknowledging the limited availability of semantically annotated data, we discuss how the proposed model can be learnedmore » without annotated training examples. Finally, we report on a case study showing how the semantics-enhanced language model can be applied to unsupervised word sense disambiguation with promising results.« less

Sleep-dependent memory consolidation is related to perceived value of learned material.

PubMed

van Rijn, Elaine; Lucignoli, Carlo; Izura, Cristina; Blagrove, Mark T

2017-06-01

Although many types of newly encoded information can be consolidated during sleep, an enhanced effect has been found for memories tagged as relevant to the future, such as through knowledge of future testing or payment for successful recall. In the current study, participants (n = 80) learned Welsh and Breton translations of English words, and intrinsic relevance of learned material was operationalized as perceived value of the Welsh and Breton languages. Participants were non-Welsh native English speakers who had recently arrived in Wales. Memory for the words was tested immediately and 12 h later, after either a period of wake or a period of sleep. An increase in recall for both languages was found after sleep, but not after wake. Importantly, for the sleep condition, overnight improvement in Welsh word recall was associated with participants' level of valuing the Welsh language. This association was not found for the wake period condition. These findings support previous indications of an active role of sleep in the consolidation of memories relevant for the future, and demonstrate that this effect may be modulated by individual differences in perceived value of the learned material. It remains to be established whether this association is mediated by an emotional attachment to the language or a cognitive facility with it, or both. © 2016 The Authors. Journal of Sleep Research published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Sleep Research Society.

The Role of Mother Tongue Literacy in Language Learning and Mathematical Learning: Is There a Multilingual Benefit for Both?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dahm, Rebecca; De Angelis, Gessica

2018-01-01

The present study examines the multilingual benefit in relation to language learning and mathematical learning. The objective is to assess whether speakers of three or more languages, depending on language profile and personal histories, show significant advantages in language learning and/or mathematical learning, and whether mother tongue…

Sign Language Translator Application Using OpenCV

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Triyono, L.; Pratisto, E. H.; Bawono, S. A. T.; Purnomo, F. A.; Yudhanto, Y.; Raharjo, B.

2018-03-01

This research focuses on the development of sign language translator application using OpenCV Android based, this application is based on the difference in color. The author also utilizes Support Machine Learning to predict the label. Results of the research showed that the coordinates of the fingertip search methods can be used to recognize a hand gesture to the conditions contained open arms while to figure gesture with the hand clenched using search methods Hu Moments value. Fingertip methods more resilient in gesture recognition with a higher success rate is 95% on the distance variation is 35 cm and 55 cm and variations of light intensity of approximately 90 lux and 100 lux and light green background plain condition compared with the Hu Moments method with the same parameters and the percentage of success of 40%. While the background of outdoor environment applications still can not be used with a success rate of only 6 managed and the rest failed.

Toddler learning from video: Effect of matched pedagogical cues.

PubMed

Lauricella, Alexis R; Barr, Rachel; Calvert, Sandra L

2016-11-01

Toddlers learn about their social world by following visual and verbal cues from adults, but they have difficulty transferring what they see in one context to another (e.g., from a screen to real life). Therefore, it is important to understand how the use of matched pedagogical cues, specifically adult eye gaze and language, influence toddlers' imitation from live and digital presentations. Fifteen- and 18-month-old toddlers (N=123) were randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions or a baseline control condition. The four experimental conditions differed as a function of the interactive cues (audience gaze with interactive language or object gaze with non-interactive language) and presentation type (live or video). Results indicate that toddlers' successfully imitate a task when eye gaze was directed at the object or at the audience and equally well when the task was demonstrated live or via video. All four experimental conditions performed significantly better than the baseline control, indicating learned behavior. Additionally, results demonstrate that girls attended more to the demonstrations and outperformed the boys on the imitation task. In sum, this study demonstrates that young toddlers can learn from video when the models use matched eye gaze and verbal cues, providing additional evidence for ways in which the transfer deficit effect can be ameliorated. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Early Language and Reading Development of Bilingual Preschoolers From Low-Income Families.

PubMed

Hammer, Carol Scheffner; Miccio, Adele W

2006-01-01

Learning to read is a complex process and a number of factors affect a child's success in beginning reading. This complexity increases when a child's home language differs from that of the school and when the child comes from a home with limited economic resources. This article discusses factors that have been shown to contribute to children's success in early reading, namely-phonological awareness, letter-word identification, oral language, and the home literacy environment. Preliminary evidence suggests that bilingual children from low-income backgrounds initially perform poorly on phonological awareness and letter identification tasks, but appear to acquire these abilities quickly in kindergarten once these abilities are emphasized in early reading instruction. In addition, the findings show that bilingual preschoolers' receptive language abilities in English and Spanish positively impact their early letter-word identification abilities at the end of kindergarten. A positive relationship between bilingual preschoolers' home literacy environment and early reading outcomes has not been found to date. Educational implications for serving young, bilingual children from programs such as Head Start are discussed.

Electronic Tandem Language Learning (eTandem): A Third Approach to Second Language Learning for the 21st Century

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cziko, Gary A.

2004-01-01

Tandem language learning occurs when two learners of different native languages work together to help each other learn the other language. First used in face-to-face contexts, Tandem is now increasingly being used by language-learning partners located in different countries who are linked via various forms of electronic communication, a context…

Children's learning of number words in an indigenous farming-foraging group.

PubMed

Piantadosi, Steven T; Jara-Ettinger, Julian; Gibson, Edward

2014-07-01

We show that children in the Tsimane', a farming-foraging group in the Bolivian rain-forest, learn number words along a similar developmental trajectory to children from industrialized countries. Tsimane' children successively acquire the first three or four number words before fully learning how counting works. However, their learning is substantially delayed relative to children from the United States, Russia, and Japan. The presence of a similar developmental trajectory likely indicates that the incremental stages of numerical knowledge - but not their timing - reflect a fundamental property of number concept acquisition which is relatively independent of language, culture, age, and early education. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Pedagogy and Related Criteria: The Selection of Software for Computer Assisted Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Samuels, Jeffrey D.

2013-01-01

Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) is an established field of academic inquiry with distinct applications for second language teaching and learning. Many CALL professionals direct language labs or language resource centers (LRCs) in which CALL software applications and generic software applications support language learning programs and…

Skilled interaction among professional carers in special accommodations for adult people with learning disabilities.

PubMed

Antonsson, H; Aström, S; Lundström, M; Graneheim, U H

2013-09-01

Communicative difficulties affect interactions between people with learning disabilities and their carers. Despite such difficulties, however, some carers seem to interact successfully with people who have limited ability to communicate verbally and exhibit challenging behaviour. This study aims to illuminate skilled interaction among carers working in special accommodations for people with learning disabilities. Interactions between 16 caregivers and 11 residents with learning disabilities were recorded on video. Verbal and non-verbal interaction skills among the carers were identified. Four caring situations with people with learning disabilities were chosen to illuminate skilled interaction. The transcribed text was subjected to qualitative content analysis and core stories were created. The results show that skilled interaction between the carers and the people with learning disabilities is based upon being confirming, sharing daily life experience, giving time and space, and using congruent and distinct language. In this paper we present examples that offer concrete suggestions of how to promote successful interaction and create meaning in the shared day-to-day life in special accommodations for people with learning disabilities. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Statistical learning of action: the role of conditional probability.

PubMed

Meyer, Meredith; Baldwin, Dare

2011-12-01

Identification of distinct units within a continuous flow of human action is fundamental to action processing. Such segmentation may rest in part on statistical learning. In a series of four experiments, we examined what types of statistics people can use to segment a continuous stream involving many brief, goal-directed action elements. The results of Experiment 1 showed no evidence for sensitivity to conditional probability, whereas Experiment 2 displayed learning based on joint probability. In Experiment 3, we demonstrated that additional exposure to the input failed to engender sensitivity to conditional probability. However, the results of Experiment 4 showed that a subset of adults-namely, those more successful at identifying actions that had been seen more frequently than comparison sequences-were also successful at learning conditional-probability statistics. These experiments help to clarify the mechanisms subserving processing of intentional action, and they highlight important differences from, as well as similarities to, prior studies of statistical learning in other domains, including language.

An Evaluation of a Counseling-Community Learning Approach to Foreign Language Teaching or Counseling-Learning Theory Applied to Foreign Language Learning. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gallagher, Rosina Mena

This study evaluates the counseling-learning approach to foreign language instruction as compared with traditional methods in terms of language achievement and change in personal orientation and in attitude toward learning. Twelve students volunteered to learn Spanish or German under simultaneous exposure to both languages using the…

Learning Styles and Individual Differences in Learning English Idioms via Computer Assisted Language Learning in English as a Second Language.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Viteli, Jarmo

The purpose of this study was to determine the learning styles of English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students and individual differences in learning English idioms via computer assisted language learning (CALL). Thirty-six Hispanic students, 26 Japanese students, and 6 students with various language backgrounds from the Nova University Intensive…

A Working Model for Intercultural Learning and Engagement in Collaborative Online Language Learning Environments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lawrence, Geoff

2013-01-01

Given the emerging focus on the intercultural dimension in language teaching and learning, language educators have been exploring the use of information and communications technology ICT-mediated language learning environments to link learners in intercultural language learning communities around the globe. Despite the potential promise of…

Language Revitalization and Language Pedagogy: New Teaching and Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hinton, Leanne

2011-01-01

Language learning and teaching of endangered languages have many features and needs that are quite different from the teaching of world languages. Groups whose languages are endangered try to turn language loss around; many new language teaching and learning strategies are emerging, to suit the special needs and goals of language revitalization.…

Use of the Outdoor Classroom and Nature-Study to Support Science and Literacy Learning: A Narrative Case Study of a Third-Grade Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eick, Charles J.

2012-11-01

A case study of an exemplary third grade teacher's use of the outdoor classroom for meeting both state science and language arts standards is described. Data from the researcher's field journal, teacher lesson plans, and teacher interviews document how this teacher used nature-study to bridge outdoor classroom experiences with the state science and language arts curriculum. This teacher's early life experiences supported her strong interest in science and nature in the outdoors and experiencing it with her children. Children interacted with the outdoor classroom throughout the day as a context for science and literacy learning. All but one child successfully met Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goals in reading at the end of the school year.

ESL Literacy: What's Working, Why and How--Family Literacy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isserlis, Janet

Experiences with family and intergenerational programs in English Second Language (ESL) literacy are reviewed, and factors that contribute to their success are discussed. It is suggested that as the notion of literacy expands, conceptual boundaries of the population of learners must expand also. While there is much to be learned from existing…

Lifelong Learning for Social Inclusion of Ethnic Minorities in Botswana

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Maruatona, Tonic

2015-01-01

In spite of its overall economic success, most citizens living in the remote areas of Botswana face poverty and are unemployed. The article argues that minority communities in remote areas are excluded because education programs use unfamiliar languages and de-contextualized curricula, there is no national qualifications framework to sufficiently…

Language Accessibility in the Classroom: How UDL Can Promote Success for Linguistically Diverse Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rice Doran, Patricia

2015-01-01

This article provides an overview of the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, which is based on brain-structure research and which incorporates multiple means of instruction, action and expression, and engagement. The article describes the relevance of this framework to linguistically diverse and culturally and linguistically diverse…

U.S. SCHOOL ADMINISTRATORS LEARN OF NAVAJO "REVOLUTION".

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

BENHAM, WILLIAM J., JR.

NAVAJO CULTURE AND LANGUAGE ARE QUITE DIFFERENT FROM THAT OF OTHER AMERICANS, AND HELP TO ACCOUNT FOR GENERALLY LOW SUCCESS OF NAVAJO CHILDREN IN THE CLASSROOM. BY NOVEMBER 1966, WHEN TITLE I OF THE ELEMENTARY AND SECONDARY EDUCATION ACT HAD BECOME AVAILABLE TO FEDERAL SCHOOLS, THE NAVAJO TRIBAL COUNCIL'S EDUCATION COMMITTEE HAD DECIDED THAT WHAT…

Powerful Reforms with Shallow Roots: Improving America's Urban Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cuban, Larry, Ed.; Usdan, Michael, Ed.

This collection of papers, purposely written in jargon-free language, is designed to inform policymakers, business leaders, educators, and civic-minded parents about the abiding complexities of urban school reform and the linkages between the success of schools and the vitality of cities. After the "Introduction: Learning from the Past"…

A Mixed-Methods Approach to Demotivating Factors among Iranian EFL Learners

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ghonsooly, Behzad; Hassanzadeh, Tahereh; Samavarchi, Laila; Hamedi, Seyyedeh Mina

2017-01-01

This study used a mixed-methods approach to investigate Iranian EFL learners' attitudes towards demotivating factors which may hinder their success in a language learning course. In the quantitative phase, a sample of 337 undergraduate students from universities in Mashhad, Yazd and Gonabad completed a 34-item questionnaire. They also completed…

Affordance Theory and Multiple Language Learning and Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kordt, Birgit

2018-01-01

This article argues that the concept of affordances as put forward by James J. Gibson can make a major contribution to our understanding of multilingualism. It can throw some light on multilingualism in general as well as on specific aspects like successful and unsuccessful transfer, the challenges involved in teaching for multilingualism,…

The Graphic Novel Classroom: POWerful Teaching and Learning with Images

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bakis, Maureen

2011-01-01

Could you use a superhero to teach reading, writing, critical thinking, and problem solving? While seeking the answer, secondary language arts teacher Maureen Bakis discovered a powerful pedagogy that teaches those skills and more. The amazingly successful results prompted her to write this practical guide that shows middle and high school…

Self-Efficacy and IPS: An Empirical Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McLeod, Linda P.

2015-01-01

The fact that some learners learn language more successfully than others who are at the same level of aptitude and capabilities is inevitable. To understand why, the researcher has focused her attention on individual differences among learners. The ones that have been taken into account in this study are namely called self-efficacy and identity…

Promoting Effective Early Learning: What Every Policymaker and Educator Should Know

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klein, Lisa; Knitzer, Jane

2007-01-01

Language and literacy skills are critical to success in school. For low-income preschoolers, increasing early literacy and math skills is vital to closing the achievement gap between them and their more advantaged peers. New research shows that an intentional curriculum and professional development and supports for teachers are important…

Parents' Shared Storybook Reading--Learning to Read

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Saracho, Olivia N.

2017-01-01

Parents engage in joint story book sharing where adults read an appropriate text to children, usually in the home environment. Story book sharing promotes the young children's development of receptive and expressive language abilities as well as their emerging early literacy abilities, which have an effect on the children's success in school-based…

A Historical Vignette: Language Learning Eighteenth-Century Style.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kalwies, Howard H.

1977-01-01

French became the foremost medium of communication in Europe in the 18th century. In Germany the most widely used French textbook was Johan Valentin Meidinger's "Practische Franzoesische Grammatik." This textbook was apparently a huge success from the pedagogical and the commerical points of view. With a few minor revisions, it would…

Effective Strategies for Developing Academic English: Professional Development and Teacher Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bowers, Erica; Fitts, Shanan; Quirk, Mathew; Jung, Woo

2010-01-01

The development of academic English and advanced literacy is crucial for student success, especially for English language learners. In this study, researchers used a survey to investigate which instructional strategies 108 fourth- and fifth-grade teachers learned in professional development and found to be effective for providing English learners…

Lexical Inferencing in First and Second Language Listening

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Van Zeeland, Hilde

2014-01-01

Lexical inferencing is an important vocabulary learning strategy. Unfortunately, almost all research on this issue has been carried out in the reading context. This study is the first to directly measure lexical inferencing success in listening, by both native (N?=?47) and nonnative (N?=?30) speakers of English. It analysed the effects of…

A Corpus-Based Evaluation of Metaphors in a Business English Textbook

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Skorczynska Sznajder, Hanna

2010-01-01

This study aims to evaluate the selection of metaphors in a published business English textbook using findings from a specialised corpus of written business English. While most scholars agree that metaphors should be included in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) syllabuses as a potentially problematic area in successful language learning, it is…

The Transition of Adopted from Abroad/Postinstitutionalized Children to Life in the United States

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Duszynski, Ramzia; Jonak, Jolanta; Garjaka, Karla; Jankowska, Anna M.

2015-01-01

Children adopted from foreign countries, especially those who were in an orphanage, may experience greater difficulties than culturally or linguistically diverse children who do not come from such a background. Delays in learning language and, consequently, slower cognitive and social development, can undermine the academic success of these…

Students' Responses to CL-Based Teaching of English Prepositions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Bui Phu; Truong, Vien; Nguyen, Ngoc Vu

2018-01-01

Purpose: Most EFL textbooks suggest the use of vivid pictures and verbal explanations in teaching English prepositions. However, this word class appears in collocations, and rote-learning does not really help learners retain and use this word class successfully. Cognitive linguistics (CL) has implications for English language teaching as it rests…

Language Transfer in Language Learning. Issues in Second Language Research.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gass, Susan M., Ed.; Selinker, Larry, Ed.

Essays on language transfer in language learning include: excerpts from "Linguistics across Cultures" (Robert Lado); "Language Transfer" (Larry Selinker); "Goofing: An Indication of Children's Second Language Learning Strategies" (Heidi C. Dulay, Marina K. Burt); "Language Transfer and Universal Grammatical Relations" (Susan Gass); "A Role for the…

Language Evolution by Iterated Learning with Bayesian Agents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Griffiths, Thomas L.; Kalish, Michael L.

2007-01-01

Languages are transmitted from person to person and generation to generation via a process of iterated learning: people learn a language from other people who once learned that language themselves. We analyze the consequences of iterated learning for learning algorithms based on the principles of Bayesian inference, assuming that learners compute…

Learning bias, cultural evolution of language, and the biological evolution of the language faculty.

PubMed

Smith, Kenny

2011-04-01

The biases of individual language learners act to determine the learnability and cultural stability of languages: learners come to the language learning task with biases which make certain linguistic systems easier to acquire than others. These biases are repeatedly applied during the process of language transmission, and consequently should effect the types of languages we see in human populations. Understanding the cultural evolutionary consequences of particular learning biases is therefore central to understanding the link between language learning in individuals and language universals, common structural properties shared by all the world’s languages. This paper reviews a range of models and experimental studies which show that weak biases in individual learners can have strong effects on the structure of socially learned systems such as language, suggesting that strong universal tendencies in language structure do not require us to postulate strong underlying biases or constraints on language learning. Furthermore, understanding the relationship between learner biases and language design has implications for theories of the evolution of those learning biases: models of gene-culture coevolution suggest that, in situations where a cultural dynamic mediates between properties of individual learners and properties of language in this way, biological evolution is unlikely to lead to the emergence of strong constraints on learning.

The Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners' Beliefs about Language Learning and Their Use of Learning Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Azar, Fereshteh Khaffafi; Saeidi, Mahnaz

2013-01-01

The present study investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' learning strategies use and their language learning beliefs. A sample of 200 Iranian EFL learners who were all English language learners at different language institutes participated in this study. Two instruments, Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) and…

Language Learning Strategies Used by Distance Learners of English: A Study with a Group of Turkish Distance Learners of EFL

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Altunay, Dilek

2014-01-01

Use of language learning strategies is important for language learning. Some researchers state that language learning strategies are important because their use affects the development of communicative competence (Lessard-Clouston, 1997 & Oxford, 1990). Effective use of language learning strategies has particular importance for distance…

Language Learning Strategies and Styles among Iranian Engineering and Political Science Graduate Students Studying Abroad

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alireza, Shakarami; Abdullah, Mardziha H.

2010-01-01

Language learning strategies are used with the explicit goal of helping learners improve their knowledge and understanding of a target language. They are the conscious thoughts and behaviors used by students to facilitate language learning tasks and to personalize language learning process. Learning styles on the other hand, are "general…

Mobile-Assisted Second Language Learning: Developing a Learner-Centered Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leow, Choy Khim; Yahaya, Wan Ahmad Jaafar Wan; Samsudin, Zarina

2014-01-01

The Mobile Assisted Language Learning concept has offered infinite language learning opportunities since its inception 20 years ago. Second Language Acquisition however embraces a considerably different body of knowledge from first language learning. While technological advances have optimized the psycholinguistic environment for language…

Intelligent Computer-Assisted Language Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harrington, Michael

1996-01-01

Introduces the field of intelligent computer assisted language learning (ICALL) and relates them to current practice in computer assisted language learning (CALL) and second language learning. Points out that ICALL applies expertise from artificial intelligence and the computer and cognitive sciences to the development of language learning…

Language Views on Social Networking Sites for Language Learning: The Case of Busuu

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Álvarez Valencia, José Aldemar

2016-01-01

Social networking has compelled the area of computer-assisted language learning (CALL) to expand its research palette and account for new virtual ecologies that afford language learning and socialization. This study focuses on Busuu, a social networking site for language learning (SNSLL), and analyzes the views of language that are enacted through…

Associations between sleep-wake consolidation and language development in early childhood: a longitudinal twin study.

PubMed

Dionne, Ginette; Touchette, Evelyne; Forget-Dubois, Nadine; Petit, Dominique; Tremblay, Richard E; Montplaisir, Jacques Y; Boivin, Michel

2011-08-01

The objectives were (1) to assess associations between sleep consolidation at 6, 18 and 30 months and language skills at 18, 30, and 60 months; and (2) to investigate the genetic/environmental etiology of these associations. Longitudinal study of a population-based twin cohort. 1029 twins from the Quebec Newborn Twin Study. Sleep consolidation was derived from parental reports of day/night consecutive sleeping durations. Language skills were assessed with the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory at 18 and 30 months and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test at 60 months. The day/night sleep ratio decreased significantly from 6 to 30 months. The 6- and 18-month ratios were negatively correlated with subsequent language skills. Children with language delays at 60 months had less mature sleep consolidation at both 6 and 18 months than children without delays and those with transient early delays. Genetic and regression analyses revealed that the sleep ratio at 6 months was highly heritable (64%) and predicted 18-month (B = -0.06) and 30-month language (B = -0.11) mainly through additive genetic influences (R(Gs) = 0.32 and 0.33, respectively). By contrast, the sleep ratio at 18 months was mainly due to shared environment influences (58%) and predicted 60-month language (B = -0.08) through shared environment influences (R(Cs) = 0.24). Poor sleep consolidation during the first 2 years of life may be a risk factor for language learning, whereas good sleep consolidation may foster language learning through successive genetic and environmental influences.

Early visual language exposure and emergent literacy in preschool deaf children: findings from a national longitudinal study.

PubMed

Allen, Thomas E; Letteri, Amy; Choi, Song Hoa; Dang, Daqian

2014-01-01

Brief review is provided of recent research on the impact of early visual language exposure on a variety of developmental outcomes, including literacy, cognition, and social adjustment. This body of work points to the great importance of giving young deaf children early exposure to a visual language as a critical precursor to the acquisition of literacy. Four analyses of data from the Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) Early Education Longitudinal Study are summarized. Each confirms findings from previously published laboratory findings and points to the positive effects of early sign language on, respectively, letter knowledge, social adaptability, sustained visual attention, and cognitive-behavioral milestones necessary for academic success. The article concludes with a consideration of the qualitative similarity hypothesis and a finding that the hypothesis is valid, but only if it can be presented as being modality independent.

Exploring Learner Autonomy: Language Learning Locus of Control in Multilinguals

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peek, Ron

2016-01-01

By using data from an online language learning beliefs survey (n?=?841), defining language learning experience in terms of participants' multilingualism, and using a domain-specific language learning locus of control (LLLOC) instrument, this article examines whether more experienced language learners can also be seen as more autonomous language…

Bilinguals' Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2017-01-01

Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts…

Computational Investigations of Multiword Chunks in Language Learning.

PubMed

McCauley, Stewart M; Christiansen, Morten H

2017-07-01

Second-language learners rarely arrive at native proficiency in a number of linguistic domains, including morphological and syntactic processing. Previous approaches to understanding the different outcomes of first- versus second-language learning have focused on cognitive and neural factors. In contrast, we explore the possibility that children and adults may rely on different linguistic units throughout the course of language learning, with specific focus on the granularity of those units. Following recent psycholinguistic evidence for the role of multiword chunks in online language processing, we explore the hypothesis that children rely more heavily on multiword units in language learning than do adults learning a second language. To this end, we take an initial step toward using large-scale, corpus-based computational modeling as a tool for exploring the granularity of speakers' linguistic units. Employing a computational model of language learning, the Chunk-Based Learner, we compare the usefulness of chunk-based knowledge in accounting for the speech of second-language learners versus children and adults speaking their first language. Our findings suggest that while multiword units are likely to play a role in second-language learning, adults may learn less useful chunks, rely on them to a lesser extent, and arrive at them through different means than children learning a first language. Copyright © 2017 Cognitive Science Society, Inc.

Embedding international benchmarks of proficiency in English in undergraduate nursing programmes: challenges and strategies in equipping culturally and linguistically diverse students with English as an additional language for nursing in Australia.

PubMed

Glew, Paul J

2013-01-01

To meet the expected shortfalls in the number of registered nurses throughout the coming decade Australian universities have been recruiting an increasing number of students from culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) backgrounds. Given that international and domestic students who use English as an additional language (EAL) complement the number of native English speaking nursing students, they represent a valuable nurse education investment. Although university programmes are in a position to meet the education and learning needs of native English speaking nursing students, they can experience considerable challenges in effectively equipping EAL students with the English and academic language skills for nursing studies and registration in Australia. However, success in a nursing programme and in preparing for nurse registration can require EAL students to achieve substantial literacy skills in English and academic language through their engagement with these tertiary learning contexts. This paper discusses the education implications for nursing programmes and EAL students of developing literacy skills through pre-registration nursing studies to meet the English language skills standard for nurse registration and presents intervention strategies for nursing programmes that aim to build EAL student capacity in using academic English.

Ego Is a Hurdle in Second Language Learning: A Contrastive Study between Adults and Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abdullah, Shumaila; Akhter, Javed

2015-01-01

The aim of this research paper is to find out by comparing and contrasting between the adults and children in second language learning process how language ego of adult learners affects them to learn second language, and how it becomes a barrier for them in second language learning process. Nowadays learning English as foreign and second language…

Using Language Learning Conditions in Mathematics. PEN 68.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stoessiger, Rex

This pamphlet reports on a project in Tasmania exploring whether the "natural learning conditions" approach to language learning could be adapted for mathematics. The connections between language and mathematics, as well as the natural learning processes of language learning are described in the pamphlet. The project itself is…

Developmental Comparisons of Implicit and Explicit Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lichtman, Karen

2013-01-01

Conventional wisdom holds that children learn languages implicitly whereas older learners learn languages explicitly, and some have claimed that after puberty only explicit language learning is possible. However, older learners often receive more explicit instruction than child L2 learners, which may affect their learning strategies. This study…

Beliefs about Learning English as a Second Language among Native Groups in Rural Sabah, Malaysia

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Krishnasamy, Hariharan N.; Veloo, Arsaythamby; Lu, Ho Fui

2013-01-01

This paper identifies differences between the three ethnic groups, namely, Kadazans/Dusuns, Bajaus, and other minority ethnic groups on the beliefs about learning English as a second language based on the five variables, that is, language aptitude, language learning difficulty, language learning and communicating strategies, nature of language…

Language Learning in Wittgenstein and Davidson

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kotzee, Ben

2014-01-01

In this paper, I discuss language learning in Wittgenstein and Davidson. Starting from a remark by Bakhurst, I hold that both Wittgenstein and Davidson's philosophies of language contain responses to the problem of language learning, albeit of a different form. Following Williams, I hold that the concept of language learning can explain…

Examining Emotions in English Language Learning Classes: A Case of EFL Emotions

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pishghadam, Reza; Zabetipour, Mohammad; Aminzadeh, Afrooz

2016-01-01

Emotions play a significant role in learning in general, and foreign language learning in particular. Although with the rise of humanistic approaches, enough attention has been given to the affective domain in language learning, the emotions English as a foreign language (EFL) learners experience regarding English language skills in listening,…

The Use of Prosodic Cues in Learning New Words in an Unfamiliar Language

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Sahyang; Broersma, Mirjam; Cho, Taehong

2012-01-01

The artificial language learning paradigm was used to investigate to what extent the use of prosodic features is universally applicable or specifically language driven in learning an unfamiliar language, and how nonnative prosodic patterns can be learned. Listeners of unrelated languages--Dutch (n = 100) and Korean (n = 100)--participated. The…

Creating an Authentic Learning Environment in the Foreign Language Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nikitina, Larisa

2011-01-01

Theatrical activities are widely used by language educators to promote and facilitate language learning. Involving students in production of their own video or a short movie in the target language allows a seamless fusion of language learning, art, and popular culture. The activity is also conducive for creating an authentic learning situation…

Rocking & Rolling: Supporting Infants, Toddlers, and Their Families. One Language, Two Languages, Three Languages . . . More?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prieto, H. Victoria

2009-01-01

The belief that a child has to abandon his home language to learn English implies that the young brain has limited learning capacity. Early childhood teachers need to help families understand that children can learn two languages at the same time. What matters is that the infant/toddler is in an effective language-learning environment, whether it…

Is CALL Obsolete? Language Acquisition and Language Learning Revisited in a Digital Age

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jarvis, Huw; Krashen, Stephen

2014-01-01

In this article, Huw Jarvis and Stephen Krashen ask "Is CALL Obsolete?" When the term CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning) was introduced in the 1960s, the language education profession knew only about language learning, not language acquisition, and assumed the computer's primary contribution to second language acquisition…

Language Alternation and Language Norm in Vocational Content and Language Integrated Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kontio, Janne; Sylvén, Liss Kerstin

2015-01-01

The present article deals with language choice as communicative strategies in the language learning environment of an English-medium content and language integrated learning (CLIL) workshop at an auto mechanics class in a Swedish upper secondary school. The article presents the organisation and functions of language alternations (LAs) which are…

A Whole-School Approach to Promoting Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lane, Nathan

2015-01-01

Languages teachers are all aware of the significant advantages and benefits learning a language provides, and believe in the importance of second language acquisition. However, why is it that languages teachers need to justify learning a second language and work hard to encourage more students to see the importance of learning a language and to…

A role for the developing lexicon in phonetic category acquisition

PubMed Central

Feldman, Naomi H.; Griffiths, Thomas L.; Goldwater, Sharon; Morgan, James L.

2013-01-01

Infants segment words from fluent speech during the same period when they are learning phonetic categories, yet accounts of phonetic category acquisition typically ignore information about the words in which sounds appear. We use a Bayesian model to illustrate how feedback from segmented words might constrain phonetic category learning by providing information about which sounds occur together in words. Simulations demonstrate that word-level information can successfully disambiguate overlapping English vowel categories. Learning patterns in the model are shown to parallel human behavior from artificial language learning tasks. These findings point to a central role for the developing lexicon in phonetic category acquisition and provide a framework for incorporating top-down constraints into models of category learning. PMID:24219848

Age and Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collard, Lucien

1977-01-01

An investigation of the differences between first and second language acquisition and the relationship between age and second language learning. The stages in native language acquisition and the advantages of an early start in second language learning are discussed. (AMH)

The rise of deep learning in drug discovery.

PubMed

Chen, Hongming; Engkvist, Ola; Wang, Yinhai; Olivecrona, Marcus; Blaschke, Thomas

2018-06-01

Over the past decade, deep learning has achieved remarkable success in various artificial intelligence research areas. Evolved from the previous research on artificial neural networks, this technology has shown superior performance to other machine learning algorithms in areas such as image and voice recognition, natural language processing, among others. The first wave of applications of deep learning in pharmaceutical research has emerged in recent years, and its utility has gone beyond bioactivity predictions and has shown promise in addressing diverse problems in drug discovery. Examples will be discussed covering bioactivity prediction, de novo molecular design, synthesis prediction and biological image analysis. Copyright © 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Language learning, language use and the evolution of linguistic variation

PubMed Central

Perfors, Amy; Fehér, Olga; Samara, Anna; Swoboda, Kate; Wonnacott, Elizabeth

2017-01-01

Linguistic universals arise from the interaction between the processes of language learning and language use. A test case for the relationship between these factors is linguistic variation, which tends to be conditioned on linguistic or sociolinguistic criteria. How can we explain the scarcity of unpredictable variation in natural language, and to what extent is this property of language a straightforward reflection of biases in statistical learning? We review three strands of experimental work exploring these questions, and introduce a Bayesian model of the learning and transmission of linguistic variation along with a closely matched artificial language learning experiment with adult participants. Our results show that while the biases of language learners can potentially play a role in shaping linguistic systems, the relationship between biases of learners and the structure of languages is not straightforward. Weak biases can have strong effects on language structure as they accumulate over repeated transmission. But the opposite can also be true: strong biases can have weak or no effects. Furthermore, the use of language during interaction can reshape linguistic systems. Combining data and insights from studies of learning, transmission and use is therefore essential if we are to understand how biases in statistical learning interact with language transmission and language use to shape the structural properties of language. This article is part of the themed issue ‘New frontiers for statistical learning in the cognitive sciences’. PMID:27872370

Language learning, language use and the evolution of linguistic variation.

PubMed

Smith, Kenny; Perfors, Amy; Fehér, Olga; Samara, Anna; Swoboda, Kate; Wonnacott, Elizabeth

2017-01-05

Linguistic universals arise from the interaction between the processes of language learning and language use. A test case for the relationship between these factors is linguistic variation, which tends to be conditioned on linguistic or sociolinguistic criteria. How can we explain the scarcity of unpredictable variation in natural language, and to what extent is this property of language a straightforward reflection of biases in statistical learning? We review three strands of experimental work exploring these questions, and introduce a Bayesian model of the learning and transmission of linguistic variation along with a closely matched artificial language learning experiment with adult participants. Our results show that while the biases of language learners can potentially play a role in shaping linguistic systems, the relationship between biases of learners and the structure of languages is not straightforward. Weak biases can have strong effects on language structure as they accumulate over repeated transmission. But the opposite can also be true: strong biases can have weak or no effects. Furthermore, the use of language during interaction can reshape linguistic systems. Combining data and insights from studies of learning, transmission and use is therefore essential if we are to understand how biases in statistical learning interact with language transmission and language use to shape the structural properties of language.This article is part of the themed issue 'New frontiers for statistical learning in the cognitive sciences'. © 2016 The Authors.

Phonetic diversity, statistical learning, and acquisition of phonology.

PubMed

Pierrehumbert, Janet B

2003-01-01

In learning to perceive and produce speech, children master complex language-specific patterns. Daunting language-specific variation is found both in the segmental domain and in the domain of prosody and intonation. This article reviews the challenges posed by results in phonetic typology and sociolinguistics for the theory of language acquisition. It argues that categories are initiated bottom-up from statistical modes in use of the phonetic space, and sketches how exemplar theory can be used to model the updating of categories once they are initiated. It also argues that bottom-up initiation of categories is successful thanks to the perception-production loop operating in the speech community. The behavior of this loop means that the superficial statistical properties of speech available to the infant indirectly reflect the contrastiveness and discriminability of categories in the adult grammar. The article also argues that the developing system is refined using internal feedback from type statistics over the lexicon, once the lexicon is well-developed. The application of type statistics to a system initiated with surface statistics does not cause a fundamental reorganization of the system. Instead, it exploits confluences across levels of representation which characterize human language and make bootstrapping possible.

Is Native-Language Decoding Skill Related to Second-Language Learning?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meschyan, Gayane; Hernandez, Arturo

2002-01-01

Investigated the mechanisms through which native-language (English) word decoding ability predicted individual differences in native- and second-language (Spanish) learning. Results are consistent with the hypothesis that second-language learning is founded on native-language phonological-orthographic ability among college-age adults, especially…

Brain Bases of Morphological Processing in Young Children

PubMed Central

Arredondo, Maria M.; Ip, Ka I; Hsu, Lucy Shih-Ju; Tardif, Twila; Kovelman, Ioulia

2017-01-01

How does the developing brain support the transition from spoken language to print? Two spoken language abilities form the initial base of child literacy across languages: knowledge of language sounds (phonology) and knowledge of the smallest units that carry meaning (morphology). While phonology has received much attention from the field, the brain mechanisms that support morphological competence for learning to read remain largely unknown. In the present study, young English-speaking children completed an auditory morphological awareness task behaviorally (n = 69, ages 6–12) and in fMRI (n = 16). The data revealed two findings: First, children with better morphological abilities showed greater activation in left temporo-parietal regions previously thought to be important for supporting phonological reading skills, suggesting that this region supports multiple language abilities for successful reading acquisition. Second, children showed activation in left frontal regions previously found active in young Chinese readers, suggesting morphological processes for reading acquisition might be similar across languages. These findings offer new insights for developing a comprehensive model of how spoken language abilities support children’s reading acquisition across languages. PMID:25930011

Thinking and Content Learning of Mathematics and Science as Cognitional Development in Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL): Teaching Through a Foreign Language in Finland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jappinen, Aini-Kristiina

2005-01-01

This paper presents a study on thinking and learning processes of mathematics and science in teaching through a foreign language, in Finland. The entity of thinking and content learning processes is, in this study, considered as cognitional development. Teaching through a foreign language is here called Content and Language Integrated Learning or…

Beliefs and Out-of-Class Language Learning of Chinese-Speaking ESL Learners in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Manfred Man-fat

2012-01-01

Background: There has been a lack of research on exploring how beliefs about language learning (BALLs) and out-of-class language-learning activities are related. BALLs and out-of-class language-learning activities play an important role in influencing the learning behaviours of learners and learning outcomes. Findings of this study provide useful…

All words are not created equal: Expectations about word length guide infant statistical learning

PubMed Central

Lew-Williams, Casey; Saffran, Jenny R.

2011-01-01

Infants have been described as ‘statistical learners’ capable of extracting structure (such as words) from patterned input (such as language). Here, we investigated whether prior knowledge influences how infants track transitional probabilities in word segmentation tasks. Are infants biased by prior experience when engaging in sequential statistical learning? In a laboratory simulation of learning across time, we exposed 9- and 10-month-old infants to a list of either bisyllabic or trisyllabic nonsense words, followed by a pause-free speech stream composed of a different set of bisyllabic or trisyllabic nonsense words. Listening times revealed successful segmentation of words from fluent speech only when words were uniformly bisyllabic or trisyllabic throughout both phases of the experiment. Hearing trisyllabic words during the pre-exposure phase derailed infants’ abilities to segment speech into bisyllabic words, and vice versa. We conclude that prior knowledge about word length equips infants with perceptual expectations that facilitate efficient processing of subsequent language input. PMID:22088408

Age-related behavioural and neurofunctional patterns of second language word learning: different ways of being successful.

PubMed

Marcotte, Karine; Ansaldo, Ana Inés

2014-08-01

This study aimed at investigating the neural basis of word learning as a function of age and word type. Ten young and ten elderly French-speaking participants were trained by means of a computerized Spanish word program. Both age groups reached a similar naming accuracy, but the elderly required significantly more time. Despite equivalent performance, distinct neural networks characterized the ceiling. While the young cohort showed subcortical activations, the elderly recruited the left inferior frontal gyrus, the left lingual gyrus and the precuneus. The learning trajectory of the elderly, the neuroimaging findings together with their performance on the Stroop suggest that the young adults relied on control processing areas whereas the elderly relied on episodic memory circuits, which may reflect resorting to better preserved cognitive resources. Finally, the recruitment of visual processing areas by the elderly may reflect the impact of the language training method used. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Using Computers in Relation to Learning Climate in CLIL Method

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Binterová, Helena; Komínková, Olga

2013-01-01

The main purpose of the work is to present a successful implementation of CLIL method in Mathematics lessons in elementary schools. Nowadays at all types of schools (elementary schools, high schools and universities) all over the world every school subject tends to be taught in a foreign language. In 2003, a document called Action plan for…

Cross-Cultural Perspective of FL Teaching and Learning in the Polish Context

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sobkowiak, Pawel

2012-01-01

This study examines whether learners' capacity to use a foreign language (FL) successfully in the global world is developed in the FL classroom in Polish high schools. The article reports results of the quantitative research which aimed at assessing whether and to what extent homogeneous FL classes in Poland are conducive to developing learners'…

When Commas Meet Kryptonite: Classroom Lessons from the Comic Book Project. Language and Literacy Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bitz, Michael

2010-01-01

This definitive book presents the newest research linking graphic narratives and literacy learning, as well as the tools teachers will need to make comic book projects a success in their classrooms. The Comic Book Project (www.comicbookproject.org) is an internationally celebrated initiative where children plan, write, design, and publish original…

Cooperative or Collaborative Literacy Practices: Mapping Metadiscourse in a Business Students' Wiki Group Project

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alyousef, Hesham Suleiman; Picard, Michelle Yvette

2011-01-01

Although wikis have been used successfully in collaborative learning in higher education, there is a lack of research investigating wikis in business module assessment tasks. Little research to date has been conducted on how wikis formatively develop international English as a second language (ESL) in business students' academic discourse. In this…

The Platte River Corridor Project: A University/K-12 Collaboration to Meet the Needs of Latino Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hof, David D.; Lopez, Samuel T.; Dinsmore, Julie A.; Baker, Jessica; McCarty, Wendy L.; Tracy, Glenn

2007-01-01

This article discusses the development and impact of the Platte River Corridor Project, a successful university/K-12 partnership designed to address the inequality in learning outcomes for Latino students by increasing the effectiveness of K-12 classroom teachers in educating Latino English Language Learner (ELL) students and by facilitating…

Evaluation of Creative Problem-Solving Abilities in Undergraduate Structural Engineers through Interdisciplinary Problem-Based Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCrum, Daniel Patrick

2017-01-01

For a structural engineer, effective communication and interaction with architects cannot be underestimated as a key skill to success throughout their professional career. Structural engineers and architects have to share a common language and understanding of each other in order to achieve the most desirable architectural and structural designs.…

Early Steps to School Success (ESSS): Examining Pathways Linking Home Visiting and Language Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iruka, Iheoma U.; Brown, Deborah; Jerald, Judith; Blitch, Kimberly

2018-01-01

Background: Improving the home environment and parenting practices to support children's early development and learning is a key focus of many. Home visiting is one potential strategy to improve the home environment and parenting; however, more data about current programmatic efforts is needed, especially for children with multiple risks living in…

Influences of Teacher-Child Social Interactions on English Language Development in a Head Start Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Piker, Ruth Alfaro; Rex, Lesley A.

2008-01-01

Increasing numbers of Spanish-speaking preschool children require attention to improve the likelihood of success in school. This study, part of a larger 2-year ethnographic study of a Head Start classroom, elaborates the role of teachers' interactions with students who were learning English. Using an interactional ethnography approach, the authors…

Increasing ELL Parental Involvement in Our Schools: Learning from the Parents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Panferov, Suzanne

2010-01-01

Engaging parents as advocates for school success in the home is particularly important for English Language Learners (ELL). Tapping into the experiences of ELL parents in their own lives about schooling and literacy is a resource educators can use to increase parental involvement. This article describes the stories of two parents and compares…

Learning from Families: Pre-Service Teachers' First Interactions with Parents

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brannon, Diana

2014-01-01

Parent involvement is essential to student success. However, it is also often a struggle for even the most experienced teacher to get parents involved. There are many barriers to parent involvement including issues related to parents finding the time, understanding its importance, and speaking a different language in the home. That is the reality…

Investigating an Innovative Computer Application to Improve L2 Word Recognition from Speech

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Matthews, Joshua; O'Toole, John Mitchell

2015-01-01

The ability to recognise words from the aural modality is a critical aspect of successful second language (L2) listening comprehension. However, little research has been reported on computer-mediated development of L2 word recognition from speech in L2 learning contexts. This report describes the development of an innovative computer application…

New Names for Known Things: On the Association of Novel Word Forms with Existing Semantic Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dobel, Christian; Junghofer, Markus; Breitenstein, Caterina; Klauke, Benedikt; Knecht, Stefan; Pantev, Christo; Zwitserlood, Pienie

2010-01-01

The plasticity of the adult memory network for integrating novel word forms (lexemes) was investigated with whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG). We showed that spoken word forms of an (artificial) foreign language are integrated rapidly and successfully into existing lexical and conceptual memory networks. The new lexemes were learned in an…

Language to Completion: Success in an Educational Data Mining Massive Open Online Class

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crossley, Scott; McNamara, Danielle S.; Baker, Ryan; Wang, Yuan; Paquette, Luc; Barnes, Tiffany; Bergner, Yoav

2015-01-01

Completion rates for massive open online classes (MOOCs) are notoriously low, but learner intent is an important factor. By studying students who drop out despite their intent to complete the MOOC, it may be possible to develop interventions to improve retention and learning outcomes. Previous research into predicting MOOC completion has focused…

The Occurrence and the Success Rate of Self-Initiated Self-Repair

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sato, Rintaro; Takatsuka, Shigenobu

2016-01-01

Errors naturally appear in spontaneous speeches and conversations. Particularly in a second or foreign language, it is only natural that mistakes happen as a part of the learning process. After an inappropriate expression is detected, it can be corrected. This act of correcting can be initiated either by the speaker (non-native speaker) or the…

Critical Teacher Talk: Successful English for Academic Purposes Classroom Practices in a Global Campus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kim, Namsook

2016-01-01

Drawn on the sociocultural paradigm, I examined teacher-student communication with emphasis on teacher's talk and its role on international students' learning English as a Second Language in an English for Academic Purposes classroom in a global campus in the U.S. Developmental data analyses of class observations, teacher and student interviews,…

Fast ForWord[R]. What Works Clearinghouse Intervention Report

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

What Works Clearinghouse, 2013

2013-01-01

"Fast ForWord"[R] is a computer-based reading program intended to help students develop and strengthen the cognitive skills necessary for successful reading and learning. The program, which is designed to be used 30-100 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 4-16 weeks, includes three series. The "Fast ForWord[R] Language" series…

Removing obstacles for African American English-speaking children through greater understanding of language difference.

PubMed

Pearson, Barbara Zurer; Conner, Tracy; Jackson, Janice E

2013-01-01

Language difference among speakers of African American English (AAE) has often been considered language deficit, based on a lack of understanding about the AAE variety. Following Labov (1972), Wolfram (1969), Green (2002, 2011), and others, we define AAE as a complex rule-governed linguistic system and briefly discuss language structures that it shares with general American English (GAE) and others that are unique to AAE. We suggest ways in which mistaken ideas about the language variety add to children's difficulties in learning the mainstream dialect and, in effect, deny them the benefits of their educational programs. We propose that a linguistically informed approach that highlights correspondences between AAE and the mainstream dialect and trains students and teachers to understand language varieties at a metalinguistic level creates environments that support the academic achievement of AAE-speaking students. Finally, we present 3 program types that are recommended for helping students achieve the skills they need to be successful in multiple linguistic environments.

Learning and Memory Processes Following Cochlear Implantation: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle.

PubMed

Pisoni, David B; Kronenberger, William G; Chandramouli, Suyog H; Conway, Christopher M

2016-01-01

At the present time, there is no question that cochlear implants (CIs) work and often work very well in quiet listening conditions for many profoundly deaf children and adults. The speech and language outcomes data published over the last two decades document quite extensively the clinically significant benefits of CIs. Although there now is a large body of evidence supporting the "efficacy" of CIs as a medical intervention for profound hearing loss in both children and adults, there still remain a number of challenging unresolved clinical and theoretical issues that deal with the "effectiveness" of CIs in individual patients that have not yet been successfully resolved. In this paper, we review recent findings on learning and memory, two central topics in the field of cognition that have been seriously neglected in research on CIs. Our research findings on sequence learning, memory and organization processes, and retrieval strategies used in verbal learning and memory of categorized word lists suggests that basic domain-general learning abilities may be the missing piece of the puzzle in terms of understanding the cognitive factors that underlie the enormous individual differences and variability routinely observed in speech and language outcomes following cochlear implantation.

Learning and Memory Processes Following Cochlear Implantation: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle

PubMed Central

Pisoni, David B.; Kronenberger, William G.; Chandramouli, Suyog H.; Conway, Christopher M.

2016-01-01

At the present time, there is no question that cochlear implants (CIs) work and often work very well in quiet listening conditions for many profoundly deaf children and adults. The speech and language outcomes data published over the last two decades document quite extensively the clinically significant benefits of CIs. Although there now is a large body of evidence supporting the “efficacy” of CIs as a medical intervention for profound hearing loss in both children and adults, there still remain a number of challenging unresolved clinical and theoretical issues that deal with the “effectiveness” of CIs in individual patients that have not yet been successfully resolved. In this paper, we review recent findings on learning and memory, two central topics in the field of cognition that have been seriously neglected in research on CIs. Our research findings on sequence learning, memory and organization processes, and retrieval strategies used in verbal learning and memory of categorized word lists suggests that basic domain-general learning abilities may be the missing piece of the puzzle in terms of understanding the cognitive factors that underlie the enormous individual differences and variability routinely observed in speech and language outcomes following cochlear implantation. PMID:27092098

Computer Assisted Language Learning. Routledge Studies in Computer Assisted Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pennington, Martha

2011-01-01

Computer-assisted language learning (CALL) is an approach to language teaching and learning in which computer technology is used as an aid to the presentation, reinforcement and assessment of material to be learned, usually including a substantial interactive element. This books provides an up-to date and comprehensive overview of…

Beyond the Four Walls: Community-Based Learning and Languages

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Connor, Anne

2012-01-01

At a time when languages in universities are under pressure, community-based learning language courses can have many positive benefits: they can increase interest in language learning, they can foster greater engagement with learning, and they can encourage active learning, creativity and teamwork. These courses, which link the classroom and the…

Minority Languages Learned Informally: The Social Construction of Language Skills through the Discourse of Ontario Employers. NALL Working Paper.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldberg, Michelle; Corson, David

Many immigrants, refugees, and aboriginal Canadians learn their own languages in the normal, informal way. These minority languages learned informally are not valued as a skill that yields returns in the labor market in the same way the official languages or formally learned languages do. What counts as a skill in a society, in a given point in…

Velocardiofacial syndrome: learning difficulties and intervention.

PubMed Central

Kok, L L; Solman, R T

1995-01-01

Velocardiofacial syndrome, delineated in 1978 by Shprintzen, is a multiple genetic disorder, characterised primarily by cleft palate, cardiovascular anomalies, typical facies, and learning disorders. This syndrome with its recurrent pattern of anomalies has significant implications for education as it is linked to a variety of educationally relevant problems including learning difficulties, behaviour disorders, and speech and language deficits. While clinical research advances and new findings in cytogenetics enable early diagnosis and genetic counselling, ramifications of the syndrome in the field of education are still unknown. Learning difficulties should not be viewed solely as a pathological condition and with data on success of intervention, parents and teachers can be apprised of the information. This paper discusses academic characteristics and the effects of intervention with emphasis on interactive computer based instruction on the development of reading, language, spelling, and numeracy skills. Positive effects of computer based instruction on students' self-esteem, motivation, and competence in computer operational skills were also observed and noted. We are encouraged by the enthusiasms of the students for the system, the development of interest in reading, and the transfer of remedial instruction to classroom performance. Comparison of pretest and post-test results indicated significant improvement in reading ability as measured using Neale Analysis. This improvement is in accordance with results obtained using computer testing of specific subskills in reading/language and mathematics. PMID:7473652

White matter anisotropy in the ventral language pathway predicts sound-to-word learning success

PubMed Central

Wong, Francis C. K.; Chandrasekaran, Bharath; Garibaldi, Kyla; Wong, Patrick C. M.

2011-01-01

According to the dual stream model of auditory language processing, the dorsal stream is responsible for mapping sound to articulation while the ventral stream plays the role of mapping sound to meaning. Most researchers agree that the arcuate fasciculus (AF) is the neuroanatomical correlate of the dorsal steam, however, less is known about what constitutes the ventral one. Nevertheless two hypotheses exist, one suggests that the segment of the AF that terminates in middle temporal gyrus corresponds to the ventral stream and the other suggests that it is the extreme capsule that underlies this sound to meaning pathway. The goal of this study is to evaluate these two competing hypotheses. We trained participants with a sound-to-word learning paradigm in which they learned to use a foreign phonetic contrast for signaling word meaning. Using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), a brain imaging tool to investigate white matter connectivity in humans, we found that fractional anisotropy in the left parietal-temporal region positively correlated with the performance in sound-to-word learning. In addition, fiber tracking revealed a ventral pathway, composed of the extreme capsule and the inferior longitudinal fasciculus, that mediated auditory comprehension. Our findings provide converging evidence supporting the importance of the ventral steam, an extreme capsule system, in the frontal-temporal language network. Implications for current models of speech processing will also be discussed. PMID:21677162

The Relationship between Iranian EFL Learners' Beliefs about Language Learning and Language Learning Strategy Use

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zarei, Abbas Ali; Rahmani, Hanieh

2015-01-01

The present study investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' beliefs about language learning and language learning strategy use. A sample of 104 B.A and M.A Iranian EFL learners majoring in English participated in this study. Three instruments, the Michigan Test of English Language Proficiency (MTELP), Beliefs about Language…

The Internet, Language Learning, and International Dialogue: Constructing Online Foreign Language Learning Websites

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kartal, Erdogan; Uzun, Levent

2010-01-01

In the present study we call attention to the close connection between languages and globalization, and we also emphasize the importance of the Internet and online websites in foreign language teaching and learning as unavoidable elements of computer assisted language learning (CALL). We prepared a checklist by which we investigated 28 foreign…

"So They're Actually Real?" Integrating E-Tandem Learning into the Study of Language for International Business

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bruen, Jennifer; Sudhershan, Aleksandra

2015-01-01

Tandem learning involves learners with complementary target and native languages communicating for the purpose of learning each other's languages and cultures. Studies indicate that it can function as a powerful complement to formal language learning classes with regard to the development of both language proficiency and cultural intelligence.…

Learning to Learn a Foreign Language. Principles of Second Language Acquisition: An Orientation for Foreign Language Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pfannkuche, Anthony; And Others

The manual designed to accompany an orientation seminar for students concerning language learning processes and strategies and the design of their program includes materials for five sessions, in three sections. The first section covers language learning and acquisition in general and contains a survey of the participants' foreign language…

Integrating Culture into Language Teaching and Learning: Learner Outcomes

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nguyen, Trang Thi Thuy

2017-01-01

This paper discusses the issue of learner outcomes in learning culture as part of their language learning. First, some brief discussion on the role of culture in language teaching and learning, as well as on culture contents in language lessons is presented. Based on a detailed review of previous literature related to culture in language teaching…

The Impact of Language Experience on Language and Reading: A Statistical Learning Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seidenberg, Mark S.; MacDonald, Maryellen C.

2018-01-01

This article reviews the important role of statistical learning for language and reading development. Although statistical learning--the unconscious encoding of patterns in language input--has become widely known as a force in infants' early interpretation of speech, the role of this kind of learning for language and reading comprehension in…

Language-Learning Holidays: What Motivates People to Learn a Minority Language?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

O'Rourke, Bernadette; DePalma, Renée

2017-01-01

In this article, we examine the experiences of 18 Galician language learners who participated in what Garland [(2008). "The minority language and the cosmopolitan speaker: Ideologies of Irish language learners" (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of California, Santa Barbara] refers to as a "language-learning holiday" in…

The Correlation between Early Second Language Learning and Native Language Skill Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caccavale, Terry

2007-01-01

It has long been the assumption of many in the field of second language teaching that learning a second language helps to promote and enhance native language skill development, and that this correlation is direct and positive. Language professionals have assumed that learning a second language directly supports the development of better skills,…

Important Constructs in Literacy Learning across Disciplines

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foorman, Barbara R.; Arndt, Elissa J.; Crawford, Elizabeth C.

2011-01-01

Currently students who struggle with language and literacy learning are classified with various labels in different states--language learning disabilities, dyslexia, specific language impairment, and specific learning disability--in spite of having similar diagnostic profiles. Drawing on the research on comprehension of written language, we…

Studying the mechanisms of language learning by varying the learning environment and the learner

PubMed Central

Goldin-Meadow, Susan

2015-01-01

Language learning is a resilient process, and many linguistic properties can be developed under a wide range of learning environments and learners. The first goal of this review is to describe properties of language that can be developed without exposure to a language model – the resilient properties of language – and to explore conditions under which more fragile properties emerge. But even if a linguistic property is resilient, the developmental course that the property follows is likely to vary as a function of learning environment and learner, that is, there are likely to be individual differences in the learning trajectories children follow. The second goal is to consider how the resilient properties are brought to bear on language learning when a child is exposed to a language model. The review ends by considering the implications of both sets of findings for mechanisms, focusing on the role that the body and linguistic input play in language learning. PMID:26668813

Studying the mechanisms of language learning by varying the learning environment and the learner.

PubMed

Goldin-Meadow, Susan

Language learning is a resilient process, and many linguistic properties can be developed under a wide range of learning environments and learners. The first goal of this review is to describe properties of language that can be developed without exposure to a language model - the resilient properties of language - and to explore conditions under which more fragile properties emerge. But even if a linguistic property is resilient, the developmental course that the property follows is likely to vary as a function of learning environment and learner, that is, there are likely to be individual differences in the learning trajectories children follow. The second goal is to consider how the resilient properties are brought to bear on language learning when a child is exposed to a language model. The review ends by considering the implications of both sets of findings for mechanisms, focusing on the role that the body and linguistic input play in language learning.

Learning and Development of Second and Foreign Language Pragmatics as a Higher-Order Language Skill: A Brief Overview of Relevant Theories. Research Report. ETS RR-16-35

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Timpe-Laughlin, Veronika

2016-01-01

The development of effective second and foreign (L2) language learning materials needs to be grounded in two types of theories: (a) a theory of language and language use and (b) a theory of language learning. Both are equally important, insofar as an effective learning environment requires an understanding of the knowledge, skills, and abilities…

Why segmentation matters: experience-driven segmentation errors impair “morpheme” learning

PubMed Central

Finn, Amy S.; Hudson Kam, Carla L.

2015-01-01

We ask whether an adult learner’s knowledge of their native language impedes statistical learning in a new language beyond just word segmentation (as previously shown). In particular, we examine the impact of native-language word-form phonotactics on learners’ ability to segment words into their component morphemes and learn phonologically triggered variation of morphemes. We find that learning is impaired when words and component morphemes are structured to conflict with a learner’s native-language phonotactic system, but not when native-language phonotactics do not conflict with morpheme boundaries in the artificial language. A learner’s native-language knowledge can therefore have a cascading impact affecting word segmentation and the morphological variation that relies upon proper segmentation. These results show that getting word segmentation right early in learning is deeply important for learning other aspects of language, even those (morphology) that are known to pose a great difficulty for adult language learners. PMID:25730305

Learning Theories and Skills in Online Second Language Teaching and Learning: Dilemmas and Challenges

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Petersen, Karen Bjerg

2014-01-01

For decades foreign and second language teachers have taken advantage of the technology development and ensuing possibilities to use e-learning facilities for language training. Since the 1980s, the use of computer assisted language learning (CALL), Internet, web 2.0, and various kinds of e-learning technology has been developed and researched…

Community Language Learning and Counseling-Learning. TEAL Occasional Papers, Vol. l, 1977.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soga, Lillian

Community Language Learning (CLL) is a humanistic approach to learning which emphasizes the learner and learning rather than the teacher and teaching. In some situations where the teacher is not fluent in the various languages spoken by the students, such as in the English as a second language (ESL) classroom, advanced students may serve as…

Content and Language Integrated Learning with Technologies: A Global Online Training Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cinganotto, Letizia

2016-01-01

The focus of this report is the link between CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and CALL (Computer-Assisted Language Learning), and in particular, the added value technologies can bring to the learning/teaching of a foreign language and to the delivery of subject content through a foreign language. An example of a free online global…

"Seamlessly" Learning Chinese: Contextual Meaning Making and Vocabulary Growth in a Seamless Chinese as a Second Language Learning Environment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Lung-Hsiang; King, Ronnel B.; Chai, Ching Sing; Liu, May

2016-01-01

Second language learners are typically hampered by the lack of a natural environment to use the target language for authentic communication purpose (as a means for "learning by applying"). Thus, we propose MyCLOUD, a mobile-assisted seamless language learning approach that aims to nurture a second language social network that bridges…

Perceptions of Turkish EFL Students on Online Language Learning Platforms and Blended Language Learning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Istifci, Ilknur

2017-01-01

The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of EFL students studying English at the School of Foreign Languages, Anadolu University (AUSFL) on blended language learning and online learning platforms. The participants of the study consisted of 167 students whose English language proficiency level was B2 according to the Common European…

Should Bilingual Children Learn Reading in Two Languages at the Same Time or in Sequence?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Berens, Melody S.; Kovelman, Ioulia; Petitto, Laura-Ann

2013-01-01

Is it best to learn reading in two languages simultaneously or sequentially? We observed second- and third-grade children in two-way "dual-language learning contexts": (a) 50:50 or Simultaneous dual-language (two languages within same developmental period) and (b) 90:10 or Sequential dual-language (one language, followed gradually by the other).…

An Integrative Approach to Foreign Language Teaching: Choosing Among the Options. ACTFL Foreign Language Education Series, Vol. 8.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jarvis, Gilbert A., Ed.

This volume on foreign language teaching and learning concerns the following topics: lifelong learning, small-group learning, the minicourse, student attitudes toward foreign languages, problems in secondary schools, humanistic education, curricula in uncommonly taught languages, foreign languages in elementary and adolescent-centered education,…

Enhanced procedural learning of speech sound categories in a genetic variant of FOXP2.

PubMed

Chandrasekaran, Bharath; Yi, Han-Gyol; Blanco, Nathaniel J; McGeary, John E; Maddox, W Todd

2015-05-20

A mutation of the forkhead box protein P2 (FOXP2) gene is associated with severe deficits in human speech and language acquisition. In rodents, the humanized form of FOXP2 promotes faster switching from declarative to procedural learning strategies when the two learning systems compete. Here, we examined a polymorphism of FOXP2 (rs6980093) in humans (214 adults; 111 females) for associations with non-native speech category learning success. Neurocomputational modeling results showed that individuals with the GG genotype shifted faster to procedural learning strategies, which are optimal for the task. These findings support an adaptive role for the FOXP2 gene in modulating the function of neural learning systems that have a direct bearing on human speech category learning. Copyright © 2015 the authors 0270-6474/15/357808-05$15.00/0.

Statistical Learning in a Natural Language by 8-Month-Old Infants

PubMed Central

Pelucchi, Bruna; Hay, Jessica F.; Saffran, Jenny R.

2013-01-01

Numerous studies over the past decade support the claim that infants are equipped with powerful statistical language learning mechanisms. The primary evidence for statistical language learning in word segmentation comes from studies using artificial languages, continuous streams of synthesized syllables that are highly simplified relative to real speech. To what extent can these conclusions be scaled up to natural language learning? In the current experiments, English-learning 8-month-old infants’ ability to track transitional probabilities in fluent infant-directed Italian speech was tested (N = 72). The results suggest that infants are sensitive to transitional probability cues in unfamiliar natural language stimuli, and support the claim that statistical learning is sufficiently robust to support aspects of real-world language acquisition. PMID:19489896

Statistical learning in a natural language by 8-month-old infants.

PubMed

Pelucchi, Bruna; Hay, Jessica F; Saffran, Jenny R

2009-01-01

Numerous studies over the past decade support the claim that infants are equipped with powerful statistical language learning mechanisms. The primary evidence for statistical language learning in word segmentation comes from studies using artificial languages, continuous streams of synthesized syllables that are highly simplified relative to real speech. To what extent can these conclusions be scaled up to natural language learning? In the current experiments, English-learning 8-month-old infants' ability to track transitional probabilities in fluent infant-directed Italian speech was tested (N = 72). The results suggest that infants are sensitive to transitional probability cues in unfamiliar natural language stimuli, and support the claim that statistical learning is sufficiently robust to support aspects of real-world language acquisition.

Language Learning in Virtual Reality Environments: Past, Present, and Future

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lin, Tsun-Ju; Lan, Yu-Ju

2015-01-01

This study investigated the research trends in language learning in a virtual reality environment by conducting a content analysis of findings published in the literature from 2004 to 2013 in four top ranked computer-assisted language learning journals: "Language Learning & Technology," "CALICO Journal," "Computer…

Language Learning Strategies and Its Training Model

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liu, Jing

2010-01-01

This paper summarizes and reviews the literature regarding language learning strategies and it's training model, pointing out the significance of language learning strategies to EFL learners and an applicable and effective language learning strategies training model, which is beneficial both to EFL learners and instructors, is badly needed.

Strength of Temporal White Matter Pathways Predicts Semantic Learning.

PubMed

Ripollés, Pablo; Biel, Davina; Peñaloza, Claudia; Kaufmann, Jörn; Marco-Pallarés, Josep; Noesselt, Toemme; Rodríguez-Fornells, Antoni

2017-11-15

Learning the associations between words and meanings is a fundamental human ability. Although the language network is cortically well defined, the role of the white matter pathways supporting novel word-to-meaning mappings remains unclear. Here, by using contextual and cross-situational word learning, we tested whether learning the meaning of a new word is related to the integrity of the language-related white matter pathways in 40 adults (18 women). The arcuate, uncinate, inferior-fronto-occipital and inferior-longitudinal fasciculi were virtually dissected using manual and automatic deterministic fiber tracking. Critically, the automatic method allowed assessing the white matter microstructure along the tract. Results demonstrate that the microstructural properties of the left inferior-longitudinal fasciculus predict contextual learning, whereas the left uncinate was associated with cross-situational learning. In addition, we identified regions of special importance within these pathways: the posterior middle temporal gyrus, thought to serve as a lexical interface and specifically related to contextual learning; the anterior temporal lobe, known to be an amodal hub for semantic processing and related to cross-situational learning; and the white matter near the hippocampus, a structure fundamental for the initial stages of new-word learning and, remarkably, related to both types of word learning. No significant associations were found for the inferior-fronto-occipital fasciculus or the arcuate. While previous results suggest that learning new phonological word forms is mediated by the arcuate fasciculus, these findings show that the temporal pathways are the crucial neural substrate supporting one of the most striking human abilities: our capacity to identify correct associations between words and meanings under referential indeterminacy. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT The language-processing network is cortically (i.e., gray matter) well defined. However, the role of the white matter pathways that support novel word learning within this network remains unclear. In this work, we dissected language-related (arcuate, uncinate, inferior-fronto-occipital, and inferior-longitudinal) fasciculi using manual and automatic tracking. We found the left inferior-longitudinal fasciculus to be predictive of word-learning success in two word-to-meaning tasks: contextual and cross-situational learning paradigms. The left uncinate was predictive of cross-situational word learning. No significant correlations were found for the arcuate or the inferior-fronto-occipital fasciculus. While previous results showed that learning new phonological word forms is supported by the arcuate fasciculus, these findings demonstrate that learning new word-to-meaning associations is mainly dependent on temporal white matter pathways. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/3711102-13$15.00/0.

Using African languages for democracy and lifelong learning in Africa: A post-2015 challenge and the work of CASAS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brock-Utne, Birgit; Mercer, Malcolm

2014-12-01

Africans speak African languages in their everyday lives while lessons in school are delivered in an exogenous language. In many places adult education is also carried out in a language the majority of people do not speak. The exogenous languages, which are the languages of the former colonial powers and mastered just by a small African elite, are used in most parliaments in Africa and in most newspapers. This problem is largely ignored by the international community. An argument often put forward against using African languages as Languages of Instruction (LOIs) is that there are so many of them, and it may be problematic to select one as an LOI. But is this really the case? And does one need to select one language? The main work of the Centre for Advanced Studies of African Society (CASAS) located in Cape Town has been to harmonise the written forms of most African languages so that these languages can be used as LOIs and as languages of government and the press. This paper examines in some detail the work undertaken by CASAS, its successes and challenges. It shows that the political process of getting the harmonised languages adopted is more difficult and unpredictable than the linguistic work itself.

Learning Spanish the Fenix Way

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wholey, Jane

1977-01-01

The Instituto Fenix, a language learning school in Cuernavaca, Mexico, features oral language learning and a creative teaching technique to help language students to learn Spanish both effectively and quickly. (RK)

Bilinguals’ Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language

PubMed Central

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2017-01-01

Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts transfer from either language for individual words, whereas an accumulation account predicts cumulative transfer from both languages. To compare these accounts, twenty English-German bilingual adults were taught an artificial language containing 48 novel written words that varied orthogonally in English and German wordlikeness (neighborhood size and orthotactic probability). Wordlikeness in each language improved word production accuracy, and similarity to one language provided the same benefit as dual-language overlap. In addition, participants’ memory for novel words was affected by the statistical distributions of letters in the novel language. Results indicate that bilinguals utilize both languages during third language acquisition, supporting a scaffolding learning model. PMID:28781384

Bilinguals' Existing Languages Benefit Vocabulary Learning in a Third Language.

PubMed

Bartolotti, James; Marian, Viorica

2017-03-01

Learning a new language involves substantial vocabulary acquisition. Learners can accelerate this process by relying on words with native-language overlap, such as cognates. For bilingual third language learners, it is necessary to determine how their two existing languages interact during novel language learning. A scaffolding account predicts transfer from either language for individual words, whereas an accumulation account predicts cumulative transfer from both languages. To compare these accounts, twenty English-German bilingual adults were taught an artificial language containing 48 novel written words that varied orthogonally in English and German wordlikeness (neighborhood size and orthotactic probability). Wordlikeness in each language improved word production accuracy, and similarity to one language provided the same benefit as dual-language overlap. In addition, participants' memory for novel words was affected by the statistical distributions of letters in the novel language. Results indicate that bilinguals utilize both languages during third language acquisition, supporting a scaffolding learning model.

Teacher-Student Interaction and Learning.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hall, Joan Kelly; Walsh, Meghan

2002-01-01

Reviews literature on recent developments in teacher-student interaction and language learning. Based on a sociocultural perspective of language and learning, draws from three types of classrooms: first language, second language, and foreign language. Attention is given to studies that investigate the specific means used in teacher-student…

Classroom Promotion of Oral Language (CPOL): protocol for a cluster randomised controlled trial of a school-based intervention to improve children’s literacy outcomes at grade 3, oral language and mental health

PubMed Central

Goldfeld, Sharon; Snow, Pamela; Eadie, Patricia; Munro, John; Gold, Lisa; Le, Ha N D; Orsini, Francesca; Shingles, Beth; Lee, Katherine; Connell, Judy; Watts, Amy

2017-01-01

Introduction Oral language and literacy competence are major influences on children’s developmental pathways and life success. Children who do not develop the necessary language and literacy skills in the early years of school then go on to face long-term difficulties. Improving teacher effectiveness may be a critical step in lifting oral language and literacy outcomes. The Classroom Promotion of Oral Language trial aims to determine whether a specifically designed teacher professional learning programme focusing on promoting oral language can lead to improved teacher knowledge and practice, and advance outcomes in oral language and literacy for early years school children, compared with usual practice. Methods and analysis This is a two-arm cluster multisite randomised controlled trial conducted within Catholic and Government primary schools across Victoria, Australia. The intervention comprises 4 days of face-to-face professional learning for teachers and ongoing implementation support via a specific worker. The primary outcome is reading ability of the students at grade 3, and the secondary outcomes are teacher knowledge and practice, student mental health, reading comprehension and language ability at grade 1; and literacy, writing and numeracy at grade 3. Economic evaluation will compare the incremental costs of the intervention to the measured primary and secondary outcomes. Ethics and dissemination This trial was approved by the Monash University Human Research Ethics Committee #CF13/2634-2013001403 and later transferred to the University of Melbourne #1545540. The investigators (including Government and Catholic partners) will communicate trial results to stakeholders, collaborators and participating schools and teachers via appropriate presentations and publications. Trial registration number ISRCTN77681972; Pre-results. PMID:29162571