bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Problem-Oriented Reporting of CAHPS Consumer Evaluations of Health Care
Authors: Elliott Marc N. , Beckett Megan K. , Kanouse David E. , Hambarsoomians Katrin , Bernard Shulamit
Published: August 2007

Consumer Assessment of Health Care Providers and Systems (CAHPS) is an organized effort to provide consumers with standardized, comprehensible, and usable data regarding consumers' experiences with health care. In its Medicare and other summary reports, CAHPS emphasizes the frequency of the most positive experiences. Cognitive models of survey response combined with attitude theory suggest that performance measurement might be further improved by the addition of problem-oriented reporting, which highlights the frequency of negative experiences. We propose criteria and use them to assess whether problem-oriented reporting provides valid, precise, and complementary information. Analysis of the 2000 CAHPS Medicare Fee-For-Service and 2001 CAHPS Medicare Advantage survey data shows that problem-oriented reporting (1) is viable, interpretable, and unlikely to represent noise; (2) has statistical power sufficient to capture important differences of magnitudes commonly observed; and (3) provides information that complements standard reporting.
Technology Acceptance among Physicians
Authors: Yarbrough Amy K. , Smith Todd B.
Published: August 2007

The proliferation of information technology has been a revolutionary force that has increased efficiency and effectiveness in many industries. However, health care organizations, particularly physician practices, are noticeably lagging in the adoption of such technologies. This article provides a systematic review of the literature on physician acceptance of information technology. An overview of the technology acceptance model (TAM) is discussed, and a modified version of this model is proposed. Finally, ideas for testing this new model in a physician setting are presented. By providing a better understanding of physician technology acceptance, this model will inform health care managers about barriers that make physicians hesitant to embrace new technologies designed to increase efficiency and improve quality in a health care setting.
The Implications of Bank-Issued Check Surveys for Evaluators
Authors: Blair Jason , Taylor Ted K. , Johnson-Shelton Deborah
Published: August 2007

This article describes an innovative data collection procedure. A subsample ( n = 164) of a longitudinal research project was assessed using a bank-issued check survey procedure (a removable bank check on which response fields were printed). Using the new procedure, parents returned their surveys simply by depositing or cashing their incentive checks at the bank. Evaluators found that using this format and minimal follow-up achieved a response rate similar to sending a longer questionnaire requiring intensive follow-up. A 75% return rate was achieved after 8 weeks without the need of follow-up calls. A final return rate of 89% was achieved after a second mailing and a single round of phone calls. The procedure decreased labor costs by approximately two thirds by reducing the need for a large volume of reminder calls to parents. Implications for this unique survey method are discussed, as well as the limitations of the procedure.
What Are the Effects of Welfare Sanction Policies? Or, Using Propensity Scores as a Subgroup Indicator to Learn More From Social Experiments
Authors: Peck Laura R.
Published: August 2007

This article uses propensity scores to identify subgroups of individuals most likely to experience a reduction in cash benefits because of sanctions in some of the programs that make up the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies. It extends program evaluation methodology by using propensity scoring to identify the subgroups of sanctioned and nonsanctioned welfare recipients. Specifically, the propensity score is used to identify the sample subset most likely to experience program sanction. In this application, the propensity score helps deal with an omitted variable problem, that of not knowing what the sanction status is in the control group (because they were not subject to the policies being tested). Findings reveal that being high sanction risk induces greater work levels and therefore higher earnings, but it also results in receiving less cash assistance so that sanctioned recipients have roughly the same net incomes as nonsanctioned ones.
On a Personal Note
Authors: Jewiss Jennifer , Clark/Keefe Kelly
Published: August 2007

The necessities and benefits of reflexivity are now well laid out in the broader social science literature, and the American Evaluation Association's (2004) Guiding Principles for Evaluators identify reflective practices that evaluators are expected to carry out. This article uses the context of the university classroom and a writing sample to demonstrate how disciplined self-reflection can help students examine personal perspectives that surface during the research process and monitor bias. Failure to develop and maintain a reflective stance can result in a variety of ethical and practical dilemmas. Fortunately, written reflections and classroom discussions can help screen for potential dilemmas and point the evaluation in more appropriate directions. A preliminary list of readings and classroom activities is included to help faculty guide students in their exploration, monitoring, and constructive use of personal perspectives.
Analysis of Thin Online Interview Data
Authors: Kitto Richard J. , Barnett John
Published: August 2007

Despite the best of intentions, qualitative researchers can be faced, in some circumstances, with having to make meaning from thin, or less than optimal, data. Using a real study as context, the authors describe the ways that they made sense of their thin data on teachers' perceptions of a large-scale evaluation instrument. They propose a rigorous, sequential approach to e-mail interview analysis based on three hierarchical language levels—lexical, semantic, and pragmatic—to save, by analysis, meanings that might otherwise have been lost because of limited data availability. Researchers are, of course, cautioned to avoid making claims that cannot be substantiated by the data.
Evaluability Assessment From 1986 to 2006
Authors: Trevisan Michael S.
Published: August 2007

This article presents the state of practice of evaluability assessment (EA) as represented in the published literature from 1986 to 2006. Twenty-three EA studies were located, showing that EA was conducted in a wide variety of programs, disciplines, and settings. Most studies employed document reviews, site visits, and interviews, common methodologies previously recommended in the literature on EA. The use of uncommon methodologies such as the use of standardized instruments and statistical modeling were also found in studies obtained for this review. The most common rationale for conducting EA mentioned in these studies was determining program readiness for impact assessment, program development, and formative evaluation. Outcomes found in these studies include the construction of a program logic model, development of goals and objectives, and modification of program components. The findings suggest that EA is practiced and published more widely than previously known. Recommendations to enhance EA practice are offered.
Using Consultative Methods to Investigate Professional–Client Interaction as an Aspect of Process Evaluation
Authors: Hogard Elaine
Published: August 2007

This article introduces a novel consultative method termed reconstitutive ethnography, considered useful for the in-depth description and analysis of the interaction between professional and client in the delivery of a health or social care program. The article contextualizes this method in process evaluation generally and specifically in what the author describes as exploratory process evaluation. Methods to study the interaction between professional and client are considered, culminating in a focus on so-called consultative methods that involve professionals in reflection on their practice. Reconstitutive ethnography, which integrates constitutive ethnography, critical incident analysis, and Delphi methods, is described and exemplified in evaluation studies undertaken by the author. Exploratory process evaluations are of value in evaluations to set standards, permit comparisons, facilitate causal analyses between delivery and outcomes, and allow for replication, and in research to contribute knowledge to the area of professional competence and its effectiveness.
Grades of Evidence
Authors: Chatterji Madhabi
Published: August 2007

This article argues with a literature review that a simplistic distinction between strong and weak evidence hinged on the use of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), the federal “gold standard” for generating rigorous evidence on social programs and policies, is not tenable with evaluative studies of complex, field interventions such as those found in education. It introduces instead the concept of grades of evidence, illustrating how the choice of research designs coupled with the rigor with which they can be executed under field conditions, affects evidence quality progressively. It argues that evidence from effectiveness research should be graded on different design dimensions, accounting for conceptualization and execution aspects of a study. Well-implemented, phased designs using multiple research methods carry the highest potential to yield the best grade of evidence on effects of complex, field interventions.
Teaching English as a second language to children and adults: variations in practices
Authors: Hird Bernard , Thwaite Anne , Breen Michael , Milton Marion , Oliver Rhonda
Published: August 2007

Often research into classroom teaching ignores teachers’ perspectives on the practices they implement in their lessons. This paper reports research that describes and classifies actual teaching practices used by 18 ESL teachers in Australian classrooms. The data were collected through observations of three lessons and subsequent interviews with each teacher. Almost 300 individual practices were identified, a large proportion of which appeared similar but were described in different terms by the teachers. Evidence showed that teachers of child ESL students and teachers of adult ESL learners shared some common sets of practices but also differed in the teaching practices they used in their lessons and thus confirmed that indeed the age of the learners does make a difference to what language teachers do in their classrooms. Some differences were also found in the practices of teachers with varying lengths of ESL teaching experience. There were also differences in practices between those teachers who had experience of learning other languages as compared with those who did not.
ESL writers and feedback: giving more autonomy to students
Authors: Hyland Fiona
Published: August 2007

Using data from a qualitative study into the effects of feedback on ESL writers, this paper looks at the peer and teacher feedback offered to individual writers. The paper suggests that teachers sometimes also override student concerns and decisions on use of feedback, even when peer feedback, which appears to allow for more student participation in the feedback process is involved. It focuses on the cases of two students, whose use of feedback and interactions with their teachers raise questions relating to the ownership of their writing and revision processes. It is sugggested that teacher interventions may lead to students relinquishing control of their writing and revision processes, as well as their written products. The paper suggests that in some circumstances, teachers should encourage students to take more responsibility for their own writing, by allowing them to make their own decisions about their use and sources of feedback.
Pupil progress in the acquisition of the perfect tense in French: the relationship between knowledge and use
Authors: Macrory Gee , Stone Valerie
Published: August 2007

The role of explicit knowledge in the teaching and learning of a second language has been the subject of much research. Little of this, however, has taken place within the context of the Modern Foreign Languages in secondary school classrooms in the UK. In this study, we investigate the relationship between knowing and using the perfect tense in French in a small-scale project carried out over two years, involving a small group of learners.
What’s in a ZPD? A case study of a young ESL student and teacher interacting through dialogue journals
Authors: Nassaji Hossein , Cumming Alister
Published: August 2007

Aiming to provide a case-study account of features of the ZPD (zone of proximal development) in language teaching and learning, we analysed 95 exchanges in interactive dialogue journals written over 10 months between a 6-year-old Farsi speaker beginning to learn English and his Canadian teacher. Using a scheme of language functions developed by Shuy (1993), we show how the teacher and student constructed and sustained a long-term written conversation involving intricate patterns of complementary, asymmetrical scaffolding. We interpret the findings to suggest the value of analysing language learning and teaching as integrally unified, interactive phenomena. We suggest questions worthy of future research into features of the ZPD in language teaching and learning.
Academic writers on-line: investigating pausing in the production of text
Authors: Miller Kristyan Spelman
Published: August 2007

In this paper we present details of an approach to the study of writing processes based on the analysis of temporal aspects of the writing event. This approach involves recording the keystroke presses made during production of a text using a word processor, and analysing such features as pausing, fluency and revision activity. To illustrate the application of this research tool, we present findings from our study of L1 and L2 writers, and focus on the insights that such fine-grained analysis might bring to the investigation of individual approaches to writing tasks.
New understandings of gender and language classroom research: texts, teacher talk and student talk
Authors: Sunderland Jane
Published: August 2007

While gender has been an ongoing if sometimes peripheral area of interest for researchers and practitioners in language education, conceptualizations of gender itself have developed apace. This means that, unfortunately, gender is at times viewed in an outdated way in language education, resulting in oversimplification and unproductive generalizations. In particular, women and girls are sometimes simplistically represented as victims of gender bias in language textbooks, and of male dominance in the classroom. This picture is far from being the full one, does little, I would argue, to help female students, and may mislead teachers. In this paper I present a rather more complex picture. I illustrate some subtleties and complexities of gender in language education, and suggest some implications of research for educational practice. I also demonstrate alternatives for research into gender and language classrooms, showing both how the more familiar approaches can be fruitfully developed and how researchers can go beyond them. It is important that both researchers working in the area of gender and language education, and teachers in their practice, should be able to engage with considerations of agency, individuality and diversity, while not losing sight of the still-important notions of disadvantage and of gender itself.
Exploring the benefits of task repetition and recycling for classroom language learning
Authors: Lynch Tony , Maclean Joan
Published: August 2007

Task-based methodology is particularly suited to teaching languages for specific purposes, because of its affinity to behavioural objectives. Doubts have been expressed as to whether learners actually learn language through doing tasks, and if they do, exactly what they learn. This paper reports the preliminary results of an ongoing study of the benefits of building repetition into a communicative task in an English for Specific Purposes course. We compare the performances of two learners at markedly different levels of English proficiency and find that both benefited from the opportunity to recycle communicative content as they repeated complex tasks. This suggests that task repetition of the type reported here may be a useful pedagogic procedure and that the same task can help different learners develop different areas of their interlanguage.
Task-based second language learning: the uses of the first language
Authors: Swain Merrill , Lapkin Sharon
Published: August 2007

The present article focuses on the uses of the first language (L1) made by 22 pairs of grade 8 French immersion students as they complete one of two different tasks: a dictogloss and a jigsaw. The outcome of each task is a story written by each student pair. We propose a coding scheme for the uses made of the L1, exemplify them, and report on exploratory analyses intended to describe differences between and within the tasks in terms of the amount of English (L1) used. We also address the relationship between the amount of L1 use and the quality of students’ writing, and the variability in task performance across student pairs.
Students' attitudes to classroom English learning: a cross-cultural study
Authors: Littlewood William
Published: August 2007

In recent years researchers have developed a range of perspectives for conceptualizing the influences of culture on thinking and behaving. Three perspectives which are of special potential relevance to language teaching are the following: the distinction between collectivism and individualism; different perceptions of power and authority; and different types of achievement motivation. These dimensions were taken as the basis for a survey of students’ attitudes towards classroom English learning in eight East Asian countries and three European countries. It was found that most students in all countries question the traditional authority-based, transmission mode of learning. They wish to participate actively in exploring knowledge and have positive attitudes towards working purposefully, in groups, towards common goals. Whilst there were statistically significant differences between the mean responses of Asian and European students on several items, the numerical differences were not great and the overall patterns of responses were strikingly similar. Furthermore, within Asia and within Europe, there were significant differences between individual countries, and in every country there was a wide range of individual differences. Whilst these ‘deep-structure’ cross-cultural similarities may hide important ‘surface-structure’ differences in how students like to learn, they also serve to make us question some commonly held assumptions about the attitudes of Asian and Western students.
How collaborative is pair work? ESL tertiary students composing in pairs
Authors: Storch Neomy
Published: August 2007

A common teaching strategy in the language classroom is to assign students to work on a task in pairs or small groups. Research on group/pair has shown that such classroom organization promotes speaking practice and negotiations of meaning. However, most of the studies on pair work to date have focused on factors affecting the quantity of certain types of negotiation moves. Very few studies have investigated the nature of group or pair interactions; that is, whether they are collaborative or not. Moreover, very few studies have utilized tasks which require students to produce a written text in pairs.

The study reported in this paper investigated the performance of three pairs of adult ESL students on a writing task assigned in class. The main source of data was transcripts of the pair talk. Other sources of data included the researcher’s observation notes and the written text the pairs produced. Data were analysed for salient features of student interactions and characteristics of collaborative pair work were identified. Results show that students working in pairs may not necessarily work in a collaborative manner, but where they do collaborate this may have an effect on task performance.
Chinese as a second/foreign language teaching and research: changing classroom contexts and teacher choices
Authors: Linnell Julian D.
Published: August 2007

This article discusses recent changes in Chinese as a second/foreign language (CSL/FL) teaching and research with particular attention to the following: the diversification of contexts for CSL/FL learning in terms of the linguistic, cultural, educational, professional, and social needs of learners; the advances in language learning research over the past 25 years that can provide a principled rather than an ad hoc basis for informing choices teachers make in their classrooms, specific areas include interlanguage, developmental sequences, pedagogical grammar, conversation, and culture. Implications of these changes are considered in relation to the beliefs of CSL/FL teachers. The article is intended as a synthesis and evaluation of language teaching research that can contribute to the neglected field of CSL/FL. It begins with a brief overview of the current status of CSL/FL both inside and outside Greater China.
A comparative study of the effects of processing instruction and output-based instruction on the acquisition of the Italian future tense
Authors: Benati Alessandro
Published: August 2007

In the present study an experiment investigating the possible effects of two types of form-focused instruction (FFI henceforth) on the acquisition of a specific feature of the Italian verbal morphology system (namely the future tense) will be described. Processing instruction was compared to an output-based type of grammar instruction. The impact of these two types of instruction was investigated on a well-documented strategy (Musumeci, 1989) used by second language (L2 henceforth) learners when interpreting tenses. This strategy consists in giving precedence to lexical items (in this case temporal adverbs, i.e. oggi, domani) over morphological markers during the learner’s interpretation of tenses. In this study, processing instruction involved grammar explanation and comprehension practice directed at altering the way second language learners process input and make correct meaning-form connections. The output-based instructional treatment consisted in the explanation of grammar rules followed by written and oral practice (part of which was meaning-oriented) which was directed at altering the way L2 learners produce the target language. Three tests were developed for this study and consisted of an aural interpretation task, a written completion text and an oral limited response production task. The results obtained in this research provide some evidence that processing instruction has positive effects on the acquisition of Italian verbal morphology, and greater effects on the developing system of beginner L2 learners than instruction of the output-based type described in this study. These effects were proved durable over a three-week period.
Do learners learn from classroom interaction and does the teacher have a role to play?
Authors: Dobinson Toni
Published: August 2007

This article describes a study that sought to investigate possible links between classroom interaction and the learning of new vocabulary. Twenty-four learners, all but one from Asian backgrounds, were asked to report the new words they could recall immediately after their lessons. They were then tested at two weekly and six weekly intervals for retention of the new vocabulary items. Following this, transcripts of the classroom interaction in each lesson were examined closely to see if connections could be established between teacher-student interaction, student-student interaction and the recall/retention of new vocabulary. The study found both positive and negative links between mentioning new words, repeating new words, focusing upon new words, turn-taking around new words and the recall and retention of new vocabulary. It was also found that learners recalled vocabulary items that the teacher intended to teach and which were made pivotal to the interaction of the lesson as well as items that arose spontaneously during the lesson.
Pragmatic aspects of task-performance: the case of argumentation
Authors: Németh Nóra , Kormos Judit
Published: August 2007

The study reported in this paper investigated the pragmatic aspects of task-performance in a series of argumentation tasks that 24 Hungarian learners of English performed over a period of two years. The aim of our research project was to determine how task-repetition, the long-term development of language skills, and a short-term focused intervention influenced various pragmatic measures of task-performance such as the pragmalinguistic markers of argumentation, the number of claims, counterclaims, supports and counter-supports. We also analysed how these variables differed when the participants performed the same type of task in their mother tongue. The results showed that in the repeated version of the task, familiarity with the task structure helped learners pay more attention to the informational content of their message, which was reflected in the higher number of supportive moves they produced. Participants were found to have better argumentation skills in their mother tongue and used a wider variety of pragmalinguistic markers than in L2. The language development assumed to have taken place during one year and the argumentation training, however, did not result in better pragmatic and pragmalinguistic performance.
Classroom evaluation - values, interests and teacher development
Authors: Kiely Richard
Published: August 2007

This paper describes the processes of curriculum and teacher development that follow an evaluation of a British University English for Academic Purposes programme. The evaluation is carried out by the teacher using a group discussion technique, as recommended by departmental policy for quality assurance purposes. It generates data that contribute to a constructive discussion in the classroom and, in the subsequent weeks, a process of rethinking core principles and teaching strategies by the teacher. The research data - ethnographic fieldnotes from the classroom and interviews with the teacher and students - document these change processes in relation to the teaching of vocabulary in the classroom. The analysis shows that evaluation is both a complex political process in the classroom and a context for teacher change and development. Thus, this micro-study of a teaching strategy within a programme underpins empirically a claim often made for evaluation and teacher development. It also suggests that such development is deeply embedded in teaching processes, and may not be evident in the reporting of evaluations for quality management purposes.
Learner resistance in metacognition training? An exploration of mismatches between learner and teacher agendas
Authors: Jing Huang
Published: August 2007

This paper examines how and why learner resistance (to the teacher’s goals and expectations) occurred in a metacognition-training (MT) project, which aimed to enhance reflection and autonomy in EFL learning. MT was integrated into a regular EFL reading course for second-year BA TEFL undergraduates at a Chinese university. Learner resistance in the MT project was manifested partly through mismatches between the goals and expectations on the part of the teacher and the students. After suggesting initial reasons for learner resistance, the paper explores more complex explanations. That is, at a more macro level, institutional pressures and societal expectations arising from an influential national test (TEM-4) gave rise to an examination culture; at a more micro level, these controlling pressures and expectations were realized by the pragmatic product-oriented approach in the EFL classroom and by students’ positioning as examination learners. These might help explain why learner resistance occurred in the MT project. The paper notes in the end that learner resistance is also a matter of tensions and conflicts in learner and teacher agendas, and in learners’ short-term and long-term priorities in learning. Based on this, implications for EFL teaching and learning are explored.
The acquisition of semantics-syntax correspondences and verb frequencies in ESL materials
Authors: Juffs Alan
Published: August 2007

This article provides an analysis of the frequency of verbs and their syntactic requirements in Interchange (Richards et al., 1991), a popular series of textbooks for English as a second language (ESL). Current theoretical approaches to verb classes permit a fine-grained crosslinguistic description of differences in semantics-syntax correspondences for verbs; in this article, transitive verbs are split into five subcategories and intransitives are split into two categories. A corpus analysis of Interchange suggests that ESL materials may under-represent some of the verb classes that are known to cause learners difficulty. These findings suggest that weak contrastive analysis and a more careful consideration of syntactic properties of verbs could be useful to teachers and materials writers.
How ESL learners with different listening abilities use comprehension strategies and tactics
Authors: Goh Christine C.M.
Published: August 2007

This article presents findings from research into listening strategies and tactics of ESL learners from the People’s Republic of China studying on an intensive English language and academic skills programme in a university in Singapore. This research makes a distinction between strategies and tactics, with the term ‘strategy’ referring to a general approach and ‘tactic’ meaning a specific action or step. In this article I identify the cognitive and metacognitive strategies and tactics used by 16 ESL learners, and compare the way high- and low-ability listeners applied them. I specifically examine the frequency and the types of strategies and tactics used. To find evidence of these cognitive processes, retrospective verbal reports were analysed. The study showed that the high-ability listeners used more strategies and tactics than the low- ability ones. They were also able to vary their application of tactics within each strategy. Both groups used more cognitive strategies and tactics than metacognitive ones, but the low-ability listeners were particularly poor at it. In addition to reporting the results from the study, the article also discusses issues related to using verbal reports as data and training learners to use listening strategies.
Tale of a language learner
Authors: Block David
Published: August 2007

In this article I present data collected from an adult language learner attending an EFL course at a large language school in Barcelona. I contrast the breadth, depth and content of his comments, as well as his manifested ambivalence, with an end-of-course, pen-and-paper, evaluation form. In doing so, I contrast two very different ways of capturing language learners’ ongoing evaluation of courses which they attend. The article is at the same time an exercise in genre-bending, as I have written it in a style which combines features of academic and narrative writing.
Reflective-narrative discourse of FL teachers exhibits professional knowledge
Authors: Olshtain Elite , Kupferberg Irit
Published: August 2007

This article describes a case study and a follow-up comparative study which focused on expert foreign language (FL) teachers’ professional knowledge as it was reflected in their spoken and written discourse. Both studies provide evidence indicating that professional knowledge can develop via its verbalization in reflective-narrative discourse from personal past-tense stories into generic statements, which guide classroom activities. The follow-up study further compared experts’, new teachers’ and student teachers’ written answers to a domain-specific questionnaire. Qualitative and quantitative data analyses identified two distinctive features in the experts’ language: a n abundance of t e n s e d verbs in past and present forms, focusing on ‘ r e a l world’ experience (realis), and i n t e g r a t i v e comments which combine subject-matter issues with general pedagogical issues, within the same linguistic unit. The former was interpreted as a discourse manifestation of experts’ knowledge which is fully anchored in their professional r e a l i t y, and the latter as a guiding principle which experts use to enhance FL learning.
Ten commandments for motivating language learners: results of an empirical study
Authors: Dörnyei Zoltán , Csizér Kata
Published: August 2007

The question of how to motivate language learners has been a neglected area in L2 motivation research, and even the few available analyses lack an adequate research base. This article presents the results of an empirical survey aimed at obtaining classroom data on motivational strategies. Two hundred Hungarian teachers of English from various language teaching institutions were asked how important they considered a selection of 51 strategies and how frequently they used them in their teaching practice. Based on their responses we have compiled a concise set of ten motivational macrostrategies, which we have called the ‘Ten commandments for motivating language learners’. On the basis of the frequency data, we also discuss which of the commandments tend to be particularly underutilized in the language classroom.
Pupils’ perceptions of the foreign language learning experience
Authors: Chambers Gary N.
Published: August 2007

This article presents some of the findings relating to a study on pupils’ perceptions of the in-school foreign language learning experience. This represents one area of a larger, accelerated longitudinal study on the motivational perspectives of secondary school pupils learning German. What are the factors which influence pupils’ views of what goes on in the classroom? What are their likes and dislikes? How do they feel the in-school experience could be enhanced? Can this help identify what it is that leads to the apparent diminution in enthusiasm for learning (languages) between the ages of 11 and 13? The article also has a comparative dimension, as the same questions are asked in relation to the English-learning experience of comprehensive school pupils of the same age in Schleswig-Holstein in northern Germany. What can be learned from these findings which may have a beneficial influence on how languages are taught?
Language curriculum development research at university level
Authors: Towell R. , Tomlinson P.
Published: August 2007

This article provides an account of an example of curriculum development over a 10-year period. Motivated by a belief in the value of comprehensible input, the purposeful teaching of language in a context and the need for a variety of text types linked to the development of interpersonal skills, the authors have devised a model for task-based curriculum design and, together with many of their colleagues, have implemented and evaluated it on two occasions. The use of diaries and questionnaires on the first occasion enabled a number of lessons to be learned and these helped considerably in creating a second application where the testimony of the student population through a detailed questionnaire shows the success of the operation.
‘Why do you learn English?’ ‘Because the teacher is short.’ A study of Hungarian children’s foreign language learning motivation
Authors: Nikolov Marianne
Published: August 2007

This article looks at the attitudes and motivation of Hungarian children between the ages of 6 and 14: why they think they study a foreign language, how they relate to school subjects and what classroom activities they like and dislike. The long-term study was conducted in the ethnographic tradition where the teacher, syllabus designer and researcher was the author, and the inquiry was prompted by classroom needs. Three groups of children were involved for eight years each during the years of 1977-85, 1985-93 and 1987-95 in Pécs, Hungary.

The first part of the article considers the literature on motivation from the perspective of child foreign language learning, whereas the second part looks into how the findings of the Pécs study may contribute towards a better understanding of the effects of specific pedagogic procedures on motivation.
Defining context within vocabulary acquisition
Authors: Engelbart Silke Maria , Theuerkauf Beate
Published: August 2007

Even though attempts at defining context within vocabulary acquisition have been made in the past, these have not resulted in a commonly recognized and workable format. The main problem has been in the lack of structure. This article offers a clear-cut definition of context based on the differentiation between verbal and nonverbal context. In order to prove the feasibility of this definition, it is applied to examples taken from German teaching material within the university environment. Other important issues concerning context within this framework are highlighted in order to prompt further discussion.
Bringing off-stage ‘noise’ to centre stage: a lesson in developing bilingual classroom discourse data
Authors: Pennington Martha C.
Published: August 2007

A transcript of part of an English lesson conducted in a Hong Kong secondary school by an ethnic Chinese bilingual Cantonese-English teacher and his students is expanded and elaborated in stages to illustrate issues involved in developing bilingual classroom discourse data. The different transcripts of the same segment of classroom discourse demonstrate how the focus, the form and the level of transcription help to determine the analysis of the discourse and the view of it that can be derived by means of the investigative process.

Through the elaboration of the transcript, it is shown how different interactants define their participation using the two available languages, English and Cantonese, within each of three frames of classroom interaction. In the segment of the lesson presented, which comprises a role-play activity, the teacher and two students participate in the lesson frame, where only English occurs. The teacher and other students participate in a lesson-support frame, where speech has a regulative function directed at keeping the lesson ‘on track’ and where English and Cantonese occur. These institutional frames may be exploited by speakers to convey implicit and explicit messages that encode different layers of meaning. Other students (but not the teacher) participate in a third, commentary frame, where they make evaluative comments in relation to the talk that is going on in the lesson frame and where most communication is in Cantonese.

It is maintained that for the bilingual classroom discourse presented (and, by implication, for the larger context of discourse of which that segment is a part) a representation in terms of discourse frames provides a view of language use and participant interaction that aids further analysis and helps not only the researcher but also those to whom the data is presented to build a rich schema for understanding and interpreting the dynamics of that context. In particular, it makes it possible to observe how the main participants, the students, bend the institutional context to their own purposes.
Personal Construct Psychology as a framework for research into teacher and learner thinking
Authors: Roberts Jon
Published: August 2007

Some illuminating ELT studies associated with CALS have used Personal Construct Psychology as their theoretical framework. Results suggest that PCP is useful for researchers who wish to understand teacher and learner thinking from the inside: ‘the world of lived experience from the point of view of those who live it’ (Schwandt, 1994: 118). In Section I the fundamentals of PCP are outlined. Section II contains a justification for its use. Section III summarizes two Ph.D. studies (in language learners’ perceptions of the curriculum and student teachers’ changing constructions of good teaching), which exemplify the usefulness of PCP as a framework. In Section IV some issues relevant to supervision are discussed: research values, validity, and the scope of PCP in intercultural studies.
Quality of language and purpose of task: patterns of learners’ language on two oral communication tasks
Authors: Bygate Martin
Published: August 2007

This study examines the performance of Hungarian secondary school students on two types of unscripted task - an argument task and a narrative task. It focuses on grammatical patterns of learner language, and reports significant differences in the learners’ performance. The article discusses implications for the use and design of such tasks. It concludes by suggesting how their use can contribute to language development by leading learners to establish a routinized relationship between task and language. More generally, the article argues the value of predicting, on the basis of attested patterns of use, the classroom learning that is likely to ensue from the use of particular tasks.
The influence of source of planning and focus of planning on task-based performance
Authors: Foster Pauline , Skehan Peter
Published: August 2007

Recent research (Crookes, 1989: Foster and Skehan, 1996) has focused on the role of planning when tasks are used within language instruction. These studies have indicated that pre-task planning can have beneficial effects upon the nature of task performance, consistently leading to greater fluency and complexity and, less dependably, greater accuracy. The present study examines different sources of planning (teacher-led, solitary, group-based) as well as different foci for planning (towards language or towards content). Using a decision-making task (a ‘balloon debate’), data was collected using a 2×2 research design contrasting source of planning (teacher-led, group) and focus of planning (language vs content). In addition, to ensure comparability with previous research, solitary planning and control groups were also used. Results indicate a number of statistically significant effects. The teacher-fronted condition generated significant accuracy effects, while the solitary planning condition had greater influence on complexity, fluency and turn length. Group-based planning did not lead to performance significantly different from the control group. Finally, there was little effect on performance as a result of the language vs content planning condition. The results are discussed in relation to how teachers may more effectively make pedagogic decisions on task implementation conditions linked to selective pedagogic goals.
Error resistance: towards an empirical pedagogy
Authors: Han ZhaoHong , Selinker Larry
Published: August 2007

A serious empirical pedagogy would have interlanguage analysis central to pedagogical decision-making.We look here at error resistance in light of interlanguage theory, specifically the Multiple Effects Principle (MEP henceforth; Selinker and Lakshmanan, 1992), which predicts that when language transfer works in tandem with one or more second language acquisition processes, there is a greater tendency for interlanguage structures to stabilize, leading to possible fossilization in spite of repeated pedagogical intervention. There is also an important pedagogical corollary attached to the MEP, which is described below. In this article we focus on one particular instance of a persistent interlanguage structure that emerges from a longitudinal case study of Thai-Norwegian interlanguage, an interlanguage which, to our knowledge, has not been discussed in the literature before. Such a study is important in that most SLA results relate to English as source or target language, and the resulting conclusions are thus highly limited in both theoretical and practical terms. We present findings from several different empirical perspectives including the subject’s introspective account as ‘secondary data’, which serve to confirm the pedagogical usefulness of the MEP insofar as two processes dominated by L1 typological influence can be seen to underlie the persistence and resistance of the structure in question, with ‘transfer-of-training’ conspiring with language transfer to stabilize the structure. Thus, evidence from the study suggests that, in terms of implications for teaching, an MEP-inspired analysis of multiple factors could be significant in the elaboration of pedagogical strategies which may prevent or delay fossilization in cases where explicit negative evidence by the teacher seems to have had no effect.
The global politics of development: towards a new research agenda
Authors: Payne Anthony
Published: August 2007

New ways are needed of framing the international politics of development in the context of global restructuring. The old thinking that employed such terms as ‘Third World’, ‘developing countries’, ‘core and periphery’, even ‘North’ and ‘South’ needs to be abandoned. It does not travel well into a globalizing world. New interpretations of international inequality emerged in the 1990s - the so-called ‘Bretton Woods’ and ‘United Nations’ paradigms - and are linked to attendant economic liberal and sociological strands of political economy analysis. But both approaches underplay politics. However, the new global politics of development can be satisfactorily framed, provided that we adopt an approach that takes globalization seriously, recognizes the continuing, albeit changing, realities of states and interstate politics and reinterprets development as a universal problem. Attempts to classify states and societies in advance of research must also be avoided.
Discourses on peace and development
Authors: Hettne Björn
Published: August 2007

Assuming a close relationship between peace and development, this paper analyses a succession of schools of thought in development forming part of three distinct, historically contextualized development and security discourses: the industrialization imperative in the emerging state-system in nineteenth-century Europe, the international concern with global poverty in the bipolar post second world war world and the current meaning of development in a globalized and increasingly chaotic world. The third of these discourses contains major challenges for development theory. The discourses are related to great transformations in political economy, understood in Polanyian terms as tensions between market expansion and societal response.
Urban health in developing countries: a review
Authors: Harpham Trudy , Molyneux Catherine
Published: August 2007

The last major review of urban health in developing countries was published in 1992. At that time, knowledge was largely limited to crude rural-urban comparisons and some ad hoc studies of low-income urban communities. Most research was done on communicable (infectious) diseases and little was known about the relationship between urban life in developing countries and chronic illness such as mental ill-health, heart disease and cancer. This paper updates knowledge by reviewing recent research on intra-urban health inequalities, urban health-seeking behaviour and the importance of urban-rural links for health. It also presents a new model of urban health that incorporates changes in urban health research and practice.
Peasants, the agrarian question and lenses of development
Authors: Harrison G.
Published: August 2007

This paper reviews the interactions between conceptualizations of rural development and development theory more broadly. It identifies two key issues: the representation of peasant farmers and the agrarian question, that is, how do peasant societies interact with broader political economies? The paper develops two responses to these issues: first, that theory should not be imposed upon peasant societies to the neglect of ‘bottom up’ research; and secondly, that researchers should consciously try to integrate both structure and struggle into their analytical frameworks: