bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
The Time Factor in Language Learning
Authors: DeFrancis John 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  In measuring language‐teaching activities, especially when comparing programs, the question frequently arises as to how long it takes to attain a specified goal. The various units of measurement which have been used are all very imprecise and misleading because they generally overlook such time‐related aspects as student aptitude, relation between class hours and outside study, and number of students in class.All these are multiple aspects of the complex time factor, and all need to be taken into consideration when determining the kind of language program to adopt. The choice lies between the extremes of maximizing all aspects of the time factor, thereby adopting an élitist approach to language study, and selectively choosing among the various aspects of the time factor so as to attract more students with a view to exposing them to a foreign language as a cultural experience. At the pre‐college level the emphasis should be on the latter. At the college level the ideal program seeks both objectives by teaching language as a tool for a few specialists and as a cultural experience for a larger number of students.
Training Language Teachers—A Systems Approach*
Authors: McArdle Richard J. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  Many instructional problems which face us today in the training of foreign language teachers can be solved with a systems approach. Systems offers program designers a dosed loop feedback mechanism within which to develop a meaningful program.Eight objectives selected for a methods course offered at the University of Nebraska are described and each is stated specifically in behavioral terms. Since space does not permit reporting each of the objectives in the detail demanded by a systems approach, one objective is presented. The account of this objective takes the reader step by step through each detail of the systems approach used at Nebraska. It includes the following basic steps:

A general and specific statement of the problem.
An analysis of the problem
An assessment of the learner's entering behavior
The development of an instructional design (i.e., learning experiences, components, scheduling, and evaluation of the program)
A means of feedback and change within the design
The Practice Variable: An Experiment
Authors: Jarvis Gilbert A. , Hatfield William N. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  A semester‐long experiment contrasted the effects of two kinds of classroom practice procedures in the teaching of beginning college French (N = 292). Experimental treatments were formulated in terms of the relationship between human conceptual and linguistic systems. Students in the Contextual treatment practiced language which symbolized particularized referents of the concepts involved. Students in the Drill treatment practiced language which symbolized the generic meaning of the concepts. Contextual practice symbolized events in the environment, whereas Drill practice, while meaningful and potentially communicative, was not applied to referents.Analysis of covariance with the Modern Language Aptitude Test serving as covariate was used to test differences. Results revealed small differences between the treatment groups in the receptive skills. In the productive skills, however, differences were highly significant and consistently favored the Contextual group. Differences were most pronounced in the ability to write sentences describing pictures, to give picture‐cued answers to oral questions, and to describe orally a series of pictures. Contextual students had a somewhat more positive attitude toward their classes. High school French experience and aptitude were also investigated. Results are interpreted as evidence supporting the inclusion of contextual practice in instructional strategy, if objectives involve productive skill development.
Behavioral Objectives, Skinnerian Rats and Trojan Horses1
Authors: Grittner Frank M. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  Many people are now concerned about the widespread advocacy of behavioral objectives as a basis for building an efficient, cost‐accountable foreign language curriculum. In reality, this “systems‐analysis” approach to curriculum is neither new nor innovative nor of demonstrated effectiveness in the field of foreign languages. In fact, when applied to humanistic studies, behavioral objectives are potentially destructive. This is because their use is based upon simplistic psychological principles, outmoded pedagogical concepts, and morally questionable attitudes regarding the right of educators to manipulate the minds and emotions of human learners toward the achievement of externally imposed, standardized goals.In addition to wasting precious teacher in the preparation and use of behavioral objectives tends toward the trivialization of the curriculum and toward an emphasis upon these learning outcomes that can be quantified and measured objectively. Worst of all, their tends to suppress the more important outcome of humanistic education that involve the idiosyncratic cultivation of internal mental states. Such phenomena as feelings, insights, values, and attitudes simply do not fit within the frame‐work of “behavior shaping.” Since it is such things which form the heart and soul of humanistic studies, the use o behavioral objectives is highly questionable beyond the level of rudimentary skill development.
Social Psychology and Foreign‐Language Teaching
Authors: Cooke Madeline A. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  Social psychologists agree that attitudes can and do change. However, they offer the foreign‐language teacher no formula for effecting a prescribed change in student attitudes. Information about how attitudes develop, how they are changed, and their relationships to behavior may help the teacher understand why attitude change is difficult.No one is born with attitudes. These are learned at home, from peers, and from society. Students usually come into the foreign‐language classroom with ethnic attitudes already formed.Attitudes may change in order to reduce dissonance and tensions or to please one's superiors or friends. If the change is to be permanent, however, the attitude must be internalized into one's value system. Sometimes attitudes change when people are given insights into the ego defense mechanisms which may be the basis of their prejudices. Role playing is a promising means of changing attitudes.Attitudes are not the sole determiner of behavior, and techniques developed to change how a person talks about his behavior will not necessarily produce changes in it. One should begin attitude‐related activities in first‐year classes and continue through the advanced levels. Because attitudes have different origins and serve different functions for different people, a variety of approaches seems wise.
An Assessment of Attitudes and Behaviors of Foreign Language Teachers
Authors: Papalia Anthony 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  The aim of this study was to identify what foreign language teachers believe are true characteristics of students and to provide empirical evidence about teachers' classroom behaviors as they relate to the teaching‐learning process. Nine secondary schools situated in urban and suburban communities participated in the study. All foreign language teachers of the participating schools and 1,046 of their randomly selected students were surveyed by means of the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory and the Teacher Description Instrument.Teachers of foreign languages manifested, in varying degrees, supportive attitudes toward pupils. They favored students' self‐motivation and open interaction in the classroom, and they cautiously moved toward a student‐centered concept of instruction. Students, in identifying and rating their teachers' classroom behaviors, confirmed that foreign language teachers displayed student‐centered classroom behaviors and that they actualized learning by being sensitive to the needs and abilities of students.
Cross‐Cultural Education and Motivational Aspects of Foreign Language Study*
Authors: Wallach Martha Kaarsberg 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  Although the value of culture is generally recognized, it is difficult to “teach“; it must be experienced. Students can be prepared for such an experience. The University of Wisconsin‐Green Bay, a three‐year‐old school with an interdisciplinary academic plan, has made culture part of its curriculum. Students are required to take one semester of work preparing them for the cross‐cultural experience. The actual experience is offered in the next semester.One option is a one‐month field trip to Europe under the supervision of an instructor familiar with the culture and language. A knowledge of the language on the part of the student is optional. The goal is a better understanding of one's own culture and an acquaintance with a foreign culture. The cross‐cultural experience has been found to be a strong motivating force for language study.
Building High School Foreign Language Programs: The Illinois State University Outreach Project
Authors: Pontillo James J. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  In order to strengthen foreign language instruction on all levels it is imperative that colleges and universities amplify their activities in order to help area elementary and secondary school foreign language teachers in their work. The direction that such outreach activities should take must be planned in cooperation with the teachers themselves, who, in the final analysis, are the best judges of what they need.Central Illinois contains a number of small, mainly rural, and fairly isolated, school districts. Even in the cities, the number of foreign language teachers is small, and contact with foreign culture relatively low in comparison with other areas of the country and even with the more densely populated metropolitan areas of the state. In 1981, the Department of Foreign Languages of Illinois State University, desiring to help raise the level of foreign language instruction in the region and to offer support and assistance to area foreign language teachers, instituted a six‐point outreach program.While some of the elements of this program are tailored to the regional situation, the method by which it was developed and the individual elements thereof may serve as a model for other institutions interested in instituting similar local programs.
Word Identification Strategies in Reading a Foreign Language
Authors: Walker Laura J. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  The objectives of this research were to determine which strategies a reader of a foreign language uses to identify unknown words in context and if there is a hierarchy of application. Existing hypotheses concerning word identification strategies (graphic, syntactic, and semantic) are examined. In addition, recommendations are included concerning acquisition of skills which will allow the foreign language student to process unknown vocabulary independently.Using the introspective technique, the interviewer elicited responses from the subject as he read from a script in which ten words had been deleted according to the cloze method and replaced with non‐words. The subject's oral responses during his attempt to assign meaning provided clues to the strategies being used. This investigation revealed that one hundred Spanish‐speaking (ESOL) university subjects, 17–24 years old, used at least ten word identification strategies while reading English in context: dictionary, guessing, graphemics, ignoring, intuition, morphemics, pronouncing, regressing, skipping, and syntax. Seven of the observed behaviors were statistically significant, and the order of application for the first three (pronouncing, skipping, and regressing) appears predictable.
Attitudes of Elementary School Principals Toward Foreign Language Instruction
Authors: Baranick William A. , Markham Paul L. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  The goal of this study was to examine the attitudes of elementary school principals toward foreign language programs at the elementary school level. The investigation focused on three topics: 1) examining the attitude of elementary principals concerning the addition of a foreign language program to the present curriculum, 2) studying differences in principals' attitudes toward foreign language programs based on school factors such as the socioeconomic status of the community, student achievement level, school locale, and the education level of the parents, and 3) comparing principals' attitudes about a foreign language program with their background and training in foreign languages.The results revealed that more than half of the principals believed that the elementary curriculum should contain a foreign language program; however, many principals indicated that implementing a foreign language program was not high on their priority list. The majority of the respondents maintained that foreign language instruction should be required at some time during a student's school experience. The data also suggested that whenever parents, teachers, students, and other administrators increase their interest in foreign languages, the attitude of principals becomes more positive.
Testing the Productive Skills: A Creative Focus for Hybrid Achievement Tests
Authors: Terry Robert M. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT  The testing of the mechanics of a second language is essentially an activity most appropriate to brief quizzes. The evaluation of mastery at the various stages of language acquisition is more appropriately carried out through the use of creative testing on hybrid achievement tests, which retain certain features of achievement tests and which incorporate proficiency‐based tasks that require authentic communicative language use. Such tests call for the relatively autonomous use of language by the student, the quality of which will be restricted only by the level of study and the language repertoire of the student.Although lip service is paid to proficiency‐focused instruction, many tests still reflect a sole preoccupation with grammatical accuracy. This paper suggests the incorporation of testing practices that allow students to demonstrate their true abilities in the second language, and the movement away from discrete‐point test items and purely objective evaluation toward holistic, analytical, or primary‐trait scoring procedures, which give credit for creative language use.Creative testing on paper‐and‐pencil tests is a viable alternative. Such testing allows for student creativity in carrying out truly communicative tasks, yet it provides an effective measure of student learning and performance.
A Taxonomy for Teaching Second Language Listening
Authors: Lund Randall J. 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT This article describes a taxonomy of real‐world listening tasks as a conceptual framework for teaching listening. The key elements of the taxonomy are listener function and listener response. In listening, function is defined as “the aspects of the message the listener attempts to process.” The six functions significant to second language teaching are identification, orientation, main idea comprehension, detail comprehension, full comprehension, and replication. Listener response is also a key feature of any listening task. Nine categories are described. Function and response can be selected independently of each other, as suggested by the function‐response matrix, allowing for wide variation in task difficulty for any given text.The implications of the taxonomy for the design of listening instruction and the selection of authentic texts are discussed. The taxonomy suggests that growth in listening proficiency is a process of expanding to new function and response categories in familiar contexts. The many options in the taxonomy enable one to structure effective listening tasks involving authentic texts at even novice levels.
The Experiential Course: An Alternative to Study Abroad for Nontraditional Students
Authors: Long Donna Reseigh 
Published: January 2009

ABSTRACT:Many students today do not fit the traditional mold of those who enter college directly from high school and complete their baccalaureate degrees in four years. While foreign language educators agree that participation in a study‐abroad program can result in linguistic and cultural benefits to students, some students are unable to take advantage of such programs for personal and financial reasons. An intensive experiential course based on university and community resources can offer such students a rich alternative linguistic/cultural experience.
Evidence for panmixia despite barriers to gene flow in the southern African endemic, Caffrogobius caffer (Teleostei: Gobiidae)
Authors: Neethling Marlene , Matthee Conrad A , Bowie Rauri CK , von der Heyden Sophie 
Published: January 2009

AbstractBackgroundOceanography and life-history characteristics are known to influence the genetic structure of marine species, however the relative role that these factors play in shaping phylogeographic patterns remains unresolved. The population genetic structure of the endemic, rocky shore dwellingCaffrogobius cafferwas investigated across a known major oceanographic barrier, Cape Agulhas, which has previously been shown to strongly influence genetic structuring of South African rocky shore and intertidal marine organisms. Given the variable and dynamic oceanographical features of the region, we further sought to test how the pattern of gene flow betweenC. cafferpopulations is affected by the dominant Agulhas and Benguela current systems of the southern oceans.ResultsThe variable 5' region of the mtDNA control region was amplified for 242 individuals from ten localities spanning the distributional range ofC. caffer. Fifty-five haplotypes were recovered and in stark contrast to previous phylogeographic studies of South African marine species,C. caffershowed no significant population genetic structuring along 1300 km of coastline. The parsimony haplotype network, AMOVA and SAMOVA analyses revealed panmixia. Coalescent analyses reveal that gene flow inC. cafferis strongly asymmetrical and predominantly affected by the Agulhas Current. Notably, there was no gene flow between the east coast and all other populations, although all other analyses detect no significant population structure, suggesting a recent divergence. The mismatch distribution suggests thatC. cafferunderwent a population expansion at least 14 500 years ago.ConclusionWe propose several possible life-history adaptations that could have enabledC. cafferto maintain gene flow across its distributional range, including a long pelagic larval stage. We have shown that life-history characteristics can be an important contributing factor to the phylogeography of marine species and that the effects of oceanography do not necessarily suppress its influence on effective dispersal.
Relationship between body image disturbance and incidence of depression: the SUN prospective cohort
Authors: Pimenta Adriano Marçal , Sánchez-Villegas Almudena , Bes-Rastrollo Maira , López Celeste Nicole , Martínez-González Miguel Ángel 
Published: January 2009

Abstract

Background
Body image disturbance is an increasing problem in Western societies and is associated with a number of mental health outcomes including anorexia, bulimia, body dysmorphia, and depression. The aim of this study was to assess the association between body image disturbance and the incidence of depression.

Methods
This study included 10,286 participants from a dynamic prospective cohort of Spanish university graduates, who were followed-up for a median period of 4.2 years (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra – the SUN study). The key characteristic of the study is the permanently open recruitment that started in 1999. The baseline questionnaire included information about body mass index (BMI) and the nine figure schemes that were used to assess body size perception. These variables were grouped according to recommended classifications and the difference between BMI and body size perception was considered as a proxy of body image disturbance. A subject was classified as an incident case of depression if he/she was initially free of depression and reported a physician-made diagnosis of depression and/or the use of antidepressant medication in at least one of the follow-up questionnaires. The association between body image disturbance and the incidence of depression was estimated by calculating the multivariable adjusted Odds Ratio (OR) and its 95% Confidence Interval (95% CI), using logistic regression models.

Results
The cumulative incidence of depression during follow-up in the cohort was 4.8%. Men who underestimated their body size had a high percentage of overweight and obesity (50.1% and 12.6%, respectively), whereas women who overestimated their body size had a high percentage of underweight (87.6%). The underestimation exhibited a negative association with the incidence of depression among women (OR: 0.72, 95% CI: 0.54 – 0.95), but this effect disappeared after adjusting for possible confounding variables. The proportion of participants who correctly perceived their body size was high (53.3%) and gross misperception was seldom found, with most cases selecting only one silhouette below (42.7%) or above (2.6%) their actual BMI.

Conclusion
We found no association between body image disturbance and subsequent depression in a cohort of university graduates in Spain.
Characteristics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in Spain from a gender perspective
Authors: Carrasco-Garrido Pilar , de Miguel-Díez Javier , Rejas-Gutierrez Javier , Martín-Centeno Antonio , Gobartt-Vázquez Elena , Hernandez-Barrera Valentin , de Miguel Angel Gil , Jimenez-Garcia Rodrigo 
Published: January 2009

AbstractBackgroundThe objective of this study was to analyze the clinical and management characteristics of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in men and women, to determine possible gender-associated differences between the two groups of patients.MethodsAn observational and descriptive epidemiological study (EPIDEPOC study). The study included patients with stable COPD and aged ≥ 40 years, evaluated in primary care. Data were collected relating to sociodemographic variables, clinical characteristics, quality of life (SF-12), severity of disease and treatment. The results obtained in men and women were compared.ResultsA total of 10,711 patients (75.6% males and 24.4% females) were evaluated. Significant differences were found between males and females in relation to the following parameters: age (67.4 ± 9.2 years in men vs 66.1 ± 10.8 in women, p < 0.05), smoking (91.9% of the men were smokers or ex-smokers vs 30% of the women), comorbidity (the frequency of hypertension, diabetes, anxiety and depression was greater in women, while ischemic heart disease was more common in men), mental component of quality of life (49.4 ± 10.3 in men vs 44.6 ± 11.9 in women, p < 0.05) and severity of disease (56.5 ± 13.3% in men vs 60.7 ± 3.2 in women, p < 0.05). As regards treatment, the percentage use of long-acting b2-adrenergic agonists, anticholinergic agents, theophyllines and mucolytic agents was significant greater in men. The total annual cost of COPD was greater in males than in females (1989.20 ± 2364.47 € vs 1724.53 ± 2106.90, p < 0.05).ConclusionThe women with COPD evaluated in this study were younger, smoked less and have more comorbidity, a poorer quality of life, and lesser disease severity than men with COPD. However, they generated a lesser total annual cost of COPD than men.