ARTICLES
Global Warming and Climate Change
Staudt, Amanda., Huddleston., Nancy, and Kraucunas, Ian. 2008. Understanding and Responding to climate change: Highlights of National Academies’ Reports. National Research Council. http://dels.nas.edu/dels/rpt_briefs/climate_change_2008_final.pdf
Union of Concerned Scientists. 2004. Common Sense on Climate Change: Practical Solutions to Global Warming. Cambridge, MA. http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/climatesolns.pdf
Union of Concerned Scientists. Renewable Energy Standards–Mitigating Global Warming. http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/clean_energy/climate-solutions-res-12-06-update.pdf
Access more articles at Union of Concerned Scientists
World Englishes
Current Perspectives on Teaching World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca
JENNIFER JENKINS, King’s College, London, England
The purpose of this article is to explore recent research into World Englishes (henceforth WEs) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), focusing on its implications for TESOL, and the extent to which it is being taken into account by English language teachers, linguists, and second language acquisition researchers. After a brief introduction comparing the current situation with that of 15 years ago, I look more closely at definitions of WEs and ELF. Then follows an overview of relevant developments in WEs and ELF research during the past 15 years, along with a more detailed discussion of some key research projects and any controversies they have aroused. I then address the implications of WEs/ELF research for TESOL vis-à-vis English language standards and Standard English, and the longstanding native versus nonnative teacher debate. Finally, I assess the consensus on WEs and ELF that is emerging both among researchers and between researchers and language teaching professionals. The article concludes by raising a number of questions that remain to be investigated in future research.
Second Language Acquisition
Robert M. DeKeyser, University of Pittsburgh
This study was designed to test the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis (Bley-Vroman, 1988), which states that, whereas children are known to learn language almost completely through (implicit) domain- specific mechanisms, adults have largely lost the ability to learn a language without reflecting on its structure and have to use alternative mechanisms, drawing especially on their problem-solving capacities, to learn a second language. The hypothesis implies that only adults with a high level of verbal analytical ability will reach near-native competence in their second language, but that this ability will not be a significant predictor of success for childhood second language acquisition. A study with 57 adult Hungarian-speaking immigrants confirmed the hypothesis in the sense that very few adult immigrants scored within the range of child arrivals on a grammaticality judgment test, and that the few who did had high levels of verbal analytical ability; this ability was not a significant predictor for childhood arrivals. This study replicates the findings of Johnson and Newport (1989) and provides an explanation for the apparent exceptions in their study. These findings lead to a reconceptualization of the Critical Period Hypothesis: If the scope of this hypothesis is limited to implicit learning mechanisms, then it appears that there may be no exceptions to the age effects that the hypothesis seeks to explain.
Asia Social Science
Chris Miller (ed). 2008. Asia Social Science. 4 (5). Canadian Center of Science and Education
Contents
Native English Teachers in Hong Kong: Building Communities of Practice?
Victor Forrester, Beatrice Lok
Russia’s Foreign Energy Policy in the New Context of International Energy Security
Xiaoqin Chen
Research on Corporate Image Orientation
Hao Lv
Managing Change with Integrity in Malaysian Institution of Higher Education
Siti Akmar Abu Samah, Hj. Kamaruzaman, J
Cheong and Mateship: The Socialization of Media Relations
Richard C Stanton
Formation of Cultural Competitive Force When Doing Business in China
Maohua Sun
Financing System Construction Based on the Development Strategy in Binhai New Area
Liping liu & Yaping Wei
An Assessment of Analysis on the Penetration of Malaysian Contractors into India
Nur Aishah Mohd Hamdan, Hamimah Adnan
When Fish Falls in Love with Elephant or Vice Versa: Sexual Representation in Mainland China’s
Lesbian Film
Jie Yang
The Role of Personality in Second Language Acquisition
Yan Zhang
Standardized Tests: Bellwether of Achievement?
Matt Deerman, Cherith Fluker, Elizabeth Panik, Jimmy Powell, Kathy Shelton, Carol S. Uline
Charles E. Notar
An Innovative Research on the Cultivation Pattern of Human Resources Management Professionals
Xia Cui, Yang Lu
Interpreting “Differences” on Return from Europe: In Perspectives of Education and Culture
Dingchu Wu, Junhua Wu
Promising Approaches for the Analysis of Sentence-final Particles in Cantonese: the Case of [aa3]
Wai-Mun Leung
The Functions of Visual Identification System in the Construction of Campus Culture
Yansheng Zhu, Hu Chen
Light and Dark Symbols in Heart of Darkness
Caie Qu, Xiaoxi Li
Developing Chinese Managers – Reasons for Enrolling on a Postgraduate Management Programme
in the UK
Zhaofeng Jiang, Carl Evans
Some Reflections about the Construction of College English Teaching System
Jie Wang
Crisis Sense Is the Original Driving Power for Enterprise’s Sustainable Development
Xiaoshui Yu
Thinking Creatively; Thinking Critically
Julie C. FORRESTER
Achievement of Total Quality Is Impossibility
Xiaohang Wu, Yafei Wang
Reader Education in Libraries of Universities
Chunlan Qiu,Yan Liu
The Most Effective Approaches to Increasing Parental Involvement
Erin K. Butler, Carol Uline, Charles E. Notar
Learning for a New World- Teaching, Learning and Sustainable Development (case in Sweden)
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