Happy Art

This article looks at how arts integration can boost the language development of limited English proficient students in kindergarten through second grade. I first review existing research on how young children learn and describe the special challenges faced by children who must learn in an unfamiliar language. I then identify arts-based mechanisms that boost the language development of limited English proficient students and examine strategies used by a successful urban arts-and-literacy program to enhance the language development of English language learners in the primary grades.     

The Proximate Phonological Unit of Chinese-English Bilinguals: Proficiency Matters

An essential step to create phonology according to the language production model by Levelt, Roelofs and Meyer is to assemble phonemes into a metrical frame. However, recently, it has been proposed that different languages may rely on different grain sizes of phonological units to construct phonology. For instance, it has been proposed that, instead of phonemes, Mandarin Chinese uses syllables and Japanese uses moras to fill the metrical frame. In this study, we used a masked priming-naming task to investigate how bilinguals assemble their phonology for each language when the two languages differ in grain size. Highly proficient Mandarin Chinese-English bilinguals showed a significant masked onset priming effect in English (L2), and a significant masked syllabic priming effect in Mandarin Chinese (L1). These results suggest that their proximate unit is phonemic in L2 (English), and that bilinguals may use different phonological units depending on the language that is being processed. Additionally, under some conditions, a significant sub-syllabic priming effect was observed even in Mandarin Chinese, which indicates that L2 phonology exerts influences on L1 target processing as a consequence of having a good command of English.     

Using explicit teaching to improve how bioscience students write to the lay public

The media role model was recently developed to frame how science faculty members can teach their students to write more effectively to lay audiences (14). An Opinion Editorial (Op-Ed) was introduced as a novel assignment for final-year physiology and pharmacology undergraduates. This second phase of this study, reported here, demonstrated the efficacy of explicit teaching of the Op-Ed, using a one-shot, pre-/posttest research design. Baseline writing skills of students were determined from a communication assignment. Students were then explicitly taught how to write an Op-Ed and subsequently wrote an Op-Ed based on a recent, relevant scientific article. Most students achieved higher grades for their Op-Ed following explicit teaching [mean (SD) = 84.4% (9.1%), n = 216] compared with their communication assignment [mean (SD) = 74.7% (11.9%), n = 218]. Improvement in student writing was also evident by an increase in text readability, which mirrored the features of Op-Eds written by professional journalists. A survey of students (n = 142) indicated that most believed that the assignments were valuable and that their ability to write to a lay audience had improved. Members of the lay public were then surveyed for their opinions on student writing. Two assignments were selected from one student whose grades had improved after explicit teaching. Respondents (n = 78) indicated that the Op-Ed was easier to read than the communication assignment. Thus, explicit teaching of the Op-Ed improved the ability of students to write to members of the lay public.     

Passing the Red Pen: EvoS Journal Offers an Early Education in Peer Review

EvoS Journal: The Journal of the Evolutionary Studies Consortium is the open-access, peer-reviewed journal borne of the EvoS (Evolutionary Studies) Consortium movement. The journal has two separate, yet related goals: to publish scholarly articles regarding the intersection of higher education and evolutionary theory, and to publish articles written and reviewed by undergraduates that incorporate an evolutionary perspective. Undergraduates who publish and review for EvoS Journal get the chance to see their work published alongside that of experts within the field of evolutionary studies, and to see the interdisciplinary and widespread applications of evolutionary theory to human life and beyond. The current study examines whether the interdisciplinary nature of EvoS Journal and its initiation of students into the peer-review process set EvoS Journal apart from more traditional undergraduate journals. EvoS Journal was compared to other journals listed by the Council for Undergraduate Research. While EvoS Journal mirrors many traditional undergraduate journals in their employment of student reviewers and publishing work originating from any U.S. institution, it differs by both its interdisciplinary focus and by serving as an outlet for both student and professional publications. The implications are discussed in terms of the benefits of interdisciplinary and peer-review training to students in the classroom, including improvements in writing, interpersonal relations, and real-world skills.     

Translation And Cultural Adaptation Of A Mental Health Outcome Measure: The Basis-R©

Culturally and linguistically appropriate outcome measures are needed to address the needs of Latino consumers of mental health services. The revised Behavior and Symptom Identification Scale (BASIS-R(c)) is an English-language consumer self-report measure designed to assess outcome of behavioral health or substance abuse treatment. This study sought to develop a culturally and linguistically appropriate version of the BASIS-R(c) for Spanish-speaking Latinos. To achieve this goal, the English instrument was translated and adapted into Spanish by an international bilingual committee and tested in four focus groups and 45 cognitive interviews with Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Mexicans living in the United States and Puerto Rico. Focus groups and cognitive interviews provided qualitative and quantitative information about the instrument's content and format, and respondents' understanding of the instructions, questionnaire items, time frame, and response options. Respondents' ratings of the clarity and importance of each item were also obtained. Analyses of focus group and cognitive interview data identified items that were confusing or difficult for participants. Findings suggest that the Spanish version of the BASIS-R(c) incorporated the cultural diversity of the three groups of Latinos in this study without compromising the validity of the English version of the BASIS.     

The Opinion Editorial: teaching physiology outside the box

Improving the public understanding of science is an important challenge for the future professional scientists who are our current undergraduates. In this paper, we present a conceptual model that explores the role of mass media as community gatekeepers of new scientific findings. This model frames the benefits for undergraduate science students to learn about media genres so that they can learn to communicate science more effectively to nonprofessional audiences. Informed by this Media Role model, we then detail a novel writing task for undergraduate physiology students, the Opinion Editorial (Op-Ed), and an accompanying Peer Review. The Op-Ed genre was directly taught to the students by a professional journalist. As an assessment task, students presented a recent, highly technical paper as an Op-Ed. This was assessed by both faculty members and peers using a detailed assessment rubric. Most students were able to replicate the features of Op-Eds and attained high grades on their writing tasks. Survey data from final-year physiology students (n = 230) were collected before and after the implementation of the Op-Ed/Peer Review. These indicated that most students were aware of the importance of scientists to effectively communicate their knowledge to nonprofessional audiences, that the Op-Ed writing task was challenging, and that they believed that their ability to write to nonprofessional audiences was improved after explicit teaching and feedback.     

Improving achievement through problem-based learning

In this study, the effect of problem-based learning on students' academic achievement and performance skills in a unit on he human excretory system was investigated. Sixty-one 10th grade students, from two full classes instructed by the same iology teacher, were involved in the study. Classes were randomly assigned as either the experimental or the control group and were pre- and post-tested to determine their academic achievement and performance skills before and after the treatment. The experimental group was taught with problem-based learning while the control group received traditionally-designed biology instruction. Results showed that although there was no pre-existing difference between two groups, students instructed with problem-based learning earned significantly higher scores than those instructed with traditionally-designed biology instruction — in terms of academic achievement and performance skills. Students in the experimental group appeared to be more proficient in the use and organisation of relevant information, in constructing knowledge and moving toward better conclusions.     

Iconicity in English and Spanish and Its Relation to Lexical Category and Age of Acquisition

Signed languages exhibit iconicity (resemblance between form and meaning) across their vocabulary, and many non-Indo-European spoken languages feature sizable classes of iconic words known as ideophones. In comparison, Indo-European languages like English and Spanish are believed to be arbitrary outside of a small number of onomatopoeic words. In three experiments with English and two with Spanish, we asked native speakers to rate the iconicity of ~600 words from the English and Spanish MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventories. We found that iconicity in the words of both languages varied in a theoretically meaningful way with lexical category. In both languages, adjectives were rated as more iconic than nouns and function words, and corresponding to typological differences between English and Spanish in verb semantics, English verbs were rated as relatively iconic compared to Spanish verbs. We also found that both languages exhibited a negative relationship between iconicity ratings and age of acquisition. Words learned earlier tended to be more iconic, suggesting that iconicity in early vocabulary may aid word learning. Altogether these findings show that iconicity is a graded quality that pervades vocabularies of even the most “arbitrary” spoken languages. The findings provide compelling evidence that iconicity is an important property of all languages, signed and spoken, including Indo-European languages.     

Chronotype and the Transition to College Life

Social synchronizers of morningness-eveningness, or chronotype, begin to change during the developmental transition from adolescence to college life. The current study examined how these changes related to the sleep/wake patterns of 220 undergraduates (93 males/122 females) ranging in age from 18 to 29 yrs at a private university. Coping strategies students used to deal with early morning commitments and familial conflict over sleep patterns were also examined. Results revealed that evening chronotypes were more likely to report conflict with parents in junior high school and high school over going to bed and waking, followed by a shift to a later sleep/wake pattern in college. They also reported adjusting their schedules and using more coping strategies to accommodate their evening bias. Morning chronotypes, whose routines easily fit a conventional morning schedule, reported little change in schedules and sleep patterns from junior high school to college, and used fewer coping strategies in response to early morning commitments. The shift in social zeitgebers from junior high school to college are significant, and yet little research has examined the effect these changes can have on students' adjustment to college life and the role that chronotype plays in this process. Because students' ability to cope with these changes will ultimately influence how successful they are in their various endeavors, a greater understanding of how chronotype is related to adaptive functioning across this developmental period is needed. (Author correspondence: lzimmerm@su.edu)     

Infrared Photography

Although literacy plays a large role in elementary science classrooms, one thing that offers a challenge for educators is meeting the linguistic needs of English language learners (ELLs) while also meeting their content needs. An additional challenge is ensuring that academic literacy extends beyond the classroom. This article presents ways of extending classroom literacy into the home. The suggestions and activities emphasize literacy strategies appropriate for ELLs as well as English-speaking students.     

药学英语学术写作初探

在西方大学,写作常常被作为最重要的学科,每一门课都是一门写作课。但在中国,很多人认为,学术论文写作仅仅是从汉语到英语的翻译。因此,很多作者提交的论文存在很多问题。仅仅有少数专家和研究生在国外知名杂志发表文章。文章审稿者通常让作者把文章全部重写。本文目的旨在为药学专门用途英语写作课程提供设计思路。设计这类课程时,主要问题是分析学习者的特定需求。其他问题包括：目标、语法结构、习得技巧以及评估等。这篇文章在实验过程中采用图示训练法,评估方式采用形成性评估与终结性评估相结合的方式,通过援引药学英语专业写作课,将此课程作为个案研究,将各个问题逐一讨论,为药学英语学术写作课程提出建议。     

The teacher writing toolkit: enhancing undergraduate teaching of scientific writing in the biological sciences

ABSTRACT

Teaching scientific writing in biology classes is challenging for both teachers and students. This article offers and reviews several useful ‘toolkit’ items that instructors of science writing can use to improve college student success. The tools in this kit are both conceptual and practical, and include: 1) Understanding the role of student metacognition, cognitive instruction, and strategic teaching, 2) Recognition of different student writing levels, 3) Applying the writing process, 4) Demonstrational classroom revision and editing, 5) Student-teacher sentence editing, 6) Student peer editing and guided student editing, 7) Student copy-editing, 8) Reflective writing, 9) Addressing plagiarism, paraphrasing, and proper in-text citations and referencing, and 10) Using external, on campus and online resources. Additionally, we discuss the new challenges of teaching scientific writing online versus face-to-face. The discussions, approaches, and exercises presented in this paper empower teachers in assisting students in their development of a personal writing style, while simultaneously building student confidence. The tools we present augment our previous presentation of the student writing toolkit, and can improve and enhance the teaching of scientific writing to undergraduate students.     

Mariachi and Spanish speaking English learners: District initiatives,models, and education policy

ABSTRACT

Districts nationwide are challenged with how best to address the needs of an increasing number of non-English or limited-English speaking students. These young people are similarly challenged as they face new environs, unfamiliar cultural settings, and significant communication issues. Findings have indicated that an arts-rich education can assist limited English speakers, many of them considered to be at-risk students, to achieve at higher levels. This article examines a number of districts with growing Hispanic populations that have implemented standards-based mariachi programs and found success in engaging Spanish speaking English learners, their parents, and the Hispanic community at large in the process. Some of these districts had considerable issues needing to be resolved but innovative solutions have led to student success. One district that serves as a model to be replicated is chronicled in detail due to how its creative program implementation subsequently informed policy. School climate data is also provided by another district, which broke down its reporting according to subgroup. Although the data do not measure only those who were enrolled solely in mariachi courses, the major findings are significant in that they indicate how music coursework impacts Latino students specifically. The impact of participating as an active music-maker in any ensemble by any participant cannot be overlooked, but for Spanish speaking English learners, the standards-based mariachi program provides a culturally familiar and welcoming setting, facilitates new patterns of learning, and addresses the priority of attaining English language proficiency.     

医学实验动物学专业英语教学方法初探

本文结合作者参加医学实验动物专业英语教学和在美国访问学习经历,介绍了几种在专业英语教学中强化学生综合运用语言能力的方法,希望能够起到抛砖引玉的作用,为促进学生掌握该专业英语语言特点,提高学习效率和实际应用能力提供有益的参考。     

We need to address ableism in science

In science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, disabled people remain a significantly underrepresented part of the workforce. Recent data suggests that about 20% of undergraduates in the United States have disabilities, but representation in STEM fields is consistently lower than in the general population. Of those earning STEM degrees, only about 10% of undergraduates, 6% of graduate students, and 2% of doctoral students identify as disabled. This suggests that STEM fields have difficulty recruiting and retaining disabled students, which ultimately hurts the field, because disabled scientists bring unique problem-solving perspectives and input. This essay briefly explores the ways in which ableism—prejudice against disabled people based on the assumption that they are “less than” their nondisabled peers—in research contributes to the exclusion of disabled scientists and suggests ways in which the scientific community can improve accessibility and promote the inclusion of disabled scientists in academic science.     

Chronotype and the transition to college life

Social synchronizers of morningness-eveningness, or chronotype, begin to change during the developmental transition from adolescence to college life. The current study examined how these changes related to the sleep/wake patterns of 220 undergraduates (93 males/122 females) ranging in age from 18 to 29 yrs at a private university. Coping strategies students used to deal with early morning commitments and familial conflict over sleep patterns were also examined. Results revealed that evening chronotypes were more likely to report conflict with parents in junior high school and high school over going to bed and waking, followed by a shift to a later sleep/wake pattern in college. They also reported adjusting their schedules and using more coping strategies to accommodate their evening bias. Morning chronotypes, whose routines easily fit a conventional morning schedule, reported little change in schedules and sleep patterns from junior high school to college, and used fewer coping strategies in response to early morning commitments. The shift in social zeitgebers from junior high school to college are significant, and yet little research has examined the effect these changes can have on students' adjustment to college life and the role that chronotype plays in this process. Because students' ability to cope with these changes will ultimately influence how successful they are in their various endeavors, a greater understanding of how chronotype is related to adaptive functioning across this developmental period is needed.     

Life-history traits of introduced Iberian pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus relative to native populations. Can differences explain colonization success?

To assess the colonization success of pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus on the Iberian Peninsula, life-history attributes of pumpkinseed populations from Spanish water bodies were compared to populations in the northern and southern parts of its native range, as well as to those of English water bodies where introduced populations have shown minimal natural range expansion. Discriminate function analysis using five population characteristics [mean age at maturity, mean total length ( L _T) at maturity, gonado-somatic index ( I _G), mean L _T at age 2 years as an indication of juvenile growth rate and relative body condition] strongly differentiated populations from the four regional study areas. Spanish populations were early maturing, showed moderate juvenile growth rate and L _T at maturity and high I _G relative to the other population groups. Spanish populations matured significantly earlier than Canadian and English populations, but not southern U.S.A. populations. Spanish populations, however, had a significantly higher I _G than southern U.S.A. populations, suggesting greater reproductive output. Considering these differences in the context of the Winemiller and Rose triangular life-history strategy model, the pumpkinseed exhibits 'equilibrium' life-history traits that have made other non-native fishes successful invaders in areas where habitat alteration has resulted in more predictable discharge regimes and water levels. Populations in Iberia, however, appear to have achieved their success by adopting a more 'opportunistic' life-history strategy than their native counterparts. High levels of life-history plasticity appear to contribute to the success of this species on the Iberian Peninsula.