Bilingual Specialists Research Articles

Psychometric properties of Persian version of susceptibility to driver distraction questionnaire

Background. This study aimed to investigate the validity and reliability of the Persian translation of the Susceptibility to Driver Distraction Questionnaire (SDDQ) among the inner-city drivers in Tabriz. Methods. In this cross-sectional study, 411 telephone taxi drivers from Tabriz city (northwest of Iran) and selected using a two-stage cluster random sampling were included. To produce an accurate Persian translation of the SDDQ, first, some bilingual specialists were asked to render the questionnaire into Persian from English and, then, another bilingual expert was asked to back-translate the produced Persian translation into English using a standard "forward-backward" translation procedure. The accurate content agreement of the translation with the above-mentioned versions was finally approved by the research team. Data management and analysis were performed using SPSS 26.0 and LISREL 8.80. Results. The internal consistency of the whole scale and subscales of the SDDQ was determined between 0.72 and 0.90 using Cronbach's α coefficient. The agreement between the original version and re-translation version was determined 0.66 to 1 using modified Kappa coefficient (k*). The results of the equal structural equation indicated that the construct validity of the six-factor model had a greater structural fit. Pearson's correlation coefficient between subscales and the whole-scale was found to be between 0.41 and 0.92. Furthermore, the correlation between SDDQ and Mindfulness Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) was 0.39, while the correlation between SDDQ and Conner’s Adult ADHD Rating Scales (severity of ADHD symptoms) was 0.25 (P<0.01). Conclusion. In sum, the Persian version of susceptibility to driver distraction questionnaire may have been used as a valid and reliable scale for investigating the Persian-speaking drivers in Iran. Practical Implications. SDDQ may have been used in universities and police research centers. Furthermore, it may have been applied for screening the high-risk drivers.

Hardiness in the profession of sports coaches and physical education teachers

Background and Study Aim. To study psychological features of sports coaches and physical education teachers’ professional hardiness. Material and methods. The study involved 60 participants. Among them, 24 were coaches of children's and youth sports schools, 19 coaches of national teams of Ukraine and 17 physical education teachers. English-language version of the Professional Hardiness Questionnaire (PHQ) were used. The development of the English-language version of the PHQ was based on its initial Ukrainian-language version (http://prof-diagnost.org). The accuracy of its translation into English was checked and corrected by 12 bilingual specialists with degrees in medicine and/or psychology. To identify the peculiarities of the relationship between the indicators of professional resilience in different professional groups, we conducted a Spearman correlation analysis. Results. The analysis of professional hardiness revealed the presence of significant differences between the surveyed groups of coaches and physical education teachers by various indicators. It turned out that the length of service in the respective positions of national team coaches is significantly higher than that of Youth Sports School (YSS) coaches and physical education teachers. This indicates the presence of greater professional experience among this category of coaches. Accordingly, physical education teachers and coaches of national teams have significantly higher professional experience than coaches of YSS. As a result, the majority of young specialists are among the coaching staff of the YSS. The correlation coefficient between the general level of professional hardiness and the namely professional component of 0.80 is much higher for coaches of national teams. Among physical education teachers it reaches 0.61, most likely this is because the control over the work of this group is less specific in contrast to the work of the coach. Coaches of YSS have the lowest level of the namely professional component 0.50, we explain this by the fact that the overall level of experience in the position is half as much as in the previous two groups. Conclusions. The conducted analysis made it possible to establish relationships between the general level of professional hardiness and indicators of professional hardiness in each group of coaches and teachers.

Chinese Students in the Russian Higher Education Institutions: Motivation and Demotivating

The growing dynamics of cooperation between Russia and China in various spheres of economic activity generate the need for training bilingual specialists. Russia has a significant educational potential, which includes a wide range of specialties and professions, it is an attractive country of study for students from China. The article based on in-depth interviews and analysis of statistical data, is aimed at identifying some of problematic issues regarding education of Chinese students in Russia. The research interest is focused on determining the educational and everyday needs of Chinese students, the motivational grounds for choosing a country of study, the prospects for internalization in the labor market and self-realization after qualification. The main factors that motivate the Chinese youth to receive education in Russia are: the attractiveness of the Russian language and culture, and the financial accessibility of Russian education. The results of the research allow also to conclude that the educational potential of Russia in relation to Chinese students in comparison with the countries of North America and Western Europe is realized insufficiently. The authors identified main reasons for such situation: the vague prospects for Chinese graduates of Russian universities in the labor market and the active policy of the Chinese government to return home students who received education abroad.

Angielskie ekwiwalenty teminu "wykonawca testamentu"

This paper constitutes a preliminary study aiming at assessing English equivalents of the Polish term “wykonawca testamentu” suggested in most popular bilingual specialist dictionaries. The English equivalents discussed include: “executor of a will”, “executor of testament” and “executor nominate”. In order to conduct a thorough assessment of the suggested equivalents, the definitions of the Polish term and their English equivalents presented in monolingual legal dictionaries of British law have been analysed. Moreover, the study aims to verify whether or not the suggested equivalents occur in the texts of the British sources of law and jurisprudence. Finally, translation techniques applied while forming English equivalents under discussion are identified.

Validation of the Spanish Version of the Eating Assessment Tool-10 (EAT-10spa) in Colombia. A Blinded Prospective Cohort Study.

Dysphagia might affect 12% of the general population, and its complications include pneumonia, malnutrition, social isolation, and death. No validated Spanish symptom survey exists to quantify dysphagia symptoms among Latin Americans. Therefore, we performed a prospective cohort study in a tertiary care university hospital to validate the Spanish version of the 10-Item Eating-Assessment-Tool (EAT-10spa) for use in Colombia. After an interdisciplinary committee of five bilingual specialists evaluated the EAT-10spa(translated and validated in Spain) and deemed it appropriate for the Colombian culture, its feasibility, reliability, validity, sensitivity to change, and diagnostic capacity were evaluated. As a reference standard, we used the flexibleendoscopic evaluation of swallowing with sensory testing and a standardized clinical evaluation. All assessments were blinded. In total, 133 subjects were included (52% women, mean age 55years) and completed the EAT-10spa (median completion time: 2min [IQR 1-3min]), 39% of whom had an elementary-level education. Cronbach's α coefficient: 0.91; test-retest intra-class correlation coefficient: 0.94. The Spearman's correlation coefficient of the EAT-10spa with the 8-point penetration-aspiration scale was 0.54 (P<0.001). The area under the receiver-operating-characteristic-curve (AUC-ROC) for dysphagia and aspiration were 0.79 (P<0.001)and 0.81 (P<0.001), respectively. The best cut-off points for dysphagia and aspiration were EAT-10spa ≥2 (sensitivity 93.6%, specificity 36.4%) and EAT-10spa ≥4 (sensitivity 94.3%, specificity 49.5%), respectively. A reduction in the EAT-10 ≥3 was the best cut-off point for a clinically significant improvement (AUC-ROC 0.83; P<0.0001). The EAT-10spa showed excellent psychometric properties and discriminatory capacity for use in Colombia.

&lt;b&gt;Análise teórica de itens de uma escala americana para avaliação do atendimento em creches inclusivas brasileiras&lt;/b&gt;

http://dx.doi.org/10.5902/1984686X3155Com a proposta de uma educação infantil inclusiva, são necessários mecanismos para avaliar a qualidade da educação infantil para crianças com necessidades educacionais especiais. A escala Infant/Toddler EnvironmentRating Scale Revised avalia a qualidade de ambientes coletivos de educação infantil sob diferentes aspectos como ambiente físico, interação, atividadese atendimento às crianças com necessidades especiais. Estudos vêm investigando a viabilidade da ITERS-R para o contexto brasileiro. Na direção destes estudos, a pesquisa teve como objetivo verificar a compreensão dostermos e a pertinência do conteúdo dos itens da Infant/Toddler EnvironmentRating Scale – Revised Edition, relacionados a pessoas com deficiência. Foram identificados e traduzidos 12 itens da escala que se referem às necessidades educacionais especiais por especialista bilingue. Os itens foram submetidos à análise de conteúdo por sete especialistas em educação infantil e educação especial, para que avaliassem a pertinência dos itens, e à análise semântica por sete alunos do curso de psicologia, por meio de registro em protocolos de respostas. Os dados foram transcritos e analisadosde maneira qualitativa. Os resultados indicaram que os itens são pertinentes e apontam caminhos para torná-los mais acurados para avaliação de creches brasileiras. Conclui-se que os itens analisados podem contribuir para a promoção e avaliação da qualidade em creches, em relação às pessoascom deficiência, ainda que haja a necessidade de aprimorar a acurácia doconteúdo dos itens.Palavras-chave: Creche; Avaliação de qualidade; Escala ITERS-R.

CHINESE ART: HOW DIFFERENT COULD IT BE FROM WESTERN PAINTING?

ABSTRACTWhen encountering something unfamiliar, it is natural to describe and understand it by reference to what is familiar. Commentary on Chinese landscape painting usually relies heavily upon analogies with Western art. James Elkins, concerned to understand the implications of this procedure, asks whether in seeing and writing about this art we ever can escape our Western perspectives. His problem is not just that he himself does not know Chinese. Even bilingual specialists or native Chinese speakers employ this vocabulary, for the vocabulary of contemporary art history, developed in the West, now is the language of academic art history everywhere. We know that we are distorting our descriptions of this Chinese art, even though we don't know how to “get it right.” In the history of European painting from Cimabue to the present, it would be hard to find any Western paintings that could be confused with any art made in China, so the frequent reliance of scholars upon such comparisons seems problematic. Of course, in the near future this situation might change. Perhaps in fifty years, as China becomes more prosperous, art history will become a hybrid discipline. At that point, the situation, which Elkins analyzes, will be reversed. But such a change is a long way in the future.

The Indispensable Secretary

A secretary is an assistant to an executive. He is trained to type and perform many office duties. Hepossesses personal and business attributes. He guards his professional ethics of confidentiality, superb appearance andabsolute loyalty. There are legal, medical and bi-lingual specialists in their own way. The personal attributes of asecretary include adaptability and self-confidence while his business attributes include secretarial skills and responsibility.The employment of new technologies in the office threatens the secretary. The secretaries are jittery and apprehensiveabout their jobs. The executive thinks he can use the computer himself and thus not needing the secretary. This is sobecause the modern laptop does not require the executive to know keyboarding because he can talk to or write on thescreen and everything would be typed. He can employ internet teleconferencing facilities for meetings. All these notwithstanding, the secretary is indispensable. This is because the executive needs an assistant who invariably must bethe secretary who is trained in receiving visitors, answering and making telephone calls when the executive is busy onvery important engagements. What the secretary needs in order to keep his job is to be abreast of the new technologies.He should continually undergo retraining in secretarial or office skills and communication skills.

Adaptação transcultural do instrumento para avaliação da qualidade de vida "Quality of Life in Epilepsy-89 (QOLIE-89)"para o Brasil

OBJETIVO: Realizar a adaptação transcultural do instrumento para avaliação da qualidade de vida de indivíduos com epilepsia "Quality of Life in Epilepsy-89" (QOLIE-89) para a população brasileira. METODOLOGIA: Dois tradutores bilíngües fizeram a tradução do instrumento original para o português. A seguir, dois professores de inglês nativos e bilíngües ficaram encarregados da retro-tradução. Na segunda fase uma equipe multidisciplinar "Comitê de Juízes" julgou as diversas versões obtidas quanto à clareza, compreensibilidade, manutenção do conceito explorado em cada questão no instrumento original e sua adequação de sentido para nossa população. No terceiro momento, 21 pacientes do ambulatório da Unidade de Pesquisa e Tratamento das Epilepsias (UNIPETE) responderam ao questionário. RESULTADOS: Quinze pacientes (71.4%) eram do sexo feminino, com idade entre 15 e 49 anos. Oito (38.0%) haviam cursado até o ensino fundamental. O tempo médio de aplicação foi de 45 minutos. As dificuldades de compreensão ocorreram apenas nos pacientes que cursaram até a 8ª série. Na versão final em português sofreram modificações as questões 14, 16, 19, 21 e 85. CONCLUSÃO: A versão em português do QOLIE-89 foi facilmente compreendida, sendo mínimas as modificações realizadas no processo de adaptação cultural do instrumento.

Adaptação transcultural do pressure ulcer scale for healing (PUSH) para a língua portuguesa

O objetivo do estudo foi realizar a adaptação transcultural do Pressure Ulcer Scale for Healing (PUSH) para a língua portuguesa, através da tradução do instrumento para a língua portuguesa, feita por especialistas bilingües e comitê de especialistas, e teste das propriedades de medida: confiabilidade interobservadores e validade convergente. Para tais análises foram utilizados o índice Kappa e os Testes de Fisher e Spearman. Após aprovação pelo Comitê de Ética da Escola de Enfermagem da Universidade de São Paulo, 34 úlceras de pressão foram examinadas. Os resultados obtidos para os índices Kappa (0,90 a 1,0) entre as observações dos enfermeiros e estomaterapeutas (padrão-ouro) para todas as subescalas e escore total da escala, bem como a existência de correlação positiva e estatisticamente significativa (p&lt;0,001) entre as observações relativas à classificação das úlceras em estágios e escore total da escala, atestaram ambas as propriedades de medida, confirmando a futura utilização do PUSH, versão adaptada, em nosso meio.

First Steps in the Development of the Inventario de Comportamiento de Estudio: The Spanish Version of the Study Behavior Inventory

The Inventario de Comportamiento de Estudio (ICE), a Spanish version of the Study Behavior Inventory (SBI), was developed and tested using 594 undergraduate students at la Universidad de las Am�ricas, in the state of Puebla, Mexico. A team of bilingual specialists was assembled to produce a translation that might be generic enough to be understood across Spanish-speaking countries and cultures. Factor analytical techniques on student ICE responses produced a factor structure very similar that found in the English language SBI. Evidence of appropriate levels of construct validity of the instrument and the reliability of its scores was obtained.Key words: study behaviors, study habits, studying, academic self-regulation, Spanish language instruments, Study Behavior Inventory

Mounting Evidence Supports the Achievement Effects of Success for All

Any independent reader or reviewer who took the time to read the actual evidence would have to conclude that the achievement effects of SFA are thoroughly and scientifically documented, and many reviewers have concluded exactly this, Mr. Slavin retorts. IN HIS seventh article attacking research on Success for All, Stanley Pogrow engages in his usual tactics: making baseless accusation after baseless accusation in the hope that readers, who must long ago have stopped paying attention to the content itself, will figure (incorrectly) that with so many charges, some of them must be true. The current critique is in response to an article in the June Kappan.1 This study presents Pogrow with a difficult challenge. Here is a study of 111 schools across Texas, reporting data from the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) Reading Scale that anyone with an Internet account could easily replicate. These schools serve more than 55,000 children. Their progress was compared to that of all Texas children and to that of subgroups according to ethnicity. These whole-state comparisons were made specifically to avoid charges that we selected particular control groups after the fact to make Success for All look good. Apparently recognizing the impossibility of impeaching a study of this size, quality, and policy relevance, Pogrow spends a great deal of time rehashing decade-old criticisms about Baltimore and other issues that have nothing to do with Texas. I'll return to these. However, let's start with the Texas evaluation. Pogrow's main claim, stated at the outset, is that Success for All (SFA) couldn't possibly have worked in Texas, because SFA doesn't work. It's hard to respond to this circular reasoning. Pogrow then goes on to say that it's absurd to claim that SFA is responsible for the overall reduction in the minority/white achievement gap or for the overall rise in TAAS scores. Yet we never made any such claim. In each case, we compared the gains made by SFA students to those of other Texas students. TAAS scores did rise, but those of SFA students rose significantly more. The gap did narrow, but the gap for SFA students narrowed significantly more. Pogrow, who has opposed research involving control groups,2 does not appear to understand this most fundamental element of research design. He then criticized our comparison of scores for (mostly minority) SFA students to those of the state as a whole, on the basis that these are not equivalent groups. Yet we addressed exactly this issue in our article, making separate comparisons of African American students in SFA schools to African American students in the state as a whole and Hispanic SFA students to Hispanic students in the state as a whole. In both cases, the SFA and other students were similar at pretest, but in both cases the African American and Hispanic students in SFA schools gained significantly more than similar students elsewhere in Texas. To save readers the trouble of finding their June issue, I reproduce the relevant graphs below. Pogrow accuses us of making SFA look good by stopping our analyses with the 1998 data. At the time we wrote the June article, only 1999 data were available, and the state itself cautioned against longitudinal analyses because of the significant changes in TAAS procedures introduced in 1999. In fact, Pogrow himself cites bilingual specialists who told him exactly this and suggested doing exactly what we did - analyzing scores through 1998. However, we now have data through 2001 (see Figure 3). Once again, analyzing at the school level, SFA students gained significantly more than other Texas students. Because of the testing change in 1999, Figure 3 understates the amount of gain for both SFA and state scores, but both sets of scores are probably affected to a similar degree. Note that Figure 3 includes every school in the original study except one, which closed in 1999. Pogrow accuses us of failing to include every Texas SFA school that began the program between 1994 and 1997, as we claimed. …

Preparing ESL and Bilingual Teachers for Changing Roles: Immersion for Teachers of LEP Children

With increased emphasis on integration of language and content-area instruction, the roles of bilingual and ESL teachers are becoming increasingly interrelated—a situation that calls for development of common training experiences in the preparation of ESL and bilingual personnel. This article describes a teacher training course designed to meet both the differing language proficiency needs of bilingual and ESL teachers, as well as the common needs of teachers learning to implement content-based strategies for teaching language. Specifically, (a) ESL specialists receive an immersion experience in Spanish, (b) bilingual specialists are provided opportunities to enhance their proficiency in academic Spanish, and (c) both ESL and bilingual specialists receive intensive simulated classroom experiences in small-group, content-based instruction following a cooperative learning approach. A rationale for following an integrated approach in the preparation of language educators for limited English proficient (LEP) children is presented, and data collected from participants in the course are discussed in relation to the potential effectiveness of this type of teacher training format as a vehicle for attaining important teacher preparation goals.

Organizations in Shock and Overload: California’s Public Schools 1970–1980

Many education critics have stressed the rigidity and lack of change in educational organizations. Indeed, there were so many books in the sixties on the rigidity of educational organizations that publishers had a major financial stake in maintaining that viewpoint. Educational organizations do change significantly over time. The forces causing change in the future, however, will be different from those in the past. Lasting change in American education has largely been by accretion, of new layers to the common school, new subjects, new specialists, and new functions. Such innovations have been largely structural in nature. They required easily monitored, added features like school lunches, driver education, or bilingual specialists. In turn, each of these created a new constituency or vested interest, for example, vocational education teachers or parents of handicapped children. The period of 1970 to 1980 will give us new insights on organizations in shock, stress, and change. The California Public School System has been or will be buffeted by nine major external forces. Each of these forces will cause some adaptation in organizational structure and function. These forces are not the same as the by addition of the past. Moreover, they are coming with such rapidity and depth that the organization will probably be thrown off balance. Organizational shock, overload, and paralysis are all possible. The question becomes how much change can an organization take yet continue to deal effectively with its clients. Listed below are the nine major vector forces that will impact California's public schools within the decade 1970-1980. (1) At least 50 reform initiatives, including the continued impact of pre-1970 mandates by federal and state legislatures. The latest reforms are minimum competency tests, special education, and schools site councils.

Attitudes of 30 American Indian Women toward Birth Control

To study the problem of overpopulation of the Navajo Indians whose population has trebled despite an infant mortality rate almost 3 times the national average 30 women were questioned as to knowledge attitudes and opinions on birth control. Those interviewed had a mean age of 25.4 23 were married 5 were single and 2 were unmarried but with plans for marriage. Their average level of education was 9.8 years of schooling. 9 of the women had used a form of birth control however misuse and misinformation resulted in pregnancies in 4 women. There were 6 basic types interviewed: 1) 3 women were typically traditional with little interest in the Anglo world or birth control; 2) 2 were acquainted somewhat with birth control but because of cultural or moral conviction were against it in principle; 3) 7 young women knew about contraception but feared the physical and mental side effects; 4) 7 women accepted birth control methods but were confused regarding methods; 5) 7 were college-educated and practiced birth control; and 6) 4 multiparous women wished to be sterilized to rid themselves of continual pregnancy. There is a pressing need for full-time bilingual specialist in family planning.