English-speaking Canadian Research Articles

Is processing of symbols and words influenced by writing system? Evidence from Chinese, Korean, English, and Greek

We examined cross-linguistic effects in the relationship between serial and discrete versions of digit naming and word reading. In total, 113 Mandarin-speaking Chinese children, 100 Korean children, 112 English-speaking Canadian children, and 108 Greek children in Grade 3 were administered tasks of serial and discrete naming of words and digits. Interrelations among tasks indicated that the link between rapid naming and reading is largely determined by the format of the tasks across orthographies. Multigroup path analyses with discrete and serial word reading as dependent variables revealed commonalities as well as significant differences between writing systems. The path coefficient from discrete digits to discrete words was greater for the more transparent orthographies, consistent with more efficient sight-word processing. The effect of discrete word reading on serial word reading was stronger in alphabetic languages, where there was also a suppressive effect of discrete digit naming. However, the effect of serial digit naming on serial word reading did not differ among the four language groups. This pattern of relationships challenges a universal account of reading fluency acquisition while upholding a universal role of rapid serial naming, further distinguishing between multi-element interword and intraword processing.

Navigating Native-Speaker Ideologies as FSL Teacher

Although a well-established domain of research in English language teaching, native-speaker ideologies have received little attention in French language education. This article reports on a study that examined the salience of “authentic French” in the identity construction of French as a second language (FSL) teachers in English-speaking Canada. Adopting a discursive-constructionist approach, the qualitative multiple case study analyzed FSL teachers’ discursive representations of their experiences while on professional development in France. Findings point to FSL teachers’ continuing orientation to a native-speaker ideal and its significant impact on their professional self-conceptions. The discussion focuses on how non-francophone teachers in particular negotiate a legitimate identity as FSL teachers through various discursive processes. Implications of the study foreground identity as a key factor in how teachers learn and practise their profession and remind us that non–native-speaker teachers must be given opportunities to develop alternative ideas about what it means to be a competent language teacher.

Comparative Analysis of Institutional Policy Definitions of Plagiarism: A Pan-Canadian University Study

This article shares the findings of a study investigating institutional policy definitions of plagiarism at twenty English-speaking Canadian universities. The types of primary sources consulted for this study included: (1) university academic calendars for 2016–2017, (2) institutional policies on academic misconduct, and (3) student academic codes of conduct. Sources were analyzed in comparative tabular and narrative form. Results show wide variation in institutional definitions of plagiarism as a specific subset of academic misconduct. The conclusions call for a coordinated effort among Canadian universities to develop a common framework of academic integrity that includes clear and explicit definitions for plagiarism, as well as other forms of academic dishonesty, that are consistent across provinces.

So They Want Us to Learn French: Promoting and Opposing Bilingualism in English-Speaking Canada par Matthew Hayday

<i>So They Want Us to Learn French: Promoting and Opposing Bilingualism in English-Speaking Canada</i> par Matthew Hayday

Canadian English-speaking Catholics, Latin America and the Refugee issue under Trudeau

During the period of the Council Vatican II, the Catholic world in Canada underwent profound transformations. From the Sixties onwards, English-speaking Canadian Catholics began to take an interest in social problems and, in particular, the contradictions existing in the South American part of the continent. The new climate of inter-religious dialogue encouraged collaboration between the various Christian groups all committed to non-violence and opponents of war and in favor of social justice in the poorer countries. From 1973 onwards, Canadian society, and the Catholic communities as well, had to face the problem of political refugees coming mostly from Chile and Argentina and take up a position regarding the violence against the civilian population in San Salvador and the new socialist and Christian political experiment in Nicaragua. Thanks to the pages of the Toronto newspaper Catholic New Times it is possible to reconstruct the spirit of that age and, most important, verify the close relationship between the progressive North American Catholic world and the new religious and political projects emerging in Latin America.

Missing the mark: Current practices in teaching the male urogenital examination to Canadian undergraduate medical students.

The urogenital physical examination is an important aspect of patient encounters in various clinical settings. Introductory clinical skills sessions are intended to provide support and alleviate students' anxiety when learning this sensitive exam. The techniques each Canadian medical school uses to guide their students through the initial urogenital examination has not been previously reported. This study surveyed pre-clerkship clinical skills program directors at the main campus of English-speaking Canadian medical schools regarding the curriculum they use to teach the urogenital examination. A response rate of 100% was achieved, providing information on resources and faculty available to students, as well as the manner in which students were evaluated. Surprisingly, over one-third of the Canadian medical schools surveyed failed to provide a setting in which students perform a urogenital examination on a patient in their pre-clinical years. Additionally, there was no formal evaluation of this skill set reported by almost 50% of Canadian medical schools prior to clinical training years. To ensure medical students are confident and accurate in performing a urogenital examination, it is vital they be provided the proper resources, teaching, and training. As we progress towards a competency-based curriculum, it is essential that increased focus be placed on patient encounters in undergraduate training. Further research to quantify students' exposure to the urogenital examination during clinical years would be of interest. Without this commitment by Canadian medical schools, we are doing a disservice not only to the medical students, but also to our patient population.

An Empirical Examination of Formal and Informal Volunteering in Canada

Using data from the 2008 General Social Survey of Canada, this study examines the factors associated with individuals’ propensity to engage in formal and informal volunteering. The results show that social networks increase the likelihood of both formal and informal volunteering, but social trust and human capital increase only the likelihood of formal volunteering and not of informal care. The findings also reveal interesting cultural influences and regional differences in the propensity to engage in formal and informal volunteering, especially between French-speaking Canadians and English-speaking Canadians, and those living in Quebec and outside of Quebec. Native-born Canadians are more likely to volunteer than their immigrant counterparts, but they are similar to immigrants in the propensity to provide informal care. Additionally, women are found to be more likely to engage in formal volunteering and informal care than men. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Newspaper Dialectology: Harnessing the Power of the Mass Media to Study Canadian English

This article asks whether collaboration with a popular newspaper can be an effective means of collecting data on dialect variation and whether the resulting data are comparable with those gathered by more traditional dialectological methods. These questions are examined with a pair of dialect surveys carried out in 2014 by Metro News, in collaboration with the author, in cities across English-speaking Canada. The resulting data, comprising thousands of responses, reveal remarkable convergence with previous research, particularly with the North American Regional Vocabulary Survey reported previously in this journal. They display both an alternation between British and American lexical choices and regional variation in North American lexical choices across Canada. The new data both confirm and add to earlier accounts of variation in Canadian English, among other things making possible a new analysis of diachronic patterns in real time. Popular media can therefore be valuable research partners for academic dialectologists.

Men’s depression and suicide literacy: a nationally representative Canadian survey

Background: Male suicide prevention strategies include diagnosis and effective management of men’s depression. Fundamental to suicide prevention efforts is public awareness, which in turn, is influenced by literacy levels about men’s depression and suicide.Aim: The aim of this study is to examine sex differences in mental health literacy with respect to men’s depression and suicide among a cohort of Canadian respondents.Methods: About 901 English-speaking Canadian men and women completed online survey questionnaires to evaluate mental health literacy levels using 10-item D-Lit and 8-item LOSS questionnaires, which assess factual knowledge concerning men’s depression and suicide. Statistical tests (Chi-square, z-test) were used to identify significant differences between sex sub-groups at 95% confidence.Results: Overall, respondents correctly identified 67% of questions measuring literacy levels about male depression. Respondents’ male suicide literacy was significantly poorer at 53.7%. Misperceptions were especially evident in terms of differentiating men’s depressive symptoms from other mental illnesses, estimating prevalence and identifying factors linked to male suicide. Significant sex differences highlighted that females had higher literacy levels than men in regard to male depression.Conclusions: Implementing gender sensitive and specific programs to target and advance literacy levels about men’s depression may be key to ultimately reducing depression and suicide among men in Canada.

Effects of Subcultural Differences on Country and Product Evaluations: A Replication Study

ABSTRACTThis article validates the results of a study by Laroche, Papadopoulos, Heslop, and Bergeron (2003). In contrast to the original study that was carried out in Canada with English-speaking Canadians and French-speaking Canadians, this replication examines subcultural differences on country and product evaluations of German-speaking South Tyroleans and Italian-speaking South Tyroleans, who live in the most northern Italian region. Overall, it can be confirmed that country/region and/or nationality may not be a suitable proxy for culture and therefore may not be suitable variables for country-of-origin studies.

Psychosocial Interventions in Reducing Cannabis Use in Early Phase Psychosis: A Canadian Survey of Treatments Offered.

Cannabis use in people with early phase psychosis (EPP) can have a significant impact on long-term outcomes. The purpose of this investigation was to describe current cannabis use treatment practices in English-speaking early intervention services (EISs) in Canada and determine if their services are informed by available evidence. Thirty-five Canadian English-speaking EISs for psychosis were approached to complete a survey through email, facsimile, or online in order to collect information regarding their current cannabis use treatment practices. Data were acquired from 27 of the 35 (78%) programs approached. Only 12% of EISs offered formal services that targeted cannabis use, whereas the majority (63%) of EISs offered informal services for all substance use, not specifically cannabis. In programs with informal services, individual patient psychoeducation (86%) was slightly more common than individual motivational interviewing (MI) (76%) followed by group patient psychoeducation (52%) and information handouts (52%). Thirty-seven percent of EISs offered formal services for substance use, and compared to programs with informal services, more MI, cognitive-behavioural therapy, and family services were offered, with individual treatment modalities more common than groups. No EISs used contingency management, even though it has some preliminary evidence in chronic populations. Evidence-based service implementation barriers included appropriate training and administrative support. While most English-speaking Canadian EIS programs offer individual MI and psychoeducation, which is in line with the available literature, there is room for improvement in cannabis treatment services based on current evidence for both people with EPP and their families.

Bilingualism and Development of Social Competence of English Language Learners: A Review

According to the United Nations (2014), 3.2 percent of the world population – 232 million people – were international migrants in 2013. English-speaking countries US, UK, Canada and Australia are within the top ten migrant receiving countries. Asians and Latinos are the two largest migrant groups to these countries (Bhui, McKenzie, & Rasul, 2007; Wong, 2000). The primary focus of this review is on children from Asia-Pacific contexts, but it also considers the broader research literature investigating children from Latino background for the purpose of informing future research. Despite large-scale Asian and Latino migration into English-speaking countries, research on these populations has just begun (Cheah & Leung, 2011). To date, most research with immigrant children has focused on their academic performance, but research on immigrant children’s development of social competence is limited (Halle et al., 2014; Marks, Patton, & Coll, 2010; Sam, 2006). Having a good understanding of immigrant children’s development of social competence is not only theoretically interesting but valuable for educational practices since it provides educators with valuable information which will impact on learning. However, advancement in theory and practice is constrained because prior studies either under-sampled immigrant children or prevented them from full participation due to lack of

Understanding the choice of Chinese graduate students’ English language learning in a Canadian post-secondary context

This study explores the English learning strategies employed by Chinese graduate students before and after their arrival in Canada, to document and analyze shifts in strategic approaches to language acquisition in a specific context of post-secondary internationalization. Narrative inquiry data collection methods, framed by a qualitative co-constructivist theoretical paradigm, shaped the research. Themes emerging from data analysis suggested that participants’ reliance on memory and cognitive strategies employed in China were abandoned in favor of utilization of compensation and social strategies after moving to Canada. Participants made these changes primarily because of their desire to make best use of the English-speaking Canadian environment to improve English proficiency, as an explicit and significant aspect of their personal motivations for internationalization. An important finding of this research is that immersion in the English-speaking environment inspired participants to employ different English learning strategies leading to significant improvement in English proficiency. The study seeks to address a gap in the research literature on internationalization and second language acquisition, in order to understand and mitigate the well-documented challenges experienced by international students in transitioning from one linguistic context to a dramatically different one.

Sustainable internationalization in South Korean higher education: Languages and cultures in a foreign professor’s course

In recent decades, recruiting foreign professors (FPs) has become a noticeable trend at South Korean higher education institutions (HEIs) as they attempt to internationalize. However, little scholarly attention has been paid to the question of what is actually happening in classrooms as a result of this rapid influx of FPs and the associated proliferation of English-only courses. The aim of this study is to understand internationalization’s real impacts on teaching and learning by examining professor-student interactions and instructional practices in a so-called “internationalized” university course (i.e., an English-speaking Canadian professor’s computer architecture course for domestic Korean students). I adopt the theoretical lens of sustainability framed within an ecological perspective and focus on languages and cultures in the HEI context, while resisting market-based HEI internationalization driven by economic considerations. This study finds that Prof. Dave’s course was characterized by linguistic and cultural reciprocity and equitable relations among the participants, revealing its vast potential for sustainable internationalization. Further, the course acknowledged and empowered various funds of student knowledge, including content knowledge, English capability, and Korean capability, which led to fun and effective learning. Although this successful symbiosis suggests a promising future for sustainable internationalization in Korean HEIs, I also highlight the pressing need for institution-level programs or services to assist both FPs and domestic students in FP courses.

Women in Radiology: Exploring the Gender Disparity

PurposeIn 2015, only 1.5% of female Canadian medical students pursued radiology as a specialty, versus 5.6% of men. The aim of this study was to determine what factors attract and deter Canadian medical students from pursuing a career in radiology, and why fewer women than men pursue radiology as a specialty. MethodsAn anonymous online survey was e-mailed to English-speaking Canadian medical schools, and 12 of 14 schools participated. Subgroup analyses for gender and radiology interest were performed using the Fisher exact test (P < .05). ResultsIn total, 917 students (514 women; 403 men) responded. Direct patient contact was valued by significantly more women who were not considering specialization in radiology (87%), compared with women who were (70%; P < .0001). Physics deterred more women (47%) than it did men (21%), despite similar educational backgrounds for the two gender groups in physical sciences (P < .0001). More women who were considering radiology as a specialty rated intellectual stimulation as being important to their career choice (93%), compared with women who were not (80%; P = .002). Fewer women who were not interested in radiology had done preclinical observerships in radiology (20%), compared with men who were not interested in radiology (28%; P = .04). ConclusionsA perceived lack of direct patient contact dissuades medical students from pursuing radiology as a career. Women have less preclinical radiology exposure than do men. Programs that increase preclinical exposure to radiology subspecialties that have greater patient contact should be initiated, and an effort to actively recruit women to such programs should be made.

Ryan Edwardson, Canuck Rock: A History of Canadian Popular Music

Ryan Edwardson’s Canuck Rock: A History of Canadian Popular Music is a well-researched and well-written text with a misleading title. Primarily, this book is about the music industry in English-speaking Canada, and readers looking for analysis of musical sound, the social and cultural significance of music performance, or any sustained attention to Quebecois musicians and the thriving industry in Quebec will be disappointed. That said, what falls within Edwardson’s scope is meticulously detai...

The Farm Novel in North America: Genre and Nation in the United States, English Canada, and French Canada, 1845-1945 by Florian Freitag

Reviewed by: The Farm Novel in North America: Genre and Nation in the United States, English Canada, and French Canada, 1845-1945 by Florian Freitag Albert Braz Freitag, Florian. The Farm Novel in North America: Genre and Nation in the United States, English Canada, and French Canada, 1845-1945. Rochester: Camden House, 2013. Pp. 372. Florian Freitag’s comparative study of the farm novel in the United States, English-speaking Canada, and Québec between 1845 and 1945 is a very impressive contribution to North American literary culture—excepting Mexico. Freitag makes a compelling case that “the farm novel played an important role in making the farm a symbolic space of the United States, English Canada, and French Canada.” More precisely, he argues that rather than “merely portraying agriculture as an economic venture or a way of life—which they also do—farm novels dramatize the relationship between farming and constructing the nation and depict farming as a social practice that has helped to articulate the nation” (5). That is, while the farm novel emphasizes the naturalness of both its location and the lifestyle it promulgates, it is shaped by cultural and political concerns and deeply imbricated in the national project of the given polity to which it belongs. [End Page 311] Although Freitag notes the many similarities among the three literatures that he examines, he contends that each possesses distinctive “national” characteristics. For example, he maintains that most US “farm novels focus on pioneer farmers or settlers and portray farming as a way of realizing the American dream of material and non-material success” (6). Québécois farm novels, in contrast, depict “well-established farmers or farmer dynasties” and reflect “the French Canadian national myth of agriculturalism,” presenting “farming as a way—indeed, the only way—of ensuring the survival of the French Canadian cultural community on the North American continent” (6), At last, like their US counterparts, English-Canadian farm novels generally “concentrate on pioneer farmers and settlers, but here the representation of agriculture is informed by English Canadian ideals of ‘Peace, Order, and good Government’ or ‘Order and Control’” (6). Freitag supports his thesis that the US, English Canadian, and Québécois farm novels “tend to portray specific types of farmers and to project particular national myths or ideologies onto the farm space” (22) by examining a wide variety of texts. After producing a theoretically and historically informed survey of the field, he analyzes the genesis of the genre in such “‘proto farm novels’” (66) as St. John de Crèvecoeur’s “History of Andrew, the Hebridean,” Patrice Lacombe’s La terre paternelle, and Susanna Moodie’s Roughing It in the Bush. He then explores how naturalism informs the portrayals of farm life in Frank Norris’s The Octopus, Albert Laberge’s La Scouine, and Frederick Philip Grove’s Settlers of the Marsh. In “New World Demeters,” Freitag scrutinizes the role of farm women in Willa Cather’s O Pioneers!, Louis Hémon’s Maria Chapdelaine, and Martha Ostenso’s Wild Geese. In “Rich Harvests,” he investigates whether “materialism is [or is not] an integral part” of farm existence (186) in Joseph Kirkland’s Zury: The Meanest Man in Spring County, Claude-Henri Grignon’s Un homme et son péché, and Frederick Philip Grove’s Fruits of the Earth. Freitag then probes the impact of the Great Depression of the 1930s in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, Félix-Antoine Savard’s Menaud, maître-draveur, and Robert J.C. Stead’s Grain. Finally, before closing the book with an epilogue about developments in the North American farm novel since the mid-1940s, he assesses such “farm epics” (269-70) as Louis Bromfield’s The Farm, Ringuet’s [Philippe Panneton] Trente arpents, and Grace Campbell’s The Higher Hill. Not the least significant achievement of The Farm Novel in North America is that, despite the sizable number of texts that he examines, Freitag provides close readings of all of them. For instance, upon discussing the characterization of young women in several Québec romans de la terre, he contends that “what ultimately matters is not whether the daughter’s choice...

Naming of short words is (almost) the same as naming of alphanumeric symbols: Evidence from two orthographies

Throughout reading development, a gradual shift is seen in the processes underlying word identification from serial decoding toward parallel processing or sight word reading. It has been argued that this shift can be detected in the correlations between serial and discrete naming of alphanumeric symbols (digits and letters) and words. In the current study, we examined the relations between alphanumeric symbol naming and reading of monosyllabic and multisyllabic words and nonwords in two languages that differ in orthographic consistency: English and Dutch. A sample of 92 English-speaking Canadian children and 101 Dutch children, all in Grade 5, were assessed on discrete and serial naming of digits and letters and on serial and discrete naming of monosyllabic and multisyllabic words and nonwords. Results showed that discrete naming of alphanumeric symbols closely resembled discrete reading of monosyllabic words, suggesting that these words are processed in parallel in both languages. Both serial and parallel reading processes were found to underlie identification of multisyllabic words as well as monosyllabic nonwords. However, differences between the two languages emerged when processing multisyllabic nonwords. Whereas English-speaking children relied more on parallel reading processes to read multisyllabic nonwords, Dutch-speaking children processed these items serially. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.

Modeling the relationship between rapid automatized naming and literacy skills across languages varying in orthographic consistency

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to contrast the prominent theoretical explanations of the rapid automatized naming (RAN)–reading relationship across languages varying in orthographic consistency (Chinese, English, and Finnish) and (b) to examine whether the same accounts can explain the RAN–spelling relationship. In total, 304 Grade 4 children (102 Chinese-speaking Taiwanese children, 117 English-speaking Canadian children, and 85 Finnish-speaking children) were assessed on measures of RAN, speed of processing, phonological processing, orthographic processing, reading fluency, and spelling. The results of path analysis indicated that RAN had a strong direct effect on reading fluency that was of the same size across languages and that only in English was a small proportion of its predictive variance mediated by orthographic processing. In contrast, RAN did not exert a significant direct effect on spelling, and a substantial proportion of its predictive variance was mediated by phonological processing (in Chinese and Finnish) and orthographic processing (in English). Given that RAN predicted reading fluency equally well across languages and that phonological/orthographic processing had very little to do with this relationship, we argue that the reason why RAN is related to reading fluency should be sought in domain-general factors such as serial processing and articulation.

Faculty Members' Experiences of Cyberbullying by Students at One Canadian University: Impact and Recommendations

This two-phase mixed methods study adopted online survey and individual interview questions to explore faculty members’ experiences of cyberbullying by students at one Canadian university. Foucault's (1994) power relations theory was used to explore the power dynamic that can exist in the student-faculty relationship. The study found that cyberbullied faculty members were commonly female, over 40 years of age, English-speaking Canadian citizens, and held fulltime rank. Cyberbullying occurred namely via email, end-of-term faculty evaluation sites, and public polling sites (e.g. Ratemyprofessor.com), while students' dissatisfaction with grades was the most common precursor. Consistent with prior bullying and cyberbullying literature, this study also found that cyberbullied faculty members experienced detrimental effects, persisting from a few days to more than one year. The under-researched focus of this study advances existing workplace bullying and cyberbullying research by illuminating both the harmful implications of student-to-faculty cyberbullying, and the support measures deemed necessary by targeted individuals.