English Experts Research Articles

Exploring reading comprehension skill relationships through the G-DINA model

By analysing the test data of 1029 British secondary school students’ performance on 20 Programme for International Student Assessment English reading items through the generalised deterministic input, noisy ‘and’ gate (G-DINA) model, the study conducted two investigations on exploring the relationships among the five reading comprehension skills defined by six English language experts. Skill groups, skill types and conflicting relationship were discovered in the investigation about the relationship among reading comprehension skills as part of the cognitive structure of the examinees, which provided insights into the sequence of reading skill training. The investigation about the relationship among reading comprehension skills in the problem-solving process, conducted at the item level, conceptualised skill relationship patterns as strategies for solving items. The study also demonstrated that saturated G-DINA model catered to the characteristics of reading comprehension skills and could be applied to tests involving highly interactive and hierarchical skills.

Applications and Contents of the papagei.com App “papagei PRONOUNCE” & the Language Training “Business English Expert”

At this year’s ceremony of the International E-Learning Awards, prizes were awarded to two language learning products by the Hanover start-up company papagei.com – Video Limbic Learning System. This year, the digital pronunciation coach “papagei PRONOUNCE” was given an award as second best learning solution in the Mobile Learning category, and the video language course “Business English Expert, available on www.papagei.com, was awarded a prize as third best language learning product in the E-Learning category. 
 In this case study the two prize-winning products and their benefits for learners of the English language are briefly presented.

Accepting Inferred Student Solutions by Tutoring System in an Ill-Defined Domain

Intelligent Tutoring Systems have made great advances in providing assessment and useful feedback in domains with wellstructured problems, where start state, rules, or goals of a problem are well formalized and used to reach an unambiguously correct or incorrect solution. The problems of illdefined domain often possess multiple solutions. Plausible student solutions of ill-defined problems are deemed wrong by tutoring system if they do not match the known solution accepted by the system. This paper describes a mechanism and the results of a tutoring system in an ill-defined domain such as the English language, for accepting plausible student solutions for ill-defined problems. The WordNet is deployed as a knowledge base, which is a lexical resource of English language database. Semantic similarity measure technique uses WordNet ontology hierarchy to accept the student plausible solutions. The student solutions of cloze passages were evaluated by a group of English experts and compared against a semantic similarity measure. The experts agreed among themselves with a correlation of 0.7 with p<0.05. The correlation between semantic similarity and experts is 0.58 with p<0.05 to indicate valid hypothesis. The area under the curve of ROC is 0.76.

Corpulence and Correspondence: President William H. Taft and the Medical Management of Obesity

This article analyzes the letters exchanged as part of the clinical weight management of President William H. Taft, one of the first public figures in U.S. history to be defined popularly in terms of his pathologic obesity. In 1905, Taft hired Dr. Nathaniel E. Yorke-Davies, an English diet expert, to supervise a weight-loss plan. Taft corresponded extensively with Yorke-Davies over the next 10 years, receiving and responding to courses of treatment via post. This correspondence is one of the few archival collections documenting physician and patient perspectives on the treatment of obesity, and it took place at the precise moment when obesity began to be framed as both a serious and medically manageable condition. This intimate clinical history of the 27th president and 10th chief justice of the Supreme Court offers a unique opportunity to examine in detail the history of the obesity experience in the United States, and it sheds light on the almost-timeless challenges of creating and maintaining long-term treatment courses for conditions like obesity.

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TASK-BASED LANGUAGE TEACHING (TBLT) CRITERIA IN COURSE BOOKS FOR UPPER INTERMEDIATE ENGLISH STUDENTS

Recently, the importance of task-based language teaching (TBLT) is presumably clear and therefore has also widely being used in many countries. The process of recognizing a ‘task’ itself could be one of the fields where it tends to be slightly fuzzy, especially for a new, learner and inexperience teacher. Many English experts and task-based supporters have published various books to assist their ideas. Perhaps that is why; we now have had different criterion of assessing a ‘task’. This paper thus, intends to establish the extent to which a modern course book has encompassed principles and practice of TBLT when compared with older books. I have therefore taken two books as the source of data for this paper; Natural English-Upper Intermediate Student’s Book and Workout Upper Intermediate Student’s Book, both aimed at the same language level of learner. Both are intended to upper intermediate student.

Student Voice on the Instructional Qualities of the E ective English Language Teacher: A Collective Case Study

A majority of Malaysian students only have average English language proficiency, although instructional qualities of the effective English language teacher have by far been expounded by English language experts. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the extent to which the responses of student voice representing above average, average and below average English language proficiency from the primary, secondary and tertiary levels - have agreed with expert opinion’s description of instructional qualities of the effective English language teacher . In this respect, student voice was analysed using triangulation not only on the instructional qualities discussed, but also on the literature review. Interesting findings revealed that student voice still had something extra to contribute in determining the instructional qualities of the effective English language teacher , with a touch of irony and constructive criticism on how such qualities of English language teachers/lecturers could still improve, so as to appear more effective in learners’ eyes.

Integration of school features into Taiwanese elementary school new English curriculum

Elementary school English activation curriculum, an additional two culture classes, has been implemented only in New Taipei City in Taiwan starting from 2010, so only a few studies focus on it. This is a case study of an English teacher's integration of a school's features into the activation curriculum in a rural elementary school. This study revealed students' positive attitude towards such curriculum, the students’ preference for the English teacher's use of a wide variety of activities and the implementation of alternative assessments; it also revealed the English teacher's expertise and pedagogical competence, developed in collaboration with other teachers.

Andrew Elfenbein, Romanticism and the Rise of EnglishRomanticism and the Rise of English. Andrew Elfenbein. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009. Pp. viii+278.

<i>Andrew Elfenbein</i>, Romanticism and the Rise of English<i>Romanticism and the Rise of English</i>. Andrew Elfenbein. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2009. Pp. viii+278.

어린이 영어 문화교육에 관한 분석

The purpose of this study is to guide efficient ways to teach cultural aspects in Korean elementary English education through analyzing many studies on elementary English culture education. In global era, English education must be performed based on understanding of other various cultures for authentic communication. However, Korean elementary students have difficulty to approach or to be exposed to the culture of English speaking countries. Elementary English culture education is neither well organized nor performed for some reasons. The reasons are as follows. Frist, English teachers are not confident with the culture and they consider themselves not having enough experiences and knowledge to teach. They were not taught cultural aspects and the cultural aspects were not emphasized. Second, there are not appropriate culture related teaching materials in the textbooks and teachers` guide books. Therefore, necessary cultural aspects should be selected by English education experts and provided in the textbooks and teachers` guide books. Those two books should be systematically connected. Elementary English teachers should have more opportunities to understand and experience other various cultures. Language is a part of culture and culture is a part of language. Acquiring the second language is acquiring its culture. The culture education for authentic communication is accomplished from managing cultural aspects in textbooks and cultivating English teachers with experience and understanding of target culture.

Translation, cultural adaptation, and validation of the Screening For Occult Renal Disease (SCORED) questionnaire to Brazilian Portuguese

Screening Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) allows early interventions, which may alter the natural course of the disease, including cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Screening for Occult Renal Disease (SCORED) is questionnaire with nine questions with different weights, and predicts a 20% chance for CKD if a individual score > 4 points. Translate to Portuguese, perform the adaptation to the Brazilian culture and validate the original version of SCORED questionnaire. Steps of the process: Translation from English into Brazilian Portuguese; back-translation into English; application to a population sample; and Proof-reading and completion. The translations and reviews were made by professionals experts in Portuguese and English. The questionnaire was applied to 306 participants and CKD was diagnosed as suggested by the NKF KDOQI™. The participants mean age was 49 ± 13 years, 61% were women, 69% were white, and 68% had education below high school, 38.5% had hypertension, and 12.3% diabetics. The final Brazilian Portuguese version of the SCORED questionnaire was well understood. CKD was diagnosed in 20 (6.5%) of the participants. The Brazilian version of the SCORED questionnaire showed sensitivity of 80%, specificity of 65%, positive predictive value of 14%, negative predictive value of 97%, and accuracy of 66%. The steps used for the translation, transcultural adaptation, and validation allowed a Brazilian Portuguese version of the SCORED questionnaire which was well understood, acceptable and costless, characteristics that make it a useful tool in the identification of people that chance of having CKD.

Tradução e adaptação cultural do Peds QL TM ESRD para a língua portuguesa

To translate into and adapt to Brazilian Portuguese the Peds QL TM - End Stage Renal Disease version 3.0 questionnaire. The methodology proposed by the creator of the original questionnaire was adopted. It consisted of 4 phases: translation from English into Brazilian Portuguese, back-translation into English, application to a population sample and proof-reading and completion. The translations and review were made by professional experts in Portuguese and English. The questionnaires were composed of versions for children and adolescents' reports and parents' reports, and were divided according to age ranges: 2-4 years (parents' report only), 5-7 years, 8-12 years and 13-18 years. 35 interviews were conducted with 15 children and adolescents and 20 carergivers. The process of translation and cultural adaptation, which consisted of semantic equivalence (equivalence between words), idiomatic equivalence (no equivalent expressions found or items that needed to be replaced) and experimental equivalence (words and situations appropriate to the Brazilian cultural context), resulted in a version that was understandable and easy to apply.

Challenges in Teaching and Learning of English at Secondary Level Class X

This paper describes the challenges faced by teachers and students in teaching and learning of English at secondary level. The study was limited to class x. It has been observed that in recent times the governments of Sindh and Pakistan have been providing a lot of facilities including free books and training programs for the teachers at secondary level but the teaching and learning of English is not up to mark. The participants of the study were 11 English teachers including 7 male and 4 female, 70 students including 40 male and 30 female and also; 6 English experts which include 4 male and 2 female. Teachers and students were administered questionnaires and involved in focus group discussion and experts were interviewed. It was found that teachers had no proper training of teaching English, proper facilities were not provided and curriculum was not according to the needs of students. These reasons hindered the teaching and learning process of English. This study was carried out at one of the taluka of district Naushahro Feroze Sindh Pakistan. Key words: English teacher, Learners, Challenges, Secondary level, Existing practices

“Generic” and “Specific” Expertise in English: An Expert/Expert Study in Poetry Interpretation and Academic Argument

In this study, eight English professors thought aloud as they read four lyric poems and composed a short text proposing a hypothetical talk about them for a professional conference. The study used a crossed design in which participants read a poem in each of the following conditions: familiar to them and close to their professional writing, familiar and far, unfamiliar and close, unfamiliar and far. When reading familiar poems, participants produced longer protocols and more elaborate interpretations. When planning their conference talks, participants produced longer protocols for poems that were far from their professional writing as they struggled to access sufficient background knowledge. Participants attempted to say something “new” about the poems, and they closely monitored the limits of their knowledge. These results suggest that English professors, just like experts in other disciplines, develop both “generic” and “specific” expertise. Implications for expertise research, literature instruction, and academic literary scholars are considered.

New Lamps for Old: Modern Nautical Terms for Ancient Marine Practices and the Navigation of the Zheng He Voyages

Much is made by some about the supposed superiority of the navigation of one country over another, but the skills of those early mariners, of both the East and the West, were remarkably similar. In the early fifteenth century Arab, Chinese and European methods were fairly basic, with only a primitive compass for directional orientation and other instrumental aids to navigation all in their infancy. Indeed, the age-old 4-Ls of seamanship—lookout, lead, log, and latitude—had not all yet evolved. Many arguments are based on faulty assumptions because of misunderstanding nautical usages and applying modern terms, resulting in an assumption of advanced navigational knowledge in the early fifteenth century. A Chinese sage said words must be used correctly. If not, people will become confused, so take warning about using modern nautical terms for ancient practices. Two of the leading English experts on Eastern navigation, J. V. Mills and G. R. Tibbetts, admit limitations in navigational terminology. It is with the utmost respect that the following suggestions are made.

Course system and teaching practice of genomics

Genomics is the core subject of "omics" theories and research methods in modern life science. Teaching of genomics has characteristics such as more content, more difficult points, higher demands on English and comprehensive expertise etc. We proposed the course system established for Genomics and summarized some experiences based on our teaching practice that emphasizes on increasing the study autonomy and course interactivity by group study on stimulating questions, innovative experiment, multi-media materials, and bilingual exercises etc.

Validity and Reliability Study of the Turkish Version of the Decisional Balance Scale for Adults

This study was conducted for the purpose of adapting the Decisional Balance Scale (DBS) for Turkish and testing its validity and reliability to be able to measure adults’ perceptions of the benefits and negative consequences of cigarette smoking. The tool was administered to a sample of 486 participants chosen using a random sampling method, and the test-retest analysis was conducted with 365 individuals from the original sample. After the scale was reviewed several times by experts in English and Turkish, data were analysed by factor analysis, Student t-test, Kendall W and dependent t-test. The DBS pros subscale's Cronbach alpha value was found to be 0.85 and the cons subscale was 0.81. The item to total score correlation coefficient was 0.37–0.77 for the pros subscale and 0.50–0.71 for the cons subscale. The scale's factor load was 0.39–0.79. In the confirmatory factor analysis results it was determined that the scale was appropriate and that the scale had a two-factor construct (GFI 0.90 and CFI 0.93)....

A reading of ELT curriculum through students’ stories

This is a narrative inquiry into the present Curriculum for Undergraduate English majors in China, especially its objective of cultivating interdisciplinary English expertise, from students’ perspective. Having been implemented for one decade, to what extent has its targets of talent cultivation been achieved? Are there any issues that need to be addressed? The students’ EFL tales could also shed light to ELT in a wider context.

A very important lesson: Respect and the socialization of order(s) in high school ESL

The “stigma” associated with ESL in K-12 public schools is a widely referenced if little explored topic. In this paper, I consider how this “stigma” was produced in a high school ESL class in Hawai‘i, specifically, as it was licensed by and framed in terms of teaching students “respect.” Based on analysis of two extended teacher-fronted interactional displays, I argue that local constructions of respect in this class served as a powerful socializing resource, working to produce “order” in the form of classroom control, as well as “orders,” or hierarchies, along lines of English expertise and “mainstream” status. In particular, I examine the ascription of disrespect, pragmatic incompetence, and moral and intellectual impairment to the category “ESL student,” while the positively valued opposites of these traits were attributed to “mainstream” student. I conclude with an argument for greater empirical attention in applied linguistics to K-12 ESL settings and to the subject of linguicism, or linguistic prejudice.

The Gas Lighting Controversy

Is the “risk society” exclusively postmodern? This article addresses this question by examining the controversy on gas lighting in nineteenth-century Paris and London. Unlike other technologies of that time, gas light was established in the central social spaces of urban life: in opera houses and theaters, in arcades and boulevards, and in reading rooms and cafés. In all these spaces, gas brought about the insecurity of sudden darkness, the noxious vapors of chemical industries, and the risk of explosion. In the end, the debate centered on a huge gasholder built in the fashionable Paris neighborhood of Faubourg-Poissonnière. To assess the risks, French and English experts used contrasting methods, founded on different “cultures of objectivity.” The article concludes by assessing their heuristics and the overall impact of the public controversy and the regulation it entailed on the construction of a safer gas lighting system.

The Spread of Revealed Religions in West Africa and Its Implications for the Development of Translation

This study attempts to look at the metamorphoses of West African languages into written status and subsequently the acquisition of translation skills by West Africans during the spread of Islam and Christianity. With the trans-Saharan and Atlantic contacts, literacy spread in the sub-region and native languages became written, facilitating the translation of the Bible and the Qur’an into local languages, especially with Roman script. Africans who participated in the translations of the Scriptures became skillful translators and experts in both English and regional languages. This study concludes that the enthusiasm and dedication of the missionaries who developed local languages should be emulated to further enrich African languages to a competitive and international standard.