This paper discusses the issue of the hidden curriculum in the setting of a language classroom. The author first talks about the definition of the hidden curriculum from a theoretical perspective and proposes her own ...This paper discusses the issue of the hidden curriculum in the setting of a language classroom. The author first talks about the definition of the hidden curriculum from a theoretical perspective and proposes her own working definition. She then elaborates on the reasons and main manifestations of the hidden curriculum from the teachers' and learners' angles respectively with examples taken from language classrooms. Based on some profound reflections, some feasible suggestions on how to minimize the negative impacts of the hidden curriculum are suggested. On the basis of the previous discussion, the author reaches a conclusion: Language teachers should not avoid or ignore the hidden curriculum existing in the language teaching processes; rather, they are expected to face it positively and try their very best to solve the problems it brings. A sound attitude towards the hidden curriculum can help language teachers better understand and implement the formal or official curriculum made by the school or the state.展开更多
This study aimed at comparing the level of social presence generated in a voice-based chat room and a text-based forum when learners tried to build personal relationships and form an online community for learning on a...This study aimed at comparing the level of social presence generated in a voice-based chat room and a text-based forum when learners tried to build personal relationships and form an online community for learning on an online language course in China. A mixed-method approach was taken for the study, drawing on data from questionnaires to find out about student perception of social presence, and postings of text messages and audio messages in the communication of the student learning process to search for students’ projected social presence in terms of affective, interactive and cohesive features. Interviews were also conducted to supplement additional information with the hope of forming a complete picture of social presence in the reality of an online learning environment. The text-based forum and the voice-based chat room were found to have a different impact on student social presence. In terms of student perception, most of them were more likely to get to know peers in the text-based forum and thus developed a sense of community in their learning process of the online course. Yet they believed that the voice-based chat room had the advantage of helping them with course learning. In the actual interaction, the voice-based chat room was more interactive although the text-based forum was more affective and cohesive. But in terms of the affective category, the problem with the existing framework in literature was that there were no prosodic features included. Therefore, in future more research is needed to probe for the relationship between prosodic sound features and social presence, and the present theoretic framework must be extended. In interviews, students explained that in the voice-based chat room prosodic features led to higher peer awareness, which further reinforced this need.展开更多
The primary aim of this paper is to survey the effect of outdoor public service advertisements on the audience. Taking questionnaire as the method, this study has discussed the validity of outdoor Public Service Adver...The primary aim of this paper is to survey the effect of outdoor public service advertisements on the audience. Taking questionnaire as the method, this study has discussed the validity of outdoor Public Service Advertising Language of citizens in Guangzhou, which from the aspects of attention, acceptance and comprehension. The results of the survey indicate that the effectiveness of outdoor advertising language in Guangzhou is generally optimistic. Then the problems incurred by outdoor advertising language are discussed according to the analysis result. Finally, relevant suggestions and measures were proposed for improving the impact of public service advertising.展开更多
The ability of achieving a semantic understanding of workspaces is an important capability for mobile robot. A method is proposed to categorize different places in a typical indoor environment by using a Kinect sensor...The ability of achieving a semantic understanding of workspaces is an important capability for mobile robot. A method is proposed to categorize different places in a typical indoor environment by using a Kinect sensors for mobile robot exploration. At first, the invariant feature based images stitching approach is adopted to form a panoramic image according to Kinect visual information, and the translation between Kinect depth information and obstacle distance information is performed to obtain virtual LIDAR data. Then, the semantic classifier is designed by using convolutional neural networks (CNN) for indoor place eategorization based on Kinect visual observations with panoramic view. At last, a frontier-based exploration method is applied to carry out indoor autonomous exploration of mo- bile robots, which integrates the CNN-based categorization approach. The proposed method has been implemented and tested on a real robot, and experiment results demonstrate the approach effective- ness on solving the semantic categorization problem for mobile robot exploration.展开更多
To become a qualified EFL (English as a Foreign Language) student teacher who can take an English teaching job in primary or high school after graduation, he or she must learn and use teacher knowledge inside and ou...To become a qualified EFL (English as a Foreign Language) student teacher who can take an English teaching job in primary or high school after graduation, he or she must learn and use teacher knowledge inside and outside the classroom. Adopting a narrative research, this paper discusses eight excellent EFL student teachers' perception of affordances for learning to teaching beyond the classroom based on the theories of affordance and niche. The results show that perceiving many affordances for learning to teach in their niches is of great significance for student teachers to improve their teaching competence. To make student teachers become qualified, we teacher trainers should not ignore the importance of leaming-to-teach beyond the classroom.展开更多
This essay presents a study of teacher questioning in interactive English classroom. Interaction plays a key role in second language classroom. Teacher questioning, as one of the teacher initiating activities, could f...This essay presents a study of teacher questioning in interactive English classroom. Interaction plays a key role in second language classroom. Teacher questioning, as one of the teacher initiating activities, could facilitate students' language acquisition by asking questions and initiating responses from students. In this essay, two samples of teacher questions were looked into to find out the types, purposes and effectiveness of teacher questions. It was found that the experienced teacher was better at employing teacher questions for interaction than the student teacher. Both of them should improve the questions they asked in classroom. More effective teacher questioning should be introduced according to specific language learning environment by referring to the cognitive level of the students and more opportunities and motivation should be provided for students' response.展开更多
As a dynamic language phenomenon, public service advertisement reflects the social language life. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the theme selection and language of outdoor public service advertisement lan...As a dynamic language phenomenon, public service advertisement reflects the social language life. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the theme selection and language of outdoor public service advertisement language in Guangzhou. It describes the features and expressions of outdoor public service advertisement in subject content, sentence form and rhetoric, aimed at understanding the basic situation and effect of public service advertisement on the audience, and guiding the audience to improve their morality and behavior.展开更多
Although vocational college students have already had many years of English education, their foundation of English study is not satisfactory. Many vocational college students are not very interested in English study. ...Although vocational college students have already had many years of English education, their foundation of English study is not satisfactory. Many vocational college students are not very interested in English study. There are many factors that cause this situation and some measures are taken to change This situation is also very important. Facts have proved that the introduction of flip classroom teaching mode can provide new ideas for improving higher vocational English teaching. This article is based on the topic of research, hoping to provide some methods for higher vocational English teaching reform.展开更多
Does the native tongue confer greater authenticity and connection? And how does this connect with languages acquired later in life? From thirty years of directing, training, and auditioning actors from a range of et...Does the native tongue confer greater authenticity and connection? And how does this connect with languages acquired later in life? From thirty years of directing, training, and auditioning actors from a range of ethnicities, I have believed that the mother-tongue has a particular and organic connection for an actor, one difficult to achieve in any other language. This belief was confounded in a laboratory conducted with Romanian actors, March 2013. The work was performed in both English and Romanian and it was with a sense of shock that I observed that the work was more vital, compelling, and physically and vocally engaged when they spoke in English. What were the factors at play here and what are the implications for future work? Patsy Rodenburghas written of the giddy delight children find in language. Under what conditions does the native tongue evoke that "giddy delight" and where and when does it become an obstacle to such pleasure?展开更多
Using the Internet to learn a language creates wide opportunities to enhance learning (Association of teachers of English in Catalonia (APAC), 2010). The Internet activities promote learners' self-monitoring abil...Using the Internet to learn a language creates wide opportunities to enhance learning (Association of teachers of English in Catalonia (APAC), 2010). The Internet activities promote learners' self-monitoring ability, encourage the use of multimedia and network technology, and develop students' cooperation and participation. During the latest years, there have been many changes in education as these new technologies, including VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments), which have become an important part in the teaching/learning process. According to Tech Terms Computer Dictionary (2012), VLE is a virtual classroom where teachers and students communicate. VLEs have evolved as at an early stage, they were only ways of transmitting information: Teachers uploaded the multimedia resources and students read this information. At a higher stage, VLEs have become interactive. This means that students become active. We have designed a virtual environment where students, weekly, must contribute their opinions and comments in response to a required activity uploaded by the teacher. In this paper, we describe this weekly task and analyze students' opinion about this planned activity. The students become an active subject in this field. In this paper, we show how VLEs are no longer a means of transmitting information but a means of interaction as well as a way of motivating our students to be involved in their learning process展开更多
The article is to get some feedbacks from students on the efficiency of the E-Dorm practice in improving their oral ability and factors influencing their oral development. Empirical evidence provided by the survey ind...The article is to get some feedbacks from students on the efficiency of the E-Dorm practice in improving their oral ability and factors influencing their oral development. Empirical evidence provided by the survey indicate that college students' low proficiency in speaking is due to the traditional teaching method and students' attitudes to oral English practice play an important role in their engagement in the practice, and above all, E-Dorm practice proves to be an satisfying way to enhance students' oral ability by creating a more natural language setting for students after class and forcing teachers to use a new-brand communicative competence approach in class. At last, the author gives some suggestions for researchers to achieve an ideal goal in this field.展开更多
Chinese as a second language (CSL) policy makers and scholars began to introduce task-based language teaching (TBLT) to CSL teaching more than a decade ago. However, policy innovations or theoretical precepts are ...Chinese as a second language (CSL) policy makers and scholars began to introduce task-based language teaching (TBLT) to CSL teaching more than a decade ago. However, policy innovations or theoretical precepts are not necessarily the blueprints of teachers' classroom practice. It is assumed that teachers are more likely to accept or apply the new approach if the new philosophy is concordant with their existing beliefs. This study attempts to examine the prospect of TBLT application in CSL teaching by exploring the extent to which TBLT philosophy has found its way into CSL teachers' beliefs. The research also probes into teachers' practices to explore whether their beliefs in TBLT could be actualized. A questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews have been employed. The results indicate that the Chinese teachers have strong faith in the effectiveness of TBLT, but they doubt its feasibility. Their difficulties and confusion in realizing their beliefs in practice, in turn, lead to their faith in TBLT philosophy having a peripheral status in their belief system. This may imply the bi-directional causal relationships between teachers' beliefs and practices. The factors revealed make clear the responsibilities or measures to be taken at social-cultural, institutional and internal levels. The findings generate empirical insights into implementations of pedagogical innovations.展开更多
Using two months of mixed-gender chat room discourse records from eight Chinese college students and results of questionnaires from 80 students, this study observed a consistent pattern in the gender discourse in soci...Using two months of mixed-gender chat room discourse records from eight Chinese college students and results of questionnaires from 80 students, this study observed a consistent pattern in the gender discourse in social-based computer-mediated contexts. In both the chat room observation and survey, the study found that males chatted more about women, video games, and sports, while females chatted more about friendship and other small matters. When surveyed, the college students indicated they believed that females chatted more than males, but a quantitative sentence count during chat found males used more sentences. In the chat room, males used more Chinese phonetic symbols and pseudonym inventions than females. Females used more emotion icons and creative language and, when chatting with a male with whom they were familiar, they showed their power and used gender-neutral expressions more often. Both males and females preferred to fashion their chat room pseudonyms so as to attract the opposite gender and demonstrate their personal qualities. The implications for the construction of gendered language in cyberspace were discussed and suggestions for foreign language teaching are given.展开更多
文摘This paper discusses the issue of the hidden curriculum in the setting of a language classroom. The author first talks about the definition of the hidden curriculum from a theoretical perspective and proposes her own working definition. She then elaborates on the reasons and main manifestations of the hidden curriculum from the teachers' and learners' angles respectively with examples taken from language classrooms. Based on some profound reflections, some feasible suggestions on how to minimize the negative impacts of the hidden curriculum are suggested. On the basis of the previous discussion, the author reaches a conclusion: Language teachers should not avoid or ignore the hidden curriculum existing in the language teaching processes; rather, they are expected to face it positively and try their very best to solve the problems it brings. A sound attitude towards the hidden curriculum can help language teachers better understand and implement the formal or official curriculum made by the school or the state.
文摘This study aimed at comparing the level of social presence generated in a voice-based chat room and a text-based forum when learners tried to build personal relationships and form an online community for learning on an online language course in China. A mixed-method approach was taken for the study, drawing on data from questionnaires to find out about student perception of social presence, and postings of text messages and audio messages in the communication of the student learning process to search for students’ projected social presence in terms of affective, interactive and cohesive features. Interviews were also conducted to supplement additional information with the hope of forming a complete picture of social presence in the reality of an online learning environment. The text-based forum and the voice-based chat room were found to have a different impact on student social presence. In terms of student perception, most of them were more likely to get to know peers in the text-based forum and thus developed a sense of community in their learning process of the online course. Yet they believed that the voice-based chat room had the advantage of helping them with course learning. In the actual interaction, the voice-based chat room was more interactive although the text-based forum was more affective and cohesive. But in terms of the affective category, the problem with the existing framework in literature was that there were no prosodic features included. Therefore, in future more research is needed to probe for the relationship between prosodic sound features and social presence, and the present theoretic framework must be extended. In interviews, students explained that in the voice-based chat room prosodic features led to higher peer awareness, which further reinforced this need.
文摘The primary aim of this paper is to survey the effect of outdoor public service advertisements on the audience. Taking questionnaire as the method, this study has discussed the validity of outdoor Public Service Advertising Language of citizens in Guangzhou, which from the aspects of attention, acceptance and comprehension. The results of the survey indicate that the effectiveness of outdoor advertising language in Guangzhou is generally optimistic. Then the problems incurred by outdoor advertising language are discussed according to the analysis result. Finally, relevant suggestions and measures were proposed for improving the impact of public service advertising.
基金Supported by the National Key Basic Research Program of China(No.2013CB035503)
文摘The ability of achieving a semantic understanding of workspaces is an important capability for mobile robot. A method is proposed to categorize different places in a typical indoor environment by using a Kinect sensors for mobile robot exploration. At first, the invariant feature based images stitching approach is adopted to form a panoramic image according to Kinect visual information, and the translation between Kinect depth information and obstacle distance information is performed to obtain virtual LIDAR data. Then, the semantic classifier is designed by using convolutional neural networks (CNN) for indoor place eategorization based on Kinect visual observations with panoramic view. At last, a frontier-based exploration method is applied to carry out indoor autonomous exploration of mo- bile robots, which integrates the CNN-based categorization approach. The proposed method has been implemented and tested on a real robot, and experiment results demonstrate the approach effective- ness on solving the semantic categorization problem for mobile robot exploration.
文摘To become a qualified EFL (English as a Foreign Language) student teacher who can take an English teaching job in primary or high school after graduation, he or she must learn and use teacher knowledge inside and outside the classroom. Adopting a narrative research, this paper discusses eight excellent EFL student teachers' perception of affordances for learning to teaching beyond the classroom based on the theories of affordance and niche. The results show that perceiving many affordances for learning to teach in their niches is of great significance for student teachers to improve their teaching competence. To make student teachers become qualified, we teacher trainers should not ignore the importance of leaming-to-teach beyond the classroom.
文摘This essay presents a study of teacher questioning in interactive English classroom. Interaction plays a key role in second language classroom. Teacher questioning, as one of the teacher initiating activities, could facilitate students' language acquisition by asking questions and initiating responses from students. In this essay, two samples of teacher questions were looked into to find out the types, purposes and effectiveness of teacher questions. It was found that the experienced teacher was better at employing teacher questions for interaction than the student teacher. Both of them should improve the questions they asked in classroom. More effective teacher questioning should be introduced according to specific language learning environment by referring to the cognitive level of the students and more opportunities and motivation should be provided for students' response.
文摘As a dynamic language phenomenon, public service advertisement reflects the social language life. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the theme selection and language of outdoor public service advertisement language in Guangzhou. It describes the features and expressions of outdoor public service advertisement in subject content, sentence form and rhetoric, aimed at understanding the basic situation and effect of public service advertisement on the audience, and guiding the audience to improve their morality and behavior.
文摘Although vocational college students have already had many years of English education, their foundation of English study is not satisfactory. Many vocational college students are not very interested in English study. There are many factors that cause this situation and some measures are taken to change This situation is also very important. Facts have proved that the introduction of flip classroom teaching mode can provide new ideas for improving higher vocational English teaching. This article is based on the topic of research, hoping to provide some methods for higher vocational English teaching reform.
文摘Does the native tongue confer greater authenticity and connection? And how does this connect with languages acquired later in life? From thirty years of directing, training, and auditioning actors from a range of ethnicities, I have believed that the mother-tongue has a particular and organic connection for an actor, one difficult to achieve in any other language. This belief was confounded in a laboratory conducted with Romanian actors, March 2013. The work was performed in both English and Romanian and it was with a sense of shock that I observed that the work was more vital, compelling, and physically and vocally engaged when they spoke in English. What were the factors at play here and what are the implications for future work? Patsy Rodenburghas written of the giddy delight children find in language. Under what conditions does the native tongue evoke that "giddy delight" and where and when does it become an obstacle to such pleasure?
文摘Using the Internet to learn a language creates wide opportunities to enhance learning (Association of teachers of English in Catalonia (APAC), 2010). The Internet activities promote learners' self-monitoring ability, encourage the use of multimedia and network technology, and develop students' cooperation and participation. During the latest years, there have been many changes in education as these new technologies, including VLEs (Virtual Learning Environments), which have become an important part in the teaching/learning process. According to Tech Terms Computer Dictionary (2012), VLE is a virtual classroom where teachers and students communicate. VLEs have evolved as at an early stage, they were only ways of transmitting information: Teachers uploaded the multimedia resources and students read this information. At a higher stage, VLEs have become interactive. This means that students become active. We have designed a virtual environment where students, weekly, must contribute their opinions and comments in response to a required activity uploaded by the teacher. In this paper, we describe this weekly task and analyze students' opinion about this planned activity. The students become an active subject in this field. In this paper, we show how VLEs are no longer a means of transmitting information but a means of interaction as well as a way of motivating our students to be involved in their learning process
文摘The article is to get some feedbacks from students on the efficiency of the E-Dorm practice in improving their oral ability and factors influencing their oral development. Empirical evidence provided by the survey indicate that college students' low proficiency in speaking is due to the traditional teaching method and students' attitudes to oral English practice play an important role in their engagement in the practice, and above all, E-Dorm practice proves to be an satisfying way to enhance students' oral ability by creating a more natural language setting for students after class and forcing teachers to use a new-brand communicative competence approach in class. At last, the author gives some suggestions for researchers to achieve an ideal goal in this field.
文摘Chinese as a second language (CSL) policy makers and scholars began to introduce task-based language teaching (TBLT) to CSL teaching more than a decade ago. However, policy innovations or theoretical precepts are not necessarily the blueprints of teachers' classroom practice. It is assumed that teachers are more likely to accept or apply the new approach if the new philosophy is concordant with their existing beliefs. This study attempts to examine the prospect of TBLT application in CSL teaching by exploring the extent to which TBLT philosophy has found its way into CSL teachers' beliefs. The research also probes into teachers' practices to explore whether their beliefs in TBLT could be actualized. A questionnaire, classroom observations and interviews have been employed. The results indicate that the Chinese teachers have strong faith in the effectiveness of TBLT, but they doubt its feasibility. Their difficulties and confusion in realizing their beliefs in practice, in turn, lead to their faith in TBLT philosophy having a peripheral status in their belief system. This may imply the bi-directional causal relationships between teachers' beliefs and practices. The factors revealed make clear the responsibilities or measures to be taken at social-cultural, institutional and internal levels. The findings generate empirical insights into implementations of pedagogical innovations.
文摘Using two months of mixed-gender chat room discourse records from eight Chinese college students and results of questionnaires from 80 students, this study observed a consistent pattern in the gender discourse in social-based computer-mediated contexts. In both the chat room observation and survey, the study found that males chatted more about women, video games, and sports, while females chatted more about friendship and other small matters. When surveyed, the college students indicated they believed that females chatted more than males, but a quantitative sentence count during chat found males used more sentences. In the chat room, males used more Chinese phonetic symbols and pseudonym inventions than females. Females used more emotion icons and creative language and, when chatting with a male with whom they were familiar, they showed their power and used gender-neutral expressions more often. Both males and females preferred to fashion their chat room pseudonyms so as to attract the opposite gender and demonstrate their personal qualities. The implications for the construction of gendered language in cyberspace were discussed and suggestions for foreign language teaching are given.