苏霍姆林斯基的阅读价值观与实践过程

在苏霍姆林斯基的教育理论体系中,阅读理论占重要地位,并自成系统。他重视阅读的价值,认为阅读能增进学生知识并发展学生智力,而且对学习困难学生帮助尤大。苏霍姆林斯基在实践中实施他的阅读价值观,构建了完善的图书目录,特别强调学生要大量阅读国内外的经典文学作品,认为这是美感教育和道德教育的重要途径。在实践路径上,他认为在学生阅读能力的形成上,早期大量阅读应奠定基础,在小学中年级应培养起自阅读能力和自书写能力。

Text Difficulty,Working Memory Capacity and Mind Wandering During Chinese EFL Learners’Reading

This experimental study investigated how text difficulty and different working memory capacity(WMC)affected Chinese EFL learners’reading comprehension and their tendency to engage in task-unrelated thoughts,that is,mind wandering(MW),in the course of reading.Sixty first-year university non-English majors participated in the study.A two-factor mixed experimental design of 2(text difficulty:difficult and simple)×2(WMC:high/large and low/small)was employed.Results revealed that 1)the main and interaction effects of WMC and text difficulty on voluntary MW were significant,whereas those on involuntary MW were not;2)while reading the easy texts,the involuntary MW of high-WMC individuals was less frequent than that of low-WMC ones,whereas while reading the difficult ones,the direct relationship between WMC and involuntary MW was not found;and that 3)high-WMC individuals had a lower overall rate of MW and better reading performance than low-WMC individuals did,but with increasing text difficulty,their rates of overall MW and voluntary MW were getting higher and higher,and the reading performance was getting lower and lower.These results lend support to WM theory and have pedagogical implications for the instruction of L2 reading.

Learner autonomy of English majors in out-of-class English reading program

Learner autonomy plays a vital role in effective out-of-class English reading. The purpose of the research is to find ways of improving leamer autonomy of English majors in out-of-class reading program based on the problem found from the data of a survey among tertiary students in a university in China. Learning portfolio and cooperative reading within the framework of reactive autonomy were introduced by the author as two tentative solutions of promoting learner autonomy in out-of-class English reading program.

Problems in EFL reading teaching and possible solutions

The ability to read is acknowledged to be the most stable and durable of the second language modalities. In other words, reading plays a vital role in second language acquisition. But for a long time, reading was viewed as a bottom-up process in a word-sentence-passage sequence, in which readers decode the text and rebuild what the writer wants to convey. Accordingly, reading teaching becomes teaching of language points known as grammar and vocabulary. This kind of English reading teaching to a great extent hinders EFL students＇ language proficiency. In this paper, the author puts forward some problems in the present EFL reading teaching and offers some suggestions for classroom teaching in the hope of opening up a new perspective for EFL reading.

Self-Regulated Reading Comprehension Strategy Selection Through Diagnostic-Prescriptive Instruction： A Case Study

This demonstration of concept applies diagnostic-prescriptive reading instruction, a methodology useo m omteu atd^u~ developmental education, toward improving reading comprehension and self-regulated comprehension strategy selection in Chinese postsecondary education. A single tutor, also the researcher, works closely with one Chinese university student to develop student-centered comprehension strategies that she can practice on her own. After a battery of formal and informal assessments and interviews, decoding and understanding deficiencies are identified, characterized, and discussed. Both the student and her tutor develop and execute a study plan, which was completed during the spring semester of 2010 at Sha＇anxi University of Science and Technology （SUST） in Xi＇an, People＇s Republic of China （PRC）. By focusing on the subject＇s primary decoding deficiency, spelling, and her primary understanding deficiency, lack of background knowledge, the subject and her reading tutor are able to strategically tackle five reading comprehension goals： （1） spelling; （2） phonemic awareness; （3） noticing structural and cohesive elements; （4） comparing argumentative and evaluative texts; and （5） analyzing expository texts in business and economics. A final discussion analyzes both qualitative and quantitative data, including unexpected discoveries such as the salience of cohesion in reading comprehension and the cultural biases of standardized reading assessments.

The Viewpoint of Categorization Theory on the Nature of Reading Comprehension

This paper is intended to reveal the likelihood that conceptual categorization can be used to understand a text by reconstructing the semantic categories through which the author＇s meaning is conveyed, and proposes an alternative way to look into reading comprehension. It is proposed that categorization can be taken as an alternative approach to second/foreign language reading instruction. That is, while reading comprehension is defined in terms of the ability to recognize the inclusion and membership properties of contextually determined semantic categories in a text, the learner needs to arrange the events, actions, or concepts into a structured unit, both horizontally and vertically. Categorization theory will be introduced in relation to Rosch famous studies （1973, 1975）, examples taken from a graded reader will be illustrated as how to identify items with category structure, and finally issues that are not addressed in this paper will be discussed.

Human endogenous retroviruses and cancer:Causality and therapeutic possibilities

A substantial part of the human genome is derived from transposable elements;remnants of ancient retroviral infections.Conservative estimates set the percentage of human endogenous retroviruses(HERVs) in the genome at 8%.For the most part,the interplay between mutations,epigenetic mechanisms and posttranscriptional regulations silence HERVs in somatic cells.We first highlight mechanisms by which activation of members of several HERV families may be associated with tumor development before discussing the arising chances for both diagnosis and therapy.It has been shown that at least in some cases,tumor cells expressing HERV open reading frames(ORFs) thus gain tumor-promoting functions.However,since these proteins are not expressed in healthy tissues,they become prime target structures.Of potential pharmacological interest are the prevention of HERV transposition,the inhibition of HERV-encoded protein expression and the interference with these proteins' activities.Evidence from recent studies unequivocally proves that HERV ORFs represent a very interesting source of novel tumor-specific antigens with even the potential to surpass entity boundaries.The development of new tumor(immune-) therapies is a very active field and true tumor-specific targets are of outstanding interest since they minimize the risk of autoimmunity and could reduce side effects.Finally,we postulate on main future research streams in order to stimulate discussion on this hot topic.

Reading Dickens Romantically： ＂Night Walks＂

This paper will examine the essay, ＂Night Walks＂ （2000）, to see how Charles Dickens （1812-1870）, a social-realist writer of the Victorian era, has used elements adapted from the Romantics in order to draw attention to the pitiable social conditions of Victorian London. Dickens＇ the realist paradoxically reflected a readiness to think and feel ＂without immediate external excitement＂. He expressed his alignment with Romanticism by way of a cultivation of feeling and empathizing. His genius was, as expressed by Bagehot, ＂essentially irregular and unsymmetrical＂ because he was ＂utterly deficient in the faculty of reasoning＂. His daily, or rather nightly walks provided him with the inspiration to follow the Romantic tradition of writing on walks. The essay under consideration, ＂Night Walks＂, clearly supports the notion that Romanticism was fallaciously opposed to realism. The paper will examine the ways in which the theme, style, and structure of the essay evoke the preoccupation of a Romantic soul--for whom the walk becomes a space for ＂encounter and reflection＂--and the Romantic mind which is empowered by ＂imaginative self definition or discovery＂.

THE PSYCHOLINGUISTIC SCHEMA THEORY AND ESL READING METHODOLOGY

Schema theory research has shown importance of background knowledge within a psycholinguistic model of reading. This paper gives an overview of schema theory as part of a reader-centered, psycholinguistic processing model of EFL/ESL reading, in which we discuss how reading comprehension involves background knowledge that goes far beyond linguistic knowledge. The process of interpretation is realized by the employment of two basic modes of information processing, bottom-up and top-down processing. Then, a variety of techniques and classroom activities are suggested for accommodating this phenomenon in a reader-centered EFL/ESL reading program.

A Study of How Repeated Reading Affects English Recitation Fluency in College Students

The present study verified the effect and efficiency of repeated reading （RR） on oral reading fluency in the EFL environment of Taiwan. By promoting oral reading speed and automaticity, RR proved to be an effective technique to enhance oral reading and thus speaking fluency. Fifty-one freshman students from Tamkang University in Taiwan participated in this study. They had eight 30-minute instructions during the intervention period. SPSS 11.0 was adopted to do the quantitative analysis （paired sample t-test, effect size, regression analysis）. The results indicated that there was a significant improvement in oral reading speed after the intervention （130-211 words correct per minute） regardless of the following factors： （1） gender, （2） native language, （3） time using/learning English outside of training, and （4） pre-test performance. Responses from post-test questionnaires indicated a high acceptability of RR among subject groups. Accordingly, RR appears to be a highly promising technique for automaticity development, speed training, and fluency in oral teaching.