Second language learners of English responded to a questionnaire requiring them to identify the antecedent of a reflexive pronoun. Responses were compared to those of a native speaker control group, and first language transfer and recapitulation of first language acquisition were examined. (24 references) (Author/OD)

Explores what it means to think in a target language, discusses those factors determining planned and unplanned use of more than one language for thinking, considers the role of target-language thinking in improving language ability, and examines mental translation in the reading of intermediate college French. The article concludes that benefits…

Discusses the importance of linguistic accuracy in proficiency-orientated foreign language programs, focusing on the experiences of college students in a summer intensive Chinese program. Linguistic inaccuracy is often the result of teachers focusing on form and meaning at the same time, fossilization, overuse of communicative strategies, lack of…

Examined the social behavior, social adjustment, and school adjustment of a sample of elementary school students in Shanghai, China. Found that, consistent with studies of Western children, sociability-leadership was associated with and predictive of indexes of adjustment. Inconsistent with Western studies, shyness-sensitivity was positively and…

This study compared learning style preferences among gifted African-American (n=54), Mexican-American (n=61), and American-born Chinese (n=40) middle grade students attending Chicago, Illinois, public schools. Significant ethnic, gender, and grade differences were found. All three groups preferred studying in the afternoon and bright light and did…

Provides an overview of the issues shaping efforts to reform elementary education in the People's Republic of China. China's school organization and practices invite comparison with aspects of the U.S. system of elementary education. Enduring features of Chinese elementary education are discussed. (Author/BB)

Effects of gender and disagreements on learning during sociocognitive interaction were investigated with 33 pairs of children between 5 and 7 years old (34 males and 32 females) using spatial perspective-taking tasks. Disagreements during social interaction can facilitate or inhibit learning. Effects of gender pairing are discussed. (SLD)

Identifies potential conflicts in cultures of instruction between language teachers and learners because of different expectations in how languages ought to be taught. The article discusses data from a study of Chinese language instruction at the University of Oregon, noting what teachers and students considered most and least important features.…

Maternal infant-directed speech in Mandarin Chinese and Turkish (two mother-child dyads each) was examined to see if cues exist in input that might assist infants' assignments of words to lexical and functional item categories. Results show that sets of distributional, phonological, and acoustic cues distinguishing lexical and functional items are…

Describes the process of selecting and developing a debate team at the University of New South Wales (Australia) to compete in an international Modern Standard Chinese debating competition. Discusses issues in selecting team members, training needs and strategies (particularly self-directed learning), time pressure, and the success of the…

Examines nonpsychological determinants of students' college major choice to challenge the premise that college major choice is not solely determined by vocational interests. Surveyed more than 300 Chinese-American undergraduates, a majority of whom are first-generation immigrants enrolled in institutions of higher education in Greater New York.…

Describes the development of the Early Adolescent version of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (EA-HOME) Inventory. Presents information on its usefulness with African Americans, Chinese Americans, European Americans, Mexican Americans, and Dominican Americans. Notes findings indicating high interobserver agreement, with…

Research with ESL students studying at North American universities has indicated that Chinese students have difficulties in understanding academic lectures, taking notes, writing assignments, and giving presentations although they have obtained high TOEFL scores. The study investigates their English academic listening challenges as reported by…

In order to give language learners a fighting chance outside the classroom, teachers must provide them with consciousness-raising opportunities for developing pragmatic awareness. By attending to pragmatic factors in second-language (L2) situations, student will be better able to make informed choices in negotiating effective communication. This…

Writing picture compositions is part of the requirements for the mother tongue language learning in Singapore primary schools. For Chinese as a mother tongue, the prevailing materials used for learning picture composition are confined to only black-and-white drawn pictures. This has caused some problems: (1) not many good and suitable…