Strategies in TOEFL Reading Comprehension for Chinese Students

With China’s development, an increasing number of students choose to further their studies abroad. However, many Chinese students do not know how to prepare for the TOEFL test by themselves.Thus, there are three sections in my literature review, which are the introduction of TOEFL, TOEFL Reading Comprehension Strategies for Native Chinese Speakers, and TOEFL test preparation for Chinese students.After that, this project includes original materials so that beginning level students can get a preliminary understanding of the TOEFL reading comprehension tests. The material is deliberately based on Chinese culture, which makes it relevant and easier for beginners to understand. This project can improve students’ motivation to study for the TOEFL. There are four units in this project, and three of them introduce types of TOEFL reading questions. Each of the units contains one reading passage and several questions. The last unit is grammar-based and it presents the adjective clause system. The materials can be used by students who want to improve their English proficiency abilities while increasing their motivation for learning English. Furthermore, students can increase their confidence by being better prepared for the TOEFL

NEOLOGISMS OF POPULAR CULTURE AND LIFESTYLE INTHE JAKARTA POST

Neologisms berasal dari perpaduan kata Prancis “Neo” yang berarti baru dan kata Yunani “Logo” yang berarti kata. Jadi neologisms adalah kata-kata yang baru muncul dalam proses pengembangan masyarakat. Penulis tertarik meneliti tentang kata-kata baru (Neologisms)dikarenakan perkembangan penggunaan kata-kata oleh masyarakat, sehingga kata-kata baru initerbentuk. Terkadang kata-kata baru sering tidak dimengerti oleh masyarakat, apalagi dalam bacaanbaik itu surat kabar, novel terjemahan dan lainnya.Tujuan dari penelitian ini, ialah; (1) untuk menemukan kata-kata baru di Jakarta post, (2) untuk mengetahui tipe formasi kata dari kata-kata baru, (3)mengetahui arti dari kata-kata baru yang di temukan.Dalam penelitian ini penulis menggunakan teori neologisms dari Newmark (2001) sebagai teori dasar dan beberapa journal penelitian tentang kata-kata baru untuk lebih memahaminya, untuk menentukan pembentukan kata dari kata-kata baru menggunakan teori formasi kata oleh Yule (2010) dan beberapa teori pendukung dalam menjawab permasalahan didalam penelitian. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif oleh Cresswell (1997). Dalam proses pengumpulan data penulis mengguanakan teknik dokumentasi, teknik pengumpulan data oleh Muktardan teknik analisis data oleh Bogdan.Dalam penelitian ini penulis menemukan bahwa (1) terdapat 32 kata neologisms dalam 5 topik, salah satu kata-kata baru yang ditemukan yaitu “Jaksel”, (2) jenis-jenis formasi kata yang digunakan kata-kata baru terdapat 5 macam yaitu; proses pengabungan, peminjaman, memadukan, campuran singkatan. proses pembentuakan kata dari Jaksel yaitu memadukan 2 kata „Jakarta‟ dan „Selatan‟. (3) dari kata-kata baru yang ditemukan 7 kata menggunakan denotative dan 25 kata makna konotatif

USING ACTION SONG TO IMPROVE THE ABILITY IN USING PUNCTUATION AMONG YEAR THREE PUPILS

The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of action song to improve the usage of punctuation among Year 3 pupils in a primary school in Johor. The whole class of eighteen pupils were selected as the target group. The teaching strategy comprised of the action song and the signs of punctuation marks such as full stop and comma. This study adopts a classroom action research. Tests, teacher’s reflective journal and interview were used to gather the data for the study. The findings showed improvement when comparing the pupils’ results in the tests before and after the implementation of action songs they were able to use the punctuations of full stop and comma correctly in the sentences. The findings also showed that the pupils were motivated to learn English and the strategy used improved the teacher’s teaching practice. A few suggestions were given to improve the strategy for the next cycle of action research

Using Action Song to Improve the Ability in Using Punctuation Among Year Three Pupils

The purpose of this research was to investigate the use of action song to improve the USAge of punctuation among Year 3 pupils in a primary school in Johor. The whole class of eighteen pupils were selected as the target group. The teaching strategy comprised of the action song and the signs of punctuation marks such as full stop and comma. This study adopts a classroom action research. Tests, teacher's reflective journal and interview were used to gather the data for the study. The findings showed improvement when comparing the pupils' results in the tests before and after the implementation of action songs they were able to use the punctuations of full stop and comma correctly in the sentences. The findings also showed that the pupils were motivated to learn English and the strategy used improved the teacher's teaching practice. A few suggestions were given to improve the strategy for the next cycle of action research

Anglicisms in Czech

Anglicisms are becoming more widespread in many world languages, Czech being no exception to this. The Czech language has been exposed openly to the Western influences since the fall of Communism and the development in modern technology and the prevailing general trends have caused a flood of English loanwords to enter the language. The aim of this research was to see how these new English loanwords and influences have affected the Czech language and to see if it would be possible to find any variation between the language usage of different generations or the genders. Also various topics such as hi-tech and sports were studied to see if there would be differences in the amount of loanwords between them. To get the most up-to-date picture of these loanwords in the Czech language, four different newspapers were researched and then based on these findings a questionnaire was drawn. The questionnaire had two parts, the first consisting of word pairs in which one of the words was a domestic word and the other a loanword. The point in here was to see how people would react to the different types of loanwords. The second part of the questionnaire required the respondents to compose a short piece of writing in Czech. The idea behind this was to see if such a short piece of writing would include many loanwords or whether they really only come to play when one needs to add flavour, for example when writing a longer newspaper article. The results revealed that the younger generations are more likely to accept new loanwords than the older generations. It would seem that the young people have a better knowledge of the new loanwords and their original forms due to their interests in modern technology and therefore they are also more unwilling to accept the Czechified forms of these words. There were no big differences found in the language usage between the genders. The volume of loanwords varied hugely between the topics, the terminology around hi-tech having the largest amount of loanwords

Documenting online writing practices: The case of nominal plural marking in Zamboanga Chabacano

The emergence of computer-mediated communication has brought about new opportunities for both speakers and researchers of minority or under-described languages. This paper shows how the analysis of spontaneous contemporary language samples from online social networks can make a contribution to the documentation and description of languages like Chabacano, a Spanish-derived creole spoken in the Philippines. More specifically, we focus on nominal plural marking in the Zamboangueño variety, a still imperfectly understood feature, by examining a corpus composed of texts from online sources. The attested combination of innovative and vestigial features requires a close look at the high contact environment, different levels of metalinguistic awareness or even some language ideologies. The findings shed light on the wide variety of plural formation strategies which resulted from the contact of Spanish with Philippine languages. Possible triggers, such as animacy, definiteness or specificity, are also examined and some future research areas suggested

Playing by new rules: board games and America\u27s cold war culture, 1945-1965

This thesis examines the domestic culture of the United States during the first two decades of the Cold War, using popular games as an interpretive tool to expand our understanding of the changes that took place. Four board games which were popular during the 1950s – Scrabble, chess, Clue, and Risk – explain some of the anxieties and evolutions in mass culture. Scrabble illustrated the nation\u27s growing respect for expertise and, along with game theory, the hope for intellectual solutions to the country\u27s problems. Chess, often seen as a symbol of the Cold War, served as a proxy battlefield for the United States and Soviet Union to challenge each other. Clue reflected an increasingly domestic, suburban society that was struggling with fears of subversion and betrayal. Risk provided a safe battlefield for imaginary wars devoid of politics or ideology. The game of poker is also considered, as its fundamental connection to gambling and also its gender biases pointed toward places that American culture was going. The work of historians such as Jackson Lears and Stephen Whitfield provide the theoretical foundation for this thesis, particularly Lears\u27s concept of the culture of control and the culture of chance. Further analytical models come from the work of play theorists like Brian Sutton-Smith, who have examined the serious nature of children\u27s games

Bonnie Resig

https://digitalcommons.csp.edu/tc-ohp_interviews_stp/1010/thumbnail.jp

A Child-Driven Metadata Schema: A Holistic Analysis of Children\u27s Cognitive Processes During Book Selection

The purpose of this study was to construct a child-driven metadata schema by understanding children\u27s cognitive processes and behaviors during book selection. Existing knowledge organization systems including metadata schemas and previous literature in the metadata domain have shown that there is a no specialized metadata schema that describes children\u27s resources that also is developed by children. It is clear that children require a new or alternative child-driven metadata schema. Child-driven metadata elements reflected the children\u27s cognitive perceptions that could allow children to intuitively and easily find books in an online cataloging system. The literature of development of literacy skills claims that the positive experiences of selecting books empower children\u27s motivation for developing literacy skills. Therefore, creating a child-driven metadata schema not only contributes to the improvement of knowledge organization systems reflecting children\u27s information behavior and cognitive process, but also improves children\u27s literacy and reading skills. Broader research questions included what metadata elements do children like to use? What elements should a child-driven metadata schema include? In order to answer these research questions, a triangulated qualitative research design consisting of questionnaires, paired think-aloud, interview, and diaries were used with 22 child participants between the ages of 6 and 9. A holistic understanding of the children\u27s cognitive processes during book selection as a foundation of a child-driven metadata schema displays an early stage of an ontological contour for a children\u27s knowledge organization system. A child-driven metadata schema constructed in this study is apt to include different metadata elements from those metadata elements existing in current cataloging standards. A child-driven metadata schema includes five classes such as story/subject, character, illustration, physical characteristics, and understandability, and thirty three metadata elements such as character\u27s names and images, book cover\u27s color, shape, textured materials, engagement element, and tone. In addition, the analysis of the relationship between emergent emotional vocabularies and cognitive factors and facets illustrated the important role of emotion and attention in children\u27s information processing and seeking behaviors