The acquisition of the English dative alternation by Russian foreign language learners

Ditransitive verbs include a “recipient” and a “theme” argument (in addition to the subject). The choice of putting one argument before the other (i.e., either recipient-theme, or theme-recipient) is associated with multiple discourse-pragmatic factors. Language have different options to code the ditransitive construction. In English, a ditransitive verb can take two alternating patterns (“the dative alternation”): the Double Object Construction (DOC) (John gives Mary a book) and the to-dative construction (to-dative) (John gives a book to Mary). In Russian, theme and recipient are marked by accusative and dative, respectively. In addition, word order is flexible and either the accusative-marked theme (Pjotr dal knigu Marii), or the dative-marked recipient (Pjotr dal Marii knigu) can come first. This article reports on two sentence rating experiments (acceptability judgments) to test whether Russian learners of English transfer their preferences about the theme-recipient order in Russian to the ditransitive construction in English. A total of 284 Russian students were tested. Results for both tests showed a great variability in the ratings. A comparison of the ratings seems to suggest a small positive correlation, but no statistically significant relation was found between the order preferences in both languages. However, we found a small preference for the use of the to-dative, which we relate to the language acquisition process as proposed by Processability Theory

Geschlechterunterschiede im Zentralabitur? Fairness von High-Stakes-Tests für Jungen und Mädchen im Fach Englisch in Nordrhein-Westfalen im Kontext der Educational Governance

The shift from decentralized to centralized A-level examinations (Abitur) was implemented in the German school system as a measure of Educational Governance in the last decade. This reform was mainly introduced with the intention of providing higher comparability of school examinations and student achievement as well as increasing fairness in school examinations. It is not known yet if these ambitious aims and functions of the new centralized examination format have been achieved and if fairer assessment can be guaranteed in terms of providing all students with the same opportunities to pass the examinations by allocating fair tests to different student subpopulations e.g., students of different background or gender. The research presented in this article deals with these questions and focuses on gender differences. It investigates gender-specific fairness of the test items in centralized Abitur examinations as high school exit examinations in Germany. The data are drawn from Abitur examinations in English (as a foreign language). Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis reveals that at least some parts of the examinations indicate gender inequality. (DIPF/Orig.)Die fast flächendeckende Implementation des Zentralabiturs in Deutschland als Maßnahme im Kontext der Neuen Steuerung im Bildungswesen ist eng mit dem Ziel verbunden, die Vergleichbarkeit von Schulabschlüssen und schulischen Leistungen insgesamt zu erhöhen und durch zentrale Prüfungen die Fairness von Leistungsfeststellungen im Sinne der Komparabilitätsfunktion zentraler Prüfungsformate zu sichern. Bisher ist jedoch nicht bekannt und untersucht, ob das Zentralabitur diesen Ansprüchen tatsächlich gerecht wird und die vorgenannten Funktionen so erfüllt, dass eine faire Leistungsmessung für unterschiedliche Schülersubgruppen gegeben ist. Auf der Grundlage von Daten zu differenzierten Schülerergebnissen zum Zentralabitur im Fach Englisch untersucht dieser Beitrag exemplarisch die geschlechtsspezifische Fairness von Abitur aufgaben. Eine Differential-Item-Functioning-Analyse (DIF-Analyse) zeigt, dass zumindest ein Teil der eingesetzten Aufgaben auf eine geschlechtsspezifische Ungleichbehandlung durch die Aufgabenstellung hinweist. (DIPF/Orig.

Trialing project-based learning in a new EAP ESP course: A collaborative reflective practice of three college English teachers

Currently in many Chinese universities, the traditional College English course is facing the risk of being ‘marginalized’, replaced or even removed, and many hours previously allocated to the course are now being taken by EAP or ESP. At X University in northern China, a curriculum reform as such is taking place, as a result of which a new course has been created called ‘xue ke’ English. Despite the fact that ‘xue ke’ means subject literally, the course designer has made it clear that subject content is not the target, nor is the course the same as EAP or ESP. This curriculum initiative, while possibly having been justified with a rationale of some kind (e.g. to meet with changing social and/or academic needs of students and/or institutions), this is posing a great challenge for, as well as considerable pressure on, a number of College English teachers who have taught this single course for almost their entire teaching career. In such a context, three teachers formed a peer support group in Semester One this year, to work collaboratively co-tackling the challenge, and they chose Project-Based Learning (PBL) for the new course. This presentation will report on the implementation of this project, including the overall designing, operational procedure, and the teachers’ reflections. Based on discussion, pre-agreement was reached on the purpose and manner of collaboration as offering peer support for more effective teaching and learning and fulfilling and pleasant professional development. A WeChat group was set up as the chief platform for messaging, idea-sharing, and resource-exchanging. Physical meetings were supplementary, with sound agenda but flexible time, and venues. Mosoteach cloud class (lan mo yun ban ke) was established as a tool for virtual learning, employed both in and after class. Discussions were held at the beginning of the semester which determined only brief outlines for PBL implementation and allowed space for everyone to autonomously explore in their own way. Constant further discussions followed, which generated a great deal of opportunities for peer learning and lesson plan modifications. A reflective journal, in a greater or lesser detailed manner, was also kept by each teacher to record the journey of the collaboration. At the end of the semester, it was commonly recognized that, although challenges existed, the collaboration was overall a success and they were all willing to continue with it and endeavor to refine it to be a more professional and productive approach

Distributional effects and individual differences in L2 morphology learning

Second language (L2) learning outcomes may depend on the structure of the input and learners’ cognitive abilities. This study tested whether less predictable input might facilitate learning and generalization of L2 morphology while evaluating contributions of statistical learning ability, nonverbal intelligence, phonological short-term memory, and verbal working memory. Over three sessions, 54 adults were exposed to a Russian case-marking paradigm with a balanced or skewed item distribution in the input. Whereas statistical learning ability and nonverbal intelligence predicted learning of trained items, only nonverbal intelligence also predicted generalization of case-marking inflections to new vocabulary. Neither measure of temporary storage capacity predicted learning. Balanced, less predictable input was associated with higher accuracy in generalization but only in the initial test session. These results suggest that individual differences in pattern extraction play a more sustained role in L2 acquisition than instructional manipulations that vary the predictability of lexical items in the input

Trung Institute of English as a Second language

Governmental and social pressures in Vietnam have increased the demand for English speakers within the workforce. With insufficient English programs in the public school system, many seek the education elsewhere. The Trung Institute will be a private school in Vietnam, specializing in teaching English as a second language (ESL). Currently ESL programs exist in Vietnam but most employ native English speakers with little teaching background as instructors. Teachers will be recruited from Teaching and ESL programs at Washington State University and Concordia for one-year stints in Vietnam. Teachers will be selected each year through an application process. The Institute is set apart through the use of certified teachers rather than untrained volunteers, and will be marketed as a higher level of education. The institute will prepare students for the Test of English as a Foreign Language, a requirement for citizens of Vietnam to receive their high school diploma. The curriculum will be designed to give students the edge in the workforce. The school will open in Ho Chi Minh. Due to the construction of the new international airport the surrounding area is going through significant development, and is expected to see a large economic boom. The initial investment is projected at $300,000. This will be used in the construction of the school, faculty residences and for operational funds, with high return in the long run from tuition and uniform sales. Once the first school is deemed a success, the model of this institute will be duplicated throughout Vietnam. The Trung Institute of English as a Second Language by Tyler Van Sickle was awarded the first-place prize in the 2014 SOURCE Business Plan Competition

How Courts Adjudicate Patent Definiteness and Disclosure

Section 112 of the Patent Act requires patentees to clearly explain what their invention is (a requirement known as claim definiteness), as well as how to make and use it (the disclosure requirements of enablement and written description). Many concerns about the modern patent system stem from these requirements. But despite the critical importance of § 112 to the functioning of the patent system, there is surprisingly little empirical data about how it has been applied in practice. To remedy the reliance on anecdotes, we have created a hand-coded dataset of 1144 reported court decisions from 1982 to 2012 in which U.S. district courts or the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit rendered a decision on the enablement, written-description, or claim-definiteness requirements of § 112. We coded validity outcomes under these three doctrines on a novel five-level scale so as to capture significant subtlety in the strength of each decision, and we also classified patents by technology and industry categories. We also coded for a number of litigation characteristics that could arguably influence outcomes. Although one must be cautious about generalizing from reported decisions due to selection effects, our results show some statistically significant disparities in § 112 outcomes for different technologies and industries—although fewer than the conventional wisdom suggests, and not always in the direction that many have believed. Just as importantly, our analysis reveals significant relationships between other variables and § 112 litigation outcomes, including whether a district court or the Federal Circuit made the last decision in a case, whether a patent claim was drafted in means-plus-function format, and whether a case was decided before or after Markman v. Westview Instruments. Our results showing how § 112 has been applied in practice will be helpful in evaluating current proposals for reform, and our rich dataset will enable more systematic studies of these critical doctrines in the future

Toward a prenominal syntax? A brief look at statistical alternations

This pilot study aims to show that people indeed use subconscious statistical processing to aid in the acquisition of constructions, and frequent form-function mappings emerge as structures that work well together. The current study is a modified replication of Wells et.al. (2009), in which frequency distributions of NL-English speakers' relative clauses were manipulated, causing them to more quickly process a less frequent, irregular form. The construction under consideration here is the prenominal clause, rare in English, but attested in many primary languages. The hypothesis was that, given minimal exposure to this construction, subjects would statistically re-categorize their linguistic systems. The infrequent/irregular prenominal phrase was compared with the frequent/regular postnominal RC. Pre- and Post-Tests recorded participants’ self-paced reading times. During two brief Experience Blocks, spaced two days apart, subjects received limited exposure to both target structures. Reading times in the prenominal structure decreased more than that of the RC, for each subject, indicating faster processing. A preliminary analysis of results shows that all subjects reanalyzed the statistical distributions of the prenominal clause.Ope

E/Valuating new media in language development

This paper addresses the need for a new approach to the educational evaluation of software that falls under the rubric "new media" or "multimedia" as distinct from previous generations of Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) software. The authors argue that present approaches to CALL software evaluation are not appropriate for a new genre of CALL software distinguished by its shared assumptions about language learning and teaching as well as by its technical design. The paper sketches a research-based program called "E/Valuation" that aims to assist language educators to answer questions about the educational effectiveness of recent multimedia language learning software. The authors suggest that such program needs to take into account not only the nature of the new media and its potential to promote language learning in novel ways, but also current professional knowledge about language learning and teaching