Categories and Culture: On the \u27Rectification of Names\u27 in Comparative Law

This article proposes a thorough ‘rectification of names’ take place in comparative legal studies, with a specific focus on Chinese law. Pioneering Chinese comparative law scholars focused on describing the Chinese legal system using Western legal terminology. The job of the second-generation of legal scholars, however, is to interpret both the primary source material and prior interpretations. There are many pitfalls entailed with studying non-Western law, foremost is the danger of one’s conceptual paradigms influencing an interpretation. Any culture’s legal order is uniquely tuned to a cultural context, and Chinese culture represents a social order with sufficient coherence for scholars to develop useful generalizations about legal sensibility and legal order. Law is a reflection of culture and a producer of it, thus to understand Chinese legal order, one must understand the categories of meaning through which the Chinese make sense of lives and experience

EFL in Korea: The teaching and learning of English as a foreign language in the context of South Korean culture

The objective of the present research is to explore the present state of EFL (English as a foreign language) in Korean culture which is assumed to be different from that of English speaking countries, and to investigate learners' attitudes toward needs and motivation for the English language. Since it seems to be recognised that language and culture are inseparable, EFL in the Korean cultural context might reflect its own typical aspects. Chapter 1 deals with problems in EFL in Korea, and the relationship between foreign language acquisition and cultural background. The meaning of culture and its importance in a foreign language learning and teaching is elaborated. Chapter 2 reflects the characteristics of Korean culture, with an account of her history, education system and national policy of EFL. Current implementation of English language teaching at Korean universities, with its developmental history, is presented with evidences obtained from previous research. Chapter 3 reviews the theoretical literature on needs, attitudes, interest, anxiety and motivation in foreign/second language learning, since they are recognised as central to foreign language acquisition. Research studies on these variables are introduced, compared with each other and critically discussed. In Chapter 4, research questions and hypotheses are drawn, based on the theoretical framework reviewed in Chapter 3. The research design (sampling, methods of and procedures for data-collection) is elaborated. Chapter 5 begins with a description of data-interpretation methods employed in the study. Data obtained from these instruments were statistically analysed through a computer programme `SPSS'. The findings of the research are presented, followed by a discussion of the results. In Chapter 6, more detailed profiles of analysis than those given in Chapter 5 are presented. Particularly, item-by-item comparison is made between the college students' and graduates' questionnaires. Chapter 7, as a closing chapter of the present research, reviews the foregoing chapters and derives conclusions, suggesting implications for further research. Key implications arising from the research are: priority for teaching EFL from intercultural perspectives, and (so far as learners are concerned) to tolerating the new approaches to teaching that are required

Categories and Culture: On the \u27Rectification of Names\u27 in Comparative Law

This article proposes a thorough ‘rectification of names’ take place in comparative legal studies, with a specific focus on Chinese law. Pioneering Chinese comparative law scholars focused on describing the Chinese legal system using Western legal terminology. The job of the second-generation of legal scholars, however, is to interpret both the primary source material and prior interpretations. There are many pitfalls entailed with studying non-Western law, foremost is the danger of one’s conceptual paradigms influencing an interpretation. Any culture’s legal order is uniquely tuned to a cultural context, and Chinese culture represents a social order with sufficient coherence for scholars to develop useful generalizations about legal sensibility and legal order. Law is a reflection of culture and a producer of it, thus to understand Chinese legal order, one must understand the categories of meaning through which the Chinese make sense of lives and experience

Validity Studies of the Leiter International Performance Scale for an International Middle School Population

The problem of this study was to investigate the construct and short-term predictive validity of the Leiter International Performance Scale (LIPS) for an international population of middle school students in an overseas school. The 141 subjects were 13, 14, and 15 year old students from many nations who came to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with their parents who were professionals, highly skilled technologists, and foreign embassy employees. The sample represented 15 nations and was functionally divided into four groups: (Group A) Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States; (Group B) Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden; (Group C) Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam; and (Group D) Japan and Korea. The LIPS and Iowa Test of Basic Skills were administered to the sample in the Spring Semester. No significant differences existed between mean IQ scores for the four sample groups. Males scored significantly higher than females on the LIPS. The LIPS and math achievement were significantly correlated for each sample group. Reading achievement was significantly correlated with the LIPS for Group A, Group c, and Group D. The LIPS was recommended as a valid intelligence instrument for an international population similar to the sample. The LIPS yields valid predictions for math achievement, even for non-English-dominant students in an international school

Attitudinal factors among elementary school teacher education students

In second or foreign language learning, attitudinal factors were one of the key factors that determine language success and achievement. In Indonesia, foreign language (English) has been taught since elementary school, however research showed most Indonesian language learners in English showed unsatisfactorily result. This research aimed at disclosing the students’ attitudinal factors in learning foreign language by exploring their first experience in learning foreign language. This qualitative study employed exploratory case study design to interview students’ attitudinal factors by exploring the students past experience at first time learning foreign language. These students were from different education unit background when they were in elementary school. This study applied thematic analysis to interpret and analyze the data. The findings showed in case of attitudinal factors were categorized into three components that were cognitive, affective, and behavior. In case of cognitive and affective components, those who had good experiences felt happy in their first experience in foreign language and the vice versa. However, both were having similar learning behavior when they serve as an English teacher, they adopted particular learning behavior that was able to make students enjoy the foreign language learning

The Effect Of Visualized Student\u27s Self-set Learning Progress Goals On East Asian Chinese Student\u27s Motivation And Self Confidence In Learning

This study was conducted to determine if visualized goal achievement can help enhance East Asian Chinese students‟ motivation in learning and elevate their confidence in reaching their goals thus improving their performance. The goal achievement was visualized on a goal achievement progress chart that was self-created and self-managed by the East Asian Chinese students and the goal creating was under the supervision of their instructor. In this study, literature reviews on the theories, previous research studies in the perspectives of East Asian students‟ motivation in learning, goal setting on motivation, self-determination, self-efficacy, and expectancy theories are conducted to provide theoretical ground and legitimate evidence for this particular research. The researcher conducted an experiment in which students were given a learning task and required to set their own learning goals for that learning task under the supervision of their instructors. In this specific experiment, a total of 106 students from a university that was funded by American Educators in a central province in China agreed to participate in stages one, and two of the study, but some students withdrew from this research and some did not participate in both research stages therefore their data were take out from the data to make research result more consistent. Therefore eventually 72 students were considered eligible to go through the whole process of turning in the questionnaires and participating in the performance test. In this particular goal setting research study, the students were given the freedom of setting their own learning pace iii and managing their own progress on a visualized progress chart. The progress chart was visualized as a climbing/progressing line, which goes from bottom to top (see appendix C) once students achieved their learning goals. At the same time, the instructor provided feedback concerning the students‟ progress. Although some of the research results displayed no statistical significance for motivation and self-confidence during the pre and post session of the research, there is a positive correlation among motivation, self-confidence, and performance outcome. One research result did corroborate the previous research study that goal setting strategy would improve learning outcome