Evaluating intermediate Spanish students\u27 speaking skills through a taped test: A pilot study

A pilot study used the Spanish Oral Proficiency Test (SOPT)-a taped oral test to evaluate oral proficiency level of students of Intermediate Spanish. Based on the ACTFL Proficiency Guidelines (1986), the Intermediate-Mid was the appropriate level of oral proficiency for students at the end of two years of college- level language study. The study also examined what variables might affect the development of students\u27 oral skills. The results showed that foreign language learning experience in academic settings or outside of class, such as study abroad and travel abroad, might affect students\u27 overall speaking proficiency. In addition, lin- guistic inaccuracy from informal training may keep speakers to lower levels of proficiency. Learners should be more aware of the need to speak correctly to maintain a balance between function, content, and accuracy

What is the EU’s role in implementation of the Global Compact for Migration? CEPS Paper in Liberty and Security in Europe No. 2019-12, December 2019

This paper examines the controversies surrounding the adoption of the United Nations Global Compact on Migration (GCM) and their impacts for the European Union. On the one hand, the EU lost the momentum to speak with one voice in the final conference in Marrakech and at the UN General Assembly, as three Member States voted against the GCM and five abstained (one did not attend the conference). On the other hand, 19 EU Member States did sign the GCM. It shows a positive political commitment among these Member States to develop future policies at EU level. This paper offers an overview of the EU’s role in implementing the GCM, and in particular the EU’s commitment to creating “availability and flexibility of pathways for regular migration” (objective 5). It argues that while some EU legal migration policies are generally in line with the GCM, some current EU Directives on labour immigration fall short of the standards laid down in the International Labour Organisation instruments and the principle of non-discrimination among different categories of workers (Carrera et al. 2019a). Moreover, EU irregular migration policies, such as the newly proposed recast EU Return directive, are incompatible with the GCM, for example in relation to objective 13 "using detention as a last resort measure" or objective 7 that also proposes to facilitate access for "non-removable" migrants "to an individual assessment that may lead to regular status”. The Paper concludes by opening up some questions for future assessments of the EU’s role in implementing the GCM. Will EU legislators use the GCM as an opportunity to develop a long-term and comprehensive strategy in the area of migration? Or will they continue searching for consensus among all Member States and subjecting the Union’s policies to 'intergovernmentalism' and the lowest common denominator

L2 writing: Using pictures as a guided writing environment

This article addresses the learning of second language (L2) writing skills to show how pictures can be used as an effective guided writing tool to facilitate students\u27 writing process and to improve their writing proficiency. A study was conducted with 53 university students who had a prior knowledge of Spanish in secondary school. All students were enrolled in an intensive review course. Writing ability questionnaires were administered before and after the writing instruction, in addition to a final review of the writing tasks involved. Writing assignments were both topic-selected and picture-guided; students found the activities valuable, absorbing, and helpful. Results demonstrate that the instruction of using pictures as a guided writing environment assisted beginning foreign language students to develop and improve their writing skills as well as to lower the anxiety level of expressing oneself in the target language. Findings suggest that foreign language teachers should be encouraged to use the pictorial approach for L2 writing education

Book Review: Mejor Dicho

Review of Garcia, Carmen and Emily Spinelli. Mejor Dicho. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Company, 1995, ISBN 066928906X (pbk). 307 pp

A Remark on Regular Points of Ricci Limit Spaces

Let $Y$ be a Gromov-Hausdorff limit of complete Riemannian n-manifolds with Ricci curvature bounded from below. A point in $Y$ is called $k$-regular, if its tangent is unique and is isometric to an $k$-dimensional Euclidean space. By \cite{B5}, there is $k>0$ such that the set of all $k$-regular point $\mathcal{R}_k$ has a full renormalized measure. An open problem is if $\mathcal{R}_l=\emptyset$ for all $l<k$? The main result in this paper asserts that if $\mathcal{R}_1\ne \emptyset$, then $Y$ is a one dimensional topological manifold. Our result improves the Handa's result \cite{Honda} that under the assumption that $1\leq \mathrm{dim}_H(Y)<2$

Using Portfolios to Develop L2 Cultural Knowledge and Awareness of Students in Intermediate Spanish

In spite of many efforts and contributions from previous researchers, the need for a systematic and consistent approach to teaching culture is still unmet. This pilot study shows that the portfolio is a meaningful way to integrate language and culture in a structure that provides opportunities for students to learn about foreign culture while using other skills-reading, listening, writing and speaking. In addition, resources from the Internet, such as Gopher, World Wide Web, and Listservs have great potential for cultural learning out-side the classroom. Foreign language teachers should be encouraged to explore and experiment with portfolios in other content areas of language learning, since producing a portfolio involves higher-order cognition as well as all four communicative language skills

Instruments as Playthings: An Alternative Methodology for the Study of Scientific Artefacts

This article proposes that thinking of scientific instruments as playthings or philosophical toys offers a method for looking at the ways in which we learn from made things and from the act of making in investigating the world. Rather than approaching artefacts as stable ob- jects, definable and categorisable in terms of their function, this method puts forward the instability and mobility of artefacts on several levels: in terms of their movements between hands, social contexts and systems of knowledge, in terms of their physical articulations and of their changing functions, and in terms of the flows and processes of materials at work within and through them

Root disturbance and washing effects on shoot and root growth in four plant species : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Applied Science at Massey University

Bare-rooting techniques have been widely use in New Zealand nursery production for the preparation of live plants for export to overseas or domestic markets. Bare-root transplants can fail quality requirements due to death or deterioration of regrowth following repotting. The potential for improving bare-root nursery stock quality has prompted study of the morphological effects of removed medium treatment on plant. Two experiments were conducted to explore the effects of physical root disturbance by shaking and washing on the growth and development of camellia (Camellia x saluenensis cv. 'Donation'), pittosporum (Pittosporum tenuifolium cv. 'Kohuhu'), pumpkin (Cucurbita pepo cv. 'Crown Hybrid'), and coleus (Coleus blumei). The shaken plants in both dry and wet conditions suffered a reduction in the growth rate of their leaves compared to the unshaken controls. Root washing influenced the vegetative growth of four species and reproductive growth of pumpkin. The two woody species were more sensitive to treatment stress. Very short time of washing (three seconds) affected camellia bud break and new shoot growth, and inhibit pittosporum root and shoot growth. Similar effects were not sosevered in coleus and pumpkin