Young learners of modern foreign languages and their transition to the secondary phase: a lost opportunity?

Following publication of the National Languages Strategy on 18 December 2002 the teaching of foreign languages (FL) in the primary school is again high on the agenda in England as in other parts of Europe. Research has shown in the past (Burstall et al., 1974) that an early start in FL does not necessarily result in any long-term advantage in terms of proficiency. However, the above study also draws other conclusions, less widely reported, which remain significant. These include insufficient liaison between primary and secondary schools, lack of continuity in foreign language learning across phases, inadequate training of teachers, and a lack of differentiation by MFL secondary teachers. This article describes a small-scale research project which took place between April 2002 and May 2003. It sought to identify some of the main issues of transition from the perspective of the learners themselves, their foreign language teachers, heads of FL departments and head teachers at primary and secondary level. A complex and somewhat contradictory picture emerges from this study. On the one hand, there are many positive findings such as the enjoyment of languages and openness to other cultures and languages in the primary phase, greater oral fluency and confidence of learners when transferring to the secondary phase and enthusiasm shown for early language learning (ELL) by teachers in the primary and the secondary phase. On the other hand, opportunities which exist for building on primary language learning are largely wasted

Penalización del maltrato animal en Colombia

Artículo de investigaciónUn gran paso para la penalización del maltrato animal fue la expedición de la Ley 1774 de 2016, que estableció la protección penal de la vida e integridad fisica y emocional de los animales, con base en dos presupuestos: primero, la eliminación de la consideración de los animales como ‘cosas’ para reconocerlos como ‘seres sintientes’; y segundo, la tipificación del Maltrato Animal (muerte o lesiones graves) como delito.Introducción 1. Evolución de la protección de los animales 2. Derecho Penal colombiano en los delitos contra los animales. 3. Estudio de la Ley 1774 de 2016 4. Primeros casos de investigaciones penales por maltrato animal Conclusiones Referencias bibliográficasPregradoAbogad

The use of electronic collars for training domestic dogs: estimated prevalence, reasons and risk factors for use, and owner perceived success as compared to other training methods

Abstract Background The use of electronic training devices for dog training is controversial. The aims of this study were to give an indication of the extent to which dog owners use these devices in England, identify factors associated with their use, and compare owner report of outcomes. A convenience sample of dog owners in England was used to identify numbers using electronic training devices and identify reasons for use. Factors associated with use of remote e-collars only were determined by comparing dogs trained using these devices with two control populations matched for reason of use (recall / chasing problems). Comparison groups were: those using other ‘negative reinforcement / positive punishment’ training techniques, and those using ‘positive reinforcement / negative punishment’ based methods. A multinominal logistic regression model was used to compare factors between categories of training method. Owner reported success for use was compared using chi-squared analysis. Results For England only, 3.3% (n = 133) owners reported using remote activated e-collars, 1.4% (n = 54) reported use of bark activated e-collars, and 0.9% (n = 36) reported using electronic boundary fences. In comparison with the e-collar group, owners using reward based training methods for recall / chasing were 2.8 times more likely to be female and 2.7 times less likely to have attended agility training. Owners using other aversive methods for recall / chasing were 2.8 times more likely to have attended puppy classes than those using e-collars. However, the model only explained 10% variance between groups. A significantly higher proportion of owners in the reward group reported training success than those in the e-collar group. Conclusions In conclusion, a fairly low proportion of owners select to use electronic training devices. For a population matched by reason for training method use, characteristics of dogs, including occurrence of undesired behaviours do not appear to distinguish between training methods. Rather, owner gender and attendance at training classes appear more important, although explaining a relatively small amount of variance between groups. More owners using reward based methods for recall / chasing report a successful outcome of training than those using e-collars.</p

Café Shapiro Anthology, Selected Poems and Short Stories from the 22nd Annual Café Shapiro

https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149461/1/CafeShapiro2019.pd

Comparison of spatial working memory in children with prenatal alcohol exposure and those diagnosed with ADHD; A functional magnetic resonance imaging study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Alcohol related neurodevelopmental disorder (ARND) falls under the umbrella of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD), but individuals do not demonstrate the facial characteristics associated with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), making diagnosis difficult. While attentional problems in ARND are similar to those found in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the underlying impairment in attention pathways may be different.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of a working memory (1-back) task of 63 children, 10 to 14 years old, diagnosed with ARND and ADHD, as well as typically developing (TD) controls, was conducted at 3 T. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data were also acquired.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Activations were observed in posterior parietal and occipital regions in the TD group and in dorsolateral prefrontal and posterior parietal regions in the ARND group, whereas the ADHD group activated only dorsolateral prefrontal regions, during the working memory component of the task (1-back minus 0-back contrast). The increases in frontal and parietal activity were significantly greater in the ARND group compared to the other groups. This increased activity was associated with reduced accuracy and increased response time variability, suggesting that ARND subjects exert greater effort to manage short-term memory load. Significantly greater intra-subject variability, demonstrated by fMRI region-of-interest analysis, in the ADHD and ARND groups compared to the TD group suggests that moment-to-moment lapses in attention contributed to their poorer task performance. Differences in functional activity in ARND subjects with and without a diagnosis of ADHD resulted primarily from reduced activation by the ARND/ADHD + group during the 0-back task. In contrast, children with ADHD alone clearly showed reduced activations during the 1-back task. DTI analysis revealed that the TD group had significantly higher total tract volume and number of fibers than the ARND group. These measures were negatively correlated with errors on the 1-back task, suggesting a link between white matter integrity and task performance.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>fMRI activations suggest that the similar behavior of children with ARND and ADHD on a spatial working memory task is the result of different cognitive events. The nature of ADHD in children with ARND appears to differ from that of children with ADHD alone.</p