Understanding Chinese high school students’ foreign language enjoyment: validation of the Chinese version of the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale

Scholarly attention for Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) has sharply increased in the past three years for its role in facilitating language learning as well as promoting language learners’ well-being. However, the conceptualization and measurement of FLE in China, which has the largest number of EFL learners in the world, is only just starting. Adopting a mixed-method approach, the current study examined the psychometric properties of the Chinese Version of the Foreign Language Enjoyment Scale, and investigated FLE in a specific Chinese EFL context. Through surveying two samples of 1,718 students and 360 students in Stages 1 and 2, a new 11-item and 3-factor model (i.e. FLE-Private, FLE-Teacher, and FLE-Atmosphere) was confirmed and validated. The students scored highest on FLE-Teacher, followed by FLE-Private and FLE-Atmosphere. The analysis of the qualitative data collected from 64 participants in Stage 3 showed that beyond the general factors linked to the teacher and peers, the individual experience of FLE is shaped by a large range of learner-internal and learner-external variables

人格(パースナリティー)理論に就いて

The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of new rubbery liners, used as a cervical increment, to relieve contraction stress and thereby reduce the formation of cervical gaps in class II composite restorations. The investigated liners were made of polyester-acrylate (PE(1), PE(2) or PE(3)) or silicone-acrylate (S), mixed with UDMA, without (A, B, C, D) or with HEMA (AH, BH, CH, DH). A silanized filler was added to the mixture, DH, to give composites with 20, 40, 60, and 70% (w/w) of filler (DHF20, DHF40, DHF60, DHF70, respectively). The presence and width of cervical gaps were determined using a light microscope. Statistical analysis showed that six of the 12 rubbery liners (AH-DH, DHF20-DHF40) significantly decreased gap formation in comparison with the control group. In addition, the polymerization shrinkage, flow, and strain capacity of these liners were measured and the influence of these factors on gap formation was examined. Two- and three-dimensional regression analyses showed significantly negative linear correlations between gap formation and strain capacity, and between gap formation and flow, and a significantly positive linear correlation between gap formation and shrinkage

Predicting language learners' grades in the L1, L2, L3 and L4: the effect of some psychological and sociocognitive variables

This study of 89 Flemish high-school students' grades for L1 (Dutch), L2 (French), L3 (English) and L4 (German) investigates the effects of three higher-level personality dimensions (psychoticism, extraversion, neuroticism), one lower-level personality dimension (foreign language anxiety) and sociobiographical variables (gender, social class) on the participants' language grades. Analyses of variance revealed no significant effects of the higher-level personality dimensions on grades. Participants with high levels of foreign language anxiety obtained significantly lower grades in the L2 and L3. Gender and social class had no effect. Strong positive correlations between grades in the different languages could point to an underlying sociocognitive dimension. The implications of these findings are discussed

Bilingual episodic memory: an introduction

Our current models of bilingual memory are essentially accounts of semantic memory whose goal is to explain bilingual lexical access to underlying imagistic and conceptual referents. While this research has included episodic memory, it has focused largely on recall for words, phrases, and sentences in the service of understanding the structure of semantic memory. Building on the four papers in this special issue, this article focuses on larger units of episodic memory(from quotidian events with simple narrative form to complex autobiographical memories) in service of developing a model of bilingual episodic memory. This requires integrating theory and research on how culture-specific narrative traditions inform encoding and retrieval with theory and research on the relation between(monolingual) semantic and episodic memory(Schank, 1982; Schank & Abelson, 1995; Tulving, 2002). Then, taking a cue from memory-based text processing studies in psycholinguistics(McKoon & Ratcliff, 1998), we suggest that as language forms surface in the progressive retrieval of features of an event, they trigger further forms within the same language serving to guide a within-language/ within-culture retrieval

The relationship between bi/multilingualism, nativeness, proficiency and multimodal emotion recognition ability

Aims and Objectives: The primary aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between visual–vocal–verbal emotion recognition ability (ERA) and multilingualism – that is, both bilingual first language (L1) acquisition and the level of multilingualism operationalised as the number of languages one can speak. Besides these two factors, we also consider nativeness and proficiency as possible predictors of ERA. Methodology: One-thousand-two-hundred-and-twenty participants completed a survey online consisting of a sociobiographical background questionnaire, an English lexical test and an emotion recognition test including six stimuli. For each of the six audiovisual recordings, participants had to indicate which emotion they thought the L1 English speaker was conveying – happiness, sadness, anger, (positive) surprise, fear, disgust or no/neutral emotion. Data and Analysis: An individual ERA score was calculated for each participant. Correlations between ERA and the different variables were computed – including interactions – and significant correlations were fed into a linear regression model. Findings: The number of spoken languages was unrelated to ERA in our sample. The data revealed an interaction between BFLA and nativeness: bi/multilingually raised English second or foreign language (LX) users outperformed monolingually raised LX users, but bi/multilingually raised L1 users of English scored lower than monolingually raised L1 users. Proficiency was significantly related to ERA. Originality: This study points to a bilingual advantage in emotion recognition in English for participants with specific linguistic profiles. Participants who grew up with two languages from birth had an advantage if it did not include English. The advantage seemed to be cancelled out among bi/multilingually raised English L1 users, possibly due to interferences from their other L1(s) or L1 culture(s). Significance: This study contributes to the scarce literature on bilingual advantage in the affective domain and offers a nuanced view on bilingualism and ERA

Self-reported frequency of swearing in English: do situational, psychological and sociobiographical variables have similar effects on first and foreign language users?

An analysis of data collected from 2347 users of English on their self-reported swearing behaviour in English revealed significant higher values for the 1159 native English (L1) users than for the 1165 English foreign language (LX) users. Parallel analyses on the data of the L1 and LX users revealed that the interlocutor effect was slightly stronger among L1 users. Swearing was reported to be most frequent in interactions with friends, when alone, followed by interactions with family members, colleagues and strangers. Participants scoring high on Psychoticism, Extraversion and Neuroticism reported significantly more swearing in English. Extraversion and Neuroticism had the strongest effects on LX users’ self-reported swearing with friends and alone while Psychoticism and Neuroticism had the strongest effects on L1 users’ self-reported swearing with strangers and with friends. The effects of sociobiographical variables (education level, age group, gender) were broadly similar among L1 and LX users but were significant in more categories of interlocutors for the L1 users. It is argued that the weaker effect of situational, psychological and sociobiographical variables on self-reported frequency of swearing among LX users of English could be linked to larger heterogeneity in their history of learning, socialisation, proficiency and use of English

Automatic detection of oesophageal intubation based on ventilation pressure waveforms shows high sensitivity and specificity in patients with pulmonary disease

Background: Unrecognised endotracheal tube misplacement in emergency intubations has a reported incidence of up to 17%. Current detection methods have many limitations restricting their reliability and availability in these circumstances. There is therefore a clinical need for a device that is small enough to be practical in emergency situations and that can detect oesophageal intubation within seconds. In a first reported evaluation, we demonstrated an algorithm based on pressure waveform analysis, able to determine tube location with high reliability in healthy patients. The aim of this study was to validate the specificity of the algorithm in patients with abnormal pulmonary compliance, and to demonstrate the reliability of a newly developed small device that incorporates the technology. Materials and methods: Intubated patients with mild to moderate lung injury, admitted to intensive care were included in the study. The device was connected to the endotracheal tube, and three test ventilations were performed in each patient. All diagnostic data were recorded on PC for subsequent specificity/sensitivity analysis. Results and discussion: A total of 105 ventilations in 35 patients with lung injury were analysed. With the threshold D-value of 0.1, the system showed a 100% sensitivity and specificity to diagnose tube location. Conclusion: The algorithm retained its specificity in patients with decreased pulmonary compliance. We also demonstrated the feasibility to integrate sensors and diagnostic hardware in a small, portable hand-held device for convenient use in emergency situations

'Thunder Measure Vet Device' : een praktische en objectieve methode om de lichaamsconditie van melkvee te schatten

The scoring of the body condition at specific time points during the lactation cycle has proven to be essential in the nutritional management of modern dairy herds. The 'Thunder Measure (TM) Vet Device' has recently been developed by Ingenera SA, Switzerland to accurately and objectively measure the body condition score (BCS) of dairy cows in the field. Based on a smartphone app linked to a laser device, the system makes an analysis of three dorsal view photographs taken, for example, when cows are lined up in the feed alley. In the present study, the correlation and repeatability of the system were examined in comparison with the conventional visual measurement of BCS and ultrasonographic measurement of the backfat thickness (BFT). The conventional measurement of the BCS was done by a veterinary surgeon experienced in body condition scoring and by less experienced veterinary undergraduate students. The results obtained via the TM Vet Device were only moderately correlated with the BFT measurements (r=0.38, P<0.001), but were highly correlated (r=0.82, P<0.001) and showed good agreement with the BCS results obtained by the experienced veterinary surgeon. The BCS results obtained by the undergraduate students were highly variable, leading to a highly variable correlation with the results gathered using the TM Vet Device (r=0.23 (P<0.05) to r=0.74 (P<0.001)). The repeatability of the results obtained by the device was very high (91%). Only the repeatability of the results obtained by the experienced veterinarian (93%) and the BFT measurement (96%) were higher. In lean animals, some overscoring by the device was noted in comparison with the scores given by the experienced veterinary surgeon, although this overscoring diminished as the body condition score assigned by the veterinary surgeon increased. The ease to use and the accuracy of the results obtained allow the TM Vet Device to be considered a useful tool in the nutritional management of a modern dairy herd