Review of Online intercultural exchange: Policy, pedagogy, practice

Online intercultural exchange (OIE), also known as telecollaboration, is defined as “the activity of engaging language learners in interaction and collaborative project work with partners from other cultures through the use of online communication tools such as e-mail, videoconferencing, and discussion forums” (O’Dowd, 2007, p. 4). Research on OIE has flourished in the past 20 years, evidenced by a large number of journal articles, dedicated journal special issues (e.g., Belz, 2003; Lewis, Chanier, & Youngs, 2011), and edited volumes (Belz & Throne, 2006; Dooly, 2008; Dooly & O’Dowd, 2012; Guth & Helm, 2010; O’Dowd, 2007; Warschauer, 1995, 1996; Warschauer & Kern, 2000). Compared to other edited volumes on telecollaboration in the market, this book provides a state-of-the-art overview of OIE and focuses on its use in university education around the world. This 17-chapter edited volume consists of five parts: an overview of OIE (Part I), the integration of OIE in university education (Part II), the pedagogy of OIE (Part III), OIE in practice (Part IV), and the future of OIE (Part V)

Articulating Teachers’ Expectations afore: Impact of Rubrics on Chinese EFL Learners’ Self-Assessment and Speaking Ability

Under the constraint of classroom time, English as foreign language (EFL) learners usually do not have adequate opportunity to practice oral English in class nor receive individualized feedback from the instructor. After-class practice constitutes an essential component of foreign language learning. This study investigated the effect of utilizing rubrics on EFL learners’ oral English using a 16-week experiment and a questionnaire. A total of 61 college students participated in the study, 41 in the rubric-mediated group and 20 in the control group. They were required to complete six tasks of three types: conversation, description, and discussion. Participants in the rubric-mediated group were provided with three rubrics describing respective task assessment criteria. They were also required to record their speaking, self-assess their performance with reference to the rubrics, revise their speaking if they noticed they did not meet the criteria, and finally complete a questionnaire. Students in the control group were assigned the same tasks but were not given the rubrics. Two oral tests were delivered at the initial and final stages of the study to measure the change in their speaking ability. Results revealed that rubrics had positive effects on discourse length, discourse organization, and linguistic flexibility but little impact on linguistic accuracy. Responses to the questionnaire indicated that students perceive rubrics as a facilitative tool of practice and self-assessment

The energy spectrum symmetry of Heisenberg model in Fock space

We prove strictly that one dimension spin 1/2 Heisenberg model has a symmetry of energy spectrum between its subspace $n$ and the subspace $L-n$ of the Fock space. Our proof is completed by introducing two general quantum operations. One is a flip operation of spin direction and another is a mirror reflection of spin sites.Comment: Revising version, 7 preprint pages, no figures; Published version contains some revisions in Languag

Steady Euler Flows with Large Vorticity and Characteristic Discontinuities in Arbitrary Infinitely Long Nozzles

We establish the existence and uniqueness of smooth solutions with large vorticity and weak solutions with vortex sheets/entropy waves for the steady Euler equations for both compressible and incompressible fluids in arbitrary infinitely long nozzles. We first develop a new approach to establish the existence of smooth solutions without assumptions on the sign of the second derivatives of the horizontal velocity, or the Bernoulli and entropy functions, at the inlet for the smooth case. Then the existence for the smooth case can be applied to construct approximate solutions to establish the existence of weak solutions with vortex sheets/entropy waves by nonlinear arguments. This is the first result on the global existence of solutions of the multidimensional steady compressible full Euler equations with free boundaries, which are not necessarily small perturbations of piecewise constant background solutions. The subsonic-sonic limit of the solutions is also shown. Finally, through the incompressible limit, we establish the existence and uniqueness of incompressible Euler flows in arbitrary infinitely long nozzles for both the smooth solutions with large vorticity and the weak solutions with vortex sheets. The methods and techniques developed here will be useful for solving other problems involving similar difficulties.Comment: 43 pages; 2 figures; To be published in Advances in Mathematics (2019

Role of Discipline-specific Vocabulary in L2 Reading by Chinese Chemistry Major Undergraduates

This study explored the contribution of second language (L2) discipline-specific vocabulary to Chinese chemistry major undergraduates’ reading of textbooks. Participants included 82 second-year undergraduates majoring in chemistry. Their discipline-specific vocabulary knowledge and chemistry textbook reading ability were measured. Their L2 proficiency and chemistry knowledge data were collected. Correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed that discipline-specific vocabulary was highly correlated with L2 proficiency and disciplinary knowledge, and discipline-specific vocabulary contributed the most to textbook reading, bigger than either L2 proficiency or disciplinary knowledge. Implications for discipline-specific vocabulary and English for academic purposes (EAP) reading instructions are discussed

Structure of research topics of reading in a foreign language's publications in the past two decades (2002-2020): a bibliometric analysis

This bibliometric study analyzed the research topic structure of the Reading in a Foreign Language (RFL) journal in the past two decades. Using two well recognized bibliometric approaches, namely, the keyword co-occurrence analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis, the study examined author keywords and their co-occurrence of 184 research articles from 2002 to 2020. Results revealed that (1) the journal covered a wide range of reading research topics, and its most frequently researched topics were extensive reading, reading fluency, vocabulary learning, reading of foreign languages other than English, etc; (2) frequently researched topics were clustered into eight groups, including development of reading fluency, learner factors, vocabulary, etc.; and (3) the network of research topics centered around six large nodes (i.e., standardized keywords), namely extensive reading, reading fluency, vocabulary learning, reader characteristics, reading instructions, and reading comprehension. The findings might help readers and potential contributors familiarize with the research topic structure of the RFL journal. This study has important pedagogical implications