The Use of the L1 in a CLIL Lesson in Secondary Education in Galicia

[Abstract] During the last decades, many steps have been taken towards the promotion of plurilingualism in Galicia. One of the most widespread initiatives undertaken in this autonomous community is the creation of bilingual sections and plurilingual educational institutions network in 2010 in Early Stages, Primary and Secondary Education across the autonomous community. As a unifying element, they follow the CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) methodology: a non-linguistic content subject is taught in a foreign language. However, the language of instruction is not the only one used in these lessons; the L1 is sometimes present in CLIL. Despite previous misconceptions on whether using the L1 in foreign language lessons would be counterproductive, research has proved that CLIL may benefit from a certain coexistence of both languages (Méndez García & Pavón Vázquez, 2012). Contrary to the idea of L1 usage due to poor language proficiency, the appearance of both languages in students’ and CLIL teachers’ speech may point to a deeper understanding of both languages. In our discussion of this topic we will refer the concept of ‘translanguaging’, which can be useful to understand the use of different languages in the Galician CLIL sections. Therefore, this study endeavours to analyse the use of the L1 (Spanish-Galician) and L2 (English) as a code-switching practice in a CLIL Secondary Education context. Within this framework, Bloom’s taxonomy of HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) and LOTS (Lower Order Thinking Skills) (Bloom, 1956) will be accounted in order to assess the type of spoken productions and how code-switching is influenced by said thinking skills. Keywords: CLIL, L1, Translanguaging, Code-switching, Secondary Education , Bloom’s Taxonomy.[Resumen] En las últimas décadas se han tomado muchas medidas para promocionar el plurilingüismo en Galicia. Una de las iniciativas más extendidas llevada a cabo en esta comunidad autónoma es la creación de las secciones bilingües y la red de instituciones educativas plurilingües desde 2010 en Educación Infantil, Educación Primaria y Secundaria. Como elemento unificador, estas secciones siguen la metodología AICLE (Aprendizaje Integrado de Contenidos y Lenguas Extranjeras): una materia no lingüística se enseña en una lengua extranjera. Sin embargo, la lengua de instrucción (L2) es la única utilizada en estas clases; la lengua materna (L1) está a veces presente en AICLE. A pesar de la idea equivocada de que utilizar la L1 en la clase de lengua extranjera sería contraproducente, estudios han demostrado que AICLE se puede beneficiar de una cierta coexistencia de ambas lenguas (Méndez García & Pavón Vázquez, 2012). Contraria a la idea de que el uso de la L1 se debe a un dominio pobre de la lengua, la aparición de ambas lenguas en el habla de los alumnos y del profesor AICLE apuntan a un conocimiento más profundo de ambas lenguas. En nuestro debate sobre este tema, nos referiremos al concepto de ‘translanguaging’, que puede ser útil para entender el uso de diferentes lenguas en las secciones AICLE gallegas. Por lo tanto, este estudio trata de analizar el uso de la L1 (castellano-gallego) y la L2 como práctica de code-switching en un contexto educativo de secundaria AICLE. Dentro del marco teórico, se considerará la taxonomía de Bloom de HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) y LOTS (Lower Order Thinking Skills) (Bloom, 1956) para evaluar el tipo de producciones orales y como el codeswitching está influenciado por dichas habilidades de pensamiento.[Résumé] Tout au long des dernières décennies, des mesures pour la promotion du plurilinguisme ont été prises en Galice. L’une des initiatives les plus répandues dans cette communauté autonome est la création de sections bilingues et du réseau d’établissements scolaires plurilingues depuis 2010 pour l’Enseignement Maternel, l’Enseignement Primaire et l’Enseignement Secondaire. En tant qu’élément unificateur, ces sections suivent la méthode EMILE (Enseignement de Matières par Intégration d’une Langue Etrangère): une matière non linguistique est enseignée en langue étrangère. Pourtant, la langue d’instruction n’est pas la seule utilisée lors de ces cours : la L1 est parfois aussi présente dans le cours EMILE. Malgré la fausse idée que l’usage de la L1 en cours de langues étrangères est contre-productif, des études ont montré qu’EMILE peut tirer profit d’une certaine coexistence des deux langues (Méndez García & Pavón Vázquez, 2012). Face à l’idée que l’usage de la L1 est à cause d’une faible maitrise de la langue, l’apparition des deux langues en cours peut montrer une connaissance plus profonde des langues de la part des élèves et du professeur EMILE, ce qui peut être intéressant pour comprendre l’usage des différentes langues dans les sections EMILE en Galice. Par conséquent, cette étude a pour objet d’analyser l’usage de la L1 (espagnol-galicien) et de l’anglais comme pratique de code-switching lors d’un contexte éducatif de l’enseignement secondaire EMILE. Dans le cadre théorique, nous considérons la taxonomie de Bloom de HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) et LOTS (Lower Order Thinking Skills) (Bloom, 1956), pour évaluer le type de productions orales et comme le codeswitching est influencé par lesdites habiletés de pensée

The Problem-Solution Pattern: A Tool for the Teaching of Writing?

Over the past two decades researchers have increasingly become aware of the fact that language teaching can benefit from the field of discourse analysis and pragmatics. This paper analyzes the applicability of the so called problem-solution pattern to the teaching of writing. An experiment was conducted in order to test M. Hoey’s (2001) belief that the pattern can serve as a ready-made template to help the learner-writer in their task The results point at the fact that providing students with vocabulary related to the topic triggers the problem-solution pattern, which reveals itself as culturally known for our student s, without the need of explaining it explicitly

Non-Financial Information versus Financial as a Key to the Stakeholder Engagement: A Higher Education Perspective

In light of the increased demand for greater accountability and legitimacy, new disclosure mechanisms based on non-financial transparency have emerged. Universities cannot be left behind with respect to these social demands. In addition, continuous competition in excellence is driving higher education organizations to exhibit a greater visibility of their results, necessarily incorporating more non-financial aspects to boost stakeholder engagement. The novelty of this work lies in the analysis of the real state of non-financial vs. financial information in both public and private universities and in the exploration of their influence on stakeholder online engagement. To this end, a content analysis of the universities’ web pages and Facebook profiles was conducted, and a multivariable linear regression analysis was performed. The main results show that private and larger universities that lead Webometrics for Google Scholar Citations, and those that have gradually been adopting financial reporting, are the most interested in implementing Facebook as a two-way communication strategy. It seems that stakeholders react more to financial transparency and, therefore, universities still prefer financial disclosure to improve accountability

Reasons for donating blood amongst medical staff

En España el número de donaciones y de nuevos donantes de sangre ha disminuido en los últimos años. Si lo que se pretende es mantener unos niveles estables, es necesario un grupo de población de bajo riesgo y la población sanitaria podría ser un candidato perfecto. El objetivo de este estudio ha sido describir cuáles son los motivos que influyen en el personal sanitario para convertirse en donantes de sangre y para los que no son donantes identificar las barreras que les impiden donar y qué podría motivarles para convertirse en donantes. Se trata de un estudio descriptivo transversal, realizado en el Hospital Clínico San Carlos de Madrid, desde marzo a diciembre de 2015. Se ha considerado significativa una muestra de 300 individuos. De la muestra obtenida (N=300), 85.3% (256) fueron mujeres y un 14.7% (44) fueron hombres, con una edad media de 41.18 años (DE: 10.66). De estos 300 individuos, 23.3% (70) eran auxiliares de enfermería, 60% (180) eran enfermeras, 14.3% (43) eran médicos y 2.3% (7) pertenecían a otras categorías profesionales. En lo que respecta a la donación de sangre: 48.3% (145) nunca habían donado sangre, frente al 51.6% (155) que sí habían donado sangre en alguna ocasión. De los 155 profesionales sanitarios que eran donantes, 60% (93) habían comenzado a donar sangre por altruismo, y 13.5% (21) por la influencia del alguien cercano. Además un 63.8% (99) habían continuado donando sangre por altruismo o por responsabilidad social. En relación con los no donantes, 52.4 % (76) no han donado nunca sangre por alguna causa médica y 12.4% (18) por falta de tiempo. Al preguntarles sobre qué podría motivarles para donar: 31.3% (45) donaría si un familiar necesitase una transfusión sanguínea y el 23.4% (34) en caso de una situación de emergencia. Los resultados obtenidos podrán ayudar a establecer estrategias específicas para tratar de convertir a este grupo de población en donantes de sangre regulares.In Spain the number of blood donations and new donors has decreased over the past few years. If we want to keep the levels stable, a low-risk population group is needed and medical staff would be a good candidate group. The aim of this study has been to describe what motivates medical staff to donate and for non-donors to identify the barriers that prevent them from doing so, and what might motivate them. A descriptive transversal study, carried out in Hospital Clínico San Carlos in Madrid, from March to December 2015. A sample size of 300 individuals was considered to be significant. Of the sample, 85.3% (256) were female, and 14.7% (44) male, with an average age of 41.18 (SD: 10.66). Of these, 23.3% (70) were assistant nurses, 60% (180) nurses, 14.3% (43) doctors and 2.3% (7) were of other professional categories. Regarding blood donation: 48.3% (145) have never been donors, compared to 51.6% (155) who have donated blood. Of the 155 medical professionals that were donors 60% (93) began to donate as a result of altruism, and 13.5% (21) through the influence of a someone close, furthermore the 63.8% (99) have continued motivated by altruism or social responsibility. In relation to non-donors, 52.4% (76) haven’t donated due to medical causes and 12.4% (18) due to a lack of time. Upon asking what might motivate to donate: 31.3% (45) would donate if a family member needed a blood transfusion and 23.4% (34) in an emergency situation. The results can help us establish strategies to convert this sector of the population in to regular blood donors

An Overview About Scientific, Technical and Teaching Colections of The Secondary Schools and its Preventive Conservation.

This article aims to discuss the state of the art on the preventive conservation of the scientific, technical and teaching collections of secondary schools and relies on experience obtained by the authors with two case studies: the Secondary School of San Isidoro de Sevilla and the Instituto de Secundaria “Padre Coloma” from Jerez de la Frontera. As the result of this work we created a research line focused on the “Theory, History and Practice of the Preservation and Restoration of educational equity.”El presente artículo aborda un primer estado de la cuestión de la conservación preventiva de las colecciones científicas, técnicas y didácticas, de los centros educativos de secundaria y se apoya en la experiencia con Instituto de Enseñanza Secundaria San Isidoro de Sevilla y con el Instituto de Secundaria “Padre Coloma” de Jerez de la Frontera. Resultado de ello, es la línea de investigación que nos ocupa en la actualidad: “Teoría, Historia y praxis de la Conservación y Restauración del Patrimonio educativo”

Family Functioning Assessment Instruments in Adults with a Non-Psychiatric Chronic Disease: A Systematic Review

There is little information on the evaluation of family functioning in adult patients with chronic non-psychiatric illness. The objective of this systematic review was to identify family functioning assessment instruments of known validity and reliability that have been used in health research on patients with a chronic non-psychiatric illness. We conducted a search in three biomedical databases (PubMed, Science Direct, and Web of Science), for original articles available in English or Spanish published between 2000 and 2019. The review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA guidelines. Fourteen articles were included in the review. The instruments Family Assessment Device, Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales, Family Functioning Health and Social Support, Family APGAR, Assessment of Strategies in Families-Effectiveness, Iceland Expressive Family Functioning, Brief Family Assessment Measure-III, and Family Relationship Index were identified. All of them are reliable instruments to evaluate family functioning in chronic patients and could be very valuable to help nurses identify families in need of a psychosocial intervention. The availability and clinical application of these instruments will allow nurses to generate knowledge on family health and care for non-psychiatric chronic conditions, and will eventually contribute to the health and wellbeing of adults with a non-psychiatric chronic disease and their familie

Study on the use of metadata for digital learning objects in university institutional repositories (MODERI)

Metadata is a core issue for the creation of repositories. Different institutional repositories have chosen and use different metadata models, elements and values for describing the range of digital objects they store. Thus, this paper analyzes the current use of metadata describing those Learning Objects that some open higher educational institutions' repositories include in their collections. The goal of this work is to identify and analyze the different metadata models being used to describe educational features of those specific digital educational objects (such as audience, type of educational object, learning objectives, etc.). Also discussed is the concept and typology of Learning Objects (LO) through their use in University Repositories. We will also examine the usefulness of specifically describing those learning objects, setting them apart from other kind of documents included in the repository, mainly scholarly publications and research results of the Higher Education institution.En prens

Performance evaluation and limitations of a vision system on a reconfigurable/programmable chip

This paper presents a survey of the characteristics of a vision system implemented in a reconfigurable/programmable chip (FPGA). System limitations and performance have been evaluated in order to derive specifications and constraints for further vision system synthesis. The system hereby reported has a conventional architecture. It consists in a central microprocessor (CPU) and the necessary peripheral elements for data acquisition, data storage and communications. It has been designed to stand alone, but a link to the programming and debugging tools running in a digital host (PC) is provided. In order to alleviate the computational load of the central microprocessor, we have designed a visual co-processor in charge of the low-level image processing tasks. It operates autonomously, commanded by the CPU, as another system peripheral. The complete system, without the sensor, has been implemented in a single reconfigurable chip as a SOPC. The incorporation of a dedicated visual co-processor, with specific circuitry for low-level image processing acceleration, enhances the system throughput outperforming conventional processing schemes. However, timemultiplexing of the dedicated hardware remains a limiting factor for the achievable peak computing power. We have quantified this effect and sketched possible solutions, like replication of the specific image processing hardware