Spanish Teachers\u27 Sense of Humor and Student Performance on the National Spanish Exams

Research suggests that second/foreign language teachers\u27 sense of humor is directly related to many outcomes for teachers and their students. This research investigates the relationship between the perceived sense of humor of in-service Spanish teachers\u27 (n = 102) and their students\u27 (n = 5,419) score on the National Spanish Exams using the affective filter hypothesis as a conceptual framework. Statistical analyses indicate that Spanish teacher sense of humor is related to student achievement on the exams. This research has implications for language teachers and teacher educators

Applications of patching to quadratic forms and central simple algebras

This paper provides applications of patching to quadratic forms and central simple algebras over function fields of curves over henselian valued fields. In particular, we use a patching approach to reprove and generalize a recent result of Parimala and Suresh on the u-invariant of p-adic function fields, for p odd. The strategy relies on a local-global principle for homogeneous spaces for rational algebraic groups, combined with local computations.Comment: 48 pages; connectivity now required in the definition of rational group; beginning of Section 4 reorganized; other minor change

Teaching Intercultural Competence in Translator Training

In this position paper we define an interculturally competent translator as one that demonstrates a high level of intercultural knowledge, skills, attitude and flexibility throughout his or her professional engagements. We argue that to attain this goal in translator training intercultural competence needs to be introduced into the curriculum explicitly and in a conceptually clear manner. In this article we provide an overview of earlier attempts at discussing the role of intercultural communication in translator training curricula and we discuss the various pedagogical and practical challenges involved. We also look at some future challenges, identifying increasing societal diversity as both a source of added urgency into intercultural training and a challenge for traditional biculturally based notions of translators’ intercultural competence and we argue for the central role of empathy. Finally, and importantly, we introduce the contributions to the special issue

From Bengali to English: sequential bilingualism of a second-generation British Bangladeshi

The paper discusses sequential language acquisition of the researcher's daughter Safa who transformed from a monolingual Bengali speaker to an almost monolingual English speaker in a few months after moving to the UK. Safa was born in Bangladesh and was a monolingual Bengali speaker until she was three years and nine months when the family moved to the UK. Unlike most research on sequential bilingualism, Safa's transition from Bengali to English went through a period of an invented language, which she developed and used for a few months. Safa then underwent language shift as Bengali became her passive language. Safa's loss of fluency in Bengali was mainly due to the absence of Bengali linguistic environment, because her family lived outside the community. Safa's mother's indifference to Bangladeshi ethnicity and her parents’ positive attitude towards Britishness meant that her decline in Bengali did not cause them much concern. Despite the lack of proficiency in Bengali, Safa still retains a strong ethnic Bangladeshi identity. Tabors and Snow’s four-stage developmental process of sequential second-language acquisition has been applied to find the similarities and differences in Safa's case, while language maintenance and shift theories have contributed to the analysis of the process of her language shift

SOCIAL CONSTRAINTS ON ADULT LANGUAGE LEARNING

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73181/1/j.1749-6632.1981.tb42015.x.pd

Access to Print in Low‐Income and Middle‐Income Communities: An Ecological Study of Four Neighborhoods

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/88026/1/RRQ.36.1.1.pd

Open Problems on Central Simple Algebras

We provide a survey of past research and a list of open problems regarding central simple algebras and the Brauer group over a field, intended both for experts and for beginners.Comment: v2 has some small revisions to the text. Some items are re-numbered, compared to v

Towards a modular language curriculum for using tasks

Task-based language teaching (TBLT) and task-supported language teaching (TSLT) are often seen as incompatible as they draw on different theories of language learning and language teaching. The position adopted in this article, however, is that both approaches are needed especially in instructional contexts where ‘pure’ task-based teaching may be problematic for various reasons. The article makes a case for a modular curriculum consisting of separate (i.e. non-integrated) task-based and structure-based components. Different curriculum models are considered in the light of what is known about how a second language is learned. The model that is proposed assumes the importance of developing fluency first. It consists of a primary task-based module implemented with focus-on-form (Long, 1991) and, once a basic fluency has been achieved, supported by a secondary structural module to provide for explicit accuracy-oriented work to counteract learned selective attention (N. Ellis, 2006): one of the main sources of persistent error. The article also addresses the content and grading of the task-based and structural modules. It considers the factors that need to be considered in the vertical and horizontal grading of tasks but also points out that, for the time being, syllabus designers will have to draw on their experience and intuition as much as on research to make decisions about how to sequence tasks. An argument is presented for treating the structural component as a checklist rather than as a syllabus so as to allow teachers to address selectively those features that are found to be problematic for their students when they perform tasks

Towards a plurilingual habitus: engendering interlinguality in urban spaces

This article focuses on the potential of the multilingual city to create spaces in which monolingual hegemonies may be challenged, inclusive, intercultural values may be nurtured, and plurilingualism may be valorised. Following a contextualisation of linguistic diversity in theories of globalisation and superdiversity, discourses of deficit and power are addressed, arguing that the problematisation of multilingualism and pathologisation of plurilingualism reflect a monolingual habitus. Bringing about a shift towards a plurilingual habitus requires a Deep Approach, as it involves a critical revaluing of deep-seated dispositions. It suggests that the city offers spaces, which can engender interlinguality, a construct that includes interculturality, criticality and a commitment to creative and flexible use of other languages in shared, pluralistic spaces. It then proposes critical, participatory and ethnographic research in three multidimensional spaces: the urban school and a potential interlingual curriculum; networks, lobbying for inclusive policy and organising celebratory events in public spaces; and grass roots-level local spaces, some created by linguistic communities to exercise agency and maintain their languages and cultures, and some emerging as linguistically hybrid spaces for convivial encounter