Situating Grammar Instruction in the World Language Classroom: Four Content-Enriched Strategies

The role of grammar instruction in promoting communicative competence continues to be a controversial issue for the world language classroom teacher. Second language acquisition research suggests that critical to sustained progress in language use is a focus on form, which we define as attention to linguistic form in the context of performing a communicative task. We therefore offer here four content-enriched strategies for situating grammar in a communicative context: textual enhancement, input flood, structured input, and dictogloss. We present these tasks and activities within the framework of the Standards for Foreign Language Learning in the 21st Century (SFLL, 2006) to illustrate how a standards-based approach that integrates form-focused instruction with content increases student achievement in the target language

Protoneutron Star Winds

Neutrino-driven winds are thought to accompany the Kelvin-Helmholtz cooling phase of nascent protoneutron stars in the first seconds after a core-collapse supernova. These outflows are a likely candidate as the astrophysical site for rapid neutron-capture nucleosynthesis (the r-process). In this chapter we review the physics of protoneutron star winds and assess their potential as a site for the production of the heavy r-process nuclides. We show that spherical transonic protoneutron star winds do not produce robust $r$-process nucleosynthesis for `canonical' neutron stars with gravitational masses of 1.4 M_sun and coordinate radii of 10 km. We further speculate on and review some aspects of neutrino-driven winds from protoneutron stars with strong magnetic fields.Comment: 29 pages, 4 figures, in "Core Collapse of Massive Stars", Ed. C. L. Fryer, Kluwer Academic Publisher

Integrative Motivation as a Predictor of Achievement in the Foreign Language Classroom

This study examines the relationship among five independent variables—integrative motivation, instrumental motivation, the need to fulfill a foreign language requirement, grade point average (GPA), and previous years studying Spanish—as predictors of five dependent variables: scores on a simulated oral proficiency interview (SOPI), final exam grades, final grades, the desire to enroll in Spanish courses after completing the language requirement, and intention to major in Spanish. Data from a questionnaire and a SOPI administered to 130 students enrolled in fourth-semester Spanish identified integrative motivation as a significant predictor of SOPI scores and final exam grades. Furthermore, integrative motivation was a significant predictor of students’ desire to enroll in additional coursework after completing the four-semester foreign language requirement. It also had an important role in students’ intention to major in the language. A negative relationship was found between the need to fulfill the language requirement and intent to continue with further studies in Spanish. The findings demonstrate that integrative motivation is important in predicting student achievement in the foreign language classroom