Grammar for Writing? An investigation into the effect of Contextualised Grammar Teaching on Student Writing

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleThe role of grammar instruction in the teaching of writing is contested in most Anglophone countries, with several robust meta-analyses finding no evidence of any beneficial effect. However, existing research is limited in that it only considers isolated grammar instruction and offers no theorisation of an instructional relationship between grammar and writing. This study, drawing on a theorised understanding of grammar as a meaning-making resource for writing development, set out to investigate the impact of contextualised grammar instruction on students’ writing performance. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach, with a randomised controlled trial and a complementary qualitative study. The statistical analyses indicate a positive effect on writing performance for the intervention group (e = 0.21; p<0.001); but the study also indicates that the intervention impact differentially on different sub-groups, benefiting able writers more than weaker writers. The study is significant in being the first to supply rigorous, theorised evidence for the potential benefits of teaching grammar to support development in writing

GEOLOGICAL STRENGTH INDEX METHOD FOR ROCK MASS PARAMETERS ABOUT JINPING UNDERGROUND CAVERNS

工程开挖卸荷后岩体参数研究一直是工程界关注的焦点,是稳定性评价的基础性工作.本文以锦屏地下厂房开挖工程为背景,通过对上下游边墙不同桩号段开挖揭露的岩体进行工程地质岩组划分,进行了开挖后岩体质量评价并对其进行分类,通过在GSI(Geological Strength Index)评价体系中引入Jv(节理数/m3),使评价体系相对合理化,经回归分析,对不同风化程度的岩体进行了力学参数求解,发现内聚力及内摩擦角的计算值与建议值吻合较

Weathering the storm: developments in the acoustic sensing of wind and rain

An Acoustic Rain Gauge (ARG) analyses the underwater sound levels across a wide frequency range, classifies the observed spectrum according to likely source and then determines the local wind speed or rain rate as appropriate. Thispaper covers a trial on the Scotian Shelf off Canada, comparing the geophysical information derived from the acoustic signals with those obtained from other sources

Does a Carbonatite Deposit Influence Its Surrounding Ecosystem?

Carbonatites are unusual alkaline rocks with diverse compositions. Although previous work has characterized the effects these rocks have on soils and plants, little is known about their impacts on local ecosystems. Using a deposit within the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence forest in northern Ontario, Canada, we investigated the effect of a carbonatite on soil chemistry and on the structure of plant and soil microbial communities. This was done using a vegetation survey conducted above and around the deposit, with corresponding soil samples collected for determining soil nutrient composition and for assessing microbial community structure using 16S/ITS Illumina Mi-Seq sequencing. In some soils above the deposit a soil chemical signature of the carbonatite was found, with the most important effect being an increase in soil pH compared with the non-deposit soils. Both plants and microorganisms responded to the altered soil chemistry: the plant communities present in carbonatite-impacted soils were dominated by ruderal species, and although differences in microbial communities across the surveyed areas were not obvious, the abundances of specific bacteria and fungi were reduced in response to the carbonatite. Overall, the deposit seems to have created microenvironments of relatively basic soil in an otherwise acidic forest soil. This study demonstrates for the first time how carbonatites can alter ecosystems in situ

Effect of protection status on mammal richness and abundance in Afromontane forests of the Udzungwa Mountains, Tanzania

The effectiveness of Protected Areas (PAs) in reducing hunting pressure on mammal populations in tropical forests has rarely been examined at a community-wide level. In African forests, commercial and subsistence hunting are widespread, but assessments of mammal abundance and distribution patterns are often lacking. We investigated patterns of occupancy and abundance for 27 species of medium- to large-bodied mammals (>2 kg) within Tanzania's Udzungwa Mountains Afromontane forests, a global biodiversity hotspot. We sampled 22 forest sites within 10 forests under varying degrees of protection, elevation, distance to extractive communities, and levels of law enforcement. We sampled 251.7 km of recce line transects during dry seasons (July–November) between September 2007 and July 2010. We found a strong positive effect of protection status on species richness and on encounter rates of the most commonly encountered species. Consistent with the levels of resources and enforcement within each PA category, there was a significant progression in species richness and abundance from Forest Reserves through Nature Reserves to sites within Udzungwa Mountains National Park. Protective status closely reflected levels of disturbance. Snaring activity, and distance to ranger posts were identified as significant predictors of overall species richness and encounter rates for mammal species, including endemics. The species-area relationship for our study species was found to be largely overridden by levels of protection. Our findings demonstrate PA effectiveness in Afromontane forests and reinforce concerns over hunting pressures particularly the threat posed by snares

The role of BIM in tackling obsolescence, climate change, and sustainability

Although the BIM technology is applicable to both new and existing buildings, it is arguably more established in the former than the latter. This is despite the fact that, in the UK alone, 70–80% of what has been built by 2010, is estimated to continue to exist for a number of decades to come: including the years 2020 and 2050 (the two main temporal deadlines in the Climate Change Act, 2008). In addition, this existing building stock is subject to obsolescence (both climate change-induced and non-climate change-associated) which in turn compromises sustainability. Thus, there are three notions that appear to be interwoven, i.e. Obsolescence, Climate Change, and Sustainability: the question is whether BIM can be exploited to address these. There has been only limited research work to explore the possible influence of BIM upon obsolescence, climate change, and sustainability as individual issues,and none reported, to-date, in terms of an approach to their collective consideration. This paper conceptually explores how BIM can be related with all three crucial notions simultaneously as well as discretely. It is argued that such studies can be particularly valuable in the face of escalating pressures in terms of future obsolescence risks, overwhelming evidence of climate change, and escalating sustainability agendas. The paper reviews current work that relates state-of-the-art BIM to the three notions, both separately and collectively, and thereby delineates the potential for BIM to play a role in addressing the three issues simultaneously