Capturing Accuracy in Second Language Performance: The Case for a Weighted Clause Ratio

As increasing numbers of research papers in applied linguistics, language learning and assessment use discourse analysis techniques to assess accuracy in performance, it is timely to examine at a detailed level the wide variety of measures employed. Ideally, measures need to capture accuracy in as valid and reliable a way as possible, but this has proved elusive. In this paper, we systematically review the variety of different measures in used in these fields, both global and local, before presenting a more finely tuned weighted clause ratio measure which classifies errors at different levels, i.e. those that seriously impede communication, those that impair communication to some degree, and those that do not impair communication at all. The problem of reliably identifying these levels is discussed, followed by an analysis of samples from written and spoken L2 performance data. This new measure, grounded in a comprehensive review of prior practice in the field, has the advantages of being relatively easy to use, of measuring accuracy rather than error, and of evaluating smaller increases in improved performance than have previously been possible

Bounce Forward:A School-Based Prevention Programme for Building Resilience in a Socioeconomically Disadvantaged Context

Socioeconomic status is a strong predictor of normative development and well-being in young people. It is well-known that growing up in a socioeconomically disadvantaged context may lead to negative outcomes, both in childhood and in adulthood. Early intervention and prevention programmes are crucial for building resilience and improving health, well-being and equity. Bounce Forward is a school-based prevention programme implemented in Blackpool, a town in the United Kingdom facing multiple challenges. It was part of a whole town resilience approach and nascent global social movement known as the "Resilience Revolution." Between 2017 and 2019, the programme was delivered in all Year 5 classes at every primary school in Blackpool (n school = 36), reaching out to 3,134 students (ages 9-10; 50.4% male). The programme aimed to increase resilience in young people by building knowledge and skills about mental health and resilience through 10 sessions. In the current study, we longitudinally examined a range of protective factors, which are relevant to young people's resilience, as well as their mental health outcomes at three time points: before they participated in Bounce Forward, at the end of the programme, and 3-5 months later, when they started Year 6. The current sample included 441 Year 5 students (54.2% male) from 11 primary schools in Blackpool. Nineteen teaching staff also participated in the study and provided qualitative data regarding the impact of the programme on their students. Results showed improvement in some areas of young people's resilience after taking part in Bounce Forward. We also identified gender differences in several protective factors, indicating that boys may need further support. Teaching staff highlighted improvements in various areas; and also observed that their students have been using the strategies that they learnt from the programme. Altogether, findings suggested that young people benefitted from Bounce Forward. The programme is sustainable, offering a free to download teacher resource pack that allows schools to self-deliver it

Measuring spoken language: A unit for all reasons

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Supporting children and young people’s mental health:A guide for schools using a resilience based approach

This guide is for any member of school staff who is concerned about a child or young person’s mental health and wellbeing. We have based its contents on research undertaken in the UK, but we hope it will also be of use to an international readership. It was originally co-produced for East Sussex schools by a partnership between East Sussex County Council (ESCC), Boingboing and the University of Brighton’s Centre of Resilience for Social Justice in the UK. It had input from teachers, mental health practitioners and young people who are members of the East Sussex Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) Download group and members of the ESCC Youth Cabinet. Boingboing staff and volunteers have a wide range of identities, including academics, mental health and school practitioners, parents of and children with complex needs, and others with lived experience. Our team also included members with lived experience of mental health issues while of school age. The East Sussex Children and Young People’s Mental Health and Emotional Wellbeing Transformation Board funded the original Guide for East Sussex schools. This version of the guide has been adapted from this original work, with involvement and examples from those involved with the world's first Resilience Revolution happening in Blackpool. The Resilience Revolution, funded by the Big Lottery Community Fund, is a whole town approach to addressing the mental health needs of young people and they are embedding Boingboing’s Resilient Therapy as the approach to help achieve it

Contexts of Child Development: Culture, Policy and Intervention

'Contexts of Child Development' is an inspiring and thought-provoking collection that aims to deepen our understanding of child development in order to positively influence the people, policies and practices that help shape children's lives. Drawing on a range of methodological, theoretical and practical perspectives, and on leading Australian and international research, the volume challenges us to consider issues as diverse as the continuing impact of past colonial policies and practices on Australian Aboriginal child development today; the ways in which a focus on 'learning through the arts' can be beneficial to other areas of development, including literacy; and the potentially disabling consequences of the socio-culturally biased construction of what constitutes a 'good childhood' which currently underpins policy in the UK. A key concern of the collection is to advance insights and understandings of child development in relation to questions of cultural diversity, social disadvantage and state-supported interventions. Hence, many of the contributions focus on the outcomes of child development in Australian Aboriginal communities, including Ernabella and Docker River in the Western Desert, Darnley Island in north-east Queensland, the Tiwi Islands in the Northern Territory, Yakanarra in the Kimberley, and the Yorta Yorta in rural Victoria. While the editors consider that the contributions collectively 'point to complex patterns of intergenerational reproduction of disadvantage for which there is no single intervention p oint', they conclude that the challenge for educators, pol icy makers, governments an d communities alike is to find and follow the ways and means by which it is possible to support the outcomes of child development in order that the deleterious effects of multiple disadvantage might be undone. [ This volume redefines the intersection of history, science, culture, and evidence about child development to address the modern Australian Aboriginal circumstance. Essential reading for those in politics, policy and practice. Professor Fiona Stanley AC, University of Western Australia.] Contributors: Julie Andrews, Gordon Briscoe, Courtney Cazden, Frances Christie, Robin Dalby, Samantha Disbray, Ute Eickelkamp, Jacqueline Goodnow, Pauline Fietz, Michael Gooda, Judith A. Griffin, Colleen Hayward, Allison James, Ilan Katz, Jill Korbin, David Lawrence, John De Maio, Francis Mitrou, Barbara Piscitelli, Glenn Pearson, Gary Robinson, Dorothy Scott, Carrington Shepherd, Sven Silburn, Gillian Wigglesworth, Steve Zubrick.List of Contributors -- Acknowledgements -- Map -- Foreword -- Introduction / Robinson, Eickelkamp, Goodnow, Katz. Contexts of Child Development: Culture, Policy and Intervention -- Section 1: Constructs of Aboriginal Wellbeing: Historical, cultural and social realities -- 1. Assimilation and Indifference: The paradoxical treatment of Indigenous children in Central Australia, 1914-1951 / Briscoe -- 2. Bringing up our Yorta Yorta Children / Andrews -- 3. Vulnerabilities, Families and Child Development: Crises affecting the young in a north Australian community / Robinson -- 4. Socialisation and the Shaping of Youth Identity at Docker River / Fietz -- 5. The Western Australian Aboriginal Child Health Survey: Are there any policy implications? / Zubrick et al -- Section 2: Childhood, Community and State: The challenge of intervention -- 6. Research and Action:Challenges, moves forward and unfinished tasks / Goodnow -- 7. Early Intervention and 'Evidence-based' Policy / Katz -- 8. Day Care or Early Education? Perspectives on the institutional provision for young children in the UK / James -- 9. Early Childhood and Community: Capacity building in early childhood networks / Scott -- 10. Child Neglect and Abuse across Cultures / Korbin -- Section 3: Play, Symbols and Language: Development and learning in and out of school -- 11. Play, Imagination and Early Experience: Sand storytelling and continuity of being among Anangu Pitjantjatjara girls / Eickelkamp -- 12. Images of Childhood: By children, about culture and identity / Piscitelli -- 13. A Longitudinal Study of Language Acquisition in Australian Aboriginal Children in Three Communities / Disbray & Wigglesworth -- 14. Advanced Literacy Development for the Years of Adolescence / Christie -- 15. A Longitudinal Follow-up Study of the Alumnae of a Middle-School Science and Literacy Program: Achieving and sustaining / Cazden -- References -- IndexJira Ticket : CDU-3 : Collection Development Manager made the decision that for the books that have this message " This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing to the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced, by any process, without written permission. Enquiries should be made to the publisher, Charles Darwin University Press, Charles Darwin University, Darwin NT 0909, Australia" in the front they would treat CDU NTU Press as the copyright holder based on this statement. 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