Researching grammar learning strategies: Combining the macro- and micro-perspective

Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00

Made in the USA? The influence of the US on the EU's data protection regime. CEPS Liberty and Security, November 2009

Recent developments have shown that the EU’s border security policy is greatly influenced by the US. This influence simultaneously has implications for other EU policies, including those on data protection. This paper highlights that policy-making at the transatlantic level is increasingly taking place through informal networks, such as the High-Level Political Dialogue on Border and Transportation Security and the High-Level Contact Group on data protection, which allow US involvement in EU policy-making. This tendency stems from the growing personal relationships among policy-makers, the gradual substitution of formal instruments with less formal contracts and informal understandings shaping the content of formal agreements. Drawing from empirical examples of EU–US cooperation on data protection in the context of homeland security, the paper analyses the repercussions of these developments and the issues that remain unresolved, and offers policy recommendations

Grammar Learning Strategies and Language Attainment: Seeking a Relationship

Despite major advances in research on language learning strategies, there are still areas that have received only scant attention, and one of them is undoubtedly learning grammar. The paper contributes to the paucity of empirical investigations in this domain by presenting the findings of a study which sought to investigate the relationship between the use of grammar learning strategies (GLS) reported by 142 English Department students and target language attainment, operationalized as their performance in a practical grammar course and the end-of-the-year examination. Information about GLS use was obtained by means of a tool that was designed on the basis of a theoretical scheme proposed by Oxford, Rang Lee and Park (2007) in which GLS are divided into three categories depending on whether they represent implicit learning with focus on form, explicit inductive learning and explicit deductive learning. The analysis failed to find a strong positive relationship between the use of GLS and achievement, irrespective of the level of the BA program, or statistically significant differences in this respect between lower-level and higher-level participants. The highest, albeit very weak, correlation was identified between the use of GLS associated with explicit deductive learning and grammar course grades, which testifies to the traditional nature of instruction the subjects receive. The findings serve as a basis for putting forward a handful of recommendations for learning, teaching and testing grammar as well as directions for future studies into grammar learning strategies

Editorial

This final 2019 issue of Studies in Second Language Learning and Teaching brings together six original empirical studies and two book reviews. In the first paper, Marco Octavio Cancino Avila reports the results of a study that investigated the learning opportunities arising in classroom interactions, placing special emphasis on the contribution of teachers’ and learners’ overlapped turns. Using conversational analysis, he analyzed extracts from six classes taught by three teachers to adult learners of English as a foreign language in Chile. He found that teachers’ skill in appropriately handling learners’ turns that overlapped or directly followed their own had a positive impact on participation and language learning as long as learners were given adequate interactional space (Sert, 2015). The second contribution by Reza Shirani also focuses upon classroom interaction, with the caveat that the main concern is with the effectiveness of different types of corrective feedback (CF). The study explored the relationship between the level of explicitness of input-providing (i.e., recasts) and output-promoting (i.e., prompts) CF moves, and the occurrence of uptake and repair in a foreign language context in Iran. Using the model of error treatment proposed by Lyster and Ranta (1997) to analyze transcripts of 36 hours of classroom interactions in three intact classes, the researcher found that prompts tended to be used more frequently than recasts, which stands in contrast to previous findings, but at the same time produced evidence that greater salience of CF is a crucial factor for the occurrence of self-correction, which is in line with prior research

Text reconstruction activities and teaching language forms

Even though there is a broad consensus that teaching language forms is facilitative or even necessary in some contexts, there are still disagreements concerning, among other things, how formal aspects of the target language should be taught. One important area of controversy is whether pedagogic intervention should be input-oriented, emphasizing comprehension of the form- meaning mappings represented by specific linguistic features or output-based, requiring learners to produce these features accurately in gradually more communicative activities. The present paper focuses on the latter of these two options and, basing on the claims of Swain‘s (1985, 1995) output hypothesis, it aims to demonstrates how text-reconstruction activities in which learners collaboratively produce written output trigger noticing, hypothesis-testing and metalinguistic reflection on language use. It presents a psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic rationale for the use of such tasks, discusses the types of such activities, provides an overview of research projects investigating their application and, finally, offers a set of implications for classroom use as well as suggestions for further research in this area

Foreign Policy as Part of Strengthening the Polish Economy in the World: the Ethical Aspect

The technological, economic and political advances of the 20th and 21st centuries have established new conditions for the development of civilization. The world economy has simultaneously expanded (the number of states/organization participating in world trade or the volume of heterogeneous transactions) and shrunk (close interrelations between transactions, no matter their geographic origins). Economic policy has gained an indispensable role in the creation of order in international relations and foreign policy. The tendency to prioritize foreign policy aims towards economic policy aims has resulted in ‘reverse flow’, i.e. foreign policy has become a central part of national economic policy. The engagement of external action services and public budget in economic promotion and investments triggers (inter alia) the ethics dilemma. The mentioned ethical aspect is often omitted when discussing ‘the economic foreign policy’. For instance, the ethics dilemma can appear when development and humanitarian aid are taken into account or when it comes to assessing the results (and membership) of economic missions. In this context, the author analyses the Polish foreign policy example and attempts to answer two questions. First, are the economic activities performed by external action services effective? Second, are the mentioned activities in accordance with the social ethical code of conduct? The author focuses on three elements – development and humanitarian aid, the participation of Polish diplomats in economic promotion, and economic missions

Discourse completion test as a tool for the development of intercultural competence

Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00

Hidden Violence: Preventing and Responding to Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse of Adolescent Boys

Boys and girls experience sexual violence and sexual exploitation in gender differentiated ways. Numerous national-level surveys have found that boys experience these forms of violence at lower rates than girls do, but at rates that nevertheless merit great attention. Boys are less likely to seek help, especially from formal services, when they experience sexual violence. Particular groups of boys also face higher risk, such as street boys. Boys' experiences of sexual violence are tied to feelings of shame, uncertainty, confusion and homophobic attitudes from the part of parents, service providers and legal or police officials.This document summarizes results from the report, "Hidden Violence: Preventing and Responding to Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse of Adolescent Boys, Case Studies and Directions for Action", prepared in 2012 by Promundo for the OAK Foundation. It first introduces some of the literature on the topic, then follows with international project experiences featuring a case study and video clip produced in Nicaragua. Conclusions, emerging issues and final recommendations are then presented. Calling attention to sexual violence experienced by boys does not minimize the experiences of girls and women. Rather, we seek to apply a gender lens to boys' experiences of sexual violence and exploitation and to both raise awareness of particular challenges boys face, and in the case of sexual violence against girls, improve prevention and protection efforts

Selected Spectral Characteristics of Turbulence over an Urbanized Area in the Centre of Łódź, Poland

We present the turbulence spectra and cospectra derived frommore than five years of eddy-covariance measurements at two urban sites inŁód´z, central Poland. The fast response wind velocity components were obtained using sonic anemometers placed on narrow masts at 37 and 42 m above ground level. The analysis follows Kaimal et al. (Q J R Meteorol Soc 98:563–589, 1972) who established the spectral and cospectral properties of turbulent flow in atmospheric surface layer on the basis of the Kansas experiment. Our results illustrate many features similar to those of Kaimal et al., but some differences are also observed. The velocity (co)spectra from Łód´z show a clear inertial subrange with −2/3 slope for spectra and −4/3 slope for cospectra. We found that an appropriate stability function for the non-dimensional dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy calculated from spectra in the inertial subrange differs from that of Kaimal et al., and it can be satisfactorily estimated with the assumption of local equilibrium using standard functions for the non-dimensional shear production. A similar function for the cospectrum corresponds well to Kaimal et al. for unstable and weakly stable conditions. The (co)spectra normalized by their spectral values in the inertial subrange are in general similar to those of Kaimal et al., but they peak at lower frequencies in strongly stable conditions. Moreover, our results do not confirm the existence of a clear “excluded region” at low frequencies for the transition from stable to unstable conditions, for longitudinal and lateral wind components. The empirical models of Kaimal et al. with adjusted parameters fit well to the vertical velocity spectrum and the vertical momentum flux cospectrum. The same type of function should be used for longitudinal and lateral wind spectra because of their sharper peak than occurs for the Kansas data. Finally, it should be stressed that the above relationships are well-defined for averaged values. The results for individual 1-h periods are very scattered and can be significantly different from the generalized functions.Funding for this research was provided by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education (State Committee for Scientific Research) under grant no. N306 276935 for the years 2008–2012 and grant no. N306 519638 for the years 2010–2013