Pronunciation improvement: stress conventions for Hispanic TEFL students

Tablas y FigurasEl Ministerio de Educación de Colombia (MEN) exige que los profesores de inglés colombianos y los estudiantes universitarios de los programas de licenciatura de Ingles como Lengua Extranjera mejoren y desarrollen habilidades bilingües. Sin embargo, las habilidades bilingües no solo dependen de la gramática y el vocabulario, sino también de una buena pronunciación y de las habilidades de la comprensión oral, lo cual facilita buenas habilidades comunicativas en inglés. Uno de los principales problemas que experimentan muchos adultos hispanohablantes es la colocación erronea de la acentuacion en la mayoría de las palabras y en oraciones en inglés, cuando estas son leeidas en voz alta o se conversa en inglés. Una mala acentuacion tiene el potencial de confundir a los angloparlantes, por lo tanto, el autor de se propone explicar el por qué aprender y aplicar las convenciones de la acentuacion en ingles para los estudiantes de inglés, especialmente los adultos hispanos, y presentar en los apéndices algunos ejemplos que siguen ciertas convenciones y principios para mejorar algunas áreas de la pronunciación del inglés. El objetivo es hacer que la comunicación sea más inteligible y comprensible para la audiencia de los aprendices de ingles. Los estudiantes adultos tienen ventajas sobre los niños, y las convenciones de la acentuacion se pueden aprender y memorizar fácilmente por un estudiante adulto o del programa LILE que este motivado. Esto permitirá aplicar fácilmente las convenciones cuando estas sean leidas en voz alta o habladas, o cuando sean practicadas en ingles con un maestro o en otros ambientes y contextos. De esta manera, aunque existen excepciones a las reglas aumenta la motivación en los estudiantes de inglés que sean adultos, como tambien la confianza al participar en cursos avanzados de inglés como E nglish Conversation.Colombian English teachers and university students from TEFL Bachelor’s degree programs are required by the Ministry of Education of Colombia (MEN) to improve and develop bilingual skills. However, bilingual skills not only rely on grammar and vocabulary, but also on good pronunciation and listening comprehension skills, which facilitates good communication skills in English. One of the major problems experienced by many adult, native Spanish speakers is the existence of erroneous stress placement in most English words and sentences when reading out loud or speaking in English. This has the potential to confuse English speakers, and as a consequence, this monograph intends to explain why learning and applying stress conventions is essential for adult and Hispanic English learners, and present in the appendices of this work some basic principles and conventions for improving some areas of English pronunciation. This is intended to make communication more intelligible and comprehensible for the audiences of these learners. Adult learners have advantages over children, and these stress conventions can be learned and memorized easily by a motivated adult learner and TEFL student. This will allow them to easily apply the conventions in readings and regular conversations when practicing with a teacher in the classroom and other contexts. In this way, even though there are exceptions to the rules, motivation in adult English learners increases, as well as confidence when participating in advanced English courses, like English conversation

NEOTROPICAL ALIEN MAMMALS: a data set of occurrence and abundance of alien mammals in the Neotropics

Biological invasion is one of the main threats to native biodiversity. For a species to become invasive, it must be voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into a nonnative habitat. Mammals were among first taxa to be introduced worldwide for game, meat, and labor, yet the number of species introduced in the Neotropics remains unknown. In this data set, we make available occurrence and abundance data on mammal species that (1) transposed a geographical barrier and (2) were voluntarily or involuntarily introduced by humans into the Neotropics. Our data set is composed of 73,738 historical and current georeferenced records on alien mammal species of which around 96% correspond to occurrence data on 77 species belonging to eight orders and 26 families. Data cover 26 continental countries in the Neotropics, ranging from Mexico and its frontier regions (southern Florida and coastal-central Florida in the southeast United States) to Argentina, Paraguay, Chile, and Uruguay, and the 13 countries of Caribbean islands. Our data set also includes neotropical species (e.g., Callithrix sp., Myocastor coypus, Nasua nasua) considered alien in particular areas of Neotropics. The most numerous species in terms of records are from Bos sp. (n = 37,782), Sus scrofa (n = 6,730), and Canis familiaris (n = 10,084); 17 species were represented by only one record (e.g., Syncerus caffer, Cervus timorensis, Cervus unicolor, Canis latrans). Primates have the highest number of species in the data set (n = 20 species), partly because of uncertainties regarding taxonomic identification of the genera Callithrix, which includes the species Callithrix aurita, Callithrix flaviceps, Callithrix geoffroyi, Callithrix jacchus, Callithrix kuhlii, Callithrix penicillata, and their hybrids. This unique data set will be a valuable source of information on invasion risk assessments, biodiversity redistribution and conservation-related research. There are no copyright restrictions. Please cite this data paper when using the data in publications. We also request that researchers and teachers inform us on how they are using the data

Brazilian Flora 2020: Leveraging the power of a collaborative scientific network

International audienceThe shortage of reliable primary taxonomic data limits the description of biological taxa and the understanding of biodiversity patterns and processes, complicating biogeographical, ecological, and evolutionary studies. This deficit creates a significant taxonomic impediment to biodiversity research and conservation planning. The taxonomic impediment and the biodiversity crisis are widely recognized, highlighting the urgent need for reliable taxonomic data. Over the past decade, numerous countries worldwide have devoted considerable effort to Target 1 of the Global Strategy for Plant Conservation (GSPC), which called for the preparation of a working list of all known plant species by 2010 and an online world Flora by 2020. Brazil is a megadiverse country, home to more of the world's known plant species than any other country. Despite that, Flora Brasiliensis, concluded in 1906, was the last comprehensive treatment of the Brazilian flora. The lack of accurate estimates of the number of species of algae, fungi, and plants occurring in Brazil contributes to the prevailing taxonomic impediment and delays progress towards the GSPC targets. Over the past 12 years, a legion of taxonomists motivated to meet Target 1 of the GSPC, worked together to gather and integrate knowledge on the algal, plant, and fungal diversity of Brazil. Overall, a team of about 980 taxonomists joined efforts in a highly collaborative project that used cybertaxonomy to prepare an updated Flora of Brazil, showing the power of scientific collaboration to reach ambitious goals. This paper presents an overview of the Brazilian Flora 2020 and provides taxonomic and spatial updates on the algae, fungi, and plants found in one of the world's most biodiverse countries. We further identify collection gaps and summarize future goals that extend beyond 2020. Our results show that Brazil is home to 46,975 native species of algae, fungi, and plants, of which 19,669 are endemic to the country. The data compiled to date suggests that the Atlantic Rainforest might be the most diverse Brazilian domain for all plant groups except gymnosperms, which are most diverse in the Amazon. However, scientific knowledge of Brazilian diversity is still unequally distributed, with the Atlantic Rainforest and the Cerrado being the most intensively sampled and studied biomes in the country. In times of “scientific reductionism”, with botanical and mycological sciences suffering pervasive depreciation in recent decades, the first online Flora of Brazil 2020 significantly enhanced the quality and quantity of taxonomic data available for algae, fungi, and plants from Brazil. This project also made all the information freely available online, providing a firm foundation for future research and for the management, conservation, and sustainable use of the Brazilian funga and flora