WordSift: Supporting Instruction and Learning Through Technology in San Francisco

Describes an academic language development tool to help teachers teach science vocabulary with a Web-based interface that creates visual, interactive representations of text, its implementation and patterns of usage, and early assessments of its efficacy

Research Article CRITICAL EVIDENCE: A Test of the Critical-Period Hypothesis for Second-Language Acquisition

Abstract-me crirical-period hypothesisfor second-language acquisition was rested on doto from the 1990 U.S. Census using responses from 2.3 million immigrants with Spanish or Chinese language backgrounds. The analyses rested a key prediction of the hypothesis, namely, that the line regressing second-language attainment on age of immigration would be markedly different on either side ofrhe criticalage point. Predictions tested were that there would be a difference in slope, a difference in the mean while controlling for slope, or both. The results showed large linear effectsfor level ofeducation and for age of immigration, but a negligible amount of additional variance was accounted for when the parameters for diffeerence in slope and difference in means were estimated. Thus, the pattern of decline in second-language acquisitionfailed to produce the discontinuity that is an essential hallmark o f a critical period. The idea that there is a biologically based critical period for secondlanguage acquisition that prevents older learners from achieving nativeLike competence has appeal lo both theorists and social policymakers (Bailey, Brner, Symons, & Lichtman, 2001). The critical-period hypothesis was originally proposed in the neurolinguistic litemture by Penfield and Robem (1959) and vigorously followed up by Lenneberg (1967). who speculated that maturational aspects of the brain that limited recovery from brain traumas and disorders would extend to second-language acquisition. Subsequent research using behavioral evidence appeared to confirm this hypothesis (Johnson, 1992; Johnson & NewpoIf 1989; The claim that there is an age-related decline in the success with which individuals master a second language is not controversial. The diminished average achievement of older learners is supported by personal anecdote and documented by empirical evidence (Flege, YeniKomshian, & Liu, 1999; Stevens, 1999). What is controversial, though, is whether this pattern meets the conditions for concluding that a critical period constrains learning in a way predicted by the theory. A critical period minimally entails two characteristics: (a) a high level of preparedness for learning within a specified developmental period to ensure the domain is mastered by the species and @) a lack of preparedness outside this period (Bornstein, 1989; Colombo, 1982). The consequence of these conditions is that the relation between learning and age is different inside and outside the critical period. hponents of a critical-period explanation have attempted to place the description of second-language learning within these pammeters. Johnso

Efectos de una herramienta-web de desarrollo del vocabulario para la mejora de la comprensión lectora de los textos de ciencias

The complexities of reading comprehension have received increasing recognition inrecent years. In this realm, the power of vocabulary in predicting cognitive challenges inphonological, orthographic, and semantic processes is well documented. In this study,we present a web-based vocabulary development tool that has a series of interactivedisplays, including a list of the 50 most frequent words in a particular text, Googleimage and video results for any combination of those words, definitions, and synonymsfor particular words from the text, and a list of sentences from the text in whichparticular words appear. Additionally, we report the results of an experiment that wasperformed working collaboratively with middle school science teachers from a largeurban district in the United States. While this experiment did not show a significantpositive effect of this tool on reading comprehension in science, we did find that girlsseem to score worse on a reading comprehension assessment after using our web-basedtool. This result could reflect prior research that suggests that some girls tend to have anegative attitude towards technology due to gender stereotypes that give girls theimpression that they are not as good as boys in working with computers.Las complejidades de la comprehensión lectora está recibiendo un mayorreconocimiento en los últimos años. En este aspecto, el poder del vocabulario enpredecir retos en procesos cognitivos fonológicos, ortográficos y semánticos está biendocumentado. En este estudio, presentamos una herramienta-web de desarrollo delvocabulario que tiene una serie de pantallas interactivas, incluyendo una lista de lascincuenta palabras más frecuentes en un texto específico, imágenes de Google yresultados de video por cada combinación de estas palabras, definiciones y sinónimos,así como frases que aparezcan en el texto. Adicionalmente, destacamos los resultados deun experimento que se llevó a cabo trabajando colaborativamente con profesores deciencias de escuelas de secundaria de grandes distritos urbanos en los Estados Unidos.Mientras que el experimento no identificó efectos positivos de forma significativadebido al uso de esta herramienta, hallamos que las chicas parecen puntuar peor en laspruebas de comprehension lectora después de haber usado nuestra herramienta-web.Este resultado complementa lo que algunas investigaciones anteriores han destacadoacerca de algunas chicas que suelen tener una actitud negativa hacia la tecnologíadebido a los estereotipos de género que existen y que señalan que ellas no son tanbuenas como los chicos en las tareas que se lleven a cabo a través de computadoras

The Effects of a Web-Based Vocabulary Development Tool on Student Reading Comprehension of Science Texts

The complexities of reading comprehension have received increasing recognition in recent years. In this realm, the power of vocabulary in predicting cognitive challenges in phonological, orthographic, and semantic processes is well documented. In this study, we present a web-based vocabulary development tool that has a series of interactive displays, including a list of the 50 most frequent words in a particular text, Google image and video results for any combination of those words, definitions, and synonyms for particular words from the text, and a list of sentences from the text in which particular words appear. Additionally, we report the results of an experiment that was performed working collaboratively with middle school science teachers from a large urban district in the United States. While this experiment did not show a significant positive effect of this tool on reading comprehension in science, we did find that girls seem to score worse on a reading comprehension assessment after using our web-based tool. This result could reflect prior research that suggests that some girls tend to have a negative attitude towards technology due to gender stereotypes that give girls the impression that they are not as good as boys in working with computers

Fully Accounting for English Learner Performance: A Key Issue in ESEA Reauthorization

This article presents a set of recommendations that promote a more nuanced, meaningful accountability policy for English learners in the next authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. The authors argue that the ESEA reauthorization must strengthen the law's capacity-building purpose so that federal, state, and local leaders support continued attention, direction, and innovation in effectively educating ELs. The recommendations put forth in this article focus on monitoring both current and former ELs, establishing time frames for the attainment of English language proficiency, and setting expectations for academic achievement that are reflective of English language proficiency level and time in the state's school system.Keywords: policy analysis, language comprehension/development, educational policy, accountabilit

A Radiological Study of Rapidly Destructive Coxarthropathy

Rapidly destructive coxarthropathy (RDC) is a clinical concept propounded by Postel and Kerboull. RDC is characterized by joint destruction progression within a year, although the etiology of this disorder remains unknown. We evaluated 21 hips in 20 patients radiologically diagnosed with RDC. All patients underwent a total hip arthroplasty. The average age at surgery was 75 years. The affected side was more osteoporotic in all patients, and the pelvic angle, which indicates the spinopelvic alignment, was distributed below the normal range, i.e., the posterior tilt was more than the normal range. The affected side showed a higher center-edge (CE) angle and anterior-acetabular head index (AAHI) than the unaffected side, possibly due to severe head collapse. Our result supported that osteoporosis and/or mechanical factors influence the course of RDC. More investigations such as biochemical and immunopathological analyses would be necessary to clarify the etiology of RDC, which could be a terminal stage of some lesions

Thematic role assignment in the L1 acquisition of Tagalog: use of word order and morphosyntactic markers

It is a common finding across languages that young children have problems in understanding patient-initial sentences. We used Tagalog, a verb-initial language with a reliable voice-marking system and highly frequent patient voice constructions, to test the predictions of several accounts that have been proposed to explain this difficulty: the frequency account, the Competition Model, and the incremental processing account. Study 1 presents an analysis of Tagalog child-directed speech which showed that the dominant argument order is agent-before-patient, and that morphosyntactic markers are highly valid cues to thematic role assignment. In Study 2, we used a combined self-paced listening and picture verification task to test how Tagalog-speaking adults and 5- and 7- year-old children process reversible transitive sentences. Results showed that adults performed well in all conditions, while children’s accuracy and listening times for the first noun phrase indicated more difficulty in interpreting patient-initial sentences in the agent voice compared to the patient voice. The patient voice advantage is partly explained by both the frequency account and incremental processing account