Addressing Practical Issues Related Tto Nursing Care For International Visitors To Hiroshima

When nine million foreigners visited Japan in 2013, the federal government set a goal to attract an additional two and a half million visitors including medical tourists by 2020. This research investigates the attitudes and concerns of Japanese nurses when they are in a situation dealing with foreign patients. The data were collected from March through September 2010, from 114 nurses at three hospitals, in close proximity to popular tourist destinations in Hiroshima. A questionnaire was developed for this research, named Mari Meter, which included a section to write answers to an open question for the nurses to express their opinions. These responses were examined statistically and by word analysis using Text Mining Studio. Japanese nurses expressed greatest concern about payment options, foreign language skills, and issues of informed consent, when dealing with foreigners. The results confirm that, in order to provide a high quality of patient care, extra preparation and a greater knowledge of international workers and visitors are required by nursing professionals in Japan.


Motivating Students to Learn English: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Strategies to Meet the Needs of First Time Learners

Motivation is the key to learning. The present study is about the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation as they affect learning with regard to students who are learning EFL for the first time. Cape Verdean seventh grade students learning English for the first time are generally very enthusiastic about the language before they start learning it in the high school. However, that enthusiasm seems not to be maintained throughout the school year and oftentimes teachers hear them complain about the difficulties of mastering aspects of the language. It seems that for some reason their motivation is undermined. Why does that happen? Is it the students’ fault or the teacher’s? If it the teacher’s fault, which motivation strategies work best to cope with this problem: intrinsic or extrinsic? With this in mind I asked the question: What is the relationship between students’ needs, interests, goals and expectations to learn English as a foreign language and teachers’ roles as facilitators and motivators? There are many studies that have been carried out in the field of motivation, and up to now, there seems to be no consensus of which is the best. For the purposes of this paper, three main theories will be discussed that have prevailed in the field of motivational psychology: the behavioural, the cognitive and the humanistic theories. Within these theories sub-theories are discussed and their relationship is explained with intrinsic and extrinsic motivation regarding Cape Verdean students learning English for the first time.

Promoção da língua portuguesa no mundo : hipótese de modelo estratégico

De successifs Gouvernements du Portugal, Organisations du Gouvernement Portugais et ses représentants légitimes, non mal de fois, s’affolent à associer la Langue Portugaise non seulement à l’identité Nationale mais aussi comme un moyen de reconnaissance internationale du pays, liée à une vision plus élargie reliée au concept géolinguistique et géopolitique de Lusophonie. Un concept particulièrement important et opératif qu’il est assimilé à l’image d’autres langues de présence globale ou, du moins, comme des langues de communication international intercontinental – comme les pays Anglophones, Spanophones et Francophones -. Le but, est celui de promouvoir l’usage international de la langue portugaise aussi que le développement économique et social des huit pays rassemblés à la Communauté des Pays de Langue Portugaise (CPLP). Cette étude, essaye de trouver les relations entre le discours officiel diffusé et les programmes de chaque Gouvernement depuis 1974. Une recherche sur la promotion, diffusion et/ou défense de la langue portugaise soit en temps que PLE (Portugais Langue Étrangère), soit en temps que dans le domaine de l’usage de la Langue Portugaise dans les différents Forums Internationaux dont le Portugal et les autres pays de langue portugaise font partie. Les discours et les documents officiels nous présentent toujours la promotion et diffusion de la langue comme une priorité, un impératif national, il est donc aussi impératif de confronter tous ces mots, dits et écrits, avec la réalité de l’action politique, voir, la politique de la langue effectivement mise en place, par les successifs gouvernements.

Referencial para o ensino em português língua segunda em Cabo Verde no contexto da oficialização da língua cabo-verdiana

A qualidade do ensino depende da língua em que é ministrado, conforme o domínio que dela têm os aprendentes. Historicamente, nas escolas de Cabo Verde, o Português tem sido a língua veicular e de alfabetização e é assumido como instrumento de comunicação escrita e meio de acesso a diferentes áreas de saber, já que usufrui do estatuto de língua recomendada para o ensino das diferentes disciplinas. No entanto, a UNESCO recomenda ou reconhece que o ensino deve ser iniciado e/ou realizado em língua materna, de acordo com a Declaração Universal dos Direitos Linguísticos. Todavia, a Língua Cabo-Verdiana (LCV), que tem o estatuto de Língua materna (LM), é ainda predominantemente oral, embora seja utilizada à escala nacional, a nível do quotidiano. A LCV ainda não é ensinada nas escolas, pelo que a instituição de um modelo de ensino que favoreça a situação actual de Cabo Verde exige uma complexa e reflectida decisão a tomar pelas autoridades educativas. O ensino será ministrado na Língua Cabo-Verdiana? Continuará a sê-lo em Português, como se fosse língua materna, ou como língua estrangeira, língua segunda? Ou será melhor um ensino bilingue? As respostas a estas e outras questões serão procuradas junto dos professores do Ensino Básico, alguns do Secundário que ensinam em Cabo Verde e altos responsáveis pelo sistema educativo caracterizarão o ensino, a língua de ensino no processo pedagógico, a hipótese de introdução da língua materna. É nossa perspectiva reunir ideias que justifiquem a proposta de um planeamento educativo, onde sobressaem aspectos relacionados com a escolha de língua (s) de ensino, visando introduzir melhoria na qualidade das aprendizagens, de modo a satisfazer as necessidades do país.

Promoção da língua portuguesa no mundo : hipótese de modelo estratégico

Sucessivos Governos, Organizações Governamentais e responsáveis desses Governos e Organizações têm apresentado até ao presente e de forma veemente e repetida uma sistemática ligação da língua portuguesa não só à identidade nacional como também a uma forma de reconhecimento internacional ligada a uma visão mais ampla, geolinguística e geopolítica de uma Lusofonia, capaz de agir de forma concertada conforme ao exemplo de outros blocos político-linguísticos, como o Francófono, o Espanófono ou o Anglófono, por forma a promover o uso alargado da língua portuguesa como língua internacional e o desenvolvimento económico e social dos países membros da Comunidade de Países de Língua Portuguesa (CPLP). Este trabalho é um estudo sobre a indissociável relação entre as reiteradas afirmações constantes no discurso oficial e nos documentos legais que as suportam no que respeita à promoção e difusão do uso da Língua Portuguesa quer como Língua Estrangeira (PLE), quer na promoção do seu uso nas Organizações Internacionais de que Portugal, os Países de Língua Portuguesa ou de Língua Oficial Portuguesa fazem parte. Este discurso oficial sobre a língua e a documentação legal que a suporta, que surge sempre apresentado como uma prioridade política e como desígnio nacional, impõe a necessária confrontação entre a afirmação daqueles propósitos e a realidade da política de língua implementada de facto, ou seja, a forma como esse desígnio nacional é levado à prática pelo Estado e, logo, pelos governantes que agem em seu nome e definem esta política de língua externa ao longo de um período de cerca de 30 anos de democracia em que este estudo se centra.

Suomi toisena ja vieraana kielenä - tutkittua ja keskusteltua

Summary: Finnish as a second and foreign language: a subject of research

L'avançament de la introducció d'una llengua estrangera: un fugida cap enrera?

The age at which school children begin instruction in the foreign language has been brought forward on two main grounds: (1) young children are better language learners than older children, and (2) bilingualism brings cognitive advantages to children. Both statements are critically analysed in this paper. First of all, recent research findings show that the advantage that younger learners show in a naturalistic language learning situation (or through school immersion) disappears in a formal language learning situation with very limited exposure to the target language. Secondly, the positive effects on cognitive development that have been revealed through research correspond to situations of balanced bilingualism, that is, situations in which children have a high command of the two languages. In contrast, children¿s command of the foreign language in our context is very limited and hence far from the situation of balanced bilingualism (or trilingualism) that is said to bring positive cognitive effects.

Analytical Measures of Learners' Written Interlanguage

This paper aims at reconsidering some analytical measures to best encapsulate the interlanguage, in writing, of young beginner learners of English as a foreign language in the light of previous and work-in-progress research conducted within the BAF project, and in particular, whether clause and sentence length should be best viewed as a fluency or syntactic complexity measusre or as part of a different construct. In the light of a factor analysis (Navés, forthcoming) and multivariate and correlation studies (Navés et al. 2003, Navés, 2006, Torres et al. 2006) it becomes clear that the relationship between different analytical measures is also dependent on learner¿s cognitive maturity (age) and proficiency (amount of instruction). Finally, clause and sentence length should not be viewed as either a fluency or sytactic complexity measure but as part of a different construct. It is concluded that further research using regression analysis and cluster analysis is neeed in order to identify and validate the constructs of the writing components and their measurements.

En torno a los efectos de la edad en el aprendizaje escolar de una lengua extrangera

The purpose of this article is to treat a currently much debated issue, the effects of age on second language learning. To do so, we contrast data collected by our research team from over one thousand seven hundred young and adult learners with four popular beliefs or generalizations, which, while deeply rooted in this society, are not always corroborated by our data.Two of these generalizations about Second Language Acquisition (languages spoken in the social context) seem to be widely accepted: a) older children, adolescents and adults are quicker and more efficient at the first stages of learning than are younger learners; b) in a natural context children with an early start are more liable to attain higher levels of proficiency. However, in the context of Foreign Language Acquisition, the context in which we collect the data, this second generalization is difficult to verify due to the low number of instructional hours (a maximum of some 800 hours) and the lower levels of language exposure time provided. The design of our research project has allowed us to study differences observed with respect to the age of onset (ranging from 2 to 18+), but in this article we focus on students who began English instruction at the age of 8 (LOGSE Educational System) and those who began at the age of 11 (EGB). We have collected data from both groups after a period of 200 (Time 1) and 416 instructional hours (Time 2), and we are currently collecting data after a period of 726 instructional hours (Time 3). We have designed and administered a variety of tests: tests on English production and reception, both oral and written, and within both academic and communicative oriented approaches, on the learners' L1 (Spanish and Catalan), as well as a questionnaire eliciting personal and sociolinguistic information. The questions we address and the relevant empirical evidence are as follows: 1. "For young children, learning languages is a game. They enjoy it more than adults."Our data demonstrate that the situation is not quite so. Firstly, both at the levels of Primary and Secondary education (ranging from 70.5% in 11-year-olds to 89% in 14-year-olds) students have a positive attitude towards learning English. Secondly, there is a difference between the two groups with respect to the factors they cite as responsible for their motivation to learn English: the younger students cite intrinsic factors, such as the games they play, the methodology used and the teacher, whereas the older students cite extrinsic factors, such as the role of their knowledge of English in the achievement of their future professional goals. 2 ."Young children have more resources to learn languages." Here our data suggest just the opposite. The ability to employ learning strategies (actions or steps used) increases with age. Older learners' strategies are more varied and cognitively more complex. In contrast, younger learners depend more on their interlocutor and external resources and therefore have a lower level of autonomy in their learning. 3. "Young children don't talk much but understand a lot"This third generalization does seem to be confirmed, at least to a certain extent, by our data in relation to the analysis of differences due to the age factor and productive use of the target language. As seen above, the comparably slower progress of the younger learners is confirmed. Our analysis of interpersonal receptive abilities demonstrates as well the advantage of the older learners. Nevertheless, with respect to passive receptive activities (for example, simple recognition of words or sentences) no great differences are observed. Statistical analyses suggest that in this test, in contrast to the others analyzed, the dominance of the subjects' L1s (reflecting a cognitive capacity that grows with age) has no significant influence on the learning process. 4. "The sooner they begin, the better their results will be in written language"This is not either completely confirmed in our research. First of all, we perceive that certain compensatory strategies disappear only with age, but not with the number of instructional hours. Secondly, given an identical number of instructional hours, the older subjects obtain better results. With respect to our analysis of data from subjects of the same age (12 years old) but with a different number of instructional hours (200 and 416 respectively, as they began at the ages of 11 and 8), we observe that those who began earlier excel only in the area of lexical fluency. In conclusion, the superior rate of older learners appears to be due to their higher level of cognitive development, a factor which allows them to benefit more from formal or explicit instruction in the school context. Younger learners, however, do not benefit from the quantity and quality of linguistic exposure typical of a natural acquisition context in which they would be allowed to make use of implicit learning abilities. It seems clear, then, that the initiative in this country to begin foreign language instruction earlier will have positive effects only if it occurs in combination with either higher levels of exposure time to the foreign language, or, alternatively, with its use as the language of instruction in other areas of the curriculum.

L'avançament de la introducció d'una llengua estrangera: un fugida cap enrera?

The age at which school children begin instruction in the foreign language has been brought forward on two main grounds: (1) young children are better language learners than older children, and (2) bilingualism brings cognitive advantages to children. Both statements are critically analysed in this paper. First of all, recent research findings show that the advantage that younger learners show in a naturalistic language learning situation (or through school immersion) disappears in a formal language learning situation with very limited exposure to the target language. Secondly, the positive effects on cognitive development that have been revealed through research correspond to situations of balanced bilingualism, that is, situations in which children have a high command of the two languages. In contrast, children¿s command of the foreign language in our context is very limited and hence far from the situation of balanced bilingualism (or trilingualism) that is said to bring positive cognitive effects.

Analytical Measures of Learners' Written Interlanguage

This paper aims at reconsidering some analytical measures to best encapsulate the interlanguage, in writing, of young beginner learners of English as a foreign language in the light of previous and work-in-progress research conducted within the BAF project, and in particular, whether clause and sentence length should be best viewed as a fluency or syntactic complexity measusre or as part of a different construct. In the light of a factor analysis (Navés, forthcoming) and multivariate and correlation studies (Navés et al. 2003, Navés, 2006, Torres et al. 2006) it becomes clear that the relationship between different analytical measures is also dependent on learner¿s cognitive maturity (age) and proficiency (amount of instruction). Finally, clause and sentence length should not be viewed as either a fluency or sytactic complexity measure but as part of a different construct. It is concluded that further research using regression analysis and cluster analysis is neeed in order to identify and validate the constructs of the writing components and their measurements.

En torno a los efectos de la edad en el aprendizaje escolar de una lengua extrangera

The purpose of this article is to treat a currently much debated issue, the effects of age on second language learning. To do so, we contrast data collected by our research team from over one thousand seven hundred young and adult learners with four popular beliefs or generalizations, which, while deeply rooted in this society, are not always corroborated by our data.Two of these generalizations about Second Language Acquisition (languages spoken in the social context) seem to be widely accepted: a) older children, adolescents and adults are quicker and more efficient at the first stages of learning than are younger learners; b) in a natural context children with an early start are more liable to attain higher levels of proficiency. However, in the context of Foreign Language Acquisition, the context in which we collect the data, this second generalization is difficult to verify due to the low number of instructional hours (a maximum of some 800 hours) and the lower levels of language exposure time provided. The design of our research project has allowed us to study differences observed with respect to the age of onset (ranging from 2 to 18+), but in this article we focus on students who began English instruction at the age of 8 (LOGSE Educational System) and those who began at the age of 11 (EGB). We have collected data from both groups after a period of 200 (Time 1) and 416 instructional hours (Time 2), and we are currently collecting data after a period of 726 instructional hours (Time 3). We have designed and administered a variety of tests: tests on English production and reception, both oral and written, and within both academic and communicative oriented approaches, on the learners' L1 (Spanish and Catalan), as well as a questionnaire eliciting personal and sociolinguistic information. The questions we address and the relevant empirical evidence are as follows: 1. "For young children, learning languages is a game. They enjoy it more than adults."Our data demonstrate that the situation is not quite so. Firstly, both at the levels of Primary and Secondary education (ranging from 70.5% in 11-year-olds to 89% in 14-year-olds) students have a positive attitude towards learning English. Secondly, there is a difference between the two groups with respect to the factors they cite as responsible for their motivation to learn English: the younger students cite intrinsic factors, such as the games they play, the methodology used and the teacher, whereas the older students cite extrinsic factors, such as the role of their knowledge of English in the achievement of their future professional goals. 2 ."Young children have more resources to learn languages." Here our data suggest just the opposite. The ability to employ learning strategies (actions or steps used) increases with age. Older learners' strategies are more varied and cognitively more complex. In contrast, younger learners depend more on their interlocutor and external resources and therefore have a lower level of autonomy in their learning. 3. "Young children don't talk much but understand a lot"This third generalization does seem to be confirmed, at least to a certain extent, by our data in relation to the analysis of differences due to the age factor and productive use of the target language. As seen above, the comparably slower progress of the younger learners is confirmed. Our analysis of interpersonal receptive abilities demonstrates as well the advantage of the older learners. Nevertheless, with respect to passive receptive activities (for example, simple recognition of words or sentences) no great differences are observed. Statistical analyses suggest that in this test, in contrast to the others analyzed, the dominance of the subjects' L1s (reflecting a cognitive capacity that grows with age) has no significant influence on the learning process. 4. "The sooner they begin, the better their results will be in written language"This is not either completely confirmed in our research. First of all, we perceive that certain compensatory strategies disappear only with age, but not with the number of instructional hours. Secondly, given an identical number of instructional hours, the older subjects obtain better results. With respect to our analysis of data from subjects of the same age (12 years old) but with a different number of instructional hours (200 and 416 respectively, as they began at the ages of 11 and 8), we observe that those who began earlier excel only in the area of lexical fluency. In conclusion, the superior rate of older learners appears to be due to their higher level of cognitive development, a factor which allows them to benefit more from formal or explicit instruction in the school context. Younger learners, however, do not benefit from the quantity and quality of linguistic exposure typical of a natural acquisition context in which they would be allowed to make use of implicit learning abilities. It seems clear, then, that the initiative in this country to begin foreign language instruction earlier will have positive effects only if it occurs in combination with either higher levels of exposure time to the foreign language, or, alternatively, with its use as the language of instruction in other areas of the curriculum.

Huellas de la escritura materna en el español escrito como L2

Siguiendo los Nuevos Estudios de Literacidad y utilizando técnicas etnográficas (observación, entrevistas), criticamos varios aspectos de la concepción cognitiva de la “lectura en idioma extranjero” y proponemos una alternativa más sociocultural, que incorpora las particularidades reseñadas, que ofrece una visión más realista y completa y que pone el acento en el alfabetismo crítico. A partir de entrevistas a hablantes competentes del español como L2, que fueron alfabetizados en una lengua materna tipológicamente muy diferente y con un sistema de escritura distinto, exploramos el efecto que tienen las prácticas literarias escolares, en varias culturas, en el aprendizaje del español como segunda lengua.

Análisis de los verbos prefijados con re- y su aplicación a la lexicografía

En este trabajo se estudia la relación entre la morfología y la lexicografía mediante el análisis de seis verbos prefijados con re-. Se comparan sus definiciones en tres diccionarios y se proponen nuevas definiciones siguiendo el modelo de entrada lexicográfica del Diccionario de Aprendizaje de Español como Lengua Extranjera.

In what ways a CLIL lesson planning different from an EFL course plan ?

Des del 1995 el Consell Europeu ha promogut l’aprenentatge d’una segona llengua a través d’una altra àrea en el que coneixem per CLIL (Contingut i Llengua Integrats en l’Aprenentatge) o en altres paraules: “una activitat en la qual l’aprenentatge d’una llengua estrangera és utilitzada com una eina per l’aprenentatge d’una àrea no linguística en la qual llengua i contingut tenen un mateix paper” (Marsh, 2002). Tot I així, “ensenyar una àrea a través d’una llengua estrangera no és el mateix que la integració de llengua i contingut”. CLIL comporta altres implicacions metodològiques pel que fa a la planificació, estratègies didàctiques i particularment al rol del docent. De fet, són aquests factors els que componen l’èxit o el fracàs en l’implementació de CLIL. i per aquest motiu pretenc analitzar i descriure les diferències entre una sessió de CLIL i una de llengua anglesa. Aquesta investigació és un estudi de cas que vol oferir una mirada a les diferències entre una unitat de CLIL i una de llengua anglesa portades a terme en un grup de 3r de primària a l’escola de Sant Miquel dels Sants (Vic) pel que fa a la planificació, les estratègies i actuacions del docent.