Hegemonic gender in Japanese as a foreign language education: Australian perspectives

This chapter contests the current practice of Japanese language teaching which perpetuates and reproduces gender stereotyping and gendered language norms. It is the first of its kind which examines this question from both learner's and teacher's perspectives.

Aspects of adaptive management of coastal wetlands: Case studies of processes, conservation, restoration, impacts and assessment

Coastal wetlands are dynamic and include the freshwater-intertidal interface. In many parts of the world such wetlands are under pressure from increasing human populations and from predicted sea-level rise. Their complexity and the limited knowledge of processes operating in these systems combine to make them a management challenge.Adaptive management is advocated for complex ecosystem management (Hackney 2000; Meretsky et al. 2000; Thom 2000;National Research Council 2003).Adaptive management identifies management aims,makes an inventory/environmental assessment,plans management actions, implements these, assesses outcomes, and provides feedback to iterate the process (Holling 1978;Walters and Holling 1990). This allows for a dynamic management system that is responsive to change. In the area of wetland management recent adaptive approaches are exemplified by Natuhara et al. (2004) for wild bird management, Bunch and Dudycha (2004) for a river system, Thom (2000) for restoration, and Quinn and Hanna (2003) for seasonal wetlands in California. There are many wetland habitats for which we currently have only rudimentary knowledge (Hackney 2000), emphasizing the need for good information as a prerequisite for effective management. The management framework must also provide a way to incorporate the best available science into management decisions and to use management outcomes as opportunities to improve scientific understanding and provide feedback to the decision system. Figure 9.1 shows a model developed by Anorov (2004) based on the process-response model of Maltby et al. (1994) that forms a framework for the science that underlies an adaptive management system in the wetland context.

Beyond the middle: A report about literacy and numeracy development of target group students in the middle years of schooling: Volume 1

The report was commissioned by the Department of Education, Science and Training to investigate the perceived efficacy of middle years programmes in all States and Territories in improving the quality of teaching, learning and student outcomes, especially in literacy and numeracy and for student members of particular target groups. These target groups included students from lower socio-economic communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, students with a language background other than English, rural and remote students, and students struggling with the transition from middle/upper primary to the junior secondary years. The project involved large scale national and international literature reviews on Australian and international middle years approaches as well as an analysis of key literacy and numeracy teaching and learning strategies being used. In the report, there is emergent evidence of the relative efficacy of a combination of explicit state policy, dedicated funding and curriculum and professional development frameworks that are focused on the improvement of classroom pedagogy in the middle years. The programs that evidenced the greatest current and potential value for target group students tended to have developed in state policy environments that encouraged a structural rather than adjunct approach to middle years innovations. The authors conclude that in order to translate the gains made into sustainable improvement of educational results in literacy and numeracy for target groups, there is a need for a second generation of middle years theorising, research, development and practice.

Beyond the middle: A report about literacy and numeracy development of target group students in the middle years of schooling: Volume 2 (Appendices)

This research project was commissioned by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training to investigate the perceived efficacy of middle years programs in all States and Territories in improving the quality of teaching, learning and student outcomes - especially in literacy and numeracy and for student members of particular target groups. The latter groups included students from lower socio-economic communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (Indigenous) communities, students with a Language Background Other than English (hereafter LBOTE), rural and remote students, and students struggling with the transition from middle/upper primary to the junior secondary years.

The English-only movement: A communication analysis of changing perceptions of language vitality

This paper reexamines the potential impact of the English-only movement on linguistic minorities and Anglos' perceptions of their own and minority groups' language vitality. Of particular interest is the Hispanic population-the fastest growing minority in the U.S. Communication scholars have paid only scant attention to the English-only movement and how it affects the social and communication climate for Latinos. However, literature reviews prepared for the American Psychological Association and for the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (in 1991 and 1995, respectively) concluded that English-only initiatives have negative consequences for limited-English proficiency groups. Revisiting this still-growing issue in the light of more recent studies across disciplines and media reports, we examine how Anglo support for English-only policies limits the use, promotion, and salience of minority languages like Spanish in institutional settings and in the linguistic landscape and suggest directions for future research.

Social cognition, language acquisition and the development of the theory of mind

Theory of Mind (ToM) is the cognitive achievement that enables us to report our propositional attitudes, to attribute such attitudes to others, and to use such postulated or observed mental states in the prediction and explanation of behavior. Most normally developing children acquire ToM between the ages of 3 and 5 years, but serious delays beyond this chronological and mental age have been observed in children with autism, as well is in those with severe sensory impairments. We examine data from Studies of ToM in normally developing children and those with deafness, blindness, autism and Williams syndrome, as well as data from lower primates, in a search for answers to key theoretical questions concerning the origins, nature and representation of knowledge about the mind. In answer to these, we offer a framework according to which ToM is jointly dependent upon language and social experience, and is produced by a conjunction of language acquisition with children's growing social understanding, acquired through conversation and interaction with others. We argue that adequate language and adequate social skills are jointly causally sufficient, and individually causally necessary, for producing ToM. Thus our account supports a social developmental theory of the genesis of human cognition, inspired by the work of Sellars and Vygotsky.

Subcortical brain mechanisms in speech and language

This paper reviews current research and contemporary theories of subcortical participation in the motor control of speech production and language processing. As a necessary precursor to the discussion of the functional roles of the basal ganglia and thalamus, the neuroanatomy of the basal ganglial-thalamocortical circuitry is described. Contemporary models of hypokinetic and hyperkinetic movement disorders based on recent neuroanatomical descriptions of the multi-segmented circuits that characterise basal ganglion anatomy are described. Reported effects of surgically induced lesions in the globus pallidus and thalamus on speech production are reviewed. In addition, contemporary models proposed to explain the possible contribution of various subcortical structures to language processing are described and discussed in the context of evidence gained from observation of the effects of circumscribed surgically induced lesions in the basal ganglia and thalamus on language function. The potential of studies based on examination of the speech/language outcomes of patients undergoing pallidotomy and thalamotomy to further inform the debate relating to the role of subcortical structures in speech motor control and language processing is highlighted. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.

Research into telehealth applications in speech-language pathology

A literature review was conducted to investigate the extent to which telehealth has been researched within the domain of speech-language pathology and the outcomes of this research. A total of 13 studies were identified. Three early studies demonstrated that telehealth was feasible, although there was no discussion of the cost-effectiveness of this process in terms of patient outcomes. The majority of the subsequent studies indicated positive or encouraging outcomes resulting from telehealth. However, there were a number of shortcomings in the research, including a lack of cost-benefit information, failure to evaluate the technology itself, an absence of studies of the educational and informational aspects of telehealth in relation to speech-language pathology, and the use of telehealth in a limited range of communication disorders. Future research into the application of telehealth to speech-language pathology services must adopt a scientific approach, and have a well defined development and evaluation framework that addresses the effectiveness of the technique, patient outcomes and satisfaction, and the cost-benefit relationship.

A role for the dominant thalamus in language? A linguistic comparison of two cases subsequent to unilateral thalamotomy procedures in the dominant and non-dominant hemispheres

Background: Thalamotomy has been reported to be successful in ameliorating the motor symptoms of tremor and/or rigidity in people with Parkinson's disease (PD), emphasising the bona fide contribution of this subcortical nucleus to the neural circuitry subserving motor function. Despite evidence of parallel yet segregated associative and motor cortico-subcortical-cortical circuits, comparatively few studies have investigated the effects of this procedure on cognitive functions. In particular, research pertaining to the impact of thalamotomy on linguistic processes is fundamentally lacking. Aims: The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of thalamotomy in the language dominant and non-dominant hemispheres on linguistic functioning, relative to operative theoretical models of subcortical participation in language. This paper compares the linguistic profiles of two males with PD, aged 75 years (10 years of formal education) and 62 years (22 years of formal education), subsequent to unilateral thalamotomy procedures within the language dominant and non-dominant hemispheres, respectively. Methods & Procedures: Comprehensive linguistic profiles comprising general and high-level linguistic abilities in addition to on-line semantic processing skills were compiled up to 1 month prior to surgery and 3 months post-operatively, within perceived on'' periods (i.e., when optimally medicated). Pre- and post-operative language performances were compared within-subjects to a group of 16 non-surgical Parkinson's controls (NSPD) and a group of 16 non-neurologically impaired adults (NC). Outcomes & Results: The findings of this research suggest a laterality effect with regard to the contribution of the thalamus to high-level linguistic abilities and, potentially, the temporal processing of semantic information. This outcome supports the application of high-level linguistic assessments and measures of semantic processing proficiency to the clinical management of individuals with dominant thalamic lesions. Conclusions: The results reported lend support to contemporary theories of dominant thalamic participation in language, serving to further elucidate our current understanding of the role of subcortical structures in mediating linguistic processes, relevant to cortical hemispheric dominance.

Input-driven Language Learning

Input-driven models provide an explicit and readily testable account of language learning. Although we share Ellis's view that the statistical structure of the linguistic environment is a crucial and, until recently, relatively neglected variable in language learning, we also recognize that the approach makes three assumptions about cognition and language learning that are not universally shared. The three assumptions concern (a) the language learner as an intuitive statistician, (b) the constraints on what constitute relevant surface cues, and (c) the redescription problem faced by any system that seeks to derive abstract grammatical relations from the frequency of co-occurring surface forms and functions. These are significant assumptions that must be established if input-driven models are to gain wider acceptance. We comment on these issues and briefly describe a distributed, instance-based approach that retains the key features of the input-driven account advocated by Ellis but that also addresses shortcomings of the current approaches.