This study examines the Arabic version of the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) that was processed while maintaining the features that characterize the original test word list. For the study, ...266 subjects (131 males and 135 females), ages 7-18, were randomly selected from various locations around the country. All had Arabic as their mother-tongue. Findings were similar to tests taken in other languages, and in particular, to those of the Hebrew version. Thus, we can conclude that the Arabic version can be used for diagnosing the memory skills of Arabic-speaking children as an experimental version, in order to offer the various users and diagnosticians a research-based normed battery, until further review of results from a larger and more representative sample is conducted.
BackgroundIn circumpolar countries such as Canada, northern regions represent a unique geographical entity climatically, socioeconomically and environmentally. There is a lack of comparative data on ...birth outcomes among Indigenous and non-Indigenous subpopulations within northern regions and compared with southern regions.MethodsA cohort study of all births by maternal mother tongue to residents of northern (2616 First Nations (North American Indians), 2388 Inuit and 5006 non-Indigenous) and southern (2563 First Nations, 810 643 non-Indigenous) Quebec, 1991–2000.ResultsCompared with births to southern non-Indigenous mother tongue women, births to northern women of all three mother tongue groups were at substantially elevated risks of infant death (adjusted OR (aOR) 1.7–2.9), especially postneonatal death (aOR 2.2–4.4) after controlling for maternal education, age, marital status and parity. The risk elevation in perinatal death was greater for southern First Nations (aOR 1.6) than for northern First Nations (aOR 1.2). Infant macrosomia was highly prevalent among First Nations in Quebec, especially in the north (31% vs 24% in the south). Within northern regions, Inuit births were at highest risk of preterm delivery (aOR 1.4) and infant death (aOR 1.6).ConclusionAll northern infants (First Nations, Inuit or non-Indigenous) were at substantially elevated risk of infant death in Quebec, despite a universal health insurance system. Southern First Nations newborns have not benefited from the more advanced perinatal care facilities in southern regions. Environmental influences may partly account for the very high prevalence of macrosomia among First Nations in northern Quebec.
Nowadays young people meet in chat rooms, seek and find friends on Facebook, and are available to engage via mobile phones anytime, anywhere. The authors therefore wished to examine: 1) their real ...literacy today 2) the influence of the amount of time spent on the Internet and mobile phones on students’ school achievements. The sample consisted of more than one hundred students in their final year of grammar school for native and foreign language (English and German) learners in three Croatian counties. The authors explored students’ writing in their school assignments and those written in their free time in new media with regard to the (non-) existence of elements of the language of new media (abbreviations, emoticons, etc.) as well as the time spent on the Internet and mobile phones and school achievement.
Language as a resource in Intermediate Phase Mathematics teachingGenerally, mathematics teacher education in South Africa does not enforce mastery in the language of instruction (Chitera 2016) and ...provides minimal or no guidance towards coherent and systematic use of translanguaging including code switching in the classroom during or after initial teacher education. Such a practice compromises the quality of content delivery as pedagogically disadvantaged teachers may in turn have a negative impact on the majority of learners in public schools who are multilingual; in other words, those who are also English Language Learners (ELLs). International assessments on education have consistently rated the quality of South African mathematics education as being significantly low (Howie 2001; Reddy 2006, 2012) as reported in Trends in International Mathematics and Science Studies (TIMSS 2013). Of the various reasons cited by the TIMSS Report, this article highlights teachers’ competency in English as one of the most significant predictors of mathematics performance, particularly because the country’s indigenous languages are yet to be fully developed to support mathematics instruction.This article does not seek to enshrine English at the expense of other official languages in South Africa, but endeavours to cater for the ELLs who are in the education system today and supposed to be taught and assessed in English as stipulated by the Language in Education Policy (LiEP), (DoE 1997). Even if policies change and promote mother tongue instruction throughout the entire ordinary education system, proficiency in English will still be a prerequisite for ELLs to access the global world.In Suid-Afrika is dit nie verpligtend dat studente tydens hul wiskunde-onderwysopleiding eers die taal van leer en onderrig (TvLO) moet bemeester nie. Voorts word geen of minimale leiding gegee met betrekking tot ʼn samehangende en sistematiese gebruik van transtaligheid en kodewisseling in die klaskamer tydens of na aanvanklike wiskunde-onderwysopleiding nie. Die huidige praktyk benadeel die kwaliteit van inhoudsoordrag, omdat Pedagogies benadeelde onderwysers wat op hul beurt die meerderheid leerders in openbare skole moet onderrig, nie oor die aanvaarbare taalvermoë in Engels beskik nie. Die meeste van hierdie leerders is meertalig en dus Engelse Tweedetaalleerders (ETtLs), met Engels as Taal van Onderrig aangesien Suid-Afrika se inheemse tale nie genoegsaam ontwikkel is om wiskunde-onderrig te ondersteun nie. In hierdie artikel word ’n moontlike, algemeen aanvaarbare en effektiewe pedagogiek vir wiskunde-onderrig ondersoek. Dit spruit uit deurlopende doktorale navorsing na die verband tussen onderwysers se taalvermoë en Intermediêre Fase wiskunde-onderrig in die Oos-Kaap Provinsie van Suid-Afrika. Die studie kom tot die gevolgtrekking dat intermediêre fase-onderwysers nie voldoende toegerus is om taal te gebruik as ʼn hulpbron in wiskundeonderrig en -leer nie. Die artikel bied wenke en strategieë aan onderwysers wat Engelse Tweedetaal Leerders (ETtLs) in staat sal stel om wiskunde effektief te leer. Die tweede gevolgtrekking is, selfs al sou moedertaalonderrig tot sy reg kom in Suid-Afrika, sal vaardigheid in Engels steeds ʼn voorvereiste wees vir toegang tot die globale wêreld.
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