False Belief Performance of Children Adopted Internationally

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Hwa-Froelich ◽  
Hisako Matsuo ◽  
Kristal Jacobs

Purpose The purpose of this study was to explore relationships among adoption, individual, and family variables on false belief performance of children adopted internationally (CAI). Method Using a quasiexperimental design, thirty-five 4-year-old children adopted from Asian and Eastern European countries before age 2 years were compared with a U.S. group of 33 nonadopted 4-year-old children on a standardized English-language measure, 3 false belief tasks, and a go/no-go inhibition measure. Results The adopted group differed significantly from the U.S. nonadopted group in expressive language and false belief performance. For the adopted group, inhibition measures were significantly correlated with core language scores. Core language scores and number of older siblings predicted false belief performance. Conclusions Similar to children who are not adopted, language competence and living with older siblings positively influenced social understanding in CAI. Because CAI experience interrupted language acquisition and live with fewer older siblings, they are at risk of having weaker language competence and social understanding in their adopted language. When working with CAI, practitioners should assess social communication, language competence, and inhibition skills. They should assist adoptive families in providing socially mentored opportunities for their children to observe and interact with older children.

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 501-514
Author(s):  
Deborah A. Hwa-Froelich ◽  
Hisako Matsuo

Purpose Pragmatic language is important for social communication across all settings. Children adopted internationally (CAI) may be at risk of poorer pragmatic language because of adverse early care, delayed adopted language development, and less ability to inhibit. The purpose of this study was to compare pragmatic language performance of CAI from Asian and Eastern European countries with a nonadopted group of children who were of the same age and from similar socioeconomic backgrounds as well as explore the relationship among emotion identification, false belief understanding, and inhibition variables with pragmatic language performance. Method Using a quasi-experimental design, 35 four-year-old CAI (20 Asian, 15 Eastern European) and 33 children who were not adopted were included in this study. The children's pragmatic language, general language, and social communication (emotion identification of facial expressions, false belief understanding, inhibition) were measured. Comparisons by region of origin and adoption experience were completed. We conducted split-half correlation analyses and entered significant correlation variables into simple and backward regression models. Results Pragmatic language performance differed by adoption experience. The adopted and nonadopted groups demonstrated different correlation patterns. Language performance explained most of the pragmatic language variance. Discussion Because CAI perform less well than their nonadopted peers on pragmatic communication measures and different variables are related to their pragmatic performance, speech-language pathologists may need to adapt assessment and intervention practices for this population.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 (262) ◽  
pp. 97-122 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans J. Ladegaard

AbstractMany people in developing countries are faced with a dilemma. If they stay at home, their children are kept in poverty with no prospects of a better future; if they become migrant workers, they will suffer long-term separation from their families. This article focuses on one of the weakest groups in the global economy: domestic migrant workers. It draws on a corpus of more than 400 narratives recorded at a church shelter in Hong Kong and among migrant worker returnees in rural Indonesia and the Philippines. In sharing sessions, migrant women share their experiences of working for abusive employers, and the article analyses how language is used to include and exclude. The women tell how their employers construct them as “incompetent” and “stupid” because they do not speak Chinese. However, faced by repression and marginalisation, the women use their superior English language skills to get back at their employers and momentarily gain the upper hand. Drawing on ideologies of language as the theoretical concept, the article provides a discourse analysis of selected excerpts focusing on language competence and identity construction.


Author(s):  
I.N. Gornostaeva ◽  

The article discusses the possibilities of using methods of teaching English in higher education from classical to interactive ones. Special attention is paid to the role of the teacher in the formation of language competence and the effective organization of the learning process. The article proves the importance of introducing into the educational process such interactive teaching methods as work in small groups, preparation of projects and multimedia presentations, training, and brainstorming.


Author(s):  
Eka Susylowati ◽  
Ika Oktaria ◽  
Arini Hidayah ◽  
Yunita Widiyantari ◽  
Anik Astuti

This study aims to train English language skills for Akparta students to be proficient in English. The research methods used include presentations, lectures, observations and discussions. The results showed that the level of English mastery of the Surakarta Akparta students had progressed in speaking English. Community service activities carried out at Akparta Surakarta are helpful for students to improve their English language competence so that students can become professional tourism workers


Author(s):  
Iryna V. Vlasiuk

The relevance of the study is conditioned by the growth of intercultural communication in modern post-industrial society, resulting in the need to change opinions on the development of foreign language competence in school-age students for its effective improvement and further use in professional activities. The purpose of the study is to determine the features of the development of English language competence in reading in high school students of general secondary education and to find methods of overcoming difficulties in the process of mastering a foreign language. In the process of the study, the author used general scientific theoretical methods, including methods of analysis, synthesis, generalisation, and classification. Based on research results of Ukrainian and foreign scholars, the study characterised the basic opinions on the development of foreign language competence in reading, in particular, in high school students. The study defines the term “reading” and considers its main categories, such as types of reading, levels of comprehension of the text, general personal skills for perfect command of reading in a foreign language, etc. It was found that the main difficulties in the development of English competence in reading in high school students are general language, including spelling, and psychological, based on the lack of motivation to learn the language. Tips for English teachers are presented, focused on improving the development of English competence in reading in students, including the use of authentic materials, information technology, as well as the use of practical exercises that help improve reading aloud. The authors see the prospects for further research in the empirical substantiation of methods for overcoming the difficulties of developing English-language competence among high school students


1976 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 294 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. MacDougall ◽  
Chew Sock Foon

Author(s):  
Fotima Abduvosiyevna Rafikova ◽  

At present, the English language is being taught by adapting world standards of Common European Framework Reference (CEFR) for teaching foreign languages to our national educational system. According to the Uzbek national standard the knowledge of the foreign language competence from the first to fourth grade is defined as A 1- for the beginner level. This article will disclose the formation and development of primary school learners’ foreign language skills through communicative competence.


PEDIATRICS ◽  
1991 ◽  
Vol 88 (3) ◽  
pp. 456-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
William N. Friedrich ◽  
Patricia Grambsch ◽  
Daniel Broughton ◽  
James Kuiper ◽  
Robert L. Beilke

A large-scale, community-based survey was done to assess the frequency of a wide variety of sexual behaviors in normal preadolescent children and to measure the relationship of these behaviors to age, gender, and socioeconomic and family variables. A sample of 880 2-through 12-year-old children screened to exclude those with a history of sexual abuse were rated by their mothers using several questionnaire measures. The frequency of different behaviors varied widely, with more aggressive sexual behaviors and behaviors imitative of adults being rare. Older children (both boys and girls) were less sexual than younger children. Sexuality was found to be related to the level of general behavior problems, as measured by the Achenbach Internalizing and Externalizing T scores and to a measure of family nudity. It was not related to socioeconomic variables.


Author(s):  
Eric Koenig ◽  
Katherine Guertler ◽  
Dorota Zarnowska ◽  
Jolita Horbacauskiene

2000 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARTIN J. DOHERTY

The aim of this study was to explain why children have difficulty with homonymy. Two experiments were conducted with forty-eight children (Experiment 1) and twenty-four children (Experiment 2). Three- and four-year-old children had to either select or judge another person's selection of a different object with the same name, avoiding identical objects and misnomers. Older children were successful, but despite possessing the necessary vocabulary, younger children failed these tasks. Understanding of homonymy was strongly and significantly associated to understanding of synonymy, and more importantly, understanding of false belief, even when verbal mental age, chronological age, and control measures were partialled out. This indicates that children's ability to understand homonymy results from their ability to make a distinction characteristic of representation, a distinction fundamental to both metalinguistic awareness and theory of mind.


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