Optimal Use of L1 and L2 in Teaching Chinese to Sri Lankan Students: Approaches and Challenges

Traditional perspectives on monolingual education and total immersion have been substituted by more novel approaches to multilingual education such as translanguaging and partial immersion where the learners’ language repertoire is paid adequate respect. The present study investigates the role of L1 and L2 in teaching Chinese in Sri Lanka using 42 adult Chinese language learners in Sri Lanka as informants and a structured questionnaire was used as the main data collection tool. The informants have a highly divided perspective towards the use of L1 and L2 in the classroom. Most students have favored English instruction considering its efficacy in career prospects and Sinhala for convenience of comprehension. Considering the existing situation of Chinese language textbooks, language policy, and recent trends in multilingualism in Sri Lanka, total immersion is less likely to bring optimal effectiveness in teaching Chinese. The present study suggests that partial immersion and translanguaging would be more constructive for Sri Lankan students if cautiously handled with less hindrance to the delivery of target language content and its accuracy. A multilingual approach would, on one hand, offer a safe space for students to communicate while penetrating cross-cultural barriers through cultivation of culture-sensitivity.

Homeopathic drugs complementary, antidotal and inimical to Nux vomica produce stronger anti-alcoholic effect on toads than Nux.

Background In homeopathy some drugs are known to act as complementary, antidotal or inimical to a particular drug. Practitioners can follow this rule when they apply one drug following another. Potentized Nux vomica can reduce acute hypnotic effect of alcohol on toads. Sulphur and Sepia are reported to be complementary to Nux-vom, while Coffea cruda and Zincum met are antidotal and inimical to Nux, respectively .The four drugs have been tested on the toad model to find out their actual therapeutic relationship with Nux vom. Objective To verify the complementary effect of Sulphur and Sepia, antidotal effect of Coffea and inimical effect of Zincum in relation to Nux vom in the toad model. Methods Five batches of toads, each comprising 20 individuals, were treated by partial immersion in a drug diluted with distilled water 1:500 for 20 min. The control consisted of 90% ethanol diluted with distilled water 1:500. The drugs were Nux vom 200 CH, Sulphur 200 CH, Sepia 200 CH, Coffea 200 CH and Zincum 200 CH. Toads of each batch were separately exposed to 260mM ethanol solution and tested every 10 min to see if they had lost their righting reflex (RR). For this, each toad was laid on its dorsal surface. If it failed to turn on its ventrum in a cut-off time of 60 sec it was considered to have lost it’s RR. Four more batches of toads were pretreated with Nux vom 200 CH and subsequently treated separately by Sulphur 200 CH, Sepia 200 CH, Coffea 200 CH and Zincum 200 CH. All the toads were then exposed to 260 mM ethanol solution to record their tolerance to ethanol anesthesia in terms of time to lose RR. Results Toads treated with the five drugs took significantly longer time (P

Degradation of Shotcrete Materials Subjected to Sulfate and Chloride Attack in Varying Exposure Regimes

Durability of in situ shotcrete under external sulfate attack was investigated, taking into consideration the addition of mineral admixtures, along with the presence of chloride ions. Three water-to-binder ratios (w/b), i.e., 0.35, 0.45, and 0.55, and two types of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), namely, fly ash (FA) and silica fume (SF), were considered in the current study. Two different laboratorial immersion regimes (continuously full immersion and partial immersion with cycling temperature and relative humidity) were carried out to induce chemical/physical sulfate attack. Results show that loss of strength was the typical feature of chemical sulfate attack on shotcrete, while surface spalling dominated in deterioration caused by physical sulfate attack. The presence of chloride ions can globally mitigate these deteriorations. Meanwhile, the lower w/b ratio proved to be efficient in increasing the resistance to both sulfate attacks. Adding fly ash (FA) in shotcrete mixtures enhanced the long-term performance but invited massive white efflorescence on surface layer under partial-immersion exposure condition. Silica fume (SF) admixture can compensate the undesired reduction of early-age strength caused by FA addition, but make these specimens more susceptible to sulfate attack. Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) analysis, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) tests reveal that these consequences were strongly related to the refinement of microstructure resulted from pozzolanic reactions and hydration kinetics.

Refractometric Properties of a TFBG Sensor Demodulated Using α-Shape Modified Delaunay Triangulation

In our previous research, a novel demodulation technique based on α-shape Delaunay triangulation (D-T) was developed to obtain the refractive index of the medium surrounding the optical fibre using the envelope of the cladding peaks from the spectrum of the tilted fibre Bragg grating (TFBG) sensor. This technique was demonstrated to be efficient, easy to implement, powerful, faster than the previous ones and applicable for real-time measurements. In this paper, a deep parametric analysis of the resolution, repeatability and accuracy of the D-T demodulation technique for a TFBG refractometer sensor is performed and presented. The spectral properties of the TFBG sensor as a refractometer are explored using the same demodulation technique. Specifically, supposing the use of the TFBG as a two-parameter optical sensor, the influence of the strain on the envelope area is analysed, and the measurement stability regarding the external RI is reported. Then, the cladding resonance peaks in the spectrum are observed experimentally as the TFBG undergoes partial immersion in a defined refractive index liquid. This last experiment allowed a better understanding the evolution of the TFBG transmission spectrum when the Bragg gratings were partially surrounded by a medium with a different RI.

Kaiako and stakeholders’ perceptions about Māori partial-immersion environments' contribution to Māori-medium education

The contributions partial-immersion Māori programmes offer to the wider educational landscape of Aotearoa is essential to Māori achieving as Māori. In this article, partial-immersion settings are defined as Level 2 immersion (51%–80% te reo Māori instruction) and Level 3 immersion (31%–50% te reo Māori instruction). While lower levels of immersion can be less effective for language acquisition than full-immersion Māori environments (May et al., 2004), this study finds that partial-immersion programmes are perceived to produce beneficial outcomes in terms of ahurea tuakiri and culturally empowering practice.

A cross-sectional study on task type and negotiation of meaning in CLIL child-child interaction

Different task types have been hypothesised to affect the type and amount of Negotiation of Meaning (NoM) generated in learner-learner interactions. However, studies specifically addressing the impact of the task variable on the NoM in child-child interactions in foreign language contexts are virtually non-exixtent. This study analyses the amount and type of NoM operationalised as conversational adjustments (CAs) present in the interactions of primary education L1-Spanish young learners (YLs) of English on two different tasks. Participants were 40 eight-year-old children enrolled in a partial immersion Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) program. Ten pairs took part in a two-way pictureplacement jigsaw, while the other ten participated in a one-way picture-placement storybased task. The results indicate that the impact of task type on the amount and type of CAs produced by participants is more far-reaching than expected, revealing a significantly greater amount of CAs in the one-way task. This finding locates this variable at the very core of the list of factors directly impinging on NoM.

Shared Makeup Cosmetics as a Route of Demodex folliculorum Infections

Purpose The aim of the study was to examine Demodex survival in makeup cosmetics, i.e., powder cream, mascara, and lipstick, and to determine whether cosmetics shared with others can be a source of D. folliculorum infection. Methods Live D. folliculorum adults were placed in cosmetic samples and their motility was observed under a microscope. The mites were fully or partially immersed in the powder cream and lipstick, and only partially immersed in the mascara. Partial immersion means that only the opisthosoma was covered by the cosmetic, whereas the gnathosoma and podosoma had no contact with the cosmetic. Cessation of motility was regarded as a sign of death. Results In the control (mites placed on a microscope slide with no cosmetics), the survival time was 41.2 h. D. folliculorum that were immersed fully or partially in the lipstick substrate were viable for 38.5 h and 148 h, respectively. The survival time of the mites at full and partial immersion in the powder cream was 0.78 h and 2.16 h, respectively. The average survival time in the mascara was 21 h. Conclusions Makeup cosmetics used by different individuals at short intervals (from several hours to several days) can be a source of transmission of Demodex sp. mites.

CONTENT AND LANGUAGE INTEGRATED LEARNING WITHIN THE “LISTENING COMPREHENSION AND NOTE-TAKING” COURSE AND ITS INFLUENCE ON LEARNERS MOTIVATION

The article analyzes and explains the influence of content and language integrated leaning (CLIL) on students motivation within the course “Listening comprehension and note-taking”. Basic CLIL features and core principles are analyzed. Special attention is drawn to David Marsh, Sylvén, Coyle whose works are devoted to CLIL and its foundation and implementation. Moreover, the comparison of content and language integrated learning with integrated education is made. Chronological stages of CLIL formation are highlighted. The authors show three models of CLIL implementation. They are hard (subject-led), soft (Language-led) and partial immersion (both the subject and language are equally important). Due to the features of language specialties soft CLIL model (language-led) is considered to be the most appropriate model within the course “Listening comprehension and note-taking”. Besides the content and language integrated learning approach, learners’ motivation and encouragement into the educational process are analyzed. In the conducted research the significant role of positive motivation is studied. Such features as authentic material, variety of assessment, task gradation (from simple to more complex and vice versa), the studied material are comsidered in the article. In addition, there is a comparison of L1 (native language) and L2 (foreign language) and how their use affect encouragement into educational process. It should be taken into account that the negotiation between L1 and L2 is different depending on content and language integrated learning or integrated education. As a practical part an introduction to a lesson (within the course “Listening comprehension and note-taking”) is taken. The lesson is based on the topic which has strong cross subject connections with Practical Phonetics. So, as students need to use their background knowledge and are supposed to develop not only communicative skills, the soft CLIL model is applied. Thus, the authors propose the introduction based on key principles of soft (language-led) content and language integrated learning. The final part of the article presents the results of the conducted research and future stages and strategies which may be conducted based on the conclusion. Moreover, it can be inferred that the use of content and language integrated learning has a positive impact on learners motivation and provides the formation of more sustainable skills.