Description:
This paper investigates EFL learners' perception of prior knowledge and its roles in reading comprehension. It is based on a survey conducted among 400 EFL students studying at secondary and tertiary levels in China. Through the analysis of the ranked multiple responses to the questions posed in the questionnaire, the paper shows that EFL students in mainland China believe that their command of English vocabulary plays a crucial role in their reading comprehension. However as their linguistic knowledge increases, they tend to attach less importance to their linguistic knowledge, especially the knowledge of English syntax and formal structures. At the same time, conceptual and sociocultural knowledge seems to gain greater importance. Furthermore, the perceived importance of linguistic knowledge seems to start diminishing around the end of secondary education, when EFL students have acquired a vocabulary of about 3000 words and the basic knowledge of English syntax and formal structures. The final replacement of linguistic knowledge by conceptual or sociocultural knowledge as the top factor that affects their reading comprehension seems to take place one year after the beginning of the tertiary EFL course. This may well be considered as an indication of the EFL threshold level for EFL students in China.
Description:
"This study comprises a formulated approach to the prediction of EFL reading comprehension. Based on a study of the interactions between bottom-up and top-down processing, between different sources of prior knowledge, and between the reader and the writer via the text, a schematic developmental model is devised to account for L2 reading comprehension. According to the model, the EFL, conceptual and sociocultural knowledge that an EFL text involves, and that the EFL reader brings to the reading task, determines the outcome of the EFL reading event."
Description:
"This study comprises a formulated approach to the prediction of EFL reading comprehension. Based on a study of the interactions between bottom-up and top-down processing, between different sources of prior knowledge, and between the reader and the writer via the text, a schematic developmental model is devised to account for L2 reading comprehension. According to the model, the EFL, conceptual and sociocultural knowledge that an EFL text involves, and that the EFL reader brings to the reading task, determines the outcome of the EFL reading event."
Description:
This article describes Indigenous Australian languages as having a history of pejoration dating from colonial times, which has masked the richness and complexity of mother tongues (and more recently developed kriols) of large numbers of Indigenous Australians.The paper rejects deficit theory representations of these languages as being inferior to imported dialects of English and explains how language issues embedded in teaching practices have served to restrict Indigenous Australian access to cultural capital most valued in modern socio-economic systems.We go on to describe ways in which alternative perspectives where acknowledgment of rich,complex and challenging features of Indigenous Australian languages may be used by educators as empowering resources for teacher education and teaching in schools. Our paper stresses the urgency of establishing frameworks for language success within which to develop other successful learning outcomes of Indigenous Australians.
Description:
This article describes Indigenous Australian languages as having a history of pejoration dating from colonial times, which has masked the richness and complexity of mother tongues (and more recently developed kriols) of large numbers of Indigenous Australians.The paper rejects deficit theory representations of these languages as being inferior to imported dialects of English and explains how language issues embedded in teaching practices have served to restrict Indigenous Australian access to cultural capital most valued in modern socio-economic systems.We go on to describe ways in which alternative perspectives where acknowledgment of rich,complex and challenging features of Indigenous Australian languages may be used by educators as empowering resources for teacher education and teaching in schools. Our paper stresses the urgency of establishing frameworks for language success within which to develop other successful learning outcomes of Indigenous Australians.