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This article written by Young speaks about how Vietnamese parents were given questionaires regarding the use of bilingual education in the San Diego City Schools. It goes on to speak about how parents agree that being bilingual will eventually help them later on in life, but learning their primary language is more important. Young teaches in his article the methods of this study, and he explains the data that was collected in very good detail, there are also many quick reading and helpful charts as well.

Smith discusses how the Davis Bilingual Magnet School is very effective in and out of the classroom. The school that teaches children of many different language backgrounds using Spanish and English is highly successful through standardized test scores, performance, and various other things. Through the different teaching methods and the context of studies, students learn very thuroughly and efficiently. Smith's article states good arguments of why this school is effective and makes one believe that the Davis Bilingual Magnet School shows great importance in the city of Tuscon, Arizona.

Lems describes the ways music has influenced her classroom. She talks about how her students are adults in an English language course. Through out the article she explains how through music based activities, positive attitude and affect, listening comprehesion, and oral and pronunciation practice helped her students become bilingual.

An Article focusing on a summer institute that integrated arts into language arts. The institute taught teachers to use music, movement, visual art, drama, and film to enhance the classroom experience and help student's literacy. The authors then surveyed the participants one year later. Results showed that those who responded to the survey were still using art to help teach.

This NYT article is about how the way we refer to and treat the elderly (calling them "dear" or speaking loudly to them, for example) can affect their health. Such studies have broader ranging implications. When we call others derogatory names, can it affect their health? Does using "baby talk" affect the language development of children? Do our assumptions about teenagers affect their intellectual development?

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A film on OhioLINK. Communication is at the core of the human experience, even though effective communication takes a lifetime to learn. This program explores how we develop the arts of speech and physical expression to make ourselves understood and to understand others. Visiting a group of 25 three-year-olds, the film observes them learning as many as ten new words a day-some already grasping the first 1,500 components of the 20,000-word vocabulary collected in the average life span. The "nonverbal leakage" or body language that supplements verbal skills is also explored, demonstrating that children with verbal disadvantages can compensate through other techniques. Original BBCW broadcast title: Read My Lips. Part of the BBC series Child of Our Time 2004. (60 minutes)

In this article, the relationship between literacy practices and spatiality is explored in the context of family literacy. The article draws on fieldwork in family literacy classrooms as part of two evaluations in Croydon and Derbyshire of family learning provision. Methods of evaluation included classroom observations in rural and suburban locations. In addition, teachers and parents were interviewed. In this instance, family learning included literacy and language activities with parents and children in school and nursery settings. These were learning spaces where parents and children collaborated on joint projects including book making, storytelling, the making of visual artefacts and reading and writing activities. The research revealed how family literacy classrooms could be understood as 'third spaces', between home and school, offering parents and children discursive opportunities drawing on both domains.

The author reflects on the use of acronyms, jargon, and terminology in electronic engineering. According to the author, terminology is a very significant issue since a common language is vital for the proper exchange of information, particularly when a new technology is developed. The author believes that many of the terms for the various devices were developed given the fact that the technology involved is old and established. (Description provided by EBSCO.)

The general website for the Bilingual Research Journal, a journal of the National Association for Bilingual Education and the Southwest Center for Education Equity and Language Diversity, this site contains full-text articles focusing on bilingual education, available in PDF format.

Health literacy is basic reading and numerical skills that allow a person to function in the health care environment. Even though most adults read at an eighth-grade level, and 20 percent of the population reads at or below a fifth-grade level, most health care materials are written at a 10th-grade level. Older patients are particularly affected because their reading and comprehension abilities are influenced by their cognition and their vision and hearing status. Inadequate health literacy can result in difficulty accessing health care, following instructions from a physician, and taking medication properly. Patients with inadequate health literacy are more likely to be hospitalized than patients with adequate skills. Patients understand medical information better when spoken to slowly, simple words are used, and a restricted amount of information is presented. For optimal comprehension and compliance, patient education material should be written at a sixth-grade or lower reading level, preferably including pictures and illustrations. All patients prefer reading medical information written in clear and concise language. Physicians should be alert to this problem because most patients are unwilling to admit that they have literacy problems. (Am Fam Physician 2005;72:463-8. Copyright© 2005 American Academy of Family Physicians.)

The article discusses what health literacy is and what constitutes good health literacy. Cultural, language and communication barriers have great potential to lead to mutual misunderstandings between patients and their health care providers. Because these barriers lead to communication breakdowns, patient safety is jeopardized, so changes that will permit patients to receive more time, attention, education and understanding of their conditions and their care will help alleviate these obstacles.

The report discusses how the complexity of medical information affects the health of the patient. The terminology used by doctors and other health professionals contribute to low literacy in patients, and because of the difficulty patients have understanding medical information, health outcomes of patients are jeopardized. The report makes interesting points that expose the unnecessarily complex and confusing language doctors insist on using when talking to patients.

Leland discusses how talking down to elderly people, "elderspeak," has a negative effect on their health and outlook of life. These negative effects lead to decreased self-esteem, depression, and even a reduction in life expectancy. Most people actually get infuriated when they are talked to like a child, and say it is an insult to their integrity. Dr. Becca Levy of Yale University says health care workers are some of the worst offenders of elderspeak and are unaware of the negative implication it has on patients, that such patronizing language gives the message that patients are incompetent.

Bryan discusses how practical steps that healthcare providers and executives can implement to enable health literate communities can provide several solutions to solve the health literacy crisis. A team effort, use of standardized communication tools, plain language, and educational materials are suggested. Because the health care providers are instrumental in reducing low health literacy, policies that include solutions that are easy to implement to enable health literate communities are necessary. Bryan makes useful suggestions for providers and policy makers which seems plausible.

First in a series of occasional short takes on unusual courses in local schools.

Lucas describes in this detailed article that in early childhood there is noun bias. The article speaks of a study that entails 60 Filipino-English bilingual children. The children were different in how they stressed their nouns and verbs in simple sentences or phrases. Remarkably, the results show that only noun bias is shown in bilingual children's English vocabulary. The author goes very in depth with her study, and does not seem to leave anything out that is need.

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Jefferson Community College teacher Ken Hardy wanted to teach a class on taboo words. He said one and lost his job. Most of the piece is a story about what happened to Hardy, but the third page of the article contains some thoughtful commentary on the power of the word.

A film on OhioLINK. Implications of such de facto linguistic hegemony in a world of high-tech haves and have-nots.