The purpose of the study was to investigate the effect of 10 minutes of daily exposure for 10 weeks to a Chinese Music Curriculum and its effect on generating positive cultural attitudes towards the Chinese people, improving tonal discrimination skills, singing accuracy of tonal patterns, and accuracy of singing Chinese lyrics for third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade students, compared to a comparison group not receiving the Chinese Music Curriculum. In an elementary school in Miami-Dade County, Florida, 6 third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade classes were chosen and randomly assigned to either an intervention or a comparison group. A Chinese Music Curriculum was developed for the intervention group and implemented by classroom teachers. Meanwhile, the comparison group received normal academic instruction and a weekly music class by a music specialist. Pre- and post-tests were administered to both the intervention and comparison groups: (1) Children's Attitudes toward Chinese (CATC), (2) Intermediate Measures of Music Audiation-Tonal (IMMA, Gordon, 1982), and (3) Tonal Pattern Performance Measure (TPPM). The Chinese Song Performance Measure (CSPM) was administered to the intervention group only in order to measure students' abilities for accurately singing the Chinese lyrics of a simple Chinese song, "Little Rat." Data were subjected to a mixed Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) statistical analysis, item analysis, and Pearson Product-Moment correlation. The results demonstrated that the CATC survey was a reliable and valid measure to assess children's attitudes toward Chinese people. The overall effect of the Chinese Music Curriculum was significant in combination of the three outcome measures: CATC, IMMA, and TPPM. The follow-up individual examination revealed that children's attitudes toward Chinese people and tonal pattern singing accuracy were significantly improved, but tonal discrimination skills did not improve. Grade was found to influence children's singing accuracy of tonal patterns with fifth graders outperforming the third and fourth graders. All participants in the intervention group were able to sing a Chinese song with over 70% accuracy of the Chinese lyrics.

This qualitative study was guided by the framework of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). In Canada, although researchers recognize that learning French through a cultural context will promote understanding and acceptance of cultural diversity, as well as the learning of the target language, there is little evidence to support the ways in which this methodology may influence the learning of elementary Core French students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the ways in which a group of Grade 4 students, from an English community, perceived their peers from a French community, and to describe any changes in their attitudes toward learning French as a Second Language in response to the opportunity to learn through a cultural context. This action research study used a questionnaire, an observation checklist of task-related behaviour, and semi-structured group photo-interviews to explore 15 Grade 4 students’ perceptions and attitudes in response to a new research-based teaching approach. As the cultural exchange unfolded, I sought evidence of the three savoirs (that according to the ICC model, primary students have the ability to develop), in order to promote interculturality: savoir être (related to students’ attitudes towards the other students), savoirs (related to knowledge of the other culture), and savoir apprendre/faire (related to behaviour toward the other culture). Results indicated that students showed evidence of two savoirs: savoir être and savoirs. Savoir apprendre/faire, however, was not shown. In addition to the two savoirs, the exchange promoted the learning of French in the classroom, and supported the development of students’ confidence in communicating in French. The findings of this study contribute to the teaching of Elementary Core French in Ontario, by providing valuable insights into the possible ways that learning French through an intercultural experience holds potential in developing students’ communication abilities as well as awareness and acceptance of otherness, which is the bedrock upon one can develop effective communicators in the target language. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2014-04-23 18:35:56.721

Changing demographics impact our schools as children come from more linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds. The various social, cultural, and economic backgrounds of the students affect their early language learning experiences which expose them to the academic language needed to succeed in school. Teachers can help students acquire academic language by introducing words that are within their Zone of Proximal Development and increasing exposure to and use of academic language. This study investigated the effects of increasing structured activities for students to orally interact with informational text on their scientific academic language development and comprehension of expository text. The Academic Text Talk activities, designed to scaffold verbalization of new words and ideas, included discussion, retelling, games, and sentence walls. This study also evaluated if there were differences in scientific language proficiency and comprehension between boys and girls, and between English language learners and native English speakers. A quasi-experimental design was used to determine the relationship between increasing students’ oral practice with academic language and their academic language proficiency. Second graders (n = 91) from an urban public school participated in two science units over an 8 week period and were pre and post tested using the Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey-Revised and vocabulary tests from the National Energy Education Project. Analysis of covariance was performed on the pre to post scores by treatment group to determine differences in academic language proficiency for students taught using Academic Text Talk compared to students taught using a text-centered method, using the initial Florida Assessment for Instruction in Reading test as a covariate. Students taught using Academic Text Talk multimodal strategies showed significantly greater increases in their pre to posttest means on the Woodcock Muñoz Language Survey-Revised Oral Language Totals and National Energy Education Development Project Vocabulary tests than students taught using the text-centered method, ps < .05. Boys did not show significantly greater increases than girls, nor did English language learners show significantly greater increases than the native English speakers. This study informs the field of reading research by evaluating the effectiveness of a multimodal combination of strategies emphasizing discourse to build academic language.

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This work presents the topic of well-being, also called mental health, in connection with the school education in the primary school. Well-being is becoming more and more current topis as it is turning out that well-being in school can affect students' attitude to learning and school in general, even their school results. In the theoretical part, the term well-being is introduced from more different perspectives, definitions are being introduced used for different purposes and focusing on diverse aspects of well-being. Researches investigating well-being particularly in the primary school are presented, also programs promoting well-being by children and the connection of well-being with behaviour of students' feelings, school results and the teacher's attitude. Further the role of well-being in children's education and taking it into consideration in curriculum of different countries is presented and the situation of involving students' well-being in the practice at the primary school. The practical part presents results of a questionnaire survey, aimed at comparison of the degree of well-being in three classes of fifth graders at the primary school with a different approach of the teacher to teaching and managing the class. At the same time, relationship between well- being and school results of...

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