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Part 1: Chinese Calendar, The Story About Mr Bean Part 2: Chinese Calendar, The Twelve Animals Part 3: Chinese Festive Season, The Dragon Boat Festival Part 4: Chinese Proverb, An Illusory Snake in a Goblet 杯弓蛇影， Added Feet to the Snake 画蛇添足 http://100.61flash.com/20091116//61ok2009/gushi/g013.swf
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In most countries, Mother's Day is a recent observance derived from the holiday as it has evolved in America. When it was adopted by other countries and cultures, it was given different meanings, associated to different events (religious, historical or legendary), and celebrated in a different date or dates.
Some countries already had existing celebrations honoring motherhood, and their celebrations have adopted several external characteristics from the US holiday, like giving carnations and other presents to your own mother.
The extent of the celebrations varies greatly. In some countries, it is potentially offensive to one's mother not to mark Mother's Day. In others, it is a little-known festival celebrated mainly by immigrants, or covered by the media as a taste of foreign culture (compare the celebrations of Diwali in the UK and the United States).
| The case examines the rise and fall of Michael Jackson (Jackson), one of the most popular and controversial pop stars of the 1980s and 1990s. It describes the rise of Jackson from the son of a steel worker to a pop superstar in the 1980s. |
Issues:
» Study the various phases in the life cycle of a celebrity and compare the same to that of a product or a company.
» Examine the business acumen of Michael Jackson.
» Examine the reasons that can lead to a downfall of a celebrity and draw lessons from it.
Working memory involves the temporary storage and manipulation of information that is assumed to be necessary for a wide range of complex cognitive activities. Research with children has demonstrated that the ability to learn new words is greatly affected by working memory span - specifically, by how much information they can hold in that part of working memory called "phonological short-term memory". The constraining effect of working memory capacity on the ability to learn new words appears to continue into adolescence.
But, as you grow in experience, building a vocabulary, this constraint becomes less important. The importance of phonological short-term memory is also greater for productive learning (learning to produce a language, i.e., speak or write it) than in receptive learning (learning to read or understand a language). For productive learning, the pronounceability of the new words is very important. The more easily pronounced, the more easily learnt.
References:
· Nation, I.S.P. 2001. Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
· Ellis, N.C. & Beaton, A. 1993. Factors affecting foreign language vocabulary: imagery keyword mediators and phonological short-term memory. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 46A, 533-58.
References:
1. Phill-Silver, J., & Trainor, L.J. (2005). Feeling the beat: Movement influences infant rhythm perception. Science, 308, 1430.
2. Jakobson, L., Lewycky, S., Kilgour, A., & Stoesz, B. (2008). Memory for verbal and visual material in highly trained musicians. Music Perception, 26, 41-55 doi:10.1525/mp. 2008.26.1.41
Research strongly supports the benefits of bilingualism in language, literacy, social, and cognitive development. For example, bilingual children have performed better than monolingual speakers on measures of analytical ability, concept formation, cognitive flexibility, and metalinguistic skills (Espinosa, 2008; Hakuta, Ferdman, & Diaz, 1987; Roseberry-McKibbin & Brice, 2005).
While some teachers and parents believe that in order to succeed academically in the U.S. all children must learn English as quickly as possible, research demonstrates just the opposite. In fact, evidence suggests that children who continue to learn academic concepts in their native language while gradually learning English outperform academically and socially children who are immersed in English-only programs (Chang et al., 2007; Restrepo & Kruth, 2003).
· Ensure that the environments in which you introduce languages to children are nurturing—whether it is a school, early childhood program, or home (Tabors, 2008).
· Choose an education program that is accepting and supportive of dual language learning.
· If your child is learning a second language sequentially, select a program that allows children to continue to learn academic concepts in their native language as they gradually learn the second or new language (Copple & Bredekamp, 2008).
· Volunteer your time and/or skills in your child’s classroom. This would allow dual language learners the opportunity to communicate in their home language during the day.
· Teach vocabulary or nursery rhymes in your native language to the class or teachers, extending opportunities to practice a second language to all children (Espinosa, 2008).
· Be prepared for the possibility that your children will express disinterest in their native language. Support your children’s interest in maintaining their native language by talking to them about the importance of dual language development.
· Create fun family-oriented activities that will provide opportunities to converse in the home language, such as reading books, singing songs, or playing games together.
· Bring children to activities in which the demand to speak the home language is high, such as in extended family or community gatherings (Tabors, 2008).
Parents play a crucial role in supporting their children’s dual language development. It is a misconception that children are just “natural” learners who effortlessly store and maintain knowledge of languages. Dual language development requires the conscious effort, reinforcement, and support of parents, teachers, and family members (Tabors, 2008).
Ever wondered how you made it through years of lecture and note-taking at schools? You had parents with high expectations. If only the teachers had thrown in a bit of learning keeping in mind, multiple intelligences. Neumind understands.
Neumind offers areas for unstructured play, exploration, activity and reflection. Meeting spaces abound, used for both planned and chance interactions that typify the collaborative Neumind experience. Learning spaces reflect an international educational and aesthetic standard, and are flexible to accommodate the different activities at Neumind. The environment promotes engagement and learning in small group instruction, formal lectures, large group read-alouds or multimedia presentations.
