Concordia University

About: Concordia University is a education organization based out in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Control theory & Population. The organization has 13565 authors who have published 31084 publications receiving 783525 citations. The organization is also known as: Sir George Williams University & Loyola College, Montreal.

Students'' approaches to vocabulary learning and their relationship to success

Abstract: Students’ approaches to vocabulary learning were surveyed in two distinct learning environments: one where English was studied as a second language (ESL), and another where it was a foreign language (EFL). A questionnaire, adapted from Sanaoui's (1992) work, was administered to 47 ESL and 43 EFL students. They were asked to indicate, among other things, the amount of time they usually spent on vocabulary learning, the extent to which they engaged in independent language study, the type of vocabulary learning activities they did on a regular basis, the frequency and elaborateness of their note-taking and reviewing efforts, and the frequency and elaborateness with which they used dictionaries. Whereas students in the two settings exhibited significant differences in the use of some of the strategies, other parts of their strategic behaviour were strikingly similar. Cluster analysis, a technique used for finding relatively homogeneous subgroups in a population, identified 8 different profiles of student approaches to lexical learning. Some clusters exhibited a remarkably “flat” profile in that they used either all or none of the strategies. The majority of learners, however, fell into the more saw-toothed profile clusters, exhibiting clear preferences for certain types of strategic behaviour. Analyses were also conducted to determine a possible relationship between strategy use and achievement level. Students’ performance on two tests, a Yes/No test assessing knowledge of academic vocabulary and a cloze test assessing overall English proficiency, were compared for the clusters. More frequent and elaborate strategy use was associated with higher levels of achievement, whereas lack of self-reported effort on the students' part was linked to poor performance. Results also suggested thattimeand learnerindependencewere the two measures most closely related to success in vocabulary learning and higher overall English proficiency.

Developmental Patterns in the Flexibility of Children's Ethnic Attitudes

Abstract: Developmental patterns in ethnic attitudes were assessed in 232 children aged 5 to 12 years in relation to cognitive development and social desirability responding. English-speaking children assigned 10 positive attributes, 10 negative attributes, and 4 neutral attributes to either an English-speaking child, a French-speaking child, or both an English- and a French-speaking child, depicted by line drawings. Positive attributions to their own ethnic group and negative attributions to the other ethnic group were less frequent in older children. Flexibility of ethnic attitudes, that is, attributions to both groups, increased with age and were inversely related to positive own-group attributions and negative other-group attributions. High flexibility followed the attainment of concrete operational thinking, as measured by conservation but not by ethnic constancy. Flexibility was inversely related to Crandall social desirability responding and unrelated to children's conformity to the experimenter's attitude. ...

Pawns in the Game: Ports in a Global Transportation System

Abstract: Although they are required to make very large investments, port authorities are discovering that they have less and less control over their destinies. The major decisions affecting port traffic are made by shipping lines whose activities are global in scale. This paper examines the plight of public monopoly ports in a highly competitive environment. Several policy options are discussed.

Translation-invariant denoising using multiwavelets

Abstract: Translation invariant (TI) single wavelet denoising was developed by Coifman and Donoho (1994), and they show that TI is better than non-TI single wavelet denoising. On the other other hand, Strela et al. (1994) have found that non-TI multiwavelet denoising gives better results than non-TI single wavelets. We extend Coifman and Donoho's TI single wavelet denoising scheme to multiwavelets. Experimental results show that TI multiwavelet denoising is better than the single case for soft thresholding.