Millions of Chinese children learn English at increasingly younger ages. Yet when it comes to measuring proficiency, educators, and researchers rely on assessments that have been developed for L1 learners and/or for different cultural contexts, or on non-validated, individually designed tests. We developed the Assessment of Chinese Children’s English Vocabulary test to address the need for a validated, culturally appropriate receptive vocabulary test, designed specifically for young Chinese learners. The items are drawn from current teaching materials used in China, and (...) the depictions of people and objects are culturally appropriate. We evaluated the instrument’s reliability and validity in two field tests with a combined sample size of 1,092 children analyses show that the ACCE-V is sufficiently sensitive to capture different proficiency levels and that it has good psychometric properties. ACCE-V scores were correlated with Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test scores, indicating concurrent validity. We found that children’s age and English learning experience can significantly predict the scores of ACCE-V, but the effect of English learning experience is greater. The ACCE-V thus offers an alternative to existing vocabulary tests. We argue that culturally appropriate assessments like the ACCE-V are fairer to learners and help promote an English learning and teaching environment that is less dominated by Western cultures and native speaker norms. (shrink)

This paper faces the projections of the moral philosophy of Cicero on medieval scholastic ethics; it examines the influence of Cicero's writings dealing with treatment of the justificating way of moral behavior starting from natural human inclinations. First, the article analyses the philosophical elaboration of the theme in the field of ciceronian thinking. Second, already inside the frame of medieval elaborations, the article deals with projections of ciceronian tradition around natural human inclinations in their relations with moral life, in the (...) philosophical developments of Thomas Aquinas about origins of virtue and natural law. (shrink)

O artigo recorre aos escritos de Michel Foucault sobre a análise do discurso, para caracterizar as exigências que se impõem aos intelectuais ao adentrarem uma formação discursiva. Examinam-se as condições requeridas para se ocupar a posição de sujeito do enunciado, bem como as regras subjacentes à formação dos objetos, dos conceitos e à escolha dos temas e teorias, os quais tanto permitem como restringem as possibilidades de formação dos enunciados. A análise incide especificamente sobre os discursos da psicologia destinados aos (...) professores em formação, investigando a hipótese de que, na primeira metade do século XX, o tema do desenvolvimento tratado no âmbito da teoria da recapitulação constituiu uma estratégia recorrente para a formulação de enunciados reconhecidos como verdadeiros. Palavras-chave: Análise do discurso. Formação de professores, psicologia educacional. Estudos foucaultianos. Manuais de ensino. (shrink)

A pesar de que los filósofos modernos se caracterizan por ser versados en muchas disciplinas y ciencias, pocos son los intelectuales que, como Leibniz, logran formular una comprensión del mundo en la que cada una de estas disciplinas se articula con las demás. Esto hace que la propuesta filosófica y científica del hannoveriano, a diferencia de otras propuestas filosóficas de la modernidad, sea lo suficientemente compleja y robusta como para responder muchas problemáticas contemporáneas. Dada la amplia diversidad de temáticas que (...) aborda Leibniz a lo largo de su vida, sin embargo, el presente libro pretende reflexionar tan sólo sobre los alcances de algunas de estas problemáticas, las cuales se encuentran divididas en cinco grupos o ejes temáticos.El primer grupo de textos, así, aborda problemas relacionados con su metafísica y su caracterización dinámica del mundo. El segundo comprende aquellos textos relacionados con lógica, argumentación y filosofía del lenguaje, mientras que en el tercero se hace alusión a su caracterización de la belleza cara a su noción de orden y armonía. En el cuarto grupo nos encontramos una serie de textos que exploran la relación entre su propuesta filosófica y otras disciplinas, tales como las ciencias naturales, la literatura y la psicología. Finalmente nos encontramos con aquellos textos relacionados con su filosofía práctica, en particular con sus escritos sobre jurisprudencia y filosofía política. (shrink)

We used a new method called “Ghost-in-the-Machine” (GiM) to investigate social interactions with a robotic bartender taking orders for drinks and serving them. Using the GiM paradigm allowed us to identify how human participants recognize the intentions of customers on the basis of the output of the robotic recognizers. Specifically, we measured which recognizer modalities (e.g., speech, the distance to the bar) were relevant at different stages of the interaction. This provided insights into human social behavior necessary for the development (...) of socially competent robots. When initiating the drink-order interaction, the most important recognizers were those based on computer vision. When drink orders were being placed, however, the most important information source was the speech recognition. Interestingly, the participants used only a subset of the available information, focussing only on a few relevant recognizers while ignoring others. This reduced the risk of acting on erroneous sensor data and enabled them to complete service interactions more swiftly than a robot using all available sensor data. We also investigated socially appropriate response strategies. In their responses,the participants preferred to use the same modality as the customer’s requests, e.g., they tended to respond verbally to verbal requests. Also, they added redundancy to their responses, for instance by using echo questions. We argue that incorporating the social strategies discovered with the GiM paradigm in multimodal grammars of human–robot interactions improves the robustness and the ease-of-use of these interactions, and therefore provides a smoother user experience. (shrink)

Citizen science is growing quickly, given its potential to enhance knowledge coproduction by diverse participants, generating large and global data sets. However, uneven participation in CS is still an important concern. This work aims to understand participation dynamics in CS and how they are shaped by participation barriers and drivers. We do so by examining participation in CONECT-e, a CS project that uses a wiki-like platform to document traditional ecological knowledge. More precisely, we analyze quantitative data on participants’ profile and (...) activity patterns and qualitative data on barriers and drivers of participation. Our findings suggest that overcoming the education, age, and residence participation barriers is challenging even in cocreated CS projects. This is potentially due to issues of perceived self-illegitimacy and low access to information and communication technologies. Our results also point out that participants’ alliance with the project’s objectives and trust relationships with the project team are important drivers of participation in CS projects. Finally, we also highlight the need to think beyond participation as single actions and rather consider participation diversity in CS as functional diversity in ecosystems, with participants performing a diverse set of interconnected tasks or functions. (shrink)

A collection of poetry and lyrical writings by Native American poet Laura Tohe celebrating Canyon de Chelly, accompanied by full-color photographs.

This article aims to investigate the reasons that push an author to rewrite a great classic, if the motivation of marketing is not pertinent. In the rewriting practice there are works that arise from deeper expressive needs and it would be completely wrong to explain them through purely opportunistic reasons; in fact, it is possible that the author uses the mask of the well-known character to express, by rethinking it, some complex, unexpressed, uncomfortable or difficult aspects of himself or society. (...) We will try to show the plausibility of this hypothesis through the analysis of one of the most successful rewritings of the Liaisons Dangereuses by Laclos, Le Mauvais genre by Laurent de Graeve, trying at the same time to highlight one of the implications related to the connection between fiction and truth. (shrink)

Nuestro trabajo ofrece algunas claves de lectura del proceso por el cual fue posible que la actividad de los tribunales de justicia, a comienzos de los años '90 en Latinoamérica en general y en Argentina de manera significativa, adquiriese una relevancia y una consideración singular respecto al ejercicio del poder político. Este fenómeno, habitualmente denominado "judicialización de la política", supone una tendencia a procesar y dar respuesta a conflictos de índole política, a través de instituciones judiciales. En relación a ello, (...) nos interesa mostrar las interconexiones, puntos de apoyo, resortes a través de los cuales es posible ligarlo al diagrama de relaciones de poder y procesos de subjetivación que caracterizan a la gubernamentalidad neoliberal. Our paper offers some lecture keys on the process through which made it possible the political relevance of judicial activity during the 1990's in Latin American in general, and in Argentina in particular. This phenomenon, commonly known as 'judicialization of politics', supposes a tendency of processing political conflicts through the judiciary. Related to that our paper proposes to show, to make it visible, interconnections and supports through which it is possible to understand it emergence within the diagram of power relations and processes of subjectivation that characterizes neoliberal governmentality. (shrink)

The main objective of this work is to understand the daily practices of user management in post-reformist devices in the Brazilian mental health field. Through Foucault's genealogical work on government practices, understood as forms of conducting the behavior of others, it is possible to open a possible field for the study of the practices of psi knowledge, considering them as forms of management that act by through the free and natural acts of individuals. More specifically, our goal is to examine (...) day-to-day practices on some reformist devices such as CAPS through user files. Basically, two driving models have been found in the new devices: 1) Cases with frank intervention of production of commitments and agreements with users, seeking the entry of this to varied activities and political leadership ; 2) Cases with little response from the user, in which the forms of conduction are implemented by policies of inclusion of family members and close reference characters in the management of the patient's life. (shrink)

Resumo Este artigo tem o objetivo de mostrar as semelhanças entre o espírito livre de Nietzsche e o gênio de Schopenhauer. Em primeiro lugar, ambos compartilham de uma abordagem mística do conhecimento: perdem sua individualidade e identificam-se aos objetos do conhecimento com o intuito de obter conhecimento do mundo. Em segundo lugar, ambas as figuras encontram-se associadas à loucura. Em terceiro lugar, o espírito livre e o gênio são indivíduos excepcionais que, diferentemente do que se passa com a maior parte (...) dos indivíduos, já não se encontram atrelados a questões mundanas. Conduzem-se na vida pacificamente, pairando sobre os valores em que as pessoas mais acreditam, cientes de sua falsidade.This article aims to show the similarities between Nietzsche’s free spirit and Schopenhauer’s genius. First of all, both share a mystical approach to knowledge: they lose their individuality and identify themselves with the objects of knowledge in order to obtain knowledge of the world. Secondly, both figures are associated with madness. Thirdly, the free spirit and the genius are exceptional individuals who unlike the majority of people are no longer attached to worldly matters. They conduct their lives peacefully, hovering over the values in which most people believe, aware of their falsehood. (shrink)

Passages of Aristotle are examined to specify the link between need and possibility in the process of human action. It is proposed that, given the rational faculties of human beings, it should be noted that the process begins with the possession of alternative possibilities of action. The agent, as prime controller, determines the dominant desire that will activate his or her faculties in a particular direction. The action is then produced because it is necessary.

El objetivo de este artículo es reconstruir la lectura que realiza Hannah Arendt de Lessing, Mendelssohn y Herder en relación a sus abordajes de la cuestión judía, a comienzos de los años 30. El telón de fondo de esta lectura es la dificultad que, a juicio de la autora, evidencian los judíos europeos desde la emancipación para alcanzar una perspectiva política sobre su propia historia. Sostenemos que, en su lectura de estos filósofos, Arendt identifica una tensión entre razón e historia, (...) cuya radicalización da como resultado una idea de razón incapaz de acoger la dimensión histórica de los pueblos en clave política. La consecuencia de esto es la frustración de las promesas políticas de la emancipación judía, y la afirmación de un modelo de asimilación desembarazado de la historia. Sin embargo, sostendremos también que, para Arendt, la Ilustración representada por Lessing y el romanticismo que encarna Herder, no se inscriben en una misma línea de continuidad. Por el contrario, Arendt encuentra tempranamente en Lessing un legado que conserva valor para el presente. (shrink)

O riso foi um objeto de interesse de pensadores da Grécia antiga, mesmo que a eles dedicassem alguns escassos parágrafos, Platão não foge à isso. Em seu diálogo Filebo, entre 48a - 50a, encontram-se a mais antiga teoria sobre o riso preservada até os dias de hoje. Nesta, Platão define o riso como parte integrante dos prazeres mistos, chamando atenção para o acento profundamente moral que concede à questão do riso humano. Dentro da perspectiva do artigo, buscou-se esclarecer o contexto (...) e a importância do riso na Grécia, para em seguida analisar as passagens de Platão. (shrink)

Based on the concept of interactional competence, our study analyzes how learners of Spanish as a foreign language in a B2 level manage repair in oral interaction in language classrooms. We understand repair as “the treatment of trouble in talk-in-interaction”. A corpus of eleven interactions between students in the classroom is analyzed through the perspective of Conversation Analysis. The interactions were collected in different kinds of tasks in the language classroom. In our analysis we compare interactions produced in practice activities (...) and interactions collected during assessment. The findings in this study show a tendency to manage repair in classroom oral interaction as it would be done in normal conversation. Regarding the different contexts of our corpus, we observe that, in interactions produced in assessment contexts, speakers try to protect their interlocutor’s face and their own face by avoiding to make repairs. (shrink)

Resumo: A pesquisa aqui apresentada resulta de uma reflexão sobre as epistemologias subalternas, sobretudo de matrizes africanas, tomando como exemplo a etnomatemática. O discurso filosófico sobre o “epistemicídio” dos saberes locais e tradicionais, por parte do paradigma científico dominante, pode ser aplicado a vários âmbitos disciplinares, entre os quais a matemática, nas suas duas vertentes principais, a aritmética e a geometria, que representa um caso paradigmático e significativo. Teorizada pela primeira vez pelo brasileiro D’Ambrosio e o holandês-moçambicano Paulus Gerdes, a (...) etnomatemática vive hoje uma contradição: ela foi aceite em termos epistemológicos, mas, especialmente em África, teve muitos problemas em se afirmar, entrando com dificuldades nos curricula oficiais. A pesquisa mostra como se deu tal processo, em Moçambique, um país símbolo do caminho da etnomatemática africana, em consideração da contribuição de Gerdes e da educação progressiva na primeira fase da sua independência.: This work aims at carrying out a reflection on the subaltern epistemologies, considering as an example the Ethnomathematics. The philosophical discourse on the “epistemicide of local and traditional knowledge by the dominant scientific paradigm can be aplied to various disciplinary fields. Among them it is possible to find Mathematics, in its two main branches, arithmetic and geometry. Mathematics represents a paradigmatic and meaningful case. It has been theorized for the first time by the Brazilian D’Ambrosio and the Dutch-Mozambican Paulus Gerdes, ethnomathematics is living today a contradiction: it was accepted in epistemological terms, but, especially in Africa, it registered many problems in assert itself, showing difficulties in being accepted in official curricula. The research shows how this process occurred in Mozambique, a symbolic country for African ethnomathematics, both in consideration of Gerdes’ contribution and of the progressive education during the first phase of its independence. (shrink)

RESUMO Durante o processo da Perestroika soviética, Iuri Lotman escreveu reflexões sobre o conceito de fronteira. Como testemunhou migrações em massa, expulsões forçadas e reconfigurações etnogeográficas sem precedentes, sabia o quanto uma fronteira pode ser carregada de significado cultural que transcende sua dimensão espacial. Ter esse tipo de consciência era ainda mais urgente tendo em vista ser esse um período histórico de transição, reconstrução e abertura, quando as políticas linguístico-culturais poderiam ser um meio de promover integração e aceitação do "estrangeiro". (...) Esta contribuição parte desse quadro histórico-conceitual e busca analisar um fenômeno cultural de grande interesse na literatura italiana contemporânea: a presença "intrusa" crescente de escritoras das antigas colônias que escolheram escrever suas obras em uma língua estrangeira, o italiano, usando a escrita como um campo de experimentação, hibridismo cultural e criação de um espaço discursivo público que traz o olhar da mulher migrante.ABSTRACT In the midst of the Soviet Perestroika process, Yuri Lotman wrote his reflections on the concept of boundary. Having witnessed massive migrations, forced expulsions and unprecedented ethno-geographical reconfigurations, he knew how much a border can be loaded with a cultural meaning that transcends its spatial dimensions. To be aware of this was all the more urgent at a historic time of transition, rebuilding and opening, when linguistic-cultural policies could be a means of promoting integration and accepting the "foreigner." This contribution takes this historical and conceptual framework as its starting point and aims to analyze a cultural phenomenon of great current interest in contemporary Italian literature: the increasingly "intrusive" presence of women writers from the former colonies who choose to produce their works in a "foreign" language, using writing as a field of experimentation, cultural hybridization, and generation of a public discursive space, bearer of the female migrant gaze. (shrink)

El ámbito de los estudios kantianos y, más concretamente, la evaluación del lugar que la antropología ocupa en la arquitectónica del criticismo se verá decididamente beneficiado por esta nueva aportación que la investigadora italiana Laura Anna Macor, investigadora de la Universidad de Padua, dedica al estudio de la influencia ejercida por la filosofía crítica de Kant en el primer Idealismo alemán. El lector interesado en el volumen que reseñamos encontrará ulteriores fuentes de esclarecimiento sobre el objeto de investigación, a (...) saber, la compleja y ambigua relación entre antropología y moral en la primera recepción del criticismo, en otros trabajos de la misma Autora2, que contribuyen a definir una figura, que aquí se propone identificar con una elipse (2010, p. 17 y 163), cuyos focos estarían ocupados respectivamente por la fundamentación kantiana de la moral y por el discurso antropológico revitalizado por J. G. Sulzer y sus discípulos en Württemberg y, posteriormente, por F. Schiller en Turingia, elipse cuyo contorno termina de dibujar este volumen publicado en 2011. (shrink)