Swain's (1985, 1995, 2000) output hypothesis states that language production is facilitative of second language (L2) learning. An important component of the output hypothesis involves "pushing" learners to produce appropriate, accurate, and complex language (Swain, 1993), which may occur when interlocutors provide learners with negative feedback…

This study was undertaken to explore the use of a digital camera for mental imagery training of a vocational task with two young adult men with Down syndrome. The results indicate that these particular men benefited from the use of a collaborative training process that involved mental imagery for learning a series of photocopying operations. An…

The value of GIS within school curricula seems well perceived but ill-substantiated. This paper discusses the role of GIS in the development of higher order thinking skills and in motivating student learning. It then reports on attitudinal surveys undertaken before and after student exposure to GIS-related tasks. The tasks formed part of four…

We compared groups with and without diagnosed dementia matched on IQ, age, and presence of Down syndrome. The Dementia Scale for Down Syndrome and Dementia Questionnaire for Mentally Retarded Persons were used to assess participants. We developed two performance tasks to determine whether they were useful in separating subjects with and without…

A short-term longitudinal study was conducted to investigate possible benefits of cochlear implant (CI) use on the development of phonological awareness in deaf children. Nineteen CI users were tested on 2 occasions. Two groups of deaf children using hearing aids were tested once: 11 profoundly deaf and 10 severely deaf children. A battery of…

Performance in tests of spoken language can be influenced by a wide range of features of both task and participants. This article hypothesizes that there may be effects on performance attributable to an interaction of variables such as the task topic, the gender of the person presenting the topic and the gender of the candidate. In contrast to…

Approaches to intercultural communication competence (ICC) generally argue the need for objective knowledge about another culture as well as knowledge about and the ability to achieve appropriate behaviors of that target culture. Most of these approaches continue to base themselves on a conception of culture as comprehensive but static.…

This study examines the relationship between skill emphases in rehabilitation counselor education (RCE) programs and perceived importance of those skills for counselor effectiveness. Examining results between this nationwide survey of rehabilitation counselor educators and data from an earlier research by Leahy, Chan, and Saunders (2003) that…

This task list of workplace skills for collision repair and refinish technicians resulted from grant from the U.S. Department of Education to the National Automotive Technician Education Foundation (NATEF) of the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence. The skills list is integrated with academic skills. This document lists the…

This report describes a semester of teaching a group of non-native English-speaking students, aged 17 to 40 years and how the instructor identified three elements that appeared to be necessary for a task-based, advanced English speaking class. The three elements were: (1) ongoing needs assessment; (2) collaboration between instructor and students…

Taking a how-to approach and a British perspective, with numerous lists and examples, this book presents the concept of learning contracts negotiated agreements between learners and instructors to achieve a specific learning goal for university and continuing education teachers. The book is organized in four parts: Part 1 is an introduction; it…

How should organizations of intelligent agents be designed so that they exhibit high performance even during periods of stress? A formal model of organizational performance given a distributed decision-making environment in which agents encounter a radar detection task is presented. Using this model the performance of organizations with various…

The Champaign County (Ohio) Board of Education asked four companies to participate in a workplace literacy project: Hall Company, Grimes Aerospace, LewiSystems, and Comdyne. Companies supplied training facilities and paid release time for employee participants. Seventeen classes were completed; 13 were attended by recruited participants, 4 by…

Developed through a modified DACUM (Developing a Curriculum) process involving business, industry, labor, and community agency representatives in Ohio, this document is a comprehensive and verified employer competency profile for electrical trades. The list contains units (with and without subunits), competencies, and competency builders that…

This handbook provides guidelines for instructors to follow in developing test items for occupational task lists. It begins with directions for task analysis: identifying major performance steps of a task, identifying supporting knowledge for each performance step, identifying supporting performance skills for each performance step, identifying…