English

Unlike research in reading which focuses on data from individuals reading independently, this study identified second language (L2) college students’ reading processes that occurred within dyadic peer interactions during shadow-reading, a collaborative procedure based on repetition and summarizing. Also, written retellings (immediate and delayed) were collected to assess the impact of shadow-reading on comprehension and retention. The qualitative analysis of the data was based on the collaborative talk that occurred as partners either attempted to resolve language-related problems in the text or discussed idea-related situations. This analysis revealed comprehension-enabling and comprehension-building processes. The quantitative analysis was based on a numerical assessment of the retellings of the shadow-reading participants and of another group, who read the text individually, without shadow-reading. The shadow-reading group performed significantly better in both conditions, immedi...

This paper describes shadow-reading, a pedagogical technique aimed at fostering reading comprehension and retention in second (L2) or foreign language (FL) classrooms. The technique is an adaptation of “conversational shadowing,” a procedure which requires listeners to repeat what their interlocutors say in an attempt to remember the content of the interaction while also practicing and learning a target language. In shadow-reading, learners are arranged in pairs in the roles of Readers and Shadowers. Readers read from a text while Shadowers listen and then try to reproduce the text in various forms: repeating completely or selectively, interjecting interactive comments, summarizing orally, and retelling in written form. An empirical study was carried out to test shadow-reading and explore whether it helped students attain reading comprehension with the socially-mediated approach. A description of the steps taken in the implementation of the technique is provided. Several examples ar...

The din phenomenon, first discussed in the literature of second language acquisition by Kmshen, is a form of mental rehearsal in which wordr. sounak, andphmses of the second languagearespontaneously replayed in the mind. Thispaper reports the results of a survey on the din phenomenon in which 52 Spanish-speaking ESL college students participated. The researcher was able to determine that the din was a very common phenomenon among the participants, to gain new insights into the nature of the din, and to establish that the din is present at almost allstages of acquisition. An important discovery was that mental rehearsal may be voluntary as well as spontaneous, voluntary rehearsalappearing as a way of monitoring language. The pedagogical implications and research possibilities of the din phenomenon and mental rehearsal are examined. This paper presents evidence in support of Krashen's "din hypothesis" (11) and enlarges the data base collected by Bedford (2) on spontaneous playback of the second language. In the literature of second language acquisition, Krashen has been the first to theorize on what seems to be a very common phenomenon among second and foreign language learners: a din in the head. Krashen defines it as "an involuntary rehearsal of words, sounds, and phrases" (p. 41). Bedford. who produced the first descriptive study on the din in the head by conducting a survey among learners of Spanish, describes the phenomenon as follows:

In The Castle of My Skin (Lamming 1953) is more than a coming of age Caribbean novel.  The author invoques various narrative techniques to convey the process by which the protagonist embraces his own identity.  Lamming’s novel offers more than a narrative, the narrator becomes a witness to the events that take place in G’s life, and in the island.  The interaction between the witness observer and his object is “a narrative agent acting on and being acted upon by his world (Kortenaar 1991). In this work we shall explore the mechanism of observation used in this novel to discuss the sexual imagery as seen through the eyes of G.

Heroes in Caribbean neocolonial literature may at times present fragmented, ambivalent, and dysfunctional identities that resemble the isolated, variegated, and broken islands they inhabit.  Sometimes, the character of the hero in Caribbean literature is as isolated and broken as the island he or she comes from. A coming of age child who is victim of abuse or neglect similarly feels isolated, inadequate and morbid. The Caribbean underprivileged child carries over his or her small shoulders the overwhelming consequences of colonialism, in addition to the fears, pain and suffering which accompany physical and emotional abuse. However, despite the unequal battle ensued against such a susceptible target, the Caribbean literature child hero thrives in adversity and shows resilience through survival.  In this work, we shall discuss the child hero’s vulnerability and resilience as presented in Nigel Thomas’ Behind the Face of Winter (2001); and Jean Robert Cadet’s Restavec: From Child Slave to Middle Class American (1998).