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Children's language skills affected by peers

美国:儿童语言能力发展受同龄人影响较大

RESEARCHERS from the University of Virginia discovered that the language skills of youngsters were greatly influenced by their peer group. They studied more than 1,800 four-year-olds in over 450 nursery schools across US. By testing their language skills before entering school and then afterwards, researchers found those with more eloquent peers improved more than those with fewer language skills. The gap widened between the articulate and the inarticulate classes. The findings suggest that teachers should encourage children to chat and play so they pick up vocabulary and grammar from each other.

Sleep helps improve your word power

英国:睡眠促进大脑对单词有效记忆

BRITISH psychologists have discovered that a good night’s sleep plays a crucial role in allowing the brain to store and remember new words learned during the day. People who were asked to learn a set of fictitious words were better at remembering them after they had spent time asleep than if they were asked to recall the words just a few hours after being taught them. Matt Davis, who led the research at the Medical Research Council at the University of Cambridge, said: “It seems there are two parts of the brain involved and sleep is critical for information to be transferred from a part used for short-term storage to the long-term storage.”

S. Korea reforms foreign language education

韩国:外国语学校教学制度拟改革

SOUTH Korean Education Ministry officials consented to the idea of prohibiting foreign language high schools from administering written exams to applicants for 2010 admission. In principle, they are supposed to refer to applicants' middle school academic records and results of listening tests devised by respective schools and interviews. Foreign language schools were established to cater to students who want to polish their English or other foreign languages, so they need to stick to that original purpose, education officials said.