A Critical Review of "Rethinking Task-Based Language Learning:what we can learn from the learners"

This paper will critically review an academic article titled "Rethinking task-based language learning: what we can learn from the learners" which was written by Assia Slimani-Rolls from European Business School London and published in Language Teaching Research 9,2 (2005). On one hand, there is of no denying that the article has the significance in carrying out the study--- it arouses people's attention to learner idiosyncrasy and learner perception of tasks while other most researchers just pointed out the importance and necessity of task-based teaching and advocated the effectiveness of CAs. On the other hand, there are still some problems existing in the study, from the research design to its analysis. The author will analyze them one by one and give her own understanding along with it.     

The Role of Context in Utterance Interpretation

This paper discusses the function of context in utterance interpretation.In speech communication,context plays a very important role in expressing utterance meaning appropriately and understanding that precisely.Context can be classified into three kinds,which is context of utterance,context of situation,and context of culture.Each has its own function in interpreting utterance.On one hand,the understanding of utterance-meaning relies a lot on the context,without which the utterance meaning cannot be fully interpreted.On the other hand,context gives some restrictions to the choice of utterance in a certain communication.Moreover,all the ambiguities of utterance can be cleared up through the context.     

Food-Chain Model of Grassland Degradation and Its Restoration Process in Northern Tibet Plateau：A Case Study in Nierong County

Based on the model of grassland climate ecological productivity, the process of grassland degradation and its restoration mechanism in northern Tibetan Plateau were discussed by the model of food-chain in which the environmental and human factors were corrected. The results of case study in Nierong County showed that： ① the climate trend of becoming warmer, more droughts and gales were conflicted with the restoration of grassland degradation, even under level of perfect management the climate ecological productivity was declined from 89. 3 kg/m^2 of 1983 to 71.8 kg/m^2 of 2003; ② from 1983 to 2003, the population increased fast, while the variation of livestock on hand was little, and the cost of its maintaining is rapid grassland degradation; ③ on the present condition of overgrazing, the livestock on hand can be maintained on the level of theoretical carrying capacity in 2033 by applying the mechanism of food-chain in grassland ecological system controlled with expected coefficients, so that to realize the policy of determining the quantity of livestock according to grass growth.     

Empirical measurement of the software testing and reliability

The meanings of parameters of software reliability models are investigated in terms of the process of the software testing and in terms of other measurements of software. Based on the investigation, the empirical estimation of the parameters is addressed. On one hand, these empirical estimates are also measurements of the software, which can beused to control and to optimize the process of the software development. On the other hand, by treating these empirical estimates as Bayes priors, software reliability models are ex-tended such that the engineers‘ experience can be integrated into and hence to improve the models.     

Stylistic Analysis of The Nightingale and the Rose

Oscar Wilde accomplished great success in conducting one of his works The Nightingale and the Rose This essay tries to analyze its article success in various stylistic levels, which is supposed to be helpful for teachers to conduct their classroom teaching of the material. Furthermore, this essay is bond to be very useful for those English majors by providing a guideline for their deeper and further appreciation of the article.     

Organic Field-effect Transistors Based on Tetrathiafulvalene Derivatives

1 Restults Tetrathiafulvalene (TTF) and its derivatives have been extensively investigated in the field of organic conductors and superconductors since 1973. Recently, their application in organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) has attracted considerable attention. So far, on the one hand, the fabrication techniques of the TTF-based FETs have been primarily limited to high vacuum evaporation, which is a relatively expensive process. On the other hand, low FET performances, such as the low on/off ratios, large off-current at zero gate voltage and the lack of saturation currents in the output curves, need to be improved.     

Processing investigation and optimization for hybrid thermoplastic composites

A thermoplastic based composite material is suitable for automobile and aerospace applications. The recyclability of thermoplastic and clean processing further enhance its use. The only limitation encountered in using this material is its high-melt viscosity. Various techniques have been developed to overcome this problem. Commingled materials are one of such methods adopted for making proper use of thermoplastic. A major problem observed during the use of a commingled material is its de-commingling, wherein, the uniform distribution of fiber and thermoplastic yam gets disturbed and affects the final quality of the composite. The effects of the braiding process on laminate quality were investigated. Flat plaques were produced by braiding the commingled yam, using a 48-carrier braiding machine. The braids (and control woven samples) were subsequently heated and consolidated in a nonisothermal compression molding operation. Prior to the manufacture of the ‘best quality’ plaques, a series of moldings were produced under different consolidation conditions, to study the dependence of properties on the process variables. This enabled a processing window to be established for each material and helped to separate the respective effects of yam handling, textile processing, and consolidation on laminate properties.     

RED-DTB: A Dual Token Bucket Based Queue Management Algorithm

Improving the Quality of Service (QoS) of Internet traffic is widely recognized as a critical issue for the next-generation networks. In this paper, we present a new algorithm for the active queue management, namely RED-DTB. This buffer control technique is used to enforce approximate fairness among a large number of concurrent Internet flows. Like RED (Random Early Detection) algorithm, the RED-DTB mechanism can be deployed to actively respond to the gateway congestion, keep the gateway in a healthy state, and protect the fragile flows from being stolen bandwidth by greedy ones. The algorithm is based on the so-called Dual Token Bucket (DTB) pattern. That is, on the one hand, every flow is rate-limited by its own token bucket, to ensure that it can not consume more than its fair share of bandwidth; On the other hand, to make some compensations to less aggressive flows, such as connections with larger round trip time or smaller sending window, and to gain a relatively higher system utilization coefficie     

Ideal root architecture for phosphorus acquisition of plants under water and phosphorus coupled stresses: From simulation to application

Under water and phosphorus (P) coupled stresses, root architecture may be related to P acquisition efficiency of plants. Understanding the relationship between root architecture and P acquisition efficiency may provide basic information for improving P acquisition efficiency of plants. In the present study, we quantitatively described the effects of root architecture on P acquisition efficiency by computer simulation together with controlled biological experiments so as to determine an ideal root architecture for efficient P acquisition under water and P coupled stresses. Our results indicate that under given soil water conditions, the ideal root architecture for P acquisition efficiency of a tap root plant (as represented by common bean) is an 搖mbrella-shape?root system whose basal roots tend to be shallow in the P-rich topsoil and tap roots tend to be deep for water in the subsoil. Meanwhile, the ideal root architecture for a fibrous root plant (as represented by upland rice) is a beard-shape?root system with the moderately dispersed yet uniformly distributed adventitious and lateral roots so as to keep most roots in the topsoil for P and a few roots in the subsoil for water.     

On Stylistic Characteristics of English News

English news serves as a way to widen one's knowledge of international community and plays a significant part in our daily life.It distinguishes itself from other styles of writing by its special stylistic characteristics in its headline and its body on the grammar level,on the lexical level and on the rhetorical level.Mastering them can be beneficial to our comprehension of English news and further study,hence helps us obtain news information more quickly and makes us keep pace with the constant change of the new time.     

Effects on dynamic characters of antenna structures in satellite induced by disordered parameters

A simplified dynamic model of a dish antenna in satellite is established in this article.The modelcan be easily used to analyze the dynamic behaviour of the antenna structure.In terms of the simplifiedmodel,effects on dynamic characters due to the disorder of parameters are investigated in details.Thefrequencies calculated by the simplified model accord with those computed by ANSYS.Based on the modeshapes of disordered and perfect structure,the influence law and varying trend of dynamic characters ofant...     

Stylistic Analysis of ＂A Modest Proposal＂

Jonathan Swift is the supreme master of prose and one of the greatest satirists in English literature.This paper tries to analyze his famous satiric works,"A Modest Proposal" in a stylistic way.By using stylistic analysis,the author aims to help readers appreciate this essay much easier and get the conclusion that Swift censures the landlords and the English government should be responsible for all the misery of the Irish people and shows great sympathy for poor Irish people in this satire works.     

Modeling of Mechanical Behavior of Fractal Rock Joint

The present study shows that naturally developed fracture surfaces in rocks display the properties of self-affine fractals. Surface roughness can be quantitatively characterized by fractal dimension D and the intercept A on the log-log plot of variance: the former describes the irregularity and the later is statistically analogues to the slopes of asperities. In order to confirm the effects of these fractal parameters on the properties and mechanical behavior of rock joints, which have been observed in experiments under both normal and shear loadings, a theoretic model of rock joint is proposed on the basis of contact mechanics. The shape of asperity at contact is assumed to have a sinusoidal form in its representative scale r_c with fractal dimension D and the intercept A. The model considers different local contact mechanisms, such as elastic deformation, frictional sliding and tensile fracture of the asperity. The empirical evolution law of surface damage developed in experiment is implemented into the model to up-date geometry of asperity in loading history. The effects of surface roughness characterized by D, A and r_c on normal and shear deformation of rock joint have been elaborated.     

＂The Flea＂ and ＂A Valediction：Forbidding Mourning＂

John Donne is a representative of 17th century English metaphysical poets.Donne’s poetry embraces a wide range of secular and religious subjects.His poetry is full of philosophical metaphor,and quick thinking activities are lively and strong passions-love passion and the passion of religious integration,which created a new harmony.Reading Donne’s poetry is like participating in a mental game,only use our brains in order to catch up with speeding on the poet’s imagination,his exquisite taste of the speculation.The Flea is one of representative works by John Donne.A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning is the most famous works of Donne’s works.Both "The Flea" and "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" are famous love poems by John Donne.The two poems have something in common and something different.Although the two poems are similar and also different to each other,they both set their own situation properly and impressively.     

An Investigation Into College English Vocabulary Learning Strategies

This article focuses on the investigation into college English vocabulary learning strategies.The non-English major students should be instructed and encouraged by the teachers to apply various kinds of VLS that can facilitate their learning achievement because the versatile strategy use is not only a way to meet the increasing demand for vocabulary learning,but also a key to success in the learning of the English language.     

Application of Mind Map in College English Vocabulary Teaching

Vocabulary is one of the three important parts of any language and it is also the cornerstone of any language.So the vocabulary teaching is very important in language teaching.Because vocabulary is stored in our mind in a semantic network,applying mind map to vocabulary teaching and learning can facilitate the activation of various semantic relations among words in the mind,which greatly promotes the learners’deep processing of vocabulary.Second,words are usually related to one another in the form of cohesions in the context.Constructing mind map of vocabulary in the text can make more noticeable the interrelations among words in the text,which will enhance the participants’language proficiency.The author of the present thesis attempts to prove that mind mapaided vocabulary teaching has a more positiveeffect on enlarging participants’vocabulary,though both approaches to vocabulary teaching have positive influence on participants’vocabu-lary growth.This study reveals that it is rational and feasible to apply mind map and Visual Thesaurus to college English vocabulary teaching and learning.     

Improved hand tracking algorithm in video sequences for intelligent rehabilitation

Intelligent rehabilitation system is an active research topic. It is motivated by the increased number of limb disabled patients. Human motion tracking is the key technology of intelligent rehabilitation system, because the movement of limb disabled patients needs to be localized and learned so that any undesired motion behavior can be corrected in order to reach an expectation. This paper introduces a realtime tracking system of human hand motion, specifically intent to be used for home rehabilitation. Vision sensor (camera) is employed in this system to track the hand movement, and the improved Camshift algorithm and Kalman filter are used to implement dynamic hand tracking in the video. CAMSHIFT algorithm is able to track any kind of target colors by building a histogram distribution of the H channel in HSV color space from the region of interests selected by users at the initial stage. Kalman filter is able to predict hand location in one image frame based on its location data detected in the previous frame. The experimental results show that this system can track 2D hand motion and has acceptable accuracy by using the two algorithms properly. The new algorithm proposed in this paper can not only deal with the skin color interference problems, but also deal well with the track of complex background.     

An Analysis of Michael Long＇ s Interaction Hypothesis in Second Language Acquisition

The Interaction Hypothesis, which was first advanced by Michael Long, is considered as a further supplement or extension of the Input Hypothesis in the field of second language acquisition. This paper explains the main claims of Michael Long＇s Interaction Hypothesis, the three steps to study how input and interaction affect the acquisition of a second language, and the importance of the interactional modifications applied by both participants of the interaction. Emphasis is placed on the evaluation of the theory as well as its relation to second language teaching, with many researchers＇ findings and arguments discussed as supporting evidence. It aims to help the effective application of this theory in second language teaching.