The current study investigated how emotions are represented in the lexicon of late Thai-English bilinguals and a comparison group of native English speakers. Two tasks were used. In the emotional Stroop task, which taps into an automatic early lexical level of processing, the bilingual participants did not display the same automatic level of activation in their second language (L2) as in their first language (L1). In the emotionality-rating task, which involves a later, more in-depth conscious level of processing than the preceding task, similar results were found in both languages spoken by the bilinguals. These findings are interpreted as indicating that late bilinguals do not automatically respond to the emotional arousal associated with the meanings of L2 words to the same extent as in the L1, and this is likely to be mediated by language proficiency and the context in which the language is learned.

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The aim of the present study was to investigate the grain size predominantly used by children learning to read and spell in Indonesian. Indonesian is an orthographically transparent language, and the syllable is a salient unit. Tasks assessing various levels of phonological awareness as well as letter knowledge, reading familiar words and nonwords, and spelling stem and affixed words were administered to children in Grade 1 and subsequently 1 year later in Grade 2. The results in general indicate that the phoneme is the prominent phonological unit in the early acquisition of reading and spelling in Indonesian, but the syllable also plays a significant role, particularly when reading long multisyllabic affixed words. This highlights the variable nature of grain size used by beginners, which is dependent on developmental stage, the demands of the task administered, and the characteristics of the language and its orthography.Recently, there has been much debate about the grain size of orthographyphonology correspondences that are initially used by children when learning to read and spell (e.g., Goswami, Ziegler, Dalton, & Schneider, 2003;Hulme et al., 2002;Ziegler & Goswami, 2005). Cross-linguistic research has indicated that the level of phonological awareness initially used in reading and spelling is influenced by the orthography to be learned and the phonology of the spoken language corresponding to that orthography (Goswami, 1999). A considerable amount of research has been conducted on literacy development in Indo-European languages, but much less research has been conducted on Asian languages. Indonesian provides an interesting case study as it uses the same Latin-based alphabetic script as English, but in contrast has a high degree of orthographic transparency and the syllable is a highly salient unit, as it is both multisyllabic and has clear syllable boundaries. In the current study, the phonological grain size predominantly used by children learning to read and spell in Indonesian was investigated. INDONESIAN LANGUAGE AND ITS ORTHOGRAPHYIndonesian was decreed as the national language in 1928, and the adoption of the present Latin-based alphabetic orthography dates only from 1972 (Prentice, 1987;Sneddon, 2003). Indonesian is part of the Western Malayo-Polynesian subgroup of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian languages, which also includes languages such as Tagalog and Tongan. It is a standardized dialect of the Malay language. The spelling and grammar of Indonesian has undergone several readjustments before arriving at its present form, which is now taught and used at schools in Indonesia (Sneddon, 2003; Tim Penyusun Kamus Pusat Bahasa, 2001). Indonesian is spoken most extensively in urban areas, and less so in the rural parts of Indonesia where local or regional languages are predominantly spoken.The alphabet used in Indonesian overlaps with 25 letters of the English alphabet; "x" is only used in loan words. Furthermore, there is a correspondence between the names of letters and the...

These findings highlight the potential problems an early history of middle ear infection can have on school-aged children's later language and literacy development.

Smartphone use amongst university students is widespread and a common practice while studying. However, this usage can lead to academic performance costs. This study examined the relationship between smartphone use during study, problematic smartphone use and academic performance in Korean and Australian university students. 119 Korean and 270 Australian students aged between 18 and 26 years completed a survey comprised of a smartphone usage questionnaire, smartphone addiction scale and self-report of their current GPA score. Average smartphone use and problematic smartphone use were found to be significantly higher for Korean compared to Australian students. A positive relationship was found between smartphone use and problematic smartphone use. For Australian students, a negative relationship was found between smartphone use and GPA. Results indicate that smartphone use and smartphone addiction proneness are currently higher for Korean students compared to Australian students. Furthermore, the more time a student spends using their smartphone, the more at risk they are for problematic smartphone use and possible academic performance costs.

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Mercer's re-conceptualization of Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in terms of the Intermental Development Zone (IDZ), which is reliant on constructive challenging discourse, can potentially provide a platform upon which all learners in the classroom can benefit from collaborative learning experiences.

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