The social context of Welsh-medium bilingual education in anglicised areas

Principal component analysis of indicators from the 1991 Census was used to characterise the social context of school age Welsh speakers in South East Wales. The area had been largely anglicised by the Census of 1971, but the growth of Welsh-medium education was responsible for net gains in numbers of younger Welsh/English bilinguals. Doubts as to whether young people will remain active bilinguals after leaving school have been raised. The inter-relationships between figures for Welsh speaking in the Census and other social indicators were examined. Being categorised as a young Welsh speaker was found to cut across an economic advantage/disadvantage dimension, and so was a matter of life style rather than a by-product of parental choices unrelated to language resurgence. Probing life styles by means of interviews where Welsh-medium and English-medium schools could be matched on the economic advantage/disadvantage dimension showed that deciding for Welsh-medium education was embedded in authentic local life styles. Although networks of people at more local spatial scales were involved in Welsh-medium education, they were linked to wider scale networks establishing domains for Welsh language use in the public sector and local government.     

Home birth and the National Australian Maternity Services Review: too hot to handle?

Background

In February 2009 the Improving Maternity Services in Australia – The Report of the Maternity Services Review (MSR) was released, with the personal stories of women making up 407 of the more than 900 submissions received. A significant proportion (53%) of the women were said to have had personal experience with homebirth. Little information is provided on what was said about homebirth in these submissions and the decision by the MSR not to include homebirth in the funding and insurance reforms being proposed is at odds with the apparent demand for this option of care.

Method

Data for this study comprised 832 submissions to the MSR that are publicly available on the Commonwealth of Australia Department of Health and Aging website. All 832 submissions were downloaded, coded and then entered into NVivo. Content analysis was used to analyse the data that related to homebirth.

Findings

450 of the submissions were from consumers of maternity services (54%). Four hundred and seventy (60%) of the submissions mentioned homebirth. Overall there were 715 references to home birth in the submissions. The submissions mentioning homebirth most commonly discussed the ‘Benefits’ and ‘Barriers’ in accessing this option of care. Benefits to the baby, mother and family were described, along with the benefits obtained from having a midwife at the birth, receiving continuity of care and having a good birth experience. Barriers were described as not having access to a midwife, no funding, no insurance and lack of clinical privileging for midwives.

Conclusion

Many positive recommendations have come from the MSR, however the decision to exclude homebirth from these reforms is perplexing considering the large number of submissions describing the benefits of and barriers to homebirth in Australia. A concerning number of submissions discuss having had or having considered an unattended birth at home due to these barriers. Overall there is the belief that not enabling access to funded, insured homebirth in Australia is a violation of human rights. It appears that homebirth was considered by the MSR as ‘too hot to handle’ and by dismissing it as a minority issue the government sought to avoided dealing with homebirth as a ‘sensitive and controversial issue.’     

浅谈巴金《家》的比拟艺术

《家》是巴金的代表作。在这部作品里,作者是要吐露他二十几年对于一个不合理制度的“积愤”,替一代人伸冤,是要控诉那吃人的封建制度。这种强烈的情感像激流一样,在全部作品中奔流着。巴金先生抒发这种情感时,使用的是独具特色的巴金式的语言,而巴金式的语言的一个重要构成部分就是比拟手法的娴熟运用。     

The moderating effects of home region orientation on R&D investment and international SME performance: Lessons from Korea

Drawing from the resource-based view, we investigate how firm and country combinations affect international SME performance. Using a sample of 2676 international Korean SMEs, we explore the relationships among SME R&D investment, home region orientation and financial performance. Results show that R&D investment has a horizontally inverted S-shaped relationship with performance reflecting cost leadership, stuck in the middle, and differentiation strategies. We also find that a home region orientation moderates the relationship between R&D investment and performance. Home region orientation positively moderates the relationship when R&D investment reflects cost leadership or differentiation but negatively moderates a stuck in the middle strategy.     

托妮·莫里森《柏油孩子》中家的建构

托妮·莫里森在小说《柏油孩子》中,通过迁徙叙事展开她对家的期望。她曾经声称"种族和家是她作品首要关注的主题",通过一个个运动的迁徙意象,莫里森勾勒出黑人在现代社会里家的失落与寻找的艰辛。     

“母系”家族奥秘及其女性命运浮沉——张翎小说《雁过藻溪》的文学关键词解析

加拿大华文女作家张翎,是海外华语文坛上一位并非职业写手的"业余作者",近年来相继出版了《望月》、《交错的彼岸》、《邮购新娘》以及反映19世纪以来飘洋过海出国谋生的华工血泪史的《金山》等小说,频频斩获各种文学奖项。本文选取其中篇小说《雁过藻溪》,运用叙事学、女性主义批评理论和文本细读等方法,对张翎笔下的"藻溪"故事、人物原型及其叙事意蕴与文化隐喻等,作了较为深入而细致的诠释与解读。     

映射域与输入空间的比较研究

概念隐喻理论和概念整合理论是认知语言学的两大主要理论,映射域和输入空间分别是这两个理论的核心要素。通过对映射域和输入空间异同的比较,揭示了两者的实质性差异和内在联系,以论证概念隐喻理论是概念整合理论的研究基础,后者是前者的拓展,两者之间具有互补性和交互性。     

多重障碍儿童成长发展小组案例分析——基于宁夏儿童福利院的特色小组案例

儿童福利院作为专业的儿童社会工作机构,在儿童社会工作的方法上积累了较为丰富的经验。宁夏儿童福利院的四位多重障碍儿童组成了特色社会工作小组,在深入了解了成员个性和共性的基础上,通过优势视角、生态系统图、游戏疗法、团体疗法等社会工作理论和方法实现小组成员的共同发展与成长。案例成绩的总结对此类小组社会工作方法有很好的借鉴作用。     

多重障碍儿童成长发展小组案例分析——基于宁夏儿童福利院的特色小组案例

儿童福利院作为专业的儿童社会工作机构,在儿童社会工作的方法上积累了较为丰富的经验。宁夏儿童福利院的四位多重障碍儿童组成了特色社会工作小组,在深入了解了成员个性和共性的基础上,通过优势视角、生态系统图、游戏疗法、团体疗法等社会工作理论和方法实现小组成员的共同发展与成长。案例成绩的总结对此类小组社会工作方法有很好的借鉴作用。