Discovering healthy benefits of nursing

This picture demonstrates a woman nursing her baby.  

Alice G. Walton explains in "Children who were breastfed as infants score higher on tests" "who followed almost 12,000 families from the time the children were infants until they were five years old." Walton demonstrates the researchers were trying to figure out if the children that were breastfed were scoring higher on tests then the bottle fed babies. What the researchers discovered were "when children who were born at term breastfed for at least four months, they scored higher on cognitive tests." Researchers also
determined that even babies that were not full term as long as they were breastfed at least two months, shared the same evaluation. "Infants may obtain more essential long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids in breast milk than in formula, which help with brain development." Walton believes breastfed infants have less infections and may get closer physical contact, which could have a stronger affect on the infants cognitive ability. She first recommends to seek a healthcare provider when trying to make the best decision for your situation.

In the article "Breastfed babies have higher IQ and income in adulthood, study finds" "The benefits of breastfeeding appear to last long after a baby grows up and go far beyond better health." According to the article, the study of researchers determined children who had higher IQ scores that were breastfed for 12 months. Researchers noticed the children continued to complete education and acquired greater salaries when they became adults. It is known from doctors that breastfed infants complete intelligence tests better. "For the study, researchers followed more than 3,400 children in Brazil for a period of 30 years." Dr. Holly Phillips from CBS news, was surprised to learn about kids who were breastfed longer than a year performed 4 points greater on IQ tests. "The question is always, is it the breast milk itself or is it the breastfeeding that conveys the benefit?" Phillips said, "I think its both. We do know breast milk has a number of nutrients that support the developing brain and the nervous system. On the other hand, the communication and the bonding that happens during the breastfeeding process changes the brain physically, it makes neurons connect with one another. That increases IQ and it also boosts confidence, which translates into achievement later in life." Researchers discovered that there are many health benefits for children who are breastfed. Children are unlikely to be affected from respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, diabetes, and asthma. Research has shown that children have "better thinking and memory skills and score higher on cognitive, language and motor development tests as toddlers." Phillips does not want new mothers and fathers to worry if breastfeeding does not work out for them. She believes parents are still able to raise content and healthy kids without it. 

Barbara Mantel explains in "Kids who were breastfed longer have higher IQs, new study shows" that researchers discovered from studying 1,312 mothers that were registered in a project that took place in 1999 to 2002. In eastern Massachusetts analyzing pregnancy, children's health, and the infants they delivered. Mantel demonstrates, the research that was determined was that "7 year olds whose moms had done any breastfeeding during the child's first year exclusively or in the combination with formula gained a little more than a third of a point in verbal IQ for each month of breastfeeding compared to children who were never breastfed." That means for 12 months, the benefit for children's verbal IQ points went up to a 4.2 mark. Pediatrician Michael Georgieff, who was not part of the study but believes that "its a pretty significant shift, especially demographically across the world if everyone were to make that again." The typical IQ is 100, and some individuals have IQ scores between 85 and 115. Georgieff is happy about the study, he believes that there is great research that breastfeeding will lessen the risk of children catching infections. Results from the study also determine that breastfeeding is becoming more acceptable.  


     

Slang in the OED: Popular Media vs. Academic Research

Slang and its inclusion in the OED is represented in popular media. Some articles focused on how words were chosen for insertion and scholars like Charlotte Brewer focused on the digitalization of the OED with a brief history on its formation. She advocates for this format as it updates faster if there are mistakes or when new words are invented. Brewer’s brief history of the OED shows its publication and how words are added, edited, and their significance. Even though popular media is not typically as detailed as the scholarly journals, they do touch upon the on-going debate of the importance of slang in the dictionary. Writers like Hayley Spencer from Glamour Magazine are enthusiastic about these words being added. Her article focuses on popular slang words added to the dictionary and quotes the OED’s editor, Katherine Martin, as stating: "One of the advantages of our unique language monitoring programme is that it enables us to explore how English language evolves differently across the world.” Spencer also focuses on new words and phrases being added to OxfordDictionaries.com once the editors prove, through extensive research, that they have widespread frequency.

Another article centers on words that were added in the OED at the time of its publication and it briefly mentioned the history of slang words dating back to 1755 in Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary. However in 1884, the OED superseded it. Paula Young Lee, a writer on Salon.com believes that the usage of slang has a delightful history and even though word lovers are repulsed, there is evidence to show that slang has been around for centuries. Her article is reflected in academic articles such as Martin Levinson’s where he discusses etymology in the OED and its history.

Illustration courtesy of yougov.co.uk

Writer Sierra Marquina, from US Magazine, writes about popular slang words added in the OED and she also quotes from Katherine Martin who states that words added to the published dictionaries require "much more historical, significant impact before adding them.” Marquina states that there is no need to worry about the decline of the English language because these slang words have only been added online.

Lauren Squires, another author I found in my academic research, talks about public discourse about language and computer-mediated communication. She believes Internet language provides language variety and has social significance and importance. Internet language does reflect our culture and it shows that language variety enriches our language.

These sources show academic research in popular media, but differently. Their descriptions are accurate, but are not as thorough. I believe this to be a matter of attention span. Most people don’t have time or patience to sit and read an in-depth article and most popular media caters to this. They want to grab their reader’s attention in as few words as possible. The way the scholarly articles are written requires attention to detail which is not something people want to do when reading from their favorite magazine. I believe that scholarly articles are too narrowly focused for the general public because their emphasis on intricate ideas lose the audience’s interest. Some of them are written too academically because they are too complex to follow in one reading and sometimes they are not inviting.

Gaming Subculture and Slang Part Deux

This is Quiet from Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain, pretty much perfectly exemplifying the sex appeal marketing strategy. I was so heavily tempted to flip the gender role and put up a picture of Snake in Quiet's skimpy clothing, but I decided to go with the image that wouldn't require intensive therapy. To those of you that want to see what I'm talking about and are foolish enough to look, here you go. I apologize in advance. Also, thanks to Techtimes for the image. Also I apologize for the long caption, but I thought it warranted an explanation.

The Gamergate controversy may have more or less come to a close, but unfortunately for humanity, the exact same problem is repeating itself only a meager two years later. I'm specifically talking about the Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly conflict. I've heard of history repeating itself, but it usually has the courtesy to wait at least a decade.

One main reason that things like this keep happening is that no real lessons are learned. With the Gamergate fiasco come and gone, people have already dismissed it as a small group of online trolls. No real lesson was seemingly learned from this entire debacle, and attempts to bring an understanding to the situation sometimes fall flat on their face. The Verge discussed a Gamergate discussion panel at South by Southwest (SXSW), where the only female panelist admitted that she was not even a gaming journalist, and one of the male panelists was offensively dismissive of the subject. Instead of trying to offer an intellectual discussion of the Gamergate controversy, the panelists instead reinforced the negative belief that Gamergate adopted: females don't know what gaming is about and only men should play video games. Smooth.

If you want to find journalistic opinions of the Gamergate incident and gender in gaming, it's an all-you-can-eat buffet. Unfortunately since this is a very recent issue, the amount of scholarly work is still being developed. A recent scholarly survey did find that gender is not one of the significant topics learned in most video games. This actually makes quite a lot of sense. Video games are still treated as a masculine hobby by advertisers. As such, developers usually don't care too much about gender politics and don't try to include strong female characters or even try to be femininely appealing.

For the longest time the hot debate surrounding video games was violence. Granted, it's still a widely discussed topic, but from my experience, it dropped in popularity once Gamergate happened. However, I personally think the two topics are linked. I don't believe that video games cause actual violence, but it's hard to deny that violent video games also increases aggressive behavior. I've played enough online shooters to know that tensions rise quite easily and are as explosive as a red barrel. There are several surveys that also support this idea, such as this one. Are angry gamers known to actually make good on virtual threats and assault others? Not really. Did the women affected by Gamergate actually face physical violence? Again, not really. But their address was posted online and they were placed in actual danger. It isn't too much of a stretch to say that the teenage to adult male gamers that play violent video games develop aggressive attitudes, especially with the anonymity granted by online services, would also lash out against the female gamers that were targeted by Gamergate.

It isn't a no-hope scenario. For example, this experiment has students playing "Age of Empires 2" to learn history lessons. There are also some video games that do teach the importance of gender appreciation, and they are coming into mainstream light, so it isn't a hopeless cycle. But then again, this is also just one new subculture that's learning a lesson, versus an entire political party regressing back to middle school insults.

The English Language Learner Dilemma Part Three: How Can We Help?

We've done all of the research, read all of the articles, and talked to all of the experts. Now the real question is - how can a teacher truly help an English Language Learner who so desperately needs help in the classroom?

As discussed in Public Schools Stifling Spanish: The English Language Learner Dilemma, n part 1 there are many issues that are present in the education of English Language learners in the Elementary classroom. Teachers are not equipped with the knowledge to teach these diverse learners, and students are not prepared to enter the rigorous and rigid English classroom based on the prior knowledge they may have received at home. The English Language Learner Dilemma Part Two: From the Perspective of A Parent  expands upon the idea that ELL students need extra support in the classroom and at home, but that some of the most important research is just out of reach of these students' parents and guardians. In this post, I will expand further upon the strategies that help ELL reading and comprehension strategies as well as speaking in the English education system. But, where does one go to find these strategies, perfectly fit for elementary Spanish speaking students?

Lucky for us, we have the most effective branch of language on our side to fall back on: linguistics. Linguistics does not simply speak one language - it is present in all of the languages around the world. Therefore, by breaking down English words into their smallest parts and comparing their parts to other languages, ELL students' reading and speaking comprehension will surely improve. 

As pointed out by Dr. Louisa Moats, morphological and semantic awareness is key to a higher degree of learning in both native and not native English speakers. Having the knowledge of what the individual parts of a word mean and how they fit into sentence structures is imperative to know if one's goal is to speak and write effectively in general. However, several researchers have done studies based on the specific area of native Spanish speaking students in elementary classrooms, and the results were astounding. Valarie Malabonga and her contributing authors stress the importance of elementary ELL students mastering the area of cognates. Her research focused in part on the Cognate Awareness Test that was used to gauge ELL students’ understanding of cognates as well as how proficiently they could identify English words by connecting cognates of the native and new language together.

The emphasis on cognates also brought about the point in this study that ELL students are able to recognize English words by creating links to their Spanish heritage, giving teachers a base to work off of when they began to teach these students more content knowledge. Morphology was also another important facet of language when it came to ELL students becoming more proficient in in order to improve their linguistic skills. By mastering derivational morphology, ELLs were more likely to be able to identify and understand more English words and their meanings. They were able to see the transformation of root words into other forms, which helped them to have a greater English vocabulary.

Cognate association improves comprehension and language acquisition.

The study of morphemes also bridged the gap between the language spoken at home for Spanish students and the language used in school. They were able to connect both of their languages together to form a broad knowledge base without losing their heritage or sacrificing their success in the American classroom. A final area of specific linguistic study that was focused on in this research was carried out by Lee Swanson, Milagros Kudo, and Danielle Guzman-Orth. They tied all of the previous researchers’ points together by discussing the importance of cognition assessment in evaluating elementary ELL students for their abilities as well as the possibility of a learning disability. They assert that it is equally as important to test students’ cognition (and their understanding of phonetics, morphemes, cognates, etc.), but not to make the screening process subjective due to their cultural background and language barriers. 

Students who may have deficits in the English language still have the same ability to think critically in the classroom, and should not be slighted due to the inability to express these thoughts coherently in English. It is extremely important for teachers to realize the responsibility that we owe to these children to make them feel a sense of belonging and confidence in building a language that they can call their own.

Teenagers are Not Destroying English Through Text Messaging

Language in society is constantly changing, especially in the world of a teenager and their communication among their parents and teachers.  New words, known as slang, are invented so frequently that it is the new trend in the world to keep up with it.  Teenagers are the ones that are sucked into slang either from the outlets of social media or daily conversations with their peers.  It is quite difficult for parents to keep up with slang words and often have trouble understanding their teenagers when having a normal conversation with them.  Slang is repeatedly used throughout text messaging as well, which became popular when the cell phone was invented.  Numerous individuals believe that text messaging has created negative impacts on younger generations in the classroom.  It is also believed that slang from text messaging will be presented in a student's work, but a lot of research shows how just the opposite usually occurs. 

It is generally assumed that text messaging does not contribute much to an individual's learning and the slang used within the messaging is not appropriate or proper language.  According to the article, Is Text Messaging Ruining English, most teenagers do not write out the stereotypical abbreviations such as "lol" or "omg."  Also, text messaging is a combination of both formal and informal types of writings.  Research from a survey showed that most teenagers comprehended the need for capitalization and punctuation in formal papers, such as the ones written in the classroom, but opted to leave out these rules of grammar when sending a text message.  Teenagers and young adults are fully aware of proper English and the ways to communicate within a school environment which is why seeing text messaging slang in papers and work of teenagers is rare.      

Even though teenagers are not likely to engage in using text messaging slang in the classroom or professional instances, it is still important for parents to encourage their teenagers to gradually stop the use of slang in order to help prepare them for their futures.  Webspeak: The Secret Language of Teens, states that parents should help their teenagers to end the overuse of slang in order to prevent any problems with their college careers and employment opportunities.  College professors will not appreciate reading papers that include various slang terms because it will sound and be considered uneducated.  Teenagers should be motivated to shut down the slang and proofread every single thing they write to make sure they are prepared for the future.   

The article, Texting & Its Positive Impact on Teens, stated that text messaging has the ability to create an interaction between teenagers and the written word.  Text messaging has a feature called text-speak, which enables the teenager to speak the words they want to text, that is positively related to their reading abilities.  It was shown that teenagers engaged in text messaging did not necessarily have numerous spelling errors in their academic work and their literacy skills improved greatly.  

Overall, teenagers have invented a new way of speaking language that does not necessarily make sense to adults know as slang which is used frequently throughout text messaging.  Teenagers and young adults understand the appropriate forms of English and communication which is why they do not include text messaging abbreviations and slang in their writing in school. 

Teenagers engaging in texting messaging can have positive impacts on their academic work.
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Keep ESL Students in School

For English as a Second Language students, it seems as though everything is against them. The students come to America expecting a new start, a happier way of life, and an equal chance at prospering in the future. What they find is completely opposite of the “melting pot” and “land of the free with equal opportunity” America prides itself on. Broadcasted throughout the media are messages of negativity towards children of immigrants. Considering one of the frontrunners for the presidency, Donald Trump actually said this according to Washington Post : ““When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” it is time to show our support for ESL students,

and we need to begin in the education systems

ESL students are immediately sucked into the American education system, and spit back out without an equal chance of graduating high school, or being able to live a successful life. The large number of dropout rates for ESL students in high school is a huge problem. According to Alliance for Excellent Education and the NEA ESL students are twice as likely to drop out in comparison to native English speakers. By 2025, “one out of every four public school students will be an English Language Learner”. One out of four students who are twice as likely to drop out? The education system cannot wait until 2025 to make the changes necessary to improve the education system and eventually the life of these disadvantaged students.

                To improve the education system for ESL students, we need to focus on what is wrong with it, and that begins with testing. ESL students have to meet the same state proficiency goal and are scored the same as regular content-level students in reading and math. Their accommodations for this test are extra time, and having a language dictionary available to them, and “In too many cases, ELL students are being given reading and math tests in English before they are proficient in the language”. Standardized testing needs to be changed in order to give these students an equal opportunity to succeed. The Alliance for Excellent Education group also concludes that classes that are English-only do not greatly benefit ESL students, but “successful programs capitalize on EL students’ resources (literacy in the primary language) to allow content area development while they acclimate to new academic context and learning in English”. Also, lack of ESL teachers in the educational field creates an overpopulation of ESL students in the classroom, so students slip through the cracks. Teacher candidates should be encouraged to certify in ESL, and it should be made a marketable criteria for teachers. Finally, it is important to embrace the many cultures of ESL students, and not to have them feel as though they need to give up their culture to acclimate to America. To help ESL students succeed, teachers should use their students culture to their advantage while planning lessons to help ESL achievement, and make them have an equal chance at graduating high school and having a successful life in America.