Directions:

Choose the most suitable one from the list A~F for each numbered subheading (1~5). There is one extra choice which you do not need to use.

Teaching Students With Autism

Autism is a disability syndrome characterized principally by significant problems in the development of communication and social functioning. With appropriate teaching, all students with autism can learn.

1. _________________

Students with autism have significant challenges in understanding and using language for communication. Classroom environments must provide students with information on events, activities, and expectations in a manner that students with autism can easily understand. Visual activity schedules may be used to provide students with an overview of the instructional day and information on tasks that will be assigned. Many teachers also find mini-schedules helpful; they provide a visual analysis of the steps in a task or assignment that need completion by the student. In addition to providing supports for understanding classroom expectations, many students will also need supports for communicating to others. While most students with autism will learn to use speech to communicate, many still have great difficulty in expressing their needs and desires. They may need to use visual systems, sign language, or augmentative devices as an additional form of expressive communication.

2. _______________

It is important that the classroom environment provides activities and materials that are interesting and motivating. Actively engaging the student within instructional activities is critical to effective instruction. The teacher should observe the student in multiple activities and interview family members to identify the motivating activities or objects for the student. These preferred objects and activities may be used for instruction, or as reinforcers for activity engagement or completion. Instructional arrangements should also provide opportunities for choice-making to the student. Research has shown that when students have an opportunity to choose the activity, location, or materials for an instructional task, they are more likely to be engaged in the activity. Providing the student with frequent and personally meaningful reinforcement is often critical to sustaining motivation to engage in instruction and persist with activities.

3. _______________

Discrete trial training is an effective instructional format for teaching specific skills in an intensive, efficient manner. Skills are taught within a highly structured, one-to-one format providing clear and concise instruction, an additional prompt (as necessary), and an explicit reinforcer (reward) for performing the skill successfully. Discrete trial training typically uses a least-to-most prompting hierarchy, moving from a verbal prompt to physical guidance when verbal and nonverbal prompts are inadequate. Trials of instruction are provided on a single behavior in a massed fashion (one after another) with only a brief pause between trials.

Activity-based instruction describes the instruction of targeted skills within activities and routines that are meaningful for the student. Instructional trials are embedded within student-initiated, routine, or planned activities. Skills are taught within relevant activities and across contexts, increasing the probability that the student will generalize the skill to noninstructional activities and environments. For example, an arrival routine for a student may include putting his backpack away, finding his desk, and taking out his daily work folder. If the student were learning how to greet others, request help, and follow a visual schedule, skill instruction could be embedded in the arrival routine and within multiple activities over the day so that an adequate number of instructional trials are provided to the student. Systematic instruction is used within each of those activities to provide instruction on the embedded skill.

Students with autism may also be taught effectively in small groups. In inclusive classrooms, nondisabled peers have been effective in providing instructional support. Cooperative learning groups also provide a format for including the student with autism who may be learning skills that are different from his peers.

4. ____________________

Some students with autism may exhibit excessive passivity, while others display patterns of disruptive or even destructive behaviors. Years ago, the common response to these behaviors was punishment, time out, or exclusion to stop or suppress the behavior problems. The currently preferred approach is known as positive behavior support (PBS), a proactive, constructive educational approach for resolving behavior problems. It is based on extensive research as well as principles regarding the rights of all students to be treated with dignity and to have access to educational opportunities. The PBS approach is supported by the discipline regulations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

PBS involves a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) and the subsequent development and implementation of an individualized behavior support plan. The FBA process gathers information about the purpose or "function" of the behavior and the circumstances associated with its occurrences and nonoccurrences. The results of the FBA contribute to the individualized behavior support plan, which usually includes procedures for teaching alternatives to the behavior problems, and alterations to the environmental and instructional circumstances most associated with the problems. Such alterations can involve aspects of the curriculum, instructional techniques, social milieu or other feature linked by the FBA to behavior problems. The PBS intervention helps prevent problems from occurring, and helps the student acquire more effective, desirable ways for interacting with the environment.

5.____________________

The focus of instruction shifts as students with autism move from early childhood programs through elementary school to secondary settings. In the early years, instruction focuses on developing communication, social interaction, and adaptive behavior. As the child ages, elementary programs may focus more on academic instruction in addition to teaching language and social interaction skills. In secondary programs, instruction should shift to preparing the student for adulthood.

Instruction for young children should begin as soon as the disability is identified. Effective early intervention programs are ones that directly teach early communication and social interaction skills, use a functional approach in addressing problem behavior, provide intensive and systematic instruction, provide parent instruction and family support, and provide transition support as the child enters preschool.

In elementary school, instruction should support the child's growth in skill areas that are delayed and promote growth in areas of strength. Curriculum adaptations may be used to assist students in progressing in the traditional academic areas. School programs should also focus on helping the student learn how to negotiate social environments and develop friendships.

In the secondary and high school years, instruction should focus on the areas identified in the transition plan. The transition plan addresses post-school outcomes for work, community living, community participation, and recreation activities. Instruction for the transitioning student may include community work experience, using public transportation, and learning skills that will be important for living in the community. In high school, instruction may continue within general education settings although an individual student's schedule may reflect a greater emphasis on the importance of learning relevant post-school skills. For example, a student's schedule may include classes in computer, cooking, and chorus instead of courses in chemistry, algebra, and American literature.

[A] Instructional Formats

[B] Communication Issues

[C] Positive Behavior Support

[D] Active engagement

[E] Motivational Issues

[F] Age Span Considerations

1.    2.    3.     4.    5. 

III. Translation

Effective communication with people of different cultures is especially challenging. Cultures provide people with ways of thinking-ways of seeing, hearing, and interpreting the world. Thus the same words can mean different things to people from different cultures, even when they talk the "same" language. (1)When the languages are different, and translation has to be used to communicate, the potential for misunderstandings increases.

Stella Ting-Toomey describes three ways in which culture interferes with effective cross-cultural understanding. First is what she calls "cognitive constraints". (2)These are the frames of reference or world views that provide a backdrop that all new information is compared to or inserted into.

Second are "behavior constraints". (3)Each culture has its own rules about proper behavior which affect verbal and nonverbal communication. Whether one looks the other person in the eye or not; whether one says what one means overtly or talks around the issue; how close the people stand to each other when they are talking-all of these and many more are rules of politeness which differ from culture to culture.

Ting-Toomey's third factor is "emotional constraints". Different cultures regulate the display of emotion differently. Some cultures get very emotional when they are debating an issue. They yell, they cry, they exhibit their anger, fear, frustration, and other feelings openly. (4)Other cultures try to keep their emotions hidden, exhibiting or sharing only the "rational" or factual aspects of the situation.

All of these differences tend to lead to communication problems. (5)If the people involved are not aware of the potential for such problems, they are even more likely to fall victim to them, although it takes more than awareness to overcome these problems and communicate effectively across cultures.答案與題解 

Part B 小標題選擇

1．[B]  這一部分講的是患孤獨癥孩子的總體癥狀，他們在理解和使用語言進行交際方面存在困難。從第二段反復出現(xiàn)的communication一詞可以判斷[B] Communication Issues為這一部分小標題。

2. E.  這一部分講的是教室環(huán)境應該為患孤獨癥孩子提供有趣和有激勵效果的活動和材料，同樣也要讓孩子有選擇的機會，這樣他們就更有可能投入到這些活動中去。所以選Motivational Issues。

3. [A]  這一部分開始更詳細地探討指導方法。離散式的試驗式訓練證明是一種有效的指導形式。另外還有基于活動的指導，有分組指導，因此選指導形式（Instructional Formats）。

4. [C]  患孤獨癥的孩子行為方式被動，有時還會表現(xiàn)出分裂性或破壞性的行為。以前對這類行為的應對方法是懲罰、壓制和阻止。現(xiàn)在一種更好的方法被稱為積極行為支持(PBS)。所以選C。

5. F.   這一部分分別討論了對不同年齡層次的孩子的指導方法。該部分第二段講對幼兒的指導。第三段講對小學階段孩子的指導。第四段講對中學階段孩子的指導。因此不同年齡段的孩子指導側(cè)重點有所不同。

III. Translation.

1. potential這里用作名詞，可以翻譯成"可能性"。例如She recognized the potential for error in the method being used. 她意識到在所采用的方法中可能出錯。本句應譯為：當語言不同，必須使用翻譯來交流時，誤解的可能性上升。

2. 這個句子中跟了兩個定語從句，其中第一個that后的定語從句修飾frames of reference or world views，第二個定語從句嵌在第一個從句內(nèi)，修飾backdrop。本句應譯為：它們是參照系和世界觀，這種參照系和世界觀提供一個背景，將所有新的信息與之進行比較或插入。

3. which引導的定語從句修飾rules。verbal這里指語言的，nonverbal與之相對，指非語言的。本句應譯為：每種文化都有自己關于合適舉止的規(guī)則，這些規(guī)則影響語言的和非語言的交際。

4. exhibiting or sharing現(xiàn)在分詞做狀語，修飾主句。本句應譯為：其他文化盡力掩藏他們的感情，只展示或分享境況的"理性的"或?qū)嶋H的方面。

5. 這個句子中有兩個從句，一個是if引導的條件狀語從句，一個是although引導的讓步狀語從句。本句應譯為：如果有關的人沒有意識到這些問題的潛在可能，他們更容易成為這些問題的受害者，盡管要克服這些問題，進行有效的跨文化交際，僅僅意識到這些問題的潛在可能還不夠。