Stephen Carey

Implications from transitional bilingual and immersion programmes for transitional ESL programmes in a post apartheid South Africa

This article is based on various papers given, and research done, by Dr Carey during his July 1992 visit to South Africa (see References, page 36). It focuses on immersion and transitional ESL and French immersion programmes in Canada, and bilingual programmes elsewhere, e.g. the U.S.A., Eastern Europe and Asia, in terms of the possible implications of all these for a future South African language education dispensation.

Infantile Handling, Method of Goal Box Removal, Stimulus Complexity, and T-Maze Performance

A comparison was made between the running-speed scores and choice behavior of Ss which had been handled from Days 1–21 and their nonhandled litter mates. When they were 60 days old, Ss were food deprived and were tested in a T-maze. They were given four free choice trials each day over a 14-day period, and were rewarded regardless of their choice of goal boxes. One subgroup was removed by hand whenever Ss entered the striped goal box and were removed by a transport box if they entered the gray goal box. Another subgroup received the opposite treatment. Results indicate that handled rats showed faster running speeds than the nonhandled Ss and that both groups showed a systematic increase in running speed with successive test days. The choice behavior data indicates that both handled and non-handled Ss showed no systematic preference for the method of goal box removal nor for the stimulus complexity of the goal box.