Search results for: foreign language programs

Authors: Poonamdeep kaur

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With the increase in number of Non-Resident Indian marriages there is also increase in foreign decree divorces which inevitably causes the problem of recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments in India. The Hindus in India are governed by the Hindu Marriage Act, 1956. According to the said Act the courts in India have jurisdiction to try the matrimonial dispute if the marriage is performed in India or the parties to the marriage have domicile in India irrespective of their nationality status. But, sometimes one of the parties to the marriage whose marriage is solemnized in India obtains divorce in foreign courts and prays for the recognition and enforcement of such divorce in India. In such case section 13 of the Indian Civil Procedure Code, 1908, comes into play for the recognition and enforcement of foreign divorces in India. The section makes a foreign judgment conclusive in India subject to the fulfilment of certain conditions. Even if a foreign decree divorce is given on personal connecting factors of the parties to the matrimonial dispute like domicile, such divorce may still be refused recognition in India by virtue of section 13 of the Indian Civil Procedure Code, 1908. It is a universal truth that municipal law of countries is not the same throughout the world. Comity plays an important role in recognition and enforcing a foreign judgment, but, now in India the principle is not applied mechanically as the divorce matter is dealt strictly with regard to Indian Law. So in this paper there will be deep analysis of Indian case laws relating to recognition and enforcement of foreign divorces and based on this a comparative study will be made with the laws of Canada and England on the same subject to find out whether the Indian law on recognition and Enforcement of foreign judgment are in line with the laws of Canada and England and whether in recent years the Indian courts have evolved some new principles of private international law to deal with limping marriages. At last conclusions will be drawn out from the comparative study and suggestions would be given to make the rules of recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments on divorce more certain.

Keywords: divorce, foreign decree, private international law, recognition and enforcement of foreign judgment

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Authors: Djelloul Nedjai

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The issue of cultural awareness triggers many controversies, especially in a context where individuals do not share the same cultural backgrounds and characteristics. The Algerian context is no exception. It has been widely documented by the literature that culture remains essential in many domains. In higher education, for instance, culture plays a pivotal role in shaping individuals’ perceptions and attitudes. Henceforth, the current paper attempts to look at the perceptions of the British culture held by students engaged in learning English as a Foreign Language (EFL) at the department of English at Banta 2 University, Algeria. It also inquires into EFL students’ perceptions of British culture. To address the aforementioned research queries, a descriptive study has been carried out wherein a questionnaire of fifteen (15) items has been deployed to collect students’ attitudes and perceptions toward British culture. Results showcase that, indeed, EFL students of the department of English at Banta 2 University hold both positive and negative perceptions towards British culture at different levels. The explanation could relate to the student's lack of acquaintance with and awareness of British culture. Consequently, this paper is an attempt to address the issue of cultural awareness from the perspective of EFL students.

Keywords: British culture, cultural awareness, EFL students’ perceptions, higher education

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Authors: Adi Gielgun-Katz, Alina S. Rusu

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In the last two decades, education systems worldwide have integrated new pedagogical methods and strategies in lesson plans, such as innovative technologies, social-emotional learning (SEL), gamification, mixed learning, multiple literacies, and many others. Visual language, such as photographs, is known to transcend cultures and languages, and it is commonly used by youth to express positions and affective states in social networks. Therefore, visual language needs more educational attention as a linguistic and communicative component that can create connectedness among the students and their teachers. Nowadays, when SEL is gaining more and more space and meaning in the area of academic improvement in relation to social well-being, and taking and sharing pictures is part of the everyday life of the majority of people, it becomes natural to add the visual language to SEL approach as a reinforcement strategy for connecting education to the contemporary culture and language of the youth. This article presents a program conducted in a high school class in Israel, which combines the five SEL with photography techniques, i.e., Social-Emotional Learning Visual Empowerments (SELVEs) program (experimental group). Another class of students from the same institution represents the control group, which is participating in the SEL program without the photography component. The SEL component of the programs addresses skills such as: troubleshooting, uncertainty, personal strengths and collaboration, accepting others, control of impulses, communication, self-perception, and conflict resolution. The aim of the study is to examine the effects of programs on the level of the five SEL aspects in the two groups of high school students: Self-Awareness, Social Awareness, Self-Management, Responsible Decision Making, and Relationship Skills. The study presents a quantitative assessment of the SEL programs’ impact on the students. The main hypothesis is that the students’ questionnaires' analysis will reveal a better understanding and improvement of the five aspects of the SEL in the group of students involved in the photography-enhanced SEL program.

Keywords: social-emotional learning, photography, education program, adolescents

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Authors: Ororho Maureen Ekpelezie

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This study investigates language educators' perceptions and experiences regarding AI-driven personalized teacher training modules in Awka South, Anambra State, Nigeria. Utilizing a stratified random sampling technique, 25 schools across various educational levels were selected to ensure a representative sample. A total of 1000 questionnaires were distributed among language teachers in these schools, focusing on assessing their perceptions and experiences related to AI-driven personalized teacher training. With an impressive response rate of 99.1%, the study garnered valuable insights into language teachers' attitudes towards AI-driven personalized teacher training and its effectiveness in enhancing language teaching competence. The quantitative analysis revealed predominantly positive perceptions towards AI-driven personalized training modules, indicating their efficacy in addressing individual learning needs. However, challenges were identified in the long-term retention and transfer of AI-enhanced skills, underscoring the necessity for further refinement of personalized training approaches. Recommendations stemming from these findings emphasize the need for continued refinement of training methodologies and the development of tailored professional development programs to alleviate educators' concerns. Overall, this research enriches discussions on the integration of AI technology in teacher training and professional development, with the aim of bolstering language teaching competence and effectiveness in educational settings.

Keywords: language teacher training, AI-driven personalized learning, professional development, language teaching competence, personalized teacher training

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Authors: Fatemeh Fahimifar, Rouhollah Nazari, Seyed Mohammad Reza Hosseini

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Achieving an adaptable rate of economic growth has always been at the forefront of Iran development programs. In order to increase welfare level of the people in the society, all economic and social indices should be improved which is possible just in case of country's economic development and growth. While developing countries has realized the gap between developed countries and developing countries in today's world, a massive movement has been emerged in less developed countries to eliminate this economic gap. Hence this study investigates the effect of financial development, foreign direct investment and intellectual property on Iran's economic growth and taking into account other variables on economic growth such as impact of the share of foreign direct investment on GDP, government consumptive expenditure share of GDP has been paid. Period used in this study is related to the years 1974 to 2009. Also, in this research we have used Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to examine relationship between variables. The results of this study indicate a meaningful and negative impact of financial development, the share of government consumptive expenditure to GDP and similarly, the initial GDP on economic growth. Also, the degree of economy openness, foreign direct investment and intellectual property has a meaningful positive impact on economic growth.

Keywords: financial development, FDI, intellectual property, economic growth, Iran

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Authors: Rhisan Mae Enriquez-Morales

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The primary concern of this study is to answer the question: How does the Philippine government formulate its foreign policy with respect to its territorial claims over areas in the West Philippine Sea after the Scarborough standoff in April 2012? Specifically, the study seeks to provide understanding on the political process in the formulation of foreign policy relating to the Philippine claims in the West Philippine Sea after the 2012 Scarborough Standoff, by looking into the relationship of bureaucracies and how it influences the decision-making process. Secondly, this study aims to determine the long and short term foreign policies of the Philippines with respect to its territorial claims over the West Philippine Sea. Lastly, this study seeks to determine the implication of Philippine foreign policy in settling the West Philippine Sea dispute on the country’s national security. The Bureaucratic Politics Model (BPM) in Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA) is the framework utilized in this study, which focuses primarily on the relationship of bureaucracies in the formulation of foreign policy and how these agencies influence the process of foreign policy formulation. The findings of this study reveal that: first, the Philippines foreign policy in the West Philippine Sea continues to develop to address current developments in the WPS. Second, as the government requires demilitarization there is a shift from traditional to non-traditional security approach. This shift caused inconvenience from the defense sector particularly the Navy thinking that they are being deprived of their traditional roles. Lastly, the Philippine government’s greater emphasis on internal security operation implies the need to reassess its security concerns and look into territorial security.

Keywords: bureaucratic politics model, foreign policy analysis, security, West Philippine sea

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Authors: Oublal Ali

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Due scholarly attention given to Ludwig Wittgenstein since the appearance of Tractatus is resulted from revolutionary shift he has made in the conception of language. True, his first and foremost concern was to solve the issue of language philosophers failed to recognize. Not only Tracturain’s approach to language that argues for philosophers failure of understanding the logic of language, but also his later conception which is developed in philosophical investigations and the reminder of all his remarks. On such a basis, it is claimed that Wittgenstein’s theory of language should not be confined to the language within philosophical streams with this premise we therefore propose to analytically read one of the literary propositions in the sympathizer as linguistic corpus. Our investigation of the literary proposition weaves us into claiming that Wittgenstein’s language games -later philosophy- is apposite to the analysis of literary works thanks to the shift Wittgenstein has made from demarcated use of language to the multiplicity and non-uniformity of its use.

Keywords: language, context, use, language games, literary propositions

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Authors: Nhac Thanh Huong

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New teaching methods have led to the changes in the teachers’ roles in an English class, in which teachers’ error correction is an integral part. Language error and corrective feedback have been the interest of many researchers in foreign language teaching. However, the techniques and the effectiveness of teachers’ feedback have been a question of much controversy. This present case study has been carried out with a view to finding out the patterns of teachers’ corrective feedback and their impact on students’ uptake in English speaking lessons of legal English major students at Hanoi Law University. In order to achieve those aims, the study makes use of classroom observations as the main method of data collection to seeks answers to the two following questions: 1. What patterns of corrective feedback occur in English speaking lessons for second- year legal English major students in Hanoi Law University?; 2. To what extent does that corrective feedback lead to students’ uptake? The study provided some important findings, among which was a close relationship between corrective feedback and uptake. In particular, recast was the most commonly used feedback type, yet it was the least effective in terms of students’ uptake and repair, while the most successful feedback, namely meta-linguistic feedback, clarification requests and elicitation, which led to students’ generated repair, was used at a much lower rate by teachers. Furthermore, it revealed that different types of errors needed different types of feedback. Also, the use of feedback depended on the students’ English proficiency level. In the light of findings, a number of pedagogical implications have been drawn in the hope of enhancing the effectiveness of teachers’ corrective feedback to students’ uptake in foreign language acquisition process.

Keywords: corrective feedback, error, uptake, speaking English lesson

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Authors: Zhai Yuan, Wu Xueqing

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This article statistics the technology which used by Chinese and foreign excellent players in the game, including types and serves areas,receive technology and effect and utilization ratio receiving and losing points. The sample is che videos which is world's top matches of excellent badminton athletes of che single, including Chinese players’ 43 games and foreign players’ 38 games. Conclusion: For the serving, Chinese and foreign single players are to give priority to forehand short-low serve and the long-high serve. And Chinese and foreign players in using forehand short-low serve and drive server exist significant differences; For the serves areas, Chinese and foreign players serve area is concentrated in area 1,5,6. Area 6 has the highest rate of all the district areas, following by the area 1and area 5. Among the 2ed serve area Sino-foreign player, there exist significant differences; In the receiver, when returning the frontcourt shutter, players is given priority to net lift and push. When returning the backcourt shutter, receiver's the best ball is smash, followed by clear and drop shot. Foreign players have higher utilization rate in smash than Chinese players in the backcourt; In the receiver result, Chinese players give priority to actively and equally situation than foreign players, but in negatively receiving is just opposite.

Keywords: badminton, woman’s singles, technique and tactics, comparative analysis

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Authors: Yessica A. Aguilera

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English is currently the only foreign language included in the national educational curriculum in Chile. The English curriculum establishes that once completed secondary education, students are expected to reach B1 level according to the Common European Reference Framework (CEFR) scale. However, the objective has not been achieved, and to the author’s best knowledge, there is still a severe lack of English language skills among students who have completed their secondary education studies. In order to deal with the fact that students do not manage English as expected, team-based learning (TBL) was introduced in English language lessons at the Universidad Federico Santa María (USM). TBL is a collaborative teaching-learning method which enhances active learning by combining individual and team work. This approach seeks to help students achieve course objectives while learning how to function in teams. The purpose of the research was to assess the implementation and effectiveness of TBL in English language classes at USM technical training education. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected from teachers and students about their experience through TBL. Research findings show that both teachers and students are satisfied with the method and that students’ engagement and participation in class is higher. Additionally, students score higher on examinations improving academic outcomes. The findings of the research have the potential to guide how TBL could be included in future English language courses.

Keywords: collaborative learning, college education, English language learning, team-based learning

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Authors: Violetta Cataldo, Renata Savy, Simona Sbranna

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Background: Foreign Language Learning (FLL) is characterised by prosodic transfer phenomena regarding pitch accents placement, intonation patterns, and pitch range excursion from the learners’ mother tongue to their Foreign Language (FL) which suggests that the gradual development of general linguistic competence in FL does not imply an equally correspondent improvement of the prosodic competence. Topic: The present study aims to monitor the development of prosodic competence of learners of Italian and German throughout the FLL process. The primary object of this study is to investigate the intonational features and the f₀ range excursion of Italian and German from a cross-linguistic perspective; analyses of native speakers’ productions point out the differences between this pair of languages and provide models for the Target Language (TL). A following crosscheck compares the L2 productions in Italian and German by non-native speakers to the Target Language models, in order to verify the occurrence of prosodic interference phenomena, i.e., type, degree, and modalities. Methodology: The subjects of the research are university students belonging to two groups: Italian native speakers learning German as FL and German native speakers learning Italian as FL. Both of them have been divided into three subgroups according to the FL proficiency level (beginners, intermediate, advanced). The dataset consists of wh-questions placed in situational contexts uttered in both speakers’ L1 and FL. Using a phonetic approach, analyses have considered three domains of intonational contours (Initial Profile, Nuclear Accent, and Terminal Contour) and two dimensions of the f₀ range parameter (span and level), which provide a basis for comparison between L1 and L2 productions. Findings: Results highlight a strong presence of prosodic transfer phenomena affecting L2 productions in the majority of both Italian and German learners, irrespective of their FL proficiency level; the transfer concerns all the three domains of the contour taken into account, although with different modalities and characteristics. Currently, L2 productions of German learners show a pitch span compression on the domain of the Terminal Contour compared to their L1 towards the TL; furthermore, German learners tend to use lower pitch range values in deviation from their L1 when improving their general linguistic competence in Italian FL proficiency level. Results regarding pitch range span and level in L2 productions by Italian learners are still in progress. At present, they show a similar tendency to expand the pitch span and to raise the pitch level, which also reveals a deviation from the L1 possibly in the direction of German TL. Conclusion: Intonational features seem to be 'resistant' parameters to which learners appear not to be particularly sensitive. By contrast, they show a certain sensitiveness to FL pitch range dimensions. Making clear which the most resistant and the most sensitive parameters are when learning FL prosody could lay groundwork for the development of prosodic trainings thanks to which learners could finally acquire a clear and natural pronunciation and intonation.

Keywords: foreign language learning, German, Italian, L2 prosody, pitch range, transfer

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Authors: Marian Lissett Olaya

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This article examined the factors associated with incorporating peer assessment into English language classes in a public university in Colombia. This is done in the context of writing English class for 4th-semester students. The research instruments consisted of peer assessment questionnaires, student diaries, and interviews. Findings showed that among the factors, motivation, frustration, anxiety, and lack of confidence appeared. Data revealed that peer assessment enables students to write competencies through training, teachers' guidance, and the provision of a collaborative environment.

Keywords: writing skills, peer assessment, formative assessment, language acquisition

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Authors: Min Gao

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In the past year, the advent of large language models (LLMs) has brought about a revolution in the language service industry, making it possible to efficiently produce more satisfactory and higher-quality translations. This is groundbreaking news for commercial companies involved in language services since much of a translator's work can now be completed by machines. However, it may be bad news for universities that provide translation training programs. They need to confront the challenges posed by AI in education by reconsidering issues such as the reform of traditional teaching methods, the translation ethics of students, and the new demands of the job market for their graduates. This article is an exploratory study of these issues based on the author's experiences in translation teaching. The research combines methods in the form of questionnaires and interviews. The findings include: (1) students may lose their motivation to learn in the AI era, but this can be compensated for by encouragement from the lecturer; (2) Translation ethics are not a serious problem in schools, considering the strict policies and regulations in place; (3) The role of translators has evolved in the new era, necessitating a reform of the traditional teaching methods.

Keywords: job market of translation, large language model, translation ethics, translation training

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Authors: Alina Gilmanova

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China’s dependency on coal for energy is causing pollution in China and abroad. To supply the increasing energy demand and being under the pressure from international society to reduce the emissions, China was pushed to develop renewable energy. The increasing subsidies in Renewable energy sources (RES) led not only to the price-cutting but also affecting the international trade in green technology sector. In order to evaluate the role of RES in foreign policy of China, I am going to give an (i) overview of RES development in China and examine the cooperation between China and (ii) developed, (ii) developing and emerging countries. The conclusive remarks are intended to address the question of how the present Chinese renewable energy development is impacting its foreign policy and international society.

Keywords: renewable energy, China, foreign affairs, brics, cooperation

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Authors: Farid Habibi Tanha, Hawati Janor, Mojtaba Jahanbazi

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The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of asymmetric information on the composition of capital inflows. This study uses the stock market microstructure to capture the asymmetric information. Such an approach allows one to capture the level and extent of the asymmetric information from a firm’s perspective. This study focuses on the two-dimensional measure of the market microstructure in capturing asymmetric information. The composition of capital inflows is measured by running six models simultaneously. By employing the panel data technique, the main finding of this research shows an increase in the asymmetric information of the stock market, in any of the two dimensions of width and depth. This leads to the reduction of foreign investments in both forms of foreign portfolio investment (FPI) and foreign direct investment (FDI), while the reduction in FPI is higher than that of the FDI. The significant effect of asymmetric information on capital inflows implicitly suggests for policymakers to control the changes of foreign capital inflows through transparency in the level of the market.

Keywords: capital flows composition, asymmetric information, stock market microstructure, foreign portfolio investment, foreign direct investment

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Authors: Yibo Shao, Jiajie Liu

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This article uncovers the practice of pragmatism of Singaporean foreign policy by analyzing its foreign diplomatic behavior. It also points out the Singapore’s hedging strategy on the relations between China and American and how to balance these two greater powers in Southeast Asian. This paper used qualitative approach by reviewing literature and policy documents intensively to find out the responses to our research questions.

Keywords: hedging, pragmatism, Sino-Singapore relations, South China Sea

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Authors: Cheng Shuk Ling

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This paper examines the English syntactic errors and their patterns in the written assignments of a General Education course at City University of Hong Kong. Subjects are 60 local and non-local (exchange) undergraduate students who are all EFL learners and L2 users with diversified education and disciplinary background (i.e. their major of study), which are unrelated to English language studies. The objective of this paper brings to the foreground a broad discussion of EFL/L2 undergraduate learners’ average syntactic ability in terms of written assessment. This paper is an attempt in classifying the patterns and categories of syntactic errors committed by students who were brought up and educated in non-native English-speaking countries. Thus, pedagogical recommendations are offered for both EFL/L2 learners and educators in tertiary education settings in such ways as to calibrate how and in what manner English language as the medium of instruction can lead to more enduring effects in learners within non-native English-speaking countries.

Keywords: syntactic errors, english as a foreign language, second language users, pedagogy

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Authors: Mehtab Alam

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Sustainable tourism practices require to improve the decreased performance levels in phases of change management for image branding. This paper addresses the innovative approach of using sustainable tourism for image branding as a contemporary tool of foreign policy. The sustainable tourism-based foreign policy promotes cultural values, green tourism, economy, and image management for the avoidance of rising global conflict. The mixed-method approach (quantitative 382 surveys, qualitative 11 interviews at saturation point) implied for the data analysis. The research finding provides the potential of using sustainable tourism by implying skills and knowledge, capacity, and personal factors of change management in improving tourism-based performance levels. It includes the valuable tourism performance role for the success of a foreign policy through sustainable tourism. Change management in tourism-based foreign policy provides the destination readiness for international engagement and curbing of climate issues through green tourism. The research recommends the impact of change management in improving the tourism-based performance levels of image branding for a coercive foreign policy. The paper’s future direction for the immediate implementation of tourism-based foreign policy is to overcome the contemporary issues of travel marketing management, green infrastructure, and cross-border regulation.

Keywords: decrease performance levels, change management, sustainable tourism, image branding, foreign policy

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Authors: Amira Benabdelkader

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Communication presents the channel by which humankind create and maintain their relationship with others, express themselves, exchange information, learn and teach etc. The context of communication plays a distinctive role in deciding about the language to be used. The term context is mainly used to refer to the interlocutors, their cultures, languages, relationship, physical surrounding that is the communication setting, type of the information to be transmitted, the topic etc. Cultures, on one hand, impose on humans certain behaviours, attitudes, gestures and beliefs. On the other hand, the focus on language is inevitable as it is with its verbal and non-verbal components, a key tool in and for communication. Moreover, each language has its particularity in how people voice, address and express their thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Being in the same setting with people from different cultures and languages and having conversations with them would call upon the intercultural communicative competence. This latter would promote the success of their conversations. Additionally, this competence could manifest in several ways during their interactions, to the extent that no one can predict when and how the interlocutors would use it. The only thing probably that could be confirmed is that the setting and culture would in a way or another intervene and often shape the flow of their communication, if not the whole communication. Therefore, this paper will look at the intercultural communicative competence of language learners when introducing their cultures to each other in an online language tandem (henceforth OLT) using their second and/or foreign language with the L1 language speakers. The participants of this study are Algerian (use L2: French, FL: English), British (L1: English, L2/FL: French). In other words, this current paper will provide a qualitative analysis of the OLT experiment by emphasising how language learners can overcome the cultural differences in an intercultural setting while communicating online using Skype (video conversations) with people from different countries, cultures and L1. The non-verbal cues will have the lion share in the analysis by focusing on how they have been used to maintain this intercultural communication or hinder it through the misinterpretation of gestures, head movements, grimaces etc.

Keywords: intercultural communicative competence, non-verbal cues, online language tandem, Skype

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Authors: Hoora Dehghani, Meisam Shahbazi, Reza Zare

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During the previous decade, a significant evolution has occurred in the number of private educational centers and, accordingly, the increase in the number of providers and students of these centers around the world. The number of language teaching institutes in Iran that are considered private educational sectors is also growing exponentially as the request for learning foreign languages has extremely increased in recent years. This fact caused competition among the institutions in improving better services tailored to the students’ demands to win the competition. Along with the growth in the industry of education, higher education institutes should apply the marketing-related concepts and view students as customers because students’ outlooks are similar to consumers with education. Studying the influential factors in the selection of an institute has multiple benefits. Firstly, it acknowledges the institutions of the students’ choice factors. Secondly, the institutions use the obtained information to improve their marketing methods. It also helps institutions know students’ outlooks that can be applied to expand the student know-how. Moreover, it provides practical evidence for educational centers to plan useful amenities and programs, and use efficient policies to cater to the market, and also helps them execute the methods that increase students’ feeling of contentment and assurance. Thus, this study explored the influencing factors in the selection of a language learning institute by language learners and examined and compared the importance among the varying age groups and genders. In the first phase of the study, the researchers selected 15 language learners as representative cases within the specified age ranges and genders purposefully and interviewed them to explore the comprising elements in their language institute selection process and analyzed the results qualitatively. In the second phase, the researchers identified elements as specified items of a questionnaire, and 1000 English learners across varying educational contexts rated them. The TOPSIS method was used to analyze the data quantitatively by representing the level of importance of the items for the participants generally and specifically in each subcategory; genders and age groups. The results indicated that the educational quality, teaching method, duration of training course, establishing need-oriented courses, and easy access were the most important elements. On the other hand, offering training in different languages, the specialized education of only one language, the uniform and appropriate appearance of office staff, having native professors to the language of instruction, applying Computer or online tests instead of the usual paper tests respectively as the least important choice factors in selecting a language institute. Besides, some comparisons among different groups’ ratings of choice factors were made, which revealed the differences among different groups' priorities in choosing a language institute.

Keywords: choice factors, EFL institute selection, english learning, need analysis, TOPSIS

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Authors: Mohammed Kamal Alhassan

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The closeness of Turkey to Greece has often been a cause of many disagreements between the people of the two countries. This is against the backdrop of the fact that they have many things in common. In the past, the two countries have had unhealthy relations, which threatened to cut diplomatic ties between them. The 1996 Imia/ Kardak incident and the Öcalan crisis, for instance, nearly resulted in war between them. There were events that also brought the two countries together, for instance, the 1999 earthquake. This was because many lives were lost during the disaster. It is important to note that these events were duly covered by the media in the two countries. First of all, the study intends to look at the role of the media in the formulation of foreign policy in Turkey-Greece relations. It examines the role of the media in the formulation of foreign policy with particular emphasis on agenda-setting and positioning theories of the media as the theoretical framework. Also, the study will discuss the media landscapes in Turkey and Greece, the ownership pattern of the media sector and the relationship between media organizations and the government in the two countries. Moreover, the core foreign policy objectives of the countries will be delved into. Finally, the study employs a qualitative method to critically analyze the role of the media in the formulation of foreign policy in Turkey-Greece relations. It uses the invitation of the Former Prime Minister of Greece, George Andreas Papandreou, to the Ambassadors Conference in Turkey as a case study. In the end, the analysis will prove that, indeed, the media in Greece was effective in the formulation of foreign policy in its relations with Turkey.

Keywords: media organizations, foreign policy, government, diplomacy

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Authors: Oznur Ispir, Oya Celebi Cakiroglu, Esengul Elibol, Emine Ceribas, Gizem Acikgoz, Hande Yesilbas, Merve Tarhan

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This study was conducted to evaluate the academic staff teaching the 'Nursing Management' course in the undergraduate nursing programs of the state universities in Turkey and to assess the current content of the course. Design of the study is descriptive. Population of the study consists of seventy-eight undergraduate nursing programs in the state universities in Turkey. The questionnaire/survey prepared by the researchers was used as a data collection tool. The data were obtained by screening the content of the websites of nursing education programs between March and May 2016. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The research performed within the study indicated that 58% of the undergraduate nursing programs from which the data were derived were included in the school of health, 81% of the academic staff graduated from the undergraduate nursing programs, 40% worked as a lecturer and 37% specialized in a field other than the nursing. The research also implied that the above-mentioned course was included in 98% of the programs from which it was possible to obtain data. The full name of the course was 'Nursing Management' in 95% of the programs and 98% stated that the course was compulsory. Theory and application hours were 3.13 and 2.91, respectively. Moreover, the content of the course was not shared in 65% of the programs reviewed. This study demonstrated that the experience and expertise of the academic staff teaching the 'Nursing Management' course was not sufficient in the management area, and the schedule and content of the course were not sufficient although many nursing education programs provided the course. Comparison between the curricula of the course revealed significant differences.

Keywords: nursing, nursing management, nursing management course, undergraduate program

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Authors: Peter Ecke

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This research presents insights from a questionnaire study and autobiographic narrative analyses about the language and cultural backgrounds, challenges, interests, and needs, as well as perceptions about bilingualism and language learning of undergraduate students at a Public University in the southwestern United States. Participants were 650 students, enrolled in college-level general education courses, entitled “Becoming multilingual: Learning and maintaining two or more languages” between 2020 and 2024. Data were collected via pre- and post-course questionnaires administered online through the Qualtrix XM platform and complemented with analyses of excerpts from autobiographical narratives that students produced as part of the course assignments. Findings, for example, show that course participants have diverse linguistic backgrounds. The five most frequently reported L1s were English (about 50% of course participants), Spanish, Arabic, Mandarin, and Korean (in that order). The five most frequently reported L2s were English, Spanish, French, ASL, Japanese, German, and Mandarin (in that order). Participants also reported on their L2, L3, L4, and L5 if applicable. Most participants (over 60%) rated themselves bilingual or multilingual whereas 40% considered themselves to be monolingual or foreign language learners. Only about half of the participants reported feeling very or somewhat comfortable with their language skills, but these reports changed somewhat from the pre- to the post-course survey. About half of participants were mostly interested in learning how to effectively learn a foreign language. The other half of participants reported being most curious about learning about themselves as bi/multilinguals, (re)learning a language used in childhood, learning how to bring up a child as a bi/multilingual or learning about people who speak multiple languages (distributed about evenly). Participants’ comments about advantages and disadvantages of being bilingual remained relatively stable but their agreement with common myths about bilingualism and language learning changed from the pre- to the post-course survey. Students’ reflections in the autobiographical narratives and comments in (institutionally administered) anonymous course evaluations provided additional data on students’ concerns about their current language skills and uses as well as their perceptions about learning outcomes and the usefulness of the general education course for their current and future lives. It is hoped that the presented findings and discussion will spark interest among colleagues in offering similar courses as a resource for college students (and possibly other audiences), including those from migrant, indigenous, multilingual, and multicultural communities to contribute to a more harmonious bilingualism and well-being of college students who are or inspire to become bi-or multilingual.

Keywords: autobiographic narratives, general education university course, harmonious bilingualism and well-being, multilingualism, questionnaire study

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Authors: Alireza Saviz, Sedigheh Zarei

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Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is an integral part of an open and effective international economic system and a major catalyst to development. Developing countries, emerging economies and countries in transition have come increasingly to see FDI as a source of economic development modernization, income growth and employment. FDI is an important vehicle for the transfer of technology, contributing relatively more to growth than domestic investment. Exploratory research is being conducted here. The data for the study is collected from secondary sources like research papers, journals, websites and reports. This paper aim was to generate knowledge on Iran’s situation through these factors after lifting sanction in comparison to Turkey. Although the most important factors that influence foreign investor decisions vary depending on the countries, sectors, years, and the objective of investor, nowadays governments should pay more attention to human resources education, marketing, infrastructure and administrative process in order to attracting foreign investors. A proper understanding of these findings will help governments to create appropriate policies in order to encourage more foreign investors

Keywords: foreign direct investment, host country, competitive advantage, FDI

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Authors: E. Elgohary, R. Abdelazyz

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The research aims to clarify the effect of the marketing culture on improving the e-service quality for foreign and domestic information technology companies in the Arab Republic of Egypt. So the researcher sought to include the dimensions of the marketing culture, which are (customer service, management style, sales mission, internal communications, technology, wages and rewards, innovation) as measures of marketing culture for its effect on improving the e-service quality in this research. The research population consists of employees and customers of the companies under study. The research problem was the following question: What is the effect of the actual application of marketing culture on improving the e-service quality? To answer that, three main hypotheses were adopted, and they were tested by statistical means for the data collected through a questionnaire prepared and distributed for this purpose. Accordingly, the research presented a set of results, the most important of which are: the need to pay attention to the dimensions of the marketing culture to improve the e-service quality, foreign companies were the most popular companies in applying the marketing culture compared to local companies. The research also recommends designing a system to continuously measure the performance of electronic service providers and work on spreading the culture of innovation among employees, linking reward programs to the extent of commitment to applying the elements of marketing culture while doing business.

Keywords: marketing culture, e-service quality, measurement models, quality measurements

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Authors: Saira Tajdar, Sajad Ahmad

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The pharmaceutical market of Pakistan showed a mixed trend since 1947. In these six decades various local and foreign pharmaceutical companies entered the market with their highly researched based formulas and brands for various diseases. It also created a very competitive market between local and foreign companies and brands. But this intense competition does not clear the picture that whether the customers (Doctors) are preferring/prescribing foreign or local brands more frequently. Previous research has been done in various markets for different brands that whether the customers in that industry prefer foreign or local brands. However, the pharmaceutical industry in this regard has been ignored by the researchers. Generally people don't know that for prescription brands of medicines what the preferences of customers (Doctors) are. Therefore, this study is conducted in two departments of Pharmaceutical industry by selecting the top recommended formulas in those departments that for those formulas whether the customers (Doctors) are prescribing either foreign brands or local brands. Secondary data has been collected from previous studies on the country of origin (COO), ethnocentrism and factors influencing brands preferences from authentic sources. Primary data was also collected through 100 self administered questionnaires from top five hospitals of Peshawar. The results of the study were analyzed through SPSS which shows that in some categories of pharmaceutical products the COO is very important but not for all.

Keywords: customer prescription, country of origin, empirical study, foreign versus local brands, pharmaceutical industry, Pakistan

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Authors: Shereen Yehia El Ezabi

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The transition from the advanced to the superior level of Arabic proficiency is widely known to pose considerable challenges for English speaking students of Arabic as a Foreign Language (AFL). Apart from the increasing complexity of the grammar at this juncture, together with the sprawling vocabulary, to name but two of those challenges, there is also the somewhat less studied hurdle along the way to superior level proficiency, namely, the seeming opacity of many aspects of Arab/ic culture to such learners. This presentation tackles one specific dimension of such issues: religious references in literary texts. It illustrates how carefully constructed translation activities may be used to expand and deepen students’ understanding and use of them. This is shown to be vital for making the leap to the desired competency, given that such elements, as reflected in customs, traditions, institutions, worldviews, and formulaic expressions lie at the very core of Arabic culture and, as such, pervade all modes and levels of Arabic discourse. A short story from the collection “Stories from Our Alley”, by preeminent novelist Naguib Mahfouz is selected for use in this context, being particularly replete with such religious references, of which religious expressions will form the focus of the presentation. As a miniature literary work, it provides an organic whole, so to speak, within which to explore with the class the most precise denotation, as well as the subtlest connotation of each expression in an effort to reach the ‘best’ English rendering. The term ‘best’ refers to approximating the meaning in its full complexity from the source text, in this case Arabic, to the target text, English, according to the concept of equivalence in translation theory. The presentation will show how such a process generates the sort of thorough discussion and close text analysis which allows students to gain valuable insight into this central idiom of Arabic. A variety of translation methods will be highlighted, gleaned from the presenter’s extensive work with advanced/superior students in the Center for Arabic Study Abroad (CASA) program at the American University in Cairo. These begin with the literal rendering of expressions, with the purpose of reinforcing vocabulary learning and practicing the rules of derivational morphology as they form each word, since the larger context remains that of an AFL class, as opposed to a translation skills program. However, departures from the literal approach are subsequently explored by degrees, moving along the spectrum of functional and pragmatic freer translations in order to transmit the ‘real’ meaning in readable English to the target audience- no matter how culture/religion specific the expression- while remaining faithful to the original. Samples from students’ work pre and post discussion will be shared, demonstrating how class consensus is formed as to the final English rendering, proposed as the closest match to the Arabic, and shown to be the result of the above activities. Finally, a few examples of translation work which students have gone on to publish will be shared to corroborate the effectiveness of this teaching practice.

Keywords: superior level proficiency in Arabic as a foreign language, teaching Arabic as a foreign language, teaching idiomatic expressions, translation in foreign language teaching

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Authors: Adel Ben Mohamed

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The widespread use of the English language around the world has pushed many countries to consider such a language as a top priority in their educational system. One of these countries is the Sultanate of Oman. In this frame, the Omani government has allocated huge budgets as well as resources in order to implement the English language in its education system. The importance of English is prevalent in Oman. This is clearly noticeable through remarkable signs. For instance, most of the official documents in Oman are in both Arabic (the mother tongue) or English. In addition to that, there is a mushroom of English language institutes all over the country. In 2020, there are over fourteen English language institutes and centers in Oman (esl base, 2020). Moreover, these days most of the Omani parents are sending their children for tuition to learn the English language. Hence, it is apparent that the Sultanate of Oman is giving a great value to the importance of English in attaining various goals. However, in the world of work, what is more, important today is fluency rather than accuracy. Therefore, many people go for communication English rather than technical English. For example, Oman Daily Observer newspaper published a job advertisement of a sale assistant on 23rd of November 2020, recommended that speaking very well English is a must to be hired for the position (Oman Observer, 2020). In line with this and because of the great importance of the English language in Oman, the ministry of higher education has placed much emphasis on this official foreign language. Therefore, in the Omani educational system, all post -secondary students must sit for one year in one of the higher education institutions as a General Foundation Programmes (GFP) prior to moving to their respective majors in diploma level. Accordingly, the implementation of any teaching approach is determined by different factors: some are directly linked to teachers while others are related to organizational variables.

Keywords: teaching approaches, communicative, ability, investigating

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Authors: Narender Banwala

Abstract:

The study critically evaluates that the politics of foreign aid and its effect on Afghanistan. The study argues that dynamics of foreign aid to Afghanistan are not driven solely by the Afghan political, social, and economic realities but much more by the ephemeral political goals of international donor countries. The objective of this paper is to find out the political reality of foreign aid given to Afghanistan in a post 9/11 era. The study analyses the gap between the donor countries' interests and the Afghan government's priorities in aid coordination and management. The aid given to Afghanistan has been accompanied by the political interests of the major powers and therefore violated the core principles of humanitarianism, i.e., humanity, impartiality, neutrality, and independence. This research attempts to explain the areas which are of high priority, extremely vulnerable, and have been a neglected part since 2001. The study focuses on how as a result of politicization, foreign aid could not yield the expected results even after prolong presence of international donors in Afghanistan. Methodologically, the study includes both qualitative and quantitative data, which are collected by interviews with government officials and other government documents.

Keywords: Afganistan, aid, politics, security

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Authors: S. Wietrzychowski

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This systematic review incorporates concepts used in the field of positive psychology in order to integrate important elements into suicide prevention programs for children and adolescents. The goal of this review is to help students and professionals gain insight to available prevention programs for suicide and to incorporate aspects of positive psychology into these programs. Evidence-based interventions such as Positive Youth Development will be discussed in detail in its relation to prevention and positive psychology. Concepts such as hope, optimism, coping, and resilience will be related to these interventions in order to improve these interventions. The review will also explain how these programs can help prevent suicidal thoughts and/or behaviors. Research on mentorship programs and early intervention programs will be included and related to the aforementioned positive psychology concepts. Since children and adolescents are such a vulnerable population, the review will highlight specific considerations for working with children in order to prevent risk factors for suicide and to build protective factors. This review will discuss the effectiveness of school-based programs that are integrated with positive psychology. Elements of these programs that have been shown to be most effective in preventing suicide in schools will also be identified. As a result of this presentation, participants will be able to 1) List at least 2 evidence-based suicide prevention programs, 2) Understand the connection between specific positive psychology concepts and suicide prevention, 3) Identify at least 3 factors which protect against suicide, 4) Describe at least 3 risk factors for suicide, and 5) Think critically about the positive elements of suicide prevention programs.

Keywords: children, adolescents, suicide, positive

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