Search results for: o' level English

Authors: Hatice Yildirim

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This study is an investigation into ‘The role of teaching assistants (TAs) for deaf pupils in an English primary school’, in order not only to contribute to the education of deaf pupils but also contribute to the literature, in which there has been a lack of attention paid to the role of TAs for deaf pupils. With this in mind, the research design was planned based on using a case study as a qualitative research approach in order to have a deep and first-hand understanding of the case for ‘the role of TAs for deaf pupils’ in a real-life context. 12 semi-structured classroom observations and six semi-structured interviews were carried out with four TAs and two teachers in one English mainstream primary school. The data analysis followed a thematic analysis framework. The results indicated that TAs are utilised based on a one-on-one support model and are deployed under the class teacher in the classroom. Out of the classroom activities are carried out in small groups with the agreement of the TAs and the class teacher, as per the policy of the school. Due to the one-on-one TA support model, the study pointed out the seven different roles carried out by TAs in the education of deaf pupils in an English mainstream primary school. While supporting deaf pupils academically and socially are the main roles of TAs, they also support deaf pupils by recording their progress, communicating with their parents, taking on a pastoral care role, tutoring them in additional support lessons, and raising awareness of deaf pupils’ issues.

Keywords: deaf, mainstream, teaching assistant, teaching assistant's roles

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Authors: Jennifer De Paola

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Objectives: The literature is saturated with figures and hard data on happiness and its rates, causes and effects at a large scale, whereas very little is known about the way specific groups of people within societies understand and talk about happiness in their everyday life. The present study contributes to fill this gap in the happiness research by analyzing social representations of happiness among young women through the theoretical frame provided by Moscovici’s Social Representation Theory. Methods: Participants were (N= 351) female students (16-18 year olds) from Finnish, Swedish and English speaking high schools in the Helsinki region, Finland. Main source of data collection were word associations using the stimulus word ‘happiness’ and word associations using as stimulus the term that in the participants’ opinion represents the opposite of happiness. The allowed number of associations was five per stimulus word (10 associations per participant). In total, the 351 participants produced 6973 associations with the two stimulus words given: 3500 (50,19%) associations with ‘happiness’ and 3473 (49,81%) associations with ‘opposite of happiness’. The associations produced were analyzed qualitatively to identify associations with similar meaning and then coded combining similar associations in larger categories. Results: In total, 33 categories were identified respectively for the stimulus word ‘happiness’ and for the stimulus word ‘opposite of happiness’. In general terms, the 33 categories identified for ‘happiness’ included associations regarding relationships with key people considered important, such as ‘family’, abstract concepts such as meaningful life, success and moral values as well as more mundane and hedonic elements like food, pleasure and fun. Similarly, the 33 categories emerged for ‘opposite of happiness’ included relationship problems and arguments, negative feelings such as sadness, depression, stress as well as more concrete issues such as financial problems. Participants were also asked to rate their own level of happiness on a scale from 1 to 10. Results indicated the mean of the self-rated level of happiness was 7,93 (the range varied from 1 to 10; SD = 1, 50). Participants’ responses were further divided into three different groups according to the self-rated level of happiness: group 1 (level 10-9), group 2 (level 8-6), and group 3 (level 5 and lower) in order to investigate the way the categories mentioned above were distributed among the different groups. Preliminary results show that the category ‘family’ is associated with higher level of happiness, whereas its presence gradually decreases among the participants with a lower level of happiness. Moreover, the category ‘depression’ seems to be mainly present among participants in group 3, whereas the category ‘sadness’ is mainly present among participants with higher level of happiness. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study indicates the prevalent ways of thinking about happiness and its opposite among young female students, suggesting that representations varied to some extent depending on the happiness level of the participants. This study contributes to bringing new knowledge as it considers happiness as a holistic state, thus going beyond the literature that so far has too often viewed happiness as a mere unidimensional spectrum.

Keywords: female, happiness, social representations, unhappiness

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Authors: Lisa Naudine Parrock, Geoffrey Lautenbach

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The changes brought to society by the technological development in the Fourth Industrial Revolution are also reaching the sphere of education and the education system needs to respond. Students need skills such as communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking in order to be successful in the 21st Century, which could be developed through the meaningful use of technology. This study is theorized by the 21st Century Framework for Learning and examines the student perceptions of grade 10 and 11 English Home language learners on how the technology used in their English classroom contributes to the development of 21st Century skills. The researcher adopted a constructivist paradigm and presented findings based on a general qualitative method. The study found that students perceived the use of technology in the classroom positively contributed to their development of communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. Students also perceived technology as contributing to their access to information, a positive classroom atmosphere, heightened engagement in learning and developing skills necessary for their future. In addition, this study highlighted certain pedagogical strategies and digital tools that support the development of 21st Century skills. The findings suggest that the meaningful integration of technology fosters the development of 21st Century skills in grade 10 and 11 learners.

Keywords: educational technology, 21st century skills, fourth industrial revolution, affordances of technology

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Authors: M. Leonora D. Guerrero

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The study attempted to uncover the most and least frequent phonological variation evident in the speech patterns of grade 1 teachers in select public elementary schools in the Philippines. It also determined the lectal description of the participants based on Tayao’s consonant charts for American and Philippine English. Descriptive method was utilized. A total of 24 grade 1 teachers participated in the study. The instrument used was word list. Each column in the word list is represented by words with the target consonant phonemes: labiodental fricatives f/ and /v/ and lingua-alveolar fricative /z/. These phonemes were in the initial, medial, and final positions, respectively. Findings of the study revealed that the most frequent variation happened when the participants read words with /z/ in the final position while the least frequent variation happened when the participants read words with /z/ in the initial position. The study likewise proved that the grade 1 teachers exhibited the segmental features of both the mesolect and basilect. Based on these results, it is suggested that teachers of English in the Philippines must aspire to manifest the features of the mesolect, if not, the acrolect since it is expected of the academicians not to be displaying the phonological features of the acrolects since this variety is only used by the 'uneducated.' This is especially so with grade 1 teachers who are often mimicked by their students who classify their speech as the 'standard.'

Keywords: consonant phonemes, lectal description, Philippine English, phonological variation

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Authors: Michelle Bulawan, Mei-Hua Chen

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Reading comprehension is crucial for acquiring information, analyzing critically, and achieving academic proficiency. However, there is a lack of growth in reading comprehension skills beyond fourth grade. The developmental shift from "learning to read" to "reading to learn" occurs around this stage. Factual knowledge and diverse views in articles enhance reading comprehension abilities. Nevertheless, some face difficulties due to evolving textual requirements, such as expanding vocabulary and using longer, more complex terminology. Most research on reading strategies has been conducted at the tertiary and secondary levels, while few have focused on the elementary levels. Furthermore, the use of character, ask, problem, solution (CAPS) charts in teaching reading has also been hardly explored. Thus, the researcher decided to explore the facilitation of active reading strategies through the CAPS chart and address the following research questions: a) What differences existed in elementary EFL learners' reading competency among those who engaged in active reading strategies and those who did not? b) What are the learners’ metacognitive skills of those who engage in active reading strategies and those who do not, and what are their effects on their reading competency? c) For those participants who engage in active reading activities, what are their perceptions about incorporating active reading activities into their English classroom learning? Two groups of elementary EFL learners, each with 18 students of the same level of English proficiency, participated in this study. Group A served as the control group, while Group B served as the experimental group. Two teachers also participated in this research; one of them was the researcher who handled the experimental group. The treatment lasts for one whole semester or seventeen weeks. In addition to the CAPS chart, the researcher also used the metacognitive awareness of reading strategy inventory (MARSI) and a ten-item, five-point Likert scale survey.

Keywords: active reading, EFL learners, metacognitive skills, reading competency, student’s perception

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Authors: Belaynesh Chekol, Numan Çelebi

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The main purpose of this work is to recognize individual characters extracted from natural scene images using scale invariant feature transform (SIFT) features as an input to K-nearest neighbor (KNN); a classification learner algorithm. For this task, 1,068 and 78 images of English alphabet characters taken from Chars74k data set is used to train and test the classifier respectively. For each character image, We have generated describing features by using SIFT algorithm. This set of features is fed to the learner so that it can recognize and label new images of English characters. Two types of KNN (fine KNN and weighted KNN) were trained and the resulted classification accuracy is 56.9% and 56.5% respectively. The training time taken was the same for both fine and weighted KNN.

Keywords: character recognition, KNN, natural scene image, SIFT

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Authors: Yi Gu

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The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu has been a bestseller Chinese Sci-Fi novel for years since 2008. The book was translated into English by Ken Liu in 2014 and won the prestigious 2015 science fiction and fantasy writing Hugo Award, drawing greater attention from wider international communities. The story exposes the horrors of the Chinese Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, in an intriguing narrative for readers at home and abroad. However, without the access to the source text, western readers may not be aware that the original Chinese version of the book is rich in gender-bias. Some Chinese scholars have applied feminist translation theories to their analysis on this book before, based on isolated selected, cherry-picking examples. Thus this paper aims to obtain a more thorough picture of how translators can cope with gender discrimination and reshape the gendered discourse from the source text, by systematically investigating the lexical and syntactic patterns in the translation of Liu’s entire book of 400 pages. The source text and the translation were downloaded into digital files, automatically aligned at paragraph level and then manually post-edited. They were then compiled into a parallel corpus of 114,629 English words and 204,145 Chinese characters using Sketch Engine. Gender-discrimination markers such as the overuse of ‘girl’ to describe an adult woman were searched in the source text, and the alignment made it possible to identify the strategies adopted by the translator to mitigate gender discrimination. The results provide a framework for translators to address gender bias. The study also shows how corpus methods can be used to further research in feminist translation and critical discourse analysis.

Keywords: corpus, discourse analysis, feminist translation, science fiction translation

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Authors: Theodorou Kyriaki, Ypsilantis George

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Vocabulary learning has attracted a lot of attention in recent years, contrary to the neglected part of the past. Along with the interest in finding successful vocabulary teaching strategies, many scholars focused on locating learning strategies used by language learners. As a result, more and more studies in the area of language pedagogy have been investigating the use of strategies in vocabulary learning by different types of learners. A common instrument in this field is the questionnaire, a tool of work that was enriched by questions involving current technology, and it was further implemented to a sample of 300 Greek students whose age varied from 9 and 17 years. Strategies located were grouped into the three categories of memory, cognitive, and compensatory type and associations between these dependent variables were investigated. In addition, relations between dependent and independent variables (such as age, sex, type of school, cultural background, and grade in English) were pursued to investigate the impact on strategy selection. Finally, results were compared to findings of other studies in the same field to contribute to a hypothesis of ethnic differences in strategy selection. Results initially discuss preferred strategies of all participants and further indicate that: a) technology affects strategy selection while b) differences between ethnic groups are not statistically significant. A number of successful strategies are presented, resulting from correlations of strategy selection and final school grade in English.

Keywords: acquisition of English, internet technology, research among Greek students, vocabulary learning strategies

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Authors: Umar Bello

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Literature has become an invaluable subject which has added a great value and contribution to the teaching of English language and the discovery of many other developed ideas. Literature produces an exhilarating impulse that imprints a lasting picture on the mind of a learner. Many researchers have devised various means and approaches to language Teaching methods which remain unconvinging and which yield little result, but it has remained unconvincing because it has only produced little results. Devicing a method that eliminates monotony and boredome to learners is a good factor that enhances students’ motivation to learning. In this sense, literature and language become unavoidable components that aid intellectual development. This study examines the indispensability of literature as a means of English Language teaching to secondary school classes. The researcher has developed many instructive activities which are believed will help students to improve their study in grammar and vocabulary. The researcher has used quasi-experimental approach using experimental group and control group to find out how literature enhances the students grammar as well as their vocabulary. The findings revealed a positive performance in the experimental group doing better than the control group using simple percentage. The results make it clear that literature allows learners to pay more attention and develop more interest to their studies. In giving a perspicacious linguistic development, literature therefore remains an essential tool for language teaching classrooms, thereby enhancing their grammatical and vocabulary usage.

Keywords: teaching vocabulary, integration, poetry, classroom

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Authors: A. T. Zaki

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The flipped classroom approach as a mode of blended learning was formally introduced to students of the English language modules at the British University in Egypt (BUE) at the start of the academic year 2015/2016. This paper aims to study the impact of the flipped classroom approach after three semesters of implementation. It will restrict itself to the examination of students’ achievement rates, student satisfaction, and how different student cohorts have benefited differently from the flipped practice. The paper concludes with recommendations of how the experience can be further developed.

Keywords: achievement rates, developmental experience, Egypt, flipped classroom, higher education, student cohorts, student satisfaction

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Authors: Faraj Alhamami

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The effects of classroom input through structured input activities have been addressing two main lines of inquiry: (1) measuring the effects of structured input activities as a possible causative factor of PI and (2) comparing structured input practice versus other types of instruction or no-training controls. This line of research, the main purpose of this classroom-based research, was to establish which type of activities is the most effective in processing instruction, whether it is the explicit information component and referential activities only or the explicit information component and affective activities only or a combination of the two. The instruments were: a) grammatical judgment task, b) Picture-cued task, and c) a translation task as pre-tests, post-tests and delayed post-tests seven weeks after the intervention. While testing is ongoing, preliminary results shows that the examination of participants' pre-test performance showed that all five groups - the processing instruction including both activities (RA), Traditional group (TI), Referential group (R), Affective group (A), and Control group - performed at a comparable chance or baseline level across the three outcome measures. However, at the post-test stage, the RA, TI, R, and A groups demonstrated significant improvement compared to the Control group in all tasks. Furthermore, significant difference was observed among PI groups (RA, R, and A) at post-test and delayed post-test on some of the tasks when compared to traditional group. Therefore, the findings suggest that the use of the sole application and/or the combination of the structured input activities has succeeded in helping Saudi learners of English make initial form-meaning connections and acquire RRCs in the short and the long term.

Keywords: input processing, processing instruction, MOGUL, structure input activities

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Authors: Monika Rezacova

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Radiation-induced breast changes are a consequence of radiotherapy toxicity over the breast tissues either related to targeted breast cancer treatment or other thoracic malignancies (eg. lung cancer). This study has created an overview of different changes and their pathophysiology. The main conditions included were skin thickening, interstitial oedema, fat necrosis, dystrophic calcifications, skin retractions, glandular atrophy, breast fibrosis and radiation induced breast cancer. This study has performed focused literature search through multiple databases including pubmed, medline and embase. The study has reviewed English as well as non English publications. As a result of the literature the study provides comprehensive overview of radiation-induced breast changes and their pathophysiology with small focus on new development and prevention.

Keywords: radiotherapy toxicity, breast tissue changes, breast cancer treatment, radiation-induced breast changes

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Authors: Insook Lee, Heeseung Choi, Kyung-Sook Bang, Sungjae Kim, Minkyung Song, Buhyun Lee

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Backgrounds: A clearer and comprehensive understanding of the effects of forest therapy on depression is needed for further refinements of forest therapy programs. The purpose of this study was to review the literature on forest therapy programs designed to decrease the level of depression among adults to evaluate current forest therapy programs. Methods: This literature review was conducted using various databases including PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycArticle, KISS, RISS, and DBpia to identify relevant studies published up to January 2016. The two authors independently screened the full text articles using the following criteria: 1) intervention studies assessing the effects of forest therapy on depression among healthy adults ages 18 and over; 2) including at least one control group or condition; 3) being peer-reviewed; and 4) being published either in English. The Scottish Intercollegiate Guideline Network (SIGN) measurement tool was used to assess the risk of bias in each trial. Results: After screening current literature, a total of 14 articles (English: 6, Korean: 8) were included in the present review. None of the studies used randomized controlled (RCT) study design and the sample size ranged from 11 to 300. Walking in the forest and experiencing the forest using the five senses was the key component of the forest therapy that was included in all studies. The majority of studies used one-time intervention that usually lasted a few hours or half-day. The most widely used measure for depression was Profile of Mood States (POMS). Most studies used self-reported, paper-and-pencil tests, and only 5 studies used both paper-and-pencil tests and physiological measures. Regarding the quality assessment based on the SIGN criteria, only 3 articles were rated ‘acceptable’ and the rest of the 14 articles were rated ‘low quality.’ Regardless of the diversity in format and contents of forest therapies, most studies showed a significant effect of forest therapy in curing depression. Discussions: This systematic review showed that forest therapy is one of the emerging and effective intervention approaches for decreasing the level of depression among adults. Limitations of the current programs identified from the review were as follows; 1) small sample size; 2) a lack of objective and comprehensive measures for depression; and 3) inadequate information about research process. Futures studies assessing the long-term effect of forest therapy on depression using rigorous study designs are needed.

Keywords: forest therapy, systematic review, depression, adult

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Authors: Mei-Hui Liu

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This study examines the effectiveness of a blended professional development program on preservice EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers’ learning to teach speech acts with the advent of Information and Communication Technology, researchers and scholars underscore the significance of integrating online and face-to-face learning opportunities in the teacher education field. Yet, a paucity of evidence has been documented to investigate the extent to which such a blended professional learning model may impact real classroom practice and student learning outcome. This yearlong project involves various stakeholders, including 25 preservice teachers, 5 English professionals, and 45 secondary school students. Multiple data sources collected are surveys, interviews, reflection journals, online discussion messages, artifacts, and discourse completion tests. Relying on the theoretical lenses of Community of Inquiry, data analysis depicts the nature and process of preservice teachers’ professional development in this blended learning community, which triggers and fosters both face-to-face and synchronous/asynchronous online interactions among preservice teachers and English professionals (i.e., university faculty and in-service teachers). Also included is the student learning outcome after preservice teachers put what they learn from the support community into instructional practice. Pedagogical implications and research suggestions are further provided based on the research findings and limitations.

Keywords: blended professional development, preservice EFL teachers, speech act instruction, student learning outcome

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Authors: Christopher Celozzi, Sarah Kochav

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Our research investigates the numerous challenges faced by Chinese ESL university students enrolled in the medical and related healthcare professional fields. The over-arching research question is how gender influences classroom participation and learning. The second research question addressed is 'what instructional strategies may be utilized to promote student participation and language acquisition?'. Participants’ language ability has been assessed and evaluated in order to facilitate the establishment of a statistical baseline for the subsequent intervention. This research delves deeper into each individual’s personal and academic circumstances, in an effort to reveal any held intrinsic gender beliefs and social identities that may influence learning. Also considered is the impact on learning for a homogenized student population within a uniform, highly structured learning environment. Specially, what is the influence of China’s ‘one-child policy’ on individual learning habits? The impact of their millennial identity and reliance on social media is also examined. A qualitative methodology with a case study approach is employed, with interviews conducted among the participants. Student response to the intervention and selected remediation strategies are documented, analyzed and discussed. The findings of the study may serve to inform educator instructional practice, while advancing the student learner in their pursuit of English competency in highly competitive professions.

Keywords: Chinese students, gender, English, language acquisition

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Authors: Sophie Laurence, Catherine Rivard

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The assessment of acquired language disorders in the adult population, whether for a bilingual or monolingual adult, is a complex process that requires the speech-language pathologist (SLP) to make a judicious choice when selecting the assessment method and tools. However, this task is even more complex with Ontario's bilingual population due to the lack of linguistically and culturally appropriate tools for this population. Numerous researches examined language assessment of the pediatric bilingual population; however, few studies have focused on assessing acquired language disorders in bilingual adults. This study's main objective is to identify the challenges that SLPs encounter when assessing language in the bilingual English-French adult population in Ontario to ultimately be able to serve this population in the future better. An online questionnaire was made available to 1325 members of the College of Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists of Ontario (CASLPO) who work with the adult population. The answers to this questionnaire (n = 71) allowed us to identify the tools and strategies most commonly used by SLPs in current practice, identify the assessment challenges faced by SLPs, and determine the causes of these challenges as well as potential solutions. In an English and French assessment, the Western Aphasia Battery, the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia Examination, and the Boston Naming Test were the three tools that respondents deemed to be the most relevant for the assessment. Besides, the results revealed that limited access to SLPs and interpreters who speak the client's language and the lack of standardized and normalized assessment tools for Ontario's French-speaking and bilingual English-French clientele are at the heart of the challenges of current SLP practice. Consistent with these findings, respondents highlighted two potential solutions to address these challenges: SLPs have access to standardized/normalized tools for the population under study and better access to SLPs and interpreters who speak the client's language.

Keywords: assessment, acquired language disorders, bilingualism, speech-Language pathology, adult population

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Authors: Bahloul Amel

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This study is an attempt to raise the awareness of the stakeholders and the authorities on the sensitivity of Algerian secondary school teachers of English as a Foreign Language about the students’ loss of English language skills learned during formal schooling with effort and at expense and the supposed measures to arrest that loss. Data was collected from secondary school teachers of EFL and analyzed quantitatively using a questionnaire containing open-ended and close-ended questions. The results advocate a consensus about the need for actions to be adopted to make assessment techniques outcome-oriented. Most of the participants were in favor of including curricular activities involving contextualized learning, problem-solving learning critical self-awareness, self and peer-assisted learning, use of computers and internet so as to make learners autonomous.

Keywords: lifelong learning, EFL, contextualized learning, Algeria

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Authors: M. Irannezhad, E. H. N. Gashti, U. Moback, B. Kløve

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Climate change because of increases in concentration level of greenhouse gases emissions to the atmosphere will result in mean sea level rise about +1 m by 2100. To prevent coastal floods resulted from the sea level rising, different flood control structures have been built, e.g. the Thames barrier on the Thames River in London (UK), with acceptable protection levels at least so far. Gothenburg located on the southwest coast of Sweden, with the River Göta älv running through it, is one of vulnerable cities to the accelerated rises in mean sea level. Developing a water level model by MATLAB, we evaluated using a sea barrage in the Göta älv River as the flood control structure for protecting the Gothenburg city during this century. Considering three operational scenarios for two barriers in upstream and downstream, the highest sea level was estimated to + 2.95 m above the current mean sea level by 2100. To verify flood protection against such high sea levels, both barriers have to be closed. To prevent high water level in the River Göta älv reservoir, the barriers would be open when the sea level is low. The suggested flood control structures would successfully protect the city from flooding events during this century.

Keywords: climate change, flood control structures, gothenburg, sea level rising, water level mode

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Authors: Siamak Jamshidi

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The Caspian Sea is the Earth's largest inland body of water. One of the most important issues related to the sea is water level changes. For measuring and recording Caspian Sea water level, there are at least three gauges and radar equipment in Anzali, Nowshahr and Amirabad Ports along the southern boundary of the Caspian Sea. It seems that evaporation, hotter surface air temperature, and in general climate change is the main reasons for its water level fluctuations. Gorgan Bay in the eastern part of the southern boundary of the Caspian Sea is one of the areas under the effect of water level fluctuation. Based on the results of field measurements near the Gorgan Bay mouth temperature ranged between 24°C–28°C and salinity was about 13.5 PSU in midsummer while temperature changed between 10-11.5°C and salinity mostly was 15-16.5 PSU in mid-winter. The decrease of Caspian Sea water level and rivers outflow are the two most important factors for the increase in water salinity of the Gorgan Bay. Results of field observations showed that, due to atmospheric factors, climate changes and decreasing of precipitation over the southern basin of the Caspian Sea during last decades, the water level of bay was reduced around 0.5 m.

Keywords: Caspian Sea, Gorgan Bay, water level fluctuation, climate changes

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Authors: Francia Martinez

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This study documents and demonstrates the profound impact of the high status of American English and culture in Colombian commercial landscape due to the globalization and commodification of English. It also documents and describes how Colombian advertisers make use of various language and visual mechanisms in the commercial linguistic landscape to convey messages, create an image with which the target audience can identify, and build a relationship with that target audience. The data (in the form of pictures) were collected in different cities in Colombia and were classified and organized into different categories for the reliability and validity of the analysis. The research questions were: do the ubiquity and high status of American English and culture play a major role in the Colombian commercial linguistic landscape? If so, how?, what roles do national and local culture and language (Spanish) play in the commercial linguistic landscape?, and what different linguistic and visual strategies do Colombian advertisers employ to reach their target audience? Based on data analysis and results, American and local culture and icons play a major role when Colombian advertisers create and design their commercial logos and ads to get consumers’ attention and establish a rapport with them in a successful way. In order to achieve their objectives, Colombian advertisers rely on creative linguistic and visual techniques in their ads, such as puns, humor, irony, comparisons, metaphors, mocking, exaggeration, parody, personification, sarcasm, satire, allusion, onomatopoeias, and imitation (copycat or cloning).

Keywords: Colombian ads, linguistic landscape, rhetorical devices, sociolinguistics

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Authors: Mark Jason E. Arca, Jay Vee R. Linatoc, Rex Francis N. Lupango, Michael Joe A. Ramirez

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Participation promises an avenue for citizens to take part in governance, but it does not necessarily mean effective participation. The proper integration of participants in the decision-making process should be properly addressed to ensure effectiveness. This study explores the integration of the participants in the decision-making process to reveal the level of participation in the Solid Waste Management audit done by the Citizen Participatory Audit (CPA), a program under the supervision of the Commission on Audit. Specifically, this study will use the experience of participation to identify emerging themes that will help reveal the level of participation through the integrated ladder of participation. The researchers used key informant interviews to gather necessary data from the actors of the program. The findings revealed that the level of participation present in the CPA is at the Placation level, a level below the program’s targeted level of participation. The study also allowed the researchers to reveal facilitating factors in the program that contributed to a better understanding of the practice of participation.

Keywords: citizen participation, culture of participation, ladder of participation, level of participation

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Authors: Gunay Imanguliyeva

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Burnout is one of the concerning issues in education. The present paper aimed to explore the concept of burnout among program directors and faculty working in three higher education institutions (HEIs) in Azerbaijan and identify the factors contributing to burnout and the possible consequences of this syndrome on research participants’ professional and personal life. The researcher believed that if the concept of burnout was defined precisely and explored among more faculty, administration, and educational institutions, university leadership may have looked for the ways to support program directors and faculty, which would increase job satisfaction and decrease turnover. An exploratory qualitative research design was chosen for this study. The conceptual framework of this study was based on the Maslach Burnout Inventory. The instruments of the research were semi-structured interviews, observation, and document review. Three EFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) instructors and three program directors of the English Language Department working in three higher educational institutions in Azerbaijan participated in this study. The major findings of this study showed that both program directors and faculty suffered from burnout. Though they were aware of the factors that caused burnout, they did not know how to deal with this feeling. While research participants had high feeling of Emotional Exhaustion and Depersonalization, they had a low feeling of Personal Accomplishment. The researcher suggests that further research is important to measure the level of burnout and to enable HEIs to increase the productivity of program directors’ and faculty’s work as well as decrease the rate of retention in future. Also, in order to help program directors and faculty to cope with burnout, the research recommends the university leadership to meet their psycho-social needs, emotional-physical needs, and personal-intellectual needs. Keywords: burnout, emotional exhaustion, factors, well-being, higher education

Keywords: burnout, well-being, higher education, factors

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Authors: Benyamin Ahmadnia, Javier Serrano

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In this paper we compare two different approaches for translating from Persian to Spanish, as a language pair with scarce parallel corpus. The first approach involves direct transfer using an statistical machine translation system, which is available for this language pair. The second approach involves translation through English, as a pivot language, which has more translation resources and more advanced translation systems available. The results show that, it is possible to achieve better translation quality using English as a pivot language in either approach outperforms direct translation from Persian to Spanish. Our best result is the pivot system which scores higher than direct translation by (1.12) BLEU points.

Keywords: statistical machine translation, direct translation approach, pivot language translation approach, parallel corpus

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Authors: Maaly Jarrah

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In a study abroad context, students have the advantage of immersing themselves in the environment of the target language and being exposed to it. However, in and a stay home context, where English is not the mother tongue, students’ exposure to the second language is often times restricted to the classroom. Although language teachers are keen to develop inside class room activities and practices that increase the suitability of students to acquire a second language (Cook & Singleton, 2014), many would agree that class time is too limited to enhance students’ oral fluency skills. Consequently, creating opportunities outside the classroom for students to speak English is an effective strategy in compensating for students’ limited use of the L2. In an argument by Ortega (2012) external classroom activities have equal significance in enabling students learn English as a second language. The author further asserts that the activities provide a non-educational environment from which a student may feel free and comfortable to acquire new language skills. This study investigates the significance of outside classroom activities in promoting students’ oral proficiency. In addition, it reports on students’ perceptions of such activities. 15 participants from the American University of Kuwait took part in this study. Open-ended interviews were done to find out what the participants thought of these activities, and what they gained from them. Interview results show that students found outside classroom activities very effective in improving not only their oral fluency skills, but their confidence and critical thinking skills as well. The implications of this research study are for language practitioners and language programs in the EFL context to be aware of the benefits of incorporating outside classroom activities in language teaching.

Keywords: language teaching, oral fluency, outside classroom activities

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Authors: Sara Fine-Meltzer

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An obvious, but ill-addressed hindrance to reading comprehension in academic English is poor vocabulary. Unfortunately, dealing with the problem is usually delayed until university entrance. It is the contention of this paper that the chore should be confronted much earlier and by using a very old-fashioned method. This presentation is accompanied by vocabulary lists for advanced level university students with explanations concerning the content and justification for the 500-word lists: how they change over time in accordance with evolving styles of academic writing. There are also sample quizzes and methods to ensure that the words are “absorbed” over time. There is a discussion of other vocabulary acquisition methods and conclusions drawn from the drawbacks of such methods. The paper concludes with the rationale for beginning the study of “academic” vocabulary earlier than is generally acceptable.

Keywords: academic vocabulary, old-fashioned methods, quizzes, vocabulary lists

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Authors: Binger Lu

Abstract:

It remains unclear whether second language (L2) speakers could use discourse context cues to predict upcoming information as native speakers do during online comprehension. Some researchers propose that L2 learners may have a reduced ability to generate predictions during discourse processing. At the same time, there is evidence that discourse-level cues are weighed more heavily in L2 processing than in L1. Previous studies showed that L1 prediction is sensitive to the global validity of predictive cues. The current study aims to explore whether and to what extent L2 learners can dynamically and strategically adjust their prediction in accord with the global validity of predictive cues in L2 discourse comprehension as native speakers do. In a self-paced reading experiment, Chinese native speakers (N=128), C-E bilinguals (N=128), and English native speakers (N=128) read high-predictable (e.g., Jimmy felt thirsty after running. He wanted to get some water from the refrigerator.) and low-predictable (e.g., Jimmy felt sick this morning. He wanted to get some water from the refrigerator.) discourses in two-sentence frames. The global validity of predictive cues was manipulated by varying the ratio of predictable (e.g., Bill stood at the door. He opened it with the key.) and unpredictable fillers (e.g., Bill stood at the door. He opened it with the card.), such that across conditions, the predictability of the final word of the fillers ranged from 100% to 0%. The dependent variable was reading time on the critical region (the target word and the following word), analyzed with linear mixed-effects models in R. C-E bilinguals showed reliable prediction across all validity conditions (β = -35.6 ms, SE = 7.74, t = -4.601, p< .001), and Chinese native speakers showed significant effect (β = -93.5 ms, SE = 7.82, t = -11.956, p< .001) in two of the four validity conditions (namely, the High-validity and MedLow conditions, where fillers ended with predictable words in 100% and 25% cases respectively), whereas English native speakers didn’t predict at all (β = -2.78 ms, SE = 7.60, t = -.365, p = .715). There was neither main effect (χ^²(3) = .256, p = .968) nor interaction (Predictability: Background: Validity, χ^²(3) = 1.229, p = .746; Predictability: Validity, χ^²(3) = 2.520, p = .472; Background: Validity, χ^²(3) = 1.281, p = .734) of Validity with speaker groups. The results suggest that prediction occurs in L2 discourse processing but to a much less extent in L1, witha significant effect in some conditions of L1 Chinese and anull effect in L1 English processing, consistent with the view that L2 speakers are more sensitive to discourse cues compared with L1 speakers. Additionally, the pattern of L1 and L2 predictive processing was not affected by the global validity of predictive cues. C-E bilinguals’ predictive processing could be partly transferred from their L1, as prior research showed that discourse information played a more significant role in L1 Chinese processing.

Keywords: bilingualism, discourse processing, global validity, prediction, self-paced reading

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Authors: Syrine Bassi

Abstract:

Sound symbolism has been able to give us an exciting new tool to target consumers’ brand perception. It acts on a subconscious level making them less likely to reject the implicit message delivered by the sound of the brand name. Most of the research conducted in the field was focused on the English language as it is the language used for international branding campaigns and global companies. However, more research is examining the sound symbolism in other languages and comparing it to the English language findings. Besides, researchers have been able to study luxury brand names and spot out the patterns used in them to provoke luxury and sophistication. It stands to a reason to connect the luxury brand names and the local language’s sound effects since a considerable number of these brands are promoting the origin of the Maison, therefore, have names in foreign languages. This study was established around the Hungarian luxury brand names. It aims to spot out the patterns used in these names that connect to the previous findings of luxury sound effects and also the differences. We worked with a non-Hungarian speaking sample who had some basic knowledge of the language just to make sure they were able to correctly pronounce the names. The results have shown both similarities and differences when it comes to perceiving luxury based on the brand name. As the Hungarian language can be qualified as a saturated language, consonant wise, it was easy to feed the luxury feeling only by using designers' names, however, some complicated names were too difficult and repulsive to consider as luxurious. On the other hand, oversimplifying some names did not convey the desired image as it was too simple and easy. Overall, some sounds have been proved to be linked to luxury as the literature suggests, the difficulty of pronunciation has also proved effective since it highlights the distant feeling consumers crave when looking for luxury. These results suggest that sound symbolism can set up an aura of luxury when used properly, leveraging each languages’ convenient assets.

Keywords: hungarian language, linguistics, luxury brands, sound symbolism

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Authors: Youmen Chaaban

Abstract:

The study examined the influence of a situated professional development program (PD) aimed at enhancing English language teachers’ knowledge and skills and improving their instructional practices. The PD model under examination was developed upon sound theoretical underpinnings, taking into consideration research-based principles of effective PD. However, the implementation of the PD model within several school contexts required further investigation from the perspectives of the teachers, who were receiving the PD activities, and the instructional coaches, who were providing them. The paper, thus, presents the results of a qualitative study examining the perceptions of seventeen English language teachers and nineteen instructional coaches about the strengths of the PD program, the challenges they faced in the implementation of the program, and their suggestions for the improvement of the program’s implementation and outcomes. Comparisons were further made between the two groups of participants to uncover agreements and contradictions in their perceptions. Data were collected from the teachers through in-depth interviews and observations, while the data collected from the instructional coaches were open-ended surveys followed by focus group interviews. The findings of the study confirm the necessity of structuring PD activities around sound theoretical underpinnings. However, practical considerations specific to the contexts where the PD activities take place should be considered when evaluating the PD’s effectiveness. Finally, the study provides several recommendations for maximizing the influence of the PD program on teachers’ practices and beliefs.

Keywords: English language teachers, situated professional development, teacher beliefs, teacher practices

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Authors: Renáta Nagy, Alexandra Csongor, Jon Marquette, Vilmos Warta

Abstract:

The presentation aims at eliciting insight into the results of ongoing research regarding evolving trends and attitudes towards online assessment of English for Medical Purposes. The focus pinpointsonline as one of the most trending formsavailable during the global pandemic. The study was first initiated in 2019 in which its main target was to reveal the intriguing question of students’ and assessors’ attitudes towards online assessment. The research questions the attitudes towards the latest trends, possible online task types, their advantagesand disadvantages through an in-depth experimental process currently undergoing implementation. Material and methods include surveys, needs and wants analysis, and thorough investigations regarding candidates’ and assessors’ attitudes towards online tests in the field of Medicine. The examined test tasks include various online tests drafted in both English and Hungarian by student volunteers at the Medical School of the University of Pécs, Hungary. Over 400 respondents from more than 28 countries participated in the survey, which gives us an international and intercultural insight into how students with different cultural and educational background deal with the evolving online world. The results show the pandemic’s impact, which brought the slumbering online world of assessing roaring alive, fully operational andnowbearsphenomenalrelevancein today’s global education. Undeniably, the results can be used as a perspective in a vast array of contents. The survey hypothesized the generation of the 21st century expect everything readily available online, however, questions whether they are ready for this challenge are lurking in the background.

Keywords: assessment, changes, english, ESP, online assessment, online, trends

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Authors: Nam Chol Yu, Kyong Il Chu

Abstract:

Using DLTS measurement techniques, we determined the dominant recombination center levels (defects of both A and B) in gold and platinum doped n-type silicon. Also, the injection and temperature dependence of the Shockley-Read-Hall (SRH) carrier lifetime was studied under low-level injection and high-level injection. Here measurements show that the dominant level under low-level injection located at EC-0.25eV(A) correlated to the Pt+G1 and the dominant level under high-level injection located at EC-0.54eV(B) correlated to the Au+G4. Finally, A and B are the same dominant levels for controlling the lifetime in gold-platinum doped n-silicon.

Keywords: recombination center level, lifetime, carrier lifetime control, gold, platinum, silicon

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