Search results for: speech act instruction

Authors: Orit Zeevy-Solovey

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Grammar has traditionally been taught for its own sake, emphasizing rules and drills. However, in recent years, more emphasis is given to communicative competence. Current research suggests that form-focused instruction is notably efficient when incorporated in a meaningful communicative context. It is maintained that writing tasks related to the students’ academic fields will encourage them to express themselves openly in topics that are close to their hearts, without feeling too uneasy about grammatical forms. The teacher can further reduce students’ apprehension of grammar by announcing that credit will be given for merely doing the task and that grammar mistakes will not affect the grade. Students’ linguistic errors can then be corrected by giving metalinguistic feedback which involves providing learners with some kind of explicit remark about the nature of the errors they have made. Research has also shown that learners’ developmental readiness is an important factor influencing the effectiveness of written corrective feedback. Larger effect sizes appear as the proficiency level is higher. The purposes of this paper are to demonstrate how grammar can be taught indirectly through writing tasks, and more specifically, how the use of metalinguistic written corrective feedback given to advanced English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students can raise their linguistic awareness. Since errors are not directly corrected, the students have to work out the corrections needed through exploring grammar books and websites. Longitudinal studies of metalinguistic written corrective feedback comparing the number of errors in students’ first and fourth compositions have shown a decrease in errors.

Keywords: EFL, linguistic awareness, metalinguistic corrective feedback, teaching grammar through writing

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Authors: Louisa Han Lin Tan, Poh Sim Kang, Wei Ming Loi, Susan Jane Rickard Liow

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The efficacy of music for improving speech and language has been shown across ages and diagnoses. Across the world, the wide range of therapy settings and increasing number of children diagnosed with special needs demand more cost and time effective service delivery. However, research exploring co-treatment models on children other than those with Autism Spectrum Disorder remains sparse. The aim of this research was to determine the efficacy of music for improving language in children with special needs, and generalizability of therapy effects. 25 children (7 to 12 years) were split into three groups – A, B and control. A cross-over design with direct therapy (storytelling) with or without music, and indirect therapy was applied with two therapy phases lasting 6 sessions each. Therapy targeted three prepositions in each phase. Baseline language abilities were assessed, with re-assessment after each phase. The introduction of music in therapy led to significantly greater improvement (p=.046, r=.53) in associated language abilities, with case studies showing greater effectiveness in developmentally appropriate target prepositions. However, improvements were not maintained once direct therapy ceased. As such, the incorporation of music could lead to greater efficiency and effectiveness of language therapy in children with special needs, but sustainability and generalizability of therapy effects both require further exploration.

Keywords: music, language therapy, children, special needs

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Authors: Nina Dzamashvili Fogelström

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This paper examines concepts of Game-Based Learning and Gamification. Conducted literature survey found an increased interest in the academia in these concepts, limited evidence of a positive effect on student motivation and academic performance, but also certain scepticism for adding games to traditional educational activities. A small-scale empirical study presented in this paper aims to evaluate student experience and usefulness of GameBased Learning and Gamification for a better understanding of the threshold concepts in software engineering project courses. The participants of the study were 22 second year students from bachelor’s program in software engineering at Blekinge Institute of Technology. As a part of the course instruction, the students were introduced to a digital game specifically designed to simulate agile software project. The game mechanics were designed as to allow manipulation of the agile concept of team velocity. After the application of the game, the students were surveyed to measure the degree of a perceived increase in understanding of the studied threshold concept. The students were also asked whether they would like to have games included in their education. The results show that majority of the students found the game helpful in increasing their understanding of the threshold concept. Most of the students have indicated that they would like to see games included in their education. These results are encouraging. Since the study was of small scale and based on convenience sampling, more studies in the area are recommended.

Keywords: agile development, gamification, game based learning, digital games, software engineering, threshold concepts

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Authors: Chau So Ling

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I.INTRODUCTION: Educators have always been interested in exploring factors that contribute to students’ academic success. It is beyond question that language, as a medium of instruction, will affect student learning. This paper tries to investigate whether language is a crucial factor in determining students’ achievement in their studies. II. BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY: The issue of using English as a medium of instruction in Hong Kong is a special topic because Hong Kong is a post-colonial and international city which a British colony. In such a specific language environment, researchers in the education field have always been interested in investigating students’ language proficiency and its relation to academic achievement and other related educational indicators such as motivation to learn, self-esteem, learning effectiveness, self-efficacy, etc. Along this line of thought, this study specifically focused on business education. III. METHODOLOGY: The methodology in this study involved two sequential stages, namely, a focus group interview and a data analysis. The whole study was directed towards both qualitative and quantitative aspects. The subjects of the study were divided into two groups. For the first group participating in the interview, a total of ten high school students were invited. They studied Business Studies, and their English standard was varied. The theme of the discussion was “Does English affect your learning and examination results of Business Studies?” The students were facilitated to discuss the extent to which English standard affected their learning of Business subjects and requested to rate the correlation between English and performance of Business Studies on a five-point scale. The second stage of the study involved another group of students. They were high school graduates who had taken the public examination for entering universities. A database containing their public examination results for different subjects has been obtained for the purpose of statistical analysis. Hypotheses were tested and evidence was obtained from the focus group interview to triangulate the findings. V. MAJOR FINDINGS AND CONCLUSION: By sharing of personal experience, the discussion of focus group interviews indicated that higher English standards could help the students achieve better learning and examination performance. In order to end the interview, the students were asked to indicate the correlation between English proficiency and performance of Business Studies on a five-point scale. With point one meant least correlated, ninety percent of the students gave point four for the correlation. The preliminary results illustrated that English plays an important role in students’ learning of Business Studies, or at least this was what the students perceived, which set the hypotheses for the study. After conducting the focus group interview, further evidence had to be gathered to support the hypotheses. The data analysis part tried to find out the relationship by correlating the students’ public examination results of Business Studies and levels of English standard. The results indicated a positive correlation between their English standard and Business Studies examination performance. In order to highlight the importance of the English language to the study of Business Studies, the correlation between the public examination results of other non-business subjects was also tested. Statistical results showed that language does play a role in affecting students’ performance in studying Business subjects than the other subjects. The explanation includes the dynamic subject nature, examination format and study requirements, the specialist language used, etc. Unlike Science and Geography, students in their learning process might find it more difficult to relate business concepts or terminologies to their own experience, and there are not many obvious physical or practical activities or visual aids to serve as evidence or experiments. It is well-researched in Hong Kong that English proficiency is a determinant of academic success. Other research studies verified such a notion. For example, research revealed that the more enriched the language experience, the better the cognitive performance in conceptual tasks. The ability to perform this kind of task is particularly important to students taking Business subjects. Another research was carried out in the UK, which was geared towards identifying and analyzing the reasons for underachievement across a cohort of GCSE students taking Business Studies. Results showed that weak language ability was the main barrier to raising students’ performance levels. It seemed that the interview result was successfully triangulated with data findings. Although education failure cannot be restricted to linguistic failure and language is just one of the variables to play in determining academic achievement, it is generally accepted that language does affect students’ academic performance. It is just a matter of extent. This paper provides recommendations for business educators on students’ language training and sheds light on more research possibilities in this area.

Keywords: academic performance, language, learning, medium of instruction

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Authors: Giuseppe Liverano

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Today’s school iscalledupon to take the lead role in supporting students towards the formation of conscious identity and a sense of responsible citizenship, through the development of key competencies for lifelong learning A rolethatrequiresit to be ready for change and to respond to the ever new needs of students, by adopting new pedagogical and didactic models and new didactic devices. Information and Communication Technologies, in this sense, reveal themselves to be usefulresourcesthatpermit to focus attention on the learning of eachindividualstudentunderstoodas a dynamic and relational process of constructing shared and participatedmeanings. The use of collaborative writing apps represents a democratic and shared knowledge way of constructionthroughICTs. It promotes the learning of reading-writing, literacy, and the development of transversal competencies in an inclusive perspective peer-to-peer comparison and reflectionthatstimulates the transfer of thought into speech and writing, the transformation of knowledge through a trialogicalapproach to learning generates enthusiasm and strengthensmotivationItrepresents a “different” way of expressing the training needs which come from several disciplinary fields of subjects with different cultures. The contribution aims to reflect on the formative value of collaborative writing through apps and analyse some proposals on line at school during the time of pandemic in order to highlight their critical aspects and pedagogical perspectives.

Keywords: collaborative writing, formative value, online, apps, pandemic

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Authors: Omotayo Abidemi Funmilayo

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Skill acquisition in professional fields has been prioritized and considered important to demonstrate the mastery of subject matter and present oneself as an expert in such profession. The ability to acquire skills in different fields, however calls for different method from the instructor or teacher during training. Music is not an exception of such profession, where there exist different area of skills acquisition require practical performance. This paper, however, focused on the impact and effects of different methods on acquisition of practical knowledge in the handling of some musical instruments among the students of Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo. In this study, 30 students were selected and divided into two groups based on the selected area of learning, further division were made on each of the two major groups to consist of five students each, to be trained using different methodology for two months and three hours per week. Comparison of skill acquired were made using standard research instrument at reliable level of significance, test were carried out on the thirty students considered for the study based on area of skill acquisition. The students that were trained on the keyboard and saxophone using play way method, followed by the students that were trained using demonstration method while the set of students that received teaching instruction through lecture method performed below average. In conclusion, the study reveals that ability to acquire professional skill on handling musical instruments are better enhanced using play way method.

Keywords: music education, skill acquisition, keyboard, saxophone

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Authors: Yesha Devi Mahadeo-Doorgakant

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The Mauritian landscape is well-known for its multilingualism with the daily interaction of the number of languages that are used in the island; namely Kreol Morisien, the European languages (English and French) and the Oriental/Asian languages (Hindi, Arabic/Urdu, Tamil, Telegu, Marathi, Mandarin, etc.). However, within Mauritius’ multilingual educational system, English is the official medium of instruction while French is taught as compulsory subject till upper secondary and oriental languages are offered as optional languages at primary level. Usually, Mauritians choose one oriental language based on their ethnic/religious identity, when they start their primary schooling as an additional language to learn. In January 2012, Kreol Morisien, which is the considered the language of daily interaction of the majority of Mauritians, was introduced as an optional subject at primary level, taught at the same time as the oriental languages. The introduction of Kreol Morisien has spurred linguistic debates about the issue of multilingualism within the curriculum. Taking this into account, researchers have started pondering on the multilingual educational system of the country and questioning whether the current language curriculum caters for the complex everyday linguistic reality of the multilingual Mauritian learner, given most learners are embedded within an environment where the different languages interact with each other daily. This paper, therefore, proposes translanguaging as being a more befitting theoretical lens through which the multilingualism and the linguistic repertoire of Mauritian learners’ can best be understood.

Keywords: multilingualism, translanguaging, multilingual learner, linguistic ethnography

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Authors: Oliver Kinnane, Aidan Reilly, John Grimes, Sara Pavia, Rosanne Walker

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Unwanted sound reflection can create acoustic discomfort and lead to problems of speech comprehensibility. Contemporary building techniques enable highly finished internal walls resulting in sound reflective surfaces. In contrast, sustainable construction materials using natural and vegetal materials, are often more porous and absorptive. Hemp shiv is used as an aggregate and when mixed with lime binder creates a low-embodied-energy concrete. Cement replacements such as ground granulated blast slag (GGBS), a byproduct of other industrial processes, are viewed as more sustainable alternatives to high-embodied-energy cement. Hemp concretes exhibit good hygrothermal performance. This has focused much research attention on them as natural and sustainable low-energy alternatives to standard concretes. A less explored benefit is the acoustic absorption capability of hemp-based concretes. This work investigates hemp-lime-GGBS concrete specifically, and shows that it exhibits high levels of sound absorption.

Keywords: hemp, hempcrete, acoustic absorption, GGBS

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Authors: R. Gautam, P. Sastha Kanagasabai, G. N. Rathna

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The proposed healthcare system enables quadriplegic patients, people with severe motor disabilities to send commands to electronic devices and monitor their vitals. The growth of Brain-Computer-Interface (BCI) has led to rapid development in 'assistive systems' for the disabled called 'assistive domotics'. Brain-Computer-Interface is capable of reading the brainwaves of an individual and analyse it to obtain some meaningful data. This processed data can be used to assist people having speech disorders and sometimes people with limited locomotion to communicate. In this Project, Emotiv EPOC Headset is used to obtain the electroencephalogram (EEG). The obtained data is processed to communicate pre-defined commands over the internet to the desired mobile phone user. Other Vital Information like the heartbeat, blood pressure, ECG and body temperature are monitored and uploaded to the server. Data analytics enables physicians to scan databases for a specific illness. The Data is processed in Intel Edison, system on chip (SoC). Patient metrics are displayed via Intel IoT Analytics cloud service.

Keywords: brain computer interface, Intel Edison, Emotiv EPOC, IoT analytics, electroencephalogram

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Authors: Abrar Hussain Qureshi

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Vocabulary has been highlighted as a key indicator in any foreign language learning program, especially English as a foreign language (EFL). It is often considered a potential tool in foreign language curriculum, and its deficiency impedes successful communication in the target language. The knowledge of the lexicon is very significant in getting communicative competence and performance. Nouns constitute a considerable bulk of English vocabulary. Rather, they are the bones of the English language and are the main semantic carrier in spoken and written discourse. As nouns dominate the bulk of the English lexicon, their role becomes all the more potential. The undertaken research is a systematic effort in this regard to work out a list of highly frequent list of Pakistani English nouns for the EFL learners at the secondary level. It will encourage autonomy for the EFL learners as well as will save their time. The corpus used for the research has been developed locally from leading English newspapers of Pakistan. Wordsmith Tools has been used to process the research data and to retrieve word list of frequent Pakistani English nouns. The retrieved list of core Pakistani English nouns is supposed to be useful for English language learners at the secondary level as it covers a wide range of speech events.

Keywords: corpus, EFL, frequency list, nouns

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Authors: R. W. Chan, Kan Kan Chan

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Augmented Reality (AR), with the affordance of bridging between real world and virtual world, brings users immersive experience. It has been applied in education gradually and even come into practice in student daily learning. However, a systematic review shows that there are limited researches in the area of vocabulary acquisition in early childhood education. Since kindergarten is a key stage where children acquire language and AR as an emerging and potential technology to support the vocabulary acquisition, this study aims to explore its value in in real classroom with teacher’s view. Participants were a class of 5 to 6 years old kids studying in a Macau school that follows Cambridge curriculum and emphasizes multicultural ethos. There were 11 boys, 13 girls, and in a total of 24 kids. They learnt animal vocabulary using mobile device and AR flashcards, IPad to scan AR flashcards and interact with pop-up virtual objects. In order to estimate the effectiveness of using Augmented Reality, children attended vocabulary pre-posttest. In addition, teacher interview was administrated after this learning activity to seek practitioner’s opinion towards this technology. For data analysis, paired samples t-test was utilized to measure the instructional effect based on the pre-posttest data. Result shows that Augmented Reality could significantly enhance children vocabulary learning with large effect size. Teachers indicated that children enjoyed the AR learning activity but clear instruction is needed. Suggestions for the future implementation of vocabulary acquisition using AR are suggested.

Keywords: augmented reality, kindergarten children, vocabulary learning, Macau

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Authors: Anna Amato

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Every child needs communication. If spoken language is not or not fully available due to congenital or acquired limitations, those affected need appropriate ways. These can be found in many possibilities of Augmentative and Alternative Communications (AAC). In the communication promotion of severely impaired children, who can use their own body communication forms only to a limited extent for the differentiated understanding, computers with eye control play an essential role. It takes some time to understand the individual forms of communication of the child. Children who depend on the AAC need competent support to learn to communicate in a motivated way in their everyday life. The aim of the present parents' survey (n = 4), which was evaluated descriptively, is to demonstrate the development of communicative abilities as well as the motivation to use complex communication aids with eye control by patients with atypical Rett Syndrome. An increase in communication skills, well-being, self-reliance, and self-esteem, an improvement in social participation, as well as a reduction in anger and screaming events, were noted. The complex visual communication tools were available daily for 3 out of 4 patients with atypical Rett Syndrome. It raises research questions regarding speech understanding and the ability to drive eye control technology in a larger group of atypical Rett Syndrome patients.

Keywords: augmentative and alternative communications, AAC, atypical Rett-syndrome, children, development

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Authors: Adam Patterson

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This study analyzes the self-reported experiences of virtual reality users to develop insight into an optimal learning path for education within virtual reality. This research uses a sample of 1000 observations to statistically define factors influencing (i) immersion level and (ii) motion sickness rating for virtual reality experience respondents of college age. This paper recommends an efficient duration for each virtual reality session, to minimize sickness and maximize engagement, utilizing modern machine learning methods such as association rules. The goal of this research, in augmentation with previous literature, is to inform logistical decisions relating to implementation of pilot instruction for virtual reality at the collegiate level. Future research will include a Randomized Control Trial (RCT) to quantify the effect of virtual reality education on student learning outcomes and engagement measures. Current research aims to maximize the treatment effect within the RCT by optimizing the learning benefits of virtual reality. Results suggest significant gender heterogeneity amongst likelihood of reporting motion sickness. Females are 1.7 times more likely, than males, to report high levels of motion sickness resulting from a virtual reality experience. Regarding duration, respondents were 1.29 times more likely to select the lowest level of motion sickness after an engagement lasting between 24.3 and 42 minutes. Conversely, respondents between 42 to 60 minutes were 1.2 times more likely to select the higher levels of motion sickness.

Keywords: applications and integration of e-education, practices and cases in e-education, systems and technologies in e-education, technology adoption and diffusion of e-learning

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Authors: Yu-Chi Chou

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The purpose of this study was to establish a logical path of an instructional model of empathy and social regulation, providing feasibility evidence on the model implementation in students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This newly developed Emotional Bug-Out Bag (BoB) curriculum was designed to enhance the empathy and socially shared regulation of students with ASD. The BoB model encompassed three instructional phases of basic theory lessons (BTL), action plan practices (APP), and final theory practices (FTP) during implementation. Besides, a learning flow (teacher-directed instruction, student self-directed problem-solving, group-based task completion, group-based reflection) was infused into the progress of instructional phases to deliberately promote the social regulatory process in group-working activities. A total of 23 junior high school students with ASD were implemented with the BoB curriculum. To examine the logical path for model implementation, data was collected from the participating students’ self-report scores on the learning nodes and understanding questions. Path analysis using structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized for analyzing scores on 10 learning nodes and 41 understanding questions through the three phases of the BoB model. Results showed (a) all participants progressed throughout the implementation of the BoB model, and (b) the models of learning nodes and phases were positive and significant as expected, confirming the hypothesized logic path of this curriculum.

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, empathy, regulation, socially shared regulation

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Authors: Fitria Ningsih

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This study concerns on the process of making corpus obtained from Indonesian year 4 students’ free writing compared to the vocabulary taught in English language textbooks. 369 students’ sample writings from 19 public elementary schools in Malang, East Java, Indonesia and 5 selected English textbooks were analyzed through corpus in linguistics method using AdTAT -the Adelaide Text Analysis Tool- program. The findings produced wordlists of the top 100 words most frequently used by students and the top 100 words given in English textbooks. There was a 45% match between the two lists. Furthermore, the classifications of the top 100 most frequent words from the two corpora based on part of speech found that both the Indonesian and English languages employed a similar use of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and prepositions. Moreover, to see the contextualizing the vocabulary of learning materials towards the students’ need, a depth-analysis dealing with the content and the cultural views from the vocabulary taught in the textbooks was discussed through the criteria developed from the checklist. Lastly, further suggestions are addressed to language teachers to understand the students’ background such as recognizing the basic words students acquire before teaching them new vocabulary in order to achieve successful learning of the target language.

Keywords: corpus, frequency, English, Indonesian, linguistics, textbooks, vocabulary, wordlists, writing

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Authors: Abiodun Ezekiel Adesina, Alice M. Olagunju

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This study determined the effects of Computer Assisted Instructions (CAI) and Academic Self-Concepts (ASC) on pre-service teachers’ achievement in AE concepts in CoE in Southwest, Nigeria. The study adopted pretest-posttest, control group, quasi-experimental design. Six CoE with e-library facilities were purposively selected. Two hundred and thirty-two intact 200 level Agricultural education students offering introduction to AE course across the six CoE were participants. The participants were assigned to three groups (D&PM, 77, TM, 73 and control, 82). Treatment lasted eight weeks. The AE achievement test (r=0.76), pre-service teachers’ ASC Scale (r=0.81); instructional guides for tutorial (r=0.76), drill and practice (r=0.81) and conventional lecture modes (r=0.83), and teacher performance assessment sheet were used for data collection. Data were analysed using analysis of covariance and Scheffe post-hoc at 0.05 level of significance. The participants were 55.6% female with mean age of 20.8 years. Treatment had significant main effects on pre-service teachers’ achievement (F(2,207)=60.52; η²=0.21; p < 0.05). Participants in D&PM (x̄ =27.83) had the best achievement compared to those in TM (x̄ =25.41) and control (x̄ =18.64) groups. ASC had significant main effect on pre-service teachers’ achievement (F(1,207)=22.011; η²=0.166; p < 0.05). Participants with high ASC (x̄ =27.52) had better achievement compared to those with low ASC (x̄ =22.37). The drill and practice and tutorial instructional modes enhanced students’ achievement in Agricultural Economics concepts. Therefore, the two instructional modes should be adopted for improved learning outcomes in agricultural economics concepts among pre-service teachers.

Keywords: achievement in agricultural economics concepts, colleges of education in southwestern Nigeria, computer-assisted instruction, drill and practice instructional mode, tutorial instructional mode

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Authors: Deepak Ganjiwale, Karthik Vishwanathan

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Objective: Splinting is a great domain of occupational therapy profession.Making a splint for the patient would depend upon the need or requirement of the problems and deformities. Swan neck deformity is not very common in finger it may occur after any disease. Conservative treatment of the swan neck deformity is available by using different static splints only. There are very few reports of surgical correction of swan-neck deformity in benign hypermobility syndrome. Method: This case report describes the result of surgical intervention and hand splint in a twenty year old lady with past history of cardiovascular stroke with no residual neurological deficit. She presented with correctable swan neck deformity and failed to improve with static ring splints to correct the deformity. She was noted to have hyperlaxity (EhlerDanlos type) as per modified Beighton’s score of 5/9. She underwent volar plate plication of the proximal interphalangeal joint of the left ring finger along with hemitenodesis of ulnar slip of flexor digitorum superficialis (FDS) tendon whereby, the ulnar slip of FDS was passed through a small surgically created rent in A2 pulley and sutured back to itself. Result: Postoperatively, the patient was referred to occupational therapy for splinting with the instruction that the splint would work some time for as static and some time as dynamic for positional and correction of the finger. Conclusion: After occupational therapy intervention and splinting, the patient had a full correction of the swan-neck deformity with near full flexion of the operated finger and is able to work independently.

Keywords: swan neck, finger, deformity, splint, hypermobility

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Authors: Tomyslav Sledevič, Artūras Serackis, Gintautas Tamulevičius, Dalius Navakauskas

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This paper presents a comparative evaluation of features extraction algorithm for a real-time isolated word recognition system based on FPGA. The Mel-frequency cepstral, linear frequency cepstral, linear predictive and their cepstral coefficients were implemented in hardware/software design. The proposed system was investigated in the speaker-dependent mode for 100 different Lithuanian words. The robustness of features extraction algorithms was tested recognizing the speech records at different signals to noise rates. The experiments on clean records show highest accuracy for Mel-frequency cepstral and linear frequency cepstral coefficients. For records with 15 dB signal to noise rate the linear predictive cepstral coefficients give best result. The hard and soft part of the system is clocked on 50 MHz and 100 MHz accordingly. For the classification purpose, the pipelined dynamic time warping core was implemented. The proposed word recognition system satisfies the real-time requirements and is suitable for applications in embedded systems.

Keywords: isolated word recognition, features extraction, MFCC, LFCC, LPCC, LPC, FPGA, DTW

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Authors: Tayaa Karima, Bouaziz Amina

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Today's world is knowledge-based; everything we do is somehow connected with technology which it has a remarkable influence on socio-cultural and economic developments, including educational settings. This type of technology is supported in many teaching/learning setting where the medium of instruction is through computer technology, and particularly involving digital technologies. There has been much debate over the use of computers and the internet in foreign language teaching for more than two decades. Various studies highlights that the integration of Information Communications Technology (ICT) in foreign language teaching will have positive effects on both the teachers and students to help them be aware of the modernized world and meet the current demands of the globalised world. Information and communication technology has been gradually integrated in foreign learning environment as a platform for providing learners with learning opportunities. Thus, the impact of ICT on language teaching and learning has been acknowledged globally, this is because of the fundamental role that it plays in the enhancement of teaching and learning quality, modify the pedagogical practice, and motivate learners. Due to ICT related developments, many Maghreb countries regard ICT as a tool for changes and innovations in education. Therefore, the ministry of education attempted to set up computer laboratories and provide internet connection in the schools. Investment in ICT for educational innovations and improvement purposes has been continuing the need of teacher who will employ it in the classroom as vital role of the curriculum. ICT does not have an educational value in itself, but it becomes precious when teachers use it in learning and teaching process. This paper examines the impacts of ICT on teacher development rather than on teaching quality and highlights some challenges facing using ICT in the language learning/teaching.

Keywords: information communications technology (ICT), integration, foreign language teaching, teacher development, learning opportunity

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Authors: Abdul-Razak Inusah

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The study is a cross-sectional investigation of issues in Dagbanli Phonology, a Mabia language spoken in the Northern Region of Ghana. The issues investigated and assessed for the purpose of Dagbanli phonology are the status of the velar fricatives [x, ɣ] and the flap [ɾ] across Dagbanli dialects. The ethnographic approach is employed to solicit the primary data from bucolic Dagbanli speech communities. The descriptive method is engaged for the analysis of the primary data available. The investigation reveals that the dialects have the velar fricatives [x, ɣ] confined to specific segmental contexts with a particular inventory stricture. The flap[ɾ] is noticed to occur mostly in intervocalic but entirely missing in Dagbanli indigenous words in word-initial. The velar fricatives [x, ɣ] and the flap[ɾ] are observed to be non-contrastive and only suffice as dialectal allophones in the language. The paper shows evidence of coalesce of non-coronal labial /m/ and coronal fricative /s/ to produce dorsal fricative [x] in intervocalic and coalesce of stem final stop /ɡ/ and suffix onset fricative /s/ to yield the dorsal fricative [x], a finding which shows the status of the segment [x] in Dagbanli phonology. The paper concludes that the segments [x], [ɣ] and [ɾ] are positional variants of /ɡ+s/ or /m+s/, /ɡ/ and /d/.

Keywords: Dagbani, phonology, dialect, segment, fricatives, coalesce

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Authors: Ashwag O. Maghraby, Nida N. Khan, Hosnia A. Ahmed, Ghufran N. Brohi, Hind F. Assouli, Jawaher S. Melibari

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The Arabic language is one of the most important languages. Learning it is so important for many people around the world because of its religious and economic importance and the real challenge lies in practicing it without grammatical or syntactical mistakes. This research focused on detecting and correcting the syntactic mistakes of Arabic syntax according to their position in the sentence and focused on two of the main syntactical rules in Arabic: Dual and Plural. It analyzes each sentence in the text, using Stanford CoreNLP morphological analyzer and machine-learning approach in order to detect the syntactical mistakes and then correct it. A prototype of the proposed system was implemented and evaluated. It uses support vector machine (SVM) algorithm to detect Arabic grammatical errors and correct them using the rule-based approach. The prototype system has a far accuracy 81%. In general, it shows a set of useful grammatical suggestions that the user may forget about while writing due to lack of familiarity with grammar or as a result of the speed of writing such as alerting the user when using a plural term to indicate one person.

Keywords: Arabic language acquisition and learning, natural language processing, morphological analyzer, part-of-speech

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Authors: Armel Mbon

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This paper examines the ‘success’ of George Bernard Shaw's main character Professor Higgins' motivation in teaching Eliza Doolittle, a young Cockney flower girl, how to speak 'correct' English in no time in Pygmalion. Notice should be given that Shaw in whose writings, language issues feature prominently, does not believe there is such a thing as perfectly correct English, but believes in the varieties of spoken English as a source of its richness. Indeed, along with his fellow phonetician Colonel Pickering, Henry Higgins succeeds in teaching Eliza that he first judges unfairly, the dialect of the upper classes and Received Pronunciation, to facilitate her social advancement. So, after six months of rigorous learning, Eliza's speech and manners are transformed, and she is able to pass herself off as a lady. Such is the success of Professor Higgins’ motivation in linguistically transforming his learner in record time. On the other side, his motivation is unsuccessful since, by the end of the play, he cannot have Eliza he believes he has shaped to his so-called good image, for wife. So, this paper aims to show, in support of the psychological approach, that in motivation, feelings, pride and prejudice cannot be combined, and that one has not to pre-judge someone’s attitude based purely on how well they speak English.

Keywords: teaching, speak, in no time, success

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Authors: Kaine Gulozer

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A strong methodological conception in the practice of teaching, content, and language integrated learning (CLIL) is adapted to boost efficiency in the second language (L2) instruction with a range of proficiency levels. This study aims to investigate whether the incorporation of two different mediums of meaningful CLIL reading activities (in-school and out-of-school settings) influence L2 students’ development of comprehension skills differently. CLIL based instructional methodology was adopted and total of 50 preparatory year students (N=50, 25 students for each proficiency level) from two distinct language proficiency learners (elementary and intermediate) majoring in engineering faculties were recruited for the study. Both qualitative and quantitative methods through a post-test design were adopted. Data were collected through a questionnaire, a reading comprehension test and a semi-structured interview addressed to the two proficiency groups. The results show that both settings in relation to the development of reading comprehension are beneficial, whereas the impact of the reading activities conducted in school settings was higher at the elementary language level of students than that of the one conducted out-of-class settings based on the reported interview results. This study suggests that the incorporation of meaningful CLIL reading activities in both settings for both proficiency levels could create students’ self-awareness of their language learning process and the sense of ownership in successful improvements of field-specific reading comprehension. Further potential suggestions and implications of the study were discussed.

Keywords: content and language integrated learning, in-school setting, language proficiency, out-of-school setting, reading comprehension

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Authors: Amore Gerber, Gerrit Crafford

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This research paper explores the root causes of the shortage of professional electricians in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The primary objectives are to identify the underlying reasons contributing to this deficit, analyze the consequences of the shortage, and propose practical solutions to address this critical issue. The research employed an interpretivist paradigm and an inductive approach. Qualitative data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with professional electricians working in the Eastern Cape. Thematic analysis was used to identify common themes and comprehensively understand the issue. The analysis revealed that the shortage of electricians can be attributed primarily to training challenges and a lack of awareness within the industry. This shortage has significant repercussions, as it has led to the proliferation of unqualified electricians, exacerbating the problem. The study identified two key solutions to address this issue: promoting education and trade programs and transforming electrical instruction and education. The research was conducted in the Eastern Cape and reflects the viewpoints of professional electricians. Results may differ in other locations or where the effects are investigated from a client’s perspective. The research uncovers the root causes of the electrician shortage and offers valuable insights for devising effective solutions to address these challenges. This paper adds a significant dimension to the current literature gap. The study's findings underscore deficiencies in awareness and training as fundamental factors driving the shortage of electricians, emphasizing the urgent need to address these issues to bridge the gap.

Keywords: electrician shortage, skill gap, training, awareness

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Authors: Anjum Afrooze

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The curriculum at General Sciences department in Prince Sultan University includes ‘Physical science’ for Computer Science, Information Technology and Business courses. Students are apathetic towards Physical Science and question, as to, ‘How this course is related to their majors?’ English is not a native language for the students and also for many instructors. More than sixty percent of the students come from institutions where English is not the medium of instruction, which makes student learning and academic achievement challenging. After observing the less enthusiastic student cohort for two consecutive semesters, the instructor was keen to find effective strategies to enhance learning and further encourage deep learning by engaging students in different tasks to empower them with necessary skills and motivate them. This study is participatory action research, in which instructor designs effective tasks to engage students in their learning. The study is conducted through two semesters with a total of 200 students. The effectiveness of this approach is studied using questionnaire at the end of each semester and teacher observation. Major outcomes of this study were overall improvement in students attitude towards science learning, enhancement of multiple skills like note taking, problem solving, language proficiency and also fortifying confidence. This process transformed instructor into engaging and reflecting practitioner. Also, these strategies were implemented by other instructors teaching the course and proved effective in opening a path to changes in related areas of the course curriculum. However, refinement in the strategies could be done based on student evaluation and instructors observation.

Keywords: group activity, language proficiency, reasoning skills, science learning

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Authors: Jutta Ransmayr

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The German language is known to be one of the most varied and diverse languages in Europe. This variance in the standard language can be conceptualized using the pluricentric concept, which has been useful for describing the German language for more than three decades. Up to now, there have hardly been any well-founded studies of how Austrian teachers and pupils conceptualize the German language and how they view the varieties of German and especially Austrian German. The language attitudes and norms of German teachers are of particular interest in the normative, educational language-oriented school context. The teachers’ attitudes are, in turn, formative for the attitudes of the students, especially since Austrian German is an important element in the construction of Austrian national identity. The project 'Austrian German as a Language of Instruction and Education' dealt, among other things, with the attitude of language laypeople (pupils, n = 1253) and language experts (teachers, n = 164) towards the Austrian standard variety. It also aimed to find out to what extent external factors such as regional origin, age, education, or media use to influence these attitudes. It was examined whether language change phenomena can be determined and to what extent language change is in conflict with loyalty to variants. The study also focused on what norms prevail among German teachers, how they deal with standard language variation from a normative point of view, and to what extent they correct exonorm-oriented, as claimed in the literature. Methodologically, both quantitative (questionnaire survey) and qualitative methods were used (interviews with 21 teachers, 2 group discussions, and participatory observation of lessons in 7 school classes). The data were evaluated in terms of inference statistics and discourse analysis. This paper reports on the results of this project.

Keywords: Austrian German, language attitudes and linguistic identity, linguistic loyalty, teachers and students

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Authors: Claudio Loconsole, Daniele Leonardis, Antonio Brunetti, Gianpaolo Francesco Trotta, Nicholas Caporusso, Vitoantonio Bevilacqua

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Unfortunately, many people still do not have access to communication, with specific regard to reading and writing. Among them, people who are blind or visually impaired, have several difficulties in getting access to the world, compared to the sighted. Indeed, despite technology advancement and cost reduction, nowadays assistive devices are still expensive such as Braille-based input/output systems which enable reading and writing texts (e.g., personal notes, documents). As a consequence, assistive technology affordability is fundamental in supporting the visually impaired in communication, learning, and social inclusion. This, in turn, has serious consequences in terms of equal access to opportunities, freedom of expression, and actual and independent participation to a society designed for the sighted. Moreover, the visually impaired experience difficulties in recognizing objects and interacting with devices in any activities of daily living. It is not a case that Braille indications are commonly reported only on medicine boxes and elevator keypads. Several software applications for the automatic translation of written text into speech (e.g., Text-To-Speech - TTS) enable reading pieces of documents. However, apart from simple tasks, in many circumstances TTS software is not suitable for understanding very complicated pieces of text requiring to dwell more on specific portions (e.g., mathematical formulas or Greek text). In addition, the experience of reading\writing text is completely different both in terms of engagement, and from an educational perspective. Statistics on the employment rate of blind people show that learning to read and write provides the visually impaired with up to 80% more opportunities of finding a job. Especially in higher educational levels, where the ability to digest very complex text is key, accessibility and availability of Braille plays a fundamental role in reducing drop-out rate of the visually impaired, thus affecting the effectiveness of the constitutional right to get access to education. In this context, the Braille Lab project aims at overcoming these social needs by including affordability in designing and developing assistive tools for visually impaired people. In detail, our awarded project focuses on a technology innovation of the operation principle of existing assistive tools for the visually impaired leaving the Human-Machine Interface unchanged. This can result in a significant reduction of the production costs and consequently of tool selling prices, thus representing an important opportunity for social entrepreneurship. The first two assistive tools designed within the Braille Lab project following the proposed approach aims to provide the possibility to personally print documents and handouts and to read texts written in Braille using refreshable Braille display, respectively. The former, named ‘Braille Cartridge’, represents an alternative solution for printing in Braille and consists in the realization of an electronic-controlled dispenser printing (cartridge) which can be integrated within traditional ink-jet printers, in order to leverage the efficiency and cost of the device mechanical structure which are already being used. The latter, named ‘Braille Cursor’, is an innovative Braille display featuring a substantial technology innovation by means of a unique cursor virtualizing Braille cells, thus limiting the number of active pins needed for Braille characters.

Keywords: Human rights, social challenges and technology innovations, visually impaired, affordability, assistive tools

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Authors: Sadeq Al Yaari, Muhammad Alkhunayn, Ayman Al Yaari, Montaha Al Yaari, Aayah Al Yaari, Adham Al Yaari, Sajedah Al Yaari, Fatehi Eissa

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Stuttering is a multidimensional disorder that is influenced by different factors. As a result of their un-understanding of the genuine reasons behind stuttering, psychiatrists and Speech and Language Pathologists/Therapists (SLP/Ts) are often unfamiliar with the psychoneurolinguistic characteristics, support needs, and the disability measurement impacting requested rehabilitation of the stuttering population. PubMed, PsycInfo, Web of Science, Scopus, and Google scholar searches, in addition to some unpublished literature, were conducted in this Systematic Literature Review and Meta-analysis (SLR and Meta-analysis) to identify whether stuttering is caused by psychological or neurological reasons. The study concluded that psychological, not neurolinguistic factors were identified as most significant for the causality of childhood stuttering. Stutterers have intact language skills, but impaired ability more to communicate with others than to form letters in the brain or to articulate them. The study recommends research in the future that sheds light on the adult stuttering population often left out of the focus of diagnosis and in need of further exploration vis-a-vis issues they encounter, as well as the possible ways to deal with them psychoneurolinguistically.

Keywords: causality, childhood stuttering, psychology, neurolinguistics, systematic literature review, meta-analysis

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Authors: Nanyombi Lubimbi, Josette Niyokindi

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Background: As in many other developing countries in Africa, Rwanda suffers from a chronic shortage of skilled Health Care professionals including Clinical Instructors. This shortage negatively affects the clinical instruction quality therefore impacting student-learning outcomes. Due to poor clinical supervision, it is often noted that students have no structure or consistent guidance in their learning process. The Clinical Educators and the Rwandan counterparts identified the need to create a favorable environment for learning. Description: During orientation the expectations of the student learning process, collaboration of the clinical instructors with the nurses and Clinical Educators is outlined. The ward managers facilitate structured learning by helping the students identify a maximum of two patients using the school’s objectives to guide the appropriate selection of patients. Throughout the day, Clinical Educators with collaboration of Clinical Instructors when present conduct an ongoing assessment of learning and provide feedback to the students. Post-conference is provided once or twice a week to practice critical thinking skills of patient cases that they have been taking care of during the day. Lessons Learned: The students are found to be more confident with knowledge and skills gained during rotations. Clinical facility evaluations completed by students at the end of their rotations highlight the student’s satisfaction and recommendation for continuation of structured learning. Conclusion: Based on the satisfaction of both students and Clinical Instructors, we have identified need for structured learning during clinical rotations. We acknowledge that more evidence-based practice is necessary to effectively address the needs of nursing and midwifery students throughout the country.

Keywords: Rwanda, clinical rotation, structured learning, critical thinking skills, post-conference

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Authors: Hala Zaghloul, Taymoor Nazmy

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One of the great challenges of the 21st century is to build a robot that can perceive and act within its environment and communicate with people, while also exhibiting the cognitive capabilities that lead to performance like that of people. The Pulse Coupled Neural Network, PCNN, is a relative new ANN model that derived from a neural mammal model with a great potential in the area of image processing as well as target recognition, feature extraction, speech recognition, combinatorial optimization, compressed encoding. PCNN has unique feature among other types of neural network, which make it a candid to be an important approach for perceiving in cognitive systems. This work show and emphasis on the potentials of PCNN to perform different tasks related to image processing. The main drawback or the obstacle that prevent the direct implementation of such technique, is the need to find away to control the PCNN parameters toward perform a specific task. This paper will evaluate the performance of PCNN standard model for processing images with different properties, and select the important parameters that give a significant result, also, the approaches towards find a way for the adaptation of the PCNN parameters to perform a specific task.

Keywords: cognitive system, image processing, segmentation, PCNN kernels

Procedia PDF Downloads 262