Search results for: foreign language speaking anxiety

Authors: Okoh Chinasa, Asimuonye Augusta

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This study investigated the trends in language testing in Primary Schools in Rivers State. English language past question papers were collected from four (4) Primary Schools in Onelga Local Government Area and Ahoada East Local Government Area. Four research questions guided the study. The study is aimed at finding out the appropriateness of test formats used for language testing and the language skills tested. The past question papers collected which served as the instrument were analyzed based on given criteria developed by the researchers in line with documentary frequency studies, a type of survey study. The study revealed that some of the four language skills were not adequately assessed and that the termly question papers were developed by a central examination body. From the past questions, it was observed that an imbalance exists in the test format used. The paper recommended that all the language skills should be tested using correct test formats to ensure that pupils were given a fair chance to show what they know and can do in English language and for teachers to be able to use the test results for effective decision making.

Keywords: discrete test, integrative test, testing approach, test format

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Authors: Mirain Rhys, Kevin Smith

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In 2017, the Welsh Government introduced an ambitious, new strategy to increase the number of Welsh speakers in Wales to 1 million by 2050. The Welsh education system is a vitally important feature of this strategy. All children attending state schools in Wales learn Welsh as a second language until the age of 16 and are assessed at General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level. In 2013, a review of Welsh second language instruction in Key Stages 3 and 4 was completed. The report identified considerable gaps in teachers’ preparation and training for teaching Welsh; poor Welsh language ethos at many schools; and a general lack of resources to support the instruction of Welsh. Recommendations were made across a number of dimensions including curriculum content, pedagogical practice, and teacher assessment, training, and resources. With a new national curriculum currently in development, this study builds on this review and provides unprecedented detail into pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions of Welsh language instruction. The current research built on data taken from an existing capacity building research project on Welsh education, the Wales multi-cohort study (WMS). Quantitative data taken from WMS surveys with over 1200 pupils in schools in Wales indicated that Welsh language lessons were the least enjoyable subject among pupils. The current research aimed to unpick pupil experiences in order to add to the policy development context. To achieve this, forty-four pupils and four teachers in three schools from the larger WMS sample participated in focus groups. Participants from years 9, 11 and 13 who had indicated positive, negative and neutral attitudes towards the Welsh language in a previous WMS survey were selected. Questions were based on previous research exploring issues including, but not limited to pedagogy, policy, assessment, engagement and (teacher) training. A thematic analysis of the focus group recordings revealed that the majority of participants held positive views around keeping the language alive but did not want to take on responsibility for its maintenance. These views were almost entirely based on their experiences of learning Welsh at school, especially in relation to their perceived lack of choice and opinions around particular lesson strategies and assessment. Analysis of teacher interviews highlighted a distinct lack of resources (materials and staff alike) compared to modern foreign languages, which had a negative impact on student motivation and attitudes. Both staff and students indicated a need for more practical, oral language instruction which could lead to Welsh being used outside the classroom. The data corroborate many of the review’s previous findings, but what makes this research distinctive is the way in which pupils poignantly address generally misguided aims for Welsh language instruction, poor pedagogical practice and a general disconnect between Welsh instruction and its daily use in their lives. These findings emphasize the complexity of incorporating the educational sector in strategies for Welsh language maintenance and the complications arising from pedagogical training, support, and resources, as well as teacher and pupil perceptions of, and attitudes towards, teaching and learning Welsh.

Keywords: bilingual education, language maintenance, language revitalisation, minority languages, Wales

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Authors: Julia Gurol

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Why do we observe a shift towards convergence in EU-China security interests? While contradicting attitudes towards key principles of inter-state and region-to-state relations, including state sovereignty, territorial integrity, and intervention policies have ever since hindered EU-China inter-regional cooperation beyond the economic realm, collaboration in peace and security issues is now becoming a key pillar of European-Chinese relations. In addition, the Belt and Road Initiative as most ambitious Chinese foreign policy project explicitly touches upon several European foreign policy and security preferences. Based on these counterintuitive findings, this paper traces the process of convergence of Sino-European security interests. Drawing on qualitative text analysis of official Chinese and European policy papers and documents from the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1975 until today, it assesses the striking change over time. On this basis, the paper uses theories of neo-functionalism, inter-regionalism, and securitization and borrows from constructivist views in International Relations’ theory, to expound possible motives for the change in Chinese and respectively European preferences in the security realm. The results reveal interesting insights into the decisive factors and motives behind both countries’ foreign policies. The paper concludes with a discussion of further potential and difficulties of EU-China security cooperation.

Keywords: belt and road initiative, China, European Union, foreign policy, neo-functionalism, security

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Authors: Zohreh Bang Tavakoli, Shuktika Chatterjee

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This study investigates the fiscal policy impact on countries’ economic growth in developing countries with a different external debt level. The fiscal policy effectiveness has been re-emphasized in the global financial crisis of 2008 with the external debt as its new contemporary driver (Ruščáková and Semančíková, 2016). According to Bouakez, (2014 ) different theories have proposed the economic consequence of fiscal policy, specifically for developing countries. However, fiscal policy literature is lacking research regarding the fiscal policy’s effectiveness with the external debt’s contributions through comprehensive study (Canh, 2018). Also, according to scholars, high levels of external debt will influence economic growth. First, through foreign resources and channel of investment in which high level of debt decreases the amount of foreign investment in the developing countries. Second, through the deterioration of foreign investors and fiscal policies related to a high level of debt (Cordella, et.al., 2010). Therefore, this study proposed that only countries with a low external debt level and appropriate fiscal policies and good quality institutions can gain the proper quantity and quality of foreign investors, which will help the economic growth. For this, this research is examining the impact of fiscal policy on developing countries' economic growth in the situation of different external debt levels.

Keywords: fiscal policy, external debt, gross domestic product, developing countries

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Authors: Maria Tagarelli De Monte

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Since its formal recognition in 2021, Italian Sign Language (LIS) and interpreters’ education has become a topic for higher education in Italian universities. In April 2022, Italian universities have been invited to present their proposals to create sign language courses for interpreters’ training for both LIS and tactile LIS. As a result, a few universities have presented a three-year course leading candidate students from the introductory level to interpreters. In such a context, there is an open debate not only on the fact that three years may not be enough to prepare skillful interpreters but also on the need to refer to international standards in the definition of the training path to follow. Among these, are the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) for languages and Dublin’s descriptors. This contribution will discuss the potentials and the challenges given by LIS training in academic settings, by comparing traditional studies to the requests coming from universities. Particular attention will be given to the use of CEFR as a reference document for the Italian Sign Language Curriculum. Its use has given me the chance to reflect on how LIS can be taught in higher education, and the adaptations that need to be addressed to respect the visual-gestural nature of sign language and the formal requirements of academic settings.

Keywords: Italian sign language, higher education, sign language curriculum, interpreters education, CEFR

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Authors: Belyihun Muchie

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This study investigates the low English oral communication skills of 5 second-year English major students at Debark University. It aims to identify the key factors contributing to their weaknesses and propose effective interventions to improve their spoken English proficiency. Mixed-methods research will be employed, utilizing observations, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews to gather data from the participants. To clearly identify these factors, structured and informal observations will be employed; the former will be used to identify their fluency, pronunciation, vocabulary use, and grammar accuracy, and the later will be suited to observe the natural interactions and communication patterns of learners in the classroom setting. The questionnaires will assess their self-perceptions of their skills, perceived barriers to fluency, and preferred learning styles. Interviews will also delve deeper into their experiences and explore specific obstacles faced in oral communication. Data analysis will involve both quantitative and qualitative responses. The structured observation and questionnaire will be analyzed quantitatively, whereas the informal observation and interview transcripts will be analyzed thematically. Findings will be used to identify the major causes of low oral communication skills, such as limited vocabulary, grammatical errors, pronunciation difficulties, or lack of confidence. They are also helpful to develop targeted solutions addressing these causes, such as intensive pronunciation practice, conversation simulations, personalized feedback, or anxiety-reduction techniques. Finally, the findings will guide designing an intervention plan for implementation during the action research phase. The study's outcomes are expected to provide valuable insights into the challenges faced by English major students in developing oral communication skills, contribute to the development of evidence-based interventions for improving spoken English proficiency in similar contexts, and offer practical recommendations for English language instructors and curriculum developers to enhance student learning outcomes. By addressing the specific needs of these students and implementing tailored interventions, this research aims to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical speaking ability, equipping them with the confidence and skills to flourish in English communication settings.

Keywords: oral communication skills, mixed-methods, evidence-based interventions, spoken English proficiency

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Authors: Kuei-Hao Li, Eden Huang

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Motivation suggests the willingness one person has towards taking action. Learners’ motivation has frequently been regarded as the most crucial factor in successful language acquisition. Without sufficient motivation, learners cannot achieve long-term learning goals despite remarkable abilities. Therefore, the study aims to investigate motivation of interaction tasks designed by the researchers for college EFL learners in Travel English class in virtual reality environment, integrating CUE model, Cognition, Usage and Expansion in the course. Thirty college learners were asked to join the virtual language learning website designed by the researchers. Data was collected via feedback questionnaire, interview, and learner interactions. The findings indicated that the course in the CUE model in language learning website of virtual reality environment was effective at motivating EFL learners and improving their oral communication and social interactions in the learning process. Some pedagogical implications are also provided in helping both language instructors and EFL learners in virtual reality environment.

Keywords: motivation, virtual reality, virtual language learning, second language acquisition

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Authors: Ariyanti Mustapha

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The development of Islamic jurisprudence since the first century of hijra has fascinated many orientalists to explore the historiography of Islamic legislation. The practice of uÎËl fiqh began during the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad and was continued by the companions as the legal reasoning due to the absence of the legal injunction in the QurÉn and Sunnah. The orientalists propagated that the Roman and Jewish legislation were transplanted in Islamic jurisprudence and it was the primary reason for its progression. This article focuses on the analysis of foreign elements transplanted in the uÎËl fiqh as mentioned by Ignaz Goldziher and Joseph Schacht. They insisted the methodology of Sunna and IjtihÉd were authentically from Roman and Jewish legislation, known as Mishnah and Ha-Kol were invented and transplanted as the principles in uÎËl fiqh. The author used qualitative and comparative methods to analyze the orientalists’ views. The result showed that many erroneous facts were propagated by Goldziher and Schacht by claiming the parallels between the principles, methodologies, and fundamental concepts in uÎËl fiqh and Roman Provincial law. They insisted Sunna and IjtihÉd as an invention from the corpus of Jewish Mishnah and Ha-kol and further affirmed by Schacht that Islamic jurisprudence began in the second century of hijra. These judgments are used by the orientalists to prove the inferiority of Islamic jurisprudence. Nevertheless, many evidences has proven that Islamic legislation is capable of developing independently without any foreign transplant.

Keywords: foreign transplant, ijtihad, orientalist, USUL Fiqh

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Authors: Isaac Alonge Olusola

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One of the major peculiarities of man is the ability to communicate and interact with language. The original Yoruba society, before the advent of the Europeans, was purely oral. That is the major means of inter- personal communication was through speaking. The abolition of slave trade by Britain marked the beginning of development of Yoruba alphabet and introduction of writing around 1800. However, most of the writing was Christian religion-focused. Later, the introduction of British colonial rule led to the introduction of writing that dwelt on political and economic emancipation. On October 1, 1960, Nigeria was granted independence by the British colonial masters and self-rule started in Nigeria. Unfortunately, the military and civilian administrations brought about political and economic oppression instead of comfort. The discomfort brought about by Nigerian political and military rulers turned the Yoruba poets to activists, reactionaries and critics. This paper will give a brief preamble on the history of Nigeria and how she got her political independence from the British in 1960. It will thereafter go further to mention some political and economic hardship brought about by Nigerian leaders. Using literary theories called semiotics and structuralism, the reactions and criticisms of some Yoruba poets will be mentioned and analyzed vis-à-vis the counter reactions of the governments in power. Moreover, the paper will bring about a conclusion on how to create a conducive atmosphere for the Yoruba poets to operate in Nigeria. Finally, suggestions will be offered on how the Nigerian government and Yoruba poets can co-exist positively to bring about a better standard of living to Nigerians and also promote good governance

Keywords: Yoruba, Yoruba language, Yoruba poets, political leaders

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Authors: Legkikh Victoria

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The purpose of keeping bi/multilingualism is usually a way to let the child speak two/three languages at the same level. The main problem which normally appears is a mixed language or a domination of one language. The same level of two or more languages would be ideal but practically not easily reachable. So it was made an experiment with a girl with a natural multilingualism as an attempt to avoid a dominant language in the preschool age. The girl lives in Germany and the main languages for her are Italian, Russian and German but she also hears every day English. ‘One parent – one language’ strategy was used since the beginning so Italian and Russian were spoken to her since her birth, English was spoken between the parents and when she was 1,5 it was added German as a language of a nursery. In order to avoid a dominant language, she was always put in international groups with activity in different languages. Even if it was not possible to avoid an interference of languages in this case we can talk not only about natural multilingualism but also about balanced bilingualism in preschool time. The languages have been developing in parallel with different accents in a different period. Now at the age of 6 we can see natural horizontal multilingualism Russian/Italian/German/English. At the moment, her Russian/Italian bilingualism is balanced. German vocabulary is less but the language is active and English is receptive. We can also see a reciprocal interference of all the three languages (English is receptive so the simple phrases are normally said correctly but they are not enough to judge the level of language interference and it is not noticed any ‘English’ mistakes in other languages). After analysis of the state of every language, we can see as a positive and negative result of the experiment. As a positive result we can see that in the age of 6 the girl does not refuse any language, three languages are active, she differentiate languages and even if she says a word from another language she notifies that it is not a correct word, and the most important are the fact, that she does not have a preferred language. As a prove of the last statement it is to be noticed not only her self-identification as ‘half Russian and half Italian’ but also an answer to the question about her ‘mother tongue’: ‘I do not know, probably, when I have my own children I will speak one day Russian and one day Italian and sometimes German’. As a negative result, we can notice that not only a development of all the three languages are a little bit slower than it is supposed for her age but since she does not have a dominating language she also does not have a ‘perfect’ language and the interference is reciprocal. In any case, the experiment shows that it is possible to keep at least two languages without a preference in a pre-school multilingual space.

Keywords: balanced bilingualism, language interference, natural multilingualism, preschool multilingual education

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Authors: Hsin-Yi Huang

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This study mainly discussed the disease-induced and surgery-induced physical, psychological, and spiritual issues faced by a patient who suffered from emphysema and respiratory failure and had underwent a right-lung transplantation surgery. Nursing care was provided from May 21 to May 29. Based on the observations, interviews, physical examinations, and evaluations that were carried out using Roy’s adaptation model, the following nursing issues were identified: risk of infection, lack of knowledge, and anxiety. Active care was provided and a good nursing relationship with the patient and the patient’s family was established. The four strategies of Bandura’s self-efficacy theory (self-transcendence, vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and biofeedback) were employed. Instructions for the appropriate rehabilitation exercises were given, immunosuppressant concentration was monitored, and special measures were taken to prevent infection. The patient was encouraged to express feelings and was provided with sufficient information to alleviate anxiety. With assistance from nursing personnel and the medical team, the patient was successfully discharged from the hospital and thereafter embarked on the path of postoperative recovery. The patient learned about the importance of home self-care and regular follow-up outpatient visits, and patient management was implemented for discharge preparation services. This nursing case study may serve as a reference to nurses managing similar cases in future.

Keywords: anxiety, lung transplantation, Roy's adaptation model, self-efficacy theory

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Authors: Mutwakel Abdalla Ali Garalzain

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The aim of this study is to develop university EFL students’ communicative competence. The descriptive, analytical method was used in this study. To collect the data, the researcher designed two questionnaires, one for university EFL students and the other for English language teachers. The respondents of the study were eighty-eight; 76 university EFL students, and 12 English language teachers. The data obtained were analyzed by using statistical package for social science (SPSS). The findings of the study have revealed that most of the university EFL students are unable to express their ideas properly, although they have an abundance of vocabulary. The findings of the study have also shown that most of the university EFL students have positive attitudes towards communicative competence. The results of the study also identified the best strategies that can be used to enhance university EFL students’ communicative competence in English language teaching. The study recommends that English language textbooks should be compatible with the requirements of the student-centered approach. It also recommends that English language teachers should adopt the communicative approach’s strategies in the EFL classroom.

Keywords: applied linguistics, communicative competence , English language teaching, university EFL students

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Authors: Karin Megheșan, Alexandra Popescu, Teodora Dobre

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In the past few years, the Russian Federation has become a central point on the security agenda of the most important international actors, due to its reloaded aggressiveness of foreign policy. Vladimir Putin, the actual president of the Russian Federation, has proven that Russia can and has the willingness to become the powerful actor that used to be during the Cold War. Russia’s new behavior on the international scene showed that Russia has not only expansionist (where expansionist is not only in terms of territory but also of ideology) intentions, but also the necessary resources, to build an empire that may have the power to counterbalance the influence of the United States and stop the expansion of the North-Atlantic Treaty Organization in an equation understood of multipolar Russian view. But in order to do this, there is necessary to follow a well-established plan or policy. Thus, the aim of the paper is to discuss how has the foreign policy of the Russian Federation evolved under the influence of the military and security strategies of the Russian nation, to briefly examine some of the factors that sculpture Russian foreign policy and behavior, in order to reshape a Russian (Soviet) profile so far considered antiquated. Our approach is an argument in favor of the analyses of the recent evolutions embedded in the course of history. In this context, the paper will include analytical thoughts about the Russian foreign policy and the latest strategic documents (security strategy and military doctrine) adopted by the Putin administration, with the purpose to highlight the main direction of action followed by all these documents together. The paper concludes that the military component is to be found in all these strategic documents, as well as at the core of Russian national interest, aspect that proves that Russia is still the adept of the traditional realist paradigm, reshaped in a Russian theory of the multipolar world.

Keywords: hybrid warfare, military component, military doctrine, Russian foreign policy, security strategy

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Authors: Ese Urhie, Bosede Olopade, Muyiwa Oladosun, Henry Okodua

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In the past three and half decades, aside from the fact that the contribution of the industrial sector to gross domestic product in Nigeria has nose-dived, its performance has also been highly unstable. Investment funds needed to develop the industrial sector usually come from both internal and external sources. The internal sources include surplus generated within the industrial sector and surplus diverted from other sectors of the economy. It has been observed that due to the small size of the industrial sector in developing countries, very limited funds could be raised for further investment. External sources of funds which many currently industrialized and some ‘newly industrializing countries’ have benefited from including direct and indirect investment by foreign capitalists; foreign aid and loans; and investments by nationals living abroad. Foreign direct investment inflow in Nigeria has been declining since 2009 in both absolute and relative terms. High level of human capital has been identified as one of the crucial factors that explain the miraculous growth of the ‘Asian Tigers’. Its low level has also been identified as the major cause for the low level of FDI flow to Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. There has been positive, but slow improvement in human capital indicators in Nigeria in the past three decades. In spite of this, foreign direct investment inflow has not only been low; it has declined drastically in recent years. i) Why has the improvement in human capital in Nigeria failed to attract more FDI inflow? ii) To what extent does the level of human capital influence FDI inflow in Nigeria? iii) Is there a threshold of human capital stock that guarantees sustained inflow of FDI? iv) Does the quality of human capital matter? v) Does the influence of other (negative) factors outweigh the benefits of human capital? Using time series secondary data, a system of equations is employed to evaluate the effect of human capital on FDI inflow in Nigeria on one hand and the effect of FDI on the level of industrialization on the other. A weak relationship between human capital and FDI is expected, while a strong relationship between FDI and industrial growth is expected from the result.

Keywords: human capital, foreign direct investment, industrialization, gross domestic product

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Authors: Yousra Drissi

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This research explores language teacher identity in a multilingual context where both teachers and students come from different linguistic backgrounds. It seeks to understand how teachers perceive themselves as language teachers in this context in relation to different influencing factors, both internal and external. This study is being conducted due to the importance of language teacher identity (LTI) in the university context, which is being neglected in the present literature (in an attempt to address the gap in the present literature). The broader aim of this study is to bring attention to language teacher identity along with the different influencing elements which can either promote or hinder its development. In this research, we are using the sociocultural theory and post-structural theory. This research uses the mixed methods approach to collect and analyse relevant data. A structured survey was distributed to language teachers from different universities around Algeria, followed by in-depth interviews. Results are supposed to show the different points in self-perception that these teachers share or differ in. they will also help us identify the different internal and external factors that can be of influence. However, the results of this research can be used by institutions as well as decision-makers to better understand university teachers and help them improve their teaching practices by empowering their language teacher identity, starting from teacher education programs to continuous teacher development programs.

Keywords: identity, language teacher identity, multilingualism, university teacher

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Authors: Timur Zhukov, Yuko Yamashita

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Music as a product of hedonic consumption has been researched at least since the early 20th century, but little light has been shed on how language affects its consumption process. At the intersection of music consumption, language impact, and consumer behavior, this research explores the influence of language on music consumption in Japan. Its aim is to clarify how listening to music in different languages affects the listener’s purchase intention and sharing intention by conducting a survey where respondents listen to three versions of the same song in different languages in random order. It uses an existing framework that views the flow of music consumption as a combination of responses (emotional response, sensory response, imaginal response, analytical responses) affecting the experiential response, which then affects the overall affective response, followed by the need to reexperience and lastly the purchase intention. In this research, the sharing intention has been added to the model to better fit the modern consumption model (e.g., AISAS). This research shows how positive and negative emotions and imaginal and analytical responses change depending on the language and what impact it has on consumer behavior. It concludes by proposing how modern music businesses can learn from the language differences and cater to the needs of the audiences who speak different languages.

Keywords: AISAS, consumer behavior, first language, music consumption, second language

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Authors: Rendani Mercy Makhwathana

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This paper intends to explore teachers' encounters when teaching English First Additional Language in rural public schools. Teachers are pillars of any education system around the globe. Educational transformations hinge on them as critical role players in the education system. Thus, teachers' encounters are worth consideration, for they impact learners' learning and the well-being of education in general. An exploratory qualitative approach was used in this paper. The population for this paper comprised all Foundation Phase teachers in the district. A purposive sample of 15 Foundation Phase teachers from five rural-based schools was used. Data were collected through classroom observation and individual face-to-face interviews. Data were categorized, analyzed, and interpreted. Amongst the revealed teachers' encounters are learners' inability to read and write and learners' lack of English language background and learners' lack of the vocabulary to express themselves. This paper recommends the provision of relevant resources and support to effectively teach English First Additional Language to enable learners' engagement and effective use of the English language.

Keywords: first additional language, english second language, medium of instruction, teacher professional development

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Authors: Dielleza Namani, Laureta Kadrijaj-Qerimi

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Neurolinguistics studies the relationship between the brain and language. It is a subject not often found in the syllabus of universities in the Balkans but more spread in Europe and especially the United States of America. The purpose of this study is to see what importance this subject has for studies in the English language department. It contains an analysis of other research papers written regarding neurolinguistics, a questionnaire made for professors and deans at private and public universities in Kosovo, and an interview with a neurolinguistics professor in England. Since this subject is not found in the syllabus of any of the universities in Kosovo, the researchers wanted to find out why this happens but, at the same time, provide reasons why they should consider having it in the future. The results showed that for this subject, there had been researching made, but not enough so far, which gives more information and feedback on why it needs to be in the syllabus, and how linguists can use the knowledge they receive from this subject in their workplace. Also, the professors and deans see this subject as too medical for their students to learn and not necessary for their future jobs. Hopefully, in the near future, there will be more research done on why this is important and how English language students can benefit from it.

Keywords: English language department, neurolinguistics, second language acquisition, teaching methods

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Authors: Chu-Ching Hsu

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This paper focuses on how the government-led language policies and the political changes in Taiwan manipulate the languages choice in translations and what translation strategies are employed by the translator to show his or her language ideology behind the power struggles and decision-making. Therefore, framed by Lefevere’s theoretical concept of translating as rewriting, and carried out a diachronic and chronological study, this paper specifically sets out to investigate the language ideology and translator’s idiolect of Chinese language translations of Anglo-American novels. The examples drawn to explore these issues were taken from different versions of Chinese renditions of Mark Twain’s English-language novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in which there are several different dialogues originally written in the colloquial language and dialect used in the American state of Mississippi and reproduced in Mark Twain’s works. Also, adapted corpus methodology, many examples are extracted as instances from the translated texts and source text, to illuminate how the translators in Taiwan deal with the dialectal features encoded in Twain’s works, and how different versions of Chinese translations are employed by Taiwanese translators to confirm the language polices and to express their language identity textually in different periods of the past five decades, from the 1960s onward. The finding of this study suggests that the use of Taiwanese dialect and language patterns in translations does relate to the movement of the mother-tongue language and language ideology of the translator as well as to the issue of language identity raised in the island of Taiwan. Furthermore, this study confirms that the change of political power in Taiwan does bring significantly impact in language policy-- assimilationism, pluralism or multiculturalism, which also makes Taiwan from a monolingual to multilingual society, where the language ideology and identity can be revealed not only in people’s daily communication but also in written translations.

Keywords: language politics and policies, literary translation, mother-tongue, multiculturalism, translator’s ideology

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Authors: Hamed Alizadeh Dashagholi, Hossein Yousefi-Banaem, Mina Naeimi

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Current study established for EEG signal analysis in patients with language disorder. Language disorder can be defined as meaningful delay in the use or understanding of spoken or written language. The disorder can include the content or meaning of language, its form, or its use. Here we applied Z-score, power spectrum, and coherence methods to discriminate the language disorder data from healthy ones. Power spectrum of each channel in alpha, beta, gamma, delta, and theta frequency bands was measured. In addition, intra hemispheric Z-score obtained by scoring algorithm. Obtained results showed high Z-score and power spectrum in posterior regions. Therefore, we can conclude that peoples with language disorder have high brain activity in frontal region of brain in comparison with healthy peoples. Results showed that high coherence correlates with irregularities in the ERP and is often found during complex task, whereas low coherence is often found in pathological conditions. The results of the Z-score analysis of the brain dynamics showed higher Z-score peak frequency in delta, theta and beta sub bands of Language Disorder patients. In this analysis there were activity signs in both hemispheres and the left-dominant hemisphere was more active than the right.

Keywords: EEG, electroencephalography, coherence methods, language disorder, power spectrum, z-score

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Authors: Jiangbo Hu, Frances Hoyte, Haiquan Huang

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Research identifies that mealtime talk can be a significant learning context that provides children with rich experiences to foster their language and cognitive development. Middle-classed parents create an extended learning discourse for their children through sophisticated vocabulary, narrative and explanation genres at dinner table. However, mealtime opportunities vary with some parents having little interaction with their children and some parents focusing on directive of children’s behaviors. This study investigated five Chinese families’ parent-child interaction during mealtime that was rarely reported in the literature. The five families differ in terms of their living styles. Three families are from professional background where both mothers the fathers work in Australian companies and both of them present at dinner time. The other two families own business. The mothers are housemakers and the fathers are always absent at dinner time due to their busy business life. Employing case study method, the five Chinese families’ parent-child interactions at dinner table were recorded using a video camera. More than 3000 clauses were analyzed with the framework of 'systems of clause complexing' from systemic functional linguistic theory. The finding shows that mothers played a critical role in the interaction with their children by initiating most conversations. The three mothers from professional background tended to use more language in extending and expanding pattern that is beneficial for children’s language development and high level of thinking (e.g., logical thinking). The two house making mothers’ language focused more on the directive of their children’s social manners and dietary behaviors. The fathers though seemed to be less active, contributing to the richness of the conversation through their occasional props such as asking open questions or initiating a new topic. In general, the families from professional background were more advantaged in providing learning opportunities for their children at dinner table than the families running business were. The home experiences of Chinese children is an important topic in research due to the rapidly increasing number of Chinese children in Australia and other English speaking countries. Such research assist educators in the education of Chinese children with more awareness of Chinese children experiences at home that could be very unlike the settings in English schools. This study contributes to the research in this area through the analysis of language in parent-child interaction during mealtime, which is very different from previous research that mainly investigated Chinese families through survey and interview. The finding of different manners in language use between the professional families and business families has implication for the understanding of the variation of Chinese children’s home experiences that is influenced not only by parents’ socioeconomic status but their lifestyles.

Keywords: Chinese children, Chinese parents, mealtime talk, parent-child interaction

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Authors: Joung Hyoun Lee

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Intransitive verbs consist of two subclasses called unergatives and unaccusatives. However, traditionally Italian intransitive verbs have been taught regardless their semantic distinctions and any mention of grammatical terms such as unaccusatives and unergatives even though there is a huge gap between them. This paper aims to explore the teaching of Italian intransitive verbs categorizing them into unaccusatives and unergatives, which is compared with researches on the teaching of English unaccusative and unergative verbs. For this purpose, first, the study analyses various aspects of English vs. Italian unergatives and unaccusatives, and their properties of the constructions. Next, this study highlights the research trend on Korean students' learning errors, which is leaning toward causal analyses of the over passivization of English unaccusative verbs. In order to investigate these issues, 53 students of the Busan University of Foreign Studies, who are studying Italian language as a second language, were surveyed through a grammaticality judgment test divided into 9 sections. As expected, the findings confirmed that the test results of Italian unaccusatives and unergatives showed similar and different aspects comparing to those of English. Moreover, there was a highly affirmative demand for a more careful way of teaching which should be considered both syntactically and semantically according to the grammatical items. The research provides a framework of a more effective and systematic teaching method of Italian intransitive verbs for further research.

Keywords: unaccusative verbs, unergative verbs, agent, patient, theme, overpassivization

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Authors: Sannikumar Patel, Brian Nolan, Markus Hofmann, Philip Owende, Kunjan Patel

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Sentiment analysis and opinion mining have become emerging topics of research in recent years but most of the work is focused on data in the English language. A comprehensive research and analysis are essential which considers multiple languages, machine translation techniques, and different classifiers. This paper presents, a comparative analysis of different approaches for multilingual sentiment analysis. These approaches are divided into two parts: one using classification of text without language translation and second using the translation of testing data to a target language, such as English, before classification. The presented research and results are useful for understanding whether machine translation should be used for multilingual sentiment analysis or building language specific sentiment classification systems is a better approach. The effects of language translation techniques, features, and accuracy of various classifiers for multilingual sentiment analysis is also discussed in this study.

Keywords: cross-language analysis, machine learning, machine translation, sentiment analysis

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Authors: Toake Endoh

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Cross-border migration of people is a critical driver for sustainable economic development in the Asia-Pacific region. Meanwhile, the region is susceptible to mega-scale natural disasters, such as tsunami, earthquakes, and typhoons. When migrants are stranded in a foreign country by a disaster, who should be responsible for their safety and security? What legal or moral foundation is there to advocate for the protection and assistance of “migrants at risk (M@R)”? How can the states practice “good governance” in their response to displacement of the foreign migrants? This paper inquires how to protect foreign migrants displaced by a natural disaster under international law and proposes protective actions to be taken by of migrant-receiver governments. First, the paper discusses the theoretical foundation for protection of M@R and argues that the nation-states are charged of responsibility to protect at-risk foreigners as “internally displaced persons” in the light of the United Nations’ Guiding Principles of Internal Displacement (1998). Second, through the case study of the Kobe Earthquake in Japan (1995), the Tsunami in Thailand (2004), and the Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. (2005), the paper evaluates how effectively (or poorly) institutions and state actors addressed the specific vulnerability felt by M@R in these crises.

Keywords: internal displaced persons, natural disaster, international migration, responsibility to protect

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Authors: Neha Joshi, Srikanth Jois, Hector J. Peughero, Poornima Jayakrishna, Moulya R., Purnima Madivanan, Kiran Kumar K. Salagame

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Transgenders are a marginalized section of the community, who are at high risk of mental health problems due to their stigmatization, abandonment by family, prejudice, discrimination by society at large, and the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse from both within and outside their community. Their mental healthcare needs remain largely unaddressed due to lack of access, discrimination by healthcare professions, and lack of resources, including time and money, to seek conventional medical and psychotherapeutic treatments. Meditation is increasingly receiving acceptance as a tool for managing stress and anxiety by the patients as well as mental healthcare professionals. “Meditation on Twin Hearts” is a no cost, self-administered intervention that a person can practice anywhere and at any time of the day. This pilot study evaluates the need for alternate traditional and ingenious interventions like “Meditation of Twin Hearts” to address the mental healthcare needs of the transgender community and acceptance of such an intervention by the community. Thirteen individuals identifying themselves as transgender were invited to participate in one (Hunsur Taluk) of the five scheduled free meditation camps in Mysore. After obtaining informed consent for participation in the study, their mental health status is captured using an anonymous survey using standard, validated, self-reported questionnaires Generalised Anxiety Disorders (GAD)-7 for anxiety, Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) for depression, and Suicidal Behavior Questionnaire-Revised for suicidality. Then, they were requested to attend a session on “Meditation on Twin Hearts.” After the session, their feedback on willingness to further explore the meditation technique for managing their mental healthcare need was assessed through another survey form. Out of the 13 participants, 92% scored for anxiety (4 mild, and 8 moderate anxiety). In the depression scale, 5 scored for mild and 5 for moderate depression, with a total of 77% (10/13) scoring positively on depression scale. Nearly 70% of participants (9/13), scored greater than the clinical cutoff for the need for clinical intervention. The proportion of individuals at risk for suicide was particularly high in this group, with 8/ 13 (61.5%) participants scoring the clinical cutoff score of ≥ 7. Surprisingly, none of the participants had ever consulted a mental healthcare professional. All the participants (13/13; 100%) responded in affirmative to the question, “Will you be willing to continue meditation for management of your anxiety?” Six out of 13 participants described their experience of meditation as “happy” and 3 described it as “peaceful”. None of the participants reported any negative beliefs or experience regarding the meditation. The study provides evidence for the urgent yet unmet mental healthcare need of the transgender community. The findings of the study also supports the rationale of conducting future systematic research to evaluate and explore ingenious and traditional practices, such as meditation, to meet the healthcare needs, especially in marginalized populations in a low income setting such as Lower and Middle Income countries. Based on these preliminary findings, the Principal Investigator (PI) is planning to cover 4 more areas of Mysore district.

Keywords: anxiety, depression, meditation on twin heart, suicidality, transgender

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Authors: Sugandhi, Parteek Kumar, Sanmeet Kaur

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Sign Language (SL) is used by deaf and other people who cannot speak but can hear or have a problem with spoken languages due to some disability. It is a visual gesture language that makes use of either one hand or both hands, arms, face, body to convey meanings and thoughts. SL automation system is an effective way which provides an interface to communicate with normal people using a computer. In this paper, an avatar based dictionary has been proposed for text to Indian Sign Language (ISL) generation system. This research work will also depict a literature review on SL corpus available for various SL s over the years. For ISL generation system, a written form of SL is required and there are certain techniques available for writing the SL. The system uses Hamburg sign language Notation System (HamNoSys) and Signing Gesture Mark-up Language (SiGML) for ISL generation. It is developed in PHP using Web Graphics Library (WebGL) technology for 3D avatar animation. A multilingual ISL dictionary is developed using HamNoSys for both English and Hindi Language. This dictionary will be used as a database to associate signs with words or phrases of a spoken language. It provides an interface for admin panel to manage the dictionary, i.e., modification, addition, or deletion of a word. Through this interface, HamNoSys can be developed and stored in a database and these notations can be converted into its corresponding SiGML file manually. The system takes natural language input sentence in English and Hindi language and generate 3D sign animation using an avatar. SL generation systems have potential applications in many domains such as healthcare sector, media, educational institutes, commercial sectors, transportation services etc. This research work will help the researchers to understand various techniques used for writing SL and generation of Sign Language systems.

Keywords: avatar, dictionary, HamNoSys, hearing impaired, Indian sign language (ISL), sign language

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Authors: Y. Melis, E. Apicella, E. Dozio, L. Mendolicchio

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Introduction: Feeding and Eating Disorders (FED) represent the psychiatric pathology with the highest mortality rate and one of the major disorders with the highest psychiatric and clinical comorbidity. The vagus nerve represents one of the main components of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system and is involved in important neurophysiological functions. In FED, there is a spectrum of symptoms which with TaVNS (Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation) therapy, is possible to have a therapeutic efficacy. Materials and Methods: Sample subjects are composed of 15 female subjects aged > 18 ± 51. Admitted to a psychiatry community having been diagnosed according to DSM-5: anorexia nervosa (AN) (N= 9), bulimia nervosa (BN) (N= 5), binge eating disorder (BED) (N= 1). The protocol included 9 weeks of Ta-VNS stimulation at a frequency of 1.5-3.5 mA for 4 hours per day. The variables detected are the following: Heart Rate Variability (HRV), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-HDRS-17), Body Mass Index (BMI), Beck Anxiety Index (BAI). Results: Data analysis showed statistically significant differences between recording times (p > 0.05) in HAM-D (t0 = 18.28 ± 5.31; t4 = 9.14 ± 7.15), in BAI (t0 = 24.7 ± 10.99; t4 = 13.8 ± 7.0). The reported values show how during (T0-T4) the treatment there is a decay of the degree in the depressive state, in the state of anxiety, and an improvement in the value of BMI. In particular, the BMI in the AN-BN sub-sample had a minimum gain of 5% and a maximum of 11%. The analysis of HRV did not show a clear change among subjects, thus confirming the discordance of the activity of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system in FED. Conclusions: Although the sample does not possess a relevant value to determine long-term efficacy of Ta-VNS or on a larger population, this study reports how the application of neuro-stimulation in FED may become a further approach therapeutic. Indeed, substantial improvements are highlighted in the results and confirmed hypotheses proposed by the study.

Keywords: feeding and eating disorders, neurostimulation, anxiety disorders, depression

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Authors: Jiao Li

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Language teachers have been expected to play diversified new roles in times of educational changes. Considering the critical role that materials play in teaching and learning, language teachers have been increasingly involved in developing materials. Using identity as an analytic lens, this study aims to explore language teachers’ experiences as materials developers in China, focusing on the challenges they face and responses to them. It will adopt a multimethod approach. At the first stage, about 12 language teachers who have developed or are developing materials will be interviewed to have a broad view of their experiences. At the second stage, three language teachers who are developing materials will be studied by collecting interview data, policy documents, and data obtained from online observation of their group meetings so as to gain a deeper understanding of their experiences in materials development. It is expected that this study would have implications for teacher development, materials development, and curriculum development as well.

Keywords: educational changes, teacher development, teacher identity, teacher learning, materials development

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Authors: Sajjad Hussain

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Technology has revolutionized the way of communication around the globe. Its use and users are multiplying with every passing minute. The current study reveals the effect of SMS on the formal writing of the students. Students are the regular users of this service and have become addict to short language. This short language is understandable to a particular community and not to the whole as it does not adhere to the Standard English writing practices. Data has been collected from quiz, assignments text and through questionaries’ which supports this postulate that students are frequently practicing it in their formal writing. Certain corrosive measures needs to be taken to address the issue. Second language learners have been found it practicing to greater extent.

Keywords: information technology, SMS, messaging, communication, social media, internet, language

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Authors: Moquan Gong

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In recent years, with the rapid development of deep learning, pre-training technology for natural language processing has made great progress. The early field of natural language processing has long used word vector methods such as Word2Vec to encode text. These word vector methods can also be regarded as static pre-training techniques. However, this context-free text representation brings very limited improvement to subsequent natural language processing tasks and cannot solve the problem of word polysemy. ELMo proposes a context-sensitive text representation method that can effectively handle polysemy problems. Since then, pre-training language models such as GPT and BERT have been proposed one after another. Among them, the BERT model has significantly improved its performance on many typical downstream tasks, greatly promoting the technological development in the field of natural language processing, and has since entered the field of natural language processing. The era of dynamic pre-training technology. Since then, a large number of pre-trained language models based on BERT and XLNet have continued to emerge, and pre-training technology has become an indispensable mainstream technology in the field of natural language processing. This article first gives an overview of pre-training technology and its development history, and introduces in detail the classic pre-training technology in the field of natural language processing, including early static pre-training technology and classic dynamic pre-training technology; and then briefly sorts out a series of enlightening technologies. Pre-training technology, including improved models based on BERT and XLNet; on this basis, analyze the problems faced by current pre-training technology research; finally, look forward to the future development trend of pre-training technology.

Keywords: natural language processing, pre-training, language model, word vectors

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