Search results for: Sinhala speaking learners of French

Authors: Mark Anthony A. Catiil

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Teachers are the principal actors in the delivery of quality education to the learners. Unfortunately, as time goes by, some of them got low motivation at work. Absenteeism, tardiness, under time, and non-compliance to school policies are some of the end results. There is, therefore, a need to review the different human resource management practices of the school that contribute to teachers’ work satisfaction and motivation. Hence, this study determined the level of satisfaction of teachers on the human resource management practices of Gingoog City Comprehensive National High School. This mixed-methodology research was focused on the 45 teachers chosen using a stratified random sampling technique. Reliability-tested questionnaires, interviews, and focus group discussions were used to gather the data. Results revealed that the majority of the respondents are female, Teacher I, with MA units and have served for 11-20 years. Likewise, among the human resource management practices of the school, the respondents rated the lowest satisfaction on recruitment and selection (mean=2.15; n=45). This could mean that most of the recruitment and selection practices of the school are not well communicated, disseminated, and implemented. On the other hand, retirement practices of the school were rated with the highest satisfaction among the respondents (mean=2.73; n=45). This could mean that most of the retirement practices of the school are communicated, disseminated, implemented, and functional. It was recommended that the existing human resource management practices on recruitment and selection be reviewed to find out its deficiencies and possible improvement. Moreover, future researchers may also conduct a study between private and public schools in Gingoog City on the same topic for comparison.

Keywords: education, human resource management practices, satisfaction, teachers

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Authors: Arezoo Fallahi, Siamak Derakhshan, Parvaneh Taymoori, Babak Nematshahrbabaki

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Background: Osteoporosis, the most common metabolic bone disease, is an important health care issue. Not only the cost of disease is high but also is one of the causes of disability and mortality and effect on quality of life. Although self-care is effective on disease, s control and treatment but still effective factors on self-care of patient, s viewpoint have not been survey. The aim of this study was to explore effective factors on self-care in women with osteoporosis. Materials and methods: This study was done by conventional content analysis approach in year 2014. Through purposeful sampling 15 women referred to bone mass densitometry centers participated in this study. Inclusion criteria were: Women older than 50 years old with osteoporosis, final diagnosis of osteoporosis for over six –month period, T-score index below -2.5 (lower back or hip), drug use by patients with a physician’s prescription, ability in speaking and attending to participate in the study. Data was collected by face to face and group semi-structure deep interviews and analyzed via content analysis method. To support of rigor of data, criteria credibility, confirmability and transferability were used. Results: during data analysis five categories developed: “hope and disability in the face of illness”, “mutual roles of physician”, “role of family” and “administrative centers and organizations”. To perform self-care behaviors, the participations of this study emphasized on pay attention to their own healthy, regarding patients' rights by physician, pay attention to women's health by men, and the role of media especially radio and television. Conclusion: the finding of the study showed that women’s responsibility with osteoporosis for their health is not a factor but it is multifactorial. Increasing life expectancy in patients, attention to patients needs by physician, increasing health promotion programs in the media and enhancing role of family may provide conditions and infrastructure to empowerment women in doing self-care behavior.

Keywords: women, osteoporosis, self-care, content analysis

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Authors: Esperanza C. Santos

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Japanese Language was traditionally considered as a means of imparting culture and training aesthetic experience in students and therefore as something beyond the practical aims of language teaching and learning. Due to the complexity of foreign languages, lots of language learners and teachers shared deep reservations about the potentials of foreign language in enhancing the communication skills of the students. In spite of the arguments against the use of Foreign Language (Nihon-go) in the classroom, the researcher strongly support the use of Nihon-go in teaching communication skills as the researcher believes that Nihon-go is a valuable resource to be exploited in the classroom in order to help the students explore the language in an interesting and challenging way. The focus of this research is to find out the relationship between the preferences, opinions, and perceptions with the communication skills. This study also identifies the significance of the relationship between preferences, opinions and perceptions and communications skills in the activities employed in Foreign language (Nihon-go) among the junior and senior students in Foreign Language 2 at the Imus Institute, Imus Cavite during the academic year 2013-2014. The results of the study are expected to encourage further studies that particularly focused on the communication skills as brought about by the identified factors namely: preferences, opinions, and perceptions on the benefits factor namely the language acquisition; access to Japanese culture and students' interpretative ability. Therefore, this research is in its quest for the issues and concerns on how to effectively teach different learning activities in a Nihon-go class.

Keywords: preferences, opinions, perceptions, language acquisition

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Authors: Andrea Corsale

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The historical and geographical regions of Banat and Crişana in Western Romania have long been characterized by a high degree of ethnic diversity. However, this traditionally complex cultural, linguistic, and religious mosaic has undergone a progressive simplification during the past century due to deportations, emigration, and assimilation, and both regions now have a large Romanian-speaking majority population. This contribution focuses on Jewish heritage in the two largest cities of these two regions, Timişoara (Banat) and Oradea (Crişana). The two cities shared some historical events but also went through different experiences, despite their relative geographic proximity. The Jewish community of Timişoara survived the Holocaust basically intact, an almost unique case in Central-Eastern Europe, but largely left the city after the war. Instead, the Jewish community of Oradea was almost completely deported and killed in Auschwitz, and a renewed post-war community gradually emigrated abroad in the following decades. The two Jewish communities are now very small in size but inherited a vast tangible and intangible heritage (synagogues, cemeteries, community buildings, characteristic architecture, memories, local traditions, and histories), partially restored and recovered in recent years. The author’s fieldwork shows that local Jewish stakeholders are aware of the potential of this heritage in terms of cultural and economic benefits, but significant weaknesses and concerns exist, as the small dimension of these communities, and their financial constraints, challenge their future role in the eventual promotion and management of this heritage, which is now basically in the hands of the non-Jewish public and private stakeholders. Projects, experiences, and views related to Jewish heritage conservation and promotion in these two contexts will be portrayed and analysed in order to contribute to a broader discussion on representations and narratives of minority heritage within cultural tourism development dynamics.

Keywords: Jewish heritage, ethnic minorities, heritage tourism, Romania

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Authors: Daodu Joshua Rotimi

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This study investigated the Efficacy of Self-Assessment Metacognitive Strategy on Academic performance in Energy Concepts among Upper Basic Science Students in Ankpa, Kogi State, Nigeria. The research design adopted for the study was a Quasi-experimental control group design which employed a pretest, posttest of the experimental and control groups. The population of the study consisted of one hundred and twenty-four (124) JSSII Students; sixty-five (65) for the experimental group and (59) for the control group. The instrument used for the study was the Energy Concept Performance Test (ECPT), with a reliability coefficient of 0.80. Two research questions were answered using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation, while two hypotheses were tested using a t-test at P≤0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that the use of the Self-Assessment Metacognitive Strategy has a positive effect on students’ performance in energy concepts among upper Basic Science Students leading to high academic performance; also, there is no significant difference in the mean Academic Performance scores between Male and Female students taught Energy Concept using Self-Assessment Metacognitive Strategy. Based on the research findings, recommendations were made, which include that Secondary school teachers should be encouraged the use Self-Assessment Metacognitive strategy so as to make the learning process attractive, interactive and enriching to the learners.

Keywords: metacognition, self-assessment, performance, efficacy

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Authors: Peien Ma

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Bilingual effect/advantage theorized the positive effect of being bilingual on general cognitive abilities, but it was unknown which factors tend to modulate these bilingualism effects on working memory capacity. This study imposed empirical field research on a group of low-SES emerging bilinguals, Miao people, in the hill tribes of rural China to investigate whether bilingualism affected their verbal working memory performance. 20 Miao-Chinese bilinguals (13 girls and 7 boys with a mean age of 11.45, SD=1.67) and 20 Chinese monolingual peers (13 girls and 7 boys with a mean age of 11.6, SD=0.68) were recruited. These bilingual and monolingual juveniles, matched on age, sex, socioeconomic status, and educational status, completed a language background questionnaire and a standard forward and backward digit span test adapted from Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R). The results showed that bilinguals earned a significantly higher overall mean score of the task, suggesting the superiority of working memory ability over the monolinguals. And bilingual cognitive benefits were independent of proficiency levels in learners’ two languages. The results suggested that bilingualism enhances working memory in sequential bilinguals from low SES backgrounds and shed light on our understanding of the bilingual advantage from a psychological and social perspective.

Keywords: bilingual effects, heritage language, Miao/Hmong language Mandarin, working memory

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Authors: A. S. Haruna, M. L. Mayanchi

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Pre Nigeria Certificate in Education otherwise called Pre-NCE is an intensive two semester course designed to assist candidates who could not meet the requirements for admission into NCE programme. The task of coping with the stressors in the course can interfere with the students’ ability to regulate attention skills and stay organized. The main objectives of the study were to find out the prevalence of stress; determine the association between stress and ADD and reveal gender difference in the prevalence of ADD among stressed pre-NCE students. Cross–Sectional Correlation Design was employed in which 333 (Male=65%; Female=35%) students were proportionately sampled and administered Stress Assessment Scale [SAS r=0.74) and those identified with stress were thereafter rated with Cognitive Processing Inventory [CPI]. Data collected was used to analyze the three null hypotheses through One-sample Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) Z-score, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients (PPMCC) and t-test statistics respectively at 0.05 confidence level. Results revealed significant prevalence of stress [Z-calculated =2.24; Z-critical = ±1.96], and a positive relationship between Stress and ADD among Pre-NCE students [r-calculated =0.450; r-critical =0.138]. However, there was no gender difference in the prevalence of ADD among stressed Pre-NCE students in the college [t-calculated =1.49; t-critical =1.645]. The study concludes that while stress and ADD prevail among pre-NCE students, there was no gender difference in the prevalence of ADD. Recommendations offered suggest the use of Learners Assistance Programs (LAP) for stress management, and Teacher-Students ratio of 1:25 be adopted in order to cater for stressed pre-NCE students with ADD.

Keywords: attention deficit disorder, pre-NCE students, stress, Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients (PPMCC)

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Authors: Jonathan Soliman, Thomas Cavasino, Virginie Pommelet, Lahouari Amor, Pierre Mornand, Simon Escoda, Nina Droz, Soraya Matczak, Julie Toubiana, François Angoulvant, Etienne Carbonnelle, Albert Faye, Loic de Pontual, Luu-Ly Pham

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Background: Typhoid and paratyphoid fever are systemic infections caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi or paratyphi (A, B, C). Children traveling to tropical areas are at risk to contract these diseases which can be complicated. Methods: Clinical, biological and bacteriological data were collected from 78 pediatric cases reported between 2000 and 2017 in six Parisian hospitals. Children aged 0 to 18 years old, with a diagnosis of typhoid or paratyphoid fever confirmed by bacteriological exams, were included. Epidemiologic, clinical, biological features and presence of multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria or intermediate susceptibility to ciprofloxacin (nalidixic acid resistant) were examined by univariate analysis and by logistic regression analysis to identify risk factors of severe typhoid in children. Results: 84,6% of the children were imported cases of typhoid fever (n=66/78) and 15,4% were autochthonous cases (n=12/78). 89,7% were caused by S.typhi (n=70/78) and 12,8% by S.paratyphi (n=10/78) including 2 co-infections. 19,2% were intrafamilial cases (n=15/78). Median age at diagnosis was 6,4 years-old [6 months-17,9 years]. 28,2% of the cases were complicated forms (n=22/78): digestive (n=8; 10,3%), neurological (n=7; 9%), pulmonary complications (n=4; 5,1%) and hemophagocytic syndrome (n=4; 5,1%). Only 5% of the children had prior immunization with typhoid non-conjugated vaccine (n=4/78). 28% of the cases (n=22/78) were caused by resistant bacteria. Thrombocytopenia and diagnosis delay was significantly associated with severe infection (p= 0.029 and p=0,01). Complicated forms were more common with MDR (p=0,1) and not statistically associated with a young age or sex in this study. Conclusions: Typhoid and paratyphoid fever are not rare in children back from tropical areas. This multicentric pediatric study seems to show that thrombocytopenia, diagnosis delay, and multidrug resistant bacteria are associated with severe typhoid fever and complicated forms in children.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance, children, Salmonella enterica typhi and paratyphi, severe typhoid

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Authors: Fernando Valerio-Holguin

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Over the recent three decades, the tourism industry in the Dominican Republic has had an enormous impact on the country’s culture. The arrival of tourists from Germany, France, Italy, Russia and the United States has rewritten Dominican cultural identity and created a cultural palimpsest in the areas of language, gastronomy, habits, fashion, values, and gender relations. As a consequence of tourism, a prostitution network has flourished across the country. In the film Sand Dollars (2015) directed by Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas, Noelí (Janet Mojica), a young mulatto woman, altogether with her boyfriend (Ricardo Ariel Toribio), strips tourists of dollars and euro through prostitution. One of her frequent clients is Anne, a mature French woman (Geraldine Chaplin). While Noeli’s goal is to get all the euros she can, Anne falls in love with her and tries to bring her to France. Both the content of the film and its cinematographic languages are analyzed in light of theory of coloniality. This concept shows how European and American tourism, through the power of money, perpetuates colonial discourse, i. e., how race and ethnocentrism permeate cultural activities in their former colonies. Moreover, in the content analysis of the film the concepts of exchange value and fetishism are crucial to understanding how the colonial body becomes sexual commodity. They facilitate grasping the film’s inequity in terms of power in the relationship between the two women: the white old European woman and the young, poor, third-world mulatta. Even though the film attempts to break away from compulsory heterosexuality, the power relation between the two women persists due to the presence of the axis of race, ethnicity, age and gender. Both the novel Les dollars des sables written by Jean-Noel Pancrazi, and the film Sand Dollars offer an interesting insight into sex tourism and coloniality and shed additional light on the power relations between the former colonizers and its colonies.

Keywords: coloniality, ethnocentrism, exchange value, Europe, fetishism, money, power, prostitution, sex tourism, United States of America

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Authors: Josee Charette

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The academic and educational success of migrant students is a current issue in education, especially in western societies such in the province of Quebec, in Canada. For people who immigrate with school-age children, the success of the family’s migratory project is often measured by the benefits drawn by children from the educational institutions of their host society. In order to support the academic achievement of their children, migrant parents try to develop practices that derive from their representations of school and related challenges inspired by the socio-cultural context of their country of origin. These findings lead us to the following question: How does strategies implemented by migrant parents to manage the representational distance between school of their country of origin and school of their host society support or not the academic and educational success of their child? In the context of a qualitative exploratory approach, we have made interviews in the French , English and Spanish languages with 32 newly immigrated parents and 10 of their children. Parents were invited to complete a network of free associations about «School in Quebec» as a premise for the interview. The objective of this paper is to present strategies implemented by migrant parents to manage the distance between their representations of schools in their country of origin and in the host society, and to explore the influence of this management on their child’s academic and educational trajectories. Data analysis led us to develop various types of strategies, such as continuity, adaptation, resources mobilization, compensation and "return to basics" strategies. These strategies seem to be part of a continuum from oppositional-conflict scenario, in which parental strategies act as a risk factor, to conciliator-integrator scenario, in which parental strategies act as a protective factor for migrant students’ academic and educational success. In conclusion, we believe that our research helps in highlighting strategies implemented by migrant parents to support their child’s academic and educational success in the host society and also helps in providing a more efficient support to migrant parents and contributes to develop a wider portrait of migrant students’ academic achievement.

Keywords: academic and educational achievement of immigrant students, family’s migratory project, immigrants parental strategies, representational distance between school of origin and school of host society

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Authors: Craig Wight

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Tourism visits to sites associated to varying degrees with death and dying have for some time inspired academic debate and research into what has come to be popularly described as ‘dark tourism’. Research to date has been based on the mobilisation of various social scientific methodologies to understand issues such as the motivations of visitors to consume dark tourism experiences and visitor interpretations of the various narratives that are part of the consumption experience. This thesis offers an alternative conceptual perspective for carrying out research into dark tourism by presenting a discourse analysis of Lithuanian occupation-themed museums using Foucault’s concept of ‘discursive formation’ from ‘Archaeology of Knowledge’. A constructivist methodology is therefore applied to locate the rhetorical representations of Lithuanian and Jewish subject positions and to identify the objects of discourse that are produced in five museums that interpret a historical era defined by occupation, the persecution of people and genocide. The discourses and consequent cultural function of these museums are examined, and the key finding of the research proposes that they authorise a particular Lithuanian individualism which marginalises the Jewish subject position and its related objects of discourse into abstraction. The thesis suggests that these museums create the possibility to undermine the ontological stability of Holocaust and the Jewish-Lithuanian subject which is produced as an anomalous, ‘non-Lithuanian’ cultural reference point. As with any Foucauldian archaeological research, it cannot be offered as something that is ‘complete’ since it captures only a partial field, or snapshot of knowledge, bound to a specific temporal and spatial context. The discourses that have been identified are perhaps part of a more elusive ‘positivity’ which is salient across a number of cultural and political surfaces which are ripe for a similar analytical approach in future. It is hoped that the study will motivate others to follow a discourse-analytical approach to research in order to further understand the critical role of museums in public culture when it comes to shaping knowledge about ‘inconvenient’ pasts.

Keywords: genocide heritage, foucault, Lithuanian tourism, discursive formatoin

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Authors: M. Hadavi, Z. Hashemi

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Learning strategies play an important role in the development of language skills. Vocabulary learning strategies as the backbone of these strategies have become a major part of English language teaching. This study is a comparative analysis of Vocabulary Learning Strategies (VLS) use and preference among freshmen and senior EFL medical sciences students with different fields of study. 449 students (236 freshman and 213 seniors) participated in the study. 64.6% were female and 35.4% were male. The instrument utilized in this research was a questionnaire consisting of 41 items related to the students’ approach to vocabulary learning. The items were classified under eight sections as dictionary strategies, guessing strategies, study preferences, memory strategies, autonomy, note- taking strategies, selective attention, and social strategies. The participants were asked to answer each item with a 5-point Likert-style frequency scale as follows:1) I never or almost never do this, 2) I don’t usually do this, 3) I sometimes do this, 4) I usually do this, and 5)I always or almost always do this. The results indicated that freshmen students and particularly surgical technology students used more strategies compared to the seniors. Overall guessing and dictionary strategies were the most frequently used strategies among all the learners (p=0/000). The mean and standard deviation of using VLS in the students who had no previous history of participating in the private English language classes was less than the students who had attended these type of classes (p=0/000). Female students tended to use social and study preference strategies whereas male students used mostly guessing and dictionary strategies. It can be concluded that the senior students under instruction from the university have learned to rely on themselves and choose the autonomous strategies more, while freshmen students use more strategies that are related to the study preferences.

Keywords: vocabulary leaning strategies, medical sciences, students, linguistics

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Authors: Fella Lahmar

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This chapter investigates the educational reforms in Algeria, highlighting the challenges and complexities that arise in the context of globalization, equity, and decolonization. While Algeria’s education system historically had a socialist-economic model grounded in Islamic values, contemporary reforms reflect global influences and aspirations for cultural authenticity. The study employed a qualitative approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews with a diverse sample of 15 participants intimately involved in the Algerian education system. Analysis of the data reveals a discrepancy between the educational system’s pedagogical practices and students’ diverse learning needs, implying ramifications for educational equity and social justice. Furthermore, a critical tension was evident between global influences, local cultural authenticity, and the endeavor to decolonize education. In conclusion, the chapter advocates for reforms that prioritize the students’ holistic development and well-being while fostering intrinsic motivation and engagement. This entails re-evaluating curriculum frameworks, assessment strategies, and pedagogies in light of Algeria’s cultural and religious heritage. The chapter also calls for future research to explore methods for innovatively integrating cultural heritage into education in ways to cultivate learners who are both locally grounded and globally aware.

Keywords: impact of globalization on education, parental involvement in education, marketization of education, policy enactment and reform, curriculum overload, holistic approach, shadow education

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Authors: Yelba Maria Carrillo

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The focus of this research study was to explore barriers, if any, faced by parents or legal guardians who are of Latinx background and speak Spanish as a primary language or are bilingual speakers of Spanish and English; barriers that limit their understanding of and involvement in their gifted child’s academic life. This study was guided by a qualitative case study design. The primary investigator hosted focus group interviews at a Magnet Middle School in Southern California. The groups consisted of 25 parents, or legal guardians of bilingual (English/Spanish) or former English learner students enrolled in a school serving 6th-8th grades. The primary investigator interviewed Latinx Spanish-speaking parents or legal guardians of gifted students regarding their perception of their child’s giftedness, parental involvement in schools, and fostering their child’s exceptional abilities. Parents and legal guardians described children as creative, intellectual, and highly intelligent. Key themes such as student performance, language proficiency, socio-emotional, and general intellectual ability were strong indicators of giftedness. Barriers such as language and education inhibited parent and legal guardian ability to understand their child’s giftedness, which resulted in their inability to adequately contribute to the development of their children’s talents and advocate for the appropriate services for their children. However, they recognized the importance of being involved in their child’s academic life and the importance of nurturing their ‘dón’ or ‘gift.’ La Familia is the foundation and core of Latinx culture; and, without a strong foundation, children lack guidance, confidence, and awareness to tap into their gifted abilities. Providing Latinx parents with the proper tools and resources to appropriately identify gifted characteristics and traits could lead to early identification and intervention for students in schools and at home.

Keywords: gifted education, gifted Latino students, Latino parent involvement, high ability students

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Authors: Esther Mafunda, Simbarashe Muparangi

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The present paper tests the applicability of the Regression Hypothesis on the pathological language dissolution of a Shona male adult with Broca’s aphasia. It particularly assesses the prediction of the Regression Hypothesis, which states that the process according to which language is forgotten will be the reversal of the process according to which it will be acquired. The main aim of the paper is to find out whether mirror symmetries between L1 acquisition and L1 dissolution of tense in Shona and, if so, what might cause these regression patterns. The paper also sought to highlight the practical contributions that Linguistic theory can make to solving language-related problems. Data was collected from a 46-year-old male adult with Broca’s aphasia who was receiving speech therapy at St Giles Rehabilitation Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe. The primary data elicitation method was experimental, using the probe technique. The TART (Test for Assessing Reference Time) Shona version in the form of sequencing pictures was used to access tense by Broca’s aphasic and 3.5-year-old child. Using the SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Studies) and Excel analysis, it was established that the use of the future tense was impaired in Shona Broca’s aphasic whilst the present and past tense was intact. However, though the past tense was intact in the male adult with Broca’s aphasic, a reference to the remote past was made. The use of the future tense was also found to be difficult for the 3,5-year-old speaking child. No difficulties were encountered in using the present and past tenses. This means that mirror symmetries were found between L1 acquisition and L1 dissolution of tense in Shona. On the basis of the results of this research, it can be concluded that the use of tense in a Shona adult with Broca’s aphasia supports the Regression Hypothesis. The findings of this study are important in terms of speech therapy in the context of Zimbabwe. The study also contributes to Bantu linguistics in general and to Shona linguistics in particular. Further studies could also be done focusing on the rest of the Bantu language varieties in terms of aphasia.

Keywords: Broca’s Aphasia, regression hypothesis, Shona, language dissolution

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Authors: Mei Lin, Lana Yj Liu, Thin Ngoc Pham

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Postgraduate taught (PGT) students’ learning strategies align with what the learning task constitutes and the environment that the task creates. Cognitively, they can discover new perspectives, challenge general assumptions, establish clear connections, and synthesise information. Metacognitively, their engagement is conducive to the development of planning, monitoring, and evaluating strategies. Given that there has been a lack of longitudinal insights into international PGT students’ experiences of the cognitive and metacognitive space created in the tasks, this paper presentation aims to fill the gaps by longitudinally exploring (1) the fundamentals of task designs to create cognitive and metacognitive space and (2) the opportunities and challenges of multicultural group discussions as a pedagogical approach for the implementation of cognitive and metacognitive space in the learning tasks. Data were collected from the two rounds of semi-structured interviews with 11 international PGT students in two programmes at a UK university -at the end of semester one and at the end of semester two. The findings show that the task designs, to create cognitive and metacognitive space, need to include four interconnected factors: clarity, relevance, motivation, and practicality. In addition, international PGT students perceived that they practised and developed their cognitive and metacognitive abilities while getting immersed in multicultural group discussions. The findings, from the learners’ point of view, make some pedagogy-related suggestions to the task designs at the master’s level, particularly how to engage students in learning during their transition into higher education in a different cultural setting.

Keywords: cognitive space, master students, metacognitive space, task design

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Authors: Varda Gil, Ella Shoval, Tussia Mira

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Teacher mentoring is a complex practical profession whose unique characteristic is the teacher-mentors' commitment to helping teachers link theory with teaching practice in the process of decision-making and in their reflections on teaching. The aim of this research is to examine the way practicing teacher-mentors participating in a teacher mentoring course made the connection between theory and practice. The researchers analyzed 20 final papers submitted by participants in a course to train teacher mentors. The participants were all veteran high-school teachers. The course comprised 112 in-class hours in addition to mentoring novices in the field. The course covered the following topics: The teacher-mentors' perception of their role; formative and summative evaluation of the novices; tutoring strategies and tools; types of learners; and ways of communicating and dealing with novice teachers' resistance to counseling. The course participants were required to write a 4-5 page reflective summary of their field mentoring practice. In addition, they were required to link theories explicitly learned in the course to their practice in the field. A qualitative analysis of the papers led to the creation of the taxonomy of the link between theory and practice relating to four topics: The kinds of links made between theory and practice, the quality of these links, the links made between private teaching theories and official teaching theory, and the qualities of these links. This taxonomy may prove to be a useful tool in the teacher-mentor training processes.

Keywords: taxonomy, teacher-mentors, theory, practice, teacher-mentor training

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Authors: Sabahat Nadeem, Farman Ali Khan

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Emotions are considered as a vital factor affecting the process of information handling, level of attention, memory capacity and decision making. Latest e-Learning systems are therefore taking into consideration the effective state of learners to make the learning process more effective and enjoyable. One such use of user’s affective information is in the systems that tend to regulate users’ emotions to a state optimally desirable for learning. So for, this objective has been tried to be achieved with the help of teaching strategies, background music, guided imagery, video clips and odors. Nevertheless, we know that colors can affect human emotions. Relationship between color and emotions has a strong influence on how we perceive our environment. Similarly, the colors of the interface can also affect the user positively as well as negatively. This affective behavior of color and its use as emotion regulation agent is not yet exploited. Therefore, this research proposes a Color-based Emotion Regulation Model (CERM), a new framework that can automatically adapt its colors according to user’s emotional state and her personality type and can help in producing a desirable emotional effect, aiming at providing an unobtrusive emotional support to the users of e-learning environment. The evaluation of CERM is carried out by comparing it with classical non-adaptive, static colored learning management system. Results indicate that colors of the interface, when carefully selected has significant positive impact on learner’s emotions.

Keywords: effective learning, e-learning, emotion regulation, emotional design

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Authors: Anne Crescini

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The number of loanwords borrowed into the Japanese language is increasing rapidly in recent years, and many linguists argue that loanwords make up more than 10% of the Japanese lexicon. While these loanwords come from various Western languages, 80%-90% are borrowed from English. Also, there is a separate group of words and phrases categorized as ‘Japanese English’. These made-in-Japan linguistic creations may look and sound like English, but in fact are not used by native speakers and are often incomprehensible to them. Linguistically, the important thing to remember is that these terms are not English ones, but in fact, 100% Japanese words. A problem arises in language teaching, however, when Japanese English learners are unable to distinguish authentic loans from Japanese English terms. This confusion could greatly impede language acquisition and communication. The goal of this paper is to determine to what degree this potential misunderstanding may interfere with communication. Native English speakers living in the United States were interviewed and shown a list of romanized Japanese English terms, which are both commonly used and often mistaken for authentic loans. Then, the words were put into the context of a sentence in order to ascertain if context in any way aided comprehension. The results showed that while some terms are understood on their own, and others are understood better in context, a large number of the terms are entirely incomprehensible to native English speakers. If that is the case, and a Japanese learner mistakes a Japanese English term for an authentic loan, a communication breakdown may occur during interaction in English. With the ever-increasing presence of both groups of terms in the Japanese language, it is more important than ever that teaching professionals address this topic in the language classroom.

Keywords: Japanese, Japanese English, language acquisition, loanwords

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Authors: Hezha Hewa, Taher Sur

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Nowadays, child affairs is a matter of both national and international interests. This issue is regarded a vital topic for various scientific fields across ages, and for all the communities without exception. However, the nature of child caring may vary due to the verities in science perspectives. So, considering child's affairs from different perspectives is helpful to have a complementary image about this matter. The purpose behind selecting this topic is to keep a balance between the victim on the one hand, and the guardian and the offender on the other hand, (i.e.) to avoid any kind of excessiveness either in the protection of the child and its rights not in the punishment of the offender. This is achieved through considering various legal materials in the Iraqi legislation and in the comparative legislations that are concerned with the child's issue and the extent to which the child makes use of these rights. The scope of this study involves the crimes that are considered as aggressions against the child's right to life, and the crimes that are dangerous to their physical and psychological safety. So, this study comprehensively considers the intentional murder of child, child murder to avoid disgrace, child kidnapping, child abandonment, physical abuse for the sake of punishment or not, child circumcision, verbal violence, and abstaining from leaving a child with a person who has the right of custody. This study ends with the most significant concluding points that have been derived throughout this study, which are: Unlike the Iraqi legislation, the Egyptian legislation defines the child in the Article 2 of the Child Law No. 12 of 1996 amended by the Law No. 126 of 2008 that the child is a person who does not exceed 18 years of age. Some legislation does not provide special criminal protection for child intentional murder, as in the Iraqi and the Egyptian legislation. However, some others have provided special criminal protection for a child, as in French and Syrian legislations. Child kidnapping is regarded as one of the most dangerous crimes that affects the child and the family as well, as it may expose the child's life to danger or to death. The most significant recommendations from the researcher are: The Iraqi legislation is recommended to take the necessary measures to establish a particular legislation for the child by including all the legal provisions that are associated with this weak creature, and make use of the Egyptian legislator’s experience as a pioneer in this respect. Both the Iraqi legislation and the Egyptian legislation are recommended to enact special laws to protect a child from the crimes of intentional murder, as the crime of child murder is currently subjected to the same provisions consider for adult murder.

Keywords: child, criminal, penal, law, safety

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Authors: Kemal Izci, Ahmet Oguz Akturk

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Learning is dependent on cognitive and physical differences as well as other differences such as ethnicity, language, and culture. Furthermore, these differences also influence how students show their learning. Assessment is an integral part of learning and teaching process and is essential for effective instruction. In order to provide effective instruction, teachers need to provide equal assessment opportunities for all students to see their learning difficulties and use them to modify instruction to aid learning. Successful assessment practices are dependent upon the knowledge and value of teachers. Therefore, in order to use assessment to assess and support diverse students learning, preservice and inservice teachers should hold an appropriate understanding of equitable assessment. In order to prepare teachers to help them support diverse student learning, as a first step, this study aims to explore how preservice teachers’ understand equitable assessment. 105 preservice science teachers studying at teacher preparation program in a large university located at Eastern part of Turkey participated in the current study. A questionnaire, preservice teachers’ reflection papers and interviews served as data sources for this study. All collected data qualitatively analyzed to develop themes that illustrate preservice science teachers’ understanding of equitable assessment. Results of the study showed that preservice teachers mostly emphasized fairness including fairness in grading and fairness in asking questions not out of covered concepts for equitable assessment. However, most of preservice teachers do not show an understanding of equity for providing equal opportunities for all students to display their understanding of related content. For some preservice teachers providing different opportunities (providing extra time for non-native speaking students) for some students seems to be unfair for other students and therefore, these kinds of refinements do not need to be used. The results of the study illustrated that preservice science teachers mostly understand equitable assessment as fairness and less highlight the role of using equitable assessment to support all student learning, which is more important in order to improve students’ achievement of science. Therefore, we recommend that more opportunities should be provided for preservice teachers engage in a more broad understanding of equitable assessment and learn how to use equitable assessment practices to aid and support all students learning trough classroom assessment.

Keywords: science teaching, equitable assessment, assessment literacy, preservice science teachers

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Authors: Karen Jacob

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Over the last decades, there has been a rise in the use of CLIL (content and language integrated learning) methodology as a way of reinforcing FL (foreign language) acquisition. CLIL techniques have also been transferred to the formal instruction-based FL classroom where through content-based lessons and project work it can very often say that teachers are ‘clilling’ in the FL classroom. When it comes to motivating students to acquire an FL, we have to take into account that English is not your run-of-the-mill FL: English is an international language (EIL). Consequently, this means that EFL students should be able to use English as an international medium of communication. This leads to the assumption that along with FL competence, speakers of EIL will need to become competent international citizens with knowledge of other societies, both contextually and geographically, and be flexible, open-minded, respectful and sensitive towards other world groups. Rather than ‘intercultural’ competence we should be referring to ‘transcultural’ competence. This paper reports the implementation of a content- and task-based approach to EFL teaching which was applied to two groups of 15 year-olds from two schools on the Spanish island of Mallorca during the school year 2015-2016. Students worked on three units of work that aimed at ‘internationalising’ the classroom by introducing topics that would encourage them to become transculturally aware of the world in which they live. In this paper we discuss the feedback given by the teachers and students on various aspects of the approach in order to answer the following research questions: 1) To what extent were the students motivated by the content and activities of the classes?; 2) Did this motivation have a positive effect on the students’ overall results for the subject; 3) Did the participants show any signs of becoming transculturally aware. Preliminary results from qualitative data show that the students enjoyed the move away from the more traditional EFL content and, as a result, they became more competent in speaking and writing. Students also appeared to become more knowledgeable and respectful towards the ‘other’. The EFL approach described in this paper takes a more qualitative approach to research by describing what is really going on in the EFL classroom and makes a conscious effort to provide real examples of not only the acquisition of linguistic competence but also the acquisition of other important communication skills that are of utmost importance in today's international arena.

Keywords: CLIL, content- and task-based learning, internationalisation, transcultural competence

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Authors: Joanna Kufel-Orlowska

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Domestic violence is a social threat to public safety and order. It poses a threat not only to the family members of the perpetrator but also disturbs the functioning of society and even the state. In a situation of danger, an individual either defends himself or/and calls for help by contacting an appropriate institution whose aim is to ensure civil security. Most often, such contact takes place through a telephone conversation, which is aimed at diagnosing the problem and prompt intervention. People in different situations and in different ways, despite the general reporting standards, try to inform about the need for help. The article aims to present the results of research on non-standard forms of reporting domestic violence in the opinion of the Polish society and operators of the Polish emergency number 112 (911). The research was conducted in the form of a survey technique on a sample of 160 operators (purposeful selection) and 300 people living in Poland (random selection). The research was conducted in the form of online surveys. The study found that in Poland: 1. emergency number operators often receive reports of domestic violence although they are not always able to diagnose whether the case is strictly about violence; 2. non-standard reports of domestic violence are received by about 30% of emergency number operators. Non-standard should be understood as reports of violence that deviate from the norm, are unusual, or are reported by a non-victim. 3. The most common forms of reporting violence not directly are: pretending to talk to a friend, calling a cab, making an appointment with a dentist/doctor, calling a store and helping with the selection of goods, asking about the bank's hotline, not speaking (in order for the emergency number operator to hear what is going on). 4. Emergency number operators in Poland are properly trained and are able to recognize the threatening situation of the reporting party and conduct the conversation in a safe manner for the reporting party. On the other hand, Polish people support the ability to report violence in a non-standard way and would do so themselves in the event of a threat to their own life, health, or property, thus expecting the emergency number operator to recognize a report and help us.

Keywords: domestic violence, operator of the emergency number 112 (911), emergency call center, reporting domestic violence

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Authors: Petar Dobrev

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There is no agreed-upon definition of firm quality. While profitability and stock performance often qualify as popular proxies of quality, in this project, we aim to identify quality without relying on a firm’s financial statements or stock returns as selection criteria. Instead, we use firm-level data on management practices across small to medium-sized U.S. manufacturing firms from the World Management Survey (WMS) to measure firm quality. Each firm in the WMS dataset is assigned a mean management score from 0 to 5, with higher scores identifying better-managed firms. This management score serves as our proxy for firm quality and is the sole criteria we use to separate firms into portfolios comprised of high-quality and low-quality firms. We define high-quality (low-quality) firms as those firms with a management score of one standard deviation above (below) the mean. To study whether this proxy for firm quality can identify better-performing firms, we link this data to Compustat and The Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) to obtain firm-level data on financial performance and monthly stock returns, respectively. We find that from 1999 to 2019 (our sample data period), firms in the high-quality portfolio are consistently more profitable — higher operating profitability and return on equity compared to low-quality firms. In addition, high-quality firms also exhibit a lower risk of bankruptcy — a higher Altman Z-score. Next, we test whether the stocks of the firms in the high-quality portfolio earn superior risk-adjusted excess returns. We regress the monthly excess returns on each portfolio on the Fama-French 3-factor, 4-factor, and 5-factor models, the betting-against-beta factor, and the quality-minus-junk factor. We find no statistically significant differences in excess returns between both portfolios, suggesting that stocks of high-quality (well managed) firms do not earn superior risk-adjusted returns compared to low-quality (poorly managed) firms. In short, our proxy for firm quality, the WMS management score, can identify firms with superior financial performance (higher profitability and reduced risk of bankruptcy). However, our management proxy cannot identify stocks that earn superior risk-adjusted returns, suggesting no statistically significant relationship between managerial quality and stock performance.

Keywords: excess stock returns, management, profitability, quality

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Authors: Xuan Li

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The English language occupies a crucial position in the Chinese educational system and is officially introduced in the school curriculum from the third year of primary school onward. However, it is worth noting that along with the movement to remove primary-oriented education from preschools, the teaching of English is banned in preschools. Considering the worldwide trend of learning English at a young age, whether this ban can be implemented successfully is doubtful. With an initial focus on the interaction of language-in-education planning and policy (LEPP) at the macro level and actual practice at the micro level, this research selected three private preschools and two public preschools to explore what is taking place in terms of English education. All data collected is qualitative and is gained from documentary analysis, school observation, interviews, and focus groups. The findings show that: (1) although the English ban in preschool education aims to regulate all types of preschools and all adult Chinese participants are aware of this ban, there are very different scenarios according to type of preschool, such that no English classes are found in public schools while private preschools commonly provide some kind of English education; (2) even public schools do not have an English-free environment and parents’ demand for English education is high; (3) there is an obvious top-down hierarchy in both public and private schools, in which administrators make the decisions while others have little power to influence the school curriculum; (4) there is a clear gap in the perception of English teaching between children and adults, in which adults prefer foreign English teachers and think English teaching is just playing, while children do not have a clear preference regarding teachers and do not think English class is just for fun; (5) without macro support, there are many challenges involved in preschool English education, including the shortage of qualified teachers and teaching resources, ineffective personnel management and few opportunities for speaking English in daily life. Hopefully, this research will not only highlight the interaction of LEPP at different levels and the importance of individual agency but also raise the awareness of how to provide qualified and equal education for all children.

Keywords: individual agency, language-in-education planning and policy, micro context, preschool English education

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Authors: Laura M. Schwarz

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WebQuests are an internet-based interactive teaching/learning tool and utilize a scaffolded methodology. WebQuests employ critical thinking, afford inquiry-based constructivist learning, and readily employ Bloom’s Taxonomy. WebQuests have generally been used as instructional technology tools in primary and secondary education and have more recently grown in popularity in higher education. The study of the efficacy of WebQuests as an instructional approach to learning, however, has been limited, particularly in the nursing education arena. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to determine nursing students’ perceptions of the effectiveness of the Nursing WebQuest as a teaching/learning strategy for holistic nursing-related content. Quantitative findings (N=42) suggested that learners were active participants, used reflection, thought of new ideas, used analysis skills, discovered something new, and assessed the worth of something while taking part in the WebQuests. Qualitative findings indicated that participants found WebQuest positives as easy to understand and navigate; clear and organized; interactive; good alternative learning format, and used a variety of quality resources. Participants saw drawbacks as requiring additional time and work; and occasional failed link or link causing them to lose their location in the WebQuest. Recommendations include using larger sample size and more diverse populations from various programs and universities. In conclusion, WebQuests were found to be an effective teaching/learning tool as positively assessed by study participants.

Keywords: holistic nursing, nursing education, teaching/learning strategy, WebQuests

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Authors: Don August G. Delgado

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Foreign Language acquisition without enough motivation is tough because it is the force that drives students’ interest or enthusiasm to achieve learning. In addition, it also serves as the students’ beacon to achieve their goals, desires, dreams, and aspirations in life. Since it plays an integral factor in language learning acquisition, this study focuses on the integrative and instrumental motivation levels of all the first year students of Naresuan University International College. The identification of their motivation level and inclination in learning the English language will greatly help all NUIC lecturers and administrators to create a project or activities that they will truly enjoy and find worth doing. However, if the findings of this study will say otherwise, this study can also show to NUIC lecturers and administrators how they can help and transform NUIC freshmen on becoming motivated learners to enhance their English proficiency levels. All respondents in this study received an adopted and developed questionnaire from different researches in the same perspective. The questionnaire has 24 questions that were randomly arranged; 12 for integrative motivation and 12 for instrumental motivation. The questionnaire employed the five-point Likert scale. The tabulated data were analyzed according to its means and standard deviations using the Standard Deviation Calculator. In order to interpret the motivation level of the respondents, the Interpretation of Mean Scores was utilized. Thus, this study concludes that majority of the NUIC freshmen are neither integratively motivated nor instrumentally motivated students.

Keywords: motivation, integrative, foreign language acquisition, instrumental

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Authors: Małgorzata Osowiecka

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Negative emotions are rather seen as creativity inhibitor. On the other hand, it is worth noting that negative emotions may be good for our functioning. Negative emotions enhance cognitive resources and improve evaluative processes. Moreover maintaining a negative emotional state allow for cognitive reinterpretation of the emotional stimuli, what is good for our creativity, especially cognitive flexibility. Writing a diary or writing about difficult emotional experiences in general can be the way to not only improve psychical health, but also – enhance creative behaviors. Thanks to translating difficult emotions to the verbal level and giving them ‘a name’ or ‘a label’, we can get easier access to both emotional content of an experience and to the semantic content, without the need of speaking out loud. Expressive writing improves academic results and the efficiency of working memory. The classical method of writing about emotions consists in a long-term process of describing negative experiences. Present research demonstrate the efficiency of this process over a shorter period of time - one writing session, on school children sample. Participants performed writing task. Writing task had two different topics: emotions connected with their negative emotions (expressive writing) and content not connected with negative emotional state (writing about one’s typical day). Creativity was measured by Guilford’s Alternative Uses Task. Results have shown that writing about negative emotions results in the higher level of divergent thinking in all three parameters: fluency, flexibility and originality. After the writing task mood of expressive writing participants remained negative more than the mood of the controls. Taking an expressive action after a difficult emotional experience can support functioning, which can be observed in enhancement of divergent thinking. Writing about emotions connected with negative experience makes one more creative, than writing about something unrelated with difficult emotional moments. Research has shown that young people should not demonize negative emotions. Sometimes, properly applied, negative emotions can be the basis of creation. Preparation was supported by a The Young Scientist University grant titled ‘Dynamics of emotions in the creative process’ from The Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

Keywords: creativity, divergent thinking, emotions, expressive writing

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Authors: Eleni Giouli

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Distance learning provides a flexible approach to education, enabling busy learners to complete their coursework at their own pace, on their own schedule, and from a convenient location. This flexibility combined with a series of other issues; make the benefits of lifelong distance learning numerous. The purpose of the paper is to investigate whether distance education can contribute to the improvement of adult skills in Greece, highlighting in this way the necessity of the lifelong distance learning. To investigate this goal, a questionnaire is constructed and analyzed based on responses from 3,016 attendees of lifelong distance learning programs in the e-learning of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece. In order to do so, a series of relationships is examined including the effects of a) the gender, b) the previous educational level, c) the current employment status, and d) the method used in the distance learning program, on the development of new general, technical, administrative, social, cultural, entrepreneurial and green skills. The basic conclusions that emerge after using a binary logistic framework are that the following factors are critical in order to develop new skills: the gender, the education level and the educational method used in the lifelong distance learning program. The skills more significantly affected by those factors are the acquiring new skills in general, as well as acquiring general, language and cultural, entrepreneurial and green skills, while for technical and social skills only gender and educational method play a crucial role. Moreover, routine skills and social skills are not affected by the four factors included in the analysis.

Keywords: adult skills, distance learning, education, lifelong learning

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Authors: Paul Lam, Chi Him Chan, Alan Tse

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Language laboratories have been widely used in language learning, starting in the middle of the last century as one of the earliest forms of educational technology. They are designed to assist students’ language learning with technological innovations. Traditional language laboratories provide individual workstations that allow students to access multimedia language resources. In this type of facility, students can train their listening and speaking abilities, and teachers can also assess the performance of an individual student. Although such a setting promotes a student-centered pedagogy by encouraging students to work at their own pace and according to their own needs, it still favours a traditional, behaviourist language learning pedagogy which focuses on repetitive drilling. The change of pedagogies poses challenges to both the teachers and the facilities. The peer-learning pedagogy advocates that language learning should focus on the social aspect, which emphasizes the importance of everyday communication in language learning. The self-access, individual workstation language laboratories may not be able to provide the flexibility for interaction in the new pedagogies. Modern advancement in technology is another factor that drove our language laboratory renovation. In particular, mobile and wireless technology enabled the use of smaller and more flexible devices, making possible much clever use of space. The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) renovated nine existing language laboratories to provide lighter and more advanced equipment, movable tables, and round desks. These facilities allow more flexibility and encourage students’ interaction. It is believed that the renovated language laboratories can serve different peer learning activities and thus support peer-learning pedagogies in language teaching and learning. A survey has been conducted to collect comments from the teachers who have used the renovated language laboratories and received forty-four response. The teachers’ comments reveal that they experienced different challenges in using the renovated language laboratories, and there is a need to provide guidance to teachers during the technological and pedagogical transition. For example, teachers need instruction on using the newly installed devices such as touch-monitor and visualizer. They also need advice on planning new teaching and learning activities. Nevertheless, teachers appreciated that the renovated language laboratories are flexible and provide more spaces for different learning activities.

Keywords: language laboratories, language learning, peer-learning, student interaction

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