Search results for: foreign language programs

Authors: Mohammed Hassan Alshaikhi

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Teaching vocabulary is a fundamental step in helping students to develop a good grasp of language. Exploring new strategies is an essential part of improving the teaching of vocabulary. The study aimed to explore the teaching vocabulary strategies in Saudi primary classrooms (aged 11 and 12 years old) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The study was based on qualitative data collected from a large-scale case study, which utilised observations at eight male state and private primary schools during the academic year 2016-2017. The observations were transcribed, coded and entered into Nvivo software to be organised and analysed. Varying teaching vocabulary strategies were explored, and then they were circulated to many English teachers to be used in their classes.

Keywords: case study, English language, Saudi teachers, teaching vocabulary strategies

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Authors: Bahia Braktia, S. Anna Marcela Montenegro, Imene Abdessemed

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Adult education is still considered a crucial area of education. In a developing framework, it is regarded as a practical approach for social inclusion and poverty reduction. They are also perceived as a way to serve adults who did not have the chance to education in their early ages by providing them knowledge, skills and values. Non-formal adult education and trainings are critical means in a society to break poverty and unemployment, and to decrease the social inequality. This paper investigates the perception of women trainees about a series of workshops in natural beauty products, held in Algeria and Costa Rica and organized by a non-profit educational organization, to improve their socio-economic status. This research seeks to explore ways of empowering women by assessing their needs and providing them with skills to start their own business. A questionnaire is administered before the workshops and focus groups are held at the end. A qualitative research method is employed to analyze the data. Preliminary results show that the trainees aspire to create their businesses with the objectives of poverty reduction and social inclusion. The findings also reveal the need for small business funding programs and entrepreneurial training programs.

Keywords: adult education, non-formal education, socio-economic status, women empowerment

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Authors: Chek Kim Loi

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The study attempts to undertake an error analysis of prepositions employed in the written work of Form 4 Malay ESL (English as a Second Language) students in Malaysia. The error analysis is undertaken using Richards’s (1974) framework of intralingual and interlingual errors and Bennett’s (1975) framework in identifying prepositional concepts found in the sample. The study first identifies common prepositional errors in the written texts of 150 student participants. It then measures the relative intensities of these errors and finds out the possible causes for the occurrences of these errors. In this study, one significant finding is that among the nine concepts of prepositions examined, the participant students tended to make errors in the use of prepositions of time and place. The present study has pedagogical implications in teaching English prepositions to Malay ESL students.

Keywords: error, interlingual, intralingual, preposition

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Authors: Sherly Ferro Lensun, Donal Matheos Ratu, Elni Jeini Usoh, Helena M. L. Pandi, Mayske Rinny Liando

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This study aims to gain a deep understanding of the process and the increase resulting in mastery of Kanji with a Language Learning Strategies through multimedia. This research aims to gain scientific data on process and the result of improving kanji mastery by using Chokusetsu strategy in Kanji learning. The method used in this research is Action Research developed by Kemmis and Mc. Taggart is known as Spiral Model. This model consists of following stages: planning, implementation, observation, and reflection. The research results in following findings: (1) Kanji mastery comprises 4 major aspects, those are reading, writing, the use in sentence, and memorizing, and those aspects show gradual improvement from time to time. (2) Students have more participation in learning activities which can be identified from some positive behaviours such giving respond in finishing exercise in class. (3) Students’ better attention to the lesson shown by active behaviour in giving more questions or asking for more explanation to the lecturers, memorizing Kanji card, finishing the task of making Kanji card/house, doing the exercises more seriously, and finishing homework assignment punctually. (4) More attractive learning activities and tasks in the forms of more engaging colour and pictures enables students to conduct self-evaluation on their learning process.

Keywords: Kanji, action research, language learning strategies, multimedia

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Authors: Tiffany Karalis Noel

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The purpose of this study was to examine the factors attributed to the self-efficacy of beginning secondary content area teachers as they moved through their student teaching experiences. This study used a narrative inquiry methodology to understand the variables attributed to teacher self-efficacy among a group of secondary content area teacher candidates. The primary purpose of using a narrative inquiry methodology was to share the stories of content area teacher candidates’ student teaching experiences. Focused research questions included: (1) To what extent does teacher education preparation affect the self-efficacy of beginning content area teachers? (2) Which recurrent elements of teacher education affect the self-efficacy of beginning teachers, regardless of content area? (3) How do the findings from research questions 1 and 2 inform teacher educators? The findings of this study suggest that teacher education preparation affects the self-efficacy of beginning secondary teacher candidates across the content areas; accordingly, the findings of this study provide insight for teacher educators to consider the areas where teacher education programs are failing to provide adequate preparation. These teacher candidates emphasized the value of adequate preparation throughout their teacher education programs to help inform their student teaching experiences. In order to feel effective and successful as beginning teachers, these teacher candidates required additional opportunities to apply the practical application of their teaching skills prior to the student teaching experience, the incorporation of classroom management strategy coursework into their curriculum, and opportunities to explore the extensive demands of the teaching profession ranging from time management to dealing with difficult parents, to name a few referenced examples. The teacher candidates experienced feelings of self-doubt related to their effectiveness as teachers when they were unable to employ successful classroom management strategies, pedagogical techniques, or even feel confidence in navigating challenging conversations with students, parents, and/or administrators. In order to help future teacher candidates and beginning teachers in general overcome these barriers, additional coursework, fieldwork, and practical application experiences should be provided in teacher education programs to help boost the self-efficacy of student teachers.

Keywords: self-efficacy, teacher efficacy, secondary preservice teacher education, teacher candidacy, student teaching

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Authors: Durjoy Lahiri, Vishal Madhukar Sawale, Ashwani Bhat, Souvik Dubey, Gautam Das, Biman Kanti Roy, Suparna Chatterjee, Goutam Gangopadhyay

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Crossed aphasia has been an area of considerable interest for cognitive researchers as it offers a fascinating insight into cerebral lateralization for language function. We conducted an observational study in the stroke unit of a tertiary care neurology teaching hospital in eastern India on subjects with crossed aphasia over a period of four years. During the study period, we detected twelve cases of crossed aphasia in strongly right-handed patients, caused by ischemic stroke. The age, gender, vernacular language and educational status of the patients were noted. Aphasia type and severity were assessed using Bengali version of Western Aphasia Battery (validated). Computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and angiography were used to evaluate the location and extent of the ischemic lesion in brain. Our series of 12 cases of crossed aphasia included 7 male and 5 female with mean age being 58.6 years. Eight patients were found to have Broca’s aphasia, 3 had trans-cortical motor aphasia and 1 patient suffered from global aphasia. Nine patients were having very severe aphasia and 3 suffered from mild aphasia. Mirror-image type of crossed aphasia was found in 3 patients, whereas 9 had anomalous variety. In our study crossed aphasia was found to be more frequent in males. Anomalous pattern was more common than mirror-image. Majority of the patients had motor-type aphasia and no patient was found to have pure comprehension deficit. We hypothesize that in Bengali-speaking right-handed population, lexical-semantic system of the language network remains loyal to the left hemisphere even if the phonological output system is anomalously located in the right hemisphere.

Keywords: aphasia, crossed, lateralization, language function, vascular

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Authors: Halkiopoulos Constantinos, Koutsopoulou Ioanna, Gkintoni Evgenia, Antonopoulou Hera

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Immunization appears to be an essential part of health care service in times of pandemics such as covid-19 and aims not only to protect the health of the population but also the health and sustainability of the economies of the countries affected. It is reported that more than 3.44 billion doses have been administered so far, which accounts for 45 doses for 100 people. Vaccination programs in various countries have been promoted and accepted by people differently and therefore they proceeded in different ways and speed; most countries directing them towards people with vulnerable chronic or recent health statuses. Large scale restriction measures or lockdown, personal protection measures such as masks and gloves and a decrease in leisure and sports activities were also implemented around the world as part of the protection health strategies against the covid-19 pandemic. This research aims to present an analysis based on variations on people’s attitudes towards vaccination based on demographic, social and epidemiological characteristics, and health status on the one hand and perception of health, health satisfaction, pain, and quality of life on the other hand. 1500 Greek e-consumers participated in the research, mainly through social media who took part in an online-based survey voluntarily. The questionnaires included demographic, social and medical characteristics of the participants, and questions asking people’s willingness to be vaccinated and their opinion on whether there should be a vaccine against covid-19. Other stressor factors were also reported in the questionnaires and participants’ loss of someone close due to covid-19, or staying at home quarantine due to being infected from covid-19. WHOQUOL-BREF and GLOBAL PSYCHOTRAUMA SCREEN- GPS were used with kind permission from WHO and from the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies in this study. Attitudes towards vaccination varied significantly related to aging, level of education, health status and consumer behavior. Health professionals’ attitudes also varied in relation to age, level of education, profession, health status and consumer needs. Vaccines have been the most common technological aid of human civilization so far in the fight against viruses. The results of this study can be used for health managers and digital marketers of pharmaceutical companies and also other staff involved in vaccination programs and for designing health policy immunization strategies during pandemics in order to achieve positive attitudes towards vaccination and larger populations being vaccinated in shorter periods of time after the break out of pandemic. Health staff needs to be trained, aided and supervised to go through with vaccination programs and to be protected through vaccination programs themselves. Feedback in each country’s vaccination program, short backs, deficiencies and delays should be addressed and worked out.

Keywords: consumer behavior, cognitive models, vaccination policy, pandemic, Covid-19, Greece

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Authors: Ghada Ahmed

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Feminist translation is one of the strategies adopted in the field of translation studies when a gendered content is being rendered from one language to another, and this strategy has been examined in previous studies on written texts. This research, however, addresses the practice of feminist translation in audiovisual texts that are concerned with the screen, dialogue, image and visual aspects. In this thesis, the objectives are studying feminist translation and its adaptation in subtitling from Arabic into English. It addresses the connections between gender and translation as one domain and feminist translation practices with particular consideration of feminist translation strategies in English subtitles. It examines the visibility of the translator throughout the process, assuming that feminist translation is a product directed by the translator’s feminist position, culture, and ideology as a means of helping unshadow women. It also discusses how subtitling constraints impact feminist translation and how the image that has a narrative value can be integrated into the content of the English subtitles. The reasons for conducting this research project are to study language sexism in English and look into Arabic into English gendered content, taking into consideration the Arabic cultural concepts that may lose their connotations when they are translated into English. This research is also analysing the image in an audiovisual text and its contribution to the written dialogue in subtitling. Thus, this research attempts to answer the following questions: To what extent is there a form of affinity between a gendered content and translation? Is feminist translation an act of merely working on a feminist text or feminising the language of any text, by incorporating the translator’s ideology? How can feminist translation practices be applied in an audiovisual text? How likely is it to adapt feminist translation looking into visual components as well as subtitling constraints? Moreover, the paper searches into the fields of gender and translation; feminist translation, language sexism, media studies, and the gap in the literature related to feminist translation practice in visual texts. For my case study, the "Speed Sisters" film has been chosen so as to analyze its English subtitles for my research. The film is a documentary that was produced in 2015 and directed by Amber Fares. It is about five Palestinian women who try to break the stereotypes about women, and have taken their passion about car-racing forward to be the first all-women car-racing driving team in the Middle East. It tackles the issue of gender in both content and language and this is reflected in the translation. As the research topic is semiotic-channelled, the choice for the theoretical approaches varies and combines between translation studies, audiovisual translation, gender studies, and media studies. Each of which will contribute to understanding a specific field of the research and the results will eventually be integrated to achieve the intended objectives in a way that demonstrates rendering a gendered content in one of the audiovisual translation modes from a language into another.

Keywords: audiovisual translation, feminist translation, films gendered content, subtitling conventions and constraints

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Authors: Azaz Zaman, Mirazur Rahman

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Capital market is a crucial financial market place where companies and the government can raise long-term funds and, at the same time, investors get the opportunity to invest in the listed companies. Capital markets play a vital role not only in shifting the funds from surplus entity to deficit for investment, but also in the overall economic development of any developing country like Bangladesh. Being the first and biggest capital market of Bangladesh, Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE) is the prime bourse of the country. The differences in the investment preference— among three broad categories of investors in DSE including individual investors, institutional investors, and government— are easily observed. Authors of this article have used five categories of investors such as sponsors or directors of the company, institutional investors, foreign investors, government, and the general public in order to present a comparative analysis of their investment patterns. Obtaining data on the percentage of investment by these five types of investors in different sectors from the DSE website, this study aims to analyze the sector-wise investment preference of these investors using August 2018 data. The study has found that the sponsors or directors of the company have the highest percentage of investment in the textile industry which is close to 16%. The Bangladesh government, as an investor, has the highest percentage of investment in the fuel & power sector, approximately 32%. It has also found that the mutual funds' sector is mostly financed by institutional investors, nearly 28%. Foreign investors have their most investments in the banking sector, which is close to 22%. It has also revealed that the textile sector is mostly financed by the general public, close to 17%. Nevertheless, general public, surprisingly, has the lowest percentage of investment in the telecommunication sector, which is 0.10%.

Keywords: stock market investment, Dhaka stock exchange, capital market, Bangladesh

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Authors: John Zanetich

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Due to their positive associations with student learning and retention, certain undergraduate opportunities are designated ‘high-impact.’ High-Impact Practices (HIPs) such as, learning communities, community based projects, research, internships, study abroad and culminating senior experience, share several traits bin common: they demand considerable time and effort, learning occurs outside of the classroom, and they require meaningful interactions between faculty and students, they encourage collaboration with diverse others, and they provide frequent and substantive feedback. As a result of experiential learning in these practices, participation in these practices can be life changing. High impact learning helps individuals locate tacit knowledge, and build mental models that support the accumulation of knowledge. On-going learning from experience and knowledge conversion provides the individual with a way to implicitly organize knowledge and share knowledge over a lifetime. Knowledge conversion is a knowledge management component which focuses on the explication of the tacit knowledge that exists in the minds of students and that knowledge which is embedded in the process and relationships of the classroom educational experience. Knowledge conversion is required when working with tacit knowledge and the demand for a learner to align deeply held beliefs with the cognitive dissonance created by new information. Knowledge conversion and tacit knowledge result from the fact that an individual's way of knowing, that is, their core belief structure, is considered generalized and tacit instead of explicit and specific. As a phenomenon, tacit knowledge is not readily available to the learner for explicit description unless evoked by an external source. The development of knowledge–related capabilities such as Aggressive Development of Tacit Knowledge (ADTK) can be used in experiential educational programs to enhance knowledge, foster behavioral change, improve decision making, and overall performance. ADTK allows the student in HIPs to use their existing knowledge in a way that allows them to evaluate and make any necessary modifications to their core construct of reality in order to amalgamate new information. Based on the Lewin/Schein Change Theory, the learner will reach for tacit knowledge as a stabilizing mechanism when they are challenged by new information that puts them slightly off balance. As in word association drills, the important concept is the first thought. The reactionary outpouring to an experience is the programmed or tacit memory and knowledge of their core belief structure. ADTK is a way to help teachers design their own methods and activities to unfreeze, create new learning, and then refreeze the core constructs upon which future learning in a subject area is built. This paper will explore the use of ADTK as a technique for knowledge conversion in the classroom in general and in HIP programs specifically. It will focus on knowledge conversion in curriculum development and propose the use of one-time educational experiences, multi-session experiences and sequential program experiences focusing on tacit knowledge in educational programs.

Keywords: tacit knowledge, knowledge management, college programs, experiential learning

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Authors: Hanadi Mubarak Al-Mubaraki, Michael Busler

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Innovation is the powerful tools for economic growth and diversification, which lead to smart growth. The objective of this paper is to identify the opportunities and challenges of innovation programs discuss and analyse the implementation of the innovation program in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK). To achieve the objectives, the research used a mixed methods approach, quantitative (survey), and qualitative (multi-case study) to examine innovation best practices in developed countries. In addition, the selection of 4 interview case studies of innovation organisations based on the best practices and successful implementation worldwide. The research findings indicated the two challenges such as 1) innovation required business ecosystem support to deliver innovation outcomes such as new product and new services, and 2) foster the climate of innovation &entrepreneurship for economic growth and diversification. Although the two opportunities such as 1) sustainability of the innovation events which lead smart growth, and 2) establish the for fostering the artificial intelligence hub entrepreneurship networking at multi-levels. The research adds value to academicians and practitioners such as government, funded organizations, institutions, and policymakers. The authors aim to conduct future research a comparative study of innovation case studies between developed and developing countries for policy implications worldwide. The Originality of This study contributes to current literature about the innovation best practice in developed and developing countries.

Keywords: economic development, technology transfer, entrepreneurship, innovation program

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Authors: Stephen Hernandez, Nikita Sharma

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The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) emerged as a worldwide pandemic at the beginning of 2020. The pandemic and its impact reached the shores of the United States by the second week of March. Once infections started to grow in numbers, early intervention programs, including those providing home-based services, recognized that to reduce the spread of the virus, many traditional in-person therapeutic interventions were going to be impossible due to social distancing and self-quarantine requirements. Initially, infants, toddlers, and their families were left without any services from their educators and therapists, but within a few weeks of the public health emergency, various states, including New York, approved the use of teletherapy/virtual visits for early intervention service provision. This paper will detail the results of a survey from over 400 E.I. service providers about their experiences utilizing teletherapy to deliver services to children in early intervention programs. The survey questions focused on how did COVID-19 stay-at-home orders impact E.I. services for young children with special needs? Sub-questions included topics such as availability of the parents, the amount of time that babies remained engaged, as well as the perceived success of teletherapy as a viable option to provide service by both parent and professional. The results of this study found that therapists found teletherapy to be a viable manner of providing services and could be very effective on a case by case basis.

Keywords: early intervention, teletheraphy, telehealth, COVID-19

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Authors: Mashael AlSalem

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While research into language assessment has expanded in recent years, few if any studies to date have targeted the nature of thought processes used by teachers when constructing classroom-based assessment. This study reports on teachers’ conceptions of English grammar assessment and their classroom assessment practices in their Saudi higher educational facilities. A mixed-method approach using both qualitative and quantitative research instruments was employed to elicit teachers’ perceptions of English grammar assessment and their relationship to their current practices. Participants of the study included EFL teachers from 4 different educational facilities: King Saudi University, Princess Noura University, Imam Mouhamed Islamic University, and Institute of Public Administration. Data collection involved questionnaire (N=100), semi-structured interviews (N=30), retrospective thinking (N=20), and document analysis (N=20). Activity theory is used as an interpretive framework to explore and investigate the entire system of constructing classroom-based assessment. Preliminary findings reveal several similarities and differences between the participants’ stated beliefs and their current practices of assessing English grammar. Findings also showed that teacher participant’s beliefs about how English grammar should be assessed are influenced mostly by prior learning experience as well as their teaching instruction practices. Their practices, on the other hand, was more guided by educational policies and lack of teacher training in the field of assessment, among other factors. This research makes a significant contribution to knowledge in three different areas: it enriches the literature on language teacher cognition; it builds on the body of research on language classroom assessment, and it expands on the possibilities to use AC to investigate the relationship between teachers’ beliefs and practices.

Keywords: activity theory, classroom-based assessment, language teacher cognition, mixed method approach

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Authors: Susan Lewis

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The assessment of learning outcomes at the program level has attracted much international interest from the perspectives of quality assurance and ongoing curricular redesign and renewal. This paper examines program-level learning outcomes in the field of music and technology, an area of study that has seen an explosion in program development over the past fifteen years. The Audio Engineering Society (AES) maintains an online directory of educational institutions worldwide, yielding the most comprehensive inventory of programs and courses in music and technology. The inventory includes courses, programs, and degrees in music and technology, music and computer science, music production, and the music industry. This paper focuses on published student learning outcomes for undergraduate degrees in music and technology and analyses commonalities at institutions in North America, the United Kingdom, and Europe. The results of a survey of student learning outcomes at twenty institutions indicates a focus on three distinct student learning outcomes: (1) cross-disciplinary knowledge in the fields of music and technology; (2) the practical application of training through the professional industry; and (3) the acquisition of skills in communication and collaboration. The paper then analyses assessment mechanisms for tracking student learning and achievement of learning outcomes at these institutions. The results indicate highly variable assessment practices. Conclusions offer recommendations for enhancing assessment techniques and better communicating learning outcomes to students.

Keywords: quality assurance, student learning; learning outcomes, music and technology

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Authors: Tarek Soliman Mostafa Soliman Al-Nana'i

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There are non-steady voiced augments in the Semitic languages, and in the morphological and structural augmentation, two sounds were augments in all Semitic languages at the level of the spoken language and two letters at the level of the written language, which are the hamza and the ta’. This research studies only the second of them; Therefore, we defined it as “The Voiceless Dental- alveolar common augment” (VDACA) to distinguish it from the glottal sound “Hamza”, first, middle, or last, in a noun or in a verb, in Arabic and its equivalent in the Semitic languages. What is meant by “VDACA” is the ta’ that is in addition to the root of the word at the morphological level: the word “voiceless” takes out the voiced sounds that we studied before, and the “dental- alveolar common augment” takes out the laryngeal sound of them, which is the “Hamza”: and the word “common” brings out the uncommon voiceless sounds, which are sīn, shīn, and hā’. The study is limited to the ta' alone among the Arabic sounds, and this title faced a problem in identifying it with the ta'. Because the designation of the ta is not the same in most Semitic languages. Hebrew, for example, has “tav” and is pronounced with the voiced fa (v), which is not in Arabic. It is called different names in other Semitic languages, such as “taw” or “tAu” in old Syriac. And so on. This goes hand in hand with the insistence on distance from the written level and the reference to the phonetic aspect in this study that is closely and closely linked to the morphological level. Therefore, the study is “morphophonemic”. What is meant by Semitic languages in this study are the following: Akkadian, Ugaritic, Hebrew, Syriac, Mandaean, Ge'ez, and Amharic. The problem of the study is the agreement or difference between these languages in the position of that augment, first, middle, or last. And in determining the distinguishing characteristics of each language from the other. As for the study methodology, it is determined by the comparative approach in Semitic languages, which is based on the descriptive approach for each language. The study is divided into an introduction, four sections, and a conclusion: Introduction: It included the subject of the study, its importance, motives, problem, methodology, and division. The first section: VDACA as a non-common phoneme. The second: VDACA as a common phoneme. The third: VDACA as a functional morpheme. The fourth section: Commentary and conclusion with the most important results. The positions of VDACA in Arabic and other Semitic languages, and in nouns and verbs, were limited to first, middle, and last. The research identified the individual addition, which is common with other augments, and the research proved that this augmentation is constant in all Semitic languages, but there are characteristics that distinguish each language from the other.

Keywords: voiceless -, dental- alveolar, augment, Arabic - semitic languages

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Authors: Hanadi Mubarak AL-Mubaraki, Michael Busler

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Innovation is the process of making changes, differences, and novelties in the products and services, adding values and business practices to create economic and social benefit. The purpose of this paper is to identify the strengths and weaknesses of innovation programs in developed and developing countries. We used a mixed-methods approach, quantitative as survey and qualitative as a multi-case study to examine innovation best practices in developed and developing countries. In addition, four case studies of innovation organisations based on the best practices and successful implementation in the developed and developing countries are selected for examination. The research findings provide guidance, suggestions, and recommendations for future implementation in developed and developing countries for practitioners such as policy makers, governments, funded organizations, and strategic institutions. In conclusion, innovation programs are vital tools for economic growth, knowledge, and technology transfer based on the several indicators such as creativity, entrepreneurship, role of government, role of university, strategic focus, new products, survival rate, job creation, start-up companies, and number of patents. The authors aim to conduct future research which will include a comparative study of innovation case studies between developed and developing countries for policy implications worldwide. The originality of this study makes a contribution to the current literature about the innovation best practice in developed and developing countries.

Keywords: economic development, entrepreneurship, innovation program, developed countries

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Authors: Sara T. K. Li, Belinda H. J. Chung, Jeffery C. N. Yip, Janet H. Hsiao

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Music notation and text reading both involve statistical learning of music or linguistic structures. However, it remains unclear how music reading expertise influences text reading behavior. The present study examined this issue through an eye-tracking study. Chinese-English bilingual musicians and non-musicians read English sentences, Chinese sentences, musical phrases, and sentences in Tibetan, a language novel to the participants, with their eye movement recorded. Each set of stimuli consisted of two conditions in terms of structural regularity: syntactically correct and syntactically incorrect musical phrases/sentences. They then completed a sentence comprehension (for syntactically correct sentences) or a musical segment/word recognition task afterwards to test their comprehension/recognition abilities. The results showed that in reading musical phrases, as compared with non-musicians, musicians had a higher accuracy in the recognition task, and had shorter reading time, fewer fixations, and shorter fixation duration when reading syntactically correct (i.e., in diatonic key) than incorrect (i.e., in non-diatonic key/atonal) musical phrases. This result reflects their expertise in music reading. Interestingly, in reading Tibetan sentences, which was novel to both participant groups, while non-musicians did not show any behavior differences between reading syntactically correct or incorrect Tibetan sentences, musicians showed a shorter reading time and had marginally fewer fixations when reading syntactically correct sentences than syntactically incorrect ones. However, none of the musicians reported discovering any structural regularities in the Tibetan stimuli after the experiment when being asked explicitly, suggesting that they may have implicitly acquired the structural regularities in Tibetan sentences. This group difference was not observed when they read English or Chinese sentences. This result suggests that music reading expertise facilities reading texts in a novel language (i.e., Tibetan), but not in languages that the readers are already familiar with (i.e., English and Chinese). This phenomenon may be due to the similarities between reading music notations and reading texts in a novel language, as in both cases the stimuli follow particular statistical structures but do not involve semantic or lexical processing. Thus, musicians may transfer their statistical learning skills stemmed from music notation reading experience to implicitly discover structures of sentences in a novel language. This speculation is consistent with a recent finding showing that music reading expertise modulates the processing of English nonwords (i.e., words that do not follow morphological or orthographic rules) but not pseudo- or real words. These results suggest that the modulation of music reading expertise on language processing depends on the similarities in the cognitive processes involved. It also has important implications for the benefits of music education on language and cognitive development.

Keywords: eye movement behavior, eye-tracking, music reading expertise, sentence reading, structural regularity, visual processing

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Authors: Haftom Teshale Gebre

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According to the ministry of education’s school improvement program blueprint document (2007), the timely and basic aim of the program is to improve students’ academic achievement through creating conducive teaching and learning environments and with the active involvement of parents in the teaching and learning process. The general objective of the research is to examine the practices of cluster school supervisors in implementing school improvement programs and the major factors affecting the study area. The study used both primary and secondary sources, and the sample size was 93. Twelve people are chosen from each of the two clusters (Edaga Hamus and Adi-kelebes). And cluster ferewyni are Tekli suwaat, Edaga robue, and Kiros Alemayo. In the analysis stage, several interrelated pieces of information were summarized and arranged to make the analysis easily manageable by using statistics and data (STATA). Study findings revealed that the major four domains impacted by school improvement programs through their mean, standard deviation, and variance were 2.688172, 1.052724, and 1.108228, respectively. And also, the researcher can conclude that the major factors of the school improvement program and mostly cluster supervisors were inadequate attention given to supervision service and no experience in the practice of supervision in the study area.

Keywords: cluster, eastern Tigray, Saesie Tsaeda Emba, SPI

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Authors: Esther Matthews

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This paper looks at ways of translating new metaphors: those conceived and created by authors, which are often called ‘original’ metaphors in the world of Translation Studies. An original metaphor is the most extreme form of figurative language, often dramatic and shocking in effect. It displays unexpected juxtapositions of language, suggesting there could be as many different translations as there are translators. However, some theorists say original metaphors should be translated ‘literally’ or ‘word for word’ as far as possible, suggesting a similarity between translators’ solutions. How do literary translators approach this challenge? This study focuses on Spanish-English translations of a novel full of original metaphors: Nada by Carmen Laforet (1921 – 2004). Original metaphors from the text were compared to the four published English translations by Inez Muñoz, Charles Franklin Payne, Glafyra Ennis, and Edith Grossman. These four translators employed a variety of translation methods, but they translated ‘literally’ in well over half of the original metaphors studied. In a two-part translation exercise and questionnaire, professional literary translators were asked to translate a number of these metaphors. Many different methods were employed, but again, over half of the original metaphors were translated literally. Although this investigation was limited to one author and language pair, it gives a clear indication that, although literary translators’ solutions vary, on the whole, they prefer to translate original metaphors as literally as possible within the confines of English grammar and syntax. It also reveals literary translators’ desire to reproduce the distinctive character of an author’s work as accurately as possible for the target reader.

Keywords: translation, original metaphor, literature, translator training

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Authors: Laurent Thiry, Michel Hassenforder

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This paper presents a general approach to implement efficient queries’ interpreters in a functional programming language. Indeed, most of the standard tools actually available use an imperative and/or object-oriented language for the implementation (e.g. Java for Jena-Fuseki) but other paradigms are possible with, maybe, better performances. To proceed, the paper first explains how to model data structures and queries in a functional point of view. Then, it proposes a general methodology to get performances (i.e. number of computation steps to answer a query) then it explains how to integrate some optimization techniques (short-cut fusion and, more important, data transformations). It then compares the functional server proposed to a standard tool (Fuseki) demonstrating that the first one can be twice to ten times faster to answer queries.

Keywords: data transformation, functional programming, information server, optimization

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Authors: Jamal Al-Zain, O. El Hajjaji, T. El Bardouni

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A (Th-U) O2 fuel pin benchmark made up of 25 w/o U and 75 w/o Th was used. In order to analyze the depletion and inventory of the fuel for the pressurized water reactor pin-cell model. The new version VIII.0 of the ENDF/B nuclear data library was used to create a data set in ACE format at various temperatures and process the data using the MAKXSF6.2 and NJOY2016 programs to process the data at the various temperatures in order to conduct this study and analyze cross-section data. The infinite multiplication factor, the concentrations and activities of the main fission products, the actinide radionuclides accumulated in the pin cell, and the total radioactivity were all estimated and compared in this study using the Monte Carlo N-Particle 6 (MCNP6.2) and DRAGON5 programs. Additionally, the behavior of the Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) thorium pin cell that is dependent on burn-up (BU) was validated and compared with the reference data obtained using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT-MOCUP), Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL-MOCUP), and CASMO-4 codes. The results of this study indicate that all of the codes examined have good agreements.

Keywords: PWR thorium pin cell, ENDF/B-VIII.0, MAKXSF6.2, NJOY2016, MCNP6.2, DRAGON5, fuel burn-up.

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Authors: Zhikal Qadir Salih, Hanife Bensen

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As the advent of modern technology continues to make towering impacts on everything, its relevance permeates to all spheres, language learning, and writing skills in particular not an exception. This study aimed at finding out how EFL learners perceive online tools to improve their writing skills. The study was carried out at Tishk University. Copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the participants, in order to elicit their perceptions. The collected data were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics. The outcome revealed that the participants have positive perceptions about online tools in using them to enhance their writing skills. The study however found out that both gender and the class level of the participants do not make any significant difference in their perceptions about the use of online tools, as far as writing skill is concerned. Based on these outcomes, relevant recommendations were made.

Keywords: online tools, writing skills, EFL learners, language learning

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Authors: Dur-E- Shahwar

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Much attention has been given to ‘bridging the gap’ between neuroscience and educational practice. In order to gain a better understanding of the nature of this gap and of possibilities to enable the linking process, we have taken a boundary perspective on these two fields and the brain-based learning approach, focusing on boundary-spanning actors, boundary objects, and boundary work. In 26 semi-structured interviews, neuroscientists and education professionals were asked about their perceptions in regard to the gap between science and practice and the role they play in creating, managing, and disrupting this boundary. Neuroscientists and education professionals often hold conflicting views and expectations of both brain-based learning and of each other. This leads us to argue that there are increased prospects for a neuro-scientifically informed learning practice if science and practice work together as equal stakeholders in developing and implementing neuroscience research.

Keywords: language learning, explore, educational practices, mentalist, practice

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Authors: F. O Anugom

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The general functions of the university amongst other things include teaching, research and community service. Universities are recognized as the apex of learning, accumulating and imparting knowledge and skills of all kinds to students to enable them to be productive, earn their living and to make optimum contributions to national development. This is equivalent to the production of human capital in the form of high level manpower needed to administer the educational society, be useful to the society and manage the economy. Quality has become a matter of major importance for university education in Nigeria. Accreditation is the systematic review of educational programs to ensure that acceptable standards of education, scholarship and infrastructure are being maintained. Accreditation ensures that institution maintain quality. The process is designed to determine whether or not an institution has met or exceeded the published standards for accreditation, and whether it is achieving its mission and stated purposes. Ensuring quality assurance in accreditation process falls in the hands of university management which justified the need for this study. This study examined accreditation and quality assurance: the management imperative. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The design was a correlation survey with a population of 2,893 university administrators out of which 578 Heads of department and Dean of faculties were sampled. The instrument for data collection was titled Programme Accreditation Exercise scale with high levels of reliability. The research questions were answered with Pearson ‘r’ statistics. T-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses. It was found among others that the quality of accredited programme depends on the level of funding of universities in Nigeria. It was also indicated that quality of programme accreditation and physical facilities of universities in Nigeria have high relationship. But it was also revealed that programme accreditation is positively related to staffing in Nigerian universities. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommend that academic administrators should be included in the team of those who ensure quality programs in the universities. Private sector partnership should be encouraged to fund programs to ensure quality of programme in the universities. Independent agencies should be engaged to monitor the activities of accreditation teams to avoid bias.

Keywords: accreditation, quality assurance, national universities commission , physical facilities, staffing

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Authors: Kim Hyekyoung, Au Yunkyung

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As media plays an increasingly important role in our lives, the age at which media usage begins is getting younger worldwide. Particularly, young children are exposed to media at an early age, making early childhood media literacy education an essential task. However, most existing early childhood media literacy education programs focus solely on teaching children how to use media, and practical implementation and application are challenging. Therefore, this study aims to develop a play-based early childhood media literacy education program utilizing topic-based media content and explore the potential application and impact of this program on young children's media literacy learning. Based on theoretical and literature review on media literacy education, analysis of existing educational programs, and a survey on the current status and teacher perceptions of media literacy education for preschool children, this study developed a media literacy education program for preschool children, considering the components of media literacy (understanding media characteristics, self-regulation, self-expression, critical understanding, ethical norms, and social communication). To verify the effectiveness of the program, 20 preschool children aged 5 from C City M Kindergarten were chosen as participants, and the program was implemented from March 28th to July 4th, 2022, once a week for a total of 7 sessions. The program was developed based on Gallenstain's (2003) iterative learning model (participation-exploration-explanation-extension-evaluation). To explore the quantitative changes before and after the program, a repeated measures analysis of variance was conducted, and qualitative analysis was employed to examine the observed process changes. It was found that after the application of the education program, media literacy levels such as understanding media characteristics, self-regulation, self-expression, critical understanding, ethical norms, and social communication significantly improved. The recursive learning-based early childhood media literacy education program developed in this study can be effectively applied to young children's media literacy education and help enhance their media literacy levels. In terms of observed process changes, it was confirmed that children learned about various topics, expressed their thoughts, and improved their ability to communicate with others using media content. These findings emphasize the importance of developing and implementing media literacy education programs and can contribute to empowering young children to safely and effectively utilize media in their media environment. The results of this study, exploring the potential application and impact of the recursive learning-based early childhood media literacy education program on young children's media literacy learning, demonstrated positive changes in young children's media literacy levels. These results go beyond teaching children how to use media and can help foster their ability to safely and effectively utilize media in their media environment. Additionally, to enhance young children's media literacy levels and create a safe media environment, diverse content and methodologies are needed, and the continuous development and evaluation of education programs should be conducted.

Keywords: young children, media literacy, recursive learning, education program

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Authors: David Philpott, Karen Kennedy

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In recognition of an increasingly diverse student population, a Teaching and Learning Framework was developed at Memorial University of Newfoundland. This framework emphasizes work that is engaging, supportive, inclusive, responsive, committed to discovery, and is outcomes-oriented for both educators and learners. The goal of the Teaching and Learning framework was to develop a number of initiatives that builds on existing knowledge, proven programs, and existing supports in order to respond to the specific needs of identified groups of diverse learners: 1) academically vulnerable first year students; 2) students with individual learning needs associated with disorders and/or mental health issues; 3) international students and those from non-western cultures. This session provides an overview of this process. The strategies employed to develop these initiatives were drawn primarily from research on student success and retention (literature review), information on pre-existing programs (environmental scan), an analysis of in-house data on students at our institution; consultations with key informants at all of Memorial’s campuses. The first initiative that emerged from this research was a pilot project proposal for a first-year success program in support of the first-year experience of academically vulnerable students. This program offers a university experience that is enhanced by smaller classes, supplemental instruction, learning communities, and advising sessions. The second initiative that arose under the mandate of the Teaching and Learning Framework was a collaborative effort between two institutions (Memorial University and the College of the North Atlantic). Both institutions participated in a shared conversation to examine programs and services that support an accessible and inclusive environment for students with disorders and/or mental health issues. A report was prepared based on these conversations and an extensive review of research and programs across the country. Efforts are now being made to explore possible initiatives that address culturally diverse and non-traditional learners. While an expanding literature has emerged on diversity in higher education, the process of developing institutional initiatives is usually excluded from such discussions, while the focus remains on effective practice. The proposals that were developed constitute a co-ordination and strengthening of existing services and programs; a weaving of supports to engage a diverse body of students in a sense of community. This presentation will act as a guide through the process of developing projects addressing learner diversity and engage attendees in a discussion of institutional practices that have been implemented in support of overcoming challenges, as well as provide feedback on institutional and student outcomes. The focus of this session will be on effective practice, and will be of particular interest to university administrators, educational developers, and educators wishing to implement similar initiatives on their campuses; possible adaptations for practice will be addressed. A presentation of findings from this research will be followed by an open discussion where the sharing of research, initiatives, and best practices for the enhancement of teaching and learning is welcomed. There is much insight and understanding to be gained through the sharing of ideas and collaborative practice as we move forward to further develop the program and prepare other initiatives in support of diversity and inclusion.

Keywords: eco-scale, green analysis, environmentally-friendly, pharmaceuticals analysis

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Authors: Maria Evnevich

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In modern conditions, in most markets, price competition is becoming less effective. On the one hand, there is a gradual decrease in the level of marginality in main traditional sectors of the economy, so further price reduction becomes too ‘expensive’ for the company. On the other hand, the effect of price reduction is leveled, and the reason for this phenomenon is likely to be informational. As a result, it turns out that even if the company reduces prices, making its products more accessible to the buyer, there is a high probability that this will not lead to increase in sales unless additional large-scale advertising and information campaigns are conducted. Similarly, a large-scale information and advertising campaign have a much greater effect itself than price reductions. At the same time, the cost of mass informing is growing every year, especially when using the main information channels. The article presents generalization, systematization and development of theoretical approaches and best practices in the field of customer focus approach to business management and in the field of relationship marketing in the modern digital economy. The research methodology is based on the synthesis and content-analysis of sociological and marketing research and on the study of the systems of working with consumer appeals and loyalty programs in the 50 largest client-oriented companies in Russia. Also, the analysis of internal documentation on customers’ purchases in one of the largest retail companies in Russia allowed to identify if buyers prefer to buy goods for complex purchases in one retail store with the best price image for them. The cost of attracting a new client is now quite high and continues to grow, so it becomes more important to keep him and increase the involvement through marketing tools. A huge role is played by modern digital technologies used both in advertising (e-mailing, SEO, contextual advertising, banner advertising, SMM, etc.) and in service. To implement the above-described client-oriented omnichannel service, it is necessary to identify the client and work with personal data provided when filling in the loyalty program application form. The analysis of loyalty programs of 50 companies identified the following types of cards: discount cards, bonus cards, mixed cards, coalition loyalty cards, bank loyalty programs, aviation loyalty programs, hybrid loyalty cards, situational loyalty cards. The use of loyalty cards allows not only to stimulate the customer to purchase ‘untargeted’, but also to provide individualized offers, as well as to produce more targeted information. The development of digital technologies and modern means of communication has significantly changed not only the sphere of marketing and promotion, but also the economic landscape as a whole. Factors of competitiveness are the digital opportunities of companies in the field of customer orientation: personalization of service, customization of advertising offers, optimization of marketing activity and improvement of logistics.

Keywords: customer focus, digital economy, loyalty program, relationship marketing

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Authors: Beatriz Botella-Gil, Patricio Martínez-Barco, Lea Canales

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The Internet and ICT are an integral element of and omnipresent in our daily lives. Technologies have changed the way we see the world and relate to it. The number of companies in the ICT sector is increasing every year, and there has also been an increase in the work that occurs online, from sending e-mails to the way companies promote themselves. In social life, ICT’s have gained momentum. Social networks are useful for keeping in contact with family or friends that live far away. This change in how we manage our relationships using electronic devices and social media has been experienced differently depending on the age of the person. According to currently available data, people are increasingly connected to social media and other forms of online communication. Therefore, it is no surprise that violent content has also made its way to digital media. One of the important reasons for this is the anonymity provided by social media, which causes a sense of impunity in the victim. Moreover, it is not uncommon to find derogatory comments, attacking a person’s physical appearance, hobbies, or beliefs. This is why it is necessary to develop artificial intelligence tools that allow us to keep track of violent comments that relate to violent events so that this type of violent online behavior can be deterred. The objective of our research is to create a guide for detecting and recording violent messages. Our annotation guide begins with a study on the problem of violent messages. First, we consider the characteristics that a message should contain for it to be categorized as violent. Second, the possibility of establishing different levels of aggressiveness. To download the corpus, we chose the social network Twitter for its ease of obtaining free messages. We chose two recent, highly visible violent cases that occurred in Spain. Both of them experienced a high degree of social media coverage and user comments. Our corpus has a total of 633 messages, manually tagged, according to the characteristics we considered important, such as, for example, the verbs used, the presence of exclamations or insults, and the presence of negations. We consider it necessary to create wordlists that are present in violent messages as indicators of violence, such as lists of negative verbs, insults, negative phrases. As a final step, we will use automatic learning systems to check the data obtained and the effectiveness of our guide.

Keywords: human language technologies, language modelling, offensive language detection, violent online content

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Authors: Mohammad Al-Dawoody

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This study aims at exploring if priming is affected by gender in Modern Standard Arabic and if it is restricted solely to subjects with no specific language impairment (SLI). The sample in this study consists of 74 subjects, between the ages of 11;1 and 11;10, distributed into (a) 2 SLI experimental groups of 38 subjects divided into two gender groups of 18 females and 20 males and (b) 2 non-SLI control groups of 36 subjects divided into two gender groups of 17 females and 19 males. Employing a mixed research design, the researcher conducted this study within the framework of the relevance theory (RT) whose main assumption is that human beings are endowed with a biological ability to magnify the relevance of the incoming stimuli. Each of the four groups was given two different priming stimuli: audio-visual priming (T1) and syntactic priming (T2). The results showed that the priming effect was sheer distinct among SLI participants especially when retrieving typical responses (TR) in T1 and T2 with slight superiority of males over females. The results also revealed that non-SLI females showed stronger original response (OR) priming in T1 than males and that non-SLI males in T2 excelled in OR priming than females. Furthermore, the results suggested that the audio-visual priming has a stronger effect on SLI females than non-SLI females and that syntactic priming seems to have the same effect on the two groups (non-SLI and SLI females). The conclusion is that the priming effect varies according to gender and is not confined merely to non-SLI subjects.

Keywords: specific language impairment, relevance theory, audio-visual priming, syntactic priming, modern standard Arabic

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Authors: Khaled Barkaoui

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Research on second-language (L2) learning tends to focus on comparing students with different levels of proficiency at one point in time. However, to understand L2 development, we need more longitudinal research. In this study, we adopt a longitudinal approach to examine changes in three indicators of L2 ability, complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF), as reflected in the writing of L2 learners when writing on different tasks before and after a period L2 instruction. Each of 85 Chinese learners of English at three levels of English language proficiency responded to two writing tasks (independent and integrated) before and after nine months of English-language study in China. Each essay (N= 276) was analyzed in terms of numerous CAF indices using both computer coding and human rating: number of words written, number of errors per 100 words, ratings of error severity, global syntactic complexity (MLS), complexity by coordination (T/S), complexity by subordination (C/T), clausal complexity (MLC), phrasal complexity (NP density), syntactic variety, lexical density, lexical variation, lexical sophistication, and lexical bundles. Results were then compared statistically across tasks, L2 proficiency levels, and time. Overall, task type had significant effects on fluency and some syntactic complexity indices (complexity by coordination, structural variety, clausal complexity, phrase complexity) and lexical density, sophistication, and bundles, but not accuracy. L2 proficiency had significant effects on fluency, accuracy, and lexical variation, but not syntactic complexity. Finally, fluency, frequency of errors, but not accuracy ratings, syntactic complexity indices (clausal complexity, global complexity, complexity by subordination, phrase complexity, structural variety) and lexical complexity (lexical density, variation, and sophistication) exhibited significant changes after instruction, particularly for the independent task. We discuss the findings and their implications for assessment, instruction, and research on CAF in the context of L2 writing.

Keywords: second language writing, Fluency, accuracy, complexity, longitudinal

Procedia PDF Downloads 153