Academic literature on the topic 'Out-of-class language use'

Research in Second/Foreign language learning indicates that using English outside of the classroom is an essential part of the language learning process. However, certain studies have been cared out on university-level EFL students indicate that students use English minimally when outside of the classroom. This study furthers the research on English use outside of the classroom to more fully understand out-of-d all types of language learners and the link between language proficiency and out-of-class English language use. For methodology, three private universities in Erbil are concerned. The tools that are used in this study is a questionnaire and also interview. Validity and reliabilities are regarded here. The aims are to investigate the use of of-out-of class activity type that promotes using English and even their attitudes toward the benefits of using English outside of class. Research explores some recommendations to English language departments in the three universities which are helpful for the students’ language proficiency, the research also provides some suggestions for further studies.

Abstract Few previous studies have examined the impact of social class on language attitudes and language use in mainland China. A total of 215 questionnaires were collected from a university in China for this study. The participants were classified into four social classes: upper middle class, middle middle class, lower middle class, and lower class. Then an individual interview was conducted with 10 students. Findings show that the students from the upper middle class had significantly lower attitudes toward local dialects and they had the lowest percentage of current use of dialect at home. The study adds evidence to findings of previous studies that local dialects might face certain danger of maintenance. It also shows that this change would start from people from the upper middle class. The study also points out a possible future tendency that social class privilege will play a more significant role in English learning and education.

This study provides an in-depth examination of the opportunities for social interaction and second language (L2) use in service encounters recorded in situ by study abroad students in Toledo, Spain. The participants in the study were seven university students from the U.S. who recorded 113 naturally-occurring service encounters over the course of one semester studying abroad. An analysis of the corpus and of students’ journals and interviews indicated that while many of the encounters were brief, students did use the L2 to meet their needs as consumers and attended to language form while speaking the L2. In small talk episodes, there were opportunities for brief conversations and instances of orientation by participants to language and culture learning. Thus, the results suggest that although service encounters are typically brief, they can contribute to the immersion experience of study abroad.

Bullying is an issue that is difficult to be eliminated even in high education level. Bullying in high education may interfere the learning processes. Some of the students think that bullying is common. However, some others think that it is a bad situation for them. The study was conducted in University of Muhammadiyah Banjarmasin. The subject of this study is students of Intensive English Class. Case study is implemented to collect in-depth information about bullying factors in Intensive English Class. From indepth interviews that were conducted, the researcher found out that bullying factors included aspects of humiliation and mocking, intimidating, Ignoring, and Criticizing one’s appearance or background. The impacts found are considered safe and not severe since bullying in language use only caused shyness and not affecting the development of English learning.

SummaryThis article discusses a small scale research project that investigated how students learn and use English outside the classroom. It was conducted during the 2019–2020 academic year and completed by administering a questionnaire to 47 students enrolled in the B2-level English language course offered at Vytautas Magnus University in the fall semester of 2019. The data were collected through an online survey. The participants were asked to choose the ways which helped them to learn English outside of the classroom and to comment on them based on how useful they were in terms of learning English. The students were also asked to indicate the frequency of such out-of-classroom (OOC) activities, in other words, how often they engage in the chosen OOCs. The results showed that most of the activities that the research participants engaged in outside the classroom were related to popular culture and their free time activities that were fun and entertaining rather than consciously chosen activities with the purpose of learning English. These activities helped to expand vocabulary and listening, but they did not help to practice speaking and writing (productive skills).

This study investigates the use of and attitudes towards, Spanish in the multilingual Republic of Equatorial Guinea, the only African country with Spanish as an official language. The Spanish dialect of Equatorial Guinea is an understudied area, although descriptive research on the Spanish language spoken there began in the 1950s. Very few research studies have been carried out on the sociolinguistic dynamic of this multilingual country. Four scales of language vitality were utilized and it was demonstrated that Spanish in Equatorial Guinea is not endangered and continues to thrive. An online survey was also performed to assess Spanish language use and attitudes towards the Equatoguinean variety of Spanish. Respondents were highly educated, middle-class and spoke at least two languages. It was observed that Spanish was the functional language in almost all the sociocultural contexts or domains. Equatorial Guineans share that Spanish is important to their identity as the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa.

Abstract This article presents a study which aimed to explore in what ways Armenian EFL students use their English language knowledge outside the classroom. The study involved 38 EFL learners of different English proficiency levels, ages, and genders. Data were collected using surveys and in-depth interviews. Findings indicate that most of the Armenian EFL learners use English out of the class very often, especially with social media, listening to songs, watching movies and clips, as well as travelling and searching on the Internet. Based on the findings, specific recommendations are offered to bring the students’ interests into the classroom.

This study aims at improving students’ comprehension on English vocabulary using computer and finding out the effectiveness, efficiency and the attractiveness of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) in English learning. It was carried out at SMP Sunan Giri Gresik by using proactive action research method and intervention action model. The participants belonged to 3 different class groups. Thirty of them were from 7th grade (Amanah class) and thirty-two of them from (Hidayah class). The other 30 participants from (Inayah class). The data were collected and analyzed by using mixed method approach. Instruments used for collecting data in this study are questionnaires, documents, observation check list, interview, and achievement tests. The results showed that the treatments give affect positively for students especially treatment on cycle 2. It also can be seen by the students’ involvement actively during learning process. Computer assisted learning especially using software gave students chance to explore their English skill especially the vocabulary through interacting directly with computer by doing exercises given individually in pair or group. From the explanation above it can be concluded that English learning in junior high school can be improved with the help of computer assistance in this matter called Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) mainly to improve English vocabulary. Keywords: Computer-assisted language learning (CALL), English vocabulary, Students’ comprehension

When people learn a new kind of language, the listening ability is the first ability people will encounter. Listening ability will also influence people to speak a new type of language fluently and correctly. This research aimed to determine the relationship between teachers' listening strategies and the listening strategies students use. Moreover, this research also intended to investigate what kind of listening strategies students usually use when practicing English listening. In this study, the researcher again examined the listening strategies teachers usually instruct during the class. The participants of the study were all freshmen of the Department of Applied Foreign Languages, University of central Taiwan with a certain level of English listening ability. The participants were going to fill out a questionnaire about their English listening habits. After analyzing the data, the researcher revealed final findings that indicated differences between teachers' listening strategies and the listening strategies students use. Teachers preferred to combine different materials and knowledge when they were in the listening class. Moreover, students tended to choose the materials that they are interested to improve their English listening after the course. Moreover, teachers also facilitate students with methods to enhance their English listening skills after class.

Teachers are always seen as the role model of the classroom. Students tend to imitate what the teachers speak and do, including in English classroom. It has been popular that in English classroom teachers impose the students to use English (L2) only. However, the practice showed that teachers still use L1 in their teaching. Regarding that fact, this study aims to investigate how teachers use first language (L1) in English classroom. The study involves experienced teachers from two private schools in Bekasi, a junior high school and a senior high school. Observations, video and audio recording, and interview were conducted to collect the data. From the data, it is obtained the teacher talk (TT) where the teachers mostly used English. Although the teachers used English and encouraged students to use English, it turned out that in some situation L1 is unavoidable. The teachers used L1 during the class learning. This teachers’ L1 was then analyzed from the perspective of initiation, response, feedback (IRF) exchange. The result shows that teachers performed typical acts and functions in the class interaction. Moreover, teachers’ L1 was not necessarily showing incompetence or reluctance to use L2. Rather, L1 use performed functions in the classroom that it helped teachers build students’ knowledge and manage the class more efficiently.

This project explored aspects of English-related out-of-class time use by Japanese university students. The aim was to identify the salient temporal and motivational features of the episodes.

Two sets of time use and interview data were collected longitudinally (one semester per dataset) through Longitudinal Study 1 (n_initial = 66, n_final = 15), which included participants from three universities in Western Japan, followed by Longitudinal Study 2 (n_initial = 59, n_final = 25), which included participants from two universities in Western Japan. Interviews were with participants from these studies. Participants maintained a record of their out-of-class English-related time use during the semester. These data provide an overview of the out-of-class time use of Japanese university students during a full Japanese academic year. Longitudinal Study 1 data were collected during the fall semester, the second term at Japanese universities. Longitudinal Study 2 data were collected during the spring term, the initial term. Longitudinal Study 1 participants reported 2,529 episodes and Longitudinal Study 2 participants reported 3,322 episodes of out-of-class English access during the study period. One interview was held with the Longitudinal Study 1 participants (n = 15), at the end of fall semester. Two interviews were held with Longitudinal Study 2 participants (n = 25), one during the term and one following summer holiday. Data were examined for their temporal patterns and the contextual and affective features of the time use episodes. The cross-sectional component collected data from participants (n = 1,399) at 11 universities in Western Japan. These participants provided data for the motivational survey (n = 1,399) and at least one week of out-of-class English time use (n = 642) data. The participants in the cross-sectional study reported 2,987 out-of-class English access episodes.

Episode data for all three components (K = 8,838) and the motivational survey data (n = 1,399) were analyzed at the person, group, and amalgamated episode levels for the patterns of participants' time use using ANOVA and nonparametric procedures. The data were also examined using nonparametric procedures to exam the affective variables by the contextual variables of that time use. The episode data regarding participants' ( n = 1,399) time use and motivational survey data were analyzed using ANOVA, factor, Rasch, multiple regression analyses, and structural equation modeling. The analyses of the time use data considered the temporal features of the episodes, the contextual features of the episodes, and the affective features of the time use. The analyses of the motivational data considered two models of the L2 motivational self system, an intention to learn model (ILM) and a time use model (TUM).

Time use results from all three components of this study indicated most out-of-class episodes occur when the participant is alone at home either studying or listening to English music. The most typical episode was listening to music, either alone at home or while commuting. A similar pattern of out-of-class English access was found for participants in all three components of this study. Study-related episodes were not considered enjoyable but also were not seen as causing anxiety. The amount of out-of-class time varied widely between participants, with one longitudinal study participant devoting 40 hours per week to English outside of class.

For longitudinal study participants, the time use episode data, along with interviews, indicated that habit was a primary driver of out-of-class English access, with participants showing stable patterns of time use, whether for enjoyment or study, during the term. For the most part, once participants in the longitudinal components for this project had established a routine it remained fairly consistent during the term.

Moreover, results from the three components showed that none of the participants met the time requirements of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sports, Technology and Culture (MEXT, 2002, 2009b) for out-of-class time allocated to study for their English courses, a 2:1 ration, for every week that they participated in the study. Only a few of the participants met this requirement for out-of-class English access during any week of the study and only if all purposes, including enjoyment, were considered.

This study also addresses the call that Dörnyei (2000) made for research examining the links between motivation and behavior in L2 learning. One unique aspect of this study is the use of a behavioral variable, Time Use, in addition to the survey-assessed latent trait, Intention to Learn, to explore the links between motivational profile and actual behavior.

Participants who rated highly on their Ideal L2 Self rated highly on the Intention to Learn, but not nearly as highly on actual time use on English. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Teaching & Learning
Ed.D.
This project explored aspects of English-related out-of-class time use by Japanese university students. The aim was to identify the salient temporal and motivational features of the episodes. The study had three parts, two longitudinal components and one cross-sectional component. Data from these three components consisted of out-of-class English time use information collected through a time diary (8,838 episodes). The episode data was collected from longitudinal study participants (n = 125) and cross-sectional study participants (n = 642) who maintained the time diary for at least one week. Data also include interviews with longitudinal participants (n = 40) about their time use and motivation and motivational information collected through an L2 motivational self system survey administered to cross-sectional study participants (n = 1,399) that was modeled after the survey developed by Taguchi, Magid, and Papi (2009). Two sets of time use and interview data were collected longitudinally (one semester per dataset) through Longitudinal Study 1 (ninitial = 66, nfinal = 15), which included participants from three universities in Western Japan, followed by Longitudinal Study 2 (ninitial = 59, nfinal = 25), which included participants from two universities in Western Japan. Interviews were with participants from these studies. Participants maintained a record of their out-of-class English-related time use during the semester. These data provide an overview of the out-of-class time use of Japanese university students during a full Japanese academic year. Longitudinal Study 1 data were collected during the fall semester, the second term at Japanese universities. Longitudinal Study 2 data were collected during the spring term, the initial term. Longitudinal Study 1 participants reported 2,529 episodes and Longitudinal Study 2 participants reported 3,322 episodes of out-of-class English access during the study period. One interview was held with the Longitudinal Study 1 participants (n = 15), at the end of fall semester. Two interviews were held with Longitudinal Study 2 participants (n = 25), one during the term and one following summer holiday. Data were examined for their temporal patterns and the contextual and affective features of the time use episodes. The cross-sectional component collected data from participants (n = 1,399) at 11 universities in Western Japan. These participants provided data for the motivational survey (n = 1,399) and at least one week of out-of-class English time use (n = 642) data. The participants in the cross-sectional study reported 2,987 out-of-class English access episodes. Episode data for all three components (K = 8,838) and the motivational survey data (n = 1,399) were analyzed at the person, group, and amalgamated episode levels for the patterns of participants' time use using ANOVA and nonparametric procedures. The data were also examined using nonparametric procedures (Kruskal-Wallis) to exam the affective variables (anxiety, enjoyment) by the contextual variables (purpose, location, persons present) of that time use. The episode data regarding participants' (n = 1,399) time use and motivational survey data were analyzed using ANOVA, factor, Rasch, multiple regression analyses, and structural equation modeling. The analyses of the time use data considered the temporal features of the episodes (time of day, day of week, hebdomadal pattern), the contextual features of the episodes (purpose, location, persons with), and the affective features of the time use (enjoyment, anxiety). The analyses of the motivational data considered two models of the L2 motivational self system, an intention to learn model (ILM) and a time use model (TUM). The ILM replicates the model found in the final solution proposed by Taguchi et al. (2009) for their model of the L2 motivational self system. In this model, the outcome factor is Intention to Learn, a factor labeled Criterion Measures by Taguchi et al. In the TUM, the outcome factor of Intention to Learn is replaced by actual time use on out-of-class English access. Time use results from all three components of this study indicated most out-of-class episodes occur when the participant is alone at home either studying or listening to English music. The most typical episode was listening to music, either alone at home or while commuting. A similar pattern of out-of-class English access was found for participants in all three components of this study. Study-related episodes were not considered enjoyable but also were not seen as causing anxiety. The amount of out-of-class time varied widely between participants, with one longitudinal study participant devoting 40 hours per week to English outside of class. For longitudinal study participants, the time use episode data, along with interviews, indicated that habit was a primary driver of out-of-class English access, with participants showing stable patterns of time use, whether for enjoyment or study, during the term. For the most part, once participants in the longitudinal components for this project had established a routine it remained fairly consistent during the term. The interviews clarified the initial motivators and drivers of the participants' English-related out-of-class time use. Interviews also confirmed the importance of habit in out-of-class time use patterns. Moreover, the interviews also indicated that the participants' L2 motivation was set in junior high school, though initial interest may have begun much earlier. Moreover, results from the three components showed that none of the participants met the time requirements of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Sports, Technology and Culture (MEXT, 2002, 2009b) for out-of-class time allocated to study for their English courses, a 2:1 ration, for every week that they participated in the study. Only a few of the participants met this requirement for out-of-class English access during any week of the study and only if all purposes, including enjoyment, were considered. This study also addresses the call that Dörnyei (2000) made for research examining the links between motivation and behavior in L2 learning. One unique aspect of this study is the use of a behavioral variable, Time Use, in addition to the survey-assessed latent trait, Intention to Learn, to explore the links between motivational profile and actual behavior. Motivational results show limited support for Taguchi et al.'s (2009) structural model following the same paths that they used in their model of the L2 motivational self system. More informative is the difference in the loading of the motivational profile factors on the outcome variable, Intention to Learn, which was the Criterion variable in Taguchi et al.'s final model, and the loading of the motivational profile factors on the measure of actual out-of-class time accessing English. Results show that Ideal L2 Self loaded strongly (.94) on the criterion, Intention to Learn, but much less strongly (.35) on actual out-of-class time use. However, the confirmatory factor analysis also indicated only a marginal fit to the model. Of importance, however, is that participants who rated highly on their Ideal L2 Self rated highly on the Intention to Learn, but not nearly as highly on actual time use on English. This suggests that responses on surveys of motivation to learn a second language are measures of intention and should not be used to predict or explain actual language learning behaviors. Like the results found by M. P. Eccles et al. (2012), who looked at intention and behavior in medical intervention studies and concluded that surveys targeting intention did not indicate actual behavior, language researchers might need to take a more critical approach to any interpretation of survey-based results as explaining actual learner behavior. This study set out to begin the process of understanding language learners' out-of-class time to language learning and exploring the links between out-of-class behavior and the learners' motivations. Through the longitudinal and the cross-sectional components, the study clarified the ways in which language learners use their out-of-class time allocated to second language access, the amount of time that they allocate, and the characteristics of this time use. It examined the connections between motivation and behavior and began the process of linking motivational studies with actual behaviors called for by Dörnyei (2000). If, as this study has suggested, there is little connection between the level of motivation and the type of motivated behavior that is being targeted, then researchers need to reconsider the current construction of such instruments and search for alternative ways to include actual measures of behavior in L2 motivational surveys. Given the large body of research on motivation in language learning, the results of this study indicate that researchers might want to consider ways include a measure of actual behavior or interpret results of surveys more conservatively when making claims of links between motivation and actual intention.
Temple University--Theses

Research in Second Language Acquisition indicates that using English outside of the classroom is an important part of the language learning process. However, studies done on university level ESL and EFL students indicate that students use English minimally when outside of the classroom. This thesis furthers the research on English use outside of the classroom in order to more fully understand all types of language learners and the link between language proficiency and out-of-class English use.

Some words have context-sensitivity. Some words (like ‘I’ and ‘now’) are sensitive to the speaker's identity and location in time and space. Others (like ‘big’ and ‘tall’) are sensitive to a comparison class. ‘Shifting standards?’ discusses the emergence of contextualism, which grew out of the ‘Relevant Alternatives’ theory of knowledge. Contextualism is a theory about knowledge-attributing language. The idea is that ‘know’ expresses something different as situations change. The view that knowledge is absolute, in the sense that the words we use for it are not context-sensitive, is known as ‘invariantism’. Invariantism faces a challenge in explaining the shifting intuitions that make knowledge sometimes seem easy and sometimes seem hard.

Narrative inquiry is particularly suited to capture how individuals make meaning of their identities as they engage with mutually shifting global–local cultural interactions. This chapter lays out the conceptual framework that examines how globalization shapes the narrative imagination and how it provides insights into understanding the psychology of globalization in urban India. It argues that individuals use narrative and stories as language-based equipment to express their subject positions and give meaning to the uniqueness and singularity of their experiences. Being interpellated by power structures or created through systems of cultural power does not mean there is no room for individual story-making or agency. The urban Indian youth make and remake their identities as they narrate stories of their lives through the lens of their social class; rootedness in history of colonization and postcolonial culture; exposure to discourses of globalization; and embeddedness in social practices of education, employment, and traditions.

The category of mood is widely used in the description of languages and the formal analysis of their grammatical properties. It typically refers to features of a sentence’s form (or a class of sentences which share such features), either individual morphemes or grammatical patterns, which reflect how the sentence contributes to the modal meaning of a larger phrase or which indicates the type of fundamental pragmatic function it has in conversation. The first subtype, verbal mood, includes the categories of indicative and subjunctive subordinate clauses; the second sentence mood, encompasses declaratives, interrogatives, and imperatives. This work presents the essential background for understanding semantic theories of mood and discusses the most significant theories of both types. It evaluates those theories, compares them, draws connections between seemingly disparate approaches, and with the goal of drawing out their most important insights, it formalizes some of the literature’s most important ideas in new ways. Ultimately, this work shows that there are important connections between verbal mood and sentence mood which point the way towards a more general understanding of how mood works and its relation to other topics in linguistics, and it outlines the type of semantic and pragmatic theory which will make it possible to explain these relations.

AbstractSensory-motor information is linguistically encoded by action verbs. Such verbs are not only used to express action concepts and events, but they are also pervasively exploited in the linguistic representation of abstract concepts and figurative meanings. In the light of several theoretical approaches (i.e., Embodied Theories, Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Image Schema Theory), this paper analyzes the mechanisms that enable action verbs to acquire abstract meanings and that motivate the symmetries (or asymmetries) in the semantic variations of locally equivalent verbs (e.g., premere and spingere; Eng., to press and to push). The research is carried out within the IMAGACT framework and focuses on a set of four Italian action verbs encoding force (i.e., premere, spingere, tirare, and trascinare; Eng., to press, to push, to pull, and to drag). The results confirm that metaphorical extensions of action verbs are constrained by the image schemas involved in the core meaning of the verbs. Additionally, the paper shows that these image schemas are responsible for the asymmetries in the metaphorical variation of action verbs pertaining to the same semantic class (i.e., force).

AbstractThe termination behavior of probabilistic programs depends on the outcomes of random assignments. Almost sure termination (AST) is concerned with the question whether a program terminates with probability one on all possible inputs. Positive almost sure termination (PAST) focuses on termination in a finite expected number of steps. This paper presents a fully automated approach to the termination analysis of probabilistic while-programs whose guards and expressions are polynomial expressions. As proving (positive) AST is undecidable in general, existing proof rules typically provide sufficient conditions. These conditions mostly involve constraints on supermartingales. We consider four proof rules from the literature and extend these with generalizations of existing proof rules for (P)AST. We automate the resulting set of proof rules by effectively computing asymptotic bounds on polynomials over the program variables. These bounds are used to decide the sufficient conditions – including the constraints on supermartingales – of a proof rule. Our software tool Amber can thus check AST, PAST, as well as their negations for a large class of polynomial probabilistic programs, while carrying out the termination reasoning fully with polynomial witnesses. Experimental results show the merits of our generalized proof rules and demonstrate that Amber can handle probabilistic programs that are out of reach for other state-of-the-art tools.

Nowadays the widespread use of information and communication technologies in every field, especially in education, brings forward the idea of use of them by teachers and students intensively. Although teachers and students are far from each other physically, they communicate thanks to information and communication technologies, learn new information about their lessons, repeat this information, and reinforce what they learn in class. When taking learning and teaching into consideration, learning and teaching do not happen without communication and interaction. The importance of social media tools in information and communication technologies has been increasing in terms of education. Social media tools are generally called as social networking sites. Facebook is the most used and known tool among them. Facebook is a social network that provides communication and information exchange. People who have Internet connection in every part of the world communicate and interact among themselves via this social tool. In other words, people compose virtual social lives for themselves. People in these virtual lives identify themselves, communicate and get along with people who have the same cultural level via the facilities that the Internet provides. This case tries to find out the use of Facebook by language instructors via a questionnaire which was given to 160 English, French, and German language instructors at the School of Foreign Languages, Basic Languages Department of Anadolu University. Findings emerged related to every aim of the study. Some conclusions were drawn from the findings gained in the study. The results of the study revealed that Facebook has been used widely by instructors. There were some differences in the use of Facebook among English, French and German instructors. It was found that English instructors made extensive use of Facebook. Moreover, some instructors were found to create class pages and have some activities like communication, sharing class events, giving homework and sharing videos. Based on the results, the study was concluded by some implications to use Facebook in foreign language learning.

This chapter explores the use of a flipped learning approach through the application Instagram in an English as Foreign Language (EFL) class. A case study involving 53 participants at a high school is presented. A mixed methods approach using quantitative and qualitative information is carried out where 4 different data collection instruments collected information about students' perceptions of the flipped learning model as well as the use of Instagram. Findings emphasized the app and the flipped learning methodology as motivational and useful elements to develop language learning processes. However, learner feedback indicated that the flipped learning model used in this research was not viewed as superior to traditional lecture-based instruction. This chapter concludes with a discussion of the implications of implementing flipped learning models that utilize mobile devices in EFL education.

Language instructors often struggle to find useful and learner-friendly podcasts to supplement their language instruction. In an attempt to address this issue, we examined a number of podcasts for their applicability for use in teaching vocabulary and language. Based on this analysis, we identified four categories of podcasts that are useful for the learning process: 1) Discrete Category, 2) ESL-Focused, 3) General Audience, and 4) Superpodcasts. In this chapter, we discuss each category of podcast, providing several examples, and then we explore the strengths and weaknesses of each variety. Finally, we offer pedagogical suggestions to demonstrate ways in which language teachers can effectively use the podcasts to organize both in- and out-of-class language learning activities. As a supplement to the chapter, a wiki is also available that includes a number of podcasts covering a variety of languages: http://languagepodcasts.pbworks.com/

In Chapter 4, Mitchell tells how his out-of-class use of various media helped to sustain his interest in Japanese from the elementary level. He describes his current focus on increasing his vocabulary as he prepares for a career as a professional interpreter/translator. We further elaborate on the theme of vocabulary learning in Sensei’s Tips and consider the questions of how much vocabulary we should aim at, which ones we should learn and what it means to know a word.

So many user interfaces have the appearance of a collection of labels, stuck onto invisible boxes whose contents remain a mystery to users until they have made the effort of opening up each box in turn and sifting through its contents. In order to explore what might be called “the language of labeling,” we must first make some observations about the relationship between terms and concepts. Terms are words with special subject meanings; a term may consist of one or more “units” (e.g., user interface). As has been pointed out by Sager (1990), concepts are notoriously difficult to define; it is, however, possible to group them into four basic types: • class concepts or entities, generally corresponding to nouns • property concepts or qualities, for the most part corresponding to adjectives • relation concepts realized though various parts of speech, such as prepositions • function concepts or activities, corresponding to nouns and verbs Looking at the relationship between terms and concepts will help us to think about whether terms can be used to label various types of knowledge and also whether they can properly represent users’ knowledge needs. The present book is structured around linguistic “concepts” in the broad sense, whereas in this chapter, when we refer to concepts, it is in the narrower terminological sense indicated above. “We can use any names we wish as labels for concepts so long as we use them consistently. The only other criterion is convenience” In special subject areas, these same criteria apply, except that communication of specialized knowledge obliges us to take account of how concepts have been labeled by others and how the concepts we are handling fit into a wider scheme. We can draw up systems of concepts and try to specify relationships between them, uncovering along the way the knowledge structures that bind them together. However, we cannot do the same with terms. Terms are existential in nature, that is to say, they signal the existence of an entity, a relationship, an activity, or a quality.

This chapter is a contribution to teacher education and teacher development studies in the field of plurilingualism and intercultural development through critical reflection. It presents a teaching proposal based on the use of a multimodal literary text for the promotion of intercultural awareness and translanguaging practices at its heart. The teaching proposal, which was implemented in a primary education class from a multilingual school in Catalonia in 2015, was designed ad hoc on the basis of relevant research works on TLA, plurilingualism, and intercultural awareness, and in the light of the interviews conducted before and after the implementation in the workfield. The study was carried out in an English as an additive language class to look into the teaching opportunities of storytelling and picture books to foster interculturality and effective language learning practices with a communicative approach.

Self-regulated learning is one of the essential skills learners need to possess in times of rapid technological advancements to comply with the requirements of the modern world. Indeed, today's youth are assumed to be able to set their own goals, seek opportunities to attain these goals, and manage their learning environments to control their own learning owing to the omnipresence of information and communication technology (ICT) tools in every area of their lives including and especially in their educational lives. In this respect, this study aims to find out whether first-year English as a Foreign Language (EFL) pre-service teachers really make use of ICT tools to regulate their formal learning experiences in out-of-class settings. Results reveal that pre-service teachers most often fail in bridging in-class and out-of-class learning, and they generally engage in low-level self-regulated learning experiences. Implications arising from these findings are highlighted, and some future research possibilities are discussed.

Leela Fernandes points out that the Rudolphs’ analysis challenges the ‘homogenized, de-cultured language’ of conventional political economy to incorporate the unique as well as the general. The Rudolphs utilized a constructivist approach to illuminate how class, the state, and culture historically interacted to shape the way that people give meaning to their lives and ultimately fashion their political identity and behaviour. Fernandes sees class as a dynamic product of the interaction between the state, social relations, and the language and culture that people use to make sense of their world. She shows how the structural and discursive dimensions of class interact through the daily practice of resistance by women workers, the customs and rituals of religious festivals, and the community proceedings of organizations. Fernandes argues for a synthesis of structural approaches of political economy with the cultural sensitivities of area studies.

The topicality of the article is determined by the widespread use of blended learning approaches in higher education, especially in studying foreign languages. With the limited number of classroom hours proposed for teaching foreign languages at technical universities, it became very relevant to introduce various alternative out-of-class monitoring methods. The aim of the research is to investigate the effectiveness of introducing video sketches as the way to improve the process of foreign language studying at technical universities. The authors assume that recording video monologues could facilitate students’ speaking abilities, reduce the level of their anxiety compared to delivering monologues in class and could stimulate the effective use of classroom hours for teaching foreign languages. To prove this hypothesis the authors of the study conducted an experiment in Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University during the autumn term of 2019-2020 academic year with the total number of 232 participants randomly chosen from 1-course students of technical specialties with different levels of English language proficiency. The possibility to record a monologue instead of delivering it face-to-face was considered as the IV (independent variable) of the experiment. Such research method as an open-close questionnaire was used afterwards to identify the students’ satisfaction with the proposed alternative as well as the analysis of the exam results at the end of the course. These results as the part of the students’ academic performance represented the DV (dependent variable) of the experiment. The obtained data showed that students of the experimental group passed their exam significantly better than the students of the control group. Thus, the present survey proved that students of the experimental group would prefer to record video sketches instead of delivering monologues face to face and that making video monologues improved their fluency and helped overcome some psychological barriers. On the basis of the research and the results obtained during the experiment, the authors conclude that the application of video monologues in the process of teaching foreign languages is highly promising.

In this paper, a novel approach is proposed to transform a requirement text described by natural language into two UML diagrams — use case and class diagrams. The transformation consists of two steps: from natural language to an intermediate graphic language called recursive object model (ROM) and from ROM to UML. The ROM diagram corresponding to a text includes the main semantic information implied in the text by modeling the relations between words in a text. Based on the semantics in the ROM diagram, a set of generation rules are proposed to generate UML diagrams from a ROM diagram. A software prototype R2U is presented as a proof of concept for this approach. A case study shows that the proposed approach is feasible. The proposed approach can be applied to requirements modeling in various engineering fields such as software engineering, automotive engineering, and aerospace engineering. The future work is pointed out at the end of this paper.

The purpose of the study was to find out how enhanced learner autonomy techniques can influence students' professional communication skills, subject-specific knowledge, levels of motivation in studying the language and general satisfaction from the studies. The problem under investigation is if students should be allowed to choose materials for language input and if the teacher will be able to work out an appropriate didactic approach in developing students' grammar accuracy, vocabulary range, speaking, listening and writing skills. the expermental course was designed for students of economics. Students' responsibility, the use of online resources and students' freedom in selection of teaching materials are viewed as key elements of the approach. the methodology of the course is worked out on the basis of close teacher-student interactin in and out of class. The results indicate that despite the fact that the course was time-consuming for both teachers and students, there are some positive results in respect of increased proffessional vocabulary range, levels of motivation and cognition.

[This Proceedings paper was revised and published in the 2019 issue of the journal Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, Volume 16] Aim/Purpose: Blended learning can transform students experience and learning in higher education. Although the literature extensively explores benefits of blended learning, limited research exists to provide a detailed design principle for implementing instructional activities in blended courses and its usage as tool to influence learning outcomes for second language first year accounting learners. Background: The objective of this study is to find out how the learning experience of students was impacted and by designing and implementing blended learning and connectivity between online and face-to-face learning. This paper reviews the challenges and benefits of blended learning and highlights teachers’ and students’ perceptions on the impact of the connectivity of online and face-to-face activities on students’ learning. Methodology: Data was collected from students enrolled in the course using an open-ended questionnaire. There were 220 respondents, representing a response rate of 65%. Data was extracted from the online learning data and grade center. Teachers’ experiences and observations were also noted. The survey results were analyzed using content analysis. Contribution: Research focusing on blended learning design and implementation is limited, and there is no one size fits all when it comes to blended learning. Consequently, this paper contributes to the discussion by highlighting how second language, first-year accounting students benefit from blended learning and the connectivity between online and face-to-face activities. Increased flexibility for learners appears to be one of the most cited rationale for the combination of traditional with online instructional methods, however, this study evaluates blended learning as a tool for transforming the learning experience of second language, first year accounting students. Findings: Findings show that students benefit from blended learning, and connectivity between online and in-class activities allows students to exploit the advantages of both online and face-to-face learning. Students can see the relevance of what they are doing online and how that contributes to their in-class activities and, hence, are motivated to complete the activities. Recommendations for Practitioners: Educators should use a well-designed blended learning pathway to empower students to be in charge of their learning. Placing materials online creates more and better opportunities for engaging students in class. Institutional support is important when implementing blended learning. Recommendations for Researchers: There is a need for more studies on blended learning design and implementation. Future researchers may carry out more studies on how blended learning design affects student engagement and learning for second language learners in other courses. Impact on Society: A blended learning pathway would greatly benefit second language learners to learn better and empower them to be more independent as a self-directed learner who is able to utilize their time wisely. Community of practice is an excellent platform to encourage teaching teams to work together and create innovative teaching and assessment materials. Future Research: Future studies may carry out the study using other methods for example quantitative surveys and interviews to get a deeper understanding of both students and teachers’ perceptions and experiences.

The escape room, also known as escape game, is a gamification tool that aims to promote increased motivation and improved teamwork (Wood & Reiners, 2012). Recently, escape rooms have achieved prominence in the classroom as pedagogical instruments valid for any type of discipline. In the educational field in particular, the escape room can be defined as an action game in real time where the players, in teams, solve a series of puzzles or problems and carry out tasks related to the curricular contents worked on throughout the course, in one or more rooms with a specific objective and at a specific time (Nicholson, 2015). To do this, learners must put into practice the knowledge acquired about a particular subject, as well as their creative and intellectual abilities, and deductive reasoning. Despite being a pedagogical tool that has emerged as an innovative element in the last five years or so, the use of escape rooms for teaching-learning the English language at different educational levels has been studied qualitatively and quantitatively (Dorado Escribano, 2019; López Secanell & Ortega Torres, 2020). However, there is no study on the applicability of the escape room in the English literature classroom at the tertiary educational level. This paper aims to demonstrate how the inclusion of this innovative pedagogical tool can serve not only for teaching the language, but also for working on theoretical-practical contents of subjects focused on literary studies of the Degree in English Studies. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, the study will focus on the identification of types of exercises to implement as part of the educational escape room aimed at a sample of students; the preparation of tests/ exercises based on the established objectives; the design of a pre- and a post- questionnaire based on the established objectives; the implementation of the escape room in the literature class and the evaluation of the impact of this educational tool to foster students’ motivation.

The interest in using polyethylene pipe in Class 3 safety water systems in nuclear power plants has grown tremendously in the last few years. PE pipe brings a host of benefits to the application in the form of long-term performance and reliability due to not being prone to corrosion and tuberculation. As the work continues through various ASME committees to develop the appropriate code language for the design and use of PE pipe, it is clear that plastics are not evaluated the same way metallic components would be in similar applications. However, the nature of the failure (i.e. ductile or brittle) is important for both. This paper will give an overview of the methodology used to establish the long-term hydrostatic strength of polyethylene compounds, and how that strength is used for engineering design in a safe a reliable manner. The strength of a polyethylene compound, being a thermoplastic, cannot be determined from a short-term tensile strength test, as with most metals. As such, testing and evaluation methodologies have been developed which take into account the viscoelastic creep response of thermoplastics, as well as potential changes in failure mode, in order to forecast the long-term hydrostatic strength of these materials so they can be safely used in a pressure pipe application. Since PE was first used in a piping application in the late 1950s, PE has continued to evolve as have the methodologies used to evaluate its strength against stresses induced by hydrostatic pressure. The common method for evaluation relies on putting specimens under multiple continuous, steady-state stress levels until failure. These data points are then used in a log-log linear regression evaluation. This regression equation is then extrapolated to a point sufficiently further out in time to where a long-term strength can be established. It has been clearly established that over a temperature range that the stress rupture behavior of PE follows an Arrhenius, or rate process, relationship between temperature and strength. By testing at elevated temperatures it can be “validated” that the extrapolation remains linear and ductile beyond the actual test data. This and other criteria established by ASTM D 2837 and the Plastics Pipe Institute’s Hydrostatic Stress Board allow for establishing an appropriate maximum working stress that will assure a very long design life.

Distributed generation emerged as a new philosophy for electricity generation in our time, since then, it has been possible to see new concepts of technology following the idea of energy production away from the main producers or in remote areas, mainly in the countryside. Distributed generation technologies include small gas turbine engines, internal combustion reciprocating engines, photovoltaic panels, fuel cells, solar thermal conversion and Stirling engines using fossil and biofuels. Among them, the small gas turbine engine that generates electricity and heat working with fossil or renewable fuels is a promising technology for the near future. The aim of this work is the cycle analysis and preliminary compressor design of a 600kW simple cycle gas turbine engine that has been developed in Brazil. The 600kW engine will be the first prototype of its class in Brazil. A cycle performance calculation for different pressure ratios and turbine inlet temperature was carried out for fixed component efficiencies and losses. A selection of the design point was discussed and compared with the existing commercial engines of the same class. A compressor design point calculation was carried out with a mean line calculation CODE developed in FORTAN language. A CFD simulation was used for flow field analyses and design refinement.

This paper presents a formalized approach to specify and implement design matrix support for systems engineering applications that structure large and complex product models. Design matrixes can clearly visualize the relationships between large amounts of hierarchically structured engineering objects and higher level systems engineering design objects like requirements and functions in the product model. Examples of structures that can be lied out along the X and Y axis of a design matrix are stakeholder trees, requirement trees, function-means trees, product concept trees, and implementation trees. The cells of the design matrix visualize how corresponding objects at the axes relate to each other. One benefit with configurable design matrixes is that the information content and layout of a design matrix can be specified by a user, and all software implementation effort is handled automatically by a generic software framework that is included in the engineering application. The paper provides an overview of the theory behind a formal specification language for configurable design matrixes. It gives examples of design matrix specifications and screen shoots of instances of these design matrixes generated by a prototype engineering application called FMDesign. The examples of different types of design matrixes are taken from a aircraft product model of a small business jet. A formal software specification of the design matrix specification language and the example engineering application is provided in UML class diagrams.