The relationships between illness and treatment perceptions with adherence to diabetes self-care: A comparison between Arabic-speaking migrants and Caucasian English-speaking patients

Aims
To compare illness and treatment perceptions between Arabic-speaking immigrants and Caucasian English-speaking people with type 2 diabetes, and explore the relationships between these beliefs and adherence to self-care activities.
Methods

A cross-sectional study was conducted in healthcare settings with large Arabic populations in metropolitan and rural Victoria, Australia. Adherence to self-care activities, illness and treatment perceptions, and clinical data were recorded. Bivariate associations for continuous normally distributed variables were tested with Pearson's correlation. Non-parametric data were tested using Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.
Results

701 participants were recruited; 392 Arabic-speaking participants (ASPs) and 309 English-speaking participants (ESPs). There were significant relationships between participants’ illness and treatment perceptions and adherence to diabetes self-care activities. ASPs’ negative beliefs about diabetes were strongly and significantly correlated with poorer adherence to diet recommendations, exercise, blood glucose testing and foot care. ASPs were significantly less adherent to all aspects of diabetes self-care compared with ESPs: dietary behaviours (P = <0.01; 95% confidence interval (CI) = −1.17, −0.84), exercise and physical activity (P = <0.001, 95% CI −1.14, −0.61), blood glucose testing (P = <0.001) and foot-care (P = <0.001). 52.8% of ASPs were sceptical about prescribed diabetes treatment compared with only 11.2% of the ESPs. 88.3% of ASPs were non-adherent to prescribed medication, compared with 45.1% of ESPs.

Conclusions
Arabic-speaking migrants’ illness and treatment perceptions were significantly different from the English-speaking group. There is a pressing need to develop new innovative interventions that deliver much-needed improvements in adherence to self-care activities and key health outcomes.

Innovation in language education: enriching Arabic language learner experiences and proficiency in 2D and 3D environments.

Abstract:-Global language and cultural communicative competency is an ever increasing requirement in our connected world. Learners of Arabic at the only five Australian universities where Arabic is taught have access to predominantly on-campus delivery modes. One of the main challenges learners face when learning another language (L2) in an academic setting in countries where that language is not actively used – so little L2 exposure – is that it is harder to provide meaningful contexts for learning. This restriction in L2 exposure in the formal academic framework is due to the limited face-to-face learning time and, more significantly, is compounded by lack of exposure to the language‟s authentic use settings. Students are often isolated from the target language‟s authentic discourse communities and native speakers. This situation is exacerbated for Cloud (online) students, studying in relative isolation. All of these factors make developing communicative oral fluency in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) moredifficult and challenging for many learners. This paper will discuss two innovative approaches used at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia to enable learners of Arabic at Deakin University to practice their developing skills by listening, practising, and experiencing directly how the language is used outside the classroom boundaries as well as allow learners to develop their oral and cultural communicative competency by engaging them in simulating and evolving authentic language scenarios with native Arabic speakers through the Virtual World (VW).

Tools for enhancing oral proficiency and cultural understanding in teaching Arabic online to non-native speakers

One of the main challenges learners of Arabic as a foreign language face in Australia is the lack of opportunities to practice the language with native speakers of Arabic outside the classroom boundaries to enhance their language skills in general and their oral proficiency in particular. Learners have so little exposure to Arabic outside the classroom. This restriction in L2 exposure in the formal academic framework is due to the limited face-to-face learning time and, more significantly, is compounded by lack of exposure to the language’s authentic use settings. Students are often isolated from the target language’s authentic discourse communities and native speakers. This situation is exacerbated for Cloud (online) students studying in relative isolation. All of these factors make developing communicative oral fluency in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) more difficult and challenging for many learners, particularly for Cloud learners. Deakin University is the only university in Australia that offers Arabic in both Campus and Cloud modes of delivery. This paper discusses an innovative approach used at Deakin University to enable online learners of Arabic to practice their developing skills by listening, practicing, and experiencing directly how the language is used outside the classroom boundaries. In addition to providing Cloud learners with an Arabic online environment rich with interactive opportunities to practice the language, it was also necessary to provide the learners with tools such as the virtual classrooms, chat rooms, discussion forums and social media language partner programs, to practice their oral fluency and enrich their learning experience.

Race, identity and education achievements among Arab-Australian students

This paper discusses the challenge of managing cultural diversity in secondary schools, focusing on key structural, ideological, cultural, attitudinal and identity factors affecting the educational experiences and outcomes of Australian students from Arabic-speaking background (ASB). Recent research indicates that there are complex processes at play that hinder the ability of non English-speaking background (NESB) students to access constructive and meaningful education, and that such processes need further systematic investigation. It has also been argued that Australian schools are failing the test of social equity and that the dominant approach to curriculum and pedagogy does not meet the needs of the growing numbers of students from divergent cultural and socio-economic backgrounds. This paper focuses on identifying the social, cultural and attitudinal factors that affect the educational achievements of ASB students within a broad multidimensional approach to multicultural education. By linking thorough empirical research and innovative theory with practical, tested plans of action, this study proposes an in-principled approach to multicultural education that is extendable to a variety of schooling contexts while retaining its core focus on effecting positive learning outcomes. The key objectives of the larger study upon which this paper is based are to (a) address the disadvantages and barriers faced by NESB young people, particularly ASB young people, in achieving positive educational outcomes; (2) increase their chances for better life opportunities and self fulfilment; and (3) develop a good practice model for diversity management in Victorian schools. This latter objective will complement Victorian Government policies on cultural diversity and multicultural education.

Structural deficiency or cultural racism: the educational and social experiences of Arab-Australian youth

This paper discusses the cultural, attitudinal and structural factors that impact upon the social experiences and educational achievements of Arabic-speaking background (ASB) students in three Melbourne secondary schools with high levels of cultural and linguistic diversity. The paper makes the case for and then outlines a multidimensional approach to multicultural education to better integrate ASB students and their families into the schooling environment. Key strategies developed and tested include a model of school-community partnership, online and interactive teacher support material (TSM) as well as on-going teacher professional development workshops on reflexive approaches to cultural diversity and intercultural tension.

Language processing and acquisition in languages of Semitic, root-based, morphology / Joseph Shimron

This book addresses a fundamental question in the morphological analysis and representation of Semitic languages—namely, whether Semitic word morphology is root based or word based. As Shimron suggests, “there are reasons to view the templates, not the roots, as the more influential factor in determining Semitic morphology” (p. 5). Yet, as others would argue, there are reasons not to disregard the root-based hypothesis altogether. In the case of Arabic morphology, for example, verbal forms inherently contain three nonlinear levels: the consonantal root, the vowel pattern, and the templatic prosody. This nonlinear feature provided a perfect illustration of what has become termed in the literature as root-and-patterns morphology (McCarthy & Prince, 1986, 1990).

Relational bonds and loyalty : the bonds that tie

This paper explores the effect of financial, social and structural bonds on the loyalty of Arabic five star hotel guests. Three different measures of loyalty are used; attitudinal, behavioural and combined to identify how the three relational bonds affect loyalty. The results show that social and structural bonds increase all types of loyalty whereas financial bonds only increase attitudinal and combined loyalty. It is also found that bonds are perceived to be more important for high-loyal consumers as compared to low-loyal consumers. This all suggests that firms seeking to increase loyalty may need different strategies depending on the consumers being targeted.

A cross-cultural examination of barriers to social inclusion for children : a qualitative study using child-centred methods

Social exclusion is a risk factor for mental health problems. This study aims to identify the factors that contribute to social exclusion for children from several cultural backgrounds, living in low-socioeconomic status (SES) areas. Children from English, Chinese and Arabic speaking backgrounds participated in semi-structured interviews. They were asked questions around three prominent themes of social exclusion: exclusion from school, social activities and social networks. Children from English and Chinese speaking backgrounds experienced exclusion at school, from social activities or in social networks. The major barriers to social inclusion, which differed across cultural groups, included bullying, time constraints, economic resources and parental permission. Although money is a barrier to social inclusion, there are several other barriers that need to be considered, such as bullying, time and parental permission, and they may differ by culture. Mental health promotion programmes in schools and communities need to address these barriers in a culturally appropriate manner.

The emotional context of self-management in chronic illness: A qualitative study of the role of health professional support in the self-management of type 2 diabetes

Background: Support for patient self-management is an accepted role for health professionals. Little evidence exists on the appropriate basis for the role of health professionals in achieving optimum self-management outcomes. This study explores the perceptions of people with type 2 diabetes about their self-management strategies and how relationships with health professionals may support this.

Methods: Four focus groups were conducted with people with type 2 diabetes:  two with English speaking and one each with Turkish and Arabic-speaking. Transcripts from the groups were analysed drawing on grounded hermeneutics and interpretive description.

Results: We describe three conceptually linked categories of text from the focus groups based on emotional context of self management, dominant approaches to self management and support from health professionals for self management. All groups described important emotional contexts to living with and self-managing diabetes and these linked closely with how they approached their diabetes management and what they looked for from health professionals. Culture seemed an important influence in shaping these linkages.

Conclusion: Our findings suggest people construct their own individual self-management and self-care program, springing from an important emotional base. This is shaped in part by culture and in turn determines the aims each  person has in pursuing self-management strategies and the role they make available to health professionals to support them. While health professionals'  support for self-care strategies will be more congruent with patients' expectations if they explore each person's social, emotional and cultural circumstances, pursuit of improved health outcomes may involve a careful balance between supporting as well as helping shift the emotional constructs surrounding a patient life with diabetes.

The influence of cultural orientations on cross-cultural negotiation

This study analysed a series of negotiation simulations conducted between English-speaking background Australians and Arabic-speaking background Gulf Cooperation Council (G.C.C.) nationals. The processes and behaviours of participants within their own cultures and across the two cultures were mapped and explained using prevalent cross-cultural communication theories.

Iraq anniversary : Interview with researcher Ahmed Hassin

A decade after the invasion of Iraq by US-led forces, we look at the role of Australia and local civil soceity in building the new nation.

Editorial Introduction: Religion and Postcolonialism

After the beginning there appeared some stranger texts
West’s Orientalism objectified the corpus’s otherness
And Modernity’s philology rendered their syntax as his own;
Thence followed the postmodern disruption of the aporia
Re-citing the alterity and the ousia of the Other’s face;
But it awaited the hybrid-angst of postcolonialism’s site
Whence the interrupted texts begun miming an-other meaning.

Attrition and maintenance of the Berber language in Tunisia

In this article, I examine the situation of Tunisian Berber from a linguistic and sociolinguistic perspective. The prolonged institutional marginalization of this language, the lack to date of a comprehensive documentation, and the passive attitude of the speakers themselves are contributing factors to its current decline. Present predictions as to its immediate extinction are alarming. However, conclusions drawn in other studies are not adequately supported and evidence from data recently collected in southern Tunisia partially refutes the claim that the decline of Tunisian Berber is irreversible. Even though attrition is evident in borrowing en masse from Arabic, grammatical evidence shows little structural change. After many years of neglect, efforts to document fully the remaining vernaculars are a positive step towards the revival of this variety of Berber. In this article I have three goals. First, to give an assessment of the problems and the challenges facing Tunisian Berber. Second, to describe the extent of attrition of this language based on field-collected data and, third, to suggest some directions for future studies of Tunisian Berber and strategies to stimulate its revival. Complete oral narratives, the first to be published, will be appended to the text in order to allow the linguistic community access to materials in its language.

Community languages, linguistic isolation and social exclusion in the Australian context

The detrimental impacts of social exclusion to health and well-being are well-known and are of increasing concern around the world. For many of the population sub-groups who are most at risk of social exclusion, linguistic isolation—the inability to use and understand the majority language—is a major barrier to full participation in the life of the community as well as to full integration into the society in which its members live. This paper, using data obtained from community-based research in Melbourne, Australia, will discuss the problem of linguistic isolation in the context of Australian multicultural policy and use of languages other than English among members of culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities. The experience of members of two specific CALD communities, speakers of Arabic and speakers of Indonesian, will be discussed to illustrate the impacts of linguistic isolation on health and well-being and to elucidate the relationship between CALD status and social exclusion in these communities.

Genome sequence of Ensifer arboris strain LMG 14919T, a microsymbiont of the legume Prosopis chilensis growing in Kosti, Sudan

Ensifer arboris LMG 14919T is an aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming rod that can exist as a soil saprophyte or as a legume microsymbiont of several species of legume trees. LMG 14919T was isolated in 1987 from a nodule recovered from the roots of the tree Prosopis chilensis growing in Kosti, Sudan. LMG 14919T is highly effective at fixing nitrogen with P. chilensis (Chilean mesquite) and Acacia senegal (gum Arabic tree or gum acacia). LMG 14919T does not nodulate the tree Leucena leucocephala, nor the herbaceous species Macroptilium atropurpureum, Trifolium pratense, Medicago sativa, Lotus corniculatus and Galega orientalis. Here we describe the features of E. arboris LMG 14919T, together with genome sequence information and its annotation. The 6,850,303 bp high-quality-draft genome is arranged into 7 scaffolds of 12 contigs containing 6,461 protein-coding genes and 84 RNA-only encoding genes, and is one of 100 rhizobial genomes sequenced as part of the DOE Joint Genome Institute 2010 Genomic Encyclopedia for Bacteria and Archaea-Root Nodule Bacteria (GEBA-RNB) project.