Communicative language teaching of a foreign language : the Indonesian 1984 senior high school English syllabus

This thesis examines the implementation of the 1984 English syllabus, which is claimed to be communicative. The study was conducted in three government Senior High Schools in Singaraja, northern Bali. The results indicate that the implementation of the Communicative Approach has been constrained by the limited resources, inadequate professional development and the national examination system, the EBTANAS.

Investigation into the appropriacy of Western language teaching methods in Taiwan

The language learning preferences of EFL students are often assumed and not readily understood by foreign teachers. This study sought to determine the types of language learning classroom activities preferred by adult learners of English in Taiwan. Student responses were then compared with responses from native-speaking teachers of EFL.

Ko Un and the poetics of postcolonial identity

Ko Un is one of South Korea's most important writers of the past 50 years, and a poet whose work provides important insights into crucial linkages between language, identity and community. He lived through, chronicled and critically engaged most of the traumatic events his nation faced during the last century: a brutal colonial occupation by Japan; the division of the peninsula into communist North and capitalist South; an unusually devastating fraternal war; the integration of the divided peninsula into global Cold War politics; periods of authoritarian rule on both sides; and the more recent challenge to promote reconciliation. Some of these episodes challenged the very existence of Korea as a people, nation and state. Ko Un's poetry was part of a larger effort to regain a sense of being and national identity in the face of turmoil, war and globalisation. We argue that by engaging with these highly political issues Ko Un's work provides important clues about how to articulate notions of identity and community in a way that empathetically portrays other people and their identities. In doing so he offers an alternative to the prevailing inside/outside logic that often leads to problematic forms of nationalism.

The effect of fiscal policy on diet, obesity and chronic disease : a systematic review

Objective To assess the effect of food taxes and subsidies on diet, body weight and health through a systematic review of the literature.

Methods We searched the English-language published and grey literature for empirical and modelling studies on the effects of monetary subsidies or taxes levied on specific food products on consumption habits, body weight and chronic conditions. Empirical studies were dealing with an actual tax, while modelling studies predicted outcomes based on a hypothetical tax or subsidy.

Findings Twenty-four studies met the inclusion criteria: 13 were from the peer-reviewed literature and 11 were published on line. There were 8 empirical and 16 modelling studies. Nine studies assessed the impact of taxes on food consumption only, 5 on consumption and body weight, 4 on consumption and disease and 6 on body weight only. In general, taxes and subsidies influenced consumption in the desired direction, with larger taxes being associated with more significant changes in consumption, body weight and disease incidence. However, studies that focused on a single target food or nutrient may have overestimated the impact of taxes by failing to take into account shifts in consumption to other foods. The quality of the evidence was generally low. Almost all studies were conducted in high-income countries.

Conclusion Food taxes and subsidies have the potential to contribute to healthy consumption patterns at the population level. However, current evidence is generally of low quality and the empirical evaluation of existing taxes is a research priority, along with research into the effectiveness and differential impact of food taxes in developing countries.

Prevention of alcohol and other drug problems in culturally and linguistically diverse communities

Australia has long been known as a multicultural society. In 2009 around one-quarter of Australia’s population was born overseas and immigrants come from more than 200 countries. While most of Australia’s migrants come from New Zealand, the United Kingdom, India or China, the fastest growing immigrant populations are from sub-Saharan and northern Africa, and the Middle East. Immigrants from a non-English speaking country, as well as their children and grandchildren, are commonly referred to as culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) as a way of acknowledging differences in ethnic identity and affiliation, as well as cultural and language practices and preferences. Culturally and linguistically diverse groups in Australia face many health challenges, one of which is a potential vulnerability to alcohol and other drug (AOD) use.

The primary aim of this paper is to identify and evaluate primary prevention programs and initiatives aimed at preventing AOD harms in CLD communities.

Native English speaking teachers and Taiwanese English teachers' professional identity

The study found that Native English Speaking Teachers (NESTs) helped Taiwanese English teachers define their weaknesses, strengths, roles and values through relationality. NESTs brought competing discourses to the profession. In addition, team teaching has become a site of tension threatening Taiwanese English teachers in activating their professional agency.

'We learnt that last week' : reading into the language practices of teachers

The messages teachers convey to their students through their use of language can often go unconsidered, yet such practices can have a significant impact on students and their schooling, and in the creation of learning difficulties. In this paper we employ a discursive and ideological approach to analysing teachers’ language practices and suggest that such systematic examination is warranted given the centrality of ‘teacher talk’ to students’ schooling. We draw attention to these concerns through an analysis of a spoken text between a teacher and student in the context of ‘show and tell’; a dialogue drawn from a larger body of data of interviews with and observations of teachers in six Australian primary schools. The analysis attempts to uncover the meanings conveyed to the student in question, Sam, through his teacher’s language practices and to demonstrate the potentially detrimental effects of these practices on his schooling. Generally, we propose that teachers frequently employ linguistic techniques to refashion students in various ways, according to the norms of schooling; norms that often do not account very well for student difference and which position them as ‘difficult’. Specifically, we argue that Sam’s teacher seems more interested in moulding Sam’s behaviour to conform to the interests of the school than in valuing his heritage and contributions.

Are we raising the standards of language use or just playing games?

Given the current state of play with respect to literacy 'crises' in Western democracies, this article revisits the 'language games' that often inform these concerns, examining their rules and who benefits from them. It argues that to focus narrowly on the technical aspects of language, as the current emphasis does, misses the point of what is at stake for students: those who advocates claim to want to help. Drawing on twenty semi-structured interviews and observations of teachers in primary and secondary schools within Queensland (Australia), the article outlines four perspectives on language use and how these variously position students as literate and illiterate. It concludes that we now need a different game plan to address students' use of language, one that provokes a stance and praxis in keeping with a more inclusive politics and which provides real challenges to broader social constraints.

Helping university students to 'read' scholarly journal articles : the benefits of a structured and collaborative approach

Academics often treat students’ discipline-specific literacy as unproblematic. In doing so they may underestimate the difficulties for university students as they move between subjects of study that may involve different disciplines, language genres and academic practices. This paper describes an initiative aimed at supporting students in reading academic articles in preparation for completing an essay for an assessment task. This initiative involved a structured and collaborative two-week tutorial exercise that provided students with practice in using a framework to extract the main ideas from academic readings. Students were surveyed after this exercise, and their reflections of its value are described in this paper. The findings of this study will inform further stages of the project which aim to develop and investigate practical ways to develop student’s academic literacy across several business disciplines.

Japanese lesson study : teacher professional development through communities of inquiry

Japanese Lesson Study has come under increasing attention from educators in the West and throughout South-East Asia since it was revealed outside Japan through the release of the TIMSS Video Study. In this paper we argue that Japanese Lesson Study provides a model for large scale, sustainable professional development. In particular, we draw on our own experience of Japanese Lesson Study and the research literature to describe its characteristic features and examine some of the cultural assumptions that underpin its implementation.

On the automated interpretation and indexing of American football

This work combines natural language understanding and image processing with incremental learning to develop a system that can automatically interpret and index American Football. We have developed a model for representing spatio-temporal characteristics of multiple objects in dynamic scenes in this domain. Our representation combines expert knowledge, domain knowledge, spatial knowledge and temporal knowledge. We also present an incremental learning algorithm to improve the knowledge base as well as to keep previously developed concepts consistent with new data. The advantages of the incremental learning algorithm are that is that it does not split concepts and it generates a compact conceptual hierarchy which does not store instances.

Combining NL processing and video data to query American football

We explore the use of natural language understanding and image processing to index and query American Football tapes. We present a model for representing spatio-temporal characteristics of multiple objects in dynamic scenes in this domain, and a recognition system which uses the model to recognise American Football plays.

Social identity and sound change : the case of Wo in Shanghainese

Research has shown that language change is driven on one hand by forces internal to language itself such as grammar-internal systematic pressure, and on the other hand by social motives such as social identity. Language contact presents new features, but why is it that some of them are incorporated as variation and evolving into language change, while others are not? This paper reports a study on a sound change in Shanghainese, a dialect of the Chinese language. Data were collected in natural contexts of conversation followed by a brief interview with informants to gain identity related information about them. It has found that previously negative perception of status attached to a new sound induced by language/dialect contact changed into a positive perception, and people started to identify positively with this new sound. Further, there were differences in various different age and gender groups in taking up the new sound. As a result, this sound has evolved from a nonnative alternative to a systematic variation and it is being established as a sound change. This study has thus further confirmed that social identity plays a pivotal role in driving language features into language variation and language change.

Global English corner : using Elluminate to enhance international students' English language skills

Students at Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne, Australia, undertake their study in an English language context and they have a range of support options to assist with English language development. VU has partner universities in China (Sichuan University, Henan University and Liaoning University). VU’s programs in China often have fewer language support options than programs in Melbourne. The Australian Government’s Transnational Quality Strategy requires that educational programs on- and offshore provide students with a comparable learning experience. Given the relative lack of English speaking opportunities available to VU’s students in China, the university is exploring how technologies might achieve a greater comparability of the student experience. This paper reports on a pilot program that uses Elluminate to conduct English conversations between students in China and Australia. The perceived lack of English competence of international students has been an ongoing issue in Australian higher education while the ‘English corner’ is ‘a characteristically Chinese approach to informal practice’ (Jin & Cortazzi, 2002) that helps students learning English in a foreign context to develop their English language proficiency. How might the idea of ‘English corner’ be used with educational technologies to encourage international students to practise and develop their English? This paper discusses a pilot program at VU that combines the idea of the English Corner together with the online conferencing tool Elluminate and a blog developed in WordPress, to engage Chinese students offshore in English language conversations. Through Elluminate and the Global English Corner blog, a pair of student peers in Melbourne conducts semi-structured conversations with groups of students offshore. In Elluminate, students can both hear and see each other – and they can simultaneously txt chat, share documents, images and websites and use the collaborative whiteboard function of Elluminate – to have dynamic conversations in real time. Preliminary findings of this pilot that uses technology to emphasise the societal aspects of learning – including language learning – will be presented. The discussion will consider how a more widespread English Corner program could aid the transition of international students in Australia, encourage the interaction of local students and international students, increase opportunities for international students to practise English and achieve a greater comparability of language support options on- and offshore.