Why Don't Students Talk? Causes of Foreign Language Communication Apprehension in English Classes: A Comparison of High Apprehensive and Low Apprehensive Upper Secondary Students.

OBJECTIVES. Oral foreign language skills are an integral part of one's social, academic and professional competence. This can be problematic for those suffering from foreign language communication apprehension (CA), or a fear of speaking a foreign language. CA manifests itself, for example, through feelings of anxiety and tension, physical arousal and avoidance of foreign language communication situations. According to scholars, foreign language CA may impede the language learning process significantly and have detrimental effects on one's language learning, academic achievement and career prospects. Drawing on upper secondary students' subjective experiences of communication situations in English as a foreign language, this study seeks, first, to describe, analyze and interpret why upper secondary students experience English language communication apprehension in English as a foreign language (EFL) classes. Second, this study seeks to analyse what the most anxiety-arousing oral production tasks in EFL classes are, and which features of different oral production tasks arouse English language communication apprehension and why. The ultimate objectives of the present study are to raise teachers' awareness of foreign language CA and its features, manifestations and impacts in foreign language classes as well as to suggest possible ways to minimize the anxiety-arousing features in foreign language classes. METHODS. The data was collected in two phases by means of six-part Likert-type questionnaires and theme interviews, and analysed using both quantitative and qualitative methods. The questionnaire data was collected in spring 2008. The respondents were 122 first-year upper secondary students, 68 % of whom were girls and 31 % of whom were boys. The data was analysed by statistical methods using SPSS software. The theme interviews were conducted in spring 2009. The interviewees were 11 second-year upper secondary students aged 17 to 19, who were chosen by purposeful selection on the basis of their English language CA level measured in the questionnaires. Six interviewees were classified as high apprehensives and five as low apprehensives according to their score in the foreign language CA scale in the questionnaires. The interview data was coded and thematized using the technique of content analysis. The analysis and interpretation of the data drew on a comparison of the self-reports of the highly apprehensive and low apprehensive upper secondary students. RESULTS. The causes of English language CA in EFL classes as reported by the students were both internal and external in nature. The most notable causes were a low self-assessed English proficiency, a concern over errors, a concern over evaluation, and a concern over the impression made on others. Other causes related to a high English language CA were a lack of authentic oral practise in EFL classes, discouraging teachers and negative experiences of learning English, unrealistic internal demands for oral English performance, high external demands and expectations for oral English performance, the conversation partner's higher English proficiency, and the audience's large size and unfamiliarity. The most anxiety-arousing oral production tasks in EFL classes were presentations or speeches with or without notes in front of the class, acting in front of the class, pair debates with the class as audience, expressing thoughts and ideas to the class, presentations or speeches without notes while seated, group debates with the class as audience, and answering to the teacher's questions involuntarily. The main features affecting the anxiety-arousing potential of an oral production task were a high degree of attention, a large audience, a high degree of evaluation, little time for preparation, little linguistic support, and a long duration.

A Multi frequency study of Radio Intensity Variations For Active Galactic Nuclei of Different Optical Classes

A study of radio intensity variations at seven frequencies in the range 0.3 to 90 GHz for compact extragalactic radio sources classified as BL Lacs and high- and low-optical polarization quasars (HPQs and LPQs) is presented. This include the results of flux-density monitoring of 33 compact sources for three years at 327 MHz with the Ooty Synthesis Radio Telescope. The degrees of 'short-term' (tau less than about 1 yr) variability for the three optical types are found to be indistinguishable at low frequencies (less than 1 GHz), pointing to an extrinsic origin for the low-frequency variability. At high frequencies, a distinct dependence on optical type is present, the variability increasing from LPQs, through HPQs to BL Lacs. This trend persists even when only sources with ultra-flat radio spectra (alpha greater than -0.2) are considered. Implications of this for the phenomenon of high-frequency variability and the proposed unification schemes for different optical types of active galactic nuclei are discussed.

Hierarchies of circuit classes that are closed under complement

We examine three hierarchies of circuit classes and show they are closed under complementation. (1) The class of languages recognized by a family of polynomial size skew circuits with width O(w), are closed under complement. (2) The class of languages recognized by family of polynomial size circuits with width O(w) and polynomial tree-size, are closed under complement. (3) The class of languages recognized by a family of polynomial size, O(log(n)) depth, bounded AND fan-in with OR fan-in f (f⩾log(n)) circuits are closed under complement. These improve upon the results of (i) Immerman (1988) and Szelepcsenyi (1988), who show that 𝒩L𝒪𝒢 is closed under complementation, and (ii) Borodin et al. (1989), who show that L𝒪𝒢𝒞ℱL is closed under complement

Local Structural Differences in Homologous Proteins: Specificities in Different SCOP Classes

The constant increase in the number of solved protein structures is of great help in understanding the basic principles behind protein folding and evolution. 3-D structural knowledge is valuable in designing and developing methods for comparison, modelling and prediction of protein structures. These approaches for structure analysis can be directly implicated in studying protein function and for drug design. The backbone of a protein structure favours certain local conformations which include alpha-helices, beta-strands and turns. Libraries of limited number of local conformations (Structural Alphabets) were developed in the past to obtain a useful categorization of backbone conformation. Protein Block (PB) is one such Structural Alphabet that gave a reasonable structure approximation of 0.42 angstrom. In this study, we use PB description of local structures to analyse conformations that are preferred sites for structural variations and insertions, among group of related folds. This knowledge can be utilized in improving tools for structure comparison that work by analysing local structure similarities. Conformational differences between homologous proteins are known to occur often in the regions comprising turns and loops. Interestingly, these differences are found to have specific preferences depending upon the structural classes of proteins. Such class-specific preferences are mainly seen in the all-beta class with changes involving short helical conformations and hairpin turns. A test carried out on a benchmark dataset also indicates that the use of knowledge on the class specific variations can improve the performance of a PB based structure comparison approach. The preference for the indel sites also seem to be confined to a few backbone conformations involving beta-turns and helix C-caps. These are mainly associated with short loops joining the regular secondary structures that mediate a reversal in the chain direction. Rare beta-turns of type I' and II' are also identified as preferred sites for insertions.

Análise dos resultados oriundos do sorteio público de Municípios : subsídios para o controle preventivo

O Programa de Fiscalização a partir de Sorteios Públicos se caracteriza por ser uma ferramenta potencial de combate à corrupção e de correção de eventuais fragilidades na execução de Políticas Públicas. Tenciona subsidiar possíveis proposições de melhoria do Sorteio de Municípios, a fim de agregar valor aos seus resultados. O estudo pretende demonstrar o nível de eficácia dos resultados na execução de um Programa de Governo executado pelo Ministério das Cidades. Objetiva demonstrar em que ponto as fiscalizações da Controladoria-Geral da União proporcionaram correções, sejam pontuais, sejam preventivas, no fluxo de aplicação dos recursos federais. Como objetivos secundários, aspira avaliar o momento de atuação do controle, o ciclo de operacionalização dos Sorteios, o comportamento dos gestores federais e as técnicas e procedimentos empregados nas fiscalizações.

Análise do Fluxo Informacional da Tramitação de Medidas Provisórias na Coordenação de Elaboração de Autógrafos do Senado Federal e do Congresso Nacional : Relatório de Intervenção

Analisa os fluxos de informação relativos à tramitação de medidas provisórias na Coordenação de Elaboração de Autógrafos do Senado Federal e do Congresso Nacional, um órgão da estrutura do Senado

Análise de Fluxo Informacional da Delegacia Virtual da Polícia do Senado Federal : Relatório de Intervenção

Analisa a ferramenta Delegacia Virtual da Polícia do Senado Federal, disponibilizada por meio da Intranet da Instituição, com vistas a possibilitar o registro de ocorrências de maneira remota ao público interno.

Open Media Classes at Coventry University: Final Evaluation Report 2015

This report offers a reflection on findings from a one year evaluation study into the distributed open media classes at Coventry University The study team comprised Lou McGill and Tim Gray of Lou McGill Consultancy Ltd. This report is augmented by an open wiki (bit.ly/1KqL4nH) which includes more detail about the approaches used during the study and findings are also presented as a series of web pages (comc.loumcgill.co.uk). We would like to thank the Department of Media in the School of Art and Design for their input, openness and patience during the study.

Kazetaritza infografiaren garapena espainiako prentsan. "El Correo Español-El Pueblo Vasco"-ren kasua

383 p. : il.; gráf.