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Written Corrective Feedback: The need for collaboration and multidirectional interaction
Get PDFOver the last two decades, there has been significant debate surrounding the potential benefits, or potential harm, generated from the provision of written corrective feedback (WCF) on the writing of language learners. The majority of research in the field has been conducted within a positivist paradigm, which often adopted experimental research designs that measured language development in the form of correct output of targeted linguistic items, with the output sometimes being limited to a single writing task. Through the use of an interpretive paradigm and a socio-culturally informed theoretical framework, this case study examines language development reflected by progression within the language learners’ zone of proximal development (ZPD), generated via the provision of direct WCF. Retrospective interviews provide rich qualitative data that highlight the experiences of participants as they process three different types of WCF. This case study found that WCF was not able to generate any significant shifts towards self regulation within the participants’ ZPD, and thus learning generated via WCF was, at best, minimal. The need for learners to collaborate in order to co-construct their ZPDs during both the processing of WCF and construction stage of writing tasks was identified. Pedagogical implications for language teachers are discussed
What happens in your country? Teacher constructions of adult EAL students’ cultural identities
Get PDFIn a multicultural and settler society such as Australia, perceptions of the cultures and identities of students in the adult EAL classroom may have a significant impact on their language learning experiences. This paper reports on a study investigating how teachers of adult English as an Additional Language (EAL) students in Victoria, Australia, understand their students’ cultural identities, how they speak about their students’ language learning and how they perceive the challenges and opportunities that their students face in the learning process. Recent literature highlights the complexity of culture and identity in the adult EAL classroom, and has identified normalisation of stereotyped characteristics of language learners. Semi-structured interviews with three experienced EAL teachers were conducted, and a phenomenological framework was applied for the qualitative data analysis. The themes that emerged suggest that the teachers had a limited and even superficial understanding of their students’ cultural identities. Cultural stereotyping was evident when describing their students’ language learning experiences, and also when describing the challenges and opportunities that students have in their learning. The implications of these for the students’ additional language development are discussed
WHAT DID WE JUST SEE? AMBIGUITY AND REVELATION IN THE EXTREME FIRST PERSON PLURAL
Get PDFQuestions of point of view are pivotal in fictional texts and determine what story, precisely, the author can tell. But what happens when writers present particularly challenging points of view? With a focus on the first person plural, this paper will interrogate stories where point of view ‘asserts’ itself to the reader. Using an approach informed by unnatural narratology, this paper addresses narrative situations where the make-up of a narrative collective is initially unclear, and where a challenging or ambiguous point of view is revealed to be an integral component of the plot.
In exploring the relationship between point of view, ambiguity and narrative revelation, this paper will consider a range of contemporary novels written predominately in the first person plural, notably TaraShea Nesbit’s The Wives of Los Alamos, Malcolm Knox’s The Wonder Lover and Jon McGregor’s Even the Dogs. Highlighting the innate ambiguity of an ‘extreme’ first person plural allows us to consider ways in which authors of fiction in the first person plural have exploited this ambiguity to shape key revelations within their texts
Kickstarting Reconnection: An Approach to Legal Problems Arising from Emerging Technologies
Get PDFA new model, or ‘third wave’, of computing is emerging, based on the widespread use of processors with data handling and communications capabilities embedded in a variety of objects and environments that were not previously computerised. Various terms have been used to describe this third wave, including ‘ubiquitous’ and ‘pervasive’ computing, ‘ambient intelligence’, the ‘Internet of Things’ and ‘eObjects’. With the socio-technical change brought about by this third wave comes the possibility of a disconnection between the law and the new things, activities, and relationships enabled by this new model of computing. This disconnection may lead to legal problems of uncertainty, under- or over-inclusiveness of conduct in existing law, obsolescence, or the complete absence of laws regulating new behaviour. Early and rigorous identification and categorisation of legal problems is crucial for emerging technologies, to assist in avoiding two problems: the first being the stifling of beneficial innovation by over-regulation, the second the cementing of socially undesirable outcomes when vested interests are left too long unchecked. Although the technologies in the third wave are diverse, common attributes can be identified, and from examination of these attributes significant innovations are revealed. This paper examines these innovations to assist in identifying legal problems arising from the third wave
Humanitarian Protection of People in a Technological Age: Drones and Social Media - to use or not to use
Get PDFTechnology and the digital space are transforming the nature of power in humanitarian settings on an extensive scale and at a fast pace. Humanitarians are recognising that even sharper threats loom if emergent issues are not dealt with prudently. Adapting to new technology without compromising the humanitarian principles is necessary. A protection-centred approach to the use of drones in humanitarian operations is crying out for clarity. Protection issues linked to social media also need clarity, especially as new actors come into humanitarian space. Over the course of three years in the north of Syria alone nine hundred local NGOs joined the aid response. This paper considers some issues that arise at the intersection of humanitarian work and ongoing technological developments. It touches on whether fundamental humanitarian and protection principles and practices are keeping pace with developments to ensure those in need of humanitarian assistance can be advantaged by new technology and still protected
Building a Workforce for Present and Future Health Emergencies
Get PDFAdopting an “all hazards approach” represents a significant challenge for both the WHO and most low and middle income countries. The approach requires a comprehensive risk-analysis framework to identify health hazards of greatest risk and the use of risk-based planning to enable the prioritization and allocation of resources to manage and reduce the risks. While this approach is the most practical and evidence-tested for historical health impact disasters, such as storms, floods, earthquakes and epidemics, it far less compatible for emerging and future public health emergencies, caused by cumulative exposure to a contaminated environment or drug resistant pathogen. Current rates of morbidity and mortality from cumulative exposure events from contaminated environments, like air, water, food and those threats from anti-microbial resistance are hundreds of times greater than those caused by single event natural disasters
Reinforcing local government partnership and building resilience through the local DRR Plan: The Tearfund experience in the Philippines
Get PDFTo strengthen the capacity of Cadiz City in addressing its exposure to natural hazards and climate change, Tearfund provided technical support for the development of a comprehensive, medium-term Local DRR-CCA plan. This is in adherence to the Republic Act 10121 or DRRM Act of the Philippines which mandates the local government units to “Formulate and implement a comprehensive and integrated LDRRMP in accordance with the national, regional and provincial framework, and policies on disaster risk reduction in close coordination with the local councils (LDCs) (sec 6).”The creation of the DRR-CCA plan also supports the four priority actions of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction: understanding disaster risk, strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk, investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience, enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response, and to “build back better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction
No Traveller Returns: The Liminal World as Ordeal and Quest in Contemporary Young Adult Afterlife Fiction
Get PDFIn recent years, fiction specifically set in or about the afterlife has become a popular, critically acclaimed subgenre within contemporary fiction for young adults. One of the distinguishing aspects of young adult afterlife fiction is its detailed portrayal of an alien afterworld in which characters find themselves. Whilst reminiscent of the world-building of high or quest fantasy, afterworlds in young adult afterlife fiction have a distinctively different quality, and that is an emphasis on liminality. Afterlife landscapes exhibit many strange, treacherous qualities. They are never quite what they seem, and this sense of a continually shifting multiplicity is part of the destabilisation experienced by the characters in the liminal world of the afterlife. Inspired by traditional but diverse images of afterlife, afterworld settings also incorporate aspects of dream-space as well as of the real, material world left behind by the characters. The uncanny world of the dead is not just background in these novels, but crucial to the development of narrative and character.
In this paper, it is argued that the concept of liminal place is at the core of the central ordeal and quest of characters in young adult afterlife fiction. It explores how authors have constructed the individual settings of their fictional afterworlds and examines the significance of the liminal nature of the afterworlds depicted in young adult afterlife fiction
When Artists Became Intellectuals: Science as a Significant Other for the Female Artistic Persona
Get PDFThe increasing appreciation of science posed an interesting challenge to art in the late 19th Century. Modernisation, professionalisation, secularisation and technical novelties all seemed to question the social status of the artist. Arguing that one possible way for individual artists to meet this challenge was to incorporate elements of the scientific persona with their artistic self, this article focuses on the Swedish-speaking, Finnish artist and writer Helena Westermarck (1857–1938). While constructing an intellectual comradeship with her brother, the internationally well-known sociologist and anthropologist Edward Westermarck (1862–1939), Helena Westermarck often referred to the exceptional intellectual and analytical capacities of the artist. Arguing that the prestige of science could be used to lend credibility to the artistic persona, the article will discuss some of the ideas that led Westermarck to gradually fashion her public appearance as an artist into the persona of a public intellectual, writer and self-supporting (single) woman on equal terms with her brother
The Social Construction of Human Rights Legislation: Interpreting Victoria’s Statutes through their Limitations
Get PDFInterpreting human rights statutes through their objectives encourages their description as empowering instruments with their hortatory language emphasising the potential of each instrument to protect and promote rights. This article examines Victoria’s Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (Vic) and Charter of Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) through a different lens and argues that a focus on their limitations and derogations offers a better understanding of the nature and extent of the human rights protection that each purports to provide.These limitations are no mere peripheral encumbrances and help shape the rights protecting functions of each statute. This article adopts a social constructivist approach to explain how, as socially constructed instruments, the operation of the limitations reveals an ambivalent role for each statute. The design and functionality of each statute, with their self-limiting provisions, means that each acts to sustain as well as challenge the existing power relationships and social arrangements