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POSTER: Helping ESL Students with Open Access English Learning Resources
No full textWhereas technology has enabled learning English as a second language (ESL) via the Internet, many ESL students are baffled by questions such as: 1) What open access resources are available to help me improve one or more of my English language skills? 2) How can I assess the resources to ensure the best return for my time investment? Similarly, instructors, ESL or academic alike, wonder about best open access English learning resources so that they can recommend to their ESL students for self-learning after class and/or use such resources in class. To help learners and instructors interested in online learning for themselves or their students, the poster session presents what an experienced English teacher-researcher has found to be some of the best open access online resources for learning English and explains the resource purposes and target audience. In particular, the poster highlights resources that can be used in an audio-visual oral (AVO) approach to help develop the magic language sense and the ability to think in the target language. This way ESL students can hope to achieve English fluency and accuracy. Finally, the audience has an opportunity to share questions, concerns, and their own resources. At the end of the session, the audience feels not only enlightened about online learning potential but feels empowered with resource handouts to help themselves or struggling ESL students
Panel Discussion and Social With Wine and Cheese
No full textA panel of TRU faculty will discuss their time at TRU during the wine and cheese social
Using Visual Aids to Support Learning of Abstract Concepts in Academic Writing
No full textBy using visual information, the presenter will share strategies that assist English for Academic Purposes students in understanding and internalizing a number of abstract concepts in academic writing. Workshop participants will be invited to complete hands-on exercises that illustrate the presented points. At the end of the workshop, participants will engage in a short discussion on ways of implementing the new information in their teaching
Welcome to America! How can athletic departments better assist international student-athletes with their transition into the American university setting?
Get PDFThe current study examined how athletic stakeholders (e.g., coaches and support staff) at a NCAA Division I mid-major university attempt to assist international student-athletes (ISAs) with their transition into the American university setting. Semi-structured interviews with 10 athletic administrators and coaches discussed common transition issues ISAs typically encounter (e.g., cultural changes, dietary/nutritional adjustments, financial misunderstandings, homesickness, etc.), as well as resources (e.g., consistent on-boarding checklists) and a training (e.g., cultural competency training) that should be provided to practitioners that assist/coach ISAs. Additionally, programmatic offerings that might provide support systems and improve the student-athlete experience for ISAs were discussed. Our findings highlight the considerations that athletic administrators and coaches should know when attempting to support ISAs during the beginning stages of their transition to America. Due to the growing number of ISAs competing in college sport, understanding how best to support this population is crucial for athletic departments that are hoping to attract and retain ISAs
Houston College Sport Programs’ Hurricane Harvey Communication: A Twitter Content Analysis
Get PDFThis study provides a Twitter content analysis of tweets by Houston-based Division I college sport programs during Hurricane Harvey. A content analysis was performed on the tweets appearing on the main intercollegiate athletics Twitter pages of University of Houston, Houston Baptist University, Prairie View A&M University, Rice University, and Texas Southern University in response to Hurricane Harvey. The researchers based their study on grounded theory informed by a study conducted by Inoue and Havard (2015). While this study examined tweets rather than newspaper and magazine articles like Inoue and Havard (2015), this study confirmed the theme findings in Inoue and Havard (2015) applied well in a Twitter social media setting as well. New themes that were added by the researchers in the current study proved to be applicable
Research Coaching: Learning While Peer Mentoring in an Introduction to Social Welfare in Canada Course
No full textResearch is a process that can foster self-directed learning, encourage application and creation of knowledge, and promote creativity and innovation in any discipline; however, the idea of ‘doing research’ may be intimidating and overwhelming for students. There might also be misconceptions about who and what research is relevant to. TRU addresses this issue by offering the Research Coach program; upper-level undergraduate students work with professors and connect with the professors’ first and second year students to guide them through the research process and class projects. The Bachelor of Social Work student presenters are research coaches for SOCW 2120, Introduction to Social Welfare in Canada. Students in this course are to identify Canadian social welfare concerns and specific affected geographical locations and groups of people, and propose possible evidence-based solutions. With the professor for this course, the research coaches will help students identify and explore social welfare topics they are passionate about, develop research questions, find appropriate scholarly sources, access academic supports on campus such as the Writing Centre, and share their research findings in various ways. Research peer mentoring will benefit the students in the class gaining research experience, as well as the research coaches who will develop effective mentoring skills and improve their interpersonal communication skills as they help build students’ confidence in doing research. This presentation will focus mainly on the research coaches’ growth and learning gained from being a research coach, which could be helpful for the developers of the Research Coach program and future research coaches
The Impact of Social Capital on the Recovery from the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake, Japan
No full textThe theories and ideas of social capital have been incorporated in various disciplines, but few studies have explored social capital’s role in disaster recovery. This presentation seeks to understand how social capital is integrated into the four phases of the disaster management cycle, specifically its function during the post-disaster recovery of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami in Japan. By studying the recovery after such a devastating event other countries can learn and adapt from the strengths and weaknesses of Japanese response and recovery practices. Because the theories of social capital are applicable to a variety of hazards and academic disciplines, a wide range of literature from other fields was used in this project. Several texts on disaster management education were also referred to in the context of the Tohoku earthquake. The results conclude that social capital at the community level was vital to post-earthquake and tsunami recovery in Japanese cities, particularly in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima prefectures. Japanese engagement in social networks and mutual trust increased individual participation and mobility. Additionally, structural social capital (existing social networks and societal structures) and cognitive social capital (mutual trust, norms, and behavior) contributed to community resilience and regrowth in differing ways, but when they were both combined, recovery efficiency increased. To be better prepared for future disasters a more thorough analysis of the impacts of social capital should be considered. In conclusion, creating stronger social frameworks for communities would prove useful to both Japanese and international governments
Good and Bad Reasons to Reject Externalism
Get PDFThe debate between internalism and externalism in epistemology concerns one of the traditional conditions for knowledge: justification. Specifically, proponents of these theories seek to understand precisely what confers justification on a belief. Theories of justification are typically characterized as internalist if they hold that all justifiers are cognitively accessible to a person. Externalism represents the rejection of this thesis; defenders of this theory deny that the justifiers must be internal to a believer’s perspective. This paper presents an objection to the externalist account. Externalism, broadly construed, allows a person to be justified when they hold beliefs for the wrong reasons, and this indicates a significant problem with the theory. This paper argues that this kind of objection will not work for at least one significant variation of the externalist thesis: reliabilism. Finally, the idea that this theory must still account for a “good reasons” evaluation of justification, an internalist consideration, is proposed and promoted
An NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision Production Function
Get PDFEach year pundits across the NCAA football landscape debate the validity of various NCAA football teams’ relative worthiness to play for the national championship. Given this debate seems to revolve around which team is the best in terms of total team production, I have developed and statistically estimated a complex invasion NCAA football bowl subdivision production function measuring NCAA football team productivity covering the 2008 to 2017 seasons. The model estimates both points scored and points surrendered for each team during this time period and then is combined to determine each team’s overall productivity. Finally, as an application of the complex invasion college football production function model, I have ranked the overall productivity of the NCAA football bowl subdivision teams for the 2017 season to find the most productive team. The model concludes that the University of Alabama was the most productive team for the 2017 season