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Export Diversification: Strategy for International Trade of the Automotive Sector in Mexico Category
Get PDFThe automotive industry has important and strategic relevance in Mexico’s economic growth. Since its inception in this country, it has provided a source of global expansion in terms of international marketing; however, over the years, there has been a significant trend of little diversification in the export of the specific products of this sector of the Mexican economy, concentrating the largest percentage of its trade towards the United States and setting aside the incursion into economies such as Canada, with which the T-MEC (Government of Mexico) treaty is, (2019) which represents some benefits for the distribution of goods and services between the countries of Mexico, USA and Canada, which in this regard are not being properly exploited by Mexico by concentrating its exchange of automotive goods in the United States. According to Wells and Wint (2000), one of the alternatives to mitigate this commercial centralization in the automotive industry is outside Mexican borders, through attracting foreign investment and achieving greater export diversification. The methodology used for this research is qualitative in focus. It focuses on the technique of documentary review through a descriptive explanatory study, which results in a historical comparison of the export percentages of the automotive sector by Mexico from 2018 to 2021. Finally, it concludes by describing the impacts that arise concerning the international promotion of the country in terms of foreign trade by not taking advantage of the international agreements and treaties in force
From Thunberg to the L2 Classroom: Public Speaking Techniques
Get PDFTo participate in the global conversation on how to combat climate change, Japanese university students need to better utilise their English for Academic Purposes (EAP) skills outside the second language (L2) classroom. Therefore, this study seeks to enhance the public speaking skills of Japanese university students by analysing and drawing from a series of recent speeches by Swedish climate-change activist Greta Thunberg. Being of a similar age and speaking in a second language, Thunberg resonates as a public speaker that Japanese university students can model. The research design for this study consisted of two phases. Initially, a structural analysis of Thunberg’s speech transcripts was conducted, exploring her use of positive and negative message framing approaches. Secondly, an analysis of the persuasive discursive techniques (PDTs) used in her speeches was conducted, focusing on identifying established rhetorical devices such as tripling, contrasting, and personalising, as well as the use of inclusive language and exclusive language. This paper details and analyses the approaches and techniques used by Thunberg (framing and rhetorical) and then discusses how they can be taught to Japanese university students seeking to move beyond generic English language classroom presentations
How Does that Make You Feel: Students’ Affective Engagement with Feedback
Get PDFUnderstanding how students engage with written feedback (WF) on L2 writing is crucial. Given the mediating role of learner perceptions and beliefs about WF (including in relation to teacher behaviour and perceived persona), our research explores learner perceptions and affective responses to – or affective engagement with –WF in a university context. Furthermore, because it has been shown that learners relate differently to native and nonnative English-speaking teachers, who themselves relate differently to WF, we investigate how Chinese students engage with WF given by a Chinese English teacher (CET) and a native English-speaking English teacher (NET). Ninety-nine Chinese undergraduates at an East China University participated in the study. They received anonymous feedback from three NETs and three CETs, and then completed a survey about their feelings and reactions regarding the feedback received. Our results indicate that student writers expect to receive feedback that is detailed without overwhelming with corrections. When the WF provided in this study met these requirements, it stirred positive feelings in the students. More and more detailed WF was associated with feeling “moved,” “touched,” and “motivated,” and seemed to encourage the students to follow up with revisions and other actions. In all the aspects investigated, the NETs’ WF and approach was appreciated more positively than that of the Chinese teachers. The latter provided less WF, which was also more unclear and included a higher proportion of written corrective feedback (WCF). We propose recommendations for increasing student-teacher interaction and communication about feedback to improve student engagement with feedback
Understanding How Chinese University Students Engage with Teacher Written Feedback in an EFL Context: A Multiple Case Study
Get PDFWhile prior studies have highlighted that extensive student engagement could help maximize students’ learning benefits in general, a paucity of research has explored student engagement with teacher written feedback (WF), especially when students processed various English proficiency levels. To fill this gap, this multiple-case study explored how six Chinese undergraduates (2 high proficiency (HP), 2 intermediate (IM) and 2 low-proficiency (LP)) cognitively, behaviourally and affectively engaged with teacher WF in an EFL context. Multiple sources of data were collected from students’ drafts with teacher WF, students’ immediate verbal reports and student semi-structured interviews. Findings demonstrated that learners’ revision behaviours had an affective nature, which could build their confidence by presenting writing progress through multiple drafts. More obvious distinctions of engagement were found between HP and LP students. Other factors influencing management levels were the amount of WF, prior learning context and previous experience with other feedback. Changes in the extensiveness of engagement were observed across different writing tasks and over time, which implied that engagement could be cultivated and developed. To conclude, the study contributes to the conceptualization of student engagement with teacher WF and the understanding of why students benefit differently from teacher WF
The Effects of Early Biliteracy on Thought Organisation and Syntactic Complexity in Written Production by 11-Year-Old Children
Get PDFRecent studies have emphasized the positive effects of early biliteracy on children’s linguistic and cognitive abilities. However, the extent to which one system affects the other is not totally understood (Finger & Brentano, in press). With that in mind, this paper presents the results of a study that aimed to compare the levels of syntactic complexity and thought organization in written production in Portuguese and in English. We predicted that both variables would correlate in the two languages, showing no negative effects of early biliteracy. Sixty children (M = 10.7) enrolled in 5th and 6th grades in a bilingual curriculum school in the metropolitan area of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, screened for proficiency, constituted the cohort of the study. The children’s home and community language is Portuguese, but they have been exposed to English at school for 10 hours a week for at least 5 years. Participants were asked to create a narrative based on a sequence of five images (Cambridge Assessment, 2018) one in English and one in Portuguese, in a counterbalanced order. The analysis of syntactic complexity involved the assessment of T-Units (Hunt, 1965) and thought organization was measured through the analysis of graph trajectories performed with the computational tool Speech Graphs (Mota et al., 2016, 2019). Preliminary results indicated a moderate positive correlation in the levels of syntactic complexity and in the attributes of thought connectivity in both languages, demonstrating that, as children advance in the development of more complex writing strategies in Portuguese, they progress in their written production in English to the same extent, confirming our initial predictions. These data reinforce the importance of teachers assessing students' written production in their two languages from a bilingual perspective and from a conception that the languages that make up the linguistic repertoire of the bilingual individual constitute a whole integrated system and not two independent systems that compete with each other (García, 2009)
A Collaborative Approach to Assuring Standards: Using the CEFR to Benchmark University Pathway Programs’ English Language Outcomes
Get PDFThe past decade has witnessed growing interest in Higher Education (HE) achievement standards and the comparability of program learning outcomes. The HE sector has historically focused on assuring academic standards through two key approaches: standardized educational testing and external peer review of assessment. Both approaches are resource and time intensive. In particular, the English Language Teaching (ELT) sector, which provides international students with Direct Entry (DE) pathways to English medium university study, has been predominately focused on high stakes English language testing. Commercially available tests enable providers to demonstrate clear evidence of ELT DE program standards in terms of internationally recognised scores. English language tests, however, represent only one type of external reference point for assuring standards. This paper provides an overview of a sector-led, collaborative approach to external review of assessment across 20 Australian university operated DE English programs. Twenty-eight ELT units were benchmarked by sixty individual assessors using consensus moderation against the newly expanded Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), a validated language proficiency framework. This case study demonstrates that collaborative benchmarking using the updated CEFR can effectively ensure DE ELT program standards to the benefit of staff and students globally
Effect of Brand Equity on Consumer Behaviour Among Students of Veritas University, Nigeria: A Study of Apple Smartphones
Get PDFThe mobile phone industry is a very innovative segment within the ICT sector, and the smartphone is gradually becoming the standard configuration of mobile devices and currently represents the fastest growing market in the telecoms industry. Previous studies on brand equity tend to focus on telecommunications, banking, hospitality, banking, construction, fast-moving customer goods, etc., while ignoring the education sector. Therefore, the general objective of the study is to evaluate the brand equity of apple smartphones and customer behavior in Abuja. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design. The study used primary data through a questionnaire using 341 samples. Specifically, the objectives of the study were to establish the extent to which brand awareness, brand association, and brand loyalty affect customer behaviour among students of Veritas University. The resutls revealed that brand awareness, brand association, and brand loyalty positively and significantly affect customer behaviour among Veritas University students. It was concluded that when consumers are attached and loyal to a brand, they are likely to make repeat purchases. This only happens when the relationship between the brand and the user is very in-depth and has an emotional connection with the mobile brand. The study recommended that firms interested in extending customer behaviour to repurchase their product categories should pay special attention to brand loyalty, brand awareness, brand association linked to the functions of guarantee, social identification, and status
Reflections of the Consistency of the Public Sector's Financial Statements in the Performance of Fiscal Management
Get PDFThe main aim of this research is to identify the relation between the level of consistency of public sector accounting information and the fiscal management performance of Rondônia’s municipalities in the period between 2011 and 2015. Referring to the methodology, it was a quantitative research, considering that the object of analysis involves numeric calculations, related to consistency tests of accounting information and the performance of fiscal management, using statistics and having as instrument of data collection the application of ten accounting consistence rules with data extracted directly from the TCE‐RO SIGAP system. The results showed that the level of consistency of accounting information was not statistically significant to explain the performance of fiscal management. However, by adopting a subset of more homogeneous consistency rules, it was very close to a reasonable degree of significance for the alternative hypothesis to be safely confirmed
The Impact of Establishing Capital Market on Ethiopian Commercial Banks
Get PDFThe paper analysed the implication of establishing the capital market on commercial banks operating in Ethiopia. The study aimed to identify its potential opportunities and main challenges to banks, to see how the capital market is operating in other African countries and to show the necessary preconditions to commercial banks to prepare themselves. The research method employed in the study had both qualitative and quantitative features, and the research was conducted using a mixed research method. Primary data was collected from focus group discussions with experts that have experience in the area, and, furthermore, secondary data were collected from literature and websites. The findings of the study identified the major risk of the capital market to the economy like economic risk to investments, inflationary/deflation risk, market value risk, being too conservative and political crisis by relating with the current situation of country regulation power. The study also investigated the major opportunities of the capital market to meet the financial need for the economy and how it can work with commercial banks. Besides, the study investigated its challenges to commercial banks working with security exchange companies. Many literature analyses confirmed the reputation of capital markets comparative to banks, which cannot explain across-countries deviation in economic growth. And it is better to establish a well-functioning legal framework, which plays a vital role in creating a healthy financial system. The study recommended that commercial banks should modify their business models and create products related to the investment bank and product differentiation that captures the mode of the capital market. And it is better for the commercial banks to empower their human resource, and they shall aggressively work on technology adaptation, work highly on awareness creation for all internal and external customers. Banks’ capital increment should be made before the security market is established to minimise any risk that may come with i
Voluntary Disclosure of Integrated Reporting and Cost of Capital in Brazil: an Alternative Explanation
Get PDFThere is an ongoing debate about whether integrated reporting should be mandatory or voluntary. Empirical evidence mostly focused on South African mandatory disclosures, indicate that the firm’s information environment is relevant to explain the effects on the cost of capital. However, results based on voluntary disclosures indicate that the country’s level of enforcement explains the effects. This paper analyses the effects of voluntary disclosures of integrated reports on the cost of capital for Brazilian listed companies. Our design is developed to control the level of enforcement and evaluate if firm-specific characteristics may explain the effects on information asymmetry related to the disclosure of integrated financial and non-financial information. We collect data from 2014 to 2017 and compare the effects on capital cost for a group of firms that voluntarily disclose integrated reports with a control group identified via Propensity Score Matching. We can identify that larger firms, with stronger corporate governance and lower risk, are more likely to voluntarily disclose integrated reports. In our second stage, we find no effect on the cost of capital after the voluntary disclosure. Taken together, our results are aligned with prior studies focused on mandatory disclosures: the firm’s information environment is relevant to explain the potential capital market benefits of Integrated Reporting.