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The Development of Intercultural Competence for Teachers of English as a Foreign Language through an Instructional Design Project
No full textMost teaching pedagogies in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classes prioritize linguistic skills development over exploring how cultural factors shape language interpretation. To address the gap, this study developed and evaluated an instructional design project using the attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction (ARCS) motivational design model combined with critical pedagogy through computer-mediated communication (CMC) tools. The purpose of this research is to enhance EFL teachers’ intercultural competence. Multimedia resources were used to capture participants’ attention, and news articles were selected to connect to their lived experiences. Online forums were used to build their confidence, and intercultural activities provided satisfaction through practical engagement. Critical literacy pedagogy guided the design of questions to encourage EFL teachers to explore assumptions, challenge perspectives, and critically analyze language. Data from 16 EFL teachers’ questionnaires, online comments, and interviews indicated that task attractiveness and the online environment motivated EFL teachers to develop critical literacy skills. Future studies could explore additional strategies for integrating intercultural competence into EFL teaching and examine how cultural dynamics within groups influence online communication
Sijo as Affective Refuge: Chosŏn Court Politicians’ Emotional Community in Poetry
No full textThis paper aims to analyze the prevalence of negative emotions in Sijo written by aristocratic politicians of the Joseon court. To analyze these emotions, I will use two analytical frameworks: first, the analysis of emotions from the perspective of Neo-Confucianism and, second, the conception of “emotional communities” as put forth by scholar Barbara H. Rosenwein. By using these two frameworks, I aim to reconcile the tension between the prevalence of such negative emotions in the politicians’ poetry and the Confucian notion that such negative emotions are strictly contrary to the balance of the polity and must be sublimated
The Catkillers
Get PDFA short story about a friend and the memories he had, the world they lived in and the cats that were killed
“Rotting Away Into A Woman”: Castration, Gender and Biological Sex in Late Imperial Fiction
Get PDFIn the aftermath of the Ming-Qing transition, philosopher Tang Zhen 唐甄 (1630–1704) wrote of eunuchs: “If a castrated individual can become a female, then [the eunuch] is acceptable, but if they cannot do this, then they remain a male” 奄若化為女子則可，不然，固男也. Here, Tang suggests the topical question: without sexual potency, does a castrated male become female? And if not, what is to be made of an emasculated male? Due to their perceived part in the dynastic fall of the Ming, eunuchs were a subject of curiosity and unease among Qing scholars like Tang, who began to question the effects of castration upon the male body. Castration, beginning with its earliest usage as a commutation for the death sentence, signaled not only social death but an entrance into the yin 陰, the cosmological force associated with the feminine and counteracted by the masculine yang 陽. Through the removal of the entire sexual organ, the castrated male was removed from Confucian society and sexually neutered in a way that was thought to render him more female than male. Eunuchs, who were also often illiterate, possessed neither sexual or social determiners of masculinity.
As my following analysis of fictional Ming-Qing castration narratives will show, the presence of literally or metaphorically castrated men threatened masculine identity. A masculinity that is defined by its opposition to a constructed femininity is necessarily a fragile existence, at all times endangered by a fall into the feminine. Narratives of castration, whether of eunuchs, transformation into the female or male-male relationships, offer a compelling glimpse into late imperial definitions of gender, by illustrating when and how a male body was no longer considered that of a man
Untitled
No full textThis piece discusses about the societal expectations and how they “shaped” individuals in an abstract but figurative way, using just simple geometrical shape and color to create expressive visual effect. The blue mimicks the influences by internet. The background is based on street views in Shibuya, Tokyo. The concept is an abstract expression of society expectations and the conflict between individuals and how the human bodies are politicized. 
The Effects of Psychosocial and Traumatic Stressors on MCI Diagnosis
Get PDFBackground and Objective: Toxic stress exposure can have effects across the lifespan. Studies of civilians and veterans suggest a connection between psychosocial and traumatic stressor exposure in adulthood and a diagnosis of dementia later in life. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of psychosocial and traumatic stressors on rates of MCI (Mild Cognitive Impairment) diagnosis in Vietnam Era Twin Study of Aging participants. Methods: 1,237 twin participants from the VETSA study were aged 61.72 ± 2.44 years at the time of data collection. Traumatic stress was measured by clinical interviewing, with psychosocial stressors quantified by self-report measures. Neuropsychological assessment determined MCI diagnosis. Previously conducted genotyping determined ApoE genotype. Mixed model analysis was used to determine effects on MCI diagnosis. Results: Our results from the mixed model analysis did not find a significant relationship between psychosocial and traumatic stress exposure and MCI diagnosis. PTSD diagnosis, measured by the DIS-III-R, collected for the Harvard Drug Study in 1996 (F = 0.249, p = 0.618) does not have a significant effect on MCI diagnosis. Life stress exposure, measured by the Holmes and Rahe (1967), (F = 0.249, p = 0.618) does not have a significant effect on MCI diagnosis. Significant associations were determined using the Type III fixed effects. Associations were considered statistically significant at p < 0.05, two-tailed. Implications: Few subjects in Wave 2 of VETSA had MCI (n = 147), due in part to the age of the participants at the time (Mean 61.72 ± (2.44 years)). This led to a lack of power in our analysis. Future studies should examine all available VETSA data
The Gauss–Bonnet theorem
Get PDFThe Gauss–Bonnet theorem is a crowning result of surface theory that gives a fundamental connection between geometry and topology. Roughly speaking, geometry refers to the “local” properties—lengths, angles, curvature— of some fixed object, while topology seeks to identify the “global” properties that are unchanged by a continuous deformation, such as stretching or twisting. The theorem formalizes an intuitive idea: continuous changes to curvature on one region of a surface will be balanced out elsewhere, so the total curvature of the surface stays the same.
Explicitly, the Gauss–Bonnet theorem says that a surface’s total curvature, defined using its local Gaussian curvature, is directly proportional to the number of holes in the surface, which comes from an invariant quantity called its Euler characteristic. The Euler characteristic is a way of classifying which surfaces can be continuously deformed into one another; as an informal example, the classic joke that “a topologist is a person who cannot tell the difference between a coffee mug and a doughnut” comes from the fact that the objects each have one hole. Even though a coffee mug and a doughnut have visibly different geometric shapes, according to the Gauss–Bonnet theorem, both objects will have the same total curvature. The proof itself is delightfully systematic: we first find the total curvature of a curve on a plane, extend that result to curves on three-dimensional surfaces, extend that result to “polygons” on surfaces, and finally the entire surface.
In Section 2, we prove Hopf’s Umlaufsatz for the total curvature of a simple closed curve in R2. Sections 3, 4, and 5 introduce concepts from differential geometry to define Gaussian curvature. In Section 6, we prove the local Gauss–Bonnet theorem for the total curvature of a surface polygon. At last, in Section 7, we prove the global Gauss–Bonnet theorem for compact surfaces by covering the surface with polygons and applying the local Gauss–Bonnet theorem to each one.
Our discussion focuses on exposition, and references will be given in place of tedious computations when reasonable. This paper assumes a somewhat rigorous understanding of multivariable calculus and linear algebra, as well as some elementary group theory
Elliptic bootstrapping and the nonlinear Cauchy–Riemann equation
Get PDFThe goal of this paper is to deduce a nonlinear elliptic regularity result from a linear one. In particular, elliptic bootstrapping is a powerful method to determine the regularity of a solution to a partial differential equation. We apply elliptic bootstrapping and linear elliptic regularity to the nonlinear Cauchy–Riemann equation. In doing so, we generalize the fundamental analytic result that holomorphic functions are automatically smooth. In particular, we show that, under certain conditions, the same is true for so-called J-holomorphic functions. We conclude by discussing how this nonlinear regularity result relates to ideas in symplectic geometry
THE CLAIM AND THE RELIEF: REVEALING MISCONCEPTIONS AND MISSTEPS IN THE U.S. SUPREME COURT’S JURISPRUDENCE FOR §1983 ACTIONS AND BLACK LIVES MATTER
Get PDFThis article explores the persistent challenges in addressing police brutality through civil rights litigation, focusing on the limitations imposed by federal jurisdiction and justiciability doctrines post-Lyons. It argues that the Supreme Court's approach, which conflates jurisdictional inquiries with procedural or remedial ones, has significantly hindered access to justice for plaintiffs seeking to vindicate their constitutional rights under §1983. By examining the foundational jurisdictional and procedural principles at stake, the article reveals the Court's missteps and suggests ways to disentangle these concepts, aiming to restore §1983's essential role in defending constitutional rights and ensuring that victims of police misconduct can obtain full redress in federal courts
Task-Based Language Teaching
Get PDFTask-Based Language Teaching by Daniel O. Jackson is part of the Cambridge Elements series published by Cambridge University Press in 2022. This book adopts a cognitive-interactionist stance on language learning, and serves as a guide to task-based language teaching (TBLT) for language instructors, teacher educators, and other interested parties. In response to a lack of practical guidance, Jackson, currently a professor at Kanda University of International Studies in Japan, seeks to broaden TBLT’s accessibility to more teachers. Therefore, the book orients readers to main concepts and issues in TBLT, serving as a reference for practitioners aspiring to provide opportunities for meaningful and engaging communication conducive to acquiring a target language through comprehensible input, feedback, and modified output.