Teaching communication strategies in China

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Danni Xia
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
English Learners ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
College English ◽  
The Past ◽  
Teaching Content ◽  
English Textbooks

Since English is now used as a Lingua Franca (ELF), it is important to explore how English learners may be trained to employ multiple Communication Strategies (CSs) to achieve mutual understanding, particularly in ELF contexts. This study explores which CSs were taught in recent years in China and how the teaching content is presented in domestic textbooks from an ELF perspective. Ten college English textbooks that were published in the past five years (2014–2019) were selected and evaluated based on an adapted framework of CSs. The findings revealed a notable inclination toward certain types of macro-strategies and were not systematically mapped out. Moreover, an initial effort in manifesting “cultural diversity” was observed but failed to construct intercultural contexts. Knowledge explanation as well as student-oriented exercises were found to be conducive in consolidating learners’ acquisition of forms. However, the function and context of the target CSs were neglected. Furthermore, an absence of sociocultural pragmatic concern resulted in a discrepancy between explicit knowledge explanation and context-based practice. Accordingly, this study suggests implications for both textbook writers and instructors in practice.

scholarly journals A Research Review of College English Audio-Visual Speaking Teaching in China in Multi-Modality Symbol Framework

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Dan Yang
Keyword(s):  
Research Priorities ◽  
Research Review ◽  
College English ◽  
Teaching Platform ◽  
The Past ◽  
Teaching Content ◽  
Self Study ◽  
Speed Up ◽  
Study Management ◽  
Evaluation Mechanism

In the past ten years, on the background of multi-modality symbols, researches of college English audio-visual speaking teaching in China have transitioned gradually from theoretical researches to practical researches in the aspect of research methods and research priorities. Five pairs of relationships between multi-modality symbols and college English audio-visual speaking teaching have been concerned about. When applying multi-modality symbols into college English audio-visual speaking teaching, teachers should choose different modals and teaching content appropriately, should use multi-modal languages comprehensively, should stress students’ self-study management, should speed up multi-modal teaching platform construction and use, should apply dynamic teaching and management mechanisms, and should construct a comprehensive teaching and evaluation mechanism.

scholarly journals Miscommunication in Using English as a Lingua Franca

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruoyan Cui
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
International Communication ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Cultural Backgrounds ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Communication Breakdowns

English is now widely used as a lingua franca in international communication. Communication is a collaboration of all its participants. Although mutual understanding is commonly assumed during interaction, miscommunication is inevitable. ELF communication, with its interactants from diversified lingua-cultural backgrounds, is assumed to be susceptible to communication breakdowns. To verify this assumption, some empirical studies on ELF miscommunication are reviewed. It is found that miscommunication is infrequent in ELF communication and ELF interactants proactively employ communication strategies to preempt and repair understanding problems to ensure mutual understanding.

scholarly journals Communication strategies employed by low-proficiency users: Possibilities for ELF-informed pedagogy

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takanori Sato ◽  
Yuri Jody Yujobo ◽  
Tricia Okada ◽  
Ethel Ogane
Keyword(s):  
Second Language Acquisition ◽  
English Learners ◽  
English Language ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Mutual Understanding ◽  
Language Resources ◽  
Communication Breakdown ◽  
Successful Communication ◽  
Collaborative Strategies ◽  
Meaningful Interaction

Abstract ELF research has demonstrated that English users employ various communication strategies (CSs) to achieve mutual understanding and deal with uncertainty in ELF conversations. Thus, implementing various CSs is said to be important for learners in ELF interactions. Although a list of CSs might indicate which strategies English learners may ultimately need, it is not necessarily helpful for low-proficiency English learners as they may not be able to use many CSs due to a lack of English language resources. This study attempts to identify CSs that 20 Japanese low-proficiency English users employ in talk-in-interaction with English language instructors. CSs investigated in this study were not restricted to those examined from second language acquisition perspectives but included pragmatic and collaborative strategies identified in various ELF studies. Investigating CSs from the perspective of ELF helps to form a more sensitive analysis of how low-proficiency English users work to achieve successful L2 communication with interlocutors. Results revealed that the students, who were not given prior instruction in strategies, collaboratively employed various CSs to cope with communication breakdown, promote message conveyance, and co-construct a meaningful interaction with their interlocutors. These findings provide insights into how low-proficiency users might manage to achieve successful communication in various ELF settings. Analysis of the data helps to inform teachers which CSs low-proficiency learners may utilize more easily and those for which they may require more intensive practice.

scholarly journals Multi-Task Optimization and Multi-Task Evolutionary Computation in the Past Five Years: A Brief Review

Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (8) ◽  
pp. 864
Author(s):  
Qingzheng Xu ◽  
Na Wang ◽  
Lei Wang ◽  
Wei Li ◽  
Qian Sun
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Computation ◽  
Explicit Knowledge ◽  
Optimization Problems ◽  
Effective Means ◽  
Typical Application ◽  
The Past ◽  
Current State ◽  
Evolution Algorithms ◽  
Application Fields

Traditional evolution algorithms tend to start the search from scratch. However, real-world problems seldom exist in isolation and humans effectively manage and execute multiple tasks at the same time. Inspired by this concept, the paradigm of multi-task evolutionary computation (MTEC) has recently emerged as an effective means of facilitating implicit or explicit knowledge transfer across optimization tasks, thereby potentially accelerating convergence and improving the quality of solutions for multi-task optimization problems. An increasing number of works have thus been proposed since 2016. The authors collect the abundant specialized literature related to this novel optimization paradigm that was published in the past five years. The quantity of papers, the nationality of authors, and the important professional publications are analyzed by a statistical method. As a survey on state-of-the-art of research on this topic, this review article covers basic concepts, theoretical foundation, basic implementation approaches of MTEC, related extension issues of MTEC, and typical application fields in science and engineering. In particular, several approaches of chromosome encoding and decoding, intro-population reproduction, inter-population reproduction, and evaluation and selection are reviewed when developing an effective MTEC algorithm. A number of open challenges to date, along with promising directions that can be undertaken to help move it forward in the future, are also discussed according to the current state. The principal purpose is to provide a comprehensive review and examination of MTEC for researchers in this community, as well as promote more practitioners working in the related fields to be involved in this fascinating territory.

scholarly journals Multilingualism and internationalisation in doctoral education: Discourse, positioning and agency

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-277
Author(s):  
Stephanie Hofmann
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Academic Writing ◽  
National Language ◽  
Macro Level ◽  
Lingua Franca ◽  
Diversity In Higher Education ◽  
Linguistic Repertoire ◽  
Education Discourse

AbstractDespite the growing linguistic and cultural diversity in higher education and research, little is known about how students and researchers use their plurilingual repertoire for writing and publishing. In particular, the roles of the national language(s) and the linguistic repertoire(s) vis-à-vis English as the lingua franca for academic writing and publishing have not been closely examined. This paper explores how doctoral researchers in Luxembourg position themselves in relation to macro-level discourses about language and academic success within their complex lingua-cultural and socio-economic setting. By analysing interview transcripts of two multilingual doctoral researchers from Russia and Germany, I show how in spite of their similar starting situations they negotiate agency to varying degrees. In particular, the prevalence of English and the pressure to publish in international journals seem to make them struggle to use their full linguistic repertoire in writing their theses.

What are dental professionals posting on Facebook? A cross-sectional content analysis

2021 ◽  
pp. 146531252110333
Author(s):  
Keelin Fox ◽  
Parmjit Singh
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Median Number ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Case Presentation ◽  
Plain Text ◽  
The Past ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Group Characteristics ◽  
Product Promotion

Objective: To profile the posts on open orthodontic Facebook groups and identify which communication strategies and media modalities generate the most engagement from users. Design: A cross-sectional content analysis. Setting: Facebook Internet-based search. Methods: Post data were collected over a one-month period from the 10 largest public orthodontic Facebook groups. Evaluation of group characteristics included membership levels, number of administrators, time each group had been in existence and growth rate of each group. The number of posts, the numbers and types of engagement (likes, emojis, comments, shares) and engagement rate were calculated. The communication strategies (e.g. case presentation, course promotion, etc.) and media modalities (e.g. plain text, photograph, etc.) were recorded. Results: The study identified 190,268 Facebook members from the 10 largest orthodontic Facebook groups (median 17,811; interquartile range [IQR] 11,977). The median time the groups had existed was six years (median 2175 days; IQR 2311 days) and the median number of new group members in the past month was 1257 (IQR 2773). The median number of new group members in the past month was 1257 (IQR 2773). There were 227 postings during the study period with 2546 engagements. The overall median number of engagements was 196 (IQR 445) and the engagement rate of posts was 1.3% overall. Posts relating to course promotion (n = 63, 28%) followed by product promotion (n = 42, 19%) were the most common. Case presentation style posts accounted for 15% (n = 35). The level of engagement was greater for posts that had a clinical component compared to posts that did not ( P < 0.001). For media modality, posts that included a photograph had greater engagement ( P < 0.001). Conclusion: There are frequent posts on course and product promotion in orthodontic Facebook groups; however, these are associated with low levels of engagement. Posts that are clinically orientated and include photographs have higher levels of engagement.

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