Authentic Audio Visual Materials in Relation to Pronunciation Development

Author(s):  
Fatima A. Hmaid ◽  
Nada I. Shetwan ◽  
Hanan H. Eltaleb

The purpose of this research is to explore the perception, that is understanding based on awareness, knowledge and experiences, of teachers and students of the relationship between utilizing Authentic Audio Visual Materials (AAVMs) in the EFL classroom and pronunciation development. The total number of participants in this study is 26. The study employs the qualitative method of research and targets teachers and students who delivered/passed two specific courses, Phonetics I, II and Language Skills I, II ,III. These two courses are concerned with pronunciation teaching and development at the Faculty of Arts, Misurata University. While Phonetics targets pronunciation through linguistic knowledge, Language Skills are supposed to achieve that through listening and speaking activities. One-on-one detailed interviews, focus group interviews, open-ended questionnaires and observation sessions were the data collection instruments employed for this study. The findings of this study revealed that teachers and students have distinct perceptions of the relationship between utilizing AAVMs in the EFL classroom and pronunciation development. It was additionally attested that the lack of feedback and correction of pronunciation mistakes can have negative consequences on pronunciation development in the EFL classroom whereas providing students with feedback can have positive impacts on the pronunciation improvement process.

Author(s):  
June Won ◽  
J. Lucy Lee

The purpose of this study was to: (a) investigate the actual positions in digital communications; (b) assess the relationship between position-congruity among intended positions (i.e., how a firm desires to be perceived by consumers), actual brand positions, and perceived brand positions (i.e., the perceptions that customers have in their minds); and (c) understand the role of actual positioning (AP) in the positioning process. Multiple methods (one-on-one and focus group interviews, content analysis) were applied to analyze positions. Brand managers, golf consumers, and digital advertisements in Golf Digest magazine were sampled. Content analysis, frequencies and percentages, percentage difference, and regression analysis were performed for all positions for each research brand. The results revealed that: (a) tangibility-based positions (88.5%: great quality, innovation) outnumbered intangibility-based ones (11.5%: tour performance, tradition) in digital AP, (b) there was no positive correlation between the degree of congruence between intended and AP and the degree of congruence between intended and perceived positioning, and (c) the AP mediated between intended and perceived positioning in the brand positioning model. The study provides empirical evidence for the mediating role of AP and suggests modifications to the previous positioning process.


Author(s):  
Stina Rutberg ◽  
Lars Nyberg ◽  
Darla Castelli ◽  
Anna-Karin Lindqvist

Childhood is a critical period for the acquisition of healthy behaviors, and the promotion of sustainable healthy behavior among children is greatly important. Therefore, an increased understanding of the relationship between grit and physical activity in a school context is needed. The purpose of this study is to describe and develop an understanding of students’ and teachers’ awareness and experiences concerning grit as a health-promoting factor. Fifty-five students and three teachers participated in the study. Data were collected through the Short Grit Scale and focus group interviews. There were weak to non-significant correlations between the three teachers’ ratings of their students’ grit and the children’s own ratings. The qualitative results show that children and teachers understood the construct of grit but had slightly different perceptions of it and that grit is not considered to be set in stone. The participants made an association between grit, motivation, meaningfulness, and setting goals. The findings indicate that grit might be an ideal target for making physical activity interventions sustainable.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Jenny Jakobsson ◽  
Malin Axelsson ◽  
Karin Örmon

Background. Though workplace violence (WPV) is a global problem for healthcare professionals, research within in-hospital care has mainly focused on WPV in emergency healthcare settings. Thus, the number of qualitative studies that explores experiences of WPV in general hospital wards with a longer length of stay is limited. Aim. The aim of this study was to explore how healthcare professionals in surgical hospital wards experience and manage WPV perpetrated by patients or visitors. Method. The study applied a qualitative, inductive approach using focus group interviews for data collection. A purposeful sample of 16 healthcare professionals working in surgical wards was included. Data were analysed using a thematic analysis. Findings. The analysis resulted in four main themes: workplace violence characteristics, partly predictable yet not prevented, approaching workplace violence, and consequences from workplace violence. During the focus group interviews, the healthcare professionals described various acts of physical violence, verbal abuse, and gender discrimination perpetrated by patients or their visitors. Despite the predictability of some of the incidents, preventive strategies were absent or inadequate, with the healthcare professionals not knowing how to react in these threatful or violent situations. They experienced that WPV could result in negative consequences for the care of both the threatful or violent person and the other patients in the ward. WPV caused the healthcare professionals to feel exposed, scared, and unprotected. Conclusion and clinical implications. Exposure to WPV is a problem for healthcare professionals in surgical wards and has consequences for the patients. Preventive strategies, guidelines, and action plans are urgently needed to minimise the risk of WPV and to ensure a safe work and care environment.


Author(s):  
Huyen Thi Thanh Phuong

Given the strong empirical evidence in the field of education that confirms the relationship between the application of game elements and increased learning motivation, gamification has recently become a concept that starts drawing attention in the field of English language teaching (ELT). However, the topic of gamification is still under-presented in ELT research, especially in English as a foreign language (EFL) contexts. The current research ex-plores the extent to which Vietnamese EFL learners are familiar to online gamification tools and their attitudes toward online-based gamified learn-ing. The study draws on data collected from survey questionnaires and fo-cus group interviews. Participants involved 147 students who participated in the survey; 12 volunteers among the surveyed students joined focus group interviews. The findings indicate that gamification has started taking a certain role in English learning both within and beyond classrooms. Also, students’ attitudes towards gamified learning are positive. Pedagogical im-plications regarding the application of gamified learning in improving the efficacy of English education in Vietnam and similar EFL contexts are also discussed.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-129
Author(s):  
Nor Ezdianie Omar

The low level of resilience had disrupted the psychological well-being and sustainable education of students who studied in the field of helping profession, at two distinct public universities in Terengganu. Therefore, the present study explored the students’ resilience via the qualitative method. The data was collected vis-à-vis focus group interviews based on a semi-structured interview protocol. In general, 16 students participated in the study. They pursued a Diploma in Nursing, Radiography, a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery and a Bachelor of Counselling at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu and Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin. These informants were selected via stratified purposive sampling, and the obtained data were analysed thematically. Results revealed that the informants learned ways to build resilience and how the power of resilience helped their adaptability skills in university. In conclusion, the present study contributed to the knowledge of resilience, which reinforced these students’ resilience. Finally, the present study recommended web-based intervention to promote and enhance students’ resilience in tertiary education.


Author(s):  
Andrea Berglund Melendez ◽  
Maria Malmsten ◽  
Eva-Lena Einberg ◽  
Eva K. Clausson ◽  
Pernilla Garmy

Students with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) are present in every school, and most likely, there are a few students in every class. School health care is responsible for providing support to all students, especially those with special needs. The aim of the study was to describe school nurses’ experiences of supporting students with NDDs. A qualitative method consisting of seven focus group interviews (that included a total of 35 school nurses) in Southern Sweden was conducted. Three themes were identified in the findings: helping students with NDDs to interpret sensations, detecting early signs of distress among students with NDDs, and using an inclusive design for health education. This study highlights the importance of school nurses in identifying the needs of students with NDDs and promotes a person-centered approach to achieve a healthy and safe learning environment for all students.


2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 371-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Solange Hamrin

Purpose – This purpose of this paper is to explore the discursive constructions of context and its significance in employees’ accounts of leadership practices, more specifically, discourses of communicative leadership. In doing so, it also seeks to clarify the relationship between perceptions and constructions of contexts and leadership discourses. Design/methodology/approach – This study relies on focus group interviews conducted with nine groups and a total of 31 employees (16 males and 15 females) in a Swedish industrial organization employing 490 employees. Findings – The findings reveal that micro-contexts were more evident influencing leadership discourses in the accounts of employees. However, macro-contexts identified as an authoritative leadership style were triggering constructions of “idealized” communicative leaders in contrast to the leadership experienced in the work environment by employees as “real.” Research limitations/implications – The investigation presents one organizational context, but can be expanded using additional contexts that may show various leadership forms and communication needs. Findings suggest that understanding the context considered to be relevant to perceptions and constructions of leadership can be essential for identifying and confronting challenges, leading to a more communicative organization. Originality/value – The study approaches leadership and context as dynamic and multifaceted constructs shaped locally in interaction with macro-discourses. Further, it also suggests that individuals are agents of change controlling context through being aware of their discourses.


The demographic, technological, economic and peace imperatives have created a world in which our interactions are dominated by cultural differences and our ability to understand ‘the other’. Intercultural competence is thus a necessary skill for individuals to build positive communication with others. This paper explores students’ construal of intercultural competence. Specifically, we highlight their experiences interacting with the other and their understanding of intercultural competence. Using a qualitative approach, focus group interviews were conducted with the selected undergraduate students from three universities in Northern Malaysia. The findings indicate three important themes: attitude, cultural knowledge and language skills. The paper contributes to specific factors needed of intercultural competence within the Malaysian context.


Author(s):  
Ágnes Domonkosi

The aim of this paper is to show how Hungarian address practices are working in the context of higher education. The study also offers a description of interpretations and ideologies related to these practices. The research is based on questionnaires, individual and focus-group interviews conducted with teachers and students of a university institute training Hungarian teachers. The data reveal that the reciprocal use of V forms is the main strategy to convey respect and distance. They also show that a frequent practice is the non-reciprocal use of pronouns (Ön/Maga/te) and the comb inat i on of l ex i ca l forms encod ing var i ous degrees of social distance. The analysis points out that address practices in this community are shaped by the following factors: the hierarchical, role-dependent nature of the teacher-student relationship, the role of solidarity in joint work activities, and the adaptation of individual address repertoires to the norms of the practice community. The paper demonstrates that the non-reciprocal use of address forms does not indicate a high degree of hierarchy, but rather different ideologies and interpretations of address practices on the part of students and teachers.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-54
Author(s):  
Nitu Ghosh ◽  
S. K. Prasad

The dynamism in millennial business environment has mandated focused attention to the relationship between entrepreneurship and sustainable development due to the ingenuity of the issues for continual sustainability of business, economics, and society. Sustainopreneurship has received much attention from different research domains recently. Sustainopreneurship can offer a strategic perspective towards further growth and sustenance of e-entrepreneurship that has dramatically revolutionized economic development, industrial growth, and sustainable development of society. This study examines how sustainopreneurship could transform e-entrepreneurship, e-entrepreneurship models, along with dimensions of sustainopreneurship have been highlighted. The research design adopted is conceptual and conclusions have been derived from data solicited through focus group interviews of entrepreneurs and delphi method. A sustaino-e-entrepreneurship model is proposed for accomplishment of SDGs and continual sustainability. The study has immense practical relevance in revolutionizing entrepreneurship.


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