Optimal Use of L1 and L2 in Teaching Chinese to Sri Lankan Students: Approaches and Challenges

Traditional perspectives on monolingual education and total immersion have been substituted by more novel approaches to multilingual education such as translanguaging and partial immersion where the learners’ language repertoire is paid adequate respect. The present study investigates the role of L1 and L2 in teaching Chinese in Sri Lanka using 42 adult Chinese language learners in Sri Lanka as informants and a structured questionnaire was used as the main data collection tool. The informants have a highly divided perspective towards the use of L1 and L2 in the classroom. Most students have favored English instruction considering its efficacy in career prospects and Sinhala for convenience of comprehension. Considering the existing situation of Chinese language textbooks, language policy, and recent trends in multilingualism in Sri Lanka, total immersion is less likely to bring optimal effectiveness in teaching Chinese. The present study suggests that partial immersion and translanguaging would be more constructive for Sri Lankan students if cautiously handled with less hindrance to the delivery of target language content and its accuracy. A multilingual approach would, on one hand, offer a safe space for students to communicate while penetrating cross-cultural barriers through cultivation of culture-sensitivity.

Early Childhood Education in Aotearoa New Zealand

Aotearoa New Zealand is a small island country located in the southern Pacific Ocean. Eastern Polynesian migrants came in canoe groups probably in the 13th century ce, and the first settlers and Indigenous people were Māori. In 2020, the population is nearly five million, and is ethnically diverse. Early childhood education (ECE) covers the period from birth to age 5 years. Recently, for policy purposes, ECE services have been categorized broadly as teacher-led and parent/whānau-led (extended family) to differentiate between how the services operate and are funded. A teacher-led service is one where one or more qualified teachers are responsible for the overall program in the service. They are required to have a person responsible who is a registered, early childhood education qualified teacher (equivalent to a three-year specialist degree or diploma) and meet the government’s regulation that 50 percent of required staff must hold this recognized qualification. There is now a funding incentive for teacher-led services to employ 80 percent or more of staff with this recognized qualification. In 2019, 96 percent of services had a teaching staff qualification rate of over 80 percent. In addition, there is a current policy shift toward teacher-led services employing 100 percent of staff with this qualification. Within the teacher-led grouping, education and care centers (childcare centers) cater to the largest number of children and offer full-day, sessional, or half-day provision. Home-based services (family daycare) provide for an educator to work with children in the educator’s home or the child’s home at hours to suit parents; 70 percent of education and care and 92 percent of home-based services are for-profit, owned, and managed by private companies or owners. Kindergartens mainly operate under a school-day or sessional provision and cater for children aged 2 to 5 years. The Correspondence School is a distance education service, and is directly provided by the state. Parent/whānau-led services have high levels of parent or whānau involvement in providing education and care for children. They do not have to meet teacher registration targets, but the licensed parent/whānau-led services have their own service specific–qualification requirements. Kōhanga reo (Māori immersion language nests) were established in 1982 and have been described as “the most vigorous and innovative educational movement in this country (dare I say in the world).” They offer total immersion in Māori and foster Māori language, cultural identity, and self-determination. Pacific Early Childhood Groups are total immersion or bilingual in their home Pacific language. They may be sessional or full day. In sessional playcenters, parents undertake curriculum implementation, management, and administration, and are trained through the Playcentre Federation. Sessional playgroups are also run by parents, but parents require no training.

Ciprofloxacin-loaded alginate/poly (vinyl alcohol)/gelatin electrospun nanofiber mats as antibacterial wound dressings

Herein, ciprofloxacin (CIP)-loaded alginate/poly (vinyl alcohol)/gelatin (SPG) (CIP–SPG) nanofiber mats were successfully fabricated by electrospinning. The average fiber diameters of the mats before and after crosslinking were in the range of 190–260 and 385–484 nm, respectively. The chemical integrity of CIP remained intact after encapsulation into the mats. The degree of weight loss and water swelling decreased with an increase in the gelatin content of the electrospun nanofiber mats. A release study was carried out by total immersion and diffusion methods using phosphate buffer as a release medium. Burst release of CIP was observed in case of the total immersion method, while a more sustained release was observed in case of the diffusion method. The maximum amounts of CIP released during total immersion and diffusion were in the range of 70–90% and 72–85%, respectively. For both the total immersion and diffusion methods, the released amounts of CIP decreased and the release slowed down with an increase in the gelatin content; this result is consistent with the weight loss and water swelling values. The Young’s modulus increased, while the tensile strength and strain at break decreased with an increase in the gelatin content. The CIP–SPG nanofiber mats were slightly toxic to L929 mouse fibroblasts as evaluated by indirect cytotoxicity assay. The electrospun CIP–SPG nanofiber mats exhibited excellent antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. These results reveal that the electrospun CIP–SPG nanofiber mats are potentially promising materials for wound healing applications.

ACTING IN DIGITAL CULTURAL HERITAGE APPLICATIONS

Digital technologies offer a new way to communicate and experience cultural heritage. It is now becoming possible to virtually recreate the original appearance of cultural monuments and enable the users to take virtual walks exploring interactive 3D models of objects preserved only in remains. Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology that transfers the users to a different place and time through devices called Head Mounted Displays (HMD) and enables a total immersion in another reality.

Creative tourism as a strategic approach for decolonial thinking and doing in Namibian tourism.

This chapter explores how creative tourism can be applied as a strategy for decolonization, inclusion, and participation. Creative tourism is about engaging tourists in activities that stimulate them to use their creative potential (Runco and Acar, 2012) and confidence (Kelley and Kelley, 2013) in a cultural tourism setting. Creative tourism can occur through either total immersion in cultural activities, for example singing, craft production, painting, or through less interactive roles, such as being spectators in a concert, museum, or more informal cultural settings, for example, community theatres or cultural events.

On representation and speculation: a case for the use of representational practices in SciArt

In a reply to ‘Speculative Listening’ by Kaya Barry, Michele Lobo and Michelle Duffy, I defend representation as a resource for experimental and speculative practice, arguing that the loss of total immersion in the flux and becoming of the world that the representational engenders is a precondition for experimentation and speculation.

Tecnología aplicada a un modelo agroecológico para fomentar la cultura de la sustentabilidad en el TECMM, campus Puerto Vallarta

This is a project that aims to be a collective academic space for learning and research to strengthen processes of social activation linked to the management of the territory, the use of natural resources, the use of renewable energy and automation. It is to make the school a space for collective action in search of sustainability. The objective is to take advantage of the land, not yet built, of the José Mario Molina Pasquel y Henríquez Technological Institute, Campus Puerto Vallarta (TecMM, campus PV,) for organic planting, by integrating technological practices of sustainable management, promoting an experience of productive learning and community participation. The project has two approaches: educational and social. This investigation comprises, so far, two stages. The first stage was the manufacture of an automated hydroponic greenhouse for the ecology department of the Puerto Vallarta City Council. The second stage, currently under development, consists of implementing technology and automated mechanisms for farmland, proposes the total immersion of engineering for the interaction of man with nature. Relentlessly seeking, and accepting as our greatest challenge, the maximum use of resources, without neglecting the correct operation.

The use of total immersion in the rehabilitation process

The popularity of immersion, understood as absolute engrossment in a virtual world, has been growing year by year, due to new hi-tech sound, image and data-processing technologies. Man, because of human nature, is attracted to immersion as a way of experiencing new environments, which are often very different from those offered by the real world. Thanks to immersion in a virtual world, one can step into any desired computer-generated reality. This technology has found its use in the process of motor rehabilitation, likewise, psychological therapy. Total immersion in a virtual world creates the possibility for guided rehabilitation, utilising the appeal of am imaginary environment. Patients become more engaged and motivated to take part in the laborious and painstakingly long process leading to the recovery of their motor functions. Cooperation between physiotherapists and psychologists with engineers has resulted in the creation of new software solutions, and improved equipment, which can be tailored to meet the needs of patients with various mental problems or physical disfunctions and disabilities.