The Main Problem Areas of International University Students: A Qualitative Analysis on Azerbaijan Students

The international student mobility, aiming to create and sustain international integration has been an essential part of the education market in the 21st century. However, while such international student exchange programs contribute to the students and the cities hosting them, they bring along some problems. The aim of this study is to identify the main problem areas that international university students are likely to encounter. By applying the qualitative research method, the phenomenological research design was used in the study since it aims to reveal the problems of students based on their individual experiences. In-depth interviews were conducted with the Azerbaijani students studying at Akdeniz University selected as the research sample, which were then descriptively analyzed. The main problems were identified as “economic problems, inability to understand the local language, problems with accommodation, feeling cheated and intimidated, being inexperienced, lack of knowledge about the formal procedures, cultural diversity, lack of support, and exclusion”. The problems regarding finance and accommodation emerged as the most frequently mentioned problems. The main strategies to overcome these problems are also discussed.

Design of Spoken Language Tests for Hearing L1 Children

The identification of language problems and subsequent evaluation of interventions depend in part on the availability of useful and psychometrically robust assessments to determine the nature and severity of a child’s problems and monitor progress. This chapter addresses issues involved in the development of spoken language tests for L1 children and the ways in which they have been addressed, with reference to specific examples. Spoken language here refers to oral language, both receptive (comprehension) and expressive (production). The authors draw on a range of existing tests to illustrate the decisions that need to be made when assessing children’s language; they then discuss issues that arise in the development of new tests, drawing on examples of tests that the authors have themselves developed.

English Language Learners, Labels, Purposes, Standard English, Whiteness, Deficit Views, and Unproblematic Framings: Toward Southern Decoloniality

This paper argues for revisiting ways in which English Language Learners (ELLs), and the learner labels attributed to them, are negatively, racially, and pathologically framed and constructed based on, putatively, their English language competence, or their lack of it. It contends that this framing tends to give rise to a raciolinguistic profiling of these learners, as they end up being classified by their race, pan-ethnicity, nationality, immigrant/refugee status, regionality, and at times, by their skin color, in addition to their language abilities. This raciolinguistic framing often engenders other framings such as White, deficit, and poverty framings, and sub-framings like an othering framing (e.g., the racial others and the linguistic others). These framings, together with the normative ways in which ELLs’ language problems are constructed, have been characterized in this paper as misframings. Additionally, employing southern decoloniality, the paper problematizes and critiques the way ELLs are constructed and labeled, and the appropriation of Standard English (SE) as the sole touchstone of acceptable English in the midst of the other varieties of SE and of pluriversal speakers of English. Finally, the paper calls for the provincialization/localization or the deparochialization of English in keeping with its southern decolonial approach.

PRODUCTION OF AFFIRMATIVE, NEGATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES IN SCHIZOPHRENIA

Language disorder is one of the most significant symptom domains which characterize Schizophrenia Disorder. The aim of the present study considering these language problems is to find out the number of the affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences on schizophrenia patients’ spontaneous speech and reveal whether their depression, doubts and sceptical behaviours affect their speech. Fifty patients with schizophrenia diagnosed according to DSM-IV criteria were included into the study and compared to fifty healthy subjects matched for age, sex and education level with the patients participated in the study. The subjects’ speech was evaluated by using subject-based narration and free verbal narration tests. As a result of the statistical and linguistic analyses, significant differences were found between schizophrenic patients’ and healthy subjects’ speech in terms of between affirmative, negative and interrogative sentence use. The results indicate that the patients' excessive use of negative and interrogative sentences is related to their feature of attributing negatively to the events and emotions they experience.

“What I want to do I do not do”: on bi- and multilingual repertoires and linguistic dislocation in a border town

Language problems and language barriers are challenges facing not only immigrants but also minorities and people in rural/semirural areas. This study examines individuals’ bi- and multilingual repertoires, language practices and attitudes in a Hokkien-speaking community in Kangar, a semirural town of northern Malaysia bordering Thailand. Through questionnaire surveys and interviews, we investigate how these notions can be used as a means to understand/reflect bilingualism and multilingualism and, more importantly, the potential disparity between what people want to do/say and what people eventually manage to do/say. While there is a shift in language practice from a local- and ancestral origin-induced pattern towards a more “global” and “pan-Chinese” paradigm, the findings also reveal the linguistic “dislocations” of the Hokkien-speaking community across ALL generations regardless of ethnicity. The language issues in the community reflect—and are likely to be reflections of—society at large. The vast contrast between individual/societal linguistic aspirations and the actual linguistic repertoire/communicative competence among the locals indicates the need to redress an absence of major efforts to close urban-rural/city-town/dominant-dominated social divides across the (language) education landscape at the national level.

Apolipoprotein E4 as a Novel Treatment Target for Alzheimer’s Disease

The importance of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) research has never been greater from a worldwide perspective with the disease becoming increasingly prevalent with life expectancy on the rise. One emerging factor that has presented as a serious risk that still requires more research and understanding is the role and effects of Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4). When present, individuals are three times more likely to develop AD in their lifetime. This is due to ApoE4’s ability to not only increase amyloid beta plaque aggregation ApoE4 also increases hyperphosphorylation of tau causing neurofibrillary tangles. These two factors are the well-known hallmarks for AD, which increase the importance for ApoE4 research as it affects both major aspects. Treatment for AD has always been an issue due to a variety of factors with only a few approved for use today. These approved treatments are only to ease and supress symptoms rather than treating the disease. Dementia symptoms such as memory loss, language problems, motor skills, irritability and paranoia are all symptoms that destroy patient’s ability to function in their communities. Inhibiting ApoE4 and reducing its toxic effects is a promising theory that has the ability to extend AD patients’ lifespan and prolong capable brain function limiting brain tissue degradation.

An Analysis of Major Difficulties Moroccan Engineering Students Encounter in Argumentative Essay Writing

The aim of this study is to analyse argumentative essay errors made by Moroccan students in Preparatory Classes of Higher Engineering Schools (Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles) ( CPGE).The participants of this study were 1st year Physics, Chemistry and Engineering Sciences (PCSI ) students in CPGE Omar Ibn Al Khattab, Meknes . 68 students participated in the study which means that all PCSI students were involved. The study uses a mixed method design. In the quantitative method, the data was gathered from students’ argumentative essay tests. Students’ errors were quantified numerically and the contents of teachers’ interviews were analyzed qualitatively. The results of the study demonstrate clearly that CPGE students’ difficulties in essay writing are aligned to many factors . Firstly, CPGE Students’ lack language proficiency. They have serious language problems accumulated from previous years of study. Secondly , students lack motivation as they do not find pleasure in writing and perceive it as a tiring and boring task. Thirdly, they do not read a lot which makes the task of writing very hard. Fourthly , students do not master the techniques of writing a structured essay. In fact, it is a process that requires many steps to be followed from introduction to conclusion . The study ended up by suggesting possible solution to overcome such difficulties.

Digital Solutions to the Problems of Chinese Students in St. Petersburg Multilingual Space

Multilingual space is considered as one of the most important parts of the cultural environment that becomes a challenge for international students. The research ex-amined the multilingual space of St. Petersburg from the perspective of young people from China. Included observation, short interviews and analysis of Chi-nese freshmen essays serve as a source for the formation of a database of multi-lingual objects of everyday life of Chinese students and reveal language problems as the main challenges in the city multilingual space for a foreigner. The authors proposed an approach dividing the multilingual space of the city into space of communication and the "physical space of the language", existing vertically in three levels (city, university and personal areas). Expansion of the multilingual space at all levels due to the digital environment can significantly improve the language adaptation of students Although a coherent digital environment that provides the Chinese dimension to a multilingual environment does not yet exist. However, such elements as specially developed electronic guides and dictionaries, maps, augmented reality applications, communication platforms in social networks, etc. contribute to its future creation

Transdiagnostic Profiles of Behaviour and Communication Relate to Academic and Socio-emotional Functioning and Neural White Matter Organisation

Behavioural and language difficulties co-occur in multiple neurodevelopmental conditions. Our understanding of these problems has arguably been slowed by an overreliance on case-control designs, which limit the conclusions we can draw because they fail to capture the overlap across different neurodevelopmental disorders and the heterogeneity within them. In this study, we recruited a large transdiagnostic cohort of children with complex diagnosed and undiagnosed needs (N = 805) to identify distinct subgroups of children with common profiles of behavioural and language strengths and difficulties. We then investigated whether and how these data-driven groupings could be distinguished from a comparison sample (N = 158) on academic, socio-emotional, and neural white matter characteristics. We identified three distinct subgroups of children, each with different levels of difficulties in structural language, pragmatic communication, and hot and cool executive functions. All three subgroups struggled with academic and socio-emotional skills relative to the comparison sample, potentially representing three alternative but related developmental pathways to difficulties in these areas. The children with the weakest language skills had the most widespread difficulties with learning, whereas those with more pronounced difficulties with hot executive skills experienced the most severe difficulties within the socio-emotional domain. Each data-driven subgroup could be distinguished from the comparison sample based on both shared and subgroup-unique patterns of neural white matter organisation. These findings advance our understanding of commonly co-morbid behavioural and language problems and their relationship to behavioural outcomes and neurobiological substrates.

Prevention of Learning Disabilities in Pre-school Children

The article is devoted to revealing the possibilities of preventing learning disabilities in pre-school children. Early intervention is crucial to manage school failure and loss of self-confidence in children. Research is topical, as the number of children with mixed developmental disabilities and later, at school age – learning disabilities – is increasing. Some pre-school children may have various developmental disabilities, including mixed developmental disabilities, which present a whole spectrum of different problems that cannot solve themselves. If they do not receive help, these children will be diagnosed with lasting learning disabilities by reaching school age, and that can lead to a number of hardships for the pupils. Lessening or resolving these hardships will require a lot more effort to not inflict damage on the child’s self-confidence and future life quality. The aim of the study is to determine the knowledge of teachers about children with mixed developmental disabilities, their difficulties, and possibilities of recognizing early signs of problems. Methodology: the research was carried out using literature review and questionnaire for pre-school teachers. Results were not surprising – many teachers are not aware of mixed developmental disabilities; these disabilities are diagnosed alongside speech and language problems, and the number of these is increasing. The results are significant, and it is a possibility for speech therapists and special education teachers to create a curriculum for teachers to deal with these children to lessen problems.