‘I understood the words but I didn’t know what they meant’: Japanese online MBA students’ experiences of British assessment practices

We report on a case study of high Japanese student failure rates in an online MBA programme. Drawing on interviews, and reviews of exam and assignment scripts we frame the problems faced by these students in terms of a ‘language as social practice’ approach and highlight the students’ failure to understand the specific language games that underpin the course assessment approach. We note the way in which the distance learning and online context can make the challenges faced by international students less immediately visible to both students and institution

A case study of implementation of international mindedness in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in Hong Kong second language Chinese classroom

Parallel SessionsConference Theme: 'to boldly go... 'This study aims at examining the concept of ‘international mindedness’ as it is evidenced in the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) in a Chinese as a second language classroom in an international school. The research methodology includes in‐depth semi-structured interviews, classroom observation, classroom discourse analysis (Christie, 2008), and text analysis of students’ work by using Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) (Halliday, 1994), Appraisal Theory (Martin and White 2005) and Bernstein’s topology of pedagogies of instruction. The findings show how the teacher in this study could be said to have demonstrated ‘international mindedness’ in her teaching, and how students expressed ‘international mindedness’ and how students expressed ‘international mindedness’ in their representations of values and knowledge. The study concludes that IB curriculum officers and educators should consider how to effectively promote international mindedness in IB curriculum and assessment development.postprin

A contrastive systemic functional analysis of causality in Japanese and English academic articles

Typological differences between languages have been a much debated topic in linguistic studies. Despite their usefulness in understanding syntactic features of various languages, such contrastive analyses have yet to thoroughly explore semantic variation among languages; furthermore, the results obtained have not been practically utilized in other areas of applied linguistics. This situation may come from the fact that a large number of contrastive studies have eclectically examined isolated areas of language variation either from syntactic, morphological, or from pragmatic perspectives. Viewing this issue from another angle, Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) focuses on language from a multi-dimensional perspective, where language is a realization of both interpersonal, textual, and social contextual factors. In recent years, SFL has demonstrated its applicability to neglected areas in applied linguistics such as translation studies and foreign language pedagogy. On par with current SFL research into the language of various text types or genres, the purpose of this study is to investigate the ways in which the concept of causality is realized in syntactically distinct patterns and how such syntactic variations serve different discourse functions in Japanese and English academic articles. From the various realizations of causality, this thesis focuses on explicit logical and ideational causality and its lexicogrammatical realizational patterns and functions as used in published journal articles on second language acquisition. This study indicates that contrary to the current claim about the function of causality-oriented grammatical metaphors (Halliday and Matthiessen, 1999), causality and its realizational patterns are language-specific phenomenon

Leaving the nest: the rise of regional financial arrangements and the future of global governance

This article examines the impact of regional financial arrangements (RFAs) on the global liquidity regime. It argues that the design of RFAs could potentially alter the global regime, whether by strengthening it and making it more coherent or by decentring the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and destabilizing it. To determine possible outcomes, this analysis deploys a ‘middle‐up’ approach that focuses on the institutional design of these RFAs. It first draws on the rational design of institutions framework to identify the internal characteristics of RFAs that are most relevant to their capabilities and capacities. It then applies these insights to the interactions of RFAs with the IMF, building on Aggarwal's (1998) concept of ‘nested’ versus ‘parallel’ institutions, to create an analytical lens through which to assess the nature and sustainability of nested linkages. Through an analysis of the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralization (CMIM) and the Latin American Reserve Fund (FLAR), the article demonstrates the usefulness of this lens. It concludes by considering three circumstances in which fault lines created by these RFAs’ institutional design could be activated, permitting an institution to ‘leave the nest’, including changing intentions of principals, creation of parallel capabilities and facilities, and failure of the global regime to address regional needs in a crisis.The authors would like to thank Veronica Artola, Masatsugu Asakawa, Ana Maria Carrasquilla, Junhong Chang, Paolo Hernando, Hoe Ee Khor, Kazunori Koike, Jae Young Lee, Ser-Jin Lee, Guillermo Perry, Yoichi Nemoto, Freddy Trujillo, Masaaki Watanabe, Yasuto Watanabe, Akihiko Yoshida, and others who wished to remain anonymous, for their generosity in providing in-person interviews. Further, the authors would like to thank various central bank and ministry of finance officials of both FLAR and CMIM member countries. We also thank Jose Antonio Ocampo, Diana Barrowclough, and participants in the 'Beyond Bretton Woods' Workshop at Boston University (where an earlier version of this article was presented in September 2017) for their feedback on our broader research projects on RFAs. Last but not least, the authors wish to thank the anonymous referees for their constructive comments. This work builds upon previous work funded by UNCTAD and the Global Economic Governance Initiative at the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University. (UNCTAD; Global Economic Governance Initiative at the Global Development Policy Center at Boston University)Accepted manuscrip

QUESTIONING JAVANESE LANGUAGE VALUE AND VITALITY WITH ITS MILLIONS OF SPEAKERS

Javanese holds the top rank of local language used in Indonesia for its biggest speakers noted. When many may worry about language endangerment, Javanese may not be one of them. Its high percentage usage makes people believe that this language is ‘safe’. Whereas, when we see deeper, Javanese language everyday spoken is Ngoko register (low Javanese). That is not enough since Javanese also has a high style one, Krama register. And in fact, the values of Javanese language mostly rely on this neglected register (high Javanese). Coming from that reality, this paper will discuss the value loss of Javanese language, especially in the case of conversation use. Different registers (language styles) accurately play different roles for communication, either parents with children or vice versa. Yet what happening nowadays on Javanese language use seems to be far different from what it should be. Krama register is not commonly used anymore in its proper use although it has higher position than Ngoko register. That phenomenon is even acknowledged as the acceptable one. People are driven to softly leave the proper use of Javanese language containing priceless values. Then its vitality is respectively being questioned, too