English literacy as a barrier to healthcare information for deaf people who use Auslan

Background: This study sought to gain insight into how Deaf Australians who use Auslan as their primary language perceive their English literacy and if they feel that they can sufficiently access preventative and ongoing health care information, and to explore their views in regards to accessing information in Auslan. Method: A phenomenological, inductive study, with data collected through 72 semi-structured interviews with Deaf Auslan users identified through non-probabilistic, purposeful and network sampling. Data was thematically analysed for identification of issues related to healthcare information access through English. Results: Deaf people experience barriers in accessing healthcare information because of limited English literacy and a lack of information being available in Auslan, apart from when Auslan interpreters are present in health care appointments. Conclusion: Many Deaf people in Australia lack consistent access to preventative and ongoing health care information. It is important to be aware of the English literacy levels of patients. More funding is needed for the provision of interpreting services in other healthcare contexts and the translation of materials into Auslan.4 page(s

Cross-Lingual NER for Financial Transaction Data in Low-Resource Languages

We propose an efficient modeling framework for cross-lingual named entity recognition in semi-structured text data. Our approach relies on both knowledge distillation and consistency training. The modeling framework leverages knowledge from a large language model (XLMRoBERTa) pre-trained on the source language, with a student-teacher relationship (knowledge distillation). The student model incorporates unsupervised consistency training (with KL divergence loss) on the low-resource target language. We employ two independent datasets of SMSs in English and Arabic, each carrying semi-structured banking transaction information, and focus on exhibiting the transfer of knowledge from English to Arabic. With access to only 30 labeled samples, our model can generalize the recognition of merchants, amounts, and other fields from English to Arabic. We show that our modeling approach, while efficient, performs best overall when compared to state-of-the-art approaches like DistilBERT pre-trained on the target language or a supervised model directly trained on labeled data in the target language. Our experiments show that it is enough to learn to recognize entities in English to reach reasonable performance in a low-resource language in the presence of a few labeled samples of semi-structured data. The proposed framework has implications for developing multi-lingual applications, especially in geographies where digital endeavors rely on both English and one or more low-resource language(s), sometimes mixed with English or employed singly.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. Presented at the SIGIR 2023 Workshop on Knowledge Discovery from Unstructured Data in Financial Services (KDF

English teacher's beliefs and practices in relation to EFL communicative competence: a case study

This thesis attempts to analyse the relationships that exist between English teachers’ beliefs about the concept of communicative competence and their practices at a state University in la Guajira, Colombia. This study involved five English teachers from the English institute of Universidad de la Guajira (Extensión Maicao). I approached this research from a qualitative perspective. To access teachers’ beliefs, an ethnographic case-study methodology was used. The data for the study included participant classroom observations, semi-structured interview, questionnaire and documents (teacher’s lesson plan). A qualitative software program (ATLAS.ti 6.0) was used to process data. Data was coded and emerging categories derived to describe the beliefs teachers hold about communicative competence. The results revealed that English teachers have different beliefs related to the concept of communicative competence, their methodology and their practice. Some sources of those beliefs were confirmed with the theory and in the same way the coherence between what teachers said to believe and their teaching practice was contrasted. This thesis contributes to the general understanding of English teaching and learning. I suggest that by studying the beliefs of the teachers, I am somehow getting an understanding of how their practices are configured as well. The EFL academic community could benefit from approaching teachers’ beliefs and their practices. Some implications of this case study for language teacher education are also discussed.MaestríaMagister en la Enseñanza del Ingle

Lecturers’ Perception of the Use of Social Media for English Language Teaching

The purpose of this study was to see how English lecturers’ perceptions of the use of social media for English Language teaching. This study is limited to 4 aspects (Activities, Motivation, Enhancing students’ skills, and effectiveness). This research was conducted at the English Department at a university in Surabaya using social media for teaching English by lecturers. This study using a case study design and semi-structured interview, by organizing, interpreting, and representing the data. A total of 8 lecturers have participated to be interviewed to know about their perception on the use of social media for English Language Teaching. The results showed that the social media most primarily used by the English lecturers are WhatsApp and Email. The result of the interviews showed about the four aspects that had been determined. They are; 1). Activities when using social media in teaching English; discussion, communication, sharing subjects’ materials, collecting an assignment, giving assignments. 2). The use of Social media can increase students and lecturers’ motivation; improving learning motivation, active, creative, increasing self-confidence, and interesting. 3). The use of social media can enhance students’ English skills; enhancing speaking skill, writing skill, pronunciation, vocabulary. 4). The effectiveness of social media use in teaching English; easy to access, easy to understand, easy to use, easy to be practiced

Revealing Shifts and Diversity in Understandings of Self Access Language Learning

This study has traced the growth of a new facility intended to promote independent language study in a Japanese university. The study traces this Self Access Learning Center (SALC) from its inception through the first two years of its development. It has revealed how key qualitative insights from an archive of semi-structured interviews, conversational narratives and questionnaires with students, teachers, center staff and university management are marked by their shifting and diverse nature. Findings related to language policy for the center show how initial ‘English only’ regulations have been opposed and amended by stakeholders. Findings focusing on the center stakeholders’ metaphors of self access language learning have changed or been supplemented and show great diversity. Importantly, SALC’s positioning in the wider university has experienced problems with diverse evaluation expectations and, despite considerable financial backing, remains marginalized. Finally, SALC’s integration with university curricula has seen mixed results; the center is connected closely to the English curriculum as taught by non-Japanese, but not to curricula taught by Japanese teachers of English or content subjects. This indicates that integration of university-wide curricula with autonomous modes of learning remains a hurdle. This study may inform other centers seeking to gather data on the diverse voices impacting upon their development

Disclosure in lesbian, gay and bisexual cancer care: towards a salutogenic healthcare environment

open access articleBackground: The literature on sexual orientation disclosure is arguably one of the most developed in the field of lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people in healthcare in English speaking countries however, relatively little research has been conducted into disclosure in cancer care. Studies have been mainly undertaken in primary care where distinct circumstances pertain and where the benefits of disclosure include obtaining appropriate health information, treatment advice and avoiding misdiagnosis. Methods: We conducted an in-depth qualitative study primarily recruiting patients through oncology care in hospital settings and through LGB community cancer support groups. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 30 LGB patients with different cancer types. Results: Data were analysed using thematic analysis and interpreted and interrogated through salutogenesis theory which offers a useful lens through which to consider the health promoting effects of sexual orientation disclosure in cancer care. We present three themes as part of the analysis: Authenticity as a driver for disclosure in cancer care, Partners as a (potential) salutogenic resource and Creating safe, healing environments conducive to disclosure. The findings are reported and discussed in relation to three inter-related concepts from current salutogenesis theorising including a sense of coherence, generalised resistance resources and healing environments which can facilitate sexual orientation disclosure. Conclusion: Our findings enable a more nuanced approach to understanding disclosure in this context. This study contributes to the literature through its articulation of the salutogenic potential of disclosure (if responded to appropriately) for LGB patients as individuals, in relationship to their partners or carers and the role of creating a visible healing-oriented optimal environment to promote quality of life and recovery