Volume 43, Number 3, September 2023 OLAC Newsletter

Digitized September 2023 issue of the OLAC Newsletter

Volume 42, Number 3, September 2022 OLAC Newsletter

Digitized September 2022 issue of the OLAC Newsletter

Exploring language contact and use among globally mobile populations: a qualitative study of English-speaking short-stay academic sojourners in the Republic of Korea

This study explores the language contact and use of English speaking sojourners in the Republic of Korea who had no prior knowledge of Korean language or culture prior to arriving in the country. The study focuses on the use of mobile technology assisted l anguage use. Study participants responded to an online survey about their experiences using the Korean language when interacting with Korean speakers, their free time activities, and the types of digital and mobile technologies they used. The survey respon ses informed questions for later discussion groups, in which participants discussed challenges and solutions when encountering new linguistic and social scenarios with Korean speakers. Semi structured interviews were employed to examine the linguistic, soc ial and technological dimensions of the study participants’ brief sojourn in Korea in more depth. The interviews revealed a link between language contact, language use and a mobile instant messaging application. In the second phase of the study, online surveys focused on the language and technology link discovered in the first phase. Throughout Phase Two , the researcher observed the study participants in a series of social contexts, such as informal English practice and university events. Phase Two concluded with semi structured interviews that demonstrated language contact and use within mobile instant messaging chat rooms on participants’ handheld smart devices. The two phases revealed three key factors influencing the language contact and use between the study participants and Korean speakers. Firstly, a mutual perspicacity for mobile technologies and digital communication supported their mediated, screen to screen and blended direct and mediated face to screen interactions. Secondly, Korea’s advanced digital environment comprised handheld smart devices, smart device applications and ubiquitous, high speed Wi Fi their Korean speaking hosts to self reliance. Thirdly, language use between the study participants and Korean speakers incorporated a range of sociolinguistic resources including the exchange of symbols, small expressive images, photographs, video and audio recordings along with or in place of typed text. Using these resources also helped the study participants learn and take part in social and cultural practices, such as gifting digitally, within mobile instant messaging chat rooms. The findings of the study are drawn together in a new conceptual model which h as been called sociolinguistic digital acuity , highlighting the optimal conditions for language contact and use during a brief sojourn in a country with an unfamiliar language and culture

New techniques and framework for sentiment analysis and tuning of CRM structure in the context of Arabic language

A thesis submitted to the University of Bedfordshire in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of PhilosophyKnowing customers’ opinions regarding services received has always been important for businesses. It has been acknowledged that both Customer Experience Management (CEM) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) can help companies take informed decisions to improve their performance in the decision-making process. However, real-word applications are not so straightforward. A company may face hard decisions over the differences between the opinions predicted by CRM and actual opinions collected in CEM via social media platforms. Until recently, how to integrate the unstructured feedback from CEM directly into CRM, especially for the Arabic language, was still an open question. Furthermore, an accurate labelling of unstructured feedback is essential for the quality of CEM. Finally, CRM needs to be tuned and revised based on the feedback from social media to realise its full potential. However, the tuning mechanism for CEM of different levels has not yet been clarified. Facing these challenges, in this thesis, key techniques and a framework are presented to integrate Arabic sentiment analysis into CRM. First, as text pre-processing and classification are considered crucial to sentiment classification, an investigation is carried out to find the optimal techniques for the pre-processing and classification of Arabic sentiment analysis. Recommendations for using sentiment analysis classification in MSA as well as Saudi dialects are proposed. Second, to deal with the complexities of the Arabic language and to help operators identify possible conflicts in their original labelling, this study proposes techniques to improve the labelling process of Arabic sentiment analysis with the introduction of neural classes and relabelling. Finally, a framework for adjusting CRM via CEM for both the structure of the CRM system (on the sentence level) and the inaccuracy of the criteria or weights employed in the CRM system (on the aspect level) are proposed. To ensure the robustness and the repeatability of the proposed techniques and framework, the results of the study are further validated with real-word applications from different domains

Special Libraries, July-August 1977

Volume 68, Issue 7-8https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/sla_sl_1977/1005/thumbnail.jp

Information and the End User: Proceedings of the VIIIth World Congress of the International Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists

Proceedings of the VIIIth World Congress of the International Association of Agricultural Librarians and Documentalists. May 28-31, 1990. Budapest, Hungary

Professional development of EFL lecturers in Vietnam : a cultural-historical activity theory perspective

Professional development (PD) of English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and lecturers in Vietnam has drawn great interest from stakeholders and the public over the past decade, as it is a key aspect of the National Foreign Language 2020 Project. However, the literature shows that this activity has been under-examined both regionally and nationally. This study examines the nature of PD for EFL Vietnamese lecturers of non-English specialized students. The study was theoretically underpinned by Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and employed a sequential mixed-methods approach. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected from EFL lecturers and academic managers at 14 public universities across the country, and national educational policies were also examined. Quantitative data was descriptively and inferentially analyzed, while qualitative data was thematically analyzed, and policy documents were scrutinized using Ball’s (1993) policy analysis framework. The findings show that EFL lecturer PD in Vietnam is a politically, socially, culturally and historically shaped activity that is fraught with many contradictions. Applying CHAT as the theoretical lens through which to view PD in this context reveals that Vietnamese lecturers are influenced by cultural expectations and regulated policies that require them to be ethical and knowledgeable exemplars, and this shapes their participation in PD. Lecturers appear to be confident as change agents in enacting reforms and actively manage to respond to growing demands placed on them. The formulation and implementation of national policies show heavy top-down impositions, with institutional PD management seriously challenging lecturers’ capacity to be authors of their own PD. Access to PD by many lecturers, particularly female lecturers, is limited due to the absence of gender considerations and poor enactment of many national policies, inadequate remuneration and excessive workloads, and the cultural notion of women taking major responsibility for family commitments. The rising demands on lecturers’ competencies and accountability in an increasingly globalized and free-market driven world, where the English language has become an indispensable currency, pose tough challenges for lecturers in terms of their PD