Interactive Language Learning through Speech-Enabled Virtual Scenarios

This paper describes the evaluation of an educational game designed to give learners of foreign languages the opportunity to practice their spoken language skills. Within the speech interactive Computer-Assisted Language Learning (CALL) program, scenarios are presented in which learners interact with virtual characters in the target language using speech recognition technology. Two types of interactive scenarios with virtual characters are presented as part of the game: the one-to-one scenarios which take the form of practice question and answer scenarios where the learner interacts with one virtual character and the interactive scenario which is an immersive contextualised scenario where the learner interacts with two or more virtual characters within the scene to complete a (task-based) communicative goal. The study presented here compares learners’ subjective attitudes towards the different scenarios. In addition, the study investigates the performance of the speech recognition component in this game. Forty-eight students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) took part in the evaluation. Results indicate that learners’ subjective ratings for the contextualised interactive scenario are higher than for the one-to-one, practice scenarios. In addition, recognition performance was better for these interactive scenarios

Recent Cases

Civil Rights--Section 1983--Municipality Subject to Section 1983 Damage Suit if Local Law Recognizes Municipal Liability ====================== Constitutional Law--Citizenship-Statute that Conditions Retention of United States Citizenship upon Residency Requirement Is Constitutional When Citizenship Is Not Protected by the Fourteenth Amendment Citizenship Clause ====================== Constitutional Law--Equal Protection --School Financing System that Substantially Relies on Local Property Tax Violates Equal Protection Clause ====================== Constitutional Law--Freedom of Speech--A Per Se Banon All Editorial Advertisements by a Broadcast Licensee Violates the First Amendment ====================== Constitutional Law--Jury Trials in Juvenile Court--Juveniles in Delinquency Proceedings Not Constitutionally Guaranteed the Right to a Jury Trial ====================== Constitutional Law--Search and Seizure--Warrantless Wiretapping of Suspected Domestic Dissident Group\u27s Conversations Violates Fourth Amendment ====================== Labor Law--Railway Labor Act--Section 2 First\u27s Duty To Exert Every Reasonable Effort Enforceable by Injunction When No Other Practical Means of Enforcement Is Available ====================== Taxation--Deductions--Cost of Union Executive\u27s Campaign for Reelection Nondeductible as Business Expense Under Section 162(a

Laying the Tracks for Soft Skill Development at TransNamib

This project aided TransNamib Holdings Limited in identifying areas for soft skill improvement and offered recommendations for soft skill development techniques. The team conducted interviews, used job shadowing, and completed a cycle of Instructional Rounds with employees from five separate TransNamib locations in Windhoek, Namibia. The data revealed communication, motivation, and soft skill education as areas for improvement. The team recommended an incentives program, a modified Instructional Rounds process, and a mentor program to aid in the development of TransNamib’s soft skills

China’s public diplomacy towards Africa

This thesis analyzes China’s public diplomacy in the field of Sino-Africa relations, arguing that China has adopted public diplomacy with soft power as a vital component of its foreign policy on the continent from the early 2000s onward. The necessity of public diplomacy in China’s foreign policy was driven by the objective of developing close economic ties with African countries even as Beijing faced manifold issues in its relations. To comprehend the link between China’s public diplomacy and Sino-Africa economic ties, the research adopts an International Relations approach of neoliberal institutionalism, examining the use of public diplomacy to manage the asymmetric relations between China and Africa, in which China wields economic dominance over Africa. With the rising importance of public diplomacy globally in the twenty-first century, China has employed its public diplomacy to explain and justify its rising global influence, and to dispel negative publicity in the international society. While China has a government-centered public diplomacy system, unlike that of the West, various actors (governmental, semi-governmental, and non-governmental actors) systematically engage in China’s public diplomacy through diverse instruments such as foreign aid, media, institutions for exchanging culture, and language training to the populations of foreign countries. The Chinese government deploys its public diplomacy in African countries based on smart power, which combines soft power (culture) and hard power (China model and economic power), as most of China’s public diplomacy is linked to aid projects, grants, and low-interest loans for building closer economic relations with African countries. China’s public diplomacy seeks to build a positive image of China that focuses on a mutual sense of solidarity to elicit connectedness and shared identity between China and partner countries, mutual development, and harmonious coexistence through diverse public diplomacy activities. Public diplomacy fills the gap between China and Africa in asymmetrical economic relations that give rise to issues of distrust and discontent towards China – such as the exploitation of African wealth, and accusations of neocolonialism. By conducting fieldwork in Nigeria and South Africa, the research confirms that China’s public diplomacy is integral to its foreign policy that focuses on China’s economic development and securing its position on the global stage through African partnerships, bilateral and multilateral (FOCAC). It also discovered that Chinese public diplomacy not only promotes an amicable and friendly environment that promotes deepen relations for economic objectives, but also boosts China’s claim to be a global great power in the new era, as President Xi Jinping has ordered

The British at Wei-Hai-Wei : a case study of an ill-fated colony

In 1898, Russia, Germany and France forced the Qing government to cede them one territory each, which challenged the traditional predominance of the British in China. The British lost no time to acquire leased territories in the era of scrambling for concessions. Wei-Hai-Wei, an isolated leasehold in Northern China, was therefore occupied by the British. Two years after the takeover, Wei-Hai-Wei was transferred from the Admiralty and the War Office to the Colonial Office. However, the British invested little to construct this territory during its 32-year leasehold. Faced with limited funds, the Commissioner, James Stewart Lockhart, took several measures to develop the leasehold- all of which failed. The uncertain tenure of Wei Hai Wei, as many then policy-makers stated, played a very important part in discouraging Parliament’s financial support. Besides its intrinsic limits, the British policy and international factors also influenced the status of the colony. My research focuses on why and how the British changed their policy at Wei Hai Wei in its early days and what the Commissioner did to develop this colony. I will analyze the reason why Wei Hai Wei turned into an ill-fated and ignored colony of the British Empire. I argue that although the British kept the territory for 32 years in total (1898-1930), its development and future was mostly determined in its first ten years of leasehold. Researching the first decade of Wei Hai Wei can provide insight into British imperial policy in northern China in the late 19th and early the 20th century