Playing the videotext: A media literacy perspective on video-mediated l2 listening

Adopting a literacy perspective towards student interactions with digital media can extend and develop views of second language (L2) listening comprehension. In this case study, variations in play are grounded in a media literacy perspective as a way to frame student work with authentic videotext. Twenty-two Australian students of Japanese watched three digitized news clips as they talked aloud. Qualitative analysis of their immediately retrospective verbal reports showed that learners do indeed play and replay the media texts as they, for example, perform, fool around, and establish signposts. The article concludes with a discussion urging language teachers and researchers to adopt media literacy perspectives in their use of electronic media

Understanding Videotext: Listening Strategy Use by Adult Mandarin-Chinese English Language Learners

A vast number of news video listening materials are now easily accessible to English language learners (ELLs) due to developments in broadcast and multimedia technology. While little is known about how ELLs attempt to comprehend this challenging medium, researchers agree on the critical nature of listening skills, which researchers have placed at the heart of second language acquisition (Rost, 2002; Vandergrift, 2007; Wolvin & Coakley, 2000). This study sought to identify the listening strategies (i.e., language learning strategies, LLS) that adult intermediate to advanced level, native Mandarin Chinese-speaking ELLs use to comprehend authentic short documentary-style news video listening materials (i.e. videotexts). Linguistic knowledge (i.e. grammatical and structural knowledge) has been found to have a potentially large influence on strategy use (Santos, Graham, & Vanderplank, 2008). Thus a standardized measure was used to assess subjects' linguistic knowledge and listening proficiency. This was done to determine if differences exist in how subjects (n = 27) with lower and higher abilities in these two areas use listening strategies. Immediate retrospective verbal reports (i.e. subjects' verbal reports during pauses while listening) were used to collect data about the strategies. The data were then transcribed, coded, and quantitatively analyzed to answer three research questions. A written free recall measure was used to assess subjects' comprehension of the operational videotext and to help answer three research questions. Key results include subjects with higher listening proficiency using significantly more bottom-up and total strategies as well as recalling significantly more audio-only idea units while also recalling significantly fewer image-only idea units. Linguistic knowledge was not found to have a strong quantitative relationship with strategy use. All results are discussed in order to contribute to future research and curricular development in the area of listening strategies and the use of videotext for educational purposes

English language readability task performance in a mobile setting - the effect of gender

Mobile computing has become very common in the present day fast changing technological development. It is expected that in future, people will be more mobile than today and all kinds of tasks that are performed in the stationary environment will be undertaken in a mobile environment also. As traffic on the road and also the population are increasing at a very fast pace, the future generation will spend a lot of time in a mobile environment. Therefore, assessment of operators’ performance in a mobile setting will become all the more important. Mobile environment is influenced by vehicular vibration for all kinds of tasks. The present study made an attempt to explore the English language readability performance of a target group. Fourteen subjects (seven males and seven females) from an English language teaching institute were selected for this study. The base line value of reading speed was obtained on the basis of stationary environment reading task performance. Reading speed was noted in the number of words read per minute (NWRPM). The same subjects were used for reading in the vibratory environment and difference in the performance was noticed. A stimulus was presented on a lap-top in both cases. Vibration was assessed on the basis of ISO 2631-1 (1997) guideline. ANOVA statistical tool was used to analyze the data. The result indicated that the performance of operators was significantly affected due to the presence of vibration and text/background color

Satellite provided fixed communications services: A forecast of potential domestic demand through the year 2000: Volume 2: Main text

Potential satellite-provided fixed communications services, baseline forecasts, net long haul forecasts, cost analysis, net addressable forecasts, capacity requirements, and satellite system market development are considered

The U.S. newspaper industry’s relationship with online media 1980-2005

This thesis examines from a historical perspective the issues and forces that shaped the U.S. newspaper industry during the formative years of the online era, specifically 1980 through 2005. The thesis explains this period as one of extreme change and transition as it explores the years leading up to the mid-1990s when newspaper publishers first confronted the Internet and adopted it as an online distribution platform. The thesis also discusses the early 2000s as the time when an Internet based media economy emerged to the detriment of newspaper business models. The thesis relies on the tenets of media industries scholarship, and in doing so, provides a thorough examination into the business relationships that existed between newspaper companies and online media forms during this period. Using numerous examples, the thesis details how newspaper companies viewed online media forms, how they deployed them, and for what purpose. The analysis of this activity provides insight about how the decisions made during this period influenced the newspaper industry’s economic condition at the end of the decade.The thesis explains from the perspective of the newspaper industry that the Internet arrived as part of a progression of technologies that had influenced the media during this period. Beginning with videotext through to proprietary online systems, the thesis demonstrates that these earlier platforms had informed newspaper companies how online media operates as a communication platform. The thesis discusses the importance of interactivity as a practical attribute of online media, but recounts how cultural and organizational artefacts kept newspaper companies from embracing interactive functions as they developed online products. As interactivity increasingly led to user empowerment during the Internet era, the thesis reveals how the reluctance of newspaper companies to cede or share content control with their audience placed them at a competitive disadvantage and contributed to discrediting the newspaper industry’s overall business model

Teach how to Listen: The Effect of Listening Strategy Instruction on Documentary Video Comprehension

Developments in broadcast and multimedia technology have generated a readily available and vast supply of videos for use in second and foreign language learning contexts. However, without pedagogical direction learners are unlikely to be able to deal with the complexities of this authentic listening resource, and strategy instruction may be one route to augmenting comprehension (Cross, J, 2009). The essence of this experimental study was to investigate the impact of teaching listening strategy on comprehension of documentary videos. For the purpose of this study, 54 advanced EFL students, 27 in experimental group and 27 in control group, participated in this study procedure. In 10-week-period, the experimental group went through a well-scheduled instruction in listening strategy. On the other hand, the control group wasn’t received any instruction in listening strategy. The finding of this study has revealed that teaching listening comprehension strategies has significant influence on comprehension of authentic documentary video

A decisive role for deaf epistemologies: analyzing power/knowledge in critical deaf pedagogy

In American Sign Language (ASL), Transgressing the Object IV (2012): Critical Pedagogy depicts deaf women engaging in cinematic critical theory. According to the video-text, transgressing conceptualizes inequities of power and knowledge in deaf education and documents educational interactions about audism (antideaf oppression), sexism, and intersectionality. The women construct individual and collectivist deaf epistemologies that comprise an egalitarian counternarrative depicting critical deaf pedagogy. To interpret these pluralist discourses, I explore a theoretical framework about Deaf Culture in teaching and deaf aesthetics in learning. By doing so, I generate three analytic findings: 1) how culturally-revitalizing deaf pedagogies are established, 2) how power/knowledge is shared in equitable heterarchies, and 3) the benefits of educational interactions with deaf aesthetics, classroom architecture, sign language metaphors, and embodied multimodality. Finally, I describe the decisive role of deaf epistemologies in critical deaf pedagogy and juxtapose my findings against a conceptual framework about deaf peoples self-determination and struggles for legitimation

Online Catalog Development at the University of Guelph

published or submitted for publicatio

Strategies for Competing in Future Tourism Markets

A key to the development of the travel and tourist industry is increasing efficiency. Efficiency will be directly related to increases in management know-how. Know-how will come in the form of new and better ways of stimulating innovation and creativity in the design of the industry\u27s products