A parallel approach to ESAP teaching

Abstract It is fair to say that English language teaching has always been teaching for special purposes, however since the 1960's, English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has grown to become one of the most important areas of English as a Second Language (ESL). Consequently there has been a notable increase in courses, materials and methodologies. However, despite its reasonably long history the ESP community doesn't seem to have a clear idea of what ESP means. This paper aims to examine the teaching of (ESP) in the tertiary level of the education system. It will consider the emergence of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and how this approach gave way to other approaches, focusing on English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP The paper will also consider factors of the local context; the students, the institution and issues related to the academic discipline and to assess to what extent these factors impinge upon methodologies, course design and classroom activities. In doing so I intend to describe and exemplify a pragmatic approach, which I call a parallel course approach, to teaching English for Special Academic Purposes and discuss the rationale for and nature of such an approach

Somalia and the Pirates. ESF Working Paper No. 33, 18 December 2009

Piracy is defined by The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies as an "act of boarding or attempting to board any ship with the apparent intent to commit theft or any other crime and with the apparent intent or capability to use force in furtherance of that act." And it is estimated that from 1995 to 2009, around 730 persons were killed or are presumed dead, approximately 3,850 seafarers were held hostage, around 230 were kidnapped and ransomed, nearly 800 were seriously injured and hundreds more were threatened with guns and knives. (See paper by Rob de Wijk). In November 2009, CEPS held a European Security Forum seminar, in collaboration with the Institute for Strategic Studies, the Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, to focus on the issue of Somalia and the Pirates, chaired by Francois Heisbourg. Four eminent specialists in this field: David Anderson, Rob de Wijk, Steven Haines and Jonathon Stevenson looked at the links with Somalia, and the historical, legal, political and security dimensions of the troubling success of piracy in today’s world. Their conclusions and recommendations for future action are brought together in this ESF 33 Working Paper

Practices for strategic capacity management in Malaysian manufacturing firms

While the notion of manufacturing capabilities is a long-standing notion in research on operations management, its actual implementation and management has been hardly researched. Five case studies in Malaysia offered the opportunity to examine the practice of manufacturing managers with regard to strategic capability management. The data collection and analysis was structured by using the notion of Strategic Capacity Management. Whereas traditionally literature has demonstrated the beneficial impact of an appropriate manufacturing strategy on the business strategy and performance, the study highlights the difficulty of managers to set the strategy, let alone implementing it. This is partly caused by the immense pressure of customers in these dominantly Make-To-Order environments for SMEs. Current concepts for manufacturing capabilities have insufficiently accounted this phenomenon and an outline of a research agenda is presented

Disability, space and sexuality: access to family planning services

In this paper we examine, from a social perspective, access to family planning clinics for disabled people. We argue that disabled people are commonly understood to be either asexual, uninterested in sex or unable to take part in sexual activity, or sexual `monsters' unable to control their sexual drives and feelings. These understandings are reproduced through the use of cultural representations and myths, and are evidenced in the planning and design of family planning clinics and the information and services they provide. To illustrate our arguments we present the ®ndings of a short questionnaire survey of all family planning clinics in Northern Ireland. Physical access to these clinics was partial, and access to information and services were extremely limited. These results indicate that disabled people are not expected to be using the services (consultation, treatment, information) that family planning clinics provide. As such, family planning clinics in Northern Ireland represent a landscape of exclusion, denying disabled people access to services and reproducing cultural ideologies concerning disability and sexuality. 7 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

Catastrophic insurance: Impact of the Australian Medicare Safety Net on fees, service use and out-of-pocket costs, CHERE Working Paper 2006/9

Objectives: The Medicare Safety Net Policy was introduced in March 2004 to provide financial relief for those Australians who face high out-of-pocket (OOP) costs for outpatient medical services. This study evaluates the extent to which out-of-pocket costs have fallen since the introduction of the Safety Net and examines the impact of the policy on the level of service use, the amount of benefits paid by government and fees charged by medical providers. Methods: Regression modelling of time series data was used to examine whether there have been significant changes in levels of service use, fees charged and benefits paid for services provided by specialists in the two-year period following the introduction of the Safety Net. Four speciality fields were examined in this analysis: general specialists? consultations, obstetrics, pathology and diagnostic imaging. Results: The analysis indicates that the introduction of the Safety Net coincided with a substantial rise in public funding for Medicare services and a much smaller reduction in OOP costs. The policy has coincided with a small but significant change in the number of pathology and diagnostic imaging services used and in some specialty areas a substantial increase in the fees charged by providers. The net impact shows that for specialists? consultations every dollar spent on the Medicare Safety Net, $0.68 went towards higher fees and$0.32 went towards reducing OOP costs. The corresponding figures for diagnostic imaging were $0.74 and$0.26 respectively. Conclusions: The Safety Net was heralded by the government as a fundamental reform in Australia?s Medicare program. Whilst the Safety Net was introduced to help reduce out-of-pocket medical costs, this analysis shows that in its first two years of operation, there has been significant leakage of public funding towards higher provider fees. More research is needed using longer term data to assess the impact of the policy on patient and provider behaviour more widely, including examining the policy?s impact on those who did qualify for Safety Net and those who did not, as well as more disaggregated analysis of different Medicare services.Out-of-pocket costs; moral hazard; catastrophic insurance; health care financing; Australia

Who?s getting caught? An analysis of the Australian Medicare Safety Net, CHERE Working Paper 2006/8

The Medicare Safety Net Policy was introduced in March 2004 to provide financial relief for those Australians who face high out-of-pocket costs incurred through out-of-hospital medical services. This study examines variation in Safety Net benefits by federal electorate and by type of medical service. The results indicate widespread variation in Safety Net benefits. There were significantly higher Safety Net benefits in electorates with relatively high median family income and lower health care needs. The study also shows that patients who use private obstetrician and assisted reproductive services are the greatest beneficiaries of the policy. Whilst the Safety Net was introduced to help reduce out-of-pocket medical costs, this analysis shows that it may be missing the intended policy target.Medicare, health care policy, out-of-pocket costs, co-payments,catastrophic insurance, Australia

Diaries or questionnaires for collecting self-reported healthcare utilisation and patient cost data? CHERE Project Report No 20

The literature comparing diaries and questionnaires was reviewed in order to identify the most appropriate method of collecting patient self-reported data, on health service utilisation and out-ofpocket costs, for a longitudinal study. Nine published studies met the review inclusion criteria; four compared the diary method with a self-completed questionnaire and five with an interviewer administered questionnaire. None of the eligible studies measured patient costs, and only two measured some aspects of health service utilisation. Most of the studies reported higher response rates for questionnaires than for diaries, and there was some evidence of selection bias. There was a tendency to report more symptoms, symptom intensity or health care utilisation by questionnaires compared to diaries, and compared to physician reports (included in only two studies). The review provides some information about the two approaches for collecting self-reported data, but does not provide sufficient evidence to favour either approach.diaries, health care utilisation

Establishing, versus Maintaining, Brain Function: A Neuro-computational Model of Cortical Reorganization after Injury to the Immature Brain

The effect of age at injury on outcome after acquired brain injury (ABI) has been the subject of much debate. Many argue that young brains are relatively tolerant of injury. A contrasting viewpoint due to Hebb argues that greater system integrity may be required for the initial establishment of a function than for preservation of an already-established function. A neuro-computational model of cortical map formation was adapted to examine effects of focal and distributed injury at various stages of development. This neural network model requires a period of training during which it self-organizes to establish cortical maps. Injuries were simulated by lesioning the model at various stages of this process and network function was monitored as "development" progressed to completion. Lesion effects are greater for larger, earlier, and distributed (multifocal) lesions. The mature system is relatively robust, particularly to focal injury. Activities in recovering systems injured at an early stage show changes that emerge after an asymptomatic interval. Early injuries cause qualitative changes in system behavior that emerge after a delay during which the effects of the injury are latent. Functions that are incompletely established at the time of injury may be vulnerable particularly to multifocal injury

7th INTREPID Report: Gagliato: A framework for future growth

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