Writing curricula design: Aims and practices

Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00

Self-reported problems of L1 and L2 college writers: what can writing instructors do?

Understanding self-reported problems of L1 and L2 writers regarding the writing process holds important pedagogical implications for instructors to address their students’ specific writing needs. L2 writers were usually reported to have more difficulty setting goals and generating material, and to produce less accurate and effective texts (Leki, 1992; Silva 1993, 1997). This paper compares the self-reported writing difficulties of two groups: L1 (N=19) and L2 (N=19) freshman composition students from an American university. To analyze the group differences, a questionnaire (using 5-point Likert scale) about the perceptions of writing difficulties and approaches to writing process was used. Findings from the descriptive statistical analysis suggest that despite self-reported common problems, such as keeping clarity by using appropriate syntax, the L1 and L2 students presented different views on the importance of visuals in a text. While L1s find visuals to be least important for the reader to understand the text, L2s find visuals to be most important. The results reveal that although instructors focus on teaching essay organization, both L1 and L2 students need more instruction on creating better sentence structures. Encouraging L2 students to use visuals (pictures and graphs) in their persuasive essays would prove beneficial for them to overcome writing problems in English

Language, writing, and social (inter)action: An analysis of text-based chats in Macedonian and English

The purpose of this study is to investigate the text-based chatting practices of a particular community of native Macedonian speakers who chat both in Macedonian and in English (as their foreign language). Much research in computer-mediated communication (CMC) over the last decade has been done in English as L1. Some of the few studies which explored CMC cross-linguistically include the comparison of French vs. English (Werry, 1996), Japanese vs. English (Nishimura, 2003b), Spanish vs. English (del-Teso-Craviotto, 2006), Serbian vs. English (Radic, 2007) and Turkish vs. English (Savas, 2010). In these studies, a number of different language features (e.g., orthography, code switching) and functions (e.g., representation of gender) common to TBC have been analyzed, but none has explored in-depth the use of language as social action in online text-based interactions. Data collected from surveys, text-based chats, and interviews were analyzed qualitatively and quantitatively using methods and concepts borrowed from discourse analysis, conversation analysis, systemic functional linguistics and communication accommodation theory. Seventy text-based chats in Macedonian and English from seven native Macedonian speakers, who form an intact group, were collected over a period of four months. By investigating linguistic elements, extralinguistic phenomena (e.g., emoticons, typographic forms such as LOL), and contextual phenomena (e.g., appraisal, limitations of the medium) in the text-based chats of my participants, and by conducting follow-up text-based interviews regarding their individual chatting practices, this study has explored how all these phenomena are used for performing social action in two languages. Text-based chat was also found to be a convenient medium for participants to co-position in various ways while carefully accommodating to various contextual factors

On refinements of some integral inequalities

In this study, using Hölder-İşcan integral inequality as a better approach than Hölder integral inequality, Improved power-mean integral inequality as a better approach than power-mean inequality and an identity for differentiable functions, the inequalities for functions whose derivatives in absolute value at certain power are convex are obtained. Some applications to special means of real numbers and some error estimates related to midpoint formula are also given.Publisher's Versio

Interculturality and Interdisciplinarity in Bachelor Thesis Writing: Mentors’ and Mentees’ Perceptions

This paper explores some aspects of the Anglo-centred (US-based and UK-based educational practices) academic literacy promoted in a non-native English academic context. It seeks to understand better how mentors who were trained and partly educated in an Anglo-centred settings, or never received education abroad, affect the bachelor thesis writing process of their mentees. Through several methods such as analysis of theses’ structures written in L2 (English), surveys and semi-structured interviews with students and with their mentors in three fields, I will present the findings on how the student positioning is affected when they write a BA thesis in English, while simultaneously trying to cope with the transcultural instruction and the local institutional requirements. The thematic analysis also highlights a range of educational practices and understandings of the thesis writing process including, on one hand, how students build argumentation, distinguish between facts and opinions, become objective, avoid plagiarism following the Anglo-centred writing instruction and, on the other, a fluidity in how university professors use their diverse linguistic and educational resources for the same purpose, without challenging the dominating values of the L2 academic literacy

Building a green learning organisation: how employee-drive innovation can enable organisational sustainability transitions

The COVID-19 pandemic is emerging as a window of opportunity, urging governments and organisations worldwide to accelerate the transition towards a green economy. Despite the attempts towards a green transition, transforming current practices and embedding sustainability within daily work routines still presents organisations with major challenges. These are partly due to a traditionally top-down, siloed and reactive approach to sustainability innovation, often emerging from new government regulations, market sanctions, or leadership changes. Such an approach often results in a symbolic adoption of sustainability which fails to create a sense of distributed problem-solving, wasting employees’ innovative potential in delivering substantial social and environmental value. To understand how organisations can prevent such symbolic adoption of sustainability, experts have studied organisational designs that ensure bottom-up innovation processes, continuous learning and resilience. This dissertation investigates how employee-driven innovation (EDI) can be harnessed for organisational sustainability transitions (ST). Through a combination of academic literature and practice-based knowledge gathered across three semi-structured interviews, this qualitative study will explain how EDI can contribute to organisational sustainability transitions and will unpack which factors, mechanisms or processes can initiate such an innovation process

Land Markets and Inequality: Evidence from Medieval England

The 13th century witnessed a substantial increase in inequality in the distribution of peasant landholdings relative to the distribution of the late 11th century. Innovations in property rights over land in 12th century England induced peasants to include the trading of small parcels of land as part of their risk coping strategy. We argue that these events are related. Recent theoretical work in development economics has explored the relationship between inequality and asset markets. When agents are able to trade productive assets to manage risk, the resulting dynamics may generate increasing inequality over time. We employ a simulation strategy to analyze the impact of land markets in generating inequality in 13th century landholdings. We find that the dominant factor contributing to the unequal distribution of land was the interaction between emerging land markets and population growth driven by high fertility rates in households with large landholdings

Simulation-based Approach to Optimize Courtyard Form Concerning Climatic Comfort in Hot and Humid Climate

In hot and humid regions, in order to provide indoor thermal comfort conditions, most important design strategies are to maximize shady areas and natural ventilation. Courtyard building form was developed mainly in response to climatic requirements especially in hot climates. A courtyard is an unroofed area that is completely or partially enclosed by walls or building spaces. The function of the courtyard is to improve comfort conditions by modifying the microclimate around the building. The proportion of the courtyard affects considerably the shadows produced on the building envelope, and consequently the received solar radiation and the comfort conditions in the building. Moreover, courtyards are claimed to be highly effective in enhancing the ventilation and decreasing humidity level. This study intends to investigate variations in indoor thermal conditions according to different design configurations and scenarios. All calculations are made for a surrounded space of the courtyard. Thermal comfort conditions of this space are evaluated according to its orientation, ventilation type and courtyard configuration. In the study, different courtyard proportions, orientations and ventilation types are developed. Indoor comfort conditions of the selected space are calculated for Antalya which is a representative city of hot and humid region of Turkey. The software EnergyPlus, is used as a tool for simulating the thermal performance of the selected space. Operative temperatures, indoor humidity, and solar gains are calculated by using this dynamic thermal simulation program and a comprehensive evaluation on the aspects of thermal comfort conditions is carried out. In conclusion, the importance of the systematic approach in order to optimize the decisions taken during the design stage of thermally comfortable and conservative buildings is discussed

Transient voltage-gated potassium channels in cultured hippocampal astrocytes

In the nervous system, the roles of Kv channels are well established as being critical for regulating action potential frequency, membrane potential, and neurotransmitter release. However, their role in glial cells, a non-excitable cell type, is yet to be fully understood. Whole-cell current kinetics, pharmacology, immunocytochemistry and RT-PCR were used to characterize A-type current in hippocampal astrocyte cultures to better understand its function. Pharmacological analysis suggests that ~70%, 10% and less than 5% of total A current is associated with Kv4, Kv3 and Kv1 channels, respectively. In addition, pharmacology and kinetics provide novel evidence for a significant contribution of KChIP accessory proteins to astrocytic A-channel composition. Localization of the Shaw Kv3.4 channel to astrocytic processes and the Shal Kv4.3 channel to soma suggest that these channels serve a specific function. Since astrocytes are known to be subjected to neuronal firing frequencies of up to 200 Hz in the hippocampus, the role of A currents in membrane voltage oscillations was assessed. Although TEA-sensitive delayed-rectifying currents are involved in the extent of repolarization, 4-AP-sensitive A currents serve to increase the rate. Astrocytes and HEK293 cells were used to investigate the mechanism of the previously found GABAA induced anion-mediated reduction of Kv channels in more detail. Astrocytes demonstrate an anion concentration specific depolarizing effect on inactivating A-type (also termed transient voltage-gated) K+ channel activation kinetics whereas a hyperpolarizing effect was seen upon expression of Kv4.2 or Kv1.4 in HEK293 cells, but only after disruption of the cytoskeleton using cytochalasin D. It is hypothesized that cytoskeletal interactions and Cl -mediated effects are mediated through N-terminal conformational stabilities. In summary, the results indicate that hippocampal astrocytes in vitro express multiple A type Kv channel á subunits with accessory, Ca2+-sensitive cytoplasmic subunits that appear to be specifically localized to subcellular membrane compartments. Functions of these channels remain to be determined in a physiological setting, but suggest that A-type Kv channels enable astrocytes to respond rapidly with membrane voltage oscillations to high frequency incoming signals, possibly synchronizing astrocyte function to neuronal activity. Furthermore, studies of anion and cytoskeletal effects on Kv channels demonstrate channel function to be highly localized/targeted and susceptible to changes in ionic environment