An Approach to Bilingualism: Theoretical Background Applied to a Personal Experience

Este es un trabajo descriptivo que indaga en el bilingüismo, partiendo de mi experiencia personal como persona bilingüe, siempre desde la perspectiva académica, tanto lingüística como pedagógica. Contiene 6 secciones y una lista bibliográfica. Los puntos tratados en este documento constan de una breve introducción en la materia, seguida de una sección sobre el origen histórico del bilingüismo y las causas originarias; las teorías existentes y definiciones lingüísticas sobre el concepto de bilingüismo y persona bilingüe en una línea central. También contempla otros conceptos relacionados como el multilingüismo y el plurilingüismo; una descripción del concepto desde una perspectiva más pedagógica mencionando brevemente algunos de los métodos pedagógicos más reconocidos relacionados con la enseñanza bilingüe; y para finalizar, la relación y comparación de toda la teoría académica investigada con mi experiencia personal, además de una breve conclusión final.Departamento de Filología InglesaGrado en Estudios Inglese

La configuración programática en el aula de inglés en educación secundaria obligatoria. Análisis del nivel lingüístico en un contexto escolar

Este Trabajo Fin de Máster presenta una propuesta de investigación sobre el nivel lingüístico que poseen los estudiantes de tercer y cuarto cursos de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria en un contexto escolar concreto. Tiene por objetivo contribuir a la mejora de la enseñanza de la Lengua inglesa, a partir de las exigencias procedentes de las instancias y disposiciones -europeas y nacionales- oficialmente en vigor en el ámbito lingüístico-educativo, tales como las políticas lingüísticas y la legislación educativa del contexto español. El Trabajo consta de una primera parte, en la que se presenta la revisión de los aspectos curriculares esenciales que configuran el marco teórico, y de los conceptos e instrumentos propios de los distintos niveles de concreción curricular. En la segunda parte del Trabajo se abordan los aspectos metodológicos, a través de los que se efectúa un análisis sobre el nivel de dominio de la lengua inglesa de una muestra de estudiantes de Educación Secundaria, conforme al objeto de estudio y los interrogantes planteados. En virtud de su alcance y de los resultados obtenidos, se extrae una serie de implicaciones didácticas, que permiten exponer, en la parte final, las conclusiones y reflexiones derivadas del conjunto de procedimientos empleados para la configuración de la propuesta de investigación y del propio Trabajo.This Master’s Thesis presents a research proposal into the linguistic level of the students of the third and fourth year of Secondary Education in a particular school context. It aims to contribute to improving the teaching of English language, from the demands from the European and National instances and legal provisions -officially in force in the linguistic-educational field-, such as language policies and educational legislation of the Spanish context. The work is divided into two parts. The first part is devoted to the review of both the essential curricular aspects that make up the theoretical framework and the main concepts and instruments of the different curricular concretion levels. The second part addresses the methodological aspects, through which we carry out an analysis on the linguistic level of a sample composed of several Secondary students. The analysis is conducted according to the object of study and the research questions. As a result of its scope and the research outcomes, some didactic implications are drawn. This allows us to lay out, in the final part, some conclusions and reflections derived from the set of procedures used for configuring the investigation proposal and the work itself.Departamento de Didáctica de la Lengua y LiteraturaMáster en Profesor de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanzas de Idioma

Unmade and Unmanned Men: Reading Traumatized Masculinity in Late Nineteenth-Century British Adventure Fiction through the Lens of the Indian “Mutiny” of 1857

Unmade and Unmanned Men: Reading Traumatized Masculinity in Late Nineteenth-Century British Adventure Fiction through the Lens of the Indian “Mutiny” of 1857 examines the selected adventure fiction of George Alfred Henty, Rudyard Kipling, and Joseph Conrad through the historico-political context of India’s First War of Independence, known in Victorian Britain as the Indian “Mutiny” of 1857. Examining masculine trauma in adventure fiction reveals how British men, who were themselves colonized by the Empire’s expectations of them, sought not only to recover from the scars inflicted by imperialism, but also to expose the Empire for inflicting the psychologically damaging expectations that produced their masculine trauma. The Introduction explains the historical significance of the “Mutiny” and the gap in the scholarship on masculine trauma in relation to this event. Chapter one summarizes the history of masculinity and adventure fiction scholarship and argues that the Indian “Mutiny” of 1857 was responsible for the traumatization of British masculine identities. Chapter two analyses the use of shock in Henty’s Rujub, the Juggler (1893) to argue how inherited historical remembrances of the violent “Mutiny” gripped Henty, prompting his depiction of re-imagined imperial masculinity. Chapter three analyzes the use of psychic splitting in Kipling’s The Jungle Books (1894, 1895) to argue how internalized, racially fraught remembrances of the repressed “Mutiny” haunted Kipling, prompting his depiction of destabilized imperial masculinity. Chapter four analyzes the use of post-traumatic stress disorder in Conrad’s Lord Jim (1899-1900) to argue how psychologically damaging remembrances of the unspeakable “Mutiny” unsettled Conrad, prompting his depiction of shattered imperial masculinity

Celebrating 100 years of the National Park System in the classroom

This research evaluates the effects of a curricular tool on students in a social studies and upper elementary classroom. Consisting of a text set, a compilation of varying primary and secondary resources such as letters and maps at varying reading levels, focused around an interesting central topic. The research employs text sets created for fourth and seventh grade on the topic of US national parks and focuses on the history of national parks, curricular materials already available on national parks, creation of the text sets, and the importance of disciplinary literacy and interdisciplinary connections between geography and literacy. The text sets rooted in this research were then implemented in fourth and seventh grade classrooms respectively and it was found that overall, text sets are an effective tool to increase student abilities in terms of content knowledge, opinions about national parks, and literacy skills. The research has both a conceptual and applied impact, advancing the scholarly literature at the interface of geography education/social science education and literacy, as well as providing a pilot tests, classroom-ready means for using the topic of national parks to pique student interest and enhance student’s geography content knowledge and literacy skills

Value creation through social media : how influencer marketing can affect brand attitude, perceived brand image, and overall brand equity of luxury brands

In the rapidly changing landscape of the retail industry, companies are forced to frequently adapt to the newest digital technologies to stay relevant. The dramatic growth of social media marketing has resulted in brands resorting to influencer marketing strategies, targeting millions of American users on social platforms every single day. With a higher level of trust and relatability compared to traditional celebrities, these influencers offer brands a convenient platform to reach consumers and enhance their brand equity. However, social media platforms have become over-saturated with sponsored influencer endorsements of brands, leaving consumers yearning for honest reviews. The question arises whether content sponsorship plays a role in consumer evaluations and the resulting brand equity. This study experimentally investigates the influence of the existence of content sponsorship of a post on brand attitude, brand image, and overall brand equity, moderated by different types of perceived fit (i.e., brand-influencer fit, brand-consumer fit, and influencer-consumer fit). To examine the research questions, a one-way between-subjects experimental design was employed using an online survey with two conditions (i.e., a sponsored content group and an organic content group), resulting in 135 valid responses from a college student sample. The results did not indicate any significant differences between the organic condition and the sponsored condition. However, our analysis showed that perceived influencer-consumer fit has a moderating effect on the relationship between type of post and brand attitude. Thus, we conclude that congruency between consumers and influencers is an important factor in brand equity efforts of luxury brands. Further, this study supported previous research in the effect of brand attitude on both brand image and overall brand equity. Brand attitude was found to have a significant impact on brand image, the effect of which carried through to overall brand equity as well. We therefore emphasize the importance of brand attitude in luxury brands’ attempts to enhance brand image and brand equity. Since the sample in this study consisted of college students, future research should investigate the topic of influencer marketing with generations less familiar with digital technologies and social media. We also suggest researching the impact of content sponsorship with different stimuli, including other luxury brands and influencer ethnicities, to allow more generalizability of findings

Activities for Challenging Gifted Learners by Increasing Complexity in the Common Core

Gifted learners need opportunities for critical and creative thinking to stretch their minds and imaginations. Strategies for increasing complexity in the four core areas of language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies were addressed using the Common Core and Iowa Core Standards through several methods. Descriptive adjective object boxes were created, based on the themes of bees, surface area and volume, cultural beliefs and mummies, and bee colony collapse disorder. The sets of materials were used in various ways to increase the complexity of instruction in the core subject areas of literacy, mathematics, social studies, and science. The descriptive adjective boxes consisted of several small objects related to a theme with corresponding cards. This card set provided activities to increase the complexity of the topics. [This paper is based on the conference presentation, Smartening up the Common Core: Increasing Complexity for Gifted Learners that was presented at the Iowa Talented and Gifted (ITAG) Annual Conference: Reaching for the Future (Des Moines, Iowa, Oct 13-14 2014.)

Understanding the relationship transitions and associated end of life clinical needs of young adults with life-limiting illnesses:a triangulated longitudinal qualitative study

Background: Care of young adults with life-limiting illnesses can often be complex due to the fact that they are growing and developing within the continuing presence of their illness. There is little research conducted nationally and internationally, which has examined the life issues of young adults or taken a longitudinal approach to understand such issues over a period of time. Aim: To gain clear understanding of one particular and pertinent life issue—relationship transition—occurring in the context of being a young adult with a life-limiting illness and the clinical needs arising from this. Design: This was a triangulated, longitudinal, qualitative study involving young adults with life-limiting illnesses and their significant others, namely, family members and healthcare professionals. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with participants and analysed using thematic analysis. Clinical case note reviews were also carried out. Setting/participants: A total of 12 young adults (aged between 17 and 23 years) from 2 hospices and 22 nominated significant others participated in a total of 58 interviews. Results: Thematic analysis revealed 4 main themes and 11 subthemes. The main themes were ‘Dependence dichotomy’, ‘In it together’, ‘Biographical uncertainty’, and ‘Conserving integrity’. These themes helped to establish the nature of relationship transitions that the young adult participants from the study experienced and additionally allowed insight into their possible needs at their end of life. Conclusion: This study has identified the nature of relationship transitions pertinent to young adults and has highlighted associated end of life clinical needs. This study can influence further research into the transitions and end of life needs of this particular patient group receiving palliative care, while informing the lacking evidence base which exists internationally

Current and near-term GHG emissions factors from electricity production for New York State and New York City

This paper was accepted for publication in the journal Applied Energy and the definitive published version is available at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.11.061.This paper reports estimates of average GHG emissions factors for New York State and marginal GHG emissions factors for interventions in New York City. A multi-regional unit commitment model was developed to simulate the behavior of the grid. The parameters defining the system operation were gathered from several publicly available data sources including historical hourly electricity production and fuel consumption from over one hundred power plants. Factors were estimated for a baseline year of 2011 and subsequently for the year 2025 considering planned power plant additions and retirements. Future scenarios are also developed considering different wind turbine installation growth rates and policies affecting the cost of generation from coal power plants. The work finds marginal GHG emissions factors for New York City could reduce between 30 and 36% from 540 kg CO2e/MWh in 2011 for all future scenarios considered. Average GHG emissions factors for New York State could reduce 9 to 39% from 215 kg CO2e/MWh depending on the wind growth rate and price burden on coal power plants

Analysis of vertical ground loop heat exchangers applied to buildings in the UK

The work presented here deals with the design and performance of ground-source heat pumps and ground-sink cooling systems using vertical borehole arrays for commercial applications in the UK. Heating and cooling energy demands for a range of building and HVAC plant options are obtained by thermal modelling applied to four HVAC plant options: space heating only; heating with chilled ceilings; fan coil units and constant volume all-air plant. Ground loop designs are conducted for each system option using an impulse-response method and the parameters extracted from this are used in 10-year simulations of plant response which have been carried out using HVACSIM+. The 10-year time horizon was used to assess any degradation in earth temperature over time. The results show that a substantial reduction in energy (and, hence, carbon) can be expected of up to and exceeding 50% when using ground source heat pumps for winter heating with direct cooling in summer in association with moderate temperature cooling systems such as chilled ceilings. A degradation of earth temperature was evident with systems utilising limited cooling or no cooling but this did not appear to influence heat pump performance greatly. Practical Applications: Design and performance data for use in vertical ground loop (borehole) heat exchanger arrays providing source heat for heat pumps as well as direct cooling for buildings are generated and reported in this paper. The data should be of help to design practitioners for the sizing of borehole arrays for both heating and cooling. Design and performance matching to a wide variety of HVAC combinations, building energy demand levels and two contrasting sets of earth thermal property data are included so that practitioners will be able to select results that suit a range of modern applications. Also included are results of 10-year energy simulations that demonstrate the required design and operating conditions needed to ensure that initial undisturbed earth conditions will not drift with time to an unacceptable extent. Comparisons are made with conventional heating and cooling methods so that estimates of carbon savings due to the use of ground-coupled heat pumps with (and without) direct cooling can be made