Cultural Factors in Implementing Communicative Language Teaching Methods with Karen English Language Learners

This study seeks to examine which aspects of Communicative Language Teaching adult Karen English language learners value and how they describe their experience of three typical CLT activities. The engagement of CLT methods with culture in general and Karen culture in particular is considered. Twelve Karen intermediate level participants completed a 25 question Karen-language values assessment, as well as three questionnaires based on communicative activities they experienced in their classroom. While participants indicated strong agreement with CLT values of collaborative and functional learning, they remain eager for a strong teacher role in the classroom and active error correction not emphasized in CLT. The findings of this study suggest that while CLT remains an effective and valuable instructional framework for these learners, consideration must be given to the cultural and teaching/learning values of learners to ensure effective learning and prevent cultural mismatch from unnecessarily demotivating learners

Wildfires and geochemical change in a subalpine forest over the past six millennia

Citation: Bérangère Leys and Philip E Higuera and Kendra K McLauchlan and Paul V Dunnette. (2016). Wildfires and geochemical change in a subalpine forest over the past six millennia. Environmental Research Letters, 11(12), 125003.Bérangère Leys and Philip E Higuera and Kendra K McLauchlan and Paul V Dunnette. (2016). Wildfires and geochemical change in a subalpine forest over the past six millennia. Environmental Research Letters, 11(12), 125003.The frequency of large wildfires in western North America has been increasing in recent decades, yet the geochemical impacts of these events are poorly understood. The multidecadal timescales of both disturbance-regime variability and ecosystem responses make it challenging to study the effects of fire on terrestrial nutrient cycling. Nonetheless, disturbance-mediated changes in nutrient concentrations could ultimately limit forest productivity over centennial to millennial time scales. Here, we use a novel approach that combines quantitative elemental analysis of lake sediments using x-ray fluorescence to assess the geochemical impacts of high-severity fires in a 6200 year long sedimentary record from a small subalpine lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado, USA. Immediately after 17 high-severity fires, the sedimentary concentrations of five elements increased (Ti, Ca, K, Al, and P), but returned to pre-fire levels within three decades. Multivariate analyses indicate that erosion of weathered mineral material from the catchment is a primary mechanism though which high-severity fires impact element cycling. A longer-term trend in sediment geochemistry was also identified over millennial time scales. This decrease in the concentrations of six elements (Al, Si, K, Ti, Mn, and Fe) over the past 6200 years may have been due to a decreased rate of high-severity fires, long-term ecosystem development, or changes in precipitation regime. Our results indicate that high-severity fire events can determine elemental concentrations in subalpine forests. The degree of variability in geochemical response across time scales suggests that shifting rates of high-severity burning can cause significant changes in key rock-derived nutrients. To our knowledge, these results are the first to reveal repeated loss of rock-derived nutrients from the terrestrial ecosystem due to high-severity fires. Understanding the future of fire-prone coniferous forests requires further documentation and quantification of this important mechanism linking fire regimes and biogeochemical cycles

Choosing how to choose : Institutional pressures affecting the adoption of personnel selection procedures

The gap between science and practice in personnel selection is an ongoing concern of human resource management. This paper takes Oliver´s framework of organizations´ strategic responses to institutional pressures as a basis for outlining the diverse economic and social demands that facilitate or inhibit the application of scientifically recommended selection procedures. Faced with a complex network of multiple requirements, practitioners make more diverse choices in response to any of these pressures than has previously been acknowledged in the scientific literature. Implications for the science-practitioner gap are discussed

The dangers of resource myopia in work and organisational psychology: a plea for broadening and integration broadening

In this essay the limitations of the traditional quantitative approach in work and organisational psychology are put forward. It is argued that an extension of the methods, a broadening of the type of problems to be addressed, and a stronger integration with associated disciplines as well as with the application and implementation of the research findings are needed to ensure the usefulness and application of future W&O psychology. It is not suggested that micro-level problems should not be investigated, but it is postulated that W&O psychology should not be deprived of the opportunity to tackle other, and often more relevant, meso-and macro-level issues because we lack appropriate tools for attacking them

Factors associated with health-seeking behavior among migrant workers in Beijing, China

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Migrant workers are a unique phenomenon in the process of China's economic transformation. The household registration system classifies them as temporary residents in cities, putting them in a vulnerable state with an unfair share of urban infrastructure and social public welfare. The amount of pressure inflicted by migrant workers in Beijing, as one of the major migration destinations, is currently at a threshold. This study was designed to assess the factors associated with health-seeking behavior and to explore feasible solutions to the obstacles migrant workers in China faced with when accessing health-care.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A sample of 2,478 migrant workers in Beijing was chosen by the multi-stage stratified cluster sampling method. A structured questionnaire survey was conducted via face-to-face interviews between investigators and subjects. The multilevel methodology (MLM) was used to demonstrate the independent effects of the explanatory variables on health seeking behavior in migrant workers.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The medical visitation rate of migrant workers within the past two weeks was 4.8%, which only accounted for 36.4% of those who were ill. Nearly one-third of the migrant workers chose self-medication (33.3%) or no measures (30.3%) while ill within the past two weeks. 19.7% of the sick migrants who should have been hospitalized failed to receive medical treatment within the past year. According to self-reported reasons, the high cost of health service was a significant obstacle to health-care access for 40.5% of the migrant workers who became sick. However, 94.0% of the migrant workers didn't have any insurance coverage in Beijing. The multilevel model analysis indicates that health-seeking behavior among migrants is significantly associated with their insurance coverage. Meanwhile, such factors as household monthly income per capita and working hours per day also affect the medical visitation rate of the migrant workers in Beijing.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This study assesses the influence of socio-demographic characteristics on the migrant workers' decision to seek health care services when they fall ill, and it also indicates that the current health service system discourages migrant workers from seeking appropriate care of good quality. Relevant policies of public medical insurance and assistance program should be vigorously implemented for providing affordable health care services to the migrants. Feasible measures need to be taken to reduce the health risks associated with current hygiene practices and equity should be assured in access to health care services among migrant workers.</p

The relative importance of task, citizenship and counterproductive performance to job performance ratings: Do rater source and team-based culture matter?

This study contributes to our understanding of which factors predict raters' policies for combining performance components into an overall job performance rating. We used a work-roles framework to examine the effects of rater source and team-based culture. The sample consisted of 612 individuals in three job categories (3 17 nurses, 168 personnel recruiters and 127 sales representatives). Respondents rated employee performance profiles that were described on task, citizenship and counterproductive performance. Raters' weights differed by (a) organizational culture (low- vs. high-team-based); (b) rating source (supervisor vs. peer) and (c) job. In a team-based culture, more weight was given to citizenship performance and less to task performance. Peers attached more importance to citizenship performance and less to task performance. Implications of these findings for performance management are discussed

Plant controls on Late Quaternary whole ecosystem structure and function

Plants and animals influence biomass production and nutrient cycling in terrestrial ecosystems; however their relative importance remains unclear. We assessed the extent to which mega-herbivore species controlled plant community composition and nutrient cycling, relative to other factors during and after the Late Quaternary extinction event in Britain and Ireland, when two-thirds of the region’s mega-herbivore species went extinct. Warmer temperatures, plant-soil and plant-plant interactions, and reduced burning contributed to the expansion of woody plants and declining nitrogen availability in our five study ecosystems. Shrub biomass in particular was consistently one of the strongest predictors of ecosystem change, equaling or exceeding the effects of other biotic and abiotic factors. In contrast, there was relatively little evidence for mega-herbivore control on plant community composition and nitrogen availability. The ability of plants to determine the fate of terrestrial ecosystems during periods of global environmental change may therefore be greater than previously thought

The evolution of saline lake waters: gradual and rapid biogeochemical pathways in the Basotu Lake District, Tanzania

The biogeochemical evolution of solutes markedly alters the chemistry in the closed-basin maar lakes that comprise the Basotu Lake District (Tanzania, East Africa). Examination of 11 (out of 13) lakes in the Basotu Lake District identified two distinct evolutionary pathways: a gradual path and a rapid path. During the course of biogeochemical evolution these waters follow either the gradual path alone or a combination of the gradual and rapid paths. Solute evolution along the gradual path is determined by all of the biogeochemical processes that for these waters appear to be tightly coupled to evaporative concentration (e.g. mineral precipitation, sorption and ion exchange, C0 2 degassing, and sulfate reduction). Rapid evolution occurs when mixing events suddenly permit H 2 S to be lost to the atmosphere. The chemistry of waters undergoing rapid evolution is changed abruptly because loss of every equivalent of sulfide produces an equivalent permanent alkalinity.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/42881/1/10750_2004_Article_BF00026937.pd