Designing and Piloting a Tool for the Measurement of the Use of Pronunciation Learning Strategies

What appears to be indispensable to drive the field forward and ensure that research findings will be comparable across studies and provide a sound basis for feasible pedagogic proposals is to draw up a classification of PLS and design on that basis a valid and reliable data collection tool which could be employed to measure the use of these strategies in different groups of learners, correlate it with individual and contextual variables, and appraise the effects of training programs. In accordance with this rationale, the present paper represents an attempt to propose a tentative categorization of pronunciation learning strategies, adopting as a point of reference the existing taxonomies of strategic devices (i.e. O'Malley and Chamot 1990; Oxford 1990) and the instructional options teachers have at their disposal when dealing with elements of this language subsystem (e.g. Kelly 2000; Goodwin 2001). It also introduces a research instrument designed on the basis of the classification that shares a number of characteristics with Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning but, in contrast to it, includes both Likert-scale and open-ended items. The findings of a pilot study which involved 80 English Department students demonstrate that although the tool requires considerable refinement, it provides a useful point of departure for future research into PLS

Fourier synthesis of radio frequency nanomechanical pulses with different shapes

The concept of Fourier synthesis is heavily employed in both consumer electronic products and fundamental research. In the latter, pulse shaping is key to dynamically initialize, probe and manipulate the state of classical or quantum systems. In nuclear magnetic resonance, for instance, shaped pulses have a long-standing tradition and the underlying fundamental concepts have subsequently been successfully extended to optical frequencies and even to implement quantum gate operations. Transferring these paradigms to nanomechanical systems requires tailored nanomechanical waveforms. Here, we report on an additive Fourier synthesizer for nanomechanical waveforms based on monochromatic surface acoustic waves. As a proof of concept, we electrically synthesize four different elementary nanomechanical waveforms from a fundamental surface acoustic wave at $f_1 \sim 150$ MHz using a superposition of up to three discrete harmonics $f_n$. We employ these shaped pulses to interact with an individual sensor quantum dot and detect their deliberately and temporally modulated strain component via the opto-mechanical quantum dot response. Importantly, and in contrast to the direct mechanical actuation by bulk piezoactuators, surface acoustic waves provide much higher frequencies (> 20 GHz) to resonantly drive mechanical motion. Thus, our technique uniquely allows coherent mechanical control of localized vibronic modes of optomechanical crystals, even in the quantum limit when cooled to the vibrational ground state.Comment: 18 pages - final manuscript and supporting materia

Narratives As Zones Of Dialogic Constructions: A Bakhtinian Approach To Data In Qualitative Research

Narratives have become increasingly important in the field of applied linguistics, as recent publications have illustrated, yet narrative analysis could still be considered undertheorized. This article outlines a specific, dialogical approach to the narrative analysis of data in qualitative research. Building on Bakhtin\u27s notion of dialogue, it claims that personal narratives are uniquely positioned to capture the interplay between humans\u27 individual and autobiographic experiences on the one hand, and larger, socio-cultural discourses on the other. Narrators can actively construct relations with others and reposition themselves on the planes of both textual and visual media. The article illuminates that through strategies such as double-voicing, narratives function as a tool for repositioning, resistance, and agency. © 2013 Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

Validation of a modified ETDRS chart for European-wide use in populations that use the Cyrillic, Latin or Greek alphabet

Purpose: To validate a modified ETDRS visual acuity (VA) chart developed for European-wide use, in populations that use the Cyrillic, Latin or Greek alphabet. Methods: The charts were validated in three groups: 310 school children in Bulgaria (mean age 13 ± 1 years), 227 school children in Greece (mean age 14 ± 1 years) and 85 patients with no ocular pathology in Belgium (mean age 26 ± 5 years). VA was assessed with the habitual refractive correction, using the standard ETDRS charts and the modified European-wide charts. The intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) was used to assess the test–retest reliability of the European-wide chart. The Bland–Altman comparison method was used to assess agreement between the two different versions of the new chart, as well as to compare these to the standard ETDRS-charts. Limits of agreement were calculated for differences in VA scores (test–retest variability (TRV)) between measurement sessions for the European-wide charts. Results: The TRV of the European-wide charts was found to be ±0.10 logMAR, corresponding to 5 ETDRS letters, for both chart 1 and chart 2. The ICC was estimated to be 0.968 for the RE and 0.961 for the LE. The European-wide charts generated on average slightly higher logMAR scores compared to the standard ETDRS charts in all three groups. Conclusions: The “European-wide” charts appear to be a valid alternative to the standard ETDRS acuity charts, offering the advantage of containing letters readable by all European citizens