Place-based language learning using mobile technology: An analysis of an original mall game and its redesign for an ESL course

In the field of Second Language Studies (SLS), there has been a growing interest in research in the areas of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) and Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) since the early 2000s. In addition to these researcher interests, the idea of using video games as language learning tools, particularly in online contexts, has been gaining popularity as well. In Holden and Sykes (2011), the researchers describe their unique work in a high school Spanish classroom which used an augmented reality MALL game that combined elements of mobile technology and video game design to create a new experience for the second language users. By utilizing a combination of theories of place-based learning and MALL, the research team at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa was able to design their own augmented reality game to be implemented in the Hawai‘i English Language Program (HELP). After analyzing both in-game data and data gathered in a series of post game interviews with both students and administrators, the game, Guardians of the Mo’o (Mo’o 1.0), was deemed to be successful in achieving its initial design goals and was given support to possibly become part of the regular HELP curriculum, pending modifications. This paper outlines the theoretical background for creating such a game and provides a detailed analysis of how Mo’o 1.0 was created and ultimately played by the target group of language learners. Then, the focus will be shifted to explaining how the second version of the game (Mo’o 1S) was redesigned and modified to fit into a new experimental course in the HELP summer curriculum

Can Food-for-Work Programmes Reduce Vulnerability?

Famine, Food aid, Poverty, Public employment programmes, Transfers

Proceedings 2016: Selected papers from the twentieth college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature

"Celebrating Voices - past • present • future": Selected papers from the annual college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature at the College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (2016).Selected papers from the annual college-wide conference for students in languages, linguistics & literature at the College of Languages, Linguistics & Literature, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa.Support for the conference was provided by the UH College of Language, Linguistics & Literature and the National Foreign Language Resource Cente

Adopting and Implementing a Software Development Methodology: An Organizational Perspective

Although much has been written about better aligning Information Systems (IS) with the business, too often organizations perceive software development as though it exists in its own little cocoon. Selection of a formal software development methodology (FSDM) is usually left to the IS area which focuses on the detail component levels and features of an FSDM. The authors instead approach an FSDM evaluation from an organizational perspective. An organizational systems level (OSL) model should first be used to examine the potential impacts of a new FSDM on human resource policies and practices, organizational culture, structure and design, and work design and technology. Critical success factors (CSF) for an organizational FSDM are also discussed

Identifying reducible k-tuples of vectors with subspace-proximity sensitive hashing/filtering

We introduce and analyse a family of hash and predicate functions that are more likely to produce collisions for small reducible configurations of vectors. These may offer practical improvements to lattice sieving for short vectors. In particular, in one asymptotic regime the family exhibits significantly different convergent behaviour than existing hash functions and predicates.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figure

Spectroscopic Confirmation of a Radio-Selected Galaxy Overdensity at z=1.11

We report the discovery of a galaxy overdensity at z=1.11 associated with the z=1.110 high-redshift radio galaxy MG0442+0202. The group, CL0442+0202, was found in a near-infrared survey of z>1 radio galaxies undertaken to identify spatially-coincident regions with a high density of objects red in I-K' color, typical of z>1 elliptical galaxies. Spectroscopic observations from the Keck telescope reveal five galaxies within 35" of MG0442+0202 at 1.10<z<1.11. These member galaxies have broad-band colors and optical spectra consistent with passively-evolving elliptical galaxies formed at high redshift. A 45ks Chandra X-Ray Observatory observation detects the radio galaxy and four point sources within 15" of the radio galaxy, corresponding to a surface density two orders of magnitude higher than average for X-ray sources at these flux levels, S(0.5-2keV) > 5e-16 erg/cm2/s. One of these point sources is identified with a radio-quiet, typeII quasar at z=1.863, akin to sources recently reported in deep Chandra surveys. The limit on an extended hot intracluster medium in the Chandra data is S(1-6keV) < 1.9e-15 erg/cm2/s (3-sigma, 30" radius aperture). Though the X-ray observations do not confirm the existence of a massive, bound cluster at z>1, the success of the optical/near-infrared targeting of early-type systems near the radio galaxy validates searches using radio galaxies as beacons for high-redshift large-scale structure. We interpret CL0442+0202 to be a massive cluster in the process of formation.Comment: 23 pages, 7 figure

Gender and Ear Influences on the Speech-Evoked Middle Latency Response (MLR)

Auditory evoked potentials (AEP) are used to evaluate auditory system function from the level of the auditory nerve to the auditory cortex and association areas. For auditory evoked potentials to reach their full power as an assay of hearing and brain function, it is important to understand stimulus- and subject-related variables. The middle latency response (MLR) is one type of auditory evoked potential that reflects the activity of the auditory nervous system at levels including the auditory thalamus and primary auditory cortex. Whereas gender and laterality-related differences have been found at the level of the inner ear and brainstem, limited studies have investigated gender differences at the level of the auditory thalamus and primary auditory cortex. Additionally, the use of complex stimuli, such as a consonant-vowel token, and presentation of stimuli in noise has been investigated for other evoked potentials, but few studies have used this type of stimulus to elicit the MLR. Therefore, the current study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of gender and laterality (ear) differences (subject-related parameters), and stimulus complexity and masking (stimulus-related parameters), on the MLR. Gender differences were found in the current study, revealing shorter MLR component latencies and larger amplitudes in females compared to males. No ear-related differences were evident, however. The speech token /da/ was effective in evoking an MLR that displayed latency and amplitude characteristics like those found in studies that used click or tone-burst stimuli. Contralateral masking noise resulted in reduction of the MLR amplitude, which is the classical definition of suppression with respect to this specific AEP. This study clearly establishes gender as a significant subject-related parameter, and the use of complex stimulus paradigms that can be applied to clinical applications of MLR

Modelling Motivic Processes in Music: A Mathematical Approach

This thesis proposes a new model for motivic analysis which, being based on the metaphor of a web or network and expanded using the mathematical field of graph theory, balances the polar concerns prevalent in analytical writing to date: those of static, out-of-time category membership and dynamic, in-time process. The concepts that constitute the model are presented in the third chapter, both as responses to a series of analytical observations (using the worked example of Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in F minor, Op. 2, No. 1), and as rigorously defined mathematical formalisms. The other chapters explore in further detail the disciplines and methodologies on which this model impinges, and serve both to motivate, and to reflect upon, its development. Chapter 1 asks what it means to make mathematical statements about music, and seeks to disentangle mathematics (as a tool or language) from science (as a method), arguing that music theory’s aims can be met by the former without presupposing its commonly assumed inextricability from the latter. Chapter 2 provides a thematic overview of the field of motivic theory and analysis, proposing four archetypal models that combine to underwrite much thought on the subject before outlining the problems inherent in a static account and the creative strategies that can be used to construct a dynamic account. Finally, Chapter 4 applies these strategies, together with Chapter 3’s model and the piece’s extensive existing scholarly literature, to the analysis of the first and last movements of Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. The central theme throughout – as it relates to mathematical modelling, music theory, and music analysis – is that of potential, invitation, openness, and dialogic engagement