Citation uses and perceptions in the literature review of PhD theses by EFL Arab postgraduates

Citation in academic writing is significant but challenging for novice writers. In spite of the increasing studies on the use of citations, limited knowledge is available about the use of citations by EFL Arab postgraduates. Hence, this study aimed at determining the use of citations and exploring the perceptions of EFL Arab postgraduates and PhD supervisors on the use of citations. This qualitative study examined 20 literature reviews from PhD theses in Information Technology and Applied Linguistics produced by EFL Arab postgraduates. The use of citations was analysed using Halliday‘s Systemic Functional Linguistics. The linguistic features obtained from the lexico-grammatical analysis were employed in the evaluation of the use of citations. Nine EFL Arab postgraduates and five PhD supervisors from Applied Linguistics and Information Technology were interviewed to highlight the challenges encountered in using citations. The findings revealed that full declarative clauses were used in the citations. Material, relational, verbal, mental, existential, and behavioural processes were used to realize the Transitivity System. Clause complexes in citations were joined hypotactically and paratactically to realize Projection, Expansion, and a combination of Projection and Expansion as logicosemantic relations. Textual, Interpersonal, Topical, Predicated, and Marked themes were employed in the clauses of the citations with varied frequencies. The evaluation revealed both appropriate and inappropriate use of clauses in the citations. The interviews with EFL Arab postgraduates revealed the challenges encountered in using citations such as adopting a stance, having insufficient knowledge in using citations, and paraphrasing. The interviews with PhD supervisors also showed that difficulties faced by EFL Arab postgraduates are due to lack of in-depth reading, inability to use citations, poor L2 academic writing skills, and improper positioning of writers‘ stance. The findings of this study, firstly, extended the existing knowledge of linguistic description on the use of citations and, secondly, explored opportunities to develop EAP/ESP courses

Exploring process ‘verbs’ in EFL postgraduates’ citations: A Systemic Functional Linguistics approach

Due to their significance in establishing a research background, citations have been under focus by several researchers. However, limited studies have applied the Functional Theory in analysing reporting verbs in citations. Hence, this study identifies citations in the literature review chapters of 20 PhD theses in Information Technology and Applied Linguistics by EFL postgraduates within the ESL context. These PhD theses were selected purposefully. This study explores qualitatively the processes based on the ideational metafunction of the Systemic Functional Linguistics. The findings show that the material processes were used dominantly, followed by relational, verbal, and mental processes, whereas the behavioural  processes were less used. The use of processes ‘verbs’ is influenced by field and tenor as register variables. Thus, the findings imply that EFL postgraduates are unaware of using processes; therefore, they should receive discipline-specific instructions. Pedagogical textbooks for academic writing could be also developed based on the outputs of the present study

Reporting and quoting: functional analyses of logico-semantic relations of clause complex citations

Citations are significant academically for establishing research backgrounds and justifying a research problem. In spite of the increasing studies on citations, limited studies have employed the Systemic Functional Linguistics in analysing citations. Therefore, this study explores the logico-semantic relations in citations with clause complexes, employing the ideational metafunction of the Functional Theory. The study adopted a purposeful sampling in selecting the literature review chapters of 20 PhD theses by EFL postgraduates in a public Malaysian university in two disciplines: Information Technology and Applied Linguistics. The findings revealed that citations were structured to realise two logico-semantic relations, mainly Expansion and Projection with several subcategories for each. A combination of Projection and Expansion was also used, which resulted in reclassifying the logico-semantic relations. The findings could present comprehensive descriptions of citations that could be pedagogically utilised for academic purposes

The Treatment of Olive Oil Mill Waste Water (OMW) by Electrocoagulation

The effective performance of electrocoagulation (EC) technique in the treatment of olive mill wastewater (OMW) has been investigated using aluminum electrodes. The electrocoagulation progress was followed by the measurement of COD, turbidity, color, suspended solids, pH, height of liquor, TDS, conductivity, electrode and energy consumption, temperature and the quantity of electricity used. The effects of operating parameters such as current density, initial pH, electrolysis time, and distance between electrodes (D), on COD removal efficiency have been investigated. It has been shown that the removal efficiency of COD increased with the increasing applied current density and coagulation time.The obtained results of treatment of OMW, showed that the effectiveness of the reduction of COD and color by electrocoagulation increased with time and D at a constant current density (i=23.55 mA/cm2), the effectiveness of treatment was also increased with decreasing D at a constant voltage (U=15 Volt).The BOD5 treated/BOD5 raw ratio of the electrocoagulated OMW increased to 2. The electrodes consumption was 0.11 kgAl/kg CODremoved and the specific energy consumed was 3.93 kWh/kg CODremoved. the pH of effluent increased during electrolysis treatment. Keywords: Olive mill wastewater; OMW, Electrocoagulation; Aluminum electrode

Rola państwa w przeciwdziałaniu bezrobociu według encykliki Laborem exercens Jana Pawła II

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. Publikacja dofinansowana przez Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskieg

The impact of synchronous collaborative writing and Google Docs collaborative features on enhancing students’ individual writing performance

Collaborative writing has gained researchers’ attention due to its efficiency in enhancing students’ writing abilities compared to traditional writing. More recently, more emphasis has been on computer-based versions of collaborative writing because of the introduction of Web 2.0 and other cloud-based writing tools, such as Google Docs and Wikis, especially at the tertiary level. However, there is still a dearth of research regarding synchronous collaborative writing in mainstream K-12 classes. Therefore, this quasi-experimental quantitative study aims at investigating the impact of synchronous collaborative writing on developing fourth-grade EFL students’ writing. The data were collected from the pre-tests and the post-tests of 49 students in a technology-supportive K-12 school in Riyadh-Saudi Arabia and were analyzed using independent samples t-test via SPSS version 23. The analysis of individual writing performance in the pre- and post- tests revealed that the total mean scores of the Content, Language use, and Organisation measurements have increased in both the experimental group, after experiencing collaborative writing using Google Docs, and the control group, who used traditional pen-and-paper writing. In addition, significant differences existed in the three writing tasks (Narrative, Argumentative, and Informative) in the post-test scores of the experimental group as well as in the post-test scores between the groups, with the experimental group scoring higher than the traditional writing group. However, no significant difference was revealed between the pre- and post- test scores of the control group. In addition, it was found that the task type variable plays a vital role in collaborative writing. These findings are significant for both educators and students in implementing computer-based collaborative writing in mainstream classes and for researchers who are interested in web-based education and E-learning

Exploring the Intercultural Learning of TESOL Global Educators

The emergence of English as a global language has led to a huge demand for TESOL language educators around the world (Davies, 2009). This has resulted in greater intercultural encounters with the cultural Other; hence, the need to understand the experiences of these teachers to prepare teachers for their work and support them to achieve favourable outcomes of intercultural learning emerges. This is especially important in light of the failure of teacher education programs to prepare these teachers for the realities of their work and in light of inadequacy of intercultural learning theories to theorize intercultural learning based on these teachers’ experiences. This thesis sought to explore TESOL teachers’ experiences using a grounded approach that is based on the teachers’ experiences as central to their intercultural learning. Drawing upon the intercultural experiences of seven global TESOL teachers who are working in Saudi Arabia, this thesis sought to understand the types of intercultural experiences that they went through, the factors that affected these experiences and the intercultural learning that these experiences generated. Interpretative qualitative study methodology was employed in my study to examine the TESOL global teachers’ lived intercultural experiences in Saudi Arabia. Qualitative data were collected through conducting in-depth narrative interviews and examining personal correspondence (where available), with seven experienced global TESOL teachers. The findings suggested that the global TESOL educators’ intercultural experiences were enormously complex with many factors and four facets affecting these experiences. The global TESOL educators’ experiences of interculturality were mainly found to be Othering experiences. The factors related to the global educators’ social positions and the four facets were wider discourses, dispositional positions, contextual realities and situated value systems in Saudi Arabia. The findings highlighted the importance of “translocational positionalities” in understanding the TESOL global teachers’ intercultural experiences and learning. Contrary to the literature, the thesis suggests that intercultural learning was not about intercultural competencies and developmental stages, but about how the participants negotiated their positionalities and developed awareness of their positionalities in relation to the Other. The thesis also uncovered two insights that have potential to contribute to preparing and supporting global TESOL educators in global contact zones. These insights related to the educators’ need to talk about their intercultural experiences and the need to interrogate these educators’ understanding of culture. The findings and the insights offer some theoretical and practical implications for understanding intercultural learning experiences in a new light. The theoretical implications suggest a new experiential model for intercultural learning in global contact zones. The practical implications highlight suggestions for a pedagogy of dialogue for teacher education programmes to promote favourable intercultural learning outcomes

Algebraic computing in general relativity and supergravity : space-time embeddings and higher dimensional theories

Imperial Users onl

A finite difference Poisson solver for irregular geometries

The motivation for this work comes from the development of a 3D quasi-geostrophic Contour Advective Semi-Lagrangian model for vortex interaction in the ocean. The existing code is limited to circular cylindrical geometry and uses polar coordinates. We wish to extend the method to more general cross-sections. The crucial aspect is the solution of the Poisson equation that allows the determination of the stream function from the potential vorticity at each time-step, as this is the part of the algorithm that must be performed on a grid: the advection of potential vorticity contours is fully Lagrangian and hence is easily modified for irregular domains. We develop a 2D algorithm for inverting the Poisson equation for the stream function on an arbitrarily shaped domain, in the special case when the boundary is a streamline, as is the case for our problem. However, the method is also valid for non-zero Dirichlet boundary conditions. The approach uses finite differences with the domain embedded in a rectangular Cartesian grid. We show that the algorithm is second-order accurate and provide several numerical examples