Teaching learners to communicate effectively in the L2: Integrating body language in the students\u2019 syllabus

In communication a great deal of meaning is exchanged through body language, including gaze, posture, hand gestures and body movements. Body language is largely culture-specific, and rests, for its comprehension, on people\u2019s sharing socio-cultural and linguistic norms. In cross-cultural communication, L2 speakers\u2019 use of body language may convey meaning that is not understood or misinterpreted by the interlocutors, affecting the pragmatics of communication. In spite of its importance for cross-cultural communication, body language is neglected in ESL/EFL teaching. This paper argues that the study of body language should be integrated in the syllabus of ESL/EFL teaching and learning. This is done by: 1) reviewing literature showing the tight connection between language, speech and gestures and the problems that might arise in cross-cultural communication when speakers use and interpret body language according to different conventions; 2) reporting the data from two pilot studies showing that L2 learners transfer L1 gestures to the L2 and that these are not understood by native L2 speakers; 3) reporting an experience teaching body language in an ESL/EFL classroom. The paper suggests that in multicultural ESL/EFL classes teaching body language should be aimed primarily at raising the students\u2019 awareness of the differences existing across cultures

A capability approach to language education in the Gaza Strip: “To plant hope in a land of despair”

This article proposes a shift away from competence models (Byram 1997) toward a more holistic approach in language education. Drawing on original critical participatory action research with English teachers in the Gaza Strip (Palestine), Imperiale argues that the capability approach (Sen 1985; Nussbaum 2000) offers a potential framework for understanding and co-constructing language education in precarious circumstances such as those in Gaza. The participants in this study are followed through their process of nourishing what Nussbaum (2006) considers the three capabilities in education: affiliation, narrative imagination and critical examination. Their work also nurtured the further capability of voice and agency, which, in the specific context of Gaza, intersects with acts of aesthetic, cultural and linguistic resistance

A New Algebra ic Approach to Representation Theorems for (Co)integrated Processes up to the Second Order

The paper establishes a unified representation theorem for (co)integrated processes up to the second order which provides a compact and informative insight into the solution of VAR models with unit roots, and sheds light on the cointegration features of the engendered processes. The theorem is primarily stated by taking a one-lag specification as a reference frame, and it is afterwards extended to cover the case of an arbitrary number of lags via a companion-form based approach. All proofs are obtained by resorting to an innovative and powerful algebraic apparatus tailored to the derivation of the intended results.Unified representation theorem, Cointegration, Orthogonal-complement algebra, Laurent expansion in matrix form

Institutional Trades and Herd Behavior in Financial Markets

The article studies the impact of transaction costs on the trading strategy of informed institutional investors in a sequential trading market where traders can choose to transact a large or a small amount of the stock. The analysis shows that high transaction costs may induce informed investors to herd. Moreover, for low levels of transaction costs, informed investors trade both the large and the small quantity of the asset. Finally, if transaction costs are very low and the market width is large enough, informed traders prefer to separate from small liquidity traders.

Learning, Cascades and Transaction Costs

This paper analyzes the effect of transaction costs on the social learning in an asset market with asymmetric information, sequential trading and competitive price mechanism. Both fixed and proportional transaction costs reduce the informational content of trading orders and lead to informational cascades. If transaction costs are very high, an informational cascade can occur not only when beliefs converge to a specific asset value, but also when in the market there is complete uncertainty about the asset's fundamental value. Finally, if the asset value in the bad state is sufficiently low, proportional transaction costs lead to an informational cascade only when prices are very high.