Designing Instructional Materials for Teaching Listening Comprehension

An approach to the design of listening comprehension materials and classroom activities reflects a view of the nature of listening and the processes it involves. An understanding of the role of bottom up and top down processes in listening is central to any theory of listening comprehension, as well as recognition of the differences between the interactional and transactional dimensions of language use and how these affect listening. In this paper, these views of listening will first be elaborated and then applied to the design of instructional materials and activities for the teaching of listening comprehension

The Secret Life of Methods

This paper addresses two questions: (1) How do Methods of language teaching differ from one another? (2) What factors are responsible for the spread of Nethods? I hope to demonstrate that while fundamental differences between methods often relate to different views of the nature of language, or to different instructional theories, the reasons for the rise and fall of Methods are often independent of either of these factors. To understand the role of language theory, instructional theory and implementation factors in Methods, is to know their Secret Life

Communicative Needs in Foreign Language Learning

The theme of language and the learner's communicative needs is a familiar one in language teaching. In recent years applied linguistics has been revitalized by attempts to describe how language reflects its communicative uses, and by demonstrations of how syllabus design and methodology can respond to the need for communicative uses of language in classrooms and teaching materials. This paper attempts to contribute to our general understanding of how language use reflects underlying communicative needs by considering some central aspects of communication. Five assumptions about the nature of verbal communication will be discussed, namely, that communication is meaning based, conventional, appropriate, interactional and structured. These will be discussed in relation to the communicative needs of second or foreign language learners

Development of Biomimetic Models of Human Cardiac Tissue

The leading cause of death worldwide is cardiovascular disease (CVD). Myocardial infarction (MI) (i.e., heart attack) makes up ~8.5% of CVD and is a common cause of heart failure with a 40% five-year mortality after the first MI. This highlights a substantial patient population and an urgent need to develop new therapeutic strategies (e.g., regenerative cell therapies). Moreover, this also indicates that current models may not sufficiently recapitulate human cardiac tissue. To date, drug development strategies have largely depended on high throughput 2D cell models and pre-clinical testing in animal models of MI leading to minimal improvements in the heart failure treatment paradigm over the past 20 years. Relevant human cardiac models would provide insight into human cardiac tissue physiology and maturation while also providing an advanced in vitro screening tool to explore heart failure pathogenesis. Cardiac tissue engineering has allowed for advances in the development of cardiac constructs by combining developments in biomaterials, 3D microtissue culture, and human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSC) technology. Notably, approaches that mimic the natural processes in the body (i.e., biomimetic) have led to further insight into cardiac physiology. Here, I have pursued biomimetic strategies to create a biomimetic model of human cardiac tissue using hiPSC-derived cardiomyocytes (hiPSC-CMs). Throughout this development, I explored the role of the matrix microenvironment on cell behavior using functionalized alginate, the influence of pacemaker-like exogenous electrical stimulation on the maturation of hiPSC-CM spheroids with endogenous electrically conductive nanomaterials, and the development of vascularized, functional cardiac organoids by mimicking the coronary vasculogenesis stage of cardiac development. The research established here provided a biomimetic groundwork for future development into in vitro human cardiac tissue models for applications in basic research, drug discovery, and cell therapy

30 Years of TEFL/TESL: A Personal Reflection

This paper tries to answer eight questions, which are as follows. (1) What are the goals of teach English?; (2) What is the best way to teach a language?; (3) What is the role of grammar in language teaching?; (4) What processes are involved in second language learning?; (5) What is the role of the learner?; (6) How can we teach the four skills?; (7) How can we access students' learner?; (8) How can we prepare language teachers

Transmissive and transformative approaches to language teacher education

In this paper I compare two contrasting educational philosophies that have had a significant impact on the way we approach and understand our practice as teacher educators. These have been labeled in several ways such as top-down versus bottom-up or product versus process based. I will characterize them a transmission-based approach and an ecological approach. My aim here is to describe and compare these two approaches and suggest how they offer complementary perspectives on the nature and practices of second language teacher education

Transmissive and Transformative Approaches to Language Teacher Education

In this paper I compare two contrasting educational philosophies that have had a significant impact on the way we approach and understand our practice as teacher educators. These have been labeled in several ways such as top-down versus bottom-up or product versus process based. I will characterize them a transmission-based approach and an ecological approach. My aim here is to describe and compare these two approaches and suggest how they offer complementary perspectives on the nature and practices of second language teacher education

Swanee Babe

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/6599/thumbnail.jp

On the edge of a new frontier: Is gerontological social work in the UK ready to meet twenty-first-century challenges?

This article is available open access through the publisher’s website. Copyright @ 2013 The Authors.This article explores the readiness of gerontological social work in the UK for meeting the challenges of an ageing society by investigating the focus on work with older people in social work education and the scope of gerontological social work research. The discussion draws on findings from two exploratory studies: a survey of qualifying master's programmes in England and a survey of the content relating to older people over a six-year period in four leading UK social work journals. The evidence from master's programmes suggests widespread neglect of ageing in teaching content and practice learning. Social work journals present a more nuanced picture. Older people emerge within coverage of generic policy issues for adults, such as personalisation and safeguarding, and there is good evidence of the complexity of need in late life. However, there is little attention to effective social work interventions, with an increasingly diverse older population, or to the quality of gerontological social work education. The case is made for infusing content on older people throughout the social work curriculum, for extending practice learning opportunities in social work with older people and for increasing the volume and reporting of gerontological social work research.Brunel Institute for Ageing Studie