Pronunciation acquisition patterns of learners with different starting levels

This study described the results of an investigation into the effect of an intensive 12-week pronunciation course in British English which 30 Dutch female 1st-year university students of English took. They read out the same text before and after the course. Each student’s ‘before’ and ‘after’ tests were recorded. Before analysis of their results, students were split up into three groups on the basis of their general starting level: high, intermediate and low. The analysis involved a before- and after comparison of the pronunciation of eleven different phonemes: /æ, ɒ, ɔː, ʌ, ʊ, d, θ/, medial /t/, coda /r/, and syllable-final /d, v/. The analysis was done by means of both auditory and acoustic analysis. Four degrees of success (or lack thereof) were defined. The results show that the consonants required the least effort, as they were already relatively acceptable before the course started. This was true of students in general, regardless of initial starting level. The three levels of students are most distinguishable on the basis of the development of the consonants during the course. The weaker students’ consonants in particular benefitted from the course. The research revealed that initial level can be used to predict the trajectory of improvement. A general conclusion is that teachers may recognise types of students before the course starts and subject them to different types of teaching

Industrial restructuring and early industry pathways in the Asian 1st generation NICs: The Singapore garment industry

This article aims to contribute to an understanding of the industrial dynamics/evolution of mature export production complexes in the first generation Asian NICs, employing an evolutionary economic perspective. Over the past decade and longer the first generation Asian NICs, Singapore included, have been confronted with imperatives necessitating deep restructuring. We observe that industrial decline, associated with failed restructuring caused by lock-in, does not fit these countries, its industrial regions and early industries. Yet research has hardly begun to look at adjustment and address deeper evolution from tenets in the framework of evolutionary economics although such an approach is made not less but rather more relevant by continued resilience. We analyse the pathway(s) of one early industry, i.c. the apparel industry, in Singapore, through the 1980s and 1990s. The withering away in the Singapore context of an industry such as apparel is not inevitable. From a juxtaposition of the line of thinking in evolutionary economics emphasizing hindrance and decline due to path dependency and lock-ins with an alternative line emphasizing the possibility to adjust through renewal and the limited operation of lock-ins, we argue why the latter rather than the former has been the case.evolutionary economics, industrial restruction, Asia, NICs

Angular and specral sensitivity of blowfly photoreceptors

Voor een goed begrip van het functioneren van een visueel systeem, zoals dat van de vlieg, is het noodzakelijk om de eigenschappen van de visuele zintuigcellen te kennen. Het in dit proefschrift beschreven onderzoek concentreert zich op de ruimtelijke gevoeligheid en de kleurgevoeligheid van de visuele zintuigcellen van de blauwe vleesvlieg Calliphora erythrocephala (M). ... Zie: Samenvattin

Van Schools tot Scriptie : een colloquium over universitair taalvaardigheidsonderwijs

Op 8 en 9 juni 2012 organiseerde de Sectie Taalvaardigheid van de Opleiding Engelse Taal en Cultuur van de Universiteit Leiden een colloquium over de rol van het universitair taalvaardigheidsonderwijs in Nederland en Vlaanderen. Dit colloquium bracht docenten in het universitair talenonderwijs samen, als wel belanghebbenden en belangstellenden, om van gedachten te wisselen over de rol van dit vakgebied binnen de universiteit. Het colloquium werd gesteund door het Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL). Meer dan tien vreemde talen waren vertegenwoordigd. Ongeveer een derde van de presentatoren hee$ zijn of haar lezing omgezet in een artikel, en deze zijn in deze colloquiumbundel te vinden

De week van ... Robbert Smakman

Robbert Smakman (24) is bijna afgestudeerd Bestuurskundige en doet voor zijn afstudeerscriptie van de master Bedrijfskunde aan de VU een onderzoek naar het gebruik van ZZP’ers/associates bij Deloitte. Verder is hij als onderwijsmedewerker verbonden aan het Instituut Bestuurskunde in Leiden. Robbert vertelt over de eerste week van zijn afstudeerdstage bij Deloitte

Cultural bias and Sociolinguistics

Peoples and individuals around the globe continuously develop their own communicative habits. With each generation, adjustments to changing circumstances are made - economic circumstances, natural circumstances, and, for instance, mobility circumstances. The outcome of such transitions is cultural variation, which is visible in hierarchical social systems, belief systems, legal systems, traditions, attire, and all kinds of rituals. Communicative systems are part of culture, and they deserve a role in research focussing on language and communication. However, applying culture as a variable is a challenge, not only because of the cultural variation between peoples and individuals but also because the effects of culture on actual language utterances are hard to measure. Another issue is the dominance of Anglowestern cultural patterns in many analyses. This paper explains these issues and critically reviews the various criteria that well-known cultural models - like the one by Hofstede (1980), Lewis (1969), and Hall (1959, 1976) - use to categorise cultures. Examples of such criteria are: region, relationship with uncertainty, femininity/masculinity, and power relations. The paper concludes by giving a number of practical solutions to the challenge of treating culture as a variable in sociolinguistic research. These solutions are related to, amongst others, the reviewing process for journals, widespread norms of ‘good academic language’, author/editor selection, cross-cultural academic cooperation, and sharing of funds

Local industry in global networks : changing competitiveness, corporate strategies and pathways of development in Singapore and Malaysia's garment industry

The garment industry in Singapore and Malaysia has been incorporated into global production networks and commodity chains - driven by large US and European garment companies - since the 1960s and 1970s respectively. The industry was an intricate part of the export led industrialisation strategies adopted by both countries. However, since incorporation, changing competitiveness due to both international, regional end local pressures, has meant local garment firms have had to implement a range of adjustment strategies in order to survive and ideally improve their competitive positioning. An in-depth empirical study of these strategies and their outcomes forms the core of this study. Considering corporate strategies and identifying the most common development trajectories as well as the factors behind them, allows for an analysis of the longer-term opportunities that operating in global networks and chains offers. More importantly it gives an insight into whether and how these opportunities are indeed leveraged for local firm and industry development. The study illustrates the complexity of these issues and the importance of not just global, but particularly local dynamics for positive local firm and industry development. As such it contributes to one of the central issues in the current globalisation debate: How firms and industries in less developed countries may gain from globalisation