Listening: the most difficult skill to teach

With listening skills usually requiring a considerably long period of time to acquire, normally involving the student experiencing a variety of emotions ranging from depression and frustration through to exhilaration and pride, teaching listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks that a teacher faces. The following article evaluates contemporary research with the aim of dissecting and discussing the reasons why the teaching of listening skills seems to be so complex and consequently intends to report upon possible suggestions for improving listening competence in the second language (L2) classroom. Through the consideration of the difficulties encountered when undergoing listening, as well as the evaluation of various strategies and exercises suggested to facilitate the acquisition of listening skills, such as Dictogloss, Listening from the middle and Discovery Learning, this research highlights the important place that the teaching of listening strategies should be ever increasingly assuming in the modern foreign language classroom.La adquisición de la comprensión auditiva lleva mucho tiempo y normalmente somete al estudiante a una gran variedad de emociones, desde la depresión y la frustración hasta la alegría y el orgullo, por lo cuál es la enseñanza de la comprensión auditiva una de las tareas que entraña más dificultad para un profesor. El presente artículo tiene como objetivo evaluar estudios recientes sobre el tema con el fin de por una parte examinar y analizar las razones por las que la enseñanza de la comprensión auditiva suele ser tan compleja, a la vez que, por otra, proponer sugerencias para mejorar la comprensión auditiva en una lengua extranjera. Al tener en consideración las dificultades con las que nos encontramos cuando escuchamos una lengua extranjera, así como la evaluación de una variedad de estrategias y de ejercicios sugeridos para facilitar la adquisición de las destrezas de comprensión auditiva, como el Dictogloss, Listening from the Middle and Discovery Learning, este trabajo destaca el papel importante que la enseñanza de las competencias de comprensión auditiva deberá tener cada vez más en las aulas de lenguas extranjeras

Listening: the most difficult skill to teach

With listening skills usually requiring a considerably long period of time to acquire, normally involving the student experiencing a variety of emotions ranging from depression and frustration through to exhilaration and pride, teaching listening skills is one of the most difficult tasks that a teacher faces. The following article evaluates contemporary research with the aim of dissecting and discussing the reasons why the teaching of listening skills seems to be so complex and consequently intends to report upon possible suggestions for improving listening competence in the second language (L2) classroom. Through the consideration of the difficulties encountered when undergoing listening, as well as the evaluation of various strategies and exercises suggested to facilitate the acquisition of listening skills, such as Dictogloss, Listening from the middle and Discovery Learning, this research highlights the important place that the teaching of listening strategies should be ever increasingly assuming in the modern foreign language classroom.La adquisición de la comprensión auditiva lleva mucho tiempo y normalmente somete al estudiante a una gran variedad de emociones, desde la depresión y la frustración hasta la alegría y el orgullo, por lo cuál es la enseñanza de la comprensión auditiva una de las tareas que entraña más dificultad para un profesor. El presente artículo tiene como objetivo evaluar estudios recientes sobre el tema con el fin de por una parte examinar y analizar las razones por las que la enseñanza de la comprensión auditiva suele ser tan compleja, a la vez que, por otra, proponer sugerencias para mejorar la comprensión auditiva en una lengua extranjera. Al tener en consideración las dificultades con las que nos encontramos cuando escuchamos una lengua extranjera, así como la evaluación de una variedad de estrategias y de ejercicios sugeridos para facilitar la adquisición de las destrezas de comprensión auditiva, como el Dictogloss, Listening from the Middle and Discovery Learning, este trabajo destaca el papel importante que la enseñanza de las competencias de comprensión auditiva deberá tener cada vez más en las aulas de lenguas extranjeras

Imprisoned by Sex, Spirit, and Speech: Complicating Diasporic Negritude

This dissertation seeks to complicate racial performance by suggesting that writers of the diaspora are actually using geographical, historical, and cultural touchpoints to create a sense of identity and belonging. Through analysis of African diasporic fictional characters that lie outside of classic black archetypes--I seek to seal the rift between these “outsiders” and the greater black community through their journeys in the texts. While my focus is on three points of contention within the black community--spirituality, sexuality, and speech--I suggest that the conscious movement to black Southern spaces allows RCBs agency to reconcile with their communities

An Erratic Performance: Constructing Racial Identity and James Baldwin

This thesis analyzes James Baldwin\u27s essays as a method for understanding racial identity and authenticity. By using Vetta Sanders-Thompson\u27s racial identification parameters, I suggest that Baldwin\u27s struggle with his identity as a black American is crucial to deposing the idea of a monolithic black experience, which opens up new ways of analyzing African American literature

Source Finding in the Era of the SKA (Precursors): Aegean 2.0

In the era of the SKA precursors, telescopes are producing deeper, larger images of the sky on increasingly small time-scales. The greater size and volume of images place an increased demand on the software that we use to create catalogues, and so our source finding algorithms need to evolve accordingly. In this paper, we discuss some of the logistical and technical challenges that result from the increased size and volume of images that are to be analysed, and demonstrate how the Aegean source finding package has evolved to address these challenges. In particular, we address the issues of source finding on spatially correlated data, and on images in which the background, noise, and point spread function vary across the sky. We also introduce the concept of forced or prioritised fitting

Protein kinase A signalling in ' Schistosoma mansoni ' cercariae and schistosomules

Cyclic AMP (cAMP)-dependent protein kinase/protein kinase A regulates multiple processes in eukaryotes by phosphorylating diverse cellular substrates, including metabolic and signalling enzymes, ion channels and transcription factors. Here we provide insight into protein kinase A signalling in cercariae and 24h in vitro cultured somules of the blood parasite, Schistosoma mansoni, which causes human intestinal schistosomiasis. Functional mapping of activated protein kinase A using anti-phospho protein kinase A antibodies and confocal laser scanning microscopy revealed activated protein kinase A in the central and peripheral nervous system, oral-tip sensory papillae, oesophagus and excretory system of intact cercariae. Cultured 24h somules, which biologically represent the skin-resident stage of the parasite, exhibited similar activation patterns in oesophageal and nerve tissues but also displayed striking activation at the tegument and activation in a region resembling the germinal 'stem' cell cluster. The adenylyl cyclase activator, forskolin, stimulated somule protein kinase A activation and produced a hyperkinesia phenotype. The biogenic amines, serotonin and dopamine known to be present in skin also induced protein kinase A activation in somules, whereas neuropeptide Y or [Leu31,Pro34]-neuropeptide Y attenuated protein kinase A activation. However, neuropeptide Y did not block the forskolin-induced somule hyperkinesia. Bioinformatic investigation of potential protein associations revealed 193 medium confidence and 59 high confidence protein kinase A interacting partners in S. mansoni, many of which possess putative protein kinase A phosphorylation sites. These data provide valuable insight into the intricacies of protein kinase A signalling in S. mansoni and a framework for further physiological investigations into the roles of protein kinase A in schistosomes, particularly in the context of interactions between the parasite and the host

“Old people problems”, uncertainty and legitimacy: Challenges with diagnosing Parkinson\u27s disease in Kenya

Very little is known about the experience of people living with Parkinson\u27s disease (PD) in low- and middle-income countries, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa. The number of specialists in the region is low and awareness is limited among the population and healthcare professionals. Drawing on ten months of ethnographic fieldwork in urban and rural Kenya with 55 people living with PD (PwP), 23 family members and 22 healthcare professionals from public and private clinics, we set out to understand the experience of diagnosis among PwP in Kenya. The diagnostic journeys of our study participants were typically long, convoluted and confusing. Lack of relevant information, combined with comorbidities and expectations about ‘normal’ ageing, often conspired to delay interactions with health services for many. There often followed an extended period of diagnostic uncertainty, misdiagnosis and even ‘undiagnosis’, where a diagnostic decision was reversed. Following diagnosis, patients continued to lack information about their condition and prognosis, making it difficult for friends, family members and others to understand what was happening to them. We suggest that awareness of PD and its symptoms needs to improve among the general population and healthcare professionals. However, diagnosis is only the first step, and needs to be accompanied by better access to information, affordable treatment and support