“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women are merely players” – Are you ready to play a role?

Among the different methodologies for TEFL, role-plays / simulations have been used as a common way for fostering students’ learning and practicing the use of English, especially students’ oral skills. In Macau, such skills are especially important for college students who are preparing to join the hospitality and tourism industry. These students will need to face different people from varied backgrounds, and when working in the front line, they will need to solve problems for their clients / customers. English, as the lingua franca, will naturally be used during the process. Consequently, students should acquire adequate communicative competence besides bettering their mastery of the English grammar. The objectives of this qualitative study were to find out students’ opinions on the effectiveness of role-plays for practicing oral skills and what the barriers were. Five Year 1 students of the Institute for Tourism Studies in Macau were interviewed. The responses given by these students showed their appreciation of role-play as a language learning activity and at the same time, their reluctance to be actively involved in the activity as a result of cultural and psychological barriers. The findings suggest that ESP instructors could put more thought into creating suitable environments that allow students to take up different roles with ease

Environmental modelling of the Chief Information Officer

Since the introduction of the term in the 1980’s, the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) has been widely researched. Various perceptions and dimensions of the role have been explored and debated. However, the explosion in data proliferation (and the inevitable resulting information fuelled change) further complicates organisational expectations of the CIOs role. If organisations are to competitively exploit the digital trend, then those charged with recruiting and developing CIOs now need to be more effective in determining (and shaping) CIO traits and attributes, within the context of their own organisational circumstances and in line with stakeholder expectations. CIOs also need to determine their own suitability and progression within their chosen organisation if they are to remain motivated and effective. Before modelling the role of the future CIO, it is necessary to synthesise our current knowledge (and the lessons learnt) about the CIO. This paper, therefore, aims to identify and summate the spectrum of key researched ‘themes’ pertaining to the role of the CIO. Summating previous research, themes are modelled around four key CIO ‘dimensions’, namely (1) Impacting factors, (2) Controlling factors (3) Responses and (4) CIO ‘attributes’. Having modelled the CIOs current environment, and recognising the evolving IT enabled information landscape, the authors call for further research to inform the recruitment and development of the future CIO in terms of personal attributes and the measurable impact such attributes will have on their respective organisation

Synthesis and properties of nickel-cobalt-boron nanoparticles

morphous cobalt nickel boride nanoparticles were synthesised by chemical reduction synthesis in aqueous solution. Careful control of synthesis conditions and post reaction oxidation enabled the nanoparticles to be converted into a core-shell structure comprising of an amorphous Co–Ni–B core and an outer metal oxide sheet. These particles had interesting magnetic properties including saturation magnetisations and coercivities of the order of 80 emu/g and 170 Oe respectively, making them suitable for a potential use as an exchange-pinned magnetic material