3,818 research outputs found
Designing and Piloting a Tool for the Measurement of the Use of Pronunciation Learning Strategies
What appears to be indispensable to drive the field forward and ensure that research findings will be comparable across studies and provide a sound basis for feasible pedagogic proposals is to draw up a classification of PLS and design on that basis a valid and reliable data collection tool which could be employed to measure the use of these strategies in different groups of learners, correlate it with individual and contextual variables, and appraise the effects of training programs. In accordance with this rationale, the present paper represents an attempt to propose a tentative categorization of pronunciation learning strategies, adopting as a point of reference the existing taxonomies of strategic devices (i.e. O'Malley and Chamot 1990; Oxford 1990) and the instructional options teachers have at their disposal when dealing with elements of this language subsystem (e.g. Kelly 2000; Goodwin 2001). It also introduces a research instrument designed on the basis of the classification that shares a number of characteristics with Oxford's (1990) Strategy Inventory for Language Learning but, in contrast to it, includes both Likert-scale and open-ended items. The findings of a pilot study which involved 80 English Department students demonstrate that although the tool requires considerable refinement, it provides a useful point of departure for future research into PLS
How is ICT use linked to household transport expenditure? A cross-national macro analysis of the influence of home broadband access
Understanding of the interactions between Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and physical mobility is a major area of research with practical applications in a number of fields. Very little, however, is known regarding how these relationships vary on a cross-national basis, including across countries at different stages in development. To address this gap, this paper presents an analysis of household transport expenditure as a function of the available variables, with a particular focus on the ICT. This analysis is based on a cross-sectional dataset from 2010 comprising information on 33 countries including average household transport expenditure, ICT represented by the percentage of households with Internet access at home, and a number of contextual macroeconomic and infrastructural variables. Using a log-log framework we find that, in our sample of countries, household transport expenditure is negatively associated with Internet penetration with an elasticity of − 0.394. We verify this to be robust to endogeneity using presence of restrictions on foreign ownership in the Internet market as an instrumental variable. We also control for potential differences in data quality across countries using the Corruption Perceptions Index. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to quantify this relationship at a cross-national level while also controlling for endogeneity and data quality issues. Among the control variables, we observe the estimated effects to be intuitive, and consistent with existing research and microeconomic understandings of the behaviour of individuals and households
On the Development of Agricultural Mechanization to Ensure a Long- Term World Food Supply
Rosana G. Moreira, Editor-in-Chief; Texas A&M UniversityThis is an Invited Paper from International Commission of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR, Commission Internationale du Genie Rural) E-Journal Volume 4 (2002): J. Pawlak, G. Pellizzi and M. Fiala. On the Development of Agricultural Mechanization to Ensure a Long- Term World Food Supply. Club of Bologna. Vol. IV. June 200
The Hudson Bay Lithospheric Experiment (HuBLE) : Insights into Precambrian Plate Tectonics and the Development of Mantle Keels
The UK component of HuBLE was supported by Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) grant NE/F007337/1, with financial and logistical support from the Geological Survey of Canada, Canada–Nunavut Geoscience Office, SEIS-UK (the seismic node of NERC), and First Nations communities of Nunavut. J. Beauchesne and J. Kendall provided invaluable assistance in the field. Discussions with M. St-Onge, T. Skulski, D. Corrigan and M. Sanborne-Barrie were helpful for interpretation of the data. D. Eaton and F. A. Darbyshire acknowledge the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council. Four stations on the Belcher Islands and northern Quebec were installed by the University of Western Ontario and funded through a grant to D. Eaton (UWO Academic Development Fund). I. Bastow is funded by the Leverhulme Trust. This is Natural Resources Canada Contribution 20130084 to its Geomapping for Energy and Minerals Program. This work has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Unions Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013)/ERC Grant agreement no. 240473 ‘CoMITAC’.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
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