Context. Daily active listening is important for the deaf and hard of hearing people (DHH) of their hearing rehabilitation, but the related hearing activities are usually not enough for them due to kinds of reasons. Although some traditional desktop computer-assisted tools were created for encouraging active listening, the usage rate is not high. Nowadays, mobile smart devices become more and more widely used and easily accessible all around the world. Game applications on these devices are good tools for training related activities. However, in the market, there are limited games designed for the DHH, especially aiming for engaging them in active listening. Therefore, such a game on mobile platform is the inspiration for increasing their everyday active listening. Objective. In this study, an audio-based mobile game application called the Music Puzzle was to create on Android operating system, for encouraging the DHH in their active listening. With aim of making the game have good usability and engaging for real use, we were to evaluate the game and conduct experiments on its usage, to see if it could be more used than another traditional hearing game on desktop platform and bring greater amount active listening for the DHH. Methods. In this study, overall, methods of literature review, game development, preliminary and evaluation experiments, as well as tracking study were used. In the development phase, interaction design theories and techniques was applied for assisting the design work. Android and Pure Data were employed for the software implementation work. In the evaluation phase, System Usability Scale (SUS) and Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) questionnaire were used for respectively testing the game usability and engagement. Then a four-week tracking study was conducted to acquire the usage data of the mobile game among the target group. Afterwards, the data was collected and compared with the usage data of the desktop game using statistical method of paired sample t-test. Results. From the preliminary experiments results, most of the participants reported their enjoyment with playing Music Puzzle and willingness to use it. Subsequent experiment gave good results on the game usability and engagement. The final tracking study shows that most participants activated and played Music Puzzle during the given time period. Compared with the desktop game, the DHH spent significantly greater amount of time on playing the mobile game. Conclusion. The study indicates that the Music Puzzle has good usability and it is engaging. Compared with the desktop game, The Music Puzzle mobile game is a more effective tool for encouraging and increasing the amount of active listening time among the DHH people in their everyday life.

Denna studie undersöker hur det privata vardagslyssnade av musik ser ut idag hos studenter. Studien har särskild fokus på hur lyssnandet påverkas av studenternas tillgång till musik via tjänsten Spotify. Uppsatsen presenterar, diskuterar och analyserar fem semi-strukturerade intervjuer utifrån tidigare forskning samt psykologen James Gibsons teori om affordance. Undersökningen är strukturerad efter ett antal teman som exempelvis: musik som tröst, musik för att kontrollera en social situation och musik och identitet. Materialet från intervjuerna jämförs och analyseras utifrån teorin om affordance. Resultatet visar att vardagslyssnandet idag ser annorlunda ut på grund av den mängd av musik som idag finns tillgängligt för studenterna, till skillnad från innan streamingstjänsterna slog igenom.

Movies are an occurring feature in EFL classrooms in Sweden, as well as exercises seeking to practice listening comprehension, although, there are few studies which combine the two together. The aim for this literature review was to analyse the use of film for listening comprehension development in EFL classrooms. The results show that movies can help students reach higher levels of listening because students felt more motivated and they became more active. The results also show further that teachers can help students reach higher levels of listening comprehension by using various features such as pauses, activities before, during and after the movie etc. The results also show that listening comprehension is a somewhat “take n for granted skill” which needs to be researched more about, specifically the importance of listening comprehension in the context of the other skills.

L’écriture et la lecture sont les deux espaces, visuel le premier et auditif le deuxième, qui représentent les coordonnées sur lesquelles Calvino construit son univers de signes : l’œil et l’oreille. Ce sont les deux fonctions, sensorielles et mentales, qui permettent la transmission d’un savoir, d’un message, même en l’absence de celui qui « parle ». C’est là la raison, pouvons-nous supposer, de l’importance que l’écrivain a accordée à la fonction de l’écoute, outre, évidemment, celle qu’il conférait à la vue. Dans notre analyse de la poétique de l’écoute dans l’œuvre d’Italo Calvino, nous avons essayé de montrer en quoi consiste la particularité de son oreille. Comme pour la vue, Calvino applique pour l’ouïe une méthode personnelle de connaissance : car c’est toujours le sujet, le « moi » avec tous ses organes de perception qui nous permet de nous rapprocher du monde extérieur et de sonder notre esprit. Calvino a dès lors construit un univers de sons très particulier étant donné que cet univers sonore vient de son monde à lui, de sa propre expérience et surtout de sa façon d’entrer en relation avec le monde : or cela n’est jamais définitif, et même toujours problématique. C’est là la manière propre à celui qui refuse les dogmes et les écoles, qui sait bien qu’une seule réponse ou une seule vérité est impossible, mais qui ne peut s’empêcher de continuer à sonder l’univers réel ou fictionnel [celui de la vie comme celui de la page], même si au terme de sa recherche, le résultat est toujours le cercle vide, l’espace blanc de la page. Cela explique aussi les différentes modalités que la fonction de l’écoute a eues dans le parcours personnel et littéraire de Calvino. / Reading and writing are the two spaces, the former visual and the latter auditory, representing the co-ordinates on which Italo Calvino constructed his universe of signs: the eye and the ear. They are the two sensory and mental functions permitting the transmission of knowledge, of a message, even in absence of the one “speaking”. We may assume that this is the reason why the writer has given such importance to the pretence of listening, obviously in addition to that attributed to sight. In our analysis of the poetics of listening in the work of Italo Calvino, we have attempted to show what made up the specificity of his ear. Just as for sight, Calvino applied a personal method of understanding to hearing: it is always the subject, the “I”, with all his organs of perception, who allows us to approach the external world and probe our own mind. Thus Calvino constructed a universe of very special sounds, as that sound-universe derived f! rom his personal world, from his personal experience, and above all from his way of relating to the external world: all this is never definitive and is also problematic as well. This is the specific method of one who rejects dogmas and schools, but cannot refrain from probing the real and fictional universe [both the one relating to life and that on the written page], even if at the end of the search, the result is always an empty circle, black space on a page. This also explains the various patterns that the listening function has taken on in the personal and literary journey of Italo Calvino.

Forskning har visat att en nära relation med någon som lyssnar kan leda till att psykisk ohälsa upptäcks tidigt. Syftet med undersökningen var att finna lyssnandets centrala teman och hur dessa kan användas för att tidigt upptäcka psykisk ohälsa. Två studier gjordes med 118 deltagare som besvarade en kvalitativ enkät. I Studie 1 deltog 42 mentorer från Tjejzonen som är Sveriges största stödorganisation för tjejer. I Studie 2 deltog 76 respondenter utan koppling till Tjejzonen. Resultatet visade fyra teman som var gemensamma för båda studierna: (1) närvaro, (2) förtroende, (3) respekt, (4) fokus. I diskussionen kopplas lyssnandet samman med socialt stöd och den ekologiska modellen samt diskuteras som möjlighet till prevention för psykisk ohälsa. Studien kan bidra till en ökad förståelse för lyssnandets komplexitet.

This project provides rhetorical and sonic exploration of listening practices, musical song, crowded subject formations and multimodal composition pedagogy. Conceptually drawing from rhetorical studies, sound studies, queer and women of color (Q/WOC) feminisms, cultural studies, affect studies, and composition pedagogies, the project maintains commitments to multiply situated knowledge production. The project's sonic inquiries and cross-disciplinary interests offer scholarly interventions primarily aimed at improving rhetoric and composition studies analytical and affective responsiveness to sonority. Secondarily, the project is aimed at increasing sound studies rhetorical responsivity and attention to personified performance techniques. The project’s first chapter argues that disciplinary distancing between rhetorical, compositional and sonic arts can be lessened through the temporal principle of kairos. This chapter also overviews key methodological concepts, offers working definitions of key terms, and glosses the project's chapter progression. The second chapter is a multi-faceted literature review that surveys the ways listening is rhetorically emplaced and affectively confined within classical and contemporary discussions of Aristotelian epideixis. This chapter notes the limits of commonly accepted and received feminist rhetorical "recovery" projects that frequently place listening in service to logos; highlights the ways listening can act as a generative method of performative "respond-ability" through certain positions; and resonantly attunes listening to two audio-visual materials: timbral tonality and rhythmic temporality. Chapters three and four analytically train listening practices on two specific genres of musical sound: protest song and EDM-pop musical productions. The third chapter analyzes singer-songwriter-activist Nina Simone’s early 1960's protest song "Mississippi Goddam" while the fourth chapter focuses on contemporary singer-songwriter Sia's EDM-pop productions for "Chandelier." Treated as case studies, these songs and artists exemplify body-subject impressionability, political disaffection from historically dominant forms of whitened, hetero-patriarchal, liberalized ideology, and the performative possibilities of crossing and crowding subject-hood through persona crafting. Following these case studies, the project concludes by offering conceptual im/possibilities and pedagogical materials for rhetorically teaching composition as a sonic art. The fifth and final chapter conceptually intervenes in rhetoric and composition's pedagogical tendencies toward elevating and espousing notions of the minimally affected, individual, authorial, agentive rhetor/writer by developing a series of activities designed to give instructional supports for scaffolding student learning and composing specific to vocalic sound and the sorts of affects engendered in listening.

‘The young Irish person has the worst of all European musical “worlds”’. This seminal statement was discovered to be symptomatic of a general malaise. The Music Education National Debate (MEND 1994-1996) was a three-phase response to Deaf Ears?, the report from which the above statement was taken. The eventual aim was to set up a forum for music education which would systematically address the difficulties in Ireland. The scope of MEND was, thus, general, ab initio. Its progress was, however, inhibited by a specific concern, which was fundamental to the whole process of reform. It soon became apparent that consensus on a philosophy of music education to inform evolving strategies would be a sine qua non. Coincidentally, this was a time of debacle in the global field, instanced by the publication of a ‘new’ philosophy of music education (David Elliott’s Music Matters [1995]) which threw down the gauntlet to the undisputed classic - Reimer’s A Philosophy of Music Education [1970/1989]. This challenge amounted to a veritable counterposition and demanded a separate, albeit derivative, study before the MEND Report could be completed. This study was to become the substance of this thesis. The aim of this work is to analyse these polar philosophies with a view to reconciling them. Beginning with some commonly held values about music education, the relevance of American music education practice to a wide range of global systems is suggested. The dominance of a western art (music) mentality is called into question by giving prominence to multiculturalism and popular music. Music Education as Aesthetic Education (Reimer) is compared with the praxial approach (Elliott). They yielded to rationalization, albeit posing residual questions of balance, relevance, and time constraints within the curriculum. The indispensability of performance and listening as a complementary pair is re-established. The ascendancy of artistic criteria in defining the music programme is affirmed. Finally the failure of the universal philosophy hypothesis is redeemed by sketching the compromises necessary to convert it to the adaptability of the contextual idea, leading the study to a conclusion of general, rather than specific, application. Note from the UPeTD Team: The final MEND (The Music Education National Debate) report can be obtained from the Academic Information Service, University of Pretoria, email: upetd@up.ac.za. The report is available as an Adobe Acrobat .pdf document. There are hyperlinks embedded within the document to facilitate internal navigation. The Appendix at the end (which is an index of the MEND debates and presentations) also contains hyperlinks. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Music / unrestricted

My composition, Maitreya, combines vocal synthesis techniques with the theoretical concept of Deep Listening. This essay discusses developments in vocal synthesis and digital signal processing (DSP) software that can be performed in real-time and contributed to my composition. Deep Listening involves meditative practices to make one more aware of sounds that are both audible and inaudible. The composition utilizes recordings of male and female voices that recite poetry, chant, and are phase-vocoded. The composition also features various DSP techniques, and a custom-built modular synthesizer. The composition has three sections that were compiled and edited in Ableton Live 8.2.2.

While interagency collaboration among Children’s Aid Societies and violence against women (VAW) agencies have been mandated by the Ontario Ministry of Community and Social Service, little is known about these local collaboration agreements. This study seeks to explore how the Ottawa CAS/VAW Collaboration Agreement mediates the work of VAW agencies to protect women and children. Using a purposive sample, a total of eight VAW informants were interviewed. Smith (1999) argued that people’s everyday experiences are organized, often unknowingly, by the actions of people located outside the local setting and that this organization is textually-mediated. This study used institutional ethnography and the listening guide approach to critically examine the collaboration process. The results explore the narratives and standpoints as they relate to the informants’ understanding of the agreement and their descriptions of doing collaboration. This study also adopts the mapping technique developed by institutional ethnographers to map social relations. The findings indicate that informants differed in their familiarity and knowledge of the contents of the collaboration agreement – only two informants indicated that they have reviewed and read the document. The findings also show that although most informants were able to describe positive experiences of collaboration, most also described negative experiences. This study concludes that the collaboration agreement has made VAW workers’ work with women more focused and specific to helping women address Children Aid Society’s concerns. The findings demonstrate that the collaboration agreement requires an update and further research is required to evaluate these collaborations and whether they improve outcomes for women and their children.

This two-part study employed an experimental design and interviews to examine the effects of videos on adult English as a Second Language (ESL) student listening comprehension. The purpose of the first part of the study was to compare the effects of video in two pre-listening activity conditions on beginner and upper-beginner adult ESL listening comprehension. The participants were 49 Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) students enrolled in two beginner and two upper-beginner ESL classes The beginner classes were randomly assigned either to the audio only (AO) condition or the audio with written script (AW) condition. The upper-beginner classes were similarly assigned to the two conditions, the AO condition or the AW condition. In the AO condition, the students listened to a tape recording of four pre-listening questions prior to viewing the video. In the AW condition, the students listened to the same tape recording and, in addition, were shown the same questions that were printed on large sheets of paper and held up at the front of the class by the teacher. The same pre-test was administered to all four classes. Twelve exercises including pre-listening questions, videos, and comprehension questions were completed. The beginner classes viewed videos from Learning English in the Community LINC 2 (Cameron et al., 1995), and the upper-beginner classes viewed videos from Learning English in the Community LINC 3 (Cameron et al., 1995). The same post-test was administered to all four classes. Results indicated that the written script in the AW condition significantly improved the listening comprehension ability of beginner and upper-beginner adult ESL students. The second part of the study was aimed at gaining insights into the pre-listening questions, the videos, and their value on teaching listening comprehension. All of the students were individually interviewed. Overall the students were positive about the showing of videos as aids for enhancing listening comprehension, the content of the videos, as well as the questions. Some of the students, however, found some of the instruments difficult to understand. They found that the vocabulary was unfamiliar or the speed of delivery was too fast. This lack of comprehension may have affected the results of Part One of the study. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate