The purpose of this paper was to investigate how some teachers interpret, teach and assess listening strategies. Our investigation was based on interviews and a questionnaire answered by some year 9 English teachers. Furthermore, the aim was to study whether awareness and teaching of listening strategies are important for teachers in their everyday practice. The results indicate that the teachers interpret listening strategies as purposes for listening, such as listening for detail or the whole. The teachers do not explicitly teach listening strategies, and they do not assess them. For these teachers the main focus is placed on listening comprehension and not on the listening strategies.Key concepts: EFL, secondary school, interpretations, teaching, assessment, listening strategies.

To accurately describe the past, historians strive to learn the cultural ideologies of the time and place they study so their interpretations are situated in the context of that period and not in the present. This exploration of historical context becomes critical when researching marginalized groups, as evidence of their rhetorics and cultural logics are usually submerged within those of the dominant society. This project focuses on how factors, such as rhetor/audience perspective, influence cross-cultural historical interpretation, and how a community history database can be designed to illuminate and affect these factors. Theories of contact zones and rhetorical listening were explored to determine their applicability both to history-making and to the creation of a community history database where cross-cultural, multi-vocal, historical narratives may be created, encountered, and extended. Contact zones are dynamic spaces where changing connections, accommodations, negotiations, and power struggles occur, and this concept can be applied to history-making, especially histories of marginalized groups. Rhetorical listening focuses on how perspective influences understanding the past, and listening principles are crucial to both historians and the consumers of history. Perspectives are grounded in cultural ideologies, and rhetorical listening focuses on how tropes, such as race and gender, describe and shape these perspectives. Becoming aware of tropes-both of self and other-can bring to view the commonalities and differences between cultures, and allow a better opportunity for cross-cultural understanding. Rhetorical listening steers the historian and the consumer of history towards looking at who is writing the history, and how both the rhetor and the audience's perspective may affect the outcome. These theories of contact zones and rhetorical listening influenced the design of the project database and website by bringing perspective to the forefront. The visualization of rhetor/audience tropes in conjunction with the co-creation of history were designed to help foster cross-cultural understanding.

This study is directed to an awareness of and exploration concerning the wealth of the cultural heritage that the modern world possesses in the great body of symphonic music literature. A survey of musical education in this field showed a neglect of the subject compared to time and attention given to skills, theory, and performance. Practices are based on random individual philosophies for the most part. The author has pursued the development of techniques for teaching symphonic literature for several years, always questioning the educational philosophy that was best suited to this teaching, and searching for a pedagogy based on the best philosophy discernible. The emerging aesthetic philosophy of the 1960's showed fresh promise of investigation into theory and method. The work of Stephen Pepper who formulated four World Hypotheses was used as a pivot to evaluate the hypothesis that best suited the project at hand. Pepper chose a theory termed Contextualism exemplified by the theory of John Dewey presented in his Art as Experience (1980). This philosophy of experience was in line with the emerging phenomenological thought. Kaelin, keenly interested in education, in his extensive writings has given an account of aesthetic theory based on existential phenomenology. These theories were applied to music education, and methodological considerations were treated gathered from followers of Dewey, Champlin, Villemain, and Ecker. An outline was made of the contextualist/experimentalist proposition for art education, and Kaelin's description of aesthetic education was presented. Philosophies of music and music education were examined. Schwadron and Reimer laid the foundations for an aesthetic music education but by the 1990s the field was expanding rapidly. The analysis of philosophies with regard to music knowledge by Stubley in the Handbook of Research on Music Teaching and Learning (1992) was used as a base to examine emerging bodies of thought. She favored phenomenological perspectives of constructivist theories. Ingarden's theory of the musical work and the process of appreciation were examined along with several other phenomenological points of view. Kaelin's application of the theory he termed “Aesthetics Proper” to music, its temporality, and the funding of significance through apprehension of the qualities of a work, were adopted for application to a praxis. A method using time-contour charts constructed from musical scores, created by the author, was presented, with a description of the procedure, the role of the teacher, the nature of the experience of music, as well as cognitive and expressive characteristics of the process. Two examples, the first movement of Mozart's Symphony #40, and two selections from Holst's, The Planets , were used with lesson plans and the constructed time-contour charts for each. These were analyzed for cognitive and expressive characteristics, with ideas for discussion and evaluation. An extensive list of reference and source materials was included.

The use of preinstructional strategies frequently results in improved comprehension as evidenced by test scores. Although empirical support for this phenomenon is inconsistent, the potential utility of preinstructional strategies warrants further consideration. The rationale of this study suggests that intervening situational factors, or individual learner characteristics, account for the inconsistencies. The knowledge of factors that influence the effectiveness of preinstructional strategies would be beneficial in assisting educators' attempts to apply the strategies for their students' best advantages. The problem of this study was an analysis of the effects preinstructional strategies have upon students' state anxiety and listening comprehension. The purpose was to compare the state anxiety fluctuations and listening comprehension scores of students given advance organizers, pretests, cognitive objectives or overviews with a control group given no prefatory assistance.

Lexical inferencing is considered a listening strategy that is commonly employed by advanced EFL (English as a Foreign Language) listeners and a factor that contributes to successful listening comprehension. However, investigations of the factors that influence inferencing success in listening as well as how much each factor contributes to success are scant, as more studies have been conducted exploring lexical inferencing in reading. In addition, even though idiomatic expressions such as smell a rat, jump the gun, and go cold turkey are ubiquitous in the English language, especially in oral communication, and they are considered crucial in both first language (L1) and second language (L2) acquisition, little is known about the effectiveness of inferencing strategies where idiomatic expressions are concerned.Three goals motivated the current study. The first goal was to investigate whether inferencing is an effective strategy in the case where the target item is an idiomatic expression. The second goal was to investigate how four person-level factors, familiarity, listening proficiency, listening vocabulary size and working memory, two sentence-level factors, lexical density and sentence length, and two lexical-level factors, L1–L2 congruency and semantic transparency, influence the inferencing success of English idiomatic expressions in listening. The third goal, related to the second goal, was to determine which of the two lexical component factors, L1–L2 congruency and semantic transparency, is more important to inferencing success. A mixed methods design, the explanatory sequential design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018), was employed in this study. Quantitative data were collected from 89 EFL Japanese university students using a Listening Vocabulary Levels Test, a Listening Span Test, and an Idiom Inferencing Elicitation Task. The collected data were examined using mixed-effects logistic regression. Twelve participants were invited to participate in follow-up interviews based on their response patterns on the Idiom Inferencing Elicitation Task. The quantitative results indicated that familiarity, listening comprehension skills, working memory, and L1–L2 congruency were significant factors influencing inferencing success and the qualitative results supported these findings. In addition, the qualitative analyses suggested that depth of vocabulary is another potentially important factor. Furthermore, listening comprehension moderated the L1–L2 congruency effect. The finding that semantic transparency is not an influential factor in successful inferencing of unfamiliar idiomatic expressions provides evidence that the semantic transparency of known idiomatic expressions formed after learners acquire the meaning of the expression is a different construct from the perceived semantic transparency of unfamiliar idiomatic expressions. In addition, even though the sentence-level factors were not statistically significant in successful idiom inferencing in this study, further studies are required in order to see if this result holds true when the characteristics of the listening tasks differ from those of the task used in this study. It is hoped that the findings provide insights into how to help Japanese university EFL learners improve their listening skills, especially in tasks that include unfamiliar idiomatic expressions. / Teaching & Learning

BACKGROUND: Many families of children who are deaf or hard of hearing (DHH) pursue the development of spoken language through the use of advanced hearing technology and intensive, specialized listening and spoken language (LSL) intervention services. LSL practitioners utilize caregiver coaching to transfer knowledge and skills to parents, equipping them to effectively support their child's listening and language development. Caregiver coaching builds parents' capacity to implement intervention strategies within daily routines to maximize learning opportunities to reach this goal. While caregiver coaching is a hallmark of LSL practice, there is a lack of consensus and paucity of evidence to support its use with children who are DHH learning to listen and talk. The purpose of this research was therefore to gain a greater understanding of caregiver coaching practices in LSL services for families of children ages birth-3 who are DHH. OBJECTIVES: 1) to provide a synthesis of the literature and identify gaps in the existing knowledge base regarding coaching in LSL services, 2) to gain insight into practitioners' and caregivers' experiences with coaching in LSL services, and 3) to gain a better understanding of coaching practices in LSL services with families of children who are DHH. METHODOLOGY: The first objective was addressed by performing a scoping review of the literature to synthesize the relevant research and professional practice recommendations and identify gaps in the knowledge base regarding coaching caregivers in LSL practice. The remaining objectives were addressed through qualitative, semi-structured interviews and video observation discussions with LSL practitioners and caregivers to gain insight into caregivers' perspectives and practitioners' perspectives and practices. Interviews were conducted with 14 practitioners and 13 caregivers at three intervention sites in the US and Canada. These sites represent three different service delivery models of LSL intervention for families of children who are DHH. RESULTS: The scoping review findings revealed a lack of consensus in the literature regarding the principles and practices of caregiver coaching in LSL services. We presented the following topics found in the literature: coaching practices, training for coaching, the effectiveness of coaching, and recommendations for coaching. Caregivers reported coaching as a positive experience; however, coaching practices differed among sites and between practitioners, supporting the results of the scoping review. The caregivers indicated factors that contribute to a positive coaching relationship, including practitioner characteristics, establishing explicit expectations, and adapting to caregivers' changing needs over time. The practitioner interviews also supported a lack of consistency in coaching practices between sites and indicated that underlying beliefs impact how practitioners coach and engage caregivers. CONCLUSION: The findings from this dissertation provide practical, actionable steps that LSL practitioners can implement to develop and support the caregiver coaching relationship. These findings have the potential to inform professional preparation and development activities to better equip practitioners to engage caregivers in the intervention process, and ultimately, positively impact the listening and spoken language outcomes of the children they serve.

Bakgrund: Psykisk ohälsa, där utmattningssyndrom är en av diagnoserna är ett ökande problem. Många av de som drabbas överges och får inte den vård de behöver och har rätt till. Tid för samtal och egenvård är en viktig del i rehabiliteringen där primärvården och företagshälsovården är de huvudsakliga vårdgivarna. Syfte: Avsikten med studien var att undersöka vilken erfarenhet som sjuksköterskor inom primär- och företagshälsovård har av patienter med utmattningssyndrom. Metod: Åtta sjuksköterskor från primär- och företagshälsovård intervjuades med semistrukturerade frågor. Intervjumaterialet analyserades med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Resultat: Ett tema lyssna samt två kategorier grindvakt och skapa begriplighet skapades. Alla sjuksköterskor beskrev att de initialt hade långa samtal men deras erfarenheter skiljde sig åt. Några sjuksköterskor beskrev att det var till nytta för patienterna medan andra berättade att de inte jobbade med den här patientgruppen. Konklusion: Genomgående beskriver alla sjuksköterskor att det de gör innebär att de lyssnar på patienterna samtidigt som flera av dem inte explicit uttrycker det som ett stöd. Det kan tolkas som att den relationella delen av omvårdnaden är osynlig för sjuksköterskorna som inte uppfattar att deras lyssnande är av värde för patienterna. / Background: Mental illness where fatigue syndrome is one of the diagnoses is an increasing problem. Many persons with fatigue syndrome experience abandonment and do not achieve the help they need and are entitled to. Time for conversation and self-care is an important part of rehabilitation where primary healthcare and occupational healthcare have a prominent role Aim: This study's purpose was to explore what experience that nurses in primary and occupational healthcare had of patients with fatigue syndrome. Method: Eight nurses from primary and occupational healthcare were interviewed using semi-structured questions. The interview material was analyzed using content analysis. Results: A theme listening and two categories gatekeeper and create comprehensibility emerged. All nurses had initially long conversations with the patients, but their experience differed. Some of the nurses told that they were important to the patients and others indicated that they were not working with this patient group. Conclusion: All nurses describes that what they do means that they are listening to the patients at the same time that several of them not explicit express it as a support. That can be interpreted as the relation part of nursing are invisible for the nurses who does not perceive their listening valuable for the patients.

Characteristics of Helmut Lachenmann’s music are approached through the author’s own music and musical thinking, intertwining portrait and self-portrait. Lachenmann’s music reflects problems of a recent history of composition and asks key questions about music’s relation to society. It challenges, for example, the position of composers/writers towards collective standards, but also reflects what critical thinking can mean in a society that consumes criticism and makes it part of its own system. Polyvalent structural relationships within Lachenmann’s music reflect his insistent method of observing and perceiving, of re-working, re-shaping traditional modes of listening. Whereas the terms »revolutionary« and »novelty« (not only in contemporary music) have become commodities or matters of fast changing trends, Helmut Lachenmann can be characterized as a »homo differentialis« whose work substantiates an existential necessity to bring music to the ear of the listener.

This article tries to approach Helmut Lachenmann’s music from the perspective of the cognitive sciences. The first part examines important theoretical concepts developed in Lachenmann’s own writings such as »polyphony of allocations« (Polyphonie von Anordnungen), »structure sound« (Strukturklang), »family« (Familie), »screening process« (Abtast-Prozess), modes of listening (»(Hin-)Hören« vs. »Zu-Hören«) and points at their cognitive implications. The second part discusses interrelations between Lachenmann’s and Ludwig Wittgenstein’s concepts of »family«. These concepts share an anti-essentialist perspective and argue that »families« might assemble highly heterogeneous mixtures of components. Theories of cognitive categorization based on Wittgenstein’s notion of »family resemblance« include Irene Deliège’s concept of »cue-abstraction«, based on the identification of salient features in musical contexts and their similarity, and Adam Ockelford’s »zygonic model« that criticizes this emphasis on similarity-relations; according to Ockelford, members of a category (or family) do not necessarily share a single property (or essence), but might be connected by association or contiguity. In the third part, two analytical examples related to Lachenmann’s concept of a »musique concrète instrumentale«, Pression (1969/70) and Allegro Sostenuto (1986/88), exemplify the composer’s intuitive use of cognitive principles, based mainly on Gestalt laws. The consistency of cognitive features in Pression for solo violoncello provides counter evidence against Hans-Peter Jahn’s thesis that the order of sections in this piece is arbitrary. Allegro Sostenuto demonstrates Lachenmann’s inventive play with Gestalt principles that serve as tools for categorical transformation: reference pitches, for example, provide clear levels of listening orientation for sounds that metaphorically »extinguish« or »mask« each other. The conclusion argues that Lachenmann’s theoretical ideas and theories of cognitive categorization tend to converge and might be transformed into a theory of musical context that is crucial for an adequate understanding of Lachenmann’s works.

This is a study about English teachers’ use of audiobooks when working with literature in upper secondary school. This study investigates to what extent and in what ways teachers use audiobooks as well as their attitudes toward them as a teaching tool. This research study also investigates whether teachers believe that audiobooks have a positive effect on students’ reading motivation. The study was conducted through a mixed-method questionnaire, which 24 participating teachers in Sweden answered. The study shows that most teachers are using audiobooks in their literature teaching, hence having an overall positive attitude towards them. However, the reasons for using them vary among the participants. The findings reveal that participating teachers find audiobooks helpful for improving students’ reading and listening comprehension, pronunciation, and reading accuracy. Further, teachers believe that audiobooks help students to show more engagement with the literature, but that they do not have much effect on increasing students’ motivation to read. The results of this study provide insight into some English teachers’ opinions and attitudes toward the audiobook as a teaching tool and this may help other English teachers make better informed choices when they want to incorporate the audiobook into their literature teaching.