The English language has established itself as the academic lingua franca of the world. For example, Swedish universities are mainly using English textbooks in their teaching. For students in tertiary education in Sweden, it is thus necessary to have an academic English vocabulary. This study examines the academic word knowledge of 148 students in different disciplines at a Swedish university. The method used was a vocabulary test. The test design was based on the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) and the words were chosen from the Academic Word List (AWL) due to their frequency in academic written texts. There was a rapid decline of the participants' word knowledge the less common the words were according to the AWL. The results indicate that Swedish students’ academic word knowledge in English is generally unsatisfactory, which could make the reading of academic texts troublesome for them.

In this work, we test two novel methods of using word embeddings to detect lexical semantic change, attempting to overcome limitations associated with conventional approaches to this problem. Using a diachronic corpus spanning over a hundred years, we generate word embeddings for each decade with the intention of evaluating how meaning changes are represented in embeddings for the same word across time. Our approach differs from previous works in this field in that we encode words as probabilistic Gaussian distributions and bimodal probabilistic Gaussian mixtures, rather than conventional word vectors. We provide a discussion and analysis of our results, comparing the approaches we implemented with those used in previous works. We also conducted further analysis on whether additional information regarding the nature of semantic change could be discerned from particular qualities of the embeddings we generated for our experiments. In our results, we find that encoding words as probabilistic Gaussian embeddings can provide an enhanced degree of reliability with regard to detecting lexical semantic change. Furthermore, we are able to represent additional information regarding the nature of such changes through the variance of these embeddings. Encoding words as bimodal Gaussian mixtures however is generally unsuccessful for this task, proving to be not reliable enough at distinguishing between discrete senses to effectively detect and measure such changes. We provide potential explanations for the results we observe, and propose improvements that can be made to our approach to potentially improve performance.

The Chinese language has become an increasingly important Asian language for American students and more and more of them have a desire to learn it. The problems and the difficulties that Chinese foreign language (CFL) learners have when they try to use their knowledge of new vocabulary in reading comprehension are apparent. Previous studies have described some aspects that may influence reading comprehension and have indicated that Chinese is a relatively difficult language for native speakers of American English, but there are few studies that have focused on improving CFL learners' Chinese reading comprehension. This study investigates the effect of pre-learning vocabulary and contextualized word learning strategies on Chinese reading comprehension. The purpose of this study is to examine whether pre-learning vocabulary and contextualized word learning positively affect CFL learners' reading comprehension. The results show that pre-learning vocabulary does not have a positive effect on Chinese reading comprehension and that although contextualized word learning positively affects CFL learners' reading comprehension the effect is not significant. This study also gives relative analysis.

Word of mouth has been considered a big factor for why brands do not need to make excessive marketing efforts, due to consumers recommending their products or services to other consumers through WoM. Given this thesis explores the relationship between WoM, complaints and repurchase intentions of consumers when it comes to fast-food restaurants, the WoM mostly is that of a negative aspect. This to see how the consumers feel about the area of fast-food and how they themselves spread their Word of Mouth, how and if they complain and what their intentions are on repurchasing. The empirical findings were obtained using a qualitative method. There were 25 interviews conducted with different consumers from three different countries. Later these findings were analyzed with the theoretical framework of this thesis.  The conclusion of the thesis is that the consumers are more likely to spread WoM, both positive and negative depending on their experience with the brands. As the theory mentions, it is the experience that the consumer is after. However, also that if a product is excessively marketed, and that the product does not live up to said marketing, how dissatisfied the consumer becomes with it. / <p>Då kursen bedrevs via zoom, så hade vi presentationen via zoom också. </p>

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Call number: LD2668 .T4 1966 H873 / Master of Science

The field of regulated financial services has been ill-served by marketing theory. As a consequence: (1) the nature of marketing in this sector has been misunderstood; (2) the key mechanism for generating new business in the field, namely, referrals, has been the subject of serious misapprehension; and, (3) the guidance offered to practitioners has been negligible. In particular, the role of the independent financial advisor (IFA) appears to have been conceptualised as a sales role, and the nature of the relationship between the IFA and the client has been addressed as though it were a straightforward buyer-seller relationship, with the IFA selling products to the client. It is unlikely that these conceptualisations were ever satisfactory and following recent regulatory changes in the sector they have become even less relevant. Since January 1st 2013 commission-based selling of financial investment products to consumers has been prohibited so that independent financial advice has become largely a fee-based service. The focus of this research is on referrals as a method of generating new business; the research context is the UK independent financial advice industry. The objectives of the study are to: (1) define and conceptualise referrals in the context of the financial advice industry; (2) develop a framework of the referral process; (3) provide practitioners with empirical evidence in connection with their embedded beliefs about referrals in this industry; (4) explore whether (as many practitioner believe) it is possible to actively manage referral generation within a financial advice business; and, (5) to investigate the importance of referrals as a means of generating new business for advisors. It was found that practitioners believe they influence referrals in four main ways: excellent service, higher qualifications, contact frequency and speed of response. However the results of this study clearly indicate that referrals are not the outcome of agency; they are a random occurrence, determined by happenstance and the result of an opportunist conversation between a prospect and a client. In turn, contrary to the advice of consultancy providers, asking for referrals was found to be ineffective and not welcomed by consumers. While word-of-mouth (WOM) often instigates referral generation, the value of WOM, needs be treated with caution, since consumers were found to have limited understanding of the service provided by independent advisors. Despite the importance consumers attribute to investment performance practitioners do not, commonly, provide investment benchmarks nor do consumers use analytical tools to assess the performance of their advisor. The absence of performance measures connects with the finding that practitioners have difficulty in describing what they do hence consumers are uncertain how to describe the service and what to say about it when asked.

Den här undersökningen syftar till att ge en ökad förståelse för kundomdömen online. Författarna har undersökt hur kommunikationen på omdömesplattformen Reco.se fungerar mellan företag och dess kunder. Många företag vet inte hur de ska hantera de kommentarer som skrivs om dem på omdömesplattformar idag. Därför har författarna från över 11 500 kommentarer och över 11 500 svar från totalt 964 företag, valt ut 5 företag, där de genomfört en kvalitativ textanalys med fokus på intertextualitet. Studien resulterade i en egen masskommunikationsmodell för elektronisk Word-Of-Mouth, en redogörelse för hur kommunikationen mellan företag och dess kunder fungerar på omdömesplattformen Reco.se samt att företag i allra högsta grad bör ha i beaktning hur de hanterar klagomål. Slutligen visar författarna hur man kan forma det digitala avtrycket som finns på internet samt konsten att kommunicera med kunden.

Composition studies lacks a comprehensive theory of error, one which successfully defines error in writing and offers a pedagogical response to ostensible errors that neither ignores nor pathologizes them. Electronic text-critiquing technologies offer some promise of helping writers notice and correct errors, but they are under-researched in composition and rarely well-integrated into pedagogical praxis. This research on the grammar and style checker in Microsoft Word considers the program as an electronic checklist for making decisions about what counts as an error in a given rhetorical situation. This study also offers a theory of error grounded in the idea of attention, or cognitive load, some of which an electronic checker can relieve in its areas of its greatest effectiveness, which this research quantifies. The proposed theory of error forms the basis for a pedagogy of register, understood as typified style, and establishes that error itself can be a strategic style move.

Thesis (MDram)--Stellenbosch University, 2012 / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Poetry performance as a universal phenomenon is a performing art form. The aim of this study is to explore the diverse nature of this art form. The different types are investigated according to their nature and the reasons provided as motivation for the way in which these types are presented. This study focuses on the following types: poetry found in ritual, poetry readings, poetry recitals, poetry as part of word art (woordkuns), sung poetry, the verse drama and drama’s based on poetry. Under each of these categories relevant examples of each type are discussed. A background study which is primarily focused on a brief overview of the history of poetry performance in relation to its origin and development serves as an introduction and foundation for the study. Hereupon the different types of poetry performances, with relevant and contemporary variations as examples, are being compared to each other with the aim to elucidate the main similarities as well as differences between these examples. As part of the research of poetry performance, a practical project exploring the specific nature of dramas based on poetry was executed. This drama, called Ontslape, shares various comparisons as well as differences with other examples of contemporary drama’s based on poetry. It also shares similarities with word art (woordkuns). Although it is possible to distinguish between certain types of poetry performance, it however also appears that some types overlap in more than one way and therefore the conclusion can be made that poetry performance as a phenomenon consists of various possibilities. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Poësie performance as universiële verskynsel is ‘n uitvoerende kunsvorm. In hierdie studie word die diversiteit van die kunsvorm ondersoek. Die onderskeie tipes word ondersoek na aanleiding van die aard en doel van die aanbieding. Die studie fokus op die volgende tipes: poësie in rituele verband, poësie in voorlesing, poësie en voordrag, poësie as deel van woordkuns, poësie in sangvorm, die versdrama en poësie gebasseerde drama’s. Onder elk van hierdie afdelings word relevante voorbeelde van elke tipe breedvoerig bespreek. ‘n Agtergrondstudie wat hoofsaaklik fokus op ‘n historiese oorsig met betrekking tot die oorsprong en ontwikkeling van poësie performance dien as basis vir en inleiding tot die studie. Hierop word onderskeie tipes poësie performance met relevante en kontemporêre voorbeelde en variasies belig met die doel om die ooreenkomste en verskille tussen tipes en voorbeelde uit te lig. As deel van die verkenning van poësie performances is ‘n praktiese projek uitgevoer wat by nader ondersoek ‘n voorbeeld van ‘n poësie gebasseerde drama is. Hierdie drama, getiteld Ontslape, toon verskille en ooreenkomste met ander kontemporêre poësie gebasseerde drama’s. Dit toon ook ooreenkomste met woordkuns. Alhoewel sekere tipes poësie performances duidelik van ander geskei kan word, blyk dit dus dat sekere tipes met mekaar oorvleuel en daar word dus gevolglik tot die konklusie gekom dat poësie performance as verskynsel oor ‘n legio aantal moontlikhede beskik.