This research investigates the impact that incorporating reading into writing can have on University paragraph level EFL writing of 54 second-year English major students at Naresuan University, Thailand, and what these EFL learners think about being taught by a reading into writing method. Intensive reading tasks are incorporated into a paragraph-writing classroom. The changes in students' written performance in terms of grammatical accuracy, grammatical complexity, and coherence and cohesion are examined. The study compared two groups of learners in which one instruction for one group was taught by an incorporated reading into writing activities (i.e. the "experimental" group), and the other group was taught without these activities (i.e. the "control" group). The research comprises both quantitative and qualitative analyses. The written texts produced by both groups obtained from a pre-test and post-test are analyzed and compared to see whether or not there is any significant difference between these two groups in changes in grammatical accuracy, grammatical complexity, and coherence and cohesion. Questionnaire responses and interview data are analyzed and compared to elicit these EFL writers' opinions about being taught by this reading into writing method in comparison to a group taught without this approach. Analysis of the data indicates the positive impact that reading can have on paragraph- writing development, particularly in the area of grammatical complexity. In addition, these EFL learners reported that they found this reading into writing approach helpful in improving their paragraph writing ability. These findings highlight the benefits of paragraph-writing instruction in such a context and may help writing teachers to recognize the importance of reading tasks for EFL writing classrooms in university contexts.

This thesis aims to make an empirically-based contribution to existing research on interpreting in the media. It explores how a media context contributes to interpreters’ implementation of reporting techniques and features and does this through an exploration of the interpreting from the broadcast of Saddam Hussein’s trial in Iraq during the period 2005 to 2006. The study draws on previous research into Translation and Interpreting Studies, Conversational Analysis, and reporting techniques in the media, and employs a descriptive approach to the performance of the interpreters in the trial. A predominantly descriptive methodology is adopted in order to analyse the performance and decision-making process of the interpreters in transcribed sessions of the trial. This analysis is principally guided by Wadensjö’s model of renditions (1998), Chesterman’s translation strategies (1997) and Dimitriu’s omission strategies (2004). Two styles of interpreting in the media are identified with regard to the interpreting techniques adopted by the interpreters. These are verbatim and the reporting styles, and they demonstrate the influence of the media context on the interpreters’ decision-making process and prioritisation of information in their output. The verbatim style is closer to the source utterance than the reporting style. The latter implements reporting techniques such as summarisation, and addition of information among other techniques. Both styles also highlight the role which the purpose of using interpreters in an interaction can have on their performance and role in the interaction. Both styles of interpreting illustrate to what extent the media interpreter can assume authorship of her output depending on the context and purpose of the output. Implications of these influences for the theory and pedagogy of translation and interpreting are made, and a number of avenues for future research are suggested.

Influenced by the examination-oriented education system, Chinese students in primary and secondary schools are mainly taught to focus on the English reading and writing skills, having little chance though to develop their communicative skills of listening and speaking. Accordingly, listening is regarded as one of the weakest skills for most Chinese students who study English. With the remarkable expansion of university enrolment in China, an increasing number of students can access higher education. However, due to budget issues, inadequate facilities and the lack of English teachers, the teaching and learning of English in large classes is common in Chinese universities. The aim of this study is to explore both teachers' and students' perceptions of large sized listening classes, investigate teachers' listening teaching models and approaches adopted in the context of a large sized class, and attempt to identify the impact that large class size has on the shaping of the present listening teaching models. The data have been collected by administering questionnaires to 29 teachers and 181 students, and by conducting follow-up interviews with 16 teachers and 51 students from the Hebei Normal University of Science and Technology (HNUST) in China. The findings demonstrate that large class size is generally viewed in negative terms by both teachers and students. The challenges that arise from large sized listening classes are chiefly manifested in three dimensions: 1) teaching practices, including individualisation, interaction and activity organisation; 2) classroom management: attendance and student misbehaviour; 3) affective factors: anonymity and inattentiveness. It is found that the interrelation among factors such as large class size, limited teaching hours, coverage of contents, insufficient use of teaching facilities in language labs and students' mixed listening proficiency levels might result in the traditional teacher-centred teaching model that is generally employed in large sized listening classes in HNUST.

This study measured and compared the vocabulary coverage, vocabulary levels and readability of CNN, the China Post and the Taipei Times. It is hoped that this study could provide a more effective and cost-benefit way to assist teachers in choosing suitable texts for vocabulary learning and for reading instruction. It could also offer some information for material developers and programme administrators. The results showed that the three online newspapers, CNN, the China Post and the Taipei Times had a GSL coverage of 77.85%, 76.27% and 75.76% respectively and a AWL coverage of 5.54%, 5.83% and 5.57% respectively. Furthermore, the different coverage percentage of the l " 1 ,000 GSL, 2nd 1,000 GSL and AWL in each news classification demonstrated its vocabulary focus. Implications for vocabulary course design with the word lists of the 1 st 1,000 GSL, 2nd 1,000 GSL and the AWL based on the different news classifications could be applied. From the results of the vocabulary levels examined by BNC word lists, the vocabulary levels of the different news classifications spread from 4,000 words to over 14,000 words. The sequencing of the vocabulary levels of the news classifications provides good reading sources of extensive reading and narrowing reading materials. The reliability and validity tests showed that the Flesch Reading Ease, the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level and the Fry Readability Graph are reliable and valid tools in measuring readability of the news articles. The readability levels of the different news classifications were divided into grades 9 to 14. Although the different news classifications were graded into different levels, teachers still need to consider other factors that are not measured by the readability formulae when selecting the articles. Also, the readability formulae scores reflect the difficulty of the texts and it is not appropriate to apply those directly into the context in Taiwan.

In this study, dichotic listening tasks were conducted in English and Mandarin speakers to evaluate: (1) the effects of processing two acoustically different languages; (2) the effects of sex; (3) the effects of voice onset time (VOT). In Experiment 1, 24 English and 24 Mandarin right-handed speaking participants were tested with an existing English syllable test and a newly developed Mandarin syllable test. In Experiment 2, 40 English and 40 Mandarin right-handed speaking participants were tested with a series of newly developed dichotic listening tests. In both experiments, dichotic listening tasks were constructed to test the impact of lexical tones on lateralised perception of English and Mandarin monosyllables. These results indicated that lexical tones were primarily processed by the left hemisphere in native speakers of tonal languages whereas the left- hemispheric specialisation was relatively weaker in speakers with no prior knowledge of lexical tones. All groups, except Mandarin speaking males were more lateralised on the English syllables. In addition, men exhibited a greater right ear advantage (REA) than women, indicating sex effects in the magnitude of REA. This sex difference was present mainly for English speaking men on the English test and the Mandarin speaking men on the Mandarin test. These results indicate that cultural language experience/learning effects may interact with biological sex differences in speech perception. Furthermore, Experiment 3 reveals that syllable pairs with a short VOT English syllable in the left ear and a long VOT English syllable in the right ear elicited the strongest REA. This finding indicates that VOT of the test materials may also affect ear preference. The overall results indicate that speech perception is affected by language background, sex and characteristics of the syllables tested.

No description available.

This thesis examines the complex questions of what the obstacles are to becoming nativelike and how they can be overcome. Questions for framing the literature review are developed by means of a down-to-earth preliminary case study of a nativelike French learner of English. The subsequent literature review focuses on key issues such as the supply of input, attention to input, output practise opportunities, attention to output, identity, and learning motivation. An 'ideal' model for reaching nativelikeness is established for further investigation. More specifically, five conditions for overcoming barriers to reaching nativelikeness are hypothesised. In order to test these five conditions, an investigation is reported into the learning of Mandarin by a cohort of undergraduate students of Mandarin at a British university. Using carefully constructed interview questions and questionnaires, details were gathered of their knowledge, approach and attitude to learning, and how they lived during their year abroad in China. Their nativelikeness was judged by independent monolingual Chinese listeners. The main findings are that there are different learning obstacles in the process of L2 learning for different learners, due to both their different language learning experiences and their particular stances relative to the target language. The key conclusion of the study is that nativelikeness is most likely to be achieved when learners have a persistent motivation to speak in a nativelike manner, develop an open/adaptive sense of identification with the L2 native group, have a guaranteed supply of on-going 'ideal' input, and achieve a 'balanced' attention to both input and output.

With the rapid growth of the Internet and the recent developments in translation technology, the way translators carry out their translation-oriented research has changed dramatically. Resources used by translators to conduct such research have diversified and largely moved from paper to online. However, whilst the number and the variety of online resources available to translators is growing exponentially, little is known about the interactions between translators and these resources. The present research empirically examines the use of online resources by professional translators during their translation-oriented research activities and it does so from an information behaviour perspective. As a first study of its kind, it focusses on freelance professional translators working at their normal place of work. Specifically, this work addresses the questions of the nature and quantity of resources used by translators as well as the time they spend on research activities. Furthermore, it examines the individual differences between the participants during the research activities. These differences are studied by considering the types of resources used and the ways they are accessed, and by investigating the many volume- and time-related aspects of each translator’s research activities. The main contribution of this study lies in the identification of patterns and their systematisation through a multidimensional analysis, culminating in the formulation of two taxonomies - the Resource Type User Taxonomy (RTUT) and Taxonomy of Translator Research Styles (TTRS). It is argued that whilst RTUT may largely depend on technology developments, TTRS reflects the more innate traits of translators’ information behaviour. By employing a two-stage, multi-method approach (Global Survey, N=540 and Main Study N=16), and by conducting it remotely, through the Internet, the present study represents a quasi-naturalistic research design which aims to observe translation processes as they happen in translators’ natural working environments. This methodology in itself constitutes a contribution to translation process studies.

No description available.

The relevance of research to practice has long been debated and in recent years, the topic has returned to prominence as academics are increasingly required to demonstrate the impact of their scholarly activity outwith the academy. As the field of Audiovisual Translation is now firmly established as a sub-discipline of Translation Studies and digitalisation has fundamentally transformed subtitling practice, it is timely to explore the contribution that academic endeavours in subtitling make to its professional practice. Work to date has been based on argumentation, with scant empirical evidence and lacking the practitioner’s perspective. This study aims to investigate the extent to which academic research in subtitling impacts on professional practice. This mixed method, participant-oriented research surveyed subtitling practitioners in Europe to generate empirical data on the topic for the first time. Drawing on the sociology of the professions and the emerging field of Research Impact, this thesis deconstructs the relationship between research and practice to provide a systematic analysis of the impact of research on practice, based on the professional reality of subtitling practitioners. It highlights shortcomings in previous conceptualisations of research relevance to practice and the findings move the debate from a falsely dichotomous ‘theory versus practice’ argument towards a revised definition which accounts for a wider, more nuanced understanding of impact. The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for academia, practice, industry and pedagogy.