Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Queensland, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

Findings of empirical studies into the importance of input in foreign language learning suggest that, to provide sufficient communicative foreign language input in the context of school language classrooms, learners must be taught through the medium of the target language. Research shows that teachers who share a mother tongue with their learners often find it difficult to avoid breaking into the mother tongue to deal with classroom management but, when they do so, they not only restrict the amount of meaningful input to which the learners are exposed, but also risk slowing down the acquisition process New data (gathered by means of two postal surveys during session 1987-88) show that non-native secondary school teachers of French in the Strathclyde Region of Scotland identify a hierarchy of difficulty among classroom management tasks ranging from tasks which are moderately simple to conduct in the foreign language (such as classroom organisation) to tasks which are extremely difficult to perform in the target language (such as discussing grammar). Further analysis of the survey data reveals that teachers who have a positive attitude towards the use of the target language as the medium of instruction have certain defining characteristics, the most important of which relate to enthusiasm for the foreign language. In an attempt to find a way of helping teachers to teach through the medium of the target language, this thesis investigates claims made by practising teachers that teaching co-operatively with a second fluent target language speaker helps them maintain the use of French as the medium of instruction. Using survey and observational data, the thesis concludes that co-operative teaching can both increase the quantity, and improve the quality of foreign language input to which learners are exposed. Furthermore, co-operative teaching is a valuable tool in the organisation and implementation of communicative language teaching methodology. The thesis is in two parts Part one provides the theoretical basis of the thesis, and describes the research context and design. Part two analyses the findings of the mail administered surveys and of the small-scale observation study, and draws conclusions based on these findings NOTE: In this thesis, while it is recognised that learners and teachers are just as likely to be female as male, for ease of expression they are treated as "impersonal masculine" throughout.

 Based on the institution-based view, this thesis investigates the effects of subnational institutional environments within a host country on foreign direct investment decisionsand the performance of foreign affiliates. Subnational institutional environments refer to the rules of the game of a society in a subnational region, shaping the manners of individual and organizational activities in the region. I focus on two aspects ofsubnational institutional environments, the level of subnational institutional development and legitimating actors’ cognition of wholly owned foreign subsidiaries in a subnational region, and then develop three studies examining the influences of subnational institutional environments on the entry mode choices of multinational corporations (MNCs), the performance of foreign affiliates, and the subsequent expansions of foreign affiliates. The first study proposes that the levels of subnational economic, political and social institutional development have positive effects on MNCs to take wholly owned subsidiaries (WOSs) at the time of entry, while the high level of acceptance in legitimating actors’ cognition of wholly owned foreign subsidiaries also encourages MNCs to choose WOSs as the entry modes. The influences of the two aspects of subnational institutional environments on the entry mode choices of MNCs vary in degree. The second study examines the independent and relative influences of the levels of subnational economic, political and social institutional development on the level of and variation in foreign affiliate performance. The third study hypothesizes that the subsequent expansions of foreign affiliates within a subnational region are contingent onboth the levels of subnational economic, political and social institutional development and the affiliates’ relative performance to their aspiration levels. The poor performance feedback stimulates a foreign affiliate to take advantage of high levels of subnational political and social institutional development for changing the current situation via expanding the operational size within a subnational region. Drawing from the foreign-invested firms positing in different subnational regions of a large institutional transition economy, China, I test hypothesized relationships based on a measurement of subnational institutional development that captures economic, political and social institutional conditions of subnational regions within the country. This thesis provides implications for both theoretical development and management practices. / published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This thesis includes two chapters investigating issues related to Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In the first chapter, I exploit one of the most important conflicts of the 20th century between what are currently the world's second and third largest economies, the Japanese invasion of China from 1937 to 1945, to investigate the long-run impact of conflicts among countries on cross-border trade and investment. I find that Japanese multinationals are less likely to invest in Chinese regions that suffered greater civilian casualties during the Japanese invasion, and these regions also trade less with Japan. This study shows that historical animosity still matters for international trade and investment, despite the trend toward a flat world. In the second chapter, by using an extensive data set on foreign invested enterprises (FIEs) in the Chinese mainland, I employ discrete choice model developed by McFadden (1974) to examine the factors determining the locational choices of FDI. Our empirical analysis shows that FIEs from source countries that are more remote institutionally from the Chinese mainland exhibit a higher degree of sensitivity toward regional economic institutions in their choice of FDI location. Interestingly, we also detect a pattern of asymmetric sensitivity toward institutional quality, i.e., FIEs coming from countries with better institutions than China are more sensitive to institutional difference and there is no effect of institutional difference on FIEs from countries with worse institutions than China. Institutional distance could also cast differentiated impacts on location choice by Joint Ventures (JVs) and Wholly-owned Enterprises (WOEs), FIEs coming from the source countries with high proportion of ethnic Chinese and FIEs coming from source countries with low proportion of ethnic Chinese in their overall populations. / published_or_final_version / Business / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Higher education today operates in a globalized environment. Within this setting, study abroad has been designated by the federal government as an educational tool to promote national security, U.S. leadership and active engagement in the international community. Roughly over 190,000 American students went abroad in 2003-2004. The 2005 Lincoln Commission report recommended that the U.S. send one million students abroad annually by 2017. This lofty goal will be difficult to obtain without having more comprehensive data on why and how students choose to study abroad. The purpose of this study was to explore undergraduate student decision-making, expectation of and experience in study abroad. Factors that influence decision-making as well as expectations and on-site experiences were examined. The researcher drew from students participating in the Commerce School of Business International Programs at Respected State University as the sample, using a college choice theoretical framework built on years of previous research on the tactics of college-bound students and the college student experience. The researcher utilized qualitative research methods relying on interviews of the participants. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and then coded. The data was member-checked and peer reviewed for validity. Surveys were employed to bolster interview data and to add reliability. The Anderson Model of Study Abroad Choice and Model of Study Abroad Student Expectations provide two frameworks for how students make decisions and what they expect when studying abroad. Critical factors for these models included: travel and location, educational attainment, aspirations, background, cultural exposure, personal growth, language development, financial variables, social environment, and institutional climate and characteristics. The study also revealed that study abroad experience can be explained using Terenzini and Reason's (2005) college experience model. The study contributes to the field of international education, academic affairs and student affairs by filling a large gap that exists in research on American students abroad. By examining the nexus between choice, expectation and experience in study abroad, the study provides rich data that can help to improve study abroad programming. / text

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In the face of tightened loans from commercial banks, skyrocketing interest rates, reduced export demand, and weak domestic industries, the countries of the Andean Community (Ancom) turned their eyes, in the early 1990s, to the promise of FOI. Paradoxically, despite the success of the incentives put in place to attract FOI, Ancom failed to attract the sought after technology flows that would assist them in diversifying their exports, strengthening their industry, and retaining a higher portion of the value-added activities in the production chain. FOI was mainly directed to economic sectors entailing enclave-type activities with weak linkages to the rest of the economy as well as often low levels of local processing of resources, unstable international prices, low tax income for non-renewable resources, and environmental contamination. The aim of this thesis is to investigate, first, what are the historical sector-level FOI patterns of inward FOI in Ancom; and second, what are their determinants. In particular, we explore the role that local political and civil institutions play in determining inward FOI, and whether this role varies from one sector to another. We present a newly compiled dataset of inward FDI stocks, disaggregated by eight welldefined economic sectors within each country. The contributions of this dataset are, first, unprecedented time coverage, extending for an entire extra decade, the 1980s, for the countries of Colombia and Peru, for every disaggregated economic sector; second, the presentation of previously unpublished FDI stock data for the Colombian oil and petroleum sector; and third, the reorganisation of the existing individual country datasets into a comprehensive regional dataset. The outcome is the creation of the strongest available statistical foundation, based on published as well as unpublished figures from official sources. From an econometric perspective our analysis uses techniques that allow exploring nonstationary processes such as the analysis of stochastic and time trends, cointegration, and vector-error-correction models. Key findings include the importance of the quality of the institutional quality of a country in determining the industrial structure of inward FOI. Furthermore, we find that institutions are multidimensional and, as such, changes in the quality of different institutions often play conflicting roles in determining sector-level FDI. In the sectors of: Mining, Utilities, and Communications and Transport, FDI is associated with low levels of political rights, and high levels of civil liberties, whilst, the opposite holds for FOI in Agriculture, Manufacturing , Construction, Finance and Oil/Petroleum. Market size and trade openness are found to be important determinant in most sectors, whilst wages are either insignificant or inversely related to FOI. We also examine, from a historical perspective, the political economy surrounding changes in FOI policy as well as the evolving FDI trends, made available by the new dataset. We find, on the one hand, that the degree of political sensitivity to liberalisation, at sector-level, determines the availability and contract-modality of opportunities for foreign investors. On the other hand, geographical characteristics of each sector determine the type of political environment that is most conducive to increases in FDI. For this purpose we propose an extension of the definition of key geographical characteristics. We present an original framework, matching the two dimensions of sector-level characteristics to FDI contractmodality and political-conducive environment to increased FDI.

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The United States Constitution divides the authority over U S. foreign affairs between the President and Congress. Both institutions, the executive and legislative, share in the making of foreign policy and each plays important roles that are different but often overlap. The United States Congress (House of Representatives and Senate), regarded as the tribune of the people, has often been a sounding board for popular discontent and malaise over some controversial foreign policies such as the Vietnam War, Iran Contra and South Africa. Since the 1960s the U. S. Congress has often dra strength from its discontent with the executive branch to assert a stronger role in American foreign policy. This dissatisfaction with the executive branch often come as a result of arrogation of certain powers in the American foreign affairs by the President. This study examines one

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts