This study is about the development of a retrainable reading ability estimation system based on concepts from the Text Readability Indexing (TRI) domain. This system aims to promote self-directed language learning and to serve as an educational reinforcement tool for English language learners. Student essays were used to calibrate the system which provided realistic approximations of their actual reading levels. In this thesis, we compared the performance of two vector semantics-based algorithms, namely, Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) and Concept Indexing (CI) for content analysis. Since these algorithms rely on the bag-of-words approach and inherently lack grammatical analysis, we augmented them using Part-of-Speech (POS) n-gram features to approximate the syntactic complexity of text documents. Results show that directly combining the content-and grammar-based feature sets yielded lower classification accuracies than utilising each feature set alone. Using a sparsification strategy, we were able to optimise the combination process and, with the integration of POS bi-grams, we achieved our overall highest mean exact agreement accuracies (MEAA) of 0.924 and 0.952 for LSI and CI, respectively. We have also conducted error analyses on our results where we examined overestimation and underestimation error types to uncover the probable causes for the systems' misclassifications.

This thesis aims to explore and analyse the culture of violence which is, arguably, deeply embedded in South Korean schooling and to suggest how this can be re-directed towards a culture of peace through peace education. In order to achieve this goal, fieldwork was conducted for a year, employing critical ethnography and case studies. Data gained from this fieldwork were analysed and discussed within the conceptual frameworks of Bourdieu’s symbolic violence and peace education theories – Hick’s defining peace in particular. This finding of this thesis fall into four parts: some selected cultural elements of everyday school life; symbolized and institutionalized violence; authoritative school management and increasingly atypical employment; and how to change this culture of violence to peace: possibilities of peace education? These findings are discussed in relation to theories to show the ways in which socio-historical backgrounds and ideologies (e.g. colonized false ideologies) are infused in South Korean schools fostering a culture of violence, and the extent to which peace education may be relevant for changing the status quo by changing individuals’ value bases, which, it is hoped, can bring changes to the wider society. Four themes are discussed: school habitus, experienced as necessary in the field; symbolic violence in classrooms: misrecognizing the procedures of education; and defining peace in classrooms; pedagogical change, the possible educative remedy of transforming individuals to contribute to a culture of peace. Throughout the thesis, educational implications are elicited and subjected to scrutiny.

An important component of the New Public Management, which has spread through many countries in the world, is the emergence of hybrid governance, a structure which has replaced traditional hierarchical governance in many parts of the public sector. Hybrid governance lies between hierarchical governance and market governance, yet beyond this there is a relative lack of information on how hybrid governance works in detail. This thesis uses principal agent theory to examine the structure and form of hybrid governance. In particular, the analysis presented allows the construction of a three-dimensional governance model to explore the issue of how hybrid governance works in the context of incentives, a relatively neglected area of the public management literature. Applying the theory developed in its first half to the rapid change of higher education in China, this thesis demonstrates how hybrid governance can be analysed through an incentive approach which focuses on reducing state authority, enhancing academic power and creating market rewards. The research findings show that the Chinese government has employed these three incentive methods to motivate universities and their staff towards improved performance, and that hybrid governance has replaced traditional hierarchical governance in Chinese higher education, however the effect of changing governance structure is not significant. A reducing, but still high degree of centralised state control has restricted the incentives produced from market rewards and university academics, and the imbalance of the three incentive forces in hybrid governance impairs the further improvement of the efficiency of public service provision. The main contributions of this thesis, therefore, are to give a better understanding of the nature of hybrid governance, and to expose the limit of Chinese higher education reforms.

This is a study exploring the effects of blog assisted language learning (BALL) in the EFL writing classroom in Taiwan. It focuses principally on a comparative experimental project that was carried out over the period of one academic year. The project involved two groups of first year university students of a low intermediate level in English. There were 25 students in each group, and both groups were taught by the same teacher-researcher (i.e. the author of this thesis). In this thesis, we present a detailed statistical examination of various aspects of BALL, including students’ writing performance, learning motivation towards writing and self-efficacy beliefs with regard to their EFL writing skills and abilities. We also take a corpus-based look into the written language collected from both of the groups using a series of numerical counts obtained by computerised measurements. We also present the results of a qualitative, phenomenological analysis that reflects the nature of the participants’ BALL experience. The overall argument of the thesis is that BALL is at best no more effective than traditional approaches to EFL writing pedagogy, and in some cases is actually less effective than traditional, low-tech methods.

The purpose of this study is to examine the level of female participation in leadership activities in the University of Cape Coast (UCC). Leadership is experienced at various levels within the university - student, staff, committee and management levels in the university. However, the positions are mainly held by men. This study examined the institutional structures and cultural factors responsible for the dearth of women in leadership and why it is necessary to have more women vigorously involved in the decision-making in the university. Few women reaching the top have managed it successfully because of the exposure to various forms of institutional and cultural barriers. This state of affairs works against the effective utilization of human resources in the university. Ensuring that all individuals irrespective of their gender are equally motivated to participate in the decision-making process holds the potential for maximising the human resources within the university. In this study, the barriers to female participation in leadership have been explored. A qualitative research design guided the study. Twenty semi-structured interviews, participant observation and the use of unobtrusive observation were the main data collection techniques adopted. For data analysis, 'open and axial' coding approaches based on the inductive and deductive reasoning were utilised. A significant outcome of the study includes the fact that very few women are in head of departments and deanship positions. Women are almost absent in the top administrative echelon. Females occupy only designated 'vice/deputy' positions in students and staff unions. However, few academic women who have reached the top have managed successfully. The study concludes by expressing the view that women in UCC face several challenges which impede their progress towards leadership aspirations. These include institutional structures and culturally entrenched norms. Based on these findings and conclusions, a number of recommendations have been made to improve the chances of women in both academic and administrative departments to break the glass-ceiling and advance into leadership positions. These include the following: (1) the need for professional development opportunities for women to enable them to pursue postgraduate programmes after which they could be employed as administrators or academics, and (2) the institutionalization of policies in support of the reservation of quotas for women in some leadership positions, including chairing some of the sub-committees of the Governing Council and the Academic Board to ensure fair participation of women in critical decision-making levels in the university.

One of the key issues surrounding participation in basic schooling is the phenomenon of school dropout. Dropout is known not as a single event but a process that is not well understood. The rationale for this thesis argues that unless the dropout process is understood, there will be no meaningful intervention to curb it. This study therefore explores the dropout experience of basic school children in Ghana. In the context of this exploratory study, informed by the concerns of achieving education for all children by the year 2015, I sought to gain insight into the processes that lead children to drop out of school, how dropout occurs, the manifestation of dropout and the policy implications of dropout for free compulsory universal basic education in Ghana. The research inquiry is guided by two main research questions: what are the experiences of dropout children? And how is school dropout manifested? Specifically, the research questions sought to explore children‘s understanding and interpretation of dropout, how dropout occurred; what conditions within and outside school do children regard as responsible for their dropping out, and what the implications of the findings are for universalising universal basic education in Ghana. In exploring the experience of dropout children, I tracked 18 children who had initial access to basic education but stopped schooling at some point for their stories. I used multiple methods of data collection, viz. in-depth interviews, observations, photographs and school records. From the data gathered, the following are the main findings of the study: Concerning the dropout process, children experience dropout first as temporary—sporadic, event and cohort based on their economic survival needs and later permanently—unsettled and settled as a result of becoming significantly overage and the diminished value of schooling. Conditions both within school – teacher factor, school practices and processes, and outside – poverty, opportunity cost of schooling, networks among children to encourage dropout by pushing and/or pulling children out of school. As a process, pupils go through three phases – disadvantage, disaffection and disappearance to become school dropouts. It is argued that, to prevent pupils from dropping out of school and to encourage children who already dropped out to return to school. Education policy would have to focus more on addressing the peculiar needs of children who show sights of entering the dropout process. Also, it is necessary to differentiate out of school children – dropouts from out of school children –never enrolled when designing and implementing interventions for universalising basic education.

This thesis explores how students can be helped by learner autonomy-focused instruction to develop motivation in learning English in a Japanese university EFL setting. It also aims to ascertain the factors in learner autonomy support that account for its relationship with a higher degree of students’ motivation. Both quantitative and qualitative data from 21 students in the group with learner autonomy support (including metacognitive awareness-raising, instruction of learning strategies, and the use of extrinsic rewards) and 19 students who received the conventional instruction without learner autonomy support were analyzed. The focus of the analysis is to determine the trajectory of motivational development in terms of type and the students’ perception of their level of motivation using the self-determination theory (SDT) framework over 13 weeks of instruction in a university English course. Results suggest that students receiving learner autonomy support performed better and were more motivated than students who did not receive the support. They also indicate that increased and more self-determined motivational development occurred only in the students who received autonomy support.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitude of Kuwaiti primary teachers and head teachers toward including pupils with disabilities in mainstream schools and classrooms in the State of Kuwait. The two-part study utilises a ‘two methods approach’ to reveal the attitudes of teachers and head teachers in primary mainstream and special schools toward pupils with disabilities and including them in mainstream classrooms. The first study was a questionnaire-based survey of 560 teachers and head teachers currently working in the 209 mainstream and special primary schools in Kuwait. The questionnaire used was the Mainstream Attitude Survey (MAS) developed by Alghazo (2000). Results showed a mixed attitude towards inclusion of pupils with disabilities, and that, overall, teachers were quite negative about the concept. Teachers from mainstream schools were more supportive of inclusion than special school teachers and, male teachers were more supportive than female teachers. The second study involved interviews with 30 teachers, head teachers and 4 decision makers. These revealed nuances of opinion with respondents from both school types supporting inclusion from two main positions. The first emphasised that inclusion was an ethically sound movement; the second emphasised inclusion would be socially beneficial to society and the development of all pupils. Of those who were negative towards inclusion, criticisms were mostly based on the idea that while there were likely to be social benefits of inclusion, these benefits were not significant enough to justify placing the academic achievement of mainstream pupils at risk.

The aim of this study is to examine the level of understanding and use of English phrasal verbs (PVs) amongst Malaysian learners of English. It is generally agreed that idiomatic expressions, including phrasal verbs, present great difficulties for language learners. Various reasons have been highlighted, which include the nature of PVs themselves, as well as crosslinguistic factors. Two different types of methodology - survey and corpus work - are used to find answers to the research questions. In the survey component, the respondents include both teachers and learners in selected secondary schools in Malaysia. A PV test was given to the student respondents, while questionnaires were used to get teachers’ feedback regarding the common practice of vocabulary teaching particularly with respect to PVs, as well as their views on the vocabulary contents presented in school textbooks. The corpus work is based on the English of Malaysian Students (EMAS) and the Bank of English (BoE) corpus, and 24 PVs were selected for analysis. Drawing on findings from the survey and corpus work, an examination of school textbooks and learners’ dictionaries was then carried out. Results indicate that, in addition to learners’ proficiency level and gender, the nature of PVs and crosslinguistic factors, particularly the learners’ L1, play a significant role in Malaysian learners’ understanding and use of PVs. Their difficulties with PVs are further compounded as textbooks and dictionaries were also found to provide insufficient and inappropriate information with respect to PVs. This thesis makes a number of suggestions to further improve the present scenario of PVs teaching and learning. It is suggested that the teaching of PVs should also take into account learners’ L1, and that learners can learn and understand PVs better if they are made aware of the lexical and grammatical patterns of PVs. Instead of relying on intuition, perhaps it is time for Malaysian textbooks and dictionaries to consider integrating the use of corpus into their selection of PVs to be presented to learners.

Aim: This study is part of a digital activation plan that was done for Sony Ericsson’s GreenHeart™ team in the fall of 2009. The investigation presents and discusses what Sony Ericsson and its 4 main competitors (Nokia, LG, Samsung and Motorola) have done within green digital marketing and how the subject was communicated on their webpages. The aim of this study is to: • To present and analyze consumer insights on ecologically-driven technology • To present and analyze the eco-marketing digital practices and strategies used by 4 competitive mobile phone brands • To propose a digital green marketing strategy for GreenHeart™ Method: This study consists of interviews with Sony Ericsson personnel, literature and web analysis that focus on the green initiatives of mobile phone manufacturers in the digital channel. Result & Conclusions: A main issue with green products is that consumers tend to find them not as good as non-green products. Consumer insight studies suggest that that the best way to communicate and promote green products is to focus on their direct benefits to consumers in comparison to non-green products, and communicate the green benefits only as a secondary message. This was also supported by theories such as Levit’s concept of “marketing myopia”, which describes a marketer’s tendency to focus on product features rather than consumer benefits. When analyzing the webpages of Sony Ericsson’s top 4 competitors, it was 3 evident that all 4 mobile phone manufacturers employed green digital marketing in quite a homogenous way. One striking similarity was that all brands have separated their green initiatives from the core of the website. It is a possibility that marketers have done this intentionally since consumers tend to associate green with lesser quality. In order for Sony Ericsson GreenHeart™ to stand out from the competitors, it was therefore suggested that green information should be integrated into the website and to communicate GreenHeart™ as a value-added product feature rather than a product in itself. Suggestions for future research: It is recommended to continue this research and to compare the findings from the mobile phone industry with other industries, such as the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), where Green and Organic branding at a glance seem to have been developed strongly. It would be interesting to gain a perspective on the similarities and differences in the green marketing practices of different industries, but also to gain knowledge and inspiration on how green consumer electronics could be marketed in a more effective and integrated fashion. In this perspective, analyzing any variations between on- and off-line marketing initiatives would be interesting to see if the green message changes in a typical marketing mix. Moreover, it would be good to counter analyze the psychological mechanisms why, for certain industries such as food, green products are regarded as high quality whilst in another industry like electronics, green products are regarded as having lesser quality and business value. Contribution of the thesis: The most important finding of this study is that all the analyzed mobile phone manufacturers have many green initiatives. However, they are communicated separately from all other marketing and communication initiatives in the main digital channel. They tend to be set aside that consumers need to search for them, thus the messages are not delivered seamlessly. This makes it appear that green initiatives are being regarded as something obligatory rather than something that has true business value. Using Theoretical arguments on communication strategy from Levit and ClearWorks show how this, in reality, can be changed and be integrated with product marketing where it can generate a more significant business value