The aim of this study was to investigate factors enhancing Chinese tertiary students' active participation in English group discussion.In China, tertiary students are encouraged to read, write and listen to the English language. Despite at least eight years of learning English, most students still cannot communicate effectively in English. This phenomenon has been described in China as 'Dumb English'. The Government and tertiary educators recognised the problem reforming the curriculum and related educational policy. One of the main reforms has been the inclusion of 'group discussion' into the learning of English. However, despite this initiative to date many students have remained passively silent in these discussions, thus decreasing the discussion's effectiveness in promoting spoken English fluency.This qualitative and interpretive research utilised the appreciative inquiry (AI) research approach in designing the research process. Data from the interviews of eighteen tertiary students was summarised into provocative propositions and developed from there into an action plan for use in the English education in China.The findings of this study included the discussion topic, the characteristics of the group members, and teacher's roles were the three most important factors enhancing active participation in the 'group discussion'. Provocative propositions, summarising the common themes emerging in the findings, were constructed. For example, most students were interested in simple, practical and familiar discussion topics. Based on the propositions, I explored an action plan outlining suggestions for English teachers in Chinese higher institutions to enhance their student's active participation in group discussion.I have surmised that student's active participation in English group discussions can be effectively increased by attending to discussion topics, student group characteristics and the teacher's roles. Simple and practical discussion topics, familiar and interactive group members and a teacher who often encourages students, knowing how to assist the learners effectively are all important factors that enhance student's participation in group discussions. Increased participation is likely to result in improved English fluency amongst Chinese students.I outlined some of the highlights and benefits of the study such as the importance of the discussion topic for second language learners, the characteristics of more successful student groups, and the importance of the teacher's role in facilitating group discussions. By contrast some limitations of this research included the similarity of the student's responses as this might suggest a limited range of students, as well as having all the participants from one institution. Finally, I made some recommendations for improvement in practice.

There is awareness and concern in Japan that the process of teaching and learning English as a foreign language in the school system does not produce students who can communicate in the target language. This is especially true of communication in the spoken mode. Attempts have been made to move towards more communicative language teaching, despite constraints such as large class size, compulsory use of structurally-organized textbooks, and grammar-based university entrance examinations. However, such attempts do not seem to have been particularly successful. The purpose of this study is to suggest modifications to the teaching of English in upper secondary schools in Japan which could enable students to develop their communicative competence and also to consider implications for the assessment of spoken communication. Chapter I describes the scope and background of the study. Chapter II looks at the teaching of English in upper secondary schools in Japan, discussing aspects such as the place of English in the total school curriculum and constraints on the introduction of spoken communicative activities. Chapter III discusses the theory and practice of the Communicative Approach to Language Teaching in the English teaching context in Japan. Chapter IV offers suggestions for incorporating spoken communication in English lessons at upper secondary school level. In Chapter V, the problem of assessing oral communicative performance is considered in practical terms. The final chapter highlights major constraints and points to recent developments which may give an impetus to a move towards more communicative teaching of English as a foreign language in Japanese schools. It is intended that this Study Report will provide guidelines for the feasible introduction of spoken communicative activities in large classes at upper secondary level and that it will offer practical suggestions for assessing students' performance in such activities.

Traditionally, children's formal introduction to print has occurred when they enter primary school around five years of age. The progress of this literacy development typically has been from the child's spoken language into reading. In this approach writing emerges out of reading experience. Montessori's theory suggests that children can come to literacy via writing, specifically via the sounds of the alphabet. Her approach rests on the view that the alphabet can represent the sounds of spoken language. Given the sounds/symbols to write the child can learn to map spoken language to print. As children explore the print system in writing they will build up knowledge and understanding sufficient to support easy access to reading. According to Montessori the pre-school years offer an optimal time for this development to occur. She maintains that where literacy acquisition emerges out of spoken language via writing into reading the potential for creative written expression may be more available to the child than where the progression is first into reading. In this latter approach the thoughts and conventions of other writers (reading) may limit the child's expression. Theoretical issues regarding young children's capacities to learn as well as issues surrounding the writing/reading precedence are discussed. To examine the process from children's spoken language into writing, a series of naturalistic observations were carried out in three Montessori classes. Children's progress from oracy to literacy and the learning environments which facilitated this process are documented and discussed. In presenting the children's learning environments an informal exposition of Montessori's approach to language learning at the pre-school level is given.

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Computer Processing of Oriental Languages. Language Technology for the Knowledge-based Economy: 22nd International Conference, ICCPOL 2009, Hong Kong, March 26-27, 2009. Proceedings

<p><italic>Tentative Embrace</italic> is a composition in five movements for flute, clarinet, saxophone quartet, vibraphone, piano, string quartet and tape track. The tape track features spoken text and soundscape recordings gathered in and around the Sonoran desert of the Southwestern United States. The text and the soundscape recordings, along with the composed music, are all my own work. </p> <p>This piece embodies my efforts to interpret and translate the complicated sensation of being a human alone in nature - of wanting to belong, realizing I do belong, but also not quite belonging. The Sonoran desert, the site of inspiration for this work, is an especially revelatory space that heightens these simultaneous sensations of connection and disconnection; it draws attention to the biological points of contact between human beings and their natural surroundings, but it also emphasizes those cultural and material differences that we carry with us into such a space. Through the combination of the music, the text and the soundscapes, I work to convey the ever-shifting boundaries between the self and everything else. </p> <p>For the music, I find formal inspiration in the slow and cyclical pace of the desert itself; musical ideas unfold gradually through ever-varying repetitions. Each movement is devoted to a particular phenomenon experienced in the desert, and while the text and the soundscapes work to articulate the specifics of these phenomena, the music gives form to their structural and sensual suggestion. I move back and forth between specifics and abstractions; as such, some of my translations of this space will be more audible than others, but each of them demonstrate this attempt at forging an artistic point of connection with this environment.</p> / Dissertation

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