No / The company, a market-leading language school chain with five schools in the UK, struggles in the successful provision of UK homestay accommodation for its students. Although a complex problem, it is caused mainly by the students’ pre-arrival expectations of their accommodation quality, and a complicated and only partially-adequate booking process, making for an inefficient process. A proposed solution to the problem is an accommodation internet portal. This paper describes a study that investigated stakeholder reaction to the proposed solution with the aim of enabling the company’s management to understand what is necessary to achieve stakeholder ‘buy in’ and thus benefit from the Portal’s efficiencies, and ultimately to decide on whether to sponsor the Portal’s development. Focus groups and interviews were used to investigate the participants’ understanding of stakeholder theory, to categorise them as stakeholders, to elicit their reactions to the proposed Portal idea, and to gather suggestions on its features and the potential issues its introduction might cause. Despite there being a range of views regarding the introduction of the Portal, the results showed that if correctly implemented the Portal’s radical transformation of the accommodation booking process would lead to significant organisational efficiencies. The conclusion recommends that for the company to benefit from the potential efficiencies of a portal, its management introduce a hybrid portal where users can select the level of engagement they have with it, that the company consults its stakeholders on the design of the Portal, and that the change process is managed carefully and effectively.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-215). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2004. / Thesis advisor(s): Samuel E. Buttrey. Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-52). Also available online.

[pt] Este estudo analisa os fatores motivacionais que norteiam as decisões de compra dos usuários de cursos de idiomas no Brasil. O referencial teórico, que serviu de base para o estudo, utiliza a literatura existente sobre os fatores individuais que direcionam o comportamento do consumidor, apresenta as principais teorias da motivação e analisa as etapas do processo de decisão de compra. A metodologia de pesquisa está apresentada de forma detalhada, bem como os procedimentos para o trabalho de campo, cujos dados foram obtidos a partir de 119 entrevistas em profundidade, realizadas em 5 capitais do Brasil e utilizando a Técnica de Encadeamento proposta por Reynolds e Gutman (1988). O resultado da pesquisa indicou que os usuários de cursos de idiomas são mobilizados por 3 grandes grupos de motivações: Sucesso Financeiro e Profissional, Desenvolvimento Pessoal e Relacionamento Social. Durante as entrevistas, cada uma dessas motivações foi desdobrada em benefícios emocionais e funcionais desejados pelos sujeitos da pesquisa e, a partir desses benefícios, foi possível identificar os atributos mais importantes que os cursos de idiomas precisam ter para despertar o desejo de compra nos seus usuários. O trabalho mostrou-se particularmente útil para subsidiar a formulação das estratégias competitivas das empresas que atuam no segmento de cursos de idiomas, em particular, das estratégias de comunicação. / [en] This study analyzes the motivational factors that guide the purchase decisions of language school consumers in Brazil. The theoretical references on which the study was based use the existing literature on the following subjects: individual factors that determine the consumer`s behavior, motivational theories, the process involved in consumer decision making and the evolution of the language school market in Brazil. The research methodology is presented in detail as are the procedures used in the field work whose data were gathered through 119 in-depth interviews conducted in five Brazilian capital cities using the Laddering Technique proposed by Reynolds and Gutman (1988). The results point out that 3 major motivation groups move language school consumers: Financial and Professional Success, Personal Development and Social Relationship. During the interviews, the subjects of the research separated each motivation into the desired emotional and functional benefits, and these benefits made it possible to identify the most important features language schools must possess to arouse a purchase desire among its consumers. This work was particularly useful to promote the development of competitive strategies for corporations that operate in the language schools segment; more specifically in the development of communication strategies.

Many immigrant (minority language) parents send their children to heritage language programs in hopes of helping their children maintain connections to their mother cultures and languages. This case study aims to explore the challenges minority language parents may encounter with decisions related to heritage language retention through community-based heritage language programs in a Canadian Chinese diaspora community. Five parent participants were recruited based on their diverse geographical and linguistic backgrounds. From interviews with these parents five themes emerged. These are 1) the nature of parental expectations regarding the function of heritage education, 2) the differences between heritage education and mainstream education, 3) varying perceptions of being part of a cultural minority, 4) manners of negotiating ethnic identity, and 5) the issue of diaspora values. The findings may shed light on how heritage education may be further developed, and also provide educators and policy makers with a better understanding of the importance of heritage education from the parents’ perspective.

Many immigrant (minority language) parents send their children to heritage language programs in hopes of helping their children maintain connections to their mother cultures and languages. This case study aims to explore the challenges minority language parents may encounter with decisions related to heritage language retention through community-based heritage language programs in a Canadian Chinese diaspora community. Five parent participants were recruited based on their diverse geographical and linguistic backgrounds. From interviews with these parents five themes emerged. These are 1) the nature of parental expectations regarding the function of heritage education, 2) the differences between heritage education and mainstream education, 3) varying perceptions of being part of a cultural minority, 4) manners of negotiating ethnic identity, and 5) the issue of diaspora values. The findings may shed light on how heritage education may be further developed, and also provide educators and policy makers with a better understanding of the importance of heritage education from the parents’ perspective.

The Canadian language training sector is a booming industry for those interested in capitalizing on the worldwide demand for English, such as private language schools. Thus, this study analyzed the websites of two Montreal-based private language schools to elucidate how these schools use discursive and visual resources to advance their ideology. Defined as a form of social practice (Fairclough, 1992; Pare, 2002), ideology is the way in which the schools are acting discursively in order to serve their for-profit interests. Specifically, the study investigated how both schools manage the tension between their claims to educational legitimacy and their business concerns. The study used analytical strategies from Fairclough's (1992, 2003) Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Kress and van Leuuven's (2006) visual grammar. Findings revealed that the schools further their ideology by positioning and legitimating themselves as educational institutions, and commercializing non-educational services (e.g., sightseeing tours) promoted as having second language (L2) developmental value.

Magister Artium - MA / Research on EFL students has received increased interest in recent years (Elachachi, 2015; Al- Zubaidi, 2012; Awad, 2012; Eldokali, 2007; Wahba, 1998). Although much research attention has focussed on the EFL classes and practices, very little research has focussed on the Arab students and the resources used for teaching them English abroad. In particular, the linguistic and cultural barriers Arab students face when seeking higher education in a foreign country, in this case South Africa, where they have minimal to no exposure to the language of instruction used by the host institution, have not received much attention. The study investigated the academic writing skills in English of Arab students and evaluated the efficacy of the EFL teaching materials used at selected English schools in Cape Town for those intending to study in South Africa. The researcher did a text-based analysis on written essays by the Arab students, using Systemic Functional Linguistic (SFL) as a theoretical and analytical framework. The study also evaluated course books used by private language schools to teach EFL students in Cape Town. The textbooks were analysed by means of Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA, an offshoot of SFL to explore the different modes used in the teaching material as aspects of cultural social semiotics. It was found that the selected course books used in Cape Town language schools were focusing on teaching conversational English rather than written academic English, which was critical for essay writing required at tertiary level education. The essays showed that Arab students writing lacked in English academic writing conventions, and often resorted to adopting and adapted their first language style, which often led to unsatisfactory writing. Thus, it was concluded that the schools did not adequately prepare the students to face the academic requirements at institutions of higher learning. The study recommends a number of pedagogical measures on how to improve academic writing, as well as infusing Arabic cultural modes in the teaching material to contextualise learning and aid meaning making and consumption.

No description available.

This thesis argues that Irish can and should be revitalized. Conducted as an observational study, this thesis focuses on interviews with 72 participants during the summer of 2013. All participants live in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. This thesis investigates what has caused the Irish language to lose power and prestige over the centuries, and which Irish language revitalization efforts have been successful. Findings show that although, all-Irish schools have had a substantial growth rate since 1972, when the schools were founded, the majority of Irish students still get their education through English-medium schools. This study concludes that Irish will survive and grow in the numbers of fluent Irish speakers; however, the government will need to further support the growth of the all-Irish schools. In conclusion, the Irish communities must take control of the promotion of the Irish language, and intergenerational transmission must take place between parents and their children.