Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-147). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Queensland, 2006. / Includes bibliography.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / Life in the twenty-first Century globalised world brings people into contact with others from different cultures who use different languages. Through these contacts, the need for interactions makes these people to find different ways of understanding one another and to generate knowledge. For them to achieve this objective, they need a strong medium. L2 and Foreign language education has been develop to unravel such challenges posed to competence in intercultural communication, with the emphasis placed on how to communicate with a different "other" since the world is now a small village. Foreign and second language teaching and learning (a social practice) in this study, is tangible to eradicate linguistic and cultural barriers. In this case, it does not only require to promote competence through linguistic capital (language), but more importantly, it arouses intercultural awareness. For these issues to develop and consolidate intercultural communication competence, language practitioners need to deviate from the rationalist reductionistic approaches to language teaching and learning in favour of an ecological or a constructivist perspective, which views language learning as a social practice. In view of this, whatever language the participants may use for communication does not matter, what really matters is that they need to switch to any given language as a situation may demand. In upholding a constructivist perspective, this research hypothesized that engagement and participation as a social practice, does not only increase competence in the target language, but it also helps the participants to develop in terms of emotional maturity and character (Bilton and Sivasubramaniam 2009). This research made use of the qualitative research methodology, revolving around an ethnographic design, to understand the outcomes and the fluidity of interactions among a diverse community of the University of the Western Cape in Cape Town, South Africa. Such an understanding can therefore only be deduced from the perspectives of the role-players through their engagements and participation in activities and events in and out of the classrooms. The research population constituted lecturers, tutors and students of the above institution. The four principal tools used for data collection included: the Interviews, Questionnaires, Naturally Occurring data and Participant Observation. The interviews were both formal and informal and together with the Questionnaires, they were all open-ended. Their open-ended nature was not only because of the interaction it provided between the researcher and the researched but also because they aroused an awareness of diversity and a need to understand otherness. The findings from the study affirmed that the participants gained competence in intercultural communication through the different levels of interactions that were used to enhance participation, engagement and involvement. In view of this, the participants benefited from provisional understanding, tentative interpretations and the affective environment. Furthermore, it could be said that interactions provided them the rationale to challenge, develop and explore ideas and meanings for communication. Holistically, the study attested to the importance and centrality of participation and engagement in a target language, with the main aim of motivating the participants to understand that there is no such thing as correctness in meaning or proficiency in a language, nor in understanding the world around them.

abstract: The study develops a better understanding of what is valued in L2 academic writing in IEP and FYC programs through a comparative case study approach, identifying the assumptions and underlying values of program directors and instructors in both types of instructional settings. The goal of the study is to understand more about second language writing pedagogy for international students in these programs, as well as to provide university administrators with a better understanding of how to improve writing instruction for multilingual students, who have become a key part of the U.S. higher education mission. Data include program-level mission statements, course descriptions and objectives, curricular materials, as well as interviews with teachers and program directors. Major findings show that there is a tension between language-focused vs. rhetoric-focused approaches to second language writing instruction in the two contexts. IEP instruction sought to build on students' language proficiency, and writing instruction was rooted in a conception of writing as language organized by structural principles, while the FYC program emphasized writing as a tool for communication and personal growth. Based on these findings, I provide recommendations for improving graduate education for all writing teachers, developing more comprehensive needs analysis procedures, and establishing administrative structures to support international multilingual students. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2014

With globalization and the growth of the World Wide Web, it is increasingly important for non-Anglophone students to acquire a functional level of English before graduating from secondary school. However, Francophone students in the province of Quebec who are learning English as a second language (ESL) face particular challenges that hinder their development of English proficiency, not the least of which is motivation. This quasi-experimental case study explores the effects of an eTandem project with Anglophone peers on the motivation of Francophone ESL learners in secondary school. The results indicate that Francophone students who completed the eTandem project showed greater motivational intensity, greater desire to learn the target language, and less anxiety. It also appears that technical problems, scheduling issues and anxiety contributed to the majority of Francophone students discontinuing the project. Recommendations are made to integrate eTandem projects into Quebec’s ESL curriculum and to address the anxiety issues of students in class.

The purpose of this study is to investigate policies regarding second home planning in the Swedish municipalities. To do so content analysis was conducted on the regulation document called översiktsplan (translated into English layout plan, land-use plan or sketch plan) of all 290 Swedish municipalities. The ´översiktsplan´ is a document containing directions, policies, guidelines and recommendations for land use in the municipality. Swedish law dictates that all municipalities must have such a document.   This study addresses the phenomenon second homes and second home tourism in the perspective of the destination, in this study represented by the Swedish municipalities regulation document called översiktsplan. Previous research has been taken into account, both concerning Sweden, the Nordic countries and countries in different parts of the world, to describe the phenomenon. The study aims to describe municipality´s characteristics and to analyse the geographical placement of the municipality. This is done by plotting a map over Sweden with the municipalities classified depending on their degree of policies regarding second homes. Then, a comparison with the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions classification of Swedish municipalities 2017 was made to analyse the characteristics of municipalities having policies for second homes.   Of the 290 (100 %) Swedish municipalities there are 217 (74,8 %) that have made policies and preparations regarding second homes and these directions are shown in the översiktsplan. The result shows a clear pattern within the Swedish municipalities regarding directions, policies, guidelines and recommendations concerning second homes. Municipalities containing a minor urban area that accommodate less than 40 000 inhabitants and geographically placed nearby an urban area containing more than 40 000 inhabitants, nearby a ski resort or by the shoreline do have a higher preparation and planning regarding second homes.

<p>Although L2W practice has been present in China for a long time, limited existing research has investigated its origin and development. My study aims at reviewing and synthesizing L2W articles published in major linguistic/foreign language journals in the People’s Republic of China in the past seven decades (1949-2018). By collecting and analyzing the 1,340 articles, I identified four developmental periods in China’s L2W history, nine major topics covered in the scholarship. Features in research methods and article contexts are also discussed. I conclude that L2W in China emerged from the pedagogical practices and that its development has been heavily influenced by the country’s social and political movements. After seventy years of development, L2W in China has become a promising field of study with an increased number of journals articles, investigating diverse topics related to L2W, with various research methods, in rich contexts.</p>

Ces dernières décennies ont vu un renouveau d’intérêt pour les matériaux composites élastiques qui s’avèrent très utiles dans la conception de structures. Pour comprendre le comportement macroscopique de ces matériaux, on fait appel aux méthodes d’homogénéisation. Dans cette thèse, nous nous intéressons à étudier rigoureusement le comportement macroscopique des matériaux composites élastiques périodiques présentant des hétérogénéités à fort contraste dans le cadre de l'élasticité linéaire. Dans un premier temps, nous étudions l’homogénéisation de structures périodiques constituées d’un matériau élastique linéaire isotrope homogène de grande rigidité. Sous certaines hypothèses sur la géométrie des structures considérées, nous montrons que leur étude peut se réduire à l’étude de systèmes discrets correspondant à des réseaux périodiques de nœuds reliés entre eux par des interactions élastiques. Ensuite, en prenant en compte les différents ordres de grandeur des raideurs en extension, en flexion et en torsion, nous montrons que l’homogénéisation des structures considérées peut conduire à des matériaux de « second gradient », c’est-à-dire, des matériaux dont l’énergie élastique homogénéisée dépend des composantes du premier gradient et du second gradient du champ de déplacement. Dans un deuxième temps, nous réalisons des essais de traction sur des structures pantographiques pour étudier la faisabilité des matériaux de second gradient. / Recent decades have seen renewed interest in elastic composite materials that are proving to be very useful in structural design. To understand the macroscopic behavior of these materials, we use homogenization methods. In this thesis, we are interested in rigorously studying the macroscopic behavior of periodic elastic composite materials with high contrast heterogeneities in the framework of linear elasticity. Firstly, we study the homogenization of periodic structures made of a homogeneous isotropic linear elastic material with high rigidity. Under certain hypotheses on the geometry of the considered structures, we show that their study can be reduced to the study of discrete systems corresponding to frame lattices. Then, taking into account the different orders of magnitude of extensional, flexural and torsional stiffnesses, we show that the homogenization of the considered structures can lead to second gradient materials, that is, materials whose homogenized elastic energy depend on the components of the first gradient and the second gradient of the displacement field. In a second step, we carry out tensile tests on pantographic structures to study the feasibility of second gradient materials.

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