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Academic Purposes (academic + purpose)
Selected AbstractsEffectiveness of hypermedia annotations for foreign language readingJOURNAL OF COMPUTER ASSISTED LEARNING, Issue 1 2005Asim Sakar Abstract This study first explores intermediate-level English learners' preferences for hypermedia annotations while they are engaged in reading a hypermedia text. Second, it examines whether multimedia annotations facilitate reading comprehension in the second language. The participants were 44 adult learners of English as a foreign language studying English for Academic Purposes. Data were collected through a tracking tool, a reading comprehension test, a questionnaire, and interviews. Results indicate that learners preferred visual annotations significantly more than textual and audio annotations. On the other hand, a negative relationship was found between annotation use and reading comprehension. Especially, pronunciations, audiorecordings, and videos were found to affect reading comprehension negatively. However, the qualitative data revealed that the participants had positive attitudes towards annotations and hypermedia reading in general. [source] Migration and Policies in the European Union: Highly Skilled Mobility, Free Movement of Labour and Recognition of DiplomasINTERNATIONAL MIGRATION, Issue 1 2001Joćo Peixoto This article evaluates the relationship between highly skilled mobility (especially by individuals with university-level degrees) and migration policies. Data from the European Union (EU) and Portugal (in particular) provide the empirical basis of the research. EU policies regarding the free circulation of individuals which aim to build the "common market" for economic factors (including labour) are reviewed, as are the more specific recognition of diplomas policies for professional and academic purposes, and recent levels of international mobility in both the EU and Portugal. The article also enumerates the main obstacles that, from a political and legal or social and cultural perspective, explain the low mobility revealed by those figures. Obstacles include the broad denial of citizenship rights; the necessity of assuring a means of sustenance; linguistic and technical exigencies for diploma recognition; the social attributes of work (more explicit in the service sector); and the institutional nature of national skilled labour markets. The main exception to the low mobility rule , movements of cadres in the internal labour markets of transnational corporations , together with flows in other multinational organizations, are also reviewed. In these, migrations are relatively exempt from political constraints and, significantly, avoid the recognition procedures adopted by the EU. In other words, it seems that the entry of highly skilled individuals in a transnational corporation, and not their citizenship in a Europe without frontiers, is what enables them to achieve effective mobility. [source] How and why do college students use Wikipedia?JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY, Issue 11 2009Sook Lim The purposes of this study were to explore college students' perceptions, uses of, and motivations for using Wikipedia, and to understand their information behavior concerning Wikipedia based on social cognitive theory (SCT). A Web survey was used to collect data in the spring of 2008. The study sample consisted of students from an introductory undergraduate course at a large public university in the midwestern United States. A total of 134 students participated in the study, resulting in a 32.8% response rate. The major findings of the study include the following: Approximately one-third of the students reported using Wikipedia for academic purposes. The students tended to use Wikipedia for quickly checking facts and finding background information. They had positive past experiences with Wikipedia; however, interestingly, their perceptions of its information quality were not correspondingly high. The level of their confidence in evaluating Wikipedia's information quality was, at most, moderate. Respondents' past experience with Wikipedia, their positive emotional state, their disposition to believe information in Wikipedia, and information utility were positively related to their outcome expectations of Wikipedia. However, among the factors affecting outcome expectations, only information utility and respondents' positive emotions toward Wikipedia were related to their use of it. Further, when all of the independent variables, including the mediator, outcome expectations, were considered, only the variable information utility was related to Wikipedia use, which may imply a limited applicability of SCT to understanding Wikipedia use. However, more empirical evidence is needed to determine the applicability of this theory to Wikipedia use. Finally, this study supports the knowledge value of Wikipedia (Fallis, 2008), despite students' cautious attitudes toward Wikipedia. The study suggests that educators and librarians need to provide better guidelines for using Wikipedia, rather than prohibiting Wikipedia use altogether. [source] A Model of Adaptive Language LearningMODERN LANGUAGE JOURNAL, Issue 3 2006LINDY J. WOODROW This study applies theorizing from educational psychology and language learning to hypothesize a model of language learning that takes into account affect, motivation, and language learning strategies. The study employed a questionnaire to assess variables of motivation, self-efficacy, anxiety, and language learning strategies. The sample consisted of 275 advanced learners studying English for academic purposes prior to entering Australian universities. The data were analyzed using both variable- and person-centered approaches. The variable-centered approaches included correlational analysis and structural equation modeling, whereas the person-centered approaches utilized cluster analysis and profile analysis using multidimensional scaling (PAMS). The findings supported the hypothesized model of adaptive learning and highlighted the relevance of research in educational psychology for informing language learning research. [source] | ||||||||||