http://hdl.handle.net/1842/358 Mon, 20 May 2013 16:32:53 GMT 2013-05-20T16:32:53Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6663 Title: Learning and self-regulation in translation studies: the experience of students’ in three contrasting undergraduate courses in Saudi Arabia Authors: Al Sahli, Fahad Saad; Alsahli, Fahad Saad Abstract: A great expansion is underway in the Saudi higher education system as it moves from an elite to a mass form of higher education. The number of universities, for example, has jumped from eight universities in 2000 to more than 24 in 2011. Given the scale of investment called for, questions are being increasingly asked about the effectiveness of the higher education system. As a contribution to those processes of greater scrutiny, the present study explores the perceptions of Saudi students of learning and teaching in translation studies. The broad aim of the study is to throw some light on how students learn and regulate their learning in translation studies, and how they are influenced by the course design. While the strongest emphasis of this study was on students’ self-regulation of their learning, this is presented as one aspect of their approaches to learning, and in order to illuminate these self-regulated approaches to learning, students’ perceptions of the teaching and learning environments (TLEs), and their orientations to learning were examined as well. Three contrasting undergraduate courses were examined using a mixed method approach combining Likert-style questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. A total of 352 students were surveyed using an adapted version of Vermunt’s Inventory of Learning Styles (ILS). This was complemented by interviews with 34 students. Six case studies were drawn out from the interview data for indepth analysis of students’ experience of studying in this particular context. In order to capture the richness and distinctiveness of the learning in translation studies, it was necessary to distinguish two contrasting approaches; one of them is a deep self-regulated approach, and the other is a surface unregulated approach to studying. Each of these approaches is contextualised within the learning in translation studies. There were some important environmental influences on these approaches including: course characteristics, classroom teaching, and feedback and assessment. In addition to this, four types of orientations were discerned among those group of students; academic, personal, vocational, and social. All of these types have intrinsic and extrinsic forms except the personal and the social which had intrinsic forms only. The study concludes with conceptual, methodological, and practical implications drawn from the findings. Perhaps the most important implication is the need to improve students’ skills in self-regulation over the course of their studies. This research provides insights into the experience of learning of this group of students, at the same time it emphasises the need for more studies on this under-researched group of students. Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6663 2012-11-29T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6573 Title: Transmission of cultural values in the production of EFL textbooks for the Chinese primary curriculum Authors: Li, Jingyi Abstract: In the global world, cultural issues relating to the subject of English as Foreign Language (EFL) have become important. This is especially the case when considering the EFL curriculum for Chinese Primary Education. Many writers have addressed the nature of curriculum design as knowledge and cultural reproduction, but usually in the North American and European literature. This research takes these debates and relocates them in the context of China as it enters a new market economy, embedded in its own version of ‘internationalism’. The 2001 national curriculum marked the beginning of China’s educational reform. From a reading of this literature, two main questions emerged: 1) what cultural values are transmitted through EFL textbooks for Chinese Primary Education?; 2) how do curriculum-making processes impact upon textbook production? The findings provide an important insight into knowledge and cultural reproduction in Chinese Education, especially in the subject of EFL. Two volumes of EFL textbooks, which were used in primary schools, were selected to examine the delivery of cultural values. Based on these initial findings, the researcher conducted a series of interviews and focus groups in order to trace the process of textbook production and curriculum creation. Participants included educational administrators in the Ministry of Education in China, curriculum designers, textbook editors from both Chinese and foreign publishers as well as classroom teachers. Research findings suggest that, the production of EFL textbooks should be recognised as a part of curriculum-making processes in the context of Chinese Primary Education. The ‘textbook’ can be seen as the ‘official’ interpretation of the Chinese culture. Indeed, the EFL curriculum is recognized as a vehicle for moral education by policy makers and educators. EFL textbooks include many moral messages promoting expected behaviour in contemporary China – ‘diligence, independence, respect and obedience, patriotism and collectivism’. The processes of generating this ‘production’ have spaces for less ‘official’ and more ‘hidden’ curriculum messages. Indeed, ‘lacunae’ – hidden spaces – in EFL curriculum design and textbook production have been identified. Various key players are involved in the curriculum-making process, including the State, its agencies, and intellectuals. However, instead of being a straight top-down structure led by the political elites, the strict control of the State over curriculum policy-making is finely nuanced. In fact, it was found that the practices of curriculum-making involve a complicated State-intellectuals partnership. Further, it is mainly the culture of the intellectual group which is reproduced through the EFL subject in Chinese Primary Education. Textbook editors and censors, inherently part of the intellectual elites, and key players in the curriculum designing process, rely heavily upon their own version of ‘common sense’. This thesis therefore concludes that the ‘hidden spaces’ through which curriculum design, development and delivery take place, generate a more nuanced understanding of Chinese cultural reproduction, than has previously been thought. Fri, 29 Jun 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6573 2012-06-29T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6552 Title: A Question Of Peace: A Case Study Of The Peace Museum, UK Authors: Marcus, Geetha Abstract: In light of the Edinburgh Peace Initiative currently under discussion, this study explains concepts of peace and the context for establishing a new museum by focusing on a preexisting case study. In 1994 the city of Bradford opened The Peace Museum, which is recognised as the only one of its kind in the United Kingdom. This thesis investigates the idea of the Museum as a physical expression of projecting public discussions about peace. I consider the premise on which the Bradford museum was based, an analysis of its aims, objectives and achievements, and the way in which it serves as a paradigm. In addition to a focused review of the literature on peace studies, I incorporate interviews with principles involved in both the Edinburgh and Bradford projects, together with evidence gathered during fieldwork at the site. The synthesis of this research informs a view and set of questions about the outcomes and challenges of such formalised peace initiatives. Sun, 01 Jan 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6552 2012-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6512 Title: Teachers’ questioning techniques employed in Japanese senior high school’s English class and the perceptions of three Japanese English teachers Authors: Nishimura, Toshihiro Abstract: Today, English education in Japanese high schools is facing a major change. The Course of Study for English in senior high schools, which has emphasised the importance of developing students’ ‘communication abilities’ for past few decades, announced a new policy in 2009 suggesting that teachers primarily use the English language for teaching (this will be enforced in full as of the next academic year, in 2013). However, it is said that teachers are still relying on the traditional method in their classrooms, which employs a more teacher-centred, instruction-based approach, despite the need to apply a more student-centred, interaction-based approach. In this respect, although it is necessary for Japanese English teachers to adapt to teaching in English, ‘teachers’ questioning’, as one form of classroom interaction, is considered one way to make their classes more communicative. Hence, three English teachers in Japanese senior high schools were interviewed in order to explore their perceptions of the effectiveness of questioning techniques, using a sample lesson plan that included different types of questions. The interviews showed a gap between what teachers considered effective questions and what they actually asked in classrooms. Furthermore, the teachers revealed the existence of external factors that affected the questioning techniques they employed in their lessons. Thu, 01 Nov 2012 00:00:00 GMT http://hdl.handle.net/1842/6512 2012-11-01T00:00:00Z