bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Fostering incidental vocabulary uptake from audio-visual materials: The role of text comprehension
Authors:   , Nguyễn Chí Đức 
Published: November 2021

<p>This research project explores various factors that may influence the rate of incidental foreign/second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition from audio-visual materials, with a special focus on procedures that enhance learners’ comprehension of these input materials. Informed by relevant theories and research findings in the fields of L2 listening comprehension and incidental vocabulary acquisition, I investigate the effects of having learners (a) view a TED Talks video twice rather than once, (b) sum up the content of the video before watching it a second time, (c) watch TED Talks videos on the same subject in order to increase familiarity with that subject, and (d) exchange summaries of TED Talks videos with peers so as to assist each other’s subsequent processing of those videos. As these interventions are all deemed to facilitate L2 listening comprehension, they are also expected to create favourable conditions for incidental vocabulary uptake to occur. The effects on incidental vocabulary acquisition of the above interventions were gauged in a series of classroom experiments with Vietnamese EFL learners. Although vocabulary uptake was generally far from spectacular, all of the tested procedures were found to result in statistically significant vocabulary gains. The insertion of the output tasks (i.e., the summary activities) was particularly useful. First, they helped to enhance the learners’ text comprehension. Second, they created opportunities for the learners to use newly met words and thus consolidate their knowledge of these lexical items. A thread through the experimental data is the strong association between the learners’ vocabulary uptake and their comprehension of the input content. The findings from this research project are consistent with several established notions, models and theories in the fields, including Ausubel’s Advance Organizer (1978), Hulstijn and Laufer’s Involvement Load Hypothesis (2001), Krashen’s Input Hypothesis (1985), Nation’s Vocabulary Generation (2013), Swain’s Output Hypothesis (2005), and Wittrock’s Model of Generative Teaching of Comprehension (1991). However, there are also findings that go beyond the core tenets of these, and that can further our understanding of how learners process new lexical items in meaning-focused input and output tasks. Regarding pedagogical implications, this research project confirms that fostering L2 listening comprehension creates favourable conditions for incidental vocabulary acquisition to happen, and that the aforementioned classroom procedures are facilitative in this regard, albeit to different degrees.</p>
Perceptions, Attitudes and Behaviour around Climate Change Risks on Livelihood Activities: A Case Study of a Community in Takeo Province, Cambodia
Authors:   , Chean Ratanakvisal 
Published: November 2021

<p>This thesis investigates the Takeo community’s perception of climate change risks and their response strategies. It examines risks occurring in the regions and their impacts on the community. The thesis also explores how the perception of risks frames the community’s adaptation and mitigation strategies as well as how those perceptions influence climate change policies. This research draws on a range of risk perception theories. Employing a qualitative approach, this study uses semi-structured interviews, document analysis and participant observation as its research methods. Interviews were conducted individually with agricultural practitioners, mothers, community leaders, a local government officer and a government official from the Ministry of Environment. The thesis found that the Takeo’s community has a good perception of the issue and its impacts on their community. Droughts are the major concern for the majority of respondents, because these have become more severe and have the most direct impact on farmers’ lives, livelihoods and food security. The study reflects the view maintained by past and current theory, that individual perceptions of risks vary, and the perception of risk is influenced by media and peers. This study adds that farmers’ direct experience of climate change affects their consideration of such risks as an issue of great personal concern. Perception of climate change influences the community’s responses. Farmers employ a wide range of adaptation strategies such as increasing water storage and improving agricultural techniques. However, adaptation approaches are not enough to provide a long-term solution to the fast changing climate, because the community has limited knowledge of adaptation strategies, resources, and limited support from the government. The community, thus, needs to improve its water management by building more dams and sufficient irrigation that can store enough water for consumption and agriculture in the prolonged dry season. The government should provide more support and services to poor rural communities that rely on agriculture.</p>
Exploring the complexity of 'can', 'could' and 'be able to' through corpus analysis and classroom- and coursebook-based investigation
Authors:   , Whitty Lauren 
Published: November 2021

<p>The purpose of this study is to investigate the central modal auxiliaries CAN and COULD, and the quasi-modal BE ABLE TO, together with their negative forms, and from this investigation, make a contribution to English language learning pedagogy. This study uses analysis of the spoken and written components of the British National Corpus (≈ 100 million words) to gain a better understanding how these modal auxiliaries are used by native and native-like speakers of English. It also draws on a classroom data set (68,265 words), containing a spoken and written component, to investigate how they are being used by students and an instructor. Furthermore, these modal auxiliaries are examined in an English language learner coursebook, New Headway series (441,760 words). This study uses both quantitative and qualitative methods for analysis. In the first phase of this investigation, previous literature along with an examination of each modal auxiliary form in a sample BNC data set were used iteratively to establish meaning categories for CAN, COULD and BE ABLE TO. In the second phase, overall frequencies were obtained from each data source. And finally, based on the categories of meanings found, in the third phase, meaning frequencies for all three data sources were determined. Taking these overall frequencies and meaning frequencies into consideration, comparisons were made between the classroom and the BNC, and New Headway and the BNC. As a result of the investigations above, this study found ‘possibility’ to be the predominant meaning for CAN, COULD and BE ABLE TO with a subset of meaning categories. The subset of categories identified is larger than previously identified in literature. Context played a central role in interpreting these meanings of modal auxiliaries and this study suggests that it would be beneficial for anyone writing about modal auxiliaries to fully account for context when modal meanings are being examined, especially in pedagogical materials. As a result, included in this study are instances with expanded criteria. Focusing on the classroom, this study shows not all meaning categories are present in the classroom data set and also suggests that students may benefit from explicit instruction around the role and communicative effects of these modal auxiliaries in various social contexts. Moving to the New Headway series, this study demonstrates that the meaning frequencies for some categories (e.g. ability) were higher in frequency than the British National Corpus due to the inclusion of contrived example conversations. Taking these and other findings in the study into consideration, this thesis raises awareness of the complexities of understanding and conveying these modal auxiliaries and concludes with recommendations for instructors in English language classrooms.</p>
Insights into Effective Interventions for the Prevention and Management of Workplace Bullying in the New Zealand Public Service
Authors:   , Crimp Hamish 
Published: November 2021

<p>Workplace bullying is widely recognised as a severe workplace health and safety issue that can have harmful consequences for both individuals and organisations. Bullying is a difficult phenomenon for organisations to deal with generally, with effective prevention and management in public sector environments considered especially challenging. This thesis seeks to explore current workplace bullying prevention and management interventions within the New Zealand Public Service. In adopting a pragmatic exploratory mixed-model research method, research approaches aim to provide practical insights into anti-bullying interventions. Data for this research is collected from two sources; organisational anti-bullying policies, and semi-structured interviews with human resource practitioners and union representatives involved in the prevention and management of workplace bullying. Both human resource practitioners and union representatives were found to have multiple roles in the prevention and management of workplace bullying, and generally interpreted bullying allegations as being unsubstantiated. This research suggests that greater emphasis should be placed on primary intervention, and that mediation may be useful as both a secondary and tertiary intervention. The findings of this research also indicate that stakeholder interpretations, and in turn their practical responses to workplace bullying, may be influenced by a range of factors within the public sector environment; including the sedimentation of contradictory public sector approaches, the legislative and regulatory environment, personal experience, and role expectations.</p>
The Value of Technological Idealisations to Future Ethical Thinking
Authors:   , Kelly Adam 
Published: November 2021

<p>This thesis focuses on what I have called “technological idealisations”, and how they are valuable to many current and future ethical debates. Technological idealisations refer to a methodology of using technology thought experiments to contribute to ethical debates. I do not claim this to be a new idea, and in fact will go on to give many examples of technological idealisation that already exist in the philosophical literature. The term describes the purposeful effort to collate these examples into a specific methodological framework; one which gives a particular kind of evidence which can ignore concerns of practicality and critically focus on the theoretical issues in a given debate. In order to explore this idea I will first be looking at past, better known, examples of idealisations to facilitate understanding of my own. I will look at Rawlsian ideal theory as a template for my own idealisations, as well as to explain how they can be valuable in contributing to debates (in Rawls’ case political and in my case ethical). Rawls’ split up the field of political theory into ideal and non-ideal theory. Non-ideal theory is practical and works within the constraints of current political reality. Ideal theory idealises the political conditions to allow theorising regarding perfect political theory. The same can be done for ethics and for technology as it relates to ethics, as is my goal. Following on from this, I also examine Johann Roduit’s use of ideal theory in the closely related field of human enhancement, in which he develops an interesting methodology of using ideals to guide human enhancement programmes. However, rather than being concerned with Roduit’s practical aim, my goal is theoretical. I want to take the ethical principles and theories themselves as ideals for technological development; in doing so technologies will be created, through the use of thought experiments, which agree with the theoretical aims of the theory or principle. These technologies can then be ethically examined and the resulting evidence can contribute (and has in the past contributed) to the ethical debate of those concepts and theories. The kind of evidence I see technological idealisations as offering ignores practical concerns and in doing so is also immune to criticisms of impracticality. This allows for more closely focused scrutiny of the ethical theories and principles themselves, undistracted by appeals to practicality which either argue for accepting a theory due to its utility or argue for rejecting a theory due to its impracticality.</p>
A Game Controller for Stroke Rehabilitation
Authors:   , Duncan William 
Published: November 2021

<p>Successful stroke rehabilitation relies on early, long-term, repetitive and intensive treatment. Repetitions conducted during clinical rehabilitation are significantly lower than that suggested by physiotherapeutic literature to relearn lost motor capabilities. This leaves patients to achieve this quantity in their home environment. Exercises can be monotonous and repetitive, making it difficult to maintain patient motivation. Exergames have been promoted for use in the home to make rehabilitation entertaining, increasing patients engagement with their therapy. Marketed exergaming systems for lower limb rehabilitation are hard to find, and none as of yet, facilitate Strength for Task Training (STT), a novel physiotherapeutic method for lower limb stroke rehabilitation. Strength for Task Training involves performing brief but intensive strength training (priming) prior to task-specic training to promote neural plasticity and maximise the gains in locomotor ability. This research investigates how the design of a game controller for lower limb stroke rehabilitation can facilitate unsupervised STT to compliment clinical contact time. The game controller was developed as part of a complete exergaming system designed to specifically facilitate STT. This involved working closely with co-researcher Scott Brebner who designed the exergame media. A user centered design approach was followed to include clinicians and stroke patients in the design process. This ensured the design aligned with the functional requirements of STT and the contextual needs of the patient. Workshops with stroke clinicians and neurophysiologists pointed to the specific areas of STT that a designed system could address. An iterative design process was used to develop, compare and improve concepts through testing with participants and clinicians. User testing involved participants using the game controller to interact with the digital game. The final output was a prototype pair of smart shoes with an attachable weighted sole. The design used removable sensors to translate lower limb movement into ingame interactions. The design of the shoes and weighted sole provided a simple and safe way to engage in unsupervised STT. Research findings suggest that while not all of the STT therapy can be incorporated in an unsupervised and home-based exergame system, there are some essential elements that can. Adaptable hardware was found to be integral to facilitating intensive priming. Barriers to use can be reduced through considering the diverse physiological and cognitive abilities of stroke patients and aesthetic consideration can help create a meaningful game controller that promotes its use in the home.</p>
Novel approaches to quantify the emergence of anthropogenic climate change
Authors:   , Harrington Luke 
Published: November 2021

<p>Understanding how the climate system will respond to ongoing human interference is a question of profound societal importance. A significant barrier to quantifying the effect of human activity on the climate system is interpreting how the signal of anthropogenic change can be isolated and distinguished from the background noise of internal variability. An emerging framework in the scientific community is now to investigate signal-to-noise ratios as a more effective measure of the impact of human influence on the climate. As the cumulative amount of greenhouse gases emitted by the global population continues to increase, emerging (human-induced) signal-to-noise ratios in temperatures are starting to become clear for highly aggregated spatial and temporal scales. However, some other climate phenomena, such as meteorological drought, exhibit a more complex response to anthropogenic forcings. Identifying how further warming will change the characteristics of such phenomena is therefore more difficult, despite the significant policy implications for both climate adaptation and mitigation. In this thesis, I investigate novel approaches towards separating the relative signal of anthropogenic climate warming from internal variability for these cases of low signal-to-noise ratios. By more effectively understanding the drivers of emergent changes to the climate system, these results help to quantify, and thus communicate, the increasingly damaging effects of human interference on the climate system.</p>
The Right to Language and its Contemporary Significance for New Zealand
Authors:   , Connell Charlotte 
Published: November 2021

<p>The right of linguistic minorities to speak their own language in community with other members of their group (the right to language) is deserving of specific attention for two reasons. Firstly, language is the currency of communication and one of the key indicia of cultural identity; and secondly, ensuring minorities have a secure place within a State is pivotal to promoting peace and stability within a nation. There are three sources of the right to language in New Zealand : the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights, the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, and the Treaty of Waitangi (for the Maori and Moriori languages). The right to language protects against both direct action by the State to limit linguistic minorities' use of their language. and State neglect of a minority language. This paper explores the right to language in the New Zealand context including the sources and elements of the right to language; the application of the right to the Maori language (and what lessons can be learned from this experience for the Moriori language); and two modes of revitalisation of minority languages: official recognition and television broadcasting. The paper observes that while the steps to improve language acquisition and use of the Maori language are admirable and need to continue to secure a meaningful place for that language in New Zealand, the Moriori language is in serious jeopardy and in need of urgent attention. Finally, the paper examines whether the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi may provide sound guidance for the consideration of the place of minority languages in policy and law making in New Zealand.</p>
Trash or Treasure? Te Papa and the collecting on everyday material culture
Authors:   , Hackett Amy 
Published: November 2021

<p>The everyday, ordinary, and mundane are categories of material culture that challenge traditional museum collecting. Collection planning is an absolute necessity for museums if they are to avoid becoming unmanageable time capsules. With cuts to resources and space now at a premium, it is important that museums clarify their purpose and begin to collect more strategically. This dissertation asks: if collecting everyday material culture is now an accepted part of curatorial practice today, then how does Te Papa approach this fraught task? How does the museum define the everyday, how much of it already exists in the museum’s collections, and what tools and strategies does it deploy to ensure that these objects are collected and appreciated as part of the nation’s history and heritage? Using a multi-method approach comprising document analysis, interviews and observation, this dissertation provides insight into how Te Papa collects everyday material culture. It provides an in-depth view of the national museum’s current collecting processes, all the way from how it collects on paper, to how it collects in reality. The research addresses gaps in literature on institutional collecting, particularly in a national museum setting. Building on work by James B Gardner and Simon Knell, and by observing and interviewing curators, this study is able to respond to calls for research that approaches collecting from an internal ‘on-the-ground’ viewpoint. Trash or Treasure? reveals that at Te Papa, although everyday material culture is being collected and displayed, it exists at a crossroads of traditional and contemporary conceptions of collecting. Policy enables collecting of these everyday objects provided acquisition proposals demonstrate national significance. However, curators are less concerned with this aspect of an object. This discrepancy occurs because of the challenging nature of everyday material culture, namely its mutability; it can be all things to many people. The findings suggest that policy does not always trump practice unless strict approval processes are put in place. In order to build a strong collection, this dissertation argues that museums need to find a balance between careful planning while also allowing space for unexpected collecting opportunities.</p>
Data deciphered: A visual migration of VFX
Authors:   , Fordyce Robert 
Published: November 2021

<p>The visual effects industry is an interconnected network of migratory professionals that is in an on-going state of dynamism. The transient nature of industry contracts and the resultant economic impact of studio ebb and flow is a largely uncharted, yet highly phenomenological subject, within design discourse. In the absence of a reliable metric to quantify employee migration, previous theories in this field have been speculative and conjectural. However, the wealth of data inherent in employment-oriented social-media profiles and online crowd-sourced databases provides a new way in which to identify and analyse collective trends in industry migration. Data Deciphered: A Visual Migration of VFX reveals the geographical and demographic patterns in the postproduction services industry through the data visualization medium. Furthermore, it investigates the optimal way to comprehend, filter and relate the large volume of information that is the sector’s migration patterns. This thesis first amassed a dataset of 82,711 migratory employment records specific to professionals within the visual effects industry over the previous 35 years. It drew this information from the public-facing pages of both the LinkedIn and Internet Movie Database (IMDB) online Internet platforms. This collection has been subsequently used to drive a 3D visualization tool that was constructed within the Unity5 game engine. This study has revealed that, despite claims to the contrary, California continues to function as the central hub of the visual effects world and that the majority of industry professionals have been located there at some point throughout their employment histories. Furthermore, environment and matte-painting roles have been identified as the most migratory, while technician and code professions tend to be more static. Finally, skills analysis demonstrates that while proficiency in software packages and coding languages is prevalent within the industry, ultimately, the possession of these abilities has negligible impact upon migration frequency.</p>