title: Emotion in English as an additional language oral communication: Vietnamese English language teachers and students

authors: Pham, Thi Nguyen Ai

subjects: Emotions

abstract: In applied linguistics, the scope of emotion research has broadened from the simple linear cause and effect paradigm of anxiety to multiple facets of emotions and their interaction with various aspects of language learning. Along with this development, the social dimension of emotions is currently receiving an increasing amount of research attention. The present study has continued that focus by exploring the trajectories of changing emotions throughout the lifelong experience of English language learning and language use among Vietnamese EAL tertiary teachers and EAL teacher candidates in a single Vietnamese university. The study also highlights the role of emotion in their English oral communication.
This study employed a qualitatively-driven mixed methods research design. Two phases of data collection using initial and exploratory self-designed questionnaires, followed by semi-structured interviews and reflective journals took place over approximately six months. The quantitative data, collected from all EAL teachers and their final-year students in the English faculty, aimed to capture the range of emotions the participants experienced in speaking English. The qualitative data, collected from nine teachers and ten students recruited from the questionnaire phase, revealed the complexity and dynamism of their emotions in the process of language learning and use. It also sought to understand the rich sources of their emotions, and the influences of emotions on their oral communication. LimeSurvey was employed to collect and analyze the questionnaire data, and thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data.
The findings show that the participants experienced shifting emotions across the different contexts of language learning, including family, school, out-of-school, tertiary and professional contexts. The emotions were seen to be dynamic, socially and contextually constructed, emerging from their social circumstances and interaction with others. They were interwoven with self-concept, language learning success, perceived standing in different communities, and relationships with others. Emotions also appeared to play a significant role in motivating the participants to take up English for their teaching profession. Theories of belonging, agency and positioning, as well as L1 cultural values informed the interpretation of the data to help explain the complexity of emotion for these participants. The results also provide theoretical and practical implications for emotion research and pedagogies of EAL teaching and learning. The participants’ emotional self-regulation was not dealt with in this study because there was little evidence in the data.

text: Emotion in English as an additional language oral communication: Vietnamese English language teachers and students In applied linguistics, the scope of emotion research has broadened from the simple linear cause and effect paradigm of anxiety to multiple facets of emotions and their interaction with various aspects of language learning. Along with this development, the social dimension of emotions is currently receiving an increasing amount of research attention. The present study has continued that focus by exploring the trajectories of changing emotions throughout the lifelong experience of English language learning and language use among Vietnamese EAL tertiary teachers and EAL teacher candidates in a single Vietnamese university. The study also highlights the role of emotion in their English oral communication.
This study employed a qualitatively-driven mixed methods research design. Two phases of data collection using initial and exploratory self-designed questionnaires, followed by semi-structured interviews and reflective journals took place over approximately six months. The quantitative data, collected from all EAL teachers and their final-year students in the English faculty, aimed to capture the range of emotions the participants experienced in speaking English. The qualitative data, collected from nine teachers and ten students recruited from the questionnaire phase, revealed the complexity and dynamism of their emotions in the process of language learning and use. It also sought to understand the rich sources of their emotions, and the influences of emotions on their oral communication. LimeSurvey was employed to collect and analyze the questionnaire data, and thematic analysis was used to analyze the qualitative data.
The findings show that the participants experienced shifting emotions across the different contexts of language learning, including family, school, out-of-school, tertiary and professional contexts. The emotions were seen to be dynamic, socially and contextually constructed, emerging from their social circumstances and interaction with others. They were interwoven with self-concept, language learning success, perceived standing in different communities, and relationships with others. Emotions also appeared to play a significant role in motivating the participants to take up English for their teaching profession. Theories of belonging, agency and positioning, as well as L1 cultural values informed the interpretation of the data to help explain the complexity of emotion for these participants. The results also provide theoretical and practical implications for emotion research and pedagogies of EAL teaching and learning. The participants’ emotional self-regulation was not dealt with in this study because there was little evidence in the data.

year: 2017

title: Dating the Kawakawa/Oruanui eruption: Comment on "Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand" by R. Grapes et al.

authors: Lowe, David J.

subjects: Science & Technology

abstract: An IRSL age of 17.0 ± 2.2 ka (and a “mean age” of ca. 19 ka) reported by Grapes et al. [Grapes, R., Rieser, U., Wang, N. Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand. Quaternary Geochronology 5(2-3), 164–169.] for the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra, and other ages associated with a loess section in New Zealand are untenable: age data presented are inconsistent, no formal statistical treatments or error determinations were undertaken in age analysis, and the ages proposed are seriously at odds with multiple radiocarbon age determinations on tephra sequences bracketing the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra and with palaeoenvironmental evidence elsewhere for the time period concerned. We suggest that the bulk polymineral IRSL ages on the tephra and encapsulating loess deposits were underestimated in part because of contamination of the loess by the integration of younger materials during slow deposition and continuous modification by upbuilding pedogenesis. Single-grain luminescence assays may reveal such contamination. A 14C-based age of ca. 27 ± 1 ka cal BP (2σ), reported in 2008, currently remains the best estimate for the age of eruption of the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra.

text: Dating the Kawakawa/Oruanui eruption: Comment on "Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand" by R. Grapes et al. An IRSL age of 17.0 ± 2.2 ka (and a “mean age” of ca. 19 ka) reported by Grapes et al. [Grapes, R., Rieser, U., Wang, N. Optical luminescence dating of a loess section containing a critical tephra marker horizon, SW North Island of New Zealand. Quaternary Geochronology 5(2-3), 164–169.] for the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra, and other ages associated with a loess section in New Zealand are untenable: age data presented are inconsistent, no formal statistical treatments or error determinations were undertaken in age analysis, and the ages proposed are seriously at odds with multiple radiocarbon age determinations on tephra sequences bracketing the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra and with palaeoenvironmental evidence elsewhere for the time period concerned. We suggest that the bulk polymineral IRSL ages on the tephra and encapsulating loess deposits were underestimated in part because of contamination of the loess by the integration of younger materials during slow deposition and continuous modification by upbuilding pedogenesis. Single-grain luminescence assays may reveal such contamination. A 14C-based age of ca. 27 ± 1 ka cal BP (2σ), reported in 2008, currently remains the best estimate for the age of eruption of the Kawakawa/Oruanui tephra.

year: 2010-08-01

title: Analysis of multibeam sonar data for benthic habitat characterization of the Port of Tauranga, New Zealand.

authors: Boulay, Sebastien O. C.

subjects: Tauranga

abstract: Tauranga Harbour is a mesotidal lagoon located within the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, and is subject to an ongoing maintenance dredging program to remove mud deposits coming from various sources in the catchment. At the southern end of the commercial port, the Tauranga Bridge Marina was built adjacent to the bridge causeway, with 500 floating concrete berths, enclosed by concrete floating breakwaters. It is proposed to convert these floating breakwaters into solid ones to stop waves entering the marina. This is expected to influence tidal circulation around the Tauranga bridge causeway, and potentially affect sedimentation and marine habitats. The region is an important source of "kai moana" (seafood) for local iwi, and is a source of juvenile shellfish for the large beds located on the flood tidal delta and surrounding channels.

This study investigates the impact of the successive harbour constructions on the local sedimentology. The overall goal of the mapping part of this project is to identify and locate the different seabed facies and features within the study site, which may be affected by the sediment transport potentially resulting from the past and future harbour developments. 

To investigate the impacts of the harbour modifications, a habitat-mapping survey using acoustic mapping techniques was undertaken in July and August 2011. The hydrographic survey was simultaneously performed using a multibeam echosounder (Kongsberg-Simrad EM3000) and a Starfish 452F sidescan sonar. The backscatter/imagery data from both systems was then used for habitat mapping, using a combination of Angular Response Analysis and image-based segmentation. An underwater camera survey and seabed sampling were also performed to ground-truth the morphologies identified from the acoustic backscatter analysis. The most recent habitat map was then compared to the previous studies to identify changes in response to the different modifications of the estuary.

text: Analysis of multibeam sonar data for benthic habitat characterization of the Port of Tauranga, New Zealand. Tauranga Harbour is a mesotidal lagoon located within the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, and is subject to an ongoing maintenance dredging program to remove mud deposits coming from various sources in the catchment. At the southern end of the commercial port, the Tauranga Bridge Marina was built adjacent to the bridge causeway, with 500 floating concrete berths, enclosed by concrete floating breakwaters. It is proposed to convert these floating breakwaters into solid ones to stop waves entering the marina. This is expected to influence tidal circulation around the Tauranga bridge causeway, and potentially affect sedimentation and marine habitats. The region is an important source of "kai moana" (seafood) for local iwi, and is a source of juvenile shellfish for the large beds located on the flood tidal delta and surrounding channels.

This study investigates the impact of the successive harbour constructions on the local sedimentology. The overall goal of the mapping part of this project is to identify and locate the different seabed facies and features within the study site, which may be affected by the sediment transport potentially resulting from the past and future harbour developments. 

To investigate the impacts of the harbour modifications, a habitat-mapping survey using acoustic mapping techniques was undertaken in July and August 2011. The hydrographic survey was simultaneously performed using a multibeam echosounder (Kongsberg-Simrad EM3000) and a Starfish 452F sidescan sonar. The backscatter/imagery data from both systems was then used for habitat mapping, using a combination of Angular Response Analysis and image-based segmentation. An underwater camera survey and seabed sampling were also performed to ground-truth the morphologies identified from the acoustic backscatter analysis. The most recent habitat map was then compared to the previous studies to identify changes in response to the different modifications of the estuary.

year: 2012