Communication Classes Research Articles

Improving Communicative Competence through Mime: Bringing Students’ ‘Out-of-School’ Literacy Practices into Japanese University EFL Oral Communication Classes

This study uses the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach to emphasize interaction in EFL study to prepare students for real life communication outside of formal language teaching contexts. Using mime drama techniques to show a range of literacy practices, the study seeks to show that establishing creative links between students’ language use and learning inside and outside of the classroom is essential for making formal education more relevant to students’ life experiences and identities. The study examines the benefits and challenges of experimental CLT in a Japanese university EFL oral communication class and concludes that bringing students’ ‘out-of-school’ literacy practices from outside the context of formal education into the EFL classroom acknowledges their investment in classroom language practices, secures student engagement, and yields perceived improvement.

Strategic Communication in MBA Curricula: A Qualitative Study of Student Outcomes

Using qualitative methods, this study demonstrates that the strategic communication curriculum is an important MBA program component. An audit was performed of syllabi used by schools teaching strategic communication as part of the Public Relations Society of America’s MBA/Business School Program. Interviews were then conducted with 20 respondents composing a purposive nonrandom sample of those who completed a course associated with Public Relations Society of America’s MBA/Business School Program. Researchers interpreted data using qualitative research approaches. Findings show that (a) crisis communication is a common topic in MBA-level strategic communication classes, (b) the inclusion of strategic communication curricula in MBA programs promotes new perspectives regarding the role of the public relations professional, (c) completion of MBA courses in strategic communication may advantageously position students for advancement in marketing and management positions, and (d) MBA students value case studies and interpretative analysis of real-world situations as part of strategic communication curricula.

Amortization does not enhance the max-Rains information of a quantum channel

Given an entanglement measure E, the entanglement of a quantum channel is defined as the largest amount of entanglement E that can be generated from the channel, if the sender and receiver are not allowed to share a quantum state before using the channel. The amortized entanglement of a quantum channel is defined as the largest net amount of entanglement E that can be generated from the channel, if the sender and receiver are allowed to share an arbitrary state before using the channel. Our main technical result is that amortization does not enhance the entanglement of an arbitrary quantum channel, when entanglement is quantified by the max-Rains relative entropy. We prove this statement by employing semi-definite programming (SDP) duality and SDP formulations for the max-Rains relative entropy and a channel’s max-Rains information, found recently in Wang et al (arXiv:1709.00200). The main application of our result is a single-letter, strong converse, and efficiently computable upper bound on the capacity of a quantum channel for transmitting qubits when assisted by positive-partial-transpose preserving (PPT-P) channels between every use of the channel. As the class of local operations and classical communication (LOCC) is contained in PPT-P, our result establishes a benchmark for the LOCC-assisted quantum capacity of an arbitrary quantum channel, which is relevant in the context of distributed quantum computation and quantum key distribution.

What is Reader’s Theatre and can it be Used Effectively in Large EFL Classes?

Having the ability to make an effective presentation in English is becoming more essential in the modern, global economy. In response to this need, many Japanese universities are introducing presentation skills-type courses into the English curriculum. However, shy students can be a challenge for EFL teachers who must teach courses that emphasize public speaking, resulting in students reading directly from their script, failing to make eye contact with the audience, and speaking in a barely audible, monotone voice. Apprehensive students often fail to engage the audience and their speeches are uninteresting and lack energy. This paper introduces Reader’s Theatre, a collaborative group drama activity, and discusses how the author implemented it into large English communication classes in an attempt to build student confidence, teach basic presentation skills, and encourage students to speak and read English with more expression.

Distributed formation tracking of nonholonomic autonomous vehicles via event-triggered and sampled-data method

ABSTRACTThis paper addresses the distributed formation tracking control problem for multi-vehicle systems with nonholonomic constraints, by the aid of event-triggered and sampled-data control methods. Two classes of event-triggered communication and control strategies with fixed sampling period are considered. By designing different event conditions, the communications amongst neighbouring vehicles are allowed at each sampling time instant in the first strategy, whereas the control input of each vehicle is updated only when its own or neighbours’ event conditions are violated. Furthermore, both communication and control update are allowed only when the events of itself or neighbours are triggered in another strategy. To this end, an unified event-triggered and distributed observer-based controller with globally asymptotic convergence rate is proposed. And corresponding sufficient conditions are derived regarding to two types of event conditions, based on Lyapunov technique, matrix analysis and algebraic graph theory. It is worth noting that the Zeno-behaviour of systems with the presented controllers and event conditions is naturally avoided for all the vehicles due to the advantageous property of sampled-data control. Finally, simulations are provided to verify the effectiveness of the obtained theoretical results.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS, UNDERGRADUATE LEVELS OF CONFIDENCE AND THE ENGINEERING PORTFOLIO

Abstract – In this paper, we will summarize some of the results, first, from our course syllabi project that we conducted at the University of Manitoba and, secondly, from our study of second-year students’ levels of confidence in a communication class. In the course syllabi project, we discovered that course outlines in our Engineering school gave little information on the assignments expected of students, so much so that students may have found completing them to be difficult. In the second study, we found that students generally lacked confidence in writing tasks, especially at the beginning of term. These two studies suggest that we need to find a way to guide students in the writing of the assignments that we expect of them if they are to develop the necessary confidence in their ability to write well within a professional context.
 One way to do that may be the introduction of a portfolio requirement within the Engineering curriculum, A portfolio will serve as a record of students’ ongoing achievements in written assignments throughout their academic programs and, as they compile their portfolios, they can reflect on that achievement and move forward – more communicatively competent and more confident.

Designing the Vocabulary Component for an EFL Cross-Cultural Communication Class

A systematic course design is essential in order to achieve an optimal outcome for EFL learners. I will describe the course design of vocabulary components in a Cross-Cultural Communication class in a Japanese university. This course was designed according to the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) model, in which language learners learn the target language and content at the same time, rather than learning the target language, per se. In Cross-Cultural Communication classes of the CLIL model, learners’ English vocabulary develops as well as other language skills while they increase their knowledge of Cross-Cultural Communication. Some of the problems with this approach in Japan seem to lie in the students’ insufficient English skills and their English learning backgrounds. I have attempted to design the course in order to solve these problems. I have mainly considered how to “fill the gap” between what is needed to conduct the class and what the students lack, while focusing on vocabulary development of the university students in my class. I have employed two frameworks, the Curriculum Development Process (Nation & Macalister, 2010) and the four strands (Nation, 1996), and I have adapted them to suit my teaching situation. Curriculum Development Process consists of comprehensive factors necessary for curriculum development and has allowed me to analyze my present situation. On the other hand, the four strands approach is a well-balanced principle for vocabulary learning. It is supported by Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theories and has four components: meaning-focused input, meaning-focused output, language-focused learning, and fluency development. Although the Curriculum Development Process and the four strands approach mentioned here can be effectively applied to various foreign and second language learning situations, I found it crucial to analyze my teaching situation as much as possible, and to adapt these frameworks accordingly. This paper explains how a course can be designed with partial analysis of one's present teaching situation, in hope that this could offer some guidance to those who need to develop or improve their own course based on their best analysis under limited time.Keywords: Teaching and learning vocabulary, course design, English as a Foreign Language (EFL), the four strands,, content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)

Effects of intensive EFL immersion programmes on willingness to communicate

ABSTRACT Few studies have examined willingness to communicate (WtC) changes resulting from short-term intensive immersion programmes. This study investigated the antecedents to and changes in WtC during one such programme held at a Macau university. The programme required students to reside on campus and participate in extensive task-based communicative language classes and fluency activities with a range of interlocutors from different backgrounds. Pre- and post-programme questionnaire data were collected, and regression analyses indicated perceived competence as the largest predictor for WtC. Repeated measure t-tests indicated significant improvement in WtC and the underlying components of perceived competence, language use anxiety and motivation for language learning as a result of the programme. The results support previous studies on WtC predictors, and suggest short-term intensive English programmes held within the home country of students can be as beneficial to WtC as longer term immersion or study abroad programmes.

Forgiveness as an educational goal with at-risk adolescents

An educational intervention using forgiveness as the goal was implemented with 10 at-risk adolescents attending an alternative school in a Midwestern city. The adolescents ranged in age from 15 to 19 years of age. A randomized experimental and active control group pre- and post-test design was used. Twenty-one participants were randomly assigned to either the experimental group (forgiveness education class) or the control group (personal communications class). Classes met daily for 31 sessions for approximately 23 hours of education. Enright’s process model of forgiveness was used as the focus of the intervention. Dependent variables included forgiveness, self-esteem, hope, depression, and state-trait anxiety scales. After the education, the experimental group gained more than the control group in forgiveness and hope, and decreased significantly more than the control group in anxiety and depression. Verbal reports from the experimental participants following the education also illustrate the positive impact forgiveness had on the students.

Boolean Gossip Networks

This paper proposes and investigates a Boolean gossip model as a simplified but non-trivial probabilistic Boolean network. With positive node interactions, in view of standard theories from Markov chains, we prove that the node states asymptotically converge to an agreement at a binary random variable, whose distribution is characterized for large-scale networks by mean-field approximation. Using combinatorial analysis, we also successfully count the number of communication classes of the positive Boolean network explicitly in terms of the topology of the underlying interaction graph, where remarkably minor variation in local structures can drastically change the number of network communication classes. With general Boolean interaction rules, emergence of absorbing network Boolean dynamics is shown to be determined by the network structure with necessary and sufficient conditions established regarding when the Boolean gossip process defines absorbing Markov chains. Particularly, it is shown that for the majority of the Boolean interaction rules, except for nine out of the total $2^{16}-1$ possible nonempty sets of binary Boolean functions, whether the induced chain is absorbing has nothing to do with the topology of the underlying interaction graph, as long as connectivity is assumed. These results illustrate the possibilities of relating dynamical properties of Boolean networks to graphical properties of the underlying interactions.

Computational Identification of Irreducible State-Spaces for Stochastic Reaction Networks

Stochastic models of reaction networks are becoming increasingly important in systems biology. In these models, the dynamics is generally represented by a continuous-time Markov chain whose states denote the copy-numbers of the constituent species. The state-space on which this process resides is a subset of a nonnegative integer lattice, and for many examples of interest, this state-space is countably infinite. This causes numerous problems in analyzing the Markov chain and understanding its long-term behavior. These problems are further confounded by the presence of conservation relations among species which constrain the dynamics in complicated ways. In this paper we provide a linear-algebraic procedure to disentangle these conservation relations and represent the state-space in a special decomposed form, based on the copy-number ranges of various species and dependencies among them. This decomposed form is advantageous for analyzing the stochastic model, and for a large class of networks we demonstrate how this form can be used for finding all the closed communication classes for the Markov chain within the infinite state-space. Such communication classes are irreducible state-spaces for the dynamics and they support all the extremal stationary distributions for the Markov chain. Hence our results provide important insights into the long-term behavior and stability properties of stochastic models of reaction networks. We discuss how the knowledge of these irreducible state-spaces can be used in many ways such as speeding-up stochastic simulations of multiscale networks or in identifying the stationary distributions of complex-balanced networks. We illustrate our results with several examples of gene-expression networks from systems biology.

Students Pronounciation Error Made in Speaking for General Communication

This qualitative research described students pronunciation error mostly appeared in speaking for general communication class. The participants were the first semester students. This research was descriptive method. It involved describing, analyzing, and interpreting of condition that existed. In collecting the data, the researcher used documentation. Based on the result of data analysis, it could be concluded that students made of three types of pronunciation error. The pronunciation errors were pre systematic error, systematic error, and post systematic error. Furthermore, the students dominant error made was pre systematic error. The errors of students made were caused by three sources of students competence error in learning English as Foreign Language. They were interference error, intra lingual error, and developmental error.
 Key words: pronunciation, error, speaking for general communication.

Enhancing Thai Engineering Students’ Complaints and Apologies through Pragmatic Consciousness-Raising Approach (PCR)

Successful communication requires “Pragmatic Competence” or abilities to use appropriate language in transferring one’s needs while maintaining a positive relationship with the interactant (Thomas, 1995; Leech, 1983). This study was an attempt to investigate the pragmatic competence of Thai Engineering students when making complaints and apologies through twelve sessions of a pragmatic consciousness-raising approach (PCR). Perceptions toward the innovative teaching activities were also examined. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data from forty-five engineering students (n=45) at a university in Thailand. Pre-test and posttest written discourse completion tests (WDCTs) were administered and a semi-structured interview was conducted. Three native speaker raters scored the performances through WDCTs using assessment criteria from Hudson (2001) and Duan (2008). For data analysis, paired-samples t-test was employed to compare the mean scores of students, while the researcher employed a Grounded Theory’s color coding technique (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) to generate the findings on students’ perceptions about the innovative methods implemented. The results revealed significant development of students’ pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic abilities in both complaints and apologies. Furthermore, participants perceived the PCR class to be beneficial in four areas: having more awareness of the impacts of social factors in language use, realizing the favor of indirect strategies, more understanding of nonverbal communication, and provision of motivating class atmosphere. However, some participants concerned about three aspects: inadequate confidence to use expressions learned in class in real communication, insufficient endeavor to develop grammar knowledge, and the test abilities of the roleplay test. The results confirm the teachability of pragmatic and the benefits of PCR in EFL contexts; whereas, students’ concern about learning through the approach might be helpful for further teaching practices.

DEVELOPING ESL/EFL LEARNERS� PUBLIC SPEAKING SKILLS THROUGH PECHA KUCHA PRESENTATIONS

In the 21st century workplace, there has been an increasing demand for graduates to possess communicative competence particularly in speaking. Anchored on the 21st Century Learning Framework (Partnership for 21st Century Skills or P21, 2006) and the TPACK Framework (Koehler & Mishra, 2009), this study reports findings on the pedagogical viability of utilizing Pecha Kucha 20x20 Presentations in developing students� competence and confidence while presenting in the language classroom. Research participants include 43 English as Second Language (ESL) learners taking Speech Communication classes in a private university in Manila, the Philippines during the second semester of the academic year 2016-2017. Research data from students� reflections, interviews, survey, and focus group discussion (FGD) suggest that despite some format and technological limitations, delivering Pecha Kucha presentations may help students develop their English speaking and oral presentation skills, build their confidence in speaking before an audience, and practice their English macro skills such as listening and reading. In the light of these findings, pedagogical implications are provided for ESL (English as a second language) and EFL (English as a foreign language) teachers, communication educators, and researchers.Keywords: Teaching speaking, Pecha Kucha Presentations, ESL public speaking, TPACK

“Be the change you want to see”: A three-part semester-long assignment in an interracial communication class

ABSTRACTCourses: This three-part semester-long assignment was designed for an undergraduate course in interracial communication. While interracial communication is the primary focus of this assignment, it could easily be adapted to a variety of courses focused on diversity with the goals of improving communication and connectedness among members of other social and cultural groups.Objectives: The interracial communication course seeks to promote a better understanding of, and sensitivity to, the communication dynamics of interracial interactions.

Staging scenes of co-cultural communication: Acting out aspects of marginalized and dominant identities

ABSTRACTCourses: Intercultural Communication, Interracial Communication, or an Interpersonal Communication class that covers co-cultural theory.Objectives: Students will be able to demonstrate a practical application of co-cultural theory by creating scenes that illustrate different communicative approaches and desired outcomes based on communication between marginalized and dominant group identities. In this experience, students will reflect on their own marginalized and dominant identities and consider ways in which they experience privilege and disadvantage based on these identities.

Venturing into the unknown: Blogs as a means of advancing leadership skills

ABSTRACTThe author describes a theoretically eclectic exploratory assignment that helped students in a managerial communication class practice and advance a comprehensive range of leadership skills. Specifically, the author combined E. M. Eisenberg, L. H. Goodall, and A. Tretheway's (2014) model of leadership with pertinent concepts from the theory of learning and used blogs as the communication medium. The outcome was very positive. Students practiced and advanced a range of cognitive, ethical, and communication skills.

The Use of Drama in English Teaching of Chinese Arts Colleges

<p>The study of English communication is not only a must to arts majors for international arts communication, but also a big challenge for them to master. The aim of the study is to explore the use of drama activities in English communication class in a Chinese arts college and to determine whether drama activities are beneficial to arts majors’ language proficiency and other cognitive skills. For this study, we employed a qualitative method by analyzing students’ reflective writing and observing participants’ activities. The findings show that drama in education is an effective way to teach college English in a Chinese arts college, so that a more elaborated curriculum design is urgently needed for better teaching and learning. </p>

Directions of work of speech development of children with the moderate and severe mental retardation

This article describes the directions of the development of speech of children with moderate and severe mental retardation, corrective measures described in the structure of classes of impressive speech, expressive speech and nonverbal communication. Working with language development of children with moderate and severe mental retardation is made from a variety of areas, of which, according to the level of child selected their top priority at the moment: the development of expressive speech, development impressive speech, development of non-verbal communication and so on. Proposed corrective actions below can be used for all children with mental and physical development, given their individual capabilities. In the process, children can learn the following skills: work together with adults, perform tasks for imitation and example, to express their desires by means of verbal and nonverbal communication, call or show by pointing gesture, object, toy, picture (objects, actions, attributes) image of letters, of words or based on his previous proceeding, subject to correlate with the desired word, the first letter, from which the word is written, find pictures, articles, which have investigated sound, write in block letters, words, using the preliminary analysis, and with adult; correctly pronounce certain sounds, syllables, words and phrases.

Students\u2019 feedback beliefs and anxiety in online foreign language oral tasks

Research about the interrelation between anxiety and corrective feedback has mostly been conducted in face-to-face environments. The present study examines the relationship between students showing anxiety when speaking a FL and feedback as a potential anxiety inhibitor in an online oral synchronous communication task. Two questionnaires, the Foreign Language Anxiety Scale (FLAS) and the Corrective Feedback Belief Scale (CFBS), were administered to 50 students from the School of Languages in an online learning environment. T-test analysis showed a significant difference between the learners’ preferences in two methods of CF. Recast and Metalinguistic feedback were better rated by the students who reported higher levels of anxiety in oral communication classes. Additionally, the High-level anxiety group rated teacher feedback as more effective than the other sources of feedback when compared to the Low-level anxiety group. These results indicate the need to take into account individual differences in terms of anxiety foreign language learning and students’ beliefs about CF in order to help them achieve their learning goals in an interactive online environment.