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This study delves into the intricate challenges surrounding incorporating information and communication technologies (ICTs) in education, particularly in regions characterized by digital exclusion, such as rural areas. By recognizing the potential of ICTs to support and expand student learning opportunities, this research explores the necessity for effective implementation through tailored professional development aligned with teachers' contextual conditions and needs. In addressing these challenges, the study explores the concept of technological appropriation, underscoring the significance of individual and contextual elements in adapting ICTs to users' specific needs and environments. Through unstructured face-to-face interviews with 21 teachers immersed in a digitally vulnerable rural context, this research unveils insights into how educators appropriate technologies to enhance student learning. The findings of this study contribute to the development of educational practices tailored to rural contexts, focusing on providing a meaningful and effective learning experience for students. By shedding light on teachers' strategies for navigating the digital landscape in challenging environments, the research aims to inform policies and practices that bridge the technological gap, ultimately fostering equitable access and enhanced educational outcomes in rural settings.

The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between the leadership styles of private school administrators, teachers' informal communication levels and teacher Job performance. The population of the study consists of 951 teachers working in private schools (primary and secondary schools) in Nicosia, Kyrenia and Famagusta district of the TRNC. The sample of the study consists of 426 people who continue their teaching profession in the 2023-2024 academic year, which is determined by random sampling method. The data collection tool consists of four parts. In the first part, there are questions containing the general knowledge of the teachers. In the second part, the 24-item "Informal Communication Scale" developed by Ugurlu (2014) was used. In the third part, the School Principals Leadership Styles Scale (OMLSS) developed by Akan et al. (2014) was used. The "Teacher Job Performance Scale" used in the fourth section is a measurement tool developed by Limon and Sezgin-Nartgün in 2020. In the study, the data were analyzed with the 28.00 SPSS program. According to the results of the research, it is clearly seen that the leadership styles adopted by school administrators and the level of communication between teachers affect the Job performance of teachers. It has been determined that transformational leadership style has a positive and significant effect on Job performance. On the other hand, it was observed that liberating and sustaining leadership styles exhibited a negative and significant relationship with Job performance. In addition, it has been determined that communication style also plays an important role. The positive relationships between the contextual performance dimension and the friendship and entertainment dimensions show that teachers exhibit a communication style that positively affects Job performance. Overall, leadership styles and communication style were found to be determining factors on teachers' Job performance. According to the results of the regression analysis, which evaluates the effect of school administrators' leadership styles on teachers' informal communication levels and Job performance, there are significant relationships between the relevant factors. A positive and significant relationship was determined between the teacher Job performance scale and the informal communication scale. This situation shows that a strong and effective level of informal communication plays a role in increasing the Job performance and productivity of teachers.

While internationalization has been a strategic driver in transforming higher education in universities across the world, little research has investigated how universities in less-developed countries have implemented the internationalization process to benefit their human and institutional capacity. This article explored the perspectives of university staff on rationales, challenges, and strategies for internationalization through the analysis of survey data collected from 82 university staff (i.e., presidents, deans, directors, academics, and staff) working at four public universities in Laos. The findings showed that resource assurance and academic rationales were the main drivers for internationalization in Lao universities toward strengthening institutional and human capacity and improving the quality of educational provisions. Meanwhile, the universities had attempted to overcome a shortage of capable human resources, financial constraints, and administrative mechanisms to expand internationalization practices. This study also found that universities focused on enhancing information and communication technology (ICT) and foreign language skills of faculty members, expanding partnerships with quality cooperation, and promoting digitalization in the teaching function of the institution as an internationalization strategy for post-COVID-19. These results could bring voices from an underrepresented country into the discourse on the internationalization of higher education and have implications for other contexts with similar conditions.

While males have predominantly held leadership positions in national-level parliaments, the rising visibility of females as heads of government, despite their underrepresentation, is a significant trend. This study investigated the political resignation speeches of four female leaders in national parliaments: Australia, England, New Zealand, and Scotland. Examining their speeches revealed a strategic utilization of self-praise to construct their identity as effective leaders. A comparative analysis of these speeches highlighted distinct self-praise strategies employed. These speakers interacted with varied levels of familiarity with their audience influencing their self-praise strategies. Addressing familiar individuals prompted the use of diverse strategies, notably emphasizing direct self-praise with modifications. In contrast, when addressing less familiar recipients, leaders tended to lean more towards straightforward strategies. Across these speeches, a multimodal discourse analysis uncovered the diverse communication modes utilized by leaders including variations in bodily movements, hand gestures, and eye contact. These modes of communication reflected the perceived social distance between the speakers and their audience.

Artificial intelligence can support increasingly complex conversational interactions and also has the potential to interpret meanings from free text input and make recommendations based on patterns in data. There are important opportunities to apply this to real-world problems faced in access to education. In this paper, we summarise existing research and trends linking disability support and technology, then report on a survey conducted with students with disclosed disabilities (n = 138) to explore what systems might need to do to effectively understand disabled students in their own words, and provide suggestions of technologies, strategies and resources that could be relevant to overcoming barriers to learning. Through thematic analysis, five approaches that students used to talk about their disabilities are identified(medical, functional, support, experiential and administrative), and three major types of suggestions they make around what supported them and may be useful to others are also identified (external tools, university support and practices, concerns and solutions). The survey approach and the findings of the analysis provide a potential foundation for the effective design of systems that could crowdsource a knowledgebase around disabilities, hold conversations to understand disabilities and barriers and make relevant recommendations to individuals as to how they could overcome these barriers.

This study explores the dynamics of ChatGPT on perceptions and challenges encountered by students and lecturers in a South African open distance e-learning [ODeL] university. It investigates whether ChatGPT disrupts traditional perceptions of online distance education held by students and lecturers and identifies specific functions and features of ChatGPT that address challenges in ODeL. This article addresses a literature gap by examining the impact of AI chatbots on perceptions and challenges in online distance education. Drawing upon the community of inquiry theory, the research examines the transformative effects of ChatGPT on teaching, learning, and communication dynamics in a large enrolment module of 16,000 students. This qualitative phenomenological research design study involves evaluations, focus group discussions with first-year students, and one-on-one interviews with lecturers. Data was collected in the first semester of 2023. Participants were purposively sampled. Findings revealed that students found ChatGPT more engaging and interactive, feeling more connected to peers and lecturers. However, lecturers expressed negative attitudes towards ChatGPT. Specific functions and features of ChatGPT identified include personalised feedback and support, natural language processing for communication and comprehension, and instant access to information and resources. The study contributes to understanding the role of AI chatbots in enhancing online learning experiences and addressing challenges in ODeL.

The presentation of survey requests represents an easily modifiable feature of survey communications that can in some contexts affect response propensities. Here, we examine how two features: the framing of the participation request (informed by prospect theory) and the inclusion of targeted appeals based on demographic background (age or electoral district), affect participation rates in the 2021 Icelandic National Election Study, a mixed-mode cross-sectional survey. We find that these features generally fail to affect response propensities and sample composition. However, framed requests produced marginally higher response rates for a subset of the sample that was invited to complete the survey online. This suggests that modifying the presentation of the survey request may be less effective in cross-sectional surveys than in longitudinal ones, where more information is available to inform the content of targeted messages.

Schools in the rural context of Limpopo Province, South Africa have a plethora of challenges, which have a negative impact on learner achievement. This paper argues that for schools to triumph over the obstacles, effective school leaders are necessary. Such leaders must define and communicate a clear vision and mission and work with stakeholders to achieve them. With these assumptions, this paper explores how members of the school management team (SMT) of a rural school in the Limpopo Province define and communicate their school's vision and mission. Through the qualitative research method underpinned by the interpretive paradigm, a case research design was adopted and a single high school sampled to participate. Data were generated from semi-structured interviews with seven SMT members, a focus-group discussion with six teachers, and an observation of the research site. The findings revealed that most participants could not articulate the school's vision and mission. In addition, stakeholders were not involved in the processes of defining the vision and mission and communication methods in this regard were also ineffective. Lastly, the SMT viewed the vision and mission as fixed and did not review them. Based on these findings, I conclude that SMT members must understand that the vision and mission could serve more than a visual purpose when designed as guiding principles to direct smaller objectives within the organisation.

This article applies cultural translation (Kramsch and Hua 2020) and geohistorical frameworks (Braudel 1949; Scott 2018) to analyze the interplay between linguistic, cultural, physical, and ideological proximities and distances in immigrant advocacy and outreach efforts. Data are taken from 'small stories' (Georgakopoulou 2010, 2015) shared by directors of immigrant-serving organizations in a small metropolitan area in the USA during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. These stories demonstrate directors' situated perspectives on new and changing demands for communicating information in the face of persistent challenges associated with the digital divide, reaching clients with limited literacy and who speak indigenous languages of Central America and Africa, and cultivating trust among staff and between staff and clients around COVID-19 mitigation and relief. Findings trace how local, state, and national policies were taken up by individual participants and the communities they serve and bring to light the value of applied linguistics research in amplifying the complexities of language access in times of crisis as well as community resilience that are often hiding in plain sight.

There is an increasing interest and growing practice in Citizen Science (CS) that goes along with the usage of websites for communication as well as for capturing and processing data and materials. From an educational perspective, it is expected that by integrating information about CS in a formal educational setting, it will inspire teachers to create learning activities. This is an interesting case for using bots to automate the process of data extraction from online CS platforms to better understand its use in educational contexts. Although this information is publicly available, it has to follow GDPR rules. This paper aims to explain (1) how CS communicates and is promoted on websites, (2) how web scraping methods and anonymization techniques have been designed, developed and applied to collect information from online sources and (3) how these data could be used for educational purposes. After the analysis of 72 websites, some of the results obtained show that only 24.8% includes detailed information about the CS project and 48.61% includes information about educational purposes or materials.

This study aims at exploring communication practices between students and supervisors in thesis projects. The study conducted a comparison between face-to-face and mediated communication through the use of emails. The researcher used the autobiographical reflection to document examples of information communicated during the two interactions. Furthermore, it utilized semi-structured interviews with three students who were conducting their thesis in the Information Studies Department at Kuwait University. Then, the researcher conducted interviews with four students' from other masters' programs. The study used a qualitative method to analyze the results. The findings showed that students used face-to-face meetings and mediated communication to seek different types of information. The topics discussed varied between the face-to-face and mediated interaction. Face-to-face communication was perceived as more effective and productive, while mediated communication was easier and faster. Students used e-mails to set appointments with their supervisors, ask questions and get feedback on assignments. Students faced some communication barriers such as difficulty of sense-making and experiencing the "black-hole" phenomenon. The study suggested applying an electronic supervision system to facilitate students' communication with their supervisors. This study has practical significance as it helps students and supervisors interact successfully during different thesis writing stages.

Learning language is learning to communicate in spoken and written form. However, learning to speak can be difficult due to a lack of linguistic resources. The students may encounter problems in communicating ideas and thus, it ends in a communication breakdown. To overcome this problem, some communication strategies like message abandonment and fillers can be used. Furthermore, communication strategies can foster students' engagement in classroom interaction, especially in an English as Lingua Franca (ELF) context. The present study was intended to explore how the communication strategies were performed in the context of ELF and the contribution of strategies to the students' engagement. Using a qualitative descriptive design, the present research investigated students' communication strategies in an international class. The findings revealed that communication strategies were creatively performed in a variety of ways. The strategies were proven to be contributive in fostering engagement by increasing students' self-confidence, boosting their self-respect, and pushing the students to be active during classroom interaction.

Teachers' communication skills are integral to classroom management skills. If teachers implement effective communication skills and appropriate communication strategies, they are more likely to support learner autonomy, engagement, self-concept, well-being, or responsibility and succeed in behaviour management. This study examines student teachers' awareness and use of communication strategies to address common disruptive learner behaviours. Although the participants showed limited ability to support learners through communication, they were more likely to identify effective communication responses than to produce them themselves. The study unveils that student teachers in the last year of a graduate program cannot respond to disruptive behaviour without communication roadblocks. They need to develop communication strategies to address disruptions in the classroom, while supporting learner engagement, motivation, self-concept, and autonomy. These findings correspond with other research studies that show a lack of opportunities to develop communication skills during preservice teacher education.

The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' e-learning instructional design and practices for deaf/hard of hearing students during the COVID-19 period. For this reason, this study is assumed to serve as a reference point for the development of accessible e-learning instruction for teachers of deaf/hard of hearing students. This study is a quantitative research in survey design. During the COVID-19 pandemic, education and communication were maintained thanks to e-learning, which has become an integral part of education. Since it was intended to establish the attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors of the sample over a specific time period, a cross-sectional design was used. The data collection tool was an online survey developed by the researcher. The participants of the study were 138 teachers. However, neither before nor throughout the COVID-19 period, 13 of the participating teachers had no experience with e-learning. Therefore, they did not answer the questions related to e-learning in the third part of the survey. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data As a result, it was determined that teachers of deaf/hard of hearing students were unprepared for the e-learning process. They require assistance with the instructional design for e-learning.

The aim of this research is to examine the language usage of Twitch tv users in the context of Turkish education. The data of the study, which is descriptive qualitative research, were collected from the chat message of three streamers who produced the most watched Turkish programs aired on Twitch tv. The number of viewer messages analysed in the study is 32.764. The findings show that these messages are produced mostly in Turkish language, but there are also others produced in other languages. The messages are found to contain emotes, abbreviations, neologisms and random laugh expressions which are used for communicative purposes. Turkish expressions are used more in the chat broadcast whereas in the game broadcast foreign origin words are more frequently used. In addition, when the chat messages of the three streamers for the same game were examined, differences are found in the language usage of the viewers. In the use of emotes, abbreviations, neologisms and random laugh expressions, there is no difference from the language used by the streamer or in the content. The analysis shows that the use of these linguistic features changes depending on the context. When we examine the data in the context of Turkish education, it has been determined that the language used in the platform does not match the aims of the Turkish Course Curriculum (2019). In addition, it was determined that emotes, abbreviations, neologisms and random laugh expressions were an essential part of communication. It has been suggested that some language elements that young people use frequently in the digital environment and that contribute to the meaning should be included in the Turkish teaching process.

Given the pervasive influence of patriarchy in politics, women in the political arena must be equipped to address the various challenges that come with it. Therefore, there is a need for political education tailored to their specific needs. Women's political representation plays a vital role in advancing democracy. This study investigated political communication strategies and ideologies of Islamist parties in Indonesia, with a focus on enhancing female politicians' voters through political education. One of the Islamic parties in this research is the Prosperous Justice Party, also known as Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS). The study employed a qualitative approach as the primary research method. The research suggests that Islamic parties can enhance their political communication strategies by integrating their political ideology. This political ideology can be transformed into guiding principles and spiritual development platforms that serve as a form of political education for political party cadres. This study highlights the challenges faced by those who may be reluctant to fully support women in politics. The strategy employed by PKS does not involve the abandonment of its core party ideology but rather focuses on reinforcing and promoting this ideology among its cadres and sympathizers through effective da'wah and cadre development.

This qualitative study critically examines the knowledge and readiness of teachers in South African classrooms in utilising Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) for learners facing communication challenges. The study addresses the concerns expressed by teachers regarding their lack of knowledge and skills in utilizing AAC, highlighting the crucial role of teacher readiness in successfully implementing this approach. The findings demonstrate that many teachers in South Africa feel ill-equipped to work with learners who rely on AAC due to limited resources and inadequate training. To ensure the effective use of AAC in classrooms and extend access to communication aids for all students, efforts are needed to enhance teacher training and support. This study also explores the challenges involved in implementing AAC exclusively within the school environment, emphasizing the importance of extending AAC usage to learners' homes for skill sharing and relevance in daily life. Additionally, the impact of staff turnover on AAC implementation in schools is examined, underscoring the necessity of addressing turnover rates and providing sufficient training to ensure successful integration of AAC. Overall, this study emphasizes the significance of incorporating AAC in the classroom and the need to equip teachers with the necessary resources and training to effectively support AAC learners both in the classroom and beyond. The research adopts a single-case study design, focusing on a Primary School in Johannesburg East, South Africa.

This article explores turn-taking in Japanese Sign Language ( JSL) by using Baker's (1977) framework. JSL as a language is wholly unrelated to American Sign Language (ASL), but because Baker and other discourse analysts have always been concerned mostly with ASL and European sign languages, it remains to be seen if Asian sign languages such as JSL have similar discourse mechanisms at work. Baker introduces three types of regulators that manage who has the floor in ASL conversations: initiation regulators, continuation regulators, and shift regulators. The sequential analysis, which looks closely at each case of regulatory behavior as they happen in chronological order, will be used. The video analyzed consists of three fluent deaf JSL users recorded on a virtual platform. While Baker's turn-taking system holds water for the most part, there are some crucial differences that deserve further examination. As the recording was done remotely rather than in person, a turn-taking mechanism not made explicit by Baker has been observed, and an addition to the sign language turn-taking process is put forward.

Deaf-sighted, deaf-blind, and hearing-sighted people have been interacting within a small community in the Bay Islands of Honduras for over a century (Ali 2023; Ali and Braithwaite 2020). In this article, we sketch the history of the community and the ways in which signers make use of their own and their interlocutor's bodies to co-construct meaning. Based on a short conversation between two deaf-blind signers, we identify mechanisms used to regulate turn-taking, including some which are familiar from other visual and tactile sign languages, and some which are rather novel in the literature. We show that signers make use of visual and tactile-proprioceptive channels, bearing in mind, but not entirely determined by, the sensorial orientations of their interlocutors. We conclude that this way of languaging is not a visual sign language and not yet fully adapted to the tactile modality, nor is it undeveloped or disordered in any other sense. Rather, we believe that this case demonstrates the ways in which human languaging makes use of multiple modalities and adapts to the needs of each interactional context. While linguists have sometimes been inclined to classify languages into neat modality boxes (auditory-vocal, visual-gestural, tactile-gestural), this analysis supports Henner and Robinson's (2023) calls for what they term a "crip linguistics," which embraces disabled ways of languaging, rejects ideas of disordered language, and recognizes languaging as multimodal.

The COVID-19 pandemic brings to the fore language's primacy in crisis communication. Given our diverse world, how effectively vital information is conveyed multilingually may make or break a place's anti-COVID battle. In the study, a locale's COVID-related multilingual landscape (multilingual Covidscape) is conceptualised as a prime multilingual/mediated site of epidemiological and public health knowledge (re)construction, where pandemic-related information is (re)contextualised and communicated multilingually by various agents (including translators). A former British colony and global financial centre, China's Hong Kong SAR represents a most cosmopolitan and diverse place in Asia, constituting a fertile ground for linguistic landscape (LL) research. Drawing on real-world data, this study explores the multilingual practices enacted in Hong Kong's multilingual Covidscape. This interdisciplinary study illustrates how multilingual resources and repertoires are brought to bear in a global city's pandemic communication. Beyond the traditionally 'choreographed' LL in Chinese and English, various multilingual practices are discussed at multiple levels.

Whilst the practitioner field around current student communications has developed in recent years, most published research still focuses either on prospective students, theoretical benefits of student communications or usage of individual channels of communication. This paper contributes to policy and practice by providing the first UK-wide look at current students' communications preferences and behaviours through a meta-analysis of 17 student communications surveys (total students surveyed 20,134). Results show that students expect their universities to utilise a range of channels (including email, social media and student portals) -- i.e. an integrated marketing theory approach. Most students feel that they receive the right level of information; however, overall satisfaction with communications has decreased in recent years. This paper provides recommendations for practice, as well as a template to improve consistency in future institutional student communications evaluations.

The widespread use of digital technologies has made multimodal composing quite common among students these days. The use of technology to manage students' learning and create their output has been found to increase their engagement, interest, choice and cooperation. This article reports on a qualitative study that explored the experiences and perceptions of four students who participated in a classroom presentation. In particular, the study focused on students' engagement through multimodal composing of presentation slides and on their strategic use of different non-verbal modes. Data sources included classroom observation, interview transcripts and multimodal products. The results reveal that students perceived multimodal composition as motivating and useful for communicating discipline-specific language in a more confident and empowering way. Factors that influenced students' engagement included cooperation, curiosity, control and peer recognition. Knowledge of the different ways in which students can express themselves authentically can help L2 teachers to design pedagogical frameworks that include digital composition skills.

This paper explores whether a Serbia preschool institution is prepared for education during the pandemic. The research subject is nine kindergarten-preschool units where 140 teachers work with about 2500 children up to 6.5 years. We examined all teachers that work in preschool units. The study aims, for a case study of music education, to answer: Whether the COVID-19 pandemic affected the change in the educational work in the field of music in preschool; Can web-based applications and educational resources improve preschool music outcomes, especially during a pandemic; Would web applications and educational resources reduce financial costs; Would web applications and educational resources enhance parent-teacher communication. The findings show preschool teachers mostly use traditional offline educational techniques and tools but need more online learning tools, Web resources, and applications, especially when working remotely. They believe such resources can reduce financial costs and improve parent-teacher communication. The study found that the pandemic has forced changes in practice. However, according to teachers, these changes can enhance future post-pandemic practice thanks to web-based educational technologies that more closely connect all participants in early childhood education.

Shared language comprises a precondition to authentic relationships, including career counselling. Drawing on constructivist theory, this article highlights career counsellors' charge to be sensitive to the unique meanings that clients ascribe to common career-oriented terminology, such as "working with people," "success," or "challenging work." A brief written qualitative tool, the Work Aspects Exercise, can provide the career and employment counsellor with quick access to the client's unique usage of these terms and facilitate authentic interaction. Findings from public employment service clientele in Israel are presented, along with sample client profiles and suggestions for interpreting client texts. Career guidance practitioners will find a supportive tool with high face validity that can stimulate self-exploration.

Aided conversations differ from spoken ones in their transitions between turns and symbols because seeking and choosing symbols takes more time than speaking words naturally. This study adopted the concepts and principles of conversation analysis (CA) to analyze the transitions between symbols during the construction of aided turns. The data was from the spontaneous conversations at home between mothers and four males (sons) who used speech-output technologies. The analyses compared the durations of transitions between turns and symbols and frequency of mothers' talk during the transitions. The mothers most often remained silent during the symbol-transitions, but when they talked, their speech was inspired by the current context and was not coincidental. When the mothers spoke during the symbol-transitions, their sons either continued or paused constructing their turn. Despite the effect on the progress of conversations, the participants did not orient to these expanded aided turns as challenging. The expansions manifested (a) in parallel (b) side by side with the aided turn, and (c) as a part of the ongoing aided turn. Analyzing the structural characteristics of aided conversations deepens our understanding of theoretical concepts, offers strategies to guide aided communicators and their partners, and helps to develop augmentative and alternative communication technologies that promote interactive communication.

In times of decreasing response rates and survey participation, many 'best-practices' have been developed for increasing survey recruitment. However, most of these have never been adequately and experimentally scrutinized for their efficacy. Therefore, in this research note, we draw on probability-based data of an online panel and experimentally examine whether it is possible to increase survey participation behavior by communicating a deadline extension. Overall, our results show that it is possible to influence participation behavior by deadline communication. While overall response speed was significantly faster when a deadline extension was communicated, the overall response rate was slightly lower, compared to scenarios in which no deadline extension was communicated. Thus, we refrain from recommending a deadline extension unless there are specific reasons to do so.

Background: Historically the voices of people with intellectual disability have been occluded by barriers imposed by research practice. More recently, adaptive research approaches have been proposed to enhance the inclusion of people with intellectual disability in qualitative research. Method: This article presents an adaptive interviewing approach employed with five people ageing with intellectual disabilities in rural South Australia. The interviews were conducted within a broader participatory action research project in which tools and resources were co-designed for post-parental care planning. Results: We describe our adaptive interviewing approach incorporating multiple methods: (i) responsive communication techniques; (ii) the inclusion and support of family carers; (iii) visual tools; (iv) walking interviews. Conclusion: Findings contribute knowledge about how an adaptive interview approach supports the participation of people with an intellectual disability in qualitative research.

With the expansion of social media and the multiple possibilities for communication they offer, flirting is increasingly developing online. The aim of this article is to analyze how the adolescent population uses Instagram to initiate and develop courtship. For this, the results of 14 focus groups held in Secondary Education Institutes in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain), in which a total of 114 students between the ages of 12 and 17 participated, are analyzed. The results show that the online courtship game has its own rules and strategies. The most common Instagram strategies are: "best friends," the use of songs, and direct appeal for audience response. The results show that social interactions continue to be influenced by regulated and stereotyped social patterns.

This article offers a view on the emerging practice of managing external relations of the modern university, and the role of science communication in this. With a representative sample of research universities in four countries, we seek to broaden our understanding of the "science communication (SC) function" and its niche within the modern university. We distinguish science communication from corporate communication functions and examine how they distribute across organisational levels. We find that communication functions can be represented along a spectrum of (de)centralisation: public relations and marketing activities are more likely carried out at the central level (central offices), and public affairs and SC activities are more likely carried out at decentral levels (e.g. in specific offices and/or research institutes, departments). This study shows that little attention is paid to science communication at central structures, suggesting that it is not a practice that aligns easily with university corporate communication, yet SC might find its niche increasingly in decentral locations of activity.

Currently, the analysis of rhetorical moves is extensively applied to business genre conventions. This paper adopts a corpus-assisted genre approach to compare three major rhetorical moves in corpora of students' and professionals' project proposal abstracts to elicit evidence-based recommendations for the pedagogy of business communication. The findings indicate that, while overall features in the proposal abstracts written by actual business professionals and those by students of business vary quantitatively but not qualitatively, students focus more on the aim of the project, and professionals tend to evenly highlight all sides of the project and position it within the context.

Deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) students in Hong Kong face great challenges in academic learning since for decades oral language has been the only means of communication in classrooms. The establishment of the Sign Bilingualism and Co-enrollment in Deaf Education (SLCO) Program aims to provide an accessible mainstream environment that supports DHH children's education. This study explores the impact of SLCO education on DHH children's academic performance. A longitudinal study was conducted for four cohorts of DHH students (n = 24) who completed their 6-year primary education at the SLCO school. Data on their academic performance based on standardised assessments in Chinese Language, English Language and Mathematics were collected over the six years of primary education to review their development against normative grade levels and annual growth rates. Results indicate that SLCO-DHH students achieve normative standards in both English Language and Mathematics based on their median grade levels. They do, however, lag behind normative standards by one year in Chinese Language. When their academic development was analysed annually, they were comparable to their hearing peers, with an average growth rate very close to "1" for all three subjects. Additionally, no significant relationships could be found between degrees of hearing loss and speech perception and their academic performance. Instead, early Chinese literacy attainment serves as a strong factor predicting their later academic attainment in both Chinese Language and Mathematics. The SLCO education environment appears to be an education model that effectively reduces barriers to accessing academic content in classrooms and promotes positive academic development.

Background: People with intellectual disabilities are less physically active and suffer from ill-health more than the general population. Support staff play an important role in the person's life. This study aimed to explore the support staff's experiences regarding the feasibility of adapted web-based exercise for people with intellectual disabilities. Method: Participants with intellectual disabilities living in community-based settings were recruited for a web-based exercise study. Eight semi-structured interviews were carried out with their support staff before and after the intervention period. Results: The main theme, 'Support staff are crucial for feasibility' encompasses the importance of communication, structure, and motivation in improving physical activity for people with intellectual disabilities. Conclusion: The experiences of support staff, indicate that a web-based exercise program is feasible for the target group, and one way to overcome challenges for PA, where the role of the staff is crucial.

Guided by the framework of internationalization at home (IaH), this study employed a mixed-methods approach investigating the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) among a group of tertiary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in Taiwan, facilitated through the means of telecollaboration. The telecollaboration incorporated 30 EFL learners and 30 learners of Chinese from Australia and New Zealand. Data collection encompassed EFL learners' responses to a self-assessment questionnaire, their reflective essays, alongside instructors' reflective journals. The findings showed that EFL learners held positive perceptions regarding their telecollaboration experience and reported substantial growth in ICC across three dimensions: cognitive, affective and behavioral. In applying various multimodal communication strategies, EFL learners realized and valued cultural similarities and differences. Their reflective accounts exhibited evidence of enhanced linguistic and cultural competences. The telecollaboration enabled them to increase their confidence in utilizing English, hone their digital literacy skills for effective communications, and establish conducive environments for their relational and emotional development with their teammates and instructors. The latter provided indispensable emotion in varying contingent situations. Incorporating the insights drawn from the instructors' reflective journals, the study argues that telecollaboration as a pedagogical practice is the significant essence of effective IaH curriculum design and implementation.

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted almost all areas of our lives, including the internationalisation of higher education. Therefore, enabling the internationalisation of higher education is one of the biggest challenges for academic institutions, and in this context, there is a need to move beyond myths and realities. Owing to the scarcity of research in the domain, this study aims to identify various critical strategies and empirically examine their impact on the internationalisation of higher education. For this purpose, a comprehensive literature review was conducted to explore strategies and develop a theoretical framework. To test research hypotheses, this study employed an explanatory research design utilising a survey instrument methodology to collect data from 253 respondents from both the public and private sector universities in Pakistan. The measures of the internationalisation of higher education were adopted from earlier studies while an instrument was developed to measure strategies on a 5-point Likert scale. The reliability and validity of data were ensured, and correlation and regression analyses were utilised to test hypotheses, in addition to validation of hypotheses through AMOS and PLS-SEM. Findings revealed a significant and positive impact of communicating, cooperating, coordinating, collaborating, and continuing strategies (5C's) in enhancing the internationalisation of higher education. Also, the finding implies that an integrated policy through the adoption of the 5C's strategies needs to be implemented by academic institutions to overcome the challenges of the internationalisation of higher education.

Purpose: Climate change poses risks to society and the demand for carbon literacy within small and medium-sized enterprises is increasing. Skills and knowledge are required for organizational greenhouse gas accounting and science-based decisions to help businesses reduce transitional risks. At the University of Copenhagen and the University of Northern British Columbia, two carbon management courses have been developed to respond to this growing need. Using an action-based co-learning model, students and business are paired to quantify and report emissions and develop climate plans and communication strategies. Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws on surveys of businesses that have partnered with the co-learning model, designed to provide insight on carbon reductions and the impacts of co-learning. Data collected from 12 respondents in Denmark and 19 respondents in Canada allow for cross-institutional and international comparison in a Global North context. Findings: Results show that while co-learning for carbon literacy is welcomed, companies identify limitations: time and resources; solution feasibility; governance and reporting structures; and communication methods. Findings reveal a need for extension, both forwards and backwards in time, indicating that the collaborations need to be lengthened and/or intensified. Balancing academic requirements detracts from usability for businesses, and while municipal and national policy and emission targets help generate a general societal understanding of the issue, there is no concrete guidance on how businesses can implement operational changes based on inventory results. Originality/value: The research brings new knowledge to the field of transitional climate risks and does so with a focus on both small businesses and universities as important co-learning actors in low-carbon transitions. The comparison across geographies and institutions contributes an international solution perspective to climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies.

With high demand on specialist child mental health services internationally, there is significant interest in prevention and early intervention, as well as innovative and efficient approaches for increasing access to high-quality care. Digital communication technologies can improve communication between different professionals and agencies involved in young people's lives, which is especially important in rural locations and became more necessary during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study examined the perceived value, feasibility, and acceptability of digitally mediated team communication for responding to emerging social, emotional, and mental health support needs in primary school settings in a rural county in the UK. A pre-/post-study design was used as a process evaluation of digitally mediated team communication and pilot test of feasibility and perceived value. Fifteen individual children (aged 4-9 years) were referred to a digitally mediated multidisciplinary team (with representation from relevant children's services) where formulation was used to develop specialised action plans implemented by education staff and parents/carers. Findings suggest that digitally mediated team communication was highly valued for enhancing practice in supporting individual children by education staff and for making progress towards personalised goals by both education staff and parents/carers. Analysis further suggests that digitally mediated team communication was feasible and acceptable to education staff and parents/carers. A digitally mediated model for an early and multidisciplinary team response holds promise for empowering education staff as an extended mental health workforce, with a need for future research with larger samples to investigate service efficiency and outcomes of this health service delivery model.

This case provides students with an opportunity to observe RunCzech, a historically successful sport event organization, as they navigate a crisis and strive to satisfy all stakeholders, with emphasis on the sponsor stakeholders. Students are familiarized with the challenges facing RunCzech and their corresponding response. The event organizers strive to mitigate these challenges with their crisis management strategy. This strategy includes creating new events in partnership with their sponsors while remaining in compliance with changing government restrictions. RunCzech's crisis management, and the communication surrounding it, is framed in terms of Coombs's situational crisis communication theory. The students see innovative crisis management, with a primary focus on sponsors as stakeholders, before being tasked with communicating these crisis management efforts to one specific sponsor, adidas.

Scholars have paid little attention to the strategies used by parents of gifted children who learn in mixed-abilities classroom when interacting with their teachers. In this research we studied how parents of gifted children in mixed-ability classrooms position themselves with their children's teachers in conflicted situations. By using multiple case studies and positioning theory as an analytical framework, this research revealed three strategies used by parents in tense interactions with teachers: Law Enforcers, who point out stated regulations, Motivators, who seek teacher cooperation, and Mentors, who avoid interactions with teachers. This knowledge is important for teachers to advance dialogue with parents of gifted children.

Against the backdrop of internationalisation and growing attention to intercultural experiences in tertiary education, this mixed-methods study examined, in part I, language learning benefits reaped by active participants in intercultural activities. As English is widely used for communication among multilinguals, part II of the study focused specifically on English. We set out to investigate the relationship between individuals' language background (actual and self-perceived English proficiency) and intercultural participation, as well as their views of the formal English language education they received prior to entering universities. The participants (n = 518) recruited from two universities in Hong Kong responded to a questionnaire and 11 of them also attended individual semi-structured interviews. Overall, five categories of benefits emerged from the interview findings, namely psychological benefits, proficiency enhancement, identification of problems, communicative strategies for accommodation, and communicative strategies for expression. A weak positive correlation was found between self-rated English speaking proficiency and participation. The interviewees also commented on the formal English education they received from curricular and environmental perspectives.

Background: Spoken discourse impairments post-traumatic brain injury (TBI) are well-documented and heterogeneous in nature. These impairments have chronic implications for adults in terms of employment, socializing and community involvement. Intervention delivered by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) is recommended for adults with discourse impairments post-TBI, with an emphasis on context-sensitive treatment. The developing evidence base indicates a wide array of treatment components for SLPs to evaluate and implement within their clinical practice. However, there is limited insight into how SLPs are currently treating discourse impairments and the rationales informing clinical practice. Aims: To explore the under-researched area of clinical practice for spoken discourse interventions with adults post-TBI, including treatment components and clinician rationales, and to contribute towards a shared knowledge base. Methods & Procedures: Participants were recruited via purposeful sampling strategies. Six SLPs participated from Australia, the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US). Semi-structured interviews were conducted via Zoom. Interviews were manually transcribed, coded and analysed via a qualitative content analysis approach. Outcomes & Results: Participants described discourse treatment practices across various settings and TBI recovery stages. Results indicated that SLPs used numerous treatment activities, resources and outcome measures. Intervention approaches primarily targeted social communication skills, strategy development/utilization and insight-building. Clinical practice conformed to available guidelines where possible, reflected best practice and incorporated components of the research literature. Participants reported using individualized treatment activities aimed at addressing client-specific factors and rationales prioritized tailored, context-sensitive and goal-directed treatment. Conclusions & Implications: This study provided insight into a previously under-researched area. It highlighted a wide range of treatment activities and factors informing current SLPs' treatment of spoken discourse impairment post-TBI. Overall, clinical practice and rationales discussed in this study were aligned with best practice and emphasized a contextualized, individualized approach to discourse treatment across service settings and stages of recovery. Participants identified areas requiring further support, including access to training, resources and research, and the challenge of finding suitable outcome measures. Further investigation into discourse management post-TBI, from initial assessment to outcome measurement, may help inform clinical decision-making and the transfer of research to practice.

The purpose of the current study is to determine Turkish as a foreign language learners' tendency to use communication strategies. Quantitative and qualitative research models were used together in the study. The survey method was used in the qualitative part and the phenomenological method was used in the quantitative part of the study. The study group of the study is comprised of 77 participants from 13 different nationalities with Turkish language proficiency levels of A2, B2 and C1. Quantitative data were collected by using the "Oral Communication Strategies Inventory" and qualitative data were collected by using a semi-structured interview form. Descriptive analysis was performed on both the quantitative and qualitative data. The results of the study revealed a strong correlation between the level of competence and the tendency to use strategies. Participants with low language proficiency levels tend to use strategies including the behavior of moving away from the verbal boundaries of the target language. On the other hand, those with a high level of language proficiency tend to use strategies that include the effort to stay within the boundaries of the target language. In the qualitative dimension of the study, 10 different communication strategies were determined based on the episodic memories and experiences of the participants. These are strategies mostly used in compensatory functions.

Confronting the existential threat of climate and ecological crises in undergraduate teaching presents complex challenges. Educators in environmental and climate change studies rightly communicate the scale and urgency of these unfolding crises, yet at times fail to take into account the emotional and mental health impacts upon students acquiring this knowledge. This article examines the affective dimensions of learning in 'crisis subjects'. It draws insights from case study research on the experience of Australian university teachers and students in a subject called Environmental Communication, delivered during a period of intersecting crises: climate-change driven drought, catastrophic bushfires, and the emergence of COVID-19. The psychoanalytic concept of 'difficult knowledge' (Britzman, 1998; 2004) is taken up to shed light on the inherent challenges of teaching and learning in this context. Many students in the study were deeply affected by their learning experience, and recognise its importance, but also struggle to integrate it with anticipated future roles. The authors argue that students and educators need new knowledge, capacities and resources to address the affective dimension of teaching and learning and to grapple with the collective social trauma of the climate crisis.

English communication skills are now considered a passport-like requirement for students seeking a secure profession with a higher wage. Additionally, English proficiency is considered one of the variables affecting the success of foreign businesses investing in Vietnam and Vietnamese businesses looking to collaborate internationally to develop their brands into new markets abroad. The integration of various linguistic skills demonstrates the value of speaking. The main objective of this study was to investigate the frequency and importance of using direct speaking strategies by non-English-majored students at Dong Nai Technology University. The study involved 90 second-year undergraduate students at Dong Nai Technology University in Bien Hoa city, Dong Nai province. At the time of the study, the participants were 18-19 and had already attained elementary level. This research uses questionnaires and interviews using the SPSS application to analyze the main points relating to the research questions. According to research, direct speaking strategies significantly affect the English speaking skills of Dong Nai Technology University students. At the same time, the difficulties and orientations when learning speaking skills using direct speaking strategies were revealed in the study's conclusion. To maximize direct speaking strategies and advance the field of study, recommendations have been made for non-English-majored students.

This study examines the content strategies of 12 Chinese universities' international websites. Going beyond the Hofstede--Hall model, we explore a novel mixed-method study using both content strategy analysis and user research to investigate intercultural web-based communication strategies. Our study identifies the impacts of Chinese cultural and socio-political values on web content and the mismatch between such values and the information needs of globally distributed prospective students. We conclude that universities' web content strategies should fully understand target audiences' needs. Designers benefit from doing stakeholder interviews and competitor analysis to provide relevant, accurate, and accessible information to users from different cultures.

Deception is a misrepresentation of reality that attracted many researchers examining it from various perspectives. However, no due attention has been given to the discursive deception strategies in the work of think tanks. This study aims at exposing the deception strategies deployed in the conservative American think tanks' discourse which concern itself with the (re)production of socio-political realities. The study holds the significance of the detection and explication of argumentative and pragmatic discursive deception strategies which impose ideological hegemony and socio-political polarization of the positively presented "Self" against the negatively presented "Other." This study attempts to answer a twofold question: what are the discursive deception strategies involved in the work of think tanks, and why/how these strategies are applied? To this end, eight political texts from three think tanks were analyzed adopting an eclectic model based on van Dijk (2000) and Yule (1996). The analyzed data mainly focuses on four political themes namely (1) terrorism in Islam, (2) Russian role in the Middle East, (3) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, (4) the U.S. policy in the Middle East. The results demonstrate the pervasiveness of discursive deception strategies in the think tanks' discourse which endeavor to communicate an ideological polarization of a positive presentation of the "Self" against a negative presentation of the "Other" and reinforce a hegemony of particular socio-political realities. Findings can be beneficial for students of (critical) discourse analysis, media, communications studies, and English for special purposes.

This paper is an attempt to deal with language learners' beliefs. Researchers used Elaine Kolker Horwitz's model (1988), Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory, and they applied it to explore the views of Kurdish EFL university students concerning language learning. The study aims to investigate and expose their opinions regarding language learning generally, then English language more precisely. Its significance lies in exploring the beliefs of Kurdish EFL university students about language learning. It mainly answers the question, "what are the beliefs of Kurdish EFL university students about learning English?". The researchers administered a Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory (BALLI) questionnaire to seven universities to achieve this aim. The questionnaire includes several viewpoints regarding the difficulty of language learning, foreign language aptitude, the nature of language learning, learning and communication strategies, and motivation and expectations. They collected and analyzed the questionnaire results and found out that the first category, the difficulty of language learning, has the lowest mean score among the five categories. In contrast, the fifth category, motivation and expectations, has the highest mean score. They ended the study with suitable beneficiary recommendations.

The improvement of the quality of foreign language education is necessary to achieve subject-learning outcomes for the development of graduates' pertinent communication strategies in foreign language communication in various social situations. The research purpose is to develop the communicative strategies (CS) in foreign language (FL) communication in university students with the help of an elaborated communication strategy training technology based on the linguocultural reflection. As main methods of this study a quantitative approach with a survey design were used. The article presents the main provisions of the FL learning process, which determine the effective formation of pertinent communication strategies in students in the FL education at the university. In a 16-week English as a Foreign Language course 197 learners of the experimental groups received CS training within the framework of a training technology designed for the purpose of the present research. Data analysis of pre- and post-test procedures used the following mathematical coefficients: average indicator (AI), efficiency coefficient (CE), absolute growth (G) and growth rate (Y). The findings revealed that participants in experimental groups, where the training technology was used, significantly outperformed the reference group as to the level of development of communication strategies.