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Undergraduate research paper has long been a tradition in US freshman composition programs, although whether the research paper should or can be taught in the English department continues to be debated. In many of the English departments in Taiwan, students are also required to compose a research paper for their composition class. However, there has been little research conducted on the writing process and on the student perceptions of this specific genre in an EFL learning context. This qualitative study, involving one American instructor and seven Taiwanese college students majoring in English, traced a research writing project, carried out as part of the writing curriculum, from start to finish. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted with each of the students in the beginning, middle and end of the research project. The findings indicate that the students saw information arrangement and display as the main purpose of the research paper. For various reasons, the students perceived the research project as beneficial, although during the implementation of the project they encountered difficulties such as time and resource constraints, problems with using sources in Chinese, difficulties with synthesizing information from multiple sources, among others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Graffiti is widely used in social movements globally, yet media and communication research disproportionately focus on the role of social and new media technologies in protest movements. In this paper I ask why university students – a tech-savvy generation – resorted to graffiti and why campus graffiti were not widely circulated on social media during the Hong Kong anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill (ELAB) protests. I argue that graffiti enables dispersed resistance and is one way to mobilize, voice dissent, and preserve memory in an increasingly surveilled and evolving repressive media environment. I pursue this argument by analyzing graffiti photographed on university campuses during the anti-ELAB protests. Situating graffiti within protest culture in Hong Kong, I conclude that graffiti are not always circulated on digital/social media to reach a broader audience. In times of crises, not reaching a wider audience is a manifestation of dispersed resistance in a hybrid media environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual assault (SA) commonly disclose their experiences to friends or family members, or within other personal relationships. Disclosure recipients' responses to these disclosures are associated with victims' mental health. Previous research has separately measured both actual responses to IPV/SA and anticipated responses to IPV/SA (e.g., response to a hypothetical scenario) from the perspective of disclosure recipients. Yet, little research has described the association between disclosure recipients' anticipated and actual responses. The aim of the current paper was to use a prospective design to examine the association between disclosure recipients' anticipated and actual responses to IPV/SA, including positive and negative social reactions, perceptions of victim responsibility, empathy, and confusion and ineffectiveness about how to respond. Participants (N = 126 college students aged 18–23; 70.6% women) answered questions about their anticipated responses to a hypothetical IPV/SA disclosure scenario, and then six months later answered the same questions about their actual responses to an actual disclosure of IPV/SA. Although most anticipated and actual responses were significantly associated, associations were moderate in size. Some associations were stronger for participants with a closer relationship to the victim, for participants who had their own victimization history, for women, and for men. Individuals can predict their responses to some degree, but are not totally accurate in doing so. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The extent to which students are able to maximize the potential benefits of information from the online world depends, in great measure, on the development of a set of skills that would make them effective users and decision-makers. While previous studies have revealed the role of prior knowledge, availability of ICT resources and infrastructure in the development of information-type skills, the identification of other unexplored variables remains important in information science. This paper seeks to ascertain the moderating role of mindfulness on digital literacy and online information searching strategies on a select group of university students in the Philippines. Structural equation modeling was used to test a hypothesized model and explore the factors affecting the information-seeking behavior of 321 students from the largest comprehensive university in the Philippines. A multi-aspect instrument, consisting of a robotfoto, and three scales such as the Langer Mindfulness Scale (LMS), Internet Skills Scale (ISS), and Online Information Searching Strategies Inventory (OISSI), was used in this study. Results revealed that digital literacy had a direct positive relationship with the online information searching strategies of students. Surprisingly, mindfulness did not moderate the relationship between digital literacy and online information searching strategies. Further, digital literacy was found to be a mediating factor to university students' information searching strategies. Implications of these for library practice and policy are discussed in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of reference management software in the context of academic work and research is the main subject of this study. The study focuses on the extent to which postgraduate students at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, one of the largest Greek universities, make use of – or avoid using – reference management software tools to organize their bibliographic databases and to automate the process of creating references and citations. The study also tries to find out which are the key factors for their choices and whether certain background characteristics affect their behavior. It should be mentioned that no previous studies have been conducted in Greece regarding the use of reference management software in the academic environment. An online questionnaire was sent to the postgraduate students at the University and a result set of 545 responses was collected and analyzed. The majority (almost two-thirds) of the respondents identified themselves as non-users and one-third identified themselves as reference management software users. Among the latter, Mendeley was found to be the software used by more than two-thirds of the users and was followed by EndNote and Zotero. It is worth mentioning that Mendeley is the software officially recommended by the University's central library to its users but most of the students (more than 60%) were not aware of this fact. In terms of background characteristics, the analysis revealed, among other things, statistically significant relationships between degree level, student discipline and preferences, reference management software features, and potential future use of reference management software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relative merits of early and delayed offer schemes in attracting under-represented students to university. Following the introduction of a demand-driven system and the establishment of national growth and equity targets, Australian universities have increased the number of offers made to students before the release of Australian Tertiary Admission Ranks. The majority of public universities now operate an early offer scheme, often explicitly to increase their proportions of traditionally under-represented students. By contrast, the University of Melbourne and the University of Western Australia have developed delayed offer schemes, whereby entry to professional courses depends primarily on achievement within a generalist undergraduate degree. Under both models, institutions seek to reduce their reliance on Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, which has been shown to be correlated with socio-economic status. The paper considers both models with respect to their transparency, efficiency, predictive validity and equity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The latest evaluation indicators of digital literacy are applied to college students to evaluate their level of digital literacy. Evaluation areas applied in this study are roughly classified into technical literacy, bit literacy, and virtual community literacy, and each of these has five sub-groups. This paper attempts to analyze the level of effect of these categories and sub-groups on information use behavior. This study used a survey, as did much of the previous research. College students from five different colleges were targeted, with 221 surveys out of 250 returned, a return rate of 88.4%. As to results, bit literacy influences information use behavior most, followed by virtual community literacy and technical literacy in that order. Bit literacy is related to the ability to use information including information search, information discernment, editing information, processing information, and utilizing information, and these items appear to have influenced information use behavior most. Examination of these detailed items shows that the ability to process information has the most significant effect on information use behavior followed by information discernment, information editing, community analysis, document editing, and use of tools and ability to create cyber culture in that order. The literacy indicators with the lowest effect on information use behavior were the ability to communicate, form self-identity, information search, and form relationships in that order. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Australia has proven to be a popular destination for Indian students seeking higher education qualifications. In recent years, the influx of Indian students into Australia has shown considerable volatility and so has their enrollment mix between the further, vocational and higher education sectors. An understanding of the motivations and characteristics of potential and current Indian international students along with the changing dynamics of the global higher education sector is important to be able to analyse this volatility and to ensure effective and sustainable marketing of higher education to Indian students. This paper provides a profile of Indian students studying in Australia and provides insight into their course preferences and motivations for choosing Australia. A key finding of this paper is that apart from traditional motivators such as higher rates of returns and employability associated with a foreign qualification, Indian students are very responsive to changes in Australia’s labour market, immigration and student visa policies relative to other international alternatives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides evidence on the impacts that students have had on neighbourhoods in five case study cities in the UK. Drawing on extensive qualitative interview data in these cities, the paper shows how national policy towards higher education had unintended and unanticipated problems for urban policy-makers. It argues that responses to these problems are shaped by discourses about what is normalised student behaviour and, implicitly, class-based ideologies. These are argued to shape the way in which the problems created by studentified neighbourhoods are perceived and the way in which local actors subsequently respond. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Although robust evidence has been accumulating over the last decades supporting the effectiveness of career counseling in various populations, yet there are scarce conceptual or empirical studies investigating the impact of distinct approaches, such as traditional-"psychometric," narrative, or a mixed (integrative) one. The primary aim of this paper is to make a contribution in the field, providing a synthetic overview of contemporary research findings regarding the effectiveness of narrative and mixed career counseling approaches with a special focus on university students. The recent trend of utilizing mixed approaches in career assessment and intervention is also emphasized in the article, suggesting they may have a great potential in helping young adults advance meaning-making about career and life design. Finally, a discussion of both benefits and challenges relating to narrative and mixed interventions along with recommendations for extending research in the area of assessing career interventions' effectiveness for university students is provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students’ increasing use of text messaging language has prompted concern that textisms (e.g., 2 for to, dont for don’t, ☺) will intrude into their formal written work. Eighty-six Australian and 150 Canadian undergraduates were asked to rate the appropriateness of textism use in various situations. Students distinguished between the appropriateness of using textisms in different writing modalities and to different recipients, rating textism use as inappropriate in formal exams and assignments, but appropriate in text messages, online chat and emails with friends and siblings. In a second study, we checked the examination papers of a separate sample of 153 Australian undergraduates for the presence of textisms. Only a negligible number were found. We conclude that, overall, university students recognise the different requirements of different recipients and modalities when considering textism use and that students are able to avoid textism use in exams despite media reports to the contrary. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

While thinking critically is often perceived to be the primary purpose of reading, the question of whether it can actually be taught in classrooms has been extensively debated. This paper bases itself on a qualitative case study of university students completing a degree in English Language and Literature. It explores the way in which critical thinking can be taught in EFL contexts. The paper suggests that critical thinking is best defined as a series of skills which can be continuously worked upon by students for whom constant revision and application of these skills is a significant way of internalizing what has often been seen to be just an attitude or bent of mind. This skill is further enhanced when students get an opportunity to write on the areas which have been discussed in the class, particularly if they are of some relevance to the students’ own contexts. Based on the open question format of Norris and Ennis (1989) and subsequent evaluation using the rubrics of McLaughlin and Moore (2012) which take into account the critical reading component in writing, this paper investigates the extent to which critical thinking could be enhanced through in-class social practices such as discussions and subsequent writing. The study concludes that continuous practice, both oral and written, provide opportunities for students to develop their critical thinking abilities as they become more successful in incorporating nuanced and critical ideas into their academic writings. This has implications for students’ academic and personal achievements because, clearly, an inability to read critically will result in an inability to write insightfully. Various strategies are then suggested to facilitate learners’ use of critical thinking skills so that they may successfully incorporate them into their writing, both in an academic context and as a life-long skill. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The papers in this special issue provide support for continued scrutiny of interactional competence (IC) as an important component of the speaking construct. The contributions underscore the complex nature of IC and remind us of the multiple factors that affect any construct definition. At the same time, each study offers insights into those factors through their explorations of IC. In this final paper, we first briefly review key findings from the papers that confirm what is already known about IC and that provide new information to our understanding of the construct of IC. After summarizing points of convergence and of divergence, we turn to a discussion of areas that require additional targeted attention and offer four generalizations as starting points for research. In the final section, we take a critical look at the challenges associated with including IC in the speaking construct and the implications of the studies in this special issue for the relationship between IC and proficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to identify what aviation experts consider to be the key features of effective communication by examining in detail their commentary on a 17-minute segment of recorded radiotelephony discourse between a Russian pilot and a Korean air traffic controller. The segment was played to three practising pilots and three air traffic controllers. Their commentary on the qualities of communication displayed in the interaction was recorded and coded thematically, using a grounded ethnography approach. The analysis revealed that although the Russian pilot was viewed as having limited English proficiency, the strategies he used to make himself understood were evaluated positively as fulfilling the requirements of the professional role. By contrast, the Korean air traffic controller, although not evaluated as having limited proficiency, was criticized for his lack of professional knowledge. The discourse analysis and the feedback given by these expert informants highlight not only the nature of the miscommunication arising in unexpected situations, but also the multiple factors that may contribute to it. While language proficiency is clearly an issue, there are many other sources of miscommunication that emerge during the exchange. These findings are used to critique the narrow, language-focused oral proficiency construct as articulated in the holistic descriptors and the rating scale stipulated by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, 2010) as the basis for tests of aviation English worldwide. Instead the paper proposes an expanded construct of oral communication incorporating elements of professional knowledge and behaviour with a focus on interactional competence specific to this context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ability to interact with others has gained recognition as part of the L2 speaking construct in the assessment literature and in high- and low-stakes speaking assessments. This paper first presents a review of the literature on interactional competence (IC) in L2 learning and assessment. It then discusses a particular feature - producing responses contingent on previous speakers' contributions - that emerged as a de facto construct feature of IC, oriented to both candidates and examiners within the school-based group speaking assessment in the Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education (HKDSE) English Language Examination. Previous studies have, similarly, argued for the importance of responding to or linking one's own talk to previous speakers' contributions as a way of demonstrating comprehension of co-participants' talk. However, what counts as such a response has yet to be explored systematically. This paper presents a conversation analytic study of the candidate discourse in the assessed group interactions, identifying three conversational actions through which student-candidates construct contingent responses to co-participants. The thick description about the nature of contingent responses lays the groundwork for further empirical investigations on the relevance of this IC feature and its proficiency implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and hazardous drinking have been linked to lower relationship satisfaction; however, few studies have evaluated these associations over time in a college sample. The current study aimed to examine within-person and between-person longitudinal main and interactive effects of self-reported PTSD symptoms and hazardous drinking on relationship satisfaction in a college sample. We further examined whether individual PTSD symptom clusters (i.e., re-experiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and emotional numbing) uniquely predicted relationship satisfaction. College students in current dating relationships (N = 307; 71% cisgender women) completed online self-report measures assessing relationship satisfaction, PTSD symptoms, and hazardous alcohol use on four occasions across 12 months. Multilevel models revealed that students with more severe PTSD symptoms than average had lower relationship satisfaction (i.e., at the between-person level). Additionally, higher hazardous drinking at the between-person and within-person levels was associated with lower relationship satisfaction. When examining specific PTSD symptom clusters, results indicated only emotional numbing symptoms were negatively associated with relationship satisfaction at the between-person and within-person levels after controlling for other PTSD symptom clusters. Collectively, these results underscore the impact of within- and between-person individual differences in PTSD symptoms and hazardous drinking on romantic relationships in college student populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines university students' perceived skill levels in utilizing internet resources and library tools, as well as accomplishing specific information-skills tasks, and assesses the impact of information literacy training in Bangladesh. The study involved two phases: first, a survey was administered to a sample of 257 students and, second, an experiment was conducted with 28 students to examine the effectiveness of training. The survey results show that the students perceived their skills with internet resources and library tools to be at a high level, with significant differences found in skill levels based on gender and age. Additionally, the students reported a high level of perceived skills in completing information tasks, with no significant differences found across the demographic variables. In the experimental study, the participants exhibited low task performance on a set of 22 task questions prior to training, achieving an overall correct score of 28.4%. However, a significant improvement in correct scores (57.1%) was observed after participating in the skills training. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rising concern about the negative impacts of students on ‘host communities’ has triggered debates about the consequences of studentification in the UK. For some commentators, purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) appears the panacea for studentification, as it offers the potential to reintroduce balance to studentified communities by redistributing student populations in regulated ways. This paper explores this contention, drawing upon focus groups and household surveys conducted in the vicinity of a PBSA development in Brighton, UK. The paper concludes that the location of this development in a densely populated neighbourhood has engendered adverse student/community relations, conflict, feelings of dispossession and displacement of established local residents. It is asserted that future developments of PBSA should be mindful of these issues and their implications for questions of community cohesion, quality-of-life and belonging in established residential communities. These findings are discussed in relation to debates of age differentials, segregation and new-build gentrification. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The pathway to a career in the Library and Information Science field is rarely straightforward and unidirectional, but is often multi-faceted, with many circuitous detours along the way. There has been an increasing number of second-career in LIS emerging from many other non-LIS-related professions over the years. Many of these newcomers have made significant contributions to the LIS profession as they transfer their years of professional experiences, expertise, knowledge and skills from their former careers into the field. The purpose of this paper is to understand the perceptions and perspectives of the LIS students, and the various factors that influenced these midlife graduate students to consider switching from their current occupations to LIS as a second career. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we read college course syllabi as material objects that shed light on larger issues, specifically conflict between faculty and students. We explore the commodification of ‘college labor’ where degreed labor and credit hours are produced. Under these conditions, the syllabus becomes a labor contract detailing faculty expectations of students. Rather than merely introducing the course subject matter or providing only basic information, the syllabus increasingly spells out the precise conditions under which student work will be evaluated and credit hours awarded, and the behavioral and attitudinal expectations of students. By observing how power is transacted through the syllabus, we better understand the role that faculty/student relations play in further undermining academic community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Students who possess information competency are better equipped to use the large volumes of data at their disposal and think critically and creatively. This study aims to address the research gap in Pakistani higher education by examining the information competency of undergraduate students at a premier university. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 669 undergraduates, using descriptive and inferential statistics to draw inferences. The study found that students perceived their information competency to be slightly higher than average, with no significant difference based on gender or academic year. The subject domain significantly predicted students' information competency level, with engineering students expressing higher information competency levels than students from other disciplines. The social sciences group of students reported feeling less information competent compared to the other five groups. The study addresses the literature gap and provides crucial measures for academicians and library practitioners to create effective digital and information literacy programmes for university students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous research suggests that impression management goals and face threats can be barriers to seeking support, especially among college students and those facing severe problems that are highly stigmatized. In such cases, technologically-mediated communication channels (TMCCs) may be an important resource because they have unique affordances that can help overcome impression concerns and thereby promote well-being. To examine this possibility, the present study explored how impression goals, problem severity, perceived stigma, and perceived affordances interact to affect comfort with seeking support. Contrary to expectations, results from an online survey of undergraduate students (N = 183) indicated that problem severity was not associated with levels of comfort with seeking support, and the interaction of stigma with impression goals had an unexpected positive effect. Furthermore, TMCCs affording persistence and conversation control facilitated comfort with support seeking as stigma increased. Possible explanations for these findings and implications for scholarship on TMCCs and social support are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sight-singing and musical dictation are considered as complementary activities by different Ear Training pedagogues but, surprisingly, studies conducted with participants working individually were not able to find benefits of singing associated with dictation taking. This pilot study aims at observing the effect of a sight-singing, performed collectively before melodic dictation, on dictation results. We carried out an experimental study involving 54 students from three universities, who were tested in situations emulating Ear Training classes. The experimental group performed a collective sight-singing before the dictation, and the control group remained silent during the activity. Statistical analyses demonstrated that the experimental group had a significantly better performance on dictation than the control group, showing new data in relation to previous researches, that did not observe contributions of sight-singing related to dictation taking. We believe that collective sight-singing promotes cooperation between students, leading to better performance on reading than individual activities, thus improving dictation results. Although our pilot study counted on a small number of participants, remaining the necessity of future research expanding this one, it points to the potential benefits that collective activities could bring to the often-individualized instruction in Ear Training classes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the key findings of a year-long collaborative research project focusing on the audience of the London Symphony Orchestra and their introduction of a new mobile telephone (‘app’) ticketing system. A mixed-method approach was employed, utilizing focus groups and questionnaires with over 80 participants, to research a sample group of university students. This research develops our understanding of classical music audiences, and highlights the continued individualistic, middle-class, and exclusionary culture of classical music attendance and patterns of behaviours. The research also suggests that a mobile phone app does prove a useful mechanism for selling discounted tickets, but shows little indication of being a useful means of expanding this audience beyond its traditional demographic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Web search engines have become the dominant tools for finding information on the Internet. Owing to their popularity, users of all educational backgrounds and professions use them for a wide range of tasks, from simple look-up to rather complex information-seeking needs. This paper presents the results of a study that investigates the behavioural search characteristics of ordinary Web search engines users. The aim of the study was to investigate (1) what makes complex search tasks distinct from simple search tasks and whether it is possible to find simple measures for describing their complexity, and (2) whether successful searchers show different search behaviours than unsuccessful searchers and whether good searchers can be identified via simple measures. The study included 56 ordinary Web users who carried out a set of 12 search tasks using current commercial search engines. Their behaviour was logged with the Search-Logger tool. The results confirm that the behaviour in the case of complex search tasks has significantly different inherent characteristics than in the case of simple search tasks. This can be proven by using simple measures such as task time, number of queries, or number of browser tabs used. We also observed that it is difficult to distinguish successful from unsuccessful search behaviour simply by using these measures. The implications of our findings for search engine vendors are discussed. The results of this study with a sample of ordinary users are insofar unique as they are valid for a wider population while most studies in the field are usually done using convenience samples such as university students. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study investigated the impact of different lengths of pre-task planning time on performance in a test of second language speaking ability for university admission. In the study, 47 Turkish-speaking learners of English took a test of English language speaking ability. The participants were divided into two groups according to their language proficiency, which was estimated through a paper-based English placement test. They each completed four monologue tasks: two picture-based narrative tasks and two description tasks. In a balanced design, each test taker was allowed a different length of planning time before responding to each of the four tasks. The four planning conditions were 30 seconds, 1 minute, 5 minutes, and 10 minutes. Trained raters awarded scores to the test takers using an analytic rating scale and a context-specific, binary-choice rating scale, designed specifically for the study. The results of the rater scores were analysed by using a multifaceted Rasch measurement. The impact of pre-task planning on test scores was found to be influenced by four variables: the rating scale; the task type that test takers completed; the length of planning time provided; and the test takers' levels of proficiency in the second language. Increases in scores were larger on the picture-based narrative tasks than on the two description tasks. The results also revealed a relationship between proficiency and pre-task planning, whereby statistical significance was only reached for the increases in the scores of the lowest-level test takers. Regarding the amount of planning time, the 5-minute planning condition led to the largest overall increases in scores. The research findings offer contributions to the study of pre-task planning and will be of particular interest to institutions seeking to assess the speaking ability of prospective students in English-medium educational environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the findings of a longitudinal study in which two instructional methods to teach agreement features to first-year university students specializing in Spanish in Japan are compared. On the one hand, the control group was exposed to the traditional top-down teaching of agreement paradigms and were instructed to practice them through pattern repetition. On the other, a bottom-up move informed by Vygotsky and Gal’perin’s theories of conceptual formation was induced in the experimental group by using schemata and verbalization during the task of using agreement features. The data suggest that (a) the material expression of conceptual relationships (e.g. through schemata) and (b) the verbal rendition of rules or conceptual connections, and (c) the overall framing of the task as a bottom-up move actually helped acquirers in their mastery of gender and number agreement. The results of the intervention also support Kim and Kellogg (2006) and Centeno-Cortés and Jiménez Jiménez’s (2004) paradoxical view that L1 conceptual elaboration and organization aimed at solving L2 language tasks plays an important role in L2 acquisition. The data seem to indicate that there is room for encouraging learners’ hypothesis-making in the L1 under certain conditions, such as the kind of guided induction designed for this research and the one advanced by Herron and Tomasello (1992), and Tomasello and Herron’s (1988a, 1988b). L2 native instructors who dismiss or suppress acquirers’ talk in their L1 in their communication classes should assess if that talk is part of an important process of hypothesis-making or verbalization of language rules or not and act accordingly. L1 exchanges linked to hypothesis-making or task organization seem to foster L2 development and therefore should not be treated like a waste of time by ‘Communication’ instructors. In sum, the bottom-up move within Vygotsky’s ZPD is suggested as a feasible, although more elaborate intervention, as the findings on the intervention suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Several self-report scales of marital satisfaction exist, but many are too lengthy for research protocols, and none allow for parallel assessment of satisfaction in non-romantic relationships. This paper presents results from the assessment of satisfaction in multiple types of close relationships with slight adaptations to the wording of the seven-item Relationship Assessment Scale. This scale was tested in a series of four research protocols with over 1000 undergraduate students. The scale demonstrated good internal consistency, item reliabilities, test—retest reliability, and factorial validity across diverse types of close relationships, with preliminary evidence supporting its convergent and predictive validity as well. These results suggest that the Relationship Assessment Scale can briefly and adequately assess satisfaction in multiple types of relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper evaluates the e-book usage and information seeking and reading behaviour of thousands of business and management students. Comparisons are made with students in other subjects. The data largely come from the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)-funded National e-Books Observatory (NeBO) project as well as the JISC User Behaviour Observational Study. The main sources of data were: a) transactional logs obtained from the MyiLibrary platform regarding 127 UK universities; b) questionnaire data for more than 5000 students and staff at these universities; c) hard-copy library circulation and retail sales data; and d) focus groups held with 50 staff and students from selected universities. The main findings were that e-textbooks can prove to be extremely popular and widely used, mainly for obtaining snippets of information and for fact finding. The main reason for using e-textbooks was ease of access and convenience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is often the case that undergraduates writing essays to fulfil course requirements have an academic audience (i.e. lecturer/s marking the essay) as their target readers. These texts may represent a form of academic writing by novice writers in the process of learning academic discourse and conventions. Though these texts may not be comparable to professional academic writing, the aspect of the maintenance of a good balance between objectivity and the portrayal of an evaluative stance is of interest in this genre too (Hunston 1989; Hunston and Thompson 2000). This paper investigates undergraduate students' efforts to portray a contrastive stance through the strategy of problematization (Barton 1993) in argumentative essays. More specifically, it compares how writers of high-rated and low-rated essays problematize issues in more or less effective ways. Using the engagement system of the Appraisal framework (White 1998; Martin 1992; Martin and Rose 2003), this study analyses the evaluative resources used by the writers to achieve more or less successful problematization of issues discussed. The results indicate a more strategic and appropriate use of evaluative resources by the writers of high-rated scripts to create clear lines of contrastive positions. On the basis of the analysis, some pedagogical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Entering an 'English Impromptu Speech Contest" intimidates many students who do not have a good command of the English language. Some choose to give up before the contest date while others stand speechless on the stage. This paper identifies a range of problems confronted by contestants from my college, the Yuanpei Institute of Science and Technology in Taiwan. These problems can be categorized into three aspects: (1) language, (2) speaking skills and (3) background knowledge. Language poses many difficulties; many students have a narrow knowledge of English vocabulary, others have a limited understanding of correct word usage, and some make frequent mistakes with their grammar usage. As for speaking skills, students lack public speaking organizational skills and the ability to develop key points, and they have difficulty in controlling the subtle yet important timing of a speech and difficulty with attention-gabbing opening statements. The third problem is the contestants' limited background knowledge. Many students simply do not have the life experiences necessary to converse on a given topic. A number of ways are probed to remedy these problems confronting speech contestants at the Yuanpei Institute. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how and why learner resistance (to the teacher's goals and expectations) occurred in a metacognition-training (MT) project, which aimed to enhance reflection and autonomy in EFL learning. MT was integrated into a regular EFL reading course for second-year BA TEFL undergraduates at a Chinese university. Learner resistance in the MT project was manifested partly through mismatches between the goals and expectations on the part of the teacher and the students. After suggesting initial reasons for learner resistance, the paper explores more complex explanations. That is, at a more macro level, institutional pressures and societal expectations arising from an influential national test (TEM-4) gave rise to an examination culture; at a more micro level, these controlling pressures and expectations were realized by the pragmatic product-oriented approach in the EFL classroom and by students' positioning as examination learners. These might help explain why learner resistance occurred in the MT project. The paper notes in the end that learner resistance is also a matter of tensions and conflicts in learner and teacher agendas, and in learners' short-term and long-term priorities in learning. Based on this, implications for EFL teaching and learning are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Perceptions of social support availability may be influenced by internal working models, both of how support figures behave in general, and of how specific support figures behave individually. Participants were 217 first-year college students in the first semester of their involvement with an athletic team or Greek organization. They reported on the support they perceived to be available from three friends in those organizations at four time-points, over the course of 18 months. Regarding generalized working models, participants who had more supportive high school friends perceived more support available from their new college friends, even after controlling for their actual experiences with the college friends. Regarding friend-specific working models, friends who were perceived as more supportive at the beginning of the study were perceived as increasingly supportive over time, even after controlling for actual experiences with that friend. These findings illustrate the influence of relationship history on perceptions of social support. Feeling supported is not determined only by the responses of an individual's support figures in times of need. Regular investment in relationships is important both for individuals who wish to feel supported and for support figures who wish to best help others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative case study explores the interaction between Chinese college student writers' voices and their teacher's use of online materials during one semester-long writing course. It shows that, when acted upon selectively and critically, students' voices can potentially improve their teacher's use of online materials. This practice, in turn, can help students gain effective and necessary knowledge of writing. This study also shows that students' interactions with their teacher seem to lead to bolder and enhanced narration of their voices on how to teach optimally through online materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the assessment of speaking, a psycholinguistically based speaking construct has predominated. In this paper, we argue for the integration of the construct of interactional competence (IC) in speaking assessments to broaden the range of defensible inferences from speaking tests. IC emphasizes the co-constructed nature of interaction and enables the rating of L2 users' ability to deploy interactional tools that lead to shared understandings. Recent work on IC shows that levels of development can be distinguished, for example, in the sequential organization of social actions such as requests and refusals. This can in turn inform interactionally specific ratings. Furthermore, an IC perspective allows a fine-grained analysis of interactions between examiners and test takers to detect effects of examiner talk. Apparent misunderstandings or disfluencies by test takers can be examiner-induced with the test taker's response actually demonstrating interactional ability rather than lack of proficiency. We argue that inclusion of IC as a construct in testing speaking opens new perspectives on oral proficiency and enhances the validity of speaking assessments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops an approach to the understanding of cultural problems in the friendship bond. Utilizing depth interview field data from respondents of both sexes aged eighteen to eighty, plus self-reports of friendship problems by college students and applicable theories of relationship behaviour, two important aspects of friendship culture are probed: (1) the desirable personality traits of friends and the expectation that these will not change; (2) the assumption of an unwritten contract between friends concerning the provision of aid and the repayment of kindnesses. The two major characteristics of the friendship bond that make it both unique in human group life and attractive - freedom and intimacy - also set in motion an internal dialectic which can be the basis of problems between friends or the eventual demise of the relationship. The voluntary aspect of friendship means that it has little of the societal support that other relationships enjoy and that behaviour between friends is freely selected; the intimacy aspect is in direct contradiction to this in that it suggests that the behaviour between friends should fulfil certain expectations which they individually develop. These contradictory pressures also make prior discussion of continuance of attractive traits and expectations almost impossible. Thus, the friendship bond is exceedingly fragile when compared with other, more institutionalized relationships such as marriage. Analytic points for this study are illustrated by descriptions of problematic situations from actual friendships in which the exigencies of life trigger (almost inevitably) the contradictory aspects of the friendship bond. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Reintegrating ex-combatants back into society is one of the most challenging, yet fundamental components to building sustainable peace. While previous work has extensively evaluated the reintegration trajectories of ex-combatants, there is still little understanding of how citizens think about reintegration. In this article, we systematically analyze which former fighters people prefer to reintegrate into society. Based on theories of threat and justice, we develop a heuristic framework that explains how information about the motivations and behavior of ex-combatants shapes public preferences about whom to reintegrate. We test this framework using a conjoint experiment conducted among approximately 2,000 (former) university students in Nigeria. We find that our respondents are more forgiving towards former fighters who were forced to join the insurgency and expressed remorse afterwards, while being less willing to reintegrate more militant and less repentant offenders. Similar informational cues shape respondents' evaluations of how successful the reintegration process would be and what punishment would be appropriate. Taken together, the results underscore the importance of perceptions of risk and fairness in driving attitudes towards reintegration. Finally, subgroup analyses revealed that these heuristics are broadly held across different demographic and conflict-related fault lines. While caution is warranted when generalizing these results, insights gained in this specific context are nonetheless an important step towards advancing our understanding of reintegration processes in conflict-affected countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has suggested that the type and frequency of learning strategies employed by successful listeners is greater than their less successful counterparts. Based on evidence that metacognitive strategies (e.g. listening-for-gist; inferring meaning) are more effective than cognitive ones (e.g. word-for-word translation), this study sought to measure the effect that rhymical training had on the listening comprehension acuity of 313 Japanese university students. The theoretical basis was that rhythmical priming assists learners parse the input based on prosody and identify salient words by stress. Small but significant increases were observed among students who were rhythmically trained, compared to a comparison group that received explicit instruction but no rhythm training, and a "true" control group that received no treatment. These results extend the feasibility of input enhancement, rhythmic priming, and perception-based instruction beyond the traditional grammar and pronunciation instruction domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of digital competences incorporates the effective use of constantly-changing digital tools and media for learning and performing digital tasks, digital behaviours (such as online communication, teamwork, ethical sharing of information), as well as digital mindsets that value lifelong digital learning and development. The current pandemic crisis has accelerated the need to diagnose and understand more systematically Higher Education students' digital competences and the way in which they shape academic performance and outcomes. This empirical study explores the digital competences of students, studying in Law related courses, by means of a self-assessment survey tool, which has been previously tested with information and library science students, and was developed to study students' technology mastery (i.e. the abilities, competences, capabilities and skills required for using digital technology, media and tools) and their digital citizenship mindsets (consisting of attitudes and behaviours necessary to develop as a critical, reflective and lifelong learners). The study found age demographic differences, which presented significant correlations pointing to the presence of diverse levels of competences in the student group. Correlation statistics of the survey data demonstrated that students' prior everyday participation as a digital citizen was connected to a number of important academic skills, such as the ability to identify information in different contexts, students' digital learning and development, their digital abilities to complete academic work, their information literacy skills and their skills around managing their digital wellbeing and identity. Focus groups data with academics revealed that they valued the development of students' digital competences for the purposes of learning, while studying at university and placed less emphasis on digital citizenship skills. These academics also considered the value of digital platforms and tools (the focus on 'ICT Proficiency') to be more relevant for academic study than digital citizenship mindsets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim is to establish a shaping efficacy grading model for underbust corsets by exploring the pressure and shaping efficacy. Nine Chinese female college students aged 20–25 years old were employed in the pressure test and shaping efficacy experiment. In the pressure test, the pressures were measured at 31 points before and after wearing underbust corsets. In the shaping efficacy experiment, participants underwent three-dimensional body scanning before and after wearing underbust corsets. By analyzing the relationship between the pressure and shaping efficacy of underbust corsets, a shaping efficacy grading model characterized by pressure was established using the indirect grading method: when the comprehensive pressure values of the underbust circumference (UBC), waist circumference (WC) and abdominal circumference (AC) are 0–1.8, 1.8–2.4 and 2.4–3.4 kPa, the shaping efficacy of underbust corsets should be Grades I, II and III, respectively. Finally, the applicability of the grading model obtained is discussed, and the optimized model of underbust corsets based on the average pressure values is established: when the average pressure values of the UBC, WC and AC are 0–1.4, 1.4–2.1 and 2.1–3.4 kPa, the shaping efficacy of underbust corsets should be Grades I, II and III, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1970s, disabled people and other marginalised social groups battled an exclusionary Global North university. Disability Studies emerged from those struggles as epistemologies shaped around a Westernised understanding of disability and inequalities, based on dialectic visions of progress and subjective liberation. Today, the advance of neoliberalism in universities, and its connection with colonial legacies, are embedded in different historical contingencies, and disabled students face new forms of discrimination. By merging analytical approaches from post-structural Critical Disability Studies and Epistemologies of the South, this article draws upon interviews with disabled students conducted in an Italian university to explore how neoliberal and capitalistic practices exclude certain knowledges and modalities of being university students. Through disabled students' experiences, the article advances epistemologies that encompass processes of decolonisation and de-ableism of the university and argues for the Global North university to be an institution that can democratically reconcile polyhedral subjective possibilities of being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reciprocity is often considered a precondition for sacrificial behaviors, with people being willing to make sacrifices in their relationships to better their collective interests and expecting their partners to do the same. However, whether relational sacrifices exist in a zero-sum game, wherein reciprocity cannot be established, remains unclear. Therefore, this study utilized the cold pressor task (CPT) to explore communal sacrificial behavior among romantic partners and to examine any possible gender differences in these behaviors in a laboratory setting. Seventy-two college students (36 men and 36 women, all currently in romantic relationships) were instructed to place their sub-dominant hand into cold water (2°C) as long as possible (baseline), for their romantic partners (romantic partner-beneficiary condition) or for their opposite-sex friends (friend-beneficiary condition; enduring it longer so that their friend/romantic partners may endure it for a shorter duration) in a counterbalanced order. Data on pain tolerance time were collected in the CPTs, with sacrificial behaviors indexed by how much longer participants endured pain for their romantic partners or friends than the baseline. The data indicated that participants demonstrated a longer pain tolerance time in partner-beneficiary condition than the baseline (and friend-beneficiary). No significant difference was found between friend-beneficiary condition and baseline. Moreover, a gender difference was noted, with male participants having a longer pain tolerance increment rate than female participants. These results provide a foundation for experimental research of relational sacrificial behaviors and suggest that relational sacrifices exist beyond reciprocity in romantic relationships, but not within opposite-sex friendships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The mental health and well-being of university staff and students in the UK are reported to have seriously deteriorated. Rather than taking this 'mental health crisis' at face value, we carry out network and discourse analyses to investigate the policy assemblages (comprising social actors, institutions, technologies, knowledges and discourses) through which the 'crisis' is addressed. Our analysis shows how knowledges from positive psychology and behavioural economics, disciplinary techniques driven by metrics and data analytics, and growing markets in digital therapeutic technologies work as an ensemble. Together, they instrumentalise mental health, creating motivational ecologies that allow economic agendas to seep through to subjects who are encouraged to monitor and rehabilitate themselves. Mental health' as a problem for UK universities has come to be largely defined through the outcomes of 'resilience' and 'employability' and is addressed through markets that enable training, monitoring, measuring and 'nudging' students and staff towards these outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although group mentoring is not widely utilised in higher education settings, it has been viewed as successfully helping the research careers of academics (Walkington, Vanderheide, & Hughes, 2008). This paper explores the results of a qualitative and quantitative study about perceptions of one university-based group mentoring programme. The results enable an understanding of challenges that might exist in attracting potential participants to a group mentoring programme. Results indicate that organisations implementing a group mentoring programme need to make sure goals and outcomes of the programme are properly communicated, and that these also need to align with academics’ priorities for career development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the stress that college students with Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) experience and their minoritized status, some colleges have offered allyship training that informs campus personnel of the unique experiences of DACA and DACA-ineligible students. Although such trainings are promising, limited research has explored what actions communicate allyship to undocumented college students, including those with DACA. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 40 DACA college students and identified six themes: (a) allyship as an action-oriented, lifelong learning process, (b) allyship through supportive communication, (c) allyship without judgment or abnormal treatment, (d) visible allyship through the creation of safe spaces, (e) allyship as advocacy, and (f) allyship without self-promotion. Academics and activists have conceptualized and critiqued allyship. Nevertheless, this study extends past work by considering how DACA college students view the communication of allyship, which is important if allyship is to be encouraged or challenged in higher education and elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Middling youth were centre stage in research on school-to-work transitions from the early-20th century up to and throughout the 1980s. Since then they have been overshadowed by sociological attention to the young unemployed/NEETs on the one side, and university students and graduates on the other. Simultaneously, economists have been crowding out sociologists in the study of education-to-work transitions, especially in the middle ground. However, this paper argues that this is not just a case of the sociological gaze missing the middle. It is argued that old middling labour market destinations have diminished in number, and the new middle remains elusive because the employment tends to be precarious. Thus today's middling groups of school-leavers must either try to move-up or face career-long threats of descent to the bottom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigates whether the practice of answer changing on multiple-choice questions (MCQs) is beneficial to Gulf Arab students' overall test performance. The proficiency exam used in this study is the Michigan English Language Institute College English Test -- Grammar, Cloze, Vocabulary, Reading (MELICET--GCVR), which was developed using retired forms of the Michigan English Language Assessment Battery (MELAB). This exam was administered to 286 students at Kuwait University and Dubai Men's College, Higher Colleges of Technology. Findings suggest that we should encourage students to change answers judiciously after they have scrutinized their original answers for more plausible alternatives. Most important, students should not be influenced by traditional perceptions that incorrectly malign answer changing. The effect of item difficulty as well as its impact on answer changing is also reported. Finally, information on the efficacy of one specific objective test strategy, that of changing answers, is disseminated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social media has evolved over the last decade as a key driver for sharing and acquiring information in various domains of life. The increasing popularity of social media raises a number of questions regarding the extent of its use and the types of information shared. This study is designed to answer these questions by investigating university students' use of social media in terms of commonly used social media platforms, frequency of use and the types of information shared. It also looks at differences of opinion based on gender, academic discipline and programme of study. The study is based on a cross-sectional survey; a structured questionnaire was developed and data was collected from 400 students at four universities in Faisalabad, Pakistan. The findings indicate that the majority of the students were frequent users of social media and visited platforms daily or several times a day. WhatsApp, Facebook and YouTube were the most widely used social media platforms. Male students tended to use social media more frequently than their female counterparts. This study will serve as a guideline for further research as it addresses an untouched area from a local perspective and reports original research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Language brokering often brings children in close, intimate interactions with parents, which, over time, may help them understand their parents and others in the form of empathy. Specifically, frequency and feelings about language brokering may relate to greater empathy. In addition, language brokering may have an indirect effect on psychological well-being via empathy. For this study, 459 language brokers (M age = 21.36, Female = 80%) completed an online questionnaire about frequency and feelings about language brokering, empathy, and psychological well-being. There were direct effects of language brokering burden, language brokering role reversal, and language brokering efficacy, but not frequency of language brokering, on empathy. We found an indirect association of language brokering burden and language brokering efficacy, to depressive symptoms through empathy. Findings indicate that empathy may play a role in how language brokering relates to psychological well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Spring 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic introduced unexpected transitions for college students and their families. Informed by Relational Turbulence Theory, we examined associations among relational turbulence processes in students' relationships with parents, social support seeking and reception, and mental health. Seven hundred forty-seven college students living at home with a parent completed an online survey during June 2020. Students' self uncertainty, interference from parents, and relational turbulence were negatively associated with their support seeking and perceptions of support from parents, whereas facilitation from parents predicted increased support seeking and perceptions of support. In turn, support seeking and perceived support were negatively associated with students' anxiety, depression, and stress. Finally, support processes mediated the association of turbulence with depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]