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This article addresses the benefits of audio-visual input for learning second language (L2) vocabulary and grammatical constructions. Specifically, it explores the role of frequency, the effects of subtitles and captions, and the mediating role of learner proficiency on language gains in two longitudinal studies. Study 1 targets vocabulary acquisition in two groups of adolescents with an elementary L2 proficiency level who view 24 episodes of a TV series spread weekly over a whole academic year, one group with subtitles (first language) and one with captions (second language). Study 2 targets grammar acquisition in two groups of university students with an intermediate proficiency level who view 10 episodes over five weeks, one group with captions and one without captions. Results of both studies show significant correlations between language gains and frequency in the input, but the size of the frequency effect appears to depend on the type of support provided by the on-screen text. The analyses also show no significant advantage of captions or subtitles for vocabulary learning at this proficiency level, a significant advantage of captions over no captions for grammatical constructions learning, as well as the significant role of proficiency. It is concluded that viewing audio-visual material leads to L2 learning and it can support learners in their preparation for study abroad and maximize their learning experience during their sojourn.

This paper explores comedy as a "queer pedagogical form" that subverts problematic representational tropes of queerness pervading mainstream depictions of queer experience. Articulating 'form' less as a fixed arrangement of characters, images, objects, and ideas, and more as a kind of "formation" that positions these in dynamic relation to the wider context in which comedies are encountered, we mobilise the idea of "queer pedagogical forms" to capture how comedy can foster new modes of thinking about and embodying queerness for, and with, audiences. Drawing on specific examples from "Schitt's Creek" and "Derry Girls," we document the potential of specific comedic modalities (e.g. irony, sarcasm, irreverence, and slapstick) to foster alternative representations of queerness, in which normative tropes are poked fun at, problematised, and reimagined. Through these examples, we demonstrate how comedies can enable us to 'laugh ourselves out of the closets' we live by, feel, navigate, and embody.

Background: Pedagogical approaches to learning about LGBTQI+ themes and experiences remain a largely understudied topic in teacher education. This is partly due to anxieties around exploring these themes in nuanced and sensitive ways, with many teacher educators feeling ill-equipped to navigate the complexities of exploring so-called "difficult knowledge." Purpose: In response to this, the purpose of this paper is to offer reflections on the pedagogical value of comedy for exploring such themes and experiences in teacher education, focusing especially on the situational comedy (sitcom) "Schitt's Creek." We turn to comedy given our interest in the capacity of comedic modalities to offer "slantwise" pedagogical encounters with LGBTQI+ themes and experiences, that is, nonaffronting encounters that resist damage-centered narratives of LGBTQI+ people and are open to multiple queer futures. Research design: In exploring how the sitcom offers teacher educators and student teachers these kinds of encounters, we provide a reading of three episodes of "Schitt's Creek" through a "queer utopian" lens. We analyze a purposive sample of episodes from the series that speak directly to LGBTQI+ themes and experiences. We accompany this analysis with prompts for teacher educators to use in discussing these episodes in the teacher education classroom. Conclusions: We suggest that the sitcom offers teacher education an opportunity for student teachers and teacher educators to access a queer utopianism that can be encountered not only in the specifics of "Schitt's Creek's" plotlines, characters, and/or settings, but also, perhaps more primarily, through the affective dimensions of watching the sitcom itself. The piece comes to a close with some thoughts on the significance of comedy for exploring the relationship among affect, education, and social justice more generally.

This study was to assess the spoken vocabulary knowledge and its role in incidental vocabulary learning from captioned television. The participants were a total of 87 minority students learning English as a foreign language in Australia. The breadth of their vocabulary knowledge was measured with a vocabulary size test, while the depth of their vocabulary knowledge was through an assessment of collocational and semantic relationships. The results indicated that (1) captioned videos are helpful for incidental vocabulary learning; (2) scores on the breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge and incidental vocabulary learning from viewing captioned television are highly and positively correlated; and (3) scores on the depth of vocabulary knowledge can make a unique contribution to the prediction of incidental vocabulary learning at the form and meaning recognition level, in addition to the prediction afforded by scores on the breadth of vocabulary knowledge. The findings highlight a need to improve the depth of vocabulary knowledge for incidental vocabulary learning from captioned viewing.

This article shares the findings from a two-year longitudinal study of the employment experiences of entry-level workers in the UK film and TV industries, with particular reference to the value they attributed to their prior education -- or their perception of gaps in that education. Educational institutions were better at delivering practice-based training than career skills; many graduates lacked confidence, and soft skills proved more valuable than industry-specific craft skills, in a Bourdieusian 'hysteresis' where cultural capital from the academic field does not align with the need for social capital in the professional environment. The study identifies and explores a high prevalence of unpaid work and barriers to progression in the media sector, including exploitation, precarity, geographic location, the need for prior experience, and challenges to wellbeing. Recommendations are offered for educators in preparing students to navigate these early years and beyond.

The neatness of our referring to societies as units of encryption ignores the many real situations when boundaries and memberships may not be clear or recognized. Members may participate in several societies. The American society has been based on a set of common agreements, including the definition of who is a member. The American defining ideas are recently subject to revision and rejection. Some recent movies and shows have concerned American media stars and their subcultural origins. They are not merely travelogues. They are also ways of repairing the social identities of groups that are now sometimes regarded by Americans as dangerous aliens with suspect motivations. Media stars return to their origins to praise subcultural values.

This study investigates the equity of access to government e-learning platforms for Ethiopian primary and secondary school pupils. In order to achieve this, secondary data were accessed from the Mini-Demographic and Health Survey (Mini-DHS-2019) and the Planning and Development Commission's document on Poverty and Economic Growth in Ethiopia. According to the findings, only a small proportion of primary and secondary school students from urban areas and economically privileged families who could afford computer, television, smartphone, and internet access can benefit from the digital library and educational televised programs. Thus, the digital learning program that was intended to increase educational accessibility exacerbated the existing inequities and intensified the pre-existing disparities between economically privileged and economically disadvantaged students and urban and rural resident students. The findings provide grounds for several recommendations on the implementation of e-learning through digital libraries and televised education programs in low-income countries like Ethiopia.

How can we understand the uncertainties in high-stake measures such as PISA in relation to the claims that different authorities make from them? In this paper, we use a rather remarkable case from Sweden involving conflicting interpretations of the PISA 2018 results at a national political level and a fight over statistics between two national agencies: National Agency for Education and the National Audit Office. The aim of this paper is to unpack processes of interpretations and claims that are often black-boxed in PISA debates: How can we understand the process that led up to the fight and what followed? Our data consist of media articles, broadcasts from the national television and radio (2018-2021), reports and memos from the two-state authorities involved in this debate, and email conversations between the two. Our results stress the need for further transparency in how PISA data are collected and calculated.

Research has shown that world language learners' listening comprehension skills develop at a slower pace than reading or speaking skills, possibly because a systematic approach to developing listening skills is often neglected in classroom contexts. To address this issue, the present study investigated whether listening skills can be improved through targeted practice. Thirty-three learners of a third-semester German course were assigned to either an experimental group (n = 22) or a control group (n = 11). Over the course of one semester, the experimental group watched short episodes of a German web-based telenovela designed for language learners and completed vocabulary exercises and comprehension questions. Listening skills were assessed through the DIALANG test and a self-assessment at the beginning and at the end of the semester. Results showed that only learners in the experimental group made significant gains in listening proficiency. Both groups increased their self-rated listening proficiency. Overall, the results suggest that using a telenovela for targeted listening practice is a useful way to help learners develop their listening skills.

While there is ample research on the effect of exposure to foreign language (FL) video materials on developing vocabulary knowledge and listening skills, research on the impact of watching videos on acquiring pronunciation skills, especially in terms of both perception and production, is still in its infancy. This study investigates the effect of viewing an English language video in different subtitling conditions (L1, L2, and no subtitles) on learners' recognition of the correct pronunciation of words and on learners' ability to produce words intelligibly. The relationship between recognition, intelligibility, and comprehension of the video material is also examined. In the study, 54 Polish intermediate learners of English were divided into three experimental groups based on the subtitling condition. They completed pretests and post-tests on recognition and production of words, as well as a comprehension test. The results show that watching the video, either with or without subtitles, significantly improved the recognition of how words are pronounced. As for gains in production, L1 subtitles turned out to be the least effective; however, they led to highest comprehension. These results have practical implications for teachers' use of video material in pronunciation work in the classroom.

This study aims at investigating how borrowed nouns from English are inflected for plural and gender in Colloquial Saudi Arabic (CSA). The attempt is also made to account for the possible linguistic factors which may affect this inflection in light of some theories in morphology. The analysis is based on more than 250 loanwords collected from different sources (dictionaries, social, media, and TV series). The results showed that foreign nouns are found to be marked for all types of plural (broken plural (BP), female sound plural (FSP), and masculine sound plural (MSP)). More than 77% of borrowed nouns are inflected for FSP. However, this result disagrees with the plural formation rule operating in native nominal stems, which states that BP is the most common, and SP seldom occurs. Views from morphology theory as proposed by Abd-Rabbo (1990) and McCarthy and Prince (1990a; 1990b) were employed to account for this phenomenon. Another feature which is also peculiar to FSP formation is related to the attachment of "--ha:t" and "--ya:t" to singular borrowed nouns to form FSP instead of "--a:t." Like plural marking, gender assignment to borrowed nouns is also subject to the CSA rules. All English loan nouns are inflected either for masculine by attaching the [phi] morpheme (the unmarked) or feminine gender by attaching "--ah" (the marked). Out of the three functions of the feminine marker "--ah" introduced by Drozdík (1998), the inflectional function is the only function that is found at work within foreign nouns. The study concludes with recommendations for further research on loanword variation with regard to plural formation and other morpho-syntactic processes across the different dialects of Arabic.

This article presents an analysis of the functioning of the leading Russian television channels in March - May 2020, during the coverage of the problem of coronavirus infection. The informational priorities of channels and the linguistic aspects of presentations are investigated. The stages of coverage of the problem are determined, as well as the actors that dominate the information space. Attention is drawn to the application of event interpretation techniques, the implementation of new forms of television broadcasting in Russia under the influence of a new virus pandemic. Analyzed the information issues that appeared on television channels: "First", "Russia 1", "Russia 24", "NTV". The reports of Murat Zaripov on Rossiya 1 channel, Mikhail Chernov on NTV channel, which touched upon current issues of the pandemic in Russia and the central problem are rather clearly presented: the restrictions of the authorities introduced to save the lives of citizens and people's unwillingness to comply with the restrictions are analyzed. A personality protest aimed at realizing one's own desires and ignoring social norms has become one of the most characteristic phenomena during the coverage of the topic of coronavirus infection. The most frequent images are distinguished: "doctors - rescuers", violators, volunteers. New terms are formulated and updated: medical authorities, plateau, self-isolation index, self-isolation, self-preservation. The determination of these and other data allows us to better understand the specifics of coverage of the topic of a new coronavirus infection by leading Russian television companies.

Lexical bundles, or recurrent word strings, are one of the key elements in increasing fluency of linguistic production and in mastering second language learning. In most previous works, lexical bundles were analyzed in specific disciplines. Little research paid attention to spoken discourse, particularly in doctors' conversations (hereby referred to as "Doctor Talks"). This study aimed to investigate four-word lexical bundles in Doctor Talks and their operationalized functions. A Doctor Talk corpus was compiled from a famous medical TV series, "Grey's Anatomy," consisting of approximately one million running words (269 episodes from 12 seasons over 11 years). Four-word lexical bundles were identified, using "WordSmith Tool" version 7.0, and their discourse functions were analyzed, using Biber et al.'s (2004) functional taxonomy as a framework. The results reveal that 99 bundle types are present in the Doctor Talk corpus. Stance bundles are common in this spoken conversation corpus while lexical bundles articulating with special conversation features show the least proportion. The results also show some particular functions used in Doctor Talks as discourse organizers.

Many EFL and EAP teachers are not aware of the linguistic mechanisms and academic conventions used in academic talks, so they can give only limited guidance on preparing for academic discussions. This paper investigates the questioning and responding strategies used in two academic talk shows in the light of conversation analysis. In one, a journalist talks with a well-known physicist Michio Kaku; in the other, a talk show hosts the social science researcher Uval Noah Harari. Both shows aim to present academic knowledge to a non-specialist audience. The questioning and responding strategies used in both shows are found to vary by academic discipline and personal preferences. It is also shown that professional participants in both speech events use many strategies not introduced in classroom pedagogy in similar ways, such as seeking clarification, self-questioning and dodging questions. EFL and EAP students could be introduced to the strategies used in academic talk shows in order to apply them effectively in their academic talks.

This article addresses television news coverage of the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act of 2010, which would have created a path to legal residency for thousands of undocumented immigrants in the United States. Considering the role that news media play in socially constructing groups of people, through an analysis of English- and Spanish-language evening television news coverage of the DREAM Act of 2010, the author examined discursive practices used to represent undocumented youth in both dehumanizing and humanizing ways. The author discusses the implications of these types of discourses for education policy understanding by the public and education stakeholders.

Although English is the de facto language of communication across nations in today's world, a limited number of foreign language learners are able to communicate well in English and perceive themselves as competent speakers. Investigating traits of proficient speakers of English and understanding the reasons behind their speaking skills can guide language teachers in creating supportive language learning contexts for their students. This study explores what proficient speakers of English do to gain success in speaking, and it sheds light on how to improve speaking skills in language learning. The study examines what factors play an important role in the language development of proficient speakers of English. Sixteen English as a foreign language (EFL) students who had the highest scores on English speaking tests volunteered for this study; four focus groups were created with four participants in each group. Content analysis results indicate that contextual factors -- including self-practice, teacher factor, experience abroad, Turkish context, out-of-class technology use, and affective factors, including motivation and anxiety -- are important for speaking enhancement. Findings clearly reveal that language learning should go beyond the confines of the school and be supported with technology-enhanced extracurricular exercises in EFL contexts. Moreover, what motivates language learners to study English and how they feel while speaking should be considered while teaching or planning their speaking lessons.

Distance education has become a mainstay in higher education, in general, and in counselor education, specifically. Although the concept sometimes still feels new, universities have been engaged in some form of distance learning for over 20 years. In the field of distance counselor education, it is imperative to understand where we have been, where we are now, and where we are going. This article will lay the foundation for the special section of "The Professional Counselor" on distance counselor education and will explore the history of using technology in education, recent research about distance education in counseling and counselor education, and topic areas discussed throughout this special section. This special section will bring clarity to current and emerging best practices in the use of technology in the distance education of professional counselors, clinical supervisors, and counselor educators.

The purpose of the present study is to find out the extent to which the real spoken language is reflected in TV series in terms of vocabulary. In accordance with this purpose, a corpus, named as the British TV Series Corpus (BTSC) was compiled for the present study using two British TV series, Sherlock and Doctor Who, and this corpus was compared to the spoken part of the British National Corpus (BNC), more than 40% of which was compiled from naturally occurring speech in order to find out whether there is a relationship between two corpora. The results showed that the TV series corpus covered the 98.54% of the most frequent lemmas in the spoken part of the British National Corpus, so the language used in TV series reflects the language spoken in the real life in terms of the vocabulary items and their frequency. Accordingly, it can be claimed that TV series can be used as effective in-class and extra-curricular materials for teaching vocabulary and speaking and listening skills. [Paper presented at the International Conference on Research in Applied Linguistics (3rd, Konya, Turkey, Oct 24-26 2019).]

Knowledge is an essential part of the continuity of humanity. Access to science is through knowledge and vice versa. Children are mostly preoccupied with television, mainly with children's programs on television channels especially cartoons. Cartoons are produced in order to entertain children and to contribute to their development and maturation. Since access to knowledge is through science, it is important that cartoons contain scientific images. Through the presentation and interaction with science images, cartoons arouse children's interest in science and contribute to their devotion to science. The aim of the present study is to determine if science images are included in cartoons and to what extent. The research is conducted in line with qualitative research method according to the case model. Whereas the population of the study is the cartoons broadcasted in the Turkish mass media, while determining the sampling method, purposive sampling has been preferred and thus currently broadcasted cartoons at TRT Cocuk (Turkish Radio and Television Children) channel, providing access to various cartoons from the same source, selected. Relevant data has been collected using " Form for Analyzing Scientific Image Presence in Cartoons" developed and applied by the researcher. The study has determined that the cartoons broadcasted include science images according to their thematic features.

Media play an important role in young people's lives as an agent of socialization, both generally and with regard to mathematics. To understand the mathematics-related messages disseminated to young people via popular media, we analyzed portrayals of mathematics and mathematicians in over 40 media examples (television shows, movies, websites, video games, and books). Notably, the selection of media was based on elementary students' responses to a questionnaire about their media favourites, thus enabling an analysis of the messages to which students are exposed during typical media use. While there were differences in the portrayals across the media types, the messages disseminated consistently related to the invisibility of mathematics, narrow views of mathematics, and stereotypical portrayals of mathematicians. Such messages are problematic as they can influence young people's views of mathematics and mathematicians, as well as of themselves as mathematics learners.

In the case of COVID-19 pneumonia, how to carry out "School's Out, But Class's On", i.e. suspending classes without stopping learning, is not only a problem to be solved by schools, but also a problem that education administrative departments need to solve. During the epidemic, the Education Bureau of Jianye District in Nanjing actively responded to the government's call to implement the "School's Out, But Class's On" policy. I will introduce the specific measures to implement "School's Out, But Class's On" in the Jianye District of Nanjing, Jiangsu Province of China.

This study investigates the initial encounters of 30 Thai senior citizens and the four Thai musician-celebrity coaches in the blind auditions of "The Voice Senior Thailand season 1". The analysis was drawn from studies on compliments, politeness, and face work. The analysis found that both overt-oriented and covert-oriented compliments were used extensively when the coaches evaluated the senior contestants' vocal performances. The use of such compliments exhibits the shift from a distant relationship to a closer one. The prominent use of covert-oriented compliments as face-maintenance and face-enhancing strategies and as distance-minimization or imposition-mitigation strategies (Blum-Kulka, 2005) suggests rapport management between the four coaches and the senior contestants. Such interconnectedness of the multidirectional functions of compliments in Thai as well as face and politeness found in this study could exemplify how both younger and older generations of Thai people interact to form and shape a closer relationship in their first encounters in contemporary Thai language. This study could shed some lights on cross-cultural studies of complimenting behaviors and politeness in similar contexts or in other contexts related to younger and older generations in aging societies (e.g., workplace contexts or senior-education settings).

This study discusses speech acts performed by judges of model competitions in America and Asia TV series America's Next Top Model and Asia's Next Top Model. The aim of this study is to find out the illocutionary acts of the judges since they are considered as the decision makers in a competition. The detailed analysis between American and Asian cultures is presented to support the findings of the study. For the data of the study, we collected utterances in the America's Next Top Model Session 21 Episode 5 and Asia's Next Top Model Session 6 Episode 1 from YouTube. In analysing the data, we transcribed all utterances using orthographical transcription method. The data were then analysed and categorized in terms of the theory of illocutionary speech acts from Searle (1979) using qualitative description method. After that, we made an interpretation based on the collected data and generated conclusions as well as suggestions for further research. From the analysis, it could be concluded that the total illocutionary speech acts were 146 utterances (72 from America & 74 from Asia). The major types in America's Next Top Model were assertive and declarative (33.33%), while expressive function turned out to be the most dominant one in Asia's Next Top Model. In cross-cultural pragmatics point of view, the results of this study conclude that Asians were more expressive than Americans. In addition, there was an apology statement in the American context whereas there was no expression of apology in the Asian context. In this study, it could also be seen that Americans were more to the point or overt than Asians whereas Asians were categorized to be more "careful" than Americans.

An increasing number of characters with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are appearing in film and television, leading to increased public perceptions of ASD. This review examined the current state of research focused on ASD representations in film and television, and the extent to which characterizations of ASD have been studied. Eighty-seven characters with ASD were discussed across the 26 articles. Characters were culturally and linguistically diverse, and portrayals of ASD appear to be moving away from typical disability-tropes. Researchers studying ASD portrayals were also culturally and academically diverse, with the majority representing fields outside of traditional ASD research disciplines. Connecting diverse methodological procedures may be a useful next-step to enhance empirical studies of ASD representations.

The aim of this study is to examine the perceptions of primary school students about information and communication technologies in the distance education process during COVID-19 pandemic via the pictures they drew. For the sample group of the study which was conducted according to the qualitative research method and phenomenological design, the convenience sampling method was used. A total of 43 students were included in the study. In the study, the data were collected using the draw-and-tell technique. In the data analysis, the content analysis was used. As a result of the data analysis, four main themes were specified. In the pictures drawn by the students, the equipment and software they used during this period were collected under the main theme of 'devices and application programs'. While the drawings and views of the students concerning the use of information and communication technologies in the distance education process were included in the main theme of 'education', the effect of technologies on their social life in the process was included in the main theme of 'social life'. Finally, their drawings and views concerning their metaphorical perceptions about information and communication technologies during the process were included in the main theme of metaphors.

University athletics because of its reporting structure, regulation by the NCAA, and relationship to the academic enterprise of institutions, provides a unique look into postsecondary institutional behavior. Using a difference-in-difference design, this study tests the introduction of new television networks dedicated to college sports on institutional subsidy levels for athletics. Overall, our findings show that institutions are responsive to the introduction of new college-sports-dedicated television networks. When considering institutions in the Power Five athletic conferences, we find an average decline in subsidy levels of approximately $1.2 million. When considering different types of subsidies, we find significant declines in direct subsidies and student fees, but no significant change for indirect subsidies.

The purpose of this study is to depict the character/values education in schools through teacher views. This study is mainly based on a descriptive survey model. Quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques were used together in the study. The study group of the study is two public secondary schools in Aydin Province and two public secondary schools in Izmir, in Turkey. A questionnaire was applied to 66 teachers who wanted to participate in the research and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 23 teachers. The percentages, frequencies and averages of the quantitative data were calculated. Qualitative data were analyzed through content analysis. According to the results of the research; the meanings of character/values education are moral development, social benefit, honesty, personality development, love-respect for teachers. The influence of the family is higher than the other factors (media, peer, school and teacher) on character/values education. Family communication is the most effective factor in the family features on the development of character/values. In the media features, the purpose of using the internet and the type of TV programme have the highest effects on the development of the character/values. Educational factors such as the quality of teachers, profession-love, and openness to improvement are the most influential factors on character/values education. Lessons' effects on characater/values education such as Religious Culture and Moral Knowledge, Guidance and Career Planning, Social Studies and Turkish are higher than the other lessons. The achievements related to the character/values education have not been sufficiently achieved. Many values have not been realized in schools although they seem very important.

Sci-fi has the power to open dialogue because its alternate world-building enables students to feel far enough from reality to discuss social problems unreservedly. In this essay, I review an assignment I developed using "Black Mirror" and "Philip K. Dick's Electric Dreams" that present episodes in which militarized policing, segregation, and genocide occur with the consent and complicity of populations convinced that these measures enable their safety. Paralleling U.S. carceralism, the fictional communities have been inundated with media and political advertising for greater segregation but have themselves never experienced the criminalized violence that justifies widespread state harms. Through a generative dialogue engaging the media, a discussion question, and the concept of state terrorism, students move to observe their positionality and critically assess state violence. Therefore, I recommend this teaching tool for any critical instructors--especially minoritized professors teaching primarily White classrooms--to inspire a stimulating dialogue in service of connection-making and peacemaking in the classroom.

Amid the global COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted the disparities of healthcare for Black and Brown communities, the tragic and senseless deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Rashard Brooks took place before we were halfway into 2020. Furthermore, while Black deaths at the hands of police are the highest rate compared to all groups, Latinos follow right behind at almost twice the rate compared to Whites, which highlight how both Black and Brown communities face the same crisis and oppression, and both face the greater need for solidarity. Reflecting on a recent historical period of our socio-political culture, this article endeavors to expose how the media's influence has amplified the need to reignite a rallying cry of race and identities across the globe. Utilizing our educational backgrounds and classroom experiences, we examine what can be learned by amplifying the importance of culturally relevant pedagogy and solidarity through the lens of Spike Lee's "She's Gotta Have It" series on Netflix. We specifically explore the oneness of Black and Brown people and highlight how solidarity is key for upliftment and well-being.

The US media has played an increasingly important role in shaping the Muslim identity. An Anti-Muslim rhetoric led by news channels only promoted fear and anxiety among Americans towards the Muslim world post 9/11. This paper tends to explore one such news channel--CNN and its contribution towards demonizing, vilifying, and racializing the Muslim world hence, reducing it to one region and language. In doing so, the researcher contends the existence of a systemic web which operates in conjunction to maintain the dominant ideology about Muslims. By means of critical discourse analysis it is argued that CNN under the pretense of its liberal stance has managed to reproduce the same rhetoric which reinstates the many stereotypes existing with regard to Muslims. However, this research also examines the representation of Arabic language and the subtle ways in which fear and negative connotations around Arabic has been induced among the audience.

Historically, fictional productions which use sign language have often begun with scripts that use the written version of a spoken language. This can be a challenge for deaf actors as they must translate the written word to a performed sign language text. Here, we explore script development in "Small World," a television comedy which attempted to avoid this challenge by using improvisation to create their script. The creators framed this process as a response to what they saw as "inauthentic" sign language use on television, foregrounding the need to present "natural signing" on the screen. According to them, "natural signing" is not influenced by an English script but is varied language use that reflect a character's background, their settings, and the characters that they interact with. We describe how this authentic language use is derived primarily from improvisation and is in competition with other demands, which are textual (e.g., the need to ensure comedic value), studio-based (e.g., operating within the practical confines of the studio), or related to audience design (e.g., the need to ensure comprehensibility). We discuss how the creative team negotiated the tension between the quest for authentic language use and characteristics of the genre, medium, and audience.

Distance higher education plays a critical role in the promotion of regional equality in China by contributing to the availability of higher education. However, unbalanced regional development of distance higher education can lead to a widening of educational inequity. The study on which this article reports sheds light on the issue of unbalanced regional development of distance higher education in China, using provincial data that spans from 2008 to 2018. A dual-index method with Gini coefficient and Theil index was employed to measure regional inequality of distance higher education in China. The findings show that tertiary correspondence education and tertiary radio and television education represent a comparatively small percentage of the regional inequality in distance higher education. Online tertiary education contributes to a greater extent to regional inequality in distance higher education. Intra-regional inequality constituted a large percentage of the total inequality. Also, intra-regional inequality in tertiary correspondence education has increased in western, and central China from 2008 to 2018. Inequality in tertiary radio and television education has also increased in central China from 2008 to 2016. Intra-regional inequality in online tertiary education was marked in all three regions, while inter-regional inequality in online tertiary education decreased from 2008 to 2018.

The first episode of the critically acclaimed television series, "Band of Brothers," juxtaposes two leaders navigating an environment of uncertainty and high-risk stakes. We review this first episode, titled "Currahee," with the intention of adding to the library of teaching resources that instructors may use to illustrate leader-follower relations, power dynamics, contingency models, and follower voice and mutiny. This dramatic depiction of a team of paratroopers preparing for military engagement in World War II challenges students to examine the human and organizational antecedents and consequences associated with mundane, incompetent, tyrannical, or inspirational leaders. We provide a detailed set of discussion prompts and points of analysis for selected clips that will guide instructors as they implement this resource as part of an in-class exercise, a video case exam, and/or a written assignment for face-to-face and synchronous or asynchronous online classroom formats.

Recent national media surveys point to relatively high levels of public trust in local political reporting. The problem, however, is that challenges with reporter training and experience mean that local television is not as equipped as it might be to provide quality political coverage. We assess how professional journalists and college students majoring in political science or journalism view their reporting competences. We find mixed results, including lower confidence across all groups in performing data and statistical analysis. These results drive our recommended collaboration strategies for local television newsrooms and university departments to improve training and experiential opportunities.

The paper draws on two drama series in Asia and demonstrates that studying issues related to gender roles and equality through popular historical Asian drama series is both challenging and fruitful. The present study not only illustrates the complexity involved in studying gender roles and gender equality, but also suggests several teaching pedagogies. Looking at gender roles and equality from a historical perspective and employing a comparative analysis of the past and present can help students assess whether gender roles and equality have remained the same or evolved in the Asian context. Critical literacy enables the broadening of perspectives when taking into consideration the gender roles adopted by the various characters to survive in the complex world. Critical literacy, pedagogies of affect as well as pedagogies of invitation and transformation can be utilized to examine how performing assigned gender roles can result in favouritism, which may in turn lead to atrocities. The implications of the study may be applicable to contexts outside Asia.

This article presents an account of the interpreting process and its strategies in warzones, and most importantly during the Arab Spring, specifically in Libya. The data used is divided into two categories, Mummar Algaddafi speech during the Arab Spring, and press conferences of Libyan officials and two interviews on CNN. The article will present the significant issues interpreters deal with during live interpreting session whether on Live TV or during a conference. The first category to be discussed is omission and the loss of meaning during interpreting. The article will also discuss the way interpreters sometimes tend to add information for explaining purposes or emphasis. Lastly, the importance of creativity and approximating the meaning, as in using metaphors in the TT to interpret ST metaphors. It is evident through the discussion that (1): interpreters deliberately use particular strategies during conflict zones and they are mainly: omission, addition and approximating. This is either to emphasis a particular narrative or shape the audience views. (2) Undoubtedly, interpreters play a major role in rendering the message to the world, as they use different strategies while interpreting some to emphasis a certain narrative, while others simply to clarify the text.

Open and distance education has been playing an important role in China's development of higher education and lifelong learning. In 2012, the Chinese government approved six large-scale radio and television universities (RTVUs) to become open universities (OUs), including the Open University of China (OUC), Beijing Open University (BJOU), Shanghai Open University (SHOU), Guangdong Open University (GDOU), Jiangsu Open University (JSOU), and Yunnan Open University (YNOU). The purpose of this study is to provide a descriptive analysis of the transition from RVTUs to OUs, and the current state and challenges of open universities in China after five years' reform. Five topics are explored in this paper, including: the new positioning of open universities in China's vast and differentiated higher education system; award bearing and non-award bearing program offerings; implementation of the online teaching and learning modes; the use of Open Education Resources (OER) and online mini-courses; and the development and use of a credit bank system. A summary of these topics follows a discussion of four issues of open university reform, including key performance indicators (KPIs) for open universities, cohesion and resource sharing between the national and provincial open universities, quality assurance for award bearing programs, and planning to transform China's existing 39 provincial RTVUs into OUs. It is expected that the results of this study would contribute to knowledge about institutional differentiation in the world's largest higher education system, and on the merits of open and distance education in the human resource development in China. This paper may also provide insight for other countries that are engaged in institutional differentiation of higher education systems punctuated by the essential role of open universities in such planning and implementation.

This article examines Australians at War: Primary Schools Education Resource and what it teaches students. This resource, for grades 4-6 students, has as its learning outcomes: knowledge of Australia's involvement in various conflicts; students' empathising with the experiences of war; the use of a variety of sources about war; engaging with people about war and their experiences of war; and reflecting on Australia's wartime involvement in the development of identity and heritage. The article first locates the teaching approaches used in the resource within the research on history teaching and the political and public debates on what we should teach students about war. It then proceeds to examine Australians at War and its use of photographs, paintings and diaries to determine what is taught to students about war. The article exposes the difficulties and tensions inherent in teaching primary school students about armed conflict and the interest groups who want to shape what is taught. The article illustrates how Australians at War often presents a sanitised version of the horrors of war when compared to the realities portrayed on television and the internet.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between hours of television watching and student academic achievement. The major objectives of study were examining the status of students' television watching and the relationship between hours of television watching and academic achievement. There has been a great debate among researchers regarding this area of concern. Some support the contribution of television to academic achievement and others argue that television watching negatively influences academic achievement. Two hundred students were randomly selected for the study. Data were collected through a structured questionnaire. The data collected through questionnaire were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistical methods. Students' background information and their hours of television watching were analyzed using descriptive statistics. On the other hand, the relationship between hours of television watching and academic achievement was analyzed by Pearson moment correlation. The results show there is no statistically significant relationship between hours of television watching and academic achievement of students. Based on this, it can be concluded that television may not have a significant effect on students' academic achievement by itself.

With the developing technology, acceleration of visual production and increasing of peoples' relation with generated visuals (painting, photograph, video, computer games, poster, etc.), is a situation which affect perceptual and behavioral characteristic of people. As a result of connection with generated visuals, changes at the perception and behavior of people remind social learning and visual culture terms which have relation with seeing and visuality fields. Relation between the social learning theory, which states that learning occurs through observation in social environment, and visual culture subject is a mystery. Due to this reason, the research aims to investigate relation between social learning and visual culture. Theoretical structures of the social learning and visual culture terms were pointed out in this research, and relation between these two terms were argued at theoretic level. In consequence of this research, it was seen that experiences, people obtain from connection with visual culture forms in their daily life, and social learning have connections. It was realized that visual culture forms supply vicarious livings to the observers prone to observe and imitate of behaviors that have model characteristic. It was seen that the livings, acquired observational learning from visual culture forms, is a shaping factor for individuals' attitudes and actions. In the study, it was seen that examining the visual culture as an environmental factor in the context of social learning will help to understand and illuminate the changing, transforming and deriving aspects of human behavior in the 21st century.

With a growing emphasis on employability and commercial relevance, universities are increasingly involving practitioners in delivery to add perceived value and credibility to their film and television courses. Likewise, film education researchers, including Bergala (2016), see significant value in practitioner involvement in teaching. Yet, from both the academic and industry sides, this integration has been questioned and challenged, resulting in a long-standing discussion of the 'theory/practice divide'. Through analysis of two formal surveys conducted in 2012 and 2014, involving 131 respondents from 64 UK higher education institutions, this paper reports on the perceptions of broadcast television and film practitioners working in academia. It also briefly considers whether the issues raised have changed since the surveys were completed. Responses suggest that an appreciable number of respondents encountered a mixed or negative reaction from new academic colleagues immediately upon joining their institution, and that this has had a potentially lasting negative impact on their productivity. The data indicate that many media practitioners working in higher education do not feel that they are seen as equal to non-practitioner colleagues, although they do still feel part of the academy as a whole. Respondent institutions were broken down by type, and there is statistically significant evidence of perceptions of systematic disadvantaging of media practitioners across all types of UK academic institutions, although Arts-focused universities were seen most favourably. This suggests that, despite the UK government's increased emphasis on teaching and employability, and new commercially focused research funding initiatives, higher education institutions need to do more to redress the perception of a theory/practice divide.

This study investigates the potential, in relation to learning and using English, which exists in the current access to and use of new technological devices by university students who are not native speakers of English. As an example case, the availability of a range of devices to 138 Saudi English and Business students at a Saudi university was ascertained through a survey, along with their current use both in general, and specifically involving English, both on and off campus. Students and teachers were also interviewed in order to illuminate the further enhancement of student use of their devices for English improvement. The findings indicate that a range of electronic devices, especially smart phones and laptops, are owned by, or to a lesser extent accessible in other ways to, students. English majors however far outstrip Business majors in access to and use of devices. A considerable proportion of use of devices, especially by English majors, is already English-related. On two measures, it is the smart phone which has the greatest potential for further exploitation in relation to English, followed by the laptop and tablet, and for English majors the TV. Based on teacher and student comments, recommendations are made for such English as a foreign language contexts as to how best to move forward to exploit this potential for both groups of students.

Aim and Importance of the Study: TV series play a key role in shaping the society. In this study, the aim is to identify the authenticity of the woman's roles portrayed in the series with the real life and make comparison of with the real-life woman's figure as well as to review the image of woman from woman's perspective, which is represented to the public and determine to what extent this image can be perceived as role model. This study intends to raise awareness in resetting and redesigning women's roles in TV series. The Research Method: In this study, out of Qualitative Research Methods, the method of interviewing was applied. Stewart and Cash (1985) described interviewing as "a process of dyadic, relational communication with a predetermined and serious purpose designed to interchange behavior and involving the asking and answering of questions". From woman's perspective, 10 women professionals got involved in the research conducted on the portrayal of perception of women and its comparison with the real-life woman's figure and their responses were analyzed using the qualitative research methods. The relevant resources in literature were also reviewed and the woman's figure in TV series was examined. The Study's Aim and Research Questions: In today's broadcasting, TV series have great importance. This study aims to assess the perception of woman in TV series followed by a great majority of public from woman's perspective and examine the presented perception through comparison with the real-life woman's figure, and these research questions were asked such below: 1) How do you think are women portrayed in domestic TV series? 2) What extent is that model of woman authentic with the real life? 3) What would you say when asked to characterize the women that you have viewed in the series? 4) Do the economic statuses of the women portrayed in TV series correspond to those in the real life? 5) How should the woman's figure be in those series when considering its potential implications in the society? Findings and Conclusion: As a result of this study, it was observed that there are limited similarities between the serial female characters and the real life figures. It is observed that they are portrayed as powerless, weak, whiny and under male dominance, or class- and power-focused, wealthy, ambitious, dominant and intriguing and with beautiful physicalities.

Rosemarie T. Truglio is the senior vice president of curriculum and content at Sesame Workshop, where she is responsible for the development of the interdisciplinary curriculum on which "Sesame Street" is based, and oversees content development across platforms such as television, publishing, toys, home video, and theme park activities. She also oversees the curriculum development for all new show production, including "Esme and Roy," a series about learning through play, airing on HBO and PBS, and two shows on Apple TV's "Ghostwriter," a reimagined version of a workshop series with a literature focus from the 1990s and "Helpsters," whose characters love to solve problems using fundamental coding skills. Before joining Sesame Workshop in 1997, Truglio was an Assistant Professor of Communication and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. In addition to numerous articles in child and developmental psychology journals, she is the author of "Ready for School! A Parent's Guide to Playful Learning for Children Ages 2 to 5" (2019) and coeditor of "G is for Growing: Thirty Years of Research on Children and 'Sesame Street'" (2001). She currently serves on the advisory boards of the "Child Trends News Service"; Read Alliance; The Ultimate Block Party; and The Toy Association Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She previously served on the National Advisory Child Health and Human Development Council (NICHD), the LEGO Foundation Research and Innovation Network, and the PBS KIDS Next Generation Media, among others. She received distinguished alumni awards from Douglass College (2005), University of Kansas (2013), Rutgers University (2014), and the University of Kansas Women's Hall of Fame (2015).

Children learn better when they socialise with items, tools and people in their environment. Provision of creative fun-filled environment boosts children's learning. Lack of a good socialising environment may affect a child's growth and development. The main goal of this study was to assess the role of mass media as a socialisation agent in shaping pupils' behaviour in primary schools in Thika Sub-County, Kenya. The study was guided by Albert Bandura's Imitative Observation Theory. This theory indicates that behaviour depicted by others is easily imitated by young children. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The target population comprised of 69 head teachers, 570 teachers, 3256 pupils and one Sub County Education officer. The study applied Gay Principle to determine the sample size of 7 head teachers, 57 teachers and 35 primary school pupils. Simple random sampling was applied to select the respondents who participated in the study. The main research instrument was the questionnaire. Data was analysed descriptively using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20. The study found that majority (88.0%) of the teachers agreed that their pupils had access to mass media in form of television and Internet based media. The study noted only a very small proportion of children did not have access to mass media at home. The study concluded that at home, most children spend most of their time listening to radio, watching television programmes, or playing video games. The study recommends that parents must exercise control on the choice and exposure of their children to mass media.

This study investigated the effects of different types of captions on English as a Foreign Language Learners' (EFL) vocabulary learning and comprehension. Eighty students in a Chinese university participated. Students were divided into four groups with two classes of freshmen, one class of juniors, and one class of graduate students. Each group watched four video clips with four caption conditions: L1 Chinese, L2 English, dual (L1 and L2), and no captions. The order and caption conditions were counterbalanced. The purpose of the study was to find which caption condition is more effective for EFL learners. Four by four mixed ANOVAs were used to compare the differences among the four conditions and groups. Results indicated that students' performances were statistically significantly different across captions and class levels. In general, students in L1, L2, and dual captions statistically outperformed the no caption condition in vocabulary and comprehension. Results of the effects of L1, L2, and dual captions on vocabulary learning and comprehension were mixed. The pedagogical implications of using authentic TV series and multimedia captions were discussed.