Search

Although social networking apps and dictation-based automatic speech recognition (ASR) are now widely available in mobile phones, relatively little is known about whether and how these technological affordances can contribute to EFL pronunciation learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of feedback from peers and/or ASR in mobile-assisted pronunciation learning. 84 Chinese EFL university students were assigned into three conditions, using WeChat (a multi-purpose mobile app) for autonomous ASR feedback (the Auto-ASR group), peer feedback (the Co-non-ASR group), or peer plus ASR feedback (the Co-ASR group). Quantitative data included the pronunciation pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest, and students' perception questionnaires, while qualitative data included students' interviews. The main findings are: (a) all three groups improved their pronunciation, but the Co-non-ASR and the Co-ASR groups outperformed the Auto-ASR group; (b) the three groups showed no significant difference in perception questionnaires; and (c) the interviews revealed some common and unique "technical," "social/psychological," and "educational" affordances and concerns about the three mobile-assisted learning conditions.

AbstractThis article examines the use of mobile dictionary and/or machine-translation (MT) apps to facilitate the learning of (semi-)technical music words. A total of 93 Chinese students were randomly assigned into three groups (31 each): the Dictionary Group, the MT Group, and the Dictionary + MT Group. They translated sentences containing the target semi-technical or technical words with the help of mobile dictionary or MT apps or both. It was found that the Dictionary Group had the best retention rates of semi-technical and technical words; the Dictionary + MT Group was in-between; and the MT Group had the worst retention rates. Analysis of dictionary look-up behaviors further showed that the Dictionary Group looked up twice as many (semi-)technical words as the Dictionary + MT Group. These findings are explained from the perspective of Cognitive Load Theory to show how the Dictionary Group had the best level of mental resources germane to vocabulary learning. Despite the inter-group differences of retention rates, perception surveys showed that the groups did not differ in their attitudes towards the dictionary or MT apps, suggesting that student performances and perceptions were misaligned. Based on the research findings, the article offers pedagogical implications for mobile-assisted learning of specialized words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Power quality improvements help guide and solve the problems of inefficient energy production and unstable power output in wind power systems. The purpose of this paper is mainly to explore the influence of different energy storage batteries on various power quality indicators by adding different energy storage devices to the simulated wind power system, and to explore the correlation between system entropy generation and various indicators, so as to provide a theoretical basis for directly improving power quality by reducing loss. A steady-state experiment was performed by replacing the wind wheel with an electric motor, and the output power qualities of the wind power system with and without energy storage were compared and analyzed. Moreover, the improvement effect of different energy storage devices on various indicators was obtained. Then, based on the entropy theory, the loss of the internal components of the wind power system generator is simulated and explored by Ansys software. Through the analysis of power quality evaluation indicators, such as current harmonic distortion rate, frequency deviation rate, and voltage fluctuation, the correlation between entropy production and each evaluation indicator was explored to investigate effective methods to improve power quality by reducing entropy production. The results showed that the current harmonic distortion rate, voltage fluctuation, voltage deviation, and system entropy production are positively correlated in the tests and that the power factor is negatively correlated with system entropy production. In the frequency range, the frequency deviation was not significantly correlated with the system entropy production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A combined experimental and numerical research study is conducted to investigate the complex relationship between the structure and the aerodynamic performances of an Archimedes spiral wind turbine (ASWT). Two ASWTs are considered, a prototypical version and an improved version. It is shown that the latter achieves the best aerodynamic performance when the spread angles at the three sets of blades are α1 = 30°, α2 = 55°, α3 = 60°, respectively and the blade thickness is 4 mm. For a velocity V = 10 m/s, a tip speed ratio (TSR) = 1.58 and 2, the maximum CP values are 0.223 and 0.263 for the prototypical ASWT and improved ASWT, respectively, and the maximum CP enhancement is 17.93%. For V = 10 m/s and TSR = 2, the CP values of the prototypical ASWT and improved ASWT are 0.225 and 0.263, respectively, with an aerodynamic performance enhancement of 16.88%. Through mutual verification of the test outcomes and numerical results, it is concluded that the proposed approach can effectively lead to aerodynamic performance improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has no abstract. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A growing number of countries internationalise their curriculum by switching to English-medium Instruction (EMI). This strategy is particularly popular in China, where more and more universities offer English-medium courses to raise their international profile (Macaro et al., 2018). Sociolinguistic accounts have been reported on how EMI is perceived and enacted in China as a whole (Hu & Lei, 2014; Fang, 2018), or in particular disciplines, such as the humanities, business (Botha, 2014), medicine and surgery (Botha, 2016). However, relatively little attention has been given to EMI in China's music education, where English is used differently from the educational settings previously studied. In music education, instructors invariably use both verbal and non-verbal communication to explain and demonstrate a musical technique (Long et al., 2012). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]