Getting Them Speaking: Classroom Social Factors and Foreign Language Anxiety
This study, which focuses on foreign language anxiety (FLA) experienced by Japanese learners of English in four universities, explores causative agents by looking into the classroom. The research questions aim to explore how FLA is influenced by classroom social factors. The findings of this study show that Japanese EFL learners experience higher levels of FLA as a result of the teacher's age, friendliness, tone of voice, and self-presentation, as evidenced in their dress code. Other FLA predictors for higher anxiety were peer gender, familiarity, laughter, and a quiet class. Language teachers should therefore dress and appear less formal in class to alleviate FLA!
From the conquering legions of Ancient Rome to the thunderous tank battles of World War II and beyond, History of War takes you deeper inside the minds of history’s fighting men, further under the bonnets of some of the world’s most devastating war machines, and higher above the battlefield to see the broad sweep of conflict as it happened.
This book examines the many ways in which economic concepts, theories and models can be used to examine issues in higher education. The topics explored in the book include how students make college-going decisions, the payoffs to students and society from going to college, markets for higher education services, demand and supply in markets for higher education, why and how state and federal governments intervene in higher education markets, college and university revenues and expenditures, how institutions use net-pricing strategies and non-price product-differentiation strategies to pursue their goals and to compete in higher education markets.
In an environment of diminishing resources, growing enrollment, and increasing expectations of accountability, Lean Higher Education: Increasing the Value and Performance of University Processes provides the understanding and the tools required to return education to the consumers it was designed to serve—the students. It supplies a unifying framework for implementing and sustaining a Lean Higher Education (LHE) transformation at any institution, regardless of size or mission.
This book explores how the global trend of quality assurance in higher education is related to the boom of measuring learning outcomes in Japan. It also presents a comparative study in higher education policy between Japan and the US, examining how both countries have reacted to the demands of globalization.