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Mastery of spoken English is a priority for many learners of English in Iran. Opportunities to acquire spoken English through the public school system are very limited, hence many students enroll in “conversation” courses in private institutes. The purpose of this paper is to report a study of how institute teachers address the teaching of spoken English.

Eighty-nine teachers completed a questionnaire on how they teach spoken English. The information was supplemented with interviews and classroom observation.

Results suggest that institute courses reflect a poor understanding of the nature of spoken interaction, which is reflected in speaking courses that are unfocused and that do not address key aspects of conversational interaction.

Suggestions are given for a re-examination of the differences between “conversation” and “discussion” in spoken English classes as the basis for designing spoken English classes and materials, as well as for the use of out-of-class learning opportunities to enhance the learning of spoken English in Iran and elsewhere.

This paper is based on the authors’ original research, and the authors believe this is the first study of its kind in the Iranian context.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the level of intrinsic motivation of primary-school-age children alongside the factors that influence these levels when learning English.

This goal was reached through a study that was conducted in four educational establishments of Tyumen. The study benefits from qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative part consists of an experiment in a group setting. Two groups of students were learning under two different programmes and the teachers were making records of student outcomes, interest in learning and motivation. The findings demonstrate that the level of motivation/interest is higher when interactive techniques (appropriate for the age of students) are in use. The quantitative part involved a survey to identify intrinsic motivations by completing which the students revealed high and medium levels of motivation/interest to learn.

The findings can be used when updating or re-designing education programmes and when creating new methods for teaching English in Russian educational establishments.

Giving the schoolchildren a motivation to learn is, without any exaggeration, one of the central problems in modern school. Teaching English as a foreign language to students of younger age (schoolchildren) requires a special approach due to special psychological and mental characteristics that these students have. The scholars have established that learning of foreign languages happens best at a very young age. However, without proper methods of teaching, teachers will not be able to reach the learning objectives, which they were attempting to reach. The reason for this effect is simple. The way the subject is taught is expected to spark interest but with the lack of interest in the subject, students will not feel sufficiently motivated to actually learn something. Hence, motivation is essential for learning any foreign language. In the home setting, motivation to learn, as well as a positive learning environment, is the responsibility of parents.

We discuss the contributions of Jack Katz to the field of criminology with a particular focus on his 1988 book, Seductions of Crime. This book emerged out of a time in American history when criminal justice policy was shaped in part by moral panic over the 1980s’ American crime wave. We argue that SOC’s pragmatic approach to phenomenology owes much to this historical context. The vision outlined in the book represents an ideal foundation on which to build a future criminology in tune with the direction of innovation in the field. In making this case, we review the core contributions of the work from our perspective. We then explore the complicated “politics” of Katz’s argument – defying easy labels of left and right, and discuss the significance of a growing divide between the opinions of lay persons and expert accounts of crime. The modes of inquiry that Katz reawakened with his analysis have many as of yet untapped riches to offer, not only to criminological theory but also to criminal justice reform. In particular, we argue that urgent contemporary trends toward “public criminology,” “convict criminology” both could find, in SOC, an ideal epistemological starting place.

The purpose of this research is to identify the effective criteria and determine the required infrastructure for the repair of drilling rigs.

The research was carried out through questionnaires and interviews with experts, including consultants, contractors and operators. A long list of the required infrastructure, dividing into three groups of vital, necessary and support, was prepared and compared with the productivity criteria.

The results show that it is better to prepare and upgrade the vital, necessary and supportive equipment in the shipyards, including refrigeration workshop, cofferdam for repairing spudcans and residential and educational places.

These results are helpful for the industries working on jack-ups and the countries having similar conditions to enable them to use their assets in an optimum way.

Oil drilling rigs' repair and maintenance (R&M) services are essential because of affecting the economy. Furthermore, about 25% of Iran’s oil drilling rigs are jack-up, needing overhauls every five years. Other research has investigated how to repair jack-ups, their incidents, their R&M industry market and, only in some cases mentioned, cost and time criteria. Therefore, it is necessary to identify the criteria and study the infrastructures in the shipyards.

Indigenous entrepreneurship and hybrid venture creation represents a significant opportunity for Indigenous peoples to build vibrant Indigenous-led economies that support sustainable economic development and well-being. It is a means by which they can assert their rights to design, develop and maintain Indigenous-centric political, economic and social systems and institutions. In order to develop an integrated and comprehensive understanding of the intersection between Indigenous entrepreneurship and hybrid ventures, this chapter adopts a case study approach to examining Indigenous entrepreneurship and the underlying global trends that have influenced the design, structure and mission of Indigenous hybrid ventures. The cases present how Indigenous entrepreneurial ventures are, first and foremost, hybrid ventures that are responsive to community needs, values, cultures and traditions. They demonstrate that Indigenous entrepreneurship and hybrid ventures are more successful when the rights of Indigenous peoples are addressed and when these initiatives are led by or engage Indigenous communities. The chapter concludes with a conceptual model that can be applied to generate insights into the complex interrelationships and interdependencies that influence the formation of Indigenous hybrid ventures and value creation strategies according to three dimensions: (i) the overarching dimension of indigeneity and Indigenous rights; (ii) indigenous community orientations and (iii) indigenous hybrid venture creation considerations.

This study aimed at providing a systematic review of the research conducted on the application of the eclectic approach in language teaching since 2016.

The articles have been selected from seven renowned databases (i.e. EBSCO, Online Library, Scopus, ScienceDirect, Sage Journal Online, Education Resources Information Center, and Web of Science). The number of total articles identified in the initial research was 432, out of this number, only 47 articles were selected for the review using predefined inclusion criteria. The selected articles have been analyzed and coded into different categories: research design, location, context, level of education, learning outcomes and pedagogical implications.

The review analysis showed the major trends and outcomes in the eclectic approach topic. It also provided useful information for stakeholders regarding the application of the eclectic approach in language teaching.

The study contributes to some unaddressed points identified in the selected articles, and it recommends some points to be considered in future research.

This article lists the publications of Jack Tizard from 1950 to 1964, with commentary on the development of his interests through that time, and his major contribution to research and social policy.

The management of children′s literature is a search for value and suitability. Effective policies in library and educational work are based firmly on knowledge of materials, and on the bibliographical and critical frame within which the materials appear and might best be selected. Boundaries, like those between quality and popular books, and between children′s and adult materials, present important challenges for selection, and implicit in this process are professional acumen and judgement. Yet also there are attitudes and systems of values, which can powerfully influence selection on grounds of morality and good taste. To guard against undue subjectivity, the knowledge frame should acknowledge the relevance of social and experiential context for all reading materials, how readers think as well as how they read, and what explicit and implicit agendas the authors have. The good professional takes all these factors on board.

Today, governance of food safety and quality as well as environmental aspects of food chains increasingly operates through public and private standards. This governance, as led by retail power, is often interpreted to undermine farmer’s agrarian independence by dictating detailed agricultural practices on the farm, thereby conditioning access into the food chain. Focusing on farmers’ discursive resources, agrarian writing implies an alternative social force, constructed here as farmer’s freedom. By analysing qualitative data from Finland along the theoretical axes of farmers’ interest in socio-economic achievement and willingness to comply with standards, a more nuanced understanding of farmers’ occupational freedom emerges. Freedom in economic interests and organic farming represents farmers as standard takers as standards supported values most important for them. Realizing freedom in economic creativity can be antagonistic to (public) standards and lead to contestations and negotiations for feasibility. Finally, freedom in self-sufficiency is antithetical to the commercial food chain; however, dissenting from standards displays a strong capacity to close the metabolic rift, along with organic farming. The evidence from the study suggests that farmers’ freedom has the character of a social force to modify food chains and to increase their socio-economic and environmental sustainability and to call for consumers’ freedom to join farmers’ efforts.