The use of and responses to a letter writing process to increase communicative competence in ESL learners : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Second Language Teaching at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

This thesis is a study of how a teacher can help learners to increase communicative competence through an interactive letter writing process. The study was triggered in response to a specific group of immigrants' apparent improvement in not only their written English, but also in their ability to communicate more confidently with native speakers after using the letter writing process as the consistent medium of instruction. The research seeks to describe and ascertain the effectiveness of the letter writing process to enable the learners to become more communicatively competent. In order to do this, it explores some of the inherent underlying conditions to which improvement in communicative competence is attributed, and how these are incorporated into the letter writing process. The research identifies the areas to which the learners attribute their improvement in their communicative language ability. It also outlines the conditions needed to set up this process, the strategies used, and the ways in which the letter writing is extended into an oral activity. The research is in the action research tradition with a qualitative orientation. The researcher focuses on letters written weekly by the teacher to the learners over a one-year language course. The following strategies were explored in relation to the learners' perception of their improvement in communicative competence and their actual improvement in their writing ability: the self disclosure of the teacher in the letter, the introduction of language used in everyday conversation in New Zealand, and the interaction with native English speaking conversation assistants. The results of the research suggest that the instructional material, the weekly letter, provided the authenticity, relevance, interest and enjoyment to enable learners to maintain high levels of motivation and increase the level of output and accuracy of their writing. Through analysis of the learners' letters, there is a significant increase in not only the length of the letters, but also an increase in sentence length, the use of idioms and colloquial language, and a decrease in tense error. Through an analysis of written questionnaires and taped interviews, learners clearly identify the letters as significantly contributing to not only an increase in their linguistic performance, but also to their increased cultural awareness and confidence with native English speakers. The research highlights the potency of teacher/learner interaction and invites further research into the influence of the teacher's personality and teaching style, as well as the effectiveness of the letter writing process in the hands of other teachers

Migration Networks and the Transnationalization of social capital: cornish migration to the pacific littoral

El objetivo de este artículo es analizar el papel de las contribuciones migratorias regionales a la expansión industrial británica durante el siglo XIX. Se cuestiona la homogeneidad del movimiento de población británica hacia el Litoral Pacífico, destacándose la migración de mineros de Cornualles a través de los registros documentales disponibles. Además, se identificará patrones de migración usando la localidad de Tocopilla (Chile) como estudio de caso. Asimismo, se estudiará cómo el “capital social” de los migrantes en la conformación de comunidades y redes sociales contribuyeron a dar heterogeneidad a la migración sobre la región de estudio.This article aims to evaluate the contribution of regional migrations to the expansion of british industry throughout the XIX century. It questions the homogeneity of the movement of britons to the west coast stressing the migration of cornishmen through available archives. It also identifies trends of migrations resorting to a case study in the chilean port of tocopilla. It also analyses how the “social capital” of migrants contributed to the formation of communities and social networks which contributed to the heterogeneity of the migration into the region under study

Practice Factors which Influence Quality of Life for Chronically mentally Ill African Americans

The University Archives has determined that this item is of continuing value to OSU's history.Singleton, Sharron M., D.S.W., Howard University - "Practice Factors which Influence Quality of Life for Chronically Mentally Ill African Americans".The Ohio State University College of Social Wor

Genetic obesity increases pancreatic expression of mitochondrial proteins which regulate cholesterol efflux in BRIN-BD11 insulinoma cells

Pancreatic β-cells are sensitive to fluctuations in cholesterol content, which can damage the insulin secretion pathway, contributing to the aetiology of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Cholesterol efflux to (apo)lipoproteins, via ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter A1 (ABCA1), can prevent intracellular cholesterol accumulation; in some peripheral cells, ABCA1-dependent efflux is enhanced by promotion of cholesterol trafficking to, and generation of Liver X receptor (LXR) ligands by, mitochondrial sterol 27-hydroxylase (Cyp27A1 (cytochrome P450 27 A1/sterol 27-hydroxylase)) and its redox partners, adrenodoxin (ADX) and ADX reductase (ADXR). Despite this, the roles of mitochondrial cholesterol trafficking (steroidogenic acute regulatory protein [StAR] and 18-kDa translocator protein [TSPO]) and metabolising proteins in insulin-secreting cells remain wholly uncharacterised. Here, we demonstrate an increase in pancreatic expression of Cyp27A1, ADXR, TSPO and LXRα, but not ADX or StAR, in obese (fa/fa) rodents compared with lean (Fa/?) controls. Overexpression of Cyp27A1 alone in BRIN-BD11 cells increased INS2 expression, without affecting lipid metabolism; however, after exposure to low-density lipoprotein (LDL), cholesterol efflux to (apo)lipoprotein acceptors was enhanced in Cyp27A1-overexpressing cells. Co-transfection of Cyp27A1, ADX and ADXR, at a ratio approximating that in pancreatic tissue, stimulated cholesterol efflux to apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) in both basal and cholesterol-loaded cells; insulin release was stimulated equally by all acceptors in cholesterol-loaded cells. Thus, genetic obesity increases pancreatic expression of Cyp27A1, ADXR, TSPO and LXRα, while modulation of Cyp27A1 and its redox partners promotes cholesterol efflux from insulin-secreting cells to acceptor (apo)lipoproteins; this response may help guard against loss of insulin secretion caused by accumulation of excess intracellular cholesterol