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Abstract: This study examines how specific variables such as age, first language, nationality, school grade and socioeconomic status (SES) affect the comprehensibility of second language (L2) speech in 92 second/non-native language learners. Comprehensibility refers to the degree of speech understanding. Fluency, rhythm, grammatical features and word stressing are concurrent factors for the listening comprehension (and the listener comprehensibility) mainly in L2 context. Research evidence focused the quality and differences of speech samples produced by the L2 learners and the comprehensibility rated by native speakers. In reverse scenario there is less evidence on the judgment of L2 learners for speech samples produced by native speakers. In this study we analysed if the comprehensibility ability of 92 young Portuguese L2 learners differ in the following conditions: age, nationality, home language, school grade, proficiency and socioeconomic status. Speech (one text) was recorded by a native speaker and was judged by L2 speakers using 1-5 Likert scale for comprehension difficulty. Main results showed that neither age nor home language had influence for comprehensibility, but socioeconomic, nationality and grades accounted for statistical differences between the groups tested. Also, data suggested that phonetic features are more likely important for the beginner in second language learning compared to the semantic features of speech that heavily depend on vocabulary domain. Keywords: Speech comprehensibility, nationality, grades, socioeconomic status, second language. Read more →
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This study will discuss the following Old Testament texts: Gen 32:23-32; Jon 1:17; Tob 6:1-9; and Exod 4:24-26 and will argue that these are about the initiation of a person to do a divine mission. Some parallels from Asia—Epic Gilgamesh, texts from Tibetan Buddhism, Hinduism, and the Philippine epic, Biag ni Lam-ang will also be taken into consideration to shed light on them. It will also present their interpretation as typoi of the sacraments of initiations found in early Christian literature and art.
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"Macau's rapid economic development in recent decades and relatively low usage of public transportation have put considerable pressure on the city's carrying capacity. Improving the transportation system has been a major policy goal of Macau's urban planners. To deepen the understanding of the perspectives of local road users, this dissertation's main research question is: what factors determine the satisfaction of local road users of Macau? After collecting responses using an online questionnaire, quantitative research methods were adopted to analyze travel patterns, satisfaction toward different road usage dimensions, and sociodemographic characteristics of local residents. 145 responses were collected and quota samples were generated to match the distribution of each sociodemographic feature of the population. Most respondents used private vehicles to travel during peak hours on weekdays for work or for school and to travel during the entire afternoon and evening on weekends for shopping necessities and for leisure. The most traveled districts were Baixa de Taipa, Costa & Ouvidor Arriaga, and Baixa de Macau. It was found that the mean overall satisfaction score inclined to the dissatisfaction side (below 3). Only clarity of traffic lights and number of road signs (measuring infrastructure) and temperature and price of fares (measuring public transportation) had mean satisfaction scores that were significantly higher than 3, indicating higher satisfactions. Meaningful hypotheses regarding the differences of different road user groups were set out, then Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA tests and Mann-Whitney U tests were run. The significant findings were such that the elderly aged 65 or above were less satisfied and the unemployed were more satisfied with road usage. The better educated were more satisfied with the environment, and the unemployed were more satisfied with the public transportation. Drivers were less satisfied with transportation costs, and peakhour road users were less satisfied with the infrastructure. The Spearman correlation analyses found that infrastructure had moderately positive correlation with facilities and with travel safety. Based on the findings and their policy implications, policy suggestions could be made. The policies suggested in this study should have favorable short-term and long-term effects on more than one road usage aspects."
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