Having a certain degree of assessment literacy is crucial for today's language teachers. The main aim of this paper is to provide that knowledge as it pertains to the writing…
Abstract
Purpose
Having a certain degree of assessment literacy is crucial for today's language teachers. The main aim of this paper is to provide that knowledge as it pertains to the writing skill. More specifically, the purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the main practical issues that teachers often face when evaluating the written work of their students. It will consider issues and solutions in five major areas: test design; test administration; ways to assess writing; feedback to students; and the effects on pedagogy.
Design/methodology/approach
The author took a very practical and principled approach to the complete process of assessing the written work of our students in a foreign or second language.
Findings
The cyclical relationship between teaching and assessment can be made entirely positive provided that the assessment is based on sound principles and procedures. Both teaching and assessment should relate to the learners' goals and very frequently to institutional goals.
Practical implications
Good teachers spend a lot of time ensuring that their writing assessment practices are valid and reliable. The author deals with the fundamental issues that underlie good test design in a very practical and understandable way and later suggests practical steps to ensure smooth and reliable test administration before dealing with ways to assess a range of different writing tasks. Then, the crucial issue of how best to provide useful developmental feedback to students is considered. She concludes by discussing how best testing practice should seek to accommodate the requirements of test takers.
Originality/value
This topic is significant as assessing foreign/second language writing skills is one of the most problematic areas in language testing. It is made even more important because good writing ability is very much sought after by higher education institutions and employers.
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The main aim of this paper is to examine the mechanism of determining the exchange rate of the US dollar against the Indonesian rupiah (USD/IDR) by market players to manage the…
Abstract
Purpose
The main aim of this paper is to examine the mechanism of determining the exchange rate of the US dollar against the Indonesian rupiah (USD/IDR) by market players to manage the USD/IDR exchange rate stability. Thus, this study is expected to provide a better understanding of the determinants of the USD/IDR, given that the data set completely encompasses all the USD/IDR transactions in the Indonesian foreign exchange market. Order flow data used in this study cover all transactions on the USD/IDR conducted by domestic residents including both individuals and corporations and foreign investors in the Indonesian foreign exchange market.
Design/methodology/approach
This study covers the data set over the period January 3, 2011 to December 31, 2015, and the vector autoregression and autoregressive distributed lag models are used in examining the research questions. More particularly, in this study, the author examines whether the net total domestic individual transactions (DOVA), net total domestic corporation transactions (KOVA), net total foreign investor transactions (IOVA), Asian Dollar Index (ADXY), non-deliverable forward (NDF) for USD/IDR and Volatility Index (VIX) are statistically significant determinants of the USD/IDR exchange rate.
Findings
Overall, this study suggests that in the short run, lag of the USD/IDR exchange rate or inertia level, lag of the IOVA, lag of the NDF of the USD/IDR exchange rate and lag of the ADXY are statistically significant determinants of the USD/IDR. On the other hand, in the long run, DOVA, NDF and ADXY are found to be statistically significant determinants of USD/IDR. This study also found that there is a market leader and asymmetric information among market players in the Indonesian foreign exchange market, and their USD/IDR exchange rate level becomes a reference for other market players when conducting transactions with each other.
Originality/value
The paper is original along two lines. First, the data set used in this study is unique. It encompasses all the USD/IDR transactions in the Indonesian foreign exchange market. The order flow data used in this study cover all transactions on the USD/IDR conducted by domestic residents (includes both individuals and corporations) and foreign investors in the Indonesian foreign exchange market. Such an approach has not been used previously to study the exchange rate behavior in an emerging market. Second, there is limited knowledge on Indonesia’s exchange rate dynamics. This study fills this gap.
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Alan Cusack, Gautam Gulati, Colum P. Dunne and Shane Kilcommins
This paper aims to critically evaluate contemporary Irish police practice, with an emphasis on emergent procedural innovations, in light of the needs of suspects with intellectual…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to critically evaluate contemporary Irish police practice, with an emphasis on emergent procedural innovations, in light of the needs of suspects with intellectual disabilities.
Design/methodology/approach
A review of published prevalence data in respect of people with intellectual disabilities in the Irish criminal justice system, of the Irish legal and policy landscape and the results of a recent empirical inquiry are used in critical evaluation.
Findings
In line with extant international research, the article identifies three sites of concern with respect to the protocols that exist within An Garda Síochána for identifying and responding to intellectual disability, including: (1) barriers to communication; (2) a need to build awareness and skills for police and persons with intellectual disabilities; and (3) a need for institutional change to secure equal access to justice for people with intellectual disabilities. Progress is being made at a systems level towards a human rights approach in Irish policing.
Originality/value
In representing the first international analysis of its kind, the article locates the barriers confronting suspects with intellectual disabilities in Ireland within a discourse that is sensitive to ongoing research-led, procedural reforms within An Garda Síochána (Ireland's national police service). Owing to the universalised nature of these barriers across policing systems internationally, the format of these reforms from this will be of relevance to many other policing states, in particular the 162 other signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.
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Aidan J Connolly, Leona Shaojing Luo, Michael Woolsey, Mark Lyons and Kate Phillips-Connolly
– The purpose of this paper is to offer a blueprint, or outline considerations for the continuing evolution of the Chinese food safety system.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to offer a blueprint, or outline considerations for the continuing evolution of the Chinese food safety system.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper begins with the review of the current food safety system in China and the demonstration of the successes in national food safety programmes. It goes on to identify the specific problems through food sully China, and further to analyse the potential for implementing the key learnings from other national food safety programmes in the Chinese context.
Findings
The paper suggests a five-point Blueprint for food safety in China and other countries, allowing for the development of a robust food safety system, by combining the elements with best practice from system created by food safety practitioners internationally.
Research limitations/implications
It should be noted that even since the authors began developing this model China has already adopted a number of the recommendations covered by this Blueprint and is actively considering others.
Originality/value
This paper fulfills an identified information/resources need and offers a blueprint, or outline of considerations for the continuing evolution of the Chinese food safety system.
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Future legislation relating to the control of the national milk supply formed the subject of discussion in the House of Commons on the 5th March. Although no new points were…
Abstract
Future legislation relating to the control of the national milk supply formed the subject of discussion in the House of Commons on the 5th March. Although no new points were brought out, the need for fresh legislation was emphasised in this discussion, especially the need for a general Act that would, while giving the central authority increased powers, do away “with the piecemeal, voluntary, and local enactments at present in existence. It is evident that if any radical change in the present system is to be effective it must not only be general as regards this country, but it must also be imperial” and international; inasmuch as it must deal both with the supplies that are produced at home and with those imported from abroad. It would obviously be in the highest degree unfair to the English farmer to make his stock, workpeople, and premises liable to the frequent expert inspection demanded, and, at the same time, to allow milk to enter this country from abroad without the application of an equally rigorous inspection on this side, and without some form of guarantee from the government of the country of origin. In all matters connected with food supply improved methods of preserving and sterilising as well as increased facilities for international commerce have resulted, as time has gone on, in a large number of food preparations of all kinds being thrown upon the markets. The trade in cheese and butter substitutes as well as that in canned and otherwise preserved meats, and the supply of cereal preparations, afford well known instances, and the milk trade is not singular in the circumstance that a considerable and increasing amount of, milk is treated in various ways, both at home and abroad, for consumption in this country.
Kate L. Reid, Annabel L.M. Ahuriri-Driscoll, Catriona R. Mackay, Pauline Barnett and Ann K. Richardson
to provide a bicultural perspective on the views of people who have completed cancer treatment and, of health providers.
Abstract
Purpose
to provide a bicultural perspective on the views of people who have completed cancer treatment and, of health providers.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 29 individuals (people who had recently completed cancer treatment and health providers). General inductive analysis was undertaken with all interview data, and a Kaupapa Māori approach was employed with the data from Māori participants.
Findings
Themes for Māori participants are as follows: (1) understanding health information is enhanced by connection and relationship; (2) the “professional” is personal and (3) enduring beyond cancer is “our” responsibility. Themes for non-Māori participants are as follows: (1) from survivorship to living with and beyond cancer; (2) from the hospital to primary care and (3) support for living with and beyond cancer.
Practical implications
Positive relationships, communication and self-determination are important for Māori making the transition from hospital to the community after cancer treatment. Well-coordinated processes and services are vital for supporting transitions from hospital to community for non-Māori living with and beyond cancer.
Originality/value
This research presents the diversity of Māori and non-Māori experiences of living with and beyond cancer, adding to the limited New Zealand literature regarding post-treatment supportive care. This paper is among the first to undertake separate interviews and thematic analyses of Māori and non-Māori experiences, and to report these separately. Determinants of positive survivorship experiences are identified, specifying a central and expanded role for cancer care services.
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SEVERAL libraries lately have published reports. They are almost unanimous in recording a circulation of books that increases with every month. When we consider the conditions…
Abstract
SEVERAL libraries lately have published reports. They are almost unanimous in recording a circulation of books that increases with every month. When we consider the conditions under which the work is being done this result is more than remarkable. We do not endeavour, as so many writers do, to explain: there are no unemployed with vacant hours to fill, no lack of theatres, cinemas and there is the tremendous distraction of the war itself—now rising to its gigantic climax. These are factors alleged to be inimical to libraries but never proven to be so. The cardinal fact stands out that in the most critical and obsessing hours in human history the use of the public library was greater than at any other time.