Higher education institutions in Anglophone countries often rely on standardized English language proficiency exams to assess the linguistic capabilities of their multilingual international students. However, there is often a mismatch between these scores and the initial experiences of international students in both academic and social contexts. Drawing on a digital ethnography of Chinese international students’ first semester languaging practices, this book examines their challenges, needs and successes on their initial languaging journeys in higher education. It analyzes how they use their rich multilingual and multi-modal communicative repertories to facilitate languaging across contexts, in order to suggest how university support systems might better serve the needs of multilingual international students.
The media's presentation suggests that American teenage culture today is the most violent, sexual, and amoral youth culture in history. In this book, Nichols and Good deconstruct the negative images held by large numbers of adults. Recognizing that many teenagers are left by adults to socialize themselves and the consequences of this "careless indifference," the authors' goal is to influence a more positive view leading to stronger social policies and better services, resources, and programs to meet the needs of America's youth. Unique features of America's Teenagers--Myths and Realities: Media Images, Schooling, and the Social Costs of Careless Indifference include: *powerful analytic lenses used to revisit typical depictions of youth; *a wealth of information brought to bear on understanding teenagers' behavior; and *consideration of a broad range of adolescent behaviors across critical socializing settings. The book begins with a discussion of the continuing myth of adolescence--how and why youth are devalued, and an overview of current beliefs about youth drawn from two 1990s Public Agenda Polls. This is followed by chapters on youth and the media, and the pressures that youth face in various dimensions of their lives. Topics include youth violence; the sex lives of teenagers; tobacco, alcohol, drugs, and teens; healthy living and decision making; working teens; and youth and education. The concluding chapter pulls together themes generated throughout the book and provides examples of policies that would underscore the value of viewing youth as a social investment. General guidelines are provided for teachers, parents, policymakers, and citizens to facilitate responding to youth in meaningful, proactive ways that improve the quality of life for teenagers and the broader society.
"This book has three parts: (1) an overview; (2) myths and realities about children as a market (chapters 1-8); and (3) myths and realities about children's responses to marketing behavoiur (chapters 9-21). The first eight chapters describe myths and their realities regarding children as a market segment. I demonstrate the enormous market potential children hold todday is far beyond the penny-candy potential once attributed to them. I characterize children as not one but three markets - a current market spennding their own money on their own wants and needs; an influence market spending mom's and dad's money on their own wants and needs; and a future market for all goods and services. In the third part of the book - chapters 9 through 21 - I detail children's reactions to marketing, specifically, their responses to stores, products, including social products, brands, advertising, promotion, public relations, and packaging." -Preface.
Virtual and Augmented Reality have existed for a long time but were stuck to the research world or to some large manufacturing companies. With the appearance of low-cost devices, it is expected a number of new applications, including for the general audience. This book aims at making a statement about those novelties as well as distinguishing them from the complexes challenges they raise by proposing real use cases, replacing those recent evolutions through the VR/AR dynamic and by providing some perspective for the years to come.
The viking berserkr is an iconic warrior normally associated with violent fits of temper and the notorious berserksgangr or berserker frenzy. This book challenges the orthodox view that these men went ‘berserk’ in the modern English sense of the word. It examines all the evidence for medieval perceptions of berserkir and builds a model of how the medieval audience would have viewed them. Then, it extrapolates a Viking Age model of berserkir from this model, and supports the analysis with anthropological and archaeological evidence, to create a new and more accurate paradigm of the Viking Age berserkr and his place in society. This shows that berserkir were the champions of lords and kings, members of the social elite, and that much of what is believed about them is based on 17th-century and later scholarship and mythologizing: the medieval audience would have had a very different understanding of the Old Norse berserkr from that which people have now. The book sets out a challenge to rethink and reframe our perceptions of the past in a way that is less influenced by our own modern ideas. The Myths and Realities of the Viking berserkr will appeal to researchers and students alike studying the Viking Age, Medieval History and Old Norse Literature.
Is wine an artisanal creation or industrial product? The first edition of Wine Myths and Reality was widely praised for its innovative view of how wine is made and what distinguishes wines from different places. The world of wine is constantly changing, and this second edition is expanded and completely rewritten to take account of new developments. Panoramic in its scope, magisterial in its treatment, and meticulous in its research, Wine Myths and Reality explores the world of wine. From monks treading grapes in the middle ages to the latest research into grapevine DNA, this compelling book presents the authoritative account of how wine is really made. Practices in viticulture and vinification are explained, the tricks of the wine trade are revealed, the methods of the New and the Old Worlds are scrutinized, and their wines are evaluated. Extensively illustrated with photographs, maps, and charts, the approachable and entertaining style immediately engages the reader in the wine universe.An overview of all major wine-producing countries extends from the powerful wines of the New World to the classic wines of Europe. Does terroir really matter? Is the international style taking over? Will global warming destroy the existing wine-producing regions? And extrapolating from current trends, what will wine be like in the future?
This book seeks to debunk eleven popular and prevalent myths about Caribbean history. Using archaeological evidence, it corrects many previous misconceptions promulgated by history books and oral tradition as they specifically relate to the pre-Colonial and European-contact periods. It informs popular audiences, as well as scholars, about the current state of archaeological/historical research in the Caribbean Basin and asserts the value of that research in fostering a better understanding of the region’s past. Contrary to popular belief, the history of the Caribbean did not begin with the arrival of Europeans in 1492. It actually started 7,000 years ago with the infusion of Archaic groups from South America and the successive migrations of other peoples from Central America for about 2,000 years thereafter. In addition to discussing this rich cultural diversity of the Antillean past, Myths and Realities of Caribbean History debates the misuse of terms such as “Arawak” and “Ciboneys,” and the validity of Carib cannibalism allegations.
