Sample Abstract 1
Teaching Prediction Strategies Using the Short Film
Even before we learnt to read a book, we learnt to read a film. Watching The Road Runner Show, we would almost instinctively guess how Wile E. Coyote's schemes would backfire. How can we help our students become aware of the strategies of connection, anticipation and recalibration that they use? This presentation will demonstrate how teachers can employ the short film as a means of accessing students' schema of visual texts to develop their understanding of narrative and interpretation. As film encapsulates the skills of listening, viewing, reading and representing highlighted by the 2010 syllabus, the short film format is potentially a resource teachers can draw on to develop communication, expression and media literacy in the language classroom. (118 words)
Sample Abstract 2
Hedges and Boosters in Academic Article Abstracts in Applied Linguistics
As parts of metadiscourse, hedges and boosters are important resources for writers to express their certainty or tentativeness when making claims in academic writing. Cross-linguistic and cross-disciplinary studies on academic articles suggest that important differences exist in the use of hedges and boosters across languages and disciplines. This study makes a comparison between the most frequently-used hedges and boosters in academic article abstracts published in English- and Chinese–medium journals in Applied Linguistics.
​
Based on a corpus of 649 article abstracts, the study compares the types of hedging and boosting devices and focuses on the use of the top five hedges and boosters in the three sub corpora respectively. The detailed analysis shows that there are significant differences between the international and the Chinese academics in their use of hedges and boosters. The results have both theoretical and pedagogical implications regarding the use of such devices in academic writing. (149 words)
Sample Abstract 3
A Primary School Literature Programme Infusing the Discipline of Philosophy for Children
This paper examines the benefits and objectives of the programme called Philosophy for Children (P4C) and how it can be infused into Literature at a Primary School setting. P4C draws mainly on the Philosophical domains of logic, reasoning and judgment. The programme has impacted students worldwide and is highly sought after. Tapping on the discipline of Philosophy, P4C gives students an opportunity to think about philosophical questions and discuss them in the classroom. It also develops their higher order thinking skills. It also allows students to communicate more effectively using the Community of Inquiry Approach. P4C is an integral tool in classroom teaching and directly leads to the development of language proficiency as well. (114 words)