An Exploration of the Current Business English Teaching at the Post-graduate Level in China

In China,the past two decades has witnessed the flourishing of Business English (BE) as a course or even a separated discipline in colleges and universities.Researches on BE and BE Teaching have also flourished in an attempt to formulate a coherent theoretical framework and to improve the present BE Teaching system.However,most of such researches focus on BE Teaching at the college level.The present thesis is to explore the present BE Teaching situation at the post-graduate level in several universities in China and point out some practical problems existing in the current BE Teaching at the post-graduate level with a purpose that the academic world could attach more attention to BE Teaching at the post-graduate level in China.

POST-GRADUATE EDUCATION AT THE CAS

Post-graduate education is one of the three main tasks entrusted to the Chinese Academy of Sciences by the country, says CAS Executive Vice- President Lu Yongxiang, who is in charge of the day-to-day issues of the academy, when interviewed by Shen Guihua, a report of the Bulletin of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

TO MAKE A GOOD JOB OF THE POST-GRADUATE EDUCATION PROGRAM AT THE CAS

The Chinese Academy of Sciences is the top R&D base in the land as well as an incubator for breeding high ranking qualified personnel.The post-graduate education program at the CAS is an important field in the cultivation of Chinese junior scientists.Started in 1955,the program has lasted more than 40 years.As a result of its repeated exploration and practice,the program has initially formed its own character and educational superiority,cultivated a great number of top-grade professionals and infused them into the theatre of economic reconstruction throughout the Country.The following is a brief introduction to the CAS program.

FACTORS AFFECTING CHINESE POST-GRADUATE EFL LEARNERS' ORAL PROFICIENCY

The article investigates factors affecting Chinese postgraduate EFL learners’ oral proficiency. Little practice, fear of errors and unscientific classroom management are found to be the major factors. Also an overemphasis on written English instruction seems to be another root cause. After the discussion of the results of this investigation a series of methods are suggested for reference.

Ability of Therapists Trained in Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy to Guess Pain Catastrophizing and Kinesiophobia Scores for Patients with Low Back Pain

Objective: To investigate whether a physical therapist trained through the Mechanical Diagnosis and Therapy (MDT) diploma program could guess psychological Patient Reported Outcome Measure (PROM) scores of individuals with low back pain (LBP) by taking patient history and completing a physical evaluation. Methods: Ten participants with LBP completed PROMs immediately before history taking and again after a physical evaluation. PROMs included the Pain Catastrophizing Scale (PCS), Tampa Scale for Kinesiophobia (TSK), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and Pain Coping Strategy Questionnaire. A physical therapist who completed the MDT diploma program took the patients’ history and completed their physical evaluation. The therapist completed the same PROMs immediately after both history taking and physical evaluation. Correlations between patient and therapist scores were calculated using Spearman’s ρ. Results: Statistically significant positive correlations were detected in the PCS (ρ = 0.65) and TSK (ρ = 0.78) before history taking, and in the PCS (ρ = 0.81) and TSK (ρ = 0.74) after physical evaluation. Discussion: The results are based on one MDT therapist and generalizability of the findings is limited. However, the current preliminary findings justify the need for further studies to explore effective post-graduate training to promote a patient centered approach.

Innovative Education and Training in high power laser plasmas(PowerLaPs) for plasma physics, high power laser-matter interactions and high energy density physics-theory and experiments

The Erasmus Plus programme’Innovative Education and Training in high power laser plasmas’,otherwise known as PowerLaPs,is described.The PowerLaPs programme employs an innovative paradigm in that it is a multi-centre programme where teaching takes place in five separate institutes with a range of different aims and styles of delivery.The ’in class’ time is limited to four weeks a year,and the programme spans two years.PowerLaPs aims to train students from across Europe in theoretical,applied and laboratory skills relevant to the pursuit of research in laserplasma interaction physics and inertial confinement fusion(ICF).Lectures are intermingled with laboratory sessions and continuous assessment activities.The programme,which is led by workers from the Technological Educational Institute(TEI)of Crete,and supported by co-workers from the Queen’s University Belfast,the University of Bordeaux,the Czech Technical-University in Prague,Ecole Polytechnique,the University of Ioannina,the University of Salamanca and the University of York,has just completed its first year.Thus far three Learning Teaching Training(LTT)activities have been held,at the Queen’s University Belfast,the University of Bordeaux and the Centre for Plasma Physics and Lasers(CPPL)of TEI Crete.The last of these was a two-week long Intensive Programme(IP),while the activities at the other two universities were each five days in length.Thus far work has concentrated upon training in both theoretical and experimental work in plasma physics,high power laser-matter interactions and high energy density physics.The nature of the programme will be described in detail and some metrics relating to the activities carried out to date will be presented.