Assessment of limitations in hand function due to impairment is commonplace in clinical practice and clinical research. When assessing impairment, it is useful to have an understanding of what comparative results an aged-match unimpaired participant population would generate and how the natural effects of an increase in age have on these results. Using the Southampton Hand Assessment Procedure (SHAP), this study assessed dominant hand function of 95 unimpaired participants between the ages of 18-75 years. The results extended available data from previous research and showed that the average SHAP score was 98 (± 3.3). The results indicate that there is a natural decline in hand function after the age of 65 years (p <0.001), which concurs with previously published studies using other assessments.

This paper reports on the design and management of an online self-access language learning (SALL) space that was used with a group of Saudi medical students to complement classroom-based learning. The aim was to increase the opportunities for communication and language practice and, more specifically, to help develop the learners’ language learning autonomy (Little, 1999). In a pre-study, a questionnaire and a focus group were used to collect information about the students’ needs and interests in language learning. The design of this space was informed by the students’ feedback on their language learning needs and styles as recommended by Breen (1986) and Marsh (2012). Desire2Learn, a widely used virtual learning environment, was used to provide learners with an online self-access center because of the many features it has which would help learners to take control of their learning. The learning resources and online tools included instant messaging (IM), a news stream, access to a facilitator and other learning support, moderated discussions, videos, images, activities and quizzes, as well as links to external materials and to free self-access language learning resources. A description will be provided of how the materials, the tools, and the facilities were integrated within this space along with the justification for each of the elements. A look ahead to how this study could be extended for use with all learners enrolled in the medical scheme of the university will be discussed at the end of the paper.

Student mobility and trans-national collaborative modes of learning a/ University level have been strongly promoted within Europe. However, such initiatives are expensive, difficult to organise and do not a/ways attain their objectives. Recently there has been considerable interest in the extent to which computer-mediated communication between students in different countries can either supplement or substitute fur actual student mobility. This paper reports an evaluation of a project in which video-conferencing was introduced in the context of an established Anglo-Spanish programme in which UK and Spanish Fashion students undertake collaborative projects in each others' countries. Project aims included fostering and supporting second language use, providing an innovative context for collaborative art and design projects and offering an opportunity to simulate trans-national working conditions. Questionnaires, observation and interview data indicate that not all these objectives were realised, though student reaction to the technology and to the benefits it afforded for collaboration were broadly positive. The strengths and weaknesses of video-conferencing as a support 10 collaborative learning in this context are discussed.

This article reports on a case study that investigates how a successful Chinese sojourner exhibits learner autonomy through mediating agency, identity, and language learning strategies (LLS) to seek out affordances within a religious social setting in the UK. This study employs an ecological perspective and ethnographic methods through participant observation and interviews to identify a set of LLS employed by this sojourner to deal with language and socio-cultural issues in a complex ecosystem comprised of interacting human and non-human components within this social setting. The results predominantly show this sojourner exercises agency by utilizing the newly observed concealing identity strategy to hide his ‘atheist identity’ which is a self-perceived barrier to the setting. Employing this strategy mitigates this sojourner’s affective barrier to open access to the linguistic and non-linguistic affordances within the dynamic second language (L2) changing circumstance in this specific social place. This case study broadens the LLS research area by taking a socially-oriented perspective to investigate LLS in relation to socio-cultural and interactional abilities in real communicative L2 settings. Therefore, this study gives insights into how learner autonomy is socially mediated in a complex transnational world through the constructs of LLS, agency, and identity based on ecology theory.

No abstract