One way to develop intercultural sensitivity in learners is through the inclusion of intercultural training in ELT and teacher training courses. This study aimed at enhancing the intercultural sensitivity of EFL pre-service teachers through interactive culture-focused speaking tasks. Therefore, a task-based syllabus was designed based on the principles of constructivism and intercultural themes...

The current study examines Theory of Mind (ToM) development in English-speaking ethnically Chinese 3to 6-year-old children raised in Singapore, a country influenced by both eastern and western cultures. All tasks were administered in English. Study 1 investigated the vertical development of ToM in 3to 6-year-olds (N = 65) with five tasks, including diverse desires, diverse beliefs, knowledge ac...

Pre-operative determination of the dominant hemisphere for speech and speech associated sensory and motor regions has been of great interest for the neurological surgeons. This dilemma has been of at most importance, but difficult to achieve, requiring either invasive (Wada test) or non-invasive methods (Brain Mapping). In the present study we have employed functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging...

Developing a robot system that can interact directly with a human instructor in a natural way requires not only highly-skilled sensorimotor coordination and action planning on the part of the robot, but also the ability to understand and communicate with a human being in many modalities. A typical application of such a system is interactive assembly for construction tasks. A human communicator ...

Speaking and writing are the productive skills of language and share similar components. In other words, writing and speaking are clearly related activities, but the modes of production are different. In addition, among a number of personality variables in predicting English language proficiency, extraversion/introversion has been extensively studied. This quasi-experimental study aims at explo...

Drivers' behavior is one of the most important factors in traffic safety. Understanding of this issue and its effective factors can be helpful to reduce the influences of human factors on traffic accidents. The objective of this study is to apply Manchester driver behavior questionnaire (DBQ) to a group of drivers who have overtaken on two-lane rural roads and to analyze their behavior. Also, t...