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Background Teacher-student interactions and proximity have been shown influential in second/foreign (L2) education. However, the role of L2 teachers’ immediacy behaviors on students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) and academic engagement remains relatively unexamined in the context of English as a foreign language (EFL). Purpose This study intended to examine the association among EFL teachers’ immediacy behaviors and students’ WTC and engagement. Methods In this quantitative study, three online questionnaires were completed by 400 Chinese EFL students in different universities out of which 364 were valid. Results The results of statistical analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM) indicated that teachers’ immediacy behaviors (verbal, nonverbal) had a highly significant influence on EFL students’ WTC (ß=0.89, p = .000) and academic engagement (ß=0.71, p = .000). It was also revealed that teachers’ immediacy could predict 89% and 71% of variances in students’ WTC academic engagement, respectively. Conclusions Based on the results, I could be concluded that EFL teachers’ interpersonal communication abilities (e.g., immediacy) foster the establishment and growth of other positive outcomes among learners. Implications The study presents some conclusions and practical implications for EFL teachers, materials developers, and trainers to integrate the nonverbal cues of L2 communication into their practices. Such practices have the potential to enhance students’ willingness to communicate (WTC) and improve academic engagement.

Teaching is deemed a taxing enterprise, especially as far as higher education is concerned. As a result, much research attention has been showered upon exploring the correlates of engagement for instructors. To contribute to this research direction, the present researchers carried out this survey to test a model of work engagement in a Chinese higher education context. Teacher self-efficacy and resilience were added as predictors of the hypothesized model. A number of 372 Chinese English as a foreign language (EFL) instructors in higher education contexts were selected through convenience sampling. The measurement models of the latent variables (i.e., self-efficacy, resilience, and work engagement) were confirmed via running Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). Afterward, Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was used to test the structural model. The results obtained from the analyses showed that both teacher self-efficacy and resilience could significantly predict EFL teachers’ work engagement, with self-efficacy serving as a stronger predictor than resilience. The outcomes suggest some implications for EFL stakeholders such as teachers, teacher trainers, policy makers, and officials. Plain Language Summary This new article bridges the identified gaps in the literature, and the current research intends to examine the predictability of EFL teachers work engagement level in terms of their self-efficacy beliefs and resilience tendencies. Based on our observation, there is a paucity in the literature examining the causal relationship between teacher self-efficacy and teacher work engagement in HE, and to our knowledge, this is the first study to consider teacher self-efficacy as a potential predictive variable of work engagement of EFL teachers in HE.

With the promotion and application of high-tech in large-scale manufacturing, aerospace, machinery manufacturing, medical equipment, biotechnology enterprises, enterprises have increasingly growing demand for high-quality skilled personnel, while practical talents are in great shortage, and embarrassing situation of “no recruitable talent” is often a case. Practical education reflects the real demand of national economic development and reform. In-depth analysis of the current development status of practical education model in colleges and universities reveals practical problems such as rigid education system, lack of platform resources and detachment from practical demand. Therefore, it is necessary to build a good practical educational and cultural environment from the three levels of thought, system and teaching. Efforts should be made to improve practice teaching platform, comprehensively enhance “order-oriented” talent training, adhere to the employment-oriented, scientific and practical evaluation system as a guarantee, make comprehensive innovation in practical education model and improve teaching quality. It is necessary to build a strong inner support structure from the aspects of thought, system and teaching, to improve educational and cultural environment from thought, system, teaching, and accelerate the reconstruction of practical educational innovation practice platform. Centering on construction goal of practical teaching model and practical talent training, the practical teaching platform of colleges and universities needs to explore the construction mechanism featuring mutual convergence, mutual cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win of theoretical and social needs, comprehensively highlight practical teaching characteristics, strengthen students’ practical ability to lay the foundation for their future career development; conduct “order-oriented” training in line with actual employment needs, provide new ideas and implementation programs for “order-oriented” training, strengthen “order-oriented” teaching effect; strengthen evaluation system practicality within the framework of school-enterprise cooperation.

Growing research attention has focused on examining the role of emotions in Second Language Acquisition (SLA), with particular emphasis on positive emotions and student engagement as significant factors in promoting various aspects of human behavior and cognition. Despite the significance of Willingness to Communicate (WTC) in understanding learners’ communicative behaviors in a foreign language, there still exist gaps in understanding how positive emotions like Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE) and behavioral engagement relate to WTC. This study investigates the relationships among FLE, behavioral engagement, and WTC within the Chinese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context, drawing upon the Broaden-and-Build theory. Therefore, the study examined how 690 Chinese EFL college students perceive FLE and behavioral engagement related to their WTC by using a quantitative method. The findings revealed significant positive relationships between FLE and behavioral engagement with WTC, with FLE showing a stronger association than behavioral engagement. Moreover, FLE and WTC could significantly and strongly predict WTC. These findings offer valuable insights for educational practices and policy development, suggesting the potential benefits of incorporating enjoyment-focused strategies in language learning. Additionally, this research contributes to our understanding of how positive emotions, particularly enjoyment, may work alongside other factors to enhance students’ communicative competence and overall experience in language learning.

Although researching emotions in language education has dramatically increased during the past decades, little is written about the effects of aversive feelings like teacher boredom in the English as a foreign language (EFL) context, especially in the context of online instruction during the COVID-19 pandemic. Against this shortcoming, this study examined the causes of and solutions to teacher boredom experienced by 216 Chinese EFL teachers, including both genders with their ages ranging from 19 to 58. In so doing, the researcher used maximum variation sampling to gather the data via an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The gleaned data were then thematically analyzed by MAXQDA (Version 2020) whose results indicated that most participants consider the online mode of delivery more boring than the face-to-face mode. Additionally, the findings demonstrated that both the antecedents of and the solutions to teacher boredom come under the macro-categories of student-related, task-related, IT-related , and teacher-related factors and solutions. Out of these, IT - related factors and teacher-related solutions were the most frequently raised themes extracted from the data. The study presents some practical implications and directions for future research.

Anderson localization and non-Hermitian skin effect are two paradigmatic wave localization phenomena, resulting from wave interference and the intrinsic non-Hermitian point gap, respectively. In this study, we unveil a novel localization phenomenon associated with long-range asymmetric coupling, termed scale-tailored localization, where the number of induced localized modes and their localization lengths scale exclusively with the coupling range. We show that the long-range coupling fundamentally reshapes the energy spectra and eigenstates by creating multiple connected paths on the lattice. Furthermore, we present experimental observations of scale-tailored localization in non-Hermitian electrical circuits utilizing adjustable voltage followers and switches. The circuit admittance spectra possess separate point-shaped and loop-shaped components in the complex energy plane, corresponding respectively to skin modes and scale-tailored localized states. Our findings not only expand and deepen the understanding of peculiar effects induced by non-Hermiticity but also offer a feasible experimental platform for exploring and controlling wave localizations. The authors use topoelectrical circuit to demonstrate “scale-tailored localization”. Unlike Anderson localization, the number and length of localized modes is caused by long-range asymmetric coupling. This effect provides a powerful knob to control wave localization and a practical platform for exploring intriguing non-Hermitian effects.

This book is an introduction to the basic theory of the finite element method.

Under the combined impacts of global climate change and human activities, understanding vegetation spatiotemporal dynamics is critical for ecosystem management. This study quantifies NDVI changes in Northwest China from 2001 to 2021 using multitemporal remote sensing data and geographical detectors. The results indicated that: (1) Regional mean NDVI was low (0.2842), with 70.6% of areas below 0.4; (2) NDVI increased significantly at 0.0022/a (p < 0.05), especially post-2008; (3) NDVI stability was high, with a coefficient of variation of 0.254; (4) Precipitation (54.24%), sunshine hours (46.22%), and elevation (44.06%) were dominant drivers, while human factors had weaker effects (e.g. night light: 8.61%). The geographic detector model revealed synergistic interactions between surface and climate factors (e.g. elevation ∩ precipitation, q > 80%), overcoming spatial non-stationarity limitations of traditional regression. These findings highlight the need for targeted restoration in arid zones (e.g. Xinjiang deserts) and inform adaptive ecological strategies under climate change.

Integrins coupled with other proteins form protein complexes named focal adhesions (FA) which are considered as the primary sites for cellular forces transduction during cell stable adhesion. Cell traction forces transmitted by FAs and integrin tensions inside FAs have been extensively studied. However, it remains unknown whether integrins outside FAs can transmit tension, and if so, what is the tension range. We previously developed a tension sensor named tension gauge tether (TGT). To calibrate integrin tensions outside FAs, here we applied multiplex TGT (mTGT) to simultaneously monitor integrin tensions at separate levels. mTGT unambiguously revealed that integrins outside FAs also transmit tension after FA formation. These tensions are mainly located in the range of 43 ~ 54 pN which is lower than integrin tensions inside FAs. Integrin tensions both inside and outside FAs substantially contribute to bulk cellular forces and they respond independently to actin and myosin II inhibition, serum deprivation and microtubule inhibition, indicating their different tension sources and independent dynamics. Our work identified integrin tensions outside FAs and calibrated the tension range for the first time. We also demonstrated that mTGT is a valuable tool to monitor integrin tension profile in a broad detection range of 10 ~ 60 pN.