Search results for: reading theories

Authors: A. Van Staden, N. Purcell

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Spelling development is complex and multifaceted and relies on several cognitive-linguistic processes. This paper explored the spelling difficulties of English second language learners with auditory processing delays. This empirical study aims to address these issues by means of an intervention design. Specifically, the objectives are: (a) to develop and implement a multi-sensory spelling program for second language learners with auditory processing difficulties (APD) for a period of 6 months; (b) to assess the efficacy of the multi-sensory spelling program and whether this intervention could significantly improve experimental learners' spelling, phonological awareness, and processing (PA), rapid automatized naming (RAN), working memory (WM), word reading and reading comprehension; and (c) to determine the relationship (or interplay) between these cognitive and linguistic skills (mentioned above), and how they influence spelling development. Forty-four English, second language learners with APD were sampled from one primary school in the Free State province. The learners were randomly assigned to either an experimental (n=22) or control group (n=22). During the implementation of the spelling program, several visual, tactile and kinesthetic exercises, including the utilization of fingerspelling were introduced to support the experimental learners’ (N = 22) spelling development. Post-test results showed the efficacy of the multi-sensory spelling program, with the experimental group who were trained in utilising multi-sensory coding and fingerspelling outperforming learners from the control group on the cognitive-linguistic, spelling and reading measures. The results and efficacy of this multi-sensory spelling program and the utilisation of fingerspelling for hearing second language learners with APD open up innovative perspectives for the prevention and targeted remediation of spelling difficulties.

Keywords: English second language spellers, auditory processing delays, spelling difficulties, multi-sensory intervention program

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Authors: Juanita Morris

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The purpose of this study will examine the mediating relationships between the theories of intelligence, mathematics anxiety, gender stereotype threat, meta-cognition and math performance through the use of eye tracking technology, affecting student perception and problem-solving abilities. The participants will consist of (N=80) female graduate students. Test administered were the Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale, Tobii Eye Tracking software, gender stereotype threat through Google images, and they will be asked to describe their problem-solving approach allowed to measure metacognition. Participants will be administered mathematics problems while having gender stereotype threat shown to them through online images while being directed to look at the eye tracking software Tobii. We will explore this by asking ‘Is mathematics anxiety associated with the theories of intelligence and gender stereotype threat and how does metacognition and math performance place a role in mediating those perspectives?’. It is hypothesized that math-anxious students are more likely affected by the gender stereotype threat and that may play a role in their performance? Furthermore, we also want to explore whether math anxious students are more likely to be an entity theorist than incremental theorist and whether those who are math anxious will be more likely to be fixated on variables associated with coefficients? Path analysis and independent samples t-test will be used to generate results for this study. We hope to conclude that both the theories of intelligence and metacognition mediate the relationship between mathematics anxiety and gender stereotype threat.

Keywords: math anxiety, emotions, affective domains fo learning, cognitive underlinings

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Authors: A. Wolfe

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Dayo Forster’s impressively crafted Reading the Ceiling (2007) enjoys a relatively high profile among Western readers. It is one of only a handful of Gambian novels to be published by an international publisher, Simon and Schuster of London, and was subsequently shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writer’s Best First Book Prize in 2008. It is currently available to US readers in print and as an e-book and has 167 ratings on Goodreads. This paper addresses the possible influence of the book on Western readers’ perception of The Gambia, or Africa in general, through its depiction of the conditions of Gambian women’s lives. Through a close reading of passages and analysis of imagery, intertextuality, and characterization in the book, the paper demonstrates that Forster portrays the culture of The Gambia as oppressively patriarchal and the prospects for young girls who stay in the country as extremely limited. Reading the Ceiling starts on Ayodele’s 18th birthday, the day she has planned to have sex for the first time. Most of the rest of the book is divided into three parts, each following the chain of events that occur after sex with a potential partner. Although Ayodele goes abroad for her education in each of the three scenarios, she ultimately capitulates to the patriarchal politics and demands of marriage and childrearing in The Gambia, settling for relationships with men she does not love, cooking and cleaning for husbands and children, and silencing her own opinions and desires in exchange for the familiar traditions of patriarchal—and, in one case, polygamous—marriage. Each scenario ends with resignation to death, as, after her mother’s funeral, Ayodele admits to herself that she will be next. Forster uses dust and mud imagery throughout the novel to indicate the dinginess of Ayodele’s life as a young woman, and then wife and mother, in The Gambia as well as the inescapability of this life. This depiction of earthen material is also present in the novel’s recounting of an oral tale about a mermaid captured by fishermen, a story that mirrors Ayodele’s ensnarement by traditional marriage customs and gender norms. A review of the fate of other characters in the novel reveals that Ayodele is not the only woman who becomes trapped by the expectations for women in The Gambia, as those who stay in the country end up subservient to their husbands and/or victims of men’s habitual infidelity. It is important to note that Reading the Ceiling is focused on the experiences of a minority—The Gambia’s middle class, Christian urban dwellers with money for education. Regardless of its limited scope, the novel clearly depicts The Gambia as a place where women are simply unable to successfully contend against traditional patriarchal norms. Although this novel evokes vivid imagery of The Gambia through original and compelling descriptions of food preparation, clothing, and scenery, it perhaps does little to challenge stereotypical perceptions of the lives of African women among a Western readership.

Keywords: African literature, commonwealth literature, marriage, stereotypes, women

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Authors: Lene Granzau Juel-Jacobsen

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The problem of beautification is an obvious concern of photography, claiming reference to reality, but it also lies at the very heart of social theory. As we become accustomed to sophisticated visualizations of statistical data in pace with the development of software programs, we should not only be inclined to ask new types of research questions, but we also need to confront social theories based on such visualization techniques with new types of questions. Correspondence Analysis, GIS analysis, Social Network Analysis, and Perceptual Maps are current examples of visualization techniques popular within the social sciences and neighboring disciplines. This article discusses correspondence analysis, arguing that the graphic plot of correspondence analysis is to be interpreted much similarly to a photograph. It refers no more evidently or univocally to reality than a photograph, representing social life no more truthfully than a photograph documents. Pierre Bourdieu’s theoretical corpus, especially his theory of fields, relies heavily on correspondence analysis. While much attention has been directed towards critiquing the somewhat vague conceptualization of habitus, limited focus has been placed on the equally problematic concepts of social space and field. Based on a re-reading of the Distinction, the article argues that the concepts rely on ‘a small graphic lie’ very similar to a photograph. Like any other piece of art, as Bourdieu himself recognized, the graphic display is a politically and morally loaded representation technique. However, the correspondence analysis does not necessarily serve the purpose he intended. In fact, it tends towards the pitfalls he strove to overcome.

Keywords: datavisualization, correspondance analysis, bourdieu, Field, visual representation

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Authors: Andreia Osti

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The context experienced in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic substantially changed the way children communicate and the way literacy teaching was carried out. Officially, according to the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, children who should be literate were seriously impacted by the pandemic, and it was found that the number of illiterate children increased from 1.4 million, in 2019, to 2.4 million in 2021. In this context, this work presents partial results of an intervention project in which classroom monitoring of students in the literacy phase was carried out. Methodologically, pedagogical games were developed that work on specific reading and writing content, such as 1) games with direct regularities and; 2) Games with contextual regularities. The project involves the elaboration and production of games and their application by the classroom teacher. All work focused on literacy and improving understanding of grapheme and phoneme relationships among students, aiming to improve reading and writing comprehension levels. The project, still under development, is carried out in two schools and supports 60 students. The teachers participate in the research, as they apply the games produced at the university and monitor the children's learning process. The project is developed with financial support for research from FAPESP - in the public education improvement program – PROEDUCA. The initial results show that children are more involved in playful activities, that games provide better moments of interaction in the classroom and that they result in effective learning since they constitute a different way of approaching the content to be taught. It is noteworthy that the pedagogical games produced directly involve the teaching and learning processes of curricular components – in this case, reading and writing, which are basic components in elementary education and constitute teaching methodologies as specific and guided activities are planned in literacy methods. In this presentation, some of the materials developed will be shown, as well as the results of the assessments carried out with the students. In relation to the Sustainable Development objectives (SDGs) linked to this project, we have 4 – Quality Education, 10 – Reduction of inequalities. It is noteworthy that the research seeks to improve Public Education and promote the articulation between theory and practice in the educational context with a view to consolidating the tripod of teaching, research and university extension and promoting a humanized education.

Keywords: didactic, teaching, games, learning, literacy

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Authors: Rima Abu Jaber-Bransi, Rawya Jarjoura Burbara

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This study reveals the extension and continuity between the classical Arabic poetry and modern Arabic poetry through investigation of its ambiguity, symbolism, and antithetical relationships. The significance of this study lies in its exploration and discovering of a new method of reading classical and modern Arabic poetry. The study deals with the Fatimid poetry and discovers a new method to read it. It also deals with the relationship between the apparent and the hidden meanings of words through focusing on how the paradoxical antithetical relationships change the meaning of the whole poem and give it a different dimension through the use of Oxymorons. In our unprecedented research on Oxymoron, we found out that the words in modern Arabic poetry are used in unusual combinations that convey apparent and hidden meanings. In some cases, the poet introduces an image with a symbol of a certain thing, but the reader soon discovers that the symbol includes its opposite, too. The question is: How does the reader find that hidden harmony in that apparent disharmony? The first and most important conclusion of this study is that the Fatimid poetry was written for two types of readers: religious readers who know the religious symbols and the hidden secret meanings behind the words, and ordinary readers who understand the apparent literal meaning of the words. Consequently, the interpretation of the poem is subject to the type of reading. In Fatimid poetry we found out that the hunting-journey is a journey of hidden esoteric knowledge; the Horse is al-Naqib, a religious rank of the investigator and missionary; the Lion is Ali Ibn Abi Talib. The words black and white, day and night, bird, death and murder have different meanings and indications. Our study points out the importance of reading certain poems in certain periods in two different ways: the first depends on a doctrinal interpretation that transforms the external apparent (ẓāher) meanings into internal inner hidden esoteric (bāṭen) ones; the second depends on the interpretation of antithetical relationships between the words in order to reveal meanings that the poet hid for a reader who participates in the processes of creativity. The second conclusion is that the classical poem employed symbols, oxymora and antonymous and antithetical forms to create two poetic texts in one mold and form. We can conclude that this study is pioneering in showing the constant paradoxical relationship between the apparent and the hidden meanings in classical and modern Arabic poetry.

Keywords: apparent, symbol, hidden, antithetical, oxymoron, Sophism, Fatimid poetry

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Authors: Diego Roberto Goncalves De Pontes, Sergio Donizetti Zorzo

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Studies show that most users do not read privacy policies from the online services they use. Some authors claim that one of the main causes of this is that policies are long and usually hard to understand, which make users lose interest in reading them. In this scenario, users may agree with terms without knowing what kind of data is being collected and why. Given that, we aimed to develop a model that would present the privacy policies contents in an easy and graphical way for the user to understand. We call it the Privacy Label. Using information recovery techniques, we propose an architecture that is able to extract information about what kind of data is being collected and to what end in the policies and show it to the user in an automated way. To assess our model, we calculated the precision, recall and f-measure metrics on the information extracted by our technique. The results for each metric were 68.53%, 85.61% e 76,13%, respectively, making it possible for the final user to understand which data was being collected without reading the whole policy. Also, our proposal can facilitate the notice-and-choice by presenting privacy policy information in an alternative way for online users.

Keywords: privacy, policies, user behavior, computer human interaction

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Authors: Rose Mini Agoes Salim, Shahnaz Safitri

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The aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of teaching kindness in preschool children by using several techniques. Kindness is a physical act or emotional support aimed to build or maintain relationships with others. Kindness is known to be essential in the development of moral reasoning to distinguish between the good and bad things. In this study, kindness is operationalized as several acts including helping friends, comforting sad friends, inviting friends to play, protecting others, sharing, saying hello, saying thank you, encouraging others, and apologizing. It is mentioned that kindness is crucial to be developed in preschool children because this is the time the children begin to interact with their social environment through play. Furthermore, preschool children's cognitive development makes them begin to represent the world with words, which then allows them to interact with others. On the other hand, preschool children egocentric thinking makes them still need to learn to consider another person's perspective. In relation to social interaction, preschool children need to be stimulated and assisted by adult to be able to pay attention to other and act with kindness toward them. On teaching kindness to children, the quality of interaction between children and their significant others is the key factor. It is known that preschool children learn about kindness by imitating adults on their two way interaction. Specifically, this study examines two types of teaching techniques that can be done by parents as a way to teach kindness, namely the picture-storybook reading and hand-puppet storytelling. These techniques were examined because both activities are easy to do and both also provide a model of behavior for the child based on the character in the story. To specifically examine those techniques effectiveness in teaching kindness, two studies were conducted. Study I involves 31 children aged 5-6 years old with picture-storybook reading technique, where the intervention is done by reading 8 picture books for 8 days. In study II, hand-puppet storytelling technique is examined to 32 children aged 3-5 years old. The treatments effectiveness are measured using an instrument in the form of nine colored cards that describe the behavior of kindness. Data analysis using Wilcoxon Signed-rank test shows a significant difference on the average score of kindness (p < 0.05) before and after the intervention has been held. For daily observation, a ‘kindness tree’ and observation sheets are used which are filled out by the teacher. Two weeks after interventions, an improvement on all kindness behaviors measured is intact. The same result is also gained from both ‘kindness tree’ and observational sheets.

Keywords: kindness, moral teaching, storytelling, hand puppet

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Authors: Rehan Deshmukh, Sunil Bhand, Utpal Roy

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We report the label-free electrochemical detection of Escherichia coli O157:H7 (ATCC 43895) in potable water using a DNA probe as a sensing molecule targeting the open reading frame marker. Indium tin oxide (ITO) surface was modified with organosilane and, glutaraldehyde was applied as a linker to fabricate the DNA sensor chip. Non-Faradic electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) behavior was investigated at each step of sensor fabrication using cyclic voltammetry, impedance, phase, relative permittivity, capacitance, and admittance. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) revealed significant changes in surface topographies of DNA sensor chip fabrication. The decrease in the percentage of pinholes from 2.05 (Bare ITO) to 1.46 (after DNA hybridization) suggested the capacitive behavior of the DNA sensor chip. The results of non-Faradic EIS studies of DNA sensor chip showed a systematic declining trend of the capacitance as well as the relative permittivity upon DNA hybridization. DNA sensor chip exhibited linearity in 0.5 to 25 pg/10mL for E. coli O157:H7 (ATCC 43895). The limit of detection (LOD) at 95% confidence estimated by logistic regression was 0.1 pg DNA/10mL of E. coli O157:H7 (equivalent to 13.67 CFU/10mL) with a p-value of 0.0237. Moreover, the fabricated DNA sensor chip used for detection of E. coli O157:H7 showed no significant cross-reactivity with closely and distantly related bacteria such as Escherichia coli MTCC 3221, Escherichia coli O78:H11 MTCC 723 and Bacillus subtilis MTCC 736. Consequently, the results obtained in our study demonstrated the possible application of developed DNA sensor chips for E. coli O157:H7 ATCC 43895 in real water samples as well.

Keywords: capacitance, DNA sensor, Escherichia coli O157:H7, open reading frame marker

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Authors: Marwa A. Nasser

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This is an empirical study that provides an investigation of the most significant errors of Egyptian learners in producing English consonants and Arabic consonants, and advice on how these can be remedied. The study adopts a descriptive approach and the analysis is based on audio recordings of two groups of people. The first group includes six volunteers of Egyptian learners belonging to the English Department at Faculty of Women who learn English as a foreign language. The other group includes six Egyptian learners who are studying Tajweed (how to recite Quran correctly). The audio recordings were examined, and sounds were analyzed in an attempt to highlight the most common error done by the learners while reading English or reading (or reciting) Quran. Results show that the two groups of learners have problems with certain phonemic contrasts. Both groups share common errors although both languages are different and not related (e.g. pre-aspiration of fortis stops, incorrect articulation of consonants and velarization of certain sounds).

Keywords: consonant articulations, Egyptian learners of English, Egyptian learners of Quran, empirical study, error analysis, pronunciation problems

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Authors: Bahram Soltani, Louai Ghazieh

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Following the high profile financial scandals of 2007-2008, corporate management has been faced with strong pressures resulting from more regulatory requirements, as well as the increasing expectations of various groups of stakeholders. The responsibility acquired a big importance in front of this financial crisis. This responsibility requires more transparency and communication, inside the company with the collaborators and outside of the company with the society, while companies try to improve the degree of control and to authorize managers to realize the objectives of the company. The objective of this paper is to present the concept of the responsibility generally and the various types of manager’s responsibility in private individual within the company, as well as the explanatory theories of this responsibility through the various perspectives such as: economic, political, social and behavioral. This study should have academic and practical contributions particularly for regulators seeking to improve the companies’ practices and organizational functioning within capital market economy.

Keywords: manager, accountability, corporate performance, financial crisis, behavior

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Authors: Estelle Ardanouy, Helene Delage, Pascal Zesiger

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Morphological awareness contributes to the acquisition of reading and spelling in typical learners as well as in children with learning disorders. Indeed, the acquisition of phoneme-grapheme correspondences is not sufficient to master spelling, especially in inconsistent orthographic systems such as English or French. Several meta-analyses show the benefit of explicit training in derivational morphology on reading and spelling in old children (who have already learned the main grapheme-phoneme correspondences), but highlight the lack of studies with younger children, particularly in French. In this study, we chose to focus on the efficiency of an intensive training in derivational morphology on spelling skills in French-speaking four-graders (9-10 years of age). The training consisted of 1) learning how to divide words into morphemes (ex: para/pente in French, paraglider in English), as well as 2) working on the meaning of affixes in relation to existing words (ex: para/pente: to protect against – para - the slope -pente). One group of pupils (N = 37, M age = 9.5) received this experimental group training in morphology while an alternative training group (N = 34, M age = 9.6) received a visuo-semantic training based on visual cues to memorize the spelling difficulties of complex words (such as the doubling of “r” in “verre” in French -or "glass" in English-which are represented by the drawing of two glasses). Both trainings lasted a total of 15 hours at a rate of four 45 minutes sessions per week, resulting in five weeks of training in the school setting. Our preliminary results show a significant improvement in the experimental group in the spelling of affixes on the trained (p < 0.001) and untrained word lists (p <0.001), but also in the root of words on the trained (p <0.001) and untrained word lists group (p <0.001). The training effect is also present on both trained and untrained morphologically composed words. By contrast, the alternative training group shows no progress on these previous measures (p >0.15). Further analyses testing the effects of both trainings on other measures such as morphological awareness and reading of morphologically compose words are in progress. These first results support the effectiveness of explicitly teaching derivational morphology to improve spelling in school-aged children. The study is currently extended to a group of children with developmental dyslexia because these children are known for their severe and persistent spelling difficulties.

Keywords: developmental dyslexia, derivational morphology, reading, school-aged children, spelling, training

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Authors: Ekaterina Lukianchenko

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This article sums up a six-year experience of teaching English as a foreign language to over 900 university students at MGIMO (Moscow University of International Relations, Russia), all of them native speakers of Russian aged 16 to 23. By combining modern communicative approach to teaching with cognitive linguistics theories, one can deal more effectively with deeply rooted mistakes which particular students have of which conventional methods have failed to eliminate. If language items are understood as concepts and frames, and classroom activities as meaningful parts of language competence development, this might help to solve such problems as incorrect use of words, unsuitable register, and confused tenses - as well as logical or structural mistakes, and even certain psychological issues concerning essay writing. Along with classic teaching methods, such classroom practice includes plenty of interaction between students - playing special classroom games aimed at eliminating particular mistakes, working in pairs and groups, integrating all skills in one class. The main conclusions that the author of the experiment makes consist in an assumption that academic essay writing classes demand a balanced plan. This should not only include writing as such, but additionally feature elements of listening, reading, speaking activities specifically chosen according to the skills and language students will need to write the particular type of essay.

Keywords: academic essay writing, creative teaching, cognitive linguistics, competency-based approach, communicative language teaching, frame, concept

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Authors: Nada Alghali

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Translanguaging pedagogy suggests a new perspective in language education relating to multilingualism; multilingual learners have one linguistic repertoire and not two or more separate language systems (García and Wei, 2014). When learners translanguage, they are able to draw on all their language features in a flexible and integrated way (Otheguy, García, & Reid, 2015). In the Foreign Language Classroom, however, the tendency to use the target language only is still advocated as a pedagogy. This study attempts to enable learners in the English as a foreign language classroom to draw on their full linguistic repertoire through collaborative reading lessons. In observations prior to this study, in a classroom where English only policy prevails, learners still used their first language in group discussions yet were constrained at times by the teacher’s language policies. Through strategically enabling translanguaging in reading lessons (Celic and Seltzer, 2011), this study has revealed that learners showed creative ways of language use for learning and reflected positively on thisexperience. This case study enabled two groups in two different proficiency level classrooms who are learning English as a foreign language in their first year at University in Saudi Arabia. Learners in the two groups wereobserved over six weeks and wereasked to reflect their learning every week. The same learners were also interviewed at the end of translanguaging weeks after completing a modified model of the learning reflection (Ash and Clayton, 2009). This study positions translanguaging as collaborative and agentive within a sociocultural framework of learning, positioning translanguaging as a resource for learning as well as a process of learning. Translanguaging learning episodes are elicited from classroom observations, artefacts, interviews, reflections, and focus groups, where they are analysed qualitatively following the sociocultural discourse analysis (Fairclough &Wodak, 1997; Mercer, 2004). Initial outcomes suggest functions of translanguaging in collaborative reading tasks and recommendations for a collaborative translanguaging pedagogy approach in the EFL classroom.

Keywords: translanguaging, EFL, sociocultural theory, discourse analysis

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Authors: Amol Parikh

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The goal of this study is to understand the most preferred ways to spend time at an airport while waiting for a flight to board. Survey was done on 1639 people of the United States of America. In the overall data, it was found that majority people always preferred spending time doing something in their mobile phone. Second most preferred option was reading something, followed by wanting a companion to talk to or to eat/drink. Least preferred option was to eat/drink alone. Overall data was then filtered based on age, gender, income and urban density groups. Percentage of people wanting to use a mobile phone was highest in the age group of 18-24. People aged 45 and above chose reading as the most preferred option. In any of the ranges of income, gender or urban density using mobile phone was the most preferred option. Conclusion of this study is that introducing a mobile app to search for a companion at an airport to do like minded activity would get noticed by majority travelers and would be a business idea worth trying as wanting a companion to talk or eat/drink with is not the least preferred option.

Keywords: waiting for a flight, airport, mobile phone, companion

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Authors: Najib Khumaidillah

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A conversation needs skills to create the good flow of it. The skills also need to be paid attention by a host like Oprah Winfrey and Justin Bieber as an artist. This study is aimed at describing turn taking strategies and adjacency pairs used by the speakers. The data are from one segment of The Oprah Winfrey Show’s transcription with Justin Bieber. Those are analyzed by Stenstorm’s turn taking theories and adjacency pairs theories. From the analysis, it was found that both speakers use various turn taking strategies and adjacency pairs. These findings are hoped to be an example for non-native English speaker in doing English conversation and advance people’s comprehension of how to organize good conversation structure.

Keywords: adjacency pairs, conversation structure, the Oprah Winfrey show, turn taking

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Authors: Helnaz Soltani, J. N. Reddy

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Presence of fluid medium interacting with a structure can lead to failure of the structure. Since developing efficient computational model for fluid-structure interaction (FSI) problems has broader impact to realistic problems encountered in aerospace industry, ship industry, oil and gas industry, and so on, one can find an increasing need to find a method in order to investigate the effect of fluid domain on structural response. A coupled finite element formulation of problems involving FSI issue is an accurate method to predict the response of structures in contact with a fluid medium. This study proposes a finite element approach in order to study the transient response of the structures interacting with a fluid medium. Since beam and plate are considered to be the fundamental elements of almost any structure, the developed method is applied to beams and plates benchmark problems in order to demonstrate its efficiency. The formulation is a combination of the various structure theories and the solid-fluid interface boundary condition, which is used to represent the interaction between the solid and fluid regimes. Here, three different beam theories as well as three different plate theories are considered to model the solid medium, and the Navier-Stokes equation is used as the theoretical equation governed the fluid domain. For each theory, a coupled set of equations is derived where the element matrices of both regimes are calculated by Gaussian quadrature integration. The main feature of the proposed methodology is to model the fluid domain as an added mass; the external distributed force due to the presence of the fluid. We validate the accuracy of such formulation by means of some numerical examples. Since the formulation presented in this study covers several theories in literature, the applicability of our proposed approach is independent of any structure geometry. The effect of varying parameters such as structure thickness ratio, fluid density and immersion depth, are studied using numerical simulations. The results indicate that maximum vertical deflection of the structure is affected considerably in the presence of a fluid medium.

Keywords: beam and plate, finite element analysis, fluid-structure interaction, transient response

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Authors: Mohammad Haghighi, Amineh Akhondi, Leila Jahangard, Mohammad Ahmadpanah, Masoud Ansari

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Background: According to the recent estimation, approximately 4%-12% percent of Iranians have difficulty in learning to read and spell possibly as a result of developmental dyslexia. The study was planned to investigate spelling error patterns among Persian children with developmental dyslexia and compare that with the errors exhibited by control groups Participants: 90 students participated in this study. 30 students from Grade level five, diagnosed as dyslexics by professionals, 30 normal 5th Grade readers and 30 younger normal readers. There were 15 boys and 15 girls in each of the groups. Qualitative and quantitative methods for analysis of errors were used. Results and conclusion: results of this study indicate similar spelling error profiles among dyslexics and the reading level matched groups, and these profiles were different from age-matched group. However, performances of dyslexic group and reading level matched group were different and inconsistent in some cases.

Keywords: spelling, error types, developmental dyslexia, Persian, writing system, learning disabilities, processing

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Authors: So-Jung Kim, Kyoung-Seok Kim, Yeong-Gyeong Choi

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Although there are many theories and discussion of leadership, the necessity of having a new leadership paradigm was emphasized. The existing leadership characteristic of instruction and control revealed its limitations. Market competition becomes fierce and economic recession never ends worldwide. Of the leadership theories, servant leadership was introduced recently and is in line with the environmental changes of the organization. Servant leadership is a combination of two words, 'servant' and 'leader' and can be defined as the role of the leader who focuses on doing voluntary work for others with altruistic ethics, makes members, customers, and local communities a priority, and makes a commitment to satisfying their needs. This leadership received attention as one field of leadership in the late 1990s and secured its legitimacy. This study discusses the existing research trends of leadership, the concept, behavior characteristics, and lower dimensions of servant leadership, compares servant leadership with the existing leadership researches and diagnoses if servant leadership is a useful concept for further leadership researches. Finally, this study criticizes the limitations in the existing researches on servant leadership.

Keywords: leadership philosophy, leadership theory, servant leadership, traditional leadership

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Authors: Hamed Khani Arani, Mohammad Shariyat, Armaghan Mohammadian

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In the present study, the free vibration of magnetostrictive nano-plate (MsNP) resting on the Pasternak foundation is investigated. Firstly, the modified couple stress (MCS) and nonlocal elasticity theories are compared together and taken into account to consider the small scale effects; in this paper not only two theories are analyzed but also it improves the MCS theory is more accurate than nonlocal elasticity theory in such problems. A feedback control system is utilized to investigate the effects of a magnetic field. First-order shear deformation theory (FSDT), Hamilton’s principle and energy method are utilized in order to drive the equations of motion and these equations are solved by differential quadrature method (DQM) for simply supported boundary conditions. The MsNP undergoes in-plane forces in x and y directions. In this regard, the dimensionless frequency is plotted to study the effects of small scale parameter, magnetic field, aspect ratio, thickness ratio and compression and tension loads. Results indicate that these parameters play a key role on the natural frequency. According to the above results, MsNP can be used in the communications equipment, smart control vibration of nanostructure especially in sensor and actuators such as wireless linear micro motor and smart nano valves in injectors.

Keywords: feedback control system, magnetostrictive nano-plate, modified couple stress theory, nonlocal elasticity theory, vibration analysis

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Authors: Mariana T. Teixeira, Joana P. Luz

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This paper is based on assumptions of psycholinguistics and investigates the processing of ambiguous sentences in Brazilian Portuguese. Specifically, it aims to verify if there is a difference in processing time between sentences with lexical ambiguity and sentences with structural (or syntactic) ambiguity. We hypothesize, based on the Garden Path Theory, that the two types of ambiguity entail different cognitive efforts, since sentences with structural ambiguity require that two structures be processed, whereas ambiguous phrases whose root of ambiguity is in a word require the processing of a single structure, which admits a variation of punctual meaning, within the scope of only one lexical item. In order to test this hypothesis, 25 undergraduate students, whose average age was 27.66 years, native speakers of Brazilian Portuguese, performed a self-monitoring reading task of ambiguous sentences, which had lexical and structural ambiguity. The results suggest that unambiguous sentence processing is faster than ambiguous sentence processing, whether it has lexical or structural ambiguity. In addition, participants presented a mean reading time greater for sentences with syntactic ambiguity than for sentences with lexical ambiguity, evidencing a greater cognitive effort in sentence processing with structural ambiguity.

Keywords: Brazilian portuguese, lexical ambiguity, sentence processing, syntactic ambiguity

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Authors: Piyawan Sunasuan, Thiranan Pansuppawat, Mananya Manaratchasak, Maream Nillapun

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This research aims to guide the development of the intensive English program for graduate students. The objectives are 1) to study the English skills in which needed for the graduate students and 2) to study the potential of the current course with the expected proficiency level. The samples are 46 graduate students enrolled in the ENG 102 and ENG 103 courses of the school year of 2019/2020 in semester one from the Silpakorn University, Sanamchandra Palace Campus, and two teachers. The researchers use 1) student survey, 2) teacher interview, and 3) focus group discussion among selected students. The data is analyzed by calculating the mean (x̅), the standard deviation, and document analysis. The findings show that nine skills are in the need of the course development; 1) academic writing 2) occupational purpose writing 3) communicative reading 4) occupational purpose reading 5) academic speaking 6) occupational purpose speaking 7) occupational purpose listening 8) academic listening and 9) communicative listening. The current course does not meet the expectation on a high level but has potential.

Keywords: English for academic purposes, English for communication, English for occupational purposes, intensive English

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Authors: Jianhua Wang, Ying Zhou, Han Guo

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Translation underwent culture turn for more than half a century, which brought translation and its studies beyond intra-texts. Different cultures in recent years have developed towards a translation turn, which made a great contribution to relocate national or local cultures being localized to become regional or global cultures. As China grows quickly economically integrating into the world, it becomes urgent to relate China’s story and disseminate the Chinese culture. Due to the weaknesses and drawbacks of different existing cultural translation theories for Chinese culture to go out, a new perspective on translation turn for the go-out of Chinese culture should be drawn to spread better and disseminate Chinese culture to other countries. Based on the existing cultural translation theories, the equivalence of ideology, style of the translator and agency of the support are proposed to draw a new perspective: an innovative poly-system theory for Chinese culture translation.

Keywords: cultural translation theory, Chinese culture, innovative poly system, global cultures

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Authors: Ine Huybrechts, Anja Declercq, Emily Verté, Peter Raeymaeckers, Sibyl Anthierens

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Goal-oriented care is a concept gaining increased interest as an approach to go towards more coordinated and integrated primary care. It places patients’ personal life goals at the core of health care support, hereby shifting the focus from “what’s the matter with this patient” to “what matters to this patient.” In Flanders/Belgium, various primary care providers, health and social care organizations and governmental bodies have picked up this concept and have initiated actions to facilitate this approach. The implementation of goal-oriented care not only happens on the micro-level, but it also requires efforts on the meso- and macro-level. Within implementation research, there is a growing recognition that the context in which an intervention takes place strongly relates to its implementation outcomes. However, when investigating contextual variables, the external context and its impact on implementation processes is often overlooked. This study aims to explore how we can better identify and understand the external context and how it relates to the mechanism of change within the implementation process of goal-oriented care in Flanders/Belgium. Results can be used to support and guide initiatives to introduce innovative approaches such as goal-oriented care inside an organization or in the broader primary care landscape. We have conducted qualitative research, performing in-depth interviews with n=23 respondents who have affinity with the implementation of goal-oriented care within their professional function. This lead to in-depth insights from a wide range of actors, with meso-level and/or macro-level perspectives on the implementation of goal-oriented care. This means that we have interviewed actors that are not only involved with initiatives to implement goal-oriented care, but also actors that actively give form to the external context in which goal-oriented care is implemented. Data were collected using a semi-structured interview guide, audio recorded, and analyzed first inductively and then deductively using various theories and concepts that derive from organizational research. Our preliminary findings suggest t Our findings can contribute to further define actions needed for sustainable implementation of goal-oriented primary care. It gives insights in the dynamics between contextual variables and implementation efforts, hereby indicating towards those contextual variables that can be further shaped to facilitate the implementation of an innovation such as goal-oriented care. hat organizational theories can help understand the mechanism of change of implementation processes with a macro-level perspective. Institutional theories, contingency theories, resources dependency theories and others can expose the mechanism of change for an innovation such as goal-oriented care. Our findings can contribute to further define actions needed for sustainable implementation of goal-oriented primary care. It gives insights in the dynamics between contextual variables and implementation efforts, hereby indicating towards those contextual variables that can be further shaped to facilitate the implementation of an innovation such as goal-oriented care.

Keywords: goal-oriented care, implementation processes, organizational theories, person-centered care, implementation research

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Authors: Freddy Munzhelele

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Setting: the empirical research has shown that the life cycle theory has an impact on the firms’ financing decisions, particularly the dividend pay-outs. Accordingly, the life cycle theory posits that as a firm matures, it gets to a level and capacity where it distributes more cash as dividends. On the other hand, the young firms prioritise investment opportunities sets and their financing; thus, they pay little or no dividends. The research on firms’ financing decisions also demonstrated, among others, the adoption of trade-off and pecking order theories on the dynamics of firms capital structure. The trade-off theory talks to firms holding a favourable position regarding debt structures particularly as to the cost and benefits thereof; and pecking order is concerned with firms preferring a hierarchical order as to choosing financing sources. The case of life cycle hypothesis explaining the financial managers’ decisions as regards the firms’ capital structure dynamics appears to be an interesting link, yet this link has been neglected in corporate finance research. If this link is to be explored as an empirical research, the financial decision-making alternatives will be enhanced immensely, since no conclusive evidence has been found yet as to the dynamics of capital structure. Aim: the aim of this study is to examine the impact of life cycle theory on the capital structure dynamics trade-off and pecking order theories of firms listed in retail, industrial and mining sectors of the JSE. These sectors are among the key contributors to the GDP in the South African economy. Design and methodology: following the postpositivist research paradigm, the study is quantitative in nature and utilises secondary data obtainable from the financial statements of sampled firm for the period 2010 – 2022. The firms’ financial statements will be extracted from the IRESS database. Since the data will be in panel form, a combination of the static and dynamic panel data estimators will used to analyse data. The overall data analyses will be done using STATA program. Value add: this study directly investigates the link between the life cycle theory and the dynamics of capital structure decisions, particularly the trade-off and pecking order theories.

Keywords: life cycle theory, trade-off theory, pecking order theory, capital structure, JSE listed firms

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Authors: Talar Agopian

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Teaching English as a Second Language (ESL) is a common practice in many Lebanese schools. However, ESL teaching is done in traditional ways. Methods such as constructivism are seldom used, especially in villages. Here lies the significance of this research which joins constructivism and Piaget’s theory of cognitive development in ESL classes in Lebanese villages. The purpose of the present study is to explore the effects of applying constructivist student-centered strategies in teaching grammar, reading comprehension, and poetry on students in elementary ESL classes in two villages in Lebanon, Zefta in South Lebanon and Boqaata in Mount Lebanon. 20 English teachers participated in a training titled “Teaching English with Fun”, which focused on strategies that create a student-centered class where active learning takes place and there is increased learner engagement and autonomy. The training covered three main areas in teaching English: grammar, reading comprehension, and poetry. After participating in the training, the teachers applied the new strategies and methods in their ESL classes. The methodology comprised two phases: in phase one, practice-based research was conducted as the teachers attended the training and applied the constructivist strategies in their respective ESL classes. Phase two included the reflections of the teachers on the effects of the application of constructivist strategies. The results revealed the educational benefits of constructivist student-centered strategies; the students of teachers who applied these strategies showed improved engagement, positive attitudes towards poetry, increased motivation, and a better sense of autonomy. Future research is required in applying constructivist methods in the areas of writing, spelling, and vocabulary in ESL classrooms of Lebanese villages.

Keywords: active learning, constructivism, learner engagement, student-centered strategies

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Authors: Bairam Khan, Premlata Vaishnava

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The ability to conceptualize one entity in terms of another allows us to communicate through metaphors. This central feature of human cognition has evolved with the development of language, and the processing of metaphors is without any conscious appraisal and is quite effortless. South Asians, like other speech communities, have been using the kitchenary [culinary] metaphor in a very simple yet interesting way and are known for bringing into new and unique constellations wherever they are. This composite feature of our language is used to communicate in a precise and compact manner and maneuvers the expression. The present study explores the role of kitchenary metaphors in the making and shaping of idioms by applying Cognitive Metaphor Theories. Drawing on examples from a corpus of adverts, print, and electronic media, the study looks at the metaphorical language used by real people in real situations. The overarching theme throughout the course is that kitchenary metaphors are powerful tools of expression in Hindi-Urdu.

Keywords: cognitive metaphor theories, kitchenary metaphors, hindi-urdu print, and electronic media, grammatical structure of kitchenary metaphors of hindi-urdu

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Authors: Alexander Zibenberg, Rima’a Da’As

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According to the author’s knowledge, individuals are naturally inclined to classify people as leaders and followers. Individuals utilize cognitive structures or prototypes specifying the traits and abilities that characterize the effective leader (implicit leadership theories) and effective follower in an organization (implicit followership theories). Thus, the present study offers insights into understanding how teachers' personal values (self-enhancement and self-transcendence) explain the preference for styles of effective leader (i.e., principal) and assumptions about the traits and behaviors that characterize effective followers (i.e., student). Beyond the direct effect on perceptions of effective types of leader and follower, the present study argues that values may also interact with organizational and personal contexts in influencing perceptions. Thus authors suggest that teachers' managerial position may moderate the relationships between personal values and perception of the effective leader and follower. Specifically, two key questions are addressed in the present research: (1) Is there a relationship between personal values and perceptions of the effective leader and effective follower? and (2) Are these relationships stable or could they change across different contexts? Two hundred fifty-five Israeli teachers participated in this study, completing questionnaires – about the effective student and effective principal. Results of structural equations modeling (SEM) with maximum likelihood estimation showed: first: the model fit the data well. Second: researchers found a positive relationship between self-enhancement and anti-prototype of the effective principal and anti-prototype of the effective student. The relationship between self-transcendence value and both perceptions were found significant as well. Self-transcendence positively related to the way the teacher perceives the prototype of the effective principal and effective student. Besides, authors found that teachers' managerial position moderates these relationships. The article contributes to the literature both on perceptions and on personal values. Although several earlier studies explored issues of implicit leadership theories and implicit followership theories, personality characteristics (values) have garnered less attention in this matter. This study shows that personal values which are deeply rooted, abstract motivations that guide justify or explain attitudes, norms, opinions and actions explain differences in perception of the effective leader and follower. The results advance the theoretical understanding of the relationship between personal values and individuals’ perceptions in organizations. An additional contribution of this study is the application of the teacher's managerial position to explain a potential boundary condition of the translation of personal values into outcomes. The findings suggest that through the management process in the organization, teachers acquire knowledge and skills which augment their ability (beyond their personal values) to predict perceptions of ideal types of principal and student. The study elucidates the unique role of personal values in understanding an organizational thinking in organization. It seems that personal values might explain the differences in individual preferences of the organizational paradigm (mechanistic vs organic).

Keywords: implicit leadership theories, implicit followership theories, organizational paradigms, personal values

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Authors: Mais Haj Qasem, Maen M. Al Assaf, Ali Rodan

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Parallel hybrid storage systems consist of a hierarchy of different storage devices that vary in terms of data reading speed performance. As we ascend in the hierarchy, data reading speed becomes faster. Thus, migrating the application’ important data that will be accessed in the near future to the uppermost level will reduce the application I/O waiting time; hence, reducing its execution elapsed time. In this research, we implement trace-driven two-levels parallel hybrid storage system prototype that consists of HDDs and SSDs. The prototype uses data mining techniques to classify application’ data in order to determine its near future data accesses in parallel with the its on-demand request. The important data (i.e. the data that the application will access in the near future) are continuously migrated to the uppermost level of the hierarchy. Our simulation results show that our data migration approach integrated with data mining techniques reduces the application execution elapsed time when using variety of traces in at least to 22%.

Keywords: hybrid storage system, data mining, recurrent neural network, support vector machine

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Authors: Binger Lu

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It remains unclear whether second language (L2) speakers could use discourse context cues to predict upcoming information as native speakers do during online comprehension. Some researchers propose that L2 learners may have a reduced ability to generate predictions during discourse processing. At the same time, there is evidence that discourse-level cues are weighed more heavily in L2 processing than in L1. Previous studies showed that L1 prediction is sensitive to the global validity of predictive cues. The current study aims to explore whether and to what extent L2 learners can dynamically and strategically adjust their prediction in accord with the global validity of predictive cues in L2 discourse comprehension as native speakers do. In a self-paced reading experiment, Chinese native speakers (N=128), C-E bilinguals (N=128), and English native speakers (N=128) read high-predictable (e.g., Jimmy felt thirsty after running. He wanted to get some water from the refrigerator.) and low-predictable (e.g., Jimmy felt sick this morning. He wanted to get some water from the refrigerator.) discourses in two-sentence frames. The global validity of predictive cues was manipulated by varying the ratio of predictable (e.g., Bill stood at the door. He opened it with the key.) and unpredictable fillers (e.g., Bill stood at the door. He opened it with the card.), such that across conditions, the predictability of the final word of the fillers ranged from 100% to 0%. The dependent variable was reading time on the critical region (the target word and the following word), analyzed with linear mixed-effects models in R. C-E bilinguals showed reliable prediction across all validity conditions (β = -35.6 ms, SE = 7.74, t = -4.601, p< .001), and Chinese native speakers showed significant effect (β = -93.5 ms, SE = 7.82, t = -11.956, p< .001) in two of the four validity conditions (namely, the High-validity and MedLow conditions, where fillers ended with predictable words in 100% and 25% cases respectively), whereas English native speakers didn’t predict at all (β = -2.78 ms, SE = 7.60, t = -.365, p = .715). There was neither main effect (χ^²(3) = .256, p = .968) nor interaction (Predictability: Background: Validity, χ^²(3) = 1.229, p = .746; Predictability: Validity, χ^²(3) = 2.520, p = .472; Background: Validity, χ^²(3) = 1.281, p = .734) of Validity with speaker groups. The results suggest that prediction occurs in L2 discourse processing but to a much less extent in L1, witha significant effect in some conditions of L1 Chinese and anull effect in L1 English processing, consistent with the view that L2 speakers are more sensitive to discourse cues compared with L1 speakers. Additionally, the pattern of L1 and L2 predictive processing was not affected by the global validity of predictive cues. C-E bilinguals’ predictive processing could be partly transferred from their L1, as prior research showed that discourse information played a more significant role in L1 Chinese processing.

Keywords: bilingualism, discourse processing, global validity, prediction, self-paced reading

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