1,720,954 research outputs found
Teachers’ preparedness to teach reading comprehension in english language among grade four learners in selected primary schools in Chongwe district, Zambia.
Get PDFThesis of Master of Education in Literacy, Language and Applied Linguistics.This study explored teacher’s preparedness to teach reading comprehension in English language to Grade four learners in selected primary schools of Chongwe district, Zambia. The research objectives were; to assess teachers’ knowledge of reading comprehension, ascertain primary school teachers of Chongwe district’s preparedness to teach reading comprehension and to establish the challenges primary school teachers of Chongwe district face when teaching reading comprehension. The study was situated within the constructivist paradigm and a descriptive research design was used. The research used qualitative methods of data collection. The study engaged a sample size of 21 participants, comprising 20 teachers and 1 senior education standard officer who were purposively selected from four primary schools. The data collected through focus group discussions and lesson observation was coded and the emerging themes were analysed. The findings showed that the teachers generally had knowledge of reading comprehension but did not teach in ways it ought to be taught. There was no correlation between what was confidently stated in the focus group discussion and what was observed in the classroom situation. Findings further revealed that teachers were generally ill-prepared to teach reading comprehension as evident from the lessons observed. Most of the teachers were not aware of the strategies in the teaching of reading comprehension and did not even apply them during their teaching. It was also revealed that teachers faced challenges when teaching reading comprehension. Some of the challenges highlighted included absenteeism, lack of parental involvement, lack of teaching and learning material and late coming. The study among other recommendations recommends regular monitoring of teachers by standards to help them teach according to standards. The study also recommends holding of continuous professional development programmes by teachers to remind themselves of new trends in teaching.
Key Words: Reading, Reading Comprehension, Reading strategies, Preparedness, Background knowledg
The syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics of conditional clauses in Tonga and English: A comparative analysis
Get PDFThis study comparatively analyses the syntax, semantics and pragmatic functions of conditional clauses in Tonga and English. It also establishes whether there are differences and similarities in the syntax, semantics and pragmatic functions of conditional clauses of both languages. The analysis done in this dissertation is on the (4) types of conditional sentences in the languages under study. The study analysed both secondary and primary data upon which it based its conclusions. In the analysis, the study has used the Speech Act Theory and the Cognitive Linguistic Approach. Analyses have shown that there are some similarities and differences in the syntax of conditionals in the two languages under study. However, similarities also do exist in the syntax, semantics and pragmatic functions of the conditionals. Just as English has several conditional markers including if, (which the study focused on). The study has shown that Tonga has several conditional markers (such as: kuti, naa, wa, noo, ni, ba, twa) equivalent to the English If. Other differences include the use of (in Tonga conditionals as opposed to English counterparts) a whole sentence represented either by subject and verb or by a verb plus an enclitic.
It is evident from the findings that conditional clauses account largely for tools mostly used in conversation in both Tonga and English, in oral and written discourse, though the written discourse is not discussed here. When used in conversation, initialised if-clauses can be used to give directives, speak humorously and sarcastically and offer apologies, commands, advice and instructions (Celce-Murcia & Larsen Freeman, 1999). The study has also shown that, as opposed to Tonga speakers, English speakers, in certain instances prefer to introduce strong arguments (e.g. I will visit you soon if I buy a car) and indeed interesting topics in the main clause, which necessitate final position for the subordinate conditional clause as well as those that are long and involved. The analysis has in addition shown factors that determine the position of the if-clause. Such factors as Topic continuity, parallelism and qualification apart from the principle of end-focus have been seen as determining the position of the if-clause.
Under the semantic analysis, it has been learnt that in the Tonga Zero conditional, there is the prominence of when than the kuti (if). As for the second conditional, the expression in the main clause refers much to the present than the future. Interpretations of conditionals in this paper are based on a number of form meaning correlations such as their verb forms and compatibility between the protasis and the apodosis.
The analysis of conditionals in this study is in line with (Maye’s 1994), and has shown, that conditionals help us explore the relationship between language and the human mind. In this case, conditionals are seen as reflecting the psychological thoughts and the state of speaker (sorrow, regret). These aspects are shown in the use of predictive and future temporal conditionals by both Tonga and English speakers.
The study on the whole has contrasted conditional clauses in Tonga and English at syntactic, semantic and pragmatic levels. The study recommends further studies on conducting a comparative analysis of the Tonga conditionals and other Zambian or Bantu languages
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
koamabayili/VECTRON-author-checklist: VECTRON author checklist
No full textWe have done our best to complete the author checklist relating to the use of animals in the hut study. Note that the objective for the hut study was to evaluate the IRS treatment applications for residual efficacy against Anopheles mosquitoes, including the local An. coluzzii mosquito population. Cows were only used to attract mosquitoes into the huts and no tests were carried out directly on the cows. The author checklist is intended for use with studies where experiments are carried out on animals, which is why we have had such difficulty in completing this for the hut study, as many of the questions do not relate to how the cows were used
Author-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.
No full textAuthor-wise bibliometric analysis based on entropy.</p
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