Video-Based Reflection and Peer Coaching in Enhancing TEFL Student-Teachers' Teaching Practices of Receptive Skills

This study examines the effect of selfie video reflection, model lesson video reflection, and peer-coaching relating to model lesson videos and selfie videos on TEFL student-teachers' receptive skills teaching practices. An observation checklist of (11) teaching practices was used by the participants during reflection. Four groups of (6) participants carried out two practice teaching days each week for three months and met with the researcher monthly. The first group recorded their lessons and reflected on them. The second watched model lesson videos and reflected on the teacher's performance. The third watched videos of model lessons, reflecting on them with peers, as well as recording their practice teaching and reflecting on their performance with peers. The fourth received only educational supervisors' and mentor teachers' feedback. The results reveal that the use of peer coaching with the model lesson and self-recorded videos enhances teaching practices relating to receptive skills

TEFL PROFESSORS' E-LEARNING EXPERIENCES DURING THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC

This study aimed at revealing teaching English as a foreign language (TEFL) professors' eLearning experiences during the Covid 19 pandemic in the Gaza Strip higher education institutions. For this end, the researcher designed a (20) open-ended questions questionnaires to be completed by (32) TEFL professors in (8) Palestinian higher education institutions. Results showed that TEFL professors need training to develop their skills in designing, developing and drawing action plan for TEFL e-courses that achieve the objectives of foreign language teaching\ learning. Palestinian TEFL professors spent (4- 7) hours daily preparing, meeting, guiding, helping and facilitating learning by using different eLearning programs and network social media such as Moodle, Google classroom, Zoom, WhatsApp and Facebook. They adopted different teaching methods as well as different types of evaluation and following up in order to measure the objectives achievement; however, they neglected developing thinking and real life skills. The most challenges for both TEFL professors and learners were insufficient knowledge about eLearning and technical problems. TEFL professors action plan was focused on reducing the number of activities and drawing clear procedures with all the needed tools and activities for each objective in the course. Based on the findings, the researcher recommends that higher education institutions should provide training courses in the field of eLearning for both learners and professors, prepare a guide for designing and developing e-courses and provide professional technicians for maintenance of equipment and should regularly fix various technical malfunctions.  Article visualizations

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TRANSLATED ENGLISH VIDEOS INTO ARABIC ON ENHANCING AL-AZHAR UNIVERSITY (AUG) ENGLISH MAJORS' LISTENING COMPREHENSION SKILLS

This study investigated the effectiveness of translated English videos into Arabic on enhancing Al-Azhar University-Gaza (AUG) English majors' listening comprehension skills. To achieve the aim of the study, the researchers adopted a quasi-experimental research design which focused on enhancing three main listening skills: getting the main idea, getting details and note taking skills by using translated English videos into Arabic. Twenty female English majors who were enrolled in a listening course during the first semester of the academic year 2016/2017 were the one group sample of the study. They attended the ten classes of the experiment and did a pre and post listening comprehension test. To analyze the data which the tool of the study provided, the researchers used Wilcoxon Test to compare the participants’ performance in the listening comprehension pre and posttests and Eta Square to measure the effect size of the study strategy. By the end of the semester, the sample of the study completed a listening comprehension test which consisted of (20) questions focused on getting the main idea, getting details and note taking skills. Results revealed that translated English videos into Arabic have a large effect on enhancing AUG English majors' listening comprehension skills.  Article visualizations

Cold dark matter in brane cosmology scenario

We analyze the dark matter problem in the context of brane cosmology. We investigate the impact of the non-conventional brane cosmology on the relic abundance of non-relativistic stable particles in high and low reheating scenarios. We show that in case of high reheating temperature, the brane cosmology may enhance the dark matter relic density by many order of magnitudes and a stringent lower bound on the five dimensional scale is obtained. We also consider low reheating temperature scenarios with chemical equilibrium and non-equilibrium. We emphasize that in non-equilibrium case, the resulting relic density is very small. While with equilibrium, it is increased by a factor of O(10^2) with respect to the standard thermal production. Therefore, dark matter particles with large cross section, which is favored by detection expirements, can be consistent with the recent relic density observational limits.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Effect of a calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus (FK506) treatment on meiotic chromosomes in testes, epididymal spermatozoa and fertility in Swiss Albino male mice

Tacrolimus hydrate (FK506), isolated from Streptomyces tsukubaensis, is an immensely used immunosuppressive agent. It was evaluated for its effects on meiotic chromosomes in testes, epididymal spermatozoa and fertility in male mice. The study under different parameters constituted sub acute (seven days) administration (gavage) of FK506 at doses of 4, 8 and 16 mg/kg/day body weight. The results obtained in present study revealed that, FK506 significantly induced spermatozoa abnormalities, loweredfertility and increased embryonic loss. The observed changes related to spermatogenic dysfunction reflected statistically significant increased aberrations in the meiotic chromosomes. These aberrations seemed to be induced by the inhibitory effect of the drug on the signal transduction pathways in the cells and interference in the transcription processes and proliferation of cells. Further studies are warranted to evaluate the safe dose and duration of therapy to determine the exact mode of action of FK506 induced germ cell toxicity.Key words: Tacrolimus (FK506), sperm quality, germ cell toxicity, embryonic loss

INTEGRATION OF ICT IN EFL/ESL TEACHERS' TRAINING AND SELF-EFFICACY BELIEFS AS PERCEIVED BY THE TRAINERS

Purpose of Study: The current study aimed at revealing the integration of information and communications technology (ICT) in EFL/ESL teachers' training and self-efficacy beliefs as perceived by trainers. A group of (64) trainers from different countries (Palestine, UK, USA, Iran, Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq) completed the two instruments of the study. Methodology: The first instrument was a survey of the actuality of ICT integration in the training; it comprises (47) items distributed into nine domains, i.e.  PowerPoint, Facebook, Wiki, YouTube, Blogs, Email, Google, Mobile, and Platform\E-course. The second instrument was a self-efficacy scale which consists of (14) items. The results of trainers' responses revealed that Emails, Mobile, and Google are often used with relative weights (%78.59, %68.13, and %68.02) respectively, whereas Wikis were never used i.e. relative weight (%28.96). The differences in integrating ICTs between male and female trainers were statistically insignificant. Furthermore, there were no statistically significant differences due to the respondents' period of experience. Results: The results also showed that there were no statistically significant differences in the respondents' integration of ICT due to country of origin. The trainers' self-efficacy wobbles between 66.88 and 58.13 with a total of 61.70, which is moderate. Based on the study findings, the researchers recommend arousing trainers and trainees' awareness regarding integrating more ICTs in their training courses and encouraging them to try the different ICTs which make it easier for trainees to grasp the training material

A Sociolinguistic Profile of English in Lebanon

This article provides an overview of the historical presence of foreign languages in Lebanon, focusing on language contact from the eighteenth century to date. Through sociolinguistic profiling, the paper describes the users and uses of English, as well as Lebanese attitudes towards English. The article begins by offering a general overview of the country, its languages and cultures, and its ethnic and religious groups. It presents a description of users of English along with a characterization of how the interpersonal, instrumental, regulative, and innovative functions of the language are manifested, while the final section of the article discusses attitudes to English in Lebanese society

Exogenously applied salicylic acid boosts Morpho-Physiological traits, yield, and water productivity of lowland rice under normal and deficit irrigation

The main constraint on rice cultivation in the Mediterranean area is the limited irrigation and its large water consumption. In addition, rice is very sensitive to drought conditions because of drought stress on morpho-physiological traits and yield reduction. The application of salicylic acid (SA) has been noticed to be very effective in alleviating the adverse effects of drought stress on rice. The current investigation was conducted as a split-split arrangement under a randomized complete block design with two lowland rice cultivars (Giza177 and Giza179) and SA as a foliar application at four concentrations (0, 400, 700, and 1000 µM) under normal and drought conditions. The results showed that plant growth, leaf photosynthetic pigments, yields, and the most studied traits were significantly affected by irrigation (I), cultivar (C), and SA concentration (p ≤ 0.05 or 0.01). The interaction effect of I × C × SA was only significant on the carotenoids content (p ≤ 0.05). The reduction in grain yield and most studied traits was more pronounced under drought conditions. The Giza179 proved to be a drought-tolerant cultivar under all SA concentrations under drought conditions, while Giza177 was a drought-sensitive cultivar. The application of 700 µM SA gave the best grain yield in both rice cultivars under drought conditions compared to other SA concentrations. Grain yield for normal irrigation (Yp) and drought stress (Ys) conditions were highly positively correlated with indices of the mean productivity (MP), geometric mean productivity (GMP), stress tolerance index (STI), yield index (YI), yield stability index (YSI), drought resistance index (DI), harmonic mean (HM), and golden mean (GOL). While they are highly negatively correlated with the indices of the stress susceptibility index (SSI), tolerance index (TOL), yield reduction ratio (YR), stress susceptibility percentage index (SSPI), and abiotic tolerance index (ATI). It could be concluded that SA, as a growth regulator, could be used to alleviate the harmful effect of inadequate water availability in soil on rice cultivars as well as to improve the growth, water productivity, and grain yield

Country activities of Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD): focus presentations at the 11th GARD General Meeting, Brussels

© Journal of Thoracic Disease. All rights reserved.The Global Alliance against Chronic Respiratory Diseases (GARD) is a voluntary network of national and international organizations, institutions and agencies led by the World Health Organization (WHO), working towards the vision of a world where all people breathe freely (1). GARD is supporting WHO in successfully implementing the WHO’s Global Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases (NCDs) 2013–2020. The GARD report on GARD activities is published on a regular basis. Collaboration among GARD countries is critical for sharing experiences and providing technical assistance to developing countries based on each country’s needs (2). The annual GARD meeting is a unique opportunity for assembling all of the GARD participants from developed and developing countries: European countries, North and South American Countries, China, Vietnam as well as Eastern Mediterranean, and African countries. Coordinator for Management of NCDs in the WHO Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention (Cherian Varghese) is present at this meeting. The annual meeting of GARD is a forum for exchanging opinions in order to improve care for chronic respiratory diseases (CRDs) and to achieve the GARD goal—a world where all people breathe freely. Experts—in collaboration with WHO—are helping developing countries to achieve their projects regarding teaching, research and programming for CRD. Each year, there is a poster presentation session on country activities. Each participant is able to present his/her country activities that have been achieved since the last meeting. This is followed by discussion. In this paper, we summarize the posters presented during the 11th GARD general meeting. We hope that this will give readers of the GARD section an opportunity to learn for their countries. We can find all posters on the link: https://gard-breathefreely.org/resources-poster/.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio