Getting Your Hands on Learning: Manipulative Tools in Content ESL/EFL Instruction

Manipulatives are only for math classes and kindergartners, right? Wrong! Since Rita Dunn’s ground-breaking research on learning styles and Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, educators of all subjects have tried to develop teaching techniques that allow all types of students to learn. Because of their highly visual and kinesthetic/tactile character, manipulatives are an especially powerful tool for ESL-content instruction. However, they are relatively unknown in the ESL field because many teachers believe that manipulatives can only be used with the very young or in math classes. In this article, I will explain how using manipulatives in class can turn learning into a fun and meaningful experience. I will provide 7 different teacher-made manipulatives that have been used in ESL language arts, science and social studies classes

Content and language integrated learning in Latin America 2008-2018: Ten years of research and practice

Bilingual education, usually a community’s L1 and English continues spreading geographically and across educational systems worldwide. With this expansion, the development of bilingual education approaches is under constant scrutiny. One recent approach is content and language integrated learning (CLIL). European in origin, CLIL can be viewed as an educational or language teaching approach and it refers to the teaching of curricular content and L2 in an integrated manner. This approach has received international attention, yet, how CLIL unfolds in settings outside Europe appears underrepresented in international publications. The aim of this article is to provide a critical review of CLIL in Latin America between 2008 and 2018. We surveyed 64 items (articles, book chapters, and dissertations) published in regional and international outlets: 41 empirical studies, 19 practice-oriented publications, and four reviews. It begins by summarizing the CLIL continuum with a focus on content- and language-driven CLIL and CLIL frameworks. It then provides a synthesis of empirical studies and practice-oriented publications about CLIL in different Latin American settings. The corpus is analyzed following these unifying themes: pedagogy, perceptions and beliefs, teacher education, global citizenship, and language development. From this review, it transpires that Latin American CLIL is mostly implemented and examined from a language-driven perspective in private primary, secondary and higher education. Suggestions and implications for further research and practice are included

Evaluating the Effects of CBI on an English for Medical Students Program

This study investigated the effectiveness of CBI on the development of oral communicative competence and the causes of this development on a Medical English program in an English as a foreign language context. The participants were 16 Colombian university students between the ages of 17 and 22 from various semesters in their academic medical program. The instruments included classroom observations, learning journals, and interviews. The data was analyzed and categorized in light of the research questions. The analysis showed that students developed their oral and discourse skills in English in a relevant, challenging, and meaningful manner because the approach implemented was based on the integration of language and content. Through these materials that served as models for the students, they were able to activate their prior knowledge, lessen anxiety, raise their self-confidence and become motivated towards language learning

Can engaging L2 teachers as material designers contribute to their professional development? Findings from Colombia

There is a lack of research around the professional development of English (L2) teachers in Colombia. As in other Latin American countries, higher education institutions have started offering general English as a foreign language (EFL) courses as well as content courses taught in English. In both types of course, EFL teachers are expected to integrate content and English language learning with the aim of providing learners with meaningful and authentic learning opportunities. However, such teachers often face the challenge of not having appropriate materials to deliver such courses. The aim of this case study, which employed mixed methods, is to describe the extent to which university EFL teachers from a Colombian university developed professionally as they engaged in developing materials for content and language integrated learning (CLIL) courses. The study consisted of two parts: (1) a CLIL workshop attended by 16 participants, followed by (2) interviews with four of those participants. Drawing on data from a survey, group discussions, and individual interviews, the findings show that engaging the university EFL teachers as materials developers boosted their professional knowledge (linguistic, content, and pedagogical knowledge), motivation, identity, and agency as CLIL teachers and material designers

¿Es suficiente el uso del inglés como medio de instrucción? Percepciones de estudiantes y profesores universitarios

Internationalization of higher education aims to develop foreign language and intercultural and international competences (IIC). To achieve this, universities worldwide have implemented strategies such as teaching content subjects in English, also known as English mediated instruction (EMI). However, there is scant research on the positive and negative aspects related to EMI implementation in Latin America. For this reason, this case study explores the perceptions of a group of computer science professors, students, and the program administrator in a Colombian university about the use of this approach in learning content and language and the development of IICs. Results revealed that implementing this initiative has benefits but also poses some challenges. Therefore, we offer recommendations related to the institution as a whole, the professors, and the students and suggest including some elements of the CLIL approach to support learning. It is hoped that these findings will contribute to the worldwide EMI/CLIL discussion, especially in Latin American where this practice is relatively new. doi: 10.5294/laclil.2016.9.2.4La internacionalización de la educación superior tiene como objetivo el desarrollo de competencias interculturales e internacionales (CII) y el desarrollo de la lengua extranjera. Para lograr esto, las universidades en todo el mundo han implementado estrategias como la enseñanza de materias y contenidos en inglés, también conocida como el uso del inglés como medio de instrucción (en inglés: EMI). Sin embargo, hay aún escasa investigación sobre los aspectos positivos y negativos relacionados con la implementación de este enfoque en América Latina. Por esta razón, este estudio de caso explora las percepciones de un grupo de profesores de ciencias de la computación, de estudiantes y del administrador del programa en una universidad colombiana, en relación con el uso de este enfoque en el aprendizaje de contenidos y lengua y el desarrollo de las competencias interculturales e internacionales. Los resultados del estudio indican que la implementación de esta iniciativa ofrece beneficios, pero también plantea algunos retos. Por lo tanto,se generan algunas recomendaciones que conciernen a la institución como tal, a los profesores y los estudiante y se plantean algunos elementos del enfoque AICLE para apoyar el aprendizaje. Se espera que estos resultados contribuyan al análisis de la discusión del enfoque AICLE y EMI, especialmente en América Latina, en donde esta práctica es relativamente nueva

Detoxifying Escherichia coli for endotoxin-free production of recombinant proteins

Es va publicar un treball amb esmenes a aquest article que es pot consultar a https://ddd.uab.cat/record/185349 (DOI 10.1186/s12934-015-0265-x)Background: lipopolysaccharide (LPS), also referred to as endotoxin, is the major constituent of the outer leaflet of the outer membrane of virtually all Gram-negative bacteria. The lipid A moiety, which anchors the LPS molecule to the outer membrane, acts as a potent agonist for Toll-like receptor 4/myeloid differentiation factor 2-mediated pro-inflammatory activity in mammals and, thus, represents the endotoxic principle of LPS. Recombinant proteins, commonly manufactured in Escherichia coli, are generally contaminated with endotoxin. Removal of bacterial endotoxin from recombinant therapeutic proteins is a challenging and expensive process that has been necessary to ensure the safety of the final product. -Results: as an alternative strategy for common endotoxin removal methods, we have developed a series of E. coli strains that are able to grow and express recombinant proteins with the endotoxin precursor lipid IVA as the only LPS-related molecule in their outer membranes. Lipid IVA does not trigger an endotoxic response in humans typical of bacterial LPS chemotypes. Hence the engineered cells themselves, and the purified proteins expressed within these cells display extremely low endotoxin levels. - Conclusions: this paper describes the preparation and characterization of endotoxin-free E. coli strains, and demonstrates the direct production of recombinant proteins with negligible endotoxin contamination

Production of functional inclusion bodies in endotoxin-free Escherichia coli

Escherichia coli is the workhorse for gene cloning and production of soluble recombinant proteins in both biotechnological and biomedical industries. The bacterium is also a good producer of several classes of protein-based self-assembling materials such as inclusion bodies (IBs). Apart from being a relatively pure source of protein for in vitro refolding, IBs are under exploration as functional, protein-releasing materials in regenerative medicine and protein replacement therapies. Endotoxin removal is a critical step for downstream applications of therapeutic proteins. The same holds true for IBs as they are often highly contaminated with cell-wall components of the host cells. Here, we have investigated the production of IBs in a recently developed endotoxin-free E. coli strain. The characterization of IBs revealed this mutant as a very useful cell factory for the production of functional endotoxin-free IBs that are suitable for the use at biological interfaces without inducing endotoxic responses in human immune cell

ApoA-I binding protein (AIBP) decreases mechanical hypersensitivity after plantar incision in a rat model of post-operative pain

https://openworks.mdanderson.org/sumexp22/1090/thumbnail.jp

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Getting Your Hands on Learning: Manipulative Tools in Content ESL/EFL Instruction

Manipulatives are only for math classes and kindergartners, right? Wrong! Since Rita Dunn&rsquo;s ground-breaking research on learning styles and Howard Gardner&rsquo;s theory of multiple intelligences, educators of all subjects have tried to develop teaching techniques that allow all types of students to learn. Because of their highly visual and kinesthetic/tactile character, manipulatives are an especially powerful tool for ESL-content instruction. However, they are relatively unknown in the ESL field because many teachers believe that manipulatives can only be used with the very young or in math classes. In this article, I will explain how using manipulatives in class can turn learning into a fun and meaningful experience. I will provide 7 different teacher-made manipulatives that have been used in ESL language arts, science and social studies classes