Assessing L2 Argumentation in the UAE Context

In this rapidly changing world, argumentation and critical thinking skills are undeniably crucial for new generations of Emirati students. These skills lay the groundwork for a competitive economy, which is a priority for the UAE in its Vision 2021. Specifically, today’s modern workplaces require workers to evaluate different propositions and develop their own after weighing up these various ideas, and thus the ability to defend arguments in English has become increasingly important for UAE university students in English-medium universities as well as their future professional contexts. Despite this importance, research regarding argumentation and the related critical thinking skills is sorely lacking in the UAE. This chapter delineates how written argumentation was assessed in a timed essay in a mandatory argumentative writing course taken by university freshmen in a government university in the UAE, and how the feedback gleaned from this common assessment was mapped to the teaching curriculum to shed light on the teaching effectiveness and to provide directions for future teaching

Assessing Anxiety and Depression Among Students Post-COVID-19: Exploring Associating Factors

Iman A Basheti,1,2 Thafer Yusif Assaraira,3 Nathir M Obeidat,4 Fawwaz Al‐Abed Al‐haq,5 Mashhoor Refai6 1Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Applied Science Private University, Amman, Jordan; 2School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia; 3English Department, Mutah University, Al‐Karak, Jordan; 4Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan; 5Department of English Language and Literature, Hashemite University, Zarqa, Jordan; 6King Abdullah II School of Engineering, Princess Sumaya University for Technology, Amman, JordanCorrespondence: Iman A Basheti, Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Applied Science Private University, Amman, 11931, Jordan, Email [email protected]: The COVID-19 pandemic has had a large impact on global mental health including anxiety and depression rates, many factors affected the vulnerability to these psychological conditions amongst university students.Aim: To explore the level of anxiety and depression of university students living in Jordan.Methods: A cross-sectional study design was conducted in which an electronic survey was created and distributed, university students residing in Jordan participated in the study.Results: A total of 1241 students were enrolled in the study. The mean anxiety score among males and females was (9.68 (SD = 4.10)) and (10.46 (SD = 4.14)), respectively. 42.1% of males had “abnormal” anxiety score compared to 48.4% females. The mean depression score among males (7.77 (SD = 4.31)) was similar to that for the females (7.64 (SD = 4.14)), and 26.0% of the males had “abnormal” depression score compared to 22.6% of the females. Factors affecting anxiety scores included younger age, being a female, taking medication/s, or drinking two cups of coffee or more a day.Conclusion: With 46% and 24% of students suffering from abnormal anxiety and depression respectively, it is important for education policy makers to take immediate measures to allocate students in need of psychological assessment and help to deliver suitable interventions.Keywords: anxiety, depression, students, Jordan, psychological assessmen

Ecological Distribution Patterns and Indicator Species Analysis of Climber Plants in Changa Manga Forest Plantation

Climbing plants have an important role in forest communities and ecosystems. Despite the significance of the climbers in ecosystems, most of the previous research work in Pakistan has been concentrated on trees, shrubs, and herbs, with little attention paid to climbing plants. The current study investigated the ecology of climbers and the influence of soil characteristics on diversity, richness, and indicator species distribution in the Changa Manga Forest Plantation, Punjab, Pakistan. Field surveys were carried out between 2020 and 2021, with the data gathered using a random sample approach for ordination and cluster analysis of each plant species and edaphic data from sample plots. We reported a total of 29 climber species belonging to 23 genera and 9 families from the area. The Convolvulaceae family was the most prevalent, followed by Apocynaceae and Cucurbitaceae. Herbaceous climbers were the typical life form (70% species) and species showed peak flowering during the months of August and September. The multivariate analysis and cluster analysis grouped the climbers into four distinct communities based on the indicator species, representing filtering of the species pool in the studied area. Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) results showed that soil factors had a significant influence (p ≤ 0.002) on the climbers’ diversity and distribution pattern. Our research contributes to a deeper understanding of climbing plant ecology in response to soil variables, with immediate consequences for policy and practice in this Himalayan region, as well as research insights for neighboring Himalayan regions and elsewhere in the world