Promoting Multilingual Reader in Efl Classrooms: a Portrait on the Reading Strategies

This paper reports on how English as a Foreign Language Learner (EFL learners) explored their reading strategis when dealing with L1 and L2 texts. The destination of reading, a notion called comprehension, is by no means is a complicated process. This complexity can only be simplified only if a reader can employ the available reading strategies. The capacity to employ and develop the 20 reading strategies, as suggested by Grabe and Stoller (2002), can be injected both in L1 and L2 context. In EFL reading context, comprehension must first take place in students\u27 first language (L1), and eventually lead to comprehension in their second language (L2) (Alwasilah 2012; 2001). From this perspective, EFL classroom now serves as a ‘sacred\u27 site for promoting multilingual reader in which students are encouraged to demonstrate engagement dynamically both in their L1 and L2. From the 20 strategies employed by two selected respondents, four strategies seem to be a big puzzle for EFL leerners: focus on generic structure, intertextuality, inferences, and discourse markers. This, however, should be seen as a milestone rather than as a weakness. The more strategies employed, the more strategic the readers will be. This is the phenomenon captured in EFL reading classroom presented in this study. Keywords: L1 and L2 reading, strategic reading, comprehension

Investigating students’ motivations and attitudes towards reading

This paper reports on an investigation into students’ attitudes to and motivations for reading. These socio-affective factors relating to students’ reading abilities have been largely ignored in L1 and L2 reading research, especially in L2 contexts. Yet, L2 students tend to display differing motivations and attitudes for L2 reading (Grabe & Stoller, 2002:41). According to Grabe and Stoller (2002:242) students’ attitudes andmotivations are linked to their previous experiences of reading, exposure to print and people who read, and to perceptions about the usefulness of reading. These experiences shape students’ perceptions of how successful they are as readers, and influence their willingness to participate in reading classes and related activities, which in turn affects the success of their reading development. Understanding students’ attitudes can help teachers design and prepare appropriate reading programmes to meet students’ needs and to counteract negative attitudes. A questionnaire adapted from Grabe and Stoller (2002) was administered to first-year students enrolled for an elective first-year course in Academic Reading at the University of Pretoria. The results of the study are discussed, and implications for reviewing the workbook presently in use are suggested

The two sides of a double-skin facade: built intelligent skin or brand image scam?

Double-Skin Facade (DSF) buildings regularly appear in popular architectural journals and claims are made that the buildings are either ‘sustainable’, ‘green’, ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘intelligent’. This results in myths about the performance of buildings that are perpetuated by designers eager to maintain a brand image. A literature review of research on the performance of DSFs reveals that the vast majority of the analysis is carried out by simulation methods and that there is a lack of empirical evidence obtained from monitored buildings. This paper will present some early findings from buildings with DSFs that are currently being monitored in Auckland, New Zealand, to assess the contribution of a DSF to reducing the building’s heating and cooling load. It will also analyse the common simulation models to examine whether the models are a reasonable representation of reality. Initial evidence indicates that DSFs in sub-tropical climates offer less energy savings than predicted and could even contribute to increasing cooling loads. It is the hypothesis of this paper that a DSF has become a way in which an excessively glazed building in a warm climate can maintain its transparent architectural image while still claiming to be ‘green’ but with little evidence of any energy savings

Improving Students\u27 Reading Comprehension Achievement in Narrative Text Through Paired Story Telling Technique

This study attempted to improve students\u27 reading comprehension achievement in narrative text through paired story telling technique. This study was conducted by using classroom action research. The subject of the research was class XI SMA PAB 1 Medan which consisted of 25 students. The research was conducted in two cycles and every cycle consisted of three meetings. The instruments for collecting the data were quantitative data (Reading test) and qualitative data (diary notes, observation sheet and questionnaire sheet). Based on reading scores, students\u27 score kept improving in every evaluation. In the test I the mean was 65.28 in the test II the mean was 71.16. Based on observation sheet it was found that teaching-learning process ran well. Students were active, enthusiastic, and interested in reading. The result of the research showed that applying paired story telling significantly improved students\u27 reading comprehension achievement

STG-CT: High-vacuum plume test facility for chemical thrusters

The STG-CT, operated by the DLR Institute for Aerodynamics and Flow Technology in Göttingen, is a vacuum facility specically designed to provide and maintain a space-like vacuum environment for researching plume flow and plume impingement from satellite reaction control thrusters. Its unique liquid-helium driven cryopump of 30m2 allows maintaining a background pressure <10^-5 mbar even when molecular hydrogen is a plume constituent

Die gelykenis van die barmhartige Samaritaan: Narratiewe tegnieke en vergelykingskonstruksies

The parable of the Good Samaritan: Narrative techniques within an extended comparisonThis paper argues that the narrative structure of the parable as an extended comparison is crucial to an elucidation of religious doctrine. The content of neighbourly love is clarified through the presentation of narrative material in the parable of the Good Samaritan. The arrangement of events, the distribution of actantial roles and the manipulation of focalization all point to an unexpected revelation of neighbourly love: the loving deed of the Samaritan is presented as a deviation from normal or expected behaviour; contrary to accepted social classification, the person capable of neighbourly love is an outcast; and lastly, the person in need of help determines from his point of view which one of the passers-by is capable of love. The universal applicability of the parable may be traced to the structure of the comparison where the vehicles are given but the tenors left open

A Soil Model Considering Principal Stress Rotations

This paper presents an elastoplastic soil model considering the principal stress rotation (PSR). The model is developed on the basis of a well-established kinematic hardening soil model using the bounding surface concept. The significance of including the PSR in soil models is presented through comparing the predictions using the new and original models. The model can consider the PSRs under multiple directions, and features relatively simple formulations and easy numerical implementations. Model predictions are compared with different experimental results and verified. Simulations of multiple dimensional PSRs are also studied