A Longitudinal Study of Motivation as a Dynamic Process in Learning English as Second Language (ESL) among Undergraduate Students of Engineering University at Jamshoro

This paper aims to investigate motivating factors of students to learn English as a second language and dynamical changes in their motivational level. Factors that motivate can be integrative or instrumental and, moreover, can bring fluctuations in learners’ motivation from time to time. Mehran University of Engineering and Technology, Jamshoro offers English Language course on the curriculum of various engineering degree programs. Students’ past learning experiences affect their present learning. Therefore, this study explores students past and present motivation for learning English. This study is qualitative in nature in which semi-structured interviews were conducted. Interviews were divided into two phases. Phase one was conducted before the beginning of the English language course in which participants were asked about their perceptions for learning English Language and phase two was conducted after the end of the course which compared students’ pervious perceptions with current level of motivation. This paper found motivation as a dynamic process and students’ level of motivation was increased due to proper teaching and learning environment. Keywords: Longitudinal study, Dynamic Motivation, Engineering University Students, English as a second language

Asymmetric Shocks and Co-movement of Price Indices

This paper is an attempt to gauge the relationship between the long run paths of consumer price index and wholesale price index of Pakistan. For the empirical analysis the Johansen co-integration technique has been applied on monthly data (1978 to 2010) of WPI and CPI. This paper found that both the indices are co-integrated in the long run. Thus the deviations in movements of WPI and CPI in the short run are transitory and both the indices will converge to their coherent path in the long run. Therefore, inflation computed from CPI can be used as official measure of inflation without worrying for short run movements of WPI.Price Level, Time Series Models, Monetary Policy

Detection and Forecasting of Islamic Calendar Effects in Time Series Data: Revisited

This paper is an attempt to revisit the pioneering work of Riazuddin and Khan (2002). A complete business cycle has been elapsed (2002-2010) since their study, so there is need to review the results with additional information. This revisited attempt, based on a theoretically specified framework, arrived at similar results and found significant impact of Islamic calendar. The Islamic months of Ramadan and Zilhaj have positive impact on currency holdings and negative impact on deposits. Although stylized facts indicate that consumer prices are significantly higher during Ramadan but econometric investigation rejects the upward exogenous shifts in prices during Ramadan. Therefore, structural relationship analyzed in co-integration framework has shown that inflation is not directly impacted by the Ramadan but indirectly through increase in its determinants. Inflationary tendencies during Ramadan are not due to exogenous increase by producers and retailers but possibly due to demand surge in the wake of redistribution of income. The months of June and December have positive effects on deposits and negative effects on currency in circulation indicating the presence of window dressing. Finally, as seasonal factors have important role in determining economic time series, therefore, ignoring those in monthly time series models will lead to omitted variable bias and inappropriate forecasts.currency in circulation, deposits, cointegration, seasonal factors

Managing English Teaching Outcomes in Universities: An Experiential Learning Case Study of ESL/EFL Interventions

In countries where English is a foreign language, universities are expected to enhance the communication skills of their students after overcoming the deficiencies that they typically carry over from their schooling years, and the challenge for universities is to achieve this through the few mandated courses. This paper describes an auto-enthnographic case study of a series of interventions for improving the English teaching outcomes over a decade by the dean of a private university of Karachi. Each intervention was ref ined over a number of semesters through several execution cycles consisting of design, implementation and evaluation. Interventions were tried and tested until the outcomes could no longer be improved with the given resources. Issues identif ied through the evaluation of a particular intervention led to the design of subsequent interventions. The interventions consisted of changes made to the number of courses, grading criteria, selection of learning methodology, assessment strategy, hiring qualif ications, teacher development, medium of instruction for technical courses, design of environmental culture, quality control across multiple sections, level of student engagement, intensity of instruction doze, lab and instruction credit hours, assistance from senior students, and out of the box designs of course interactions. Experiential learning and analysis of these interventions demonstrated that traditional classroom based interventions centered on a teacher do not work unless they are accompanied by immersion experiences in innovative, collaborative and flexible learning environments. Experiential Learning and Project Based Learning (PBL) techniques which can stimulate and inspire the students were found to be more effective. The study proposes an innovative structure for conducting English courses that would provide an immersion experience to students which would be concentrated in time and space to help overcome many of the identified issues

Cost-effectiveness of traffic enforcement: case study from Uganda

BACKGROUND: In October 2004, the Ugandan Police department deployed enhanced traffic safety patrols on the four major roads to the capital Kampala. OBJECTIVE: To assess the costs and potential effectiveness of increasing traffic enforcement in Uganda. METHODS: Record review and key informant interviews were conducted at 10 police stations along the highways that were patrolled. Monthly data on traffic citations and casualties were reviewed for January 2001 to December 2005; time series (ARIMA) regression was used to assess for a statistically significant change in traffic deaths. Costs were computed from the perspective of the police department in $US 2005. Cost offsets from savings to the health sector were not included. RESULTS: The annual cost of deploying the four squads of traffic patrols (20 officers, four vehicles, equipment, administration) is estimated at$72,000. Since deployment, the number of citations has increased substantially with a value of $327 311 annually. Monthly crash data pre- and post-intervention show a statistically significant 17$603 per death averted or $27 per life year saved discounted at 3$300 GDP per capita). CONCLUSION: The costs of traffic safety enforcement are low in comparison to the potential number of lives saved and revenue generated. Increasing enforcement of existing traffic safety norms can prove to be an extremely cost-effective public health intervention in low-income countries, even from a government perspective

Effects of Teachers’ Motivation on Students’ Learning English in Public Elementary Schools of Pakistan

The research investigated the effects of teachers’ motivation on students’ learning English in public elementary schools of Nawabshah, Pakistan. It focused at examining intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of teachers while teaching English language. This research paper took Dornyei’s (1994) model in which only Teacher-Specific Motivational component was adopted. The research employed quantitative research method in which questionnaire was distributed among the participants. Data was collected from Pakistani public elementary schools in which randomly 50 male and 50 female teachers participated. The research also collected the data from 230 elementary students. The collected data was analyzed by statistical Package for social sciences (SPSS) software version 20th. To accomplish the aim of the study three research objectives and research questions were prepared. A descriptive statistics was performed for question 1 and 3 and independent T-test was done for question 2. The findings indicated that teachers are more extrinsically motivated in public elementary schools. Their extrinsic motivation effects their students’ mot`ivation too. A comparison of male and female teachers was done via constructing a hypothesis i.e. there is no significant difference between male and female teachers’ motivation for teaching English in public elementary schools. The findings rejected the null hypothesis and the independent t-test revealed that there is significance difference between the group and female teachers are more motivated (80.2916) to teach English than male teachers (70.8788). Students believe that teachers brighten their future and help them to be confident at speaking English. The results also indicated that teachers’ intrinsic motivation plays more positive role for motivating students to learn English. The study suggested that it is essential to shift teachers’ extrinsic motivation into intrinsic motivation for teaching English language. Keywords: Intrinsic and Extrinsic Teachers’ Motivation, English Language Teaching, Students’ Motivation DOI: 10.7176/JEP/11-4-05 Publication date: February 29th 202

Peer Mentoring: Exploring the Impact on the Learning Culture of a Business Institute in Pakistan

University education is a new transition from school to undergraduate programs for underprivileged students. Recruiting students from rural areas of Pakistan challenge teachers to teach at a Higher Education while teaching underprivileged students struggling for a better future. The aim of this paper was to introduce peer mentoring between the Business and Professional Speech (BPS) students and the freshmen. The researcher being course faculty of both the Business and Professional Speech and Foundation English students undertook the experiential learning project. The initiative for the project was to explore the impact of peer mentoring on the learning culture of a Business Institute in Pakistan, subsequently, highlighting the skills of lifelong learners in the 21st century of global citizenship. The aim of this paper was also to investigate the strength of mentors in keeping the course objectives aligning with students’ interpersonal, intrapersonal and public communication abilities, at developing students’ critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Kolb’s experiential learning model (1984) was implemented to carry out the project; whilst, students direct data of interviews, video clips, pictures, questionnaires and documents were used to validate the research. Findings demonstrate the benef icial impact on the cyclical learning between the faculty, BPS and freshmen in terms of their improved results, retention of reading tasks and exposure to the real-life challenges of the diverse groups at the university. Peer mentoring could be the possibility of bringing about a change in society if introduced at universities in Pakistan