Exploration of instrumental and integrative motivation for reading English as a second language among second year pre-university students of Government MAO College, Lahore (Pakistan)

Since the 1970s work of Gardner and Lambert, studies on language learning motivation have received much consideration in second language research. More recently, studies on reading motivation have also gained much interest. This study was conducted among 40 male second year pre-university students of Government MAO College, Lahore (Pakistan) to investigate the levels of instrumental and integrative motivation for reading English as a Second Language (ESL). Data were collected through an adapted version of Dornyei’s language learning motivation questionnaire, and analyzed by means of descriptive statistics.The findings indicate that the students were more strongly instrumentally motivated for reading English in their context.It was also found that the students have relatively lower levels of integrative motivation for reading English.Based on the findings and implications, recommendations are made for the enhancement of motivation for reading English in the Pakistani context

Motivation to Read in a Second Language: A Review of Literature

Reading motivation is a well-researched topic in relation to first language literacy development due to its influence on both reading processes and outcomes. In second language reading, the role of motivation has not been as thoroughly explored. The aim of this review of literature is to highlight established studies as well as recent explorations in some recurring areas of first and second language reading motivation research. Focusing on reading in the English language, it provides an overview of the underlying components of reading motivation, and discusses internal and external factors that relate to students’ motivation to read. The article concludes by suggesting directions for further research in second language reading motivation, including conducting more qualitative studies, and exploring sociocultural influences and instructional practices that motivate or demotivate readers. The review is mainly intended for potential second language reading researchers and practitioners who are relatively new to the topic. Keywords: ESL, literature review, motivational factors, reading motivatio

Sleep Disturbances in Healthcare Professionals During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Objectives: To determine the incidence of sleep disturbances, including insomnia in healthcare professionals dealing with COVID-19 patients. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted at inpatient infectious disease units, emergency department and ICU (for COVID-19 patients), at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) from February 2022 to April 2022. All the individuals participating in the study were healthcare professionals. Insomnia Severity Index was used for the questionnaire. The scores of the surveyed subjects were calculated and the characteristic demographics of the subjects were analyzed. Results: An upward trend in the incidence of poor sleep quality was noted among the healthcare professionals who participated in this study. Out of 160 healthcare professionals, 93(58.1%) of the population was females, while 67(41.9%) were males. The majority of participants (p<0.05) were between the ages of 20 and 30 years, followed by 31 to 40 years and 41 to 50 years. A significant proportion of the population (p<0.05) belonged to the unmarried group, followed by the married, separated, and divorced with a percentage of 60.6, 36.2, 2.5 and 0.6%, respectively. Moreover, 84.4% (135/160) of healthcare professionals (p<0.05) had a previous history of sleep disorders. Insomnia Severity Index (ISI) score system was used to analyze the intensity of sleep disorders and insomnia in the affected persons and it was found that most of the participants were diagnosed with subthreshold insomnia (38.8%). Conclusion: The study elucidated that there was a significantly higher incidence of sleep disturbances and insomnia, in healthcare professionals working in Covid-19 care units

Implementation and effectiveness of non-specialist mediated interventions for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A systematic review and meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION: In recent years, several non-specialist mediated interventions have been developed and tested to address problematic symptoms associated with autism. These can be implemented with a fraction of cost required for specialist delivered interventions. This review represents a robust evidence of clinical effectiveness of these interventions in improving the social, motor and communication deficits among children with autism. METHODS: An electronic search was conducted in eight academic databases from their inception to 31st December 2018. A total of 31 randomized controlled trials were published post-2010 while only 2 were published prior to it. Outcomes pertaining to communication, social skills and caregiver-child relationship were meta-analyzed when reported in \u3e 2 studies. RESULTS: A significant improvement was noted in child distress (SMD = 0.55), communication (SMD = 0.23), expressive language (SMD = 0.47), joint engagement (SMD = 0.63), motor skills (SMD = 0.25), parental distress (SMD = 0.33) parental self-efficacy (SMD = 0.42) parent-child relationship (SMD = 0.67) repetitive behaviors (SMD = 0.33), self-regulation (SMD = 0.54), social skills (SMD = 0.53) symptom severity (SMD = 0.44) and visual reception (SMD = 0.29). CONCLUSION: Non-specialist mediated interventions for autism spectrum disorder demonstrate effectiveness across a range of outcomes for children with autism and their caregivers

Large expert-curated database for benchmarking document similarity detection in biomedical literature search

Document recommendation systems for locating relevant literature have mostly relied on methods developed a decade ago. This is largely due to the lack of a large offline gold-standard benchmark of relevant documents that cover a variety of research fields such that newly developed literature search techniques can be compared, improved and translated into practice. To overcome this bottleneck, we have established the RElevant LIterature SearcH consortium consisting of more than 1500 scientists from 84 countries, who have collectively annotated the relevance of over 180 000 PubMed-listed articles with regard to their respective seed (input) article/s. The majority of annotations were contributed by highly experienced, original authors of the seed articles. The collected data cover 76% of all unique PubMed Medical Subject Headings descriptors. No systematic biases were observed across different experience levels, research fields or time spent on annotations. More importantly, annotations of the same document pairs contributed by different scientists were highly concordant. We further show that the three representative baseline methods used to generate recommended articles for evaluation (Okapi Best Matching 25, Term Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency and PubMed Related Articles) had similar overall performances. Additionally, we found that these methods each tend to produce distinct collections of recommended articles, suggesting that a hybrid method may be required to completely capture all relevant articles. The established database server located at https://relishdb.ict.griffith.edu.au is freely available for the downloading of annotation data and the blind testing of new methods. We expect that this benchmark will be useful for stimulating the development of new powerful techniques for title and title/abstract-based search engines for relevant articles in biomedical research.Peer reviewe

The influence of social factors on L2 reading motivation among pre-university ESL students: a Pakistani case study

The influence of reading motivation on first language literacy development has been extensively researched. In second language reading, however, role of motivation has not been thoroughly explored, and has focused more on cognitive aspects despite the acknowledgment that social factors play a role. Motivation to read in English is a serious issue in educational settings like Pakistan where the students are reading in English as institutionalized subject. Using the Process Model of L2 Motivation (Dornyei & Otto, 1998) as background theory, a case study was conducted to gain insights into social factors influencing L2 (English) reading motivation among 8 preuniversity students of Government Degree College for Boys, in Mianwali District. The study had three objectives: to explore the views about reading in English, to describe social factors that motivate students to read in English, and to determine how these social factors influence motivation to read. Data was collected through semistructured interviews and observations and analyzed through thematic analysis. The study found macro social factors, the status of English, educational policies and related practices influenced the student’ views about reading. Expectations and instrumental reasons were identified as reasons for reading. Physical settings, parents, English teachers and peers were seen as social factors which influenced reading through motivation which occurred through expectations, interaction, recognition, encouragement, and teaching strategies, all of which occurred at goal setting and executive levels. Parents’ financial circumstances, teachers’ inattentiveness, lack of tests, unsupportive peers and non-conducive physical settings, were recognized as distractions and obstacles. The study suggests a general Process Model of L2 Motivation to drive students to read in English. The study recommends for the consistency in the implementation of linguistic policies, suitable teaching strategies, goal-contextual oriented curriculum, teachers-students immersion and conducive settings and environment for positive motivation for reading in English

Synthesis and physico-chemical studies of manganese(II), nickel(II), cobalt(II), copper(II) and zinc(II) complexes of new 13-membered pentaazamacrocycles with N₄ donor sets

1424-1427A new series of 13-membered pentaazamacrocyclic complexes of the type, [MLX2], [where M = Mn(II), Ni(II), Co(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II); X=Cl or NO3], incorporating an N4 donor set has been prepared via the template condensation of triethylenetetraamine, formaldehyde and 4,4'-diaminobiphenyl in 1:2:1 molar ratio in the presence of the metal salt. The complexes have been characterized by physico-chemical and spectroscopic measurements as non-ionic, octahedral species

Synthesis and characterization of 13, 14-membered tetraazamacrocyclic complexes

450-452Oxotetraazamacrocyclic transition metal complexes, [ML1Cl2] or [ML2Cl2] [M=CoII , NiII , CuII and ZnII] have been synthesized by the template condensation reaction of o-aminobenzoic acid, diethylenetriamine and 1,3-dibromopropane or dibromoethane in methanol medium. All the complexes have been characterized on the basis of elemental analysis, IR, 1H NMR, EPR, UV-vis, conductivity and magnetic moment data. All the complexes are non-ionic in nature and exhibit an octahedral geometry

Synthesis and characterization of highly conjugated 22-membered octaazamacrocycles and their manganese(II), copper(II), cobalt(II) and zinc(II) complexes

1090-1092A new series of 21-membered macrocyclic complexes [MLX2] [M=Mn(II), Co(II), Ni(II), Cu(II) and Zn(II); X=Cl or NO3] has been synthesized by template reaction of phthalaldehyde with hydrazine hydrate and 2,4-pentanedione in methanol. The over-all Geometry and stereochemistry of these complexes have been elucidated by IR, 1H NMR, EPR, UV-vis, magnetic susceptibility and conductance values. An octahedral geometry around the metal ion is suggested for all the complexes