TASKS IN CHILDREN’S SPEAKING SKILL ASSESSMENT

English has been taught from primary school to higher education in Indonesia, but it does not provide much contribution to the English speaking skill of Indonesian students. This condition is caused by several factors; the types of the tasks provided are one of them. This study aims to analyze the communicativeness of the tasks and the appropriateness of the scoring criteria in children’s speaking assessment. The participant of the study was an English teacher in an elementary school in Bandung. The data were obtained qualitatively by using observations, document analysis, and interviews. The analysis revealed that the tasks conducted during the speaking assessment and the speaking scoring criteria constructed by the teacher were lack of their ability to measure the students’ communicative speaking skill. It was found that there are limitations occurring in each dimension included in the tasks, such as the frequency of the target language use, the appropriateness of the language instruction to the students’ skill being assessed, the appropriateness of the language materials to the students’ level, the roles of the teacher and the students, the support of the students’ engagement, and the categories of the speaking scoring criteria. This study is expected to be one of references for teachers of young learners in designing the better and more appropriate speaking tasks.----------Di Indonesia, Bahasa Inggris telah diajarkan sejak sekolah dasar hingga pendidikan tinggi, namun hal ini tidak memberikan kontribusi yang banyak terhadap kemampuan berbahasa Inggris siswa Indonesia. Kondisi ini disebabkan oleh beberapa faktor; salah satu diantaranya yaitu jenis tugas yang diberikan oleh guru. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menganalisis kekomunikatifan suatu tugas dan kesesuaian kriteria penilaian dalam melakukan penilaian kemampuan berbicara anak. Peserta penelitian adalah seorang guru Bahasa Inggris di sebuah sekolah dasar di Bandung. Data diperoleh secara kualitatif dengan menggunakan observasi, analisis dokumen, dan wawancara. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa tugas yang dilakukan selama penilaian berbicara dan kriteria penilaian yang dibuat oleh guru tidak dapat mengukur kemampuan berbicara siswa secara komunikatif. Ditemukan bahwa ada keterbatasan yang terjadi pada setiap dimensi yang termasuk dalam tugas, seperti frekuensi penggunaan Bahasa Inggris, ketepatan instruksi bahasa terhadap keterampilan siswa yang dinilai, kesesuaian materi pembelajaran dengan bahasa siswa, peran guru dan siswa, dukungan keterlibatan siswa, dan kategori kriteria penilaian berbicara. Penelitian ini diharapkan bisa menjadi salah satu rujukan bagi guru pengajar sekolah dasar dalam merancang tugas kemapuan berbicara Bahasa Inggris yang lebih baik dan lebih tepat

THE EXPRESSION AND FUNCTION OF GLYCOSYLPHOSPHATIDYLINOSITOL (GPI)-ANCHORED PROTEINS IN INVARIANT NATURAL KILLER T (/NKT) CELLS

Invariant natural killer T (/NKT) cells are a unique lymphocyte subpopulation with potent immunomodulatory properties. They can produce copious amounts of pro- and/or anti-inflammatory cytokines, yet the mechanisms governing the type of immune responses they elicit are not fully understood. Conventional T cell activation can be achieved or augmented by glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins. Whether this is also true for /NKT cells is essentially unexplored. I hypothesized that ligation of GPI-anchored proteins such as Thy-1 and CD55 will enhance / NKT cell activation leading to robust cytokine production. Using flow cytometry, mouse /NKT cells were found to constitutively express Thy-1. Thy-1 engagement combined with classical TCR stimulation led to /NKT cell activation and cytokine production as measured by ELISA and RT-qPCR. Similarly, human /NKT cells expressed CD55, the cross-linking of which enhanced TCR-mediated activation. Overall, I have demonstrated that GPI-anchored proteins play a significant role in the magnitude of /NKT cell responses

Localization of Preformed, Circulating Immune Complexes in Murine Skin

The cutaneous localization of intravenously injected preformed immune complexes was examined in C57B1/6J mice and the importance of complex size and antibody charge was assessed for deposition and persistence in cutaneous structures.After a single intravenous bolus, large-latticed complexes deposited transiently in an interstitial extravasated pattern, and persisted longer in a vascular pattern. Small-latticed complexes, prepared at 50 times antigen excess, did not deposit. When large-latticed complexes were prepared with reduced and alkylated antibodies, their vascular deposition was similar, but they did not localize in the interstitium due to decreased extravasation. Large-latticed complexes prepared with cationized antibodies deposited in a vascular and interstitial pattern as well as at the dermal-epidermal junction. Complexes prepared with anionized antibodies deposited comparable to unaltered complexes.Cutaneous deposition of circulating immune complexes in mice requires a large lattice. Circulating immune complexes formed with cationic antibodies deposit at the dermal-epidermal junction

A computer program for isolating groups of dramatic masks of the Hellenistic and Roman periods.

The objective of the program was socio-literacy but the procedure used was the essentially archaeological one of matching sets of artifacts/attributes. We give here, not the results, which are still being analyzed, but a critique of the interface between archaeologist and programmer, in the hope that this may be of use to other researchers who intend to use a computer. The program was designed and written by Enn Männik, programmer, using the computing facilities of the Faculty of Architecture and Building, NSW Institute of Technology, which were generously made available through the good offices of Neville Quarry, Head of School, and Ken Madden, Coordinator of Contextual Studies, to whom thanks are due. The project was supervised by J.R. Green, Associate Professor of Archaeology, University of Sydney, in connection with the revision of the text of T.B.L. Webster's Monuments Illustrating New Comedy (London 1969), to be published by the Institute of Classical Studies, University of London