‘Keep an Eye on Your Son! He Is Reading Too Much These Days’: Understanding the Reading Attitudes in English of Rural and Urban Sindhi Students

Research in second language reading has demonstrated that positive reading attitudes are very crucial in motivating a reader to engage in meaningful reading practices. The exploration of such findings is very limited in the context of Sindh, Pakistan. Learners in Sindh, Pakistan’s rural and urban areas experience life quality generally and reading resources and motivation very differently. This study explored a very basic question of the differences between the reading attitudes of learners from both areas. The findings suggest wide differences between the reading attitudes of rural and urban learners. An understanding of their reading attitudes leads one to devise ways for inculcating or reinforcing positive reading attitudes in further studies

Blood film says it all! Rare case of congenital TTP misdiagnosed as ITP

We report a case of a 16-year-old female who presented with bleeding diathesis. Peripheral blood film examination was consistent with microangiopathic hemolytic anemia with 7% fragmented red blood cells. The ADAMTS13 level was 40 ng/ml (reference range: 630-850 ng/ml). She responded to plasma exchange therapy and methylprednisolone and was discharged in a stable condition

‘If I just get one IELTS certificate, I can get anything’: an impact study of IELTS in Pakistan

This thesis examines the impact of the high-stakes International English Language Testing System (IELTS) across different stakeholders in Pakistan, and on Pakistani education, society and economy more broadly. The global profile of IELTS means that washback and impact studies (both comparative and country-specific) are now increasingly carried out by Cambridge ESOL (Hawkey, 2006; Moore et al., 2012). These are undertaken not simply with a view to improving the test, but with a view to investigating how it is used and perceived. In Pakistan, as elsewhere, IELTS has assumed great significance on account of its gate-keeping function in emigration, higher education abroad and professional registration. Demand and candidature grow daily. However, specific conditions that pertain in Pakistan, mainly political instability, and major disparities in wealth and development, have a particular effect on the role of IELTS in the country. The current impact study employs a sequential exploratory concurrent embedded mixed methods design to assess the impact. Phase 1 is a preliminary survey of 20 IELTS preparation institutes, followed by an in-depth qualitative study of two IELTS preparation centres. The qualitative study employs classroom observations, semistructured interviews with teachers (N=2), informal conversational interviews with test-preparers (N=20), and pre- and post-study testing to assess the efficacy of IELTS preparation. Phase 2 analyses questionnaires from a further ten preparation centres. Respondents comprised 200 IELTS test-preparers, 100 IELTS test-takers and 10 IELTS preparation teachers. The survey was supplemented by a focus group with four test-preparers and semi-structured interviews with five employers and five parents. The initial survey of the private English Language Teaching industry in Pakistan showed a radical expansion of IELTS preparation courses. Yet the in-depth study of two specific centres showed that the courses are not effective in improving the scores of students. Courses, although relatively expensive, are very short and most testpreparers enter them with lower English proficiency than is appropriate for IELTS. Questionnaires and interviews showed that IELTS test-preparers and test-takers are primarily motivated to take the test for emigration and study abroad. The test preparers have high expectations from the course regarding improvement of their English proficiency which are generally not met. Disappointed test-takers hold some beliefs that their IELTS course and test will be of benefit to them in Pakistan. Although English ability is always considered as part of recruitment, employers interviewed for this project confirmed that an IELTS certificate is never explicitly required. It is likely that the local uses of IELTS that are emerging in Pakistan are much more indirect. I argue that because public education is not meeting the demand for English, IELTS is now perceived as a route of English education and general certification, and a badge of middle class status if not actual material gain. These findings have implications for both providers of state education in Pakistan, and providers of the IELTS test (Cambridge ESOL). The former needs to address the lack of publicly funded English education and English qualifications; and the latter needs to consider whether IELTS is appropriate for large numbers of low proficiency candidates, and for purposes other than admission to universities abroad and immigration

External Factors Affecting L2 Motivation among Intermediate ESL Learner’s in Pakistan (Sindh): The Role of Teacher

Motivation is the key to successful language learning as it serves as stimuli to initiate the language learning process. Motivation is a complex phenomenon that is affected by a number of factors. These factors are classified into two broad categories i.e. external factors and internal factors. The current research aims to examine the external factors related to the role of a teacher in motivating the students. The research was carried out in Sindh province of Pakistan in Hyderabad district at a Girls college. The participants of the study were 200 intermediate level students. The students were asked to fill a questionnaire that was adapted from Gardener’s attitude motivation test battery (AMTB). This was a quantitative research and the findings of this research were subjected to IBM SPSS statistics 2.0 version. The results obtained after the analysis of data were represented in the form of tables and the bar charts. The results showed that teachers play a vital role in bringing and maintaining the motivation among the intermediate level students to learn English language. The teacher was able to motivate students due to inspiring personality, helpful attitude and mainly by dynamic manner of teaching. Along with this presentation of materials in an interesting way also motivated the learners. The findings of this research could be helpful for both teachers and policy makers to motivate the intermediate students to reach better language learning and career related goals

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

Transient abnormal myelopoiesis in down syndrome

We report peripheral blood film and cytogenetic results of a five day old neonate who presented with history of high grade fever, vomiting and jaundice. Peripheral blood film showed presence of 30% blast cells which were large in size having abundant granular cytoplasm. Karyotyping results revealed presence of trisomy 21. She was diagnosed as a case of Down syndrome with congenital leukemia. Approximately 10% of such cases present as Transient Abnormal Myelopoiesis. Persistence of blast cells beyond six months is an indication for treatment. As the diagnosis was made retrospectively, this case highlights the importance of peripheral smear review which showed presence of abnormal cells prompting for further investigations

Concept of Best Practices in English Language Teaching to Pakistani ELT Fraternity

Teaching industry of English as a second or foreign language has grown massively in recent times in Pakistan. There are many public sectors universities and English academies established all over Pakistan offering English language proficiency courses. Therefore, this wave led to conduct this research. The purpose of conducting this study was to investigate contemporary pedagogical techniques used for teaching and learning English and to introduce the concept of ESL /EFL Best Practices for effective language teaching in Pakistan. Purposive Sampling method was used to collect the information from respondents regarding their contemporary-used teaching techniques in ESL/EFL class. The questionnaire was implied as the main tool for data collection among twenty English language teachers from two public sector universities. The results of the study indicated that teachers were attached  with some outdated techniques and activities secondly, they also faced problems applying new techniques while teaching in a large multilevel classrooms, thirdly, teachers’ had willingness to adopt and employ innovative techniques in classrooms and lastly, the notion of ESL best practices was uncommon among them. Most of the teaching strategies do not create better learning environment, and learners do not interestingly participate due outdated activities. Therefore, the suggested solution was utilizing best practices that are based on modern techniques, approaches considerable for multiple levels depending upon the needs and developmental state of the individual learners.Keywords: pedagogical strategies, ESL/EFL Best Practices, Pakistani teachers, English teaching/learnin

Concept of Best Practices in English Language Teaching to Pakistani ELT Fraternity

Teaching industry of English as a second or foreign language has grown massively in recent times in Pakistan. There are many public sectors universities and English academies established all over Pakistan offering English language proficiency courses. Therefore, this wave led to conduct this research. The purpose of conducting this study was to investigate contemporary pedagogical techniques used for teaching and learning English and to introduce the concept of ESL /EFL Best Practices for effective language teaching in Pakistan. Purposive Sampling method was used to collect the information from respondents regarding their contemporary-used teaching techniques in ESL/EFL class. The questionnaire was implied as the main tool for data collection among twenty English language teachers from two public sector universities. The results of the study indicated that teachers were attached  with some outdated techniques and activities secondly, they also faced problems applying new techniques while teaching in a large multilevel classrooms, thirdly, teachers’ had willingness to adopt and employ innovative techniques in classrooms and lastly, the notion of ESL best practices was uncommon among them. Most of the teaching strategies do not create better learning environment, and learners do not interestingly participate due outdated activities. Therefore, the suggested solution was utilizing best practices that are based on modern techniques, approaches considerable for multiple levels depending upon the needs and developmental state of the individual learners.Keywords: pedagogical strategies, ESL/EFL Best Practices, Pakistani teachers, English teaching/learnin