Cognition and Metacognition: Understanding the Second Language Learner from Various Perspectives

This paper has been situated within the framework of the interface shared by cognition and metacognition. While conventional classroom instruction aims at maximizing the learner’s cognitive skills, this paper argues that if the metacognitive skills go neglected, still higher order potentials remain unnoticed and untapped. Instead of addressing language skills in isolation, the paper proposes to integrate higher order cognitive skills and skills of still higher order such as metacognitive skills, which are rarely taken into serious consideration while planning second language curricula

In Search of a Holistic Approach: Vygotsky Situated in the Rural Indian ESL Contexts

This paper argues that it is high time that the teaching of ‘a language of opportunities’ got liberated from the rigid and restricted frame of institutionalized instruction with its fossilized curriculum, syllabus, materials, testing and evaluation and so on. Teaching-learning English must be made a democratic process, a social agenda, which leaves apace for societal intervention. It has been suggested here that those who had been marginalized so far as passive stakeholders, namely parents and public, too should be made active participants in the process of second language education, contributing to the process in their own way. The fifteen-year old search for such a holistic approach to ESL education has now reached a point at which a framework of some degree of definitude has been arrived at. This paper outlines (only) the theoretical framework currently being in use on a massive project in Kerala (south India) which aims at ‘empowering rural India through English language education’. The interim report of the progress of the project will be appearing as a sequel paper

Internalization of the Structural Properties of WH-Questions: A Remedial Programme through Curricular Intervention

Teaching of a second or foreign language has always had grammar at its controversial core and the numerable issues arising out of it usually dominate theory, research and practice. Still, teaching of second language grammar evades the triangular network of theory-researchpractice. This paper singles out one hard spot for beginners (may be of primary level, but found in advanced learners, as well), namely the presence/absence of the auxiliary verb do in its past and present tense forms in WH-questions. The paper identifies the source and nature of the hard spot, presents it in terms of metalinguistic (grammatical) competence for teachers and communicative competence for learners. The paper has its theoretical basis on the fusion of three pedagogic constructs namely, curricular intervention, instructed learning and learner autonomy. It has also tried to establish the author’s conviction, though indirectly, that instead of waiting for a new method to come or trying any single method of the past, a judicious selection and fusion of elements from the practised methods of the past may work better in terms of learning outcomes

Evidence for widespread hydrated minerals on asteroid (101955) Bennu

Early spectral data from the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission reveal evidence for abundant hydrated minerals on the surface of near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu in the form of a near-infrared absorption near 2.7 µm and thermal infrared spectral features that are most similar to those of aqueously altered CM-type carbonaceous chondrites. We observe these spectral features across the surface of Bennu, and there is no evidence of substantial rotational variability at the spatial scales of tens to hundreds of metres observed to date. In the visible and near-infrared (0.4 to 2.4 µm) Bennu’s spectrum appears featureless and with a blue (negative) slope, confirming previous ground-based observations. Bennu may represent a class of objects that could have brought volatiles and organic chemistry to Earth

The dynamic geophysical environment of (101955) Bennu based on OSIRIS-REx measurements

The top-shaped morphology characteristic of asteroid (101955) Bennu, often found among fast-spinning asteroids and binary asteroid primaries, may have contributed substantially to binary asteroid formation. Yet a detailed geophysical analysis of this morphology for a fast-spinning asteroid has not been possible prior to the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission. Combining the measured Bennu mass and shape obtained during the Preliminary Survey phase of the OSIRIS-REx mission, we find a notable transition in Bennu’s surface slopes within its rotational Roche lobe, defined as the region where material is energetically trapped to the surface. As the intersection of the rotational Roche lobe with Bennu’s surface has been most recently migrating towards its equator (given Bennu’s increasing spin rate), we infer that Bennu’s surface slopes have been changing across its surface within the last million years. We also find evidence for substantial density heterogeneity within this body, suggesting that its interior is a mixture of voids and boulders. The presence of such heterogeneity and Bennu’s top shape are consistent with spin-induced failure at some point in its past, although the manner of its failure cannot yet be determined. Future measurements by the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft will provide insight into and may resolve questions regarding the formation and evolution of Bennu’s top-shape morphology and its link to the formation of binary asteroids

Action Research: An Ethno-methodological Perspective

Action Research is a tool for professional development which gained considerable momentum in language teaching domain. Effective and meaningful professional development programmes involve teachers in the constant process of learning about their practices, discovering and using their own potential. The strategies employed in action research are found to be one of the best options that can engage teachers in meaningful self-improvement. It is a discovery process in which the teacher investigates the issue on focus, carries out and implements some actions in the classroom. Just in opposite direction of the traditional practice of ‘from theory to practice’, action research moves ‘from practice to theorizing’. Reflection which is the essence of the philosophy at work behind, action research has a crucial role in improving the learning process and enhancing professional development. Reflection involves cognition, critical thinking, evaluation and problem solving. Action research continuously prompts these processes. This article attempts to project how action research functions as a two-pronged phenomenon: (i) a pedagogic tool, whose impact will explicitly be felt on the learner, and (ii) as a means of continuous professional development, which leaves an implicit but, long-lasting change in the teacher. It is also pointed out in the paper, how action research can alter the physical and mental environment of learning and teaching through an ethno-methodological functioning-the teacher and the learners living in the same environment and getting immersed in the same experience. &nbsp

Connecting Word with World: Reading as an Act of Cognitive Exploration

In spite of the many methodologies tried out in the last two centuries in India, the teaching-learning of English is still heavily dependent on reading. The main reason may be attributed to the fact that all subjects including science and technology have their mainstay in reading both in classrooms and at home. Even then, adequate attention has not been paid to reading instruction at the primary and secondary levels; as a result, when the learners reach the tertiary level where they are supposed to work on their own by reading and referring to books and journals, most of them end up as miserable failures just because of their poor and inadequate reading habits. While teachers focus only on the final outcome, tests and examinations solely depend on the learner’s net result of reading which is expected to get reflected in writing. A serious attempt to follow the reader in his course of reading may reveal the myriads of complexities which the act of reading passes through. This paper is just an attempt of making teachers of English aware of the fact that a learner’s success or failure in his academic pursuit is almost determined by his reading efficiency. Therefore this paper outlines the intricate cognitive processes involved in reading a second language

NWChem: Past, present, and future.

Specialized computational chemistry packages have permanently reshaped the landscape of chemical and materials science by providing tools to support and guide experimental efforts and for the prediction of atomistic and electronic properties. In this regard, electronic structure packages have played a special role by using first-principle-driven methodologies to model complex chemical and materials processes. Over the past few decades, the rapid development of computing technologies and the tremendous increase in computational power have offered a unique chance to study complex transformations using sophisticated and predictive many-body techniques that describe correlated behavior of electrons in molecular and condensed phase systems at different levels of theory. In enabling these simulations, novel parallel algorithms have been able to take advantage of computational resources to address the polynomial scaling of electronic structure methods. In this paper, we briefly review the NWChem computational chemistry suite, including its history, design principles, parallel tools, current capabilities, outreach, and outlook

NWChem: Past, present, and future

Specialized computational chemistry packages have permanently reshaped the landscape of chemical and materials science by providing tools to support and guide experimental efforts and for the prediction of atomistic and electronic properties. In this regard, electronic structure packages have played a special role by using first-principle-driven methodologies to model complex chemical and materials processes. Over the past few decades, the rapid development of computing technologies and the tremendous increase in computational power have offered a unique chance to study complex transformations using sophisticated and predictive many-body techniques that describe correlated behavior of electrons in molecular and condensed phase systems at different levels of theory. In enabling these simulations, novel parallel algorithms have been able to take advantage of computational resources to address the polynomial scaling of electronic structure methods. In this paper, we briefly review the NWChem computational chemistry suite, including its history, design principles, parallel tools, current capabilities, outreach, and outlook

Cell-penetrating peptides in nanodelivery of nucleic acids and drugs

The hydrophobic nature of cell membranes is one of the major obstacles in the therapeutic delivery of nucleic acids and drug-loaded nanoparticles. Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) have the ability to pass biological membranes and enter cells. Due to this intrinsic property, CPPs are employed as vectors for intracellular delivery of nucleic acids and nanoparticles. In this chapter, we first briefly describe the classification and uptake mechanisms of CPPs. Then, we describe the recent therapeutic applications of CPP-modified nanoparticles as drug carriers. In this context, we give an overview of covalent and noncovalent conjugation of CPPs. The second part involves the use of CPPs in nonviral delivery of nucleic acids. Although viral vectors are highly efficient systems for introducing genes, the safety issues with viral systems need to be considered. Nanoparticle-based nonviral vectors provide an attractive alternative, but their gene transfection efficiency is very low. Therefore, novel design strategies are needed to enhance the efficiency. We summarize the use of CPPs in enhancing gene transfer efficiency of nonviral vectors. Besides the clinical potential of currently known CPPs, we also discuss the limitations and the need for designing novel CPPs. © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved