Comparing frequency and Trueness Scale Descriptors in a Likert Scale Questionnaire on Language Learning Strategies

This paper reports on the comparison of two types of scale descriptors in a questionnaire on language learning strategies.The main purpose of this study was to investigate which type of the two scale descriptors,frequency-based or trueness-based,is better for language learning strategy research. With a few weeks\u27 interval,a questionnaire on learning strategies was administered to 408 EFL learner twice with frequency-based scale descriptors and trueness-based scale descriptors alternately. First, mean differences in the responses obtained from the two different scale descriptors were examined.Second,confirmatory factor analysis was applied to see which scale descriptor of the two shows better fit to the hypothesized model. Finally,equidistance between the categories was checked. Results show that trueness-based scale descriptors elicited slightly higher mean values of responses, which resulted in a better fit to the model. The distances between the categories were almost identical for both scale descriptors.The findings of the current study partially provide supportive evidence for the claim made by Dornyei and his colleagues that trueness-based scale descriptors are preferable to frequency-based counterparts in a questionnaire on learning.But they also show that the latter descriptors are not totally “flawed” as was claimed

Study of Three-Dimensionally Ordered Structures of Intact Mitochondria by Small-Angle Neutron Scattering

The ultrastructure of cristae of intact mitochondria, in which the activity of the oxidative phosphorylation system was retained, was investigated by sinall-angle neutron scattering. Osmotic swelling of organelles was found to cause ultrastructural rearrangements of the inner mitochondrial membrane in rat liver and heart mitochondria. This process was accompanied by the appearance of diffraction peaks indicative of the formation of ordered structures. The lamellar packing of the membranes in heart mitochondria, which is observed under normal conditions, was found to undergo a transition to a nonlamellar hexagonal packing, whose scattering curve shows two peaks with the scattering vectors characterized by a spacing ratio of 1 : root(3) over bar. The electron-microscopy results confirm the possibility of the formation of a hexagonal packing of the inner membrane in heart mitochondria