The Influence Of Interventions On Reading Comprehension In A Second And Foreign Language

Reading comprehension is one of the crucial skills for the students enrolled or planning to enroll in language learning courses at North American universities. In order to be able to read academic texts, the students need to develop strong comprehension skills. The present study plays an important role in the field of second/foreign language (L2/FL) acquisition due to its attempt to investigate those classroom practices that can foster reading comprehension among international students learning English as a second language and American students learning German as a foreign language. The present study analyzes the influence of two interventions on reading comprehension of L2/FL college-level students. While some research described the positive effect of vocabulary knowledge (Anderson and Freebody, 1984; Laufer, 1997, Carlo et al., 2004) and prior acquisition of information (Palincsar and Brown, 1984; Anderson, 1999, Mehrpour and Rahimi, 2010) on students\u27 performance on reading comprehension tasks, there is not enough research in the body of knowledge involving both ESL and German as a foreign language learners. This work draws on a quantitative study of three groups presented with three articles and a series of post-reading tasks. The data for this study stem from the tests that each group completed within a period of three weeks. The present study allows the researcher to gain more insights into the complexity of reading comprehension process of L2/FL learners, and the results of this research can be beneficial for instructors working with L2/FL college-level learners

Quinolone-isoniazid hybrids: Synthesis and preliminary in vitro cytotoxicity and anti-tuberculosis evaluation

Herein, we propose novel quinolones incorporating an INH moiety as potential drug templates against TB. The quinolone-based compounds bearing an INH moiety attached via a hydrazide–hydrazone bond were synthesised and evaluated against Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv (MTB). The compounds were also evaluated for cytotoxicity against HeLa cell lines. These compounds showed significant activity (MIC90) against MTB in the range of 0.2–8 μM without any cytotoxic effects. Compounds 10 (MIC90; 0.9 μM), 11 (MIC90; 0.2 μM), 12 (MIC90; 0.8 μM) and compound 15 (MIC90; 0.8 μM), the most active compounds in this series, demonstrate activities on par with INH and superior to those reported for the fluoroquinolones. The SAR analysis suggests that the nature of substituents at positions −1 and −3 of the quinolone nucleus influences anti-MTB activity. Aqueous solubility evaluation and in vitro metabolic stability of compound 12 highlights favourable drug-like properties for this compound class