The Relationship between Reading Strategy Use and EFL Test Performance

There has been a steady interest in investigating the relationship between strategy use and English as a foreign language (EFL) test performance. Despite numerous studies on strategy use, the relationship between the two is still not clear. This paper reports on a study that investigated the use of reading strategies in the Secondary Education Examination English reading test and the relationship between reading strategy use and the test performance. A sample of 312 EFL learners studying at Grade 10 in Nepal participated in this study. They were asked to take the test and then respond to a reading strategy questionnaire. The quantitative software SPSS (version 20) was used to analyze the data. The results indicated that participants were active strategy users, and they used cognitive strategies more frequently than metacognitive strategies. A significant relationship was identified between reading strategy use and EFL proficiency; high-proficiency learners reported significantly higher use of reading strategies than moderate-proficiency learners, who in turn reported higher use of those strategies than their low-proficiency peers. Implications of these findings for EFL teaching and recommendations for further research are discussed

Construct validity of the Nepalese school leaving english reading test

There has been a steady interest in investigating the validity of language tests in the last decades. Despite numerous studies on construct validity in language testing, there are not many studies examining the construct validity of a reading test. This paper reports on a study that explored the construct validity of the English reading test in the Nepalese school leaving examination. Eight students were asked to take the test and think-aloud, followed by retrospective interviews. Additionally, seven experts were asked to make judgments regarding the skills tested by the test. The findings provide grounded insights into students’ response behaviors prompted by the reading tasks, and indicate some threats to the construct validity of the test. Additionally, the study reports a low level of agreement among the experts, and a big gap between the skills used by the students and the skills that the experts thought were being examined by the test

Evolutionary gaming approach for decision making of Tier-3 Internet service provider networks migration to SoDIP6 networks

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Dawadi, BR, Rawat, DB, Joshi, SR, Manzoni, P. Evolutionary gaming approach for decision making of Tier-3 Internet service provider networks migration to SoDIP6 networks. Int J Commun Syst. 2020; 33:e4399, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/dac.4399. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.[EN] With the increasing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, current networking world is suffering in terms of management and operations with lack of IPv4 addresses leading to issues like network address translation (NAT) proliferation, security and quality of services. Software-defined networking (SDN) and Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) are the new networking paradigms evolved to address related issues of legacy IPv4 networking. To adapt with global competitive environment and avoid all existing issues in legacy networking system, network service providers have to migrate their networks into IPv6 and SDN-enabled networks. But immediate transformations of existing network are not viable due to several factors like higher cost of migration, lack of technical human resources, lack of standards and protocols during transitions, and many more. In this paper, we present the migration analysis for proper decision making of network transition in terms of customer demand, traffic engineering, and organizational strength with operation expenditure for network migration using evolutionary gaming approach. Joint migration to SDN-enabled IPv6 network from game theoretic perspective is modeled and is validated using numerical results obtained from simulations. Our empirical analysis shows the evolutionary process of network migration while different internal and external factors in the organization affect the overall migration. Evolutionary game in migration planning is supportive in decision making for service providers to develop suitable strategy for their network migration. The proposed approach for migration decision making is mostly applicable to fairly sustained service providers who lack economics, regulation/policy, and resources strengths.ERASMUS+, Grant/Award Number: KA107; UGC-NP, Grant/Award Number: FRG-074/75-Engg-01; NTNU-EnPE-MSESSD; US National Science Foundation, Grant/Award Numbers: CNS 1650831, HRD 1828811; NASTDawadi, BR.; Rawat, DB.; Joshi, SR.; Manzoni, P. (2020). Evolutionary gaming approach for decision making of Tier-3 Internet service provider networks migration to SoDIP6 networks. 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Roles of Planning and Tasks in EFL Performance

There is a substantial body of research into the effects of planning time on second language (L2) oral performance, but different effects were found – some of them showing increased accuracy, others increased complexity and/or fluency of language. In this study, 30 English as a foreign language learner individually performed a narrative and an argumentative task under planned and unplanned conditions. Then, ten of the participants took part in a retrospective debriefing. Both the oral narratives and retrospective reports were transcribed and analyzed manually. The results revealed that planning led to syntactically more varied but less accurate language whilst fluency remained unaffected. Significant effects of task type could be observed, with argumentation outperforming narration on most measures. In addition, an interaction between planning and task type was statistically proven for almost all measures of fluency and for a single measure of complexity. Furthermore, most participants had positive attitudes towards pre-task planning. The findings also suggest that choosing suitable task-based implementational conditions can assist L2 learners in improving oral performances

DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF CHELATING COMPOUNDS AND SOLID-SUPPORTED CHELATORS FOR METAL DEPLETED SOLUTIONS

Metals are essential to life, yet they can be toxic for biological systems when present in excessive amounts. The major source of metal overload in humans is diet; and in some cases, intravenous feeding. Thus the removal of toxic metal ions from contaminated clinical products such as total parenteral nutrition (TPN) solutions, and drinking and waste water is extremely important. The use of chelating resins, which are polymeric solids containing covalently immobilized chelating compounds, for the selective removal of metal ions from contaminated solutions has been conceptualized long ago. Herein, the design and synthesis of metal specific chelating compounds and chelating resins will be presented, along with the application of these materials to remove toxic metals from aqueous solutions. Solution phase hydroxamate based chelating compounds have been synthesized for the selective binding of trivalent metals such as iron and aluminum in the presence of divalent metals such as calcium. Iron complexation behavior of these solution phase chelating compounds has been studied by UV-Vis Spectrophotometric methods. These hydroxamate chelators have potential applications as chelating agents in the treatment of iron and aluminum overload. A set of the strongly binding chelators have been immobilized on solid support via various linkages. These solid supported chelators have been employed to selectively remove aluminum from contaminated TPN components such as a solution of calcium gluconate. Our resins are able to remove more than 90% of aluminum from commercial calcium gluconate solutions. This technology of employing hydroxamate functionalized resins for the removal of aluminum from calcium gluconate solution will be available in hospitals soon and will greatly benefit premature neonates who receive TPN solutions for life support. Additionally, citramide functionalized chelating resins have been prepared for the removal of trivalent metals from contaminated solutions at low pH, and dithiolate based chelating resins were prepared for the removal of high priority environmental metal toxins such as lead, cadmium, mercury, and arsenic. Overall, this dissertation embodies the design, synthesis, and metal binding studies of novel chelators and chelating resins and the applications of these resins for the selective removal of metal ions from contaminated solutions

Impact of the Secondary Education Examination (English) on Students and Parents in Nepal

This study aimed at investigating the impact of the secondary education examination English test on students and their parents in Nepal. It was conducted with Grade 10 students (N=247) and their parents (N=6) in Nepal. It employed a mixed methods methodology comprising a longitudinal survey (pre-test and post-test survey) with students, oral diaries recorded by six students intermittently for three months and interviews with those six students and their parents both in the pre-test and post-test context. The test impacts were critically examined through the lens of critical language testing theory. The findings suggest that the majority of students (79%) were motivated to learn English in the pre-test context, but not in the post-test context. Most students and their parents had positive attitudes towards the test fairness and accuracy in the pre-test context but they considered the test to be unfair and inaccurate in the post-test context. They reported feeling extremely anxious about the test and under enormous pressure to raise test scores. The test had huge impact on learning English; students’ learning was limited to the test contents and they rarely used the strategies that develop their English language skills. Parents provided any possible support to their children for the test preparation. They even tended to coerce their children to use certain strategies for the test preparation and to work very hard for the test. However, individual differences were observed in each case. Despite the fact that the test supported students to study the subject of their choice at higher secondary level, the overwhelming majority of students had difficulty in learning different subjects taught through English at Grade 11. Thus, the study provided a set of implications for teaching English in an English as a foreign language context along with some recommendations for the improvement of the test and for future research

Effects of task repetition on EFL oral performance

There is considerable research into the effects of task repetition (TR) on second language (L2) performance but the results are not yet conclusive. However, some patterns are emerging in the findings such as TR in most cases seems to trigger more fluent language. Unfortunately, limited attention has been paid to L2 learners’ perceptions of TR. In this study, 40 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners were asked to repeat a task, three days after they first performed the task. On both performances, they performed the task as soon as they received instructions. The results indicated that TR triggered more complex and fluent, but less accurate, narratives. Post-task interviews indicated that the majority of learners had positive attitudes towards TR; they were more confident second time around because of their familiarity with the task. The finding of the study that TR promoted fluency and accuracy might have some pedagogical implications for EFL teaching