Peer Interaction And Meaning Construction Among Esl Learners In Comprehending Texts In Second Language Context

This study investigates patterns of peer interaction in the context of an English-As-A-Second Language (ESL) Secondary School Classroom, where learners work in groups and pairs on seven different reading tasks. It considers the manifestation of the learners‘ comprehension of the reading texts through the ways they constructed meaning together. The three research questions that served to guide this study are: 1) What are the patterns of interactions employed by ESL secondary school learners when they are engaged in discussions of reading texts? 2) How do the ESL secondary school learners construct meaning during their discussions of the stexts? 3) What are the conditions contributing to the emerging patterns of interactions to arrive at meaning? The study was classroom-based and exploratory in nature. Research was conducted in the natural setting of a classroom and the reading tasks were part of the regular class work. Data for the study came from a number of sources: audio recording of the learners‘ talk as they completed the reading tasks, video recording of the lessons as they progressed, observation notes, a background questionnaire survey, a series of interviews with two groups of learners and the completed tasks. The data were analysed for distinct patterns of interaction and strategy use. The approach to data analysis was qualitative in nature where categories to describe the patterns of interactions emerged from a reiterative analysis of the data. The interviews and survey data of two groups of learners were used for more detailed analysis. Each group represented a distinct pattern of peer interaction. The results from this study are discussed with relation to the sociocultural framework which views human cognitive development as originating from social interaction and language plays a mediating role in that development. Two distinct patterns of interaction were found to predominate in the data: collaborative and dominant/passive. The differences in these patterns were distinguishable in terms of the willingness of group members to work together on all aspects of the task and the willingness to contribute and engage with each other‘s contribution. The collaborative pattern is characterized by the co-construction of meaning where learners worked on understanding, involved and supported each other, ideas were deliberated in great length and developed into something more complex and mutually acceptable. As for the dominant-passive pattern, learners worked together, however, there was limited engagement with each other‘s contribution and ideas. This resulted in brief discussions of aspects of the texts, long pauses, abandonment of discussions, acceptance of shallow answers and dictation of answers by the ‗expert‘ which was rarely challenged by the others in the group. As with the collaborative group, these learners were found to employ reading comprehension strategies frequently, particularly at a more textually explicit level, such as reading aloud part/parts of the texts during the discussions. There was also evidence of the use of higher level reading comprehension strategies, however, these strategies were produced by different individuals in the group and they were often moves that were not followed up and deliberated by the others. These learners were only able to resolve 28% of the textual issues collaboratively and 56% were not resolved at all. The patterns of peer interaction remained largely stable across the different types of reading tasks, classroom instructions (group work and pair work) and across time for more proficient learners. As for the weaker learners, the patterns of peer interaction remained stable across the group tasks, however, when these learners worked in pairs with others who had similar backgrounds and proficiency levels, they demonstrated different interaction behaviours. During these activities, the learners were more active and they employed more discourse strategies, nonetheless, many episodes were not resolved collaboratively and there was still limited engagement with each other‘s contribution. Discussions were generally motivated by the ultimate aim of producing correct or acceptable answers. This was often emphasized by the teacher in her instructions and during class discussions. Because of these expectations, the more knowledgeable learners‘ were found to summarize and dictate the answers and make moves to reread and amend these answers until they felt satisfied. The efforts to produce correct or acceptable answers had also led the learners, especially those from the dominant-passive group, to stay close to the texts and to find meanings from the texts instead of exploring possible interpretations. Differences in the patterns of peer interaction and their characteristics can be explained by certain conditions that form the situational context in which the interactions take place. In this study, the conditions contributing to the emerging patterns of interaction were found to be the learners‘ proficiency in the L2 and their orientation to the activity, which were shaped by their motives, goals and perceived roles. Other conditions that helped shape the ways the learners construct meaning were the teacher and her instructional beliefs and practice and her selection of tasks. The results have important pedagogical implications, particularly for the practice of using pair and group work to promote comprehension of L2 texts in the second language reading classrooms

Real-time and Continuous Infant Health Monitoring System

Continuous monitoring of physiological parameters for infants is necessary because infants are very vulnerable and carmot feedback health complaints. Recent technological advances in sensors and low-power integrated circuits have enabled the design of lowcost, miniature, lightweight, and intelligent physiological sensor nodes. These nodes, capable of sensing, processing, and communicating one or more vital signs of human body, can be seamlessly integrated into a body network for health monitoring for infant. These networks promise to transform health care by allowing inexpensive, continuous, ambulatory health monitoring with almost real-time and continuous updates. The objective of this project is to come out with the conceptual system of the Real-Time and Continuous Wireless Infant Health Monitoring System and to translate the conceptual system into a working physical prototype. The prototype will consist of a transmitter node which is interfaced with temperature sensor which is placed at the infant, and a receiver node which receives data from the transmitter node and notifY the parent or caregiver according to the predefined situations. The scope of study for this project will be divided into three main parts; Temperature Sensor and Microcontroller Implementation. The author has started the project with the preliminary research in order to gather all the information regarding the project. After that, the author proceeds to two of the main scopes of the project, which is to design the temperature sensor and heart rate sensor. The chosen temperature sensor to be used in the project is LM35D IC which has the accuracy of almost ± 0.25 °C. The signal from the temperature sensor is then amplified in order to provide better resolution and sensitivity of the analog to digital conversion. The next part of this project is to implement a transmitter node to the temperature sensor so that the data can be captured and transmitted almost real time to the receiving node. Asynchronous serial data communication is used as a way to communicate between the transmitter and receiver node

Practical Volatility Modeling for Financial Market Risk Management

Being able to choose most suitable volatility model and distribution specification is a more demanding task. This paper introduce an analyzing procedure using the Kullback-Leibler information criteria (KLIC) as a statistical tool to evaluate and compare the predictive abilities of possibly misspecified density forecast models. The main advantage of this statistical tool is that we use the censored likelihood functions to compute the tail minimum of the KLIC, to compare the performance of a density forecast models in the tails. We include an illustrative simulation and an empirical application to compare a set of distributions, including symmetric/asymmetric distribution, and a family of GARCH volatility models. We highlight the use of our approach to a daily index, the Kuala Lumpur Composite index (KLCI). Our results shows that the choice of the conditional distribution appear to be a more dominant factor in determining the adequacy of density forecasts than the choice of volatility model. Furthermore, the results support the Skewed for KLCI return distribution.Density forecast; Conditional distribution; Forecast accuracy; KLIC; GARCH models

Sociocultural contextualization and substance use disorder (SUD) interventions among Asian Americans

The sociocultural realities of Asian Americans have not yet been intensively incorporated into the counseling practice and research field. This paper aims to develop an analytical understanding of the sociocultural of Asian American clients in light of the Model Minority concept, a cultural label that enables public stereotypes to convey oversimplified images of Asian Americans. This conceptual paper will review and analyze a variety of interventions that are culturally congruent with the needs of Asian American clients with substance use disorders (SUD), including Family Systems Therapy and 12-Step Programs. From July 2020 to January 2021, the author of this study conducted a desk-based data collection and analysis of 100 journal articles, government reports, and newspapers to gain an understanding of the sociocultural contextualization of substance use disorders (SUD) interventions among Asian Americans. On a macro level, this paper will enable mental health professionals such as psychologists and social workers to understand how the dominant values and assumptions of American society influence and shape Asian American life experiences. This knowledge is important, as it will allow mental health professionals to engage in social action to bring change that improves the quality of life for Asian American clients, and other marginalized populations across the world

Foreign investment in real estate and housing affordability

Foreign Investment in Real Estate (FIRE) is gradually becoming an important source of capital to many emerging markets in the world. In one hand, FIRE helps to improve the performance of real estate sector and subsequently upgrade the level of income of host countries. However, on the other hand, the inflows of FIRE may have the effect of increasing the house price. Hence, this study attempts to fill up the under-researched area of pressing issue surrounding the implications of FIRE inflows on host country’s affordability level by focusing on the experience of emerging real estate markets. The approach is specifically designed to be as informative as possible in offering the benefits and costs of luring FIRE into the host countries with respect to house affordability. Generally, this study found that FIRE is beneficial in increasing national income but might be offset by increasing house price

Hubungan dinamik antara inflasi kemeruapan inflasi dan pertumbuhan output: Bukti empirikal di Malaysia

Purpose – The main purpose of this study was to analyse the dynamic relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty and output growth in Malaysia for the period 1980 to 2004. Design/Methodology/Approach – The EGARCH model was used to estimate the infl ation uncertainty and the Vector Autoregressive (VAR) technique, which includes the Granger causality test, was employed in the investigation of dynamic relationships between these variables. Findings – There was significant evidence on the existence of one way positive relationships between inflation and inflation uncertainty in Malaysia. Further investigation showed that a high inflation level tends to have a negative effect on output growth. However, there was no significant evidence on the relationship between inflation uncertainty and output growth. Originality/Value – This paper explores the time varying volatility of inflation in Malaysia and investigates the dynamic relationship between inflation, inflation uncertainty, and output growth

The Impact of the Recent Global Financial Crisis on Deal Structures of Mergers & Acquisitions from a Malaysian Perspective

The perceived slowdown in the number of mergers and acquisitions (“M&As”) within the Malaysian landscape poses contradictory arguments. Sluggish conditions would logically be an opportunity for least affected companies which are cash rich to embark on an expansion phase or companies with low leverage to potentially gear up to grow through M&As. However, the perception of depressed valuations may not necessarily prompt an influx of M&A activities, as sentiments and liquidity constraints may hinder expansion vibes. Past studies on M&As tend to focus on the value creation/ destruction properties, the execution/ integration challenges and market reaction/ wealth creation pursuant to deal announcements. There is a gap in literature in terms of whether there is a difference in undertaking expansion through M&As during a market down-cycle such as the recent global financial crisis. This study attempts to analyse M&A deal structure differences, assessed from a general overview of transaction quantum , strategy (seen from industry participation, rationale and cross-border transactions) and valuation basis (with emphasis on price-earnings (“PE”) and price book (“PB”) multiples); with a focus on the mode of settlement of purchase consideration and the corresponding signalling properties. The research methodology adopted is a mixture of both quantitative and qualitative research methods, based on information contained in Circulars to Shareholders released to the local Exchange (“Circulars”) and a survey questionnaire targeted at M&A practitioners. The perceived differences between the general modes of settlement post-crisis are not found to be statistically significant. Although the differences across the low, mid and high range transaction values are found to be statistically significant, they do not provide conclusive support that the higher the transaction size, the higher the use of share settlement. Only 3 signalling properties are supported by the survey findings i.e. acquirers’ careful deliberation of the effects of share deals in view of internal/ external implications, the positive relationship between strong valuation of acquirer shares and the likelihood of share issuance and the reduction in the proportion of post-crisis cash acquisitions financed by borrowings. On valuation, intrinsic value and fair value are found more prevalent post-crisis. Although the average PE & PB multiples increase in the post-crisis sample, only the PB multiples changes appear to be statistically significant. M&A rationale mostly cited in the Circular/ survey appear to be market share growth, core competences enhancement, industry consolidation and related diversification. Resources-based, infrastructure and financial services industries’ dominance of the M&A pie appear to be growing at the expense of GDP-sensitive sectors. Inbound international M&As have about doubled in transaction share mainly in strategic industries whilst a 3% share increase is noted for outbound M&As particularly for heavy industries, telecommunications, industrial and consumer products sectors. By understanding the differences (or otherwise) of the findings with respect to a few aspects of deal structures compared to expectations, it is hoped that the perspective of Malaysian companies with regards to the pursuance of M&A activities during market slowdown is understood, as a general guide for academics and practitioners to understand the relevant market dynamics, going forward

ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATORY STRINGENCY, CORRUPTION, AND FDI: NEW EVIDENCE FROM A PANEL OF COUNTRIES

Previous literatures on both studies of pollution haven and FDI-corruption nexus have produced inconclusive results. This study uses Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) to address potential endogeneity of independent variables and country-specific effects issues when assessing the relationship between foreign direct investment (FDI), stringency of environmental regulations and corruption. FDI inflows are found to be discouraged by stricter environmental regulations and high level of corruption will induce FDI. Surprisingly, we find new evidence that both effects are changed after each of them exceeds threshold levels. Countries have to pass the threshold levels in order to gain positive impact of both stricter regulations and low level of corruption

Test FOR Dynamic Relationship between Financial Development and Economic Growth in Malaysia: A Vector Error Correction Modeling Approach

This paper purports to study the effectiveness of financial development to Malaysian economic growth utilizing quarterly data. In view of the priority given to dynamic relationship in conducting this study, Vector Autoregressive (VAR) method which encompasses Johansen-Juselius’ Multivariate cointegration, Vector Error Correction Model (VECM), Impulse Response Function (IRF), and Variance Decomposition (VDC) are used as empirical evidence. The result reveals a short-term and long-term dynamic relationship between financial development and economic growth. The importance of financial sector in influencing the economic activity is proven as a clear policy implication