Essential Vocabulary Research Articles

Essential Vocabulary for Enhancing Science and Math Learning in 2nd and 3rd Grades: Recovery and Acceleration

En este estudio se buscó identificar el vocabulario académico general y disciplinar relevante para el logro de los objetivos curriculares de matemáticas y de ciencias naturales de segundo y tercero básico, y construir pruebas para evaluar su dominio. Para ello se realizó un análisis de las palabras presentes en los materiales curriculares, que se codificaron según tipo y objetivos de aprendizaje. Posteriormente se realizó una selección de palabras para evaluar según frecuencia y relevancia para los objetivos. Para estas palabras se desarrollaron preguntas receptivas y productivas que fueron sometidas al juicio de dos expertos en didáctica de las matemáticas y tres expertos en didáctica de las ciencias, a partir del cual se diseñaron las pruebas piloto. Estas pruebas fueron administradas a 43 estudiantes de segundo básico y 34 de tercero básico en dos escuelas subvencionadas de Santiago. Un análisis psicométrico básico mostró que las tres pruebas tienen buena consistencia interna, y un análisis de correlaciones con pruebas de logro de matemáticas y ciencias administradas por las escuelas aportó evidencia de su validez. Se discuten implicancias prácticas de este estudio para la recuperación y aceleración de aprendizajes a través de la enseñanza del vocabulario académico.

Unveiling the Lecturers’ and Students' Needs in English for Public Administration Program: Essential Vocabulary Topics, Instructional Methods, and Learning Challenges

The lack of attention given in scholarly research to the particular requirements of Public Administration has resulted in a knowledge deficit to suit students' interests in this discipline. Prior research has predominantly examined the quantitative dimensions of vocabulary acquisition while neglecting to adequately consider the qualitative aspects, including comprehension and language use, in a contextually appropriate manner. This study aims to fill in these knowledge deficits by investigating vocabulary themes or topics related to Public Administration, evaluating existing instructional approaches and challenges, and suggesting enhancements to bolster students' English language proficiency in Public Administration. The study employs a qualitative methodology, including an open-ended questionnaire and in-depth interviews with four lecturers and 100 first-year students from three universities in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The findings revealed that the English for Public Administration curriculum requires a diverse vocabulary of topics from administration, management, and governance to more nuanced areas such as economics, finance, taxation, social and ethics, technology and digitalization, leadership, and regulation and law. Various teaching and assessment strategies regarding instructional methods, including interactive and collaborative methods, technology integration, and contextual learning, suggest the importance of engaging students with diverse and practically relevant content to prepare them for the multifarious nature of public sector roles. Students, however, found some challenges in the complexity of the Public Administration vocabulary, highlighting the need for tailoring educational strategies, such as project-based learning and vocabulary reinforcement techniques, to overcome these obstacles. The study's findings have substantial implications for policymakers, curriculum developers, and lecturers specializing in public administration education.

한국어교육학과 언어병리학 그리고 청각학의 학문 간 융합 연구 시론

In order to expand the research area of Korean language pedagogy, this paper attempted to explore convergence research tasks with academic fields that have the commonality of Korean, such as Speech-Language Pathology and auditory studies. Speech-Language pathology is essentially an academic field that seeks ways to solve problems for people who have communication problems. Audiology is also an academic field that focuses on how to overcome communication difficulties using speech sounds based on the perception characteristics of speech sounds. As such, the need for convergence research to solve tasks that are difficult to solve independently in each academic field is great in that they are interested in the nature of Korean and its usage patterns. In the field of Speech-Language Pathology, in order to solve problems related to language development, standards for accurately measuring the degree of language development and treating people with delayed development or disabilities are needed. Although there is a need for convergence research with the Korean Language Pedagogy on how to prepare standards and guide language functions such as reading, writing, speaking, and listening, as well as essential vocabulary and grammar dlements used in everyday life, according to age and school age, such research has not been sufficiently conducted. There is no standard for treating this because it does not clearly present clear standards for language ability development, and it is difficult to present appropriate and effective educational methods in terms of educational methodology. In this regard, it was argued that future research on the development and rehabilitation methods of language development diagnostic tools should be conducted. In the field of Audiology, research related to the development of speech perception test tools is needed. For full communication, it is necessary to develop a tool that can test the communication ability of words, phrases, sentences, and discourse units beyond the stimulation of speech sounds at the phoneme level. Although there are differences in educational methods depending on the subject of education, linguistic pathology, and audiology, the fundamental content of education is very large. In the case of researchers, there may be a tendency to think that Korean language pedagogy has conducted relatively more research related to the characteristics of the Korean language than speech-language pathology and audiology. However, it is necessary to acknowledge that the research results on the nature of the Korean language required by neighboring disciplines are insignificant, and to conduct research to identify the nature and usage patterns of the Korean language through communication and cooperation with neighboring disciplines.

CLIL or EMI? A Case Study of Non-English in-Service Teachers Teaching Reflection in an International School

Content Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) and English Medium Instruction (EMI) have been adopted in many institutions ever since the use of English is required for businesses, education, and job opportunities. This results in the establishment and development of international schools countrywide in EFL countries especially in Thailand as an alternative educational route for those wanting to experience an international learning environment and/or simply to enhance English language ability. The aim of this case study is to investigate the context that non-English in-service teachers reflect when teaching in an international school context. Nine participants who are currently teaching in a large international school in Bangkok were recruited for a semi-structured interview on their instructional strategies for non-English subjects. Thematic analysis was used as an approach to thematize the transcript in the pedagogical reflection of CLIL and EMI. Although an international school is expected to fully adopt the EMI practice, the finding shows that most teachers’ teaching practice reflects the CLIL approach. The influence of choosing CLIL as a major approach was due to concerns in readiness relating to essential vocabulary necessary for learning content subjects and students’ native language background. Although a clear boundary of CLIL and EMI could not be clearly defined in current literature, recommendations on future research and teacher’s training are discussed.

VOCABULARY BENCHMARKING FOR THE COMPREHENSION OF CEFR-ALIGNED ASSESSMENT READING TEXTS

In Malaysia, research on the essential vocabulary for academic comprehension among pre-university and university ESL students is rather limited. This study introduces the "Comprehension Corpus" to pinpoint critical words vital for reading understanding. This study aims to develop the Malaysian University English Test (MUET) Reading Corpus, in order to identify the vital vocabulary for text comprehension and the specific categories or word lists that improve reading based on their texts coverage in the text. In addition, the vocabulary size needed to comprehend the comprehension texts was identified. By analysing CEFR-aligned texts using tools like RANGE BNC-COCA and WordSmith, it was found that to comprehend 98% of the content, students needed familiarity with 8,000-word families. this extensive demand, a streamlined list of 100 words, grouped by frequent topics and enhanced with the New General Service List (NGSL) and New Academic Word List (NAWL), was developed. The research underscores the necessity for educators to adopt targeted vocabulary teaching methods, highlighting the interplay between vocabulary breadth and reading comprehension. This tailored approach aids teachers in addressing students' specific lexical needs, ensuring more effective academic reading outcomes.

The Technology of Climate Adaptive Building Shells (CABS) In Improving Environmental & Economic Efficiency

Designing buildings with high environmental and economic efficiency has recently become very difficult, and the ecological problems of the whole world have become realistic and require radical solutions. As 20 - 60% of the total energy used in buildings is affected in their enclosures design and construction, consider adopting sustainable energy efficiency strategies in their design and construction. In the past, factors such as society, economy, and technology influenced architecture, prompting architects to develop innovative design theories, particularly after the industrial revolution and the devastation it left in the environment, such as pollution and natural resource consumption, as well as the phenomenon of heat islands. In addition, many factors such as society, economy, and technology led to the idea of active adaptive smart buildings emerged as these factors have provided technological advances in electrical control systems, computer engineering, information technology, artificial intelligence, electronic science and materials science, opportunities for the use of motor building systems in architecture and its components. Therefore, it introduced the concept of active, interactive, moving and adaptive facades instead of the traditional fixed facades, which are characterised by interacting with the surrounding environment through many technologies that improve the economic and internal environment of the building and its efficiency to make the building sustainable. CABS work with the concepts of adaptability, versatility, and evolution. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the research, design and development efforts in the CABS system field. Based on the study of the theoretical framework, a classification is made to place a variety of concepts in one context. Thus, a measurement ruler is reached that includes an essential vocabulary and indicators that can characterise the CABS so that the research can measure its level of effectiveness in the examples selected. Keywords: adaptive facades, CABS, economic efficiency, environmental efficiency, adaptability, sustainable energy. DOI: 10.7176/JETP/12-2-06 Publication date: July 30 th 2022

Out-of-the-classroom learning of English vocabulary by EFL learners: investigating the effectiveness of mobile assisted learning with digital flashcards

The importance of vocabulary knowledge as one of the most challenging aspects of foreign language learning has been widely acknowledged. In order to facilitate learning vocabulary items in English by language learners, mobile assisted vocabulary learning attracted considerable attention in recent years. Nevertheless, the application of mobile devices for learning the most frequently used vocabulary items in core vocabulary lists received far less attention. To address this gap, the current study investigated the contribution of a digital flashcard application (i.e. NGSL builder) designed for smartphone devices in out-of-the-classroom learning of essential vocabulary in English among EFL learners. The participants were 86 university students in experimental and control groups. In addition to formal language education during a semester, the experimental group used the mobile application for studying vocabulary items outside the classroom, while the control group used traditional materials (i.e. word list) to study the same content. The participants’ vocabulary knowledge was measured in three times (pre, post, and delayed posttest), and the results revealed that the use of mobile applications contributed significantly to vocabulary knowledge development, and those in the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group. The findings also provided empirical evidence for the long-term impacts of mobile-assisted vocabulary learning. The study highlights the significance of mobile technologies in helping L2 learners to acquire essential vocabulary in English and discusses the pedagogical implications of these findings.

Teaching Keywords and Their Collocational Profiles in Marine Engineering English: A Qualitative and Quantitative Approach

This study describes a systematic approach to identify the essential vocabulary of marine engineering reference texts (handbooks, manuals) using ConcGram 1.0 (Greaves, 2009). The aim is to identify the most frequent words and word clusters (collocations and set phrases) in a 450,000-word corpus of authentic marine engineering documents (MARENGDOC), and then to categorize frequent noun and verb phrases for teaching purposes. This study applies a computer-mediated research methodology, concgramming, in order to determine how individual marine engineering keywords can help to reveal the features of marine engineering discourse, and to design more relevant teaching materials for students of marine engineering English. For practical purposes, this study covers the top 20 keywords and analyses them with specific attention to their main collocates.

Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science

While evolution is widely and confidently taught in high schools across the country, there are some educators who struggle with the topic. There are a variety of reasons for this. Some states prohibit the teaching of evolution in public schools, and sometimes teachers lack the background knowledge on the topic, while others simply choose not to contend with the possibility of pushback from the community. Middle and elementary school teachers are the most likely to lack coursework and training to teach evolution.The Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science (TIES) is a teacher-led organization that was started for the sole purpose of creating and curating quality, free resources to teachers who are teaching evolution. Their mission is to provide elementary and middle school teachers the tools they need to effectively teach evolution and answer its critics based on the Next Generation Science Standards. There is a team of over 80 teachers who contribute to TIES, testing, writing, and recommending educational materials, as well as conducting professional development workshops to help support science teachers at all levels.The website is organized with nine pages: About, Teacher Materials, Workshops, Online Workshops, TIES book, Webinars, TIES TiPs, Contribute Resources, and Join TIES. The Teacher Materials page contains dozens of resources of all varieties. There are complete evolutionary biology units for middle school and high school (in both English and Spanish) that can be delivered in person or completely virtually. The Ready-To-Go evolution units have a collection of activities and notes that any science teacher can use to effectively address all the NGSS middle and high school evolution standards. Answer keys are provided on request.The Ready-To-Go unit for grades 6–8 includes three bell-ringer activities, classroom presentation with all essential vocabulary, background on the work of Charles Darwin, evidence of evolution and natural selection, and links to extension activities. There is also an assortment of hands-on investigations that provide notes and support for teachers, regardless of their expertise, to facilitate hands-on evolution simulations. These include lab activities where students simulate the natural selection of bird beaks and coloration of peppered moths. There are also online games that have been vetted by experienced life science teachers along with general online resources for teaching evolution.The site also has Ready-To-Go units for high school and elementary grades (3–5) that address all the NGSS LS4-Biological Evolution: Unity and Diversity standards.On the workshop page, users will find upcoming and past TIES workshops. There is a recorded workshop that walks the viewer through how to use the entire Ready-To-Go unit with all the supplemental materials linked on the online workshops page. The TIES book with all of its resources can be found on the TIES book page. Additionally, there are recorded and upcoming webinars from presentations by classroom teachers, scientists, and authors. These webinars would be helpful to teachers who are looking to refresh their content knowledge or to learn more about current research in the field of evolutionary science.From complete units to individual activities and professional learning, the Teacher Institute for Evolutionary Science has something for every biology, middle school, and elementary teacher to make sure their students have a deep and comprehensive understanding of evolution.

Finno-Ugric words in the Russian dialects of Yakutia

This article analyzes the lexical Finno-Ugric borrowings that appeared in the speech of the Slavs and the aboriginal population of Yakutia with the arrival of the Russians to the northeast Siberia in the 17th century. More than three centuries ago, the Russians, who came from the northern provinces of Russia, introduced the essential vocabulary necessary for the daily life of the people of that time into the active vocabulary of the northern region’s population. Most of the words from the Finno-Ugric languages denoted new concepts and did not have synonyms in Russian, for example, viska, edoma, laida, etc. This research investigates and illustrates the most significant thematic groups of the borrowed words, gives lexical-semantic characteristics of the analyzed notions, and determines the basic word-building patterns. This article presents the results of a linguistic experiment on the interpretation of words, which was conducted in 2021 among the students of Ammosov North-Eastern Federal University to determine the relevance of the Finno-Ugric layer of vocabulary in the modern communicative situation of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). The authors of the article conclude that the studied lexical borrowings, which became widespread on the territory of the republic several centuries ago, underwent some changes, became the basis for the formation of new words, became part of not only the modern Russian literary language, but also other languages of the republic, where they are part of the active vocabulary.

Extensive viewing of children’s entertainment and the potential for incidental learning of early years reading vocabulary: a corpus study

This study evaluates the potential for incidentally learning early reading vocabulary through the extensive viewing (EV) of children’s movies/television with subtitles. Recent research has investigated how much exposure to important vocabulary EV and extensive reading (ER) provides. Investigations compute the number of repetitions of target vocabulary in corpora designed to represent EV/ER. Curriculum time estimates are then computed based on the time needed to reach vocabulary repetition thresholds linked to incidental learning. This study focuses on an understudied area of EV, namely children’s transition to literacy. It investigates whether early reading vocabulary is available in children’s movies/television, a form of compelling, comprehensible input. Recent research has found vocabulary acquisition gains from EV are enhanced by subtitles. Therefore, this study analyses 743 subtitles from children’s movies (4.8 million words) and 3174 subtitles from children’s series (6.4 million words). Using two recent wordlists representing early reading vocabulary, vocabulary frequency and approximate curriculum time estimates are computed for three thresholds linked to incidental vocabulary acquisition, i.e. 6, 12 and 20 encounters. Results indicate that EV with subtitles could support the development of an oral language vocabulary that contains a pool of words needed for early reading, and provide print exposure to this essential vocabulary.

Mini Texts: A Fusion of Grammar, Communication and Vocabulary Development in CLT (Communicative Language Teaching)

Rich and adequate input is the first and foremost condition for perfect language learning, other important things come later in order to achieve the goal of developing communicative competence in a language learning process in an EFL or ESL setting. In this context, Communicative Language Learning (CLT) is still the most prevalent approach of English language learning/teaching field both in ESL and EFL settings. In EFL settings CLT is adopted nowadays with some reservations. One solution to the drawbacks of CLT is "mini texts" in order to provide rich and adequate language input as they subsume grammar, communication, and most importantly, adequate vocabulary development. Objectives: The main objective is to critically assess the role of mini texts in order to provide rich and adequate language input for language learning. Method: Collaborative action research design was adopted to assess the outcome of teaching "mini texts" under improved communicative approach. Brief written and oral performance tests of class ten students were used as the tools of evaluation. Purposive sampling was used for the selection of thirty schools in three districts of the Kathmandu Valley whereas random sampling was used to select the respondent students of mixed ability for the written and oral performance test. The test items for the test were easy enough to be answered by average students of even lower classes. The test items were based on fixed criteria: different elements of grammatical competence to write and speak correctly, and also on some essential aspects of informal colloquial English used in fast spoken English. Pre-test and Post test were administered in order to compare the result of the traditional teaching with the outcome of the new method teaching with "mini texts" as the primary teaching material to provide optimal and quality language input to the students. Result: The over-all result of the test shows that the learning outcome, in general, is rather frustrating. Let alone government schools where most of the students belong to lower-class unprivileged families, even in private schools, or rather in so called A grade private schools, the condition of the English proficiency from the viewpoint of grammatical competence is rather frustrating. Surprisingly, not a single school could obtain even pass marks whereas same students secure good marks in their national level SEE exam.Conclusion: The current English teaching practice in Nepalese schools is deficient in (i) optimal quality language input, and (ii) suitable teaching methods to produce desirable outcome of English teaching for better learning outcome or better communicative proficiency. Mini texts have come out as an appropriate teaching material to be experimented on a large scale as they subsume essential, grammar points, essential vocabulary stock and also communication-oriented practice exercises.

Diplomacy Arabic: An Essential Vocabulary by Elisabeth Kendall and Yehia A. Mohamed (review)

Reviewed by: Diplomacy Arabic: An Essential Vocabulary by Elisabeth Kendall and Yehia A. Mohamed Mouloud Siber Elisabeth Kendall and Yehia A. Mohamed. Diplomacy Arabic: An Essential Vocabulary. Georgetown UP, 2020. 96 p. An Arabic-English dictionary, Diplomatic Arabic: An Essential Vocabulary encompasses most of the specific vocabulary used in diplomatic communication. Each entry begins with Arabic followed by its English translation. In their introduction, the authors acknowledge the growing, even urgent, need for publishing this type of material and follow it with a brief overview of its ten chapters, which are "internally ordered according to semantic field" (1). The first chapter, labeled "General," introduces a list of the principal vocabulary used in diplomacy. Some of these include diplomacy, the international order, principle/doctrine, colonialism, Arab World, The Middle East. This general listing continues in "Concepts and Practices," which is mostly theoretical. It deals with terminology commonly used in political science and philosophy: populism, neo-liberalism, Marxism, racism, utopianism, and others. The authors return to these chapters by dividing the words and expressions among the following chapters based on their lexical fields. "Diplomatic Service and Protocol" breaks away from theory and enumerates terminology mostly connected to diplomatic practice like diplomatic corps, ambassador, chief of protocol, form of address, diplomatic invitation. The "Organizations" chapter lists lexis endemic to inter/national and regional diplomatic organizations and entities and includes generic words like institution, organ, agency. As well, there are more specific terms like United Nations Organization, World Bank, United Nations Children's Fund, Amnesty International, European Union. The fifth chapter is devoted to vocabulary that connects diplomacy to "Elections and Government". It embodies a list of terms and phrases pertaining to government and the electoral process, including election, referendum, candidate, absolute majority, [End Page 231] Parliament. This chapter mostly relates to internal political affairs of countries. The sixth, however, is directly linked to a major objective of diplomacy, namely holding "Negotiations" among countries. It includes an informed list of words and expressions that describe negotiation as a major practice in diplomacy. Among these are negotiations, building consensus, consultation, mediation. "Treaties and Agreements" is allocated to the end-result of negotiations, namely reaching agreements and signing treaties and includes: agreement/treaty, declaration, commercial treaty, Free Trade Agreement, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and Geneva Convention. The seventh chapter, "Conflict Resolution and Defense," deals with another result of the diplomatic practice related to implementing peace within and among conflicting countries. It begins with the semantic of field of conflict with vocabulary like armed conflict, war crime, genocide, prisoner of war and moves to terms associated with their resolution like conflict mediation, dispute settlement, disarmament/demilitarization, peace keeping forces and so on. The last two, "Civil Society and Human Rights" and "Globalization and Economic Development" embody vocabulary related to a world where people enjoy fundamental human rights and economic prosperity or suffer the absence thereof. The lexis of the former is related to standards of civility and human rights like civil society, non-profit, volunteerism, human rights, United Nations Human Rights Programme, in contrast to their opposites, like human rights violations and crimes against humanity. "Globalization and Economic Development" includes globalization, global village, free market economy and their counter-parts like anti-globalization, cultural relativism along with words that describe world economic growth. At the end of Diplomacy Arabic, the authors include an Index in English of most of the entries to facilitate its use. The ten chapters offer an exhaustive list of words and expressions commonly used in diplomacy. The audience is not limited [End Page 232] to people who work in this area and "students [and scholars] of international affairs" (1). Reporters, human rights activists, business people, and others, whose practices are closely connected to the Arabspeaking world, can also use it. Since the entries start with Arabic and the Index is in English, Diplomacy Arabic is accessible to both English speakers using or learning Arabic and Arabic speakers using or learning English. It is devoted to communication contexts where relations are negotiated and agreements are reached, so it can help its users to avoid getting "lost in translation". Mouloud Siber Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi-Ouzou Copyright © 2020 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association...

공부하는 학생선수 만들기

This study is an in-depth exploration of the process in which student-athletes can improve their academic skills together by enhancing the operation of the school athletic department to combine study and exercise. The purpose is to explore and analyze the experiences and changes of student-athletes through a year-long practice process to create student-athletes who study and exercise at the same time. The researchers in the study are the archery team’s supervisor, vice-principal, and athletic teacher who work at C Middle School in Changdong, Seoul. Autoethnography method and the qualitative research methods were used for as follows. First, through the making of student-athletes to study process, essential vocabulary or sentences were found based on frequently mentioned and comparable and contrastable content among multiple sources of information such as self-recovery, introspection, in-depth interview, critical event techniques, competition records, field notes, and related documents. Second, the subject was set and listed based on essential vocabulary or sentences. Third, an interim classification subject encompassing the listed issues was found. Fourth, during the data collection process, data was continuously modified and supplemented. As part of making student-athletes to study, the teaching assistant in the class through the teacher’s homework program, which is a school deficit program, is effectively, and it is useful to run the college student mentoring program, the self-study program, which is an educational promotion program. Continuing to maintain the student-athletes program in the future is expected to improve students’ primary education and improve their academic performance.

ROLE OF MANUALS IN TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION AND LEXIS OF FUTURE EFL TEACHERS

The article reveals possible types of lexical and pronunciation practice activities and tasks at higher education. The analysis of the activities was conducted on the basis of compulsory practical English courses at Faculty of Foreign Languages of Pavlo Tychyna Uman State Pedagogical University. The article also explicates the significance of the use of educators’ practical manuals for teaching English pronunciation and lexis at higher education. It proves that teaching manuals help to adapt the main information from the course books according to the needs and abilities of future EFL teachers. It depicts that most of the analysed activities and tasks can be divided into groups due to the development of productive (speaking and writing) and receptive (listening and reading) skills. It points out that lexis and pronunciation are the main bases of any communication. The study claims that the pronunciation tasks can be divided as the following: articulation gymnastics, development of listening skills, formation of pronunciation skills. The lexis activities and tasks may cover the following route map of the lesson: pre-text, text and post text tasks. Nevertheless, lexis does not comprise only the information on the use of the essential vocabulary; the grammar aspects of language should be taken into account.

Creating an Online Quiz Learning Media Using Flexiquiz to Practice Essential Vocabulary for the TOEFL

The objectives of this research are (1) to explain a tutorial in creating Flexiquiz web application to essential vocabulary learning for the TOEFL, (2) to explain the Flexiquiz web application to essential vocabulary learning for the TOEFL as a learning strategy in combining the user manual with the web application for online learning, (3) to know users’ responses towards the online TOEFL quiz in essential vocabulary learning using Flexiquiz web application. This study is a qualitative research type and it is categorized as descriptive research because it is aimed to describe a learning strategy using Flexiquiz web application that can be manifested as materials integrartion. The practice questions that are available in Flexiquiz web application are taken from a book entitled “Barron’s: Essential Word for the TOEFL”. It means that the writer joined between the book with the Flexiquiz web application. The data gathered in this study are a questionnaire and a test result using Flexiquiz. The results of this study expose that the users of the Flexiquiz web application have interest to use Flexiquiz web application as online strategy to learn. Two features of Flexiquiz web application that can improve learning in vocabulary are; Grading and Review Answer. The conclusion can be drawn in this study shows the result that online learning using Flexiquiz web application is interesting, fun and easy.

Clinician Guide to Microbiome Testing.

Recent recognition that the intestinal microbiome plays potential roles in the pathogenesis of multiple common diseases has led to a growing interest in personalized microbiome analysis among clinical investigators and patients. Permissibility of direct access testing has allowed the emergence of commercial companies offering microbiome analysis to patients seeking to gain a better understanding of their symptoms and disease conditions. In turn, physicians are often asked to help with interpretation of such tests or even requested by their patients to order them. Therefore, physicians need to have a basic understanding of the current state of microbiome science. This review examines how the perspective of microbial ecology, which is fundamental to understanding the microbiome, updates the classical version of the germ theory of disease. We provide the essential vocabulary of microbiome science and describe its current limitations. We look forward to the future when microbiome diagnostics may live up to its potential of becoming integral to clinical care that will become increasingly individualized, and microbiome analysis may become incorporated into that future paradigm. However, we caution patients and providers that the current microbiome tests, given the state of knowledge and technology, do not provide much value in clinical decisions. Considerable research remains to be carried out to make this objective a reality.

Humusica: Soil biodiversity and global change

Abstract Born in Trento (Italy, 2003) for the purpose of standardising vocabulary and units of humus form classification, after publishing a first synthetic classification e-book (Zanella et al. 2011) they do not cover all site conditions in the European area. Although having basic concepts and general lines, the European (and North American, Canadian, the Humus group decided to use its classification for handling global change (Zanella and Ascher-Jenull 2018). The process is detailed in many scientific articles published in three Special Issues (Humusica 1, 2 and 3) of the journal Applied Soil Ecology. Conceptually, the whole of Humusica answers three crucial questions: A) What is soil? Soil is a biological ecosystem. It recycles dead structures and implements mineral material, furnishing more or less re-elaborated organic, mineral and organic-mineral elements to support living organisms. Article chapters: 1. Essential vocabulary; 2. Soil covers all the Earth’s surfaces (soil as the seat of processes of organic matter storage and recycling); 3. Soil may be involved in the process of natural evolution (through organisms’ process of recycling biomass after death). B) If soil has a biogenic essence, how should it be classified to serve such managerial purposes as landscape exploitation or protection? A useful classification of soil should consider and propose useful references to biologically discriminate soil features. Article chapters: 4. Soil corresponds to a biogenic structure; 5. TerrHum, an App for classifying forest humipedons worldwide (a first attempt to use a smartphone as a field manual for humus form classification). C) How can this soil classification be used for handling the current global change? Using the collected knowledge about the biodiversity and functioning of natural (or semi-natural) soil for reconstructing the lost biodiversity/functioning of heavily exploited or degraded soils. Article chapters: 6. Agricultural soils correspond to simplified natural soils (comparison between natural and agricultural soils); 7. Organic waste and agricultural soils; 8. Is traditional agriculture economically sustainable? Comparing past traditional farm practices (in 1947) and contemporary intensive farm practices in the Venice province of Italy.

Creative Learning Using Crossword Puzzle as Learning Tool for Undergraduates in Obstetrics and Gynecology

Abstract: Purpose of study : Interactive and creative learning makes medical education interesting. Medical students are introduced to many concepts in short time. The aim of study was to see practicality of using crossword puzzle as an interactive and creative learning tool for undergraduates. To determine usefulness of crossword puzzle as an effective way to reinforce essential concepts and vocabulary. Methodology: Crosswords were formulated and content validity ensured, by linking the clues and answers to specific learning objectives. Words pertinent to topic were included. Approved abbreviations used. The clues were clear and concise. They were completed by the students in collaborative groups of 3-4 with a reward for the first group who successfully complete the puzzle. Fifteen minutes was allotted for 25-30 clues of puzzle. Student perceptions (117) towards crosswords for their learning were done with a survey using 12 questions with a 5-point Likert’s scale and informal feedback from faculty. Results. Two groups (4 each) completed correctly in 12 minutes. Most students 93.7% (98 of 117) indicated that crosswords were useful and contributed to their learning. Feedback on likert’s scale revealed that : identifying key concepts and vocabulary(Q1- 50% SA, 33 A.), as a useful learning tool( Q2- 47% SA and 38% A); as a collaborative and competitive aspects (Q3- 45% SA,32 % A and 5% SA). Cross word puzzle was easy ( 7% SA and 13% A). Written and informal comments indicated student enthusiasm for and a desire to participate in more of these exercises. Informal feedback was from faculty revealed that it was time consuming though useful. Conclusions. Reasonably good response was obtained from undergraduates(8th and 9th semester) students to crossword puzzle technique as edutainment. Development of judicious complex puzzles of different variety is suggested.

Book Review: Developing and Managing Electronic Collections: The Essentials

Developing and Managing Electronic Collections: The Essentials. By Peggy Johnson. Chicago: ALA Editions, 2013. 186 p. $65 softcover (ISBN: 978-0-8389-1190-7). As Johnson comments in the preface, her goal is to offer practical advice in working through the many issues involved in providing library users access to online resources. She focuses on indexing and abstracting services, e-books, e-journals, and streaming multimedia; she does not address locally produced content, digital textbooks, games, or software. The book opens with a brief history of electronic resources in libraries. Although some readers may be tempted to slap the history, it both explains the context for many of the issues librarians face and introduces some essential vocabulary. For example, Johnson introduces terms like Open URL, link resolver, and digital rights management (DRM) as developments that helped libraries manage and provide access to electronic collections. In chapter 1, she also introduces issues such as equitable access, collection stability, and the differences in how publishers offer popular and scholarly content to libraries. Throughout the book, Johnson focuses on factors to consider when selecting, acquiring, and managing e-resources. For example, in the second chapter, she lists a dozen selection criteria, in addition to the standard criteria for all materials, which libraries should consider when selecting electronic resources. She explains the importance of criteria such as persistent content, discussing the implications of leasing content from an aggregator versus a publisher and of purchasing content with annual hosting fees. She also gives practical examples, such as Penguins decision to pull e-books from the aggregator OverDrive, of why these criteria are important for all types of libraries to consider. The chapter on licenses should be required reading for every library employee, not just those directly responsible for negotiating licenses. Johnson emphasizes that license terms override copyright law, then gives examples of how license terms can affect ILL, course reserves, patron use of the content, and patron privacy. She also explains key elements of licenses and introduces common language, such as authorized use and perpetual access, with brief examples to illustrate their importance. Throughout the licensing chapter, Johnson emphasizes that state law sometimes requires or prohibits certain terms. Finally, she tells readers that legal training is not essential for negotiating licenses; the author recommends sites for finding model licenses and discusses best practices in developing guidelines for license negotiation. Two chapters, on conducting business with suppliers and on working across organizational units, stress the importance of good communication. These chapters outline many issues peculiar to e-resources, such as issues to consider before agreeing to become a beta site for new products or major upgrades. …