Increasing Students’ English Vocabulary by Applying Games and Songs at the Seventh Grade of SMP Negeri 8 Komodo

This research aimed to know whether by applying games and songs can increase students’ vocabulary. It was conducted at seventh grade of SMPN 8 Komodo. Games are a way to relax class routines for fun, games also can make students enthusiastic about playing, sometimes challenging. Songs be trusted to help students in memorizing vocabulary. Memorizing song can be used to increase students’ vocabulary. The students’ responses showed that they were interested in learning vocabulary through using games and songs. It can be seen from the students’ score on vocabulary test which increased from three vocabulary tests given in the Cycle I and Cycle II. In the students’ achievement Cycle I was 57,5 and Cycle II was 77,5. It can be concluded that games and songs have a significant impact on increasing students’ vocabulary number.

IMPROVING ENGLISH VOCABULARIES THROUGH DERIVATIONAL MORPHEME

This research aims to improve students' vocabulary acquisition through the strategy of deriving suffixes. The populations of this study are students from Politeknik Ganesha Medan in second semester. This research was conducted through Applied Classroom Action Research (CAR), born in two cycles (cycle 1 and cycle 2), and each process consisted of four meetings. The vocabulary test results showed that the average improvement score of the pre-test was 34.66, the post-test of period 1 was 93.46, and the post-test of period 2 was 97.33. In the first cycle, the nominal comparison rate was 88.83%, the verb nature was 77.46%, the adjective nature was 40.74%, and the adverbial heart was 84.14%. In cycle 2, the nominal comparison rate was 100%, the verb nature was 95.45%, the adjective nature was 65.84%, and the adverbial nature was 94.91%. The proportion of students who passed Minimal Criterion Mastery in each cycle was 100%, cycle 1 increased by 169.64%, and cycle 2 increased by 180.81%. These indicate that there is a significant improvement of the students’ vocabulary mastery through derivational morpheme strategy of the students of Politeknik Ganesha Medan.

Professionalization tools: impact of the game-based website ‘Check your Smile’ on specialized terminology acquisition

Computer assisted vocabulary learning, i.e. specialized terminology acquisition, is a major tool to learning Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) necessary to students’ professionalization. One current area of research is digital game-based language learning because of its motivating qualities. This paper discusses electronics students’ acquisition of specific vocabulary as related to the free game-based collaborative platform Check Your Smile (CYS), which is entirely devoted to learning LSP terminology. CYS aggregates various types of games that automatically generate individualized game plays, drawing upon a collaboratively constructed multilingual dictionary. The study focuses on multiple variables including attending a selective engineering course taught in English and the language used to teach the mandatory electronics class. Empirical data shows that students having used CYS tend to obtain better vocabulary test scores than students who did not.

Moroccan EFL Learners' Knowledge of Vocabulary and their Speaking Ability: A Correlational Study

The study seeks to investigate the correlation between students' vocabulary knowledge and their speaking ability. It is carried out in Idriss 1st high school in Kenitra, with the participation of 30 first-year baccalaureate students, including males and females. Vocabulary and speaking tests are used as two main instruments to collect data from the participants. Pearson correlation is used in order to determine the relationship between students' scores in vocabulary and their scores in the speaking test. Based on correlation analysis, the research's major findings revealed a significant positive correlation (r=, 744) between the vocabulary test scores of students and their speaking performance in the speaking test.

Learning styles and vocabulary learning by Iranian undergraduate EFL learners

Each English as a foreign language (EFL) learner may have a particular learning style which may affect the mastering of new language skills and components, one of which is vocabulary. The current study aims to find out the preferred learning style(s) of Iranian undergraduate EFL learners and their achievement in the vocabulary test. Forty-four undergraduate students took part in the study. visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinaesthetic learning style questionnaires and the teacher developed test of vocabulary were used in this study. The validity and reliability of the learning style questionnaire and the teacher developed test of vocabulary were determined. The data were collected and analysed using appropriate statistical analyses including descriptive statistics and one way analysis of variance. The results indicated that the participants were mainly auditory learners. Moreover, it was found that visual and multimodal learners had the best performances on the vocabulary test. Keywords: Learning style, vocabulary learning, undergraduate EFL learners.

Pediatric Sleep Apnea: The Overnight Electroencephalogram as a Phenotypic Biomarker

Pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a prevalent disorder that disrupts sleep and is associated with neurocognitive and behavioral negative consequences, potentially hampering the development of children for years. However, its relationships with sleep electroencephalogram (EEG) have been scarcely investigated. Here, our main objective was to characterize the overnight EEG of OSA-affected children and its putative relationships with polysomnographic measures and cognitive functions. A two-step analysis involving 294 children (176 controls, 57% males, age range: 5–9 years) was conducted for this purpose. First, the activity and irregularity of overnight EEG spectrum were characterized in the typical frequency bands by means of relative spectral power and spectral entropy, respectively: δ1 (0.1–2 Hz), δ2 (2–4 Hz), θ (4–8 Hz), α (8–13 Hz), σ (10–16 Hz), β1 (13–19 Hz), β2 (19–30 Hz), and γ (30–70 Hz). Then, a correlation network analysis was conducted to evaluate relationships between them, six polysomnography variables (apnea–hypopnea index, respiratory arousal index, spontaneous arousal index, overnight minimum blood oxygen saturation, wake time after sleep onset, and sleep efficiency), and six cognitive scores (differential ability scales, Peabody picture vocabulary test, expressive vocabulary test, design copying, phonological processing, and tower test). We found that as the severity of the disease increases, OSA broadly affects sleep EEG to the point that the information from the different frequency bands becomes more similar, regardless of activity or irregularity. EEG activity and irregularity information from the most severely affected children were significantly associated with polysomnographic variables, which were coherent with both micro and macro sleep disruptions. We hypothesize that the EEG changes caused by OSA could be related to the occurrence of respiratory-related arousals, as well as thalamic inhibition in the slow oscillation generation due to increases in arousal levels aimed at recovery from respiratory events. Furthermore, relationships between sleep EEG and cognitive scores emerged regarding language, visual–spatial processing, and executive function with pronounced associations found with EEG irregularity in δ1 (Peabody picture vocabulary test and expressive vocabulary test maximum absolute correlations 0.61 and 0.54) and β2 (phonological processing, 0.74; design copying, 0.65; and Tow 0.52). Our results show that overnight EEG informs both sleep alterations and cognitive effects of pediatric OSA. Moreover, EEG irregularity provides new information that complements and expands the classic EEG activity analysis. These findings lay the foundation for the use of sleep EEG to assess cognitive changes in pediatric OSA.

PENERAPAN METODE TUNJUKKAN DAN CERITAKAN TERHADAP KESIAPAN MEMBACA PADA ANAK TK

Reading readiness is one of the skills given to early childhood through playing while learning. Kindergarten children are given assignments in the form of worksheets and the teacher will ask those children to read and then mention the words back on their worksheet. If the learning system to read like this were practiced repeatedly, the child will get bored. Reading readiness can be done through telling stories and using flash cards. One of the behaviors that show the child is in the reading readiness stage is when a child who is able to use spoken language to express an object. This can be realized through the show and tell method, which is a method that provides opportunities for children to learn new things through storytelling and listening to stories from their friends. This study aims to see the application of the show and tell method on reading readiness of kindergarten children. Participants in this study were 16 TK B students in PAUD FL which were divided into two groups, namely EG (Experiment Group) and CG (Control Group). Participants will be provided with an adapted Reading Readiness Assessment test kit and an Expressive Vocabulary Test as additional analysis given at the beginning and end of the study. The data analysis used an independent sample t-test which resulted that the method show and tell was ineffective for the reading readiness of kindergarten children (t = 1,678; p = 0.114) but the method show and tell was effective in increasing the number of children’s word to describe something (t = 4.961; p = 0.001) and children's vocabulary (t = 4,797; p = 0.002). Kesiapan membaca merupakan salah satu keterampilan yang diberikan kepada anak usia dini melalui kegiatan bermain sambil belajar. Anak TK diberikan tugas dalam bentuk lembar kerja dan meminta anak untuk membaca lalu menuliskan kembali kata yang ada pada lembar kerja tersebut. Apabila sistem belajar membaca seperti ini dilakukan berulang, maka anak akan merasa jenuh. Kesiapan membaca dapat dilakukan dengan cara bercerita, mendongeng dan penggunaan media flash card. Salah satu perilaku yang menunjukkan anak berada dalam tahap kesiapan membaca adalah anak mampu menggunakan bahasa lisan untuk menceritakan suatu objek. Hal ini dapat diwujudkan dalam metode tunjukkan dan ceritakan, yaitu metode yang memberikan peluang bagi anak untuk belajar hal baru melalui kegiatan bercerita dan mendengarkan cerita teman sekelompoknya. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk melihat efektivitas penerapan metode tunjukkan dan ceritakan terhadap kesiapan membaca anak TK. Partisipan pada penelitian ini adalah 16 murid TK B di PAUD FL yang dibagi menjadi dua kelompok, yaitu KE (Kelompok Eksperimen) dan KK (Kelompok Kontrol). Partisipan akan diberikan alat tes Reading Readiness Assessment yang telah diadaptasi serta Expressive Vocabulary Test sebagai analisis tambahan yang diberikan pada awal dan akhir penelitian. Analisis data menggunakan uji beda yang menunjukkan hasil bahwa metode tunjukkan dan ceritakan tidak efektif terhadap kesiapan membaca anak TK (t = 1.678; p = 0.114) namun metode tunjukkan dan ceritakan efektif untuk meningkatkan jumlah kata anak (t = 4.961; p = 0.001) dan jumlah kosakata anak (t = 4.797; p = 0.002).

Morphological Awareness and Word Complexity in an EFL Context

This study examined the relationship between morphological awareness and word complexity (simple versus complex words) in an EFL context. The participants in this study were 100 fourth-year secondary school Arts students in Tunisia. Students’ morphological awareness was measured by the Morphological Awareness Test. Vocabulary size was tested using an adapted version of Nation’s (2001) Vocabulary Levels Test as a receptive measure of vocabulary size. Half of the vocabulary test items were made complex to check the participants’ performance on simple and complex words. The informants’ scores were high on the overall morphological awareness task, and the best performance was on inflectional morphemes. This could be very useful for teachers to build on, improve, and construct better future teaching practices. Finally, morphological awareness differentiated between students’ performance on simple versus complex words.