The Use of Linking Adverbials in Malaysian Students’ Argumentative Essays

Many English as a Second Language (ESL) learners’ essays are deemed incoherent as they failed to signpost and facilitate readers’ understanding of their line of arguments—a task that can chiefly be accomplished through the use of appropriate and efficient use of linking devices. This study investigates the use of linking adverbials (LAs) as connective devices in argumentative essays written by pre-university students from Malaysian matriculation colleges. The learner corpus of this study comprises 95241 words from 209 argumentative essays written by students from three matriculation colleges in southern states of Malaysia. About 2465 occurrences of LAs were extracted and then coded according to Liu’s (2008) four-way categorization framework. Similar corpus of 110737 words was also extracted from BAWE corpus as reference. Malaysian learner writers overly relied on a small set of LAs and their essays largely offered one sided argumentation. Students tend to overuse ADDITIVE adverbials (e.g. furthermore) and SEQUENTIAL (e.g. next), mainly to enlist key points and rarely used the more semantically complex ADVERSATIVES (e.g. however). The corpus also revealed that certain LAs were used inappropriately. The findings offer insights for language teachers specifically writing instructors on helping students to prepare for more sophisticated writing tasks that require complex propositions and how to integrate teaching specific linguistics features such as Linking Adverbials.

Design and Application of Questions Based on Protocol-Guided Case Teaching

As the core element of classroom teaching, questions play an essential role in constructing students’ knowledge systems and cultivating their ability to discover, explore, analyze, and solve problems. Therefore, the design and application of appropriate questions is the key to the success of classroom teaching. Teaching based on protocol-guided cases advocates question-centric teaching. It is suggested that teaching activities should be carried out around the discovery and solution of questions, promoting the teaching concept to change from lecture to inquiry, stimulating students’ interest and potential, and improving students’ comprehensive quality. This article mainly discusses the design and application of questions in middle school protocol-guided learning and discusses the basis and requirements of question design in protocol-guided case. With typical cases as the forerunner, strategic guidance is put forward to apply questions to integrate teaching plans.

Núcleo de Estudos Em Semiologia e Propedêutica Clínica

RESUMO Este estudo procurou descrever a experiência adquirida durante o desenvolvimento e realização de um projeto de semiologia e propedêutica clínica, sob a perspectiva do tripé: ensino-pesquisa-extensão. Trata-se de um estudo descritivo, do tipo relato de experiência e utilizou-se como método, a descrição das etapas de implantação. Os resultados são referentes às primeiras atividades desenvolvidas pelo núcleo e indicam que, apesar de pouco tempo, o projeto foi capaz de integrar ensino-pesquisa-extensão, contribuindo para a formação dos estudantes. Estes resultados salientam avanços na autonomia dos estudantes e na coerência com uma formação ética, crítica, humanística e interdisciplinar. ABSTRACT This study aimed to describe the experience acquired during the development and implementation of a project of semiology and clinical propaedeutics, from the perspective of a tripod: teaching-research-extension. This is a descriptive study, the experience report type and used as a method, the description of the implementation steps. The results refer to the first activities developed by the projects. It indicates that, despite a short time, the project was able to integrate teaching-research-extension, contributing to the formation of students. These results highlight advances in student autonomy and consistency with ethical, critical, humanistic and interdisciplinary training. RESUMEN Este estudio describe una experiencia durante el desarrollo y la práctica de una clínica semiológica y propedéutica, en la perspectiva del trípode: enseñanza-investigación-extensión. Es un método descriptivo, tipo de experiencia y uso del método, una descripción de los pasos de implementación. Los resultados se refieren a las primeras actividades desarrolladas por el proyecto. Indican que, a pesar del poco tiempo, el proyecto pudo integrar la enseñanza-investigación-extensión, contribuyendo a la formación de los estudiantes. Estos resultados destacan los avances en la autonomía y la coherencia de los estudiantes con la formación ética, crítica, humanista e interdisciplinaria.

POSSIBLE MODELS OF INTEGRATION OF PRESCHOOL MATHEMATICS AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION

The main goal of this paper is to suggest possible models of integration of preschool mathematics and physical education in accordance with characteristics of children’s cognitive development in this period, goals and objectives of preschool education and specifics of these subject areas in working with preschool children. It was investigated “why it is necessary to integrate teaching content of these specific subjects”, the different integration models, similar goals and learning objectives were specified, as well as appropriate types of integration suitable for linking the content of these subjects. Through the complete integration of related goals, as well as by observing mathematics through physical education, and physical education through mathematics, various possibilities of integrating teaching materials of these subjects are presented through specific examples as well as the appropriate instructions for their design. Integration of these subject areas is useful because due to the abstract nature of mathematical concepts, physical education allows children to learn about, explore and use to apply key mathematical concepts and language from another angle.