Evaluation of Pharmacology MCQ Papers of MBBS Professional Examinations

This cross sectional descriptive study was conducted to observe the quality of Pharmacology professional MCQ papers of different Universities of Bangladesh. For this purpose, total 80 MCQ papers of five universities dated from January 2007 to July 2015 were reviewed against a checklist to find out the coverage of recall, understanding and problem solving type questions, content coverage and construction of each question. The mean of recall, understanding and problem based type questions of all the universities were 92.1, 7.8 and 0.1 respectively and all of them statistically significantly differed from curriculum standard. All of the MCQ papers contained more than 75% recall type questions and 27.5% MCQ papers had only recall questions, Only 1(1.2%) MCQ papers contained 100 % topics (all the 11 groups). Eighteen (22.5%) contained 10 groups and 26.3% contained 9 groups out of 11. Forty percent MCQ papers contained less than 80% topics. Most of the stems of the MCQ were in the form of incomplete sentence (53.5%), 28.4% were in the form of complete statement and 16.8% were in the form of single word. Only 0.4% stem were in the form of clinical scenario. Fifty (62.5%) MCQ papers had defective stems and 68.75% had defective options. Total 14 (17.5%) MCQ papers were without any flaw but the rest 88.5% MCQ papers were with flaws either defective stem or faulty options or both. Findings of this study may be used to redefine the distribution of different type of questions in SAQ papers and to improve the quality of question papers by ensuring their coverage. Bangladesh Journal of Medical Education Vol.13(1) January 2022: 49-57

Dot the pill down: Investigating the linguistic needs of foreign rugby players and lexicon of spoken rugby discourse

<p>Traditionally a sport which is played predominantly in English speaking countries such as New Zealand, England, and Australia, rugby is gaining in popularity in other countries such as Japan. International rugby competitions, such as the World Cup and Super Rugby, and increased migration of players and coaches in the sport contribute to this growth. In rugby, spoken communication with community members such as players, coaches, managers, and the referee, is a fundamental aspect of the sport. This communication presents a challenge for second language (L2) learners wanting to immerse themselves in a foreign rugby setting, in the case of Japanese players coming to New Zealand or New Zealand players going to Japan. It also presents a challenge for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teachers who might be faced with developing courses and materials to help second language speakers learn what they need to know to play rugby in another language, and in another country. To date, no research has focused on the linguistic and communicative needs of these players. A feature of this communication is technical language, for example ruck, maul, and lineout, but no previous research has focused on the specialised vocabulary of this game. This thesis explores two aspects in the rugby domain: vocabulary, especially technical vocabulary, and the linguistic needs of foreign players and coaches in New Zealand and Japan. The study consists of two phases which were conducted to address these gaps in the research. To find out more about the nature of vocabulary in spoken rugby, phase one contained two parts. The first part was a corpus-based analysis of television commentary and team-based rugby speech. This analysis included conducting a lexical profile and vocabulary load analysis. The findings were compared to a written corpus, containing the Laws of Rugby. The results of the vocabulary profile analysis showed that high frequency vocabulary make up the majority words in each corpora. Additionally, other lexical items such as marginal words (e.g. fillers and swear words), as well as proper nouns, are important for comprehension, depending on the type of discourse. The vocabulary load analysis found 4,000 word families plus four supplementary lists and a rugby-specific list were needed for 98% comprehension in spoken rugby discourse. Part two of the first phase investigated the nature of technical vocabulary in rugby discourse. Four single-word and multi-word unit word lists using the spoken and written corpora were developed for use in the language classroom. A total of 293 spoken and 250 written word types were selected from the corpora following frequency and semantic meaning principles to create the technical single-word lists, for example lineout, tighties, and loosies. The technical words provided 12.04% and 35.41% coverage of the corpora from which they were developed. Next, lists of technical multi-word unit lists with 223 spoken and 417 written units, such as over the ball and lineout players, were created to be used in conjunction with the technical single-word lists. Phase two of the study utilised the results from phase one to conduct a linguistic needs analysis in New Zealand and Japan. Drawing on online surveys and semi-structured interviews, the results showed language difficulties occur throughout the rugby domain, especially when playing and practising the sport. Furthermore, general and rugby vocabulary are the two main language aspects affecting communication for both players and coaches. These findings indicate explicit instruction in spoken language is needed for L2 learners. This thesis has methodological implications for research into spoken technical vocabulary, as well as pedagogical implications for ESP. For example, the word lists can be used to help L2 rugby players and coaches learn the vocabulary that they will encounter and be expected to use fluently in games and at practice. This means they can receive specialised support for their language needs and ultimately be able to perform at their highest level in the foreign rugby community.</p>

Dot the pill down: Investigating the linguistic needs of foreign rugby players and lexicon of spoken rugby discourse

<p>Traditionally a sport which is played predominantly in English speaking countries such as New Zealand, England, and Australia, rugby is gaining in popularity in other countries such as Japan. International rugby competitions, such as the World Cup and Super Rugby, and increased migration of players and coaches in the sport contribute to this growth. In rugby, spoken communication with community members such as players, coaches, managers, and the referee, is a fundamental aspect of the sport. This communication presents a challenge for second language (L2) learners wanting to immerse themselves in a foreign rugby setting, in the case of Japanese players coming to New Zealand or New Zealand players going to Japan. It also presents a challenge for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) teachers who might be faced with developing courses and materials to help second language speakers learn what they need to know to play rugby in another language, and in another country. To date, no research has focused on the linguistic and communicative needs of these players. A feature of this communication is technical language, for example ruck, maul, and lineout, but no previous research has focused on the specialised vocabulary of this game. This thesis explores two aspects in the rugby domain: vocabulary, especially technical vocabulary, and the linguistic needs of foreign players and coaches in New Zealand and Japan. The study consists of two phases which were conducted to address these gaps in the research. To find out more about the nature of vocabulary in spoken rugby, phase one contained two parts. The first part was a corpus-based analysis of television commentary and team-based rugby speech. This analysis included conducting a lexical profile and vocabulary load analysis. The findings were compared to a written corpus, containing the Laws of Rugby. The results of the vocabulary profile analysis showed that high frequency vocabulary make up the majority words in each corpora. Additionally, other lexical items such as marginal words (e.g. fillers and swear words), as well as proper nouns, are important for comprehension, depending on the type of discourse. The vocabulary load analysis found 4,000 word families plus four supplementary lists and a rugby-specific list were needed for 98% comprehension in spoken rugby discourse. Part two of the first phase investigated the nature of technical vocabulary in rugby discourse. Four single-word and multi-word unit word lists using the spoken and written corpora were developed for use in the language classroom. A total of 293 spoken and 250 written word types were selected from the corpora following frequency and semantic meaning principles to create the technical single-word lists, for example lineout, tighties, and loosies. The technical words provided 12.04% and 35.41% coverage of the corpora from which they were developed. Next, lists of technical multi-word unit lists with 223 spoken and 417 written units, such as over the ball and lineout players, were created to be used in conjunction with the technical single-word lists. Phase two of the study utilised the results from phase one to conduct a linguistic needs analysis in New Zealand and Japan. Drawing on online surveys and semi-structured interviews, the results showed language difficulties occur throughout the rugby domain, especially when playing and practising the sport. Furthermore, general and rugby vocabulary are the two main language aspects affecting communication for both players and coaches. These findings indicate explicit instruction in spoken language is needed for L2 learners. This thesis has methodological implications for research into spoken technical vocabulary, as well as pedagogical implications for ESP. For example, the word lists can be used to help L2 rugby players and coaches learn the vocabulary that they will encounter and be expected to use fluently in games and at practice. This means they can receive specialised support for their language needs and ultimately be able to perform at their highest level in the foreign rugby community.</p>

Lexical Competition Effects in Aphasia

<p>Some aphasic patients show single word production deficits in some situations where object naming is required (e.g., they perform well when objects are presented in unrelated groups (e.g., Cat, Fork, Bread...), but deteriorate when the same items are presented in semantically related groups (e.g., Cat, Cow, Dog...)) (see Wilshire & McCarthy, 2002). We investigated whether context-sensitive single-word production impairments reflect an impaired ability to resolve lexical competition. Three groups of participants (non-fluent aphasics, fluent aphasics, and older controls) completed four tasks that manipulated lexical competition: 1) A category exemplar task, where a high competition condition involved generating items from broad categories (e.g., Animals: "Cat. Dog" etc.), and a low competition condition involved generating items from narrow categories (e.g., Pets: Cat. Dog" etc); 2) A verb generation task, where participants were presented with objects and were required to generate related verbs. The high competition objects were related to a range of verbs (e.g., Penny: Spend"/"Pay"/"Buy" etc), and the low competition objects were related to one dominant verb (e.g., Scissors: "Cut"); 3) A name agreement task where a high competition condition involved naming low name agreement objects (e.g., Artist/Painter), and a low competition condition involved naming of high name agreement objects (e.g., Anchor), and; 4) A sentence completion task, where extrinsic competition was introduced via presentation of auditory distracters. The low competition distracters did not make sense (e.g., Barry wisely chose to pay the RANGE: "Bill"/"Cashier" etc), whereas the high competition distracters did (e.g., Barry wisely chose to pay the FINE: "Bill"/Cashier" etc). Our first hypothesis was that all participants would show high competition costs in increased response latencies and/or decreased accuracy. At the group level, this hypothesis was supported in all four tasks. At the individual level, there was mixed support as some participants showed predicted effects on the verb generation, name agreement, and sentence completion tasks. The second hypothesis was that exaggerated competition costs would occur in some or all non-fluent aphasics. At the group level this hypothesis was not clearly supported on any task. At the individual level there was mixed support, with some indications that non-fluents may be more likely to show significant competition effects than fluents. The third hypothesis was that non-fluent aphasics with relatively well preserved single word production but relatively impaired sentence production may be most likely to show exaggerated lexical competition effects. There was little support for this hypothesis. It was concluded that the data do not support the hypothesis that context-sensitive single-word production impairments are symptomatic of an impaired ability to resolve lexical competition. However, we have gained information on how heterogeneous aphasics perform on tasks that manipulate lexical competition, and we have gained some insights that may direct future research down a path towards more informative results, and increased knowledge on the complex process of speech production.</p>

Lexical Competition Effects in Aphasia

<p>Some aphasic patients show single word production deficits in some situations where object naming is required (e.g., they perform well when objects are presented in unrelated groups (e.g., Cat, Fork, Bread...), but deteriorate when the same items are presented in semantically related groups (e.g., Cat, Cow, Dog...)) (see Wilshire & McCarthy, 2002). We investigated whether context-sensitive single-word production impairments reflect an impaired ability to resolve lexical competition. Three groups of participants (non-fluent aphasics, fluent aphasics, and older controls) completed four tasks that manipulated lexical competition: 1) A category exemplar task, where a high competition condition involved generating items from broad categories (e.g., Animals: "Cat. Dog" etc.), and a low competition condition involved generating items from narrow categories (e.g., Pets: Cat. Dog" etc); 2) A verb generation task, where participants were presented with objects and were required to generate related verbs. The high competition objects were related to a range of verbs (e.g., Penny: Spend"/"Pay"/"Buy" etc), and the low competition objects were related to one dominant verb (e.g., Scissors: "Cut"); 3) A name agreement task where a high competition condition involved naming low name agreement objects (e.g., Artist/Painter), and a low competition condition involved naming of high name agreement objects (e.g., Anchor), and; 4) A sentence completion task, where extrinsic competition was introduced via presentation of auditory distracters. The low competition distracters did not make sense (e.g., Barry wisely chose to pay the RANGE: "Bill"/"Cashier" etc), whereas the high competition distracters did (e.g., Barry wisely chose to pay the FINE: "Bill"/Cashier" etc). Our first hypothesis was that all participants would show high competition costs in increased response latencies and/or decreased accuracy. At the group level, this hypothesis was supported in all four tasks. At the individual level, there was mixed support as some participants showed predicted effects on the verb generation, name agreement, and sentence completion tasks. The second hypothesis was that exaggerated competition costs would occur in some or all non-fluent aphasics. At the group level this hypothesis was not clearly supported on any task. At the individual level there was mixed support, with some indications that non-fluents may be more likely to show significant competition effects than fluents. The third hypothesis was that non-fluent aphasics with relatively well preserved single word production but relatively impaired sentence production may be most likely to show exaggerated lexical competition effects. There was little support for this hypothesis. It was concluded that the data do not support the hypothesis that context-sensitive single-word production impairments are symptomatic of an impaired ability to resolve lexical competition. However, we have gained information on how heterogeneous aphasics perform on tasks that manipulate lexical competition, and we have gained some insights that may direct future research down a path towards more informative results, and increased knowledge on the complex process of speech production.</p>

Le traitement de la phraséologie dans DEFI

DEFI is a prototype computer tool aimed at ranking (from most to least relevant) the French translations of an English lexical item in context. This paper deals with the strategies used by DEFI to recognize multi-word units (mwus) in running text. Any lexical unit included in the lexical database used in the project (a merge of the Oxford/Hachette and Robert/Collins English-to-French dictionaries) and longer than a single word is submitted to a surface parser, and the same process is applied to the user ’s text. A program written in Prolog assesses the quality of the match between the parsed user’s text and candidate mwus retrieved from the project’s lexical database. The matcher is able to account for some of the distortions undergone by the mwu, e.g. movement of a constituent as a result of relativization or passivization.

Comparing the Informativeness of Single-Word Samples and Connected Speech Samples in Assessing Speech Sound Disorders

Purpose Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are faced with the challenge of quickly and accurately identifying children who present with speech sound disorders (SSD) compared to typically developing (TD) children. The goal of this study was to compare the clinical relevance of two speech sampling methods (single-word vs. connected speech samples) in how sensitive they are in detecting atypical speech sound development in children, and to know whether the information obtained from single-word samples is representative enough of children's overall speech sound performance. Method We compared the speech sound performance of 37 preschool children with SSD ( M age = 4;11 years) and 37 age-sex-matched typically developing children ( M age = 5;0 years) by eliciting their speech in two ways: (a) a picture-naming task to elicit single words, and (b) a story-retelling task to elicit connected speech. Four speech measures were compared across sample type (single words vs. connected speech) and across groups (SSD vs. TD): intelligibility, speech accuracy, phonemic inventory, and phonological patterns. Results Interaction effects were found between sample type and group on several speech sound performance measures. Single-word speech samples were found to differentiate the SSD group from the TD group, and were more sensitive than connected speech samples across various measures. The effect size of single-word samples was consistently higher than connected speech samples for three measures: intelligibility, speech accuracy, and phonemic inventory. The gap in sample type informativeness may be attributed to salience and avoidance effects, given that children tend to avoid producing unfamiliar phonemes in connected speech. The number of phonological patterns produced was the only measure that revealed no gap between two sampling types for both groups. Conclusions On measures of intelligibility, speech accuracy, and phonemic inventory, obtaining a single-word sample proved to be a more informative method of differentiating children with SSD from TD children than connected speech samples. This finding may guide SLPs in their choice of sampling type when they are under time pressure. We discuss how children's performance on the connected speech sample may be biased by salience and avoidance effects and/or task design, and may, therefore, not necessarily reveal a poorer performance than single-word samples, particularly in intelligibility, speech accuracy, and the number of phonological patterns, if these task limitations are circumvented. Our findings show that the performance gap, typically observed between the two sampling types, largely depends on which performance measures are evaluated with the speech sample. Our study is the first to address sampling type differences in SSD versus TD children and has significant clinical implications for SLPs looking for sampling types and measures that reliably identify SSD in preschool-aged children.