Square Talks®: A Mobile App to Support EFL Learners’ Vocabulary Development

In recent years, mobile-based game language learning has proliferated due to its promising prospects and positive impacts in improving teaching and learning outcomes in English vocabulary development. With this phenomenon, Square Talks® was developed specifically to aid EFL beginner learners with their English vocabulary. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of the game app in developing the learners’ English vocabulary development. This study employed a quantitative approach focusing on 34 EFL beginner learners. The focus has been on how effective the game app was statistically and overall experience of using the game app. Data were collected through vocabulary tests and a survey. The test results showed that Square Talks® has improved the subjects’ English vocabulary development with the t-value of the test results is -19.93 indicating a significant effect in increasing the subjects’ English vocabulary development. The survey result revealed positive acceptance toward playing Square Talks® in terms of effectiveness (4.49), usability (4.34), and satisfaction (4.52). Therefore, Square Talks® can be considered to be an alternative learning tool to facilitate EFL beginner learners’ vocabulary development.

Students’ Metacognitive Competencies: Effect on Mastery of Learning Strategies and Outcomes

This paper discusses the constructs of students’ metacognitive competencies and its effect on mastery of learning strategies and enhancing learning outcomes in the context of high school in Shanghai, China, where Learning to Learn curriculum has been implemented for years. 780 students from three types of typical high schools in Shanghai participated in a questionnaire survey. Result of a structural equation model shows that metacognitive knowledge, planning, monitoring, and evaluation constitute students’ metacognitive competencies which effectively predict mastery of learning strategies and their student learning outcomes. Pedagogies for metacognitive teaching for effectively implementing the Learning to learn curriculum are proposed.

The Struggle Between Life and Death: A Case Study of Panapur Flood, District Saran, Bihar, India

The flood is one of the natural calamities that are the outcome of anthropogenic activities by humans. It is largely defined as the overflow of water on normally dry ground. The most common reasons are overflowing of river in short span of time, breaking of dam, or heavy rainfall. The most deadly flood that occurred in the history of Panapur is the flood of 2020 which worsened the condition of the native inhabitants. The most fragile section of society was pregnant women, elderly people, children and animals. The local inhabitants experienced fear of death from very close, submerging of houses in water, rampant rainfall, snake biting, lack of drinking water and food worked as the catalyst in worsening the condition. There was the rampant destruction not only of infrastructure but also of the wildlife. Large chunk of population lost their animals in the furious flood. Dear, pig, snake, and many other wild animals washed away from the forests of Nepal to Panapur block during flood. Many wild animals lost their lives in this nature’s fury, villagers somehow managed to save lives of eight floating dear and 32 wild pigs. People left from different corona infected state to take shelter in native village in month of April and May were left disillusioned due to the flood of July 2020. As officially reported eight people washed away and died during flood. The further unrest came when the prices of fodder surged up to 14/kg. This paper studies the impact of flood on inhabitants of Panapur block, Saran district, Bihar, India. This study is based on primary survey using sampling techniques. Six villages have been selected for survey. Result have been analysed and it was found that people lost their economy, crop, shelter, pet animals, forest, dignity and humanity. They are left under the utter disillusionment. They became homeless, helpless, hopeless and health less.

Sexual Behavior of Female Sex Workers in Makassar, Indonesia

Introduction: Sexual workers have been considered a core group for HIV and Sexual Transmission Diseases (STDs). Their risk is higher than women in the general population. As a developing country, Indonesia is no exception, where sexual transmission has become the main driver for the development of the epidemic in recent years. The survey result of Makassar's AIDS Eradication Commission in 2014 showed that the number of FSWs in Makassar increased. The high number of FSWs in Makassar affect the number of HIV/AIDS cases apparently. Method: This study used data from a rapid survey conducted by Makassar AIDS Eradication Commission in 2013. The survey was carried out to gain information about the sexual behaviour of FSWs in Makassar. The number of sample was 240 in which sampling was carried out using the C-Survey program system. A systematic questionnaire was used to gather data from FSWs, and data was analyzed by using STATA program. Result: Most of the FSWs in this study are aged between 36-40 years old (27.9%). For the last sexual intercourse, most of the FSWs offered a condom to their clients (85.0%). However, the number of clients who used a condom for intercourse was lower that is 77.5%. The main reason why clients refuse to use a condom is that they are uncomfortable. Conclusion: The awareness of FSWs to offer a condom is higher than the willingness of clients to use a condom consistently. Keywords: Sexual Behaviour; Condom Use; Female Sexual Workers; Makassar.

The Comparison of Students’ Motivation between Participation in Formal Education and In Music Activities

This study compares different types of regulation that motivate school students to participate in their formal education and in music entertainment. The framework of self-determination is used in this study to convey various forms of regulation that play important roles in driving students to take action in both settings. A survey result based on 207 student respondents in Thailand revealed that although it is not uncommon to anticipate that there could be a variety of reasons for establishing this educational participation, ranging from extrinsic controls to intrinsic values, the students were more likely to be extrinsically and personally pressured in their formal study, compared to participating in music. On the other hand, they were prone to be more intrinsically driven when joining in music activities than studying.

A Comprehensive Survey of Knowledge Graph-Based Recommender Systems: Technologies, Development, and Contributions

In recent years, the use of recommender systems has become popular on the web. To improve recommendation performance, usage, and scalability, the research has evolved by producing several generations of recommender systems. There is much literature about it, although most proposals focus on traditional methods’ theories and applications. Recently, knowledge graph-based recommendations have attracted attention in academia and the industry because they can alleviate information sparsity and performance problems. We found only two studies that analyze the recommendation system’s role over graphs, but they focus on specific recommendation methods. This survey attempts to cover a broader analysis from a set of selected papers. In summary, the contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) we explore traditional and more recent developments of filtering methods for a recommender system, (2) we identify and analyze proposals related to knowledge graph-based recommender systems, (3) we present the most relevant contributions using an application domain, and (4) we outline future directions of research in the domain of recommender systems. As the main survey result, we found that the use of knowledge graphs for recommendations is an efficient way to leverage and connect a user’s and an item’s knowledge, thus providing more precise results for users.

What Influences Trust in Survey Results? Evidence from a Vignette Experiment

Today, there are more survey results available than ever before. This increase in survey data is, however, accompanied by a decline in survey quality. Thus, it is more likely than in the past that citizens and politicians get a biased picture of public opinion when relying on survey results. Those misperceptions can have worrying consequences for political discourse and decision-making. With the present study, we aim to investigate to what extent the public draws on survey quality information when evaluating the trustworthiness of a survey result. To explore this research question, we implemented a vignette experiment in an online panel survey (n = 3,313) in which each respondent was confronted with four different, randomly assigned descriptions of a survey and then asked to evaluate the trustworthiness of the respective survey result. The survey descriptions varied regarding the methodological information provided (i.e., sample size, sampling method, and sample balance). The results showed that survey quality information only had a minor effect on the perceptions of trust compared to respondents’ characteristics, such as pre-existing opinions on the topic or general trust in science. Yet, trust in the survey result was significantly influenced by the sample size and sample balance, but not by the sampling method. Finally, in line with information processing theory, the relevance of survey quality information increases with the cognitive abilities of the respondent.