This study aims to find out the various strategies used in learning vocabularies among Iranian EFL learners in three different proficiency levels (beginner, intermediate and advanced) in Zanjan province. The vocabulary learning strategies which have been used in this research include determination, social, memory, cognitive, and meta-cognitive which follow Schmitt's taxonomy. 110 students were randomly selected from two language institutes in Zanjan. Schmitt's (1997) Vocabulary Learning Strategies' questionnaire was administered to the learners with three proficiency levels. Then, descriptive statistics and Anova were utilized to analyze the data. Descriptive statistics revealed that the participants of the study regardless of their proficiency levels were generally medium strategy users who used all these strategies moderately except for the determination strategies that were used in high level. In addition, basic learners used all different types of strategies more frequently than intermediate and advanced learners. By comparing two other proficiency levels, advanced learners used determination strategies and meta-cognitive strategies more frequently than intermediate learners, while social, memory and cognitive strategies were used more frequently by Intermediates. In order to perceive if the results were statistically significant, Anova for between group mean differences was conducted. It revealed the fact that there is no significant difference among learners with different proficiency levels in application of determination and meta-cognitive strategies while the learners with lower proficiency level used social, memory and cognitive strategies more frequently, that is, these three strategies were used more frequently by basic, intermediate and advanced learners respectively.
In the present study, halophilic bacteria communities were explored in saline soils of Howze-Soltan playa in Iran with special attention to their biological activity against an aflatoxigenic Aspergillus parasiticus NRRL 2999. Halophilic bacteria were isolated from a total of 20 saline soils using specific culture media and identified by 16S rRNA sequencing in neighbor-joining tree analysis. Antifungal and antiaflatoxigenic activities of the bacteria were screened by a nor-mutant A. parasiticus NRRL 2999 using visual agar plate assay and confirmed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Among a total of 177 halophilic bacteria belonging to 11 genera, 121 isolates (68.3%) inhibited A. parasiticus growth and/or aflatoxin production. The most potent inhibitory bacteria of the genera Bacillus, Paenibacillus and Staphylococcus were distributed in three main phylogenetic clusters as evidenced by 16S rRNA sequence analysis. A. parasiticus growth was inhibited by 0.7-92.7%, while AFB and AFG productions were suppressed by 15.1-98.9 and 57.0-99.6%, respectively. Taken together, halophilic bacteria identified in this study may be considered as potential sources of novel bioactive metabolites as well as promising candidates to develop new biocontrol agents for managing toxigenic fungi growth and subsequent aflatoxin contamination of food and feed in practice.
<div><p class="StyleABSTRAKenCambria">This study reports on a case study of a blind EFL learner. The purpose of the study was to explore a detailed situated data to examine to what extent it is feasible to be a successful language learner despite being visually impaired and lacking some learning resources. Interview data and the narratives of this EFL learner have revealed that her success was mainly based on her agentic interaction with the environment and learning context, her high motivation and strategic behavior, and her sustained efforts. The findings provide further insight into the role of learner in exerting control over contextual resources that frame learning and on how different factors interact with each other in the language learning process in the construction of learner identity and the strategies used by learners.</p></div>
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