The Definition of Post Test Club Free Essays

What is Post Test Club? Post Test Club is a social support group for all clients tested whether infected with HIV or not. It was established to respond to the expressed needs of the tested clients for ongoing support. Membership Values; Membership is open to all clients who have taken the HIV test irrespective of their results. We will write a custom essay sample on The Definition of Post Test Club or any similar topic only for you Order Now The principle of anonymity and confidentiality applies for those members who so wish. Members who have tested positive or negative and are willing to ? go public? to share their life testimonies are trained in public speaking . They promote the ? openness? i. e.. ,to declare publicly that he was infected with HIV. MISSION: To help sustain the behavior change process of persons who received voluntary counseling and testing (VCT) and serve as a forum for reducing stigma by providing education and information as well as support and counseling.. ,To promote openness about HIV/AIDS and enhance the psycho-social adjustments of those infected and affected. Goal: 1. To contribute to the national effort to prevent further spread of HIV/AIDS 2. To increase understanding of adolescence , sexuality and reproductive health. To promote safer sex, life skills development and child adolescent rights plus responsibilities. Objectives 1. To provide on-going psycho-social support to the members and increase public awareness of HIV/AIDS 2. To bring the reality of HIV/AIDS to the general population ,and demonstrate by example that people living with HIV/AIDS (PHAs) can still lead a health and productive life 3. To help reduce stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS. Post Test care and Support Services Provide medical information about HIV/AIDS including general HIV knowledge, disease progression, ARVs, opportunistic infections (OIs), family planning, environmental health and positive living so that clients can proactively take control of their own health and reduce the risk of transmission. * Provide legal information so that HIV infected individuals can protect their rights and the rights of their families. * Help members to make decisions about disclosure to friends, family and the community. * Provide a secure and inviting environment where members have access to resources, support and counseling free of charge . Help to link clients to needed services for economic, social support. * Provide referrals to other care and treatment programs. * Reduce stigma and discrimination around HIV and HIV testing * Provide support to HIV discordant couples * By working with couples specifically, the program seeks to support discordant couples and reduce gender violence and HIV transmission within marriages. Routine operations: 1. On-going supportive and preventive counseling: This service is offered on a ? walk ? in? basis and is carried out daily by the counselor and counseling attendants. Counselling is provided to members on FP/TB/HIV/ AIDS and otherhealth related issues including Prevention of Mother to Child Transmission (PMTCT), Anti-retroviral drugs (ARVs) and health promotion. 2. Medical Consultation and Treatment: Members consult and receive treatment for simple ailments ,opportunistic infections and sexually transmitted diseases. The medical booth is open daily and qualified health professionals provide services. 3. Group Activities: Every Saturday members meet for educational talks on HIV/AIDS and other related topics, they also participate in recreation activities (video and games AND drama). These activities take place in the morning to afternoon( 09H00 -14H00) 4. They share experiences and provide peer support to one another. An activity roaster for HIV/AIDS sensitization for the week is developed and programmes allocated. 5. Community Education and Sensitization : The Post Test Club members are involved in sensitizing the communities and YOUTH through music, dance, drama, poetry , and sharinglife testimonies. 6. Capacity and Skills Building: NTIHC PTC trains some members as youth corner attendants. These members provide services to the TEENS. Members engaged in income generating activities (IGAS) are given training skills on management of the projects†¦. LIFE EMPOWERMENT SKILLS†¦.. proposal writing! 7. Leadership Skills: The executive committee members of PTC are trained in elementary leadership skills. 8. Condom promotion and peer education: Trained PTC members do peer education in the communities and distribute free condoms simultaneously minimising CONDOM ABUSE. 9. Distribution of IEC Materials: Members receive IEC materials for consumption and distribute some to communities. They mainly distribute ? Straight Talk? , ? Young Talk? , ? Knowledge Is Power? , and other NTIHC IEC Materials. 10. Family Planning Services: Family planning information,counseling, and methods are provided daily in the FP clinic by counselling medical personnel and reproductive health attendants. 11. Couple Club Activities: Members whose spouses have also tested are encouraged to participate in the couple club activities. It facilitates fellowship and handles special topics that are of interest to couples such as discordant relationships, marriage and divorce issues,domestic violence, and gender issues. PTCs have been able to do remarkable things in the battle against HIV/AIDS: – Through music, dance and drama, they perform in community centers, churches and schools to teach people about HIV/AIDS. – They encourage people to be tested, and then teach people how to avoid nfection, and if infected, how to avoid spreading the disease. – They support each other—showing love and care, providing material assistance to the most needy widows and orphans among them, working together on projects, and pooling resources to pay for member’s funerals. Their motto is â€Å"Living Positively. † Regardless of their disease status,they believe a positive attitude will help them and their loved ones through difficult times. A place of their own†¦.. ,TEENS EMPOWERING PEERS! muyenje +2562O25O245O cc: bukslewde@gmail. com echarlies@yahoo. co. uk ssekittoali@yahoo. co. uk kalule2umar@yahoo. com yasinlys2007@yahoo. com senb_malik@yahoo. com penymax2004@yahoo. c o. uk jscillah@yahoo. com brownluise7@gmail. com muyenjism@gmail. com How to cite The Definition of Post Test Club, Papers

Television is a Bad Influence on Children for Young Children

Question: Discuss about theTelevision is a Bad Influence on Children for Young Children. Answer: In todays generation, television has become an integral part of habitats and imagining life without it is not viable. It has become one of the greatest medium that provides entertainment to all ages especially children. Children who are mostly attracted towards watching television ages between 2-18 years and many guardians have even installed television sets in their bedrooms. On an average, a child spends nearly 5-6 hours spending their leisurely time in surfing Medias like computers, mobile phones and television(Block). Among every Medias, television proves to be the most used among them. Many researchers have found few benefits of television over children but negative impacts of it have been mentioned more(Aabid). The optimists believe that television provides children with knowledge and informations about present world. Preschoolers can learn alphabets and other sounds from watching educational channels and shows. But in families where parents are working outside and leave their children with babysitters may be left unattended and allowed to watch TV shows they are not supposed to watch. This means that a child is left without supervision who can easily watch programmes related to violence and adulteries(Nash). Watching of such rudiments may develop fear among children about violence in society along with creating unhealthy intuition that some evil might happen to them also. In short, television creates lack of confidence in child along with making them feel more insecure(Paediatrics Child Health ). Although academics do not judge effect of television in negative manner, but finding of scholars states that television increased aggressiveness among children which indirectly shows a negative sign(Turow). Excessive watching of television reduces childs personal thinking and plagues children behaviour with others. Constant watching of violence and superheroes jumping around can even make children perform dangerous activities. In another survey it was proved that watching more television made child unhealthy as eating snacks while watching television was found to be common in most of the children(lafsdttir). Reduced physical activities made children sit at home premises thereby reducing contacts with others. This again shows bad influence as if the child does not meet with more people, he/she can become self restrained and dull(Jusoff). On concluding note it can be said that watching television has bad influence on children which results in building unhealthy lifestyle. Watching excessive television also results in losing control of parents over children(Murray). Another negative impact is that children starts losing interest in daily household works and becomes unaware of self maintained lifestyle. Parents also play significant role here by allowing their children watching excessive television. If they are controlled at early stage, chances of getting addiction in them can be reduced. According to the theorists, watching violent programmes makes children violent but stopping them from watching it makes them aggressive(Thomas). This shows the amount of addiction created by televisions. At the end it can be said that watching television shall be made more productive by keeping an eye on children while watching television along with monitoring the amount of time they spend in it so that bad influence of television on children is reduced. References: Aabid, Mahesh Chandra Guru and Raja Raslana. Role of Television in Child Development. 2013. Web.14 April 2018 https://www.omicsonline.org/open-access/role-of-television-in-child-development-2165-7912.1000153.pdf. Block, Tabetha. Is Television Harmful To Children? 2010.Web. 14 April 2018 https://hilo.hawaii.edu/campuscenter/hohonu/volumes/documents/Vol08x19IsTelevisionHarmfultoChildren.pdf. Jusoff, Kamaruzaman. Television and Media Literacy in Young Children: Issues and Effects in Early Childhood . August 2009.Web. 14 April 2018 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1065705.pdf. Murray, John P. Television Violence And Its Impact On Children.Web. 14 April 2018 https://www.ocd.pitt.edu/Files/PDF/sr1995-12.pdf. Nash, Karen J. Pine and Avril. Dear Santa: The effects of television advertising on young children.Web. 14 April 2018 https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/2299/1154/103169.pdf?sequence=1. lafsdttir, Steingerur. Television and food in the lives of young children. 2014.Web. 14 April 2018 https://opinvisindi.is/bitstream/handle/20.500.11815/524/gupea_2077_34913_1.pdf?sequence=1isAllowed=y. Paediatrics Child Health . Impact of media use on children and youth. 2003.Web 14 April 2018 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792691/. Thomas, Sujala S.Nair and P.E. A Thematic study on the cause and effects of Television Violence on Children . 2012. 14 April 2018 https://www.ipedr.com/vol31/035-ICSSH%202012-S10050.pdf. Turow, Joseph. The Effects of Television on Children: What the Experts Believe. 1985. 14 April 2018 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1a09/3a2ccd4a4d09ecf25e74562687ab77e11514.pdf.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt Is One Of Our Countrys Best Known And Most B

Franklin Delano Roosevelt is one of our country's best known and most beloved presidents. He is commonly remembered for taking a tired, beaten, nation and instilling hope in it. This positive view of Roosevelt is held by Burns, who paints the picture of a man whose goal was to alleviate our nation's economic pains. But, is this view too myopic? Is Roosevelt deserving of such a godly reputation? These questions are posed by Conkin as he points out the discrimination that underlies many New Deal programs, and even suggests that many of Roosevelt's actions were for purely political motives. During the weeks preceding Roosevelt's inauguration the country was engaged in an economic crisis that was quickly spiraling downward. Banks failed, people panicked, and the nation looked to someone, anyone, for help. Hoover, sensing the country's desperation, but realizing his lack of power, and the feelings of resentment harbored towards him looked to Roosevelt. He asked the president-elect to join in economic planning, support policies, and most importantly to reassure the nation. While both authors note Roosevelt's unwillingness to cooperate with Hoover they site different reasons for it. Burns talks of Roosevelt's belief that the nation was not yet his domain, and that Hoover had the authority to handle the situation. In addition, Burns excuses Roosevelt by maintaining "Roosevelt did not foresee that the banking situation would reach a dramatic climax on Inauguration day. No man could have." (P. 148) This position is an exceedingly benevolent one when contrasted with Conkin's wh o writes Roosevelt "did nothing, and helplessly watched the economy collapse, letting it appear as one last result of Republican incompetence." This measure allowed Roosevelt to emerge as the "nation's savior," and ally the Democratic party with this image. Furthermore, the two authors differ in their assessment of the effect of public opinion on Roosevelt's actions. Burns gives the impression of a president who looked to engage all in his coalition. He states, politically, his cabinet "catered to almost every major group." Burns also adds, "Roosevelt did not slavishly follow the wishes of group leaders." (P. 150). Roosevelt is portrayed as the paragon of a humanitarian, "he wanted to help the underdog, though not necessarily at the expense of the top dog. He believed that private, special interests must be subordinated to the general interest." (P. 155) Conkin attempts to poke holes in this idealistic portrayal of Roosevelt. Conversely, Conkin implies that many of Roosevelt's programs helped the top dog, at the expense of the underdog. He argues, many New Deal programs such as the AAA and NRA, ignoreed the plight of the common American, while helping the politically more influencial sectors of the population. Similarly, many programs such as the Wagner Act, Social Security, and the AAA did not apply to migrant labors: those with the least political clout, and a comparatively low rate of voter turnout. I have come to be a believer in many of the arguments made by Conkin. While Burns spends much time praising Roosevelt and focusing on his successes, he ignores to talk about the non-existent benefits that the New Deal brought to a significant percentage of the population. He does not focus on Roosevelt's policy towards blacks. Why? Because Roosevelt's programs typically did not aid this sector of the population. As noted by Conkin Roosevelt's AAA led to an increase in unemployment among blacks, and Roosevelt refused to support an anti-lynching bill, fearing that his support would alienate the white Southern Democratic vote. My support for Burns' opinion is strengthened by my additional outside knowledge. Roosevelt's programs such as the CCC and PWA were not designed, to and mainly did not include women. Moreover, under the Roosevelt administration a law enacted which legally allowed only one family member to hold any type of job, this measure essentially kicked married women out of t he workforce. I think Conkin's argument is much more concrete than Burns'. While Burns focuses on high figurative language to praise Roosevelt, Conkin gives the reader concrete examples that serve to cast doubt on this demi-god image of the former president. What must be understood is that Conkin does not go as far as to denounce Roosevelt as a leader, he merely makes us look at some

Ebay Essay Example

Ebay Essay Example Ebay Essay Ebay Essay Case Analysis: eBay Customer Support Outsourcing | | Name: Qiong HuangStudent #: 500423506Course #: MT 8216For: Professor BabinDate: December, 10, 2010| Situation eBay. com, â€Å"the world’s online marketplace†, is an online auction and shopping website in which people and business buy and sell a wide variety of goods and services worldwide. It is managed by eBay Inc, which is founded in 1995 by Pierre Omidyar. eBay’ mission was to provide a robust trading platform where practically anyone could trade anything. It was recognized as the largest and most popular person-to-person trading community on the Internet. eBay Case, 2006) eBay posted US $8. 7 billion in revenue with a net income at $2. 4 billion in 2009. eBay is experiencing a 15% year-over-year increase. eBay’s marketplaces also benefit from a noticeable growth in its international business market, which accounts for around 60% of its market revenue in the 4th quarter of 2009. The marketplaces succ ess comes from the strong growth of its fixed-priced format, the continuing success of its highest rated sellers, and double-digit growth in sold items. (eBay 2009 Financial Report, 2010) Whitman purposed that eBay community of users was the foundation of the company’s business model. eBay Case, 2006) Customer service is substantial for e-commence business to survive and develop. The customer support organization in eBay was made up of two major units: general support, trust and safety. Most of the customer contacts were handled by the general support unit, and approximately 94% of customer service volume was email-based. Also, live chat and phone inquiries were growing. (eBay Case, 2006) To meet the inquiries of its customer base’s growth, eBay first hired remote contractors to respond customers’ emails. Then, eBay deployed Kana technology to improve its efficiency of customer services and to raise the customer satisfactions. However, those initiatives still could not keep up with the demand of growing customer bases. Thus, eBay operated an outsourcing pilot program in 2002. (eBay Case, 2006) Complications Outsourcing increases the productivity and quality of eBay’s customer support. Based on these benefits that were brought by the outsourcing, eBay increased the email volume of customer service sent offshore, even phone volumes in 2003. Yet, it arises some issues. One is the community reactions. More and more complaints from the community directed to the standardization of English, especially after outsourcing the phone volumes. These complaints refer to written English, accents, and language comprehensions. The other big concern is the customer relationship management. Customer support to PowerSellers and potential PowerSellers are not dedicated. eBay does not optimize its customer support to generate revenue. Besides that, eBay lacks of the talents who have rich experiences with outsourcing. Key Questions Should eBay continue to expand its outsourcing? Which outsourcing model can balance a competitive cost for eBay and retain its community? Is BOT a good alternative for eBay? Solutions To stay abreast of the continuing growth customer base and achieving cost differentiation, eBay should continue to expand its outsourcing. However, BOT is too advanced to eBay. It could not address the issues that eBay has now. Near-shoring is a better choice rather than outsourcing to India and Philippines. Compared to the other models of off-shoring outsourcings, near-shoring is to outsource in a nearby country, which shares a broader with own country. As for eBay, Canada, or some rural areas in both America and Canada are all good location choices. This first can solve the problems of language and culture issues as well as reduce the costs for eBay. Second, near-shoring is easier to manage. That ensures these outsourcing services can maintain the same standard with those services in the home country. Another alternative for eBay to optimize its customer support is to deploy CRM software. Customer relationship management is substantial to every company, especially to those e-commerce companies. As I discussed above, community is the foundation of the business model of eBay. Being first-to-market in the e-commerce world is frequently a competitive advantage. (eBay Case, 2006) The application of CRM software helps eBay not only to better serve its existing customers, but to develop new customers. It improves the efficiency and effectiveness in selecting, segmenting the customers and serving them, especially for those potential PowerSellers. This helps eBay to optimize its customer support. Conclusion Outsourcing is considered as a visible way for eBay to reduce costs, scale the demand, and leverage its investment. As for eBay, near-shoring will ground well in customer support, and CRM software will help to optimize the customer support. Reference eBay. (2010). Retrieved at December 10, 2010, from ebayinc. com/who. eBay Financial Report. (2010). Retrieved at December 10, 2010, from http://files. shareholder. com/downloads/ebay/1101818908x0x345224/b455630d-4bb9-4ba5-adb1-40dcf29e82ce/eBay_Q409EarningsRelease. pdf. Newman, S. , Crikscheit, G. , amp;Verna, R. (2006). eBay Customer Support Outsourcing. Indiana University CIBER.

QUESTIONS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

QUESTIONS - Essay Example Today, the US empire has troops stationed in over 100 countries worldwide. This started in the aftermath of WWII when the US had tremendous goodwill and respect from the rest of the world. Treaties were signed, bases were constructed and the troops have been stationed in far-flung locations ever since. The central ideal on which the United States was founded is the Rule of Law. That concept, as the central ideal that America was known for, has special application to the period just after WWII. Following WWII, the US pioneered the field of international law with the Nuremberg war trials, effectively telling the world that not only was no man above the Law, but no nation was above the law. This was a first in the history of the world. The popular slogan of peace, justice and the American way is a reference to the rule of law, not democracy. However, with the transition to an empire the concept of democracy is now emphasized and one does not hear much about the rule of law. The rule of law sums up a plethora of ideals: trial by jury, innocent until proven guilty, the right to face one’s accusers, freedom of speech, religious free exercise, right to keep and bear arms, freedom from arbitrary search and seizure and the list goes on. All the Constitutionally guaranteed rights come down to the rule of law.

Advantages and disadvantages of the health insurance system in US Essay

Advantages and disadvantages of the health insurance system in US - Essay Example anaged care insurance systems, through PPOs and HMOs in America, hopes to influence the rules of supply and demand in consumer care, and Medicare provide programs that increase accessibility for the poor and elderly. But many think that healthcare organizations need to reach out to the community in terms of educational programs that seek to foster the health of the community as a whole, rather than treat ailments in a specialized manner and have it end at that. Accessibility, as well as education, is an important goal for the model healthcare program in terms of conceptual framework. attractive alternative to many people who are facing financial challenges. The rapid growth of individuals from Medicare who have gone to managed care during the nineties is a strong portrayal of how popular managed care is in terms of what it offers, which is in many cases substantially more than Medicare. Many managed care insurance providers offer prescription drug coverage and other types of coverage that are not covered by Medicare. But many wonder whether managed care operations can keep cost effective with so many clients and so much liability and responsibility to individuals on these will have to be solved for the future to look very bright. In the US insurance system, HMOs are a relatively new development, although some of them have roots in the mid-twentieth century. There are still application-based and ethical imperatives to ask the status of these programs, especially in terms of their relevance to government healthcare programs as supplementary services and their position in a dynamic healthcare economy that is becoming increasingly privatized. This reflects the essential debate between government control and interference in national healthcare. That is,

Reading Comprehension Strategies And Reading Skills English Language Essay

Reading Comprehension Strategies And Reading Skills English Language Essay Hammadon (1991) says: Reading comprehension is not just understanding words, sentences, or even texts, but involves a complex interartion of the readers prior knowledge, language profiency and their learning strategies (p.30). So reading strategies are very important to achieve the comprehension. Many types of reading strategies are introduced to guide students of all different levels. However, there were few researchers who investigate the relationship of reading comprehension strategies and reading comprehension of students. At HETC, reading has a key place in any English courses when students study English not only as the interest but also the demand for improving their study and promoting in their careers to achieve the long-term goals, especially some of them were assigned to live and work abroad. In their learning process, almost the students meet great challenges when dealing with the reading texts. They usually do not understand texts and cannot complete the tasks so they fee l tired in reading lessons. Therefore, what are the main causes of this current situation? In order to find out the answer, the researcher started a survey on the reading comprehension strategy use. For teachers at HETC, it is hoped that this study may offer them the ways on how to identify strategies used by the students and then they can decide what they should do to promote their students reading comprehension and in their learning as well. Literature review 2.1. Reading comprehension strategies and reading skills Oxford (1990) gives a detailed definition of language learning strategies: Learning strategies are specific actions taken by the learner to make learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self-directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations (p.8) and described concretely how learning strategies are applied to the four language skills: listening, speaking, writing and reading. According to her, four strategies: listening strategies, à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦, or reading strategies are those learning strategies themselves that applied to each of the four skills. Of course, skills and strategies are two big words and common terms of the reading activities, as well. Nutall (1982) pointed out that reading was certainly a process of the readers, who used strategies to work with the meaning of the texts actively and then made sense from them. By the interesting interactions from the readers and texts, more and more researchers keep working to research the relationship between the use of reading strategies and reading comprehension. However, strategy and skill, are they different? Yes, it was actually apparent that they were different. Strategy meant people used the planned methods and implements to achieve their goals, but skill was known as a routine. Moreover, strategy was the result of conciously work towards goals. It helped readers to understand the meaning of contents in order to find out the answer or obtain a certain performance level in reading that they want for themselves (Gagnà ©, 1985). However, it is not always easy to make such a clear differnces between these two terms. Grabe and Stoller (2002) said that many abilities that are commonly identified as strategies are relatively automatic in their use by fluent readers (e.g. skipping an unknown word while reading, rereading to reestabilsh text meaning (p.15) Paris et al (1991) supposed an emerging skill can become more efficient and developmentally advanced when they become generated and applied automatically as skills (p.61). Sometimes this diff erence is not clear at all because that is part of the nature of reading. In this study, reading strategies are used to show specific actions, steps and plans that students conciously apply in their reading process to improve their comprehension. 2.2. The relationship between reading strategies and reading comprehension Reading comprehension must occur rapid in almost any purposeful context, and the more rapidly a text is read, the better reading processes are to effect. Those specific processes must be implemented effectively in combination to ensure the reading comprhension. Reading comprehension requires the reader be strategic. The reader needs to identify processing difficulties, address balances between text information and background knowledge, decide for monitoring comprhension, and shifing goals for reading. When a good reader use strategies, they can read fluently, flexible in line with changing purpose and then continue monitoring the comprehension. Similarly, reading is an process that evaluating the reader, who must decide if the reading information is coherent and finds out the purpose for reading.Alderson (2003) said reading as the interaction of four things. He claimed that the reader and the text together must be fluent reading or the ability to reach at an appropriate rate with ad equate comprehension, or the ability of the reader to use a wide variety of reading strategies to accomplish a purpose for reading (p.149). So discovering the best methods and strategies are the way that a good learner apply during a reading process. 2.3. Previous research on reading comprhension strategies Grellet, F. (1981) wrote a book Developing Reading Skills. This book showed the important role of reading and provided some techniques which help learners improve their reading skill. Nutal, C. (1989) proved reading is to enable students to read without help unfamiliar authentic texts at appropriate speed, silently with adequate understanding. Ozek, O. (2006) researched A study on the Use of Cognitive Reading Strategies by ELT Students. This study carried out to find out which reading strategies are commonly employed by ELT students while reading a text, and which reading strategies are needed to be developed to understand the text better, and to continue academic studies successfully. San San Kung (2007) did an investigation into the relationship between reading comprehension and the use of reading strategies among EFL students in colleges in Taiwan. Through the study, the researcher knew what the reading strategies the EFL students use more or less and what the differences between different grade students. Methodology This chapter will describe research methods used to collect data to answer the research questions and then explain how and why the methods are used. 3.1. Research questions This study aims to find out reading strategy use of HETCs students. This also has objectives to discover if there are any differences in strategy use between lower and higher proficiency readers, as well. Then to suggest some recommendations to raise students awareness of using reading comprehension strategies in the classroom. It aims at answering the following questions: What reading strategies are used by students at HETC? What are the differences in the use of reading strategies between lower and higher proficiency readers? 3.2. Descriptions of variables 3.2.1. Independent variables In this study, the independence variables were the students at HETC. 51 students were chosen as representatives of this particular group sudents to collect needed data. These 51 students were divided into four groups in which students are the members of higher and lower proficiency groups. These 2 groups were chosen to get information to answer the second research question ( More details about these groups and about higher and lower proficiency readers will be found in 3.3.1 and 3.4.2) 3.2.2. Dependent variable: The dependent variable in this research were the strategies applied in reading comprehension, i.e. reading comprehension strategies. 3.3. The data collection instruments: This study employs a combibation of 3 data collection instruments: General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) Questionaire Think-aloud interviews As one of the objectives of this study is to find out if there are any dfferences in the strategy use between higher proficiency (HP) and lower proficiency (LP) readers. The test was used to divide the subjects into difference groups in which groups of higher and lower proficiency were chosen to collect the data. Think-aloud interviews aimed at getting qualitative data and quesionaire was used to get quantiative data. The author can collect a large information of all mentioned strategies and the information from students who share their thought of strategy use in the think-aloud interviews. Of course, the think a loud interviews in this study can be one of the best ways to reaffirm the result got from the questionaire. For example, in the questionaire, the subjects report that they use life experiences to understand the meaning of texts or read the first and last paragraphs and then go back to read the paragraphs; the author will know they use these strategies or not in the interview. 3.3.1. Test A General English proficiency test is a procedure taken to collect data on students ability or the knowledge of disciplines as Information about peoples language ability is often very useful and necessary (Nunan, 1992). The GEPT was taken form the book IELTS for Academic Purpose: A short insentive course (see the appendix 3). Based on the result of the test, the subjects were classified into 4 groups. Group 1 consists students who just got from mark 1 to 2.5; group 2 has those who got mark from 3 to 5. The students in these 2 groups are LP learners. Meanwhile, the students who are in group 3 got mark from 5.5 to 6.5 they are at medium levels. And the last group group 4 consists of HP ones who got mark from 7 and over. After having the result of the test, the author decided to chose group 2 and 4 to collect the data to answer the second research question. So there are 51 subjects in these 2 groups. The author did not choose group 1 because their proficiency were too low and they we re only 1% of the subjects. Details of the test can be found in Appendix 1. 3.3.2. Questionaire: Questionaire is the second data collection instrument in this study. This is also a pretty popular means of data collection. Many researchers suppose that using questionaire in language research has many advantages. First, questionaire can be given to a great amount of students at the same time and it is self-administered. Second, to protect the privacy and keep the fairness, the subjects names might not be appeared on the questionaire. So subjects tend to share the information more naturally, even some sensitive information. Third, the data collected are more accurate because questionaire is usually given to all the subjects at the same time. This study used one survey questionaire to gather the information about reading strategies as well as the differences in strategy use between these two kinds of readers. According to the result of the questionaire (and interviews), the athor can make some recommendation to help students improve their reading abilities. The quesionaire was designed based on the questionaire of Shan Shan Kung (2007). This part consists 3 parts. Of couse, in this study, the author modified the first part personal information part. The next part concept of reading had 3 questions to explore the perceptions of English reading. The last part had thirty eight questions of strategy use. In the beginning of third section, thirty four questions utilized a Liker Scale point systems. The subjects were asked to respond to each statement by choosing among four answers: 1) usually; 2) sometimes; 3) rarely; 4) never. Each section has four to six questions (except section 1 has 10 questions because of discoverin g the reading process). Through the survey, the author found out which strategies actually actracted HP readers more than LP readers. 3.3.3. Think aloud interviews In addition to the quetionaire, interviews are used to obtain information by actually talking to the subject. The interviewer asks questions and the subject responds. Interviews are the good way for collecting data as Seliger, H.W. (1989) claimed Interviews are personalized and therefore permit a level of in-depth information gathering, free response and flexibility that cannot be obtained by other procedures (p.166). However, it can be costly and time consuming. In this study, think aloud interviews were used to collect the data about the students reading strategy. The Interviewer Guide for Reading Strategies developed by Honsenfeld et al. (1981). In oder to make the Guide appropriate for objectives of thi study, the researcher has made some changes in the strategies they posed ( see Appendix 3). 3.4. Participants in the study: At the time the study was carried out, the subjects had just finished an English course. Their textbook was à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Therefore, their commonly assumed proficiency was intermidiate. They were members of three classes. One class included 25 students , 24 in the other class and 21 in the last one and they stuied the same textbook. Their ages ranged from 19 to 24. Almost all of students had at least 3 years of learning English before this class. They were delivered a reading proficiency test to be divided into higher and lower proficiency readers. In this study, gender has minimal effect on the results because the number of male students is quite small in the total of the subjects. 3.5. Procedure The data were collected by the researcher during a week in autum 2009. After contacting the English teachers of the subjects in person to get approval for asking their students to participate in the study, the researcher pre-arranged the time. The researcher went to English classes to administer the tests. The students were asked to complete the test in 60 minutes. The English teachers and the researcher supervised and marked the test papers later. The 2 days after, subjects were distributed the questionanires. The researcher gave some directions to the subjects and of then encouraged students to ask for any clarifications they might need and any other extra time when they filled out the questionaire. And of couse, the researcher wanted to protect the privacy and the students fairness, so the students names would not fill in the questionaires. In order to advoid misunderstanding the questions, the questionaire were translated into Vietnamese which were enclosed with the English version. The questionaire administration took about 30 minutes in each class. For days later, six chosen students were interviewed individually at the researcher s office in HETC. The reseacher pre-arranged the time and contacted to the students by the phone. Before the interview, the reseacher gave the instructions and explained the purpose of the study to students so they could understand what they had to do clearly. Each interview took from 10 to 15 minutes. Data analysis and findings 4.1. The result of the questionaire 4.1.1. Demographic Data Table 4.1 Demographic Information of Students (N=51) Subject Frequency Percentage Total N % Gender Male 9 17.6 51 100 Female 42 82.4 Level Lower proficiency 32 63.7 Higher proficiency 19 36.3 Years of English learning experience 2 3 5.9 51 100 4 9 17.6 5 15 29.4 6 11 21.6 7 6 11.8 8 2 3.9 9 4 7.8 10 1 2.0 Look at the table 4.1, of the 51 students participating in the study, 9 (17.6%) were males and 43 (82.4%) were females. Of the 19 HP students (36.3%) and 32 (63.7%) were LP students. When asking about years of English learning experience, just 1 students (2.0%) has been studying English for ten years. 9 students (17.6%) have been studying English for four years, 15 students (29.4%) have been studying English for five years, 11 students (21.6%) have been studying English for six years, 6 students (11.8%) have been studying English for seven years, 2 students (3.9%) have been studying English for eight years, 4 students (7.8%) have been studying English for nine years. Because foreign language in general and English in particular were given into school from sixth grade in secondary school, and from tenth grade in high school ( in some remote areas), the most students years of English learning experience were between four and seven years. To answer the second section of the questionnaire about concepts of reading, the results were presented in Table 4.2. Table 4.2 The Relationship between the Important of Reading for Language Learning and Reading Hours per Week by higher and lower proficiency students Reading hours per week 2 3 4 Over 4 N % N % N % N % Higher proficiency students (N =19) Very important 2 10.5 5 26.3 6 31.6 3 15.8 important 1 5.3 2 10.5 Not important Lower proficiency students (N =32) Very important 6 18.8 7 21.9 5 15.6 important 4 12.5 5 15.6 4 12.5 Not important 1 3.1 According to the illustration of Table 4.2, HP students who thought reading was very important for language learning were 2 (10.5%) spent two hours per week on reading, 5(26.3%) for three hours per week, 6 (31.6%), for four hours per week and 3 (15.8%) for over four hours per week. HP students who thought reading was important for language learning were 1 (5.3%) spent two hours per week on reading, 2 (10.5%) for four hours per week. There were not any students who thought reading was not important for language learning. In the LP group, 6 (18.8%) students thought reading was very important for language learning and spent two hours per week for it, 7 (21.9%) spent three hours for reading, 5 (15.6%) spent four hours for reading. These LP students supposed reading was important for language learning were 4 (12.5%) spent two hours per week on reading, 5 (15.6%) for three hours per week. There was 1 (3.1%) students said reading was not important for language learning but still spent two hours per week on it. 4.1.2. Findings for Research Question One The research question one was What reading comprehension strategies are used by students at HETC ? After collecting data, it showed what the same or different strategies were used more or less by HP or LP students for helping them understand the contents of the reading materials in different reading situations and were ranked from low to high to represent which strategy would be used more or less by the students during their reading process in different situations. The results were listed in the following by all of students reading ability levels when they used reading strategies in different reading situations. The total results came from the 51 students in Table 4.3, 4.4, 4.5 and 4.6. Table 4.3 Means, Ranks, and Standard Deviations of the Uses of Reading Strategies in First Section by students at HETC When I read English materials, Mean Mean SD Rank 1. I read a table of contents, and then read the contents 1.82 1 .90 2. I focus on the first sentence of each paragraph for helping me understand the main points of the whole paragraph 2.51 7 .12 3. I underline the main points when I am reading 2.03 4 .97 4. I write Vietnamese on the margin for vocabulary words I dont understand during reading 1.86 2 .90 5 I skim over the full text, and then read details 1.88 3 .92 6 I use life experiences helping me understand the meaning of texts 1.86 2 .90 7 I use the background knowledge of the English culture to understand the contents 2.57 8 1.03 8 I use key words or sentences to guess the main idea of the articles 1.88 3 1.08 9 After reading each paragraph, I ask myself if I understand what I read before, and paraphrase the main idea, then keep reading the next paragraph 2.25 5 1.09 10 I discuss what I read with classmates 2.45 6 1.05 In Table 4.3, the result indicated which strategies the 51 students used more or less when they read English materials. The table showed the data with mean, mean rank, and standard deviation. As illustration of Table 4.3, the mean was from 1.82 to 2.51 and the rank was S1 (1.82) Table 4.4 Means, Ranks, and Standard Deviations of the Uses of Reading Strategies in First Section by students at HETC When I do not understand a vocabulary, Mean Mean SD Rank 11 I check the dictionary immediately 2.37 3 1.1 12 I mark and pass it, keep reading and then go back 2.33 2 1.08 13 I use other words in the sentence to infer the meaning of vocabulary 2.09 1 .87 14 I analyze its suffix and prefix to get its meaning 3.00 4 1.21 Through Table 4.4, strategy 13 I use other words in the sentence to infer the meaning of vocabulary was most used by the students when they did not understand a vocabulary during the reading process. On contrary, strategy 14 I analyze its suffix and prefix to get its meaning was the strategy which most students used least in this reading situation. Table 4.5 Means, Ranks, and Standard Deviations of the Uses of Reading Strategies in First Section by students at HETC When I do not understand a sentence, Mean Mean SD Rank 15 I use the context (topic, subject) to derive the meaning of each sentence 1.86 1 .91 16 I translate word for word into Vietnamese to better understand the meaning of the sentences 2.35 4 1.12 17 I take grammar analysis (ex: finding subject and verb etc.) to understand the meaning of the sentences 2.33 3 1.02 18 I analyze the structure of sentences (ex: sample sentence, adjective clause, or adverb clause, etc.)to derive the meaning of sentence 2.37 5 .97 19 I will analyze the verb tense (ex: past tense or future tense) or verb mood (ex: subjunctive mood or imperative mood) for better understanding 2.27 2 .95 In Table 4.5, those strategies had close mean scores between each other, but it also pointed out the differences from 2.27 to 2.37, except the strategy 15 had the mean score less 1.86. It described that strategy 15 I use the context (topic, subject) to derive the meaning of each sentence were the most used by the students when they did not understand a sentence during reading process. Vice versa, the means of the strategy 16 and strategy 18 to derive the meaning of sentence meant that they were used least than other strategies in this section. Table 4.6 Means, Ranks, and Standard Deviations of the Uses of Reading Strategies in First Section by students When I dont understand (including vocabulary and sentences,) except above reading strategies, Mean Mean SD Rank 20 I check books (ex: grammar books or encyclopedia) for references 2.16 2 1.14 21 I go on the Internet to find related information 1.98 1 .92 22 I ask teachers or classmates for clarification 2.27 3 1.03 23 I read the difficult parts several times 2.63 5 1.12 24 I read the contents orally several times 2.47 4 .94 25 I will memorize the vocabulary pertaining to the contents before reading 2.16 2 .99 According to the data, it presented that strategy 21 I go on Internet to find related information was used by almost students. The information technology nowaday becomes quite popular to students so they would like to search information on the Internet. The S20 = S25 (2.16) both stood the second position. The strategy that students used least was strategy 23 I read difficult parts several times. 4.1.3. Findings for Research Question Two Research question two was What are the differences in the use of reading strategies of the higher and lower proficiency students at HETC? Through mean, standard deviation, t-tests and p value, the data analysis depicted detailed information about the differences of reading strategy performance between these two groups of students. The comparative groups focused on higher and lower proficiency student. Table 4.7 Means, Standard Deviations, t-Tests and p Value between higher and lower proficiency students at HETC when I read English materials, Lower proficiency students Higher proficiency students T p (N=19) (N=32) Mean SD Mean SD 1. I read a table of contents, and then read the contents 2.00 1.054 1.72 .813 .999 .322 2. I focus on the first sentence of each paragraph for helping me understand the main points of the whole paragraph 2.16 1.118 1.78 .792 1.288 .20 3. I underline the main points when I am reading 2.00 1.105 2.06 .914 -.208 .84 4. I write Vietnamese on the margin for vocabulary words I dont understand during reading 2.79 1.084 2.78 1.069 .026 .98 5. I skim over the full text, and then read details 2.05 1.026 1.78 .870 .965 .34 6. I use life experiences helping me understand the meaning of texts 1.89 .937 1.84 .917 .189 .85 7. I use the background knowledge of the English culture to understand the contents 2.05 1.129 2.86 .871 -2.729 .00** 8. I use key words or sentences to guess the main idea of the articles 2.37 1.261 1.59 .911 2.412 .02* 9. After reading each paragraph, I ask myself if I understand what I read before, and paraphase the main idea, then keep reading the next paragraph 2.00 1.202 2.53 .983 -1.630 .11 10. I discuss what I read with classmates 2.53 1.264 2.41 .946 .359 .72 p As indicated in Table 4.7, strategy 7 and strategy 8 attended to the significant difference level (p Table 4.8 Means, Standard Deviations, t-Tests and p Value between higher and lower proficiency students at HETC When I do not understand a vocabulary, Higher proficiency students Lower proficiency students t p (N=19) (N=32) Mean SD Mean SD 11. I check the dictionary immediately 3.32 .749 1.81 .896 6.432 .00** 12. I mark and pass it, keep reading and then go back 2.89 1.1 2.06 .878 2.809 .00** 13. I use other words in the sentence to infer the meaning of vocabulary 2.05 .911 2.13 .871 -.279 .78 14. I analyze its suffix and prefix to get its meaning 2.84 1.344 3.13 1.07 -.782 .44 p In table 4.8, strategy 11 and strategy 12 attended to the significant different level (p