A CORRELATIONAL STUDY BETWEEN VOCABULARY MASTERY AND READING COMPREHENSION AT ECONOMIC FACULTY OF ALKHAIRAAT UNIVERSITY

This research is a correlational study with two variables – variable X standing for vocabulary mastery and variable Y standing for reading comprehension. There were three research questions: (1) What is the level of correlation between variable X and variable Y; (2) How significant is the contribution that can be given by variable X toward variable Y; and (3) Is there positive correlation between variable X and variable Y? The sample of this research was fifty students of the first semester at Economic Faculty of Alkhairaat University. The instruments were tests and questionnaire. Through tests, it was found that: (1) The level of correlation between variable X and variable Y was strong; (2) The significant contribution given by variable X toward variable Y was 52.8%, meaning variable X gave much contribution to variable Y; and (3) There was positive correlation between variable X and variable Y since the value of r-counted (0.727) was higher than the value of r-table (0.279). Through questionnaire, 46% respondents agreed that vocabulary took a role in helping them to comprehend English texts, meaning the more vocabulary they have, the better they are in comprehending English texts.

Exploring Views of Teachers and Students of Shishket School About Their Post Disaster Teaching and Learning Experiences

The world in the recent years has experienced different types of disasters due to changes in the global climatic patterns and human activities. Pakistan has faced many natural disasters in the last couple of years. Attabad Lake Disaster is one of those disasters which occurred on 4th January 2010 and left thousands of people as Internally Displaced People (IDPs). The international agencies working for humanitarian assistance consider Education as the fourth pillar of humanitarian aid in emergency situations. Attabad Lake disaster destroyed schools and disrupted the teaching and learning process in the particulararea. Therefore, this particular study was carried out to get an insight of post disaster teaching and learning experiences of teachers and students in SD school Shishkat which was hit by Hunza lake disaster. The study was conducted in a private school in Shishket Gojal, Hunza. This particular school building was submerged in the Attabad Lake during the disaster. A qualitative research study was conducted to get an in-depth knowledge of teachers' and students' teaching and learning experiences in the post-disaster situation. A Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was carried out with six teachers and twice with the students. Interviews were taken from the head teacher and an administrator of Sunshine ED (pseudonym). Three classroom observations and some important analyses of documents were done for getting appropriate data. The major findings of the study revealed that due to changed landscape of the area and changed academic year such as long vacations, students' dropout and turnover of teachers, change in school timings and change in the examination system have greatly influenced teaching and learning activities in the school. The study further found that teachers did not get any PD training for dealing with teaching and learning in an emergency situation and that the curriculum needed to be reviewed according to the needs of the students. Moreover, teaching and learning activities have changed after the disaster due to lack of resources, changed behaviour of the students and teachers and changed daily activities of the students and teachers. The findings of this study recommend some guidelines for the teachers and teacher education institutions to overcome the issues of teaching and learning during emergency situations.