Agrobacterium rhizogenes and Agrobacterium tumefaciens are plant pathogenic bacteria capable of transferring DNA fragments [transfer DNA (T-DNA)] bearing functional genes into the host plant genome. This naturally occurring mechanism has been adapted by plant biotechnologists to develop genetically modified crops that today are grown on more than 10% of the world's arable land, although their u...

This study examined the interrelationships of first language (L1) literacy, second language (L2) proficiency, and L2 reading comprehension with 246 Chinese college students learning English. L1 literacy and L2 proficiency were measured with college admission exams in Chinese and English. L2 reading comprehension was measured with the reading comprehension section of a TOEFL and a researcher-dev...

The conviction that L1 and L2/FL learners can acquire unfamiliar vocabulary items in the course of reading, that is, that so-called incidental vocabulary acquisition is a by-product of the reading process, has been held by numerous researchers involved in the study of the relationship between reading and vocabulary (Paribakht & Wesche, 1997). This study investigated whether doing two types of t...

understanding the opinions of major role players in education (i.e. teachers, students, and policy makers) on all aspects of learning and teaching is influential to the success of the educational process. the purpose of this study was to investigate efl (english as a foreign language) teachers' views on measuring reading comprehension. a cohort of 50 iranian efl teachers teaching at university,...

The present study aims at investigating the effect of different levels of lexical collocational density on EFL learners’ reading comprehension. Eighty sophomore students with different levels of proficiency studying at  Zand Institute of Higher Education in Shiraz, Iran were chosen from among eighty five learners based on their score distribution on a reduced TOEFL test constructed by Education...