A RESEARCH INTO THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE ON BUSINESS ENGLISH READING COMPREHENSION

With the arrival of the new millennium,the demand fortalented people with both professional knowledge and excellentlanguage abilities is getting stronger and stronger.For business major students,reading is paramount inBusiness English teaching and learning.And their reading abilityis often assessed by a text of reading comprehension.However,from my experience as a college teacher ofBusiness English,I have noticed some problems among studentswho have little knowledge of business.They seem to readBusiness English materials at a slower rate and with lessunderstanding than general English materials.Then there is the question:is Business English reading"simply"a problem of language competence? Or are there anyother more important factors?This article is an investigation into the effect of backgroundknowledge on Business English reading comprehension.Thestudy attempts to assess to what extent L2 readers might beaffected because of their lack of a background schematapresupposed by the author by comparing the test results of twopassages comparable in language lightness or heaviness.Morecomparable passages like these can be used in investigating intothe rival effects of background knowledge and linguisticcompetence.The implications of comprehension theory for L2pedagogy are discussed and suggestions for Business Englishteaching is put forward.

Spatial-temporal heterogeneity and determinants of HIV prevalence in the Mano River Union countries

Background:Utilizing population-based survey data in epidemiological research with a spatial perspective can integrate valuable context into the dynamics of HIV prevalence in West Africa.However,the situation in the Mano River Union(MRU)countries is largely unknown.This research aims to perform an ecological study to determine the HIV prevalence patterns in MRU.Methods:We analyzed Demographic and Health Survey(DHS)and AIDS Indicator Survey(AIS)data on HIV prevalence in MRU from 2005 to 2020.We examined the country-specifc,regional-specifc and sex-specifc ratios of respondents to profle the spatial–temporal heterogeneity of HIV prevalence and determine HIV hot spots.We employed Geodetector to measure the spatial stratifed heterogeneity(SSH)of HIV prevalence for adult women and men.We assessed the comprehensive correct knowledge(CCK)about HIV/AIDS and HIV testing uptake by employing the Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator(LASSO)regression to predict which combinations of CCKs can scale up the ratio of HIV testing uptake with sex-specifc needs.Results:In our analysis,we leveraged data for 158,408 respondents from 11 surveys in the MRU.From 2005–2015,Cote d’Ivoire was the hot spot for HIV prevalence with a Gi_Bin score of 3,Z-Score 8.0–10.1 and P<0.001.From 2016 to 2020,Guinea and Sierra Leone were hot spots for HIV prevalence with a Gi_Bin score of 2,Z-Score of 3.17 and P<0.01.The SSH confrmed the signifcant diferences in HIV prevalence at the national level strata,with a higher level for Cote d’Ivoire compared to other countries in both sexes with q-values of 0.61 and 0.40,respectively.Our LASSO model predicted diferent combinations of CCKs with sex-specifc needs to improve HIV testing uptake.Conclusions:The spatial distribution of HIV prevalence in the MRU is skewed and the CCK about HIV/AIDS and HIV testing uptake are far below the threshold target set by UNAIDS for ending the epidemic in the sub-region.Geodetector detected statistically signifcant SSH within and between countries in the MRU.Our LASSO model predicted that diferent emphases should be implemented when popularizing the CCK about HIV/AIDS for adult women and men.