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Contemporary literature in English language teaching shows some impacts of oral narrations on learners’ speaking competence and phonological processing. However, little research has explored the relationship between this methodological practice and young learners’ L2 reading comprehension. This paper investigates the effect which story retelling has on young English learners’comprehension of reading. The researchers employed quantitative and qualitative approaches. Forty children were chosen from two different classes of a comparable level of proficiency and assigned into two groups for a two-month treatment. The results show that the experimental group significantly outperformed the control group on the reading comprehension posttest. The questionnaire and observation data also indicated that the children responded positively to story retelling and that story retelling brought about excitement in the reading class, motivated young learners to read as well as shaped young learners’ behaviours and attitudes. This study suggests using story retelling more often in L2 language programs for young learners.

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As a salt adsorbent, biochar could remove/isolate salt ions e.g. Na through physiochemical adsorption to mitigate the salinity of brackish water, but little is known about its magnitude and mechanisms. The current study aimed to examine the effects of biochar on: (1) Na-adsorptive capacity and mechanism and (2) Electrical Conductivity (EC) and K displacement. Six pyrolysis temperatures (250, 350, 450, 550, 650, and 750ºC) were applied to produce biochars from rice husk. The biochars were then used as adsorbents to adsorb Na from salty water varying in NaCl concentrations. The Langmuir isotherm Model (LMM) and Dubinin-Radushkevick isotherm Model (DRM) were used to quantify the dependence of adsorbed Na on Na concentration at equilibrium. The LMM quantification revealed that the maximum Na-adsorptive capacity of biochars increased from 25.8 to 67.8 (mg g^-1) upon increased temperatures. The EC was reduced and the K amount displaced from biochar was increased with an increase in pyrolysis temperature. The DRM quantification revealed that the Na-adsorptive mechanism was mainly a physical process. A significant relationship between the Na amount adsorbed and the K amount displaced from biochar suggested that the ion-exchange mechanism could co-exist. In brief, the findings indicated that the salinity of the brackish water could be significantly mitigated by the biochar treatment through mainly physical adsorption leading to a reduced EC and increased K: Na ratio.