Amazon Deforestation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Amazon Deforestation - Essay Example Global warming is one of the major concerns of the world today. The problem is caused by the increased greenhouse emissions coming from different countries worldwide. However, findings show that about 15% of carbon emissions come from tropical deforestation. This level of emissions is more than the total emissions from all automobiles combined. Therefore, preservation of forests is one of the surest ways of slowing down global warming. This begins by preserving Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, which is at threat of disappearance due to deforestation. Brazil’s Amazon rainforest is one f the world’s largest tropical rainforest. However, the forest has been at threat of deforestation, which began in 1970s. Report indicates that before the deforestation of the forest began, Amazon forest cover was estimated at about 4,100,000 square kilometers. The forest at the time consisted of different types of trees and acted as home for several species of birds, animals, microorganisms, and even human beings.The high forest cover also acted as water catchment area for major rivers in Brazil and neighboring countries.At the same time, the forest received an estimated half of the country’s annual rainfall. However, all these have significantly been lost through deforestation. The World Bank report indicates that an estimated 745,289 square kilometers of Amazon forest has been lost since 1970s to 2011.Despite there being a slight decline in the destruction in the recent times following conservation initiatives put by the Brazilian government, more still needs to be done to preserve the forest. As a result,only about 3,354,711 km2 of the forest cover remained by 2011 down from 4,100,000 km2 of the forest cover in 1970 and earlier.... A number of factors have been noted as the leading causes of destruction of Amazon. Top of the causes according to a study is the clearing the forest for pasture. Report indicates that about 38% of the deforestation that took place from1966 to1975 was due to large-scale ranching. This figure has since increased to about 60%, according to the country’s National Institute for Space Research (INPE) and Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa). This is reverberated by the fact that Brazil’s economy depends hugely on beef products exported to different parts of the world. However, much of the ranching expansion has taken place in Amazon, which has more than 80% of heads of cattle. Presently an estimated 214,000 square miles of land have been cleared to give space for pasture. This space is larger than the size of France (Butler par.3). The destruction has also been caused by subsistence agriculture being undertaken by the poor farmers in the forest after the Brazilian gov ernment provided land to the landless poor through the country’s land policy. According to Brazil’s land policy, every citizen has a right to use any government piece of land for a period of at least one year and a day. The squatter has the right to acquire ownership of the land after five years hence the right to sell the land. Report indicates that the Brazilian government granted land ownership in Amazon to about 150,000 families from 1995 to 1998. Poor farmers typically have the tendency of clearing land-using fire. In fact, satellite images taken on the forest show numerous images of fires burning across the Amazon (Campari 21). The deforestation of Amazon has also been increased by the move by the Brazilian government to clear the land for purposes of improving its

Fetishism and the Surrealist Object Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Fetishism and the Surrealist Object - Essay Example The essay "Fetishism and the Surrealist Object" states Fetishism and Surrealism. Invoking ideas of personal sexual fantasies outsides the realm of polite society, fetishism primarily exists in the world behind the world, and its public expression in the form of art can be a brazen and shocking thing. Contemporary artists such as Mona Hatoum, Rebecca Horn and Nobuyoshi Araki have created significant art that falls into the space of fetishism. However, considering the concurrent societal norms, earlier, less accepting epochs demanding conformity have produced some of the most provocative pieces touching on this taboo, primarily the Surrealists. Indeed, few movements invoke the overall inner landscape of dreams, desires and unconscious more determinedly. Primarily functioning between the two world Wars, Surrealism was a movement motivated by the writings of Andre Breton and dedicated to exposing the desires of the subconscious and fighting the bourgeois society surrounding them in many different avenues of expression. In addition to writing, Surrealist artists utilized painting, collage, photography and sculpture to advance various Freudian driven concepts. Among these was the idea of the object. Although Breton had called for the creation of Surrealist objects earlier, it was only during the 1930’s did the debate and production of these objects truly gain momentum within the group. Distinct from the contemporary concept of sculpture, these homemade montages of distinct yet everyday elements. transferred these works from the utilitarian to the realm of dreams. In this manner, 'the object created therefore constitutes the intrusion into daily life of a desire that moulds and transforms matter according to its requirements, meticulously creating the synthesis of extreme intimacy and the outside world'.4 For this essay I have chosen two famous yet utterly distinct surrealist objects to demonstrate the breadth of fetishism in this movement. Although the "furry teacup" of Meret Oppenheim might seem completely unrelated to Hans Bellmer's notorious doll, they are both objects emerging from the Surrealist school that revolve around fetishism. Object (Le Djeuner en fourrure)5 Introduced to the Surrealist group when she was only eighteen, Meret Oppenheim began as a model for photographer Man Ray before embarking on her Oppenheim, Meret (1936). Object (Le Djeuner en fourrure). Fur-covered cup, saucer and spoon. 7.3 cm tall. On display at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. own artistic endeavours.6 Apparently, the concept for the work emerged from a conversation in a Parisian caf with Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar in 1936:7 he happened to be wearing one of the bracelets she had been making for Schiaparelli out of lengths of fur-lined, polished metal tubing. Talking and joking about the bracelet, Picasso quipped that one could actually cover anything with fur, to which Meret replied, "Even this cup and saucer" Shortly afterwards, When Andr Breton invited her to contribute to an Exhibition of Surrealist objects at the Galerie Charles Ratton, she recalled the conversation and, without further ado, bought a large cup and saucer with spoon at the Parisian department store, Uniprix, and lined the three objects with the fur of a Chinese gazelle. It was Andre Breton who named the work.8 Somehow, this simple concept erupted into the canons of twentieth century art, and what

The Logic of Suicide Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The Logic of Suicide Terrorism - Essay Example The Hotel Rwanda film is a co-production that focuses on political corruption, genocide and the repercussions of violent behavior. The film stars Don as hotelier Paul, who endeavors to salvage his colleague citizens from the ravage of the Rwandan genocide era. A brief review of the genocide entails that the war originated from the tension between the Hutu and the Tutsi whereby, bribes and other acts of corruption among the politicians were routine. As the political situation worsened in the country, civil wars erupted in the region hence, displacing a large number of families. On the other hand, Scott McConnell interviews Robert concerning the idea that probed him to write the book. Robert clearly reveals his wealth with the information he had pertaining to terrorism and violence in various parts of the world (Anthony 18). He claims that religion is not to be held accountable for most of the suicide-terrorist attacks. In the dialogue between Robert and the American conservative, Robert also discusses the American and Iraq differences. This shows that suicide-terrorist attacks were quite prone in the Islamic countries and America. Robert notes that in every occasion where a profession has created a suicide-terrorist movement, there is a religious difference between the occupier and the occupied community (Anthony 21). In conclusion, based on euphemism which is defined as a harmless phrase that substitutes an offensive one, we find that the film title used in this essay is euphemistic. The phrase Hotel Rwanda may mislead one to think that the film is correlated with a hotel in Rwanda while on the contrary; the term refers to the genocide era in Rwanda where many lives were lost due to mass killings.  

What Can We Expect From Input Enhancement?

What Can We Expect From Input Enhancement? Introduction Today, it is generally accepted that target grammatical form of L2 (second language) must be noticed to make acquisition happens and that SLA (second language acquisition) instruction must be integrated into language teaching by which the grammatical forms are presented to learners in meaningful context. IE (Input Enhancement), coined by Sharwood Smith (1991), is a deliberate manipulation to make specific grammatical features of L2 more salient. First of foremost, this technique underscores the fundamental role of input in language teaching. Likewise, the purpose of IE is to draw learners attention to target linguistic form in L2 input. According to Sharwood Smith (1991), learners could be led to noticing target form in two ways: Input Flood (IF) and Textual Enhancement (TE). Through IF, Sharwood Smith (1991) demonstrated the basic idea that the more frequent the exemplars of the target form appear in the input, the more likely the learners will notice the form. In other words, IF manipulates input by saturating L2 linguistic data with target form to draw learners attention. On the other hand, TE is a technique of manipulating the typographical features of a written text to increase the perceptual salience of target grammatical form. The typographical cues such as changing the font style, enlarging the character size, underlining, bolding, capitalizing, and highlighting with colours could be used. However, the question underpins the concept of IE is: Is it sufficient by exposing L2 manipulated input to learners? This question leads to further investigation as learners might not necessary parse the linguistic structure or make form-meaning connection. Therefore, a more specific question emerges: How effective is IE? Based on above discussion, this essay will argue that IE plays facilitative role in L2 learning. The purpose of this essay is to depict what aspects of IE could be fruitfully applied to design a language teaching activity. Review on the key empirical studies of IE will be presented in this essay. Throughout, advantages and limitations of IE will be identified within theoretical frameworks which underpin the stance. Then, we will describe how to overcome the shortfalls of IE by integrating IE with other interventions into classroom language teaching. Finally, IE implications and limitation on language teaching will be reiterated as conclusion. Before discussing the findings and implication of IE, we will first examine several input and noticing issues in SLA field. Input and Noticing Issues in SLA Research Wong (2005) defines of input as samples of language that learners are exposed to in a communicative context or setting (Wong, 2005:119). At the same time, VanPatten (2003) describes input as the language that a learner hears (or reads) that has some kind of communicative intent (VanPatten, 2003: 25). It is clearly to note that both definitions emphasise the terms of communicative. As claimed by VanPatten (2003), learners play communicative role to extract the meaning encoded in the meaning-bearing utterance or sentence. Through these interpretations, we could come to a understanding that L2 learning process engages learners as active participants in a communicative language classroom when they are exposed to L2 input. Despite of communicative value of input, it is generally agreed that input is prerequisite for L2 acquisition. However, there is a need to explore whether manipulation is essential to mediate input into intake. Perceivably, the distinction between input and intake has been drawn in SLA literature. For example, Sharwood Smith (1993) defines input as the potentially processable language data which are made available by chance or by design, to the language learner whereas intake as that part of input that has actually been processed and turned to knowledge of some kind (pp.167). This interpretation leads to ongoing debate about the role of consciousness and unconsciousness mechanism in learning process. Despite extensive research, it still remains controversial as to what type of cognitive mechanism is necessary for acquisition to occur (Svalberg, 2007: 289). Firstly, Krashen (1982) draws a distinction between learning and acquisition. Learning is the result of conscious process whereas acquisition is the product of subconscious process. According to Krashens (1982) strong Input Hypothesis, acquisition takes place when learners are exposed to comprehensible input which is a step more advanced than their current proficiency level. This perception not only implies that input is prerequisite for acquisition process, subconscious process also plays superior role compared to conscious process. In such a case, grammar instruction plays no role in L2 acquisition (Krashen, 1982). Comprehensible Input Hypothesis has thus provokes considerable debate in SLA domain. Among the researchers, Schmidt (1990), contrary to Krashens (1982) hypothesis, postulates that conscious awareness is crucial and necessary for L2 acquisition (p.27). According to Schmidt (1995: 20), only input noticed by learners will be mediated into intake. In contrast, disagree with Schmidts (1990) strong Noticing Hypothesis, Tomlin Villa (1994) posit that unconscious detection is the key process whereas conscious awareness only play facilitative role in L2 learning. Schmidt (1990) outlines six factors influencing noticing when learners process the input, including perceptual saliency of input, frequency of input, instruction, task demands, readiness of learner and processing capacity of learner. During the ongoing debates between the two positions, Sharwood Smith (1993) proposes IE techniques which are linked to Schmidts Noticing Hypothesis. IE techniques emphasise on the qualities of input, namely TE (related to input saliency) and IF (related to input frequency). Hereby, we could claim that the rationale for Sharwood Smiths (1993) IE is driven by Schmidts (1990, 1995) Noticing Hypothesis. That is, Noticing Hypothesis is the theoretical basis for IE. From this point, the debate has indubitably shifted away from general question of Is noticing necessary? to more specific questions of How noticing influence the learning outcome? and How intervention facilitate constrained grammar acquisition process? However, before we claim that IE is efficacy to facilitate L2 acquisition, we need to examine major empirical evidences in SLA research to justify our view on Sharwood Smiths notion. 2 Empirical Evidence of IE As mentioned before, the underpinning theoretical framework for IE is Schmidts (1990, 1995) Noticing Hypothesis. Although Noticing Hypothesis remains controversial, linguists (e.g. Alanen, 1995; Lee, 2002; Shook, 1994; White, 1998; Wong, 2001) has accumulated evidence over the last decade due to its important role in shedding light on how salient input can contribute to the acquisition of L2 target form. In this section, we will discuss the advantages and limitations of IE by reviewing empirical SLA studies on IF and TE. Various perspective of effectiveness such as degree of noticing, intake of forms, accurate production of forms and content comprehension will be examined along the discussion. Input Flood Empirical Evidence: Input Flood has positive effects Lee (2002) investigated the effects of input frequency on the incidental acquisition of Spanish future tense morphology. The subjects were 283 university students with different L1 backgrounds. The frequency of target form appeared in the input passages were 6, 10 and 16 exposures. In immediate post-test, he found frequency has positive effects on the comprehension and intake. In both immediate and delayed post-tests, 16F group outperformed 10F and 6F group significantly. White (1998) investigated the comparison effects of IF and TE on the acquisition of English possessive determiners (PD). 86 French children were divided into 3 treatment groups: textual enhanced input flood (IF-TE group), textual enhanced input flood plus extensive reading and listening (IF-TE+ group) and input flood without enhancement (IF group). In oral picture description task, all subjects experienced improvement. For the frequency of grammatical use, IF-TE+ significantly outperformed the IF-TE and IF group. However, there is no significant difference between IF-TE group and IF group. Empirical Evidence: Input flood has limited effects Trahey White (1993) investigated the effects of IF (positive evidence) on the acquisition of English adverb placement. Subjects were divided into 3 groups: IF group was given flooded positive evidence; IF-EI (A) group received flooded positive evidence and explicit instruction; IF-EI (Q) group received explicit instruction on question formation. They found IF group and IF-EI (A) group performed significantly better than IF-EI (Q) group on using correct word order. However, the results also revealed that IF group and IF-EI (Q) group used incorrect word order more than the IF-EI (A) group. Williams Evans (1998) examined the effects of IF (positive evidence) and explicit instruction on two English target forms: participial adjectives and the passive construction. The university students were divided into 3 groups: IF group received IF with no explicit instruction; IF-EI group received IF and explicit instruction on the forms, rules instruction and corrective feedback; and control group. For the participial adjective, both IF and IF-EI groups showed improvement. However, IF-EI group had significant higher score than IF group. This suggested that explicit instruction had greater effects than IF on this form. For the passive construction, both IF-EI and IF groups made greater improvement than the control group. However, there was no significant difference between IF-EI and IF groups. This suggested that explicit instruction has no greater effect than IF on this target form. Advantages of Input Flood Firstly, Sharwood Smith (1993, 2006) claims that the main purpose of IE is to enforce noticing. Studies show that IF increases learners attention on target forms without any explicit guidance. This incidental-driven technique provides linguistic materials that are essential for learning problem solution (Doughty William, 1998: 236). This statement is validated by Lees (2002) and Whites (1998) study. The findings supports the basic idea of IF that the more exemplars in a flood the better. Secondly, IF enhances content comprehension. The major advantage of IF is that it provides a lot of meaning-bearing input (Wong 2005: 42). With the availability of meaning-bearing input, learners are provided opportunities to capture the meaning embedded in words, syntax or morphology. In both immediate and delayed post-test, Lee (2002) found that input frequency has significant positive effects on the comprehension. Thus it could be noticed that through the exemplar-based and implicit learning method, learners could perform form-meaning connection and manage to penetrate the meaning of the message. Thirdly, IF fosters the intake of the target form. Lees (2002) study reported 16F group outperformed 10F and 6F group significantly in post-test. For recall task, 16F and 10F groups performed significantly better than 6F group. Results of oral picture description task in Whites (1998) study also revealed that all subjects experienced improvement in the use of English PD. However, there was no significant difference between IF-TE group and IF group, indicating that IF alone was sufficient to bring improvement whereas TE played no significant role on the correct use of the target form. Limitation of Input Flood First of all, studies reported that IF is a volatile technique. Findings from Williams Evans (1998) study suggested that forms did not behaviour uniformly in IF technique. Different form types can weaken or strengthen the effect of IF through their mutual interaction, as well as the interaction with other variables such as task requirement, individual differences, content complexity, and pragmatic information in the context (Han, Park Combs, 2008). Thus further investigation on how to eliminate or reduce the effect of the variables when using IF is worthwhile. Secondly, IF does not provide negative evidence. Trahey Whites (1993) study revealed the limitation of IF that the flood was not effective in helping learners to be aware of impossible positions or incorrect grammar (Wong, 2005) and explicit instruction such as negative evidence might be necessary. This situation was also demonstrated in White (1998) study, as subjects frequency use of English PD was increased by TE, but both IF and TE did not have help learners to use the grammatical form correctly. That is, no significant difference was found for the accuracy ratio between IF group, IF-TE group and IF-TE plus extensive reading and listening group. However, when measuring the frequency of grammatical use, IF-TE plus extensive reading and listening group significantly outperformed the IF-TE and IF group. These findings suggest that comprehensible input might be more effective than IE in the acquisition of English PD agreement rules. Again, this issue still remains controversial and is worth further investigation as Krashens Comprehensible Input Hypothesis is refuted by mostly SLA researchers. Nevertheless, this phenomenon might be explained by the statement that comprehension precedes production (Lightbown et al, 2002; Krashen, 1982). Wong (2005: 94) cautions that acquisition is slow and complex hence we could not expect learners to use target form correctly immediately after IE treatment. Thirdly, Input Flood is an implicit technique where no effort is done to direct learners to the embedded forms in the input (Wong, 2005). Whites (1998) study reported that a third of learners were confused about the purpose of the textual enhancement. The textually enhanced input failed to help the learners to figure out the English PD agreement rule. As seen from empirical evidence, IF is an easy-to-use technique. It could be modified and incorporated easily in the classrooms to emphasize specific target form (Cowan, 2008). However, IF imposes some limitations on language teaching pedagogy which is not as effective as other focus-on-form activities. The discussion of how to apply this technique in language teaching will be demonstrated in next section of this essay. Textual Enhancement Like IF, SLA studies on TE also report mixed results. Researchers found that TE has positive effects, has partial effects, and has no effect on L2 acquisition of grammatical features. While Leow (2001) and Leow at al. (2003) have only manipulated the input by TE as an independent variable, the other studies investigated effects of TE in the combination with other intervention . Empirical Evidence: Textual enhancement has positive effects Studies conducted by Jourdenais et al. (1995), Shook (1994), Wong (2001) revealed that TE had not only helps learners to notice the target forms in input, but it is also very effective for enhancing learners intake new grammatical forms. Shook (1994) investigated the effects of TE on Spanish present perfect tense and relative pronouns (quen/quein). The subjects were 125 university students. The results revealed that the two experimental groups who received the passages with TE performed significantly better than the control group in all tests. However, there was no significant difference between TE group and TE plus focus on form group, revealing that focus on form information played no role in L2 acquisition. Jourdenais et al.s (1995) investigated the effects of TE on the acquisition of Spanish preterite and imperfect past tense forms. Both enhanced and unenhanced versions came with pictures depicting the events of the story. Think-aloud protocols and a picture-based written narration task were used to collect data. Results indicated that TE increased noticing of target L2 form and had a significant positive effect on learners output. Empirical Evidence: Textual enhancement has limited effects Alanen (1995) examined the effects of TE and explicit information on the acquisition of semi-artificial Finnish locative suffixes and consonant changes. 36 English subjects were divided into 4 groups: unenhanced passages (UE group), unenhanced passages plus explicit information (UE-EI group), enhanced passages (TE group) and enhanced passages plus explicit information (TE-EI group). On the sentence completion test, TE group performed better than UE group. However, Alanen (1995) found that both EI groups performed significantly better than non-EI groups on both target forms. The result, contradict with Shooks (1994) study, indicated that explicit grammar instruction had greater positive impact than TE. Results from Whites (1998) study, discussed in the previous section of IF, revealed that TE increased the grammatical use of possessive determiners. However, its impact was not as significant as IF which brought greater improvement. White (1998) concluded that benefits resulting from the experimental treatment conditions were due to increased exposure through IF of target forms and not to any other kinds of enhancement (White, 1998: 103). This claim means IF is the only effective tool to enhance L2 acquisition in her study is. Izumi (2002) investigated the comparative effects of TE and output on the acquisition of English relative clause. Subjects were 61 adults with different L1 backgrounds. Explicit information was given to the subjects to attend to the highlighted form. The results found that output-input task brought measurable gains in target form acquisition. Those who received TE treatment failed to show significant gains in acquisition. Wong (2001) examined the effects of TE, simplified input and exposure to reading on the acquisition of French gender agreement of past participles. 81 English university learners were respectively exposed to four conditions: enhanced and simplified passages (TE-S group), enhanced and unsimplified passages (TE-US group), unenhanced and simplified passages (UE-S group), and unenhanced and unsimplified passages (UE-US group). It is found that TE and simplification had no significant effects on the intake of the target forms. However, TE had significant positive effects on the content comprehension. Empirical Evidence: Textual Enhancement has no (or negative) effects In Leows (1997) study the effects of textual length and TE were examined. 84 college learners were divided into 4 groups and were accordingly given an unenhanced long passage, an unenhanced short passage, an enhanced long passage and an enhanced short passage. Results revealed that TE has no effects on either comprehension or intake of the targeted form. Shorter text length improved comprehension but not the intake. Overstreet (1998) replicated Jourdenais et al.s (1995) study and found negative effects of TE. He combined two factors, namely TE (bolded, underlined, increased font size, different font types and shadowed) and topic familiarity on the acquisition of Spanish preterite and imperfect past tense forms. 50 university learners were given one story each, either enhanced or unenhanced. Neither factor significantly affected learners intake. Moreover, Overstreet (1998) found that TE negatively affected comprehension, mainly due to numerous types of enhancements (Lee Benati, 2007: 25). Leow (2001), after a few years of his study in 1997, conducted another study to investigate effect of TE on the acquisition and comprehension of Spanish formal imperative. He did not apply other invention but only TE in this study. The results once again revealed TE has no effects on intake and comprehension. Leow et al. (2003) examined the effects of TE on the acquisition of Spanish present perfect tense and present subjunctive mood. 72 university learners were divided into two groups. One group was given 2 enhanced passages and another group was given 2 unenhanced passages. Results showed that although subjects noticed the target forms when reading, TE did not enhance the intake of the target forms. S.Lee (2007), similar to Overstreets (1998) study, examined the effects of TE ( ±TE) and topic familiarity ( ±F) on English passive construction. 259 Korean subjects were divided to 4 groups: +E/+F group, -E/-F group, -E/+F group and +E/à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢F group. The results revealed that TE was beneficial for the intake of target form, but interestingly, negatively affected the comprehension. Advantages and Limitations of TE Some of above studies demonstrated that TE has significant impact on SLA, either in positive or negative ways. First of all, TE increases noticing. This technique offers more salient target form in written input that learners may easily miss (Wong, 2005: 49). Jourdenais et al. (1995) stated that typographical modification can be used as an effective technique for enhancing salience of language features (Jourdenais et al., 1995: 208). As evidence, both Leow et al. (2003) and Jourdenais et al. (1995) used think aloud protocols and reported that subjects noticed the typographically enhanced target forms when reading. Second, TE is effective to enhance intake of forms. For example, Alanen (1995)s study reported that TE group performed better than UE group in sentence completion test. This indicates the positive role of TE on the acquisition of L2 grammar. Jourdenais et al. (1995) also reported that TE had a significant effect on learners output. By contrast, TE failed to demonstrate positive impact on learners comprehension and intake in Leows (1997, 2001) and Overstreets (1998) studies. These studies demonstrated that implicit noticing is not as effective as explicit instruction and that, clearly, learners needed more help than the input provided (White, 1998: 102). Also, although subjects in both Leow et al.s (2003) and Jourdenais et al.s (1995) studies noticed the enhanced target forms, they performed differently in production. Jourdenais et al. (1995) found positive effect of TE on the intake of the target forms whereas Leow et al. (2003) reported that TE did not enhance the intake of the target forms. In addition, Izumi (2002) found that subjects who received TE treatment failed to show significant gains in acquisition, despite the positive impact on the noticing of the target form. More interestingly, output played significant role in his study. These findings are contradicted to Ellis (1997) claim that TE is effective to induce learners to undertake a kind of form function analysis of the structure, as this is exemplified in input that has been specially contrived to illustrate it (Ellis, 1997: 87). Therefore Polio (2007) states that Sharwood Smiths focus was what had been done to the input, rather than what happened in learners mind (Polio, 2007, cited in Gass Selinker, 2008: 388). However, this notion is inaccurate that Sharwood Smith (1991, 1993) has alerted that we should not rely solely on TE to increase learners attention. Noticing triggered artificially by TE might not result in intake. Although learners may notice the signals, the input may nevertheless be non-salient to their learning mechanism (Sharwood Smith, 1991: 21). As Ellis (1997) describes the use of TE focuses learners attention on specific linguistic features and assists them to encode the meaning embedded in the features, it is suggested here that TE should be integrated with other interventions for better result. Third, TE enhances comprehension. In Wong (2001)s study, TE had significant positive effects on the content comprehension, namely it enhanced the recall of the idea units that corresponded to the target forms. However, evidence from Overstreets (1998) and S.Lees (2007) studies suggested TE distracted learners attention from meaning. The results indicated that TE has negatively affected learners comprehension on the content of the passages. In spite of increasing evidence suggesting that TE can promote noticing of certain linguistic features, it remains a matter a debate whether or not it has simultaneously created a trade-off between intake and comprehension (Han, Park Combs, 2008). Also, Simard (2009) cautioned that selection and combination of different typographical cues lead to different impacts on the intakes. His study reported that the use of capital letters and a combination of 3 typographical cues promote the intake of the forms. Overstreets (1998) use of numerous types of typographical cues might lead to distraction and confusion thus did not enhance the acquisition. Therefore, in order to ensure the quality of instructional material, language teachers should select cues carefully. Fourth, TE is a volatile and changeable technique. In other words, external variables may affect the effectiveness of TE. For example, with no prior knowledge about the target forms, the technique is not beneficial to learners (e.g. Leow, 1997, 2001; Leow et al. 2003). Alanens (1995) study also reported that TE had different effects on different target grammatical forms. Age and puberty are other factors that might mitigate the effects of TE. In Whites (1998) study, the children who are still developing their L2 may have encountered a cognitive overload problem (Doughty William, 1998) and therefore constrained the learning process. Clearly, conflicting results on the impact of IE on acquisition, whether positive, limited or negative, are noticeable from previous studies. Several questions emerged subsequently from the review: are these mixed results attributed to different methodological designs that provide learners different degree of input quality and quantity? Or is it due to different grammatical forms targeted in different studies? If so, does this mean that different target forms are vulnerable variable that correspond to IE techniques in different ways? These insights are meaningful and important for the implication of IE in language pedagogy and will be discussed in following section. 3 Pedagogical Implications Nowadays it is common for language teachers to use IE techniques to enhance specific features of L2 in order to draw learners attention to target linguistic aspects. Although IE does not provide full and consistent picture to SLA pedagogy, it offers valuable information on how to deliberately draw learners attention to target forms. As shown, uncertainties still exist on the facilitative role of IF and TE in SLA research. The debate on Noticing Hypothesis still remains open while previous studies failed to show conclusive and consistent results on IE effectiveness. However, fortunately, the field has moved from the debate on the necessity of conscious noticing to the mixed results of IE efficacy. That is, the theoretical development has now provided a clearer window to take a glimpse and imply IE techniques more effectively to language pedagogy with underpinning SLA issues. In contrast with UG, IE is a sub-field of cognitive models which emphasis on how learners process and decode the input. It should be borne in mind that noticing triggered artificially by IE might not result in intake. This implies that one cannot be assured if the enhanced input will become comprehensible and that the effects of IE vary from case to case. In terms of Input Hypothesis (Krashen, 1982), we argues that input play roles in L2 acquisition with the aids of noticing. As stated by Wong (2005), once target form is noticed, learners need to make form-meaning connection to encode underlies linguistic rules correctly (p.90-91). This notion is in line with VanPattens (1996, 2003) input processing theory where intake is equalised to form-meaning connection. Thus IE and other focus on forms tasks such as processing instruction (VanPatten, 1996, 2003) and consciousness-raising tasks might be combined in language teaching for better results. Also, it is reckoned that output tasks might be integrated into SLA instruction when applying IE concept. Long (1996) distinguishes two types of input: positive evidence and negative evidence. In coherence with Longs notion, Sharwood Smith (1993) proposed both positive and negative IE techniques. IE and TE are positive IE whereas negative IE is basically feedback or negative evidence. When there is a gap between learners perception of L2 grammar and evidence in the input, then positive evidence (input) may triggers to change the grammar (Sharwood Smith, 1991: 122-123). On the other hand, when learners are being confronted with their own production (output), negative IE signals that given forms are incorrect, thus warns learners that they have violated the grammatical rules (Sharwood Smith, 1993: 177). This notion implies that IE approach not only adopts Schmidts Noticing Hypothesis as major foundation, but has also implies Longs Interaction Hypothesis as well as Swains (1995) Output Hypothesis. Apparently, Sharwood Smith proposal of negative evidence has been generally neglected by SLA researchers. Therefore, it would be beneficial if language teachers reckon that input (positive evidence) and output (negative evidence) are both important to promote acquisition with the aid of noticing. Particularly, Ellis (1997: 109) asserts that comprehensible input is derived from both input and interactional (output) modifications makes specific linguistic features more salient and facilitates the development of L2. Negotiate for meaning is thus beneficial to promote acquisition. It directs learners attention to focus on the form that initially caused understanding problems and also helps learners to modify their interlanguage production whenever the gap is being identified (Long, 1983; Pica, 1992). Likewise, Wong (2005) suggested that input should not be one-way instruction, namely simply giving input to L2 learners. Learners may be instructed to respond to the input through activities such as quiz, answering questions, story reconstructing, drawing based on oral directions and games. Hereby, interaction has been stressed in order to make the IF more meaningful to the learners. As pointed out by Wong (2005: 46, 60-61), instructors must always keep meaning communication as primary goal of language in attempts of enhancing the input. Attending to both meaning and form is important to make form-meaning connections possible. By this way, respond to the input is a crucial compartment for language learning. This insight is compatible to Ellis (1997) claim that input-based interpretation grammar instruction mediates input into intake. Accordingly, Lee VanPattens (1995: 51) proposal to use learners and classroom setting for language teaching could be combined with IE in a communicative language classroom. Instructors might integrate grammar teaching into authentic context. For example, input could be presented to learners through IF visually and verbally in a natural classroom setting. It will be beneficial if simple scenarios could be constructed. In addition, name of learners could be addressed in the sentence to promote further noticing, such as below: à §Ã… ½Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¨Ã… ½Ã¢â‚¬ °Ãƒ ¦Ã…  Ã…  Ãƒ ©- ¨Ãƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ³Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã…  Ãƒ £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ Mary BA door close up. à ¥Ã‚ ¤Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ «Ãƒ ¦Ã…  Ã…  Ãƒ ©Ã… ¾Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ­Ã‚ Ãƒ §Ã‚ ©Ã‚ ¿Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã…  Ãƒ £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ David BA shoes put on. à §Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¦Ãƒ §Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ °Ãƒ ¦Ã…  Ã…  Ãƒ ¦Ã‚ ¤Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ­Ã‚ Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ ¿Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¼Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ John BA chair move away.

We Must Put an End to Police Brutality Essay -- Black Lives Matter

â€Å"If you wish for peace, prepare for war.† This Roman proverb can be applied to police; they must be trained for the worst possible incident but they should try hard to avoid using their training in real experiences. Most police departments and officers would believe strongly in this proverb, however there are a few examples in the U.S. in which the officers’ use of force has been excessive and unnecessary where they used their training to harm rather than protect and enforce the law. During their service, police are given several authorities to exercise the law and make sure that the law is carried out among citizens. This can lead to an officer having a sense of entitlement and a possibility of them losing respect for their boundaries. Such a case is called police brutality and even though police officers are responsible for enforcing the law, they have breached these laws and taken advantage of their position; such violations of human rights must be eliminated . Lt. Col. David Grossman compares innocent people to sheep and officers and soldiers to people who have a compassion for citizens but also a capacity for violence. "The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that sheepdog must not, cannot and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheepdog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed.†(139) Officers can be compared to the sheepdogs since most citizens don’t enjoy a cop’s presence and are fearful of police; however citizens need their presence to protect them from harm. But when an officer does harm a citizen he must face the consequences like the sheepdog since they violated the basic rig... .... "Controlling Police (Excessive) Force: The American Case." International Journal Of Human Sciences 10.2 (2013): 285-303. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. Lewis, Neil. "Police Brutality under Wide Review by Justice Dept.." New York Times 14 Mar. 2010: 1. Print. "No Applause, Please." National Review 32.12 (1980): 703. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. "Shielded from Justice: Overview." Shielded from Justice: Overview. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. . Walter, Andrew. "Police Brutality: An Overview." Points Of View: Police Brutality (2013): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. "What Is Police Brutality? Depends on Where You Live." NBC News. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. . We Must Put an End to Police Brutality Essay -- Black Lives Matter â€Å"If you wish for peace, prepare for war.† This Roman proverb can be applied to police; they must be trained for the worst possible incident but they should try hard to avoid using their training in real experiences. Most police departments and officers would believe strongly in this proverb, however there are a few examples in the U.S. in which the officers’ use of force has been excessive and unnecessary where they used their training to harm rather than protect and enforce the law. During their service, police are given several authorities to exercise the law and make sure that the law is carried out among citizens. This can lead to an officer having a sense of entitlement and a possibility of them losing respect for their boundaries. Such a case is called police brutality and even though police officers are responsible for enforcing the law, they have breached these laws and taken advantage of their position; such violations of human rights must be eliminated . Lt. Col. David Grossman compares innocent people to sheep and officers and soldiers to people who have a compassion for citizens but also a capacity for violence. "The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that sheepdog must not, cannot and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheepdog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed.†(139) Officers can be compared to the sheepdogs since most citizens don’t enjoy a cop’s presence and are fearful of police; however citizens need their presence to protect them from harm. But when an officer does harm a citizen he must face the consequences like the sheepdog since they violated the basic rig... .... "Controlling Police (Excessive) Force: The American Case." International Journal Of Human Sciences 10.2 (2013): 285-303. Academic Search Complete. Web. 29 Mar. 2014. Lewis, Neil. "Police Brutality under Wide Review by Justice Dept.." New York Times 14 Mar. 2010: 1. Print. "No Applause, Please." National Review 32.12 (1980): 703. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. "Shielded from Justice: Overview." Shielded from Justice: Overview. Web. 30 Mar. 2014. . Walter, Andrew. "Police Brutality: An Overview." Points Of View: Police Brutality (2013): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. "What Is Police Brutality? Depends on Where You Live." NBC News. Web. 27 Mar. 2014. .

Does Robert Louis Stevenson explore the duality of human nature in Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde Essay

Written between 1884 and 1887, Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, â€Å"the strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde†, is about a well respected physician and his ‘other self’ Mr Hyde. Dr. Jekyll is described as a typical Victorian gentleman . [PD1] Dr Jekyll wanted to develop a potion because he believed he could create a perfectly righteous human being by destroying the evil of the mind and body. When he creates this potion, it doesn’t quite go according to plan. He takes the potion for the first time, but when he goes back to normal, he turns into Mr Hyde without taking the potion. Slowly, Mr Hyde starts to take over Dr Jekyll. When Dr Jekyll turns into Mr Hyde, it changes his appearance, because of this, no one wants to approach him or talk to him. During the time when the book was written, people who looked different or who had disabilities or deformities which are widely accepted today, were not liked and were usually shut away. This is why no one liked or talked to Hyde. There is proof of this in the lines â€Å"I had taken a loathing to the man at first sight† and â€Å"gave me a look so ugly, it brought out the sweat on me like running†. Dr Jekylls idea was that everyone had two sides to them, a good side and an evil side, a side of joy and a side of despair; there is a Mr Hyde in all of us. This was not the only novel of this time that hinted at duality, there were a few of other main plays. Two examples are Deacon Broodie, and Markheim, which is a short story. In the Victorian times, most people had very high morals, and so immoral things were rarely mentioned or talked about. Also, sex is rarely talked about in the book because everyone had such high morals, and so sex is something which would not be written and so was kept away from the public eye. [PD2] Throughout the novel, figurative language is used in various forms. One of the forms used is personification. Personification is used in many ways to try to help the reader to relate to the book, characters, and objects in the book. Another way figurative language is used is in the form of â€Å"similes† by saying things like â€Å"You start a question, and it’s like starting a stone. You sit quietly on the top of a hill; and away the stone goes, starting others; and presently some bland old bird (the last you would have thought of) is knocked on the head in his own back garden and the family have to change their name. No, sir, I make it a rule of mine: the more it looks like Queer Street, the less I ask.†[PD3] The novel was written when the world was not very advanced medically. In the world today, we know of illnesses such as schizophrenia. It is thought that the novel was written about someone who had schizophrenia which would be treated with medication nowadays. jekyll and hyde were indeed the same person and Dr Jekyll didn’t really have â€Å"an evil side† to him, it was just because he had a split personality disorder.

Barbara Corcoran Effective leadership qualities Essay

Barbara Corcoran is an American businesswoman, consultant, investor, speaker, author and TV personality. She is the owner of $5 billion business ‘The Corcoran Group’. She is known as one entrepreneur with a real story of ‘rags to riches’. Barbara was born in the year 1949 in Edgewater, New Jersey. She graduated with a degree in Education from St. Thomas Aquinas College in the year 1971. Upon graduation, she got a teaching job which she did for about a year. Barbara was never settled at teaching, so she quit and sought other jobs. However, things did not go as smooth as she had expected, as she had to quit one job after the other. By the time she was 23, she had been in and out of more than 20 jobs. It is her last trial at jobs that would ultimately change her life completely, making her one of the richest women in America. After trying different odd jobs, Barbara felt that she wanted to become her own boss. So she started a small real estate agency, dealing with brokering entry to vacant houses. However, this transformation needed money which she did not have at that moment. She asked for a loan of $1000. On one trip to see a vacant house with a client, things turned out for the best she had never imagined- the client became interested in buying the property rather than renting it. From the sale, she earned a commission of $3000 for the Corcoran-Simone partnership. This excited her, giving her the idea to transform her business into more than just the letting of vacant houses, to include even property on sale. The business began to grow, and the couple was reaping considerable profits until Barbara’s boyfriend, Simone, decided to quit the partnership after running away with Barbara’s secretary and marrying her. The division ended in 1978, when she immediately founded The Corcoran Group. When Simone withdrew his shares, he mocked Barbara that she would never make it without him. This particular incident encouraged her even the more to work hard and prove him wrong. Her determination paid, with The Corcoran Group, the first female-owned realty firm in the Big Apple, expanding to a workforce of 7 agents and over $350,000 in revenue in just her first year. Corcoran Group thrived under Barbara’s leadership, thanks in large part to her unique style. By the year 2006 when she decided to sell the company, The Corcoran Group was so big, with a staggering sales force of 850 agents and annual revenue approaching $100 million. It was sold at $66 million to NRT Inc. I chose Barbara Corcoran because her rise to the top is outstanding, thanks to her exceptional leadership skills. Barbara motivates me to push on despite my humble present- theirs is so much room up there! My vision is to grow into one of the most celebrated leaders of my time, and she fit perfectly as a person who started with nothing and turned every small thing she got into something big. Her definition of leadership is quite unique. â€Å"I never thought of it as leadership, but I knew I wanted to be loved by the people who worked for me,† Corcoran says. â€Å"I built the business exactly the way my mother built and ran her family. I wanted a replication of the big, happy family I grew up in. I wanted happy people having fun†, Barbara says (entrepreneur.com). She believes that leadership is making people feel they belong to the company like it was their family. That is how she enabled others to act, a quality discussed by Kouzes and Posner (2012). Barbara says, â€Å"I found out that the more fun I created in the company, the more creative and innovative it became,† she says. â€Å"That was the big kahuna–the fun piece. That’s what built that culture upside down and inside out. You got innovation. You got loyalty. You got people who would recruit for you.† (entrepreneur.com) She effectively encourages the heart (Kouzes and Po sner, 2012). Barbara Corcoran displays many qualities of a good leader. One unique is that she understands the value of other people she works with. Despite being the boss, Barbara respected every worker in her firm and she let them carry out their tasks with a lot of trust and space. As she says, she never knew what the firm’s revenue was, having delegated accounting duties to Esther Kaplan, the first agent she brought in. Secondly, Barbara believes in rewarding workers for their exemplary performance. She personally put colored ribbons on those workers who performed well. Her rewarding quality became even more evident when she eventually rewarded Kaplan’s hard work with a 10 percent commission in the firm, allowing her to cash in when the firm was sold. Corcoran is a leader who models the way (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). She never sat down and let her agents do all the work. She continued to make sales herself, working very hard. This encouraged her employees to develop a similar determined character. Barbara also exercised her authority very strictly. She gave all new employees a grace period of three months to make a first sale, failure to which they would leave the firm. The fifth leadership quality in Barbara is that she never let her past failure’s pull her down. In high school she scored D’s, but it never bothered her later in life. She was determined to move from one success to the other. Her undying spirit is a clear way of challenging the process (Kouzes & Posner, 2012). However, it is not all that easy for Barbara; she faces various problems as an investor in the New York realty market. While she is a popular investment consultant in the city, she admits that she has problems advising because other factors come into place. After selling her realty company, she was left with several buildings in the city; these building are her source of income, beside other investments. For instance, the values of properties have plummeted and interest rates have gone down tremendously. This gives her problems in deciding what to tell investor to do, especially because they look upon her success for guidance. References Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2012). The leadership challenge: How to make extraordinary things happen in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Hann, C. (2014). Barbara Corcoran’s Leadership Style: Rainbows and Steel-Toe Boots. Entrepreneur. Retrieved 15 August 2014, from http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/222798 Source document