Suitable Fire Suppression System Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Suitable Fire Suppression System - Case Study Example As a biotech company, Mutandum relies heavily on its information technology resources. Recently, it emerged that the fire safety mechanisms used to protect and ensure the resilience of the company’s information technology resources in Tucson are slightly ineffective. Technically, the Wet-Pipe System installed in the company’s Tucson facility may lead to business downtime, a situation which is not in harmony with objectives and directions of the company. Alternatively, a Water-Nitrogen Mist System feature as the best solution to the fire problem. Succeeding parts of this section contain detailed impact assessment and corporate goal coupling of the Water-Nitrogen Mist System in Mutandum. Â  Admittedly, Water-Nitrogen Mist System is superior compared to other fire suppression systems, especially Wet-Pipe Systems. Among the technical features, that enhances superiority of Water-Nitrogen Mist System include, use of the inert nitrogen gas, and minimum release of water which prevents flooding. With the use of Water-Nitrogen Mist System, Mutandum will not be forced to encounter downtime resulting from flooding of server rooms. Undeniably, water damages electronic devices, and may sometimes lead to loss of digital information. In this case, limited use of water in fire suppression will save Mutandum the ordeal of data loss and re-installation of electronic equipment damaged by Wet-Pipe System flooding (Smith 17). Environmentally, nitrogen is an inert gas with no toxicity. Therefore, use of the chemically inactive nitrogen gas in fire suppression presents no environmental harm to either electronic equipment or personnel.

Robots Are Not Human Beings Essay Example for Free

Robots Are Not Human Beings Essay It is almost impossible to create a creature which is exactly the same as humans. Most of the robots can think as logically as we can and they can maybe act approximately the same we do but they hardly ever can show feelings. Not be able to think cognitive is one of the major problems in the short science fiction story â€Å"Liar† by Isaac Asimov. Herbie, a RB-34 robot, has the gift to read others mind. He is also trained not to hurt other peoples feelings. When people ask him something, Herbie gives them the answer they want to hear. The robot does not recognize, however, that with telling them a lie, he is going to hurt their feelings, too. He is not conscious of this issue. When Doctor Calvin explains Herbie his fault, he starts to realize that he always has to tell the truth whether it is good or not. Nevertheless, Herbie cannot change how he is because he is a robot. He was created to always say what the people wanted to know. This is one significant difference between human beings and robots. People can change their thoughts and actions, robots cannot. Calvin and Bogert do not realize at first either that a robot is not like a human being. They both believe that Herbie is like a normal person with extraordinary abilities. They are not aware of problems he might have. Both of them count on what Herbie says without questioning. A good example that demonstrates this behavior is on page 290, where Lanning and Bogert are arguing: â€Å"’you havent any secrets with a mind-reading robot around, so dont forget that I know all about your resignation. ’ The ash on Lannings cigar trembled and fell, and the cigar itself followed, ‘what †¦ what –‘† With the surprising reaction of Lanning we know that what Herbie said is not entirely true. Bogert, nevertheless, really believes that Herbie told him the truth because he thinks that this robot does not make mistakes. Herbie is a genius, and genius do not make faults. This is one of the major mistakes of the characters in the story. A reason why they are doing this is certainly because it is more convenient. You do not have to think about the solution. It is easier just asking a robot. Moreover, the robot tells you what you want to hear. We can also see Herbies lack of human traits in observing his feelings and emotions. Herbie tells Calvin that her lover loves her. He is not afraid of how she is going to feel when she finds out that this is a lie. Herbie does not consider the consequences. He just wants to complete his function and tells her what she wants to know. A normal person would probably not do this because he or she would be aware of the consequences. In addition to that, most of the people would feel bad for the other person at the end. The robot, however, does not understand what he did wrong. Technology made our life easier Many years ago, we were transporting goods by horse. Nowadays, we are that well-developed that we can ship goods by airplane or train all over the world and this fast. Technology made our life a lot easier. In the story, â€Å"The Nine Billion Names of God†, by Arthur C. Clarke, the monks wanted to benefit from this new technology, too. Their plan was to list all the possible names of God. The monks had the idea that it would be a lot easier and faster to get a machine that can evaluate the names for them. It was their belief that with a machine, they could be done in three months. Certainly the machine would complete the mission quickly, but would they still achieve God’s purpose? God’s purpose was that they list all possible names of God. This would have taken them four and a half centuries. With the machines they are going to finish the task earlier and they would save time to do something else. The machines, however, would list the names differently. It would not be handwritten anymore and there would not be so much effort behind it. Moreover, letting machines doing your work makes the work seem less important because it is not you that put the effort into. For example, if I wrote a handwritten letter and shipped it to my friend, she would probably be happier than if I had written her just an email, because it took me more time. Furthermore, I wrote every word. It was not the machine that wrote the word for me. It would be made with more love. The same thing would happen with all the names the monks should list. Maybe the task would not be completed if they do it with a machine because they were not sitting hours behind a desk and writing all the different names. To write down all the names would make them think about who God is and they would realize how important God is for them; this is maybe why God wanted to give them this task. Machines, however, are extremely helpful, effective and useful. They do a lot of work for us so that we can concentrate on other things. We would not live the same lifestyle without machines. I believe, however, that we exaggerate. Some things are still better handmade. It is not necessary to do everything with a machine. I miss, for example, buying my flight tickets with a person. Nowadays, you check in with a machine. There is nobody anymore that takes time for you and wishes you a good flight. I hope that this technology boom is going to decrease and that we find a good balance between using and not using machines. Women rule the world In the past it was common that men worked and earned the money for the family. The womans job was basically staying at the house, cleaning it and looking after the kids. This image was seen during many centuries. In 1910, when the comedy â€Å"Looking Forward†, by Theodore Marston, was written, it was not different. Women did not have the right to vote. This was only available for men. It was seen a lot more, however, that women went working than in the previous centuries. It was obvious, nevertheless, than women who went working were poorer than the women who stayed at home, because women working was not seen as good. When Marstons play came out, it was certainly attracting interest. He demonstrated a completely different life from what they were living at this point. He showed how he thought the world is going to be in 2010 and who is going to rule the nation. For him, women became a political and social majority in 2010. Moreover, the men were not allowed to vote anymore. We can read out of this play that people, mainly men, were aware of women becoming the leading gender. It is possible that they have been looking at the changes over the past years because we can see that with the years, women got more power. For example, until 1855, the women were not allowed to go to college. Therefore, it was impossible for them to get a same degree as the men. In 1910, it was already common for women to go to the same college as men did. This shows that female emancipation has changed rapidity. Maybe this was also the reason why men did not want to give the women the right to vote, because they were aware of women taking over the planet. Marston, however, anticipated that it was not possible to stop women empowerment and that one day women are going to get the right to vote. He was right by his statement. Women got the right to vote in 1989. His statement, however, was that women are going to be the â€Å"political and social majority† in 2010. This is mostly exaggerated. Nevertheless, it is true that women got a lot more involved in political and social contents. Nowadays, we see a lot of powerful women. Also, many countries have a woman as political president, as for example, Germany with Angela Merkel. She is accepted exactly the same way as a men political president would be accepted because people today do not decide because of gender anymore; they are more interested in what this person has to tell the nation and how he or she is going to make changes in a good way for the country. I am impressed, how good the author anticipated the future. It is fairly accurate that women do have a lot more power nowadays. They may not rule the whole world, but as I have shown in different examples, there are many women who have the same power as men do.

Bilingual signs in the Alsace area

Bilingual signs in the Alsace area Introduction The focus of this essay is on the bilingual signs in the Alsace area. The Alsace, like all of France, is officially monolingual. Even so, in towns such as Strasbourg, Mulhouse/Mà ¼hlhausen or Colmar bilingual street signs have been noticed. Interest in German and Alsatian dialects, repressed until the 1970s, has recently increased. However it may be too late as Alsatian is no longer widely spoken by younger generations. Alsatian may be relegated to an antiquarian curiosity and as such is no longer a threat to French nationalism. This essay presents some primary data in the form of photographs of street signs and demonstrates that there is a pattern to these signs. Bilingual signage only appears in the historic centre, where outside of this the signs are monolingual. Therefore installing street name signs in both French and Alsatian/German may be a tourist draw rather than a genuine attempt to increase the awareness of the language. Bilingual Signs The linguistic landscape is defined as the signs on buildings and shops, road signs, street names and advertising billboards within a geographical territory, which serve the function of conveying information and also a symbolic function (Cenoz Gorter, 2006; Landry Bourhis, 1997). The symbolic function that is served is to promote the language and thus the identity of a minority. Where in previous generations, the dominant culture would obliterate the language of a minority culture living within its confines, either deliberately or simply due to a lack of concern, in the current multicultural climate, minorities are celebrated. Sohamy (2006) refers to language battles taking place between top-down and bottom-up approaches. The top-down approach is from government, public or economic facilities, where bottom-up is when those of an autonomous status such as local business and private citizens initiate the action. These two approaches interact and this is where Sohamy suggests that the battles for control arise. In terms of bilingual signage, these battles would be fought on the linguistic landscape with shop signs being in one language and road signs being in another for instance, or road signs being bilingual and shop signs monolingual. The appearance of language in the public space serves as an important mechanism through which language battlesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ take place. Thus, the public place serves as a tool in the hands of different groups for the transmission of messages as to the place of different languages in the geographical and political entities and for influencing and creating de facto language realities. (Sohamy, 2006, p.111) These battles may erupt into criminal behaviour such as the defacing of road signs where the language which is considered unacceptable is obliterated (Chen, 2007). These are civil disobedience actions by people with national pride and pride in their language as a symbol of their nationality, and these actions would be the result of a bottom-up process. In Wales the focus has shifted in recent decades from bottom-up actions like these to a top-down process whereby the government and all official signs must legally be bilingual. A bottom-up protest in Wales now would be a monolingual English sign erected by a shopkeeper who does not wish to pay for translation services. The impact of the bilingual signage in Wales is that drivers take longer to read the sign than if it were monolingual in their dominant language (Jamson, 2004). However, even with this safety concern, and given that there are no longer any Welsh speakers who do not also speak English, it remains politically expedient to oblige all official signs to be bilingual in Welsh and English rather than monolingual English (Merriman Jones, 2008). Thus Wales is officially a bilingual country with a unique history of language activism. The Welsh language has a much stronger position than other minority European languages such as Basque. The Welsh bilingual signs are no longer designed to be quaint or attract ethnic tourism as they may have been in the past (Pitchford, 1995). Other minority European language speakers may still be patronised in this way and have looked to Wales as a model for challenging this attitude. The Alsace Context The Alsace is an historically disputed geographical area between France and Germany. It is an area of linguistic contact between the two dominant languages French and German, and has a unique and complex history of cultural conflict, military occupation and political domination (Kegel, 2003). Since the fifth century AD when the area was occupied by two Germanic tribes, German dialects have been spoken in this area. The Vosges mountain range to the West have served to isolate the population from the French and kept Alsace on the German side of the Germanic-Romance language border. Even when Alsace was officially French it has been easier to travel to Germany rather than into France as recently as the 1970s (Rademaekers, 1973). During the 70s Alsatians had access to television channels from both France and Germany. Most Alsatians at that time spoke both French and German and 80% also spoke Alsatian (Hessini, 1979). However in recent years there has been a decline in use and it is repor ted that younger generations do not speak Alsatian (Bister-Broosen, 2002). French is the state language, is used in education and officialdom, and parents are reluctant for their children to miss learning French as a native tongue due to this prestige. As languages, French and German are considered to be mutually exclusive, French being a Romance language. Alsatian is a Germanic dialect, derived from the Alemanni who settled in the area in the fifth century, and is understood to be German with French borrowings (Hessini, 1979). In fact it has been seen that there are appreciable differences between the dialects in different areas of Alsace and Lorraine, although the whole area is said to speak Alsatian (Judge, 2000). Alsatian was never a written language; Gutenbergs printing press in 1440 precipitated the standardisation of written German. The dialect that was chosen to be the written German was the one considered to be most easily understood by all Germanic dialect speakers. This then became the official and prestige German language and other dialects dwindled. German is the literary medium for the unstandardized Alsatian dialect (Hessini, 1979). The region of the Alsace has changed allegiance or been invaded numerous times through wars between France and Germany, and always seems to be on the losing side (Rademaekers, 1973). Between 1870 and 1945, the Alsace experienced five different changes of nationality, each of which required a change of official language (Vassberg, 1993). It has been French since the end of the Second World War and although Alsatian as a language has more in common with German than with French, as a French province, French has been the official language and Alsatian has been repressed until the 1970s. For example, French educational authorities have forbidden the teaching of German-language courses in Strasbourg primary schools. (Rademaekers, 1973, online). France has become more multicultural in recent years, with bilingual education being introduced, however there is a strong historical context for this monolingualism which stems back to the time of the French Revolution: a nation state which built itself on the principle of one language, one nation. This has meant that all citizens must share the same language in order to be equal before the law; plurality of languages or dialects was felt to be a threat to the cohesion of the nation and for two centuries linguistic policies were based on the elimination of dialects. (Hà ©lot, 2003, p.255) Thus the elimination of Alsatian has been a deliberate policy of French government. In recent years attitudes have changed due to the acknowledgement that learning a second language while young will enhance a childs educational prospects and later their employment prospects (Hà ©lot, 2003; Judge, 2000). However it may well be too late for Alsatian to continue to exist as a language in its own rig ht. If it is no longer spoken, then it will be doomed to become something quaint and old-fashioned, only reeled out for specific purposes (Bister-Broosen, 2002). Alsatian as a spoken language is used on some radio and television, but in all written formats, e.g. education and newspapers, German is used in its place (Judge, 2000). There has not been political language activism in the Alsace in the same way as there has been in other European countries, such as Wales described above. In the 1970s there existed a small-scale group Front de lAlsace libre and there now exists an Alsace dAbord movement which promotes bilingualism on all levels (Judge, 2000). However this is also a small movement and is described as an extreme right-wing movement playing the regionalist card to gain support (Judge, 2000). The supremacy of French in France continues to be absolute, and has been confirmed by Article 2 of the new Constitution of 22 June 1992. This article states that the language of the Republic shall be French. Elected regional authorities use only French. However they do now provide financial aid for the teaching of standard German in Alsace and in 1993 set up the Office rà ©gional du bilinguisme dAlsace (Regional Office for Bilingualism in Alsace). Public and semi-public services are provided solely in French, this includes telephone bills and receipts, telephone directories, hospital signs, electricity bills, post-office and police-station signs (Euromosaic, 2009). Oral communication between the authorities and the public is generally in French, as public employees tend not to be natives of Alsace. In common with other areas in Europe, there is a great deal of geographical movement and there are many other languages spoken in this area not only French, German and Alsatian, including non-European languages. Primary Source Analysis Street Signs in Strasbourg Street signage in Strasbourg has since 1991 begun to be bilingual in French and German. As has been previously mentioned, Alsatian has no written form, and standard German is used in its place, therefore on street signs it would be difficult to distinguish whether they are Alsatian or German as both are the same when it comes to written format. Bilingual signs are also seen in other Alsatian towns such as Mulhouse/Mà ¼hlhausen or Colmar. However, this analysis will concentrate on Strasbourg. On analysis of these street signs, their location and purpose, it might be said that the sign makers are paying lip-service to Alsatian rather than a genuine attempt to reinstate the language. This primary source analysis will begin with street name signs in the historic centre of Strasbourg and will move on to general road signs around Strasbourg for comparison, and signs for the river Rhine. It will then move on to a discussion of the use of bilingual signs, including their patterns and prevalence and opinions on their use. Bilingual Street Name Signs in the Centre of Strasbourg Figure 1 Katzegass (source http://www.lexiophiles.com/english/france-%E2%80%93-belgium-bilingual-road-signs) In Strasbourg, an important and historic street Rue Du Chat (Cat Street) is also signed as Katzegass. It can be seen from the photograph in Figure 1 that the French sign is clearly older than the Alsatian/German. Both in style and condition, the French is seen to be the original with the newer German sign placed above. Figure 2 Isernemannsplatz (source http://www.grenzen.150m.com/strasbourgGB.htm) Another historic street in Strasbourgs tourist centre is Place De LHomme De Fer (Iron Mans Square). Figure 2 is a photograph of the two new signs that have replaced the old monolingual sign, the aperture clearly visible beneath the two signs. In this case, both new signs have been produced in the same style although different lettering is used. The French is in capitals and is placed above the Alsatian/German which is in italic script. This photograph was taken in 2001. Road Sign Examples Figure 3 Arrival to Strasbourg on the French side (source http://www.grenzen.150m.com/strasbourgGB.htm) Figure 3 is a photograph of a monolingual French sign Communautà © Urbaine de Strasbourg (literally translated as Urban Community of Strasbourg or City of Strasbourg). This photograph was taken in 2001 on the French side of Strasbourg, on entering the city. Figure 4 Arrival to Strasbourg on the German side (source http://www.grenzen.150m.com/strasbourgGB.htm) Figure 4 depicts a monolingual German sign on arrival to Kehl, a district of Strasbourg on the German side, and Figure 5 is a photograph of a monolingual German sign leaving Kehl and travelling through Strasbourg towards France. Comparison of Figure 3, 4 and 5 demonstrates that directional signs in Strasbourg are monolingual French on the side nearer to France and German on the side nearer to Germany. Figure 5 Leaving Kehl towards France (source http://www.grenzen.150m.com/strasbourgGB.htm) Signs for the River Rhine Figure 6 Leaving Strasbourg (source http://www.grenzen.150m.com/strasbourgGB.htm) Leaving Strasbourg, a monolingual French sign indicating le Rhin (the Rhine river) is depicted in Figure 6. And Figure 7 depicts a German sign for Rhein the same river but seen from the German side. Figure 7 Leaving Strasbourg near the Europabrà ¼cke (source http://www.grenzen.150m.com/strasbourgGB.htm) Therefore it can be seen in comparing Figures 6 and 7, that signs for the river are monolingual in French or German depending on which side of the river is being signposted, rather than being bilingual. Patterns and Prevalence of Bilingual Signs Strictly speaking, Figure 1 and Figure 2 are not images of true bilingual signs, they are both images of two monolingual signs placed together. However due to the close proximity of these signs, and due to the fact that there are no true bilingual signs to be found, i.e. two languages on one sign, these will be classed as bilingual signage in this analysis. From these seven images it can clearly be seen that in signage other than street names, the signs in the Strasbourg area are monolingual. Given the cultural and historical significance of the Rhine river, it may be expedient to use bilingual signage for this, however as these photographs (taken in 2001) indicate, this has not been the case. It appears that the only examples of bilingual signage to be found in Strasbourg are in the historic centre, which may be considered the most tourist-visited area. Thus the patterns of signs in this region appear to be German on the side of the city nearer to Germany and French on the side nearer to the rest of France. This includes road signs for the towns and areas and for the river. In the centre there is bilingual signage for the street names. Opinions on Bilingual Signs People do not believe that the French government will promote the use of German. For instance there is little funding available for research projects into German in French universities. There is little encouragement to use written or spoken German in public life; there is little acknowledgement of German as contributing to Frances cultural richness. People are discouraged from giving their children names that are too German although proper names and place names have remained in their traditional correct German form (Euromosaic, 2009). Public notices, door signs, hospital signs, school and trade signs are all in French. As can be seen from this primary source analysis, monolingual German road signs are only evident on the German side of the city. Euromosaic (2009) reports that a number of Commune authorities in France have begun to install bilingual street signs and that these usually appear in historic town centres. This is reportedly due to public pressure, and in Strasbourg this pressure group is referred to as Action-Pirate. The appearance of these signs in historic tourist areas appears to be a salve to indicate government support of a language that no longer presents a challenge to the dominant language of the state. If it is limited to use on street name signs, it become folklorique and antiquarian. It may be the equivalent of the English Ye Olde Teashoppe signs which are understood to be a reference to cultural history rather than a genuine attempt to reinstate a dead form of the language. This may be a cynical view, however with no evidence of bilingual signage outside of these tourist areas, as might be seen in a true bilingual country such as Wales, it is clear that the French authorities are making no effort to support the use of Alsatian in the Alsace. Instead it appears that the language is used as a gimmick to attract ethnic tourism. Conclusion This essay has analysed the prevalence and patterns of bilingual signs in Strasbourg. It has been seen that bilingual signage only appears in the historic centre, where outside of this the signs are monolingual. The conclusion drawn from this is that these signs form a gimmick to be used as a tourist draw. These signs are top down in Sohamys (2006) mechanism, and have a purpose other than simply naming the street. As part of the linguistic landscape, they point to the cultural history of the space rather than being needed for directional purposes.

The Neverending Story Essay -- Literary Analysis, Michael Ende

Michael Ende’s The Neverending Story is a timeless tale of adventure, imagination, and self-discovery. The story revolves around Bastian Balthazar Bux, an innocent but awkward, socially outcast, and greatly misunderstood pre-teen boy of a widowered father who finds himself metaphorically and literally lost within the pages of a magical book entitled The Neverending Story. Inside the book, Bastian discovers a terrible affliction has befallen the enchanting land of Fantastica, a mystic world full of rock creatures, purple buffaloes, and wind giants (to name a few). The malevolent force he finds is slowly and sporadically consuming Fantastica and all of its inhabitants. It is called the Nothing, and it threatens to destroy the world of Fantastica forever unless someone is able to find the one who will give the Childlike Empress a new name. The Childlike Empress, also known as the Golden-Eyed Commander of Wishes, is an aloof, seemingly omnipotent, and mysterious girl that rules Fantastica. She is the fabric which holds Fantastica together, and in essence she is Fantastica. Her desire for a new name (which she claims wills save the world) leads a brave young warrior on an arduous journey to find someone who can give her a new moniker. That warrior’s name is Atreyu. Atreyu is a strong and persevering hunter turned adventurer whose quest begins upon receipt of a message from the Childlike Empress to locate the giver of her new name. Though he does not fully understand his mission or final destination, Atreyu resolves himself to fulfill the request of the Childlike Empress. Bastian also resolves himself to see Atreyu’s story to the end, but he eventually realizes that Atreyu is not the only one on a mission from the empress an... ...an is tested by the empress to give her a new name. The examples continue to follow both parts of the novel and both heroes, though all are in disorder according to Propp’s sequence. Regardless, at least twenty-four of Propp’s thirty-one functions are present in Ende’s novel. CONCLUSION The myth motifs discussed are but a few of the many to be found in Ende’s novel, though I would argue that the mythological parallels came second to his writing an engaging story. Rather than a cookie-cutter myth comparison, The Neverending Story is a fantastic journey through imagination. Only when examined and pulled apart do the intricate mythological relationships reveal themselves. I still wonder if the foundations of myth lurk in the subconscious minds of story tellers like Michael Ende, or are the relationships found in his and others’ stories entirely coincidental?

Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Computer

Advantages of computers: Increases speed of computing and processing information in any other way. People can use sophisticated statistical and mathematical tools for decision making and further purposes without learning in details the algorithms used for computing. This way people can use much more sophisticated analytical tools that would have been possible with only manual information processing. Computers can store large volumes of information without occupying too much space, as is in the case of information stored in form of books and paper documents.Computer processing eliminates the human errors of computing and information processing. Information once entered in computer system can be easily accessed by the same person or other persons at different times for different persons. This reduces the work load of capturing same information multiple times for different purposes. It also makes it possible for different person to work with same information, avoiding the possibility of different persons using different versions of the same information.The work of entering and editing information is made mush more easy and simple by software that offer many powerful user friendly features for performing these tasks. Computer now offer sophisticated and powerful software for representing information in rich formats with visual and video facilities. Computers combined with communication technology offer very fast speed and rich communication facility at low cost. Computers, with all these features are now used for automating all kinds of equipments and processes. Disadvantage of Computers The cost of computer and associated equipments is falling steadily.Still these equipments are and continue to be much more costly as compared to manual processing equipments like pen and pencil. Also technological complexity of these equipment makes it more difficult to learn and maintain these equipments as compared to equipments of manual information processing. Use of computers require additional infrastructure, such as power supply and software back up. This increases the chances of problems due to failure of infrastructure. For example, a computer will not work where there is no electric power supply. Even a laptop with a battery will work without power supply only for a limited period.Failures of computer system can be more serious and difficult to correct. For example, one scratch on a hard disk can make the complete data on the disk inaccessible. In comparison, manual system faults have comparatively limited impact. One page torn from a cabinet full of documents has no impact on other documents. Computers generally reduces the errors of processing. However if there is an error in input data, it can result in major blunders in the processing which the computer system is unable to detect. In manual systems the chances of such blunders passing undetected and corrected is much less.

5 Cases of Erroneous Usage

5 Cases of Erroneous Usage 5 Cases of Erroneous Usage 5 Cases of Erroneous Usage By Mark Nichol Writers who have misheard words and expressions or remember them imperfectly are prone to misrepresenting them in their prose. The following sentences include examples of such errors, followed by discussion and revision. 1. Trustees- jail inmates selected for jobs like food preparation and garbage collection- were sneaking drugs in on food trays. A trustee is a person or organization that manages money or property for someone else or a person who serves on a board. The appropriate term in this sentence is the plural of the noun trusty: â€Å"Trusties- jail inmates selected for jobs like food preparation and garbage collection- were sneaking drugs in on food trays.† 2. Her tongue-and-cheek  comment was inappropriate for the occasion. A writer unfamiliar with the idiomatic phrase denoting irony, insincerity, or whimsy has mistaken one of the words in the phrase for another: â€Å"Her tongue-in-cheek  comment was inappropriate for the occasion.† 3. The galley on this sailboat looks as if it could be a kitchen in a home in a housing track. Here, a writer has presumably misheard the term tract- referring in this context to a housing development, as track- and is unaware of the distinction: â€Å"The galley on this sailboat looks as if it could be a kitchen in a home in a housing tract.† 4. In this type of story, the hero undergoes a right of passage. This sentence refers to a ritual, not something one is entitled to: â€Å"In this type of story, the hero undergoes a rite of passage.† 5. Smith has a Masters of education and spent several decades as a schoolteacher. Masters is the plural form of master. Master’s is the possessive form, which is what is appropriate here. Also, though it is implicit that degree is what â€Å"belongs† to the master, it’s best to include the word and to use the pertinent preposition: â€Å"Smith has a master’s degree in education and spent several decades as a schoolteacher.† (Also, as shown in the revision, a word denoting a level of degree is not capitalized.) Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Usage Review category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Religious Terms You Should KnowComma Before ButUsing "zeitgeist" Coherently

Organizational Learning in Management

Organizational Learning in Management Organizational learning Work force within an organization needs to be developed, sharpened and its skills improved with time; organizational learning is a strategic managing tool that is used to nature, tap, develop, and utilize human resources potential. The main aim of organizational learning is to improve employees’ skills and expertise (Meinolf, Ariane, John and Ikujiro, 2003). This paper discusses how managers can use organizational learning to improve their organizational performance.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Organizational Learning in Management specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More How managers utilize organizational learning and knowledge to construct better work systems Organizational learning takes the form of three main forms, training, mentorship, and coaching; different situations calls for different systems and approaches, when new systems have been adopted, then an organization nee ds to inform their staffs and train them on how they will utilize the new ways of doing business for the good of the company. For example at John Hospkins Hospital, after the facility adopted a health Record Management System (HRMS), the management had to organize some training lessons to ensure that employees use the system as expected. At this point, organizational learning is seen to facilitate change (Dulewicz and Malcolm, 2003). Organizational learning is also used for strategic movements within an organization; this move was used by Barclays Bank in United states in 2008, were they embarked on training their human force on the effects that globalization has on the banking industry; they then asked employees to think of policies that could see the company through the hard economic time successfully. With time, the company came up with stringent lending policies, embarked on debt collection and mobilized sales a move that saw the company succeed.  Organizational learning has b een used as a tool to nature creativity, invention and innovativeness. Apple inc. used this approach in 2007 when it trained and mentored their staffs on the developments in the industry; with time, staffs were able to come-up with cost management policies, new products were developed and saw the development of a positive working environment (Parker, 2009). Organizational learning frameworks Human resources department assisted with line managers should be responsible of enacting appropriate policies that enhance learning within an organization (Schilling and Kluge, 2009). Learning should be a continuous process that occurs formally and informally, the following are the main forms that an effective organizational learning should have:Advertising Looking for critical writing on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Training: when developing something new in an organization or there is a change in the bus iness environment, management should ensure that its human capital are well trained on the new processes, for example Mitsubishi Motor Company has embarked on massive staff training on the need to conserve the environment. Mentorship: this takes the form of guidance and instructing was leaders offer intellectual and technical assistance to their employees; this means that an organization should have leaders and supervisors who can mentor and show their subordinates the right pathway and direction to follow. It helps to share experiences and grow knowledge of both the leader and the employee. Coaching: coaching mostly comes with something special with an employee or a certain point of strength that a company adopts; it calls for employees to be shown the right way to operate and undertake functions. For example, new entrants at Starbucks are trained on how to operate a fair business trading policy to ensure the company remains respected for its ethical business approach (Hornsby and Warkeoczeski, 2000). Conclusion Organizational learning is a strategic management tool that assists managers to improve their business through human force; it takes the form of training, mentorship, coaching, and sometimes counseling. When well managed, it offers an organization some competitive advantage. References Dulewicz, V. and Malcolm, H. ,2003.Leadership at the top: the need for emotional intelligence in organizations. International Journal of Organizational Analysis 11(3),pp. 193-210. Hornsby, T. and Warkeoczeski, L. 2000. New roles for leaders: A step-by-step guide to competitive advantage. Franklin: Hillsboro Press. Meinolf, D., Ariane, A., John, C. and Ikujiro, N.,2003. Handbook of Organisational Learning and Knowledge. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on Organizational Learning in Management specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Parker, G. ,2009.Team Leadership: 20 Pro ven Tools for Success. New Jersey: Human Resource Development Press. Schilling, J. and Kluge, A.,2009. Barriers to organizational learning: An integration of theory and research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 11(3), pp. 337–360

Free Essays on Job Burnout

ORGANIZATION RESEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction...................................................................................... 1 Body................................................................................................. 2 Anticipating the Need to Change......................................... 2 Impact of the Organization's Culture................................... 3 OD Consultant Considerations............................................ 4 Diagnostic Process............................................................... 5 Overcoming Resistance....................................................... 6-8 Institutional Timelines......................................................... 9 OD Intervention Strategies Recommendations.................... 10 CONCLUSION................................................................................ 11 REFERENCES................................................................................ 12 INTRODUCTION Complete Wireless, like most companies provides a service and or product and has many day to day interactions with potential customers. Their goal is to maintain and build a positive rapport with every person who walks through their company doors. Accomplishing this by providing excellent customer care and selling the fitting product to each unique individual's needs. By being able to follow these simple principles the company grows reputably and so in turn financially as well. Complete Wireless has sold thousands of wireless phones and accessories and currently have four locations remaining. In spite of their past successes three stores have recently been forced to shut down within the past year. In order to put a stop to this potential domino effect I have come to a conclusion after researching employee and customer satisfaction levels that these are the very issues cau... Free Essays on Job Burnout Free Essays on Job Burnout ORGANIZATION RESEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Introduction...................................................................................... 1 Body................................................................................................. 2 Anticipating the Need to Change......................................... 2 Impact of the Organization's Culture................................... 3 OD Consultant Considerations............................................ 4 Diagnostic Process............................................................... 5 Overcoming Resistance....................................................... 6-8 Institutional Timelines......................................................... 9 OD Intervention Strategies Recommendations.................... 10 CONCLUSION................................................................................ 11 REFERENCES................................................................................ 12 INTRODUCTION Complete Wireless, like most companies provides a service and or product and has many day to day interactions with potential customers. Their goal is to maintain and build a positive rapport with every person who walks through their company doors. Accomplishing this by providing excellent customer care and selling the fitting product to each unique individual's needs. By being able to follow these simple principles the company grows reputably and so in turn financially as well. Complete Wireless has sold thousands of wireless phones and accessories and currently have four locations remaining. In spite of their past successes three stores have recently been forced to shut down within the past year. In order to put a stop to this potential domino effect I have come to a conclusion after researching employee and customer satisfaction levels that these are the very issues cau...

Skin Deep Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

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Hegel's impact on Christianity 19th Century Europe and Kierkegaard's Research Paper

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Dysfunctional Family as Portrayed in Hollywood Movies Essay

Dysfunctional Family as Portrayed in Hollywood Movies - Essay Example These movies’ mainly highlight those characters who are little different from others or rather behave in a strange manner. These characters are mainly dealt with, in a humorous way  which evokes laughter as well as makes it worth watching, as after all providing entertainment is one of the main goals of the film industry. These movies mainly centre on the fact how the life of these characters act as a hindrance to the growth of their families and in the process becomes the main subject of such movies. We can discuss the portrayal of these Dysfunctional  families in Hollywood Movies with reference to few of its remarkable presentations. This film is one of the most famous works of Wes Andersen. The whole storyline revolves around a dysfunctional family. Gene Hackman is one of that Royal Tenenbauam who was the father of three children but was unaware of the fact as to how to raise them in a proper manner. However the three children achieved success in their life mainly due to a lady called Mrs. T. Anjelica Houston has played this role in this movie. However though they are successful they are to some extent neurotic. In the movie we find certain phases which evoke hilarity. Bill Murray is shown as a confused husband and also confusion seems to be there regarding the fact whether Danny Glover is Mrs. Tenenbaum’s fiancà © or not. Royal, one of the main characters of this movie is shown to be a person who in his old age is seeking for attention from his family. This expectation of his however never materializes as his children are busier with their personal life and his wife Mrs. T is also planning to get remar ried. He however manages to get the attention of one of the clans but that too for a few days. It is regarded as one of the brilliant films of Mr. Andersen and his rise as a mainstream director from being just an independent director proves it. (The Royal Tenenbaums) This is a film

Teacher's interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Teacher's interview - Essay Example The teacher is the leader of the ship. If he knows his work, the ship will reach the destination, otherwise it can lose track. Guidance, discipline, and punishment are three points on a continuum with the guidance being on one extreme, discipline in the middle, and punishment being on the other extreme. Guidance means telling children what to do, when to do, why and how to do. Discipline means establishing rules and telling children to follow them or bear the effects of noncompliance. Punishment means discouraging wrong behavior by putting the child in an uncomfortable or inconvenient position in some way, like hitting or fining. I slightly disagree with the teacher that guidance, discipline, and punishment have to be on the same continuum but at different points. I think discipline comes first because the rules are the first to be established. Guidance is just helping children to follow the rules whereas punishment is the liabilities they have to face when they don’t comply with rules. So discipline basically lays the basis of guidance as well as punishment depending upon what the child demands. I don’t believe in punishing students until it is inevitable. I tell the students my rules and guide them in following the rules. Mostly I guide because that enables me to build a rapport with my students so that they become obedient. I agree to the teacher that punishment should be the last resort. A teacher should make every possible effort to avoid that. A teacher should first establish the rules and then guide the students so that they can follow them. This develops association between the teacher and the students and has a positive impact on the environment within the classroom. I think punishment is justified when all other ways of correcting the student’s inappropriate behavior have proved ineffective. For me, cheating is just as intolerable

Dysfunctional Family as Portrayed in Hollywood Movies Essay

Dysfunctional Family as Portrayed in Hollywood Movies - Essay Example These movies’ mainly highlight those characters who are little different from others or rather behave in a strange manner. These characters are mainly dealt with, in a humorous way  which evokes laughter as well as makes it worth watching, as after all providing entertainment is one of the main goals of the film industry. These movies mainly centre on the fact how the life of these characters act as a hindrance to the growth of their families and in the process becomes the main subject of such movies. We can discuss the portrayal of these Dysfunctional  families in Hollywood Movies with reference to few of its remarkable presentations. This film is one of the most famous works of Wes Andersen. The whole storyline revolves around a dysfunctional family. Gene Hackman is one of that Royal Tenenbauam who was the father of three children but was unaware of the fact as to how to raise them in a proper manner. However the three children achieved success in their life mainly due to a lady called Mrs. T. Anjelica Houston has played this role in this movie. However though they are successful they are to some extent neurotic. In the movie we find certain phases which evoke hilarity. Bill Murray is shown as a confused husband and also confusion seems to be there regarding the fact whether Danny Glover is Mrs. Tenenbaum’s fiancà © or not. Royal, one of the main characters of this movie is shown to be a person who in his old age is seeking for attention from his family. This expectation of his however never materializes as his children are busier with their personal life and his wife Mrs. T is also planning to get remar ried. He however manages to get the attention of one of the clans but that too for a few days. It is regarded as one of the brilliant films of Mr. Andersen and his rise as a mainstream director from being just an independent director proves it. (The Royal Tenenbaums) This is a film

How are fashion and appearance central to the construction of social identities Essay Example for Free

How are fashion and appearance central to the construction of social identities Essay We live in a world were physical appearance is the measurement of our self-worth. Media advertisements more often than not show how people can improve their appearance and why it is important. From job interviews to social events, how people look and dress determine other people’s impression. In this age of increased self-consciousness, fashion and appearance play a crucial role in establishing the social identity of a person. Fashion, as defined by many books and other resources, can be defined as the prevalent style and custom at a certain point in time and the word may also mean the study of this certain fashion trends. Even though there are many things that can be considered prevalent at a certain time, fashion more often than not points more to clothing or clothing style. Different periods of time have different fashion. There is no other applied art which affects the everyday lives of the people other than fashion. Fashion design is responsible for the clothing that we wear since the ancient times. Clothing does not only help us keep warm but it also shapes us in the psychological and social aspect. Basically, clothing forms a basis of a person’s social identity. Fashion has become a part of the culture since the early times. Different ethnic groups have different clothes which reflect their culture. Fashion based on some researches done by cultural scientists played a role in social and cultural structure, social differentiation and social integration (Davis, 1994, p. 16). Social identity is the way people are categorized or label themselves. This can be in forms of their race or ethnicity. This can also be defined as how people associate or identify themselves into certain groups which serve to heighten their self esteem because they have the same social identities. Since people are social animals, sociologists deemed that social identity is an important aspect of a person. People want to be assured that they belong to one group or they positively compare with other group of people. When talking about social identity in terms of fashion, it is more than how majority of sociologist in the world restrict the concept as mere social class or status. Social identity includes how people communicate with others through symbolic means such as the way they dress or through clothing. It is also the configuration of attributes and attitudes which people seek to attain and discuss about themselves. Fashion contributes to the redefinition and reconstruction of a certain social identity by continually adding something new to cultural artifacts. Everything undergoes evolution and perhaps fashion is one thing that changes fast it is fashion. People change the way they dress when the weather changes. People change the way they carry their clothes when something in their environment shifts. Studies and researchers which were geared towards understanding the culture of a certain society more often than not focus on artifacts which are evidences of the past and present culture of a place. The woven pieces of clothing are often considered as indicators of social customs and social hierarchies. Anthropologists consider clothing as less prone to changes done by the capitalist market and are therefore richer or more stable indicators of sociological and cultural truths. Because of this, anthropologists invested far more energy and resources in investigating and examining the significance of the structure, form, and pattern of clothing than other cultural artifacts. For an instance, the way American Indians wear their clothes which were originally made from animal skin is still the same as before. Emergence of new ways of clothing did not change their original culture (Breward, 2003, p. 64). Fashion and its effect on nineteenth century Attempts to reform the way people dress first appeared during the nineteenth century. The people were starting to get tired of the constricting features of clothing and the too elaborate features of dresses. Women who were fighting for their rights such as Elizabeth Stanton, Elizabeth Miller and Amelia Bloomer were the women who designed the then very famous bloomer dress which was consisted of an uncorseted mid-calf dress which was set over pantaloons (Stearns, 1994, p. 12). Many improvements were made since then to people’s clothing. Different eras reflected different styles of clothing and are more often than not also reflective of the prevalent social identity. For example, during the Victorian era it can be said that the clothing of the people were like straitjackets which aimed to constrict the movements and manners of people. Women during the Victorian era were expected by the society to move and behave only when instructed by their male counterpart. Another example of how clothing or fashion plays a role in the construction of social identity is the wearing of uniforms of the military, police or religious personas. The wearing of uniforms based on social researches done impose an aura of confidence and authority so that they can make the people around them follow their orders either willingly or unwillingly (Crane, 2001, p. 3). Clothing also affected the way people measure their social status or whether they were rich or poor during the early nineteenth century. Clothes were generally considered as one of the most valuable possessions during this time. During the Industrial Revolution, clothes were started to be manufactured by machines or in factories and these clothes cost more than average. Newly made clothes were not available to the poor because of the cost and they were left to use hand-me-downs or used clothing. Clothes were very expensive that it was even considered a form of currency by the rich and often replaced gold as means of payment. Fashion and clothing are also means in which people differentiate themselves from others. Rare fashion finds such as antique clothes are used by people who want to express their uniqueness from others. They may wear it as everyday clothing or on special occasion. Regardless of when they will wear it, these kinds of clothing are worn by people to establish an identity which is different from others (Barnard, 2002, p. 61). Another example of how clothing constructs social identities was when large immigrants arrived in the United States during the second half of the nineteenth century. The immigrants who arrived immediately disposed their new clothing and used the new clothes available in the country. Through this method, anthropologists were able to deduce that the people wanted to start a new social identity so they immediately dropped their old ways of clothing. Hats were also famous article of clothing during the nineteenth century and it played the most important role in distinguishing the social status of a person. The bowler hat which was designed in England in 1850 was originally made as an occupational hat but was soon adopted by the people from the upper class for sports. It was not too long until people from all social strata adopted the bowler hat for everyday use. Another example, the cap with visor which was mainly used by military officers, was also adopted by the working class by the middle of the nineteenth century. The visor cap, then known as the peaked cap was considered to be the most common head covering for the working man. Fashion and its effect on the twenty-first century In the recent years, especially the twenty-first century, clothes were not deemed with the same economic importance unlike in the previous centuries. Because of the cheap ready-made clothes that were made available to all social classes, clothes were not used as replacement for gold unlike before. Even though the economic value of clothes was not as significant as before, their symbolic value remained as important as before. The availability of clothes to all social classes made it possible for those who are not so very affluent to still express their individualities and own cultures. Another example of how clothes changed the way people perceive their social identities is if before women were not allowed to wear tight clothes or those which confine their body. Today women can wear tight clothes such as leotards and spandex whenever they like because of their liberalization. Women of today are not expected to conform much to how the society expects them to behave or to act. They are also not forced to stay at home anymore but women are now doing what the men do. Indeed, the gender equality experienced in this century is reflected in the way women dress. Cross-dressing or the wearing of clothing that is associated with a different gender, is also another way of how fashion reconstructed the social identity of people (Bullough, 1993, p. ). Homosexuals before were forced to follow the prescribed way of dressing for their gender. Unlike today where in homosexuals are free to dress the way they want, without being afraid of other people and punishments. They can wear women’s clothing and express their identities freely unlike before. Teenagers or adolescents also use fashion to set their own social identity from their parents or those fro m an older generation. If we turn on the television or visit a high school, we can see teenagers strutting outrageous clothes such as those with bright colors or elaborate designs. If people from an older generation prefer simpler designs of clothes, teenagers prefer those with dramatic effects to highlight the generation difference (Sloan, 2009). Perhaps this is how the youth of today’s generation set their social identity. If ever we see an old person dressing up the way the teenagers do, these persons are often considered out of the ordinary. This social identity is somehow embedded in the minds of the people and teenagers are now remembered this way. People who prefer work than leisure or vice versa can also be determined by the way they dress. During they first years of the twentieth century, the three-piece business suit was considered by many to be the epitome of the high social class and are often worn during important events. Though some wear the business suit as everyday apparel, others still consider it as a social class distinction. There were also strict regulations as to how a business should be worn and made. There were exact measurements for the lapels, collars and sleeves. The strict regulations about business suits were deemed as a factor in how people will achieve success. The use of the popular T-Shirt was associated with leisure. Because of its availability and cheap cost, majority of the public during the early twentieth century prefer shirts over the business suits. As time passed, t-shirts were used by people to set off political agendas such as imprinting political statements on t-shirts or other humorous statements. No matter what social class people belong in, rich or poor, t-shirts are favored by these people. Fashion transmitted by popular culture or music come and go very rapidly. Clothes designed because of the effect of the popular culture and the entertainment media are often highly androgynous. There are people who call themselves gothic and they are identified socially by their gloomy appearance and wearing of black colored clothes. Established rock groups also affect the fashion scene by popularizing leather clothes. Rap musicians like rock groups popularized the baggy clothes worn by some teenagers today. Indeed fashion drew a line between different genres of music and avid fans of the different music genres also follow this fashion therefore setting a social identity for them. Fashion undoubtedly constructs and affects the social identity of a person in more ways than one. Fashion and all the attributes it entails are a vast reservoir of meanings and culture of a certain society. From fashion magazines to television advertisements, fashion is a way of introducing something new to the public. Because of what they see in these popular advertisements, the people’s way of thinking is affected. People also depend on clothes and trend of fashion to express themselves and their uniqueness. Without this part of our culture, people will have lesser chances of expressing themselves and their individuality.

Does Jolly Phonics Help Pronounce Words English Language Essay

Does Jolly Phonics Help Pronounce Words English Language Essay This research project set out to answer the research question Does the implementation/use of the Jolly Phonics method in the classroom facilitate the development of the ability to pronounce sounds and recognise any word that contains them, particular sounds they have seen in the sessions? The project tries to investigate the impact of pupils progress in reading and spelling using the Jolly Phonics methodology. The purpose of this research is to know if the use of this new technique achieves the students development of the ability to pronounce any word that contains the sound they have seen even although it is in a new word they have nor learnt or read previously in the classroom. The importance of this research lays on the need of demonstrate that to read English well and have strong communication skills, students must learn properly the sounds of English letters and understand how they work together. The idea of doing this research came when I knew about the Jolly Phonics methodology for the first time. It was during the Practicum period. The English teacher had introduced this method in the school I attended a year ago. I decided to investigate if this method would be effective or not because I consider it is important to find ways to improve the methodologies and to find new techniques to introduce in class to make our children progress. This new method is a way to introduce a phonics-based instruction as a part of the curriculum and it is very important to know if it is effective for the pupils. If the research states that Jolly Phonics is a thorough method for reading and writing because it teaches the letter sounds in an enjoyable, multi sensory way, and enables children to use them to read and write words and improve pronunciation, I will definitively use it in my classroom when I start working as an English teacher in the future. At the end of the research period, if children in the JP group are found to have better skills in phonemic knowledge and perform better on writing sounds to dictation, it would demonstrate that Jolly phonics is a method that also confirms the effectiveness of using a synthetic program to teach reading and writing skills to children learning English as a second language. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The purpose of this literature review  [1]  is to identify some teaching methods to teach phonetics, learning theories and learning styles. The traditional educational practices and methods were didactic: the teacher talked and the learner listened. Teachers were teaching regardless of individual learning styles. More recent educational methods try to accommodate the different learning styles and needs: visual, auditory, physical, as it has been demonstrated by studies conducted by Dunn and Dunn (1979) that have reported on perceptual learning styles, a term that describes the variations among learners in using one or more senses to understand, organize, and retain experience. In brief, a visual learner learn by watching a problem to solve, an auditory learner learns basically by listening and a physical or kinaesthetic learner will learn by using and manipulating object and through the action. Generally speaking, the results of several studies as the one carried out by Bandler and Grinder demonstrated that students strongly preferred kinaesthetic and tactile learning styles. They also pointed out that the kinaesthetic learner is the one that has more problems in schools and it is probably due to the fact that this learning style is the less practised in schools. The learning style that is of interest of this project is the kinaesthetic learner, that is to say, the experiential learning and the total physical involvement with a learning situation. The research findings of Price, Dunn, and Sanders (1980) established that very young children are the most tactile/kinaesthetic learners.  [2]   Based on this approach, Sue Lloyds, the creator of Jolly Phonics states that Jolly Phonics is a systematic, sequential, phonics program designed to teach children to read. It emphasizes both the teaching of letter-sounds in isolation (not in whole words) and then it goes to blend letter-sounds together to read a word.  [3]   Regarding the methodology to teach phonetics, in general, there are two main approaches to teaching phonics: analytic and synthetic. In analytic phonics, children are taught whole words and later analyse their constituent parts, such as c-at or str-eet. In synthetic phonics, the key is to teach them sounds of letters and letter combinations first, then to combine those to form words: c-a-t or s-t-r-ee-t. Jolly Phonics is a method that uses the Synthetic phonics. This methodology is been implemented in the school I am actually doing the Practicum II as a visitor teacher. As an example of how the teacher works, I would say that if you teach the N, the action for N is to put out your arms to be a noisy aeroplane that flies saying Nnnnnnnnnn. This helps the children to remember which sound is associated with which letter, and it also makes it quite fun to use.  In appendix 1 and appendix 2, you can consult a guide the teacher normally uses to teach ESL using the Jolly Phonics method. It contains the order in which we should teach the sounds and the actions to perform related to them. 3. THE CONTEXT Nuestra Seà ±ora de los Dolores School, also known as Paulas, is located in Villena, a town in the province of Alicante. It is a private publicly founded day school offering an educational experience to boys and girls from 3 to 16 years. The school was founded in 1950 as a charity school for the purpose of maintaining poor children in the city of Villena, and now occupies a site in the centre of the town and is one of the most popular schools in the town. The school has 315 pupils distributed in Pre-primary (first floor), Primary (second and third floor) and Secondary Education (fourth floor). The aim Nuestra Seà ±ora de los Dolores School is to provide an excellent education for every child, develop confidence, ability and skills within a Christian environment. The main purposes of the school board and staff are to understand the childs perspective and respond to individual needs and provide care, understanding and support on an individual basis. Also, students are guided to explore and understand faith in God and develop awareness of the needs of the world to help others. Every class has an average of 24 children and the classrooms are well equipped, colourful and well organised to make children feel comfortable. The group of learners I worked with for the research are in the class of Pre-Primary Year 3. In this class there are 24 children (5 years old) but for the English sessions the Department of Languages considered there were too many students in the classroom, so the group is divided into two halves. So the research was carried out with group A formed by 13 pupils. This year the work becomes more challenging for these pupils as they are prepared for the transfer to Primary Education. The pupils in this class are encouraged to become more independent and they learn to organise themselves and their belongings. The behaviour of pupils is correct and there are no pupils who present learning disabilities or special difficulties. The students have established positive relations with each other and the relationship between teacher and students make the classroom a good environment to learn. They are taught by their course tutor most of the subjects but they also have lessons with some other teachers (Gym, Music, English). Pupils have a weekly English lesson (50 minutes). The children follow the Jolly Phonics programme combined with other activities. Each week they have an English session during which they learn new letter sounds, the songs, the actions and how to write the letters for those sounds and some words that contains these sounds. 4. DATA COLLECTION In order to obtain valuable data for this research, I have used several methods. I decided not to use a survey in a form of a questionnaire due to the young age of the students (5 years) and the lack of comprehension skills to carry out this kind of method. Considering this, the type of data collected is qualitative (observation) and quantitative (pre and post tests). I collected the data from a pre-test before starting the research project and I collected more data from a post test after the sessions. The test consisted of 10 spelling words. The pupils received a score of 0 or 1 point per word. 0 for incorrect, 1 point for correct. This data is very important because we are testing the students previous knowledge with a pre test and then, we used a post spelling test to compare the findings. As I previously mentioned, there are 13 boys and girls in the last year of Pre-Primary class. All of them have received the same input for spelling and reading using the Jolly Phonics method. Children were unaware of they were participating in a research. The materials used for the sessions were the same the teacher normally uses, that is Jolly Phonics materials published by Jolly Learning Ltd. (See appendix 3). To carry out the pre and post test, the students were requested to take it as an activity they would do normally in class. As with any other activity, the students were asked if they understood or whether they have any question before starting the activity. The participants followed the instruction given by the teacher. They completed a similar warm up activity and then, they completed the required activity. The activity consisted in writing with the correct spelling ten words their teacher dictated. (See appendix 4) The words were not chosen at random. The students have seen and worked with five of the words previously in class. These words were in the Jolly Phonics Book and they did some activities with them. The students did not know the other five words, but the words contained sounds they have previously seen during the English sessions. To complement the quantitative data and to add more valuable information, I included the qualitative data which consisted in taking observational notes for later analysis. When interpreting the data collected from an observational study, it is necessary to reduce the possibility to be bias. For that reason, the teacher offered to collaborate and it was decided to use also some observational notes of the teacher herself. The observation was carried out during the pupils normal English sessions to support the validity of the research. To observe this type of data I used a diary to write down the notes during the five sessions I observed the pupils. It was intended to use also a video camera to record some parts of the sessions, but I did not obtain the permission of the head teacher to do it. The observers noted the students comments, interactions and general behaviour in the classroom when using the Jolly Phonics methodology to learn the sounds. The qualitative data from the two observers consisted in notes for later study. The observers used a guide to interpret the observations in order to follow the same criteria and then, the observers discussed their own findings to add more data to the research. The table below shows the common criteria the researcher and the teacher agreed to observe and noted the observations in a scale from 1 to 5. OBSERVATION OBSERVER 1 (Researcher) OBSERVER 2 (English Teacher) Motivation 5 5 Children remain focused, interested 5 4 Children able to follow the session 3 3 Participation and work 5 4 5. DATA ANALYSIS As it was mentioned in the previous section, data was collected by both quantitative (pre/post test scores) and qualitative (observation) to do the analysis. Quantitative data Pre and post test To test the students, I used a point score system. The students could receive a score of 0 for incorrect spelling and 1 point for correct spelling. The pre and post test scores were analysed using a graph and a table to compare them. The graph below shows the scores for the pre and post test. This appears to suggest that the participant had made a good improvement within the period in between. Analysis of the graph shows the results of the pre and post test scores for the class. The purple bar indicates the total number of correct words the pupils wrote in the first test and the blue bar indicates the total number of correct words pupils wrote in the second test. This graph appears to suggest that there was an increase of learning in the post test taken a few sessions after. However this result is too small for any real conclusion. As you can compare in the table that is included in appendix 5, the first test proved that the pupils made more mistakes in the words and all of them wrote incorrectly words like fun and bus. Regarding the second test, the most significant findings were that many of the words students made mistakes in the pre test were written correctly in the second test due to the fact that the teacher taught the a /a:/, t /t/ sounds or the initial s /s/ in the sessions that took place after the first test. Nevertheless, it is necessary to remark, as think it could be an important finding, that 95 per cent of the students wrote incorrectly the words fun and bus. These words contain the sound /ÊŒ/ that the teacher had also seen in class but maybe it is necessary to remark it more or in different ways. If we look at the individual scores for both tests, very interesting points were noticed when comparing the lowest and highest scores and when looking at which students improved most: Most children improved significantly the words that contain sounds they have learnt in class in the following sessions after having done the pre test. Almost all students wrote correctly the words the teacher included in the classroom activities. The scores of the female students were higher that the scores of the male students and this finding may agree with the studies that points out girls have better skills for arts than boys. Most students (99 %) failed to write the words that contain the sound /ÊŒ/ and spelling u, although the sound was explained in class and they made a match activity to distinguish it. In the second test, most students wrote correctly the words beginning with s (step, snake) although it is a difficult sound for Spanish learners. They did not write the e before the s, which it is a real improvement for their pronunciation. These words were written incorrectly by 50 per cent of the pupils in the pre test and 90 per cent of the pupils wrote them correctly in the second test. Finally, we have to point out that there was also an increase in the words they did not know previously but contained the sound they have learnt in the session. Qualitative data- Observation The observations were carried our at Nuestra Seà ±ora de los Dolores School during the months of November-December, 2010 and during six sessions of 50 minutes each. During these sessions, the teacher taught the 3 first groups of sound (see appendix 1) and also the songs and actions related to them (see appendix 2). There is also a worksheet to accompany this learning in which students can trace the letter or letter combination that goes with the sound, and colour a picture of the word that is associated with the sound. The students also played games to review the sounds and its spelling and use some flashcards to learn to discriminate sounds. In session number 4, the teacher included in a box all the words they have learnt to review and she also included games in which the pupils have to match the sounds with the spelling and a picture (appendix 3). Following the implementation of all these activities in the classroom, it was observed high levels of enjoyment, motivation and enthusiasm among the students. The researcher and the teacher both noted that participation was also very high. The two observers totally agreed that the children remained focused and were able to work following the pace the teacher required. The children enjoyed learning with this method and keep quite focused and most of them followed the teacher instructions without special difficulties. They were especially motivated when singing the song corresponding to the sound they were learning. Also the level of motivation increased when they have to perform the action related to the sound. The frequent use of the Jolly Phonics characters: Snake, Inky and Bee made children learn in a fun and active way using them and they love to see and learn with these characters. Most of the children appeared to be totally focused on the activity and showed signs of enjoyment such as laughing and expressing interest to learn another letter. To sum up, the data did not offer a final result an it is not possible to conclude or provide a definitive answer to the research question Does the implementation/use of the Jolly Phonics method in the classroom facilitate the development of the ability to pronounce any word that contains the sounds, particular sounds they have seen in the sessions?. Nevertheless, it seems that the teaching method is very motivating and that Jolly Phonics can inspire a childs love of learning through fun and interaction, and that it is a method to get children start to love English as we stated in the observational notes. Secondly, the research found that the method improved slightly the listening skills and the pupils had reinforced the English phonemes through comparing and blending. Also the statistical and observational data presented could show the students improved their skills to link sounds with spellings after comparing the fist and second test. However, due to the general mistakes the students made in sounds like /ÊŒ/ corresponding to the u spelling, it would be necessary to focus more in some particular sounds depending on the native language of students. Finally, the observations could pointed out that by implementing a synthetic phonics programme, children can be taught to read at the phoneme level. But we have to take into account that this does not mean merely teaching them letter sound correspondences but also children have to be shown that the sequence of the phonemes in the spoken word match with the sequence of letters in the printed word. Related to this, we can conclude, that for Spanish children, this method may works well if it is teaching with the correct pace and this is achieve not only through the attention paid to the sounds themselves, but also because of the work on identifying sounds in words and on similar sounding words. To achieve that, it is necessary students learn properly the sounds of English letters and understand how they work together. 6. CONCLUSIONS To carry out this research, it could have been made some improvements as to have available a longer time between the pre and post test in order to get most accurate conclusions. Also, after considering the differences in the students abilities and the learning styles of each student, we can say that it would be better if the students learn just one sound per session to reinforce the corresponding sound and be able to match it correctly with their spelling. As we did not have the time, students learnt a few sounds per session and some of the most difficult sounds were not reinforced properly. As the students have just one session of 50 minutes each every week, all of the letter sounds were taught very rapidly and the emphasis on how words are built up was poor. I could observe that the lack of time affected the results of the second test, especially when writing the words that contained the /ÊŒ/ sound because the students were not able to match the sound with the spelling u. Another of the aspects that could have been improved in the research is the lack of magnetic letters to practise picking out the appropriate letters for a spoken word, pushing the letters together and sounding and blending the letters to form the word. I think it would be a great help for the pupils to use them to improve their skills due to their age and learning skills. The data collection methods used for this research project were appropriate but I would have preferred to record some of the sessions. Also I could have been done a control test at the middle of the research period to monitor the progress of the students work. Regarding the suggestions for future work, I consider that one way to improve the findings of the research is to obtain quantitative data using two different groups. One of the groups could use the Jolly Phonics method and the other group could use a different approach like analytic phonics. This comparative method could be of great help to compare the effects of teaching synthetic phonics and analytic phonics. I will conclude saying that the purpose in carrying out this study was to discover if teaching Jolly Phonics are effective to ensure that as many children as possible become competent readers of ESL, but I recognise that this is only one aspect of effective teaching of ESL. Also I would like to remark that the focus on pronunciation of this method could be of great help for children to become competent readers of English which is one of the weakest areas of Spanish pupils seeing the progress students made in the post test. 7. REFERENCES Sue Lloyds, (2005) The Phonics Handbook: A Handbook for Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling (Jolly Phonics S). Jolly Learning Ltd. U.K. Dunn, R. S. Dunn, K.J.(1978). Learning styles/teaching styles: Should they . . . can they . . . be matched? Educational Leadership, pp. 238-244. London. Visited at http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_197901_dunn.pdf on October 26th, 2010. Bandler, Richard (2000). De sapos a principes. Cuatro Vientos. Santiago de Chile. Visited at http://www.agba.org.ar/enfoque/xautor.pdf Joy M. Reid. The Learning Style Preferences of ESL Students. TESOL QUARTERLY, Vol. 21, No. 1, March 1987. Nunan, D. (1992) Research Methods in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rhona Johnston and Joyce Watson. ( 2005) The effects of synthetic phonics teaching on reading and spelling attainment. Published at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/02/20688/52449 Web pages www.jollylearning.co.uk/ www.jollykingdom.com www.readaustralia.com/about_jolly_phonics.htm http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/learningteachingandassessment/curriculumareas/languages/litandenglish/index.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_research http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/transform/teachers/teacherdevelopment- tools/action-researchâ‚ ¬Ã‚   http://www.wordreference.com 9. APPENDICES Appendix 1 Guide the teacher normally uses to teach ESL using the Jolly Phonics method. It contains the order in which we should teach the sounds and the actions to perform related to them Learning the letter sounds In Jolly Phonics the 42 main sounds of English are taught, not just the alphabet. The sounds are in seven groups. Some sounds are written with two letters, such as ee and or. These are called digraphs. oo and th can each make two different sounds, as in book and moon, that and three. To distinguish between these two sounds, the digraph is represented in two forms. This is shown below. 1. s a t i p n 2. c k e h r m d 3. g o u l f b 4. ai j oa ie ee or 5. z w ng v oo oo 6. y x ch sh th th 7. qu ou oi ue er ar Each sound has an action which helps children remember the letter(s) that represent it. As a child progresses you can point to the letters and see how quickly they can do the action and say the sound. One letter sound can be taught each day. As a child becomes more confident, the actions are no longer necessary. There is a list of all of the letter sounds and their corresponding actions on page 8 of this guide. Children should learn each letter by its sound, not its name. For example, the letter a should be called a (as in ant) not ai (as in aim). Similarly, the letter n should be nn (as in net), not en. This will help in blending. The names of each letter can follow later. The letters have not been introduced in alphabetical order. The first group (s, a, t, i, p, n) has been chosen because they make more simple three-letter words than any other six letters. The letters b and d are introduced in different groups to avoid confusion. Sounds that have more than one way of being written are initially taught in one form only. For example, the sound ai (rain) is taught first, and then alternatives a-e (gate) and ay (day) follow later. (Sue Lloyd, 2001) Appendix 2 The Actions s Weave hand in an s shape, like a snake, and say ssssss. a Wiggle fingers above elbow as if ants crawling on you and say a, a, a. t Turn head from side to side as if watching tennis and say t, t, t. i Pretend to be a mouse by wriggling fingers at end of nose and squeak i, i, i. p Pretend to puff out candles and say p, p, p. n Make a noise, as if you are a plane hold arms out and say nnnnnn. c k Raise hands and snap fingers as if playing castanets and say ck, ck, ck. e Pretend to tap an egg on the side of a pan and crack it into the pan, saying eh, eh, eh. h Hold hand in front of mouth panting as if you are out of breath and say h, h, h. r Pretend to be a puppy holding a piece of rag, shaking head from side to side, and say rrrrrr. m Rub tummy as if seeing tasty food and say mmmmmm. d Beat hands up and down as if playing a drum and say d, d, d. g Spiral hand down, as if water going down the drain, and say g, g, g. o Pretend to turn light switch on and off and say o, o; o, o. u Pretend to be putting up an umbrella and say u, u, u. l Pretend to lick a lollipop and say ll llll. f Let hands gently come together as if toy fish deflating, and say ff f f f f. b Pretend to hit a ball with a bat and say b, b, b. ai Cup hand over ear and say ai, ai, ai. j Pretend to wobble on a plate and say j, j, j. oa Bring hand over mouth as if you have done something wrong and say oh! ie Stand to attention and salute, saying ie ie. ee or Put hands on head as if ears on a donkey and say eeyore, eeyore. z Put arms out at sides and pretend to be a bee, saying zzzzzz. w Blow on to open hand, as if you are the wind, and say wh, wh, wh. ng Imagine you are a weightlifter, and pretend to lift a heavy weight above your head, saying ngà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ v Pretend to be holding the steering wheel of a van and say vvvvvv. oo ooMove head back and forth as if it is the cuckoo in a cuckoo clock, saying u, oo; u, oo. (Little and long oo.) y Pretend to be eating a yoghurt and say y, y, y. x Pretend to take an x-ray of someone with a camera and say ks, ks, ks. ch Move arms at sides as if you are a train and say ch, ch, ch. sh Place index finger over lips and say shshsh. th th Pretend to be naughty clowns and stick out tongue a little for the th, and further for the th sound (this and thumb). qu Make a ducks beak with your hands and say qu, qu, qu. ou Pretend your finger is a needle and prick thumb saying ou, ou, ou. oi Cup hands around mouth and shout to another boat saying oi! ship ahoy! ue Point to people around you and say you, you, you. er Roll hands over each other like a mixer and say ererer. ar Open mouth wide and say ah. (British English) Flap hands as if a seal and say ar, ar, ar. (Nth Am English) (Sue Lloyd, 2001) Appendix 3 Some of the materials used in the sessions Appendix 4 Words the teacher dictated to do the pre and post test. sit hand ten fun cat red bus step spot frog