Primary and Secondary Socialization Essay

Introduction Socialization is the communication or interaction process in which the norms and values of a culture are learnt, whereby the individual gains knowledge to adapt his or her behavior to that of a social group (Groenman et al., p.202). It is significant to re-emphasize the idea of interaction in the above definition. Where there is interaction, influences are reciprocal and socialization is not merely a one-way process. Parents discover from children just as children do from their parents. In the same way, teachers learn from pupils, heads of departments from students, etc. The socialization process is not restricted to the uncomplicated social skill required in contacts with others. Within the idea of socialization, a difference is made between primary socialization and secondary socialization. Body Primary socialization is a technical term signifying the practice whereby norms and values are obtained (and by the way, has nothing to do with the nationalization of industry or going out to parties). Primary socialization is an exchange of communication between infant and others, but in the first instance, and for quite a time thereafter, it is an exchange in which information in dominates: if we know who we are, it is because, a long time ago, beyond the reach of the conscious recall, other people told us (Jenkins, p.64). Primary socialization is the realm of categorization, and sets patterns for our receptiveness to being categorized in the life that follows. As a child or as an individual, I had always been dreaming of achieving a higher status or class in the society. I always sought perfection in the things that I do, and really did my best to achieve it. Sometimes, because of this quest for perfection, I tend to see the faults or errors in things, as well as in my personality. As such, I began to question the way I was raised (in a positive manner) and asked my parents how they took care of me while I was a baby. My mother recalls that she always had to play classical music for me and kept watching scientific and political news or documentaries. She also told me that she lectures about being a role model in the society while I was still in her womb, before she went to bed. Primary socialization may be informal and it may denote the elementary education that takes place mainly inside the family circle. The explicit gender roles and behaviors are primarily learned at home. When I was a child, I remember myself being curious as to what my parents were doing. I noticed that my mother usually takes care of the laundry, cooking (including the preparation of the dining table), washing of dishes, cleaning the house and planting of small plants, flowers and herbs. My father on the other hand, busies himself with the repairs in the house. He fixes or repairs the busted electric bulbs, leaking water pipes, clogged sink, damaged roof and whatever appliances which were not properly functioning. At first, I thought that these tasks were only performed in our home. However, by observing my grandparents, our neighbors and my classmates’ parents, I learned that generally, most of the males performed the tasks which my father was doing, while most of the females were doing the tasks which my mother was doing. As such, I began to understand and realize that someday, I’ll be doing tasks which are similar to the tasks done by my father. On the other hand, I had the idea that my sisters would be, someday, doing the same tasks which my mother was doing. In primary socialization, a developing child learns what behavior is â€Å"usual†, â€Å"right† or â€Å"natural† according to the norms that are present in the group in which he grows and it may be in an informal manner. This course of action points to the child’s adjustment to social life, whereby the child develops from an instinctual being to a competent and disciplined social actor who has learned to take the expectations of others into consideration. Upon growing up, emulating my father, I was able to have similar voting habits like him. During my childhood days, he was able to tell a story about his childhood life, where he usually faints in a difficult situation or get asthma instead of expressing anger. Somehow, I noticed that I am expressing the same ways of being ill as my father. I had a fight with a schoolmate once and the last thing I remember was I was already resting in a bed in the school clinic with an oxygen mask. I was not hit or physically attacked, however, the pressure or idea of getting into troubled rushed in my head causing me to panic and faint (in addition to the point that I had asthma during my childhood days). Fainting during a fight was embarrassing for a guy like me and I had to search books in order to cure which I thought before as an â€Å"incurable disease of fainting†. From my father and from the books, I learned that my response or the behavior which I exhibited earlier was normal and that it happens to most of children who are in the same situation as I do. After learning this, I was able to develop self-confidence and learned to protect myself against other children’s insults during that time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Primary socialization can also be formal, as in a school where a child is trained or educated the norms and values of those running the school (Tuckett, 2001, p.15).   Recalling the past, I learned that as long as I am doing things which are right (based from school laws and regulations), I do not have to fear my perpetuators and that I have the right to argue my ideas. Somehow, I was able to strengthen my mental and emotional abilities and soon after, my social life had gained a favorable position in the school. I was also able to gain the respect of my teachers and some school administrators. Because of this respect, I told myself to study harder and see to it that I excel academically. Education became really important to me that I devoted most of my time studying and learning things from the book, as well as from my teachers. Primary socialization includes, for example, the learning of language, the learning of relatively controlled behavior, and the learning of the ability to give and receive trust (things which I have learned from my parents or within my family). This form of socialization takes place in primary groups, for example, a family. A primary group is often defined as a group with close and diffuse relationships. The group members know each other as whole persons, and their relationships are close and emotional, although not necessarily free of conflicts (Furseth and Repstad,   2006, p.115).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     In addition to primary socialization, sociologists also consider of a secondary socialization process which functions all through a person’s life. As a new member of a medical school or of a particular medical â€Å"firm†, or as a visitor to his fiancà ©e’s parents, an individual may be socialized formally (as when a new recruit to an undergraduate society undergoes a beginning ritual or when a new patient in hospital is formally admitted to the ward).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Just like in primary socialization, secondary socialization can also be informal, by gradually attuning himself to the subtleties of meanings and actions in the new situation. The way in which recruits to occupations in medicine, the law, the army, sociology, or the administrative grades of the civil service are socialized so that they come to think, act as, and indeed â€Å"are† doctors, barristers, officers, sociologists or permanent secretaries, is a special form of secondary socialization termed professionalization.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Due to my profession, I learned to practice the professional ethics or exhibit the behaviors which are expected from a person of my status. In addition to this, it seems as if society often keeps an eye to the things which I did. My performance and my achievements (as well as some failures) were often noted by other people (especially our nosy neighbors) which made me learn or understand that I have to perform better and show a better performance. It also made me perform actions which conforms to the norms of the society and see to it that I do not violate any law which the society has set in my path.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The norms and values that exist within social groups are maintained by processes that sociologists conceived of as social control. Again, social control goes on informally as well as formally. Informal processes range form the uncomplicated fact that is generally easier to get along in a social group if deviance from norms, in what has been regarded as both a profound and a trivial demonstration. In addition to this, the concept of secondary socialization is used to illustrate groups characterized by more targeted and restricted social relations in, for example, in schools, in the office or the place where I was assigned to work in and volunteer organizations where I belong. Again, secondary socialization often takes place in secondary groups, mainly outside the family circle, which provide more limited knowledge and skills that are used to fulfill specific social roles. In these groups socialization is generally more formal, even if secondary groups also offer a great deal of informal learning. Besides receiving instruction on how to do their job according to the work description, just like when I was a newcomer in the office, I had to learn, for example, where to sit during the lunch break, in order to keep up with the role they have been assigned.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Sometimes secondary and primary socialization are in conflict. This may occur in situations. This occurred when the secondary socialization in my peer groups introduced me to sub-cultural norms which were incompatible with the norms which present in my family through primary socialization. However, often more fundamental socialization processes are carried through from primary socialization into secondary socialization. One such instance, pertinent to my profession was gender socialization. Franzini et al., (1978, p. 313-314) illustrate how modeling and conditioning influences are brought to bear on young people, both within the family (primary socialization). Boys and young men (where I am included) learn to be more dominant and aggressive, and aspire to â€Å"male† occupations such as business, engineering and the sciences. Girls and young women learn to be more passive and nurturant, and aspire to â€Å"female† occupations such as teaching, social work and nursing. In this area, there is a difference between sociology and at least some disciplines within psychology. Some schools of psychology have emphasized the effects that primary socialization have for our choices later in life. Several sociologists will argue that socialization during the adult phase has a great effect. This view will allow us to claim that not only do parents socialize their children, but children also socialize their parents. For example, may religious parents have changed their views on issues such as marriage and morality, especially cohabitation and homosexuality (observed from the siblings of my neighbors), and the agents of socialization have often been their own children. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Socialization is the communication or interaction process and can be categorized as primary and secondary socialization. Primary socialization implies the practice whereby norms and values are obtained, and can be learned formally or informally. Primary socialization consists of the learning of language of relatively controlled behavior, and of the ability to give and receive trust within the family circle. Secondary socialization on the other hand is learned outside the family and usually in schools and workplaces. Just like the primary socialization, secondary socialization can be acquired formally and informally. Primary and secondary socialization may sometimes be in conflict, where the norms and values learned in schools and in the workplaces are different from those learned within the family or inside the house. References FRANZINI, L. R., LITROWNIK, A. J. & BLANCHARD, F. H. (1978) Modelling of sex-typed behaviours: effects on boys and girls. Developmental Psychology, 14, 313-314. FURSETH, I. & REPSTAD, P. (2006) An Introduction to the Sociology of Religion, England, Ashgate Publishing Limited. GROENMAN, N. H., SLEVIN, O. D. A. & BUCKENHAM, M. A. (1992) Social and Behavioural Sciences for Nurses, Edinburgh, Campion Press Limited. TUCKETT, D. (2001) An Introduction to Medical Sociology, London, Routledge.      

Entrepreneurial Leadership

Using the WileyPlus resources, go to the Interactive Case Study â€Å"Five Guys Burgers and Fries: Ingredients for Success† example located in Chapter 3. To access the entire textbook, use the WileyPLUS Read, Study & Practice link located in the Student Center. Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you: 1. Determine how Five Guys’ philosophy sets it apart from other fast-food chains. 2. Analyze the original values for the start-up company and how it remains strong today. . Enumerate three (3) factors that contributed to Five Guys’ success in such a short time and what effect, if any, external markets had on these factors. 4. Assess how ethical and social practices are part of the Five Guys’ culture and provide examples to support your choices. 5. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources. Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements: Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. †¢Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are: Examine the private enterprise systems, drivers of change on the system, ethical and social responsibilities of business, and the requirements for success in today’s business environment. †¢Analyze the factors that drive supply and demand, different types of market structures in a free enterprise system, and factors of stability in a nation’s economy. †¢Use technology and information resources to research issues in contemporary business. †¢Write clearly and concisely about contemporary business using proper writing mechanics. Entrepreneurial Leadership Using the WileyPlus resources, go to the Interactive Case Study â€Å"Five Guys Burgers and Fries: Ingredients for Success† example located in Chapter 3. To access the entire textbook, use the WileyPLUS Read, Study & Practice link located in the Student Center. Write a three to four (3-4) page paper in which you: 1. Determine how Five Guys’ philosophy sets it apart from other fast-food chains. 2. Analyze the original values for the start-up company and how it remains strong today. . Enumerate three (3) factors that contributed to Five Guys’ success in such a short time and what effect, if any, external markets had on these factors. 4. Assess how ethical and social practices are part of the Five Guys’ culture and provide examples to support your choices. 5. Use at least five (5) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not quality as academic resources. Your assignment must follow these formatting requirements: Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. †¢Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. The specific course learning outcomes associated with this assignment are: Examine the private enterprise systems, drivers of change on the system, ethical and social responsibilities of business, and the requirements for success in today’s business environment. †¢Analyze the factors that drive supply and demand, different types of market structures in a free enterprise system, and factors of stability in a nation’s economy. †¢Use technology and information resources to research issues in contemporary business. †¢Write clearly and concisely about contemporary business using proper writing mechanics.

Origin and Development of Applied Linguistics Essay

â€Å"Applied linguistics is not a discipline which exists on its own. It is influenced by other disciplines and influences them as well. It is a two-way process. For this reason, applied linguistics examines theories from all sorts of different areas (semantics, syntax, pragmatics, sociolinguistics,†¦) and from all sorts of perspectives so that it help find out effective solutions for language -related issues such as teaching methodology (including foreign language and mother tongue teaching), translation, aphasia,†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Applied linguistics originated in close relation with foreign language teaching and has developed to cover a wide range of knowledge, but its core has always been language teaching and learning. Applied linguistics draws its sources from sociology, psychology, anthropology and information theory as well as from linguistics to solve practical problems in practical areas such as language teaching. So applied linguistics is not linguistics that is applied, though it applies, first of all, linguistics. In fact, what it applies depends on what the theories are applied to. Applied linguistics, unlike pure science, aims to solve problems. Thus between theories of linguistics and related fields and the practical areas such as language teaching, it plays the role of a mediator, which bridges theories and practice together. In this way, applied linguistics not only provides principles and methodology for language teaching, etc. , but also gives feedbacks to the theoretical study by summing up the experience from practice. As applied linguistics makes language teaching and learning its core, it provides language teacher with good language theories, principles and methodology. By learning applied linguistics, language teacher can possess an overall understanding of updated theories of language teaching & learning as well as a better perspective of the various factors affecting language teaching &learning. So it is very necessary for a language teacher to learn applied linguistics in order to teach more effectively. As for language learners, it is also very helpful to have some knowledge about applied linguistics. For one thing, by knowing the currently used teaching approaches and methods, which are covered by applied linguistics, language learners can learn to adjust themselves to the teacher’s teaching by adopting a more proper learning method because â€Å"a theory of teaching always implies a theory of learning â€Å"(Applied Linguistics, Yue Meiyun) and language learning is a two – way process, which needs efforts and adaptation from bath the teacher’s side and the learner’s side. For another, applied linguistics covers a wide scope of knowledge. It helps to enhance learner’s insights and depth of knowledge in language learning. Applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, computer science, anthropology, and sociology. The goal of this writing is to make some personal comment on the viewpoint: â€Å"Applied linguistics is not a discipline which exists on its own. It is influenced by other disciplines and influences them as well. It is a two-way process. For this reason, applied linguistics examines theories from all sorts of different areas (semantics, syntax, pragmatics, sociolinguistics,†¦) and from all sorts of perspectives so that it help find out effective solutions for language -related issues such as teaching methodology (including foreign language and mother tongue teaching), translation, aphasia,†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Many linguistic students like me find linguistics useful because it broadens and deepens their understanding of related fields such as languages and literature (English and foreign), social sciences (especially anthropology, sociology, and psychology), education, philosophy, communication†¦ The question is whether applied linguistics and linguistics applied is the same. Needless to say, the answer is â€Å"no†. Phillip Shaw, Stockholm University Strictly looking at the model above by Philip Shaw, a professor from Stockholm University, we can see a basic coherence between applied linguistics and other sciences. According to the professor, studying linguistics means studying language’s sounds, grammar, words, meanings, uses, and connected contexts – that is phonetics, syntax, lexis, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse respectively. Of these, phonetics focuses on the physical sounds of speech. It covers speech perception (how the brain discerns sounds), acoustics (the physical qualities of sounds as movement through air), and articulation (voice production through the movements of the lungs, tongue, lips, and other articulators). This area investigates, for instance, the physical realization of speech and how individual sounds differ across languages and dialects. This research plays a large part in computer speech recognition and synthesis. Syntax is the study of how units including words and phrases combine into sentences. Syntacticians investigate what orders of words make legitimate sentences, how to succinctly account for patterns found across sentences. Semantics within linguistics refers to the study of how language conveys meaning. Pragmatics is the study of how utterances relate to the context they are spoken in. By areas studied, he distinguishes different kinds of linguistics. Sociolinguistics is the study where linguistics looks at how language functions in different social contexts. In other words, it is the study of how language varies according to cultural context, the speaker’s background, and the situation in which it is used. Meanwhile, historical linguistics studies how languages are historically related. This involves finding universal properties of language and accounting for a language’s development and origins. Psycholinguistics is the study of language to find out about how the mind works. Pr. Phillip Shaw emphasizes that we can applied all knowledge of the above-mentioned sciences. It is understandable, therefore, whereas theoretical linguistics is concerned with finding and describing generalities both within particular languages and among all languages, applied linguistics takes these results and applies them to other areas. He defines applied linguistics as an engineering of linguistics, taking what the sciences of linguistics have discovered and applied to solve real practical problems. Kamil Wisniewski, in his work ‘Applied Linguistics’ 2007, he presents the term applied linguistics as an umbrella term that covers a wide set of numerous areas of study connected by the focus on the language that is actually used. He puts the emphasis in applied linguistics on language users and the ways in which they use languages, contrary to theoretical linguistics which studies the language in the  abstract not referring it to any particular context, or language, like Chomskyan generative grammar for example. Interestingly even among applied linguists there is a difference of opinion as to the scope, the domains and limits of applied linguistics. There are many issues investigated by applied linguists such as discourse analysis, sign language, stylistics and rhetoric as well as language learning by children and adults, both as mother tongue and second or foreign language. Correlation of language and gender, as well as the transfer of information in media and interpersonal communication are analyzed by applied linguists. Also forensic linguistics, interpretation and translation, together with foreign language teaching methodology and language change are developed by applied linguistics. Shortly after the introduction of the term applied linguistics it was associated mainly with first, second and foreign language teaching, however nowadays it is seen as more interdisciplinary branch of science. Although in certain parts of the world language teaching remains the major concern of applied linguists, issues such as speech pathologies and determining the levels of literacy of societies, or language processing along with differences in communication between various cultural groups – all gain interest elsewhere. There is a consensus among linguists that is applied linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems. Some of the academic fields related to applied linguistics are education, linguistics, psychology, computer science, anthropology, and sociology. Major branches of applied linguistics include bilingualism and multilingualism, computer-mediated communication, conversation analysis, contrastive linguistics, sign linguistics, language assessment, literacy, discourse analysis, language pedagogy, second language acquisition, lexicography, language planning and policies, stylistics, pragmatics, forensic linguistics, and translation. For all of what I have presented above, I want to restate that applied linguistics does not exist on its own, it makes a great influence on other disciplines and also is influenced by them. The findings of linguistics, like the findings of any other theoretical study, can be applied to the solution of practical problems, as well as to innovations in everyday areas involving language. This is the mandate of applied linguistics. Applied linguists draw from theories of language acquisition to develop first and second language teaching methodologies and to implement successful literacy programs. Applied linguists may also engage in language planning by developing alphabets and grammars for unwritten languages and by writing dictionaries. In short, applied linguistics applies the theories and tools of formal linguistics, sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics in a wide variety of socially useful ways In his own work – â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics† (Cambridge University Press, 2001), Michael McCarthy presents applied linguistics as problem – solving concept. According to him, it is the belief that linguistics can offer insights and ways forward in the resolution of problems related to language in a wide variety of contexts that underlines the very existence of applied linguistics. Applied linguists try to offer solutions to real-world problems in which language is a central issue. People often think that applied linguistics refers to the use of linguistic research in language teaching, but this is just one sub-discipline. McCarthy lists out the domains of typical applied linguistic problems which, as he says, seems certainly be wide – ranging and potential endless, but might include 14 problems as following: 1- A speech therapist sets out to investigate why s four-year-old child has failed to develop normal linguistics skills for a child of that age. 2- A teacher of English as a foreign language wonders why groups of learners sharing the same first language regularly make a particular grammatical mistake that learners from other language backgrounds do not. 3- An expert witness in a criminal case tries to solve the problem of who exactly investigated a crime, working only with statements made to the police 4- A advertising copy writer searches for what would be the most effective use of language to target a particular social group in order to sell a product. 5- A mother-tongue teacher needs to know what potential employers consider important in terms of a school-leaver’s ability to write reports or other business documents. 6- A historian wishes to understand the meanings of place-names in a particular geographical area and how they have changed over time. 7- A person constructing a language test foe non-native speakers for entry into further education needs to know what the key linguistic or psycholinguistic indicators are of reading ability in a second of foreign language. 8- A literary scholar suspects that an anonymous work was in fact written by a very famous writer and looks for methods of investigating the hypothesis. 9- A dictionary writer ponders over possible alternatives to an alphabetically organized dictionary. 10- A computer programmer wrestles with the goal of trying to get a computer to process human speech or to get it to translate from one language into another. 11- A group of civil servants are tasked with standardizing language usage in their country, or deciding major aspects of language planning policy that will affect millions of people. 12- A body is set up to produce an international, agreed language for use by air-traffic controllers and pilots, or by marine pilots and ships’ captains. 13- A zoologist investigates the question whether monkeys have language similar to or quite distinct from human language and how it works. 14- A medical sociologist sets out to understand better the changes that occur in people’s use of language as they move into old age. (Michael McCarthy, â€Å"Issues in Applied Linguistics†, Cambridge University Press 2001, page 1-2) In a work called â€Å"Understanding applied linguistics† by Professor V. B Owhotu (2007), the author emphasizes the importance and growing diversity of applied linguistics. In his view applied linguistics is driven first by real world problems rather than theoretical explorations. In other words, the applied linguists should be preoccupied by the following problems: language learning problem (emergence, awareness, rules, use, context, automaticity, attitudes and expertise); language teaching problems (resources, training, practice, interaction, understanding, use, context, inequalities, motivation, outcomes); literacy problems (language and culture); language inequality problems such as ethnicity, class, gender and age; language policy and planning problems (status planning, corpus planning, and ecology of language); Language assessment problems (validity, reliability, usability, responsibility); language use problems (dialects, register, discourse communities, gate-keeping situations, limited access to services); language and technology problems (learning, assessment, access and use); translation and interpretation problem (on-line, off-line, technology assisted); and language pathology problems (aphasia, dyslexia, physical disabilities). Needless to say, it is far beyond my capacity to present an insight to all of these above-mentioned problems. However, in this part of the writing, I would like to take problems of language learning and teaching, translation  and interpretation, and speech-language pathology as examples to demonstrate the point that applied linguistics helps us to find out effective solutions to our practical problems. Researches in language teaching today show that applied linguistics is sometimes used to refer to â€Å"second language acquisitions†, but these are distinct fields, in that second language acquisition involves more theoretical study of the system of language, whereas applied linguistics concerns itself more with teaching and learning. In their approach to the study of learning, applied linguists have increasingly devised their own theories and methodologies, such as the shift towards studying the learner rather than the system of language itself, in contrast to the emphasis within second language acquisition. I shall continue by considering what avenues within linguists suggest themselves for approaching two of the problems relevant to languages teaching. Let us consider problem of teacher trying to understand why learners from the same language background are having difficulty with a particular grammatical structure in English. Potential linguistic questions for the solution of a grammatical problem, as McCarthy shows in â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics†, are: â€Å"What is known about the learner’s first language or any other language they know which might be interfering with their learning of the foreign language? What do grammarians say about this structure? What psychological barriers might be preventing the learning of the structure? Are some structure difficult to learn if they are tackled too early on? Is there an order in which structures are best presented? † (Michael McCarthy, â€Å"Issues in applied linguistics†, page 8). Can linguistics offer an approach or solution to the problem? If so, which branch(es) of linguistic study and by what methods? The answer lies in such linguistics’ components as pragmatics, semantics, syntax. In terms of pragmatics, students sometimes make mistakes in the use of unsuitable sentences in certain contexts that makes listeners misunderstand. Therefore, when teaching English, teachers need not only teach grammar and vocabulary but also teach how to use sentences in suitable contexts; e. g.  teaching students how and when to say thank you or apologize. In terms of syntax, the most popular mistakes students make are: when making sentences students often translate word by word as the result of their habit of mother tongue (e. g. I have a cat black); combining words incorrectly to produce phrases (e. g. â€Å"a high man† instead of â€Å"a tall man†); the agreement between words in a sentence (e. g. S and V, tenses). In these cases, possibly effective solutions for teachers are: teachers need to teach students how to combine words correctly according to English grammatical rules; they should teach words in contexts. Teachers might also apply semantic knowledge to deal with learners’ mistakes. That is when teaching students a word which has many different meanings, they should teach the meanings related to the context, situation; wishing to talk about a meaning of the word, we may use different synonyms or antonyms; when teaching students how to translate the sentences or the texts into learners’ mother tongue, we should teach students to combine the meaning of English words and the meaning of their mother tongue to have a good translation. It could be confirmed that any problems in language learning and teaching might be solved with application of linguistics, and knowledge about language plays or could play a major role in language teaching and learning. In translation and interpretation area, applied linguistics can also be shown with effective applications in solving problems. In an article titled â€Å"Linguistics and Applied Linguistics† posted in the website of University of Melbourne, Australia, the author emphasizes an important role of linguistics and applied linguistics in different areas of our life, specially in translation and interpretation area. The article provides clear reasons why linguistic and applied linguistics should be studied by those specializing in translation and interpretation. One of the given reasons is that the skills in need for solving problems are central to the study of linguistics. An evidence for this assumption is clearly shown in the article. That is, â€Å"In a period when Australian culture is coming to term with the need to relate the worldwide mosaic of non-English speaking cultures, and when information and communication are moving to technological centre stage, there is a growing demand for people equipped to analyze language. In fact, an increasing number of employers, ranging from language teachers to engineers of knowledge systems and speech synthesis, from translators to managers to designers of natural-language interfaces for computers, from lexicographers to lawyers to bilingual schools in Aboriginal communities, realize the value of a sound training in Linguistics†. As cited in the article, knowledge in Applied Linguistics will provide us a head start in understanding and orienting us to the area and will give us relevant knowledge and analytical skills. People with a background in Applied linguistics also gain an enhanced understanding of how people learn first, second and foreign languages and of how language is used in the community. These skills will be relevant to those interested in preparing for careers as language teachers, language education and assessment experts, speech pathologists, interpreters and translators, and a variety of jobs in industry where language and communication are issues are of concern. Linguistics and Applied Linguistics provide unique skills in cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication that are helpful in solving problems in translation and interpretation. Speaking of applied computational linguistic, people often mention machine translation, computer – assisted translation, and natural language processing as fruitful areas which have also come to the forefront in recent years. I am going to pick up machine translation as a typical example of applying linguistic knowledge. Machine translation is a form of translation where a computer program analyses the text in one language – the â€Å"source text† – and then attempts to produce another, equivalent text in another language – the target text – without human intervention. Currently the state of machine translation is such that it involves some human intervention, as it requires a pre-editing and a post-editing phase. Note that in machine translation, the translator supports the machine and not the other way around. Nowadays most machine translation systems produce what is called a â€Å"gisting translation† – a rough translation that gives the â€Å"gist† of the source text, but is not otherwise usable. However, in fields with highly limited ranges of vocabulary and simple sentence structure, for example weather reports, machine translation can deliver useful results. It is often argued that the success of machine translation requires the problem of natural language understanding to be solved first. However, a number of heuristic methods of machine translation are also used, including: lexical lookup methods, grammar based methods, semantics based methods (knowledge-based machine translation), statistical methods, example based methods, dictionary-entry based methods, linguistic rule based methods. Generally, rule-based methods parse a text, usually creating an intermediary, symbolic representation, from which the text in the target language is generated. These methods require extensive lexicons with morphologic, syntactic, and semantic information, and large sets of rules. Statistical-based and example-based methods avoid manual lexicon building and rule-writing and instead try to generate translations based on bilingual text corpora, such as the Canadian Hansard corpus, the English-French record of the Canadian parliament. Where such corpora are available, impressive results can be achieved translating texts of a similar kind, but such corpora are still very rare. Given enough data, most machine translation programs work well enough for a native speaker of one language to get the approximate meaning of what is written by the other native speaker. The difficulty is getting enough data of the right kind to support the particular method. The large multilingual corpus of data needed for statistical methods to work is not necessary for the grammar based methods, for example. But then, the grammar methods need a skilled linguist to carefully design the grammar that they use. Generally speaking, application of knowledge from linguistics and applied linguistics benefits the practice of language teaching and learning, translation and interpretation. Linguistic theory has also provided a rich knowledge base for application in speech language pathology. First of all, linguistic approaches to aphasia are aimed at providing well-motivated descriptions for patterns of dissociation in aphasia; unifying diverse phenomena in normal and abnormal language under a single account; constraining competing accounts within linguistic theory. As cited by Roman Jakobson on the role of linguistics in research on aphasia (1971, p.39-40), â€Å"the application of purely linguistic criteria to the interpretation and classification of aphasia facts can contribute substantially to the science of language and language disturbances, provided that linguists remain as careful and cautious when dealing with psychological and neurological data as they have been in their traditional field†. He provides some linguistic approaches to aphasia such as: first of all, pathologists or clinicians should be familiar with the technical terms and devices of the medical disciplines dealing with aphasia; then, they must submit the clinical case reports to thorough linguistic analysis; and further, they should themselves work with aphasic patients in order to approach the cases directly and not only through prepared records which are quite differently conceived and elaborated. As we know, phonological theories have also provided frameworks for the description of the speech of unintelligible children in terms of coherent phonological systems, thus facilitating logical goal-setting for intervention. In this part, I might give an example of clinical application. Clinical linguistics entails the application of linguistics to speech-language pathology. This involves treating individuals whose linguistic development is atypical or impaired. This branch of applied linguistics may also involve treatment of specific language impairment, where one aspect of language develops exceptionally. Phonological disorder is a typical problem of people with speech-language pathology. Some children learning a language have difficulties at the phonological level of language acquisition, including problems with knowledge of phonetic segments and phonological constraint, and how that knowledge is implemented in speech production. These problems result in impaired intelligibility and most often difficulty in other language domains such as lexical and syntactic development. In addition, they may lead to later problems in developing literacy. Research in speech production disorders had little concern with the nature of phonology. Rather, children who used few speech sounds or used them incorrectly were studied to determine if they had problems with sensory, cognitive, motor, or perceptual tasks. A speech sound production problem was presumed to be a peripheral motor problem. After all, speech pathology and linguistics have, as sciences, experienced a parallel development over the past years. Although these disciplines have traditionally been separated, they have common areas of concern, and there are indications of a growing interest on the part of speech pathologists in such linguistic subfields as sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and neurolinguistics. Speech and hearing publications are paying attention to theoretical and methodological linguistic models, and descriptions of communication disorders are using linguistic paradigms as a basis. Given the interest of speech pathology in linguistics, there is both an obligation and an opportunity for linguists to define new roles for themselves within speech pathology. This requires the identification of common areas and methods by which the linguist can adapt linguistic concerns so that they are meaningful to the speech pathologist. Areas of common interest include communication disorders, phonetics, language acquisition, and language variation. Linguists may have to expand their data base to include the particular interests of speech pathology; they may need background information in areas not traditionally stressed in linguistics; and they must understand the goals of speech pathology as a professional field. Needless to say, what have been mentioned above may not enough to get an insight in application of linguistic and applied linguistic knowledge in solving practical problems. The writing, as being said in the very beginning part, just provides my personal comment on the given statement; therefore, in order to get insight in the statement, there should be further studies on it. There should be other different approaches in analyzing or understanding it, too. I myself believe that possible findings of potential studies on this viewpoint will be very meaningful and surely benefit the practice of applied linguistics in solving practical problems. REFERENCE 1) Alan Davies (2007), An Introduction to Applied Linguistics: From Practice to Theory, Edinburgh University Press. 2) Alan Davies and Catherine Elder (2004), The Handbook of Applied Linguistics, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing 3) Roman Jakobson (1968), Child Language, Aphasia and Phonological Universals, Mouton Publishers. 4) Roman Jakobson (1959), On Linguistic Aspects of Translation, essay retrieved from http://www. scribd. com/doc/23687802/Linguistic-Aspects-of-Translation-Jakobson 5) Michael McCarthy (2001), Issues in Applied Linguistics, Cambridge University Press. 6) V. B. Owhotu (2007), Understanding Applied Linguistics, University of Lagos Press. 7) Phillip Shaw, An Overview of Applied Linguistics, video retrieved from www. sportballa. com/video-gallery/Applied-linguistics 8) Kamil Wisniewski (2007), Applied linguistics, article retrieved from http://www. tlumaczenia-angielski. info/linguistics/applied-linguistics. htm. ———————– Linguistics By components of language Phonetics (sounds) Syn j C tax (grammar) Lexis (words) Semantics (meanings) Pragmatics (uses) Discourse (connected texts) By areas studied Comparative linguistics Psycholinguistics Sociolinguistics Historical linguistics Theoretical linguistics Applied Linguistics.

Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 40

Marketing - Essay Example Our sponsors are currently all the leading brands and we have been able to increase our ROI from 10% to 20% since last year. The best aspect of working with our team is that we have done proper research about our market and we have complete understanding about our target market and the customers. We have designed all our marketing activities in accordance with the needs of our market so that all their demands are easily fulfilled and our company can expand its services to other States as well. The grocery shopping on the website gives an awesome experience and it is rightly said that the store provides access to all the grocery items with utmost ease. There is enough evidence about the success of this website but more details need to be provided about the investors. However, the life of Chicago people has eased out to a greater extent as they can easily purchase all their groceries in less period of time. Hence, it would have been more beneficial if some details about the products and services offered at the website are provided which will give a snapshot of the range of products offered by

Informational interview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Informational interview - Essay Example dent of me to conduct a personalized interview with some of the accountants who have made it to the top in order to become adept with the skills and challenges they faced. c) During my interviews, the interviewees were more than interested and willing to offer the information I ask for. Their corporation partly showed their experience and the importance of sharing information to other people.d)A part from the learned skills employees’ performance requires a lot more of interpersonal skills to allow right communication with employers, other employees and customers. In fact, to improve your career and get promotions especially in the field of accounting you need to put more diligence, creativity, and ethics at work. e) I am going to talk about the information I got from an interview with an accountant onhow the skills and challenges experienced overtime in the field of accounting are crucial to the transcending of his career to greater heights even to the position of a CFO. a) Good communication skills: As an accountant aspiring to be a manager, you need effective communication skills in order to relay you facts efficiently to the junior as well as senior staff. This will also help you reduce making many

Public Policy and Opinion Polls Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Public Policy and Opinion Polls - Coursework Example It should be noted that their views do not necessarily reflect those of the people but ought to, at least ideally. Policy content, on the other hand, is a result of actions and beliefs held by the political elite who birth political processes and set them in motion. Decision-making, political procedures and institutions are heavily dependent on the political elite echelon (Dye, 2010). The overall effect of this are laws which are meant to serve and govern the people but which they really have no say over. This is because national opinion polls, though dubbed inaccurate, on several occasions show a sentiment which differs from that held by those who stand for political process (Dye, 2010). This phenomenon is shows an antagonistic trend between policy content and the public. We ought to be concerned because political processes ought to have the interest of the common man as its central motive. This is true, at least on most occasions. A conclusion can thus made that political processes have a huge influence on decision making procedures, especially those concerning policy

Paper 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Paper 2 - Essay Example He argues that good performance profiles should define success and thus meeting the minimum requirements (Uttaro, Paras 2-3). Management position also requires a good performance profile, which removes non-fact based opinions. It is wise to avoid personal bias by using performance profiles to be aware of characters that have been proven by scientists to make employees satisfied. The other thing is by staying current. Good performance profiles are made by using recent performance of your employees. Taking note of current performance of employees is a good tool when developing performance profiles. The other important aspect is developing performance profile that maximizes odds. Making use of performance profiles enables one easily to hire people who will be productive and stay longer in your firm (Uttaro, Paras. 4- 6). After school, accountancy will be the career of choice. The job requires knowledge in preparing financial statements. It also requires a commitment, speed, and accuracy, and you need to have computer skills especially in Microsoft Excel. The best performance profile for the accounting job that will lead to effective performance can be seen below. First is to prepare a comprehensive plan to achieve accounting objectives with a distinct period that you want to accomplish. Secondly, one should conduct a comprehensive operational review. Work with other financial accountants and assess all aspects of the company’s operating performance. Develop a plan of action to deal with each of the issues. The other thing is to address operational issues. If the company is under- performing, you need have a group of people to execute the task and solve pertinent issues. Another thing is to evaluate the financial strength of the company. You need to review all the historical financial data, bu dgets, and forecasts. Evaluate critical areas of concern and determine new ways to improve performance (Uttaro, Para 8). Considering the

Police & Society CH 13,14,15 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Police & Society CH 13,14,15 - Essay Example The contemporary issues that affect police officers are negative media image as well as national proceedings. Given the confirmation regarding the existence of stressors affecting police officers, there has been a limited amount of study that concentrates on these stressors. Alcohol abuse has long been associated with the jobs of policemen. It is common notion that drinking alcohol is a usual occurrence during parties, occasions and even regular gatherings of police officers. With the use of drugs (which could further lead to drug abuse), researchers have not found any concrete data supporting the notion that drug abuse is also common among policemen although there are incidents which lead researchers to believe that this can be considered as an increasing problem. Suicide among police officers shows to be a result of consistently being under stressful conditions. This is alarming since this information is backed up with statistical data which stated in the book that policemen â€Å"were eight times more likely to commit suicide than to be killed in a homicide and three times more likely to commit suicide than to die in job-related accidents.† (Roberg, 2004) Problems at home as well as with their married lives also affect the police officers and increase their stress. This chapter also mentioned the three perspectives when it comes to police officer’s safety. It is also strongly advised in the book that people should be properly educated how to interact and communicate with policemen. There were scenarios given as well as instructions as to how citizens should act properly with the given situation. Does educational attainment of police officers affect their job performance? This is the question that is being tackled in Chapter 14. There are studies conducted to verify if it is necessary for police officers to be

Encountering the Book of Romans by Douglas Moo Literature review

Encountering the Book of Romans by Douglas Moo - Literature review Example Most bible scholars identify the major books they need to major on and proceed to get the necessary information on where to base their studies. Douglas Moo in the book, Encountering the Book of Romans, has simplified the work of most populace by addressing the book of Romans in the Bible. Throughout the history of religion in general, the book has had an interest to scholars and the foundation of the Roman Catholic faith is based on the name. Researchers, therefore, have little to do but need to get to the shops and obtain the one important link to the study and an in depth look as well as a proper analysis of the book of Romans as described. The book was published On December 2002 by the Baker publishing group and has had various sales whose range is close to four hundred thousand. The basics of the writings are clear, concise, and the message is to all parties seeking to know about the letter of Paul to the Romans. The book is not one to pass by on the counter especially the theolo gical readers and scholars, and like most well written books, this one is a great self-discovery adventure. The cover page is well printed with an advance picture of a building which most people would view as an old fashioned empire church. The imprints are bold presumably to depict the importance of the contemporary writing and what is actually contained inside. The creation is set to encounter the bible studies especially with a great concentration on the book of Romans and the impact of the writings therein to a moderate reader. Douglas J. Moo is a PhD holder in the University of St. Andrews and has a wide knowledge on theological issues. He is a Blanchard Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College and also the author to various books and commentaries on biblical writings such as the books of Judges, 2 Peter, Jude and James. Based on his academic circle and knowledge, the lecturer has provide a book worth reading and one that leaves those who come across it fulfilled and havin g a quest for more. Over the years, many theorists have raised questions on just what intended and what he had in mind regarding how the book of Romans is to be read. Moo has simplified this and has given guidelines especially to scholars and students with regard to the ancient letter and provided the basis for contemporary debates. The theme of the book centres on the gospel of Christ Jesus and in writing the book, the author has a purpose to help create an identity to the Roman Christians and help them understand their history of salvation chain. The structure of the book is centred on the letter, and the author shows key aspects such as the introduction which shows a proper understanding of the book based on the first century (Moo, 2002, p.7). Other issues discussed include the prevailing events during the life of Paul and also the situations in the lives of the proceeding readers. In this context, the author bases his study on two approaches including the reformation and the new perspective approach which are grounds for interpretation of the letter. Scholars thus need to decide which approach to use and which best suits their learning needs as the two provide different ways of interpretation. The book is segmented, with each segment further split into well-defined topics for easy navigation and access of study material. The broad networking has made it even available for study and print in the world through website and shops. The contents of the book are well aligned with the contents of the prevailing chapters flowing from the preceding. Moo lays the groundwork for reading the ancient book and provides the arguments that the book

Language developmental pathways in middle school age Essay

Language developmental pathways in middle school age - Essay Example Middle school level education is an important factor which influences language and communication skills. Middle schools are schools that group students between the ages of 10 and 14. In some parts of the country, children from fifth to ninth grades are grouped together; in other parts, seventh- and eighth-graders are in one school. One of the most common middle school arrangements groups children from sixth to eighth grades.   As children grow they experience physical, intellectual, and emotional changes. The way they learn, feel, see the world, and relate to other people becomes different from when they were younger. It is from this age that a strong foundation for communication skill must be provided. Most parents feel Parents feel that athletics can teach their youngsters how to compete with others and also how to function as part of a team. There is, however, another activity which can help young children learn to be part of a team but which places less emphasis on competition and which is, in addition, less gender specific than athletics. That activity is debate. Debate is one of the ways that boosts up communication skills and way of expressing one’s views authentically. The main aims of conducting debates are enhancements of critical thinking, academic advancement and development and promotion of communication skills. A single topic is distributed among two or more groups in which some groups support the topic while the others would oppose it by expressing their views on that topic. Sodikaw (1985) believes that debate helps students develop the emotional maturity to win and lose graciously; acquire the social skills necessary to work with a colleague and compete against other students; and use spoken English in an increasingly sophisticated way. Huston (1985) stresses that the student should be encouraged to become adaptable to many different styles of communication. McClain (1989) argues that debate should be seen as a cooperative rather than a competitive endeavor. Some educators feel that debate should become more audience centered and focused on community issues rather than on tournaments (Stepp, 1989). Many college students who are involved in debate feel that the emphasis on tournament debating makes them too argumentative in everyday life. For younger children, a focus on developing communication skills rather than on competition in debate fosters attitudes of open-mindedness, fairness, and tolerance for the viewpoints of others. (Atwater, 1984) . The other way would be conducting speeches courses. A topic would be given and the student would be asked to prepare on it and deliver the speech. This not only increases knowledge regarding the topic but also removes

Corporate Problem Solving Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Corporate Problem Solving - Essay Example Can anything be done about the wide variety and large amount of information that comes to many corporate planners on a daily basis' Most corporate planners get so much information that they can hardly manage their workloads. Yet, to make the business a success, they must make effective and throughough decisions, using up-to-date information (Hansen, 1995). As John Naisbitt pointed out on the first page of his best-seller Megatrends, "Although we continue to think we live in an industrial society, we have in fact changed to an economy based on the creation and distribution of information." (Thierauf, 1987). This "megashift" as defined by Naisbitt is "an explosive transformation from an industrial to an information society." (Thierauf, 1987). This shift is affecting all companies around the world, and especially in the United States. Therefore, to help problem-solving issues in business, the corporate planning should actually be focusing on problem finding: "future information in the form of problems and related opportunities should be evaluated and resolved in the present as it affects the business organization tomorrow." (Thierauf, 1987). What are some things that the business can do to help make this change and thus solve this problem' Two items need to taken into consideration when analyzing this issue and solving the information overload problem affecting many businesses. First, a change in environmental factors would help contribute to the defeat of the problem(Mitchell, 1954). Corporate planning is at the center of a business organization's decision making process and therefore the corporate planners contribute to the business' future on an almost daily basis(Hansen, 1995). Therefore, the organization needs to coordinate its notion with the outside business world. This means that the business needs to take a close look at the markets and always keep the information about the markets in mind when making decisions. This means taking a close look at how: "the organization operates, current knowledge of its customers and competitors, availability of capital, capabilities of available personnel, and sources of supply . Increasing prices of purchased materials, rising labor costs, and foreign competition signal the need for some type of management information system (MIS) that describes the organization's economic environment and coordinates the external environment with the internal factors to provide corporate planning information." (Thierauf, 1987). The next important item that can assist the business with this problem solving issue is to change internal environmental factors as well. The business needs to address changes that are happening and will happen in the future, and that are affecting the entire business world. Today, this revolves increasingly around technology, as businesses are expected to stay on the cutting edge of technology and technological trends. For most organizations, the hope of making an initial investment in technology creates the hopeful end result of saving money. In the business world, the old slogan is still the rule: "Time is money." Therefore, if the initial problem is time, as stated before, then the business could use certain types of technologies to help organized and cut back on the workload. While this would require an initial investment on the part of the company, it would also provide a

Recruitment and Selection Process Essay Example for Free

Recruitment and Selection Process Essay Stages of recruitment and selection process – In a nut shell: 1. Job analysis: Determining the different aspect of a job through job description and job specification 1.1 Job description: Role within an organisation and lists the main tasks and responsibilities 1.2 Job specification: Highlights the characteristics a candidate needs for a post and the desired qualities 2. Sourcing: Attracting or identifying candidates internally or externally through advertisement (i.e. recruitment agencies, institutions, internet†¦etc) 3. Screening and selection: Assessing potential candidates, specifically, relevant skills, knowledge, aptitude, qualifications, and educational or job-related experience. Screening can be achieved by evaluating resumes and job applications, interviewing, and job-related or behavioural testing 4. On-boarding/induction: Process of helping new employees become a productive member of an organisation Definition: The process of sourcing and screening potential candidates that shares similar values and beliefs aligned with the organisation along with the desired knowledge, skills and experience to competently fulfil the defined job descriptions and specifications (Australian Human Resource Institute n.d, para. 1). Job Analysis: A job analysis is a systematic process where information regarding a job vacancy, specifically its duties and responsibilities as well as the knowledge, skills and abilities required, are collected to formulate a job description and job specification tailored to the organisation’s specific needs (HR Council n.d, para. 2) Job Description: The objective of a job description, according to HR Council (n.d), is to effectively ‘increase individual and organisational effectiveness’ by  aligning the daily duties and responsibilities of an employee with the overall mission, vision and value statement of the organisation Job Specification: Job specification, sometimes referred to as employee specification, is a written statement outlining the specific requirements demanded by an organisation including, but not limited to, characteristics, traits and qualifications that a potential candidate must possess to be considered for the position that he or she is applying for (Heathfield n.d; Management Study Guide n.d). Sourcing: According to Recruiter (n.d), sourcing is a process that ‘encompasses deep organizational talent strategy issues and in general, the practice and need to acquire human talent for any source of business need’. Sourcing can be seen as a tactic or as a strategy. When sourcing is referred to as a tactic, this often means ‘the practice of finding specialized candidates on the internet or through phone work’ (Recruiter n.d, para. 3). In contrast, sourcing as a strategy means ‘a number of different broad hiring initiatives or approaches to particular labour markets’ (Recruiter n.d, para. 5). Screening and selection: The process of screening and selection involves assessing and comparing potential candidates against a predetermined selection criteria factoring in their level of education, competencies, experience, skills and abilities and personal characteristics (ZeePedia n.d, p.82) as well as evaluating whether if their values and beliefs are compatible with the organizations overall mission, vision and values (Mayhew n.d, para. 5). Induction: Induction is a formal process where, according to Department of Human Services (2014), ‘new members of the organisation are welcomed to the organisation and given details about their position’ and introducing the hierarchy and line of communication involving the key people in the workplace (Department of Human Services 2014, para. 10). They are also  briefed on their roles, responsibilities and expectations in the daily operations. Sources: Australian Human Resource Institute n.d, RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION, Australian Human Resource Institute, retrieved 4 March 2015, HR Council n.d, Getting the Right People, HR Council, retrieved 6 March 2015, HR Council n.d, Getting the Right People, HR Council, retrieved 6 March 2015, Management Study Guide n.d, Job Description and Job Specification, Management Study Guide, retrieved 7 March 2015, Heathfield, S n.d, Job Specification, About Money, retrieved 7 March 2015, Recruiter n.d, Sourcing, Recruiter, retrieved 11 March 2015, ZeePedia n.d, SELECTION: Initial Screening, Advantages of Successful Screening, ZeePedia, retrieved 8 March 2015, Mayhew, R n.d, Methods of HR Selection Techniques, Demand Media, retrieved 8 March 2015, Department of Human Services 2014, Recruitment, selection and induction, Department of Human Services, retrieved 11 March 2015,

Impact of Social Determinants on Health

Impact of Social Determinants on Health Song et al (2011) studied the influence of social determinants of health on disease rates. They specified AIDS as the disease of concern and utilized data from American Community Survey. They used correlation and partial correlation coefficients quantify the effect of socioeconomic determinants on AIDS diagnosis rates in certain areas and found that the AIDS diagnosis rate was mutually related with kind, marital status and population density. Poverty, education level and unemployment also determine the cause of disease in an individual. In developed and developing countries socioeconomic status proved to be an important cause of cardiovascular disease. Survey studies showed that education was the most important socioeconomic determinant in relation to cardiovascular risk factor. Smoking was also a major cause of cardiovascular disease. Low socioeconomic status had a direct relationship with higher levels of cardiovascular risk factors (Yu et al, 2000; Reddy et al, 2002; Jeemon Reddy, 2010; Thurston et al, 2005; Janati et al, 2011 and Lang et al, 2012). Lantz et al (1998) investigated the impact of education, income and health behaviors on the risk of dying within the next 7.5 years with longitudinal survey study. The results of cross tabulation showed that the mortality rate has a strong association with education and income. Habib et al (2012) conducted a questionnaire based survey to measure the social, economic, demographic and geographic influence on the disease of bronchial asthma in Kashmir valley. After analysis in SPSS they concluded that non smokers, males working in farms and females working with animals have a high incidence of Bronchial Asthma. The study also showed a significant relationship between the age and disease. Arif and Naheed (2012) used â€Å"The Pakistan Social and Living Standard Measurement Survey 2004-05† conducted by the Federal Bureau of Statistics to determine the socioeconomic, demographic, environmental and geographical factors of diarrhea morbidity among the sampled children. Their study found a relationship between diarrhea morbidity and economic factors particularly ownership of land, livestock and housing conditions. Child’s gender and age, total number of children born, mother’s age and education and sources of drinking water did show significant effect on the diarrhea morbidity among children. Aranha et al (2011) conducted a survey in Brazil’s district Sà £o Paulo, to determine the association between children’s respiratory diseases reported by parents, attendance at school, parents’ educational level, family income and socioeconomic status. By applying chi square test they concluded that the health of children is associated with parents’ higher education, particularly mothers. Family income, analyzed according to per capita income did not affect the number of reports of respiratory diseases from parents. Deolalikar and Laxminarayan (2000) used data from 1997 Cambodia Socioeconomic Survey to estimate the influence of socioeconomic variables on the extent of disease transmission within villages in Cambodia. They concluded that infectious diseases were the leading cause of morbidity in the country. Younger adults were less likely to get infected by others, but it increased with age. Income and the availability of a doctor had a significant effect on disease transmission. Survey studies based on different countries showed a strong association between socioeconomic factors (income, education and occupational position) and obesity. After analysis there was a significant effect of consumption of low quality food due to economic factors on increased obesity. For men, both the highest level of occupational position and general education completed were found to have a significant effect on obesity while women in the lowest income group were three times as likely to be obese as women in the highest income group (Kuntz and Lampert, 2010; Akil and Ahmad, 2011 and Larsen et al, 2003). Yin et al (2011) used data from the 2007 China Chronic Disease Risk Factor Surveillance of 49,363 Chinese men and women aged 15-69 years to examine the association between the prevalence of self-reported physician diagnosed Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and socioeconomic status defined by both educational level and annual household income. Multivariable logistic regression modeling was performed. Among nonsmokers, low educational level and household income were associated with a significant higher prevalence of COPD. Siponen et al (2011) tried to study the relationship between the health of Finnish children under 12 years of age and parental socioeconomic factors (educational level, household income and working status) by conducting population based survey. The analysis was done by using Pearson’s Chi-Square tests, and logistic regression analysis with 95% confidence intervals. The results showed that parental socioeconomic factors were not associated with the health of children aged under 12 years in Finland. Washington State Department of Health (2007) examined Washington adults and inferred that adults with lower incomes or less education were more likely to smoke, obessed, or ate fewer fruits and vegetables than adults with the broader culture, higher incomes and more education. In cultures where smoking was culturally unacceptable for women, women died less often from smoking-related diseases than women in groups where smoking was socially accepted. Lack of access to or inadequate use of medical services, contributed to relatively poorer health among people. In lower socioeconomic position groups health care received by the poor was inferior in quality. People of higher socioeconomic position had larger networks of social support. Low levels of social capital had been associated with higher mortality rates. People who experienced racism were more likely to have poor mental health and unhealthy lifestyles. Hosseinpoor et al (2012) took self-reported data, stratified by sex and low or middle income, from 232,056 adult participants in 48 countries, derived from the 2002–2004 World Health Survey. A Poisson regression model with a robust variance and cross tabulations were used deducing the following results. Men reported higher prevalence than women for current daily smoking and heavy episodic alcohol drinking, and women had higher growth of physical inactivity. In both sexes, low fruit and vegetable consumption were significantly higher. Braveman (2011) concluded that there was a strong relationship between income, education and health. Health was improved if income or education increased. Stressful events and circumstances followed a socioeconomic incline, decreased as income increased. Lee (1997) examined the effects of age, nativity, population size of place of residence, occupation, and household wealth on the disease and mortality experiences of Union army recruits while in service using Logistic regression. The patterns of mortality among recruits were different from the pattern of mortality among civilian populations. Wealth had a significant effect only for diseases on which nutritional influence was definite. Migration spread communicable diseases and exposed newcomers to different disease environments, which increased morbidity and mortality rate. Ghias et al (2012) studied the patients having HCV positive living in province of Punjab, Pakistan. Socio-demographic factors and risk factors were sought out using questionnaire. Logistic regression and artificial neural network methods were applied and found that patient’s education, patient’s liver disease history, family history of hepatitis C, migration, family size, history of blood transfusion, injection’s history, endoscopy, general surgery, dental surgery, tattooing and minor surgery by barber were 12 main risk factors that had significant influence on HCV infection. REFERENCES Song, R. et al (2011) â€Å"Identifying The Impact Of Social Determinants Of Health On Disease Rates Using Correlation Analysis Of Area-Based Summary Information† Public Health Reports Supplement 3, Volume 126, 70-80. Yu, Z. et al (2000) â€Å"Associations Between Socioeconomic Status And Cardiovascular Risk Factors In An Urban Population In China† Bulletin of the World Health Organization Volume 78, No. 11, 1296-1305. Reddy, K. et al (2002) † Socioeconomic Status And The Prevalence Of Coronary Heart Disease Risk Factors† Asia Pacific J Clin Nutr Volume 11, No. 2, 98–103. Jeemon, P. Reddy, K. (2010) †Social Determinants Of Cardiovascular Disease Outcomes In Indians† Indian J Med Res Volume 132, 617-622. Thurston, R. et al (2005) â€Å"Is The Association Between Socioeconomic Position And Coronary Heart Disease Stronger In Women Than In Men?† American Journal of Epidemiology Volume 162, No. 1, 57-65. Janati, A. et al (2011) â€Å"Socioeconomic Status and Coronary Heart Disease† Health Promotion Perspectives Volume 1, No. 2, 105-110. Lang, T. et al (2012) â€Å"Social Determinants Of Cardiovascular Diseases† Public Health Reviews Volume 33, No. 2, 601-622. 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Report into Strategy and Social Responsibility of British Petroleum

Report into Strategy and Social Responsibility of British Petroleum This project examines the operation of British Petroleum (BP) in the light of established international business theories. Two major aspects are considered; Globalisation strategy and corporate social responsibility ethics. Although certain failings are highlighted BP is assessed to perform optimally on both counts. A conclusion is drawn and certain recommendations with respect to the style of research are made in the final section. Report Contents The report assesses the operations of British Petroleum to establish to which degree the operations of BP are in line with related management theory. The project starts with a brief introduction on the business of BP. This sets a stage and develops a context for further discussion. The second section discusses the research method adopted in the preparation of this project. Several methods are explored and the most feasible selected as the method of choice. The third section looks at BPs operations in two respects; international trade and globalisation strategy, and corporate responsibility and ethics. The final section of the project is a conclusion that summarises the main themes highlighted in the work, noting its achievements and limitations and sets the stage for future research. At this stage some recommendations are also made. Introduction British Petroleum (BP) is a global Oil and Gas company with its headquarters in the UK. It is one of the worlds largest businesses by virtue of its revenues. On is corporate website, it terms its self as one of the worlds largest companies, providing its customers with fuel for transportation, energy for heat and light, retail services and petrochemical products for everyday items. As of its financial year end 2009, it owned 22400 service stations around the globe, it owned operations in 30 countries around the world, it employed 80,300 people in different countries, it owned 16 refineries around the world (with the biggest in Houston Texas), it produces 2.3 million barrels per day and owned oil reserves of about 18.3 Billion barrels (BP web 2010) Research Methods This project aims to assess the operations of BP. It takes into focus two major issues in global business and strategy; International trade globalisation strategy and ethics including aspects of corporate social responsibility. The management literature proposes several qualitative research methodologies (Bryman, 2004). These methodologies include; surveys, questionnaires, case studies, focus groups, experiments and interviews (Bryman, 2004). Pursuant to the aims of this project, a case study approach is employed in which I consult several documents which discuss management theory (detailed in Hill, 2009) and I examine how their application in practice basing on the case of British Petroleum. I use the BP website as a core source to derive information for this purpose. Given the lack of resources, other research methods such as interviews, questionnaires and focus groups are impractical. The next section details the operations of BP and the related theoretical underpinnings. British Petroleums globalisation strategy Globalisation refers to the current trend where the world is becoming a global village by effectively inter-knitting, national boundaries are being relaxed and countries are increasingly dependent on each other for survival. Globalisation presents significant opportunities to businesses as well as challenges. Firms that can cope with the trend enjoy larger markets, cheaper resources and therefore higher profitability. Firms that are unable to compete efficiently are faced out. As highlighted above BP is a global company with a highly acclaimed globalisation strategy. The success of this strategy could be attributed several (three main) factors as discussed below. First-mover advantage The history of BP can be traced back to the establishment of the Anglo Persian Oil Company, a subsidiary of the Burmah Oil Company in 1909. This firm explored the Persian golf for many years and was converted to the British Petroleum company after the Second World War. Scanty reports show that the firm expanded tremendously by 1960 developing its operations beyond the Persian golf into North America. Most importantly it established a significant presence in the North Sea by being the first company to find Oil in Alaska (BP web, 2010). The above indicates the length to which BP has gone to establish itself as one of the worlds biggest and most successful companies. New Trade theory suggests that first movers can benefit enormously from certain economic and strategic advantages in terms of operations. The theory argues that for those products where economies of scale are significant and represent a substantial portion of world demand, the first movers in an industry can gain a scale based cost advantage that later entrants find almost impossible to match (Hill, 2009. p 187). First mover advantage can potentially explain the structure of the Oil and Gas industry. The industry is made up of few big players and many small players in the Western world where competition is free. In other countries such as Kuwait, Saudi, Russia, China, Iraq and Qatar competition in the industry is restricted and the major oil exploiters are government owned. BP has established itself in most of the western world due to its first mover advantage. It is able to cut costs in its operations and derive benefits from economies of scale and scope. Many firms can compete effectively in Oil exploitation, exploration, extraction and refining, and therefore they turn to engage in the provision of support services such as distribution or the derivation of chemicals for other manufacturing industries. Competitive advantage Porters findings on national competitive advantage can be extended to understand why BP locates in the regions it does. BP is a global firm but has operations at varying degrees in about 30 different countries world wide (BP web, 2010). Despite operating significantly in 30 countries, its products and services are available in over 100 countries (BP web, 2010). Porters diamond asserts that the degree to which a nation is likely to achieve international success in a certain industry is a function of the combined impact of factor endowments, domestic demand conditions, related and supporting industries and domestic rivalry (Hill, 2009. p 191). Hill (2009) argues that based porters theory a profit seeking firm should localize its operations in those countries where such activities can be performed optimally. BP operates in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, North America and South America. In Africa, it operates in Joint Ventures with firms in Egypt, Angola and Algeria. Its choice to operate only in join ventures in this country can be explained by the political economy of these countries. These countries cannot be termed as full democracies and are often susceptible to civil crisis. Operating as a joint venture, curbs the firms risk in the event of a political crisis but allows it to enjoy the revenues to be derived from its operations. It also has a huge presence in the Southern regions of Africa but in these regions it engages more with the marketing of its solar energy concepts. This region is rich in natural resources (sunshine) but the development of energy networks is very poor. The countries in this region rely heavily on hydroelectricity which is usually not sufficient to provide for industries and households. BP also operates as joint ventures in Asia with operations in Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, South Korea and Malaysia. It manufactures lubricants and solar panels in China and India where labour is cheap. BP does not explore petroleum in Australasia. Its operations in this region are geared towards the provision of solar energy. BP operates as a stand alone entity in much of Europe. Its operations in Russia are partly owned (joint venture) by a Russian company. It has major exploration and production facilities in Canada, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela and Columbia. These regions are rich in natural gas and oil necessitating BPs localisation to the areas. Products Hill (2009) noted that Raymond Vernon developed the product lifecycle theory after his realisation that firms had to keep innovating in order to maintain a demand for their products and ensure growth in revenues. The theory can be used to explain the globalisation trends, innovation drive and product mix of British Petroleum. BP currently produces a wide range of energy products including oil, natural gas, wind energy, solar energy, bio fuels and petroleum based lubricants. Two decades ago, its primary product was Oil. Research and development in the industry has led to the introduction of cleaner and more sustainable forms of energy. These forms of energy are widely regarded as the future of the Oil and Gas industry. Speculators believe that at some point in time oil will be faced out as coal was faced out with the discovery of oil. BP has realised the fact that oil as a product has reached its maturity stage and its demand might diminish with the advent of new forms of energy. The firm has taken a colossal position in the new energy market by running a major portfolio of energy products representing the mix of all bespoke and innovative new forms of energy. Unlike televisions for example, Oil cannot be re-engineered and further developed. Innovation by modification is therefore difficult. BP has turned the focus on energy efficiency i.e. researching and developing ways in which energy can be saved. Instead of devising faster or stronger energy which might be impossible BP has turned the focus to the development of equipment and usage techniques that will save energy through low consumption. This encompasses innovation that fuels the demand for its products. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility As Hill (2009) emphasized ethical issues in international business are brought about by political, legal, economic and cultural differences in between countries- what is considered normal practice in one country might be considered unethical in another (p. 124). The ethical challenge, I will argue, is significantly increased for global firms. BP for example operates in all the different continents of the world. In keeping with Hills argument ethics is relative and context dependent. In certain countries, it is ethical to employ young people. In the UK, all employees must be above the legal age of 18 to gain full employment. The legal age changes significantly between countries varying from 16 to 21. Most multi national firms deal with this challenge by devising a set of corporate values which govern their operations in all regions. BP web (2010) argues that the company is driven by four major values; progressive, responsible, innovative and performance driven. In terms of being responsible, BP asserts that We are committed to the safety and development of our people and the communities and societies in which we operate. We aim for no accidents, no harm to people and no damage to the environment. This commitment can be seen in the fact that BP reporting covers all aspects beyond financial reporting including health, safety, human rights, environment and energy. BP is at the forefront of the cleaner energy debate. It does its bit by engaging in energy saving initiatives and constantly researching on cleaner ways in which energy can be produced and delivered. It has diversified strongly into the green energy industry engaging in the production of liquefied petroleum gas, fossil fuels and renewable energy. A major part of corporate ethics that has been pervasive in the management literature in recent years is corporate social responsibility. Hill (2009) argues that multinational corporations such as BP have power that comes from their operations and their ability to move production from country to country. Considering for an instance the revenues generated by BP annually, I find that the corporations revenues is higher than the GDP of many countries. Social responsibility advocates that managers should consider more than just the economic consequences of their decisions (hill, 2009). More importantly, importance should be placed on the social consequences of decision making. The European commission defines corporate social responsibility as A concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis (EC website, 2010). It basically refers to the companys interactions with its surrounding communities and looks at how the company strives to promote development and social cohesion and participates in maintaining the environment within such communities. A firms community is a major stakeholder of the firm and thus needs to be considered. BPs financial reporting incorporates major aspects such as its social responsibility, its strive for cleaner energy, its contributions towards preserving the environment and its strive to improve sustainable extraction of energy. Communities take corporate social responsibilities seriously especially when it comes to Oil and Gas firms. This is largely as a result of the potential dangers that can arise from their operations with these communities. Recent crises have ranged from large explosions with severe casualties to major spillages with the destruction of flora and fauna. -A review of the BP 2010 Oil spill crisis BP faced a deep water horizon drilling rig explosion which killed 11 of its off shore workers and injured 17 other workers. The rig gushed out over 5 million barrels of crude oil into the Mexican Golf between April and July 2010. The spill was catastrophic and so were its effect on wild life, the fishing industry, the tourism sector and the surrounding neighbourhoods. In response to this BP set up a crisis management program. It publicly apologized for the distress it caused and undertook to foot the clean up costs. The company has currently set up a $20 Billion dollar fund to manage the after-effects of the crisis. During the crisis, BP showed effort employing several techniques to attempt to stop the leakage. It also arranged a compensation plan for those affected by the crisis. This attests to the fact that BP takes its corporate social responsibility and ethics very strongly. Hill (2009) also notes the social contributions or social investments of BP in Algeria. Hill notes that BP realised its communities in Algeria lacked clean drinking water and created two desalination plants to produce clean what for the public. To add to this, the company provided water cans to help residents transport water from plants to their homes. Conclusions Summary of findings This study has examined the operations of BP in the global context to see how certain management concepts are applied in practice. Two aspects; globalisation strategy and corporate social responsibility were reviewed. BP is found to have a sophisticated globalisation strategy which it has fortified over the years. This helps it to compete efficiently and to remain one the worlds leading corporations. Again, BP is found to have a robust stance towards corporate social responsibility and ethics. Its industry is hazardous and it is pruned to corporate disasters such as spills and explosions. BP has managed to keep these to a minimum and when they do occur, BP has taken necessary steps to manage the crisis and limit the damage Limitations This work is limited in the fact that it strongly relies on public information sources to assess the operations of BP. Several aspects could have been better scrutinized and invaluable insights drawn through other research methods such as interviews with key workers and focus groups to draw varied opinion. Due to the limitations in space (number of words) the aspects discussed can not be reviewed in greater detail. Future research Recommendations This research has examined BPs operations in light of established theory but has not confirmed if such a method of operation is optimal. It might be interesting to investigate whether the product strategy, globalisation strategy or their approach to ethics and corporate social responsibility affect their performance or contributes significantly towards the achievement of organisational goals and objectives. The limitations highlighted above also provide avenues for future research into the area. Several theories have been propounded in the management literature. Their understanding will only be facilitated by examining how these theories are applied in practice or by investigating the contributions of such theories to management practice. In light of this argument, this form of study is encouraged.

The Cultural Significance of The Tale of Genji Essay -- Japan Culture

The Cultural Significance of The Tale of Genji The Tale of Genji is one of the most important stories of ancient Japanese literature. Japanese scholar Sin Ohno said that there is no literature written during the Heian Era which is written in as precise language as The Tale of Genji. The author, Murasaki Shikibu, is a woman. In this tale, we can see the concept towards marriage of women during her period. During the Nara Era, and some time before, the concept of marriage was totally different from the concept we know today. It is called "Tsuma Toi Kon." "Tsuma" means wife; "Toi" means to visit; "Kon" means marriage. In order to explain the marriage during this era, I will present an example of the typical interactions between men and women. When a man meets woman, somewhere like market where many people gather, the man would ask her address and name if he is interested in her. Asking for the name also avoids misunderstanding; asking for the address is so he can visit her. Visiting her is like marriage in today's sense. If the woman is interested in the man, she would tell her address and name. The man would visit the woman's house in the evening and call her name from outside. He might play a musical instrument like a flute, or harp, or sing songs to get her attention. Men sometimes visited women without calling or playing any music. Whether the woman accepts the man is up to the woman to decide. If the woman is interested, she would invite him in. Men and women generally worked during the day time; the men visited women only at night time. In earlier eras, the family built a sub-house beside the main house and invited the men into the sub-house. However, the men did not stay in the sub-house. Men visited at night and.. . ...robably tried to create a figure who had ability to support several different women. Even though what Genji did was allowed in ancient society, it is definitely not acceptable today. In The Tale of Genji a man would sometimes play a harp or a flute to get a woman's attention. Considering the appearance of traditional marriage, those men are following the traditional ways of marriage. Marriage during the Heian Era is a little different from the Nara Era. They still pracitced what was still recognized as "visiting marriage," but the family formally accepted the man as groom. However, men still stopped visiting when they lost interest in the women. This is like Hikaru Genji, who did not like Lady Aoi very much, so he seldom visited her. "Visiting marriage" had many problems. In some cases, men visited several different women at a time. There were laws to restrict the m