Spanish Verbs of Happiness

Spanish Verbs of Happiness You dont always have to use an adjective such as feliz or alegre to refer to someone being happy or becoming happy. Various verbs can be used for that purpose as well. Spanish Words That Mean Love Alegrar is the most common verb of happiness. It can be used simply to mean to make happy, or in the reflexive form of alegrarse it can be used for to be happy or to become happy. In translation, you can use other English words such as joyful, cheerful or pleased, depending on the context. Me alegro de haberlo comprado. I am happy to have bought it.Creà ­a que te alegrarà ­as de verme. I thought you would be happy to see me.Es algo que te alegrar la tarde. Its something to make your afternoon happy. (Literally, it is something that will make the afternoon happy for you.)Lo à ºnico que le alegraba los lunes era el hecho que era el dà ­a de ir a comprar provisiones de chocolate para toda la semana. The only thing that cheered him up on Mondays was the fact that it was the day of going shopping for the weeks chocolate supply.No me alegra la muerte de un ser humano. The death of a human being doesnt make me happy. Contentar, obviously a cognate of the word content, can be used in much the same way. It often carries the idea of satisfaction. Cuando te veo me contento. When I see you Im content.Los administradores se contentaban con dedicar a sus clientes una mà ­nima cantidad de tiempo. The administrators were content to devote a minimum amount of time to their clients.No nos contentemos con lo que tenemos. Lets not be satisfied with what we have.No serà ­a extraà ±o para nadie que los resultados contenten a Chvez. It wouldnt seem strange to anyone for Chvez to be happy with the outcome. Deleitar, a cognate of to delight, typically has that meaning: Ella me deleità ³ con su artà ­culo sobre nuestros miedos. She delighted me with her article about our fears.En primavera te deleito, en verano te refresco, en otoà ±o te alimento, y en invierno te caliento.  ¿Quà © soy? (Un rbol.) In spring I delight you, in summer I refresh you, in fall I feed you and in winter I keep you warm. What am I? (A tree.) Alborozar is an uncommon verb that has a connotation similar to to delight or to excite: Alborozas cada cà ©lula de mi ser. You thrill each cell of my being.Se alborozaron con la idea de tener su apartamento propio. They were excited about the idea of having their own apartment. Placer, related to the English word please, suggests the giving of pleasure. Me place decir que tengo dos. It pleases me to say I have two.El recià ©n inaugurado museo tiene dos aspectos que me placieron. The recently inaugurated museum has two aspects that pleased me. Felicitar is derived from feliz and is included here for that reason. It typically means to wish someone happiness and is often translated as to congratulate. Me felicitaron por la seleccià ³n del hotel. They congratulated me for the hotel selection.

Collaborative Learning

Collaborative Learning Free Online Research Papers The value of collaborative learning has been recognized throughout human history and its effectiveness has been documented through hundreds of research studies. Collaborative learning is now widely recognized as one of the most promising practieces in the field of education. Collaborative learning (CL) is an instructional method that makes use of small, heterogeneous groups of students who work together to achieve common learning goals (Johnson Johnson, 1992). Within group learning, students benefit from sharing ideas rather than working alone. Students help one another so that all can reach some measure of success. The purpose of this review of research is to illustrate the various aspects of collaboration and how collaborative learning reinforces second language acquisition with reference to the theories. In this brief review of research, I first discuss two major theoretical perspectives of collaborative learning. I establish few major themes of collaborative research and review representative research studies that address collaborative activity in classroom settings. Finally, I connect research findings to the theories and outline some critical areas where research is needed on collaboration and language learning in classroom settings. Theoretical Orientation / Motivational Perspective Motivational perspective on collaborative learning focuses primarily on the reward or goal structures. In this perspective, collaborative learning creates a situation in which the only way group members can attain their own personal goals if the group is successful. Social interdependence theory, the most influential theory of the perspective, on collaborative learning suggested that the essence of a group is the interdependence among members (created by common goals), which results in the group being a â€Å"dynamic whole†, so that a change in the state of any member and an intrinsic state of tension within group members motivates movement toward the accomplishment of the desired common goals (Kurt Lewin 1935). Similarly, Skinner’s behavioral learning theory assumes that students will work hard on those tasks for which they secure a reward and will fail to work on tasks that yield no reward or yield punishment. Cognitive Perspective Whereas motivational theories of collaborative learning emphasize the cooperative goals change students’ desire to do academic work, cognitive perspective emphasizes that the interactions among students will increase achievement due to the mental processing which takes place. Cognitive-Development theory can fully illustrate the notion. Vygotsky proposes a central concept zone of proximal development in his theory; it has a great significance to language acquisition. He defines the zone as â€Å"the distance between the actual developmental level as determined by independent problem solving and the level of potential development as determined through problem solving under adult guidance or in collaboration with more capable peers† (1978, p.86). In his view, collaborative activity among learners promotes growth because learners of similar ages are likely to be operating within one another’s proximal zones of development. In other words, unless students work cooperatively, they will not grow intellectually. Vygotsky’s concept corresponds with the Input Hypothesis which attempts to answer the important question of how we acquire language. The hypothesis states that a necessary condition for language acquisition to occur is that the acquirer understands input language that contains structure â€Å"a bit beyond† his or her current level of competence. The hypothesis also presumes that acquisition happens when learners understanding the message instead of form (Krashen 1981). This illustrates the superiority of collaborative learning in language acquisition since its activity establishes an environment where the students communicate with each other to solve problems in a meaningful context. Similarly, Piaget (1926) held that social-arbitrary knowledge – language, values, morality and etc. can be learned only in interactions with others. In his views, learners must engage in some sort of cognitive restructuring or elaboration of material if information is to be retained in memory. Many Piagetians have called for an increased use of collaborative activities in schools since students will learn from one another because in their discussions of the content, cognitive conflicts will arise, inadequate reasoning will be exposed and higher-quality understandings will emerge. Generally, all perspectives on collaboration have common ground; they all predict that collaborative learning will promote higher achievement than would individualistic learning. The following sections discuss a number of representative studies and research findings about collaborative learning. Social Cohesion With the respect to the social interdependence perspective, collaboration promotes group cohesion and a supportive social climate. Some research studies are reviewed in the following to illustrate how collaboration fosters social interdependence among classmates and it gives expression to the motivating effects of working together toward a common goal. Hijzen, Boekaerts and Vedeer (2006) examined relationships between the quality of cooperative learning (CL) and students’ goal preferences and perceptions of contextual factors in the classroom. The researchers expected students’ perception of the quality of CL depends to their goal preferences that they bring into the classroom. The subjects of this study were 1920 students from different secondary and vocational schools in Netherlands. Subjects were invited to complete several self-report questionnaires regarding their goal preferences and perception of contextual factors in the classroom and the quality of CL. The study found that subjects gave most preference to mastery goals, followed by social support goals and belongingness goals. Social support goals had the strongest relationship with the quality of CL. In other words, students who value helping and supporting each other rated the quality of CL higher. The study also found that there is a strong relation between the quality of CL and students’ perceptions of contextual factors, as defined by the type of task, reward systems and CL skills they were taught, in the classroom. Despite the evidence that CL encourages social interdependence, there are conditions under which the kinds of interdependence emerge different effects. In a study by Johnson, Johnson and Stanne (2001), it demonstrated the conditions under which positive interdependence enhances or interferes with individual success and overall group productivity. Two types of positive interdependence were studied: positive goal and positive resource interdependence. Forty-four black American high school students were randomly assigned to the experimental task. It was to master information on map reading and to apply their knowledge in deciding what actions to take to solve the problem. The independent variables were positive goal interdependence and positive resource interdependence. Goal interdependence was operationalized by telling the subjects to work together as a company and resource interdependence was operationalized by dividing the information required into three parts and giving each part to a different member of the group. Thus, in order to complete the task, each group mate had to obtain the information required from other group mates. The findings provided evidence that two sources of positive interdependence promote stronger effects than either source of positive interdependence alone. The presence of positive resource and goal interdependence would promote higher individual achievement than would the presence of positive resource interdependence only. Therefore, when resource interdependence is used, it should be done in combination with positive goal interdependence. Another study by Ghaith (2003) supports the claim that collaborative learning has positive effects on achievement. The study intended to investigate whether CL has more effective than whole-class instruction in promoting the English as Foreign Language reading achievement and the academic self-esteem of the learners. Participants in the study were 56 secondary school EFL learners in Beirut and they were randomly assigned to control and experimental groups. In the study, subjects in the control group were taught by the teachers who carried out reading lessons with using traditional teaching instruction while subjects in the experimental group were taught by teachers who used collaborative learning. The study lasted for 10 weeks and a pretest-posttest control group design was employed and it focused on the variables of academic self-esteem and academic achievement. The study did indicate that the CL is more effective that traditional textbook instruction in improving the EFL reading achievement of the students. Thus, reading achievement in L2 can be improved through small group cooperative interaction among peers in a supportive environment. However, academic self-esteem is unlikely to be improved in the course of short experiments and cooperative interventions. The study by Shachar and Shmuelevitz (1997) differs from the above research. Their study focuses on teachers’ collaboration instead of students’ and how this relates to students’ learning. The study assessed the effects on teachers’ sense of efficacy of a year-long in-service teacher training program on CL. The study hypothesized that teachers who acquire competence with CL methods were reported as having high frequencies of these methods in their classroom and experience high levels of collaboration with colleagues. Their sense of efficacy which can also affect students’ learning and social relation. One hundred twenty-one teachers from nine junior high schools in Israel were selected and trained that they acquired skill in implementing CL methods. This study was conducted over a period of 3 months at the beginning of the second year of the project. During the time, the teachers’ instructional behavior was observed. Two questionnaires about patterns of teacher collaboration in the school and measures of teachers’ efficacy were administered to all the teachers during the second half of the second year. The findings showed that teachers who employed collaborative learning in their classrooms expressed a significantly greater degree of efficacy in promoting the learning of slow students compared to teachers who continued to employ traditional instruction without using CL. The finding also reported that teachers who participate in collaborative staff work are more likely to feel capable of promoting cooperative relations among their students. Therefore, collaboration affected personal teaching efficacy and promoted students’ social relations. Collaborative Discourse Cognitive perspective claims that language is best acquired when it is used in a way that is meaningful to the student. The collaborative learning setting provides opportunities for students to use the language for a specific purpose and express themselves in a functional manner. Especially, a type of language use which is called ‘exploratory talk’ emerges from collaboration when partners engage critically but constructively with each other’s ideas. In the ‘exploratory talk’, learners work together to solve linguistic problems and co-construct language or knowledge about language. The following research studies illustrate how ‘exploratory talk’ enhances language acquisition and development of knowledge. The study by Chinn, O’Donnell and Jinks examined how the discourse of group interaction is structured and whether the discourse structure mediates learning. One hundred and nine students in seven fifth-grade classes in New Jersey participated in the study. They were asked to conducted experiments with electrical circuits in groups of four. After writing their own individual conclusions based on the two circuits they constructed, the students were provided with three conclusions from other group mates to evaluate and discussed the quality of these conclusions. The results of the study indicated that some type of collaborative discourse were significantly associated with reasoning, exploration and explanation. These features can be viewed as the elements of argumentation structures. Thus the fifth graders’ discussions about the quality of the conclusions could be analyzed as argument networks. The results also suggested that more complex argumentation promotes learning, both when the complex arguments are individually constructed and when they are collaboratively constructed. The study by Cohen, Lotan, Abram, Scarloss and Schultz (2002) tested the proposition that providing students with evaluation criteria will improve the character of the discussion as well as the quality of the group product and individual performance. The hypothesis in this study is that the better the quality of the group discussion and product, the better will be the individual performance of group members. In the five classrooms, there were 39 groups of 4-5 students who performed the same experienced group tasks. The subjects had to perform a series of complex instruction regarding the topic of the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt. They are expected to discuss and answer several higher order questions requiring them to deeply explore their resource materials. The subjects were audiotaped for the entire lesson each day and this required 5 days of implementation so that students could rotate through the tasks, give a presentation and discussion. It was found evaluation criteria have a direct effect on the nature of the group discussion in which subjects tended to have more exploratory talk in the group discussion. The study also illustrated that evaluation criteria are a motivational tool helping groups to be more self-critical and increasing their effort to create a superior group product. Through evaluation, the group discussion emerged productive explorative talk which improved the group’s performance. Verplaetse (2000) examined what particular discourse strategies the teacher use to create an interactive classroom during full-class and teacher-fronted discussions. Three middle-school science teachers were selected and their lessons were being observed with three interviews with the teachers afterward. The finding provides a good example of how the teacher’s use of paraphrase and repetition produced a supportive environment where the contributions of all students were accepted and valued. Moreover, it was found that the teacher modeled the process of scientific inquiry aloud for his students and thereby authorized the right to wonder, raise questions and engage in exploratory talk on science topics. In addition to the collaborative discussion that modeled scientific inquiry, another important aspect of this study was the consequence of this dialogic collaboration on the participation of English language learners who volunteered more frequently and participated more actively in the full class discussion. This study illustrates how classroom relations and collaborative were forged through the teacher’s validation of student contributions. Teachers play a critical role in promoting interactions between students and engaging them in the learning process. The study by Gillies (2006) sought to determine if teachers who implement collaborative learning in their classrooms engage in more facilitative, learning interactions than teachers who implement group work only. The study also sought to determine of students in the collaborative groups model their teachers’ behaviors and engage in more positive helping interactions with each other than their peers in the group work groups. Twenty-six high schools’ teachers in Australia volunteered to establish cooperative, small-group activities in their Grades 8 to 10 classrooms for 6 weeks. The teachers were audiotaped twice during these lessons and samples of the students’ language, as they worked in their groups, were also collected at the same time. The results showed that teachers who implement collaborative learning in their classrooms asked more questions and engaged in more mediated-learning behaviors than teachers who implement group work only. The students in the collaborative groups engaged in more verbal behaviors that are regarded as helpful and supportive of group endeavors than their peers in the group-work groups. Thus, when teachers implement collaborative learning, their verbal behavior is affected by the organizational structure of the classroom. Wegerif, Mercer and Dawes (1999) supports the claim that social experience of language use shapes individual cognition. The study assumed that the use of exploratory talk will help children to reason together more effectively when they jointly tackle the problems of a test of reasoning and to develop better ways of using language as a tool for reasoning individually when they work alone on a reasoning test. Sixty British primary school children aged 9-10 and their teachers took part in an experimental teaching programme, which designed to develop primary children’s use of language for reasoning and collaborative activity. Children’s subsequent use of language when carrying out collaborative activity in the classroom was observed and anaylsed and effects on their performance on an individual reasoning test were also investigated. Comparative data were gathered from children in matched control classes. It was found that using exploratory talk helps children to work more effectively together on problem-solving tasks. Children who have been taught to use more exploratory talk make greater gains in their individual scores on a test of reasoning than do children who have not had such teaching. Language Development In this section, a number of research studies are reviewed from the cognitive perspectives which claims that cognition and knowledge are constructed though dialogically interaction. For this reason I have limited the studies in which one can link collaborative dialogue to a particular aspect of second language learning. Reading Kim and Hall (2002) reported on Korean children’s participation in an interactive book reading program and their development of pragmatic competence in English. During the book reading, the researcher promoted with questions, elaborated on the children’s utterances and repeated the children’s contributions by paraphrasing and shaping what they said into a coherent discourse. After completing all collaborative reading sessions, the children engaged in interactional role-play situations based on school-related events. These interactions were analyzed for quantity of words used, context-based vocabulary, utterances and conversational management skill. It was found that the participation of these children in collaborative book reading led to significant changes in their pragmatic ability dealing with a number of words and utterances and conversational management features. Kim and Hall suggested that in the context of interesting texts and collaborative talk, meaningful opportunities for the development of children’s second language competence arise. The procedure used in this study reflects discourse features similar to Verplaets’ study, with similar developmental consequences, i.e., expanded participation in interactions and the children’s growing ability to manage conversation. Collaborative dialogue has also been shown to help students apply comprehension strategies and co-construct knowledge while reading in the study by Klingner, Vaughn and Schumm (1998). They investigated the effectiveness of a cooperative learning approach designed to foster strategic reading in grade four heterogeneouse classrooms. Eighty-five students in 11 day experimental condition were taught by the researchers to apply reading comprehension strategies (â€Å"preview†, â€Å"get the gist† and â€Å"wrap up†) while reading social studies text in small student-led groups. Fifty-six students in control condition did not learn comprehension strategies but receive researcher-led instruction in the same content. A standardized reading test and a social studies unit test were administered as dependent measures to all participants. All of the groups in the intervention condition were audiotaped during the CL strategy implementation sessions for purposes of analyzi ng student discourse Qualitative analysis of the students’ discourse showed that through interacting in their collaborative strategic reading groups, the fourth graders assisted one another in vocabulary comprehension, found the main idea and asked and answered questions about their text. The tests results also indicated that the students in the experimental condition made greater gains in reading comprehension and equal gains in content knowledge. This study implies that students in the intervention condition spent significant time discussing academic content and consistently implemented the reading strategies. Speaking In a conversational analytical study of talk-in-interaction, Mori (2002) examined 12 hours of classroom interaction across two instructional contexts in a university upper-level Japanese as a foreign language classroom. In this study, two contexts were analyzed to understand how talk was constructed in collaboration with peers during a planning sessions and a future discussion with native speaker visitors to the class afterward. It was found that the design of the task (step-by-step requirements for the interview) was the obstacles for the creation of contingent discourse and coherent discussion with the native speaker guests. During the visits, the students’ discourse was highly structured and lacked the contingency-based features of conversation. Ironically, Mori finds that student discourse during the pretask planning involved a mutual exchange of ideas. Moria’s study implies that collaboration is constituted in particular kinds of contingently organized talk. The study by Shachar and Sharan (1994) focused on students’ verbal interaction in multiethnic groups after the students had participated for several months in history and geography classes. The study was conducted with the Group Investigation method or in those taught with the traditional Whole-Class method. Students’ social interaction with members from their own or another ethnic subgroup and their academic achievement were evaluated. The study involved 351 Jewish students from Western and Middle Eastern backgrounds, with 197 in five classes taught for 6 months with the Group Investigation method and 154 in four classes taught for 6 months with Whole- Class method. It was found that all students from the Group Investigation method expressed themselves more frequently and used more words per turn of speech than their peers from classrooms taught with the traditional Whole-Class method. This finding also suggest that students from different ethnic groups in the same class can learn to cooperate and give each other the opportunity to participate in the work of the group without the ignorance of the members of lower status groupmates. It seems that all students in CL classrooms learned to interact constructively, displayed more positive, fewer critical verbal and social interactions with their peers. Face-to-face interaction in speaking activities also can assist learners along the continuum of language acquisition. Lynch (2001) studied whether the transcribing and the discussion of reflection and change result in long-term language acquisition and whether they would be feasible in a classroom setting. In the study, four pairs of college students were asked to transcribe a 90-120 second recorded extract of a role play they had performed in front of the class. After transcribing the role play scripts, the learners could make changes to their original scripts through collaborative negotiation. The teacher then reformulated the revised scripts through correcting grammar and lexis and making necessary changes to clarify meaning. As a final step, the learners compared their own revised scripts with the reformulated version and discussed the differences between the two transcripts with each other and with the teacher. The result indicated that transcribing and editing the transcripts gives learners the chance to renegotiation meanings and draws the learner’s attention to language form and use in a relatively natural way. The study supports the claim that the feedback in the form of self-correction, teacher intervention and peer correction all supported student’s language learning. Writing Other studies in the literature show how collaborative dialogue in reading activities can also result in L2 learning. Swain and Lapkin (2003) examined a pair of grade seven French immersion students’ collaborative work in term of completing a jigsaw story task orally and in writing, comparing their written stories to a reformulated version and responding to a stimulated recall task. The data were coded for all the language-related episodes, defined as any part of the dialogue where learners talk about the language they are producing, question their language use or correct themselves. The analysis of discussions surrounding reformulated texts indicated that approximately two-thirds of reformulations were accepted. During the later independent revisions, both learners were able to revise accurately 78% of the post test items. This indicates the power of collaborative dialogue during the composing, noticing and recall procedures. Vygotsky’s concept of zone of proximal development (ZPD) serves as the theoretical basis for the study of peer collaboration in ESL writing classroom. The purpose of the study by De Guerrero and Villamil (2000) was to observe the mechanisms by which strategies of revision take shape and develop when two learners are working in their respective ZPDs. The participants in this study were two male intermediate ESL college learners, native speakers of Spanish, who were enrolled in an ESL writing course. In the course, the students participated in two revision sessions during which pairs of students revised a composition written by one of them. The pair of subjects was simply instructed to revise the draft and to record all their comments on a tape recorder. The focus of analysis was the dyad’s audiotaped conversation, between a ‘reader’ and a ‘writer’, which was transcribed to the written mode and divided into 16 episodes. The results were found that both the reader and writer became active partners in the revision task with guided support moving reciprocally between each other. The reader played a crucial role as mediator displaying several supportive behaviors which facilitated advancement through the task. Some of these behaviors included explicitly instructing the writer on issues of grammar and recruiting the writer’s interest throughout the interaction. The writer incorporated the majority of the changes discussed with his partner and further revised on his own. The reader also made progress in aspect of L2 writing and revising. As the researchers noted, the opportunity to talk and discuss language and writing issues with each other â€Å"allowed both reader and writer to consolidate and reorganize knowledge of the L2 in structural and rhetorical aspects and to make this knowledge explicit for each other’s benefit† (p.65) Storch (2001) noted that the nature of peer assistance is an important factor to consider in terms of the impact collaborative work can have on learning. His study examined the pattern of pair interaction and whether there were links between the way the dyads interacted and the quality of their written product. The study was conducted in an advanced ESL writing classroom in an Australian university. Most of the students were Asian with writing proficiency ranging from low to upper intermediate. The task used in this study was a writing task given to students in class in preparation for a report. Students worked on the task in self-selected pairs and pair talks were audiotaped and being observed by researchers. Three dyads of conversations were then chosen for analysis. It was found that 3 dyads approached the task differently and the interaction patterns can be defined in a range from non-collaborative to collaborative. In the collaborative pattern, both students contributed to the task and reached co-constructed solutions. The dominant/dominant pair was one in which though both students contributed to the task, assistance is often rejected as there is an attempt of control and domination on the part of both students. In the case of dominant/passive pair, there was one dominant student who appropriated the task and his partner had little contribution. In the expert/novice patter pair, one participant seemed to be more in control of the task but unlike the dominant/passive pair, the expert participant acknowledges the novice and encouraged participation. An analysis of relationship between the text produced by each dyad and language development showed that in collaborative and expert/novice dyads, there were more instances evidence of knowledge development than in other dyads. These findings confirm the importance of the nature of pair interaction for the learning opportunities available to the students. Status Crisis Researchers have shown that collaborative learning can induce many beneficial outcomes. However, some research studies have also shown that the differential status of individuals affected their social interactions and their capacity to solve problems together. These inequalities are related to academic status and cultural differences and personalities between students. The following research studies illustrate the harmful impact on lower status students in the group. Duff (2002) illustrated how classroom interaction in an ethnically and linguistically diverse grade 10 Canadian social studies class attributed identities to students. The research site was a Canadian high school where 50% of the students were ESL learners, most of them are Asian. The researcher observed and recorded the Social Studies class lessons once a week with six-month duration; some of the participants, including the class teacher, were interviewed about their in-class behaviors. There were 17 non-native English speakers out of the 28 students in the course. The class teacher presented social issues and encouraged student to share their perspectives and opinions. Interview comments, combined with observations of in-class social interactions provided evidences that the interactional behaviors of teachers and students during discursive collaborations on social issue created conditions that marginalized some students while reinforcing social recognition to others. For example, non-local students were being silent or provided limited response about their cultural rituals because they were afraid of being criticized in class and being laughed at their English. She emphasizes that â€Å"large numbers of minority students in schools world wide are at considerable risk of alienation, isolation, and failure because of the discourse and interactions that surround them on a daily basis† (Duff 2002, p.216). Matthews and Kesner (2000) investigated the impact that a child’s status among peers has on interactions with other children during collaboration. In the study, six grade-one children of a primary school in southeastern U.S. area were being observed throughout the whole school year. Data was collected from classroom observations with audio and video recording of children participating in literacy events (collaboration) with their classmates. Data also included artifacts of the children’s work, information about the children’s social status among their peers and assessments of the children’s reading ability. The researchers were in the classroom an average of once every 3 days. The information presented in this study focused on a child, Sammy, one of the six focal children. Sammy was characterized as a shy boy by his parents. He had low proficiency of reading ability so reading is the worst academic subject for him. Sammy also received assistance from the school language specialist of minor speech problem. The results of peer nomination and the teacher’s assessment of Sammy’s social status indicated that he is an unpopular student in his class. The classroom observation showed that Sammy was a follower during collaboration activities. He rarely made a suggestion during the literacy events. However, Sammy never appeared upset when his peers assigned him the role of follower or they did not respond to his suggestions. At the end of the school year, he could read only 20 of the 60 words on a first-grade word list and his text reading had only progressed slightly. This implies that participants may not get the most benefit from collaborati ve learning due to the social hierarchy. Chiu’s study (1998) supported that status differences among students yield positive and negative effects for individuals and the group as a whole. In her study, eight students in 9th grade algebra classes in a high school were selected to solve an algebra problem in groups of four. The students filled out pre-activity questionnaires regarding mathematical status and social status and a leadership post-activity questionnaire. At the group level, the results showed that mathematical ability predicted correct solutions whereas quantity of interaction and status did not. Polite evaluation (redressed criticisms) facilitated group work while impolite evaluation (naked criticisms) hindered it. At the individual level, social status positively predicted leadership, negotiation turns and polite redressed criticism in a group whereas mathematical ability positively predicted naked criticisms. These results supported the claim that students with higher social status were socially skillful and polite whereas students with higher mathematical showed their status by being less polite. Baines, Blatchford and Kutnick (2003) suggested that collaborative learning is beneficial to particular age of learners. Their study examined the relationships between the age of students and the grouping practices employed by teachers within classrooms in primary and secondary schools. The data in this study come from three separately paralleled studies that used the same methodology. One project, the Primary Classroom Groupings Projects, examined grouping practices in junior levels. The focus of the second study was on the effects of class size one students learning experiences and group practices in senior primary levels. The third study examined grouping practices in secondary school with junior and senior levels. All three projects involved the use of a grouping questionnaire to collect quantitative data on the nature of the groupings as used in classes. The results showed that there were changes in grouping practices with student age. Students in junior primary classrooms were most likely to be working alone. During the years of senior primary level, students were more likely to experience whole class interactions with the teacher assistance. At the secondary school’s level, group practices were frequently happened since secondary school age students were more likely to engage in peer interaction than primary age children. Training Many educators have observed that participants frequently fail to behavior collaboratively in groups. Some groups reveal negative and insensitive behavior as well as refusal to assist one another. Therefore, some educators strongly recommend team-building or skill-building activities prior to collaborative learning stage. The research in this section show that preparation and time spent on group can definitely make for more productive groups. The study by Naughton (2006) focused on the effect of a cooperative strategy training program on the patterns of interaction that arose as small groups of students participated in an oral discussion task. Five intact classes of high school graduates were randomly assigned to the experimental or control condition. In the control group, this division was random whereas in the experimental groups, students joined the 8 hours of the CL strategy training program. All students took part in the same pretest and posttest discussion task which lasted for 8 minutes. Data taken from the videotapes were analyzed in order to measure changes in overall participation and strategic participation. The pretest showed that prior to strategy training, students generally failed to engage in the types of negotiation moves that have been identified as important for language acquisition. However, the posttest indicated that the strategy training program was largely successful in encouraging students to engage in the act of requesting or giving help; this type of interaction is clearly related to CL. The result also implies that small group work in the L2/FL classroom can be beneficial when learners engage in collaborative dialogue. The study by Gillies and Ashman (1996) compared the effects on behavioral interactions and achievement of cooperative learning in which group members were trained to collaborate to facilitate each other’s learning and cooperative learning in which members were not trained but were merely told to help each other. The study involved 192 Grade six primary school children assigned to one of two experimental conditions. In the Trained condition, students were taught how to collaborate in small groups while in the Untrained condition, children were provided only with the opportunity to work together but were not instructed in the process. The group activities for the two groups were developed around the social studies unit which required students to solve problems. Each group’s student behavior and verbal interactions during the study were videotaped and coded. The results showed that the children in the Trained condition were consistently more cooperative; higher level of motivation, responsive to the need of their peers and provided significantly more explanations to assist each other than their peers in the Untrained condition. In addition, the children in the Trained groups used inclusive language (‘we’ and ‘us’ rather than ‘I’). This provides strong evidence that training children to collaborate facilitates group functioning and has a positive effect on student achievement. Veenman, Denessen, Akker, and Rijt (2005) investigated whether student-teachers who participated in the teacher-training program provided more elaborations during small group work and performed better on a cooperative task than the student-teachers who did not participate in the training program and the effects of the training program on affective-motivational resources of students in collaboration. Participants in the study were teachers from seven primary schools and 24 dyads of sixth-grade students. There were 12 dyads in the treatment group where their schools used CL instruction and practices based on a 2-years staff training of CL with a supplementary teacher-training program focusing on effective helping behaviors. The control group with 12 dyads used CL based on a 1-year staff CL training without a supplementary teacher-training program. All of the students’ dyads were asked to cooperatively solve a math task, which required formal reasoning and discussion. At pre test, Version A of the math task was used; at posttest, Version B was used. All of the sessions were video and audio recorded and later transcribed. After completion of the math task at pretest, all of the students were also administered a questionnaire addressing their help-seeking intentions and the nature of their achievement goals. A statistically significant treatment effect was found that the treatment dyads provided more high-level elaborations than the control dyads. The use of high-level elaborations was also positively related to student achievement. The results of the study underline the need to structure learning in small groups; discourse features as help seeking, help giving, provision of reasons and exploratory talk must be practiced and reinforced. Implications for Classroom Practices and Further Research Several implications for language pedagogy can be drawn from the findings of these studies. First, as language teachers, we have to ensure that students are provided with multiple and varied opportunities to engage in meaningful interactions in the target language. To make the interactions meaningful, we need to encourage learners to relate the topical content to those personal experiences and social relationship that are real thus of significance to them. Motivating learners to make connections between their own and others’ background knowledge and to share these connections with each other promotes their extended engagement in their interactions. Second, in the opportunities for interaction that we make available, we must ensure that not only the cognitive but the affective dimensions are considered. As shown in these studies, making interpersonal connections with each other in their classroom interactions fostered a sense of community among the members; this helps to cr eate a motivating learning environment. Third, language learners of all ages and levels are able to construct rich interactions. Thus we need to create opportunities for them to demonstrate their interpersonal skills without the explicit help or directed attention of the teacher. Finally, several questions for possible study are suggested by these studies. First, given the significance of interpersonal relationships to language learning found in these studies, how do we create and sustain rapport among individuals who come from varied backgrounds or who are reticent to participate? Moreover, in the century of high technology how social processes are enabled by new communications tools and resources such as the Internet, e-mail and videoconferences. In addition, how these relationships and processes interact with language learning. The last concern is the need for more longitudinal data. Although most of the studies link language development to the particular practices, they do not actually document specific changes in learners’ use of language in their data. The only way to truly understand the occurrence of language development in oneself is to require more long-term investigations. References Baines, Ed., Blatchford, P., Kutnick, P (2003). Changes in grouping practices over primary and secondary school. International Journal of Educational Research, 39, 9-34. Chinn, C.A., O’Donnell, A.M. Jinks, T.S. The structure of discourse in collaborative learning. Department of Educational Psychology. The State University of New Jersey. Chiu, Ming Ming (1998). Status Effects in Group Problem Solving: Group and Individual Level analyses. Educational Resource Information Center. The Chinese University of Hong Kong. Cohen, E., Lotan, R, Abram, P., Scarloss, B Schultz, S (2002). Can Groups Learn? Teachers College Record, 104(6),1045-1068 De Guerrero M.C. Villamil O.S. (2000). Activating the ZPD: Mutual scaffolding in L2 peer revision. The Modern Language Journal, 84, 51-68. Duff, P.A. (2002). The discursive co-construction of knowledge, identity, and difference: An ethnography of communication in the high school mainstream. Applied Linguistics, 23(3), 289-322. Ghaith, G. (2003). Effects of the Learning Together Model of Cooperative Learning on English as a Foreign Language Reading Achievement, Academic Self-Esteem, and Feelings of School Alienation. Bilingual Research Journal, 27:3 Gillies, R.(2006). Teachers’ and students’ verbal behaviors during cooperative and small-group learning. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 171-287 Gillies, R Ashman A (1996). Teaching collaborative skills to primary school children in classroom-absed work groups. Learning and Instruction, 6(3), 187-200 Hijzen, D, Boekaerts, M Vedder, P (2006). The relationship between the quality of cooperative learning, students’ goal preferences and perceptions of contextual factors in the classroom. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 47, 9-12. Johnson, D.W., Johnson, R.T. Stanne M.B (2001). Impact of Goal and Resource Interdependence on Problem-Solving Success. The Journal of Social Psychology, 129(5), 621-629 Johnson, R.T. Johnson, R.T. (1992). Implementing cooperative learning. Contemporary Education, 63, 173-180. Kim, D, and Hall, J.K. (2002). The role on an interactive book reading program in the development of second language pragmatic competence. The Modern Language Journal, 86(3), 332-348. Klingner, J.K., Vaughn, S., Schumm, J.S. (1998). Collaborative strategic reading during social studies in heterogeneours fourth-grade classroom. The Elementary School Journal, 99, 3-22. Krashen, S. D. (1981). Effective Second Language Acquisition: Insights from Research. The Second language classroom. Oxford University Press, Inc. Lewin, K. (1935). A dynamic theory of personality. New York: McGraw-Hill. Lynch, T. (2001). Seeing what they meant: Transcribing as a route to noticing. ELT Journal, 55, 124-132 Matthews, Mona Kesner, John (2000). The silencing of Sammy: One struggling reader learning with his peers. International Reading Association, 53(5), 382-390 Mori, J. (2002). Task design, plan, and development of talk-in-interaction: An analysis of a small group activity in a Japanese language classroom. Applied Linguistics, 23(3), 323-347. Naughton, N.(2006). Cooperative Strategy Training and Oral Interaction: Enhancing Small Group Communication in the Language Classroom. The Modern Language Journal, 90,(ii). Piaget, J. (1926). The Language and Thought of the child. New York: Harcourt Brace. Shachar, H Sharan S (1994). Talking, Relating, and Achieving: Effect of Cooperative Learning and Whole-Class Instruction. Cognition and Instruction, 12(4), 313-353. Shachar, H Shmuelevitz, H (1997). Implementing Cooperative learning, Teacher Collboration and Teachers’ Sense of EFFICACY IN Heterogeneous Junior High Schools. Contemporary educational psychology, 22, 53-72 Storch, N.(2001). How collaborative is pair work? ESL tertiary students composing in pairs. Language Teaching Research 5, 29-53 Swain, M. Lapkin, S. (2003). Talking it through: Two French immersion learners’ response to reformulation. International Journal of Educational Research, 37, 285-304 Veenman, S, Denessen, E, Akker, A Rijt, J (2005). Effects of a Cooperative Leraning Program on the Elaborations of Students During Help Seeking and Help Giving. American Educational Research Journal, 42(1), 115-137 Verplaetse, L.S. (2000). Mr. Wonder-ful: Portrait of a dialogic teacher. Second and foreign language learning through classroom interaction, 223-241 Vygotsky, L.S. (1978). Mind in Society (ed. M. Cole, V. John Steiner, S. Scribner, and E. Souberman). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wegerif, R, Mercer N, Dawes L (1999). From social interaction to individual reasoning: an empirical investigation of a possible sociocultural model of cognitive development. Learning and Instruction. Walton Hall. Research Papers on Collaborative LearningThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseStandardized TestingResearch Process Part OneEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenOpen Architechture a white paperBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesThree Concepts of PsychodynamicHip-Hop is ArtAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into Asia

Journal week 3 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Journal week 3 - Assignment Example This theme is greatly developed by Rocky who is CeCe’s friend. Education is an important aspect as much as development and growth are concerned. The company of CeCe is not worth as much as education is concerned, and at times she is tempted to follow the ways of her friend. Learning occurs through social learning, operant conditioning and classical conditioning. As parent I would be concerned if my child learned what CeCe does, this type of learning is likely to occur through social learning where observed behavior becomes copied behavior. On the contrary if a child learned from the character of Rocky it will be beneficial for the development of the child even in terms of Christianity. Theme of talent is also outspoken in this TV show, it is a very common phenomenon among the youths. From a biblical point of view it would be prudent if a talent was used to serve God rather than use the talent for other purposes. The talent is not used for the purpose of serving God and I would therefore not recommend my child to watch the show as it might have a negative influence. Though there can be some themes that are not appropriate in the show, other themes are very fundamental for the development of a teenager and I would not deter my child from watching the show. Having read one of the best American adolescent magazine called teen vogue I can concur that are some themes that portrayed in the magazine that are good for development of a child in aspects such as spiritual, emotional and physical. Though there are some themes that are no appropriate for the growth and development of a child due to the fact the child the child can assimilate some nasty behavior from the magazine. Celebrity is a theme that orchestrated in the magazine, this are very influential persons to the teens. Some of the celebrities are role models to particular teenagers and for this reason if a celebrity does a stupid act, a teen can try

Diabetes and its affect on the workplace Research Paper - 1

Diabetes and its affect on the workplace - Research Paper Example Productivity costs are those linked to the loss of Production, replacing sick workers, disability and the death of productive individuals. A report by The Institute of Medicine of the United States in 2010 indicated that the yearly value of lost Productivity was in the range of 297.4 to 335.5 billion dollars.11.6 to12.7 billion dollars was lost in work missed, 95.2 to 96.5 billion dollars in hours of work lost and 190.6 to 226.3 billion dollars in lower wages (Harder, 2013). Those suffering from diabetes are more frequently absent from and work for fewer hours. They are more likely to lose over two hours per week. Absenteeism peaks with age but varies by demographic group (Harder, 2013). Presenteeism refers to being present at work but performing inefficiently. Those with diabetes have higher presenteeism rates. Diabetes and related complications often lead to disability and even death, robbing the nation of skilled workers and reducing productivity levels. Diabetes victims often stop working, prefer part time work or are totally unemployed. When they work they are victims of work limitations either personally or by their Supervisors (Matthews, Meston, Dyson, Shaw, King and Aparna 2008). Productivity costs include unplanned absence from work, permanent disability death before the age of retirement. Death and disability have greater indirect productivity costs. Most studies use the minimum wage as the base of productivity hours lost yet many diabetic workers earn above the minimum wage. Diabetes statistics reflect a Gender and Racial bias. Most victims tend to be male, single, African-American or non Hispanic, less wealthy, less educated and are likely to suffer from chronic health conditions. Studies reveal that diabetes is more prevalent in men than women in across all age brackets. Figures from 2008 and 2009 breakdown the percentages of diagnosed diabetes by race as follows, Hispanic whites

Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Essay Example for Free

Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Essay Throughout the novel the Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Yunior tells the story of oscars family that is allegedly cursed by the Fuku. The dominican family that roots back to when Trujillo was in power has been tragical effected by the Fuku. The main character Oscar is an awkward Dominican that balms his failures on the curse of the Fuku. The curse started back in the Dominican republic when the oppressive dictator Trujillo convicted oscars grandfather Abelard who was a respected doctor for conspiracy. When oscars grandfather was put in jail he was tortured and beaten, this was the origin of the curse for the Waos. Like a gene the curse has been passed down the family to oscar. The author Junot Diaz uses the motif of the Fuku to illustrate how bani allows her awful past to dramatically affect her and children. Everyone that lived in the dominican was in some way negatively effected by Trujillo. Oscar Wao was a living example of the fuku and how not only Trujillo effected the dominican people of his time but even the people two generations later. For example (p.5)â€Å"wether I believe in what many have described as the great american doom is not really the point. You live as long as I did in the heart of Fuku country, you hear these kinds of tales all the time everybody in san domingo has a Fuku story knocking around in their family.† Yunior is expressing the fact that even if you are not a believer of the Fuku curse if you are dominican there is a good chance it has affected you or your family. When oscars mother was left an orphan she was put through unbelievably awful circumstances much like her fathers. This time in Banis life effect who she became and how she parented Oscar.(78)â€Å"From 1951 on, â€Å"hija† and â€Å"madre† running their famous bakery near the plaza central and keeping their fading, airless house in tip-top shape. (before 1951, our orphan girl had lived with another foster family, monsterous people if the rumors are to be believed, a dark period of her life neither she nor her madre ever referenced. Their very own pagina en blanco). This quotation refers to how oscars mother was effected by the Fuku. The reason she was an orphan was because Trujillo killed her parents. The events of her childhood were a direct result of Trujillo but Bani had the power to put the past in the past and parent Oscar the right way, because Bani did not do this the Fuku lives on. Many times in the book a Wao has been injured almost to the point of death. Once was when Oscar attempted suicide. Oscars Suicide attempt was not just because he lost the first girl he has ever loved it was also because of how Oscar had almost no self esteem. Even his own mother would belittle him from a young age. The suicide attempt went wrong and Oscar survived to live another day. (p.191) â€Å"Except that this one of the garden dividers that they planted shrubs on and he hit the freshly tilled loam and not the concrete.† Because he hit the fresh loam he survived with many harsh injures instead of plummeting to his death as planned. This was an incident in Oscar Waos life that was a result of his failures like his failure to love or be loved. This failure stems back to how his mother raised him with very tough love because of the her childhood. The novel clearly illustrated how the Fuku has effected all Dominican people even if they had immigrated off the island. To me this novel is not about dominican people and there history it is about how only one man effected millions of lives not only in one point it time but for generations to come. Junot Diaz shows the reader how we all have the power to stop horrible things like the Fuku from effecting the next generation but you must have the power to leave the past in the past.

Smoking; Who Does it Really Affect? Essay -- Health, informative, expos

Secondhand smoke is extremely hazardous. It can cause death and dangerous health defects. Therefore, smoking is not only bad for the smoker, but for people around him or her too. However, there are only few laws that restrict public smoking. More legislation on smoking restrictions is needed because secondhand smoke causes asthma attacks in children, heart disease in adults, and sudden infant death syndrome in babies. These health problems are a result of the harmful chemicals in cigarettes. According to the National Cancer Institute, Beryllium, Butadiene, Chromium, Nickel, and Polonium are just a few of the 69 deadly chemicals that can cause cancer. The Office of the Surgeon General has proven that when inhaled, the same cancer-causing chemicals that smokers breathe enter the non-smokers body through secondhand smoke. Secondhand smoke is the combination of the smoke given off by a burning tobacco product (side stream smoke) and the smoke exhaled by a smoker (mainstream smoke). Because side stream smoke is made at lower temperatures and under different conditions than mainstream smoke, it has larger amounts of many of the toxins found in cigarette smoke. [National Cancer Institute]. Secondhand smoke has over 50 chemicals that cause cancer, and a minimum of 250 can harm you [National Cancer Institute and Office of the Surgeon General]. â€Å"The National Toxicology program estimates that at least those 250 chemicals in secondhand smoke are known to be toxic or carcinogenic† [Office of the Surgeon General]. The National Institutes of Health shows that environmental smoke is hurtful enough that it is considered a â€Å"Group A† carcinogen. â€Å"Group A carcinogens are the most toxic substances known to cause cancer in humans† [National Institut... ...g to worry about inhaling someone else’s smoke. Therefore, the government needs to take secondhand smoke seriously, and take precautions to help innocent bystanders from being subject to secondhand smoke. Works Cited American Cancer Society. Cancer Facts & Figures 2010. Atlanta, GA: 2010. Print. American Heart Association. â€Å"Environmental (Secondhand) Tobacco Smoke.† n.p. 29 Nov. 2010. Web. 8 May 2011. National Cancer Institute. Health Effects of Exposure to Environmental Tobacco Smoke. Bethesda, MD: National Cancer Institute, 1999. Smoking and Tobacco Control Monograph 10. National Institutes of Health. â€Å"Other People’s Smoke.† n.p. n.d. Web. 8 May 2011 Office of the Surgeon General, â€Å"The Health Consequences of Involuntary Exposure to Tobacco Smoke: A Report of the Surgeon General.† U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. 4 Jan. 2007. Web. 8 May 2011.

A Dream of Life Essay

Try to picture this: A big white house with light blue shutters and a big porch. Two young children are playing with their dog without arguing or fighting. The mom is preparing dinner ready at 6 o’clock in the big kitchen. Meanwhile, the dad is just arriving from work in his BMW and stops to play a little with his kids. The mom comes out the porch, tells them â€Å"dinner is ready, go wash your hands† and gives the husband a big hug and a welcome kiss. They are the perfect American dream family. This perfect life is what most Americans dream of when they work an eight-hour day in exchange for a two-week vacation and a one-week sick leave. Americans work all this time because they think that the democratic government in the US is working hard to provide them the right of equality, prosperity, and adventure. The people of this nation become slaves of themselves and their dream of life by working too much for something only few get. The right of equality is a big part of this American Dream. But is equality being attained by every citizen? There are myths that stop citizens from acquiring this equality. Simone De Beauvoir in her â€Å"Myth and Reality† essay explains how myths are used to break this equality between women and men. She explains how the eternal myth that women are mysterious and incomprehensible to men affects the equality at work. In a relationship of master to slave, it is always the slave who is mysterious and difficult to understand (818). This myth keeps the women in a lower status than the men, and the equality wanted by every American citizen is not met. There are more myths about equality. For example the myth of working hard to have a secure job, this myth might have been formed by people that had a business and wanted employees to work as hard as possible, so they would make more profit. Americans follow these myths to have a better economic status, but all they are gaining is to be in an uneven equality status. They work hard and slave themselves to their masters (or bosses in this case) to gain this dream, but instead they end up trapped working for life. In contrast, democracy by the society is not always used in a prudent way. Alex De Tocqueville makes a strong point explaining how equality among individuals eventually produces a desire for centralization in government. Consequently the people will be too busy with their own activities and lives making their own fortune. As the outcome, this society will expect the government to take care of the nation so that they will be free to peruse their own opportunities (566). This freedom of democracy might consequently produce governors whose power will be concentrated in a way that the people will exercise this freedom unwisely. The conditions that produce equality on the citizens might as well produce a despot. If a ruler with absolute power if produced from equality then equality stops being equality for everybody, because this ruler will divide the power among the people according to what might be better for him. Furthermore, Alex De Tocqueville explains that â€Å"the principle of quality, which makes men independent of each other, gives them a habit and a taste for following in their private actions no other guide than their own will† (569). This independence tends to make them live with a natural favoritism towards free institutions. For example, the killings of Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Shah of Iran, Pol Pot, Pinochet and others could have been prevented by a free institutionalized government. The problem with this is that â€Å"private life in democratic times is so busy, so excited, and so full of wishes and of work, that hardly any energy or leisure remains to each individual for public life† (573). With no time for public life, half of the dream is gone, and gone not to ever come back again. But people work even harder to get more time, but the harder they work the less time they have. This busyness of working fifty two weeks a year for this freedom makes the society slaves of itself, takes away the freedom generated by equality. Additionally, stereotypes formulated by the government about the people living in this society break the equality given to them by democracy. James Baldwin was a Negro revolutionist, in his essay of â€Å"The American Dream and the American Negro† he explains how the stereotyped generated by the government, of the people living within the society do not allow them the same equality. â€Å"One of the things the white world does not know, but I think I know, is that black people are just like everybody else. We are also mercenaries, dictators, murderers, liars. We are human, too.† There is no exception to who is an American, but the society seems to be making exceptions for color, race or religion. This exception shatters equality, and prosperity is not the same for everybody anymore, but still people work so hard to attain what they dreamed for that they spend too much time doing so, and they lose the occasion of adventure. The American dream is not for everybody as the society seems to believe. Americans are willing to enslave themselves in order to attain their big white houses with light blue shutters. Different myths stop them in the middle of slavery where they stay for the rest of their lives, still trying to reach that dream. While all this is happening, centralization is occurring in the country, and the society is too busy with their own activities and lives making their own fortune, expecting the government to take care of the nation so that they can be free to peruse their own opportunities. This leaves a huge unsecured gap in the government for rulers to have absolute power over the nation. Citizens then become slaves of the country, working endless hours that never seam to end until they die, and their sons and daughters do the same thing, and it becomes a vice circle. At the end, only a few citizens attain their big houses with enough financial security to adventure the world. Those few li ve the American dream. Works cited: Baldwin, James. â€Å"The American Dream and the American Negro.† A World of Ideas Essential Reading for College Writers. By Lee A Jacobus. Sixth Edition ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 261-. Rpt. in A World of Ideas Essential Readings for College Writers. Beauvoir, Simone De. â€Å"Woman: Myth and Reality.† A World of Ideas Essential Reading for College Writers. By Lee A Jacobus. Sixth Edition ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 75-81. Rpt. in A World of Ideas Essential Readings for College Writers. Tocqueville, Alexis de. â€Å"Influence of Democratic Ideas and Feelings on Political Society.† A World of Ideas Essential Readingfor College Writers. By Lee A Jacobus. Sixth Edition ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002. 247-257. Rpt. in A World of Ideas Essential Readings for College Writers.

12-Corporate Ownership, Governance and Tax Avoidance

The fact is that taxes deductions from the cash flows available to a firm, and therefore the dividends distributable to the shareholders, propose that firm owners would attempt to increase their wealth through various taxes to keep away from these Practices. Such types of advantages of enhanced cash flows from tax avoidance practices are ingenious with certain Non-tax costs. This required the costs/benefits considering of such type of practices and the choice of tax avoidance if the interest outweigh the linked costs. Therefore, the benefits and the associated costs with corporate tax avoidance are discussed here. Prior to explanation, little awareness are provided on the meaning and measures of corporate Tax avoidance to give proper ground for the discussion in detail. The corporate tax avoidance lacks universal definition as it might connote â€Å"different thing to different People† (Hanlon & Heitzman, 2010:137). The reality is that there is significant tax impacts on all settlement of a Company, meant to enhance its profit, could account for such shortness of universal definition. , they have different definitions of corporate tax avoidance put up by researchers in present times (for a review of these definitions see: Salihu, Sheikh Obid & Annuar, 2013; Salihu 2014). Here, explain corporate tax avoidance as a decrease the clear cut corporate tax liabilities. This definition is in line with Hanlon and Heitzman (2010) It explains tax avoidance â€Å"as a continuum of tax arrangements policies where something like municipal bond Investments are at one side (lower explicit tax, perfectly legal), Therefore , the terms Such as tax management; tax planning; tax sheltering; and tax aggressiveness are exchangeable used with tax Avoidance in the literature (see for instance: Chen et al. 2010; Lanis and Richardson, 2011; 2012; Minnick & Noga, 2010; Tang & Firth, 2011). Similar to its definition, there have been many ways of corporate tax avoidance used in the prior Literature. These ways are mainly depended on the estimates from the financial statements and could be categorized into three classes/groups. The first group adds those measures that examine the multitude of the gap between book and Taxable income. All these consist of total book-tax gap; residual book-tax gap and tax-effect book-tax gap. The Second group has to take up with those establish the evaluate the proportional amount of taxes to business income. All these having effective tax rates (this comes in several variants like accounting ETR; current ETR; cash ETR; Long-run cash ETR; ETR differential; ratio of income tax expense to operating cash flow; & ratio of cash taxes Paid to operating cash flow). The third group comprises other measures such as optional permanent differences (PERMIDIFF)/DTAX; unrecognized tax benefits (UTB); and tax shelter estimates. Other than this plethora of measures of corporate tax avoidance used in the tax literature, its conforming aspect remains un-captured as most of the measures are computed based on items that are affected by accrual accounting Procedures. To this part, Hanlon and Heitzman (2010) proposed a measure for conforming tax avoidance as the Proportion of cash tax paid to operating cash flow. Salihu, Sheikh Obid and Annuar (2013) documented the significant difference of this measure from other similar measures. This study suggested the use this measure for the Empirical investigation given the context of the study.

Romeo and Juliet Commentary Essays

Romeo and Juliet Commentary Essays Romeo and Juliet Commentary Paper Romeo and Juliet Commentary Paper There are different aspects in Romeo and Juliet, which have to be covered in a creative writing theme. One of the main factors, which needs to be illustrated in whatever form, is the fate of Romeo and Juliets relationship which had uncertainty surrounding it from their first meeting. No matter how many steps they take to aid their relationship, it seems that the sinister air, which has been present between the two families for years, will shroud Romeo and Juliets relationship. I tried to express this point in my creative writing by emphasising Romeos disbelief in the situation, however also stressing the strength of his love for Juliet. We are the most unlikely people to ever have feelings for one another I do realise that, but whoever rules this planet wants to detach Juliet from my grasp, heart and whatever is connected to my heritage. This quote reflects Romeos understanding of the whole situation and how he falters under the pressure of the environment that he is in. He accepts the circumstances in the diary entry and seems to be apprehensive about pursuing the relationship with the knowledge of his family. This idea of secrecy seems to be apparent throughout his relationship with Juliet, however it is an idea that turns out to have lethal consequences. Juliets elegance is the character, which manipulated Romeos mind into an odyssey. In the script the use of the light in dancehall is used to express Romeos thoughts about Juliet. In my diary, Romeo talks about Juliets beauty shaping it into a detailed account on paper. It seems as though the world has relented allowing Romeo to study Juliet for a short time. I feel it was essential to use such vivid detail about Juliets beauty for Romeo would not have wanted the moment to endure if the woman had the looks of a crow. At this point in my diary, I relate back to the act of true fate, therefore I feel that it is necessary for Romeo to comprehend his fortune once he has met Juliet and perhaps thank the stars for their work, which would contrast with his sudden death. My mind misgives Some consequences yet hanging in the stars. Shall bitterly forgive his fearful date With this night revels This quote relates back to how the stars seem to control our destiny in life, however it depends on your belief in this theory. The planetary aura is felt throughout the script of Romeo and Juliet and the great faith in the theory is a downfall for Romeo and Juliets relationship. In my diary entry Romeo does not compare what consequences the stars might hold to the idea of a relationship with Juliet, however he constantly refers back to the hatred between the two families which will be a constant burden upon their relationship. He also refers to a ruling spirit who wants to detach Juliet from him in every possible way. The fact that Romeo senses a being that does not want him to form a relationship with Juliet should cause concern for him for the spirit who he is aware of is possibly having preconceptions of a unexpected ending for both of them. The last two lines of the quote that I am writing seem to understand the importance of Romeos endearment for Juliet, however they are still shrouded with confusion by the star theory. The last two lines translate in my eyes as the stars will bitterly give way to Romeo and Juliets love for each other, however they will have to live with the outcome of not being conscious of this warning. So show a snowy dove trooping with crows The quote emphasises diverse appearances and how the two combined show opposite qualities. The idiosyncrasy and purity of a doves features is compared with Juliets beauty and the mass number of trooping crows are compared with the women in the hall. I notice how Shakespeare stresses that the crows are in a group where as the dove is solitary in beauty. This quote describes feelings for Juliet for he seems to filter out any other disturbances in the room and manages to concentrate on only Juliet. In my diary entry, Romeo commits his writing to Juliet and becomes annoyed if any other object gets in his way; therefore his actions are somehow dividing the two groups apart from one another. This relates to the quote that I have presented and my diary entry has expressed its meaning in another form. Juliets elegance is the character, which manipulated Romeos mind into an odyssey. In the script the use of the light in dancehall is used to express Romeos thoughts about Juliet. In my diary, Romeo talks about Juliets beauty shaping it into a detailed account on paper. It seems as though the world has relented allowing Romeo to study Juliet for a short time. At this point in my diary, I relate back to the act of true fate, therefore I feel that it is necessary for Romeo to comprehend his fortune once he has met Juliet and perhaps thank the stars for their work. My lips two blushing pilgrims ready stand To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss. Romeo describes his lips as two blushing pilgrims, A pilgrim is the word used to describe a person that visits a holy place to worship. For example, pilgrims visit Bethlehem to worship Jesus. So in this quote, Romeo is the pilgrim who is devoted to Juliet. By saying that his lips are two blushing pilgrims, Romeo is using a metaphor. In my diary Romeo is desperate to touch Juliet, as if he is insecure of how her heart is going to dictate, therefore Romeo feels that he needs to place his mark on he, like any sick catholic pilgrim would thirst for the holy water in Lourdes. It is simply a passion and many pilgrims feel they need to manipulate and contribute to this certain sacred place. You kiss by the book Juliet expresses this poetic emotion after their first kiss at the dance. The quote You kiss by the book means expertly as though the person in question has studied the subject in a book, yet she maybe implying that while proficient, his kissing lacks originality Finally I will discuss the background of the play. The play is a tragedy. The idea of tragedy originates in Greek drama. For such a play to fulfil its definition it must have a tragic hero who is of high but not perfect standing. In the Romeo and Juliet script, Romeo is from a high calibre family, however he is not the highest member in his family. A tragic flaw leads to a downfall. Juliet drinks a time delaying poison, which Friar Laurence has given her, however due to the untimely arrival of a letter informing Romeo of the situation. Romeo does not know about the plan for them to spend their lives together therefore when Romeo finds her body entombed he too drinks a poison and kills himself. When Juliets potion wears off, she awakens to find her lovers corpse. She then proceeds to stab herself with Romeos dagger. The tragedy was a defect sparked off by their sentimentality for one another. The two deaths led to their families collapsing with sadness for the losses however I fear that it was a rectified solution for the two lovers. For the Capulet and Montague families the tragedy acted as a cleansing of emotions and they managed to share their sorrow, which leads them to make peace with one another.

Read and Understand Measurements in House Plans

Read and Understand Measurements in House Plans Its easy to purchase house plans from a website or house plan catalog, but they hardly ever come with directions for reading floor plans. What are you buying? Will the completed house measure up to your expectations? The following hints come from an architect who designs luxury house plans and custom homes. He wants you to know about measuring. - ed. Key Facts About Measuring area: measured in square feet (or square meters), the rectangular length times the width; the area of a triangle is one-half the base times the heightvolume: the length times the width times the heightarea of a composite: for an irregularly shaped room, divide the room into regular shapes (rectangles and triangles) and sum the areasgross area: measured from the exterior wall foundation, so the area includes wall thicknessnet area: measured from interior walls; area of the living spacearchitect scale: a three-sided measuring device with six measuring edges (described as prism-shaped), similar to a ruler, but used to interpret the true size of a line drawn to scale on a floor plan or blueprint Size Up Your House Plan When you compare house plans, one of the more important characteristics you’ll consider is the area of the floor plan - the size of the plan - measured in square feet or square meters. Heres a little secret. Square feet and square meters are not measured the same on every house plan. Any two house plans that appear to be of equal area may not really be. Does this make much difference when you’re choosing a plan? You bet it does! On a 3,000 square foot plan, a difference of only 10 percent might unexpectedly cost you tens of thousands of dollars. Question the Measurements Builders, architects, real estate professionals, bankers, auditors, and appraisers often report room sizes differently to better suit their particular needs. House plan services also vary in their area-calculation protocols. In order to compare floor plan areas accurately, you’ve got to be sure that the areas are counted the same. Generally, builders and real estate professionals want to show that a house is as big as possible. Their goal is to quote a lower cost per square foot or square meter so that the house will appear more valuable. In contrast, appraisers, assessors, and county auditors usually measure the perimeter of the house - a typically very rough way to calculate area - and call it a day. Architects break the size down into components: first floor, second floor, porches, finished lower level, etc. To arrive at an apples-to-apples comparison of house areas you’ve got to know what’s included in the totals. Does the area include only heated and cooled spaces? Does it include everything under roof? Even garages? What about closets? Or do the measurements include only living space? Ask How Rooms Are Measured But even when you’ve discovered exactly what spaces are included in the area calculation youll need to know how volume is counted, and whether the total reflects the net or the gross square footage (or square meters). Gross area is the total of everything within the outer edge of the perimeter of the house. Net area is that same total - less the thicknesses of walls. In other words, net square footage is the part of the floor that you can walk on. Gross includes the parts you can’t walk on. The difference between net and gross can be as much as 10 percent - depending on the type of floor plan design. A traditional plan (with more distinct rooms and therefore more walls) might have 10 percent net-to-gross ratio, while a contemporary plan may have only six or seven percent. Likewise, larger homes tend to have more walls - because larger homes generally have more rooms, rather than simply larger rooms. Youll probably never see the volume of a house plan listed on a house plan website, but the number representing the area of a floor plan often depends on how the volume is counted. Typically, the upper area of two-story rooms (foyers, family rooms) isnt counted as part of the floor plan. Likewise, stairs are only counted once. But not always. Check how volume is counted to be sure you know how big the plan really is. Plan services that design their own plans will have a consistent policy on area (and volume), but services that sell plans on consignment probably dont. How does the designer or plan service calculate the size of the plan? Sometimes that information is found on the services website or book, and sometimes you have to call to find out. But you should most definitely find out. Knowing how area and volume are measured can make a very big difference in the cost of the house you ultimately build. Conclusions Leave the Building to Builders. Damian Gillie/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images The guest writer, Richard Taylor of RTA Studio, is an Ohio-based residential architect who creates luxury house plans and designs custom homes and interiors. Taylor spent eight years designing and renovating homes in German Village, an historic district in Columbus, Ohio. He has also designed custom homes in North Carolina, Virginia, and Arizona. He holds a B.Arch. (1983) from Miami University and is an active blog writer on social media. Taylor says: I believe that above all, a home should create a quality living experience as unique as the people that live in it, shaped by the owners heart, and by his image of home - thats the essence of custom design. Construction designs can get complicated, so let your building crew decipher the symbols the way they are trained to do. A couple of things for the homeowner to keep an eye on include the orientation of the building on the lot (where is south and the sun? where are the doors and windows?), the HVAC symbols (where is the ductwork?), and for future reference its good to know where your load-bearing walls will be located. And how big will your new house measure out to be? According to the U.S. Census Bureau Survey of Construction, the average new single-family American house was 2,392 square feet in 2010 and in 1973 it was 1,660 square feet. A small home is considered 1,000 to 1,500 square feet. And tiny homes? Could you live in less than 500 square feet? Thats the plan!

Duke Ellington Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Duke Ellington - Research Paper Example This brief paper will examine the life and legacy of Duke Ellington. Let us begin with some well known facts about Mr. Ellington. He was born in Washington D.C. on April 29, 1899. Unlike many black composers of his time, Duke Ellington did not grow up in poverty. Rather, he was raised in a middle-class area of Washington D.C. by two involved and seemingly loving parents. In fact, his parents were talented musicians as well, which lends credence to the saying ‘like father like son’. Naturally, Duke’s father encouraged him to learn to play various instruments from an early age. It is noted that, by the age of 7, he was already learning and getting quite good at the piano (Unger 75). As the story goes, the name ‘Duke’ was bestowed upon him because he was such a gentleman in all that he did, even from an early age. His parents encouraged him to work when he was a teenager, which he did, but his first passion was always music. It is well known that his fir st published song was wrote while he was working at a soda fountain in the D.C. era. The song ‘Soda Fountain Rag’ was written at the age of 15 and was noticed by many people in the area as the song that got Duke noticed. He was so musically inclined that he was offered a scholarship at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. As appealing as that was to him, and with his parent’s blessings, he passed it up to begin playing professional as a jazz musician when he was only 17 years of age (Unger 75). As the reader can already ascertain, Duke Ellington began to shape his legacy at an early age. He was raised properly by parents who nurtured him and helped him to foster his own love and passion for music. People in the D.C. area quickly figured out that they might have a child protege on his hands. He began to form ‘big bands’, which was something new in American culture. These bands uplifted and encouraged others. As his career stretched into the early 30â€⠄¢s, Americans needed some joy in their lives, and Mr. Duke Ellington and his band often provided this. He eventually formed a 10-piece ensemble, which is still a model for jazz bands today. Ellington, however, did not want to create normal, everyday music. Rather, he sought out to redefine jazz music. This was represented in the band members that he chose. He did not, for example, just set out to recruit any gifted saxophonist. Instead, he sought out a saxophonist who had a unique sound that the world had not yet encountered. As he formed his band, he ended up with a group of the most talented musicians, all performing together, and they quickly got noticed on a global scale. In fact, in the 1930’s, his band toured the continent of Europe on two separate occasions. This was something that was extremely rare during those days. This has furthered his legacy as, to this day, Duke Ellington and his band are not just remembered in American social circles, but he remains popular t hroughout Europe as well. Duke Ellington is known as a great pianist, band leader, and composer. His mark on the music world is assured. Beyond that, however, he as adored by millions as a genuinely good person. If he had a girlfriend before he met his wife, we are not privy to it. He ended up marrying his high school sweetheart when

Critically assess the role of the contaminated land regime in cleaning Essay

Critically assess the role of the contaminated land regime in cleaning up contaminated land in the UK and how the planning syste - Essay Example The land has to be in a condition such that noteworthy damage is arising or/and, there is a noteworthy probability of the said damage being caused. Additionally, the land has to be in a condition such that controlled waters are being polluted or there is a probability that contamination is likely to occur. The water Act defines contaminated controlled waters as a situation where significant effluence of restricted waters is occurring, and/or there is a noteworthy probability of the said contamination occurring. Polluted land must fall within part 2A definition for it to be said to cause significant damage to people’s wellbeing or other specified receptors. Land development has to incorporate part 2A since a change in land use might bring the development inside the mandatory definition of contaminated land by creating a pollutant linkage (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 2002). Other regimes that interact with management of land affected by contamination include the IPC, PPC, WML and WRA. Integrated pollution control (IPC) controls the management of large industrial buildings to lessen the danger of contamination arising. The body is also responsible for remediating the danger resulting from of the authorization. The waste management licensing (WML) controls the way in which waste management facilities are managed, as well as controls the disposal and recovery of controlled waste. Water resource act takes actions to safeguard or remedy the contamination of proscribed waters. The United Kingdom government has instituted and put in place a proactive regime and legal framework to handle land that has been previously contaminated. The new regime offers a means to put in force remediation where the IPC and WML may not apply. For new freeways, the prerequisite for handling the contaminated land will be agreed with the Environment Agency during the planned development. New development may also involve the Integrated Pollution Controls and the Waste Management Licensing. Contaminated land regime or WML might apply depending on the degree of contamination on existing sites that contain contaminated land. The remediation of polluted site is taken to be a waste management operation, and thus falls under the WML regime (Wolf& Stanley, 2010). For a number of remedial techniques, the specialized remediation contractor will need a mobile plant license and waste management site license incase contaminated material remains in the site. The regulatory framework now exists to put in force remediation and cleanup of contaminated land in any state of affairs. In instances where WML and IPC are in force on a specific land site, they will go on being used. The contaminated land administration acts to clean up areas that are not covered under IPC and WML, and initiate the remediation of static land that is polluted. Static land refers to land that is not undergoing redevelopment. Risk evaluation principles are employed to evaluate wh ether a site is contaminated under the meaning of the Environmental Act. Pollution linkage Before land may be defined as contaminated, the risk evaluation process has first to establish that noteworthy damage is being caused, or that there is a considerable likelihood of damage being caused by the presence of a pollutant linkage. Three elements have to be set out for there to be an existence of a noteworthy pollutant. These elements are 1. A