Marked Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Marked Women - Essay Example Marking of women discriminates them and discourage them from airing their views. My opinion is that Tannen’s work is an exploration of a largely ignored topic on gender discrimination. Her work is derived from a close observation of men and women at a working conference. The formal setting of the conference is perfect for exhibiting gender stereotypes, which are dominant in the male-dominated business settings. Marking is also inherent in women as most of them struggle to portray a certain image for them to feel acceptable in some settings. More fascinating was the mention of Ralph Fascold’s book and his opinion on the issue. Marked means possession of a unique feature that distinguishes an individual from the rest. Biological orientation makes men marked owing to the possession of a Y chromosome that is deficient in women. Unmarking of women can only be successful if the society changes the attitude towards gender

Gang News Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Gang News - Essay Example Because of these nefarious activities, schools in Maryland recognized the need to promote information campaign regarding the dangers of belonging to a gang. The program that would be implemented is called "What You Dont Know Can Hurt You," and it will be taught to students in fifth through 12th grades since these are the years that young people usually develop a social need to belong. Although there is nothing wrong in searching for a social group, there are certain groups that can have a negative influence to one’s life such as gangs. Adolescents usually place a premium on their relationships with friends and peer pressure can make one succumb to doing misdemeanor. For this reason, it is important that a child or a student should be warned of the dangers behind joining gangs. The article cited the case of one student named Christopher Jones, who was killed by a neighborhood gang last year. The public outcry resulted to the involvement not only of the State Attorney’s Office but other public agencies as well. This time, even the schools addressed the issue through the program. All the school administrators and educators agree that giving valuable and timely information would help the students in avoiding gang members as well as being affiliated with such groups. Aside from the lectures about gangs, important issues that plague young people today such as stranger danger, internet safety and sexual abuse would be incorporated in the discussions with elementary school students. As for the middle school and grade school, an in-depth discussion on gang activities and recruitment would be given. Emphasis would also be on the consequences of having a criminal record at a young age. Hopefully, such programs would be a deterrent in joining gangs. Some years ago, this state did not imagine having this kind of problem since gang problems usually happen on the West Coast; however,

Effective Strategies in Jack Welch's Transformed General Electric Essay

Effective Strategies in Jack Welch's Transformed General Electric Company - Essay Example This paper illustrates that Jack Welch is viewed as one of the best pioneers in corporate business in the 21st century. Welch changed General Electric, which was a key organization amid the mechanical age in American into the flourishing organization current organization that is profoundly focused universally. The way to the majority of Welch's prosperity is his capacity to identify with individuals in a casual manner. He has ensured imparting over his association casually with his chain charge and with subordinates. Additionally, Welch's alluring initiative style and his forcefulness going to the meeting and occasions his issue him the capacity to corresponded adequately with may representative over the whole association, he must convey his message rehash to strengthen them. By manually written straightforwardly to the representative this strategy has motivated a large number of the association. Welch is known to invest the majority of his time in managing issues with representative s. He personally knows more than 1000 workers at all levels in the organization and this is by a first name base. Before Jack Welch joined the company, the firm was going through bankruptcy. The world was going through the great depression and General Motors was laying off most of its workers like most of the companies at the time. The major reason why they were laying off workers was so that they could offset some of its debt. The company did not have any new car models that would result in more sales for the company. Therefore, the company needed to come up with a new strategy to ensure that the company did not close its operations. Jack Welch's method to success needed to first get his workers to see the master plan where General Electric was heading later on. Next, he made a totally new association culture by rebuilding the order of nine administration levels in a basic structure that was more practical. Welch knew that a hefty portion of his senior authority would scrutinize hi s approaches.

Construction Cost Control & Management Coursework - 1

Construction Cost Control & Management - Coursework Example The length of the lodge is 14 meters and the width is 10 meters. The rear roofing will not be excavated. The perimeter area that is to be excavated is the outer 2m width, and the depth will be 2.75 m. On the first day at the site, only the excavator and the driver will be present since the only work on that day will only involve digging up the ground. The material extracted is of poor quality and will be deposited in a pit far away from the site. The material is to be transported to a pit 8 km away by 20 tones capacity lorry. The number of lorries to be used during excavation period are two, which means the time taken to load one lorry is equal to the time taken by the other lorry to ferry the unwanted soil and come back. The time taken to load a lorry is estimated to be 30 minutes, thus, the speed of the lorry is 32 km per hour. That means in a day each lorry is expected to make 8 trips but one lorry will take one less trip which is lost at the start of the day meaning the total num ber made in a day are 15. Thus, the excavator and the general operations will take 12 days while the lorry and the loader will cover 12 days. The ground work will involve the laying down of a building foundation that will include parts of walls, piers and a column. The foundation will have to be strong and this means it has to be dug deeper enough to enable stability of the lodge. The ground work stage will be have various costs expenditures in the excavation process which will include payment of the wheeled excavator, cost of hiring a lorry to transport the excavated soil, paying the loader back hoe, tipping fee and other general operative costs. The workers will take 8 hours per day and the work will be carried out for six days a week. Thus, the excavation will take 96 hours since the maximum period allowed is two weeks. The tipping site is paid per 10000 m3 lorry capacity deposited for price of $20. The cost of the various tasks attached to the groundwork stage are general operat ion costs $12 per hour, lorry and driver $38 per hour, wheel excavator and driver $35 per hour and loader backhoe $32 per hour. Brickwork; the walls of the lodge are to be built by bricks with a cement lime mortar. The number of bricks that will be used in the construction of the lodge will depend on the perimeter, height and partition of the lodge. The costs that will be involved in brickwork are that of purchasing the bricks, cement, cost of hiring a mixer, cost of labor and general operative costs. The price of the block bricks is $ 54 per 1000 bricks and the price of the hollow bricks is $ 100 per 1000 bricks. The overall cost charged by the contractor includes the cost of the materials, 8% on overheads and profit. The appearance of the wall is to be improved during the course of the contract by hollow bricks of different which will be sourced from a different manufacturer. Thus, the cost of the bricks will different due to their nature. The sunken bricks are more easily broken than the rest and the amount of waste is expected to be twice of the other bricks. The cost of the two types of bricks differs in their prices levels. The cost of block bricks is estimated to cost 75% to the price of the hollow bricks. Wall cladding; the wall cladding will involve the process of installing the bricks to form walls and the floor of the lodge. The installation process will face two set of periods because of the two types

College Athletes Essay Example for Free

College Athletes Essay There are thousands of athletes playing for different colleges. They put their time and effort in it, yet they don’t get paid. When athletes play a sport, they have even more stuff to worry about than a regular student. They have to worry about their grades, staying fit to play, stay healthy, attend to practice every day there’s practice, and then after practice go home and do all their work even though they are tired. How much do they get paid for going through all that? Zero dollars. College athletes should get paid to play too. The average salary of a third division college coach is forty five thousand dollars a year. An average third division athlete makes nothing. Why are coaches being paid and not the athletes? Yes the coaches are giving up their time to coach the players, but the athletes are too, and they are also risking themselves of getting injured every time they step in to play or practice. If an average NBA player makes about ten million dollars a year then why doesn’t a college basketball player get paid? There is this new rule that when a college gives away a scholarship, it can be renewed. That means that if a player quits the team or gets injured to the point that they can’t play anymore, the college can renew the scholarship and take it away from the player and give it to another athlete or someone else. That is not fair because if a player gets a serious injury for playing, the college can just take away their scholarship, and their career gets ruined. One of examples involved Texas Christian University. Running back Kent Waldrep was paralyzed in a game against the Alabama Crimson Tide on October 26, 1974. TCU paid his medical bills for nine months, then cut him loose. They also took away Adams scholarship, too. College athletes are human just like every other student. By not giving them the ability to make money and not paying them, colleges and its members are expecting the athletes to live a sub-human existence, and putting them at a disadvantage to finish their college education. Athletes are big money makers for the colleges. College athletics are a big role in making money, and they attract students to their college. Colleges depend on their athletes to produce and maintain the popularity of their schools name. Many people argue that student athletes should not be paid because they are getting a free education through a scholarship. These people feel that they have already done a lot for them by giving them a scholarship to their colleges. On the other side, people think that the college athletes make enough profit for their colleges , and they argue that the colleges should owe the athletes more than just a scholarship . Student athletes should be given at least small profit from their income. College athletes aren’t allowed to work. How are they going to pay for all the necessary expenses if they come from poor families? This also leads to players accepting illegal money, cars, and clothes. When athletes that have the opportunity to leave school and turn professional they go for it, because college athletes live in near poverty. College athletes live in near poverty because the money they receive isn’t enough to pay for all of their expenses and necessities. The few athletes that graduate from college, that could turn professional before their senior year, stay because their parents support them by sending money. If college athletes are eligible to be paid, there would be more athletes graduating. Paying athletes would be good for everyone and players would go for an education instead of only concentrating on sports.

How to Develop Communication Skills

How to Develop Communication Skills Interpersonal Communication Letter of Advice Holly Haire Communication is one of the utmost consequential points in relationships. Many marriages nosedive simply because there is a failure of communication between the couple. Without sufficient communication even the most minuscule of quandaries can cause an astronomically immense crevice in a relationship (making a mountain out of a mole hill). The paramount things (Set your priorities) which should be: your relatives, your progenies, your physical condition, your protà ©gà ©, and your favorite ardency. In order to become authentic communicators, we must first understand what interpersonal communication involves. Even though appropriate levels of self-disclosure in relationships, the barriers to effective interpersonal interactions because words have the influence to create and dismayed attitudes, behavior, and perception and the impact of gender and culture on interpersonal communications. Rehearse dynamic heedfully aurally perceiving. Not only is it habit-composing, but it is withal one of the most consequential pieces to the communication puzzle. To become an active listener necessitates focus and an unblemished mind. So, rather than composing your: rebuttal or organizing your coupons while the other person is verbalizing, free your mind of any diversions. It will preserve you time, error and conflict if you unpretentiously take an interval in the commencement to heedfully auricularly discern intently. And once you have received the message, reiterate it back to the person you are communicating with to eschew any misunderstandings. One of the unsurpassed ways to participate in efficacious communication is merely through your body language. Subsequently a prodigious dole out of what you communicate to others is conveyed in your physical posture, its consequential that you eschew such comportments as crossing your upper limb in front of your upper body. This nonverbal cue may contradict what you are verbally expressing. Instead, sit up proper and procumbency the person you are verbalizing with. Mirroring another persons body language is withal an utilizable implement when endeavoring to build a rapport. Revering the conceptions and opinions of others can avail to foster an environment that sanctions you to apportion your own personal conceptions and assessments (respect). Demonstrating reverence inspirits a safe environment in which to extant the conceptions and sentiments of all participants concerned. That does not compulsorily designate that you must concur with them. It merely betokens that you are venerating the region in which you are sharing them. The moralizing in commentary can be regarded as merely confabulatio n covering that utilizable trait. Always look to the person you are verbalizing with in the ocular perceiver (eye contact). Nothing builds rapport more than direct ocular perceiver contact. It is a vital element of interpersonal communication. There are three important types of listening and they are: active, critical, and empathetic (Sole, 2011). It gesticulates to others that you are fully intrigued with what they have to verbally express. Active listening is assertive communication that develops a sense of trust. It additionally enhances your personal credibility. Do not be trepidacious (afraid/fearful/display anxiety) to ask questions in order to more preponderant demystify the business that is on the table (pose questions). It is essential to pose questions that will avail to give you a more significant understanding of what is being corresponded to you, as well as to impel the conversation onward. Efficacious interpersonal communication can be achieved through conscious cognizance of some rudimental principles. These principles direct the efficacy of our communications; they may be elementary to understand but can take a lifetime to accomplish. To invigorate a relationship: stay involved with each other, resolve conflict, gregarious network (friends and outside intrigues), and communication. An explication of the principles and misconceptions in efficacious interpersonal communications is that many people have an insincere cogitated communication. One incipient way of viewing interpersonal communication is to visually perceive it as a perpetual kineticism, between and among partakers, influenced by evolutionary practices and connected with our desire to propagate and survive. Hope and Nicolas, in order to be authentic in your communication you must understand the main notions of communication. The first principle is that communication is irreversible (West Turner, 2010). Once a message has been sent to the recipient, the information cannot be undone. Commence all interpersonal communication with an open mind. You are then less liable to be misunderstood or verbally express things that you regret later. When the recipient of the information has already received the message it now forms a certain dint (impact) in spite of what is communicated later. Then it is always imperative to cogitate conscientiously before you communicate something to your boyfriend/husband/partner. Steer clear of communicating when you are irate or when you not entirely yourself because once you have verbally expressed or indited something it becomes problematic to withdraw the communication. Intentional communication is when the sender of the information kens what he/she is doing. Yet, two people should note that individuals can communicate unblemished information without being vigilant. One way through which this is possible is by eavesdropping. Another way through which a couple can communicate unintentionally is through expression and non-verbal communication. Sometimes you do not require verbally expressing or inditing anything in order to communicate (body language). The content dimension has to do with the authentic content of the message being passed from the sender to the recipient. The content of a message can ultimately affect the quality of communication and therefore it is always consequential to meticulously cull this content. Eschew utilization of words, conceptions or phrases that would vex your partner. Relational dimension refers to the existing emotional state and relationship amid the communicating parties. This relationship is liable to affect the quality of communication. For example, when you are exasperated at your companion your feelings at that time are liable to affect what you communicate and additionally how you interpret communication from the other. The barriers to effective interpersonal interactions involve sundry misconceptions that people have concerning interpersonal communication. Communication is more than vital for a blissful marriage. What if articulated communication is the relationship? Without communication, you would not have a relationship. It makes sense then to learn efficacious communication skills for a more preponderant romantic relationship. The first primary is to minimize pejorative verbal expressions. Judgments are a mundane communication barrier in interpersonal relationships. New International Version (NIV), â€Å"Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For in the way you judge, and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you† (NIV, Matthew 7:1-2). People are censorious when you categorize another person as incoherent, insouciant, or selfish. Labeling categorizes, postulates traits, and degrades another person. Instead of haranguing on about how egocentric your partner is for not accomplishing something you implored, aver what you experienced and need in unbiased terms. Below are three illustrations of virtuous assertive verbal expressions that evade judgment: When I peregrinate home from work and you do not hug me, I feel unwanted, When we accede to go out for dinner and you do not call me about being tardy, I feel frustrated because I have been enthusiastic to have supper with you all day, and I would appreciate you to pick up the youngsters so I can cook dinner for us. Could you do that? Or do you have an alternative conception to avail get our desiderata met? These are considerably more puissant than a judgmental, You are so selfish! Efficacious communication adeptness in a romantic relationship is to concede you cannot read anothers mind. This comes in handy for communication beyond the courting. Do not ken your partners intentions or motives abaft an action. You may cerebrate they intended to harm you, get vengeance, or provoke a particular replication from you, but this is mind-reading. Verbalize with your partner to seek elucidation and build understanding. Expand communication as an alternative of terminating the operation of it with verdicts, mind-reading, and the third gratuity destructive conflict. A third secret of a jubilant romantic relationship communication is to not evade conflict. One of the greatest myths of ecstatic relationship is the couples do not quarrel. Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam, so drop the matter before dispute breaks out (NIV, Proverbs 17: 14). Quite the antithesis a couple with efficacious communication ken how to fight because discordances, quandaries, and tension is ineluctably foreordained. What disunites jubilant companions from despondent companions is their communication. Conflict from the past is destructive while the communication in the present is constructive. What is of importance is how you deal with quarrels. Good marital communication designates you to confront an issue sincerely with benevolence for your partner. Eighteenth century inditer Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy kenned for his War and Placidity book verbalized, What is valid in making a blissful marriage is not so much how harmonious you are, but how you deal with inconsistenc y. How you do that differs on your ability to efficaciously communicate utilizing the tips you learned in this letter of advice. People who have so many things in common always assume that the shared understanding will always translate to effective communication. An assumption leads to deliberate vagueness or a lot of sensitivity when distributing information which sometimes results in misconception. A core competency for effective communication is listening (Sole, 2011). It is always congruous to put all the shared understanding aside and communicate your message without subjectivity (heedfully aurally perceiving). People additionally have the misconception that communication is an autonomous process. You must understand that communication does not take place in a toaster and therefore it is affected by circumventing people, events and circumstances. It is consequential to consider the context and setting of your communication as it will additionally affect your message. There are many barriers that can affect this process of transferring information. Encoding is the process of putting your message into a form that is easy to convey. These forms may be thus: verbal words, letters, and email or telephone messages. Deciphering on the other foot is the process of interpreting the form of communication used so to get meaning from the message. Most barriers to communication hamper with these two essential processes in communication. Ethnic, sexual category and individual differences can present alterations in the way people communicate (encode) and interpret (decode) information. Common barriers to communication are such as cultural differences, gender, language barrier, individual differences and physical barriers (The Foundation Coalition, n.d). Such differences are liable to establish misunderstanding when communication. The norms of convivial interaction vary greatly in diverse societies, as do the way in which sentiments are articulated. It is important for couples to be vigilant of each other’s cultural, individual and gender difference and how they affect communication between themselves. Physical barriers may denote to aspects such as distance and time that may make it arduous for some people to communicate. When such barriers are bound to transpire you can always find ways of working around them. Today technology has made this facile. The manner by which self-concept is established and supported is composed of two aspects; self-image and self-esteem. Self-concept refers to how we perceive ourselves independent of our environment (Gufey Loewy, 2009). Self-image authentically refers to how we view and cerebrate of ourselves while self-esteem refers to the feelings that are derived from our self-image. If you have a lamentable image of yourself, you are liable to have a low self-esteem and vice versa. These two consequential elements make up our self-concept. Self-concept commences to compose when we apperceive that we disunite from our environment. It commences to perpetuate to compose when you act in your environment and discover what you can/cannot do. The image projected by other people about ourselves is liable to stick and affect how we cerebrate of ourselves. It is paramount to note that you two are going to be influencing in shaping each other’s self-concept. Other fortes include: the messages we take in, the prospect we and others have regarding ourselves, sexual category, ethnic and technological forces. Self-concept is dissimilar from self, self-concept means how we perceive ourselves which may not be precisely what we are (self). Our self-concept does influence interpersonal communication. These include: what we select to do, which we decide to interact with, and how we interrelate with others. Our self-concept also affects our attitude toward ourselves and towards others. Your self-concept is going to be an important factor in your marriage relationship considering the things it affect in us. Negative self-concept would mean low self-esteem and this is likely to affect communication. An individual with a low self-esteem is likely to encounter difficulties in distributing across messages since he/she lacks buoyancy. Though difficult, as it is, know it is possible to change our self-concept. We can eradicate the undesirable image we have of ourselves and substitute them with an optimistic image and this is likely to enrich our interpersonal communication. The NIV, â€Å"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you. . . .† (Matthew 7: 12). It is mundane for many people to have some information that they are disposed to apportion with any other person (e.g. names, name of our schools, and careers). There is a caliber of information that you would relish to reveal to only people who proximate with you (e.g. cell phone number, your email address, and allergies). There is also another level of information that we would just like to keep it to ourselve s. Rudimentally, it is an implement to visually examine a convivial situation and have prosperous communication. The Johari window represents how much people opt to reveal themselves. Diffident/reclusive people do not yarely share their feelings, so they have more of a closed window. Open/extroverted people are disposed to verbalize with anyone on any topic, so their window is wide open. The four quadrants of the Johari Window are the open area, the blind area, the hidden area, and the unknown area (Sole, 2011). This is the areas within our lives that we are disposed to apportion with any other person (open area). This verbalizes the information other people have about you that you are not cognizant of (blind area). This area covers information that we ken about ourselves but we would not relish any other person to have access to this information (hidden area). If the stuff about you is not kenned to you or anyone else this is the unknown area. This stage of self-disclosure can shake yo ur communication in espousement and as a result your relationship. The caliber of disclosure will perturb most marriage relationships. This construal in turn will lead to more preponderant communication within your relationship. Therefore my suggestion to you is that, you should keep an immensely colossal part of yourselves in the open areas so that your partner is able to understand who the other person is. It is consequential to keep confidential information shared between you and your partner. Divulging communication that your partner has trusted you to forfend to other people may become a source of conflict, in your relationship (diarrhea of the mouth). I am sure it is now (or has become) evident to you how vital interpersonal communication is in fortifying any relationship. The first step on the way to developing efficacious interpersonal communication is to comprehend the concept behind interpersonal communication. If you fixate on the diminutive you will on no occasion have space for the things that are paramount to you. Center on the things that are critical to your bliss: associate with your children, parents, and grandparents. Accompany your spouse out to dinner. There will always be time to immaculate the house and maintenance the lawn. If everything else was perplexed and only they endured, your life yearned nevertheless be plenary. Gratitude converts what we have into enough, and more. It spirals denial into approval, chaos into order, and perplexity into clarity. It makes sense of our history, brings placidity for today and engenders a vision for tomorrow. Other things that matter like your employment, your residence and y our vehicle should be your next concern. Irrespective of how satiated your life might appear, there is always room for a couple drinks of â€Å"Champagne of the South† (Sweet Iced Tea) with a friend(s). Take care of your family first and the things that genuinely matter the remaining is congeniality. References Gufey M. Loewy D. (2009). Chapter 3: Communication and the Self Concept. September 22,  2011. Retrieved from  http://highered.mcgrawhill.com/sites/dl/free/0072975679/137490/gam62823_ch03.pdf Sole, K. (2011).Making connections: Understanding interpersonal communication. San  Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. The Foundation Coalition (n.d).Effective interpersonal/intrateam communication. Retrieved  from http://www.foundationcoalition.org/publications/brochures/index.html West R Turner L. (2010). Understanding Interpersonal Communication.  USA. Cengage  Learning

What Ideas Would You Bring To Classroom?

What Ideas Would You Bring To Classroom? To make the learning of vocabulary more interesting, a variety of activities can be conducted. Students can have a board race in class, to practice the language use. The class is divided into two groups. The board is divided into two parts. One student from each group goes to the board. The teacher gives them a sentence to write. For example: write the word in the middle of the board, and the prefix and suffix at the right and left hand side of the root word. Students are to race to the board to indicate whether the word has a prefix or suffix. All students are allowed to help the person at the board but they are not allowed to refer to any books or reference materials. No points will be awarded if any one of the teams uses a book or any reference materials. This enables the students to review a lot of material and identifies common problem areas. Furthermore, it fosters cooperation and unifies the students as a group. The next activity is the dictagloss. The dictagloss has originally been devised as a technique for learning vocabulary in a foreign language. It is also a useful technique to encourage students to work together to extract meaning from complex text. The dictagloss is a very useful activity that helps students to use language in order to learn. Students will have to listen to a text being read and reconstruct it. As students can also construct written summaries, a dictagloss also requires the students to consciously focus on their knowledge of the content and the relationship between ideas and words. Another activity is the use of a short text. A selected short text is read to the class at normal pace. The students listen for meaning. The text is read again and as it is being read, students are to jot down key words and phrases. Working in small groups the students pool their words and phrases and attempt to reconstruct the text from their shared resources. Their version should contain the main ideas of the text and approximate the language choices of the passage. Each group of students produces their own reconstructed version, aiming at grammatical accuracy and textual cohesion but not at replicating the original text. Each group presents their finished version to the class and each text is analysed and compared and the students should then refine their own texts in the light of the shared scrutiny and discussion. Next, a library can be set up within the classroom. The library can be graded. This encourage the student to read as they can have access to library books easily. Through reading, students pick up new words and thus widen their vocabulary. The student who read the most number of books will be rewarded. To make learning of vocabulary more enjoyable, students can also act out or have a pantomime where they are given cards with instructions like Open the parcel noiselessly, or Walk across the room cautiously, and perform the actions without speaking. The other students will try to guess the word or expression that the student is pantomiming. Each time, a student guess correctly, points will be awarded. To teach synonyms and antonyms, the teacher hands out a list of words to each student. There should be two columns next to each word, label the heading of each column, synonym and antonym. The teacher then read out the synonyms and antonyms of those words. The students have to write these words next to the word they are the same or the opposite of. It can be presented as such:- At the end of the lesson, the teacher goes through the lists with the class using a board. When reading a passage, students can be taught different meanings of familiar vocabulary so long as the words are not out of context, recognizing definitions, guessing cause and effect, opposite or contrasting words or phrases, focus on Subject-Verb-Order, where students guess what the general sense of the word it is. If it is a noun, specify whether it is a person, place, thing, abstract idea. If it is a verb, state whether it is an action, or a feeling or emotion.. If it is an adjective, state what the adjective is describing- Good or bad, Size, Colour, Shape or Emotion? To enable students to learn vocabulary in a fun way, a game called Password can be introduced. In this game, the class is divided into two teams. One person from each team sits in a chair in front of the class. Those two people receive a card with a vocabulary card. The first person gives a one-word clue to his/her team. If no one from the team can guess, the second person gives a clue to his/her team. This alternates back and forth until someone from one of the team guesses the word, or until a specified number of clues has been given. Points will be given to each team with the correct answer. The winning team will be awarded. Bibliography: http://eca.state.gov/forum/vols/vol42/no2/p16.htm http://www.collaborativelearning.org/howearthwasformed.pdf http://www.learnenglish.de/Teachers/synonymantonym.html The TESOL textbook Using what you have read in this introduction to TESOL and your own knowledge, what do you consider to be the blocks which may prevent language learning? One block of language learning is language learning style, as students learn differently from others. Getting to know the students learning style will help to match the kind of activities carried out in class to ensure effective learning. Teachers can also be more versatile and adopt a variety of teaching styles to suit the different learnings styles of the students. Fossilization and false learners can hinder the student from learning the new language. Fossilization often means that certain aspects of the language were learned incompletely or incorrectly, such as grammatical features like conjugating verbs in the wrong fashion or using the wrong vocabulary, in such a manner that they cannot be unlearned and replaced with correct usage. Fossilization may also consist of a sort of subconscious clinging to aspects of the learners mother tongue, for instance, with syntax and phonology. This may reflect an inability to similarly unlearn characteristics of a mother language for the purpose of learning another; the native language so deeply hardwired into the brain that its paradigms cannot be replaced when attempting to learn a new and foreign language. Another block to language learning is language prejudice. Stereotypes and cultural bias, the teachers accent are factors that may affect the learning of the language. For example, foreign accents are everywhere and are here to stay; nevertheless, accented English, for example, is looked down upon, generally quite sternly. In addition, within what is refer to as a language, certain ways of speaking that language (AAE, for example) meet with great prejudice, social and racial in nature. Thus, all language teachers must work to overcome language prejudice, as it generally serves as a mask over class and racial prejudice should be tolerated too. One of the biggest challenge ESL teachers face is that one ESL class may consist of students from many nations, even if, for example, they are all Spanish-speaking countries. The cultures of Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Columbia, and Mexico , for instance, are very much different, so teachers should not assume that students who share a common native language will share similar cultural backgrounds. Even students from different regions of the same country will have different cultural beliefs and traditions that should be honored and preserved. Being more conscious of the different cultures will help to make a better teacher. Extensive research has already been done in the area of native language interference on the target language. Dulay et al (1982) define interference as the automatic transfer, due to habit, of the surface structure of the first language onto the surface of the target language. Lott (1983: 256) defines interference as errors in the learners use of the foreign language that can be traced back to the mother tongue. Ellis (1997: 51) refers to interference as transfer, which he says is the influence that the learners L1 exerts over the acquisition of an L2. He argues that transfer is governed by learners perceptions about what is transferable and by their stage of development in L2 learning. In learning a target language, learners construct their own interim rules (Selinker, 1971, Seligar, 1988 and Ellis, 1997) with the use of their L1 knowledge, but only when they believe it will help them in the learning task or when they have become sufficiently proficient in the L2 for transfer to be possible. Other factors that may prevent language learning is being overly self-conscious about their use of language, and a fear of being misunderstood. Not having enough exposure within the class and outside will also prevent language learning, as students will not have enough opportunities to use the language. Generally, the difficulties adults face include the following: 1. Self conscious 2. no respect for teacher 3. fossilized errors 4. personal issues / politics 5. intrusions 6. different levels / abilities However, the difficulties teachers face include 1. lack of interest 2. time management 3. body language 4. Teacher Talk Time 5. ensuring participation Bibliography http://hufs.davidboesch.com/GSE_YLDownloads/Reid.Joy.LearningStylePreferenesESLLearners.pdf http://www.brighthub.com/education/languages/articles/63102.aspx http://www.asian-efl-journal.com/interviews_W-ONeil.php http://www.yourdictionary.com/esl/ESL_Classroom-and-Cultural_Sensitivity.html http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/English_as_an_additional_language_-_Difficulties_for_learners/id/5023415 It seems reasonable to suggest that the motivation that students bring to class is the biggest single factor affecting their success. Comment (500-750 words) Students of all ages, all around the world, are learning to speak English. Some students want to learn English because it is on the curriculum in school, but for others, it reflects a kind of choice. Like an instrument, students may learn it for a practical purpose. They may have moved into a target-language community and they need to operate successfully within the community. Students could also learn English for a Specific Purpose, where they may need to learn the language for legal purposes, business, tourism, banking or nursing. For those who are studying at an English speaking University, they may need to take English for Academic Purposes. Some learn English as it will be useful for travel. A variety of factors can create a desire to learn. Perhaps the learners love the subject, some are motivated for a practical reason, like being able to acquire a skill or knowledge. The desire to achieve some goal is the bedrock of motivation and if it is strong enough, provokes a decision to act. For an adult, it may involve enrolling in an English class. This kind of motivation which comes from outside the classroom and may be influenced by a number of external factors such as the attitude of society, family and peers, to the subject in question, is referred to as extrinsic motivation, that is, the motivation that is generated outside the classroom. Intrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is the kind of motivation that is generated by what happens inside the classroom; this could be the teachers methods, the activities that students can take part in, or their perception of success or failure. Students may be both extrinsically and intrinsically motivated. However, the danger of being extrinsically motivated is that it is harder to sustain than intrinsic. As the subject gets harder, students may give up or get bored with it. As adult learners, they may have a wider range of life experiences to draw on, both as individuals and as learners, than younger students do. They are more discipline, and have a clear understanding of why they are learning things, and can sustain their motivation. However, they come with a lot of previous learning experience which can hamper their progress. Students who had negative learning experiences in the past may be nervous of new learning. Students used to failure may be consciously or subconsciously prepared for failure. The task of the teacher would be to sustain their motivation. This could be done through the activities the teachers ask the students to take part in, will, excite their curiosity or provoke their participation help them to stay interested in the subject. The teacher needs to select an appropriate level of challenge so that things are neither too difficult nor too easy. Appropriate teacher qualities need to be displayed so that students can have confidence in their abilities. Students feedback is important as it shows how students feel about the learning process. Students need to feel that the teacher really cares about them; if students feel supported and valued, they are more likely to be motivated to learn. Encourage the students to make decisions in class over the choice of activities. This make the students feel they have some influence over what is happening, rather than always being told exactly what to do. In this way, they are often more motivated to take part in the lesso n. Nevertheless, however much the teacher does to foster the motivation of the student, we can only offer our support and assistance by word and deed. Real motivation comes from within each student themselves. Without motivation, the students are unlikely to succeed. Bibliography: How to Teach English by Jeremy Harmer. Knowing a language is not just a matter of having grammatical competenceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ We have seen that we also need to add to communicative competence that is the understanding of what language is appropriate within certain situations The Practice of Language Teaching Harmer. Is there any place for teaching grammar in a formal manner? Give reasons for you answer and include a formal discussion of what you mean by a formal manner. One of the main reasons that people need to pick up a language is for the purpose of communication. Lessons hence ought to facilitate language use where it is not just bits and pieces of vocabulary slotted in, but also involves language functions such as inviting, agreeing and disagreeing, suggesting and so on which students need to learn using a variety of language components. As teachers of communication, we have to facilitate the communication built in by personalized and imaginative exercises where the student can use the structure for himself. (Harmer). Teaching grammar in the formal manner refers to teaching grammar by translating grammar, where students would look at the word, dictionary and change it into their own language; in other words, using meta-language. Another method of teaching grammar is the direct approach forming sentences around new words. For example, students are given 10 sentences in aà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ (achieving grammatical competence?). Grammar translation still has relevance today, though it is not practiced in the same way. Nevertheless, most language learners translate in their heads in very much the same way by comparing it to their mother tongue. However, a total concentration on grammar translation stops students from getting the kind of natural language input that will help them acquire language and it fails to give them opportunities to activate their own language knowledge. Translation and mindless repetition of grammatical structure that is taught in formal grammar will be avoided as students need to k now not only the correct grammar, but also where and how to use it. Audiolingualism capitalized on the suggestion that if we describe the grammatical patterns of English, we have students repeat and learn them. Grammatical structures were presented in simple situations which exemplified their usage. Crucially too, the structures were hence graded so that students learnt the easy ones first before moving onto things that were more complex. Audiolingualism argued that learning is the result of habit formation, where performing the correct response to a stimulus means that a reward is given; constant repetition of this reward makes the automatic response.Audio-linguak classes hence made extensive use of drilling in which students produced the same grammatical pattern, but were prompted to use the different words within the grammatical pattern, in the hope that they would acquire good language habits. Nevertheless, audiolingualism does not expose students to real or realistic language, and were therefore unlike to produce natural sounding language themse lves. Language is not just patterns of grammar with vocabulary items slotted in, but also involves language functions such as inviting, agreeing and disagreeing, suggesting which students should learn how to perform using a variety of language components. Students also need to know about the appropriacy of the when talking and writing to people in terms of the kind of language they use (formal, informal, tentative, technical). Hence communicative competence is not just about the language but also about language use. The second principle of Communicative Language Teaching in gaining communicative competence is that so long as the students get enough exposure to language and opportunities for language use the language learning will take care of itself. As a result, has been teaching students to communicate real messages, and not just grammatically controlled language. Giving students different kinds of language, pointing them towards aspects of style and appropriacy, and above all giving th em opportunities to try out real language within the classroom humanized what had sometimes been rigidly controlled. Another approach to teaching English, which Berlitz adopts is the Lexical approach, which teaches learners to be fluent in the language in a short 6 months. The last method used today in teaching grammar is characterized as postmodern; where there is a return to grammar and blended learning. Learning to communicate alone might not be sufficient in effectively conveying themselves, as spoken grammar differs from written grammar, and some phrases appear in spoken English that we would not necessarily write; spoken grammar moreover is more informal than written grammar. Nevertheless, classroom technique is important to good effective communication, and for the right application of grammar for students to convey themselves meaningfully.