Descriptive Essay: “My Professor” Essay

On a Monday afternoon, after discussing my computer science project with my professor, I find myself seated in a visitor’s chair in his office on the second floor of the Glatfelter Hall. The professor is about to leave the room to grab some books and a cup of coffee, but he allows me to stay. (Seeing myself as a professor in the future, I enjoy hanging out in my professor’s office.) I am facing the door. Nothing is blocking my view. Twenty feet in front of me, the hallway intersects my vantage point, so I’m able to see students and professors moving left and right like pedestrians on a New York City street corner. Quickly, I put my computer science notebook in my backpack, get my ASUS pro-book, and create a blank document in Microsoft Word. My viewpoint is set and I now begin looking for subjects. My computer clock reads 4:13PM. To my left I can see wooden shelves of well-thumbed books on java, c++, unix, linux, a stack of Wired magazines, a coffee maker and a coffee mug, an out of box macbook air and an amazon box. In the hallway, coming from right, two short and skinny Asian looking males (subjects# 20130128/1 and 20130128/2) appear in view. As they head in my direction, I can hear their excited chatter in Chinese. With little smiles on their tan faces, they greet me. Straight black hair frames their flat faces with a narrow nose and wide cheekbones. They do not find the professor at his desk, so I tell them that the professor is expected to be back shortly. With the excited look in the faces, the subjects introduce themselves to me as Chang and Lionel. Wearing boat shoes, worn and tattered jeans and t-shirts with intricate logos, the subjects mention recently returning to campus from the study abroad program in Florence, Italy. In a few seconds, they leave and I do not see them again. Read Also:  Ideas for Descriptive Essay At 4:25 pm, suddenly, a pigeon-chested male, age 35-40,( subject# 20130128/3, â€Å"the Professor†) with a height of about five feet and eleven inches, a rectangular body shape and a flat stomach smiles, walks toward me and settles to my right into a height-adjustable, blue swivel chair with armrests. In front of him, I notice a chestnut brown, cluttered desk that could easily accommodate four people, but is accommodating around forty four thousand pages of books, exams, and magazines. I see no personal touches on his desk. There are no pictures or little knickknacks. Instead, a seventeen-inch black Lenovo monitor, with two slim speakers on each side, sits in the middle of the desk top. He mentions that he would like to use my help as a assistant in one of his introductory courses this semester. Politely, I nod. Sitting in his chair, the subject is lifting his coffee to his lips, taking baby sips. With his thick-framed glasses, his close-set, brown eyes carefully examine the computer screen directly in front of him. Intently focused, he barely blinks. Bushy dark black hair frames a square face, with a cleanly-shaven rounded chin, a pointed nose, lopsided lips, and large ears. The face is not handsome, but rather engaging in its varied features. Casually attired in a dark blue polo shirt, navy blue jeans, and black sketchers with a lace-up closure, he is dressed for comfort, function, and minimal maintenance rather than for appearance. His chair has a tilt-function, but he is sitting straight as if he is in the economy seat of a Boeing airliner. His long fingers are slowly moving on the keyboard, suggesting no errors. Hanging around the back of his chair is a black, weathered rain jacket and a hook of an umbrella indicating his awareness of today’s rain forecast. Suddenly he stands up. Intelligent, scruffy, intense, and abstracted, he stares on the blackboard to his right. With a small piece of chalk in his hand, he writes feverishly the points that would like to explain in the colloquium this week. His handwriting is terrible: he is block-printing each letter like a junior draftsman. Intensely occupied with his work, he seems oblivious to my presence. A few seconds later, he sinks back into his seat and stares back into the screen. An attractive blond female student (subject # 20130128/2) appears at the door. We make an eye contact and smile at each other. She is wearing an orange and blue Gettysburg track and field sweatshirt, crinkle blue tight jeans, a snug and agile pair of pink, Nike running shoes. She makes an eye contact with the professor, greets him, and the two begin chatting. I pick up pieces of the conversation. Seeming to ignore my presence, the student is explaining that last night’s electronic homework was delayed because her computer crashed. Professor, with a mildly flippant attitude but underlying seriousness, squeezes a genuine smile: he seems to be giving the benefit of doubt to the student, although his look tells me that he has a well-honed bullshit detector. Unlike the hurried words from student, he speaks slowly using a careful word choice and without contradictions, is sensitive to the nuances and precision of language, but not devoid of empathy. Interestingly, both appear intent on avoiding eye contact, and after a few minutes, sensing the conversation is coming to a close, she looks up at him again as a sign to leave, and, seeming to receive assent, turns around to exit. I eye my computer clock. It reads 4: 47 PM. I sit for three more minutes. Nobody is around now, the professor back at his computer. I conclude my mission, shut down my laptop, say goodbye to my professor and head out of the room.

Chapter 5 American Government

11. A plurality is more than half the votes cast. (false) -the state of being plural or numerous 12. A ward is a unit into which cities are often divided for the election of city council  members. (true) 13. An ideological party arises over a particular issue or crisis and soon fades away. (false) – they arise because of their beliefs on a matter and are long-lived. 14. Partisanship means membership in one of the major parties. (false) Partisanship is a noun meaning an inclination to favor one group or view or opinion over alternatives 15. hey bring people together to achieve control of the government. 16. divisive because if it wasn’t for the fact they need to eventually â€Å"make up† they would go their separate ways. 17. public officeholders , partisanship 18. inbred supported by the arrangements is a principle reason why challenging to the system. By minor parties. 19. Each of the parties have their own views, and each agree on weakness, religion, and othe r. 20. shared the same ideals, same basic, principles, and the same patterns of belief. 21. – federalist B- alexander hamliton and support constitution 22 a – civil war signaled it B one party domination 23 American political landscape – franklin Roosevelt election 24 The present era is known as the era of divided government. Neither party has consistently held on to the presidency. Congress is also usually controlled by the opposing party as well. 25- The four types of minor parties consist of the ideological parties, the single-issue parties, the economic protest parties and the splinter parties. 26. The Election of 1912 Roosevelt created The Progressive Party a. k. a the Bull Moose Party. Roosevelt beat Taft in electoral votes. 27 the president is the parties leaders 28. leader of the national committee 29. 1. Republican or demo. 2 split- ticketing voting 3. parties = open 4. changing of technology 31. yes because everyone has the own opinion and that is what the us is made up of.. everyone’s individual self’s. 32 minor parties aren’t even popular enough to vote and won’t even allow them to win. 33. commercials

Tourism and Hospitality Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Tourism and Hospitality Research - Essay Example Research help players in the hospitality industry to understand the best ways provide services for customers. Primary research aids in gathering of information used in books and the respective fields across the globe. While the benefits of research are obvious, it is still debatable if there is such a thing as perfect research. Because of the value laden nature of research, subjectivity of facts, and bias of researchers, I agree with Griffith’s assertion â€Å"there is no hope of doing perfect research† (Griffiths, 1998, p97). I argue that despite the absence of perfect research, researchers should be objective, and provide information that is helpful for the tourism industry. Coherent and functional research is achievable through objectivity, respect of rules and ethics and emphasis on validity. 2. My Research Approach: Positive Paradigm For my research, I chose Positivism as my paradigm. The positive paradigm accrues from the ideas of French Philosopher August Comte. Comte observed that observation and reasons are essential to understanding human behavior. He emphasized the role of experience of senses accrued after repeated observation and experiments. Positivist thinkers resonate with Comte’s views because they enhance knowledge acquisition by embodying science as an instrumental tool of research. Determinism, empiricism, parsimony, and generality are key facets of the positive paradigm. Determinism argues that human events are caused by circumstances. Understanding circumstances is, therefore, critical for a substantial research work. Empiricism premises on the use of evidence to support theories. Parsimony implies that explanations for research should be brief and concise (Dash, 2012). Even though positive paradigm has been influential in shaping research, it has been criticized for its lack of acknowledgement for side issues such as subjective state of individuals, the assumption that human nature is passive, and it is under the prer ogative of the external environment (Hossard, 1993). 3. Why Positive Paradigm? Positive paradigm emphasizes objective approach while carrying out research. It also encourages the use of experiments and analysis subject to quantitative and qualitative data. Despite its limitation such as the emphasis on the environment as a key player of occurrences, and the assumption that human nature is passive, positive paradigm provides the best platform upon which a study on tourism and hospitality can be undertaken (Anderson, 1998). I considered the following questions before I chose the positive paradigm as my preferred research method. What are my social phenomena? Is my opinion on tourism and hospitality subjective or objective What are the sources of knowledge for this study? Can more sources be created? What is the relationship between tourism and hospitality and the environment? I realized that positive paradigm provided the best strategy for undertaking this research. First, because the positive paradigm encourages the discovery of new facts dues its objectivity, it creates room for me to inject my personal discoveries. Second, because of tourism and hospitality’s a direct correlation with the environment, I figured that the environment would be an influential player in the research. I also realized that in this industry, key sources of information

Occupational Health and Safety College Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Occupational Health and Safety College - Essay Example The paper highlights possible legal ‘loopholes’ which culpable ‘officers’ may exploit to evade personal prosecution, and it concludes by making some recommendations on what additional reforms may be introduced to augment the effectiveness of the bill. For purposes of this discussion, the five main objectives of the Model Bill can be further condensed into only three key outcomes. Firstly, the bill seeks to establish a harmonised and nationwide framework for defining O H & S criteria in Australia, and to continually strengthen this framework through regular education and training. Secondly, the bill seeks to identify all stakeholders involved in the implementation of O H & S regulations, and to specify the duties and obligations of these stakeholders. Finally, the bill seeks to clarify the enforcement measures provided by the bill and to specify the penalties imposed on organisations or individuals who shirk their O H & S responsibilities. The Model Bill distinguishes between two broad categories of ‘officers’. One category comprises of public officers working for regulatory bodies such as government departments or local authorities. As stated in the bill: â€Å"A person who makes, or participates in making, decisions that affect the whole, or a substantial part, of the business or undertaking of a Government department, public authority or local authority is taken to be an officer of the Crown†¦Ã¢â‚¬  " (S. 244). As further stated in the appendix of the bill, "A jurisdiction will need to include local provisions to ensure that appropriate arrangements are made for the appointment as an inspector or a person who is an inspector under a

Theory of Speech and thought presentation in Ulysses and The Dubliners Essay

Theory of Speech and thought presentation in Ulysses and The Dubliners by James Joyce - Essay Example Many of the formal features telling apart the modes of speech and thought presentation are similar. Their effects, however, vary and more so in the narrator’s language distance from or proximity to the ideology they seek to put across. Free Indirect Speech and Free Indirect Thought are usually put under the umbrella of Free Indirect Discourse (FID) (Zelma, 2010). Theory of speech In analyzing the theory of speech, its presentation can be categorized as follows: 1. Direct Speech In the following sentence: She said, â€Å"I will make avocado juice tomorrow.† The formal markers are as follows; There are two clauses. One being the reporting ‘She said’ and the other the reported ‘I will make avocado juice’ There are the quotation marks placed around the reported clause First and second person pronouns have been used The tense of the verb used in the reporting clause is always either in the past or historical present, for example,’ She saidâ⠂¬â„¢ or ‘She says’ Any tense can be applied in the reported clause as per the time reference of the proposition. However, the correct grammar has to be adhered to at all times. Deictic markers can be used as per the time and place reference (Zelma, 2010) 2. Indirect Speech (IS) She said she would make avocado juice the following day The formal markers that point to the transition from direct speech to indirect speech are: The reporting clause in this case is viewed as the main clause (She said), and the reported clause is seen as the dependent clause. The sign that she shows this dependency is the use of the relative pronoun ‘that’ (Zelma, 2010). There are no quotation marks placed around the reported clause The first and second person pronouns transform into third person pronouns. The tense in the reported clause is brought from the back to the front   Ã¢â‚¬Å"Close† deictic markers transform to farther markers. For example, here changes to there a nd tomorrow changes to the following day. Verbs of movement that imply â€Å" motion towards† (come) transform to verbs of movement that imply motion â€Å"away from† ( return, go) However, depending on the perspective, the deictics may retain their form. This is especially relevant in the case that the perspective refers to the person ‘here’. In such a case, the sentence becomes ‘She said she would make avocado juice tomorrow’ (Zelma, 2010). 3. Free Direct Speech Free Direct Speech is a type of Direct Speech which does not include either the quotation marks or reported clauses. The effect of Free Direct Speech is that the narrator appears as the intermediary. 4. Narrative Reports of Speech Acts This entails sentences that only give the impression that speech occurred without necessarily stating what was said. 5. Free Indirect Speech Thought presentation The presentation of s character’s thought is not very easy given that the thoughts of a human being can not be directly reached. However, the authors tend to make the readers believe that they can read the minds of their characters in order to enable the full understanding of characters. The author may choose from the categories of the speech presentation but despite this, the very fact that they are posing to be readers of others’

The similarities and differences about buddhism between China and Research Paper

The similarities and differences about buddhism between China and Japan - Research Paper Example idual choice for a particular religion is not one unique aspect as there are several influences that make one follow the belief of their ancestors by default. It is only when one is mature enough to think and ponder upon the teachings that he either becomes more devout in his beliefs or seeks new religions to satisfy his thirst for a solid system of principles that he deems supportive and moral. Buddhism is one of the five most followed religions of the world. The concept revolves around the attainment of a state of satisfaction or nirvana, through spiritual development, meditation and acting upon principles of morality and wisdom. The word Buddhism is composed of the word called ‘budhi’ that means enlightenment or awakening. This signifies the origin of Buddhism as the awakening of Siddhartha Gotama’s mind at the age of 35, some 2500 years back. This man is now known as Buddha and his idols are paid respects by the followers of Buddhism worldwide. The concept of a creator or a God is not included as the teachings of this religion, thus is does not revolve around strengthening the bond between the creator and the humans. On the contrary, it believes that change is inevitable and in order for a person to attain a state of spiritual satisfaction he has to act morally and follow the teachings that are designed to help him live through his lifelonguncertaint ies without being wavered. The concept of Buddhism basically starts off with the journey of Buddha and his path of enlightenment. Buddha was born in a royal family in today’s Nepal 2500 years ago. Not having seen any suffering or discomfort in his life, he lived peacefully within his family’s royal enclosure. However, once he stepped out into the real word he saw scenes that were unknown to him, that of poverty, suffering and the harsh realities of life. This incident made him set out to find a balanced way of life that was fair and neither of the two extremes of poverty and luxury. He was resting during

Community Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Community - Research Paper Example The discussion involves contact information of the resource, detailed type of support given, and summary of the reasons for the selection of the resources. Family Justice Center Family Justice Center is a community resource center that is concerned with domestic violence. The organization is located within San Diego, California. The following are the contact details for the Family Justice Center (Familyjusticecenter.org): Address: 707 Broadway, Suite 700, San Diego, CA 92101 Telephone: 888-511-3522 Website: http://www.familyjusticecenter.org Family Justice Center is a community resource organization that is involved in developing and supporting local families through giving hope to hurting families. The vision and mission of the Family Justice Center revolve around creating a future environment where all the needs, especially of hurting families can easily be obtained via national and international coordination. Through Family Justice Center, children are given the necessary protecti on, batters are charged with their actions, there is an urge to fade away violence, and increase economic justice amongst the victims (Familyjusticecenter.org). ... house.com): Address: 2095 North Indian Canyon Drive  Ã‚   Palm Springs, CA 92262, United States Telephone: 888-511-3522 Website: http://www.michaelshouse.com/ Michael’s House Drug & Alcohol Treatment & Rehabilitation is a community resource organization that depends of chemicals to treat or meet the various needs of the addicted citizens in California and its environs. The resource organization was established in order to addressing various problems of individuals who needed special assistance and care in order to recover from their addiction. The main driving factor that constantly makes Michael’s House Drug & Alcohol Treatment & Rehabilitation to continue to provide adequate and efficient assistance to addicts is the enhanced staff-client ratio by maintaining only 24 patients (Michaelshouse.com). Brain Injury Association of California Brain Injury Association of California is a community resource organization located within Bakersfield in California that continues t o provide adequate services to various individuals with brain injury. The following are the contact details of Brain Injury Association of California (Biausa.org): Address: 1800 30th St., Suite 250 Bakersfield, CA 93301, United States Telephone: (661) 872-4903 Website: http://www.calbia.org/ Brain Injury Association of California is a non-profit making organization that is affiliated to Brain Injury Association of America with a mission and vision revolving aroid being the voice of brain injury whilst ensuring a world where brain injuries are significantly reduced. Brain Injury Association of California’s actions and resources towards the community are guided by the concepts of strong leadership, service to entire humanity, and integrity. Indeed, Brain Injury Association of California has been an

CAse study Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

CAse study - Research Paper Example The major considerations is whether there exists a trade off in the amount of revenue that hospital earns and the speed up to which the revenue is collected. According to an empirical test conducted between 2004 and 2006 on the relationship that exists among vital financial effective hospital revenue cycle management measures. The article clearly shows that with increased revenue collection there is an increased amount of net patient income for every adjusted discharge, reduced contractual budgets, as well as reduced bad debts. On the other hand, the charity care provisions are higher in hospitals with that have a higher revenue collection speed. Therefore, the article comes up with a conclusion that there is no evidence trade off that exists between patent revenue amount and the revenue collection speed. However, these financial gains of effectual hospital revenue cycle management in most cases go hand in hand. Thus, it is indicated that early results are a complementary, showing th at effectual hospital revenue cycle management attains a multiple of positive results. Another article â€Å"The State of Health Care Revenue Cycle.† By Solomon P. (2011). Suggests that revenue cycle management in all administrative and clinical activities have a relationship to generating and collecting patient revenue. These activates have gained a lot of importance in current business environment whereby hospitals receive challenges in underpayments and delay in payments. Although there is continued practitioners interest, there is no much attention drawn from revenue cycle management in health care financial research. There are studies that have been conducted on current revenue cycle management procedures with an aim of coming up with a financial gains measure in the context of increasing the amount of patient speed in the revenue collection. According to correlation analysis,

History II Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

History II - Essay Example Japanese targeted Pearl Harbor and attacked Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor is located on the west of Honolulu on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. It is under the command of United States Pacific Fleet. Japanese army attacked the Pearl Harbor on the 7th of December 1941. The impact of this attack was massive and began World War II. In the past the Pearl Harbor contained a shallow entrance and it was impossible for the large ships to enter the harbor (Hakim 93). The United States pacific fleet was previously located at the San Diego. Then President Franklin D. Roosevelt relocated it and sent it to the Hawaii (Hakim 149). The American invasion in the Hawaii made changes to the harbor and the rules related to it. The main motive of making of Pearl Harbor as narrated by United State is to protect the sailor and other men which are related to whaling industry (Hakim 152). It was decided to make pearl harbor a duty free harbor to increase the trade in the vicinity. By the start of the 1900 to 1908 t he American Navy expanded and improved the services (Hakim 153). On the day of 7th December 1941 Japanese imposed a surprise military attack on the United States Navy at the Pearl Harbor. According to Japanese the imposed military action is to avoid United States Navy to interfere in the Japanese invasion to the other parts of the world (Hoyt 104). The Japanese air strike nearly crushed many of the United States naval ships.

Translation and Interpreting Essay Example for Free

Translation and Interpreting Essay Introduction As I was preparing to put my ideas in order and reflect upon what I was going to write for my essay on International Communication, I suddenly remembered the last lecture on the subject. It was about translating and interpreting, so I figured out that an essay on the translation challenges in todays world would be a great idea to write about. I personally knew Dumitru Toncia, my sister-in-law relative, who had worked in the field for many years, so we had a meeting in which I took some interesting notes. He is specialized in English and French. There are a lot of definitions for International Communication, but I consider it to contain aspects of intercultural understandings, communicaton theory, intercultural communication, croscultural communication, mass communication, intercultural psychology, congnition psychology, area-study like society, culture, constitution, law, education, language etc Proper translation and interpreting has become more and more demanding, and this paper deals with the qualities translators or interpreters should posses in the international environment today. It also outlines some grammar and semantics issues that turn this filed into a real challenge. I hope the examples he drew from his experience in translation will give you an interesting insight into some of the most frustrating problems encountered when transferring ideas from one language to another. Taking part in the selection of candidates for translator jobs in international environments, Toncia has often been amazed by the fact that a number of candidates with a perfect knowledge of both the source and the target languages and an impressive mastery of the relevant field could be very poor translators indeed. Why is that? One of the human factors is the lack of modesty. The translators personality and intelligence interfere with the very humble task he has to perform. Instead of putting aside his own ideas, fantasies and style to follow blindly the authors, he merges, adds or transforms. Anyway, besides humility, candidates must possess two other qualities: judgment and flexibility. Judgment By judgment I mean the ability to solve a problem through wide knowledge of the field, through awareness that a problem exists and through taking into account the various levels of context. Wide knowledge of the field. Lets take the phrase to table a bill. The translator must know that if the original is in British English, it means to submit a bill i. e. a text proposed to become law to the countrys legislative body, in French deposer un projet de loi, but that if the author followed American usage, he meant to shelve, i. e. to adjourn indefinitely the discussion of the text, in French ajourner sine die lexamen du projet de loi Here is another example. The word heure in French can mean hour as well as oclock. To be able to translate correctly the French phrase une messe de neuf heures, you have to know that a Catholic mass lasting nine hours is extremely improbable, so that the translation is a nine oclock mass, and not a nine hour mass. Since the linguistic structure is exactly the same in un voyage de neuf heures, which means a nine hour journey, only knowledge of the average duration of a mass can help the translator decide. Awareness that a problem exists. When you become a professional translator, the chief development that occurs in you during your first three or four years consists in becoming aware of problems that you had no idea could exist. If you are transferred to another organization, the whole process will start anew for a few years because the new field implies new problems that are just as hidden as in your former job. Some people may know that in the history of international communication there was an organization called International Auxiliary Language Association. Well, if you ask people how they understand that title, you will realize that, for a number of them, it means international association dealing with an auxiliary language, whereas for others it means an association studying the question of an international auxiliary language. The interesting point lies not so much in the ambiguity as in the fact that most people are not aware of it. When exposed to the phrase, they immediately understand it in a certain way and they are not at all conscious that the very same words are susceptible to another interpretation and that their immediate comprehension does not necessarily reflect what the author had in mind. Similarly, most junior translators simply do not imagine that the words English teacher usually designate, not a teacher who happens to be a British citizen, but somebody who teaches English and can be Japanese or Brazilian as well from any English speaking country.. Taking into account the various levels of context. The English word repression has two conventional translations in French. In politics, the French equivalent is repression, whereas in psychology, it is refoulement. You might believe at first glance that translating it correctly is simply a matter of knowing to what field your text belongs. If it deals with politics, you use one translation, if with psychology another. Reality is not that simple. Your author may use the psychological sense within a broad political context. For instance, in an article dealing with the Stalin era, you may have a sentence beginning with Repression by the population of its spontaneous critical reactions led to In this case, although the text deals with politics, the sentence deals with psychology. The narrow context is at variance with the broad context. Flexibility Besides judgment, the other quality I mentioned as indispensable to make an acceptable international translator is flexibility. This refers to the gymnastics aspect of translation work. Mastering the specialized field and the two relevant languages is not enough, you have to master the art of constantly jumping from one into the other and back. Languages are more than intellectual structures. They are universes. Each language has a certain atmosphere, a style of its own, that differentiates it from all others. If you compare such English expressions as software and, on a road sign, soft shoulder with their French equivalents, you realize that there is a very definite switch in the approach to communication. The French translations are respectively logiciel and accotements non stabilises. The English phrases are concrete, metaphorical, made up, with a zest of humor, from words used in everyday speech, although this does not contribute to better comprehension: knowing the meaning of soft and of shoulder does not help you to understand what a soft shoulder is. In French, the same meanings are conveyed by abstract and descriptive terms, which do not belong to everyday usage. You dont understand them either, but for a different reason: because they are based on too intellectual, too sophisticated, too unusual morphemes, so that most foreigners have to look up the words in dictionaries. The difficulty lies in the fact that this difference in approach has to be taken into account at the level, not only of words (a good dictionary may often solve that problem), but of sentences. Consider the sentence Private education is in no way under the jurisdiction of the government. It includes mostly English words of French origin, but common etymology does not imply a common way of expressing ones thoughts. In this case, a good French rendering would be Lenseignement libre ne releve en rien de lEtat. You will realize the importance of those differences in the approach to communication if you take the French sentence as the original and translate it literally into English. The result would be Free teaching does not depend in any way from the State, which means something quite different, especially to an American. In order to translate properly, you have to feel when and how to switch from one atmosphere to another. The problem is that with languages, you never know how you know what you know. If, in a text dealing with economic matters, a good translator meets the phrase the life expectancy of those capital goods, he knows because he feels that he has to translate it by la longevite des equipements. He also knows that when that same text mentions the consumers life expectancy, hell have to say, in French, esperance de vie, because the author for a while deals with a demographic concept which is included in his economic reasoning. But how does he know he knows? He doesnt know. This ability to adjust to the various approaches to reality or fantasy embodied in the different languages, linked to an ability to pass constantly back and forth, is what is called flexibility. This is the quality which is the most difficult to find when you recruit translators. We can now approach the same field from a different angle, asking ourselves the question: what are the problems built-in in languages that make judgment and flexibility so important in translation work? They relate to the grammar and the semantics of both the source and the target languages. Grammar The more a language uses precise and clear-cut grammatical devices to express the relationships among words and, within a given word, its constitutive concepts, the easier the task for the translator. The worst source languages for translators are thus English and Chinese. A Chinese sentence like ta shi qunian shengde xiaohair can mean both he (or she) is a child who was born last year and it was last year that she gave birth to a child. In English similar ambiguities are constant. In International Labor Organization, the word international refers to organization, as shown in the official French wording: Organisation internationale du Travail. But in another UN specialized agency, the International Civil Aviation Organization, the word international is to be related with aviation, not with organization, as shown, again, by the French version: Organisation de laviation civile internationale (and not Organisation internationale de laviation civile). This is legally and politically important, because it means that the organization is competent only for flights that cross national boundaries. It is not an international organization that deals with all problems of non-military flying. However, since the linguistic structure is similar in both cases, no text analysis can help the translator; he has no linguistic means to decide which is which. He has to refer to the constitution of the relevant organization. Many mistakes made by professional translators result from the impossibility, in English, to assign an adjective to its noun through grammatical means. When a translator rendered Basic oral health survey methods by Methodologie des enquetes fondamentales sur letat de sante bucco-dentaire, he was mistaken in relating the word basic to survey, whereas it actually relates to methods, but he should be forgiven, because only familiarity with the subject enables the reader to understand what refers to what. The correct translation was Methodologie fondamentale applicable aux enquetes sur letat de sante bucco-dentaire. Toncias wife teaches translation to American students who come to Geneva for one year. A standard translation task she gives them includes the subtitle Short breathing exercises. Every year, half her class understands exercises in short breathing, whereas the real meaning is short exercises in deep breathing. The fact that native speakers of English so consistently make the same mistake, although the context provides all the necessary clues, its still a wonder. The fact that, in English, the endings -s, -ed and -ing have several grammatical functions often complicates matters. In the sentence He was sorting out food rations and chewing gum, it is impossible to know if the concerned individual was chewing gum while sorting out food rations, or if he was sorting out two kinds of supplies: food, and chewing gum. Semantics Problems caused by semantics are particularly difficult for human translators. They are of two kinds: (1) the problem is not apparent; (2) the problem is readily seen, but the solution either requires good judgment or does not exist. An example of the first category is provided by the phrase malaria therapy. Since malaria is a well known disease, and therapy means treatment, a translator not trained in medical matters will think that it means treatment of malaria. But the semantic field of therapy is not identical with that of treatment, although this is not apparent if you simply consult a dictionary (Websters defines therapy as treatment of a disease). It would be too long to explain here the differences, but the fact is that malaria therapy should be rendered, not by traitement du paludisme, but by impaludation therapeutique or paludotherapie , because it means that the malaria parasite is injected into the blood to elicit a febrile reaction designed to cure the attacked disease, which is not malaria. In other words, it means treatment by malaria and not treatment of malaria. In the French version, published by Albin Michel, of Hammond Innes novel Levkas Man, one of the characters complains about les jungles concretes in which an enormous population has to live (Hammond, 1998, p.82). This does not make sense for the French reader. What the author meant by concrete jungles was jungles de beton, i. e. high-rise housing developments made of concrete. This is a case in which the translator was not aware of the existence of a semantic problem, namely that concrete has two completely unrelated meanings: a building material, and the opposite of abstract. An example of a semantic problem requiring good judgment is the word develop. It has such a wide semantic field that it is often a real nightmare for translators. It can mean setting up, creating, designing, establishing and thus refer to something that did not exist before. It can mean intensifying, accelerating, extending, amplifying, and thus express the concept making larger, which implies that the thing being developed has been concretely in existence for some time. But it can also mean tapping the resources, exploiting, in other words making use of something that has been having a latent or potential existence. In all other languages, the translation will vary according to the meaning, i. e.to that particular segment the author had in view within the very wide semantic field covered by the word. To know how to translate to develop such or such an industry, you have to know if the said industry already exists or not in the area your text is covering. In most cases, the text itself gives no clue on that matter. Only the translators general culture or his ability to do appropriate research can lead him to the right translation. Such a simple word as more can pose problems, because its semantic area covers both the concepts of quantity and of qualitative degree. What does more accurate information mean? Does it mean a larger amount of accurate information or information that has greater accuracy? And how can you translate cute into another language? The concept simply does not exist in most. Conversely, the French word frileux has no equivalent in English, so that a simple French sentence like il est frileux cannot be properly translated. Still, you can say he feels the cold terribly or he is very sensitive to cold. Although those are poor renderings, they are acceptable. What most resists translation is the adverbial form: frileusement. How can you translate il ramena frileusement la couverture sur ses genoux? You have to say something like He put the blanket back onto his knees with the kind of shivering movement typical of people particularly sensitive to cold. To those of you who might think that this is literary translation, something outside your field of research, I have to emphasize that descriptions of attitudes and behavior are an integral part of medical and psychological case presentations, so that the above sentence should not be considered unusual in a translators practice. An enormous amount of words, many of them appearing constantly in ordinary texts, present similar difficulties. Such words as commodity, consolidation, core, crop, disposal, to duck, emphasis, estate, evidence, feature, flow, forward, format, insight, issue, joint, junior, kit, maintain, matching, predicament, procurement and hundreds of others are quite easy to understand, but no French word has the same semantic field, so that their translation is always a headache. Dictionaries dont help, because they give you a few translations that never coincide with the concept as actually used in a text; in most cases the translations they suggest do not fit with the given context. Another case in point is provided by the many words that refer to the organization of life. You cannot translate Swiss Government by Gouvernement suisse, because the French word gouvernement has a much narrower meaning than the English one. In French, you have to say le Conseil federal or la Confederation suisse according to the precise meaning. The French word gouvernement designates what in English is often named cabinet. The English word government is one of the frustrating ones. You may render it by lEtat, les pouvoirs publics, les autorites, le regime or similar words, evaluating in each case what is closest to the English meaning, and you have to bear in mind that at times it should be sciences politiques (for instance in the sentence she majored in government, in which the verb major is another headache, because American studies are organized in quite a different way from studies in French speaking countries). The Russian word dispanserizacija illustrates a similar problem. It designates a whole conception of public health services that has no equivalent in Western countries. If you want your reader to understand your translation, you should, rather than translate it (it would be easy enough to say dispensarisation), explain what it means. Conclusion As you see, each one of the problems mentioned in the paper makes the translators task very arduous indeed. Problems caused by ambiguities, unexpressed but implied meanings, and semantic values without equivalent in the target language require a lot of thinking, a special knowledge of the field and a certain amount of research as for instance when you have to find out if an industry being developed already exists or not, or if secretary Tan Buting is a male or a female, which, in many languages, will govern the correct form of the adjectives and even the translation of  secretary (Sekreter? Sekreterin? ) . Such problems take up 80 to 90% of a professional translators time. A translator is essentially a detective, Toncia uses to say, and it is true. He has to make a lot of phone calls, to go from one library to another (not so much to find a technical term as to understand how a process unfolds or to find basic data that are understood, and thus unexpressed, among specialists) and to tap all his resources in deduction. These days we all seem to take the right of being a professional translator, but on closer look things are not so simple. In the international environment today, proper communication has become extremely important, and seemingly insignificant mistakes could cause a lot of trouble for the parties involved. In cases when proficient translation or interpreting is required, saving money by hiring someone from your staff instead of a competent professional is not a choice I would recommend. Bibliography Hammond , I. , 1998 Levkas Man, William Collins Larousse, 1994 Dictionaire de la langue fracaise, Lexis Philip, B. , 2000 Websters Third New International Dictionary, Webster Inc. Websites www. iti. org. uk- Institute or Translating and Interpreting http://www. naati. com. au- National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.

Threats to Prosperity and Stability of Developed Countries

Threats to Prosperity and Stability of Developed Countries Adrian Ma Over the past few decades many developed countries have taken the wrong steps to maintain peace with foreign states and have substantially increased the size of their government. Consequently, it becomes detrimental to any countries’ prosperity and stability; economic freedom is proportionate to size of government and war always affects the civil and moral progression of a society. When a government ignores the notion that â€Å"the individual† is the basic unit of social analysis, then the citizens cannot live life to their fullest potential. The problem perpetuates as more and more youth are becoming liberal because they are also becoming more liberal than the previous generation. The ongoing growing concept of liberalism is determining a lot of age groups to openly seek out help from the government and this strips away the dignity of each individual entailing rights and responsibility. According to an article, the average annual income per household in 2007 was appro ximately 53,000 and in 2013 it dropped to 48,000(Economist’s). The percentage of extra income the average person makes also made a noticeable drop from 5 to 4 percent meaning that it would take 5 extra years for them to double their income. This is an indicator that societies’ focus has transitioned from setting goals and seeking out to excel in certain areas to getting paid to support their financial situations, simply because of the expectation that the government is going to solve their problems. Individuals are the root of any prospering and stable economy, not the government. One top of government programs killing individualism, they also destroy millions of jobs. If citizens are constantly required to pay more and more taxes every year for government programs, not only will their financial situations get worse but competition will drastically decline as well. At the time government wasn’t involved in healthcare, it was cheap because private sectors fought to keep their businesses alive by competing with others and that factored in by lowering prices. All of these amazing â€Å"benefits† that the government forces insurance companies to provide us must be paid for by somebody and it’s those of us who aren’t in any allocations, work for the government, or have lobbyists to get us exemptions. Let’s look at Obamacare; there are so many faults because it tries to make every person happy. It centralizes on ensuring that people are covered rather than addressing the cost of care in the first place. It doesn’t benefit th e youth because they tend to be healthier and they don’t need as much coverage as the older age groups. It also increases the cost of everyone’s insurances because insurance companies are required to cover sick individuals. Healthcare in 2002 for a family of 4 cost approximately 9,235 dollars per year and after the government got involved it rose to a staggering $20,728 in 2012 (Milliman Medical Index). Another problem with government expansion is that it causes inflation; the increased debt ceiling from overspending and the Federal Reserve is just a cataclysmic combination for stability. Here’s the dilemma, whenever the government needs money instead of issuing their own notes backed back their own credit they issue treasury bonds, then they sell these bonds to the Federal Reserve which buys them with money they created out of thin air. The money that the Federal Reserve creates later goes to the government meaning it has to pay interest on the money the Federal Reserve lends to the treasury. This means that there will never be enough money in circulation to pay off the debt. The liquidation of debt is what makes an economy prosper and stabilize. Looking back at how the depression ended, a number of people believed the gold standard was the gold standard but they were mistaken, the countries that were able to liquidate their debt first got out of it. After World War 2, the g overnment cut 60% of the budget, 30% on tax rates, and around 9 million military personnel came home causing all the bad debt to be liquidated, hence, ending the depression. The constant printing of money may have bailed out major corporations during the depression but the problem originated from a governments belief that they can run the economy. The price stability reduces and a side function of an unstable dollar is the large swing in consumer prices. Another issue that developed countries overlook is the importance of economic freedom, it is more than just the freedom to buy and sell products and services. It allows us to be free in our interactions with other people. It also empowers people to travel, to say what they want to say, and to do what they want to do. It is about being free to make our own choices. A lot of those things are positive indicators of a healthy country and for a government to interfere may form impairment. Based on facts, the more economic freedom country has indicates that everyone is better off. The economic freedom of North America Index indicate that states with more economic freedom have higher growth rates of the economy, 4.6% GDP in the 25 least free states and 5.5% in the 25 most free states; lower unemployment rates, 5.5% in the 25 least free labor markets and 4.9% in the most free labor markets; less debt per GDP than states that are less free, 16.2% in the 25 states with least tax freedom and 15 .7% in the 25 states with the most tax freedom (2000-2009, LearnLiberty). All of these things people associate with economy health are also associated with economic freedom, and the same phenomenon also occurs with the countries of the world. The most economically free countries have GDP’s per capita that are about 10 times the size of less economically free countries. Some of the counter arguments I’ve encountered is that the GDP per capita only measures average income but it is untrue. It’s possible to have a country with a small number of elite rich people and a large number of destitute people, and if people examine inequality measures what they should see is that the countries that are more economically free also have more equitable income distributions. Economic freedom is not only associated with higher income levels on average but it is also associated with more equitable income distribution. Skeptics have argued that economic freedom achieves economic i ncome because of exploitation, people and the environment. Based on the data, they are wrong. On average women in more economically free countries have more gender equality and child rates tend to be a lot lower. Some may say that child labor rates are lower in economically free countries because they are more prosperous and can import from but they are also mistaken. The same phenomenon occurs even amongst the poorest countries; the least free poor nations have 40% child labor rates and the freest poor nations have 37% child labor rates (2000-2009). The biggest threat to the prosperity and stability of any developed country is war and the longer it is the more it will cost. An administrator in the Bush Administration told American taxpayers in a hearing before the Iraq War that it would only cost 1.7 billion dollars. According to numerous sources, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will now cost taxpayers roughly 5 trillion dollars, and that isn’t even taking into account the long-term medical care and disability compensation for service members, veterans and families; military replenishment and social and economic costs; expensive repairs to a force depleted by just perpetual fighting. More problems arise with government healthcare because the government owes it to them for fighting their wars. In the United States alone, a quarter of a million troops have suffered traumatic brain injuries (TBI) putting a bigger toll on the government healthcare system. Even the war on drugs also threatens the stability and prosperity of a country but that’s another issue. Governments should learn to take care of their own people before trying to solve other people’s problems. Our ability to cooperate, to help each other out develops when there is no conflict and when individuals have a smaller reliance on government. They recognize themselves in each other and are programmed for compassion. All of those things make them stronger, faster, and smarter. It relates to why communism doesn’t work as well as it should because human beings are biologically engineered to be competitive in nature and freedom drives then to work harder for success. If a government takes away our rewards and shares it with others then a specific majority will feel less rewarded, thus, competition and innovation is automatically promoted by limiting the government’s role in an economy. In a free economy, people will constantly find ways to create and offer better values to customers than their rival firms. Competitors that do well focus on reality, inventions, innovations, and methods opposed to rivals per se. Citizens are given more of an inclination to be independent, unconventional, and rebellious towards societies’ opinions and norms. It is no wonder why most of the greatest discoveries came from the countries that are the most free. Works Cited Dominguez, J. (1995). The Caribbean in a new international context: Are freedom and peace a  threat to its prosperity? New Dynamics in Trade and Political Economy. Miami: North-South Center, University of Miami, 1-23. Picciotto, R., Weaving, R. (Eds.). (2013).Security and development: investing in peace and   prosperity. Routledge. Meltzer, A. H. (2010).A History of the Federal Reserve, Volume 2. University of Chicago Press. Berger, A. N., Hannan, T. H. (1988).The price-concentration relationship in banking(No. 23). Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (US). Dincecco, M. (2009). Fiscal centralization, limited government, and public revenues in  Europe, 1650–1913.The Journal of Economic History,69(01), 48-103. Paul, R. (2008).The Revolution: A Manifesto. Hachette Digital, Inc.. Davies, Antony. Learn Liberty.Learn Liberty. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Mar. 2014.  http://www.learnliberty.org/>.

Voiced Opinion :: essays research papers

Voiced Opinion There are several people in this plain west Texas town that are constantly turning up their noses at people who are contrasting to their high society cradle of humanity. It has gotten to where people can no longer express their individuality without having the proverbial finger shaken at them. If a person is not wearing the most elite of brands, then at best, that person will be ignored; in most cases, they will receive ridiculing looks and hatred filled words. Although these upper echelons are not necessarily of Christian faith, they carry a 'holier than thou'; attitude that portrays that they are better than everyone else. Quite a few people prefer to illustrate their individual personalities, instead of being 'just another sheep in the herd.'; They may choose to wear apparel that is, at the least, distinct from the population around them. The freethinking female may choose to embellish a long, black broomstick skirt, with her favorite Marilyn Manson T-shirt, accessorized by her over worn combat boots. She may also choose to wear darker make up to show her beauty in a gothic fashion. An open-minded male may adorn a pair of well-adapted denim jeans with holes in the knees. He might choose to wear an over-sized shirt that is garnished with the name of some eighties band that is of no importance to anyone other than himself. Unfortunately, individualists are banned from their choice of clothes in several areas of society. They are informed they can not wear their pieces of flair in malls or other public scenes because of the biased fear: if a human being looks unusual, that person is a threat to society. It is a shame that people who are so enormously creative and out going are chastise from showing themselves in genuine manner. If everyone were to share this yearning to be distinct, our terrestrial sphere would be a much more kaleidoscopic place to subside. Distinct individuals should be allowed to break out of their predetermined 'egg shell'; and should finally be able stand up for what they truly believe in.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There is one other factor that does not support freedom of expression: there are no stores that allow a person to be one's self. Several stores in the area are said to bestow such freedoms. The Attic is made to sound as if it offers the world in a breadbasket, but instead it is selling clothes that would not have gone over well, even in the 'funked out'; seventies.

Internet Censorship is Needed Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Topics

Internet Censorship is Needed During the past forty years, over a thousand studies have been conducted on the effects of film and television violence.   This research concluded that media violence, which includes television and movies, contributes to violence in the real world.   According to The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), one expert concluded, "To argue against it is like arguing against gravity." What have been potential effects of this media violence?   Below are some statistics produced by DOJ Statistics from the United States Department of Justice ("DOJ"): *  Ã‚   2.8 million juveniles were arrested in 1997.   Out of these, there were 2,500 murder arrests and 121,000 arrests for other types of violent crimes *  Ã‚   "Juveniles accounted for 19% of all arrests, 14% of murder arrests, and 17% of all violent crime arrests." - (Senate Committee on the Judiciary, 1999) *  Ã‚   There has been a 49% increase in the number of juvenile violent crime arrests between 1988 and 1997. *  Ã‚   18% of high school students carry weapons on a regular basis. *  Ã‚   9% of ...

Charles Goodyear Essay -- essays research papers

Charles Goodyear was born in New Haven, Connecticut on December 29, 1800 to Amasa and Cynthia Goodyear. Charles’s father was a hardware manufacture and a merchant. Amasa Goodyear built mainly farming tools like hayforks and scythes, which he invented. When Charles was a teenager he wanted to go into the ministry and become a pastor, but his father convinced him that he was a good business man and placed him in the hardware store of the Rogers brothers in Philadelphia at the age of seventeen. He worked there until he was twenty-one years old. At that time he returned to New Haven to join his father’s business, making farm tools. For five years he worked for his father, building up the family business. On August 24, 1824, while he was still working for his father he married Clarissa Beecher who also lived in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1826 Charles Goodyear decided to move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There he opened a hardware store where he sold the products that his f ather made. Four years after opening this store both Amasa and Charles Goodyear were bankrupt because they would extend credit to customers and the customers would never pay back the money that they owed. Charles’s health started to decline and both father and son owed tens of thousands of dollars. For the next thirty years Charles Goodyear was thrown in prison over ten times because he didn’t pay his debts. In 1834 when he was in New York, on a business trip, the Roxbury India Rubber Company caught his eye. ...

How to Be Successful Business Manager

How to be successful Business Manager Introduction Everyone desired to success. In the business field, becoming a successful manager is what the majority long for . No body changes into a well-rounded manager overnight. Learning is necessary for everyone during this process. â€Å"People learn to manage by managing under guidance of a good manager†Ã¢â‚¬â€-Michael Armstrong. Experiences can undoubtedly be an excellent tutor for success, but having a good guide can further allow one to make use of his or her experiences into the largest extent. Being a successful manager requires a huge amount of skills and knowledge.In this paper, not all elements will be mentioned, but the five essential elements have been chosen to be discussed: work smart , risk management, interpersonal talent and skills, Self-management and Leadership skills. Work Smart – Work Effectively and Efficiently To express how to work smartly, Susanne Madsen, a PRINCE2 and MSP practitioner and a qualified Corporate and Executive coach, tells us her tale of success. Work smarter, not harder, as explained by Susanne, means working less and accomplishing more by increasing the working quality. (2)To get things done wisely, she highlights the significance for correcting one’s internal persuasion and attitude towards his or her task that it is not a burden. One could , then, get the vigor for working again. According to the writer’s own experience, she shows that self-assessment and continuous self-adjustment are the paramount importance for success. She also suggests two key points: first, is deputation. A manager should depute the less vital jobs to the others and use those times to communicate more with the major person associated to the project for developing a better linkage with them.Second, is initiative. A manager should get a more well-round plan at the beginning instead of responding the incident or risk when it has been occurred. I am glad to read the inspirationa l article written by a top leader in the world. She gives a great arousal to me. Her sharing and skills are useful, not only at the workplace, but also at the senior academic level. I believe that many college students, just like me, are having the improper belief that the project is burdensome. Why can’t I alter my mindset to abandon the constraints and step up to success smartly?Just try it! Self-management Walter Vieira (2005) proves that people refuse to face realistic self-image and idealistic self-image is biased,(p. 33) and so to evade the results of their SWOT analysis which about their advantages, disadvantages, opportunities and threat environment. (p. 34) However, people do not understand their strength and weakness, will not be able to strengthen and improve , they cannot develop their abilities. In addition, they need to assess that whether they have the basis element include a positive goal, ambition and energy .They also need to know whether they have clearly a ware of their thoughts adaptable ,witty and creativity. He said that people have two reason of requesting an identity, one is for higher living standards, and another is satisfying others' expectation. He agreed with Cyrus Vance that people always evaluate their progress with friends. They were unhappy because their achievements are worse than the others. (p. 35) Therefore he reminded that people not to compare and assess their progress with others, because different people do different things ,will have different progress, as long as compliance with their own plans on the line. p. 35-36) But learning from observing others ,and the through others to observe their own, then the combined best quality of themselves and others. (p. 36) In my opinion, successful managers need to have a correct plan; in order to achieve their positive goals. I think Walter Vieira missed this important point. Therefore, they should know how to assess whether their plan is feasible under environment efforts . For example, their plan need to change when financial crisis. Leadership skills Leadership is the central factor to influence a general manager's success.In the book Successful Management, Neville (1995) believes that leadership has five main dimensions: first, defining a vision is the preliminary stage. The best leaders are adroit at thinking the unique and picking up creativity . They are not faint-hearted of change. When the vision has been ascertained, leaders should be attain it (17-8). Second, he said that commitment to success is not only about eagerness, drive and the will to win, it is also about the interminability of preparation (18). Third, he believes that leader should communicate unabashedly and frankly.Because communicate can let the team learn more experiences from each other (18). Fourth, is challenging in status quo. Young managers should find more innovative solutions in the business market (19). Finally, is about the personal characteristics which are found in extraordinary leaders. He highlights that flexibility, enthusiasm, integrity, willingness to experiment, ability to inspire others, to build relationship, to inspire trust, to communicate and to delegate, those are most routinely emphasize in outstanding leaders(19).He concludes that intellect is missing from these five dimensions, it is not nonessential, just because the role of leadership is too wide and it is not always necessary to have high intellect (19). To a large extent, I agree with Neville that the five main dimensions of leadership. I believe that communication is the most important part of the leadership, it permeates every aspect of the business. All managers, especially those leading teams, they communicating with the workforce is a demanding and rewarding task. Interpersonal talent and skills A successful businessman must possess good communication skills.He should provide different channels for the staff to express opinions which helps understandings of companyâ₠¬â„¢s objectives. Effective communication with employees can ensure thorough understandings of leader’s decisions and expectations on their work. Maintaining a comfortable working environment can  encourage staff to be more willing to talk to their senior level (219). Reduced status difference (219) and enhanced staff morale help collection of employees’ feedbacks and  suggestions, which contributes to company improvements and also help ensure all staffs are working towards same goals.I believe a successful businessman should be a good leader and team player. It is very important that a person can share his knowledge and experience with his employees. He should ensure his messages and decisions can be effectively convey to them. To build up a good relationship with staff, he should respect and encourage them to participate in production and provide new ideas in work. Appreciation of work participation creates good staff morale and motivates them to work towards sam e organizational goals. A person will not be successful if he cannot work well with his subordinates and employees.Even if he has lots of marvelous ideas but no one is willing to work with him, he will only be a talented individual instead of a successful leader in the company. Risk management skills Living with, and challenged by risks, Nick Jackson believed that risk has tightly stick onto the business management agenda. Just as the key, people who learn for robust the risk management can succeed in their business. No matter what risk are the leaders facing, the major challenge is that how to identify, tackle and monitor the risk, and to plan for understandable, maintainable and applicable contingency plan.Not much people could reach this in industry today, he thought, they can recognize the risks whereas fail to observe the dormant influence or lost the sight of controlling systems. There are only less than 30% organizations can manage the risk well even not in effective way. (p. 38) Moreover, Nick stated that the ‘risk’ would be in some positive terms instead of negative. He regarded that people should not only keep improving in the way they manage the difficulties, but also focus on how to avoid from the negative impacts of self-satisfied when they are in advantages. (p. 42)I have been reminded by Nick Jackson that in every single moment, we cannot slack off from supervise the risk in any format. It required the all-round critical thinking. We cannot stop monitor the business from tackled one risk. It is hard and tough to handle this section in the business. And it is a great challenge to all businessman or administrator. g Conclusion â€Å"The productivity of work is not the responsibility of the worker but of the manager. † – Peter F. Drucker, Expert Management Consultant. All in all, the five abilities which stated on the above passages are inseparable.These five categories has shown that how can the manager strengthen the pr oductivity and competitiveness in the industry. They can end up this topic with one sentence, â€Å"Manage yourself well then lead the team to work with communication and risk management plan smartly. † Within this project, we recognized that these skills are not only applicable in the business related industry, but also in different criteria of different industries. In 21st Century, people deserve better quality of services and the bosses deserve higher efficiency of works from their staff. As the result, this paper will be valuable to majority of worldReference Bain, Neville. , â€Å"Management or leadership? † Successful Management. 1st ed. London: Macmillan Press Ltd,14-9. Print C. N. Cheng. â€Å"Communication in Business. † Introduction to Business Studies. (Revised Edition). 1st ed. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Educational Publishing Co, 2009. 212-231. Print Kinicki, Angelo. , and Williams Brian K. â€Å"The nature of leadership. † Management: A Practical Introduction. 4th ed. Americas, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2009. 436-38. Print. Nick, Jackson. â€Å"Risk is on the corporate agenda, but where does it fit? †Managing Business Risk. 3rd ed.Great Britain: Kogan Page Ltd,2006. Print Samson, Danny. , and Richard L. Daft. â€Å"Leadership in organisation. † Fundamentals of management. 2nd ed. South Melbourne, Victoria, Australia: Thomson Learning Australia, 2005. 427-31. Print. Susanne Madsen. â€Å"My Story:Work smarter not harder†Projectsmart. co. uk. Projectsmart ,10 September 2011. Web. 10 April 2012 Walter Vieira. Manager to CEO :corporate wisdom for survival and success. New Dehli/Thousand Oaks/London:Tejeshwar Singh for Response Book -stage Publications Inc,2005. print

The Importance Of Critical Thinking Skills Education Essay

Moore viewed critical thought accomplishment is highlighted as an indispensable foundation to bring forth womb-to-tomb scholars for Twentieth Century acquisition. This chapter will discourse on the importance of critical thought accomplishments, critical thought and employability, execution and challenges of learning critical thought in Malaysia every bit good as theory and schemes to learn critical thought. This chapter will besides lucubrate further on the interconnectedness between engineering, linguistic communication and higher order believing accomplishments, argumentative cognition acquisition and eventually, depict the Toulmin ‘s Model.The importance of critical thought accomplishmentsHarmonizing to Edmonds et Al. ( 2005 ) , critical thought has many definitions over the past old ages ; nevertheless, it can be concluded as an active mental procedure that includes mental accomplishments such as conceptualizing, analysing, using, synthesising and measuring information in order to emerge with an reply or decision. Everyone needs to hold an ability to work out jobs throughout their lives. Therefore, many educational experts have stressed on the importance of transfusing higher order believing accomplishments in one ‘s instruction as it helps pupils to analyze the state of affairs, learn the undertakings better before emerge with solution both in academic and non-academic fortunes ( Chance, 1986 ; Tama, 1989 ; Ennis, 1992 ; Elder & A ; Paul, 2001, ) . This is because believing and larning are interrelated as one has to independently believe and seek solutions to a job or state of affairs in order to derive cognition. Research findings indicate that critical thought accomplishment can be taught and improved in everyone and this accomplishment should be integrated in the course of study at all degrees ( Grant, 1988 ; Paul et al. , 1989 ; White, Burke, 1992 ; McKendree et al. , 2002 ) . Sternberg ( 2003 ) stated that one of the ends of instruction is to bring forth womb-to-tomb scholars who posses the qualities of intelligent, critical minds which is believed to be able to believe independently, analytically and critically to see a better calling accomplishment in order to derive personal satisfaction and hopefully, contribute to national accomplishment to develop his state. This is because larning is an on-going procedure that may happen in academic and non-academic fortunes. Without critical thought accomplishments, Sternberg ( 2003 ) further elaborated that schools and universities will merely bring forth extremely fleeceable pupils and alumnuss who may be knowing, but deficiency of the accomplishments to believe critically and analytically over a state of affairs. This is because they are merely passively having information exhibited by the political leaders as information can be easy transmitted by the media via assorted signifier in this epoch of rapid develop ment of Information Technology ( IT ) . Without ability to believe critically, they besides would subsequently confront some jobs when they become employees as they need to pass on well-reasoned thoughts and would non be able to actively lend to educational treatments due to hapless communicating accomplishments and deficiency of analytical logical thinking to a state of affairs at manus ( Education Reform in Malaysia Report, 2012 ) .Critical thought and employabilityPaul ( 1995 ) claimed that critical thought is a critical foundation to the accommodations needed for mundane societal, personal and professional demands of the twenty-first Century. It is further supported by Elder ( 2000 ) who claims that it is of import to learn higher order believing accomplishments to pupils in schools and universities as today ‘s society has become more complex due to rapid alteration in engineering. The society demand to be able to analyze the huge information that can be gathered effortles sly via online and merely choice necessities from it ( Chartrand, 2009 ) . Henwood ( 2007 ) claimed this state of affairs besides applied in twenty-four hours to twenty-four hours existent life state of affairss. Hence, he farther stated that pupils who are ill-equipped with critical thought accomplishments will non be able to get by with the challenges and demands of current occupation market. This is because higher order believing accomplishment is believed as one of the most indispensable soft accomplishments for future employability of the new coevalss. â€Å" aˆÂ ¦workplace literacy in the following millenary will be synonymous with job resolution. † ( Mariam Jean Dreher, 2000 ) Mariam Jean Dreher ( 2000 ) predicts that the hereafter will name for a life style ; both in instruction and calling field ; of independent job convergent thinkers that requires multiliteracies which involves higher order believing accomplishments. In Malaysia, the research findings claim that critical thought accomplishment is extremely valued in the workplace today ( DETYA, 2000 ; Chartrand, 2009 ) . Norshima ( 2011 ) studies that Malaysia produces 60, 000 alumnuss yearly in which at least 30 per centum of these alumnuss are unemployed every twelvemonth as they are lacked of these powerful accomplishments. This is farther supported by Gurvinder Kaur and Sharan Kaur ( 2009 ) who claimed that in Malaysia, six out of 10 university alumnuss take every bit much as six months to be employed due to miss of critical thought accomplishments and hapless communicating accomplishments. Fong ( 2004 ) and Vijan ( 2007 ) findings stated that the grounds that Malayan alumnuss are unemployed because they are non able to affect their possible hereafter employers during interview due to hapless presentation and communicating accomplishments particularly if it is done in English. Besides, Malayan instruction system is said to be excessively exam-oriented and therefore, the alumnuss could non lend every bit much once they start working as they are merely theoretically competent but non equipped with sufficient practical exposure ( Henwood, 2007 ) . This is farther supported by Rosnani ( 2009 ) and Education Reform in Malaysia Report ( 2012 ) findings which stated that employers in Malaysia, specifically in concern sector, complain about the low quality of most alumnuss from Malaysia are lacking in footings of critical thought accomplishments which in return affect the quality of their work.Execution of critical thought in MalayaDue to the uprising employees ‘ concern over the lacking of this powerful soft accomplishment amongst newly alumnuss employers globally, course of study of educational system has been bit by bit revamped over the old ages. This state of affairs is particularly true in most prima or developing states like the United States, England and Singapore ( Nagappan, 2001 ; Willingham, 2007 ) . The demand to instill critical thought accomplishments into Malayan instruction system is therefore undeniable in order to carry through Vision 2020. This demand is supported by Rosnani ( 2009 ) who proclaims that Malaysians, in general, have non been able to use the content of cognition gained throughout their school old ages into existent life state of affairss even after undergone at least 11 old ages of schooling and hence, Malaysia educational system demand to be analysed and some alterations need to be made. Ministry of Education ( MOE ) has realised the dismaying demands of the aforesaid state of affairs and therefore, Integrated Curriculum for Secondary School ( KBSM ) was introduced in the late eightiess ( Nagappan, 2011 ) . The content of this new course of study was revamped in which originative and critical thought accomplishments were integrated in most of the topics taught in schools with a emphasis on treatment, find and enquiry ; the higher round of Bloom taxonomy ( Curriculum Development Center, 1989 ) . As it is realised that the instructors need to be competent to learn critical thought accomplishments to the pupils, a few attempts were besides been conducted as to fix the instructors and teachers-to-be with the new undertaking in front of them. As educational findings have reported that most instructors in Malayan schools are missing in footings of cognition and accomplishments to learn critical thought accomplishments to their pupils ( Education Reform in Malaysia Report, 2012 ) , a few amendments have been made to meet this job from the instructor ‘s portion. Nagappan ( 2001 ) studies that Teacher Education Division ( TED ) had revamped the course of study for Teacher Training Programme such as in Post Degree Teaching Programme ( KPLI ) in early 1994 to integrate a programme that teaches the schemes to learn believing accomplishments utilizing the extract attack which is based on Boston Model. As for the instructors in schools, Ministry of Education ( MOE ) had introduced the Programme for Instruction in Learning and Thinking Skills ( PILTS ) in 1992 ( Rosnani, 2009 ) . This programme was introduced to place the nucleus thought accomplishments to be taught and the schemes to inculcate these accomplishments into the content of the lesson being learnt. Apart from that, Ministry of Higher Education ( MOHE ) has besides made an effort to cultivate undergraduates ‘ critical thought accomplishments through the content and undertakings assigned throughout each programme. Harmonizing to Hairuzila, Hazadiah & A ; Normah ( 2010 ) , the course of study for undergraduates has been infused with relevant soft accomplishments such as communicative accomplishments, critical thought and job resolution accomplishments, womb-to-tomb acquisition, squad work force and leading accomplishments into its course of study. They further elaborate that in order to aline with Vision 2020 of bring forthing holistic persons for the state, the appraisals or undertakings given to the undergraduates are geared towards fixing them for their calling life as most are based on real-life jobs, with less emphasis on pen and paper trials like antecedently.Challenges in learning critical thought accomplishments in MalayaDue to the exam-oriented civilization that has been practised for old ages in Malayan instruction system, instructors are shouldered with the duty to complete the course of study and give every bit much boring exercisings as they can to their pupils as to maintain up with the society ‘s outlook and over-emphasis on academic consequences. This in return has caused the instructors paying the least attending to pupils ‘ character edifice and soft accomplishments such as critical thought accomplishment ( Education Reform in Malaysia Report, 2012 ) . It can be seen here that Malayan instructors are non merely missing in footings of accomplishments to learn critical thought accomplishments ( Rosnani, 2009 ) , but besides are less than competent to fix and carry on a lesson that infuses critical thought accomplishments in a traditional schoolroom. This is due to the fact that learning critical thought accomplishments needs a batch of clip allotment during the pre-preparation category and undivided committedness both of por tion of the instructor and pupils to guarantee an active advancement during the acquisition procedure ( Willingham, 2007 ) . Apart from that, large size schoolrooms in most Malayan schools are besides one of the grounds that contribute to the failure of incorporating critical thought accomplishments in learning a topic in traditional schoolroom. A study done by Kamaruddin ( 2011 ) stated that schoolroom in Malayan schools are by and large consists of 35 to 50 pupils per schoolroom. This indirectly shows that most pupils will look as inactive scholars and synergistic activities that are believed to cultivate pupils ‘ critical thought can non be good conducted in such large size category. In contrast, many surveies have shown that a little size category of 20 pupils and below are said to be efficient and frequently associated with increased pupils ‘ public presentation and therefore, most likely leting smooth nurturing procedure of their soft accomplishments ( Carson, Badarack, 1989 ; Berliner, 1990 ; Kamaruddin & A ; Bhasah, 2004 ) . The force per unit area to accomplish excellence in academic consequence in a less contributing environment in most of Malayan schools left the instructors with no pick but to fall back rehearsing teacher centred attack in go toing their duties. Hence, pupils are non given ample chance to see synergistic, active acquisition that could really assist to cultivate their critical thought accomplishments ( Kamaruddin, 2011 ) . Teacher centred attack, in return, will undeniably do one-way cognition transmittal to happen and hence, less opportunities being given to the pupils to convey their sentiments to actively build their ain cognition ( Willingham, 2007 ) . Without chance to actively build ain cognition, one is said to pay less attending to cultivate and foster his ain critical thought ( Toulmin, 1958 ) . Due to this state of affairs, most of Malayan pupils who are subsequently become employees are said to hold hapless communicating accomplishments and this visibly shows in their defic iency of ability to critically reassigning an sentiment or cognition when pass oning with others ( Education Reform in Malaysia Report, 2012 ) .Educational Learning Theory and SchemesDue to that, instructors ‘ manner of learning should pitch towards incorporating higher order believing accomplishments and rehearsing positive communicating accomplishments in order to bring forth holistic persons align with Vision 2020. Woolfolk ( 1993 ) suggests that theoretical foundation of acquisition and schemes used in a acquisition procedure will assist to model the type of pupils that a instructor wants to foster. Lai ( 2011 ) suggests the instruction of higher order believing accomplishments should be based on the followerss:Constructivism TheoryBruner ( 1996 ) stated that the basic thought of constructivism is that scholars actively construct ain apprehension by accepting certain experiences and choosing necessities from assorted beginnings of cognition. Naismith et. Al ( 2006 ) beside s claimed that constructivism attack is about constructing new cognition upon what have been gathered in old acquisition. Woolfolk ( 1993 ) stated that constructivist larning theory indirectly learning the pupils to â€Å" larn to larn † as it involves believing procedures in which pupils need to be able to travel beyond the information given, use their ain cognition, evaluate opinions before generate new thoughts out of it. Students are required to actively affect in the acquisition procedure to develop their thought accomplishments through their experiences in schools ( Prawat, 1991 ) . Lai ( 2001 ) stated that constructivism can be used as a foundation to foster one ‘s higher order believing accomplishments via self-questioning, analyzing written papers for comprehension and besides holding collaborative treatments with equals.Social Constructivist TheorySocial Constructivist Theory, on the other manus, is a theory that states each single cognitive development is at its best when one constructs the significance of new cognition by actively take parting in building and sharing the cognition through communicating with others ( Burningham & A ; Cooper, 1999 ) . These theories believes that equal to peer treatment will assist one to actively build new cognition and learn by sharing and discoursing the stuffs gathered in a positive societal environment ( Schwandt, 2003 ) .Problem Based Learning ( PBL )Teaching critical thought accomplishments is normally being paired with Problem Based Learning attack as it triggers and provokes scholars ‘ thought as to make to a solution to a job with relation to daily state of affairss ( Woolfolk, 1993 ) . Problem Based Learning ( PBL ) attack teaches pupils to believe critically as it takes existent universe fortunes which normally involves experiential, inductive acquisition that requires oppugning and believing that is purposive and purposive ( Lai, 2011 ) . More frequently than non, it involves a underta king that encourages the scholars to â€Å" larn to larn † which is an of import constituent in constructivist attack ( Kuhn, 1999 ) . This necessarily will promote active larning procedure including through speaking, brainstorming and in-depth probe of cognition via legion collaborative acquisition experiences.Collaborative acquisitionA figure of critical thought research workers recommended that societal experiences in a learning procedure can significantly lend to one ‘s cognitive development procedure which obviously occurred in a collaborative acquisition attack ( Heyman, 2008 ; Thayer-Bacon, 2008 & A ; Nelson, 1994 ) . This is farther supported by Woolfolk ( 1993 ) who claimed that collaborative acquisition is fundamentally based from Piagetian and Vygotsky theory which reciprocally agree that societal interactions extremely contribute to one ‘s cognitive development procedure. In a collaborative acquisition, it is believed that Piaget theory is applied in footings of its instructional facet in which scholar ‘s cognitive development can be triggered via interactions with another individual of a higher developmental phase which is usually the instructor or a more knowing equal ( Woolfolk, 1993 ) whilst Vygotsky belief is identified in footings of one ‘s zone of proximal development that distinguishes between what an person can achieved by himself and what can be accomplished via interactions with a more competent equal or grownup ( Nelson, 1994 ) . Thayer-Bacon ( 2008 ) further viewed that societal interactions with others in collaborative acquisition is an of import facet to instil critical thought accomplishments onto pupils as they need to constructively contribute and portion sentiments and at the same clip learn to esteem other parts during group treatments.Collaborative Problem Based Learning ( CPBL )Gokhale ( 1995 ) findings stated that pu pils who are actively engaged in a collaborative undertaking demonstrate better Higher Order Thinking Skills ( HOTS ) as compared to the 1s who work separately. This determination is farther supported by Vygotsky ( 1978 ) who claimed that collaborative acquisition helps to further the development of critical thought accomplishments via treatment, justification of thoughts and analyzing other ‘s positions. A few research findings have shown that uniting collaborative attack on job work outing learning scheme has really increase pupils ‘ meta-cognitive on work outing the jobs and therefore, better their higher order believing accomplishments ( Johnson & A ; Chung, 1999 ; Mergendoller et al. , 2000 ) . They further elaborate that the interaction between equals about the job at manus, brainstorming for solutions and measuring each other ‘s positions during the procedure has encouraged more frequent coevals of thoughts and solution and therefore, allow pupils to believe critically and analytically. Collaborative acquisition, as defined by Correndo and Alani ( 2007 ) , is an instructional scheme that consists of pupils from assorted proficiency degrees work together in a group while assisting each other towards accomplishing one common aim or larning result. On the other manus, Problem Based Learning is an instructional teaching method that uses job as a larning context to dispute the pupils to â€Å" larn to larn † in order to happen solutions to the job ( Duch, Groh & A ; Allen, 2001 ) . Hence, Collaborative Problem Based Learning ( CPBL ) is a combination of Collaborative Learning and Problem Based Learning which can be concluded as an instructional scheme that provides chances for the pupils to work within little groups and actively take part in assorted activities including treatments a state of affairs, analyzing others ‘ positions and eventually collaboratively measuring possible solution to the job at manus ( An, 2006 ) .The advantages of CPBLCPBL encourages pupils to work together in building new cognition to seek a solution of the job at manus. Hence, pupils are given huge chances to go critical minds by sharing thoughts and actively prosecuting oneself in treatments and be responsible of their ain acquisition every bit good as others ‘ ( Totten, Sills, Digby, & A ; Russ, 1991 ) . This place is farther supported by Johnson and Johnson ( 1986 ) who stated that the coaction on job work outing promotes higher degree of thought as the participants need to analyze others ‘ sentiment before clear uping ain sentiment. They farther claimed that this helps to advance longer cognition keeping as compared to the 1s who worked separately to seek cognition. Besides, An ( 2006 ) besides stated that CPBL provides reliable larning experiences every bit good as fostering their communicating accomplishments while interchanging thoughts during the treatments. Hence, CPBL helps to further autonomous acquisition accomplishments that could be utile to assist pupils go womb-to-tomb scholars and critical minds ( Norman and Schmidt, 1992 ) . Albanese and Mitchell ( 1993 ) besides proposed that pupils who undergone CPBL attack performed better than the 1s who received traditional attack in larning as they have first manus experience that rewards them with in-depth understanding about the undertaking at manus. This is believed because the pupils actively building their ain cognition via interaction with their equals ( Smith & A ; MacGregor, 2001 ) . Vygotsky ( 1978 ) besides views that instructor is non the lone cognition sender that the pupils can larn from ; equal instruction is besides one of the ways to promote active acquisition.The restrictions of CPBLDespite of these benefits, CPBL attack besides has its just portion of defects when it is being applied in a traditional schoolroom. In any group activities, particularly in a traditional schoolroom as it is rather hard for the instructor to accurately measure every pupil ‘s parts to the group, there is ever freeloading jobs. The freeloading members normally take credits of the work of others and this may do struggle amongst pupils ( Bower & A ; Richards, 2006 ) . Bower and Richards ( 2006 ) further stated that this may diminish some assurance of some pupils as psychologically, every pupil demand to be acknowledged where recognition is due in order for them to foster build their ain cognition in an active mode. They besides claimed that it is about impossible for the instructor to reasonably administer the grade based on every pupil ‘s part to the group. Hence, this may either do some pupils to either frustrated for being credited below the belt and subsequently de-motivated to lend in the hereafter or worse, become freeloaders and merely basking the free tiffin ( Bonwell, 2006 ) . Other than that, since CPBL activities need the pupils to collaboratively work towards accomplishing a end or solution to a real-life job, the readying of these activities are usually take great attempt and commitment both from the instructor and pupils. This is difficult to accomplish if it were to be done in a traditional schoolroom due to clip and infinite restraint ( Bonwell, 2002 ) . Apart from learning, Malayan instructors particularly, are burdened with other excess course of study or out of-school activities that take a batch of their personal clip ( Rosnani, 2009 ) . Without proper readying, CPBL that is hoped to promote pupils to actively build their ain cognition and at the same clip fostering their higher order and communicating accomplishments may non be turn into an accomplishable terminal ( Hmelo-Silver, 2004 ) . This is farther supported by Smith and MacGregor ( 2001 ) who claimed that collaborative acquisition is a fantastic attack to promote critical thought, nevert heless, it is besides may make quandary between pupil ‘s procedure of acquisition and the coverage of the lesson ‘s content.Computer Supported Collaborative Learning ( CSCL )Due to the rapid development of Information Technology ( IT ) in this modern age, these twenty-first Century pupils ‘ manner of acquisition has besides changed ( An, 2006 ) . Today, one of the ways to back up active acquisition can be materialised in a more fun manner through the usage of engineering tools. Computer Supported Collaborative Learning ( CSCL ) is an instructional scheme infused with constructivist attack to learning and larning utilizing engineering to back up coaction in order to make a more contributing and prosecuting larning atmosphere ( Johnson & A ; Johnson, 1996 ) . They farther stated that a technology-rich acquisition environment is able to increase pupils ‘ societal interaction, cooperation and coaction and therefore, promote their cognition building. Harasim, Hilt z, Teles, and Turoff ( 1995 ) besides claimed that CSCL promotes on-line collaborative acquisition that may positively promote pupils ‘ towards active acquisition. This is because pupils can acquire information about effortlessly via online and so discourse with their equals before emerge with a solution to a job.CPBL in an online environmentIn this epoch of rapid development of Information Technology ( IT ) , there have been attempts to unite CPBL into CSCL environment ( An, 2006 ) . Many research findings have indicated that CPBL in an online environment has been demoing positive effects towards pupils ‘ cognition building every bit good as societal interaction accomplishments. One of the fringe benefits by using CPBL into an on-line environment, apart from treatment with the teacher and their equals via online with no limitation to clip and topographic point, is that it encourages autonomous larning amongst pupils as it provides pupils with huge choices of information needed about effortlessly ( Bonk & A ; King, 1998 ) . This is because it allows the pupils to larn via Web 2.0 tools as larning AIDSs such as electronic mails, on-line group treatment in the confab suites, collaborative authorship via Wiki, societal bookmarking and so forth to go on anytime and anyplace. This limitless and easy entree on information will open ways for the pupils to accommodate to autonomous acquisition and therefore, promote active cognition building to happen. Besides, this online larning environment allows the function of the instructor as the exclusive supplier of cognition to transform into the function of facilitator, which aligns absolutely with student-centred attack in PBL ( Vrasidas & A ; McIsaac, 2000 ) . Here, pupils are encouraged to build their ain cognition with small counsel from the instructor and go an active subscriber towards their ain acquisition alternatively of passively having cognition from anyone else. This attack opens manner to cultivate one ‘s higher order believing accomplishments ( Harasim et al. , 1997 ) as it besides promotes positive interaction between the instructor and the pupils ( Relan & A ; Gillani, 1997 ) . Most significantly, Althaus, ( 1996 ) viewed that CPBL in an online environment allows computing machine mediated communicating that gives an ample clip for the pupils to analyze, reflect the content of the treatment, happen excess information needed via online and evaluate others ‘ sentiments before supplying a thoughtful response. The treatment via online besides allows the pupils to make self contemplation at their ain convenient clip as they can publish out the treatment due to its permanency discourse, as opposed to confront to confront treatment ( Bonk & A ; King, 1998 ) . Bower and Richards ( 2006 ) stated that one of the restrictions of utilizing PBL in a traditional schoolroom is that the collaborative treatment in a traditional schoolroom frequently consequences in off-task behavior amongst pupils. In contrast, many research findings have proven that pupils emit less off-task behavior in an on-line treatment and they tend to concentrate and intently work outing the job at manus ( Angeli et al. , 2003 ; Bonk et al. , 1998 ; Bonk & A ; King, 1998 ; Bonk et al. , 2004 ) . In fact, many psychological surveies have indicated that collaborative treatment via online shows more engagement from the pupils than the face to confront treatments ( Bonk & A ; King, 1998 ; Chong, 1998 ; Cooney, 1998 ) . This state of affairs is particularly true for the pupils who have shy personality or deficiency of ego assurance to speak publically. Leasure et Al. ( 2000 ) proposed that this could be due to the comfy and â€Å" safe † societal acquisition environment that the on-line atmosphere provides for these pupils. Here, it can be said that CPBL in an on-line environment is a possible acquisition attack to advance positive alterations in cultivating critical thought every bit good as to promote one ‘s societal interaction with others.2.8 Language larning issues in MalayaIn traveling towards carry throughing Vision 2020, instruction system in Malaysia is undergoing a few alterations as to bring forth holistic persons who are competent physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually ( Education Reform in Malaysia Report, 2012 ) . Along with the alterations introduced, Ministry of Education ( MOE ) has decided to incorporate the instruction of critical thought accomplishments within the course of studies of the topics taught in schools including English topic. The alterations is hoped to bring forth womb-to-tomb scholars who are able to believe critically and analytically over a given state of affairs. Sadly, nevertheless, the result of our instruction system has proven a contrasting consequence in which most of Malayan pupils and university undergraduates are said to be lacking in footings critical thought accomplishments and show hapless communicating abilities particularly when it is done in English ( Normazidah, Koo & A ; Hazita, 2012 ) . A survey by Koo ( 2008 ) revealed that this is due to the fact that Malaysians schools in general, placed a high value of importance on national scrutiny. This has indirectly caused the English instructors to concentrate on the instruction of grammar, reading a transition and composing accomplishments instead than concentrating on the communicative facet of the linguistic communication itself, allow entirely to model pupils ‘ critical thought ability while larning the linguistic communication ( Normazidah, Koo & A ; Hazita, 2012 ) . This is farther supported by Amigapathy ( 2002 ) findings on his analysis of KBSM course of study which indicated that the content of current course of study requires the pupils to larn excessively many grammatical constituents which subsequently are to be tested in scrutinies. Here, it can be seen that the instruction of English is chiefly focused on the mechanical facet of the linguistic communication without doing any connexion with how it should be used in existent life communicative events. He farther documented that in order to carry through the demands of the society to bring forth pupils with good classs in scrutinies, English instructors in Malaysia frequently resorted to teacher-centred attack in learning the linguistic communication by supplying chalk-and-talk boring method of past twelvemonth documents, manus outs and infinite paper exercises. This finally will necessarily bring forth scholars who know about the linguistic communication but do non cognize how to utilize it in existent life state of affairss ( Amigapathy, 2002 ) , show limited critical ability in analyzing and reacting to an academic transition ( Ahmad Mazli Muhammad, 2007 ) as pupils are merely exposed to come up attack to reading ( Noorizah Mohd Noor, 2006 ) . Here, it can be concluded that there is a mismatch between the policy made with the existent practise of instruction and acquisition of English in Malaysia which make it rather hard to bring forth scholars as critical minds with acceptable degree of English proficiency. This state of affairs is reported leads to a greater job when the pupils make the passage from secondary school to university as the pupils will confront jobs to travel off from school spoon-feeding learning civilization ( Normazidah, Koo & A ; Hazita, 2012 ) . Research surveies have indicated that most Malayan pupils are non prepared to run into the academic demand that requires them to hold both linguistic communication literacy every bit good as critical literacy ability in order to carry through the academic reading and academic authorship undertakings imposed on them at university ( Rosniah Mustaffa, 2006 ; Krishnakumari, Paul-Evanson, & A ; Selvanayagam, 2010 ) . Therefore, it is safe to state that the clip has come for Malayan instructors to handle the pupils as the focal point of linguistic communication acquisition by doing a little alterations in learning the linguistic communication and at the same clip, whenever possible, supplying a contributing environment of larning. As CPBL is geared towards cultivating one ‘s critical thought ability ( An, 2006 ; Totten, Sills, Digby, & A ; Russ, 1991 ) and critical thought accomplishments is viewed as important portion in the acquisition of linguistic communication accomplishments ( Elder & A ; Paul, 2006 ; Shaharom Abdullah, 2004 ; Moore, 1995 ) , it merely seems appropriate to accommodate CPBL attack in the instruction and acquisition of English in Malaysian schoolrooms. Besides, linguistic communication acquisition can besides be mediated via engineering tools because as mentioned earlier, CPBL in an on-line environment brings enormous advantages and benefits to the pupils in footings of critical thought and linguistic communication acquisition as it involves legion chances for societal interactions amongst the pupils and pedagogue.Technology, linguistic communication acquisition and critical thoughtTechnology has besides been proven utile in the instruction of linguistic communication and development of one ‘s critical thought at clip and infinite convenient to both the instructor and pupils ( Cheong & A ; Cheung, 2008 ) . For case, the treatments in the treatment boards or chew the fat suites between the pupils and the instructor and besides between pupils have been used as a medium to positively develop pupils ‘ communicating accomplishments every bit good as linguistic communication accomplishments ( Chitravelu, Sithamparam and Teh, 2005 ) . Kroop, Nussbaumer and Fruhmann ( 2010 ) reported that the development of Web 2.0 tools are able to better one ‘s linguistic communication skills every bit good as support one ‘s critical thought accomplishments development by leting its users to make collaborative treatment that includes discussing, reasoning, reexamining, measuring, composing and re-producing an thought. By utilizing Web 2.0 tools such as electronic mails, treatments in confab suites or treatment boards that could be done either synchronously or asynchronously, pupils become more participative and therefore, bettering their linguistic communication and communicative accomplishments ( Berry, 2006 ) . Another Web 2.0 tools that is often used in an on-line environment to learn linguistic communication is Wiki. Wiki is said has the potency to better pupils ‘ linguistic communication accomplishments every bit good as communicating and thought accomplishments ( Goodings, 2008 ) . Fuchs-Kittowski and Kohler ( 2005 ) mentioned that Wikis is able to ease the collaborative treatments that encourage coevals of cognition by supplying a medium to portion creative activity and edit paperss. Bruns and Humphreys ( 2005 ) besides added that Wiki is a learning tool that support societal constructivist larning as it allows argumentative-based larning experience ( Chong & A ; Yamamoto, 2006 ) , facilitates knowledge determining ( Reinhold, 2006 ) , allows coaction ( Kim et al. , 2006 ) and allows enquiry acquisition and collaborative building of cognition ( Yukawa, 2006 ) . This procedure is known as Argumentative Knowledge Construction. Knowledge building within a traditional schoolroom is frequently relied to a great extent on the instructors which necessarily produce inactive scholars who may or may non be able to critically decode the cognition received to use it in existent life state of affairs ( Weible, 2011 ) . By utilizing Web 2.0 tools, on the other manus, it encourages and facilitates active engagement of each user as everyone has a just portion and chance to make, portion, edit, add on and go through the cognition and these actions reinforce single ‘s cognition building by actively larning from others ( Correndo & A ; Alani, 2007 ) . Besides, Web 2.0 tools value are increased as the more people are utilizing it as the content cognition and the information are provided chiefly by the users and construct up over the clip with other users ‘ part ( Weible, 2011 ) . This procedure encourages argumentative cognition building amongst its users as they learn from each other and develop higher other be lieving accomplishments as the users need to measure others ‘ sentiment apart from offering one in the treatment. This is in line with constructivism attack in which larning takes topographic point and retain longer when it is achieve via societal context ( Woolfolk, 1993 ) .Argumentative Knowledge ConstructionHarmonizing to Weinberger and Fischer ( 2006 ) , Argumentative Knowledge Construction is described as a manner for the pupils to build their ain cognition via educational debate and interaction with their learning spouses. They besides stated that each single cognition building is depends on is refined and evidenced throughout their active engagement in analyzing sentiments of others, measuring possible solutions or results available from emerge with ain point of views via treatment and debate with equals.Argumentative Knowledge Construction in CPBLAalst ( 2009 ) stated that Argumentative Knowledge Construction is a procedure in which the pupils solve a job and concept m eaningful comprehension of a peculiar state of affairs in relation to their anterior cognition by societal interaction within a peculiar group. He farther added it involves a huge sphere of cognitive procedures as it involves critical-explanation seeking oppugning techniques, construing and analyzing new information, sharing, knocking, reorganizing thoughts, sum uping and synthesising before emerge with a new construct of the affair. In CPBL, for illustration, pupils learn by take parting in experiential acquisition and garner the indispensable cognition by work outing a job and reflecting on their collaborative experiences ( Hmelo-Silver, 2004 ) . CPBL activities encourage pupils to work in little collaborative groups in order to look into, understand, explicate and happen a solution to meaningful, real-life contexts ( Barrow, 2000 ) . He farther viewed that CPBL attack is widely used to cultivate one ‘s critical thought accomplishments as its acquisition procedure starts by showing the pupils with a job scenario in which the pupils try to work out the job collaboratively by place the lacks within the job, sharing sentiments and facts before coming out with hypotheses as to critically supply solutions to the job. Therefore, it can be said that CPBL is a suited attack to learn pupils to develop schemes in work outing jobs which may heighten their critical thought ability and besides assist them to heighten their argumentative cognition building ( Hmelo-Silver, 2004 ) .Argumentative Knowledge Construction in CSCLStudent ‘s argumentative cognition building procedure can be enhanced rather expeditiously through pupils ‘ treatments and composing with the assistance of fast growing and spread of Web 2.0 engineering, particularly in linguistic communication instruction and acquisition ( Stegmann et al. , 2007 ) . Bocconi ( 2010 ) proposed that CSCL may help to the Argumentative Knowledge Construction via the usage of Web 2.0 tools integrates with societal package to ease pupils interaction and coaction within a peculiar group. This is an accomplishable state of affairs as Web 2.0 tools such as weblogs, wikis, societal bookmarking, treatment boards, societal networking sites and others allow its users to pool information that triggers communications that leads to knowledge sharing and therefore, cognition is constructed ( Strijbos, Martens and Jochems, 2004 ) . Apart from that, the research conducted by Boulos et Al. ( 2006 ) stated that Wikis have the possible to ease autonomous acquisition of one to build ain cognition in order to derive deeper apprehension over a affair. Another research done by Bocconi ( 2010 ) shows that the usage of Web 2.0 tools, the Wikis to be specific, has shown positive consequence to catapult pupil ‘s argumentative cognition building procedure by analyzing the quality and frequence of the single argumentative Acts of the Apostless throughout the procedure. This is farther supported by Armin et Al. ( 2006 ) who claimed that by utilizing Wiki, pupils learn how to reason within a sphere and facilitates scholars in building their ain cognition and this taking them to a deeper apprehension. Bocconi ( 2010 ) stated that pupils ‘ higher order believing accomplishments are evidenced via their statements throughout the treatment procedure. He farther suggested that one of the methods to analyze and supervise pupils ‘ statement that emits their degree of higher order believing accomplishments can be done by utilizing Models of Argument such as Toulmin ‘s ModelModels of ArgumentationModel of Argumentation is defined as the basic layout as to sketch the best possible ways to organize an effectual procedure of common sense logical thinking or controversy in supplying a persuasive point of views ( Georgia State University, Department of English, 2008 ) . There are a few theoretical accounts of debate that are widely used in educational discourse in linguistic communication acquisition viz. the Classical Approach, the Rogerian Approach and the Toulmin Approach. The Classical Approach is fundamentally used to convert the audience to hold and take side or do determination that favours one ‘s personal point of view ( Beale, 1986 ) . He farther elaborates that this attack consists of five elements of composing the statements viz. the Introduction in which to province the general claim of an statement to the audience ; the Narration as to supply a relevant drumhead background of peculiar state of affairs ; the Confirmation as to supply back uping grounds to a claim. Then, it is followed by the Refutation in which the talker or author provides a counter-argument to any opposing claims before terminals it with the Conclusion as to which the talker or author summarizes the chief points and reiterates the claim made in Introduction portion. The Rogerian Approach, on the other manus, is based on the thought that the talker or the author needs to happen a â€Å" common land † with his audience as to make to a more conciliatory and less confrontational solution ( Moxley, 2012 ) . There are besides chiefly five elements in sketching debate thoughts harmonizing to Rogerian Model of Argumentation. It begins with an Introduction that province the issue ; followed by a non-judgemental opposition ‘s place ; a impersonal statement of ain point of view ; an analysis of common land of both places stated and eventually a proposal of concluding statement that satisfies the demands of both places made. Whilst Toulmin ‘s Model of Argumentation in which it was developed by a British philosopher, Stephen Toulmin. He suggested that a realistic statement normally starts with a individual makes a claim over a affair, so supply a land that support the claim which is followed by a warrant to endorse up the land made ( Toulmin, 1958 ) . This is the Model of Argumentation chosen to be used in this survey and will be elaborated at length below.Toulmin ‘s ModelHarmonizing to Toulmin ( 1958 ) , his strategy of statement analysis is based on six parts, which could be depicted utilizing Figure 2.1 as follows:DatasClaimWarrantsBackingQualifierRebuttalFigure 2.1: Toulmin ‘s Model of Argument Claim: the statement or decision being argued ; Datas: The grounds or fact to back up the claim made ; Warrants: the logical statements that serve as a connexion between the informations and the claim made ; Backing: the basic premise that is made to farther support a warrant ; Qualifiers: states the restriction under which state of affairs the claim can be regarded as true ; Rebuttals: the counter statements to picture circumstance when the claim made is non true. ( Toulmin, 1958 ) In add-on, Bocconi ( 2010 ) indicated that the basic construction of each of these phases can be identified and represented as follows: â€Å" because ( informations ) . . . since ( warrant ) . . . on history of ( endorsing ) . . . therefore ( decision ) † Bocconi ( 2010 ) Karbach ( 2010 ) stated that Toulmin suggested that one ‘s statement can be analysed by looking at his or her cognition building at four stairss viz. ; claim, informations, rebuttal and backup as to see whether the statement made solidly backed, sufficient and relevant to back up the old statements made. Hence, Karbach ( 2010 ) believed that Toulmin ‘s Model of Argumentation is a clear theoretical account to observe one ‘s inductive, deductive and logical logical thinking. Kneupper ( 1978 ) besides viewed that this layout strategy can be efficaciously used to analyze the constituents of an statements in linguistic communication acquisition.DecisionThe instruction of higher order believing accomplishments can non be taught in isolation ( Lai, 2011, Nagappan, 2001 ) . Hence, it has to be integrated into the course of study as to supply the pupils with the existent life medium and purposeful acquisition results apart from its importance to cultivate one ‘s critic al thought and communicating accomplishments ( Education Reform in Malaysia Report, 2012 ) . In this fast growing of Information Technology ( IT ) epoch, the usage of engineering such as Web 2.0 tools can be used to efficaciously heighten the instruction of these accomplishments anytime anyplace ( Winston, 2006 ) . Besides, the usage of these engineering tools are proven to be effectual to promote pupils to larn collaboratively as human makes significances and can make at a deeper apprehension by pass oning with others ( Vygotsky, 1978 ; Johnson and Johnson, 1986 ; Gokhale,1995 ; An, 2006 ) . Through the communicating and interaction in a collaborative treatment via online, one can actively develop his or her ain cognition building in order to organize deeper apprehension in a safe and unafraid societal environment ( Chitravelu, Sithamparan & A ; Teh, 2005 ; Weinberger & A ; Fischer, 2006 ) .