Wednesday, October 30, 2019

The cold war (1945 - 1991) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The cold war (1945 - 1991) - Essay Example Firstly, propaganda is used for opposition. Through spread of propaganda, an individual draws supporters who believe in him/her. In relation to the cold world war, the Soviet Union historically experienced frequent invasions from Russia, and immense death with subsequent destruction (Shaw 21). They sought to increase security by seeking assistance form neighboring countries. It is depicted that both the U.S and Soviet Union competed in building of nuclear bombs, which they used in their attacks. For instance, rockets developed were used to send astronauts and satellites in space. Joseph Stalin, a subsequent leader had his own version of the Soviet Union as a ‘Socialist island’. The Soviet propaganda was enhanced. From his perspective, he had the notion that the Soviet Union was to attract other countries to capitalism during the period of temporary capital stability before its ultimate collapse. He believed that in order for the Eastern Bloc countries to escape Soviet co ntrol, it was necessary to establish an economic integration with the west. The manner in which information exists in both history and literature and further how knowledge is distilled proves how each overlaps with the other. In both, how a story is presented is as important as it is the subject matter (Dean 5). It was during February 1945 when allied negotiations attributed to the post-war balance at the Yalta Conference took place. The main aim was to enhance multi-national peace, but the efforts were paralyzed by the individual’s ability to use veto power. Further still, both allow a fundamental distinction between history and memory. This is because whatever is portrayed in both is then, as opposed to memory, which is now. Through critical management of documentary, it is possible for history and literature to get close to history as possible (Dean 7).

Monday, October 28, 2019

Health and Social Care Essay Example for Free

Health and Social Care Essay People use different ways to communicate with other people, depending on the situation in a health and social care setting. Informal is mostly used between people who know each other very well and formal for individuals who do not know others to well or have not met before. People who are expected to talk in a formal language in a health and social care setting are the care workers. Care workers should ensure they know the difference between the two different conversational languages and use the correct one accordingly. For this essay I will be analysing the two different ways to communicate to people and give examples to why people use these ways to communicate. Formal conversations are mostly used between two individuals who are of a profession or who have not met before. Formal language doesn’t use contractions for example, He is going out now. NOT he’s going out now. Vocabulary is also different, please refrain from smoking (formal) please don’t smoke (informal). According to stretch and whitehouse (2010, p6) ‘formal communication is understood by a wide range of people.’ This means that people from different backgrounds/ ages can understand the concepts of formal language. Informal language is less strict on grammar and often uses shorter sentences. Informal language also uses slang instead of using the correct words for things. This type of language is normally spoken and not written. It is ok to talk to friends in an informal manner but you wouldn’t talk to your patients about their medical guidelines in this language you would talk to them in a formal way. In a health and social care setting informal language could be used when you’re giving a patient an update if you’re just walking down the hall way. People need to know when it is acceptable to use either formal or informal language in a health and social care setting. If an individual doesn’t know when they are supposed to be using formal language then they can make themselves look unprofessional and that they don’t know how to speak in a formal manner. Also if they use informal instead of formal then it’s harder for people to communicate back in the group. In summary, informal and formal communication are quite different to each other. If an individual was to use the wrong form of language in a health and social care setting then they can make that person feel disrespected, whereas if they were to use the correct form then they can communicate more effectively. Bibliography STRECH, B. WHITEHOUSE, N. (eds) Health and Social Care Level 3 Book1, Pearson, Harlow Essex

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Graduation Speech: Be Proud of Your Accomplishments :: Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

So many of us have come to ZAHS as a last resort, not fitting in at other schools or we were feeling that regular school wasn't working for us. We have found MAHS is somewhere we wished we had found in the first place. It is a place where you do fit in because people who originally didn't have anything in common share this one place. It is our home away from home. It brings all of us together with all of our diversities to be welcomed and accepted. Our love and belief in our school continues to show time after time whether it is a fund raiser, our test scores, or even when students return who once gave up on finishing school. When I first came to MAHS I was pretty nervous and overwhelmed with my life. I was a new mother at a new school around new people with so many new responsibilities. At that time I didn't realize how overwhelmed I was until I burst into tears on my first day. From that day on I found great friends and teachers who have loved me and supported me every day. This school has made me realize my potential in life. Graduating for me is a great but unsure feeling; but I know everyone here has a great future ahead of them. If we lose our way, we'll just come back - TEACHERS, COUNT ON IT. I have some mainly good memories of our school. Like, I will always remember all of our daycare madness, all of Larry's announcements that never seemed to come out quite right. All of Mr. Lewis' large-group math trivia assignments that I could never quite figure out. I can't imagine why NOT. I'll remember all of the guys who, no matter what time of the day, always found time to be outside playing basketball. I will remember our FCCLA trip to Wenatchee where we stayed in an under-construction hotel with a dirt swimming pool! It was alternative, but so were we. We learned to be proud of our uniqueness and our achievements.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Pepsi’s Strategy in Entering India Essay

?o had been trying to enter the Indian market for quite some time with no success. In 1988 Pepsi received a letter from George Fernandes, the General Secretary of one of the country’s leading political parties, Janata Dal. He wrote, â€Å"I learned that you are coming here. I am the one that threw Coca-Cola out, and we are soon going to come back into the government. If you come into the country, you have to remember that the same fate awaits you as Coca-Cola. † This scared PepsiCo a bit knowing that their rival was forced to leave the country in 1977 after the Janata Dal came to power. PepsiCo had to think of a way to get in without facing the same consequences Coca-Cola had to face. In May 1985, PepsiCo joined with one of India’s leading business houses, the R P Goenka (RPG) group, to begin operations in the India. The company, along with the RPG group company Agro Product Export Ltd. , planned to import the cola concentrate and sell soft drinks under the Pepsi label. PepsiCo’s decision linked its entry with the development and welfare of the state was aimed at winning the government over. The fact that Punjab boasted a healthy agricultural sector played a role in PepsiCo’s decision. PepsiCo claimed that it would play a central role in bringing about an agricultural revolution in the state and would create many employment opportunities. It promised to create 50,000 jobs in the nation. Pepsi began by setting up a fruit and vegetable processing plants at Zahura village in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district. The plant then was focused on processing tomatoes to make tomato paste. Pepsi had a tough time convincing farmers to work for the company. Its experts from the US had to interact extensively with the farmers to explain how they could benefit from working with the company.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Trade vs. Protectionism

Arjan Chhatwal Poli 305/4 ID: 6178332 International Political Economy Prof. E. Bloodgood Trade vs. Protectionism Trade between countries has been going on for centuries. Movement of goods and services began as a mean for nations to obtain what they couldn’t produce themselves.With the introduction of Ricardo’s â€Å"comparative advantage† – which illustrated how all countries that participate in trade benefit from it-, trade began to focus on what a country is better at producing a product or a service and which country can produce it at a lower cost. Nowadays, developed countries and international organization promote free trade, open borders, and liberalization of the market intensively. However, many of those core countries also practice protectionism in order to shield their industry from foreign competition.This poses a great problem to developing countries which are forced by core countries to practice free trade but would actually benefit from prote ctionist measures. In order to represent this situation, I will analyze the economic situation of two countries with very different economies: Pakistan, representing the developing countries and the United States, which represent the developed countries. I will compare their economic situation and policies under the Bush administration and Musharaf’s government.In this essay, I will demonstrate that our international economic system is very hypocritical in the sense that the countries that would benefit from and help other countries by practicing free trade are practicing protectionism, and those who would benefit from protectionism are forced to implement free trade policies. First, I will observe and describe those two main economic policies: protectionism and free trade.Then I will concentrate on the economic situation in Pakistan and the United States in order to illustrate what use countries are making of free trade and protectionism and, on the other hand, what face the y are showing to the world. Free Trade: A Market Model of Deregulation Free trade is a market model which promotes trade liberalization by the reduction of trade barriers. This model was promoted by the economist David Ricardo in the late 18th century and beginning of the 19th century. He coined the â€Å"comparative advantage† theory. Comparative advantage† is a theory that promotes free trade by demonstrating how trade between countries benefits all parties because of the different opportunity costs. Every country can produce a good at a cheaper price than another country and has to focus on producing and exporting that particular good. If all countries do so and specialize in the production of the good that is cheaper to produce in their country, they can trade those products with each other at lower costs than if they produced all of the goods themselves.Practicing free trade means the abandonment of government restrictions in the flow of goods, workers and services across borders. Those restrictions include taxes, quotas, tariffs, and subsidies. This economic model is based on deregulation and on the elimination of binding rules on corporations. Free trade also prohibits government to give financial advantages to businesses through tax cuts in order to make them more competitive against foreign industries. This results in the elimination of monopolies and oligopolies in countries by allowing full competition.However, negative outcomes of economic deregulation includes less respect and commitment to health, labor, and environmental laws and can help multinationals outcompete smaller local industries. Another important aspect of the free trading model is the principle of Most Favored Nation which basically requires all members of trading agreements to treat other members equally. Nowadays, the biggest promoter of Free Trade is the World Trade Organization, which claims that removing trade barriers would lead to the end of poverty around the wor ld.The WTO argues that in opposition to free trade, protectionism doesn’t help promoting economic expansion. Free trade policies, it is argued by the WTO and major developed countries, promote growth. The free trade model is used by the WTO to rescue developing countries and help them develop economically more efficiently. This means that in order to receive money from the WTO, developing countries are required to follow â€Å"adjustment policies†, also know as â€Å"structural adjustments†. Those policies all push towards economic liberalization.They include cutting back on social spending, devaluation of the currency, trade liberalization, removing price control and subsidies and privatization, better governance and elimination of corruption. The WTO argues that the benefits that the countries will get from free trade outweigh those costs, which include poverty and environmental costs just to name a few. The WTO actually admits that in the short-term, free tra de will lead to inequalities but in the end, the wealth accumulated by the big businesses will trickle down and most people will benefit from the free trade model.However, as J. W. Smith argues: â€Å"That current free trade is just as unequal as the mercantilist trade it replaced is easily demonstrated. The structural adjustments imposed upon weak nations as necessary for free trade are the opposite policies under which every successful nation developed. That they developed under the philosophies of Adam Smith is a myth designed to hide a continuation of plunder through unequal trades. †[1] The paradox here is that, more and more, the developed countries who promote free trade actually practice protectionism.The problem is that free trade can only lead to fair trade if every country practices it, especially core countries that have the means to practice free trade. Nowadays, however, developed countries promote free trade and force developing countries to practice it but the y themselves hypocritically practice protectionism. This penalizes poor countries who are not ready for the global market yet. It is also often noted that even if poor countries practice free trade, it won’t necessary lead to major successes.It obviously results in higher income but social inequalities remain in most cases. This can be called â€Å"Growth without social development†, and free trade is obviously not solving this tendency. Protectionism: A Regulatory Economic Policy Protectionism is an economic policy which restricts trade between countries by imposing economic barriers and policies. We usually tend to believe that protectionism is only a question of tariffs. However, government do have ccess to many other tools to protect their industries, including quotas, government regulations such as anti-dumping laws to protect domestic industries from competition of foreign enterprises, trade restrictions and exchange rate manipulation. Those policies make the pro duction of goods cheaper for the industry that is granted the money or the preferential treatment. Domestic industries can therefore sell their product outside of the country for cheaper. In that perspective, pprotectionism is an isolationist doctrine which, some argue, leads to unfair competition.The main goal of protectionism is to handicap foreign industry. This economic model is associated with neo-mercantilism, which main objective is to maintain a positive trade balance. Protectionism is often practiced by countries that seem to be free-traders, such as the United States and the UK, in order to protect their favorite or influential industries. â€Å"Rich countries’ protectionism† includes subsidies to local industries such as agriculture and textiles.Core countries have the funds to practice that kind of protectionism while developing countries that would actually benefit from protectionism are asked to deregulate their economy. â€Å"UNCTAD estimated that rolli ng back [rich country] protectionism in this area could create additional export earnings of up to $700 billion for developing countries, to be realizable over a 10-year period. This is less than 5 per cent of the combined GDP of industrial countries, but could absorb an important part of unemployed labour in the South and generate a vent for surplus†[2].It is often argued that developed countries are taking away from developing countries what helped them develop their own economy: protectionism policies. Protectionism is necessary to economic development in the sense that it helps build a strong foundation for a strong economy. Protectionism is essential for any developing countries to help their infant industries develop; become mature and competitive for the international market.It is hard for countries to enter market if they are forced to practice free trade; they may need help of protectionism policies in order to protect their infant new industries. The United Statesâ⠂¬â„¢ economy is a perfect example of what â€Å"rich countries’ protectionism† is. By examining its situation, it is easy to understand how developed countries show the face of a free trading nation but practice protectionism interiorly. The United States: The Face of a Free Trading Nation?The United States have always been a model of a Free Trade economy and have always promoted economic liberalization all around the world. When we observe the country’s practices and economic policies from the outside, it is clear that the USA is a firm believer in free trade. Indeed, the country is involved in many free trade agreements all around the world. Those include Free Trade agreements with Australia (2004), CAFTA-DR (2005), with numerous Latin American countries such as Chile (2004) and Columbia (2006), without forgetting NAFTA (1994).United States take great pride in its participation in international trade and promoting free trade between countries. Presently, inte rnational trade is primordial to the economy of the country and accounts for around a quarter of the USA’s GDP as it was mentioned by the Conference on a New Architecture for the U. S. National Accounts in 2004. Governmental economists all agree that Free trade agreements are necessary in order to promote rapid economic growth by increasing competition, cooperation between countries, and specialization.The United States follows Germany as the second most economically open country in the world. Inside a Free Trading Nation: A Hidden Protectionist Economy The United States takes good pride in proclaiming themselves as a non-discriminatory economy and a promoter of open global markets. While USA gives the image to the world of being a pure liberal economy, the country practices protectionism regularly, which shocks many trading partners and developing countries. This can be called the problem of the â€Å"Double Standard†.Rich countries promote the free trade ideology but in practice, they protect their own industry. This situation of double standard and of the USA promoting free trade but practicing protectionism was explained by the eleventh president of the World Bank, Robert Zoellick: â€Å"In order to promote free trade, the US has to manage the home front and the international front. And on the home front the only way that we can continue to get support from the American people for open markets and trade is to use our domestic and international laws to the fullest. †[3]For a society that calls itself a free-trading one, it is quite ironical and even hypocrite that, in 2002, Bush announced the imposition of new tariffs on several influential industries such as the steel industry and the agricultural sector. While developing countries, in order to please foreign investors and international economic agencies, keep on lowering their trade barriers, the USA has, over the last two years, increased its subsidies to farmers, raised tariffs on s teel imports, and still hasn’t agreed to sign the WTO agreement to the patent rights of its pharmaceutical companies.Since the election of George W. Bush, the economy of the United States has proven to be quite protectionist: â€Å"The steel tariff and the farm bill attracted the most attention, but they are part of a broader picture that includes the punitive (and almost completely unjustified) tariff on Canadian softwood lumber and the revocation of Caribbean trade privileges. When it comes to free trade, the Bush administration is all for it — unless there is some political cost, however small, to honoring its alleged principles†[4]Let us examine more in details the three most important policies of the last decade that can help us understand how the United States is giving an image of a free-trade economy but is actually practicing protectionism. The first and very striking example of this protectionism is the Bush administration deciding to protect its steel industry which has been facing very important economic problems because of the European Union competition. The second example would be the case of the automobile industry. The Japanese automobile industry has always been a strong competitor for the USA industry.This is why the United States imposed, from â€Å"In May 1981, with the American auto industry mired in recession, Japanese car makers agreed to limit exports of passenger cars to the United States. This â€Å"voluntary export restraint† (VER) program, initially supported by the Reagan administration, allowed only 1. 68 million Japanese cars into the U. S. each year. The cap was raised to 1. 85 million cars in 1984, and to 2. 30 million in 1985, before the program was terminated in 1994. †[5] The Farm Bill of 2002 also reflects very well the protectionist tendencies of the country.This Bill distributed more than $190 billion to USA farmers and agriculture businesses around the country, and this over the next 10 years. This Bill was passed in order to help the agricultural sector overcome the difficulties it faced due to international competition. Those subsidies will make it harder for foreign producers to compete against the agricultural industry: â€Å"Third World producers will find it harder to sell to the US market and, since the USA exports 25 per cent of its farm production, they will find it harder to sell in other international markets or to resist competition from US products in their home markets.The disposal of increased US surpluses as ‘food aid' is likely to compound the loss of livelihoods. †[6] While rich countries such as the United States can afford to practice protectionism, developing nations are forced to open their economy to free trade. Pakistan, the second country we will analyze in this essay is the perfect example of a country that would benefit from protectionism policies but is forced to liberalize their economy in order to receive funds from the W TO.The United States and Pakistan have been interacting on the international scene since the late 1950s, soon after Pakistan’s independence. This relationship has been successful but has also suffered from intermittent political conflicts, which reflects pretty well the complexity of the geopolitics of South East Asian region. After the events of September 11, Pakistan and the United States became even closer than before because the Bush administration relied on the help of Musharraf’s military dictatorship to eliminate terrorism in the region, mainly in Afghanistan which has a common border with Pakistan.The main difference between the United States during its early stage of development (1880s) and Pakistan’s development phase (late 1990s, 21st century) is that the United States weren’t dominated and repressed economically by major powers and international trade organization such as the IMF and the WTO, imposing economic liberalization and tariff limits on them. The United States weren’t subject to neo-colonialism like Pakistan is today. Protectionism in Pakistan: A Focus on the Textile Industry South Asia has long been seen as one of the most protectionist region in the world.As the World Bank states in the calculations of the GDP growth rates in the World Development Indicators, trade within the region accounts for less than 2% of the GDP which is minimal compared to 20% in East Asia. The region lacks diversity within the market and the products that are traded. In addition, most countries of the region, including Pakistan, still used up until recently import-substitution policies which limited trade possibilities within the region and outside the region. Trade was also hampered by political tensions, especially between India and Pakistan.Protectionism is Pakistan is mostly directed towards one of the most important industry in the country: the textile industry which accounts for more than 60% of the country’s expor ts. Pakistan under Musharraf saw the introduction of few protectionist policies concentrated towards this influential industry. In the policy speech of 2005-2006, the Minister of Commerce announced that all textile exporters that would â€Å"register their products with Pakistani Trade marks in foreign countries for export purposes will be provided subsidy equal to 50% of official fees of such registrations. [7]. Support to this important industry was instituted to help local businesses improve the quality of their product and compete against foreign industries in order to increase the Pakistanis textile industry’s market share. This protectionist policy was put in practice to reassure the industry, which was afraid after the quota restrictions were removed in 2005. It was also introduced to protect the industry from potential job losses and the loss of potential export if the textile industry wouldn’t reinvent itself.The 2005-2006 trade policy speech focused on allev iating costs for Pakistanis businesses in order to make the local industries more competitive on the international scene. Protectionism can also be practiced in the form of tax exemption for local industries. Musharaf’s government in the Federal Budget of 2005-2006 granted tax cuts to prominent industries in the country, including textile industry, sports goods, carpet industry, leather, and surgical instruments. In addition, the imports of necessary materials for these industries are also exempted from duties.Pakistan’s Economy: A Forced Free Trading nation Trade liberalization in Pakistan began in the late 1980s and developed even more during the 1990s under Musharraf’s military government. Today, Pakistan is part of various trade agreements, all leading to economic liberalization. Those include the Pakistan-Malaysia Free Trade Agreement, Pakistan-China Free Trade Agreement, Pakistan-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement, Pakistan-Malaysia Early Harvest Program, Paki stan-China Early Harvest Program and Pakistan-Iran agreement.When I briefly presented free trade, I mentioned the â€Å"growth without development† problem that developing countries face nowadays. This is a tendency to grow economically but without promoting social development. It is the result of free trade and is perfectly well illustrated by Pakistan’s situation. The more recent budget of Pakistan is mirrors this tendency, by showing commitment to neo-liberal policies, IMF led-policies. The budget focuses on pleasing the developed countries and on macro-economics rather than on developing the country itself. The budget focuses on the military which accounts for 20% and repaying the debt, 31%.Trade liberalization has been, since Musharraf’s entry in power, another priority within the budget. As the World Bank argues, liberalizing the Pakistanis economy would lead to an increase of 8$ billion if trade barriers were lifted. â€Å"Annual trade between India and Pakistan, the bulk of which is routed through Dubai, is currently estimated at US$1 billion, but could be as great as US$9 billion if barriers are lifted. †[8] In 1999, the Asian Development Bank granted a 300$ million loan to support the Government's Trade, Export Promotion and Industry (TEPI) Program.This program was approved by the ADB, the World Bank and the IMF because it was based on liberalization of trade in Pakistan. TEPI is based on the elimination of nontariff barriers and on the increased access for exporters to the Pakistani market. This program was basically created to end import substitution policies and promote exports by giving as many advantages to local industries as to foreign companies. This program focuses on the privatization of industries and meets all criteria stated by the World Bank concerning quotas, subsidies, and customs.This facilitates foreign investors and promotes economic growth, proven by the fact that â€Å"After more than three decades of near stagnation in per-capita incomes during 1950–80, South Asia showed signs of growth beginning in the 1980s that accelerated in the 1990s and beyond. †[9] Pakistan’s economy used to be based on import substitution and was very little diversified. Taking into consideration those obstacles to trade, the Pakistani ministry of Commerce instituted a program based on diversification of exports and market opening for an increased access to facilitate trade.Pakistani economy has continuously followed WTO required adjustment of liberalization in order to remove trade barriers and obstacles to import. Following the WTO rhetoric, the government argues in favor of opening the market because in order to increase its exports, the country has to encourage imports as well as stated in the trade policy speech of 2005-2006: â€Å"It must be realized that no country has been able to enhance its exports significantly without liberalizing its import regime. †[10] Following this path, exports did increase consistently as well as imports which reached $20. 23 billion at the end of last year according to that same Trade Policy Speech. The irony that we face after having analyzed the economic situation of both countries is that the now-developed countries benefited during their development from an active state that helped them build their industries and protect. As the 1995 OECD Report showed, developed countries achieved growth starting in the 1950s under very protectionist states. â€Å"The unprecedented growth in per capita income in several developed countries during the period 1950-1973, was also achieved under activist states.When they followed the ‘bad' policies of establishing full welfare states with stricter financial market regulations, corporatist wage bargaining institutions, investment co-ordination and in some cases nationalized industries, even the now developed countries saw an exponential increase in their own growth. †[11] However, countries that wish to develop nowadays are required not only to practice free trade but not to use protectionism policies. This is unfair in the sense that they have to develop in an environment that doesn’t promote or help their growth.Developing countries would benefit and even need higher tariffs and trade barriers in order to protect their industry from the more and more competitive and aggressive trading environment. This current tendency is referred to as â€Å"kicking away the ladder†. Core countries act the way they do to ensure their domination over developing nations and keep the poor countries in a vicious circle, as they remain dependant on export of primary and raw materials, not being able to move up the trade ladder. This harms developing countries that struggle in this free trade world economy.In addition, imposing free trade on developing nations actually illustrates the focus of the WTO on short-term benefits and forgetting about the import ance of long-term goals such as deepening the industrialization of the periphery countries. The imposed policies of the WTO prevent the developing countries of using protectionist policies to help their industries develop. Several experiences have already proven that the pressures to liberalize countries’ economy can do more harm than good to new economies.Nonetheless, the WTO continues to force developing countries to open their market and reduce their trade barriers. Liberalization and free trade, although they have great outcomes for developed countries, also lead to greater inequality between the core and the periphery. â€Å"According to one estimate, the Uruguay Round’s combined liberalization increased global economic welfare by $75 billion, of which almost $70 billion went to developed countries, $5 billion to Newly Industrialized Economies (NIEs; Korea, Singapore and Taiwan), and none to developing countries taken together. [12]. Even with such numbers, devel oping countries are still forced to join the free trade movement and the WTO and developed countries continue to promote the benefits of free trading. Today, while the IMF and the WTO force developing countries around the world to practice free trade by reducing trade barriers, Pakistan included, the USA keeps on to implementing protectionist policies in order to save industries in danger or suffering from temporary discomfort.This leads to a greater gap between the productivity of developed and developing countries. The factor that is important to note here is that today’s developed countries once protected their industries behind protectionist policies, but are now promoting free trade in countries that are trying, just like they did, to succeed economically. The developed countries of today reached their economic prosperity through protectionism economic policies, and then started practicing free trade.This irony now rules international trade. It is clear that there is a p roblem concerning trade between countries in the sense that there is an inequality in the terms of trade imposed on developed countries and developing countries. Free trade can only lead to prosperity if all countries benefit from equal treatment. Even then however free trade can lead to economic prosperity but won’t necessarily lead to social development, which is what developing countries need the most.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Cats and Buttered bread. Make up your own issue about anything and get people to care about it.

Cats and Buttered bread. Make up your own issue about anything and get people to care about it. We had to make up an issue for class, most people just did abortion or peer pressure but I wanted to, as usual, be a comedian so I did this. I got a good grade for it and people in my class and my teacher actually laughed and kept their attention won me while i was reading it. =DCats and Buttered Bread.Ive decided to make an issue of this question: “If a cat always lands on its feet and buttered bread always lands butter side down, what would happen if you tied the buttered bread to the top of a cat?” You may have all seen the television show Brainiac at some point. There is a segment on the show called Tickles Teasers, were Prof. Jon Tickle tells us some ‘brain teasers and doesnt tell us the answers. Usually these questions are rhetorical, dont make sense, have left out information or make false assumptions.Buttered crumpetIn the case of this question, it has left out information and made false assumptions. First of all Tickle didnt mention that wed be dropping the cat w ith the buttered bread stuck to it. If we were not to drop the cat with the buttered bread stuck to it, the cat would simply attempt to remove the bread and walk off in the haughty way that cats do.But lets assume that the question is in fact asking what would happen if you tied buttered bread to the top of a cat and then dropped it from a fair height. Well it could land either way, and the reason why is very simple: if it lands butter side down, the cat hasnt landed yet its lying on bread. Likewise, if it lands feet down, the bread has not landed.However, there is another thing...

Monday, October 21, 2019

The Many Meanings of Mean

The Many Meanings of Mean The Many Meanings of Mean The Many Meanings of Mean By Maeve Maddox A reader from Brazil wonders about the word mean: It has many meanings, such as as evil or significant. Could you help me and others with this word? It’s not surprising that a non-native English speaker would have difficulty assigning a sense to this word. Apart from many discarded definitions, mean continues to be used in numerous senses. Ignoring the word’s use as noun or verb, I’ll look at mean as an adjective. How can mean denote both median and unkind? The word comes from two etymological sources that have jostled together through the years. From its Anglo-Norman source, mean has the sense of intermediate, middle, middle-sized. Our adverbs meantime and meanwhile come from the sense of something occurring between two points of time or between two events. Later on, from the idea of being â€Å"in the middle,† the word took on the sense of ordinary or mediocre. Scientific language yields these terms with mean in the sense of median: Astronomy mean moon mean solar day mean time Ballistics mean point of impact Mathematics mean diameter mean distance mean motion mean temperature mean-value theorem Physics mean free path Statistics mean deviation mean square Typography mean line From its Germanic sources, mean had the meaning â€Å"possessed jointly,† â€Å"belonging equally to a number of persons.† We all know that a Rolex has more cultural value than a Timex; it was only a matter of time before the meaning of â€Å"common ownership† evolved–as did the Anglo-Norman word–to mean ordinary. From ordinary it came to mean â€Å"inferior in rank or quality,† â€Å"of low social status,† â€Å"inferior in learning or ability.† The sense â€Å"of low social class† took on the added sense of â€Å"characterized by poverty, shabby.† Everyday speech gives us these uses of mean: inferior in rank: â€Å"Leave him. He’s but a mean clerk; I demand to speak to his superior.† of low social status: Catherine I of Russia came of mean origins. inferior in ability, learning, perception: â€Å"The truth of my statement ought to be clear to the meanest intelligence!† characterized by poverty: â€Å"Down these mean streets a man must go† vicious or hard to control: â€Å"Don’t make me ride a mean horse.† violent: â€Å"He’s nice enough ordinarily, but he’s a mean drunk.† stingy, miserly: Scrooge was mean with his money. unkind: That boy is mean to his little sister. Finally, as if all these uses weren’t challenging enough, mean can also indicate that something is admirable: He plays a mean saxophone. (i.e., He plays saxophone extremely well) He packs a mean punch. (i.e., He hits really hard.) Winning the Iditarod three years running is no mean achievement. (i.e., Winningis an admirable achievement.) For the non-native English speaker, mastering the many meanings of mean is no mean feat. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Vocabulary category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:20 Words with More Than One SpellingTry to vs. Try andWriting a Thank You Note

Sunday, October 20, 2019

How to Type Accents in Italian on a Keyboard

How to Type Accents in Italian on a Keyboard Suppose youre writing to an Italian friend, and you want to say something like  Di dov’à ¨ la tua famiglia?  (Where is your family from?), but you don’t know how to type the accent over the â€Å"e.† Many  words in Italian  need accent marks, and while you could just ignore all those symbols, it’s actually quite easy to type them on a computer keyboard. You only need to make a few simple adjustments to your computers keyboard program- whether you have a Mac or a PC- and youll be able to insert accented Italian  characters (à ¨, à ©, à ², , à ¹) for  any electronic message. If You Have a Mac If you an  Apple Macintosh computer, the steps for creating accent marks in Italian are quite simple. Method 1: To place an accent over: option tilde (~) / then press the ‘a’ keyà ¨ option tilde (~) / then press the ‘e’ keyà © option ‘e’ key / then press the ‘e’ key againà ² option tilde (~) / then press the ‘o’ keyà ¹ option tilde (~) / then press the ‘u’ key Method 2: Click on the Apple icon on the top left of the screen.Click System Preferences.Choose Keyboard.Choose Input Sources.Click the add button on the bottom left of the screen.Choose Italian.Click Add.In the top right-hand corner of your desktop, click on the symbol of the American flag.Choose the Italian flag. Your keyboard is now in Italian, but that means you have a whole new set of keys to learn. Semicolon key (;) à ²Apostrophe key (‘) Left bracket key ([) à ¨Shift left bracket key ([) à ©Backslash key (\) à ¹ You can also choose Show Keyboard Viewer from the flag icon drop-down to see all of the keys. If you have a PC Using Windows 10, you can actually turn your keyboard into a device that will type Italian letters, accent marks and all. Method 1: From the desktop: Choose Control PanelsGo to the Clock, Language, Region option.Select (click on) Add a LanguageA screen with dozens of language options will appear. Choose Italian. Method 2: With the NumLock key on, hold down the ALT key and strike the three- or four-digit code sequence on the keypad for the desired characters. For example, to type , the code would be â€Å"ALT 0224.† There will be different codes for capitalized and lowercase letters.Release the ALT key and the accented letter will appear. Consult the Italian Language Character Chart for the correct numbers. Tips and Hints An upper-pointing accent, as in the character , is called laccento acuto, while a downward-pointing accent, as in the character , is called laccento grave. You may also see Italians using an apostrophe after the letter e instead of typing the accent above it. While this isn’t technically correct, it’s widely accepted, such as in the sentence: Lui e’ un uomo simpatico, which means, He’s a nice guy. If you want to type without having to use codes or shortcuts, use a website, such as this one from  Italian.typeit.org, a very handy free site that provides typing symbols in a variety of languages, including Italian. You simply click on the letters you want and then copy and paste what youve written onto a word-processing document or email.

Saturday, October 19, 2019

HRM Issues in McDonalds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

HRM Issues in McDonalds - Essay Example HRM Issues in McDonalds McDonalds Corporation is the largest network of fast food restaurants headquartered in the United States. The company was founded in 1940 by brothers Richard and Maurice McDonald. Currently the organisation has it active presence in 119 countries across the world with franchisees, affiliates, or the corporation’s own restaurants. The firm’s main sources of revenues include rent, royalties, and fees from franchisees, and sales revenues from company’s directly-operated restaurants. As stated in its website, the corporation’s product lines include hamburgers, chicken, cheeseburgers, french fries, soft drinks, and desserts (McDonalds.com). The strategic position of McDonald with regard to the recruitment and selection, training and development, staff turnover, and reward and benefit has been a topic for academic discussion for decades. High staff turnover has been criticized as the indication of low staff morale in McDonald, however, a BBC report (28 January 2008), says that McDonalds specifically focuses on the issue of staff turnover as a strategic gap to be bridged (BBC News, 2008). The challenges involve the following; first, recruitment and training of new employees is an expensive task. Hence employee turnover contributes to the firm’s operating expenses. Secondly, due to this issue the organisation has been losing experienced and skilled employees and thereby it causes productivity declines. Most of the Multinational Corporations confront the issues of rising labour costs, staff turnover, and staff shortage. As Smith (2006, p. 175) points out, in order for keeping the labour costs low, McDonalds and other fast food chains have lobbied government and legislative bodies against worker benefits many times. And the result was high turnover which in McDonalds alone reached 300 percent per year in some of i ts outlets (Ibid). A recent report in Wall Street Journal dated April 10 says that McDonalds is striving to address the mounting complaints against its rude and unprofessional employees (Jargon 2013). The problems with low employee morale also have to be counted as the indication of high staff turnover that can be attributed to some HR failures. Evidences suggest that employee turnover has been pertinent in the industry for several years. For instance, a Chicago Tribune report (May 15, 2007) by Schmeltzer also describes what McDonalds did for retaining its employees in Chicago outlets. It launched a career campaign highlighting the employment in McDonalds as McCareer instead of McJob. According to the Fast Food Nation statistics (as cited by Lubin & Badkar Dec 7, 2012), McDonalds hires more than 1 million workers in the US every year with 700,000 domestic workforce and with 150% turnover rate. Msn Money report by Berr (Apr 11, 2013) also reveals that McDonalds has been recently faci ng numerous issues associated with staff shortage. Another report of the sort by Chittum (April 12, 2013) appeared on Columbia

Quickly work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Quickly work - Essay Example Consumers tend to believe that goods and services with well known brand names are much better than the products whose names or brands are not well known. The process of evaluating or establishing if a given company’s brand name is well known by customers is known as Brand Equity (Aaker, 2009). If one examines the car industry, some brands have been in the market since the invention of automobiles. A good example of such a company is the Ford motor company which despite emergence of many companies, Ford has continued to experience success especially in the American market just as a result of its brand name. Other companies such as Toyota have been producing cheaper and better cars, but despite this, Ford is among the favorite car brands in the United State of America. There are various approaches to ensure brand equity in a company. One of the approaches is known as customer based equity brand approach. This approach was developed by Kevin Keller hence it is referred to as Kell er’s Brand Equity Model. The approach is best understood by using the diagram below; The above diagram simplifies the application of the customer based brand equity. In the first step, the goal of the company should be to create customer awareness or salience. This means the business establishment should ensure that its brand stands out, and it can be easily recognized by its customers. The second step involves identifying and communicating what the company’s brand means. This step is further subdivided into two, which are performance and imagery. Performance entails defining how well the company’s brand will fulfill consumer needs. Imagery involves showing how the business establishment’s products meet the needs of the consumer on a psychological and social level. The third step involves consumers responding to the brand in two ways. These are feelings and judgments. Consumers will always make judgments about a company’s product based on superiori ty, quality, and credibility. Consumers will also respond to a company’s brand based on how it makes them feel. The final step in the customer based model is resonance, which is the most difficult level to reach in brand equity. This is where consumers will have a psychological bond with the company’s brand. This usually takes many years for a company’s brand to attain this level. If a business establishment attains this stage, then brand equity will be realized in the company’s product. In conclusion, brand equity has been important over the years because it is believed that a brand is among the high value assets a business establishment can have. This is indeed a fact that is practiced in markets. Brand equity is applied in showing the extent to which consumers know about a product, and this goes a long way in attracting loyal customers and boosting sales. Question 2 Adaptive marketing communication strategies are approaches in marketing that adapt to c hanges in various factors as a result of time. One of the major factors that results in the use of adaptive strategies of communication is technological changes. Technology changes have revolutionized a lot not only in communication, but in almost all sectors of the economy. Adaptive marketing communication strategies make sure that a company is ready for any change in the communication sector of the

Friday, October 18, 2019

The reinterpretation of dreams; The role of cognition in classical and Essay

The reinterpretation of dreams; The role of cognition in classical and operant conditioning - Essay Example 882). As Revonsuo argues that nightmares do not support psychological theories according to which dreams serve emotional healing and adjustment problems. Revonsuo argues, however, that dream content is not as random as theorists claim. In fact, dream content is not only highly organized, but also highly selective. While dreaming occurs, the brain recreates a complicated representation of the world and these representations can either exaggerate waking world experiences of downplay them (Revonsuo 783). Revonsuo also argues that the content of dreams illustrates that dreams are mediated by specific experiences in the waking world. As a result, Revonsuo hypothesizes that dreams are therefore biological functions that serve to â€Å"simulate threatening events, and to rehearse threat perception and threat avoidance† (p. 783). Revonsuo supports his hypothesis by arguing that empirical studies consistently demonstrate that dream content is usually associated with â€Å"threatening elements† (p. 883). In other words, dreams usually involve negative experiences and rarely involve positive experiences. For example, a study conducted by Hall and Van de Castle in 1966) involved dream recollections from 500 females and 500 males between the ages of 18 and 25. The contents of the dream recollections revealed that 80% of the dream contents were negative experiences and only 20% contained positive experiences. Relying on the study conducted by Hall and Van de Castle, Revonsuo observes that a majority of the negative dreams were comprised of attacks or apprehensions of attacks from strange men or animals and in each case the dreamer either took flight or attempted to take flight or hid, or immediate arose from sleep (p. 884). Revonsuo evaluates why strange men and/or animals are the predominant threats in dream contents. Revonsuo goes back to the experiences of primitive man and notes that our ancestors existed in an environment in which animals were persistent t hreats. Our ancestors developed a survival instinct in which running, hiding or otherwise escaping became a staple coping mechanism. These human fears and instincts continue to haunt modern man. Dreaming simulates and perpetuates our instinctive and ancestral â€Å"threat-avoidance programs† (Revonsuo 884). Moreover, human relations were such that men often fought with one another for access to resources necessary for basic living. Although today, interactions with strange men are rarely threatening, it remains true that violence and wars are more frequently committed by males than by females. Therefore unpleasant dream contents in which strange men are the aggressor are also rooted in our ancestors’ survival instincts (Revonsuo 884). Essentially, Revonsuo concludes that dreams represent simulations of threats and that actions played out in dreams are actually representations of waking world experiences of possibilities. Dreaming about perceptions of threats and mechan isms for avoiding threats is no more than a rehearsal or simulation technique conducted in a relatively safe location: the dream world (Revonsuo). Essay 2: Kirsch, I.; Lynn, S. J.; Vigorito, M. and Miller, R. R. â€Å"The Role of Cognition in Classical and Operant Conditioning.† Journal of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 4(2004): 369-392. Previously classical condition was perceived as a reflexive response to external stimuli. For example,

Expected US GDP Growth Rate Going Forward Research Paper

Expected US GDP Growth Rate Going Forward - Research Paper Example The recession is officially said to have ended by the third quarter of 2009. However, household incomes kept falling for the two year period after September 2009 (Pear, 2012). The key measures of macroeconomic indicators for a product market and labor market include Gross Domestic product (GDP) which measures the real changes in growth and levels of real output and changes in average consumer prices. Changes in the labor market are measured or indicated by the rate of unemployment, total employment and total unemployment (Vroman & Brusentsev, 2005). Other indicators include the base interest rate which is determined based on inflation and inflation levels. These also in turn affect the consumer purchasing power and the level of economic activity in an economy. The United States is a free capitalistic economy where the forces of demand and supply and free enterprise dictate economic development. This paper evaluates the trends, performance and forecasts for the US economy by looking a t key economic indicators and concludes at the end of the paper. Literature review The US economy is the largest in the world and its performance affects not only the USA, but also other countries which are trading partners and usually affects the whole world too. The last two years, from 2010, have seen an increase in overall GDP growth although the rate of GDP growth fell from the third quarter of 2010 (Isidore, 2011). In the first quarter of 2010 GDP grew by 3.9 percent and 3.8 percent in the second quarter. The rate fell to 2.5 percent GDP growth in the third quarter and falling further to 2.3 percent in the fourth quarter. In 2011 the GDP grew by just 0.4 percent and improved in the second quarter by growing 1.3 percent in the second quarter. The third quarter of 2011 saw the GDP grow by 2.5 percent showing a steady improvement in GDP growth in 2011, after adjustment for inflation (Isidore, 2011). The observed growth rate especially in the third quarter though good is still con sidered weak as a growth rate of at least 3 percent to be considered as real growth. The economy is expected to just grow by 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter of 2011 and achieve a 2.3 percent growth rate throughout 2012, though economists predict a robust 3 percent growth in the fourth quarter (Isidore, 2011). The revised upward trend for fourth quarter GDP growth is due to contributions from computer sales adding 0.12 percent. Real personal consumption rose by 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter, which is higher than the 1.7 percent experienced in the third quarter of 2011. Real exports of commodities grew by 4.3 percent in the fourth quarter; all contributing to the expected GDP growth of 3 percent in 2011/2012 (â€Å"US GDP Growth rate† 2012). The US is expected to achieve a GDP growth of 2.1 percent in 2012 while 2013 will see a GDP growth of 2.2 percent (â€Å"The economist online†, 2012). While the US GDP is expected to grow, the growth is still minute compared to what a good GDP growth should be (3 percent). The trend and forecasts are summarized in the table below; 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 -0.48 3.13 1.63 2.10 2.20 Source: Trading economics GDP which stands for Gross Domestic Product refers to the total value of all services and goods produced within an economy (or country) in a given year. It is a measure of how much income is generated from production activities within the country’s economy. The GDP incorporates only the finished commodities (goods and services) produced within the economy but does not incorporate capital goods or raw materials used to produce another

Thursday, October 17, 2019

Psych research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Psych research paper - Essay Example If we would listen to our physical and inner emotional needs more maybe we would not always be sick with the problems associated with stress. I say this only because I have had my share of anxiety and stress, and know that it can take a toll on a person if not taken care of properly. Lisa is a friend of mine that I have not seen since she became a L.P.N. this past summer. We started to catch up on life and even some gossip. This is when I noticed something was not quite right with her. We talked a little more and I still had a feeling she was not telling me something. Later in the week I spoke to a mutual friend and asked her if she had spoken to Lisa. It was then that I found out she had been having anger issues. Our friend told me of a couple of different incidences that Lisa was involved with. Both times she got very anger, very quickly at things that should not have mattered. The friend also told me she was drinking a little more often and when out she was either quiet or very loud to the point of being obnoxious. This was not the person that I knew at all. This was a person who always seemed to have things together. I had asked if anything was going on that I did not know about that would make her this way. The friend told me about her switching positions a t the hospital because of her being a nurse now, and said she was not handling the stress of that very well. That was all she told me about. Again I knew that this still was not her to be like this over something like a new job that I knew she was anxiously waiting to do. Later in the week I called Lisa to see if see was home. When I spoke with her again I could tell she still was not herself. I came out and asked if there was something wrong with her and she then started to cry on the phone. She then told me how the new job was not all what she thought it was going to be. It turns out to be a very stressful job with lots of patients to care for and very

POLICY ANALYSIS - CONTRACEPTIVE COVERAGE Assignment

POLICY ANALYSIS - CONTRACEPTIVE COVERAGE - Assignment Example I have reviewed actuarial studies, empirical evidence, and public programmatic efforts regarding contraceptive coverage in order to determine the cost to the consumer, to employers, and general costs incurred within the healthcare system. Annually, it is known that public funding for contraceptive coverage aids in the prevention of almost two million unplanned pregnancies, including approximately 400,000 teen pregnancies (Bertko et.al, 2012). Therefore, 860,000 unintended births, 810,000 abortions, and 270,000 miscarriages are prevented annually; also, those who receive public funding are typically eligible for Medicaid prenatal, delivery, and postpartum services (Bertko et.al, 2012). As a result, for every dollar spent for public funding of birth control, there is a cost savings of four dollars because unplanned births do not occur (Bertko et.al, 2012). In comparison of 15 different types of contraception, it was determined that the copper-T IUD offered the most cost savings over a five-year period, at $14,122 (Trussell et.al, 1995). Oral contraceptives during the same period cost $1,784 and saved $12,879 per person, while also preventing 4.1 unplanned pregnancies (Trussell et.al, 1995). Although contraceptive coverage costs $100-600 annually, the risk of pregnancy drops from 85 percent to 9 percent with birth control pills and under one percent for patients who use the IUD or hormone implant (Liebman, 2014). Over a two-year period, contraceptive methods yield cost savings in the range of $5,907 - $9,936 (Sonnenberg et.al, 2004). At the same time, the cost of payout for a vaginal delivery is $18,329 and $27,866 for a C-section (Liebman, 2014). It is also anticipated that if employers do not provide contraceptive coverage, they will end up paying an additional 15-17 percent due to the costs associated with pregnancy and childbirth (Awhonn, 2009). In 2013, women who had prescriptions for birth control pills saved an

Wednesday, October 16, 2019

Psych research paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Psych research paper - Essay Example If we would listen to our physical and inner emotional needs more maybe we would not always be sick with the problems associated with stress. I say this only because I have had my share of anxiety and stress, and know that it can take a toll on a person if not taken care of properly. Lisa is a friend of mine that I have not seen since she became a L.P.N. this past summer. We started to catch up on life and even some gossip. This is when I noticed something was not quite right with her. We talked a little more and I still had a feeling she was not telling me something. Later in the week I spoke to a mutual friend and asked her if she had spoken to Lisa. It was then that I found out she had been having anger issues. Our friend told me of a couple of different incidences that Lisa was involved with. Both times she got very anger, very quickly at things that should not have mattered. The friend also told me she was drinking a little more often and when out she was either quiet or very loud to the point of being obnoxious. This was not the person that I knew at all. This was a person who always seemed to have things together. I had asked if anything was going on that I did not know about that would make her this way. The friend told me about her switching positions a t the hospital because of her being a nurse now, and said she was not handling the stress of that very well. That was all she told me about. Again I knew that this still was not her to be like this over something like a new job that I knew she was anxiously waiting to do. Later in the week I called Lisa to see if see was home. When I spoke with her again I could tell she still was not herself. I came out and asked if there was something wrong with her and she then started to cry on the phone. She then told me how the new job was not all what she thought it was going to be. It turns out to be a very stressful job with lots of patients to care for and very

Tuesday, October 15, 2019

Systems Engineering for Managers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Systems Engineering for Managers - Essay Example The dollars thus flowed to such countries as the country's good and services flows to the US. Another major cause of the weakening dollar and the US economy is the petering out of the information technology boom. This is a situation which can not be fixed by even good economic policies. It has been worsened by monetary and multinational fiscal stimulus. The US needs to offer cooperative monetary as well as fiscal stimulus to their own economies without interference with the international trade. Such policies that lower the interest rates would induce investment. There is need for provision of an expansionary fiscal policy government substitution of deficit in spending for the drying private sector. There is also need to cut down the tax that is inequitable as well as inefficient in provision of such stimulus. In the past patients used to have their teeth whitened whenever they wanted, but now they are rethinking the action. They are worried that they might have their income dropping as they are trying to become more prudent with the financial resources they are having. Several citizens in the United States are monitoring their spending behaviors much more closely and are also whitening down their credit card balances as well as their debts regarding other obligations such as education. Such as situation led to a pullback in spending hence the inflation. Thus the weak US dollar did not have the power to purchase another country's strong dollar. According to Tonelson, (2003) the weakening dollar has been pushed harder to the corner by the National association of manufactures that indicates that as the greenback has become too expensive in relation to the other currencies. Thus U.S made products would be priced out of the foreign market as foreign products have gained a cost advantage in the country's market. The increase in crude oil would alter the world's economy as well. Most of other countries' currencies will rise against the dollar. This in return would save the exporting countries against increase in crude oil prices. It is not the case with the US as they will have to pay this crude oil in dollars hence inflation would start in the country. In order to combat such a situation, the US government might need to employ their superpower status and fight any country which is producing such crude oil. Retail sales have generally were sluggish and occasionally below expectations in spite of the substantial discounting on a wide range of the consumer products. Manufacturing sector after being considered as the worst hit by the situation has continued to suffer the widening softness which had adversely affected the US economy. Its sustained weakness has been spilled over to other sectors as several of these have indicated declines in demand for change (People's Daily, 2001). Through out the country there have been ever growing signs which indicates that most consumers have been worried because of the country's weakening economy that is likely to slip into recession. CDIC (2010) indicates that the economic signals of late have been flashing yellow signals indicating that the citizens have to be cautious. As the situation moves from bad to worse jobs have been harder to get and the mortgage industry has been having crisis that has made it very difficulty for admiring home owners who wish to

Monday, October 14, 2019

Vaccines and Autism Essay Example for Free

Vaccines and Autism Essay The measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine is used to immunize children against diseases that can cause major disabilities and fatal illnesses. In 1994, the vaccine was mandated for all school children and since then a spike has been seen in the diagnosis of autism. Many of those diagnosis falls within a few months of the MMR vaccine and in 1998, Andrew Wakefield published a study indicating a relationship between the MMR vaccine and autism (Rudy, 2009). Intense media coverage followed and many parents refused to give their children the MMR vaccine, believing their children would develop autism. The study was later retracted due to the lack of evidence but many children are still not receiving the MMR vaccine. The public health field has tried to raise awareness about the benefits of the MMR vaccine but many are still skeptical about the vaccine. Efforts have now been focused towards increasing awareness about the vaccine and trying to encourage parents to get their children vaccinated. In February 1998, The Lancet published an article entitled â€Å"Ileal-Lymphoid-Nodular Hyperplasia, Non-Specific Colitis, and Pervasive Developmental Disorder in Children,† which suggested that the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine could contribute to the development of autism. Dr. Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, suggested the link between the MMR vaccine and autism. Wakefield proposed that the virus could â€Å"have a negative impact on a child’s immune system, lead to persistent infection in the gastrointestinal tract and lead, in the long run, to possible brain damage and autism† (Rudy, 2009). Eight of the twelve children had severe intestinal inflammation, with symptoms emerging six days after receiving the MMR vaccine. The vaccine had damaging effects on the intestines and caused serious inflammation, â€Å"allowing harmful proteins to leak from the gut into the bloodstream and from there to the brain, where they damaged neurons in a way that triggered autism† (Begley, 2009). Wakefield’s study was later called fatally flawed due to the fact that Wakefield was studying children who had pre-existing gastrointestinal problems. The group size was also very small, 12 children, and â€Å"no proof was offered that the measles virus found in autistic children’s’ guts was causally connected to their autism† (Rudy, 2009). The researchers lastly suggested that the MMR vaccine caused bowel problems in children which lead to autism. In the children studied, symptoms of autism appeared before the symptoms of the bowel disease, proving that the bowel symptoms, as a result of the MMR vaccine, did not cause autism. In 2004, The Lancet published a retraction submitted by 10 of the 13 original authors that stated that there was no connection between the MMR vaccine and autism: We wish to make it clear that in this paper no causal link was established between MMR vaccine and autism, as the data were insufficient. However, the possibility of such a link was raise† (Immunization safety review vaccines and autism, 2004). There were many things found flatulent with the Wakefield study. Details of the medical histories of all the children used in the study were later revealed to the public and journalist Brain Deer interviewed several parents whose children participated in the study. Deer outlined major problems with the study including that the children were not randomly selected for the study and one came from as far as California when the study was conducted in the United Kingdom. All of the children were found to be recruited through anti-MMR vaccine campaigners (DeNoon, 2011). Wakefield was a paid consultant to a lawyer who was suing MMR vaccine makers for damages caused to children who contracted autism months after the vaccine. Wakefield received a sum of about $668,000 to publish the study from the lawyers and was published biased results. Five of the children had evidence of developmental problems before receiving the MMR vaccine and this is a significant number of children since only twelve children were studied. Only one of the children had regressive autism, despite the fact that the studied reported nine of the children had the condition. Three of these nine children were never diagnosed with autism (DeNoon, 2011). â€Å"At least five were clients of an attorney who was working on a case against vaccine makers alleging that the MMR caused the childrens autism† (Begley, 2009). Lastly, all twelve children’s medical records and parent’s accounts contradicted the case descriptions in the study. All of these discrepancies proved that Wakefield deliberately faked the study and was paid to publish these false, biased results. Wakefield had multiple conflicts of interest, had manipulated the evidence, and broke numerous ethical codes (DeNoon, 2011). Wakefield defamed his reputation and later had his medical license revoked, no longer able to practice medicine. There is no evidence that links the vaccine to autism and the overall benefits outweigh the risks. Wakefield’s theories have raised controversy due to the fact that autism arises around age two to three, the exact same age children receive the MMR vaccine, the chicken pox vaccine, and other shots (Rudy, 2009). Some parents state that their children respond with autistic regression after receiving the MMR vaccine. Other research has correlated the MMR vaccine with brain injury, making parents more wary about giving their children the vaccine. In 1998, Dr. Vijendra Singh and Dr. Victor Yang correlated the MMR vaccine to brain injury. Their findings suggest that exposure to the measles virus may trigger an autoimmune response that interferes with the development of myelin†¦ If myelin in the brain doesn’t develop properly, nerve fibers won’t work as they should. This could be one way that the brain abnormalities associated with autism arise (Rudy, 2009). Many studies have been conducted proving that autism is not a direct result of the MMR vaccine including the 1999 study conducted by Taylor, â€Å"Autism and Measles, Mumps, Rubella Vaccine: No Epidemiological Evidence of for a Causal Association. † The study showed that the number of autism cases has increased since 1979, but no significant increase since the introduction of the MMR vaccine in 1988 (Autism and the MMR Vaccine, 2001). Children exhibiting symptoms of autism were diagnosed with autism at the same age of the onset of the symptoms. This is important because if the MMR vaccine really did result in autism, the children who were vaccinated would show symptoms before and after the vaccination, not just after like the 1998 study concluded (Begley, 2009). The vaccination rate for children with autism was at the same rate for children who did not have autism. If the MMR vaccine resulted in autism then the vaccination rate for children with autism would be higher than the rate for children who do not have autism; there would be a greater percentage of children with autism who received the MMR vaccine than children who do have autism. Lastly there is no definitive time frame for the onset of the symptoms of autistic behavior. The symptoms can occur at any given time and are not more likely to occur after the MMR vaccine (Autism and the MMR Vaccine, 2001). The Wakefield study resulted in large longitudinal effects across the globe. After the study was published, MMR vaccination rates decreased in the United Kingdom, Europe, and in the United States. MMR vaccine peaked in 1996 at 92% and after the study was published the MMR vaccination dropped in the United Kingdom to 84% in 2002 (Miller, 2009). By 2006, the MMR vaccine was only given to 85% of children aged 24 months. In London, the rate was estimated at 61% in 2003, far below the expected rate for the vaccination (Miller, 2009). The study continues to have merit in those parents who believe the vaccination results in autism. Despite the fact that the study used twelve children, it led to widespread fear regarding the vaccine. After the study was published, measles became endemic in the United Kingdom and vaccination rates dropped sharply, leading to an increased incidence of measles and mumps (DeNoon, 2011). This in turn led to more deaths and injuries from measles and pumps and physicians have made statement tying this study to various epidemics and deaths. In 1998 there were 56 cases of measles in the United Kingdom and by 2006 there were 449 cases in the first five months (Does the MMR Vaccine Cause Autism, n. d. ). Each of these cases occurred in children who did not receive the vaccination due to widespread fear evoked from the Wakefield study. Mumps also began to rise in 1999 and by 2005 there were 5000 cases within the first month in the United Kingdom. Measles and mumps continued to rise and in 2006 rates were 13 to 37 times higher than the 1998 levels† (Does the MMR Vaccine Cause Autism, n. d. ). In the United States there was a sevenfold increase in measles outbreak (Begley, 2009). This study had widespread consequences and in 2000 an Irish outbreak lead to three deaths and 1,500 cases which occurred due to a decrease in the vaccination rates of the MMR vaccine following the Wakefield study (Does the MMR Vaccine Cause Autism, n. d. ). Lastly in 2008, measles was declared an endemic in the United Kingdom due to the high rates of the disease. The Wakefield study has had serious repercussions, even after its retraction, and many parents are still convinced that there is a link between the MMR vaccine and autism. After the publication of the Wakefield study parents became very skeptical about the effectiveness of the MMR vaccine. The perceived risks of the vaccination outweighed the risks and parents refused to give their children the vaccine out of fear. The one shot approach was also very fearful since it was thought that children’s immune systems were too young to receive the vaccine in one dose. Concerns regarding the MMR vaccine were never a large issue; it was the fear of autism as a result of the vaccination that led parents to reject the MMR vaccine (Shan, 2011). Parents look to the internet for reliable information and any parent coming across the Wakefield study would be wary about allowing their children to receive the vaccine. The media is a major contributor to the public’s opinion and the public listens to the media regarding risks and what to avoid. Since the retraction of the study more parents are opting for the MMR vaccine but more needs to be done to raise the vaccination rates. Educating the public regarding the benefits of the MMR vaccine is crucial to increase vaccination rates; this is where the public health sector is needed (Shan, 2011). Educational efforts are needed to increase MMR vaccination rates and parents need to be educated about the MMR vaccine to increase overall rates of vaccination. The decreased vaccination of MMR in children following the Wakefield study has occurred due to a decrease in public confidence in the safety of the MMR vaccine. This has resulted from the incorrect assertions that the vaccine results in autism, as demonstrated in the fraudulent study conducted by Wakefield. No credible evidence supports the claim that MMR causes autism and more than 20 studies have been conducted since the Wakefield study that found no evidence that links the MMR vaccine to autism (Poland, 2011). The media’s role in fostering fear in parents has led to an overall decrease in vaccination which is detrimental to children who have an increased risk of developing life-threatening diseases. Autism is now a public health concern that must be addressed by â€Å"enhancing research funding and directing that funding toward studies of credible hypotheses of causation† (Poland, 2011). Money needs to be funded in an attempt to disprove the connection between the MMR vaccine and autism and money needs to be funded for studies that provide information on the benefits of the MMR vaccine. Another important public health concern is to insist on â€Å"responsible and scientifically informed media reporting† (Poland, 2011). Widespread fear occurs when conspiracy theories and other misinformation is given to the public. Uninformed reporting increases fear and mistrust about vaccines, leading to parental confusion and reduced vaccination to children. It is the responsibility of the public health sector to ensure reliable information is given and to continue funding scientific research regarding the MMR vaccine and autism (Poland, 2011). The reluctance of parents to immunize their children has become a public health threat in that it can lead to vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles. Viruses spread quickly among children who are not vaccinated and it is a threat to the public health when children are not receiving the appropriate vaccinations. Measles is a life-threatening disease and parents are putting it off due to fear. Vaccines are the foundation in the public health field as â€Å"vaccines are one of the greatest achievements of biomedical science and public health† (Miller, 2009). The reduction of any vaccination is of major concern to the public health arena and in response to the reduction in the MMR vaccine the CDC examined the major safety issues regarding the vaccination. The CDC rejected the link between the MMR vaccine and autism based on the following, â€Å"a lack of epidemiologic evidence linking autism and MMR vaccine, case reports of children with autism and bowel disorders that did not address causality, and a lack of biologic models linking ASD and MMR vaccine† (Miller, 2009). Vaccine phobias become a public health threat and it is the responsibility of the public health arena to educate the public on the benefits of such vaccinations (Grant, 2010). There is an urgent need for research on the causes and treatment for autism as well as better support services for families caring for an autistic child. â€Å"One in 110 American children are considered to fall somewhere along the autism spectrum, a stunning 57% increase in prevalence since 2002† (Park, 2009). Autism is a significant public health concern and researches continue to discover new information linked with the condition. Public health officials need to make available more services and knowledge regarding autism in the schools, families, and community (Park, 2009). Public health experts endorse the safety of the MMR vaccine and advise parents to give their children the MMR vaccine. Since 1995, the Department of Health and Human Services has increased its focus on ASDs (Autism Spectrum Disorders). From 1995 to 2001, â€Å"research funding for autism has quintupled from $11 to $56 million. At the same time, both the CDC and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed new initiatives, building a federal foundation for the public health response to autism† (Newschaffer, 2003). Autism now includes a broad spectrum of affected individuals and more individuals have been seeking â€Å"educational, medical, and social services to help confront the formidable challenges of autism† (Newschaffer, 2003). The Center for Disease Control supports ASD surveillance projects to provide accurate information regarding risk factors of autism. The Disabilities Education Act also provides funding for screening and early intervention to infants and toddlers. Early detection is important to the public health and a new emphasis is now placed on providing training and consultation to physicians about detection and diagnosis of autism. Resources are more being directed towards assessment of autism and has led to a more informed public health response to autism. Making the decision to not immunize children with the MMR vaccine due to fear places children at great risk and is an irresponsible decision. When fewer people are immunized, diseases begin to increase in numbers and in order to protect everyone the population must be immunized. Regardless of the overwhelming data, parents still continue to refuse vaccinating their children. Parents are ill-informed and because signs of autism arise around the same time as children receive the MMR vaccine, some parents link the MMR vaccine to the development of autism. The current research provides evidence that the MMR vaccine is safer than not getting vaccinated and the CDC agree that the MMR vaccine is not responsible for the onset of autism.

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Vocabulary Component Of Language

Vocabulary Component Of Language Vocabulary is an important component of language knowledge because without knowing lots of vocabulary students will get difficulty when they express their ideas. As Zhihong (2000:18) said, Without a sufficient vocabulary, one cannot communicate effectively or express ideas. It means that having limited vocabulary might cause difficulty for students as foreign language learners to communicate with others and express their ideas. They might be stuck when using the language. According to Luppescu and Day (1993: 266), Building a large vocabulary is essential when learning English because people with large vocabularies are more proficient than those with limited vocabularies. In other words, when students have lots of vocabulary, they can communicate relatively well than those who lack of vocabulary. Thus, students should have enough English vocabulary in order to be able to undertake their studies successfully. Having lots of English vocabulary is important for anyone who wants to use the language. Decarrico (2001: 205) states, Vocabulary learning is central to language acquisition, whether first, second, or foreign. It means that learning vocabulary is the prior component that must be given to the students during their study of the language. They must he exposed with the vocabulary of the language they are studying. Thus, teachers are expected to develop their students r I 2 vocabulary by giving them the techniques or strategies of learning vocabulary. In the same fashion, students are also expected to have their own strategies in learning vocabulary. According to August and her colleagues (available at pwww.readinrockets.orWarticle/9943), vocabulary learning strategies include: Dictionary use In this strategy, learners can find multiple word meanings as well as importance of choosing the appropriate definition to fit the particular context. Morphemic Analysis This strategy is the process of deriving a words meaning by analyzing its meaningful parts or morphemes. Such word parts include root words, prefixes and suffixes. Contextual Analysis It involves inferring the meaning of an unfamiliar word by scrutinizing the text surrounding it. Instruction in contextual analysis generally involves teaching students to employ both generic and specific types of context clues. They also suggest several strategies that appear to be especially valuable for building the vocabularies of English Language Learners. These strategies include taking advantage of students first language if the language shares cognates with English, teaching the meaning of basic words, and providing sufficient review and reinforcement. Based on the several strategies given above, it can be said that vocabulary learning strategies are specific actions taken by the learner to make 3 learning easier, faster, more enjoyable, more self directed, more effective, and more transferable to new situations. Nation (1986:3) has listed 3,000 high-frequency English words and recommends these words as the basis of selection and order of vocabulary in teaching English at schools. He said that the learners of English as a foreign language need to master a productive knowledge and receptive knowledge of 1,000 and 2,000 high-frequency words. These skills will enable learners to communicate their ideas in the language they are studying whether in oral or written. Nurweni and Read (1999: 161) conducted the study in Lampung and discovered that students had some knowledge of 1226 English words. They also cited several researches: Quin (1968) conducted a vocabulary size of High School students graduated in Salafga and discovered that the subjects knew less than 1,000 of the most frequent English words after six years of study in high school and another study conducted by Suwarno Kartini (1998) in Bengkulu, they discovered that the students knew around 2,000 of the high-frequency words. All of the researches were about the vocabulary size of Indonesian learners especially students of High School (University level); the result showed that their vocabulary knowledge was still limited. The recent researches about vocabulary knowledge were conducted by Karwuur (2005) and Kurniawati (2004:ii). Karwuur conducted her research by analyzing the junior high schools English textbooks. She analyzed three English textbooks used by junior high school levels and discovered that those books 4 contain 1196 high-frequency words out of 2000 high-frequency words listed in Nation (1986:10-80). Kurniawati conducted a study of vocabulary knowledge of junior high school stuqents in several state junior high schools in Jakarta and discovered that the students were estimated to know 819 words receptively and 409 words productively out of 1,000 and 2,000 vocabulary levels. In Indonesia, English is a compulsory subject for students from elementary school to university level. As stated in the 1999 English Curriculum, students of junior high school are expected to have good language skills so that they are able to communicate well. Based on it, students in Junior High School level are expected to cover 1,000 words. From all the research above, there has not been any research yet to discover the vocabulary size ofjunior high school based on English textbooks. The explanation above inspired the researcher to find out more about the size of students English vocabulary at Junior High School in Jakarta based on the vocabulary found in their textbooks used at Junior High School level. 1.2 Problem Statement Based on the background of the study above, the researcher is interested in finding out the number of words known by the students of Junior High School based on their textbooks. The research question of this study is formulated as follow: How much is the size of the junior high school students knowledge of the English vocabulary learned from their textbooks? 5 1.3 Target Population The population of my research is Junior High School (SMP) level students. From this population, the sample for this particular survey is the third level of SMP students. They are students who are taken from several private schools in Jakarta. 1.4 Purpose of the Study The purpose of the study is to investigate the English vocabulary size of Junior High School students, especially those from private schools in Jakarta. .1.5 Limitation of the study This study is limited to third graders junior high school students located in Jakarta. The number of the students included is 311 students. 1.6 Weaknesses of the Study The researcher realized that this study has some weaknesses. Among them are: This study is emphasized only in English vocabulary size There is no clear border between receptive and productive competence in order to measure vocabulary size ofjunior high school students 6 The time taken is limited because the population was being prepared for the National examination, so that the researcher has limited time to take the data needed. 1.7 Benefit of the Study Hopefully, this study gives information about the vocabulary size ofjunior high school students. It is expected that the information is useful as an input for English teachers to know their students English achievement especially their vocabulary. Thus, the teacher might be able to prepare the lesson with good techniques and strategies in order to lead the students more interested and motivated in expanding their vocabulary, especially the high-frequency words and studying English. C 7 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, vocabulary in language learning will be firstly discussed, followed by testing vocabulary, then vocabulary selection and kinds of vocabulary size test. Finally, measuring vocabulary size will be explained in the last part of this chapter. 2.1. Vocabulary in Language Learning Coady and Hicklin (1997:5) stated that, Vocabulary is central to language and of critical important to the typical language learner. Zhang Xi (1992:3 3) also says that, Mastering vocabulary is an important aspect of learning a language. It can be concluded that vocabulary is very crucial for the language learners to acquire and master. In English learning process vocabulary is still quite difficult for students to acquire new or unfamiliar words. In fact, if the students do not know enough words, it is impossible for students to understand ideas to express their thought. As Luppescu Day (1993:265) said, Building a large vocabulary is essential when learning language because learners with large vocabularies are more proficient than those with limited vocabularies. It means that students will succeed if they have much vocabulary because they know what should they speak, write and they can comprehend what they hear and read. It is also supported by Anderson and Freebody (1981: 77), Voc abulary knowledge is an excellent predictor of general language ability. In the language use, vocabulary becomes n 8 important to them so it must be paid attention by both teachers and students. In this case teachers have many roles in the process of teaching and learning vocabulary because not only the meaning of words but also the words knowledge whereas the students should be active in learning process. Harmer (199 1:242) states that, In playing the role of facilitating, the teacher should always be ready to offer help if it is needed and is available whenever the students wish to consult them. Thus, the teacher should make a good plan in teaching English especially vocabulary and prepare the lesson by using an interesting method. Courtright and Wesolek in their research report (2001:3) indicate that, It is an importance to incorporate interactive vocabulary activities into English classes. It can be designed to fulfill the following purposes: 1. Exposure (concept of clarifying word meaning and illustrate appropriate usage) 2. Expansion (concept of using the appropriate word form in context) 3. Expression (concept of demonstrating word knowledge in either oral or written original expression using the target words) While each of the three purposes should be covered at each level of language proficiency, the proportion of class time spent on activities for each purpose will vary according to the level of the students. At beginning levels like junior high school students for example, teachers tend to spend more time clarifying the meaning or exposing the students to the words and refining usage. Moreover the material and interesting media selection need to be given more .9 attention to the teachers as a facilitator in the learning process in order to increase the students vocabulary size. In the learning process, the goal of learning plays an important role in the main point. As stated in the English curriculum ofjunior high school (Depdiknas 1999) that the goal of vocabulary learning of Junior high school student who use English as a foreign language is to prepare themselves with vocabulary that can be used in expressing idea and communicating with other people. Furthermore, they are also expected to master 1,000 words. The curriculum states both the number of words which should be acquired and the list of words that should be taught. In the other words, junior high school students are provided with the amount of vocabulary which is classified into some topics. Based on this reason, students need to prepare themselves with a good language skill in order.to be able to communicate their ideas in the target language both oral and written. According to the foreign language teaching methodology, linguistic competence is generally categorized into skills that refer to both receptive competence (listening and reading) and productive competence (speaking and writing). As cited by Herudjati and Hendarti (2004:v), The crucial role of teachers is to help students master the target language. It means that the process of mastering the target language, the students need teachers role to fulfill final purpose of the learning language. In this case, the teachers as both motivators and facilitators must be wisely motivated, facilitated, and encouraged students to improve their productive competence. Thus the teachers role is very important to I I 10 motivate their students in learning vocabulary especially to stimulate the students in producing their vocabulary whether in oral or written language. Besides teachers role, textbook usage is also one of important factors to support the learning process. According to Kizilirmak (1991 :47)The textbook, after all, is the main resource of the material for most language teachers. It was also agreed by Karwuur(2005:i3), that textbook is one of the teaching materials which is the most accessible and effective for most teachers to support their teaching programs. Thus, the students achievement should be considered with the role of the textbook usage during the learning process. From the theory above, this study will be focused on the students vocabulary achievement based on their textbooks target. 2.2 Testing Vocabulary According to Novozhilova (Available at: jip://www. natek.freenet.kz/novozhilova.html), Testing is an important part of every teaching and learning experience. Well-made test of English can help students in at least two ways. First, such tests can help create positive attitudes toward the ciass. Second, English tests can benefit students is by helping them master the language. Properly, made English test can help create positive attitudes toward instruction by giving students a sense of accomplishment and a feeling that the teachers evaluation of them matches what he has taught them. It is also agreed by Nation (1999:8). He said that testing usually has two effects: (1) It provides information for the teacher and learners; (2) it influences the teachers I 11 and learners attitudes. That is, testing can encourage learning and arouse interest in it. Besides those effects of the testing above, good English tests also help students to learn the language by requiring them to study hard, emphasizing course objectives, and showing them where they need to improve. In other word, the result of tests can help teachers answer the important question Have I been effective in my teaching? It means that the tests can be used to diagnose our own efforts as well as those of our students. Then, test is beneficial for students, teachers, and even administrators by confirming progress that has been made and showing how can best redirect our future efforts. In addition, good test can sustain or enhance class morale and aid learning. Test of language sub skills do not show exactly how well a person uses English, but they can help teachers diagnose students strengths and weaknesses in oral or written communication. Generally, language tests are simply instruments or procedures for gathering particular kinds of information, typically information related with students language abilities. In this case, the test of vocabulary is used to diagnose areas of student needs or sources of learning difficulties, to reflect on the effectiveness of materials and activities, and to encourage students involvement in the learning progress for further classroom- based applications of language test. Novozhiiova adds that the reasons for testing can be identified as follows: 1. Testing tells teachers what students can or cannot do-in order words, tests show the teachers how successful their teaching has been. It provides I 12 wash-back from them to adjust and change course content and teaching style where necessary. 2. Testing tells students how well they are progressing. This may stimulate them to take learning more seriously. 3. By identifying students strength and weaknesses, testing can help identify areas for remedial work. 4. Testing will help evaluate the effectiveness of the program, course-books, material, and methods. Thus, teaching and testing are two inseparable aspects of the teachers task. They have an essential role in developing the students communicative competence. 2.3 Vocabulary Selection Vocabulary selection is related to the materials in used to enrich and develop students vocabulary. According to Read (2000:148) Vocabulary size test is merely samples of items representing their perspective frequency level, not words that are of interest in their own right. It means that to select the vocabulary that will be tested, the test taker must consider to the criteria of vocabulary selection. Karwuur (2005:10) notes that the selection of vocabulary should be based on the learners needs and the consideration of whether it is useful to them or not. Not to be different from them, Richards (200 1:7) said that there are two major criteria that should be considered by the teacher in selecting and organizing vocabulary from the classroom, they are; frequency and range of words. It is also 13 agreed by Nation (1990: 18-19) that frequency and range of the words are the main criteria in making selection of vocabulary for teaching learning in a class. Moreover, vocabulary selection is also related to direct and indirect vocabulary learning. In direct vocabulary learning, the students do exercises and activity that focus their attention on vocabulary. Word-building exercises, guessing word from context, learning word in lists, and vocabulary games are included in direct vocabulary learning. In indirect vocabulary learning the students attention is focused in some other feature such as message that is conveyed by a speaker or writer. As cited in Nation (1999:2), Krashen (1981 a) said that those arethe input theory of language learning. Nation (1999:3) also states that there are four ways in selecting vocabulary. They are as follows: I. Material is prepared with vocabulary learning as a consideration. In this case the selection and grading of vocabulary has been given a lot of attention before the course begins. 2. Words are dealt with as they happen to occur. It means that if an unknown word appears in the reading passage, the teacher gives some attention to it at the moment it causes a problem. 3. Vocabulary is taught in connection with other language activities. In other words, it should be concerned with real life. 4. Time is spent either in class or out of school. From all the ways above it can be said that selecting words is not an easy thing to do because there are not only some aspects determining the vocabulary I 14 selection but also the curriculum guidance on English subject coveriiig the words should be taught and which should be left out. Having good enough vocabulary influences the students in some ways: they understand what they read, what they hear, what they want to say, and write. Because vocabulay is an important component in language learning, it is used in all ianguage skiHs whether in reading, listening, speaking, or writing. It can not be separated each other. Vocabulary learning in the Junior High School level needs more attentions because according to the previous researches found that the problem ofjunior high school students is they lack of vocabulary so they could have difficulties in both receptive and productive English skills. Therefore, this study focused on the words included in the junior high school textbooks used by the students; the result gained will indicate that the junior high school students have a progress in learning the vocabulary. The textbooks refer to the 1999 curriculum guidance. 2.4 Types of Vocabulary Size Test Based on the frequency and the word range, Nation (2002:6) divided vocabulary into 4 groups. They are: I. High frequency words High frequency words are words that occur frequently in running text or speech of the native speaker. These words are very important so the students should be familiar with those words. 15 2. Academic words The academic words are the words that used in the common academic text. 3. Technical words These words are closely related to the topic discussed. 4. Low frequency words These kind of words are included all the words that are not high frequency words, not academic words and not technical words for a particular subject. He also says that the word-frequency counts help teachers and course designers in several ways. (a) They can help a teacher develop a feeling about which words are useful and should be given attention and which are infrequent. (b) They can provide a principled basis for developing words list for teaching, for designing graded courses and reading texts, and for preparing vocabulary test. (c) Where frequency counts give information on range, they are also useful for developing specialized words list. Thus, the vocabulary for the junior high school students that useful is high-frequency words which have a wide range. The test is very important in order to know the students progressive and the teacher effectiveness in teaching learning process. There are several types of test that can be used to test the vocabulary size: I. Multiple choice test Cross the choice that gives the best meaning of the word A tome 1. a rough split 2. a pain in the back 16 3. a large, heavy book 4. a type of horse 2. Yes/No or checklist test Tick the words you know explore achieve _____ survive _______ environment ______ 3. Translation test Translate the underline word into your first language. A bird has two wings. 4. Matching items original private complete royal first slow not public sorry total Those types of vocabulary test have the advantages and disadvantages. According to Nation (2001:81), they are: Multiple-choice items Multiple-choice items are difficult and need more time to make it but they are very quick and easy to score if the answers are clear. The test takers performance is too dependent on the choice of distracters and they tend to guess the answer. 17 2. The Y/N or checklist items Are easy to make and score but this tent to make the test taker overestimate of their vocabulary knowledge. 3.. Translation items The translation test are easy to produce and they ask the students to perform a task which is equal to what they do when reading or listening, but the scoring can be complicated and scorer need to know the students mother tongue. 4. Matching items The matching items are quick and easy to produce but it gives the test taker an opportunity to guess whey they answer. There are several types of test to measure students vocabulary size. In choosing the suitable test type, the principles suggested by Nation (2001:345) are: 1. The test has plenty of items. 2. The test item type requires the learner to use the kind of vocabulary knowledge that wants to be tested. 3. The test is easy to make, mark, and interpret, and has good effect on the learning and teaching. After the purposes and uses of the testing have been decided, the next point to consider is what kinds of information have to be known. In this case, to know the vocabulary size of the junior high school students, the researcher gave a test used to measure their vocabulary. Considering all the types of vocabulary size tests presented above, this study used translation test as a tool to measure 18 students vocabulary size. In this test, the students are expected to translate the target words given. As Rebecca (1990: 84) stated that, Translating can be helpful strategy early in language learning, as long as it is used with care. In this test, the students are allowed to use their own language as the basis for understanding what they hear or read in the new language. Thus, the English vocabulary size ofjunior high school students will be obtained. 19 CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY This chapter incLudes research objective, the research methodology, the subjects of the study, target vocabulary, techniques of data collection method, and data analysis. 3.1. Research Objective The aim of this research is to find out whether the students have the adequate vocabulary size. In order to know the size of the students vocabulary knowledge, the translation test was employed. The test is intended to measure how much the junior high school students know the vocabulary they learned from their English textbooks. 3.2. Research Methodology The methodology used in this research is survey. As stated on the website available at http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/survey.htm), survey research is one of the most important areas of measurement in applied social research. The broad area of survey research encompasses any measurement procedures that involve asking questions of respondents. In survey, the samples are highly preferred a big class. Denscombe (1992:22) stated that being enhanced representative of the samples and allows greater confidence to making generalization use the large sample. 20 I 3.3. Subject of the study Subjects in this study were private Junior High School students in Jakarta. The subjects were taken from nine different private schools in Jakarta by using a purposive random sampling. The researcher took 9 schools out of 685 schools. The selection was based on their achievement in the national exam score. First, the researcher selected three private schools randomly that had the highest national exam score and classified them as high-level private schools. Then, the researcher selected another three private schools that had the average national exam score and classified them as medium-level schools. At the last, the researcher selected three private schools that had the lowest national exam score and classified them as low-level schools. One class was taken as a sample from each school. The main purpose of having high, medium, and low-level is to discover whether there is a significant difference in the achievement of the students vocabulary size learned from their textbooks. 3.4. Target Vocabulary The target vocabulary was taken from the words in English textbooks for Junior High School. Before the sample was taken, the words were edited. Function words like the, a, to, in, that were not included in the test of this kind of words; articles, prepositions, pronouns, conjunctions, auxiliaries, etc.- are called as function words and seen as the grammar of the language. Thus the researcher sets out to test vocabulary by focusing on the content words as the target words. 21 The target vocabularies were selected from 2235 words which are used in Junior High School English textbooks. Following Thorndike and Lorges method à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ of estimating vocabulary size as cited by Nation (1990:76), the researcher selected every tenth word of the lists after the function words were elirninated. Consequently, there are 200 words tested to the participants. 3.5. Data Collection method The translation test is employed to collect the data in order to know how many English words were known by the students. In the test, each target word was provided in the sentences which are underlined, then, the students were asked to write the meaning. in Indonesian on the answer sheet provided. The direction was also given in Indonesian. The test consisted of 200 items. Each item consisted of one short-simple sentence in English in which the target word was underlined. The students were asked to write the meaning of the underlined word into Indonesian. The translation test is as follows: VOCABULARY-SIZE TEST FOR JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN JAKARTA Tes mi dimaksudkan untuk mengetahui banyaknya kosakata yang telah saudara kuasai berdasarkan buku bahasa Inggris yang dipakai. Setiap soal terdiri atas satu kalimat yang di dalamnya terdapat satà ¼ kata yang digaris bawahi. Tuliskan makna kata tersebut dalam bahasa Indonesia pada lembar JAWABAN yang telah disediakan. Coba kerjakan tes dibawah mi! 1. She uses a dictionary to check difficult words. 2. The room is dark, 3. She gave you an example. 22 There are two points in collecting the data, here are as follows: 3.5.1. Try Out of the Instrument The pilot study was conducted to calculate the reliability and validity of the test. The try out was calculated by using the Spearman Brown Method. The try out result indicated that the reliability coefficient for translation test is 0,8 8. Thus, it can be said that the test was reliable. The following is the formula of the Spearman Brown method: N-(X)(Y) 2(rXy) r11 = (i+rXy ) Where: r = Pearson r = the sum of score in X-distribution -= the sum of score in Y-distribution >XY = the sum of the products of pairs X- and Y-scores = the sum of the squared scores in X-distribution Y2 = the sum of the squared scores in Y-distribution N = the number of paired X- and Y- scores (subjects) 23 Based on the computation, the result is 0.88, while the rt for N 20 IS 0:44. So the result of the validity and reliability is higher than the critical r. It can be concluded that the test is valid and reliable enough to be used as a test instrument. 3.5.2. Scoring Test The type of the test used in this study is the translation test. It is used to identify whether the students knew the words in the textbooks they use. Following Nurweni and Reads study on vocabulary size of Indonesian university students which also used translation test, there were four possible answers, which were acceptable, they are: I. The answers gave a meaning of the word that was in relation to the context and grammatically correct. 2. The answer which gave a meaning of the word that was in relation with the context but it was grammatically incorrect. 3. The answer gave a meaning of the target word that was not in relation with the context but it was one possible meaning of the target word and grammatically correct. 4. The answer gave a meaning that was not in relation with the context but it was one possible meaning of the target word and grammatically incorrect. 24 In this study, the four different types of answer were all accepted as correct. For example: He is pjtin the room with blue colour. The answers might be: mengecat, cat, melukis, lukis. All the answers are considered correct. Every correc