Identify and critically assess the principles which underpin the EU Essay

Identify and critically assess the principles which underpin the EU Public Procurement - Essay Example Framework Procurement can be defined as â€Å"the purchase of commodities, goods, works or services by public administrators†.1 A public administrator in the EU Law includes state, government, association governed by public law and similar bodies. Collectively, public procurement accounts for 13.5% of the European Union’s GDP.2 This therefore means that the authorities have a duty to provide a legally acceptable set of guidelines that promotes the European Union’s single market system and also prevents leakages and unfair procurement practices and corruption. However, some challenges in the EU Procurement Laws do not enable the EU Procurement system to achieve its objectives. In the UK, the threshold for the observance of EU Public Procurement Law is ?100,000 for government supplies and ?4 million for works and services.3 These thresholds are really high. This gives room for various forms of manipulation. A public institution that desires to be mischievous is lik ely to buy goods and services in lower amounts so that they will not be required to follow the EU Procurement Rules. This gives room for easy evasion and manipulation. Reasons for the EU Public Procurement Laws The first reason why the EU Public Procurement Law was enacted was that the European Union has laws that guarantee the freedom of movement, person, capital and services across borders so nations and governments should not have public procurement systems that discriminate against people from other EU nations.4 Also, non-tariff protection exists for all EU businesses in the transfer of their goods and services across the various borders.5 The EU Procurement Law avoids amongst other things, discrimination against efficient companies by ensuring the fair treatment of all potential bidders for a public supply tenders across the EU. The extent to which the procurement law has protected non-national businesses in bids and tender is quite questionable. This is because with higher tra nsportation costs and diversity issues, it is often common for public institutions to choose local suppliers and not external suppliers. In summary, the EU Procurement Laws state that public institutions should honour three things in their operations.6 The are: 1. They must treat a business and person of other EU nationality fairly7 2. No discrimination, there should be equality 3. There should be transparency in bidding and tender selection process. However, with the uneven trends of development in the EU, there are cases when there is the need for positive discrimination to help some national businesses to grow by supplying to public institutions in the country. Adhering strictly to the public procurement framework can only cause some local businesses in smaller nations like Portugal and Latvia to collapse in the face of other richer businesses from more powerful nations like Germany, France and Britain. Overview of Underpinning Principles The main areas and aspects of the EU Publ ic Procurement policy include transparency, publicity, objectivity, accountability, non-discrimination and flexibility/redress.

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay Example for Free

To Kill a Mockingbird Essay â€Å"It takes one step at a time. Small changes eventually add up to huge results.† Life lessons are important in the way life is understood. Without life lessons to teach the importance of life there would be much suffering and unhappiness. To Kill a Mockingbird is a classic novel written by Harper Lee. It was written in the early 1960’s about a young girl named Scout and her family about the racism that was provoked in the town. Harper Lee, in her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, illustrates three main lessons with the Tom Robinson trial: Stand up for what you believe in, racism is painful and avoid mob mentalities. One of the most important lessons in To Kill a Mockingbird is to stand up for your beliefs. The character Atticus is a promonate example Harper Lee used to express the importance of standing up for your beliefs. â€Å"Atticus had used every tool available to free men to save Tom Robinson, but in the secret courts of men’s hearts Atticus had no case. Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her moth and screamed.† (Lee 323). Atticus throughout the novel displays the courageous and daring act of standing up for his beliefs. Atticus presented a strong defence for the coloured man, even though he knew that there was nothing he could really do. Atticus was appointed to defend Tom Robinson in his case. Atticus took the case seriously and took it upon himself to take all evidence into close examination. â€Å"This case, Tom Robinson’s case, is something that goes to the essence of a man’s conscience-Scout, I couldn’t go to church and worship god if I didn’t try to help that man.† ( ). Atticus strongly defends Tom Robinson for his own personal beliefs and took this case ‘white vs. Black’ seriously and he has taken all odds against society to justify this man. Standing up for what you believe in is a strong way to under mind authorities and prove a strongly arguable point. Atticus did not end up winning the case, but he still stood up for what he believed was right and held on to those beliefs until the end. Roberts 2 Racism causes pain to so many coloured people in the 1930’s, still to this day racism affects the lives of many. The Tom Robinson case is a prime example of how racism can negatively affect the lives of many. Maycomb the town in To Kill a Mockingbird is very racial. The town folk locked Tom Robinson up for a crime he simply did not do. The men in Maycomb did not care if this man did it or not, they just wanted him to be imprisoned because of the colour of his skin. â€Å"To Maycomb, Tom’s death was typical. Typical of a niger to cut and run. Typical if a niggers mentality to have no plan, no thought for the future, just run blind first chance he saw. Atticus Finch might’ve got him off scot free, but wait-Hell no. You know how they are. Easy come, easy go. Just shows you, that Robinson boy was legally married, they say he kept himself clean, went to church and all that, but when it comes down to the line the veneers mighty thin. Nigger always comes out in ‘em.’’ ( ). Tom died because he was convicted of a crime committed by a white man. Tom was sent to jail, and first chance at free dome so he ran, ending himself with 17 bullet shots in him. Anger when associated with racism can drive a man insane. Bob Ewell let both of them get to him. â€Å"Mr. Finch-wasn’t crazy, mean as hell. Low-down skunk with enough liquor in him to make him brave enough to kill children. He’d never have met you face to face.† ( ). All just because Atticus was appointed to defend Tom Robinson in his case, Bob Ewell got angry. Bob Ewell was furious with modem to kill because in the trail, Atticus’ defence for Tom Robison was rather embarrassing for Bob Ewell. Atticus made an embarrassment of Bob Ewell by presenting the jury and the courtroom to the evidence that clearly indicates that Bob Ewell was the one who abused Mayella. Bob Ewell being mad he had enough modem to go after Atticus’ children just because he did his job and defended a black man. Racism is still painful to many today. Harper Lee expresses the real pain behind racism in To Kill a Mockingbird. The white men of Maycomb posses mob mentalities which Harper Lee presents as despicable. All of Maycomb County think that black people are so different, but in reality no one is here to tell everyone who can be better or not. â€Å"A quiet, respectable, humble Negro who had the unmitigated temerity to ‘feel sorry’ for a white woman has to put his word against two white people’s. Need not remind you of their appearance and conduct on the stand-you saw them for yourselves. The witnesses for the state, with the exception of the Sheriff of Maycomb County, have presented themselves to you gentlemen, to this court, in the cynical confidence that their testimony would not be doubted, confident that you gentlemen would go along with them on the assumption-the evil assumption-that all Negros lie, that all Negros are basically immortal beings, that all negro man are not to be trusted around women, an assumption one associates with minds of their caliber.† (273). Maycomb judges coloured people on the colour of their skin and not what really matters. Tom Robinson was brutally exposed to racism and never got the chance to live it down. Atticus is very well to avoid mob mentalities. Atticus makes a point of making what he wants to be heard, heard. Atticus is very courageous in Roberts 4 the way that he will stand up for and defend his beliefs and not follow in the same corrupt path that others are on. â€Å"I shall be brief, but I would like to use my remaining time with you to remind you that this case is not a difficult one, it requires no minute sifting of complicated facts, but it does require you to be sure beyond all reasonable doubt as to the guilt of the defendant, To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. This case is as simple as black and white.† (271) Atticus actually took the time to consider all the evidence in the Tom Robinson case. Atticus presented his evidence before the jury and he strongly believed that it was not Tom Robinson. Atticus did not follow in the ways of others with no just assuming that because he is black he did it. Atticus took into all the consideration the evidence he had pulled together to treat Tom as an equal and give him a fair defence against a white man. Mob mentalities are everywhere. People believe in anything they hear and go along with it, but it takes one person to stand up and represent those who cannot. Standing up for what you believe in, racism is painful and avoiding mob mentalities are really important life lessons that Harper Lee expresses throughout the novel, epically in the Tom Robinson trial. Harper Lee incorporated life lessons into her novel to teach the reader the importance in knowing right from wrong and to teach you things you may not learn in schooling. History is full of examples of people that kept making the same mistakes because they fail to learn the first time. Life lessons are everywhere, you learn something new every day that builds your character and defines who you are as a person.

Operating System Used In Portable Devices Computer Science Essay

Operating System Used In Portable Devices Computer Science Essay This report is about Operating system used in portable devices like PDA and laptops etc. As the passage of time consumer needs are becoming more and more demanding and life is becoming compact so as devices are also becoming more powerful and their OS also more advanced and complicated we will discuss some those most commonly used OS and their different uses and the devices they are used produced by different manufacturers and a brief introduction to OS and its types. Operating system is the most important program which enables hardware to communicate with each other and humans also. Every program needs an operating system to run on computers or handheld devices. It is responsible of managing inputs given by user and transferring them into desired outputs by using devices like keyboard, mouse, printers and monitors etc. attached to motherboard. OS usually exists in hard drives of computers or in handheld devices in flash rom memory. OS also arrange, manage organize all file and folders on computers. The more systems are larger the more complex the process in those system becomes so the OS used in these systems are more powerful and the task they perform are also exponential. They are capable of doing many tasks simultaneously without interference of each other and providing expected performance at the same time. Different type of OS available for desktop or laptops are Windows which is dos based and Mac OS which is Unix based, Ubuntu which is Linux based etc. and for handheld there are many choices as well like Symbian OS, Android, Windows mobile and apple iOS etc. Operating system can be mainly of four types based on their use and support. They are as follows: Real time OS This OS is developed for devices which have limited memory and to make them efficient and fast less coding is used as resources are crucial and execution time needs to be minimal. Example is Windows CE. Single user single Task It is a advanced version of previously mentioned Real time OS. In this type one user can perform one task at one time. The palm top or PDA fits in this type. Example is Window mobile. Single user multi Task This is the most commonly used OS type nowadays. These OS are capable of Multitasking and capable of performing all user tasks as multimedia, internet ,games and all commonly used tasks Example of this type could be Window 7 ,Mac OS etc. Multi User These are the most powerful OS of all. They are capable of handling many users at same time and providing all of them with the resources they need. These OS are not like single user multi task where only one user can perform task at a particular time in this type many user can login at same time. Example is UNIX, Linux etc. Literature Review The increasing demand of handheld or portable devices created a new era in computing history as from year 2000 and onwards the approach of people regarding mobile devices changed and life started becoming fast and compact day by day so the need of business and entertainment devices and so the mobile OS started become popular and lots of computer hobbyist and developers started developing faster and efficient mobile OS and its applications. The use of internet, emails and messaging started becoming popular in devices and these facilities started becoming a part of handheld devices and some of those are discussed below. 1) PDA PDA stands for Personal Digital Equipment usually called pocket pcs or pocket computers it is an handheld device which has functionalities like phone, internet, multimedia etc. all in pocket able size. User interact with these through a stick called stylus or nowadays mostly fingers some of these also have built in QWERTY keyboards for quick and better input. PDA also have features like hand recognition, voice recognition and gesture response. 1.1) Types of PDA Some types of PDS available are as follows: 1.1.1) Palm It is kind of PDA which runs its own OS called Palm OS example could be Palm TX, Palm Pilot etc. Palm became a very renowned name in portable computing industry. It played a major role in the development of PDAs it introduced a variety of different versions of devices in market. Palm OS can also be found in Sony Clie, Handspring Visor and Tapwave Zodiac. 1.1.2) Pocket PCs These kinds of PDA are usually based on Microsoft Windows Mobile OS which uses Windows CE core. They are capable of all sorts of functionalities like video and music playback, Web browsing through built in internet explorer, fax sending, and email etc. There are many manufacturers of pocket pcs in market some of which are HP, HTC, Motorola, Dell etc. 2) Laptops These are smaller, lighter and in most cases equally powerful in performance computers compared to desktops. They are meant to do computing on the move. laptops got large capacity ,more memory and better processors as compared to other mobile computing devices. They run Windows Xp, Vista or 7, Mac OS and Ubuntu etc. 2.1) Netbooks These are a newer kind of laptops which are much smaller in size as well as computation. They include all components as normal laptops but in scaled down version there size is normally of a A4 size page and qwerty keyboard with a bit less keys then normal laptops. They are capable of performing normal day to day task as surfing web, using word watching HD YouTube widows (newer versions only).There battery life vary from 8 to 9 hrs. That is 4 to 5 times more than standard size laptops. Mostly Ubuntu, Android, Windows XP and Windows 7 starter are used as OS in netbooks. 3) Other Mobile OS We have discussed Palm OS and Windows Mobile but there are very well known OS which are as follows: 3.1) Symbian OS This OS is the most renowned in the industry and more than 85 percent of mobiles manufacturer use this as standard in their devices and lots of developers had become interested in developing their applications which totally changes the user experience of Symbian running devices. Symbian has released different versions of its OS like Symbian series 20 or 30 for low end handsets, Symbian series 40 and 60 for mid-range and series 90 for high end business communicators and uses 2.5G and 3G. 3.2) Android This is the one of the most promising and trusted OS compared to others. It is verily used in devices like 3G internet tablets ,mobile phones and recently released a 4G version of their android also installed in HTC EVO 4G. It is mainly based on Linux kernels so the development is quite easier and lots of applications are already in market for this OS. 3.3) iOS It is created and developed by apple Inc. It was knows as iPhone OS before it uses apple OS X also UNIX like OS. The new version iOS 4 is a hybrid system and it uses kernel type from Darwin foundation uses 4 abstraction layers. It also supports multitasking and features like video calling, VoIP (Voice over internet protocol), background music playback etc. Conclusion Operating System of devices like PDA and Laptops solves many user problems as the passage of time these mobile devices are more and more compact and high performance so their OS is also becoming more and more complex to develop. As we can see from this research that plenty of mobile devices companies are paying more attention to their OS because if its poorly designed whole device no matter how best the hardware is will change whole user view about device. If the device is losing its internet connection every second or hanging or giving unexpected errors means its OS is not properly developed and tested after implementation on device under different scenarios and environment. The best examples of well-designed OS in mobile industry are Android, iOs, Symbian etc. as mentioned in this report. Laptops on the other hand can run any desktop version OS according to their hardware capabilities and netbooks usually use lighter version of these OS as we have seen in this report.

Technology and Morals in Isbens An Enemy of the People and Freuds Civilization and its Discontent :: Enemy People Civilization Discontents

Technology and Morals in Isben's An Enemy of the People and Freud's Civilization and its Discontents As technology increases do the morals of society degrade? This is a very scientific question to ask about quite an emotional subject. A scientist would ask for a set of data correlating points of increasing technology with corresponding points of moral standards. The brutal truth is that you can't know. No one can be certain about the moral standards of a people at a certain time in the past, let alone the present. And how do you face a period of time when the technological standards and ideas actually fell in relationship from the previous time period. Did their moral standards improve? I doubt it. Arguing for the code of chivalry and the honor of knights falls apart when you look away from fairy tales, that and the fact that most of the population of Europe was peasants, anyways. But seriously, a person really can't know. The only problem technology brings forth is that people can find a more efficient way of getting what they want. Because after all, isn't that all huma n nature is? And morals are defined by human nature. So if one person wants to kill people, technology will aid that person in doing so. Of course there's a monetary price to that technology, so you'll be able to kill people only as efficiently as your budget constraint allows. However, it's still not that hard or expensive to buy a gun and shoot someone. What I'm leading up to is that technology does not affect the morals of a people. It affects how efficiently they can carry out their goals, not their goals directly. Of course you can say that the possibility of doing something creates a desire to do it, but is someone going to commit genocide if they don't want to kill a single person in the first place? Technology does not affect people's morals directly: it allows people to follow their nature (to carry out their goals) more efficiently. Henry Ibsen gives the best argument for this case. In his play, An Enemy of the People, the mayor of the town, Peter Stockmann, only wants what is best for the town and his public image. His brother, Dr.

Reading Skills Essay

Reading Reading is the receptive skill in the written mode. It can develop independently of listening and speaking skills, but often develops along with them, especially in societies with a highly-developed literary tradition. Reading can help build vocabulary that helps listening comprehension at the later stages, particularly. Micro-skills involved in reading. The reader has to: †¢ decipher the script. In an alphabetic system or a syllabary, this means establishing a relationship between sounds and symbols. In a pictograph system, it means associating the meaning of the words with written symbols. †¢ recognize vocabulary. †¢ pick out key words, such as those identifying topics and main ideas. †¢ figure out the meaning of the words, including unfamiliar vocabulary, from the (written) context. †¢ recognize grammatical word classes: noun, adjective, etc. †¢ detect sentence constituents, such as subject, verb, object, prepositions, etc. †¢ recognize basic syntactic patterns. †¢ reconstruct and infer situations, goals and participants. †¢ use both knowledge of the world and lexical and grammatical cohesive devices to make the foregoing inferences, predict outcomes, and infer links and connections among the parts of the text. †¢ get the main point or the most important information. †¢ distinguish the main idea from supporting details. †¢ adjust reading strategies to different reading purposes, such as skimming Why is reading skill is so important? Reading is one of the skills most crucial for a child’s success in school and in life. If children don’t learn to read with comprehension early enough, their education is at risk. If they don’t learn to read effortlessly enough to render reading pleasurable, their chances for a fulfilling life–by any measure, whether academic achievement, financial stability or job skills–are tremendously diminished. How to improve reading skill: Teaching reading can be an arduous task as it is often difficult to know how to improve student skills. One of the most obvious, but often unnoticed, points about reading is that there are different types of reading skills. †¢ Skimming – reading rapidly for the main points †¢ Scanning – reading rapidly to find a specific piece of information †¢ Extensive – reading a longer text, often for pleasure with emphasis on overall meaning †¢ Intensive reading – reading a short text for detailed information These different types of skills are used quite naturally when reading in a mother tongue. Unfortunately, when learning a second or foreign language, people tend to employ only â€Å"intensive† style reading skills. I have often noticed that students insist on understanding every word and find it difficult to take my advice of reading for the general idea, or only looking for required information. Students studying a foreign language often feel that if they don’t understand each and every word they are somehow not completing the exercise. In order to make students aware of these different types of reading styles, it is useful to provide an awareness raising lesson to help them identify reading skills they already apply when reading in their native tongues. Thus, when approaching an English text, students should first identify what type of reading skill needs to be applied to the specific text at hand. In this way valuable skills, which students already possess, are easily transferred to their English reading. Outline: †¢ Ask students about what types of reading they do in their own mother tongue(s). †¢ Write different categories of written material on board. i. e. magazines, novels, train schedules, newspapers, advertising, etc. †¢ Have students describe how they go about reading each kind of material. You may want to prompt them by asking the following questions: o Do you read every word in the tv schedule? o Do you understand every word you read when reading a novel? o What kind of clues can the presentation of the material give? o How much time do you spend reading the newspaper? Do you read every single word? o What kind of assumptions do you make when you read the first few lines, or a headline? (i. e. Once upon a time†¦. ) o How much time do you spend reading the various types of materials? †¢ Based on students’ answers to such questions, ask them to identify the type of skills they are using in the various reading situations. †¢ Divide students into small groups and give them the skills summary and short worksheet. †¢ Have students discuss their opinions about the various skills required for the listed materials. †¢ Present various â€Å"real world† materials (i. e. magazines, books, scientific materials, computer manuals etc. ) and ask students to identify the necessary skills required. Reading Styles  Skimming – Reading rapidly for the main points Scanning – Reading rapidly through a text to find specific information required Extensive – Reading longer texts, often for pleasure and for an overall understanding Intensive – Reading shorter texts for detailed information with an emphasis on precise understanding Identify the reading skills required in the following reading situations: †¢ The TV guide for Friday evening †¢ An English grammar book †¢ An article in National Geographic magazine about the Roman Empire †¢ A good friend’s homepage on the Internet †¢ The weather report in your local newspaper †¢ A novel †¢ A poem. †¢ A bus timetable †¢ A fax at the office †¢ An advertising email – so called â€Å"bodyfit† †¢ An email or letter from your best friend †¢ A recipe †¢ A short story by your favourite author Note: There is often not a single correct answer, several choices may be possible according to your reading purpose. If you find that there are different possibilities, state the situation in which you would use the various skills. Developing Reading Skills How many of us remember how we learned to read? Even if we cannot remember how we learned, as parents and educators we can do a lot to help children learn to read and enjoy reading. Reading involves three distinct but intertwined skills: decoding, fluency and comprehension. Decoding is understanding and using sound/letter relationships. Fluency is being able to read quickly and easily. Comprehension is being able to get meaning from the words that have been put together. Comprehension is the point of reading—the reason for reading. But a reader must reach a certain level of decoding and fluency before comprehension can occur. Learning to read involves a constant back-and-forth flow among these three skills. A difficulty in any one of them can cause a breakdown in reading skill. Decoding Decoding means understanding the sounds associated with letter symbols and being able to put them together. A good reading program teaching decoding skills will include phonological awareness activities, blending sounds and segmenting sounds. Phonological awareness is the understanding that words are made up of individual letter/sound combinations. Blending is being able to put those sounds together to â€Å"read† a word. Segmenting is being able to separate a word into individual sounds. In more advanced reading, blending and segmenting will be used to put together or take apart multisyllable words. Some instruction in decoding is useful for all readers to help them read unfamiliar words and also in spelling. Many readers understand the decoding system easily. Those who do not should receive more extensive, direct teaching in these skills. Decoding is what we often associate with phonics and is frequently considered the boring part of learning to read. But it doesn’t need to be. Teachers can help their child with phonics and phonological awareness through word games. Rhyming activities, discussing words with alliterative sounds (â€Å"mean monsters munching mints†) or play games by deleting sounds (say â€Å"clap† without the â€Å"c†) are all ways to help young children become aware of sounds. Having them read or spell nonsense words (such as â€Å"glont† or â€Å"bresk†) can become a game which will help them practice using sounds and learn patterns in the English language Fluency Once a child knows all the sounds, he needs to be able to blend them automatically (or without consciously thinking about it) and speedily to achieve fluency. Fluency is the ability to read smoothly and with expression. Fluency is the bridge between decoding and comprehension. Sometimes children work so hard at decoding each word in a sentence that they cannot remember what they read by the time they reach the end. They lack fluency. Fluency is an area where parents can help since it requires practice and modeling. Reading aloud to your children with expression and enjoyment both before and after they can read themselves, is a good way to model fluency. Once they have learned to read, read aloud collaboratively, taking turns reading a page. Repeated reading is another way to improve fluency, so do not hesitate to read the same books over and over. Comprehension Comprehension is really the end-product, or goal, of reading. We read to gain knowledge and understanding, and we read for pleasure. Each of these requires good comprehension. Many thinking skills and life experiences involve reading comprehension. In addition to speed of decoding and fluency, comprehension has many other components, including knowledge of vocabulary and language usage, background knowledge, memory, sequencing (understanding and remembering events or ideas in the order in which they are presented), visualizing (making a picture in your head as you read) and focusing (maintaining attention and interest). Teachers can have a great impact on a child’s reading comprehension. Again, reading aloud with children will inspire a love of books and reading and will provide vocabulary and language stimulation and background knowledge that will aid them when they begin to read themselves. Children who have dyslexia or a specific learning disability can benefit much more quickly from remediation if they have good listening comprehension. Reading books together gives children a chance to talk about the book, to discuss new facts and explore new ideas. Children can also improve their vocabulary and background knowledge through  discussions and activities with their friends (a trip to the zoo to learn about animals, a walk in the park to talk about kinds of plants). Integrating the Skills These three skills—decoding, fluency, and comprehension—are used continually as children’s reading skills progress. As new phonemes (letter/sound combinations) are added to reading, some children need lots of practice to become fluent with them. As they encounter more difficult words, reading may become less fluent, and the students may need to review or learn new decoding skills. If decoding skills were shaky to begin with, that can become a problem as children encounter more difficult words. Sometimes in middle school, or even high school, a child will have difficulty reading new words, and he will benefit from some instruction in how to break words apart into their syllable parts for reading or spelling. A good reading program will include all three skills. It is important for teachers to understand that reading has several parts and requires many different skills. If a child is having difficulty with reading, he may need some testing or assessment to figure out the problem. A teacher or tutor or academic therapist can then give the child specialized teaching to remediate the problem. Characteristics of Fluent Readers †¢ read with a purpose (to get information or for pleasure) and understand the purpose of different texts (e. g. , ads to encourage buying, editorials to present and influence opinions, recipes to give instructions); †¢ read quickly, automatically recognizing letters and words, maintaining a flow that allows them to make connections and inferences that make the text understandable; †¢ use a variety of strategies, depending on the text, to read efficiently (e. g., varying reading speed, predicting what will happen next, previewing headings and illustrations); †¢ interact with the text, making use of background knowledge as well as the information on the printed page; †¢ evaluate the text critically, determining whether they agree or disagree with the author; †¢ expect to understand the text and get meaning from it; and †¢ usually read silently. Conclusion Much research has been concerned with first language reading and has generated many approaches to teaching reading. However, there is a growing body of literature on both foreign language academic reading and second language reading. All three areas contribute to the understanding of the reading process and have implications for instructional practice. Teachers who are aware of these reading approaches can tailor reading instruction to meet the needs and goals of English language learners. Suggestions for Developing Reading Instruction Knowing what good readers do and comparing this with the strategies used by learners in their classes will enable ESL teachers to gauge learners’ needs. Adult English language learners come with varied reading backgrounds and experiences. Some are fluent readers in their native languages; some are not. Their view of literacy will be influenced by the literacy practices of their culture. Yet, they all will share the experience of learning to read in English, and they will approach reading differently from the way native speakers approach it (Rance-Roney, 1997). The following activities can help learners develop reading proficiency. The choice of activity, however, depends on the needs of the learners, the nature of the text, and the demands of the reading task. Reading Proficiency Activities 1. Because good readers read with a purpose, learners should read texts that meet their needs and are interesting. Teachers can choose texts, or let the learners choose texts, that are relevant to the learners’ lives. They also need to be exposed to texts that they are likely to encounter in everyday life, such as newspapers and magazines, work memos, schedules, and medical instructions. 2. In order to develop automatic recognition skills, learners who are preliterate or literate in a language with a non-Roman alphabet should be given opportunities to develop letter recognition and sound-symbol correspondence skills. This should not be done in isolation, but with familiar texts that they have practiced orally or heard before (Hood et al. , 1996). For example, learners can identify words that begin with a certain sound in a dialogue they know. Learners who are literate in their own language may find phonics instruction unproductive unless differences between their native language and English are pointed out. Spanish speakers, for example, need to know that the letter â€Å"a† can express more than one sound in English. Vocabulary development also plays a role in automaticity. In texts where vocabulary may not be familiar, teachers can introduce key vocabulary in prereading activities that focus on language awareness, such as finding synonyms, antonyms, derivatives, or associated words (Hood et al. , 1996). Modified cloze exercises, where examples of the target structure (e. g. , prepositions) are deleted from a text and learners fill in as many blanks as they can, are also helpful. 3. Using appropriate strategies for various reading tasks increases comprehension, but acquiring an array of strategies is a long and difficult process (Grabe, 1995). Nevertheless, such strategies as skimming for the main idea, scanning for specific information, predicting what a text is about or what will happen next, and making use of the context and illustrations to discover word meanings are critical for English language learners beyond the beginning level. 4. Prereading activities that introduce the text encourage learners to use their background knowledge (Eskey, 1997). Class members can brainstorm ideas about the meaning of a title or an illustration and discuss what they know. The teacher can highlight cultural assumptions inherent in the writing. Awareness of various text types and their styles (advertisements, recipes, editorials) is also helpful. 5. Evaluating texts for implicit values and assumptions is another important reading skill. Reading texts that present different opinions or different descriptions of the same situation help develop an awareness of how language reflects values (Hood et al. , 1996). Texts that present an issue without presenting a solution, such as â€Å"Dear Abby† letters (without the replies), can lead to discussion and writing about differing points of view (Auerbach, 1992). 6. Good readers expect to understand what they are reading. Therefore, texts should contain words and grammatical structures familiar to the learners (Eskey, 1997). However, it is not always easy to find texts that are both understandable and interesting for adult English language learners to read. Authentic reading material can often be found by the learners themselves, who have written pieces to share with each other. 7. Extensive reading for a sustained, uninterrupted period of time is not only valuable for developing vocabulary but is also an important way to develop reading proficiency and language acquisition in general (Grabe, 1991; Krashen, 1993). In class, learners can engage in Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) of materials they have chosen themselves. They can be encouraged to read outside of class by maintaining (and periodically turning in) reading logs that list what they have read and by making one- to three-minute oral presentations recommending a book, story, or article to their classmates (Dupuy, Tse, & Cook, 1996). Conclusion Much research has been concerned with first language reading and has generated many approaches to teaching reading. However, there is a growing body of literature on both foreign language academic reading and second language reading. All three areas contribute to the understanding of the reading process and have implications for instructional practice. Teachers who are aware of these reading approaches can tailor reading instruction to meet the needs and goals of English language learners. AN APPROACH TO A READING LESSON STAGE 1: Check understanding of ‘essential’ vocabulary. (Do you think it is necessary or desirable for your students to understand all the vocabulary) AIM: For students to understand the meaning of words essential to the completion of set tasks. STAGE 2: Establish interest in the topic through discussion based on the topic or prediction. AIM: To generate students’ interest in the topic of the text. (These two stages are necessary to prepare the students for the reading skills. ) STAGE 3: Set atleast two different reading tasks. Give the easier task(questions), first to build confidence. This would be task which require scan reading. AIM: For students to have practice in scan reading skills. STAGE 4: Provide a task.

Everyman (Medieval Literature) Review essays

Everyman (Medieval Literature) Review essays The medieval play, Everyman, has defined what literature has come to know as The Everyman: the common, average person or character that is meant to represent every person. It is the character that is meant to allow the reader to identify with them. It is the character that represents society in general. Thus, the real message behind the medieval play Everyman is a social critique of what is wrong about The Everyman. Everyman can be traced back to the fifteenth century where it originated in a Dutch or Flemish play called Elckerlijc authored by Peter van Diest. The version must commonly read today is the sixteenth century English version. At its core Everyman is a morality play. Everyman is the main character who serves as an allegorical figure of the every man. In the play he is summoned by the allegorical figure of death to visit God and account for the life he has been lent by God. On his way, Everyman is told that he must go along, that his friends Fellowship, Kindred, Cousin, Goods and Knowledge will not accompany him. Only Virtue is willing to accompany Everyman and justify him before God. In the play, a messenger informs the audience that they must listen well, hinting that the play is really a message to them (the Everyman). The play begins with a conversation between God and Death, where God talks about the worlds people and the ongoing problem that they are able to sin freely without any thought of consequence. God order Death to go to earth and visit with Everyman and make him understand that his sinning is against Gods wishes. When they first meet, Everyman attempts to bride Death to get more time, but his request is promptly denied. However, Death does allow Everyman to find a friend to accompany him on his journey. The purpose of the friend is to serve as a witness before God and speak to Everymans alleged good virtues. E ...

Madagascar

Madagascar Free Online Research Papers Madagascar was found by accident in the 1500s by Diego Dias Madagascar is located in Indian Ocean off the south-east of Africa. Also Madagascar is one of the largest is lands in the world, it takes up 587 thousand sq. km. and it has 18.6 million inhabitants. In Madagascar a total of 73% of the population is living in rural areas. The country was a former French colony, and got its independence in June 26, 1960. In the 1960s, Madagascar was one of the better-off African countries as far as income and living standards. After that Madagascar lost this position because of seven decades of economic mismanagement. Madagascar is one of world’s poorest countries. According to the 2005 household survey, more than two-thirds of the population 68.7% lives below the poverty line. The poverty rate in rural areas much higher than it is in urban areas. Since the current government took over in 2002, it has transformed and has better improvements in social, economic. Also the economy grew at an average of 5 percent each year and poverty has gone down to 69% from when it was 80 percent in 2002. These good developments and the smooth presidential elections in December 2006, Marc Ravalomanana who won was re-elected offer hopeful signs that Madagascar has stepped onto a path to sustained development, breaking with the history of economic mismanagement and periodic crises that impoverished the people. But Madagascar still has a long way to go some of the challenges are population growth, now 2.7 percent a year, putting big demands on the government and the economy they first have to educate people, then to make more income opportunities for them. Furthermore, Madagascar faces the challenge keeping its unique environment and biodiversity which are of global significance. In 2006 Madagascar continued to make good progress in bettering its poverty reduction strategy with good progress in the bettering of the roads program, education for all, nutrition, and health. Economic growth is about at 4.9 percent in 2006, it has gotten there by strong tertiary sector growth, but agricultural growth was not good it was lower than in 2005, with production impacted negatively by shortfalls in rain and low world prices for key export such as vanilla. The tertiary sector grew strongly by 8.9 percent, with public works, tourism and transport, banking and the telecommunications sectors as the key growth sectors. So to sum everything up Madagascar is doing better and growing in population. Also the government is coming up with more plans to better Madagascar. A lot of people come to Madagascar to see, Tsingy de Bemaraha Strict Nature Reserve comprises karstic landscapes and limestone uplands cut into impressive tsingy peaks and a forest of limestone needles, the spectacular canyon of the Manambolo river, rolling hills and high peaks. The undisturbed forests, lakes and mangrove swamps are the habitat for rare and endangered lemurs and birds. Also people like to visit the Royal Hill of Ambohimanga consists of a royal city and burial site, and an ensemble of sacred places. It is associated with strong feelings of national identity, and has maintained its spiritual and sacred character both in ritual practice and the popular imagination for the past 500 years. It remains a place of worship to which pilgrims come from Madagascar and elsewhere. Location: Southern Africa, island in the Indian Ocean, east of Mozambique Map Reference: Africa Area Comparative: Slightly less than twice the size of Arizona Land boundaries: 0 km Coastline: 4,828km Climate: tropical along coast, temperate inland, arid in south Terrain: narrow coastal plain, high plateau and mountains in center Natural resources: graphite, chromites, coal, bauxite, salt, quartz, tar sands, semiprecious stones, mica, fish, hydropower Land use: Arable land: 4.99%, Permanent crops: 1.03%, other: 93.98% (2000 EST.) Natural Hazards: periodic cyclones, drought, and locust infestation Environment current issues: soil erosion results from deforestation and overgrazing; desertification; surface water contaminated with raw sewage and other organic wastes; several species of flora and fauna unique to the island are endangered Environment international agreements: party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements Geography note: worlds fourth-largest island; strategic location along Mozambique Channel Population: 17,501,871 (July 2004 EST.) Age structure: 0-14 years: 44.9% (male 3,935,523; female 3,922,077) 15-64 years: 52% (male 4,509,877; female 4,596,662) 65 years and over: 3.1% (male 245,168; female 292,564) (2004 EST.) Median age: total: 17.4 Years, male: 17.2 Years, female: 17.7 years (2004 EST.) Population growth rate3.03% (2004 EST.): Birth rate: 41.91 births/1,000 population (2004 EST.) Death rate: 11.62 deaths/1,000 population (2004 EST.) Net migration rate: 0 migrant(s)/1,000 populations (2004 EST.) Sex ratio: at birth: 1.03 male(s)/female, under 15 years: 1 male(s)/female, 15-64 years: 0.98 male(s)/female, 65 years and over: 0.84 male(s)/female, total population: 0.99 male(s)/female (2004 EST.) Infant mortality rate: total: 78.52 deaths/1,000 live births, female: 69.95 deaths/1,000 live births (2004 est.), male: 86.84 deaths/1,000 live births Life expectancy at birth: total population: 56.54 years, male: 54.19 years, female: 58.96 years (2004 EST.) Total fertility rate: 5.7 children born/woman (2004 EST.) HIV/AIDS adult prevalence rate: 0.3% (2001 EST. HIV/AIDS people living with HIV/AIDS: 22,000 (2001 EST.) HIV/AIDS deaths: 870 (2001 EST.) Nationality: noun: Malagasy (singular and plural) adjective: Malagasy Ethnic groups: Malayo-Indonesian (Merina and related Betsileo), Cotiers (mixed African, Malayo-Indonesian, and Arab ancestry Betsimisaraka, Tsimihety, Antaisaka, Sakalava), French, Indian, Creole, Comoran Religions: indigenous beliefs 52%, Christian 41%, Muslim 7% Languages: French (official), Malagasy (official) Literacy: definition: age 15 and over can read and write, total population: 68.9%, male: 75.5%, female: 62.5% (2003 EST.) Country name: conventional long form: Republic of Madagascar, conventional short form: Madagascar, local short form: Madagascar, former: Malagasy Republic, local long form: Republique de Madagascar Government type: republic Capital: Antananarivo Flag description: two equal horizontal bands of red (top) and green with a vertical white band of the same width on hoist side Mahajanga There are many more tourist attractions in Madagascar despite the many problems. Music: plays a big part in Malagasy people lives. One Malagasy proverb said if you if do your work with music, it will be completed in a flash. So they always mingle music with everything they do, In Madagascar cab drivers play music all the time in their cabs. Kids who play frolic in the backyard habitually sing and dance together, men and women in the rice field used to finish their labor with songs, people who work in the office listen regularly to music while working, so on and so fourth. Music is everywhere. You can always catch a mixed bag of joyful music in the very heart of Antananarivo as well as in the midst of Horombe desert, thanks to thousands of exuberant rhythms that exist all over the Island. In general, music’s from provinces other than Antananarivo have fast rhythms, whereas the ones from the capital are relatively cool. 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