Intonation In The English Language

Intonation In The English Language Many people think that pronunciation is what makes up an accent. It may be that pronunciation is very important for an understandable accent. But it is intonation that gives the final touch that makes an accent native. Intonation is the music of a language, and is perhaps the most important element of a good accent. Often we hear someone speaking with perfect grammar, and perfect formation of the sounds of English but with a little something that gives them away as not being native speaker.Therefore, it is necessary to realize that there is more than the correct pronunciation of the vowels and consonants of a language. This is very important and we do stress it in other articles. But it is only one of the three components to an accent, pronunciation, intonation, and linking. In other places we will examine the correct pronunciation of vowels and consonants, and linking, the way that syllables within a word, and the beginning and ending of words come together. Two useful abstractions: To understand how intonational transcription works, you must understand two different kinds of abstractions which the system relies on. The first is a phonetic abstraction, namely that there is something which we can call intonation, a well-defined set of linguistic phenomena all working together to determine the pitch pattern of an utterance. This abstraction is very useful because it is fairly easy to get a good measure of what listeners perceive as the pitch pattern. We can do this by extracting the fundamental frequency of the voiced parts of the utterance, a task which is computationally quite easy. We can then take the fundamental frequency pattern, and analyze it as the result of a set of linguistic categories with a number of specific purposes, and an algorithm which implements the categories as events in the pitch of the utterance. Two points to note here: 1) not all intonational categories have the same function; being an intonational category only means that the category has a specific and categorical effect on the pitch pattern. 2) these categories do not determine all aspects of the pitch pattern; variou s other non-linguistic differences, such as emotional state, degree of involvement in the speech, and individual differences such as ones due to sex, also affect aspects of the pitch pattern. The second is a functional abstraction. These intonational categories can be classified with respect to the two major types of prosodic functions. Prosody can be described as consisting of head mechanisms and edge mechanisms. Head mechanisms are those which act to pick out one piece of an utterance as different than its neighbors, while edge mechanisms indicate which items go with which by marking the edge of a larger grouping. Intonational categories in the English system similarly function either to pick out syllables which are more stressed than their neighbors, or to mark the final edge of a piece of an utterance which is to be interpreted as a group. Edge marking tones boundary tones and phrase tones. The intonational categories which you will likely find most intuitive are the ones which are used to mark edges. One reason for this, I believe, is that the English orthography actually writes some of these differences. For example, consider the following pair of sentences. 1) This is a test sentence. 2) This is a test sentence? If you convert these into speech (by reading them out loud), you will note a very salient difference in the pitch contour at the end. In 1) the pitch falls throughout the last word, often ending with a little bit of creaky voice, while in 2) the pitch rises throughout the last word, perhaps ending higher than anywhere else in the entire sentence. Such differences in pitch pattern reflect discourse-related differences such as is captured by the use of the question mark in 2). At a full stop, our system indicates the possibility of four different contours, the two which appear in likely renditions of 1) and 2), and two more, one which you will likely produce in the non-final members of a slowly rendered list, and one which you might produce when calling someone in for dinner. In the transcription system, you will see these represented in the following way (more or less). The fall in 1) is low throughout, and so is indicated as LL% (two lows with the % indicating the final boundary). The rise in 2) is high throughout, with a very brief rise to a super-high at the end, and so is indicated as HH% (two highs). The so-called list boundary starts low and rises slightly at the end, and so is indicated as LH%. The last one which appears in calling chants is basically high throughout, and differs from the HH% (question marker) in that it does not rise to a super high. Thus, since it is high to start with, it starts with a H, and since it is not as high as the super high at the end, it is relatively low, and so is indicated with a L%. This makes for a neat 4-way distinction as below, given with stereotypical examples of places where you might find them. (Note these are not the only places you will find them!) LL% Terminal fall statements. HH% High plateau with upped high at end covert questions. LH% Low plateau with little rise at end internal to lists. HL% High plateau with no rise to a super-high end of calling chants Head marking tones pitch accents. If you go back and reproduce the items in 1) and 2) again, and this time concentrate on the area aroundtest, you will very likely notice a large difference in pitch pattern in this region in addition to what is going on at the end. The wordtest is a critical portion of the utterance in most prosodic analyses of English, because it is the last item which bears some degree of stress, usually called tonic or sentence stress. I chose this sentence because the words test sentence form a compound, and one of the peculiarities of English compounds is that they are most stressed on the first half. Thus,test is the most stressed syllable in the last content word in the sentence. In stressed locations such as this, English speakers also implement tonal events. Such events are often called pitch accents,, pitch because they involve parts of the pitch pattern, and accents because they are involved in making a particular syllable more prominent. Stressing this syllable makes it stand out from its neighbors. Thus, the tonal events ontest are head-marking events. Here, like the boundary tones just discussed, there are tonal differences associated with different discourse conditions. In 1) you very likely will produce the stressed item with a high pitch somewhere on it, while in 2) you very likely will produce the stressed item with a relatively low pitch. Thus, the difference between vanilla statements and covert questions is not only in the presence of LL% boundary tones in one and in HH% boundary tones in the other, but also in the presence of a H accent in one, but a L accent in the other. Since there is a categorical difference in how you use pitch to stress the tonic item, you need to have a categorical difference between H* and L* accents. (The star here indicates that the tone is associated with the stressed syllable.) In addition to using relatively high and low pitch, there are more complicated rising and falling pitch accents which differ from the simple low and high accents in what they indicate. Our system captures these differences in the local use of pitch in the accent by combining Hs and Ls in various ways to get rises and falls. Thus, in addition to H* which indicates a generally high pitch around the stress and L* which indicates a generally low pitch around the stress, we can also have H+Ls (falling accents), and L+Hs (rising accents). To illustrate the difference between a simple H and a L+H, consider the following two conditions: 3)We will be having you read bunches of utterances for some obscure reason related to why anyone would be interested in linguistics. The first is a test sentence. Its just there for practice. 4)The first is not a real sentence, the first is a test sentence. In producing test sentence in 3), it is likely there will not be an appreciable rise in pitch, while in 4), where it explicitly contrasts with the precedingreal, it is likely that there will be an appreciable rise in pitch from the is a tot est. In fact, it is a general property of contrasting items that they get rendered with a relatively low pitch on the material preceding the stressed item and a sudden rise to a peak on the stressed syllable. If you read over 4) several times, emphasizing the contrast more and more each time, this rising pitch event associated witht est will become more and more apparent.. In 4) the rising accent is seen in the relationship in pitch between the items immediately preceding the stressed syllable and the pitch on the stressed syllable itself. However, there are other examples of rising pitch accents in which the low pitch predominates in the stressed syllable, and the high does not become realized until very late in the syllable or in the following s yllables. Pierrehumbert Hirschberg (1991) discuss fairly clear examples of this accent such as the following: 5) A: Alans such a klutz. B: Hes a good badminton player. Here the intended meaning of the second response is that B is not sure that playing badminton qualifies one as not being a klutz. In the intended rendition there is a low pitch onbad and a rising pitch on the immediately following syllable, and then another fall to a general low ending in LH% phrase tones. Another example they discuss is the following: 6) A: Did you take out the garbage? B: Sort of. A: Sort of!?! Here, the intended rendition of Sort of starts low inso rt and rises, and then falls and rises again at the end. The intended meaning is very much like that in 5), namely, B is not really sure what she did counts as taking out the garbage. As rendition ofsort of in the last line has exactly the same pattern as Bs, a rise throughsort followed by a fall and a rise at the end, though the rises and falls are more exaggerated. Whats important in each of these cases,badminton in 5), and both sort ofs in 6), is that the stressed syllable exhibits a distinctly low pitch and the rise which comes much later than the rise in 4). In order to annotate this difference, Pierrehumbert used the * to indicate which part of the contour is to be associated with the stressed syllable. Thus, the contour in 4) is annotated as a L+H*, since the H part appears on the stressed syllable, and the L part simply comes some time before it. By contrast, the contour in 5) and 6) is annotated as a L*+H, since the L part happens on the stressed syllable, and the H part appears some time thereafter. Pitch Range. : One final aspect of intonational modeling must also be mentioned, that is the notion of pitch range. As I noted above, the tone category sequences do not all by themselves determine the pitch contour for an utterance, but other non-linguistic (non- conventionalized) factors also affect the final realization of pitch. One approach to handling these less conventionalized effects, such as what may be due to emotional involvement, is to allow for modulation of the overall range of the pitch movements. The general approach used in most models is to specify a pitch window, which indicates the range of pitch to be used at any given time. The top of the window is where you find the Hs and the bottom of the window is where you find the Ls. This window can be affected by a number of different factors, which work in different ways. Some factors are global in that they typically affect a large portion of speech. Take, for instance, the effects of emotional involvement. When people get irate, the re is a strong likelihood that the both Hs and Ls will be higher, and that the difference between the Hs and Ls will be bigger. This larger and higher window will often affect entire sentences. You will also likely find such global shifts in window size if you examine how people do narratives which include parentheticals and quotations. Parentheticals often are rendered with a narrower window, while quotes often involve a larger window. Other factors which affect pitch range can be localized to one particular location in the utterance. The most commented upon is the effect of downstep (sometimes called catathesis). Downstep is a very regular lowering and narrowing of the pitch range which happens in the presence of the accents. In Pierrehumberts analysis, any tone which is composed of two tones (the rising L+H and falling H+L accents) also trigger downstep. You can easily imagine this effect in an emphatic rendition of the following sentence. 7)I dont want horses and dogs; I want sheep and cats. If you are contrasting horses with sheep and dogs with cats, you will very likely produce this sentence with L+H accents on all four items (probably L*+H onhorses anddogs, and L+H* onsheep andcat s). If you do so, you will also notice that the second item in each list,dogs andcat s, will both be lower in pitch than the first,horse s, andsheep. This conventionalized lowering is taken to be due to the downstepping effect of the complex rising accents. One can also see this conventionalized downstepping very clearly in phrases with multiple accents rendered in a finger-wagging lecturing style where the clear intent of the style is to indicate that you should know this by now. For example, 8) You just dont seem to get it. Insert tab A into slot B. Repeat it four times. In this situation, the rendition of the last two sentences, which we can assume have been rendered several times before in the extended discourse, will likely not exhibit huge rising or falling accents. Nevertheless, I have heard this sort sentence produced with clear downsteps between each accent. Due to sentences like these, one must conclude that the occurrence of downstep does not necessarily demand the obvious existence of rising or falling accents. In Pierrehumberts analysis, this is due to the H*+L tone category which is locally the same as a plain H*, except that it triggers the lecturing downstep effect. In other systems, such as the ToBI revision, this downstepping is marked with an explicit marker (an exclamation point placed before the affected accent.

Computer Access :: Technology Personal Narrative Teacher

Computer Access My current situation finds me teaching 7th grade block (language arts and geography) at Beach Middle School in Chelsea, Michigan. Chelsea, as a community, is fairly well-off financially. Technology is a priority for its citizens and for its schools. I am currently typing this on my school-issued laptop that is less than a year old. I am sitting on my couch and my cat is sleeping on my left arm. My classroom contains a brand new PC for my students to use and a new HP DeskJet color printer. There are two different labs of brand new laptops at my disposal. I am one of Moran’s â€Å"haves.† Being one of the â€Å"haves† doesn’t mean that my students can use computers everyday, nor would I sign up for that. We have debated and argued and complained and reasoned our way into a sign-up system that works most of the time. For the walk-in lab of twenty-eight laptops, the sign-up sheet is posted one week in advance and is available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The sign-up sheet is posted in the lab itself. It is posted by the Media Center clerk, and she has her favorites. The rest of us are routinely confounded by the apparent speed with which some teachers are able to access the sign-up sheet. For those of us who are not quite quick enough, there are two laptop carts. Each cart has fourteen laptops and a printer. All of the laptops are wireless. We can sign up for one or both laptops at a time. The sign-up sheet is in the Media Center, and the sign-up sheet is available for the entire school year. In September, I can sign up for June. I have done already this year. We have two different sign-up procedures because of the different planning styles of our teaching staff. We in the language arts and social studies departments tend to do our planning months in advance. For at least the last two years, the 7th grade block staff has met in the summer and plotted the course of the year. Computer Access :: Technology Personal Narrative Teacher Computer Access My current situation finds me teaching 7th grade block (language arts and geography) at Beach Middle School in Chelsea, Michigan. Chelsea, as a community, is fairly well-off financially. Technology is a priority for its citizens and for its schools. I am currently typing this on my school-issued laptop that is less than a year old. I am sitting on my couch and my cat is sleeping on my left arm. My classroom contains a brand new PC for my students to use and a new HP DeskJet color printer. There are two different labs of brand new laptops at my disposal. I am one of Moran’s â€Å"haves.† Being one of the â€Å"haves† doesn’t mean that my students can use computers everyday, nor would I sign up for that. We have debated and argued and complained and reasoned our way into a sign-up system that works most of the time. For the walk-in lab of twenty-eight laptops, the sign-up sheet is posted one week in advance and is available on a first-come, first-serve basis. The sign-up sheet is posted in the lab itself. It is posted by the Media Center clerk, and she has her favorites. The rest of us are routinely confounded by the apparent speed with which some teachers are able to access the sign-up sheet. For those of us who are not quite quick enough, there are two laptop carts. Each cart has fourteen laptops and a printer. All of the laptops are wireless. We can sign up for one or both laptops at a time. The sign-up sheet is in the Media Center, and the sign-up sheet is available for the entire school year. In September, I can sign up for June. I have done already this year. We have two different sign-up procedures because of the different planning styles of our teaching staff. We in the language arts and social studies departments tend to do our planning months in advance. For at least the last two years, the 7th grade block staff has met in the summer and plotted the course of the year.

The Life And Times Of James Joyce :: essays research papers

Life and Times of James Joyce James Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, whose psychological views opened up a whole New World to twentieth century writers. He is still known as one of the most influential writers not only in Ireland, but all throughout Ireland. Joyce was born in Dublin on February 2, 1882, into the care of his mother and father, both poverty-stricken. He attended only Jesuit-run schools, first the boarding school, Clongowes, then the day school, Belvedere, and finally the Royal University, which was better known as the University College (Litz 8). While he attended Belvedere he enjoyed writing essays, and won several awards for his phenomenal test scores. Even as a young man, Joyce was destined to be well known and famous for the rest of his life. But by the end of his university years he had rejected Catholicism in favor of literature (Litz 8). His love for writing just had to come first before anything else. After his years in the university he began experimenting with prostitutes and alcohol, and spent large amounts of money, which he claimed was to study medicine, but instead wasted it on sick pleasures in Paris. He returned shortly from Paris when his mother was diagnosed with cancer. (Litz 15). After his mother died, family life became even tougher for Joyce, he began to drink heavily. He made a little money reviewing books, teaching school, and singing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In February of 1904 he started writing a long fiction autobiography called Stephen Hero, which he could never find the time to finish or even begin again (Litz 8). In June 1904 he met Nora Barnacle, a chambermaid whose down-to-earth attitude welcomed him more so than any of the girls he met at the university did. They ran off to Europe together in October 1904. James and Nora ended up in Trieste and Pola, Austria, where they spoke Italian, and were desperately poor, so poverty-stricken that his brother, brother Stanislaus ended up paying a lot of their bills (Litz 8).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In 1909 and 1912, James visited Ireland, first trying to arrange publication of Dubliners. Between 1914 and 1920, Joyce's fortunes gradually improved as his writing gained attention and the wealthier readers began to turn their heads in his direction. But his big break which is an irony is when the banning of Ulysses (published 1922) occurred, and turned Joyce into a household name (Chace 25).

Defining Affirmative Action

Affirmative action, by definition, is a program designed to favor minorities and remedy past discrimination (Cummings, p. 192). It started in 1961 with President John F. Kennedy, by instructing the federal contractors to take affirmative action to ensure that all people are treated equally regardless of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. Ever since it started, for more than thirty years now, it has been a controversial issue regarding employment practices (Anniston). This research paper will discuss the history of affirmative action, the pro's and con's of affirmative action in the workplace and in the educational system, and proposition 209. In 1961, President John F. Kennedy was the first to use affirmative action. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 barred discrimination by universities or others that received federal assistance (Cummings, p. 192). After it came the Voting Act of 1965, Immigration Act of 1965, The Fair Housing Act of 1968 (Nieli, p. ). In 1978, President Carter created the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program (OFCCP) to ensure compliance with the affirmative action policies by the department of labor (Brown). Also in 1978 was the Bakke v. Reagents of the University of California, where Supreme Court upheld that use of race as one factor in choosing among qualified applicants for admission and reserving certain seats in each entering class of students for disadvantaged minorities were unlawful. Affirmative action began to go downhill and fading away during the presidency of Ronald Reagan and later George Bush. The republicans in the White House and in congress ignored the affirmative action. Finally to the presidency of Bill Clinton, the republicans were attempting to scare people into changing their party lines by saying that affirmative action is nothing more than a quota or reverse discrimination (Brown). Just by watching the history of this issue, one can come to a conclusion that we've come a long way in regards to racial and gender discrimination. Affirmative action programs offer individuals such as women and minorities a chance at equal employment opportunities and representation through positive, results-oriented practices that purposely take race and gender into account (Anniston). In the work force, minorities and women are source of cheap labor. The employers higher them to work with very little pay and little or no benefits. Higher paying jobs were always filled with white males. Even when women wanted to be as successful as that of men, they had a limit hanging over their head called the â€Å"glass-ceiling†. But through affirmative action, women and minorities were able to get higher paying jobs and even promotions and some even going up to the professional jobs. For example, women have made significant progress in recent year; in 1963, women earned fifty-nine cents for every dollar earned by men. Today, women earn on average seventy-one cents for every dollar earned by men (Curry, p. 179). Affirmative action may reduce racial tension forcing people to interact together and work as a unit in a professional and intellectual level across racial lines (Lewis). This program gives the minorities the opportunity to join the competition in the â€Å"white† American society and to defy the stigmas and stereotypes cast upon them by others. Some people believe that affirmative action is wrong because it discriminates. For example, and employer hires anyone because he/she is a minority, even if someone else is more qualified for the job. In this case, the employer is not discriminating against the minorities but against the majorities. Some also argue that affirmative action programs incite racial tension (Lewis). Since employers are very sensitive about affirmative action programs and if a white male is more qualified for the job than the minority, it may stir up some tension between those people involved. And because of the tension, the employers are more likely to higher a minority, who is less qualified for the job. By doing so, the employers may have a feeling that they are left with the short end of the stick and a lesser quality worker (Wit). If a workplace made decisions on hiring and promoting on the basis of ethnicity, such a workplace would go under. Decisions make in workplace should be merit-base; the eligibility and quality of the employee, not race-base. The outcome of the case of Allen Bakke v. Reagents of the University of California in 1974, helped many minorities to go into college. Allan Bakke had applied for medical school in University of California at Davis in 1973 and in 1974 and was rejected because they only set aside 16 seats for minorities each year. He sued contending that he had been excluded on the basis of his race in violation of the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Cummings, p. 193). The California Supreme Court called the act of the university unconstitutional and Bakke won along with other minorities who could not get into college. In the case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas in 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that although the physical factors and tangible factors may be equal in public school systems, the children of the minority group were deprived of the equal education. Therefore they are deprived of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the fourteenth amendment (Cummings, p. 182). Even though the compliance of this law was very slow, eventually all states complied with the law and made public school available to the minorities. By 1969, all the public schools in the country were trying to comply with the law. The history of the campaign against racial injustice since 1954, when the Supreme Court decided Brown v. Board of Education, is a history in a large part of failure (Nieli p. 79). The law may have said to put an end to segregation and racism in public schools, but even now, the racism and the segregation still live in the hearts of American people. In 1979, the case was reopened because even twenty-five years later, schools were still segregated. Affirmative action is supposed to treat everyone as equals. But actually and in reality, it does not treat everyone with equality. When admitting a person to a college, in the registration form, it asks what race the person is. If it were to treat everyone equally, it wouldn't ask that question. And because of the affirmative action law and trying to comply with it, the colleges will pick a minority, who may not be as qualified, to attend the school, therefore lowering the standard of the school to match that person's standard. The standards for all the people should be the same no matter what. Proposition 209 was proposed by Californians that wanted to outlaw programs based on affirmative action. It was passed by a narrow margin in the November 5,1996. Proposition abolished all public sector affirmative action programs in the state in employment, education and contracting. It also permits gender discrimination that is reasonably necessary to the normal operation of public education, employment and contracting. This proposition means that people should not have special privileges on the basis of their race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in any kind of public services where it's funded by the government. In regards to the affirmative action issue, this proposition makes it hard for people to get hired just because they are a minority. The proposition tries to bring balance between all the people not on the basis of their minority or majority but on their merits. When I first started this research, I only did it because the subject was well known and easy to find. After finishing the research, my opinion towards affirmative action was swayed a little. I first thought that affirmative action was an absolute good that helps the minorities of the community to have the equal opportunity as that of others. But now, I feel that affirmative action itself was contributing to discrimination. It was discrimination against those who were more qualified in a job or in a college who couldn†t' get in because there was a minority and the rule had to be bent a little to accept those minorities. I believe that the standards should be the same for all people and the law shouldn't be bent just because a minority couldn't keep u with the standards of the society. If the person is not qualified for the field, then they shouldn't be hired, because if they were, they're robbing another wee qualified person their job and the opportunity to achieve their goal and do their best. It may be the case that a minority, picked over the more qualified person, might quit or get fired because they were way in over their heads. Affirmative action should not be something that the society would have to abide to. It should be a reference to when there are conflicts among controversial issues that is related to discrimination on workplace or in educational system. I believe that in the society that we live in, discrimination should be something that of the past. To believe in racism and discrimination against minorities, just wouldn†t be America.

Learning approach Essay

The essay examines the comparison of surface approach and deep approach used in university students. As a fact, many first year students, regardless of majors, adopt surface approaches to learning. However, universities encourage students to accept a deep approach to learn rather than surface approach. Therefore, many first year students face a challenge to use which approach to achieve high academic grades. The essay presents the two opposite arguments about the learning approaches, and then raises opinion that deep approach is a much feasible method. The surface approach to learning mentions students just recite study content rather than acknowledge the true meaning. Many first year students nowadays, regardless of their area of study, adopt surface approaches to learning. Actually, such surface learning approach is not quite effective. This is because such approach is stemmed from students’ previous learning knowledge, while the knowledge is not related with positive absorption. The knowledge is owned by students’ tutors rather than students themselves (Masters & Donnison, 2010). Students treat the learning courses as routine  memorizing process or requirement. They tend to focus much more energy on the surface requirements like reciting words or sentences, pursuit surface meaning of the tasks or courses without their own deep thoughts. Such learning approach makes students seldom timely respond learning strategies, lack learning enthusiasm and driving forces (Entwistle & Peterson, 2004). They will often feel pressure about study task, which will impact their confidence from a long run. Furthermore, due to these features, surface approach is usually thought as lack of understanding. Facts have proved that  surface approaches to learning are often related with poor academic performance over the first semester of study (Entwistle & Peterson, 2004). However, some researchers think it is not correct to think surface approaches to learning are always inefficient or ineffective, for example, as to some courses such as foreign languages study, basic mathematics and etc. , the capability of memory is regarded as necessary, because it builds up the base for deeper learning in such courses (Masters & Donnison, 2010). It is well known that advanced study contains learning process which makes  students become competent learner who fully understand the academic knowledge and restructure knowledge systems from his own perspective of view. Actually, this explanation reflects the essence of deep approach to learning. A deep approach to learning is defined as a complicated process of individual development which generates the fundamental change of learning habits and perspectives (Rawson, 2000). It is also required students to set up meaningful tasks objectives for engagement, put efforts on understanding deep context meanings and main principles, and utilize academic knowledge  into actual practice. Some researchers argue that the deep approach to learning is a kind of innovations in university course, but however it has none business with first year students (Masters & Donnison, 2010). The reason is that first year students have limited experiences in campus living and the priority thing for them is get quick familiar with the new surroundings. And what is more, they think it is difficult for first year students to go beyond basic understanding of the learning courses as most of them just start live and study independently (Entwistle & Peterson, 2004). Students in first year fail to present the all characteristics related to deep learning such as dedication in specific tasks continuously and persistently (Entwistle & Peterson, 2004). But the essay holds on the opinion that deep learning approach is not necessarily impracticable for first year students. The reason is because some first year students have used the deep approach to learning when they are studying in high school. Good learning habits or method is not directly limited by students existing experience and incapacity to merge various kinds of  basic knowledge (Donnison & Penn-Edwards,2012). Besides the above argument, for first year students, it is important to use strategic approach and put efforts into organized study since study is a process with a specific learning intention to fulfill all kind of assessment (Burton, Taylor, Dowling, & Lawrence, 2009). The said organized study contains effective time management and learning behaviors management which mean students need to learn to monitor the effectiveness of their study outcomes. From this point of view, therefore, a deep learning is preferable. At the first year stage, it is suggested that there is a need for students to change students learning habits from surface approaches to deep learning since one of the ultimate objectives of undergraduate education is to establish and develop students’ correct lifelong learning habits and thinking skills, which can benefit their whole life (Burton, Taylor, Dowling, & Lawrence, 2009). The learning approaches are much more important and meaningful than academic grades. Many educators argue that the first year in university should be assigned to build up a mature  methodology which could consistently help students take advanced learning, and assist them to change learning behaviors to become adaptive with higher education (Entwistle & Peterson, 2004). Additionally, deep approach to learning can make many students achieve good academic assessment from a long run. Students engage in learning just because of academic assessment demands, therefore using the appropriate assessment would seem much meaningful. Nowadays, university begins to take the comprehensive assessment system to evaluate students’ achievement rather than just use course scores before. Such changes of assessment practice will also push students to move from initial surface learner to deep learner. Students are encouraged to focus on soft aspects instead of hard scores. It is argued that it is necessary for first year students to make their learning processes transparent. And what is more, it is important to come into being the understanding (Burton, Taylor, Dowling, & Lawrence, 2009). In conclusion, some researchers have different arguments or indication for first year students to use a surface approach or a deep approach to learning. Researchers argue that some surface approaches of learning is important for first year students because the skills of memorization can be used to deepen and develop understanding which students can accept and come into being an learning approach (Entwistle & Peterson, 2004). They think the deep learning is impracticable and unexpected to first year students. While other opinions think the deep approaches of learning is much more important than surface one because learning attitude and methodology can build up solid base for student lifelong study. There is a place in higher education for a deep  approach to learning. The academic scores should not be put into first place for first year students (Burton, Taylor, Dowling, & Lawrence, 2009). Certainly, a complete education is aimed to keep balance between knowledge memorization and utilization. The essay proposes that deep approach of learning rather than surface learning should be regarded as an important and necessary method in university study, particularly first year study. Therefore, how to transit from surface approach to deep approach in order to go through the courses smoothly and achieve study objectives is the most critical topic  for most of first year students. References list: Burton, L. , Taylor, J. , Dowling, D. , & Lawrence, J. (2009). Learning approaches, personality and concepts of knowledge of first-year students: Mature-age versus school leavers. Studies in Learning, Evaluation, Innovation and Development, 6(1), 65-81. Donnison, S. & Penn-Edwards, S. (2012). Focusing on first year assessment: Surface or deep approaches to learning? The International Journal of the First Year in Higher Education, 3(2),9-20 Entwistle, N. , & Peterson, E. (2004). Conceptions of learning and knowledge in  higher education: Relationships with study behaviour and influences of learning environments. International Journal of Educational Research, 41, 407-428. Masters, J. , & Donnison, S. (2010). First year transition in teacher education: The pod experience. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 35(2), 87-98. Penn-Edwards, S. , & Donnison, S. (2011). Engaging with higher education academic support: A first year student teacher transition model. European Journal of Education, 46(4), 566-580. Rawson, M. (2000). Learning to learn: More than a skill set. Studies in Higher Education, 25(2), 225-238.

Book Review Of Rich Dad Poor Dad Philosophy Essay

Book Review Of Rich Dad Poor Dad Philosophy Essay Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What The Rich Teach Their Kids About Money – That The Poor And Middle Class Do Not! Nobody wants to be poor. Everyone wants to be rich. However, no matter how high people reach or how hard people work, still many of us struggle financially, have insufficient funds to meet our expenses, are unprepared for retirement and simply are not able to attain all our wants. And there are only but a few â€Å"lucky ones† who end up being successful, money-wise. And the solutions that we normally come up with are to look for higher paying jobs, get a second or even a third job, acquire more assets and maybe hope to win the lottery. In this book, the author presents that our thoughts and actions have great impact on our lives. Our way of thinking, choices and decisions lead us to become either rich or poor. By presenting two contrasting mentalities, we get to not just accept one but to ponder on both and choose for ourselves how we will live our lives. The centra l and most important point presented here is in order for us to prevent money struggle, as early as we can, we should already be thinking, reflecting and directing our thoughts toward becoming rich. We should teach and use our minds to harness the power of money. This book is a wake up call to all of us to educate ourselves on money matters. Financial education is not being taught in school. We first learn it at home. And since most of us are not financially literate and the advice that we give are from past generations that do not really meet the changes of the present times, we end up teaching the young ones how to become like what most of us already are. A poor man can only teach much and mostly those teachings are what they have applied for themselves, thus continuing the cycle of money struggle. It is alarming to note that a lot of people are on their path to becoming poor each day and only a handful become mindful of their future and the future of nations and the rest of the w orld. I think finishing this book is not the point where we start applying this knowledge. Teaching our children but not changing our ways might just be not so beneficial, and so I suggest that upon learning this new perspective on money, one should realign his thinking, choices and decisions in order to fully reap the bounties. Some of the advice presented in this book are quite scary and risky but they do challenge us to exercise our minds and stretch our thoughts. It was also surprising how Robert Kiyosaki began this book. He was downright challenging the traditional ways of sending our children to school, motivating them to get grades and finish their studies and influencing them to find a good job by telling us that this could be their path to becoming poor. Further, he clearly chose the Rich Dad for his role model, someone who did not even finish the eighth grade.

Litterature review Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Litterature review - Essay Example The study focused mainly on NHS acute hospitals, in the study the authors use semi structured interviews and focus groups as their research instruments. The study is very qualitative, the findings from the study show that education to nurses provides an increase in palliative care, that is through offering training and education to nurses, there is a rise in the levels of palliative care foe the patients in need. It shows that the education enables the non-palliative nurses administer the right dosages to the patients in need of the care Grant, Wiencek, Viran, Uman, Munevar, Malloy, and Ferrrell (2013) examine the whole concept of the acute and critical care nurses on the aging population in the last stages of life. They aim at showing that the critical and the acute care nurses do not have enough education for the proper care of this population and the benefits of having the education as well. The ELNEC modules make use of 388 participants, from 2007 to 2010 for this study. The participants had to revise the policies and made changes in their workplaces so that there is provision of better care for the dying critical care patients. The participants offered training to more than 2900 classes. The ELNEC program aimed at improving the education to nurses regarding acute and critical care. Through this education, there was an increase in the nurse’s knowledge and skills on how to take good care of the patients in need of the palliative care. Saunders and Clark, (2005) describe the importance of palliative care to at the end of life. He views the problem linked to lack of training of the nurses and suggests the importance of carrying out research on the issue. Comparing with previous researches conducting, he put more emphasis to the importance of palliative care to nursing care. The researcher defines the problem