Speaking Skills Issues And Solution English Language Essay

Speaking Skills Issues And Solution English Language Essay For the longest time, the idea of testing language have always revolved around testing the knowledge of the language itself but now, the idea of testing for communicative competence is getting more and more popular. In testing communicative competence, speaking and listening tasks are commonly used. Those require tasks such as the completion of an information gap and role play (Kitao Kitao, 1996). As teachers of ESL, it is imperative for us to enhance the students delivery skills, increase their confidence, and develop their methods of organization and critical thinking skills. In order to do this, a valid and reliable way of assessment to determine whether the set goals were met is required. The oral communication field needs a clear-cut method of evaluation as can be found in discrete language skill classes such as listening comprehension (Nakamura Valens, 2001). Language teachers and language testers need a method which takes subjective qualitative observations and then transforms them into objective quantitative measures. A critical issue in the assessment is the selection of criteria for evaluating performance. Stiggins (as cited in Butler Stevens, 1997) points out that the selection of these criteria should be one of the first steps in designing performance assessments. Students should understand ahead of time what is expected of them. This can actually help them determine on what basis their performance will be judged. When students are actively involved in establishing assessment criteria for tasks, they do not only have a better understanding of what is expected of them when they perform the tasks, but they will be able to more fully appreciate why the criteria are important (Butler Stevens, 1997). The Issue of Assessing Speaking Skills. Speaking is probably one of the most difficult skills to test. It combines skills that may have little or no correlation with each other, and which do not do well to objective testing. In ( Kitao Kitao, 1996), it was mentioned that there are not yet good answers to questions about the criteria for testing these skills and the weighing of these factors. It is possible to find people who can produce the different sounds of a foreign language appropriately; hence they lack the ability to communicate their ideas correctly. This is one of the difficulties that testers encounter when testing the oral production of learners. However, the opposite situation could occur as well; some people do have the ability of expressing their ideas clearly, but at the same time they cannot pronounce all the sounds correctly. Another difficulty is the actual implementation of speaking skills testing. That is because it is difficult to test a large number of learners in a relatively short time. Therefore, the examiner is put under great pressure (Heaton, 1988). The next difficulty is that speaking and listening skills are very much related to one another; it is impossible to keep them mutually exclusive. In most cases, there is an interchange between listening and speaking, and speaking appropriately depends on comprehending spoken input. Therefore, this has an impact on testing speaking because the testers will not know whether they are testing purely speaking or speaking and listening together. Finally, the assessment and scoring of speaking skills is one of its biggest problems. If possible, it is better to record the examinees performance and the scoring will be done upon listening to the tape. The aspects of speaking that are considered part of its assessment include grammar, pronunciation, fluency, content, organization, and vocabulary. (Kitao Kitao, 1996). Depending on the situation and the purpose of the test, testers need to choose the appropriate methods and techniques of testing. The Solution: Method of Assessing Speaking Skills. 3.1. Monologue, Dialogue and Multilogue Speaking Test. Nakamura Valens (2001) conducted a study on Japanese graduate students at Keio University. They used three different types of speaking tests as a form of assessment. The first type is the Monologue Speaking Test which is also called the presentation. Students were asked to perform some tasks such as; show and tell where they talk about anything they choose. This gives the students a chance to make a mini presentation. The second type is Dialogue Speaking Test which is also known as the interview. It is an open-ended test where the students lead a discussion with the teacher, and students in that kind of test are required to use conversation skills that they have learned before. The third type is Multilogue Speaking Test that is also called the discussion and debating. Here, the discussions are student-generated, and students are put into groups where as a group, they decide on a topic they feel would be of interest for the rest of the classroom. The evaluation criteria that was used in that study was as follows: Evaluation Items: Presentations: Content Language Eye contact Interviews: Comprehensibility Pronunciation Fluency Ability to explain an idea Discussing and debating: Able to be part of the conversation to help it flow naturally Uses fillers/ additional questions to include others in conversation Transfers skills used in dialogues to group discussions The rating scale ranged between poor and good with the symbols from 1 to 4. The finding of their study reveals that among the three test types, the discussion tests was the most difficult followed by interview test and the presentation test. In Malaysia, we saw a similar system being implemented but were poorly regulated and too restrictive. Dialogues are used in the school-based assessment and Monologues and Multilogues are common in both school-based assessment and the MUET speaking test. Although it follows this model, it failed to accurately gauge students speaking ability as the tests were poorly regulated (prevalent in school-based assessment) and too restrictive (MUET). 3.2. Testing speaking using visual material Without even comprehending spoken or written material, it is possible to test speaking using visuals such as pictures, diagrams, and maps. Through a careful selection of material, the testers can control the use of vocabulary and the grammatical structures as required. There are different types of visual materials that range in their difficulty to suit all the levels of learners. One common stimulus material could be a series of pictures showing a story, where the student should describe. It requires the student to put together a coherent narrative. Another way to do that is by putting the pictures in a random order of the story to a group of student. The students decide on the sequence of the pictures without showing them to each other, and then put them down in the order that they have decided on. They then have the opportunity to reorder the pictures if they feel it is necessary. In the Malaysian context, this system is already in use in the school-based oral assessment for primar y school. Another way of using visual stimulus is by giving two students similar pictures with slight differences between them, and without seeing each others pictures they describe their own pictures in order to figure out the differences. However, there is a problem in using visual stimulus in testing speaking, it lies in that the choice of the materials used must be something that all the students can interpret equally well, since if one student has a difficulty understanding the visual information, it will influence the way he/she is evaluated (Kitao Kitao, 1996). 3.3. The Taped Oral Proficiency Test In that approach, the students performances are recorded on tapes and then assessed later by the examiner. This method has some advantage and some disadvantages. According to Cartier (1980), one disadvantage of the taped test is that it is less personal; the examinee is talking to a machine and not to a person. Another disadvantage is that it has a low validity. Moreover, the taped test is inflexible; if something goes wrong during the recording, it is virtually impossible to adjust for it. On the other hand, there are some advantages of that type of test. It can be given to a group of students in a language lab, it is more standardized and more objective since each student receives identical stimuli, and scoring can be performed at the most convenient or economical time and location. I believe that the taped test method is very practical when it comes to testing large numbers of students where the teacher would not have enough time to assess each one of them individually. However, the problem lies in not having enough language labs in some schools which, in turn, creates a big difficulty for teachers. Conclusion Previous research on classroom testing of ESL speech skills provides several models of both task types and rubrics for rating, and suggestions regarding procedures for testing speaking with large numbers of learners. However, there is no clear, widely disseminated consensus in the profession on the appropriate paradigm to guide the testing and rating of learner performance in a new language, either from second language acquisition research or from the best practices of successful teachers. While there is similarity of descriptors from one rubric to another in professional publications, these statements are at best subjective. Thus, the rating of learners performance rests heavily on individual instructors interpretations of those descriptors (Pino, 1998). In spite of the difficulties inherent in testing speaking, a speaking test can be a source of beneficial backwash. If speaking is tested, unless it is tested at a very low level, such as reading aloud, this encourages the teaching of speaking in classes. In my opinion, testing speaking skills could be a very interesting experience, and it gives teachers an opportunity to creative in selecting the test items and materials. Moreover, it has a great impact on students by making them enjoy taking the test and feel comfortable doing so if the teacher chooses the materials that interest their students and that is suitable to their age and levels of knowledge. References Butler, F. A., Stevens, R. (1997) Oral languages assessment in the classroom. Theory Into Practice, 36 (4). 214-219. Cartier, F. A. (1980). Alternative methods of oral proficiency assessment. In J. R. Firth (Ed.), Measuring spoken language proficiency (7-14). GA: Georgetown University. Heaton, J. B. (1988). Writing English language tests. Longman. Kitao, S. K., Kitao, K. (1996). Testing speaking (Report No.TM025215). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED398261) Kitao, S. K., Kitao, K. (1996). Testing communicative competence (Report No. TM025214). (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED398260) Nakamura, Y., Valens, M. (2001). Teaching and testing oral communication skills. Journal of Humanities and Natural Sciences,3, 43-53. Pino, B. G. (1998). Prochievement testing of speaking: matching instructor expectations, learner proficiency level, and task types. Texas Papers in Foreign Language Education, 3, (3), 119-133.

National Parks or National Problems? Essay -- Critical Thinking Essays

A bear meanders across the road several hundred yards in front of your slowly moving vehicle. A doe and her fawn leap back into the brush as you approach. The sun shines in such a way that it seems the mountains above you go on forever. This pristine image of our nation's national parks is unfortunately getting harder to find today. The approximately 270 million visitors to the parks annually have begun to take their toll on the wild and preserved areas of our nation. Congress created the world's first national park, Yellowstone, in 1872. For many years after the beginning of Yellowstone (and other such parks), the wilderness could be viewed from afar, but not entered. Camping within park limits was something that was just not done by visitors (National Park Service, Caring for Legacy, 1). The national parks were much less accessible to the public sector in the early 1900's than they presently are. A staggering 68% of Americans have visited at least one area of the National Park System today, and all these visits have undoubtedly led to the gradual degradation of our parks (Rettie, 124). Our National Park Service, or the NPS, is the agency responsible for the upkeep and management of the national parks (Rettie, ix). The service was created in 1916 (National Park Service, When Did the NPS, 1). The early parks, including Yellowstone, didn't have a central governing body for over forty years. This meant that the first parks had to struggle to stay alive and running. In addition, many fell into ruin due to lack of public support or due to the fact that some Americans didn't even know that these parks existed. People also weren't sure how to handle themselves within park boundaries, which is still a problem today. Several of the ... ... American Press, 1990. Keiter, Robert B., and Mark S. Boyce, eds. The Greater Yellowstone System. London: Yale University Press, 1991. Leal, Donald R., and Holly Lippke Fretwell. "Users Must Pay to Save Our National Parks." Consumers' Research Magazine, August 1997. First Search. Online. 12 Oct. 1998. National Park Service. "Caring for the American Legacy." http://www.nps.gov/legacy/mission.html. (24 Nov. 1998). National Park Service. "Fire in the National Parks." http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/issues/fire.html. (15 Nov. 1998). National Park Service. "National Park Resources in Peril." http://www.nps.gov/pub_aff/issues/paril_p_.html. (20 Nov. 1998). National Park Service. "When Did the NPS Begin?" http://www.nps.gov/legacy/legacy.html. (20 Nov. 1998). Rettie, Dwight F. Our National Park System. Urbana and Chicago: University Of Illinois Press, 1995.

Troubled Youth Today

Youth today are dramatically different than the youth just fifteen years ago. Styles, schooling, resistance, and especially consequences have changed a lot. Children can no longer come home after school with a note from the teacher and receive a lashing with dad’s belt. No longer can they wear the dunce hat in class when misbehaving. Though this is a good thing, it has become much harder for parents to control and maintain their children. In â€Å"Children Should Be Seen Not Heard† by Gill Valentine, a single mother states, â€Å"I think children are allowed to get away with more because we’re so frightened of Social Services†¦they know there’s nothing you can do to stop it. † Without consequence children’s behaviors are going much farther down the â€Å"wrong† road then parents know how to handle. In light of this, now more than ever, drastic measures have been taken to help children. There are youth help centers where parents can send their children to receive the help they need to return to a more level headed state of being. In an article written by Bruce R Schackmann, it was stated that, â€Å"only one in ten adolescents who need treatment actually receives help. † Some of these programs are not as strict, and the child only goes in a few times a week for sessions. Other residential treatment centers are for a month or two, while the most extreme residential centers for youth are over one year long. Since this has become quite a popular trend for parents to do, there is more and more research showing the outcomes of these children and if it actually helped. For parent’s to really understand what their child needs they need to know if strict institutes or more loose help centers are more productive with enhancing and helping the youth’s individual and family life. There are pros and cons to each type of center. A residential treatment center, also known as an RTC is similar to Therapeutic Boarding Schools (TBS) with the exception of how long the program lasts, the intensity of the therapy, and the educational component involved. At Risk Teen-Residential Treatment Centers website). The RTC’s provide much more verbal contact with the family and physical family involvement. Usually in these types of facilities there are less rules, which helps the students to build closer friendship-like relationships with the staff, which can overall help the outcome of the student. The child is learning new things during every session and gets to practice his or her new knowledge within just a few weeks sometimes even hours. This gives the student the ability to test what they have learned and come back to the program to share how it went and work on how to make it better. There tends not to be as much resistance at these shorter, sometimes non-residential centers, which leads to less resentment being built up against the institute. Students at these types of programs have the ability to think for themselves. They are given a type of structure to follow, usually in the form of a certain amount of steps, however it is up to them how to succeed and progress through these steps to the end. Chris Conner from The Spot said, â€Å"discipline may not always be helpful because then the student cannot develop who they are by themselves and they won’t be able to really take their life into their own hands and create their own structure. † Another perk of these programs is that they tend to be less expensive. This allows students of lower class to be able to participate in the RTC services. â€Å"Positive outcomes for youth in RTC’s are [mainly] associated with stays that are relatively shorter, include family involvement, and involve aftercare. † (Brenda D. Smith) Though there seem to be many pros, there are also a few cons. Because the students are there for such a short time period it is easier for them to skim by, or fake what they are doing. Also they might not hold onto the information they have learned as deeply as a longer program. This can cause the students of shorter programs to relapse sooner than longer programs. In Teenage Wasteland by Donna Gaines a boy â€Å"was arrested for drunk driving and entered a rehab program. For a while he dried out, and then he tried getting his life in order. Things started to look up for him†¦but that didn’t last. † (The Kids In The Basement) The longer programs known as TBS’s have many pros and cons as well. Unlike RTC’s they tend to be over a year in length, which means they are residential and away from the family. There is limited communication with the family as well as limited physical contact. There is a loss of connection to the outside world, which can cause a student to build extreme resentment against the program. The therapeutic aspect of these programs is extremely intense and can be hard for such young students to deal with. â€Å"They try to discipline your whole life, to embarrass you out of being yourself, they put you on a routine, to make you normal†¦this structured pproach can be harmful to some extent. More often it gets abused. † (Teenage Wasteland-The Rock). After having stayed at a program away from your family, friends, and society for so long the student usually has the urge to break free when they get out. Unhealthy ways of rebellion are often seen among these youth. This can be seen in disobeying one’s parents, skipping classes again, and can mean â€Å"joints, beers, liquor, and if it’s a good night maybe something a little stronger-coke, dust, crack. † (Teenage Wasteland-Us and Them). The children who go to these programs are pretty equal when it comes to gender. One has to be in the middle to upper middle class to be able to afford the price of these programs which can range from â€Å"around $2,100 per month and can climb to $8,000 a month. † (At Risk Teen-Residential Treatment Centers website). Some pros of the long term program are that because they are longer the student has the chance and time to really work on their issues with the help of much more intensive therapy than an RTC. Instead of having to leave school for a month or two at these programs there is schooling offered to help the students to not fall too far behind and even catch up if they were behind. Though the structure can be seen as harmful at times, it also teaches the students the importance of structure in their lives and not just being a wild spontaneous party animal. The staff and students have more time to create bonds that can be lifelong along with student-student relationships. Having relationships with the people where you are living helps one to feel more at home and they have a better chance of becoming more open and letting people in emotionally to help them. Because of these aspects of longer programs they tend to have a very good outcome. The youth who are being sent to these programs are coming from all different backgrounds of race, gender, and class in particular. These youth tend to be children who have either not had enough rules growing up or too many, and they have found their own ways to resist society, especially in the face of their parents, and have been sent to these places to get help. Family life has changed dramatically along with our society and culture. â€Å"In the 1950’s, it [smoking cigarettes] was a mark of juvenile delinquency for boys, trampiness for girls. † (Teenage Wasteland-Us And Them). Now a child smoking a cigarette is one of the smaller worries of a parent. With drugs becoming so popular, affordable, and easily accessible, this trend has hit almost every youth sub-culture. It is a way for the youth to rebel from their parents and society, while gaining acceptance from their peers. With our culture having changed so much recently, especially in the last twenty to forty years, the youth has become extremely peer oriented. â€Å"Wherever they have been taught to look for good, they find evil. Families are falling apart, and the papers are full of atrocities perpetuated by adults on kids. (Teenage Wasteland-This is Religion I). It is becoming harder and harder for the youth to come home to their families to talk to them about the eighth graders picking on them at lunch time, when they are traveling between their father’s house and their mother’s house on alternate Tuesdays, every other soccer game, and every third weekend. The newspapers and shows are showing that is it dangerous for children to be alone on the street or any further than a block or two away from home, and â€Å"consequently, boys and girls increasingly are having their activities formally organized and timetabled. (Children Should Be Seen Not Heard, Gill Valentine). This type of lifestyle is very overwhelming for children. To have some sort of a release the child usually begins to spend more and more time with their friends to avoid the family life. Along with this, to really deepen the avoidance tactic, the child usually starts to use drugs of some sort. The burden of homework and being embarrassed to go to class because one is unprepared can be overwhelming enough for a child to start skipping classes, and in time drop out all together. The youth at these programs can be involved in the punk scene, the gangster scene, and the hippie scene, and all be going through these same issues. The youth are just finding their own way and different sub-cultures to associate with to avoid their own lives. When the youth get sent to these programs their sub-culture is completely torn apart and they are forced to create a new one with all of the other students at the program. This can actually be very healthy. When I was sent to my wilderness program I was stuck in the middle of Duchesne, Utah with five other girls. I had no choice but to be-friend these girls no matter if they looked different and acted different than me. This was the first step in helping me to step away from judgment. When I got to my TBS in Heron, Montana, I was given a sort of uniform and my make-up, music, and pictures from home were all taken from me. Everyone was shed of their outer appearance that they based friendship off of at home. Girls had to have their hair up at all times with no bangs or hair in their faces. Boys had to have short hair and wear belts at all times. We weren’t even allowed to talk about what type of music we listened to at home, to fully extinguish the images that we all had had. This really helped me to make friends with everybody and grow as a less judgmental person. The rules we were given were extremely strict. We were told they were not called rules but â€Å"agreements†. We were agreeing to live by this standard, and ironically we were being forced to say â€Å"agreements† and if we said rule we were punished. I had fifteen-minute phone calls with my parents every two weeks and was not allowed to talk to any other family members except for them. As time went one I was awarded privileges to be able to write my sister and grandparents letters and it wasn’t until I had been at the program for 18 months that I was allowed to use the phone to call my sister for 10 minutes every two weeks. Punishments included things such as doing extra chores, dishes, digging, weeding, shoveling snow, and the worst was digging a stump out of the ground. I had four stumps during both winters I was there. Extremely low temperatures and feeling sick were not taken into account when a child had broken a rule. I was ostracized three times during my 23-month stay. When I first got there I was not allowed to talk to anybody for one week. And then the two times I got in major trouble I was not allowed to talk to any other students. I was also not allowed to talk to any of the staff or teachers there except for my personal therapist, family therapist, and headmaster. I was forced to sit in the back of the dining hall facing the wall at all times. I was shamed and guilt tripped and I believe this to be an incredibly unhealthy technique to use with growing youth. The children who went to The Rock in Teenage Wasteland by Donna Gaines were very similar to me. Most of them were diagnosed with a disorder called ED, emotionally disturbed. Most kids going to the TBS or RTC programs today are diagnosed with either ADD, ADHD, or ODD. ODD stands for Oppositional Defiant Disorder. It has become prevalent since corporal punishment has become illegal. Most kids who went to The Rock had been given up on by the faculty at their other schools, and this was the only place for them. When I left home no one had given up on me as a person, they had given up on trying to control me and help me. Everyone supported me and wanted me to become healthy again. They sent me away because they loved me and that was what I needed. The kids who go to The Spot, in downtown Denver Colorado, are children with seemingly similar backgrounds. They have probably been given up on, or have given up on themselves. They have this help center to go to with not many rules, but that can really help them to lead a healthier and more successful life. I am similar to these youth because before I had gotten sent away I was no longer living at home. I was sleeping couch to couch and sometimes sitting on curbs until two in the morning when someone could sneak me into their house. I had given up on myself and was harming my own body with drugs and had stopped going to school all together. I feel that the homeless youth who are going to The Spot are taking the initiative to help themselves, however I feel that there might not be quite enough structure or help services for them to really start working on their life and turning it around. There needs to be a place with an amount of structure between a TBS/RTC and youth help centers such as The Spot and the YMCA. In general the youth who are homeless and attending the spot and the youth who are so out of control they are being sent to these residential treatment center can tell us a lot about the general youth in the United States today. â€Å"In contemporary Western societies we are witnessing a decay in childhood as a separate category and that the distinction between children and adults is becoming increasingly blurred. † (Seabrook, 1987). There is an incredible amount of resistance among the youth of the U. S. today towards the â€Å"norm†. Youth are being oppressed by the different laws that are placed on them, the inability to hang out in certain public spaces, and the overall mindset that we are hormonal and crazy teens. The youth are resisting this oppression by breaking the rules, by taking drugs, skipping classes, and hanging out and skateboarding in places where it is printed â€Å"not allowed†. However, through this resistance we are proving that the adults are extremely correct. The youth are beginning to gain more and more power out of this resistance mostly due to corporal punishment being illegal. Parents are being watched very closely to see that their children are not being abused. It has become very hard for parents to discipline their children, with the fear that any wrong move and their own child, neighbor, or passer-by could call Child Protective Services on them. It is very important for these youth to be studied because we are the future of this nation, of this world. Some of these children are being treated in unnecessary and unfair ways that can be economically harmful to the family, and in some cases can emotionally pull the family apart due to lack of communication. The population of the children going through these processes is becoming larger and larger by the year. If the adults of the society could start to look at what they are doing that could be helping to cause this â€Å"loss† of children in our communities, things could really start to change for the better. It seems as if â€Å"parents have become ‘overeducated. ’ But instead of becoming sensitive or acting rationally, they get hyper alert to ‘signs’ of ‘drug problem. ’ They start reading pathology into every little thing their kid does. † (Teenage Wasteland-The Rock). Give the children a chance to be themselves. As much as a child might yell when they hear that who they are is just â€Å"phase†, it usually is true, it is a â€Å"phase†. Let your children make mistakes and learn from them. Be there for them all the time to love them and to help teach them right from wrong. Try to understand and listen to them rather than preach from our own childhood. The gap between youth and adults will become much closer if we all begin to listen and love. BIBLIOGRAPHY Gaines, Donna. 1991. Teenage Wasteland: Suburbia’s Dead End Kids. New York: Harper Perennial Valentine, Gill. 1996. Urban Geography. Children Should Be Seen and Not Heard: The Production and Transgression of Adults’ Public Space. 205-220 Website: Residential Treatment Centers: http://www. selectown. com/oppositional-defiant-disorder. php Copyright 2004 Website: Residential Treatment Centers: http://www. selectown. com/residential-treatment-centers. php Copyright 2004 Interview with Chris Conner from The Spot Seabrook, Jeremy, 1987. The Decay Of Childhood. News Statesman. 10 July, 14-15 Schackman, Bruce R. , Erick G. Rojas, Jeremy Gans, Mathea Falco, and Robert B. Millman. â€Å"Does higher cost mean better quality? evidence from highly-regarded adolescent drug treatment programs. (Short Report). † Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy 2. 23 (July 31, 2007): 23. Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Denver. Smith, Brenda D. , David E. Duffee, Camela M. Steinke, Yufan Huang, and Heather Larkin. â€Å"Outcomes in residential treatment for youth: The role of early engagement. (Report). † Children and Youth Services Review 30. 12 (Dec 2008): 1425(12). Academic OneFile. Gale. University of Denver.

WebsterAshburton Treaty essays

WebsterAshburton Treaty essays Daniel Webster was motivated to settle the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick. In 1783, a treaty had been made that awarded the U.S. all land in the area drained by rivers flowinginto the Atlantic instead of into the St. Lawrence. However, the diction of this treaty was not straightforward and the maps were conflicting. In 1842, Lord Ashburton was sent by the British as a minister, to try and establish all outstanding conflicts. Ashburtona adn Webster compromised a boundary. The treaty allowed Canada to build a military road from Halifax to Quebec while the United States got most of the disputed territory. Webster agreed to the treaty because he felt that any treaty made would avoid war. Appeasing Maine and Massachusets was a problem, but Webster solved it by getting an old map of the area and marked off a line that followed the British version of the boundary made by Franklin at the end of the Revolution. He showed the map to Maine and Mass., and convinced them to agree because otherwise Britain could demand the whole region. Websters generosity was admirable and made a lot of sense. It caused Lord Ashburton to make concessions in other areas along the Canadian-American border. Due to Americas increasing need to British capitol and Britains rising dependancy on foriegn foodstuffs, war, or even conflicts would have obstructed essential business affairs and produced no compensating gains. This treaty was a major aid in the avoidance of war. ...

Classical Greek Art, Drama, and Government Influence on Mode essays

Classical Greek Art, Drama, and Government Influence on Mode essays Four thousand years ago the humanities were introduced by the Ancient Greeks. The men began to record their feelings and ideas in the form of architecture, sculpture, plays, and paintings which make up the humanities. These numerous artists, writers, and politicians set the foundation for the whole world to build on. Our current government, buildings, literature, and sculpture all have their roots in the Classical Greeks. Aside from the drama and art, even the first governments that developed in Classical Greek are still in power today only with modifications brought about by the elapsed time periods. Greek drama which signifies things done arose out of festivals that were held in the early spring to honor Dionysus, god of wine. These dramas started out as songs and dance but retold religious stories. They were improved as time went on and developed two specific types still popular today which were comedy and tragedy. Thespis, a Greek dramatist, introduced tragedy to the world, and the first actor which were known as thespians or hupokrites. From the early actors known as hupokrites was where the version of the word we know as hypocrites a person who plays a false role began. Tragedies are stories that arouse the feeling of sadness, awe, fear, or pity, and the character brings about a downfall by a tragic flaw. Although introduced by Thespis, later writers such as Aeschylus, Socrates and Menedor also improved the Greek Tragedy by their plays and input. Menedor whom constructed many excellent plots, also gave us some famous sayings still used today such as whom the gods love di e young which has been translated into our society as being the good die young. The Greek tragedy influenced writers from then on and improved only with time, but also the early tragedies laid the foundations for many of the worlds classic Literature pieces. Some of these include Shakespeares tragedies such...

The Role of Strategic Quality Planning for Quality Minded Essay

The Role of Strategic Quality Planning for Quality Minded Organizations - Essay Example The significance of quality also gets enhanced due to the rapidly increasing competition in the business environment and the continuous requirement of innovative ideas to satisfy the global customers (Mehra & Et. Al., 2001). In this regard, the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM) has been introduced to the managerial implication trends of 21st century with the purpose to scientifically manage quality with due consideration to the multifaceted nature of business organizations. Another significant approach to the management decisions in the current phenomenon is the inclusion of strategic management to control, direct, enhance, and organize the managerial decisions in attaining its ultimate objectives. It is worth mentioning, that currently organizations have been witnessed to integrate the two concepts, i.e. TQM and strategic management to enhance their efficiency in achieving competitive advantage, e.g. Toyota (Amasaka, 2005). With this concern, the paper will emphasize on the study of strategic quality management in Toyota as a quality minded organization. ... Effective strategic management is also considered to be crucial in determining the success of an organization in relation to its ultimate organizational objective (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997). Strategic management in the post-modern context is defined to â€Å"refer to the managerial decisions that relate the organization its environment, guide internal activities, and determine organizational long-term performance† (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997, pp. 2). On the similar context, TQM is defined as â€Å"a systems approach to management that aims to continuously improve value to customers by designing and continuously improving organizational process and systems† (Stahl & Grigsby, 1997, pp. 4). TQM is also defined as â€Å"a process-oriented philosophy of enhancing customer satisfaction through the production of higher quality goods and services† (Mehra & Et. Al., 2001). Simultaneously, strategic management can also be defined as object-oriented and future-oriented process, i.e . strategic management implications of an organization intends toward the attainment of future objective of the organization (Teece & Et. Al., 1997). Emphasizing on the above mentioned definitions of the two concepts, it can be stated that both strategic management and TQM are interrelated with the purpose of enhancing the organizational efficiency in the attainment of its ultimate objective. Therefore, attainment of a quality efficient organizational process through the implication of TQM can be regarded as the organizational goal and strategic management can be termed as the scientific and organized method aimed at attaining the objective. Furthermore, both the concepts tend to be related to a diversified and broad

Lunching new product in Qatari market Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Lunching new product in Qatari market - Essay Example Weaknesses: A major setback for the company is the underlying marketing cost of this product as well as the acceptance of this innovative product by the masses. The market research is prone to validity and reliability issues and even a company with excellent management and marketing personnel, it is feared that not many buyers are actually attracted. Also, since the cost of a PVC sometimes goes up to $400 per cell, the production cost of these cars might exceed the estimated budget. These cars also get extremely heated from the inside and may be prickly to drive (Why to buy a Solar powered Car, n.p.). 4 Opportunities: Solar cars are the most environment friendly cars to use. This factor can be cashed whilst generating a positive word of mouth for the company. Affiliating with organizations that promote Go Green concept can also benefit the new born company. With consumers needs shifting to preferring environment friendly products, this can go into the company’s benefit. Moreover, the economy of Qatar is permeable to new entrants and Smart Solar Cars can survive. 4 Threats: Competitors, both local and international, are an obvious threat. The fear of unsuccessful marketing efforts made to shift Qatari consumers from the conventional cars to solar powered cars, as well as the constant terror of unpredictable recession stay as major threats. 5 The company is named Smart Solar Cars Ltd which is an entirely new brand to be launched in Qatar. The main target market that these cars cater to, are the young individuals, and first time buyers of the car. The company is anticipated to be launched in Qatar in January 2012. The primary mission is to ‘go green’ in the future and save the natural resources to their maximum. The main objective of launching this product is to create awareness amongst people on the usefulness of the solar