Globalization in Transition Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Globalization in Transition - Research Paper Example It is in the interest of the welfare of humankind to allow a new system to emerge. What has happened about globalization so far, challenges the imagination of all concerned. It is impossible to predetermine or predict the outcomes and the shape of things to come. Human intervention and creativity have reached new zeniths and the developments that have taken place in various segments of globalization do not fall within the definitions of Capitalism, Communism, Socialism or Theocracy. Spread of democracy in the hardcore communist countries, which resulted in liberalization of trade relations, is also an important factor in hastening up the process of globalization. Narrow perspectives of nationalism have failed to check the economic reforms that are part of the process that accelerates the pace of development. The discussion is no more about whether there should be reforms to facilitate the march of globalization; it is about the strategy to implement reforms. The importance of transit ion economics is an accepted fact. The tug of war of votaries of globalization and the local manufacturing and local food markets will continue and the ultimate gainer is the consumer, as he has the choice. Globalization—its reach Is it possible to reconstitute local manufacturing and local food markets, or has globalization ultimately made this impossible? A straight forward answer to this question is impossibility. It is an admitted fact that the narrow domestic walls have crumbled. Firstly, let us try to understand the institution of market. The complex market institutions cannot develop in a theoretical or laboratory setting and then transplant them to economy. For the markets, transition to the ground realities is a complicated exercise. Institutions will take a long time to reshape and attain perfection. Globalization has challenged and will continue to challenge many of the old social and economic norms. Many such norms will die and many will need complete rejuvenation . Getting the reforms off from the national to the international ground calls for tough choices. One has to be realistic about the possible achievements, while giving up the existing set up in favor of the new one. Advantage Globalization Countries need an active domestic agenda and remain ready to follow the path of economic reforms well in time, to challenge the environment of integrated world economy. The domestic front needs to develop the fine sense of anticipation to capture the gains of globalization. Globalization is multi-dimensional. Global trade volumes are on the increase for more than one reason. Every country would like to take advantage of the technological breakthroughs and no one minds from which country it originates. Technological innovations have boosted immensely the quality of life in many countries of the world, but at the same time this has benefited the rich section of the society and the poor have no means to share the benefits. Volatile capital markets do not go well with the economy of the developing countries. The experts in the field of economics and commerce are not sure about the contribution of trade to the superior growth performance of the votaries who followed globalization. A country opens up trade channels and many domestic policy changes go in tandem with it. So it is difficult to assess the contribution

Balancing and Resolving Conflicts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Balancing and Resolving Conflicts - Essay Example I am kindly requesting the government to help our members of state by providing funding to help improve the community facilities and their residents in the area. The citizens around here are poor and do not have enough funds to make ends meet. This state needs funds to improve the public housing and to provide recreational facilities for the people around here. The area is surrounded by poor people who involve themselves in crime activities because most of them are not employed. The area has industries but the products go to waste because the warehouses are poorly managed and lack good storage facilities. By providing the funds to improve people’s lives in our state, the public housing will be improved, there will be reduced crime rates, the old and poor people will live comfortably, the warehouses facilities will be improved and the citizens will create employment

China S Domestic Tourism And Hotel Industry Tourism Essay

China S Domestic Tourism And Hotel Industry Tourism Essay With the rapid development of Chinas national economy, the leisure choices of Chinese people also have undergone great changes. The Chinese peoples leisure presents distinctive regional characteristics and cultural identity. As the increase in income and living standards improved, Chinese people are more willing to travel for consume choice. Chinese tourism is at s rapid developing stage, forming the three kinds of tourism: inbound tourism, domestic tourism and outbound tourism market. For its further development, Chinas tourism should continue to focus much on domestic tourism market. Consumer demand for the spiritual life and growth making tourism become casual as a relaxed kind of entertainment. When people facing the highly technical and highly urbanized life, many people have the demand to enjoy nature and enjoy life, high quality tourism has become the pursuit of many modern urban people with consume consciousness. Due to that, the development of Chinas domestic tourism would b e even brighter. Chinas domestic tourism promoted local economic development, and it is also influenced by national policy and regional economic development levels. Meanwhile, the hotel industry is also driven by the development of domestic tourism and has been considerable prosperity and development. It could be said that the development of tourism and hotel industry promote each other, are both important parts of Chinese national leisure. This essay will firstly discuss the variety markets and the growth of Chinas domestic tourism. Following this, it will discuss the growth and diversified markets of Chinas hotel industry. Finally, it will provide some suggestions for todays Chinese leisure market. The variety markets and the growth of Chinas domestic tourism With the economic development, China in the last century after 1990s, as guided by national policies, the domestic tourism market has entered a rapid development period (Wu, Zhu, and Xu, 2000). Since 1999, the total consumption growth rate remained at around 10%-12%, indicating that Chinas domestic demand for tourism market has entered a stable stage of development. When the Chinese tourism industry in its infancy, the domestic tourism demand is not enough strong, showing small-scale, with single of the characteristics associated. Therefore, the first principle of Chinas domestic tourism is to meet the inbound tourism demand as the main target. However, after nearly 20 years of development, domestic tourism gradually has become to be market-oriented, and Chinese people would like to take domestic travel as leisure-based behavior (Huang, Xiao, 2000). The number of domestic tourists has grown, tourists levels also constantly improved, showing a large scale and covering wide demand cha racteristics. The formation of effective travel demand requires tourists must have a certain ability to pay, that should be available for discretionary income. With the opening up of Chinas sustained rapid economic development, domestic residents disposable income is also increasing at the same time (Wu, Zhu, and Xu, 2000). The disposable income of urban residents rose from 1700.6 RMB in 1991 to 7702.8 RMB in 2002. With the sustained, steady, and moderate economy growth, income levels would continue to improve, people want not only meet their daily lives demand, which means that China would face increasingly strong domestic tourism demand and Chinas domestic tourism market is still promising in the following years. Chinas domestic tourism meets the requirements and effective demands of different tourists who have the desires to travel and enjoy leisure time. When received the mobilization of Chinese governments leave policies, Chinas domestic tourism market made a rapid expansion (Wang, Qu, 2004). Since May 1995 China launched the weekly rest-day work system and brought an excellent opportunity for the development of domestic tourism. These polices then leaded a weekend travel fever caused by the increase travel rate of urban residents in 1995-1999. September 1999, the Chinese State Council issued a national New Year and Day holiday approaches, made the Labour Day and National Day positioning as the Spring Festival holiday time with the extended 3 days, plus weekends before and after the formation of three complete the concentration of a week holiday as the Golden Week. It could be considered that, with the future improvement of the system for holidays, and paid holidays became more common, pe ople are free to spend their time on domestic pinpoints. In these systems, the distribution of Chinese tourism is imbalance in some areas, and someone has become a cultural and fashion center, become a popular tourist site and entry, such as Hong Kong (Tam, Chan, Chu, et al., 2005). The formation of effective demand travel requirements related to tourism infrastructure is needed to be improved. The rapid development of Chinas national economy has been a strong guarantee for the domestic tourist attractions and supporting facilities construction. A tourist attraction is not enough only increase the attraction for tourists, and the domestic tourists travel demand also should to improve in order to achieve sustainable development of domestic tourism according to the local differences (Wang, Qu, 2004). This requires that tourism-related transportation, catering, accommodation and other related supporting infrastructure, industry, construction and tourism development to become much convenient. Currently Chinese enterprises and the tourism management departments have recognized this, and they realized that the construction of tourism infrastructure is referred to a considerable height, increased investment, continuous improvement and tourism-related facilities. This will help to promote the formation of effective demand, tourism, promote tourism market. The formation of effective demand travel requirements of tourists reflects the change of consumer awareness. Economic development and upgrading of living standards, attract many international tourists, has changed peoples consumption concept, which making people more willing to improve their spiritual life through tourism. The growth and diversified markets of Chinas hotel industry Chinas domestic tourism development also greatly pushed the domestic hotel industry development and prosperity. Chinas hotel industry is developing rapidly in 2004, accommodation and catering industry in China is total 1 trillion RMB of business, accounting for 7.3% of gross national product, is about to become very important Chinas national economy industry. With Chinas sustained rapid growth and the rising living standards, it would gradually speed up the internationalization process of Chinese hotel industry. With the host of Beijing Olympics and Shanghai World Expo and Guangzhou Asian Games and even the further success of large-scale activities held in China by 2020, China would become the largest tourist destination in the world, and further promoted Chinas hotel industrys development to a new stage. Currently Chinese hotel industry shows many characteristics. The most hotels continuously improve product functionality. After 20 years of development, Chinas hotels could be subdivided as the general business hotel, tourist hotels, resort hotels, conference hotels, theme hotels and the general hotels, etc., and these hotels could continue to meet the diverse demands of the travel market (Pine, Phillips, 2005). There are about more than 100 hotel groups, nearly 1,000 hotel chains. Hotel consolidation and reorganization progresses, and the international hotel group from the low-end market promote the tourist market, accelerate the pace of internationalization of the domestic market. Hotel Services become more prominent in the hotel industry. Electronic information technology has been used into China hotel industry, and the global information highway also provides customers new services, such as artificial intelligence on the technology of temperature, light, automatic adjustment, the rooms have broadband Internet access, room is able to receive satellite TV network signal, remote network scheduled. So that the hotel industry increasingly dependent on science and technology. Hotels would become the main body of the hotel industry market. In the hotel industry, hotels have the largest space for future development. Chinese hotels begins to follow international hotel industry trends, being consistent with the actual Chinese hotel market segments to meet the needs of domestic tourists, and on major events is not sensitive to economic factors. Star hotel industry in China would shift to the main economic development of a new era hotels. The level of the overall hotel market returns showed a strong momentum of development. Considering all five star hotels in Chinas management fees and fixed fees, its income increased by 42% over the same period, four-star and three star hotels grew by 52% and 24%,compared to 1990s. International management of the five-star and four-star hotel than other hotels with the level of management to achieve better earnings before charges and fixed costs, total revenues were 43% and 35%. Shanghais five-star hotels achieved the highest level of return, has 48% of total revenue, followed by Sanya (47%) and Beijing (40%) of the five-star hotel (Lam, Han, 2005). In addition, the five-star hotel, the rooms of the hotels are still the highest total revenue department. Hotel room revenue accounted for 55% of total revenue, while its total expenditure amounted to only 11%. In the main expenditure, catering is containing 35% of income in the total expenditure. Some suggestions for todays Chinese leisure industry The Chinese government should further adjust and improve the statutory holidays and leave regulations, in order to promote the prosperity and development of Chinas domestic tourism market. Tourism activities and national holidays and vacation is closely related to institutional arrangements, and the introduction of adjustment programs of national holidays and paid annual leave regulations, will have an important impact on space-time structure on domestic tourism flows and tourism development. The implementation of the new holiday system will break the monopoly of the past space and time factors of travel, promote tourist flows. The promotion of coordinated development of regional tourism would optimize the layout of space tourism industry and narrow the differences in regional tourism. On the one hand, the adjustment of the statutory holiday will significantly increase the proportion of short-range tourist flows, increase tourism sources, and promote the development of tourism markets. It could force local government and tourism enterprises to pay more attentions to the development of local tourism market, and take serious on the active development of local tourism market, tourism product, tourism activities to enrich the content of local tourism. By optimizing product structure and promote local tourism development, the local economy development is of great significant convert. When local government adjust the implementation of tourism polices, it will bring about more p otential tourism, especially to these state-owned hotel (Heunga, Zhang, Jiang, 2008). Once met the personal needs of tourists, many tourist areas, which are not popular in the past, would be the choice of different types of potential tourists, thus stimulating the remote tourist spots to recovery, promoting the coordinated development of regional tourism. Those measures could improve the overall economic benefits of tourism. Of course, in nowadays, green, environmental protection, energy saving, safety, and health development of the international hotel has become a new direction of hotel industry. Followed the trend, many activities are implemented to create green hotels, promoting Chinas hotel industry into the safety, health, environmental protection, and energy saving road in the future. At present, China mainly focus on hotel supplies: disposable daily necessities, intelligent products, hotel decorative items, sports goods, food supplies, cleaning supplies, uniforms, and severa l other aspects of the hotel. Among them, the hotel leadership management level also should be enhanced (Wong Chan, 2010). Along with the development and improvement of living standards, customers increasing the demand for the hotel, which requested hotels in system equipment, used the hotel intelligent systems. Therefore, hotel equipment, intelligent systems, would be the development of hotel equipment, as an important trend. The other tech-intensive hotels supplies will be smaller, light and miniaturized to the trend of development. Conclusion In conclusion, Chinas domestic tourism and hotel industry has been rapid development and prosperity, because of the rapid development of national economy and domestic policy, regulation leaves promotion. Brought by the increase of Chinese residents income, it improved the quality of many people life, and more people want to choose consumption and leisure, the tourism and accommodation outside. To some degree, Chinese peoples leisure has markedly changed. Of course, Chinas domestic tourism presented geographical imbalance, which asked tourism authorities to develop a positive awareness of domestic tourism consumption. For the western and rural areas, the consume awareness of many tourist areas is not strong. So that it could take various measures to encourage people to travel. In order to promote tourism and hotel industrys further development, it also should be constantly improving and standardizing Chinas leave system. Beside successful enterprises in the construction and restructur ing of hotel, it has many efforts to create Chinas own strong hotel group. When Chinese super-national hotel group become the famous hotel brand of the world, it could get the establishment of China in the international hotel industry on a due place.

A look a Pratical Magic :: essays research papers

Practical Magic was released October 16, 1998. The story is about two sisters who break a curse that had been placed on their family for over 200 years, by their ancestor Maria. Throughout the movie the theme is magic. Practical Magic helps to break the false images placed on witches and magic throughout time, but at times, the movie, still upholds some of the negative views of witches. There are many stereotypes that are set upon modern witchcraft and magic in today’s society that Hollywood has helped to maintain. In society there are people that are the selected voice of the general public in critiquing movies. I will be looking at Practical Magic’s use of magic to see how they break or perpetuate the following stereotypes: physical appearance of a witch, the witch as an outcast, and the types of magic and how they were shown throughout the movie. When looking at the main characters: Sally, Gillian, Jet and Frances, the viewer will see different physical appearances of how Hollywood views the possible appearance of a witch A witch throughout history is usually a hag, old, poor, handicapped, or ugly (Guiley 371). In the movie, the Owens women are what most people would consider quite beautiful. They are just like normal people with the exception of the fact that they have a gift. The aunts: Jet and Frances in the movie would be considered to follow the typical stereotype of a witch that is old but even though they are typical old woman that lives on the outskirts of town they break the stereotypical medieval image of a witch being ugly and a hag but they also perpetuate other stereotypes by dressing in lavish 19th century clothing. Their style screams â€Å"I’m different†. The aunts seem to be aging quite well. They appear to look young for their age. In one scene, when the detective goes in to town to ask about t he Owens’ sisters, he gets an ear full about how the aunts don’t age. Many in the town believe this is due to the fact that they are witches. There is one more image of a witch portrayed in history. This image is from the other end of the spectrum. Instead of being a hag or ugly, she is beautiful and a seductive woman. Sally destroys the image of both of the stereotypes of what a witch looks like.

How and why compromises preserved the union until the southern states decided to leave the union in 1861?

Civil war within the United States was inevitable; the question was when it was going to happen. The issue of slavery was big enough to separate the country culturally and politically, civil war was bound to happen, in fact, it’s amazing it was avoided for so long. The single most important reason war was averted for so long was the many compromises made in the years prior that attempted to keep the southerns and northerns content in the house and senate.However, with a country in the midst of major territory expansion, population increase, and technological advancements, the days of a united nation were numbered. Conflicts over slavery will intensify with expansion, abolitionism, sectionalism, and issues over states rights. To settle these conflicts, compromises such as the 3/5 compromise, Missouri compromise, compromise of 1850 and the fugitive slave act, and the Kansas-Nebraska act were made. Daniel Webster speaks on behalf of a united nation that succession will destroy ou r country (doc B).When the compromise of 1850 is issued to settle the dispute over California being admitted as a free of slave state, The Fugitive Slave Act accompanies it to make sure that the southerns get something out of it too and don’t feel cheated (doc O). This act states â€Å"That when a person held to service or labor†¦ shall escape into another state†¦ may pursue and reclaim such fugitive person†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (doc C) This allowed peace to be held between the northern and southerns. Abolitionists were extremists who believed slavery should be abolished.Among those, the very famous and feared John Brown is probably most recognizable. He went on a killing streak, handing out weapons to slaves and hated by the southerns and most northerns as well (doc P). He believed that war was the only answer to keeping a united nation as evident in his last words, â€Å" I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty land: will never be purged away; b ut by blood. † (doc F). An attempt by a northern named David Wilmot to keep slavery out of the newly acquired territories from Mexico was presented to the House and Senate in the Wilmot Proviso.It states â€Å" Acquisition of any territory from the republic of Mexico by the United States†¦ neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever in any part of said territory†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (doc M). However it never passes the Senate, which was heavily dominated by southerns. Many states pass laws that prevent any persons from speaking out or publishing anything against slavery or the abolition of slavery or any thing that would spark rebellion in slaves. The federal government over looked this even though it was in contrast to the constitution because it was thought to help keep the southerns from succession (doc L).In 1860, shortly before the war started, the Republicans dominated the House and Senate (doc Q). This obviously was a key reason for the democrats to escape the u nion and start the confederate states. Plus, the southerns believed is states’ rights and that they should be able to do with their states what they wanted, a evident in Franklin Pierce’s speech when he says, â€Å" I believe that the constituted authorities of this Repubic are bound to regard the rights of the South in this respect as they would view any other legal and constitutional right.† (doc H). In 1861, of course, is the beginning of the civil war.With too much tension and hatred between the northerns and southerns, it was time for it to happen. The compromises could only hold for so long, the population differences between the north and south were too big to never interfere with the sides.

Educational practice Essay

In the United States, bilingualism is a crucial issue that must be addressed. Although bilingualism has no clear cut definition yet, Shenker (no date) provides one appropriate definition of bilingualism. According to him, bilingual children are â€Å"are those†¦ who speak/have been spoken to in two (or more) languages in the home since birth and who are spoken to in only one or both of those two languages at school. † (Shenker, no date). These children may also be spoken in one language at home but acquired (or is exposed to) a second-language when they start attending school. There is a common misperception that bilingual children are more unsuccessful academically than monolingual children. However, researches show that bilingual children have superior performances than their monolingual counterparts. Perhaps the first one to radically change this perception is the study done Peal and Lambert in 1962. They conducted research regarding the premise that bilingualism causes retardation. However, their conclusion proved otherwise. They found that experiences from two cultures provide bilingual children an advantage such as increased mental dexterity and superior ability to think abstractly than that experienced by monolinguals (Peal & Lambert, 1962). Other researches show an association between bilingualism and greater cognitive flexibility and awareness of language (Cummins & Culutsan, 1974; Diaz, 1983; Hakuta & Diaz, 1984). Moreover, bilingual children were proven to have more effective controlled processes. Although their study was conducted among adults only, they generally concluded â€Å"that controlled processing is carried out more effectively by bilinguals and that bilingualism helps to offset age-related losses in certain executive processes† (Bialystok, Klein, Craik, & Viswanathan, 2004). Because of their greater cognitive flexibility, bilingual children outperform their monolingual counterparts in virtually almost every subject including mathematics. Nevertheless, bilingual children, including their parents, still do not have the confidence to learn and interact with others. This is due to a punishment in the early 1900s where bilingual children are severely punished for speaking their home language. Although researches have found that bilingual children have greater cognitive flexibility than monolingual children, none has yet been undertaken investigating what practice can be used in teaching bilingual children to interact with other people. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate what teaching practice can be used in teaching bilingual children, in which they can improve not just their understanding of the project but also their interaction with other people. Statement of the Problem Mathematics is considered as one of the most difficult subjects to understand. Students have difficulty applying the basic computational skills to a more complex mathematics or science (Seceda & dela Cruz, n. d. ). Researchers argue that this difficulty in understanding the concepts of mathematics is due to most educators’ strict observation to procedure (Schoenfeld, 1988). Although there is a steady rise in students’ achievement scores in mathematics since the early 1980’s (Seceda, 1992) showing that educators are successful in teaching basic computational skills to students, they have been less successful in teaching the students when to apply the skills they have taught (Dossey, Mullis, & Jones, 1993; Dossey, Mullis, Lindquist, & Chambers, 1988; Mullis, Dossey, Foertsch, Jones, & Gentile, 1991; Mullis, Dossey, Owen, & Phillips, 1993; Seceda & dela Cruz, n. d. ). Thus, it is important that educators should focus in teaching mathematics for understanding to students rather than in observing strict procedures. However, one must note the fact that teaching for understanding does not just concern the mainstream or majority students. As Seceda and Cruz emphasize that â€Å"teaching for understanding concerns more generally all students including those with diverse social backgrounds. It is believed that mathematics involves considerable use of English, especially word problems† (Seceda & dela Cruz, n. d. ). Due to this belief, it only follows that children who are studying English as a second-language (or second language learners) have difficulty in studying mathematics. In this context, the term â€Å"bilingual children† means students who are second-language learners. Most schools in the United States teach mathematics in a â€Å"procedural† manner. That is, when students solved a particular mathematical problem in an unconventional way (the computations are not presented in the algorithm taught by the teacher), their solutions are marked incorrect and will be drilled further (Seceda & dela Cruz, n. d. ), even though their solutions meant that they understand the problem but resolved to write their solution in their own way. In so doing, bilingual children, feeling that they cannot understand and cannot be understood, are being left out in classroom conversations. When teaching and learning is continued in this manner, this will eventually lead to the bilingual children’s failure in mathematics, adding to the conventional belief that bilingual children cannot engage in mathematics. Another consequence of teaching mathematics in a â€Å"procedural† manner is that children begin to perceive that mathematics makes no sense (Seceda & dela Cruz, n. d. ). This perception will increase children’s capacity to understand something which is not sensible, not practical and not applicable using with the outside world (that is, world outside the classroom). In this paper, the author investigated which educational practice is best to apply in teaching mathematics for understanding to bilingual children. Two educational theories will be examined — Pask’s Conversation Theory and Landa’s Algo-Heuristic Theory. Furthermore, the study aims to find which practice can help students not just understand mathematics but to have confidence in solving problems and in interacting with others. Research Questions The study specifically aims to: 1. compare Pask’s Conversation Theory and Landa’s Algo-Heuristic Theory; and 2. examine which one of these two is best to apply in teaching mathematics for understanding to bilingual children. Significance of the Study Results of the study will help educators find the best way to teach mathematics in which bilingual children will be able to understand and apply outside the classroom. In general, results of the study will help in finding the best way to teach children who are limited English proficient in such a way that these children can understand and apply the lessons with other activities. Moreover, the study will help teachers train their students with confidence. Overview of the Paper In Chapter 2, a review of literature is provided. In this chapter, the definition of bilingualism is discussed. Researches undertaken on bilingual children’s cognitive development are provided. Then bilingual education is defined according to literature. Historical background on the evolution of bilingual education (1800s-1900s) is also provided. The author also discusses emotional, linguistic and academic issues bilingual education is concerned with. Mathematics education is also discussed in this chapter. Theories applied in mathematics teaching are discussed. Problem solving is given importance in the discussion on mathematics education. Cognitive background information on addition, subtraction multiplication and division is also given which provides as basis for the word problems given to the participants of the study. Finally, in this chapter, researches done involving mathematics and bilingualism are provided. Chapter 3 provides the theoretical framework used in the study. The first part discusses Pask’s Conversation Theory and the second part discussed Landa’s Algo-Heuristic Theory. Chapter 4 provides the methodology used for obtaining the results needed. This section explains the research design the study used. Sample, sample setting, procedure and data collection and analysis are discussed. The sample and sample setting for the study is discussed in the first part. In the second part, the author explained the procedures done from the pre-assessment stage to the classroom setting to the final assessment stage. The third part discussed how the data was collected and analyzed. In Chapter 5, results obtained from the experiment are discussed. The students’ scores obtained in the pre-assessment, addition and subtraction, multiplication and division, and final assessment examinations are shown in the first part. In the second part, results from the interview are discussed. Finally, Chapter 6 concludes the paper. The first part summarized the main findings discussed in Chapter 5. The second part gives recommendations for the teachers on how to teach mathematics for understanding to bilingual students. The third part provides limitations for the study as well as recommendations for future researches that can be carried on from this study. CHAPTER 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE Bilingualism Bilingualism has no clear-cut definition yet but Shenker (no date) provided a definition in terms of young children. According to Shenker (no date), bilingual children are â€Å"are those†¦ who speak/have been spoken to in two (or more) languages in the home since birth and who are spoken to in only one or both of those two languages at school. † (Shenker, no date). These children may also be spoken in one language at home but acquired (or is exposed to) a second-language when they start attending school. Bilingual children were perceived to have less advantageous situations than monolingual children. This perception was radically changed in 1962 by Peal and Lambert. Peal and Lambert (1962) conducted a research regarding the premise that bilingualism causes retardation. Their study reached the conclusion that experiences from two cultures provide bilingual children with greater benefits than that experienced by monolinguals such as increased mental dexterity and superior ability to think abstractly (Peal & Lambert, 1962). Other researches prove that bilingual children have superior performances than their monolingual counterparts. Researches show an association between bilingualism and greater cognitive flexibility and awareness of language (Cummins & Culutsan, 1974; Diaz, 1983; Hakuta & Diaz, 1984). Moreover, bilingual children were proven to have more effective controlled processes. Although their study was conducted among adults only, they generally concluded â€Å"that controlled processing is carried out more effectively by bilinguals and that bilingualism helps to offset age-related losses in certain executive processes† (Bialystok, Klein, Craik, & Viswanathan, 2004). Bilingual Education Despite having many researches proving that bilingual children provide greater than (or at least at the same level as) the monolingual children, there is constant debate whether to provide bilingual children with bilingual education or programs that focus uniquely on acquiring English. Bilingual education is the teaching of all subjects in school using two different languages — English and Spanish or Chinese depending which is the native language of the student. Definition According to Ovando, Combs and Collier (2006) bilingual education is not a single uniform program or a consistent methodology for teaching language minority students. Bilingual education includes a number of different program models with a number of distinct goals. Other programs may promote the development of two languages for bilingualism and biliteracy while others use the students’ first language so that students may better learn English. Some bilingual education programs preserve an indigenous or heritage language as an ethnic, cultural, or community resource. There are programs that aim to incorporate students into the mainstream of society (Baker 2001). Thus, as Cazden and Snow (1990) stress, bilingual education is â€Å"a simple label for a complex phenomenon† since not all programs necessarily â€Å"concern the balanced use of two languages in the classroom† (Baker, 2001). (Throughout this paper, the terms L1 and L2 to denote the child’s language, L1 for their native language and L2 for the language they are acquiring. ) The inseparable connection between language and culture brings bilingual programs to include historical and cultural components associated with the languages being used. As Ulibarri (1972) says: In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was made flesh. It was so in the beginning and it is so today. The language, the Word, carries within it the history, the culture, the traditions, the very life of a people, the flesh. Language is people. We cannot conceive of a people without a language, or a language without a people. The two are one and the same. To know one is to know the other (p. 295). Historical Background Discussing the historical background of bilingual education in the United States indicates that there is a cyclical pattern with regard to language policies and programs (Korschun, 2006). Furthermore, studying the origins of bilingual education helps to understand its present undertakings and its future effectiveness. There are few references that account the history of bilingual education. In this paper, I rely predominantly on Ovando et al’s account of the history of bilingual education. The 1800s. Contrary to the common perception in the United States, schools in the United States use for instruction multiple languages other than English during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Because of the increasing establishments of homesteads of different groups of different languages and countries of origin in US territories, a general sense of geographical and psychological openness existed. Some communities were self-sufficient and agrarian based while some were ethnic pockets in urban areas (Ovando, 1978b). According to historical records, many schools in the nineteenth century, both public and private, used languages other than English for instruction. In fact, during this century, following the annexation of the Territory of New Mexico, a school’s curriculum may use either Spanish or English or even both as medium for instruction (Leibowitz, 1971). In 1900, at least 600,000 children in US received part or all of their schooling in German in public and parochial schools (Crawford, 2004; Ovando &Wiley, 2003; Kloss, 1977; Tyack, 1974). Many other states passed laws providing for schooling in languages other than English (Crawford, 1992, 2004). Some public schools provided bilingual or non-English-language instruction during the second half of the nineteenth century. The 1900s. Between 1900 and 1910, over 8 million immigrants were admitted to the United States majority of which came from Europe (Stewart, 1993). Because of this, the struggle for power to control institutions became imminent. One solution to this power struggle focused on schools. This solution came in the form of â€Å"Americanizing† all immigrants. By 1919, 15 state laws had been passed calling for English Only instruction (Higham, 1992). During the first half of the twentieth century, many schools already implemented the English dominant instruction which was impelled by many factors such as the standardization and bureaucratization of urban schools (Tyack, 1974), the need for national unity during the two world wars, and the desire to centralize and solidify national gains around unified goals for the country (Gonzalez, 1975). In fact, from World War I to the 1960s, language-minority students were severely punished whenever they used a language other than English in the classroom, or even on the playground. This policy continued until the 1950s resulting to an enormous loss of many indigenous languages (Crawford, 2004; Ovando & Wiley, 2003). The consequence of this action is still visible today. The ambivalence of language-minority parents toward bilingual education reflects fears that their children will be punished for using a language other than English (Arias & Cassanova, 1993). The early 1920s saw yet another restrictive immigration laws. These immigration laws, passed by the US congress, created a national-origins quota system. These extremely restrictive laws discriminated against eastern and southern Europeans and even excluded Asians. This resulted to fewer numbers of new immigrants while second-generation immigrants dropped the use of their native languages. Moreover, bilingual education disappeared for nearly have a century in US public schools (Crawford, 1992a). Indigenous groups whose land was eventually assimilated into the United States suffered even more repressive experiences. They endured more discrimination than any other language-minority groups. From the 1850s to the 1950s, native Spanish speakers in Texas and California were taught in English Only instructions while Mexican Americans in Texas segregated to other schools. This discrimination only stopped when segregation was ruled illegal. Even though the US government initially recognized the language rights of the Cherokees in an 1828 treaty, records show that many other American Indian groups suffered an oppression of their native languages and cultural traditions which also applied to the Cherokees during that period. In 1879, American Indian children were sent to boarding schools, where they were punished for using their native language. As mentioned earlier, this resulted to the loss of languages of many indigenous groups. In North America, 210 out of 300 original languages remain. In the United States, it is only 175. Of these languages, only 18 are still being passed on to the children, namely, Hawaiian (in Hawaii), Siberian Yupi’k, Central Yupi’k (in Alaska), Cocopah, Havasupai, Hualapai, Yaqui, Hopi, Navajo, Tohono O’odham, Western Apache, Mescalero, Jemez, Zuni, Tiwa, Keresan, (in Arizona and New Mexico), Cherokee (in Oklahoma), Choctaw (in Mississippi) (Krauss, 1996). Reyhner (1996) emphasized the importance of stabilizing and restoring indigenous languages: Many of the keys to the psychological, social, and physical survival of humankind may well be held by the smaller speech communities of the world. These keys will be lost as languages and cultures die. Our languages are joint creative productions that each generation adds to. Languages contain generations of wisdom, going back into antiquity. Our languages contain a significant part of the world’s knowledge and wisdom. When a language is lost, much of the knowledge that language represents is also gone (p. 4). Aside from the fear of severe punishment, this repression of non-English-languages also resulted to the lack of foreign-language skills among the US populace. This became evident when the need for military and civilian personnel who were proficient in many languages during World War II. Because of this, a radical change happened. US personnel returning overseas helped convince the government of the importance of multiple language resources (Pena, 1976a). The United States’ increasing need to compete for international status and power, influenced by the cold war mentality and the Soviets’ launching of Sputnik, led to an increasing need to expand their foreign-language skills. In 1958, the National Defense Education Act was approved providing federal money for the expansion of foreign-language teaching.

The Taming of The Shrew Analys essays

The Taming of The Shrew Analys essays The Taming Of The Shrew The Taming Of The Shrew by William Shakespeare is probably one of Shakespeares earliest comedies. Its plot comes from the popular war of the sexes theme in which males and females fight with one another for dominance in a marriage. The play begins with a drunk man named Cristopher Sly being fooled into believing he is a nobleman and watching a play performed for him. This play turns out to be the main part of The Taming Of The Shrew. In it, a rich man, Baptista Minola, attempts to get his two daughters married. One is the shrewish Katherine, while the other is the beautiful Bianca. In order to make sure Katherine is married, Baptista declares that he will not allow Bianca to be married until after Katherine is married. This forces all of Biancas suitors to try and find a husband for Katherine so that they can then in turn try to marry Bianca. Some would say that the story has a very sexist attitude, but the fact of the matter is that it is a comedy about an assertive woman dealing with how she is expected to act in the society of the late sixteenth century. Even further, Katherine is learning how she must follow the unwritten rules of her society in order to be accepted into it. Although the play ends with her acceptance to do what is expected by society this acceptance is only in action. Even though, she plays the part of the obedient wife, she still maintains her assertiveness, but now she just keeps it inside. Shakespeare introduces the idea of false realities in the beginning of the play when the actors fool Christopher Sly into believing he is someone he isnt and disguising themselves as other characters and performing a play for him. This play-in-play structure even furthers this idea Shakespeare has created of false realities. In the play we see a variety of examples as Petrucio acts (disguises) himself as someone hes not...