Intellectual Property Essay -- Intellectual Property Essays

Intellectual property are the legal rights (control and ownership) of creations, such as ideas; inventions; designs, etc. for the use in commerce (Bainbridge, 2012). Intellectual law in countries seeks to deter individuals or organizations from copying or capitalizing upon another’s work. The main areas protected by protect intellectual property law include: patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret. Intellectual Property can be categorized under the following: Monopoly Right to prevent copying De Facto Monopoly Contractual Patents Unregistered Trade Marks Trade Secrets Confidential Information Registered Trade Marks Unregistered Designs Know-How Registered Design Copyright This essay focuses on Patents, Registered Designs, Unregistered Design Right and trademarks. A patent is needed to increase innovation and competition. It is an issued document which is applied for and is granted by a governing body that states that an invention which is patented is legally bound to its owner for exploitation i.e. manufacturing, use, sales and imports. A patent is generally issues for 20 years and their costs generally depend on the stage of the application process. In the UK, the total cost of a patent could be estimated at  £5000 over 5 years. International patents (PCT) on the other hand could total  £7000 over 2.5 years. This is because within the UK, the examination of patentability stage is generally cheaper ( £1500) compared to the International equivalent ( £300) but most importantly the closing process in the International patent application could be in a range of  £0 –  £30,000, whilst the UK patent end stage is approximately  £100 (HGF, 2014). Patents could give the product or idea not only a competitive a... ...ion of Time Warner Price paid: $147 billion, of which $128 billion was for IP (87%) Examples of the value of patents include: †¢ Nortel, a former Canadian telecommunications company, had a patent portfolio of over 6000 patents. Notable companies like Google bidding; later sold to other notable companies including Apple, Microsoft, RIM, EMC, Ericsson and Sony for $4.5Bn. REFERENCES Bainbridge, D. (2012). Intellectual Property. Pearson; 9 edition. Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, Intellectual Property Office, (No date). Designs: How to Protect your Design. London: HMSO Department for Business, Innovation & Skills, Intellectual Property Office, (No date). Trade Marks: Quick Facts. London: HMSO Harrison Goddard Foote LLP, (2014). Intellectual property workshop World Intellectual Property Organization, Intellectual Property Handbook, (2008).

The Metamorphosises of Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo :: Monte Cristo

The Metamorphosises of Dantes in The Count of Monte Cristo  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      In Alexandre Dumas's The Count of Monte Cristo the main character, Edmond Dantes, takes on various identities. Some people have even argued that his continuing metamorphosises verge on Multiple Personality Disorder. Those people are wrong. Though he does exhibit similiar symptoms, Dantes differs from MPD sufferers in that he is fully conscious of the new identities he takes on. In fact, he does changes intentionally. His purpose in taking on new identities is to seek vengeance on his enemies while maintaining the innocence of Edmond Dantes.    Edmond Dantes a successful, happy, young sailor was wrongfully imprisoned on September 15, 1815. He was sent there by four men, each of whom had a different reason to be hungry for his downfall. Caderousse was guilty because of his drunken stupidity, Fernand because of his lustful envy, Danglars because of his treacherous greed, and finally Villefort because of the terrible lengths he would go to in order to protect his name. When Dantes entered prison he was a nineteen-year-old boy with a kind and pure soul. After learning about the conspiracy to ruin his life, however, he became obsessed with gettting vengeance. Upon his escape from the Chateau d'If, he set out on a journey to reward those who had been good to him and to set right the wrongs that had been done to him.    Dantes was initially successful at his attempt. The first person from his past whom he encountered was Monsiuer Caderousse. He went to Caderousse's inn dressed as Abbe Faria and was told what had become of the three men most responsible for his imprisonment. Caderousse had no idea that the man he was talking to was Edmond Dantes. There was one person, however, that recognized him immediately. Mercedes, his former fiance, had never forgotten Dantes or the young love that they once shared. One of the reasons that Mercedes had loved him so much was the great admiration she had for him. She considered Dantes a sweet, honest, fair, and forgiving man. Dantes wore disguises because he did not want her to know that he had turned into a vengeful, angry, and uncaring person.    Eventually, however, he gave up this aspiration because he had failed to fool her. No one else guessed Dantes' true identity.

How To Buy A Brand New Car Essay

Buying a brand new car is one of the most important financial decisions a person can make in his life. Due to all the car models and makes available these days, buying a car is almost like buying candy from a store. There is always something that will fit your whims and fancies. Unfortunately, a car costs much more than candy and therefore, extra precautions are necessary when deciding upon what kind of car to buy.   This is why it is important for a person to draw up a personal selection process for buying a car that will cater to his specific needs and capabilities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   First of all, a person on the market for a car should start by feeding his eyes. Look around you and observe what other people are driving. Do a search car models that catch your eye on the internet and see what the car reviews have to say about it. Print out your top 5 choices for narrowing down the list.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Second, check your finances and put a spending cap on your purchasing power. A mid priced brand new vehicle will function just as well, if not better than a high priced model. After all, the way a car functions all depends upon the way the owner maintains the car and not how much the owner spent to purchase the car.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Third, go showroom shopping. I would advise that you go only to the manufacturer’s outlet in your city rather than going to Honest Sam’s Car dealer. This is so that you can avail of various discounts and a full range of after sales services that only the manufacturer can offer you. With all the car scams out there, it is best to err on the side of caution. After all, you will be plunking down thousands of dollars on something that should last at least twenty years in service to you.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fourth, make sure to bring a passenger along for the test drive. The person can be a friend or even an independent car mechanic. The job of this person will be to help you look over the finer details of the car during the test drive. Remember, the comfort of the passenger matters too. The mechanic will be there to help you spot potential problems in car maintenance in the future and help you decide upon whether or not the car maintenance will be something your finances can deal with in the future.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fifth, don’t let the showroom sales pitches get to you. These people need to move their cars. They work on a commission basis. The more cars they sell, the better for their pockets. Keep in mind that you have to be comfortable with the purchase decision you will be making. Having any emotional connection with the highly friendly sales staff should not influence your decision. After test driving your short list of cars, sleep on the decision. Consult people whom you know drive the cars you are considering to buy. What problems have they had so far? How much is maintenance costing them monthly and yearly?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Lastly, make the final decision based upon all the technical and practical data you have gathered. Go purchase the car and start enjoying the freedom that owning a brand new car has to offer.

Assessing the English Language Learner

Assessing the English Language Learner (ELL) The Growth of ELL (ESL) The number of human beings who speak a language other than English continues to increase in the United States, Canada, and Australia, for example, as the number of immigrants grows. In 2006, 34. 70% of the population of Los Angeles, California, was foreign born; 25. 50% of Miami, Florida; 39. 60% of Vancouver, British Columbia; 45. 70% of Toronto, Ontario; 28. 90% of Melbourne, Australia; and 31. 70% of Sydney, Australia (Statistics Canada, 2008).In the United States, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, 2004) reported that â€Å"The number and percentage of language minority youth and young adults— that is, individuals who speak a language other than English at home—increased steadily in the United States between 1979 and 1999† (p. 1). NCES added, Of those individuals ages 5–24 in 1979, 6 million spoke a language other than English at home. By 1999, that number had more th an doubled, to 14 million. Accordingly, of all 5- to 24-year-olds in the United States, the percentage who were language minorities increased from 9 percent in 1979 to 17 percent in 1999. p. 1) The number of ESL students in U. S. public schools has almost tripled over the last decade (Goldenberg, 2006). In 2004 Crawford observed that one-fourth of the school-age students in the United States were from homes where a language other than English was spoken. The school-age population (K–12) will reach about 40% ESL in about 20 years (Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence, 2002). Between 1990 and 2000, the number of Spanish speakers increased from about 20 to 31 million (U. S.Census Bureau, 2001). The Census Bureau report also showed a significant increase in the number of speakers from other linguistic groups, particularly Chinese and Russian. Individuals at all ages enter school to learn the English skills they need to learn, gain employment and participate in society. Planning for their instruction is a significant issue for teachers at all levels and assessment becomes central. In this chapter we first define and differentiate terms such as ESL and ELL and describe the populations they represent.The use of assessment measures to place students into appropriate instructional groups is described and the distinction between interpersonal and academic language is reviewed. The use of assessment in the classroom and as a gate-keeping tool is addressed in addition to the appropriateness of the use of published measures to assess ESL students. The first issue addressed is terminology. Defining ELL Over the years students who speak a language other than English have been titled English as a Second Language (ESL) learners.However, English in some cases is not the second language (L2), but may be the third (L3), the 4th (L4), etc. , language, and, as a result, members of this population have different linguistic resources to draw on. The term â€Å"English Language Learner† (ELL) has been adopted by educators, primarily in the United States, to describe better the notion that English may not be the L2. However, it is not a particularly good term because students who speak English as a First Language (L1) are also English language learners (Gunderson, 2008).The term â€Å"Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages† (TESOL) is used outside of the United States. Students who learn English in environments where it is not the language of the community are referred to as English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students. The pedagogy related to EFL is different from ESL (ELL) because students are not immersed in English in the community and the major task of the teacher is to try to provide them English models (Gunderson, 2008, 2009). An added difficulty with the term â€Å"ESL† or â€Å"ELL† is that it does not adequately characterize the diversity of human beings it represents.Those who use the t erm â€Å"ELL† do so to describe those K–12 students who come from homes in which the language used for daily communications is not English and who must learn English to succeed in schools where the medium of instruction is English. The ELL (ESL) Population A serious problem with the ELL (ESL) conceptualization is that it does not adequately describe the underlying complexities of differences in age, motivation, literacy background, and first and second language achievement (Gunderson, 2008, 2009).Those classified as ELL or ESL vary in age from pre-school to senior adults. Many speak no English at all, while others vary in oral English proficiency. Many have never attended school, while others have earned high academic credentials in the language of instruction in their home countries. They are from diverse cultural backgrounds that vary in the way they perceive the importance of teaching and learning. Many are immigrants to an English-speaking country, while many ELL learners are born in an English-speaking country, but speak a different language at home (Gunderson, 2008, 2009).Indeed, in the Vancouver, Canada, school district 60% of the kindergarten students are ESL and 60% of this number are born in Canada (Gunderson, 2007, 2009). Many immigrant ESL students come from impoverished refugee backgrounds, others have high levels of education and socioeconomic status. Thus, ESLs or ELLs do not adequately represent the underlying complexity of the human beings in the category. Assessment Issues in ELLInstruction in mainstream classes, those typically enrolling students of different abilities but of the same relative age in the same classrooms, is based broadly on the notion that the acquisition of English is developmental and occurs over time as human beings grow into maturity. It is also thought that there is a relationship between language development and â€Å"grade level. † Grade 1 students differ from Grade 7 students in systematic ways. Their teachers design instruction that is appropriate for their grade levels.ESL (ELL) students represent a more complex problem because their English and their cultural and learning backgrounds vary in many different ways, even in individuals who are the same chronological age (Gunderson, 2009). In addition, Cummins (1979a, 1979b, 1981, 1983, 2000) and Cummins and Swain (1986) argued there are two basic kinds of English a learner has to learn; â€Å"basic interpersonal communicative skill† [BICS] and â€Å"cognitive academic language proficiency† [CALP], the language of instruction and academic texts. BICS appears to take about 2 to 3 years to develop and CALP about 5 to 7. â€Å"Hello, how are you? and â€Å"What is your name† represent BICS, while â€Å"Identify a current controversial world political issue and develop and defend your position† is an example of CALP. Teachers are faced with the task of determining what learning activities and materia ls are appropriate for instruction and measurement of learning, while institutions such as universities and some governments are interested in determining whether or not an individual’s English ability is advanced enough for them to either enter a post-secondary program or to have the skills necessary to be integrated into a society and, therefore, be eligible to immigrate.Thus, in some instances, assessment serves to guide learning by informing teachers of students’ needs while in others it serves as a gatekeeper by excluding those who do not meet its standards. Instructional Levels—Determining Appropriate Instructional Strategies Language teachers have for some time opted to assess their students to ascertain their â€Å"level† of English language proficiency. The difficulty with the levels approach is that they do not really exist (Gunderson, 2009). A popular levels approach was developed in 1983 by the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Lang uages (ACTFL).The assessment is a one-on-one assessment focusing primarily on oral language. Three levels of beginner, intermediate, and advanced are distinguished (see, ACTFL, 1983). A learner can be identified as a low beginner or a high intermediate, etc. The behaviors that determine inclusion in a particular group are usually described in an assessment matrix. The assessor asks a series of questions to elicit knowledge of vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatics. The following is an example of a matrix developed by Gunderson (2009) showing oral language â€Å"levels† and their attendant features. * 0-Level English 1.Cannot answer even yes/no questions 2. Is unable to identify and name any object 3. Understands no English 4. Often appears withdrawn and afraid * Beginner 1. Responds to simple questions with mostly yes/no or one-word responses 2. Speaks in 1–2 word phrases 3. Attempts no extended conversations 4. Seldom, if ever, initiates conversations * Intermediate 1. Re sponds easily to simple questions 2. Produces simple sentences 3. Has difficulty elaborating when asked 4. Uses syntax/vocabulary adequate for personal, simple situations 5. Occasionally initiates conversations * Advanced 1. Speaks with ease 2. Initiates conversations 3.May make phonological or grammatical errors, which can then become fossilized 4. Makes errors in more syntactically complex utterances 5. Freely and easily switches codes More elaborate approaches involve the assessment of English listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, e. g. , the Canadian Language Benchmarks (CCLB, 2007). The notion of levels is an important one for teachers because they are thought to predict a student’s probability of succeeding within a particular teaching and learning environment. A beginner is different from an intermediate in various ways, and the instruction they are involved in is also different.Teachers often refer to ESL students as Level 1 or Level 5, depending upon their performance on an assessment measure. The notion of levels varies widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. In some cases there are 3, 4, 5, 8, or 10 levels, which are determined most often by locally developed informal assessment measures (Gunderson & Murphy Odo, 2010). Good assessment is essential to the design of appropriate instructional programs. The difficulty for classroom teachers is that there are few, if any, appropriate measures for them to use. Classroom AssessmentBlack and William (1998) reviewed more than 250 studies and found that there was a relationship between good classroom assessment and student performance. Most classroom-based assessment has been developed by teachers (Frisby, 2001; Wiggins, 1998). Unfortunately, most teachers report they are unprepared to assess and teach ESL students (Fradd & Lee, 2001). According to Pierce (2002), the majority of teachers employ assessments they remember they were involved in when they were in school: multiple-choice, cloze -like measures, matching, and true/false tests.This seems to have been the pattern for 50 years (Bertrand, 1994). Unfortunately, it seems, â€Å"†¦ many teachers are unprepared for the special needs and complexities of fairly and appropriately assessing ELLs† (Ehlers-Zavala, Daniel, & Sun-Irminger, 2006, p. 24). Gunderson and Murphy Odo (2010) have recently reviewed the measures used by teachers in 12 local school districts to assess ESL students. The number of different measures and approaches in use was surprising. The Idea Proficiency Test (IPT) (see Ballard, Dalton, & Tighe, 2001a, 2001b) was the measure most often used for primary level ESL students.Other assessments mentioned were the Brigance, (1983) the Bilingual Syntax Measure (Burt, Dulay, & Hernandez, 1976), the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test (Woodcock, various dates), the Woodcock-Munoz (Woodcock-Munoz-Sandoval, 1993), the Pre-IPT, the Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT; Harris & Palmer, 1986), informal reading inventories, the Waddington Diagnostic Reading Inventory (Waddington, 2000), the Alberta Diagnostic Reading Inventory, the SLEP, the Gap (McLeod & McLeod, 1990), PM Benchmarks (a system for placing students in leveled books), the RAD (Reading Achievement District—a local assessment measure), the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT; Dunn & Dunn, 1997), and a variety of locally developed listening, speaking, reading, and writing assessments. A serious difficulty is that most of these measures were not designed to provide ESL instructional levels so different heuristics in different districts were developed to translate them into levels.The designation â€Å"beginner,† for instance, varies significantly across districts as a result of the measures involved and the number of levels districts chose to identify. Two school districts reported the development and norming of tests for elementary and secondary students comprised of leveled passages taken from academic textbooks that were transformed into maze passages (see Guthrie, Seifert, Burnham, & Caplan, 1974). Scores from these measures were used to compute ESL levels; four in one case and five in the other. Interestingly, different metrics were used to compute instructional levels. So, for instance, a CELT score was used to determine ESL levels based on local intuition and experience.Most often the locally developed assessments involved one-on-one interviews in which students respond to tasks that require recognition of colors, body parts, school items, and the ability to answer simple questions (see, for example, Gunderson, 2009). There are also standardized assessments used by personnel at post-secondary institutions to make decisions concerning admissions to their programs. Predicting Academic Success The best known standardized English assessment measure is the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) published by Educational Testing Service (ETS). The publisher notes: In fact, m ore institutions accept TOEFL test cores than any other test scores in the world — more than 7,000 colleges, universities and licensing agencies in more than 130 countries, to be exact. (ETS, 2009a) There are different forms of the TOEFL. The classic paper-and-pencil form had standardized scores with 500 being the mean and 50 being the standard deviation. There are newer versions including a computer- and an Internet-based version that have different scoring criteria (see score comparison tables (ETS, 2009b)). The online version is based on a â€Å"communicative competence† model that requires learners to view clips of science lessons, for example, take notes, and respond to questions.TOEFL scores are used by post-secondary institutions to screen students for admission to their programs. The criteria for admission to programs varies from institution to institution and among departments in institutions (see, for instance, University of British Columbia, 2009). There is evidence that TOEFL scores are not highly predictive of success in university (Al-Musawi & Al-Ansari, 1999), however, although they continue to be used to do so. ETS also produces the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC) and the Secondary Level English Proficiency (SLEP), both standardized assessment measures. The primary users of the SLEP are secondary teachers.The SLEP â€Å"measures the ability to understand spoken English,† and â€Å"the ability to understand written English† focusing on grammar, vocabulary, and reading comprehension (ETS, 2009c). The International English Language Testing System (IELTS) is a test of English language proficiency developed by the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (2009). There are two versions: individuals who want to gain admission to a university in an English-speaking country take the academic version, while the other version is appropriate for trade schools and other purposes. Scores range f rom 1 to 9 with 1 being zero-level English, while 9 indicates native-like ability. Different universities require different IELTS scores to be eligible for admission.Both ETS and Cambridge have international centers around the world where students can take these tests. ELL assessment issues and standardized testing are procedures relevant to large-scale achievement testing in the United States. Large Scale or High-Stakes Testing According to Abedi, Hofstetter, and Lord (2004), â€Å"Historically, English language learners in the United States were excluded from participation in large-scale student assessment programs; there were concerns about the confounding influences of language proficiency and academic achievement† (p. 1). However, the United States has seen a focus on large-scale assessments due to the accountability requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (PL 107-110).No Child Left Behind permits assessing ELLs in their first language for up to 3 years, but few states do. In 2005 a group of school districts sued the state of California to force it to allow Spanish-speaking students to take state-mandated tests in Spanish. Plaintiffs in Coachella Valley Unified School District v. California argued that the state â€Å"violated its duty to provide valid and reliable academic testing† (King, 2007). On July 30, 2009, â€Å"The First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco rejected arguments by bilingual-education groups and nine school districts that English-only exams violate a federal law’s requirement that limited-English-speaking students ‘shall be assessed in a valid and reliable manner’† (Egelko, 2009).A lawyer for the school districts and advocacy groups stated, The court dodges the essential issue in the lawsuit, which is: What is the testing supposed to measure? If you don’t have to evaluate the testing, California gets a free pass on testing kids (who) don’t speak English, using tests that they have literally no evidence of their validity. (Egelko, 2009) The ruling was that â€Å"The law does not authorize a court to act as â€Å"the official second-guesser† of the reliability of a state’s testing methods. † The difficulty is that English measures are neither reliable nor valid when ESL students are involved. In some cases, accommodations are made for them.The procedures of providing ELL students accommodations during assessment sessions varies across jurisdictions, but includes such activities as lengthening the time allowed to take a test, allowing ELLs to be tested in separate rooms, allowing students to use bilingual dictionaries, the use of two versions of the test at the same time written in English and students’ first languages, providing oral translations for students, and composing responses in first languages. In 1998–1999, 39 states reported using test accommodations (Rivera, Stansfield, Scialdone, & Sharkey, 20 00). There is considerable controversy about providing accommodations, however.At the time of the writing of this chapter, accommodating students through the provision of L1 assessments has been judged not to be required. ELLs, Assessment, and Technology Advances in technology have made it possible for assessments to be administered as computer- or Internet-based measures. These developments have already taken place with measures such as the TOEFL (see above). An increasing use of technology to administer standardized and non-standardized assessments has raised interest in issues relating to mode-effects (e. g. , computer displays versus print form) and familiarity with computers, which have significant implications for ELLs.There is evidence that performance in paper-based and computer-based modes of assessment may vary due to ethnicity or gender (Gallagher, Bridgeman, & Cahalan, 2002). In addition, familiarity with computers is known to influence performance in writing (Horkay, Be nnett, Allen, Kaplan, & Yan, 2006) and mathematics (Bennett et al. , 2008) high-stakes tests. These issues need to be taken into consideration with ELLs particularly immigrant and refugee students. A related problem has to do with access. Indeed, access to computer and/or to the Internet is widely varied and, therefore, creates systematic differences in access. These are all areas that need further research. The State of the Art of ELL Assessment ResearchAs noted above, the category ESL or ELL is deceptive in that it represents millions of human beings who vary in age, first-language development, English achievement (both interpersonal and academic), educational backgrounds, immigration status, motivation, socioeconomic background, cultural views of teaching and learning, professional backgrounds, and social and academic aspirations. It is not, therefore, possible to review the breadth and depth of available research in this chapter. There are, however, some overall generalizations that can be made. Generally, the assessment practices and approaches designed for and used with native English speakers have been adopted and used with ELL students. This phenomenon is especially apparent in jurisdictions such as the United States where high-stakes assessments have become so important.There are serious validity and reliability concerns associated with this practice. It is not clear that the notion of accommodation, one borrowed from special education, helps in either case. Leung and Lewkowicz (2008) argue that this â€Å"common educational treatment irrespective of differences in language backgrounds† (p. 305) is emblematic of the view that both treatment and assessment should be inclusive. It does not account, among other features, for cultural differences that can cause difficulties for ESL students (Fox, 2003; Fox & Cheng, 2007; Norton & Stein, 1998). Overall, English proficiency is a significant variable in ELL assessment.In addition to the BICS/CALP dist inction mentioned above, Bailey (2005) proposes that there is a language of tests that is a different â€Å"register† or â€Å"discourse domain. † The use of such language creates a problem of â€Å"face validity. † Is the test actually testing what it is designed to test or is it a test of the language of tests? English as a Foreign Language (EFL) students around the world are assessed using many of the same measurements that are used to assess ELL students. EFL students are enrolled in programs in non-English contexts such as Japan where the language of the community is not English. They do not have ready access to native models of English that ELL students usually do. This is very much like the way students learn Latin in secondary school.It appears that EFL assessments are generally used to measure oral language ability such as the ACTFL mentioned previously. Our review of the assessment procedures and methods in use in K–12 schools in 12 school distr icts raised several issues that related to ESL learners’ assessment that were not found in studies such as Bertrand (1994), so we present them here. First, we found that there was a need for a measure that would discriminate students with language pathologies and/or learning disabilities from those who only needed English instruction. District members also expressed the need for a reliable measure to sort out secondary students’ content knowledge and their linguistic knowledge.Lastly, they contended that assessment should be developed to isolate ESL students’ specific areas of weakness so that teachers could more effectively use them to guide instruction. Summary and Conclusions The use ELL or ESL is unfortunate because it masks the underlying complexity of the human beings included in the category. ELL is inaccurate as a term because native English-speaking adults continue to be English language learners well into old age. Perceptions and pedagogical prescripti ons are the most troubling aspects of the use of these terms. In article after article the ESL or ELL is used as though they represent a homogenous group of human beings.Pedagogical recommendations are made on the notion that they are a single group with the same skills and abilities. Of course, this is far from the truth. Our experience is that teachers use the term to represent all students who speak English as an additional language. In addition, they appear to perceive ESL students as human beings who have trouble learning to read (English). And this too, is far from the truth for some students, but not for others. ESL (ELL) is a term that should either be qualified when used or discarded as a general term. The assessment of ELL/ESL/EFL learners is a significant foundational process for teachers to determine the appropriate teaching and learning programs for their students from kindergarten to the mature adult level.ELL assessment traditionally includes measures of listening, sp eaking, reading, and writing. There are three basic kinds of assessment instruments. The first is purely instructional in that it is designed to indicate the level at which students should be placed for instruction. The second type of measure is designed to provide an estimate of proficiency related to norm groups and involves scores such as percentiles and NCEs. The third is designed to provide predictive information concerning how well a student will succeed academically. Unfortunately, it appears that most measures are based on native English models. Another difficulty is that students’ English proficiency has a profound effect on their ability to succeed on a test.It is often difficult for a student to succeed on a test when the language of the test is difficult or unknown to them. Some have noted that the language of tests is also unique. Recently, assessment measures have been computerized and some have been put on the Internet. This raises serious questions of access, especially for students from countries where access is difficult or non-existent. For example, we have been told that the cost of taking an online test in a country like Zimbabwe is prohibitive. Educators from many jurisdictions have borrowed the concept of accommodation from special education to make the assessment procedures fair to ELLs who differ in various ways from native English speakers.There is disagreement concerning the validity of test results as a result of accommodations since they are not often included in the norming procedures of the instruments. We have heard some opine that accommodation is not itself fair, and that the results of standardized assessment provide information about how well students will do in an English-speaking instructional setting. It has been recommended that assessment measures be constructed that are written in different first languages. Some have argued that the number of first languages in schools would make this an expensive and impractica l approach. In July 2009 the use of English-only assessment measures was upheld in a federal appeals court in California.It is clear from a review of existing assessment practices that school-based personnel use a wide variety of instruments and procedures. It is also clear that there is the belief that it is important to identify a student’s â€Å"English level† for instructional purposes, but there is little agreement on how many levels should be identified. The precise process for determining a level is somewhat fuzzy, but it involves the interpretation of a variety of scores from a variety of tests. The research base concerning ELL assessment is not substantial. It focuses on measures originally designed for native English speakers. They do not do well generally on such measures. Indeed, they do not do well in school and a great number drops out, particularly from lower socioeconomic groups.The state of the art of assessment and instruction involving ELLs is extrem ely dire. The issues of ELL assessment needs urgent attention since ELLs are the most rapidly growing group in our schools. References ? Abedi, J. , Hofstetter, C. G. , & Lord, C. (2004). Assessment accommodations for English language learners: Implications for policy-based empirical research. Review of Educational Research, 74, 1-28. ? Al-Musawi, N. M. &. Al-Ansari, S. H. (1999). Test of English as a foreign language and first certificate of English tests as predictors of academic success for undergraduate students at the University of Bahrain. System, 27(3), 389-399. American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). (1983). ACTFL proficiency guidelines. Hastings-on-Hudson, NY: ACTFL Materials Center. ? Bailey, A. L. (2005). Language analysis of standardized tests: Considerations in the assessment of English language learners. In Abedi, J. , Bailey, A. , Castellon-Wellington, M. , Leon, S. , & Mirocha, J. (Eds. ), The validity of administering large-scale content asse ssments to English language learners: An investigation from three perspectives (pp. 79-100). Los Angeles: Center for Research on Evaluation/National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESSR). Ballard, W. , Dalton, E. , & Tighe, P. (2001a). IPT I oral grades K-6 examiner’s manual. Brea, CA: Ballard & Tighe. ? Ballard, W. , Dalton, E. , & Tighe, P. (2001b). IPT I oral grades K-6 technical manual. Brea, CA: Ballard & Tighe. ? Bennett, R. E. , Braswell, J. , Oranje, A. , Sandene, B. , Kaplan, B. , & Yan, F. (2008). Does it matter if I take my mathematics test on computer? A second empirical study of mode effects in NAEP. The Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment, 6(9), 1-40. ? Bertrand, J. E. (1994). Student assessment and evaluation. In Harp, B. (Ed. ), Assessment and evaluation for student centered learning (pp. 7-45). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon. ? Black, O. , & William, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through cl assroom assessment. Phi Delta Kappan, 80(2), 141-148. ? Burt, M. K. , Dulay, H. C. , & Hernandez, E. (1976). Bilingual syntax measure. New York: Harcourt Brace Javonovich. ? Brigance, A. H. (1983). Brigance Comprehensive Inventory of Basic Skills II (CIBS II). North Billerica, MA: Curriculum Associates. ? Cambridge University Press. (2009). IELTS catalogue. Retrieved July 14, 2010, from http://www. cambridgeesol. org/. ? Centre for Canadian language benchmarks (CCLB). (2007). Canadian language benchmarks.Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://www. language. ca/display_page. asp? page_id=206. ? Center for Research on Education Diversity and Excellence. (2002). A national study of school effectiveness for language minority students’ long-term academic achievement final report. Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://www. crede. ucsc. edu/research/llaa/1. 1_final. html. ? Cummins, J. (1979a). Cognitive/academic language proficiency, linguistic interdependence, the optimum age que stion and some other matters. Working Papers on Bilingualism, 19, 175-205. ? Cummins, J. (1979b). Linguistic interdependence and the educational development of bilingual children.Review of Educational Research, 49(2), 222-251. ? Cummins, J. (1981). Age on arrival and immigrant second language learning in Canada: A reassessment. Applied Linguistics, 2(2), 132-149. ? Cummins, J. (1983). Language proficiency and academic achievement. In Oller, J. W. (Ed. ), Issues in language testing research (pp. 108-129). Rowley, MA: Newbury House. ? Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power and pedagogy. Toronto, ON: Multilingual Matters. ? Cummins, J. , & Swain, M. (1986). Linguistic interdependence: A Central principle of bilingual education. In Cummins, J. & Swain, M. (Eds. ), Bilingualism in education (pp. 80-95). New York: Longman. ? Crawford, J. (2004).Educating English learners: Language diversity in the classroom (5th ed. ). Los Angeles: Bilingual Educational Services. ? Dunn, L. M. , & Dunn, D. M . (1997). Peabody picture vocabulary test. San Antonio, TX: Pearson. ? Educational Testing Service (ETS). (2009a). TOEFL ® Internet-based Test (iBT). Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://www. ets. org/portal/site/ets/menuitem. 1488512ecfd5b8849a77b13bc3921509/? vgnextoid=f138af5e44df4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD&vgnextchannel=b5f5197a484f4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD. ? Educational Testing Service (ETS). (2009b). TOEFL ® Internet-based Test (iBT). Retrieved August 10, 2009, from http://www. ets. org/Media/Tests/TOEFL/pdf/TOEFL_iBT_Score_Comparison_Tabl

A Thousand Splendid Suns and A Streetcar Named Desire

A Thousand Splendid Suns and A Streetcar Named Desire â€Å"A Thousand Splendid Suns† and â€Å"A Streetcar Named Desire† are two texts written in different countries: Afghanistan and America which causes their context to be different due to politics and religion but there are similarities such as the roles, expectations and struggles that the women within these societies have. The main female characters in â€Å"A Streetcar Named Desire† are called Stella and Blanche whereas the main female characters in â€Å"A Thousand Splendid Suns† are called Mariam and Laila. Stella and Mariam have similar expectations such as the providing for their husbands, producing children and being subjected to domestic violence. Mariam manages to relieve some of her pain through the arrival of Laila’s child but one can say she is not completely painless until her death. Stella never manages to escape or relieve any of her pain as she stays with her husband, Stanley and her sister ends up in a mental asylum. Laila and Bla nche are two women which their societies may class as fallen women; Laila has a child out of wedlock and due to deaths in the family as well as the suicide of her husband Blanche turns into a highly sexualized woman who relies on alcohol. Laila struggles throughout her life with the loss of her family members, her abusive marriage and the war raging in Afghanistan but she escapes this pain and ends up with her first love. Blanche does not recover; she is sent to a mental asylum therefore one can say that she is truly one of the only women within the two novels that is in a constant state of despair and as she is a single woman, her struggles as well as expectations differ from the other female characters.    In both texts, one can notice that certain women such as Mariam and Stella have roles; one of these roles is to become a housewife and provide for their husbands and family. Mariam is forced to marry Rasheed when Nana commits suicide; the Taliban encourage girls under the age of 16 to enter marriage especially when they have no one to provide for them and Amnesty International reported that 80 percent of Afghan marriages were by force. Mariam’s role of a housewife develops upon marrying him as Rasheed expects her to cook and clean for her as these are the traditional roles of a wife in Afghanistan due to the Taliban regime not allowing them to go out to have an education and get a job. Mariam always ‘does as she is told’ which suggests that she not in control of herself and instead Rasheed is in control of her. On the other hand, when she does not do what is expected of her such as cooking a tasty meal, Rasheed forces her to chew rocks until her teeth bleed. The i magery provided in the moment she is forced to do this, is shocking and one can presume that even the strongest of women would struggle with the pain. Similarly, Stella is pressurised to act like a perfect housewife by Stanley; he expects her too cook. One night, he states ‘How about my supper, huh? I’m not going to no Galatoires’ for supper!’; he is demanding his supper from Stella the minute he has walked through the door. She seems to be unsurprised by his remark which indicates that she receives these comments from him often and it seems as if it would never occur to him that he can make his own food because his beliefs are that the kitchen is the woman’s work place. One can compare this with the way in which Rasheed treats both Laila and Mariam in respect to the expectations of completing the household chores; he does not want to lift a finger much like Stanley. One can see that a comparison between the two texts is the recurring theme of domestic violence. In ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, ‘Rasheed was the most disappointing and abusive person in Mariam’s life, as his abuse was sexual, mental and definitely physical’. It is clear to see when Mariam becomes pregnant, has a miscarriage and he goes into a violent fit of rage upon hearing about it. He goes into a fit of rage as he expects Mariam to give him children as he is her wife and that is one of the roles of the wife in the Islamic culture in Afghanistan. Like many women in abusive relationships, she questions and blames herself for the abuse; ‘Had she ever been a deceitful wife? she asked herself. A complacent wife? A dishonorable woman? Discreditable? Vulgar? What harmful thing had she willfully done to this man to warrant his malice, his continual assaults, the relish with which he tormented her?’. The repetition of the questions throughout her thought process shows that she is searching for a reason that would allow Rasheed to beat her but the reader can see that there is never a valid reason to beat a young and vulnerable woman. If it weren’t for her inner strength being ‘as hard and unyielding as a block of limestone’ she would probably have died a lot sooner than she did. Furthermore, one can see that Rasheed causes Laila suffering and she struggles through their relationship so that her baby is safe; in a sense, she puts her child before herself. He is very controlling as he wishes her to wear a burka to cover herself from other men and he openly mocks other ‘afghan men who did not mind that their wives walked among strangers with makeup on their faces and nothing on their heads’. Laila does stand up to him and she can challenge him because she is an intellectual but he becomes violent; he ‘shoved’ the ‘barrel’ of a gun in into her ‘mouth’. Hosseini is portraying the message that women cannot compete with a man’s physical power therefore it is a weapon that they will use in volatile situations with women as they will come out the victor. Comparably, in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ one can see that if Stella fails to do the tasks that she is expected to do or if she is ordered to do something and does not then Stanley becomes violent. Susan Koprince stated that Stella ‘wants to believe that the batterer is truly sorry for his abusive behaviour and that he will never harm her again’ but as readers are witness to Stanley abusing her verbally and physically multiple times therefore he can be classed as a several offender. Stanley orders Stella to be quiet whilst playing poker with her friends, she does not, stands up to him and he rushes towards her in a frenzy. She has nothing to protect herself from him and she states ‘You lay your hands on me and I’ll –‘; the fact that she does not finish her sentence show that she is truly helpless and has no choice but to take the beating from him. The Stage directions say ‘she backs out of sight. He advances and disappears. T here is the sound of a blow. Stella cries out’; these stage directions describe Stanley hitting her and the sound of her crying with pain; this is a rare point in the play in which one see’s Stella struggling with the failing to tasks that are thrusted upon her in a patriarchal society. Unlike in ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’, ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ has a single, female character who has a different role and struggles to the other married characters or those with children. Blanche is the one of the main female character in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’. On first appearances, she oozes southern elegance and charm as she is dressed in ‘white’ and dripping in ‘pearls’; she grew up on a southern estate known as ‘Belle Reve’ which means beautiful dream and it means that her family once had money. Blanche believes herself to be ‘a woman of intelligence’ as she was educated and took up a position of a school teacher once earning her qualification. Similarly, to Blanche, Laila is provided with an education but then she must give up studying when the Taliban take over. In the late 20th century, prior to the rise of the Taliban, women in Afghanistan were making strides toward equality as they enjoyed the right of education and employment. Kabul was the epicentre for women’s advancement in Afghanistan prior to the Civil War and Taliban Control as 50% of the students and 60% of the teachers at Kabul university were women; Kabul is the city in which Laila grew up. Her father wanted her to study because he believed that ‘society has no chance at success if its women are uneducated’ and due to his motivation to educate her, Laila enjoys going to school to learn. However, this freedom to be study is taken away from her when the Taliban came to power in 1996 as they stated ‘girls are forbidden from attending school. All schools for girls will be closed immediately’. The use of the word ‘immediatel y’ indicates that the Taliban believed young girls, like Laila, were a threat to their strict religious regime therefore their education needed to be stopped quickly. The Feminist Majority Foundation stated ‘under Taliban rule woman have been stripped of their visibility, voice and mobility’; in a sense, they had their freedom taken away from them and Laila was subjected to this as well. Blanche’s role is to oversee Belle Reve when there were no male heirs to take over the property and when Stella moved in with her ‘Pollack’, Stanley. Unexpectedly, her family were plagued with several deaths such as her ‘Father, Mother, and Margaret’ which she describes as ‘the long parade to the graveyard’; the use of the word ‘long’ emphasises the fact that a lot on individuals died in a short amount of time. Furthermore, Blanche married young, to a man known as Allan Grey. He had tenderness ‘which wasn’t like a man’s’ but he ‘wasn’t the least bit effeminate looking’ therefore it came to a shock to her when she found him in bed with another man but the three of them went dancing together afterwards and accidently Blanche blurted out that she was ‘disgusted’ by him, a few minutes later he went out and shot himself therefore Blanche blamed herself for her husbandâ⠂¬â„¢s suicide. After these events occurring one after the other, her faà §ade of a perfect woman starts to fall and she moves in with her sister, Stella. Her struggle with suicide and its consequences can be compared to Mariam as her mother, Nana, commits suicide and her last words are ‘I’ll die if you go, I’ll just die’; it is clear that Nana will end her life if Mariam chooses to leave her. Thus, one can say that she is trying to guilt trip Mariam into staying with her and as Mariam does not, she commits suicide which causes Mariam to feel responsible for her mother’s death throughout her life, much like how Blanche feels about her husband. Blanche struggles to live up to the expectations of a modern woman in American society as she relies on drink to give her confidence. Upon arriving at her sister’s, she seems to be nervous as she is shaking. Therefore, ‘she springs up’ and ‘removes a whiskey bottle’ from a cupboard then ‘she pours a half tumbler of whiskey and tosses it down’. It is obvious that Blanche was actively seeking out alcohol to calm her nerves down and when she finds it she ‘tosses’ a strong alcohol down her throat as if it were nothing. To hide the fact that she has had a drink ‘she carefully replaces the bottle and washes out the tumbler at the sink’ so that her sister does not come home, start asking questions and get angry about her secretive drinking. Blanche argues that ‘one is her limit’ but Stanley argues ‘there’s some people that really touch it, but it touches them often’ and he gives the imp ression that he knows Blanche is an alcoholic and that she is lying about the amount she drinks. After the death of her husband, Blanche seeks male companionship to give her confidence, sooth her loneliness and to occupy her mind from the guilt she feels however she looked for it in the wrong places by selling her body for sex and praying on young boys in the school that she taught at in Laurel. Blanche states ‘the Hotel Flamingo is not the sort of establishment I would dare to be seen in!’; the Hotel Flamingo was a hotel in which men could pay prostitutes to have sex with them and Blanche refuses to admit that she had multiple encounters with men there. It is evident to the reader that Blanche is struggling with the demands of being a woman regarded as ‘proper’ and in her failure to be one, one can say that she has become a fallen woman. Additionally, Stanley states ‘she was kicked out before the spring term ended. And I hate to tell you the reason that step was taken. A seventeen-year-old kid she got mixed up with – and the boy’s dad learned about it and he got in touch with the high-school superintendent. And there was practically a town ordinance passed against her.’ The fact that Blanche gets ‘mixed up with’ a ‘seventeen-year-old kid’ shows the extent of her internal suffering, it is so severe that she preyed on a child to make her feel adequate for herself and society. Conclusively, one can see that all four of these women have expectations to live up to but due to external factors such as death, warfare and children born out of wedlock, sometimes they are unable to fulfil them and the consequences are severe such as being shunned by society or being abused by the male figures in their life. In Afghanistan and in America, even though the countries have different political set ups, there is the common trend that women must live up to higher expectations than men. One may presume that due to the Islamic faith in Afghanistan being dominant, that women in Afghanistan have less freedom but when one looks for the finer details, women in America at the time of the novel is set, have just as little.

Unit 6 Proposal Designs Blog Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Unit 6 Proposal Designs Blog - Research Paper Example The main aim of the program is addressing unfit behaviors in the community and emphasizing on the important of fitness as well as helping in the reduction of obesity and other health related issues associated with sedimentary lifestyles (Karsh & Fox, 2009). Information should be included in a grand proposal that makes it more appealing and convincing to the funders. This includes provision of a good statement need. It provides a rationale and a background for the proposal. It should establish the importance and needs for the project. Objectives and goals of the grand proposal need to be included. The objectives should be measurable, attainable, specific, and time bound. The methodology and ways to implement the project should be convincing and possible. The methodology gives an insight of how the problems addressed are solved. The evaluating tools should be well outlined and analyzed. Funding agencies want their grants to produce a maximum impact. Thus, the proposal should disseminate methods of maximum utilization of funds with accountability (Kaplan,

Critical Thinking Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critical Thinking - Assignment Example There are also some disadvantages to relying solely on this method for research. Certain databases specialize in only certain disciplines. ERIC, for example, might not have some relevant research articles about a given topic in one area that another database might have. As a consequence, the researcher will need to locate several different databases in an effort to ensure they are getting the most quality and accurate research available (Ashford University Library, 2013). In addition, relying solely on computer databases negates being able to find some sources that might not be digitized yet. There is still value in printed work, so rely exclusively on the computer might be counterproductive in some cases. When locating sources, it is often important to not rely solely on information contained in the abstracts. In such cases, it is wise to go back to the original source as referenced in the article. This is due largely to the idea that abstracts often contain the author’s poin t of view, or opinion, about what they have researched. This is great, as that the basis behind primary and peer-reviewed sources, yet they may not be interpreting the original source the same way another person would. ... Some examples of secondary sources include diaries, interview, pamphlets, and personal narratives. While these are not necessarily considered scholarly sources, they do give the researcher a deeper and more informed perspective of the topic being studied. In addition, such secondary sources can lead to a primary source. In essence, secondary sources can be seen as a springboard to the project. They guide the researcher and can se him or her on the correct path in terms of looking for reliable information that can greatly assist in the note-taking process. A major limitation of secondary sources is that they can be full of bias. It is often to discern fact from opinion when examining such sources, as the author does not always support the findings contained in the report. In addition, some secondary sources are merely one person’s account of certain events, and they might not take into consideration an opposing viewpoint (Mertler and Charles, 2011). The majority of research inf ormation will likely come from a primary source. Such references are studies or works that were actually completed during the time period under study. These can include replicated research projects, or entirely new studies, designed to expound on earlier research. The key component to a primary source is that that writing contained in the material is new information and draws conclusion not previously published. These can include diaries that are first-hand eyewitness accounts of certain events, historical documents, and journal articles that point out new research or findings (Salilnas, Bellows, and Liaw, 2011, p. 185). Technology has certainly made our lives easier in many respects, and this includes the research process. It