Introduction to African American Studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Introduction to African American Studies - Essay Example In the movie American History X, the speech Danny makes at the end—in which he quotes Abraham Lincoln—is significant for several reasons. Derek and Danny were both members of Aryan white supremacy groups; Derek suffered violence at the hands of other prisoners due to his friendship with a Black inmate; and Danny was killed by a student like himself, a Black young man with whom he had had an altercation the day before. Derek had not wanted his younger brother Danny to engage in the same kind of senseless violence which characterized the very reason Derek was in prison. When two Black men vandalized Derek’s truck—the only possession left to Derek by his father, who was also a target of Black-on-white crime—Derek killed one man and severely injured the other. That notwithstanding, Derek was sentenced to be incarcerated for a period of a few years and came out of jail wanting his younger brother not to follow in his footsteps. Derek and Danny, at this s tage of the movie, definitely do not consider Black people to be their friends in any respect. Nay, they are enemies—people who are to be feared and regarded in low esteem based solely on the fact that one side is white and the other Black—a most denigrating feeling perpetuated by these two brothers. In jail, Derek’s friend Lamont—who happened to be Black—became Derek’s best friend while in jail. ... This helps Derek realize that it is not the color of one’s skin, but the content of one’s character, that makes a person what he or she is. Once he realizes this, he fears it may be all but too little too late for his dear brother Danny, who takes a similar road he did. The question is,will Derek be able to save his brother the same or similar fate he experienced? Derek now realizes that, since his prior thinking was wrong, he must do something to set things aright now that he is getting paroled from prison. Meanwhile, Danny takes a personalized, private history course—an idea of Dr. Sweeney’s after Danny does a paper on Hitler’s Mein Kampf as an apologetical work—â€Å"American History X† being the name of the class, which is supposed to be a substitute for the other history class in which he was doing very poorly. Unfortunately, just as Derek himself did, Danny found himself in a confrontation with a young Black man over a prior argu ment or beef. This young man proves to be Danny’s enemy—and his realization of his morally reprehensible, wrong, racist attitudes of the past are ones which he no longer agrees with—unfortunately, too late. The idea that both Blacks and whites should be friends, not enemies, is the point that Lincoln the abolitionist, our 16th President, was trying to drive home. Lincoln’s ideology flew in the face of the white supremacy that devoured Derek and Danny’s lives; Lincoln saw the potential for friendships containing individuals of both races; and Lincoln knew the destructive ends of hate, which no one should hopefully have to experience in one’s lifetime. 5) In the essay, â€Å"Toward a Theory of Popular

Is Ham correct that connection between science and naturalism is Thesis

Is Ham correct that connection between science and naturalism is arbitrary - Thesis Example Nye supports science by citing evolution theory to prove that creationism or naturalism is not connected to science. Scientists based their evidence on evolution theory that explains the origin of flora and fauna. Nye also confirms the arbitrary connection between science and naturalism when he says in the debate that creationism should not be offered in school alongside the scientific theory coursework. While Nye argues that the scientific theory is false, Ham arguments are based on religious beliefs that have been captured in the book of Genesis. Additionally, Ham’s interpretation about the creationism in Genesis shows that the earth was created 6,000 years ago through supernatural powers. On the other hand, Nye describes the earth that was formed 4.5 billion years ago by using proof such as homologies, fossil, and distribution of time and space. The disparities in Earth’s age brought forward by Ham and Nye confirms further that the link between naturalism and science is a random occurrence (Etchells). Scientific theories are essential because they are used to explain the historical origin of the phenomena under study. The criteria debunk myths when they provide consistent results to the public. Scientific theory is used in creating awareness through education about the essence of science as a whole. Students use the theories as point of reference when they are given scientific-based prompts. Additionally, scientific theories promote lessons of intelligence and research. Observations that are made are based on theories brought forward by ancient scientists. There would be limited knowledge about natural phenomena if there were no existing theories such as evolution. Ham makes his remarks by quoting importance of science and creationism in school. He reveals that researchers such as Stuart Burgess have embraced both science and creationism as separate entities. However, the professor uses scientific

Internationalizing higher education-a case study of Grantchester University Essay Example for Free

Internationalizing higher education-a case study of Grantchester University Essay Internationalization in the area of higher education has become one of the most talked about issues in recent times. In fact, in the form of internationalization of higher education one of the most important global changes of current period has been manifested. The event of internationalization of higher education is conceptualized in different ways by different people. For example, some see internationalization in the field of higher education as a normal extension of universities’ traditional commitment to learning and as a process of knowledge exchange. However, for some people internationalization is nothing but an innovative response by the universities to the opportunities in external market (Windham, 1996; Trilokekar, 2007). Whatever be the way of conceptualizing the process of internationalization of higher education, it has been accepted as an important issue in the field of higher education. One crucial issue regarding internationalization of higher education is that there is lack of theoretical studies that could provide guidelines for those universities which are thinking about going international. Actually, theoretical studies are lagging far behind the practical implementation of the process under consideration. Thus it is found that in most of the cases internationalization has a tendency to take place in an unplanned and incremental way (Welch and Denman, 1997; Wit, 2002) and hence it posses various problems and challenges to the management of the institution which is undertaking the process of internationalization. Here a case study will be conducted to identify one key challenge that a University management can face while they implement the technique of internationalization in the field of higher education and provide recommendation to solve the issue using theoretical knowledge and empirical evidences. For the purpose of this study Grantchester University of UK will be taken under consideration as the university has taken an important step to go international. It has made effort to internationalize its educational system. It has undertaken a program for providing higher education to the students residing in far flung places by sending its faculty to those places. This paper will analyse the case study of Grantchester University in order to find a single key challenge the management of the university is facing and to find a way out. First, a rigorous analysis of the case study will be provided, then a key challenge will be identified on the basis of the analysis and finally a strategy will be recommended and justified on the basis of existing management and organizational theories and empirical evidences. Analysis of the case study: Grantchester University is a relatively new university in the North of England. It is a quite large institution which was created through the merger of three colleges having root going back to 1880 a teacher training college, a technical college and an art school. In 1983, a Business School was formed under the flagship of the then Grantchester Polytechnic. This business school under Grantchester University will be examined. This business school eventually has grown to build the largest faculty in the present university with having 4,000 full time students with 500 being registered on postgraduate programmes. As a part of the process of internationalization, in the last few years the senior management of the business school has negotiated a number of collaborative agreements with overseas universities, primarily in an effort to take advantage of the opportunities presented in an increasingly globalised higher education sector. As in case of most of the British universities, in Grantchester University also the proportion of overseas students studying has been increasing gradually, particularly in the business school. In this segment around 10 percent of undergraduate students and around 40 percent of postgraduate, 75 percent of which are full time post graduate students, are coming from outside of the European Union. However, the senior management has identified a number of factors which are making further expansion of ‘international’ teaching in the university campus sproblematic. These factors include the size of the current university campus and cost of land in the city, the perceived carrying capacity of the city of Grantchester, the increasingly problematic economic environment, increasing competition from universities in countries providing the ‘traditional’ source of overseas students to the UK, for example in China, India etc. , and the changing immigration regulations. Thus the management has started to concentrate on another alternative program for becoming internationalized in the field of higher education. The business school is now paying more attention on sending its academic staffs overseas to teach there in collaboration with local staffs. Actually delivering educational program overseas has become a new trend in the field of higher education and the university vice chancellor is quite aware of the trend and hence she has decided to deliver some of university’s more popular educational programmes overseas, either in new campuses overseas or in some sort of partnership with local universities. The Business School was first chosen to follow this path of internationalization because of its size and the perceived strength of its programmes to pilot the strategy. The management of the business school has designed courses that are generally delivered to full time as well as part time students overseas. All overseas teaching is conducted in partnership with local colleges which are based in the country of delivery. Under the current teaching module developed by the management a faculty member of the University is generally employed for overseas teaching on a two year attachment in each country of operation. Every study module is delivered to the students through the partnership of a module teacher sent by the University and a local teacher. The module teacher of Grantchester has to visit the partner college and give a series of lectures to students and attend seminars over a single week. During this single week visit he also conduct meeting with partner teachers in order to devise strategy of staff development. Then it is the responsibility of the partner teacher to conduct tutorials and seminars supporting and building on the block sessions. Although assessment materials are prepared by the module tutor, student work is marked by the partner tutor, with only 10 percent sample of student work being moderated by the module leader. In order to have efficient course delivery the management has to arrange overseas trips for the faculties and teaching schedule in such a way that courses are delivered in timely manner. The management provides allowance for business class travel to the faculties. The faculty members who are scheduled to go overseas are required to book tickets at least three months in advance through the Associate Dean responsible. Staff wishing to have alternative arrangements approved on an exceptional basis must seek approval from the associate Dean responsible. Both FT and PT delivery modes consist of 6 nights maximum accommodation overseas and 6 nights disturbance allowance at the approved rate (currently ? 50. 00 per day). The current model is however not free from problems. A number of problems are associated with this current module of overseas teaching. Faculties of Grantchester who have already visited other countries for the purpose of delivering study module have expressed their grievances over certain issues. Last minute scheduling of overseas trips for the faculties have been a major problem for the management. The current system of organizing trips to overseas seems to be ad hoc in nature which is creating problem not only to the higher authority but also to the faculties who are assigned the trips on short period notice. During the case study it has been found that the management was dealing with the problem of arranging academic staffs for some particular session as the management did not able to find out academic staffs who could participate in that session even when only one and half months remained in the hand of management where the program necessitates booking of flights three months before the delivery schedule. The management was looking for some one who was under profiled as the business school was not in a position to pay for overtime. Although the management some how managed to get required staffs for sending overseas for that particular session, this kind of ad hoc nature of scheduling trips create huge problems for faculties as they have to go other countries for delivering course module on short period notice. Another problem associated with the issue of scheduling trips is that management is quite idle in informing faculties about any changes in the scheduled trips on an emergency basis. For example, in 2008-09 for the February session Peter Smith was supposed to leave to deliver course module to the students of Star College on 8th February, but due to some problem the lectures that were scheduled to be given on WC February 9th got cancelled and the lectures were rearranged on WC February 16th. The management, however, did not bother to let Peter know about this change as soon as the decision was taken by the management. He was informed two weeks later giving him only little time to change his flight booking. Last minute scheduling of overseas tours also provides the faculties with little time for preparing themselves for teaching overseas students. They get little time to get acquainted with the course module and get confused about what to deliver to the overseas students. One the faculty members who has already gone through this problem has described his experience. He suffered the problem of this kind of ad hoc nature of planning in his very first trip to overseas. This faculty member was asked to go to Far Off to deliver the induction programme for the first cohort of students on a very short period notice. He received the email only two weeks before he needed to fly out. He was provided with the paperwork, i. e. the course material only before he left for the trip so that he could read it on the plane, and hence he hadn’t had the chance to prepare or fully understand what was being proposed in the documentation. He wasn’t aware of the course structure or even the module content. It seemed crazy, but the authority wanted him to run a week of course induction for the new students and had drafted him the course material at the last minute. As he did not get enough time to prepare himself for delivering course material, the quality of teaching according to him was not up to the mark. The management is also suffering with problem of delivering allowances to their faculty members on time for their trips to overseas. The university is liable to pay allowances for traveling and accommodation to the faculty members. But the case study has revealed that some faculty members were not provided with the stipulated allowances even after a long time of since completing their visits. For example, according to a faculty member although the travel arrangements and the hotel accommodations were satisfactory, it was three months since she returned and still had not received her expenses and disturbance allowance. Not only that, she also did not have any clear idea regarding how to chase these up. It is the responsibility of the university management to offer a clear idea regarding all aspects of these overseas tours and providing allowances no time. She did not bother very much about the issue of reimbursement and expressed her satisfaction over the trip and expressed her wish to go for another one as it was only her first trip. But if she faces this kind of reimbursement problem everytime she goes overseas for fulfilling the goal of internationalization of the university, she might not be ready to continue this or this could negatively affect the quality of teaching as she will not be sure about whether she will be paid off for delivering lectures. For any international teaching organization, success depends on the quality of teaching. In recent times many organizations many educational institutions are going for internationalization with an aim to cash in on new market opportunities and least bother about providing high quality education. Looking at these kind of intentions of most of the international educational organizations, a number of countries are making some regulations for overseas universities running programs in those countries. Granchester University is also confronting this problem in some of the countries where it has been running its overseas programmes. For example, Ethnocentrica, one of the countries that Grantchester has been teaching in, has recently introduced tighter regulation of overseas universities running programmes there. This is, at least in part, because of concern that such teaching is perceived as primarily a means of cashing in on the growth in education globally. A number of universities operate in Ethnocentrica and the government is worried by the growing number of complaints about poor quality teaching and assessment. One of the key regulations stipulates that overseas universities must provide full Professors for all teaching of university courses delivered in Ethnocentrica in order to enhance teaching quality. But the problem with Grantchester is that it employs only few full professors as they are more interested in research work and the university is basically a teaching university which does not pay much attention on research works. A key challenge to the University management: Through the rigorous analysis of the case study presented above, one thing has come out that all the problems discussed above would result in deterioration in the quality of teaching which is essential for an international organization like Granchester University. It is one of the vital responsibilities of the management to ensure that the faculty members offer quality teaching to overseas students. All the problems revealed through the case study ultimately boils down to a vital problem relating to the quality of teaching. Thus it is the issue of providing high quality teaching to overseas students that is posing challenge to the management of the University. The university authority requires to manage its human resources, i. e. the academic staffs in such a way that quality teaching can be provided. This issue of providing high quality teaching is extremely important and relevant fro conducting the process of internationalization efficiently.

The Literature In English Component

The Literature In English Component CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1Introduction It has been 9 years since the literature in English component was first introduced by the Ministry of Education and to be included in English subject syllabus for Secondary school. In parallel to the Ministry vision in producing excellent students who can compete globally in the future, Literature in English for both Lower Secondary and Upper Secondary Schools aim to inclusively facilitate secondary students to improve and strengthen their proficiency in the English Language. Through the literature in English component also, it allows the students to learn many things from many perspectives by studying other cultures and world views. Literature in English also gives the students more opportunities to be more appreciative towards the esthetics of the English language and towards Literature masterpieces as well. Besides, the learning of literature will help to impart values beneficial to students personal growth, development and character. However, throughout the 9 years of implementation of the Literature component in secondary school, numerous studies have been done and have revealed some facts regarding students interest towards the literature in English component in the secondary school. Most of Malaysian students give negative responses to the learning of literature in English in classroom especially at the early period when it was first introduced. Indeed, most of the researches have done some researches on how to enhance the learning of literature in English among the students due to the fact that Malaysian students have lack of interest in learning literature in English. There are varieties of factors that contribute to students interest in Literature. However this research will look deeply into the three main causes that affecting students interest in learning literature in English and on how strong the causes really affects the students. The three factors are the students exposure towards the target language and the level of proficiency, the content of the literature component itself, and the activities done in the classroom. In fact, these three main factors are always being discussed as the reasons that influence students interest in learning literature in English. The language spoken at home might influence the students interest towards the learning of literature in English differently. Students are coming from different family background that has different experience communicating in English at home. If the parents are good in mastering the English language and always communicate with the children in English, it might encourage the students to read the literature in English texts. However, if the students have lack of exposure towards English language, it might also demotivate them to read the literature in English texts since they are hardly understand them. Another main challenge for the students to learn literature in English is caused by the selection of texts itself. Students might have lack of interest in Literature because of the text (short story, poem and novel) are boring and inappropriate for them. If the students are unfamiliar with the plot and the settings of the story, they will have difficulty to understand it and lead to the lack of interest to learn it. Furthermore, the major problem regarding students learning in literature is students encounter language difficulties that does not match their language ability. Even teachers cannot agree on the type of texts that should be taught although they generally agree that the texts should promote intellectual development, independent thinking, are interesting to adolescents and meet certain cultural and aesthetic standards (Agee, 1998). Thus, the selection of the texts should be analysed and studied again whether they are appropriate or not. Literature component in English has been implemented in Malaysian curriculum starting from the year 2001. Since then, the students in secondary school have learnt a lot of poems, short stories and even novels as the items of learning literature. Table 1.1 shows the items that learned by lower secondary schools students in Malaysia. Table 1.1: Curriculum specifications for literature in KBSM English program for lower secondary students. Form Title Author Genre 1 Life's Brief Candle William Shakespeare Poem The Dead crow A.Samad Said Poem The Lake Isle of Innisfree W.B Yeats Poem The Pencil Ali Majod Short Story How Dalat Got Its Name Heidi Munan Short Story Of Bunga Telur and Bally Shoes Che Husna Azhari Short Story 2 Rubinson Crusoe Danie Defoe Novel Potato People Angela Wright Novel Phantom of the opera Gaston Leroux Novel 3 The Prisoner of Zenda Antony Hope Novel Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde R.L.Stevenson Novel Teachers creativity in teaching Literature is also one of the most important features to capture students interest. Since literature is still considered new to Malaysian education system, the main problem for both teachers and students is to have various interesting activities to be applied in the classroom to teach literature. Most of the activities in literature classroom focus on the comprehension of the text by reading the text and answering the comprehension questions provided by the teachers and from the work books. In the discussion forum as stated in the Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (MELTA) web, www.melta.org.com, teachers are advised to provide the students with various creative activities in classroom to teach literature and to generate students interest in learning literature. Thus, teachers role is to search for new ideas, practicality and do experiments in literature through the reading from activities book or through the internet. Creative activities are used to enhance students understanding of literary texts and to attract their attention and interest in reading and learning literature. Creative approaches like role play and dramatization or even games are created to improve the dull traditional method of teaching literature, which only focus on close reading and explanation of literary texts. Students interests need to be capture before they can fully appreciate the beauty of the literature. (MELTA forum). 1.2 Statement of Problem The literature in English component has been implemented as part of KBSM English syllabus for about 9 years since it was first introduced in year 2001. However, through my experience and observations show that the students have a lack of interest towards the learning of literature and they fail to appreciate or understand of what literature is. Thus, it is vital to understand the factors that influence the students interest to learn literature in English in order for all to solve the problem. Since English is considered as the second language in Malaysia. Thus, the students level of proficiency in the language is varying to each other. Some students are given much exposure to the target language at home and some are even never utter any English word at home. However, interest is an subjective issue because it does not mean that if the students are good in English language that they are interested to learn literature in English more than the students who are not very proficient in English language. However, at the same time one of the underlying issue in the implementation of the literature in English component is that most of the students feel that the literature texts offered in the English language Syllabus are inappropriate, unchallenging and even boring. In fact, the topic of literature text has been discussed and debated since it was first introduced until the present time. The main issue is to revise the use of the current text and it has been supported by the students, parents and teachers. Some people think that the texts are beyond the students level of proficiency to understand it and the themes discussed are also very dull. On the other hand, some argue that the texts cover a wide range of works dealing with different themes and appropriate for the students to learn. As stated in MELTA forum website, one of the members in the forum who is only known as tpriya_1717 wrote that the important aspect that should be given greater emphasis would be the effectiveness of teachers in utilizing the texts in the teaching and learning process in classrooms. From her opinion, it gives a picture that the teachers should be more creative to involve students with lots of interesting and enjoyable activities to boost the students interest while learning literature in the classroom. Unfortunately, since our education system tends to be more to exam-oriented, most of the teachers teach literature with the purpose to pass the students in the examination and neglecting the main reason of learning literature which is to understand and appreciate literature. Thus this research aims to find the answer whether all the factors mentioned above influence the students interest in learning literature in English positively or negatively. Furthermore, the research also will investigate which factor is having greatest influence to the students interest to learn literature in English. 1.3 Objectives of Research The purposes of this research are to: 1) Investigate the influence of students level of proficiency in English language towards their interest in the learning of literature in English. 2) Examine whether the contents of the literature component in Malaysian curriculum for lower secondary students are appropriate and suitable for the students and whether the contents are able to generate the students interest to learn literature in English. 3) Study students preferences of activities applied in the classroom by the teachers during the literature lesson. 1.4 Research Questions The research questions for the research to find out are as below. 1) How does the students level of proficiency in English language influence students interest to read the literature in English texts? 2) What are the students perceptions towards the current literature in English component texts? 3) Which types of activities in the classroom are more interesting to the students in the learning of literature in English? 1.5Definitions of Terms 1) Factor: One that actively contributes to an accomplishment, result, or process. Context of study: The factors are the causes or the reasons that contribute to the influence in students interest in learning Literature in English. It can be considered as the agents that are responsible towards the development of students interest in learning Literature in English. In this study, the factors are divided into three main divisions which are the students family background, the selection of texts in literature in English component, and the activities during the literature in English lessons. 2) Interest: A state of curiosity or concern about or attention to something Context of study: Interest is the emotional reactions and behavioural tendencies towards the learning of literature in English. In this study, the students interest is categorized into two categories which the students who react positively towards literature in English and students who react negatively towards the literature in English. However, interest is the behaviour that can be changed or developed by certain strong influences either it turns out to be positive or negative. 3) Learning: Knowledge or skill gained through schooling or study. Context of study: Learning is a process of study to gain the knowledge. The learning of literature in English mostly happens at school especially during the literature lesson for English subjects. As literature in English component is a part of English syllabus in Malaysian education curriculum, the students need to learn it. Thus, in this study, the learning of literature in English is referring to the formal learning of the subject in Malaysian secondary school. 4) Literature in English: written material specifically in English language such as poetry, novels, essays, etc., especially works of imagination characterized by excellence of style and expression and by themes of general or enduring interest. Context of study: Literature in English component is a part of the English syllabus in Malaysian secondary schools. It is divided into three genres which are short stories, poems, and novels. 1.6 Scope of Research The scope of the research involved the participation of 40 students in Form 3 with different level of proficiency from SM La Salle Tanjung Aru Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. Form 3 students have finished covering all the literature contents for lower secondary school. The data was collected and analyzed based on the questionnaires which were distributed to the respondents concerned. 1.7 Limitation of Research The limitation of this study: A. Time constraints : 1) Students might not have sufficient time to fill the survey form thus resulting in unanswered items and/or inaccurate answers. B. Small sample: 1) The findings of the research are only valid or based on one school. It does not representing of all schools in Malaysia and not even in Sabah. 1.8 Significance of Research Over the years since the implementation and the development of literature in English component as part of Malaysian curriculum, many issues has been discussed regarding on the problems faced by the students that affect their interest in learning the literature in English. This study will find the most reasonable and rational answer on the factors affecting students interest to learn literature in English. This study also will prove whether students level of proficiency in English really has a very strong influence to the students interest in learning literature. Besides, this study will help the curriculum designers to improve the contents of literature component for lower secondary school. This study also can be used as a reference for teachers to investigate students preferences for activities in classroom during literature lesson and apply them in the class. This Study will also provide and enable other or future researchers who would like to conduct the same research with sufficient and useful information based on the topic. The methodology in this research such as the questionnaire can ease the future research by adapting them or perhaps amend them to suit their study. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Introduction This chapter presents review of the general situation and the development of literature in English in Malaysias education system. However, the main discussions are focused on the three main factors that have the greatest influence towards the students interest in learning literature in English. The three main factors are the family background of the students, the selection of text or the contents for Literature components, and the preferred activities by the students during the literature lesson. This review will also provide some insights into the relationship between English language proficiency that might influence students interest in learning Literature in English. Apart from that, reviews on other possible factors will also be discussed as the argument of this chapter. These reviews are to give a better understanding on how these factors can really influence and affects the students interest in learning literature in English. 2.1 The Scenario of the teaching of LIE components in Malaysia Historically, the development of the teaching of literature in English in Malaysia can be considered as inconsistent. The teaching and learning of literature in English in the Malaysian English Second Language (ESL) context has evolved from being a core part of the English language curriculum to a point of near extinction only to re-emerge in the 21st century in a far stronger form (Subramaniam, 2003). In addition, he stated that the downturn in the teaching and learning of literature as a subject is crucially marked by the change in the medium of instruction in schools from English to Malay. According to Carter and Long (1991: cited in Fauziah Ahmad 2007), the importance of literature was only fully realized sometime in the mid 1980s where extensive debates and discussions took place. Since then, the situation for learning and teaching has changed radically and literature is presently being reconsidered within the language teaching profession. Fauziah (2007) believes that the changes of attitude toward the importance of literature have also affected the Malaysian national curriculum. As she stated in the introduction of her research, Literature in English was first introduced to Form Four students in 1992. Subsequently, this has led to the re-introduction of literature into language classrooms in the year 2000, and is now an integrated element of the English language component. The wind of change in the teaching and learning of literature in Malaysia is also supported by Talif (2005), in his book entitled Teaching Literature in ESL:The Malaysian Context, a book which discusses briefly on the development of literature in English in Malaysian schools. The study shows that Literature in English was first introduced by the Malaysian Education Ministry by implementing the Class Reader Programme (CRP) in 1990 at the Form 1 level in all secondary schools. Basically, the CRP programme was designed to motivate students to read the class readers at home as well as to prepare the students for the Literature in English Programme (LEP) at the upper secondary students. The LEP was offered as an elective subject for study at the upper secondary school level (Form 4-5) which was implemented in 1992. To date, the Malaysian Ministry of Education (KPM) implemented the literature in English component as a part of English syllabus in March, 2000. It started with only for Form 1 and Form 4 students in year 2000, followed by Form 2 and Form 5 in year 2001, and to all Form 3 in every school in year 2002. The component has been examined in SPM exam in year 2001 and in PMR exam in year 2002, (Ministry of Education Malaysia). To summarize the history and the development of literature in English in Malaysian curriculum, the following review may conclude all. In Malaysia, three different reading programmes have been introduced over the last three decades. The English Language Reading Programme (ELRP) was implemented in 1983, the Class Reader Programme (CRP) in 1993 (Malachi Edwin, 1993) and the incorporation of the literature in English component into the English Language syllabus in 1999 (Subramaniam, 2003). To date, the literature in English component in the English Language paper is considered to be the most successful reading programme because the texts that are being taught and read in the classroom are a tested component in the public examinations (Vethamani, 2004a; 2004b). (Too W.K, 2009, page 41) From the reviews above, it can be concluded that the journey towards the inclusion of literature in language courses has been going through many stages of change. Thus, the implementation can be considered as unstable and the improvements by the ministry are needed from time to time. 2.2 The Students Attitude towards the teaching and learning of Literature in English The lack of interest in learning literature in English among Malaysian students is one of the prevailing issues focused on by various authorities and researcher. It is such an alarming issue because the students attitude towards literature is closely related in determining the success and failure in learning literature. There are three main factors that are always being associated with the lack of interest in learning literature in English among the Malaysian students. The figure 1 shows the main focus of the researcher in the study of factors affecting the Malaysian lower secondary students interest in the learning of literature in English. In order to support the statement above, the researcher decide to make Daviss model of research as a reference (1992: cited in Siti Norliana, 2008) to compare and support statement of the problem on the factors that affecting students attitude towards studying literature. For the purpose of this study, the researcher opts to consider attitude (Daviss model of reaseacrh, 1992) as interest towards studying literature. The positive attitude may bring the meaning of highly interested and negative attitude would be the lower interest. According to Davis (1992), the Figure 2 shows the potential factors that have significant relationship with students attitudes towards literature in a foreign language. Factors In comparison to the researchers model and the Daviss model of research, both models show several similarities regarding on the factors that might influence and affect the interest towards the learning of literature in English. Davis believes that those factors contribute great impacts to the students attitudes in studying literature. Based on Davis (1992), all of the factors result the variation of the students attitudes towards the studying of literature. 2.3 Students Level of Proficiency in English Language Learning literature in English is quite a challenge for Malaysian students because the English is considered as the second or the third language in our nation. In order for the students to learn literature in English, the first thing that they have to master is the language itself because that is the only way to associate with literature in English better. Thus, the level of proficiency in English would affect the students interest in learning literature in English. If the student is good in English, the possibility to have higher interest towards literature in English is very high. Meanwhile, lower proficiency levels in English may lead to frustration and less motivation among students to learn literature in English. 2.3.1 Language Spoken at Home Students usually are coming from different family background. Thus students may have different experience or exposure towards the learning of literature. There are students who are very good in term of proficiency in English language because they practice the language at home with their parents in daily communication. However, there are also students who never use or speak in any other language including English as a spoken language at home but only speak in their mother tongue language at home. This situation can be seen by comparing between the students from urban area and students who live in rural area. According to Jamali and Hasliza (2002), Malaysian students especially those who live in rural areas do not see the need to use of English in their life, and it caused them to have lower motivation to learn English. The exposure towards English language and literature in English that they received are very little compared to urban students. In fact, there are a growing number of ch ildren whose first language is English and who may be termed native speakers since their parents have chosen to use only English in the home instead of their ethnic languages. Murugesan (2003). Thus, the students level of proficiency in English language may vary to each other. The more the students have been exposed to the English language, the more interest they gain to learn and read the literature in English. 2.4 Selection of texts in Literature in English component There are always bad and negative feedbacks that have been received from the students and the teachers regarding on the literature text in Malaysian school. Sidhu (2003), as cited in Too (2006), found that most students showed little interest in reading prescribed texts. The result of Sidhus research revealed that 60% of the students viewed the texts in Literature in English as boring and failed to arouse their interest to read. Various comments and feedbacks also can be retrieved from the discussion forum in MELTA website mostly participated by the teachers and the students. Some of them think that the texts for English literature components are boring and need to be reviewed. Retrieved Online November 18, 2009 from: http://www.melta.org.my/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=1098forum=5viewmode=flatstart=20 2.4.1 Students Difficulties in understanding the texts There are three different genres that the students have to learn and read for the literature in English component. They are short story, poem and novel. Students have different perception and interest towards each genre. According to Siti Norliana (2008) research, the students showed higher interest in reading the short stories item compared to poems and novels. The students prefer short stories because they are not lengthy and less time consuming to read if compared to Novels. Most of the students described novels as lengthy and very confusing in term of plot and characters. It should not be a surprise that the students prefer short stories more than novel because as cited in Wei-Keong Too (2006, Page 43), both Reed (1992) and Chances (1999) analyses conclude that the books that young adult choose are character driven and the plot is fast. In Dr. Sharifahs (2002) study, the analysis result showed that the students positive responses towards short stories and novels are higher than the poems. According to the result, students are less interested in reading poems because of the use of literary language with underlying meaning. Thus, it is very hard for the students to understand the texts. When the students find the poems very difficult in terms of language, they will automatically refuse to read it and show lower interest towards any text in the same genre. For instance, the poem like Lifes Brief Candle is very hard for the students to understand since they are not familiar with the literary language used in the poem and could not get the underlying meaning of the poem. In Huzainas (2006) research result, students found Lifes Brief Candle the most difficult because they could not associate the candle much with their life. If the students could associate the texts with their own experience and surroundings, they will understand the meaning of the texts easier and become more interested to read more from other authors. 2.5 Activities in the classroom Teachers creativity in teaching Literature is also one of the most important features to capture students interest. Teachers play the important role to instill interest in learning literature in English among the students. As for that, teachers need extra initiatives and creativities to instill students interest towards the subject by providing the students with the interesting activities. Creative activities are used to enhance students understanding of literary texts and to attract their attention and interest in reading and learning literature. 2.5.1 Teacher-centered VS student-centered activities The activities during the literature in English lesson are important to make the students take part in the lesson. However, many teachers lack creative ideas to provide the students with interesting activities when teaching literature in the classroom. Unfortunately, many teachers apply activities which are more teacher-centered in orientation during literature lesson. Teacher-ecentered activities are activities that are more controlled by the teachers all the time, such as spoon-feeding the students with all the information and thorough explanations and translations. Thus, the students role is only taking notes from the teachers and memorise them for the sake of passing the exam. As mentioned by Sharifah Nadia (2007) in her research, since our education system is exam-oriented, most of the teachers teach literature with the purpose to pass the students in the examination and neglecting the main reason of learning literature which is to understand and appreciate literature. As a resu lt, the activities are stereotype because the teachers only focus on how to make the students pass in the exam. An experienced and excellent teacher would use student-centered activities that involve students participation during the literature lesson. In this kind of activities, the students get involved and participate in the lesson instead of listening only to the teachers explanation. The students will be able to experience and understand the meaning of literature during the learning process. There are many enjoyable activities that the teachers can apply in the classroom especially during literature in English lesson such as dramas, role plays, group discussion, games, and multimedia presentations. These activities allow the students to express themselves through literature and capture their interest to learn literature in English. Since the student-centered activities are more enjoyable and link to the students interest, the students are more interested to learn more about literature in English in the classroom. In Siti Norlianas (2008) study, the students show more positive response towards activities that allow them to participate in the lesson actively. Table 2.1 shows the result of students acceptance towards activities used in literature in English lesson by the teacher in the classroom. Table 2.1 Students Acceptance towards the Activities for Literature in English Classroom No. Teaching Methods Percentage (%) 1) Students provide background information 96.2 2) Variety of activities (games, drama, role play, etc) 95.4 3) Working in groups 91.8 4) Teacher's explanation 90.9 5) Audio Visual Supports 85.5 6) Translation and using Malay in teaching literature 70 The result is cited from Siti Norliana (2008) From the result, it shows that the students prefer the activities that can encourage them to participate in the lesson and allow them to think more critically rather than listening to teachers talk. In addition to the research, based on the interviews by Siti Norliana (2008), found that half of the students described that the activities employed by the teachers are dull and inadequate. This situation is supported by Dr. Sharifah (2002), she concluded that the teachers knowledge, expertise, and creativity i

Use of Bathroom Scenes in the Film Pulp Fiction Essays -- Pulp Fiction

Bathrooms are filthy. They are grimy, soiled porcelain wastelands swarming with harmful bacteria and human waste. And they’re one of Quentin Tarantino’s favorite tools to use on the big screen. If one were to study the history of American media, he or she may notice that bathrooms are scarcely pictured. In fact, it wasn’t until the 1960 release of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho that a toilet was shown in cinema. The featured toilet caused quite a stir among critics, and became a symbol of American ethics. Quentin recognized the subject of morality that resided in the use of bathrooms and used it to his advantage. In his 1994 release, Pulp Fiction, Quentin frequently uses the bathroom to make the viewer question his or her ethical views. The first instance of the bathroom being used to elicit a questioning of ethics within the audience occurs during the sub story of Mia and Vincent Vegas. In this scene, two questions of ethics are brought forth. After a long, fun night Vincent returns with Mia to Marsellus Wallace’s estate. He promptly announces that he has to use the restroom, and leaves Mia alone. Once alone in the bathroom, we see Vincent talking to himself in the mirror, trying to persuade himself to leave Mia alone for the night. Vince is quite obviously attracted to Mia, and Mia seems willing to spend more time with him. He has to decide whether to stay longer and risk taking advantage of Marsellus’ wife or to leave immediately, wishing her a good night and ending his relationship with her. This creates tension and allows the audience to consider their own moral standpoint in regards to the situation. The second questioning of ethics that occurs in this scene begins to take place moments after Vince leaves the bathroom. We h... ... side with. Again the audience must consider their own moral stance in regards to the situation in order to reach this conclusion. As proved in this clever arrangement of bathroom scenes, Quentin Tarantino is a creative albeit unorthodox director. Though he draws inspiration from a vast expanse of resources, this Quentin’s productions are undoubtedly unique. Through his clever use of the bathroom as a means through which to bring forth a questioning of ethics, Tarantino has again proved his creativity as a director. This movie made me think. This movie made me reevaluate my moral values and empowered me to challenge my own ethical views. This movie literally taught me more about myself than I had previously realized. We can only hope Tarantino continues to produce such impactful films so we can continue to explore our values the way Pulp Fiction has allowed us to.

Migraine Headaches and Monosodium Glutamate Essay -- Health Medicine P

Migraine Headaches and Monosodium Glutamate For a countless number of years now, my sister has experienced excruciating migraine headaches; ones that keep her out of school too much during the year. She has seen different doctors and they have all tried to figure out what the cause is, but so far, it is yet to be done. I started looking around and saw that MSG has been know to trigger migraine headaches, and it occurred that this could be a possibility in my sister’s case. Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) is a salt added to foods to enhance flavor. This additive helps to bring out natural flavors that make foods taste their best. MSG is made from starch, corn sugar, or molasses from sugar cane or sugar beets and is produced by a natural fermentation process that has been used over time to make foods like beer, vinegar, and yogurt. (http://ificinfo.health.org/brochure/msg.htm) MSG and Head Pain Because MSG is a flavor enhancer for foods, many competitors in the food industry use lower quality foods and just add it in because of its cheap price. This allows the manufacturer to have a large gain in the economy. There is a large investment in MSG that leads food giants and glutamate manufacturers to get together to finance â€Å"medical research studies† to prove the safety of the additive to the consumer. Obviously, the research done in these studies funded by the manufacturer will â€Å"prove the safety† of MSG. The FDA’s Advisory Board consists of food industry reps as opposed to an unbiased group. It would only seem natural that the board accepts these research studies. When doctors look at these reports, they see that they are industry funded and don’t take into consideration that MSG could be causin... ...estigating this topic was to find the role, if any, that MSG played in the instigation of migraine headaches. In researching, however, I was presented with more information, finding out that MSG is known to cause more than just headaches, as shown in this study. Before looking into studies done on the topic of MSG’s effects on migraines, I deduced that there could possibly be a link between the two, however, this study gives much stronger evidence that MSG is troublesome more to some people than to others. Bibliography Diamond, S., Prager, J., & Freitag, F.G. (1986). Diet and headache. Is there a link? Postgrad Med, 279-86 Drouin, M.A., Herbert, M., Karsh, J., Mao, Y., & Yang, W.H. (1997). The monosodium glutamate complex: assessment in a double blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study Journal of Allergy Clinical Immunology, 757-62

Ethics and Compensation Essay

Results of the Internal Revenue Service Exempt Organizations Executive Compensation Compliance Project had reviewed the compensation practices of several corporations in the United States, pointed the issues on tax compliance and further identified areas of abuse. On its report, high amounts of compensation were recorded in several cases, however the IRS by and large assessed them to be substantiated based on comparability data (McGookin, 2007). Several conspiracies are being worked on by the IRS regarding the executive compensation compliance aspect. It was those controversies, besetting the current compensation of the executives in particular, that have rendered the broad public in full skepticism, according to â€Å"The 2007 Wharton Economic Summit Panel† . The apparent frequency imposed by companies or corporations in redesigning their executive programmes, along with its long-term incentives, generally poses a grave predicament in the ethics of corporal business (McGookin, 2007). The principal issue of compensation at present is the way by which CEOs of large corporations in the US have made an amount of money from just one day on a work that an average employee can earn for a matter of year. According to the Associated Press survey, the total compensation of the major corporations have averaged a total of $10. 8 million, which is roughly 364 more times the salary of an average American worker. While executives continue to accumulate more wealth while in throne of service, workers underneath the rung, on the other hand were granted the first federal minimum wage increase. However, the minimum wage, which is only $5. 85 still falls underside where the minimum salary in real terms had tumbled a decade ago (Simon, 2007). An issue in † The Wall Street Journal† (2007) , moreover, had reported that there was an increase in the regularity of pay growth among workers in 2006. Furthermore, an increase on the salaries and bonuses of chief executives among the 350 US major corporations was likewise put in record. However, delving deeper into the matter of increases in compensation, it seems unjust that half of the executives working with several major US Corporations have enjoyed a total compensation, that which includes salaries, bonuses and stock options, which on the other hand was over a hundred times the average wage of a US worker. Such data proves that there is an apparent broadening of disparity between executive and average-earners’ compensation. The said data was supported by the Institute for Policy Studies and United for a Fair Economy wherein in one of their compilations, it was shown that a corporate CEO’s earnings in one day is comparatively equivalent to more than what average workers can make year round (McGookin, 2007 ) Provided such data, the manifestation of a complete American-executives-domination is put in line. To add further with the pleasure these executives enjoy, the value of their possible pensions were shown to have grown by an average of $ 1. 3 million (Simon, 2007). Clearly, a medium that has long been of significance in retaining, attracting and motivating individuals to work is the tool of â€Å"reward†. But reward shall be accorded in proper distribution to appropriate individuals because getting it wrong may put the potential of demotivation and/or loss of talent instead . Standard and Poor’s 500 compensation issue On a preliminary analysis done by the Corporate Library documented that the CEO of Standard and Poor’s 500 company made an average of total compensation amounting over $14. 78 million in 2006 (Simon,2007). The cumbersome issue and predicament regarding the executive compensation were highlighted in 2006, when a large amount of severance packages were apportioned to departing CEOs whose performance does not nearly qualify a standard. The remaining CEOs then were attacked by backdating scandals in relation with stock options in their companies. According to Simon (2007), the flaws in the compensation system were uncovered through the said backdating indignities, in which the seated CEOs are privileged to take what they like within their companies and the shareholders with impunity. Disney’s compensation issue Take for another example the compensation issues at Disney. Shareholders of Disney polled at a 45% no confidence vote for CEO Eisner regarding his re-election. Some investors were rankled to know that Eisner himself was the beneficiary of the board’s decision to double the CEO’s salary, which amounts to $2 million (The Pay Gap,2007). Despite the fact that Disney’s stock is improving, there substantiates an apparent and unnecessary relationship between shareholder value and executive compensation. Practically speaking, such relationship in the business arena allocates an unjust proportion of benefits towards the executives. A rise in the stock price is cordially adhered with the notion of welcome salvation for the employed executives but, tying everything to compensation or rewards, is the company’s performance in progress over time? Ethically, any switching in the approaches of putting management interests over that of the shareholder’s interest that Disney bargains into will not do any good for the company (The Pay Gap, 2007). Yahoo’s compensation issue Evidently, the high cost of primary executive wage has induced in recent years as the amount of wages likewise increase and stock options were luxuriously paid off. Terry Sernel of Yahoo Inc. gained a total of $71. 7 million in 2006, according to the AP filings. Roughly, such amount is estimated to be $20 million and 20% more of the gross box office take spearheaded by A-list actors as Brad Pitt or Leonardo DiCaprio (the Pay Gap, 2007).