Saturday, October 5, 2019
SOC 331 week 5 discussions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
SOC 331 week 5 discussions - Essay Example Application of an umbrella cover of distributive justice is seen to be in violation of certain clauses of the constitution like the eighth amendment, which prohibits cruel and unusual punishment (Dreisbach, 2013). Drawing inference from the case of Miller v. Alabama, the application of retributive justice demanded the Miller, a fourteen year old boy be tried with the charges of arson and capital crime in the same capacity as an adult. The application of retributive justice does not consider an individuals mental status when committing a crime, thus proposes a blanket cover with which justice is administered equally for equal crime. Application of a mandatory life without parole that is applicable in distributive justice can thus be said to be unjust, as it does not give opportunity for the offender to be cross-examined to ascertain the real intentions of committing a crime (Dreisbach, 2013). According to the constitution, application of retributive justice is significant as it is based on ensuring that commitment of crimes of the same nature like the one that attracted a capital punishment will prevent commitment of future crimes by the potential offenders. Severe punishment acts as psychological negative stimulant to avoidance of the crime. Nevertheless, application of retributive justice will infringe the rights of the citizens especially the juvenile who are life sentenced without parole. These persons will be denied an opportunity for proper development. Application of retributive justice can be just or unjust depending on the situation when the justice is administered. Taking the situation of Karla Faye Tucker, corrective justice as an alternative theory to retributive justice demands that there should be fair compensation to the offender and the victim of a crime without gain for either side. Nevertheless, the victim of Karla had died and could not be compensated. In this regard, corrective justice requires correctional measures to be taken
Friday, October 4, 2019
Illegal Immigration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1
Illegal Immigration - Essay Example The federal government, to no oneââ¬â¢s surprise, has been no help. The fundamental reason for the flood of immigration from Latin America, specifically Mexico, is the disintegration of the Mexican economy predominantly resulting from free-trade strategies employed by the North American Free Trade Agreement and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The rampant corruption within the Mexican government has also contributed significantly to the collapse of the Mexican economy. ââ¬Å"Due to IMF policies regarding Mexico, its economic output dropped 33 percent in the past two decadesâ⬠(Small, 2005). During this period, its foreign debt rose 359 percent because of widespread looting of the national coffers. These factors caused the ââ¬Å"collapse of all areas of productive economic activity and employment, is the primary driver of the flood of emigrants desperate to leave Mexico, to find some livelihood for themselves and their families in the United Statesâ⬠(Small, 2005). Stopping immigration into the U.S. from Mexico would further cripple the Mexican economy as evidenced by data collected from the Gallup World Poll. ââ¬Å"Thirty-two percent of Mexican respondents in the Dec., 2005 poll claim to have relatives living abroad, and 15percent of those say their households receive a monthly cash aid from such relatives.â⬠(Rios, Crabtree, 2006) According to the poll, approximately five percent of Mexican households, about 20 million people, obtain financial aid from relatives who immigrated to the U.S. Ending this flow of this greatly needed money southward would be harmful for poor Mexican citizens living in depressed city and rural regions. Obviously Mexicans take immigration laws and American attitudes towards immigration personally, how could they not? They do not understand what harm illegal immigration causes for Americans. ââ¬Å"Mexicans believe that migration benefits not only the home countries and the families of
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Applied linguistics Essay Example for Free
Applied linguistics Essay Applied linguistics 1 History The term applied linguistics dates back at least to the 1940s in the USA when linguists applied analytical methods to the practical problems of producing grammars and phrasebooks and developing language courses. 2 What Is Applied Linguistics? Applied linguistics: (1) was interdisciplinary, drawing on psychology, sociology, and pedagogy as well as theoretical linguistics; (2) included a range of fields including lexicography, stylistics, speech pathol ogy, translation, language policy, and planning among others; (3) performed a mediating function between theory and practice. à pplied linguistics must take into consideration the nature of language and the nature of the particular world in which language is used, the beliefs, social institutions, and culture of its users, and how these influence language use. Ideally, the job of an applied linguist is to diagnose a problem in real-world language use, bring the insights of linguistics to bear on the problem, and suggest solutions. 3 Relation of Theory and Practice: the Case of Language Teaching The applied linguist stands at the intersection of theory and practice, but it is not always clear how the applied linguist mediates between the two. This suggests a one-way street in which theory is at the starting point, and the applied linguist directs traffic from theory to practice. Influenced by structuralism in linguistics and by behaviorism in psychology, applied linguists believed that language was a collection of discrete learnable structures, speaking was primary, and learning a language was a matter of correct habit formation. To inculcate correct habits, teachers drilled students incessantly in correct pronunciation and patterned practice of grammatical structures. Under the influence of the theoretical work of Noam Chomsky, appliedà linguists saw language learning as a cognitive process of hypothesis testing, in which errors indicated the stage of the language learnerââ¬â¢s interlanguage. Instead, knowing a language means knowing how to communicate in the language; it involves acquiring ââ¬Å"communicative competence. â⬠A richer model of the relationship among theory, practice, and applied linguistics sees it as a two-way street in which the applied linguist directs traffic from theory into practice and from practice into theory. Similarly in applied linguistics, practice provides a testing ground for theory,à but it is more than that: real-world language use provides new questions and issues requiring new theories. 4 Recent Range of Inquiry Nevertheless, the central characteristics of applied linguistics remain: (1) focus on contextualized language use; (2) application of theory to practice and vice versa; (3) practical problem-based approach; (4) multidisciplinary perspective. 4. 1 Second language teaching and cross-cultural linguistics 2Accurate description of language use with the ultimate goal of teaching has motivated research in cross-cultural discourse and pragmatics. Concentration onà spoken language, combined with speech act theory among others, has engendered numerous research projects in applied linguistics investigating specific speech acts such as making requests and apologies in different languages and cultures. Applied linguists have examined the development of pragmatic competence in second language learners and the possibilities for teaching pragmatics. 4. 2 Language use in context: contributions of discourse analysis Outside the area of language pedagogy, the burgeoning of discourse analysis has provided a means whereby linguistic insight can be applied to real-world situations. Other institutional and professional settings, too, have come under scrutiny from applied linguists using theoretical constructs to explain how language is used in real-world settings such as commerce, employment, and public services. A field that has developed considerably in recent years in response to societal concerns is the investigation of language and gender. Recent empirical studies have enriched understanding of the interrelationship of language and gender and demonstrated that generalizations about male and female speech are unreliable when the particular communicative contexts in which the speech occurs have not been examined. Other work has examined gender and language cross-culturally and in specific institutional settings. 4. 3 Language maintenance and endangered languages and dialects The work of applied linguists on endangered or minority languages and dialects brings together field linguistics, anthropology, sociolinguistics and education. For example, a longitudinal study of language use and cultural context draws together sociolinguistic research into language use, research in language socialization, and second language acquisition research into educational discourse. It is not only minority languages that are under threat, but also dialects. 2. Contemporary linguistic approaches: Clinical, forensic, computational linguistics ( à ²Ã'â¹Ã'â¡Ã ¸Ã' à »Ã ¸Ã'âà µÃ »Ã'Å'à ½Ã °Ã' )( 29, 30, 25) We have chosen to focus on four relatively popular areas of inquiry: â⬠¢ syntactic parsing; â⬠¢ discourse analysis; â⬠¢ computational morphology and phonology; â⬠¢ corpus-based methods. Parsing and discourse analysis have had the longest continuous history of investigation. Computational morphology and phonology began to grow as a separate discipline in the mid-1980s. Corpus-based approaches were investigated as early as the 1960s. 1 Parsing (Ã'â¬Ã °Ã ·Ã ±Ã ¾Ã'â¬) Parsing is the act of determining the ââ¬Å"syntactic structureâ⬠of a sentence. The goal is to represent ââ¬Å"who did what to whomâ⬠in the sentence. Parsing involves tagging 3the words with an appropriate syntactic category and determining their relationships to each other. Words are grouped into phrase-like constituents, which are arranged into clauses and sentences. Machine translation systems employ parsing to derive representations of the input that are sufficient for transfer from the source to target language at either the syntactic or semantic level. A great deal of attention to the application of syntactic parsing models for language modeling for automatic speech recognition. 2 Discourse Analysis. The area of discourse analysis is concerned with inferring the intended meanings of utterances. In order for the dialogue participants to successfully carry out a dialogue, they must be able to recognize the intentions of the other participantââ¬â¢s utterances, and to produce their responses in such a way that will enable the other participant(s) to recognize their intentions. A recipe is a generic template for performing a particular action. The recipe library contains a collection of generic recipes, and during discourse understanding, the plan inference module attempts to infer utterance intentions and relationships usingà information provided by this library. 3 Computational Morphology and Phonology Roughly speaking, the topics can be classified into computational morphology, which treats the analysis of word structure; and computational phonology, which, deals with the changes in sound patterns that take place when words are put together. 4 Corpus-based Methods The word corpus in linguistics is typically a collection of texts. Corpora have been widely used by linguists to identify and analyze language phenomena, and to verify or refute claims about language. However, a corpus also reveals importantà quantitative information about the distribution of various language phenomena. 29 Clinical Linguistics Clinical linguistics is the application of the linguistic sciences to the study of language disability. 1 Identifying Linguistic Symptoms Attention has now come to be focused on important symptoms of language disability, and to those aspects of the problem which have been ignored or misdiagnosed. ââ¬Å"Less noticeableâ⬠refers to any feature other than the audible qualities of pronunciation, the order and omission of surface grammatical elements, and the actual items which constitute vocabulary. These features excludeà most of the properties of phonological systems, the sense relations between lexical items, the constraints operating on discourse in interaction, and the many ramifications of underlying syntactic structure. All of these play a major part in identifying the various kinds of language disability. The use of a clinical linguistic frame of reference has also enabled people to make progress in identifying disorders of language comprehension. That requires careful testing and the controlling of variables. Disorders of a pragmatic kind, likewise, 4 have often remained undiagnosed, or have been misdiagnosed as problems of aà psychological or social behavioral type. 2 The Role of Clinical Linguistics 2. 2 Description A major area of clinical linguistic research has been to provide ways of describing and analyzing the linguistic behavior of patients, and of the clinicians and others who interact with them. 2. 3 Diagnosis An important aim of clinical linguistics is to provide a classification of patient linguistic behaviors. This can provide an alternative diagnostic model, and one which is more able to provide insights about intervention in cases where there is no clear evidence of any medical condition. 2. 4 Assessment (à ¾Ã'â à µÃ ½Ã ºÃ °). Clinical linguistics has also been much involved in devising more sophisticated assessments of abnormal linguistic behavior. A diagnosis tells us what is ââ¬Å"wrongâ⬠with a patient; an assessment tells us just how seriously the patient is ââ¬Å"wrong. â⬠2. 5 Intervention The ultimate goal is to formulate hypotheses for the remediation (à ¾Ã ·Ã ´Ã ¾Ã'â¬Ã ¾Ã ²Ã »Ã µÃ ½Ã ¸Ã µ) of abnormal linguistic behavior. Not all aspects of a patientââ¬â¢s problem are directly relevant to the need for linguistically based intervention, clinical linguistics can help clinicians to make an informed judgment about ââ¬Å"what to teach next,â⬠and to monitor the outcome of an intervention hypothesis, asà treatment proceeds. To a large extent, moving well beyond the patientââ¬â¢s language, to include an investigation of the language used by the person(s) carrying out the intervention, the kind of teaching materials used, and the setting in which the interaction takes place. 3 Linguistic Insights The chief aim of clinical linguistics is to provide the clinician with increasing levels of insight and confidence in arriving at linguistic decisions. The three pillars of any clinical linguistic approach: description ââ¬â grading ââ¬â intervention. All change needs to be regularly monitored, to demonstrate that progress is being made ââ¬â thisà is the task of assessment. The keeping of comprehensive linguistic records is a further priority, without which the efficacy of intervention can never be demonstrated. Forensic Linguistics Now linguists also have begun examining voice identification, authorship of written documents, unclear jury instructions, the asymmetry of power in courtroom exchanges, lawyerââ¬âclient communication breakdown, the nature of perjury, problems in written legal discourse, defamation, trademark infringement, courtroom interpretation and translation difficulties, the adequacy of warningà labels, and the nature of tape recorded conversation used as evidence. 1 Trademark Infringement Typically, they respond to requests of attorneys to help them with their law cases. 2 Product Liability 5But the linguist, calling on knowledge of discourse analysis, semantics, and pragmatics, can determine the extent to which the message was clear and unambiguous and point out the possible meanings that the message presents. Once this is done, it is up to the attorney to determine whether or not to ask the linguist to testify at trial. 3 Speaker Identification Linguists have been used by attorneys in matters of voice identification. If the tapes are of sufficient quality, spectographic analysis is possible. If not, the linguist may rely on training and skills in phonetics to make the comparison. 4 Authorship of Written Documents Law enforcement agencies process provide a ââ¬Å"psychological profileâ⬠of the person. Calling on knowledge of language indicators of such things as regional and social dialect, age, gender, education, and occupation, linguists analyze documents for broad clues to the identity of the writer. Stylistic analysis centers on a writerââ¬â¢s habitual language features over which the writer has little or no conscious awareness. 5 Criminal Cases Suspects are recorded with court authorized wire taps placed that none of the speakers is aware of being taped, or by using body microphones and engage suspects in conversation. If the law enforcement agency is concerned about the adequacy of the language evidence that they have gathered, they may call on a linguist to make transcripts of the conversations, analyze them. The tape recorded conversation itself points to the use of the other tools of the forensic linguist, including syntax, morphology, semantics, pragmatics, dialectology, and discourse analysis. 3. Discourse analysis (17) Discourse analysis is concerned with the contexts in and the processes through which we use oral and written language to specific audiences, for specific purposes, in specific settings. 1 What Is Discourse? A Preliminary Characterization The big D concerns general ways of viewing the world and general ways of behaving, the small d concerns actual, specific language use. Discourse analysis emphasizes that language is not merely a self-contained system of symbols but a mode of doing, being, and becoming. Discourse research can be divided into 2 major types of inquiries: (1) why some but not other linguistic forms are used onà given occasions and (2) what are the linguistic resources for accomplishing various social, affective, and cognitive actions and interactions. 2 Communicative Motivations for the Selection of Linguistic Forms Language is inseparable from other aspects of our life and that the selection of linguistic forms should be explained in terms of authentic human communicative needs (i. e. , social, interactional, cognitive, affective needs). 2. 1 Context 6One of the first questions is what is happening in this stretch of talk, who the participants are, where they are, and why they are there. Linguistic choices areà systematically motivated by contextual factors. Context is a complex of 3 dimensions: First, the field of social action in which the discourse is embedded. Second, the set of role relations among the participants. And third, the role of language in the interaction. In this view, language is a system of choices made on the basis of a contextual configuration which accounts for field, tenor, and mode. 2. 3 Speech act What kind of speech act utterance is and whether this act is accomplished through direct or indirect means. Speech act theory says that language is used not only to describe things but to do things as well. Further, utterances act on 3 different levels: the literal level (locutionary act), the implied level (illocutionary act), and the consequence of the implied act (perlocutionary act). 2. 4 Scripts / plans Script is to describe the knowledge that we have of the structure of stereotypical event sequences. If such knowledge can be described in a formal way, then we may have a theory of how humans process natural language. 2. 5 Referentiality How entities (à »Ã ¸Ã'â à °) are referred to in utterances. Some analysts are interested in how referential forms make a stretch of discourse cohesive in form and coherent in meaning. 2. 6 Topicality and thematicity What is an utterance about, what is the starting point of a message, what is the focus of a message. Topic the part of the utterance about which something is said. Prague School linguists developed the functional sentence perspective which says that word order has to do with how informative each element in the utterance is ââ¬â communicative dynamism, or CD. A sentence begins with elements with the lowest CD and ends with those with the highest CD. Theme is the part of the utterance with the lowest degree of CD. 2. 7 Sequential organization The sequential context of the utterance. Discourse analysts have sought to explain linguistic choices in terms of ethnographic contexts, knowledge structure, rhetorical organization, communicative intentions, textual organization, information management and sequential organization, among others. Discourse Analysis, Linguistics, and More Discourse analysts research various aspects of language not as an end in itself, but as a means to explore ways in which language forms are shaped by and shape the contexts of their use. Further, discourse analysis draws upon not only linguistics, but also anthropology, sociology, psychology, philosophy, cognitive science, andà other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences concerned with human communication. Discourse analysis promotes a view of language which says that 7 Resource Center Saved Recents Uploads My Answers Account Products Home Essays Drive Answers Texty About Company Legal Site Map Contact Us Advertise à ©2016 StudyMode. com HOMEà ESSAYSà LINGUISTICSà LINGUISTICS Linguistics Applied linguistics, Discourse analysis, Language By maor87 Apr 17, 2015 6489Words 150Views More info PDF View Text View PAGE8 OF 18 language use is not only reflective of other aspects of our lives but is also constitutive of them. As it draws insights from various disciplines, it also contributes to interfacing linguistics with other domains of inquiries, such that we might now investigate the construction of culture through conversation or program computers to generate interactive texts based on our understanding of the rules and principles of human interaction. It focusses on language as it is used by real people with real intentions, emotions. 4. Linguistics and pragmatics (16) The Puzzle of Language Use: How Do We Ever Understand Each Other? Pragmatics is the study of communication ââ¬â the study of how language is used. This study is based on the assumption of a division between knowledge of language and the way it is used; and the goal of pragmatics is providing a set of principles which dictate how knowledge of language and general reasoning interact in the process of language understanding, to give rise to different kinds of effects which can be achieved in communication. Pragmatics as the Application of Conversational Principles to Sentence Meanings The starting point for studies in pragmatics is the mismatch between what words ââ¬Å"mean, and what speakers ââ¬Å"meanâ⬠by using them. There is the knowledge ofà language, which dictates the meanings of words and the ways in which they can combine. This is called the encoded meaning. On the other hand, there are pragmatic principles which enable a hearer to establish some different interpretation ââ¬â the nonencoded part of meaning. Moreover, given the full array of rhetorical effects such as metaphor, irony, etc. , all of which are uses of expressions in context in some sense, the proposed approach maintains a natural separation between literal uses of words, which are reflected in sentence-meanings, and the various non-literal uses to which they may be put. Knowledge of language: sentence-meanings as partial specifications of interpretation The problem for this ââ¬Å"cleanâ⬠view is that we use commonsense reasoning, whatever this consists in, not merely in working out why a speaker has said something, but also in establishing what she has said in using the words chosen. The overall picture of interpretation is that grammar-internal principles articulate both syntactic and semantic structure for sentences, a semantic structure for a sentence being an incomplete specification of how it is understood. Pragmatic theory explains how such incomplete specifications are enriched in context to yieldà the full communicative effect of an uttered sentence, whether metaphorical, ironical, and so on. The Process of Reasoning: How Do Hearers ever Manage to Choose the Right Interpretation? Griceââ¬â¢s cooperative principle and the conversational maxims According to Grice who was the pioneer of the inferential approach to conversation, there is a general assumption underpinning all utterance interpretation that the interpretation of utterances is a collaborative enterprise. This 8collaborative enterprise is structured by a number of maxims, which speakers are presumed to obey: â⬠¢ The maxim of quality: do not say that for which you lack evidence; do not say what you believe to be false. â⬠¢ The maxim of relevance: be relevant. â⬠¢ The maxim of quantity: make your contribution as informative as is required, but not more so. â⬠¢ The maxim of manner: be perspicuous (avoid obscurity, avoid ambiguity, be brief, be orderly). Grice articulated the maxims as a means of simplifying the overall account of the relation between the use of language in logical arguments and the conversational use of language. Relevance theory This theory claims to characterize pragmatic phenomena in terms of a singleà cognitive concept, that of relevance, replacing the social underpinnings of Griceââ¬â¢s cooperative principle. The principle of relevance Optimal relevance is getting the right balance between size and type of context and amount of information derived. The more information some stimulus yields, the more relevant it is said to become, but the more effort the interpretation of that stimulus requires, the less relevant it will become. And to be minimally relevant a stimulus must lead to at least one non-trivial inference being derived. However interpretation of an act of communication involves two agents ââ¬â theà speaker and the hearer. The constraint of balancing cognitive effect with cognitive effort will also apply to what the hearer does, but here the task of interpretation is more specific because the hearer has to try and recover what the speaker intended to convey. There are two aspects to the task: 1 Decoding the information associated with an uttered expressionââ¬â i. e. working out what words have been said and the information that they by definition carry. 2 Making choices which enrich that encoded information to establish what the speaker had intended to convey using those words. Relevance and speech actsà On the speech act view of language, language can best be understood in terms of acts such as these which speakers carry out in using language. The observation by speech act theorists that there is more to language than just describing things is quite uncontentious. Nonetheless, in relevance theory, where the type of implications that can be drawn is quite unrestricted, there is no need of any special discrete categories for such different kinds of act. 5. Linguistic typology and its directions (14) 1 The Diversity of Human Languages The field of linguistic typology explores the diversity of human language in anà effort to understand it. The basic principle behind typology is that one must look at as wide a range of languages as possible in order to grasp both the diversity of 9language and to discover its limits. Typology uses a fundamentally empirical, comparative, and inductive method in the study of language. That is, typologists examine grammatical data from a wide variety of languages, and infer generalizations about language from that data. The basic discovery of typology is that there are limits to linguistic diversity. By comparing diverse languages and discovering universal grammatical patterns, one can attempt to disentangle what isà universal about the grammars languages from what is peculiar to each individual language. 2 The Nature of Language Universals: Word Order One of the first areas of grammar where it was recognized that there are limits to grammatical diversity was the order of words. Word order is probably the most immediately salient difference in grammatical patterns from one language to the next. First, one must examine a sample of languages in order to infer the range of grammatical diversity and its limits. A variety sample collects as broad a range of languages as possible from different geographical areas and different geneticà groupings. Its purpose is to ensure that all possible language types are identified. Second, one must be able to identify phenomena from one language to the next as comparable. The basic problem here is the great variety of grammatical structures used in the worldââ¬â¢s languages. The solution to this problem is due to another insight of structuralism: the basic unit of the language is the sign, a form that conventionally expresses or encodes a meaning. The basis for cross-linguistic comparison is a particular linguistic meaning; once that is identified, we may examine the different structures used to encode that meaning. Third, we must identify a range of grammatical patterns or types used to express the linguistic meaning being examined, and classify languages according to what type(s) is / are used in them. For instance, in describing word order of the sentence, the relative position of subject (S), object (O), and verb (V) are used to classify language types. Language structure is determined by factors of language use, such as processing. Language structure is also determined by historical relationships among grammatical patterns, which themselves are due to similarity in meaning. However, these factors do not uniquely determine a language structure, butà compete with each other. Speech communities resolve the competing motivations in arbitrary, language-particular ways; this leads to the diversity of languages found in the world. 3 Language Universals and the Formal Encoding of Meaning Word order universals appear to be motivated in terms of processing of linguistic structure in the act of producing and comprehending language. Word order is a fundamental grammatical property of sentences. 3. 1 Typological markedness and morphological representation 10Some of the earliest work in typology examined the coding of grammatical andà lexical concepts in inflected word forms. The universals go under the name of (typological) markedness. Typological markedness represents an asymmetric pattern of the expression of meaning in grammatical categories across languages. Typological markedness has two central characteristics. First, typological markedness is a property of conceptual categories ââ¬â e. g. singular and plural ââ¬â or more precisely, how those conceptual categories are expressed in languages. For number, the singular is unmarked and the plural is marked. Second, unmarked status does not imply that the unmarked member is always left unexpressed and the marked member is always expressed by an overt morpheme. The presence / absence of an overt inflection encoding a conceptual category is only one symptom of markedness, namely structural coding. Typological markedness is found in another aspect of the coding of concepts in words and constructions. Most words in sentences express more than one conceptual category. Pronouns in English, for instance, can express gender as well as number. In English, neither the singular nor plural pronouns express number by a separate inflection; instead number is implicitly expressed by distinct forms such as he andà they. The grammatical coding of additional, cross-cutting, distinctions in the singular but not in the plural is an example of the second symptom of markedness, called behavioral potential. Behavioral potential is also represented by an implicational universal: If the marked member of a category grammatically expresses a crosscutting distinction, so does the unmarked member. A third property of typological markedness points to its underlying explanation. The unmarked member is more frequent than the marked member in language use. Concepts that occur more frequently in language use (e. g. singular) will tend to be expressed by fewer morphemes than less frequently occurring concepts (e. g. plural). This explanation for how meaning is encoded in grammatical form is a processing explanation, called economy or economic motivation. 3. 2 Hierarchies and conceptual spaces We can describe the cross-linguistic distribution of plural markings across classes of pronouns and nouns with the animacy hierarchy. The hierarchy is a succinct way to capture a chain of implicational universals: if any class of words has a plural, then all the classes to the left (or higher) on the hierarchy have a plural. Theseà patterns are defined over a conceptual space. The conceptual space describes a network of relationships among conceptual categories which exist in the human mind and which constrains how conceptual categories are expressed in grammar. Grammatical change must follow the links in conceptual space. For instance, a plural marking spreads from left to right in the animacy space. Conceptual spaces specify what grammatical category groupings are found in, and how constructions spread (or retreat) over time in their application to grammatical categories. If we compare absence vs. presence of case marking on nouns for the grammaticalà 11 relations hierarchy, we find that absence of case marking occurs at he higher end of the hierarchy, and presence thereof at the lower end of the hierarchy. The grammatical relations hierarchy also defines the distribution of verb agreement across languages. Verb agreement is associated with the higher end of the grammatical relations hierarchy ââ¬â the ability to trigger verb agreement indicates the greater behavioral potential of the grammatical relation. These facts demonstrate that the two grammatical relations hierarchies in fact reflect a deeper cross-linguistic universal pattern, found in many different parts of the grammar of languages. 3. 3 Economy and iconicity Economic motivation: the more frequently used category is more likely to be reduced in expression or left unexpressed. Iconic motivation the structure of language reflects the structure of concepts. In the example, each conceptual category, both singular and plural, are overtly encoded in the word form. A subtype of iconicity called isomorphism: the correspondence between forms and meanings. There are two ways in which isomorphism occur in human languages. The first way is in the correspondence of forms and meanings in the combination of words and inflections in a sentence. This is called syntagmatic isomorphism. Economic and iconic motivation compete to produce the range of attested and unattested correspondences between form and meaning. There are 3 predicted patterns. Overt expression is iconically motivated: there is a one-to-one correspondence between meanings and forms. However, it is only moderately economically motivated: it is more economical than expressing a meaning with more than one word or morpheme, but less economical than not expressing the meaning at all. Non-expression of a particular meaning, such as the singular of English nouns like car-O (vs.plural book-s), is economically motivated: zero expression breaks one-to-one correspondence between forms and meanings. The third possible option, zero marking of both singular and plural, corresponds to the absence of expression of the category. This option is economically motivated: either the meaning can be inferred from context, or it is not relevant to the communication. There is another economically motivated pattern of expressing meaning in form: the combination or fusion of discrete meanings in a single form. For example, the suffix -s in English run-s indicates 3rd person subject, singularà subject and present tense, all in a single suffix. In other languages, inflectional categories are found in separate suffixes, as in Turkish. The second type of isomorphism is the correspondence between form and meaning in the inventory of words stored in the mind; paradigmatic isomorphism. 12The possible means of expression of meanings in words are limited by economy and iconicity. Unmotivated possibility: the existence of more than one word with the same meaning, synonymy. It is not iconically motivated. A one-to-one match between a word and a meaning is called monosemy. It isiconic ally motivated but not that economically motivated: we would need very many words to express each discrete meaning. Homonymy is economically motivated, but it is not iconically motivated (many unrelated meanings are expressed by a single form). By far the most common state of affairs in languages, however, is polysemy: the grouping of related meanings under a single form. Polysemy is economically motivated because it subsumes several meanings under a single form, as with homonymy. It is iconically motivated, because the meanings are related. 4 The Dynamic Approach to Language Universals The most common word.
Wednesday, October 2, 2019
Rheumatoid Arthritis Physiology
Rheumatoid Arthritis Physiology Introduction Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is defined as a chronic, autoimmune condition that affects 400,000 people in the UK (Cooney et al. 2010). It is both bilateral and symmetrical in pattern and is typically presented in individuals between 30 to 50 years with females being more afflicted than men (Cooney et al. 2010). Although, RA is of unknown aetiology, causes are said to be both genetic and environmental in nature (Abhishek et al.2010). More specifically, inflammation, inactivity and loss of mechanical stability around joints plays a role in causing pain, stiffness and swelling of multiple joints. Consequently, long-term effects of RA been associated with reduced muscle strength (Ekbolm et al. 1974) and aerobic capacity (Minor et al. 1988). Currently, there is no cure for RA and therefore, management emphasizes on decreasing symptoms and promoting quality of life through either Drug Modifying Anti-Rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) or physiotherapy (Arthritis Research, UK). Indeed, DMARDs are a first line treatment for RA; however, not everyone responds adequately to DMARDs (Smolen and Keystone, 2012) and RA patients usually refrain from using this due to the potential occurrence of life-threatening side-effects (Kinder et al. 2005). Today, physiotherapy for those with RA consist of many passive interventions such as patient education, delivery of heat or cold, massage and electro-magnetic energy (Wasserman,2011). However, despite earlier fear of aggravation of symptoms, increased disease activity and joint damage, there is now scientific evidence showing that exercise is safe and beneficial; making it an imperative part of rehabilitation (Stenstrom and Minor, 2003). Specifically, the most valued by RA patients is Hydrotherapy treatment (Hall et al. 1996) due to its ability to alleviate symptoms suddenly through exercising in water. The use of water properties such as buoyancy and warm temperatures enables patients to move freely through decreased weight bearing on joints, increased range of motion and reduced pain (Campion, 1997). Although, Hydrotherapy is growing significantly in popularity, literature in regards to the effectiveness of Hydrotherapy for RA has not been evaluated adequately. For example, Eversden et al. (2007) concluded that the Hydrotherapy group reported a greater perceived benefit in comparison to the land-based exercise group after six weeks. Importantly, these authors conducted a fairly well-designed study in that they took some precautions to eliminate bias through true randomization and concealment processes. However, these findings were not reflected in the physical functional or pain scores. Alongside this, there was a greater number of participants in the Hydrotherapy group compared to the Land-based group leading to potential biases. Secondly, Hall et al. (1996) found that all groups assessed (Hydrotherapy, Seated Immersion, Land Exercise and Progressive Relaxation) demonstrated joint tenderness and pain relief. However, Hydrotherapy presented the most improvements (26% mean decrease) after 4 weeks treatment. This study demonstrates strengths over Eversden et al. (2007) in that they had assessed disease activity rather than just improvements in functionality. However, it was not clearly stated whether or not improvements in Hydrotherapy group were statistically significant and treatment dosage, if longer (>4 weeks) could have produced a greater therapeutic effect. Thirdly, Bilberg and Mannerkorpi (2005) found significant improvements in muscle function and endurance of upper and lower extremities and grip force. However, this was not supported by an increase in aerobic capacity as indicated by their hypothesis and primary outcome measure (Cycle Ergometer Test; Astrand 2006). Unlike, Eversden et al. (2007) and Hall (1996) this study reported intensity of exercise (70% of HR) and addressed longer term effects (12 weeks). However, sample size was small (46 patients) and temperature of pool was not specified, making it difficult to generalise data. Overall, there was inadequate reporting of depth, temperature of pool, type and intensity of exercises. Although, outcome measures differed between studies, they were appropriate for use (Al-Qubaiessy et al). Therefore, there is some evidence showing that Hydrotherapy plays a role in reducing pain (Hall et al. 1996). Finally, this highlights the importance of using standardised exercise procedures, longer term-interventions especially as RA is a chronic condition. This will help in making specific recommendations. Therefore, in accordance to PICO, my research question is The long term effects of using specific Hydrotherapy exercise protocols: Aqua-Aerobics Programme and The Bad-Ragaz Ring Methods for RA. A randomized Controlled Trial. Research Design From a pragmatic viewpoint, a mixed methods approach will be best-suited for this study as pain is a multi-dimensional phenomenon. However, a positivist would argue that this study should be carried out only objectively as this would allow generalizable conclusions to be drawn (Brooms and Willis, 2007). Alongside this, they would argue that researchers are detached from the investigation, thereby reducing bias (Bryman, 2004). Contrastingly, an interpretivist would support a qualitivate approach which would allow greater and richer insight into patients perceptions of pain (Bryman, 2001). Therefore, yielding both qualitative and quantitative data will help increase findings and reliability of results (Bryman, 2004). For example, this study will be able to assess the subjective nature of pain whilst still observing the relation between pain and disease activity objectively. Thus, taking this stance, will allow to address the biopsychosocial approach rather just a biomedical model of care objectively (Engel, 1977). Finally, an experimental, embedded design will be used in this study. Alternatively, an interpretivist would use a case-study that assesses an individuals experiences; this will have high ecological validity but lacks the ability to produce generalizable conclusions.Ãâà By employing a multi-faceted approach, it will strengthen causal inferences by providing the opportunity to observe data convergence or divergence in hypothesis testing (Abowitz and Tool, 2010). Research Method In line with Rogers et al. (2003), the embedded experimental design utilised in this study will involve a two-phase sequential approach (Creswell et al. 2005). This will include qualitative analysis carried out before intervention to inform the development of the treatment and after to help explain treatment outcomes (Figure 1). Figure 1: Experimental Embedded Design. (Creswell 2005). Alongside this, an RCT will be used. In accordance to the hierarchy of evidence an RCT is suggested to be one of the most powerful in research (Akobeng, 2005) due to its ability to reduce risk of bias and systematic error (Bryman, 2004; Suresh, 2011). Contrastingly, a cross-over design would be difficult due potential carry-over effects even with a washout period (Saks and Allsop, 2013). Intervention Details The CONSORT statement will be used in order to enhance completeness and transparency of the study (Schulz et al. 2010). For example, attrition bias will be reduced through reporting drop-outs and reasons for this will also be included (Schulz et al. 2010). Reporting of eligibility criteria is essential to determine whether results can be applied to others in the same condition (Bluml et al. 2011).Ãâà In this instance, patients (men and women) aged 18+ (in line with the American College of Rheumatology) with chronic RA who meet Steinbrocker Functional Class I, II, or III (Steinbrocker, 1949) will be recruited from NHS outpatient settings in the West Midlands. Those who sustain a steady drug intake for 30 days in relation to Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) 3 months and DMARDs will be included in the trial. Although injections and corticoid injections in the 4 weeks leading up to the study will not be permitted, drug changes and injections will be during; this reflects the pragmatic nature of this study. Consequently, recruiting in this manner will increase ecological validity as it represents a real-world situation (Broom and Willis, 2007). Those, which have received physiotherapy treatment within 30 days of assessment will be excluded in order to avoid any carry over effects. Also, patients who have had joint-replacement surgery within the last 6 months will be excluded. Likewise, contraindications of exercise and immersion in water needs to be taken into account (e.g. patients with uncontrolled epilepsy or fear of water) will also be excluded. It is true that greater exclusion criteria can reduce generalisability of results. However, such steps have to be taken in order to eliminate occurrence of confounding data which could potentially have a negative impact on the results of the clinical trial (Broom and Willis, 2007) Group Details Patients will be randomized using sealed opaque envelopes with treatment allocation. Random sequence of numbers will be established through flipping a virtual coin (Eversden et al. 1996) to either: Hydrotherapy 1 (Aqua Aerobics Group) (Eccentric, Concentric Exercises). Hydrotherapy 2 (The Bad Ragaz-Ring Group). Home-Exercise group that continue with daily activities. Unlike previous research (e.g. Hall 1996; Eversden et al. 1996), this study will consider intensity at moderate level (70%) as it has been shown to demonstrate physiological improvements (Astrand, 1986); assessed via a heart rate monitor throughout sessions. Additionally, depth of pool will be just under chest height whereby 50%+ of bodyweight is offloaded through buoyancy and hydrostatic pressure has been suggested to reduce swelling at this level (Becker, 2009). Importantly, temperature will range from 33.5-35.5 degrees which is safe and sufficient enough to produce therapeutic benefits (Becker, 2009). Finally, treatment dosage will be twice a week consisting of 30 minute sessions for a 20 week period. This will address longer-term effects. Outcome Measures A research assistant blinded to the treatment allocations will evaluate the outcomes measures in order to reduce detection bias. Bilberg and Mannerkorpi (2005) used a C Reactive Protein (CRP) (i.e. higher levels demonstrates active inflammation) in order to test assess disease activity. However, it is said that more than 40% of RA patients have normal CRP levels (Sokka and Pincus, 2009), thus decreasing validity and clinical applicability. Therefore, this study will use Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) as the primary objective measure due its ability to present visual aspects of inflammation within the synovial membrane; shown to be a superior method and very relevant for RA (e.g. ÃËstergaard, 2009) (Figure 1). This will be taken, baseline and post treatment for all groups. Secondary outcome measures will include Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) (Figure 1) assessed on a 10cm scale, whereby 0cm indicates no pain. This is widely used to assess rheumatic diseases and a number of studies have established data showing that VAS results are very reproducible (e.g. Dixon and Bird, 1981).Ãâà Other physical measures will include the Ritchie Articular Index in order to assess joint tenderness; intra-reliability of this test has been shown to be acceptable (Levy and Dick, 1975) and is easy to perform. Finally, aerobic capacity will be analyzed through a submaximal test in accordance to Astrands Principle (Astrand and Rodahl, 1986); shown to have satisfactory reliability in RA populations (e.g. Mannerkorpi and Ekdahl, 1997). Both of which taken pre-post. Statistical Considerations and Analysis Analysis will be completed via the Fishers exact test and continuous variables by Wilcoxon signed rank tests for within group comparisons. Importantly, data analyses will be completed according to the intention to treat principles. Ethical Considerations In line with Beauchamp and Childress (2001) it will be essential to have respect for autonomy. Respecting this value, means to protect participants through data protection/confidentiality and ensuring they are adequately informed about what is proposed. In order to keep data anonymised personal details of quantitative data sets will be replaced with numbers. Most importantly, informed consent will be obtained before commencing the study to ensure participants are not subject to an intervention they do not want. To further fulfil these requirements, an information sheet for participants will be written which will also state risks as well as what data will be used for. Conclusion The main advantage of this study is that is assesses disease activity on a physiological level objectively and also observes the impacts subjectively via VAS scale; an unpopular approach in the Hydrotherapy literature (E.g. Hall, 1996, Bilberg et al. Eversden et al, 2007). Findings from this study, will hopefully assist in creating structured and standardised exercise programmes that could be used throughout healthcare systems. Finally, limitations of this study include the high costs that are associated with MRI scans and Hydrotherapy facilities. Nevertheless, this will address the longer term effects of Hydrotherapy for RA. Referenced Material Abhishek, A., Butt, S., Gadsby, K., Zhamg, W. Deighton, C.M. (2010). Anti-TNF-alpha agents are less effective for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis in current smokers. Journal of Clinical Rheumatology. 16(1): 15-8. Abowitz, D.A. and Toole, T.M. (2010). Mixed Method Research: Fundamental Issue of Design, Validity, and Reliability in Construction Research. Journal of Construction Engineering and Management. 136 (1). Akobeng, A.K. (2005). Understanding Randomised Controlled Trials. Archives of Disease in Childhood. 90. 840-844. Ãâ¦strand, P.O. Rodahl, K. (1986) Textbook of Work Physiology, 4th edition. New York: McGraw- Hill, 1986. Beauchamp T. and ChildressÃâà (2001). Principles of medical ethics. Fifth Edition. New York: Oxford University Press Becker, B. (2009). Aquatic Therapy: Scientific Foundations and Clinical Rehabilitation Applications. American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. 1. 859-872. Bilberg, A., Ahlmen., M. Mannerkorpi, K. (2005). Moderatley Intensive Execise in a Temperate Pool for Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Randomized Controlled Study. Rheumatology. 44: 502-508. Blumle, A., Meerpohl, J.J., Rucker, G., Antes, G., Schumacher, M. and Elm, E.V. (2011). Reporting of Eligibility Criteria of Randomised Trials: Cohort Study Comparing Trial Protocols with Subsequent Articles. British Medical Journal. 342. 18-28. Broom, A., and Willis, E. (2007). Competing paradigms and health research. In Mike Saks and Judith Allsop (Ed.), Researching health: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods (pp. 16-31) London: Sage. Bryman, A. (2001) Social Research Method, 1st Edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bryman, A. (2004) Social Research Methods. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press Campion, M.R (1997). Hydrotherapy: Princples and Practice. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. 3-24. Cooney, J.K., Law, R.J., Matschke, V., Lemmey, A.B., Moore, J.P., Ahamd, Y., Jones, J.G., Maddison, P. and Thom, J.M. (2011). Benefits of Exercise in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Journal of Aging Research. 1-14. Creswell, J.W., Clark, V.I., Gutmann, M. and Hanson W. (2003). Advanced Mixed Methods Research Designs. In A. Tashakkori, A. and Teddlie, C. (Eds). Handbook of Mixed Methods in Social and Behavioural Research (pp. 209-240). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Dixon, J.S. and Bird, H.A. (1981). Reproducibility along a 10 cm vertical visual analogue scale. Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases. 40. 87-9. Ekblom, B., Lovgren O., Alderin, M., Fridstrom, M. Satterstrom G. (1974). Physical Performance in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis. Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology. 3(3): 121-5. Eversden, L., Maggs, F., Nightingale., P. Jobanputra, P., (2007). A pragmatic randomised controlled trial of hydrotherapy and land exercises on overallÃâà well being and quality of life in rheumatoid arthritis. BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders, 8(1), p.1. Hall, J., Skevington, S.M., Maddison, P.J. Chapman, K., 1996. A randomized and controlled trial of hydrotherapy in rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Rheumatism, 9(3), pp. 206-215. Kinder, A.J., Hassell, A.B., Brand, J., Brownfield, A., Grove, M. and Shadforth, M.F. (2004). The treatment of inflammatory arthritis with methotrexate in clinical practice: treatment duration and incidence of adverse drug reactions. Rheumatology.44 (1): 61-66. Minor, M.A., Hewett, J.E., Webel, R.R., Dreisginer, T.E. Kay, D.R. (1988). Exercise Tolerance and Disease Related Measures in Patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis. The Journal of Rheumatology. 15(6): 905-11. Saks,M. and Allsop,J. (2013) Researching Health: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods. 2nd ed. London: Sage Schulz,K., Altman,D. and Moher,D. (2010) CONSORT 2010 Statement: Updated guidelines for reporting parallel group randomised trials. British Medical Journal, 340:698-702 Smolen, J. and Keystone, E.C. (2012). Rheumatoid Arthritis: Where are we now? Pathogenesis, treatment response and tailored therapy. Rheumatology. 51(5). 18-20. Steinbrocker 0, Traeger C.H. and Batterman RC. (1949). Therapeutic criteria in rheumatoid arthritis. Journal of The American Medical Association. 140: 659-662. Stenstrom, C.H. and Minor, M.A. (2003). Evidence for the benefit of aerobic and strengthening exercise in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Arthritis Care Research. 49(3). 428-434. Sokka, T. and Pincus, T. (2009). Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate, C-Reactive Protein, or Rheumatoid Factor Are Not Normal at Presentration in 35%-45% of patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis Seen Between 1980 and 2004: Analyses from Finland and the United States. The Journal of Rheumatology. 36(7). 1387-1390. Suresh,K. (2011) An overview of randomisation techniques: An unbiased assessment of outcome in clinical research. Journal of Human Reproductive Sciences, 4(1):8-11 Ostergaard, M. (2009). Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Rheumatoid Arthritis. Quantitative methods for assessment of the inflammatory process in peripheral joints: Summary of Thesis. Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology. 28. 265.Ãâà Wasserman, A.M. (2011). Diagnosis and Management of Rheumatoid Arthritis. American Family Physician. 84(11). 1245-1252.
Free Essays - Fatal Flaws in Hamlet -- Shakespeare Hamlet Essays
Fatal Flaws in Hamlet à à à In the ending to Shakespeare's Hamlet, each of the main characters fatal flaws leads them inevitably to their destruction.à The process of the play could not lead one anywhere else but to their ultimate fate.à Claudius is basically an opportunist whose blind ambition erases his moral sense.à à à Gertrude, through the eyes of Hamlet, is to eager to remarry her husbands brother.à Hamlet himself, driven both by his need for vengeance and his inability to act was perhaps as guilty as anyone else in the play because his behavior indirectly resulted in the deaths of Ophelia, Rosencratz and Goldenstein.à In each of these characters, the lack of the firm moral structure leads them in only one direction which is toward their death.à In the ending of the play, then, is both inevitable and fitting given the evidence that precede it. à In the case of Claudius, his actions betray a moral feeling from the start.à Having first murdered his brother in cold blood, he then proceeded ... Free Essays - Fatal Flaws in Hamlet -- Shakespeare Hamlet Essays Fatal Flaws in Hamlet à à à In the ending to Shakespeare's Hamlet, each of the main characters fatal flaws leads them inevitably to their destruction.à The process of the play could not lead one anywhere else but to their ultimate fate.à Claudius is basically an opportunist whose blind ambition erases his moral sense.à à à Gertrude, through the eyes of Hamlet, is to eager to remarry her husbands brother.à Hamlet himself, driven both by his need for vengeance and his inability to act was perhaps as guilty as anyone else in the play because his behavior indirectly resulted in the deaths of Ophelia, Rosencratz and Goldenstein.à In each of these characters, the lack of the firm moral structure leads them in only one direction which is toward their death.à In the ending of the play, then, is both inevitable and fitting given the evidence that precede it. à In the case of Claudius, his actions betray a moral feeling from the start.à Having first murdered his brother in cold blood, he then proceeded ...
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Tourette Syndrome Essay examples -- Biology Essays Research Papers
Tourette Syndrome Tourette syndrome is an inherited severe neurological disorder usually occurring before the age of eighteen and is associated with a degree of facial and body tics sometimes accompanied by random declarations of phrases or obscenities (2,3). The facial and body tics associated with the disorder can be painful and even embarrassing. Involuntary body movements such as jaw snapping, gyrating, hopping, and obscene gesturing are to name a few (1). Tourette Syndrome was named after a French neuropsychiatrist named Gilles de la Tourette who successfully assessed the disorder in the late 1800ââ¬â¢s(3). Tourette Syndrome claims no specific race or ethnicity. The disorder generally can affect any ethnic group yet it does affect three to four times more males than it does females (3). Although just a mere decade ago Tourette Syndrome was frequently misdiagnosed as schizophrenia, Sydenhamââ¬â¢s chorea, epilepsy, or nervous habits, its symptoms are now differentiated and specific case related. Tourette Syndrome is a case sensitive genetic disorder that varies from generation to generation. However, not everyone that carries the genetic make up of Tourette Syndrome will express those symptoms (1). Coined as the term autosomal dominate, when one parent is a carrier or expresses symptoms of having Tourette syndrome, there is a 50/50 chance the child will receive the gene from the parent (1,4). There are several behavioral and cognitive difficulties associated with the tics that many with Tourette Syndrome experience. Although Tourette Syndrome may present itself as a disorder of motor and vocal tics, it is much more complex. Commonly linked with Tourette Syndrome is attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity(A... ...r bodies just canââ¬â¢t control. While we think of behavior as a voluntary physical action, Tourette Syndrome reminds us that it is not. Without proper brain function our behavior can become totally involuntary and have a ââ¬Ëmindââ¬â¢ of its own. Behavior is not a result of a physical bodily movement. Behavior may start in the brain and the type of behavior emitted is thus a result of the manner by which that brain functions. However it is also important to be opened minded and realize that sometimes our bodies can react without direct causation of the brain. Internet Sources: 1)htttp://www.mentalhealth.com/book/p40-gtor.html; Guide to the Diagnosis and Treatment of Tourette Syndrome 2)Dictionary.com/tourette syndrome 3)http://www.tsa-usa.org/; Tourette Syndrome Association, Inc. 4)http://members.tripod.com/~tourette13/; The Facts About Tourette Syndrome
Fundamental Principles to Adult Education Essay
Adult educationââ¬â¢s principal and fundamental principle is to harness and enhance adult individualââ¬â¢s skill and knowledge to be productive contributors to the society. Adult learners are provided then with programs and adult education movement for granting more opportunities for their advancement, as their success is regarded as the societyââ¬â¢s growth as well. Adult learners should be educated not only for increase of knowledge but also for gaining more integral values as they were expected to give more of themselves and contribute in productivity of the society they belong. Fundamental Principles to Adult Education Being a teacher of a particular credit-based community college course is a very serious and tedious task. Since there would be a variety of 35 studentsââ¬â¢ whose age range vary from 17- 70 years old, this would certainly mean aâ⬠big challengeâ⬠for the instructorââ¬â¢s part, in order to teach and provide learning effectively. Malcolm S. Knowles, a prominent writer and instructor, advocated the theory of non-formal (informal) andragogy or adult education in the United States. He taught various principles and wrote numerous detailed accounts discussing on how to facilitate learning especially for the adults. Applying clinical Rogerian psychology in his writings and teaching; in result, he was able to train his students to acquire the attitude of being self-motivated. Furthermore, Knowles initiated the interest for implementation of informal adult education and he differentiated the advantages of the informal education, to the standard, traditional formal education. According to Knowles, formal education are mostly implemented and commonly used in secondary educational schools, commerce schools, and universities; whereas in informal adult education, students are just likely to complete credits on particular vocational or training courses and their classes are to be held on ââ¬Å"community center unions, and other industries and even churches. Moreover, formal education requires that of being stable for completion of long term four-year course or more; when the latter (informal education) serves to be more temporary and flexible. However, it does not mean that informal education is not serious, the system just purports to be flexible enough to meet the needs of the adults who may be busy with their lives (job, family, religious and other activities). And these cases meet the demands of several adults who would want to re-educate themselves and to refresh their knowledge and learning from their vast experience, or to simply increase and gain more knowledge and training from their desires course of interest. In brief, Malcolm Knowles acknowledged the increasing demand and importance of adult education in the present 20th century. Knowles objective of real learning in adults, he emphasizes that an adult learner should acquire self-concept, readiness to learn, experience, orientation towards learning, and especially, the motivation to learn (Smith, 2002). On the other hand, a professor in New Zealand named, T. A. Hunter, also propounded the proliferation and development of an adult education movement. Hunterââ¬â¢s principle of education is grounded on his belief that education is depicted to the successful adjustment of a man to physical and social changes in oneââ¬â¢s environment. His blueprint for adult education is the successful integration of biological, physiological, sociocultural, and cognitive knowledge derived from the informal training or education (Hunter, 1929). Adult education should mainly function to harness and enhance adult individualââ¬â¢s skill and knowledge. Adult learners at the same time should still be given the opportunity for advancement since their success is the societyââ¬â¢s growth as well. Adult learners should be educated not only for increase of knowledge but also for gaining more integral values as they were expected to give more of themselves and contribute in productivity of the society they belong. In addition, this adult education is more of an inspiration among individuals who are in search for more adequate and applicable learning, and is regarded as an opportunity to success with oneââ¬â¢s endeavors and purpose of serving the society (UNESCO, 1960). Fundamental principles of adult education then, should be grounded on the ââ¬Å"realisticâ⬠and objective goal of learning. Education as embedded in the infinite realm of knowledge should be available to everyone regardless of age, sex, race, ethnicity, and culture. Adult education, as it plays a significant role and is the demand of most populace, should be taken seriously to address the learnerââ¬â¢s need for proper, adequate, and effective learning. Moreover, there is a call for the government, to increase attention for the provision of the proper adult education. Increase of funding for the adult learnersââ¬â¢ facilities, venues, and other learning tools is urgent to make this effective learning possible (UNESCO, 1960). References Hunter, T. A. (1929, July 1). Adult education. The New Zealand Railways Magazine, 4, 3. Retrieved from October 13, 2008, from http://www. nzetc. org/tm/scholarly/tei- Gov04_03Rail-t1-body-d7. html Smith, M. (2002) Malcolm Knowles, informal adult education, self-direction and Anadragogy. Tthe encyclopedia of informal Education. Retrieved October 13, 2008, from http://www. infed. org/thinkers/et-knowl. htm UNESCO. (1960). World conference on adult education. Retrieved October 13, 2008, from http://www. unesco. org/education/uie/confintea/montre_e. pdf
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