Second Language Acquisition in Children Essay Example

Second Language Acquisition in Children Essay Why is it so difficult for some children to learn second-languages in school and why do some children, who seem to have learned the language, nonetheless do poorly in their academic work? These questions have long puzzled educators, but they have become more salient in many parts of the world as millions of children enter school each year with limited knowledge of the language of instruction. In Europe and the United States alone it is estimated that ten million children come from families where the language of the home is different from the language of the country in which they live. In many parts of Asia and Africa it is assumed that an educated person will know one or more languages beyond the language of the home. Yet learning a second language in school is a slow and tedious task for most children some of whom never succeed in becoming bilingual (Eckman 21). One reason why children find learning second languages in school difficult may be that they are taught in the wrong way. This is a perennial argument made by educational innovators who periodically announce some new technique that will revolutionize language teaching in school. Indeed, the teaching of second languages is a long and fascinating tale. A brief review of various developments will be presented in this paper. Another reason why children fail to learn second languages well in school relates to understanding of what it is that they have to learn. There may be more to learning a second language in a school setting (especially when that language is the language of instruction) than simply learning how to speak the language well. In addition to the question of what must be learned (the product of learning), there is the question of how learning takes place (the process of learning). The paper will deal with the cognitive and linguistic processes that the child uses in learning a second language. The demands of the classroom What is it that children from minority language backgrounds learning a second language in school need to learn? What language skills are needed for school? What is it that the school demands of the child? How can one characterize the language of the classroom (whether it be a bilingual or a monolingual classroom), and how does this language differ from the language the child has learned to use in natural communication settings? We will write a custom essay sample on Second Language Acquisition in Children specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Second Language Acquisition in Children specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Second Language Acquisition in Children specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer When the six-year-old child comes to school, he or she has mastered the task of learning to communicate in the first language. The child has learned to use language to express needs and feelings within the social context of the everyday life of the home. The classroom presents a new complexity: In some sense, all formal education is bilingual, since the forms and ways of expression of written language never reflect the spoken language exactly. Words, ways of speaking and forms of discourse are used in the school setting which are not used in ordinary conversation and in other nonschool settings. The first aim of formal education since its beginnings in the third millennium B.C. has always been to teach the pupils a written form of language (Ferguson, Houghton, Wells, 1977, p. 159). Just what are the ways of speaking and forms of discourse used in the school? There have been a number of discussions of this issue and different authors have somewhat different terminology to distinguish the language of the home and the language of school. What of children who have to learn ‘the language of school’ in a second language? When the language of instruction is different from the language the child speaks, the child has a dual task. It is not simply a question of learning the formal, academic language of school; the child has to do this in a second language. Some children seem to have no trouble with this dual task; others find it very difficult. One particularly influential hypothesis as to why children succeed or fail in a school where instruction is in a second language is the ‘linguistic interdependence hypothesis,’ proposed by Jim Cummins (1980). According to this hypothesis, the level of competence a child attains in a second language learned in a school context is a function of certain competencies attained in the childs first language. In particular, Cummins suggested that the use of certain functions of language and the development of vocabulary and concepts in the first language are important determinants of success in a school situation where instruction is in a second language (Eckman 78-80). In elaborating on this position, Cummins (1980) suggested that there are three general aspects of a childs knowledge of language that are closely related and that constitute the basic skills that children need to realize positive benefits from a bilingual school experience. The first is what Becker (1977) has called vocabulary-concept knowledge specifically, the childs understanding of the concepts or meanings embodied in words. Obviously, if the child does not have any understanding (or a very limited understanding) of the concepts represented in the words on a printed page, reading comprehension is impaired. A second basic skill involves metalinguistic insights, especially two specific insights: (a) the realization that print is meaningful, and (b) the realization that written language is different from spoken language. The first insight is necessary for the child to be motivated to read; the second helps the child give structure and predictability to written language: Unless the child realizes that written language is different from spoken language, predictions about the meaning of text are likely to be inaccurate. The third prerequisite is the ability to decontextualize language. That is, the child must be able to take language out of its immediate context. This capacity relates to a considerable extent to experiences the child has had before coming to school. Children who have had the experience of being read to are aware that written language is different from spoken language. The processes of second language acquisition What are the mental representations that underpin second language acquisition (SLA)? What is the nature of the mapping processes involved in learning them? To what extent are these representations learned unconsciously? And to what extent are explicit learning or explicit instruction necessary in order to attain native-like competence, fluency, and idiomaticity? SLA in children is the learning of constructions that relate form and meaning. Some constructions and interpretations are much more frequent than others. Fluent speakers of a language implicitly know this and their processing systems are tuned to expect them accordingly. Every element of surface language form is multiply ambiguous in its interpretation, just as every meaning can be expressed in a variety of ways. Fluent language learners are tuned to these mapping strengths: They know implicitly the most likely interpretation of a linguistic cue as well as the relative likelihoods of the range of alternatives and how these ch ange in differing contexts. Their language processing is sensitive to input frequency at all levels of grain: phonology and phonotactics, reading, spelling, lexis, morphosyntax, formulaic language, language comprehension, grammaticality, sentence production, and syntax. Thus, SLA must involve acquisition of the strengths of these associations. The influence of the first language The evidence from research on second language learning in children is that connection between languages is not as inevitable or ubiquitous as was once supposed. Contrastive analysis, in its traditional form, was not able to account for the vast majority of errors that second-language learners made; in fact, learners from quite different language backgrounds appeared to make the same types of mistakes in the target language. Research in the early 1970s (especially Dulay Burt, 1973) suggested that regardless of their first language, children learning English as a second language made similar kinds of mistakes. If, as contrastive analysis supposed, first-language structures were the major source of a second-language learners errors, one would expect that children from such structurally dissimilar first languages as Chinese and Norwegian would make dissimilar mistakes in English. However, the research seemed to indicate that they did not, but instead made the same kinds of errors error s that were similar to those made developmentally by children acquiring English as a first language. Subsequent studies (e.g., Wode, 1978) revealed that transfer from the first language does occur in the speech of children from certain first-language backgrounds and at certain times in the learning process. It is an exaggeration to say that transfer from the first language is minimal and unimportant. The acquisition of phonological, syntactic, and morphological structures in a second language involves an interplay of both developmental and transfer factors. Transfer errors do occur and are extremely interesting for the researcher because of what they reveal about the learners strategies. Nonetheless, the influence of the learners first language is more indirect and restricted than was once supposed. The evidence suggests that preschool children approach the task of second-language learning in much the same way they approached the task of learning their first language. Some authors speak of the reactivation of childrens facility for language acquisition (Corder 76-90) or of a creative construction process (Dulay Burt 89). The idea behind these notions is that children seem to be guided in second-language learning, as in first-language learning, by strategies that cause them to formulate certain types of hypotheses about the language system being learned. They reconstruct the rules for the speech they hear on the basis of these hypotheses, until the mismatch between the target language they are exposed to and their own speech productions is resolved. SLA is the learning of constructions relating form and meaning The task of the language learner is to make sense of language. Understanding is built, or falls, depending on the adequacy of the learners construction set for meanings. Language construction sets are as infinitely combinatorial and creative as are Lego and Meccano, and as limiting also. Without the right piece, the support buckles and the structure crashes. Without preparatory organization and practice, activity focuses on searching for the right block rather than the process of building itself. Less tangible than plastic or metal, the language learners kit consists of constructions that map forms and meanings—the recurrent patterns of linguistic elements that serve some well-defined linguistic function. They may be complex structures, like Lego arches, trucks, or houses. Some frequent, smaller structures, like generic Lego arches, walls, and wheeled axles, are abstract patterns—the noun phrase, the prepositional phrase, and so forth. Others come preformed, like Lego w indows, doors, and beams (where kit frequency inversely relates to beam size)—formulas like â€Å"how are you?†, â€Å"I think Ill†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , â€Å"a great deal of†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , and â€Å"survival of the fittest.† A construction is part of the linguistic system, accepted as a convention in the speech community, and entrenched as grammatical knowledge in the learners mind. Constructions may be complex or simple. Hence, â€Å"morphology, † â€Å"syntax, † and â€Å"lexicon† are uniformly represented in construction grammar, unlike both traditional grammar and generative grammar. Constructions are symbolic: In addition to specifying the defining properties of morphological, syntactic, and lexical form, a construction also specifies the semantic, pragmatic, and discourse functions associated with it. Constructions form a structured inventory of a speakers knowledge of language, in which schematic constructions can be abstracted over the less schematic ones that are inferred inductively by the learner in acquisition. A construction may provide a partial specification of the structure of an utterance. If language is represented as a community of constructions, induced from exemplars and evidencing classic prototype effects, then the understanding of language acquisition can be informed by classic psychological research on category formation, schema learning, and classification. Construction-based theories of child language acquisition (Tomasello 2000) emphasize the piecemeal learning of concrete exemplars and widespread lexical-specificity in LI grammar development. A high proportion of childrens early multiword speech is produced from a developing collection of slot-and-frame patterns based around chunks of one or two words or phrases (e.g., I can + verb; wheres + noun + gone?). Children are very productive with these patterns and both the number of patterns and their structure develop over time. They are, however, lexically specific: A child who consistently uses two patterns, / can + X and / don 7 + X, will typically show little or no overlap in the verbs used in the X slots of these two constructions (Tomasello 2000). Second and foreign language acquisition is different from LI acquisition in numerous respects. First, it differs in conceptual development: In child language acquisition, knowledge of the world and knowledge of language are developing simultaneously, whereas adult SLA builds upon preexisting conceptual knowledge. Moreover, adult learners have sophisticated formal operational means of thinking and can treat language as an object of explicit learning, that is, of conscious problem solving and deduction, to a much greater degree than can children (Ellis 1994). Second, it differs in language input: The typical LI pattern of acquisition results from naturalistic exposure in situations where caregivers naturally scaffold development (Tomasello 2000), whereas classroom environments for second or foreign language teaching can distort the patterns of exposure, function, medium, and social interaction (Ellis 1994). Third, it differs in transfer from LI: Adult SLA builds on preexisting LI knowl edge. Phonotactics People are very good at judging whether or not nonwords are native-like and young children are sensitive to these regularities when trying to repeat nonwords. Phonotactic competence simply emerges from using language, from the primary linguistic data of the lexical patterns that a speaker knows (Bailey Hahn, 2001). Bailey asked native speakers to judge nonword stimuli for whether they were more or less like English words. The nonwords were created with relatively high or low probability legal phonotactic patterns as determined by the logarithm of the product of probabilities of the onset and rime constituents of the nonword. The mean wordlikeness judgments for these nonword stimuli had an extremely strong relationship with expected probability (r .87). An emergentist account of phonotactic competence is thus that any new nonword is compared to the exemplars that are in memory: The closer it matches their characteristics, the more wordlike it is judged (Eckman 87). The gathering of such relevant distributional data starts in infancy. Saffran, Aslin, and Newport (1996) demonstrated that 8 month old infants exposed for only 2 minutes to unbroken strings of spoken nonsense syllables (e.g., ‘bidakupado’) are able to detect the difference between threesyllable sequences that appeared as a unit and sequences that also appeared in their learning set but in random order. Phonological Awareness Childrens awareness of the sounds of their language, particularly at the segmental levels of phoneme, is important in their acquisition of literacy. It is an awareness that develops gradually. De Cara and Goswami (2002) show that 4- to 7- year-old children are better able to identify the word with the odd sound (e.g., â€Å"bag, rag, jack†), rather than when the stimuli came from sparse ones (e.g., â€Å"pig, dig, lid†). The children were also better in short-term memory span tasks at remembering nonword triples from dense phonological neighborhoods like â€Å"cham, shen, deek† than triples like â€Å"deeve, chang, shem† derived from sparse ones. These phonological neighborhood density effects are driven by vocabulary age, not by chronological age. Schmidt (1990) proposed a Lexical Restructuring Hypothesis of these effects whereby, as vocabulary increases, more and more similar words are acquired. Context and Second Language Acquisition One incontrovertible fact that scholars in the field of second language acquisition can agree on is that language is not learned in isolation. What is not clear is what the role of context is as learners move forward to learn forms, to leam meanings, and to make the necessary connections between those forms and meanings. Nearly 22 years ago Gass Madden (1985) published the first book dealing with input in second language acquisition. Given the history of the field of second language acquisition, the role of input had never received much attention until that time. In the following years, the role of input, which is of course central to any discussion of context and form-meaning connections, has endured and yet is still not entirely clear. Todays research world is dealing with greater theoretical and methodological sophistication and a greater focus on psycholinguistic aspects of form-meaning relationships than in the 1980s. Conclusions Researchers argue that input is necessary for acquisition, defined as the development of an underlying mental representation. Certainly, input is necessary, but interaction plays an important role for acquisition because it facilitates the attentional link that is crucial to understanding how learners extract information from the environment and use it in the development of their second language grammars. This is very similar to conclusion about the roles of input and of output. Acquisition is input dependent. As stated earlier, there can be no acquisition without input. Output is similarly important, but is not a sine qua non. However, as shown in the study described here, the combination leads to greater learning than either one alone. What seems to be emerging is that there are numerous factors that guide second language acquisition. They can be investigated in isolation and their significance can be determined, but they should also be investigated as interacting and converging fa ctors to truly see how they operate in the learning of a second language for children. As many have said before, selective attention is a crucial mechanism in the development of second language knowledge. Importantly, it is what links the context with internal learning mechanisms. But part of the controversy as to whether it is essential for learning may be obscured by the fact that no one has looked carefully enough at the contributing factors to attention of which there are many. To just take the examples, it is necessary to understand the what of attention—that is, what parts of language can be attended to and can benefit from focal attention—and to pay attention to the when of attention. For example, is it in conjunction with large doses of input, the socalled input-flooding with regard to positive and negative evidence? Is it the same at all proficiency levels? What sort of input is necessary? Is input through interaction necessary? Is input through specific explanation necessary? But, this too, is only a drop in the bucket. In sum, this paper consid ers the questions of whether or not context is relevant and begins to examine the nature of the role of the environment. An initial attempt was made to understand what internal mechanisms are necessary for linkage with the linguistic context.

Term Paper by Jasim Essays

Term Paper by Jasim Essays Term Paper by Jasim Essay Term Paper by Jasim Essay Culture is an extremely broad and encompassing term. It includes what we have learned, our history, values, morals, customs, art, and habit. Marketing takes place within a given culture. Marketers should know that experience, history, values, morals, customs, art, habit, etc. vary within a given culture requiring different marketing programs. Not everyone in the same country or society shares the same behavioral pattern of the dominant or main culture. It clearly indicates that there are subcultures, such as those of northerners, southerners, city-dwellers, the poor, teen agers, elderly, religious groups and so on. The identification of a subculture may provide a firm with a segment of a market that it can develop. For example, products have been developed in great quantity for the teenage subculture, and advertising has been directed to these consumers. Each subculture, like a larger culture, has distinctive values, beliefs, and attitudes that the marketer must understand if he is effectively to exploit them. It is not always easy to identify differences among subcultures. It is easy to develop mistaken stereotyped notions about subcultures due to the lack of proper knowledge on subcultures. Marketers are interested in identifying any subculture as a potential market for their products. 1. Origin of the Report Dr. Md. Ashraful Islam Chowdhury, Professor, of Dhaka University, authorized this report in oral, as part of the course curriculum of Consumer Behavior (M-602). This is an individual assignment, which was assigned after a series of class lectures and presentations by the professor. 1. 2 Problem and purpose 1. 2. 1Problem StatementTo analyze the existing subculture in Bangladesh and take appropriate marketing strategy to reach them. 1. 2. 2Objectives of the study Understand the subculture context of Bangladesh Identify different types of subcultures Know how different subcultures affect buying behavior Explain Bangladeshi subculture for marketing decision making. 1. 3 A Preview of the Presentation To give an overview the report begins with a definition and explain what subculture is, then what are the subcultural groups prevailing in Bangladesh their characteristics , consumption pattern and the effective way to reach this subcultural group through marketing strategy. 2. 0 DEFINING SUBCULTURE Subculture is a part of the culture containing the important features of the main culture. In sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, a subculture is a group of people with a culture (whether distinct or hidden) which differentiates them from the larger culture to which they belong. If a particular subculture is characterized by a systematic opposition to the dominant culture, it may be described as a counterculture. As early as 1950, David Riesman distinguished between a majorities, which passively accepted commercially provided styles and meanings, and a subculture which actively sought a minority style. And interpreted it in accordance with subversive values. In his 1979 book Subculture the Meaning of Style, Dick Hebdige argued that a subculture is subversion to normalcy. Hebdige argued that subcultures bring together like-minded individuals who feel neglected by societal standards and allow them to develop a sense of identity. According to the definition of science dictionary A group within a society that has its own shared set of customs, attitudes, and values, often accompanied by jargon or slang. A subculture can be organized around a common activity, occupation, age, status, ethnic background, race, religion, or any other unifying social condition, but the term is often used to describe deviant groups, such as thieves and drug users. As there can be broad differences between the cultures of various societies, there can also be differences within the same culture. Every culture, therefore, contains subcultures, defined as groups that share the values and artifacts of the larger society, but also have distinctive practices, preferences, and beliefs. Businessmen living in the old part of Dhaka, cinema artists, and people living in the urban slums are all examples of subcultures. Islam is the dominant religion in the culture of Bangladesh; sunni, shiaa and Baahaai, for example, may be viewed as subcultures within the larger Muslim culture here in Bangladesh. Figure: Showing Subculture’s Relation with the Main Culture Main Cultural Behavior |Northern subculture | |Urban subculture | | | | | | |Religious subculture | | Berkman and Gilson have defined subculture for marketing purposes as any cultural patterning that preserving important features of the dominant society but provides values and life styles of its own. The cultural profile of a society or nation is a composite of two elements: 1) the unique beliefs, values, and customs subscribed to by members of specific subcultures and 2) the central or core cultural themes that are shared by most of the population, regardless of specific subcultural membership. 3. MAJOR SUB-CULTURAL CATEGORIES IN BANGLADESH 3. 1 Ethnic sub-culture The ethnic subculture is based on the nationality of one’s ancestors who have migrated to a new country. It (nationality) may form a basis for a subculture when the members of that nationality group identify with it and base at least some of their behaviors on the norms of the national group. Ethnic subculture is usually found in affluent countries where people might from other parts of the wor1d with the hope of a better life and live-li-hood. . 1. 1 Character i. It is based on the original nationality ii. Migrated from one country to another or one locality to another. iii. Though the citizens of a particular country see themselves as citizens of that country, but they frequently retain a sense of pride and identification in the tradition and language of their ancestors. iv. Pattered network of groups and organization v. Ethnic subculture provides a psychological source of group identification. 3. 1. 2 Consu mption pattern When ethnic subculture comes to consumer behavior, this ancestral pride is manifested most strongly in the consumption of ethnic foods, in travel to homeland and in the purchase of numerous cultural artifacts. Ethnic clothing, art, music and foreign language newspaper are the commodities which are preferred by the ethnic subcultural people. One’s interest in ethnic goods and services expands rapidly, as one tends to better understand and associates with his ethnic origin. 3. 1. 3 Marketing program To reach this ethnic subcultural people a marketer should understand the consumption pattern of that subculture. In Bangladesh there are foreigner ( people comes from Europe, Australia, USA) who come for their job purpose, but staying in Bangladesh for a long tine, may form a ethnic subculture and prefer fast food, long skirt, trouser, jogging shoe, golf course etc. So marketer should understand the need of this ethnic subcultural people and meet their unsatisfied need. Beharies are the greatest example of ethnic subculture. They use to speak in Urdu. Prefer food like kabab and parata. So to reach them marketer can take niche marketing strategy. 2. Working ladies sub-cultural Through the process of development, the number of working ladies is increasing day by day. The consumption pattern of these ladies varies as they have to maintain their work place as well as a family life. 3. 2. 1 Character i. They have a very short time to prepare food. ii. They have to do their household activity as well as maintain a working life. iii. Sometime they have to stay away their family 3. 2. 3 Consumption pattern This subcultural group used to consume ready food and less time consuming equipment to wash and prepare food like washing machine, micro-wave oven. 4. Marketing program to reach Marketer should take strategy like ready food as 3munites nodules, packet spice and ingredients, washing machine and home cleaner. Ladies hostel for those women who have to stay outside the home. 3. 3 Religious An individual’s religious affiliation influences to great extent his consumption pattern. Those who belong to a particular religion may buy/not buy and use/not use certain goods and services. 3. 3. 1 Character Members of a particular religion constitute what we call religious subculture. Religious beliefs and rituals may dictate the use of certain items and discourage the consumption of others. The bondage or the attachment to religious belief guides a religious person. If the bondage of religion is strong, life will be guided by religious belief rather than logic and vice versa. i. They consume some item heavily during religious festival. ii. Certain items are restricted by the religious belief to consume. iii. Some stimuli influence the consumption. 3. 3. 2 Consumption pattern Muslims buy and consume certain specific food items heavily during the month of ‘Ramadan and buy lot of gifts during the ‘Eid-Ul-Fitr, and discourages its followers the consumption of certain items such as alcoholic beverage. . Marketing program to reach A devout member of ‘Islam’ may consider it immoral to be materialistic, where another member of the same religion may find nothing wrong in becoming materialistic. A marketer of cine-magazine will have no problem in reaching the later person, where it will be almost impossible for him to penetrate the market consisting of pe ople of the other mentality and religious beliefs. So a marketer should be very sensitive to determine a product or service for that particular group of people. 3. 4 Regional The way people lead their lifestyles may also vary according to where they live or from which part of the country they have moved to the other part of the country. People from a particular part of the country or people living in a particular part constitute what we call regional or geographic subculture. On this basis, there could be two different types of regional or geographic subculture. One could be based on geographic region of the country and other could be based on urban, suburban or rural distinction. 3. 4. 1 Character i. Where people live in, the part of a particular country has a certain influence in consumption. ii. The region where from he come has certain consumption pattern. iii. Ecological climate vary and that dictate the consumption. 3. 4. 2 Consumption pattern People from Sylhet, like certain food and beverage, like ‘shatkora’ one kind of lemon, which is used in preparing beef. People from Chittagong like spicy food. Fish is consumed by ever here in Bangladesh, but dry fish is consumed heavily by people living in the southern and coastal areas of Bangladesh. Those living in the hill districts display different patterns in food consumption, housing, and recreation than those of the people living in the other parts of the country. Different geographic regions of the country pose different problems that consumers must solve. The most obvious of these are the climatic conditions. Climatic conditions influence home construction clothing requirements, and recreational opportunities to name but a few. In addition, different regions of the country have different age distributions and different social histories. These variables in combination with the climatic variables have produced differing values and lifestyles which newcomers to a region generally acquire after a period of time. These regional variations influence the use of particular media, the types of products used, and the product attributes considered important. 3. 4. 3 Marketing program to reach Marketer should study the characteristics of that region and the people. A marketer should segment his market to satisfy every group. If s/he produces noodles for every segment he should prepare separate flavor and test. Regional nature, variety should be adopted for the product of service. Regional subcultures clearly influence many aspect of consumer behavior. The consumption process also is influenced by the urban, suburban, and rural distinctions, another type of regional subculture. The urban, and suburbanpeople, prefer ready or instant food, prefer eating out and enjoy their leisure in a way different from rural people. So marketer should identify this subcultural people to serve with certain marketing strategy. 3. 5 Age Subcultures may also be based on the age differences of people living in the same country and belonging to the same main culture. It is likely that those who belong to the teen age group will behave quite differently than those to the teen age group will behave quite differently. Because the outlooks, experiences, attitudes and other aspects vary among people of different age groups, their consumption patterns are likely to vary. 3. 5. 1 Teen agers: The teen agers are to be influenced more by popular heroes and heroines and will display more materialistic lifestyles. The youth market is a significant subculture for the marketer It is important to marketers not- only because it is lucrative, but also because many consumption patterns held throughout life are formed at this time. The youth, as they start their career in this age are flaunt with more luxury items. Since they have little obligation at this can spend whatever they are. Their consumption patterns lean toward personal care and luxury items. 3. 5. 2 The middle aged: This group on the- contrary are matured, worried about the future and making purchase decisions. As an attempt to build a reserve for the future, they are likely to be conservative in buying many material goods, and are found to investments. 3. 5. 3 The elderly people: They display quite different consumption behaviors with that of teen-agers and middle aged people. The elderly subculture consists of people who have gone on retirements or whose regular income generating activities have ceased. 3. 5. 3. 1 Characteristic i. Most of them live with their children; ii. Their health conditions gradually deteriorate; iii. They have emotional difficulties iv. They have minimum amount of money at hands to spend v. They are price/value conscious; vi. They are deal prone; like to shop as it has special meaning; are tuned in to the mass media vii. Read direct mail, package labels, and package inserts. These few characteristics make them behave quite differently than other groups. Because of their differences with other groups, they also require different types of products. 4. Marketing Strategy The elderly people, because of deteriorating health, will require more fat free foods, tonic items, medical advices and medication as well as hospitalization. Since they have limited incomes, they prefer comparison shopping. Because of their maturity and different attitudes, they are skeptical of advertising claims and are influenced more by the informed sources. The emergence of elderly market has created a need for many different types of products sue as old people’s clubs and a number of other products and services. Personal selling is more effective, should be remain careful about the problems of communicating with the elderly. 3. 6 Singles The singles subculture consists of unmarried individuals. This subculture is found to be increasing in urban and semi-urban areas. The size of this subculture is gradually becoming prominent to call a special marketing attention. Quite a few reasons are associated with the growing size of the subculture of the singles. 3. 6. 1 Character They could be delaying marriage; postponement of marriage; higher divorce rates; inability to find a suitable source of earning to bear family expenditures and so on. The singles have some special needs. Which can not be met through normal social interaction. 2. Marketing program to reach Marketers who can recognize their specific needs and can develop products aimed at meeting those specific needs can reap a considerable benefit. ingles night clubs; exotic telephone talk services, dating services, artificial sexual organs, bachelors’ hostels/mess, product that promise sex appeals, convenience foods, restaurants, sports equipment, etc. , could be some of the examples of products and services aimed at the subculture of singles. In a country like ours, the singles subculture is growing prominent in the urban areas, and as a result lot of hostels for both males and females have been established aiming to provide accommodation services to singles. 3. 7 Gender Subculture may also be formed based on gender difference, such as subculture of males and subculture of females. Since every society emphasizes distinct, specific roles for men and women, they are likely to behave differently. 3. 7. 1 Characteristic i. As their behaviors vary, they consume differenttypes of products and respond differently to marketing appeals. ii. Men are influenced more by aggressiveness, competitiveness, independence, self-confidence, and masculinity. iii. Women are influenced by neatness, gentleness, tactfulness, talkativeness, and feminity. 3. 7. 2 Marketing Strategy There are products which are equally used by men and women. But, different appeals in the same product are needed for these two groups. Cosmetics, perfumes, clothing, bicycles etc. , are used both by men and women. But different designs, colors, sizes, shapes, and fragrances are provided for by the marketers to appeal people of different sex. Bicycle is designed differently for men and women. Even promotional appeals are made different for these two groups. Again, among the females, those who are professionals, behave differently than those of non professionals /housewives. The working women, particularly those, who are married, will again require different types of products and services that may not be bought by unmarried working women. The shopping patterns of these two groups will also vary. Since characteristics, attitudes, and needs vary between these two groups they may be considered as two different market segments. 3. 8 Occupation People display different patterns of purchase behaviors according to their occupational involvement. People of different occupations may constitute occupational subcultures, such as subculture of the doctors, subculture of the lawyers, subculture of the teachers, subculture of the engineers, subculture of the defense personnel. . 8. 1 Characteristics A defense officer, will show different purchase behavior than someone belonging to the civilians’ society. Doctors’ may look at the nutritional aspect while buying a food item. 2. Marketing Strategy Marketers should recognize the differences in attitudes and behaviors among people of different occupations and formulate marketing strategies accordingly to be successful in each specific subculture. 3. 9 Social Class Social c lass may also be used as a determinant of subcultural differences. There could be subculture of the well-offs, subeulture of the middle class and subculture of the poor. 3. 9. 1 Rich subculture: People belonging to the subculture of the rich will display altogether different buying behavior than those of middle class and poor’s. Rich will be very selective in their purchases; 3. 9. 2 Middle-class Subculture: People of the middle class will have substantial control over their consumption decisions; poors will be very careful and cautious in taking their purchase decisions. 3. 9. Poor’s Subculture: The subculture of poverty consists of people living below the poverty line. Because of their low incomes, they will avoid buying pre-packed, instant, frozen food items as they are likely to be costlier than the fresh staple or as they have limited educational opportunities, they develop different attitudes, outlooks, and motivation resulting in different buying behaviors on the part of them. Most of their incomes are spent on basic necessities such as food, and housing. Only a small amount of their incomes are spent on clothing, transportation, recreation, and luxury. They basically look at low-cost items, favor shops where they get credit, and are attracted by different inducements offered by the marketers. 4. 0 CONCLUSION Subculture may be categorized into many different classes. Though in Bangladesh consist many subculture, we consider some of the important subcultural groups and show how they affect consumption and marketing decision. Because of the important differences within any culture, marketers must be aware of diverse subcultures -examining them individually and on their own terms. Those identified with a subculture tend to think and act alike in certain respects, and this has important implications for their lifestyle. Recognition of this has led to experimentation with market segmentation as a means of developing effective marketing strategy adapted to market targets that are believed to ha special promise. Marketers must recognize that even though their operations are confined to a particular country, or a division or district, or even to one city, subcultural differences’ may dictate considerable variations in what, how and when people buy. To deal with these differences effectively, marketers may have to alter their product, distribution systems, price, or promotion to satisfy members of particular subcultures. Bibliography Books 1. Chowdhury, Ashraful Islam; Consumer Behavior; seventh edition. Bangladesh Open University; 2007. 2. Philip Kotler and Armstrong Gray (2006); Principles of Marketing, Twelveth Edition 3. Lesikar, Raymond V and Marie E. Flatley. Basic Business Communication, 10th Edition. McGraw-Hill Company Inc. , New York 2005 Web sites http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Youth_subculture http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Subculture

Definition of the Bona Fide Occupational Qualification

Definition of the Bona Fide Occupational Qualification A bona fide occupational qualification, also known as BFOQ, is a characteristic or attribute required for a job that could be considered discrimination if it were not necessary to perform the job in question, or if the job were unsafe for one category of people but not another. To determine if a policy in hiring or job assignment is discriminatory or legal, the policy is examined to ascertain whether the discrimination is necessary to the normal business operation and whether that category denied inclusion is uniquely unsafe. Exception to Discrimination Under Title VII, employers are not allowed to  discriminate  on the basis of sex,  race, religion,  or national origin. If religion, sex, or national origin can be shown to be necessary for the job, such as hiring Catholic professors to teach Catholic theology at a Catholic school, then a BFOQ exception can be made.  Ã‚  The BFOQ exception does not permit discrimination on the basis of race. The employer must prove that the BFOQ is reasonably necessary to the normal operation of the business or whether the BFOQ is for a unique safety reason. The Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) extended this concept of BFOQ to discrimination  based on age. Examples A restroom attendant can be hired taking into account sex because the users of the restroom have privacy rights.  In 1977, the Supreme Court upheld the policy in a male maximum security prison requiring guards to be male. A women’s clothing catalog could hire only female models to wear women’s clothes and the company would have a BFOQ defense for its sex discrimination. Being female would be a bona fide occupational qualification of the modeling job or an acting job for a specific role. However, hiring only men as managers or only women as teachers would not be a legal application of a BFOQ defense. Being a certain gender is not a BFOQ for the vast majority of jobs. Why Is This Concept Important? BFOQ is important to feminism and women’s equality. Feminists of the 1960s and other decades successfully challenged stereotypical ideas that limited women to certain professions. This often meant reexamining ideas about job requirements, which created more opportunities for women in the workplace. Johnson Controls Supreme Court decision:  International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace Agricultural Implement Workers of America (UAW) v. Johnson Controls, 886 F.2d 871 (7th Cir. 1989) In this case, Johnson Controls denied certain jobs to women but not to men, using the bona fide occupational qualification argument.  The jobs in question involved exposure to lead that could harm fetuses; women were routinely denied those jobs (whether pregnant or not). The appellate court ruled in favor of the company, finding that the plaintiffs had not offered an alternative that would protect a womans or a fetus health, and also that there was not evidenced that a fathers exposure to lead was a risk to the fetus. The Supreme Court held that, on the basis of the Pregnancy Discrimination in Employment Act of 1978 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the policy was discriminatory and that ensuring fetal safety was at the core of the employees job performance, not essential to be employed in the work of making batteries.  The Court found that it was up to the company to provide safety guidelines and inform about risk, and up to workers (parents) to determine risk and take action. Justice Scalia in a concurring opinion also raised the issue of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, protecting employees from being treated differently if pregnant. The case is considered a landmark for womens rights because otherwise so many industrial jobs could be denied to women where there is a risk to fetal health.

Answer sheet Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Answer sheet - Assignment Example 27). There is a large pool of unemployment in the market. A contributing factor is the low wages. Reich believes that with correct remuneration, better economy and society are not a farfetched idea. Labor is readily available in the market, but the poor wages discourage workers to apply for the job. People are even trading their jobs for a lesser paying job that matches their remuneration (Reich, pg.35). Stop bankers from creating risky huge bets with the money of other people. If they have to, then they should second the bet with a good proportion of their own capital. They should also be hindered from creating cash off their balances through trade derivatives. In addition, put a requirement they receive their remuneration in warrants, or stock that cannot be can be cashed in no less than 3 years. Place precautionary measures in place preventing a bank from being too big for a fail; Combining the casino with the basic utility made bankers richer and subjected us to risks we had not asked for. If separating investment from commercial banking is not adequate in keeping all banks in check. Anti-trust laws are used to break them up. Pluck out the three major interest conflicts: credit-rating agencies, institutional investors, and regional feds. The same companies having their issues rated should not pay the agencies. Those who use their ratings should be the ones paying them. Institutional investors, for example, a mutual and pension funds should not receive investment advice from the banks that gain from their investment. Presidents elected by regional bankers should head the regional feds. The major say should come from non-bankers, and the senate should have to confirm regional presidents (Reich, pg. 38). One lie states that the rich tax cuts tickle down all the way to everyone else, but taxing the rich highly leads to slow job growth and hurts the

Rationalism and Empiricism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Rationalism and Empiricism - Essay Example It is about the psychological side that Pinker claims, "The past tense is the only case I know in which two great systems of Western thought (rationalism and empiricism) may be tested and compared on a single rich set of data, just like ordinary scientific hypotheses." But Searle argues among other things that the debate about the past tense is not a case in which "two great systems of Western thought (rationalism and empiricism) may be tested and compared on a single rich set of data." Searle argued that the features that make them "great systems of Western thought" are left unaffected by the discussion of the past tense. Their debate also included history, computation and information processing in relation to rationalism and empiricism where both thoughts oppose each other. The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy which Searle (in Pinker & Searle, 2002) thinks is standard, defines rationalism as the position that reason presides over other ways of acquiring knowledge, or that it is the unique path to knowledge. It is most often encountered as a view in epistemology, where it is traditionally contrasted with empiricism, the view that the senses are primary with respect to knowledge (Audi, 1999). Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that asks the question "How do we know what we know" (Epistemology n.d.). This is a nature/nurture debate then, with Rationalists going for nature and Empiricists going for nurture. Some scientists think that people behave as they do according to genetic predispositions or even "animal instincts." This is known as the "nature" theory of human behavior. Other scientists believe that people think and behave in certain ways because they are taught to do so. This is known as the "nurture" theory of human behavior (Powell, 2006). Plato and Descartes were famous Rationalists, John Stuart Mill and David Hume were famous Empiricists. The following can be said to be the levels by which rationalism and empiricism may be differentiated. DIFFERENCES Etymology and emphasis. According to Carlo Sini (2004), the name Rationalism obviously derives from the word 'rational' which goes back to the Latin, 'ratio' meaning 'calculation'. This in turn goes back to another Latin word, 'ratus', which is the past participle of 'reor', meaning "think', 'deem', 'judge'. What runs through all of these is the emphasis on mind, an emphasis connected with the word 'rational' as well: rationalise, rationality, and similar terms. 'Empiricism' derives from another English word, 'empiric', meaning, 'derived from experience.' The term "empirical" was originally used to refer to certain ancient Greek practitioners of medicine who rejected adherence to the dogmatic doctrines of the day, preferring instead to rely on the observation of phenomena as perceived in experience (Sini, 2004). The doctrine of empiricism was first made by John Locke in the 17th century. Locke argued that the mind is a tabula rasa ("clean slate" or "blank tablet"or" white paper") on which experiences leave their marks. To Locke, the mind is like

Works of Poe Essay Example for Free

Works of Poe Essay Poe vividly re- accounts these acts through the eyes of this deceitful narrator and creates a horror and disgust that is oh so real and palpable as in His visualization of the murder in The Black Cat, I withdrew my arm from her grasp, and buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot, without a groan (Black Cat 386). The use of this horror grabs and maintains the readers attention, and is further perplexed through the environments he creates with his settings. Setting can help to achieve the overall mood a writer is trying to obtain. Poe purposely creates settings that fabricate dark and mysterious imagery in the readers mind. His use of description takes the mind on a journey into these dark and evil places where the protagonist characters follow through with their evil notions: At the most remote end of the crypt there appeared another less spacious. Its walls had been lined with human remains, piled to the vault overhead, in the fashion of the great catacombs of Paris. Three sides of this of this interior crypt were still ornamented in this manner. From the fourth side the bones had been thrown down, and lay promiscuously upon the earth, forming at one point a mound of some size (Amontillado 544). In each of these short stories the setting is a some sort of depressing place, whether it be told from a lonely jail cell, a dark residence of an elderly caretaker, or the deep, dark catacomb under a palazzo. The settings create strong overtones and quickly dictate the moods of Poes stories. His Style of setting, even though in different forms such as a residence or jail cell, is executed with much clarity. The theme of horror is carried out and put into reality in these dreadful places where evil prevails For a purpose such as this the cellar was well adapted and made to resemble the rest the cellar (Black Cat 386). These settings give way to the characters personalities and enhance the mood and existence of evil each one of their personalities hold. Characters make the story what it is. They evoke emotions from the reader and are the basis for what literary critics and everyday readers alike form their opinions on. Characters can be relatable, or as far-fetched as the immoral protagonists Poe has created. The protagonists in these three stories prove to be round characters as they are well developed and closely involved in the main action. There are a few background characters in these stories such as the old man and police in The Tell -Tale Heart, the wife and cats in The Black Cat, and Fortunato in The Cask of Amontillado. These characters, although extremely relevant to each story, are flat and not very well developed. Poe chooses to use his protagonist as the main character and the driving force for the plot. There is a bit of irony in each of the characters Poe created and most likely a purpose for underlying symbolisms he used. Inferences can be made for his use these ironic character traits he created. The old man in the Tell-Tale Heart had a crazy eye, which could be associated with evil eyes of vultures He had the eye of a vulture-a pale blue eye, with a film over it. (Tell-Tale 354). Evil eyes meant bad luck, and this poor old mans defect resulted in the superstitions of his tenant getting the best of him. In The Black Cat, superstition also got the best of the protagonist who was antagonized by the stereotypical evils of a black cat I seized him; when, in his fright at my violence, he inflicted a slight wound upon my hand with his teeth (Black Cat 382). Poe named Fortunado with the intent of creating irony, The thousand injuries of Fortunado I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge. as fortunado quickly learned, his fortune was meant to be an un-timely death at the hand of his avenger (Amontillado 542). Edgar Allan Poe used his writing to evolve his works into a style that is distinctly Poe. His use of point of view, themes of horror, setting, and characters in The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart, and The Cask of Amontillado help to show the uniqueness of his style. He created these chilling and enraging stories to play with the readers emotions and to take them to a demented mind state where not many wander. His style is well known today and one that revolutionized American fiction. Works Cited Poe, Edgar Allen. The Black Cat. Sixty-Seven Tales: as well as the Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket The Raven and other Poems. Edgar Allan Poe. New Jersey: Gramercy Books, 1985. 381-387. . The Tell-Tale Heart. Sixty-Seven Tales: as well as the Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket The Raven and other Poems. Edgar Allan Poe. New Jersey: Gramercy Books, 1985. 354-357. . The Cask of Amontillado. Sixty-Seven Tales: as well as the Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket The Raven and other Poems. Edgar Allan Poe. New Jersey: Gramercy Books, 1985. 543-545. Word count: 1,803.

Frederick Douglass :: biographies bio biography

Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) Frederick Douglass was born to a slave as well as a white slave owner. Aside from being born a slave, Frederick Douglass was able to teach himself how to read and write. Douglass involved himself in the improvement of the lives of other black men. Douglass was able to organize a small revolt against his owner and survived the revolt. Frederick Douglass’s book was published in 1845 and was named Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Douglass’ narrative is a recount of the tough life on the plantations before his escape to New York. Douglas describes in this narrative the senseless acts of cruelty on the part of the masters as well as the debased lives of the slaves. Frederick Douglass greatly contributed to the emancipation cause. Among Douglass’ several contributions was the recruitment of Negro volunteers during the Civil War period. Frederick Douglass also played a key role in safeguarding and preserving the right of his fellow freed men. Douglass later worked as a secretary of the Santo Domingo Commission, Recorder of Deeds in the District of Columbia and United States Minister to Haiti Frederick Douglas's Escape to Freedom Although Frederick Douglass did not go into great detail about his escape from his master to freedom in New York, he does describe the trying times he encountered once arriving in the free state of New York. The following excerpt is from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. "I have been frequently asked how I felt when I found myself in a free State. I have never been able to answer the question with any satisfaction to myself. It was a moment of the highest excitement I ever experienced†¦. In writing to a dear friend, immediately after my arrival in New York, I said I felt like one who had escaped a den of hungry lions. This state of mind, however, very soon subsided; and I was again seized with a feeling of loneliness.

Claims to Equality: Langston Hughes’ Utilization of the Word “I”

The black man has struggled for a long time to be considered equal to the white man.   Being called â€Å"African American†, and being given the same rights as other ethnicities in America, is the legitimization of his claim to his American heritage.   â€Å"I, Too† and â€Å"Theme for English B† are some of the poems written by Langston Hughes, an African American poet and writer who is interested in putting a higher stake on the claim by creating poetry which boosts the place of the black man in literature.   â€Å"I, Too† and â€Å"Theme for English B† proclaim the equality of the black man to the white man, but while â€Å"I, Too† sounds like one man conversing with anyone, â€Å"Theme for English B† is addressing the white man directly, in the person of the professor.â€Å"I, Too† may seem like one side of a conversation, but the determination to be recognized as an equal is not any weaker.   There is a quiet confid ence in the narrator when he says â€Å"Besides/ they'll see how beautiful I am/ and be ashamed– /I, too, am America† (Hughes, I. Too lines 15-18).   The â€Å"besides† at the beginning of the stanza makes it conversational and relaxed.   In the first stanza, the narrator says â€Å"but I laugh/and eat well/and grow strong (Hughes, I. Too lines 5-7)† in response to the segregation that black people are suffering.   Though the poem may sound relaxed, the â€Å"treatment† is â€Å"not casual† because it â€Å"speaks of the oppression of the black people and relates to any oppressed group in America† (Mitchell and Henderson 28).Though the laugh that the narrator uses to respond to adversities seems to be too carefree on his part, he is not without a plan.   After all, he talks about getting stronger.   The fight to equality here is not loud, but quieter and more planned.   It can be as serious as an underground plan for a pro test or as simple as improving oneself in order to show that black people are equal to any other race.   The poem itself is testament to that quiet move to prove equality.   Hughes uses the â€Å"I† in his poem not to limit the poem or to become â€Å"introspective†, but like Anglo-American poet, Walt Whitman, to expand.â€Å"Theme for English B† is a more direct claim to equality, made possible through the narrator’s letter to his white professor.   It is a man’s claim to his inheritance, despite being considered by others as unworthy of it because he does not have the expected qualities of an heir.   â€Å"Theme for English B† is said â€Å"to explode the notion of a racially pure self despite the white writing instructor’s insistence on it in the text’s opening exhortation† (Jarraway 833).   The first stanza is the writing instructor’s assignment:   â€Å"Go home and write/ a page tonight./ And let that page come out of you—/ Then, it will be true† (Hughes, Theme for English B lines 1-4).The rest of the poem is the response of the narrator, who believes that since he is young and the only black student in his university, his ideas may be considered unlike those of his professor’s and his classmates’; the ideas, after all, come from a different background.   However, he still believes that no matter how different he is to his writing instructor, they are the same – equal:  Ã‚   â€Å"But it will be/ a part of you, instructor. / You are white—/ yet a part of me, as I am a part of you./ That's American./ Sometimes perhaps you don't want to be a part of me./ Nor do I often want to be a part of you. But we are, that's true!† (Hughes, Theme for English B lines 28-35)   Equality is not limited to being alike because no matter how their colors are different, the professor and the narrator are both Americans, and of course, both hu man.   The poem is about equality in America, but it can well be equality in the world with the narrator declaring himself as a human being with human traits and rights.The two poems from Langston Hughes’ collection of poetry, which speaks about how black people live, struggle and celebrate, are similar in their objective to describe a narrator that moves forward in his goal of being recognized as an equal.   Though Hughes makes use of the â€Å"I† in the wider sense of the word, his writings are also very autobiographical in the sense that his narrators reveal his own views on the state of black America.  Ã‚   What makes his poetry wider and less introspective is the importance of the topics themselves, and their effects on many people and to societal change.The two narrators’ uses of â€Å"I† differ in energy and mood.   The narrator in â€Å"I, Too† claims equality but has a more passive role in the quest for that recognition.   Nevert heless, he has a positive attitude and does not let discrimination destroy him; instead, he strives to be stronger in order to prove himself equal.   On the other hand, the narrator in â€Å"Theme for English B† uses â€Å"I† in relation to â€Å"you†, the other, the white man.   He uses the two pronouns to emphasize the similarity underneath the surface.   Instead of staying put and reacting towards discrimination and segregation, he actively confronts the professor who represents white people.Langston Hughes’ has effectively used â€Å"I† to strongly claim the black man’s rights in America.   In the two poems â€Å"I, Too† and â€Å"Theme for English B,† he shows that no matter how the black man declares his equality, be it passive or active, he is undoubtedly equal to any other man from any other race despite outward differences.Works CitedHughes, Langston. â€Å"I. Too.† n.d.Hughes, Langston. â€Å"Theme for English B.† n.d.Jarraway, David R. â€Å"Montage of an Otherness Deferred: Dreaming Subjectivity in Langston Hughes.†Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   American Literature, Vol. 68, No. 4 (December 1996): 819-847.Mitchell, Arlene Harris and Darwin L. Henderson. â€Å"Black Poetry: Versatility of Voice.† The English  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Journal, Vol. 79, No. 4 (April 1990): 23-28.

Pornography and the Sexualization of Society

Pornography and the Sexualization of Society SOC101 11/27/12 The topic I chose is â€Å"Pornography and the Sexualization of Society†. I chose this article because I’ve noticed a drastic changes in the media, in advertising, and marketing that influences society in desensitizing us and our beliefs on what is normal and morally acceptable in terms of exposure to sexual content as well as the mass marketing of items that were once rarely seen in your corner drugstore or advertised in major publications.I can recall growing up as a teenager in the 1990’s and how big of a deal it was when a prime time television show featured it’s main characters having sex for the first time, or even making reference to explicit sexual acts. In contrast, in the last 20 years, it’s common place for teens or very young adults on television and in movies to have sex lives dramatized for entertainment. Additionally, television and print advertisements not only use explicit innuendo for contraception like condoms for example, but they also feature specialty enhancements for these products to make sex â€Å"better† for both partners.A visit to a local drugstore and there are sex toys advertised as â€Å"personal massagers† , lubricants for â€Å"his and her† pleasure and other items that would once have only been found in an adult bookstore. Pornography, not only in print and privately packaged covers can be found at most book stores as well as online websites with almost no age restriction. Soft porn is also readily available on cable television, and not just on premium channels designated adults only.HBO, Cinemax and Starz all have late night content that I would not want my teenage relatives to watch. Movies in theaters do have mandated content warnings, but it seems that even non â€Å"R† rated movies show a lot more today than they did 20 years ago. This contributes to what I would consider the Sexualization of our curr ent Society. The question for me is whether or not added exposure to sex, especially to teens and young adults contributes to deviant behavior.When applying Functionalist Theory, and the idea that society relies upon its members to have order, stability and an agreement on what values are and how they should be achieved, I can’t help but wonder to what extent does the overt sexualization of our culture have an impact on that stability. While our text does not indicate an increase in sex amongst youth in recent years, there is still a notable difference generationally speaking.This difference isn’t necessarily in the act of sex itself, but it our pop culture, in our mass communication online, in text messages and face to face conversations. If our society is to continue with overt sexualization as it has been†¦what will be the outcome? Will more teens have sex, will deviant sexual behavior become more and more prevalent? What mechanism should be employed to prevent the latter from happening? (Anderson/ Taylor 2011). References: Andersen, M. L. , and H. F. Taylor. Sociology, the Essentials. 6. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Co, 2010. Print

10 Resume Writing Tips to Engage the Employer

10 Resume Writing Tips to Engage the Employer The job hunt is on, and in order to get to the interview process you need a resume that will attract your future employer in the midst of all the other stacks he will receive. A reader wrote in asking if she should send a colorful resume on pink or blue paper so that it would stand out in the pile of white and our answer was no. It is not professional; although you dont want your resume sounding like a boring list of things that you do, we do want you to present it in a businesslike manner. Use these steps to a better resume and get your foot in the door towards that coveted interview. Get a Professional to do it Sometimes we just do not know how to put into words what our worth is. If you can afford to invest in your future. This is the best way to go. A professional is going to work hard to make sure that everything that you have listed on your profile sheet is enunciated in the way that makes a potential employer take notice. They will also provide cover letters to make your resume even more professional looking. Speak to the Employer As soon as the reader of your resume picks it up they are looking for the human being behind the words. Passivity will get your resume thrown in the trash pile. You could bore them with this example: Responsibilities: Carried out duties in the mailroom; edited copy; made sure schedules were clocked in. However, you could write replace passive verbs with adverbs and wow them like this: I was in charge of making sure mailroom duties were carried out in a timely manner while editing copy for the senior editor. At the appropriate times I detailed the entry time of employee schedules and reported the documentation to the appropriate supervisor. Wow what a difference, right? Were not saying to over think what you have done, but give it some pizazz. Show that you were active The wording you use will make the difference in what you were doing. Use in charge of, responsible for, coordinate, collaborate, etc. re-read it out loud how does it sound to you? If there are spaces that seem unclear, then it will seem unclear to your perspective employer. Make the words live. Grammar You have an average of 6-10 seconds to make a manager want to interview you, and if your CV is full of grammar mistakes that is a clear sign that you are not detailed oriented. You didnt even take the time to read through your resume to give a good first impression. They read these resumes at top speed and you have to have all of your statements lined up to grab their attention. MS Word is not enough; it may let words slide through just because they are spelled correctly. Read through your resume, and look for things such as comma splices. You can hate them all you want, but they pop up within your writing and you dont even know they are there with corrective software. Why should they hire you? Do your homework before you begin the process of telling your story on your resume. You may have an in-depth beautiful story of your life, but the manager is not looking for that story. He or she is looking for what is it about you that makes you worth hiring. Find out what the company needs and sell from your perspective what you can provide. How are you going to go to a company that needs a writer that has experience using a particular software such as excel and you have never used excel? Putting your value on a pedestal After you find out where their sore spot is, begin to market what you will bring to the table to fix their needs. Is it team building? Unfinished projects? A tarnished brand? Declining sales? How you will solve their problems is what you will fill your resume with, and that will make you valuable to them. Map your life first Before you write a single line of your resume, if you have decided to do it yourself, map out the information with a mapping program or on paper. The link here leads to a good one to use, you can get the free version or one that is for pro-use. Mind mapping comes in handy for more than just resumes, it is good for essay writing, and collaborating on projects. Let the Job Post Be Your Guide Make your resume sound like the language that delivered the job post. It was possibly made with a computer program. Use similar font and style to submit your paperwork, and use the same keywords that were used to call for submissions. Do this for each job posting. Personalize each one for each company. Being Professional Online and with Your e-mail Today it is a good idea to submit your blog along with your resume. Businesses have even asked for your Facebook page information. Before you decide to start sending out your resumes, if your online presence is wild and crazy, clean it up. Your hiring managers will look; they are first and foremost concerned with how their company looks in the eyes of the world. If you are going to represent them, a site with you looking out into the world holding up your middle finger just wont do. Also, get a business sounding e-mail address. Many companies will have business cards made up for their employees and you do not want boomboombetty @ blah, blah, blah on your card, and neither do they. Proofread, Copy, File, Submit After you have proofread your resume, and made sure all the relevant information is included, copy it and keep it in a safe place. This will be changed over time and you do not want to have to start over. Remember every time that you submit your resume to change the date to reflect the day you are submitting. Managers have reported that they receive resumes with dates going back a full year and they have thrown them out. Job-hunting can be a daunting experience; it does not have to be a dead end experience with the right resume. Good Luck in your search!

10 Fascinating Facts About Crickets

10 Fascinating Facts About Crickets True crickets  ­(family Gryllidae) are probably best known for their incessant chirping on late summer evenings. Most people can recognize a house or field cricket, but how much do you know about these familiar insects? Here are 10 fascinating facts about crickets: Close Cousins of Katydids Crickets belong to the order Orthoptera, which includes grasshoppers, locusts, and katydids. While all these insects share traits with crickets, katydids are their closest cousins. Crickets and katydids feature long antennae and ovipositors (tubular organs through which they deposit eggs), are nocturnal and omnivorous, and use similar methods to make music. Masterful Musicians Crickets sing an impressive variety of songs, each with its own purpose. A males calling song invites receptive females to come closer. He then serenades the female with his courtship song. If she accepts him as a mate, he might sing a song to announce their partnership. Male crickets also sing rivalry songs to defend their territories from competitors. Each cricket species produces a signature call, with a unique volume and pitch. Rubbing Wings Makes Music Crickets produce sound by stridulating, or rubbing body parts together. The male cricket has a vein at the base of his forewings that acts as a file or scraper. To sing, he pulls this ridged vein against the upper surface of the opposite wing, causing a vibration amplified by the thin membrane of the wing. Ears on Front Legs Male and female crickets have auditory organs on their lower forelegs, oval indentations called tympanal organs. These tiny membranes are stretched over small air spaces in the forelegs. Sound reaching the cricket causes these membranes to vibrate. The vibrations are sensed by a receptor called a chordotonal organ, which turns the sound into a nerve impulse so the cricket can make sense of what it hears. Acute Hearing Because the crickets tympanal organs are so sensitive to vibrations, its remarkably difficult to sneak up on a cricket without it hearing you coming. Have you ever heard a cricket chirping and tried to find it? Every time you walk in the direction of the crickets song, it stops singing. Since the cricket has ears on its legs, it can detect the slightest vibration created by your footsteps. The best way for a cricket to avoid predators is to stay quiet. Chirping Can Be Hazardous Although a crickets keen sense of hearing can protect it from larger predators, its no protection against the sly, silent parasitic fly. Some parasitic flies have learned to listen for a crickets song to locate it. As the cricket chirps, the fly follows the sound until it finds the unsuspecting male. Parasitic flies deposit their eggs on the cricket; when the larvae hatch, they ultimately kill their host. Counting Chirps Reveals Temperature Amos E. Dolbear, a Tufts University  professor, first documented a relationship between the rate of a crickets chirps and the ambient air temperature. In 1897, he published a mathematical equation, called Dolbears Law, that enables you to calculate the air temperature by counting the number of cricket chirps you hear in a minute. Since then, other scientists have improved on Dolbears work by devising equations for different cricket species. Edible and Nutritious Much of the worlds population eats insects as part of their everyday diet, but entomophagy, as the practice is known, isnt accepted as readily in the U.S. But products such as cricket flour have made eating insects more palatable to those who cant bear to chomp on a whole bug. Crickets are high in protein and calcium. Every 100 grams of crickets you consume provides almost 13 grams of protein and 76 milligrams of calcium. Revered in China For more than two millennia, the Chinese have been in love with crickets. Visit a Beijing market and youll find prize specimens fetching high prices. In recent decades, the Chinese have revived their ancient sport of cricket fighting. Owners of fighting  crickets  feed their prizefighters precise meals of ground worms and other nutritious grub. Crickets are also prized for their voices. Cricket singing  in the home is a sign of good luck and potential wealth. So cherished are these songsters that they are often displayed in the home in beautiful cages made from bamboo. Breeding Is Big Business Thanks to the demand created by owners and breeders of reptiles, which eat crickets, cricket-breeding is a multimillion-dollar business in the U.S. Large-scale breeders raise as many as 50 million crickets at a time in warehouse-size facilities. The common house cricket, Acheta domesticus, is raised commercially for the pet trade. In recent years, a deadly disease known as cricket paralysis virus has devastated the industry. Crickets infected with the virus as nymphs gradually become paralyzed as adults, flipping onto their backs and dying. Half the major cricket breeding farms in the U.S. went out of business because of the virus after losing millions of crickets to the disease. Sources Crickets and Temperature, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Entomology. Cranshaw, Whitney and Redak, Richard. Bugs Rule! An Introduction to the World of Insects.Elliott, Lang and Hershberger, Wil. The Songs of Insects.Evans, Arthur V. Field Guide to Insects and Spiders of North America.Frequently Asked Questions, Insectsarefood.com.The Cricket Paralysis Virus (C.P.V.), Cricket-Breeding.com.Ballenger, Joe. Cricket Virus Leads to Illegal Importation of Foreign Species for Pet Food, Entomology Today.

Short Easay 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Short Easay 3 - Essay Example HITDA – High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area is a criminal justice organization which works because of regular inputs from local, state and federal agencies. For a smooth functioning of HITDA it is very necessary that these different agencies cooperate with each other and that there is no conflict. The seeds of latent conflict are removed by formulation of a clear operational strategy by an executive board where each government agency has an equal representation. This reduces the instances of conflict as the director of HITDA focus on conflict management and resolution. Despite massive efforts in the field of conflict management, experts believe that conflict in criminal justice organization is a normal process and eliminating it is both unrealistic and counterproductive to the long term health of the organization. This is because a conflict can be a healing process where many issues are raised and solved where as in a no conflict scenario there can be a blind surrender to rules which can harm the human side of the organization. Most of the organizations want conformity over a long-tem period for this purpose they use different kinds of power. But none of these methods is the best when dealing with organizations. The appropriateness of the type of power depends upon the situation. For example, employing coercive method compliance among rank-and-file officers usually through strict rules and regulations is not satisfactory because the officers are averse to such strategies. Similarly legitimate, expert and charismatic power can lead to a situation of greater employee acceptance. While, coercive and reward base may lead to a dysfunctional effect. Hence, there is no one particular type of power that is