Learning Log: the Affective Filter Hypothesis

The Affective Filter Hypothesis: Some Insights â€Å"The attendance for Miss Zaljiah’s English class has never been below 80% throughout her six teaching years in the polytechnic. You can often find her sitting beside the students working and guiding them through answers and task completion. Students’ commitment are often witnessed through their energy level, engagements during discussions in reaction to her video-recorded lectures. Smartphones, ‘Google’ and ‘Facebook’ are often their constant companion. At 55, she is an inspiration. † Teachers today go the extra mile to create relevant content, reflective enough of the real world.With the birth of screen-staring culture, it is undeniable how technology has overwhelmed current classroom pedagogies increasing the dire need for more enjoyable and stress-free learning environment. From Krashen’s perspective, Affective Filter seem to have its stand. The affective filter by Krashen is a ‘mental barrier’ students and teachers must reduce for learning fluidity. (Dulay and Burt, 1977 in Krashen, 1981). These three factors; low motivation and self-confidence combined with high anxiety built in students a ‘mental wall’ which impedes language from being acquired and internalized. Krashen, 1982). Students’ affective filter must be kept low with confidence and motivation, in order for the highest input to possibly reach the acquisition part of the brain. (Krashen, 1981). Supported and summarized by Macintyre (1995), he stated â€Å"language learning is a cognitive ability that relies on encoding, storage and retrieval processes. Anxiety can interfere by creating divided attention scenarios for anxious students. † (p. 96). Gardner and Macintyre’s (1993) characterized this apprehension as derogatory self-related cognitions.Now, the question is does learning stop when the fun stops? Does learning fail because of studentsâ€℠¢ anxiety and boredom? Or learning fails because students feel anxious and bored? We only focus and emphasize what deemed important for us. While one may agree the affective filter plays a role, its causal relationship cannot be proven. It is bias to say learning happens only with motivated and confident students and if they are not, learning never took place. It can never be argued that the presence of learning is the absence of anxiety or otherwise.To debate from an eclectic point of view, students’ various learning styles, multiple intelligences, idiosyncracies, language ego, literacy creativity and error-correction tolerance influences the acquisition process. These affective domains function in both directions. (Cook, 2000) Both students and teachers complement the learning process. The teacher certainly has the â€Å"influential effect on both the linguistic performance and emotional well-being of the students†. (Heyde, 1999 in Brown, 2000). Students can â€Å"u nfold their wings† with proper classroom techniques. (Andres, 1999).In conclusion, teachers should develop a perceptive and intuitive ability backed by theoretical grounds to decide on the effectiveness for the students. Students should not be choked in their language attempts as ‘anxiety can be facilitated’ (Bailey, 1983) in creating a meaningful learning environment. The fundamental principle of SLA is that every human capacity and ability is diversified should be addressed. Every lesson should aim to resonate with the spirit of each learner as balance is created in tapping everybody’s interest in the language classroom. (510 words) ———————– 1

Graphing Calculators essays

Graphing Calculators essays Students begin the study of algebra. The numbers of those who do not understand are gradually reduced. They struggle at first, and eventually most begin to understand. Or do they? Studies would suggest otherwise. A great amount of research has been done in the past decade in an attempt to find out why Americans are consistently near the bottom on international comparative studies in mathematics. The minimum requirements of most universities establish a passing high school grade in one algebra, and one geometry course, as necessary for acceptance. Failure to meet these requirements excludes thousands each year from college entrance. A significantly large percentage of those who do pass, enter college with deficiencies in mathematics. Even upon completion of college algebra the struggle is not over. Calculus is the final summit that looms over the prospective college graduate. Demana (1995) says, Though college students may have had as much as 2 Â ½ years of algebra instruction, one of the most common complaints that we hear from our colleagues about college calculus students is that the algebra preparation for calculus is very poor. And it is our experience that this criticism is a valid one. American performance when compared internationally is alarmingly, but not surprisingly weak. In a recent study that compared four nations, the United States was ranked last. In most areas of relevance, Americans were three to five times behind the other countries (Brenner, Herman, Hsiu-Zu Ho, Barbara, 1999). The focus of much research on international mathematics competency has been the ability of the pupil to obtain a correct answer (Herman, 1995). In the study entitled Cross National Comparison of Representational Competence (Brenner, Herman, Hsiu-Zu Ho, Barbara, 1999), the authors take a unique approach. Past research establishes that American students tend to utilize a visual technique in ...

Discrimination in Hiring

Discrimination in Hiring Introduction As the position of a general customer service representative for the call center requires certain skills and knowledge, the applicant should have some experience in dealing with customers via the phone communication and solving the problems in a cost-efficient way for the company and customers. Besides, the speech of an applicant should be distinctive enough so that a customer can easily understand the speech of a newly-employed.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Discrimination in Hiring specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More A second language learner can be hired for this position if he/she has sufficient language skills that would not prevent a customer from understanding the message and the essence of the information provided by the general customer service representative. As the applicant should know about the company and functions to be performed, it is necessary to make a general overview of the c ompany, its history, and peculiarities of the position for which the applicant might be hired. A person should be punctual due to the specifics of the work and dependable in being at work regularly with minimal exceptions for child care issues. Moreover, it is necessary to find out whether an applicant is planning to obtain this position for a period of five or more years or considers this to be a job for 2-3 years. A List of Questions with Reasoning Do you have some experience in the area of cold calls? For what period of time you did you obtain the position at previous job? Was the communication with customers related to orders (due date, specifications, or terms of payment)? These questions are aimed at making sure that the person is experienced in the sector of communication with customers via the phone. Die you experience difficulties with understanding someone’s speech? Are you capable of formulating your questions correctly so that customers understand exactly what the problem is? These questions should help to investigate if a person has adequate comprehension skills and language skills in order to be able to speak and listen to customers without any difficulties. Are you punctual? This information is necessary to see if an applicant is punctual. Do you have some serious health problems that can prevent you from being at work regularly? Some applicants can consider this question discriminating but it focuses on the assessment of a person dependable being at work regularly.Advertising Looking for research paper on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Do you plan to work at our company for a long period of time? This is a direct question to find out if the person fits the requirements. Is there any possibility that you may want to discontinue your performance earlier than five years elapse? This is a way for making sure that a woman would not leave due h er maternal leave or a young man would not want to go to the army or to enter a college. Did you ever have conflicts with customers while speaking on the telephone? This question will help to analyze the psychological conditions of an applicant. Legal Issues in Questions Some questions should not be asked because an applicant can take the company to court alleging some type of discrimination. The discrimination issues include separate lists of questions for men and women, questions that concern the ethnicity and origin matters, background and a number of children in the family asked in a question can become a reason for a law case. In this case, all applicants should be treated equally (Weiss, 2004, pp. 43-44). It is necessary to ask whether the applicant understands all questions correctly (Steingold and Steingold, 2009, p. 20) in order to make sure that an applicant does not feel as being discriminated due to poor language skills or other factors that can make him/her take the c ompany to the court. References Steingold, F. S., and Steingold, F. (2009). The employers legal handbook (9th ed.). Berkeley, CA: Nolo. Weiss, D. H. (2004). Fair, square legal: Safe hiring, managing firing practices to keep you your company out of court (4th ed.). New York: AMACOM Division of American Management Association.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Discrimination in Hiring specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More

Solutions for Challenging Counting Problems

Solutions for Challenging Counting Problems Counting can seem like an easy task to perform. As we go deeper into the area of mathematics known as combinatorics, we realize that we come across some large numbers. Since the factorial shows up so often, and a number such as 10! is greater than three million, counting problems can get complicated very quickly if we attempt to list out all of the possibilities. Sometimes when we consider all of the possibilities that our counting problems can take on, its easier to think through the underlying principles of the problem. This strategy can take much less time than trying brute force to list out a number of combinations or permutations. The question How many ways can something be done? is a different question entirely from What are the ways that something can be done? We will see this idea at work in the following set of challenging counting problems. The following set of questions involves the word TRIANGLE. Note that there are a total of eight letters. Let it be understood that the vowels of the word TRIANGLE are AEI, and the consonants of the word TRIANGLE are LGNRT. For a real challenge, before reading further check out a version of these problems without solutions. The Problems How many ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged?Solution: Here there are a total of eight choices for the first letter, seven for the second, six for the third, and so on. By the multiplication principle we multiply for a total of 8 x 7 x 6 x 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 8! 40,320 different ways.How many ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the first three letters must be RAN (in that exact order)?Solution: The first three letters have been chosen for us, leaving us five letters. After RAN we have five choices for the next letter followed by four, then three, then two then one. By the multiplication principle, there are 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 5! 120 ways to arrange the letters in a specified way.How many ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the first three letters must be RAN (in any order)?Solution: Look at this as two independent tasks: the first arranging the letters RAN, and the second arranging the other five letters. There are 3! 6 wa ys to arrange RAN and 5! Ways to arrange the other five letters. So there are a total of 3! x 5! 720 ways to arrange the letters of TRIANGLE as specified. How many ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the first three letters must be RAN (in any order) and the last letter must be a vowel?Solution: Look at this as three tasks: the first arranging the letters RAN, the second choosing one vowel out of I and E, and the third arranging the other four letters. There are 3! 6 ways to arrange RAN, 2 ways to choose a vowel from the remaining letters and 4! Ways to arrange the other four letters. So there are a total of 3! X 2 x 4! 288 ways to arrange the letters of TRIANGLE as specified.How many ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the first three letters must be RAN (in any order) and the next three letters must be TRI (in any order)?Solution: Again we have three tasks: the first arranging the letters RAN, the second arranging the letters TRI, and the third arranging the other two letters. There are 3! 6 ways to arrange RAN, 3! ways to arrange TRI and two ways to arrange the other letters. So there are a total of 3! x 3! X 2 72 ways to arrange the letters of TRIANGLE as indicated. How many different ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the order and the placement of the vowels IAE cannot be changed?Solution: The three vowels must be kept in the same order. Now there are a total of five consonants to arrange. This can be done in 5! 120 ways.How many different ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the order of the vowels IAE cannot be changed, though their placement may (IAETRNGL and TRIANGEL are acceptable but EIATRNGL and TRIENGLA are not)?Solution: This is best thought of in two steps. Step one is to choose the places that the vowels go. Here we are picking three places out of eight, and the order that we do this is not important. This is a combination and there are a total of C(8,3) 56 ways to perform this step. The remaining five letters may be arranged in 5! 120 ways. This gives a total of 56 x 120 6720 arrangements.How many different ways can the letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the order of the vowels IAE can be changed, though their placement may not?Solution: This is really the same thing as #4 above, but with different letters. We arrange three letters in 3! 6 ways and the other five letters in 5! 120 ways. The total number of ways for this arrangement is 6 x 120 720. How many different ways can six letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged?Solution: Since we are talking about an arrangement, this is a permutation and there are a total of P( 8, 6) 8!/2! 20,160 ways.How many different ways can six letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if there must be an equal number of vowels and consonants?Solution: There is only one way to select the vowels we are going to place. Choosing the consonants can be done in C(5, 3) 10 ways. There are then 6! ways to arrange the six letters. Multiply these numbers together for the result of 7200.How many different ways can six letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if there must be at least one consonant?Solution: Every arrangement of six letters satisfies the conditions, so there are P(8, 6) 20,160 ways.How many different ways can six letters of the word TRIANGLE be arranged if the vowels must alternate with consonants?Solution: There are two possibilities, the first letter is a vowel or the first letter is a consonant. If the first letter is a vowel we have three choices, followed by five for a consonant, two for a second vowel, four for a second consonant, one for the last vowel and three for the last consonant. We multiply this to obtain 3 x 5 x 2 x 4 x 1 x 3 360. By symmetry arguments, there are the same number of arrangements that start with a consonant. This gives a total of 720 arrangements. How many different sets of four letters can be formed from the word TRIANGLE?Solution: Since we are talking about a set of four letters from a total of eight, the order is not important. We need to calculate the combination C(8, 4) 70.How many different sets of four letters can be formed from the word TRIANGLE that has two vowels and two consonants?Solution: Here we are forming our set in two steps. There are C(3, 2) 3 ways to choose two vowels from a total of 3. There are C(5, 2) 10 ways to choose to consonants from the five available. This gives a total of 3x10 30 sets possible.How many different sets of four letters can be formed from the word TRIANGLE if we want at least one vowel?Solution: This can be calculated as follows: The number of sets of four with one vowel is C(3, 1) x C( 5, 3) 30.The number of sets of four with two vowels is C(3, 2) x C( 5, 2) 30.The number of sets of four with three vowels is C(3, 3) x C( 5, 1) 5. This gives a total of 65 different sets. Alternately we could calculate that there are 70 ways to form a set of any four letters, and subtract the C(5, 4) 5 ways of obtaining a set with no vowels.

Critical Reflective Log Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Critical Reflective Log - Essay Example This essay is a critical reflective log on placement based on drugs and alcohol use, a recovery process. Although research has shown that moderate consumption of alcohol has some health benefits for older adults, excessive consumption of alcohol has negative health and social consequences just like drug abuse or addiction. About five percent of the world’s population meets the criteria for an alcohol and drug use disorder, dependence or abuse (Miller 2003). The highest percentage of this population comes from Australia. People under 25 years of age stand the riskiest drinking habits. The most effective treatment strategy for alcoholism and drug addiction is intervening early with risky alcoholics and drug abusers to prevent them from becoming heavy and regular alcoholics or drug abusers (American Psychiatric Association 1994). It is a complicated process to withdraw someone from heavy alcohol intake or drug addiction because it is not easy to stop the drinking habit or stop the drug abuse habit. Once an alcoholic or drug addict decides to recover from the addiction, there are various ways of doing so. For instance, one can do it from an inpatient rehab center, outpatient rehab center, hospital, therapy, or engage himself in the twelve step programs (VandenBos 2007). Quitting drinking or drugs assists one to get rid physical illnesses related to the addiction out of his body. In addition, the addict needs to heal emotionally to avoid cases where he goes back to his old addictions. For an alcoholic or drug addict to recover, he will be expected to follow a certain process beyond his old life to create a new life (Schaler 1997). These processes are part of self reflection or introspection. Below are programs, which can assist an alcoholic or drug addict to have a self reflection. These programs last for a month or more than a year and they usually take place in a residential

Apple case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Apple case study - Essay Example The company in its approach, designed strategies based on the market player’s weaknesses and customer generational needs to ensure faster growth. In particular, it integrated superior infrastructural set up than market players, which provided modern recording and sales techniques. This is to ensure that customers receive modern musical services based on broadband and iPod technological enabled systems. Ideally, most customers in the music industry including recorders consider modern technological enabled production system, which ensures good quality hence superior returns. This element enabled Apple to develop its .market rapidly due to its advancement in various aspects, which was a weakness to renowned market players. Variably, the company also integrated its management techniques to ensure effective administration of its resources to ensure quality proceeds, a concept the dominant firms poorly executed. It also provided favorable recording terms with initiation of subsidy f und system to poor artist who would could not sustain recording expenses. This aspect attracted most artist to its services coupled with it modern techniques of production. Further, its technological capacity through adoption of Apple computers, which offered a breakthrough towards effective management, and coordination of web music highly, attracted most individuals including Michael Jackson (Lynch 2009). It is imperative to note that its launching strategy also propelled its performance since it communicated basic information where it provided potential services, which were unique to its rivals. 2. SWOT analysis on Apple business model Apple designed its operations based on superior strategies with a strong focus to gaining competitive benefits and provision of quality services to customers globally (Lynch 2009). In particular, its infrastructural capacity provided its greatest strength, which has significantly contributed to its competitiveness and general performance. Modern gen erational musical production and publishing techniques is critical towards production of superior music with high demand. Variably, its sound management practices have also enhanced its operations compared to its rivals since the administration of its affairs is based on clear ideals and principles. The company has a substantial market share with strong strategic alliance network portfolios, which facilitates its sales and financial prospects for example Nokia and Samsung service providers. Quality production and delivery of service to consumers also forms its major strength in this industry where quality greatly affects performance potentials. Imperatively, the strengths contributed greatly to its sound performance compared to its rivals, which operated on inferior management practices, adopted low quality generational musical infrastructure and poor strategic coordination. Similarly, the company’s opportunities include increased demand of its services, market expansion, new ventures and diversification capacities, and favorable legislation to regulate the industry effectively. Observation of these opportunities is vital since they hold the organizations continuous competitiveness and performance capacity. The organization also faces various threats and weaknesses, which should be addressed to ensure sustainable growth without providing unwarranted leeway to new entrants (Lynch 2009). The strengths and weaknesses include possible new

Assignment 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Assignment 3 - Essay Example Customers: The stores of Boots UK are mainly located in well-known localities and streets of UK. Hence, its main consumers are male and females between age group 15-45 years from nearby neighbourhoods. Strength: The primary strength of the company is that it has a well-recognised brand with wide product range. The company is established in the market and has strong reliance on research and development. Weakness: Boots UK considers that location and ambience of its store are outdated, which can prove to be a weakness. Apart from this, analysis showed that the company has little dependence on technologies, which increase processing time of activities. Furthermore, the company also charges comparatively high price. The company has applied SMART techniques to determine goals and objectives. The company is planning to achieve an increase of twenty-five percent in the sale annually. It also has an objective to attract ten percent more male consumers every year, compared to the previous year. These goals are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-specific in nature. Realizing such goals can prove to be company’s competitive advantage. The company has used demographic and geographic segmentation while determining its target segment. Boots UK has placed stores mainly in the high streets of UK; so, the obvious target market of company is individuals from the neighbourhood. From demographic point, the company ensure that both genders, male and female, are its product users and the age range is between 16 and 45 years (Armstrong, Cunningham and Kotler, 2002). In its strategy, the company is planning to implement Ansoff’s matrix to decide upon products for existing as well as new markets. The model was proposed by mathematician, Igor Ansoff. It states that there are four growth strategies that a firm can adopt: Market penetration and product development for existing market and market