Transition Periods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Transition Periods - Essay Example How children react to transiting situations and how their teachers deal with them at such situations. According to the example in the article, the teacher feels helpless when he is unable to change children from playing to cleaning. These children would not listen to the clean up time voice from the keyboard because according to them their play time should continue endlessly. The reason as to why they feel that way is because they have recognized and adapted to the game time. The author states that children should be left alone to deal with transition periods so as to grow up only after ensuring that the classrooms activities are satisfying and age appropriate. The reason as to why children feel stressed up during transition period is because they feel uneasy, anxious and threatened by unpredictable situations. They feel more comfortable when faced with a predictable situation that they can quickly determine the outcome. Teachers also feel anxious when faced with transitional situations. They also prefer ongoing situations than unlikely situations that keep them worrying if everything is okay. The report also states various factors that lead to transitional anxiety including boredom. Waiting builds up anxiety, even the most composed children with good manners gets anxious when they are forced to wait. Insistence on uniformity, when children are forced to move uniformly, they get anxious and mostly they act in accordance with the way their teachers did when they were anxious. Unclear future also causes anxiety because children get scared to perform a task they are not familiar with or are not sure of its outcome. Most children fear failure. They get scared of a task if there is a probability of failure especially if the teacher has to be using praise on those children who do well. Clarification of tasks helps to reduce stress during the transition. When children know exactly what they are expected to do and the results that will come out of such a task,

Adaptive Project Management Framework Assignment

Adaptive Project Management Framework - Assignment Example This framework is generally used for the projects whose objectives and goals are clearly stated. Basically the framework is an approach that restricted planning for things which are next to impossible. The adaptive project management framework is implemented in project management in order to bring quality business values (Highsmith, 2009, p.167). Moreover, this framework is intended to maximize the business value under specific time and estimated fixed budget. The adaptive project management framework is the structured decision making framework in the face of uncertainty. This framework helps to reduce the uncertainty level of project outcome through quick system monitoring and controlling. As it is based on learning process, it helps to improve the long-term project management outcomes. The study deals with the evaluation of implementing project framework approach in organization. Moreover the study will reveal the obstacles that are faced by organizations while adopting this framew ork. Finally the study ends with the solutions of the problems. Implementation of Adaptive Project Management Framework The project management methodology applied within organizations for the purpose of reconfigure the project management framework. Companies should change the current regulations and policies to successfully execute the adaptive project framework approach that administrate their internal processes.

E-Business Research Paper for Golfing Paradise Essay Example for Free

E-Business Research Paper for Golfing Paradise Essay 1. Introduction: This paper consists of two tasks. Task I seeks to discuss and analyze migration of a traditional retail business to the Internet using the case of Golfing Paradise while Task 2 examines Internet security as concern for the same company. 2. Project Overview The whole project for Golfing Paradise, Victoria local retailer of golf equipments and accessories aims to migrate into the Internet to increase sales. 3. Overview of the migration project The migration project does not change the industry where Golfing Paradise belongs. It just proposes the benefits of expanding customer base in the Internet but not without costs and risks. 4. Summary of Scope, Activities, Costs, Milestones, Dates/durations, Resources, Deliverables, Risk factors, Gantt chart. The first two months require buying of equipments (computers and transportation), IT programs and software and hiring of additional personnel to man online business that may operate 24 hours a day and seven days week. Risk factors are discussed in relation to the choices of having and not having the same but not having the same without the opportunities is less preferable. 5. Management Summary This paper answers some of the relevant and materials concerns of Golfing Paradise in deciding to migrate into the Internet in selling its products to more customers. The company hopes to increase customer. Hence it will need to make some investment (Brigham and Houston, 2000) in new equipments and the hiring or retraining of some personnel to bring them to its new way of doing business. The benefits are of course increase profits from increased revenues (Meigs and Meigs, 1995) but also increase costs that may come from transportation costs depreciation of new equipments and even salary payments for new staff. 6. Main Body 6.1 Important facts for analysis: The business Golfing Paradise is currently providing Golf products through a network of 3 retail premises across Victoria. The products include Golf equipment such as clubs, buggies, golf balls as well as sports clothing and golf accessories. Golfing Paradise is selling both Australian made and imported products. The management of Golfing paradise has decided to expand its operations to the Internet, providing service to existing customers and attract new ones by offering products online. 6.2 Questions and Answers 6.2.1 Describe three of the most important issues that Golfing Paradise will face in migrating the same type of business to the internet. The three of the most important issues that Golfing Paradise will face in migrating the same type of business will include the following: (a.) What products will have to be sold online and how to bring or deliver the products to customers expected revenues that may be generating in migrating it retail trade? ; (b) What is the extent of the coverage area where products of the business could be sold? ; and (c) How will payment systems be modified as a result of migrating its business to the Internet. Each is described and explained below: 6.2.1.1 Products to be sold online and how to bring or deliver the products to customers? The online business is an addition to the traditional retail business will have to visit the stores. Hence, customers online would most like purchase by visiting the stores or they would request for delivery of their products to their homes, business place or an place of need. Determining therefore what products (Kotler, 1994) to be sold on line should be material issue to decide specially on customers who will choose to have the products they ordered online to be delivered. Case facts say that products include Golf equipments such as clubs, buggies, golf balls as well as sports clothing and golf accessories and said products are also include both Australian made and imported products. The guide to determine which products to sell should be estimated on the probability that the customers ordering online would have their products delivered on time and they are ready to pay for any shipping charges that may charged by the company. An online buyer preferring orders to be delivered to their place of business is one of those who do not have the chance to visit the store, hence Golfing Paradise must be able to deliver goods on time as per order to the customer. Those who can visit the store, customers should be allowed provide clear guide to reach the place of business or any authorized outlet from which customers could pick up the goods. 6.2.1.2 The extent of the coverage area where products of the business could be sold The coverage area where products are to be sold will make persons ordering online to know whether they could have the goods that are offered for sale on line. Since the Internet is accessible almost worldwide if not worldwide, it would be impossible for Golfing Paradise to reach every customer when its present place of business is only in Victoria, Australia Case facts provide that Golfing Paradise is currently providing Golf products through a network of 3 retail premises across Victoria and the products both include Australian made and imported products. If Golfing Paradise is ready to go outside Victoria, it must provide so in its website up to what extent. It may for example want to limit only to Australia but as discussed earlier the business must be capable of delivering its representation of its products. Case facts also provide that the management of Golfing paradise has decided to expand its operations to the Internet, providing service to existing customers and attract new ones by offering products online, hence the extent of coverage will have to be clearly defined. If customers outside Victoria will have to be considered, where will the customers pick up their orders? Will Golfing Paradise need to set up already an outlet outside Victoria? This decision must be made after the demand for company’s products may have expanded that would justify the cost of putting a sales outlet outside of Victoria. 6.2.1.3 The manner of payment system a result of migrating its business to the Internet Selling online presupposes dealing with people who are prepared to enjoy the benefits of trading in the Internet. The company must therefore consider whether it would limit accepting payment through credit card, aside from cash or will it also accept electronic currencies? The decision as to the mode of payment that may be accepted carries with them different requirements for administration that may involve hiring of additional personnel or acquiring computer systems, for the smooth running of the system. This must therefore be tied up with the later topic on Web design of the business as part of the marketing strategy (Churchill and Peter, 1995). 6.2.2 Discuss two possible internet marketing strategies that you could employ when migrating the business to the internet. The traditional ‘Four P’s of Marketing’ includes product strategy, place strategy, promotion strategy and price strategy. We will consider some of these on online selling. We will consider as part of our strategy product, place and promotion strategies. Lowery (2006) agreed with us when she said, that developing a successful internet marketing strategy is an essential part of online success. In order to succeed, we must develop and implement a strategic plan that includes all of the following: (a) A great product, (b) A web site specifically designed to sell, and (c) A killer marketing strategy. 6.2.2.1 Developing Your Product Lowery (2006) said, â€Å"Your first step will be to develop a great product. Youre probably thinking thats easier said than done, but its really not. The absolute best product is one that you can develop you and deliver over the Internet. With todays technology, there is absolutely no reason why you cant create your own product. The knowledge you have within your own mind is extremely valuable. Everybody is good at something, has a special talent or some specialized knowledge. Use this knowledge to create a product.† Lowery (2006) further said, â€Å"The key to developing a great product is exclusiveness. Your product should be unique and not be in competition with hundreds of other similar products. You must give your potential customers exactly what they want. Develop a high-quality product that fills a void to increase your chance of success.† Another consideration of great importance is Golfing target market. Let us keep in mind that the Internet is a global marketplace and developing a product with a large geographic target and a wide appeal will fulfil a need or desire and provide instant gratification. Thus, before we develop our product, hence, we have to do some research and find out exactly what people want and develop your product accordingly. The most important consideration when developing our product should be quality since Our product should not only deliver what we promise, but should go above and beyond the expected and over deliver. It is thus a reality that customer’s satisfaction is of the utmost importance. (Lowery, 2006 ) (Paraphrasing made). 2.2.2.2 Our promotions and place strategy Developing our website will be and indispensable part of migrating out business in the Internet. Doing the same actually satisfies place strategy because the said strategy means proving the customers the availability of the products to customers when they are needed. In the website therefore customers will have a chance to see the products that could be sold online and which could not be. In the same website a customer can chat or communicate via email with customers services that will assist the customer in brining the goods to the customers. Lowery (2006) said, â€Å"Once youve developed a great product, your next step will be to develop a great web site. Your web site must be specifically designed to sell your product.† It added, â€Å"Everything within your web site should have one purpose getting your visitor to take action. Words are the most powerful marketing tool you have. The right words will turn your visitors into customers. The wrong words will cause them to click away and never return. Lowery (2006) further made the following advice: â€Å"Your words are the entire foundation of your business. Your product, your web site and your marketing strategies all depend upon your words. Fancy graphics dont make sales words do. She added: â€Å"Every word, sentence and headline should have one specific purpose to lead your potential customer to your order page. Write your web site copy as if you are talking to just one person. Identify a problem and validate that one visitors need for a solution. Continue to write and explain why your product is the solution to their problem. Tell them exactly what your product will do for them why it will solve their problems and how. Pack your copy with benefits and more benefits. Write to persuade thats the bottom line.† Developing the website would constitute the big part of the work since this where online business will most likely depend. 2.2.3. How to Develop Marketing Strategies? Marketing strategy is the final process of the migrating plan which must include both short-term and long-term strategies in order to succeed. Lowery (2006) agreed when she said that short term marketing strategies are those that bring a temporary boost in traffic. Although these techniques are very important to our over-all plan, they are only a temporary traffic source and must not be solely relied upon. These short term marketing strategies normally include purchasing advertising, bulletin boards and search engines (Lowery, 2006) (Paraphrasing made). It must be stated that marketing should be ingrated with corporate strategy. (Porter, 1980) Lowery (2006) added that long term marketing strategies are those that bring the company a steady stream of targeted traffic over time and these strategies are believed to continue to produce results even years down the road. She added that long term marketing strategies include: Opt-in Lists, Freebies and Content (Paraphrasing made). By creating and implementing a balanced marketing strategy, using both short-term and long-term strategies, the company will drive a steady stream of targeted traffic to our web site. (Lowery, 2006) (Paraphrasing made).   It must be pointed that developing a marketing strategy is dynamic thing because of fast changing environment. 7. Costs and time frame for delivery The benefits that Golfing Paradise expects to gain from migrating of course could be roughly estimated to gross or net profit margin on a per customer basis. Stated simply, the company would be pricing its products and services above cost. Costs (Slavin, 1996) here of course includes capital cost on additional investment in terns of computer systems and salary of new additional staff that may be hire including all other cost of doing business on line 8. Conclusion: Golfing Paradise decision to go on line is the right mode to expand the number of its customers. It need not abandon the retail trade. However, in so migrating its business to the Internet, it needs to consider different factors in such change of business. Migrating to Internet involves all the benefits of the system like increasing the number of customers. However, it also will entail new ways of doing business for which it must be able to serve orders on line with define authorities. Customers on line may also need to pay in forms other than money and credit cards; hence the company must be ready in any eventuality. I must prepare a list of what goods may be sold on line including estimates for delivery cost for those who may want to pot for delivery. These and other things must be done by Golfing Paradise prefer to have more customers. TASK 2 (10 marks): Security Two of the security issues that the business has been left exposed include the issues of preventing internet fraud and other one is all other internet security problem. As to how each of the issue is fixed is explained below: To say that fraud could prevented in the internet sound like bringing the whole humanity to the moon. George (1999) talked of IT criminals like the hackers who just steal other money by their ingenuities and who profit from many innocent card owners by accident by pure ignorance. Even in the manual world fraud happened because people connive and so crimes get committed. The Internet is a new world with new and unfamiliar rules. Business happens online and there could be no one who would be regulating transactions particularly those happens across countries. There might be organizations like international courts but many on line users would yet to agree if the people who get victimized may opt to go to court, since no one may be user what could will have jurisdiction. As to Golfing Paradise, although it may limit its area coverage from whom it may take payments, it cannot be sure of perfectly preventing fraud. The best way is the use of common sense and knowledge of how the business environment in the net functions. The other issue is security where files and computer soft wares could be rendered useless by ‘viruses’ or ‘spy wares’ or eve ‘phishers’ (Wikipedia, 2006) . For business rendered online such problems are inevitable and some may even be discouraged of migrating in the Internet but simply opportunity lost in not migrating might be more punishing. Hence the attitude is to protection to acquire the latest software and some of them may yet be downloadable from the Internet. It is thus the choice of avoiding the problems but no chance for improvement or joining and braving the risk but with great chance for growth. I believe more will take the risk of migrating because of opportunities. References: Brigham and Houston (2000) Fundamental of Financial Management, Thomson South Western, USA Churchill and Peter (1995), Marketing, Creating Value for customers, Irwin, Sydney Australia George, K. (1999), Different World, Praxis Business Line’s Journal on Management, Vol. 2 : Iss. 3 , {www document} URL www.hinduonnet.com/businessline/praxis/pr0203/02030400.htm, Accessed Nov. 19,2006 Kotler, P. (1994) Marketing Management, Prenctice Hall International, London , UK Lowery, S. (2006) Internet Marketing Strategies, Part One: Three Step Formula, {www document} URL http://www.web-source.net/3steps.htm Meigs and Meigs (1995), Financial Accounting, McGraw-Hill, New York, USA Porter (1980), Competitive Strategy, Free Press, USA Slavin (1996) Economics, Irwin, London, UK Wikipedia, (2006) Phising, {www document} URL http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phising, Accessed November 18,2006

The Language Of Shop Signs English Language Essay

The Language Of Shop Signs English Language Essay In the present study, the linguistic landscape will be established as a field of sociolinguistic inquiry. The focus will be on one aspect of urban language contact on written medium: the language of Tunisian shop signs. This paper will also examine the effect of such practice on young Tunisian people. The broad objective is to investigate the current status of English in relation and in contrast with French and Tunisian Arabic. 1.2. Background Many studies have been conducted to investigate the use of foreign languages on private shop signs and displays (Dimova, 2007; Hasnova, 2010; McArthur, 2000; Stewart and Fawcett, 2004; Schlick, 2002). McArthur (2000) examined this sociolinguistic practice in Sweden and Switzerland, Stewart and Fawcett (2004) in northern Portugal, McGregor (2003) in Japan. Common sociolinguistic patterns are observed. This evidences the important effect of globalization on visual aspect of trade. Scholars interested in LL show differences in perspectives. Some of them choose to compare the findings between cities belonging to the same country; while others limit their investigation to the shop signs that exist in a single city. The comparison between cities will be then drawn in forthcoming studies. There are also scholars like Schlick (2000) and McGregor (2003) who confine their surveys to examine the degree of the use of foreign terms on shop signs. Others like Dimova (2007) further explore whether there is a correlation between the languages used and types of shop. Rationale The linguistic landscape is part of our everyday experience and its importance as a social practice has been overlooked by sociolinguists. The study of LL enlightens the linguistic situation prevailing in a particular area. Torkington ( 2009) maintains that through an examination of these practices that symbolic power relations may be revealed (Torkington, 2009:123). This study will then use LL as a platform for sociolinguistic study. Expected young readers will be given voice through a questionnaire exploring their attitudes towards the languages used on shop signs in general, and English language in particular. The city is generally known as a place of language contact. Tunis center forms then a perfect field of investigation. Not only is it a place for talk but also a place where written forms do exist. From an academic perspective, writing is of equal importance to the spoken mode. Public written signs provide useful contextual information pertaining to the investigated environment. They would help the researcher to decode the multilingual situation. So, the analysis of the cityscape or one element thereof would provide a unique perspective on the coexistence and competition of different languages and their scripts, and how they interact and interfere with each other in a given place (Backhaus, 2007:145). Language attitude among expected young readers will be taken into consideration. It will be investigated to know whether visual interfaces influence language beliefs of these people. This stems from the general assumption that younger generation is fascinated by visuals. Along with the analysis of shop signs, language attitude investigation will hopefully provide a more valuable picture of the multilingual situation in Tunis. Traditional sociolinguistics is geared towards analyzing aspects of speech, such as pronunciation and accent, in order to determine how language varieties are expressed and represented within communities. LL research (Backhaus, 2007; Gorter Shohamy, 2009), on the other hand, examines language in its written form. Its broad objective is to determine the degree of multilingualism found on street signage in a specific area. The present study will be different than precedent sociolinguistic studies that focus on spoken mode of a language or a variety at the expense of its written form. It will examine scripts displayed on shop signs in Tunis. Literature review This literature review introduces the concept of linguistic landscape research in relation to sociolinguistics. It examines the similarities between linguistic landscape and advertising. It also discusses a number of empirical studies related to one component of LL: the language of shop signs. It finally tackles language attitudes in relation to shop signs. 2.1. Linguistic landscape and Sociolinguistic: Sociolinguistics is the study of language in relation to society (Hudson, 1996). One of the key values of this field is the social context in which language is learnt or used. Sociolinguists study language in relation to social factors such as age, gender, class, social distance, and social status. They are also concerned with identifying the social functions of language and the way they are used to convey social meanings. But, it is important to note that sociolinguistics focuses on speech at the expense of written form of language. The bias is displayed even in the definition of language. The language is what the members of a particular society speak (Wardhaugh, 2010:1). The study of public signage has emerged presumably in the seventies. However, the term linguistic landscape was introduced by Landry and Bourhis (1997). Linguistic landscape is also used interchangeably with the term cityscape because the mainstream of LL literature selects urban public space as a place of investigation (Coulmas 2009: 13). The LL research is mainly descriptive: it observes and records how language is actually used. Coulmas (2009:14) defines LL research as the study of writings on displays in the public sphere. The constituents of LL are more detailed in the definition of Landry and Bourhis as follow: The language of public road signs, advertising billboards, street names, place names, commercial shop signs, and public signs on government buildings combines to form the LL of a given territory, region, or urban agglomeration(Landry and Bourhis 1997: 25; as cited in Backhaus, 2007:9). Ben-Rafael et al (2006) refute this definition as it consists of texts that are only o utside buildings. They maintain that LL does incorporate signs that are inside and outside public institutions or private businesses. Sociolinguistics and LL research have common threads. They both seek to understand how language is actually used. They also focus on urbanized settings as a place of analysis. They may be then combined to analyze distribution of languages and varieties in the city. Language in public signage can be a fertile ground for sociolinguistic investigation. The study of LL may even help the sociolinguist to more understand the nexus between language use in public signage and other social attributes like identity. 2.2. Shop signs versus advertising A successful ad is expected to accomplish five functions: attracting attention, commanding interest, creating desire, and provoking action (Vestergaard Schroder 1985:1, as cited in Sandhya, 2000). Likewise, a business name is good if it succeeds to catch the eye of the reader, stimulates his or her desire to buy goods from the shop. It is not a random use of words and expressions, but rather an art that aims to catch the readers eye. Shop owners are certainly aware that language has a powerful influence over people and their behavior. They try to be selective when naming their shops. They tend to use eye-catching phrases and word-triggers. Economy of words is also to be taken into consideration. Business naming is like usual ads, in that the language in use may not be correct. Business names are then a form of display advertising. But, this type of ads has certain specificity. It does not adopt any prescriptive or normative approach to language use (Bhatia, 1987:35, as cited in Thon us: 1991). 2.3. Anglicization of shop signs: With the growing interest in the concept of signage in public sphere, there have appeared a number of interesting articles in various journals, especially in English Today. Most of them focus on English spread in environment space in general and on shop signs in particular. This spread is obviously due to the political and scientific power of United States (Thonus, 1991). The appeal of Anglo-American cultures, lifestyle and values has further boosted the status of English language worldwide (McArthur, 2000). In Portugal, shop signs are mainly monolingual; mostly are in Portuguese and the larger remainder is in English (10%) (Stewart and Fawcett, 2004: 57). Two striking features are depicted in the aforementioned study. First, the six investigated cities are near to Spain, but Spanish words were never seen on any shop sign. Second, roughly two-thirds of English shop signs displayed Snack bar. This shows the lack of creativity. The authors found that even stop signs for the control of traffic in Portugal and those in United States are the same. This ascertains the widespread of English language not only in Portuguese shop signs, but in the overall Portuguese landscape. Even Post-Soviet states, like Uzbekistan, no longer view English language as the language of Western imperialism but a language of modernity and elitism (Hasanova, 2010:1). Hasanova (2010) examined 97 shop signs scattered in five districts in Bukhara, Uzbekistan. The number of shop signs in English (55.6%) is more important than those in native languages: Uzbek(17.5%) and Russian(24.7%). One may find that this is unusual insofar as English in not even a second language in the country. According to the author, English language is abundantly used in shop signs because it is the most widely learned foreign language in Uzbekistan. It is worthy to mention that English language appear not only on signs of stores but also in front of bazaar covered stalls. The superiority of English language is displayed in terms of frequency and appearance. This is manifested in non-English writings that appear in small scripts across the awnings and marquees of the investigated shops. Besides, most Englis h names were written in Roman letters and not transliterated in Uzbek or Russian. Hasanova (2010) found out that the choice of language used in naming depends on the store type. Shops that basically sell electronics and computers were named in English language. Surprisingly enough, none of them was named in Uzbek. On signs of Internet cafà ©s, the dominant language was English (62.5%), followed by Russian, than Uzbek (12.5%). Most English names were either compound nouns or meaningful words. On the other hand, Uzbek names either were proper names or simply indicated the type of the shop. Dimova(2007) examined the use of English language in a larger sample: 346 shop signs in Veles, Macedonia. It is worthy to mention that the data corpus include brand names and window slogans. The results of her investigation showed that English is the most dominant foreign language in shop signs (36.9%). According to Schlick (2003), using English in business names is a tendency to Westernize Veles and other cities, like Ljubljana and Kranjarea, after the disintegration of the former Yugoslavia. This can be evidenced by the extensive presence of Western consumerism marked by the important presence of American brand names such as Coca Cola. The study also showed that bilingual English shop signs are more common than unilingual ones. Remarkably, none of the investigated shop signs feature words from English and other foreign language like Spanish or Italian. Dimova noted six patterns of use among English- Macedonian bilingual shop signs in the sample. One of these patterns is juxtaposing Macedonian names with brand names. Dimova focused on the subdivisions of business signs that were in English language. But, her study did not show how these English texts appear. It did not indicate whether Macedonian words are spelled in original, i.e. Roman Latin, or Cyrillic. Like the study of Hasanova (2010), it proved that Anglicization of shop signs depends on the type of business. English words and expressions appear in all signs of Internet cafà ©s. They are likely present in all signs of fashion and entertainment businesses. Hasanova (2010) also noted incorrect spelling of certain English words like cafà © which was written as caffee in almost all signs. McGregor (2003) examined 120 shop signs in central Tokyo. The findings of her research show that shop signs appear primarily in Japanese (43.3%) then in English. One-quarters of the investigated shops, especially womens clothing stores and hair salons, are named in only English language. This echoes the common belief that western Fashion is superior to Japanese one. English words are believed to ornament goods, namely clothing. They function as status-enhancing embellishment (McGregor, 2003: 21). Creativity is manifested in English-looking signs, called also made-in-Japan English signs. McGregor explains that those signs comprise loanwords from English language but with new meanings. Sometimes those words are meaningless. What is important is their visual charm (McGregor, 2003: 21). Thonus(1991) collected her business signage data from Yellow Pages telephone directories of seven Brazilian cities. She confined her investigation to the use of English in relation with Portuguese. The results show that only 10% of the investigated shop signs contain English terms. Hybridized business names are the most pervasive (56%). In these names, the generic element appears in Portuguese; and the specific element in English. Thonus noted that the spelling of 9 % of the investigated English naming in Porto Alegre is deviant in a way that it looks more Portuguese ,for example My-Deia instead of my dear (Thonus, 1991:72). There are cases that display the incorrect use of the genitive such as Silvascar (Thonus, 1991:72). Kashru (1992) distinguishes between a mistake and a deviation which is the result of the new un-English linguistic and cultural setting in which English language is used ( Kachru, 1992:62). He explains that The reincarnations were essentially caused by the new bili ngual (or multilingual) settings and by the new contexts in which English had to function (Kachru, 1992:6). But, among deviations characteristic is being systematic and not idiosyncratic (Kachru, 1992:62). According to Thonus, this deliberate spelling deviancy is simply perceived as an attention-getting device. Fused compounds and doublets consist of roughly 6% of the sample. They are mechanisms used in modernization (Dsouza, 1987:64, cited in Thonus, 1991). She noted confusion about word-order restrictions not only in English but also in their own language. For instance, a hotel is named Hotel Center Park instead of Center Park Hotel (Thonus, 1991:73). It is not clear whether the name-givers are attempting to adopt English nomenclature consciously, or merely to imitate English sounding words like the case in Japan. However, what is clear is that English terms in a business sign serve as a modern ring to the offered products in order to impress the passer-by. According to Thonus, En glish is used on shop signs to impress the Brazilian everyperson not the tourist (Thonus, 1991: 68). In the main, the aforementioned studies examined languages displayed on shop signs and their relative weight. English names are used in token of modernity and fashion (Dimova, 2007; Hasanova, 2010). They may be incomprehensible for some people, but attractive for the entire population (Hasanova, 2010). The English language depends on the type of the shop (Dimova, 2007; Hasanova, 2010). But, the name itself at times has no relation with the type of business. For example, SAPIX is an acronym formed from Science, Art, Philosophy, Identity, plus X despite the fact that science, art, and philosophy are not taught at cram schools in Japan (McGregor, 2003: 21). 2.4. Multilingualism in Shop Signs: The LL literature sheds light on multilingual practices in the written form. It reports that shop signs are increasingly multilingual worldwide. In urban space, written language mixing is examined in terms of types and functions. Recent studies of shop signs have documented a growing tendency to language mix in business naming (Shlick, 2003; McArthur, 2000). Apparently, one language is presumed to be not enough visible without the support of a foreign language, namely English. Apart from visibility, there is another function of language support especially when the local language and foreign language are used together. This combination makes it easier for the local community to understand the shop name (McGregor, 2003). This explanation is more valid for countries where the foreign language education is primarily given in translation. McArthur explains mixing languages on shop signs, apart from trendiness, as an attempt to revive the local language (Schlick, 2002). Multilingual signs contain real or coined words from two or more languages (Schlick, 2002:5). Certain messages are traditional and bland like Farmacia; while others are unusual and quirky such as Restaurant le bourjolais (McArthur, 2000:35). The stu dy McAthur(2000) focuses on the strength of macaronic usage in street and shop signs (McArthur, 2000:34). Such vigor is mainly due to two features: the creativity and the interplay (McAthur, 2000:41). Signs with macaronic tendencies are believed to be doubly eye-catching (Schlick, 2002:5). However, shop signs may lose their macaronic quality when translated. Besides, if they are naturalized into a language, they are no longer seen macaronic by native speakers (McArthur, 2000). Addison 1710 states that the great art in writing ads is finding out a proper method to catch the readers eye; without which a good thing may pass over unobserved'(as cited in Bassiouney, 2009:283). Alternating two or more languages on a shop sign seems to be a proper method to get the customers attention. This tendency is flourishing (McArthur, 2000:43). But, the degree of multilingualism differs from a city to another and from a country to another. For example, the study of McArthur (2000) shows that shop signs in Zurich are highly multilingual. The linguistic nature of Switzerland accounts for the great number of multilingual shop signs. Switzerland is known for being a multilingual country where English, French, German and Italian are in daily use. Japan, however, is different in terms of linguistic ecology. It has been known as one of the prototypes of monolingual society (Backhaus, 2007). This explains the predominance of Japanese language in business naming: Japanese is the la nguage used in 43.3% of unilingual business names. The research of McArthur (2000) is highly original in the conceptualization of the language of shop signs. The language of shop signs appears to be universal, whimsical, and translinguistic (McArthur, 2000:36). It is simply called interanto (McArthur, 2000:36). The opening element inter- refers to the internationalism and interplay of the language of shop signs. The suffix -anto , as in the artificial language Esperanto, adds an exotic meaning to the word it is attached to. The universality is depicted through the use of key international words like parking, restaurant, boutique, etc. Such words are no longer perceived foreign especially in urban environment. Whimsicality is the outcome of language mixing, and particularly when such mixing is unpredictable. It is often displayed in a sign that contains words from mother tongue and foreign language. Such a sign would mark trendiness and being rooted with ones soil at the same time (Schlick, 2002:5). A word is said to be translinguisti c when it has no precise canonical form or meaning. The translinguistic aspect is particularly manifested in bilingual and trilingual European shop names. Biona Reformhaus, a healthy food store in Zurich, is one of the hybrid constructions (McArthur, 2000:35). It includes Greek (bio- and -na), French (reform-), and German (haus). Language mixing can be at the level of lexicon, syntax or script. McArthur states that hybridization is a phenomenon happening on top of an ancient inclination to hybridize (McArthur, 2000: 35). Ancient hybridization actually refers to word adaptation. Hybridization comprises all cases of clipping, tacking, deviant spelling, and fused compounds. For example, sole in Studio Sole refers to the French word Soleil. The spelling is modified in order to match the phonetic reading of its Japanese counterparts, so-ray (McGregor, 2003:22). Besides, Language mixing can be at the word-order level. For example, the STEAK HOUSE POLAIRE sign in the study of McGregor comprises not only a French adjective: POLAIRE, but also French word-order (McGregor, 2003:22). However, it is worth to mention that a linguist may be often trapped in possibilities. In the aforementioned case, McGregor states that the context can be also Japanese. Transliteration is another type of language mixing. Backhaus (2007) con tends that a transliterated or translated text on a shop sign is designed for people with foreign backgrounds. Transliterated shop signs are considered clever names in Japan as they often acquire double meaning (McGregor, 2003:19). This accounts for the significant number of transliterated Japanese business names to Roman letters. The name manpuku, for example, means Im full and happiness. Transliteration is also depicted from Roman letters to Japanese script. The American giant McDonalds appear in Katakana. Shop owners in other countries avoid the transliteration to the local language script. For example, Uzbek shop owners avoid the transliteration of shop names to Uzbek or Russian script (Hasanova, 2010). In summary, the language of shop signs is universal, whimsical, and translinguistic. Multilingualism should be approached lexically, syntactically, and in terms of orthographically. It is very interesting to study unusual and quirky texts. 2.5. Methodological difficulties: The investigation of shop signs seems easy. The scholar would stroll along two or more streets and collect names of businesses, and analyze them afterwards. But, many methodological hurdles should be considered and dealt with first. To begin with, the unit of analysis can be a problem. The definition of a shop sign is controversial. Some scholars consider window-filling slogans part of shop signs (McArthur, 2000; Schlick, 2002, Dimova, 2007). Others exclude the names of internationally known products from the analysis of shop signs such as Coca Cola, Kodak, Fujifilm, etc. (Hasanova, 2010; Stewart and Fawcett, 2004). However, if brand names are eliminated from the data corpus, the linguistic impact of trademarks on individuals and groups would be denied. The overall understanding of shop signs would be then affected. Besides, when the term shop sign varies in scope from one study to another, the comparison between those surveys becomes impossible. Besides, the taxonomy of shop signs is difficult. Business names do not always fall into neat categories because of the word formation. For instance, there are true English loanwords and quasi-English words which are usually the result of back clipping (Gorach, 1989:303, cited in Thonus, 1991). Words pertaining to the second type are called so as they do not conform to the English norms. Adoption and adaptation process impedes an easy classification of shop signs. The term glass, a shop name in Sweden introduced in the survey of McArthur (2000:38), illustrates this ambiguity. One may think that it is an English word; while it is rather an adapted form of French glace. Ateljà © is another translinguistic word; and it is a Swedish adaptation of French atelier (McArthur, 2000:38). The ado in this case is whether or not to classify the adapted word if recognized in the class of etymon, i.e. the language of origin. McArthur (2000) suggests that an adapted cognate is naturalized into a di fferent language; and accordingly it must not be attributed to the language of origin. So, glass and Ateljà © are Swedish; they belong to German and not to French language. Besides, certain terms, such as restaurant and cafà ©, have become international and are no longer seen foreign (Schlick, 2002). So, to attribute cafà © or bar to English language can be also discussed as these words have the same form and the same pronunciation in a number of languages (Stewart and Fawcett, 2004). Furthermore, methodological decisions seem to heavily depend on the investigators perspective. In most LL research, the sites of investigation are chosen in central cities because they are the busiest streets or squares according to the scholar. Dimova (2007), for example, opted for a large city situated in central Macedonia. Others, like McArthur (2000), chose the more touristy streets in the city (McArthur, 2000:33). Besides, most studies of shop signs are based on quantitative approach. The perplexing question is whether the selected streets are representative of the whole city. Besides, some scholars tend to include all businesses they encounter; while others like Dimova (2007) limit their counting to only one sign per business. In conclusion, the study of texts on shop signs is difficult because different languages have the same form and pronunciation of certain words. Besides, the representativeness of investigated shop signs can be questioned because the site selection and the sample size depend on the investigators perspective. Moreover, the comparison between certain studies becomes impossible because the unit of analysis differs in scope from one survey to another. 2.6. Language attitude: Language attitude was introduced by the Canadian social psychologist Wallace Lambert. It started to intrigue the sociolinguists only in 1970s. Since then, many sociolinguists have been studying the language attitude that communities share. The mainstream of the studies; whereas, is geared towards attitudes towards speech styles. LL research provides an insight into the actual use of languages in environmental print. But, it does not indicate how these languages are perceived by the local community. The investigation of language attitude would help to produce a more complete picture of multilingualism in the city of Tunis. The present study will not be confined to the mere listing and enumeration of languages. The language used on shop signs is a standing point for a comprehensive understanding of linguistic situation in the city of Tunis. Gorter (2007) ascertains that language used in open environment affects language perception. He maintains that LL has some bearing on peoples perception and attitude about language, influences the use of language in society. He states that [t]he linguistic landscape has an added value because of the impact it can have on the people who see the signs (Gorter, 2007:24). So, the investigation of language attitude of the young expected readers of shop signs would be significant ly relevant to the study of language choice in a multilingual society. It would determine whether there is a nexus between linguistic choice of the shop owner and linguistic preference of young customers in Tunis. It would also examine whether there is a significant effect of visible signage in public space on language beliefs among the young readers (Coulmas, 2009: 28). In other words, it would clarify whether seeing abundant use of foreign terms in public space changes the customers language attitude favorably. The visibility of these scripts on shop marquees in great number must have some bearing on the individuals language attitude. This stems from the belief that Language has a powerful influence over people and their behavior. In a nutshell, the investigation of language attitude would foremost give a more comprehensive insight into the multilingual situation within the territory of Tunis. Baker (1992) states that attitude can be either instrumental or integrative or both. An instrumental language attitude is characterized by a desire to acquire or learn a particular language in order to fulfill material needs. An integrative attitude, on the other hand, reflects a desire to be identified as a member of the culture and community related to the language. According to Baker (1992), the language attitude is a construct of three components: cognition, feelings and readiness for action (Baker, 1992: 13). The cognitive component is made up of the beliefs and opinions about an object. The second component clearly refers to the emotions that the individual feels about that object. The behavioral component refers to ones actions or behavioral intentions towards the object. Questionnaires are generally used to explore one of the intricate and fascinating ways in which language can influence the individuals everyday thoughts, feelings and behavior. This is illustrated in the stat ement of Al-Saidat Emad (2009): An attitude is individual, but it has origins in collective behaviour. In the present study, it is hypothesized that the visibility of English language in streets develops positive attitudes towards English. When language becomes part of the individuals experience, one would embrace it to his/her linguistic repertoire. In conclusion, individual language attitude is a psychological construct that affects the reality of language for the whole society. Its investigation would help to understand the language growth, restoration or destruction. Methodology 3.1. Research questions: Q1: What is the linguistic classification of shop signs in Tunis? Q2 : Are unilingual signs more pervasive than multilingual ones? Q3: What is the most prominent language of store signs in Tunis? Q4: Is English the most attractive language in Tunisian shop signs? 3.2. Research hypotheses: H1: Shop signs in city center of Tunis can be divided into unilingual, bilingual and multilingual signs. H2: Shop owners prefer to mix two or more languages than to use a single language. H3: French is the most frequent language, then English, then Tunisian Arabic in business naming. H4: English is the most attractive language in Tunisian shop signs. Linguistic data: will be captured by a digital camera from two central shopping streets in Tunis City: Habib Bourguiba Avenue and Paris Street. More than three shopping centers happen to be situated in the survey area. Accordingly, the present study will compile a large electronic corpus of signs.  All signs of private businesses will be analyzed except those that display brand names. The classification will be according to the language used and the dominant language in each sign. Attitudinal data: will be collected from Tunisian informants through a questionnaire designed to investigate their attitudes towards the languages seen on shop signs: Tunisian Arabic, French and English. The investigation of language attitude can be at all the linguistic levels: accent, grammar, pronunciation, spelling, etc (Garrett: 2010). The present study will tackle how people perceive languages used on shop signs in terms of words and spelling. The research instrument is a questionnaire. The sample: will consist of pupils and students selected in the survey area. This study is interested in the language perception of youth. So, the age of the respondents will range from 15 to 25 years old. The selection will be based on convenience sampling. The questionnaire: comprises two parts. The first section consists of ten items that examine how young people perceive the languages used on shop signs in general. The measurement is five-point Likert Scale. The second part consists of multiple choice questions. The choices are real shop names that are seen in the survey area. This section is an evaluation of the responses given in the first part of the questionnaire. It examines how the informants perceive words from Tunisian Arabic, French and English in terms of likes and dislikes.

Critical Analysis of A Midsummer Nights Dream by William Shakespeare :: William Shakespeare Plays Literature Essays

Critical Analysis of A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare William Shakespeare, born in 1594, is one of the greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 after completing many sonnets and plays. One of which is "A Midsummer Night’s Dream." They say that this play is the most purely romantic of Shakespeare’s comedies. The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. This extraordinary play is a play-with-in-a-play, which master writers only write successfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it a task to explain the intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasing to read and watch. "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is a comedy combining elements of love, fairies, magic, and dreams. This play is a comedy about five couples who suffer through love’s strange games and the evil behind the devious tricks. This play begins as Theseus, the Duke, is preparing to marry Hippolyta. He woos her with his sword. Hermia is in love with Lysander. Egeus, Hermiaâ⠂¬â„¢s father, forbids the relationship with Lysander and orders her to marry Demetrius. Demetrius loves Hermia, but she does not love him. On the other hand, Helena is in love with Demetrius. To settle the confusion, Theseus decides that Hermia must marry Demetrius or become a nun. In retaliation to her father’s command, Hermia and Lysander run away together. Amidst all the problems in the human world, Titania and Oberon, the fairy queen and king, continually argue about their various relationships that they have taken part in. (Scott 336) Titania leaves Oberon as a result of the arguments. Oberon is hurt and wants revenge on Titania. So he tells Puck, Oberon’s servant, to put a magic flower juice on her eyelids while she is sleeping. This potion causes the victim to desperately in love with the first creature that they see. Oberon’s plan is carried out, but the potion is also placed on Lysander’s eyes. Lysander awakes to see Helena, who is aimlessly wal king through the woods, and instantly falls in love with her. She thinks that he is making fun of her being in love with Demetrius, so she leaves and Lysander follows. This leaves Hermia to wake up alone. Puck now has journeyed to the area where several actors are rehearsing. He uses his magic to turn one of them into a donkey, in hopes that Titania will awake to see it.

Shire Essay -- essays research papers

Visual Evaluation and Comparison: Analyzing the Advertisement Industry   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The main goal of advertising is to motivate or persuade people to buy a particular product or service, and among the media used to accomplish this are; radio, television, newspapers, and most importantly, magazines. In order for advertisements to successfully portray a product, they must be directed to the appropriate intended audience. In Rolling Stone and YM magazine, there are two advertisements that display a very attractive person gazing and posing to the viewer. In advertising, we are bombarded by images that have become standard in defining beauty and what is acceptable, and we often don’t realize it. In both of the ads, the person is gazing at the viewer with a look that says â€Å"this is the phone for the cool people†. Both ads are for mobile service technology, and each ad is very different from the other. The use of celebrities in advertising is very common. When advertisers choose a spokesperson to promote their product, they use three b asic categories of source attributes, which include: appearance, target audience, and slogans. Both of these ads are equally effective in their own unique way. It is important to analyze the effectiveness of these celebrities in advertising in order to gain a better understanding of spokesperson endorsements. The first ad in Rolling Stone is for Boost mobile, a cell phone service connected with Motorola who appeals to the urban youth. In the ad, a very well known man poses with the cellular phone in his hand as he smirks at the viewer. The popular man is rap star Ludacris, a clear spokesperson for the target audience. Ludacris is in a profile pose with all of his jewelry that shines throughout the black background. The phone is also shining very brightly to stand in with the â€Å"bling† to make it seem as if the phone is in the same high class as the jewelry that Ludacris proudly wears. Motorola uses a plain black background with two simple images; Ludacris using the phone and the phone itself. On the second image of the phone, there is a mirror-like reflection of the phone to make it seem illuminating to the viewer. The text on the advertisement says in a huge font â€Å"send hot beats to your phone† and then in a smaller, yet still large font â€Å"before you turn the pa ge.† This intrigues the magazine reader, because it is... ...ith distinct interests. Therefore, the ads need to be carefully designed to attract the attentions of the magazine reader. These ads were very carefully designed to the final touch. One with a simple black background embracing the shiny phone along with the â€Å"bling† compared to the very colorful entertaining background that decorates the advertisement to make it look fun. This very concept is well displayed in the two selected, yet very different, magazine ads from mobile technology.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Advertising is defined as the action of attracting the public's attention to a product or business. These two advertisements have attracted their own viewer to their product and hope that 1% of viewers purchase the product. As potential buyers of goods and services, Americans are constantly bombarded with advertising gimmicks in all print and broadcast mediums to the point where we have become jaded to the sales pitches that surround us. Each advertisement has been equally effective in reaching out to their target audience and selling the product. The unfavorable aspects of advertising result when the advertisers use questionable techniques to influence their consumers.

How Water Pollution Effects Marine Life?

For years man has been polluting our vast resource of oceans, not expecting to ever cause harm to them. Unfortunately, they were wrong. Our oceans and other waterways have become a poisonous playground of garbage, chemicals, and sewage. The effects of this ignorance has had devastating affects on the marine life and their habitat. This affects the habitat for marine life by destroying their homes. In doing so the intricate balance between marine animals and their homes can alter our oceans forever. Our very existence depends on the oceans.â€Å"Without oceans, Earth would be too hot and there would not be enough air to breathe. † (Hogan 10) The immediate importance to stop the destruction of our oceans is clear. Our oceans are not only crucial to our climate, but also provide us with food, jobs, and much loved recreation. The effects of man’s abuse can be seen on a daily basis, from the disappearance of long existing sea life such as whales, to garbage washing up on the shore, to the disastrous oil spoils that cost millions of dollars each year to clean up. In some areas the neglect is already so great that complete clean up is impossible.Pollution is the introduction of harmful contaminants that are outside the norm for a given ecosystem. Common man-made pollutants that reach the ocean include pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, detergents, oil, sewage, plastics, and other solids. Many of these pollutants collect at the ocean's depths, where they are consumed by small marine organisms and introduced into the global food chain. (oceannationalgeographic. com) The most polluted body of water on Earth is the Mediterranean Sea. Factories and ships dump over 300,000 tons of oil, toxic waste, and raw sewage in the Mediterranean each year.  (Hogan12)Even though most European countries have been working since 1975 to clean up the sea they still are living along the most polluted waters on Earth. With each year of pollutants being dumped into i t the water has darkened and the sea floor is covered with deadly slime. Plastic pollution has become a major problem throughout the world. Plastic nets, plastic garbage, and plastic medical wastes are killing millions of marine mammals, turtles, and fish. Animals may become tangled in the plastic debris or may eat it and die. Many governments have banned the dumping of plastics in oceans.  (csshome. com)There are other pollutants that affect our oceans like sediment and thermal pollution. These pollutants are mostly found in the United States. Sediment destroys spawning and feeding grounds for fish, reduces fish and shellfish populations, destroys pools used for resting, smothering eggs and fry, fills in lakes and streams, and decreases light penetration, thus endangering aquatic plants. (csshome. com) Thermal pollution refers to heating or cooling the water which changes the biota in the water. This can harm or kill organisms that rely on the water’s ecosystem.It can effe ct the way fish eggs will hatch or the fish will grow. It may even kill all living life unless they adapt to it. Scientist have counted some 400 such dead zones around the world. (ocean. nationalgeographic. com) Oil spills are another huge pollution problem that effects not only marine life but the whole ocean. Tankers spill anywhere from three to six million tons of oil int the ocean every year. It can take anywhere from two to ten years for aquatic life to recover from a spill. (csshome. com) These spills have caused severe devastation not only to marine life but the our country’s economy and livelihood of many people.Chemical pollution occurs every day all over the world. Factories are pouring deadly chemical waste into our waters. Some are dumped directly and others end up their eventually because they are poured into rivers which eventually end up in our oceans. This toxic dumping has caused severe abnormalities in our marine life and has cause almost all marine life in the White Sea off the coast of the Soviet Union to completely disappear.In Washington state some company presidents have been thrown into jail for breaking very strict pollution laws. A final type of pollution, toxic runoff, is much harder to control than pollution form factories and sewage plants. Toxic runoff is the wash off of fertilizers, pesticides and weed killers that wash off farmers fields and into our rivers and eventually into our oceans. Some problems of this type of pollution is that fertilizer runoff can cause some ocean plants to grow out of control and eventually crowd out other plants which obviously has a direct effect on the food chains of our oceans. (Hogan 20) Now that the water is so polluted people want to clean it up and change the bad affects it has had on our world’s oceans.There are many countries who are trying to clean up all their polluted waters, but one big problem is it is very costly. So they designed rules and organizations to help clean up and stop polluting. Lawmakers have made several acts to help stop pollution. The acts are the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, Coastal Zone Management Act, Endangered Species Act, Rivers and Harbors Appropriation Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act. All of these acts were set up for saving animals in the water or cleaning up the water. They are now starting to fine or arrest anyone who is caught dumping in the ocean.If hindsight is 20/20 surely man would have made better choices about ocean dumping. It is apparent today that our society’s ignorance of many years has caused a lasting and extremely costly deadly effect on our earth. Together we must all work to keep the oceans clean and safe not only for the animals that live these waters but for ourselves as well. The oceans and seas of our world don’t belong to just one country or one person, but rather they are all connected making everybody responsible to protect and prohibit the continuous de struction of marine life and their habitat.