Constitutional Safeguards in India Essay Example

Constitutional Safeguards in India Paper Constitutional Safeguards In India, the National Constitution of 1950 or any other Constitutional document does not define the word Minority. The Constitution only refers to Minorities and speaks of those based on religion or language. In the Constitution of India, the Preamble (as amended in 1976) declares the State to be Secular, and this is of special relevance for the Religious Minorities. Equally relevant for them, especially, is the prefatory declaration of the Constitution in its Preamble that all citizens of India are to be secured liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship and equality of status and of opportunity. The Constitution of India has provided two types of safe-guards -general and specific to safeguard various interests of the minorities. In the first category are those provisions that are equally enjoyed by both groups. The provisions ensure justice- social, economic and political equality to all. The second category consists of provisions meant specifically for the protection of particular interests of minorities. peoples right to equality before the law and equal protection of the laws; * prohibition of discrimination against citizens on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth; * authority of State to make any special provision for the advancement of any socially and educationally backward classes of citizens (besides the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes); * citizens right to equality of opportunity in matters relating to employment or appointment to any office under the State and prohibition in this regard of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Authority of State to make any provision for the reservation of appointments or posts in favour of any backward class of citizens which, in the opinion of the State, is not adequately represented in the services under the State; * Peoples freedom of conscience and right to freely profess, practice and propagate religion subject to public order, morality and other Fundamental Rights; * Authority of State to make law for regulating or restricting any economic financial, political or other secular activity which may be associated with religious practice, and for providing for social welfare and reform; * Authority of State to make laws for throwing open of Hindu, Sikh, Jain or Buddhist religious institutions of a public character to all classes and sections of the respective communities; * Sikh communitys right of wearing and carrying of kirpans ; * Right of every religious denomination or any section thereof subject to public order, morality and health to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable proposes, manage its own affairs of religion, and own and acquire movabl e immovable property and administer it in accordance with law; * Peoples freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion; * Peoples freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in educational institutions wholly maintained, recognized, or aided by the State; * Right of any section of the citizens to conserve its distinct language, script or culture * Restriction on denial of admission to any citizen, to any educational institution maintained or aided by the State, on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them; * Right of all Religious and Linguistic Minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice; and * Freedom of Minority-managed educational institutions from discrimination in the matter of receiving aid from the State. Part IV of the Constitution of India, containing non-justifiable Directive Principles of State Policy, includes the following provisions having significant implicat ions for the Minorities: Obligation of the State to endeavor to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities amongst individuals and groups of people residing in different areas or engaged in different vocations; * Obligation of State to endeavor to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India; * Obligation of State to promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people (besides Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; and * Obligation of State to take steps for prohibiting the slaughter of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle. Part IV-A of the We will write a custom essay sample on Constitutional Safeguards in India specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Constitutional Safeguards in India specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Constitutional Safeguards in India specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Constitution, relating to Fundamental Duties, applies in full to all citizens, including those belonging to Minorities and of special relevance for the Minorities are the following provisions in this Part: * Citizens duty to promote harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood amongst all the people of India transcending religious, linguistic and regional or sectional diversities; and * Citizens duty to value and preserve the rich heritage of our composite culture. Some other provisions of the Constitution having special relevance and implications for the Minorities are: * Official obligation to pay out of the consolidated funds of the States of Kerala and Tamilnadu 46. 5 and 13. lakh rupees respectively to the local Dewasom Funds for the maintenance of Hindu temples and shrines in the territories of the erstwhile State of Travancore-Cochin; * Special provision relating to the language spoken by a section of the population of any State; * Provision for facilities for instruction in m other-tongue at primary stage; * Provision for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities and his duties; * Special provision with respect to Naga religious or social practices, customary law and procedure, and administration of civil and criminal justice involving decisions according to Naga customary law. * Identical special provision for the Mizos; and * Provision relating to continuation in force of pre-Constitution laws until altered or repealed or amended by a competent legislature or other competent authority - Constitution of India/Part IV Article 36Â  {Definition} In this Part, unless the context otherwise requires, the State has the same meaning as in Part III. - [edit]Article 37Â  {Application of the principles contained in this Part} The provisions contained in this Part shall not be enforced by any court, but the principles therein laid down are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws. - [edit]Article 38Â  {State to secure a social order for the promotion of welfare of the people} 1. The State shall strive to promote the welfare of the people by securing and protecting as effectively as it may a social order in which justice, social, economic and political, shall inform all the institutions of the national life. 2. The State shall, in particular, strive to minimise the inequalities in income, and endeavour to eliminate inequalities in status, facilities and opportunities, not only amongst individuals but also amongst groups of people residing in different areas or engaged in different vocations. - [edit]Article 39Â  {Certain principles of policy to be followed by the State} The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing a. hat the citizen, men and women equally, have the right to an adequate means of livelihood; b. that the ownership and control of the material resources of the community are so distributed as best to subserve the common good; c. that the operation of the economic system does not result in the concentration of wealth and mean s of production to the common detriment; d. that there is equal pay for equal work for both men and women; e. that the health and strength of workers, men and women, and the tender age of children are not abused and that citizens are not forced by economic necessity to enter avocations unsuited to their age or strength; f. hat children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment. Article 39AÂ  {Equal justice and free legal aid} The State shall secure that the operation of the legal system promotes justice, on a basis of equal opportunity, and shall, in particular, provide free legal aid, by suitable legislation or schemes or in any other way, to ensure that opportunities for securing justice are not denied to any citizen by reason of economic or other disabilities. - edit]Article 40Â  {Organisation of village panchayats} The State shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government. - [edit]Article 41Â  {Right to work, to education and to public assistance in certain cases} The State shall, within the limits of its economic capacity and development, make effective provision for securing the right to work, to education and to public assistance in cases of unemployment, old age, sickness and disablement, and in other cases of undeserved want. - edit]Article 42Â  {Provision for just and humane conditions of work and maternity relief} The State shall make provision for securing just and humane conditions of work and for maternity relief. - [edit]Article 43Â  {Living wage, etc. , for workers} The State shall endeavor to secure, by suitable legislation or economic organisation or in any other way, to all workers agricultural, industrial or otherwise, work, a living wage, cond itions of work ensuring a decent standard of life and full enjoyment of leisure and social and cultural opportunities and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to promote cottage industries on an individual or co-operative basis in rural areas. Article 43AÂ  {Participation of workers in management of industries} The State shall take steps, by suitable legislation or in any other way, to secure the participation of workers in the management of undertakings, establishments or other organisation engaged in any industry. - [edit]Article 44Â  {Uniform civil code for the citizen} The State shall endeavour to secure for the citizens a uniform civil code throughout the territory of India. - [edit]Article 45Â  {Provision for free and compulsory education for children} The State shall endeavor to provide, within a period of ten years from the commencement of this Constitution, for free and compulsory education for all children until they complete the age of fourteen years. - edit]Article 46Â  {Promotion of educational and economic interests of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other weaker sections} The State shall promote with special care the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and in p articular, of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation. - [edit]Article 47Â  {Duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health} The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties and, in particular, the State shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purpose of intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health. - edit]Article 48Â  {Organisation of agriculture and animal husbandry} The State shall endeavour to organise agriculture and animal husbandry on modern and scientific lines and shall, in particular, take steps for preserving and improving the breeds, and prohibiting the slaughter, of cows and calves and other milch and draught cattle. Article 48AÂ  {Protection and improv ement of environment and safeguarding of forests and wild life} The State shall endeavour to protect and improve the environment and to safeguard the forests and wild life of the country. - [edit]Article 49Â  {Protection of monuments and places and objects of national importance} It shall be the obligation of the State to protect every monument or place or object of artistic or historic interest, declared by or under law made by Parliament to be of national importance, from spoliation, disfigurement, destruction, removal, disposal or export, as the case may be. [edit]Article 50Â  {Separation of judiciary from executive} The State shall take steps to separate the judiciary from the executive in the public services of the State. - [edit]Article 51Â  {Promotion of international peace and security} The State shall endeavour to a. promote international peace and security; b. maintain just and honourable relations between nations; c. foster respect for international law and treaty ob ligations in the dealings of organised people with one another; and d. encourage settlement of international disputes by arbitration.

mind and machine essays

mind and machine essays Technology has traditionally evolved as the result of human needs. Invention, when prized and rewarded, will invariably rise-up to meet the free market demands of society. It is in this realm that Artificial Intelligence research and the resultant expert systems have been forged. Much of the material that relates to the field of Artificial Intelligence deals with human psychology and the nature of consciousness. Exhaustive debate on consciousness and the possibilities of consciousnessness in machines has adequately, in my opinion, revealed that it is most unlikely that we will ever converse or interract with a machine of artificial consciousness. In John Searle's collection of lectures, Minds, Brains and Science, arguments centering around the mind-body problem alone is sufficient to convince a reasonable person that there is no way science will ever unravel the mysteries of consciousness. Key to Searle's analysis of consciousness in the context of Artificial Intelligence machines are refutations of strong and weak AI theses. Strong AI Theorists (SATs) believe that in the future, mankind will forge machines that will think as well as, if not better than humans. To them, pesent technology constrains this achievement. The Weak AI Theorists (WATs), almost converse to the SATs, believe that if a machine performs functions that resemble a human's, then there must be a correlation between it and consciousness. To them, there is no technological impediment to thinking machines, because our most advanced machines already think. It is important to review Searle's refutations of these respective theorists' proposition to establish a foundation (for the purpose of this essay) for discussing the applications of Artificial Intelligence, both now and in the future. Strong AI Thesis, according to Searle, can be described in four basic propositions. Proposition one categorizes human thought as the result of computational processes. G...

Consider the means by which history is portrayed in the German film Essay

Consider the means by which history is portrayed in the German film The Counterfeiters(2007). How does the film contribute to - Essay Example The authenticity of the events as they have occurred in real life transports the audience to see what people had been subjected to during those dark times. â€Å"Die Falscher â€Å"or â€Å"The Counterfeiters† takes on a new light in the development of the historical construct that was the Nazi concentration camps by introducing divergent characters who are as real as they could possibly be. The reality of human nature as one faces moral problems is an inherent quality that we cannot escape, particularly if we are faced with choices under abnormal circumstances. â€Å"The Counterfeiters† brings a new perspective on the people that seem inconsequential but make the ultimate difference and how their choices bring about the consequences that may reasonably alter the course of history. Consequently, flooding the market with counterfeited bills of the enemy is a viable plot to sway the war, but this intangible notion of a mere possibility in the eyes of prison workers is s econdary to the threat of imminent death. The film presents us inadvertently with an alternate scenario where the dollar was forged earlier and the Nazis could have stood a better chance of winning the entire war. â€Å"The Counterfeiters† shows us that the infamous concentration camps of World War II, just as fundamentally as history itself, are made up of people, people and their choices. As the introduction of Eleanor Roosevelt to the renowned book â€Å"Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl† so eloquently puts it, â€Å"living in constant fear and isolation, imprisoned not only by the terrible outward circumstances of war but inwardly by themselves, made me intimately and shockingly aware of war's greatest evil--the degradation of the human spirit.† Though Anne Frank and the people in â€Å"The Counterfeiters† may have had different experiences, the fear and mortification runs parallel between them. The men chosen for ‘Operation Bernhand were ha ndpicked because of their previous professions vital to the operations of a large-scale currency counterfeiting scheme confidential even to other high ranking SS officials. Central to the entire process is Salomon ‘Sally’ Sorowitsch, a world class counterfeiter living the high life in Berlin before he was caught by the Sturmbannfuhrer Friedrich Herzog. â€Å"Like most films about the Holocaust it is a survivor’s tale, and its protagonist, at least at first, seems long on guile and short on scruple† (Scott par.1). The triangle in his uniform represents the tag of a habitual criminal separating him from the other prisoners. Displaying his skills in cunning, Sally finds himself comfortable in the Mauthausen concentration camp by capitalizing on his artistic skills and painting for the Nazi officers. His transfer to the Sachsenhausen camp reunited him with Herzog who privies him to his new role in the forging of the British pound and then onwards to the Americ an dollar. The pivotal dynamics of the story revolves around the struggle between the ideals of two men between Sally Sorowitsch and Adolf Burger. The two represent diverging ethos each with its own viable merit. The film is essentially a story of survival under dire circumstances and how a tactical plan by the Nazis could bring the war to an end. This is framed in the characters of the story and how the human ethical dilemma of choosing between one’

Country Cultural Briefing for Business Associates Assignment

Country Cultural Briefing for Business Associates - Assignment Example There have been many sites that have been excavated the reversal the history of the country as a home of Australopithecus. The country was inhabited by Bantu speaking people who were originally iron smelters, agriculturalist and herdsmen. The country was discovered by Portuguese in 1487. Bartlomeu Dias was the first Europeans to the reach the region and he named it as the Cape of Storms from the stormy conditions that were prevalent in the area but his sponsor renamed it as Cape of Good Hope. This is because it gave a promise of viable sea route to India the Portuguese were desperately seeking for. (Thompson, 2001) From the discovery of the region, the Dutch settlers followed and colonized the country. It became an important slave trade center for the region and Dutch settlement expanded. But it was the British who made an impact on colonization of the region when they annexed the cape colony in 1806. The Britons found the country ideal for slave trade. The discovery of diamond and gold in 1867 and 1884 respectively was perhaps the beginning of serious trade in the region. This was followed by mass settlement of whites in the country. South Africa carries the history of one of the worst form of racial discrimination in the world by the name apartheid. Under apartheid, there were different settlement and different public facilities for the white and the blacks. The was followed by a long history of struggle for freedom which was led by Nelson Mandela, a renown world figure, and the ANC party. Eventually Mandela was released after serving 27 years in Robin Island and the country was granted independence in 1994. (Kalley, 1999) Business wise, the history spins since the aforementioned discovery of Gold and diamond in the country. This led to establishment of commercial centers and large white farms that supported the trade. Since then the country has grown its economy to become the largest in Africa. Size South Africa has an area of around 470,979 Sq mi which is approximately 1,219,912 km2 which makes the 25th largest country in the world. It has a coast line that stretches fro more than 2,500 kilometers across the Atlantic and Indian Ocean. The country is made up of nine provinces with 52 districts. It has 6 metropolitan and 46 municipalities. These municipalities hold about 231 local municipalities. South Africa has a population of about 44,819,768 people which is one of the highest populations in Africa. Political System South Africa has a peculiar political system in the sense that it is the only country in the world that has three capitals. Cape Town which is the largest capital in the country is the center for legislative. Pretoria is the centre for administrative while Bloemfontein is the judicial capital. This is a peculiar political arrangement in the world but which has been planned to give the country a kind of equal representation in the political and legal matters. The country has a bicameral parliament with ninety members forming the upper house. These members form the National Council of Provinces. There are other 400 members who make the lower house or the national assemble. These members are elected directed by the people and their representation is based on population basis. Ten members are elected to represent each province in the National council of provinces but which is not

Chronic Pain or Mental Illnesses Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chronic Pain or Mental Illnesses - Assignment Example There are numerous causes of chronic pain and these including different underlying chronic pathologies such as congenital abnormalities in the structure of the spinal cord, trauma, obesity, ageing and other underlying conditions such as multiple sclerosis, AIDS and cancer. When carrying out an assessment of an individual with chronic pain, there are several issues which have to be addressed; however, among these issues there are three main questions that are important for the physician. The first question is the extent of the disease affecting the patient; the magnitude of the disease in terms of suffering and pain and how these intrude into the everyday life of the patient; and finally, whether the complaints of the patient are in coherence with the disease or if there are some signs of exaggeration indicating a psychological component to the condition of the patient. There two patients that were examined and one was a 45 year old male with a history of brachial plexus injury and the other a 75 year old woman suffering from tendonitis. The 45 year old male complains of pain that has lasted for approximately a year. The patient complains of pain that is associated with a tingling sensation in the form of an electric shock. Upon examination, the patient displays weakness in the arm and he also says he feels numbness in his right arm. The 75 year old woman has a history of tendonitis which is approximately 25 years. The patient reports pain that is predominantly in her wrist area and there is also significant swelling in the wrist area. Upon examination, the patient was found to have swelling at the area of the thumb and was diagnosed with DeQuervain’ tenosynovitis. The patients both went through a psychological examination and this indicated that there was no exaggeration of pain among these patients and it was in coherence to the medical co nditions which they were found to have. The

Oral And Written Feedback To Improve Writing English Language Essay

Oral And Written Feedback To Improve Writing English Language Essay This study is an investigation of the perceptions about effectiveness of oral and written feedback on writing of thirty-seven Cambodian English-major students at the National University of Management (NUM). Two instruments were used to collect data from the oral feedback group (N=19) and the written feedback group (N=18) before and after the two-month treatment: questionnaires and student paragraphs. Results indicate that the two groups equally delivered better performance on holistic writing although oral feedback was viewed as preferable to written feedback. While the former positively impacted on both the micro-aspects (i.e. grammar, vocabulary, and mechanics and spelling) and the macro-aspects (i.e. content and organization), the latter encouraged revision only in language and organization. The study suggests that student writing improve, regardless of feedback method; that preference may not associate with revision; that reading be integrated into L2 writing classes; and that re vision may correlate with feedback intake which depends on learner-focus and teacher-student interaction. Introduction Since the late 1950s, attitudes towards the role of corrective feedback have changed along with the evolution of language teaching methodologies grounded on theories of both educational psychology and second language acquisition with the aim of enabling learners to acquire the target language effectively. In the late 1950s and 1960s, the Audiolingual Method (ALM), based on behaviorism and structuralism, was very popular in second and foreign language classrooms. Error correction was seen as helping learners to form good habits by giving correct responses instead of making structural mistakes. In the 1970s and 1980s, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), developed from nativism, was commonly practised to equip learners with communicative competence in terms of function over form or comprehensibility over grammaticality. It infers that formal correction should be discontinued since it was deemed as interfering rather than facilitating the acquisition of the target language. In the ear ly 1990s, the Interaction Approach (IAA) emerged, and it entailed such three dimensional phases as learning through input, production of language, and corrective feedback that comes as a result of interaction that arises authentically. Since the mid-1990s, the position of feedback, with the dominance of CLT, has been debated among the theorists, researchers, and practitioners in the fields of second language writing and second language acquisition. In 1996, Truscott, for example, claimed that feedback on student writing should be discarded because it is ineffective and harmful. Ferris (1997), on the other hand, argued that feedback is virtuous as it enables L2 students to revise their own writing and assists them to acquire correct English. Because research evidence was scarce in support of feedback, both Ferris and Truscott called for further research into questions about the impact and provision of feedback on L2 student writing (Bitchener Knoch, 2009). Accordingly, a great body of research has been conducted with a look into teacher written feedback: correction strategies (e.g., Bitchener, Young, Cameron, 2005; Ferris, 1997; Ferris Roberts, 2001; Lee, 1997; Sugita, 2006), feedback forms (e.g., Hyland Hyland, 2001; Silver Lee, 2007; Treglia, 2008), feedback foci (e.g., Ashwell, 2000; Ellis, Sheen, Murakami, Takashima, 2008; Sheen, Wright, Moldawa, 2009), students attitudes toward feedback (e.g., Alamis, 2010; Lee, 2004, 2008a; Saito, 1994; Treglia, 2008; Weaver, 2006), and teachers beliefs about feedback (e.g., Lee, 2004, 2008b). These studies suggested that feedback plays a pivotal role in helping L2 students improve the accuracy and quality of their writing. This finding is in line with the Vygotskyan model o f Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) which claims that learners need to be provided with scaffolding to be capable of reaching a stage of autonomy and accuracy (Patthey-Chavez Ferris, 1997). However, many of the studies have design flaws in terms of the small sample size or of not having a control group. Other studies explored the effectiveness of other feedback techniques: oral feedback or teacher-student conferencing (e.g., Hedgcock Lefkowitz, 1992; Hyland, 2003; Marefat, 2005; Sheen, 2010a, 2010b), peer feedback (e.g., Kamimura, 2006; Rollinson, 2005; Tsui Ng, 2000), reformulation (e.g., Hyland, 2003; Santos, Lopez-Serrano, and Manchon, 2010), audio-recorded feedback (e.g., Huang, 2000; Jordon, 2004), and computer-mediated commentary (e.g., Ferris, 2003; Hyland, 2003; Hyland Hyland, 2006). However, most of the studies failed to examine which feedback mode was more effective in improving student writing. Even though some of them were comparative in nature, the studies were conducted solely with a group of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) learners. As a result, conclusion is hard to be drawn with regard to the effectiveness of each feedback strategy when it is applied in another classroom setting where English is in the Kachrus (1985) expanding circle or where English is taught as a foreign language. As Ferris (2003) put it, What is preferable cannot be equated with what is effective, and what is effective for one student in one setting might be less so in another context (p. 107). In light of the aforesaid insightful and encouraging premise, this current quasi-experimental research attempts to compare teacher oral and written feedback in terms of perceptions and efficacy among Cambodian English-major students at the National University of Management (NUM henceforth). Definition of Terms: Oral Feedback and Written Feedback According to Rinvolucri (1994), the term [feedback] originates in biology and refers to the message that comes back to an organism that has acted on its environment. In biology it describes a neutral process, a link in the chain of action and reaction. (p. 287) In second language writing, feedback can be defined as input from a reader to a writer with the effect of providing information to the writer for revision (Keh, 1990, p. 294). Simply put, the teacher suggests changes that will make the text easier for the audience to read, or that help the writer to be more aware of and sensitive to his/her reader. When the writer of any piece of writing gets the perspective of the reader, then that writer is able to see more clearly where any points of confusion exist. As Keh (1990) elaborates, The writer learns where he or she has misled or confused the reader by not supplying enough information, illogical organization, lack of development of ideas, or something like inappropriate word-choice or tense (p. 295). In this study, feedback can be operationalized in terms of oral and written feedback (Berg, Admiraal, Pilot, 2006; Hedgcock Lefkowitz, 1992; Hyland, 2003; Hyland Hyland, 2006; Patthey-Chavez Ferris, 1997; Sheen, 2010a, 2010b). Oral feedb ack (OF) refers to the provision of feedback on errors and weaknesses in content, organization, and language (i.e. grammar, vocabulary, mechanics and spelling) through face-to-face conferencing lasting about five minutes for each student-writer. In so doing, the teacher gives comments (in the forms of questions, imperatives, praises, and suggestions), provides correct forms or structures in faulty sentences, tells the location of errors, makes recasts, and gives prompts in the forms of elicitation, clarification requests, and repetition of errors. Written feedback (WF), on the other hand, refers to the correction of errors and weaknesses in content, organization, and language through writing on student paragraphs. In this regard, the teacher makes use of direct versus indirect correction, coded versus uncoded feedback, and marginal versus end comments, in the forms of corrections, questions, imperatives, praises, and suggestions. Literature Review Written feedback A number of studies have been done to examine what to be commented on for substantive revision. For example, Ellis (1994), reviewing several studies on what effect formal corrections have on language acquisition, concluded that the learners whose errors are corrected improve the accuracy of producing existential structures (i.e. There is/are). However, the Ellis-reviewed studies entail only focused feedback, meaning that only one linguistic feature is targeted. Kepner (1991), in a comparative study of feedback on content and grammar, found that students who receive content feedback produce writing that has better content than those who receive grammar feedback. He also found that students who receive formal feedback do not produce fewer errors than the uncorrected group. In another study, Leki (1991) asked 100 ESL freshmen to complete questionnaires to examine how effective feedback was and how they reacted to the positive and negative comments on both form and content. He found that correcting errors in both form and content is beneficial since good writing is viewed as equated with error-free writing. Moving a step away from what to be commented on, several studies have been carried out to investigate how errors should be corrected to improve student writing. According to Ellis (1994), formal feedback is helpful to L2 acquisition only if problems are corrected implicitly or only if the errors are induced and then corrected. In a similar vein, Weaver (2006) explored how 44 students in the Faculty of Business, Art and Design perceived written feedback and if the feedback that they received showed a student-centered approach to learning. In light of interviews, questionnaires, and feedback content, he found that teacher comments are useful only if they are specific and clear, give sufficient guidance, focus on positive points, and are related to assessment criteria. Ferris (1997), examining over 1,600 marginal and end comments written on 110 first drafts by 47 university ESL students, found that marginal comments are more immediate and easier for students to locate errors and revise, whereas end comments can be more useful for writing development since they summarize major problems. Marginal comments are also deemed to be more motivating since the reader is actively engaged with the writers text (Goldstein, 2004, as cited in Hyland Hyland, 2006). In a related vein, much research has focused on whether comment types influence revisions and which of them are more, if not the most, effective. In so doing, Sugita (2006) analyzed 115 revised papers by 75 EFL students at a private university in Japan. He found that imperatives are more effective than statements and questions. In contrast, Conrad and Goldstein (1990, as cited in Hyland Hyland, 2006) found that imperatives, declaratives, or questions were less effective than the type of problem in the feedback. They further explained that problems related with facts and details were successfully revised by 50%, while those dealing with argumentation and analysis were successfully revised only by 10%. Treglia (2008) interviewed two teachers and fourteen students in a community college in the United States to examine how the students reacted to the feedback given by the teachers in the forms of mitigation and unmitigation. This study showed that the students saw both mitigated and dir ective comments easy to revise, but they liked the feedback in the forms of acknowledgements, suggestions, and choices. Alamis (2010) investigated the reactions and responses of 141 students at the Faculty of Arts and Letters of the University of Santo Tomas towards teacher written feedback. In light of questionnaires and student essays, Alamis found that praises are superior to criticisms and that content feedback should entail suggestions rather than questions, direct corrections, and indirect corrections. However, this study is a result of opinion-based responses, so it may be hard to conclude that its findings were valid. Many other researchers have moved farther to find out the extent to which teacher written feedback should be made explicit and sufficient in order to encourage comprehension and revision. In so doing, Enginarlar (1993) used 20-item questionnaires to examine the attitudes of 47 freshmen at Middle East Technical University to coded feedback and brief comment in English Composition I class. This study revealed that the participants like the two feedback types, seeing review work as a type of co-operative learning in which the amount of work and responsibility is shared by students and teachers. Ferris and Roberts (2001) also explored how explicit error feedback should be to help students to self-revise their papers. By analyzing papers written by 72 university ESL students, they found that the treatment groups outdo the control group in relation to self-revision, but the coded feedback group is not statistically different from the uncoded feedback group. Ferris and Roberts also conclude d that less explicit feedback seems to facilitate self-revision just as well as corrections coded by error type. Ferris (2003), in her review of three key studies, suggested that comprehensive feedback (i.e. all errors marked) is preferable to selective one (i.e. only some errors marked) and that indirect correction (i.e. coded and uncoded errors) is more effective than direct one (i.e. teachers making the corrections for students). Lee (2004) analyzed teacher error correction tasks and used questionnaires to and follow-up interviews with teachers and students to examine their perspectives on error correction practices in the Hong Kong secondary writing classroom. Like Ferriss (2003) reviewed studies, this research showed that comprehensive error feedback encourages substantive revision and that students depend on teachers to correct their errors. Oral feedback The effectiveness of oral feedback for improving student writing has still got very few answers (Hyland Hyland, 2006). As such, several studies have been done to examine teacher-student dialogue, and they found that successful conferencing rests on the interactive nature. For example, Hyland (2003) claimed that conferencing is fruitful when students are actively involved, asking questions, clarifying meaning, and arguing instead of accepting advice. Johnson (1993, as cited in Gulley, 2010) did a qualitative study and concluded that the question, a tool often used by teachers and tutors during a writing conference, can be ineffective in eliciting a meaningful response from students (p. 13). By contrast, Carnicelli (1980, as cited in Gulley, 2010), in his qualitative study among English-major students at the University of New Hampshire, showed that conferencing is more preferable to in-class teaching. He also noted that conference might fail if the teacher does not listen to the student, if the student feels insecure, or if the student does not remember the teachers comments (p. 13). However, this study has a design flaw in terms of not having a control group, so it is hard to conclude if such a preference is a result of conferencing, instruction, or practice. In his response to Carnicelli, Keh (1990) did his article review and pointed out that conferencing fails when the teachers take an authoritarian role, dominate the conversation, and pay no attention to what their students ask during the dialogue. He also noted that teacher-students conferencing is more effective than teacher-student conferencing since the former allows them to learn ideas and problems from one anot her. Moving a step away from the teacher-student interaction, several studies have been conducted, focusing on students-related variables that may affect the substantive revision of student writing. In so doing, Marefat (2005) examined the perception about the efficacy of oral feedback on the improvement of writing among 17 male and female Iranian students of English as a foreign language. He found that males could write paragraphs better than females, whereas females outperformed males in essay writing. He concluded that the students can produce pieces of writing with better quality, regardless of the feedback technique. Patthey-Chavez and Ferris (1997, as cited in Hyland Hyland, 2006) investigated how four writing teachers did conferencing with poorer and better students. They found that however useful teacher suggestions were for revision, the poorer students seemed to use advice more often than their counterparts. Better students were more self-confident, and they often used teacher suggestions as a base to revise their own writing. The co-researchers suggest that in the case of less capable students, conferences may be harmful if they entail appropriation rather than intervention. In another study, Goldstein and Conrad (1990, as cited in Hyland Hyland, 2006) noted that the L2 learners having cultural or social inhibitions about engaging informally with teachers are most likely to passively and unreflectively use teacher advice to revise their writing. The co-researchers found that only students negotiating meaning well in conferences were able to perform revision more successfully. This finding was similar to that of Williams (2004, as cited in Hyland Hyland, 2006), claiming that students were successful in using advice when teacher-suggestions were direct, when students actively engaged in negotiating meaning, and when they took notes of teacher comments, during the dialogues. Williams also added that negotiation is a precondition for revising higher-level texts, although her research suggested that conferencing has greater impact on correcting local errors (as cited in Hyland Hyland, 2006). However, the findings of all the four studies are based on the sm all sample size, so it is unclear if conferencing strategies and other contextual factors play a part in improving student writing. In line with the studies grounded on L2 writing theory, a number of studies have been done based on the theories of second language acquisition to investigate the impacts of indirect and direct corrective feedback, focusing on single linguistic structures. For example, Ellis, Loewen, and Erlam (2006, as cited in Sheen, 2010b) did an experimental study to examine whether implicit or explicit feedback is more helpful for adult ESL learners to acquire regular past tense. They put the students into three groups: the group with implicit recasts, the group with explicit metalinguistic feedback, and the group without any corrective feedback. The findings showed that both implicit and explicit feedback does not have any impact on the immediate posttests, but the latter is more effective than the former on the delayed posttests. In another study, Sheen (2007, as cited in Sheen, 2010b) found that explicit corrective feedback is superior to implicit corrective feedback in terms of formal acquis ition in both the immediate and delay posttests when the former is provided in the form of metalanguage and the latter in the form of recasts. Several other studies have also been done to compare input-providing feedback in the form of recasts with output-prompting feedback in the forms of elicitation, clarification requests, repetition of error, and metalinguistic clues. Lyster (2004, as cited in Sheen, 2010b) did a study with a group of fifth-grade French learners to examine whether recasts or output-prompting feedback methods encourage more accuracy of using articles agreeing with the gender of nouns. The study revealed that the output-prompting group alone outdid the control group on all eight measures of acquisition. Ammar and Spada (2006, as cited in Sheen, 2010b) investigated if recasts are more effective than prompts on the acquisition of possessive pronouns among six-grade learners in intensive ESL classes. They found that prompts were more helpful only for students with pretest scores below 50 percent, whereas recasts and prompts together were less effective for those whose scores were below 50 percent. However, t hese studies entail only focused corrective feedback, meaning that only one linguistic feature was targeted. Therefore, the results are hard to be generalized since the effects of recasts and prompts might be different if multiple-linguistic features are corrected. Research Questions As can be seen, no research had been conducted before to explore the comparative effectiveness of oral and written feedback in improving student writing in the context where English is in the Kachrus (1985) expanding circle. Accordingly, the present study sets out to look for answers to the following two research questions: How do Cambodian English-major students at NUM perceive oral and written feedback? Which feedback strategy, oral or written, is more effective in improving student writing as measured by writing performance? Methodology Participants Thirty-seven students participated in the present study, 19 of whom were males and 18 were females, with an average age of 22.59 (SD=.62) years. They were English-major students at NUM, and they had been learning English since Grade 7 of Cambodian Secondary Education (G7CSE) under the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports (MoEYS). The subjects were selected from each English class of the university based on the pre-treatment scores of 150-word paragraph writing. Based on this criterion, 19 of them were put into the oral feedback (OF) group, and 18 were filtered into the written feedback (WF) group. A control group was excluded from this study for two main reasons. First, it is believed that feedback is an essential element, so to get student to write without feedback would be unfair to them. Second, it is claimed that one of the things that students expect from teachers is feedback, so to deny them feedback would be unethical. Instruments Two instruments employed in this study were questionnaires and student paragraphs, both of which were used for data triangulation. The questionnaire, so-called Affective and Effective Response Feedback (AERF), consists of three sections with a total of 22 items: Section A (A1-4 for Demographic Data), Section B (B1-9 for Effective Responses), and Section C (C1-8 for Affective Responses). A five-point Likert scale (1=Strongly Disagree, 5=Strongly Agree) was utilized for the 17 items in the latter two sections (B1-9 and C1-8), and several items thereof (i.e. B1, B3, B5, B8, C2, C5, and C8) were reverse-ordered to reduce response set bias. A statistical validity analysis showed that EARF was reasonably reliable with the Cronbachs Alpha value of .853. The student paragraphs were collected before and after the two-month treatment, and they were inter-rated by three well-trained teachers each with more than four-year experience of teaching writing skills to English-major university students. The scoring was performed based on the researcher-formulated criteria divided into content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, mechanics and spelling, each of which earns equal marks (1=Very Poor, 5=Excellent), with the total score of 25. The reliability of the inter-rated scores employed by the present study was .789 for the pre-treatment scores and .806 for the post-treatment scores, using Cronbachs Alpha coefficient of internal consistency. Procedures Before this study, letters were sent to the Chair of Foreign Languages Center (FLC) of NUM, where it was conducted, and finally to the Rector of the university as well. Once approval letters were received, the researcher went on to select classes for both groups (OF and WF) and sent out informed consent forms. There were informative meetings with both groups of participants to let them know about the study and to receive signed informed consent forms. It was also made clear to the subjects that this study would not affect their course grades. They responded to the questionnaires anonymously, and those who mastered more than 80 percent of the total scores in paragraph writing would be awarded with Certificate of Recognition in order to motivate them to write and incorporate the feedback they had received from one week to another into their revision process. Data collection was conducted in the following steps. First of all, the students were asked to write a 150-word paragraph about the person whom I admire in my life. The paragraphs were then collected and inter-rated by three well-trained lecturers who had been teaching writing skills for more than four years. Based on the results, the participants were divided into two groups of similar size (OF=19, WF=18) and overall equivalent writing competence. An independent-samples t-test revealed that the overall mean score of the oral feedback group constituted 16.47 (SD=3.042) and that of the written feedback group was 16.46 (SD=3.045). Then, the treatment was conducted for two months with single-draft feedback provided on each of the three paragraph types taught during this experimental period: narrative, process, and compare-contrast. The topics included my happy story, how to make a nice cup of coffee, and rural life and city life. The feedback on each topic was comprehensive and targeted all aspects of writing: content, organization, grammar, vocabulary, mechanics and spelling. In this regard, various feedback strategies of each commentary mode were employed to ensure that both groups would receive similar treatment condition and that they would provide more authentic responses to the research questions. It is worth noting that the treatment (i.e. the delivery of feedback) was undertaken with specific reference to the operationalized terms at the very beginning of this study (Please refer to pages 3-4.). Soon after the two-month study, the participants were again asked to write a 150-word paragraph about one of the three topics (i.e. my bedroom, my house, or my favorite place), complete the questionnaires consisting of both close- and open-ended items. Finally, the data obtained from the questionnaires and student paragraphs were coded and input into SPSS 19.0 with the utilization of one-sample t-test, independent-samples t-test, and paired-samples t-test for data analysis, using the test value of 3.5 and the significant level of .05. Findings and Discussion Research question 1: How do Cambodian English-major students at NUM perceive oral and written feedback? A one-sample t-test was employed to provide descriptive statistics by comparing the mean scores and standard deviations of the oral feedback group and the written feedback group with the test value of 3.5 rather than with those of the written feedback group and the oral feedback group, respectively (i.e. oral feedback group vs. written feedback group, and vice versa). Table 1 shows that the students had highly positive attitudes towards oral feedback in the forms of detailed correction (M=4.42, SD=.838, p=.000), comprehensive suggestion (M=4.26, SD=.806, p=.001), and sincere praise (M=4.00, SD=.816, p=.016), which thus enabled them to write with increased confidence (M=4.26, SD=.452, p=.000). This preference was due to the fact that oral feedback was perceived as the cornerstone of building closer bonds (M=4.16, SD=.765, p=.001) between the student and the teacher who always paid special attention during each dialogue (M=4.58, SD=.507, p=.000). However, no statistical differences wer e significant in motivation (C5. It encouraged me to work harder on my revision) and sufficiency (C8. It was helpful enough for my revision), the p-values of which constituted .137 and .497, respectively. Table 1 Descriptive statistics for affective responses of OF group M SD t df p C1. It made me feel I had a more personal and human relationship with my teacher. 4.16 .765 3.750 18 .001 C2. I did not feel more confident about my writing. (Reverse-ordered) 4.26 .452 7.353 18 .000 C3. It gave more details about the errors in my writing. 4.42 .838 4.793 18 .000 C4. It gave more details about how I can improve my writing. 4.26 .806 4.129 18 .001 C5. It discouraged me from working harder on my revision. (Reverse-ordered) 3.84 .958 1.556 18 .137* C6. Praise was helpful for my revision. 4.00 .816 2.669 18 .016 C7. I got special attention from my teacher. 4.58 .507 9.271 18 .000 C8. It was not helpful enough for my revision. (Reverse-ordered) 3.68 1.157 .694 18 .497* * p > .05 (not significant) As can be seen in Table 2, students preferred written feedback in the forms of comprehensive correction (M=4.39, SD=.698, p=.000), detailed suggestion (M=4.39, SD=.608, p=.000), and sincere praise (M=4.22, SD=.647, p=.000), to make them feel more confident about their writing (M=4.00, SD=.594, p=.002). A one-sample t-test also indicates that statistical differences were significant in attention (C7) [M=4.22, SD=.808, p=.001], but not in relationship (C1, p=.655), encouragement (C5, p=.055), and sufficiency (C8, p=.080). Taken Tables 1 and 2 together, oral feedback, unlike written feedback, builds closer bonds between the teacher and the student because the former tends to be more interpersonal in terms of reciprocal attention during the dialogue. While written feedback, if it includes encouragement and personal, text-specific comments, can also strengthen teacher-student relationships, it is not the same experience as sitting down face-to-face for negotiation and questions. Table 2 Descriptive statistics for affective responses of WF group M SD t df p C1. It made me feel I had a more personal and human relationship with my teacher. 3.61 1.037 .455 17 .655* C2. I did not feel more confident about my writing. (Reverse-ordered) 4.00 .594 3.571 17 .002 C3. It gave more details about the errors in my writing. 4.39 .698 5.404 17 .000 C4. It gave more details about how I can improve my writing. 4.39 .608 6.206 17 .000 C5. It discouraged me from working harder on my revision. (Reverse-ordered) 4.00 1.029 2.062 17 .055* C6. Praise was helpful for my revision. 4.22 .647 4.738 17 .000 C7. I got special attention from my teacher. 4.22 .808 3.790 17 .001 C8. It was not helpful enough for my revision. (Reverse-ordered) 3.00 1.138 -1.87 17 .080* * p > .05 (not significant) Table 3 presents the descriptive statistics of the perceptions about the impact of oral feedback on improving student writing. A one-sample t-test was performed with the test value of 3.5 and the p-value of .05. The results show that oral feedback was viewed as effective in encouraging substantive revision of organization (B4) [M=4.32, SD=.671, p=.000], clarity (B1) [M=4.05, SD=.780, p=.006], content (B5) [M=4.00, SD=.577, p=.001], and grammar (B2) [M=3.95, SD=.705, p=.013]. Significantly, oral feedback was also seen as enabling students to use specific linguistic features in conformity to different genres or text-types (M=3.95, SD=.705, p=.013). Such an improvement was strongly confirmed by the

Can Utopia be obtained in a Capitalist Society :: essays research papers

In a capitalist society can utopia really be obtained? I really don’t think so; because if utopia is defined as a place of ideal perfection especially in laws, government, and social conditions, then a place where everything is perfect for everyone is not likely. Perfection, I believe, cannot be obtained in a capitalist society because of competition. Competition can help society in many areas, such as improving technology, forcing individuals to work harder, and making more money for the overall economy. But ideal perfection can’t be realistic with competition.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Because of competition, in my opinion, perfection in laws cannot be attained. One reason I think this is true is because of the many laws that governments of a capitalist society has; such as monopoly be outlawed. Laws are not ideal perfect because they are some people who would want to generate more money and can’t because of some law that would prevent them to do so. There might also be some ethical issues between businesses that might lead to imperfection. There might be some common law within businesses that might be unfair for other business that makes society imperfect. Ideal perfection means that all people in the society are not only happy with their economic status but also have no need to improve on that, and when we have competition playing a major part in our society, there is no chance of improvement not happening.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Government perfection is really hard to attained because it is rare when everyone agrees on something that the government provides. Government has to maintain not only a good economic system, but also a stable society. In an ideally perfect government there cannot be any differentiation in taxes, nor can there be such a great difference between upper class and lower class. In a capitalistic society there is differentiation in taxes and a wide gap between upper and lower class incomes. A good, successful government in my opinion cannot be ideally perfect. I would think that that could only happen if the government controls the people, like a communist country, but then that in the society’s point of view isn’t perfect either.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Can social conditions really be perfect, ideally perfect, for everyone? This is I believe the strongest argument against attaining utopia. What is perfect social conditions, is it everyone having a job, family, and values. Is it following the economic system and trying to reach for the ultimate goal in a capitalist society, which is the bottom line.