Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Advantages and Reasons of Being Bilingual

Advantages and Reasons of Being Bilingual Saunders (1988) states that Fishman, a well-known writer in bilingualism, declares that more than half of the worlds population today uses more than one language while engaging in activities basic to human needs (Saunders 1988 p.1). Numerous causes contribute to the emergence and dominance of bilingualism. There are various optional or compulsory factors. Immigration is a major factor of being bilingual, whereas Immigrants move from one country to another, because of various reasons. For example, some of them escape from wars or poverty in their countries to search for better life in foreign linguistic communities. As a result, they will be forced to learn the language of the host countries and become bilingual in order to have wider contact opportunities and getting jobs. According to Saunders (1988), most immigrants speak the language of the new culture and environment. In Australia, for instance, 86.3% of immigrants speak their second language more than their home languages. Geogr aphical proximity of two countries is a possible factor of being bilingual, where people of the two communities need the communication among each other for different purposes like trade and other social relations like marriage resulting in bilingual families. Saunders also states that commerce and trade are critical factors motivating people to acquire a second language. Most economic business and commercial markets involve bilingual individuals to deal with customers from multicultural areas. 2.3.1 Education as a great reason of being bilingual: Education is one of the most fundamental factors pushing or motivating individuals to learn a second language. Being bilingual through education can be optional or obligatory. I notice that, in all Arab Gulf countries, most school students become bilingual due to their learning of English as a compulsory subject. However, there are some students, including colleges and universities students, who learn their second language English as an optional subject. The learning of English in these countries seems to be the result of the international relations between them and the United Kingdom. It is worth mentioning that the main focus of my research paper is being bilingual due to education. According to Baker (1988), bilingual education refers to any program aiming to teach students a second language besides their mother tongue at school. It takes various classifications based on the following factors. First of all, bilingual education is classified to elitist bilingualism and folk bilingualism according to the incentive of being bilingual. Elitist bilingualism is regarded as a reward offered to certain special individuals by government. Some students, for instance, are rewarded by being allowed to study abroad or study in prestigious universities in their countries. On the other hand, folk bilingual education is deemed a crucial need people have to meet in order to remain alive. When immigrants move to a new place, they acquire the language of that place so that they can interact with people there. Bilingual education is also categorized into immersion and submersion bilingual education based on the use of both languages in learning. In the immersion education, student s are allowed to speak their mother tongue while experiencing their subjects and communicating with teachers. They learn the second language gradually as time goes by. In contrast, students are not allowed to speak their home language in the submersion bilingual education. They are taught all their subjects in their second language. According to the major used language, bilingual education can be also categorized into transitional and maintenance or enrichment bilingual educations. Transitional bilingual education essentially aims to develop and make students fluent in one language only, which is the majority language. Therefore, this bilingual education focuses on the bilingualà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s first language in the learning procedures with few extra classes to learn the second language. For example, in the USA and Europe, the minority of languages are taken into account and cured in order to make the minority groups to be able to continue the education in English or other majority languages. Huddy and Sears (1984), state that bilingual education is improved in the United States by the Bilingual Educational Act in order to meet the needs of children who speak minor languages (Huddy and Sears 1984). On the other hand, maintenance or enrichment bilingual education aims to teach children their subjects with both languages to guarantee that children get good levels of proficiency in both languages. Baker indicates that some students are taught some subjects such as grammar in their native language, while mathematics is learned in the second language. Consequently, students master both languages, and the two languages are developed simultaneously. This type of education is used for example in Canada and Wales as Baker shows that à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"English speakers are taught French or Welsh to enable them to be fully bilingualà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒâ€šÃ‚  (P, 47). I assume that maintenance or enrichment bilingual education refers to th e same kind of education used in Oman but, here, the government uses the term dual education to refer to it.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Schools and Education - Understanding the Rise in Apathy, Cheating and

The Rise in Apathy, Cheating and Plagiarism – Understanding the Problem Over the past ten years teachers have witnessed a drop in student preparation and a rise in apathy and cheating. Students who cheat do so from a variety of motives. Making this situation even more difficult is that faculty members do not even define plagiarism the same or punish it consistently (Howard, â€Å"Sexuality† 473). Some surveys even show that teachers simply ignore the problem or do not report plagiarism because: â€Å"they do not want to be bothered, because they think only the student who cheated is actually harmed, or because of the unpleasant bureaucracy and documentation ramifications† (Moeck 484). Alschuler and Blimling add to this list the fear of litigation, student reprisals, administrative reprimands and lack of support (124). With such diversity and outright dissention among teachers, finding solutions to these problems will require not only a common purpose but also an understanding of what may be at the heart of these issues. One potent ial answer lies in educating ourselves about the history and nature of plagiarism. Another potential answer lies in analyzing how so many students arrive at college ill-prepared and apathetic. Freire’s theories on banking education may explain some of these problems concerning student preparation and academic integrity. First, we must understand the history of plagiarism and the problem many instructors have in separating original thinking from collaborative thinking (that which is influenced by those who have come before). Western thought traces its roots to the great civilizations of Classical Greece and Rome. The nature of much writing from this period up into the 19th Century was ... ...n, 1993. 17-24. Howard, Rebecca Moore. â€Å"Plagiarisms, Authorships, and the Academic Death Penalty.† College English 57 (1995). 788-806. ---. â€Å"Sexuality, Textuality: The Cultural Work of Plagiarism.† College English 62 (2002). 473-91. Jeffers, Thomas L. â€Å"Plagiarism High and Low.† Commentary 114 (2002). 54-61. McCabe, Donald L. â€Å"Students Cheating in American High Schools.† The Center for Academic Integrity. 2002. 10 Nov. 2002. . Moeck, P. G. â€Å"Academic Dishonesty: Cheating Among Community College Students.† Community College Journal of Research and Practice 26 (2002). 479-91. â€Å"Statistics.† Plagiarism.org. 10 Nov. 2002. . Roberts, Peter. Education, Literacy, and Humanization: Exploring the Work of Paolo Freire. Ed. Henry A. Giroux. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey, 2002. 54-73.

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Irony in Love

Irony in Love Irony is a mystery. The smartest minds of society even contradict themselves; nothing goes as planned. No matter how much people are molded by others, they are always their own individual with their own free will. Love is also a mystery; it is an emotion, but also a psychological necessity. Having immense book smarts and everything planned out does not set the standards for the ideal guy. Conceded, self-centered people have no realization that the world does not revolve around them and their opinion.In many cases, the guy â€Å"on top† does not always get what he wants but what he deserves. In Max Sultan's, Love Is a Fallacy, the story has almost no association with the emotion love; it follows the material, selfish, earthly values of humans. Salmon portrays how irony can be seen through a man teaching a woman how to be logic, but then the woman turns away. Logically choosing another mate. A young law student pursues Poly Espy; a beautiful, graceful classmate who is not the brilliant compared to him. He aims to teach her logic, making them the â€Å"perfect† pair.In his arrogance he neglects to see that Poly is her own person and does not have to choose him, no matter his educational status. After all the knowledge given to her, she makes the decision to â€Å"go steady' with his roommate, Petty Bellows, realizing their relationship is not a logical choice for her life. As John Gay has said â€Å"follow love and it will flee, flee love and it will follow. † Poly sees right through the main character, all his â€Å"hard work† back fired. In the end of the story she has no interest in him. With all his intelligence, he has no emotions.Everything enters around him. During the story, Poly and the future lawyer meet for their â€Å"dates† at the Knoll. Known for being regularly visited by young couples as a hook up spot. Though this young couple ironically goes to talk about logic. The young law student could have ta ken her any. Veer at all, but chose to take her to a romantic spot for a non-romantic conversation. His unconscious, emotionless choice provides the audience and Poly even more information to come to the conclusion that he isn't emotionally interested; even though he stated it early in the story.For him this is strictly an experiment to see if Poly is â€Å"worthy' of him. He would rather spend the time â€Å"correcting† Polyps mind because she is â€Å"logic-proof,† than trying to get to know her for who she really is. In doing this he debilitates the chemical process the brain completes in order to feel the emotion of lust and attraction. Everyone and everything has to measure up to him or it is not good enough. Though, in the end the law student doesn't measure up to his roommate that is â€Å"dumb as an ox. † At the end of the story, Poly chooses Petty over the pompous law student imply because of the raccoon coat.Ironically the reason petty has the coat is because of the fact that his roommate gave him it for the girl. Poly hilariously proves to the young man that no matter how well put together someone's future or current situation in life, something as simple as a raccoon coat can leave you in the dust. From the very beginning, Poly and Petty already had chemistry. Like John Dryden once said â€Å"love is not in our choice but in our fate,† there was something established prior. The young lawyer sought out to take her, not even considering she needed to be won over.Once again not thinking about another individual's opinion, only his need and wants to become a â€Å"successful† lawyer. Proven in Love Is a Fallacy, you can educate someone to a higher standard but the repercussions of that action may not be in your favor. This lead to the knowledge that having a giant intellect does not mean that an individual knows everything, especially about love. Many geniuses do not understand that not every aspect of life needs to be mathematically calculated to precision. People are singular because no one is exactly alike.