Development of Phoneme Perception Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Development of Phoneme Perception - Essay Example It is possible that there could be listeners whose discrimination patterns nearly manifest the phonetic system of their corresponding native language(s). In relation to this, Maye, Werker and Gerken (2002) demonstrated that there are possibilities by which infants may lose their ability to distinguish certain foreign language contrasts according to their sensitivity to the dispersal of sounds in the language input. When a child becomes aware that spoken words are comprised with sounds, he or she is described to have achieved "phonological awareness." The phonological awareness can exist in the form of awareness of rhyme, awareness of syllables, awareness of the onsets of words, etc. Phoneme awareness is essential to the process of learning to read; and explicitly teaching phoneme awareness facilitates reading acquisition, in the later stage of childhood. Research have shown that reading failure is linked to deficiency of phoneme awareness. It is important therefore, that early childhood teachers should be active in phoneme manipulation; demonstrate knowledge on the spoken words as it made up of phonemes which can be rearranged to make different words. Added cognitive benefits for young children that are at the same time exposed to more than one language is that they may have greater neural activity as well as denser tissue in the fragile areas of the brain which are related to many functions like memory, association, attention, and language than those who are monolingual learners. These variables are connected with long-term and positive cognitive outcomes (Bialystok 2001, Kovelman, Baker, Mechelli et al., 2004; & Petitto, 2006). Investigation on Performance on Native-languageStudies on the performance on native language is not new. Kuhl, et al. (2004) have conducted experiments on this topic. They compared and contrasted the 6-8 and 10-12 months Mandarin learning infants and American infants' listening to their respective native-language. The participants of the study were the 17 American infants whose mean age is 6-8 months (ten boys; seven girls) and 19 American infants whose mean age is 10-12 months (ten boys; nine girls). The two groups were recruited via the database of an Infant Studies Subject Pool ISSP based in University of Washington. There was same inclusion and exclusion criteria in the selection of the subjects. As part of the procedures, computer synthesized tokens in English were utilized and created using a male voice. The voice were matched in all acoustic details aside from the temporal features in the event of the initial portion of the consonants. The amplitude elevation time was 30 ms lo wer than the frication period to generate more natural-sounding conversation for English speakers. Also, the duration of the vowel reached 245 Your Name 3 minutes. The procedure and apparatus were just the same to that used to investigate perceptual development among infants' speech differentiation on native and non-native contrasts. Results/Findings The English and Mandarin-learning infants manifested

Is it correct to claim that the study of politics constitutes a Essay

Is it correct to claim that the study of politics constitutes a science Discuss with reference to case study research - Essay Example d the various studies concerning man and his multifarious activities like philosophy, economics, natural sciences, history, psychology and of course politics. The Renaissance saw the enquiring minds of Europe and no doubt earlier, where advanced cultures existed (pre-renaissance), delving into studies in various disciplines that were analysed and documented, until the latter half of the nineteenth century and the dawn of the twentieth century saw the thrust towards making studies of most disciplines empirical, meaning that information had to be gained by experience, observation or experiment2. Studies conducted had to follow certain set criteria and measurements to be valid. In the modern state, for proper planning, such was the demand. Many North American political scientists, notably Jon R Bond, believe that a ‘hard science of political behaviour’ is possible and someone would come along and do for political science what Newton has done for physics3. In an essay on this subject by James W. Skillen, he quotes Bond as saying that, ‘the beginning of scientific enquiry is the fact/value dichotomy’ and that ‘the core goal of scientific methods is hypothesis testing and theory building that would yield quantifiable results’4. Indeed, one cannot dispute the fact that without such empirical studies, in terms of politics, economics, sociology and natural sciences amongst others, that planning commissions of various authorities worldwide would have been successful in the implementation of their programmes. Much of the developed and developin g world relies on these studies to implement development programmes with a view to pre-empting failure. Statistics, objective data, all factual and tangible rule the day. However, the question of how accurate we are, when the human element is involved is a question for debate. Here is a discipline that is dependent on so many vagaries of man. Kenneth Minogue, in his book Politics, aptly encapsulates this when he

Financial crime PowerPoint Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Financial crime - PowerPoint Presentation Example There were financial crimes involved in the issue, which included the addition of $500 million to the company’s loan loss reserve. The company was in fact, not as successful as it claimed to be and many of its executives were also suspected to have been involved in financial frauds. The primary reasons that contributed to the downfall of the company were the bets placed on credit default swaps, the unrealistic accounting strategies of the company and the underlying financial crimes that prevented investors from predicting the downfall of the company. Credit default swap is more like an insurance that would receive payments from the buyer makes payments and in the event of facing loss from debts or loans, the company would give a pay off. The company got itself into riskier financial products as it allowed collateralized assets groups and subprime mortgage pools to invest in credit default swaps, since it would not be possible to assess the real value of these groups. When there were sever losses in the housing market, most of the pools that the company had insured began to face losses. At the point where the company had to pay off almost all of its investors, the company was almost bankrupt. This also made evident that the company had shown its loss loan reserve values to be higher than it was. When the financial crisis faced by AIG was under scrutiny, it was brought to light that the company had been warned twice before of its improper records and books. The liabilities that the company was subject to as a result of the financial products were not accounted for as necessary. The company had been warned of its book records and the assets valuation was reported as lacking in accuracy, failing to provide a clear understanding of the impact of its products on AIG’s finances. The accounting strategy that contributed considerably to the company’s downfall was the â€Å"fair-value† accounting

Organisations and Behaviour Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Organisations and Behaviour - Assignment Example Since every department is branching out into many sub divisions and vertical as well as horizontal branches, cross communication has seen an enormous rise. Thus looking at the present scenario, a hierarchal organisational structure will lead to a lack in communication and the resultant organisational will be more bureaucratic in nature. In the given case study, Hawk Company has been observed following taylorist methods of production. A taylorist method can be described as a production process, in which the assigned tasks and works are broken down further into segments or smaller clusters, with the objective of monitoring the process and correcting any action. This can be regarded as a rigorous method of production where each and every action is flowed by strict monitoring. A taylorist approach can be accompanied by many methods of organisational structure. These can be bureaucratic, hierarchal or specialised structure. In the bureaucratic, structure, strict rules and regulations are followed and procedures are delegated in order to achieve compliance and control of subordinated from those who give orders. The second one is hierarchical in which decision makers are separated from employees who implement. Traditional methods of taylorism are highly dysfunctional and lead decrease in motivation of employees and workers. In order to achieve control and compliance in an organisation, a beurocratic structure follows strict rules and regulations and controls of all functioning within the organisation. From the above theories of organisation structure, we can conclude that because of the strict hierarchical structure and taylorist methods, the organisation faced many issues and problems. It is also evident that the arising issues and complications from the traditional methods of organisational structure and production process lead to the subsequent changes, which were implemented in the organisation. As a result of the perennial problems occurring in the organisation, the management decided to take necessary steps. The first action was to consult the workers and other staff members of the organisation and take relevant feedback about the organisation structure and satisfaction level. With the help of workers and employee feedback, many changes were made. The first change was made in the workshop and the factory. Old and traditional machinery were replaced by new and more advanced equipments. Special training was also provided to the workers for making them acquainted with the latest machinery. The traditional assembly line was changed to a more collaborative and compatible group. The new task assembly was divided into teams of workers, performing a specific job, rather than working haphazardly and simultaneously at different places. The workers were also invited to take part in management decisions and this helped in increasing their motivation to a great extent. Thus, by removing bureaucratic structure form their organisational portfolio, the ma nufacturing company was able to increase motivation and commitment level from their employees. With the implementation of teams in the factory, the traditional hierarchal structure also became dysfunctional, and the workers as well as the employees were able to communicate as well as contribute in

Genre Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Genre Analysis - Essay Example This right to bear arms extended by the Constitution to the American citizens is causing many problems. There is a section of the American political class and citizens that believes that the buying and keeping of guns need to be subjected to tough laws as this allows any criminal minded person to buy guns and inflict violence on innocent citizens. The recent shoot out at a naval base in Washington, D.C. is an apt example of this. There is another section of the politicians and the citizens who believe that the existing constitutional right to buy and carry arms should not be tampered with, as it violates the freedom and rights extended to the citizens by the Constitution. Thereby gun control is an issue that is very controversial in the current context and the opinion of the American politicians and people tends to be very polarized regarding this issue. This paper will analyze four genres expressing opinion and views about the issue of gun control. Genre 1: Bumper Sticker The given bumper sticker tends to protest against the framing of tough laws regarding gun control. The very first line of this bumper sticker is indeed attention grabbing and thought provoking as it tries to make the audience aware of the larger issues associated with gun control that are the issues pertaining to individual freedom and liberty. The placing of the target message in rust brown against a white background makes the sticker quiet attention grabbing and attractive. The overall appeal of the message inherent in this bumper sticker is indeed emotive as it tries to solicit the public support by suggesting that tough gun control laws will deprive the people of their freedom and liberty. Genre 2: YouTube Video â€Å"Debating a Gun Control Fanatic†. YouTube. Retrieved 14 October 2012 from, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNb34vPqrN0 The given YouTube video at the pretext of interviewing a person who is strictly supportive of tougher gun control laws tries to make a point that the p eople supporting tougher gun control laws are actually unreasonable and misinformed. The anchor in this video tends to interview a lone gun control supporter in the background of a rally being organized against gun control. The interviewer time and again tries to put words in the mouth of this gun control supporter, systematically trying to convey that this gun control supporter is of unsound reasoning ability, thereby trying to paint all the gun control supporters as being fanatics and incapable of reasoning. Time and again data showing that guns do not lead to a higher crime rate and loss of innocent lives is flashed in the back ground of this interview. The objective of this interview seems to be to frame the lone gun control supporter as an example of the irrationality and misinformation marking a support for tough gun laws. Genre 3: A Popular Magazine Article Zakaria, Fareed. â€Å"The Case for Gun Control†. Time Magazine, 20 August 2012. Retrieved 14 October 2013, from http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2121660,00.html The given article written by Fareed Zakaria, a renowned media personality, tends to address the audience who are interested in a well balanced and rational catechism as to the reasons that account for a peculiarly high gun homicide rate in the US. Far from the video discussed above,

Apartheid and Crimes in South Africa Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Apartheid and Crimes in South Africa - Essay Example The novel tells the story of Stephen Khumalo who is a black Christian in the rural South Africa who sets for Johannesburg to look for the missing members of his family, his sister Gertrude and his son Absalom and his brother John. Even though, he gets to fin d them, it is evident that it is at an appalling cost. This is because he finds his brother having lost his faith and in turn learnt to hate his sister had lost her dignity and turned to prostitution, and his son having killed Arthur Jarvis son who is a white man opposed to the apartheid. Despite all these findings, it is noteworthy that the novel ends in a hopeful note, and this is by way of a conversation between James and Stephen on the future of South African racial understanding. This paper assesses the novel by focusing on the rampant crime that existed in the then South Africa, and this is to establish the accurate origin of the crimes. This book is laid down in South Africa of the 1940s a time during which there was both economic and political tensions that had resulted into a lengthy complicated history. Before the arrival of the Europeans in the mid 1600s, South Africa was inhabited by a considerable number of African tribal groups such as the San and the Khoikhoi and afterwards the Bantu speakers who are the ancestors of the present Zulus (Natarajan, 200). Even though, the Europeans had not come to settle as colonizers, a century later had resulted into a settlement of Europeans into deeper areas of South Africa, thus, displacing the native south Africans (Natarajan, 202). The arrival of the English almost a decade later transformed South Africa into a colony, and this had disastrous effects on the South Africans. This led to a conflict between the Boers who were the European settlers of South Africa and English, but it was till 1881 that a war between them transpired. However, this was after a series of clashes between the Boers and the native South Africans. At this time, it is evident that bla ck workers were only permitted to hold unskilled jobs, and subjection to pass laws that restricted their freedom (Ikejiaku, 451). The enactment of the Natives Land Act led to a reduction in the land the natives were permitted to own. This is evidenced by the assertion of Arthur Jarvis that it is merely a tenth of the territory, that was allocated to the native south Africans yet they formed four fifth of the country’s population (Paton, 156). This subsequently resulted into the emigration of most native South Africans into urban areas to work on mines. This influx of cheap labor was welcomed by the min e owners, who did not care about the housing and services of these people. It is in this context that the novel begins as Stephen Khumalo goes to the city to look for his son and other members of his family, and these are associates he had not made out for a lengthy time. The status of his family members at the time he finds them paints a true picture of the social evils in the Apartheid Africa, and this is of course the cause of the rampant crimes in South Africa. This is a clear indication that it is the society itself that caused the crimes. The novel depicts the whites as those affected by the native crime but also sheds some light on the social instabilities as well as moral issues as the cause for the breakdown of the tribal system. This disconnection, thus, leads to conglomeration of crime as the natives strive to survive.

Accounting analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Accounting analysis - Essay Example For other transactions substance and form diverge and the choice of treatment can give different results due to non-recognition of an asset or a liability even though benefits or obligations result.Full disclosure is not enough:all transactions must be accounted for correctly,with full disclosure of related details as necessary to give the user of accounts a full understanding of the transactions.The interaction of the framework with other standards is also an important issue. Whichever rules are the more specific should be applied, given that IAS's should be consistent with the framework. Leasing provides a good example: straight forward lease which fall squarely within the terms of IAS 17 should be accounted for without any need to refer to the framework, but where there terms are more complex, or the lease is only one element in a large series of transactions, then the framework comes into play. In addition, the framework implicitly requires that its general principle of substance over form should apply in the application of other existing rules.How does the frame work enforce the substance over from rule Its main method is to define the elements of financial substance and therefore to give rules for their recognition. The key considerations are weather a transaction has given rise to new assets and liabilities.A liability is a present obligation of the enterprise arising from past events, the settlement of which is expected to result in an outflow from the enterprise of resources embodying economic benefits. (http://www.iasplus.com/standard/framewk.htm) Identification of those who have risks related to an asset will generally indicate who has the benefits and hence who has the asset. if an entity is in certain circumstances unable to avoid an outflow of benefits, this will provide evidence that it has liability. The definitions given in IASC framework of income and expenses are not as imp as assets and liabilities. This is because income and expenses are described in terms of changes in assets and liabilities, i.e. they are secondary definitions Income is increases in economic beniufit5s during the accounting period in form of inflows or enhancements of assets or decreases of liabilities that result in decrease in equity, other than those relating to contributions from equity participations. Expenses are decreases in economic benefits during the accounting period in the form of outflows or depletion of assets or increases of liabilities that results in decrease in equity, other than those relating to distributions to equity participants. (http://www.iasplus.com/standard/framewk.htm) The real importance then is the way the Framework defines assets and liabilities regardless of the legal status. It is not sufficient, however, that the asset or liabilities fulfils the above definition; it must also satisfy recognition criteria in order to be shown in an entity's accounts