Should Medicaid Pay for Abortion

Should Medicaid pay for abortion? This is a very touchy subject and one that has been in the newspapers for months now. It is also the main reason that the passing of the historic health was postponed for the amount of time that it was. I think that even though abortion is a touchy subject and won that has been a main topic since â€Å"Roe vs. Wade in 1973,† I think that is a very important topic and one that will always be discussed for much more time. I think that abortion should be legal and be the decision of the parties involved to make the decision on whether to have one or not.Also, I believe think that abortion should be covered by the tax payers in the case o rape or incest because both of those instances could result in a very tough life for the baby. Either the child will be hated by its mother because every day she looks at him/her it reminds her of her rapist, or the child is born with birth defects. To thoroughly make a good decision on where you stand with the a bortion topic, I think that you must first find out what abortion actually is.Abortion is the induced termination of a pregnancy with destruction of the embryo or fetus, any of various procedures resulting in the termination of a pregnancy, cessation of normal growth, especially of an organ or other body part, prior to full development or maturation, and the premature ending or abandonment of an undertaking. Abortion procedures include manual vacuum aspiration and dilation and suction curettage, both of which can be performed in early pregnancy.The social acceptability of abortion as a means of population control has varied from time to time and place to place throughout history. â€Å"It was apparently a common method of family limitation in the Greco-Roman world, but Christian theologians early and vehemently condemned it. It became widely accepted in Europe in the middle Ages. Severe criminal sanctions to deter abortion became common in the 19th century, but in the 20th century those sanctions were gradually modified in many countries. † In the U. S. the 1973 Roe v.Wade decision had the effect of legalizing abortion during the first three months of pregnancy; states were able to implement restrictions on access to abortion after the first trimester, though within constraints set by the courts. Since that decision, there has been a fierce debate between supporters and opponents of a liberalized abortion policy. As you see this is something that has been debated for centuries upon centuries. I have read many articals on abortion and how the procedure is actually conducted.The procedure seems to be very gruesome, that is why I can understand why some people like rep. Bart Stupak are diehard pro-life supporters. If you can recall Bart Stupak who is a senator from Michigan (our own state) was the democrat who along with twelve other pro-life democrats held up the passing of the healthcare bill with his votes until President Obama agreed to sign an executi ve order stating that government funding will not go to covering abortion in this new health care bill. After words Stupak said â€Å"We stood strong,† said Stupak. â€Å"We stood on a principle. Stupak’s argument really goes all the way back to Roe v. Wade. After Roe v. Wade decriminalized abortion in 1973, Medicaid covered abortion care without restriction. In 1976, Representative Henry Hyde (R-IL) introduced an amendment that later passed to limit federal funding for abortion care. Effective in 1977, this provision, known as the Hyde Amendment, specifies what abortion services are covered under Medicaid. Over the past two decades, Congress has debated the limited circumstances under which federal funding for abortion should be allowed.For a brief period of time, coverage included cases of rape, incest, life endangerment, and physical health damage to the woman. However, beginning in 1979, the physical health exception was excluded, and in 1981 rape and incest excep tions were also excluded. In September 1993, Congress rewrote the provision to include Medicaid funding for abortions in cases where the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest. The present version of the Hyde Amendment requires coverage of abortion in cases of rape, incest, and life endangerment. The first challenges to the Hyde Amendment came shortly after its implementation.The Supreme Court has held that the Hyde Amendment restrictions are constitutional and that states participating in Medicaid are only required to cover abortion services for which they receive federal funding rather than all medically necessary abortions. Challenges under state constitutions have been more successful. Several lawsuits have been brought in individual states arguing that state constitutions afford greater protection for privacy and equal protection than the federal Constitution. The Hyde Amendment affects only federal spending. States are free to use heir own funds to cover additional abortion se rvices. For example, Hawaii, New York, and Washington have enacted laws funding abortions for health reasons. Other states, such as Maryland, cover abortions for women whose pregnancies are affected by fetal abnormalities or present serious health risks. These expansions are important steps toward ensuring equal access to health care for all women. Prior to the 1993 expansion of the Hyde Amendment, thirty states chose not to use their own Medicaid funds to cover abortions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.Initially, a number of states expressed resistance to comply with the expanded Hyde Amendment, and presently thirteen states are under court orders to comply and cover rape and incest in addition to life endangerment. â€Å"Every court that has considered the Hyde Amendment's application to a state's Medicaid program since 1993 has held that states continuing to participate in the Medicaid program must cover abortions resulting from rape or incest in order to be compli ant with the Hyde Amendment, regardless of state laws that may be more restrictive. Federal funding has been covering abortion for years and according to the Hyde Amendment it covers incest and rape. My research has also led me to see that Michigan is one of twenty seven states that receive funding under the Hyde Amendment. This means that one of the states that use federal funding for abortion in special cases has the main representative that is arguing that exact system. This is kind of ironic to me. If the federal funding is there and actually has been there for seventeen years what the point of arguing the bill that will eventually save the government money.I have found some interesting information that if looked at maybe by some of our politicians they would not cause such a big fuss like Stupak and some other extreme conservatives like Sarah Palin about a the health care bill that not only is in the best interest of the people but also the best interest of the government in te rms of the budget but also the insurance companies who now will have more policies out there to bring in more revenue. Here are some interesting facts that I found about what type of women have abortions and why. Women with family incomes less than $15,000 obtain 28. 7% of all abortions; Women with family incomes between $15,000 and $29,999 obtain 19. 5%; Women with family incomes between $30,000 and $59,999 obtain 38. 0%;Women with family incomes over $60,000 obtain 13. 8%. † The reason women have abortion are as follows, â€Å"1% of all abortions occur because of rape or incest; 6% of abortions occur because of potential health problems regarding either the mother or child, and 93% of all abortions occur for social reasons (i. e. he child is unwanted or inconvenient). † So why not allow the health care bill to cover abortion? If the bill is basically just going to keep the Hyde Amendment rule in place or maybe take it another step forward and require police reports on alleged rapes and incest it really will not make a difference. If only one percent of all abortion are due to rape or incest, that amount of spending will not even dent the federal funding. I think more money is spent by politicians on their private jets that take all over the United States just to make appearances.While abortion remains perhaps the most contentious issue in American politics, what is one person’s principled stand is another’s crime against humanity. Abortion is a decision that should be made by the person going through the process not some politician from Texas for example who lives in a ten thousand square foot home and makes probably a million dollars a year after kick backs. Also if the system of states covering under the correct circumstances has been working for almost twenty years then I say why change it.Many times people let their emotions and personal feeling make their decisions when all they have do is put themselves in the position of the women who was raped, or the male is out of the picture and the mother will not be able to financially support a child and the child might end up in a dumpster, in the street or living in foster homes its whole life. I look at this way and I’m going to state a question to some of these people who think federal funding should not pay for this. Financially speaking as a nation, Is it financially better to cover a $500 dollar procedure once or pay for Medicare, housing, and food for eighteen years?From doing the basic math I think the $500 is a lot cheaper. The United States is a business. And just like any other business it needs money to survive. To maintain that money it has a budget, and that budget at this point is in a major deficit. This bill will save trillions of dollars over the next fifteen years imagine how much more money they could save all states allowed the lower income poverty striking women to have abortion under the state insurance, trillions more would be sav ed. Basic math is the key to answering this, in the end its all business.WORK CITED 1. Gregg Cunningham, WHY ABORTION IS GENOCIDE Winter 2000 2. AMERICAN GOVERNMENT TEXT BOOK 3. Megan Carpentier, Bart Stupak is no healthcare hero (march 22, 2010) 4. Peter Roff, The Next Healthcare Reform Fight: Make the Abortion Executive Order Law (March 24, 2010) Pr 5. Steven Ertelt , New Catholic Bishops Memo: Abortion in Health Care Despite Obama Order (March 30, 2010) 6. Tres Sugar, Congress Debates Whether Health Care Should Cover Abortion (07/09/2009) 7. Angela Blair, Obama's Healthcare Bill Requires All Americans to Pay For Abortions (3/7/2010) 8. The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, â€Å"Medicaid's Role for Women. Issue Briefs: An Update on Women's Health Policy (November 2004). 9. The Guttmacher Institute, â€Å"State Funding of Abortion Under Medicaid. † State Policies in Brief (June 1, 2005). ———————————â₠¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€œ [ 2 ]. American government: page 102 [ 3 ]. www. abortion. com [ 4 ]. www. csmonitor. com [ 5 ]. The Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, â€Å"Medicaid's Role for Women. † Issue Briefs: An Update on Women's Health Policy (November 2004). [ 6 ]. The Guttmacher Institute, â€Å"State Funding of Abortion Under Medicaid. † State Policies in Brief (June 1, 2005). [ 7 ]. www. abortionno. org [ 8 ]. www. abortionno. org

A Comparison of Vietnamese and American Writing-Pedagogy Essay

A Comparison of Vietnamese and American Writing-Pedagogy As an international student and educator from Vietnam, I see a lot of differences in the educational systems of the United States and my own country. In order to illuminate the differences between teaching writing in Vietnam and teaching writing in America, I would like to give a brief introduction to teaching writing in Vietnam and what I have learned from a writing class here at Eastern Illinois University. In my discussion of pedagogy in Vietnam, I would like to highlight two things: how Vietnamese people study Vietnamese, and how Vietnamese study English. Though I need to read more about American writing pedagogy, I see some basic similarities between the two countries. As in the United States, mathematics and language arts are important subjects in Vietnam. In Vietnam, however, writing isn’t a subject per se, and students develop their writing skills through the study of literature. In primary school, the teacher begins by asking the student to write simple and short para graphs about what happens in his/her daily life. Popular writing topics include â€Å"the person you love best,† â€Å"pets,† and so on. When grading, the teacher pays attention to spelling, clarity, and the way students use words. In secondary school, a student begins to write longer and more difficult essays, including plot summaries, movie reviews, character- and other kinds of literary analysis. Students continue to study writing up to graduation, when they are required to demonstrate their mastery of writing skills in an exam. Students who want to go on to university must pass an additional exam. The different is, however, university students do not take courses devoted to writing. They devote their time to their majors. Form is an important element of essay-writing in both countries. As in English, an essay in Vietnam includes three parts: the introduction, the body and the conclusion. There is a major difference, however: In America, the college essay derives from classical rhetoric. Ultimately, Aristotle and the syllogism provide the basis of a linear and logical structure. Milton’s â€Å"Of Education† and his political writings would be examples here. In Vietnam, the classical model derives from the Chinese/Confucian tradition. That tradition emphasizes the elaboration of or commentary upon a classical text or phrase. The Western essay is very linear and à ¢â‚¬Å"thesis-driven,† and compared to it the Vietnamese essay can seem circular. To Vietnamese, it is organic. Models for this form can be found in Zhuang Tzu’s, Meng Tzu’s â€Å"Doctrine of the Mean† or Literati prose. Even though these two classical models have been changed and developed considerably in modern writing, their original ideas have great influence on writing customs between the two countries. Western essay strictly follows the thesis statement and topic sentence. All sentences are coherent and support to topics sentences. Vietnamese essay, however, is circular. Students don’t go directly to their topic but approach to indirectly. The reader knows what the student is doing and tries to enjoy the essay. The approach isn’t as analytical. In Vietnam, academic essays can be of different types: description (van ta), commentary (binh luan), proof-and-explanation (chung minh va giai thich), analysis (phan tich), and critique (binh giang). In the introduction to an essay describing a landscape, a student gives general information about the place, time and setting, and the reason he/she is writing. An analysis or a proof essay is a little different. Most importantly, here a student has to give information about the author, setting and social background of the story. In the body, he/she takes up the selected text and discusses its general characteristics, outstanding f eatures, details and logic. Connections between commentary and text should be clear. The conclusion, in general, offers a brief summary of the main idea and a personal or â€Å"felt† response to the subject. The most important differences between English and Vietnamese writing are linguistic and cultural. English grammar is demanding and prescriptive with regard to such matters as tense, agreement, singular and plural forms, etc. In Vietnamese, however, word-building is very complex, and students devote their attention to morphology rather than syntax. Vietnamese (again like Chinese) has classifiers, a linguistic item unknown to English. Lexical items are variously â€Å"classified† in countless ways, including â€Å"animate† (con), inanimate (cai), â€Å"book-like† (quyen), â€Å"picture† (buc), â€Å"photographic† (tam), â€Å"food or medicine† (thuc). The classifiers can be baffling to non-native speakers of Vietnamese. Student-writers have to know how to use classifiers correctly, however, so they have to master word building skills that English students don’t. Finally, there are pronouns. â€Å"He,† to give only one example, ca n variously be any of the following in Vietnamese: no, anh, anh ay, anh ta, ga, y, ong ay, and ong ta. Knowing  these dedicated differences and using them correctly in each context is very important in writing. These linguistic features perhaps help to account for the Vietnamese love of word- play and elegant variation in many contexts where they would be unusual in English. The beautiful is important. This notion of elegance even carries over into the technology of Vietnamese writing. Computers haven’t reached most VN classrooms, and the technology of penmanship still matters. Because enthusiasm in writing comes from the beauty of nature and internal sensation, sitting with teacher and friends in a writing class is believed to be better than with technology devices. Third, I would like to introduce what a good essay is. A good essay is the combination of good grammar, language and knowledge. When grading, the instructor usually pays attention to the content: accord with the topic, clear form and organization, proportionality between introduction, body and conclusion, cohesive transition, logical phrases and sentences, correct spelling, clarity, neat presentation†¦ The instructo r often would underline obscure sentences or redundancies, cross out sentences that may be incohesive, contradictory and write his/her comments at the beginning of these sentences. Now we come to another question: how is a writing class organized? Because a writing class is in fact a literature class, the teacher lectures most of the time. Sometimes, he/she stops to ask students some questions related to his/her lecture or ask them to give their own opinion about some things. The class is not divided into groups for students to discuss or write collaboratively. Students listen to their teacher and write on their own. After students submit their tests, the teacher grades and comments. Normally, the teacher chooses interesting and good essays to read aloud and points out how they are interesting, what is good about them. Then teacher mentions those essays that are not very good, points out the common errors and teaches students how to avoid these errors in later tests. Since writing an essay in Vietnamese usually means writing about literature, the reader may wonder how a student writes essays on other subjects, such as history or geography. Invention is not stressed as much in Vietnam as here. Students listen to the teacher’s lecture and takes note carefully. Sometimes, professors simply dictate their notes to students. Before exams, teachers often give students a list of questions to prepare at home. Students find the answers in the teacher’ s textbooks or  notes, and then try to get them down by heart. The teacher chooses one or two topics for student to write at the exams. There are no take home exams. Students do their research the same way as here. The teacher gives student topics to write about, and the student then chooses a topic and writes a proposal. The teacher will offer suggestions or advice. After that, the student collects material from books, newspapers and the Internet and starts to write. Thesis topics are often very broad. Therefore, the student needs to convince his/her readers using reasonable and logical arguments. The way Vietnamese learn how to write in their own language is of course different from the way they learn to write in English, which is a foreign language. In the following paragraph, I’m going to point out what the differences are. In theory, a student is supposed to learn every step as a native speaker does. The purpose is to learn how to write good essays. However, a writing class in Vietnam is usually more like an ESL class than an American writing class. Freshman and sophomore students learn to write sentences and short paragraphs. The topics are often very simple, for example: write abo ut the first day at school, an unforgettable memory. The teacher focuses on grammar, and the way of using words. Juniors and seniors learn to write essays, but what they learn is basically the theory; they don’t practice writing essays very often. A student is only required to write essays in final tests or graduate exams. The essay is usually about 1-2 pages in length. A 4-page essay is the longest. The topics are about what happens in daily life. In these essays, a student writes his/her own opinion, what he/she sees and thinks. Because their English is limited, students rarely do research in the language or make many quotations. Students aren’t usually acquainted with MLA/APA styles, and teachers focus mostly on grammar errors. In order for students to practice writing, the teacher gives writing assignments for them to write at home. Then the teacher will ask a student to write the assigned essay on the chalkboard. The whole class discusses the ideas and grammar in this essay and participates in the writing process. We have seen that writing customs vary from one country to another, especially between the cultures of East and West. Differences in writing pedagogy reflect cultural and linguistic differences. Being aware of those differences would be of importance to anyone teaching in a diverse classroom. Appreciating those differences can lead to a richer sense of the possibilities of language for all peoples.

NPV method

This report focuses on three Important areas of financial management namely Capital structure, Management of Working Capital and Investment appraisal. While the flirt two parts of the report analysis Apple's activities, the last part of the report is related to the given scenario. The first part of the report evaluates Apple's capital structure. After determining the company's capital structure, the report will evaluate different financing options for the company's capital investments. The analysis involves the cost of debt and equity. The aim Is to justify the financing decision for a Eng term.The second part of the report evaluates the performance of Apple's working capital management practices. This part relies on the ratio analysis. Current Ratio, Debtors, Creditors and Inventory days will be calculated over a three years period. The data is gathered from the Yahoo Finance. In order to make the analysis more meaningful there will be a benchmarking with a main competitor. The last part of the report conducts NAP analysis to find out the best investment option for the given scenario. The project with the highest NAP is likely to be most beneficial for the company.Subsequently conclusions will be drawn. Reason for Choosing Apple for this study I have a personal interest in this company as it is seen the most successful company in the world at the moment. I will be able to learn from the best practice. Capital Structure and Financing Decision A firm's optimal capital structure is the mix of debt and equity that minimizes the weight cost of capital of the firm. When the cost of capital is minimized, the total value of firm's shares are maximized. As a result the minimum cost capital structure is called as the optimum capital structure. (Moyer et al. 012) According to Moles et al. (201 1) managers decide on the optimum capital structure based on the trade-offs between the benefits and costs of debt. The fact that there are a number of different benefits and costs associated with the use of debt flagging suggests that managers will balance these different options. Moles et al. (2012) explains that debt can be cheaper as debt is less risky than the equity. In addition, there is a tax advantage with debt financing as interest expenses are generally tax deductible. Another world, the company pays less tax if they use debt financing.However, a company can go into liquation If It cannot payback Its debts of Interest obligations. According to Apple's financial statements on Yahoo Finance (2012) over the last three years period (2009, 2010 and 2011 ) the company did not have any long term debt as well as short term debt. While the company's retained earnings increased from $23. 4 billion in 2009 to $37 billion in 2010 and this figure reached to $63 billion in 2011, the company financed its projects through retained profits. The company was able to do this because It had large profits. Apple's net profits were $8. Lion, $14 billion and $25. 9 billio n In 2009, 2010 and 201 1 respectively. According to the Apple's Annual and $1. 3 billion in 2011, 2010 and 2009 respectively. Currently the company is using equity option to finance its capital expenditure. According to BBC (2012) this year the company announced $2. 65 per share quarterly dividends. This is the first dividend payment since 1995. As the company does not pay regular dividends, it is not meaningful to calculate the company's cost of equity using the divided valuation model. However, the market prices of Apple shares increased almost 22% in 2011.Therefore, it can be said that Apple's cost of equity is quite high. In conclusion, currently Apple finances its capital projects through equity financing. With a possible debt financing the company is likely to reduce its cost of capital. This could be a good idea if the company's profit figures start to decline. According to the financial statements of the company Apple did not have any short term or long term loans between 2 009 and 2011. Analysis of working capital management Working capital management concerns with organizing a company's short term sources to sustain ongoing activities mobiles funds and optimism liquidity.It further dropped to 1. 61 in 2011. The company's figures can be compared with the Blackberry manufacturer RIM. RIM's current ratios are higher than Apple's in 2010 and 2011. RIM 2011 2010 2009 current Ratio 2. 08 2. 06 2. 39 The main reason for the decline in Apple's current ratio is decline in debtor and from 2010 to 2011. In the same period, the inventor days decline from 9. 3 days to 4. 4 days. This indicates that the efficiency of the company's working capital management as they were able to receive the money from debtors faster and to keep fewer inventories.The company also was able to keep creditors days high with 135. 5 days. Consequently the company's current ratio declined dramatically in recent years. However, this decline should be seen as a positive development as the c ompany has been leaner in recent years. Therefore, the figures above indicate the company's working management practices are successful. Investment Appraisal with NAP method Net present value (NAP) of a project is the sum of the present values of all its cash flows, both outflows and inflows. The rate used to discount the cash flows must be consistent with the project's risk.Another word, if the project risky then higher discount rates should be used when appraising the investment options. The same company might use different discount rates for its difference projects depending on a rockiness of the project. (Graham and Smart, 2011) According to Graham and Smart (2011) the companies can invest in any projects if the NAP figure is positive as any positive figure will increase the value of the company. The table below demonstrates the NAP calculations for an investment option. Delta Printing is considering buying machinery and there are three different purchase options.The machines ca n be used for a six-year period. After six year Machine A and B can be sold with a scraped value. Initial cost of each options are as follows; El m for Machine A, CHEEK for machine B and CHEEK for Machine C. According to the initial cost figures the Project C is the best option as it requires less investment. However, there will be no scrapped value for Machine C. With the original figures, it is difficult to make a decision. In this case, NAP method can simplify the investment decisions. The cash inflows are discounted with the company's cost of capital of 15%.

No topic need Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

No topic need - Essay Example ion, it also tries to produce or develop products as per the preferences of the customers so as to enhance their reliability and loyalty within their minds. Only then, the rate of switch over costs of the customers might get reduced thereby enhancing the demand of the product lines of Ford motors. Other than this, in order to retain the customers for longer period of time, the organization of Ford Motors desire to offer high attention over quality, performance and technical specifications. Keeping this concept of product in mind, the organization of Ford Motors developed Honda Civic GX, which is extremely trendy in design and excellent in all season roads. The development of Honda Civic GX helped the organization of Ford Motors to fascinate a wide range of customers thereby amplifying its market share by almost 35 percent among others. However, in order to enhance its selling target, the organization tried to promote the specifications of this car such as ultra-high performance, high comfort etc in order to attract the interested customers. This is done in order to increase the demand of the product thereby amplifying the profit margin and brand image of the organization among others. Moreover, as per marketing concept, the organization of Ford Motors develops the product lin es, keeping in mind the requirements and needs of the customers so as to retain its loyalty and reliability. Furthermore, in order to retain the well-being of the society, the organization of Ford Motors developed Honda Civic GX, and promoted it by the name, green car. This clearly shows that, the organization tries to protect the environment from varied types of green houses gases emitted from the non-renewable fuels. b) In order to protect the market share and profitability, the organization of Ford Motors tried to offer higher concentration over the prices of its products. This is because, maximum extent of its target customers desire to attain, high-ended products but at a competitive

Comparison of Global Cities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Comparison of Global Cities - Essay Example New York outclasses all other cities in the world because it has an extremely diverse population and over the years, it has become the financial hub of the world. Wall Street, New York Stock Exchange, and the offices of Fortune 500 companies make it impossible for the business world to deny its importance. London has an edge when it comes to cultural heritage because it attracts the largest number of foreign visitors from the entire world on the same basis. Furthermore, there is no denial to the financial importance of the city since it is the heart of Europe and the entire world in terms of its financial and economic activities. United Kingdom is an important force in the world affairs and global political arena thus making allowing London and impeccable role in global politics. Tokyo could be called as the New York or London of Japan. Since the Second World War, the city has witnessed unprecedented economic growth, which continues even as of today. With offices of more than 50 Glob al 500 companies in Tokyo, Tokyo Stock Exchange is the third largest stock market in the world in terms of market capitalization. Tokyo lags behind when it comes to attracting tourists and increasing the diversity in the society by welcoming immigrants. The debate of global cities is never ending. As mentioned earlier, even as of today, experts have not been able to agree on a single definition of a global city. Furthermore, it is rather complicated to assign a quantitative value to each of the factors that characterize a city as a global city. Quite understandably, with the rapid pace of globalization, it is highly likely that these cities will witness a few serious contenders for the top spots in the global cities lists.

Literacy and ESOL Theories and Frameworks Essay - 1

Literacy and ESOL Theories and Frameworks - Essay Example those delivered by literacy and numeracy curricula, which following advancement of technology have extended from being preserved in the classroom setting to being part of everyday discourse. Literacy and numeracy have been attributed to practical application of knowledge and skills for tasks that are undertaken everyday and for effective participation in places of work and in civic life, though their destinations are not clear. ESOL therefore is mainly delivered to adults studying in adult communities, in order to improve their written reading and spoken English skills. ESOL, numeracy and literacy share a number of established features, which include methods and tools for assessment of skills standards and subjects, and a national assessment system. This assessment is important and provides an access to other subjects in the curriculum, as well as providing a wide social context participation. Criticisms are focused on the narrow scope in terms of its methods of testing and curriculu m. Therefore, like in any language, there are four basic skills in ESOL, which are classified into two, productive and receptive skills. Reading is a receptive skill and will be discussed in relation to ESOL (Spratt et al 2006). According to Davies, and Pearse (2000), any teaching process involves understanding how the students learn, and from the cognitive to the behaviorist view, it can be generalized that teaching provides students with a chance of connecting with the teacher’s content, a way through which the teacher gets to know the conceptions and what the students have learned through tests. The teacher is able to support the understanding of the students also using various concepts such as using charts to make the knowledge structure clear and can use other learning strategies that are cooperative to improve the social aspect. Teaching can also incorporate learning that is based on problems to familiarize the learning environment to the real world. An ESOL lesson therefore

The case of Abercrombie and Fitch Co Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The of Abercrombie and Fitch Co - Case Study Example The only negative result being a minimal decrease in the profits per square foot at the end of that fiscal period (Berman & Evans, 2011). The company should increase its effort on increasing retail space. Though the number of Hollister stores is one-third more than A & F, it is believed that the larger profits realized by the latter is due to a greater average size. The uncontrollable factors within any business environment are known as external factors or macro environmental factors. Such factors are usually beyond the control of any company or organization but rather they have to adjust for them to cope. For A & F, the Economic turmoil of 2007-2009 affected their operations (Berman & Evans, 2011).The turmoil was caused by the significant decrease in demand for the company’s products as a result of the prevailing economic conditions. As a consequence, the company realized a dip in its revenue. The second factor has been the entry of new competitors in the apparel industry. A & F experienced a decline in sales in 2009, and this was brought about by increased competition from companies like American Eagle and Aeropostale (Berman & Evans, 2011). It therefore, has to develop mechanisms to cope with such competitors in order to maintain or improve its profit margins the market share. A retail strategy involved developing a plan that is to be followed by a retailer in relation to the actions. They usually span a period of one year and include the following; missions, goals, consumer market, overall and specific activities and control mechanisms (Berman & Evans, 2011).

Sexual Assault of Children and Youth and Other Sexual Offenses Essay

Sexual Assault of Children and Youth and Other Sexual Offenses - Essay Example Sexual assault is not common only in women. Today, wives, children, grandmothers, mothers, and even boys and men face sexual assault. The belief is that co-workers, classmates, neighbors, or a stranger would commit a sexual assault, but it is also possible that a family member or friend, or relative to sexually assault someone. "Sexual assault of children is a crime that our society abhors in the abstract, but tolerates in reality" (Burgess and Groth 15). Incest is one of the forms of sexual assault of children. Incest is when there is sexual activity between close relatives, which is illegal or taboo in the society. Sexual abuse of children can include trickery, sexual contact by force, bribery where there is a difference in age, power, size, or knowledge. Sexual abuse in a particular child could be once or multiple incident over a long period of time. It is found that abuse is usually committed by a person who knows the child. The abuse committed on a child can increase over time, especially if the abuser is a part of the family or a close relative. Prostitution, exhibitionism, and pornography are some ways in which children are abused other than the sexual assaults mentioned above. When people think of a child molester, they imagine an ugly old man taking children away by giving them some candy. No one pictures their neighbor, mom, dad, or uncle. This misconception has been dismissed. A child molester can come from all walks of life and all social and economic groups. They can be rich, poor, male, female, religious or non-religious, from any race or culture. Children can be molested by strangers or people they don't know and by people they know, like friends, relatives, or caregivers. Though majority of the people found guilty of sexual offence to children are men, women also molest children. Child molesters can be divided into two groups based on their behavioral patterns. A small percentage of child molesters who have a life long attraction to children, these people do not get attracted to adults. Majority of child molesters have adult partners and do not have an exclusive attraction towards children, also, they do not molest children multiple times. Sometim es an adult molests a child of the same sex, however, they need not be homosexual. Though it is believed that child molestation occurs when children are picked up from the street and molested forcibly, in the majority of child molestation cases, adults seduce children through delicate persuasion and intimidation and are usually known to the child. Child molesters who do not know their victims use methods like force, tricks, or bribery, or pretend to be friendly, to attract their victim. A child molester has many different characteristics. The child molester is usually married, prefers the company of children than adults, are often homosexuals and sometime bisexuals as well, they often wish to work for programs involving children, feel the want to have an emotional relationship with children, sometimes collect photographs of their victims and also collect child-adult pornography and child erotica, may be alcoholic, or a drug addict, may offer to take children out for walks or picnics, and many more such traits are examples of characteristics of child molesters. There are various definitions of the term pedophilia or paedophillia found in law enforcement, the

Netflix distraction Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Netflix distraction - Research Paper Example There are differing view on the subject where a few argue that distractions are quite unhealthy for humans and must be avoided to pertain one`s focus, however, others argue that what makes the humans different from robots are these distractions which turn out to play the role of replenishing the humans out of their dull busy routines. In this context, Freud may be quoted, since he is considered to be the father of psychoanalysis. He was of the view that human happiness is concerned with avoiding pain and pursuing pleasures; and the best way to achieve that is through distractions. These distractions may be perceived as a vacation away from routine, some refreshing music, a movie, venting out with peers, talking a long walk or other activities which may take one`s mind off from the routine. Nowadays, with the incorporation of technology in almost every aspect of social life, especially with the advent of digital media, distraction is more often being considered as divulgence in the di gital life. For this reason, the paper will use Netflix as a positive distraction to expand upon the significance of Netflix as an aspect of life which isn`t just undeniable, rather proves to be quite healthy for the human body. In this context, it is crucial to understand distractions in general and their placement in the human behavioral patterns. Distraction can actually be quite a useful tool once an individual is off to the baseline. Especially when distressful situations are at play, one must converge towards distractions in an attempt to avoid permanent damage to the system. The tools which the psychologists recommend in such a scenario are related towards positive reflections, body sensations, bringing a change in one`s routine and divulging in constructively distracting behavior. However, distraction must not be confused with meaningless endeavors for long intervals. Rather, distraction by virtue of

Materials Engineering Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Materials Engineering - Essay Example Many times, efforts would go in vain resulting into honeycombed elements upon removal of the formwork. In conventional concreting process, not only is there a chance of segregation and honeycombing in the concrete structural element, but also, chances that concrete would not even approach certain corners are quite fair causing steel to be exposed to open air and facilitating rusting and hence an altogether loss of strength of the structural member. This together with other difficulties in the preparation of conventional concrete and the exaggerated length of time and effort consumed in vibrating it called for a need to have such a model of concrete that would not require vibration to uniformly reach every corner in the element. Also, vibration was a tedious process and required effort of a large crew that would add a lot to the total cost of concreting. In addition to that, vibrated concrete leads to differential compaction and hence, varying durability along the length of the member . In response to these problems, after years of research and experimentation, engineers came up with such a model of concrete that did not require any vibration and was intrinsically self compacting in nature. Today, use of self compacting concrete is widely employed in structures and elements of dense and complicated reinforcement design. â€Å"Self-compacting concrete was first developed in 1988 to achieve durable concrete structures.† (Okamura and Ouchi, 2003). Because of the manifold enhancement in its performance, self compacting concrete (SCC) is also referred to as high performance concrete (HPC). HPC can be defined as, â€Å"Concrete that meets special performance and uniformity requirements that may not always be obtained using conventional ingredients, normal mixing procedures and typical curing practices.† (American Concrete Institute, 1997). The requirements that ACI refers to include but are not limited to ease of

Womens career vs. marriage Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Womens career vs. marriage - Research Paper Example It is possible to reduce the social gap between men and women, by creating an environment that makes it possible to pursue their careers. The traditional society had norms and cultures that discriminated against women (Walsh, 41). It defined their roles as house wives, with the capability of doing less paying jobs as cleaners, or even secretaries. This made this group of people to depend on their families, and marriage for social upward mobility. Career development also reduces the level of male domination over women. According to the traditional set up, women and men had different jobs. The responsibility of women was to care for the family, and look after their husbands. The responsibility of men was to feed the family, and provide protection. These roles have not changed, even though women progress in their careers. This is because it is deeply entrenched on the mindset of the two genders, and it would require a lot of time, and efforts to change this particular mindset. It is true, that in certain communities, men are frightened of career women. This is because they threaten their dominion, and authority (Walsh, 51). However it is advantageous for women to work, because they are able to supplement the earnings of their husbands, or the men in their lives. In all cases, financial freedom presents an opportunity to women to gain social freedom. They are able to care for themselves, they are able to resist abuse, and they have the capability of supporting their cause and visions of life. Despite the freedom that comes with financial security, men will still lay a claim over their lives, and try to influence them. However, career development leads to a better livelihood and shelter. It is wrong to assume that because of poor financial abilities of women, majority of them are homeless. This assumption is wrong, because the current global

Impacts of Social Media Marketing Essay Example for Free

Impacts of Social Media Marketing Essay With the emergence of internet-based social media it has made it possible for people to communicate with thousands of other people around the world about products and the companies that provide these goods and services to them. Accordingly, the impact of consumer to consumer communications has been tremendously heightened within the marketplace. Many people would argue that social media is a hybrid element for promoting a company and its products, considering that in the traditional sense it allows companies to speak directly to their customers, while in a nontraditional sense it enables customers to talk directly to one another. The information, timing, and volume of social media-based conversations that occur between consumers are outside of a managers’ direct control. This goes against any traditional integrated marketing communications where there is a high sense of control from the manager. Thus, it is the managers’ responsibility to learn how to shape a consumers discussion in a manner that is consistent with their organizations mission statement and performance goals (Kerin, Hartley Rudelius, 2009). Traditional Marketing Traditional marketing techniques involve direct mail, trade shows, television, radio broadcasting and social events which are still very prevalent and are still heavily used by many companies around the world to market products and the services offered by their companies. Marketing through television provides companies mass exposure to a wide array of individuals with a mass message. Many businesses dont realize that television can often be one of the most cost-effective forms of advertising. The advantages of television are that it has everything needed to catch the attention of your projected audience: audio and visual. Community based television stations which are often looking for advertisers and are more willing to accommodate advertisers because of a less rigid schedule. Newspapers and classifieds are becoming increasingly popular and is a great way to target clients at a reasonable cost. The yellow pages have become a commonplace for companies who want to locate their specific business needs. Another way for businesses to market is with brochures, these are a great way of advertising a business. Depending on the type of business, brochures can be extremely useful. For a business that is in the industry of travel or tourism, brochures are a must, and there are multitudes of places where they can be displayed for customers to view. If a business is in a different type of industry it may be a little more difficult to find locations to display brochures, except to use them in mail drops, as handouts at trade shows and conventions, or for a direct mail out to potential customers. If a company is a manufacturer or supplier, it will need to provide their brochures to a distribution network. Brochures are a great way to market, but a company should make sure they are a cost-effective use of your time and investment, and if a company is going to produce brochures, they should know ahead of time how and where they will distribute them. Social Media Marketing Social media marketing represents low cost tools that are used to combine technology and social interaction with the use of words. These are typically internet based. Social media gives marketers a voice and allows them to communicate with their current customers and potential customers. Companies are able to personalize their brand and it gives them a way to spread their message in a relaxed and conversational way. Many people used to think Facebook was just for teens and young adults. Companies did not see much value for the social media site. That is all slowly changing though. Several companies are using Facebook to market their products and are seeing great success. Consider the following statistics provided between September 2008 and February 2009 the number of Facebook users between the ages of thirty five and forty four increased by 51%, user among the ages 45-54 jumped up 47 % and user ages 26-34 increased by 26 % more then half of Facebooks 140 million users are out of college. Clearly, social media is no longer just for the college student. Facebook is used as a marketing tool because it is easy to gain new clients, promote new products and services while offing deals and sales and staying in touch with your customers (Zarrella , 2009). Social media can be used to provide an identity for the products and services that a company has to offer. It can also create relationships using social media with people who might not otherwise know about a company’s products or services or what our companies represents. If a company wants new customers and retain their current ones they must establish a good relationship. Social media can be used to associate one’s self with their peers, which could be serving the same target market. It could also be used to communicate and provide an interaction with the consumers a company is looking for. Conclusion There are many advantages to using social media as a marketing tool for a company. However a company cannot just depend on social media alone to market their company, they must integrate it with other vehicles of marketing. While social media can create awareness for a company, it may not be the right form of advertising for a company. Companies must be consistent with any form of marketing that it chooses to use. The role that social media plays in the marketing of a company is to use it as a communication tool that allows a company access to those interested in their product and makes the company visible to those who do not know what services and products a particular company has to offer. It can be used as a tool to create a personality behind a company’s brand and create relationships that otherwise may never have happened. Social media cannot only create repeat-buyers for companies, but also customer loyalty. The fact that social media is so diversified and it can be used in several different ways, ways that best suit the interest and the needs of a company shows that it is a good source of marketing for any business (McAdams, Neslund Zucker, 2008). The form of marketing that a company uses really comes down to what type of audience the company is trying to attract and what they can ultimately afford to spend on adverting and marketing for the company. Any of the marketing techniques work a company just has to be consistent with the form they choose to use. Social media marketing is the way of the future and is not going to go away anytime soon. References Zarrella , D. (2009). The social media marketing book. Kerin, R. A., Hartley, S. W., Rudelius, W. (2009). Marketing. (9 ed.). McGraw-Hill/Irwin McAdams, T., Neslund, N., Zucker, K. D. (2008). Law, business, and society. (Ninth ed.). McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

An Overview Of Metaphor And Politics English Language Essay

An Overview Of Metaphor And Politics English Language Essay The earliest study of metaphor can be traced back to the ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle, whose definition of metaphor as transference of lexical meaning for achieving rhetorical and poetical value set the tones for scores of generations in their metaphor study. For a long time, metaphor was limited to a narrow field of practical rhetoric and composition, and even considered simply ornamental in function. The advent of cognitive linguistics, put forward by Lakoff and Johnson, has exerted a dramatic change to metaphor research. Metaphor is not merely a linguistic expression, but more fundamentally a form of thought with its own epistemological function. Furthermore, Lakoff also advocated that metaphor, as a phenomenon, involves both conceptual mappings and individual linguistic expressions (1992, p.5). In modern times, metaphor is recognized as a powerful tool in shaping the cognitive world that we experience and therefore is indeed something that we live by. Acknowledged as an in dispensable and decisive feature of natural language, metaphor is so ubiquitous that no study of language can be complete without an adequate account of it. Weekly Radio Address delivered by American Presidents is a special kind of language report in that the Presidents, facing a great number of audiences at home and abroad, have to analyze the current issues and persuade listeners to support or accept à ¥Ã‚ ¤Ã‚ © their ideas. America is a county largely propagating democracy and freedom, therefore, the President is placed on a high obligation to make his decisions open to the public. It should not be taken for granted that once winning the election and taking oaths in the inaugural address, the president can rest easy and relax himself forever. Weekly address serves as a channel for American president to communicate with people, strengthen his power and establish his image. In the address, either for political, cultural or economic, the main aim for the president is to win public support and acceptance; thus language choice and communication skills are of high necessity in achieving political persuasion. Charteris-Black (2004) once cla imed that Choice of language in general and metaphor in particular is essential to politicians overall pervasiveness. (p.2). In other words, proper metaphors are of top priority in the well-formed radio addresses, which can not A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses only get the speeches running smoothly, but add color to the language and make it easily accepted by the audience. Barack Obama is the first black president in American history. So in order to consolidate his position, he should pay much more attention to strengthening his impression on people through public communication. The image of reliability, honesty, morality and integrity is essential to making sure his long-term success in politics. Taking the weekly addresses made by previous presidents into consideration, it is not difficult to confirm that metaphor is widely employed owing to its nature of vividness and persuasiveness. In addition, as a great art work of language, metaphor also contributes a lot to polishing President Obamas speeches so as to avoid the risks of directly noting something unpleasant. So the relationship between politics and metaphor is like fish and water, just as Thompson (1996) once asserted that politics without metaphors is like a fish without water (p.185). In a word, metaphor and politics are closely related in one way or another. Without metaphor, politicians may encounter a lot of obstacles and troubles in expressing their ideas to the people; without metaphor, the strength of the political address will fade; without metaphor, human language will only serve a role of delivering information. Take what Miller (1976) said as a summary, metaphor is essential to political inquiry, because it permits us to extend our knowledge from our familiar world to a region that is not open to immediate experienceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Metaphor is necessary to political knowledge precisely because the meaning and reality of the political world transcends what is open to observation (p.457). Therefore, President Obama extensively applies metaphors in his weekly radio address in that they can help to explain complex political issues, and Obama in this way can persuade listeners to accept his ideas, and influence their interpretation as well. 1.2. Goal of the Study Metaphor and politics are closely connected with each other. Weekly Radio address is a typical platform for the president conveying his political views and winning supports from the public. In the address, American president employs various tips, metaphor in particular, to make his speeches more accessible and powerful. In the past years, scholars both at home and abroad have made great efforts to study English political speeches in line with pragmatics, stylistics, rhetoric and syntax. But little 2 Chapter 1 Introduction emphasis has been placed on analyzing President weekly radio address from the perspective of conceptual metaphor. Therefore the purpose of the present study is to further analyze it in terms of the metaphor. We are expected to solve such problems: What kinds of metaphors are frequently selected in President Obamas Weekly Radio Address? What are the roles of metaphors in Weekly Radio Address? How do metaphors reveal president Obamas ideology meaning? By discussing the above three aspects, the author intends to raise wider awareness of metaphors and finally comes to a conclusion that selection of metaphor is to satisfy or realize the purpose of the speakers, that is, identifying speaker with the whole audience. 1.3. Data and Method The data in this paper is all Weekly Radio Addresses delivered by the current American President Barack Obama in 2010, from January 2nd to December 25th. These speeches mostly focus on discussing the important issues at home and abroad, and they are all downloaded from VOA website. As the main purpose for this thesis is to analyze the radio addresses in terms of conceptual metaphor, identifying or selecting the metaphors out is of top priority in the process. With the development of linguistics and science, Gerard J. Steen and other ten linguists have introduced a five-step procedure for metaphor identification (2002b); they are 1) identification for metaphor focus; 2) identification of metaphor ideas; 3) identification of metaphor comparison; 4) identification of incomplete compositions; 5) identification of metaphor mapping. (Steen, 2002b, p.393). Therefore, based on their theory of metaphor identification as well as Lakoff and Johnsons conceptual metaphor theory, the researcher will first select the conceptual metaphors from the data, and then classify them in groups for further discussion. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in the process of analysis, so that the conceptual metaphors, as well as their frequency and functions can be measured in details. 1.4. Organization of the Thesis In general, the thesis consists of three parts, introduction, body and conclusion. The 3 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses introduction is responsible for presenting the purpose and the macro-organization of the thesis. Some background information and the research tasks of the thesis are also included in this part. The body is the main part in the study, including four chapters. Chapter 2 first presents the history of metaphor study and then mainly focuses on exploring the conceptual metaphor proposed by Lakoff and Johnson, including its categorization, working mechanism and systematicity. It comes to a conclusion that metaphor is pervasive in our daily conversation, no longer restricted in poetry language as before. Therefore, political language is also full of conceptual metaphors deserving our consideration and study. Chapter 3 gives a brief introduction to the Weekly Radio Address, and also explains its features and functions according to the varieties of public speaking. Chapter 4 discusses research design and research procedures. Conceptual metaphors from the weekly radio addresses delivered by president Obama in 2010 will be singled out and classified for special analysis. Then based on quantitative and qualitative methods, their discourse functions as well as frequency will meet careful investigation. Chapter 5 as the last chapter of the body mainly discusses the basis and the purpose for applying conceptual metaphors in radio address. That is, why should the prepared radio address choose metaphors to fulfill its goals? At last, the conclusion part is a brief summary of the above five chapters and generally restates the findings of this study. Some limitations and future proposals are also mentioned for further research. 4 Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Basis Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Basis 2.1. Previous Studies on Metaphor 2.1.1. A Brief History of Metaphor No technical term or concept in linguistics as well as in any other science is born out of nothing. The notion of metaphor originates from the Greek word metapherein, meta means with or after (denoting sharing) and pherein means bring across. Although the researches on metaphor have a long history which can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle, a widely-accepted definition for metaphor has not come into being yet. In the era of Greek scholars like Aristotle, metaphor was only referred to here and there in the ocean of linguistic literature or poetry. At that period, western literacy, linguistics and critical traditions had been interested in the possibilities of differentiating between literal and figurative language. Aristotle, generally praised as a first thinker to elaborate the theory of metaphor, also classified language into rhetorical and common ones, and in his book Poetics (1951, p.71) he pointed out that Metaphor is the application of an alien name by transference either f rom genus to species, or from species to genus, or from species to species, or by analogy, that is, proportionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Analogy or proportion is when the second term is to the first as the fourth to the third. We may then use the fourth for the second, or the second for the fourth. Sometimes too we qualify the metaphor by adding the term to which the proper word is relative., which indicates that the greatest scholar here identified metaphor as a figure of speech, using the name of one thing to refer to the other. After that, his view on metaphor has been largely followed by rhetorical scholars who also regarded metaphor as a displacement or an extension of the meaning of words (Ricocur, 1978), or an implied comparison of two different things (Feng, 1983). In addition, they also emphasized that an eye for resemblance was essential in making a good metaphor, and metaphor itself could polish language, make language more charming and distinctive. Later on, another slightly different view on metaphor, known as substitution, was proposed by the ancient Rome rhetorician Quintilian. It mainly stated that metaphor was formed by using one expression to substitute another equivalent literal expression (Lin Shuwu, 1997, pp.11-19). Therefore, both Aristotle and Quintilian have limited metaphor 5 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses to lexical level, as a figure of speech no different from other rhetorical devices like synecdoche, metonymy and personification. But their main differences lie in that the former regarded resemblance or analogy as the essence of metaphor, while the latter shifted his attention to substitution or replacement. From 1930s to 1960s, a new view called Interactive Theory was put forward by Ivan A. Richards, one of the founders of modern, psychologically based literary criticism, to examine the metaphorical property of human beings mind and action and the structure of metaphor. He claimed that In the simplest formulation, when we use a metaphor we have two thoughts of different things active together and supported by a single word, or phrase, whose meaning is a resultant of their interaction(Richards, 1936, p.89). Therefore, according to Richards, when researchers are trying to find out how the language works, they are actually studying human beings mechanism of thought, emotion and other brain activities. Compared with the above mentioned two theories, Interactive Theory is much better and more authentic in that it no longer limits metaphor at lexical level, but shifts to the way of thinking. Whats more, Richards has widened the researching field of metaphor, not just in rhetorical or poetry d iscourse but in our daily language including science discourse. A new view of metaphor that challenged all these aspects of the powerful traditional theory in a coherent and systematical way was first developed by George Lakoff and Make Johnson in 1980 in their seminal study: Metaphors we live by. Their conception has become known as the the cognitive linguistic view of metaphor. Lakoff and Johnson challenged the deeply trenched view of metaphor by claiming that 1) metaphor is a property of concept, and not of words; 2) the function of metaphor is to better understand certain concepts, not just some artistic or esthetical purposes; 3) metaphor is often not based on similarity; 4) metaphor is used effortlessly in everyday life by ordinary people, not just by special talented people; and 5) metaphor, far from being a superfluous though pleasing linguistics ornament, is an inevitable process of human thought and reasoning (1980, p.3). They have been convinced that metaphor is pervasive both in thought and everyday language. 2.1.2. Definition of Metaphor In terms of the several theories discussed above, it can be taken for granted that metaphor has witnessed a great revolution, from rhetorical devices at lexical level to 6 Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Basis cognitive aspect as a way of thinking, and from poetry discourses to daily language. Its definition has also changed a lot: as in the ancient Greek, the word metaphor was defined as a novel or poetic linguistic expression where one or more words for a concept are used outside of its normal conventional meaning to express a similar concept; but since 1980s, the essence of metaphor has focused on cognition instead of comparison and the locus of metaphor is not in language at all, but in the way we conceptualize one mental domain in terms of another. Today, an increasing number of cognitive scientists, including cognitive linguists, are engaged in researches on metaphor. The reason is that metaphor study has extended to a much wider area, interrelating with human thought, understanding, and reasoning. Trying to understand metaphor, then, means attempting to understand a vital part of who we are and what kind of world we live in. So now one widely shared definition of metaphor is propose d by Lakoff and Johnson (1980): metaphor is not just a matter of language, that is, of mere words, but a cross-domain mapping in the conceptual system; the essence of metaphor is understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another; and metaphor is pervasive in everyday life, not just in language but in thought and action (pp.3-5). In addition, other scholars also put forward their ideas about metaphor. Metaphor is characterized by the conceptualization of one cognitive domain in terms of component more usually associated with another cognitive domain (Taylor, 1989, pp.132-133). Yu (1998) focuses on the mappings between the source domain between the target domain, stating that metaphor is a conceptual mapping from a source domain to a target domain with both ontological correspondence and epistemic correspondence entailed by the mapping (p.15). All the definitions indicate that metaphor is related to conceptual system and should be understood as a metaphorical concept. 2.2. Researches on Conceptual Metaphor In cognitive linguistics, conceptual metaphor, or cognitive metaphor, refers to the understanding of one idea, or one conceptual domain, in terms of another. There are two main roles for the conceptual domains posited in conceptual metaphor: one is source domain, referring to the one from which we draw metaphorical expressions; and the other is target domain, referring to the conceptual domain that we try to understand. For 7 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses example, in the metaphorical sentence ARGUMENT IS WAR, the word war is the source domain, while argument as the target domain; the concrete source domain is used here to better analyze the abstract target domain. Therefore, with the advent of cognitive linguistics, metaphor has witnessed a great revolution in getting access to the conceptual study. In this part, some researches on conceptual metaphor are to be discussed for the sake of theoretical basis. 2.2.1. Categorization of Conceptual Metaphor Influenced by Michael Reddys Conduit Metaphor Theory (Reddy, 1979, pp.284-310) (He put forward that language functions like a conduit, transferring thoughts bodily from one person to another), Lakoff and Johnson in their cognitive theory of metaphor subdivided conceptual metaphor into three categories: structural metaphor, orientational metaphor, and ontological metaphor (1980, pp.93-112). Structural metaphor refers to the type of conceptual metaphor in which a target domain is understood by reference to the structure of its source domain (Wang Yin, 2006, p.409). In terms of its definition, there are two components and two conditions that are essential to compose a structural metaphor. The source domain and the target domain are the two components that must be two different concepts, which satisfy the first condition. The second condition requires that the two unlike concepts should have something in common by which the structural metaphor adopts to illustrate and comprehend the concept of the target. Again take the expression ARGUMENT IS WAR for example: Conceptual metaphor: ARGUMENT IS WAR Linguistic analysis: Your claims are indefensible; His criticisms were right on target; I demolished his argument; Ive never won an argument with him; He attacked every weak point in my argument. (Wang Yin, 2006, 459) It can be seen from the example that the words like claims criticisms and argument used for describing argument can also collocate with such war-related words or expressions as indefensible on target demolished won and attached. So we can come to conclude that the concept ARGUMENT is metaphorically 8 Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Basis constructed in terms of the concept WAR. Ontological metaphor is another evidence to show that metaphor is not only a phenomenon of language but also a means of thinking and behavior, which is pervasive in our daily life (Wang Yin, 2006, p.410). The source domain in ontological metaphor always refers to those familiar things or objects in our world, which can be seen and touched easily, so we can know its function and qualities at the first sight, then it contributes to the comprehension and cognition of the target which is regarded as non-material or supernatural experience. Take the following sentence as an example. ARGUMENTS ARE BUILDINGS. Obviously, buildings are the most familiar thing that we see and have a direct contact every day, so their special qualities, such as the appearance, the foundation, the thickness, the possibility of construction, repair, destroy, collapse, etc., can be physically perceived. Therefore, arguments are metaphorically described as buildings, implying that a successful argument is similar to a good building based on careful preparations, firm foundations, good working skills and so on. Otherwise, it will be defeated. In terms of the ontological metaphor: ARGUMENTS ARE BUILDINGS, there arise many expressions as follows. We need some facts or the argument will fail apart. We need to construct a strong argument for that. This is an argument, and it needs more foundation. If you dont support your argument with solid facts the whole thing will collapse. Orientational metaphor, also called the spatialization metaphor, refers to a series of conceptual metaphors structured according to spatial orientation such as up-down, in-out, front-back, left-right and central-peripheral (Wang Yin, 2006, p.410). The specialty of the orientational metaphors is that they are not used in arbitrary but in a fixed way based on peoples experience and culture, and their cognitive job is to give an ontological status to general categories of abstract target concepts. For example, Happy is up, sad is down. Im feeling up/down. You are in high spirits. He is really low these days. The above four sentences prove that we can understand and express our feelings in 9 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses terms of the simple spatial concept (like up and down), and the spatial concept itself is constructed from our experiences, that is, interactive with the physical environment. The physical words up down high and low here are no longer understood as the direction words as before, but used to explain and describe the non-physical phenomenon. 2.2.2. Working Mechanism of Conceptual Metaphor In the past years, different linguists have formed different understandings on the working mechanism of conceptual metaphor, such as Richard and Black interaction theory (1936), Lakoff and Johnsons mapping theory (1980) and Fauconniers conceptual blending theory (1996). Mapping theory will be singled out in this part for further discussion. According to Lakoff and Johnson, there are two cognitive domains in the conceptual metaphor, the source and the target, and its working mechanism is to map the experiences of the source domain onto the relatively abstract target domain. They also reinforced that metaphorical thought, in the form of cross-mappings is primary, metaphorical language is secondary (1999, p.123). Fauconnier inherited Lakoff and Johnson cross-domain mappings, claiming that mappings between domains are at the heart of the unique human cognitive faulty of producing, transferring and processing meaning (1997, p.1). Mapping theory is widely applied in illustrating how the two parts or domains can be identified with each other. Take LIFE IS A JONRNEY for example; figure 1 shows the corresponding conceptual mappings between the source domain JOURNEY and the target domain LIFE: Figure 2-1: Mapping Structure in LIFE IS A JONRNEY Source domain Journey Travelers Point of departure Distance Obstacles Destination Termination Target domain Life Common people Birth Process of life Difficulties Goals in life Death 10 Chapter 2 Literature Review and Theoretical Basis 2.2.3. Systematicity of Conceptual Metaphor According to Lakoff and Johnson, metaphorical concept is systematic as metaphor is to understand one concept in terms of another (1980, p.12). Based on the above analysis of the expression ARGUMENT IS WAR, it can be seen that such war-related words as indefensible, on target, demolished, won and attacked are used in a systematic way to describe the battling aspects of an argument. The conceptual features of war are partially transferred to those of argument, adding much color and vividness to the abstract word ARGUMENT. The analysis of LIFE IS A JONRNEY put forward by Lakoff also proves that full clusters of semantically-related words (the italic parts) are sometimes used with related metaphorical meanings. It goes as follows: He got a head start in life. Hes without direction in his life. Im where I want to be in life. Im at a crossroad in life. Hell go places in life. Hes never let anyone in his way. Hes gone through a lot in life. (Lakoff, 1993, p.19) One aspect needs to be pointed out that the very systematicity allows people to comprehend one aspect of a concept in terms of another but meanwhile it also hides other aspects of the concept. Just as the above mentioned, the conceptual features are just partially not totally transferred from one domain to another. Some other features especially those inconsistent ones are not selected out for cross-mappings. For instance, air battle, naval battle, radar-invading airplane, missile, field hospital and Military Area Command are all under the vocabulary of war, but they are not chosen here to systematically depict the feature of argument. 11 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses Chapter 3 Weekly Radio Addresses of the US Presidents 3.1. Introduction The Weekly Radio Address is the weekly discussion of current events in the United States by the President. Franklin D. Roosevelt was the first U.S. president to deliver such radio addresses, and then in 1982, President Reagan revived the practice of delivering a weekly Saturday radio broadcast which is followed by all the other successors including President Barack Obama right now (Wikipedia). It is a typical and important kind of discourse, as in the speech, the President usually announces many newly-emerged domestic or international issues, attracting public attention and responses. The address embraces a lot of useful and fresh information, ranging from politics, economics, culture, education, military service, to health care, etc.. Since Barack Obama made his inaugural address on January 20th, 2009 as a new President in America, his weekly addresses have continued on the White House website, showing his concern on America as well as the whole world. So it can be taken for granted that the weekly address is of great necessity either for the President who can build up his public image, or for the American people who can in this way enhance their vigilance and take current problems into further consideration. 3.2. Varieties of Public Speaking The Weekly Radio Addresses made my U.S. president can be perceived as a sort of public speaking for the audience around the world. Therefore, the varieties of public speaking are necessary to be mentioned here to illustrate the features of Weekly Address. In accordance with their general purposes, speeches usually can be classified into four categories: to inform, to persuade, to entertain, and to stimulate. 3.2.1. Informative Speech Information or information transition plays an important role in the development process of human society. In the ancient time, people could not have developed themselves without sharing information or drawing on the experiences of others. In 12 Chapter 3 Weekly Radio Addresses of the US Presidents addition, people in the modern world often consider information as a kind of power, bringing a lot of physical property and mental legacy. One of the major purposes for human communication is to collect, exchange and share information with each other, and so is public speaking. As for this type of speech, the speaker is required to convey information, or in other words, to keep the audience informed of something important and teach them how to deal with it. For instance, President Obama once started his radio address with a matter of doctors pay cuts aiming to keep people informed of its real reason and effect: More than a decade ago, Congress set up a formula that governs how doctors get paid by the Medicare program. The intent was to slow the growth of Medicare costs, but the result was a formula that has proposed cutting payments for Americas doctors year after year after year. These are cuts that would not only jeopardize our physicians pay, but our seniors health care. Since 2003, Congress has acted to prevent these pay cuts from going into effect. These votes were largely bipartisan, and they succeeded when Democrats ran Congress and when Republicans ran Congress which was most of the time. (12th, June, 2010) The above paragraph is a typical example of informative speech in Obamas weekly radio addresses. Furthermore, in the process of delivering speech, such techniques as discussion, explanation, illustration and description are of great help in ensuring that the audience can bear what the speaker said in mind and then really put them into practice. 3.2.2. Persuasive Speech The purpose of this type of speech is to influence or change audiences attitudes, beliefs, values, feelings, etc. or to persuade them to take some action. In ancient Greek, a famous scholar, Aristotle in his book Rhetoric and Politics (1954) once pointed out a reasoning formula known as the syllogism, in which ethos, pathos and logos were identified as the three criteria for achieving a successful argumentative speech. Ethos means the persuasive appeal of ones character, especially how his character is established by means of the speech and discourse. It is a vital factor in determining whether the speech enjoys a persuasive power or not, as only an ethical and honest speaker could present a truthful argument and win the audiences approval. Pathos is 13 A Study of Conceptual Metaphors in President Obamas Weekly Radio Addresses another communication technique and means persuading by appealing to the readers or listeners emotions. So in order to make the argument attractive enough, the speaker needs to have deep passion when delivering the speech. Logos stands for the appeal to reason. It is harder to argue against the argument built on reason and solid ground; and such arguments make the speaker look prepared and knowledgeable to the audience, which can in turn enhance the power of ethos. All the above mentioned three factors are of great necessity in improving the speakers persuasive ability when making a public speech. President Obamas radio address on 12th, June will be selected here once more for analysis: Im absolutely willing to take the difficult steps necessary to lower the cost of Medicare and put our budget on a more fiscally sustainable path. But Im not willing to do that by punishing hard-working physicians or the millions of Americans who count on Medicare. Thats just wrong. And thats why in the short-term, Congress must act to prevent this pay cut to doctors. If they dont act, doctors will see a 21% cut in their Medicare payments this week. This week, doctors will start receiving these lower reimbursements from the Medicare program. That could lead them to stop participating in the Medicare program. And that could lead seniors to lose their doctors. (12th, June, 2010) In persuading Congress to draft a plan to prevent doctors pay cut, President Obama first defines himself as a man full of sympathy, love and considerateness by putting on the shoes of physicians and the millions of Americans, and then presents several reasons to consolidate his argument. So ethos, pathos and logos are all skillfully used in this persuasive part. 3.2.3. Entertaining Speech As the name suggests, this type of speech is just to bring some entertainment or amusement to the audience rather than to arouse any serious response. It is

Look At Causal Comparative Research Psychology Essay

Look At Causal Comparative Research Psychology Essay Causal-comparative research design can be defined as a research that permits researchers to study naturally occurring, cause and effect relationship through comparison of data from participant groups who exhibit the variables of interest. Causal-comparative research can also be referred to as ex post facto, Latin for after the fact (Sowell, 2001). In other words, causal-comparative research can be studied in retrospect since it attempts to determine reasons or causes for the existing condition between or among groups of individuals. This research design is often found in the fields of education, medicine and social sciences. According to Sullivan (2001), The belief that there is order in the universe, that there are reasons why everything happens, and that scientists, using the procedures of science, can discover what those reasons are explains that researchers usually go on to examine the reasons why the observed pattern exist and what they suggest. For this reason, the basic element of causal-comparative approach involves starting with an effect and seeking for possible causes or vice versa. The basic approach, which involves starting with effects and investigating causes, is sometimes referred to as retrospective causal-comparative research. Retrospective causal-comparative studies are much more common in educational research. Meanwhile, the variation which starts with causes and investigates effects is called prospective causal-comparative research. The cause and effect relationships may influence how a problem is formulated and a research design developed. It can be said that the major purpose of causal-comparative research is to investigate potential cause-and-effect relationships that occur naturally without manipulation of variables. In this particular research design, researchers try to find the reasons why certain forms of behaviour occur. To formulate this research design it requires at least two variables namely independent and dependent variable to support the objective of the research. In this approach, it can be said that some independent variable (IV) is the factor, or one of several factors, that produces variation in a dependent variable (DV) (Sullivan, 2001). Consider, for instance a researcher formed 3 groups of preschoolers consist of those who never watched Sesame Street, those who watched it sometimes, and those who watched it frequently. The 3 groups were then tested by making comparison on a reading readines s test. Based on the mentioned case study, it shows that the independent variable affect the dependent variable. In this case, Sesame Street is the independent variable (IV) while the preschoolers reading performance is the dependent variable (DV). The Characteristics of Causal-comparative Research According to Babbie (2013), there are three main characteristics for causal-comparative. Firstly, to infer the existence of a cause and effect relationship, the causal-comparative research must demonstrate an association between the independent and dependent variable. Therefore, it involves two or more groups and one independent variable. In addition, it determines the cause or consequences of differences that already exists between or among groups of individuals. The groups are assigned to the treatments and the study is carried out. The individuals are not randomly assigned to treatment groups because they were already selected into groups before the research began. In this research, it can be said that cause and effect depends on each other, whereby the cause may precedes the effect or vice versa. It is important to note that the independent variables in causal-comparative cannot be manipulated, should not be manipulated, or simply not manipulated but could be manipulated because the independent variable has already occurred. Thus, it is not possible to manipulate the independent variable. Causal-comparative research requires the study to be non-spurious. In this context, non-spurious refers to a causal relationship between two variables. According to Babbie (2013), spurious relationship is a coincidental statistical correlation between two variables, shown to be caused by some third variable. However, in causal-comparative research, only two variables are required and not caused by the action of some third variable, therefore it is shown that causal-comparative research is non-spurious. There are two types of causes that contribute to this research design, namely necessary and sufficient causes. Generally, the term cause is assumed to mean something that produce an effect, result, or consequence. A necessary cause represents a condition that must be present for the effect to follow. For example, it is necessary for you to attend driving classes in order to get a driving license. However, by only attending driving classes is not a sufficient cause of getting a license. This is because it is required to pass the driving test to get the driving license. On the other hand, a sufficient cause represents a condition that, if it is present, guarantees the effect in question (Babbie, 2013). This is not to say that a sufficient cause is the only possible cause of a particular effect. Take the case of the driving test mentioned earlier; not attending the test would be a sufficient cause for failing it, though students could fail it in other ways as well. Thus, a cause can be sufficient, but not necessary. Design and Procedure The selection of the comparison groups is very important in causal-comparative procedure. Although the independent variable is not manipulated, there are control procedures that can be exercised to improve the interpretation of results. The researcher selects two groups of participants, the experimental and control groups, but more accurately referred to as comparison groups. These two groups may differ in two ways; whether one group possesses a characteristic that the other does not or each group has the characteristic, but they differ in terms of degrees and amounts. The independent variable differentiating the groups must be clearly and operationally defined, since each group represents a different population. In designing this research, the random sample is selected from two already existing populations, and not from a single population. A causal-comparative design is chosen, for example, when researchers want to study the possible influences of Montessori school enrolment on childrens mathematical ability. Researchers locate a population in which several levels of mathematical ability are known to exist and then select a sample of participants. The researchers collect data from all participants on measures of mathematical ability and school enrolment. Once they have collected their data, researchers decide how many levels of mathematical ability they wish to study. In this case, suppose the researchers want two groups. They could classify the participants scores accordingly from highest to lowest, and then locate the middle score of the list. All those participants whose measures are above the middle score are designated as high mathematical ability and those below it, low mathematical ability. Next, the researchers compare task performance scores in each group to see whether Montessori school enrolment appears to influence task performance. There are three possibilities that could emerge from the study. Montessori school children have higher scores than non-Montessori school children. Montessori school children have lower scores than non-Montessori school children. No discernible pattern shows in the scores of Montessori and non-Montessori school children. This shows that each statement suggests a possible relationship between the two variables which are Montessori school enrolment and the childrens mathematical ability. Measurement of second variable Group B Group A Measurement of first variable determines group placements of participants Participant selection Generalized example Montessori school children Participant selection Measurement of mathematical ability Measurement of Montessori school enrolment Non-Montessori school children Example of school enrolment and mathematical ability FIGURE 1: Procedures in causal-comparative designs. 3.1 Control Procedures In other study design, random assignment of participants to groups is probably the best way to try to ensure equality of groups, but random assignment is not possible in causal comparative studies because the groups are naturally formed before the start of the study. There is a possibility to have extraneous variable in a causal comparative research that may affect the overall purpose of the study. Thus, control techniques are used to compare the sample groups equally. There are three common control techniques that can be used, namely matching, comparing homogenous groups or subgroups and analysis of covariance. Matching can be defined as a technique for equating groups on one or more variables. If researchers identify a variable likely to influence performance on the dependent variable, they may control for that variable by pair-wise matching of participants. In other words, for each participant in one group, the researcher finds a participant in the other group with the same or very similar score on the control variable. If a participant in other group does not have a suitable match, the participant is eliminated from the study. Thus, the resulting match groups are identical or very similar with respect to the identified extraneous variable. Another way to control extraneous variable is to compare groups that are homogenous with respect to the extraneous variable. The more similar the two groups are on such variables, the more homogenous they are on everything but the variable of interest. This homogeneity makes a stronger study and reduces the number of possible alternative, explanations of the research findings. Not surprisingly, then, a number of control procedures correct for identified in equalities on such variables. This approach also permits the researcher to determine whether the target grouping variable affects the dependent variable differently at different levels of control variable. That is, the researcher can examine whether the effect on the dependent variable is different for each subgroup. Analysis of covariance is a statistical technique used to adjust initial group differences on variables used in causal comparative and experimental studies. In essence, analysis of covariance adjusts scores on a dependent variable for initial differences on some other variable related to performance on the dependent variable. Analysis of covariance statistically adjusts the scores of the group to remove the initial advantage so that at the end of the study, the results can be fairly compared, as if the two groups started equally. 4. Data Analysis and Interpretation Analysis of data in causal-comparative research involves a variety of descriptive and inferential statistics. The most commonly used descriptive statistics are mean and standard deviation. Mean indicates the average performance of a group on some measure of a variable. Standard deviation is a measure of the dispersion of a set of data from its mean. The more spread apart the data, the higher the deviation. Standard deviation is calculated as the square root of variance. The most commonly used inferential statistics are t tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and chi square. T tests are used to determine whether the means of two groups are statistically different from one another. ANOVA is used to determine if there is significant difference among the means of three or more groups. Babbie (2013) defined chi square as a frequently used test of significance in social science. In other words chi square tests are used to determine whether there is an association between two or more categories. Chi square test explains that observed frequencies of the items or events in categories are compared with expected frequencies. Similarities and Differences between Related Research Designs Causal-comparative versus Correlational Research It is better to know that the major purpose of correlational research is to determine the magnitude and direction of associations or relationships among variables. Even with different purpose, correlational research is sometimes confused with causal-comparative since both lack manipulation of variables and requires caution in interpreting results. In addition, both researches seek to explore relationships among variables, and when relationships are identified, both research designs are often studied at a later time by means of experimental research. However, causal-comparative and correlational research still can be differentiated. Compared to correlational research, causal-comparative compare two or more groups of subjects, whereas correlational research only focus on one group. In addition, correlational research has no attempts to understand cause and effect whereas; causal-comparative studies purpose is to identify the cause and effect relationships between the variables. Apart from that, correlational research involves two or more variables and one group while causal-comparative involves two or more groups and one independent variable. Causal-comparative versus Experimental Design Causal-comparative can also be confused with experimental research both attempt to establish cause-effect relationships between variables and both involve group comparisons. In addition, both causal-comparative and experimental research can test hypotheses concerning the relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable. The difference between the two researches is that in causal-comparative, the individuals are already in groups before study begins, whereas in experimental design, individuals are randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Moreover, the random sample studies for causal-comparative is selected from two already-existing populations, while in experimental research, the random sample is selected from only one population. The researcher in experimental research manipulates the independent variable; that is, the researcher determines who is going to get what treatment. In contrast, in causal-comparative research, individuals are not randomly assigned to treatment groups because they are in established groups before the research begins. The example for the established group can be male or female, college graduates or non-graduates. In causal-comparative research the groups are already formed and already differ in terms of the key variable in question. In other words, the independent variable in experimental research can be manipulated by the researcher to determine the researchs effect, whereas the independent variable in causal-comparative cannot be manipulated since the independent variable has already occurred. Advantages of Causal-Comparative Research Like other research designs, causal-comparative research has its strength and weaknesses. One of the strengths is that the causes are being studied after they presumably have applied their effect on another variable. The researchers might administer a questionnaire to study the causes or they can also do interviews and observation to find the cause or effect related to their research. For example, a researcher may hypothesize that participant in preschool education is the major factor contributing to differences in the social adjustment of first graders. To examine this hypothesis, the researcher would select a sample of first graders who had participated in pre-school education and a sample of first graders who had not and would then compare the social adjustment of the two groups. If the children who participated in pre-school education exhibited the higher level of social adjustment, the researchers hypothesis would be supported. Thus, the basic causal-comparative approach involve starting with an effect (i.e., social adjustment) and seeking possible causes (i.e., did pre-school affect it). Another advantage of causal-comparative research method is that it allows us to study cause-and-effect relationships under conditions where experimental manipulation is difficult or impossible. Unlike experimental research, the variable in causal comparative research is not manipulated because it has already occurred. For example, a researcher might be interested in determining the effect of poor parenting on the issue of juvenile delinquency. Clearly it would not be ethical to approach the parents and ask about how they raise their children because it is too personal to discuss family issues to an outsider. Thus, causal comparative research permits investigation on a number of variables that cannot be studied experimentally. In addition, causal-comparative studies help to identify variables worthy of experimental investigation. In fact, causal comparative studies are conducted solely to identify the probable outcome of an experimental study. In other words, many relationships can be studied in a single research study. Suppose for example, a researcher were considering implementing computer assisted language learning in the school system. Before implementing the mentioned program, the researcher might consider trying it out on an experimental basis for a year in a number of schools or classrooms. However, even such limited adoption would require costly new equipment and teacher training. Thus, as a preliminary measure, to inform the decision, the researcher could conduct a causal comparative study to compare the English language achievement of students in school who are currently using the instruction with the English language achievement who are not using it. If the results indicated that the students le arning through computer assisted language learning instruction were achieving higher scores, the researcher would probably decide to go ahead with an experimental tryout of computer assisted language learning instruction. If no differences were found, the researcher would probably not go ahead with the experimental tryout to save time, cost and effort. Disadvantages of Causal-Comparative Research Despite its many advantages, causal comparative research has some serious limitations to be caution of. In causal comparative research, the researcher has limited control over the study and extreme caution must be applied in interpreting results. This is because the groups are already formed at the beginning of the study. An apparent cause-effect relation may not be as it appears. The alleged cause of an observed effect may in fact be the effect itself, or, a third variable may have caused both the apparent cause and the effect. In other words, an observed relationship between variable A and B can mean that A causes B, B causes B, or a third variable C causes both A and B. A causes C causes B A B causes B B causes Figure 2: Relationships of variables For example, suppose a researcher hypothesized that enrolment to preschool is a determinant of reading achievement. The researcher would compare the achievement of two groups, one comprising individuals with children who went to preschool and children who did not go to preschool. If those who went to preschool performed better on reading measures, the researcher could be tempted to conclude that going to preschool influences reading achievement. However, this conclusion would be groundless. Because the participants arrived at the beginning of the study with an established group of children who went to preschool and children who did not, and an established level of reading achievement, it is not possible to determine which came first and which influence the other. Moreover, it is very plausible that some third variable, such as parental attitude, is the main influence on both reading achievement and pre-schooling. For example, parents who sent their children to preschool and encourage their children may have children who have higher reading achievement. Analysis of Studies Using Causal-comparative Research Design One of the major findings within the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research is the different rates of success with which children and adults achieve nativelike proficiency in a second language (L2).() It is also common in SLA studies that mostly L2 learners do not attain nativelike proficiency because of their first language maintenance. In a research report entitled Does first language maintenance hamper nativelikeness in a second language? by Bylund, Abrahamsson and Hyltensam of Stockholm University, they aim to address the role of L1 proficiency in L2 attainment. In this study, the researchers hypothesized that the second language learners do not attain nativelike proficiency because of their first language maintenance. It is recognized that the independent variable in this research is the first language maintenance, whereas, the dependent variable is the nativelikeness in a second language. It shows that there is clearly an association between the two variables since the independent variable (IV), which is the first language maintenance might probably affect the dependent variable, which is the second language. To examine the hypothesis, the researchers select a sample population consists of Spanish-speaking immigrant community in Sweden, where residents of Chilean origin are in the community. 30 L1 Spanish-and L2 Swedish residents participated in the study where they acquire their second language before the age of twelve. The bilinguals came from countries throughout Latin America with a specific concentration in Chile. The participants were either university students or degree-holder. A common denominator of the participants was that they exhibited a generally high level of L2 proficiency. For the second group, fifteen native speakers of Spanish and fifteen native speakers of Swedish were recruited as monolingual controls. The researchers choose small sample populations to represent the study populations. The control groups were matched to the bilingual participants by educational level. In the process of matching the variables and groups, it can be said that pure monolingualism was not a criterion for participation, and the majority of the participants had foreign language skills such as English language. In addition, none of the control participants had lived abroad for any significant length of time in a setting in which their foreign language skills could be practiced. These two groups will be referred to as Spanish-speaking control and Swedish-speaking controls participants. Bilingual participants were tested individually in each language on two different occasions. The bilinguals and the Swedish-speaking controls were tested in the same setting and instructors and the Spanish-speaking controls were tested in another setting with another instructor. The language proficiency of the participants were investigated by piloting a grammaticality judgment test (GJT) to find out about the samples grammatical intuition. Furthermore, in order to measure the participants semantic and grammatical inferencing skills, a cloze test was piloted to all participants.