Phase response curves to light and to melatonin Essay

Phase response curves to light and to melatonin - Essay Example In human light PRC (Figure 1), the y-axis of the PRC shows the direction and relative magnitude of the phase shift in hours induced by light exposure (solid line). Circadian Time Zero (CT0) corresponds to 11:00 am and CT22-CT18 is the duration for day time activity. The black bar, which indicates the time period between 12:00 midnight – 8:00am, along x-axis represents the duration for sleeping. Bright light treatment causes the phase-delay of circadian phase, which is represented by the area from CT10 to CT18. During this period, bright light treatment causes later onset of sleeping/awakening cycle. As time progresses from CT10, stronger effect on phase-delay is observed. At CT18, this phase-delay effect is changed dramatically to phase-advancing effect. The peak phase-advancing effect coincides with sunrise. From CT18 to CT3, bright light treatment induces phase-advancing effect, causing earlier onset of sleeping / awakening cycle. This effect gradually decreases from CT19 to CT3. As noted in the graph, little or no effect is observed when bright light treatment is applied from CT14 to CT20, in which this time period corresponds to 2:00pm to 8:00pm. The intensity of the light used in bright light treatment can have direct effect on the magnitude of the phase advancement or delay. ... After this time point, this effect decreases to the lowest point to CT12. It should be noted that during this time period, bright light treatment has no phase-shifting effect on circadian rhythm. From CT18 to CT0, melatonin administration induces a phase-delay effect on circadian rhythm, however, this effect is relatively small when compared with the phase advancing effect induced by bright light treatment. From 2 hours before the onset of sleeping (CT12) onwards until time of sunrise (CT18), administration of melatonin does not exert any effect on circadian rhythm. This time duration coincides with phase delaying effect of bright light treatment. b. Using this knowledge of the phase response curves to light and to melatonin, design a protocol to alleviate the effects of jet lag when travelling from London Singapore (8 time zones eastward) The flights for travelling from London to Singapore are available both in the morning and at night. The local time in Singapore is ahead of London by 8 hours (8 time zones eastward). Assuming there are two flights travelling from London to Singapore, one flight has the depart time at 11:00 am (London local time) and arrive in Singapore at 7:00 am (Singapore local time, one day ahead); the other flight departs at 22:00 pm (London local time) and arrives at 18:00 pm (Singapore local time, one day ahead). The total duration of the flight is approximately 13 hours. The circadian rhythm may be entrained by advance or delay the sleep/awake cycle and both intake of melatonin at about 4 hours before to its natural peak in the circadian cycle or bright light treatment may induce an advance response (3). The following protocol is devised from

Grant proposal for skagit conty to prepare Flood awareness brochure in Essay

Grant proposal for skagit conty to prepare Flood awareness brochure in Spanish - Essay Example The project plan helps in sensitizing the people on the response to an emergency and the steps necessary to ensure that they are safe. The plan is expected to capture the audience that mostly do not understand English and feel let put on the local authority disaster management plan due to language barrier. The projects objectives include the Hispanic and Latino community living in Skagit County, Washington for flood disaster that looms in their neighborhood. To achieve the goal, there is a need for the community to understand the sub objectives that supplement the main goal. Identify the warning systems. The warning systems are the media of communication that is accessible to many people. The systems include the radio stations weather channels and warnings from people in the authority. Identify members of the Hispanic and Latino community and create a community directory. Discuss the evacuation procedures in place with the community in regard of what to carry like medicines and clean water. The procedures should be encouraged to be on family levels where the head of the family is to ensure that if an alert is given all the family members are together and leave as a family (Veenema, 2003). The community level involves familiarizing the Hispanic and Latino community on the roles of the police during an evacuation. To discuss the precautions to take during and after a flood in order to avert waterborne diseases. The community will be advised on how the best practices to avert water bone diseases that are common during and after floods in the area. Community resilience is essential and critical in any community. It ensures that when disaster strikes the community recovery and restoration be fast tracked in terms of essential services (OLeary 2004). Community resilience involves identifying and evacuation route in Skagit County. This is done in collaboration with the residents and the authority that best know the area. The process of community

Economics Coursework - Demand Essay Example for Free

Economics Coursework Demand Essay Manufacturers and dealers want UK to follow Europe into scheme to give cash to drivers who scrap old cars to buy new The government was facing renewed pleas to bail out Britains ailing motor industry yesterday as figures showed sales of new cars had dropped by almost a third year on year. Only 313,912 cars were registered in March a 30.5% fall in sales from this time last year, figures from the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) showed, prompting fresh calls for the government to pay motorists to trade in their old cars for new ones. The motor industry and lobby groups are hoping this months budget will include a scrappage scheme, under which car owners are given a financial incentive of about à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2,000 to swap their old vehicle for a new greener model. Treasury officials have told the industry they are seriously considering including such a stimulus in the budget a fortnight tomorrow although ministers publicly insist that no decision has been taken. A scrappage scheme in Germany which offers car owners à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2,500 (à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½2,263) for getting rid of any vehicle over nine years old has attracted more than half a million buyers, with sales soaring 40% there in March. The SMMT estimates that 280,000 Britons would take advantage of a similar programme over an 18-month period. This would cost around à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½560m, a figure the SMMT told the Guardian would involve a net cost of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½150-160m. The rest of the money would come from the VAT charged on new cars. But green groups counselled against such a knee jerk response and said the money could be better used to fund sustainable transport solutions. Some environmental organisations fear funds could be diverted from existing pots of money set aside by the government for investment in green technologies, such as the à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½400m earmarked in the pre-budget report for an environmental transformation fund, which supports the development of new low-carbon energy and energy efficiency technologies in the UK. Pro-motoring lobbyists argue that if the government does not move quickly to boost the industry, further jobs would be lost and some manufacturers may transfer their business to other countries. In Whitehall, the debate is still swirling over the wisdom of adopting a scrappage scheme. Lord Mandelson, the business secretary, said in February that his department was examining the experience of other countries, notably Germany, to see whether it would work in Britain and carmakers were asked to produce costed proposals, but no decision has been made. David Cameron told the Guardian in January that the Tories were looking at the idea but he was yet to be convinced. In the meantime, demand for cars has crashed across the world, throwing the global industry into its biggest crisis and forcing American giants General Motors and Chrysler to the brink of bankruptcy. Manufacturers in the UK have also been hit, with factories such as Hondas plant at Swindon mothballed and thousands of jobs cut. Last months decline in sales follows falls of 30.9% in January 2009 and 21.9% in February. March, when new number plates are issued, is a key period for the industry and traditionally accounts for nearly a fifth of annual sales. If things do not improve, the SMMT is forecasting that only 1.72m new vehicles will be sold in 2009, compared with 2.13m in 2008. However, there was one bright note with the rise of the small car segment, where sales increased 84%, indicating a trend towards downsizing among consumers. The top three best-selling models were the Ford Fiesta, Vauxhall Corsa and Ford Focus. Yesterday SMMT chief executive, Paul Everitt, said: March new-car registrations are a barometer of confidence in the economy, from businesses and consumers alike. The fall in the market shows that the government needs to do more to boost confidence. A scrappage scheme will provide the incentive needed and the evidence is clear that schemes already implemented across Europe do work to increase demand. The UK is the only major European market not to implement a scheme. Edmund King, the president of the AA, said: The latest figures show the stark difference between a country with a scrappage scheme and one without. A vehicle-scrappage scheme has the potential to reduce emissions, reduce accidents and their severity whilst giving a boost to the UK motor industry. There are many benefits from getting older gross polluters off the road. But green groups counselled against introducing such a scheme. Peter Lipman, policy director at Sustrans, the sustainable transport charity, said it would be a really, really bad idea, wherever the money is coming from. There are so many better ways of spending government money if you are trying to deal with both the recession and climate change, he added. The RAC motoring strategist, Adrian Tink, said: The introduction of any car-scrappage scheme needs to be contingent on balancing the economic benefits with a concern for the environment. The scheme needs to be as much about getting old, high-polluting cars off the road as it is about stimulating car sales. The dire sales figures bode ill for the economic recovery because new car sales are seen as a key indicator of consumer confidence. When the UK went into recession in the early 1990s, new car registrations dropped for 27 successive months. At one point, sales that had reached an annual peak of 2.3million in the late-1980s dipped as low as 1.5million. IB Economics: Internal Assessment Commentary Car industry begs for budget boost from Alistair Darling The article Car industry begs for budget boost from Alistair Darling found on the web page of The Guardian discusses the effects of the current recession on the car industry, particularly in the UK. The article states according to the SMMT a 30 % fall in sales from the year before at the same time. In order to take a first step to solving the problem the motor industry hopes to impose the scrappage scheme.. The drop of demand for cars during the recession creates an example of the laws of demand and supply. Demand is the quantity of a good or a service that consumers are willing and able to purchase at a given price in a given time period. Supply is the willingness and ability of producers to produce a quantity of a good or service at a given price in a given time period. Consumers being aware of the recession will rather save their money than choose to spend it on luxury purchase. The fall in income due to the recession has, according to the laws of supply and demand and assuming that all other things stay equal (Ceterus Paribus), caused the fall of demand. Although the article doesnt state a percentage of the fall in income of the population, the income elasticity of demand for vehicles can be described as at least unitary if not elastic, the examples will make an attempt to prove this. Income elasticity of demand measures the proportionate response of quantity demanded to a proportionate change in income. The article gives two proves for that: First, the thought of the coming recession has already let people stop buying cars by 30.5% from one year to the other. People wont buy any luxury goods in bad times. And second, subsidising car buyers by about 2000à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ (scrappage scheme) will increase the purchases in a month by 40%. The fall in demand will also cause an excess supply even if the motor industry stops production directly. All car producers will hence have a massive amount of cars that are just not being bought because there is no demand. According to the rules of supply and demand, as demand falls, quantity supplied decreases as well. In this particular case, the quantity supplied decreases as well but probably not as much as it could to find a new equilibrium, the price at which supply equals demand. Why this is the case will be explained after the following The following graph will show how a fall in demand will cause the demand curve to shift to the left and therefore a fall in the quantity supplied of cars to find a new equilibrium. It can be seen that cars sales fell by nearly 25 % from 2008 to 2009 As stated above, this development is not quite that what happens in reality. According to the rules of unemployment, unemployment is a lagging factor and the demand for labour depends on the demand for, in this case, cars. That means that it begins to rise some time after the recession began. This is because of several reasons such as that firms want to keep skilled workers and will delay redundancies hoping that things might get better. Since firms want to keep skilled workers they would have to keep up the production to a certain extend. Of course production will decrease what will cause cyclical employment but to a certain extend production will be kept up to occupy the workers. The term cyclical unemployment can be defined as occurring when the economy is growing more slowly than estimated as the demand for labour is interdependent on the demand for goods and services. This situation cant be kept up for long because firms lose money spending more money on workers they try to keep than actually gaining through sales and go bankrupt if the recession doesnt end or if they are not being subsidized by the government. Hence the motor industry searches for ways of pushing demand. A possible solution could be the scrappage scheme which encourages motorists to swap their old cars against new ones by giving the buyer about 2000à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ directly. The effect of the scheme on the demand for cars can be seen on the following diagram: Demand rises again due to the encouragement and shifts the demand curve to the right again. Concluding one can say that the law of supply and demand is displayed in the real world. In the article Car industry begs for budget boost from Alistair darling it is clearly shown how recession can affect the demand for cars and how therefore demand for labour interdepends on demand for, in this case, cars. Furthermore it can also be stated that things like the scrappage scheme can encourage demand again.

Metacognitive Awareness Of Reading Strategies And Critical Reading

Metacognitive Awareness Of Reading Strategies And Critical Reading Researchers believe that awareness and monitoring of ones comprehension processes are critically important for skilled reading. Such awareness and monitoring processes are often referred to as metacognition. Recent researches show that metacognitive strategies differentiate between effective and ineffective learners i.e. the more a student knows about how he learns, the better he will learn. This study was designed to investigate the relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability of the students. To this end, 113 third/forth year Iranian college students majoring in English translation/literature, aged around 21-36 were selected to participate in this study. They took part in a Nelson test of proficiency, and a critical reading comprehension test. They also completed a questionnaire, namely Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI). Data analysis through Pearson Correlation Coefficient formula showed that there is a significant relationship between the students metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and their critical reading ability. The findings can have implications for EFL learners and teachers in developing an authentic, interactive and learner- centered environment in their reading classes. Key words: Learning strategies, Metacognition, Metacognitive awareness of reading strategies, Critical reading 1. Introduction The recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in developing critical thinking skills of students in order to improve their thinking and learning abilities and help them to succeed in their educational goals. Improving students critical thinking skills will help students: a) improve their thinking about their course work b) use sound thinking on tests, assignments, and projects in their courses c) have the strategic, analytical, problem solving, and decision-making skills they need when they are at college d) have the strategic, analytical, problem solving, and decision-making skills they need when they move to the workplace. The term critical thinking when used by educators has varied meanings in different contexts-whether in formal logic courses, where it has a precise meaning; when applied to arguments or in casual discussions in a faculty lounge about students struggles to grasp the course content, where the term is used more loosely to simply mean good thinking (Pierce, 2005). Before proceeding any further, an account will be provided as how critical thinking has been defined in literature: As stated by Thomson (1996), the critical thinking tradition, which derives from both philosophy and education, originates in the USA. Some of its foremost American proponents were John Dewey, Edward Glaser, and Steven Norris; in Britain, the name most closely associated with critical thinking is that of Alec Fisher. In Learning to Think: Disciplinary Perspectives (2002), Janet Donald (quoted in Keller 2008) presents a variety of approaches to thinking based on the work of different academic disciplines. She provides a working model of thinking processes in higher education in which she describes a perspective on different methods of inquiry. The working model offers a set of procedures followed by most disciplines, including: description, selection, representation, inference, synthesis, and verification. Under each topic on this inventory, then, she lists subtopics indicating their relation to the diverse inquiry methods she previously connected to academic areas. In a later summary of the most important thinking processes used generally across disciplines, she lists separately Identify the context and State assumptions, then reduces her previous set of common procedures to those of selection, representation, and synthesis. In Maclellan and Soden (2001, quoted in Keller 2008), we see the following set of critical thinking skills: a) unpacking concepts-ability to unpack or break down ideas, concepts or theories; b) recognizing contradictions-differentiating between viewpoints and counterarguments; c) development-explaining a phenomenon, joining ideas together to form lines of arguments; d) providing evidence-supporting or justifying assertions; e) examining implications of evidence-generating hypotheses about consequences or examining the relationships between key factors; f) alternative interpretation-questioning or challenging an interpretation of the evidence and offering an alternative. After the above review on what critical thinking is, now we turn to critical reading. A major issue in education today is the concern about students ability to read critically and to evaluate the material. Critical reading is taught as a sub-skill of comprehension with appropriate exercises. Critical reading enjoys several features which make it appear rooted in critical thinking. Among the features we can mention the followings listed by students counseling service of Salisbury University: a. previewing: Learning about a text before really reading it. b. contextualizing: Placing a text in its historical, biographical, and cultural contexts. c. questioning to understand and remember: Asking questions about the content. d. reflecting on challenges to your beliefs and values: Examining your personal responses. e. outlining and summarizing: Identifying the main ideas and restating them in your own words. f. evaluating an argument: Testing the logic of a text as well as its credibility and emotional impact. g. comparing and contrasting related readings: Exploring likenesses and differences between texts to understand them better. Furthermore, Burmeister (1986, qtd in Cherney 1986) defines critical-creative reading and thinking as requiring the skills of analysis, synthesis and evaluation. He adds that such cognitive abilities require readers or thinkers to reason using techniques of formal logic or at least to be consciously aware of the thought processes they are using. Analysis, according to Burmeister, requires the examination of parts of the whole; synthesis is the act of combining or unifying elements into a coherent whole and evaluation requires the establishment of standards and also a judgment as to the goodness of fit of the idea. Burmeister considers evaluation to be the highest level of the cognitive domain. (p.256) The researchers assume that metacognitive strategies are among the strategies which can foster critical thinking and hence reading. However, it sounds reasonable to ask why such a relationship is felt. To answer this question an attempt will be made to clarify metacognitive strategies. Sheorey and Mokhtari (2001) state that many studies recognize the role of meta-cognitive awareness in reading comprehension, whether one is reading in the native language or a second language. Indeed, the consensus view is that strategic awareness and monitoring of the comprehension process are critically important aspects of skilled reading. Such awareness and monitoring is often referred to in the literature as meta-cognition, which can be thought of as the knowledge of the readers cognition relative to the reading process and the self-control mechanisms they use to monitor and enhance comprehension. Auerbach and Paxton (1997) and Carrell et al. (1989), for example, consider meta-cognitive awareness-planning and consciously executing appropriate actions to achieve a particular goal-to be a critical element of proficient, strategic reading. Such meta-cognition, according to Auerbach and Paxton (1997), entails knowledge of strategies for processing texts, the ability to monitor compr ehension, and the ability to adjust strategies as needed (pp. 240-41). Furthermore, Taylor (1999) defines meta-cognition as an appreciation of what one already knows, together with a correct apprehension of the learning task and what knowledge and skills it requires, combined with the ability to make correct inferences about how to apply ones strategic knowledge to a particular situation, and to do so efficiently and reliably. (p.126) To increase their metacognitive abilities, students need to possess and be aware of three kinds of content knowledge: declarative, procedural, and conditional. Declarative knowledge is the factual information that one knows; it can be declared-spoken or written. An example is to know the formula for calculating momentum in a physics class (momentum = mass times velocity). Procedural knowledge is knowledge of how to do something, of how to perform the steps in a process; for example, knowing the mass of an object and its rate of speed and how to do the calculation. Conditional knowledge is knowledge about when to use a procedure, skill, or strategy and when not to use it; why a procedure works and under what conditions; and why one procedure is better than another. For example, students need to recognize that an exam word problem requires the calculation of momentum as part of its solution. (Paris, Cross and Lipson, 1984. qtd. in Pressley 2002). This notion of three kinds of knowledge applies to learning strategies as well as course content. When they study, students need the declarative knowledge that (1) all reading assignments are not alike; for example, that a history textbook chapter deals with factual information differs from a primary historical document, which is different from an article interpreting or analyzing that document. They need to know that stories and novels differ from arguments. Furthermore, they need to know that there are different kinds of note taking strategies useful for annotating these different types of texts. And (2) students need to know how to actually write different kinds of notes (procedural knowledge), and (3) they need to know when to apply these kinds of notes when they study (conditional knowledge). Knowledge of study strategies is among the kinds of meta-cognitive knowledge, and it too requires awareness of all three kinds of knowledge (Pierce, 2003). Many of the current studies recognize the role of awareness in reading comprehension. Reading strategies are of interest for the way readers use them to manage their interaction with the written text and how these strategies are related to text comprehension (Rigney, 1978). Reading in second language reading suggests that strategies improve reading comprehension. Reading strategies indicate how readers conceive a task, how they make sense of what they read and what they do when reading comprehension is difficult (Singhal, 2001). Indeed researchers agree that strategic awareness and monitoring of the comprehension process are critically important aspects of skilled reading. Such awareness and monitoring is often referred to in the literature as metacognition, which is used to monitor and enhance reading comprehension (Pressley and Afflerbach, 1995; Alexander and Jetton, 2000; Pressley, 2000). Recent researchers (Cohen, 1998, Anderson, 2002, Santana, 2003) show that the strategies that mark the true differences between effective and ineffective learners are the metacognitive strategies. In spite of the fact that many of the previous studies have obtained information about learners strategies and reading process, few of them have examined readers metacognitive awareness of reading strategies ( Singhal, 2001). Considering the important role of metacognitive reading strategies in reading comprehension with suspicious eye, this study is designed to investigate the relationship between metacognitive awareness reading strategies and critical reading ability and to view the notions of meta-cognitive awareness strategies and critical reading in the same horizon. For this purpose, we also need to have references to critical thinking because, as was mentioned above, critical reading roots in critical thinking. 1. 1. Statement of the problem For the improvement of critical reading, instructors should teach a variety of strategies that research has shown to be effective, like: generating questions and answering them, writing summaries, writing elaborations and using organizing strategies. The preceding strategies already seem to have been taken into account by Iranian teachers and learners. However, a potential problem in applying the mentioned strategies in reading comprehension can be the absence of meta-cognitive awareness about them. Hence, the researcher assumes that a set of meta-cognitive strategies can strengthen the above line of activity and foster the progress of critical reading. 1. 2. Research Question Is there any significant relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability? 3. Statement of the hypothesis The null hypothesis underlying this proposal is that there is not any significant relationship between meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability. 2. Method 2. 1. Participants A community sample of 130 male and female participated in this study in the second semester of 2010 majoring in English language literature and translation in Qom Islamic Azad University. They were all in their third and forth year. These students were asked if they would volunteer to participate in the study. Out of 130 participants who completed the questionnaires and tests, about 113 participants were accepted to participate in the study. 2. 2. Measure and Procedure The researchers visited the classes to administer one questionnaire and two tests. A total of 130 students were instructed to answer the proficiency test in one session and to the critical reading test and MARSI questionnaire at a later session. Students rated the items of MARSI, using a 5-point likert-type scale ranging from 1 (I never do this) to 5 (I always do this). From this population, some students were eliminated because they had not properly completed their questionnaires. The general proficiency test (Nelson test, 300 B) comprised 50 multiple-choice and vocabulary items. The total score of the test was 50 and one point was assigned to each correct answer. The critical reading comprehension test consisted of four passages with 4 or 5 multiple-choice items for each passage. So the 20 items were scored by one point for each correct answer. Then the score for all items were added and an ultimate score was calculated. The range of scores for this test was between 9 to 18. For scoring the Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory, the procedure proposed by Mokhtari Richad (2002) was used. A score was assigned to each answer which ranged from 1 to 5: never or almost never=1, occasionally=2, sometimes=3, usually=4, always=5. Then the scores for all items were added up and an ultimate score was calculated. The range of scores for this scale was between 46 to 146. 3. Data analysis To carry out the statistical analysis of the study, several statistical techniques were utilized: to calculate the reliability of the Nelson test, the Cronbach alpha (a) formula was utilized. In order to estimate the reliability of the critical reading comprehension test, the Cronbach alpha (a) formula was utilized. Considering the point that the participants will be assigned interval scores both for their meta-cognitive awareness and critical reading ability, the statistical analysis was Pearsons product Moment Coefficient of Correlation. Also, the reliability index of the translated version of MARSI was assessed by applying Cronbach alpha (a) formula. After administrating the instruments with the main subjects of the study and correcting the papers, the ultimate scores on critical reading comprehension test and MARSI were calculated and entered into SPSS. 3. Results In order to be certain of the homogeneity of the participants of the study in terms of language proficiency, a general language proficiency test (Nelson test) was utilized. The test was extracted from Nelson English language tests by W.S. Flower and Norman Goe (1976). It composed of 50 multiple choice grammar and vocabulary items. Through the pilot study, the reliability of the Nelson test was estimated and the following result was achieved: Table of reliability statisticsof the Language Proficiency Test (Nelson) Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .899 50 As it is noticed, the reliability of the Nelson test was estimated as .89 through the pilot study among 42 students, so the test enjoyed the acceptable reliability. The present study, also used a new self report measure, the Meta cognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) (Mokhtari Richard, 2002), which is designed to assess adolescent and adult readers awareness and perceived use of reading strategies while reading materials. According to the author of MARSI, the major purposes of developing of this inventory were to devise an instrument that would permit one to assess the degree to which a student is or is not aware of the various processes involved in reading and to make it possible to learn about the goals and intentions he or she holds with coping with reading tasks. As a result of employing this inventory, the second statistical procedure was to estimate the reliability of the translated version of Metacognitive Awareness of Reading Strategies Inventory (MARSI) administered to the subjects in the pilot study. Table of reliability statistics of the translated version of MARSI Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .799 30 According to table 4. 2., the reliability index of the students answers to the MARSI, assessed by applying the Cronbach alpha (a) formula, was 0.79. In order to assess the participants ability in reading critically, a test of reading comprehension, extracted from a model TOEFL, was applied. The reliability of this test administered to the subjects in the pilot study was estimated to be: Table of reliability statistics of critical reading comprehension test Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .748 18 It is necessary to add that in order to validate the critical reading comprehension test, basically four steps were taken such as checking the content validity, face validity, criterion related validity, and construct validity. The procedure for each step can be found in the following in details. The test was compiled according to the recommendation of Alderson and Urquhart (1984). Four different texts were selected. The texts were found from among the materials suggested for preparation of language learners for TOEFL test. Of course it was evident that not any passage could qualify: the passages had to be of an independent entity and understandable without a larger context. However, the main principle in text selection was to find text types that Iranian students of English were likely to read critically. I also consulted my supervisor to ensure the content validity of the passages and also to get confident that the questions could not be answered without reading the passages critically. The texts found were also sent to my advisor to make sure if there were any specific issues to be reconsidered. At the end of each passage, four or five questions were asked. Answering to the questions would be almost impossible without reading the test critically. The text chosen represente d the following text types: a scientific text from a field relevant to Chemistry; a text containing materials about body language and communication; a passage about the sinking of the luxurious ship, Titanic ; a biographical passage about an influential citizen of the United States, John Muir. In addition to improving the test items through item analysis (item facility, item discrimination and choice distribution), the face validity of the test was examined in qualitative terms. The students in the pilot study were asked to state their reasons for estimating the reading test as being critical or not. The comments (40 students) were rather divided. Some disliked the test but many of them liked it. Those who liked it wrote that it required imagination, and cleverness and a few compared taking the reading test with doing philosophical reasoning. Those who disliked the test mostly argued that it required to test other abilities besides language proficiency (e. g. imagination). Some complained that the test was too difficult and that they could mainly perceive the structure of the sentences. For criterion related validity, the researcher followed the same procedure as Assar (2008). With the help of the Nelson language proficiency test and by running correlation between these sc ores and those obtained from the improved reading test, among 32 students who participated in the pilot study, the concurrent validity of the test was established with an index of 0.71. Finally the critical reading test was construct-validated. To this end, the researcher took a process oriented approach following the picture depicted by Hirano (2008) and devised a questionnaire based on the discussed issues found in the literature on critical thinking and reading. The questionnaire was piloted among 40 students. First, they took the critical reading comprehension test, and immediately after they were asked to answer the questions in the questionnaire. Through a frequency count, it was discovered that the test had led to a critical reading successfully. The following table shows the result of the students answers to the fifteen questions in the devised questionnaire by the researcher based on the discussed issues found in the literature on critical thinking and reading. The results in the Mean column show the average score for each of the fifteen questions calculated based on a liker scale for each question ranging from 0 to 3. Table of reliability statistics for the reliability of critical reading questionnaire Cronbachs Alpha N of Items .624 15 It is necessary to mention that after the reliability of the questionnaire for process validation of the reading comprehension test was calculated, the researcher tried to revise some of the questions. It is, therefore, hoped that further studies through the revised questionnaire will provide more reliable results. Finally we come to the research question, which was concerned with relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability of the students. To investigate this question, the Pearson product correlation coefficient was run. The result of statistics is presented in the following table: According to the above table, correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. By using Pearson product correlation coefficient formula, the correlation between the two variables was estimated as .70. That is, there is a significant relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies (MARSI) and critical reading ability. The results have been illustrated in the following scatter plot graph: Graph/Scatter plot for Correlation coefficient between critical reading ability and meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies The above scatter plot illustrates the correlation coefficient between critical reading ability and meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies including 113 subjects. Variable 1 (Y axis) is related to meta-cognitive awareness of reading strategies in an interval scale up to 130; variable 2 (X axis) is related to critical reading ability in an interval scale from zero up to 20. 4. Discussion This study was an attempt to investigate the relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies (MARSI) and critical reading ability of Iranian students majoring in fields of English translation and literature. The statistical results proved that there is a significant relationship between the two variables of metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability. So the present study has found evidence that good and poor students are significantly different in their awareness and perceived use of metacognitive strategies. That is, the more a student knows about how he learns, the better learner he will be. Therefore, helping students to be more aware of their metacognitive reading strategies plays an important role in not only developing their critical reading ability but also in their general reading comprehension ability. The results of this study can be compared and contrasted with those of other researchers. For instance, findings of the present study are in congruity with the study conducted by Parson (2002) whose major purpose of his study was to investigate the strength of the relationship between the use of metacognitive strategies and critical reading ability of the students. It was conducted, specifically, to test the effectiveness of a teaching procedure designed to improve critical reading ability by training students in metacognintive strategies. He discovered that the students who were instructed with this metacognitive training package (questioning, summarizing, predicting and speculating on the authors intended tone and purpose) should become more aware of their own mental processes and will demonstrate not only increased critical reading ability, but also increased general comprehension ability. Also, qualitative improvement noted in subjects strategy use provided sufficient evidence fo r further study into the effectiveness of this training procedure. Furthermore, the findings could indirectly support Icmezs (2009) findings who suggests that in a critical reading course, developing a competence in critical reading skills evokes curiosity and the novelty essential for students with high levels of proficiency. Finally, we can conclude that our findings here is in line with what Ajideh (2009) suggests, that poor readers in general lack effective metacognitive strategies and have little awareness on how to approach to reading. They also have deficiencies in the use of metacognitive strategies to monitor for their understanding of texts. In contrast, successful L2 readers know how to use appropriate strategies to enhance text comprehension. 5. Conclusion As mentioned previously, among the tools that students use to learn a second language, learning strategies have been given a crucial role in all academic studies. Language learning strategies have been known as a factor that differentiates successful language learning from unsuccessful language learning. In recent years, there has been an increasing awareness of the necessity to examine human personality in order to find solutions to the perplexing problems in language learning. It is evident that a student uses language learning strategies while he is under the influence of many linguistic, cognitive, and affective factors. Thus, such an intertwined network can provide an answer to the wide individual differences within the classroom. Also, the ability to critically analyze written materials has long been recognized as being crucial to the educational process. In this study, it has been tried to explore the relationship between metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and critical reading ability of the students. With respect to the research question, it was found that when the students show more metacognitive awareness of strategies, they can read more critically and therefore it is more probable that they score higher on reading comprehension test. Based on the results, it can be concluded that there is a meaningful relationship between the students metacognitive awareness of reading strategies and their performance on critical reading comprehension test. Therefore, metacognitive strategies could provide the missing link between cognitive processes and critical reading ability. Metacognition refers to ones awareness of and control over his/her own mental processes (Brown, 2007). Consequently, it is worth mentioning that the relationship demonstrated here is only part of a complex picture, which reveals just some of the factors operating in mind of our students that warrant investigation. It should be mentioned that language learners strategies and their effect in the process of learning is a highly complex issue. Therefore, metacognitive strategy awareness may not be just the only aspect of this achievement in learning; rather, we need to investigate other types of language learning strategies and look at what helps the students to increase their ability in achieving the best results. 6. Implications The present study has found evidence which supports previous research findings that demonstrated that good and poor students are significantly different in their awareness and perceived use of metacognitive strategies. That is, the more a student knows about how he learns, the better learner he will be. Therefore, helping students to be more aware of their metacognitive reading strategies plays an important role in not only developing their critical reading ability but also in their general reading comprehension ability. So based on the above results, the finding of the study can have implications for teachers in reading classes. To be more specific, training good readers means more than just improving their knowledge about language structure and general study skills, and it needs raising their awareness of metacognitive strategies for critical reading. Also the results in this study may have implications for reading comprehension assessment. As mentioned before, critical reading skills are essential for the students with high level of proficiency. That is the higher the level of proficiency, the higher the ability for critical reading. Therefore, one of the factors to be included in the assessment of language proficiency can be the ability to read critically especially at higher level of proficiency.

Soliloquies of Shakespeares Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework

Macbeth- Soliloquy Analysis  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      The opposition of light and dark as symbols for life and death is the foundation upon which much of Shakesphere’s Macbeth is built. In Act V Scene V of Macbeth, strong words covey all of these thoughts to the reader. The tone for Macbeth’s speech is immediately set after hearing of the death of Lady Macbeth. Having lost his queen, and seeing his hopes turn to ashes, the bitter Macbeth now comments on life in caustic words. â€Å"Tomorrow creeps in this petty pace.† The basic feel of this brings a negative connotation to tomorrow. Iit keeps coming slowly and slyly as if to attack. What exactly does this petty pace refer to? It is the progression of life, as Macbeth now sees it. This negative and dark imagery continues to grow because tomorrow is unrelenting. â€Å"[T]ommorow creeps...To the last syllable of recorded time.† With these dreary remarks Macbeth presents his hopeless outlook. He feels the only way to end the pain of life is through death. â€Å" And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death.† What can be taken from this is that from our earliest recollection, we are constantly being guided forward from yesterday to our death. If light is life, then the light just leads us to death. When these lines are read together it enables the reader to see the despair and agony Macbeth is now suffering. The past is pushing him ahead and the future is creeping in on him. He has nowhere in time or space to escape. Death is the only place left to go. â€Å"Out, out brief candle!† Lady Macbeth’s candle has burnt out and soon his will also. Although he talks here about life being light (the candle flame), light is not desirable to him. He wants to extinguish it. Macbeth is at the point in his life where he is now trapped by his fate. The consequences of his actions have caught up with him. This may very well be why he has such a dreary outlook on life. Life is associated with light but Macbeth is at a state where he sees no significance in having lived. â€Å" Life’s but a walking shadow.† Macbeth is saying here that one’s life is dark and dreary, and that the light of life only serves to cast a dark shadow . Soliloquies of Shakespeare's Macbeth :: GCSE English Literature Coursework Macbeth- Soliloquy Analysis  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      The opposition of light and dark as symbols for life and death is the foundation upon which much of Shakesphere’s Macbeth is built. In Act V Scene V of Macbeth, strong words covey all of these thoughts to the reader. The tone for Macbeth’s speech is immediately set after hearing of the death of Lady Macbeth. Having lost his queen, and seeing his hopes turn to ashes, the bitter Macbeth now comments on life in caustic words. â€Å"Tomorrow creeps in this petty pace.† The basic feel of this brings a negative connotation to tomorrow. Iit keeps coming slowly and slyly as if to attack. What exactly does this petty pace refer to? It is the progression of life, as Macbeth now sees it. This negative and dark imagery continues to grow because tomorrow is unrelenting. â€Å"[T]ommorow creeps...To the last syllable of recorded time.† With these dreary remarks Macbeth presents his hopeless outlook. He feels the only way to end the pain of life is through death. â€Å" And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death.† What can be taken from this is that from our earliest recollection, we are constantly being guided forward from yesterday to our death. If light is life, then the light just leads us to death. When these lines are read together it enables the reader to see the despair and agony Macbeth is now suffering. The past is pushing him ahead and the future is creeping in on him. He has nowhere in time or space to escape. Death is the only place left to go. â€Å"Out, out brief candle!† Lady Macbeth’s candle has burnt out and soon his will also. Although he talks here about life being light (the candle flame), light is not desirable to him. He wants to extinguish it. Macbeth is at the point in his life where he is now trapped by his fate. The consequences of his actions have caught up with him. This may very well be why he has such a dreary outlook on life. Life is associated with light but Macbeth is at a state where he sees no significance in having lived. â€Å" Life’s but a walking shadow.† Macbeth is saying here that one’s life is dark and dreary, and that the light of life only serves to cast a dark shadow .

Bilingual Education Essay -- essays research papers

Bilingual Education = Unilingual Education Bilingual education in America is a sound idea, but it is not truly bilingual education, it is only bilingual for those who do not already speak English. America is a country with more and more cultures mixing together with different areas of America speaking different languages. In California, Spanish is the dominant language next to English, and in states such as Maine, French is spoken. Other cultures should not be assimilated into mainstream America completely, but America shouldn’t have to bend over backwards to make life easier for foreigners. In order to become more culturally tolerant, everyone should learn a second language, not just immigrants. Americans should make bilingual education truly bilingual. The first reason is to eliminate the effect bilingual education has on poor, non-English speaking children. In Richard Bernstein’s, â€Å"A War of Words† he says, â€Å"Advocates of bilingual education believe t hat it represents the best chance for non-English speaking children -- who, not so coincidentally, often come from lower-income groups – to enjoy the richness and opportunities of American life†, but he also writes, â€Å"†¦Bilingual education is a failure, a tactic that in the end will harm the chances of the generally poor, non-English speaking children ever having a equal share in the promise of American life.† By simply having everyone learn a second language eliminates the lines of income, and ethnic background. Truly bilingual education would also eliminate the psychological effects it has on non-English speaking children. When they are in a classroom filled with people who do not speak the same language they do, they are forced to feel alone because they can not perform at the same level as their peers, they feel there is something wrong with them, lower than everyone else. â€Å"’Empowering Minority Students’ does not argue that a chil d’s inability to speak English is what leads him to fail if he is put into an English classroom. Children fail†¦because they are made to feel ‘shame’ for belonging to a minority group, for not being a part of the dominant group. The only way to ‘empower’ such children†¦is for the teachers to ‘consciously challenge the power structure both in their classrooms and schools and in the society at large’ Bilingual education†¦is an ‘empowerment pedagogy.’ It is an act of rebellion again... ... who understands them. Which would suggest that these two ideas should go hand in hand. In order for a truly bilingual education system to work is to make sure that all teachers are fluent in both English and the language they will be teaching. Which means that there will be a demand for teachers that can speak either German, Italian, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish. Then there will be the demand to those who can speak the local languages. For example, Lakota is widely used on most Sioux reservations in the US, so many parents may want their children to learn Lakota instead of Chinese. More money will be needed to fund all of these language programs, since there will end up being course listings as: Third Grade English, Third Grade Spanish, Third Grade Italian etc†¦ There will also be uneven classroom sizes because many parents in California will want their children to learn Spanish resulting in a large Spanish class and a small Russian class, if any at all. The idea of a truly bilingual education system is still a lot more productive and beneficiary than the current bilingual system, but the truly bilingual system is, truthfully, utopian in nature. Word Count: 1184

Millenium Goals and Png

Millennium Development Goals 1. Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger * Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income, which is less than one dollar a day. * Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people * Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. 2. Achieve Universal Primary Education * Ensure that by 2015, all children everywhere will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling. . Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women * Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferable by 2005, and in all level of education by no later than 2015. 4. Reduce Child Mortality: * Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate. 5. Improve Maternal Health * Reduce by 3 quarters, between 1090 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio * Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health 6. Combat HIV/AIDs, Malaria and Other Diseas es Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDs * Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it * Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases 7. Ensure Environmental Sustainability * Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss * Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programmes and reverse the loss of environmental resources. Halve, by 2015 the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation * By 2020, to have achieved significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers. 8. Develop a Global Partnership for Development * Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system * Address the special needs of the least eveloped countries * Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States (through the Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States and the outcome of the twenty-second special session of the General Assembly) * Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term * In cooperation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable essential drugs in developing countries * In cooperation with the private sector, make available the benefits of new technologies, especially information and communications Is PNG on track to achieving the goals? Papua New Guinea is not on track to achieving any of the goals so far. Current status in accordance with national Government reporting says that the country is off track in achieving all of the goals, with goal number 8 having insufficient information to even make a judgment.