Compare and Contrast Calpurnia and Portia in Julius Ceasar essays

Compare and Contrast Calpurnia and Portia in Julius Ceasar essays Calpurnia and Portia are both important in Julius Caesar not just for what we know about them but what they tell us about their husbands. Calpurnia is the wife of Caesar. She invests a great deal of authority to omens and portents. One night she has a horrible dream, which she feels is the report of a bad omen. She warns Caesar against the Ides of March but he refuses and decides to go anyway. Calpurnia seems to be a very cautious person and worries a lot. Calpurnia seems to be very dependent like most women is that era. From the way Caesar ignores her warning, leads me to believe that she is not someone who is taken seriously. It also reveals that his wife like most leaders does not influence Caesar his decisions, but it is strictly his own ambition. Portia is the wife of Brutus is the daughter of a noble king who has taken the side against Caesar. Portia seems to be more independent than Calpurnia and Brutus finds it comfortable to confide in wife about his troubled day. Although Portia seems to be much less cautious, she does kill herself out of grief that Antony and Octavius have become so powerful. The most important aspect that the wives reveal about these two men is that although Brutus appears completely determined in his interactions with the conspirators, his inability to confess his thoughts to Portia signifies that he still harbors traces of doubt regarding the legitimacy of his plan. Portia is a represents Brutus private life, of correct intuition and morality, just as Calpurnia is for Caesar in the following scenes. Her husbands dismissal of her intuitions, like Caesars of Calpurnias, leads to his largest mistake; his decision to ignore his private feelings, loyalties, and misgivings for the sake of a plan that he believes to be for the public good. ...

Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston, and the First Spreadsheet

Dan Bricklin, Bob Frankston, and the First Spreadsheet Any product that pays for itself in two weeks is a surefire winner. That’s what Dan Bricklin, one of the inventors of the first computer spreadsheet. VisiCalc was released to the public in 1979. It ran on an Apple II computer. Most early microprocessor computers had been  supported by BASIC and a few games, but VisiCalc introduced a new level in application software. It was considered a fourth generation software program. Before this,  companies were investing time and money creating financial projections with manually calculated spreadsheets. Changing a single number meant recalculating every single cell on the sheet. VisiCalc allowed them to change any cell and the entire sheet would be automatically recalculated. VisiCalc took 20 hours of work for some people and turned it out in 15 minutes and let them become much more creative,† Bricklin said. The History of VisiCalc Bricklin and Bob Frankston invented VisiCalc. Bricklin was studying for his Master of Business Administration degree at Harvard Business School when he joined up with Frankston to help him write the programming for his new electronic spreadsheet. The two started their own company, Software Arts Inc., to develop their product. I dont know how to answer what it was like because early Apple machines had so few tools,† Frankston said about programming VisiCalc for the Apple II. â€Å"We just had to keep debugging by isolating a problem, looking at memory in the limited debugging – which was weaker than the DOS DEBUG and had no symbols – then patch and retry and then re-program, download and try again and  again...   An Apple II version was ready by the fall of 1979. The team started writing versions for the Tandy TRS-80, the Commodore PET and the Atari 800. By October, VisiCalc was a fast seller on the shelves of computer stores at $100.   In November 1981, Bricklin received the Grace Murray Hopper Award from the Association for Computing Machinery in honor of his innovation. VisiCalc was soon sold to Lotus Development Corporation where it was developed into the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet for the PC by 1983.  Bricklin never received a patent for VisiCalc because software programs were not eligible for patents by the Supreme Court until after 1981. Im not rich because I invented VisiCalc,† Bricklin said, â€Å"but I feel that Ive made a change in the world. Thats a satisfaction money cant buy.   Patents? Disappointed? Dont think of it that way, Bob Frankston said. Software patents werent feasible then so we chose not to risk $10,000.   More on Spreadsheets The DIF format was developed in 1980, allowing spreadsheet data to be shared and imported into other programs such as word processors. This made spreadsheet data more portable.   SuperCalc was introduced in 1980, the first spreadsheet for the popular micro OS called CP/M. The popular Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet was introduced in 1983. Mitch Kapor founded Lotus and used his previous programming experience with VisiCalc to create 1-2-3.   Excel and Quattro Pro spreadsheets were introduced in 1987, offering a more graphical interface.

Financial Results of Google Inc., Apple, and Yahoo Essay

Financial Results of Google Inc., Apple, and Yahoo - Essay Example This paper illustrates that Google Inc. revealed that in the third quarter of 2014 it generated revenues amounting to $16.5 billion. The site’s revenues were $11.2 billion, representing 68% of all the revenues. The company’s partner sites made $3.4 billion. Other revenues amounted to $1.84 billion in the last quarter of 2014. Google shares are currently valued at $528.34/ share (Google, 2014). Yahoo had a good third quarter of the year despite analysts’ projections. Revenues generated by the company amounted to $1.094 billion ex-TAC while the GAAP revenues were $1.14 billion in the same period. Mobile revenues alone were more than $200 million. Earning for each undiluted share was $0.52 per share. Currently, the market price of Yahoo shares is $49.94. The researcher’s predictions of the stock prices for the three companies may have been farfetched in the short run, however, in the long run, the prices seem plausible as the share prices are slightly below o r above the actual prices. The researcher’s projected value of Apple shares was $110; this was an inflated value compared to $103.30/share that the company closed the quarter with. This is also the case with the other two companies. The researcher’s projections for Yahoo and Google were $51 and $590 respectively. However, the two companies fell short of these projected values and instead posted $39.27 and $577.33 respectively, as of September 2014. If the author’s predictions were to be projected to two or three quarters, then they would be spot on for at least two companies. Take for example the share prices of Apple and Yahoo in this quarter ending December. Apple shares are retailing at $111.62/share while Yahoo shares are valued at $49.94. It is evident that Apple shares eclipsed my predictions by $1.62 dollars. Yahoo shares, on the other hand, did not meet the bar the author set and fell short by less than $2. However, this is not the case with Google Inc. The company’s market share value has unexpectedly dipped far below the author’s expectations.

Jazz Concert at Easter Washington University Essay

Jazz Concert at Easter Washington University - Essay Example This list ensured hthe rhythmical sound of jazz and classical music alternatively. Therefore, the group created an environment that entertained the attendants making some of them stand and dance to the low tone music. On the saxophones or woodwinds were Nick Rice, Max Thew, Jared McFalin, Koelynn Jones and Jacob Lorber. The trumpet part was played by Adam Gaulke, Jbackson Wesley, Tristan Dodson, and Connor Splichal. The trombones were played by Joe Boucher, Luke Brakhman, Luke Manasco, and Nathan Westlund. The band size was medium. One of the singers bared a heavy resemblance to some of the popular ancient jazz legends. He typically resembled Duke Ellington in the way he sang the song. He did the song in a manner that is exactly similar to the way Duke did most of his performances during his days. The dressing attire of the performers was long and white robe like clothes with bright linens at the neck of each performer (Plamondon). The attendance at the concert was beyond what I had imagined or seen in earlier concerts I attended. A large portion of the attendants were young people contrary to my expectation. I have .known young people in my country to be fanatics of popular romantic RnB and Rock music. There were also elderly people in the concert theatre. The singer who displayed a lot of emotion in the song attracted a lot attention of the attendants making them become more attentive to the words rather than the rhythm as they had been in the past hours. Analytically, the melody of the music played during the performance revealed a strange feature. At the beginning it looks more boring than the attendants expected. In fact, most of the attendants could not even shake their heads. Some said that they had wasted their money and will never attend such a concert. However, as the band played, there was a lot of improvements in melody. This attracted attention of the attendants who had earlier underrated the band making the rise to their feet. Harmony in the song involved simultaneous use of different pitches and chords making the song look non-rhythmical, in the making. The main chord used by the band was the 7th chord but it was alternated with the 9th producing irregular rhythmical pattern of the song. The tunes mainly appeared like those of blues music on hearing. This produced the syncopation of the song (Plamondon). The interference of the rhythmical patterns made the attendants get confused and watched as the performers enjoyed every bit of the song. Most of them danced as they played their instruments. This implies that they were aware of the rhythmical patterns of the song therefore were not affected by constant and songs abrupt change of rhythms as they performed. They swung their slim bodies responding to the songs while playing their instruments with passion. Some of them, especially the saxophonists bent as they played their instruments. The instrument produced a rhythm that exactly and beautifully rhymed with the tempo of the s ong. This made everybody in the hall applaud as they joined the singer. Those who knew the song enjoyed more than those who didn’t. Those who didn’t, including me, learnt from the crowd. It was like a surprise to me that I managed to cram and understand the song lyrics after the concert. The overall outlook

Research Proposal: Corporate Governance and Firm’s Performance

Research Proposal: Corporate Governance and Firm’s Performance Background and rationale of the study Corporate governance is a recent concept that encompasses many issues like internal control, rights and relation with stakeholders, social responsibility of the business, structure and role of the management committee, management transparency (refers to the disclosure of all reliable and relevant information) and accountability (refers to broader corporate objectives to manage the socio-economic resources efficiency) and the like. It also entails planning and strategic development of the company, day-to-day operation, and knowledge of the market and the sound understanding of the business itself. Precisely speaking, corporate governance is all about corporate practices to meet the corporate objectives. According to Byrnes et al. (2003), after the high profile scandals of Enron, WorldCom etc. corporate governance is imputed in the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This paper will try to find out the impact of corporate governance on firm performance. This paper will also try to show that be tter use of corporate governance help the firm to perform in an optimum level and if it is right better governed firm will have better performance than worse governed firm. Jensen and Meckling (1976); Fama and Jensen (1983); Shleifer and Vishny (1997) cited that, incentive has been given to the managers to confiscate the assets of the firm by taking profitable projects but this is much beneficiary to the managers than maximizing shareholders wealth. According to Shleifer and Vishny (1997), effective corporate governance control the awards given by the stakeholders and creditors and increase the profitability of the firm by investing in a positive net present value projects. Brown and Caylor (2004) argued that, regulators and governance advocates argue that in most of the cases stock price goes down because of poor governance and if this is right the market price of the well governed firm should be relatively high than poor governed firms. On the other hand by considering cash flow hypothesis Jensen (1986), says that shareholders expects cash flow via dividend payout but large free cash flow through dividend decrease the liquidity condition of the firm a nd this disables the firm to invest in the profitable projects and lower the profitability. Arnott and Asness (2003) finds that, better governed firm give more cash in dividend payout which also can be considered as firm performance. Moreover Bowen, Rajgopal, Venkatachalam (2008) found that, corporate governance also can be found from the accounting discretion, firm with weaker governance structure generally produce report with poorer future performance. According to Gompers, Ishii, and Metrick (2003), studying the impact of corporate governance on firm performance finds that, strong shareholders rights and returns of the firm outperform on risk-adjusted basis. This result indicates that corporate governance also can be measured or constructed from publicly available data. According to Klein, Shapiro and Young (2005), there are not any clear evidence that can suggest that better corporate governance will enhance the firms performance. One alternative way to measure firm performance is measuring the performance of companies with shareholders rights. Core, Guay and Rusticus (2004) said that, in current decade share returns of companies are strongly related with shareholders right companies with poor shareholders rights do not over perform in their performance. The companies which maintain strong shareholders right may not exhibited superior return on their performance. On the other hand, if the firms risk adjustment not done properly, corporate governance may correlate with unrecognizable risk factor(s). One other thing is that the relation between corporate governance and firm performance might be increase distrust about causality explanation. In most countries the common mechanism for determining collective action problems among shareholders partial ownership and control is given to the hand of large shareholders. In this situation two important forms of corporate governance need to be considered by the firm. First, there may be conflict among the shareholders with management against small investors; and secondly, the liquidity from secondary market will decrease. To boost the liquidity crisis of the stock market corporate law is enforced and which limits the power of the large shareholders of the company and also limit the violence of the minority shareholders. In this system generally the firms depends on the board of directors to maintaining and functioning the actions of the shareholders. Sometimes the actions of the board of directors become ineffective. Where the minority shareholders get better protection the interest of the mangers also become an issue of prudence. Finally, the primary goal of the corporate govern ance is to control the regulation of activity the shareholders and managers and made a check and balance to protect the interest of both shareholders and mangers. This paper will try to find out how corporate governance can help the firm to accelerate their performance. For doing so there lies a need for developing a measure to scale corporate governance practice of the firm and to allocate a governance score for each firm then calculation of the financial and economic performance by using governance score will become possible. This paper will also conduct a cross sectional analysis to relate firms performance with their corporate governance practices. Keywords Corporate Governance, Firm performance, Corporate Governance and Firm Performance. Problem of the study This paper will develop to find out the following problems: How corporate governance impact on firms performance? Why firms performance is influenced by corporate governance? When corporate governance influence firms performance? Aims The aim of this paper is to find the influence of corporate governance over firms performance. Objective of the study This research will be conduct to fulfill the following objectives: To measure the industry wise corporate governance practices. To find the impact of corporate governance with the firm performance. To measure the degree of performance influenced by corporate governance. To find out the major indicators of corporate governance. To find out the best practices of corporate governance. Literature Review The concept corporate governance actually gives an insight regarding the code of conduct of the companys business. Corporate Governance is the process by which companies are governed and held accountable to their owners. Corporate Governance is the whole system of managing and controlling a company. Many view corporate governance in the light of the long-run value creation of shareholders. Corporate Governance is the enhancement of the long-term shareholder value while at the same time protecting the interest of other shareholders. From this view, corporate governance focuses on structure and rules of the board of directors; the independent audit committee and control management. So, corporate governance is a pervasive concept, which basically tells about the corporate practices. This is such a concept encompassing the relations and rights of shareholders with the board and other stakeholders; effective risk management; management transparency and accountability to the stakeholders g roup and overall corporate practices that aims at meeting the corporate goals. OECD set few principles of corporate governance, which have been adopted by the member countries of the OCED. These principles are available in the web site: www.oecd.org. In summary, they include the following elements: The rights of shareholders: These include a set of rights including secure ownership of their shares, the rights to full disclosure of information, voting rights, participation in decisions on sale or modification of corporate assets including mergers and new share issues. The Equitable Treatment of Shareholders: Here the OCED is concerned with protecting minority shareholders rights by setting up systems that keep insiders, including managers and directors, from taking advantage of their roles. The Role of Stakeholders in Corporate Governance: the OCED recognizes that there are other stakeholders in companies in addition to stakeholders. Banks, bondholders and workers for example are important stakeholders in the way in which companies perform and make decisions. Disclosure and Transparency: The OCED also lays out a number of provisions for the disclosure and communication and key facts about the company ranging from financial details to governance structures including the board of directors and their remuneration. The Responsibilities to the Board: The guidelines provide a great deal of detail about the functions of the board in protecting the company, its shareholders, and its stakeholders. These include concerns about corporate strategy, risk, executive compensation and performance, as well as accounting and reporting systems. John, K. et.al. (1998) conducted a study to relate Corporate Governance with managerial risk-taking. The study showed how the investor protection environment affects corporate managers incentives to take value-enhancing risks. It suggested that the manager chooses higher perk consumption when investor protection is low and vice versa. Lower investor protection is associated with conservative investment policy and least firm growth. Finally the authors suggested that the corporate risk-taking and firm growth rates are positively related to the quality of investor protection (whether the investment generated by the firm is used is a safe and secured way). This situation indicates that a risk-taking firms growth rate is higher than the less risk-taking firm so find out the concerns towards the investors it is necessary to calculate that whether the firm is taking much risk for increasing its growth, which may arise adverse situation for the investor by decreasing the protection of the i nvestment. According to John and Senbet (1998), a common belief is that boards of directors are become more independent as the number of outsider director increases. Though, Fosberg (1989), found no relation of firm performance with the outsider directors, he rather emphasis on other variables like SGA expenses, sales, return on equity and number of employees. Hermalin and Wrisbach (1991) also dont find any association between the number of independent directors and firm performance. In 2002 Bhagat and Black became unable to find any relationship between the numbers of outsider directors. But in contrast Baysinger and Butler (1985) and Rosenstein and Wyatt (1990) find rewards for the firm for appointing outsider directors. Anderson, Mansi and Reeb (2004) showed that, the cost of debt is inversely related with the independence of the board of directors. According to Brickley, Coles and Terry (1994), there are a positive linkage between the number of outsider directors and stock market response. Bhagat and Bolton (2007) argued that, better governance can be measured by GIM and BCF indices, stock owned by the board of directors, performance of CEO etc. Lipton and Lorsch (1992); Jensen (1993) argued in their evidence that, it is believed by some people that limiting the board size of the firm will have impact in the performance of the firm because increase number of the board members will increase the monitoring, communication and decision making ability. On the other hand Yermack (1996) found an inverse relationship between board size and profitability, asset utilization and Tobins Q. Board of director plays a vital role in the firm performance. As they divide their duties and responsibilities so increase in the number of directors make the responsibilities and duties more narrowed, so if the number of director increases the firms performance should be increased. On other side if the firm appoint experienced CEO or director in the firm it have a positive impact on the stock price of the firm which reflects the practice of good corporate governance has a positive impact on firms performance. According to Bhagat and Bolton (2008), Corporate governance has the authority to make any modification or change in any important decisions including investment policy, management compensation policy, boards decision etc. so it becomes easier for the firm to monitor and implement their activities efficiently by practicing good corporate governance this will help the firm to increase its overall performance. A negative relationship has been found by Klein (2002), between audit committee independence and earnings management. Whereas Anderson et al. (2004) documented that firm with self-governing audit committee has low debt financing costs. Frankel, Johnson and Johnson (2002) show an inverse relationship with the firm earnings management and the independence of the audit committee. On the other hand, Ashbaugh, Lafond and Mayhew (2003) and Larcker and Richardson (2004) show disagreement about the inverse relationship between firm earnings management and independence of the auditor in th eir evidence. Bhagat and Bolton (2008) provided some evidence to associate the relationship between audits related governance factors and firm performance: Audit committee those are solely independent are positively related with dividend yield but not related with firms operating performance or valuation; Annual meetings held by the firm are not related with the performance; Consulting fees and audit fees paid to the auditors are negatively related with the firms performance measurement; Company policy for rotating auditors are positively related with the return on equity but not related with any other performance factors. As audit committee plays an important role for establishing and implementing firms investment policy, compensation policy and other management decision the role of audit committee influence the firms performance. The performance of audit committee can vary due to various factors such as audit fees, independence of the committee etc. as Bhagat and Bolton (2008) finds several audit related governance factors but this area needs further research to find out the exact situation. Gompers, Ishii, and Metrick (2003) introduced a corporate governance measure which is equal weighted index of 24 corporate governance factors, these factors are gathered by the Investor Responsibility Research Center (IRRC), those are, classified boards, golden parachutes, poison pills, cumulative voting supermajority rules for selecting and approving managers. Whereas, Brown and Caylor (2004) created their corporate governance index through the use of Institutional Shareholder Service (ISS) data. Hermalin and Weisbach (1998, 2003); Bhagat, Carey and Elson (1999); Brickley, Coles and Jarrell (1997) states that, board independence, stock ownership of board members and whether CEO and Chairman are individual person etc. are considered as a importance characteristics of corporate governance. Brown and Caylor (2004) identified 52 factors for considering corporate governance practice of the firms where Gompers, Ishii, and Metrick (2003) considers 24 factors for measuring corporate charter position and board characteristics. According to Bhagat and Bolton (2008) management compensation features, board characteristics, and corporate charter position creates the personality of firms corporate governance while creating the corporate governance index these factors need to be weighted otherwise it will become unable to give optimum result. If the weight are not equally weighted the relationship between the corporate governance and firm performance will give an unrealistic result with incorrect inferences between the relation of corporate governance and firm performance. While selecting the factors for creating the governance score it must be consider that the factors need to be available for all kinds of firms from different industry, otherwise the result may become bias. On the other hand if the researcher did not find weighted average the outcome of the study becomes questionable so for making the evidence more reliable it is necessary to find out the weighted average o f the governance score. Some variables of measuring corporate governance can be motivated by incentive-based economic models of managerial behavior. This model can fall into two categories. First one is agency model, in this model the interest of managers are take into action as a result it becomes costly for the shareholders. In this model shareholders become unable to observe the behavior of the managers directly, but sometimes ownership are given to the managers to reduce this type of action and use the resources for the best interest of the shareholders. This problem is cited by Grossman and Hart in 1983. Another model is adverse situation model; this model is motivated by the hypothesis of differential ability which also cannot be observed by the firms shareholders. In this model the power of managers is control to reduce the use of cash flow for the private benefit or managers personal information cannot be used to control the firms cash flow. This model is provided by Mayerson (1987). From the above situation it is clear that sometimes corporate governance is controlled by the relationship between managers and shareholders and in this case managers behaviors and ability are directly associated with the firms performance. Berle and Means (1932), find the impact of the cost of the shareholders ownership, they found a positive relationship with ownership structure and firm performance. However, Demsetz (1983) argued that, if we scrutinize the success factors of the public companies with diffused share ownership we will see clear offsetting benefits of the shareholders. Other factors that may impact of the firm performance are performance based compensation and insider information which should be determined through ownership. For example, if the performance of the firm increase the value of the stock and the managers owned some ownership, it will increase the value of their ownership this incentive will help the firm to preserve the interest of both shareholders and managers by boosting the performance of the firm. Hypothesis This research will focus on following hypothesis: H1: Company with good Corporate Governance has a better operating performance. H2: Company with poor Corporate Governance has a poor operating performance. Methodology of the study Research method To fulfill the objectives of this paper and find out the relationship of corporate governance with firm performance both qualitative and quantitative method of research will be used. The main objective of this paper is to find out the relationship between corporate governance and firm performance and to find out the degree of influence of corporate governance on the firm performance to find out this evidences researcher need to go through an exploratory research. Some case studies also will be analyzed and discussed to find out the actual position and this will make this research more realistic. This paper will try to develop a governance measure (governance score) to find out the degree of corporate governance practiced and also identify some factors to measure the performance of the firm and score them with a relevant range. Governance score will be composite measure of about 50 factors which will encircling on several corporate governance categories like audit committee, board of directors, executive and directors compensation, compensation policy for the managers, industry, progressive practices, directors education, charter/ bylaws etc. Then researcher will do a cross sectional analysis between governance score and firm performance score. For measuring operating performance Tobins Q, GIM, return on equity, profit margin, sales growth, and other financial measurements will be used. Data collection This paper will create a summary metric of the governance score to measure the strength of the firms governance. Researcher will collect data related with corporate governance and firm performance from the annual report and publicly available information sources mostly researcher will depend on the secondary sources for preparing this report; though researcher will try to collect data from the reliable sources like stock exchange, annual report, magazine etc. This paper will take a large number of individual firms as my sample for this studies thus it will reflect real phenomena. This paper will take data for measuring firm performance for the 2009 fiscal year end. Sampling The population for this report will be listed companies in the London stock exchange. The researcher will take at least fifty companies as sample from five different industries they are automobiles and parts, banks, beverages, food producers, and electronic and electrical equipment. The companies will be chosen randomly. Scope of the study This paper will try to find out how good corporate governance practices impact on the firm performance. This paper will contribute on the literature on the following way: first, the role of the board of the directors plays on the performance of the firm. For example: the numbers of independent directors or dependent director can play a role in the governance and also contribute on the performance of the firm. This may varied from industry to industry so researcher will took a descriptive analysis on the following matter, for collecting the evidence on the following matter GIM, and Tobins Q will play a great role. This paper will also find out the variables that may impact on the performance related with this topic. Secondly, researcher will try to find out the better incentive policy given to the manager stock option or cash dividend which will be more effective to protect the right of the stockholder as well as boosting the performance of the firm. The performance of the firm can be measured in various ways this paper will focus on the financial performance and the right of the stockholder in measuring the performance of the firm. Thirdly, this paper will come with the functioning of the audit committee; audit committee plays a vital role on the both in the corporate governance practices of the firma and the firm performance. Compensation given to the internal and external audit committee also has impact on the firm performance do find out these impacts an explanatory research will be conducted. Finally, researcher will come with the degree of corporate governance practices with the firm performance. This paper will find out extent of the impact of the corporate governance with the firm performance. Concluding remarks Corporate governance plays a vital role to balance between the economic and social goals and between individual and communal goals. The governance framework is very much important to boosting up the performance of the firm and to protect the interest of the stockholders. Because it ensures the efficient use of resources, make the management accountable and ensures the best benefit of all the parties. As a result corporate governance has impact on the overall performance of the firm because it control most of the performance factors and the good practices of corporate governance will allow the firm to protect the interest of the stockholders.

Integrating oral communication skills

The article I chose deals about the lack of practice in speaking skill in language teaching, and although it refers to Chinese schools, I found it relevant because the situations it refers to are very similar to the ones we face in most of the schools in our country. Since a very powerful motivation to learn a second language is to be able to converse with speakers of that language, speaking seems to be the most important skill to be developed.Although, it is also a huge challenge if we take into count on the one hand, the different micro-skills that learners need to manage, which vary from pronunciation of unfamiliar words to the appropriate use of formal and informal expressions. Furthermore, the very limited chances that students have to speak English outside the classroom make things harder for them. INTEGRATING ORAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS. Having a more integrated approach ensuring enough practice in oral communication by including speaking into reading and writing lessons, would be an appropriate option, which would hopefully offer important benefits.Student's acquisition of English could be improved by taking advantage of some interesting topics for reading and writing, which would provide a chance to discuss and test their language. In order to reach this goal, teachers are expected to go beyond the traditional courses and integrate different skills during their lessons. READING TO SPEAK. The activities presented here can helps students notice the difference between what they want to say and what they can really say, and maybe make them focus their attention on meaning first and on form later, and can be used both for intensive ND extensive reading classes. Reading to act. This in an activity in which students act out a story they have Just read, being encouraged to make as many changes as they want to the plot and dialogues, and it is organized as follows: Divide the class into small groups and assign each one a director to organize rehearsals. Students scan the story focusing on how to express it through their acting. They have a first rehearsal relying only on their memories. They scan the story again, searching for some variations and take some notes that an be used for the second rehearsal.A contest is held to determine who offered the best performance. An acting project helps to achieve four-skill integration and makes the reading task much more interesting. 2. – Reading to debate. Students are required to select an article containing a controversial issue which they can discuss about. The activity is organized as follows: Students are formed by pairs and agree on which position they will take. They scan the text without taking notes and debate about it, using quotes to support their arguments.They scan the text again, searching for useful expressions and ideas to support their position. Note taking is allowed so later they can participate in the debate by small groups or as a whole class, being encouraged to personaliz e their comments. This activity can improve student's understanding of the issue and helps them to defend their point of view about it. 3. – Reading to interview. This activity is a lot more flexible and can include texts of different genres and it is organized as follows: Students scan the text to get all the ideas they can.They form pairs with the roles of interviewer and interviewee. The first one has to ask questions related which can be answered using facts from the reading. They check the text again looking for further questions which can be noted down this time. They switch roles or find new partners if they want to and perform the interview again. A competition is held to decide on the pair who best represented the text. This activity provides students with an opportunity to orally express what they got from a text.

Anonymity on the Internet Essays - 1488 Words

Anonymity on the Internet Would you rather learn about someone via Internet interactions or face to face? I have noticed increased shadiness when it comes to identifying one’s self on the internet, whether it be on a dating site, in email, through posting on Blogger-type sites, or in instant messaging. There seems to be two different types of people out there, those who are suspicious and those that just don’t seem to care about who read their stuff. This is problematic in many ways. First off, there is the feeling of anonymity and that no one will really know who they are or what they are doing on the web, for example, adults that pose as teens to hopefully seduce a naà ¯ve boy or girl, or married/attached individuals that are†¦show more content†¦So many people use online dating sites to find a mate, but how can you know what other person is telling you is accurate? On the other end of the spectrum, many people, namely, another friend of mine, Georgia (name has been changed) who doesn’t care who sees what she posts on Blogger and LiveJournal and just pours herself out. Personally, I find this a bit unsettling, as I think some details should just be kept to ones self! Perhaps this is part of the demise of the private individual. Because I am suspicious of others, I would never find myself spilling hugely personal details about my life online, however, I can see how those people use the Internet as a sounding board, like a therapist of sorts, or a place to vent and unload emotional baggage. I highly doubt that this will lead to the falling out of the therapist profession, as a cold and non-responsive computer screen cannot replace real people. This seems to also lead to a double life thing, and this is perfectly dangerous. You’d never know John Doe who never cheats on his taxes or misses a Sunday congregation spends his afternoon chatting with pre-teen girls, as if he was a pre-teen boy, trying to get them to meet him at the McDonalds in the next city so he can rape and murder them. Scary! Nor would John Doe know that the innocent and naà ¯ve girl he is chatting with is a burly FBI agent just waiting in the wings to catch such aShow MoreRelatedOnline Anonymity On The Internet1880 Words   |  8 PagesIntroduction Anonymity refers to the state of being unknown to most people, while anonymity on the internet refers to any interaction a user has that protects their identity or personal information from being shared with others online. It is mentioned in a source that anonymity has both its pros and cons, and in some cases may appeal to certain people where it does not appeal to others (Anonymity on the Internet). The issue of online anonymity is becoming increasingly important and ubiquitousRead More Sensible Anonymity on the Internet Essay1558 Words   |  7 PagesSensible Anonymity on the Internet Abstract: This paper is an analysis of the anonymity of Internet users. Specifically, what are the benefits and disadvantages created by anonymity on the Internet, and how can the disadvantages be lessened without adversely affecting the benefits? The rapid growth of the Internet’s popularity is staggering. In 1990 few people outside the research community knew of it, and today it is estimated that there are more than 300 million Internet users worldwideRead More Internet Essay - Online Anonymity and Cyberspace Crime2064 Words   |  9 PagesOnline Anonymity and Cyberspace Crime The 90s internet boom gave rise to new ways of writing in through access to cyberspace. 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