Intro and conclusion for TVR journal entries Essay

Intro and conclusion for TVR journal entries - Essay Example ed to be completely objective as the nature of the term â€Å"journal entries† implies that I am given license to explore avenues of a personal kind as well. My journal entries for the book Mass Media in a Changing World by George Rodman are a personal account of my feelings about the Mass Media and how I feel it has affected the world around me. It is not an objective analysis of the chapters, rather a personal viewpoint with regard being given to latest issues and research. I have not tried to merely pick out scenarios from personal life, but have illustrated examples that most of the people can identify and relate with. Anyone reading the journal entries will not necessary get to know what the book itself contains, but rather s/he will gain an insight into how I, personally, feel about the Mass Media. I have enjoyed writing these journal entries a lot; they have made me learn new things along with reinforcing my beliefs about the Mass Media. Before reading the book and writing these entries, I believed Mass Media to be a two edged sword; not completely good or bad, engaging in these activities has reinforced these beliefs of mine. It is evident to me that the effect the Media has on us depends on the way it is used; when used for the good, it gives positive results and when used badly, it gives negative results. However, I also learned that there is no fine line between wrong and right in the Media and sometimes it is hard to establish what â€Å"ethical† exactly is in a given situation, however, I do hope that with the development of the Media, these ethical dilemmas can be solved and the Media can develop into a strong, positive factor in our lives. I have gained quite a bit of insight through writing these journal entries. I have learned that though the Mass Media is a positive tool when it comes to knowledge and information, it can, and often is, used negatively and focuses on the unusual and sensational. Mostly when corporations are involved, economic

A Review on Reading Theories and Its Implication to the Teaching of Reading Essay Example for Free

A Review on Reading Theories and Its Implication to the Teaching of Reading Essay Abstract Opini dan masukan untuk peningkatan pengajaran membaca kepada pembelajar bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa asing, baik yang didasarkan pada hasil penelitian maupun pengalaman, tersedia sangat banyak dalam kepustakaan pengajaran bahasa. Tulisan ini merupakan sebuah rangkuman atas berbagai teori, temuan dan pendapat tentang pengajaran membaca. Pemahaman terhadap topik-topik tersebut, terutama tentang teori top-down, bottom-up, dan meta-cognitive, diharapkan dapat dijadikan landasan untuk meningkatkan teknik pengajaran membaca. Dengan demikian, kemahiran membaca para pembelajar bahasa Inggris sebagai bahasa asing dapat ditingkatkan secara signifikan. Kata Kunci: top-down, bottom-up, schemata, meta-cognitive, pre-reading, during-reading, after-reading Introduction Among the four language skills, reading is possibly the most extensively and intensively studied by experts in the field of language teaching. The results of the researches conducted for many decades on nature of reading—how people learn to process textual information—have contributed contrasting theories about what works best in the teaching of reading. As a result, language educators can choose among a wide variety of teaching methods and techniques for students learning to read in their second language (SL) or foreign language (FL). For students who are learning a SL/FL reading is the most crucial skill to master due to several reasons. First, students can usually perform at a higher level in reading than in any other skills. They can quite accurately understand written materials that they could not discuss orally or in writing with equivalent accuracy or thoroughness. Such condition will undoubtedly enhance their motivation to learn. Second, reading necessitates very minimum requirements. Different from speaking which requires opportunities to interact with sparring partner, or from writing which needs a lot of guidance and time to practice, reading necessitates only a text and motivation. Third, reading is a service skill. After learning how to read effectively, students will be able to learn effectively by reading. Realizing how crucial reading is for our students, we can see the great importance of developing their reading ability. To achieve it, we should improve our reading lessons by implementing the best method and techniques provided by theories. This article aims to describe principal theories of reading and examine some tips and guidelines for implementing a theory of reading which will help us develop our learners abilities. Theories of Reading So far, there are three main theories which explain the nature of learning to read. First, the traditional theory, or bottom up processing, which focused on the printed form of a text. (2) the cognitive view, or top-down processing enhanced the role of background knowledge in addition to what appeared on the printed page. Third, the metacognitive view, which is based on the control and manipulation that a reader can have on the act of comprehending a text, and thus, emphasizes the involvement of the reader’s thinking about what he is doing while reading. 1. The traditional bottom-up view. The traditional bottom-up approach to reading was influenced by behaviorist psychology of the 1950s, which claimed learning was based upon â€Å"habit formation, brought about by the repeated association of a stimulus with a response† and language learning was characterized as a â€Å"response system that humans acquire through automatic conditioning processes,† where â€Å"some patterns of language are reinforced (rewarded) and others are not,† and â€Å"only those patterns reinforced by the community of language users will persist† (Omaggio 1993, 45-46). Behaviorism became the basis of the audio-lingual method, which sought to form second language â€Å"habits† through drilling, repetition, and error correction. Today, the main method associated with the bottom-up approach to reading is known as phonics, which requires the learner to match letters with sounds in a defined sequence. According to this view, reading is a linear process by which readers decode a text word by word, linking the words into phrases and then sentences (Gray and Rogers, cited in Kucer 1987). According to Samuels and Kamil (1988: 25),  the emphasis on behaviorism treated reading as a word-recognition response to the stimuli of the printed words, where â€Å"little attempt was made to explain what went on within the recesses of the mind that allowed the human to make sense of the printed page†. In other words, textual comprehension involves adding the meanings of words to get the meanings of clauses (Anderson 1994). These lower level skills are connected to the visual stimulus, or print, and are consequently concerned with recognizing and recalling. Like the audio-lingual teaching method, phonics emphasizes on repetition and on drills using the sounds that make up words. Information is received and processed beginning with the smallest sound units, and proceeded to letter blends, words, phrases, and sentences. Thus, novice readers acquire a set of hierarchically ordered sub-skills that sequentially build toward comprehension ability. Having mastered these skills, readers are viewed as experts who comprehend what they read. The bottom-up model describes information flow as a series of stages that transforms the input and passes it to the next stage without any feedback or possibility of later stages of the process influencing earlier stages (Stanovich, 1980). In other words, language is viewed as a code and the reader’s main task is to identify graphemes and convert them into phonemes. Consequently, readers are regarded as passive recipients of information in the text. Meaning resides in the text and the reader has to reproduce it. The ESL and EFL textbooks influenced by this perspective include exercises that focus on literal comprehension and give little or no importance to the reader’s knowledge or experience with the subject matter, and the only interaction is with the basic building blocks of sounds and words. Most activities are based on recognition and recall of lexical and grammatical forms with an emphasis on the perceptual and decoding dimension. This model of reading has almost always been under attack as being insufficient and defective for the main reason that it relies on the formal features of the language, mainly words and structure. Although it is possible to accept this rejection for the fact that there is over-reliance on structure in this view, it must be confessed that knowledge of linguistic features is also necessary for comprehension to take place. To counteract over-reliance on form in the traditional view of reading, the cognitive view was introduced. 2. The Cognitive View (top-down processing) In the 1960s a paradigm shift occurred in the cognitive sciences. Behaviorism became somewhat discredited as the new cognitive theory represented the mind’s innate capacity for learning, which gave new explanatory power to how humans acquired their first language; this also had a tremendous impact on the field of ESL/EFL as psycholinguists explained â€Å"how such internal representations of the foreign language develop within the learner’s mind† (Omaggio, 1993: 57). Ausubel (cited in Omaggio, 1993: 58), made an important distinction between meaningful learning and rote learning. An example of rote learning is simply memorizing lists of isolated words or rules in a new language, where the information becomes temporary and subject to loss. Meaningful learning, on the other hand, occurs when new information is presented in a relevant context and is related to what the learner already knows, so that it can be easily integrated into one’s existing cognitive structure. A learning that is not meaningful will not become permanent. This emphasis on meaning eventually informed the top-down approach to L2 learning, and in the 1960s and 1970s there was an explosion of teaching methods and activities that strongly considered the experience and knowledge of the learner. These new cognitive and top-down processing approaches revolutionized the conception of the way students learn to read (Smith, 1994). In this view, reading is not just extracting meaning from a text but a process of connecting information in the text with the knowledge the reader brings to the act of reading. In this sense, reading is a dialogue between the reader and the text which involves an active cognitive process in which the reader’s background knowledge plays a key role in the creation of meaning (Tierney and Pearson, 1994). Reading is not a passive mechanical activity but purposeful and rational, dependent on the prior knowledge and expectations of the reader. It is not merely a matter of decoding print to sound but also a matter of making sense of written language (Smith, 1994: 2). In short, reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game, a process in which readers sample the text, make hypotheses, confirm or reject them, make new hypotheses, and so forth. Schema Theory Another theory closely related to top-down processing called schema theory also had a major impact on reading instruction. It describes in detail how  the background knowledge of the learner interacts with the reading task and illustrates how a student’s knowledge and previous experience with the world is crucial to deciphering a text. The ability to use this schemata, or background knowledge, plays a fundamental role in one’s trial to comprehend a text. Schema theory is based on the notion that past experiences lead to the creation of mental frameworks that help a reader make sense of new experiences. Smith (1994: 14) calls schemes the â€Å"extensive representations of more general patterns or regularities that occur in our experience†. For instance one’s generic scheme of an airplane will allow him to make sense of airplane he has not previously flied with. This means that past experiences will be related to new experiences, which may include the knowledge of â€Å"objects, situations, and events as well as knowledge of procedures for retrieving, organizing and interpreting information† (Kucer, 1987: 31). Anderson (1994: 469) presents research showing that recall of information in a text is affected by the reader’s schemata and explains that â€Å"a reader comprehends a message when he is able to bring to mind a schema that gives account of the objects and events described in the message†. Comprehension is the process of â€Å"activating or constructing a schema that provides a coherent explanation of objects and events mentioned in a discourse† (Anderson, 1994: 473). For Anderson and Pearson (1988: 38), comprehension is the interaction between old and new information. They emphasize: â€Å"To say that one has comprehended a text is to say that she has found a mental ‘home’ for the information in the text, or else that she has modified an existing mental home in order to accommodate that new information†. Therefore, a learner’s schemata will restructure itself to accommodate new information as that information is added to the system (Omaggio, 1993). Content and formal schemata. Schema theorists differentiate formal schemata (knowledge about the structure of a text) from content schemata (knowledge about the subject matter of a text), and a reader’s prior knowledge of both schemata enables him to predict events and meaning as well as to infer meaning from a wider context. Formal schemata refers to the way that texts differ from one another; for example, a reading text could be a fictional work, a letter to the editor, or a scientific essay, and each genre will have a different structural organization. Knowledge of these genre structures can aid reading comprehension, as it gives readers a basis for predicting what a text will be like (Smith 1994). For example, if a reader knows that the typical format of a research article consists of sections subtitled Introduction, Theoretical Basis, Methods, Results, Discussion, and Conclusion, that knowledge will facilitate their interaction with the article and boost comprehension. On the other hand, if he is not familiar with this formal schema, teaching it to him could lead to improved reading ability with lasting and beneficial effects. Content schemata refers to the message of the text. One’s familiarity with the content will make more productive and efficient. As Anderson (1994: 469) explains, â€Å"a reader comprehends a message when he is able to bring to mind a schema that gives account of the objects and events described in the message†. Activating and building schemata Since the reader plays a fundamental role in the construction of meaning, his age, gender, experience, and culture are important considerations for teachers who want to select readings that will motivate their students. Anderson (1994) notes that when readers cannot locate a schema that fits a text, they may find it incomprehensible. In some cases readers may not have a schema that is significant to the text, or they may need help to activate the pertinent schema to be able to comprehend the text. In such cases it may not be possible for the reader to understand the text, and the teacher must be ready to engage in â€Å"building new background knowledge as well as activating existing background knowledge† (Carrell, 1988: 248). In parallel with this, Bransford (1994) points out that difficulties in comprehension may be caused by the lack of background knowledge presumed by the text, and he sees the responsibility of instructors as being twofold: to activate preexisting schemata and to help students to integrate isolated â€Å"parcels† of knowledge into a schema or to build a new one. If the texts to be read contain a cultural context that is different from the student’s, the issues of formal and content schemata become even more important. McDonough (1995), explains that, to a higher extent, this is the reason why ESL and EFL students find it difficult to read in a second language with texts that contain cultural assumptions of the target culture. They may lack the culture-specific background knowledge necessary to process the text in a top-down manner. His reports on several studies demonstrate how people outside a given culture may misunderstand events with unfamiliar cultural connotations. (Students from different cultural backgrounds taking standardized tests which assume common schemata for will also face the same problem.) Applying schema theory to L2 reading Based on the aforementioned ideas, it is obvious that in order to teach reading effectively, the teacher’s role to activate and build schemata is paramount. To achieve it, he should in advance select texts that are relevant to the students’ needs, preferences, individual differences, and cultures in order to provide meaningful texts so the students understand the message, which entails activating existing schemata and helping build new schemata. Then, after selecting the text, he needs to do the following three stages of activities to activate and build the students’ schemata. (1) Pre-reading activities, in which the teacher have students think, write, and discuss everything they know about the topic, employing techniques such as prediction, semantic mapping, and reconciled reading. The objective is to make sure that students have the relevant schema for understanding the text. (2) During-reading activities, in which the teacher guide and monitor the interaction between the reader and the text. One important skill teachers can impart at this stage is note-taking, which allows students to compile new vocabulary and important information and details, and to summarize information and record their reactions and opinions. (3)Post-reading activities which facilitate the chance to evaluate students’ adequacy of interpretation, while bearing in mind that accuracy is relative and that â€Å"readership† must be respected as long as the writer’s intentions are addressed (Tierney and Pearson, 1994). Post-reading activities focus on a wide range of questions that allow for different interpretations. While schema activation and building can occur in all three stages, the pre-reading stage deserves special attention since it is here, during the students’ initial contact with the text, where their schemata will be activated. Pre-reading activities Pre-reading activities is aimed to activate existing schemata, build new schemata, and provide information to the teacher about what the students know. In their report on the positive effect various pre-reading activities had on reading comprehension, Chen and Graves (1995, 664), define them as â€Å"devices for bridging the gap between the text’s content and the reader’s schemata†. Various activities and materials can help the teacher introduce key vocabulary and reinforce concept association to activate both formal and content schemata. Formal schemata will be activated by employing devices such as advance organizers and overviews to draw attention to the structure of a text. The content schemata will be activated by using various pre-reading activities to help learners brainstorm and predict how the information fits in with their previous knowledge. One of the most important pre-reading activities proposed by schematic theorists is prediction. According to Goodman (1988: 16), prediction is important because â€Å"the brain is always anticipating and predicting as it seeks order and significance in sensory inputs†. Smith (1994, 19–20) defines prediction as â€Å"the prior elimination of unlikely alternatives†. According to him, predictions are questions the readers ask the world and comprehension is receiving the answers. He emphasizes that it is prediction that makes skilled readers effective when reading texts that contain familiar subject matter. â€Å"Prediction brings potential meaning to texts, reducing ambiguity and eliminating in advance irrelevant alternatives. Thus, we are able to generate comprehensible experience from inert pages of print† (Smith 1994, 18). Another pre-reading activity is previewing, where students look at titles, headings, and pictures, and read the first few paragraphs and the last paragraph; these activities can then help students understand what the text is about by activating their formal and content schemata and making them familiar with the topic before they begin reading in earnest. Semantic mapping is another pre-reading activity that Carrell, Pharis, and Liberto (1989: 651) describe as a useful way to pre-teach vocabulary and to â€Å"provide the teacher with an assessment of the students’ prior knowledge or schema availability on the topic†. This activity asks students to brainstorm about the reading topic as the information is displayed on a graphic â€Å"map. † As students make associations, the map becomes a thorough summary of the concepts and vocabulary that they will encounter in the reading. It can also help build schemata and vocabulary that students do not yet possess. Again, it is important to know something about the students so the selected texts contain the type of material that is likely to be familiar and interesting to them. Reutzel (1985) proposes another type of pre-reading activity called reconciled reading lesson, which reverses the sequence presented by many textbooks where the text is followed by questions. Instead, the teacher develops pre-reading questions from the questions that appear at the end of the reading. Smith (1994) criticizes comprehension exercises presented at the end of a reading because they are like memory tests. He argues that using prior knowledge efficiently contributes to fluent readers, and he believes that there is a reciprocal relationship between visual and non-visual (prior knowledge) information; the more the readers have of the latter, the less they need of the former. Although not all the post-reading questions can be easily turned into pre-reading ones, this strategy can be invaluable to activate schemata. 3. The metacognitive view According to Block (1992), there is now no more debate on whether reading is a bottom-up, language-based process or a top-down, knowledge-based process. It is also no more problematic to accept the influence of background knowledge on readers. Research has gone even further to define the control executed by readers on their trial to understand a text. This control is what Block has referred to as meta-cognition. In the context of reading, meta-cognition involves thinking about what one is doing while reading. Strategic readers do not only sample the text, make hypotheses, confirm or reject them, and make new hypotheses while reading. They also involve many activities along the process of reading, whose stages can be divided into three, i.e. before reading, while reading, and after reading. The activities the readers involve before reading are to identify the purpose of the reading, identify the form or type of the text. In the second stage (while reading), they think about the general character and features of the form or type of the text—such as trying to locate a topic sentence and follow supporting details toward a conclusion, project the authors purpose for writing the text, choose, scan, or read in detail, make continuous  predictions about what will occur next based on information obtained earlier, prior knowledge, and conclusions obtained within the previous stages. Finally, in the last stage, they attempt to form a summary, conclude, or make inference of what was read. Guidelines for Effective Teaching of Reading After discussing the ideas and concepts presented in the three reading theories, we are now on the position of arranging tips and guidelines for implementing a theory of reading which will help to develop our learners abilities. These tips are arranged in three sections which are parallel with the three consecutive reading stages: before reading, during reading, and after reading. Pre-Reading Tips Before the actual act of reading a text begins, some points should be regarded in order to make the process of reading more comprehensible. First, teachers need to make sure that the texts to read contain words and grammatical structures familiar to the learners. If the texts contain unfamiliar vocabulary, teachers can introduce key vocabulary in pre-reading activities that focus on language awareness, such as finding synonyms, antonyms, derivatives, or associated words. Second, teachers should make sure that the topics of texts chosen are in accordance with the age range, interests, sex, and background culture of the students for whom they are intended. If they are not, it is necessary to provide the necessary background information to the reader to facilitate comprehension. This activity could be carried out by letting the class members brainstorm ideas about the meaning of a title or an illustration and discuss what they know. The followings are some activities teacher can use during the pre-reading stage. These activities will not take a very long time to carry out. However, they are very effective in overcoming the common urge to start reading a text closely right away from the beginning. 1. Teacher-directed pre-reading, in which some key vocabulary, ideas in the text, and the type of the text are explained. In this approach the teacher directly explains the information the students will need, including key concepts, important vocabulary, and appropriate conceptual framework. The text types are also necessary to introduce because texts may take on different forms and hold certain pieces of information in different places. The students’ familiarity with the types of the text they are reading will develop their understanding of the layout of the material. Such familiarity will, in turn, enable them to focus more deeply on the parts that are more densely compacted with information. Even paying attention to the year of publication of a text, if applicable, may aid the reader in presuppositions about the text as can glancing at the name of the author. 2. Interactive activities, in which the teacher leads a discussion in which he/she draws out the information students already have and interjects additional information deemed necessary to an understanding of the text to be read. Moreover, the teacher can make explicit links between prior knowledge and important information in the text. 3. Reflective activities, in which students are guided to make themselves aware of the purpose and goal for reading a certain piece of written material. At the beginning stages this can be done by the teacher, but as the reader becomes more mature this strategy can be left to the readers. For instance, the students may be guided to ask themselves, Why am I reading this text? What do I want to do or know after finished reading this? Being aware of their purpose and goal to read, later—in during reading activities—they can determine what skill(s) to employ: skimming, scanning, reading for details, or critical reading. During-reading tips The activities carried out in during-reading stage consist of taking notes, reacting, predicting, selecting significant information, questioning the writer’s position, evaluating, and placing a text within one’s own experience. These processes may be the most complex to develop in a classroom setting, the reason being that in English reading classes most attention is often paid to dictionaries, the text, and the teacher. The followings are tips that encourage active reading. Practicing them will help the students be active readers. 1. Making predictions: The students should be taught to be on the watch to predict what is going to happen next in the text to be able to integrate and combine what has come with what is to come. 2. Making selections: Readers who are more proficient read selectively, continually making decisions about their reading. 3. Integrating prior knowledge: The schemata that have been activated in the pre-reading section should be called upon to facilitate comprehension. 4. Skipping insignificant parts: A good reader will concentrate on significant pieces of information while skipping insignificant pieces. 5. Re-reading: Students should be encouraged to become sensitive to the effect of reading on their comprehension. 6. Making use of context or guessing: Students should not be encouraged to define and understand every single unknown word in a text. Instead they should learn to make use of context to guess the meaning of unknown words. 7. Breaking words into their component parts: To keep the process of comprehension ongoing, efficient readers analyze unfamiliar words by break them into their affixes or bases. These parts can help them guess the meaning of a word. 8. Reading in chunks: To ensure reading speed, students should get used to reading groups of words together. This act will also enhance comprehension by focusing on groups of meaning-conveying symbols simultaneously. 9. Pausing: Good readers will pause at certain places while reading a text to absorb and internalize the material being read and sort out information. 10. Paraphrasing: While reading texts, it may be necessary to paraphrase and interpret texts sub-vocally in order to verify what was comprehended. 11. Monitoring: Good readers monitor their understanding to evaluate whether the text, or the reading of it, is meeting their goals. After-reading tips Post-reading activities basically depend on the purpose of reading and the type of information extracted from the text. Barnett (1988) states that post-reading exercises first check students comprehension and then lead students to a deeper analysis of the text. In the real world the purpose of reading is not to memorize an authors point of view or to summarize text content, but rather to see into another mind, or to engage new information with what one already knows. Group discussion will help students focus on information they did not comprehend, or did comprehend correctly. Accordingly, attention will be focused on processes that lead to comprehension or miscomprehension. Generally speaking, post-reading can take the form of these various activities: (1) discussing the text: written/oral, (2) summarizing: written/oral, (3) making questions: written/oral, (3) answering questions: written/oral, (4) filling in forms and charts (5) writing reading logs (6) completing a text, (7) listening to or reading other related materials, and (7) role-playing. Conclusion Researches, opinions, and suggestions regarding the teaching of the reading exist in extensive amount, and this summary of reading theories is by no means exhaustive. However, with a basic understanding of the theoretical basis of top-down and bottom-up processing, teachers can better take advantage of the most useful methodologies associated with the different approaches. What is important to bear in mind is that relying too much on either top-down or bottom-up processing may cause problems for beginning ESL/EFL readers; therefore, to develop reading abilities, both approaches should be considered, as the meta-cognitive approach suggests. Considering my own experience in teaching reading to Indonesian students, I have found that the students who managed to read English text effectively are those who approach texts in a painful, slow, and frustrating word-by-word manner. By improving their decoding skills, they are freed to concentrate on global meanings. So, both the psycho and the linguistic† aspects must be emphasized in EFL reading classes. Bibliography Barnett, M. A. 1988. â€Å"Teaching Reading in a Foreign Language. † ERIC Digest. Anderson, R. 1994. â€Å"Role of the reader’s schema in comprehension, learning, and memory. † In Ruddell, Ruddell, and Singer 1994, 469–82. Anderson, R. , and P. D. Pearson. 1988. â€Å"A schematheoretic view of basic processes in reading comprehension. † In Carrell, Devine, and Eskey 1988, 37–55. Block, E. L. 1992. â€Å"How They Read: Comprehension Monitoring of L1 and L2 Readers. † TESOL Quarterly 26(2) Bransford, J. 1994. Schema activation and schema acquisition: Comments on Richard C. Anderson’s remarks. In Rudell, Ruddell, and Singer 1994, 483–95. Carrell, P. L. 1984. The effects of rhetorical organization on ESL readers. TESOL Quarterly 18 (3): 441–69. _______ 1988. Interactive text processing: Implications for ESL/second language reading classrooms. In Carrell, Devine, and Eskey 1988, 239–59. In Carrell, Devine, and Eskey 1988, Interactive approaches to second language reading. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Carrell, P. L. , B. G. Pharis, and J. C. Liberto. 1989. Metacognitive strategy training for ESL reading. TESOL Quarterly 23 (4): 647–78. Chen, H. , and M. Graves. 1995. Effects of previewing and providing background knowledge on Taiwanese college students’ comprehension of American short stories. TESOL Quarterly 29 (4): 663–86. Goodman, K. 1988. The reading process. In Carrell, Devine, and Eskey 1988, 11–21. Kucer, S. B. 1987. â€Å"The cognitive base of reading and writing. † In The dynamics of language learning, ed. J. Squire, 27–51. Urbana, IL: National Conference on Research in English. Mcdonough, S. H. 1995. Strategy and Skill in Learning a Foreign Language. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Omaggio, M. A. 1993. Teaching language in context. Boston: Heinle and Heinle. Reutzel, D. R. 1985. â€Å"Reconciling Schema Theory and the Basal Reading Lesson. † The Reading Teacher 39 (2): 194–98. Rigg, P. 1998. â€Å"The Miscue-ESL project. † In Carrell, Devine, and Eskey 1988, 206–220. Rudell, Ruddell, and Singer, eds. 1994, Theoretical models and processes of reading. 4th ed. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Samuels, S. J. , and M. L. Kamil. 1988. â€Å"Models of the Reading Process. † In Carrell, Devine, and Eskey, eds. 1988. 22–36. Smith, F. 1994. Understanding Reading. 5th ed. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Stanovich, K. E. 1980. â€Å"Toward an Interactive-Compensatory Model of Individual Differences in The Development of Reading Fluency. † Research Reading Quarterly 16 (1): 32-71. Tierney, R. J. , and P. D. Pearson. 1994. â€Å"Learning to learn from text: A Framework for Improving Classroom Practice. † In Rudell, Ruddell, and Singer, eds. 1994. 496–513.

Love And Marriage In Restoration Comedy

Love And Marriage In Restoration Comedy A comedy is usually a light, rather amusing, play that deals with contemporary life and manners. Such a drama often has a satirical slant, but ends happily. Among the many sub-genres under comedy, one can find the comedy of manners, which originated in France with Molieres Les Precieuses ridicules (1658). Moliere saw this comic form as a way to correct social absurdities. In England, the comedy of manners is represented by the plays of William Wycherley, George Etherege, William Congreve, and George Farquhar. This form was later classed Old Comedy but is now known as Restoration Comedy because it coincided with the return of the Charles II to England. The main goal of these comedies of manners in the period of Restoration is to mock society, or in other ways lift up society for scrutiny, which could cause negative or positive results. In the end, audience will laugh at themselves and society. The definition of comedy and the background of the Restoration Comedy help to explain the themes that run throughout these comedies of manners. One of the major themes is marriage and the game of love. However, if marriage is a mirror of society, the couples in the plays show something very dark and sinister about order. Many critiques of marriage that we see in the play are devastating, but the game of love is not much more hopeful. Although the endings are happy and the man invariably gets the woman, one can see marriages without love and love affairs that are rebellious breaks with tradition. This study will focus on two plays of Restoration comedies, William Wycherleys The Country Wife (1675) and William Congreves The Way of the World (1700), to show how dramatically society has progressed. A dramatic change, in moral attitudes about marriage and love has taken place. In Wycherleys Country Wife, the marriage between Pinchwife and Margery represents a hostile marriage between an old (or older man) and a young woman. The couple, Pinchwife, is the focal point of the play, at least as couples go, and Margery affair with Horner only adds to the humor of the play. Horner runs around cuckolding all of the husbands, while he pretends to be a eunuch. This pretension brings the women swarming to him. He is a master at the game of love, though he is emotionally impotent. He cannot love, which makes him an interesting character for analysis. The relationships in the play are dominated by jealousy or cuckoldry, with the exception of the gay couple, Alithea and Harcourt, but they are really pretty boring. The element of jealousy in marriage seems to be especially prevalent in the play. In Act IV, scene ii, Mr. Pinchwife says, in an aside: Mr. PINCHWIFE. So, tis plain she loves him, yet she has not love enough to make her conceal it from me; but the sight of him will increase her aversion for me and love for him, and that love instruct her how to deceive me and satisfy him, all idiot as she is. He insults her, not to her face of course, but hes serious. He wants her to be stupid, not able to deceive him. But even in her obvious innocence, he doesnt believe she is innocent. To him, every woman came out of natures hands plain, open, silly, and fit for slaves, as she and Heaven intended em. As he says, No woman can be forced. But he also says, in another aside: Mr. PINCHWIFE. Why should women have more invention in love than men? It can only be because they have more desires, more soliciting passions, more lust and more of the devil. Mr. Pinchwife isnt especially bright, but in his jealousy, he becomes a dangerous character. He becomes passionate in his mad ravings, thinking Margery had conspired to cuckold him. Little did he know that he was correct, but if he had known the truth, he would have killed her in his madness. As it is, when she disobeys him, he says: Mr. PINCHWIFE. Once more write as Id have you, and question it not, or I will spoil thy writing with this. I will stab out those eyes that cause my mischief. He doesnt ever hit her or stab her in the play (such actions wouldnt make a very good comedy), but Mr. Pinchwife continually locks Margery in the closet, calls her names, and in all other ways, acts like a complete jerk (to put it nicely). Because of his abusive nature, Margerys affair is not a surprise. In fact, it is accepted as a social norm, along with Horners promiscuity. At the end, the whole scene with Margery learning to lie is also taking in stride because the idea has already been set up when Mr. Pinchwife voiced his fears that if she loved Horner more, she would conceal it from him. And with that, social order is restored. In Congreves The Way of the World, the trend of restoration continues, but marriage becomes more about contractual agreements and greed, then about love. Millamant and Mirabell iron out a pre-nuptial agreement before they agree to marry. Then Millamant, for an instant, seems willing to marry her cousin, Sir Wilful, so that she can keep her money. It is a battle of the wits; it is not a battlefield of emotions. In that way, The Way of the World can be likened to Shakespeares Much Ado About Nothing, where Beatrice and Benedict play at love in their battle of wits. Its comical to see the two wits going at it, but, when we look deeper, there is an edge of seriousness behind their words. After they list conditions, Mirabell says: MIRABELL. These provisos admitted, in other things I may prove a tractable and complying husband. Love may be the basis of their relationship, as Mirabell appears honest; however, their alliance is a sterile romance, devoid of the touchy, feely stuff, which one should hope for in a courtship. Mirabell and Millamant are two wits perfect for each other in the battle of the sexes; nevertheless, the pervading sterility and greed reverberates as the relationship between the two wits becomes much more confusing. But then, that is the way of the world. Confusion and deception are the way of the world, but compared to The Country Wife and other earlier drama, Congreves play shows a different kind of chaos, one marked with contracts and greed instead of the hilarity and mix-up of Horner and other rakes. The evolution of society, as mirrored by the plays themselves is apparent. Sources 1. Drabble, Margaret , The Oxford Companion to English Literature 2. The Norton Anthology of English Literature, The Major Authors, Sixth Edition 3. Abjadian, Amrollah, Dr., A Survey of English Literature (II) 4. Patterson, Michael, The Oxford Dictionary of Plays 5. Abrams, M.H., A Glossary of Literary Term, Eighth Edition 6. William Wycherley, The Country Wife, 1675 7. William Congreve, The Way of the World, 1700

Treating Spasticity - Oral Medications and Surgery :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Treating Spasticity - Oral Medications and Surgery Spasticity a disorder of muscle function that causes muscle tightness or spasm. It is the involuntary movement (jerking) of muscles, which occurs when there is damage to the central nervous system. This damage may result from a traumatic brain, injury stroke, tumor, cerebral palsy or multiple sclerosis (1). Symptoms may include hypertonicity (increased muscle tone), clonus (a series of rapid muscle contractions), exaggerated deep tendon reflexes, muscle spasms, scissoring (involuntary crossing of the legs), and fixed joints (2). Spasticity may be as mild as the feeling of stiffness or tightness of muscles, or it may be so severe as to produce painful uncontrollable spasms of the extremities, usually of the legs. It may also produce feelings of pain or tightness in and around joints and can also cause low back pain (3). Some people find that spasticity is so severe or frequent that it disrupts their life. Health care professional suggest a number of things to calm or stop spasticity: range-of- motion exercises, stress management, prescription drugs, physical therapy regimens, and or surgery. Each offers some help, but treatments like medication and surgery bring complications. The patient is forced to decide if decreasing spasticity is worth the side effects from drugs or loss of some movement and feeling from surgery. Many people who have spasticity take few, if any, medications to control their spasticity (4). While spasticity cannot be cured, some of the problems associated with spasticity can be cared for in a number of ways. At this present time, there are several medications and surgical methods that are used to help treat spasticity. In most cases, treatments consist of combinations of different medications, implantation devices, and surgery. The investigation of this paper deals with a comparison of the oral medications being used by patients and the numerous surgical procedures available to treat spasticity. The use of oral medications for treatment of spasticity may be very effective. Benzodiazepines, baclofen, dantrolene sodium, and tizanidine are the most widely used agents for reduction of spasticity. The challenge is to establish a treatment plan that will strike a vital balance between improved function, patient satisfaction, and possible side effects. At high dosages, oral medications can cause unwanted side effects that include sedation, as well as changes in mood and cognit ion (5). Benzodiazepines such as diazepam are the oldest and most frequently used oral agents for spasticity related to spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, and cerebral vascular accident.

Ramsey S. Cotron

ORTHOPEDIC CONSULTATION Patient Name: Ramsey S. Cotron Patient ID: 023672 DOB: 03/15/—- Age: 2 Sex: Male Consultant: Jessie D. Smith, MD, Orthopedics Requesting Physician: Reed Phillips, MD, Pediatrics Date of Consult: 10/01/—- Reason for Consult: Infected Finger. HISTORY: Ramsey is an otherwise healthy 2-year-old Lebanese child who had an injury to the distal failing of his right middle finger the day prior to being seen. The patient is left-hand dominant. The patient was brought to Dr. Phillips of Pediatrics secondary to worsening redness as well as infection of the nail bed.Orthopedics consult was requested on 09/30/—- for possible paronychia. The patient at that time was having no fevers or chills and he was tolerating his antibiotic regiment well. PAST MEDICAL SURGICAL HISTORY: None other than circumcision shortly after birth. BIRTH HISTORY: Normal full-term vaginal delivery. FAMILY HISTORY: Non-contributory. SOCIAL HISTORY: Patient lives with his mother and a sibling, Father deceased. PHYSICAL EXAMINATION: Ramsey is alert, oriented, playful, and in no apparent distress. The patient does have erythema surrounding the tip of his right distal failings, middle finger. There is mild purulent from the area.The area is minimally tender to palpation. The nail appears to be lifting off from the nail bed itself. He has good capillary refill and has good flexion and extension of that finger. (Continued) ORTHOPEDIC CONSULTATION Patient Name: Ramsey S. Cotron Patient ID: 023672 Date of Consult: 10/01/—- Page 2 ASSESSMENT: This is a 2-year-old male with paronychia. PLAN: Follow up with me at 9am tomorrow. Mother was given my pager number should the patient’s condition worsen overnight. I will be in touch with Dr. Phillips. _______________________ Jessie D. Smith, MD, Orthopedics JS: D:10/01/—- T:11/14/2012 C: Reed Phillips, MD, Pediatrics

How to Conjugate the Verb Dovere in Italian

How to Conjugate the Verb 'Dovere' in Italian Since people often talk about being obligated to do something, the Italian verb dovere comes in handy. The verb means to have to, to be obligated to, supposed to, and to owe.  Dovere is  a second-conjugation irregular verb, so it doesn’t follow the typical -ere verb ending pattern.   Dovere Basics Dovere is  a transitive verb, so it takes a  direct object. When it’s used as a modal verb, it usually takes the auxiliary verb required by the verb with which it is paired. Additionally: The infinito (infinitive) is dovere.The participio passato is dovuto.The gerund form is dovendo. The past gerund form is avendo dovuto. Conjugating Dovere The tables and explanations below show how to handle the verb in  all of its conjugations. Where available, links provide access to further information on the tenses and moods. Example Italian sentences and their translations follow each table. Indicativo (Indicative) Il presente io devo noi dobbiamo tu devi voi dovete lui, lei, Lei deve Essi, Loro devono Esempi   Examples: Devo veramente fare questi compiti? Must I really do this homework?Lei deve imparare l’Italiano, perchà © si trasferisce in Italia. She must learn Italian because she’s moving to Italy. Il passato prossimo io ho dovuto noi abbiamo dovuto tu hai dovuto voi avete dovuto lui, lei, Lei, ha dovuto loro, Loro hanno dovuto Esempi Examples: Leri ho dovuto comprare una macchina nuova perchà © la mia si à ¨ rotta. Yesterday I had to buy a new car because mine broke.In quel periodo, l’Internet non esisteva, quindi ha dovuto imparare l’Italiano da sola. During that time, the Internet didn’t exist so she had to learn Italian on her own. L’imperfetto io dovevo noi dovevamo tu dovevi voi dovevate lui, lei, Lei doveva loro, Loro dovevano Esempi: Dovevo incontrare il mio ragazzo proprio adesso, ma deve essere in ritardo! I think I was supposed to meet my boyfriend right now, but he must be late!E poi dovevamo trasferirci negli Stati Uniti per cominciare una nuova vita. And then we had to move to the United States to start a new life. Il trapassato prossimo io avevo dovuto noi avevamo dovuto tu avevi dovuto voi avevate dovuto lui, lei, Lei aveva dovuto loro, Loro avevano dovuto Esempi: Le ho raccontato tutto quello che avevamo dovuto fare per mantenerla all’Universit. I told her everything we had to do in order to support her during her university years.Mi dissero che avevano dovuto scendere dal treno perchà ¨ non avevano il biglietto. They told me they had to get off the train because they didn’t have a ticket. Il passato remoto io dovei/dovetti noi dovemmo tu dovesti voi doveste lui, lei, Lei dovette/(dov) loro, essi doverono/dovettero Esempi: Quando mia nonna ebbe quindici anni, dovette sposarsi. When my grandma was fifteen years old, she had to get married.Nel 1935 doverono lavorare tutto il giorno per guadagnare abbastanza soldi per sopravvivere.   In 1935, they had to work all day to earn enough money to survive. Il trapassato remoto io ebbi dovuto noi avemmo dovuto tu avesti dovuto voi aveste dovuto lui, lei, Lei ebbe dovuto loro, essi ebbero dovuto This tense is rarely used, so don’t worry too much about mastering it. You’ll find it in very sophisticated writing. Il futuro semplice io dovr noi dovremo tu dovrai voi dovrete lui, lei, Lei dovr loro, Loro dovranno Esempi: Dovremo andare in Toscana invece che in Lazio, perchà © non avremo abbastanza tempo per vedere tutto. We will have to go to Tuscany instead of Lazio, because we will not have enough time to see everything.Al termine della cena dovrà ² solo avviare la lavastoviglie e tutto sar pulito. At the end of the dinner, I will only have to start the dishwasher and everything will be clean. Il futuro anteriore io avr dovuto noi avremo dovuto tu avrai dovuto voi avrete dovuto lui, lei, Lei avr dovuto loro, Loro avranno dovuto Esempi: Per superare tutti gli esami, avr dovuto studiare per sette giorni su sette. In order to pass all of the exams, she will have had to study every day.Avrai dovuto avere tanta pazienza con i tuoi figli! You will have to had a lot of patience with your children!! CONGIUNTIVO (SUBJUNCTIVE) Il presente che io deva/ debba che noi dobbiamo che tu deva/debba che voi dobbiate che lui, lei, Lei deva/debba che loro, Loro devano/debbano Esempi: Peccato che debbano partire questa settimana! It’s a shame that they must leave this week!Mi dispiace che dobbiate andare a letto cosà ¬ presto! I’m sorry you have to go to bed so early! Il passato io abbia dovuto noi abbiamo dovuto tu abbia dovuto voi abbiate dovuto lui, lei, Lei abbia dovuto loro, Loro abbiano dovuto Esempi: Sono felice che abbiano dovuto aspettare il treno, altrimenti non avrebbero avuto vedere Marco. I was happy that they had to wait for the train, otherwise they wouldn’t have seen Marco.Mi dispiace che lei abbia dovuto lasciare l’Italia, non sapevo che la amassi cosà ¬ tanto. I’m sorry that she had to leave Italy, I didn’t know you loved her so much. L’imperfetto io dovessi noi dovessimo tu dovessi voi doveste lui, lei, Lei dovesse loro, Loro dovessero Esempi: Non pensavo che lui dovesse imparare il sardo, à ¨ cosà ¬ difficile! I didn’t think he had to learn the Sardinian language, it’s so difficult!Non sapevamo che dovessimo fare il checkout alle dieci! We didn’t know that we had to check out at ten! Il trapassato prossimo io avessi dovuto noi avessimo dovuto tu avessi dovuto voi aveste dovuto lui, lei, Lei avesse dovuto loro, Loro avessero dovuto Esempi: Se io avessi dovuto trasferirmi in un altro paese domani, avrei scelto la Nuova Zelanda. If I had to move to another country tomorrow, I would have choose New Zealand.Se avesse dovuto cercare un nuovo lavoro, avrebbe voluto fare l’insegnante.   If she had to look for a new job, she would have liked to be a teacher. CONDIZIONALE (CONDITIONAL) Il presente io dovrei noi dovremmo tu dovresti voi dovreste lui, lei, Lei dovrebbe loro, Loro dovrebbero Esempi: Dovrei studiare oggi, ma non voglio. I should study today, but I don’t want to.Dovremmo andare al mare, che ne pensi? We should we go to the sea, what do you think? Il passato io avrei dovuto noi avremmo dovuto tu avresti dovuto voi avreste dovuto lui, lei, Lei avrebbe dovuto loro, Loro avrebbero dovuto Avresti dovuto dirmelo! You should have told me!Avrebbero dovuto studiare di pià ¹. They should have studied more.

Cold Sassy Tree Continuation Essay essays

Cold Sassy Tree Continuation Essay essays Loma stepped off the train and into the depot. She thought of the day she had in Athens and couldnt help but feel jealous of her friend who had everything whereas she had noting. She was about to find out she had less. She looked up to see half the town there waiting for her. She looked a little confused as she thought to herself, Did everyone wanna know how my trip went badly enough to come and greet me at the depot? But it wasnt smiling faces that greeted her. Then her father approached her with a grim look on his face, and she knew right then the town hadnt come to see how her trip went. Something aint right, she thought to herself. However, she didnt expect what she heard next. Loma, Im real sorry bout this, But Camp done gone and kilt hisself. She just looked at him like he was crazy. She couldnt believe the words that were coming out of his mouth. It just couldnt be true. Cmon Loma, Will Tweedy will take you home in the artermobile, he said putting his arm around her. She couldnt move she looked at her father again, and then looked at the people in the depot. Everyone looked at her like they were sorry for her. She quickly looked away from them, she couldnt stand all these people feeling pitying her. After seeing their faces it was finally starting to sink in that her husband was dead, and he was the one that took his life. She started to walk with her father and Will towards the car, she needed to get out of here and fast. She was feeling guilty about Camps death and she didnt want to lose it in front of all these people. Why couldnt I have been nicer, she thought, I was just so mean to him, no wonder he went and killed himself, he was being put down all the time and its all my fault. Even though she had married Camp just to make her father mad because he didnt want ...

Essay Writing Prompts for College Students

Essay Writing Prompts for College Students Essay is the most popular type of written in-class and home-work assignments among college students. Sometimes, students are assigned to complete a few essays per week, what is certainly not the good news for those who have not yet mastered the art of essay writing. Nevertheless, by the final course of college, almost all students manage to gain the needed writing and critical thinking skills to complete essay writing tasks with diligence and on the decent level. The present article would give those students who are not yet perfect in essay writing a few general tips to improve their essay writing skills. First of all, students are to remember that it is the topic and the essay type which are to be defined in the very beginning. There are numerous essay types, such as persuasive, analytical, compare and contrast, descriptive essays and so on. There is even a larger scope of the various essay topics which might be covered by a college student’s essay. If the essay topic has not been specified by the tutor, then the whole burden of essay topic defining would be on the student’s shoulders. Be accurate with it – it should be not too broad and not too narrow, but acute and interesting to the audience and to you, in the first line. Another important stage of essay writing is searching for the information. Sure, there are essays in which the author is only demanded to express their personal attitude towards a phenomenon or opinion, show their subjective opinion and that is it. On the contrary, some essays need careful researching and surfing the available sources for the information he author would need. Thus, the facts to be presented within the future essay are to be carefully chosen and considered. One more point of attention when writing an essay is its careful structuring: there should obligatory be present such structural parts, as the introduction, the main body and the conclusion. Without those, your essay would never be highly graded. One more helpful tip in completing the essay of any topic and type is referring to a custom company writing academic papers. The writers employed by these companies are always savvy in essay writing, as well as in formatting and editing the already written content. This means that if you face difficulties composing the essay, you may rely on the company’s writing team. They could assist you with the essay topic or academic sources to be used within the content. The advanced writing, formatting, proofreading and critical thinking skills would be demonstrated by them when composing your essay, and you would be satisfied with the final result – with minimal efforts and expenses from your side. Contact our website and enjoy essay writing help provided by our experienced academic experts who are always available to help students.

Stephen Crane's The Open Boat Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Stephen Crane's The Open Boat - Essay Example The second element is that heroes are survivors. Being a hero is an active and living state. Individuals that die in the process of performing heroic acts are not heroes. They are deceased. A hero accomplishes the great feat and lives to tell the tale. Common people die in the course of attempting heroic actions. While this definition of heroism may to some seem narrow or even disrespectful to individuals and characters that have died while performing heroic and selfless deeds, the intention could not be further from the truth. It is simply an attempt in my mind to differentiate and distinguish between actions that are heroic and the personification of individuals and characters that can be categorized as heroes. In Stephen Crane’s short story The Open Boat, four characters are presented in the most precarious of circumstances. Their ship has sunk and they are all together in a small dingy struggling to make landfall. Mountainous wave beset their craft in a relentless effort t o swallow them into the sea. The four characters are the captain, who was injured in the sinking of the main vessel, the cook, the least ranking and most common among the men, the oiler and the correspondent. What becomes clear upon a close reading of The Open Boat is the fact that this is a story entirely bereft of heroes. Certainly, the men find themselves in a difficult spot that requires heroic actions or the part of all. Billie the oiler was coming off of working a double shift just before the ship went down. He found himself at sea rowing for land for two days without proper rest and having had very little to eat before sinking. Yet he never hesitated to take his turn at the oars when it came time to spell the others so they could get some rest. Indeed, the correspondent, the night before making landfall called on him many times so that he could rest. Billie selflessly and heroically rowed while the others slept. Cook was more than happy to do the drudgery of bailing while the correspondent and the oiler rowed. He had no desire for status or for any position of notice. It could be said in modern terms that he was a â€Å"team player† silently and obediently do the most menial yet important tasks. The correspondent selflessly kept watch through the night, when the ominous presence of death embodied by the figure of a great shark, came to circle the small craft. And finally, there was the selfless guidance of the captain who waded through the personal tragedy of losing his beloved ship in an unflagging effort to continue to command the crew of the dingy as best he could. His experience was all that gave the crew hope at times and he obliged their needs for hope instead of bowing to hopelessness. But heroic deeds do not a hero make. In order to really consider any of the characters heroes by the proposed definition in this essay, the motivation of these actions must be explored. The final night, when the correspondent is wrestling with Fate, when he is struggling with fatigue and hopelessness, the one thought that comes to him is profoundly selfish. He wanted to live. I would be nice to continue to live even though dying might just be easier. There was not one thought for his fellow crewmembers. He wanted to live and he would strive to make it so. This every-man-for-himself mentality is nicely characterized by the departure from the boat onto the shore. On the captain’

International OB Managing Across Cultures Essay

International OB Managing Across Cultures - Essay Example A Japanese businessman will always consult within his group before making a decision. Because of their intense loyalty, one's identity is subsumed into the group. It is important to never single out a Japanese counterpart, even for praise or encouragement. Contrarily, the Spaniards have a hierarchy style of management and it is best to deal with "el jefe" or "el pardon"-the one who will be making the decision. Spaniards also will expect whomever they are dealing with to have decisions-making authority. When dealing with Spain or most Asian cultures, it is also critical to understand the concept of "saving face". Any loss of control of emotions or embarrassment is considered disastrous in business negotiations in these cultures. Honor and personal pride mean everything and they must not be insulted. Because of this attitude it is very important to carefully prepare presentations so that they are easy for the audience to understand. Paying close attention to determine if anything is misunderstood during the presentation is also a must. Because of this concept of "saving face" the presenter will not know if they are having difficulties. Close attention must be paid to conversations in order to discern the sincerity of what is being said. In Japan, a deal is never refused directly, and any dealings with Japanese business culture should remain indirect. In Business Cards In nearly all countries, it is important that business cards be printed one side in English, and the other in their language. When presenting the card, it should be presented with their language facing the recipient. In Japan, the exchange of business cards is not to be taken lightly. When you receive the card of a Japanese businessman, be sure to make a show of examining it carefully and then making a remark about the card. Ask any questions about anything on the card which is difficult to pronounce or understand. The card should then be placed in a case or on a near by table. A card shouldn't be shoved into a pocket or be written on. Concepts of Time Time orientation is an important cultural difference that Americans must pay close attention to. In America, time is viewed as a precious commodity. Time is related with productivity, efficiency, and money. Many other countries have a much more relaxed perception of time. They take their time, and enjoy it. In Mexico you can ask if a scheduled appointment is "en punto" (the precise time), or "mas o menos". "Mas o menos" appointments are often scheduled a half an hour to an hour before the actual time. With both Mexican and Japanese cultures it is also important not to expect instant results. Plenty of time should be allowed for contemplation and decision making. In Mexico it is important to adjust any expectations regarding deadlines and efficiency. Doing business over borders and through time zones has become commonplace in the twenty-first century. Technological advancements in communication and travel make it possible to do business across the globe almost instantaneously. Doing business with multiple cultures can be a challenging venture. International communication skills of an organization can determine success or failure. In order to interact with different cultures, it is necessary to understand the basic characteristics of the culture. This type of understanding helps to make

An outline marketing plan for the next year for Atlantic Quench302 Essay

An outline marketing plan for the next year for Atlantic Quench302 - Essay Example marketing plan for the company has been developed based on achieving a differentiation competitive advantage by launching a new product in new markets. Although the competitive nature of the juice and nectar segment makes the selected process a risky affair but considering the position of other big brands in the market Atlantic Quench have to act fast and in a steady manner. The marketing plan for Atlantic Quench has the primary objective of getting a jump start by selling 3340000 units of their new product in the target markets i.e. UK, As Atlantic Quench have already created an alliance with Gerber their distribution channel is supported. Moreover, the variety in the product base and the health conscious products of Atlantic Quench will attract consumers towards them. The brand awareness process of Atlantic Quench will be based on their promotional activities with the help of television, leaflet distribution and online advertisements. Also creating alliances and mergers with local distribution channels will help the company to get in direct touch with their consumer base and understand their needs and requirements. It can be observed that the marketing planning process of Atlantic Quench has been designed in a manner so that all the functional aspects are inter-connected and aligned with the overall aim of the business plan. Following the implications of the marketing plan, the budget has been developed which fulfils the necessity of generating a jumpstart for the new product in the target market. The budget development process will also be used for controlling and monitoring the entire marketing planning process by focusing on performance of individual variables of the budget. Global market forces like changing customer’s preference, consolidation and the impact of increased government regulation in business strategy has drives out an incessant evolution in beverage and food industry (Brodie and Danaher, 2000). Non alcoholic beverage like, fruit juice, tea,

Evaluation Questions and Data Collection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evaluation Questions and Data Collection - Essay Example The task becomes formidable when the ultimate objects of the evaluation are latchkey children. An abandoned child lacking the custody and care of the natural parental environment cannot find satisfactory solace and nurture in an attention span of a few hours. Child rearing is a 24 hours job. Since the evaluation is undertaken for children facing deprivation and their neighborhood, the stakeholders cannot but be those largely based in the locality. Thus, the stakeholders comprise the school whose facilities are being used for the purpose of after-school care for the target children, the school authorities, the ministry of education, the parents of the regular students, child psychologists, donors and well-wishers of the school, and all others who have personal interest in the school such as former students. (Report on the causes of poverty and Civil Society Recommendations for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper in Montenegro) The first evaluation questionnaire is addressed to the stakeholders in order to get their views to what extent they are prepared to go to fill the gap necessary to restore normalcy in the children's lives. A group discussion is ideal for the purpose of eliciting view from a group of 12-15 individuals representing different segment of the stakeholders. The questionnaire will dwell on personal information to begin with like name, age, sex, occupation, marital status, number of children, and move on to areas of interest like favorite sports, extra curricular activities, club membership. Thereafter, questions addressing the objectivity of the evaluation and seeking information on the stakeholder's personal involvement with any children's organization, local or international and since how long, must be included. One or two direct questions asking if they are ready for adoption must also be included. Since financial needs meet only a part of the deprived child's requirement, questions desiring information on the amount of time the stakeholder is capable of spending with the child or children must also find place in the framework. Undoubtedly, the exercise is intended to not only involve individuals but also the entire community. The issue of latchkey students impacts the entire community because it assumes social implications. The consequence of ignoring deprived children has all too often proved disastrous with criminal elements only too ready to accept them for their own ignoble purposes. (David A. Dzewaltowski et al) Questions for the deprived children The framework to fix questionnaire for evaluation and data collection of latchkey students is complex and challenging for the simple reason no two child are alike. One deprived student may be doing exceptionally well in studies, while another may be normal or mediocre. It is in

Evaluation Questions and Data Collection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evaluation Questions and Data Collection - Essay Example The task becomes formidable when the ultimate objects of the evaluation are latchkey children. An abandoned child lacking the custody and care of the natural parental environment cannot find satisfactory solace and nurture in an attention span of a few hours. Child rearing is a 24 hours job. Since the evaluation is undertaken for children facing deprivation and their neighborhood, the stakeholders cannot but be those largely based in the locality. Thus, the stakeholders comprise the school whose facilities are being used for the purpose of after-school care for the target children, the school authorities, the ministry of education, the parents of the regular students, child psychologists, donors and well-wishers of the school, and all others who have personal interest in the school such as former students. (Report on the causes of poverty and Civil Society Recommendations for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper in Montenegro) The first evaluation questionnaire is addressed to the stakeholders in order to get their views to what extent they are prepared to go to fill the gap necessary to restore normalcy in the children's lives. A group discussion is ideal for the purpose of eliciting view from a group of 12-15 individuals representing different segment of the stakeholders. The questionnaire will dwell on personal information to begin with like name, age, sex, occupation, marital status, number of children, and move on to areas of interest like favorite sports, extra curricular activities, club membership. Thereafter, questions addressing the objectivity of the evaluation and seeking information on the stakeholder's personal involvement with any children's organization, local or international and since how long, must be included. One or two direct questions asking if they are ready for adoption must also be included. Since financial needs meet only a part of the deprived child's requirement, questions desiring information on the amount of time the stakeholder is capable of spending with the child or children must also find place in the framework. Undoubtedly, the exercise is intended to not only involve individuals but also the entire community. The issue of latchkey students impacts the entire community because it assumes social implications. The consequence of ignoring deprived children has all too often proved disastrous with criminal elements only too ready to accept them for their own ignoble purposes. (David A. Dzewaltowski et al) Questions for the deprived children The framework to fix questionnaire for evaluation and data collection of latchkey students is complex and challenging for the simple reason no two child are alike. One deprived student may be doing exceptionally well in studies, while another may be normal or mediocre. It is in

Volcanoes and Earthquake Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Volcanoes and Earthquake - Assignment Example Lava with low viscosity forms a shield mountain, which is low-lying because it flows over a long distance. On the other hand, the lava with high viscosity forms a dome-shaped mountain because it flows over a short distance before solidification (Gill, 2009). High silica content leads to the formation of a magma and lava that is more viscous than when the silica content is low. The viscosity is high because of the strong bonds between silica and oxygen. Intrusive igneous rocks refer to the igneous rocks that form when magma crystallizes within the Earth’s crust. Granite is the common example of intrusive igneous rocks. Extrusive igneous rocks refer to the igneous rocks that form when magma crystallizes on the Earth’s surface (Gill, 2009). Basalt is the common example of extrusive igneous rocks. On the other hand, the lava with high viscosity forms a dome-shaped mountain because it flows over a short distance before solidification (Gill, 2009). A pyroclastic flow refers t o a fast-moving mass of hot rocks and gases. It is evident that a pyroclastic flow is explosive because of the fast-moving gases. The volcanic eruption from St. Augustine volcano is an example of the volcano that produced a pyroclastic flow. A lava flow refers the movement molten rock from a volcanic mountain at a slow speed due to the absence of hot gases (Gill, 2009). It is evident that a volcanic flow is effusive because it does not involve hot gases. The volcanic eruption from Mauna Loa volcano is an example of the volcano that produced a lava flow. A supervolcano refers to a volcano that can produce an eruption with a large volume of about 1000 km3. An example of a supervolcano is Yellowstone.  Intrusive igneous rocks from within the vents before the magma moves to the Earth’s surface.

Marketing in Practice Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Marketing in Practice - Case Study Example Global scenario of Confectionary industry: The confectionary market consists of chocolates, gum, cereal bars and sugar confectionary. The global confectionary market grew by 3% in 2006 to reach a value of 100.9 billion dollars. Chocolate sales dominate, accounting for 54.4% of the global confectionery markets value. Out of total confectionary market worldwide, Europe generates 46.6% of the total global confectionary markets value. It has been projected that in 2011, the global confectionary market will become to the value of 116 billion dollars, an increase of 14.9% since 2006. By the year 2011, the global confectionary market is forecast to have a volume of 15.1 billion kg, an increase of 9.9% since 2006. (All the data has been extracted from the Data Monitor report on global confectionary, Feb 2008). The confectionary market in regions such as Western Europe and North America has become mature and nearing to saturation. Consumption level in these areas reached to nearly static posi tion. Confectionary market is growing mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, India and China. It has been forecasted that global confectionary market between 2006 and 2010, grow @16% in value terms reaching more than 145 billion dollars. Volume sales have been expected to over 17.8 million tones by 2010. So it has been obvious that globally, confectionery market is expected to grow and Cadbury being the largest company after merger with Hershey it has strengthen their respective positions in the higher-growth markets for healthier forms of confectionery. Confectionary market worldwide is very competitive and it could be very well understood by the fact that the global confectionery market remains relatively fragmented, with the top six manufacturers accounting for less than half (45%) of value sales. Significance for Cadbury: The Company, Cadbury Schweppes is one of the largest confectionary companies based in UK and operates in almost 30 countries. UK has a well grown confectionery industry as a sub-sector of the British food industry. Within the European confectionery industry, the UK confectionery industry leads the field and the UK is unlikely to lose its place as the leading consumer of confectionery products. It has been estimated that in the last ten years consumer expenditure on food has increased to double but the expenditure on confectionary has tripled. It has been contributing considerably to British economy. This situation clearly shows that if Cadbury has to expand its business, it has to move in the areas like India, China, and East Europe etc. Market of confectionery is growing but in the developed country where market growth has stagnated, companies are trying various strategies like expanding its business in the areas which ultimately providing them proper oppor tunities to grow. Cadbury have 8 major competitors but one of the major competitors has merged with it and provided strategic mileage to the company. This market research has shown the direction of change as well as the direction of progress for Cadbury. It should know its competitors, which are mainly Mass Inc, Hearshey Food Corporation, Nestle SA, Ferrere etc. Most of the companies have similar types of distribution channel and developing new product range. Looking at the market situation it has been very obvious that confectionary market has the potential to grow and at the same time companies also have motivation and zeal to move ahead. 2.

Evaluation Questions and Data Collection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Evaluation Questions and Data Collection - Essay Example The task becomes formidable when the ultimate objects of the evaluation are latchkey children. An abandoned child lacking the custody and care of the natural parental environment cannot find satisfactory solace and nurture in an attention span of a few hours. Child rearing is a 24 hours job. Since the evaluation is undertaken for children facing deprivation and their neighborhood, the stakeholders cannot but be those largely based in the locality. Thus, the stakeholders comprise the school whose facilities are being used for the purpose of after-school care for the target children, the school authorities, the ministry of education, the parents of the regular students, child psychologists, donors and well-wishers of the school, and all others who have personal interest in the school such as former students. (Report on the causes of poverty and Civil Society Recommendations for the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper in Montenegro) The first evaluation questionnaire is addressed to the stakeholders in order to get their views to what extent they are prepared to go to fill the gap necessary to restore normalcy in the children's lives. A group discussion is ideal for the purpose of eliciting view from a group of 12-15 individuals representing different segment of the stakeholders. The questionnaire will dwell on personal information to begin with like name, age, sex, occupation, marital status, number of children, and move on to areas of interest like favorite sports, extra curricular activities, club membership. Thereafter, questions addressing the objectivity of the evaluation and seeking information on the stakeholder's personal involvement with any children's organization, local or international and since how long, must be included. One or two direct questions asking if they are ready for adoption must also be included. Since financial needs meet only a part of the deprived child's requirement, questions desiring information on the amount of time the stakeholder is capable of spending with the child or children must also find place in the framework. Undoubtedly, the exercise is intended to not only involve individuals but also the entire community. The issue of latchkey students impacts the entire community because it assumes social implications. The consequence of ignoring deprived children has all too often proved disastrous with criminal elements only too ready to accept them for their own ignoble purposes. (David A. Dzewaltowski et al) Questions for the deprived children The framework to fix questionnaire for evaluation and data collection of latchkey students is complex and challenging for the simple reason no two child are alike. One deprived student may be doing exceptionally well in studies, while another may be normal or mediocre. It is in

Marketing in Practice Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Marketing in Practice - Case Study Example Global scenario of Confectionary industry: The confectionary market consists of chocolates, gum, cereal bars and sugar confectionary. The global confectionary market grew by 3% in 2006 to reach a value of 100.9 billion dollars. Chocolate sales dominate, accounting for 54.4% of the global confectionery markets value. Out of total confectionary market worldwide, Europe generates 46.6% of the total global confectionary markets value. It has been projected that in 2011, the global confectionary market will become to the value of 116 billion dollars, an increase of 14.9% since 2006. By the year 2011, the global confectionary market is forecast to have a volume of 15.1 billion kg, an increase of 9.9% since 2006. (All the data has been extracted from the Data Monitor report on global confectionary, Feb 2008). The confectionary market in regions such as Western Europe and North America has become mature and nearing to saturation. Consumption level in these areas reached to nearly static posi tion. Confectionary market is growing mostly in Central and Eastern Europe, India and China. It has been forecasted that global confectionary market between 2006 and 2010, grow @16% in value terms reaching more than 145 billion dollars. Volume sales have been expected to over 17.8 million tones by 2010. So it has been obvious that globally, confectionery market is expected to grow and Cadbury being the largest company after merger with Hershey it has strengthen their respective positions in the higher-growth markets for healthier forms of confectionery. Confectionary market worldwide is very competitive and it could be very well understood by the fact that the global confectionery market remains relatively fragmented, with the top six manufacturers accounting for less than half (45%) of value sales. Significance for Cadbury: The Company, Cadbury Schweppes is one of the largest confectionary companies based in UK and operates in almost 30 countries. UK has a well grown confectionery industry as a sub-sector of the British food industry. Within the European confectionery industry, the UK confectionery industry leads the field and the UK is unlikely to lose its place as the leading consumer of confectionery products. It has been estimated that in the last ten years consumer expenditure on food has increased to double but the expenditure on confectionary has tripled. It has been contributing considerably to British economy. This situation clearly shows that if Cadbury has to expand its business, it has to move in the areas like India, China, and East Europe etc. Market of confectionery is growing but in the developed country where market growth has stagnated, companies are trying various strategies like expanding its business in the areas which ultimately providing them proper oppor tunities to grow. Cadbury have 8 major competitors but one of the major competitors has merged with it and provided strategic mileage to the company. This market research has shown the direction of change as well as the direction of progress for Cadbury. It should know its competitors, which are mainly Mass Inc, Hearshey Food Corporation, Nestle SA, Ferrere etc. Most of the companies have similar types of distribution channel and developing new product range. Looking at the market situation it has been very obvious that confectionary market has the potential to grow and at the same time companies also have motivation and zeal to move ahead. 2.

Organizational Citizenship Behavior Essay Example for Free

Organizational Citizenship Behavior Essay Human Resource Management (HRM) is defined as the organizational function that focuses on recruiting, management, and the directing of the employees that work in the organization. It also deals with compensation, performance management, organization development, safety, wellness, benefits, employee motivation, communication, administration, and training. Even though the HR functions evolved, some things never change. Since most companies will always need the traditional HR functions such as hiring and firing employees, providing pay and benefits packages, training and developing the workforce, and dealing with employer – employee conflicts. Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is a concept defined as the set of additional activities that are beneficial to an organization and its employees. These activities are not required in a formal way; that is, they are not stated in a contract nor required by the company. OCB is commonly a behavior of employees towards their company and vice versa. It is clear that the organization’s HRM plays a vital role in implementing OCB through creating a well-established relationship between the organization and the employees. Rousseau and Geller argued that this relationship’s status is critical in the amount of OCB produced by employees where the company must deliver first a few requirements. (cited in Morrison, 1996). Schuller states that each company’s HRM has a set of principles and values that are integrated in its overall philosophy, which includes a respectful treatment of its employees (cited in Morrison, 1996). According to Eisenberger, Huntington, Hutchison, and Sowa, how effective is an organization in applying that philosophy is related towards how much the employees feel appreciated in their work place and therefore related to the amount of OCB displayed (cited in Morrison, 1996). OCB is present in all companies and can be considered a cycle. In fact, the HR department encourages OCB through several actions, which pave the way to creating a healthy organizational culture where the company protects its employees who are devoted to their company. This report will discuss OCB in Middle East Airlines (MEA) by taking a closer look at the employee – company relationship and the company – employee relationship. Literature Review on Organization Citizenship Behavior How Companies Encourage OCB In order for employees to work on achieving OCB, the human resource management has to work on some issues to help encourage each individual to participate in developing the company. The management must ensure that several things should be well done: Social Exchange, ldentification with Organizational Objectives, Empowerment, Selection and Socialization, Evaluation and Rewards, Rules and Job Descriptions. In an organization, Blau identified two types of relationships that tie the management and the employees together: the economic relationship and the social relationship (cited in Morrison, 1996). Konovsky and Pugh’ analysis states that it is more likely for employees to perform OCB under good social conditions than economic (cited in Morrison, 1996). Organ claims that this fact is due to several reasons: First, social relationships allow employees to have feelings of mutual trust with the organization and they will build long-term relationships with the management. This will encourage employees to help enhance the image of their company by practicing OCB. Second, the social relationship is one that is ambiguously defined, that is it does not have clear boundaries; therefore employees will more likely include certain citizenship acts in their job tasks (cited in Morrison, 1996). The identification of the employees with the organizational objectives is crucial for achieving OCB. That is because each individual will adopt and familiarize with the values and principles of the company, and hence become a part of its system, which will give a feeling of belonging and an encouragement for being part of the progress of the company. For employees to achieve OCB, Conger and Kanungo believe that they must be first willing to do so, and that is by being encouraged and empowered (cited in Morrison, 1996). Bowen and Lawler claim that many benefits are generated as a result of empowerment. First, it will shorten the time of response of employees to serve their customers. Second, the relationship between the employees and the customers will be more enthusiastic and kind. Third, it will allow the employees to be more innovative and generate ideas for the benefit of the company (cited in Morrison, 1996). Selection is the first phase of the entrance of an employee into a company. During this stage, Shore and Tetrick claim that each individual becomes aware of the job responsibilities in his field. Also, it is through this stage that the company indicates to the employee the responsibilities that the company has towards him as well, such as security, progress and training; hence it identifies a two-way relationship. This will lead to a feeling of respect and interest from the other party, which will lead to employees achieving OCB (cited in Morrison, 1996). Selection is also important in what is referred to by Chatman as person-organization fit: by learning about the organization’s objectives, the employee becomes aware that he or she will be chosen not solely for their job qualification, but for their compatibility with the work environment as well (cited in Morrison, 1996). Socialization as defined by Van Maanen and Schein is when the company prepares the new employees with the set of knowledge, approaches, and behaviors that they should apply in order to fit into their roles (cited in Morrison, 1996). Similar to selection, socialization is about showing the new employee that the relationship with the organization is based on social exchange. This can be clarified through such processes as orientation that holds within it more value than it shows. Chatman claims that socialization also familiarizes the employees with the company’s objectives and values not to mention that it plays a vital part in the empowerment process. (cited in Morrison, 1996). There are two extremes stated by Jones in applying socialization. The first is a highly institutionalized one where the new employees are separated and offered a common learning program. The second end is highly individualized, where employees are left on their own to engage in informal relationships with their fellow employees and to have self-learning experiences. There is however one disadvantage to socialization: when the objectives are clearly defined for employees, they tend to perform solely what they were expected to (cited in Morrison, 1996). Therefore, a company that seeks employee OCB will tend to have a more individualized socialization. OCB by definition includes the set of actions performed by employees that are not asked by management, therefore it is not directly rewarded. Thus, to encourage employees into applying this behavior, O’Reilly and Chatman believe that the company should employ indirect means that will encourage them to do so. That can be done by giving a reward to the organization’s performance as a whole. This will be helpful in two ways: first, it will further familiarize the employees with the company’s objectives and this way they will tend to act more upon achieving those goals through citizenship behavior. Second, by giving an award for the entire company’s performance, the organization will indirectly inform the employees that their job goes beyond what is clearly specified and limited into a certain role or department (cited in Morrison, 1996). According to Bowen, Siehl, and Schneider, when the company imposes a high number of rules and regulation, it is limiting and discouraging the employees’ ability to perform tasks outside their field of work, therefore limiting the OCB that can be achieved in that organization. A high number of rules will clearly define the limits of the economic exchange relationship between the employees and their company which will diminish their will to achieve OCB by determining exactly what the employees are asked to do and not to do and preventing them from engaging in any other action that is indirectly rewarded even if it benefits the company as a whole. Hence, in order for employees to want to perform citizenship behavior, the company must reduce its rules and thus create a social exchange relationship (cited in Morrison, 1996). Like rules and regulations, if a company describes the employees’ job in a very precise and narrow matter, it will reduce according to Bowen and Lawler the citizenship behavior applied by its subordinates. Employees will then have extremely well defined tasks to perform with no regard to any other company-wide actions. That way the exchange relationship between employee and company will more likely to be economic, not to mention that it reduces empowerment by limiting the resources needed by employees such as knowledge and skills to taking action towards OCB (cited in Morrison, 1996). How Employees Exercise OCB: To achieve organizational citizenship behavior, employees must practice different means. First, as Organ defines it, helping behavior is critical and evident in creating inter-employee relationships. Such behavior can be noted in the simplest acts such as when an employee assists his co-worker when the latter is overstrained with his paperwork or any other task being done. Second, according to Organ as well, sportsmanship, another dimension of OCB, is the ability to accept criticism and unfortunate events in the company without complaints, verbal or written. Consider a meeting for a marketing idea where employees are brainstorming. When the group rejects someone’s idea and the latter accepts that without being offended, he/she is considered to have a sense of sportsmanship. Third, organizational loyalty is a major concept when it comes to having a constructive organizational culture. This is evident whereby when employees are loyal to their company, they would feel safer and more content about the workplace and the organization’s culture. Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, Bachrach, 2000) Individual initiative, a fourth aspect of OCB, is represented in taking on additional responsibilities and engaging in task-improving actions without being asked to do so. This also includes encouraging others to do so, which helps the company as a whole improve. (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, Bachrach, 2000) An example is when an employee suggests to adopt a new method of performing a task, which he/she knows will improve the way things s done. Related to this is self-development, which is yet another dimension of OCB. According to George and Brief, self-development pertains to voluntarily engaging in development courses that are not required from the company in the attempt of improving one’s skills and broadening one’s knowledge. (Cited in Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, Bachrach, 2000) For instance, an employee could learn about upcoming seminars and training sessions and inform his colleagues of their dates. A different aspect of OCB is civic virtue, which can be defined as a commitment to the organization as a whole. This takes place through engaging in governing the organization indirectly, looking out for its best interest, and protecting it from threats. (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, Bachrach, 2000) A simple example of this is turning off the lights after having used the restroom. Similar to this is organizational compliance, the last dimension of OCB, which is when an employee complies with the company rules and regulations whether or not the latter is being monitored. Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, Bachrach, 2000) Returning to work right after having finished the permitted lunch break is an example of organizational compliance. It is crucial to note that all these behavioral aspects of organizational citizenship behavior are not part of the work contract or job description. Factors that diminish OCB: Several factors antecede and affect organizational citizenship behavior. Such factors can be set into four basic categories: employee characteristics, organizational characteristics, task characteristics, and leadership behaviors. The influence of these categories on OCB can be either positive or negative. It is evident that OCB is present in all companies, whether on a noticeable scale or an imperceptible one. This report will be depicting the negative relations between OCB and its antecedents, whereby, according to studies done in a meta-analysis by Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, and Bachrach, it has been found that organizational and task characteristics have little impact on OCB relative to individual and leadership behaviors which have greater impact on OCB. Employee or individual characteristics affect the presence of OCB and how much the latter contributes to building a constructive organizational culture. Taking two extremes, one can consider an employee who is indifferent of his/her company’s interest. The latter would surely not engage in activities pertaining to civic virtue, thus not exercising good citizenship behavior. The other extreme is an employee who is very concerned about the company’s interest and always seeks to attain goals that hold the company’s benefit. Such employee is more likely to be engaged in the different dimensions of citizenship behavior. To go back to the bigger image, an employee’s characteristics help in determining how well OCB is exercised in an organization. Indeed, it is found that the existence of OCB increases with the increase of employee loyalty and concern to the organization, and decreases with indifference to the greater benefit of the company and the rewards granted for good citizenship behavior. Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, Bachrach, 2000) Leadership behaviors are quite correlated to the presence of citizenship behavior in an organization. According to another meta-analysis reported by Podsakoff, MacKenzie, and Bommer in 1996, leadership behaviors are mostly positively related to OCB, whereby most leaders reward citizenship behavior within performance in general, which increases such behavior in the company as employees are aware of such rewards. The only negative leadership behaviors are contingent and non-contingent punishment behavior as well as leader specification of procedures. This is due to the fact that employees feel confused as to why leaders perform contingent punishment, thereby decreasing their citizenship behavior. Non-contingent punishment is a discouraging factor by itself, which makes it obvious why it negatively affects OCB in an organization.