Hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa The Astonishing Truth Behind...

At this moment in sub-Saharan Africa, every 3 seconds a child under five dies from AIDS and hunger, and more than 90 percent of the people are suffering long term malnourishment. (World Health Organization) In addition to this, measles are taking the life of a boy almost every minute, when a measles vaccine cost less than $1. (WHO, World Health Organization) Things are moving in the wrong direction, says Marc Cohen (International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Washington). If we look at sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, all the projections are that poverty and hunger are going to get worse. There are 31.1 million food-deprived masses, scattered across the region surrounding Ethiopia, and elsewhere. (The Christian Science Monitor,†¦show more content†¦That will be bad news for all of us because it can mean the beginning of new wars, oil prices will soar, economic recovery will not be possible, and the world will be a more dangerous place to live. Understanding the purpose and importance of this essay allows me to move on to trying to answer my main question. In order to achieve this goal I need to do some research. I want to center my research on finding out what hunger is, and if there is enough food in the world to feed all humanity, then I want to know what the real causes of the hunger are and who suffers from hunger in the world, along with some information about sub- Saharan Africa. Finally, I want investigate a specific case that occurred in Ethiopia, The case of the Ethiopian mother Angenyo Tebeje because is a typical example of the situation in the sub-Saharan region of Africa. All this background material will allow me to focus on my specific purpose: The attempt to comprehend the crisis in sub-Saharan Africa, specifically in Ethiopia, and finally, what could be the solution to that state of affairs. To begin with, what is hunger? Hunger according to food and health experts, is the continuing deprivation in a person of the food and vitamins needed to support a healthy life. Adults that have not enough food lose weight, become apathetic,Show MoreRelatedGlobalization and Its Impact on Malaysia13672 Words   |  55 Pagesliterally it does not stay in place?† (Dewey 1927, 140). To the extent that democratic citizenship minimally presupposes the possibility of action in concert with others, how might citizenship be sustained in a social world subject to ever more astonishing possibilities for movement and mobility? New high-speed technologies attributed a shifting and unstable character to social life, as demonstrated by increased rates of change and turnover in many arenas of activity (most important perhaps, the economy)

A Concise Guide to Market Research Using Spss - 71933 Words

A Concise Guide to Market Research . Erik Mooi l Marko Sarstedt A Concise Guide to Market Research The Process, Data, and Methods Using IBM SPSS Statistics Prof. Erik Mooi VU University Amsterdam Marketing Department De Boelelaan 1105 1081 HV Amsterdam Netherlands emooi@feweb.vu.nl Prof. Marko Sarstedt Ludwig-Maximilians-University Institute for Market-based Management Kaulbachstr. 45 80539 Munich Germany sarstedt@bwl.lmu.de ISBN 978-3-642-12540-9 e-ISBN 978-3-642-12541-6 DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-12541-6 Springer Heidelberg Dordrecht London New York # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned,†¦show more content†¦Each chapter on quantitative methods describes key theoretical choices and how these are executed in IBM SPSS Statistics. Unlike most other books, we do not discuss theory or SPSS, but link the two. This is a book for non-technical readers! All chapters are written in an accessible and comprehensive way so that non-technical readers can also easily grasp the data analysis methods. Each chapter on research methods includes simple examples to help the reader get a hands-on feel for the technique. Each chapter concludes with an illustrated real-life case, demonstrating the application of a quantitative method. We also provide a second, real-life case with an accompanying dataset, thus allowing readers to practice what they have learnt. Other pedagogical features such as key words, examples, and end-of-c hapter questions support the contents. This book is concise, focusing on the most important aspects that a market researcher, or manager interpreting market research, should know. Many chapters provide links to further readings and other websites besides that of the book. Several mobile tags in the text allow readers to quickly browse related web content using a mobile device (see section â€Å"How to Use Mobile Tags†). This unique merger of ofï ¬â€šine and online content offers readers a broad spectrum of additional and readily accessible information. A comprehensive Web Appendix with further analysis techniques, datasets, video ï ¬ les, and case studies is included. lShow MoreRelatedThe Importance of Market Research782 Words   |  3 PagesMarket research refers to the process of carrying out extensive research to determine whether goods and services are likely to satisfy customer requirements (Arora Mahankale, 2013). It is way of making sure that a new or existing business rolls out products or services that will have a positive impact in the market. Therefore, market research is an important requirement to both new and existing business holdings. In the case of new businesses, one is likely to get financial assistance if they haveRead MoreAnalytical Techniques For Marketing : Assignment3222 Words   |  13 Pagesshoppers. Briefly, the attributes used by consumers to evaluate the different products are investigated. Then, quantitative market research such as questionnaire is used to collect data from a sample group concerning the attributes they use during their grocery shopping in the Internet. After collecting the data, they are inserted i nto a statistical software called IBM SPSS Statistics 22.0 and then follow the factor analysis procedure. The application of exploratory factor analysis is essential inRead MoreData Mining for Business Intelligence4558 Words   |  19 Pagesinformation. It is about using this information to improve decision making Business intelligence is about improving decision making. It involves developing processes and systems that collect, transform, cleanse and consolidate organization wide and external data, usually in an accessible store (a data warehouse), for presentation on users’ desks as reports, analysis or displayed on screens as dashboards or scorecards. However, BI is broader than technology. It is about using the information availableRead MoreWhich Determinants Influence Foreign Investors Offshore Outsourcing Decision In Bangladesh Case Study7944 Words   |  32 PagesFIRST CHAPTER 1.1. Research Background and Motivations In today’s competitive business world, to increase global business,consumer demands as well as expands market size offshore outsourcing has become a common movement. Due to forceful competition, diminution product life cycle, changing consumer taste, preferences and sensitivity, progressing new knowledge, innovation, learning and technology and stakeholder’s enthusiasm companies, at present, continuously need to revamp their value chain (BertrandRead MoreIBM SPSS Statistics 19 Brief Guide25880 Words   |  104 Pagesi IBM SPSS Statistics 19 Brief Guide Note: Before using this information and the product it supports, read the general information under Notices on p. 158. This document contains proprietary information of SPSS Inc, an IBM Company. It is provided under a license agreement and is protected by copyright law. The information contained in this publication does not include any product warranties, and any statements provided in this manual should not be interpreted as such. When you send informationRead MoreRoles Of Cross Culture Management4180 Words   |  17 Pages2.1 Introduction 3 2.2 Brand Portfolio 3 2.3 Acquisition of foreign brands and strengthening brand portfolio in China 4 2.4 Role of cross culture management in acquisition 6 Chapter 3: Methodology 8 3.1 Introduction 8 3.2 Research philosophy 9 3.3 Research approach 9 3.4 Research strategy 9 3.5 Sampling and sampling techniques 11 3.6 Data collection techniques 11 3.7 Data analysis 12 3.8 Ethical considerations 12 List of figures Figure 1: A case of more brands less revenue 7 Figure 2: Managing crossRead MoreHorizontal, Vertical and Internal Communication in an Organization7509 Words   |  31 PagesTechnical Report Writing – Summer 2011 Horizontal, Vertical and Internal Communication in an Organization Research Paper submitted to: Professor Pacelli Eugenio Renory L. Bilugan 5/29/2011 Table of Contents: Page I. Introduction 2 II. Body of the Report 3 a. Vertical and Horizontal Communication b. Internal Communication 1. Memos a. Definition of a Memo b. Purpose of a Memo c. Audience Analysis d. General Format e. Common Types ofRead MoreHow Tv Commercials Influence Consumer Cosmetic Products Purchasing Decisions18056 Words   |  73 PagesContent Abstract 2 Chapter One: Introduction and Overview 4 1.1 Research background 4 1.2 Introduction of selected case 6 1.3 Research aim and questions 10 1.4 Methods of the study 11 1.5 Research significances 11 1.6 Thesis structure 12 Chapter Two: Literature Review 12 2.1 Advertising 13 2.1.2 TV commercials 18 2.1.3 Elements of TV commercials 21 2.2 Customer behavior 23 2.2.1 Theoretical foundation 23 2.2.2 Factors influence consumers purchase decision 24 2.3 The relationshipRead More THE IMPACT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PRACTICES IN IMPROVING STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES65118 Words   |  261 PagesAvailable at LEE, SHIUAN,EN,CHRIS (2009) Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/242/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: †¢ †¢ †¢ a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text mustRead MoreThe And Internal Audit Of Public Sector Essay6738 Words   |  27 Pagesaddressed and answers provided. In this study the research problems are; 1. Despite the fact that IT can bring about a number of benefits such as increased level of assurance, these have not much been realized. 2. No enough Internal Auditors know actually how to apply current audit technology in an efficient and effective way. 3. No specific guidelines are available to ensure that IT best practices are incorporated in Internal Auditing. 1.3 Research Questions The study is going to explore the effective

Advertisements are a Waste of Resources Free Essays

In a competitive economy, companies seek to persuade consumers to buy their products or to avail their services. It is impractical to think that companies should only stock their warehouses and wait for consumers to come knocking on their doors. If this is what businesses did, there would be an economic waste in terms of products being produced but not being bought. We will write a custom essay sample on Advertisements are a Waste of Resources or any similar topic only for you Order Now The critics of advertising attack the form of competition it provokes by saying it results in duplication and waste. It is equivalent to an arms race in the sense that a certain pattern might exist within an industry or sector concerning the extent of advertising. So if one competitor increases the extent to which it advertisers, others feel it is necessary that they do the same or at the very least engage in some form of advertising in order to maintain its market share or face the prospect of losing it. The advertisement rates during the Indian Premier League (IPL) season 6 might be an example to some advocates who believe advertising is a waste of resources. In this case, the resource alluded to is money. A ten-second advertisement spot cost between Rs 4-4.5 lakhs, while the associate sponsors of the event PepsiCo and Vodafone shelled something between Rs 40-60 crores each. These are nothing short of extortionate rates but companies must be having evidence to show that such rates are justified. It should however make marketers ask themselves an important question. Should they spend money on making a brand promise through advertising, or should they focus on keeping their brand promise by means of delivering what consumers want. However, although competition in advertising involves such waste, it is also a driver of innovation and setting new benchmarks. Competition is vital as it far outweighs its negatives with its positives and is a necessary requisite of a successful economy. There are some companies that literally manage to survive by spending almost nothing on advertising. Zara uses this strategy and does it by employing a strong in-store experience and keeping their shelves stocked with the latest fashion through quick production methods. One might say Zara is more focused on keeping their brand promise. Marketers would agree that advertisements should not be made simply to create a buzz, but to help in the generation of sales. An important point to consider is the brand life cycle, as the role played by advertising depends on it. A new brand may find advertising a very important function so as to target potential consumers. At this stage, brand recognition is critical and advertising is the only way to build it when there are new products or services to offer. A mature brand on the other hand might want to further its reach through advertising or may even be trying to bounce back from a recent decline in sales. But is advertising a waste of resources? To answer this question, it must be kept in mind that advertising doesn’t exist in a vacuum.It has to be considered as one of the alternatives available in the marketing of products and services. The decision doesn’t lie at the extreme end of whether to advertise or do nothing, but is rather to either engage in advertising or in some other form of sales effort. It is one part of the marketing effort which includes packaging, servicing, direct selling, pricing and is generally undertaken when it can justify being the most effective and economical method to appeal to customers. It is a vital function if you consider its reach and ability to communicate with all potential customers and is therefore used widely by many companies. If a company decides to substitute advertising with another method that might prove to be less efficient, it would result in economic waste. The use of resources for advertising to differentiate products from competitors would not always mean that its use has been diverted. On the other hand and quite frequently, it denotes the use of resources that would otherwise be idle and thus avoids the waste that comes with such idleness. How to cite Advertisements are a Waste of Resources, Papers

Nine Inch Nails David Bowie free essay sample

Ive thought Nine Inch Nails was the best band in the world for a few years but I now know how terribly underestimated they are. September 16, 1995. One of the first stops of the Outside Tour, David Bowies first tour in years. There was a rather large sold-out crowd at Great Woods. After Prick, I, not so patiently, waited for Nine Inch Nails, the second opening act, to appear. Suddenly, a great blow to the speakers and Trent, Charlie, Chris, Robin and Danny roared onto the stage with Terrible Lie. As Trent yelled Now, doesnt it make you feel better? to March of the Pigs we answered, YES! A smile cracked across his beautiful face and the crush of the mosh pit broke a few more ribs. I watched in awe through Wish and screamed along with Gave Up and ADown in it. There was an emotional pause, then, as blurred doves scrambled about on the screen behind the band. We will write a custom essay sample on Nine Inch Nails David Bowie or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Trent disappeared behind the curtain as everyone prayed that the set wasnt over. He reappeared with a glowing saxophone in his hands. As he played quiet, hypnotic notes through the microphone, a figure walked onto the stage. The cries and yells of each human being in the center blended together into one chaotic boom as David Bowie stepped up to the microphone. They waltzed through Subterranean and Trent stepped forward, into the spotlight for a loud crashing version of Scary Monsters. David and Trent switched vocals while Nine Inch Nails drummer, Chris Vrenna, played along with the big-haired Bowie drummer. Suddenly, the aching cries of Hurt bled through the speakers and the tears rolled down my face. This emotional song turned out to be the last song for Trent and friends. With a wave, they sadly disappeared from sight and David took over. The set was decorated with various figures in Bondage. David glimmered, blinding to look at, as he relaxed on a desk for The Man Who Sold the World (the original is always better). The theatrics were hypnotizing as he bounded all over the stage for Jump They Say and slowly, as if hesitantly, finished with Joe the Lion. I watched in awe through this performance and Im sad, yet ecstatic, to say that I will never again see such a wonderful a spectacle (at least until I see NIN again)

The New Employee in the Daniel Orozcos Orientation

The new employee is the main character in Orozco’s story â€Å"Orientation.† Orozco only concentrates on relationships of other employees and makes the new employee a mere observer in the new setting.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The New Employee in the Daniel Orozco’s Orientation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The narrator refers to the main character using the second person voice. â€Å"You must pace your work† (Orozco 2).However, the narrator tells the story using the first person voice. â€Å"What do I mean? (Orozco 3). The new employee does not speak in the story although we can see that there was dialogue. â€Å"I’m glad you asked that† (Orozco 3). We assume that the new employee asks a question but the narrator does not include it in the story. By so doing, the narrator demonstrates that the new employee who is the listener is completely insignificant. Simila rly, the job that the new employee is to partake is insignificant to the story. The story is set in a conventional office environment. â€Å"Those are the offices and these are the cubicles† (Orozco 1). The narrator uses this setting to make the lives and behaviors of employees appear more disgraceful. The narrator shifts from orientating the new employee to the general office to revealing about personal lives of the employees. He tells us about Russell Nash and his lust for Amanda Pierce. Apparently, discussing such information in an office environment is absurd. Assuming that the narrator and the new employee had never met before, the narrator ought to have restrained from discussing sexual relationships of other employees because he risked embarrassing the listener. Under normal circumstances, such discussions only happen between people who are close to each other. The narrator maintains a professional stance by refusing to comment on different sexual aspects of the employ ees. He only narrates events without sharing his mind about the same. For instance, he describes what Amanda’s husband does but he refrains from offering further comments (Orozco 4). This adds value to how the new employee perceives the information that the narrator shares.Advertising Looking for essay on american literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The narrator also tells the new employee about his job limitations. â€Å"There are no personal phone calls allowed† (Orozco 1). The narrator then explains to the new employee about what he can do when there is need for an emergency call. â€Å"If you must make an emergency phone call, ask your supervisors first† (Orozco 1). The narrator uses a professional tone in these two communications and creates a professional mood, which contradicts the idea of unprofessionalism when discussing personal information about employees. The objects in this piece of li terature are the offices and the cubicles. â€Å"Those are the offices and these are the cubicles† (Orozco 1). The narrator uses these objects to indicate to the new employee that he must act professionally as he is an official environment. These objects also instill caution in the new employee and that is why he listens cautiously and asks questions where he does not understand. The story ends with a climax, as the narrator tells the new employee about Kelvin Howard, who is a serial killer. â€Å"Kevin Howard sits in that cubicle over there. He is a serial killer† (Orozco 5). The narrator goes ahead and explains how Kelvin mutilates people in town. He, however, clarifies that Kelvin only kills strangers. By doing so, the narrator intends to assure the new employee that he is safe because under normal circumstances, an employee would scare the idea of working with a prominent serial killer. The narrator also portrays Kelvin as a hardworking man who does not let his non -professional activities interfere with his professional duties. Supposedly, the new employee feels secure because he will not be a stranger to Kelvin, but a professional colleague who Kelvin cannot attack. Therefore, this conclusion works because the aim of orientation is to make people comfortable in new settings.. Works Cited Orozco, Daniel. Orientation, New York: Faber Faber, 2011. Print.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The New Employee in the Daniel Orozco’s Orientation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This essay on The New Employee in the Daniel Orozco’s Orientation was written and submitted by user Sp1der-Ham to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Misconceptions in Dealing with essays

Misconceptions in Dealing with essays The dispute on abortion has become one of the most heated debates in today's society. It is a subject that can instigate incredibly strong emotions on either side of the argument. Since the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, which legalized abortions in the United States, women have had the individual right as people to decide the fate of their own bodies. This right can not be negotiated. People are not merely a means to an end, but ends themselves. A woman treated as an incubator of a fetus by the law is simply a means to an end, therefore disregarded as a person. There are many misconceptions about abortion. These misconceptions can potentially lead to the loss of women's individual and necessary rights to choose for themselves whether or not they want to bear a child. Most of these common misconceptions can not only be easily identified, but also utterly refuted. One of these common misconceptions is that human life begins at conception. This conclusion simply does not follow. As affirmed by Thomson in her article A Defense of Abortion: "Similar things may be said about the development of an acorn into an oak tree, and it does not follow that acorns are oak trees, or that we had better say they are" (356). There is no scientific consensus as to when human life begins. It is much more a matter of philosophic opinion or religious belief. Human life is a continuum; sperm and eggs are also alive, and represent potential human beings, but virtually all sperm and eggs are wasted. In addition, two-thirds of human conceptions are spontaneously aborted by nature. Another extremely disputable Pro-Life argument is that a fetus should have rights under the law. If fetal rights were enshrined in law, women's bodies, rights, and health would be subordinated to the protection of embryos. The legal consequences of such a law would be simply catastrophic. The best way to protect the fetus is to promote the health and well being of w...

Particularities of Starting a Small Business Assignment

Particularities of Starting a Small Business - Assignment Example In addition, business financial statements are existent to assist the owners of businesses and decision makers and are the leading business planning function (Drucker 83). For a business to grow, the business financial statements should establish the finest forms of costs, benefits of every form of finance, available finance, the responsibility of financial markets in providing finance, and the risk connected to finance. These financial statements are employed to give insight into a business’ debts and asset at a given time. Apart from that, the information on the shareholder’s equity in the business is also incorporated. A balance sheet also indicates the abilities and strengths of a business. Moreover, the balance sheet evaluates the decrease or increase in the business value from time to time. The balance sheet appraises the asset and liability composition, the value of retained earnings, and the relative equity financing and proportion of debt (Drucker 84). Income statement provides information that concerns the business income earned in a given time. In addition, income statements illustrate the expenses of the business in acquiring the shareholder earnings and income per share. More often than not, income statements give a record of incomes after a year (Drucker 86). Every expense in the income statement should be equal to the business and its functions. Cash flow statements grant an evaluation of money movement in and out of business. Cash flow statements are essential in deciding whether or not a business has the adequate finance to handle expenses, acquire assets, and pay bills (Drucker 87). The cash flow statements entail information from financial activities, operating and investing. Various entrepreneurs find fault in building forecast with the perception that it takes too much time; time that could be used for business transactions instead of planning.  

Imaginary Small Business KraftyKidz.com Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Imaginary Small Business KraftyKidz.com - Essay Example Books: there should be a selection of books that appeal specifically to the parents and educators of the target market, so that these interested adults can go to this site and order books about their children. In addition, of course there is also a selection of books to be ordered by and for the kids to read. The Internet reinvents itself every three months, or even faster. Therefore, our strategy for future development is to remain positioned with enough flexibility to adapt new technologies, and adapt to changes quickly. The Krafykidz.com market would be expanding exponentially with the advances of technology in the teaching sectors and the acceptance of technology as a teaching aid. The critical component to our entrance into the market will be approval and support from the school communities - including teachers, the PTA, and special education programs. While we have plans to expand into international territory, our initial launch will target our most important market - the American upper class. We know that most of our clients would drive BMW's and have very good taste - they spend money on their children because they can appreciate the technology that we have created. They also generally have high bandwidth connections, and are impressed by first-class design. The Break-even Analysis is a good f... We know that most of our clients would drive BMW's and have very good taste - they spend money on their children because they can appreciate the technology that we have created. They also generally have high bandwidth connections, and are impressed by first-class design. Financial Considerations Our start-up costs would come to $33,750, which are high because of our commitment to dominate the Internet market place. The Break-even Analysis is a good financial indicator. We show break-even with a sales level of about $265K per month, even assuming a fixed cost of $169 per month, which is high. Given those assumptions, we would reach steady-state break-even in December of the first year. Some companies can raise funds under the Enterprise Investment Scheme. The scheme applies to trading companiesbut not generallyto service or investment companies. There are potential tax advantages for individuals - including sole traders and partners acting in their capacity as individuals -who invest in such companies, such as - The buyer of the shares get tax relief at the lower rate of income tax and when they sell the shares it is also possible that they can defer the capital gains tax on any gains on those shares. Interest on loans taken for the purpose of investing in qualifying companies is not tax deductible. Government Regulations KraftyKidz.com would also need to consider trademarks. Trademarks and service marks may be registered in a state for a term of ten years as per the regulations involved. KraftyKidz.com would be required by law to withhold the following from the wages paid to employees: federal income taxes, state income taxes and FICA (Social Security) Insurance. Income taxes will also be levied by the federal and

Germany Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 8

Germany - Essay Example To begin with, Germany has well matured culture of Music, in the past, it successful ride since it has produced the best classical music composers of the world who among them; Beethoven and Bach Mozart (Bernstein, 2004).These two musicians played a very important role during the transition face in music when the world was moving from classical music to romantic music especially in the western countries (Bernstein, 2004). It is because of this successful history of music in Germany, that has seen Germany establish the fifth largest music market in the world and this simply means that Germany is still interested in preserving its culture in music industry .The culture of Germany in terms of music, has been identified with originality unlike in America where the culture of music has been influence by people moving from the Diaspora and settling in the country. Germanys have maintained the use of traditional foods. Most restaurant in Germany, prefer preparing traditional foods, although the food differ from one region to the other. For example, people who stay in the northern part of Germany, like eating fish that has been prepared in their traditional ways while those who stay in the Rhine region prefer taking their original beer as compared to wines that are being introduced in the country. Generally, Germania’s have maintained their traditional foods and they have resisted any assimilation into taking other foods unlike in the United States, where dishes that are prepared in the various regions vary with the kind of immigrants who have settled in those areas Germany has been known for its great contribution in the field of science, this has been made possible by the fact that Germany has maintained a strong historical back ground in research and adventure. Some of the fields that Germany has been credited for having played a key role include; invention and engineering (Bernstein, 2004).For example, Johannes Gutenberg was credited for the

History of Somalia: Pre-colonial, Colonial and Post Colonial

History of Somalia: Pre-colonial, Colonial and Post Colonial Chapter 1 Introduction The work pertains to the pre-colonial colonial and post colonial history of Somalia and the factors it does contain leading to the collapse of the state of Somalia. Furthermore research will demonstrate the fall out of the failure on the international and regional politics. It should be bear in mind that the Somali issue is complex in nature and hence at the end of the paper, the reader should understand the nature of Somalias tribulations. Note that one of the features of African politics is that it comprises what can be considered as the worst political weakness, that is: political disequilibrium, and state failure and Somalia are a case among others. Somalia is situated on the so-called Horn of Africa, with a total population of 15 to 17 million people and extending into the Indian Ocean, Somalias harbors are natural ports of call for traders sailing to and from India. So the coast of the region is much visited by foreigners, in particular Arabs and Persians. But in the interior the Somali are left to their own arrangements. It is bordered in the north by Djibouti, in the west by Ethiopia and in the south by Kenya. Chapter 1.1 Pre-colonial and colonial Somalia By the early 1800th European interests begins to crop up in Somalia, the coasts were used as a coaling station for ships to India. Somalia was an important port of call on the Indian trade route, but its aridity and hostility fueled hesitation on the colonization issue. In the 1880s, France, Britain, Italy and Ethiopia competed for the Somali territory, the four competitors agreed among them and shared the land, the northern part were shared among French and British(now Djibouti and Eritrea) and the coastal regions were annexed by Italian protectorate and Ethiopian. But their interests grew when the Suez Canal opened creating tension between Italy and Ethiopia, the repercussion of this tension were felt in the Ogaden region found between Ethiopia and the coastal part of Somalia; an active Italian region, which was finally granted tot eh Ethiopians. By 1920 the colonial compromises in Somalia began to weaken through upheavals in the British Somaliland, and in the Ogaden region by Fasc ist Italy. The World War II complicated the situation; as Italy violently acquired Eritrea, Ethiopia and Somalia, then known as the Italian East Africa, which surrounded British and French Somaliland. Somalia got into a situation of constant colonial change until its independence in 1960. Chapter 1.2 Post-Independence Somalia and conflicts After independence, Somalia looked forward to reunite with three large Somali groups trapped in other states in French Somaliland, in Ethiopia and in northern Kenya. As Kenya and Ethiopia were in under the protection of the Western powers, Somalia turned towards the Soviet for help. But still Somalia kept a neutral stance in international affairs, but this soon changed when newly elected President M. Egal was assassinated (1969) and the accession to power by Siad Barre who sided on the Soviet side, he devoted himself to a brutal Marxist dictatorship and hence opposing clan ideology and the clan system; which was an inherent part of the Somali culture. In 1977 Somalia attacked Ethiopian garrisons in the Ogaden but his ally; that is the USSR soon turned on the Ethiopian side and Ethiopia used Soviet support to take back the Ogaden in 1978. Having lost its ally and with thousands of refugee coming back, Somalia headed towards a deep abyss where it still lies. To understand the collapse of the Somali state is a complex issue, but as a sum up of the issue it can be said that it was due to both, historical and cultural legacy. From a political point of view it can be said that during the 19th century, Somalia has been divided into five regions, namely: French Somaliland (Djibouti), British Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, Ethiopia (Ogaden) and the Kenyan Northern Frontier District. But since its independence in July 1960, the main objective of the nationalist was to reunite the whole territory, thing which was difficult as it implied conflicts with its neighborhood. Such ideology represents also a constant threat to all the countries concerned, that is: Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. As a result, it weakened Somalias regional economic development and its diplomatic relations. Culturally speaking, it can be seen that Somalia is a complex body made up of several clan and sub-clans of nomads and pastorals. However the Somali believe that the clan system is their safeguard and protects them against foreigners, nevertheless, this belief is more complicated than it can appear. Moreover, above all they attach a deep affiliation to kinship and hence, for the Somali it can be sum up like the following: Families against families in a clan. Clan against clan in Somalia And Somalia against the World. The conflicts among clan is due spilling hereditary lineage and Siad Barre regime could maintain itself due to that Barre was able to play the game of rivalries between clans, furthermore, it is to be noted that major armed political groups are clan based. In the after effects of this disaster guerrilla groups, clan-based are formed in and around Somalia with the intention of bringing down Siads repressive and centralizing regime. By 1988 the result was a full-scale civil war, resulting in the overthrow of Barre in 1991. He joined his own clan, becoming one warlord among many in this increasingly chaotic nation. In 1991 the faction controlling the former British Somaliland confuses matters by declaring its independence as the republic of Somaliland. Unlike Somaliland, the south and central Somalia is under constant conflict and conquest by rival clans and establishment of de facto government(Ali Mahdi) but the question was not about how to rule but who rules as the tension revolved a round clan supremacy . Humanitarian turmoil reaches its peak and armed conflict generated food and health crisis but the situation is such that foreign intervention is difficult due to violent respons towards foreign aids. There is often a danger that fundamentalist peep into conflicts and tries to take advantage of the situation, the Islamic Courts Union confirmed the fundamentalists habit in Somalia extending its ideology. This Islamic fundamentalist group briefly tried to conquer Somalia. Chapter 1.3 Somalia economic overview â€Å"The economy has long been heavily dependent on livestock and agriculture. Stock rearing is practised throughout the country and accounted for about 40% of GDP [Gross Domestic Product] and 65% of export earnings in 2000, according to World Food Programme (WFP) estimates. Most of the farmland lies between the Jubba and Shabeelle rivers in the south of the country. The small manufacturing sector is based on the processing of agricultural products. In the south, the absence of a central government has meant that no economic data have been produced by national sources since 1990. In Somaliland, by contrast, the government collects tax and duties levied on trade.[1]† This can give an overview of Somali economy, hence its vulnerability and dependency on foreign economic aid especially in Puntland region where the data concerning the economic activity are almost absent. And this also brings in the ecological factor which is not in favor of the Somalis a clear example is the great droughts of 2006 which has caused a major humanitarian in Somalia, which touched nearly 1.5 million people, displacing 400,000 people due to a fall in crop production in practically all regions under cultivation[2]. But still, the Somalis economy is said to have flourished after the collapse; because the absence of a state and its institutions, has given birth to a laissez faire economy controlled by private sector. Private newspapers and enterprises mushroomed creating one of the best telecommunication systems in Africa, with an approximate GDP of $5.524 billion, and Somalia natural resources are: Largely unexploited reserves of iron ore, tin, gypsum, bauxite, uranium, co pper, salt, petroleum and natural gas. It produce also agricultural product such as banana, livestock, fish, corn, and has established markets(United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Oman) to export its product and imports petroleum products, food grain, construction material, etc†¦ from countries like Brazil, India, Kenya, Djibouti, United Arab Emirates, Yemen, Oman. Furthermore, Somalia also benefit from foreign economic aid especially from the United States of America, the European Union etc.[3] Its impact on the regional and international politics is more disastrous: it can be said in one paragraph which will clarify the rest; Somalia has been noted as a failed state in the international sphere, arms embargo imposed by the UN security council since 1992 till now, removal of humanitarian aid due to violence against the humanitarian aid volunteers, (particularly in Puntland state), and reinforcement of security in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean due to high piracy level in the zone, there is also the problem of mass migration of Somalis to Yemen. Chapter 2 State and State failure State A state is a set of components and institution that enable it to survive. The main pillars of the state are: the Government, territory and population. While population and territory are physical in nature government is institutional and most important, failing to establish one of the basic institutions, a country can be said to have failed. States function can be classified as ideal state functions and real state functions. Ideal state functions are divided into social functions and economic functions; social functions being: controlling the peoples fundamental rights and liberty and economic functions being provision of goods and services and income redistribution. But the real state functions are different, they are divided into state natural functions: that is power and coercion, social functions: for example protection of rights and liberty and economic functions that is limited to provision of goods and services. The state is presented as a tangible political entity; and the sta te has different characteristics: that is: Sovereignty; each state is sovereign and that is what creates the contract between the states prevents the interference of one state into another states matter. Territory: land and sea defined by a boundary. Nation: the concept of nation is very important, sometimes a nation leads to the creation of a state and sometimes a state leads to the creation of a nation. Somalia is a state with one nation but divided through cans. The Somali societys features match with the features of a nation that is same language, same culture, same religion, but different clans. Characteristics of a state are that it has also diplomatic recognition, internal organization and internal loyalty from the part of its population. [4] Chapter 2.1 Why a state? State has two sets of definition, the organizational definitions; that define the state as a set of governmental institutions making rules, controlling and supervising different element of the country. The functional definition depicts the state according to its social, economic, political and legal functions. The origins of the state dates back to the ancient civilization and the most antique form of state known is the Greek city state which evolved through time to give way to the modern nation state. State is a common word nowadays, members from each governing institutions claim that they can serve it and manipulate it, for instance, judges claim that they can discern its interests and politicians claim that they know how to run it. Liberals believed that the state should be a referee, Marxist sinister perception see the state as an â€Å"instrument† and relist perceive the state as a elitist organization of manipulators. A broader definition would be that the state is mainl y regrouping of all powers relations in society which acts as an automatic machine supervising the legal, economic, political and social elements of a country. Diverse thinkers view the state differently and below are the principal thinkers view of the state. Therefore, all the definitions show that a state is important and needed. 2 Locke rejects any notion of subordination and with it the relationship that it maintains in relations between men and relationships between men and inferior creatures. There is no difference between them inherent among men, there is no hierarchy: they are all free and equal in the eyes of God. The natural liberty requires both independence and equality; it makes the political authority to consent. Locke argues that men are originally free and equal and that the origin of Governments is a free association. It therefore opposes the theory of divine right monarchy and absolutism. Montesquieu developed in the spirit of laws theory of forms of government (monarchy, despotism, aristocratic republic, democratic republic). Its doctrine is based on separation of powers (legislative, executive, judicial) and opposes the speculative theory of natural law. There is no noble savage, but various companies where several elements govern men: climate, religion, morals. Thomas Hobbes sees the state as an institution whose individuals are self-centered in nature. Left on their own, they can create a state of war, as he called it. Hence, Hobbes upholds an absolute ruler to control the state. The will of the sovereign is the will of god and law of the state is the will of the sovereign, thus the sovereign or Leviathan, as he called it establishes the contract between various institutions and among individuals so as not to create chaos. The ruler is above law, the Leviathan is the state. So what can be deduced is that Hobbes defined the state as a primitive, individualist and anarchical institution where conflict of interest among individuals prevails and leads to collapse of the state, hence state must be a harsh institution which looks towards its survival, otherwise it would be the state of nature? But Jean Jacque Rousseau does not see the state as such. For him, the state and power is the evil that corrupts the good man. Rousseau corrects Hobbes by saying that it is state of nature is not just the removal of the governing body it is also the removal of all societal features; that is culture, belief, religion and even understanding of ones own self. Therefore it can be deduced that according to Rousseau, the state is a set of societal features, that is culture, religion belief, rational view of others and ones own self and governing institution. Marxist, view the state as something totally different: (The state) is a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it is cleft into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel. But in order that these antagonisms, classes with conflicting economic interests, might not consume themselves and society in sterile struggle, a power seemingly standing above society became necessary for the purpose of moderating the conflict, of keeping it within the bounds of order; and this power, arisen out of society but placing itself above it, and increasingly alienating itself from it, is the state.[5] What Engels wants to explains is that the state is controlled by the economically dominant class, enabling it to maintain its control over the exploited classes. Although the state is usually the instrument of the economically dominant class, sometimes conflicting classes balance each other such that the state becomes somewhat independent. The state is part of the superstructure of society. Marx and Engels analyzed human society as divided into a material base and a superstructure that rests on it. The base is made up of the devices of production (machines, tools, and raw materials), the social classes, chiefly the exploiting and laboring classes, of the particular society, and the relations between these classes. The superstructure consists of political and cultural institutions, including the state, churches, schools, etc., as well as corresponding intellectual spheres: politics, religion, science, art, etc. The state is a major, if not the major, element of this superstructure as per the Marxists. As per principles of International Law, a state is a recognized and subject to international law only if it comprises of certain qualifications, that is: a permanent population, a defined territory, government, and capacity to enter into relations with other states.[6] Comparing these features to Somalia, it can be deduced that Somalia lacks two of these qualifications, that is; capacity to enter in relations with other states and it has a weak government controlling limited territory. Therefore, Somalia is a state without its full managerial capacity, but still it is a sovereign state and is recognize as such by the international community, as defined by the Declaration on principles of international law Elements: b).: Each state enjoys the right inherent in full sovereignty and element c).: Each state has the duty to respect the personality of other states[7] Chapter 2.2 State failure A state does not collapse one day or another, a state weakens fails and then collapse. A weak state still have control on the majority of the country but cannot solve major issue or is illegitimate in the eyes of some portion of the population. In fact the strength of a state is judge on the level of obedience and legitimacy accorded to it by the nation. State failure is an instable state experiencing civil war or invasion, then, the state collapse; this situation is the total paralysis of all institution of the state that is; legal, economic, military and political. State failure is a sensible but tangible issue in Africa, moreover, before defining state failure and its implication in Africa, first of all there must be a kind and close comprehension of the subject and its various facets. State failure is two words with various definitions, because circumstances and factors leading to state failure vary from one country to another. Before looking into the core subject, definitions of the word state is important, moreover, the definitions of state also vary. State failure concerns essentially the interrelationship between models of authority, political control and institution building in a country. What makes Africa the appropriate model to examine state failure, is that it has experienced shifts of government, that is, from colonial to post colonial or from democracy to autocracy. The shift of power, from colonial to independent has created political instability in most country and in some state failure. In the case of Africa and particularly, Somalia, when the term state failure is coined, it, means the there is a failure to control and to promote human prospering. Government is normally formed of various institution to promote Culture, economic stability, security, rights, liberty, justice and what is more important is to respect the concept of rule of law on the territory by all civilians. Hence these values are under the responsibility of a governing body which delegates the particular responsibilities to institutions like; the Army, Supreme Court, ministries, police force etc†¦ in respect of a Constitution[8]. There are some fixed and variable symptoms indicating a state collapse; fixed symptoms being common symptoms present in all cases and variable symptoms being particular to the specific Country. Examples of fixed symptoms are failure in the provision of national and international security and the preservation of order, failure in the implementation of the rule of law, no existence of; institutions of political freedom, channels of commerce and communication, lack of provision of an economic institution to promote growth and prospe rity, and no presence of basic services such as medical services, power, running water, and control of the environmental commons, and civil war. Variable symptoms, here in the case of Somalia, would be piracy, but the issue of piracy is subject to debate because the state failure is not the only causes of piracy in Somalia, ecological factors are responsible too. Therefore, a state is weakens when it loses control one of these institutions or all, in other words the state failed to provide basic functions for its citizen. But state failure or collapse, is not an instant event, it is rather an event of long lasting decay of the state due to internal or external factors, which will be explained later. Hence, the fall out of state failure is that the economy becomes weak, provision of education and heath care disappear, proliferation of crime and violence and it also generates opposing groups often engaged in armed conflict, creating humanitarian crisis and often genocide, population shift, refugee crises and food shortage. Chapter 3 Causes of the collapse Causes of the collapse can be divided and hence would be better understood, there are the founding causes and the contributing causes. Founding causes are those causes which are at the origin of the collapse of the state and contributing causes are as important as founding causes but have contributed to the collapse not originate it. The conflicts are to be divided into three categories; it must be beard in mind that all these factors have contributed to the collapse of the Somali state, but at different stages and different way. This chapter is an attempt to demonstrate how each causes has its importance throughout the failing process. The causes or factors of collapse are classified as such: Original cause(initiation of collapse) instable Contributing causes (declining factors) weak Final blow collapse Original causes: these factors can also be referred to as the initiation to the state collapse: that is the factors which rendered the state instable, but did not knock out the state. What is meant by instable is that; those factors created a state of tension in the country that gave little chance for Somalia to progress, socially, economically, politically. Original causes are; colonial division of Somalia into five parts and offering Ethiopia in particular a great portion of the territory[9]; and social division of the Somali society into small clan-based mini-states that lacked an organizational skill to regroup themselves into a state. These two factors could be considered as the core factors of the collapse of the state by causing the formation of a weak and deformed state. But another core factor can be added to this that is: wrong management of the national resources and the fact that Somalia lack effectively trained human resources to substitute colonial administration in running state institutions. The historical period for this condition is preceding the independence of Somalia in 1960. There are also the transitional causes which caused the state to collapse. Transit causes are mid causes; these are for example the Barre Socialist regime, and the final blow which lead to the downfall of Somalia. Chapter 3.1 Clan system It should be bearded in mind the cultural traditions of Somalia do not allow the country to be accustomed to building a modern state. The clan system in Somalia is both unite and divide, as explained above, the characteristic that unites, that it is a common form of social organization in Somalia. But the sharing feature is that: there is hostility between clans and sub-clans. The clans are divided into two categories: there are pastoral nomads and livestock mainly southern clans. But the conflict is mainly between pastoral nomadic clans and clans farmed. There are four major clans of noble families; the Darood, Hawiye, Isaaq and Dir,. Minority groups and low-caste clans included the Bantu of Somalia (being the largest minority group), the Benadiri, Rer Hamar Brawanese, swahili, Fumal, Yibir, Yaxar, Madhiban, Hawrarsame, Muse Dheryo and Faqayaqub. One third of the population, approximately two million people are from minority groups. Intermarriage between these groups and noble clans is limited. Some of these groups have limited access to all social services that are available, including health and education. Minority groups had no armed militias and continue to be victims of murders, tortures, rapes, abductions and looting of land and property. These groups have continued to live in conditions of great poverty and suffer numerous forms of discrimination and exclusion.[10] As indicated in the JFFMR[11] March 2004, the delegation met Omar Abdiaziz Daad: Daad Omar, former Minister of the reconciliation of President Siad Barre from 1986 to 1990, said he is a Marehan himself and the nephew of Siad Barre and next to Siad Barre, the son closest. Daad Omar left Mogadishu in 1991 and returned several times since. Daad Omar said he works as a mediator in central Somalia and has been accredited for the peace process in Kenya to the Darood clan. Daad Omar explained it is too difficult for Marehan to live in Mogadishu, they are designed to be high because many of them used to work for the regime of Siad Barre. He stated that all members of the clan would Marehan to blame for the suffering caused by the SiadBarre regime and they risk being killed. Omada Daad estimated 200 people Marehan clan live in Mogadishu today that are able to stay there only because they were married with members of stronger clans. Marehan An independent could not live safely in Mogadishu and manage a business. Daad Omar said that Marehan who had worked for the regime of Siad Barre could not return to Mogadishu. Even members of the family of a Marehan who had worked for Siad Barre would have had problems today. Any other clan member (eg a Hawiye and Habr Gedir) who had worked in the administration (including police) Siad Barre have no problems returning to Mogadishu today. But members of the Darood clan and Majerteen will not be able to live safely in Mogadishu, the Hawiye clans regard them as a challenge to their power â€Å" The complexity of the Somali clan system, it is difficult to identify the clan, but it is easier to identify them when they fall into political factions. This complex political structure, where there is only way to rivalry and competition for resources and territorial control, can not make a good organization policy. Good organization policy refers here to standard policies every country, that is, establishment of a modern state through democratic principles. But what was so undemocratic about the clan system? The answer is simple; the clan system that has long existed in Somalia, as well as conflicts between clans, but these conflicts has been an obstacle to the unification of Somalia under a local body[12] (after independence). An obstacle to the unification of Somalia that the issue of creating a modern state was another thing, it was more difficult with increasing conflict between the clan, where the modern nation-state was not the priority, the unification of the clans is paramo unt. But the intellectual elite choose the wrong option, they created the modern state in Somalia first and then tried to accommodate the clan, what followed was chaos! We can not find details of Somalia without being troubled by the importance of clan in the Somali culture, and it is so omnipresent that it is causing the conflict in Somalia. What brings the clan system as a basic factor for the collapse of the state is that, as mentioned above, it is an integral part of Somali culture, and furthermore, it has generated the de facto state by clan rivalries on then basis of clan identity. Siad Barre could remain so long at the head of Somalia because he used a policy of divide and rule and created rivalries between clans, favorising his own clan the main armed political groups as well that is;USC, SSDF, SNM, SPF, SDA, SDM. United Somali Congress (USC). The USC was created by the Hawiye clan in central Somalia around Mogadishu. Somali Salvation Democratic Front (SSDF). The SSDF was created by the sub-clan of Darood Majerteen, who live in north-eastern Somalia. Somali National Movement (SNM). The SNM was created by the Issaq clan of north-west Somalia, it proclaimed the independence of Somaliland. Somali Patriotic Front (SPF). The SPF was established by the Ogaden sub-clan of Darood who live partly in the south and partly in central Somalia. Somali Democratic Movement (SDM). The SDM is the movement Rahanwein clan; they live in the south and west. Somali Democratic Association (SDA). The SDA is the advantage of living Dir clan in Somalias north-west. The question of invasion is also very important for the inter-clan conflicts. Unlike northern Somalia, also known as Somaliland, which consists of five districts, but primarily inhabited by people fro the Issaq clan, southern Somalia is not homogeneous. The regions south and central Somalia is under conquest and occupation of the armed forces different clan, who have no legitimacy on the cities and agricultural lands for which they fought and. Chapter 3.2 Colonial division of Somali territory The colonial history of Somalia do not let anyone believe that this nation can easily form an effective state, the question that comes to mind all the readers is that the colonial history of Somalia, how can be linked to the collapse of the state. The countries sharing the same culture with the various rival clans, and the problem does not stop there, the colonial powers divided the land into portions thereby creating a situation of standstill, paralyzing the nation. As mentioned at the beginning, Somalia was formed by the union of two former colonial territories, British Somaliland in the north and Italian Somaliland, which was more populous. But the colonial division affects the breakdown as follows: Somali irredentism and conflict with Ethiopia and Kenya. When Somalia was unified in 1959, before independence in 1960, only the British and Italian Somaliland, which has created the new Somalia, there were still some Somalis living in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. In fact, this could be unified has been unified and the rest was considered that there was a Somali nation in these countries, Somalia and the whole is not united. And thats where the problem laid, Somali irredentism was much more important than solving the rivalries of clans that has brought the country to failure and collapse. The colonial history of Somalia do not let anyone believe that this nation can easily form an effective state, the question that comes to mind all the readers is that how can the colonial history of Somalia, be linked to the collapse of the state. The countries sharing the same culture with the various rival clans, and the problem does not stop there, the colonial powers divided the land into portions thus creating a situation of standstill, paralyzing the nation. As mentioned at the beginning, Somalia was formed by the union of two former colonial territories, British Somaliland in the north and Italian Somaliland, which were more populous neglecting portions of Somali in Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti. Therefore, the colonial division affects the collapse as follows: Somali irredentism leading to conflict with Ethiopia and Kenya. When Somalia was unified in 1959, before independence in 1960, only the British and Italian Somaliland had created the new Somalia, there were still some Somalis living in Kenya, Ethiopia and Djibouti. In fact, what could be unified has been unified and the rest was unconsidered, there was a Somali nation in these countries, Somalia as a whole was not united. And thats where the problem laid, Somali i rredentism was much more important than s

public education :: essays research papers

The topic that I am going to be talking about in this essay is a very big and controversial issue. That is rather it is a good idea or bad to charter our failing public school system. So far it seems the non-chartering path is in the lead, but charting school is catching up fast. In this essay I’m going to summarize one article title The New School, by Chester E. Finn Jr. that supports the charter system. Also I will summarize an article title To Market, To Market, by Phyllis Vine who seem to strongly opposed the charting our public system. As far as my personal opinion goes, I believe charter schools are still in it’s infancy, we should give it more time to develop before we can actually decide rather charter school is a good idea or not. I would go into greater detail later in the essay.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Pro-charter article titled The New School, by Chester E. Finn Jr. who is the former assistant secretary of education believed and I quote â€Å"charter schools offer the benefits of both public and private schools and can revitalize urban education.† He started the article by stating that currently the charter systems enrolling about 170,000 students, with about twenty-nine school authorizing and allowing charter schools to be built and operated, states such as California, Michigan, Texas, Massachusetts. What is a charter school? Well, according to the article, it is â€Å"a public school with some of the most highly prized features of private schools.† The best part is it is offered to anyone who wishes to attend, with no additional cost to the parents, because it is pay for by the tax dollars. Out of all the charter school, many are owned and operated by local community and parents. But there are about two dozen that are operated and owned by t he Edison Project and the Educational Alternatives Inc. For some other firms instead of operating and owning the entire school, they target specific area, such as the furnishing, tutoring, and technology to name a few. According to this article the educational system in the United States is $300 billion enterprise. While Chester states maybe a reason for some firms to try to jump on board the chartering business. From Chester’s article he stated that in two years time he visited about sixty schools in fourteen states and interviewed few hundreds of those either worked or attended those schools.

Marketing the Church

Christianity in the twenty-second century when put side by side with its first century counterpart employing the aid of history will help clearly expose any discrepancies and similarities of problems each generation encountered. People utilize euphemisms in place of very weighty terminologies to describe and attribute the state of affairs; for instance issues in place of problems. It is understandable though the rationale for such changes despite the subtleties they may entail concerning definitions and descriptions. Today, Christians are facing myriad problems especially where the objective faith has to be reckoned with. This body of doctrine had broken through centuries of conflict, persecutions and changes, and still the Bible continued to deliver the message.The message is still the same, however, despite various attempts that were made to dilute, twist and suit to self-centered people’s own thinking and vested interests. The issues as they are commonly termed today, inclu de anything not just to disparage simple believing Christians and the practice of their faith; issues embrace those that had continued to conflict traditional men’s thinking and the usual rationalistic and humanistic viewpoints of life, not to mention those presuppositions that keep the truths of Scripture from sinking deep into the recesses of a person’s mind as well as superstitious beliefs (e.g., â€Å"divination† and the like) that are just so fantastic anybody would wonder why this is happening to some poor souls (de Waay 2007).In much of the controversies facing the church today, nothing is more prevalent and has so affected significant influence to the church at large as the â€Å"marketing-the-church† approach. The reason or the key to why it is so influential among many churches is in its pragmatic method on doing church business. Gary E. Gilley has captured the gist of the whole scheme of this â€Å"new paradigm shift† that has drawn many to adapt its strategies in his four-part report critique of this kind of church’s strategy (Gilley p 2 2000).He observed that because the large segment of the church has become content with its so little impact on the large mass of people in society, some of its leaders began to think that it might be because the church is not doing its work right. It might be that many of those occupying leadership positions in the church are simply continuing what has been passed on to them. They are doing it in the traditional way that past generations of pastors had done it. So these leaders decided to â€Å"strategize† and think of new ways to repackage the church so that it would â€Å"sell fast† and effectively draw large number of the population into its sanctuaries.This simply is the idea behind marketing the church. The church has become just any other product. One just has to learn how to merchandize it like a skillful salesperson or a good businessman. â€Å"There must be a better way,† the church growth gurus have surmised. â€Å"It should not continue the way it is being done.† There must be ways to improve the â€Å"quality† of the church’s appearance to the watching world. The obvious need of the day was new techniques to reach the lost. The gospel must be wrapped in a wrapping that will catch the attention of the world so they will bother to check what’s in the inside. The gospel, according to the observation of these church growth gurus, is rejected outrightly the moment it is sensed by prospective converts. The gospel is not the problem, it is the outdated form that it is being presented that has become the problem (Gilley p 15 2000).The Power of God for SalvationWhat needs to be remembered at this point is the fact that the New Testament has made it very clear that the only tool that God is using for the conversion of people is the gospel. Church workers must be convinced of its inherent power to conv ict and draw people to the Lord. It does not need any coating so people will get attracted to it. On the other hand, contrary to what church growth consultants advocate (to repackage or add other elements to the gospel so it will become acceptable to its market), whenever the message of the cross (gospel) is mixed with humanistic opinions and philosophies, the Word of God is rendered void of its power (1 Cor.1:17). What is worse in this kind of approach is that it falls under the category of â€Å"handling the word of God deceitfully† (2 Cor.4:2).If there is anything that the church must do at this point in time, it is not to adapt new ways to present the gospel but to educate its people about the content of the gospel and its sufficiency in administering salvation. This is the real need of the church that has not been dealt with seriously by the great majority of Christians. The reason why the paradigm shift is deemed as the only solution for the inefficacy of the church in reaching its community is actually because a significant number so-called Christians are ignorant of what the gospel consists of. Apostle Paul said, â€Å"it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes† (NKJV, 1982).The Bible has already forewarned us of the negative impressions people would have of the gospel message. It is â€Å"foolishness† and a â€Å"stumbling block† to people who could not apprehend it. The good news however is that it is effective and will definitely work positively to those who ready to accept it. Thus, sticking to its purity will always guarantee a result. It may not be as massive as the church’s marketer’s strategies but its fruit is genuine conversion of those who really have grasped and accept its terms (Gilley p 17 2000).ConclusionTo learn to market the church and to strategize as to secure a substantial number of attendance in a church’s service may be in itself considered a success in today†™s church growth measurement. But Biblically speaking, even in Jesus’ elaboration on what it really means to be His true disciple (Luke 14:25-35), simply being among the â€Å"crowds† does not guarantee being genuinely converted to faith. Sticking to God’s prescription of the gospel as the only means to secure salvation and true harvest of souls in God’s kingdom may not be as explosive in result as the marketing approach, but its result is sure, and hence, more effective if measured by God’s standard of success.The temptation to comply with the standards of the times is always a challenge to the church of Jesus Christ. The pressure to become popular and accepted in today’s culture is still an intense battle facing Christians everyday. The question of relevance is not actually the issue. When the church buy into the ploy of the culture and coerced to measure her success allowing those outside to judge whether she is effective or not in her work, it simply means that the church has shifted from using God’s Word as the gauge to listening to surrounding discontented world. It is no longer God who has the say. Remember that, naturally, humankind in its rebellion and sin against God is hostile and antagonistic to the gospel message. It is only when it is drawn through the message of the gospel in God’s terms that it will ever get nice and pleasant to the ways of God.Of course, it is not an easy task for the people of God. It hasn’t been. The preaching of the gospel and the charge to teach people (educate them) of the teachings of Christ is the primary duty of the church. Any strategies that end up short of making people Christ’s true disciples are not effective when appraised through the aims of the Great Commission. Unfortunately, the attempts of those who want to compete and enjoin the church in the field of the corporate world are not biblically sound and too risky. The danger lies in its pot ential to compromise and invent another gospel. It is not that writer refuses to be relevant; in fact, the message of the gospel is so pertinent enough that on its proclamation hinges the solution to humanity’s real problem.What the church needs in general is to have enough faith in the effectiveness of the message of God to address man’s deepest needs and correct those inner problems which when it finally happens will automatically appease superficial cravings. The solutions offered by church marketers address the surface only. In the end, after all of the attractions of the strategies have lost their bite, the ultimate question must still be answered: Is the gospel accepted in its own terms or not?Works Cited:de Waay, Bob, Contemporary Christian Divination. 2007. â€Å"Critical Issues Commentary† Accessed December 1, 2007. < http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue83.htm>.Gilley, Gary E. â€Å"The Market-Driven Church: A look behind the scenes† Think on These Things.   September, 2000 p. 1- 20. Southern View Chapel, Springfield, IL.

Reality of Teaching and Learning Pronunciation Essay

Rationale of the study Nowadays, with the rapid pace of integration and globalization, English becomes a golden key to open the door of many fields such as commerce, communication, science and technology throughout the world. Therefore, to meet the demand of the society, it is very necessary to teach English in schools at all levels. And the highest target is to get well in communication. If one wants to get successful in communication, he must be good at pronunciation: â€Å"a threshold level of pronunciation in English such that if a given non-native speaker’s pronunciation falls below this level, he or she will not be able to communicate orally no matter how good his or her control of English grammar and vocabulary might be† (Celce-Murcia, 1987:5). In the field of language teaching, the role of pronunciation has varied widely from having virtually no role in the grammar-translation method to being the central focus in the audio-lingual method where emphasis is on the traditional notions of pronunciation, minimal pairs, drills and short conversations. The growing emphasis on communicative approaches for the teaching of English has placed higher demands for correct pronunciation. Despite this fact, at the upper-secondary school level in Vietnam, in language teaching and learning, compared with vocabulary, grammar and language skills, pronunciation has so far been paid less attention to. In the official textbooks used for teaching English at high school level, there are a few exercises for pronunciation practice. To make the matter worse, all important English exams at schools as well as the entrance exam to universities are always in written form so most teachers as well as students have little motivation to teach and to learn pronunciation. As a result, students are often shy and unconfident to speak in English. And that is the reason why the effectiveness of teaching pronunciation still remains one of the most widely problematic subjects in the field of language teaching. Coping with this pressing fact, as a language teacher teaching English at Quynh Coi high school (QCHS), the author always thinks of some burning questions: in language teaching and learning, what is the present situation of teaching and learning pronunciation at high school level in QCHS? What are the problems teachers and students face in teaching and learning pronunciation? How to find suitable methods to teach pronunciation? What should teachers do to teach pronunciation effectively? How should teachers make students become interested in learning pronunciation? The answers to these questions will help language teachers improve their students’ pronunciation as well as help them make progress in effective communication. For the above reasons, the author decides to carry out the study entitled: â€Å"The reality of teaching and learning pronunciation at Quynh Coi high school: problems and solutions†. 1. 2 Aims of the study The main purpose of this study is to discover the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation at Quynh Coi high school, especially to find out problems that teachers and students often have in pronunciation lessons. The writer also hopes to make some feasible solutions that can help the English teachers overcome those problems and improve students’ pronunciation. 1. 3 Research questions The above aims of the study can be realized by answering the following research questions: (1) What is the present situation of teaching and learning pronunciation at QCHS? (2) Which problems do the teachers and students at QCHS face in pronunciation lessons? (3) What teaching techniques can be used to improve teaching pronunciation for students at QCHS? 1. 4 Scope of the study As a case study, this study focuses on the reality of teaching and learning two aspects of English pronunciation: stress and intonation for the 12th form students at Quynh Coi high school. The subjects of the study are 12th form students those are familiar with learning pronunciation for two years at high school. Moreover, stress and intonation are two major aspects of pronunciation introduced in the official textbook used by the 12th form students. Other characteristics of English pronunciation would not be deeply investigated in this research. . 5 Methods of the study In order to fulfill the tasks mentioned above, both qualitative and quantitative methods are selected for this case study, involving the following instruments: survey questionnaires, classroom observations and interviews. Firstly, the survey questionnaires were delivered to both teachers and students to investigate the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation at QCHS. Then, some classroom observations and interv iews with some English teachers have been also conducted to get supplementary information. Finally, the results obtained from questionnaires, observations and interviews have been discussed and analyzed to with a hope for providing language teacher with some feasible teaching techniques to work successfully with their students. 1. 6 Significance of the study This study hopes to make contribution to teaching pronunciation at high school level in Vietnam and the result of the study is considered to be useful for teachers and students at school. Thus, this study will be an interesting reference material for any high school language teachers in Vietnam, especially for those who are in favor of improving their students’ pronunciation. This research will help teachers and students identify their problems in teaching and learning pronunciation and self- improve their pronunciation. 1. 7 Design of the study This thesis consists of six main chapters: Chapter one is the INTRODUCTION including the rationales, the aims, the scope, the research questions, the methods, and the design of the research. In the book â€Å"Pronunciation† published in 1994, Christiane Dalton and Barbara Seidlhofer (1994:3) consider pronunciation â€Å"as the production of significant sound†. They look at the word in two senses. First, it is used as part of a code of a particular language. That is the reason why English sounds are distinguished from sounds of other languages. In this sense, pronunciation can be told as the production and reception of sounds of speech. Second, sound is used to achieve meaning in contexts of use. Here the code combines with other factors to make communication possible. In this sense pronunciation is referred with reference to acts of speaking. In the scope of this study, the concept of pronunciation can be described as â€Å"a way of speaking a word, especially a way that is accepted or generally understood† (American Heritage Dictionary, 1992) or â€Å"may be said to conclude the sounds of the language or phonology; stress and rhythm; intonation; combination sounds; linkage of sound† (Ur, 1996). 2. 2 Features of pronunciation Gerald Kelly (2000) points out main features of pronunciation including phonemes and suprasegmental features, in which consonants and vowels belong to phonemes, intonation and stress are two main parts of suprasegmental. Phonemes are units of sound, they are known as segments. Suprasegmental features are features of speech which apply to groups of segments, or phonemes. The features which are important in English are stress, intonation, and how sounds change in connected speech. The following diagram shows a breakdown of the main features of pronunciation: Features of pronunciation (Kelly, 2000:1) As seen from the diagram, pronunciation is a broad subject with the boundaries of various items such as consonants, vowels, stress, and intonation. This study is intended to focus on two major features of pronunciation: intonation and stress are deeply investigated. According to Quirk R. and Greenbaun S. (1973:450), stress is the prominence with one part of a word or of a longer utterance is distinguished from other parts. This can be understood like this: when an English word consists of more than one syllable, one of these syllables is made to stand out more than the others. This is done by saying the syllable louder. For instance, in such words as â€Å"English†, â€Å"teacher†, and â€Å"student† the first syllables are stressed. Intonation is an important part that most teachers have to deal with when teaching connected speech, it refers to the way the voice â€Å"goes up and down in pitch† (Kelly, 2000: 86) when we are speaking. It plays a vital role in helping people express their opinions, and understanding thought of others. In short, the word â€Å"pronunciation† is like a big umbrella covering various sub-items as consonants, vowels, intonations, stress, etc. With such big boundaries of items, language teachers and learners have to think of how to master these key aspects, especially stress and intonation, to be successful in teaching and learning pronunciation. 2. 3 Teaching pronunciation 2. 3. 1 The importance of teaching/ learning pronunciation and a â€Å"paradox† 2. 3. 1. 1 The importance of teaching and learning pronunciation Pronunciation is as important as any other aspects of language like syntax and vocabulary. Some people may argue that speech is obviously much more significant than pronunciation. However, speech cannot exist without pronunciation. Correct pronunciation, in fact, is considered to be a prerequisite to develop the speaking skill. That is why teaching pronunciation should occupy an important place in the study of any language. According to Gerald Kelly (2000), pronunciation â€Å"involves far more than individual sounds† including word stress, sentence stress, intonation, and word linking. All of these influence the sound of spoken English. Sound is the core of the language. When teaching a language, the first and foremost thing teachers should do is to let learners have chances to expose themselves to the sounds of that language. That is the reason why more and more teachers pay much attention to teaching pronunciation to their students. Considering the importance of communication in general and pronunciation in particular, Gerald Kelly confirms â€Å"a learner who constantly mispronounces a range of phonemes can be extremely difficult for a speaker from another language community to understand. A consideration of learners’ pronunciation errors and of how these can inhibit successful communication is a useful basis on which to assess why it is important to deal with pronunciation in the class† (2000:11). Sharing the same ideas with Kelly, Martin Hewings (2004:10) adds â€Å"difficulties with pronunciation might mean that students fail to get their message across, even when the correct words are being used, or they might fail to understand what is said to them. † The inaccurate use of suprasegmetal elements, such as tress or intonation, can also cause problems. Errors in pronunciation can lead to a problem of reception, or comprehension of the meaning or function of an utterance, even worse, they can affect the perceived tone or mood of an utterance. Moreover, it is obvious that good pronunciation serves as a strong motivation for language learners. Most language learners show considerable enthusiasm for pronunciation as they consider it as a good way to show that they are competent in the language. Once they have obtained adequate pronunciation competence, they gradually build up strong confidence for themselves and are ready to learn new things without hesitation. 2. 3. 1. 2 A â€Å"paradox† As the matter of fact, the role of pronunciation in English learning process could not be negated. Regrettably, teaching and learning pronunciation has not received appropriate attention as expected and Gerald Kelly call this fact a name â€Å"a paradox† (Kelly, 2000: 1). It tends to suffer from being neglected. This may not be teachers’ lack of interest or motivation in pronunciation. The main reason comes from their teaching experience and confidence, â€Å"feeling of doubt as to hoe to teach† (Kelly, 2000:13). In spite of the fact that both teacher and students are keen on pronunciation, they often take grammar or vocabulary precedence over pronunciation for granted. If it is not neglected, â€Å"it tends to be reactive to a particular problem that has arisen in the classroom rather than being strategically planned† (Kelly, 2000:13). This is the most popular problem is pronunciation lessons. Teachers only deal with pronunciation when it comes to be problematic. There is no lesson plan, no strategy in teaching and learning pronunciation. Most teachers often prepare lesson plan for teaching grammar, vocabulary, but pronunciation. Yet pronunciation work can, and should, be planned for, too. Teachers should regard features of pronunciation as integral to language analysis and lesson planning. This paradox arises from both the nature of pronunciation itself, from the teaching staff as well as from the learners themselves. However, to deal with this problem, as language teachers, teachers need to have a good grounding in theoretical knowledge. Furthermore, in order to teach pronunciation successfully, teachers should be practically skilled in classrooms, and they need to have good ideas, approaches, techniques, as well as classroom activities. 2. 3. 2 Teachers’ roles in teaching pronunciation Mastering a foreign language pronunciation is not something impossible as far as the student and the teacher participate together in the total learning process. Thus, to succeed in a pronunciation program, the teacher plays an essential role. Kenworthy (1987), Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc (2001), and Hoang Van Van, et al. (2006) shared the similar ideas about teachers’ roles in the teaching and learning pronunciation process, in which, teachers are responsible for:†¢Helping learners to hear: The teacher has a mission to provide appropriate input of the target sounds for learners to hear. Teacher needs to check that their students are hearing sounds according to the appropriate categories and help them develop new categories if necessary. †¢Helping learners to make sounds: It is true that some English sounds do not exist in the learners’ mother tongue. Some learners may be able to imitate the target sounds if they are provided models. However, for those who lack such an ability, it is teachers’ duty to explain the way those difficult sounds are made and provide aids to help learners produce correct sounds. †¢Providing feedback: Students need to be told where they are standing, how much they have gained and what they need to improve because sometimes, students themselves can not know whether they are making mistakes or not. The teacher must provide them with feedbacks on their performance. †¢Pointing out what is going on: In many cases, learners fail to realize what and how they are speaking, as speaking is for most parts unconsciously controlled, learners may sometimes make mistakes in the way they produce a particular sequence of sounds, or put stress in an incorrect place, leading to misunderstanding. It is the teachers’ role to specify the area that learners have to pay attention to so as not to cause miscomprehension. †¢Establishing priorities: Native-like pronunciation is not easy to achieve. Therefore, learners need a guide to tell them about what aspects they should master, what aspects they not need to be â€Å"perfect†. Inevitably, when learning a foreign language, it is dealt if learners master every aspect of it. However, as this is somehow unrealistic, learners should learn to satisfy at an accepted level of those aspects which are not vital. The level at which learners can feel satisfied at depends on different situations for different individuals. †¢Devising activities: It is not easy for teachers to cover all activities in a limited time. Thus, teachers need to identify what exercises will be suitable for their learners, what activities would bring them the best effect. In devising them, however, it should be accepted that certain activities are more suitable to some students than others. †¢Assessing progress: An important role of teacher is to assess progress. Learners need to know at what level they are in pronunciation. Tests allocated at appropriate times will serve as a strong motivation for students. When they look at their marks, they have a clear sense of how much they have gained. Judging learners’ pronunciation performance is very complicated. However, this should be done accordingly. 2. 3. 3. Approaches, techniques and activities in teaching pronunciation2. 3. 3. 1 Approaches in teaching pronunciation In the book â€Å"Teaching pronunciation† (Celce-Murcia M. , et al.1996: 2), the authors point out two general approaches to the teaching of pronunciation in the modern time, namely intuitive-imitative approach and analytic-linguistic approach. An intuitive-imitative approach depends on â€Å"the learners’ ability to listen to and imitate the rhythms and sounds of the target language without the intervention of any explicit information†. This means the teaching of pronunciation depends largely on the teac her’s turning on and rewinding a cassette player (or another instrument), and the main activities in the class are listening and repeating. In this approach, the teacher has no responsibility to explain how sounds are formed or produced and the learners do their main task of listening and imitating, and it is expected that learners will gradually gain pronunciation competence. Meanwhile, an analytic-linguistic approach â€Å"utilizes information and tools such as a phonetic alphabet, articulator descriptions, charts of the vocal apparatus and other aids to supplement listening, imitation, and production† (Celce-Murcia M. , et al. , 1996: 2). In this approach, learners are given explanation as well as training on how to form particular sounds of the target language. Between these two approaches, there is no scale on whether which one is better. Choosing to apply which approach into teaching pronunciation depends on teachers themselves and the level of learners. To do well with these two approaches, it is a need for both teachers and learners to fulfill knowledge of articulator system such as consonants, vowels, stress, and intonation, etc. In this study, the author considers the use of both approaches to gain best effect in teaching and learning pronunciation. 2. 3. 3. 2 Techniques and activities Pronunciation is never an end in itself, thus to receive expected result in teaching and learning pronunciation, teachers have made use of a great deal of techniques. It may be taught in isolation or in combination with language skills of speaking, listening, reading or writing. Supported by Kelly (2000:16); and Celce, et al (1996:8), some common techniques are:†¢Drilling: One of the main ways in which pronunciation is practiced in the classroom is through drilling. In its most basic form, drilling simply involves the teacher saying a word or a structure, and getting class to repeat it. †¢Listen and imitate† The pronunciation of the target language is provided by the teacher or tape recorders, language labs, etc. students are to listen to a sequence of sounds or sentences and repeat it. †¢Chaining: This can be used for sentences which prove difficult for students to pronounce, either because they are long, or because they include difficult words and sounds The above mentioned techniques are nearly similar; they usually take two forms, which are either all-class or individual. These two forms are actually the two phase of the same techniques. Normally, at first, the whole class repeats after certain sound and phrases. After a certain amount of class-drilling, individual students take turns and pronounce those items themselves. †¢Phonetic chaining: This technique makes use of articulator descriptions, articulator diagrams and a phonetic alphabet. Learners are provided with basic theoretical knowledge about how sounds are formed. They are also aided by the teacher to make genuine sound production. †¢Minimal pair drills: These relate to words which differ from each other only one phoneme. Normally, students are allowed to listen to the tape and distinguish between the two sounds. This type of activities is particularly useful to teach sounds which causes difficulties for learners or sounds that are mismatched. †¢Contextualized minimal pair: In this technique, the teacher establishes the setting and present key vocabulary; students are then trained to respond to a sentence stem with the appropriate meaningful response. When minimal pair drills seem a bit boring and too theoretical with separated sounds, the contextualization seems to be more useful because it is more practical. †¢Tongue Twisters: This technique rooted from speech correction strategies for native speakers. When other techniques look serious and sometimes put learners under pressure, tongue twisters provide a more delighting way to learn pronunciation. Sounds which are difficult to differentiate are put together to make meaningful sentences. †¢Reading aloud/recitation: Students are provided with a passage or scripts and then read aloud, focusing on stress, timing and intonation. This activity is often done with texts such as poems, rhymes, song lyrics, etc. †¢Recording of learners’ production. This technique can use audio-tape, video-tapes of rehearsed and spontaneous speeches, free conversations, and role plays. It needs the feedbacks of teachers as well as self-evaluation. †¢Practice of vowel shifts and stress shifts related by affixation: Base on rule of generative phonology, used with intermediate or advanced learners. The teachers point out the rule-based nature of vowel and stress shifts in etymologically related words to raise awareness; sentences and short texts that contain both number of a pair may be provide as oral practice materialsuch as:PHOtograph And phoTOgraphy 2. 4 Learning pronunciation 2. 4. 1 Factors affecting learning pronunciation According to Joane Kenworthy (1987), there are many factors affecting learning pronunciation, including the native language, the age factor, the amount of exposure, phonetic ability, attitude and identity. The native language: it is inevitable that learners’ native language has a great impact on their ability of pronouncing English. The â€Å"foreign accent† is therefore easy to identity. The age factor: it is often assumed that the younger a person starts learning a foreign language, the better he is at pronouncing it and he has a greater chance of having a native-like accent. The amount of exposure: people who live in the country where the target language is spoken and is surrounded by an English-speaking environment may have some advantages over some who do not. Phonetic ability: researches have shown that some people naturally have a â€Å"better ear† for a foreign language than others. Attitude and identity:results from many studies have shown that learners who have a positive attitude towards speakers of a foreign language tend to have a more native-like pronunciation. 2. 4. 2 Students’ roles in learning pronunciation It is essential that in order to learn a language, motivation plays a vital role. The same thing happens to learning pronunciation. If students really care much about their pronunciation, they will become more cautious about their speaking, and gradually build up good pronunciation. In teaching and learning pronunciation, if teachers play the roles of a â€Å"speech coach†, students themselves need to involve in this process as much as possible in order to get good results. According to Nguyen Bang and Nguyen Ba Ngoc (2001), students need to satisfy some demands. Firstly, they need to perceive the model as exactly as they can. Secondly, they need to response as much as and as well as possible to the recognition, the imitation and repetition activities. Lastly, beside the help of the teachers, students should do self-correction of their pronunciation mistakes. 2. 5 Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning pronunciation Both teachers and students encounter various problems in the process of teaching and learning pronunciation. These problems do not only arise from the nature of pronunciation itself, but from various subjective and objective factors. In the light of the previous and current studies, some major problems that teachers and learners face in teaching and learning pronunciation are:. The nature of pronunciation According to Nunan (1991), the problem of acquiring the phonology of a second or a foreign language presents a formidable challenge to any theory of second language acquisition. In teaching and learning pronunciation, the biggest problem that most of the English teachers and students complain come from nature of pronunciation. English pronunciation itself contains so many complicated factors and invisible rules. In the light of this problem, Doff A. (1988) listed some common problems that learners often make when they speak English. The first is difficulties in pronouncing sounds which do not exist in the students’ own language. The second is the problems with similar sounds that often cause learners’ confusion. The third is difficulties in pronouncing consonant clusters. And the last problem mainly comes from English stress and intonation. Students seem to have a tendency to give all syllables equal stress and â€Å"flat† intonation. Class setting A lot of problems in teaching and learning pronunciation come from class setting such as classroom size, quality of the teaching staff, teaching and learning equipment. Firstly, a large class causes difficulty in teaching pronunciation. At high school, on average, there are over 50 students per class. With such a high student-teacher ratio, it is impossible to make sure that the teacher could carry out successful teaching techniques and activities, and the learner is not able to listen and receive what the teacher is saying. The quality of teaching staff is also a big problem. Most teachers of English are non-native speakers, and a few of them can have a native-like pronunciation. As a result, the language input that students receive every day is from non-native people. Therefore, it is impossible to require students to achieve perfect pronunciation. Teaching model According to Kelly (2000), in the past, the model of teaching English pronunciation was â€Å"received pronunciation†, the pronounciation of people in the southwest England. Today, there are a vast number of English: American English, Australian English, etc. Thus, it is difficult for teachers to choose what model to teach. In fact, each teacher often cannot produce a â€Å"perfect† accent without being affected by his own language. This fact sometimes causes both teachers and students problems in teaching and learning pronunciation. Some teachers do not feel confident with their own voice and students do not know what input language is perfect to receive. Intelligibility Beside factors from the nature of pronunciation, class setting, etc, teaching and learning pronunciation involves in its own problem that Kenworthy (1987) calls it as â€Å"intelligibility†. He defines â€Å"intelligibility† as â€Å"being understood by a listener at a given time in a given situation†. This means that intelligibility is affected by a number of factors: the speaker, the listener, the time, and the situation. This also means that teaching and learning pronunciation depends on many factors, causing many problems for both teachers and students. In conclusion, in this chapter, some theoretical backgrounds relating to teaching and learning pronunciation have been pointed out. These factors are the pronunciation concepts and their features. Factors relating to pronunciation teaching and learning as the importance, the problems, techniques and activities have been also given. It cannot be denied that pronunciation and teaching pronunciation is an important part to conduct in any language course. It is even more important for those who are or will be teachers of the language. Methods of teaching pronunciation are various with different elements of pronunciation. What are the attitudes of teachers and learners towards teaching and learning pronunciation? The school has 36 classes with 90 teachers and 1,800 students. Each year, the school enrolls more than 600 new comers. 3. 1. 2 Description of the course At school, all students when pass the entrance exam to the school have to study English as one of the compulsory subjects. During the process of learning English at school, students use three English textbooks (English 10, English 11, English 12) focusing on four skills including reading, speaking, listening, writing and language focus part. The language focus comprises two major parts: pronunciation and grammar. Normally, students start learning pronunciation when they study English 10. However, at grade 10th, students only learn some vowels and simple consonants. At grade 11th, students continue to study complex consonants. And at grade 12th, students start to be familiar with stress and intonation exercises. That is the reason why stress and intonation are two major aspects of pronunciation chosen in this investigation. 3. 2 Subjects The subjects of this study comprised 10 teachers and 55 12th-form students at QCHS. All English teachers were invited to participate in this study. They are from 27 to 60 years old, and have taught English for more than 2 years. They graduated from both regular and in-service training. With those teachers who have taught English for many years, they have teaching experience, but were not well trained. They mainly graduated from colleges, even in-service training. With younger teachers, they graduated from many different universities: state and non-state universities. They are full of motivation, but lack of teaching experience. In general, these teachers are good at teaching grammar and do not feel confident to deal with speaking, listening, and pronunciation lessons. Thus, they often focus their lesson on grammar but the speaking and pronunciation. The class that the author chose to study consists of fifty-five 12th-form students. These students have had at least 6 years of academic English experience by the time they reach this course. However, their English proficiency is not good, especially at pronunciation. They may be good at grammar and can do these grammar exercises quickly, but can not speak fluently. Most of them do not feel confident to speak in class and express their ideas in English. These students have studied at high school for more than two years. Therefore, they have been getting similar with the teaching and studying methods, the conditions and the teaching environment, so it easy for the author to get their consent to participate in the research. 3. 3 Research methods As mentioned previously, the researcher chose a mixed-method approach to data collection, utilizing triangulation to measure a broad variety of variables in the research. Necessary data was gathered directly from the teachers and students participating in the research in several ways: Questionnaires: In order to collect reliable and comprehensive data, two questionnaires were designed: one for teachers and one for students. They are both open-ended and close-ended questions. Teacher questionnaire (Appendix 1): one survey questionnaire with 8 questions was designed for the teachers to get their ideas of pronunciation teaching and learning reality, problems faced by their students and some recommendations to improve learning pronunciation reality at school. To get this aim, the questionnaire is categorized into the following groups: †¢Teachers’ attitude towards present situation of teaching and learning pronunciation at QCHS; †¢Approaches, techniques and classroom activities used by teachers in teaching pronunciation;†¢Problems faced by teachers in teaching pronunciation; and †¢Teachers’ recommendations of techniques to improve students’ pronunciation. Student questionnaire Appendix 2): another survey questionnaire with 8 questions was designed for students including the following categories: †¢Students’ attitude towards learning pronunciation, especially stress and intonation; †¢Students’ problems in learning pronunciation; and †¢Students’ expectations in learning pronunciation. In-depth classroom observations: Six informal classroom observations during regular classroom sessions were used as an additional data source. The observations were carried out for two weeks during the course of the study to get more practical information about teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning pronunciation, and difficulties as well as techniques used in pronunciation lessons. During the process of observations, the author focused on some aspects taking in class as:†¢Teaching and learning materials used in class; †¢Students’ activities and their mistakes in producing pronunciation; and †¢Teachers’ approaches and techniques used in teaching pronunciation. Interviews and discussions (Appendix 3): after collecting data from the survey questionnaires and classroom observations, the author used the post interview in order to get the in-depth discussion about techniques used to improve students’ pronunciation. Because it is too difficult for the researcher to conduct long interviews with all teachers, the researcher randomly selected 5/10 teachers for interviews. They were willing to express deeply their opinions, and ideas about teaching techniques. 3. 2.Data collection procedures The study was conducted in the first term of the school year 2010-2011 (from September 2010 to December, 2010). At the beginning of the first term, two sets of questionnaires were given to the teachers and the students who agreed to participate in the research. After two days, these questionnaires were collected. The information from these questionnaires were then summarized and presented in the form of statistics. For the following two weeks, the author carried out some classroom observations. The observations during six English lessons including one in reading, one in writing, one in listening, one in speaking and two in language focus periods. At each session, the researcher took field notes on what happened when the students learned pronunciation. Finally, when the information from the survey questionnaires and classroom observations were collected and analyzed, structured interviews were carried out. The data collected from three different resources were read through to obtain a sense of the overall data. They were then analyzed both descriptively and interpretatively. The initial sorting-out process was writing findings in the form of reflective notes and summaries of field notes. The information was then displayed in forms of tables and figures while qualitative data from the open-ended questionnaire items, classroom observations and interviews were presented by quoting relevant responses from the respondents. CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION OF THE DATA This part, the information from collected data was presented in accordance with the category of data collection instruments. 4. 1 Survey questionnaires 4. 1.Teachers’ and students’ attitudes towards teaching and learning pronunciation Assuming that the consideration of the teachers’ and students’ attitude towards teaching and learning pronunciation would be beneficial to the research, at the outset, these factors were surveyed. The results, shown in below, reflect that grammar is the most concerning aspect in learning English at high school. Surprisingly, only 10% of the tea chers think that pronunciation is the most necessary for their students. They always pay much attention and time and energy on grammar. In contrast, teaching and learning pronunciation as well as developing listening, speaking or reading skills do not receive enough attention to. 4. 1. 2 Students’ pronunciation level From the chart 2, we can see an optimistic reality of students’ level in learning pronunciation at Quynh Coi high school. Being asked about this, all the teachers said that students’ level is not equal, however; it is not good as expected. 60% teachers said that their students’ level at pronunciation is at average; and even 30% of the students get under average level. None of the teachers evaluate their students’ level at pronunciation is good or excellent. . 1. 3 Pronunciation teaching and learning time Chart 3 presents time that teachers and students spend on teaching and learning pronunciation. One more time teachers and students share the same ideas about the fact that too little time is on pronunciation. 80% of the teachers and 43% of the students said that they di d not have time to spend on teaching and learning pronunciation in one teaching session (45 minutes); 20% of the teachers and 32% of the students spend less than 20 minutes on teaching pronunciation. None of the teachers and a very small number of the students teach and learn pronunciation for more than 20 minutes. The overall results indicate that the reality of teaching and learning pronunciation at Quynh Coi high school is not positive as expected. Although both teachers and students are very optimistic towards teaching and learning pronunciation, students’ level is not good as well as time spent on teaching pronunciation is limited during one normal teaching session. 4. 1. 4 Teachers and students’ problems in teaching and learning pronunciation Chart 4 shows that both the teachers and the students face many problems during the process of teaching and learning pronunciation. The biggest problem that both teachers and students face comes from the nature of pronunciation. The next two factors preventing students from gaining good pronunciation are teaching time and students’ competence. 27% of the teachers and 22% of the students said that they do not have enough time on pronunciation. 20% of the teachers considered that their students’ competence in pronunciation is too low. 22% students also agreed with that idea. Class setting is the next factor that 20% teachers chose. It is clear that quality of teaching staff is not good enough to come over all the difficulties in teaching pronunciation. In contrast, only 1% of the students agreed with this. The smallest factor that both teachers and students think that causing problem in teaching and learning pronunciation is students’ motivation. 4. 1. 5 Teachers’ and students’ problems in teaching and learning intonation and stress From the chart above, most of the teachers (50%) and students (43%) think that stress is the most difficulty in teaching and learning pronunciation. the second is intonation: 30% of the teachers and 14% of the students think that intonation causes trouble. Meanwhile, none of the teachers meet any difficulties in teaching consonants and vowels. Particularly, chart 6 shows that 43% of the students cannot know the place of stress in a word; 20% said they cannot pronounce stress though they may be know place of stress in those words. Surprisingly, 27% of the students said that they do not know anything of stress. From the above chart, we can see that the reality of learning intonation is even worse than learning stress. 56% of all surveyed students understand nothing about intonation, causing a lot of difficulties in teaching and learning pronunciation.