Canterbury Tales - A Character Sketch Of Chaucers Knight Essays

Canterbury Tales - A Character Sketch of Chaucer's Knight Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, written in approximately 1385, is a collection of twenty-four stories ostensibly told by various people who are going on a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral from London, England. Prior to the actual tales, however, Chaucer offers the reader a glimpse of fourteenth century life by way of what he refers to as a General Prologue. In this prologue, Chaucer introduces all of the characters who are involved in this imaginary journey and who will tell the tales. Among the characters included in this introductory section is a knight. Chaucer initially refers to the knight as "a most distinguished man" (l. 43) and, indeed, his sketch of the knight is highly complimentary. The knight, Chaucer tells us, "possessed/Fine horses, but he was not gaily dressed" (ll. 69-70). Indeed, the knight is dressed in a common shirt which is stained "where his armor had left mark" (l. 72). That is, the knight is "just home from service" (l. 73) and is in such a hurry to go on his pilgrimage that he has not even paused before beginning it to change his clothes. The knight has had a very busy life as his fighting career has taken him to a great many places. He has seen military service in Egypt, Lithuania, Prussia, Russia, Spain, North Africa, and Asia Minor where he "was of [great] value in all eyes (l. 63). Even though he has had a very successful and busy career, he is extremely humble: Chaucer maintains that he is "modest as a maid" (l. 65). Moreover, he has never said a rude thing to anyone in his entire life (cf., ll. 66-7). Clearly, the knight possesses an outstanding character. Chaucer gives to the knight one of the more flattering descriptions in the General Prologue. The knight can do no wrong: he is an outstanding warrior who has fought for the true faith--according to Chaucer--on three continents. In the midst of all this contenton, however, the knight remains modest and polite. The knight is the embodiment of the chivalric code: he is devout and courteous off the battlefield and is bold and fearless on it. In twentieth century America, we would like to think that we have many people in our society who are like Chaucer's knight. During this nation's altercation with Iraq in 1991, the concept of the modest but effective soldier captured the imagination of the country. Indeed, the nation's journalists in many ways attempted to make General H. Norman Schwarzkof a latter day knight. The general was made to appear as a fearless leader who really was a regular guy under the uniform. It would be nice to think that a person such as the knight could exist in the twentieth century. The fact of the matter is that it is unlikely that people such as the knight existed even in the fourteenth century. As he does with all of his characters, Chaucer is producing a stereotype in creating the knight. As noted above, Chaucer, in describing the knight, is describing a chivalric ideal. The history of the Middle Ages demonstrates that this ideal rarely was manifested in actual conduct. Nevertheless, in his description of the knight, Chaucer shows the reader the possibility of the chivalric way of life. how the hell do you work this thing?

Free Essays on How Newspapers Are Dealing With The Trend Toward Online Journalism

How Newspapers are dealing with the trend in Online Journalism The emergence of the Internet as a medium for mass communication in the mid 1990’s caught the majority of newspapers off guard. The area of print journalism was filled with an air of complacency and a feeling of comfort stemming from their position as the â€Å"only game in town.† When the reality of the information super-highway hit, many newspapers were flustered to find an avenue to keep up with the quick developing internet information network. (Moses, â€Å"Houston we have a Solution†) Print journalism advertising revenues took the majority of the losses sustained by the publics interest in the Internet, more directly classified advertising of employment, automobile sales and real estate. A 1998 Newspaper Association of America Study found 19% of all recent homebuyers used the Internet as their main source of information. (Carlson, â€Å"Nibbling on Newspapers†) Job seeker sites such as, Monster.com have taken the biggest chunk out of newspaper-classified revenue and hence waged an unexpected battle with the publishers of newspapers around the world for the almighty advertising dollar. The New York Times Company, Times Mirror and the Times Tribune Company have joined together to form Careerpath.com to bring the battle to the home of online foes. (Carlson, â€Å"nibbling†) The newspaper industry has also responded to the Internet threat by joining the numerous other news sources in putting their information on the net via their very own online publications. Newspapers, armed with the knowledge that over 85% of adults look at a newspaper in the span of a week, broadened their horizons with online publications meant to satisfy the needs of the computer savvy or on the go reader. (Case, â€Å"The Last Mass Medium†) Web designers are an important part of today’s news organizations just as staff reporters. While at one time graphics specialists were called upon ... Free Essays on How Newspapers Are Dealing With The Trend Toward Online Journalism Free Essays on How Newspapers Are Dealing With The Trend Toward Online Journalism How Newspapers are dealing with the trend in Online Journalism The emergence of the Internet as a medium for mass communication in the mid 1990’s caught the majority of newspapers off guard. The area of print journalism was filled with an air of complacency and a feeling of comfort stemming from their position as the â€Å"only game in town.† When the reality of the information super-highway hit, many newspapers were flustered to find an avenue to keep up with the quick developing internet information network. (Moses, â€Å"Houston we have a Solution†) Print journalism advertising revenues took the majority of the losses sustained by the publics interest in the Internet, more directly classified advertising of employment, automobile sales and real estate. A 1998 Newspaper Association of America Study found 19% of all recent homebuyers used the Internet as their main source of information. (Carlson, â€Å"Nibbling on Newspapers†) Job seeker sites such as, Monster.com have taken the biggest chunk out of newspaper-classified revenue and hence waged an unexpected battle with the publishers of newspapers around the world for the almighty advertising dollar. The New York Times Company, Times Mirror and the Times Tribune Company have joined together to form Careerpath.com to bring the battle to the home of online foes. (Carlson, â€Å"nibbling†) The newspaper industry has also responded to the Internet threat by joining the numerous other news sources in putting their information on the net via their very own online publications. Newspapers, armed with the knowledge that over 85% of adults look at a newspaper in the span of a week, broadened their horizons with online publications meant to satisfy the needs of the computer savvy or on the go reader. (Case, â€Å"The Last Mass Medium†) Web designers are an important part of today’s news organizations just as staff reporters. While at one time graphics specialists were called upon ...

The Augustan Transformation of the Forum Romanum Essay

The Augustan Transformation of the Forum Romanum - Essay Example The noblest of them all was his transformation of the new forum of Augustus at the roman forum and the Julius forum. At this place, a temple of mars the avenger was erected. This was built by Augustus for his commemoration of the war that he had waged to avenge the killing of Caesar. Forum Romanum is a piece of architecture that is both monumental and an envy of many from time immemorial. It became almost as a symbol of unity and Rome. One of the major contributions made by Augustus was the preservation of architecture or buildings that had been built by his predecessors instead of destroying them and building his own to mark his reign. Much credit has been given to Augustus for transforming Rome and preserving the social, cultural, and roman values at his time of rule. The kind of cultural and religious beliefs expressed by the Forum Romanum are immense (Marucchi 1–2). This paper looks at the Forum Romanum’s transformation by Augustus and how this monument is interwove n with the politics, cultures, religious, and other social values held by the roman people. Discussion The Forum Romanum is a plaza that is rectangular in shape and is surrounded by numerous ruins that represent quite a number of important ancient roman government houses that are located in the middle of the city, Rome. This place was initially a place for buying and selling of goods by the roman people and the people originally referred to it as forum magnum. In the roman life, this place served as their central location and marked their public life. This is attributed to the fact that it was the site where all processions of triumph, elections, political speeches, trials of criminals, and matches of gladiators were organized and took place. It was also the commercial nucleus of the roman people (Galinsky 23-56). When looking at these activities, one would be able to understand why the Forum Romanum was such an important location to the romans and why it received so much fame durin g the reign of kings and even in the present day’s history. The statues and monuments that were erected here did commemorate the great men of the city who got fame and favor from the kings, nobles, and the public. It was basically the teeming heart of what could be referred to as the ancient Rome. Historians call this place as the most celebrated meeting place in the whole world and recognized through history. This Forum Romanum is found between the Capitoline Hills and the Palatine. However, currently the Forum Romanum stands out as sprawling ruins made of architectural fragments and has exhibited very intermittent excavations from archeologists (Grant 11-18). The reign of Augustus was extraordinary and left Rome with a new order in government, personal and social identity. His transformations did redefine what Rome was and changed the perceptions of people about what being roman symbolized. Traditions and values that found their roots to new mythology of nationalism were fu lly expressed. The new ideology found its manifestation in architectural designs and art. The political buildings like this Forum Romanum were planned carefully and took into consideration the programs that had been designed for urban renewal and the boosting of the public (Galinsky 23-56). This Forum Roman

Employment Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 9

Employment Law - Essay Example cans with Disabilities Act demands fairness in employment privileges to necessitate equal access to state services, public accommodation and provision of special facilities to necessitate communication and mobility for the impaired. Organizations with more than 15 employees are required by the state to adhere by the American with Disabilities Act guidelines. Employers are required to institute reasonable accommodation if it does not strain the organizations operations financially, through business size and operation structure. Employers should not compromise on their organizations production standards to accommodate the disabled persons. It is illegal to discriminate a qualified person in the process of recruitment because of his or her physical or emotional impairment. For instance, in the second case, a complaint was denied an employment privilege because of her weight as the interviewer alleged that park and recreation employees were physically fit. The interviewers act is punishable by law because he denied a qualified person the employment privileges accessible to persons with equal qualification. According to the act, the obese employee should have been given a chance and plans for reasonable accomodation put in place for her to attend physical fitness therapy. Employers are required to provide reasonable accommodation on the employees request through helping in devising a way of solving performance problems. Moreover, employers are at liberty to choose and implement the accommodation strategy that is cheaper and easier to provide considering the nature and financial status of the organization. For instance in in the third case, the administrative assistant should not be subjected to undue medical tests that are not mandatory for other employees in the organization. The HIV infected employees should be subjected to screenings that are job related and their assessment is important according to the nature and needs of the business in question. Despite

Problem based exercises on Law Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Problem based exercises on Law - Case Study Example The letter stated that the offer was "exclusively" being made to the "members" of the yatch club against payment of $80,000. The letter also states that the first member to accept the offer will receive the yatch, hence according to the Sales of Goods Act 1979 Section 18 (3), in case of sales on approval, property passes when the buyer signifies his acceptance to the seller. 3. At 8 pm, Dandy, a club "visitor" rang Gemstone, Mrs Gemstone answered in the absence of her husband and Dandy proposed $90,000 for the yatch. Not being a "member" of the yatch club, Dandy does not fulfill the contract according to the Contract Law, since he has not been offered a deal to accept. However, it can be considered that Dandy is now making an offer for Gemstone to accept, but since Mrs Gemstone did not clearly state that she is accepting the offer (she only replied "My husband will be pleased. He asked me to receive any acceptances as he is away tonight. I suggestto arrange delivery") See Gibson v Manchester City Council 1979 1 AER 972, where using the word "suggest" merely illustrates final arrangements, but does not show that any stage the offer has been accepted. 4. Chuck posted his acceptance letter at 9 pm. ... I suggestto arrange delivery") See Gibson v Manchester City Council 1979 1 AER 972, where using the word "suggest" merely illustrates final arrangements, but does not show that any stage the offer has been accepted. 4. Chuck posted his acceptance letter at 9 pm. According to the Contract Law, an offer is acceptance at the time the letter is posted, irrespective of the time the letter reaches destination or even if it does not reach destination. see Byrne v Van Tienhoven (1880) 5 CPD 344 in which it is stated that an offer is accepted once it leaves the hands of the person. Since Chuck is a member of the club, and he is the first to accept Gemstone's offer, legally according to point 2 above, he is the righteous person to claim the yatch. 5. Slick, also being a club member sent his acceptance by mail at 9.30 pm, hence 30 minutes after Chuck. Thus the contract having already been formed being Chuck and Gemstone, Gemstone having clearly stated that the first member to accept will receive the yatch, Slick has no legal right to claim for the yatch. As we can see, Gemstone wants to deliver the yatch to Dandy. Considering all the above points, Chuck is now the righteous owner of the yatch legally. Slick cannot make any legal claim since he was not the first member to accept Gemstone's offer. So, legally, the yatch should be delivered to Chuck. However if Gemstone persists and delivers the yatch to Dandy, he will be making a major breach in the contact with Chuck, who can sue Gemstone immediately for damages. Question Two This case discusses about an "Oral" Contract, that is, one which is not a drafted formal contract between the two parties and where there exists neither evidence nor proof in writing and signed documents. Generally an oral

Does Jolly Phonics Help Pronounce Words English Language Essay

Does Jolly Phonics Help Pronounce Words English Language Essay This research project set out to answer the research question Does the implementation/use of the Jolly Phonics method in the classroom facilitate the development of the ability to pronounce sounds and recognise any word that contains them, particular sounds they have seen in the sessions? The project tries to investigate the impact of pupils progress in reading and spelling using the Jolly Phonics methodology. The purpose of this research is to know if the use of this new technique achieves the students development of the ability to pronounce any word that contains the sound they have seen even although it is in a new word they have nor learnt or read previously in the classroom. The importance of this research lays on the need of demonstrate that to read English well and have strong communication skills, students must learn properly the sounds of English letters and understand how they work together. The idea of doing this research came when I knew about the Jolly Phonics methodology for the first time. It was during the Practicum period. The English teacher had introduced this method in the school I attended a year ago. I decided to investigate if this method would be effective or not because I consider it is important to find ways to improve the methodologies and to find new techniques to introduce in class to make our children progress. This new method is a way to introduce a phonics-based instruction as a part of the curriculum and it is very important to know if it is effective for the pupils. If the research states that Jolly Phonics is a thorough method for reading and writing because it teaches the letter sounds in an enjoyable, multi sensory way, and enables children to use them to read and write words and improve pronunciation, I will definitively use it in my classroom when I start working as an English teacher in the future. At the end of the research period, if children in the JP group are found to have better skills in phonemic knowledge and perform better on writing sounds to dictation, it would demonstrate that Jolly phonics is a method that also confirms the effectiveness of using a synthetic program to teach reading and writing skills to children learning English as a second language. 2. LITERATURE REVIEW The purpose of this literature review  [1]  is to identify some teaching methods to teach phonetics, learning theories and learning styles. The traditional educational practices and methods were didactic: the teacher talked and the learner listened. Teachers were teaching regardless of individual learning styles. More recent educational methods try to accommodate the different learning styles and needs: visual, auditory, physical, as it has been demonstrated by studies conducted by Dunn and Dunn (1979) that have reported on perceptual learning styles, a term that describes the variations among learners in using one or more senses to understand, organize, and retain experience. In brief, a visual learner learn by watching a problem to solve, an auditory learner learns basically by listening and a physical or kinaesthetic learner will learn by using and manipulating object and through the action. Generally speaking, the results of several studies as the one carried out by Bandler and Grinder demonstrated that students strongly preferred kinaesthetic and tactile learning styles. They also pointed out that the kinaesthetic learner is the one that has more problems in schools and it is probably due to the fact that this learning style is the less practised in schools. The learning style that is of interest of this project is the kinaesthetic learner, that is to say, the experiential learning and the total physical involvement with a learning situation. The research findings of Price, Dunn, and Sanders (1980) established that very young children are the most tactile/kinaesthetic learners.  [2]   Based on this approach, Sue Lloyds, the creator of Jolly Phonics states that Jolly Phonics is a systematic, sequential, phonics program designed to teach children to read. It emphasizes both the teaching of letter-sounds in isolation (not in whole words) and then it goes to blend letter-sounds together to read a word.  [3]   Regarding the methodology to teach phonetics, in general, there are two main approaches to teaching phonics: analytic and synthetic. In analytic phonics, children are taught whole words and later analyse their constituent parts, such as c-at or str-eet. In synthetic phonics, the key is to teach them sounds of letters and letter combinations first, then to combine those to form words: c-a-t or s-t-r-ee-t. Jolly Phonics is a method that uses the Synthetic phonics. This methodology is been implemented in the school I am actually doing the Practicum II as a visitor teacher. As an example of how the teacher works, I would say that if you teach the N, the action for N is to put out your arms to be a noisy aeroplane that flies saying Nnnnnnnnnn. This helps the children to remember which sound is associated with which letter, and it also makes it quite fun to use.  In appendix 1 and appendix 2, you can consult a guide the teacher normally uses to teach ESL using the Jolly Phonics method. It contains the order in which we should teach the sounds and the actions to perform related to them. 3. THE CONTEXT Nuestra Seà ±ora de los Dolores School, also known as Paulas, is located in Villena, a town in the province of Alicante. It is a private publicly founded day school offering an educational experience to boys and girls from 3 to 16 years. The school was founded in 1950 as a charity school for the purpose of maintaining poor children in the city of Villena, and now occupies a site in the centre of the town and is one of the most popular schools in the town. The school has 315 pupils distributed in Pre-primary (first floor), Primary (second and third floor) and Secondary Education (fourth floor). The aim Nuestra Seà ±ora de los Dolores School is to provide an excellent education for every child, develop confidence, ability and skills within a Christian environment. The main purposes of the school board and staff are to understand the childs perspective and respond to individual needs and provide care, understanding and support on an individual basis. Also, students are guided to explore and understand faith in God and develop awareness of the needs of the world to help others. Every class has an average of 24 children and the classrooms are well equipped, colourful and well organised to make children feel comfortable. The group of learners I worked with for the research are in the class of Pre-Primary Year 3. In this class there are 24 children (5 years old) but for the English sessions the Department of Languages considered there were too many students in the classroom, so the group is divided into two halves. So the research was carried out with group A formed by 13 pupils. This year the work becomes more challenging for these pupils as they are prepared for the transfer to Primary Education. The pupils in this class are encouraged to become more independent and they learn to organise themselves and their belongings. The behaviour of pupils is correct and there are no pupils who present learning disabilities or special difficulties. The students have established positive relations with each other and the relationship between teacher and students make the classroom a good environment to learn. They are taught by their course tutor most of the subjects but they also have lessons with some other teachers (Gym, Music, English). Pupils have a weekly English lesson (50 minutes). The children follow the Jolly Phonics programme combined with other activities. Each week they have an English session during which they learn new letter sounds, the songs, the actions and how to write the letters for those sounds and some words that contains these sounds. 4. DATA COLLECTION In order to obtain valuable data for this research, I have used several methods. I decided not to use a survey in a form of a questionnaire due to the young age of the students (5 years) and the lack of comprehension skills to carry out this kind of method. Considering this, the type of data collected is qualitative (observation) and quantitative (pre and post tests). I collected the data from a pre-test before starting the research project and I collected more data from a post test after the sessions. The test consisted of 10 spelling words. The pupils received a score of 0 or 1 point per word. 0 for incorrect, 1 point for correct. This data is very important because we are testing the students previous knowledge with a pre test and then, we used a post spelling test to compare the findings. As I previously mentioned, there are 13 boys and girls in the last year of Pre-Primary class. All of them have received the same input for spelling and reading using the Jolly Phonics method. Children were unaware of they were participating in a research. The materials used for the sessions were the same the teacher normally uses, that is Jolly Phonics materials published by Jolly Learning Ltd. (See appendix 3). To carry out the pre and post test, the students were requested to take it as an activity they would do normally in class. As with any other activity, the students were asked if they understood or whether they have any question before starting the activity. The participants followed the instruction given by the teacher. They completed a similar warm up activity and then, they completed the required activity. The activity consisted in writing with the correct spelling ten words their teacher dictated. (See appendix 4) The words were not chosen at random. The students have seen and worked with five of the words previously in class. These words were in the Jolly Phonics Book and they did some activities with them. The students did not know the other five words, but the words contained sounds they have previously seen during the English sessions. To complement the quantitative data and to add more valuable information, I included the qualitative data which consisted in taking observational notes for later analysis. When interpreting the data collected from an observational study, it is necessary to reduce the possibility to be bias. For that reason, the teacher offered to collaborate and it was decided to use also some observational notes of the teacher herself. The observation was carried out during the pupils normal English sessions to support the validity of the research. To observe this type of data I used a diary to write down the notes during the five sessions I observed the pupils. It was intended to use also a video camera to record some parts of the sessions, but I did not obtain the permission of the head teacher to do it. The observers noted the students comments, interactions and general behaviour in the classroom when using the Jolly Phonics methodology to learn the sounds. The qualitative data from the two observers consisted in notes for later study. The observers used a guide to interpret the observations in order to follow the same criteria and then, the observers discussed their own findings to add more data to the research. The table below shows the common criteria the researcher and the teacher agreed to observe and noted the observations in a scale from 1 to 5. OBSERVATION OBSERVER 1 (Researcher) OBSERVER 2 (English Teacher) Motivation 5 5 Children remain focused, interested 5 4 Children able to follow the session 3 3 Participation and work 5 4 5. DATA ANALYSIS As it was mentioned in the previous section, data was collected by both quantitative (pre/post test scores) and qualitative (observation) to do the analysis. Quantitative data Pre and post test To test the students, I used a point score system. The students could receive a score of 0 for incorrect spelling and 1 point for correct spelling. The pre and post test scores were analysed using a graph and a table to compare them. The graph below shows the scores for the pre and post test. This appears to suggest that the participant had made a good improvement within the period in between. Analysis of the graph shows the results of the pre and post test scores for the class. The purple bar indicates the total number of correct words the pupils wrote in the first test and the blue bar indicates the total number of correct words pupils wrote in the second test. This graph appears to suggest that there was an increase of learning in the post test taken a few sessions after. However this result is too small for any real conclusion. As you can compare in the table that is included in appendix 5, the first test proved that the pupils made more mistakes in the words and all of them wrote incorrectly words like fun and bus. Regarding the second test, the most significant findings were that many of the words students made mistakes in the pre test were written correctly in the second test due to the fact that the teacher taught the a /a:/, t /t/ sounds or the initial s /s/ in the sessions that took place after the first test. Nevertheless, it is necessary to remark, as think it could be an important finding, that 95 per cent of the students wrote incorrectly the words fun and bus. These words contain the sound /ÊŒ/ that the teacher had also seen in class but maybe it is necessary to remark it more or in different ways. If we look at the individual scores for both tests, very interesting points were noticed when comparing the lowest and highest scores and when looking at which students improved most: Most children improved significantly the words that contain sounds they have learnt in class in the following sessions after having done the pre test. Almost all students wrote correctly the words the teacher included in the classroom activities. The scores of the female students were higher that the scores of the male students and this finding may agree with the studies that points out girls have better skills for arts than boys. Most students (99 %) failed to write the words that contain the sound /ÊŒ/ and spelling u, although the sound was explained in class and they made a match activity to distinguish it. In the second test, most students wrote correctly the words beginning with s (step, snake) although it is a difficult sound for Spanish learners. They did not write the e before the s, which it is a real improvement for their pronunciation. These words were written incorrectly by 50 per cent of the pupils in the pre test and 90 per cent of the pupils wrote them correctly in the second test. Finally, we have to point out that there was also an increase in the words they did not know previously but contained the sound they have learnt in the session. Qualitative data- Observation The observations were carried our at Nuestra Seà ±ora de los Dolores School during the months of November-December, 2010 and during six sessions of 50 minutes each. During these sessions, the teacher taught the 3 first groups of sound (see appendix 1) and also the songs and actions related to them (see appendix 2). There is also a worksheet to accompany this learning in which students can trace the letter or letter combination that goes with the sound, and colour a picture of the word that is associated with the sound. The students also played games to review the sounds and its spelling and use some flashcards to learn to discriminate sounds. In session number 4, the teacher included in a box all the words they have learnt to review and she also included games in which the pupils have to match the sounds with the spelling and a picture (appendix 3). Following the implementation of all these activities in the classroom, it was observed high levels of enjoyment, motivation and enthusiasm among the students. The researcher and the teacher both noted that participation was also very high. The two observers totally agreed that the children remained focused and were able to work following the pace the teacher required. The children enjoyed learning with this method and keep quite focused and most of them followed the teacher instructions without special difficulties. They were especially motivated when singing the song corresponding to the sound they were learning. Also the level of motivation increased when they have to perform the action related to the sound. The frequent use of the Jolly Phonics characters: Snake, Inky and Bee made children learn in a fun and active way using them and they love to see and learn with these characters. Most of the children appeared to be totally focused on the activity and showed signs of enjoyment such as laughing and expressing interest to learn another letter. To sum up, the data did not offer a final result an it is not possible to conclude or provide a definitive answer to the research question Does the implementation/use of the Jolly Phonics method in the classroom facilitate the development of the ability to pronounce any word that contains the sounds, particular sounds they have seen in the sessions?. Nevertheless, it seems that the teaching method is very motivating and that Jolly Phonics can inspire a childs love of learning through fun and interaction, and that it is a method to get children start to love English as we stated in the observational notes. Secondly, the research found that the method improved slightly the listening skills and the pupils had reinforced the English phonemes through comparing and blending. Also the statistical and observational data presented could show the students improved their skills to link sounds with spellings after comparing the fist and second test. However, due to the general mistakes the students made in sounds like /ÊŒ/ corresponding to the u spelling, it would be necessary to focus more in some particular sounds depending on the native language of students. Finally, the observations could pointed out that by implementing a synthetic phonics programme, children can be taught to read at the phoneme level. But we have to take into account that this does not mean merely teaching them letter sound correspondences but also children have to be shown that the sequence of the phonemes in the spoken word match with the sequence of letters in the printed word. Related to this, we can conclude, that for Spanish children, this method may works well if it is teaching with the correct pace and this is achieve not only through the attention paid to the sounds themselves, but also because of the work on identifying sounds in words and on similar sounding words. To achieve that, it is necessary students learn properly the sounds of English letters and understand how they work together. 6. CONCLUSIONS To carry out this research, it could have been made some improvements as to have available a longer time between the pre and post test in order to get most accurate conclusions. Also, after considering the differences in the students abilities and the learning styles of each student, we can say that it would be better if the students learn just one sound per session to reinforce the corresponding sound and be able to match it correctly with their spelling. As we did not have the time, students learnt a few sounds per session and some of the most difficult sounds were not reinforced properly. As the students have just one session of 50 minutes each every week, all of the letter sounds were taught very rapidly and the emphasis on how words are built up was poor. I could observe that the lack of time affected the results of the second test, especially when writing the words that contained the /ÊŒ/ sound because the students were not able to match the sound with the spelling u. Another of the aspects that could have been improved in the research is the lack of magnetic letters to practise picking out the appropriate letters for a spoken word, pushing the letters together and sounding and blending the letters to form the word. I think it would be a great help for the pupils to use them to improve their skills due to their age and learning skills. The data collection methods used for this research project were appropriate but I would have preferred to record some of the sessions. Also I could have been done a control test at the middle of the research period to monitor the progress of the students work. Regarding the suggestions for future work, I consider that one way to improve the findings of the research is to obtain quantitative data using two different groups. One of the groups could use the Jolly Phonics method and the other group could use a different approach like analytic phonics. This comparative method could be of great help to compare the effects of teaching synthetic phonics and analytic phonics. I will conclude saying that the purpose in carrying out this study was to discover if teaching Jolly Phonics are effective to ensure that as many children as possible become competent readers of ESL, but I recognise that this is only one aspect of effective teaching of ESL. Also I would like to remark that the focus on pronunciation of this method could be of great help for children to become competent readers of English which is one of the weakest areas of Spanish pupils seeing the progress students made in the post test. 7. REFERENCES Sue Lloyds, (2005) The Phonics Handbook: A Handbook for Teaching Reading, Writing and Spelling (Jolly Phonics S). Jolly Learning Ltd. U.K. Dunn, R. S. Dunn, K.J.(1978). Learning styles/teaching styles: Should they . . . can they . . . be matched? Educational Leadership, pp. 238-244. London. Visited at http://www.ascd.org/ASCD/pdf/journals/ed_lead/el_197901_dunn.pdf on October 26th, 2010. Bandler, Richard (2000). De sapos a principes. Cuatro Vientos. Santiago de Chile. Visited at http://www.agba.org.ar/enfoque/xautor.pdf Joy M. Reid. The Learning Style Preferences of ESL Students. TESOL QUARTERLY, Vol. 21, No. 1, March 1987. Nunan, D. (1992) Research Methods in Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rhona Johnston and Joyce Watson. ( 2005) The effects of synthetic phonics teaching on reading and spelling attainment. Published at http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2005/02/20688/52449 Web pages www.jollylearning.co.uk/ www.jollykingdom.com www.readaustralia.com/about_jolly_phonics.htm http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/learningteachingandassessment/curriculumareas/languages/litandenglish/index.asp http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_research http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/transform/teachers/teacherdevelopment- tools/action-researchâ‚ ¬Ã‚   http://www.wordreference.com 9. APPENDICES Appendix 1 Guide the teacher normally uses to teach ESL using the Jolly Phonics method. It contains the order in which we should teach the sounds and the actions to perform related to them Learning the letter sounds In Jolly Phonics the 42 main sounds of English are taught, not just the alphabet. The sounds are in seven groups. Some sounds are written with two letters, such as ee and or. These are called digraphs. oo and th can each make two different sounds, as in book and moon, that and three. To distinguish between these two sounds, the digraph is represented in two forms. This is shown below. 1. s a t i p n 2. c k e h r m d 3. g o u l f b 4. ai j oa ie ee or 5. z w ng v oo oo 6. y x ch sh th th 7. qu ou oi ue er ar Each sound has an action which helps children remember the letter(s) that represent it. As a child progresses you can point to the letters and see how quickly they can do the action and say the sound. One letter sound can be taught each day. As a child becomes more confident, the actions are no longer necessary. There is a list of all of the letter sounds and their corresponding actions on page 8 of this guide. Children should learn each letter by its sound, not its name. For example, the letter a should be called a (as in ant) not ai (as in aim). Similarly, the letter n should be nn (as in net), not en. This will help in blending. The names of each letter can follow later. The letters have not been introduced in alphabetical order. The first group (s, a, t, i, p, n) has been chosen because they make more simple three-letter words than any other six letters. The letters b and d are introduced in different groups to avoid confusion. Sounds that have more than one way of being written are initially taught in one form only. For example, the sound ai (rain) is taught first, and then alternatives a-e (gate) and ay (day) follow later. (Sue Lloyd, 2001) Appendix 2 The Actions s Weave hand in an s shape, like a snake, and say ssssss. a Wiggle fingers above elbow as if ants crawling on you and say a, a, a. t Turn head from side to side as if watching tennis and say t, t, t. i Pretend to be a mouse by wriggling fingers at end of nose and squeak i, i, i. p Pretend to puff out candles and say p, p, p. n Make a noise, as if you are a plane hold arms out and say nnnnnn. c k Raise hands and snap fingers as if playing castanets and say ck, ck, ck. e Pretend to tap an egg on the side of a pan and crack it into the pan, saying eh, eh, eh. h Hold hand in front of mouth panting as if you are out of breath and say h, h, h. r Pretend to be a puppy holding a piece of rag, shaking head from side to side, and say rrrrrr. m Rub tummy as if seeing tasty food and say mmmmmm. d Beat hands up and down as if playing a drum and say d, d, d. g Spiral hand down, as if water going down the drain, and say g, g, g. o Pretend to turn light switch on and off and say o, o; o, o. u Pretend to be putting up an umbrella and say u, u, u. l Pretend to lick a lollipop and say ll llll. f Let hands gently come together as if toy fish deflating, and say ff f f f f. b Pretend to hit a ball with a bat and say b, b, b. ai Cup hand over ear and say ai, ai, ai. j Pretend to wobble on a plate and say j, j, j. oa Bring hand over mouth as if you have done something wrong and say oh! ie Stand to attention and salute, saying ie ie. ee or Put hands on head as if ears on a donkey and say eeyore, eeyore. z Put arms out at sides and pretend to be a bee, saying zzzzzz. w Blow on to open hand, as if you are the wind, and say wh, wh, wh. ng Imagine you are a weightlifter, and pretend to lift a heavy weight above your head, saying ngà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ v Pretend to be holding the steering wheel of a van and say vvvvvv. oo ooMove head back and forth as if it is the cuckoo in a cuckoo clock, saying u, oo; u, oo. (Little and long oo.) y Pretend to be eating a yoghurt and say y, y, y. x Pretend to take an x-ray of someone with a camera and say ks, ks, ks. ch Move arms at sides as if you are a train and say ch, ch, ch. sh Place index finger over lips and say shshsh. th th Pretend to be naughty clowns and stick out tongue a little for the th, and further for the th sound (this and thumb). qu Make a ducks beak with your hands and say qu, qu, qu. ou Pretend your finger is a needle and prick thumb saying ou, ou, ou. oi Cup hands around mouth and shout to another boat saying oi! ship ahoy! ue Point to people around you and say you, you, you. er Roll hands over each other like a mixer and say ererer. ar Open mouth wide and say ah. (British English) Flap hands as if a seal and say ar, ar, ar. (Nth Am English) (Sue Lloyd, 2001) Appendix 3 Some of the materials used in the sessions Appendix 4 Words the teacher dictated to do the pre and post test. sit hand ten fun cat red bus step spot frog

Been Trees :: essays research papers

The Bean Trees   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the novel The Bean Trees by Barbara Kingsolver, many social issues are discussed. One social issue that is addressed is adoption. Adopting a child is an experience that promises to bring great joy as it changes a couple or individual’s life forever. Adoption offers a chance at a new beginning for many children previously cared for by orphanages and foster homes. Families constitute the building blocks of society. They provide children with the love and security needed to grow into healthy adults. This paper will discuss how Kingsolver illustrates adoption in her novel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Taylor was sitting in Cynthia’s office with Turtle. It was their third week of seeing her. Turtle was talking again, after the incident in the park. As the history of Taylor and Turtle slowly began to seep out of Taylor, Cynthia has no choice but to inform Taylor that she has no legal claim to Turtle because she has no papers on Turtle. She cannot prove the way she got Turtle. Taylor, felt that if she has no claim to Turtle then no one else should either. The state of Arizona would take Turtle into custody. Taylor, depending on how long she had been a resident in the state, and depending on her income and stability, might be able to adopt Turtle in the future. Taylor does not know how to respond to this news. She is beginning to think that she will not be a good mother for Turtle. Kingsolver expresses how people may get discouraged, but they are somehow encouraged by the people around them. She conveys this message through the way Taylor feels about her role in Turtle’s life. However, the people in her life help her to realize her love and need for this child. I believe this is a common problem faced by many people who want to adopt. They begin to doubt whether they would be good parents. They have many questions that they need to consider. For example,will they feel like the child’s parents? Or would they treat an adopted child differently than their birth child? Most importantly, will they be able to handle the emotions, if and when, their child wants to meet their birth family? These fears come between the questions and the answers. It thrives on the unknown. In most, the fear is turned around, as exemplified in Taylor’s case.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another scene that articulates adoption is the scene with Mr. Armistead. Taylor, Turtle, Estevan and Esperanza were all together.