Audience Contact Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Audience Contact Analysis - Assignment Example The messages that are sent by the organization to its existing and potential customers are called contact points they are also defined as any tools used to distribute the marketing message (Hammond 195). The Toyota Company has been in operation since 1937 and has grown from a simple company into a multibillion Company worth 397.05 billion yen (as of May 2014). Marketing excellence has been the backbone of their success. Their major contact point is their website that gives all the company details as well as shows their wide range of products. The website is user-friendly and provides their customers with a wide range of information (Hammond 195). The website operates an online help desk to ensure that any new customers can have all their questions answered. The website helps retain the existing customers due to the high-quality amenity it offers to them. The company spends over 14 billion dollars every year on advertisements. Unlike other companies, their marketing department has the highest number of employees as compared to the other departments. They advertise themselves on television often and also use billboards in strategic points all over the world. They have a distinct company logo which they show in all their adverts, and it acts as a mark of class to their products. Their brand has gained popularity in the market due to their high-quality products and hence their name markets itself. The Toyota Company runs a Toyota exhibition twice a year whereby they showcase all their products. In such exhibitions, the company interacts with its existing customers, and this helps build a healthy relationship between them. The exhibition also brings potential customers since they are not discriminative on who attends the exhibition and do not charge any fee. Apart from exhibitions, another contact point is their warehouses that are often in open space. Customers are allowed to visit the warehouses and view the vehicles. The layout of the

You choose it Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 5

You choose it - Essay Example Future cities will be urban nightmares. As seen in the research conducted by KPMG Africa (2013), megacities are extremely unsustainable. This results from the fact that the cities continue to expand and increase in population. On the other hand, the non- human nature is slowly depleted. It is even worse with the thought that no younger cities are growing or economies. This explains an automatic stagnation in the cities that is characterized through the rising poverty levels and a primitive society. Megacities will also become a city of despair going with the fact the rise of cities has become the source of pollution, and other harms to the human body. KPMG Africa (2013) explains how the growth of cities have affected the cities in terms of the pollution from the smoke emitted from different forms, different types of foods have been chemicalized, and even the water for consumption has been polluted. It is worse to see how the human population is struggling to adjust to these changes. Some of the human species struggle to adjust with the changes in globalization (KPMG Africa, 2013; MlrdnTv, 2014). The status of the humans has therefore become extremely complex with them dealing with issues that result from urbanization such as climatic changes, deforestation and even technology. KPMG Africa (2013) continues to explain how the process of urbanization has been linked to high levels of poverty, high unemployment levels and food uncertainties. This trickles down to the access to health opportunities, other basic necessities such as water and sanitation services. This explains that in as much the population in the urban centers may be a working population, they live in terrible conditions. The growth process will then be slowed down since the cities will be extremely impoverished and will not meet the needs of all persons. Nonetheless, megacities can be termed as major sources of opportunity. KPMG Africa (2013)

The Crucible is both timeless and universal discuss Essay Example for Free

The Crucible is both timeless and universal discuss Essay The Crucible, first written and performed in 1953 as the work of Arthur Miller, was written through the perspective of a man living in an era of radical social and economical traumas. Miller wrote his play at a time when America was only just beginning to make its way past the suffering of the Great Depression and during the McCarthy Hysteria of the 1950s. His work is not merely heavily influenced by these outside affectations but it becomes evident to one observing the social and political climates of Millers time that these are in fact the inspiration for his creation. What Miller wrote was an artists answer to human suffering, not only through the hard times of the depression but also through the politics and in particular the ideological war on communism (and indeed all left-wing views), which was taking place. Such a war, Miller noticed, was comparable to the war which Puritan society waged on the Devil during the Salem with trials of 1962 and indeed such wars are equally comparable to Hitlers vendetta against the Jews during WW2. Such wars, such prejudices and long term states of disagreement, have been recorded since biblical times which described the Egyptians forcing the Jews into slavery. The fact exists that war is an unfortunate symptom of the human condition it is an inescapable side effects of what it means to be human. A central focus within the play is hysteria: The whole countrys talkin witchcraft Word of Betty and Ruths mysterious states spreads so rapidly throughout the village because the matter is one which is of concern to everyone in the village. People tell each other because it is a universal matter, not necessarily one shared by people today, but certainly one shared by Salems people at the time to a great extent: The whole worlds gone daft with this nonsense The reason that people react so severely to the situation is because they fear witchcraft in the same way that the society in which Miller was writing in, in 1952 feared communism. The hysteria surrounding the McCarthy incident is easily comparable to the Salem witch trials, because although the fear has changed with time and location the human nature remains the same and the human instinct to protect itself invokes a mass of people grouping together for protection against what is seen as a threatening group. In 2003 this can be seen even more clearly in the aftermath of the September the 11th incident when The Times printed the article: Is Arab a dirty word? Discussing how many people in America associated all those of Arabic descent with acts of terrorism. Once again this paranoia is invoked by a deep fear which has become integrated into the minds of the people in that society. Intricately linked to this are the ideas of good and evil within the play: Its Gods work we do Throughout the play many people, from Proctor not confessing to a lie, to Cheever taking the accused to what he knows may be their deaths, justify their actions through religion claiming that what they do, they do in Gods will and that is a healthy thing to strike out against those opposed: Let you strike out against the Devil Very similarly capitalist Americans in Millers era believed that they were doing good for the world in seeking out communists, who are portrayed by American society as being evil because they oppose capitalism in making the world a better place. In such a situation the commonly viewed good is capitalism where as its antithesis evil can be supposed to be communism. In 2003 the ordinary people of America view themselves as good people who do no great wrong, and yet are being attacked by terrorists. They see terrorism, or more generally the east and those of Arabic descent, as the evil of the world, because the moral framework imposed by society is not accepting of the taking of an innocent life. However, the girls know that those they are accusing are in fact innocent: Lies, lies It is also possible to suggest that later Danforth realises this but becomes part of the conspiracy in order to protect himself and his position: You know in all your black hearts that this be fraud Very similarly at the time of Millers writing senator Joseph McCarthy was accusing people within the government and authoritarian positions of being communists or sympathizers, and encouraging them to confess and name others. This is very much like the situation within the crucible when the girls knowingly blame innocent people because it is, again, in order to protect themselves. In 2003 corruption can be seen within the British and American governments who justified their invasion of Iraq by claiming that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. However since that time, none have been found and many propose that none exist, but leading figures in the movement such as Tony Blair still knowingly untruly claim that Saddam possessed such items in order to protect their own reputations and positions. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Miller section.

Causes of Currency Crises and Banking Crises

Causes of Currency Crises and Banking Crises Introduction Based on my readings, I have found that currency crises often accompanied by banking crises or banking crises preceded by currency crises or even has no significant relationship between the two. So, why are currency crises often accompanied by banking crises? In this paper, I will discuss on how such problem may occur based on historical perspective, in which the countries that have experienced Twin Crises. The next issue is  the effectiveness and desirability of capital controls as a means by which developing countries can manage sudden capital inflows and/or outflows. This is where the credibility of capital controls are being challenged whether such restriction should be taken into a serious consideration for the policymakers to implement. It is important to analyse these economic situations due to past economic disasters in which the issues stated were significant in the 1994 Mexican peso crisis, 1997 Asian Financial crisis and the 1998 Russian financial crisis. Twin Crisis The simultaneous occurrence of currency crises and banking crises is known in economic term as Twin Crises, introduced by economists Carmen Reinhart and Graciela Kaminsky in the late 1990s. This phenomenon became a common problem in financially liberalized emerging market economies in the 1990s which started with the  1994 Mexican crisis, followed with the 1997 Asian financial crisis  and the  1998 Russian financial crisis. Kaminsky and Reinhart (1999) did an extensive research on the relationship between financial and banking crises for 20 countries and over a 25-year sample and found that banking crises often precede currency crises. The mechanism basically relies on two features. Firstly, governments hold a fixed exchange rate system and secondly, a mismatch between domestic assets and foreign liabilities by domestic banks, thus, exposing to exchange rate risks( Goldstein, Itay 2005 ). A currency crises, also known as the Balance of Payment crises,is a situation in which a nation is suffering from a chronic balance of payment deficit. This problem exists when a nation is unable to finance the imports and debt repayments. The country’s central bank would be in a doubtful position whether, given the fixed exchange rate, it has sufficient foreign exchange reserves to maintain the value of domestic currency. Government often intervenes by using the countrys own currency reserves or its  foreign reserves to satisfy the excess demand for a given currency ( Wikipedia, 2014 ). It came to a period when these emerging market economies were experiencing rapid economic growth, creating massive capital inflows, which will then lead to the crises. A banking crises, however, is a financial crisis that affects banking activity which includes bank runs, banking panics and systemic banking crises, in which a country experiences a large number of defaults and financial institutions face difficulties repaying contracts. A bank run occurs when depositors believe that the bank may fail which led them to withdraw all of their deposits from that bank. This causes the banking system to be insolvent if it cannot pay its debts as they fall due. Insolvency can be defined as the inability to pay ones debts. Cash flow insolvency, or a ‘lack of liquidity’ may occur as well when the bank might end upowingmore than itowns or is owed ( postivemoney.org, n.d ). Twin Crises started off when investors begin to lose their confidence as the massive capital inflow in the country creates uncertainty among investors in which the debt their capital is generating. The country’s currency will be at stake as the resulting outflow of capitals created by investors as they withdraw all of their funds will devalue the affected nation’s currency. Firms of the affected nation who have received the inbound investments and loans will suffer, as the earning of those firms is typically derived domestically but their debts are often denominated in a reserve currency ( Kallianiotis, 2013 ). Once the nation has exhausted its foreign reserves trying to support the value of the domestic currency, government can raise its interest rates to try to prevent from further decline in the value of its currency. While this helps those with debts denominated in foreign currencies, it generally further depresses the local economy as high interest rate usually enc ourages saving and discourages investment. Real-World Financial Crises The 1997 Asian financial crisis was a period of financial crisis which affected many economies in the East Asia. It began in Thailand when they had accumulated a massive foreign debt. In the effort to support the value of baht, the government had no choice but to float the Thai baht due to insufficient of foreign currency reserves, reducing peg against the US dollar. Until 1999, economies in South East Asia enjoyed a prosperous period as they had received large inflow of money. High interest rates in emerging economies attracted many investors due to the fact that it may give a high return for the investors. As a result, price of assets in these countries began to rise at an alarming rate which created insecurity among investors. Lenders started to withdraw all of their funds at a large scale, creating credit crunch and bankruptcies. Furthermore, there was a depreciative  pressure on their exchange rates as the supply of currencies of the crisis countries was high in the exchange market. Governments from these countries had to intervene in the exchange market. To prevent any loss in value of domestic currency, they had to raise domestic interest rates by buying up any surplus of the domestic currency. The Mexican government’s move to devalue the peso against the US dollar created an outburst which led to the Mexican peso crisis in 1994. In order to maintain in the value of peso, the Mexico’s central bank allowed the peso to free float within a narrow band against the US dollar through an exchange rate peg ( Wikipedia, 2014 ). Furthermore, the central bank would constantly intervene in the open market by purchasing or selling the pesos. The central banks intervention involved issuing new short-term public debt instruments denominated in U.S. dollars, using the borrowed dollar capital to purchase pesos in the foreign exchange market, will cause an appreciation in its value. Since the peso is reckoned to be increasing in value, the high purchasing power by domestic businesses, firms and consumers created an incentive to purchase more imported goods, resulting in a large trade deficit. Speculations regarding the over-valuation of peso began to circulate which encouraged investors to purchase more of U.S assets. It will be more profitable for investors as they will be able to capitalize the high exchange rate when they exchange dollars for pesos later. The resulting capital outflow from Mexico to United States caused a capital flight which put a downward market pressure on the value of peso. To curb this issue, newly inaugurated President Ernesto Zedillo in 1994announced the Mexican central banks devaluation of the peso between 13 and 15 percent. Due to the unpredictability of Mexican policymakers, investors felt insecure and afraid of further devaluations in the currency, putting an upward market pressure in the interest rates and a further downward pressure on the value of peso. Foreign investors began to rapidly withdraw their capital from Mexican investments due to possible devaluation of peso. As a result, the Mexican central bank had to raise the interest rates to prevent from capital flight. Capital Flows Capital flows is simply defined as the transaction of real and financial assets and it is recorded in the capital account. When a country has a deficit in the capital account, it means the country is experiencing a capital outflow, like Japan. The country is supposedly purchasing more assets or making more loans or both at the same time, thus accumulating net claims on other countries. It is a situation in which it is undesirable to the economy. Contrarily, if the country is having a surplus in the capital account, depicting capital inflows, it is said that other countries are accumulating claims on that particular country. Capital flows provides many great economic advantages. Countries are now able to â€Å"catch-up† with the advancement of other countries by capitalizing on their differences. Capital flows enables residences of different nations to invest in other countries by engaging in inter-temporal trade, allowing them to reap benefits or profits for future consumption. Be it an economic boom or recession, optimum level of national consumption or expenditure is vital in every economy. Thus, capital flows helps to prevent from a fall in national consumption in case of an unexpected economic downturn, by selling domestic assets or borrowing from the rest of the world. Thus, overall improvement in economic performance can be achieved as it will aid substantially in terms of productivity and efficiency. Free capital mobility may seem desirable, though, in reality it comes at a cost. Given the exchange rate, developing countries or emerging market economies tend to acquire more assets by purchasing a massive amount of goods and services than the rest of the world. This is due to several reasons. These countries may not be on par in terms of economic performance, efficiency as well as resources compared to the rest of the world. Besides, it may be due to fluctuation in the world price of commodities. The implementation of expansionary economic policy by government will increase the demand for imports. As a result, appreciation of foreign currency will occur due to high demand of foreign goods and at the same time, a depreciation in own currency due to a low demand for domestic commodities. Since government would want to hold a fixed exchange rate regime, they can implement a contractionary monetary policy, a method of selling domestic bonds which increases the domestic interest rate, in order to maintain the value of domestic currency. The demand of domestic currency will be improved which will increase the value of domestic currency. Again, it proves to be costly as high interest rate will discourage investment, since it is now more expensive to borrow from the bank, reducing a potentially larger economic growth. This shows that free flow of capital may cause an upward pressure in the value of currency which may jeopardise local firms, making them less competitive in the global market. Emerging market economies are the usual target for â€Å"hot money† with sudden injection or withdrawal of funds, thus, creating distortion or instability in the market. Large volumes of capital inflows on search for higher yields causes dislocations in the financial system. Foreign funds might fuel asset price bubbles, encourage excess risk taking by cash-rich domestic intermediaries ( Magud, Reinhart Rogoff, 2005 ). Having a strong and independent monetary policy is more viable than sustaining free flow of capital. Due to potential harmful effects of free flow of capital to the economy, capital controls is introduced to prevent such consequences from happening. A capital control is any policy designed to limit or redirect capital account transactions and may take the form of taxes, price or quantity controls, or outright prohibitions on international trade in assets ( Neely, Christopher J. , 1999 ). Capital Controls There are two types of controls which are the controls on inflow and outflow of capital. Like Malaysia during the Asian financial crisis in the late 1990s, control on capital outflows was introduced to supposedly generate revenue, correct balance of payment deficit as well as preserve savings for domestic use. Control on capital inflows, used by Chile during the Latin American debt crisis, was used to prevent potential volatility inflows, financial destabilisation and real appreciation as well as correcting balance of payment surplus and limit foreign ownership of domestic assets. This shows various type of capital controls are targeted at specific type of movement. The question is, how effective capital control is and to what extent should it be implemented ? During the Asian Financial Crises, Malaysian government imposed controls on outflows in 1998 by pegging the exchange rate at RM 3.80 for every US dollar. Their objective was to delay from exhaustion of foreign reserves and provide as much time possible for policymakers to implement reflationary policies as well as eliminating speculation against the ringgit. Malaysia’s stock market capitalization ratio at 310 percent of GDP, compared to 116 percent in the U.S., and 29 percent in Korea and domestic debt-GDP ratio at 170 percent were, at the time, highest in the world (Perkins and Woo, 2000). In response to the crisis, Malaysian government raised the interest rates to stem the decline of the ringgit and restructured their expenditure by reducing it by 18 percent ( Ethan Kaplan and Dani Rodrik, 1999 ). However, the economy showed no sign of improvement. Their effort to reduce domestic interest rates seemed to be pointless as speculation against the ringgit in offshore markets was circulating widely. The speculation lead to the borrowing of ringgit at premium rates to purchase dollars, which created a devaluation pressure on ringgit. Worried of capital flight and further depreciation of the currency, the Malaysian government also banned for a period of one year all repatriation of investment held by foreigners. Malaysia also lowered the 3-month Bank Negara Intervention Rate from 9.5% to 8% and the liquid asset ratio was reduced from 17% to 15% of total liabilities ( Ethan Kaplan and Dani Rodrik, 1999 ). On February 15th, 1999, the Central Bank of Malaysia changed the regulations on capital restrictions, shifting from an outright ban to a graduated levy and replacing the levy on capital with a profits levy on future inflows ( Ethan Kaplan and Dani Rodrik, 1999 ). After the imposition of capital controls in 1998, Malaysia showed a strong and quick revival from the Asian financial crisis. The fact that Korea and Thailand, which had opted for IMF’s progra mme, recovered remarkably suggesting that capital controls imposed in Malaysia did not make any significant difference than the IMF’s financial aid. Chile seemed to favour controls on capital inflows and been relying on it in two different occasions (1978-82 and 1991-98). The effectiveness is questionable, however, as in 1981-82 Chile went through a currency crisis despite with controls and restrictions. The peso was devalued by almost 90 percent and a large number of banks had to be, bailed out by the government ( Edwards, Sebastian 1999 ). The controls were being reintroduced in 1991 with the objectives of slowing down the volume of capital inflows into own country, reducing the real exchange rate appreciation resulted from these inflows, allowing the Central Bank to maintain a high differential between domestic and international interest rates. In 1984, Chile has adopted a slightly flexible exchange rate system, where the peso-dollar rate was allowed to fluctuate within an upward-moving band. The authorities argued that by maintaining domestic (peso) denominated interest rates above international rates, inflation would decline gradually (Massad, 1998). This policy mix worked relatively well until the late 1980s, when Chile regained access to international financial markets, and capital began to flow into the country putting pressure both on the real exchange rate and domestic interest rates ( Edwards, Sebastian 1999 ). By early 1990, domestic firms were considerably affected, as the rapid strengthening of peso has reduced their level of competitiveness and profitability. To sum it up, the effectiveness of Chile’s controls on capital inflows has been overestimated. After the controls were imposed, the maturity of foreign debt contracted by Chile increased significantly. The evidence suggests more than 40 percent of Chile’s debt to G-10 banks had a residual maturity of less than one year ( Edwards, Sebastian 1999 ). Although the policy affected the composition of capital inflows, it did not reduce the total volume of aggregate flows moving into Chile during the 1990s. The controls on inflows had no significant effect on Chile’s real exchange rate in which it appreciated by approximately 30% during the 1990s. The controls had a short term effect on domestic interest rates. The magnitude of the effect was very small, however, raising the question of whether the central bank’s ability to undertake independent monetary policy really enhanced by the controls on capital inflows ( Edwards, Sebastian 1999 ) . Conclusion Control on inflows seems to be more favourable among authors and economists than those on outflows. Controls on outflows usually create corruption as it easier to evade than the inflows (Reinhart and Smith, 1998; Eichengreen, et al. 1999). If there is an anticipation in the depreciation of domestic currency, this creates an incentive for investors to evade controls on outflows to prevent from losses.When faced with the prospect of a major crisis, the private sector finds ways of evading the controls, moving massive volumes of funds out of the country. Controls on capital outflows have resulted in corruption, as investors try to move their monies to a â€Å"safe haven.† In almost 70% of the cases were controls on outflows were used as a preventive measure, there was a significant increase in â€Å"capital flight† after the controls had been put in place. Cuddington (1986) reached a similar conclusion in his study on the determinants of capital flight in developing countr ies. Evading controls on inflows, however, proved to be less beneficial among investors as investing in other countries would be less viable compared to domestic return. REFERENCES : L. Kaminsky, Graciela and M. Reinhart, Carmen (1999) The Twin Crises: The Causes of Banking and Balance-of-Payments Problems Vol. 89 No. 3 Online at :  http://home.gwu.edu/~graciela/HOME-PAGE/RESEARCH-WORK/WORKING-PAPERS/twin-crises.pdf Accessed 20 December 2014 Goldstein, Itay (April 2005) Strategic Complementarities and the Twin Crises Economic Journal. Online at :  http://www.res.org.uk/details/mediabrief/4392181/Explaining-Twin-Financial-Crises.html  Accessed 20 December 2014 Tornell, Aaron (2002) Twin Crises The National Bureau of Economic Research Online at :  http://www.nber.org/reporter/winter02/tornell.html Accessed 20 December 2014 J. Neely, Christopher (1999) An Introduction To Capital Controls Online at :  http://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/review/99/11/9911cn.pdf Accessed 27 December 2014 Baba, Chikako and Kokenyne, Annamaria (2011) Effectiveness of Capital Controls in Selected Emerging Markets in the 2000s IMF Working Paper Online at :  https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/2011/wp11281.pdf Accessed 27 December 2014 Edwards, Sebastian (1999) HOW EFFECTIVE ARE CAPITAL CONTROLS? The National Bureau of Economic Research Online at :  http://www.nber.org/papers/w7413.pdf Acccessed 27 December 2014

The Internet Essay -- Communications, Media

This proposal will assess how the present of new media, particularly internet, influence the agribusiness community in Indonesia in term of the way they communicate and make transaction. This media is not only useful to diffuse and exchange information quickly in wider geographical areas, but also to get the up to date agricultural information and develop network beyond conventional boundaries, conditions which are necessary for the survival of their business. For developing country like Indonesia and particularly in agribusiness sector, in general, internet is still considered as innovation. For this reason, it is useful to explore obstacles, potency, and social implications of this new digital technology in this sector. The study will answer question of how various agribusiness actors respond to this new media; why some agribusiness managements adopt it and why some others not. If they adopt it, then what type of information they usually deal with. Furthermore, it is useful to ex amine the agricultural networks, with regard to interrelationship and transaction between agricultural ecologies (like between the sellers and sellers with the buyers). Many factors, such as economic consideration (like scale of business), complexity, and trend could influence the adoption of the technology. Thus, it is necessary to examine the micro and macro factors which have associations with the adoption of the technology. Finally, this study will answer the social impact of this media: whether internet causes special type of communication gap in cyberspace –the digital divide? Combination of survey and in-depth interviews techniques will be applied for this study, which will be conducted in Indonesia. Literature Review (12-15 pages) Today, w... ...internet (considered as â€Å"micro† factor), relative advantage (macro factor), and social compatibility (meso and macro factor) (Rogers, 2003). Then, several relevant demographic variables will also be postulated. As the consequences, there are three variables/questions that will be explored (see the diagram below). I will state each hypothesis, and then followed by the rationalization of the hypotheses and questions. Perceived compatibility with organizational characteristic Perceived difficulties Perceived relative advantage Perceived compatibility with social environment Demographic factors (Antecedents) Adoption or not adoption of internet Type of information and purpose of using internet Segments of person to be in contact Geographic location of stakeholders (Consequences)

Symbolism In The Veil Essay -- Nathaniel Hawthorne

Symbolism In The Veil The veil that the minister wears in "The Ministers Black Veil", by Nathanial Hawthorne represents the emphasis on man's inner reality, and those thoughts and feelings which are not immediately obvious. As Hawthorne explored this inner nature, he found the source of dignity and virtue, and certain elements of darkness. When the minister first walks out of his home wearing the veil, everyone is astonished. This one man in this village decides to be a nonconformist and wear this veil without explanation. No one understands why the minister would wear such a veil for no reason at all. This is where all the assumptions begin to linger. All of the villagers have a story for why the veil is there. These people are not trying to understand it. These villagers are just trying convince themselves that the veil is hiding something, like a deformation of the ministers face. Others think that Mr. Hooper is hiding something else, like a secret no one is supposed to know about. This black veil conflicts with everyone in the village in some way. Is this veil a problem only because everyone is afraid of what they might be hiding? Perhaps this veil is a symbol of the mistrust Mr. Hooper has to those people closest to him or maybe he is trying to show this society that there is a greater lesson to be learned from this black veil than just an apparent one: That mysterious emblem was never once withdrawn. It shook with his measured breath as he gave out the psalm; it through its obscurity between him and the holy page, as he read the scripturesÂ… Did he seek to hide it from the dread Being whom he was addressing? (1281) After seeing the black veil upon the face of Mr. Hooper, every person in the villag... ... tremble at me alone? Â…Tremble also at each other! Have men avoided me, and women shown no pityÂ…only for my black veil? What, but the mystery which it obscurely typifies, has made this piece of crape so awful? When the friend shows his inmost heart to his friendÂ…when man does not vainly shrink form the eye of his Creator, loathsomely treasuring up the secret of his sin; then deem me a monster, for the symbol beneath which I have lived, and die! I look around me, and lo! On every visage a black veil! (1288-89) The black veil is a symbol, something that Hawthorne uses to stand for the blocked wall between all human souls. Hawthorne is simply suggesting that every person wears his own "black veil". On the other hand, if people are willing to acknowledge the darkness in themselves, there will come a time when everyone shall set aside their veils.

Language Development multi-disciplinary

Language development is a multi-disciplinary field containing inputs from psychology, academics, behavioral science, neurology and speech development. It’s marked by the culmination of a series of processes, which begin early in human life where an infant goes through imbibing primary language skills from the environment surrounding him, starts remembering words and phrases without the need for understanding their meaning, slowly build connections and visual imagery to understand patterns in language, and finally, as the child grows older, new meanings and new associations are created and his vocabulary increases as more words are learned.Language development as a term, should not be confused with â€Å"language acquisition† of which it is only a subset. The latter also deals with second language learning ability. Linguists and researchers like Noam Chomsky, Elizabeth Bates and Catherine Snow have developed hypotheses, that recognize and measure the specific learning re sults from general cognitive abilities and the interactions between learners, and their surrounding language environments.Language development contains several discussion points. In this paper, we shall look into the following points, based on past research done in relevant area. The main objective of our research is to infer the importance of each and every building block, in facilitating the language learning ability of children. Understanding these concepts have special significance to the case studies of dyslexics (slow learners), auditory and visually challenged kids, children with a stammering problem and kids of immigrant parents for whom English is not a spoken language at home. The articles selected for this purpose have one theme in common: they offer tips and suggestions, and also the roadmap for applications within a children learning environment.Transduction: Having worked in the field of cognitive development among children, Jean Piaget, a famous Swiss development psyc hologist, has described â€Å"transduction† as the first logic of reference in the primary form of reasoning used by children during the preoperational stages of development (2-7 years). The logic here is: if A causes B today, then A always causes B.The basic definition of transduction is â€Å"reasoning† without the reversible nestings of a hierarchy of classes and relations (Mathcs.edu, p.12). Accordingly, the first verbal reasoning is identified as practical and somewhat, based on perception or imagination. It is one step advancement of something known as â€Å"preconcepts†, identified by early language specialists wherein a child merely learns to associate certain â€Å"semi-concepts† which fit into the notion of what the child observes from surroundings (p.10). An example might be, â€Å"Is worm an animal?† It basically means that at the preconceptual level, the child identifies words with â€Å"shapes† and â€Å"patterns† (p.11) , rather than actual denominators of valid reasoning.In contrast, Piaget identified transduction as an advanced stage of cognitive learning, because the child’s thinking pattern carries less of an egocentric point-of-view, and it is more oriented toward finding the meaning to a desired end (p.12). However, even at this stage, the child doesn’t think of representation based on logic at most times, and can distort reality to suit his own â€Å"perception† about the world (p.12). Transduction, has been identified as the â€Å"discovery of lying†, and also the â€Å"dawn of reasoning† (p.12). The essential prerequisites of a study on transduction in language development for children, would consist of   in the preconceptual stage: 1)a symbolic thought, 2)representations derived from motivation, individual perception, daydreaming, and logical reasoning. In the transduction stage, it matures into a vivid construction of the image, and this constitutes t he child’s first grasp with reasoning, and intellect (p.12).Concept   formation:   There is a close relationship between language and concept forming ability   (Xu, p.2). Fei Xu, at the University of British Columbia contends in her research on cross-linguistic behavior patterns, that concept forming abilities reflect certain correlations between aspects of language, and the guiding blocks of reasoning that present a state-of-the-fact reality for the child, slowly whetting his appetite for gaining knowledge on words, based on situations (p.3).The first feature of this concept forming ability starting with infants began, in â€Å"count nouns† and categorization. Quoting from relevant research, Xu points out that children first learn to differentiate between countable and uncountable nouns, as the object is displayed before them. A familiarization tone might be: â€Å"a rabbit†, â€Å"a pig†, and also â€Å"wheat†, â€Å"sugar† (p.5). Th ere is a natural propensity to learn â€Å"novel nouns† (p.6), which are basically words, that are amusing and pleasant to hear. Studies have shown kids can be unusually brilliant in their intuitive ability to grasp new words, to attach their meaning with words they already know. E.g. â€Å"engineer†, â€Å"medicine† and â€Å"President† (p.7).Once the foundation for nouns are clear, Xu offers examples in which children learned differences between adjectives and nouns, which come â€Å"immediately† after learning nouns. E.g. â€Å"good† boy, â€Å"red† apple (p.7). For infants, conceptual ability at an early stage is not a complete process by itself, as they lack understanding of other signposts of intelligence (p.11). In an experiment suggested in the article, small children faced trouble in counting objects of similar shape. To them, articles of different shapes and sizes offers more intrigue and curiosity into counting. Also, many couldn’t tell if a toy train moving in a circular path was indeed â€Å"one† train (p.12). However, the start of concept-forming ability is the dawn of wisdom for infants.Imagery: Imagery refers to any word that creates a â€Å"picture† in the head of children. For older kids (3-4 years and above), imagery using similes, metaphors, personifications (mainly) and other audio-visual tools are a crucial ingredient in learning language (Savich, 1984). Not only do these methods facilitate an increase in handy vocabulary, but they also develop spatial learning abilities in children. Imagery is recommended for older children, because by then their brain cells in the cerebral hemisphere, are divided enough to allow such functions (Savich, 1984).Some of the methods used are: â€Å"the Big, Black barn†, â€Å"Snow White with pink feathers and velvet hands†. For children, the intuitive ability to render strong associations with these image vocabulary, is so po werful that many of them are able to visualize elements that many adults might ignore; e.g. the differences in colors in mosaic tiles; any object (and that includes human beings) readily start getting associated with the child’s cultivated imagination. Also, unlike the early concept-forming stage, this time children have lesser tendency to   face problems in identifying different words and expressions for similar shapes.Patricia Savich, at the University of Los Angeles, in her research on language-disabled children, has contended that they are facing problems in retaining a strong anticipatory imagery ability (Savich, 1984), compared to other children. In an experiment described, she assigned five spatial tasks to two groups of children based on age, sex, native language and background. In all assignments specified, language-disabled children lagged behind their counterparts in identifying words, from the assortment of visual imagery at their disposition (Savich, 1984).Memo ry: Memory has several study areas in the field of language development: recall memory, visual recognition memory (VRM), social communication, and the emergence of language skills. According to Heimann et al (2006), recall memory involves the technique called â€Å"deferred imitation† or DI as the most scientific method of enabling words, to stick in the memory of children. A lot of research in this field, has successfully established the cosmopolitan reach of the method to enable children to learn new words, sentence structures and also intonations of language. DI basically involves showing a picture to the child, make him repeat the word after the instructor, pursue a delay for 10 to 24 minutes, and come back with the picture again, to retain the word in the child’s sphere of imagination, â€Å"permanently†. There is plenty of flexibility, in how and why DI must be conditioned, for specific child-learning initiatives.VRM is applied to children, 3 years and abo ve, and deals with providing close attention for familiar pools of information. VRM is a close indicator of receptive language skills, and along with imagery, helps the child associate connections between different visual stimulus to form an idea of the world where he’s living in. Social communications consist of two aspects: 1)Joint Attention (JA) where the child learns words by studying the gaze patterns of other children in the creche or play group, and 2)Turn-taking skills (TT), which is the beginning of the first steady â€Å"conversation† between the child and the instructor/parent. The parent familiarizes the child with a situation, and it is his responsibility to come back with an answer. Heimann et al (2006), have contended that the onset of a steady conversation, even though in incorrect grammar, is the fist milestone for children’s language development program.Environmental influence: Finally, apart from the four techniques discussed in our framework, the most pivotal influence kids could derive for learning language programs, lies in the influence laid out by the environment in which they live. According to a cognitive behavior study, by Janellen Huttenlocher, a William S Gray Professor in psychology at the University of Chicago, the language environment in which children live, influences considerably their command over individual differences in syntax acquisition (Harms, 2002). There are dramatic differences between 3- and 4- year olds speech and comprehension, depending upon the â€Å"way† teachers and parents spoke to them.The study was based on 305 children across 40 classrooms in 17 preschool areas comprising people of all income-levels. Sentences used for testing were very descriptive, livid and tested all aspects of grammar retention ability: â€Å"the boy is looking for the girl behind a chair, but she is sitting under the table†, and â€Å"the baby is holding the big block and a small ball†. Natura lly, in classrooms that were extremely exposed to complicated sentences, children were more easily capable of using the correct â€Å"syntax† in language tests, compared to under-privileged downtown Chicago neighborhood schools, that are often under-staffed and children come from much less-privileged backgrounds. Even for lower-income background children, those who came to classrooms with qualified language instructors, the curiosity to learn the proper syntax of conversations, was much higher (Harms, 2002).According to Huttenlocher, the foundations of speech due to environment in childhood sticks for life. Children who grow up listening to â€Å"full† sentence syntaxes, are much more likely to use them comfortably when they grow up, compared to many American adults who really enjoy â€Å"skipping† words and have limited vocabulary for use, even though they might know the meaning of several words (Harms, 2002).SourcesHarms, W. (Nov 21, 2002). Researchers discove r environment influences children’s ability toform, comprehend complex sentences. The University of Chicago Chronicle. Vol.22,No.5Heimann, M., Strid, K., Smith, L., Tjus, T., Ulvund, S.E., Meltzoff, A.N. (Aug 1, 2006).Exploring the relation between memory, gestural communication and the emergence oflanguage in Infancy: a longitudinal study. Public Medical Central. 15(3): 233-249.Mathcs.edu. (Date unknown). Cognitive precursors to language. Accessed :www.mathcs.duq.edu/~packer/Courses/Psy598/Precursors,%20Cognitive.pdf [Dec 16, 2006]Savich, P.A. (December 1984). Anticipatory imagery ability in Normal and Language-disabledchildren. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research. Vol. 27: 494-501.Xu, F. (in press). Concept formation and language development: count nouns and object kinds.University of British Columbia, Oxford handbook of psycholinguists. Oxford UniversityPress (OUP). 2-12.