Factors of Professionalism and Computer Professional Bodies

Factors of Professionalism and Computer Professional Bodies Contents Tutorial One3 Tutorial Two7 Tutorial Three..10 Tutorial ÂÂ   Four..13 Tutorial ÂÂ   Five..15 References.18 Week 1 Professionalism Group Discussion (a) There are many different definitions of a professional. Discuss in general terms what you think are the most important factors to being a profession. Rank the factors you have in order of importance. Consider why you feel some factors are more important than others. There is discussion about who is a professional. Some said professional is a one who is good in particular job or engaging in a given activity as a source of livelihood or as a career. The group members agreed the definition as follows, a skilled occupation, within an organised framework, having an accepted body of knowledge, structured training, requiring maintenance of skills, guided by a code of conduct A professional is a person who acquires formal certification from professional body based on his academic background or/and work experience and also whose capability could be judged against established standards. All the group members generally agreed that the most important factors to being a profession include high degree of knowledge, association with a professional body, adherence to the code of conduct, structured training, ethical behavior, trusted competence, and commitment to continuous development of a profession. Competence is the ability to identify the problem and solve it by utilising available resources. So it is the most important factor Academic background, academic will help the professional to learn the specialised knowledge of profession. The learnt knowledge may prove a helpful tool for a competent professional. Good communication skills help in dealing with clients, colleagues and superiors. A professional with good communication skills will be able to significantly do well. Reliability/Dependability is a factor of importance and may sometimes supersede other factors. Integrity of a professional drives him/her to follow the work ethics and code of conduct in principle. Self-evaluation and discipline is a factor that motivates the persons to achieve more and to improve the skills. (b) Differentiate between a professional and an expert. Does a professional need to be an expert? As adjectives, the difference between expert and professional is that expert is extraordinarily capable or knowledgeable while professional is of, pertaining to, or in accordance with the (usually high) standards of a profession. As nouns the difference between expert and professional is that expert is a person with extensive knowledge or ability in a given subject while professional is a person who belongs to a profession. A professional is not necessarily an expert. (c)ÂÂ   Is a computer person with a high level of knowledge and skill automatically considered to be a professional? No, cannot be considered as a professional unless he practices and gain experience and perform the activity as a source of livelihood or as a career. Individual Questions (a) The BCS definition of a professional and two other definitions. CompareÂÂ   the definitions, what do they have in common? The BCS considers a practitioner a professional, if one possesses (BCS Professional): Appropriate degrees. Skills and competency. Motivation for self-development (theoretically and practically). Respect for code of conduct. Two other definitions: Person formally certified by a professional body of belonging to a specific profession by virtue of having completed a required course of studies and/or practice. And whose competence can usually be measured against an established set of standards. a professional (of a job) has a high level of education and training. In common it says professional need education and practise. (b) The role of the BCS. The role of the BCS. IT Members representation. To establish relationships with industry and academia. To establish relationships with governments. To work for the betterment of entire human society. (c) An overview of other professional bodies that exist for the IT industry. The Association of Computer Professionals (ACP) is an international body started in 1984. Its key aim is to set and maintain ICT industry standards by providing an independent examination body for ICT professionals. The membership of the ACP is a mix of academic and business professionals within the field of computing. IACSIT is a registered international scientific association of distinguished scholars engaged in Computer Science and Information Technology. The IACSIT members include research and development center heads, faculty deans, department heads, professors, research scientists, engineers, scholars, experienced software development directors, managers and engineers, university postgraduate and undergraduate engineering and technology students, etc. The National Computing Centre (NCC) is an independent membership organization for IT professionals and is the single largest and most diverse corporate membership body in the UK IT sector. Socitm (Society of Information Technology Management) is the membership association for all ICT professionals working in local authorities and the public and third sectors, and suppliers to those sectors. Socitm provides a widely-respected forum for the promotion, use and development of ICT best practice. Set up in 2001, the UKWDA (UK Web Design Association) brings together more than 10,000 British web industry professionals under one supportive umbrella organization. Women in Technologystarted in 2005 with one goal in mind: to help women build successful and satisfying careers in the IT industry. Institute of Analyst and Programmers, The Institution is Britains leading professional organization for people who work in the development, installation and testing of business systems and computer software. The UK IT Association (UKITA) was established as the private sector organization responsible for the development of a credible and thriving IT industry across the United Kingdom. Week 2 Professional Bodiesand the BCS Group Discussion What do you think should be the main roles and purpose of the BCS? To make a better society Share and exchange IT expertise and knowledge Supporting professionals Setting standards and framework To build strong relationship with academia, industry, policy makers and governments to promote IT. What do you consider to be the benefits of becoming a BCS member? Professional development More training opportunities Networking Mentoring Employability Professional recognition in the IT domain Best support from peers through IT forums How do you think your employment opportunities benefit from joining the BCS? BCS provides a platform to communicate with Entrepreneurs, Departmental heads, CEOs etc. This networking helps in getting more employment opportunities. From the video clip it can be seen that role models are important in all professions. From a historical perspective, why are the following people important: Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Alan Turing, Timothy John Berners-Lee, Bill Gates, Gordon More (of Mores law), Philip Don Estridge, Steve Jobs, John Von Neumann? Charles Babbage: Pioneer of programmable computer. Ada Lovelace: The first computer programmer. Alan Turing: Widely considered as the father of artificial intelligence. Timothy John Berners-Lee: The pioneer and inventor of WWW. Bill Gates: Co-founder of Microsoft. Gordon More: The Mores law predicts the technology advancement in computing industry Philip Don Estridge: Father of IBM PC. Steve Jobs: Chairman and CEO of Apple Inc. John Von Neumann: The originator and pioneer of linear programming, self-replicating machines, stochastic computing. Discuss three other current role models within the computer (IT) industry, state why they are considered as role models. Today almost all web page use jQuery. jQuery is the most popular JavaScript library in use today, with installation on 65% of the top 10 million highest-trafficked sites on the Web.John Resig is an American software engineer and entrepreneur, best known as the creator and lead developer of the jQuery JavaScript library.ÂÂ   At the very young age created jQuery and with the noble thought he made as open source. To me he is great role model for his hard work and better example in adding value to the society. Dennis MacAlistair Ritchie (September 9, 1941 c. October 12, 2011) was an American computer scientist.He created the C programming language and, with long-time colleague Ken Thompson, the Unix operating system. He is a legend whose inventions are significant to the modern computing. He added value to the society by contributing to the society. Mark Elliot Zuckerberg: Co-founder of Facebook. To create revolution in the social media world. Individual Questions Find two other professional bodies (not BCS) and compare the aims and mission statements of each. Socitm (Society of Information Technology Management) is the membership association for all ICT professionals working in local authorities and the public and third sectors, and suppliers to those sectors. Socitm provides a widely-respected forum for the promotion, use and development of ICT best practice. The National Computing Centre (NCC) is an independent membership organization for IT professionals and is the single largest and most diverse corporate membership body in the UK IT sector. Comparison Most of the aim and mission of the above two are similar . SOCITM delivers Professional development, Peer support, Policy influence, Research improvement NCC delivers a continuum of services including; independent and impartial advice and support, best practice and standards, personal and professional development, managed service delivery, awareness raising and experience sharing. What do you think is common to all profession bodies? Are some more important than others can you priorities? All professional bodies focus on: Gain new skills, competences, experiences and receive credible recognition. Network, collaborate and share practice with peers, suppliers and national programmes. Representing members at appropriate national and regional bodies. Research to enable the organisation in contributing to more effective and efficient public services. In order to establish priority among the professional bodies it is important to consider its global acceptance and credibility. In my opinion ACM and IEEE based professional bodies may be considered as more important. Week 3 Code of Conduct and Digital Identity Group Discussion Do you feel that it is necessary for all professional bodies to have a code of conduct? Yes, I do feel that it is necessary for all professional bodies to have a code of conduct; because it will serve as a guide for individuals as well as organizations. Adherence to the code of conduct will ensure to collaborate, share best practice, access industry-recognized training, and find the very best work. Is there an argument for all professional bodies to have the same code of conduct? For easy understanding and easy accessible same code of conduct can be developed and implemented. So, it will be easily for working across the globe. However, it is possible to have various separate clauses to support certain interest groups depending on the nature of business. What penalties should be included within a code of conduct? Discuss a range of offences and possible penalties Code of conduct should clearly state minor as well as major penalties. For instance, minor penalty can be imposed on misuse of resources; and a warning letter would be sufficient. However, major penalty such as termination from services should be imposed in case of physical violence and bullying etc. Also, restriction to certain benefits and privileges based on poor work ethics may encourage a professional to improve his/her attitude toward the work. State the type/name of Social Media you use and provide details of the type of information you make available. I use social media to connect with friends, search jobs, latest trends and to keep updates with current affairs. Facebook To connect with friends, relatives, current etc. Even now it is used as a platform to sell things. As a computer student, I explore Facebook as I can to know the feature as it is considered as a powerful tool. From election campaign to product launch started using Facebook. I have given my basic details and made details visible only to close circle. Linkedin -HR people uses LinkedIn to recruit people so I have an account. I have provided my education details and skill set available to all to improve my employability. Twitter To follow the trends and get updates. Does the content you post remain private or is it public?ÂÂ   Do you make conscious decisions between private and public posts? Mostly I share useful blogs and posts which doesnt hurt others so I share publicly. However, service provider has access to my posts even if they are private. Personally, I feel that once you have uploaded something it is already in public domain. Can you recall any of the terms of the agreement to the social media site(s) you are using? Is there a case that the terms of agreement should be written in an easy to understand language? No, I couldnt recall any rules. It will be great if rules are made available in other languages too. Provide an argument for keeping social and professional media separately. This will help us in separating private and professional identities as well as lives of other people. Usually professional media such as linkedin.com is accessed by people with mature attitude towards the uploaded contents. Normally social media space is swarmed by internet trolls and people with non-serious attitude toward personal stuff of other people. I would recommend for keeping the social and professional media separate. Provide some guidelines on how to use Social Media wisely? Use account from secure access (HTTPS). Do not access from public systems. Make sure you log out / sign out after access. Set security and privacy up to an appropriate level. Do not post sensitive information. The lecture slides provided a summary only of the BCS code of conduct, read in detail using the link provided in the lecture, the full BCS code of conduct. Summarise the code of conduct of TWO other professional bodies do not use the codes of conduct covered in the lecture/tutorial. The code of conduct of ACM focuses on positive contribution towards human society.ÂÂ   Moreover, honesty and truthfulness are considered as key attributes of members. Finally, respecting the privacy of others is considered as a must trait for any member. Similarly, no discrimination should be made among members based on their ethnicity is the corner stone of IITPs code of conduct. Furthermore, the code also stresses upon integrity, honesty and dignity in its members. Finally, continuous professional development is also an important aspect of this code. Compare and contrast the BCS code of conduct to (a) above. Commonalities: professionalism, dignity, honest, truthfulness and positive contribution towards human society. Contrast: BCS does not tolerate any kind of fraud and bankruptcy as well it does not allow any kind of conflict of interest. Comment on the theme running through each of the Codes of Conduct Following are the main themes of the code of conduct: Discourage discrimination. Positive contribution. Professionalism. Promoting education and reliable practices. Provide an overview of THREE networking sites that may be used for either social and/or professional networking. (i) Facebook online social media and social networking service based in Menlo Park, California, United States. (ii) Google+: Google+ is an interest-based social network that is owned and operated by Google. (iii)Linkedin: A networking site for educational, business and professional purposes (Linkedin) What are the advantages/disadvantage and possible dangers of using a digital presence? Advantages: Networking and marketing, global reach, following the trend. Disadvantages: Privacy breach, data loss/ corruption and may expose to false message. Week 4 Ethics Group Discussion (a) Are the 10 commandments in computer ethics still relevant today? Do they need to be updated? Eg. Is cyber bulling or grooming covered within the rules? The Ten Commandments are mostly relevant today and should be implemented in true letter and spirit (Virginia Tech). However, some scholars think that they are simplistic and restrictive therefore, they can be updated to handle contemporary and future issues. (i)What are Sallys legal responsibilities? Sallys legal responsibilities are professionalism and honesty. (ii) Does Sally have any legal protection? She should have legal protection by law. In case of any grievances employees usually have access to complaint office or other services that support and guide the grieved employee for the best of his/her interest. (iii) Analyse the Case study in terms of the Golden Rule and Utility Principle. Golden rule demands truthfulness and honesty; therefore, Sally should tell the client the real situation. Since untruthfulness and dishonesty may harm large number of humans; therefore, utility principle also demands that Sally should show the exact picture to the client as well as her boss. Sally should have avoided this situation by informing her boss in advance of the current situation. (iv)ÂÂ   Would your analysis of the ethics of this case change if Sally had been present during her bosss conversation with the client, but had not been asked to agree with his assurances? Golden rule and utility principle demand that Sally should communicate right information to the client and specially the boss. (v) What if the client had asked Sally a question, the honest answer to which would contradict her boss? Honesty and truthfulness are key attributes of a professional. On a human perspective, it is also important that her boss should not feel contradicted in front of the client. But it can be tackled with effective communication like Sally telling a suggesting her views that she doesnt the conversation. (vi) Would your analysis of the ethics of this case change if the software was for stock management rather than the control of machinery, with no threat to human safety? Golden rule and utility principle are not sympathy or application specific. Individual Question Jane downloads a copy of an e-book from an illegal file sharing web site. Analyse the situation in terms of the Golden Rule and Utility Principle from both Janes and the authors point of view. This act of Jane is illegitimate contradicting both the Golden rule and Utility Principle. What conclusions can be drawn? Proper actions should be taken against these illegal websites. The education of Golden rule and utility principle should be more propagated. What sort of difficulties are there in applying the Golden rule and the Utility principle? Selfishness and lack of education are two main barriers in applying the Golden rule and Utility Principle. Week 5 Legal Issues Group Discussion As a professional, to what extent do you feel that you should you be aware of the legal issues surrounding IT? A professional should have theoretical as well some practical knowledge of: Software law, software patents, the Internet, data and security (professional legal ethics). Also to secure Intellectual Property (IP) for clients, an IT professional should be well informed on legal obligations and rights in digital world. Create a list of possible holders of data who may be storing your personal data. Do you have a problem with large organisations selling your data? In todays society, should we have such a thing as personal data (exception banking and medical)? Email service providers. Social and professional networking sites. Google cloud storage systems. Search engines. Bank. Mobile Application providers like play store, iTunes etc. Practically, personal data is taken by almost all the applications when we need to use their facilities. They are received by sign up or register form. Discuss the differences between Shareware, Freeware and open source software. Freeware: The software that is available free-of-cost. Shareware: Some utilities of the software are free-of-cost and others are not. Open source software: Source code is available for reusability and modification purposes. As a first thought, identify and discuss some of the legal issues/problems surrounding cloud computing. Reliable data availability should be provided at all time. Data should be well protected and secured. No data loss or corruption. Availability of data should be insured at all locations. Easy and instant access A professional software developer, working for a software house, has been contracted to developing a software package that involves accessing a companys data base. Who does the software belong to: the contractor, the software house or the company? Explain your answer. The software will belong to the contractor because the contractor has initiated the project and will be bearing all the subsequent costs. Also, the contractor would be legally eligible to sell the software to any third party. Who owns the intellectual property rights of the software: the contractor, the software house or the company? Explain your answer. The intellectual property rights may be owned by the software house solely or jointly with the contractor as laid out in the agreement. What if there is a problem with the software and the database is corrupted, who is responsible? Under the event of any software malfunction the software house will stand responsible. It is the responsibility of the software house to ensure the secure and smooth operation of their product and the contractor pays for this service. Discuss: the term hacking; is there ever a case for Hacking? Is hacking always illegal? Google Hack anonymous Hacking is involved in all forms and types of communications. Phone hackers used to make free phone calls and listen to other people talking on the phone. With the internet hacking has a very wide and large playing field. For IT industry hacking is serious issue and it has caused significant losses to many big corporate e.g. Sony, Microsoft and Intel etc. In simple words any activity that involves unauthorized access or falsely impersonating is termed as hacking. In recent times there are several hacking incidents for example US Korea standoff over the hacking reports of Sony Entertainment and governmental information leaks by Anonymous. The term hacking is normally misunderstood; it is not illegal all the time. For instance, police can do hacking to extract information from dubious computers for the safety and security of common people. Summarise the legal issues associated with developing and hosting a web site. Copyright concerns Domain name concerns Trademark concerns Defamation Linking and framing Summarise the details of the Data Protection Act. The Data Protection Act 1998 provides a framework as well as a benchmark that ensures security of individuals personal data. The misuse or illegal access to someones personal data falls under direct breach of civil liberties. Also it is the responsibility of the company to provide safe and secure data access. Data handling should be under the framework of peoples data protection rights. References http://www.directoryoftheprofessions.co.uk/sites-professions-IT-comp.html http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/professional.html https://www.socitm.net/ http://iacsit.org/ http://www.ncc.co.uk/national-computing-centre/ https://www.iabuk.net/about http://www.bitlaw.com/internet/webpage.html http://wikidiff.com/professional/expert http://www.bcs.org/ http://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/ITLaw02CD/page_18.htm

Alexander Von Humboldt

Alexander Von Humboldt â€Å"The Last Polymath† Rhiannon Hewin Geography 10004/04/2018 Born, Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander, Freiherr (baron) von Humboldt (whom from this point I will refer to simply as Humboldt) was born on Sept. 14, 1769 in Berlin, Germany.to Alexander Georg von Humboldt and Marie Elisabeth Colomb. The five years Humboldt spent in South America would later prove his proficiency in multiple disciplines and yielded the most fruit for his efforts. Mapping the land (maps of mexico they say helped President Jefferson in his decision in making the Louisiana Purchase, suddenly being able to identify with the new neighbors down south) and other illustrations, climbing 19,286 ft up Chimborazo, only to miss the summit by less than 2000 ft, discovering ocean currents, that would later be named after him, climbing peaks-including every volcano, wading rivers, and crossing the Andean Highlands. Unlike todays extreme outdoorsman, they had no GPS, no inoculations, oxygen was however much or little was in the air around them, not to mention sporting good stores still had about 150 years before making their debut. Despite the odds they conquered South America in 5 years. Returning with a treasure trove of over 60,000 specimens, climate data, cultural observations and electromagnetic experimental data gathered along the way-. Not including what Humboldt sent home to his brother, Wilhelm, over the years.- which, thanks to the british navy, wasnt much. Humboldt would later find himself in North America (United States,) Europe, Asia and Russia. Although his trek through Russia and Central Asia would be less of a 5 year trek and more of a 6mth long carriage ride, complete with royal bodyguards/chaperones, Humboldt was still able to work his magic and chart much of central Asia, which would be of great importance to the western world since very little existed prior to Humboldts findings about Central Asia. Humboldts idea â€Å"Unity of nature† was that † The combination of all physical science of a region determined what organism could live in that region.† He showed the relationships on maps as isothermal lines, comparing climate across countries and continents based on temperature latitude and elevation. These isothermal maps would be the building blocks for the modern-day disciplines of climate science and meteorology. Humboldt challenged the ideas that man was the focal point of the universe and plants and animals wouldn't go extinct (nor do they rely on each other,) claiming quite the contrary. In fact, it was man who faced extinction due to â€Å"the destructions of forest, through the distribution of water and through the production of great masses of steam and gas industrial centers† adding â€Å"The wants and restless activities of large communities of men gradually despoil the face of the earth.† Ideas like these would've added environmentalist to his long list of accomplishments – had the term existed. Humboldt's work in the field of demography are of enduring value. He introduced â€Å"the examination of the quotient of extremes into population statistics, thus making it possible to supplement the abstract figure of population density by citing the low quotient in countries uniformly densely (or sparsely) settled and the high quotient in countries unevenly settled. He also made allowance for population dynamics, furnishing birth and mortality rates for Mexico. These figures were long unavailable for such regions† Humboldts efforts did not go unnoticed. Humboldt was admitted to The Royal Swedish Academy of Arts and Sciences, The American Philosophical Society, The New York Historical Society, The American Ethnological Society, The Prussian Academy of Sciences, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Society. With exploration complete he would not only spend the next few decades collecting his thoughts (and data) in order to share his findings with the masses but take a step back to smell the roses and other flora he was so fond. He enjoyed large gatherings and inspire young scientist to push themselves to be more than expected of them and to learn for the sake of learning. He assisted those he could even if that assistance was using his influence around that particular city to get the scientist what they needed. Unknown scientist were not the only people he inspired. While working on his first works, Charles Darwin corresponded with Humboldt. The man who fought for the creation of Yosemite National Park, John Muir, 70 years after Humboldts death wished he â€Å"could be a young humboldt.† President Jefferson had many conversations with Humboldt and even though Humboldt HATED slavery an couldn't understand how Jefferson could own slaves while talking about freedom. Other Inspired (through conversation or posthumously) included Henry David Thoreau, Robert Frost and George Perkins Marsh, who followed in Humboldts footsteps by throwing himself into the middle east taking samples and observing as he went.. German chemist Justus von Liebig as well as Swiss born zoologist Louis Agassiz owed Humboldt the means to continue their studies and embark on an academic career. Humboldt was able to publish his findings in many different forms, but the 23 volumes based on his travels was one of the â€Å"most comprehensive ever published by a private individual† That said his final gift to the disciplines he loved so much would be Kosmos referred to by some as the most ambitious scientific works ever published, Kosmas gave a generally comprehensible account of the structure of the universe as then known. He would see 4 volumes published but the fifth would be published posthumously. Written in a pleasant literary style, his excitement and aesthetic enjoyment at his discoveries are not withheld.Humboldt had taken immense pains to discipline his inclination to discursiveness, which â€Å"often gave his writing a certain lack of logical coherence† Hardly diminished, and with an unimpaired memory, Humboldt suffered a stroke in the middle of publishing his 5th volume. On May 6, 1859, a few months shy of his 90th birthday, Alexander Von Humboldt was dead†¦.but who says just because you died at 90 doesnt mean you can't have a global 100th birthday party? On September 14 1869, worldwide concerts,parades and gatherings celebrated 100 years since the birth of a much-loved, highly revered scientist. There were speeches and festivities in Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Moscow and Melbourne. In almost every major US city, thousands attended concerts and parades.25,000 people gathered in central park for the unveiling of a commemorative statue and a torchlight parade. In berlin, where Humboldt was born and died, offices were closed for the day and 80,000 people came out to celebrate in spite of torrential rain.I admit, I had no knowledge of Humboldt whatsoever prior to this assignment. However after a few weeks of reading everything Humboldt I discovered that my thoughts on his erasure from history is actually shared my many others. The first being that, thanks to him, the world got smarter. As people got smarter, science disciplines got more specific. People mastered those disciplines, and those were the people who we started to admire. For example, everyone wears clothes, so much so, that most of us cant/couldnt live in a world without clothes. That said, an even bigger majority of us have no idea who invented clothing or when. However, names like Versace, Calvin Klein and Donna Karen-clothing designers, are well known today. The more obvious reason is the world wars and Germany's role in them. The hatred of Nazis became a hatred for Germans and the desire to erase them. A symbol of pain, hatred and death, part of the end game became burn all things German. As Schools burned, we cheered. As libraries burned, taking their past with them, we cheered. As the world started to heal, new up and coming Germans were accepted but none were returned to fame.

Linguistics and Language Teaching.

Grammatical mistakes made by non- native English language speakers. Introduction Language  may refer either to the specifically  human  capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of  communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication. The scientific study of language in any of its senses is called  linguistics. Linguistic theory has traditionally considered native speakers as the only reliable source of linguistic data (Chomsky 1965). It is therefore not surprising to ? nd only a limited number of works focusing on non-native speakers prior to the 1990s.The ? rst attempt to put‘(non)nativism’ onto the centre stage of linguistic inquiry by challenging current undisputed assumptions on the  matter was Paikeday’s (1985) The native speaker is dead  , in which it is argued that the native speaker ‘exists only as a ? gment of linguist’s imagination’ (Paikeday 1985: 12). Paikeday suggested using the term ‘pro? cient user’ of a language to refer to all speakers who can successfully use it. A few years later, Rampton (1990) similarly proposed the term ‘expert speaker’ to include all successful users of a language.Davies (1991, 2003) further delved into ‘native speaker’ identity, and thus formulated the key question of whether a second language (L2) learner can become a native speaker of the target language. His conclusion was that L2 learners can become native speaker of the target language and master the intuition, grammar, spontaneity, creativity, pragmatic control, and interpreting quality of ‘born’ native speakers. Generally, English educated Malaysians of all ethnic and family language background speak and move alike.However, with the implementation of the national language policy of Bahasa Malaysia  as the national language of Malaysia and as the language of instruction, (except in the cases of Chinese or Tamil medium pr imary schools), the status of English Language in Malaysia is different from the earlier years. The English language covered a continuum from first language through second language to a foreign language. Bahasa Malaysia  is replacing English in most of its previous functions, but English may be expected to remain as a continuum from second language to foreign language according to the background and occupation of the speaker.In Malaysia, presently the use of English is less common than in Singapore and is likely to decrease steadily with the implementation of the national language policy. However, English still remains as a language of considerable importance and is still being used in various spheres of everyday activity. The role of English has changed from its earlier status as the precise language of the colonial era and the decades after the Second World War to a second language.At the moment, it is still considered as an international code to be used for diplomatic and comme rcial negotiations and as a language necessary in many fields of tertiary study and research. Not surprisingly, the non-native English language speakers among Malaysians make grammatical mistakes from time to time. These usually happened among Malaysian adult students and even among some Malaysian English teachers. 1. The transcript of a recorded conversation. The following excerpt is a recorded conversation among teachers and will be analysed of the mistakes made by some teachers during discussion.Our discussion was on the quality and effectiveness of a programme called ‘Program Penutur Jati’ or English Language Teacher Development Project (ELTP). Briefly, the aim of the project is to enhance the lower primary ESL teachers’ ability to plan and deliver quality English lessons based on the new National English Language Curriculum in 600 schools across East Malaysia. The teachers involved in discussion come from various races, ethnic groups, ages and teaching exper iences. Kamel : That is my opinion. I don’t know yours. Ok. Chairperson : I agree †¦. augh Kamel : But , as I said just now. I don’t like that the fixture.. ok. For example aaaa as my mentor come to our school .. every Monday ok.. my class start at nine o’clock†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 7. 30.. that mean one and half hour include the preparation for my lesson, so I don’t think that I have an ample time for me to prepare the things†¦ ok . Moreover, the one hour and one and half hour is the .. for all to prepare.. the whole week not only , the one day. So I don’t think that will be effective. Chairperson: Emmmm Kamel : So Chairperson : Did you tell him about it?Kamel: Aaaaaa†¦ So far not yet. Chairperson : Do you have the chance to talk about it. Kamel : Because, I don’t have any.. I don’t have the opportunity to.. Chairperson : Then, you should tell him. Kamel ; I was thinking. Why don’t the mentors like them to be .. have q ualification in teaching, so that they can come to the trainee teachers training college rather than†¦ Chairperson : For your information, ahh Chairperson : Overall, it seems to be working with you†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Naga : The ideas (cough)†¦ is good and different†¦ he is friendly. Chairperson : So.. ahh.If supposing .. You have a mentor to this.. who doesn’t speak.. doesn’t speak like Morrocan. Alright Naemah : Yehhh Chairperson: Right.. Alright, if.. Chairperson: Who? Chairperson : Madam Soya? She is from where? Others : Bulgaria.. (together) Chairperson : Bulgaria? Does she have the accent? Chairperson: What do you think? Do you think†¦ | 2. Common grammatical mistakes and errors by non-native English speakers. The types of errors can be categorised into two: descriptive and surface structures. Descriptive errors include noun phrase, verb phrase and complex sentence.While surface structure errors include omission, addition, misinformati on, misordering and blends. After analysing the recorded conversation, there are few mistakes or errors made by Mr. Kamel during the said discussion. a. The use of unmarked forms instead of marked forms is far more frequent, as can be seen in the examples as follows. * I don’t know yours. * I don’t know about you. * .. as I said just now. * .. as I have said just now. One possible cause of these errors is merely interlingual errors which is the result of mother tongue influences ‘Saya tak tahu awak punya’ and ‘†¦ seperti yang saya kata tadi. respectively. In his article, ‘A Role for the Mother Tongue’ in ‘Language Transfer in Language Learning’, Professor Corder (1981) reinvestigated the phenomenon and questions the term ‘transfer’. He suggests that mother tongue influence as a neutral and broader term to refer to what has most commonly been called transfer. Corder says that since most studies of error were made on the basis of the performance of learners in formal situations where it appears that errors related to mother tongue are more frequent, it was natural that an explanation of the phenomenon was of considerable concern to the applied linguistic.It was out of this concern that the whole industry of contrastive studies arose. He also claims that as far as the acquisition of syntactic knowledge is concerned, no process appropriately called interference takes place, if by that we mean that the mother tongue actually inhibits, prevents, or makes more difficult the acquisition of some feature of the target language. The term ‘interference’ is now most often used to mean what is no more than the presence in the learner‘s performance in the target language of mother-tongue-like features which are incorrect according to the rules of the target language. b.Obviously. Mr. Kamel has the problem in pronouncing certain words especially in the pronunciation of the initial sound of common words like the, there, then and that. It is also the middle consonant sound in feather and the final sound of bathe. These sounds are formed with the tongue tip behind the upper front teeth. The initial sound of that and the final sound of both are both voiceless dental. This problem arises because Mr Kamel’s tongue is not merely touches the teeth. Thus, his pronunciation of these particular words are incorrect. Besides, difficulty in phonology can caused by mother tongue interference.Eltrug (1984) affirmed that mother tongue interference can contribute to a large number of pronunciation errors made by students. An English sound does exist in the native language, but not as separate phonemes. This simply means the first language speakers do not perceive it as a distinct sound that makes difference to meaning. For example The sound /? / does exist in Malay, but whether the vowel is long or short does not make any difference in meaning. For instance, the English phonemes/? / and /i:/ differ very much in meaning as in the words ‘leave’ and ‘live’, ‘sheep’ and ‘ship’.The great amount of vocabulary of English really makes the second language learner suffer in reading. There is a lot of words unknown and the most confusing point is even the second language learner know the meaning but they can’t really understand the meaning of the whole sentence. It is because an English word gives different impressions in different situations. This makes things so confusing about the meaning of the word. Grammatical interference is defined as the first language influencing the second in terms of word order, use of pronouns and determinants, tense and mood.Interference at a lexical level provides for the borrowing of words from one language and converting them to sound more natural in another and orthographic interference includes the spelling of one language altering another. In Malay grammar, it doe s not require one to have any form of determiner in front of instruments like computer, piano, internet. English grammar, however, requires the instruments mentioned above (computer, piano, internet) to be preceded by determiners and if neither a possessive determiner nor a demonstrative determiner is used, the use of either a definite article or an indefinite article is necessary.Thus, the ungrammatical sentences in could be the result of interference of the cultural transfer from Malay language structure on English. Erroneous form| Correct form| She plays piano while I sing. Malay: Dia bermain piano sementara saya menyanyi. | She plays the piano while I sing | She stay at home. Malay : Dia tinggal di rumah | She stays at home. | Table 1 : Examples of interference from the learners’ first language. c.Subjects also exhibited errors in subject-verb agreement as is shown in the examples as follows: * Every Monday, my class start at nine o’clock†¦. * Every Monday, my class starts at nine o’clock†¦. The omission of â€Å"-s† can be attributed to the fact that Bahasa Malaysia does not require verbs to agree with subjects. However, the ending free form is generalised for all persons to make the learning task easier and this is a common intralingual made by people with diverse native languages like Mr Kamel. 3. Causes and sources of errors and mistakes Interlingual errors  are the result of mother tongue influences.Learners transfer/borrow some forms but not others due to two factors such as proto-typicality and language distance (Kellerman, 1979). Malay learners of English commonly make errors in negative sentences. For example: Adryna no coming today. [Adryna tak datang hari ini. ] Such errors are common in pre-verbal negation using  no, the same negative construction as in their L1. In order to determine whether transfer is the cause for the occurrence of errors, James (1998), demonstrates that learners with a particular L 1 make an error that those with a different L1 do not.He provides a useful summary of these strategies which includes the following; a. False analogy b. Misanalysis c. Incomplete rule application exploiting redundancy d. Overlooking co-occurrence restrictions e. System-simplification It is not clear which strategy is responsible for a particular error. Errors can also be viewed as ‘natural’ or as ‘induced’. For example: a. He  played  football yesterday. b. He  goed  home at six. c. He  drinked  milk. d. He  eated  dinner. e. He  sleeped  at eight. ConclusionTo conclude, learners’ errors are a part of the learners’ language learning process. Hence, teachers should not penalise students for the errors they made. Instead, teachers should note those errors and devise ways to assist learners to overcome their problems in language learning. It is difficult to decide whether grammatically or acceptability should serve as the crit erion for error analysis. If grammatically is chosen, an error can be defined as ‘breach of the rule of the code’ (Corder, 1967).Defining errors in terms of grammatically also necessitates giving consideration to the distinction between overt and covert error: In the field of methodology, there are two schools of thought with regard to learners’ error. Firstly, the school which maintains that if we were to achieve a perfect teaching method, the errors would have never be committed and therefore the occurrence of errors is merely a sign of inadequacy in our teaching techniques. The philosophy of the second school is that we live in an imperfect world and consequently errors will always occur in spite of our very best teaching and learning ethods. One effect has been perhaps to shift the emphasis away from a preoccupation with teaching towards a study of learning. The differences between the two are clearly defined: that the learning of the mother tongue is natural , whereas, we all know that there is no such inevitability about the learning of a second language; that the learning of the mother tongue is part of the whole maturational process of the child, whilst learning a second language normally begins only after the maturational process is complete.A child’s incorrect utterances can be interpreted as being evidence that he is in the process of acquiring language and the errors provide these evidences. Brown and Frazer (1964), point out that the best evidence a child possesses construction rules is the occurrence of systematic errors, since when the child speaks correctly, it is quite possible that he is only repeating something that he has heard. In the case of the second language learner, it is known that we do know some knowledge of what the input has been which we call as the syllabus.The simple fact of presenting a certain linguistic form to a learner in the classroom does not necessarily qualify it for the status of input, for the reason that input ‘is what goes in’, not ‘what is available’ for going in, and we may reasonably suppose that it is the learner who controls this input. This may well be determined by the characteristics of his language acquisition mechanism and not by those of the syllabus. References Mariam Mohd Nor, Abdul Halim Ibrahim, Shubbiah, R (2008). OUM-Linguistics and Language Teaching. Seri Kembangan, Selangor.Open University Malaysia. Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learners’ errors. International Review of Applied Linguistics,  5, 161-70. Corder, S. P. (1981). Error analysis and interlanguage. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Ames, C. (1998). Errors in language learning and use: Exploring error analysis. London: Longman. Kellerman, E. (1979). Transfer and non-transfer: Where are we now? Studies in Second Language Acquisition,  2: 37-57. Eltrug, N. S. (1984). Analysis of the Arab Learners' Errors in Pronunciation of English Utterances i n Isolation and Context.Ph. D Dissertation. The University of Kansas. Chomsky, N. (1965). Aspects of  the theory of  syntax  . Cambridge, MA: MIT Press Paikeday, T. (1985). The native speaker is dead! Toronto: Paikeday Publishing. Rampton, M. B. H. (1990). Displacing the ‘native speaker’: Expertise, af? liation, and inheritance. ELT  Ã‚  Journal   44. 2, 97–101. Davies, A. (1991). The  native speaker in  applied linguistics  . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. Davies, A. (2003). The native speaker of World Englishes. Journal of Pan-Paci? c Association of Applied  Linguistics   6. 1, 43–60

Abolishing Slavery - 1390 Words

Jimmy Watson History May 13, 2009 Abolishing Slavery The American civil war had a profound effect on the lives of slaves. It ultimately resulted in the abolition of slavery. Slaves first arrived in America in Virginia in 1619. The Underground Railway was a way by which slaves could find freedom. This was a method for northerners to help escaped slaves to find a place to live in free states or Canada. Free black Americans were usually the ones to plan and helped with the Underground Railroad. It is believed about 50,000 to 100,000 people used the Underground Railroad to escape to their freedom. The Civil War was fought partly over the issue of slavery. The people that lived in the North opposed the slavery more than the people in†¦show more content†¦In the final days of the war, the Confederacy even considered using blacks as soldiers, offering freedom as a reward. When given the choice, slaves made it very clear that they wanted emancipation. The overwhelming majority of slaves, however, remained on their plantations in the countryside. Even then these slaves in the Southern interior found ways to demonstrate their desire for freedom. They did not stop working, but they did considerably less work than they had before the war. Lincoln detested slavery, but he doubted whether blacks and whites could ever live in America in a condition of equality. The slaves ran away in massive numbers during the spring and summer of 1862, freeing themselves. Abolitionists who insisted that the war should be one for the freedom of the slaves confronted Lincoln at home. The Emancipa tion proclamation in January 1863 did not legally free a single slave. Through the proclamation Lincoln silenced his abolitionist critics in the North, defused interventionist sentiment abroad, and invigorated black slave resisters to continue their efforts in the South. Near the end of the war, abolitionists were concerned that the Emancipation Proclamation would be construed solely as a war act and no longer apply once fighting ended. They were also increasingly anxious to secure the freedom of all slaves, not just those freed by the Emancipation Proclamation. Thus pressed, Lincoln staked aShow MoreRelatedFinal Four Months Of Abolishing Slavery1517 Words   |  7 Pagesdi Bouyanna English 1002 Dr. Lawanda Smith 02/29/2016 Final Four Months of Abolishing Slavery. I am not a big fan of history movies; I didn’t watch the movie Lincoln when the teacher played it in class. I had to play it at home and pay close attention to be able to write a review about it. I ended up watching it twice for about five hours, and I don’t regret it at all; First, I watched it with a friend of mine and second time on my own; several incidents grabbed my attention. 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