Sunday, April 12, 2020
Lyddie Sample Essay - An Introduction
Lyddie Sample Essay - An IntroductionLyddie Sample Essay is one of the leading service providers in UK which offers sample essays on various subjects. These essays are written by students who have passed their student papers. Students can choose a topic and source for writing the essay by using the menu option in the tool bar of Lyddie. These essays can be modified at any point, provided they meet certain guidelines.By following these guidelines, students can make use of Lyddie Sample Essay for improving their writing skills. A student can also write his own essay in any subject by following these guidelines. A student should keep in mind that if he has created a great essay, then he must share it with other students to make the essay interesting and widely read one. To make sure that the essay is good, the student can choose the topic from the left pane in the toolbar which enables to select a different topic related to certain field of studies.The students can alter the topic that they want by clicking on the link under the option labeled 'customize'. The students can change the content of the essay by selecting 'go to page', 'select topic' and clicking on the corresponding option.When students wish to add their own sentences and also change some of the sentences as per their preferences, they can click on the 'add sentence' button, which is located below the 'Go to page' option in the toolbar. A student can also add other students who are part of the class as an additional group to the essay.This allows students to use an option that enables them to monitor the essay which helps them in writing it properly. In addition, it also provides a link to a writing center where students can share their writings with other students.Students are able to use this option as it contains exceptional material which has been published in the magazine or book. It also contains essays on various subjects that are believed to be good to improve writing skills.In addition, it ha s an online facility which enables students to register to access the entire library. They can then use the online facility for viewing the articles and essays in a particular topic or subjects. Apart from that, it has also the option to share essays which is capable of making everyone proud of their work.
Sunday, March 29, 2020
Santa Ana Winds free essay sample
Weather can affect peopleââ¬â¢s behavior, positively and negatively. When the weather is nice and hot, it affects people positively by encouraging them to enjoy the outdoors, however, when the weather is bad, like when a hurricane hits this effects people negatively by worrying. Similarly, in the essay ââ¬Å"Santa Ana Windsâ⬠, by Joan Dideon, the winds are so abrasive and obstructive that it engenders people to actually commit suicide. This occurs in Los Angeles. Even though Dideon provides a scientific explanation for the soft winds, she characterise hem as evil by showing their effects on people and on the environment. Dideon characterizes and demonstrates the winds as evil. She explains that the winds have an effect on people, making them act unusual. ââ¬Å"Indians would throw themselves into the sea when the bad wind blewâ⬠Dideon is describing how the winds would permit people to actually commit suicide. The winds would create such a violent disturbance that townsmen would not even want to deal with such a thing, they would just kill themselves. We will write a custom essay sample on Santa Ana Winds or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The horrifying winds would also create paranoia in people. ââ¬Å"Her husband roamed the place with a macheteâ⬠This man thought there were trespassers and rattlesnakes roaming his yard. His obvious beliefs were due to scare. Dideon not only demonstrates the wind having an effect on people, but also the environment. Having a harsh effect on the hills and Route 66. A hot wind from the northeast whining down through the Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes, blowing up sandstorms out along route 66, drying the hillsâ⬠Here, Dideon is explaining how the winds create sandstorms along route 66 and the hills are drying up. This not only affects the hills and highways, but in the long run will effect global warming, and drying out farms and hills will eventually create a drought. This leads to many other effects on the environment. The Santa Ana Winds effect the environment in more than one way. ââ¬Å"For a few days now, we will see smoke back in the canyonsâ⬠. Dideon is signifying wildfires occurring on the canyons. With this wildfire, not only will this wildfire burn down treeââ¬â¢s, but will also spread around disease. The Santa Ana Winds have many effects on the environment and people, when it is a nice, hot and a sunny day, people become encouraged to get out and spend time with their family. However, when a hurricane blows in, it creates many disturbing things, such as paranoia, droughts and wildfires. It is important to be alert and recognize the warning signs of dreadful things yet to come. Otherwise, anyone can get trapped in the middle of a storm.
Saturday, March 7, 2020
Amylase lab report Essays
Amylase lab report Essays Amylase lab report Paper Amylase lab report Paper Enzymes are very specific; for example, amylase is the only enzyme that will break down starch. It is similar to the theory of the lock and the key. The enzyme is the lock and the key is the substrate; only the correct key could fit into the keyhole of the lock. Porcine pancreatic amylase is The purpose of this lab experiment is to investigate factors that can affect the porcine pancreatic amylase enzyme activity in different environments such as the temperature, pH and also how being stored in extreme temperatures can affect the activity of the amylase. The activity of the amylase is going to be determined by the presence or absence of starch in the samples over time. There are some hypotheses on the Effects of temperature and pH; as I add the amylase to the starch in different temperatures the reactions rate increases in high temperatures; I believe that the amylase will work better. As the environment grows warmer, the amylase is going to become more energetic and more effective. Amylase is affected by environmental PH. Predict that the amylase activity will work best at a pH 7. As the pH changes from this point I predicted that the amylase activity is going to decrease and eventually stop. If I boiled and rose some amylase solution, and try to digest starch with at it at room temperature, I predict the previously-boiled and frozen amylase will not work quite as well as amylase that has not been previously boiled and frozen. Experiment #1: Investigating the Effect of Environmental Temperature on the Activity of Porcine Pancreatic Amylase Materials and Methods Amylase experiment #1 was done to see how the temperature affected the efficacy of the enzyme. First we collected all of the materials that were necessary to perform this experiment. We needed five clean test tubes, a test tube rack, a beaker of 1 % starch solution (pH 7. ), a test tube of porcine amylase solution which was previously prepared by mixing porcine pancreatic amylase powder with 0. 9% Nasal concentration to create an amylase concentration of 0. Magma/ ml, one I-ml pipette, one 5-ml pipette with pipette pump, five transfer pipettes, two spot plates, a bottle of iodine solution, a timer, one beaker half way filled with ice and a small amount of water, two thermometers, and three water baths each with a different temperature. In this experiment, we first labeled the test tubes. We then added 5-ml of 1% starch solution with a pH of 7. 0 to each of them. After each tube was filled, the first one was placed in the freezer at O degrees Celsius, the second one was placed in room temperature with a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius, the third one was placed in warm water at 40 degrees Celsius, the fourth one was placed in hot water at 60 degrees Celsius, and fifth one was placed in extremely hot water at 80 degrees Celsius. Each test tube was then left in the selected place for ten minutes so that the starch solution could acclimate to its surrounding temperature. After ten minutes, we then used a 1 -ml pipette to add 0. Ml of the amylase mixture to each of the tubes and then the timer was set. After three minutes, we put 3 drops of the starch/amylase mixture from each of the five tubes into the spot plate, and then added two drops of iodine to each spot plate and noted the result. Iodine reacts with starch to change from yellow (not starch) to deep blue black in the presence of starch. After every three minutes had passed, these same steps were repeated, until 30 minutes had passed and noted all the result. Experiment #2: Investigating the Effect of Environmental pH on the Activity of Porcine Pancreatic Amylase Materials and Methods Amylase experiment # 2 was done to see how the pH affected the efficacy f the enzyme. First we collected all of the materials that were necessary to make this experiment. We needed five clean test tubes, the following standard solutions, 1% Starch Solution pH 3, 1% Starch Solution pH 5,1% Starch Solution pH 7,1% Starch Solution pH 9, 1% Starch Solution pH 11 0. 0375 MGM/ml Porcine Pancreatic Amylase Solution (amylase powder in 0. % Nasal ), Iodine Solution; each solution were pipettes into each of the 5 test tubes with 5 ml of 1% starch. Each tube contained a 1% starch solution with a different PH. All tubes were at room temperature. Room temperature was ICC. 0. 2 ml of porcine pancreatic amylase solution was then pipettes into each tube. A timer was started and every minutes the starch / amylase mixture were pipettes from each tube and pipettes into the spo t plate for every sample tube, then the iodine solution were added to a spot plate cell for each sample. Iodine reacts with starch to change from yellow to deep blue /black in the presence of starch. A lightening of the blue/ black to a brown color will occur as less starch is present. Results were reported as (+) for presence of starch in the sample or (-) for the absence of starch. After every three minute increment had passed, these same steps ere repeated, until 30 minutes had passed and all the results were noted. Experiment #3: Investigating the Effect of Freezing and of Boiling on the Activity of Porcine Pancreatic Amylase Materials and Methods Amylase experiment #3 was made to see if boiling or freezing the amylase would have an effect on the enzyme. For this experiment, we collected three clean test tubes, porcine pancreatic amylase solution, a test tube containing frozen amylase solution, two 600-ml beakers each containing 200-ml of room temperature water, a hot plate, two transfer pipettes, two spot plates, a bottle of iodine solution, First we took the frozen amylase solution out of the freezer and warmed it to room temp. Then we put about 0. Ml of amylase solution in a test tube and boiled it in at beaker for two minutes. Then we let the beakers sit in room temperature. We labeled each test tube, one boiled and the other frozen. We placed them in water and allowed them to sit for at least ten minutes until it cooled down to room temperature. Then we put 5-ml of starch solution pH 7. 0 in two test tubes and labeled them boiled amylase, or frozen amylase. We used a ml pipette to add 0. Ml of the boiled and frozen amylase solutions to their exceptive test tubes. The solutions were then thoroughly mixed together with a transfer pipette and the timer was set. After three minutes, we did the first test. We took out approximately three drops of starch/amylase solution from all two of the test tubes and put them on a spot plate into two separate wells. Then about two drops of iodine solution were added to each one. This same routine was repeated every three minute intervals until thirty minutes all together had passed. All of these tests were noted prior to each one. Discussion In the first experiment my hypothesis was that the amylase is going to work deter. As the environment gets warmer, and is going to become more active and get more effective. The amylase was put in different temperatures and the results were that amylase best works at a temperature near body temperature. While when the temperature starts decreasing to successes or increase to Celsius the amylase will work, but not at its 100 %, but when temperature reach Celsius or Celsius amylase dont work at all. The results of the experiments showed a significant effect of temperature on the amylase activity. The best temperature for porcine pancreatic amylase activity was ICC; it takes 6 min to gets the starch, as the temperature changed, the amylase activity decreased. When ICC was reached the amylase takes 12 min digesting the starch, also when ICC was reached the amylase took mini digesting the starch. Amylase is affected by environmental PH. I predict that the amylase activity will work best at pH 7. As the pH changes from this point I believe that the amylase activity is going to decrease and eventually stop. In experiment #2 the amylase was added into different pH to determine the optimum pH range. The result was that porcine pancreatic enzymes have best efficiency in the neutral pH 7 range, and does to work at its 100% potential at either between pH 9 and phi. The amylase did not work at all in extremely high or low pH such as phi and pH 11 . The results indicate that in pH 7 the enzyme works at its best. This can indicate that the amylase activity is optimal at pH ranges of the saliva and the small intestine. The two extreme pH values of pH 3 and pH 11 showed no amylase activity. This could be due to the anticipated competition at the enzyme active sites with increased hydrogen ion or hydroxide ion concentrations. Also the attraction of H or OH ions to the protein functional groups can alter the shape of the enzyme and thereby emit its activity. If I boiled or froze some amylase solution, and tried to digest starch with at it at room temperature, I predict the previously-boiled or frozen amylase will not work quite as well as amylase that has not been previously boiled or frozen. In experiment #3 the amylase activity was zero in the boiled sample. This confirms the prediction that freezing the amylase is not going to stop it from functioning, but is not going to work quite as well. In contrast the boiled sample results weakened my hypothesis because the amylase never showed any activity during the thirty min of the experiment. This can be imparted to the results in experiment #1 because amylase had no activity before being boiled, and neither when being in temperatures too high such as ICC.
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
World War II as a Just war Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words
World War II as a Just war - Essay Example The countries were divided into two groups: The Allies and the Axis. Germany, Japan and their allies formed the 'Axis' while US, Britain and its allies as the 'Allies'. This essay would validate this claim that the war fought by the 'Allies' was a just war, by describing the true nature and criteria required to name a war as a 'Just war'. The basis of the 'Just war' is the point that no matter what the circumstances become, the prospect of war certainly means death and slaughter but at a certain point war becomes inevitable. This could be seen since the wars in the olden times. Though the criteria differ in nature but the moral considerations of the war are the same. Under these conditions, a certain criteria should be met before waging any war to make that war a 'Just war'. Just war theory is actually a collection of moral considerations which limits the devastations caused by warfare. This may involve the fair treatment of women and children treatment to maintaining an honorable code of conduct during the war. 'Just war' theory could be subdivided into two sets: The first being the jus ad bellum which actually means right to wage a war and the second being jus in bello which signifies proper conduct during the war. Jus ad bellum and jus in bello are further divided so we would look at them separately. (Coates) Jus ad bellum: The most basic part of jus ad bellum is that any war which would be fought should have a just cause. Just cause actually implies that war must be initiated in order to defend one's country or another country from another violent or oppressive country. The reasons for going to a war must not be to gain material gain, to capture lands or to punish people. The reasons should be humanitarian; a war should only be fought to protect the innocent lives which are in danger and not to put more innocent lives at stake. This is however difficult to determine which side of the conflict has a 'just cause' because every side considers its cause as just. Even though the Nazis are considered to be brutal and murderers, they themselves considered their cause of war just. If we come back to the World War II, we can easily make out that the Allies fought the Axis to put an end to their monstrosities and it was due to their efforts, that many countries, for example Poland and Australia did not fall to t he Nazi regime of Germany. The best example in this regard is the holocaust of the Germans against the Jews which was ended as a result of this war. The Allies therefore had a just cause of fighting because they wanted to put an end to the war provoked by the Axis. Another important part of the jus ad bellum is the 'just intention' which means that the intentions behind going to a war should be just. This is often confused with the 'just cause' concept because both speak of the aims and goals of a war but the basic difference between the two is that a war may be fought with a 'just cause' but not with a 'just intention'. This could be illustrated by the example that to attack a country in order to put an end to the oppressive government is a 'just cause' but by toppling that government if the intention is to form a government which is inclined towards the attacker country is not considered a 'just intention
Tuesday, February 4, 2020
Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 3
Marketing - Essay Example Before product development, one needs to analyse the demand of that product in context of its supply, or needs to create a demand by creating marketing niche. Creation of a new marketing niche can be done through the creation of a brand. This means to create demand hype by convincing potential customers for buying and using that product, irrespective of its necessity. This is very common for luxurious goods and services. 2. Price It is the material amount that is paid by the customer for a product. According to Jed C. Jones ââ¬ËThe price of any product has a direct impact on the marketability of that product. Pricing for offerings that are more commonly available in the market is more elastic, meaning that unit sales will go up or down more responsively in reply to price changes. By contrast, those products that have a generally more limited availability in the market (but with strong demand) are more inelastic, meaning that price changes will not affect their unit sales very much.ââ¬â¢ (Jones, 2007) 3. Place It is one of the most important elements of marketing mix. It is the location from where a customer can purchase or obtain the product. It consist of various channels of distribution like retail or wholesale stores, outlets, promotional stalls, home delivery services, internet stores, online shopping cart facility, mail order and website order booking. 4. Promotion Product promotional activities serve as the directional factor for achieving marketing objective. They include marketing campaigns, promotional introductory trials, event sponsorships and incentives in form of special offers, discounts, gift and advertisements. Other promotional activities include recommendations, referrals, endorsements and promotion by using good will of the company. 5. People This element of extended marketing mix comprises of people involved in each and every step of product life cycle. The management of an organization plays a key role in development of this element. They collectively constitute the culture of an organization. People also are the target audience and market segment of a particular product. 6. Process This is primarily related to the organization which is providing any sort of service as its product. Secondarily, the production process, sales, after-sales and customer relationship management of a manufacturing concern forms the proces s. 7. Physical Evidence This element of extended marketing mix deals with the physical environmental evidences. Gaurav Garg explains it as: ââ¬â¢the importance of quality physical layout is important in a range of service providers, including: Students going to college or university have far higher expectations about the quality of their accommodation and learning environment than in the past. As a result colleges and
Monday, January 27, 2020
The Lexical Approach And Collocations
The Lexical Approach And Collocations Collocations are words which if combined together, sound right to native English speakers. Eg: Fast food. Any other combination may sound wrong and unnatural. Eg: quick food. Collocations are not words which we put together. They co-occur naturally. Collocation is the way in which words co-occur in natural text in statistically significant ways. (Lewis, Teaching Collocation 2000:132). For Thornbury, collocation is a continuum that moves from compound words (second-hand), through lexical chunks (bits and pieces), including idioms (out of the blue) and phrasal verbs (do up), to collocations of more or less fixedness (set a new world record) (Thornbury S. 2002, How to teach vocabulary, Longman). Collocations have different strengths: Weak and Strong collocations. Weak collocations involve words which can co-occur with many other words. E.g: Red shirt. They can apply the colour red to many other words eg: red car, red door. Strong collocations have words which almost never occur separately such as the collocation: spick and span and rancid butter. There are also Unique collocations e.g, shrug shoulders. These are unique because the verb (shrug) is not used with any other noun. Medium-strength collocations: Hold a conversation, a minor operation. Hill argued that medium-strength collocations are most important for the ESL classroom. (Lewis, M., 2000: 63) Thornbury widens the definition of collocation, saying that collocation is not a frozen relationship and two collocates may even be separated from each other, eg: lay off: The company is laying more workers off. Lewis and other writers divide collocations into two types: grammatical collocation and lexical collocation. (Lewis2000) Grammatical Collocation: Eg: step into In the example above, a verb collocates with a preposition. Therefore grammatical collocations are lexical words such as an adjective, verb or noun (in our case step), which are combined with a grammatical word (preposition into). Lexical Collocation: Eg: black coffee Lexical collocations are items where two lexical words regularly and naturally occur together. Bahns (ELTJ 47/1 1993) stated that although some lexical collocations are quite direct and obvious in their meaning, others are not. In our example, black coffee clearly indicates that there is no milk in the coffee but Bahns states that collocations which are not direct eg: lay off are the ones which cause the most problems to non-native speakers since their meaning are hidden. The importance of collocations in L2 learning: Many agree that collocations are important in language learning. James Carl (1998) stated that using collocations correctly contributes greatly to ones idiomaticity and nativelikeness. 6 Lewis stated that fluency is based on the acquisition of a large store of fixed or semi-fixed prefabricated items. 7 Sonaiya (1988) went even further, saying that lexical errors are more serious because effective communication depends on the choice of words. 8 Collocations, are found in most of what we say, hear, read or write. All of these fixed expressions are stored and memorised; ready to be used when needed. If we want to retrieve these ready-to-use phrases, lexical items must be aqcuired first by being exposed to, hearing and reading them for a number of times. In theory, good quality input might lead to good quality retrieval. This in return will help learners to be more fluent because they can recognise multi-word units rather than word by word. A lexical item, which is any item that functions as a single meaning unit, regardless of its different derived forms, or of the number of words that make it, has an important role in learning a language. (Thornbury, An A-Z of ELT (Oxford: Macmillan, 2006), pg120). The importance of collocations in L2 learning was a concept that the Lexical Approach had proposed. The Lexical Approach and collocations: The lexical approach encourages learners to identify and learn collocations as lexical items rather than individual words. For example: catch a cold, is seen as a single unit of meaning (or multi-word unit) and not as three individual words with three individual meanings. According to Schmidt (CUP,2000), having words in lexical phrases rather than individually, reflects the way the mind stores and chunks language to make it easier to process. The lexical approach influenced the way we perceive lexis, the way we teach it and how we encourage learners to learn it . Vocabulary choice in language, is not haphazard but predictable. Lewis gives an example of drinking, telling us that the speaker may use the verb have. The listener can predict several words which collocate with it: tea, coffee,orange juice etc. But on the other hand, the listener does not predict words like shampoo. 9 One of the beliefs behind the Lexical Approach is that language is not made up of only traditional vocabulary and grammar but prefabricated multi-word chunks. In other words, language consists of grammaticalized lexis and not lexicalized grammar. Rather than having a syllabus which is only grammar based, the lexical approach emphasises that lexis should be at the centre of language learning. The lexical approach posits that an essential part of acquiring language is to comprehend and produce lexical chunks. These chunks help learners to make patterns of language traditionally thought of as grammar (Lewis,The Lexical Approach 1993, p. 95). _____________________________________________________________________________________ 6James, Carl. (1998). Errors in language learning and use. London: Longman. 7 Lewis, M. (1997). Implementing the lexical approach. Hove: Language Teaching Publications. 8 Sonaiya, C. (1988). The lexicon in second language acquisition: A lexical approach to error analysis. PhD Thesis. Cornell University. 9, 10 Lewis, Michael, Teaching Collocation (Hove: Language Teaching Publications, 2000) pg5 Different types of Collocation: Taken from Howert (1996), Carter(1987) and Mc.Carthy ODell(2005), here are types of collocations: Free Combination The verbs can collocate with many words to form different meanings. Example: make: I will make it clear from the beginning (make something clear) I will make him happy (make happy) In this case, they may consist of modal verbs such as make,do, have, get,take + any type of word. Restricted Combination These collocations are typically nouns, adjectives or verbs which go to together with particular words. Using other words with them make them sound incorrect to the native speaker. (i) Adjective + noun: E.g: Her condition was a major problem. (ii) Adverb + verb: E.g: He cheekily replied: I dont care! (iii) Verb + noun: E.g: Weve decided to move house. (iv) Noun + verb: E.g: The brakes screeched as he tried to stop the car. (v) Noun + noun: Usually these collocations have the pattern a.of E.g: She was holding a #basket of eggs. Delexicalised Verbs: Every language has basic verbs which are frequently used. The English language is no exception and we can find various frequent verbs (Svartvik and Ekedahl 1995) (The Verb in Contemporary English: Theory and Description, CUP 1995): Do Make Have Take Go Get E.g: It is interesting to note that these high frequency verbs in the examples are often used as Delexicalised Verbs. These delexicalised verbs have meaning when combined with other words. In other words de-lexicalised verbs have little meaning alone but if joined together with other words, they can generate a wider variety of new meanings: Eg: do your best make room have lunch take a shower go for a walk get dressed Delexicalised verbs make do What is interesting about these two verbs is that, Mc.Carthy ODell (2005:6) describe these two verbs as everyday verbs and dedicate a whole page on make and do. This clearly shows that they are very high frequency verbs in English and they probably cause a lot of confusion to learners as well! In their books index, both verbs have more than 60 different collocates each. The verbs make and do in fact like many high frequency verbs, enters into numerous collocations and idioms. Language Chunking: Make your bed! is a chunking of two words: Verb+Noun (Make + bed). This delexicalised verb is a language chunk which is a pre-fabricated language item in a formulaic way, which is then stored as a single lexical unit (and not two individual units). By storing as a single lexical unit, it is believed to quicken the mental processing of the speaker when speaking, reading and when acquiring language. The reason why it quickens this mental processing when producing language is because rather than having to connect individual word units together one by one (do and bed), the speaker can retrieve the chunk needed at one go and reduce mental processing time. Language chunking therefore is believed to help language fluency by combining other chunks to create longer ready-to-use phrases. I tend to agree with this core belief of the Lexical Approach because when I give a phrase to learners such as: Make a list of things or Remember to do your homework learners seem to retrieve and use these given ready-to-use phrases correctly to create their own sentences and meanings. Once learners understand the meaning behind the phrase, they store it in their mental lexicon. If used regularly, there is a high possibility it will help fluencycy and reduce mental processing time when speaking. Problems learners have with delexicalised verbs: Although they come naturally to native speakers, collocations formed with delexicalised verbs can be rather tricky. Some of the main problems that low level learners experience are as follows: (go to 11. Coll pg4) (12.Coll pg4) They have never been exposed to or made aware of collocations in their learning experiences. Learners often have problems with these verbs because they try to find a general meaning. They often struggle to find the right collocation, often translating possible equivalents from their own language. E.g: make a photo. Learners find it difficult to memorize collocations because they are arbitrary. Teachers are partly to blame because as Carter and McCarthy point out, vocabulary study has been neglected by linguists, applied linguists and language teachers'(1988: 1). Therefore teachers need to present collocations such as delexicalised verbs to learners to help them become more and more familiar with the different uses of make and do for example. In fact, McCarthy tells us that in vocabulary teaching there is a high importance of collocation (1990:12). The way collocation teaching is neglected in ESL classroom and the insufficient input of the target language may be a reason why learners lack a knowledge of collocation. One reason why teachers do not give such importance to collocation is because they feel safer when they teach grammar because they feel they know the rules and can explain them. Collocations are arbitrary and this leads us to the second problem: Collocations are arbitrary and are decided by convention instead of rules. Many learners have been exposed to learning languages in a systematic way i.e there is an explanation, rules and reasoning behind each grammar point eg: the first conditional: [ if + present simple], [will + infinitive]. Because they are used to learning languages in a grammatical way, learners find it difficult to accept that some words collocate while others do not and that there is no reason for this other than it is what native speakers say. Many learners ask me Why cant I say make a photo instead of take a photo? I used to feel rather unprofessional having to say because thats the way it is. Now I say: because take goes together with a photo make does not. That is the way language is naturally and natively spoken as I have already commented in section A. In fact, McCarthy said that knowledge of collocational appropriacy is part of native speakers competence. (McCarthy, M.1990Vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford University Press.1990:13). Therefore, being aware of collocations and accepting them as a window to the natural way of speaking the language is essential in learning a language. One has to admit that some are not so easy to learn. In fact, Benson (1985) clearly stated that collocations are arbitrary and non-predictable, so much so that even native speakers sometimes have to double check before deciding if a word collocates with a particular word or not. When learners are confronted with collocations like to make a mistake, learners resort to translation from L1 to understand why we use make and not do as in many other languages. However this leads to misuse of the collocation or creation of word combinations which are non-existant in English. Eg: My Italian learners sometimes say do a mistake because in their language they only have one verb, fare, which resembles make or do. Literally translated, fare una torta is do a cake from Italian to English. Lexical verbs such as make or do require memorising whole lists of words that can collocate with them. I sympathise with learners, who have to face many complicated and difficult lexicalised verbs, which have meaning differences in various contexts. Furthermore, combinations of delexicalised words are less likely to explain clearly what they mean in translation and thus are more error-prone in learner language (Lewis 1993, Nesselhauf 2005). When my learners tell me: its impossible to learn all of these phrases by heart!, I have to admit that I understand them. Collocation books like McCarthy ODells English Collocations In Use (CUP:2005), present the delexicalised verbs make and do in a way that makes a learner feel that he/she has to learn the phrases by heart. A similiar example of such a list is one below: To make an apology To do your homework To make a cake To do the dishes To make breakfast To do the laundry To make your bed To do your best To make a list To do your nails and hair To make a mistake To do the ironing, washing, cooking, etc. To make plans To do a job Learners need ways to remember the meanings of the lexicalised verbs as the ones above. It is difficult enough trying to think of grammar needed, word syntax, vocabulary and so on when trying to construct a sentence in L2 learning, let alone trying to remember and above all retrieve the right collocation needed. Problems learners have with delexicalised verbs: Making learners aware of delexicalised verbs: By helping learners to notice collocation, they can acquire vocabulary building skills eg: ability to list and categorize lexis. It also encourages them to become autonomous learners. One way of helping learners develop the habit of paying attention to chunks, rather than just individual words, when reading is by helping them make informed guesses about what word goes with do or make. Inside Out Elementary (Macmillan:16) presents a day in the life ofà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã ¦ a man and a woman. Having guessed who does what, learners read the text to check if they guessed correctly. The text includes a lot of collocations with make or do. Learners then are asked to form common expressions with make or do from the text: The most homework the beds The shopping dinner The washing up the most noise Learners have a speaking practice with make or do by saying who does or makes what in the house, using the same prompts given in the above exercise. Eg: My mother does the shopping and we make our beds etc Trying to make sense of make and do: Although it is not easy to learn collocations of make and do, McCarthy ODell in English Collocations in Use (CUP2005: 18) present us with some of the most common phrases with these two delexicalised verbs. In fact they call them Everyday verbs. It includes a list of collocations of make and do and an example on the side. Eg: Collocation Example Make an excuse Im too tired to go out tonight. Lets make an excuse and stay home! Do your hair Im not ready! I havent done my hair yet! To practice them, I would cut out the collocations and examples into separate strips. In pairs, learners would then have to try to put the example and collocation together, by trying to make sense of them. Once they have been corrected in class, I would give them a questionnaire from Collocations in Use (pg19). Having been exposed to the collocations needed in the previous activity, they have to fill in the question with either do or make, answer it and then go round and ask the questions to their classmates. Trying to find the right collocation to use: To help learners practice and be a bit more confident in their use of collocations, I like to use an activity which Lewis proposed in Teaching Collocation (Hove:112). Basically learners have to put in the missing verb in the collocations. This will help them to minimize their mistakes as our Italians made: I do a mistake. ..a mistake 2. .your homework a statement your hair an observation what you have to do Alternatively, I can give the activity some context by giving learners the activity found on page 100 in Language to go Intermediate. Here learners have to complete the text using make or do. This will help them to see how the collocation is used in a context. Helping them to remember the collocations: To recall what theyve learnt, learners need remember what theyve learnt. Thornbury 3 states that learning is remembering, which clearly shows how important memory is in learning a language. The same principle applies to collocations. One way of helping learners to remember the collocations is by revising them as much as possible . one particular activity that I like to use to recycle collocations that were met in class is Run n Grab. I divide learners into teams and I read out the end of the collocation eg: an apology. I write down Do and Make on the board. Learners have to run to the board to circle which one they think goes with the ending of my collocation. Whoever gets most points wins. Conclusion: Personally, I feel that the lexical approach has taught me a lot about vocabulary. Rather than seeing vocabulary as individual items, I can now help my learners with vocabulary by using chunks. In this case, collocations which are in themselves chunks, are essential in language learning. By frequently exposing, raising -consciousness and helping them to memorize collocations, I feel that I am appreciating more the importance of lexis in language learning.
Sunday, January 19, 2020
The Cathedral
ââ¬Å"Where ignorance is our master, there is no possibility of real peaceâ⬠, (Dalai Lama XIV). This quote relates to the narrator in Raymond Carverââ¬â¢s short story, ââ¬Å"The Cathedralâ⬠. In this story Bubââ¬â¢s ignorance is shown in various parts throughout the story. Towards the end of the story, Bub has an epiphany. This makes him realize how ignorant heââ¬â¢s been towards his wife as well as Robert, her childhood sweetheart and present day best friend. He enters from a world of insecurities to a world of peace. The narratorââ¬â¢s jealousy and ignorance, is seen in many parts throughout the story. An example of Bubââ¬â¢s jealousy is when he says, ââ¬Å"I waited in vain to hear my name on my wifeââ¬â¢s sweet lipsâ⬠¦ but I heard nothing of the sort. More talk of Robertâ⬠, (Carver, Pg. 98). Not only does he show jealousy, Bub also shows ignorance when he stereotypes against Robert. As if stereotyping against Robert wasnââ¬â¢t enough, Bub goes on to stereotype against Robertââ¬â¢s late wife Beulah, as he sarcastically said, ââ¬Å"Beulah! Thatââ¬â¢s a name for colored womanâ⬠, (Carver, Pg. 5). Beulah passed away in her lost battle to gland cancer. He also showed his ignorance when he quoted, ââ¬Å"I wasnââ¬â¢t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered meâ⬠, (Carver, Pg. 94). Overall, the way he expressed himself about Robert, ââ¬Å"the blind manâ⬠, in the story simply said a lot about him. Bub comes out from a world of insecurities to a world of peace, the moment he lets himself be guided by Robert. They drew a cathedral; a symbol of faith, conversion, creativity, and strength. It was like nothing else in my life up to nowâ⬠, (Carver, Pg. 103). The narrator faced his insecurities with Robert as well as his ability to interact with others. At first Bub could find no significance to it and found it hard to explain to Robert. It wasnââ¬â¢t until Robert told him to close his eyes and continue drawing, that made a light bulb in his head go on, ââ¬Å"Itââ¬â¢s really somethingâ⬠, (Carver, Pg. 103). Bub was blinded before he realized how ignorant he was in regards to his marriage as well as with Robert. In conclusion we face ignorance on an everyday basis. It shows our lack of knowledge and sometimes reaches extreme measures. Ignorance occurs when people believe they know everything and act upon it, when this isnââ¬â¢t reality. This is a quality that the narrator possessed. Without knowing, his inability to see the positive in people almost caused him his marriage. He was so caught up with his insecurities that he almost oversaw his wifeââ¬â¢s attempted suicide. Itââ¬â¢s important to admit and overcome ignorance in order to find the inner peace within oneself.
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