Mommy Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mommy - Movie Review Example It seemed to me very bright and significant as it showed crucial points and change of roles that took place several times, making both the mother and the son victims – and then aggressors. But when I saw this scene when Diane recalls all the sweet and sad memories, I found it even more powerful. It touched really deep feelings. This scene takes place after the sweet time they had together. It was very rare as they had merely bad times and quarrels, problems with bad behavior and its consequences. This following scene adds even more â€Å"bitterness† – because Diane realizes she has to give her son away as he needs help. All this happens after Steve cut his veins right in the supermarket. She just cannot manage to deal with it. The sequence is a kind of catharsis of the film. It seems very sweet – and exactly this makes it really tragic. Diane dreamt of life success and happiness for her son – though she realizes the way she sees it is impossible. She sees him as a glad graduate, and then she dreams he is in love with a wonderful girl, whom he will marry and all they will live happily ever after. It is very tender when Diane recalls her son as a small baby on her hands. All the scenes are filled with words from her memories – words by Steve, Kyla and herself. Crucial is the moment of change of the appearance of the son. He stands after the rain and at the moment he is shouting he is free, we see he is another person, who just looks like real Steve. Here we see the sad truth that Diane really would like to have another son. She realizes her dreams will not come true. This scene is a kind of sincere revealing them and saying farewell to this future they wouldn’t have had anyway. The character Kyla is very important – as it is opposite to Diane’s image. She is kind and nice mother, humble and caring. She also influenced on Steve significantly. In the end of the film when she has to leave due to her husband’s

Episode in my life Essay Example for Free

Episode in my life Essay Some may ponder on how merely playing hockey changed my perspective in life and on people. Even I never expected pursuing my interest would result in such a dramatic affect in my life. It all started of when I was in my last year on the school hockey team.  Due to my seniority and experience in the game, my coach began to assign me the duty of instructing my juniors to become goalkeepers like me. One of the juniors I trained was Ili Anis Athirah who was also one of the best of my so called apprentices. We became team mates for the under 18 team in my final year on the squad. Unexpectedly, our coach chose Ili as the first eleven players and put me on bench. When I asked coach why he made such a decision, he said both of us were equally talented but Ili had two advantages compared to me; her eyesight was better and she was bigger in size than me. All my eagerness and determination to play for my last tournament shattered into pieces and turned into sheer disappointment. I was never given a chance to play during that last tournament. The team even broke into two groups. One group was on my side while the other was on Ilis. I did not bother to gain empathy from my team mates but they were understanding and thought that coach was being unfair to me. He was treating me like an old rag that can be tossed away after being used for so long. Then, during the quarter finals against one of the strong teams of the league, I had an opening of regaining myself to my team mates and of course my coach. During that particular game, Ili performed badly and gave way to three goals for the opponent. All of a sudden, coach called Ili out and replaced her with me! Even when I was running to the goal post in those heavy goalkeepers equipment, I thought; THIS is the moment of truth! I wanted to prove the coachs judgments wrong. Even though I was short sighted and smaller compared to Ili, I can still play the game effortlessly. I was not nervous because of the game but I was excited to finally get the chance to reclaim my position in the team. Strength and luck was on my side that day. Not a single goal passed through me. Even though we lost the game, I walked to the bench with the abundant feeling of satisfaction that was beyond explainable. Although I did not expect my coach to apologize for abandoning me through out that last tournament, I still felt pleased to just look at his face after the game; he had the expression mixed between amazement, disbelief and at the same time guiltiness. I know it will take him ages to realize that not giving me a chance to play during my final year truly broke my heart into pieces. From this experience, I did not only get the chance to prove my coach wrong, but I also began to appreciate my friends who were always on my side during the days of my hardships. They were the ones who faithfully listened to my feelings of disappointments and gave me strength through their words of advice. If it was not for them, I would not have the courage and vigor to confront such frustration and humiliation of being the reserved player after four consecutive years of being the first player. It also occurred to me that not everything in life is permanent. The fame and reputation I gained when I was on the team could be easily taken away by just one decision the coach made; From becoming one of the best players, I became the bench resident. I became a more humble and modest person in personality due to this experience. Fame and reputation changed from becoming one of my top priorities to the least that I could care of. I realized that there is much more in life such as the faithful friends I gained though this episode in my life. Forgiveness and patience also arose to my senses from this incident. I realized that no matter what a person does to you, we should learn to forgive them with all our hearts. I began to forgive my coach although he made a choice that swelled my heart with frustration and mortification. I learned that from forgiving and being patient, one can enjoy life better as enemies and foes will not surround their life. Above all, I learned that one should make full use of the opportunities given in life. Not everyone is lucky like me to get the chance to prove other peoples perception wrong. One should grab the chances given to them and put all his strength and efforts in making full usage of it. I began appreciating chances given to me; at the same time I became a more hardworking and passionate person in the things that I do. In essence, I would not change this experience for the world because of its positive impacts in my life and personality. I have learned how to appreciate my friends better and I also realized that fame and reputation are not the most important things in life. I have indeed become a more patient and forgivable person as well. Besides that, I began to make full use of the good chances given to me in life. No doubt, the moment of truth will stay in my heart FOREVER!

Amateur City Essay -- Literary Analysis, Katherine Foster

Amateur City, a city filled with confusion and intolerable human behavior. In this detective fiction novel, Katherine Forrest demonstrates the social, sexual and power dynamic of each character which all leads to the curious homicide of Fergus Parker. In Forrest’s Amateur City there are multiple analysis regarding the characters of the â€Å"Modern Office† also including the detective Kate Delafield. Amateur City portrays a huge hierarchy of the predominant human society in which the class of race, ethnicity and gender are all divided in the image of Forrest’s characters. The social, sexual and power dynamic of the â€Å"Modern Office† provides a powerful message in Forrest’s Amateur City, which clearly magnifies the realistic and true nature of humanity. This essay will stress upon the representive of Forrest’s characters relating to the modern world. The characters in Forrest’s Amateur City are redundantly interesting. Some of the most appealing characters are Ellen O’Neil and Kate Delafield. As a lesbian, Kate is very conservation among herself. â€Å"The detective in charge, she seems very good at her work, very tough and capable†, this here was mention by Ellen at her first impression of Kate; Forrest previews of how Kate’s image can reveal a powerful message about her personality (Forrest 60). Kate does not show much of her mysterious secret such as her homosexual interest in Forrest’s novel, not until her private encounter with Ellen. In the novel, Kate has a shield which protects her from exposing her sex interest and identity. That shield is the discernment and awareness of publicizing Kate’s personal emotions and authenticity in public. On the other hand, Ellen is portrayed as a more-like and typical lesbian who isn’t afraid of publ... ...ican women of today’s modern world. The significant of Forrest’s â€Å"Modern Office† is the development of her characters. Forrest is clearly promoting the genuine characteristics of the people living among us today by using characters from the Modern Office. Within each of these characters, Ellen, Kate, Gretchen, Gail and Fred, Forrest has allowed her audience to experience the realism. That realism is the diversity of the sex gender behavior among males and females, the knowledge of modern human behavior. Forrest did an excellent job of showing the difference of various female attitudes and the focus of racism in Amateur City. The corruption relating to the homicide of Fergus Parker is caused by the all these key characteristics. The represented social, sexual and power dynamic of the â€Å"Modern Office† reflect the positive and negative effect of today’s modern world.

Rubin Hurricane Carter: Guilty Until Proven Innocent Essay -- Court Mo

Rubin Hurricane Carter: Guilty Until Proven Innocent '"I don't belong here and I am not going to play their game.' 'If I were to cooperate in all these things, it would be as if I were saying, 'I'm a guilty man, and I am not a guilty man"' (New Jersey). The case of Rubin (Hurricane) Carter has been a heated issue for the last 34 years. In the last year a new movie, The Hurricane, starring Denzel Washington has once again brought this case to the foreground of discussion. The question argued has been is Rubin Carter innocent or guilty of the murders he allegedly committed on June 17, 1966 in the Lafayette Grill in Paterson, New Jersey. The proof is undeniable that Carter is innocent. He had an unfair trial where the police played a negative part, the prosecution suppressed information, and the court also worked against Carter. Although Rubin Carter is innocent of the crimes committed that fateful night in Paterson does not mean he was an angel. The biggest threat to Rubin's defense in this case was himself. Rubin Carter was born May 6, 1937 in Delawana, New Jersey. He grew up in the nearby town of Paterson (J.K.B. 7). Rubin was a strong-willed boy who learned to stand up to everyone as a child. James S. Hirsch, the author of Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter wrote, "the men in his family are not intimidated by threats" (60). In chapter 5 of his book, Hirsch explains how Rubin Carter learned to stand up against authority. Born with a stutter, he would fight anyone who dared to make fun of his speech-impediment. Carter once beat up his younger sister Rosalie's teacher when he saw him chasing her. He was expelled from school and beaten by his father. It was displays like this that caused Carter's father fear... ...'Deal' for Freedom in Murder Case." New York Times [New York] 4, Dec. 1975: 45:2. "Carter Lawyers Focus of Dispute." New York Times [New York] 29, Jan. 1975: 39:1. Hirsch, James S. Hurricane: The Miraculous Journey of Rubin Carter. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2000. J.K.B. "Carter, Rubin." Current Biography May 2000: 6-14. "Lawyers for Carter Say Judge Erred on Appeal." New York Times [New York] 28, Jan. 1975: 54:7. Massaquoi, Hans J. "Hurricane Carter: I Was Framed For Murder!" Ebony Dec. 1974: 30: 174-6+. "New Jersey Journal." New York Times [New York] 5, Feb. 1984: XI 3:1. "Police Record Backs Carter's Story." New York Times [New York] 23, Oct. 1975: 83:4. "Reversal is Won By Rubin Carter In Murder Case." New York Times [New York] 8, Nov. 1985: "Same Judge Gets Carter's Appeal." New York Times [New York] 31, Jan. 1975: 37:8.

Yupik (Eskimo)

The Yupik or the Eskimo is famously known for its ice dwellings known as igloos. Their adaptive characteristics to environment especially in the snow caps are very extraordinary. This paper shows the background including the origin and expansion of this group of people. It also tackles the culture and the composition of the Eskimo tribe as well as their ways of living. Background on the Yupik People The Eskimo is a group of interrelated tribes who occupies the location from Siberian Arctic up to Canada and Greenland. The word Eskimo comes from the Algonquin language which means â€Å"raw flesh eaters†. The Yupik are classified as a sub-group of the Eskimos and also referred to as the Siberian Yupik or Siberian Eskimos (Vajda). The Yupik people spend their time living in the along the watershed coasts of the rivers of Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers. These rivers flow towards to the west passing by southwest Alaska and ends at the Bering Sea. The Yup’iks are regarded as the most numbered groups among the Inuit groups in Alaska. Origin and Expansion. The ancestors of the Yupik people are believed to have reached the ice caps of Alaska and Russia during the third and final migration from Asia which occurred ten to eleven thousand years ago at the latter part of the Ice Age. Edward Vajda cites that archeological and linguistic evidences show that the direct ancestors of the Yupik people over the Bering Strait through the presence of the Bering land that time. Their ancestors are said to have lived in the areas of Siberian Bering and Arctic Sea coasts before the arrival of Chukchi and Korak tribes from the South From their base in the current location in West Alaska, they separated into two (2) distinct groups: (1) the Eskimos, and (2) the Aleuts. After some time, explorers, traders and settlers from Europe and Russia came during the 1800’s. However, this event created setbacks to the Yupik because their communities suffered deadly epidemic diseases like smallpox, influenza, and tuberculosis. Ways of Living The homes of Yupik are designed to be flat, with treeless tundra landscapes with multiple numbers of lakes. In the previous times, they were found residing in houses made of wood and whalebones as the fundamental structures. The walrus skins are covered into the sides and the insides were lightened by bowl shaped clay lamps, or those made of carved stones. During winters, they stay in walrus hide and plank tents although before, they lived in the so-called igloos which are also known as â€Å"nynglu†. At summer time, their homes are made of wood covered with walrus skins forming the shape of a rectangle. Today, the Yupik now live in modern houses powered by electricity and petroleum oil instead of seal oil which was used by them previously. They also have glass walls around their houses. One difference between the American and Siberian Eskimos as pointed out by Vajda is the presence of men’s communal house or commonly known as â€Å"kashim† which is common among the American Yupik rather than the Siberian Yupik. For their livelihood, the Yupik people rely on the oceans and rivers since there are located along the shores. They still continue to hunt and get their own food even if there are suppliers of food on stores coming from ships and planes of other countries. Hunting fish is the major source of food for the Yupik especially for those living on the islands. During summer, salmons caught from rivers are dried for the winter season. Walrus meat were dried and stored in a semi-cold temperature so that they can be fermented and boiled up as food. (Vajda) Other varieties of available fish include: (1) cod, (2) halibut, and (3) herring. For additional dietary supplements, they also hunt down seals and walruses which are very common along the Bering Sea and they also consume shellfishes, terrestrial mammals (moose and caribou), birds, bird eggs, and plants. According to Vajda, they hunt the walruses by using open leather boats known as â€Å"angyapik† and small canoes known as â€Å"kayaks†. They use a whalebone clapper which produces the killer whale sound that drives the walruses and seals towards the shore where the hunters with spears are awaiting for them. Whale hunting was also a routine but only rarely because one whale can feed the whole village of Yupik. The Yupik people use dogs as their pack animals. (Vajda) They store their food in underground caches located in their houses. For their transportation, the Yupik people use land vehicles and snow mobiles. For sea transportation and hunting, they use the â€Å"Umiaks† which are boats made from walrus’ skins. Before, snails and oars were used in propelling the boats but as the world modernizes, so are their boats which use outdoor motors. Culture and People Characteristics Yupik are said to be well adaptive to new surroundings and strong individuals. On the other hand, upon going with the flow to new ways of living, the Yupik customs and culture remained strong and intact. Their customs are mainly focused on the rituals of hunting and sharing. Their relationship with other groups such as the Chukotka brought back the practices of trade and intermarriage. The Yupik are composed of male exogamic clans or lineages. Each clan or lineage has a unique myth or origin of existence and every clan member who dies is buried in a single location exclusively for the clan. The returns from hunts and foragings are equally shared among the clan members. According to studies, the clans in the pasts owned large dwelling houses which can house around 200 to 400 members of their respective clans. (Vajda) Language, Writing and Education. The language being used by the Yupik people belong to the Yupik branch of the Eskimo family. The Yupik language and writing were developed by the missionaries in the 1800’s who formulated a way of inserting the Latin alphabet (shown in Figure 1) in writing Yupik. The language was named after a missionary named John Hinz and was also used in publishing translations of the Bible and other religious scriptures. In Siberia, the use of Cyrillic language (shown in Figure 2) was developed by scholars although some who know the way of writing Yupik tend to write in Russian instead. By 1960’s at the University of Alaska, a group of scholars with the assistance from native Yupik speakers gathered together in order to formulate a new orthography for Yupik. One of their objectives was to devise an orthography that could be encoded on an English keyboard, without the presence of accent marks or extra letters. Aside from that, they also desired to symbolize the individual sounds or the pronunciation of the language with separate letters. (Vajda) The Yupik language is spoken by approximately 11,800 people who live at Alaska and Siberia. The Yupik writing is composed by the Latin alphabet in Alaska and Cyrillic alphabet in Siberia. In Russia, 800 of the 1700 Yupik speak the Yupik language fluently. Most Yupik also speak the Chukchi and the Russian language fluently. (Vajda) According to Ray Barnhardt (1999), the education is reaching the people on Alaska particularly the Yupiks. One of the good signs that were reported by Barnhardt (1999) is the enhancement of knowledge and skills of teachers and soon to be teachers in the region through short education courses. These developments are essential for personal growth for the Yupiks through education aside from lessons learned from experiences. Figure 1 (Latin Alphabet for Yupik) Figure 2 (Cyrillic Alphabet for Yupik) Beliefs and Religion The Yupik according to Vajda are animists whose beliefs in resemblance with those of the Chukchi people. For them the killer whale, raven and wolf are considered sacred and must not be executed. The Yupik, as well as the the Chukchi and Korak, believes that Raven had created the world. The swallow (bird) is also paid respect and honor because it was thought to protect hunters at sea. Killer whales are also revered as protectors of hunters; it was also thought that the killer whale turns into a wolf in winter and devoured the reindeer unless some of the reindeer submitted to the hunters. Ritual meals are concluded by throwing a piece of meat into the sea to bless and thank the killer whales which are believed as the cause of their catches. More than among American Eskimo groups, Siberian Yupik shamanism is inclined toward placating or giving importance to the sea animals in which the clans depended on for nourishment. There are also special ceremonies which were held before the departure of hunting boats as asking for guidance and bounty for food. (Vajda) Conclusion The culture of the Yupik / Eskimo people is amazing because of two things. One is because of their ability to adapt to environment for survival. Surviving in a low temperature location like in Alaska, Greenland or Siberia requires expertise in keeping oneself warm at all occasions. The supply and availability of food is not that high in lower temperature places but the ability of this group to find ways in order for them to adapt and be well versed in this kind of environment. This paper has shown way beyond the pictures of igloos and the Eskimos on textbooks of students. Second and most importantly is their ability to retain its culture and customs despite the adaptive measures and global changes that happen frequently. This is manifested through their religion and beliefs which if compared today’s beliefs and the existing religion will make theirs primitive. Beyond these changes and adaptations, the notion of keeping ones identity despite changes is what people and clans can admire and imitate from the Yupik people.

Cyber-Crime and Identity Theft essays

Cyber-Crime and Identity Theft essays In today's modern society, the internet is a very educational and productive tool in order to become knowledgeable and stay well connected. Without technology, some individuals cannot function throughout their day. Many people use it for business purposes while others use technology in order to communicate on social networking sites such as Twitter or Facebook. Despite the beneficial uses, predators often abuse its powers. This tool puts consumers at risk for identity theft through scamming, phishing and even hacking. Therefore, consumers need to become more aware of protections against online hazards. Cyber-crime is any illegal activity committed on the internet that uses a computer as its primary means of theft. Through identity theft, a predator without someone's knowledge acquires a piece of their personal information such as their social security number, or even their bank account data and uses it to commit fraud. It is often difficult to catch cybercriminals because the internet makes it easier for people to do things anonymously and from any location on the globe. Predators use methods such as spam advertisements and even phony programs that have viruses. Many computers used in cyber attacks have actually been hacked and are being controlled by someone far away. With identity theft, an individual's confidential and personal information is stolen for the purpose of criminal use. In the CNN article, "Suspect in Celebrity Hacker Case", the staff gives an account of how the criminal Christopher Chaney hacked into many celebrities' online accounts and obtained nude pictures and other personal information stating that he was "addicted" and "didn't know how to stop". Fortunately, this man was apprehended, but not every situation is as harmless as this one such as Chris Boyette's editorial "Man Accused of Killing Identity Theft Victims Gets 30-Year Sentence" where he informs how Dimitriy Yakovlev has been sentenced to thirty years...

Educational Linguistics

Educational Linguistics Free Online Research Papers 1. 00 INTRODUCTION First named as a field 30 years ago and defined in two introductory books (Spolsky, 1978; Stubbs, 1986), the title â€Å"educational linguistics† was proposed by Bernard Spolsky in 1972 for a discipline whose primary task would be â€Å"to offer information relevant to the formulation of language education policy and to its implementation† (1974:554). It is an area of study that integrates the research tools of linguistics and other related disciplines of the social sciences in order to investigate holistically the broad range of issues related to language and education. In his book â€Å"The Handbook of Educational Linguistics†, Spolsky (2008) says that he first proposed the term â€Å"educational linguistics† (EL) because of his dissatisfaction with efforts to define the field of applied linguistics and of his belief in the close relationship among research, theory, policy, and practice. He asserted that it should be a problem-oriented discipline, focusing on the needs of practice and drawing from available theories and principles of relevant fields including many subfields of linguistics (Hornberger, 2001). Pica also supports this idea and sees it as a problem- and practice- based field â€Å"whose research questions, theoretical structures, and contributions of service are focused on issues and concerns in education† (1994: 265). With the responsibility it has taken for L1 and L2 learning, EL has become particularly influential on the scholars engaged in Foreign Language Education (FLE), who attempt to understand how teachers teach and how students learn languages in schools, and especially how they acquire foreign literacy skills, that is, the ability not only to comprehend and interpret but also to create written texts in the foreign language. FLE has become, since the 1920s, a highly scientific field of research that draws its insights mostly from social and educational psychology, thus educational linguistics (Kramsch, 2000). In the following sections, educational linguistics will be examined in detail creating associations with foreign language learning/teaching (FLL/FLT). In addition to the background information and its relations to a number of approaches, theories, and methods; its principles and how they are implemented in ELT settings will be discussed. Moreover, its relations to language teacher education and its contributions to FLL and FLT will be put forward. Finally, advantages and disadvantages of educational linguistics will be given in an objective way. 2.00 RELATED APPROACHES, THEORIES, AND METHODS The problem-oriented nature of EL leads it to look to linguistics together with other relevant disciplines such as theoretical linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, anthropological linguistics, neurolinguists, clinical linguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis and educational psychology. This transdiciplinary structure provides it to be associated with a number of approaches, theories and methods. 2.01 Whole Language Approach Rigg (1991) claims that the term â€Å"whole language† comes from educators not from linguists. It is an approach developed by educational linguists in 1980s to teach literacy in the mother tongue, which is one of the important issues that educational linguists are concerned. In this approach, it is emphasized that learning goes from whole to part for the reason that the whole is not equal to the sum of the parts. Actually, it can be traced back to Gestalt Psychology, which is a theory of mind and brain proposing that the operational principle of the brain is holistic. Similarly, Whole Language Approach adopts the view that learning cannot be achieved through isolated entities; that exacly corresponds to the educational linguists’ hatred for segmental phonogy and their insistance on educational phonology. 2.02 Humanistic Approach Humanistic Approach originated by Carl Rogers in 1951 (Demirezen, 2008), also has close links with EL in the sense that it focuses on the emotional side of learning and the principles such as learner-centeredness, cooperation and unearting students’ potentials, which are also basic elements of educational psychology, and thus EL. 2.03 Communicative Approach Communicative Approach is also associated with EL regarding the idea that the fundamental aim of language instruction should be communicating in the target language. In order to achieve this, it is not sufficient to have a comprehensive knowledge of language forms and functions; what is further needed is exchange of meanings in real communication. 2.04 Discourse Theory Discourse theory and especially discourse analysis play a significant role in Educational Linguistics. As Stubb (1986) stresses that it is important to distinguish between language in education and linguistics in education, referring to the need to study language â€Å"in its own terms† (1986:232), as a discourse system, rather than treating language at the level of isolated surface features, ignoring its abstract, underlying, sequential and hierarchic organization. 2.05 Interactionist Theory In parallel with communicative approach, interactionist theory also puts emphasis on the effect of social environment in which linguistic competence can be turned out to be communicative competence through interaction and by the help of nonverbal components, much more meaningful language learning can be achieved, as proposed by educational linguists. It is worth noting that â€Å"classroom interaction† is the core of educational linguistics research. According to the associations given above, it is obvious that communicative language teaching, silent way, suggestopedia, TPR and other methods such as task-based and competency-based language teaching can also be linked to educational linguistics. 3.00 THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS As a research area, educational linguistics is very young. Its birth occured in 1972 with the works of Bernard Spolsky in America. As mentioned earlier, it grew from the discomfort with the ambiguity of the term â€Å"applied linguistics†. Therefore, the history of educational linguistics is inextricably linked to applied linguistics. Since its inception, applied linguistics has had a broad scope, but it is language and education that has come to be dominant (Spolsky, 2008). In 1950s, it included a wide range of topics (linguistic geography, dictionary and literature, rhetoric, stylistics, lexicography, general language planning, etc.); however, while ELT was gaining momentum in 1960s and booming by the 1970s, many of these areas which were included in applied linguistics either received less attention or became the object of interest of other developing areas of study. The problems and controversies regarding the nature and scope of applied linguistics were driving forces in Spolsky’s decision to formulate a more precise title for the research studies specifically related to language and education. Moreover, there was also an implication in the term applied linguistics that linguistics is simply applied to issues of social practice. Such a â€Å"unidirectional† approach is undesirable and even dangerous especially in education where attempts by linguists to insert their theories directly into practice have led to disastrous results in, for example, phonemic approaches to reading and audiolingual approaches to general language learning (Spolsky, 2003: 503). Spolsky felt that applied linguistics in broad sense obscures the work specifically devoted to language and education. He also felt that to use applied linguistics in a narrow sense to refer to only language education research obscures the multiplicity of the work being done within the field in other domains. Namely, the term applied linguistics was imprecise and disadvantaging for everyone concerned (Spolsky, 2008). He first set fourth his vision for its nature in a presentation at the third AILA congress in 1972, later published in its proceedings. Then, in 1976, the department of Educational Linguistics was established at the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education within the deanship of Dell Hymes (Hornberger, 2001). In 1978, Spolsky published a seminal monograph on educational linguistics. Moreover, in 1984, the journal Working Papers in Educational Linguistics has been established, and since then, sixteen volumes have been published under student editorial direction which include topics ranging from speech act analysis and classroom discourse to language planning and second language acquisition. At the beginning, people thought that his objective was to provide a new label for applied linguistics. This was largely stemming from a view of applied linguistics as being solely occupied with language and education. However, it was later understood that it’s a â€Å"unified field within the wider discipline of applied linguistics† (Spolsky,1978: 2). And today, it has turned out to be an independent field whose â€Å"starting point is always the practice of education and the focus is squarely on the role of language in learning and teaching (Hornberger, 2001: 19). Now, it is widely believed that it is EL which should be responsible for L1 and L2 learning, not applied linguistics. 4.00 THE NATURE AND COMPOSITION OF EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS Concerning the nature and composition of EL, Spolsky (2008) puts forward that language teaching takes place in a school and is closely tied to sociological, economic, political, and psychological factors. Therefore, a good language education policy or effective methods of implementation will not ignore linguistics and the other related fields but will represent much more than an application of linguistics. In this respect, educational linguistics is concerned with the dynamic ways in which theory, research, policy, and practice inter-relate, and all work done under the rubric of educational linguistics is focused on this relationship. Actually, what is distinctively important in his original formulation is his â€Å"problem-oriented approach† to doing educational linguistics (Hornberger, 2001). Problem-oriented nature of Educational Linguistics In educational linguistics, one does not simply apply disciplinary knowledge to a specific situation. Instead, the researcher starts with a problem (or theme) related to language and education and then synthesizes the research tools in his/her intellectual repertoire to investigate or explore it (Hornberger and Hult, 2006). Here, the synthesis of research tools refers to a number of methods used in related fields for data acquisition and analysis such as tutorials, observations, surveys, questionnaires, statistics, national/international anthropological archives, goverment information sources, etc. All these research tools present educational linguists the data from different perspectives and help attaining reliable and valid findings for a specific situations. Still, Spolsky admits that linguistics has a central role to play and it is in this area that most educational linguists will have their primary training. However, while there has been a consensus on the relevance of linguistics for education (and also education for linguistics), there is still less clarity as to the nature of this relationship between them: is it application, implication, interpertation or mediation? Or is it coexistance, collaboration, complementarity or compatibility? Spolsky insistently emhasizes that educational linguistics â€Å"should not be, as it often seems, the application of the latest linguistic theory to any available problem†, but rather a problem-oriented discipline focused on the needs of practice (1975:347). He argues that linguistics has applications to and implementations for education, both directly through language descriptions and secondarily through linguistic subfields. At the same time, such a relationship includes the â€Å"coexistance of activities, collaboration of efforts, complementarity of contributions, and compatibility of interests† – a balanced reciprocity which may well serve as a model for theory and practice in the whole of the educational linguistics field (Hornberger, 2001: 9). In educational linguistics, the focus on educational practice is both indirect and direct. The knowledge generated in EL may be used to guide the process of crafting sound educational language policy which is designed to influence practice. On the other hand, this knowledge may be used to guide sound teaching practice as it is implemented in relation to educational language policy. Then, the scope of educational linguistics, Spolsky (2008) later elaborates, is the intersection of linguistics and related language sciences with formal and informal education. One of the core themes in educational linguistics is language policy. Within language policy, it is educational language policy that they are concerned. Educational language policy forms a part of wider national language planning, focusing specifically on the educational sector as â€Å"the transmitter and perpetuator of culture† (Kaplan and Baldauf, 1997: 123). Other themes dealt within EL can be specified as L1 and L2 acquisition, language choice, language and ethnicity, descriptive analysis of speech acts and discourse, educational implications of linguistic diversity, language planning, bilingual education, spoken interaction in professional settings, and biliteracy. 4.01 Subfields of Educational Linguistics Thanks to its problem-oriented nature, educational linguistics has close links with a number of disciplines which are regarded as ‘subfields’ of educational linguistics by Hornberger (2001). This also proves that EL is an independent field, not a subfield of applied linguistics any more, but it has its own subfields. They can be tabulated as follows: Theoretical Linguistics: It is a branch of linguistics concerned with developing models of linguistic knowledge. It involves the search for and explanation of linguistic universals. Syntax, phonology, morphology, and semantics are the core of theoretical linguistics. Sociolinguistics: It is the study of effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectations, and context on the way language is used. The chief contribution of sociolinguistics in educational settings has been to draw attention to the differences between language use in the classroom and in students homes and communities. Because it is important to teaching and learning, language is heavily regulated in classrooms. Teacher talk is the name given to the special register that teachers use. It is a means of inducting pupils into specific topics and approaches and imparting instruction. Like all registers, Teacher Talk has developed certain conventions and properties. It typically comprises longer and more complex utterances than the teacher expects from the pupils (Mehan, 1979). Psycholinguistics: It is interdisciplinary in nature and is studied by people in a variety of fields such as psychology, cognitive science and linguistics. Linguistic-related areas are phonetics and phonology (focusing on how the brain processes and understands these sounds), morphology (relationships among words and their formations), syntax (how words are combined together to form sentences), semantics, and pragmatics. Anthropological Linguistics: It is the study of the relations between language and culture, and the relations among human biology, cognition and language. It studies humans through the languages that they use. Neurolinguistics: It is the science concerned with the human brain mechanisms underlying the comprehension, production and abstract knowledge of language, be it spoken, signed or written. Neurolinguistics has highlighted the special role of that part of the human brain known as Broca’s area in crucial aspects of human language, namely syntax: the component of language that involves recursion. Clinical Linguistics: It is a sub-discipline of linguistics and involves the application of linguistic theory to the field of Speech-Language Pathology. The International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association is the unofficial organization of the field and was formed in 1991. They conduct researches with the aims of advancing techniques in assessment and remediation in Speech-Language Pathologists and offering insights to formal linguistic theories. Pragmatics: It is the study of the ability of natural language speakers to communicate more than what is explicitly stated. The ability to understand another speaker’s intended meaning is called pragmatic competence. Another perspective of pragmatics is that it deals with the ways we reach our goals in communication. Discourse Analysis: It is a general term for a number of approaches to analyzing written, spoken or signed language use. Discourse analysis has been taken up in a variety of social science disciplines such as linguistics, sociology and psychology. As stated earlier, it has close links with educational linguistics in the sense that language is a discourse system so it should not be treated at the level of isolated surface features. Educational Psychology: It is the study of how humans learn in educational settings, the effectiveness of educational interventions, the psychology of teaching, and the social psychology of schools as organizations. It informs a wide range of specialities within educational studies, including instructional design, educational technology, curriculum development, organizational learning, special education and classroom management. It both draws from and contributes to cognitive science and the learning sciences. Actually, it is one of the most important fields from which educational linguistics benefit. It is clear that linguistics and psychology are indispensable parts of educational linguistics. However, language teaching should not look to educational psychology or linguistics for revelations or discoveries on how to teach language, but should learn to utilize these disciplines to make the vast practical experience in the teaching of foreign languages more meaningful, to evolve definite principles of language teaching and consolidate them in a true science of language learning (Politzer, 1958). 5.00 BASIC PRINCIPLES OF EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS The principles of Educational Linguistics got matured around 1970s by Spolsky giving references to a number of related disciplines. Giving a general framework for the practices of foreign language education, they can be specified as follows: 1. Literacy is at the core of foundations of education. Literacy can be defined as the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. It involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society. For this reason, EL stresses that literacy should be in primary consideration at each and every stage of educational processes. 2. It is educational linguistics which should be responsible for L1 and L2 acquisition, not applied linguistics. As an independent field of inquiry with its own departments, journals, conferences and scholars specialized in the field, EL is the one which should conduct researches and studies specifically on L1 and L2 learning, and thus seek ways for improving opportunities in language learning contexts. 3. Verbal intelligence is one of the most-used predictors of educational success. Therefore, learners should be encouraged to have sufficient amount of linguistic competence and then turn it into communicative competence. 4. Education needs linguistics since the improvement in language skills of writing, reading, speaking, and listening can only be achieved through knowledge about language. Spolsky (1978) himself admits that linguistics is an indispensible part of language learning process. Without knowing about language itself, it is impossible to use it properly. The important point is the ‘proportion’ that should be allocated for linguistics in language learning. It should be as it is required in foreign language education, not more than that. 5. A learner-centered, holistic, humanistic, and problem-oriented language teaching approach should be adopted. Only in this way, learners’ full potential can be unearthed and they can fulfill the communicative functions of language use. 6. The use of target language in real communication should be the focus of foreign language education. Literacy in foreign language can only be achieved through the use of target language in all stages of learning, and thus teachers should create opportunities for learners to use the language outside the classroom. Especially in the context of foreign language learning and teaching, this can be managed through the use of technological devices. 7. Language education is a whole together with individials, educational setting, curriculum design, and educational language policy. Therefore, language learning process should be considered as a whole with its components and all planning should be made within this framework. In the light of these principles, educational linguists aim at organizing classroom activities so as to fulfill basic functions of foreign language education such as literacy, communicative competence, learner-centered language learning tasks, and attempt to consider language learning/teaching issue in a holistic manner including learners, schools, curricula and national policies of the governments. 6.00 EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS’ RELATIONS TO ELT Even though it is considered as a young field, educational linguistics has been very active since 1970s in the sense that it has strong arguments related to the teaching of English as a second or foreign language. Its emphasis on â€Å"classroom interaction† is one of them. Educational linguists think that as well as it is the core of educational linguistics research, classroom interaction is a significant part of language teaching methodology. It is also important since it is closely associated with power and control in classrooms and schools. Since the main objective of ELT practices is to be able to make students equipped with necessary knowledge of language so that they can communicate well in real world, educational linguistics’ focus on classroom interaction is quite reasonable. On the other hand, Pica (1994) notes that educational linguistics research has shed light upon primarily two domains of practice: design and implementation of learner-centered, communicative curricula and professionalization of the classroom teacher as decision-making educator. Stubbs (1986) also supports the idea and adds that educational linguistics provides teachers with the knowledge of language itself and how to teach it, so this, in turn, helps educators tackle with English language education problems such as the teaching of vocabulary, reading and writing. Teacher’s role is very important in this respect. As well as being a good source of knowledge for the learners, s/he should also act like a psychologist so as to determine proper applications in accordance with learners’ mood, perceptions, backgrounds, etc. Namely, s/he should be a professional need analyst. According to EL, ELT practitioners are required to create an autonomous, interactive and meaningful language learning environment for the learners while making necessary decisions in accordance with the school and the state policies because classroom applications are thought together with its hierarchical structure in EL. Similarly, learners are regarded as the center of all classroom practices and thus educational objectives of the school and the state. All materials are presented in a meaningful way which enables learners to see the whole picture first and then getting the necessary knowledge through this holistic structure, not in isolation. Similarly, that is why educational linguists reject segmental phonology, but creat educational phonology to be used in language education. 7.00 EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS AND LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION The recent recommendation by Fillmore and Snow (2002) that all teachers need to know quite a bit about language has revived old debates about the role of linguistics in educating teacher trainees. At the beginning of the 20th century, the predominant assumption was that teachers were born and not made, or if they were made, they were self-made. Therefore little attention was paid to the idea of foreign language teacher education. By the 1920s, however, articles began to appear that outlined curricula for the training of high school language teachers. One of the problems confronting teacher education programs in the early years of the century was lack of speaking ability on the part of candidates for certification. Teacher exams were proposed over the years to ensure a reasonable level of proficiency. They were required to pursue general methods and testing courses as well as courses in the psychology of learning. As a consequence, teachers were no longer producers, but were consumers of knowledge related to language learning and teaching. By the 1960s, teachers were expected to demonstrate both subject matter and professional competence. They were required to take courses that focused on the language itself. When linguistics courses were taught, for example, linguists in general had serious problems making linguistics relevant to teaching. Especially interesting is that in a 1964 special issue of the Modern Language Journal, a set of guidelines for teacher preparation was published. Despite the fields best efforts, one problem continued to nag the profession -the low level of language proficiency among future teachers. This was due to the fact that although teachers were knowledgeable about language itself, they were not taught how to present that knowledge in communicative ways (Lantolf, 2000). This great lack in language teacher education became booming in mid 1970s and drew special attention of educational linguists. Then they have proposed that language teachers are not –and should not be- pure linguists, thus they should learn linguistics as it is required by language education. Furthermore, EL also emphasizes that as well as language learners, teacher trainees also should be educated in a holistic and humanistic way which will enable them to teach foreign languages in the same manner, and all practices in teacher education process should aim at revealing trainees full potential in communicative competence. 8.00 EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS’ CONTRIBUTIONS TO FLL / FLT While educational linguistics contributes distinctive disciplinary focus, concepts, methods and history, it also takes distinctive form in each of the following types of curriculum (Spolsky, 2008) and comes up with novel perspectives in curriculum planning. Skills: An economistic-vocationally oriented curriculum: In this kind of curricula, teaching aims to facilitate the acquisition of skills which are seen to be discrete or separately specific, and are taught via pedagogies that stress explicit teaching, identifying sub-skills and teaching these separately and aiming through apprenticeship to combine the subskills. For instance, it may be suitable for â€Å"language for specific purposes†. Eloquence: A humanistic-intellectual paradigm: When curricula are conceptualized as in some sense â€Å"humanizing†, the educational linguistics makes use of notions of eloquence, expression, rhetoric, and elevated culture. Informing learners of timevalidated canonical thought, works of art, and literature distinguishes this class of curricula. Virtue: Paradigms of religion or social ideology: Some curricula aim to reproduce norms of life that derive from ethnicity, religious creed, or moral ideology. Educational linguistics, in this respect, serves unique goals of teaching, content sequencing, assessment, and evaluation associated with modes of practice particular to the ideology of the schools involved. Nationing: The discourse of loyal citizenship to nationality-defined states: Nationing, both in new nations intent on forging identities larger than regional or local ones and in established nations intent on preserving distinctiveness, utilizes linguistic based narration, story telling about national cohesion and unity, or subliminal and continual reminders of the persistence of nationality (Billig, 1995). On the other hand, it gave way to the emergence of Whole Language Approach in 1980s which is also called â€Å"the real books approach† since it used real books instead of coursebooks (Demirezen, 2008). Its focus on meaningful and purposeful communication in language classes enabled it to help students be at ease while communicating. In this respect, it is not wrong to say that Ausubel’s Meaningful Learning Theory is one of the contributions of EL to the teaching and learning foreign languages. As an opposition to the traditional language learning theories, particularly Audiolingualism, it has derived from a cognitive perspective to language learning and teaching, thus attempts to find ways of creating meaningful learning situations in which learners feel comfortable and construct knowledge with their own effort. Participatory approach is another term proposed by educational linguists which means a process through which the views of all interested parties are integrated into the decision-making process ( Alatis, et all. (1996). That is why EL benefits from a number of disciplines to solve an educational problem. Educational linguistics also created a market of materials designed specifically for foreign language learning and teaching. Different text types and application-oriented materials became available all around the world. Furthermore, it became influential on the emergence a number of language teaching methods such as Silent Way, TPR, content-based and task-based language teaching, which are all holistic, humanistic, and problem-oriented in nature. But most importantly, educational linguistics enabled L1 and L2 learning to be an independent field with its own research studies, approaches and applications for better educational opportunities. 9.00 CRITICISM OF EDUCATIONAL LINGUISTICS Educational linguistics is a relatively recent issue that draws scholars’ and researchers’ attention from a number of disciplines and thus takes various reflections concerning its strong sides and inadequacies. They can be listed as follows: 9.01 Advantages of Educational Linguistics It has been understood that there is a need for more research into teachers’ explicit beliefs about, and understanding of, language in order to enable us to understand teachers’ central role as educational linguists, that is, as conscious analyst of linguistic processes. Educational linguists made an attempt to address a fundamental problem –the language barrier to education- i.e. the instance where a child acquires a vernacular language informally and is required by the educational system to acquire a different, standard language (Spolsky, 1974a), a problem which recurs for millions of children daily, weekly, and yearly all over the world. It has elucidated that education and linguistics are in need of each other all the time; especially teaching linguistics to the educators is important so that they can cope with the problems such as teaching vocabulary, reading, and writing. EL follows from this notion that educational linguists variously investigate a host of themes related to individuals, the institutions they inhabit, and the socities in which both are situated, all as they relate to language and education. This holistic perspective makes it so strong and successful. 9.02 Disadvantages of Educational Linguistics Although educational linguistics claims that it is an independent but transdisciplinary field any more, there are some other arguments which insist that it is still a sub-branch of applied linguistics. For instance, van Lier (1994) puts forward that researchers working on language learning should consider themselves to be linguists who do applied linguistics who do educational linguistics. In a similar way, applied linguists also claim that for a discipline to be an independent one, it has to create its own approaches, theories and methods. Therefore, they assert that EL cannot be regarded as a seperate field in this respect. However, the contradiction that applied linguistics –considering itself as an independent field- also does not have its own approaches, theories, or methods weakens this argument. The inadequecy of EL concerning these aspects can be explained best with its being such a young field to produce its own approaches, theories, and methods. In the course of time, educational linguistics is to come up with novel approaches in L1 and L2 learning and improve current practices with more efficient and innovative ones. 10.00 CONCLUSION Concerning Spolsky’s own words; educational linguistics starts with the assessment of a child’s communicative competence on entering school and throughout his or her career, includes the analysis of societal goals for communicative competence, and embraces the whole range of activities undertaken by an educational system to bring its students’ linguistic repertoires into closer accord with those expected by society (1978: viii). With its roots in the controversies of applied linguistics, educational linguistics has grown into a thriving field of inquiry focused on foreign language education. Its transdisciplinary nature has allowed it to flourish in a wide range of disciplinary climates. While this wide range has resulted in an impressively diverse body of knowledge with great potential to influence educational practice, it has also made it challenging to develop a sense of cohesion for educational linguistics as a whole. Although the question â€Å"Do we really need educational linguistics as a separate field? † is still echoing especially at the part of applied linguists, EL has proved that language practicioners are really in need of such a distinct field so as to specifically work on the issues belonging to this particular area: foreign language education. On the other hand, this does not mean that applied linguistics is useless any more. In the case that EL becomes insufficient to solve a particular problem related to language learning and teaching, it is applied linguistics that EL will call upon. In this respect, the two are always in juxtaposition and cannot reject the presence and significance of each other. Even though there are some oppositions concerning its independent structure, today it is obvious that educational linguistics stands powerfully as an independent but at the same time transdisciplinary discipline. This position can be summarized best with the metaphor used by Hornberger (2001): birds on a wire. He says that the shifting and repositioning nature of academic disciplines can be depicted best with this methaphor. When a new one joins their midst; if they refuse to budge, the newcomer will have to fly off again. That is to say, educational linguistics has indeed found a place on the wire amidst its peer disciplines and goes on its way with strong paces. BIBLIOGRAPHY Akar, N. (1991). Educational Linguistics within English Language Teachng Departments in Turkey. Doctoral Dissertation. Hacettepe University. Alatis, J.E., Straehle, C.A., Ronkin, M. and Gallenberger, B. (Eds.). (1996). Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics. Georgetown University Press, Washington, D.C. Attardo, S. and Brown, S. (2005). What’s the Use of Linguistics? Pre-Service English Teachers’ Beliefs towards Language Use and Variation, pp. 91-100. In Applied Linguistics and Language Teacher Education. Bartel, N. (Ed.). Springer, US. Billig, M. (195). Banal Nationalism. London: Sage. Demirezen, M. (2008). Whole Language (Integrated) Approach and Its Aplications to ELT. Hacettepe University (Unpublished). Fillmore, L. and Snow, C. (2002). What teachers need to know about language. In C. Adger, C. Snow, and D. Christian, (Eds.) What Teachers Need to Know About Language. Washington, DC, and McHerry, IL: Center for Applied Linguistics and Delta Systems Co., Inc. Gee, J. P. (2004). Educational Linguistics. In Davies, A. and Elder, C. (eds.). The Handbook of Applied Linguistics. Blackwell Publishing. Hornberger, N.H. (2001). Educational Linguistics as a Field: A View from Penn’s Program on the Occasionof its 25th Anniversary. University of Pennsylvania. Hornberger, N.H and Hult, F.M. (2006). Educational Linguistics. In K. Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. (2nd edn. pp.76-81). Oxford: Elsvier. Hudson, R. (2004). Why education needs linuistics (and vice versa). Linguistics, 40, 105- 130. Cambridge University Press. Kaplan, R. B. and Baldauf, R. B. (1997). Language Planning: From Practice to Theory. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Kramsch, C. (2000). Second Language Acquisition, Applied Linguistics, and the Teaching of Foreign Languages. The Modern Language Journal, Vol.84, No.3, pp.311-326. Lantolf, J. P. (2000). Introduction to the Special Issue: A Century of Language Teaching and Research: Looking Back and Looking Ahead. The Modern Language Journal, Vol.84, No.4. pp.467-471. Mehan, H. (1979). Learning Lessons. Cambridge, MA. Harward University Press. Pica, T. (1994). The language educator at work in the learner-centered classroom: Communicate, decision-make, and remember to apply the (educational) linguistics. In J.E. Alatis (Ed.), Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, 264-288. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press. Politzer, R. L. (1958). On the Relation of Linguistics to Language Teaching. The Modern Language Journal, Vol.42, No.2, pp. 65-68. Rigg, P. (1991). Whole Language in TESOL. TESOL Quarterly 25, 521-542. Spolsky, B. (1974). The Navajo Reading Study: An Illustration of the scope and nature of educational linguistics. In J. Qvistgaard (Ed.), Applied Linguistics: Problem and Solutions (Vol.3, pp.553-565). Heidelberg: Julius Groos Verlag. Spolsky, B. (1974a). Linguistics and the language barrier to education. In T.A. Sebeok (Ed.), Current Trends in Linguistics, 12, 2027-2038. The Hague: Mouton. Spolsky, B. (1975). Linguistics in Practice: The Navajo Reading Study. Theory into Practice, 14(5), 347-352. Spolsky, B. (1978). Educational Linguistics: An Introduction. Rowley, Massachusetts: Newbury House. Spolsky, B. (2003). Educational Linguistics. In W. J. Frawley (ed.), International Encyclopedia of Linguistics. Vol. 1, 502-505. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Spolsky, B. And Hult, F. M. (eds.). (2008). The Handbook of Educational Linguistics. Blackwell Publishng. Stubbs, M. (1986). Educational Linguistics. New York: Basil Blackwell. van Lier, L. (1994). Educational linguistics: Field and project. In J. E. Alatis (Ed.), Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 1994, 197-209. Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press. van Lier, L. (2004). The Ecoogy and Semiotics of Language Learning: A Sociocultural Perspective. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Research Papers on Educational LinguisticsStandardized TestingInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesResearch Process Part OneThree Concepts of PsychodynamicOpen Architechture a white paperThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseRelationship between Media Coverage and Social andIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalEffects of Television Violence on ChildrenThe Project Managment Office System

Based On vs. Based Around

Based On vs. Based Around Based On vs. Based Around Based On vs. Based Around By Maeve Maddox In a previous post, I wrote about the strange but trendy expression â€Å"to be based out of,† a phrase inexplicably used to mean â€Å"based in,† or â€Å"lives in.† Now I’ve noticed another expression that uses base in a nonstandard way: â€Å"to be based around.† The first time I noticed this odd usage was in a caption under a photo taken at a school event: the event was based around The Sisters Grimm [a play]. I couldn’t understand why it didn’t say, â€Å"based on.† A Google search indicates that the expression â€Å"to base something around something† is widespread. Here are a few examples in which the intended meanings seem to vary among derived from, modeled on, set in, having to do with, and plain old based on. Some are headlines. Writing fanfiction based around a story you hate How to make a story based around a character The story is based around Maine. Classic comedy based around shop in Doncaster Worksheets and tasks based around the Shakespeare play. This is a common problem with lesson plans based around websites I want to write a book based around Monopoly What are some books about based around being alone? Dutch Artist Starting Religion Based Around Facebook Likes Kids cartoon book based around a vegetable garden. Used as a noun, â€Å"a base† is a foundation. Building on this meaning, the verb â€Å"to base† can have the following meanings: to make or form a foundation for something to serve as a base for something to establish or maintain a base for something to use as a base or basis for something Something can be based on something, but to say that something is based around something makes no sense. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Congratulations on or for?50 Idioms About Roads and PathsMood vs. Tense

Graduation speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Graduation speech - Essay Example It is indeed unavoidable and pleasing to see how we all gained skills over that period we were in school. I invite you to look back to our first day in campus: we were the same but distinct; we were shorter, young and probably uncertain about ourselves. Similar to almost everyone, I arrived at this university anxious and wide-eyed. I also felt endangered by fittings on the compass with loud voices and opinions, and wondered I would cope and survive. As we look back this day on a journey, a journey that commenced with tentative and hesitant steps, we just observe how far we all have advanced. It was a privilege to be part of this journey and this institution. To my wonderful tutors, I would like to salute each and every one of you. You all guided, shaped and molded not only me, but also all the ladies and gentlemen standing here today. Your role has been immensely contributory in molding us. Though your painstaking efforts may waste away or be forgotten. We will always recall all of you for helping us, caring for us, and making us feel special and appreciated for all the time you spend teaching us. It is the excellent coaching styles that have assisted us to enormously accomplish our journey at the University. Indeed, school would have been challenging. I am undeniably grateful for your advice, guidance, and tutelage. I greatly appreciate your generosity and commitment with your time to help me with my studies and projects. I am grateful for believing in me and allowing me to continue believing in myself. I hope to emulate the goodwill and kindness that you all have shown us in our journey through the university. To my beloved husband and family, I am here as a testimony of your love, reassurance and support. You held my hand and supported me through my decisions to complete my undergraduate studies. Surely, I would not have lived to see this day without your support and flexibility. Your support during this

Persuasive Speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 3

Persuasive Speech - Essay Example Most significantly, over speeding victims always have something to explain and justify their character. On may say that he has an urgent issue, he did want to settle it out. Another on may quote that he was just experimenting on the far speed extent of his car. All these are excuses, and the drivers should just take responsibility. Over speeding has been the foundation of most accidents in United States of America. This is despite the having different areas in the roadside where the road sign are well labelled and indicative of the speed limits. The drivers are ignorant of these signs. Despite having received intensive training and education while driving lessons. Drivers are always adamant to observe such road signs. First, over speeding has led to many deaths after crashes. The impact caused by an over speeding vehicles is high, and it may cause damage to body organs. Trauma is inevitable in all circumstances. Research has indicated that most road accidents survivors do suffer from long-term disability secondary to organs system failure. Death often ensues. Secondly, the affected families do suffer from psychological trauma. They need counselling to recover from the fateful events. Others have immense burden to care for the families left after the loss of the loved ones. The government is also losing great resourceful people through accidents emanating from overspending. A lot of resources are consumed in taking care of the disabled and the hospital bills for all the victims of accidents resulting from over speeding. It is clear that over speeding is just a burden not only to the country but also to the affected families as a whole. All this happens when the driver just decides to have a moment of pleasure for a few seconds via over speeding, consequently threatening his life and that of others (Clarke et al., pg. 877). Safe driving should be the goal of every driver. Over speeding

Fashion Brand - FCUK Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Fashion Brand - FCUK - Assignment Example The paper "Fashion Brand - FCUK" discusses the cause of FCUK’s current financial crisis and propose methods that can help the company re-strategise their branding and market position. French Connection or popularly known as ‘FCUK’ is a fashion-led clothing retailer and wholesaler business that was founded and based in the United Kingdom. Its retail and wholesale business operates mainly in the UK, in other parts of Europe, in the U.S., and other licensed stores around the world carrying several products such as its own French Connection/FCUK brand, a designer label called Nicole Farhi, a popular UK whole sale brand called Great Plains, and the mail-order business known as Toast. Aside from their clothing lines, French Connection has also expanded its product range by producing what they call ‘complimentary products’ to their fashion collections. These complimentary products are in the form of eyewears and various fragrances. The company was founded in 1972 by its current chairman and chief executive Stephen Marks. FCUK had eventually made its mark in the fashion industry by introducing fashionable clothes at very affordable prices catering primarily to the middle-market customers with ages ranging from 18 to 35 years old (News, 2006). For so many years, FCUK have managed to put up a competitive brand against its High Street counterparts; however, just recently, FCUK had been continuously incurring noticeable decline in its sales and profits. There were actually several reasons. behind this high turnover for the company's revenues, primarily it is due to the soaring up of its prices which seems to have become quite expensive for their High Street target market to afford; another reason would be the company's effort of changing its image - trying to level it with competitors of bigger labels in an attempt to improve its market share and position thus resulting to pricing themselves out of the High Street competition; and finally, the recent advertising tactics of the company simply did not made an impact to its target market, not only in Europe but in other parts of the world as well which even contributed to driving its customers away from the brand. FCUK Current Situation Since 2002, FCUK's annual reports on its sales and profits all over the world have been progressing positively; it only means that the company has been performing well on the High Street market competition. However, due to recent events, it would really be alarming to know that the company this year has been continuously issuing warnings to investors that profits would surely be lower than expected (News, 2006). French Connection has reported a substantial pre-tax loss of 3.6 million in the first half of the year which ended on the 31st of July 2006 compared with the 5.1 million pre-tax loss it incurred the previous year; group revenues had also fallen by 6% from the previous year to 112.2 million (Interim Statement French Connection Group PLC, 2006). The problem of these declining figures originated mainly from a range of smaller problems that the company must resolve in order to hopefully gain back its losses in the future. It was found that one of the problems is that the company gravely needs to rethink of the prices it is setting on the range of their clothing lines in relation to their target market - which is

Portfolio Report of Theory of Customer Service in a Service Setting Essay

Portfolio Report of Theory of Customer Service in a Service Setting - Essay Example A futuristic outlook should be used for an increasingly growing and counterintuitive, making an analysis with fewer errors (Shuen, 2008). Currently, the net lifetime worth of every Redbox client stands at 70$, and the stir rate stands at a constant 5%. This $70 presumption is openhanded because it does not consider the dilutive impacts of stock-based payment. This reimbursement does not have an impact on the value for every consumer. However, it has a direct impact on the share of every shareholder on every customer’s value. Redbox’s stir rate can keep on reducing, causing other competences to rise. At the same time, Redbox’s may perhaps raise its prices, an approach that has previously been done numerous times. This strategy creates a favorable environment for the organization to stick with the $70 value for its customers (Redbox.com, 2005; Shuen, 2008). Critical Incidents Redbox is a media store that provides rental movies to its clients, along with other enter tainment material such as music, videos and books. Redbox has a headquarter store that is located at 1 Tower Ln., Ste. 1200 Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181, United States, the enterprise has more than 27000 branches all over the country, with about 750 workers employed in these stores (Redbox, 2011). The specific locations at which the stores are situated include grocery stores, huge merchant vendors, drugstores, restaurants, and huge convenient stores nationwide. Redbox has however been looking forward to expanding its objectives into majority of the demands and requirements of the movie renters market. Founded by Coinstar, Redbox has the initiative as establishing it stores in major supermarkets and mall stores such as McDonalds as well as discount stores. However, the store is experiencing poor customer service management systems due to the lack of the latest and popular movies, which are the films with the most demands (Redbox, 2011). A major move that the owner of Redbox has to real ize is that customer service has five main varying orientations. They include CS (Customer service) software expertise, system, and technology; data storage space and scrutiny; CS has to be viewed as an alteration in business culture from a dealing objective to a client centric one; CS involves managing demand and that CS is also a strategy phase aiming at clients’ interests. Redbox on the other hand has the intentions of employing internet streaming to enable smoother movie selection as well as viewing (Reinartz et al, 2005). This initiative will enable the preferences of the clients to be heard and dealt with at a closer scale. Data storage systems of Redbox require improvement since the latest films are very much reported by clients to not be available at websites and their stores. Since such films are in the most demand, therefore, to maintain the most returns that the enterprise is capable of making, the data storage improvement can withhold the latest movies at a higher number that can sustain the market demands. This approach will improve the customer service with the enterprise (Kumar et al, 2011). Another approach about a proper CS system is the existence of elements that comprise the CS system. The elements are a data storehouse, systematic apparatus, protests management apparatus, interfaces to sustain panels. Databases ran by Redbox operate on the

The Effects of Globalization and Foreign Direct Investment Essay

The Effects of Globalization and Foreign Direct Investment - Essay Example This has served many companies in producing cheaper goods by taking use of the low cost of labor and machineries involved, from different countries. The other side of globalization that is also prominent is the decline in product quality, by outsourcing cheaper equipments and low cost of the unskilled labor (Pragmatic Outsourcing, 2012). Employing the trend of globalization has increased significantly in the industrial sector of the European countries. The increase in population and global competition has narrowed the profit margin of many industries and has ignited the need of producing more volume of products, to beat other competitors (Isidro, 2011). Hence, many European industries utilize the cheap labor, fuel and low government taxes of under developed nations to produce bulk quantity of their products within the limited budget for it. A flashback of the European industries would lead to the fact that globalization started from the textile industry in the early 20th century and then it was adopted in electronics, furniture and books publishing sectors (Blass, 2005). With the change in policy by Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) of trade tariffs and eradicating the concentration rule in Europe, monopolization in industrial sectors was broken to a great extent. It allowed several new companies to enter into the corporate market and intensify the business competition (Blass, 2005). In this respect, the Italian footwear industry is considered to have gone through considerable changes in its managerial and production strategies, by implying globalization in its system. Historical trade data of Italy suggest that its footwear sector that has a prominent contribution in its overall GDP and has a high impact on the international footwear market (Milan, 2010). However, present market position and sales figures present a different scenario of prominence of the Italy’s footwear industry. Pressure of the international market and emerging entrants has forced Italy’s footwear industry to delocalize their resources, which has resulted in losing their distinct image. The vertical integration methodology of these industries was replaced with a global supply chain network, which resulted in less flexibility and control over the finished product. This paper aims to provide hypotheses of the effect of globalization on Italian footwear, based on the understanding and evaluation of sales figures and current standing in national and international market. The will use the academic and theoretical data to compare other footwear industries with the Italian, to justify the hypothesis presented (Larch, 2005). Theoretical Overview The pattern followed in the Italian footwear industry involves foreign direct investment in the production cycle. Since, Italy footwear sector is largely delocalized several of its resources are involved in production and designing is being outsourced (Amighini & Rabellotti, 2003). This brings the ownership of foreign investors in different production units carried out in other countries. One essential thing to consider is the formation of several business groups, which is the result of market fragmentation. Such business groups act as the middle man between the actual producer and the company been outsourced. Therefore, there are

Portfolio Report of Theory of Customer Service in a Service Setting Essay

Portfolio Report of Theory of Customer Service in a Service Setting - Essay Example A futuristic outlook should be used for an increasingly growing and counterintuitive, making an analysis with fewer errors (Shuen, 2008). Currently, the net lifetime worth of every Redbox client stands at 70$, and the stir rate stands at a constant 5%. This $70 presumption is openhanded because it does not consider the dilutive impacts of stock-based payment. This reimbursement does not have an impact on the value for every consumer. However, it has a direct impact on the share of every shareholder on every customer’s value. Redbox’s stir rate can keep on reducing, causing other competences to rise. At the same time, Redbox’s may perhaps raise its prices, an approach that has previously been done numerous times. This strategy creates a favorable environment for the organization to stick with the $70 value for its customers (Redbox.com, 2005; Shuen, 2008). Critical Incidents Redbox is a media store that provides rental movies to its clients, along with other enter tainment material such as music, videos and books. Redbox has a headquarter store that is located at 1 Tower Ln., Ste. 1200 Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181, United States, the enterprise has more than 27000 branches all over the country, with about 750 workers employed in these stores (Redbox, 2011). The specific locations at which the stores are situated include grocery stores, huge merchant vendors, drugstores, restaurants, and huge convenient stores nationwide. Redbox has however been looking forward to expanding its objectives into majority of the demands and requirements of the movie renters market. Founded by Coinstar, Redbox has the initiative as establishing it stores in major supermarkets and mall stores such as McDonalds as well as discount stores. However, the store is experiencing poor customer service management systems due to the lack of the latest and popular movies, which are the films with the most demands (Redbox, 2011). A major move that the owner of Redbox has to real ize is that customer service has five main varying orientations. They include CS (Customer service) software expertise, system, and technology; data storage space and scrutiny; CS has to be viewed as an alteration in business culture from a dealing objective to a client centric one; CS involves managing demand and that CS is also a strategy phase aiming at clients’ interests. Redbox on the other hand has the intentions of employing internet streaming to enable smoother movie selection as well as viewing (Reinartz et al, 2005). This initiative will enable the preferences of the clients to be heard and dealt with at a closer scale. Data storage systems of Redbox require improvement since the latest films are very much reported by clients to not be available at websites and their stores. Since such films are in the most demand, therefore, to maintain the most returns that the enterprise is capable of making, the data storage improvement can withhold the latest movies at a higher number that can sustain the market demands. This approach will improve the customer service with the enterprise (Kumar et al, 2011). Another approach about a proper CS system is the existence of elements that comprise the CS system. The elements are a data storehouse, systematic apparatus, protests management apparatus, interfaces to sustain panels. Databases ran by Redbox operate on the

Tel-com-TEK Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tel-com-TEK - Article Example Atasi Das has an MBA degree from a UK university and has 12 years of experience working in TCT. She won’t be a foreign national in the sense that her parents are first-generation immigrants; she is rooted to Indian culture and speaks Hindi well. She can devote on her job better than other candidates, being unmarried, therefore free from the family responsibilities unlike other candidates. Although her birth country is not India but her parents are Indians and she has many relatives in the North of India. The new assignment might be very challenging for Atasi Das as she has no experience of the Indian work environment. Her earlier assignments in staff and line positions may not help her in the role of managing director of the Indian division, as profile of the managing director is totally different from her previous and current job rankings. Ravi Desai has been in the position of assistant managing director of Southeast Asian markets for production and sales only. Managing the functions singularly of all departments might be challenging for him. Tom Wallace has experience of only technical and sales portfolios of TCT, which might be challenging in taking the overall in charge of the Indian division because of little experience in other areas. Brett Harrison has been in supervisory roles and is fine-tuned to take senior level responsibilities but the rank of managing director might prove to be too high with the related challenges. Jalan Bukit Seng also falls short because of his sigular expertise in assembly operation, which has been outside india. Saumitra Chakraborty although might be the most suitable man for the post of managing director of TCT because of his profile of assistant to the outgoing managing director besides functioning competently in operations, customer relations and to some good extent the employee relations but lacking in direct-line experience might prove a big hurdle to the responsibilities attached with the rank of managing

Platos Philosophical Significance (in Regards to Metaphysics, and Ethics Essay Example for Free

Platos Philosophical Significance (in Regards to Metaphysics, and Ethics Essay Philosophy spans the reaches of the human mind in countless topics, but is often divided into three main branches: metaphysics, the study of the nature of existence; epistemology, the study of knowledge and truth; and ethics, the study of morals. One of the first philosophers to look at these fields is Plato (427BCE-347BCE), whose writings are incredibly influential. Plato’s work lays the fundament for philosophy because of his cohesive contributions to the fields of metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Firstly, Plato’s work with Forms greatly influences metaphysics. He contributes the idea of the Forms which exist as â€Å"eternal and perfect ideals that exist in an unchanging, perfect heaven (via Velasquez, 2002, p. 84). [2] The Forms contrast with worldly matter; this contrast leads to Plato’s next contribution to metaphysics, his concept of â€Å"Two Worlds. † Plato divides reality into the worlds of senses and forms, the latter of which he considers to be true reality and where the soul resides. Finally, Plato’s description of the tripartite human soul greatly influences St. Augustine’s religious work on Christianity 800 years later. Therefore, Plato’s Forms helped shape metaphysics. Secondly, Plato’s Forms and myths built the foundation for epistemology. Plato argues that due to the souls unchanging nature, the process of â€Å"learning† is the soul’s recollection of knowledge. He also provides two myths, both closely related to his metaphysical works. In the first, the Chariot Allegory, Plato describes a charioteer en route to heaven, in which there exists â€Å"true reality [the forms] with which real knowledge is concerned (as cited by Velasquez, p. 84). The journey is impeded by an unruly horse that represents ignobility. The concept of the journey’s difficulty is mirrored, finally, in the Allegory of the Cave, which discusses ignorance and the escape thereof. Thus, Plato’s myths form the basis of epistemology. Finally, Plato’s work in ethics regarding justice is among the first and most influential. Firstly, he defines justice as the balance between the three parts of the tripartite soul. Thus, his justice theory states that justice in both the state and the individual is defined by â€Å"harmony between the various parts for the good of the whole† (Velasquez, 2002, p. 630). This justice theory shows cohesiveness with Plato’s tripartite theory of the soul. Finally, Plato associates justice with merit: individuals are treated proportionally to their talents and accomplishments. Hence, Platos philosophies regarding justice form the starting point for the field of ethics. In conclusion, Plato’s writings act as a basis and connection for the three main branches of philosophy: metaphysics, through his Forms; epistemology, through his myths; and ethics, through his justice theory. His influence on philosophy and society is expansive and, as such, Plato is one of the most significant philosophers. That his ideas are still being taught to modern day shows the true nature of philosophy: to pose questions so profound that they cannot be answered 2500 years later.

Research On Initial Public Offering And Underpricing Finance Essay

Research On Initial Public Offering And Underpricing Finance Essay Initial Public Offering (IPO) of firm is widely underpriced. IPO underpricing is presented as the percentage difference between the offer price and the closing price of the first-trading-day, usually in appearance of initial positive return when shares are newly issued. IPO underpricing is seen as selling shares at discount in the initial offering. The discount requires issuer to leave money on the table to compensate investors, which incur wealth loss for the issuer (Camp, Comer and How, 2006). Therefore, there are numerous theories established to explain the reason for this discount sale in IPO, which generally categorized into four branches: asymmetric information, institutional reasons, control considerations, and behavioral approaches (Ljungqvist, 2007). Among these theories, asymmetric information theory is the most studied direction in the past 40 years. Nevertheless, studies on the institutional and behavioral aspects are heating recently, especially when shedding lights on e merging IPO markets where lack of efficient institutional support and exist over-speculation behavior environment. Evidence of underpricing IPO underpricing phenomenon is firstly academic documented in 1970s (Stoll and Curley, 1970; Reilly, 1973; Logue, 1973; Ibbotson, 1975). Early findings (exclusively focused on US market) indicate that underpricing is influenced by particular periods (Ibboston and Jaffe, 1975) and particular industry, usually natural resource (oil and gas) industry (Ritter, 1984). However, these findings are challenged by Smith (1986) who claimed that underpricing occurs in the entire period of 1960s-1980s, rather than concentrates in particular periods, and underpricing level exists across all industries with average exceeds 15%. Recent study is more convincible with larger time period and sample observations. Loughran and Ritter (2004) document this underpricing discount has averaged around 19% in the US since the 1960s. Nevertheless, underpricing level (i.e. the average first-day return) tends to fluctuate, 21% in the 1960s, 12% in the 1970s, 16% in the 1980s, 15% in 1990-1998 and then exploded to more than 65% in the 1999-2000 internet bubble period, and falling back to 12% in 2001-2008 (reference). Table Empirical studies have extended the scope of research from the US to the whole world. Underpricing is internationally documented, and the level is extremely high in emerging markets. According to (reference)s research, China (1990-1996, 226, 388%); US (1960-1996, 13308, 15.8%); Japan (1970-1996, 975, 24%). Table. (Reference) provides wider research. France: 3-14%; Australia: 11-30%; Taiwan: 30-47%; Greece: 48-64%; Brazil: 74-78.5%; China: 127-950%. Table Due to its short history with strong government control characteristics, Chinese IPO market draws research interest. The average initial return of IPOs in China during 1999-2002 was 3.3 times the average emerging markets initial return (excluding China) and 6.9 times that of developed countries (Reference). Sample size Sample period Initial return (%) Mok and Hui (1998) 87 1990-1993 289.20% Datar and Mao (1998) 226 1990-1996 388.00% Su and Fleisher (1999) 308 1990-1995 948.59% Chen et al. (2000) 277 1992-1995 350.47% Liu and Li (2000) 781 1991-1999 139.40% Chi and Padgett (2002) 668 1996-2000 129.16% Su (2003) 587 1994- 1999 119.38% Chan et al. (2003) 570 1993-1998 175.40% Chan et al. (2003) 286 1999-2000 104.70% Wang (2005) 747 1994-1999 271.90% Kimbro (2005) 691 1995-2002 132.00% Li (2006) 314 1999-2001 134.62% Asymmetric information theory The cornerstone of this theory is that there is asymmetric information among parties (issuer, underwriter, and investor) in the IPO. Chambers and Dimson (2009) proved that the level of trust between investors, issuers, and underwriters plays a crucial role on the level of IPO underpricing over time in the UK. Asymmetric information leads to ex ante uncertainty among parties. Higher ex ante uncertainty results in higher underpricing. Ritter (1984) raised the changing risk composition hypothesis, which assumes that riskier IPOs will be underpriced by more than less-risky IPOs. Beatty and Ritter (1986) then extend Rock (1986)s asymmetric information model (winners curse) by introducing the ex ante uncertainty about an IPOs market clearing price. The ex ante uncertainty among investors over the value of firm determines the underpricing level of the IPO (Loughran and Ritter, 2004). The level of underpricing increases with the degree of ex ante uncertainty about the value of the firm (Beat ty and Ritter, 1986; Ljungqvist, 2007). Firms with more uncertainty about growth opportunities have higher levels of underpricing than other firms on average (Ritter, 1984; Beatty and Zajac, 1994; Welbourne and Cyr, 1999). Under the scope of asymmetric information theory, there are three models: winners curse, principal-agent and signaling. Winners curse assumes informed investors have better information. Principal-agent model argues underwriters gain better information. Signaling model emphasizes on the better information retained by issuers. Winners curse model is based on asymmetric information between informed and uninformed investors (Rock, 1986). This model assumes informed investors have better information about the new firms prospects than the issuer and its underwriters. Uninformed investors would only get unattractive IPO firms shares because informed investors have already picked up attractive firms share with better information. That is to say, uniformed investors would only expect negative return. Consequently, uniformed investors are willing to participate only if new-issue offer prices are low enough to compensate them for expected losses on less attractive issues (Rock, 1986; Ritter and Welch, 2002). Under this assumption, issuers or underwriters have to underprice their IPO shares, i.e. selling with discount, to attract these uninformed investors. Underpricing is seen as compensation to uninformed investors (Beatty and Ritter, 1986). Underwriters have the intention to underprice the IPO shares in order to keep the uninformed investors stay in the market to make offering successful. Underwriter could use underpricing to obtain full subscription in order to make the shares offering successfully. Moreover, Loughran and Ritter (2002) argue that winners curse is not the dominate explanation in IPO underpricing now. Winners curse problem and dynamic information acquisition were main explanations in 1980s in US IPO market. In 1990s US, analyst coverage and side payments to CEOs and venture capitalists (spinning hypothesis) are main reasons (ibid). Welch (1992) claims that underpricing is caused by the cascades effect in the IPO market. This Cascades effect is presented as the asymmetric information between informed and uninformed investors. Underpricing generates information momentum, which results in a higher market clearing price at the end of the lockup period (the time between share-offer day and listed day) when insiders (first buyers) typically start to sell some of their shares. These first buyers behavior would influence the following buyers perception on value of shares. Since there is selling pressure when IPO ends and the analyst coverage starts, the market price could still maintain at a high level in the first-trading-day, thus incur significant underpricing level (Bradley et al. 2003; Ofek and Richardson, 2003; Bradley, Jordan, Roten, and Yi, 2001; Brav and Gompers, 2003; Field and Hanka, 2001). Principal-agent model focuses on asymmetric information between underwriters and issuers (Baron and Holmstrom, 1980; Baron, 1982). Baron (1982) assumes that underwriter is better informed about demand conditions than the issuer, leading to a principal-agent problem. In this model, the function and role of underwriters are mainly studied. Underwriters want to underprice IPOs (Baron and Holmstrom, 1980; Baron, 1982; Loughran and Ritter, 2002/2004; Ljungqvist and Wilhelm, 2003). First of all, underwriter has to underprice in order to sell all shares, i.e. underwriters use underpricing to obtain full subscription in order to make IPO successfully. There are uninformed investors who have the money to invest in the market. Underwriters convince issuers into underpricing to prevent these uninformed investors from leaving the IPO market. Underpricing is to induce underwriters to put forth the correct level of effort (Baron, 1982). Underwriter has to balance this trade-off in the principal-ag ent problem. On one side, underpricing would incur wealth loss for the issuer and reduce commission revenue for underwriters, on the other side, Beatty and Ritter (1986) argue that as repeat players, underwriters have an incentive to ensure that new issues are underpriced by enough lest they lose underwriting commissions (especially for those uninformed investors) in the future. Empirical studies (Nanda and Yun, 1997; Dundar, 2000) claim that underwriters subsequently lose IPO market share if they either underprice or overprice too much. However, the principal-agent model is challenged by Muscarella and Vetsuypens (1989), who argue that underpricing phenomenon still exists in underwriter (investment bank) IPO itself in which there is no principal-agent problem. Second, underpricing could incur over-subsucription in an IPO, which gives underwriter the discretion to allocate IPO shares. Underwriters can decide to whom to allocate shares if there is excess demand. In this case, underwriters discretion acts like interest exchange with their clients. They want to retain the buy-side clients, thus to allocate underpriced IPOs to them. Recurrent institutional investors would get the IPO shares and enjoy a positive initial return (Loughran and Ritter, 2002). Underwriters have an incentive to underprice IPOs if they receive commission business in return for leaving money on the table. Underpricing could facilitate the loyalty between underwriter and its clients, which could in turn facilitate underwriters sale of subsequent IPOs and seasoned offerings. For example, in the late 1990s IPOs were allocated to investors largely on the basis of the past and future commission business on the other trades (Reuter, 2004). Third, spinning effect induces underwriter to underpricing. The spinning explanation describe issuers are willing to hire underwriters with a history of underpricing because issuers receive side-payments. Spinning may be used by the underwriter to acquire IPO deals and influence IPO pricing, but it can also be used as part of a long-term business strategy with a given issuer to attract future underwriter mandates. The side-payments of spinning makes issuers reluctant to change its original underwriter for subsequent offerings (Dundar, 2000; Krigman, Shaw and Womack, 2001; Burch, Nanda and Warther, 2005; Ljungqvist, Marston and Wilhelm, 2006/2009). Spinning effect was first documented by Siconolfi (1997) in a Wall Street Journal article. Specifically, underwriters set up personal brokerage accounts for venture capitalists and the executives of issuing firms in order to allocate hot IPOs to them (Siconolfi, 1997). The hot IPOs means shares those are underpriced and would gain a huge po sitive initial return aftermarket, which would increase the personal wealth of the managers of issuing firms (Loughran and Ritter, 2002). The use of hot IPOs to reward issuers created an incentive for issuers to seek out underwriters who willing to offer this hot IPO through underpricing, rather than to avoid such underwriters. Allocating hot IPOs to the issuers and their friends (through friends and family accounts) allowed underwriters to underprice even more, i.e. selling at a friendly price (larger discount) (Fulghieri and Spiegel, 1993; Loughran and Ritter, 2002; Ljungqvist and Wilhelm, 2003). Underwriters may be more inclined to give favorable allocations of shares to preferred investors (friends, family, executives, etc.) and unfavorable allocations to non-favored non-connected investors. The latter would require higher underpricing to participate in the IPO market. The outcome of this process is not due to ex ante uncertainty, but due to discretionary allocation of shares by underwriters. Furthermore, this discretion is not mitigated by strong institutional framework. During the late 1990s and early 2000, spinning was a widespread practice in the US, despite having one of the strongest investor protection rules at the same time (Liu and Ritter, 2009). Signaling model, first referred by Leland and Pyle in 1977, assumes the issuer itself best knows its prospects (possesses better information). Underpricing is a signal that the firm is good (Allen and Faulhaber, 1989; Grinblatt and Hwang, 1989; Welch, 1989). If the issuer possesses the best information about its true value, a high quality firm could use underpricing as a means to distinguish itself from low quality companies. These firms with the most favorable prospects find it optimal to signal their type by underpricing their initial issue of shares, and investors know that only the best firms can recoup the cost of this signal from subsequent issues. In short, a partial offering of shares is made initially, information is then revealed, and subsequently more shares will be sold. In contrast, low quality companies might tend to price fully (Bergstrom, Nilsson and Wahlberg, 2006). Hiring reputable underwriter with influential analysts would mitigate ex ante uncertainty, thus reduce the underpricing level. Empirical study shows the more market power of underwriter (with strong analyst team, influential and bullish, usually), the more underpricing extent (Hoberg, 2007). Hiring a prestigious underwriter (Booth and Smith, 1986; Carter and Manaster, 1990; Michaely and Shaw, 1994) or a reputable auditor (Titman and Trueman, 1986) is seen as a specific way to reduce the ex ante uncertainty. Carter and Manaster (1990) and Carter et al. (1998) argue that IPOs taken by prestigious underwriters benefit from superior certification. The choice of underwriter indicates the quality of this IPO implicitly, because the reputation of underwriter may provides certain guarantee on the value of the issuer, which in turn, mitigates the ex ante uncertainty, thus the underpricing level would be reduced. Nevertheless, empirical evidences show a mixed result. There is a negative relati on between underwriter prestige and underpricing level in the 1980s, but a positive relation in the 1990s (Beatty and Welch, 1996; Cooney, Singh, Carter, and Dark, 2001). Issuers want to hire reputable underwriters who have, not only because of this could reduce ex ante uncertainty, but also the influential and bullish analyst coverage provided by reputable underwriters (Dunbar, 2000; Clarke, Dunbar and Kahle, 2001; Krigman, Shaw and Womack, 2001). Analyst coverage is crucial on the discovery of true value of the firm, especially its impact on sequent shares offering. Ljungqvist, Jenkinson and Wilhelm (2003) prove that influential analyst could bring the businesses for underwriters (investment banks). Prestigious investment banks also tend to recruit analysts who making optimistic forecasts (Hong and Kubik, 2003). Although analyst coverage is expensive for underwriters (the largest US investment banks each spent close to $1 billion per year on equity research in 2000, for example) (Rynecki, 2002), these costs are covered partly by underwriting fee charging from issuers. Due to the information production cost, many firms would prefer later IPO. Firms d o IPO firstly could incur analyst coverage advantage (more information revelation) for other firms wanting for IPO in the same industry (i.e. free ride effect). In this case, underwriter compensate this information cost for the before Firms with underpricing to investors (Benveniste, Busaba, and Wilhelm, 2002; Benveniste et al., 2003). Moreover, issuers feel reluctant to change its underwriter for seasoned equity offering (SEO) if the underwriter did analyst coverage and the underprice effect is significant in the IPO. Cliff and Denis (2004) proved this with the example 1050 US IPO firms during 1993-2000. When initial offering shares, the issuer increases emphasis on the advertisement effect brought by analyst coverage from underwriter, rather than the level of underpricing itself. Empirical studies (Cliff and Denis, 2004; Dunbar, 2000; Clarke et al. 2007) illustrates that many US issuers accepted underpricing in 1990s since they focused more on choosing an underwriter with an influential analyst than on getting a high offer price. The underlying principal is that underpricing could attract investors attention to this firm. Issuers have the incentive to reduce underpricing, and model their optimal behavior. Firms could gain advertisement benefits from underpricing, which creates beneficial condition for sequent offering (Habib and Ljungqvist, 2001). A high quality firm is underpriced (sell shares at discount) at the initial offering in order to attract market attention through following analyst coverage, usually, massive and efficient analyst coverage would mitigate the asymmetric inf ormation among investors and present the high quality of the firm, finally, the more realization on the true value of the firm among investors could help the firm sell its sequent seasoned offering shares at a higher price (i.e. recoup the loss from the underpricing in the initial offering). This process is called partial adjustment phenomenon (Hanley, 1993). About one-third of all IPO issuers between 1977 and 1982 had reissued equity by 1986, the typical amount being at least three times the initial offering (Welch, 1989). Analyst coverage relates to the future predicted value of the issuer, thus it is important. Moreover, the development of internet and cable television extend the influence of analyst coverage on the share price. In this way, the share price aftermarket would increase, which further provides the opportunity for issuer to offer higher price for its seasoned offering. Behavior Finance Speculative bubble theory After the internet bubble collapse in the US in early 2000, the academic focus transferred to behavior finance. The asymmetric information theory is based on the efficient market hypothesis. The ex ante uncertainty leads to the difficulty on firm valuation for investors, therefore, issuer and underwriter would set higher underpricing level to attract investors. Underpricing is seen as deliberate selling strategy for an IPO, once listed in the secondary market, share price would return to its fair value. Asymmetric information theory predicts lower underpricing if information is distributed more homogeneously across investors (Michaely and Shaw, 1994). However, it is challenged by heterogeneous expectation hypothesis in the stock market (Miller, 1977), which argues this deliberated underpricing strategy of IPO (selling at discount) disrupts the market efficiency (Loughran et al., 1994). According to Miller (1977), there are two assumptions in the market: the heterogeneity expectation and restriction on short-selling. The optimistic investors buy and hold shares, whereas pessimistic investors can not participate in the trade since the short selling is restricted. Consequently, share price reflects the opinion from optimistic investors, and thus the share price is overvalued compared to its fair value. Aggarwal and Rivoli (1990) raised the speculative bubble theory to argue that IPO underpricing is caused by faddish behavior on behalf of investors. This theory reveals there is speculative environment in secondary market, which increases the market price of the first-trading-day, thus incurs severe underpricing phenomenon. The speculative bubble theory to Ibbotsons opinion that underpricing is cyclical, which could date back to 1970s. Ibbotson and Jaffe (1975) found the level of underpricing fluctuates between different time periods. One explanation for the fluctuation may be the fact that there are hot and cold IPO markets (Ibbotson et al., 2001). In a hot IPO market, the average level of underpricing is large and the amount of firms going public increases. Afterwards there is a high rate of firms going public, but the level of underpricing decreases. The following cold period starts with fewer firms going public and very low underpricing or even overpricing. There is strong empiri cal evidence for this recurrent pattern, but the existence of this pattern has not yet seen sufficiently explained theoretically (Ibbotson and Ritter, 1995). Aggarwal (2000) provides empirical evidence to prove there is positive relationship between underpricing level and market index. Faddish investor hypothesis claims that in the hot market, over-optimistic (irrational) investors overpriced the IPO. This means the high initial return of IPO is not caused by deliberate underpricing pre-IPO solely, but is overpriced by optimistic investors in the secondary market. On one side, large amount of irrational investor is the root of high initial return in IPO, because irrational investors determine the transaction price in the secondary market (Ljungqvist, Nanda and Singh, 2003). Ljungqvist and Nanda (2002) claim that personal investor is seen as irrational investor, whereas the issuer, underwriter and institutional investors are seen as rational investor. Ljungqvist and Wilhem (2003) proved that personal investors have over-optimistic expectation on stock return in the hot market and these personal investors are typical noisy traders in IPO market, who prefer to make investment decision in terms of past initial return of previous IPOs. Delong, et al. (1990) reveal the influence of noisy trader on the share price. These noisy traders in IPO market are typical positive market feedback traders. When recent initial returns are high in the IPO market, these investors would purchase new issues, thus these purchases increase the demand for following IPOs, thus raise the initial return for these following IPOs. On the other side, it is believed that inequality of demand and supply of IPO primary market causes or intensifies the speculative environment in the secondary market (Aggarwal, 2000). Inequality between demand and supply leads to speculative opportunity. The underlying reason for this inequality is that IPO mechanism is not market-oriented in some countries, which is controlled by government (China, for example) (Su, 2004). IPO supply in the primary market is not adequate because of the government control. When new issues are over-subscribed, the irrational investors (speculators), who are constrained in the primary market, would be released in the secondary market. Meanwhile, due to the restriction on short selling (in China, for instance), investors could only make money when price increases. Therefore, investors push up the price on the first-trading-day, which causes severe underprcing level. Legal framework theory Legal framework theory could explain the different underpricing level among different countries. Legal framework has significant impact on ex ante uncertainty in IPO market. Ex ante uncertainty caused by regulatory constrains, wealth redistribution, and market incompleteness, leads to the IPO underpricing phenomenon (Mauer and Senbet, 1992). Difference in legal frameworks of various countries explain the ex ante uncertainty degree and the decisions made by investors in the market (La Porta et al., 1997/1998/2002). Cross-country differences in the legal framework affect ownership structure (La Porta et al., 2002), ownership effectiveness (Heugens et al., 2009), capital structure (De Jong et al., 2008), asset structure (Claessens and Laeven, 2003), dividend policy (La Porta et al., 2000), corporate governance (La Porta et al., 2000; Mitton, 2002) and corporate valuation (La Porta et al., 2002). Legal frameworks deem to reduce uncertainty by creating a stable foundation in which subsequ ent human interactions can be grounded (North, 1994; Peng, 2009; Van Essen et al., 2009). First of all, legal framework affects issue firms value. Legal framework can influence the ex ante uncertainty about firm value in more or less the same way as ex ante firm-specific risk at the time of IPO. Firms operating in a legal environment with poor protection of intellectual property rights are unwilling to invest in intangible assets (Research and Development capability, or branding effect, for example), leading to lower firm growth and thus lower firm value. Second, legal framework affects investors decision. Stronger investor protection could reduce the investment risk (for example, lower asset volatility, lower systematic risk, lower stock volatility, higher risk-adjusted return as measured by the Sharpe and Treynor index) (Chung et al., 2007; Hail and Leuz, 2006; Chiou et al., 2010). In countries with weaker legal protection, investors will be more uncertain about realizing a return on their investment (Shleifer and Vishny, 1997). Lower levels of legal protection for investors will create more uncertainty with respect to post IPO strategies and managerial decisions that may negatively affect firm value (Claessens and Laeven, 2003). In a country with a weaker legal framework, managers or dominating shareholders have more opportunities to transfer profits or assets out of the firm at the expense of the minority shareholders. Weaker legal framework could provide opportunity for damaging firm value through transfer pricing, asset strippin g and investor dilution (Cheung et al., 2009; Berkman et al., 2009). This increased probability of ex post expropriation by management or dominating shareholders increases the ex ante uncertainty at the time of IPO (Johnson et al., 2000). The higher the expropriation risk, the more the offer needs to be underpriced to compensate for this ex ante uncertainty. There is conflicts between dominating shareholders and outside shareholders because outside shareholders require higher risk premiums (higher cost of capital) which caused by the weak legal framework (Himmelberg et al., 2004; Giannetti and Simonov, 2006; Albuquerue and Wang, 2008). Although it is argued that issuers can independently improve their level of minority investor protection by a listing on a foreign stock exchange with higher standards of investor protection (i.e. cross-listing), it is doubtful that they can fully compensate for the lack of an adequate legal framework at the country-level (Black, 2001; Reese and Weisb ach, 2002; Roosenboom and van Dijk, 2009). Third, Underpricing could avoid potential legal liability, which is another explanation theory provided by Tinic (1988). It is claimed that underpricing reduces both the probability of lawsuits if subsequently the firm does not do well in the aftermarket, because the investor is the direct recipient of the benefit from underpricing (Milgrom and Roberts, 1986; Tinic, 1988). Underwriters are unwilling to price these offerings at high level, in case that the market would concern about lawsuits and thus damage to its reputation if the shares eventually dropped in price aftermarket. The argument is based on that unsophisticated and uninformed investors were bidding up the price to unjustified levels, and the underwriters were unwilling to price the IPOs at the market price determined by these noise traders. Ownership control theory Ownership control theory is described as IPO is expected to bring in new shareholders, who would dilute the control power of original shareholders (managers), therefore, issuers have less motivation to bargain for higher offer price, and result in underpricing. Ljungqvist and Wilhelm (2003) explain this ownership fragmentation would incur underpricing through the realignment of incentives hypothesis. Logically, the issuer firms holding large proportion shares would have incentive to argue for higher offer price thus reduce the underpricing level (Barry, 1989; Habib and Ljungqvist, 2001; Bradley and Jordan, 2002; Ljungqvist and Wilhelm, 2003). Moreover, the excess demand for shares caused by underpricing enables managers to allocate small stakes of shares to many dispersed small investors. Therefore, original managers control power is strengthened since they would be the dominate shareholders. In other words, underpricing could give the managers power on control (Brennan and Franks, 1 997; Boulton et al., 2007). However, the ownership control theory is challenged. Other substitute mechanisms for retaining control such as takeover defenses, non-voting stocks and alike are more effective, because underpricing can not prevent outside investors from accumulating larger stakes of shares once trading begins in the aftermarket (Ljungqvist, 2007). Issue mechanism Fixed price Offer price = Predetermined price Bookbuilding Underwriter set the final offer price by consulting with investors Auction Offer price = lowest price which bid the final share Hybrid Bookbuilding + Fixed price; Auction + Fixed price Bookbuilding, by which underwriter has the discretion on share allocation, can induce investor to reveal their information through their indications of interest, which can reduce information asymmetry thus lower underpricing (Benveniste and Spindt, 1989; Benveniste and Wilhelm, 1990/1997; Sherman and Titman, 2002; Ritter and Welch, 2002; Gondat-Larralde and James, 2008). On one side, underwriters tend to allocate IPOs to investors who provide information about their demand (i.e. the price discovery process). Price discovery eliminates the winners curse problem, thus reduce underpricing level. On the other side, bookbuilding authorized underwriter the discretion on share allocation (so called rationing allocation). After collecting investors indications of interest, the underwriter allocates no (or only a few) shares to any investor who bid conservatively. This rationing share allocation could reduce the underpricing level. Koh and Walter (1989) found the likelihood of receiving an al location in this mechanism was negatively related to the degree of underpricing, and average initial returns fall substantially from 27% to 1% when adjusted for rationing allocation in Singapore case study. Levis (1990) and Keloharju (1993) claim Rationing share allocation mechanism could reduce the initial return in UK, and in Finland respectively. Aggarwal, Prabhala, and Puri (2002) also find that institutional investors earn greater returns on their IPO allocations than do retail investors largely in bookbuilding mechanism, because they are allocated more shares in those IPOs that are most likely to appreciate in price. However, imposing constraints on the underwriters allocation discretion can interfere with the efficiency of the bookbuilding. The quality of bookbuilding in many European and Asian countries is damaged by certain restriction on the use of bookbuilding, which leading to higher underpricing (Ljungqvist et al., 2003). Requiring that a certain fraction of the shares be allocated to retail investors, as is common in parts of Europe and Asia, reduces underwriters ability to target allocations at the most aggressive (institutional) bidders and so may force them to rely more on price than on allocations to reward truth-telling. Moreover, empirical study indicates that bookbuilding in countries outside the US only reduces the level of underpricing when used in combination with US investment banks (underwriter) and targeted at US investors. Although the functioning of the different issuing me