The Adventure In The Context Of Tourism Tourism Essay

The Adventure In The Context Of Tourism Tourism Essay Adventure Tourism has known a rapid popularity during these last past decades. This rise and sudden popularity was partially thanks to a progression in the commercialization of outdoor recreation (Buckley, 2000, 2004a; Travel Industry Association, 2005) in (Buckley, 2007). Adventure travel existed since a long time; it began with early settler and has amplified increasingly since this period. The first adventure travelers were early explorers in quest of discovery, in the hunt for new resources, lands and looking for unknown places. Columbus, Cook, Da Gama, Magellan and Raleigh are among the well known early explorers in quest of adventure (Swarbrooke et al, 2003: 41). Mercenaries were also characterized as early adventurers having as main interest money, risk seeking while some others like Pilgrims were looking for spiritual knowledge (Swarbrooke et al, 2003). Adventure tourism is currently receiving a lot of attention and is the fastest and fashionable growing sector of the tourism industry. It is perceived as being a niche segment and take in land, air and sea-based activities. Adventure travel is becoming well-liked and individuals are now striving to find equilibrium between work and leisure. Adventure travel has recently created a center of attention for the older people most precisely the baby boomers (Patterson and Pan, 2007). This new cohort born between 1946 and 1964 are getting engaged in new adventure activities. This tendency is principally due to a change in lifestyle, being financially secured than previous cohorts and having more time now that their children have left home. Baby boomers are pushed and pulled by different motives to engage in Adventure tourism. One can have the wish for new experiences, escape from the daily routine, baby boomers in todays world no longer want to sit in a bus going for sightseeing they want t o experience in the activity. Baby boomers can be soft adventurers in pursuit of easy-doing activities containing low level of risk like bird watching, horse riding or hard adventurers in quest of thrills, challenge and adrenaline. Therefore, to better exploit the subject, research has been undertaken to explore and analyze what really motivate this generation to engage in adventure tourism, identify the different motivational factors, the types of activities they are more likely to participate in and their profile characteristics. Lot of research has been done on Adventure Tourism (Vester, 1987; Hill, 1995; Sung, 1997, 2000, 2004; Ewert and Jamieson, 2003; Beedie and Hudson, 2003; Gyimothy and Mykletun, 2004; Kane and Tucker, 2004; Weir, 2004; Flucker, 2005; Williams and Soutar, 2005; Cater, 2006; Page et al, 2006; Buckley, 2000, 2006, 2007; Patterson and Pan, 2007; Schott, 2007; Dimmock, 2009; Reynolds, 2012). Moreover there are some books of particular relevance to adventure tourism. These include Miles and Priest (1999) on adventure programming in outdoor recreation; Swarbrooke et al, 2003 on Adventure Tourism: The new frontier; Buckley (2006) on the structure of adventure tourism products and Patterson (20 06) on Growing older, tourism and leisure behavior of older adults. 1.1. Problem Statement Several studies have been written on adventure tourism, however no other studies apart from Patterson and Pan (2007) has been found on the motivation of baby boomers in adventure tourism. Most of the existing studies focus on adventure tourism from a general point of view (Vester, 1987; Buckley, 2006; Whiriskey and McCarthy, 2006) or look at different perspective such as Mountaineering and Adventure Tourism (Beedie and Hudson, 2003; Pomfret, 2006). Though, there is relatively little research neither on the motivation of people to engage in adventure nor on baby boomers. Ewert and Hollenhorst (1989) focused on adventure travel and its wilderness. Sung, Morrison and OLeary (2004) investigate on the segmentation of adventure market by activities while Dimmock (2009) explored on the comfort in adventure and Reynolds (2012) studied on the motivation and lifestyle of surfing as an adventure travel. Thus adventure tourism has been studied but through diverse perspectives and none apart from Patterson and Pan (2006) has focused on the motivation of Baby Boomers in Adventure. Subsequently to compensate this gap, this research will go deeper to assess those motivations that indulge baby boomers to participate in adventure tourism. 1.2. Aim and Objectives Aim The main aim of this study is to assess what motivate baby boomers to engage in adventure tourism. Objectives Assess the socio-demographic characteristics of baby boomers. To evaluate the trip arrangement factors of baby boomers To differentiate between hard and soft adventure and identify in which type of adventure activities baby boomers are more engaged in. Examine the push and pull factors that influence baby boomers in their choice. Outline of Study This study consists of five sections: the introduction, the literature review, methodology, results and discussion and conclusion and possible recommendations. Chapter 1: The study starts with a brief description on the field of research. This includes an introduction on the expansion of the tourism industry, the emergence of adventure tourism in todays world. It also includes the problem statement, aims and objectives of the research. Chapter 2: The literature review is divided into two parts which is chapter 2 and chapter 3. Chapter 2 is the first part of the literature review. This entails the theoretical background; starting with brief definition of different terms namely adventure Tourism, baby boomers, the types of adventure tourism. Chapter 3: The second part of the literature review lays great emphasis on the motivational theories; this chapter goes deeper onto the different motives that influence individuals in their choice for adventure. Chapter 4: This comprises of the methodology, this explains how research was conducted, the questionnaire design, method used to collect the data, sampling techniques, the data analysis and limitations of the study. Chapter5: This includes the results and discussions of the results Chapter 6: The last chapter reviews all of what have been discussed in the research and ends with some possible recommendations Chapter 2 2.0. Introduction This chapter consists of the literature review; the literature review sets the theoretical framework of this study. Before coming to the definition of adventure tourism, the term adventure is first explained, entailing its core characteristics. This is followed by an explanation on the term adventure tourism and baby boomers, types of adventure tourism as well as a the different types of activities involved in adventure tourism. 2.1. Adventure Adventure is all about action (Kane and Tucker, 2004). The term Adventure does not have a single definition. Adventure could mean different things to different people. What is Adventure for one can be routine for another (Weir, 2004). It varies from a vacation experience to a daily work life of an individual. In order to better understand the term adventure, it is crucial to pass on to its core characteristics; this is demonstrated in the figure below. Figure 1: The core characteristics of Adventure Source: Swarbrooke et al. (2003) These characteristics effectively go over the main points of adventure. Swarbrooke et al. (2003) affirm that these characteristics are mutually dependent since one element can develop the stimuli of another. For instance, novelty may lead to new exploration and discovery, escape from daily life, a look for challenge, danger and risk and develop contrasting emotions. 2.3. Adventure in the context of Tourism Tourists in todays world are not the same as it was in previous years. In this day and age, tourists are desperately in pursuing momentous and unique experiences. They want active rather than passive participation, seek new sensation and change from their ordinary life (Moeran, 1983:17). Adventure tourism is the new emergent and niche sector of the tourism industry. This sector count up 15% of all leisure travel and this rate is going to enlarge in the coming future (Hawkins, 1994; Loverseed, 1997; Fluker and Turner, 2000). Researchers has defined adventure tourism through diverse interpretation (Buckley, 2000; Bentley and Page, 2001; Hudson, 2002; Swarbrooke et al. 2003; Page et al. 2005). Amodeo (2004: 84) define adventure tourism as travel to places that require a certain degree of effort and commitment to get and are about the experience and the journey rather than just a list of places visited or the level of luxury. On the contrary, Muller and Cleaver (2000, p.156) define adventure tourism as physically bracing, adrenalin-driven, somewhat risky, with moments of exhilaration punctuated by many opportunities to assess and reassess what has been done or accomplished. As compared to Amodeo (2004), Muller and Cleaver (2000) definition of the term is mostly inter-related to the two constructs of perceived risk and perceived performance, where high physical ability and risk sensation is mended for it to be extreme and dynamic. Nevertheless, Weir (2004) argue that Adventure do not necessarily contain high level of danger, since there exist adventure with no element of risk or hazard. In the tourism industry, this is normally termed as soft adventure. On the contrary of the definition provided by the researchers, Swarbrooke et al (2003) state that Adventure tourism is not defined according to specific activities that are undertaken, but more by the state of mind and approach of the participant. This means that it is the personal interpretation and perception of individuals towards Adventure that will more clearly define the term. Six major dimensions of adventure tourism have been developed by Sung, Morrison and OLeary (1997) and these are namely activity, experience, environment, motivation, risk and performance. These components can be seen as major essentials for people to go for adventure travel. The activity and environment will consist of the physical location of the adventure travel, and this can be the natural environment. The experience will be the outcome to gain at the end, this can be self-achievement. Moreover, the motivation is all about the interest of the individual and endeavors to engage in adventure while risk and performance is a look for challenge and competence to do the activity. Adventure tourism takes in a range of activities and this includes air, sea and land-based activities (Hall, 1992; Fennel, 1999; Page et al. 2003; Pomfret, 2004; Gajda, 2008).This is illustrated in table 1. Table 1: Conventional and contemporary adventure tourism activities Land based Water based Air based Mixed (land/water/air) Abseiling Body boarding Ballooning Adventure racing Backpacking Canoeing Bungee jumping Charity challenges Bicycle Canyoning Cliff jumping Conservation expeditions Caving Cruise expeditions Gliding Cultural experiences Climbing Kayaking Hang-gliding Gap your travel Dog sledding Sailing Micro-lighting Hedonistic experiences Hiking Scuba diving Paragliding Spiritual enlightenment Hunting Snorkeling Parachuting Wildlife watching Horseback riding Surfing Skydiving Jungle exploring Water skiing Motorcycling White water rafting Mountain biking Wind surfing Mountaineering Orienteering Quad biking Scrambling Skiing Snow boarding Snow mobiling Snow shoeing Via Ferrata* Wilderness experiences* â‚ ¬Ã‚ ªBackpacking, climbing, hiking, mountaineering, skiing, via ferrata and wilderness experiences are all mountaineering-related activities Sources: Hall 1992, Page et al. 2003, Pomfret 2004 2.4. Types of Adventure Tourism Adventure tourism is composed of diverse types of activities which can fit to the need of different adventure traveler (CBI, 2011). Types of Adventure tourism can be categorized in two section which is hard and soft Adventure. The categorization of the Adventure tourism aspects diverge between researchers (Hill, 1995; Cloke and Perkins, 1998; Sung, Morrison and OLeary, 2000; Ewert and Jamieson, 2003; Ryan and Trauer, 2004) in (Schott, 2007). For example, Sung, Morrison and OLeary (2000) categorized the types of activities into six groupings including soft nature, risk equipped, question marks, hard challenge, rugged nature and winter snow (Beedie and Hudson, 2003). Several studieswere categorized in terms of activities and principally between hard and soft adventure and the researchers study will follow this trend (Hill, 1995; Millington and Locke, 2001; Ewert and Jamieson, 2003:69; Miller, 2003:2; Adventure Travel Society, 2003; Patterson and Pan, 2007). Table 2 present some example s of soft and hard adventure tourism. Table 2: Examples of soft and hard adventure tourism Soft adventure Hard adventure Wilderness jeep safaris Climbing and mountaineering Supervised and escorted trekking Long distance back country trekking Cycling holidays Downhill mountain biking Sailing holidays Paragliding Learning to surf and to windsurf Heli-skiing holidays Camping Canoeing and kayaking Source: Sung et al. 2000 2.4.1. Soft Adventure Soft adventure can be defined as adventure activities that require low level of risk, low physical effort and obligation. These are activities usually undertaken by novice adventurers or people who want passive activities level, accompanied with experienced guides (Hill, 1995) in (Schott, 2007). On the other hand, Goodnow (2005) described Soft adventure journeys as travel to new and exotic locations with low force activities. Some major examples of soft adventure activities are horse-riding, biking, hiking, canoeing, snorkeling, and animal watching, walking in natural areas, safari (Beedie and Hudson, 2003; Swarbrooke et al, 2003; Williams and Soutar, 2005; Patterson and Pan, 2006; CBI, 2011) Generally, novice adventures engaged in soft activities due to the fact that they lack some experience, it can be misperceiving risk and their competence and perhaps choose soft activities because of a sensation of fear and hesitant and thus want to be on safe in a secured environment (Priest, 1999, p.160, cited in Miles and Priest; Pomfret, 2004). 2.4.2 Hard Adventure Hill (1995) labeled hard adventure as activities requiring high level of risk, extreme commitment and superior and sometimes specialized skills. Hill also point out that hard adventures necessitate good skills in risky and dangerous situations. Risk and competence are two major aspects involve in hard adventure activities. Those engage in hard adventure are generally in quest of challenge, adrenaline rush and risk(Peterson, 1989; Rubin, 1989; Mallett, 1992) in (Williams and Soutar, 2005). People have a desire to seek new sensations (Zuckerman, 1979), and are motivated by challenge and mastery (Ewert, 1985). These people are commonly known to be brave, skilled and having good physical intensity (Pomfret, 2004) Some examples of hard activities are mountain climbing, bungee jumping, canyoning, caving, ballooning, parasailing, surfing and so forth. 2.5. Baby Boomers Baby boomers can be defined as a cohort of young-old people who were born between 1946 and 1964. They are now aged between 48 and 66 years old in 2012, (Gillon, 2004) in (Patterson, 2006, p.15). The history of baby boomers dated from the period of the Second World War. Baby Boomer develops its name due to a growth in birthrate during the years 1946 and 1964  [1]  . During this century, soldiers came back home from war and wanted to start a new life, build up a family, which show this sudden rise in birthrate (Ohio History Central, 2005). Statistics recorded 79 million births during this period1 Another synonym for baby boomers can be Lucky Generation (Mackay, 1997, p.60) in (Hamilton, M and Hamilton, C., 2006). The term Lucky was used to describe them because they have grown up in the first generation enjoying a reasonably prosperous and serene society. Additionally, Hamilton (2006) point out that during retirement baby boomers will definitely have more money to spend after long years of hardworking and savings from pension plans. Baby boomers enjoy a better health than in the past; they are taking special care to their diet, though living longer and happier and more importantly being physically active by engaging in various types of leisure activities (Cochran, 2005; Sperazza and Banerjee, 2011). Baby boomers are seeking new change and novelty; they no longer want to rely on repeat leisure program like bingo party, voluntary actions or mere leisure interests. These activities are getting outdated and this is not going to be in the interest of the baby boomers in retirement. As a result, Experts will definitely have to look at new leisure products, or programs that will attractenthusiastic, energetic participants rather than passive participant (Cochran, Rothschadl and Rudick, 2009). 2.6. Adventure Tourism and Baby Boomers Adventure Tourism has become very popular during these last past decades. Adventure Tourism is considered as an alternative form of tourism. In todays world, people no longer want to enjoy basic activities; they want to surpass the mass activities, being deeply in the thrill and excitement of the adventures. The aging process has also altered intensely during these past years. According to Xola Adventure (2006), old people aged between 41-to-60 years old represent the greatest participating age category in adventure travel at a rate of 42.2 percent. This has emerged and is going to develop more in the future. When talking and thinking about aging process our first impression was an inexorable slide into illness, impotence and immobility (Kraus, 2001). Nowadays, this image of the baby boomers is no more present. Patterson (2006) also shares his opinion on this change. She argues that this is a time of new experiences and feelings. Baby boomers need to feel they are free to do what they want or what they have always dreamed of and which were not fulfilled years before (MacNeil and Teague, 1987; Leitner, 1996; McGuire et al., 2004). Adventure is not reserve for younger people, nowadays lots of people aged between 42 and 64 are being engaged in adventurous activities. Gone are those days where older people used to spend their leisure time in sedentary and socially based activities like watching movies, listening to the radio (Lawton, 1993) in (Patterson, 2006: 7). Research has demonstrate that we are moving through an era where things are changing, habits of older people from previous generation differs from that of the present generation. Baby boomers see their retirement as being the time to refresh, experience novelty and new sensation. They acquire a feeling of freedom and harmony, do what they want, things that was impossible for them to accomplish perhaps due to overload of work, looking and caring for their children (MacNeil and Teague, 1987; Leitner 1996; McGuire et al., 2004). Being more financially secure, in good health and physical condition, and also well-educated encourage baby boomers to engage in outdoor recreation activities. This enables them to feel at one with nature, physically fit and more importantly a way to feel they are still young. Lipscombe (1995) in his research find out that lots of older adults are at present requesting activities that engage physical defy, not purposely danger but travel that have at least journeys, intellectual challenge, and involving the exploration of new places and cultures (Gibson and Singleton, 2012). It is to be noted that baby boomers are not seeking for simple and easy-done activity; they are looking for a certain degree of challenge and risk. They want to have fun, seek thrill, these can be a principle motive because they were too focus on their career years before, striving hard to cater for the needs of the family. All this was such a big responsibility that they now want to relax and enjoy, do something for themselves while children had grown up and get away in the routine they had imprisoned themselves for years. Chris Doyle, vice president of ATTA point out from an interview with Airoldi (2008) that the50-plus traveler is a major market for adventure sector; especially because they are among those who travel more frequently since they have the financial ability to do so. Muller and OCass (2001) explore the different motive of older men and women in engaging in adventure activities. He note down that young at heart older men were more interested to take part in activities such as white-water rafting, glacier hiking, rock climbing, caving and hot air-ballooning. On the contrary to the young at heart older men, the young at heart older women has a preference for mountain hiking, rainwater treks, bird-watching and walking for inner journeys while being on travel holiday. It is then observed that men prefer hard adventure activity as compared to women who enjoyed generally soft ones. A Marketing to women report (2000) sustain such statement by arguing that women aged between 55 and 75 are more likely to engage in soft activities like safaris, hikes and trips to striking locations. They further point out to favor being in a secure environment with professional adventure providers, and with company of others having similar ages. Adventure can be classified in certain words, Play, Freedom and Reality (Kane and Tucker, 2004). The authors basically described adventure as a game played by participants in tourism; being free to engage in any particular activities and experiencing the reality of it. Moreover Kane and Tucker interpret the term play, as being a game for the adults, reliving their childhood and though enjoying this freedom to play like a child again. Hence, this fresh cohort of retirees is hungry to get off the beaten path (Symonds, 1998). 2.7. Summary From this chapter, the researcher has been able to gain a theoretical knowledge of the basic theories on adventure tourism and baby boomers. The different types of adventure tourism was examined, which is hard and soft adventure. The baby boomers generation was also defined, where proper information was gathered in regards to their lifestyle and their interaction in leisure and adventure tourism

Linguistics and Language Teaching. Essay

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

Dumbest Generation

Mark Bauerlein seems to believe that is the dumbest generation because research has shown that knowledge skills and intellectual habits have gone down, and although some people agree with him, others don’t. I believe this generation isn’t the dumbest because there are other things that need to be considered when calling someone, a group of people, or even an entire generation stupid or dumb, rather than just knowledge skills and intellectual habits. Knowledge isn’t all about what people know or how well they are in school. IQ tests test the intelligence of the person; however they test the pure thinking capacity rather than what people know.This means that intelligence comes from the entire cognitive thinking ability and not what they know. IQ tests have also been rising since the 1930’s (Source B). Furthermore, just because this doesn’t know things that people knew two generations before us did, doesn’t make us dumb. This generation is learn ing about things that people didn’t even know about two or even one generation ago. Also, most students in college don’t think that what was important back then is relevant today, so they don’t see the point in remembering or learning about it. That isn’t stupidity, that’s just choice in the information that they wish to hold.Plus, some people are more intelligent about certain things about other people, but that doesn’t make them dumb or stupid about that subject. They just don’t understand it as much as other people. If you look at other subjects for that person, I’m sure you’ll find their strong spot, and what they’re good at. It all depends on what their brain can understand and comprehend. Moreover, students and even adults are coming together. They create groups and social activities that allow people with similar interests and intelligence to get together and help and teach what they know about that particu lar subject.They come to these people for their knowledge to improve their craft, gain reputation, and expanding their intelligence and interest in their craft (Source C). Although most people may disagree, the new media and social advances help with this. It allows students to reach people around the globe and get other information so they get direct information. According to Mizuko (Source C), â€Å"Youth respect one another’s authority online and are more often motivated to learn from peers than adults. † So by this meaning, the social media allows students to learn in a more advanced way to where they don’t feel like they are being condescending.This also allows the students to learn more of on their own and exploring, rather than knowing the goals and going by a direct lesson plan. Given the fact that most students use Google instead of a library might make people think that we are being derived of learning how to do research on our own. Although most peopl e are right, Google does have benefits. If someone just needs a quick way to get information, Google is good place to get started. Most people know to make sure things are doubled in places rather than just in one place though, so they know what to do about how to research.Additionally, having social media and the internet, texting, email etc. , also creates more chances of writing. Most parents and teachers think that this is causing a downfall in school and literacy capabilities but in reality its actually helping. According to Thompson (Source G), she believes we are in the middle of a literacy revolution. This generation writes more than any other generation before. Most peoples’ writing happens outside the classroom. It may not be very advanced writing, but it is writing. It works the writing and literacy capabilities because it is still writing. They have to read, comprehend, understand, and respond.All of which includes using the abilities that they already had. Also, almost thirty-eight percent of writing happens outside of the classroom. Everything that people write, including texting and email etc. , add up and help with their brain which expands their learning and thinking capacity. Along with social media, there are video games. The people who play video games say that they help with hand-eye coordination, and those who don’t say that the video games make the brains weak. But in all actuality, video games help expand the thinking capacity and help the thinking and learning capabilities.They figure out how to get through things in the game and don’t just cheat by using a manual. They have to think about what could happen next or look at how things happen so they know how to act, react, and do (Source F). Furthermore, every generation has their â€Å"dumb spots†. That doesn’t make each generation the dumbest generation though. One person can’t say that this is the dumbest generation when every generation is d umb at some point or with some group of people. In 1962, according to Simpson, (Source E), he did a documentary about a group of people who didn’t even know what most people did know at their age.They barely knew anything at all and they weren’t able to spend all day texting or playing video games. Each generation has their problems, so one cannot pinpoint what generation is the dumbest generation. So, although some people believe different, I believe this generation is not the dumbest generation because knowledge is not all about the amount of information a person holds. It’s about the thinking capacity and other things can interrupt that thinking process, and also, each generation has their â€Å"dumb† faults. This generation may be more evident, but it is not the dumbest generation.

The unfair portrayal of islam in western media Free Essay Example, 1750 words

The unfair portrayal of Islam in the West Ever since the 9/11 attacks this world has been a completely different place for the Muslims. It is so ironical that after these events the concept of Islam has completely transformed in the minds of the western community. Muslims all over the world are now seen with contempt and hatred by the western community. This is more like a generalization about the whole western world but to some extent it is true. Some important questions arise as to who is responsible for this drastic transformation? Why has such a change taken place? Why does West feel threatened by Islam? For how long this war between West and Islam will continue? What can be done to change the image of Islam in the minds of the western community? For decades there has been a social war between the west and Islam. Their concepts and culture differ from the very beginning. We will write a custom essay sample on The unfair portrayal of islam in western media or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now There has always been a very well defined boundary between both the worlds. One cannot ignore the fact that power of the whole world lies in the hands of the West. The West sees Islam as a conservative religion and considers the followers of this religion as narrow-minded beings. Muslims all over the world are being discriminated and in some places it is even seen that they are humiliated. But this is more like digging into the past and gaining evidence on the basis of social sciences. The present scenario of the world is more important to answer the above mentioned questions (Shadid & Koningsveld 2002). It all started when the world was shaken by the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Centre. According to the investigation reports it was found that the people responsible for these attacks were Muslims. This was the first time when the whole world came to know about Taliban and Al-Qaeda. These are Muslim groups that are believed to be the backbone of all terrorist activities going on in the present world. In the last decade this world has faced the most ominous terrorism events. A list of examples can be quoted where the West has linked Muslims to terrorism in the present day. London Bombings and Mumbai Bombings are a great example of such events. After the 9/11 attacks, London also fell as a victim to the terrorist activity. On July7, 2005 London’s transportation system was hit by deadly explosions. Three bombs exploded in the underground tubes and one explosion took place in a double Decker bus. Together these four suicide bombings took away the lives of fifty-six innocent p eople and left more than seven hundred and fifty injured.