The Treatment of Women in Trifles Essay Example For Students

The Treatment of Women in Trifles Essay The Treatment of Women in Trifles Essay Trifles, a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell, is a cleverly written story about a murder and more importantly, it effectively describes the treatment of women during the early 1900s. In the opening scene, we learn a great deal of information about the people of the play and of their opinions. We know that there are five main characters, three men and two women. The weather outside is frighteningly cold, and yet the men enter the warm farmhouse first. The women stand together away from the men, which immediately puts the men against the women. We will write a custom essay on The Treatment of Women in Trifles specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Mrs. Hales and Mrs. Peterss treatment from the men in the play is reflective of the beliefs of that time. These women, aware of the powerless slot that has been made for them, manage to use their power in a way that gives them an edge. This power enables them to succeed in protecting Minnie, the accused. Trifles not only tells a story, it shows the demeaning view the men have for the women, the womens reaction to mans prejudice, and the womens defiance of their powerless position. Throughout the play, Glaspell uses dialogue which allows us to see the demeaning view the men have for the women. Mr. Hale declares that women are used to worrying about trifles (958) trivializing the many tasks and details that women are responsible for. In his ignorance of how crucial their duties are in allowing a household to function smoothly, he implies their unimportance. The remark from the County Attorney about Minnie, Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies? (958) was insensitive and unjustified. All because his hand found the sticky residue of her exploded preserves, a soiled spot on her roll towel, and some dirty pans in the kitchen. Due to the circumstances, Minnies mess is entirely due to her dire emotional state. These statements and others made by the men as the play progresses show the mens shallow view of womens intelligence and value. The mens prejudice is blatant and although it was easy for Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to pick up on it, they react to it in a variety of ways. Defensively, Mrs. Hale, replies rigidly to the County Attorneys remark by stating that theres a great deal of work to be done on a farm, (958) offering an excuse for Minnies lapse in cleaning. Later, he brushes her off when she explains that John Wright was a grim man. To the County Attorney, the women are just there to collect personal items for Minnie, they are not going to give him any valuable insight into the murder. To their credit, the women do not force their thoughts or feelings on the men when biased statements are made in their direction. They hold back and discuss the remarks later after the men go upstairs. Mrs. Peters observes that Mr. Henderson is awful sarcastic in a speech and hell make fun of her sayin she didnt wake up (960). The fact that she believes the men would laugh if they heard the two women discussing the dead canary reveals how sure she is that the men think of them as concerned with the inessential. Even with this knowledge, the women choose not to limit themselves to the roles that men have placed them. Instead they choose to observe, examine, and evaluate what actually happened in the house. They understand that their discovery is best kept hidden because they knew that the men would not be able to comprehend the womens perceptions of the clues, the logic of motive, and the conclusion of justification. .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 , .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 .postImageUrl , .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 , .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1:hover , .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1:visited , .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1:active { border:0!important; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1:active , .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1 .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u9ff208fb3620808576f96a7b2d65e3b1:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Gods Chosen Soldier Essay The women have claimed a powerful stance from their powerless position They know that the men of their time were not prepared to relinquish or share the dominant role in society. So the women, in recognizing the value of their perceptions and decisions, step beyond the box society has put them in. They do not defy the boundaries in a personal effort to advance women; they comprehend the importance of what they have learned and put that foremost in their strategy. The protection of Minnie is imperative, and . The Treatment Of Women In Trifles Essay Example For Students The Treatment Of Women In Trifles Essay The Treatment Of Women In Trifles Essay Trifles, a one-act play written by Susan Glaspell, is a cleverly written story about a murder and more importantly, it effectively describes the treatment of women during the early 1900s. In the opening scene, we learn a great deal of information about the people of the play and of their opinions. We know that there are five main characters, three men and two women. The weather outside is frighteningly cold, and yet the men enter the warm farmhouse first. The women stand together away from the men, which immediately puts the men against the women. We will write a custom essay on The Treatment Of Women In Trifles specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Mrs. Hales and Mrs. Peterss treatment from the men in the play is reflective of the beliefs of that time. These women, aware of the powerless slot that has been made for them, manage to use their power in a way that gives them an edge. This power enables them to succeed in protecting Minnie, the accused. Trifles not only tells a story, it shows the demeaning view the men have for the women, the womens reaction to mans prejudice, and the womens defiance of their powerless position. Throughout the play, Glaspell uses dialogue which allows us to see the demeaning view the men have for the women. Mr. Hale declares that ;women are used to worrying about trifles; (958) trivializing the many tasks and details that women are responsible for. In his ignorance of how crucial their duties are in allowing a household to function smoothly, he implies their unimportance. The remark from the County Attorney about Minnie, ;Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies?; (958) was insensitive and unjustified. All because his hand found the sticky residue of her exploded preserves, a soiled spot on her roll towel, and some dirty pans in the kitchen. Due to the circumstances, Minnies mess is entirely due to her dire emotional state. These statements and others made by the men as the play progresses show the mens shallow view of womens intelligence and value. The mens prejudice is blatant and although it was easy for Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters to pick up on it, they react to it in a variety of ways. Defensively, Mrs. Hale, replies rigidly to the County Attorneys remark by stating that theres a great deal of work to be done on a farm,; (958) offering an excuse for Minnies lapse in cleaning. Later, he brushes her off when she explains that John Wright was a grim man. To the County Attorney, the women are just there to collect personal items for Minnie, they are not going to give him any valuable insight into the murder. To their credit, the women do not force their thoughts or feelings on the men when biased statements are made in their direction. They hold back and discuss the remarks later after the men go upstairs. Mrs. Peters observes that Mr. Henderson is awful sarcastic in a speech and hell make fun of her sayin she didnt wake up; (960). The fact that she believes the men would laugh if they heard the two women discussing the dead canary reveals how sure she is that the men think of them as concerned with the inessential. Even with this knowledge, the women choose not to limit themselves to the roles that men have placed them. Instead they choose to observe, examine, and evaluate what actually happened in the house. They understand that their discovery is best kept hidden because they knew that the men would not be able to comprehend the womens perceptions of the clues, the logic of motive, and the conclusion of justification. .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 , .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 .postImageUrl , .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 , .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76:hover , .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76:visited , .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76:active { border:0!important; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76:active , .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76 .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u4be7fb4d11d9500ebf1abe2f91574f76:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Synthesis - Preserving Artifacts Essay The women have claimed a powerful stance from their powerless position They know that the men of their time were not prepared to relinquish or share the dominant role in society. So the women, in recognizing the value of their perceptions and decisions, step beyond the box society has put them in. They do not defy the boundaries in a personal effort to advance women; they comprehend the importance of what they have learned and put that foremost in their strategy. The protection of Minnie is imperative, and they know how they must .

What make us humans essays

What make us humans essays In general terms the word human being includes a diversity of behaviors. The way each of us is entitled to run their own life; many things that we need to do in order to survive, describe us being humans. Thinking is one of the most important things humans do to overcome lifes struggles. If we would not have the necessity to think before acting we would not be called Humans at all. The fact of saying that a human is able to think does not mean that a human cannot commit a mistake. Thats the other reason we are called humans. Humans make mistakes and we are not perfect; otherwise we would be gods. Being a human is being ourselves, which means that we are all different in one aspect but as a whole we are all called humanity. There are humans from different parts of the world. We all have different cultures, ways of thinking, dressing, ways of behaving and ways of living our lives. Laughing and loving are signs of being humans. That is what makes us different from animals. Animals act by instincts only; humans act by instincts and thinking. Laughing is a human sign; a way of showing friendliness, likeness and sometimes it is a sign of showing love and appreciation to one another. Sense of humor and common sense are very important in a human. That determines the personality of each of us, which it converts us a special kind of person. A Human is unique; there is no one similar to the other one. We are specials; we all have different taste, likeness and hobbies. Being a human means diversity of characters, personalities, physical characteristics, races, food and cultures. Human rights are what make us human. When we speak of the right to life, or development, or to dissent and diversity. It is our spirit that makes us human. It is our spiritual characteristics that make us human beings. We human being have these characteristics that the animals of the lower orders do not have. We know that there is the conce...

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Core Business Mcdonalds Auckland New Zealand Commerce Essay

Core Business Mcdonalds Auckland New Zealand Commerce Essay While the role of human resources management has been under constant study in recent years, practitioners and academics agree that effective HRM has never been more important than at the present time.The significance of planning and control system is even more noticeable in the context of human resource management because planning and control refers to classic HR administrative functions and the assessment and recognition of human resources requirements for meeting organizational goals. Core Business McDonalds Auckland, New Zealand McDonalds is the worlds leading foodservice retailer, with more than 33,000 local restaurants serving over  64 million people in 119 countries every day. Similarly, McDonalds New Zealand opened its first restaurant in 1976 in Porirua.   Today there are 152 McDonalds restaurants across New Zealand, with around one million people visiting their restaurants every week.   In New Zealand, 80 per cent of McDonalds restaurants are franchised by local business people who own and operate their restaurants as independent businesses (McDonalds Restaurant (NZ) Ltd, 2012). Hence, the serious focus of this report is on planning and control systems of McDonalds HR based on work ethics and social responsibility with an understanding of the external and internal environment. Planning Process Fayols (1949) theory outlines five elements of management that depicts the different types of behaviour managers should engage in so that the goals and objectives of an organization are effectively met. However, the very first element included is planning where, creating a plan of action for future and determining the stages of the plan and technology necessary for implementing. In management theory, there are three basic levels of planning such as top level/strategic, second level/tactical and third level/operational plannings. Strategic planning is done by the top management and it encompasses the long range objectives and policies and is concerned with corporate result rather than sectional objectives. As stated in the beginning of this report that to maintain a competitive advantage, McDonalds top management decided to adopt workforce diversity and developed a HR objective. Therefore, McDonalds HR objective is to further a high performance culture that is supported by their talen ted and engaged people and organizational resources essential for sustaining superior business performance. This is achieved by designing processes, providing tools and transferring knowledge to the leaders required for developing and continuously improving such a culture (Mcdonalds Corporation, 2009). Second level/Tactical planning is done by middle managers and it deals with the development of the resources with the best advantage. Therefore, the middle managers developed a HR strategy to achieve their HR objective. Hence, McDonalds HR strategy for healthy employment experience is to provide a positive employment experience through respectful employment treatment and compliance with labour and employment law to achieve employee commitment. Third level/Operational planning is the concern of the department managers and is confined to put into effect the tactical plans. McDonalds HR team developed well in the first two levels but the third level had problems and created gaps because there was no training or development carried out at this level. The only tool they had was the McDonalds work policy which stated workplace diversity. The actual experiences of employees were discovered through questionnaires and interviews at one of the McDonalds restaurant in Auckland, New Zealand wher e the employees had negative experience of the workplace diversity during their employment. The problem is not visible at the surface level but as you go below that then one will be able to see the real nature of employment experience. Workplace diversity is recognizing many different persons at work, each one with a unique set of uniqueness, talents, gifts, skills, personality traits, physical abilities, background, appearances, thoughts, feelings, beliefs and viewpoints. It is the variety of those differences that make the workplace a diverse place. According to the research conducted, McDonalds restaurant depicts a clear picture of workplace diversity as a problem where, staffs were bullied and ill-treated because they belonged to a different race. Negative and racist comments were given and poor means of communication aroused with situations where employees were getting yelled out or replied rudely with a negative comment in their native language. This resulted as the staffs started doing no shows and looking for a better opportunity elsewhere. HR diversity change strategies that bring in many new hires of different backgrounds may have negative ramifications for social functioning in groups . This situation was created because of poor planning at operational level and nothing much was manifested through the middle managers to the floor managers. Barriers refer to those manageable influences that can typically derail best intentions with regards to group planning process development. There are ten barriers to planning but the two barriers which easily fits in this McDonalds scenario are lack of in-depth analysis and lack of knowledge and skills. Diversity is the inclusion of things, people, and places that are different and there are two level of diversity. Surface level diversity can be defined as differences among group members in overt, biological characteristics that are typically reflected in physical features which include age, sex, and race/ethnicity. Whereas, deep level diversity includes differences among members attitudes, beliefs, and values and information about these factors is communicated through verbal and nonverbal behaviour patterns. McDonalds restaurant and its core basis of workplace diversity problems relates to deep level diversity because they have been ignored either because of lack of in-depth analysi s or lack of knowledge and skills. Negative attitudes and behaviours such as prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination are some barriers to workplace diversity because they can harm working relationships and damage morale and work productivity Control According to Fayol (1949) control is the final element of the management which involves the comparison of the activities of the people to the plan of action and also known as the evacuation component of management. The function of management control includes carrying out the plans necessary for ensuring that the strategies are fulfilled as envisaged. Although planning and control are at times described as separate procedures, both contribute to the management control function.Control ensures that the right things are happening in the right way at the right time. Control cycle or process consists of four main steps such as establish objectives and standards, measure actual performance, compare results with objectives and standards and take corrective actions as needed. Step one establish objectives and standards where output standards are measured by performance result in terms of quantity, quality, cost or time and the input standards are measured as efforts in terms of amount of work expended in the task performance. In the McDonalds scenario the management defined the objectives clearly but less effort was given to the output/input standards because they failed to continuously monitor the diversity at the actual workplace at various locations. Management only adopted workplace diversity, clearly defined it and poor implemented it in the system with no or less communication. Step two measure actual performance is where effective control requires measurement. Goal is accurate measurement of actual results on output and input standards. Hence, McDonalds HR goal is to diversify their workplace through hiring over time to increase productivity and decrease labour turnover cost. But the conducted research shows the opposite of what McDonalds define as their HR strategy or goal. Again the management failed to monitor workplace diversity by not gaining employee feedback. Employee feedback should have parallel established with the adoption of workplace diversity to accomplish the HR strategy and goal. The financial team should have easily identified the problem with workplace diversity with the increased labour turnover cost but because of poor control system the management failed to monitor. Step three compare results with objectives and standards is benchmarking by using different comparison methods. The need for this action reflects the difference between desired performance and the actual performance where historical, relative and engineering comparisons are considered. In this McDonalds scenario no or effort less approach to any monitoring and then comparing and analyzing of situation was conducted. It clearly showed that to gain advantage over their competitors and to stay in line with the current trend McDonalds adopted workplace diversity but no thorough control system was implemented. The management simply assumed that things were moving perfect but ignored the fact that employees hardly raise voices because of job insecurity and the managements lengthy process time. Step four take corrective actions as needed is where taking actions when discrepancies exist between desired and actual performance. Management by exception in gives priority attention to problem a nd opportunity situations showing the greatest need for actions. Hence, the McDonalds research conducted did not show any sort of management involvement in dealing with the workplace diversity problems until it reached to a level where the labour department was involved. Management had no or less interest of employees working environment and it was never analyzed or observed. A quarterly feedback system was implemented where employee can provide their feedback on their working environment but negative feedbacks were very less auctioned. Barriers to the control process can be a lot but some common ones in this scenario are less knowledge, poor communication, poor feedback system, poor monitoring process, poor implementing process which leads to less interests by management or lack of funds available for the process. Recommendations by Planning and Control McDonalds HR team should put due emphasis on three important aspects in order to take control of the situation and plan precautions so that such problems are not repeated in any other restaurant. Revised HR strategies implementing channel Improving leadership qualities Create workplace diversity awareness Revised HR implementing channel will place a central focus on behind the scene of the case study. Most workplaces are made up of diverse cultures therefore; HR needs to plan and learn how to adapt to be successful. HR practices are an important component in the success of organization because effective HR strategies systematically coordinate all individual HR measures and implement them so as to directly influence employee attitude and behaviour in a way that help a business to achieve its operational goal (Wang Shyu, 2008). Baum et al. (2007) explains the issues related to harassment and racism in the workplace could be reduced if appropriate human resource policies and procedures are in place and communicated to all staff (local or migrant) in order to deal with workplace diversity.Therefore, it is very important to revise the HR implementing channel. Wharton (1992) research also supports this his argues that HR practitioners should focus on how HR change strategies relate to the joint alignment of the group members multiple characteristics for example demographics hierarchical status and task in work groups to examine group contextual influences. Once the HR implementing channels are improved then the HR can help in improving the managers leading capabilities by providing training and support with needed knowledge. HR department and managers within business must incorporate diversity policies into every aspect of the organizations functions and purpose. HR should focus on outstanding leadership characteristics where they can train and place the right leader at the right time and place (Mumford, Antes, Caughron, Friedrich, 2008). These characteristics should have respect, empathy and being genuine such as accurately understanding employees feelings and genuinely valuing and supporting without patronizing. Managers manage change, but best leaders create change by inspiring their employees and they believe diversity as an important goal, and the responsibility for diversity does not belong to HR but belongs to the on duty managers. In McDonalds scenario HR should explain and provide continuous training to the managers regarding benefits, costs and barriers of workplace diversity and the financial and non-financial consequences such as employee turnover costs, laws and legislations associated. Thi s restaurant is need of a leader who can set a good example by teaching others what they expect from them and this can be easily achieve recognizing the many talents and understanding the richness of diversity. For example, in this scenario if a person complains regarding someone attitude, then handle the manager should handle the complaint very critically. He can encourage the complainer for reporting the matter but also explain the person about the unique value the other person brings to the workplace.   They can teach people to look for the positive traits of others and not for the differences and this is only possible if they can be a role model for respect and dignity. Once the HR implementing channel and leadership are aligned with each other then the focus moves on employee to create workplace diversity awareness. Creating workplace diversity awareness lies in the continuous improvement of the integration and social acceptance of people from different backgrounds. The overall perception of employees seems to be a very important factor in understanding their behaviours at the workplace because they are exposed to diverse HR practices rather than exclusively to a single practice (Chang, 2005). Management tools in a diverse workforce should be used to educate everyone about diversity and its issues, including laws and regulations (Green et al., 2012). Management should organize social gatherings and business meetings where the employees are given a chance to speak and listen. This type of eemployee involvement and feedback are necessary components in achieving successful workplace diversity. Managers should continuously monitor the work environment and act as agents of positive workplace diversity to eliminate any sign of negative barrier arising. If needed then employees should never be denied n ecessary, constructive, critical feedback for learning about mistakes and successes. Importance to business goals and targets should be given but not on the cost workplace diversity problems. Boxall Purcell (2011) suggests that best practices should be aligned with best fit to maintain a sustainable business environment and gain a competitive advantage over rivals. In this scenario, imagine if the workplace diversity problems continue then the quality of service will drop which will slowly affect the business. Therefore workplace diversity should be everyones business starting from senior management, HR department, managers and employees. Conclusion The future of workplace diversity cannot be predicted with any level of clarity. This is because McDonalds is a global leader in fast food industry and their HR has won many awards in the last decade. Therefore, being at such a strong position in the global market and has a restaurant which ignores the importance of workplace diversity. This report has explored a few areas of practical and theoretical development of HRM planning and controlling. It also explains around the levels, cycles process, objective and approaches of planning and controlling and uses the recommendations to control the gaps and plan a bridge between the practice and theory.

Essay examples --

The ancient islamic culture has made immense contributions to the whole world and all of its inhabitants.These contributions which are also achievements of the Muslim empire pertain to things such as advancements in science, Mathematics, astronomy, exquisite libraries,medicine, sophisticated encyclopedias, optics, and an extensive trade routes that stretched for thousands of miles. Luckily for the World the Muslims as a whole managed to achieve one thing after another, and didn't let anything get in there way, and ultimately this lead to the vast amount of contributions that the Muslims Bestowed upon to the world. Thanks to the Muslim culture, and achievements their ways have had a very profound impact on the way people go about their lives nowadays. If it wasn't for the Muslims hard work, will to succeed, and perseverance which led to contributions to the world, life as we know it now would be drastically rearranged, and many of the things that we classify as norms would cease to exist. In the area of math,and science the Muslims made many influential contributions to world. In Science, and in math the Muslims pursued in the topic of astronomy. The Muslims really pursued in this topic because for them the calculations for prayer times, pin point religious festivals, and the direction of Mecca were paramount, and in the area of astronomy all this can be efficiently be achieved. So the Muslims had the drive to succeed in order to archive what was nessessary. The most influential, and beneficial, of the Muslim astronomers were men by the name of "Al-Khwarizmi" "al-Khujandi", and "Omar Khayyam". With their hard work and ambitious dreams, these men became the driving force of the great astronomical research. Al-Khwarizmi, a... ...1th century. He compiled many astronomical tables, and more importantly reformed the calendar. His reformation was more accurate than the Julian calendaR and came close to the Gregorian. probably his most amazing feat was his calculation of the year which came out to be a near exact 365.24219858156 days long, which is accurate to the 6th decimal place! Omar Khayyam greatly effected the world with his doings, his year calculation to this day is exact, along with his upgrade of the calendar set the standards of calendar and provided a accurate dates throughout the year. contributions in astronomy range from the Arabic names of stars which we still use today to knowing the position of the planets.Such great ideas like these were those that set the foundations of the great Islamic empire that ultimately in the end were passed on to the world, and proved to be beneficial.

The Dilemma of IELTS Test Takers at Preparatory Programs in the UAE: A Call for Lexical-Structural Syllabus Design

————————————————- Doctorate of Education Theoretical Perspectives on Materials and Syllabus Design in TESOL  (DED609) Title: The Dilemma of IELTS Test Takers at Preparatory Programmes in the UAE: A Call for Lexical-Structural Syllabus Design. By: Mohammed A. Molhim Module tutor: Dr. Yasmin yildiz No. of words 000 words Essay Outline * Introduction * Conceptual Framework * IELTS Marking Rubrics: Lexical Resources & Grammatical Range * Lexical Syllabus * Structural Syllabus Selection of Lexical and Grammatical Items in Lexical-structural Syllabus: * Structural Syllabus: Drawbacks * The Structural Syllabus and Grammar Teaching * Suggested Steps to design a Lexical-Structural Syllabus * Conclusion Introduction Standardized test preparation courses such as the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) in preparatory programmes at government and private universities in the United Arab Emirates (The UAE) prepare students to meet their exit score requirement.Curriculum planning has been driven towards these tests. Some research studies (Read and Hayes, 2003) warned against that type of curriculum in that it is restricted to those areas that are to be tested with no balance or integrated skills course design. Curriculum designers therefore depend heavily on materials geared to practice for the required exam. Moreover, Alderson and Hamp-Lyons (1996) argue that these type of curriculum are characterised by ‘teaching to the test’ and even text-book slaves.On the other hand, this essay will argue that designing and implementing curriculum that is supported by materials that reflect and meet the test question types and objectives can be beneficial to students preparing for standardised tests in the UAE. This paper will be outlined as follows: After introducing the conceptual framework of the essay, it will highlight the IELTS’ mark ing criteria of ‘Lexical Resource’ and ‘Grammatical Range’ in the hope to establish the argument that half of the IELTs marking criteria is based on lexical and grammatical items.Then, the type of lexical and structural syllabus that can be proposed to meet students’ needs in enhancing the aspect of English Language accuracy will be described. Some practical guidelines will then be provided for designing a lexical-structural syllabus. Conceptual Framework This essay falls within the conceptual framework of critical theory and critical pedagogy.From a social reconstructionism perspective, critical theory and critical pedagogy call for critically re-addressing status quo issues in education. Paolo Freire (1972), a critical theorist, believes that in most education systems there exists a hidden curriculum that underlines the status quo supported by the dominant culture and thus repressing minority subcultures. Curriculum planning should undergo a consta nt progressive change due to the progressive nature of the country and educational systems in the UAE.Curriculum change at the level of preparatory programmes is an inseparable part of this change since it is observed that research has provided enough evidence see published annually (IELTS, 2011) that in the UAE and other Arab countries where the majority of students and IELTS test takers struggle to reach a level of proficiency matching score band 5. 0 that enables them to proceed to their major.This judgment is supported by professional and formal data provided in Table 1 below which is adapted from the IELTS Annual Review of 2011. These records include a comparison of IELTS results by mother tongue candidates and by country of origin for the many countries using the IELTS tests. Table 1. Mean band score for the most frequent countries or regions of origin Country: The UAE| Listening| Reading| Writing| Speaking| Overall | Academic Module| 4. 9| 4. 8| 4. 7| 5. 4| 5. 0| General Modu le| 4. 3| 3. 5| 4. 3| 4. 9| 4. 3|It is shocking to learn that the UAE with all of its progressive trends in economy and education, coupled with billions of dollars supporting the educational system where ministries of Higher education and Education receive about 22 % of the total budget in the UAE (Ministry of Finance, 2011), is ranked at the bottom of the ranking list in IELTS scores (See Appendix A). This inexplicable fact urgently calls for critical pedagogy in education and in curriculum design in order to problematise the issue and arrive at proper and sustainable solutions.This is why this essay adopts a critical pedagogical approach. Within critical pedagogy paradigm, â€Å"curriculum perspective emphasizes the roles schools and learners can and should play in addressing social injustices and inequality. Curriculum development is not seen as a neutral process. † (Richards, 2001: 118). Similarly, Freire (1972) and Apple (1986) contend that schools do not present equal o pportunities so learners and teachers must be engaged to address important social and personal problems and seek learners’ empowerment.Morris (1995:10), furthermore, argues â€Å"Social injustices and inequality would be central issues in the curriculum. † Accordingly, curriculum designers in the UAE should study at the context in which learners are taught and start to constantly problematise current issues in order to improve their designs. In Applied linguistics, Pennycook (2001: 5) asserts that applied linguistics from a critical pedagogy perspective â€Å"is always concerned how the classroom, text, or conversation is related to broader social cultural and political relations,†.This paper is intended to problematise the issue of curriculum design in the UAE contest in that it seeks to establish that solid elements of lexical-structural syllabus can lead to a better success rate in IELTS. IELTS Marking Rubrics: Lexical Resources & Grammatical Range While ampl e IELTS research studies in university environments is available (see research reports in IELTS. org), there appears to be less research on the impact of Speaking and Writing assessment criteria or IELTS band descriptors on syllabus design.IELTS measures both test candidates’ abilities to produce different sentence structures, and the range and appropriateness of vocabulary. Consequently, lexical resources and grammatical range are regarded as significant constituents of the speaking and writing assessment, since they determine the level of vocabulary and grammar in speaking and writing the test candidates use. Test candidates are rated using detailed descriptors in IELTS. In the Speaking test, these describe spoken performance according to four different criteria: Fluency and Coherence, Lexical resources, Grammatical Range and Accuracy, and Pronunciation.In the Writing test, the descriptors assess candidates in terms of: Task achievement or response, Coherence and cohesion, Lexical Resources, and Grammatical Range and Accuracy (IELTS handbook, 2004: 18-23). It is clear from the speaking and writing assessment criteria that lexical resources and grammatical range constitute half of the assessment. They describe test takers’ level in grammar and vocabulary in the speaking and writing modules in detail. They should therefore occupy a big part of any curriculum design for IELTs preparation syllabus.Accordingly, this essay argues that a balanced lexical-structural syllabus can help in meeting the course objectives and students’ needs of any IELTS preparation course. Lexical Syllabus: Empowering students’ Lexical Resources in IELTS Historically, syllabuses were not lexical but structural. With the advent of the Communicative Approach, new ideas in syllabus design have been introduced with a focus on functions. In 1990, when Willis wrote The Lexical Syllabus, a large amount of attention to the Lexical syllabus surfaced. Willis (1990, P. v i)) identified three major aspects for lexis in lexical syllabus.First, the language to be learned should be somehow graded to make it easier for the learners to understand. Second, the language should be selected carefully without random exposure. Thirdly, the language syllabus should be itemised Over the past thirty years the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), however, has not emphasized direct instruction of vocabulary or grammar (Laufer 2006). CLT should therefore be regarded as inappropriate for IELTS preparation exam courses and more explicit instruction of lexis and grammar could help students achieve their desired score in IELTS.In fact, according to Zahar, Cobb and Spada (2001), three periods of direct English instruction every week would lead to the incidental learning of only 70 new words a year. Therefore, acquisition of vocabulary through reading must be supplemented by direct instruction, which can be supported by incorporating a lexical syllabus. In addition, the lexical syllabus can make academic English vocabulary needed in IELTS more learnable to lower-level learners.There is also a well established connection between vocabulary knowledge and successful academic reading (Corson 1997; Nation 2001:144-149). Thus, the significance of incorporating lexical syllabus is significantly clear for large-scale high-stakes tests such as IELTS that assess the range of vocabulary exhibited in a student’s writing and speaking (See Appendix A). It should be admitted that producing satisfactory IELTS writing and speaking responses is not achieved by just learning individual vocabulary and grammatical structures.However, lexical items can lead to further enhancing students overall proficiency in IELTS. Some research ((Laufer, 2005; Nation 2001) has proven that lexical resources are the basis for comprehending grammar and lexical meanings. It is also the most important predictor of writing production (Read, 2002) and reading comprehension (Beck et. a l. 1987:147). In the IELTS speaking test, a similar lexical diversity would also be needed as suggested by Read (2005) who found that diverse lexical resources with some sophistication are rated higher.Regarding the adequate vocabulary range for academic success in international standardised tests, researchers (Laufer, 1992; Nation, 2001) argued that students, depending on the genre, need about 3,000 words in order for them to be able to read ungraded academic text and that the minimum word family level is the 3,000 word level needed for reading an unsimplified text. For IELTS reading texts, about 4,000 word families might be needed, 2,000 of General Service List (GSL) and about 570 words from the Academic Word List (AWL) (Coxhead, 1998) and about 1,000 technical words, proper nouns and low frequency vocabulary (Nation, 2001:147).Accordingly, commercially-produced syllabi such as Headway do not provide the wide range of lexical resources needed by the students (Horst, 2005; Lee, 200 7) in order for them to develop their lexis repertoire and to hence get the score required to pass IELTS. Moreover, there is enough suggestive research evidence (See Beaton, Grunederg and Ellis, 1995 – in Nation, 2001) that would indicate that the more vocabulary range manifested in speaking, the higher the score a student would get in writing.This shows that direct learning is in fact both effective and efficient and that the AWL can provide a reasonable target vocabulary for IELTS preparation courses and syllabi. In terms of the relation of grammar and vocabulary, David Wilkins (cited in Lewis, 2000: 8) noted that â€Å"Without grammar little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed†. This statement brings to focus the significance of incorporating lexical with a grammatical element when designing a syllabus aiming at enhancing students’ structural language system and accuracy and hence achieving a higher score in IELTS.The following section will shed some light on the significance of developing students’ accuracy through grammatical structures in structural syllabi. Structural Syllabus: Revisiting grammatical syllabus The structural syllabus comprises of a group of grammatical items that are selected and graded according to simplicity and complexity (Nunan, 1988). A structural-lexical syllabus’ principle objective is to help the learners acquire the grammatical structures and vocabulary of the language they are learning.The grammatical structures are usually presented in a certain sequence, for example, present followed by past, or in contrasting pairs, for example, simple present versus simple past (Long and Crookes, 1993). Wilkins (1976) describes this type of syllabus design approach as synthetic in which the various parts of language are separately taught and there is a â€Å"gradual accumulation of the parts until the whole structure of the language has been built up†. (p. 2) Wilkins suggests language is structured into smaller items and units in a structural syllabus and then it is presented discretely.Wilkins argues that this exposes learners to particular samples of language in which one grammatical feature dominates each lesson in the syllabus. This is mainly based on the hypothesis that grammatical and lexical rules are learned in an additive process, by which learners gain complete mastery of each item before a new one is taught (Nunan, 1988). It is hence the learner's task to re-synthesize the grammatical and lexical items that have been presented in a separate way (Wilkins, 1976). An important question raised here is the set of criteria teachers used to select which lexical and grammatical were to be used in the structural syllabus.This will be reviewed in the following sections. Selection of Lexical and Grammatical Items in Lexical-structural Syllabus: Mackey (1965) takes the stance that the lexical items in a structural syllabus are to be selected on the basis of criteria of frequency, coverage, availability, and learnability (White 1988:49-50). In the 1990s, the lexical approach in teaching and learning started to gain formal prominence among many researchers (Willis, 1990; Willis, 1996). As proposed by the lexical approach, a target reservoir of vocabulary is suggested to be learned at a specific level (Willis, 1990; Willis, 1996).These target vocabulary are derived from old corpus analysis of written and spoken English, but this could be regarded now as old-fashioned with the advancement of computerized corpus. However, one view, suggested by Richards (2001:154) is that lexical syllabuses were among the early types of syllabuses to be designed in language teaching. Regarding grammar structure, Mackey also (1965) proposes four criteria for the selection grammatical structures: simplicity, regularity, frequency, and contrastive difficulty.The last item, contrastive difficulty, means that learning some items at an early stage should rese mble the same item acquired in L1 (cited in Wilkins 1976: 6). These views of language selection have been challenged (e. g. , Ellis 2001). due to its lack of empirical experiments. Thus to determining the level of complexity, simplicity, regularity, etc. is almost entirely based on language teachers and syllabus designers’ common sense judgments. This dilemma, addressed in the following section, is one of the major shortcomings of the structural syllabus.Structural Syllabus: Drawbacks A number of limitations have been identified with the structural syllabus. The first shortcoming is drawn from Corder's (1967) â€Å"built-in syllabus† concept in which learners’ acquisition of different grammatical items is based on a natural order. This notion is supported by many researchers (for example, Hyltenstam and Pienemann, 1985). Within the framework of a built-in syllabus, grammatical complexity of a structure is not the reason for the difficulty of learning a structure of a language item.For instance, a common example of Arab Learners’ frequent mistakes is the acquisition of third person â€Å"s† morpheme (Hajjaj, 1999). Even though an average teacher can explain this item very well to Arabic learners, it always poses a challenge to them, which means difficulty or simplicity of language structure doesn’t always guarantee proper learning. This should be taken into serious consideration when designing a lexical-grammatical syllabus for IELTS preparation courses and thus adding meaningful activities that make the structures more memorable and relevant to learners’ needs and levels.The second main negative aspect of the structural syllabus is its lack of language functions. The structural syllabus is a reliable tool for assisting language learners to perfect common grammar rules. However, in terms of sociolinguistics, structural syllabus can prepare learners to be grammatically competent but communicatively incompetent (Jo hnson, 1982). A learner who replies ‘Yes, I do. ’ to ‘Do you mind if I open the window? ’ is a typical example of a learner whose command of English grammar might be ideal yet they are not capable of producing socially appropriate utterances.In other words, the structural syllabus helps learners produce instances of language usage rather than language use (Widdowson, 1978). Accordingly, syllabus designers who consider implementing lexical-structural syllabus need to promote both usage and use in order to avoid turning the language introduced into something meaningless. Socially contextualised and relevant language items introduced appropriately within interactive technique can bridge the gap between use and usage and make grammar teachable and learnable. This will be discussed in the following section. The Structural Syllabus and Grammar TeachingBefore advocating a lexical-grammatical syllabus, it is necessary to first establish the significance of explicit grammar teaching and learning. One debate in second language pedagogy has been about the teachability of grammar. Some scholars have argued against teaching grammar since it leads to only minimal achievement in the acquisition of linguistic competence in English (Krashen, 1982; Krashen and Terrel, 1983; Prabhu, 1987). Others have contended that explicitly teaching formal grammar plays a significant role in the development of the L2 learners' interlanguage system (Rutherford, 1987; Ellis, 1990, 1993).This paper supports the grammarians’ arguments in favor of formal grammar instruction that enhances IELTS’ UAE students and test takers’ accuracy. The first argument is based on studies on the emergence of immersion programs in Canada where many English L1 students study French and thus have been immersed in meaning- focused input in French (Swain, 1985; Swain and Lapkin, 1995). The results of research studies revealed that the majority of students have developed na tive-like receptive skills, but their productive ones are still far from native-like norms.This has therefore suggested that meaning-focused input instruction, which is devoid of any formal grammar teaching, is more likely to result in fossilization. The second argument defending formal grammar instruction derives from research (e. g. , Felix, 1985; White, 1987; Schachter, 1989) that suggests that adult L2 learners cannot have full access to the same acquisition resources as children with L1 do. This makes positive evidence such as formal instruction and corrective feedback.White (1987:105) finds that French learners of English as a second language tend to make sentences like ‘John drank slowly his coffee’ (John buvait lentement son cafe). These types of sentences are grammatically incorrect in English, but acceptable in their language. Those learners receiving positive evidence cannot notice that there are certain rules for adverb position within a sentence in English unless they are taught so by formal grammar instruction, which implies that lexical-structural syllabus can play a decisive role in some formal aspects of L2 learning and thus in IELTs preparation courses.The third argument has been proposed by Ellis (1990, 1993) who argues that formal grammar instruction develops explicit awareness of grammatical elements which hence helps learners acquire implicit knowledge. Ellis believes that the explicit knowledge of grammar instruction facilitates learning in three methods (1993:98). First, it encourages them to monitor their language before and after production. Terrell (1991:61) observes that â€Å"monitoring can apparently interact with acquisition, resulting in learners acquiring their own output† which shows the importance of monitoring in formal language instruction.Second, explicit teaching and learning support the factor of noticing certain elements in the input. Therefore, † if learners know that plural nouns have an â₠¬â€s, they are more likely to notice the —s on the ends of nouns they hear or read in input and also more likely to associate the —s morpheme with the meaning more than one†. (Ellis,1993:98). This example illustrates how specific features of grammar are best learned explicitly.Third, formal and explicit grammar knowledge assists learners in noticing some gaps in their language production. Thus if, for instance, Arab learners learn that verbs take an –s in the third person singular form, they are more likely to notice the gap when adding the third person singular –s or not, which leads to more accurate production later as they produce similar structures. Furthermore, Celce-Murica (1991: 467-468) suggests that formal lexical and grammar teaching can enhance meaning and social function.For instance, drawing attention to the different spatial denotation of the prepositions in and on the learner will â€Å"find it useful to know quite explicitly that à ¢â‚¬Ëœin’ favors the placement of objects in three-dimensional containers and ‘on’ favors the placement of objects on two-dimensional flat surfaces† if provided with formal instruction. Second, in an example of grammar enhancing social functions, Celee-Murcia discusses that learners need to be aware of the different modal auxiliaries uses in polite requests such as the difference between â€Å"Can you open the door? and â€Å"Could you open the door? â€Å". Celce-Murcia and Hilles (1988:4) believe that learners need to study grammar because many of them are to take part in international tests such as IELTS and that â€Å"Typically, a major component of such exams is grammar. Therefore, to give these students an incomplete grounding in grammar, regardless of one's conviction about teaching it, is to do them a great disservice. Students have to know and apply the rules of English grammar in order to do well on such tests. A relatively recent argument pro posed by Ellis (2001) argues that it is a mistake to suppose that learning foreign languages in schools is entirely to promote communication among speakers of different languages. Learning foreign languages has a more valuable end, i. e. promoting intellectual growth. (Ellis 2001:172) thus views learning a foreign language as a means to develop cognitive abilities and that grammar contains knowledge that contributes to learners’ cognitive skills.If one considers all the arguments discussed earlier in this essay claiming that formal teaching of lexical and grammatical items should be an indivisible part of any English classes, structural-lexical syllabus seems indispensible for students preparing for international examination such as IELTS and TOEFL. This is, however, only my conviction within my teaching context and does not entail that curriculum designers and teachers are to revert to old traditional language teaching methodologies such as grammar-translation method. I elie ve that adopting a merely lexical and/or structural syllabus has not survived in language education because they overemphasized the aspect of grammar teaching through many tedious structural drills. I believe that it is unfair to judge that grammar and lexical instruction should be eliminated simply because of insufficiencies of audio-lingual or grammar-translation methods. A well-balanced lexical-structural syllabus can be safely employed, especially in IELTS preparation courses, provided that it is supplemented by motivating and communicative tasksSuggested steps to design a Lexical-Structural Syllabus According to Stern (1983:339-340), there are major differences between English as a second language (ESL) and English as a foreign language (EFL). Accordingly, EFL and ESL students are positioned in different learning conditions. ESL students learn Target Language (TL) in a more supportive setting in that they are more exposed to TL in its natural environment EFL. Considering needs and motivation, ESL students are more required and motivated to communicate with foreigners than EFL students.Thus, ESL students learning needs are definitely not centered on one factor or need. As previously discussed, the majority of Arab students in the UAE are EFL learners who study English in order to pass national exams, such as IELTS. This educational structure of teaching applies in the EFL environment in the UAE. Based on my observations and experience, I found that students in Emirati high schools are also required to learn specific discrete items such as vocabulary and grammatical items without any exposure to communicative tasks that enable them to use these items meaningfully.Unfortunately, only those who wish to pursue their higher education strive to master the grammatical and vocabulary items of their course books in order for them to achieve the required score of the university entrance exams. When taking these conditions into serious consideration, I have come to r ealize the reason why lexical and grammar instruction can, and perhaps should, be an essential component of any curriculum in the Emirati EFL educational system in schools, and this can be possible through the lexical-structural syllabus proposed in this essay.It is argued that (Richards, 2001) old and traditional language teaching methods did not succeed not because they adhered to a structural or lexical syllabus but because the implementation process was too mechanical through dull drills of discrete language items. I believe that a well-designed lexical-structural syllabus proposed in this essay can survive through two types of tasks: consciousness-raising and communicative tasks. Consciousness-raising activities can develop explicit knowledge and communicative tasks improve the implicit knowledge of lexical and grammatical structures (Ellis, 2001).As defined by Ellis (1993:109), consciousness-raising is â€Å"a deliberate attempt on the part of the teacher to make the learners aware of specific features of the L2†. The following task in Table 2 (Ellis, 2001:173) is a straightforward sample of a consciousness-raising (CR) activity that is designed to help learners be conscious of the difference between the prepositions ‘for’ and ‘since’. Table 2. An Example of a CR Problem-solving Task: 1. Here is some information about when three people joined the company they now work for and how long they have been working there.Name Date Joined Length of Time Ms Regan 1945 45 yrs Mr Bush 1970 20 yrs Ms Thatcher 1989 9 mths Mr Baker 1990 (Feb) 10 days 2. Study these sentences about these people. When is â€Å"for† used and when is â€Å"since† used? a. Ms Regan has been working for her company for most of her life. b. Mr Bush has been working for his company since 1970. c. Ms Thatcher has been working for her company for 9 months. . Mr Baker has been working for his company since February. 3. Which of the following sentence s are ungrammatical? Why? a. Ms Regan has been working for her company for 1945. b. Mr Bush has been working for his company for 20 years. c. Ms Thatcher has been working for her company since 1989. d. Mr Baker has been working for his company since 10 days. 4. Try and make up a rule to explain when â€Å"for† and â€Å"since† are used. 5. Make up one sentence about when you started to learn English and one sentence about how long you have been studying English.Use â€Å"for† and â€Å"since†. | It is my argument that if this exercise is supported by a communicative task where learners interact in pairs or with the classroom teacher it would enable them to internalise the target structure and use it in real-life communication. Designing a lexical-structural based syllabus is not a very hard task. There are many resources based on well-established research that can help syllabus designers build up their course (Lewis, 1997a,1997b). This essay offers some s uggestions on how to build a lexical-structural activities and syllabus.First, syllabus designers need to settle a relevant set of structures, vocabulary and different types of collocations (Lewis,1997a) and organise them according to their increasing complexity, starting from simple structures to complex ones. Second, syllabus designers should choose categories of vocabulary items to be learned and sequence the categories according to situational and functional characteristics such as vocabulary related topics such as environment, health, internet, education and so on since IELTS module is commonly based on globally social topics.Third, syllabus designers should integrate the group of vocabulary and structures together into learning objectives to base the units of lexical-structural syllabus. Although this essay advocates the implementation of a lexical-structural syllabus in IELTS preparation course at preparatory programmes in the UAE, it is necessary to admit that an eclectic an d multi-focus syllabus which includes a wide range of components, specifically vocabulary, structures introduced through functions and, situations can allow for a two-sided approach.This can emphasise the importance of systematically learning specific vocabulary and structures and building up linguistic knowledge, and at the same time it can focus on meeting immediate language communicative needs and sociolinguistic and pragmatic competence. Conclusion In my essay, I only propose that lexical-structural syllabus can safely be employed in EFL settings, particularly in the UAE. Previously, it was argued that the majority of EFL students in the UAE must score reasonably high in their university entrance English exams. This condition requires them to learn many grammatical and lexical structures.It is my suggestion that a lexical-structural syllabus can efficiently serve this purpose. Nevertheless, this argument should not be interpreted as a call for a return to old approaches such as the grammar-translation method. What I have attempted to proposed in this essay is two-fold. First, designing a well-balanced external syllabus that adequately matches the learners’ internal syllabus and second, empowering this potential syllabus with innovative learning ideas and tasks discussed earlier, such as consciousness-raising and communicative tasks.I hope my recommendations will breathe fresh life into the body of the proposed lexical-structural syllabus. References Apple, L. 1986. Teachers and texts. New York: Routlege and Kegan Paul. Beck, I. L. , McKeown, M. G. , and Omanson, R. C. (1987). The effects and uses of diverse vocabulary instructional techniques. In M. McKeown and Curtis, M. E. (eds. ) (1987). The Nature of Vocabulary Acquisition. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: 147 – 163. Celce-Murcia, M. (1991). Grammar pedagogy in second and foreign language teaching. TESOL Quarterly, 25, 45a-480. Celce-Murcia, M. , and Hilles, S. (1988). Techniques and resource s in teaching grammar.Oxford: Oxford University Press. Corder, S. P. (1967). The significance of learners' errors. IRAL, 5, 161-169. Corson, D. 1997. The learning and use of academic English words. Language Learning, 47 (4), 671 718. Coxhead, A. (1998). An Academic Word List. Occasional Publication Number 18, LALS, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Dixon, R. J. (1977). Modern American English: Book 2. New Edition. New York: Regents Publishing Company, Inc. Ellis, R. (1990). Instructed second language acquisition. Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Ellis, R. (1993). The structural syllabus and second language acquisition. TESOT Quarterly, 27, 91113.Ellis, R. (2001). Grammar teaching-practice or consciousness-raising? In J. C. Richards, and W. A. Renandya (Eds. ), Methodology in language teaching: An anthology of current practice (pp. I 67-174). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. English Language Services. (1964). English 900. New York: Collier Macmillan. Felix, S. (1985). Mor e evidence on competing cognitive systems. Second Language Research, 1, 47-72. Freire, P. 1972. Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Herder and Herder. Hajjaj, A. (1999). Arab students` writing mistakes: Renewing the issue. Dirasat: Human and Social Sciences, University of Jordan, 26. : 621-633. Horst, M. (2005). Learning L2 vocabulary through extensive reading: A measurement study. Canadian Modern Language Review, 61, 355–382. Hyltenstam, K. , and Pienemann, M. (Eds. ). (1985). Modelling and assessing second language acquisition. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters. IELTS. (2007). IELTS Handbook 2007. Cambridge: USLES. Retrieved on 15/12/2012 from: < http://www. ielts. org/pdf/IELTS_Handbook_2007. pdf>. IELTS. (2011). IELTS Test taker performance 2011. Cambridge: USLES. Accessed 15/12/2012 from .Johnson, K. (1982). Communicative syllabus design and methodology. Oxford. Oxford University Press Krashen, S. (1982). Principles and practice in second language acquisition. Oxford : Pergamon. Krashen, S. , and Ten-el, T. (1983). The natural approach: language acquisition in the classroom. Oxford: Pergamon. Laufer, B. (2006). Comparing focus on form and focus on forms in second-language vocabulary learning. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 63 (1), 149-166. Laufer, B. (1992). How much lexis is necessary for comprehension? In P. Arnaud and H. Bejoint (eds. ) Vocabulary and Applied Linguistics. Macmillan; London. Lee, S-Y. 2007). Revelations from three consecutive studies on extensive reading. RELC Journal, 38, 150–170. Lewis, M. (1997a). Implementing the lexical approach: Putting theory into practice. Hove, England: Language Teaching Publications. Lewis, M. (1997b). Pedagogical implications of the lexical approach. In J. Coady & T. Huckin (Eds. ),  Second language vocabulary acquisition: A rationale for pedagogy  (pp. 255-270). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Long, M. , and Crookes, G. (1993). Units of analysis in syllabus design: The case for task. In G. Crookes, and S. M. Gass (Eds. ), Tasks in a pedagogical context (pp. 9-54).Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters. Mackey, W. F. (1965). Language teaching analysis. London: Longman. Ministry of Finance, 2011. Budget Report. Accessed 15/12/2012 . Morris, P. (1995). The Hong Kong curriculum. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press Nation, I. S. P. (2001). Learning vocabulary in another language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Nunan, D. (1988). Syllabus design. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pennycook, A. (2001). Critical Applied Lingistics: A Critical Introduction. Mahwah, New Jersey and London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Pienemann, M. (1985). Learnability and syllabus construction. In K. Hyltenstam, and M. Pienemann (Eds. ), Modelling and assessing second language acquisition. Clevedon, Avon: Multilingual Matters. Prabhu, N. S. (1987). Second language pedagogy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read, J. (2002). Assessing Vocabulary. Cambridge: Cambridge Universi ty Press. Read, J. (2005). Applying lexical statistics to the IELTS speaking test. Research Notes, May, 2005. Richards,  J. C. (2000). Curriculum development in language teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press. Rutherford, W. (1987). Second language grammar: Teaching and learning.London: Longman. Schachter, J. (1989). Testing a proposed universal. In S. Gass and J. Schachter (Eds. ), Linguistic perspectives on second language acquisition (pp. 73-88). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Soars, J. , and Soars, L. (1991). Headway: Pre- Intermediate. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Stern, H. H. (1983). Fundamental concepts of language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Swain, M. (1985). Communicative competence: Some roles of comprehensible input and comprehensible output in its development. In S. Gass and C. Madden (Eds. ), Input in Second language acquisition (pp. 235-253). Rowley, MA: Newbury House.Swain, M. and Lapkin, S. (1995). Problems in output and the cogni tive processes they generate: a step towards second language learning. Applied Linguistics, 16, 371-91. Terrell, T. D. (1991). The role of grammar instruction in a communicative approach. Modern Language Journal, 75, 52-63. Van Patten, B. (1992). Second language acquisition research and foreign language teaching, Part I. ADFL Bulletin, 23, 52-55. White, L. (1987). Against comprehensible input: The input hypothesis and the development of second language competence. Applied Linguistics, 8, 95- 110. White, R. V. (1988). The ELT curriculum. Design, innovation and management.Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Widdowson, H. G. (1978). Teaching language as communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wilkins, D. (1976). Notional syllabuses. Oxford:Oxford University Press. Willis, D. (1990). The lexical syllabus: A new approach to language teaching. London: Collins. Willis. J. (1996). A framework for task-based learning. Oxford: Longman. Yalden, J. (1983). The communicative syllabus: Evolution, de sign and implementation. Oxford: Pergamon. Zahar, R. , Cobb, T. and Spada, N. 2001. Acquiring vocabulary through reading: Effects of frequency and contextual richness. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 57 (4), 541-572.Appendix A (Adapted from www. ielts. org) IELTS | Researchers – Test taker performance 2011 Band score information Place of Origin These figures show the mean overall and individual band scores achieved by 2011 Academic and General Training candidates from the top 40 places of origin. Mean band score for the most frequent countries or regions of origin (Academic) Academic| Listening| Reading| Writing| Speaking| OVERALL| Bangladesh| 5. 9| 5. 6| 5. 6| 5. 9| 5. 8| Brazil| 6. 8| 6. 9| 6. 2| 6. 9| 6. 7| China (People's Republic)| 5. 8| 5. 9| 5. 2| 5. 3| 5. 6| Colombia| 6. 2| 6. 4| 5. 7| 6. 4| 6. 2| Cyprus| 6. 4| 5. 9| 5. 7| 6. | 6. 1| Egypt| 6. 3| 6. 1| 5. 8| 6. 3| 6. 2| France| 6. 9| 6. 9| 6. 3| 6. 8| 6. 8| Germany| 7. 0| 6. 6| 6. 4| 7. 2| 6. 8| Ghana| 4. 8| 4. 3 | 5. 7| 6. 5| 5. 4| Hong Kong| 6. 7| 6. 4| 5. 9| 6. 2| 6. 4| India| 6. 4| 5. 6| 5. 8| 6. 2| 6. 1| Indonesia| 6. 6| 6. 3| 5. 9| 6. 3| 6. 4| Iran| 5. 8| 5. 4| 5. 8| 6. 3| 5. 9| Iraq| 5. 7| 5. 2| 5. 4| 6. 2| 5. 7| Italy| 6. 2| 6. 1| 5. 8| 6. 4| 6. 2| Japan| 6. 0| 5. 6| 5. 5| 5. 8| 5. 8| Jordan| 5. 9| 5. 5| 5. 5| 6. 3| 5. 9| Kenya| 6. 7| 6. 1| 6. 6| 7. 2| 6. 7| Korea, South| 6. 2| 6. 1| 5. 4| 5. 7| 5. 9| Kuwait| 5. 3| 4. 9| 4. 8| 5. 6| 5. 2| Libya| 5. 2| 5. 1| 5. 1| 5. 8| 5. 4| Malaysia| 7. | 7. 0| 6. 2| 6. 6| 6. 9| Mexico| 6. 7| 6. 8| 5. 9| 6. 5| 6. 6| Nepal| 6. 3| 5. 8| 5. 7| 6. 0| 6. 0| Nigeria| 6. 1| 6. 0| 6. 2| 7. 0| 6. 4| Oman| 5. 3| 5. 1| 5. 0| 5. 7| 5. 4| Pakistan| 5. 8| 5. 5| 5. 6| 6. 0| 5. 8| Philippines| 7. 0| 6. 6| 6. 2| 6. 8| 6. 7| Qatar| 4. 8| 4. 6| 4. 5| 5. 3| 4. 9| Romania| 7. 2| 7. 0| 6. 2| 6. 8| 6. 9| Russia| 6. 6| 6. 6| 5. 9| 6. 6| 6. 5| Saudi Arabia| 4. 9| 4. 8| 4. 7| 5. 6| 5. 1| Spain| 6. 7| 6. 9| 6. 0| 6. 5| 6. 6| Sri Lanka| 6. 6| 6. 0| 5. 9| 6. 5| 6. 3| Sudan| 5. 9| 5. 7| 5. 5| 6. 2| 5. 9| Taiwan| 5. 9| 6. 0| 5. 5| 5. 9| 5. 9| Thailand| 5. 9| 5. 9| 5. 3| 5. 7| 5. 8| Turkey| 6. 0| 5. | 5. 3| 5. 8| 5. 8| United Arab Emirates| 4. 9| 4. 8| 4. 7| 5. 4| 5. 0| Uzbekistan| 5. 7| 5. 6| 5. 0| 5. 5| 5. 5| Vietnam| 5. 9| 6. 1| 5. 6| 5. 7| 5. 9| Mean band score for the most frequent countries or regions of origin (General Training) General Training| Listening| Reading| Writing| Speaking| OVERALL| Bangladesh| 6. 1| 5. 4| 5. 8| 6. 2| 5. 9| Brazil| 6. 4| 6. 3| 6. 1| 6. 7| 6. 4| China (People's Republic)| 6. 3| 6. 0| 5. 7| 5. 8| 6. 0| Colombia| 5. 7| 5. 7| 5. 6| 6. 0| 5. 8| Egypt| 6. 3| 5. 9| 5. 9| 6. 4| 6. 2| France| 6. 9| 6. 8| 6. 3| 6. 8| 6. 8| Germany| 6. 9| 6. 6| 6. 4| 7. 1| 6. 8| Hong Kong SAR| 6. 7| 6. 4| 5. | 6. 2| 6. 4| India| 6. 3| 5. 7| 5. 8| 6. 2| 6. 1| Indonesia| 6. 7| 6. 2| 5. 9| 6. 3| 6. 3| Iran| 5. 7| 5. 4| 5. 8| 6. 3| 5. 9| Iraq| 5. 7| 5. 3| 5. 5| 6. 3| 5. 8| Italy| 6. 2| 6. 3| 5. 8| 6. 4| 6. 2| Japan| 6| 5. 6| 5. 5| 5. 9| 5. 8| Jordan| 6| 5 . 6| 5. 5| 6. 3| 5. 9| Kenya| 6. 8| 6. 4| 6. 7| 7. 3| 6. 9| Korea, South| 5. 8| 5. 4| 5. 3| 5. 4| 5. 5| Lebanon| 6. 3| 5. 7| 5. 9| 6. 6| 6. 2| Malaysia| 7. 3| 6. 9| 6. 5| 7. 0| 7. 0| Mauritius| 6. 5| 5. 9| 6. 2| 6. 7| 6. 4| Mexico| 6. 3| 6. 3| 6. 0| 6. 6| 6. 3| Nepal| 6. 3| 5. 6| 5. 9| 6. 2| 6. 1| Nigeria| 5. 9| 5. 9| 6. 6| 7. 1| 6. 4| Pakistan| 6. 2| 5. 5| 6. 0| 6. 4| 6. 1|Philippines| 6. 2| 5. 7| 5. 9| 6. 3| 6. 1| Romania| 6. 5| 6. 3| 5. 9| 6. 2| 6. 3| Russia| 6. 4| 6. 3| 6. 0| 6. 4| 6. 3| Saudi Arabia| 4. 6| 3. 8| 4. 4| 5. 0| 4. 5| Singapore| 7. 7| 7. 3| 6. 9| 7. 5| 7. 4| South Africa| 7. 4| 7. 0| 7. 3| 8. 4| 7. 6| Sri Lanka| 6. 3| 5. 7| 5. 8| 6. 3| 6. 1| Taiwan| 6. 3| 5. 8| 5. 8| 6. 2| 6. 1| Thailand| 5. 6| 5. 2| 5. 3| 5. 6| 5. 5| Turkey| 5. 8| 5. 5| 5. 5| 5. 8| 5. 7| Ukraine| 5. 8| 5. 6| 5. 5| 6. 0| 5. 8| United Arab Emirates| 4. 3| 3. 5| 4. 3| 4. 9| 4. 3| United States of America| 8. 0| 7. 6| 7. 7| 8. 6| 8. 0| Venezuela| 6. 3| 6. 3| 6. 1| 6. 4| 6. 3| Vietnam| 5. 8| 5. 6| 5. 7| 5. 7| 5. 8|

Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary

Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary Literary realism refers to a style that faithfully portrays life and interprets the actualities of all the aspects of reality. The literary style emerged as a reaction to the clouded literary conventions, misplaced esthetic glorification, and excessive beautification of the universe presented by romanticism.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More As a literary technique, realism stands out from the other styles due to its four major defining characteristics. One of these characteristics is that realism is more concerned with characters than the plot. The second defining feature of realism is that its portrayal of reality is in comprehensive and vivid details. Thirdly, the language used by realists is not overly heightened or poetic. Finally, literary realism stands out as a result of its emphasis on the moral conflicts in the middle class. Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina and Gustave Flauberts Madame Bovary are outstanding texts that uniquely exhibit the defining aspects of realism. Flaubert’s novel Madame Bovary is widely acclaimed for its realistic portrayal of normal life scenarios. It presents an unadorned description of people in their daily life activities. The reality as experienced through the authors eyes is completely unaffected by any subjectivities of the author. As such, the text features carefully selected and planned events and incidents. As a result of this, the novel avoids the redundancy and boredom that many associate with literary realism.Advertising Looking for essay on comparative literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More For example, the authors calculated selection of real life events in Madame Bovary is depicted in the context where Emma Bovary is fantasizing about a midnight wedding under the light of torches, an idea that her fa ther dismisses as nonsensical (56). This part contrasts sentimental romanticism with the unsympathetic realities of life. The reality emerges triumphant following the downfall of Emma, who represents romanticism and her father who represents the real world. As a result of lacking the realistic appreciation of life, Emma Bovary lacks the true picture of what life should be. In a similar manner, Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is considered by many critics as a vivid reconstruction of the Russian experience. Literary, the text betrays its association with the realistic school of thought. This is due to its emphasis on sincerity, simplicity, the deliberate avoidance of style to elaborate on minute life details, and the use of a normal tone that lacks the artificiality of poetic language. By contrasting the main characters in the story (Anna and Levin), the author, manages to reveal the weaknesses of both. As such, Levin is presented as an all-round character and not a simplified her o, and Anna is portrayed not as a simplified villain but as a normal human. Her humanness is revealed by depicting the various aspects of her life such as her social life (Tolstoy 245). The writers depict the dullness of people’s lives without making the texts boring to the readers. The astuteness of the writers makes the explication of ordinary situations rather intriguing without any exaggerations. The readers get a three-dimensional effect of the characters as a result of the detailed descriptions.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In this regard, the characters are perceived as tangible by the audience. Even the metaphors that the authors use are directly picked from the real life. For instance, in describing some houses, Flaubert states that they are â€Å"like fur caps pulled down over the eyes† (86). The titles of literary texts play a very significant role in selling the contents. Through the titles of the two texts, the authors manage to hints about the contents of the texts to the readers. As such, the audience is prepared in advance for what they should expect in the respective texts. The fact that literary realism gives more emphasis to characters than the plot is depicted in the selection of the respective titles. The title Anna Karenina is derived from the name of the central character in the novel. The author makes it known to the audience that the character is essential to the story, and that arouses a sense of curiosity in the readers. The readers want to explore why the author has chosen the particular characters name as the title of his article. This prompts a critical reading of the text. On a similar note, Gustave Flaubert uses the name of the main character in the novel as the title of his text. The other effect realized by the choice of character names in literary texts such as Anna Karenina and Madame Bovary is that the audience is prepared to expect a real life story involving the real life experiences of the characters. This is entirely different from when the title of the story is a description of a place or a symbolic name. Both texts manage to suggest realism even before readers engage the text.Advertising Looking for essay on comparative literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The texts focus on the moral dilemmas that are rampant in the middle classes. This is achieved through the characters whose names constitute the titles of the texts. Both Flauberts and Tolstoys texts are considered as successful depictions of reality in their different contexts. Through the careful selection of real life events, the use of a natural language, the emphasis on the characters rather than the plot, and the vivid description of scenarios and characters, the novels explicate the magical sensation that realistic texts are capable of presenting to their readers. The titles of the texts are also derived from character names adding to the realism effect of the novels. Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary. Trans. Francis Steegmuller. New York: Random House, 1957. Print. Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina: A Novel in Eight Parts. Trans. Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. New York, NY: Penguin, 2002. Print.

Corporate Strategy Analysis of Kraft in relation to Cadbury Acquisition The WritePass Journal

Corporate Strategy Analysis of Kraft in relation to Cadbury Acquisition Introduction Corporate Strategy Analysis of Kraft in relation to Cadbury Acquisition IntroductionCorporate Strategy Critical Success Factors (CSF)Corporate Parenting RoleConclusionRelated Introduction I have been asked to investigate and evaluate Kraft’s overall corporate strategy in relation to it’s acquisition of Cadbury in 2010. Moreover, this report will also highlight some of the critical success factors that Kraft might apply to Cadbury and it will demonstrate and outline the corporate parenting role Kraft could take up in respect to Cadburys. Kraft Foods is a well known American food conglomerate with its presence in over a hundred countries. The $19.5 billion (Clearly et al, 2010) takeover of Cadbury has enabled them to become the biggest confectionery and beverage giant in the world. This acquisition has enabled Kraft to expand their portfolio in terms of product offering. They now have over forty well known brands each bringing in over $100 million worth of sales each year. (Nasdaq, 2011). The Cadbury brand is well recognised around the world and they are one of the largest chocolate producers in the world, furthermore they have a well established base in the UK and abroad. Therefore by acquiring such a prestigious company with iconic brands, Kraft will be able to enhance its long term revenues and growth by strengthening their presence in developing markets such as India and Mexico. Cadbury is more of a brand led company whereas Kraft a more of a product orientated company. Cadbury as a result gives them a brand building capability which Kraft needs in order to expand overseas. From this perspective we can see quite clearly why Kraft acquired well known Cadbury. The main intention of Kraft’s takeover was so that they could get hold of Cadbury’s assets, resources and their core competencies which sets them apart from other rivals. Corporate Strategy Corporate strategy is best defined by (Lynch, 2003, p.5) as ‘ an organisations basic direction for the future: its purpose, its ambitions, its resources and how it interacts with the world in which it operates’. Likewise, (Porter, 1996 cited in Thompson, 2001, p. 15 describes it as an ‘overall plan for a diversified business’. Kraft has three corporate strategies which are: To delight global snack consumers To unleash the power of iconic heritage brands To create a performance – driven and value led organisation (Kraft, 2011) By implementing such strategies Kraft are able to manage their activities appropriately and by doing so they are able to identify the skills and competencies which are required to foster organisational growth hence drive profits. Krafts growth strategy is to build a global snacks powerhouse and unrivalled portfolio of brands people love. It is essential that managers are able to effectively formulate and implement corporate level strategies’ in order to achieve corporate objectives of the firm by means of developing and sustaining competitive advantage. Management must have a clear vision in place as to where it wants to be in the long-term so it is able to identify its strategic purpose as to why the company exists. Kraft’s strategy enables managers’ to look at ways in which it can add value to the different parts of the firm. Moreover, how it can meet shareholder expectations. Kraft should effectively link its internal capabilities together with its external relations if they want their strategy to be successful in this ever changing environment. Furthermore, strategy also seems to shape organisational behaviour therefore it is vital that everyone in the organisation is focused and that they have a shared a vision because they will be more likely to be working towards the same goal. Corporate planning and strategic fit is crucial at Kraft as it enable them to conduct environmental scanning so that management can address and identify the key areas which are likely to affect the overall business strategy due to uncertainty within the market. Its purpose is to provide a bigger picture of the environment in which the business is operating in. Strategic analysis helps an organisation to identify what is happening outside of the business so that they can focus on external elements or threats that the business is likely face. This is usually done through PESTEL analysis or even a SWOT analysis so that managers can identify their strengths in comparison to their competitors so that they can improve on their weaknesses. Furthermore, it also helps them to spot opportunities within the market place so that they can expand and take advantage of change. Critical Success Factors (CSF) Also known as key success factors (KSF) best defined by (Lynch, 2003, p.102) as, â€Å"the resources, skills and attributes of an organisation that are essential to deliver success in the market place. The phrase was first introduced by Daniels in 1961 and has now become a widely studied phenomenon within the field of strategic management.   Critical success factors are those business activities which must be managed and performed in order to foster organisational success. Understanding and identifying such factors are crucial as it enables managers to make the right strategic decisions. Kraft are now focussing on their top ten power brands such as Cadbury diary milk, trident gum etc to maximise revenue as they have dramatically shifted their focus towards growth in areas which contain higher margins. There are a number of critical success factors that Kraft could apply to Cadbury. Firstly, Kraft is a much stronger company than what it was 2 years ago. It has a hugh market share with an annual revenue exceeding $49.2 billion. Therefore Kraft could use Cadbury to strengthen their global base and use their core competencies to maximise profits. The market share of Kraft enables them to sustain their competitive advantage over others as they become a dominant enterprise within the confectionery market.   Likewise, Kraft can use their brand strength along with Cadbury’s product range to enlarge and broaden their brand portfolio. Moreover, this will enable Kraft to distribute Cadbury’s brands in markets such as China, Brazil and Russia were Cadbury has lit tle or no presence. This opportunity will also open up doors for Kraft so that it can grow and penetrate into India and European Union where it lacks behind. This will help it to boost sales and hopefully increase their market share. This ties in with effective supply chain networks that both companies have in place. From this perspective we can see that one of the main purpose or benefit in acquiring Cadbury was to control Cadbury’s distribution network and their infrastructure so that Kraft could use this advantage to get into developing markets where they will be able to widen their footprint by increasing their presence in international markets by offering diverse products. This opportunity has also widened their global supplier base which means that they can concentrate on economies of scale by getting their costs down as much as they can, so that they can make more profit per unit. This will enable them to leverage their costs and resources so that they can focus on operational efficiency through systems such as just in time. Corporate Parenting Role There are a number of ways in which Kraft has and could take up the corporate parenting role in respect to Cadbury. Firstly Kraft has made a hugh leap in restructuring their organisational structure, which means that decision making is no longer highly decentralized. This has enabled Kraft to be in more control over its business activities. In order to succeed in the global environment an organisation such as Kraft needs to make sure that they have the right people in the right place at the right time so that they can operate efficiently and effectively. The role of a corporate parent (headquarters) is to reinforce and implement parenting skills so that it can manage and add value to its business units. The main emphasis is so that the company can perform better compared to if it was working individually. The corporate parent can therefore make certain decisions about the portfolio of the business so it can manage global operations more efficiently. This two way process is vital because if a certain business unit or a corporate parent is not adding value to the business a decision is likely to be made by management to sell or break off a certain business section. Kraft has chosen a synergy manager approach because it enables them to manage synergies across both business platforms so that Kraft is able to manage costs and organisational resources effectively by aligning key targets which must be achieved by certain business units. As this will enable them to create synergy because two companies working together will create more value and therefore Kraft will have the opportunity to market and distribute both brands for the price of one. Kraft has estimated that around $672 million worth of expenses would be saved by working together with Cadbury. Good brand management is also an important aspect in any organisation, therefore if Kraft wants to prosper it must emphasise on knowledge management so that it can grasp and share its knowledge skills and core competencies with Cadbury. Kraft can coach and aid Cadbury in making the right decisions about product expansion in areas in which Kraft   have extensive knowledge and experience. Furthermore they can help Cadbury to develop their capabilities by enabling them to improve their skills at the same time as helping them to improve on their weaknesses.   Furthermore, they must effectively communicate across borders and be willing to combine research and development activities, sharing of plant and machinery, new innovative ideas market research e.g. consumer insight, talent, experience or skills. On the other hand, Kraft should avoid adding management costs and bureauc ratic complexity because it is likely to hinder business performance. Conclusion An effective business strategy will always enable an organisation to thrive and prosper. By focussing on such strategic factors Kraft is able to accomplish their goals and objectives. Kraft is fully aware of the critical success factors which apply to them and those which apply to the industry. They use their capabilities and resources so that they can invest in those areas of the business which are critical for its long term success and by doing so they gain competitive advantage over others. They have paid particular attention towards their customers, as they claim to help people to live and eat better. By providing those products which customers actually want for instance on the go snacks. Therefore, one can say that it is essential that Kraft should manage their resources and capabilities if they want to succeed in the global arena. I believe that product innovation is a vital survival tool which Kraft has implemented within its business process as they are always introducing new products into the market.