Ajinomoto Co. Inc. essay

Ajinomoto Ajinomoto Co. Inc. is a Japanese food and chemical corporation which produces seasonings, cooking oils, TV dinners, sweeteners, amino acids and pharmaceuticals. In particular it is the world's largest producer of aspartame, with a 40% global market share. When Professor Kikunae Ikeda from the University of Tokyo isolated glutamate from the seaweed and discovered its flavour enhancing properties in 1908. The next year, his discovery was introduced to the market in the form of the flavour enhancer AJI-NO-MOTO.The literal translation of Aji no Moto is â€Å"Essence of Taste,† used as a trademark for the company’s original monosodium glutamate (MSG) product. Thanks to the company's eminent status, its brand has found its way even to notable Asian language dictionaries as a half-synonym for MSG. Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Berhad started its business operations in 1961 as AJI-NO-MOTO ® monosodium glutamate producer. It is also one of the very first Japanese joint-ventur e companies to be set up in this country.Ajinomoto (Malaysia) Berhad has since grown into a dynamic food seasoning manufacturer marketing diverse brand name that is trusted by Malaysian for decades. Our AJI-NO-MOTO ® food seasoning is an indispensable item in almost every Malaysian home. Ajinomoto Group Philosophy We create better lives globally by contributing to significant advances in Food and Health and by working for Life. Ajinomoto Group Way Create New Value Create value with new ideas and continuous innovation based on unique technologies and science. Product value creation bolstered by technology, new dietary proposals) Pioneer Spirit Continue to constantly take on the challenge of creating new businesses and markets. (Adapt to regional culture and market conditions in creating markets) Social Contribution Accommodate social requirements with humility and honesty, with the objective of maximizing value for society through business activities. (Resolve social issues) (Impro ve the global environment) (Security and safety) (Trustworthy production) (Fair, impartial, transparent and simple) Value PeopleRespect the humanity of all the people involved in the Ajinomoto Group's businesses, and be an organisation in which they can grow and display their abilities to the fullest extent. (Provide a workplace where people can flourish) (Career development, support and follow-up) (Fair performance evaluation) (Teamwork) Ajinomoto Group Vision We aim to be â€Å"a group of companies that contributes to human health globally† by continually creating unique value to benefit customers. 1. To become a global group of food companies centered on the world's No. seasoning business. 2. To become a global group of amino science companies that contributes to humankind with the world's No. 1 amino acid technology. 3. To become a group of health-promoting companies with a scientific approach to good taste and health. Ajinomoto(M) Berhad Segment Analysis Ajinomoto (M) Be rhad (Ajinomoto) is a food and chemical corporation that engaged in manufacturing and selling monosodium and other related products. The company is divided into two major segments that publicly report financial reports.The Umami segment (Umami) comprises of products that are derived from the fermentation process such as Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) and related products. The Umami segment accounted for 70. 0% of 2011 sales, making it the largest Ajinomoto's operating segments. The Food and Seasoning segment (FSS) consists of products derived from the extraction and mixing process such as Industrial Seasonings, Tumix and related seasonings. This segment accounted for 29. 82% of Ajinomoto's sales in 2011. Others segment (Others) products sold by the company comprises of trading goods such as industrial sweetener, feed-use amino acid and frozen foods.The segment accounted for 0. 18% of Ajinomoto's sales in 2011. Condensed Statement og Financial Performance 2007-2011 | |2011 |2010 |2009 |2 008 |2007 | |Sales |316,165,220 |284,616,880 |243,838,799 |215,462,459 |190,628,976 | |Net Earning |25,870,244 |23,939,091 |19,072,212 |31,984,464 |18,670,013 |Total Ajinomoto sales increases over the last past years however its profitability has varied. Sales peaked at over RM316 millions in 2011 and has the lowest sales in 2007 at over RM 190 millions. Ajinomoto has yet incurred profit loss over the last five years. Ajinomoto's stock price has been steadily increases from RM1. 95 in 2007 to RM 4. 00 in 2011. Despite the varied profit earning and steadily increases of sales, Ajinomoto has continued to increase gradually from RM0. 79 in 2007 to RM 0. 15 in 2011.This is a clear indication of the importance that Ajinomoto attaches to the informal content associated with dividends: with the increase of sales, dividends will continue to increase. Industrial Analysis Bloomberg and Reuters have classified Ajinomoto as food processing industry sector. This paper will discuss in details Aji nomoto's financial stability compared with other companies in the food processing industry. The Malaysia Food Processing Industry The food industry in Malaysia is as wide as the multi-cultures of Malaysia, with wide range of processed foods with Asian taste.The industry is primarily Malaysian-owned, and estimated the present global retail sales in food products are worth around US$3. 5 trillion. It is expected to grow at annual rate of 4. 8 per cent to US$6. 4 trillion in 2020. The industry has more than 9000 processing factories of which 95% are classified as small-scale. Food processing companies are normally perceived as agro-based industries which have a strong backward linkage. However, in Malaysia, this is not the case as it is estimated that over 70% of raw materials used in the processed food are imported.Therefore, Malaysia is a net importer for food products. Value for imported food increase from RM17. 9 billion in 2005 to RM30. 2 billion in 2010, about RM82 million a day. The increase in 2010 was credited to Malaysia's climate, various economic factors, and higher standard of living. Financial Ratio Analysis Financial ratios for Ajinomoto for food industry are provided as below. The firm in food processing industry subset represent 16% of the total food industry sales of RM1. 972 billion in 2011.    |2011 |2010 |2009 |2008 |2007 | | |Ajinomoto |Food Industry |Ajinomoto | | | | |Amount |Percentages changes | |Other items of income |2,321,549 |4,066,021 |(1,744,472) |-42. % | | | | | | | |Items of expenses | | | | | |Changes in inventories of finished goods, |409,346 |788,248 |(378,902) |-48. % | |work in progress and goods-in-transit | | | | | |Raw materials and packaging consumed |(188,077,870) |(162,076,389) |(26,001,481) |16. 0% | |Finished goods purchased |(7,780,993) |(10,951,068) |3,170,075 |-28. 9% | |Employee benefits expense |(33,496,637) |(31,147,630) |(2,349,007) |7. % | |Depreciation and amortisation |(12,753,094) |(11,627,019) |(1,126, 075) |9. 7% | |Reversal/(impairment) of assets |3,204 |(20,360) |23,564 |-115. 7% | |Other operating expenses |(44,848,503) |(42,772,605) |(2,075,898) |4. % | |Profit before tax |31,942,222 |30,876,078 |1,066,144 |3. 5% | |Income tax expense |(6,071,978) |(6,936,987) |865,009 |-12. 5% | |Profit net of tax, represents total |25,870,244 |23,939,091 |1,931,153 |8. % | |comprehensive income for the financial | | | | | |year | | | | | |Earnings per share attributable to equity | | | | | |holders of the Company (sen) | | | | | |Basic |42. |39. 4 |3. 2 |8. 1% | |Net dividend per share (sen) |15. 75 |15. 00 |0. 75 |5. 0% | Income Statement – 2010 |Income Statement |2010 |2009 |Increase or Decrease During 2010 | | | | |Amount |Percentages changes | |Revenue |284,616,880 |243,838,799 |40,778,081 |16. % | |Other items of income |4,066,021 |4,387,766 |(321,745) |-7. 3% | | | | | | | |Items of expenses | | | | | |Changes in inventories of finished goods, |788,248 |9,219,317 |(8,431,069) | -91. % | |work in progress and goods-in-transit | | | | | |Raw materials and packaging consumed |(162,076,389) |(155,094,975) |(6,981,414) |4. 5% | |Finished goods purchased |(10,951,068) |(8,061,329) |(2,889,739) |35. 8% | |Staff costs |(31,147,630) |(29,049,802) |(2,097,828) |7. % | |Depreciation and amortisation |(11,627,019) |(9,534,228) |(2,092,791) |22. 0% | |Impairment of assets |(20,360) |399,605 |(419,965) |-105. 1% | |Other operating expenses |(42,772,605) |(30,427,115) |(12,345,490) |40. 6% | |Profit before tax |30,876,078 |25,678,038 |5,198,040 |20. % | |Income tax expense |(6,936,987) |(6,605,826) |(331,161) |5. 0% | |Profit for the year |23,939,091 |19,072,212 |4,866,879 |25. 5% | |Earnings per share attributable to equity | | | | | |holders of the Company (sen) | | | | | |Basic |39. |31. 4 |8. 0 |25. 5% | |Net dividend per share (sen) |15. 00 |12. 92 |2. 08 |16. 1% | Income Statement – 2009 |Income Statement |2009 |2008 |Increase or Decrease During 2009 | | | | |Amount |Percentages changes | |Revenue |243,838,799 |215,462,459 |28,376,340 |13. % | |Other items of income |4,387,766 |17,205,836 |(12,818,070) |-74. 5% | | | | | | | |Items of expenses | | | | | |Changes in inventories of finished goods, |9,219,317 |(321,473) |9,540,790 |-2967. % | |work in progress and goods-in-transit | | | | | |Raw materials and packaging consumed |(155,094,975) |(114,201,038) |(40,893,937) |35. 8% | |Finished goods purchased |(8,061,329) |(5,025,774) |(3,035,555) |60. 4% | |Staff costs |(29,049,802) |(27,117,151) |(1,932,651) |7. % | |Depreciation and amortisation |(9,534,228) |(8,740,933) |(793,295) |9. 1% | |Impairment of assets |399,605 |164,220 |235,385 |143. 3% | |Other operating expenses |(30,427,115) |(37,045,175) |6,618,060 |-17. 9% | |Profit before tax |25,678,038 |40,380,971 |(14,702,933) |-36. % | |Income tax expense |(6,605,826) |(8,396,507) |1,790,681 |-21. 3% | |Profit for the year |19,072,212 |31,984,464 |(12,912,252) |-40. 4% | |Earnings per share attributable to equity | | | | | |holders of the Company (sen) | | | | | |Basic |31. 2 |34. |(3. 2) |-9. 3% | |Net dividend per share (sen) |12. 92 |8. 92 |4. 00 |44. 8% | Income Statement – 2008 |Income Statement |2008 |2007 |Increase or Decrease During 2008 | | | | |Amount |Percentages changes | |Revenue |215,462,459 |190,628,976 |24,833,483 |13. % | |Other items of income |17,205,836 |8,044,056 |9,161,780 |113. 9% | | | | | | | |Items of expenses | | | | | |Changes in inventories of finished goods, |(321,473) |(448,494) |127,021 |-28. % | |work in progress and goods-in-transit | | | | | |Raw materials and packaging consumed |(114,201,038) |(103,743,602) |(10,457,436) |10. 1% | |Finished goods purchased |(5,025,774) |(4,871,823) |(153,951) |3. 2% | |Staff costs |(27,117,151) |(25,633,738) |(1,483,413) |5. % | |Depreciation and amortisation |(8,740,933) |(8,661,427) |(79,506) |0. 9% | |Impairment of assets |164,220 |(850,543) |1,014,763 |-119. 3% | |Other operating ex penses |(37,045,175) |(33,433,642) |(3,611,533) |10. 8% | |Profit before tax |40,380,971 |21,029,763 |19,351,208 |92. % | |Income tax expense |(8,396,507) |(2,359,750) |(6,036,757) |255. 8% | |Profit for the year |31,984,464 |18,670,013 |13,314,451 |71. 3% | |Earnings per share attributable to equity | | | | | |holders of the Company (sen) | | | | | |Basic |34. 4 |24. |9. 7 |39. 3% | |Net dividend per share (sen) |8. 92 |7. 90 |1. 02 |12. 9% | Income Statement – 2007 |Income Statement |2007 |2006 |Increase or Decrease During 2007 | | | | |Amount |Percentages changes | |Revenue |190,628,976 |170,592,741 |20,036,235 |10. % | |Other items of income |8,044,056 |1,852,434 |6,191,622 |77. 0% | | | | | | | |Items of expenses | | | | | |Changes in inventories of finished goods, |(448,494) |(2,525,867) |2,077,373 |-463. % | |work in progress and goods-in-transit | | | | | |Raw materials and packaging consumed |(103,743,602) |(90,491,939) |(13,251,663) |12. 8% | |Finished goods purchas ed |(4,871,823) |(5,084,454) |212,631 |-4. 4% | |Staff costs |(25,633,738) |(24,107,966) |(1,525,772) |6. % | |Depreciation and amortisation |(8,661,427) |(10,148,276) |1,486,849 |-17. 2% | |Impairment of assets |(850,543) |(1,145,779) |295,236 |-34. 7% | |Other operating expenses |(33,433,642) |(32,090,000) |(1,343,642) |4. % | |Profit before tax |21,029,763 |6,850,803 |14,178,960 |67. 4% | |Income tax expense |(2,359,750) |(841,246) |(1,518,504) |64. 4% | |Profit for the year |18,670,013 |6,009,557 |12,660,456 |67. % | |Earnings per share attributable to equity | | | | | |holders of the Company (sen) | | | | | |Basic |24. 7 |10. 4 |14. 3 |57. 9% | |Net dividend per share (sen) |7. 90 |7. 90 |0 |0% | Balance Sheet – 2011 Balance Sheet |2011 |2010 |Increase or Decrease During 2011 | | | | |Amount |Percentages changes | |Assets | | | | | |Non-Current Assets | | | | | |Property, plant and equipment |104,358,059 |102,765,733 |1,592,326 |1. % | |Prepaid land lease payments |0 |0 |0 |0. 0% | |Investment in associate |0 |0 |0 |0. 0% | |Other receivables |843,561 |1,061,831 |(218,270) |-20. % | |Investment securities |672,685 |798,813 |(126,128) |-15. 8% | |Other investments |281,000 |281,000 |0 |0. 0% | | |106,155,305 |104,907,377 |1,247,928 |1. % | | | | | | | |Current Assets | | | | | |Inventories |62,802,628 |52,255,273 |10,547,355 |20. 2% | |Trade and other receivables |32,410,933 |26,068,630 |6,342,303 |24. % | |Derivatives |36,263 |0 |36,263 | | |Cash and cash equivalents |68,767,151 |56,354,967 |12,412,184 |22. 0% | | |164,016,975 |134,678,870 |29,338,105 |21. 8% | |Total assets |270,172,280 |239,586,247 |30,586,033 |12. % | | | | | | | |Equity and liabilities | | | | | |Current liabilities | | | | | |Retirement benefit obligations |345,271 |466,710 |(121,439) |-26. % | |Trade and other payables |38,238,679 |24,617,997 |13,620,682 |55. 3% | |Derivatives |2,397 |0 |2,397 | | |Current tax payable |1,589,523 |151,171 |1,438,352 |951. % | | |40,175,870 |25 ,235,878 |14,939,992 |59. 2% | | | | | | | |Non-current liabilities | | | | | |Retirement benefit obligations |5,756,631 |5,295,024 |461,607 |8. % | |Deferred tax liabilities |4,051,039 |4,939,037 |(887,998) |-18. 0% | | |9,807,670 |10,234,061 |(426,391) |-4. 2% | |Total liabilities |49,983,540 |35,469,939 |14,513,601 |40. 9% | |Net assets |220,188,740 |204,116,308 |16,072,432 |7. % | | | | | | | |Equity attributable to equity holders of the | | | | | |company | | | | | |Share capital |60,798,534 |60,798,534 |0 |0. % | |Share premium |4,303,700 |4,303,700 |0 |0. 0% | |Retained earnings |148,553,371 |132,359,068 |16,194,303 |12. 2% | |Other reserves |6,533,135 |6,655,006 |(121,871) |-1. 8% | |Total equity |220,188,740 |204,116,308 |16,072,432 |7. % | |Total equity and liabilities |270,172,280 |239,586,247 |30,586,033 |12. 8% | Balance Sheet – 2010 |Balance Sheet |2010 |2009 |Increase or Decrease During 2010 | | | | |Amount |Percentages changes | |Assets |   |   |   |   | |Non-Current Assets |    |   |   | |Property, plant and equipment |62,661,795 |60,798,913 |1,862,882 |3. 1% | |Prepaid land lease payments |40,103,938 |39,510,974 |592,964 |1. 5% | |Investment in associates |0 |1,348,751 |(1,348,751) |-100. 0% | |Other investments |1,079,813 |1,123,377 |(43,564) |-3. % | |   |103,845,546 |102,782,015 |1,063,531 |1. 0% | |   |   |   |   |   | |Current Assets |   |   |   |   | |Inventories |52,255,273 |46,356,553 |5,898,720 |12. % | |Trade and other receivables |27,130,461 |30,099,502 |(2,969,041) |-9. 9% | |Cash and cash equivalents |56,354,967 |43,221,990 |13,132,977 |30. 4% | |   |135,740,701 |119,678,045 |16,062,656 |13. 4% | |Total assets |239,586,247 |222,460,060 |17,126,187 |7. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Equity and liabilities |   |   |   |   | |Current liabilities |   |   |   |   | |Retirement benefit obligations |466,710 |320,578 |146,132 |45. % | |Trade and other payables |24,617,997 |22,857,239 |1,760,758 |7. 7% | |Current tax payable |151,171 |445,670 |(294,499) |-66. 1% | |   |25,235,878 |23,623,487 |1,612,391 |6. % | | |   |   |   |   | |Non-current liabilities |   |   |   |   | |Retirement benefit obligations |5,295,024 |5,052,251 |242,773 |4. % | |Deferred tax liabilities |4,939,037 |4,487,325 |451,712 |10. 1% | |   |10,234,061 |9,539,576 |694,485 |7. 3% | |Total liabilities |35,469,939 |33,163,063 |2,306,876 |7. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Equity attributable to equity holders of the |   |   |   |   | |company | | | | | |Share capital |60,798,534 |60,798,534 |0 |0. % | |Share premium |4,303,700 |4,303,700 |0 |0. 0% | |Reserves |139,014,074 |124,194,763 |14,819,311 |11. 9% | |Total equity |204,116,308 |189,296,997 |14,819,311 |7. 8% | |Total equity and liabilities |239,586,247 |222,460,060 |17,126,187 |7. 7% | Balance Sheet – 2009 Balance Sheet |2009 |2008 |Increase or Decrease During 2009 | | | | |Amount |Perce ntages changes | |Assets |   |   |   |   | |Non-Current Assets |   |   |   |   | |Property, plant and equipment |60,798,913 47,657,260 |13,141,653 |27. 6% | |Prepaid land lease payments |39,510,974 |40,207,748 |(696,774) |-1. 7% | |Investment in associates |1,348,751 |1,348,751 |0 |0. 0% | |Other investments |1,123,377 |1,252,063 |(128,686) |-10. % | |   |102,782,015 |90,465,822 |12,316,193 |13. 6% | |   |   |   |   |   | |Current Assets |   |   |   |   | |Inventories |46,356,553 |32,383,255 |13,973,298 |43. % | |Trade and other receivables |30,099,502 |27,863,680 |2,235,822 |8. 0% | |Cash and cash equivalents |43,221,990 |66,193,647 |(22,971,657) |-34. 7% | |   |119,678,045 |126,440,582 |(6,762,537) |-5. 3% | |Total assets |222,460,060 |216,906,404 |5,553,656 |2. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Equity and liabilities |   |   |   |   | |Current liabilities |   |   |   |   | |Retirement benefit obligations |320,578 |296, 972 |23,606 |7. % | |Trade and other payables |22,857,239 |28,230,809 |(5,373,570) |-19. 0% | |Current tax payable |445,670 |1,748,521 |(1,302,851) |-74. 5% | |   |23,623,487 |30,276,302 |(6,652,815) |-22. % | |   |   | |   |   | |Non-current liabilities |   |   |   |   | |Retirement benefit obligations |5,052,251 |4,461,628 |25,697 |0. % | |Deferred tax liabilities |4,487,325 |4,088,518 |5,451,058 |133. 3% | |   |9,539,576 |8,550,146 |24,612,917 |287. 9% | |Total liabilities |33,163,063 |38,826,448 |(5,663,385) |-14. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Equity attributable to equity holders of the |   |   |   |   | |company | | | | | |Share capital |60,798,534 |60,798,534 |0 |0. % | |Share premium |4,303,700 |4,303,700 |0 |0. 0% | |Reserves |124,194,763 |112,977,722 |11,217,041 |9. 9% | |Total equity |189,296,997 |178,079,956 |11,217,041 |6. 3% | |Total equity and liabilities |222,460,060 |216,906,404 |5,553,656 |2. 6% | Balance Sheet – 2008 B alance Sheet |2008 |2007 |Increase or Decrease During 2008 | | | | |Amount |Percentages changes | |Assets |   |   |   |   | |Non-Current Assets |   |   |   |   | |Property, plant and equipment |47,657,260 |46,324,751 |1,332,509 |2. 9% | |Prepaid land lease payments |40,207,748 |23,081,794 |17,125,954 |74. 2% | |Investment in associate |1,348,751 |1,348,751 |0 |0. 0% | |Other investments |1,252,063 |1,134,441 |117,622 |10. 4% | |   |90,465,822 |71,889,737 |18,576,085 |25. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Current Assets |   |   |   |   | |Inventories |32,383,255 |25,104,026 |7,279,229 |29. 0% | |Trade and other receivables |27,863,680 |24,590,686 |3,272,994 |13. 3% | |Cash and cash equivalents |66,193,647 |64,193,072 |2,000,575 |3. 1% | |   |126,440,582 |113,887,784 |12,552,798 |11. 0% | |Total assets |216,906,404 |185,777,521 |31,128,883 |16. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Equity and liabilities |   |   |   |   | |Current liabilities |   |   |   |   | |Retirement benefit obligations |296,972 |711,923 |(414,951) |-58. 3% | |Trade and other payables |28,230,809 |25,619,622 |2,611,187 |10. 2% | |Current tax payable |1,748,521 |226,829 |1,521,692 |670. 9% | |   |30,276,302 |26,558,374 |3,717,928 |14. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Non-current liabilities |   |   | |   | |Retirement benefit obligations |4,461,628 |3,822,256 |266,262 |7. 0% | |Deferred tax liabilities |4,088,518 |3,878,168 |4,671,978 |120. 5% | |   |8,550,146 |7,700,424 |31,126,024 |404. 2% | |Total liabilities |38,826,448 |34,258,798 |4,567,650 |13. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Equity attributable to equity holders of the |   |   |   |   | |company | | | | | |Share capital |60,798,534 |60,798,534 |0 |0. 0% | |Share premium |4,303,700 |4,303,700 |0 |0. 0% | |Reserves |112,977,722 |86,416,489 |26,561,233 |30. 7% | |Total equity |178,079,956 |151,518,723 |26,561,233 |17. 5% | |Total equity and liabilities |216,906,40 4 |185,777,521 |31,128,883 |16. 8% | Balance Sheet – 2007 Balance Sheet |2007 |2006 |Increase or Decrease During 2007 | | | | |Amount |Percentages changes | |Assets |   |   |   |   | |Non-Current Assets |   |   |   |   | |Property, plant and equipment |69,406,545 |73,405,024 |(3,998,479) |-5. 4% | |Investment in associate |1,348,751 |1,678,751 |(330,000) |-19. 7% | |Other investments |1,134,441 |1,234,984 |(100,543) |-8. 1% | |   |71,889,737 |76,318,759 |(4,429,022) |-5. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Current Assets |   |   |   |   | |Inventories |25,104,026 |29,511,903 |(4,407,877) |-14. 9% | |Trade and other receivables |24,590,686 |25,197,271 |(606,585) |-2. 4% | |Cash and cash equivalents |64,193,072 |30,450,944 |33,742,128 |110. 8% | |   |113,887,784 |85,160,118 |28,727,666 |33. 7% | |Total assets |185,777,521 |161,478,877 |24,298,644 |15. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Equity and liabilities |   |   |   |   | |Current liab ilities |   |   |   |   | |Retirement benefit obligations |711,923 |444,305 |267,618 |60. 2% | |Trade and other payables |25,619,622 |15,548,449 |10,071,173 |64. 8% | |Current tax payable |226,829 |133,929 |92,900 |69. 4% | |   |26,558,374 |16,126,683 |10,431,691 |64. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Non-current liabilities |   |   |   |   | |Retirement benefit obligations |3,822,256 |3,663,700 |214,468 |5. 9% | |Deferred tax liabilities |3,878,168 |4,048,857 |3,651,567 |90. 2% | |   |7,700,424 |7,712,557 |26,546,241 |344. 2% | |Total liabilities |34,258,798 |23,839,240 |10,419,558 |43. % | |   |   |   |   |   | |Equity attributable to equity holders of the |   |   |   |   | |company | | | | | |Share capital |60,798,534 |60,798,534 |0 |0. 0% | |Share premium |4,303,700 |4,303,700 |0 |0. 0% | |Reserves |86,416,489 |72,537,403 |13,879,086 |19. 1% | |Total equity |151,518,723 |137,639,637 |13,879,086 |10. 1% | |Total equity and liabilities |18 5,777,521 |161,478,877 |24,298,644 |15. % | Reference http://www. barubian. net/2012/02/rm92m-spent-on-imported-food-every-day. html http://www. scribd. com/doc/36423986/Food-Industry-Malaysia http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m3723/is_6_15/ai_105043862/ http://thestar. com. my/archives/2006/8/17/IMP3/chapter19. pdf http://www. ifrj. upm. edu. my/19%20(01)%202011/(38)IFRJ-2011-122%20Yodfiatfinda. pdf http://www. mida. gov. my/env3/index. php? page=food-industries http://www. miti. gov. my/cms/content. jsp? id=com. tms. cms. section. Section_63c203a6-c0a8156f-5cff5cff-cbccc275 http://malaysia. ahk. de/fileadmin/ahk_malaysia/Bilder/Others/Market_Watch_Food_Industry_2011_ENG_. pdf

California Critical Thinking Skills Test Education Essay

Most attacks to developing critical thought are rooted in doctrine. The philosophical positions of believing are based on ground in order to steer behaviour with formal logic harmonizing to Aristotle and Plato and formal logic. The formal logic attack has appeared since the 1950s and after that in the stuffs developed by Lipman ( 1985 ) and Ennis ( 1985 ; 1987 ) . On the other manus, in the early 1990s, Marzano ( 1991 ) declared that critical thought is now utilizing psychological attacks every bit good as philosophical 1s. The psychological attacks consider the human head as a working mechanism that can be studied from cognitive psychological positions that include metacognition, componential ( sum uping, comparing, analysing, oppugning and developing visuals ) and heuristics ( job resolution and decision-making ) . Dispositional attack is besides another attack, introduced by Marzano ( 1991 ) , as wonts of head, cognitive mental sets for specific state of affairss. The socially-based attacks adjoin the philosophical and psychological attacks represented by Heath ( 1991 ) . A societal attack includes larning to believe critically in collaborative acquisition state of affairss. Thankss to these diverse attacks, critical thought has become broader. Benesch ( 1993 ) , one of the postmodernist advocates, gives us a different definition of critical thought. She believes that critical thought is a procedure of oppugning the position quo and of disputing bing cognition and the societal order. She sees it as a investigation for societal, political and historical beginnings of conventional cognition and an orientation to change acquisition and society. Harmonizing to Benesch and her followings, critical thought is a democratic acquisition procedure which encourages scholars to take part actively and raise issues of concern in their day-to-day lives. Therefore, the scholars can associate their ain experience to the linguistic communication, political relations, and the history of the new civilization. In malice of the effectivity and efficiency of critical thought and promoting learning critical thought in schoolrooms, pedagogues, trial shapers, and experts are concerned about scholars ‘ hapless critical thought. The fact is that the scholars ever do non utilize good thought accomplishments or they add indefensible premise into their logical thinking and have jobs to happen alternate solutions and believe creatively. Another job is the important power over scholars by publishing house and writers. In order to antagonize this power, Heath ( 1991 ) points out that pupils must hold certain premises before they can show critical thought, and get their ain authorization through critical thought. Aside from all the attacks with different definitions in which there is much convergence and treatments of the jobs in order to happen solutions to heighten the scholars ‘ critical thought, attempts on developing this accomplishment have non ever been successful. Students ‘ critical thought accomplishments improve as pupils progress but public presentation by and large remains under expected degree ( Tsui, 1998 ) .2.2.1 Bloom ‘s TaxonomyIn 1956, Bloom introduced the taxonomy of educational aims in a signifier of categorization of the purposes of the educational procedure to help teachers in the rating of their class stuff and proving results. A peculiarly utile characteristic of Bloom ‘s taxonomy is the hierarchical agreement of cognitive abilities that provides a straightforward method for instructors to plan instructional aims and activities that relate straight to want learning results. The cognitive sphere of Bloom ‘s taxonomy included six major subd ivisions from lower order believing accomplishments ( LOTS ) to higher order believing accomplishments ( LOTS ) : cognition, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and rating. Bloom defined ‘knowledge ‘ as â€Å" those behaviours and trial state of affairss which emphasize the memory, either by acknowledgment or callback, of thoughts, stuff, or phenomena † ( p.62 ) . In add-on, ‘comprehension ‘ is defined as â€Å" pupils ‘ abilities to understand what is being communicated and analyse its content † ( p.89 ) . In this respect, Bloom considered comprehension as three signifiers of behaviour: interlingual rendition, reading, and extrapolation. The following class is ‘applying ‘ that shows how a scholar can use what has been learned to new state of affairss. In Bloom ‘s point of position, â€Å" analysis emphasizes the dislocation of the stuff into its component parts and sensing of the relationships of the parts and of the manner they are organized † ( p.144 ) . The most originative behaviour in this taxonomy, ‘synthesis ‘ , was defined as the â€Å" seting together of elements and parts so as to organize a whole † ( p.162 ) . Furthermore, the last measure, ‘evaluation ‘ , was regarded as â€Å" devising of judgements about the value of thoughts, plants, and solutions † ( p.185 ) . Originally, Bloom ‘s taxonomy was based on the behaviourist theory and groups educational activities into three chief classs that affect the procedure of larning in different ways: cognitive, affectional, and psychomotor ( Krathwohl, Bloom & A ; Bertram, 1973 ) . The six classs under the ‘cognitive facet ‘ were explained from the least complex to the most complex accomplishment in the preceding paragraph. The ‘affective sphere ‘ is the manner persons deal with the growing in feelings or emotional accomplishments, including five classs of receiving, reacting, valuing, forming, and internalising. And the last 1 is ‘psychomotor sphere ‘ which focuses on the country of physical motion, coordination, and usage of motor accomplishments incorporating six degrees of perceptual experience, set, guided response, mechanism, complex overt response and version. Although Bloom ‘s original taxonomy was a radical theoretical account which presented systematic classifications of cognitive accomplishments, Anderson and Krathworthl ( 2001 ) revised it to concentrate on the active, ongoing procedure of larning in order to assist instructors understand and implement a standards-based course of study. In add-on, other research workers developed it harmonizing to the aims that teachers, skilled specializers, and supervisors need to measure the scholars ‘ acquisition and public presentation in a given class. Anderson and Krathworthl ( 2001 ) reevaluated the original version and the revised taxonomy included memory, apprehension, using, analysing, rating and making. In other words, the revised taxonomy duplicates the six classs of the original 1 with the cognition class labeled as ‘remember ‘ , the comprehension class termed ‘understand ‘ and synthesis was changed into ‘create ‘ . They are arranged in a h ierarchal construction, but non every bit stiffly as in the original taxonomy. ( Krathwohl, 2002, p. 218 ) Since Bloom provided the tool that helps research workers to find the scholars ‘ learned preferable behaviour forms after taking a class, Bloom ‘s taxonomy has long been applied by pedagogues, instructional interior decorators in order to orient and accomplish the aims, lesson, and appraisals ( Joyce & A ; Weil, 1996 ) . Furthermore, the cognitive taxonomy has received much attending because of its pertinence in secondary and postsecondary instruction ( Chyung, 2003 ) . Therefore, the research workers have besides used Bloom ‘s taxonomy as an assessment tool to measure pupil public presentation in traditional classs versus on-line simulations ( Boyd & A ; Murphrey, 2002 ) . Based on the consequences of Garrison, Anderson, and Archer ‘s research in 2001 which utilizing Bloom ‘s six degrees of cognitive processing, they noted that over 80 % of scholars ‘ treatment stations ( online ) reflected lower degrees of thought. Similarly, Gilbert and Dabbagh ( 2005 ) reported that about 75-80 % of their pupils ‘ on-line posters were at the lower degrees of Bloom ‘s taxonomy. .In 2006, John DiMarco examined the Bloom ‘s taxonomy and Peschl ‘s manners of cognizing for categorization of larning objects on the PBS.org/teacher beginning Website. By qualitative content analysis, he found that larning objects at PBS.org/teacher beginning were instructionally designed on accomplishing aims that were lower in the cognitive sphere based on the research of Bloom and his column group and the subsequent instantiations of the 1956 work in 2002 by Krathwol and in 2005 by Krumme. Hamad Odhabi, in 2007, conducted a qualitative research in order to see the impact of laptops on pupils ‘ larning utilizing Bloom ‘s larning taxonomy. It concluded that pupils agree that larning with laptops would better pupils ‘ acquisition in the cognitive ( cognition ) and psychomotor ( pattern ) domains. Hasan SA?eker and Sevki KoA?muA?r in 2008 were done a survey which aimed at look intoing the relationship between critical thought accomplishments and in-class oppugning behaviours of English Language Teaching ( ELT ) pupils at the Faculty of Education at Mugla University. The findings of this survey revealed that the pupils in the higher mark group experienced believing procedures more intensively than the lower mark group. Recently, Churches ( 2008 ) updated the revised Bloom ‘s taxonomy to modify behaviours and actions that implemented with digital acquisition. In Bloom ‘s digital taxonomy, coaction has been added as an factor that supports the acquisition procedure. In other words, he presented the Bloom ‘s Digital Taxonomy with a set of rubrics that each of these leads the use of a digital acquisition engineering in order to accomplish Bloom ‘s acquisition degrees. In 2010, Alyson Simpson conducted a classroom-based research to look into the premiss that an information and communicating engineering ( ICT ) undertaking where kids read books and so utilize email communicating to interchange responses with other scholars will back up critical thought. Improvements in critical thought were measured utilizing lingual analysis. Although there were additions in critical thought, there was small student battle with engineering and the treatment problematised the integrating of engineering in the schoolroom through a repositioning of coaction in a blended acquisition context known as book blames. Ertmer, Sadaf and J. Ertmer in 2011 examined the relationships among inquiry types and degrees and pupils ‘ subsequent responses/interactions in on-line treatment forums and the consequences of their research supported the hypothesis that inquiries at the higher degrees of Bloom ‘s taxonomy facilitate higher degrees of pupils ‘ responses. A survey was done by El-Ghalayini in 2011, which presented a systematic design procedure for developing blended classs for undergraduate higher instruction. The instructional design procedure for e-learning was on the footing of instructional design theories and utilised three taxonomies: Bloom Taxonomy, Redeker Taxonomy and Guerra graduated table. It was found out that all the different design methodological analysiss try to supply a set of activities or guidelines that address all or portion of these determination doing procedure to guarantee the quality and/or the cost of the concluding merchandise. The meta-cognitive standards is less likely to be achieved by undergraduate scholars. Birjandi and Alizadeh were developed a study in 2013 to look into the extent to which the books employed for Teaching English as Foreign Language include critical thought accomplishments. a 70 two-item critical thought checklist based on Likert-scale and dwelling of 12 accomplishments ; viz. , comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, rating, tax write-off, initiation, balanced-thinking, multiple perspective-taking, originative thought, constructing community of minds, and cognition. However, the mark accomplishments on the checklist were chiefly based on Bloom ‘s taxonomy. The paper discussed the deficiency of critical thought in the schoolroom and stuffs and proposes some ways to include more critical thought accomplishments in the stuffs.2.1.2. California Critical Thinking Skills TestAn appropriate appraisal plan will lend to learner growing and development, ensuing in increased competency, self knowledge, self esteem, and assurance ( Allen, et al. , 1985 ) . Before 1880s, there were many arguments on definitions of critical thought as there were writers on the topic. In 1987, in order to define a clear consensus definition of critical thought, the Committee on Pre-College Philosophy of the American Philosophical Society ( APS ) began look intoing into the establishing of critical thought definition and its appraisal. A facilitator conducted an anon. , biennial intercommunication between 46 critical thought experts in the Fieldss of doctrine, psychological science, and instruction. They were from different parts of the universe, across the United States and Canada. They could accomplish the first consensus definition, and this research has been called the Delphi Report ( Facione, 1990 ) . On the other manus, critical thought accomplishments are important for each human and society every bit good, hence, set uping a proper trial to measure critical thought is a important undertaking ( Ennis, 1993 ) . There are many trials available and there are besides many ways to measure critical thought accomplishments, such as: standardised trials, locally developed trials, portfolios, essays, and competence/ public presentation appraisal. In Ennis ‘ position ( 1993 ) , about all of standardised critical thought accomplishments trials are with a format of multiple picks which are preferred for establishments in footings of cost, efficiency ; and clip. However, he noted that more researches and development in this country are needed. Before the Delphi Project, based on different theoretical concepts, there were merely three trials available for measuring critical thought accomplishments at the college degree ( Facione and Facione, 1994 ) . California Critical Thinking Skills Test ( CCTST ) developed in 1990 by Peter Facione, used the Delphi definition of critical thought as its conceptual model ( Facione & A ; Facione, 1994 ) . An objectively scored standardised instrument that assesses the cognitive accomplishments dimension of critical thought. It is a 45- minute multiple pick trial with 34 points. There are an overall critical thought mark and five sub-scores can derive from CCTST, and can be used for post-test merely or pretest-posttest designs ( California Academic Press, 1996b, 1996c ) . Technical surveies have been completed on concept, content, and coincident cogency, point favoritism and trouble, and dependability ( P. A. Facione, 1991 ) . Facione and Facione, ( 1994 ) implied that increasing the length of the CCTST to increase dependability would impact its ability to be given during a typical category period. It would besides likely cause increased mental weariness due to the trouble of the inquiries and consequence in reduced dependability estimations. Hence, no dependabilities are given for the subscale tonss ( Jacobs, 1995 ) . In add-on, it is worthy to observe ( CCTST ) does non do differentiation below the belt between gender, ethnicity, degree of critical thought assurance, and major ( P. A. Facione, 1991 ) . The alpha dependability is estimated at.71 ( Jacobs, 1995 ) . From one manus, the trial manual declares that the two signifiers ( A and B ) are statistically tantamount and the same for practical intents ( California Academic Press, 1996c ) . On the other manus, Jacobs ( 1995 ) indicated that a survey of 1,383 pupils at a big university found no important difference on the unchanged points and a important difference in agencies for Form A and B, with signifier B being more hard than organize A and it shows how critical thought is extremely contextually sensitive. Construct cogency is supported in proof surveies by little but important additions in pretest-posttest tonss in experimental groups after a critical thought class was taken. Controls did non do the same additions ( Facione & A ; Facione, 1994 ) . These additions were merely between 0.04 and 1.45 in average tonss, but they were statistically important for the big samples used ( McMorris, 1995 ) . This may explicate why important alterations are non seen in many of the smaller graduated table surveies. However, more psychometric research is required to allow widespread usage of CCTST in order to look into the countries where the trial is strong or weak. Raykovich ( 2000 ) conducted a survey to find whether the California Critical Thinking skills trial discriminate between first semester pupils ‘ and forth semester pupils ‘ critical thought. Consequences of this survey indicated that important additions in the CCTST entire mark were observed in the instance group. Stein et Al. ( 2003 ) were done a study in Tennessee Technological University to research methods of measuring critical thought accomplishments as portion of a public presentation support enterprise since 2000. American College Test ( ACT ) and the California Critical Thinking Skills Test ( CCTST ) were utilized as the appraisal tools. The initial trial demonstrated good face cogency and high standard cogency when correlated with tonss on both ( ACT ) and ( CCTST ) . In Iran, Khalili and Hossein Zadeh ( 2003 ) investigated the dependability, cogency and norm of CCTST Form B. on 405 BSN nursing pupils of Nursing Faculties located in Tehran. The findings showed that the inquiries of trial is sufficiently dependable as a research tool, and all subscales measure a individual concept, Critical Thinking, and are able to separate the individuals with different degrees of critical thought. Husband ( 2006 ) employed the CCTST appraisal tool on a computing machine information engineering unit of direction to look into the effectivity of critical thought learning methodological analysiss. The survey concluded that the average tonss from the post-test were non significantly higher than the pre-test mean tonss. In 2008, Yang and Chou investigated the relationship between critical thought accomplishments and temperaments and the effectivity of different degrees of on-line instructional scheme. Findingss presented that the sweetening in critical thought accomplishments reinforced critical thought temperaments, but the betterment in critical thought temperaments did non increase the degree of critical thought accomplishments. Cotter and Tally in 2009 examined the effectivity of the critical thought exercisings on critical thought accomplishments. It was revealed that the critical thought assignments did non hold a positive consequence on either formal operational idea or critical thought accomplishments. Dehghani et Al. ( 2011 ) conducted a descriptive-correlation survey aimed to see the relationship between pupils ‘ self-efficacy and critical thought in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. The consequences revealed a significantly positive relationship between pupils ‘ self-efficacy and critical thought.2.2 Ex Reading and Critical ThinkingMany research workers have emphasized the importance of including extended reading in foreign linguistic communication course of study ( Day & A ; Bamford, 1998 ; Grabe, 1995 ; Krashen, 1982 ) Extensive reading is an attack to 2nd linguistic communication ( L2 ) reading direction and aims to do covering big sums of reading stuff gratifying for scholars, as Day & A ; Bamford, ( 1998 ) believe ; reading addition without reading hurting. It besides needs to observe that upon scrutiny of Bamford ‘s ( 2000 ) annotated bibliography on ER, one rapidly discovers that a good figure of ER plans use simplified books or ranked readers as the basic reading stuff ( Day and Bamford, 1988 ) . A figure of experimental and quasi-experimental surveies have been conducted to analyze the effectivity of ER and to supply support for the usage of ER in 2nd linguistic communication ( ESL ) and EFL scenes. ER surveies have shown that their participants improved in countries such as reading comprehension, spread outing vocabulary cognition, and heightening composing accomplishments and Many English as a foreign linguistic communication ( EFL ) research workers ( e.g. , Camiciottoli, 2001 ; Day & A ; Bamford, 1998 ; Krashen, 1982 ; Mason & A ; Krashen, 1997 ; Robb & A ; Susser, 1989 ; Yamashita, 2004 ) have suggested ER as a good scheme to better reading proficiency, and a big figure of surveies ( e.g. , Elley & A ; Mangubhai, 1981 ; Greenberg, Rodrigo, Berry, Brinck & A ; Joseph, 2006 ; Hafiz & A ; Tudor, 1990 ; Lai, 1993 ) have confirmed its effectivity in edifice lingual competency ( e.g. , reading ability, vocabulary, composing and spelling accomplishments ) . Numerous schoolroom activities utilizing graded readers have besides been described ( e.g. , Bamford & A ; Day, 2004 ; Nakanishi, 2005 ) . On the other manus, In order to larn English successfully, EFL learners non merely necessitate to get the four macro accomplishments composing, but besides need to develop critical analytical accomplishments. Traditionally, among the four macro accomplishments, the educational accent has preponderantly been on the acquisition of productive accomplishments. The importance of receptive accomplishments, and the development of critical accomplishments, has most frequently been neglected in the context of EFL scenes ; consequently, there has been less infinite to develop critical thought among scholars. Reading is a medium that a instructor usage to further scholars ‘ critical thought and tonss of the text editions include assignments and activities purported to tap into critical thought accomplishments. Distinguishing among four types of reading, it can be said that extended reading ( ER ) is one of the most good, since it promotes the development of critical thought. This means critical thought is an of import accomplishment ESL pupils need to develop from extended reading stuffs which are books of their pleasance to go analytical and witting people about the environment that surrounds them. Learners need to believe about the stuffs they read and use their ain conceptualisations and scholars can larn to hold or differ with the texts they have read in order to show their points of position. Previous surveies on the effects of extended reading ( text-based and on-line stuffs ) had adopted assorted research designs, but few provide deduction for the consequence of extended reading on critical thought accomplishments. The focal point of the present survey is on the relationship between ER and critical thought.2.3 ConcordancerWith the coming of engineering and its attendant impact on stylistics literary surveies, the quality of instruction and acquisition in linguistic communication schoolrooms has been enhanced. An effort has been made to incorporate computing machines, the Internet and computer-aided plan as tools in linguistic communication schoolrooms to ease the instruction and acquisition. The most of import end of modern teaching method is to assist scholars travel beyond the lower order cognitive accomplishments to the higher order believing 1s, including application, analysis, synthesis, and rating ( Bloom et al.,1956 ) . These accomplishments are necessary for scholars to analyse, measure, synthesise, utilize critical penetration, be originative, work collaboratively, work out jobs, and direct their ain acquisition ( Romiszowski, 1996 ) . In order to obtain command of these accomplishments, instructors need to supply larning environments that are learner-centered, reliable, problem-based and collaborative. With increasing figure of research, the good effects of ( on-line ) computer-assisted plans on linguistic communication acquisition have emerged. They have intended to back up the pedagogical concerns in the schoolrooms. Among the modern instruction AIDSs, concordancers characterized as computer-based plans became available in the 1980s and a figure of surveies have been conducted to supply empirical grounds to the effectivity of principal concordancing in linguistic communication schoolrooms ( Hadley, 2000 ; Ilse, 1991 ; Lee & A ; Liou, 2003 ; Someya, 2000 ; St. John, 2001 ) and of import developments began in the 1990s, get downing with publications recommending the usage of principals and harmonies in linguistic communication instruction ( Tribble & A ; Jones, 1990 ) . Concordancers provide a list of frequence happenings in a pre-selected principal and affect exposing the defined points within the current context. They search for happenings of a given word, portion of a word, combination of words, a punctuation grade, affix, or a phrase or construction within a given text principal to demo its immediate context ( Granger, 1998 ; Biber, Conrad & A ; Reppen, 1998 ) . Through this, scholars can develop their ability to detect, to theorize and to place forms in the mark linguistic communication ( Johns, 1988 ) . In add-on, the end product of concordancer hunts and nowadayss scholars with reliable, existent picks that linguistic communication users make and allows them to research and detect ordinary forms of word or sentence use in assorted manners. Therefore, the capableness of contextual illation can be well enhanced by supplying multiple contexts for a given word with the assistance of a computing machine system ( Cobb, 1997, 1999 ) . As a consequence, harmonies have been used for a scope of intents. By utilizing concordancers, the scholars can research characteristics of mark linguistic communication independently, including regulations of grammar, the use in different context, and lexical properties. This, accordingly, leads to data-driven acquisition ( DDL ) ( e.g. Johns, 1994 ) . By this pedagogical attack, scholars are research workers, who discover and analyze regulations and forms embedded in the informations instead than implementing rule application exercisings or following a spoon feeding attack. Prior surveies have shown that a DDL attack creates a learner-centered acquisition ambiance in which scholars are involved in explorative concordance-based undertakings to spread out their linguistic communication experience ( Biber, Conrad, & A ; Reppen, 1998 ) . Furthermore, they can detect the implicit in linguistic communication forms on their ain, and therefore they become active participants in the acquisition procedure ( Brown, 2001 ; Johns, 1997 ; Sun, 1999 ) . Therefore, the data-driven attack utilizing harmony package stimulates the scholars ‘ analytical capacities, improves their expressed cognition of mark linguistic communication, advances critical linguistic communication consciousness, and supports the development of scholar liberty. Furthermore, scholars themselves besides show positive reactions to DDL and utilizing concordancer due to their turning consciousness of descriptive instead than normative linguistic communication ( Chambers, 2005 ; Yeh, Liou, & A ; Li, 2007 ) . Consequently, equipped with Language Awareness ( Hawkins, 1987, Wolff, 1992 ) , Consciousness-raising ( Sharwood-Smith, 1981, Rutherford, 1987 ) and Critical Thinking ( Astleitner, 2002 ; Facione, 2007 ; Paul, 1995 ) through concordancer, scholars change inactive information from the huge sum of different available lingual characteristics into dynamic end product to explicate the linguistic communication regulations in their ain public presentation. Several surveies have been carried out to measure the potency of utilizing concordancer and research attacks to incorporate concordancing tools into linguistic communication acquisition and instruction ( Chen, 2000 ; Cobb, 1997 ; Conrad, 1999 ; Flowerdew, 1993 ; Turnbull & A ; Burston, 1998 ) . Besides, several surveies were conducted to look into the efficaciousness of harmonies in EFL schoolroom ( Sripicharn, 2003 ; Boulton, 2008 ) . In Todd ‘s ( 2001 ) survey, a category of college pupils consulted a web-based principal to assist with their self-corrections of lexical mistakes. The consequences showed that these pupils were able to bring on valid forms from their self-selected harmonies and to do valid self-corrections of their mistakes. Gabel, in 2001, conducted a research in which focused on another possibility of using concordancers, viz. a comparative survey taking at penetrations into the scholars ‘ lingua franca ( IL ) and examined the over-indulgence and under-representation of lingual characteristics in the linguistic communication usage of advanced German EFL pupils. It was concluded that scholars benefited because they tried to bridge the spread between their ain public presentation and that of native talkers. In add-on, in Malaysia, the survey carried out by Daud and Husin ( 2004 ) indicated the potency of a literary text, Othello, and a concordancer in developing and heightening critical thought ability and the findings revealed that there is a important difference between the experimental and control groups in their critical thought ability. In 2003, Sun conducted a survey that endeavored to implement reading plan, Extensive Reading Online ( ERO ) , having specific demands for EFL scholars in Taiwan. He utilised concordancer, stage-by-stage reading scheme preparation, and text note maps. As the consequences, pupils held a positive attitude toward the reading system. Again, in the same twelvemonth, Sun worked on a instance survey by three Chinese college pupils which conducted the acquisition procedure in the concordancer puting. During set abouting a proofreading activity, a web-based concordancer assisted the participants. Four factors evolved the consequences and scholars ‘ larning procedure: ( 1 ) prior cognition, ( 2 ) cognitive accomplishments, ( 3 ) instructor intercession and ( 4 ) concordancer accomplishments. Concordancer is besides good in the acquisition of vocabulary ( Cobb, 1997 ; Zahar et al.,2001 ) . In add-on, the 2nd linguistic communication vocabulary cognition includes balls, such as collocations or parlances ( Nation, 2001 ) . Much of the research on concordancers has focused on grammar and collocation acquisition. It is believed that collocational cognition is hard to get for linguistic communication scholars ( church et.al. , 1991 ) and it ‘s particularly effectual for sentence coevals ( Smadja & A ; Mckeown,1990 ) . Sun and Wang ( 2003 ) , with a category of 11th grade pupils in Taiwan, examined the consequence of concordancing on larning grammatical collocations and they found the inductive group significantly outperformed deductive group in the proofreading undertaking. Similarly, Lee and Liou ( 2003 ) probed into the consequence of pupils as principal research workers by measuring and comparing the lexical public presentation of pupils and the consequences showed th at concordancer searching was good to pupils who employed inductive acquisition schemes. In the field of collocation, in 2005, Chan and Liou carried out a survey to research the impact of utilizing five web-based pattern units on English verb-noun collocations with the assistance of a web-based Chinese-English bilingual concordancer. Consequences indicated that scholars improved significantly after the on-line pattern at one time but regressed subsequently. Furthermore the on-line instructional units with using the concordancer were acceptable to most scholars. In the context of ESL scholars, Horst et Al. ( 2005 ) blended the usage of a harmony, a dictionary, a cloze-builder, a hypertext, and a database with synergistic self-quizzing characteristics in several academic English classs and evaluated the effects of the tools and activities on 150 pupils. The findings evidenced the acquisition additions provided support for vocabulary acquisition. Webb and Kagimoto ( 2011 ) , examined the effects of three factors ( the figure of collocates per node word, the place of the node word, synonymity ) on larning collocations. The consequences revealed that more collocations were learned as the figure of collocates per node word increased, the place of the node word did non impact acquisition, and synonymity had a negative consequence on acquisition. Additionally, few surveies have addressed issues refering the sweetening of scholars ‘ composing accomplishments. In this respect, Yeh, Liou and Li ( 2007 ) carried out another research under the rubric of on-line equivalent word stuffs and concordancing for EFL college composing. They addressed overused adjectives by non-native speech production scholars by assistance of a bilingual collocation concordancer, TANGO. The findings showed that, non merely they improved in the immediate posttest, but besides pupils ‘ word cognition for equivalent word usage was retained as measured two months subsequently in the delayed posttest. Furthermore, in the post-instruction authorship undertaking, pupils avoided utilizing general adjectives, tried to use more specific points to better their overall authorship quality. Sun ( 2007 ) besides examined the effects that the scholar variables had on participants ‘ perceptual experience of the on-line Scholarly Writing Template ( SWT ) . The consequences of the survey showed that the templet had different effects on pupils ‘ scholarly composing procedures and usage of scheme. Indeed, pupils held a positive attitude towards the scholarly authorship templet. Besides, concordancers allow linguistic communication scholars to prosecute in larning more actively and to seek for lingual forms by straight researching computerized principals and concordancers, in other words, concordancers can be used as the key tools in the data-driven acquisition ( DDL ) attack. By computer-based DDL attack, scholars can seek the principal with the aid of a concordancer. In Iran, Tabriz, Jafarpour and Koosha ( 2007 ) studied concordancing stuffs presented through data-driven learning attack and the findings showed that the data-driven attack is extremely effectual in the instruction and larning collocation of prepositions. Another survey in Taiwan explored the DDL attack utilizing harmony roll uping package in instruction of J. K. Rowling ‘s utilizations of the preposition in Harry Potter and the Philosopher ‘s Rock by Lee ( 2009 ) which expressed data-driven acquisition is helpful for pupils both in fixing for their tests and besides for their general English acquisition. In 2011, Chen undertook a research to find if the new tool, WebCollocate, which is based on a big portion of speech-tagged Gutenberg principal could advance the DDL attack and ease the searching of collocations. The consequences indicated that the pupils who used the WebCollocate tool found more proper English collocates. And Thanh ( 2010 ) , in Netherland, designed a study to analyze the consequence of concordancing and staging in developing scholars ‘ cognition of lexical collocations. This survey revealed that scaffolding did non do a important difference in footings of the pupils ‘ ability to place ( myocardial infarction ) collocations but concordancing produced important effects on the topics ‘ overall public presentation in lexical collocation. Further, in the field of interlingual rendition, bilingual concordancers are one the most widely used computer-assisted interlingual rendition tools amongst transcribers. Bourdaillet et Al. ( 2011 ) studied the betterment of the commercial bilingual concordancer, TransSearch, in order to implant a word alliance characteristic. The consequences gained utilizing a big interlingual rendition memory comprising of 8.3 million sentence braces were verified by human rating. Most of the above-named surveies have been done with different ESL or EFL scholars at different degrees of proficiency. Holec ( 1990 ) and Hadley ( 2002 ) claimed that concordancing might be relevant to progress scholars merely as those of lower degrees do non hold plenty lingual resources and analytical accomplishments to get by with reliable informations. In this respect, this survey aims to present scholars who are at the same degree of proficiency and in a homogeneous category as intermediate degree. Otherwise, concerns sing troubles in comprehending and pull outing information from linguistic communication illustrations will be prevailing in linguistic communication schoolrooms ( Sun, 2003 ) . On the other manus, the surveies show that concordancing-based interventions could be good for English acquisition. Although, other surveies have examined the effects of concordancing on assorted facets of linguistic communication acquisition. Yet few old surveies have examined the impact of concordancing on the acquisition of reading accomplishment. Therefore, it may be good to plan concordance-based stuffs with the purpose of developing scholars ‘ reading accomplishments through concordance-based extended reading. Using different reliable narratives alternatively of working on one literary text will promote scholars to be involved with different characters and genres and will perchance do a more optimal usage of concordancer hunts. In other words, larning can be driven by reliable linguistic communication informations ( Johns 1991a, Johns 1991b ) . Since a few surveies have been carried out to turn to the proficiency of reading accomplishment by assistance of computer-based plan, concordancer, the present survey seeks to research the impact of computer-assisted extended readingA direction on EFL scholars ‘ reading comprehension.

An Elephant Vanishes Essay

Explain the role of the kitchen in â€Å"Like Water For Chocolate† by Laura Esquivel and â€Å"The Elephant Vanishes† by Murakami. In Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, food and the kitchen is a means of expressing a range of human emotions. Like Water for Chocolate opens with its most important central setting, the kitchen. Onion-induced weeping quite literally sweeps the protagonist, Tita, into the world, as she is born in the kitchen, crying, amidst of flood of her mother’s tears. Her mother, Mama Elena, is unable to produce milk (due to shock at the recent death of her husband) and Mama Elena gives Tita almost immediately to the house cook, Nacha, who rears the child in the kitchen. Surrounded by the colours, smells, and routines of Nacha’s kitchen, Tita grows up understanding the world in terms of food. She enjoys her isolation in the domain of the kitchen. â€Å"Thanks to her unusual birth, Tita felt a deep love for the kitchen where she spent most of her life from the day she was born† page 10, paragraph two. The story of Tita’s entry into the world marks the first fantastical image of Like Water for Chocolate, initiating the reader into the novel’s magical realism and illustrating the intensity and improbability that characterise the events of the story. The image of Tita flowing into the world in a flood of tears prefigures the sadness and longing that will pervade her life. After Tita’s birth, the flood of tears dries to leave ten pounds of salt to be collected and used for cooking. The practical attitude with which the characters greet this surreal happening helps to establish the supernatural as an accepted part of the characters’ lives. â€Å"Nacha swept aside the residue the tears had left on the red stone floor, There was enough salt to fill a ten-pound-sack- it was used for cooking and lasted a long time† page 10, paragraph two. Outside the kitchen, Tita follows the demanding regime that Mama Elena sets for her daughters. Life is full of cooking, cleaning, sewing, and prayer. This routine is interrupted one day by Tita’s timid announcement that a suitor, Pedro Muzquiz, would like to pay her a visit. Mama Elena greets this announcement with indignation, invoking the De La Garza family tradition that the youngest daughter is to remain unmarried so that she can care for the matriarch in the matriarch’s old age. Tita is dismayed by this rigid tradition. Outwardly, she submits to Mama Elena’s wishes, but privately she questions the family tradition and maintains her feelings for Pedro. â€Å" you don’t have an opinion Tita and thats all I want to hear about it. For generations, not a single in my family has ever questioned this tradition and no daughter of mine is going to be the one to start† page 15, paragraph 3 This cold hearted appraoch to Titas yearning for marriage is what makes Tita retreat into the safe realm of the ktichen, I think the reason why magic realism was applied to food is because of how universal it is. Whereas music and art only apply to some of us, food is in all of our lives. Since magic realism is all about mixing the magic with what’s real, food is the ideal choice. We’ve all heard of metaphors exaggerating the taste of food, but Laura Esquivel’s descriptions of the effects of food are much more elaborate. It’s so descriptive that sometimes we doubt our ideals of what’s real by reading the effects of the recipes. By using food as the medium the author was able to smoothly meld together the magical and real aspects of each chapter. Her isolated childhood in the kitchen gives Tita an outlook on life different from that of her sisters, Gertrudis and Rosaura, and she comes to develop different ideals for herself as she matures. As a young woman, Tita rebels against the family tradition that confines her to a life without love. Her insistent questioning (even though she does not petition Mama Elena directly) of her lot in life can be identified as one of the feminist impulses in the novel. This refusal to accept an assigned and undesirable social role marks the beginning of Tita’s path to self-assertion and freedom. Her love for the kitchen and cooking is a rebelious action against her mother, her realm of the kitchen is the only thing that her mother can not control or do, the kitchen is what keeps her sane from the depressing sitution on the other side of the door. it wasn’t easy for a person whose knowledge of life was based on the kitchen to comprehend the outside world. That world was an endless expanse that began atthe door between the kitchen and the rest of the house, whereas everything on the kitchen side of that door, on through the door leading to the patio and the kitchen and herb gardens was completely hers-it was Tita’s realm. † This quotes proves my point above, the kitchen door acts as a safe guard to the oppressive realm of her mother’s. In an Elephant vanishes one of the major themes of the story is the idea of things being out of balance. This theme is introduced when the narrator tells the editor about the importance of unity in kitchen design, as he states, â€Å"Even the most beautifully designed item dies if it is out of balance with its surroundings. † The narrator later emphasizes the importance of balance between a creature and its environment when he talks about witnessing the change in the elephant’s size in relation to the keeper’s size. He states that the balance in size between the two has become more equal, because the elephant has shrunk or the keeper has gotten bigger, or both. Following the disappearance of the elephant and the keeper, the narrator again expresses the idea that â€Å"things around me have lost their proper balance. † He is no longer able to take action on his own behalf, as he is haunted by this sense that the urban world is out of balance, and he feels that a kind of natural balance has broken down inside him. The imbalance between Tita’s kitchen and outside the kitchen can relate to the elephant vanishes. Tita fells safe in the kitchen and at peace with the â€Å"old† kitchen keeps her in balance. Related to the theme of imbalance is the difference between appearances and reality. The narrator points out that the article covering the story of the elephant’s disappearance is strange, because the reporter tries so hard to maintain that the elephant escaped, when the facts indicate that the elephant had to have almost magically vanished. The characters in the story try to maintain an appearance of normality in the face of an event that defies logic, leading to pointless acts that do not address the nature of the situation. The discrepancy between reality and appearances also arises in the narrator’s job as he basically just goes through the motions, trying to maintain a professional, pragmatic approach although he does not personally believe that a kitchen has to have unity or any of the other maxims his company invokes to sell its products. The narrator finds that he cannot reconcile the differences between appearances and reality, and as he questions his own perceptions, he experiences a sense of disorientation and confusion. Throughout the story, Murakami subtly reveals how the vanishing of the old ways leaves people feeling disoriented and how the new ways of being create a sense of disconnection and unease. This can be said about Mama in â€Å" Like water for chocolate† as she is does not like the idea of Tita marrying . She is scared of modern society perhaps, and is insecure about her future. Mamas death The narrator, for example, performs his job as a public relations executive successfully by espousing the commercial viewpoint that â€Å"things you can’t sell don’t count for much. Because in truth he does not necessarily believe this statement, saying it and operating from this pragmatic mode seem to confound the narrator, confusing him about his purpose in life. Like other Murakami characters, he is also a loner, a single person, living alone with no apparent ties to family or friends also this can be said to Mama Elena, she has distanced herself from her loved ones through t he death of her grand child and of the cruelty committed to Tita . The narrator watches the elephant and the keeper and marvels at their closeness, their special bond. In the wake of the elephant’s disappearance, the narrator feels despondent, more isolated and alone than ever. As is Tita at the end of the novel after Pedro dies. â€Å" Now it would never again be possible to see that light, because she could no longer feel anything. She would but wander through the shadows for eternity, alone, all alone. †

Karen Millen - The Fashion brand Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Karen Millen - The Fashion brand - Essay Example The essay "The Fashion brand" concerns the fashion brand. The company has stores in United Kingdom and other countries. Karen Millen was founded in the year 1981 through the partnership between Kevin Stanford and Karen Millen. The brand continued to expand through acquisitions and partnerships. The company trades from 46 concessions and 84 standalone stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company has spread to 23 countries and has 16 international stores and 57 franchise stores. The company majors in clothing accessories, shoes and clothing. Karen Millen has encountered stiff competition from major rivals like Reiss and French Connection. The French Connection has developed a strong brand identity through heavy embellished eveningwear and dresses. The target market includes young professional women aged 25-35. French Connection has been increasing the product range to include stylish outwears, shoes and dresses. The company has proved to be a major competitor for the Karen Mil ler brand. Both companies seem to have the same target market, necessitating Karen Miller to have differentiated products. French connection offers competitive products, coupled with intensive advertising and promotion campaigns. The brand has turned to internet marketing as it widens its scope of influence in the fashion market. However, the company needs to carve a niche in the stiff fashion market. Reiss is a fashion brand in the United Kingdom owned by its founder, David Reiss. The brand produces feminine clothing. The company has a strong reputation and was declared fashion retailer of the Year in 2003. Reiss competes from the same target market with French Connection and Karen Miller. A strong reputation is its principle asset. Reiss targets young professional men and women. The brand is offering competitive prices and an effective brand equity program. Brand equity can be developed by building, borrowing or buying it. Buying or borrowing brand equity for Karen miller can be d one successfully through acquisitions. Rebranding is one of the ways of reforming brand equity. In business, rebranding entails creating a new name, symbol and design for an established brand. The aim is to develop a differentiated product in the stakeholders mind frame. Rebranding assists in identifying the product or the company from competitors. According to research, rebranding is changing the name of the company, positioning and targeting. This is meant to attract new meanings to the corporate brand and to inform the stakeholders concerning these meanings (Grose 45). In fashion and clothing industry in the United Kingdom, the rebranding can lead to increased revenues. Rebranding the Karen Miller fashion brand entails the use of integrated marketing communications campaigns to communicate the image and the values of the new brand to all the stakeholders. Rebranding is connected to changing slogans, logos, names or a combination of them. Karen Millen fashion brand is using rebran d to appeal to wider market share and increase the sales revenues. The concept of revolutionary and evolutionary rebranding has been incorporated in the strategic rebranding plan of Karen Millen. Evolutionary branding is the concept of minor developments in brand positioning. These include logo change and slogan. Revolutionary rebranding causes major overhauls and identifiable changes which are essentially meant to redefine Karen Millen brand. Through rebranding,

Derrida Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Derrida - Essay Example Further, Derrida asserts that â€Å"all of these aspects are linked with presence and more valued or treasured aspect than the other, which is connected with absence† (Derrida 33). Deconstruction theory presents the metaphysics of presence by locating its ideal binary oppositions and illustrating the speciousness of their order by refuting the potentiality of understanding the superior or powerful element of the hierarchy or order in the absence of its inferior or less powerful counterpart. Refuting an inner or intrinsic and absolute implication or meaning to one of the aspects of the order or hierarchy ‘diffarence’ is unraveled. In this case, Derrida asserts that difference refers to the perceptual sequence of contacts between existence or presence and absence. In this sense, an idea is constructed, understood, and located in terms of what it is not and self-efficient implication is never attained. It is important to note that Western language and thought have al ways been at the center of in determining absolute truth. This presents hurdles or limits on what humans can think or believe. It offers a platform for existence or being and for knowing (how people think). Deconstruction theory failed to identify if God plays a role in determining the absolute truth, which neglects the concepts of uncertainties. Instead, Derrida states that any concept of a fixed center was a structure or configuration of authority imposed on people by their past or by societal institutions (Silverman 44-45). Derrida’s deconstruction theory aimed to call for re-evaluation and re-assessment of all western ideas and values founded on the Kantian critique of human though or reason. Deconstruction principles were built on elemental oppositions, which all dialogue has to highlight if it aims to make reasonable arguments and sound decisions. This is because identity is perceived as constructs, which are in a position to generate meaning via the interplay of differ ence within a scheme of different signs (Derrida 111). Critique of post structuralism movement Post modernist philosophers such as Nietzsche believed that the earth is full of disorder or confusion and it has no objective or aim. Post structuralism refutes the concept of a literary text containing a solitary purpose or meaning or a single being or existence. Instead, post structuralism advocates that every person or reader establish a new and personal meaning, purpose, and being/existence for any given text. Post structuralism has been criticized for the failure to address questions from a realist perception. Post structuralism does little to explain the self-reflective celebration, which gives an individual the freedom to decide and choose any or all subject positions. Post structuralism dismisses the ability of people to learn and understand the world as an entirety on the basis that it is a contemptible effort to construct or constitute grand narratives (Besley 65-69). Derridian ideas reject these arguments and assert that people should be given opportunity to reason or think for themselves. Foucault and his views as a post structuralist and what he says about language or feminism Foucault based his arguments about post structuralism

Biology Article Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Biology Article - Research Paper Example This disruption of the natural growth of the plants containing foreign components that are embedded in the new plants may pose health risks to consumers. Accordingly, this breakthrough in biotechnology is the solution to feed the growing hungry population of the world. However, there is an accompanied risk to human health, environment, and even the eco-political aspects (Charnes, n.d). GA food is an alarming breakthrough in biotechnology. As a consumer, I believe that I have the right to know the sources of the foods that I eat everyday. Arpad Puzstai, one of the researchers in this field even exposed the effects of these GA foods. It was found out that GA potatoes caused impairment in the immune system, reduction of weight, damage of stomach linings and other suggestive signs of viral infection based on their experiment with rats. Despite his revelations, the government still favored large institutions that produce and distribute these goods (Lilliston, 2013). This is a very relevant issue in the field of biology and other relevant fields such as botany, nutrition, health and others. I believe that the government should keep watch of this concern. It is not enough for them to create one click solutions without knowing the consequences. Government funds must be intended for organic farming instead of production of GA foods. Information drives must be done to the public regarding GA foods and how they affect the bodies. Until now they are sold in the market and even priced lower that organically produced goods. Consumers like me should be vigilant about this. This issue should not

Demand for personal guns as fear of crime increases Essay

Demand for personal guns as fear of crime increases - Essay Example Tourists or travellers cannot walk alone during night time in Bahamas because of the possibility of robbery and other massacres. Sexual assaults are one of the major criminal activities in the streets of Bahamas in general and in the beaches in particular. â€Å"Crimes ranging from theft of lawn furniture to home invasions occur, even within gated communities† (The Bahamas 2008 Crime & Safety Report, 2008). Governments failed to give enough protection to the life and properties of Bahamian people or the tourists and the need for a personal gun for self defence is important in the Bahamian society. This paper briefly analyses the need for the possession of personal gun and the trends in gun market with special emphasize to Bahamas. The current trends in gun market are not good for the gun manufacturers, especially in US. The 9/11 incident has created immense demand for the personal guns for the self defence purpose. The trend continued till 2008. But the election of anti-gun liberal Obama as the American president has created concerns among the gun users and manufacturers about stiff laws and the gun sales has come down drastically at present in America. The chart given below shows the US handgun market from 1990 onwards. It is evident from the chart given above that the demand for personal gun has picked up from 2001 onwards. It is because of the fact that the US public were aware of the needs of personal guns after the 9/11 incident. People have realized that their protection and safety cannot be guaranteed by the governments and it is wise to keep some self defending measures all the time. The demand for personal gun has shown an upward trend till 2008. But after that the serious financial crisis forced the public to rethink about the expenditure for personal protection and the sales statistics given below shows that the the economic crisis combined with the

Normative Theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Normative Theory - Essay Example The documentary presented various photographs that revealed the truth about the killings and violation of the human rights. The personal experiences of a U.S. Marine Captain, Brian Steidle were important in contributing towards the film. This example illustrates the importance of the role of media professionals in revealing the truth and how they can be inhibited by local governments who try to exert influence. The assumption of restricted autonomy of the media professionals implies that the government is not always appreciative of the efforts of media and may also feel threatened. This causes them to exert influence on media professionals thereby obstructing the flow of transparent information. But there are other reasons as well why media professionals may not be completely independent. The degree to which a media professional is conscientious various widely and some professionals may be driven by personal motives and interests that can result in deviation from ethical standards. T he case is not new but some media professionals may readily be influenced when given unethical monetary benefits. The influence can be exerted by any institution or individual. However, such cases are common where the government hold is not strong and regulated, and therefore, various other players have immense power to influence. Such governments are characterized by weak relationships between the media and the government due to lack of support and insecurity. The postulate that media professionals possess the right to security and protection in view of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights becomes important when media professionals are threatened due to their profession. Media professionals may be threatened due to various reasons and in most cases is due to the content of their... The assumption of restricted autonomy of the media professionals implies that the government is not always appreciative of the efforts of media and may also feel threatened. This causes them to exert influence on media professionals thereby obstructing the flow of transparent information. But there are other reasons as well why media professionals may not be completely independent. The degree to which a media professional is conscientious various widely and some professionals may be driven by personal motives and interests that can result in deviation from ethical standards. The case is not new but some media professionals may readily be influenced when given unethical monetary benefits. The influence can be exerted by any institution or individual. However, such cases are common where the government hold is not strong and regulated, and therefore, various other players have immense power to influence. Such governments are characterized by weak relationships between the media and the government due to lack of support and insecurity. The postulate that media professionals possess the right to security and protection in view of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights becomes important when media professionals are threatened due to their profession. Media professionals may be threatened due to various reasons and in most cases is due to the content of their work. The matter can sometimes become so serious that a professional threatens his or her life in bringing out the reality.

How Investment in Management Consultancy Can Represent Value for an Essay

How Investment in Management Consultancy Can Represent Value for an Organization - Essay Example The researcher states that an organization may choose to employ management consultant’s services for several reasons and they include consultants specialized expertise access and gaining advice from external sources. The exposure of consultancy firms, as well as their close relationship with several organizations, has resulted in such firms to be well vast with the best possible practices in the industry. However, the application of these consultancy practices from a given organization and transferring them to another can be limited by the particular nature of the situation in question. Consultants are also charged with the responsibility of offering management change assistance in different organizations, coaching skills development, strategy development, technology implementation or operational services improvements. In most cases, management consultants often introduce their own frameworks or property methodologies to assist them in identifying issues and serve as recommend ation basis for more efficient and effective means of conducting their work tasks. Several approaches can be applied by different consultants and can be regarded as being as existing somewhere within a continuum having a prescriptive strategy on one side as well as a facilitative strategy at the other side. When it comes to expert approach, the consultant assumes the expert’s role and offers expert assistance or advice to their clients. In this approach, the consultant is more and collaborates more with the client compared to the case of facilitative approach. In the facilitative approach, the consultant has less focus on the technical or specific expert knowledge leaving most of the consultation process to itself. The facilitative approach is in some cases referred to as the consulting process following its focus on the consultation process In the recent past, most consulting firms have assumed a matrix structure in which a single axis is used to describe a function of the b usiness or the consulting type like operations, strategy, executive leadership, technology, sales and talent management. The second axis focuses on an industry like gas, oil, retail and automotive. These matrix forms together with consultants taking part in either of the matrix cells like a consultant can focus fully on retail industry operation while another consultant focuses on the improvement of the process in the same industry. The main aim of the consultancy is to introduce value in an organization through understanding the intervention choices in relation to the most appreciated intervention style. In an effort to achieve the desired value within an organization, consultants may occupy several positions within a continuum from those led by experts, those that are centered on clients and to both nondirective and directives. Heated debates have come up in relation to continuum position ranges between those that refer to themselves as coaches, mentors, advisors, counselors, cons ultants, and facilitators. Despite the debates, each of the above-mentioned roles needs a specific set of skills, knowledge, and behavior making them related disciplines. Consultants who introduce the desired value to an organization are the consultants who stand out as being the most effective and are considered as to be having the ability to carry out different roles within the required time and are able to move from a client to the other without mixing up their responsibilities.

Starting a Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Starting a Business - Essay Example   From the onset, it was important for him to start thinking about the long-term plans of the business. Franchising or independent action was also considered in the business. Franchising was that where he was to work close when starting the business and taking it to the point where it is needed when running the business becomes easy and profitable in advantage. There was finding that once he became established and secure financially, franchising was a great disadvantage to the business (Bukar and Timothy, 2013). He chose the business as he wanted to manage it and choose the opportunity that has proven to be successful for those that had done the business before. He did not want to gamble on the development of new system. Franchising system that he used enabled him to provide a degree of marketing support. This is mainly an area of national advertising and recognition of name. In the long run, he considered investing in a far less money operating system as an independent service tha n as part of the franchise. He was also not tied to any formula that had been established as he operated independently. This is both an advantage to the business and also a drawback. The drawback that he had here was that there are no guidelines that he was to follow in accessing the services that he offered to the customers. All that he carried out was out of trial and error. As an independent owner, he had to research on every aspect of the business. This was both during and before the lifetime of the business.

The Underneath Essay Example for Free

The Underneath Essay The book I most recently read is The Underneath by Kathi Appelt. The book is a fictional book where all creatures can talk to each other. The book has a strange way of telling its story. The story follows many points view, the cats, Grandmother Snake, the Alligator King, Ranger, Gar Face, and more characters. Somehow all of these characters stories tie up together. The book mainly follows the cat’s story. The story starts of when the calico cat, or the mother cat, which was pregnant was abandoned on the highway trying to look for a home. She then finds her way to an old tilted house where a bloodhound called Ranger lives. She liked Ranger but Ranger had an evil owner called Gar Face. Because of Gar Face the calico cat had to stay under the house, which was called the Underneath. After a while the calico cat gave birth to two kittens, Puck and Sabine, and from them did the calico cat made her rule, â€Å"Stay in the Underneath, never go in the Open. † At that part everyone else’s story starts to connect. Gar Faces story finally comes in, and we learn why he is so evil. The story explains about his past when his father bet him and he ran off into the woods. He was hungry, sad, tired but most of all angry. Later he hunts down this deer which he shot and for hours he chased it until it finally gave up and fell, and he learned two things that day how to hunt and survive in the wild and hatred. Later in the story we find out about Grandmother Snake and the Alligator King and they become very important in the end of the story. But Grandmother Snake is filled with loneliness and hatred from her daughter leaving her and from the jar she is stuck in. The Alligator King also has a rivalry between himself and Gar Face. One day one of the kittens, Puck, went out to the Open and got caught by Gar Face and his mother tries to help but she got caught also, leaving Pucks sister behind with Ranger tied up to his chain. They both were put in a bag and when they were in the bag the calico cat asked her son to promise her to break Rangers chain, and Puck kept his promise. That’s when Gar Face threw the bag with the two cats inside into a pond where the calico cat drowns. In the end the Grandmother snake breaks free from her jar and helps Ranger break free. Puck starts attacking Gar Face and at one point Puck pounced on Gar Face’s face where Gar Face grabbed him and threw him into the lake, and Gar Face kneeled down to pour water o his face from the lake, and the last thing he saw was a big grin from the Alligator King. Then finally Ranger and the two kittens were able to run off to a place far away.

Aqa as Philosophy Revision Notes †Reason and Experience Essay Example for Free

Aqa as Philosophy Revision Notes – Reason and Experience Essay Knowledge and Belief †¢ People can believe things that aren’t true. †¢ For you to know something, it must be true and you must believe it. †¢ Beliefs can be true or false. †¢ Beliefs can accidentally be true, but it isn’t knowledge. Types of Knowledge †¢ Analytic – true by definition – â€Å"Squares have 4 sides†. †¢ Synthetic – not analytic, true or false in the way the word is – â€Å"Ripe tomatoes are red†. †¢ A priori – doesn’t require sense experience to know – â€Å"all bachelors are unmarried†. †¢ A posteriori – can be established through sense experience – â€Å"Snow is white†. All Analytic propositions are known a priori. This doesn’t mean that all a priori propositions are analytic. The main question is â€Å"Are all synthetic propositions a posteriori? † i. e; do we have some knowledge that doesn’t come from sense experience? It is this question that forms the debate between rationalism and empiricism. Rationalism vs. Empiricism †¢ Main dividing questions are: â€Å"What are the sources of knowledge? †, â€Å"How do we acquire it? †, â€Å"How do we get concepts? †. †¢ Rationalism gives an important role to reason. †¢ Empiricism gives an important role to the senses. †¢ Why can’t we use both in acquiring knowledge? Rationalism. †¢ Rationalism claims that we can have synthetic a priori knowledge of the external world. Empiricism denies this. †¢ Rationalists argue that it’s possible for us to know some synthetic propositions about the world outside our own minds, e. g. Maths and morality. Empiricists argue that it is not. †¢ Both rationalists and empiricists accept that we naturally have certain thoughts and feelings inside our minds. Empiricism †¢ An advantage of empiricism is that it allows us to quickly see how we ascertain our knowledge – through our senses by perceiving how the world is, which is a causal process – it requires no mental reasoning. †¢ Empiricists also claim that this is how we acquire our concepts – through our senses. †¢ Once we understand the acquired concepts, we gain analytic knowledge. If we have knowledge that doesn’t come from sense experience – how do we get this knowledge? Rationalists argue that we either gain this knowledge from ‘rational intuition’ or ‘insight’, which allows us to gain this knowledge intellectually, or we just know these truths innately as part of our rational nature. Rationalists may also argue that some, or even all of our concepts are innate of come from rational insight. Do All Ideas Derive From Sense Experience? John Locke – Mind as a ‘Tabula Rasa’ †¢ Locke argues that all ideas derive from sense experience. †¢ He says that the mind at birth is a ‘tabula rasa’ – a blank slate that gets filled up with ideas from the senses. †¢ He refutes the claim of ‘innate ideas’. †¢ Ideas can either be part of a proposition: â€Å"He had the idea that it would be fun to take the day off†; or they can be concepts: â€Å"the idea of yellow†. †¢ Locke says that all our concepts derive from sense experience, and that we have no knowledge prior to sense experience. From Locke’s definition of ‘innate idea’, it follows that everyone with a mind should have the same ideas. However, there is no truth that every person (including people lacking reasoning skills) can assent and agree to. So perhaps, with Locke’s definition, innate ideas are ones that we known as soon as we gain the use of reason. Locke refutes this, saying that we aren’t lacking reason but the knowledge of ideas. For example, a child can’t know that â€Å"4 + 5 = 9† until the child can count up to 9 and has the idea of equality. It is the same thing as knowing that an apple is not a stick – it’s not a development of reason, just the gaining of knowledge of ideas. So therefore, if we must first acquire the concepts involved (through sense experience), the proposition cannot be innate, as no proposition is innate unless the concepts used are innate. Locke argues that the mind has no concepts from birth, and so no truths or concepts can be innate. A Different definition of ‘innate idea’ †¢ Locke’s definition and argument against innate ideas hasn’t been criticized †¢ People who believe in innate ideas don’t accept Locke’s definition †¢ Nativists maintain the view that innate ideas are those which cannot be gained from experience †¢ Nativists tend to argue on how concepts or knowledge can’t be acquired from sense experience †¢ Because we don’t know all concepts from birth, there is some point when we become aware of our concepts †¢ Rationalists argue that experience triggers our awareness of our innate concepts. Experience as a ‘Trigger’ †¢ Children begin to use certain ideas at certain time, and their capacities develop, so why can’t their concepts and knowledge also develop? †¢ Children begin to use certain ideas at certain times †¢ Experience still plays a role – a child must be exposed to the relevant stimuli for the knowledge to emerge, e. g.language. †¢ An idea is innate if it cannot be derived or justified by sense experience. Empiricists on Arguing Concepts John Locke 1. The senses let in ideas 2. These ideas furnish an ‘empty cabinet’ 3. The mind grows familiar with these ideas and they’re lodged in one’s memory 4. The mind then abstracts them, and learns general names for them 5. The mind then has ideas and the language by which it can describe them †¢ However, what does it mean to ‘let in ideas’? †¢ We contrast ideas with sensations, e. g. the sensation of yellow isn’t the same as the concept of yellow †¢ Locke fails to make this distinction David Hume †¢ Hume believes that we are directly aware of ‘perceptions’ †¢ Perceptions are then divided into ‘impressions’ and ‘ideas’ †¢ Both Locke and Hume divide impressions into ‘impressions of sensation’ and ‘impressions of reflection’ †¢ Impressions of sensation come from our sense data and that which we directly perceive †¢ Impressions of reflection derive from the experience of our mind, such as feeling emotions. †¢ Hume says that ideas are ‘faint copies’ of impressions †¢ Therefore, there are ideas of sensation (e. g. the idea of red) and ideas of reflection (e. g. the feeling of sadness, happiness) †¢ Concepts are a type of idea. †¢ Hume’s theory of how we acquire ideas (from copying them from impressions) is a theory of how we acquire concepts) †¢ Locke and Hume both have slightly different versions of how we acquire ideas with which we can think †¢ We start with experiences of the physical world which we get from sense data and experiences of our mind †¢ For Locke, this gives us ideas once we employ our memory to reflect on these experiences †¢ According to Locke, this makes it sound that the remembered experiences are the ideas with which we think †¢ Hume corrects this, and says that we remember and think with the copies of the sensory impressions. Simple and complex concepts †¢ A complex idea is just an idea made up of several different ideas, e. g. a complex idea (a dog) is made up of simple ideas like shape, colour and smell. †¢ This complex idea has a complex impression †¢ We can therefore form complex ideas by abstraction. †¢ As an objection, rationalism raises the question of where do non-empirical ideas come from? †¢ Empiricism is appealing, as we seem to intuitively trust our senses and it easily answers such questions. †¢ However, there are complex ideas that correspond to nothing from our sense experience, e. g. unicorns or God. †¢ So do all ideas derive from sense experience? †¢ Empiricists argue that these complex ideas are made up from simple ideas, which are copies of impressions (e. g. a unicorn is the simple concepts of a horse, a horn, and the colour white, and combined together they give us a unicorn) †¢ Hume and Locke argue that when creating complex ideas, one can only work with the materials that our impressions provide – simple ideas †¢ Complex ideas are no more than altering or abstracting these simple ideas †¢ Therefore, empiricists answer this rationalist objection So Are There Innate Concepts? †¢ What would an empiricists’ analysis of complex concepts like self, causality, substance, etc.be? †¢ These concepts must either be innate, or reached using a priori reasoning †¢ Hume accepts that these complex concepts cannot be derived from experience †¢ However, he states that each of these concepts has no application †¢ These concepts are confused, and we should always use concepts that can be derived from experience †¢ For example, we don’t experience our ‘self’, we experience a changing array of thoughts and feelings. †¢ To come up with the idea of ‘self’, we’ve confused similarity with identity †¢ We do the same with the idea of a physical object †¢ A physical object exists independently of experience, existing in 3d space. †¢ But can experience show us something that exists independently of experience? †¢ If I look at a desk, look away, and then look back again, the desk must have existed when I wasn’t looking at it. †¢ I can’t know that my experience was of the same desk, only that the experiences are similar †¢ When coming up with the concept of a physical object that exists independently of experience, I confuse similarity with identity. †¢ Hume concludes that these concepts are incoherent confusions †¢ This can be objected though †¢ This makes most of our common-sense understand and analysis of the  world incorrect – we know that our concepts are coherent. †¢ Empiricism now seems to challenging to accept, as it makes our concepts ‘illusory’. †¢ The fact that we cannot derive the aforementioned from experience shows that they are innate †¢ Empiricists therefore have a flawed argument – explaining our most abstract concepts is an argument that these concepts are not derived from experience. †¢ Does this therefore mean that they’re innate or arrived at through rational intuition? †¢ One reason to think they’re innate is that children use these concepts before they develop rational intuition. †¢ Rationalists therefore argue that experience is the trigger for the concept Does all knowledge about what exists rest on sense experience? Hume’s Fork †¢ We can have knowledge of two sorts of things: ‘Relations between ideas’, and ‘matters of fact’ †¢ Relations of ideas are propositions like ‘all sons have fathers’ †¢ Hume argue that all a priori knowledge must be analytic, and all knowledge of synthetic propositions must be a posteriori †¢ Anything that is not true by definition (‘matters of fact’) must be learned through the senses †¢ Hume’s ‘matters of fact’ are essentially analytic truths. Matters of Fact †¢ Hume says that the foundation of knowledge of matters of fact is what we experience here and now, or what we can remember †¢ All our knowledge that goes beyond the aforementioned rests on casual inference †¢ For example, if I receive a letter from a friend with a French postcard on it, I’ll believe that my friend is in France. †¢ I know this because I infer from post mark to place †¢ I think that where something is posted causes it to have a postmark from that place. †¢ If the letter was posted by my friend, I believe that he is in France. †¢ I ‘know’ this because I rely on past experiences. †¢ I don’t work out what causes what by thinking about it †¢ It is only our experience of effects and causes that brings us to infer what cause has what effect. †¢ Hume denies that this is ‘proof’ †¢ He says that knowledge of matters of fact, beyond what we’re experience here and now relies on induction and reasoning about probability. Induction and Deduction †¢ The terms relate to a type of argument †¢ Inductive is where the conclusion is not logically entailed by its premises, but supported by them †¢ If the premises are true, the conclusion is likely to be true. †¢ The French letter example is an example of inductive reasoning. †¢ A Deductive argument is an argument whose conclusion is logically entailed by its premises †¢ If the premises are true, the conclusion cannot be false †¢ E. g. Premise 1: Socrates is a man; Premise 2: All men are mortal; Conclusion: Socrates is mortal. Using a priori intuition and demonstration to establish claims of what exists †¢ Rationalists argue against Hume, saying that some claims about what exists can be grounded on a priori intuition. †¢ A priori demonstration, or deduction, is deduction that uses a priori premises †¢ Rational intuition is the view that you can discover the truth of a claim by thinking about it  Descartes †¢ Descartes says that we can establish the existence of the mind, the physical world and God through a priori reasoning. †¢ He attacks sense experience, and how they can deceive us †¢ We can’t tell if we’re being deceived by an evil demon through our senses, as what we are experiencing will be false †¢ We can establish that we think, and therefore we exist, even if our senses do deceive us (as we don’t need our senses to know our mind exists) †¢ This conclusion of thinking and doubting that we exist was gotten to by pure reasoning. †¢ He also establishes that the mind can exist from the body. †¢ Descartes says we don’t know what causes these experiences †¢ It could be an evil demon, God, or the physics world exists exactly how we perceive it. †¢ If it was God, it would mean he was a deceiver as we have a very strong tendency to trust our senses †¢ If it was a demon, God must have created this demon to deceive us, and because God is perfect by definition, this would mean God isn’t a deceiver, and so he can’t have made a demon – so there must be some kind of a real world †¢ Through a priori intuition and reasoning, Descartes says that the external world must exist, because God exists, and he would not deceive us. Conceptual Schemes and Their Philosophical Implications †¢ Humans don’t all have the same concepts †¢ There are two distinguishable elements to our experience: the data of the senses, and how this data’s interpreted by our concepts †¢ By the latter, it implies that different people would impose different conceptual scheme if they have different concepts. †¢ Conceptual relativism claims that because our conceptual scheme affect how people experience and understand reality, people with different conceptual schemes have different realities. An Implication: Conceptual relativism. †¢ We assume people have different ‘realities’ because we can’t translate their to ours †¢ It assumes language ‘constructs’ reality to say reality is relative to our conceptual schemes †¢ It would mean that reality is dependant on language, which isn’t true – we express our realities by language †¢ A proposition in one conceptual scheme can be true without needing to be express in another set of scheme. †¢ This means that there isn’t one set of scheme with how the world works †¢ An objection is that people argue that the relation between experience anc conceptual schemes doesn’t make sense. †¢ Benjamin Whorf says that languages organize our experience of the world †¢ This is like trying to organize a wardrobe itself and not the clothes in it †¢ If a conceptual scheme organizes our experience, then our experience must be comprised of individual experiences †¢ Conceptual scheme all have a set of experiences in common †¢ We can pick out individual experiences like smelling a flower, feeling cold, etc. †¢ Any conceptual scheme with these sorts of experiences will end up similar to our own, despite the concepts one hold and their language, and so translation between two different conceptual schemes will be possible. †¢ There may be small parts that can’t be translated, but this only leads to a very mild form of conceptual relativism. †¢ We can’t necessarily combine conceptual scheme †¢ An example is that we can have more or less colours in our vocabulary, and so can describe things in different ways. †¢ The Greeks thought that there was only one colour – bronze, and that everything else was a different shade of bronze. †¢ This doesn’t mean they saw everything in what we call ‘bronze’, it’s just how they described their experiences. †¢ We can therefore only state things depending on the concepts we have.