Educational Practice in a Multilingual Context Essay

Educational Practice in a Multilingual Context - Essay Example The writer is a Sri Lankan, born into a Hindu Brahmin family and the eldest of three sisters. Brahmin is the name of the priestly caste, the highest in the Hindu social system. In fact, the word Brahmin translates to "divine" and its role has been defined as one of teacher or advisor. In the Hindu Sri Lankan society, members of the Brahmin caste are tasked with officiating at religious rites and are responsible for studying and teaching the Vedas. The oldest and most developed of the Dravidian languages is Tamil. It is also the primary language of the minority Tamil region in Sri Lanka. However, majority of Sri Lanka is dominated by people who speak Singhalese, which accounts for the fact that this is the nation's official language. All Sri Lankan children are required to learn Singhalese. In the first two years of primary school, Tamil children were taught Singhalese as an additional language, which accounts for the writer being able to understand, read, and write but not speak Singhalese. Thus, this writer calls herself bilingual rather than multilingual because she does not consider herself competent in both productive and receptive skills in Singhalese, unlike what could be said for her proficiencies in both Tamil, her native language, and English, her second acquired language (Porter, 1990). In the central or up country part of Sri Lanka where the writer was born, the Tamil accent is different from the Jaffna Tamil accent spoken in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. Jaffna Tamil is regarded as a higher form of the language. The reason for this status-defining characteristic of the language is that in former years, Tamils from the up country were brought to work in the tea plantations of India by the British Empire. When her family moved to Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka in the early 80s, she found it difficult to adjust to the Jaffna Tamil accent. It was so difficult that she felt like she was learning a new language altogether. However, upon her mother's death in the late 80s, she and her family went back to the up country, allowing the writer to switch back to her Tamil up country accent once again. In the school where the writer spent her primary schooling, the medium of instruction was both Tamil and Singhalese. Classes were taught separately in either language, and since she never had friends for whom Singhalese was the primary language, she never learned to speak Singhalese fluently as much as she did Tamil. Over the years, she improved her competence in both productive and receptive skills in Tamil, and until she migrated to England, Tamil was her language for study and communication with friends and family. At an early age, she was reading Tamil children's magazines and books, and by the time she was 8 years old, she was already reading complex historical novels. This not only improved her reading abilities but also encouraged her to read proficiently in front of the whole class with more confidence (Rossell & Baker, 1996). The first encounter of the writer and her sisters with the English language was at home, when their parents preferred to be called using the English words "Daddy" and "Mummy". In Sri Lanka, English was considered a higher status language, and her mother must have thought that this would give the family some added social

Children’s Behavior is Not Adversely Affected by Daycare :: Expository Essays Research Papers

Children’s Behavior is Not Adversely Affected by Daycare Recently daycare centers have been in the spotlight because of the argument that children who spend a lot of time in daycare tend to have more behavior problems such as over aggressiveness when compared with kids who stay home with their mommies. The following two points of views concerning this controversy illustrate the divide between those who believe daycare is benevolent and those who believe it to be detrimental to children. This first article concerns the results of an ongoing study given by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development about the effects that daycare may have on a child. According to the Newsweek article â€Å"A new battle over day care† (April 30, 2001), this study indicates that kids who spend more than 30 hours a week in child care are three times more likely to be aggressive, defiant and disobedient by the time they reach kindergarten than those who are raised by maternal care. The study on the effects of childcare had made many working parents anxious. Sarah Friedman, scientific coordinator of the study, says, â€Å"The easy answer is to cut the number of hours children are in care†. However, she also mentioned that scientists do not know yet if the hours spent in daycare are the only factors that may increase the child’s aggressive behavior. On the other hand, another article reports that some people believe that daycare won’t ruin the kid’s behavior. Early press reports relied on the account of just one long time childcare critic, Jay Belsky, out of the 29 researchers involved and thus the data in the study may have been misrepresented. NICHD researcher Martha J. Cox of the University of North Carolina says, â€Å"He is more extreme in his views than the rest of us†. Also, Susan B. Campbell, a team member of the University of Pittsburgh, mentioned that children’s behavior such as demanding attention, pushing, teasing, and fighting are completely typical for children whether or not they attend daycare. My opinion about this topic is that we should help our society make life a little easier for moms and dads who must manage the balance between work and family. Help for those parents who need childcare to find a high-quality daycare for their children is essential. We should keep in mind that for many of us, childcare is not a choice but an economic necessity.

Document Imaging and the Role of Health Information Management Essay

An automated record system will ultimately replace paper-based record to provide timely access to health information for health surveillance, resource planning, and health care delivery (e. g. , statistical reports can easily be generated to display health care trends, and so on) (Green & Bowie, 2004). According to Green & Bowie (2004), there are three types of automated record systems, which include: Electronic Health Record (EHR) or computer based patient record (CPR); Electronic Medical Record (EMR); and Optical Disk Imaging or Document Imaging. The high capacity physical media for storage of medical information, the increasing CPU power for processing complex images, and the advancement in the imaging and workflow technology has underpinned the growth of document systems (Armoni, 2000). Optical Disk Imaging or document imaging which provides an alternative to the traditional microfilm or remote storage systems because records are converted to an electronic image and saved on a storage media; optical disk imaging uses laser technology to create the image (Green & Bowie, 2004). Based on Green and Bowie (2004), a scanner is used to capture paper record images onto the storage media allowing for rapid automated retrieval of records. American Management System (AMS) architects an enterprise-wide workflow and imaging solution in support of health information management (HIM), financial services (PFS), and human resources processes (Armoni, 2000). Based on Armoni (2000), the AMS solution has eliminated the paper problem, saved record storage spaces, enhanced the productivity, and reduced labor cost. Most profound is the impact of the HIM management. Many headaches of the paper-based system have been eliminated as one physician user of the system commented, ‘†¦hours-long delays getting the old chart, lost medical record, charts lost, the need to store records off-campus, etc†¦ no longer occur with electronic medical records’ (qtd. n Armoni, 2000). As Armoni stated (2000), physicians are able to make better medical decisions with the system because they can access the patient’s records efficiently and timely from anywhere and at any time; the availability of the files for more than one person is a great advantage with the system; more importantly, the system is able to capture information more accurately, thus reducing the unnecessary errors while increasing the efficiency.

Social Class Differences On The Long Run Essay - 1403 Words

Income equality has been on a steady rise since 1970 in both the United States and Europe. Over the past several years, many researchers, such as Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez have been conducting and publishing empirical studies which indicate that economic inequality is growing in wealthy countries, like those in Europe and the United States. In fact, according to a graph published in Piketty and Saez’s study â€Å"Inequality in the Long Run,† both the United States and Europe’s income and wealth inequality generally decreased from 1900-1970, and then started increasing in the time period after that. The results of this study suggest that social class differences may be growing in the long run. This paper will examine this graph from the perspectives of both Adam Smith and Karl Marx. Using Marx and Smith’s findings in German Ideology and Wealth of Nations, this paper will discuss Marx and Smith’s main theories on capitalism and describe how the se theories can be applied to the interpretation of the graphs in the study â€Å"Inequality in the Long Run.† This paper will also discuss the similarities and differences between Smith and Marx’s interpretation of the data. Smith’s theory of capitalism, described in his book Wealth of Nations, discusses the ideas of the division of labor, self-interest, and the real value of products. According to Smith, the division of labor arises from a human’s ability to exchange goods. In the Wealth of Nations, Smith discusses how it is a part ofShow MoreRelatedWuthering Heights By F. Lockwood881 Words   |  4 Pagesable to take on the manners of the genteel with their achievements in social status. 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