General Muslim Religion Essay

Islam is the world’s second great monotheistic religion (Armstrong, 2002). Islam, an Arabic word, comes from a root word meaning commitment or surrender: hence the foundation of Islam is submission to the will of the Only God, Allah. The word ‘Muslim’ also itself means ‘one who lives his life according to Allah’s will (Esposito, 2002). Allah also has laid down the five pillars of foundations of Islam which are: 1. Confession of faith (shahada): the basic idea of Islam which is submission to Allah’s will 2. Prayer (salat): An exercise done five times daily to remember Allah’s influence in a Muslim’s life 3. Fasting (Roza): In the month of Ramadan for a month 4. Almsgiving (Zakat): Annually by rich Muslims at the rate of 21/2% of wealth 5. Pilgrimage (hajj): Once in a lifetime What holidays or events are important to your religion and why? The Muslims follow the Islamic calendar which is based on the position of the moon and their holidays fall accordingly to it. This includes 1. New Year which for them is the first day of Hijra (migration) when we celebrate Prophet Muhammad’s departure from Mecca to Medina in AD622 2. 12th Rabi-ul-awwal that is the birthday of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) 3. Shab-e-Baraat (night of forgiveness): In preparation of Ramadan, Muslims seek to forgive old grievances against each other and beg for mercy from their Lord 4. Lailat-ul-Qadr (night of power) when the Holy Quran was revealed to the Holy Prophet. It takes place on the 27th of Ramadan. 5. Eid-ul-Fitr which takes place after Ramadan and is like Christmas to the Muslims 6. Hajj: The pilgrimage which constitutes the fifth pillar of Islam is one of the most important events in the Muslim calendar and takes place in the month of Hajj 7. Eid-ul-Azha: Another Christmas type celebration which celebrates the end of the Meccan pilgrimage and animal sacrifices are made during the three days How does your group handle conflict? What are some examples of conflict? If there are criminal or family conflicts, they can be resolved through Islamic courts which decide the cases according to Shariah or the Islamic law. These are practiced in almost al Muslim countries though such Shariah courts are disallowed in western countries and over there Muslims must follow the law of the country they are residents of. One of Britain’s MPs recently suggested that Shariah courts be allowed in Britain also but this created uproar by non-Muslims who were afraid of Islamization. Other then that, if the solution of an issue is not mentioned in the Quran or its explanation is murky, knowledgeable Islamic scholars gather together to find an answer to a certain problem and it then becomes a rule of the Shariah. This practice has been prescribed by Allah to keep Islam updated with emerging problems in this fast changing world. What is the focus of your religion? The focus of Islam for Muslims is again submission to Allah’s will. This can be done through reading, understanding and following the word of God, which Muslims believe to be the Holy Quran. They should also follow the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) called the Sunnah and only then can they live the life of a true and complete Muslim. For the Western world though, the focus of Islam has always been its fascist beliefs and what they consider to be its outdated traditions, not understanding that there is only a minority of Muslims who distort the name of Islam by interpreting it so harshly. Who are your current leaders? Who are leaders of the past? Like most religions, Muslims have also had pious men of God lead them by example. There have been a total of 124000 prophets sent by Allah though the Quran only mentions 25 of them. The first prophet was Hazrat Adam and the final and undoubtedly the greatest prophet was our last prophet, Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH). Allah revealed in the Quran that no more prophets shall come after the Holy Prophet (PBUH). After the prophets, came numerous Caliphs or religious leaders. Currently, tough there are learned Islamic scholars in the Muslim world; there are no leader as such. The Holy Prophet (PBUH) in the words of Allah was the Seal of the Prophets. How do your members participate and what is expected? All Muslim males are required to congregate in a mosque for the five daily prayers, especially the afternoon Friday prayers (Clark, 2003). For Muslim women, assembly in mosques is not mandatory. Other then that, all Muslims are required to uphold the basic principles of Islam by fulfilling all their obligations. Are there any special requirements, such as fasting, personal sacrifice? Fasting is the third pillar of Islam and without fasting, a Muslim is incomplete. It is prescribed for Muslims in the form of a month long abstinence from food and drink, accompanied by intense devotional activity. Physical relations and swear words are also prohibited to be performed or uttered. Similarly, smoking, losing temper, telling lies and all negative activities are also discouraged. Fasting, as is made clear by Allah, is not to be taken as self torture but mainly a way for Muslims to learn about patience, fortitude and self sacrifice and also to realize the plight of the needy and poor. During Eid-ul-Azha, Muslims are also required to sacrifice goats in God’s way and share the meat with the poor. Where do you see your religion in 25 years? What changes have occurred recently? Keeping in mind the fast growing popularity of Islam, I see Islam in 25 years, as the world’s largest religion. This is because as the concept of religion is dying in the west and more churches are being converted to museums and restaurants, Muslims, now more than ever are embracing their faith with a greater fervency and non-Muslims are also converting to Islam which they accept as a complete way of life and not just a religion. Muslims have now grown more receptive to Western ideas and Ijtehad or consensus helps keep Islam updated with the modern world. How has the modern world changed the direction and or movement of your religion? The recent of War on Terror, which often tends to depict Islam as a rigid and extremist religion has resulted in more Muslims delving deeper to understand their religion (Lewis, 2004). This has led to increased knowledge of Islam and a growing number of Muslims defending their faith as actually a very flexible one. My religion’s name has been besmirched by a few misguided individuals who believe suicide bombings and terrorist activities are completely acceptable in the eyes of God which is not at all the case. Islam’s very basis is peace. Are there any other validated forms of the religion practiced? What are some of the factors that have contributed to changes in ideas or customs? The Muslim sect is predominantly divided into Sunnis (around 80%) and Shiahs. The major difference between them is the way in which divine guidance is discovered. Sunni Muslims take their stand on the consensus of the community making known the Sunna (Holy Prophet’s example) of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Shiah Muslims look instead to inspired teachers and Imams who are descendents of the Holy Prophet (PBUH). Other sects include the Aghakhanis who are followers of the Aga Khan who considers himself a spiritual leader sent by God. His followers believe the five pillars of Islam to be non-mandatory, preferring to give charity to the poor instead. They don’t share the Muslim taboo associated with drinking. Many believe theses changes have occurred due to undue influence of the West. Other sects are the Qadianis and Bohris. Conclusion Muslims all over the world follows a religion known as Islam which is a monotheistic religion. The word Islam means to submit oneself to god. There are almost 2 billion Muslims around the world practicing the teaching of Islam making it the second largest religion of the world. The follows the teachings of Prophet Mohammad on whom a holy book Quran was revealed. The faith of a Muslim is based on five pillars of Islam that are tauheed, salaat, zakat, hajj, and fasting. References Book Armstrong. (2002). Islam: A Short History. Esposito, J. L. (2002). What everyone needs to Know about Islam. Clark. (2003). Islam for Dummies. Lewis. (2004). The Crisis of Islam.

Moral Philosophy & Sport – Hockey Violence

Karen Kyung Fuhrmann – PHL376H1S – February 15, 2013 Fist Fight: The NHL Doesn’t Need Goons Introduction Fighting in NHL hockey is illegitimate; it is not an essential part of the game and is merely gratuitous violence. There is no need for a â€Å"goon† on the roster of any hockey team, and fighting should be prohibited in the NHL.This paper will make the above argument in three parts: the first part of the paper will show that such gratuitous violence is not a necessary component of the structure of the game; the second part will show the counter argument for the legitimation of such violence; and the third part will provide a refutation of the counter argument. Fighting is Illegitimate in NHL Hockey The reason why fighting is illegitimate in NHL hockey is that it is gratuitous violence.Such violence is illegitimate as it gives rise to what Jim Parry calls a genuine moral problem, which occurs â€Å"when violence exceeds what is necessary for its succes s, whether used instrumentally or not† (210). In hockey, the primary aim is to score the most goals to win and fighting does not contribute significantly to that aim. There are other forms of hockey, like pond hockey or pick-up hockey, which do not include fighting.Fighting in NHL hockey is a mere consequence of a dominant model of competition, where external rewards can only be won by one party at the loss of others (McMurtry 205); this is translated into the commercial model of NHL hockey, and according to McMurtry, â€Å"†¦well-known and systematic pathologies of competitive conflict – violence, cheating†¦ and so on – are a law-like consequence of the dominant structure of competition and not a problem of competition as such† (201).In submerged and free models of competition, however, such pathologies do not occur (or as often) as in dominant models, because there are no ‘zero-sum’ rewards (external rewards that only benefit one p arty at the expense of others) to motivate pathological behaviour like fighting. Fighting is thus an inessential part of the hockey game. It is merely a negative effect of the dominant model of competition. The benefits of fighting (such as intimidation) do not outweigh its disadvantages (such as serious physical injury and wasting time) for ecuring victory – such violence exceeds what is needed to succeed and is a genuine moral problem. Counter Argument Fighting occurs to deter future illegal assaults from the opposing team and helps keep more dangerous play at bay. First of all, fighting serves as an informal mode of social control, because it is near impossible for a referee to view most illegal assaults (like cross-checking, spearing, etc. ) that occur around corners, nets, or when an official’s back is turned; especially with the speed and continuous play of hockey (Colburn 168).Colburn asserts that â€Å"†¦to accommodate both these conditions of the game an d also the demand for hard-hitting, contact type of sport, rule-enforcement in ice hockey has, to a greater degree than in any other major sport, been partially delegated to individual players† (Colburn168). Moreover, fighting serves as a deterrent for more serious assaults (with hockey sticks, and etc. ), as they give rise to intimidation and give enforcers a mental advantage over opposing players. Players view fighting as more honourable than illegitimate assaults (a. k. a. heap shots), and fighting directly calls out such occurrences. Unlike cheap shots, there are implicit standards for fighting known as â€Å"the code†. Such standards for fighting affirm that only two players are allowed to fight at a given time, both players must give some form of consent to fighting, and both players must drop their gloves. It is a misunderstanding that fighting in the NHL is gratuitous violence and Colburn states that â€Å"†¦formal rules of ice hockey do not coincide with the informal, social norms held by players as these pertain to the definition of violence† (156).Refutation Fighting does not help prevent more serious injuries from occurring/recurring, and the issue of accurate surveillance by referees can be remedied by removal from the game and future game suspensions. A 2012 article in the Canadian Medical Association stated that research from Boston University School of Medicine has shown that repeated head trauma can lead to permanent brain damage, and claimed that hockey enforcers are especially vulnerable with their consistent fighting. What researchers†¦ have found in the brains of three prominent hockey players – Rick Martin, Reggie Fleming and Bob Probert – should be enough to sway minds to impose a ban on all forms of intentional head trauma, including fighting, along with severe deterrent penalties such as lengthy suspensions for breaches† (Kale 275). With fighting and other intentional head hits, hockey has now been listed as a sport that results in chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). CTE is associated with memory disturbances, behavioural and personality changes, Parkinsonism, and speech and gait abnormalities (Kale 275).Moreover, players often overestimate the level of protection their face masks and helmets offer. This can be a contributing factor to cheap shots and reckless play, which in turn leads to fighting. These factors reveal that fighting merely contributes insult to injury. Conclusion Overall, fighting does not have a legitimate place in NHL hockey and thinking otherwise can lead to serious injury for all involved parties. Harsher penalties for illegal assaults and fighting should be implemented for both of them to stop occurring (immediate removal and future game suspension) and remove any gratuitous violence from NHL hockey.Sources Colburn, Kenneth Jr. â€Å"Honor, ritual and violence in ice hockey. † Canadian Journal of Sociology. 10. 2 (1985). 153-168. W eb. Juhn, Mark, et al. â€Å"Violence and Injury in Ice Hockey. † Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine. 12 (2002):46-51. Web. Kale, Rajendra. â€Å"Stop the violence and play hockey. † Canadian Medical Association Journal. 184. 3 (2012): 275. Web. McMurtry, John. â€Å"How Competition Goes Wrong. † Journal of Applied Philosophy. 8. 2 (1991) 201-210. Web. Parry, Jim. â€Å"Violence and aggression in contemporary sport. † Ethics and Sport. Ed. Mike McNamee. London: E & FN Spon, 1998. 205-224. Web.

Effective staff development programme for nurses Research Paper

Effective staff development programme for nurses - Research Paper Example A Clinical Nurse Educator is a registered professional nurse with an advanced education, including postgraduate clinical and educational training combined with several years of expertise in a healthcare specialty (Coe, n.d.). A combination of clinical expertise and a passion for teaching are two of the fundamental skills that are needed by nurse educators (March & Ambrose, 2010). Nurse educators should have research and writing skills needed to identify learning needs and develop the right educational programmes and teaching strategies for their target learners (March & Ambrose, 2010). They should also have classroom teaching skills, where they are prepared to design and assess academic and continuing education programs for nurses and clinical staff (Coe, n.d.). At the workplace, they design informal continuing education programs that aim to enhance professional competencies as part of the individual learning needs. In addition, nurse educators serve as leaders who redefine processes for improved work-flow, document the results of educational programs and assist staff, students and patients through the learning process (Coe, n.d.). Nurse teams work closely with healthcare professionals and patients to develop enhanced disease outcomes and innovative approaches for patient management, which range training of professionals on new treatment protocols to working with patients and healthcare workers to instruct, train, advice and provide clinical support (Coe, n.d.).

Vertical Integration Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Vertical Integration Strategy - Essay Example In adapting its strategies to market conditions, Smithfield has taken a cost leadership strategy, combined it with a differentiation strategy (lean pork) where it has a proprietary advantage, and made an efficient value chain as the case study demonstrates (Thompson, Strickland, & Gamble, 2008, p. C-429). As a leader in the concept of bringing efficiency to vertical integration, the company has combined farming, feeding, processing, and distribution into an award-winning, highly profitable operation. The next logical step for the company is to expand its operations to bring more capacity and higher profitability. The problem is that community in which it seeks to build does not want any more pig farms for a host of reasons; not the least of which is the natural but noxious result of raising livestock. In terms of the ethical and socially responsible business practices, the company has some specific issues. One of these is that in some ways, management seems to be out of touch with th e real issues. One of the environmental efforts touted by the organization is its contribution to wetlands recovery, as well as recycling cardboard. These are worthy things to do, certainly, but the company position on these issues is not relevant to the more pressing issues it is facing. As one author notes, to â€Å"address ethics problems, managers first have to recognize that conflicts of interest exist† (Vickers, 2005, p. 26). With all due respect to the organization, touting its recycling efforts and energy conservation efforts is insufficient. Under a strict utilitarian analysis, the company has no real moral duty and fairs relatively well with the argument that its actions benefit more people (international food supplier, working to reduce fat in the American diet) than those few North Carolina residents who are hurt by the negative side effects of foul odor or some pollution in the water. If a deontological

Feminist Criticsm Gendered Lives Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Feminist Criticsm Gendered Lives Paper - Essay Example No doubt, the whole show has captivated millions if not billions of television viewers many of whom are glued to their seats relishing every action, words, color, walk and talk of the regal queens, kings, princes, princesses and the nobility from London and elsewhere. Their stately, dignified bearing also equals the royal showcases of the UK from the Goring Hotel and Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey. All the color and splendor of the occasion has greatly enhance the relevance of the monarchy in our time through the power of media notably television. Keyword: UK – United Kingdom 3 That television is educational can no doubt be more explicit and strategically relevant through a quadrant of colors and technology in one of the most widely covered television programs of our generation that is the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton in London, England. Probably one of the most elaborately detailed programming in television and video industry, the coverage has gi ven everyone not only inspired viewing but an idea of the workings of the royalty in present times and a glimpse of its rich historic past. That’s information and television programming at its most effective medium participated in by all accredited stations from all corners of the world via satellite lead by such giants in the trade as the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC is known as the world’s oldest and biggest broadcasting outfit) playing the role as the anchor station for its partners from all points of the world. Without modern television, the event would be just one of a small family affair as Prince William has been reported to have quipped in jest to his father-in-law. How could it be when the British royalty has been in constant public censure for taking a huge chunk of taxes paid for its upkeep. They must rekindle the reputation, pride and joy of Her Majesty, Queen of England as one of the few surviving monarchies in the world. Television programming an d sharing the regal splendor, pomp and color to the world is the biggest and world-widest way in reliving what was once and still mighty and proud monarch. This time with some twists bigger but surprisingly silent as a non-issue compared to that of Diana’s breach of the time-honored royal protocols (The deceased Princess of Wales has been 4 known to be at odds with the royal family on the issue of her close affinity and constant contact with the public). Subjects and Kings are supposed to be miles apart. But not anymore, traditions have been effectively broken with television bringing the unspoken words of the breach in festive streaming colors. Television brings wedding pageantry to the world, as AP (2011) said in the entertainment headline. Prince William maybe the man of the hour, his boyish grins and toothed smiles captured on the wide screen but it was Kate, lovely in her long gown and made more adorable with her sympathetic eyes, who represented the dreams and aspiratio ns of the common people. What would life be without women? Have you ever thought of this very lonely situation of living in a world without women? The situation is pretty much the same of the question in reverse of a world without men. However, that is not the case in the original order of things (Creation story). Without women,

Analyze the role of a manager within the functional areas of business Essay

Analyze the role of a manager within the functional areas of business - Essay Example The essay critically analyzes the role of a manager within the functional area of business with regards to the University of Phoenix MBA Overview Module. Managers use the marketing role to identify the type of products and services they can offer their clients. The marketing role also allows managers to advertise their supplies to customers and ensure they meet the needs of their customers(Phoenix, n.d). Through marketing, managers learn how to create a good image for their business. Businesses that have consensus right from upper management to the other managerial positions have high chances of benefiting from the marketing role of a manager. But, managers should also have adequate knowledge about the various tools to use to get an edge over their competitors. Use of the best marketing tools such as SWOT analysis and marketing mix enables the manager convince the customers to purchase the products offered. Managers can use the SWOT analysis to identify the strengths, weaknesses, external opportunities and threats likely to affect the business(Phoenix, n.d). Also, successful managers take advantage of existing market inefficiencies to develop a unique selling point. For managers to be successful in their marketing role, they have to understand the different factors that can affect the success of their marketing campaign. The management role of managers involves coordinating and overseeing the work done by employees. Managers regularly check on the activities done in different departments to ensure they are in line with the goals of the organization. Managers must also have the unique capabilities to use employees effectively in order to achieve business success. They need to take time to interpret basic organizational values to the employees and create an effective work environment(Phoenix, n.d). Also, they must provide the necessary resources and

Code of Ethics for Psychologists Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Code of Ethics for Psychologists - Coursework Example However, the use of deception can be methodologically and psychologically justifiable which, according to Pittinger (2003), validates the revision of this code. I think that the code should be revised to excuse deceptive practices that aim to acquire accurate results or findings. The second code is 2.03 or Maintaining Competence which states that â€Å"psychologists undertake ongoing efforts to develop and maintain their competence.† The principle expressed by this code is Principle B (Fidelity and Responsibility). Declining competence over the course of therapy or in clinical assessments would harm clients severely, particularly those who are highly vulnerable, such as individuals with mental illness. For example, a mentally ill individual agreed to take part in a study but his condition worsens while the study progresses, so the relatives decided to withdraw him from the study. The right decision then depends on the competence of the psychologists.

Air pollution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Air pollution - Essay Example The paper "Air pollution" discovers the problem of air pollution. If the government rewards environment-friendly businesses and actions, it will be an example of positive consequence. On the opposite, instilling habits through adverse effects would be imposing financial penalty on an industry that is exceeding the limit of emitting pollutants in the air. Where technology has given so much to life, it has also been the source of many predicaments. Technology has given human beings too many machines that they constantly engage with and consume energy. In the end, environmental policies and their proper application can significantly contribute towards a healthier greener planet. Climate change and environmental pollution are the most crucial issues in the world. One needs to study them carefully and understand their magnitude. Recently, international attention has shifted towards studying this relationship of rapid development and the resulting environmental problems. In the last few de cades, an immense development has been observed around the world but this development comes at the cost of diminishing natural resources and negative impact on the ecosystem. One of the many problems facing Saudi Arabia is air pollution. Air pollution means the introduction of different gases and solid fumes into the atmosphere. These gases and particles are composed of biological, chemical and other dangerous components. Air pollution is becoming a major concern for the citizens of Riyadh. It is one of the largest metropolitan areas.

Justifications for Migratory Restrictions Essay

Justifications for Migratory Restrictions - Essay Example This provision is therefore applicable to all members of the UK society because the society is one that has promoted equality and fairness for generations. However, in recent times, the UK has come up with stringent and tough immigration laws that have prevented a lot of people from coming into Britain. One of the biggest area that these new immigration laws have affected is the area of family law. Many migrants can assert a right to live with their family members if they gain legal residence here. However, the UK laws make it difficult for their family members to come into Britain. There are some pointers in law that give the government authorities the right to block these migrations for family unifications. However, this contrasts with UK family law and European Union Human Rights laws. This paper evaluates the conflict between human rights/family law and national immigration laws which prevent family unification. It begins by examining the fundamental rights of individuals in term s of family structures and European Union human rights laws. It goes on to examine the reality of migration into the UK and how these laws affect human rights. The paper identifies the grounds on which the UK authorities reject persons seeking family unifications and its implications in European Law. The paper goes on to identify the possible requirements that migrants and refugees living in the UK can satisfy in order to get their rights to family unification honoured. Core Components of Family Law From inception, the family has been the main place that individuals make their first social contacts. They build upon their relationships with their families to grow, study and enter mainstream society. The family was the pillar for the social and religious development of individuals in the olden days. After the reformation in Europe and the renaissance of the 15th to 18th Century, the family structures got modified. Since these events challenged traditional institutions with empiricism and economic rationality, the structures of the family changed (Stevenson, 2005). The family became a vehicle for the economic as well as social integration of children into the society. Currently, the family still remains a major component of the development of individuals. The family acts as the agency through which a child learns basic values of the society as well as the outlet through which the new generations get prepared for structured education for a future occupation. Families also preserve certain cultural and social relationships between adults through marriage and other bonds (Stevenson, 2005). In the UK today, families continue to maintain an important role in the society. Although a lot has changed over the past fifty years, the family remains an important component of Britain. In 2008, the UK government made the following pronouncement: â€Å"Families are the bedrock of our society. They nurture children, hep to build strength, resilience and moral values in young pe ople and provide love and encouragement that helps them lead fulfilling livesCabinet Office, 2008). Thus, the primary role that families continue to play in Britain is to socialise the next generation and give them the necessary guidance to build a fulfilling adult life. Additionally, family structures enable adults to get to the peak of their emotional, financial and social life because it grants support and help to individual members of the society (Diduck, 2003). It is therefore important for the UK to keep family structures intact. Due to this, family law has evolved as an important component of law in Britain. Most people have a view of an idealised family system where there is a father, mother and children. However, the evolution in the social structures of Britain has caused the law to also evolve to

Exploring Another Ethnicity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Exploring Another Ethnicity - Essay Example I wondered if my friends would identify a mosque as a different place as I thought the church was at that particular time. Having been brought up in a deeply rooted Islamic culture, I had never associated myself with any other religion before but I knew about their existence. My prior knowledge concerning Christianity and the urge to prove what really happens in other religions however helped me to gain some confidence, which could not be sufficient to withstand uneasiness. I thought it unfair to have religious differences such as one religion dominating a particular region of the world. As an Arab amongst the congregation, I appeared odd and abandoned due to the hijab I was wearing unlike the warmly and familiar feeling I usually have when I attend mosques. In fact, at some point I could hide my face when I realized that someone within the congregation was staring at me. The similarity between the church and the mosque is that the attendees recognize their way of worshipping and rel igious status as the best compared to others. There is uniformity in the way Christians and Muslims carry out their prayers when they are in their prayer gatherings. Christians do have a pastor who conducts the prayers as it is in mosques where there are Imams guiding Muslims in worship. Additionally, there are two different holy books used by the two distinctively different religions by their respective followers in worshiping. Interestingly, the two different religions believe in God whom they respect and fear (Stefon, 2010). Quran and Bible share most of the stories especially in the Old Testament such as the stories of Moses and Abraham that really connects the two religions. I further realized that Christians also believe in continuous prayers at specific times such as in the evening and early mornings just like Muslims. Additionally, both religions do have almost similar believe concerning family issues such as women submitting to their husbands and prohibition of sex before m arriage. However, there are numerous beliefs that both religions do not agree on such as the existence of trinity according to Christians’ beliefs and the fact that Jesus is a son of God as claimed by Christians. Muslims believe that Jesus was a human prophet and not divine as claimed by Christians and that there is only one God who is the creature of the universe. Muslims further believe that God who is referred to, as Allah is the father to everyone and that there is nothing special or divine about Jesus that should make him worshiped directly or indirectly. Muslims also believe in original sin and that Jesus did not die on the cross to save humanity from sin but instead God made it to appear so. Christians strongly believe in salvation in the name of Jesus to cleanse their original sins that Muslims are strongly opposed to (Ra?isa?nen 2010). My perception towards Christianity is influenced by the Islamic belief that Jesus was not God’s begotten son hence should not be worshiped as Christians do since he was just a prophet and a great teacher. Additionally, Muslims consider that calling Jesus God or son of God is blasphemy and that there is no day God’s word has never existed. Muslims do not believe that Jesus died for our sins as claimed by Christians that all their (Christians) sins were forgiven after the death of Jesus on the cross. Muslims regard themselves as perfect and the true

The behaviour of firms in spectator sports Essay Example for Free

The behaviour of firms in spectator sports Essay Spectator sports are a very complex type of market structure, with 2 main features of profit maximisation and club success, an issue for clubs is that weather they put sporting success ahead of profit, supporters surely want supporting success, rather than profit maximisation. The premier league has seen great diversity between super elite clubs, whilst others are facing falling revenue, endangering the competition of the league. The market structure is heavily segmented, with a larger number of spectator’s sports in any one sport, with different sports being a Weak substitute this is due to brand loyalty, as viewers will often mainly watch team For instance both Chelsea and Manchester city have spent vast amount of money in the transfer market to improve their strength of their team, by purchasing talented player and other staff. These clubs are backed by wealthy owners. Profit maximisation of player sales is not required; owners are more willing to peruse to improve the success of the club, this includes beating rivals, winning cups and leagues in the future. Number of owners of UK sports clubs especially within football, which don’t see their club as a business, owner of football club may see that success on the pitch may be in turn paying for more talented players and increasing their wage, making the connection of the mangers role of the club down to performance rather than profits earn. Over the recent years there are more ways that firms within the spectator sports industry are able to gain more revenue and profits, such some clubs are listed and public limited companies. This is heavily linked with the objective of profit maximisation as they want a higher share price, done by improving stance of supernormal profit. With demand quite inelastic price discrimination will be used to turn consumer surplus into additional revenue for the firm, supply of firms is relatively fixed for home firms and dependent on the nature of the opposition the away fans supply may change, such as rival’s will bring higher demand. Selling seats empty seats should be done that marginal revenue is greater than marginal cost. Clubs charge different prices according to age, stadium seat, and degree of competition on the game. Profit maximisation may be required for these teams which have the lack of backing of wealthy owners; clubs such as Everton and Blackburn lack wealthy owners, profit maximisation is needed for them to financially survive. Cost are very substantiation in this market and continuously rising from players wages and transfer fees, if profit maximisation is not regarded, and success of the club in the longer term they will see a negative flows There is often dispute between the stakeholders within the firms, such as shareholders would want profit maximisation as the main objective, rather than the manager’s success, subjected to a minimum profit constraint, Profit satisfying, may be a better approach to clubs allowing more objectives of the firms to be met rather than having maximum profit, this provides the foundation of other objectives in the long term, like growth and survival. Growth maximisation is another objective for firms within the spectator sports, growing such football teams is different from profit maximisation, is such that extra profit is reinvested into the football team and improving and strengthening team. Such have been seen in Arsenal of the last years with a huge improvement in their infrastructure. With this increase in the size of the firm will bring many additional funding such from advertisements and sponsors, making ti difficulty to take over the club, resulting into economies of scale and letting AR not increasing as much or even falling, producing where MR=0, but subjected to a minimum profit constraint. Other firms objectives may be survival financially and able to maintain league status (not being regulated to lower league), with such objectives is important for sporting clubs like wolves and Bolton, with the absent of wealthy owners who want to overspend on teams, they will have a reduce financial flow from lower advertising sponsors, and general demand of the clubs will fall. Affecting the level of quality of the pitch with the team unable to pay talented players wages. Social Objective some clubs offer positive externalities such as health and improve quality of lives in deprived areas, government funding is vital in smaller clubs allows more resources to be used e.g. labour and better maintenance of pitch. Government subsidy may be required to keep the club for survival. There are conflicts between the polices the sporting club adopts, also the view between different stakeholders of the firm is not homogenous The distinction must be made between the short term and long term of behaviour of the firms, such objectives will conflict with profit maximisation. Such during the short term sales maximisation is required but this is linked with growth of the team, Regulation has greatly changed in spectator sports and currently on the verge to change to improve the level of contestability and engage healthy competition between teams which is fairer. Overtime also the contestability of the league (market) will likely to change; this is positively determined by the strength of the extent of barriers to entry and exist. With changes especially within the football industry have seen a higher concentration ration of clubs of gaining major trophy, they have the available amount of capital used to improve clubs performance. This is decreasing the contestability of the market; smaller teams are unable to compete with elite clubs. Manchester united was owned by BskyB, but the deal blocked by the competition commission, this will increase the substantial monopoly Man Utd already has, and damaging the competition of the premier league and other cups, such a merger will increase television rights, acting a barrier to entry for other teams. Regulation in the future and present will affect the market, and hopefully making it more competitive. Such introducing more home-grown players and transfer market limits. From here the market is greatly segmented, with a large number of sub markets (different leagues), spectators sports clubs are not a group which can be viewed as homogenous, there is vast differences between objectives of firms within the whole spectator sport industry, and the different stakeholders of a firm

Ideology vs. united church of Canada’s advertisement Essay Example for Free

Ideology vs. united church of Canada’s advertisement Essay Ideology is a ‘Representation’ of the Imaginary Relationship of Individuals to their Real Conditions of Existence Louis Althusser, 1970 Many companies use advertisement as their way of attracting customers. They tend to create ideological perspective within their advertisements to show their stand on the society’s standards. Most of the time, advertisements are made for women. If men and babies’ needs were advertised, women are still part of it. It shows that in the ideology of the society, women are the determiner or the decision-maker of what should be use as a necessity or luxury. This is what advertisement for, it radicalize the essence of what is important and necessary. Advertising is significant because, in consumer capitalism, individuals depend on it for meanings a source of social information embedded in commodities that mediate interpersonal relations and personal identity. Advertising should therefore be conceived as an important institution in the consumer society because it produces patterned systems of meaning which play a key role in individual socialization and social reproduction. However, in the context of ideology and advertisement as a whole, advertisements are made because we want to prove something or we want to impose a law on a certain aspect of the society. Through this, we could be able to spread our ideas and perspectives towards different issues and arguments that exist in the society today. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyze a certain advertisement in connection to the Ideological State Apparatus of Louis Althusser to determine its meaning and rationalization. The chosen advertisement is a child advertisement. The advertisement showed a picture of a baby with a medical wristband stating â€Å"WARNING: some re-assembly of priorities and beliefs may be required. † This advertisement suggests that parenthood is not an easy thing. As parents, people tend to view life more seriously. Once a baby is born, everything will change not according to plan but according to responsibility. Wandercafe. ca stated in the advertisement that â€Å"parenthood changes everything – including how you view the world. † Most often, this scenario happens if the baby is a wanted child because if it is not, parents tend to disregard their responsibility towards their children especially the fathers. Nevertheless, being a parent is a gift from God as we all know. In the perspective of the society and our culture, we view parenthood as a form of required responsibility. Once a child is born, we need to settle our priorities as based on the needs of the child and would not focus on our necessities and luxuries. In poor families, even if the parents could not eat, as long as their child has its milk, problem would not exist. This situation shows that parents can do everything and anything just to make their child safe and healthy. This is what the advertisement is trying to impose – parenthood is an obligation that should be taken into consideration because it requires re-assemble of priorities and beliefs. In the perspective of ideology and advertisement, this advertisement can be said as part of the Ideological State Apparatus (ISA). According to Louis Althusser (1970), an Ideological State Apparatus is a certain number of realities which present themselves to the immediate observer in the form of distinct and specialized institution. Because the advertisement came from the people of the United Church of Canada, it can be said as a religious Ideological State Apparatus. He also stated that the distinction of ISAs from (Repressive) State Apparatus is that the Repressive State Apparatus functions ‘by violence’, whereas the ideology State Apparatus function ‘by ideology’. This is the fact that the (Repressive) State Apparatus functions massively and predominantly by repression (including physical repression), while functioning secondarily by ideology. (There is no such thing as a purely repressive apparatus.)†¦ In the same way, but inversely, it is essential to say that for their part the Ideological State Apparatuses function massively and predominantly by ideology, but they also function secondarily by repression, even if ultimately, but only ultimately, this is very attenuated and concealed, even symbolic. (Althusser 1970) Advertisement has different impact to society and its institutions such as education, culture, and religion. In the chosen advertisement, these three factors exist as they give contribution to the perspective and ideology of the ad. It was seen through different aspects and reasons. In the institution of education, this advertisement educate people especially parents to become aware with their responsibilities and obligations towards their child or children because it was the most important thing that should be taken into account. When it comes to culture, it shows the stand of the society when it comes to parenthood because this is part of the culture – parents should abide by the rule of the law that they should love their children for they have conceived them. In the religious institution or the church, this advertisement shows what is right in opposition to evil. Church stated that parents should do their obligations not by their choice but by the rule of the church because it was the teaching of God. In the pre-capitalist historical period which I have examined extremely broadly, it is absolutely clear that there was one dominant Ideological State Apparatus, the Church, which concentrated within it not only religious functions, but also educational ones, and a large proportion of the functions of communications and ‘culture’. It is no accident that all ideological struggle, from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, starting with the first shocks of the Reformation, was concentrated in an anti-clerical and anti-religious struggle; rather this is a function precisely of the dominant position of the religious Ideological State Apparatus. (Althusser 1970) In the chosen advertisement, Church is dominant and ‘repressive’ in some angle because it tried to impose a law or a rule. It was shown in the medical wristband of the baby. Using the word â€Å"warning† is an implication of notice that there must be an action to consider. The ideology of the advertisement is actually true when it comes to responsibilities of the parents but the Church overpowers the parents on what they should do and act. Though it was just a simple warning, capitalism can be seen based on its attack and point of justification. As a whole, the advertisement means more than what it wanted to say. The ideology of the church can be said as a form of repression or simply a justification of what is true as based on the standard of the society. Advertisement has different meanings based on the perceiver. It was the audience’s obligation to perceive the advertisement on their own context and ideology. Ideology is innate for all of us. It should not be taken for granted because it is an armor of our thinking, rights, and stand towards the rules and laws of the society. Culture, education, and church are underlying institutions that we need to consider in analyzing a certain advertisement because these factors are the most important aspects of humanity whether we oppose or consider their specificities from the past, present, and future civilization. Works Cited Althousser, Louis. Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses. La Pensee, 1970. 27 November 2007 http://www. marxists. org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology. htm Wandercafe. ca. baby. 27 November 2007 www. wandercafe. ca Harms, John and Kellner, Douglas. â€Å"Toward A Critical Theory of Advertising. † Illumination. (n. d. ) 27 November 2007 http://www. uta. edu/huma/illuminations/kell6. htm.

Starbucks Target Market

Starbucks Target Market Starbucks open its first coffee store in Seattle, Washington and at the end of 1990 Starbucks expand its headquarters in Seattle and also build a new roasting plant. In 1990s Starbucks opens 60 retails shops in United Kingdom. At the end of 2000s Starbucks total branches was 3500. Coffee is one of the rapidly growing industry in this world. According to national coffee association, USA 49% of American age 18 and more drink coffee beverage every day. Coffee industry was in peak of its success at the end of 1990s. Starbucks purchases and roasts high-quality whole bean coffees and sold them along with fresh brewed coffees, Italian style espresso beverages, gold blended beverages, a various complementary food items, coffee related accessories and equipment. TARGETED MARKET AT THE TIME OF LAUNCHING At the time of Starbucks launching the target market was upper income class. But during 1990s Starbucks realise that the growth of Starbucks depends on the middle or lower class incomes because these two classes are more motivated and go to the discounted products. Starbucks also focus on consumer habits and share its speciality of coffee with the buyers. In the end of 20th century there are many changes in market that helped Starbucks getting successful. The most important change of the last twenty, thirty years is the changes of economic policies over the world. Starbucks target market was 18 years to 24 years young professional because they are not yet been loyal with coffee industry. Starbucks strategy comprises to locate its stores at picky places such as the first floor of blocks of offices, underground main entrance and urban areas. An addition to sales through its company-operated retail stores and licensed retail operations, Starbucks sells coffee and tea products through ot her channels like distribution targeting restaurants, hotels, colleges and universities and other work places. Starbucks stated goal is to become the leading retailer and brand of coffee in each of its target markets and it aims to achieve this goal through continued aggressive expansion of Company operated retail locations. STARBUCKS STRATEGY Starbucks adopt different type of strategy to build its branding in the market. Starbucks has numbers of capabilities likes market leadership and its outlets as customers means its locations which means it is the place where customers can relax from work or home and its supply chain management. To try to keep the coffee taste in the stores clean, Starbucks banned smoking and asked employees to refresh from draining perfumes. Prepared foods were kept covered so consumer would smell coffee only instead of other food. Starbucks is culture oriented company who introduce new techniques like commuter mugs and T shirts in different regions of USA that was in keeping with each citys culture(like peach shape coffee mugs for Atlanta State, Paul Revere picture for Boston State and the Statue of Liberty for New York city). To make sure that Starbucks stores reach the maximum standards, the company used mystery shoppers who posed as customers and rated each location on à Ã‚ ° number à Ã‚ ¾f criteria. Starbucks internal operations can be divided into two parts: Retail and Specialty. The Retail division is governed directly by Starbucks Corporation. The Specialty division includes foodservice, licensing agreements to overseas outlets and revenue from foreign joint ventures. STARBUCKS AIMS AND OBJECTIVES Starbucks main objective was to launch itself as the most renowned and respected brand in the world. The company main objective was to the expansion of its branches all over the world, to broad its retail business, develop new techniques, product and introduce new distribution channels in order to achieve its goals. The company another aims was establish its brand as a leading brand in coffee market by selling high quality products, providing better services and build relationship between customers and the Starbucks. SWOT ANALYSIS STRENGTHS OF STARBUCKS Starbucks is good at taking advantage of opportunities. Starbucks is internationally recognized and has a global presence Starbucks has strong ethical values. WEAKNESSES Reliable on beverage innovation Starbucks 50% business is in USA from last three decades. Starbucks need to spread its business all over the world to spread its business risk. Starbucks is dependent on a main competitive advantage, the retail of coffee. It could make them slow to diversify into other sectors should the need arise. OPPORTUNITIES Company has the opportunity to expand its business around the globe In 2004 the company created a CD burning service in their Santa Monica (California USA) cafe with Hewlett Packard, where customers create their own music CD. THREATS Starbucks are increasing the cost of coffee and dairy products Consumer taste might be change in future. Consumer can replace coffee with other cold beverage or leisure activity. CONCLUSION Starbucks is a leading company around the globe. Starbucks used  a very simple strategy, connecting links between treating employees with dignity and respect and producing à Ã‚ ° good product and services. That was the major factors that differentiate Starbucks from others and bring the successful to Starbucks.

A True Patriot: Walt Whitman Essay -- essays research papers fc

A True Patriot: Walt Whitman When one talks of great American Poets, if the person has any since of intelligence, then they can in now way fail to mention Walt Whitman. Whitman is unmistakingly a great American poet, So great, that Ralph Waldo Emerson said that he was an â€Å"American Shakespeare† (Tucker 247). While the debate still goes on about that comment, there is no debate about the greatness of Whitman. Walt Whitman was born in West Hills, NY on May 31, 1819 on Long Island. He was the second of nine children. He never developed a close relationship with his father, but he was very close to his mother. When he was four, he moved to Brooklyn where he went to school for six years and, when he was eleven, dropped out and began work as a clerk in a Law Office. Shortly thereafter, he became a typesetter’s apprentice. He then began to teach school on Long Island. Bored by this, he began to edit and publish the Long Islander, an area newspaper (Funk 293). But this attempt at a steady job was unsuccessful as well, he then began to write political essays and started to write what would become his life's work Leaves of Grass. He would write various books of poems, most of which would be added to Leaves of Grass, which he re-published nine times. Whitman spent his last days as the sage of Camden, New Jersey, where he died on March 36, 1892 (Magill 406). Walt Whitman, through his admiration for a fallen President, condemnation of war, and his theme of camaraderie, illustrates a definition of patriotism. Walt Whitman was an American, and he loved President Abraham Lincoln. He had the upmost respect for the sixteenth President of the United States. His admiration was shown in his most famous work, O’ Captain, My Captain. This is without a doubt the most popular poem of Whitman’s career. In it, he repeats the word Captain; this word refers to Abraham Lincoln, the fallen President. He uses phrases like â€Å"fallen cold and dead† to tell of the mournful death of Lincoln. Whitman mentions a â€Å"ship†, which is the Union in the Civil War. He also uses the â€Å"voyage† to symbolize the Civil War. The overall mood of this elegy to Lincoln is grievance for the lost loved one of Whitman. He had a deep reverence for the President and it was a great pain for him when Lincoln was assassinated (Whitman 63). Another poem that Whitman wrote, that is famous for its grievance of the fallen Presi... ...d have to be close with those around you. The only way to counteract the horrors of war is the camaraderie of the soldiers, if they developed friendships then they could look past the horrible thing that is war (Magill 406). A patriot is defined as a person who loves his or her country. If there is anyone that has ever lived in this great country that can be called that, then it should be Walt Whitman. Whitman showed his love for his country and his allegiance to his president. One can deny that he is the greatest American poet, but no one can deny that he is a great American patriot. Works Cited Magill, Frank N. ed. Magill’s Critical Survey of Poetry. 7 vols. Englewood Cliffs, 1987. Tucker, Martin ed. Moulton’s Library of Literary Criticism of English and American Authors. The Mid-Nineteenth Century to Edwardianism. Englewood Cliffs, 1975. Unger, Leonard ed. American Writers: A Collection of Literary Biographies. 7 vols. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1974. Whitman, Walt. Drum Taps. Grosset & Dunlap New York: NODATE   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Whitman, Walt. â€Å"Leaves of Grass.† Timeless, Timeless, Themes: The American Experience. Upper Saddle River: Prentice, 2000.

The Doctor’s Wife and So Long a Letter Essay -- Literature

Men have been shown to be the prime cause of competition between the women characters in the novels â€Å"The Doctor’s Wife† by Sawako Ariyoshi and â€Å"So Long a Letter† by Mariama Bà ¢. This is strongly evident in â€Å"The Doctor’s Wife† from the time Umpei returns home, after completing his education. A major change is also noticed in Otsugi’s behavior towards Kae. The intense tension caused by the competition between the women characters is also shown in â€Å"So Long a Letter† when the two men, Modou Fall and Mawdo Bà ¢, marry their second wives. In this essay I will be discussing how men are shown to be the prime cause of competition between the women characters in the novels â€Å"The Doctor’s Wife† and â€Å"So Long a Letter† and why the writers use this element. This competition helps in developing the plots of the two novels. For example, throughout the letter that Ramatoulaye writes to Aissatou, the plot of â€Å"So Long a Letter† revolves around the second marriages of Modou Fall and Mawdo Bà ¢. This creates a sense of competition between Ramatoulaye and Aissatou, their first wives respectively. The competition between Ramatoulaye and Binetou to acquire the attention of their husband, Modou Fall and between Aissatou and la Petite Nabou for Mawdo Bà ¢ is what keeps the readers’ interest in the novel. This competition becomes all the more evident when Ramatoulaye describes the formalities involved in carrying out the death ceremony for her husband, Modou Fall. When all the formalities have ended, Binetou, Ramatoulaye’s ‘co-Wife’, finally leaves. This gives Ramatoulaye a sense of relief. This occurs when she says, â€Å"Tonight Binetou, my co-Wife, will return to her SICAP villa. At last! Phew!†(Bà ¢, p. 8) Her expressions and feelings about Binetou are expressed... ...ice has known thirty years of silence, thirty years of harassment.†(Bà ¢, p. 57) This clearly gives a picture of the mental state of Ramatoulaye after Modou’s second marriage. Again, this is the result of the competition that Modou created between Ramatoulaye and Binetou. From this, we are able to conclude that men have been shown to be the primary cause of competition between women characters in the novels â€Å"The Doctor’s Wife† and â€Å"So Long a Letter†. This competition has been used by the writers to enhance the plot development, by creating conflict and to show the mental state of women. Thus the novels make reading interesting for the readers. Bibliography †¢ Ariyoshi, Sawako. The Doctor’s Wife. Trans. Wakako Hironaka and Ann Siller Kostant. Tokyo: Kodansha Int. 2003. †¢ Bà ¢, Mariama. So Long a Letter. Trans. Modupà © Bodà ©-Thomas. London: Heinemann, 1989. Print.

African-American Street Gangs in Los Angeles :: Gangs Crime Essays

African-American Street Gangs in Los Angeles In Los Angeles and other urban areas in the United States, the formation of street gangs increased at a steady pace through 1996. The Bloods and the Crips, the most well-known gangs of Los Angeles, are predominately African American[1] and they have steadily increased in number since their beginnings in 1969. In addition, there are over 600 active Hispanic gangs in Los Angeles County with a growing Asian gang population numbering approximately 20,000 members. Surprisingly, little has been written about the historical significance of black gangs in Los Angeles (LA). Literature and firsthand interviews with Los Angeles residents seem to point to three significant periods relevant to the development of the contemporary black gangs. The first period, which followed WWII and significant black migrations from the South, is when the first major black clubs formed. After the Watts rebellion of 1965, the second period gave way to the civil rights period of Los Angeles where blacks, including those who where former club members who became politically active for the remainder of the 1960s. By the early 1970s black street gangs began to reemerge. By 1972, the Crips were firmly established and the Bloods were beginning to organize. This period saw the rise of LA’s newest gangs, which continued to grow during the 1970s, and later formed in several other cities throughout the United States by the 1990s. While black gangs do not make up the larges t or most active gang population in Los Angeles today, their influence on street gang culture nationally has been profound. In order to better understand the rise of these groups, I went into the original neighborhoods to document the history which led to these groups. There are 88 incorporated cities and dozens of other unincorporated places in Los Angeles County (LAC). In the process of conducting this research, I visited all of these places in an attempt to not just identify gangs active in Los Angeles, but to determine their territories. Through several weeks of field work and research conducted in 1996, I identified 274 black gangs in 17 cities and four unincorporated areas in LAC. Post WWII to 1965 The first major period of black gangs in Los Angeles began in the late 1940s and ended in 1965. There were black gangs in Los Angeles prior to this period, but they were small in numbers; little is known about the activity of these groups.

English Speaking

englishbanana. com’s Talk a Lot Spoken English Course by Matt Purland A Great New Way to Learn Spoken English Elementary Book 1 Complete 12-week spoken English course All materials, instructions and answers are included Brand new and unique learning method Learn and recall questions, answers and negatives using 8 common verb forms †¢ Learn 400+ essential vocabulary words †¢ 100% photocopiable †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ englishbanana. com’s Talk a Lot Spoken English Course Elementary Book 1 This book is dedicated to Anna and Julia, with love and thanks xx nd also: †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. (Insert the name of the teacher who has most inspired you to learn. ) English Banana. com [email  protected] com ISBN-13: 978-0955701511 English Banana. com Copying Licence: You may freely print, copy and distribute this book, subject to our Copying Licence (visit our website at www. englishbanana. com for full details) First published in the UK by English Banana. com 2008  © Copyright Matt Purland 2008 Talk a Lot Introduction Welcome to a new kind of English course!Talk a Lot is a great new way to learn spoken English, and quite a departure from the standard ELT course book. Instead of spending hours reading and writing, students have the opportunity to engage in challenging and fun speaking and listening activities with their friends. On this course students learn how to think in English as well as Talk a Lot! The Talk a Lot course objectives are very simple: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ Every student talking in English Every student listening to and understanding English Every student thinking in English, and Every student taking part in classTalk a Lot is structured so that every student can practise and improve English grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, word and sentence stress, and interpersonal skills, by working in pairs, groups and one to one with the teacher. The main benefits of Talk a Lot are: †¢ †¢ †¢ Students have to think in English during lessons in a controlled and focused way Students learn how to memorise correct English structures naturally, without abstract and unrelated grammar lessons Students learn how to construct eight different common verb forms, using positive, negative and question forms, as well as embedded grammar appropriate to their level.The verb forms studied are: Present Simple, Present Continuous, Past Simple, Past Continuous, Present Perfect, Modal Verbs, Future Forms, and First Conditional Students learn 400+ essential vocabulary words by heart Students enjoy following a simple and effective method that produces results quickly †¢ †¢ The ten lesson topics studied in Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1 are: Town, Food, Shopping, Health, Transport, Clothes, Work, Family, Home, and Free Time. Thanks to all of ou r students who have been trialling this course in recent months. Remember, teachers can download and print all the blank forms hat are necessary for running an English course, such as blank registers and enrolment forms, individual learning plans, and initial assessments, all for free, from our website at www. englishbanana. com. We’d love to hear from you about how you have used this book and how your course went, so please feel free to contact us via our website feedback form or by emailing [email  protected] com. We’d also be really excited to hear about your ideas and proposals for new Talk a Lot topics and activities that we can use in future Talk a Lot books.With best wishes for a successful course, th Matt Purland, Ostroda, Poland (6 April 2008) For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com i Talk a Lot Contents i ii Introduction Contents 1 1 How to Use this Course How to Use this Course: Course Outline Lesson Outline Assessment Methods, Tests and Examination Sentence Blocks Discussion Questions Role Plays Discussion Words and Question Sheets 8 13 14 15 17 18 19 Student Course Report Sentence Blocks – Q & A Sentence Blocks – Six Great Tips for Students 20 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Sentence Blocks Town – Sentence Blocks Food and Drink – Sentence Blocks Shopping – Sentence Blocks Health – Sentence Blocks Transport – Sentence Blocks Family – Sentence Blocks Clothes – Sentence Blocks Work – Sentence Blocks Home – Sentence Blocks Free Time – Sentence Blocks Sentence Block Extensions 34 4 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 Discussion Questions Town – Discussion Questions Food and Drink – Discussion Questions Shopping – Discussion Questions Health – Discussion Questions Transport – Discussion Questions Family – Discussion Questions Cl othes – Discussion Questions Work – Discussion Questions Home – Discussion Questions Free Time – Discussion Questions 44 44 45 Role Plays Town – Role Plays Food and Drink – Role Plays For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. nglishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com ii Talk a Lot Contents 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 57 Shopping – Role Plays Health – Role Plays Transport – Role Plays Family – Role Plays Clothes – Role Plays Work – Role Plays Home – Role Plays Free Time – Role Plays Role Play Extensions Role Plays – Mood Chart 58 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 Discussion Words and Question SheetsTown – Discussion Words Town – Discussion Words (Question Sheet) Food and Drink – Discussion Words Food and Drink – Discussion Words (Question Sheet) Shopping – Discussion Words Shopping – Discussion Words (Question Sheet) Health – Discussion Words Health – Discussion Words (Question Sheet) Transport – Discussion Words Transport – Discussion Words (Question Sheet) Family – Discussion Words Family – Discussion Words (Question Sheet) Clothes – Discussion Words Clothes – Discussion Words (Question Sheet) Work – Discussion Words Work – Discussion Words (Question Sheet) Home – Discussion Words Home – Discussion Words (Question Sheet) Free Time – Discussion Words Free Time – Discussion Words (Question Sheet) 78 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 Vocabulary TestsTown – Vocabulary Test Food and Drink – Vocabulary Test Shopping – Vocabulary Test Health – Vocabulary Test Transport – Vocabulary Test Family – Vocabulary Test Clothes – Vocabulary Test Work – Vocabulary Test Home – Vocabulary Test Free Time â €“ Vocabulary Test 88 88 Lesson Tests Lesson Test – Town For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com iii Talk a Lot Contents 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 Lesson Test – Food and Drink Lesson Test – Shopping Lesson Test – Health Lesson Test – Transport Lesson Test – Family Lesson Test – Clothes Lesson Test – Work Lesson Test – Home Lesson Test – Free Time 98 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 Verb Forms Practice Present Simple Present Continuous Past Simple Past Continuous Present Perfect Modal Verbs Future Forms First Conditional 106 End of Course Oral Examination 06 110 111 End of Course Oral Examination Talk a Lot Course Certificate – Template 1 Talk a Lot Course Certificate – Template 2 112 Answers 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 119 121 122 123 124 125 126 Sentence Blocks Town Food and Drink Shopping Health Tra nsport Family Clothes Work Home Free Time Sentence Block Extensions Discussion Words and Question Sheets Town Food and Drink Shopping Health Transport Family Clothes For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com iv Talk a Lot Contents 127 128 129 131 Work Home Free Time Lesson Tests Town Food and Drink Shopping Health Transport Family Clothes Work Home Free Time 132 133 34 Sentence Stress 134 137 140 What is Sentence Stress? Sentence Blocks – Sentence Stress Sentence Stress Activity Cards 141 Sentence Block Verbs from Elementary Book 1 142 Discussion Words from Elementary Book 1 147 The 48 Sounds of English with the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com iv How to Use this Course Talk a Lot How to Use this Course Course Outline: †¢ Before the course be gins perform an initial assessment with each student to check that they are at a suitable level for the course, and then enrol them onto the course.This course is aimed at students who are at a good elementary level or preintermediate level. For this course we recommend that there are no more than ten students per class. The course is divided into twelve three-hour lessons. The first ten lessons each have a different topic; while lesson 11 is intended for the revision of material studied over the ten weeks, and lesson 12 is reserved for the students’ examinations and an end of course review. We recommend that you hold one lesson per week, making this a twelve week course comprising 30 guided learning hours, plus 6 hours of guided revision and examination. It’s up to you what order you do the lessons in; you don’t have to follow our order of topics!If your students need more than three hours of study per week, why not offer them two 3-hour lessons per week: one T alk a Lot lesson, as described below, and one lesson using traditional teaching methods, which include conventional reading, writing and grammar-based activities that could complement the intensive speaking and listening work of the Talk a Lot lessons. You could follow a standard EFL or ESL course book such as New English File or New Headway, using material that complements the Talk a Lot lesson, so that in Week 2, for example, both 3-hour lessons are on the subject of Food and Drink. This would then give you a course with 60 guided learning hours.The lesson topics are: Lesson 1 Lesson 2 Lesson 3 Lesson 4 Lesson 5 Lesson 6 Lesson 7 Lesson 8 Lesson 9 Lesson 10 Lesson 11 Lesson 12 Town Food Shopping Health Transport Clothes Work Family Home Free Time Revision Exam & End of Course Review †¢ †¢ †¢ Lesson Outline †¢ In our lesson outline, each lesson lasts for three hours (180 teaching minutes). This can vary according to your needs, for example, in some English langu age classrooms one teaching hour is equal to 45 minutes, and so 3 teaching hours would be 2? hours. Or it may be that you have only 2 hours per week with your group of students. You can still use Talk a Lot activities to serve up a satisfying and stimulating lesson – just in a shorter timeframe.For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 1 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course †¢ Each lesson focuses on a specific vocabulary topic, for example â€Å"Town†. For each lesson the teacher can draw from seven different activities: Sentence Blocks Discussion Questions Role Plays Discussion Words Vocabulary Test Lesson Test Show & Tell It is not necessary to use every activity in every lesson. We believe that there is more material in this book for each lesson than is needed to fill 3 hours, so the teacher can mix and match, using different activities in different lessons.Similarly, it i s not necessary to do the activities in the same order (as given below) in every lesson, but mix things up each time so that students don’t become used to a set lesson order. †¢ Bearing that in mind, here is an example of how you could structure a 3-hour long Talk a Lot lesson: 15 mins Welcome and vocabulary test (see page 5) based on the previous lesson’s topic. The teacher reads out the twenty words to the students in their native language and they write them in English. The teacher gives back lesson tests, discusses the answers with the students, and can also ask random questions from the previous lesson’s sentence blocks to check how much the students have remembered. The teacher introduces the topic of this lesson, for example, â€Å"Home†. Each student has to show and tell an item to do with this topic, e. g. or â€Å"Home† a student could bring a utility bill, or a cushion from their favourite chair, and then tell the class about it. Th e teacher also brings something to â€Å"show and tell†, and then introduces the eight new sentence block starting sentences and wh- questions on the board or on the handout (see page 8). It is essential that the teacher checks that the students understand the sentences, so that they are meaningful to students when they practise them later on. The teacher asks different students to model one or two of the sentence blocks, which will act as a reminder to students of how to make the sentence blocks. 15 mins 20 mins Students make the sentence blocks in pairs, for example, sitting back to back without eye contact.They don’t write anything down and must not copy the sentence block starting sentences from the board. For this activity all the talk flows from the students making the sentence blocks from the starting sentences and wh- questions on the board or on the handout. Next, the teacher introduces the eight discussion questions for this lesson to the whole class (see pag e 13). Again, it is important that the teacher checks that their students understand the vocabulary that is used. Students should be encouraged to use their dictionaries to check new words. 10 mins For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 2 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course 0 mins Working in pairs or small groups, students practise the discussion questions. This is free speaking practise – the antithesis of having to make pre-set sentences using the sentence blocks. The students can change partners several times in order to get a good variety of practice, then the whole class comes together and feeds back to the group, with the teacher asking additional follow-up questions. During this time the teacher removes the sentence block sentences from the board, or asks the students to return their sentence block handouts. We’re halfway through! Have a cup of tea and some fresh air â €“ or just hang out! 25 mins After a relaxing break it’s time for some brain work – the lesson test (see page 5)!The aim of this test is for the teacher to find out what vocabulary the students can remember from the previous lesson and to get an idea of how well they are coping with making the sentence blocks. The teacher could decide to use this slot for activities with the discussion words (see page 15) or for making role plays (see page 14) – or for both, if your students are up to the challenge! The students practise the sentence block sentences again, but this time without any written record – nothing on the board and no handout. The teacher monitors each pair and helps them where necessary, making sure that they are making the sentence blocks successfully.Towards the end of this time the whole class comes back together to give each other feedback. The teacher asks questions from the eight sentence blocks to different students, who should give a correct, or nearly correct, sentence – all from memory. In the early weeks this will be more difficult for the students, but after a few lessons with this method students should be able to answer confidently, having memorised some or all of that lesson’s sentence blocks. Open question time – students can ask any English-related question. The teacher looks at the students’ workbooks (this can be any suitable course book that students work through at home and which complements the lesson) and checks students’ progress.The teacher sets the topic for the next lesson and gives out the handouts for the next lesson’s vocabulary test. The teacher could either give or spend a few minutes eliciting the twenty new words in the students’ first language. The teacher should encourage students to keep all of their handouts in their own file, for revision and further study at home. 25 mins 30 mins 10 mins Assessment Methods, Tests and Examination The overall course mark for each student is reached by continuous assessment and an end of course oral examination. Individual students are monitored throughout the course and their progress recorded in a number of different ways.The aim of using continuous assessment is to encourage students to work hard in every lesson – because every lesson counts and effort is rewarded along with accuracy – and to work hard at home, e. g. learning the vocabulary words each week. Each student gets a combined mark out of 80 for each lesson which is based on the following: For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 3 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ vocabulary test: lesson test: student’s lesson mark – accuracy: student’s lesson mark – effort: total lesson mark: maximum of 20 marks maximum of 40 marks maximum of 10 marks maximum of 10 marks maximum of 80 marksThe lesson marks are added together on the individual Student Course Reports as the course progresses. Students don’t have access to their lesson marks as they are added together, but they do see their marks for the vocabulary and lesson tests, as well as getting feedback on these tests and on their general performance each week. Teachers should award marks out of 10 to each student for every lesson based on the level of their achievement during the lesson (accuracy) and their commitment during the lesson (effort). It goes without saying that teachers should strive to be wholly objective and not give in to favouritism when awarding these marks.Over the ten lessons all of the lesson marks are added together to give an individual total for each student, to which is added the score from their final exam. This gives each student a grade for the whole course, ranging from A to U (ungraded fail): †¢ †¢ †¢ maximum lesson mark of 80 x 10 = 800 marks + maximum final exam mark of 100 = maximum course mark of 900 marks Grade system: Grade A = 800-900 marks Grade B = 650-800 marks Grade C = 550-650 marks Grade D = 400-550 marks Grade E = 250-400 marks Grade U = less than 250 marks First Class Very Good Good Fair Pass Pass Fail Grades A-E are passes. Grade U is ungraded and means that the student has failed the course.The student’s grade is recorded on their course certificate, for example: â€Å"Grade: A† â€Å"Achievement: First Class† You could use one of the course certificate templates at the back of this book (see pages 110-111), or create your own. Lesson Assessment During pair and group work the teacher monitors the students, checking and correcting grammar and vocabulary where necessary, e. g. during discussion questions and sentence For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 4 Talk a Lot How to Use t his Course block practice. In all such â€Å"free practice† work the teacher should keep referring students back to the grammar that is being learned by making the sentence blocks, for example if a student says: â€Å"What you want? †, remind them that: â€Å"You must have a verb after a wh- question. In this way the free practice work will help to consolidate what is being learned from the more structured practice of forming the sentence blocks. Written homework based on the topics and activities from each lesson could be given, checked and marked by the teacher. However, written work must be kept to a minimum during the lesson and students should not to write out full sentence blocks. This is Talk a Lot, after all! The students may instinctively begin to write down the starting sentences from the board, or make notes about the sentence blocks, but discourage this because it is a waste of lesson time in which they have a valuable opportunity to talk in English.The Ta lk a Lot method encourages students to use their memories as a learning tool and to activate the grammar that they already know before they join the course. When a student writes down the sentence blocks, they give full permission to their memory to forget this information, since they know it is safely recorded somewhere. Without the safety net of pen and paper students have to challenge themselves to work harder to make the sentence blocks (which are, after all, simply question forms and answers, based around individual verb forms). The time for writing out sentence blocks is at home, where students can write to their hearts’ content! They also get a chance to see full sentence blocks in written form when they do the lesson test – once per lesson.As we have seen, the Talk a Lot certificate is based on marks gained during continuous assessment along with a final oral exam at the end of the course. Lesson assessment also includes more formal testing with regular vocabul ary tests and lesson tests, the marks from which are added to each student’s running total of marks. The teacher keeps track of each student’s progress by adding the results of their tests and other marks to their individual Student Course Report (see page 17). Vocabulary Tests All Talk a Lot tests should be run in exam conditions, with folders and dictionaries closed, no talking, and no copying. The vocabulary test could be held near the beginning of the lesson, as a way of quietening students down and getting them into study mode.We recommend that the teacher runs the vocabulary and lesson tests in the same positions during the lessons each time so as to give a sense of structure and routine to the tests which can be reassuring for students. Teachers should try to mark the vocabulary test during the lesson break and give students their results in the same lesson. The teacher keeps a record of the students’ scores on their Student Course Reports and measures pr ogress made, as well as spending time during and between lessons addressing issues with individual students. Lesson Tests The primary aim of the regular lesson test is to consolidate the work done in the previous lesson. If you run this test immediately after the break it will help to settle students down and get their minds focused again on learning English. Set a time limit of no more than 25 minutes and stick to it.As with the vocabulary tests, the aim of the lesson test is to check students’ progress and both identify weaker students who may need extra support, e. g. help with making the sentence blocks, and identify stronger students who may need a greater challenge during lessons. For example, to maximise the effect of pair work the teacher could pair a stronger student with a weaker student. Lesson tests are marked by the teacher after the lesson and the results given to students at For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 5 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course the beginning of the next lesson, when there is time for a brief discussion of incorrect answers and other points raised by the test.The results from both tests enable the teacher to see not only who is paying attention during lessons, e. g. when making the sentence blocks, but also who is working at home: learning the vocabulary words, both meanings and spellings, and writing out sentence blocks. At their discretion, a teacher may allow students who have missed a lesson to catch up on course marks by taking both tests at another time, e. g. after the present lesson. Or the teacher may decide that the student has missed the lesson and so cannot catch up on the marks, a scenario that will affect their final course score. However, if the latter applies the teacher should give the student in question the material to study at home in their own time.Verb Forms Practice These pages can be introduced by the teacher as extra worksheets at any time during the course if students are having problems with sentence blocks based on a particular verb form, or if they need more focused verb forms practice. A follow up activity would be for students to imagine their own sentence blocks based on particular verb forms, e. g. the teacher asks students to work in pairs and make four new sentence blocks using present perfect form – orally, without writing anything down. In general, it’s better for students to use a variety of different verb forms in a normal lesson, rather than studying a different verb form each lesson, because if a student misses one lesson they won’t have missed out on studying a complete verb form.End of Course Oral Examination General Notes on the Examination: The Talk a Lot end of course exam is a one to one oral examination with the teacher reading the questions and the student answering. The exam should last for a maximum of 20 minutes. The exam is recor ded onto tape and marked by the teacher. The results are added to the student’s individual Student Course Report and their overall course score and final grade can be calculated, which are then added to the student’s certificate. At no time should the student see the examination paper, whether before, during or after the examination. Nor should the student write down anything during the exam. The teacher writes the starting sentence and question word (printed in bold) on the board for each sentence block question.The examination questions are taken randomly from the course work studied and include material from every topic covered during the course. During the examination the teacher should not prompt the student for answers or help them in any way, apart from to explain the instructions so that the student understands what they have to do. Students may not use a dictionary during this examination. At the end of the course the teacher could give a prize to the student (or students) with: †¢ †¢ the best course score overall the best vocabulary test grades overall For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 6 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course †¢ †¢ the best lesson test grades overall the best attendance record the most improved student (comparing the beginning and the end of the course) Marking Guide: There are four kinds of question that form the examination: 1. Make sentence blocks (questions 1, 5, 9, and 13) The maximum score is 8 marks. Students score one mark for each fully correct line, with correct intonation and sentence stress, and one mark for naming the correct verb form. Students get only half a mark if the intonation and/or sentence stress of a line is incorrect. In the last two lines of each sentence block the answers will vary as students have to change part of the original information to produce a negative answer. Accept an y answer that is grammatically correct and makes sense within the given context.Don’t penalise students for making contractions, or not making them. For example, if the answer on the examination paper says â€Å"No, he doesn’t†, but the student says â€Å"No, he does not†, don’t mark them down. It is still an accurate answer. 2. Answer discussion questions (questions 3, 6, 11 and 14) Students can score up to a maximum of 4 points for each question based on the following criteria: The student should answer the question and speak for approximately 1 minute: 4 marks: the student produces sentences which are completely or almost completely correct in terms of grammar, pronunciation, intonation, and sentence stress. There are between 0-2 errors.Excellent use of vocabulary and interesting subject matter the student produces sentences which are good in terms of grammar, pronunciation, intonation, and sentence stress, but there are between 3-4 errors. Good use of vocabulary the student produces sentences which can be understood in terms of grammar, pronunciation, intonation, and sentence stress, but there are many errors the student attempts to answer the question, but not using full sentences nor correct grammar, pronunciation, intonation, and sentence stress. Part of their answer can be clearly understood, but there are many errors the student has not attempted the question or the answer is incoherent 3 marks: 2 marks: 1 mark: 0 marks:The teacher should make a note in the box provided of several examples of the student’s performance, including errors as well as correct structures. 3. State ten vocabulary words on a given topic (questions 2, 7, 12 and 15) When students have to list ten vocabulary words, the teacher could keep a tally in the box provided, e. g. IIII IIII †¦ Give a half mark in the event of wrong word stress or incorrect For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 7 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course intonation and/or pronunciation. When stating ten different vocabulary words the student cannot include the example word which is given in the question. 4.Answer discussion word questions (questions 4, 8, 10 and 16) The answers and marks for these questions are provided on the examination paper. Give a half mark in the event of wrong word stress or incorrect intonation and/or pronunciation. Sentence Blocks Designed specifically for the Talk a Lot course, the sentence block method is a brand new way to teach English grammar with speaking practice. The main benefit of this method is that the students have to do all of the work. They must listen, think hard, and remember. They must produce eight sentences, both positive and negative, using a given verb form, and two different question forms, using wh- questions and questions with auxiliary verbs.They must produce the eight sentences based on a given st arting sentence and a given wh- question word, using a pre-agreed set of rules. When they are working on the sentence blocks students are speaking and memorising correct English. They are learning to use key verb forms in English, forming questions and responses organically as they focus all their attention on making the sentence blocks successfully. They are also learning new vocabulary and have to produce their own ideas to make the last two negative sentences work. So what is a sentence block and how do you make one? A sentence block is a group of eight consecutive sentences, made up of seven lines, that forms a two-way conversation.There are strict rules governing how a sentence block must be made, which students should learn. At the beginning of the course: The students receive two handouts explaining the basic terminology used when talking about sentence blocks and some helpful rules for making them (see pages 18 and 19). The teacher should spend time discussing these pages wi th the students, in particular explaining: †¢ †¢ †¢ When we use each of the eight verb forms that are explored during the course What we mean by subject-verb â€Å"inversion† How auxiliary verbs are used, and the rule for using â€Å"do† as an auxiliary verb In the first lesson or two the teacher will need to train the students to make the seven lines that form a sentence block.In the ensuing lessons students should be able to form the sentence blocks themselves, based on the given sentences on the board or handout. It is very important that in each lesson the teacher ensures that students understand the vocabulary used in the sentence blocks before they are let loose on the task of making them. This is an example of how an individual student could be coached to form a sentence block for the first time. When coaching groups, ask a different student for each of the lines. The teacher has written the first starting sentence on the board; for example, this one from the â€Å"Shopping† lesson: I used my debit card to buy a pair of shoes for work. For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now!Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 8 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course The teacher: OK, we’re going to make a sentence block. There are seven lines in a sentence block and eight different sentences. [Pointing to the board at the starting sentence. ] This is the first line. Can you read it for me, please? [The student reads it out loud. ] Do you understand this sentence? The student: Yes. The teacher: OK. [Writes â€Å"What† underneath the starting sentence. ] To make the second line can you ask a â€Å"what† question based on the starting sentence? The student: What did you use to buy a pair of shoes for work? The teacher: Good. Very good. Excellent.Note: if a student has a problem producing any part of the sentence block, the teacher should prompt them with the first word, then the next, and in this way â€Å"coax† the sentence out of them by, if necessary, saying the whole sentence and getting the student to say it with them, then to repeat it without the teacher’s help. The teacher: And what is the short answer? The student: My debit card. The teacher: OK. Great. Note: it is very important that the teacher praises the student as they get sentences right and gently encourages them when they have taken a wrong turn. It is also important for the teacher to keep the momentum going so that the sentence block is made with a sense of rhythm and an almost urgent pace. This will keep the student focused and thinking about the task in hand. The teacher: So now we’ve got three lines. Can you repeat them for me? [The student does so correctly. ] Now, let’s get to five lines.Ask a question with inversion. The student: Did you use your debit card to buy a pair of shoes for work? The teacher: Good. And the short answer? The studen t: Yes. For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 9 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course The teacher: Yes, what? The student: Yes, I did. The teacher: Good. Very good. So now we’ve got five lines. We’re almost there. Can you repeat the five lines, please? [The student does so correctly. ] OK, so, to complete the sentence block, let’s ask the same kind of question with inversion but this time to get a negative answer.Look at the question word. Focus on the â€Å"what†. Change the â€Å"what† to get a negative answer. The student: Did you use cash to buy a pair of shoes for work? The teacher: And give a short answer in the negative. The student: No, I didn’t. The teacher: Then a full negative answer. The last line is made up of two negative sentences. The student: I didn’t use cash to buy a pair of shoes for work. Note: students have to invent some thing here (â€Å"Did you use cash†¦? †) that makes sense in the same context. They should try to think of a sensible option to get a negative answer. For example, the teacher must not accept: â€Å"Did you use a car to buy a pair of shoes for work? because it doesn’t make sense. Students often struggle to remember to make two negative sentences for the last line. Encourage them and stress the two negative sentences. The teacher: Excellent! Now tell me all seven lines†¦ Throughout, the teacher should help the student to achieve the correct pronunciation, word and sentence stress (see page 134), rhythm and intonation. If a student makes a mistake during a line, ask them to repeat the whole line again. Of course, in the example above the student has given almost all of the correct answers straight away. This is purely to serve a purpose in this guide – to give a clear example of what the students should aim for.The teacher should also encourage the stud ents to think about word and sentence stress and to emphasise the correct words in each sentence, for example: Did you use your debit card to buy a pair of shoes for work? Yes, I did. Did you use cash to buy a pair of shoes for work? No, I didn’t. I didn’t use cash to buy a pair of shoes for work. For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 10 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course Students may have a tendency to try to say all seven lines with a questioning intonation at the end of each line. For example, they might say: The student: Did you use cash to buy a pair of shoes for work? No I didn’t? Ask them to think about the meaning of what they are saying and to make definite statements without the questioning intonation.Some students may try to gabble and deliver their lines very quickly without apparent thought of what they mean – wholly focused on their goal of rememb ering each line and forming the sentence blocks as quickly as possible. Ask them to slow down and to focus on what each sentence means. So, in the example above the seven lines and eight sentences of the sentence block are: 1. I used my debit card to buy a pair of shoes for work. (starting sentence) 2. What did you use to buy a pair of shoes for work? (wh- question) 3. My debit card. (short answer) 4. Did you use your debit card to buy a pair of shoes for work? (question with inversion) 5. Yes, I did. (short answer) 6. Did you use cash to buy a pair of shoes for work? (question with inversion to get a negative answer) 7. No, I didn’t.I didn’t use cash to buy a pair of shoes for work. (two sentences – a short negative answer and a long negative answer) The teacher should ensure that the students follow the sentence block structure and that they recap each group of sentences after the 3rd and 5th lines. If a student has a tendency to â€Å"Um†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and â €Å"Er†¦Ã¢â‚¬  their way through each line, challenge them to say the lines without doing this. As they monitor the pairs engaged in making the sentence blocks – saying one line each – the teacher will sometimes need to be firm with the students, and ask them to keep focused when it looks as though their minds are beginning to wander, and of course the teacher also needs to keep focused!For example, when leading sentence block practice at the front of the class, the teacher will need to be one step ahead of the students and know the next sentence in their mind – what they want the student to produce – before the student produces it. Embedded Grammar: In each lesson students will practise making positive sentences, negative sentences and question forms using the following verb forms: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ present simple present continuous past simple past continuous present perfect modal verbs (e. g. can, should, mu st, have to, etc. ) future forms (with â€Å"will† and â€Å"going to†) For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 11 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course †¢ first conditional While doing sentence block practice the students may be unaware that they are using eight different verb forms.It is better not to focus on this and blow their minds with grammar, but instead make sure that the students are making the sentence blocks correctly. For example, it is essential that students understand the eight starting sentences on the board or handout at the beginning of the lesson, and also know how to make a sentence block, before they begin pair work with a partner. The starting sentences all contain embedded grammar, which means grammar that occurs as a natural part of the sentence block as it is being spoken and automatically memorised, rather than grammar that is explicitly presented to students as an isolated grammar topic, such as: â€Å"In today’s lesson we are going to study wh- questions†¦Ã¢â‚¬  etc.The embedded grammar in the sentence blocks at Elementary level includes: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ positive and negative forms use of articles use of auxiliary verbs a variety of main verbs in each unit subject and object pronouns yes/no questions wh- questions active and passive sentences punctuation marks prepositions of place and time some/any singular/plural nouns: common, proper, abstract, countable, uncountable, etc. intensifiers – too, really, very, completely, etc. use of infinitives adjectives adverbs of frequency and manner possessive pronouns determiners – this, that, those, these, etc. there is/there are formal and informal situations use of gerunds comparat ives and superlatives relative clauses – that, which, who, where, etc. The teacher could pick up on any or all of these grammar topics in more detail if they run the course as a 60-hour course (see page 1).Miscellaneous Notes: †¢ As well as with students in groups and pairs, this method can also be used successfully with students on a one to one basis, with the teacher prompting the student to produce the sentence blocks, first with the sentences on the board or handout, and later from memory. For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 12 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course †¢ Teachers (or students) can also imagine their own starting sentences based on the verb form or vocabulary that they wish to practice. Different Ways to Practice Forming Sentence Blocks: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ In a circle – the teacher or a student leads and chooses each student in turn to form the complete sentence block. The students sit back to back in pairs and say one line each, then reverse who starts.The students chant a complete sentence block altogether as a group. The students say one line or one word each, going around the group in a circle. The teacher says a random line from a sentence block and asks a student to produce the next line. Note: every sentence block can be said or chanted in a continuous way by adding an eighth line at the end that begins with â€Å"So†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and continues with the question on line 2. For example: Line 1: Peter walks two kilometres to his office every day. Line 2: Who walks†¦ [etc. ] Line 7: No, he doesn’t. Jeff doesn’t walk two kilometres to his office every day. Line 8: So, who walks†¦ [then, continuing with line 3, â€Å"Peter does. † and so on] Discussion QuestionsStudents work in pairs with student A asking student B the first question, then student B asking student A the sa me question, before moving on to the next question. After between 510 minutes the students change partners and repeat the process with a different student. Where there are empty boxes on the handout – for example questions 1, 3, 4, and 6 on the Town Discussion Questions handout – the students should write down their partners’ answers. This is partly to encourage the students to focus on the task in hand, and partly so that the teacher, who should be monitoring all the pairs, can see written evidence that the questions are being asked and answered.Before the students move off to work in pairs the teacher should look at the handout with the whole group and ensure that everybody understands the task and vocabulary used in the questions before they begin. For example the teacher could pre-teach some of the more difficult words and there could be a dictionary race to see which student finds each word the fastest. Extension activity: pairs that have finished the activ ity early could think up their own new discussion questions based on the same topic, or the teacher could prepare additional questions for the students. At the end of the activity the whole group comes back together for group feedback, where the teacher chooses a student to read a question and tell the class both their own answer and their partner’s answer.The teacher should highlight errors that have occurred and elicit the answers from the group. Interesting structures could be explored in more detail on the board. Assessment: This activity is assessed by the teacher checking and correcting students as they monitor each pair, listening in and making comments where necessary, e. g. challenging incorrect question forms, and writing down notes for later exposition on the board during the group feedback period. The students’ achievement in this activity is recorded as part of their overall lesson score (for accuracy and effort) by the teacher at the end of the lesson. Fo r more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now!Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 13 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course Role Plays Students work in pairs or groups of three to develop and rehearse a short role play with three scenes, based on the information given to them on the handout, which is then performed to the rest of the class. They have to include the title of the outline somewhere in their role play, e. g. Family role play 1: â€Å"You did that on purpose! † The role play can be fully acted out, with props and costumes, or be simply a dialogue, but students shouldn’t be writing during this activity. Writing can be done at home. In the Talk a Lot classroom the focus should be mainly on spoken English.As with the discussion questions activity the teacher should ensure that students understand what they have to do and are confident with the vocabulary used on the role play handout before they begin. The teacher s hould insist that each group produces three different, distinct scenes, teaching them to think of the role play as three parts of a whole, with a through-line and a logical progression through the scenes, for example: †¢ †¢ †¢ Scene 1: Setting up the situation Scene 2: Action Scene 3: Result To make this task more challenging, you could agree as a group that all role plays have to include certain things, as well as what is in the outline, for example: a) a person’s name b) a place name c) an object (e. g. n aubergine or a giraffe’s toothbrush) d) a certain phrase e) a prop f) a costume The teacher could provide a costume box and a prop box in the classroom with plenty of dressing up clothes or objects for students to use in their role plays. If your students particularly enjoy doing role plays, they could try the role play extensions (see pages 54-56) in addition to the role play outlines on the handouts, but role play must be only one element of a Talk a Lot lesson. Make sure that in each lesson there is a balance of activities, for example: tests, sentence block building, discussion questions, role plays, etc. It’s fine when students want to veer away from the outlines given on the handouts. The aim of the activity is for the students to put the flesh on the bare bones of the outlines.For example, they should suggest character names, place names, names of businesses, and so on. The suggested outlines are only there to get ideas flowing. The teacher could suggest new situations for role plays or more imaginative groups of students could think up new role plays of their own, but based on the same lesson topic. The Mood Chart: Use the mood chart on page 57 to add an extra dimension to the role plays. Print the page onto card, cut up the cards and put them into a bag. Each student picks one card – one mood – and they have to act out their role play using this mood exclusively. When watching each role play the aud ience have to guess which moods the actors have picked.In another variation, the audience pick the moods that they want to see used in a role play, or all the groups have to rehearse the same role play using different moods, and the audience have to For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 14 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course guess the moods. Assessment: As with the discussion questions activity this activity is mainly assessed by the teacher checking and correcting students as they monitor the groups, listening for errors that could be dissected later on in a group feedback session, and correcting grammar in line with the work being done on forming sentence blocks.Again, the students’ achievement in this activity is recorded as part of their overall lesson score (for accuracy and effort) by the teacher when they sit down and write each student’s course report. Because this ac tivity is drama-based, the audience could make their opinion heard too, giving marks out of ten for each role play based on: a) language accuracy b) effort c) imagination d) best costumes, use of props, lighting, sound, etc. Or they could give thumbs up (1 or 2) or thumbs down (1 or 2). The audience feedback is just for fun and not recorded on each student’s course report. Discussion Words and Question Sheets It’s amazing how much you can do with forty cut-out vocabulary words!We have outlined many activities for using these words with students on the discussion words question sheets. First of all, print the discussion words page onto thin card and cut up the cards with scissors. If possible you could laminate them to make them extra sturdy. The main activity goes as follows: sit down with the whole class around a large table and lay out all the cards face down. Students take a number of cards each. The number they take depends on the number of students in the class an d for how long the teacher wants the activity to last, e. g. for a ten minute activity ten students could each take two cards. Go around the group one student at a time. Each student picks up a card and has to describe the word in English without saying it.The other students have to guess the word. The students could use dictionaries to find new words that they don’t know. It’s possible for students to make this activity deliberately harder for their peers by giving a more cryptic description! Using the Question Sheets: The teacher reads the questions out loud in a random order. Or one or more of the students could read the questions out. The teacher should use as many of the questions as is necessary to fill the time that they have allotted to this activity. For example, if you have 25 minutes for this activity it’s unlikely that you will need to use the main activity as described above as well as all twenty questions on the handout.As with the Talk a Lot cours e in general, there is more material here than will probably be needed; but as all teachers know: it’s better to have too much material planned for a lesson that not enough! For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 15 Talk a Lot How to Use this Course Extension Activities: †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ The students work on the main activity with the words in pairs or small groups. The students have to think of ten, twenty, thirty or forty additional words on the same topic, e. g. Home, and make their own discussion words cards. The teacher or the students invent new questions based on the original/new words. Have a game of vocabulary bingo.Each student writes down fifteen words from the forty words in three lines: five on the top, five on the middle and five on the bottom. The teacher reads out words from the group at random. The students cross out the words they have written down when they hear the teacher say them. The students race to see who can cross off the first line, then two lines, then all the words. â€Å"Yes/No† questions: one student takes a card with a word on it, keeping it secret from the others, who have to ask â€Å"Yes/No† questions in order to find out what the word is. The first student can only answer â€Å"Yes† or â€Å"No†. For example, for food and drink words the other students could ask: â€Å"Is it a vegetable? †, â€Å"Is it green? †, â€Å"Does it grow in a field? †, etc. ntil they are able to guess the identity of the word. This is a great activity to get students making questions with inversion. The students match the phonetic and English spellings of different words (see page 142), translate words into/from the IPA, or group words by the sounds they contain. A student mimes different words without talking, while the others have to guess them. Word association activities: a) the teacher (or a student) chooses a word and each student has to say six words that they associate with this word, or each student in the group has to say one word. For example, if the word is â€Å"car† the students could say â€Å"wheel†, â€Å"engine†, â€Å"driver†, â€Å"gears†, â€Å"Ford†, â€Å"garage†, and so on. he teacher (or a student) chooses a word and the first student says the first word that comes into their head, followed by the next student and the next in a kind of word association chain. See how long your group can go for without running out of steam. You may be surprised where you end up! For example: â€Å"supermarket† > â€Å"shopping† > â€Å"centre† > â€Å"middle† > â€Å"school† > â€Å"work† > â€Å"job†, and so on. †¢ †¢ †¢ †¢ b) †¢ Make any of these activities into a competition – individual or team – with points given f or correct answers, and prizes. The teacher could even deduct points for incorrect answers. Prizes could be awarded for the first student to answer a question correctly, or the student who wins the vocabulary bingo, or who can think of the most new words on the same topic without a dictionary.For a fun group competition there could be a league, with the same teams competing in each lesson for points that accumulate towards a running total. It depends on how competitive your students are! Assessment: As with the other free practice activities in Talk a Lot (show and tell, discussion questions and role plays) assessment is performed by the teacher checking and correcting during the task, giving individual and group feedback, and referring students back to the grammar learnt from forming the sentence blocks. The students’ achievement in this activity is also recorded as part of their overall lesson score (for accuracy and effort) by the teacher on each student’s course re port.For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 16 Talk a Lot Student Course Report Name: ___________________________________________________________ Lesson Town Food & Drink Shopping Health Transport Family Clothes Work Home Free Time Final Exam /100 Course Total Mark Course Final Grade Attendance /30 GLH Vocabulary Test /20 Lesson Test /40 Lesson Mark – Accuracy /10 Lesson Mark – Effort /10 Start Date: ________________ Total Marks /80 Class: ________________ Teacher’s Comments Attendance as a % Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 17 Talk a Lot Sentence Blocks – Q & A Q: What is a sentence block?A: A sentence block is a group of eight consecutive sentences, made up of seven lines, that forms a two-way conversation. It consists of positive and negative sentences, and two question forms – a wh- question and two questions with inversion (â₠¬Å"yes-no† questions). Q: What is a starting sentence? A: The first sentence in a sentence block. Q: What is a wh- question word? A: A question word that begins with â€Å"wh-†. For example, â€Å"what†, â€Å"where†, â€Å"when†, â€Å"who†, â€Å"why†, â€Å"whose†, and â€Å"which†. â€Å"How† is also a wh- question word because it contains the letters â€Å"h† and â€Å"w†. Wh- questions are asked to obtain information, rather than a â€Å"yes† or â€Å"no† answer.They have a falling intonation, which means that the tone of your voice does not go up at the end of the question, as it does with â€Å"yes-no† questions. Q: What is a question with inversion? A: Also known as a â€Å"yes-no† question, because the answer is usually â€Å"yes† or â€Å"no†, a question with inversion is a question where the subject and verb have been swapped around (or â€Å"inve rted†). They always start with an auxiliary verb (be, have, or do), a modal auxiliary verb (e. g. can, will, must, should, etc. ), or verb â€Å"to be†. For example, this sentence is a statement: â€Å"John is a DJ†. To make this statement into a question with inversion we need to swap around the verb (â€Å"is†) and the subject (â€Å"John†) to make: â€Å"Is John a DJ? Questions with inversion always have a rising intonation, which means that the tone of your voice has to go up at the end of the question. Q: What is an auxiliary verb? A: Auxiliary verbs are helping verbs. They don’t have any meaning of their own in the sentence, but they help the main verb to form a verb phrase. For example, in this sentence: â€Å"Ellen was talking about her sister who loves fish and chips†, â€Å"was† is an auxiliary verb (from verb â€Å"to be†) which works together with the main verb â€Å"talking† to make the past continuou s verb form. There are three primary auxiliary verbs in English: â€Å"be†, â€Å"have† and â€Å"do†, as well as modal auxiliary verbs such as â€Å"can†, â€Å"will† and â€Å"must†. Q: What is each of the eight verb forms used for?A: The uses of the verb forms studied during this course can be summarised as follows: Present Simple: Past Simple: Present Continuous: Past Continuous: Present Perfect: Modal Verbs: Future Forms: First Conditional: to talk about regular actions and things that are always true to talk about completed actions in the past to talk about what is happening at the moment to talk about continuous actions in the past: what was happening when†¦ to talk about past actions which are quite recent or relevant to now to talk about permission, possibilities, ability, and probability to talk about future plans, predictions and intentions to talk about what will happen if a certain condition is met For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 18 Talk a Lot Sentence Blocks – Six Great Tips for Students 1. During each lesson we work with the same verb forms in the same order. Look for patterns. Each lesson try to apply what you have learnt in previous lessons. 2. After a â€Å"wh† question or phrase (such as â€Å"What time†¦? † or â€Å"How long†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ) there must follow an auxiliary verb or main verb â€Å"to be†. 3.Questions with inversion always start with an auxiliary verb or main verb â€Å"to be†. 4. In questions with inversion the subject of the sentence must follow the auxiliary verb. 5. If there is either auxiliary verb be or have in the starting sentence, use it to make the questions and answers that follow. If there isn’t, you must use do as an auxiliary verb to make the questions and answers. 6. Use as much of the starting sentence in the resulting questions and answers as you can. For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 19 Sentence Blocks For full instructions see page 8 Talk a Lot TownSentence Blocks: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. (Present Simple) Peter walks two kilometres to his office every day. Who (Present Continuous) We’re waiting patiently for the bus at the bus stop opposite the church. Where (Past Simple) Jennifer bought a couple of cakes at the bakery, then ran to the post office. What (Past Continuous) The department store was opening until 10 o’clock because they were having a massive sale. Why (Present Perfect) I’ve agreed to meet Dan in the old market place outside the library. Who (Modal Verbs) We could drive to the lake and go fishing. Where (Future Forms) The new optician’s next to the bank will open next Friday. When What First Conditional) If the tennis court is busy we can go to the gym in stead. For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 20 Talk a Lot Food and Drink Sentence Blocks: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. (Present Simple) The best kind of bread is white sliced bread. What (Present Continuous) Michelle is having salad and pasta because she doesn’t eat meat. Why (Past Simple) Daniel gave himself the largest portion of ice cream. Who (Past Continuous) Ellen was talking about her sister who loves fish and chips. Who (Present Perfect) Jenny has just put the cheese in the fridge. Where Modal Verbs) Potatoes can be boiled, mashed, fried, chipped, roasted or oven-baked. How (Future Forms) We’re going to buy some fruit at the supermarket this afternoon. When (First Conditional) If you eat too much chocolate you will put on weight. What For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 21 Talk a Lot Shopping Sentence Blocks: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. (Present Simple) Emma is the manager of a small Italian restaurant. Who (Present Continuous) Simon is visiting the new shopping centre near St. Mark’s Road. What (Past Simple) I used my debit card to buy a pair of shoes for work. What Past Continuous) Jan was leaving the car park because she had finished her shopping. Why (Present Perfect) I’ve looked everywhere in this shop for a tin of vegetable soup, but I can’t find one anywhere. Where (Modal Verbs) We should take the lift to the fifth floor. What (Future Forms) After we finish buying groceries, we’ll go to Nero’s for a quick coffee. When What (First Conditional) If the checkout assistant offers to pack my bags I’ll let her. For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now! Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 22 Talk a Lot Health Sentence Blocks: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. (Present Simple) Being healthy is very important to me. What Present Continuous) Sammi is sitting in the waiting room with her mum and brother. Where Why (Past Simple) I phoned my doctor this morning to make an appointment. Who (Past Continuous) Ella was telling the receptionist about her husband’s painful arthritis. How many (Present Perfect) I’ve taken two tablets three times a day for a week, but I still don’t feel any better. When (Modal Verbs) Kenny has to take his prescription to the pharmacy tomorrow. (Future Forms) Simon is going to visit the optician’s for an eye examination. Why What (First Conditional) If you ask the doctor she will give you some good advice about your problem. For more fun worksheets, games and quizzes log onto www. englishbanana. com now!Talk a Lot Elementary Book 1  © English Banana. com 23 Talk a Lot Transport Sentence Blocks: 1. 2. 3. 4. (Present Simple) I usually get the train at 7. 28. When (Present Continuous) Gemma is drivin g to the airport to pick up her grandmother. Where (Past Simple) I flew from Heathrow to Copenhagen last night. What (Past Continuous) Oliver was crossing the road when he was hit by a bus. Who 5. 6. 7. 8. (Present Perfect) We’ve cancelled our flight because our daughter is ill. Why (Modal Verbs) All passengers must show their passports and boarding passes at the gate. What (Future Forms)