Social movement news Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Social development news - Essay Example From this previously mentioned data, it may be obviously uncovered that, in this age post racial period, the issue of ethnic separation is a significant subject of worry when contrasted with others. Since, slave time or pioneer time, the Asian Americans or the African residents needed to hold up under gigantic scope of segregations in all viewpoints, for example, instructive offices, casting a ballot rights, land obtaining, work business, and numerous others. Nonetheless, because of which, an embrace scope of Native Americans or Africans needed to stay uneducated or jobless, when contrasted with white Americans. Accordingly, the degree of neediness and joblessness raised that blocked their employment and expectation for everyday comforts to a critical degree. Aside from this, because of the pervasiveness of racial separation, the African residents dreaded to send their children in schools and universities to achieve instructive offices thus their degree of lack of education expanded to a significant degree mostly among the dark residents of the country of America when contrasted with others. Other than this, various African residents emigrated from neighboring nations is additionally banished to accomplish good positions (Parker and Goering). Because of which, regardless of high experience and information, the African Americans neglected to improve their profession target or objectives because of racial separations in this time of data innovation or globalization. Moreover, because of which, the degree of wages of the African Americans are additionally very low when contrasted with Original (Americans American Civil Liberties Union).

How the Write the UC School Application Essays 2015-2016

The University of California (UC) framework involves huge numbers of America’s best state funded colleges. For sure, schools from the UC framework are six of Admissions Hero’s top 20 open universities. The entirety of the major UC schools have solid projects in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields, and the lead schools (UCLA and UC Berkeley) additionally have very serious human sciences, business, and expressions majors. Fortunately for secondary school seniors who as of now have strange measures of work on their plates, understudies can apply to each UC school with a solitary application comprising of just two article questions (note that UCs don’t utilize the Common App). Since the application takes into consideration 1000 shared words aggregate between two prompts, there is a touch of system required regarding the length of each article. On the off chance that you have a more grounded or progressively point by point answer for one of the prompts, it is alright to compose more for that paper yet in a perfect world, you ought to commit approximately 550 words to that exposition and 450 to the next one. By no means should you have one exposition longer than 600 words and the other one shorter than 400 wordsâ€balance is critical. Notwithstanding the way that UC schools place a solid accentuation on students’ crude scores and nature of extracurricular exercises, the papers are as yet significant for understudies hoping to concentrate in the Golden State. Confirmations Hero is here to help †let’s investigate each brief. Note: this year’s UC application is basically indistinguishable from last year’s. We’ve refreshed this year’s present just marginally on reflect new patterns in confirmations. Peruse last year’s post here . Portray the world you originate from †for instance, your family, network or school †and reveal to us how your reality has molded your fantasies and desires. (1000 words for the two prompts joined) This article tends to a significant number of the topics that the prompts for the Common App do, and since the UC schools don't utilize the Common App, you don’t need to stress over any cover with those expositions. This brief is truly getting some information about a portion of your significant impacts and your cooperations inside a gathering. You can absolutely utilize your family as the base for your exposition, however you ought to be mindful so as to truly plunge where it counts into your own emotions and inspirations (instead of getting made up for lost time speaking for the most part about your relatives). Numerous candidates decide to expound on their family, however, which implies that your exposition should be incredibly elegantly composed or dig profoundly into your interesting character so as to isolate from the entirety of different candidates covering comparable topics. Expounding on your school can be a decent methodology in the event that you go to a school that has a financially and racially various understudy body. In any case, on the off chance that you go to a serious school with for the most part wealthy understudies, it may be hard to compose an article that will play well with confirmations guides. Expounding on a more nuanced and specific network, maybe identified with a type of pastime or extracurricular energy, offers you a chance to truly flaunt one of a kind and particular components of your character. For instance, you could compose a paper about how your support in the Model United Nations official corps motivated you to seek after an instruction and profession in universal relations. Then again, you could talk about how your support in a few online discussions for World of Warcraft enlivened you to consider PC programming with the goal that you can construct a â€Å"crowdsourced† computer game later on. Inasmuch as you can co mpose a point by point and unmistakable exposition, practically any kind of â€Å"world† that you originate from is reasonable game. The main special cases are networks that are characterized essentially by close to home qualities (and not cooperation, for example, race or sexual direction. Since these are close to home characteristics, an exposition on these themes is best put something aside for the subsequent brief. Educate us concerning an individual quality, ability, achievement, commitment or experience that is critical to you. Shouldn't something be said about this quality or achievement does right by you, and how can it identify with the individual you are? (1000 words for the two prompts joined) In contrast to the primary brief, this exposition can be unmistakably increasingly close to home, and you truly shouldn’t detail your cooperation or participation in a gathering or network except if it you have accomplished something generous in it (spare such themes for the principal article). As we referenced previously, this brief could be a spot to address natural characteristics, for example, challenges managing your race or sexual direction. You have some breathing space with respect to how you need to move toward the conversation of the quality, however make certain to talk about why it does right by you. That pride can result straightforwardly from the quality itself, or in a roundabout way from moves that you have made or encounters you have had because of an individual attribute, (for example, managing bigotry or encountering sexual orientation segregation). You can likewise examine an accomplishment in an extracurricular movement, anyway in a perfect world you ought to expound on an alternate one in the event that you utilized an extracurricular action for the main brief. The â€Å"achievement† doesn’t be a type of grant or high accomplishment; it simply must be something that gives a convincing stage to talk about yourself. Actually, the most customized graphic stories frequently can emerge from apparently everyday accomplishments. For instance, an exposition expounded on your triumph at the state tennis titles can clearly be amazing, yet an article talking about your pride at laboring for a long time to ascend from fifth to fourth singles on the tennis crew and how the work you put into that made you esteem perseverance can be similarly as acceptable. The key is to ensure that you can highlight explicit character improvements that emerged from your accomplishment, regardless of how little. With these tips, you ought to be well en route to composing the ideal UC Supplement. Good luck from the Admissions Hero group! For more assistance, don't hesitate to look at keep going year’s present on How on Tackle the UC Essays or contact work 1-on-1 with one of Admissions Hero’s prepared school article pros .

SIPA Alumus Comments on Iranian Election COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog

SIPA Alumus Comments on Iranian Election COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY - SIPA Admissions Blog Recent subscribers to this blog may not be aware of another great blog The Morningside Post (TMP).   TMP is a SIPA student blog and they have great articles on a wide variety of topics. A great example is TMP coverage of the election in Iran.   SIPA alumnus Matteen Makolla is an Iranian-American who is currently writing a book on his travels in Iran.   TMP recent posed five questions for him.   To gain insight on the following question and others, click here for the full entry entry. How should Obama respond to the protests? How can he and other Western leaders avoid poisoning the opposition with the appearance of Western backing? Photo Credit to TMP

The New Parent Corporation Is A Multi National Multi...

The merger went through and we were finally in the big leagues. The new parent corporation is a multi-national multi-billion dollar leader in our markets. During the transition there were a lot of changes, including a new manager, a broader business focus and the introduction of the â€Å"dreaded† annual self evaluation. I wanted to impress, so using my literacy skills I wrote a meticulous and ingratiating appraisal of myself knowing it was not only important for a good pay increase, but would set the tone for the burgeoning relationship with my new boss as well as distinguish me from my peers . This performance review process is a great opportunity to show our managers what duties and tasks we’ve completed or maintained to deserve a raise. My company does not offer automatic cost of living increases. We use a merit system, which means the goals established early in the year must be satisfied or exceeded by the conclusion of the rating period. I was performing well on all of my metrics throughout the year, but I needed to stand out if I wanted to get the best wage boost possible. I used my writing ability, to highlight the goals I met, while downplaying the negative or neutral results on targets that were barely reached. I incorporated favorable customer testimonials and employee comments into the results. I expounded on the excellent, shriveled the undesirable and propped up the mediocre. With the application of some subtle formatting ploys, the finished document wasShow MoreRelatedCeo Robert A. Disney Corporation1561 Words   |  7 Pagesinnovative technology, and global expansion† (Fiscal Year 2014 3). Though Iger does not specifically refer to Disney Theatrical Productions (DTP) in his letter, the company’s strategic priorities most certainly extend to DTP. The Walt Disney Corporation (WDC) is divided into four segments: Media Networks (ABC, ESPN, Disney Channel), Parks and Resorts, Studio Entertainment, and Consumer Products. DTP is a part of the Studio Entertainment Division. According the Fiscal Year 2014 Annual FinancialRead MoreFinding Developmental Principles And Practices That Are Found At Costco1553 Words   |  7 Pagesdata collected based on their development as well. I will also search through the internet and see articles written about Costco as well as Costco’s annual reports. Costco wholesale is a multi-billion dollar global retailer with warehouse club operations in eight countries. They are recognized as the leaders in the warehousing field. Costco is dedicated to quality in every area of their business and respected for their outstanding business ethics. Costco focuses on selling products at low pricesRead MoreThe Evolution and Corruption of Collegiate Sports Essay1975 Words   |  8 PagesSocial institutions reflect these ideologies. The world of sport, in particular, has been severely impacted by the corporate mentality, transforming it from a game run by athletes to a big business where the decision-making rests in the hands of national organizations and flows towards the sources of revenue. Sports have become more like work than play, with the primary emphasis being placed on winning rather than playing. Winning attracts spectators and media, thereby bringing in more money. ThisRead MoreProcter and Gamble Research4620 Words   |  19 Pagesth e Fortune 500 list and recorded sales of $82.6 billion dollars in 2011. The year 1837 was quite a difficult time to start any business. Although Cincinnati was a busy market-place, the United States of America was gripped by financial panic. Scores and scores of banks were closing down across the nation. There was widespread concern of national bankruptcy in the United States. Despite the prevailing instability, William and James launched their new enterprise. Rather than the financial panic shakingRead MoreEssay on Financial Analysis Report Yum! Brands4261 Words   |  18 Pagesapproximately $552 billion in annual sales.  The industry is highly fragmented, with the top 50 companies holding about 25% of industry sales and is intensely competitive with respect to food quality, price, service, convenience, location and concept (Hoovers 2009). The major companies of the industry include McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Domino’s Pizza, Dairy Queen and the Yum Brands restaurant companies. Quick service restaurants are often affected by chang es in consumer tastes; national, regional orRead MoreA Case Of Chinese And German Companies Essay8450 Words   |  34 PagesFOREIGN COMPANIES’ COMMITMENT TO TAX OBLIGATIONS (A CASE OF CHINESE AND GERMAN COMPANIES) BY FUSEINI AHMED SALEEM ACC/01/11/1711 SUPERVISOR; MR JULIUS AIDOO-BUAMEH CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY In multi-national corporations (MNCs), taxation has caused heated debates and generated strong criticism from civil society in recent years. Taxation is of great importance to the development of every nation. It is a major source of revenue for the development of nationsRead MoreFixed Deposit Investment10502 Words   |  43 Pagesof investment that earns Interest in enterprises which function outside of the domestic territory of the Investor. FDIs require a business relationship between a parent company and its foreign subsidiary. Foreign direct business relationships give rise to multinational corporations. For an investment to be regarded as an FDI, the parent firm needs to have at least 10% of the ordinary shares of its foreign affiliates. The investing firm may also qualify for an FDI if it owns voting power in a businessRead MoreInternational4856 Words   |  20 Pages $ %  £ BBC List of Abbreviations acronym for Five-dimensions model and dollar per cent pound British Broadcasting Corporation Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa billion for example Latin, short for et alii, meaning â€Å"and others† foreign direct investment Foreign Exchange Regulation Act gross domestic product that is Latin, short for ibidem, meaning the same place International Business Machines Corporation information technology no date limited million millilitre non-governmentalRead MoreSam Walton: a Biography3047 Words   |  13 Pagesfamily then, not knowing he would one day own a multi-billion dollar business, and then struggle to help the poorest of America becoming one of the top philanthropists in the United States. Also seen as a great leader, not everyone agrees on the greatness of the man who laid the foundation of some of the most significant management concepts used today in the business world. On March 29, 1918, Sam Walton was born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma to parents Thomas Gibson and Nancy Lee Walton. Sam s fatherRead MoreFinal Project on Mnc8557 Words   |  35 PagesAcknowledgement First of all, we would like to thank our parents who have always been there as our strength, allowing us to stay in university so that we can work efficiently. We are grateful for their co-operation and support. We especially like to thank venerated Ma’am Naseem Bukhari for her support and precious time she has given us. We would also like to thank our esteemed seniors who were there all the time helping us and solving our problems. We owe a lot to the administration of IBA.

Types of Bipolar Disorder - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 4 Words: 1126 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2019/08/06 Category Medicine Essay Level High school Topics: Bipolar Disorder Essay Did you like this example? Bipolar disorder is a condition that affects everyone differently. There are two types of bipolar disorders, and manifestations are not usually the same in different genders. The disorder is inherited in families that are affected by it, but it is not primarily acquired by the family. Bipolar disorder can also present itself in individuals with no family history of the disorder. The condition can potentially be life-threatening, and individuals suffering from it should seek treatment. Disease or Disorder Bipolar disorder is a mood disorder characterized by episodes of mania, or hypomania, and major depression (Cerimele, Chwastiak, Chan, Harrison, Untzer, 2013). Manifestations of mania are the decreased need for food and sleep, labile mood, irritability, racing thoughts, high distractibility, rapid and pressured speech, inflated self-esteem, and excessive involvement with pleasurable activities (Grossman Porth, 2014). Symptoms of major depression are depressed mood, anhedonia, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt, decreased concentration, psychomotor agitation or retardation, insomnia or hypersomnia, decreased libido, changes in weight or appetite, and thoughts of death or suicidal ideation (Grossman Porth, 2014). Hypomania is a less extreme type of mania that is not severe enough to impair function and there are no psychotic features (Trakalo, Horowitz, McCulloch, 2015). Rapid cycling is also another manifestation of bipolar disorder and is characterized by four or more s hifts in mood from normal in a 1-year period (Grossman Porth, 2014). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Types of Bipolar Disorder" essay for you Create order Detailed Pathophysiology According to Trakalo, Horowitz, and McCulloch (2015), there is no definitive cause identified for bipolar disorder. It is thought to arise from a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental, and psychosocial factors. Immunological abnormalities might contribute to the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder. Mitochondrial dysfunction and stress might also be involved in bipolar disorder. Children of parents with the disorder have a 4%-15% risk of developing it as well. Stress; sleep disruptions; family or caregivers with high emotion; and emotionally overinvolved, hostile and critical communication patterns are associated with heritability. Glycogen synthase kinase-3 and other genes and loci have been determined to have a possible association with bipolar disorder (Trakalo et al., 2015, p. 1809). There are two types of bipolar disorder: bipolar I and bipolar II disorder. Bipolar I disorder is characterized by one or more manic episodes followed by major depressive episodes (Trakalo et al., 2015, p. 1809). Bipolar II is characterized by one or more major depressive episodes followed by at least one hypomanic episode (Trakalo et al., 2015, p. 1809). Trakalo et al. (2015) state the disorder tends to be recurrent and tends to increase in frequency with age. Bipolar disorder usually appears between ages 15 and 30. Risk factors include family history, drug abuse, periods of high stress, and major life-altering events. Women and men are at equal risk, but women are more likely to experience rapid cycling, depressive symptoms, and are at a greater risk for alcohol abuse (Trakalo et al., 2015, p. 1809). Behavioral or Psychosocial Related Issues Individuals with bipolar disorder vary in behavior, depending on what episode they are currently having. Trakalo et al. (2015) explain that the patient may be euphoric when they are manic, and their behaviors will be excessive. They may alter between euphoric and irritable, and increased sexual behavior is common. Women may dress in a seductive manner, and grandiosity can reach delusional proportions. Manic patients do not believe they are sick, even when there is financial or legal trouble, and often refuse treatment. Hypomanic patients feel like they are on top of the world and do not recognize behavior changes in themselves, but those who know them well are aware of changes in behavior (Trakalo et al., 2015). Genetics or Genomics Bipolar disorder is a highly heritable disease, with a prevalence of about 85% in twins (Schulze Ozkan, 2017). How the disorder is inherited is unclear, but the risk of developing the condition is higher for first-degree relatives (Bipolar disorder, n.d.). Studies have found that variations in many genes can combine to increase the risk of getting the disorder; however, further research has not verified the genetic variations (Bipolar disorder, n.d.). Related Nursing Process Individuals with bipolar disorder are at risk for injury and have disturbed thought processes, impaired social interaction, self-care deficits, sleep deprivation, and are at risk for suicide (Trakalo et al., 2015, p. 1813). According to Trakalo et al. (2015), the safety of the individual should be of great concern. They should be in a safe environment with reduced stimuli. Low lighting can be used to calm a manic patient. Smoking materials should be removed or prohibited, and smoking should only be allowed under direct supervision. Nurses should facilitate the patients ability to interact with others and identify behavior that needs to be changed. Tasks that will help improve interactions with others should be assigned. Mediation between the patient and others may be needed if the patient shows negative behavior (Trakalo et al., 2015, p. 1814). Intake and output should be monitored because the manic patient may be unable to sit down and eat (Trakalo et al., 2015, p. 1815). High-calorie finger foods and nutritious liquids should be given if the patient cannot eat because of hyperactivity (Trakalo et al., 2015, p. 1815). Hyperactive patients that are unable or unwilling to perform activities of daily living should be assisted (Trakalo et al., 2015, p. 1815). Constipation is a common occurrence because manic patients suppress the urge to defecate (Trakalo et al., 2015, p. 1815). Conclusion Bipolar disorder manifests in episodes of mania and depression and varies in severity. There is no definitive cause for the disorder, but it is believed to arise from a combination of many factors. Women and men are at equal risk; however, the symptoms usually differ by gender. Behavior changes can place the patient at risk due to hyperactivity or depression. Hyperactivity can cause a deficiency in self-care, therefore, finger-food that is high in calories should be provided for snacking on the go. Depression also places the patient at risk for suicidal thoughts. Although the cause is unknown, heredity of the disease is high. Bipolar disorder symptoms are often not recognized by the patient, and they may not believe they are sick. Safety is critical for patients with this disorder. References Bipolar disorder Genetics Home Reference NIH. (n.d.). Retrieved September 30, 2018, from https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/bipolar-disorder Cerimele, J. M., Chwastiak, L. A., Chan, Y.-F., Harrison, D. A., Untzer, J. (2013). The presentation, recognition and management of bipolar depression in primary care. JGIM: Journal of General Internal Medicine, 28(12), 1648â€Å"1656. https://doi-org.db07.linccweb.org/10.1007/s11606-013-2545-7 Grossman, S. C. Porth, C. M. (2014). Porths pathophysiology: Concepts of altered health states (9th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott, Williams Wilkins. Schulze, T. G., Ozkan, S. (2017). Update on Research into the Genetics and Pharmacogenetics of Bipolar Disorder. Dusunen Adam: Journal of Psychiatry Neurological Sciences, 30(3), 165â€Å"169. https://doi-org.db07.linccweb.org/10.5350/DAJPN20173003001 Trakalo, K., Horowitz, L., McCulloch, A. (Eds.). (2015). Nursing: A concept-based approach to learning (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.

The Vietnam War And The Cold War - 1709 Words

Good evening and thanks for tuning in to the ABC, I am your host for this evening Josh Jacquet, and on today’s show we will be continuing our series on the topic of the Cold war but today we will be exploring the Vietnam War into detail. The topic that will be discussed tonight is that towards the end of the twentieth century the amount of democratic countries had quintupled. This was not expected at the beginning of the twentieth century. Now the question is Did the US use the cold war to further spread democracy to other countries and also contain the spread of communism? We will be exploring how the Vietnam War had an effect on this. Just in case you don’t know what the Vietnam war is, the Vietnam war is a military conflict that spanned from 1954-1975 and was between the Communist forces of North Vietnam which was led by the communist leader named ho chi minh who wanted to unite north and south to be ruled as a communist ruled democratic republic. He was supported by China and the Soviet Union. The non-Communist forces of South Vietnam led by Ngà ´ Ä Ãƒ ¬nh Diá »â€¡m were supported by the United States. Tonight on the show I have brought in two very different special guests to help us understand more about our topic and the Vietnam War. The reason we have brought in these two very different people is so that we can get a view on the two different sides towards the following questions. The main questions we will be exploring are what started the war, what reasons did the US give toShow MoreRelatedThe Vietnam War And The Cold War1494 Words   |  6 Pages When examining the Vietnam War you must first understand the involvement of the events surrounding the Cold War. The ‘Vietnam War’ as it is known is a product of the cold war era, by this I mean that events in the Cold War led to the US’s involvement and creation of issues causing the conflict. â€Å"The Vietnam War was a long, costly armed conflict that pitted the communist regime of North Vietnam and its southern allies, known as the Viet Cong, against South Vietnam and its principal ally, the UnitedRead MoreThe Vietnam War And The Cold War946 Words   |  4 Pagesthe masculinity of America, white prowess, and the professional look, in a sense plagued America and beyond. Also, the United State s government was war hungry, after WW2 we put ourselves in conflicts: the Korean War, Vietnam War, and the Cold War. These were truly scary times for the people. Fast forward to the 70 s, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War is still taking a toll on our country. Everyone w as sick of this and the youth did not want a fight for simply just adding toll numbers to death. ThisRead MoreThe Vietnam War Of The Cold War1419 Words   |  6 PagesThe Vietnam war started as a U.S. strategy of authority in times of the cold war, which was directed to prevent the advancement of communism in the world. The War had begun in 1954, after the rise of power with Ho Chi Minh and his communist Viet Minh party in North Vietnam, and continued against the backdrop of an intense Cold War against the United States and the Soviet Union. More than 3 million people were killed, including 58,000 Americans. In 1975, communist forces took control of SaigonRead MoreThe Vietnam War During The Cold War928 Words   |  4 PagesIntro The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, occurred from November 1, 1955 to April 30, 1975. The war was during the cold war era. This brutal 19 year war was fought mainly between North Vietnam, supported by the soviet union, and South Vietnam, supported by The United States of America. The U.S. government s goal of the war was to prevent South Vietnam to be labeled as a communist country. However, North Vietnam had their reasons for the war as well. Vietnam believed they shouldRead MoreCommunism Of The Vietnam War And The Cold War1181 Words   |  5 PagesCommunism is an ideology that has a very long history more than one-third of the globe. This ideology is followed by Russia, Cuba, Laos, China, North Korea, and Vietnam. This ideology is the source of many revolutions and conflicts throughout the history likes the English Civil War, the Bolshevik Revolution, the Vietnam War, the Korea War and the Cold War. However, what makes Communism different from other ideologi es is its origin, its policy, and its effects on the poor and the working class. CommunismRead More Vietnam and The Cold War Essay1299 Words   |  6 PagesVietnam and The Cold War It is impossible to accurately describe the major events that occurred during the cold war without mentioning the war in Vietnam. From its start, this war has been very controversial concerning its purposes and effects on the countries involved. Both sides of this war lost a great number of soldiers and most of these men and women were not even sure why they were fighting. To this day, there is still a lot of uncertainty about the events that took place during thisRead MoreVietnam During The Cold War1129 Words   |  5 PagesVietnam resembles the shape of a seahorse that stretches southeast into the Pacific Ocean; Vietnam is known as to as the â€Å"balcony of the Pacific.† By way of its water transportation links that were developed prior to rail and road networks, Vietnamese migration pressed southward (Nam Tien) along the coast. (Taus-Bolstad, 2006) Distinct regions meant that trade was more than a means to establish national unity within a dispersed settler society. (Taus -Bolstad, 2006) A geographical division of resourcesRead MoreVietnam War : A Cold War Era Conflict2301 Words   |  10 PagesVietnam Conflict The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era conflict that started in 1946 and ended in 1974, taking nearly 30 years to resolve. The war was fundamentally a conflict between North Vietnam and South Vietnam, where the North was communist and South was not. The United States, France, the United Kingdom and other non-communist allies supported the non-communist South Vietnam. China, Russia (USSR), Cuba, Cambodia and other Communist allies supported the regime in the north. North Vietnam saw theRead MoreThe Vietnam War and its Subsequent Ties to the Cold War Essay2491 Words   |  10 PagesThe Cold War was a prolonged period of political and military tension between countries on the side of democracy and those on the side of communism, the major players being the United States belonging to the former and the Soviet Union belonging to the latter (Westad). While the Cold War was known as such because there were no direct wars between the two major powers, there was large scale fighting in Vietnam. The Vietnam War (1954-75) is thought of as a historical consequence of the Cold War andRead MoreWhat Did The Vietnam And Cold War Influence The Lyrics Of Emerging Music?2047 Words   |  9 Pageswhat extent did the Vietnam and Cold War influence the lyrics of emerging music? The highlighted focus of the investigation will be directed towards the cause and consequences of the wars and lyrics sung by Canadian artists within the Sixties. This investigation will be supported through the analyzation of the following documents; Canada’s Humans Right History: The Sixties (History of Rights) and; Vietnam War and Cold War (TheCanadianEncyclopedia). Subsequently, the lyrics and wars will be analyzed

Interpretation of Assessment Data for Psychology- MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theInterpretation of Assessment Data for Psychology. Answer: Analysis of Assessment in Reading: The purpose of this analysis is to provide a summary of the assessment data collected from running a record on the students. Running records are the tools that the teachers and the educators use in order to understand the strengths and weakness of the students learning capability (Bailey, Devine-Wright Batel, 2016). Based on the analysis, the teachers would be able to identify the areas that need improvement. Thus, the process is extremely helpful as it helps both the students and the educators to ascertain certain level of knowledge that would eventually help to improve the learning capability of the children based on the outcome of the analysis. A detailed analysis of the two levels of understanding has been carried on. The capability gained by the children that help them to improve their learning on the same subject. Reading Level 14 Analyses: The accuracy percentage gained after the level 14 analysis is 94.8%. This level was based on the narrative text Mollys Tooth. It has been found that she has scored well in this reading level. In the retelling indicator summary, the score is 4 which are execellent. In the comprehension summary, the student has received a satisfactory grade that is between 3 and 4. The analysis report has showed the right evidence of the outcome of the knowledge that the student has gained. For instance, in case of knowledge and skill developing, it has been found that the student was able to understand about the concepts about print established. She has also good understanding of the high frequency words used in the text. However, it has been evident that she was not successful in decoding some words based on the sound and word relationship. Thus, it is the major area that has been identified where the student needs improvement. In terms of the strategies developing, it has been found that by the beginning of the process she had the right adjusting pace. In terms of attending the meaning, she was successful as well; she has predicted the right things as well. A very important point of concern that is cross checking the text is to confirm the answer that has been successfully achieved by the student. However, in terms of fluency, the result was not very satisfactory. It has been found that the phrasing reflecting was very limited in terms of understanding. The only thing that she was good at was to read some of the text with the correct rhythm and phrasing the reflecting understanding. Therefore, there needs to be improvement in the fluency of English for this student. For the same reason, it is expected that the educators and the teachers have to focus on this part of the study to improve the knowledge and understanding of the students. There is definitely lack fluency in the student that needs to be checked (Jirek, 2016). Reading Level 20 Analyses: The student is in level 20 and it has been found that she has developed right level of knowledge and understanding on the subject. Therefore, it was important to carry out an examination of the progress level of the student. The reading assessment from the narrative text Amys song on the level 20 showed an accuracy of 92%. The reading level was based on instructional. The retelling indicator summary also resulted in a gaining 4 which is an excellent score; this determines that the level of understanding was excellent that resulted in scoring 4. Thus, it can be said that the level of understanding of the student is excellent. On the comprehension based reading, the student has scored another excellent mark that is 6. In the retelling section, it has been found that she was able to retell the events of the story without even taking help from the teacher or support from the book. The supporting details that she has exclaimed were also to the point. This showed her level of understanding and confidence. When the comprehensive questions were asked, she could promptly answer the same. All the three questions were answered clearly. If the inferential capability of the student is considered, it has to be said that she has that inferential capability that was evident when she could easily answer all the questions. Therefore, it can be said that her performance was very good and that she has developed good level of understanding on the subject. It can be concluded that she can pass the current level of her studies and can be promoted to the next level. Justification and Text Selection: As stated by Murray, (2015), that when children start going to schools, they are often exposed to narrative text. Narrative stories are often engaged with telling stories and engaging the students in deep thoughts. This is the reason that teachers should focus on teaching narrative essays to the children. The importance of narrative essay is to foster creativity among the children. As pointed out by Cortazzi, (2014), beginning from the kinder garden only, children are often found to be engaged with different mix of activities like drawing, dictation and writing. As students proceed with the learning in the later stage of life, it becomes important for them to develop a level of imaginative and critical thinking among them. It is important to develop a certain level of imagination among the children that would help them to improve their imaginative power and understanding related to a particular topic (Kkner Orr, 2016). The two narrative writings that have been selected for teaching the students and test their ability and understanding on a particular subject have been effective enough because it has definitely helped to understand the ability of the children on the particular subject. The writing styles in these narrative pieces of writing were not like the normal level but there was a high level of writing style (Benson, 2014). This has been able to create a better focus on the overall activities of the children. It has to be understood that as children move from one stage of the schooling to the other, it becomes very important for them to move with the higher level of knowledge as well. Keeping all these perspectives into consideration, the two narrative pieces of writings were correctly chosen. Both Amys song and the Mollys Tooth supported the reading and learning of the children. The selection of words and phrases in these writings were absolutely right selection for the purpose of teaching good level of English to the children. In fact, the Mollys Tooth is the best piece of writing that would determine the level of fluency among the children. The content of the book is enough attractive that it would create a continuous affection among the children (Saunders, Sherwood Usher, 2015). The children could easily resemble themselves with the characters of the writing. Keeping all these instances into consideration, these two writing pieces have been rightly selected for teaching and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of the children. In fact, the result obtained from the analysis of the understanding and the capability of the children to deal with the different spheres of the English language. Narrative writing increases the capability of self reasoning and imagination pow er (Vetere Dowling, 2016). In fact, it has also been found the children gain the ability of creating their own narrative stories as well, which is a better move towards the learning stage of English. References: Bailey, E., Devine-Wright, P., Batel, S. (2016). Using a narrative approach to understand place attachments and responses to power line proposals: The importance of life-place trajectories.Journal of Environmental Psychology,48, 200-211. Benson, P. (2014). Narrative inquiry in applied linguistics research.Annual Review of Applied Linguistics,34, 154-170. Cortazzi, M. (2014).Narrative analysis(Vol. 12). Routledge. Jirek, S. L. (2016). Narrative reconstruction and post-traumatic growth among trauma survivors: The importance of narrative in social work research and practice.Qualitative Social Work, 1473325016656046. Kkner, J. M., Orr, A. M. (2016). Narrative inquiry in the teacher education classroom: A review of Narrative Inquiries into Curriculum Making in Teacher Education. Murray, M. (2015). Narrative psychology. InQualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods(pp. 85-107). Sage London. Saunders, V., Sherwood, J., Usher, K. (2015). If You Knew the End of the Story, Would you Still Want to Hear It?: The Importance of Narrative Time for Mental Health Care.The Qualitative Report,20(10), 1594. Vetere, A., Dowling, E. (Eds.). (2016).Narrative therapies with children and their families: A practitioner's guide to concepts and approaches. Routledge.

Amazing Annelidas free essay sample

Slimy, Gross, Icky, Disgusting. These are all words I’ve heard used to describe earth worms. Personally, I would use words more along the lines of amazing, influential, or intriguing. As a child I always loved digging worms up in my father’s garden. I loved the way they felt cool on my skin, and the way they looked wriggling across my hand trying to escape back the cool, dark, earth. Even better was if I could find one when I had a particularly squeamish friend around. I loved to dig up worms and hear the screams of my friends with a well more typical view on worms. I loved worms so much as a child I wished I could have one as a pet. One day while playing out in the garden, when I was about 5 or 6, I found one I particularly liked. He probably wasn’t that distinctive from any of the other worms in our garden but I thought he was special. We will write a custom essay sample on Amazing Annelidas or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page So I decided this would be the worm I would keep as a pet. Holding him in cupped in my hands I ran inside hoping my parents wouldn’t see. â€Å"Where are you going so quickly?† my mother asked. â€Å"Nowhere,† I said as I walked past in what I hoped was a casual manner. â€Å"Okay.† My mother said going back to washing the dishes. I went downstairs and found my doctor Barbie’s medical kit emptying out the contents I set my new friend inside. â€Å"Now, let’s go get you some dirt.† I said. I walked out to the garden with him, avoiding my mother, and filled the rest of the empty medical case with dirt. After, filling it I set him in the basement and didn’t think about him too much the rest of the day. The next morning I eagerly ran downstairs to check on my new pet. To my utter despair I found he had died in the night. Crying, I went and dumped him and the dirt outside. I felt so guilty about killing him I didn’t tell any one the story for years. That day I learned an important lesson. I realized that we cannot just do whatever we want with nature for our own purposes. Nature does not exist just for humans to use for their own interests. I had never even considered that keeping the worm as a pet would hurt him. Today, there are adults who do not consider the consequences when they dump their garbage into a lake, or clear cut a forest to build a shopping mall. I am thankful I learned that decisions like this can have consequences at such young age. Today, I still love worms, but for a different reason. I admit I don’t spend hours digging up the earth just to watch them. However, growing up I have learned what an important role on our planet that earth worms have. Worms can turn our waste into rich, dark soil. Worms create a huge amount of the soil we use to grown our food and take care of much of the waste from our food. They are hugely beneficial to our environment. Worms have inspired me to want to be an environmental scientist, because I someday I hope to have even a fraction of the positive impact on our environment that worms do.

A New Theory of Dinosaur Evolution

A New Theory of Dinosaur Evolution Its not often that a scholarly paper about dinosaur evolution shakes up the world of paleontology and is covered in major publications like The Atlantic and The New York Times. But that is exactly what has happened with a paper published in the British magazine Nature, A New Hypothesis of Dinosaur Relationships and Early Dinosaur Evolution, by Matthew Baron, David Norman and Paul Barrett, on March 22, 2017. What makes this paper so revolutionary? To grasp this requires a quick briefing on the currently existing, widely accepted theory about the origin and evolution of dinosaurs. According to this scenario, the first dinosaurs evolved from archosaurs about 230 million years ago, during the late Triassic period, in the part of the supercontinent Pangea that corresponds to modern-day South America. These first, small, relatively undifferentiated reptiles then split off into two groups over the next few million years: saurischian, or lizard-hipped, dinosaurs, and ornithischian, or bird-hipped, dinosaurs. Saurischians include both plant-eating sauropods and meat-eating theropods, while ornithischians comprise everything else (stegosaurs, ankylosaurs, hadrosaurs, etc.). The new study, based on a lengthy, detailed analysis of dozens of dinosaur fossils, presents a different scenario. According to the authors, the ultimate ancestor of dinosaurs originated not in South America, but in the part of Pangea roughly corresponding to modern-day Scotland (one proposed candidate is the obscure, cat-sized   Saltopus). The first true dinosaur, moreover, is proposed to be Nyasasaurus, which originated  in the part of Pangea corresponding to modern-day Africaand which lived 247 million years ago, ten million years earlier than previously identified first dinosaurs like Eoraptor. More importantly, the study completely rearranges the lowest branches of the dinosaur family tree. In this account, dinosaurs are no longer divided into saurischians and ornithischians; rather, the authors propose a group called Ornithoscelidae (which lumps in theropods along  with ornithischians) and a redefined Saurischia (which now includes sauropods and the family of meat-eating dinosaurs called herrerasaurs, after the early South American dinosaur Herrerasaurus). Presumably, this classification helps account for the fact that many ornithischian dinosaurs possessed theropod-like characteristics (bipedal postures, grasping hands, and in some species, even feathers), but its further implications are still being worked out. How important is all this for the average dinosaur enthusiast? Despite all the hype, not very. The fact is that the authors are looking back to a very opaque time in dinosaur history, when the earliest branches of the dinosaur family tree had yet to be established, and when it would have been virtually impossible for an observer on the ground to distinguish between a profusion of  two-legged archosaurs, two-legged theropods, and two-legged ornithischians. Turn the clock ahead tens of millions of years to the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, and everything pretty much remains unchangedTyrannosaurus Rex is still a theropod, Diplodocus is still a sauropod, all is right with the world. How have other paleontologists reacted to the publication of this paper? There is widespread agreement that the authors have done careful, detailed work, and that their conclusions deserve to be taken seriously. However, there are still some objections being voiced about the quality of the fossil evidence, especially as it pertains to the earliest dinosaurs, and most scientists agree that additional, confirming evidence will be needed before books on dinosaur evolution have to be rewritten. In any case, it will take years for this research to filter out to the general public, so theres no need to worry just yet about how to pronounced ornithoscelidae.

Best seven websites in healthcare law Assignment

Best seven websites in healthcare law - Assignment Example The website is effective since it uses simple sentences that are easy to understand in breaking down the facts to its target audience. In this website, the authors criticize the affordable health care act. The website provides the audience with a detailed view of the law as it analyses its various features. The website gives divergent views and the thoughts of people. Unlike the other website, this website criticizes the laws and in doing this expands the audiences’ views on the laws. Such is a significant function that improves the enlightenment of both the electorate and the political elite. This website explains various laws in the country that affects the operation of health facilities in the country and the receipt of the services. The affordable health care act revolutionized the health care sector. The website therefore explains the various features and implications of the law in the country. The website explains the intricate features of the affordable healthcare act. The website introduces the law explaining its implications in simple language. The law seeks to increase the number of middle class Americans receiving high quality health care in the country. The law introduces new legal features that ensure that the society’s poor receive quality health care. Key among the features is accountability of the insurance service providers. In doing this, the law enlightens the populace on the responsibilities of the numerous insurance service providers in the country. New York Times is a daily news publication that covers various issues affecting the lives of the citizens. In the website, the company details numerous features of health law reforms in the United States. The website provides an informative view to various health law reforms in the country including the actions of the policy makers and the implications of such actions. The website provides a

Introduction to American Government Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Introduction to American Government - Essay Example The presence of many children combined with puritans stress on the importance of reading the bible led to widespread concern for the education of the youth. Small schools were thus established and boys and girls were taught basic reading by the parents or school. Grandparents were quickly created since people married young with marriages lasting longer and producing more children. Church membership was obligatory for voting in colony elections. All New Englanders were required to attend religious services, whether or not they were church members and people for expressed contempt for ministers could be punished with fines and whippings, the puritan colonies attempted to enforce strict codes of moral conduct. Colonies there could be tried for drunkenness, card playing, dancing or even idleness. Couples who had sex during their engagement were fined and publicly humiliated, men and a handful of women, who engaged in behaviors that today would be called homosexual were seen as especially sinful and reprehensible and some were executed. This and much more, was later to cause fierce rivalries leading to wars for freedom and independence.The Middle Colonies included the colonies of Delaware, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania. Many of these people didn't bring their families with them from England and were the perfect workers for the hard work required in ironworks and shipyards. Factories in Maryland produced iron, and factories in Pennsylvania produced paper and textiles.

Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions

Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions in the English of Syrian Students Abstract In recent years, studies of foreign language acquisition have tended to focus on learners errors since they allow for prediction of the difficulties involved in acquiring a foreign language. In this way, teachers can be made aware of the difficult areas to be encountered by their students and devote special care and emphasis to them. Prepositions, on which this dissertation focuses, are one of these difficult areas. Thus, the main objective is to investigate whether the English preposition errors of the Syrian university students come more from inter-lingual interference or from other sources and whether classical or colloquial Arabic has the dominant influence on this interference. It also investigates which category of error in inter-lingual interference is the most frequent in the students using the prepositions in, on, at, of and to. The data is samples consisting of the answers of a diagnostic test by 38 Syrian first-year students of law. The diagnostic test was designed as a mu ltiple choice test and took by the students online. This investigation showed that preposition errors come mainly from inter-lingual interference, which is attributed more to standard Arabic here. It also showed that the students seem to have a serious problem in first language interference errors, especially substitution errors. This has implications for curriculum change and teachers method of teaching. 1. Introduction 1.1. Background of the study Language difficulty is often determined by how far or close the target and mother languages are. â€Å"Contrastive analysis is one of the areas of linguistics which elude a clear, unequivocal, and simple definition† (Vizmuller-Zocco, 1990:466). Errors in a certain area of grammar in the second language are often compared with an area of grammar in the first language. One of the most challenging things in learning English as a second language is using prepositions, â€Å"Among those who teach or learn the English language, prepositions have earned a reputation for difficulty if not downright unpredictability.† (Pittman, 1966) â€Å"As any English teacher well knows, our prepositions are a particularly troublesome lot to the non-native speaker of English† (McCarthy, 1972). When we, non-native speakers of English, speak English, we usually hesitate over choosing the correct preposition or whether a certain verb needs a preposition or not. This matter has always interested me, as many Arabic-speaking learners of English complain about it. Thahir (1987) indicates that prepositions can cause a problem for Arabic learners of English. For instance, an Arabic speaker would say this sentence *Fast trains can travel at a speed of 300m in hour. This is because per hour is expressed as in hour in Arabic. This transfer from Arabic into English is what makes Arabic learners English seem broken. Moreover, some linguists say that the mastery of prepositions in English is a late stage in native-language learning as well (Scott and Tucker, 1974). Therefore, this dissertation intends to look into the differences of preposition aspects between Arabic and English: are their distributions the same? Do all the Arabic words that need prepositions also need prepositions in English? If the words that need prepositions in Arabic also need prepositions in English, are these prepositions the same or different? From these general questions more specific questions will be formulated in the ‘Methodology chapter. 1.2. Grammar of English and Arabic prepositions â€Å"Arabic has a wealth of prepositions†¦with both verbs and adjectives. Many of these do not coincide with their direct English translations† (Swan and Smith, 1987:152). Nevertheless, Arabic prepositions are more limited in number than those of English. Abbas says that there are only twenty prepositions in Arabic (1961:320), while in English, there are fifty seven (Hayden, 1965:171-176). This, as a matter of fact, makes it harder for Arabic learners of English to have a command of English preposition usage. Grubic says: Non-native speakers of English tend to have three types of problems with prepositions: 1. Using the wrong preposition, e.g.: *My grandfather picked the name on me. (for) 2. Omitting a required preposition, e.g.: *I served the Army until 1964. (in) 3. Using a superfluous prepositions, e.g.: *I studied in Biology for three years. (2004:22) Despite all the efforts made by grammar book writers and teachers, learners of English still make mistakes in the usage of prepositions. So, what makes EFL learners make these errors? There is no doubt that Arabic learners of English translate grammar from Arabic into English, ignoring the rigorous grammatical structures of the English language. However, are all preposition-usage errors related to L1? Prepositions are words or groups of words that typically come before a noun phrase and indicate syntactic relations (Matthews, 1997). v My fathers plane arrives after midnight. v We have got a tree in front of the house. v There are no snakes in Ireland. One important feature of prepositions is that they cannot stand alone, regardless of how many words they are combined with (Downing and Locke, 1992). Since prepositions are not independent, they form meaning when combined with nouns or noun phrases, for example: after midnight, in front of the house, in Ireland. â€Å"Prepositions can be divided into three categories, i.e. basic prepositions, systematic prepositions and idiomatic prepositions: v standing on the table. v come on Friday. v comment on speech.† (Karlsson, 2002) In expressing time, on is used with days, such as on Friday, on Saturday and on January 30th. At, on the other hand, indicates a specific part or time of the day, such as at 12 oclock, at noon and at midnight. While in is used with years, months and seasons or main parts of the day, for example in 2001, in summer, in April. For explains a period of time, and by and within indicate limitation of a period of time, such as for six years, by next year and within two hours (Hewings, 2005). The Arabic preposition fee ( »Ã¢â‚¬Å" »Ã‚ ²), which is equivalent to the English in, is used in almost all of the above cases, but for within Arabic uses khilal ( ºÃ‚ »Ã‚ ¼Ã‚ »Ã‚ ). By and for have no equivalents in Arabic and they are expressed in phrases. As for prepositions of movement and place, in is used when indicating a certain position and on when talking about the surface, as in: v The keys are in the drawer. v The keys are on the table. At is used when pointing at a certain place which is close to the object, for example: v Im waiting for you at the bus stop. Inside is used to indicate the inner place of a certain object, while outside is the opposite. v There is a scorpion inside my room. v Outside the Palace, there were crowds of people waiting for the Queen to show up. Also, from and to are opposite prepositions. From indicates the origin of the movement, but to indicates the target of the movement (ibid), as in: v My plane ticket is from London Heathrow to Damascus International Airport. All of the prepositions of movement and place have their equivalents in Arabic:  § in → fee ( »Ã¢â‚¬Å" »Ã‚ ²)  § on → ala ( »Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ »Ã‚  Ã‚ »Ã‚ °)  § at → inda ( »Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ »Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ª)  § inside → dakhel ( ºÃ‚ ªÃ‚ ºÃ‚ Ã‚ ºÃ‚ »Ã… ¾)  § outside → kharej ( ºÃ‚ ºÃ‚ Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ®Ã‚ ºÃ‚ )  § from → min ( »Ã‚ £Ã‚ »Ã‚ ¥)  § to → ila ( ºÃ¢â‚¬ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚  Ã‚ »Ã‚ °) 1.3. Study aims The prepositions in, on, at and to are the most commonly used prepositions in English. Therefore, my research study is going to focus closely on these four prepositions in the English of Syrian university students. I will see whether the first language interference kind of error is more effective than the other kinds. I will identify the errors that have to do with L1 interference and see if the interference comes from classical or colloquial Arabic. I will also look at the categories of L1 interference errors and see which one is the most frequent: substitution, addition or omission. This will, hopefully, help Syrian university students improve their written and spoken English. 2. Literature review 2.1. Error analysis One way for identifying errors in preposition usage is error analysis. First of all, it is important to define the word ‘error. An error is â€Å"an instance of language that is unintentionally deviant and is not self-corrigible by its author† (James, 1998:78). Brown considers the errors as either ‘overt or ‘covert (1994:208). According to Ellis (1987) Error analysis was considered as an alternative to contrastive analysis, and it is considered of value in the classroom research (Brown, 1994: 214). It also predicts the difficulties of acquiring a second language (Richards, 1974: 172). Error analysis shows â€Å"the significance of errors in learners inter-language system† (Brown, 1994:204). Ellis and Richards et al say that error analysis can be conducted for pedagogical purposes (1994:51; 1993:127). At the level of pragmatic classroom experience, error analysis will continue to provide one means by which the teacher can assess learning and teaching and determine priorities for future effort (Richards, 1974:15). When we analyse errors, we should give a detailed explanation for each type of error that corresponds to the different processes that Selinker (1992) reported as central to second language learning: language transfer, transfer of training, strategies of second language learning, strategies of second language communication, and overgeneralization of TL [Target Language] linguistic material. Error analysis helps teachers overcome the difficulties learners of English face in learning the language through figuring out the sources of errors and, consequently, taking some precautions towards them. It can be said that error analysis can be used to determine the learners need in learning. 2.2. Language transfer The â€Å"study of transfer depends greatly on the systematic comparisons of languages provided by contrastive analyses† (Odlin, 1989: 28). Odlin goes on to say that although many contrastive analyses provide useful and sometimes highly perceptive information about languages they compare, none comes close to meeting in full the criteria of descriptive and theoretical adequacy. There is no doubt that interference constitutes a major problem and obstacle in language usage amongst learners of a second language. They cannot help letting their mother tongue interfere in the target language. Therefore, some errors are tolerable to native speakers of English. Even native speakers of English have problems with certain preposition structures. Over-generalisation or intra-lingual transfer is said to have a considerably negative effect on learner English. Learners of a second language sometimes transfer some features of grammar to apply it on other inappropriate features. This certainly results in errors in the target language. Almost all the research that has been done so far indicates that preposition misuse is mainly caused by linguistic interference, inappropriate learning and wrong application of rules. Some views contradict this saying that errors of prepositions are due to the complexity of the English language itself. Others go so far as to say that the misuse or errors of a language could be related to bad teaching and resources, ignorance, lack of practice and carelessness. In fact, attitudes vary considerably. The first attitude represents the feeling that errors are undesirable and, therefore, should be avoided, but the second says that errors are inevitable in an imperfect world (Corder, 1981). In behaviourism, errors are depicted as sins that should be avoided and bad habits that should not be tolerated, while in cognitivism, errors are perceived as part of the learning process. The main focus of behaviourism followers methods is on preventing errors, whereas the focus of the methods of cognitivists is on intellectual analyses of the causes of errors and ways of dealing with them. This supports Frenchs argument (1989) that â€Å"errors are oddities that are not evidence of carelessness or of unwillingness but of growing pains and a desire to learn, not punishable offences because they are accidents† (French, 1989). Actually they are part of the language learning process. Humans cannot learn without making errors to err is human. Krashen and Terrell (1983) argue that the errors made by learners are a natural process in learning, and learners will get over this stage of inter-language interference and develop naturally. L1 interference is one of several types of errors learners of a second language make (ibid, 1988: 64-69). When learners of a second language use this language, they have no way but to submit to the grammar of their first language. In the case of English prepositions, when Arabic learners of English are not sure which preposition to use, they literally translate from Arabic into English. As Arabic and English prepositions seldom have one-to-one correspondence, this results in inter-language interference errors. An Arabic preposition may be translated by several English prepositions, while an English usage may have several Arabic translations (Scott and Tucker, 1974: 85). 2.3. Studies on language transfer The processes of language transfer and over-generalisation receive considerable attention. Jain (in Richards, 1974) and Taylor (1975) reported that over-generalisation errors are an application of the generalisation strategies of the learners second language to produce this same second language. Brown states that inter-lingual transfer is the negative influence of the mother tongue, and that intra-lingual transfer is the negative transfer within the target language (1980:173-181). Swan and Smith give a detailed account of errors made by speakers of nineteen different first language backgrounds (1995:ix). Also, Diab (1996) conducted a research on error analysis showing the interference of the mother language, Arabic, in the English writings of EFL students at the American University of Beirut (1996). The transfer of Arabic structures in the Lebanese students writings resulted in a number of errors. However, they made more errors where they felt English and Arabic were similar (articles, prepositions and choice of diction). James indicates that â€Å"the clearest proof of L1 interference is where L1 nonstandard dialect gets transferred to L2† (1998:179). Dulay et al (1982) defines language interference as the automatic transfer from the surface structure of the first language to the surface structure to the second language, while Lott (1983) defines it as errors in learners foreign language that can be attributed to the mother tongue. Ellis also comments on interference saying that it is â€Å"the influence that the learners L1 exerts over the acquisition of an L2† (1997:51). ‘An Analysis of Interference Errors in the Written English of Sudanese Students is a study made by Tadros (1966) in order to analyse the errors of language interference in the writings of Sudanese students. He looked into 472 scripts written by 236 students in their seventh year of English learning. The students were first given different exercises about relative clauses and had to follow explicit instructions. Then they were asked to write a paragraph about their school, using relative clauses. This research made the writer come up with the conclusion that this is an effective way to apply what they have already learnt. I think the conditions were helpful for the students, so their writings were not an indication of their true proficiency level in English. The students were asked to write paragraphs immediately after they had been taught. Scott et al (1974) also made a study in Beirut called â€Å"Error Analysis and English Language Strategies of Arab Students†. This study examined samples of Arab students speech and writing both at the beginning and the end of the semester in an intensive English course; compared the types of error in speech and writing, the frequency of these errors and the relative frequency of the errors made at the beginning and the end of the semester; identified the sources of errors; considered both inter-language interference and intra-language interference in the English learning strategies of Arab students and identified some rules that represent early and late acquisition of a second language. This researcher made this study on 22 Arab students in the first semester of a lower intermediate intensive English course at the University of Beirut. Those students had already completed their school education, where the medium of instruction was Arabic. They had also studied some English as a foreign language. This study revealed that verbs, prepositions and articles are the areas where the students often made errors. It also showed that the error frequency in the usage of prepositions was similar in writing and speech and that the preposition errors at the beginning and the end of the semester ranked after the number of verb errors. Verb errors Preposition errors Beginning of the semester 80 61 End of the semester 60 51 Half of the errors in writing and speech at the beginning of the semester were due to inter-language interference and the other half due to intra-language interference. About two thirds of the errors at the end of the semester were due to inter-language interference and one third due to intra-language interference. Since the larger number of errors was made due to inter-language interference at the end rather than at the beginning of the semester, this means that the students were making more progress in overcoming intra-language interference confusion than in solving the problem of the first language transfer. The interference of Arabic was most obvious in the frequent omission of auxiliaries and copulas, in preposition and article errors and in the repetition of subjects and objects. However, at the end of the semester, the students made a great progress in almost all areas except in prepositions and articles; the interference of the mother language continued to be a dominant feature in the usage of prepositions and articles. The preposition errors fell into three groups: 1. Interference from Arabic. 2. Interference from English. 3. Errors without identifiable source. The preposition errors were reduced by one third during the semester. Although the larger proportion of these errors was attributed to the interference of the first language, it was thought that the students would make progress in the usage of prepositions since it is a late acquisition in native language learning (Scott et al, 1974:95). The researcher suggested that other studies should investigate the errors made by Arab students at both lower and higher levels of English proficiency and if inter-language interference comes from formal or colloquial Arabic. She suggests that â€Å"interference in writing comes from classical Arabic but interference in speech from colloquial Arabic.† (ibid: 96). Mukattash made a pilot project in common grammatical errors in Jordanian English (1981: 250-291). The broad objective of his research â€Å"Common Grammatical Errors in Jordanian English† is to get a general idea of the areas in English syntax which are problematic to Jordanian students at university. The specific objective of his research was to calculate and analyse the different types of errors in the written English of Jordanian university students. The subject students were 200 first-year students at the University of Jordan. They were graduates of public secondary schools, where they had received eight years of English language teaching. They were also from different parts of Jordan and some of them were from the West Bank in Palestine. The students were given a comprehensive test in comprehension, structure and vocabulary. All the 200 essays contained errors, but the detailed analysis was made on only fifty essays, which were chosen randomly. The errors in the usage of prepositions ranked fourth in the order of the total occurrence of errors. This study disagrees with Scotts study, which ranks preposition usage errors second after verb errors. Here the ranking order is as follows: verbals, articles, nominals and prepositions. The percentage of the preposition errors was 15% of the overall number of errors in the fifty essays. Although we cannot compare the results of the two studies due to the fact that Scott did not state precisely what percentage the preposition usage errors constituted in the writings of her subject students, we can say that preposition errors are still a serious problem for Arabic learners of English. In Scotts study, the percentage of interference from Arabic was 67%, while in this Study, it is 78%. However, the interference of Arabic in the usage of prepositions is still significant in the results of both studies. Also, Kerr (1970) made a study on the common errors in the English writings of a group of Greek learners of English as a foreign language. The research study purpose was to show the teachers of English in Greece the serious problems their students have in writing. Teachers find certain types of errors which they have previously ignored, and so find indications of the kinds of preventive and remedial teaching that would prevent the growth of bad language habits by using clearer explanations and more effective practice at the more elementary stages of learning. The errors also indicate the areas of language on which tests and examinations would be based. (Kerr, 1970: ix). Kerr based his study on over a thousand compositions written by adult students at an advanced level of English proficiency. The causes of the errors found were ignorance of words and constructions to express an idea, carelessness of the students, the interference of the mother language and making false analogies within the target language. Between 20% and 30% of the grammatical errors made by the Greek students involved errors in the usage of prepositions of all types (ibid, 1970: 22). Handrickson (1979) made another research study on error analysis and error correction at Ohio State University called ‘Error Analysis and Error Correction on ESL Learners at Ohio State University. The subject learners were adults of intermediate level studying English as a second language. His study aimed at identifying the most frequent communicative and linguistic errors in the compositions of intermediate ESL learners. It also aimed at determining the effect of the teachers direct correction on the English writing proficiency of students. He found that most of the communicative errors were as a result of inadequate lexical knowledge, incorrect use of prepositions and pronouns or misspelling of lexical items. On the other hand, the linguistic errors were caused by inappropriate lexical choice, lack of subject-verb agreement, the omission and misuse of prepositions, incorrect word order or misspelling of words. The effect of the teachers direct error correction on the students English proficiency in writing came out to be statistically insignificant. Another study was made in the United States on EFL learners, but this time on Iranian students. The research was conducted by Henning (1978) at the University of California and is called ‘A Developmental Analysis of English Errors Made by Iranian Students. He analysed the developmental error patterns of the Iranian learners of English as a second language. The subjects of this study were 22 Iranian women in the second semester of their first year at Damayand College in Tehran, Iran. The students had already had an average of six years of English learning and were, at the time of the research, enrolled in an intensive course where 20 hours of English language teaching was being given to them. The medium of instruction was also English. â€Å"The conclusion reached was that†¦mastery in the usage of English prepositions according to their meanings is one of the most sensitive indicators of the degree of English proficiency† (Henning, 1978:396-397). Zarei (2002) also found that, for Iranian EFL learners, the collocations of prepositions are among the most problematic collocations in English. Khampang (1974) also made a research study at the University of California. This Research study is called ‘The Difficulties in Using English Prepositions, and it focused on the difficulties facing Thai learners of English in using English prepositions. The research was conducted to investigate what the prepositions that Thai learners of English found difficult to learn were and whether there was a big difference between the prepositions that Thai learners of English chose and those chosen by learners of English from other L1 backgrounds. It also investigated whether the problem of using English prepositions was universal, shared with non-Thai learners of English, or Thai learners had specific problems. He wanted to know if this problem was due to first language interference and, consequently, predictable from contrastive analysis. The study was only on 8 simple prepositions of time and place: in, on, at, for, to, from, by and the empty form ∅. ‘The subject students in this research were 169 students from different L1 backgrounds: 40 from Thailand, 48 from Japan, 38 from Spain and 43 from countries of different language backgrounds (Persian, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Arabic). The levels of the students were both intermediate and advanced, and they were in adult schools in the area of Los Angeles. The students were tested on the 8 prepositions of time and place by a diagnostic test. This test was in three parts: multiple choice, error correction and close test. Each part consisted of 15 items. The 45 questions included the repetition of each preposition 4 times in random order. The results came up with the fact that: there was no evidence of significant difference between the language groups based on total test scores. Neither was there any evidence found for interaction effects between the language groups and the factors selected. There was only one factor, previous educational level, which showed significant difference between high school and college subjects. (Khampang, 1974: 218). Different language groups did not affect the subject students performance in the usage of English prepositions. Again, age, sex or the number of years or hours per week allotted for learning English were not important factors in mastering the usage of English prepositions. As for the question about whether certain prepositions were more difficult or easier for certain language groups, the writer had to use the criterion of difficulty in order to answer it. If a group had less than 50% of the responses correct, then the test item was considered difficult. 16 out of the 45 items were considered difficult, and the data showed that not all the four groups had the same responses for the test items. Khampang gave some statements that, as he said, are applicable to ESL teaching. He said that of the three test parts, the close test seemed to be more effective than the other parts in testing the usage of English prepositions. He also argues that to teach them English, there is no need to separate students of English by age, sex, or number of years or hours allotted for learning English. Diagnostic and placement tests came out to be more effective than considering the students L1 backgrounds. Moreover, for a heterogeneous language group, the way of teaching English prepositions of time and place should be the same for all students, along with emphasising the areas of difficulty in English language learning for a particular language group. This last statement is the real objective behind error analysis. Im researching Syrian university students preposition errors in order to see if the errors are as a result of the interference of their first language, Arabic. This will help us devel op strategies to teach those students. An investigation on the grammatical errors made by Swedish 16-year-old learners of English was made by Kohlmyr (2003). She analysed errors in around 400 compositions from two national assessment programmes, and she found that preposition errors accounted for 12% of all the grammatical errors. The preposition errors that were mainly found with to, in, at, of and for included substitution, omission and addition. The most frequent type of error was actually substitution. According to this research, the preposition errors were caused by first language transfer, over-generalisation and simplification. About 50% of the errors were caused by over-generalisation, 40% by first language transfer and 10% by simplification. Gabrys-Biskup argues that interference is the prime cause of the learners second language (in Arnauld Benjoint, 1992). All of the above research articles focused on learner English. Some of them also focused on the usage of English prepositions by EFL learners; for instance, the research done by Scott and Khampang. Scott, in her research, found that the usage of English prepositions was a serious problem for Arabic learners of English (1973). While Khampang said that different language groups did not have effect on the students performance in using English prepositions (1974). That suggests that the usage of English prepositions are a serious problem for learners of English as a foreign language. In Scotts research, preposition errors ranked second after verb errors, and in Mukattashs, they ranked fourth. In both cases, preposition errors are problematic for Arabic learners of English. Also, in Kerrs research study, the preposition errors constituted between 20% and 30% of the overall grammatical errors. Some of the above researchers gave some recommendations and suggestions for dealing with errors. Kerr (1970) said that preventive and remedial teaching had a good and positive effect. This can be done by using clearer explanations and more effective practice at the elementary stage. However, Tadros (1979) suggested intensive drilling. On the other hand, Scott suggested that further investigations should be made on the errors that are committed by Arabic learners of English at their lower levels of English proficiency (1973). She also suggested that researches should look into the influence of classical and colloquial Arabic on Arabic students written English. These suggestions, in addition to my interest, have urged me to conduct a research study into this problematic area for Syrian learners of English, especially since there have not been many studies on this topic, as far as I know. Even at more advanced levels of English proficiency, Syrian learners of English still make errors in the usage of prepositions. The kind of error they make is due to the mother tongue, and since Arabic has two varieties (formal and colloquial), it is worth investigating which one the learners take their English grammar structures from. Scott (1974) says that the English production of Arabic learners is affected by both formal and colloquial Arabic. Nevertheless, we do not know which variety is dominant and to what extent. 3. Methodology and research procedures 3.1. Research questions In this research study, I will look into the preposition usage errors made by Syrian university students and try to answer the following questions: 1. Which kind of error is more effective in using the English prepositions in, on, at, of and to: inter-language interference or other kinds of error? 2. Which variety of Arabic has the influence on the usage of English prepositions of Syrian university students and w Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions Inter-lingual Interference in the Usage of Prepositions in the English of Syrian Students Abstract In recent years, studies of foreign language acquisition have tended to focus on learners errors since they allow for prediction of the difficulties involved in acquiring a foreign language. In this way, teachers can be made aware of the difficult areas to be encountered by their students and devote special care and emphasis to them. Prepositions, on which this dissertation focuses, are one of these difficult areas. Thus, the main objective is to investigate whether the English preposition errors of the Syrian university students come more from inter-lingual interference or from other sources and whether classical or colloquial Arabic has the dominant influence on this interference. It also investigates which category of error in inter-lingual interference is the most frequent in the students using the prepositions in, on, at, of and to. The data is samples consisting of the answers of a diagnostic test by 38 Syrian first-year students of law. The diagnostic test was designed as a mu ltiple choice test and took by the students online. This investigation showed that preposition errors come mainly from inter-lingual interference, which is attributed more to standard Arabic here. It also showed that the students seem to have a serious problem in first language interference errors, especially substitution errors. This has implications for curriculum change and teachers method of teaching. 1. Introduction 1.1. Background of the study Language difficulty is often determined by how far or close the target and mother languages are. â€Å"Contrastive analysis is one of the areas of linguistics which elude a clear, unequivocal, and simple definition† (Vizmuller-Zocco, 1990:466). Errors in a certain area of grammar in the second language are often compared with an area of grammar in the first language. One of the most challenging things in learning English as a second language is using prepositions, â€Å"Among those who teach or learn the English language, prepositions have earned a reputation for difficulty if not downright unpredictability.† (Pittman, 1966) â€Å"As any English teacher well knows, our prepositions are a particularly troublesome lot to the non-native speaker of English† (McCarthy, 1972). When we, non-native speakers of English, speak English, we usually hesitate over choosing the correct preposition or whether a certain verb needs a preposition or not. This matter has always interested me, as many Arabic-speaking learners of English complain about it. Thahir (1987) indicates that prepositions can cause a problem for Arabic learners of English. For instance, an Arabic speaker would say this sentence *Fast trains can travel at a speed of 300m in hour. This is because per hour is expressed as in hour in Arabic. This transfer from Arabic into English is what makes Arabic learners English seem broken. Moreover, some linguists say that the mastery of prepositions in English is a late stage in native-language learning as well (Scott and Tucker, 1974). Therefore, this dissertation intends to look into the differences of preposition aspects between Arabic and English: are their distributions the same? Do all the Arabic words that need prepositions also need prepositions in English? If the words that need prepositions in Arabic also need prepositions in English, are these prepositions the same or different? From these general questions more specific questions will be formulated in the ‘Methodology chapter. 1.2. Grammar of English and Arabic prepositions â€Å"Arabic has a wealth of prepositions†¦with both verbs and adjectives. Many of these do not coincide with their direct English translations† (Swan and Smith, 1987:152). Nevertheless, Arabic prepositions are more limited in number than those of English. Abbas says that there are only twenty prepositions in Arabic (1961:320), while in English, there are fifty seven (Hayden, 1965:171-176). This, as a matter of fact, makes it harder for Arabic learners of English to have a command of English preposition usage. Grubic says: Non-native speakers of English tend to have three types of problems with prepositions: 1. Using the wrong preposition, e.g.: *My grandfather picked the name on me. (for) 2. Omitting a required preposition, e.g.: *I served the Army until 1964. (in) 3. Using a superfluous prepositions, e.g.: *I studied in Biology for three years. (2004:22) Despite all the efforts made by grammar book writers and teachers, learners of English still make mistakes in the usage of prepositions. So, what makes EFL learners make these errors? There is no doubt that Arabic learners of English translate grammar from Arabic into English, ignoring the rigorous grammatical structures of the English language. However, are all preposition-usage errors related to L1? Prepositions are words or groups of words that typically come before a noun phrase and indicate syntactic relations (Matthews, 1997). v My fathers plane arrives after midnight. v We have got a tree in front of the house. v There are no snakes in Ireland. One important feature of prepositions is that they cannot stand alone, regardless of how many words they are combined with (Downing and Locke, 1992). Since prepositions are not independent, they form meaning when combined with nouns or noun phrases, for example: after midnight, in front of the house, in Ireland. â€Å"Prepositions can be divided into three categories, i.e. basic prepositions, systematic prepositions and idiomatic prepositions: v standing on the table. v come on Friday. v comment on speech.† (Karlsson, 2002) In expressing time, on is used with days, such as on Friday, on Saturday and on January 30th. At, on the other hand, indicates a specific part or time of the day, such as at 12 oclock, at noon and at midnight. While in is used with years, months and seasons or main parts of the day, for example in 2001, in summer, in April. For explains a period of time, and by and within indicate limitation of a period of time, such as for six years, by next year and within two hours (Hewings, 2005). The Arabic preposition fee ( »Ã¢â‚¬Å" »Ã‚ ²), which is equivalent to the English in, is used in almost all of the above cases, but for within Arabic uses khilal ( ºÃ‚ »Ã‚ ¼Ã‚ »Ã‚ ). By and for have no equivalents in Arabic and they are expressed in phrases. As for prepositions of movement and place, in is used when indicating a certain position and on when talking about the surface, as in: v The keys are in the drawer. v The keys are on the table. At is used when pointing at a certain place which is close to the object, for example: v Im waiting for you at the bus stop. Inside is used to indicate the inner place of a certain object, while outside is the opposite. v There is a scorpion inside my room. v Outside the Palace, there were crowds of people waiting for the Queen to show up. Also, from and to are opposite prepositions. From indicates the origin of the movement, but to indicates the target of the movement (ibid), as in: v My plane ticket is from London Heathrow to Damascus International Airport. All of the prepositions of movement and place have their equivalents in Arabic:  § in → fee ( »Ã¢â‚¬Å" »Ã‚ ²)  § on → ala ( »Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ »Ã‚  Ã‚ »Ã‚ °)  § at → inda ( »Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ »Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ª)  § inside → dakhel ( ºÃ‚ ªÃ‚ ºÃ‚ Ã‚ ºÃ‚ »Ã… ¾)  § outside → kharej ( ºÃ‚ ºÃ‚ Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ®Ã‚ ºÃ‚ )  § from → min ( »Ã‚ £Ã‚ »Ã‚ ¥)  § to → ila ( ºÃ¢â‚¬ ¡Ã‚ »Ã‚  Ã‚ »Ã‚ °) 1.3. Study aims The prepositions in, on, at and to are the most commonly used prepositions in English. Therefore, my research study is going to focus closely on these four prepositions in the English of Syrian university students. I will see whether the first language interference kind of error is more effective than the other kinds. I will identify the errors that have to do with L1 interference and see if the interference comes from classical or colloquial Arabic. I will also look at the categories of L1 interference errors and see which one is the most frequent: substitution, addition or omission. This will, hopefully, help Syrian university students improve their written and spoken English. 2. Literature review 2.1. Error analysis One way for identifying errors in preposition usage is error analysis. First of all, it is important to define the word ‘error. An error is â€Å"an instance of language that is unintentionally deviant and is not self-corrigible by its author† (James, 1998:78). Brown considers the errors as either ‘overt or ‘covert (1994:208). According to Ellis (1987) Error analysis was considered as an alternative to contrastive analysis, and it is considered of value in the classroom research (Brown, 1994: 214). It also predicts the difficulties of acquiring a second language (Richards, 1974: 172). Error analysis shows â€Å"the significance of errors in learners inter-language system† (Brown, 1994:204). Ellis and Richards et al say that error analysis can be conducted for pedagogical purposes (1994:51; 1993:127). At the level of pragmatic classroom experience, error analysis will continue to provide one means by which the teacher can assess learning and teaching and determine priorities for future effort (Richards, 1974:15). When we analyse errors, we should give a detailed explanation for each type of error that corresponds to the different processes that Selinker (1992) reported as central to second language learning: language transfer, transfer of training, strategies of second language learning, strategies of second language communication, and overgeneralization of TL [Target Language] linguistic material. Error analysis helps teachers overcome the difficulties learners of English face in learning the language through figuring out the sources of errors and, consequently, taking some precautions towards them. It can be said that error analysis can be used to determine the learners need in learning. 2.2. Language transfer The â€Å"study of transfer depends greatly on the systematic comparisons of languages provided by contrastive analyses† (Odlin, 1989: 28). Odlin goes on to say that although many contrastive analyses provide useful and sometimes highly perceptive information about languages they compare, none comes close to meeting in full the criteria of descriptive and theoretical adequacy. There is no doubt that interference constitutes a major problem and obstacle in language usage amongst learners of a second language. They cannot help letting their mother tongue interfere in the target language. Therefore, some errors are tolerable to native speakers of English. Even native speakers of English have problems with certain preposition structures. Over-generalisation or intra-lingual transfer is said to have a considerably negative effect on learner English. Learners of a second language sometimes transfer some features of grammar to apply it on other inappropriate features. This certainly results in errors in the target language. Almost all the research that has been done so far indicates that preposition misuse is mainly caused by linguistic interference, inappropriate learning and wrong application of rules. Some views contradict this saying that errors of prepositions are due to the complexity of the English language itself. Others go so far as to say that the misuse or errors of a language could be related to bad teaching and resources, ignorance, lack of practice and carelessness. In fact, attitudes vary considerably. The first attitude represents the feeling that errors are undesirable and, therefore, should be avoided, but the second says that errors are inevitable in an imperfect world (Corder, 1981). In behaviourism, errors are depicted as sins that should be avoided and bad habits that should not be tolerated, while in cognitivism, errors are perceived as part of the learning process. The main focus of behaviourism followers methods is on preventing errors, whereas the focus of the methods of cognitivists is on intellectual analyses of the causes of errors and ways of dealing with them. This supports Frenchs argument (1989) that â€Å"errors are oddities that are not evidence of carelessness or of unwillingness but of growing pains and a desire to learn, not punishable offences because they are accidents† (French, 1989). Actually they are part of the language learning process. Humans cannot learn without making errors to err is human. Krashen and Terrell (1983) argue that the errors made by learners are a natural process in learning, and learners will get over this stage of inter-language interference and develop naturally. L1 interference is one of several types of errors learners of a second language make (ibid, 1988: 64-69). When learners of a second language use this language, they have no way but to submit to the grammar of their first language. In the case of English prepositions, when Arabic learners of English are not sure which preposition to use, they literally translate from Arabic into English. As Arabic and English prepositions seldom have one-to-one correspondence, this results in inter-language interference errors. An Arabic preposition may be translated by several English prepositions, while an English usage may have several Arabic translations (Scott and Tucker, 1974: 85). 2.3. Studies on language transfer The processes of language transfer and over-generalisation receive considerable attention. Jain (in Richards, 1974) and Taylor (1975) reported that over-generalisation errors are an application of the generalisation strategies of the learners second language to produce this same second language. Brown states that inter-lingual transfer is the negative influence of the mother tongue, and that intra-lingual transfer is the negative transfer within the target language (1980:173-181). Swan and Smith give a detailed account of errors made by speakers of nineteen different first language backgrounds (1995:ix). Also, Diab (1996) conducted a research on error analysis showing the interference of the mother language, Arabic, in the English writings of EFL students at the American University of Beirut (1996). The transfer of Arabic structures in the Lebanese students writings resulted in a number of errors. However, they made more errors where they felt English and Arabic were similar (articles, prepositions and choice of diction). James indicates that â€Å"the clearest proof of L1 interference is where L1 nonstandard dialect gets transferred to L2† (1998:179). Dulay et al (1982) defines language interference as the automatic transfer from the surface structure of the first language to the surface structure to the second language, while Lott (1983) defines it as errors in learners foreign language that can be attributed to the mother tongue. Ellis also comments on interference saying that it is â€Å"the influence that the learners L1 exerts over the acquisition of an L2† (1997:51). ‘An Analysis of Interference Errors in the Written English of Sudanese Students is a study made by Tadros (1966) in order to analyse the errors of language interference in the writings of Sudanese students. He looked into 472 scripts written by 236 students in their seventh year of English learning. The students were first given different exercises about relative clauses and had to follow explicit instructions. Then they were asked to write a paragraph about their school, using relative clauses. This research made the writer come up with the conclusion that this is an effective way to apply what they have already learnt. I think the conditions were helpful for the students, so their writings were not an indication of their true proficiency level in English. The students were asked to write paragraphs immediately after they had been taught. Scott et al (1974) also made a study in Beirut called â€Å"Error Analysis and English Language Strategies of Arab Students†. This study examined samples of Arab students speech and writing both at the beginning and the end of the semester in an intensive English course; compared the types of error in speech and writing, the frequency of these errors and the relative frequency of the errors made at the beginning and the end of the semester; identified the sources of errors; considered both inter-language interference and intra-language interference in the English learning strategies of Arab students and identified some rules that represent early and late acquisition of a second language. This researcher made this study on 22 Arab students in the first semester of a lower intermediate intensive English course at the University of Beirut. Those students had already completed their school education, where the medium of instruction was Arabic. They had also studied some English as a foreign language. This study revealed that verbs, prepositions and articles are the areas where the students often made errors. It also showed that the error frequency in the usage of prepositions was similar in writing and speech and that the preposition errors at the beginning and the end of the semester ranked after the number of verb errors. Verb errors Preposition errors Beginning of the semester 80 61 End of the semester 60 51 Half of the errors in writing and speech at the beginning of the semester were due to inter-language interference and the other half due to intra-language interference. About two thirds of the errors at the end of the semester were due to inter-language interference and one third due to intra-language interference. Since the larger number of errors was made due to inter-language interference at the end rather than at the beginning of the semester, this means that the students were making more progress in overcoming intra-language interference confusion than in solving the problem of the first language transfer. The interference of Arabic was most obvious in the frequent omission of auxiliaries and copulas, in preposition and article errors and in the repetition of subjects and objects. However, at the end of the semester, the students made a great progress in almost all areas except in prepositions and articles; the interference of the mother language continued to be a dominant feature in the usage of prepositions and articles. The preposition errors fell into three groups: 1. Interference from Arabic. 2. Interference from English. 3. Errors without identifiable source. The preposition errors were reduced by one third during the semester. Although the larger proportion of these errors was attributed to the interference of the first language, it was thought that the students would make progress in the usage of prepositions since it is a late acquisition in native language learning (Scott et al, 1974:95). The researcher suggested that other studies should investigate the errors made by Arab students at both lower and higher levels of English proficiency and if inter-language interference comes from formal or colloquial Arabic. She suggests that â€Å"interference in writing comes from classical Arabic but interference in speech from colloquial Arabic.† (ibid: 96). Mukattash made a pilot project in common grammatical errors in Jordanian English (1981: 250-291). The broad objective of his research â€Å"Common Grammatical Errors in Jordanian English† is to get a general idea of the areas in English syntax which are problematic to Jordanian students at university. The specific objective of his research was to calculate and analyse the different types of errors in the written English of Jordanian university students. The subject students were 200 first-year students at the University of Jordan. They were graduates of public secondary schools, where they had received eight years of English language teaching. They were also from different parts of Jordan and some of them were from the West Bank in Palestine. The students were given a comprehensive test in comprehension, structure and vocabulary. All the 200 essays contained errors, but the detailed analysis was made on only fifty essays, which were chosen randomly. The errors in the usage of prepositions ranked fourth in the order of the total occurrence of errors. This study disagrees with Scotts study, which ranks preposition usage errors second after verb errors. Here the ranking order is as follows: verbals, articles, nominals and prepositions. The percentage of the preposition errors was 15% of the overall number of errors in the fifty essays. Although we cannot compare the results of the two studies due to the fact that Scott did not state precisely what percentage the preposition usage errors constituted in the writings of her subject students, we can say that preposition errors are still a serious problem for Arabic learners of English. In Scotts study, the percentage of interference from Arabic was 67%, while in this Study, it is 78%. However, the interference of Arabic in the usage of prepositions is still significant in the results of both studies. Also, Kerr (1970) made a study on the common errors in the English writings of a group of Greek learners of English as a foreign language. The research study purpose was to show the teachers of English in Greece the serious problems their students have in writing. Teachers find certain types of errors which they have previously ignored, and so find indications of the kinds of preventive and remedial teaching that would prevent the growth of bad language habits by using clearer explanations and more effective practice at the more elementary stages of learning. The errors also indicate the areas of language on which tests and examinations would be based. (Kerr, 1970: ix). Kerr based his study on over a thousand compositions written by adult students at an advanced level of English proficiency. The causes of the errors found were ignorance of words and constructions to express an idea, carelessness of the students, the interference of the mother language and making false analogies within the target language. Between 20% and 30% of the grammatical errors made by the Greek students involved errors in the usage of prepositions of all types (ibid, 1970: 22). Handrickson (1979) made another research study on error analysis and error correction at Ohio State University called ‘Error Analysis and Error Correction on ESL Learners at Ohio State University. The subject learners were adults of intermediate level studying English as a second language. His study aimed at identifying the most frequent communicative and linguistic errors in the compositions of intermediate ESL learners. It also aimed at determining the effect of the teachers direct correction on the English writing proficiency of students. He found that most of the communicative errors were as a result of inadequate lexical knowledge, incorrect use of prepositions and pronouns or misspelling of lexical items. On the other hand, the linguistic errors were caused by inappropriate lexical choice, lack of subject-verb agreement, the omission and misuse of prepositions, incorrect word order or misspelling of words. The effect of the teachers direct error correction on the students English proficiency in writing came out to be statistically insignificant. Another study was made in the United States on EFL learners, but this time on Iranian students. The research was conducted by Henning (1978) at the University of California and is called ‘A Developmental Analysis of English Errors Made by Iranian Students. He analysed the developmental error patterns of the Iranian learners of English as a second language. The subjects of this study were 22 Iranian women in the second semester of their first year at Damayand College in Tehran, Iran. The students had already had an average of six years of English learning and were, at the time of the research, enrolled in an intensive course where 20 hours of English language teaching was being given to them. The medium of instruction was also English. â€Å"The conclusion reached was that†¦mastery in the usage of English prepositions according to their meanings is one of the most sensitive indicators of the degree of English proficiency† (Henning, 1978:396-397). Zarei (2002) also found that, for Iranian EFL learners, the collocations of prepositions are among the most problematic collocations in English. Khampang (1974) also made a research study at the University of California. This Research study is called ‘The Difficulties in Using English Prepositions, and it focused on the difficulties facing Thai learners of English in using English prepositions. The research was conducted to investigate what the prepositions that Thai learners of English found difficult to learn were and whether there was a big difference between the prepositions that Thai learners of English chose and those chosen by learners of English from other L1 backgrounds. It also investigated whether the problem of using English prepositions was universal, shared with non-Thai learners of English, or Thai learners had specific problems. He wanted to know if this problem was due to first language interference and, consequently, predictable from contrastive analysis. The study was only on 8 simple prepositions of time and place: in, on, at, for, to, from, by and the empty form ∅. ‘The subject students in this research were 169 students from different L1 backgrounds: 40 from Thailand, 48 from Japan, 38 from Spain and 43 from countries of different language backgrounds (Persian, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Arabic). The levels of the students were both intermediate and advanced, and they were in adult schools in the area of Los Angeles. The students were tested on the 8 prepositions of time and place by a diagnostic test. This test was in three parts: multiple choice, error correction and close test. Each part consisted of 15 items. The 45 questions included the repetition of each preposition 4 times in random order. The results came up with the fact that: there was no evidence of significant difference between the language groups based on total test scores. Neither was there any evidence found for interaction effects between the language groups and the factors selected. There was only one factor, previous educational level, which showed significant difference between high school and college subjects. (Khampang, 1974: 218). Different language groups did not affect the subject students performance in the usage of English prepositions. Again, age, sex or the number of years or hours per week allotted for learning English were not important factors in mastering the usage of English prepositions. As for the question about whether certain prepositions were more difficult or easier for certain language groups, the writer had to use the criterion of difficulty in order to answer it. If a group had less than 50% of the responses correct, then the test item was considered difficult. 16 out of the 45 items were considered difficult, and the data showed that not all the four groups had the same responses for the test items. Khampang gave some statements that, as he said, are applicable to ESL teaching. He said that of the three test parts, the close test seemed to be more effective than the other parts in testing the usage of English prepositions. He also argues that to teach them English, there is no need to separate students of English by age, sex, or number of years or hours allotted for learning English. Diagnostic and placement tests came out to be more effective than considering the students L1 backgrounds. Moreover, for a heterogeneous language group, the way of teaching English prepositions of time and place should be the same for all students, along with emphasising the areas of difficulty in English language learning for a particular language group. This last statement is the real objective behind error analysis. Im researching Syrian university students preposition errors in order to see if the errors are as a result of the interference of their first language, Arabic. This will help us devel op strategies to teach those students. An investigation on the grammatical errors made by Swedish 16-year-old learners of English was made by Kohlmyr (2003). She analysed errors in around 400 compositions from two national assessment programmes, and she found that preposition errors accounted for 12% of all the grammatical errors. The preposition errors that were mainly found with to, in, at, of and for included substitution, omission and addition. The most frequent type of error was actually substitution. According to this research, the preposition errors were caused by first language transfer, over-generalisation and simplification. About 50% of the errors were caused by over-generalisation, 40% by first language transfer and 10% by simplification. Gabrys-Biskup argues that interference is the prime cause of the learners second language (in Arnauld Benjoint, 1992). All of the above research articles focused on learner English. Some of them also focused on the usage of English prepositions by EFL learners; for instance, the research done by Scott and Khampang. Scott, in her research, found that the usage of English prepositions was a serious problem for Arabic learners of English (1973). While Khampang said that different language groups did not have effect on the students performance in using English prepositions (1974). That suggests that the usage of English prepositions are a serious problem for learners of English as a foreign language. In Scotts research, preposition errors ranked second after verb errors, and in Mukattashs, they ranked fourth. In both cases, preposition errors are problematic for Arabic learners of English. Also, in Kerrs research study, the preposition errors constituted between 20% and 30% of the overall grammatical errors. Some of the above researchers gave some recommendations and suggestions for dealing with errors. Kerr (1970) said that preventive and remedial teaching had a good and positive effect. This can be done by using clearer explanations and more effective practice at the elementary stage. However, Tadros (1979) suggested intensive drilling. On the other hand, Scott suggested that further investigations should be made on the errors that are committed by Arabic learners of English at their lower levels of English proficiency (1973). She also suggested that researches should look into the influence of classical and colloquial Arabic on Arabic students written English. These suggestions, in addition to my interest, have urged me to conduct a research study into this problematic area for Syrian learners of English, especially since there have not been many studies on this topic, as far as I know. Even at more advanced levels of English proficiency, Syrian learners of English still make errors in the usage of prepositions. The kind of error they make is due to the mother tongue, and since Arabic has two varieties (formal and colloquial), it is worth investigating which one the learners take their English grammar structures from. Scott (1974) says that the English production of Arabic learners is affected by both formal and colloquial Arabic. Nevertheless, we do not know which variety is dominant and to what extent. 3. Methodology and research procedures 3.1. Research questions In this research study, I will look into the preposition usage errors made by Syrian university students and try to answer the following questions: 1. Which kind of error is more effective in using the English prepositions in, on, at, of and to: inter-language interference or other kinds of error? 2. Which variety of Arabic has the influence on the usage of English prepositions of Syrian university students and w