Ronald Joseph De Feo an Example of the Topic Personal Essays by

Ronald Joseph De Feo I. Name of Profile Subject This case study involves Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr., now 57 years old but who was only 23 when he committed the heinous crime that kept him behind bars at the Green Haven Correctional Facility in Beekman, New York up to the present. His numerous appeals for parole were all rejected. Need essay sample on "Ronald Joseph De Feo" topic? We will write a custom essay sample specifically for you Proceed II. Criminal Activity and Court Charges DeFeo Jr. was convicted of 6 counts of second degree murder in December 4, 1975 at Suffolk County, New York and sentenced to six 25-year terms equivalent to 150 years in prison or essentially life imprisonment (Lowe, 2008). In the early morning of November 13, the previous year in Amityville, New York, he used his .35 caliber Marlin rifle to massacre his father, mother, two sisters and two brothers while they were all sound asleep, killing them instantly (Lowe, 2008). The youngest victim was only 7 years old. He tried to conceal the evidence of his premeditated crime and weaved a story pointing to the Mafia as the ones responsible. Later, he admitted to the crime but fabricated different stories as to why he did it i.e. because of self defense and later because he was suffering from a severe psychological disorder. He also accused the police of forcing him to wrongfully confess to the crime. III. Case History Family Background Ronald DeFeo Jr. came from a well-off family. His mothers family owned a shop dealing Buick cars where his father worked diligently until he began to earn more than enough for his family to move to Amityville, Long Island, New York where they bought heir dream house (Crime Library, 2007). Finances not being a problem, he also had a boathouse built along the Amityville River. However, Ronald DeFeo Sr. had a violent temper and often displayed episodes of rage. He and his wife, Ronnie Jr.s mother, often had intense fights and because Ronnie Jr. was the eldest child, he most often became the subject of his fathers violent outbursts or abuse as well (Crime Library, 2007). DeFeo Sr. expected from his young son the same tough and authoritative character as himself. Ronnie Jr., as a child, was fat and brooding and was often the target of bullying in school. His father often berated him to stand up for himself against the bullies but was never allowed to speak for himself in front of his father or to disobey (Crime Library, 2007). As Ronnie Jr. grew older and gained physical strength, he displayed the same temper as his father and fought back until their quarrels increased in intensity as to involve violent physical confrontations. Students Usually Tell EssayLab professionals: Who wants to write assignment for me? Essay writers suggest: Find Wonderful Papers For Sale Here Eventually disturbed at his sons behavior, DeFeo Sr. brought him to a psychiatrist but Ronnie Jr. was unresponsive to treatment. In an effort to placate him, DeFeo Sr. gave Ronnie Jr. everything that he wanted a speedboat, lots of money and a car among others. Later, Ronnie Jr. was designated a petty job at his fathers car dealership where he received a salary whether or not he performed a task or not. Mental Defects or Disorders DeFeo Jr. displayed a lot of anti-social behavior. While working in the family owned shop, Ronnie Jr. was once sent on an errand to deposit some money and checks at the bank. Together with his friend, he took the money and checks but made it appear that both of them were victims of a hold-up. He also engaged in substance abuse involving alcohol, heroin and LSD and was kicked out of high school. Once, on a hunting trip with friends, he pointed his gun at one of his friends which terrorized the person he had known for a long time. He also did the same to his father, going to the extent of pulling the trigger. Were it not for a jam in the loaded gun, he would have killed his father at that very instant. During his trial psychologists presented different diagnoses of his behavior. The defense psychologist witness confirmed that he was delusional, neurotic and psychotic and so could not take full responsibility for his crime (Crime Library, 2007). His lack of remorse and his being pleased at the deaths of his family members was the evidence of his disorder. The prosecution psychologist witness stated that he had an antisocial personality disorder instead and so was aware of what was right and wrong and the results of his actions but was primarily motivated by self centeredness (Crime Library, 2007). His cleaning up the crime scene in order to remove evidence that would implicate him pointed to this mental defect. Case Facts Overview The prosecutor who effected the conviction was Assistant District Attorney Gerry Sullivan of Suffolk County, New York while Ronald Joseph DeFeo Jr. had the renowned lawyer William Weber as his counsel. The defense tried to plead innocence by reason of insanity with Dr. Daniel Schwartz, a psychologist famous for pronouncing not a few killers as insane, as expert witness (Newsday.com, 2008). However, DeFeos own statements explicitly provided a clear motive for cleaning up the crime scene and disposing of the evidence that connected him to the act (Newsday.com, 2008). By stating that he did not want to leave clues for the police that would implicate him, Ronnie DeFeo Jr. showed that his behavior was not irrational but was in fact acted out with precise motives. The jury unanimously found him guilty of all counts. Weber, DeFeo Jr.s former lawyer, wanted a retrial this time based on the argument that DeFeo Jr. was possessed by demons, i.e. satanic voices in his head ordered him to kill. Weber together with a friend, George Lutz, conspired to create what is known as the Amityville Horror in order to bolster DeFeo Jr.s supposed demon possession which would support his appeal for innocence due to insanity (1000misspenthours.com, 2008). This would also relieve the Lutzs of the mortgage that they realized they could not afford. Lutz created a supernatural haunting nightmare that he and his wife supposedly went through in the 28 days they stayed in the former Amityville residence of the DeFeos. Various ghost and poltergeist forms are only some of the elements found in the Lutzs narration (Morello, 2008). This created such a public sensation that many books were soon written about it and movies were made based on the story. This has influenced the public to believe that DeFeo Jr. indeed committed the crime because he was possessed. Meanwhile, the retrial based on a demonic possession defense never materialized as the courts did not buy the theory (Morello, 2008). IV. Theories An explanation of Ronald DeFeo Jr.s actions can be derived from the strain theory as a sociological theory on crime causation. Because of the abusive and violent behavior of his father, his fathers domination and authority figure in his life and unsatisfied with the amount of money his father gave him, he experienced so much stress that he sought to eliminate the limitations and causes of this through murder. Another explanation is provided by another sociological theory the social learning theory. As a child, DeFeo Jr. learned violence and deception from his father who is thought to have ties with the mob. DeFeo Sr. also once burned their boathouse down in order to collect insurance. His socialization in such behaviors led him to adopt them as his own. Finally, the psychological theory known as motivational theory states that people may behave like children who, by nature, are self-centered and selfish, perennially searching for gratification but not pain and so are antisocial (Jrank.org, 2008). Ronald deFeo Jr.s previous behavior before he committed the crime attest to his penchant of petty stealing, robbing his familys business and of indulging in his vices. The motive of eliminating his family in order to claim his parents life insurance for himself, as initially posed by the prosecution in his case, can not be discounted as a possibility. List of References Crime Library (2007). The Real Amityville Horror. JRank.org (2008). Theories of Crime Causation. Lowe, E. (2008). The Horrors in Amityville. Morello, M. (2008). Still Bleeding After All These Years: The Amityville Redux.

Top 5 Less Crowded Sites to Look For Retail Jobs

Top 5 Less Crowded Sites to Look For Retail Jobs You’re looking for a job in retail and it seems that all the usual job search sites are teeming with applicants. You want to find somewhere less crowded and more focused where you can search and apply in peace for your very specific skill set. Try searching off the beaten path for your next retail job- you’ll find employers who aren’t getting absolutely inundated with responses, and you might just find your next job! 1.  All Retail JobsThis site is free, lists from over 12,000 retail employers and recruiters, and lists both management and hourly job openings. You can save search specifications and set up email notifications that match your profile.2. Work In RetailThis site can also send you real-time job recommendations as they are posted. It’s free and focuses on retail- with job postings at any level.3. Retail Careers NowThis site is free, lets you set up an account/alerts, upload your resume, and do market and salary research. Good for both browsing and searching, it highlights â€Å"featured† jobs and employers.4. Retail CrossingThis free site boasts that it’s the â€Å"largest collection of retail jobs on earth.† It displays how many new jobs were posted by week and how many total jobs are currently available to search, and lets you preview your search by job type. You can also upload your resume and get some good general retail career information by browsing through.5. Retail Jobs WebAnother free site, much like the others, this one  very easily lets you search not only by position type but also by industry, or state, or full-time/part-time. You can even search by company, if you already have one in mind.

Drug policies in Saudi Arabia Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Drug policies in Saudi Arabia - Essay Example It is also assumed that the situation related to the drug abuse in Saudi Arabia is still not at such an alarming level, it means that the drug related situation can be controlled and the country can be lead to a safer side. But apart from this some drug related problems are there which should be managed in order to make the country safer and secure. Some reports mentioned that there was a rising abuse of the drugs named as heroin as well as cocaine. The use of these drugs are no doubt increasing day by day and making many problems for the country, people due to many problems and due to many reasons are going towards a wrong direction and are being addicted to wrong things and means. Due to many reasons like family problems, routine stress, office based problems, employment problems and many other of problems people usually go in a wrong direction and thus ruin their lives. As mentioned above that around 36% to 37% people got admitted every year, out of this percentage majority are th e students or the young people who by following wrong means and ways ruin their lives and thus get addicted to drugs and in the end they have no other option to live. People after being addicted to drugs usually think that life is only to have drugs and to ruin our life; this is not a correct or the right way to think. People should try to think than what so ever they are doing is not a correct way and they should not ruin their lives. Young people usually get addicted to drugs and there is an increasing ratio which shows that young people, college people and the university people are those who are going to these activities and are also making their life worse and worse. As mentioned above there are many reasons due to which people get addicted to the drugs. These problems should be resolve in order to make each and every life better and better so that every one can live easily with full zeal and zest and can also make their life

Leadership Style Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Leadership Style - Term Paper Example He is an American-born hip hop star who established his own music production company in 1993 in New York City. Sean Combs is known for growing and mentoring artists such as Mary J. Blige and more in his company, Bad Boy Entertainment (Clifford, 2014). In this case, Sean Combs is portrayed as a charismatic leader because he inspires artists and motivates them to progress in their singing careers. At Howard University, Combs reveals his love for business practices when he holds entertainment activities in order to get monetary returns. His company, Bad Boy Entertainment, made billions of money in the late 1990’s as he sold his music recordings across the world. He portrays entrepreneurial success due to traits such as courage, intelligence and persuasiveness. Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs was raised in a middle class family in Harlem, New York. He shows his determination to achieve global change by educating the youth. In his messages, he states that the youth should be given opportunities to pursue their dreams so that they can become the CEOs in the future (Clifford, 2014). According to Neider, (2002), the great man theory states that great leaders are born, but, not made. These theories can be used to analyze Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs since he seems to have possessed some leadership qualities from birth. The theories portray leaders as heroic and with strong personalities. Today, Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a successful leader particularly, in his multi- billion company, Bad Boys Entertainment (Clifford, 2014). Although, he comes from a poor background, he seems to have been destined to rise in leadership even before he was born because he has established wide range of businesses and initiatives that have registered great success. He has established businesses, which deal with music recording, publishing, as well as, film and television production. He seems to be more of a charismatic leader because he is gifted and intelligent both in

Lincoln-Douglas Debates Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lincoln-Douglas Debates - Essay Example He also insisted that he would be happy to abolish slave trade and slavery â€Å"I should be exceedingly glad to see slavery abolished in the District of Columbia.† His lack of support for the slavery was however not that passionate and he would not put in personal effort to see it end unless Congress as a whole made that decision based on the power the constitution had accorded them. He made this position very clear in his speech when he said â€Å"†¦I should not with my present views be in favor of endeavoring to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia†¦ (Henretta and Kevin 333)† His position on slavery was legal as he based everything on the constitution. This is evident for example when he said that he would abolish slavery because he was a member of the Congress and the Congress had the constitutional power to abolish it through changing or amending the slavery laws that were currently present. He also gave a number of legal conditions in which he would abolish slavery including if the majority of the voters in the District of Columbia voted for it to be abolished and also if the owners of those slaves were to be compensated for having to part with their slaves who were their laborers. An individual watching this speech would expect that once Lincoln becomes the president, he would honor his words by using his constitutional power to abolish slavery or influence the Congress to amend the constitution and especially the clauses that allow slavery as a way to abolish slavery. These expectations are based on the fact that Lincoln was a man who knew law very well and followed it to the letter and he was also a man of actions and especially when it is something he desired. If his desires were therefore on abolishing slavery, he would have made that happen as soon as he became president. His desires to abolish slavery

What Can We Expect From Input Enhancement?

What Can We Expect From Input Enhancement? Introduction Today, it is generally accepted that target grammatical form of L2 (second language) must be noticed to make acquisition happens and that SLA (second language acquisition) instruction must be integrated into language teaching by which the grammatical forms are presented to learners in meaningful context. IE (Input Enhancement), coined by Sharwood Smith (1991), is a deliberate manipulation to make specific grammatical features of L2 more salient. First of foremost, this technique underscores the fundamental role of input in language teaching. Likewise, the purpose of IE is to draw learners attention to target linguistic form in L2 input. According to Sharwood Smith (1991), learners could be led to noticing target form in two ways: Input Flood (IF) and Textual Enhancement (TE). Through IF, Sharwood Smith (1991) demonstrated the basic idea that the more frequent the exemplars of the target form appear in the input, the more likely the learners will notice the form. In other words, IF manipulates input by saturating L2 linguistic data with target form to draw learners attention. On the other hand, TE is a technique of manipulating the typographical features of a written text to increase the perceptual salience of target grammatical form. The typographical cues such as changing the font style, enlarging the character size, underlining, bolding, capitalizing, and highlighting with colours could be used. However, the question underpins the concept of IE is: Is it sufficient by exposing L2 manipulated input to learners? This question leads to further investigation as learners might not necessary parse the linguistic structure or make form-meaning connection. Therefore, a more specific question emerges: How effective is IE? Based on above discussion, this essay will argue that IE plays facilitative role in L2 learning. The purpose of this essay is to depict what aspects of IE could be fruitfully applied to design a language teaching activity. Review on the key empirical studies of IE will be presented in this essay. Throughout, advantages and limitations of IE will be identified within theoretical frameworks which underpin the stance. Then, we will describe how to overcome the shortfalls of IE by integrating IE with other interventions into classroom language teaching. Finally, IE implications and limitation on language teaching will be reiterated as conclusion. Before discussing the findings and implication of IE, we will first examine several input and noticing issues in SLA field. Input and Noticing Issues in SLA Research Wong (2005) defines of input as samples of language that learners are exposed to in a communicative context or setting (Wong, 2005:119). At the same time, VanPatten (2003) describes input as the language that a learner hears (or reads) that has some kind of communicative intent (VanPatten, 2003: 25). It is clearly to note that both definitions emphasise the terms of communicative. As claimed by VanPatten (2003), learners play communicative role to extract the meaning encoded in the meaning-bearing utterance or sentence. Through these interpretations, we could come to a understanding that L2 learning process engages learners as active participants in a communicative language classroom when they are exposed to L2 input. Despite of communicative value of input, it is generally agreed that input is prerequisite for L2 acquisition. However, there is a need to explore whether manipulation is essential to mediate input into intake. Perceivably, the distinction between input and intake has been drawn in SLA literature. For example, Sharwood Smith (1993) defines input as the potentially processable language data which are made available by chance or by design, to the language learner whereas intake as that part of input that has actually been processed and turned to knowledge of some kind (pp.167). This interpretation leads to ongoing debate about the role of consciousness and unconsciousness mechanism in learning process. Despite extensive research, it still remains controversial as to what type of cognitive mechanism is necessary for acquisition to occur (Svalberg, 2007: 289). Firstly, Krashen (1982) draws a distinction between learning and acquisition. Learning is the result of conscious process whereas acquisition is the product of subconscious process. According to Krashens (1982) strong Input Hypothesis, acquisition takes place when learners are exposed to comprehensible input which is a step more advanced than their current proficiency level. This perception not only implies that input is prerequisite for acquisition process, subconscious process also plays superior role compared to conscious process. In such a case, grammar instruction plays no role in L2 acquisition (Krashen, 1982). Comprehensible Input Hypothesis has thus provokes considerable debate in SLA domain. Among the researchers, Schmidt (1990), contrary to Krashens (1982) hypothesis, postulates that conscious awareness is crucial and necessary for L2 acquisition (p.27). According to Schmidt (1995: 20), only input noticed by learners will be mediated into intake. In contrast, disagree with Schmidts (1990) strong Noticing Hypothesis, Tomlin Villa (1994) posit that unconscious detection is the key process whereas conscious awareness only play facilitative role in L2 learning. Schmidt (1990) outlines six factors influencing noticing when learners process the input, including perceptual saliency of input, frequency of input, instruction, task demands, readiness of learner and processing capacity of learner. During the ongoing debates between the two positions, Sharwood Smith (1993) proposes IE techniques which are linked to Schmidts Noticing Hypothesis. IE techniques emphasise on the qualities of input, namely TE (related to input saliency) and IF (related to input frequency). Hereby, we could claim that the rationale for Sharwood Smiths (1993) IE is driven by Schmidts (1990, 1995) Noticing Hypothesis. That is, Noticing Hypothesis is the theoretical basis for IE. From this point, the debate has indubitably shifted away from general question of Is noticing necessary? to more specific questions of How noticing influence the learning outcome? and How intervention facilitate constrained grammar acquisition process? However, before we claim that IE is efficacy to facilitate L2 acquisition, we need to examine major empirical evidences in SLA research to justify our view on Sharwood Smiths notion. 2 Empirical Evidence of IE As mentioned before, the underpinning theoretical framework for IE is Schmidts (1990, 1995) Noticing Hypothesis. Although Noticing Hypothesis remains controversial, linguists (e.g. Alanen, 1995; Lee, 2002; Shook, 1994; White, 1998; Wong, 2001) has accumulated evidence over the last decade due to its important role in shedding light on how salient input can contribute to the acquisition of L2 target form. In this section, we will discuss the advantages and limitations of IE by reviewing empirical SLA studies on IF and TE. Various perspective of effectiveness such as degree of noticing, intake of forms, accurate production of forms and content comprehension will be examined along the discussion. Input Flood Empirical Evidence: Input Flood has positive effects Lee (2002) investigated the effects of input frequency on the incidental acquisition of Spanish future tense morphology. The subjects were 283 university students with different L1 backgrounds. The frequency of target form appeared in the input passages were 6, 10 and 16 exposures. In immediate post-test, he found frequency has positive effects on the comprehension and intake. In both immediate and delayed post-tests, 16F group outperformed 10F and 6F group significantly. White (1998) investigated the comparison effects of IF and TE on the acquisition of English possessive determiners (PD). 86 French children were divided into 3 treatment groups: textual enhanced input flood (IF-TE group), textual enhanced input flood plus extensive reading and listening (IF-TE+ group) and input flood without enhancement (IF group). In oral picture description task, all subjects experienced improvement. For the frequency of grammatical use, IF-TE+ significantly outperformed the IF-TE and IF group. However, there is no significant difference between IF-TE group and IF group. Empirical Evidence: Input flood has limited effects Trahey White (1993) investigated the effects of IF (positive evidence) on the acquisition of English adverb placement. Subjects were divided into 3 groups: IF group was given flooded positive evidence; IF-EI (A) group received flooded positive evidence and explicit instruction; IF-EI (Q) group received explicit instruction on question formation. They found IF group and IF-EI (A) group performed significantly better than IF-EI (Q) group on using correct word order. However, the results also revealed that IF group and IF-EI (Q) group used incorrect word order more than the IF-EI (A) group. Williams Evans (1998) examined the effects of IF (positive evidence) and explicit instruction on two English target forms: participial adjectives and the passive construction. The university students were divided into 3 groups: IF group received IF with no explicit instruction; IF-EI group received IF and explicit instruction on the forms, rules instruction and corrective feedback; and control group. For the participial adjective, both IF and IF-EI groups showed improvement. However, IF-EI group had significant higher score than IF group. This suggested that explicit instruction had greater effects than IF on this form. For the passive construction, both IF-EI and IF groups made greater improvement than the control group. However, there was no significant difference between IF-EI and IF groups. This suggested that explicit instruction has no greater effect than IF on this target form. Advantages of Input Flood Firstly, Sharwood Smith (1993, 2006) claims that the main purpose of IE is to enforce noticing. Studies show that IF increases learners attention on target forms without any explicit guidance. This incidental-driven technique provides linguistic materials that are essential for learning problem solution (Doughty William, 1998: 236). This statement is validated by Lees (2002) and Whites (1998) study. The findings supports the basic idea of IF that the more exemplars in a flood the better. Secondly, IF enhances content comprehension. The major advantage of IF is that it provides a lot of meaning-bearing input (Wong 2005: 42). With the availability of meaning-bearing input, learners are provided opportunities to capture the meaning embedded in words, syntax or morphology. In both immediate and delayed post-test, Lee (2002) found that input frequency has significant positive effects on the comprehension. Thus it could be noticed that through the exemplar-based and implicit learning method, learners could perform form-meaning connection and manage to penetrate the meaning of the message. Thirdly, IF fosters the intake of the target form. Lees (2002) study reported 16F group outperformed 10F and 6F group significantly in post-test. For recall task, 16F and 10F groups performed significantly better than 6F group. Results of oral picture description task in Whites (1998) study also revealed that all subjects experienced improvement in the use of English PD. However, there was no significant difference between IF-TE group and IF group, indicating that IF alone was sufficient to bring improvement whereas TE played no significant role on the correct use of the target form. Limitation of Input Flood First of all, studies reported that IF is a volatile technique. Findings from Williams Evans (1998) study suggested that forms did not behaviour uniformly in IF technique. Different form types can weaken or strengthen the effect of IF through their mutual interaction, as well as the interaction with other variables such as task requirement, individual differences, content complexity, and pragmatic information in the context (Han, Park Combs, 2008). Thus further investigation on how to eliminate or reduce the effect of the variables when using IF is worthwhile. Secondly, IF does not provide negative evidence. Trahey Whites (1993) study revealed the limitation of IF that the flood was not effective in helping learners to be aware of impossible positions or incorrect grammar (Wong, 2005) and explicit instruction such as negative evidence might be necessary. This situation was also demonstrated in White (1998) study, as subjects frequency use of English PD was increased by TE, but both IF and TE did not have help learners to use the grammatical form correctly. That is, no significant difference was found for the accuracy ratio between IF group, IF-TE group and IF-TE plus extensive reading and listening group. However, when measuring the frequency of grammatical use, IF-TE plus extensive reading and listening group significantly outperformed the IF-TE and IF group. These findings suggest that comprehensible input might be more effective than IE in the acquisition of English PD agreement rules. Again, this issue still remains controversial and is worth further investigation as Krashens Comprehensible Input Hypothesis is refuted by mostly SLA researchers. Nevertheless, this phenomenon might be explained by the statement that comprehension precedes production (Lightbown et al, 2002; Krashen, 1982). Wong (2005: 94) cautions that acquisition is slow and complex hence we could not expect learners to use target form correctly immediately after IE treatment. Thirdly, Input Flood is an implicit technique where no effort is done to direct learners to the embedded forms in the input (Wong, 2005). Whites (1998) study reported that a third of learners were confused about the purpose of the textual enhancement. The textually enhanced input failed to help the learners to figure out the English PD agreement rule. As seen from empirical evidence, IF is an easy-to-use technique. It could be modified and incorporated easily in the classrooms to emphasize specific target form (Cowan, 2008). However, IF imposes some limitations on language teaching pedagogy which is not as effective as other focus-on-form activities. The discussion of how to apply this technique in language teaching will be demonstrated in next section of this essay. Textual Enhancement Like IF, SLA studies on TE also report mixed results. Researchers found that TE has positive effects, has partial effects, and has no effect on L2 acquisition of grammatical features. While Leow (2001) and Leow at al. (2003) have only manipulated the input by TE as an independent variable, the other studies investigated effects of TE in the combination with other intervention . Empirical Evidence: Textual enhancement has positive effects Studies conducted by Jourdenais et al. (1995), Shook (1994), Wong (2001) revealed that TE had not only helps learners to notice the target forms in input, but it is also very effective for enhancing learners intake new grammatical forms. Shook (1994) investigated the effects of TE on Spanish present perfect tense and relative pronouns (quen/quein). The subjects were 125 university students. The results revealed that the two experimental groups who received the passages with TE performed significantly better than the control group in all tests. However, there was no significant difference between TE group and TE plus focus on form group, revealing that focus on form information played no role in L2 acquisition. Jourdenais et al.s (1995) investigated the effects of TE on the acquisition of Spanish preterite and imperfect past tense forms. Both enhanced and unenhanced versions came with pictures depicting the events of the story. Think-aloud protocols and a picture-based written narration task were used to collect data. Results indicated that TE increased noticing of target L2 form and had a significant positive effect on learners output. Empirical Evidence: Textual enhancement has limited effects Alanen (1995) examined the effects of TE and explicit information on the acquisition of semi-artificial Finnish locative suffixes and consonant changes. 36 English subjects were divided into 4 groups: unenhanced passages (UE group), unenhanced passages plus explicit information (UE-EI group), enhanced passages (TE group) and enhanced passages plus explicit information (TE-EI group). On the sentence completion test, TE group performed better than UE group. However, Alanen (1995) found that both EI groups performed significantly better than non-EI groups on both target forms. The result, contradict with Shooks (1994) study, indicated that explicit grammar instruction had greater positive impact than TE. Results from Whites (1998) study, discussed in the previous section of IF, revealed that TE increased the grammatical use of possessive determiners. However, its impact was not as significant as IF which brought greater improvement. White (1998) concluded that benefits resulting from the experimental treatment conditions were due to increased exposure through IF of target forms and not to any other kinds of enhancement (White, 1998: 103). This claim means IF is the only effective tool to enhance L2 acquisition in her study is. Izumi (2002) investigated the comparative effects of TE and output on the acquisition of English relative clause. Subjects were 61 adults with different L1 backgrounds. Explicit information was given to the subjects to attend to the highlighted form. The results found that output-input task brought measurable gains in target form acquisition. Those who received TE treatment failed to show significant gains in acquisition. Wong (2001) examined the effects of TE, simplified input and exposure to reading on the acquisition of French gender agreement of past participles. 81 English university learners were respectively exposed to four conditions: enhanced and simplified passages (TE-S group), enhanced and unsimplified passages (TE-US group), unenhanced and simplified passages (UE-S group), and unenhanced and unsimplified passages (UE-US group). It is found that TE and simplification had no significant effects on the intake of the target forms. However, TE had significant positive effects on the content comprehension. Empirical Evidence: Textual Enhancement has no (or negative) effects In Leows (1997) study the effects of textual length and TE were examined. 84 college learners were divided into 4 groups and were accordingly given an unenhanced long passage, an unenhanced short passage, an enhanced long passage and an enhanced short passage. Results revealed that TE has no effects on either comprehension or intake of the targeted form. Shorter text length improved comprehension but not the intake. Overstreet (1998) replicated Jourdenais et al.s (1995) study and found negative effects of TE. He combined two factors, namely TE (bolded, underlined, increased font size, different font types and shadowed) and topic familiarity on the acquisition of Spanish preterite and imperfect past tense forms. 50 university learners were given one story each, either enhanced or unenhanced. Neither factor significantly affected learners intake. Moreover, Overstreet (1998) found that TE negatively affected comprehension, mainly due to numerous types of enhancements (Lee Benati, 2007: 25). Leow (2001), after a few years of his study in 1997, conducted another study to investigate effect of TE on the acquisition and comprehension of Spanish formal imperative. He did not apply other invention but only TE in this study. The results once again revealed TE has no effects on intake and comprehension. Leow et al. (2003) examined the effects of TE on the acquisition of Spanish present perfect tense and present subjunctive mood. 72 university learners were divided into two groups. One group was given 2 enhanced passages and another group was given 2 unenhanced passages. Results showed that although subjects noticed the target forms when reading, TE did not enhance the intake of the target forms. S.Lee (2007), similar to Overstreets (1998) study, examined the effects of TE ( ±TE) and topic familiarity ( ±F) on English passive construction. 259 Korean subjects were divided to 4 groups: +E/+F group, -E/-F group, -E/+F group and +E/à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã¢â‚¬â„¢F group. The results revealed that TE was beneficial for the intake of target form, but interestingly, negatively affected the comprehension. Advantages and Limitations of TE Some of above studies demonstrated that TE has significant impact on SLA, either in positive or negative ways. First of all, TE increases noticing. This technique offers more salient target form in written input that learners may easily miss (Wong, 2005: 49). Jourdenais et al. (1995) stated that typographical modification can be used as an effective technique for enhancing salience of language features (Jourdenais et al., 1995: 208). As evidence, both Leow et al. (2003) and Jourdenais et al. (1995) used think aloud protocols and reported that subjects noticed the typographically enhanced target forms when reading. Second, TE is effective to enhance intake of forms. For example, Alanen (1995)s study reported that TE group performed better than UE group in sentence completion test. This indicates the positive role of TE on the acquisition of L2 grammar. Jourdenais et al. (1995) also reported that TE had a significant effect on learners output. By contrast, TE failed to demonstrate positive impact on learners comprehension and intake in Leows (1997, 2001) and Overstreets (1998) studies. These studies demonstrated that implicit noticing is not as effective as explicit instruction and that, clearly, learners needed more help than the input provided (White, 1998: 102). Also, although subjects in both Leow et al.s (2003) and Jourdenais et al.s (1995) studies noticed the enhanced target forms, they performed differently in production. Jourdenais et al. (1995) found positive effect of TE on the intake of the target forms whereas Leow et al. (2003) reported that TE did not enhance the intake of the target forms. In addition, Izumi (2002) found that subjects who received TE treatment failed to show significant gains in acquisition, despite the positive impact on the noticing of the target form. More interestingly, output played significant role in his study. These findings are contradicted to Ellis (1997) claim that TE is effective to induce learners to undertake a kind of form function analysis of the structure, as this is exemplified in input that has been specially contrived to illustrate it (Ellis, 1997: 87). Therefore Polio (2007) states that Sharwood Smiths focus was what had been done to the input, rather than what happened in learners mind (Polio, 2007, cited in Gass Selinker, 2008: 388). However, this notion is inaccurate that Sharwood Smith (1991, 1993) has alerted that we should not rely solely on TE to increase learners attention. Noticing triggered artificially by TE might not result in intake. Although learners may notice the signals, the input may nevertheless be non-salient to their learning mechanism (Sharwood Smith, 1991: 21). As Ellis (1997) describes the use of TE focuses learners attention on specific linguistic features and assists them to encode the meaning embedded in the features, it is suggested here that TE should be integrated with other interventions for better result. Third, TE enhances comprehension. In Wong (2001)s study, TE had significant positive effects on the content comprehension, namely it enhanced the recall of the idea units that corresponded to the target forms. However, evidence from Overstreets (1998) and S.Lees (2007) studies suggested TE distracted learners attention from meaning. The results indicated that TE has negatively affected learners comprehension on the content of the passages. In spite of increasing evidence suggesting that TE can promote noticing of certain linguistic features, it remains a matter a debate whether or not it has simultaneously created a trade-off between intake and comprehension (Han, Park Combs, 2008). Also, Simard (2009) cautioned that selection and combination of different typographical cues lead to different impacts on the intakes. His study reported that the use of capital letters and a combination of 3 typographical cues promote the intake of the forms. Overstreets (1998) use of numerous types of typographical cues might lead to distraction and confusion thus did not enhance the acquisition. Therefore, in order to ensure the quality of instructional material, language teachers should select cues carefully. Fourth, TE is a volatile and changeable technique. In other words, external variables may affect the effectiveness of TE. For example, with no prior knowledge about the target forms, the technique is not beneficial to learners (e.g. Leow, 1997, 2001; Leow et al. 2003). Alanens (1995) study also reported that TE had different effects on different target grammatical forms. Age and puberty are other factors that might mitigate the effects of TE. In Whites (1998) study, the children who are still developing their L2 may have encountered a cognitive overload problem (Doughty William, 1998) and therefore constrained the learning process. Clearly, conflicting results on the impact of IE on acquisition, whether positive, limited or negative, are noticeable from previous studies. Several questions emerged subsequently from the review: are these mixed results attributed to different methodological designs that provide learners different degree of input quality and quantity? Or is it due to different grammatical forms targeted in different studies? If so, does this mean that different target forms are vulnerable variable that correspond to IE techniques in different ways? These insights are meaningful and important for the implication of IE in language pedagogy and will be discussed in following section. 3 Pedagogical Implications Nowadays it is common for language teachers to use IE techniques to enhance specific features of L2 in order to draw learners attention to target linguistic aspects. Although IE does not provide full and consistent picture to SLA pedagogy, it offers valuable information on how to deliberately draw learners attention to target forms. As shown, uncertainties still exist on the facilitative role of IF and TE in SLA research. The debate on Noticing Hypothesis still remains open while previous studies failed to show conclusive and consistent results on IE effectiveness. However, fortunately, the field has moved from the debate on the necessity of conscious noticing to the mixed results of IE efficacy. That is, the theoretical development has now provided a clearer window to take a glimpse and imply IE techniques more effectively to language pedagogy with underpinning SLA issues. In contrast with UG, IE is a sub-field of cognitive models which emphasis on how learners process and decode the input. It should be borne in mind that noticing triggered artificially by IE might not result in intake. This implies that one cannot be assured if the enhanced input will become comprehensible and that the effects of IE vary from case to case. In terms of Input Hypothesis (Krashen, 1982), we argues that input play roles in L2 acquisition with the aids of noticing. As stated by Wong (2005), once target form is noticed, learners need to make form-meaning connection to encode underlies linguistic rules correctly (p.90-91). This notion is in line with VanPattens (1996, 2003) input processing theory where intake is equalised to form-meaning connection. Thus IE and other focus on forms tasks such as processing instruction (VanPatten, 1996, 2003) and consciousness-raising tasks might be combined in language teaching for better results. Also, it is reckoned that output tasks might be integrated into SLA instruction when applying IE concept. Long (1996) distinguishes two types of input: positive evidence and negative evidence. In coherence with Longs notion, Sharwood Smith (1993) proposed both positive and negative IE techniques. IE and TE are positive IE whereas negative IE is basically feedback or negative evidence. When there is a gap between learners perception of L2 grammar and evidence in the input, then positive evidence (input) may triggers to change the grammar (Sharwood Smith, 1991: 122-123). On the other hand, when learners are being confronted with their own production (output), negative IE signals that given forms are incorrect, thus warns learners that they have violated the grammatical rules (Sharwood Smith, 1993: 177). This notion implies that IE approach not only adopts Schmidts Noticing Hypothesis as major foundation, but has also implies Longs Interaction Hypothesis as well as Swains (1995) Output Hypothesis. Apparently, Sharwood Smith proposal of negative evidence has been generally neglected by SLA researchers. Therefore, it would be beneficial if language teachers reckon that input (positive evidence) and output (negative evidence) are both important to promote acquisition with the aid of noticing. Particularly, Ellis (1997: 109) asserts that comprehensible input is derived from both input and interactional (output) modifications makes specific linguistic features more salient and facilitates the development of L2. Negotiate for meaning is thus beneficial to promote acquisition. It directs learners attention to focus on the form that initially caused understanding problems and also helps learners to modify their interlanguage production whenever the gap is being identified (Long, 1983; Pica, 1992). Likewise, Wong (2005) suggested that input should not be one-way instruction, namely simply giving input to L2 learners. Learners may be instructed to respond to the input through activities such as quiz, answering questions, story reconstructing, drawing based on oral directions and games. Hereby, interaction has been stressed in order to make the IF more meaningful to the learners. As pointed out by Wong (2005: 46, 60-61), instructors must always keep meaning communication as primary goal of language in attempts of enhancing the input. Attending to both meaning and form is important to make form-meaning connections possible. By this way, respond to the input is a crucial compartment for language learning. This insight is compatible to Ellis (1997) claim that input-based interpretation grammar instruction mediates input into intake. Accordingly, Lee VanPattens (1995: 51) proposal to use learners and classroom setting for language teaching could be combined with IE in a communicative language classroom. Instructors might integrate grammar teaching into authentic context. For example, input could be presented to learners through IF visually and verbally in a natural classroom setting. It will be beneficial if simple scenarios could be constructed. In addition, name of learners could be addressed in the sentence to promote further noticing, such as below: à §Ã… ½Ã¢â‚¬ ºÃƒ ¨Ã… ½Ã¢â‚¬ °Ãƒ ¦Ã…  Ã…  Ãƒ ©- ¨Ãƒ ¥Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã‚ ³Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã…  Ãƒ £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ Mary BA door close up. à ¥Ã‚ ¤Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ Ã‚ «Ãƒ ¦Ã…  Ã…  Ãƒ ©Ã… ¾Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ­Ã‚ Ãƒ §Ã‚ ©Ã‚ ¿Ãƒ ¤Ã‚ ¸Ã…  Ãƒ £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ David BA shoes put on. à §Ã‚ ºÃ‚ ¦Ãƒ §Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ °Ãƒ ¦Ã…  Ã…  Ãƒ ¦Ã‚ ¤Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ­Ã‚ Ãƒ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¹Ã‚ ¿Ãƒ ¥Ã‚ ¼Ã¢â€š ¬Ãƒ £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å¡ John BA chair move away.

Procrastination :: essays research papers

Procrastination Procrastination is a universal everyday phenomenon that can seem little more than clich‚, a small-talk joke or boast or complaint; we all do it, after all. Yet a newly reported survey of students at a large urban university in the U. S. is probably typical in that a majority (52%) of the students claimed a high or moderate need for assistance with regard to procrastination which is more than any other area of concern (www.info.wlu.ca). There are a great many causes to the addiction to this thing called procrastination. There are many underlying issues and causes of procrastination. Lack of relevance and interest are two of the most common causes. While perfectionism (having extremely high standards which are almost unreachable) is another. Evaluation anxiety, ambiguity, fear of failure and self-doubt, fear of success, inability to handle the task, lack of information needed to complete the task, environmental conditions, physical conditions, and anxiety over expectations that others have of you, are all very serious causes of procrastination. Poor time management is a great cause of procrastination. Procrastination means not managing time wisely. You may be uncertain of you priorities, goals and objectives. You may also be overwhelmed with the task. As a result, you keep putting off your academic assignments for a later date, or spending a great deal of time with your friends and social activities, or worrying about you upcoming examination, class project and papers rather than completing them. There are quite a few people that have difficulty concentrating. When you sit at your desk you find yourself daydreaming, staring into space, looking at pictures of your boyfriend/girlfriend, etc., instead of doing the task. Your environment is distracting and noisy. You keep running back and forth for equipment such as pencils, erasers, dictionary, etc.(www.wings.buffalo.edu/student-life/ccenter/Stress/procras.bro). Your desk is cluttered and unorganized and sometimes you sit or lay on your bed to study or do your assignments. You probably notice that all of the examples that you just read promote time wasting and frustration. Our behavioral patterns are another cause of procrastination. Getting started on an unpleasant of difficult task may seem impossible. Procrastination is likened to the physics concept of inertia - a mass at rest tends to stay at rest