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Category: Arts and Humanities

What do you Understand by the Term ‘Human Security`.

Posted by on Feb.19, 2012, under Arts and Humanities, International Affairs and Politics No Comments

Human security is an emerging paradigm for understanding global vulnerabilities whose proponents challenge the traditional notion of national security by arguing that the proper referent for security should be the individual rather than the state. Human security holds that a people-centered view of security is necessary for national, regional and global stability. The concept emerged from a post-Cold War, multi-disciplinary understanding of security involving a number of research fields, including development studies, international relations, strategic studies, and human rights. The United Nations Development Programmer’s 1994 Human Development Report is considered a milestone publication in the field of human security, with its argument that insuring “freedom from want” and “freedom from fear” for all persons is the best path to tackle the problem of global insecurity. Frequently referred to in a wide variety of global policy discussions and scholarly journals,
Critics of the concept argue that its vagueness undermines its effectiveness;[4] that it has become little more than a vehicle for activists wishing to promote certain causes; and that it does not help the research community understand what security means or help decision makers to formulate good policies.
Human security focuses on the protection of individuals, rather than defending the physical and political integrity of states from external military threats – the traditional goal of national security. Ideally, national security and human security should be mutually reinforcing, but in the last 100 years far more people have died as a direct or indirect consequence of the actions of their own governments or rebel forces in civil wars than have been killed by invading foreign armies. Acting in the name of national security, governments can pose profound threats to human security. The application of human security is highly relevant within the area of humanitarian intervention, as it focuses on addressing the deep rooted and multi-factorial problems inherent in humanitarian crises, and offers more long term resolutions. In general, the term humanitarian intervention generally applies to when a state uses force against another state in order to alleviate suffering in the latter state (See, humanitarian intervention).
Under the traditional security paradigm humanitarian intervention is contentious. As discussed above, the traditional security paradigm places emphasis on the notion of states. Hence, the principles of state sovereignty and non-intervention that are paramount in the traditional security paradigm make it difficult to justify the intervention of other states in internal disputes. Through the development of clear principles based on the human security concept, there has been a step forward in the development of clear rules of when humanitarian intervention can occur and the obligations of states that intervene in the internal disputes of a state.
These principles on humanitarian intervention are the product of a debate pushed by United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. He posed a challenge to the international community to find a new approach to humanitarian intervention that responded to its inherent problems.[29] In 2001, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty (ICISS) produced the “The Responsibility to protect”, a comprehensive report detailing how the “right of humanitarian intervention” could be exercised. It was considered a triumph for the human security approach as it emphasized and gathered much needed attention to some of its main principles:


What is Difference Between Pure Vowels and Diphthongs in English? How do you Describe them?

Posted by on Dec.29, 2011, under Arts and Humanities No Comments

The pure vowels of English

The vowels can be plotted on a vowel diagram with reference to the cardinal vowels. We shall first plot the pure vowels. Since all vowels are voiced in English and there is no nasalized vowels we assume that during the production of English vowels the vocal cords are vibrating and the soft palate is raised to shut off the nasal passage. We describe vowels in terms of the parts of the tongue raised and the relative height to which it is raised in the mouth. The front of the tongue raised can be fairly high mouth than for the vowel in the bead or it can be slightly lower in the mouth for the production of the vowel in bead for example, in bid and lower for the vowel in bed and still lower for the vowel in bed. Similarly, the back of the tongue is high in the mouth for the production of the vowel in cool; it is slightly lower in the mouth low in the mouth for the vowel in calm. Another important feature used to describe vowels in the position of the lips during their production. Sometimes the position of the lips is the only distinguishing features-between two vowels. For example, the two vowels .a:/as in calm, and/D as in hot, are both vowels during the production of which the back of the tongue is low in the mouth, the only features that differentiates /a/; from /D/ is the position of the lips. We have referred to long and shorts vowels. When the talk about ‘long` vowels what we refer to is the relative length of long vowels. In identical environments long vowels are longer than short vowels. For example, the vowel /I,/ in feet is longer than the vowel/I/ in fit. These words differ in respect of the vowel alone. The two consonants /f/ and /t/ are common to both. Apart from this, each vowel has different degrees of length depending upon the phonetic environments in which it occurs. For example, generally a vowel is longer when it is followed by a voiced consonant or when it occurs finally in a word than when it is followed by a voiceless consonant, for example, the vowel Jar/ in side and sigh is longer than in sight. The /ae/ in tag is longer than the /ae/ in tact. A vowel in the final position in words is longer than it is before voiced consonants. For example, the vowels/a/ is longer in the word car than in the word card. Thus vowel length is a variant which depends upon the position that it occupies in a word.

The diphthong in English

The diphthongs are vowels in the production of which the tongue moves from one position in the mouth towards another position. In order to indicate this glide (movement) from one position towards another, the phonetic symbols for each diphthong is a combination of the two vowels- one in which the tongue is in position initially and the towards which the tongue moves. The two symbols represent a single sound and not two sounds. Of the eight diphthongs,

(a)    in the three tongue glides towards/I/, that is, /ei,ai/

(b)   in the two tongue glides towards /u/, that is,/au,au/, and

(c)    In the three the tongue glides towards /a/, that is,/ea,ua/.

The diphthongs in which the tongue moves towards the vowels/I, and U/are called closing diphthongs and those in which the tongue moves towards /a/ are called centering diphthongs. Closing diphthongs gliding to/I/ /

/er/as/in gate

The glide starts from a point just below the front, half-close position and moves in the direction of /I/. With the movement of the tongue towards/I/, the lower jaw moves upwards closer to the upper jaw than it was for /e/, the first element of the diphthong. The lips are spread.

/ai/as/in bite

For the production of /ai/ the tongue glides from a point near the front open position, towards the RP vowel /I//. Along with the glide the lower jaw moves from an open position to an appreciably closer position. The lips, which are in the neutral position at the beginning gradually change to a loosely spread position as for /I/. The vowel occurs in both accented and unaccented positions.

/oi/as boy

For the production of /oi/ first the back of the tongue moves towards the position between open and half-open and the lips are open rounded. Then the tongue glides in the direction of the vowel /I/.the lips, which open rounded at first, change the neutral towards the end. The jaw movement is less than for the diphthong/ai/.

Generally, the vowel occurs in accented syllables. Its occurrence syllables are rare. Closing diphthongs gliding to /u///:/au,au/.

/au/as in boat

For the diphthong/au/ the glide is from the central position between half-close and half-open, and moves in the direction of/u/. The movement of the jaw is very slight. The lips are neutral at the beginning of the glide and become rounded towards the end.

/ea/as in rare

. For the diphthong/ea/ the glide begins in the front between the half-close and half open, closer to the half-open position, and moves in the direction of /a/. The glide moves in the direction of the opener /a/if/ea/occurs finally as in bear, and in the direction of the less open variety of /a/if it occurs non-finally as in scarce, various. The lips are neutrally open throughout the production of the glide.


How can a teacher teach English in learning environments where the exposure of learners to English is limited to the classroom?

Posted by on Oct.27, 2011, under Arts and Humanities, Education No Comments

There is nothing new or remarkable about these environmental considerations. We consider most of them when using our native “common sense”. We often make individual adjustments to our living and learning space(s) to be more functional or comfortable. However, sometimes these adjustments may diminish an others opportunity for learning. Tin foil or shades on windows reduce occasions for a view of the sky, a beautiful sunset, the landscape or an outside object used to illustrate a particular lesson. Shrinking the height of an existing classroom to reduce heating or cooling costs may alter the sound qualities or prevent the display of student work. Brightly colored walls or high light levels may increase glare and possibly unwanted heat gain through lamp radiation. Hard cleanable surfaces may simplify maintenance tasks but increase reverberation or prevent teacher or student displays and consequently provide an atmosphere which is unpleasant to learn or teach within. All of these well intended decisions resulted in unintentional problems which are known to affect childrens’ learning ability or make education more difficult.
When planning or remodeling a classroom environment, a successful (subjective) learning space requires that both the educator and environmental designer understand the affects of each criteria quality with respect to learning as well as each criteria’s interrelationship to each other.
Generally, the larger the room the more flexibility and the smaller, the more intimate. A rectangular shaped room affords more interactive visibility between occupants whereas “L” shaped ones or ones with alcoves allow for variety of privacy to individual learners. Movable wall devices can accommodate many different shapes. Scientific observations indicate that the student builds confidence through achievement. The ability to relate to elements within a room affords a degree of self empowering through scale that is relative. Size and locations of counters, windows, furniture and storage elements all should be considered or be adapted to the scale of the user.
Several studies indicate that teachers rather than students are more upset by temperature fluctuations within a classroom. Test scores are not adversely affected by temperatures except under extreme conditions. Students generally like the temperature slightly cooler (5 degrees to 10 degrees) than do teachers. Traditionally, boy’s or men’s clothing insulates their bodies slightly better than doe’s girl’s or women’s clothing. Because the temperature, humidity and ventilation of an enclosed space will depend on a number of factors including the configuration and materials of the building, amount of glazing, size and volume of the space, number of occupants and their current state of activity as well as the heating and cooling system, flexibility for manipulating that system is extremely important for comfort. If the teacher must override existing controls by opening doors or windows to augment their comfort, the system is self defeated and the teacher probably agitated (i.e. not doing the best teaching). Controls should be independent for each space and be simple to operate.
A good classroom must include the possibility for individual control as well as provide a well proportioned, stimulating and comfortable learning space which takes advantage of local character, solar orientation, appropriate views, proper functional interaction with adjoining learning elements and strong connections with the surrounding community. Allowing teachers to easily adapt learning environments to their individual pedagogical style(s) will increase the opportunity for student learning.


What is difference between pure vowels and diphthongs in English? How do you describe them?

Posted by on Nov.28, 2010, under Arts and Humanities No Comments

The pure vowels of English

The vowels can be plotted on a vowel diagram with reference to the cardinal vowels. We shall first plot the pure vowels. Since all vowels are voiced in English and there is no nasalized vowels we assume that during the production of English vowels the vocal cords are vibrating and the soft palate is raised to shut off the nasal passage. We describe vowels in terms of the parts of the tongue raised and the relative height to which it is raised in the mouth. The front of the tongue raised can be fairly high mouth than for the vowel in the bead or it can be slightly lower in the mouth for the production of the vowel in bead for example, in bid and lower for the vowel in bed and still lower for the vowel in bed. Similarly, the back of the tongue is high in the mouth for the production of the vowel in cool; it is slightly lower in the mouth low in the mouth for the vowel in calm. Another important feature used to describe vowels in the position of the lips during their production. Sometimes the position of the lips is the only distinguishing features-between two vowels. For example, the two vowels .a:/as in calm, and/D as in hot, are both vowels during the production of which the back of the tongue is low in the mouth, the only features that differentiates /a/; from /D/ is the position of the lips. We have referred to long and shorts vowels. When the talk about ‘long` vowels what we refer to is the relative length of long vowels. In identical environments long vowels are longer than short vowels. For example, the vowel /I,/ in feet is longer than the vowel/I/ in fit. These words differ in respect of the vowel alone. The two consonants /f/ and /t/ are common to both. Apart from this, each vowel has different degrees of length depending upon the phonetic environments in which it occurs. For example, generally a vowel is longer when it is followed by a voiced consonant or when it occurs finally in a word than when it is followed by a voiceless consonant, for example, the vowel Jar/ in side and sigh is longer than in sight. The /ae/ in tag is longer than the /ae/ in tact. A vowel in the final position in words is longer than it is before voiced consonants. For example, the vowels/a/ is longer in the word car than in the word card. Thus vowel length is a variant which depends upon the position that it occupies in a word.

The diphthong in English

The diphthongs are vowels in the production of which the tongue moves from one position in the mouth towards another position. In order to indicate this glide (movement) from one position towards another, the phonetic symbols for each diphthong is a combination of the two vowels- one in which the tongue is in position initially and the towards which the tongue moves. The two symbols represent a single sound and not two sounds. Of the eight diphthongs,

(a)    in the three tongue glides towards/I/, that is, /ei,ai/

(b)   in the two tongue glides towards /u/, that is,/au,au/, and

(c)    In the three the tongue glides towards /a/, that is,/ea,ua/.

The diphthongs in which the tongue moves towards the vowels/I, and U/are called closing diphthongs and those in which the tongue moves towards /a/ are called centering diphthongs. Closing diphthongs gliding to/I/ /

/er/as/in gate

The glide starts from a point just below the front, half-close position and moves in the direction of /I/. With the movement of the tongue towards/I/, the lower jaw moves upwards closer to the upper jaw than it was for /e/, the first element of the diphthong. The lips are spread.

/ai/as/in bite

For the production of /ai/ the tongue glides from a point near the front open position, towards the RP vowel /I//. Along with the glide the lower jaw moves from an open position to an appreciably closer position. The lips, which are in the neutral position at the beginning gradually change to a loosely spread position as for /I/. The vowel occurs in both accented and unaccented positions.

/oi/as boy

For the production of /oi/ first the back of the tongue moves towards the position between open and half-open and the lips are open rounded. Then the tongue glides in the direction of the vowel /I/.the lips, which open rounded at first, change the neutral towards the end. The jaw movement is less than for the diphthong/ai/.

Generally, the vowel occurs in accented syllables. Its occurrence syllables are rare. Closing diphthongs gliding to /u///:/au,au/.

/au/as in boat

For the diphthong/au/ the glide is from the central position between half-close and half-open, and moves in the direction of/u/. The movement of the jaw is very slight. The lips are neutral at the beginning of the glide and become rounded towards the end.

/ea/as in rare

. For the diphthong/ea/ the glide begins in the front between the half-close and half open, closer to the half-open position, and moves in the direction of /a/. The glide moves in the direction of the opener /a/if/ea/occurs finally as in bear, and in the direction of the less open variety of /a/if it occurs non-finally as in scarce, various. The lips are neutrally open throughout the production of the glide.


The structural approach of teaching grammar

Posted by on Aug.26, 2010, under Arts and Humanities No Comments

We needs to follow the grammar when we begin to write and speak something. But it may follow any approach. The structural approach is based on grammatical patterns of the language. The essential thing about grammar is the practice of the correct form. For the active use of the language, to practice all the common patterns until he can use each vocabulary item in proper combination with other items. Thus grammar in some form or another has its legitimate place in any scheme of language learning, helping the learner to know the away and wherefore of the given language. The young learner requires functional grammar. This is because theoretical grammar is too abstract a science and a grammatical method of presentation would make the study of language more difficult than it need be. For the young mind, theoretical grammar instead of making the difficult easy, will make the easy difficult. A child learns his first language without learning its grammar. Similarly, a child should learn English by practice. His grammar is the grammar of correct sentences. The child learns to speak and write correctly by imitation and intuition. A student learns that he must “she play“ and “he play“ without knowing that third person present singular requires “s` added to the verb. Thus grammar is not so much a set of rules which must be obeyed. We can shorten the labour of learning a language by drawing general principles from our own observations. Grammar that is required is descriptive grammar. It becomes functional and true having some meaning. If we study the kinds of words concerning word-order, structural words and inflexions, we have to use names for them. These names are the parts of speech. To study sentence patterns we must have names for parts of a sentence namely, subject, predicates etc. to study change in meaning, we must have words to indicate these changes, these change in time, Voice and singular and plural. We should use only such simple terminology in explaining grammar. Grammar must be taught incidentally. It is learn by pupils unconsciously by imitation and drill. Every lesson in English should be through the medium of English. Intensive drill in the reader should be used to enable the pupils acquire the necessary ability through repetition. Sufficient practice should be provided to the pupils to make patterns as automatic habits. In the beginning stage, rules must be taught very sparingly as the pupils are not natured enough by then. It is not possible for an average pupil to remember the numerous isolated bits of English taught at school under grammar. The formal study of grammar should commence only after the pupil has acquired an elementary command of the language. Therefore, no formal teaching of grammar should be attempted in the early stages. Only after they acquired language habits, practice should be given in the laws of grammar. If at all grammar is taught in should be taught only when the pupil reaches the higher classes. Grammar is best taught by the inductive method of teaching. The mistakes committed by the pupils in their speech and writing should be carefully noted and this should be used for corrective teaching later. Lastly we can say that teaching of grammar in school is must be followed carefully by the teachers.


Language planning in the Indian context

Posted by on Aug.10, 2010, under Arts and Humanities No Comments

Who: the activities of LP can be undertaken by government, government-authorized agencies, non-government bodies, academies, and even individuals(e.g.Ben yehuda in Palestine, Samuel Johnson in England, Noah Webster in the united states, aasen in Norway, korais in Greece, Aavik in Estonia, Arzoo, Hatim, Wali and Insha in case of Urdu, and Raghunath Murmu in case of santali,etc.)

Jernudd (1973) has short listed the following language planning agents, in additional to government and individuals as literatures:

(a)    national, but non-governmental agencies, e.g. Singapore chamber of commerce, which constructed and issued language examinations and a style manual for business correspondence in malay;

(b)   non-national and non-governmental agencies,i.e. the shall company provides its own Malay oil Terminology in Malaysia and influences language developments in its personnel and training policies;

(c)    A newspaper’s proof reading function.

What:

The language planners may focus their attention on corpus, status or the crucial relationship of values,i.e, prestige associated with corpus and status planning activities. If the planning activities. If the object of language policy making is language teaching, then the focus of language planning may be on acquisition.

For whom:

Language planning is carried out for larger aggregates at the society or state level (or even cutting across national boundaries), for smaller aggregates, ethnic group, religious group, occupational group, etc. cooper looks at the target group of language planning as communication networks. According to him, communication network is “a set of verbal interaction links among persons, each network set off from others by sparsely of interaction”(1989:38-39). This is diagrammatically represented as:

There are two communication networks. Cooper outlines several advantages of viewing EP target population as a communication network. It does not restrict the analysis to micro or macro level, it intakes the study of LP “Consistent with the study of language spread” and it also enables us “to trace the diffusion of innovation or the resistance to innovation with which language planning is concerned”

How:

This question is connected with the planning and implementations stages of a larger planning process. Robin (1971) identifies four steps of this larger process, three of which relate to developing and implementing the plan while the fourth one relates to evaluation.

  1. Fact-finding:  a substantial amount of background information should be available before any planning decisions are made.
  2. Planning: formulating goals, the means to achieve them, and the expected outcomes.
  3. Implementation: putting the plan into action.
  4. Feedback: at this step, the planner finds out how well the plan has worked.

The communicative problem may reside at an individual level or at a group level. When the problem confronts a group and when the group or its representative attempts to solve it, then it is referred to as language treatment. According to Neustupny: the term language treatment has been coined to refer broadly to all organized forms of societal attention to language problem, both in the past and at present”. He considers language planning as a subset of language treatment, which in turn, is a subset of language correction. Thus for him language correction becomes the widest frame of reference.

Communication problems have also been looked at from the perspective which arises out of theory language problems (Neustupny 1968, 1b 78:243-257; Jernudd and Das Gupta 1971:205-206). A theory of language problems is explicit about relationships between discourse and peoples behaviour towards discourse, and can therefore “serve as the basis for theory of language management and language planning….participants in processes of language system, are inadequate. Arise out of linguistic interest or out of non linguistic interest”. Here the linguistic interest is a direct part of the communication process while the non linguistic interests “must be introduced into discourse in order to become problems of language. They are then perceived as inadequacies and corrected through the normal management process” (Jemudd and Neustupyn 1986.6). The discourse based approach has been referred to as (the study of) language management, and language planning has been modeled as a type of language management.

The model for language management in discourse holds that “a person:

  1. Produces messages.
  2. monitors the language that constitutes these messages, and notes a difference from norm;
  3. evaluate(or not) the kind and degree of deviation from norm;
  4. Select (or not) an adjustment strategy or at least adhoc means of adjustment for the inadequacy; such adjustment can be pre-j in or post-correction of self or of other participants’ language.
  5. “acts(or not) to implement the selected adjustment”

Institution of Marriage as seen in Tom Jones

Posted by on Jul.25, 2010, under Arts and Humanities No Comments

The term “socio-economic alliance” for marriage is a broad one. What actually comes into practice in marriage is the conduct-code. Under this code, particularly, the woman loses all identities as a human being- the specific name, the station, the right to decision making, an activist participation in given situations, etc. fielding has observed that the conduct-code of marriage suppresses women’s spontaneity more than that of men-the difference can be seen in the example of squire western and his wife. The latter died early in life largely because she as a wife could see no scope of true relationship with her husband under what came to be called a marriage. However, outside marriage women behave freely to the extent of being aggressive.

First, they do not merely ‘flirt’ but actually seduce men and lead them straight to bed. If squire western is shown as a great hunter in the novel, molly Seagrim has been shown no less as a fighter and marauder. Secondly, the philosopher spotted in molly’s bed by Tom arouses in us a sense of ridicule and disgust, his practice goes against his precept as he sheepishly reveals himself in a state of undress. Not molly, in her case, it is raw sexuality. Though her own mother and sisters as well as the neighborhood do not approve of her ways, fielding is far from critical towards her. Another version of female sexuality-pleasure-giving and natural is presented through Jenny Jones. Tom has also come age by the time he meets her and we notice greater reciprocity between the two. What we scarcely notice, however, is that under fielding scheme, such reciprocity is nit witnessed between partners in marriage. Instead, we see wives running away from husbands and husbands in hot pursuit of them; they have to get back their wives into the marriage-mould. Thus female-sexuality and marriage stand in contrast each other.

Tom’s own sexuality is equally uninhibited and pronounced. But we have to recognize that he shares this trait more with woman conceived outside the family or marriage-mould. His sympathy and kindness towards all women has its source in a magazine or pamphlet which sought to engage the average person in useful conversation. This average person was the middle class city-dweller, the gentleman proper or the gentleman in the making who had an interest in the daily occurrences of life, who did not what to merely put two and two together but to also develop a no-nonsense pragmatic understanding to guide him. Such needs were earlier fulfilled in the case of the lower masses by the village person who interpreted the age-old principles of life and behavior for the benefits of the common person. However, the difference between the need of the new middle class city dweller we have in mind and the common person with whom the person communicated lay in their social-positioning, the former also asking for pleasure while receiving moral guidance. Naturally enough, this new gentleman in-the-making looked elsewhere for this service in the direction of a non-religious, secular agency. Hence the fulfillment of the need by the periodical, an instrument which did away with the compulsion of going to a specific place at an appointment hours and instead provided the service at one’s door step. Of course, for availing oneself of the service, one had to meet the precondition of literacy. This the particular individual could well afford in the given social conditions. In its infancy, the novel incorporated some of the functions and traits of the periodical.