logic - definition and observations

Definition: The study of the principles of reasoning. Logic (or dialectic) was one of the arts in the medieval trivium. Over the course of the 20th century, notes A.D. Irvine, the study of logic has benefited, not only from advances in traditional fields such as philosophy and mathematics, but also from advances in other fields as diverse as computer science and economics (Philosophy of Science, Logic and Mathematics in the Twentieth Century, 2003) See also: ArgumentDeduction Enthymeme and Syllogism FallacyInductionInferenceInformal LogicLogical ProofLogosRenaissance Rhetoric Etymology: Observations: But of all the arts the first and most general is logic, next grammar, and finally rhetoric, since there can be much use of reason without speech, but no use of speech without reason. We gave the second place to grammar because correct speech can be unadorned; but it can hardly be adorned before it is correct.(John Milton, The Art of Logic, 1672)Logic is the armory of reason, furnished with all defensive and offensive weapons. There are syllogisms, long swords; enthymemes, short daggers; dilemmas, two-edged swords that cut on both sides; sorites, chain-shot.(Thomas Fuller, The General Artist, 1661) Logic and RhetoricA good deal of everyday talk, even gossip, is intended to influence the beliefs and actions of others and thus constitutes a kind of argument. . . . [A]dvertisements often just provide product information rather than advance explicit arguments, yet clearly every such ad has an implied conclusion--that you should buy the advertised product.Nevertheless, it is important to understand the difference between rhetoric that is primarily expository and discourse that is basically argumentative. An argument makes the claim, explicit or implicit, that one of its statements follows from some of its other statements. It at least implies that acceptance of its conclusion is justified if one accepts its premises. A passage that is purely expository gives us no reason to accept any facts it may contain (other than the implied authority of the writer or speaker, as, for example, when a friend tells us that she had a good time at the beach).(Howard Kahane and Nancy Cavender, Logic and Contemporary Rhetoric: The Use of Reason in Everyday Life, 10th ed. Thomson Wadsworth, 2006) Formal Logic and Informal LogicSome logicians study only formal logic; that is, they work only with abstract models that have purely logical substance and content. . . .Relating the abstract systems of formal logic to real statements and arguments is not part of formal logic itself; it require s the consideration of many issues and factors beyond the basic logical forms of the statements and arguments. The study of the factors other than logical form relevant to the analysis and evaluation of statements and arguments of the kind that occur in everyday situations is known as informal logic. This study includes considerations of such things as: identification and clarification of vague or ambiguous statements; identification of unstated assumptions, presuppositions or biases and making them explicit; recognition of frequently used but highly questionable premises; and assessment of the strength of analogies between more or less similar cases.(Robert Baum, Logic, 4th edition, Harcourt Brace, 1996) Pronunciation: LOJ-ik

Are people from Northern Ireland loyal to Airlines Free Essays

string(175) " within Europe and its emergence in the market in the United States that the â€Å"traditional† airlines were forced to change their strategies in order to remain competitive\." Introduction Literature Review The Financial Times in 2007 reported that the worlds largest airline – American Airlines, was losing as much as $5m per day and was threating collapse under a huge $20bn of debt. Such a shocking statistic highlights the need for the airline industry to review their operations. Such a relevant topic for research requires a full review of current literature in order to recognise the current trends and identify an area for in-depth study. We will write a custom essay sample on Are people from Northern Ireland loyal to Airlines? or any similar topic only for you Order Now The current economic turbulence has provided many challenges across every industry and especially within the price sensitive industries competition has become significantly fiercer as firms compete to win the loyalty of the consumer and attempt to retain them. In an attempt to attract customers to their brand, organisations, particularly in the retail, travel and hospitality industries have developed customer loyalty schemes. Consumers have certain expectations about the products or services they purchase and about the suppliers of those products. Blackwell et al (2006) identifies the satisfaction that consumers experience when their expectations are met or exceeded often results in loyalty to a product or supplier. Consistent over exceeding expectations can often be difficult to achieve, however, by ensuring that those expectations are always met a company can instil its brand loyalty onto the consumer which can be extremely difficult to change. However, Hill et al (2003), indicate s that being a good supplier that merely satisfies its customers is no longer enough. Consumers today, in particular business customers are confident that they can decide themselves on the level of value received from an organisation, and whether or not they can receive better value elsewhere. Jones and Sasser (1995) found that customers who reported that they were very satisfied were six times more likely to repurchase products than those who said they were simply satisfied. Within the highly competitive airline industry it is important that services stand out from the competition. In order to achieve this Nardiri et al. (2008) indicates that managers must understand their customers’ needs and then set out to meet (or exceed) these needs. If service quality is to be improved, it must be reliably assessed and measured. The current economic crisis has saw some high profile businesses fall across all industries and the air-travel industry has been no exception. Dutch national carrier KLM, which prides itself as being the first scheduled airline operator in the world, in 2004, announced gigantic losses of over $473m, which in turn forced desperate survival talks with Air France yet another troubled national carrier. Although, KLM and Air France are not the only struggling airlines in the current recession, the Financial Times in July 2007 Singapore Airlines reported its first ever quarterly loss of $177m. Daniel et al 2003, identifies numerous reasons for the poor economic performance of some of the worlds biggest, and once most profitable airlines. They state that; all of this red ink has proved devastating to the airlines and many in the USA have been calling out for government intervention. Hayward 2004, suggests that a fallout in demand is one of the primary reasons for the problems within the airline industry. He states that the airline industry has been hit particularly hard by an unprecedented collapse in customer confidence, mainly due to War in Iraq, and continuing effects of the 2001 terrorist tragedies. Along with the continuing rising cost of oil prices and fuel, has lead to airlines reviewing their low-cost concepts. For many of the larger international, long haul carriers the introduction of fuel surcharges, in particular with long haul flights. British Airways and Virgin Atlantic use fuel surcharges as common practise on long haul flights much to the disagreement with the extra charge from the consumers. Reichheld (2001), suggests that loyal customers are more profitable, because the costs of sales are amortised over a longer period, they increase their purchases and percentage of spend with you, cost less to administer, refer others, and are willing to pay a premium. Therefore is it little wonder that companies seek to retain as many loyal customers as possible. Authors such as Hill et al (2003), Blackwell et al (2006), Smith and Wheeler (2002), have all identified that there is a significant relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. By offering the best value to the consumer and ensuring that they are satisfied organisations can be sure of retaining their loyalty. However, Blackwell et al (2006) indicate that although a satisfactory consumption experience does not guarantee loyalty, the likelihood that customers will remain loyal depends on their level of satisfaction. Fornell and Wernerfelt (1987) suggested that consumers holding negative evaluations of the product following consumption are unlikely to buy again; those holding positive evaluations are much more likely to repurchase the product. However, although a consumer may be satisfied today, due to the tempting incentives that other competitors may offer, customers can be convinced to swap brands. One of the most wide-reaching changes impacting on the supply of tourist transport provision is the low-cost airline. The development of the low-cost carriers has not only provided increased competition to the traditional airlines but has also increased competition within other modes of transport such as trains, ferries and buses, they have also impacted upon the way that many airports deal with these carriers. In 1991, before the emergence of the low-cost airline Elster and Roemer put forward the statement that; the airline business is a mass market with mostly standardised services. All customers used to be, and still mostly are, treated the same. Furthermore, there is little differentiation between airlines. (Elster and Roemer 1991) However, Tiernan (2008) highlights that the removal of restrictions on fares, as well as legislative and regulatory changes to encourage new entrant low-cost carriers, has changed the competitive landscape. Ryanair and easyJet in the E.U. and JetBlue and Spirit in the U.S.A. highlight a new breed of carrier. (Tiernan et al 2008) It is widely accepted that the success of the low-cost, no-frills airline concept within Europe and its emergence in the market in the United States that the â€Å"traditional† airlines were forced to change their strategies in order to remain competitive. You read "Are people from Northern Ireland loyal to Airlines?" in category "Essay examples" A Mintel report investigating loyalty schemes in tourism reveal that; Aer Lingus (EI) quit the One World alliance in June 2006, having joined in 2000, the airline cited a dramatic change in its strategic direction, namely its move towards recreating itself as a low-cost point-to-point carrier. (Mintel 2006) Gustafsson et al (1998), state that; many airline companies have lost track of the true needs of their passengers, and are trapped in out-dated views of what airline services are all about. They further go on to state that; the goal of service development is to attract and keep customers who are satisfied, loyal and speak well of the company, but perhaps most importantly to keep profitable customers. (Gustafsson 1998) Francis et al (2004) predicted that low-cost airlines in Europe would increase their market share of short haul traffic from 6 per cent in 2004 to 25 – 33 per cent by 2010. According to UBM Aviation (2011) the three main low-cost airlines, Ryanair, Flybe, and easyJet, all of which fly from airports across Northern Ireland, had a combined domestic market share in the UK of 55%, with Flybe taking 31% of the market share alone, beating British Airways, a traditional flag / national airline by 11%. Therefore, within the UK the predictions made by Francis (2004) were under estimated. Below shows the breakdown of the UK and domestic market share in terms of seat capacity for top 5 airlines within the UK. Carrier UK Domestic Weekly Seat Capacity UK Domestic Destinations Operated UK and Domestic Market Share (seat capacity) Flybe 197,542 35 31% British Airways 126,840 9 20% easyJet 101,485 13 16% BMI 66,455 9 11% Ryanair 52,731 11 8% (Source: Flightbase June 7 2010 – UBM Aviation) The most widely accepted definition of customer loyalty comes from Jacoby and Kyner (1973), who describe loyalty as the biased (i.e. non-random), behavioural response (i.e. purchase), expressed over time, by some decision making unit, with respect to one or more alternative brands out of a set of such brands, and is a function of psychological (i.e. decision making, evaluation) processes. However, Oliver (1999) disputes this definition, as he believes that loyalty is developed in a linear fashion, and places greater emphasis on situational influences. Oliver (1999) defines customer loyalty as; a deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatrionise a preferred product or service consistently in the future, causing repetitive same brand or same brand-set purchasing, despite situational influences and marketing efforts. Dean (2007) defines customer loyalty as; the degree to which a customer recommends, and expresses a preference for future use of a particular company. Gourdin and Kloppenborg (1991) indicate that; retaining passenger loyalty requires reducing or eliminating negative influences on service quality by ensuring customers high quality rate service. Additionally, Peppers, Rogers and Dorf (1999) suggest that companies must closely monitor customer characteristics to accurately target desirable customers, considering not merely demographics but also consumption behaviours, and preferences. Taiwanese airlines through the use of data mining have successfully and effectively obtained loyal passenger decision information, including personal information, consumption behaviour, and perceived service quality in order to retain passenger loyalty. (Wong et al. 2006) Yi (1990) defines customer satisfaction as; an emotional response to the experiences provided by, associated with particular products and services purchased, retail outlets, or even molar patterns of behaviour such as shopping and buyer behaviour, as well as the overall market place. Service quality promotes customer satisfaction, stimulates intention to return, and encourages recommendations, (Nadiri Hussain 2005), a point that Barsky and Labagh (1992) further develop by stating that; customer satisfaction increases profitability, market share, and return on investment. Davidow (2003) and Ekiz Arasli (2007) have highlighted that there is a strong relationship between the level of customer satisfaction and repeat business. The higher degree of customer satisfaction, the greater the likelihood of repurchase and spreading positive word of mouth communication. (Davidow (2003), Ekiz Arasli (2007)). Blackwell (2006) identifies that the discussion of a consumption experience with other people is a common activity. Negative consumption experiences not only reduce the odds of repeat buying, but also lead to consumers saying unflattering things when discussing their experiences with others. Dissatisfied customers can sometimes go to great lengths to express their negative experiences with others, including complete strangers. Holloway (2004) recognises that customer relationship management is already well established in the travel and tourism industries. He gives the example that regular customers of airlines are entitled to the award of frequent flyer benefits, which can include selective upgrading or the accumulation of free air miles according to the number of paid-for miles travelled. The original concept of the frequent flyer programme can be traced back to 1979, when American Airlines advertising agency proposed that it offer its best customers a so-called special loyalty fare. However, this new concept was short lived as just six days later one of American Airlines major competitors, United Airlines launched its own frequent flyer programme. The idea of frequent flyer programmes was one of the airlines first attempts to take advantage of both economies of scale and scope. In the 1980’s the rules and regulations associated with the frequent flyer programmes where simple, a passenger would collect miles and redeem them either against a free flight or an upgrade to the next higher available class of service. Today however frequent flyer programmes are complex in design and many passengers report that they cannot use their miles to book the flight that they want. InsideFlyer suggests that; on average, airlines currently sell 80% of seats to paying passenger s, which is 20 percentage points higher than the historic norm of 60%. (InsideFlyer – cited in Mintel Report 2006) Holloway (2004) however, highlights that not all organisations may benefit from such customer relationship marketing (CRM), and there are many examples within the travel and tourism industry that can be identified that will deliberately avoid CRM within their marketing mix. Airline operators which market themselves strongly on price, such as Ryanair, easyJet, and Flybe could be wasting their time and effort on loyalty schemes. Holloway identifies that if; companies like Ryanair with its total focus on price, would have to compromise this approach if CRM were to be introduced. (Holloway 2004 pg. 115) Such programs focused on loyalty and repeat business in a price competitive market like low cost airlines would most likely cause more damage to those organisations in terms of their pricing image than the amount of business that they could generate. The introduction of a loyalty scheme such as a frequent flyer program involves high initial investments to design, introduce and implement, however they also promise a high return if successful in the long run, therefore carriers such as Ryanair and easyJet would be forced to either cut additional costs elsewhere in an already low cost operation or most likely pass the additional costs onto the consumer. Nevertheless, not all low cost carriers have taken this stance, Flybe for example are able to offer their frequent flyers lounge access at certain airports and free priority boarding and check-in where available. The Flybe scheme is aimed mainly at those passengers that fly regularly for business with the airline, although it is availabl e to all customers. Morrison (2002) relates to a survey carried out in 1993 by Travel Weekly, of business travellers, that found approximately 78% of the respondents rated frequent flier programmes as either very important or somewhat important when making travel arrangements. Robinson and Andersen (2004) suggests that the perception of the troubles in Northern Ireland through literature by such writers as Joseph O’Connor, Roddy Doyle, and Mary Beckett to name a few has assisted in the discolouration of external and tourist perceptions of Northern Ireland and contributes to the negative imagery that keeps tourist numbers low, when economically it would help if they were high. Lennon and Titterington (1996) suggest that Northern Ireland as early as 1969 lost most if not all its attraction as a significant tourist destination as the troubles began. They also highlighted that there was a weakness of tourism in Northern Ireland prior to the 1994 cease fire, and predicted in 1996 that if the ceasefire held then Northern Ireland would experience significant increases in the tourism market, which would also be enhanced by the NITB (Northern Ireland Tourist Board), marketing efforts. Wing indicated in the 1990’s that; a critical factor for the development of Northern Ireland tourism was the availability of convenient and price competitive access transport. He continues to highlight that with two main airports and good ferry linkages to the UK mainland through Belfast and Larne access to Northern Ireland has always been relatively easy, although quite expensive. (Cited in Lennon and Titterington 1996) 2004 saw a significant turnaround for Northern Ireland tourism, with the introduction of nine daily flights from Belfast International Airport, Aldergrove, by easyJet which allowed the number of tourists entering Northern Ireland to rise above the two million mark for the first time. Further development of Belfast International Airport saw the addition of two other major airlines, Aer Lingus and Continential airlines which now operates under the United Airlines name. The capacity of Northern Ireland’s airports also plays a particularly important role in the number of airlines that choose to operate from the three main airports. Belfast city airport (George Best) has tight restrictions on the number of flights operated per year, along with operating times and runway restrictions due to the length. The row over expanding the airport has been dated back to 1999, and began by Belfast International Airport criticising the plans to develop the city airport at a cost of ?21m. In a high profile exit from the city airport Ryanair decided to close its hub there as a runway extension in October 2010 was further postponed due to further investigations and pending another report, mainly to address concerns with resident’s arguments against the increase in air traffic associated with the expansion of the airport. With the current runway length at Belfast city airport Ryanair aircraft, (Boeing 737-800), are restricted heavily due to safe take-off weights in relation to the length of the runway, as a result the airline was only able to operate short haul flights, mainly to the UK mainland. It would be unlikely for Ryanair to consider moving its hub to Belfast International Airport as two of its main competitors already operate from there, Aer Lingus and easyJet. Although, Ryanair took the decision to withdraw its operations from Belfast city airport, BMI (British Midlands International) saw the withdrawal as an opportunity and it resumed flights from Belfast city airport, and on April 13 2011 the airline announced seven new routes to begin operating from Belfast City airport in early 2012. However, BBC News reported that the Belfast City Airport Watch Steering Group, were angry at politicians claiming that they are allowing the airport to become an international airport. The addition of BMI into the network of airlines operating from Northern Ireland is significant, as it and Continental Airlines (now United) are the only airlines within Northern Ireland that are members of the STAR Alliance. Described as the largest and most awarded airline alliance in the world, the STAR alliance is able to offer 16,500 daily flights around the world to 912 destinations in 160 countries. (Mintel 2006) Belfast City Airport was also served a further blow in early April 2011 when easyJet announced that it planned to remove its twice daily flight to London Luton from Belfast City airport back to the International airport. EasyJet are quoted to have said that during the 15 month trial from the city airport it found that there were no tangible benefits for its passengers to fly from Belfast City Airport over the International airport. (source: www.easyjet.com [Accessed 04/04/2011]) Many airlines are in a race against time to turn things around. Rarely before have we borne witness to such a prolific strategic challenge with long term implications for us all. (Hayward 2003) A successful review of the literature has identified major themes such as the importance of customer loyalty pre and post the introduction of low cost airlines. Frequent flier programmes have been identified as being important during and up to the period late 1970’s until circa 2004. Since then airlines have diversified to meet the growing trend of a more price sensitive customer. This is particularly relevant within mainland UK due to a broader range of customer choice, along with a greater availability of cheaper travel options. Research was not available in terms of Northern Ireland, where there is less availablitly of choice for airline passengers. Therefore this research will attempt to fill this research gap by studying the relationship between consumer loyalty and the local airlines. Methodology: Qualitative research is used to explore the attitudes, behaviours and experiences of consumers mainly through the use of interviews or focus groups and is aimed at collecting as much in-depth opinionated information as possible from the participants. Dawson (2010, p.14) explains that, â€Å"as it is attitudes, behaviour and experiences which are important, fewer people take part in the research, but the contact with these people tends to last a lot longer.† Quantitative research on the other hand generates statistics through the use of large scale survey research, using methods such as questionnaires or structured interviews. Quantitative research reaches many more people, but the contact with those people is much quicker than it is in qualitative research. (Dawson 2010) Walliman (2004) suggests that the use of quantitate research often involves collecting primary data in the form of survey research. It is important to realise that within the great debate among academics about which is better, qualitative versus quantitative, that certain methodologies become popular depending on the situation they are to be applied to. Dawson (2010) highlights that all methodologies have their own specific strengths and weaknesses, and should be acknowledged and addressed by the researcher. Within social research the use of interviews is a useful tool if the researcher wants to find out in-depth information from respondents. However, there are three different types of interviews which need to be considered in order to identify which one will best suit the situation being researched. A researcher will be required to identify if unstructured, semi-structured, or structured interviews are most suited. Unstructured interviews are in depth and seek to achieve a holistic understanding of the interviewees’ situation and point of view. This type of interview relies on the participant guiding the direction of the conversation with little or no help from the researcher. Due to these limitations unstructured interviews can only be applied to qualitative research. In the investigation of establishing if the people of Northern Ireland are loyal to airlines, unstructured interviews would be useful in finding out specifically why people remain loyal, however due to time restraints and the difficulty of choosing suitable candidates this method will not be used. In attempting to establish which method of interviews would be most suitable it would appear that semi-structured interviews may be most suitable. By using this method the researcher can find out specific information which can be compared and contrasted with information gathered in other interviews. Each interview will require the same questions to be asked and answered but remain flexible enough for participants to express their views. An interview schedule will be produced which will contain the list of questions to be asked, and will provide the framework for the guidance of each interview. The researcher will aim to identify a mixture of suitable candidates from each of the bandwidths identified from the questionnaire, along with a mixture of genders as suitable interviewees. Therefore there will be six interviews in total with an aim of three males and three females, by ensuring a mixture of interviewees from each age band the research will then reflect a sound spread of demographical opinions. The interviews will be carried out in a private room within the University of Ulster Belfast library, and will last approximately between 45 minutes to 1 hour. Each interview will be recorded using a digital voice recorder, and then a transcript will be produced using the recordings and Microsoft Word. The second form of collecting primary data will be through the use of questionnaires. The questionnaire will consist of a mixture of open and closed questions. Open ended questions will be used in the areas of the questionnaires where additional information is sought to be collected and where answers maybe difficult to predict. Before distributing the questionnaire to the general public a pilot survey will be distributed in order to identify any problems with the wording of questions and to ensure that participants understand what is being asked of them. It will also be used to establish whether additional questions are required and to identify the nature of these. Once the pilot study is completed the questionnaires will be distributed using two different mediums. It will be available online and also as paper form. As most older people, in particular those that fall within the older age bands are not familiar with the use of the internet printed copies of the questionnaire will be a better way to capture information from those groups. By distributing the questionnaire online this will allow it to be exposed to a larger number of people across Northern Ireland, the researcher plans to use Survey Monkey (www.surveymonkey.com) which is a free online survey and questionnaire tool. Once the questionnaire is available to be completed by participants the link will be advertised on social networking media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, potential respondents will also be emailed the link. In order to process the data collected a mixture of the use of SPSS and NVivo will be used. Both programmes specialise in the analysis of data. NVivo allows the data to be easily transferred into other programmes such as Excel and Word which will be useful in the findings stage of the research. SPSS however will be used to input the main data collected, and will be used to establish cross tabulations of data. A time frame of one month to collect the data required from the questionnaires and one month to conduct interviews will be set. In order to meet the objectives of this study an analysis of potential methods was undertaken. Most research can draw on a mixed methods approach to gain enough information to make recommendations based on original objectives of the study. The aims of the chosen methods are that the objectives of the research are met and fulfil the necessary requirements to make sound recommendations that will be beneficial to the airline/travel industry. Findings Discussion: Through the use of questionnaires distributed both online and as paper form constructed the collection of data to be analysed in this investigation. Table 1 shows that of the 134 respondents 57.5% (77) were female and 42.5% (57) were male. Table 2 and Figure 1 shows the geographical spread of respondents across Northern Ireland, the majority of responses came from the eastern counties, were the biggest two airports in the region are located, not to mention Dublin International Airport which is also located on the east coast of Ireland, which may suggest that those people may have the ability to travel more due to easier access. An initial examination of the data shows that Belfast International Airport is the most used by the respondents at 45.5%, closely followed by Dublin International Airport at 40.2%, given that these airports offer the highest number of choices for destinations along with connecting flights it was expected to find that they would be used the most. Only 13.4% of the respondents chose to use Belfast City Airport and 0.7% used City of Derry Airport, limitations on the number of airlines that operate from these airports may give an explanation to why so few use them. Restrictions for larger aircraft in Belfast City Airport, due to take-off weights limit the range that these aircraft can travel, which was why in December 2010 Ryanair decided to close its hub there. It is believed that the announcement of seven new routes to be offered by BMI will increase the volume of passenger traffic in the City Airport, therefore placing it on an almost equal footing with Belfast International Airport. The reason why BMI is able to offer routes to mainland Europe is that it plans to operate smaller Airbus A319 aircraft which have a lower take-off weight to range ratio than the likes of Ryanair’s Boeing 737-800 series aircraft. The data also shows that over half of the respondents (51.5%) travel to mainland Europe therefore automatically reducing the choice of using Belfast City Airport. An important factor to also be considered is that City of Derry airport actually has a longer runway than Belfast City airport, therefore making it suitable as a departure airport for mainland Europe destinations. Looking further into the spread of the population against the airports used most the more southern counties such as Armagh and Fermanagh show that the majority of people use Dublin International Airport more than Belfast International or City. In Armagh 60.8% of respondents used Dublin International Airport while only 26% used Aldergrove. Strong infrastructure with the M1 running from Newry to Dublin, and the M3 and N3 running from Cavan to Dublin allow the population of Armagh, and Fermanagh easier access to Dublin than to Belfast. For North Down, Antrim and Derry, along with parts of Tyrone, there is a significant network of â€Å"A† roads connecting into the route of the two main Belfast airports, however none as significant as the motorway system that connects Dublin International Airport. The infrastructure connecting the southern counties of Northern Ireland with Belfast international airport for example is of a considerably reduced standard of that of the Republic of Ireland. To give an example to travel from Newry – which is one of Northern Irelands biggest towns to Belfast International Airport it is estimated to take 1 hour and 4 minutes to travel the 38.6mile journey, were as the 60.6mile journey from Newry to Dublin International airport is estimated to take only 57minutes. Therefore it would be expected that the easier access to Dublin would have an influence upon travellers in deciding which airport to travel from. (Source: Google Maps) An analysis of the most preferred airline to be used shows that the majority of the population prefer to use low-cost airlines such as easyJet and Ryanair, which together made up 55.2% of all choices. With the current economic crisis it is to be expected that people are more price conscience regarding their decisions and buying power, therefore it was to be expected that the low-cost, price sensitive airlines would be most popular, that low-cost group makes up 64% of the preferred airline choice. Frances et al (2004) predicted that low-cost airlines in Europe would increase their market share of short haul traffic from 6 per cent in 2004 to between 25 – 33 per cent by 2010, a high figure of 64 per cent of respondents choosing to use low cost carriers such as Flybe, Ryanair, and easyJet would appear to show that those predictions were correct. The majorty of the investigated population travel to mainland Europe (51.5%), followed by 37.3% travelling to the UK and Ireland. These destinations are served by the low cost carriers Over 65% of the respondents felt that price was the most important factor when choosing an airline, with the next highest most important factor being customer service at 9%, such a large gap in the perceptions indicates that the people of Northern Ireland are extremely price conscious when choosing an airline to travel with. Aircraft type (41.8%) and frequent flier schemes (35.1%) were ranked the lowest of importance in influencing peoples decisions to choose an airline. Holloway (2004), gives a possible explination for the reasons why people are not particularly concerned with frequent flier programmes which can apply to Northern Ireland, he states that operators which market themselves strongly upon price would be wasting their time and effort on loyalty schemes as low-cost carriers would have to compromise their pricing approach to be able to finance customer relationship marketing. A significant number of respondents (56.7%) stated that they believed having membership to an airlines frequent flyer programme would encourage them to be loyal to that airline brand. However, only 17.2% admitted having actual membership to frequent flyer programmes, the most popular programmes being Continental One Pass, Miles and More, and Aer Lingus Gold Circle. When the population was asked what they believed was the most important benefit of having membership to a frequent flyer scheme the majority of respondents stated that price and discounts were crucial, which brings into question peoples understanding of the programmes and the benefits they provide. Most programmes will offer upgrades, lounge access, status and even free flights when enough miles are spent against these, however, research has shown that the programmes do not offer discounts on fares. In conclusion it would appear that the idea or concept of passenger loyalty within Northern Ireland is non-existent and that emphasis on price appears to outweigh any other part of an airlines operations. It is difficult in such a price orientated industry to remain so competitive and to be able to fight off rival airlines in a battle of who can provide the lowest fares but still remain profitable. Although there is a huge on-going debate as to whether or not an expansion of Belfast City Airport should go ahead so that it would have the capabilities of operating full service flights to mainland Europe, it has been identified that the City of Derry Airport is an untapped resource with the capability of serving as an international airport with fewer restrictions than that found at Belfast City Airport. Recommendations: Within Northern Ireland there would appear to be little or no concept of loyalty within the airline industry. Those consumers that fly from Northern Ireland are more concerned with recieveing good deals and are currently very price conscious when it comes to the deciosn of which airline to choose for their travels. Therefore airlines should not waste their marketing efforts on frequent flier or loyalty schemes within Northern Ireland as there appears to be little understanding of what the benefits actually are. If airlines wish to engage with the Northern Irish public in terms of promoting loyalty then they should aim at the relationship between customer satisfaction and service provided. Many people claim that in the low-cost airline world that what you get is what you pay for, however, due to regulations under EU law all passengers regardless of the airline should receive the same levels of treatment, in particular when delays or cancellations occur. As the debate continues regarding the runway extension in Belfast City Airport, it would appear that the City of Derry airport has somewhat slipped under the radar of potential carriers for Northern Ireland. With its current facilities, and recently extended safety zones at each end of the runway City of Derry Airport has the ability to operate to international mainland Europe destinations. Development of infrastructure to support an increased volume of passengers would allow City of Derry airport to be a viable alternative to either of Belfast two airports. Currently within Northern Ireland there are only thirteen different carriers that operate from the three airports, which is significantly less than the thirty two airlines that operate within the Republic of Ireland (see Table 4). Therefore, it is important that the government realise that there is a need to continue to promote Northern Ireland as a tourist destination and in turn attempt to attract more airlines to the region. The local government needs to also examine the current infrastructure near the main airports in the region and attempt to improve access which at present is not as Government needs to look at a greater development of the Belfast area and attract more airlines, also intfrasturcture needs to be improved Airlines don’t need to focus marketing activates in northern Ireland on FFP’s as people dpnt use them and are more concerned with price and reputation. Most ppl think ffp’s are a good idea but there appears to be little understanding of the benefits. Future Research: If carrying out future research into the topic of loyalty within airlines in Northern Ireland the following points should be considered. The initial research did not give an accurate geographical spread of respondents over the six county area. Also due to the lack of research on this topic across the entire United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, it may be suggested that a larger scale piece of research be carried out. The actual questionnaire used could be lengthened to include more open ended questions so that the repondents could give more qualitative information and provide the researcher with a better view point on peoples perciptions and possibly experiences that either promote loyalty within airlines or in fact discourage the repeated use of a brand. Nevertheless the use of the questionnaire was a useful learning tool in the construction of questionnaires to be used with the general public. The use of the internet was a useful tool in exposing the questionnaire to an immediately large group of people, however, with the research carried out, and due to the parameters set out in the methodologies many of the respondents were instantly invalid due to the location of the willing respondent. A greater time frame for conducting both questionnaires and interviews would also be helpful in understanding the actual indepth reasons as to why people are loyal or even why they are not loyal to airlines. Due to the time restraints in carrying out this research it was decided that there would not be enough time to carry out interviews or analyse the data collected using NVivo. The use of in depth interviews would allow the researcher to aquire better qualitative information. Appendices: Fig 1: Geographical spread of respondents Table 3: Reference List: Blackwell, R., Miniard, P., Engel, J. (2006). Consumer Behaviour. 10th ed. Mason: Thomson South Western. Hill, N., Brierley, J., MacDougall, R. (2003). How to Measure Customer Satisfaction. 2nd ed. Hampshire: Gower Publishing Ltd. Peelen, E. (2005). Customer Relationship Management. Harlow: Prentice Hall Morrison, A. (2002). Hospitality and Travel Marketing. 3rd ed. Albany: Delmar Thomson Learning Smith, S., Wheeler, J. (2002). Managing the Customer Experience – Turning Customers into Advocates. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd. Lovegrove, K. (2000). Airline – Identity, Design and Culture. London: Laurence King Publishing Holloway, C. (2004). Marketing for Tourism. 4th ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall Page, S. (2005). Transport and Tourism – Global Perspectives. 2nd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd. Jacoby, J., Kyner,D. (1973), Brand Loyalty Verses Repeat Purchasing Behaviour, Journal of Marketing Research, Vol. 10, p. 1-9 Oliver, R. (1999). Whence Consumer LoyaltyJournal of Marketing. Vol. 63, p. 33-34 Dean, A. (2007). The Impact of the Customer Orientation of Call Centre Employees on Customers Affective Commitment and Loyalty. Journal of Service Research. Vol. 10 Iss. 2 p. 161-173 Gourdin, K., Kloppenborg, T. (1991) Identifying Service Gaps in Commercial Air Travel: The First Step Toward Quality Improvement. Transportation Journal. Vol. 31, p. 22-30 Peppers, D., Rogers, M., Dorf, B. (1999). Is your Company Ready for One-to-One MarketingHarvard Business Review. Vol. 77, p. 151 – 160 Wong, J., Chang, T., Jeng, K., Chung, P., Lin, Y. (2006) Data Mining Techniques Applied in Airline Industry to Explore Segmentation of Repurchase Intentions and the Best Service Items Mix on Customer Satisfaction. Journal of Tourism Studies. Vol. 12, p. 139 – 154 Yi, Y. (1990). A Critical Review of Consumer Satisfaction – A Review of Marketing. Chicago: American Marketing Association Nardiri, H., Hussain, K. (2005) Diagnosing the Zone of Tolerance for Hotel Services. Managing Service Quality. Vol. 15, Iss. 3, P. 259-277 Nardiri, H., Hussain, K., Erdogan, H. (2008) An Investigation on the Factors Influencing Passengers’ Loyalty in the North Cyprus National Airline. TQM Journal. Vol. 20, Iss. 3, p. 265 -280 Barsky, J., Labagh, R. (1992). A Strategy for Customer Satisfaction. The Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quaterly. Vol. 35, Iss. 3, p. 32-40 Davidow, M. (2003). Have You Heard the WordThe Effect of Mouth on Perceived Justice, Satisfaction and Repurchase Intentions Following Complaint Handling. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behaviour. Vol. 16, Iss. 1, p. 67 – 80 Ekiz, H., Arasli, H. (2007). Measuring the Impacts of Organisational Responses: Case of Northern Cyprus Hotels. Managing Global Transitions: International Research Journal. Vol. 5, Iss. 3, p.271 – 287 Gustafsson, A., Ekdahl, F., Edvardsson, B. (1998). Customer focused service development in practise – A case study at Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS). International Journal of Service Industry Management. Vol. 10, Iss. 4, p. 344 – 358 Teirnan, S., Rhoades, D., Waguespack Jr, B. (2008). Airline service quality – Exploratory analysis of consumer perceptions and operational performance in the USA and EU. Managing Service Quality. Vol. 18, Iss. 3, p. 212 – 224 Lennon, R., Titterington, A. (1996). The prospects for tourism in Northern Ireland. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. Vol. 8, Iss. 3, p. 11 -17 Reichheld, F. (2001). The loyalty effect – The hidden force behind growth, profits and lasting value. Boston: Harvard Business School Press How to cite Are people from Northern Ireland loyal to Airlines?, Essay examples

Communicating through E-Mails in Professional World- myassignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about theCommunicating through E-Mails in Professional World. Answer: Communication in business is considered to be an essential tool for achieving success. With the advent of digitization and internet most of the business communication has been conducted through emails. In fact, communication through emails can be performed in various level of a business organisation. Communication with the customers, with other business organisation and for internal dialogues it is becoming a growing trend to incorporate email communication as a strategic tool to connect internally and externally (Wang, Pauleen Zhang, 2016). In response to that, it is necessary for the business organisation to formulate a professional attitude in making communication through emails. Hence, the purpose of this essay is to highlight the areas and scope to set up a professional emailing strategy in order to get success in the competitive market. In addition to this, the essay will also deal with the key elements of promulgating an effective emailing set up and discuss about the pros an d cons of that method. Before analysing the key elements of communication through emailing, the discussion will put emphasis on the strategy of making better communication throughout the business orientation. For this at first the person or the organisation, which is entitled to establish the communication must have a clear idea about the outline of his message. Subsequently, active participation in terms of eye contacts, way of speaking and the body language play a pivotal role in doing effective communication (Lee et al., 2018). In addition to this, patience can be defined as a major factor in this regards. Empirical evidences prove that while establishing a good communication, often the person in the receiving end can misinterpret or misunderstand the message. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the person in communication to explain his saying sincerely. Listening is always contemplated to be a key element in the process of effective communication. It can be stated that a good speaker should always be a good listener (Wei, 2017). Therefore, the listening ability is very essential. Besides this, having a clear idea about the audience and responders is an advantageous step taken by the communicator. In fact, it will able to help in developing a good relation with every person associated with the company. All these factors are generally addressed verbal and non verbal communicative attributes of a business organisation. However, for discussing the role of non verbal communication in corporate environment it is crucial to build up a professional decorum. In this context, the role of emailing has become significant as well as relevant in maintaining a strong business relationship. In fact, past researches on the efficacy of emailing in corporate sector has shown a steady growth of development of using mails as a popular communication tool. According to Wei (2017) in the corporate business environment 72% of the employees have email accounts for serving the purpose at work. Besides this, while discussing the importance of mailing as an effective business communication Kernbach, Eppler Bresciani (2015) have opined that communication through emailing helps the company to get connected with the low level management and its employees. It assists the management to implement its decision by i ncorporating lower strata of the company hierarchy. To conduct an effective business communication it is imperative to have a clear strategy that can foster benefits for the company. The first thing before composing a business mail is to make it concise and direct, so that the recipients can get a quick idea about the purpose of the mail. Furthermore, using simple words and straight forward narratives reflects the urgency of the mail and helps to encourage adequate actions. The email must envisage a transparent understanding of the plans and strategies related to the organisation. In this regards it can be argued that the mail should be thorough in nature (Chaudhri, 2016). The reason behind maintain such process is to enlist all the facets of the purpose can be ventilated properly. In case of missing out single information, it will cause enormous problems to understand the purpose of the mail and will take plenty of time to repair. The fundamental attitude of a business mail should be less argumentative. It is better to avert any kind of controversies regarding the mail, because dubious messages can create contradiction among the receiving elements. Moreover, choosing a professional attitude rather goes for emails with emotional contents can able to create a professional approach of the company (Thomas Stephens, 2015). In response to that communications can be regarded effective by incorporating the determining factors like employees, company management and the customers. Hence, a scope to make conversation will become a positive step for the company. Direct interaction with the stakeholders can improve the relationship between management and stakeholders which can enhance trust and loyalty among various actors of the organisation (Harmon, 2015). In addition to this, checking the data and facts which are mentioned in the emails should be a priority for the company before composing a mail. It has to be kept in mind that the success of a company depends on its professionalism and sharing valuable data to the stakeholders. Positive information has the power to motivate the playing actors and they will put more concern about the company. Despite taking precautionary actions before drafting a mail the management must possess a clear idea about the consequences of the mails and the subject that the mail is ought to reflect. In addition to this, it is also necessary for the company to keep focus on the structure of the mail. Therefore, it is imperative to follow some steps regarding an effective communication through emails. In this context, relevance of the mail is a very significant element. The organisation must have opted for a relevant mail where all the key factors that the company wants to address should be highlighted. Furthermore, emails cannot be considered as the best means of communication in every situation, so that, this limitation should not be undermined (Dulek Campbell, 2015). As a matter of fact, the subject line of the emails plays a pivotal part in acknowledging a brief perspective of the topic. Hence, the subject line should be specifically short and relevant with the subject. The subject line is similar to the newspaper headline to some extent which resembles the key concept of the main body (Kwiatkowski, 2016). Therefore, the subject line must be concise and straight forward. After that, the most important part of the mail comes, comprised with the content of the subject. The main body or the content part should be direct, formal and contains data and information regarding the main idea of the subject. However, in most of the cases it can be seen that the content is less informative and lack of structural point of discussion. In fact, the length of the email is also an essential part. Lengthy discussion on the topic can undermine the importance of the purpose because most of the time people do not have enough time to go through such long mail (Tang, Pei Luk, 2014). Therefore, it is essential to compose the content to the point and direct. The way of speech or the tone of the email perceives the reflection of professionalism. Therefore, maintaining a good gesture with more emphasis on choice of words is primary to construct a mail. Politeness, wise term coinage and using simple and suitable word are necessary to determine the effectiveness of email communication in business. In addition to this, language can be the next factor of developing a better business communication. Grammatically correct with proper use of punctuation have to be maintained. The company has to keep in mind that all the recipients can understand the meaning and value of the email (Eisenberg, Johnson Pieterson, 2015). Lack of grammatical correctness and spelling mistakes are indicated the incompetency and incompleteness of the sender. Moreover, these kinds of mistakes can undermine the gravity of the message and will create an obstacle for the further strategies that the company is going to take. Besides this, it is also imperative for the email sender to become a quick responder. It also symbolizes good email etiquette with a reflection of the urgency of the task. Moreover, a short but quick reply can identify professionalism and level of urgency of the mail (Cristina, Karam Andreea, 2017). Despite all the measures taken for creating an effective business communication through email there are always a possibility to create a communication gap by using non-verbal communicative tools. Henceforth, the success of non-verbal communication does not prove the limitation of the mechanism. Inconsistency, difference of interpretation and misunderstanding related to the subject, all are the possibilities of accessing indirect communication. However, the purpose of this essay is to make a good and effective emailing business communication. The reason behind choosing this topic as a discussion is to eradicate the problems that are erected by using emailing communicative strategy. The arguments are strongly dedicated to enhance the efficacy of emailing business communication and in order to do that the essay had mentioned a process to develop the email communication more efficient and pragmatic. Reference Chaudhri, V. (2016). Corporate social responsibility and the communication imperative: Perspectives from CSR managers.International Journal of Business Communication,53(4), 419-442. Cristina, N., Karam, A., Andreea, H. (2017). Using Business Etiquette Nowadays. Qualitative Research on Business Phoning, Emailing and Meetings.Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series,17(2), 444-448. Dulek, R. E., Campbell, K. S. (2015). On the dark side of strategic communication.International Journal of Business Communication,52(1), 122-142. Eisenberg, E. M., Johnson, Z., Pieterson, W. (2015). Leveraging social networks for strategic success.International Journal of Business Communication,52(1), 143-154. Harmon, P. (2015). The scope and evolution of business process management. InHandbook on business process management 1(pp. 37-80). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. Kernbach, S., Eppler, M. J., Bresciani, S. (2015). The use of visualization in the communication of business strategies: An experimental evaluation.International Journal of Business Communication,52(2), 164-187. Kwiatkowski, C. (2016).The application of interpersonal communication skills in intercultural business communication held via e-mail(Doctoral dissertation, , ). Lee, J. Y. H., Panteli, N., Blow, A. M., Hsu, C. (2018). Email adaptation for conflict handling: A case study of cross?border inter?organisational partnership in East Asia.Information Systems Journal,28(2), 318-339. Tang, G., Pei, J., Luk, W. S. (2014). Email mining: tasks, common techniques, and tools.Knowledge and Information Systems,41(1), 1-31. Thomas, G. F., Stephens, K. J. (2015). An introduction to strategic communication. Wang, W. Y., Pauleen, D. J., Zhang, T. (2016). How social media applications affect B2B communication and improve business performance in SMEs.Industrial Marketing Management,54, 4-14. Wei, X. (2017). Developing Thai EFL Learners Email Literacy in Business Communication Course at Tertiary Level, Thailand.Scholar: Human Sciences,9(1).

The Power of Introductory Word to the World of Faerie Knights

Edmund Spenser was one of the most famous English poets of the 16th century whose main achievement was the creation of the epic poem, The Faerie Queene.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Power of Introductory Word to the World of Faerie Knights specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This poem is considered to be a successful example of how the stanzas may be organized, and Spencer’s contribution to the development of fixed verses was considerable. In this paper, the two beginning verses of the poem will be analyzed in order to comprehend the motives of the author as well as the main messages sent from the end of the 16th century. Each line of The Faerie Queene is a kind of brick that creates a magnificent path to the door that opens the world of Faerie knights, ladies, and emotions which develop various types of relations. There are two verses of 9 lines each which are introduced in the iambic pentameter ended with one Alexandrine line. Such combination of lines facilitates the reading process and shows that more interest appears with each new line offered. Lo I the man, whose Muse whilome did maske, As time her taught, in lowly Shepheards weeds. (Spenser and Kaske 3) The author admits that he is not ready to disclose his personality but still underlines that he has certain skills to introduce a story as he has Muse that had already inspired him long time ago. Am now enforst a farre unfitter taske, For trumpets sterne to chaunge mine Oaten reeds. (Spenser and Kaske 3)Advertising Looking for essay on british literature? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More These lines show that the author has to take a serious step in his life and undergo a number of changes to meet the expectations of the society. Though he is not sure whether he is ready to take such a step, he makes an attempt and wants to succeed. And sing of Knights and Ladies gentl e deeds, Whose prayses having slept in silence long. Me, all too meane, the sacred Muse areeds To blazon broad emongst her learned throng: Fierce warres and faithful loves shall moralize my song. (Spenser and Kaske 3) His task now is to describe the life of knights and their ladies, and his previous duties were far from evaluating such amazing times of honor, prudence, and passion. Though the stories about those past times are hidden to the reader, the author wants to disclose the peculiarities of human lives. Fights, love, and glory are the main aspects of the poem. Helpe then, O holy Virgin chiefe of nine, Thy weaker Novice to performe thy will. (Spenser and Kaske 4). The author is not afraid to ask for help and admit his own weaknesses. Still, he has to perform the will set, and he will ask anyone for help to succeed in his activities. Lay forth out of thine everlasting scryne The antique rolles, which there lye hidden still, Of Faerie knights and fairest Tanaquill, Whom that mos t noble Briton Prince so long Sought through the world, and suffered so much ill,Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on The Power of Introductory Word to the World of Faerie Knights specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More That I must rue his undeserved wrong: O helpe thou my weake wit, and sharpen my dull tong. (Spenser and Kaske 4) In these lines, the author introduces one of the main ideas of the poem, and â€Å"fairest Tanaquill†, the queen of the Land that is considered in the story. Not much information is available about people, the land, and the activities of the queen, this is why it is so interesting to investigate the events from the past and describe their urgency for the reader. Suffering and pain have been inherent to the times of the queens and knights, and it is a human duty to appreciate personal past and be aware of how different people fight for their freedom, love, and honor. Life is divided into th e parts, and the main task of the knight is to find his own place in the world and his mistress in order to make the life complete. In general, the idea of the two first verses of the poem is clear indeed: there are some themes from the past that have to be disclosed to the reader, and the author takes the responsibility to introduce the world of the knights and queens from his own perspective. Of course, he understands that he is not powerful enough to describe properly each aspect of past life; this is why he is ready to admit his weakness and to ask higher powers for help and inspiration. Works Cited Spenser, Edmund and Kaske, Carol. â€Å"The First Booke of the Faerie Queene. Contayning. The Legend of the Knight of the Red Crosse, or of Holinesse.† The Faerie Queene: Book One. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.: 2006. This essay on The Power of Introductory Word to the World of Faerie Knights was written and submitted by user Grav1ty to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Problems with an English-medium Education

Problems with an English-medium Education Free Online Research Papers To what extent is English-medium education the solution or the problem in settings where English is not the dominant language of the pupils’ homes or local communities? Unfortunately, this is not a question I am going to be able to give one clear, definitive answer to as I believe that English-medium education can be both a problem, and a solution in situations where English is not the dominant language. On the one hand we have cases such as the one that can be seen in the state of Karnataka in India, where English-medium education has been replaced by one of the local languages, Kannada, a sensible decision many would say, but not when you consider that most of the urban areas in the State are multilingual, with people whose mother-tongues are Kannada, Tamil, Marathi, Malayalam, Punjabi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Bengali, and many more (Resource and Reference Materials, p.81), so here, it could be argued, that one combining language, such as English, should be used that would be of benefit to all as a lingua franca. Then on the other hand you have Kathleen Heugh’s argument that without a full understanding of their mother-tongue children will strugg le to fully understand what they are being taught, and that English-medium education should not begin until the children have received at least 6-8 years of mother-tongue education to avoid any such problems of comprehension (Learning English, pp.181-88) In relation to Heugh’s argument I believe low levels of competence could exist where bilingual education is introduced too early, as children are often reluctant to question meanings of words for fear of revealing their ignorance in a subject, and in so doing facing ridicule from other students. Children can also struggle when having to concentrate on not only the message in say, a geography lesson, but also the medium when that lesson is taught in a second language such as English. Subjects such as geography, mathematics, and history should therefore logically be taught in the classes mother-tongue to allow the content to be more readily accessible, and to prevent the slowing down of the progress of the whole class, at least until the children are capable of comprehending the language they are being taught in. Heugh conducted a study of English and colonial language education in South Africa, a country that had adopted English through linguistic imperialism towards the end of the nineteenth century. Heugh found that up until 1975, African children had received eight years of mother-tongue education, followed by a switch in secondary school to joint Afrikaans and English-medium education. The school leaving pass rate had improved from 43.5 per cent in 1955 to 83.7 per cent in 1976, figures that justify my belief that a monolingual education system throughout the child’s formative years of schooling is the correct course to take; however, this was to change dramatically with the introduction of only four years of mother-tongue education after the student led rebellions in Soweto of 1976. Within a few years it had become noticeable that academic performances had dropped dramatically, and that teachers responsible for students in grades 5-8 were not sufficiently competent enough in Engl ish to deal with the switch. English-medium education was proving a problem here for both students and teachers alike with its earlier introduction into the curriculum. John Rogers, a senior lecturer at the English Language Institute in Victoria, New Zealand, backs up these findings in his article ‘The world for sick proper’ (1990), as he claims ‘.that if the aim really is access to educational opportunity, progress is more likely to be achieved by education in local languages. [and that] despite the enormous resources it diverts from other educational development possibilities, it actually achieves very little’ [Learning English, pp.212-13]. We only need look at another example of an early stage introduction of the English-medium in to the curriculum in Malawi to see its failings. Here, through lack of resources and funding, classes can often reach sizes of over a hundred children, and choral chanting then becomes the method of education where children will merely repeat en masse after their teacher, and, although giving students the ability to practice their pronunciation, it allows for no form of correction for the individuals whose errors will go undetected. The students in these situations are being positioned as passive recipients of the language and not given the chance to engage with each other, therefore severely limiting their ability to converse fluently through the medium of English. Again then, one must question how much of the message of the lesson they are taking in as they concentrate more on the medium of English than the actual subject matter. We do not have to look as far as India though to see where an English-medium only education system may soon be a major socio-political issue, and that is within the UK. Without considering the increasing linguistic diversity of the UK’s population, partly through immigration, we may soon find ourselves in a situation very similar to the one in South Africa, where many children are failing to grasp the basics due to a fundamental lack of understanding in the language they are being taught in. Figures show that some 10 per cent of school students have English as a second language, whilst the figures in London are even higher, standing at nearer 30 per cent (Monaghan, 2007, p176). So where, if anywhere, can an English-medium education system be of an advantage to students?.. Bangalore, capitol city of the State of Karnataka in India, as I’ve already mentioned in my opening statement, is a state divided by many languages, but with one common denominator amongst them all, English. Activists in Karnataka, throughout the late 1970’s and early 1980’s argued as to which should be the language of education and state, with the outcome being that it should be Kannada, a language spoken by around only a third of the State, but this unfortunately was not the wishes of many of the people, merely activists in positions of power. English has become an international language, a language of business and education, and the people of the regions appreciate that fact, realising for their children to have any chance of obtaining positions of power in business and industry they must be able to speak English. One such child, a young girl named Ranika, attends Bishop Cotton School, where from the age of 5 the medium throughout the school is English only, and it is her father who believes that â€Å"If you really want to become a world citizen. they have to learn the English language.. whether it’s in science, arts, or in business.† [An English Education, DVD2, 00:01:20]. Children in the state of Karnataka have learned to converse in several languages, and seem to have done so with relative ease as we see with the example of Thara, a young girl who attends Government Girls High School, who, by her own admission, can quite happily talk to neighbours and friends in Hindi, English, Guajarati or Tamil [An English Education, DVD2]. Thara sees it as a good thing to be able to speak to others through the medium of English when they are not able to understand her mother tongue of Kannada. Activists such as M. Chidananda Murthy argue however, that to learn through the medium of English would be to lose ones culture and heritage [ibid], but even here parents disagree strongly with this argument as it’s claimed that if they have their own influences on their children and the ways in which they are raised, then there should be no fear of westernisation, and that both the English language and their Indian heritage can coexist comfortably side by side. Again we only need to look within our own shores to see where this particular issue could be raised though, with many fearing a loss of local customs and heritage through the teaching of a standardised form of English which does not reflect local dialects and accents. Annamalai (1986) claimed that ‘ English helps maintain divisions and hierarchies within a country’ [Learning English, p.212], but if anything, within the UK I believe it has the opposite effect, breaking down the prejudices of economic backgr ounds, ethnicity, or nationality, as here we are all taught a standardised English, so can all converse without fear of a lack of understanding or ridicule, regardless of our place of birth or heritage. Britain has become a multi-cultural society, and for us to all co-exist comfortably together then the most obvious solution seems to be for us to all be able to converse fluently in the same language, and this is only possible if we are all taught through the medium of English. English-medium education can therefore not be seen with one blanket ideal, and every situation must be investigated and considered on its own merits before deciding whether the medium is indeed the solution or the problem for students whose dominant language is not English. Graddol argues that although the charge of cultural imperialism has still not gone away, English must be seen as a global language used for a range of purposes by non-English speaking countries (Graddol, 2006, p101), but at the same time we must not let it become an executioner bringing death to any languages it comes into contact with. This unfortunately, is why I have struggled to come to one conclusion as to whether English-medium education is the solution or the problem, as I can see the benefits of one all encompassing international language, but would hate to think that to have it would mean the death of so many colourful and interesting other languages, and the disadvantages that would come with not being a ble to speak it. Bibliography Mercer, N., Swann, J., Mayor, B. (eds) (2007), Learning English, Abingdon, Routledge The Open University (2009), Resource and Reference Materials U211(2007) DVD ROM 2, Exploring the English Language, OU, DVD00222 Research Papers on Problems with an English-medium EducationStandardized TestingComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoQuebec and CanadaInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesHip-Hop is Art19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraBringing Democracy to AfricaPersonal Experience with Teen PregnancyPETSTEL analysis of IndiaResearch Process Part One

Literacy Program Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Literacy Program - Essay Example This literacy programme is scheduled for a week's time, wherein a strategy is evolved to include all components of the programme. When the reading level of the student is identified, "the objective then becomes measurable, and the teacher can collect information that will provide evidence as to whether it has been met" (Gunning, 2004). In order to improve the reading comprehension of a student, I would like to introduce a combination of materials, that would help a student understand the different kinds of written materials and also improve his overall reading skills. I would include the following components in the reading comprehension module: Reading of a newspaper, a classic novel that is pertinent to the standard of the student, reading columns or articles by eminent personalities that would interest the student, reading a text book of English language, reading comics and finally, reading a project based on the interest levels of a student of the particular standard. Each day of the week-long strategy would include one item from the list each. The list is a pretty comprehensive one, with diversity in the reading approach. ... After the course of the week's programme, a post-test in the form a summative assessment programme, to determine the effectiveness of the programme. PHONICS Teaching phonics is an especially difficult task, since the English language makes use of a combination of sounds, that are pronounced differently under different rules of stress and syllable-framework. Hence, students find it difficult to understand pronunciation under different circumstances. For examples, homonyms are difficult to teach. Hence, the literacy programme would include a strategy to help students pronounce words correctly, keeping in mind, the context. The programme would include reading lessons, wherein students would be introduced to the concept of phonetics, the symbols for each modern letter in the English alphabet, the concept of syllables, exercises based on not just synonyms and antonyms, but also homonyms. Exercises in the form of listening lessons, by encouraging a student to record his/ her reading test everyday on the tape and then asking him/her to come up with a personally assessment of the pronunciation of words. This would help the student understand and analyse words, besides marking the progress he has made in the course of the programme. DEVELOPING VOCABULARY In a literacy programme, developing the strength of the students' vocabulary is very important. For this aspect of literacy education, one cannot generalize the extent of a student's

Information Power Inside An Organization Research Paper

Information Power Inside An Organization - Research Paper Example If the information is used as a means of trade, it possesses a great power (Hersey et al., 2001). Information is necessary for shaping an organizational behavior because information is able to create a great influence on the people in an organization. Many organizations operate out of four major frameworks (Bresnahan et al., 2002). The frameworks include custodial, supportive, autocratic and collegial. Autocratic: the Autocratic model has a basis of power with managerial authority orientation (Anni-Kaisa Kà ¤hkà ¶nen, 2010). This model makes the employees to be oriented towards dependence and obedience on the boss (American Association of School Librarian, 1998). The subsistence need for the employee is met. The result of performance is thus minimal.Custodial: the Custodial model has a managerial money orientation and its basis is economic resources. The employees get an orientation towards benefits and security. The employees are also able to depend on the organization (Salancik, 1977). Passive cooperation is the performance result of this model and it meets the employee need of security. An organization that has this model is referred to as custodial organization (Anni-Kaisa Kà ¤hkà ¶nen, 2010). Supportive: the Supportive model is mainly concerned with the leadership.The managerial orientation of this model is support. The employee orientation is mainly concerned with the job participation and performance.The supportive model enables the employee need for recognition and status to be met.