Comparing the marketing of Tescos and Audi Essay

For this task we have been asked to look at the ways two different businesses market their products and services the two businesses we have been asked to look at are Tesco & Audi. The first Tesco was opened in 1919 by a man called; Jack Cohen from that 1 store Tesco has grown in the market and now has 923 stores worldwide, Tesco is a supermarket that sells all kinds of household items such as food, clothes range, technology range, phone range furniture, toys and many more, Tesco has many different stores which make a lot of money every year. Tesco uses its brand to obtain new customers and also retain old customers because they are a reliable business that is well known by many of their customers. They are known for their cheap products and suitable prices which attract customers to come back and buy again, They obtain new customers by doing things like advertising and promoting their products and business on things like flyers, T.V, Internet, Comparison sites and a lot of other places, they also do things like club cards which allow customers to get some products for lower prices or free, this makes the customer want to come back and shop again because they like the way of service. We have been asked to pick one product from each business and discuss the marketing techniques between them, from Tesco I have chosen to do a Mobile phone, the target markets of this product is everyone, but almost everyone needs a mobile phone, the branding of the mobile phone will be different because if the phones are made from different companies their brands will be on them, Tesco will use adverts to promote the phone and get people interested so they will buy it, Tesco uses relationship marketing with phone brands such as Nokia, Samsung ECT as they sell their products in side their stores, The mobile phone has a large number of rival products as there are lots of different phone models to choose from and this particular phone might not get bought. An Ansoff matrix is a business strategy that businesses use to increase sales and improve their market, Tesco is developing new products in existing markets because they already have a market and they just need new products to sell in their market, for example if Tesco created a new product their brand phone they would sell it under their name in their stores. Tesco constantly uses the Ansoff matrix as they are always releasing new products, and selling them, sometimes Tesco would work on improving a market and sometimes they create completely new products, If Tesco release a new mobile phone they would be releasing a new product into a existing market which would be using the Ansoff matrix. Audi AG (Xetra: NSU) is a German manufacturer of a range of automobiles, from supermini to crossover SUVs in various body styles and price ranges that are marketed under the Audi brand. The company is headquartered in Ingolstadt, Germany, and has been a wholly owned subsidiary of Volkswagen AG since 1966, following a phased purchase of its predecessor, Auto Union, from its former owner, Daimler-Benz. Volkswagen re-launched the Audi brand with the 1965 introduction of the Audi F103 series. The company name is based on the surname of the founder August Horch, meaning listen — which, when translated into Latin, becomes Audi. Audi uses its brand to sell their products, Audi is a well known and trusted brand and people can buy from them with trust unlike smaller companies, customers know that they can trust Audi, because they have reliable cars that they sell and the public know these facts about the business so they trust the company and buy the car. We have been asked to pick one product to describe the marketing techniques they use, I have chosen to do the Audi RS4, the target of this car would be anyone who can drive and people who have money, The branding of this car would have the Audi Logo on it, Audi will use things like adverts to promote their product, advertising increases sales, Audi can use Relationship marketing with Car dealerships/shops which sell their cars, Audi has a lot of rivals due to there being many other car companies that are selling cars like them such as Mercedes, Bmw, ECT, so Audi will have to be better that the other companies and prove that they are the best car dealer on the market. An Ansoff matrix is a business strategy that businesses use to increase sales and improve their market; Audi is constantly creating new products in their existing markets, and sometimes creating new products for new markets, for example Audi would not start a new company to sell new products under, they would just make new products which would be cars and sell them under their current name which would be Audi. Audi constantly uses the Ansoff matrix as they are always making new cars and selling them, sometimes Audi would work on improving a market and sometimes they create completely new products, for example If Audi created a new car they would sell it under their brand name and this is using the Ansoff Matrix.

A Rant on Forced Marriage Essay

A relationship of marriage is decided by the elders, and then forced on their child. Is this right? Parents think they know better than the child, but are they always right? How can they choose ones groom or their bride, the one with whom they are going to spend their whole life? This practice of evil is unfortunately still alive in many communities in developing countries, and even some industrialized. I oppose, to this cruel idea of destroying ones life. In this view of mine, I don’t stand-alone but at my behind I have United Nations and their Human rights. Forced marriage is a violation of ones personal rights, it’s destruction their of life. How can parents force their children to marry one they don’t like? If you are being forced into this life, take a breath and stand for your rights. Which are there in the constitution, written boldly for your sake if you come under this situation. It’s better to oppose, than live a traumatic life. Illiteracy, poverty, culture and lack of awareness are the seed of this consequence. This issue is taken very seriously though in most of the countries, where governments and non-governmental organizations are constantly helping people getting out from this mess that their parent’s create. But the people who succeed in overcoming this condition often lose the contact with their parents. The ones, who don’t, live their life in misery and are depressed. Some people adapt and accept the piece of cake they get. It also results in somebody being responsible for his or her own death.

Forensic Evidence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Forensic Evidence - Essay Example Was it phoned in? Was it something that police on patrol or some other duty came upon? Was it reported at the police station and thus police officers we sent to inspect? How was the crime incident reported? Who made the report to the police and when and how? All of this information is unavailable and unrecorded. This information is important as the time between when a crime took place and when the crime scene was secured and inspected is important since it has a bearing on any contamination of the crime scene that may have taken place. It also has bearing on the veracity of the crime report. Could this be a staged crime? Or did the crime actually take place as reported? These are the first most glaring deficiencies of this crime report. The report is also lacking in the information about the complainant. It is even lacking in the full name of the complainant – a Mr D. Young. David? Daniel? This sort of ambiguity on the name is further compounded by the fact that there is no me ntion of whether this complainant recorded any type of written statement. One would expect that a signed statement from the complainant would be part of the crime scene report. There are no details of what the complainant reported or where even Mr Young was when the alleged crime took place. In addition there is no descriptive information about Mr Young. ... If Mr Young was injured, what kind of injury was it? There is not even a description of the injury that Mr Young is said to have suffered or how it was reported to have been sustained. Was he treated for the injury? If so, where was the treatment done. The report mentions that a witness claims to have seen someone running away from the premises at 1030 pm on the 20th. There is no mention of even a rough description of what this person who was seen running away looked like. It is also unclear who the witness was, was it Mr Young? Did the witness record a statement? What role did the witness play in the crime scene and what does he look like? The report is alleged to be that of burglary but makes no mention of what was taken away or what was missing or whether this was an unsuccessful burglary or whether the burglar was intercepted before or while committing the crime. The report says that the burglary may have happened at 1030pm at night yet there is no description of the lighting in the room and how much light was available at that time. Is there a landing light? Did the events take place in the dark or were the lights on when they happened? The scene report claims this is an examination of the bedroom. It makes no mention of what type of house this crime allegedly took place in. Was it a bungalow? Was it a flat? Was it a mansion? Is it a multi-floored building? If not, how many floors? Where is the bedroom relative to the rest of the house? Are there any other houses besides it? The report makes no mention of how many bedrooms there are in the house and who resides in the house – we can only assume that it is Mr Young but it hasn’t been stated. Who else lives there? The report makes no mention of whether the house was a wooden house, concrete house or even a

Write a reading response based on the this article Essay

Write a reading response based on the this article - Essay Example At one point in the article, Honan talks about how he is going to go out of town and is debating about allowing his location to be tracked during this time period as it would make public that his wife would ultimately be alone for five days. His wife states at one point, â€Å"Youre not going to announce to everyone that youre leaving town without me, are you? A lot of weirdos follow you online."(Honan). I couldn’t help but agree with his wife’s consensus. Although there might not be that many weirdos running around out there with the intent to hurt others, it is still scary to think that someone could easily find out where you are and that you had basically handed out this information voluntarily. In reading this article, I was impressed to see all of the capabilities of technology with apps such as iWant, GasBag, and Wikime, but I also feel like there is an overload of it right now. A lot of these apps just don’t seem necessary and could end up causing more trouble than they are worth. By the end of the piece, Matthew Honan seems to agree with this somewhat when he nearly gets in a car crash because he was placing too much of his attention on his smart-phone and not enough attention on the road(Honan). I concluded from the article that with apps, the phrase â€Å"too much of a good thing† definitely applies. Honan , Matthew. "I Am Here: One Mans Experiment With the Location-Aware Lifestyle ." Wired.com . 19 Jan. 2009. Web. 28 Sept. 2011.

PHILOSOPHY, GENDER AND CULTURE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

PHILOSOPHY, GENDER AND CULTURE - Essay Example Heterosexuals as such are justly given privileges that will offer them political power, religious sanction, sexual freedom, moral status, occupational and tax privileges, cultural validation, freedom to have and adopt children and raise families, recourse against unfair hiring practices psychiatric and juridical non-interference among others (Hopkins 95). Heterosexism does not have any emotional and rhetorical effect that is associated with homophobia. Heterosexism is the most appropriate term to be used in describing the reason as to why television couples are all straight. The reason as to why marriage and joint tax returns are only meant for heterosexuals, why lesbians and gays in the open cannot be elected to office? Why can heterosexuals be allowed to adopt children or be foster parents? On the contrary, heterosexism cannot be used to describe a case that happened in Texas where a group of ten teenagers stabbed a gay man to death. In respect to this, therefore, heterosexism are protected. The term c usually, the first term of binary is always good, but the second term is bad. Heterosexism builds concepts and behaviors to enable hierarchical heterosexist to react to binary hence becoming homophobic. It is not necessary that one should be white to be considered a racist same way heterosexists are perceived as homophobic (Hopkins 96). Heterosexism may be different because its direct and obvious personal threats to gays. It nonetheless puts the political arena in a way that homophobia can continue to exist. Heterosexism is culpable for the production of homophobic. He choose to use the term homophobia for cases like petitions for fascistic law, brutality, fanatic claims or arbitrarily firing gay employees, but it does not always mean to characterize homophobia as clinical or an irrational response because it would be inadequate. Homophobia has evolved as primarily a political term, not as a psychiatric one and does not contradicts claustrophobia or agoraphobia only if political arenas are the same. 2. Explain Hopkins’ concept of homophobia. Make sure to note the connection of the two in defining these terms though Hopkins Hopkins explains homophobia as a similar term as heterosexism. It is used to refer to economic, physical, and juridical abuse faced by gays. There is no clear boundary between heterosexism and homophobia. According to Hopkins, the two words are used, in political environments, to present political needs. Homophobia is somehow dysfunctional to an individual or a group. Homophobic activity has some powers that usually influence. In a homosexual case, the conflicts reaffirm the appearance of a man in heterosexuality hence gaining a sense of safety and stability and oneself. Basing on the childhood modeling, homophobic activity wins approval from peers and authority figure, pretests one from becoming the target of other homophobes, and reaffirms one’s place in a larger context of gender appropriate behavior th us protecting a person’s personal identity. In his hypotheses, Hopkins recognized the fact that there are rational and functional aspects of homophobia especially in a heteropatriarchal context leading to another explanation of homophobia that has reversed the second explanation. The theory explains that queers are a genuine political threat to heterosexuals and do intend to eliminate heterosexual privilege (Hopkins 99). Radical feminist lesbians and certain radical men gays directly challenge

Comparison & Contrast on Romanticism and Realism literary movements Essay

Comparison & Contrast on Romanticism and Realism literary movements - Essay Example Consequently, as industrial revolution progressed, these poor working conditions raised a lot of concerns and people started to advocate for changes. Artists and writers were amongst the people who were championing for the changes (Dahiya 4). They responded to these conditions in many different ways and as a result, romanticism and realism artistic movements emerged. Romanticism movement originated from Europe in the mid of the 18th century and was concerned with emotions and imagination (Morris, 169). It opposed aristocratic social and political ideologies of the age of enlightenment and the scientific rationalization of nature (Mendelowitz 153). Romanticism was highly centered on visual arts, literature and music but had greater impacts education and natural history (Morris, 49). During the 18th century, romanticism was common and popular (Reynolds 81). However, in the second half of 19th century it lost its popularity and was overtaken by realism movement. Realism movement was bas ed on real life and unlike their immediate predecessors (romantics), the practitioners of realism sought to portray real life, both good and bad. They were far more interested in science and in civilization, and far less interested in nature and the occult. Realists, like Romantics, were very moral writers, but moral causes changed with the times as new conditions dictated new issues (Richardson 56). Both romanticism and realism gathered a lot of fame during the era of industrial revolution. However, it was realism that was more popular from mid 1800s on. Romanticism only dominated from mid 1700s to the mid 1800s (Dahiya 4). Romanticism artists and writers put passion and emotions in their work. The works created by these writers and artists often dealt with themes that bring hope and inspiration or reflected nature’s beauty (Ferber 15). The works were always based on nationalism, spirituality and mankind. The works of the romantic artists gave the people an escape from the p roblems and challenges that they faced during the industrial revolution (Reynolds 111). The works of literature that are usually associated with this movement are the poems of William Wordsworth and William Blake. Other works include Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, which was a story about a scientist who tried to create human but created a monster, Alexandre Dumas’s work, The Three Musketeers and Victor Hugo’s novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Richardson 67). The works of realists were based on real life. The art and literature developed or made by realists exposed life as it was. They clearly pointed out the difficult living and working conditions that were eminent during the era of industrial revolution. Most of the writers and artists of realism were activists who used their works to reveal the evils of society in the hope that they would be reformed. Realists had hopes that their works would bring inspiration to the politicians and other people in powe r thus enable them make lasting changes in living and working conditions (Herman 11). The realists were also referred to as social critics since they used to criticize the society. In US, the realists were referred to as muckrakers since they raked the muck that was in the society. The criticism of the realist was always on specific cause such as child labor, living conditions and working conditions in industries. Realists’ literature writers created factious works but their plots were real. The most known realist author is Charles dickens who was a British

Japanese Tea ceremony Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Japanese Tea ceremony - Research Paper Example The cult of drinking tea in Japan quickly spread during 794-1185 (Heian period) to the Imperial Court and soon transformed into the simple pleasure. The tea that was used at the time was referred as ‘black tea’ that was made by pounding the tea leaves into the paste and then molding it into the shapes that resembles the dumplings (Mori, 1991). The gatherings that were gathered for these tea drinking sessions sat on the folding stools that were prepared specifically for these events. The characteristic and mood of the tea drinking during the Heian period can be compared to the modern tranquil coffee shop. The powdered green tea that is the focus of the Japanese tea ceremony today and in the ancient times in japan was not introduced until during the 12th century in the Kamakura period (1185-1336) where Eisai (priest) introduced the use of the powder green tea referred as matcha (Mori, 1991). The matcha is whipped in the boiling water with the bamboo whisk and it was the mainstay of the Zen Buddhism meditation as well as acting as a stimulant for helping to keep the monks awake. The match emerged from the confines of Zen Buddhist in the early 14th century owing to its high popularity for the taste and its increased demand, leading to its spread to the rural communities and the Samurai class. This method of the tea drinking advanced and become popularly known as the cha yoriai (tea gatherings) and it has a sharp contrast to the peaceful and quiet pleasure that was enjoyed by the Heian nobility. Additionally, the cha yoriai can be compared to the wine-testing competitions that are conducted in the Europe today. The tea ceremony in japan underwent quick transformation under the leadership of the Takeno Jo-o (1502-1555). Takeno Jo-o brought the tea drinking into the newly established and flourishing merchant class in the native city of Sakai, Nara and Kyoto. While the Shuko’s tea aesthetics largely involved the creation of the harmony

Freedom from poverty as a human right (legal perspective) Research Paper

Freedom from poverty as a human right (legal perspective) - Research Paper Example This research will begin with the statement that the standard of life in Canada makes it ranks among the developed countries. Despite some steps that it has made, specialists argue that poverty is a threat that Canadian government has not been able to stump. Debates on standards of living usually incline on how best the country has been able to make economic strides while forgetting to look at ways of stumping out poverty. A renowned public figure Adlai Stevenson argued that freedom ceases when a man does not have the ability to curb his hunger. From this perspective, poverty is an issue that infringes human rights. This statement is believable because poverty is the genesis of all problems that man would ever imagine. Poverty survey index in Canada stands at 3.5 million people. Further, the survey report indicates that poverty is currently increasing among the following groups of people youths, young families, workers, immigrants, colored people, and aboriginals. UN Development Inde x ranks Canada at 4th position, however measuring poverty among Canadian Aboriginals would rank it at position 78 in the same index. This observation is appalling because Canada has had good credibility in economic growth. Organizations fighting for human rights have categorized poverty among factors that deprive man of his rights. The perspective that human rights watch takes intends to create awareness. It is important to note that awareness creation leads to policy development. From this approach, the Canadian government can be able to work some modalities, which would help its citizens from this menace. Argument posted by the Canadian human right watch indicates that Canada has not been able to conclusively some human rights thus permeating room that breeds poverty. It is evident that poverty does exist because of repressive laws, which give opportunities to a few while discriminating upon other groups. Social rights, political rights, civil rights, and economic rights form part of Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Canada Parliament House of Common, 2008). These rights influence poverty level in any given community. For instance, violation of social rights such women rights to work would contribute to poverty because it deprives women the opportunity of working in order to elevate poverty. The argument of human rights groups thus point to the legal perspective in fighting poverty. The assumption is policy development in the country depend on the government priority areas. In essence, the government has the ability to devise policy that would support this course of humanity. Pointers of human right achievement subject the country to be among those that fail to observe human rights because its policies on poverty eradication have yielded very little (Kotlowski, 2001). Socialists claim that some human rights may require sensitization in order for the society to realize them (Jacob, 2007). However, it is important to identify the impact of the rights sens itization process before embarking on the program. Active participation in quest for human rights has helped many countries and communities to realize those rights. It is arguable that when the society takes on the right quest the government would be able to enact policies, which would make people to acquire the rights. For instance, the quest for human rights in Canada with regard to poverty bite has to take a legal perspective form. This claim is due to partial compliance with the international human rights treaties that Canada is a party. When addressing poverty in Canada, the key assumption in this argument is that poverty is among human right violation. This would take us to types of human rights. Advocates for human dignity have defined human rights as provisions that are legally binding, guaranteed by laws recognized by international community, of the people administered through the state. This description takes us to three types of human ri

Privacy in the Workplace Essay Example for Free

Privacy in the Workplace Essay There are specific laws that protect consumers as well as employees in the workplace. Many of these laws relate to others. Laws, such as, FERPA, SOX, CIPA, and COPPA also grant rights to individuals under the First Amendment. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects a child’s student records from being viewed without parental consent. It gives parents access to their childs education records, an opportunity to seek to have the records amended, and some control over the disclosure of information from the records. When the child becomes 18 years old, the parents are no longer obligated to have rights to access the child’s personal records. Childrens Internet Protection Act (CIPA) is also engineered to the protection of children. Children are to be protected physically and mentally while in the care of school professionals. Schools must have policies in place protecting children from accessing harmful or obscene content over the internet. This law requires that K-12 schools and libraries in the United States use Internet filters and implement other measures to protect children from harmful online content as a condition for federal funding. The Child Online Protection Act (COPPA) applies to the online collection of personal information by persons or entities under U.S. jurisdiction from children under 13 years of age. It details what a website operator must include in a privacy policy, when and how to seek verifiable consent from a parent or guardian, and what responsibilities an operator has to protect childrens privacy and safety online including restrictions on the marketing to those under 13. While children under 13 can legally give out personal information with their parents permission, many websites disallow underage  children from using their services altogether due to the amount of cash and work involved in the law compliance. Sarbanes–Oxley (SOX) set new or enhanced standards for all U.S. public company boards, management and public accounting firms. The sections of the bill cover responsibilities of a public corporations board of directors, adds criminal penalties for certain misconduct, and required the Securities and Exchange Commission to create regulations to define how public corporations are to comply with the law.

How to Protect the Environment Essay Example for Free

How to Protect the Environment Essay Character is a pattern of behavior, thoughts and feelings based on universal principles, moral strength, and integrity – plus the guts to live by those principles every day. Character is evidenced by your life’s virtues and the â€Å"line you never cross.† Character is the most valuable thing you have, and nobody can ever take it away. Why Character is Important Character in life is what makes people believe in you and is essential both for individual success and for our society to function successfully. Each individual must do his or her part every day by living a life of integrity. Integrity is adhering to a moral code of honesty, courage, strength and truthfulness – being true to your word. When you don’t exhibit integrity, other people get hurt. But you hurt yourself even more. When you cheat, your â€Å"success† is false. When you break a promise, you are showing that your word is meaningless. When you lie, you deceive others and lose their respect. All of those examples destroy your reputation and break the trust others have in you. Without your good reputation and trustworthiness, your relationships fail. Relationships and Success Relationships are the foundation for success in life. For example, when you destroy the relationships with your friends, you will have no friends. You will be isolated and alone. If a student promises not to cheat, but does, he is taking unfair advantage to put himself ahead of others without deserving it. He can ruin his reputation, his academic record and his job prospects forever. When a businessman makes a promise to customers and doesn’t deliver, he destroys his relationships with his customers. His customers go elsewhere and his business fails. By breaking your relationships, you break the foundation for success in your life. What is true success? For example, who is more successful? Someone who is famous and makes a great deal of money, or someone who has no fame, makes little money, but is a great parent? Today, in school, is too much emphasis being placed on â€Å"good grades† and â€Å"high test scores† – so much so that are these things, rather than good character, how we define success? Conclusion Your good character is the most important asset you have. It takes a lifetime to build but can be lost in an instant. Once lost, it is difficult to regain. Your true character is revealed when no one else is looking. Often, people decide to act based on short term gain, or an easy fix to a problem and end up doing the wrong thing. The old adage â€Å"you are what you do† is true. Failure to consider the long term consequences of your acts can be disastrous. By study and focusing on the importance of character, you will be guided by principles, moral strength, and integrity to do the right thing. Nothing is more important for true success in your life.

Beliefs, Assumptions, Knowledge (BAK) Research in Teaching

Beliefs, Assumptions, Knowledge (BAK) Research in Teaching 2.1 Belief Research In the mid-1970s a new body of research began to emerge that worked to describe teachers thoughts, judgments and decisions as the cognitive processes that shaped their behaviors (Calderhead, 1996, Clark and Peterson, 1986; Dann, 1990). As a consequence of this, a surge of interest in the area of teacher belief systems has appeared (Pajares, 1992). This research â€Å"has helped to identify the nature and complexity of the teachers work , and helped to provide ways of thinking about the processes of change and support† (Calderhead, 1996, p.721). Researchers found that teaching could not be characterized simply as behaviors that were linked to thinking done before and during the activity but rather that the thought process of teaching included a much wider and richer mental context. As Shavelson and Stern (1981, p.479) explained, research on teacher cognition made â€Å"the basic assumption that teachers thoughts, judgments, and decisions guide their teaching behavior†. Kagan (1990, p. 420) noted that teacher cognition is somewhat ambiguous, because researchers invoke the term to refer to different products, including â€Å"teachers interactive thoughts during instruction; thought during lesson planning, implicit beliefs about students, classrooms and learning; reflections about their own teaching performance; automized routines and activities that form their instructional repertoire; and self-awareness of procedures they use to solve classrooms problems†. Currently, there is increasing recognition that the beliefs individuals hold are the best indicators of the decisions they make during the course of everyday life (Bandura, 1986). Pajares (1992, p. 307) argues that the investigation of teachers beliefs should be a focus of educational research and can inform educational practice in ways that prevailing research agendas have not and cannot. Educational researchers trying to understand the nature of teaching and learning in classrooms have usefully exploited this focus on belief systems. The research of Jakubowski and Tobin (1991) suggests that teachers metaphors and beliefs not only influence what teachers do in the classroom, but that changes in these same metaphors and beliefs can result in changes in their practices. A belief can be defined as a representation of the information someone holds about an object, or a â€Å"persons understanding of himself and his environment† (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975, p.131). This object can â€Å"be a person, a group of people, an institution, a behavior, a policy, an event, etc., and the associated attribute may be any object, trait, property, quality, characteristic, outcome, or event† (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975, p.12). While Rokeach (1972) defined a belief as â€Å"any simple proposition, conscious or unconscious, inferred from what a person says or does, capable of being preceded by the phrase ‘I believe that† (p.113), Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) defined a belief system as a hierarchy of beliefs according to the strength about a particular object. Researchers exploring teachers beliefs at the primary and secondary levels have used a number of definitions: â€Å"the highly personal ways in which a teacher understands classrooms, students, the nature of learning, the teachers role in the classroom, and the goals of education† (Kagan, 1990, p. 423); â€Å"psychologically held understandings, premises or propositions about the world that are felt to be true† (Richardson, 1996, p.103); and â€Å"generally refer to suppositions, commitments and ideologies† (Calderhead, 1996, p.715). Beliefs play an important role in many aspects of teaching as well as in life. They are involved in helping individuals make sense of the world, influencing how new information is perceived, and whether it is accepted or rejected. Teachers beliefs are a term usually used to refer to pedagogic beliefs or those beliefs of relevance to an individuals teaching (Borg 2001b). Teacher beliefs have been identified by Kagan (1992a) as tacit, often unconsciously held assumptions about students, about classrooms, and the academic material to be taught. The literature on teacher knowledge and beliefs from the primary and secondary levels has developed a number of terminological differences. Kagan (1990, p.456) highlighted this problem by noting: â€Å"Terms such as teacher cognition, self-reflection, knowledge and belief can be used to refer to different phenomena. Variation in the definition of a term can range from the superficial and idiosyncratic to the profound and theoretical†. The use of these varying terms makes it difficult to investigate in this area of teacher cognition. Pajares (1992) addressed this difficulty: Defining beliefs is at best a game of players choice. They travel in disguise and often under alias-attitudes, values judgments, axioms, opinions, ideology, perceptions, conceptual systems, preconceptions, dispositions, implicit theories, explicit theories, personal theories, internal mental processes, action strategies, rules of practice, practical principals, perspectives, repertories of understanding, and social strategy, to name but a few that can be found in the literature. (p.309) Defining beliefs is not a very easy task. There is a â€Å"bewildering array of terms† as Clandinin and Connelly (1987, p. 487) put forward including teachers teaching criteria, principles of practice, personal construct/theories/epistemologies, beliefs, perspectives, teachers conceptions, personal knowledge, and practical knowledge. 2.1.1 Belief Research in English Language Teaching The concept of belief, which has been a common feature of research papers in education for the past decade, has recently come into favor in ELT. In the field, various terms have been used to refer to the term ‘belief: pedagogical thoughts (Shavelson and Stern 1981), perspective (Zeichner, Tabachnick, Densmore, 1987), theoretical orientation (Kinzer, 1988), image (Calderhead, 1996), theoretical belief (Kinzer, 1988; Johnson, 1992; Smith 1996). Terms used in language teacher cognition research include theories for practice (Burns, 1996) which refer to the thinking and beliefs which are brought to bear on classroom processes; philosophical orientation and personal pedagogical system (Borg, 1998) which corresponds with stores of beliefs, knowledge, theories, assumptions and attitudes which shape teachers instructional decisions; maxims (Richards, 1996) to comprise personal working principles which reflect teachers individual philosophies of teaching; images (Johnson, 1994) which means general metaphors for thinking about teaching that represent beliefs about teaching and also act as models of action; conceptions of practice (Freeman, 1993) to cover ideas and actions teachers use to organize what they know and to map out what is possible; BAK (Woods, 1996) which includes the concepts beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge, In all those studies the core term on which there is focus is â€Å"belief†. Despite the popularity of the term, there is no consensus on meaning yet. The definition set forth by Rokeach (1968) claims that a belief is any simple proposition, conscious or unconscious, inferred from what a person says or does and knowledge is a component of belief. Rokeach uses the term ‘attitude to refer to the beliefs teachers have about constructs. Richards and Lockhart (1996, p.30) state that â€Å"teachers beliefs systems are founded on the goals and values that teachers hold in relation to the content and process of teaching, and their understanding of the systems in which they work and their roles within it†. These beliefs and values serve as the background to much of teachers decision making action and hence constitute what has been termed the â€Å"culture of teaching†. Richards and Lockhart (1996) summarize those teachers beliefs systems, which are derived from a number of different sources. They are, a) their own experience as language learners, b) their experience of what works best for their learners, c) established practice, d) personality factors, e) educational based or research-based principles, f) principles derived from an approach or method (pp.30-31). Borg (2001b) discusses three aspects of the term belief: The truth element-drawing on research in the philosophy of knowledge, a belief is a mental state which has as its content a proposition that is accepted as true by the individual holding it, although the individual may recognize that alternative beliefs may be held by others. This is one of the key differences between belief and knowledge must actually be true in some external sense. The relationship between belief and behavior most definitions of belief propose that beliefs dispose or guide peoples thinking and action. Conscious versus unconscious beliefs on this point there is disagreement, with some maintaining that consciousness is inherent in the definition of belief, and others allowing for an individual to be conscious of some beliefs and unconscious of others. The field of language teaching has been one of tradition and transition since its beginning hundreds, indeed, by some accounts, thousands of years ago (Kelly, 1969; Howatt, 1984; Richards and Rodgers, 1986). Even though a much newer pursuit than the teaching of languages such as Greek and Latin or Chinese, the teaching of the English language has already been through many transitions in methodology. What are now considered traditional methods were once the innovations of their time, characterized by the attitudes and values of their creators, who recommended that other educators abandon one method and choose another, with unquestioning optimism, as though this latter method were the solution to their classroom concerns (Clarke, 1982). In the past 50 years alone, English language teaching has gone through a whirlwind of transitions in its methodology, from grammar translation to direct method, to audiolingualism, to cognitive code, and a host of variations in each. In recent years, the most substantive transition in English language teaching has taken place through a collection of practices, materials, and beliefs about teaching and learning that are known by many different names, e.g. communicative methodology, communicative language teaching, and the communicative approach (Richards and Rodgers, 1986). Contemporarily, English teaching methodology is going through yet another transition. This transition, frequently referred to as the `post method condition (Kumaravadivelu, 2001), Research in the area of teacher thinking has grown rapidly particularly since the 1980s, with the consequence that the literature is vast and is often focused on very specific aspects of teaching. Nevertheless, the research concerned with teachers implicit theories of teaching and learning, particularly concerned with epistemological and pedagogical beliefs is of considerable relevance to research in language teaching (Kagan, 1992a; Pajares 1992). The reasons are: first, educational beliefs have shown to influence teaching practice (Kagan 1992a) and learning outcomes. Second, methods used to investigate relationship between beliefs and/or conceptions and teaching practice and the ways of analyzing data, are of interest. By the mid 1980s, a rising view of teaching began to highlight the complex ways in which teachers think about their work as being shaped by their prior experiences as students, their ‘personal practical knowledge (Golombek, 1998). More recently the notion of work context has been recognized as central in shaping teachers â€Å"conceptions of their practices† (Freeman, 1993). Language teaching is defined as a dynamic process, which arises out of the meeting and interaction of different sets of principles: different rationalities. In this sense, a rationality is the inner logic which shapes the way in which participants perceive a situation and the goals which they will pursue in this situation (Tudor, 1998). Tudor proposes that to understand language teaching, a first step is to explore the different rationalities which are present in each situation in order to discover the reality the participants involved in. There are four different types of rationalities: those of the students and teachers, socio-cultural rationalities and then the rationality of methodology. While describing teacher rationalities, Tudor (1998) argues that research into subjective needs has led us to appreciate the uniqueness of each learners interaction with their language study. More recently something similar about the teachers has been realized. They, too will perceive and interact with methodology they are implementing in the light of their personality, attitudes, and life experience and the set of perceptions and goals which these give rise to. For this reason there is a need to listen to the teachers voices in understanding classroom practice. There is a need to understand teachers perceptions and the way in which these perceptions influence teachers classroom behaviors. The maxims (Richards, 1996) or the pedagogic principles (Breen et al.2001) teachers use are important in understanding their pedagogical actions. The reality of classroom teaching is how the teachers interpret official curricula or the recommended materials. Teachers are not skilled technicians who dutifully realize a given set of teaching procedures in accordance with the directives of a more or less distant authority. They are active participants in the creation of classroom realities and they do this on the basis of their own attitudes and beliefs, and their personal perceptions of interaction with their teaching situation. All teachers hold beliefs about their work, their students, their subject matter, and their roles and responsibilities. They are individuals with their personal perceptions and goals, which go to shape the rationality which will guide their actions in the classroom and their interaction with the context in which they are operating (Tudor, 1998, p. 324). A major goal of research on teachers thought processes is to increase our understanding of how teachers think and behave in the classroom. The drive for this area of research comes from the assumption that what teachers do is a reflection of what they know and believe, and that teacher knowledge and teacher thinking provide the underlying framework or schema which guides teachers classroom practices (Sutcliffe and Whitfield 1976, Westerman 1991, Flowerdew, Brock Hsia 1992, Kagan 1992a, Richards and Lockhart 1994, Bailey 1996, Woods 1998, Borg 1998, Richards 1998). Therefore, in order to understand teaching, we must understand how thoughts get carried into actions (Clark and Yinger 1977, Shavelson and Stern 1981, Clark and Peterson 1986, Johnson 1992, Nunan 1992). Pajares (1992) reviewed research on teacher beliefs and argued that ‘‘teachers beliefs can and should become an important focus of educational inquiry (p. 307). He then sketched numerous facets of beliefs and acknowledged that a variety of conceptions of educational beliefs appear in the literature. Citing Nespors (1987) influential work, he suggested that ‘‘beliefs are far more influential than knowledge in determining how individuals organize and define tasks and problems and are stronger predictors of behavior (p. 311). Studies on teacher beliefs have slowly gained prominence, especially with regard to teacher change issues. Guskey (1986), for example, examined 52 teachers who participated in teacher development programs and concluded that change in teachers beliefs ‘‘is likely to take place only after changes in student learning outcomes are evidenced (p. 7). In contrast, Richardson, Anders, Tidwell, and Lloyd (1991) found that change in beliefs preceded change in practices. The current view is that relationships between beliefs and practices are interactive and ongoing (Fullan, 1991; Richardson, 1996). Richardson (1996) even states that ‘‘In most current conceptions, the perceived relationship between beliefs and actions is interactive. Beliefs are thought to drive actions; however, experiences and reflection on action may lead to changes in and/or additions to beliefs (p. 104). Pajares (1992) promoted 16 ‘‘fundamental assumptions that may reasonably be made when initiating a study of teachers education beliefs (1992, p. 324). These assumptions include among others, the notions that (a) beliefs are formed early and tend to self perpetuate, persevering even against contradictions caused by reason, time, schooling, or experience; (b) individuals develop a belief system that houses all the beliefs acquired through the process of cultural transmission; (c) beliefs are instrumental in defining tasks and selecting the cognitive tools with which to interpret, plan, and make decisions regarding such tasks; (d) individuals beliefs strongly affect their behavior; and (e) knowledge and beliefs are inextricably intertwined (for complete discussion of all 16 assumptions, see Pajares, 1992, pp. 324-326). 2.2 Teacher Knowledge Research Meanwhile doubts arose also from the scientific community about a conception of professionalism that asked professionals (such as teachers) to just apply the theories and insights provided by others. Schà ¶n (1983, 1987) analyzed the work of various groups of professionals and concluded that they applied a certain amount of theoretical knowledge in their work, but that their behavior was not at all ‘‘rule governed and that they had no straightforward way to determine which behavior was adequate in specific circumstances. Schà ¶n contrasted this principle of ‘‘technical rationality to the principle of ‘‘reflection-in-action, which pertained to the thinking of the professional during professional activity and implied a continuing dialogue with the permanently changing situation. This situation does not present itself as a well-defined problem situation. On the contrary, defining the problem is itself one of the most difficult tasks of the professio nal. This recognition of the centrality of the teacher and the teachers knowledge and beliefs regarding each educational process, including educational innovations, is relatively recent (Calderhead, 1996). Birman, Desimone, Porter, Garet (2000), for example, searched for key features of effective professional development and, based on their research, reported that professional development should focus on deepening teacher knowledge in order to foster teacher learning and changes in practice. Similarly, Hawley and Valli (1999) considered the expansion and elaboration of teachers professional knowledge base as essential for their professional development. In the literature about teacher knowledge, various labels have been used, each indicating a relevant aspect of teacher knowledge. The labels illustrate mainly which aspect is considered the most important by the respective authors. Together, these labels give an overview of the way in which teacher knowledge has been studied to date. The most commonly used labels are ‘‘personal knowledge (Conelly and Clandinin, 1985; Elbaz, 1991), indicating that this knowledge is unique; ‘‘the wisdom of practice (Schwab, 1971), and in more recent publications, ‘‘professional craft knowledge (e.g., Brown and McIntyre, 1993; Shimahara, 1998), referring to a specific component of knowledge that is mainly the product of the teachers practical experience; ‘‘action oriented knowledge, indicating that this knowledge is for immediate use in teaching practice (Carter, 1990); ‘‘content and context related knowledge (Cochran, DeRuiter, King, 1993; Va n Driel, Verloop, De Vos, 1998); knowledge that is to a great extent ‘tacit (Calderhead and Robson, 1991); and knowledge that is based on reflection on experiences (Grimmet and MacKinnon, 1992). It is important to realize that in the label ‘teacher knowledge, the concept ‘knowledge is used as an overarching, inclusive concept, summarizing a large variety of cognitions, from conscious and well-balanced opinions to unconscious and unreflected intuitions. This is related to the fact that, in the mind of the teacher, components of knowledge, beliefs, conceptions, and intuitions are inextricably intertwined. As Alexander, Schallert, and Hare (1991) noted, the term ‘knowledge is mostly used to encompass ‘‘all that a person knows or believes to be true, whether or not it is verified as true in some sort of objective or external way (p. 317). This is particularly relevant with respect to research on teacher knowledge. In investigating teacher knowledge, the main focus of attention is on the complex totality of cognitions, the ways this develops, and the way this interacts with teacher behavior in the classroom. Following Pajares (1992), knowledge and beliefs are seen as inseparable, although beliefs are seen roughly as referring to personal values, attitudes, and ideologies, and knowledge to a teachers more factual propositions (Meijer, Verloop, Beijaard, 2001). 2.2.1 Teachers Knowledge and Beliefs About Teaching In his extensive review of the literature, Calderhead (1996) found that many different kinds of knowledge have been described as underpinning effective teaching. The main forms are those related to the subject being taught, to teaching methods, and to the ways in which students develop and learn. The extent to which teachers have conscious access to this knowledge is, however, far from clear. Some researchers argue that much of this knowledge is implicit or tacit, derived from experience rather than from any conceptual framework. The research concerned with teachers implicit theories of teaching and learning, particularly work concerned with epistemological and pedagogical beliefs, which reflect their experiences, is of considerable relevance to research in language teaching (Kagan, 1992a; Pajares 1992). First, educational beliefs have shown to influence teaching practice (Kagan 1992a) and learning outcomes. Second, methods used to investigate relationship between beliefs and/or conceptions and teaching practice and the ways of analyzing data, are of interest. Pajares (1992) attempts to clarify the confusion with the distinction between knowledge and belief. However, as many researchers have found, it is not so much that knowledge differs from beliefs, but that beliefs themselves constitute a form of knowledge. In his attempts to characterize beliefs, Nespor (1987) provides some distinctions between beliefs and knowledge. He singles out four features of the construct previously identified by Abelson (1979) and considers them in relation to teachers: Existential presumptions or personal truths are generally unaffected by persuasion and are perceived by the teacher as being beyond his/her control or influence. Alternativity is a feature of beliefs that would include situations such as when teachers attempt to establish an instructional format of which they have no direct experience but which they might consider ideal. Belief systems can be said to rely much more heavily on affective and evaluative components than knowledge systems. Teachers values and feelings often affect what and how they teach and may conflict with their knowledge. Belief systems are composed mainly of episodically stored material which is derived from personal experience, episodes or events which continue to influence the comprehension of events at a later time. Whereas beliefs reside in episodic memory, knowledge is semantically stored. A further distinction between beliefs and knowledge, notes Nespor (1987, p.313), is that, while knowledge often changes, beliefs are static. As well, whereas knowledge can be evaluated or judged, such is not the case with beliefs as there is usually a lack of consensus about how they are to be evaluated. Furthermore, there do not appear to be any clear rules for determining the relevance of beliefs to real world events. While there is no doubt other distinctions can be made between the two constructs, a better understanding may be gained by exploring the relationship between the two and by considering beliefs as a form of knowledge. This form of knowledge could be referred to as personal knowledge. Kagan (1992a) refers to beliefs as a particularly provocative form of personal knowledge and argues that most of a teachers professional knowledge can be regarded more accurately as belief. According to Kagan, this knowledge grows richer and more coherent as a teachers experience in classrooms grows and thus forms a highly personalized pedagogy or belief system that actually constrains the teachers perception, judgment, and behavior. In terms of beliefs being personal knowledge, Kagan explains: A teachers knowledge of his or her profession is situated in three important ways: in context (it is related to specific groups of students), in content (it is related to particular academic material to be taught), and in person (it is embedded within the teachers unique belief system) (p.74). Like Clark (1988) who equates ‘implicit theories with beliefs, Nespor (1987) explains how beliefs become personal pedagogies or theories to guide teachers practices: Teachers beliefs play a major role in defining teaching tasks and organizing the knowledge and information relevant to those tasks. But why should this be so? Why wouldnt research-based knowledge or academic theory serve this purpose just as well? The answer suggested here is that the contexts and environments within which teachers work, and many of the problems they encounter, are ill-defined and deeply entangled, and that beliefs are peculiarly suited for making sense of such contexts. (p.324) Munby (1982) also equates implicit theories with teachers beliefs. Clark and Peterson (1986) in their review of the literature on teachers thought processes, argue that teachers theories and beliefs represent a rich store of knowledge. Teachers make sense of their complex world and respond to it by forming a complex system of personal and professional knowledge and theories which, as Kagan (1992a) describes, are often tacit and unconsciously held assumptions about students, classrooms and the material to be taught. 2.2.1.1 Beliefs, Assumptions, Knowledge Throughout this study the term BAK is used as an inclusive term to refer to beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge. Therefore, the following section describes the rationale behind using this term. In the discussion so far, approaches which divide aspects of teacher cognition were examined in separate categories. A more recent strand of research, however, challenges the categorical distinctions outlined above. Woods (1996) suggests that these dichotomies do not accurately reflect the relationship between Teachers beliefs, assumptions and knowledge and their practices in the classroom. In order to take appropriate action, people need to understand; and to understand they need knowledge about the world and specifically about the situation they are in (Woods, 1996, p. 59). Woods (1996) develops a multidimensional cycle of planning and decision making within teaching. He describes three phases of assessment, planning and implementation which operate recursively to inform different hierarchical levels of the teaching process going from the most local level of discrete events in the lesson plan to the most global level of whole course planning (p. 139). Woodss analysis of interview data suggests that knowledge structures and belief systems ‘‘are not composed of independent elements, but [are] rather structured, with certain aspects implying or presupposing others (p. 200). Woods proposes a model to signify the evolving system of beliefs, assumptions and knowledge (BAK) that recursively informs or is informed by the context of teaching: the BAK was part of the perceiving and organizing of the decisions. Woods has demonstrated that language teachers create and maintain background networks of beliefs, assumptions and knowledge which constitute a valid theory of teaching and learning. These background theoretical networks are grounded in every level of routine classroom practice in much the same way that educational theory is grounded in the systematic collection of empirical data. This construct (BAK) is supported by MacDonaldo, Badger and White (2001). They also suggest that while there is some support for a categorical di stinction between theory and practice in language education, it is suggested that the beliefs, assumptions and knowledge of teachers are in fact inextricably bound up with what goes on in the classroom. 2.3 Research on the Relationship between Teachers Beliefs, Instructional decisions, and Practices Beliefs are manifested in teaching practices because teachers instruction tends to reflect their beliefs. Pajares (1992) and Richardson (1996) investigated the relationship between teachers beliefs and their teaching practices, concluding that teachers beliefs were reflected in their actions, decisions and classroom practices. Kagan (1992a) also supported Pajares and Richardsons claim that teachers beliefs served as a vital role in influencing the nature of the instruction. In her study, Johnson (1992) examined the relationship between ESL teachers defined, theoretical beliefs about second language learning as well as teaching and instructional practices during literacy instruction for non-native speakers of English. Three tasks, such as an ideal instructional protocol, a lesson plan analysis, and a beliefs inventory were used to determine how much ESL teachers beliefs were reflected in skill-based, rule-based, and function-based orientations. The findings in Johnsons study showed that ESL teachers defined beliefs were congruent with their theoretical orientations, and teachers with different theoretical orientations gave quite different instruction for ESL students. Therefore, her study concluded that overall, teachers had different teaching approaches, selections of teaching materials, and images of teachers and students according to their beliefs about learning and teaching. For example, a teacher whose dominant theoretical orientation was function-b ased focused generally on comprehending the main idea, following a pattern of pre-reading as well as post-reading questions, and discussion as usual reading activities in her instruction. In addition, Smiths (1996) study explored the relationship between nine experienced ESL teachers beliefs and their decision-making in classroom practices. The result of her study showed that teachers articulated theoretical beliefs were consistent with their instructional planning and decisions. For example, those teachers who believed in communication of meaning as a primary goal in learning a language designed and implemented tasks which promoted student-interaction and meaningful communication, such as small-group or pair activities. Golombek (1998) examined how two in-service ESL teachers personal practical knowledge informed their practice through a description of a tension each teacher faced in the classroom. The teachers personal practical knowledge informed their practice by serving as a kind of interpretive framework through which they made sense of their classrooms as they recounted their experiences and made this knowledge explicit. The results of this study suggested that L2 teacher educators should recognize that L2 teachers personal practical knowledge is embodied in individuals. For this reason, personal practical knowledge is important to acknowledge in L2 teacher education practice and research. Similarly, in his article Borg (2001a) presents two cases which illustrate the extent to which teachers perceptions of their knowledge about grammar emerged as one of the factors which influences teachers instructional decisions in teaching grammar. The two case studies suggested clearly that teachers self-perceptions of their knowledge about grammar had an impact on their work. Two conclusions emergi Beliefs, Assumptions, Knowledge (BAK) Research in Teaching Beliefs, Assumptions, Knowledge (BAK) Research in Teaching 2.1 Belief Research In the mid-1970s a new body of research began to emerge that worked to describe teachers thoughts, judgments and decisions as the cognitive processes that shaped their behaviors (Calderhead, 1996, Clark and Peterson, 1986; Dann, 1990). As a consequence of this, a surge of interest in the area of teacher belief systems has appeared (Pajares, 1992). This research â€Å"has helped to identify the nature and complexity of the teachers work , and helped to provide ways of thinking about the processes of change and support† (Calderhead, 1996, p.721). Researchers found that teaching could not be characterized simply as behaviors that were linked to thinking done before and during the activity but rather that the thought process of teaching included a much wider and richer mental context. As Shavelson and Stern (1981, p.479) explained, research on teacher cognition made â€Å"the basic assumption that teachers thoughts, judgments, and decisions guide their teaching behavior†. Kagan (1990, p. 420) noted that teacher cognition is somewhat ambiguous, because researchers invoke the term to refer to different products, including â€Å"teachers interactive thoughts during instruction; thought during lesson planning, implicit beliefs about students, classrooms and learning; reflections about their own teaching performance; automized routines and activities that form their instructional repertoire; and self-awareness of procedures they use to solve classrooms problems†. Currently, there is increasing recognition that the beliefs individuals hold are the best indicators of the decisions they make during the course of everyday life (Bandura, 1986). Pajares (1992, p. 307) argues that the investigation of teachers beliefs should be a focus of educational research and can inform educational practice in ways that prevailing research agendas have not and cannot. Educational researchers trying to understand the nature of teaching and learning in classrooms have usefully exploited this focus on belief systems. The research of Jakubowski and Tobin (1991) suggests that teachers metaphors and beliefs not only influence what teachers do in the classroom, but that changes in these same metaphors and beliefs can result in changes in their practices. A belief can be defined as a representation of the information someone holds about an object, or a â€Å"persons understanding of himself and his environment† (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975, p.131). This object can â€Å"be a person, a group of people, an institution, a behavior, a policy, an event, etc., and the associated attribute may be any object, trait, property, quality, characteristic, outcome, or event† (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975, p.12). While Rokeach (1972) defined a belief as â€Å"any simple proposition, conscious or unconscious, inferred from what a person says or does, capable of being preceded by the phrase ‘I believe that† (p.113), Fishbein and Ajzen (1975) defined a belief system as a hierarchy of beliefs according to the strength about a particular object. Researchers exploring teachers beliefs at the primary and secondary levels have used a number of definitions: â€Å"the highly personal ways in which a teacher understands classrooms, students, the nature of learning, the teachers role in the classroom, and the goals of education† (Kagan, 1990, p. 423); â€Å"psychologically held understandings, premises or propositions about the world that are felt to be true† (Richardson, 1996, p.103); and â€Å"generally refer to suppositions, commitments and ideologies† (Calderhead, 1996, p.715). Beliefs play an important role in many aspects of teaching as well as in life. They are involved in helping individuals make sense of the world, influencing how new information is perceived, and whether it is accepted or rejected. Teachers beliefs are a term usually used to refer to pedagogic beliefs or those beliefs of relevance to an individuals teaching (Borg 2001b). Teacher beliefs have been identified by Kagan (1992a) as tacit, often unconsciously held assumptions about students, about classrooms, and the academic material to be taught. The literature on teacher knowledge and beliefs from the primary and secondary levels has developed a number of terminological differences. Kagan (1990, p.456) highlighted this problem by noting: â€Å"Terms such as teacher cognition, self-reflection, knowledge and belief can be used to refer to different phenomena. Variation in the definition of a term can range from the superficial and idiosyncratic to the profound and theoretical†. The use of these varying terms makes it difficult to investigate in this area of teacher cognition. Pajares (1992) addressed this difficulty: Defining beliefs is at best a game of players choice. They travel in disguise and often under alias-attitudes, values judgments, axioms, opinions, ideology, perceptions, conceptual systems, preconceptions, dispositions, implicit theories, explicit theories, personal theories, internal mental processes, action strategies, rules of practice, practical principals, perspectives, repertories of understanding, and social strategy, to name but a few that can be found in the literature. (p.309) Defining beliefs is not a very easy task. There is a â€Å"bewildering array of terms† as Clandinin and Connelly (1987, p. 487) put forward including teachers teaching criteria, principles of practice, personal construct/theories/epistemologies, beliefs, perspectives, teachers conceptions, personal knowledge, and practical knowledge. 2.1.1 Belief Research in English Language Teaching The concept of belief, which has been a common feature of research papers in education for the past decade, has recently come into favor in ELT. In the field, various terms have been used to refer to the term ‘belief: pedagogical thoughts (Shavelson and Stern 1981), perspective (Zeichner, Tabachnick, Densmore, 1987), theoretical orientation (Kinzer, 1988), image (Calderhead, 1996), theoretical belief (Kinzer, 1988; Johnson, 1992; Smith 1996). Terms used in language teacher cognition research include theories for practice (Burns, 1996) which refer to the thinking and beliefs which are brought to bear on classroom processes; philosophical orientation and personal pedagogical system (Borg, 1998) which corresponds with stores of beliefs, knowledge, theories, assumptions and attitudes which shape teachers instructional decisions; maxims (Richards, 1996) to comprise personal working principles which reflect teachers individual philosophies of teaching; images (Johnson, 1994) which means general metaphors for thinking about teaching that represent beliefs about teaching and also act as models of action; conceptions of practice (Freeman, 1993) to cover ideas and actions teachers use to organize what they know and to map out what is possible; BAK (Woods, 1996) which includes the concepts beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge, In all those studies the core term on which there is focus is â€Å"belief†. Despite the popularity of the term, there is no consensus on meaning yet. The definition set forth by Rokeach (1968) claims that a belief is any simple proposition, conscious or unconscious, inferred from what a person says or does and knowledge is a component of belief. Rokeach uses the term ‘attitude to refer to the beliefs teachers have about constructs. Richards and Lockhart (1996, p.30) state that â€Å"teachers beliefs systems are founded on the goals and values that teachers hold in relation to the content and process of teaching, and their understanding of the systems in which they work and their roles within it†. These beliefs and values serve as the background to much of teachers decision making action and hence constitute what has been termed the â€Å"culture of teaching†. Richards and Lockhart (1996) summarize those teachers beliefs systems, which are derived from a number of different sources. They are, a) their own experience as language learners, b) their experience of what works best for their learners, c) established practice, d) personality factors, e) educational based or research-based principles, f) principles derived from an approach or method (pp.30-31). Borg (2001b) discusses three aspects of the term belief: The truth element-drawing on research in the philosophy of knowledge, a belief is a mental state which has as its content a proposition that is accepted as true by the individual holding it, although the individual may recognize that alternative beliefs may be held by others. This is one of the key differences between belief and knowledge must actually be true in some external sense. The relationship between belief and behavior most definitions of belief propose that beliefs dispose or guide peoples thinking and action. Conscious versus unconscious beliefs on this point there is disagreement, with some maintaining that consciousness is inherent in the definition of belief, and others allowing for an individual to be conscious of some beliefs and unconscious of others. The field of language teaching has been one of tradition and transition since its beginning hundreds, indeed, by some accounts, thousands of years ago (Kelly, 1969; Howatt, 1984; Richards and Rodgers, 1986). Even though a much newer pursuit than the teaching of languages such as Greek and Latin or Chinese, the teaching of the English language has already been through many transitions in methodology. What are now considered traditional methods were once the innovations of their time, characterized by the attitudes and values of their creators, who recommended that other educators abandon one method and choose another, with unquestioning optimism, as though this latter method were the solution to their classroom concerns (Clarke, 1982). In the past 50 years alone, English language teaching has gone through a whirlwind of transitions in its methodology, from grammar translation to direct method, to audiolingualism, to cognitive code, and a host of variations in each. In recent years, the most substantive transition in English language teaching has taken place through a collection of practices, materials, and beliefs about teaching and learning that are known by many different names, e.g. communicative methodology, communicative language teaching, and the communicative approach (Richards and Rodgers, 1986). Contemporarily, English teaching methodology is going through yet another transition. This transition, frequently referred to as the `post method condition (Kumaravadivelu, 2001), Research in the area of teacher thinking has grown rapidly particularly since the 1980s, with the consequence that the literature is vast and is often focused on very specific aspects of teaching. Nevertheless, the research concerned with teachers implicit theories of teaching and learning, particularly concerned with epistemological and pedagogical beliefs is of considerable relevance to research in language teaching (Kagan, 1992a; Pajares 1992). The reasons are: first, educational beliefs have shown to influence teaching practice (Kagan 1992a) and learning outcomes. Second, methods used to investigate relationship between beliefs and/or conceptions and teaching practice and the ways of analyzing data, are of interest. By the mid 1980s, a rising view of teaching began to highlight the complex ways in which teachers think about their work as being shaped by their prior experiences as students, their ‘personal practical knowledge (Golombek, 1998). More recently the notion of work context has been recognized as central in shaping teachers â€Å"conceptions of their practices† (Freeman, 1993). Language teaching is defined as a dynamic process, which arises out of the meeting and interaction of different sets of principles: different rationalities. In this sense, a rationality is the inner logic which shapes the way in which participants perceive a situation and the goals which they will pursue in this situation (Tudor, 1998). Tudor proposes that to understand language teaching, a first step is to explore the different rationalities which are present in each situation in order to discover the reality the participants involved in. There are four different types of rationalities: those of the students and teachers, socio-cultural rationalities and then the rationality of methodology. While describing teacher rationalities, Tudor (1998) argues that research into subjective needs has led us to appreciate the uniqueness of each learners interaction with their language study. More recently something similar about the teachers has been realized. They, too will perceive and interact with methodology they are implementing in the light of their personality, attitudes, and life experience and the set of perceptions and goals which these give rise to. For this reason there is a need to listen to the teachers voices in understanding classroom practice. There is a need to understand teachers perceptions and the way in which these perceptions influence teachers classroom behaviors. The maxims (Richards, 1996) or the pedagogic principles (Breen et al.2001) teachers use are important in understanding their pedagogical actions. The reality of classroom teaching is how the teachers interpret official curricula or the recommended materials. Teachers are not skilled technicians who dutifully realize a given set of teaching procedures in accordance with the directives of a more or less distant authority. They are active participants in the creation of classroom realities and they do this on the basis of their own attitudes and beliefs, and their personal perceptions of interaction with their teaching situation. All teachers hold beliefs about their work, their students, their subject matter, and their roles and responsibilities. They are individuals with their personal perceptions and goals, which go to shape the rationality which will guide their actions in the classroom and their interaction with the context in which they are operating (Tudor, 1998, p. 324). A major goal of research on teachers thought processes is to increase our understanding of how teachers think and behave in the classroom. The drive for this area of research comes from the assumption that what teachers do is a reflection of what they know and believe, and that teacher knowledge and teacher thinking provide the underlying framework or schema which guides teachers classroom practices (Sutcliffe and Whitfield 1976, Westerman 1991, Flowerdew, Brock Hsia 1992, Kagan 1992a, Richards and Lockhart 1994, Bailey 1996, Woods 1998, Borg 1998, Richards 1998). Therefore, in order to understand teaching, we must understand how thoughts get carried into actions (Clark and Yinger 1977, Shavelson and Stern 1981, Clark and Peterson 1986, Johnson 1992, Nunan 1992). Pajares (1992) reviewed research on teacher beliefs and argued that ‘‘teachers beliefs can and should become an important focus of educational inquiry (p. 307). He then sketched numerous facets of beliefs and acknowledged that a variety of conceptions of educational beliefs appear in the literature. Citing Nespors (1987) influential work, he suggested that ‘‘beliefs are far more influential than knowledge in determining how individuals organize and define tasks and problems and are stronger predictors of behavior (p. 311). Studies on teacher beliefs have slowly gained prominence, especially with regard to teacher change issues. Guskey (1986), for example, examined 52 teachers who participated in teacher development programs and concluded that change in teachers beliefs ‘‘is likely to take place only after changes in student learning outcomes are evidenced (p. 7). In contrast, Richardson, Anders, Tidwell, and Lloyd (1991) found that change in beliefs preceded change in practices. The current view is that relationships between beliefs and practices are interactive and ongoing (Fullan, 1991; Richardson, 1996). Richardson (1996) even states that ‘‘In most current conceptions, the perceived relationship between beliefs and actions is interactive. Beliefs are thought to drive actions; however, experiences and reflection on action may lead to changes in and/or additions to beliefs (p. 104). Pajares (1992) promoted 16 ‘‘fundamental assumptions that may reasonably be made when initiating a study of teachers education beliefs (1992, p. 324). These assumptions include among others, the notions that (a) beliefs are formed early and tend to self perpetuate, persevering even against contradictions caused by reason, time, schooling, or experience; (b) individuals develop a belief system that houses all the beliefs acquired through the process of cultural transmission; (c) beliefs are instrumental in defining tasks and selecting the cognitive tools with which to interpret, plan, and make decisions regarding such tasks; (d) individuals beliefs strongly affect their behavior; and (e) knowledge and beliefs are inextricably intertwined (for complete discussion of all 16 assumptions, see Pajares, 1992, pp. 324-326). 2.2 Teacher Knowledge Research Meanwhile doubts arose also from the scientific community about a conception of professionalism that asked professionals (such as teachers) to just apply the theories and insights provided by others. Schà ¶n (1983, 1987) analyzed the work of various groups of professionals and concluded that they applied a certain amount of theoretical knowledge in their work, but that their behavior was not at all ‘‘rule governed and that they had no straightforward way to determine which behavior was adequate in specific circumstances. Schà ¶n contrasted this principle of ‘‘technical rationality to the principle of ‘‘reflection-in-action, which pertained to the thinking of the professional during professional activity and implied a continuing dialogue with the permanently changing situation. This situation does not present itself as a well-defined problem situation. On the contrary, defining the problem is itself one of the most difficult tasks of the professio nal. This recognition of the centrality of the teacher and the teachers knowledge and beliefs regarding each educational process, including educational innovations, is relatively recent (Calderhead, 1996). Birman, Desimone, Porter, Garet (2000), for example, searched for key features of effective professional development and, based on their research, reported that professional development should focus on deepening teacher knowledge in order to foster teacher learning and changes in practice. Similarly, Hawley and Valli (1999) considered the expansion and elaboration of teachers professional knowledge base as essential for their professional development. In the literature about teacher knowledge, various labels have been used, each indicating a relevant aspect of teacher knowledge. The labels illustrate mainly which aspect is considered the most important by the respective authors. Together, these labels give an overview of the way in which teacher knowledge has been studied to date. The most commonly used labels are ‘‘personal knowledge (Conelly and Clandinin, 1985; Elbaz, 1991), indicating that this knowledge is unique; ‘‘the wisdom of practice (Schwab, 1971), and in more recent publications, ‘‘professional craft knowledge (e.g., Brown and McIntyre, 1993; Shimahara, 1998), referring to a specific component of knowledge that is mainly the product of the teachers practical experience; ‘‘action oriented knowledge, indicating that this knowledge is for immediate use in teaching practice (Carter, 1990); ‘‘content and context related knowledge (Cochran, DeRuiter, King, 1993; Va n Driel, Verloop, De Vos, 1998); knowledge that is to a great extent ‘tacit (Calderhead and Robson, 1991); and knowledge that is based on reflection on experiences (Grimmet and MacKinnon, 1992). It is important to realize that in the label ‘teacher knowledge, the concept ‘knowledge is used as an overarching, inclusive concept, summarizing a large variety of cognitions, from conscious and well-balanced opinions to unconscious and unreflected intuitions. This is related to the fact that, in the mind of the teacher, components of knowledge, beliefs, conceptions, and intuitions are inextricably intertwined. As Alexander, Schallert, and Hare (1991) noted, the term ‘knowledge is mostly used to encompass ‘‘all that a person knows or believes to be true, whether or not it is verified as true in some sort of objective or external way (p. 317). This is particularly relevant with respect to research on teacher knowledge. In investigating teacher knowledge, the main focus of attention is on the complex totality of cognitions, the ways this develops, and the way this interacts with teacher behavior in the classroom. Following Pajares (1992), knowledge and beliefs are seen as inseparable, although beliefs are seen roughly as referring to personal values, attitudes, and ideologies, and knowledge to a teachers more factual propositions (Meijer, Verloop, Beijaard, 2001). 2.2.1 Teachers Knowledge and Beliefs About Teaching In his extensive review of the literature, Calderhead (1996) found that many different kinds of knowledge have been described as underpinning effective teaching. The main forms are those related to the subject being taught, to teaching methods, and to the ways in which students develop and learn. The extent to which teachers have conscious access to this knowledge is, however, far from clear. Some researchers argue that much of this knowledge is implicit or tacit, derived from experience rather than from any conceptual framework. The research concerned with teachers implicit theories of teaching and learning, particularly work concerned with epistemological and pedagogical beliefs, which reflect their experiences, is of considerable relevance to research in language teaching (Kagan, 1992a; Pajares 1992). First, educational beliefs have shown to influence teaching practice (Kagan 1992a) and learning outcomes. Second, methods used to investigate relationship between beliefs and/or conceptions and teaching practice and the ways of analyzing data, are of interest. Pajares (1992) attempts to clarify the confusion with the distinction between knowledge and belief. However, as many researchers have found, it is not so much that knowledge differs from beliefs, but that beliefs themselves constitute a form of knowledge. In his attempts to characterize beliefs, Nespor (1987) provides some distinctions between beliefs and knowledge. He singles out four features of the construct previously identified by Abelson (1979) and considers them in relation to teachers: Existential presumptions or personal truths are generally unaffected by persuasion and are perceived by the teacher as being beyond his/her control or influence. Alternativity is a feature of beliefs that would include situations such as when teachers attempt to establish an instructional format of which they have no direct experience but which they might consider ideal. Belief systems can be said to rely much more heavily on affective and evaluative components than knowledge systems. Teachers values and feelings often affect what and how they teach and may conflict with their knowledge. Belief systems are composed mainly of episodically stored material which is derived from personal experience, episodes or events which continue to influence the comprehension of events at a later time. Whereas beliefs reside in episodic memory, knowledge is semantically stored. A further distinction between beliefs and knowledge, notes Nespor (1987, p.313), is that, while knowledge often changes, beliefs are static. As well, whereas knowledge can be evaluated or judged, such is not the case with beliefs as there is usually a lack of consensus about how they are to be evaluated. Furthermore, there do not appear to be any clear rules for determining the relevance of beliefs to real world events. While there is no doubt other distinctions can be made between the two constructs, a better understanding may be gained by exploring the relationship between the two and by considering beliefs as a form of knowledge. This form of knowledge could be referred to as personal knowledge. Kagan (1992a) refers to beliefs as a particularly provocative form of personal knowledge and argues that most of a teachers professional knowledge can be regarded more accurately as belief. According to Kagan, this knowledge grows richer and more coherent as a teachers experience in classrooms grows and thus forms a highly personalized pedagogy or belief system that actually constrains the teachers perception, judgment, and behavior. In terms of beliefs being personal knowledge, Kagan explains: A teachers knowledge of his or her profession is situated in three important ways: in context (it is related to specific groups of students), in content (it is related to particular academic material to be taught), and in person (it is embedded within the teachers unique belief system) (p.74). Like Clark (1988) who equates ‘implicit theories with beliefs, Nespor (1987) explains how beliefs become personal pedagogies or theories to guide teachers practices: Teachers beliefs play a major role in defining teaching tasks and organizing the knowledge and information relevant to those tasks. But why should this be so? Why wouldnt research-based knowledge or academic theory serve this purpose just as well? The answer suggested here is that the contexts and environments within which teachers work, and many of the problems they encounter, are ill-defined and deeply entangled, and that beliefs are peculiarly suited for making sense of such contexts. (p.324) Munby (1982) also equates implicit theories with teachers beliefs. Clark and Peterson (1986) in their review of the literature on teachers thought processes, argue that teachers theories and beliefs represent a rich store of knowledge. Teachers make sense of their complex world and respond to it by forming a complex system of personal and professional knowledge and theories which, as Kagan (1992a) describes, are often tacit and unconsciously held assumptions about students, classrooms and the material to be taught. 2.2.1.1 Beliefs, Assumptions, Knowledge Throughout this study the term BAK is used as an inclusive term to refer to beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge. Therefore, the following section describes the rationale behind using this term. In the discussion so far, approaches which divide aspects of teacher cognition were examined in separate categories. A more recent strand of research, however, challenges the categorical distinctions outlined above. Woods (1996) suggests that these dichotomies do not accurately reflect the relationship between Teachers beliefs, assumptions and knowledge and their practices in the classroom. In order to take appropriate action, people need to understand; and to understand they need knowledge about the world and specifically about the situation they are in (Woods, 1996, p. 59). Woods (1996) develops a multidimensional cycle of planning and decision making within teaching. He describes three phases of assessment, planning and implementation which operate recursively to inform different hierarchical levels of the teaching process going from the most local level of discrete events in the lesson plan to the most global level of whole course planning (p. 139). Woodss analysis of interview data suggests that knowledge structures and belief systems ‘‘are not composed of independent elements, but [are] rather structured, with certain aspects implying or presupposing others (p. 200). Woods proposes a model to signify the evolving system of beliefs, assumptions and knowledge (BAK) that recursively informs or is informed by the context of teaching: the BAK was part of the perceiving and organizing of the decisions. Woods has demonstrated that language teachers create and maintain background networks of beliefs, assumptions and knowledge which constitute a valid theory of teaching and learning. These background theoretical networks are grounded in every level of routine classroom practice in much the same way that educational theory is grounded in the systematic collection of empirical data. This construct (BAK) is supported by MacDonaldo, Badger and White (2001). They also suggest that while there is some support for a categorical di stinction between theory and practice in language education, it is suggested that the beliefs, assumptions and knowledge of teachers are in fact inextricably bound up with what goes on in the classroom. 2.3 Research on the Relationship between Teachers Beliefs, Instructional decisions, and Practices Beliefs are manifested in teaching practices because teachers instruction tends to reflect their beliefs. Pajares (1992) and Richardson (1996) investigated the relationship between teachers beliefs and their teaching practices, concluding that teachers beliefs were reflected in their actions, decisions and classroom practices. Kagan (1992a) also supported Pajares and Richardsons claim that teachers beliefs served as a vital role in influencing the nature of the instruction. In her study, Johnson (1992) examined the relationship between ESL teachers defined, theoretical beliefs about second language learning as well as teaching and instructional practices during literacy instruction for non-native speakers of English. Three tasks, such as an ideal instructional protocol, a lesson plan analysis, and a beliefs inventory were used to determine how much ESL teachers beliefs were reflected in skill-based, rule-based, and function-based orientations. The findings in Johnsons study showed that ESL teachers defined beliefs were congruent with their theoretical orientations, and teachers with different theoretical orientations gave quite different instruction for ESL students. Therefore, her study concluded that overall, teachers had different teaching approaches, selections of teaching materials, and images of teachers and students according to their beliefs about learning and teaching. For example, a teacher whose dominant theoretical orientation was function-b ased focused generally on comprehending the main idea, following a pattern of pre-reading as well as post-reading questions, and discussion as usual reading activities in her instruction. In addition, Smiths (1996) study explored the relationship between nine experienced ESL teachers beliefs and their decision-making in classroom practices. The result of her study showed that teachers articulated theoretical beliefs were consistent with their instructional planning and decisions. For example, those teachers who believed in communication of meaning as a primary goal in learning a language designed and implemented tasks which promoted student-interaction and meaningful communication, such as small-group or pair activities. Golombek (1998) examined how two in-service ESL teachers personal practical knowledge informed their practice through a description of a tension each teacher faced in the classroom. The teachers personal practical knowledge informed their practice by serving as a kind of interpretive framework through which they made sense of their classrooms as they recounted their experiences and made this knowledge explicit. The results of this study suggested that L2 teacher educators should recognize that L2 teachers personal practical knowledge is embodied in individuals. For this reason, personal practical knowledge is important to acknowledge in L2 teacher education practice and research. Similarly, in his article Borg (2001a) presents two cases which illustrate the extent to which teachers perceptions of their knowledge about grammar emerged as one of the factors which influences teachers instructional decisions in teaching grammar. The two case studies suggested clearly that teachers self-perceptions of their knowledge about grammar had an impact on their work. Two conclusions emergi

The Nature of Evil in Shakespeares Macbeth Essay -- GCSE English Lite

Macbeth:   The Nature Of Evil   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In Macbeth, the character of Macbeth has a. firm and correct grasp of self-knowledge, and a well developed concept of the universe and his place in it. He willfully disregards his own moral thoughts and institutions. According to Bernard McElroy, "more than any other Shakespearean hero, he [Macbeth] has a perfectly clear concept of who he is and where he stands --- and it is exactly this perception that torments and spiritually destroys him"(330). Macbeth is strongly impelled to evil but he also abhors evil. It is this that causes Macbeth to abhor himself. The play explores the tensions between Macbeth's proneness to evil and his abhorrence to evil. Macbeth is a tragic hero because he becomes caught in tensions between his criminal actions and the reaction of his conscience. Had Macbeth committed the deeds without any remorse, he would have been simply an evil monster, without any hope. But it is his conscience about evil that makes him tragic. Through Ma cbeth's actions, Shakespeare is able to depict the nature of evil as being: lusftul, deceptive, tyrannical, and disruptive to family. To begin, Macbeth himself stands as a symbol for Satan's sin of ambition. Like Satan, Macbeth's insatiable lust for power and ambition drives him to commit evil. Although Macbeth's ambitiousness is not in itself evil: "His very strong social sense, worldly but valuable, together with that gift of imaginative expression whereby he far outshines all the others, makes him naturally and rightly desirous of winning `Golden Opinions from all sorts of people' [I.vii.33]" (Elliot, 288). However, Shakespeare asserts that Macbeth knows his place in nature, and is overly ambitious according to Calvinist doctrine ... ...d devoured by it. Works Cited Bethell, S.L. "Shakespeare's Imagery: The Diabolic Images in Othello" in Shakespeare Survey: Volume 5. Edited by Allardyce Nicoll (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1952) Elliot, G.R. "Introduction: On `Macbeth' as Apex of Shakspearean Tragedy" in Shakespearean Criticism, Volume 3. Edited by Laurie Harris (Gale: 1984) McElroy, Bernard, "`Macbeth': The torture of the Mind" in Shakespearean Criticism, Volume 3. Edited by Laurie Harris (Gale:1984) Ribner, Irving. "Macbeth: The Pattern of Idea and Action," in Shakespearean Criticism, Volume 3. Edited by Laurie Harris (Gale:1984) Shakespeare, William. Othello. Edited by Norman Sanders. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984) ----, Macbeth, World Literary Heritage, Volume 1.0 (California: Softbit, Inc. MS- DOS / MS - Windows 3.1, CD ROM)      

We Must Provide Subsidized Healthcare for Illegal Immigrants Essay

The topic of undocumented immigrants is heavily debated across the United States. Furthermore, the concept of these undocumented immigrants receiving subsidized healthcare is an even more highly controversial matter. The conflicting sides are significantly divided even though the United States of America was founded upon the notion of freedom and the melting pot ideology. This paper will examine the dilemma of undocumented immigrants and access to subsidized healthcare; yield a few attainable solutions in addition to some recommendations for the future on how this issue may be solved. Immigration has been around in the United States of America since the colonial times. Along with those immigrants come many other issues, including healthcare. Many of the millions of immigrants presently in the United States are without insurance. This paper will discuss how important it is for us as Americans to provide those who are uninsured and here illegally with some form of subsidized care. Additionally, this article will inform readers on reasons why this should derive from an ethical stand point and due to the associated health risk that can come about for those who are here legally. The multiplying constituency base includes healthcare providers, consumers, and buyers. There is a great importance to these individuals regarding the assurance of a more equitable and accountable system of healthcare (Kaiser Family Foundation). The terms â€Å"illegal immigration† and â€Å"undocumented immigration† are often used in an interchangeable manner. â€Å"Illegal immigration is the movement of a person from his native country to foreign country, with an intent to find a lively hood and settle down without the permission of the government. Il... ...2690> ProCon.org. Is Illegal Immigration an Economic Burden to America?, August 11, 2009. Web. 20 March 2015. Smith, J. â€Å"Screen, Stabilize, and Ship: EMTALA, U.S. Hospitals, and Undocumented Immigrants.† Houston Journal of Health and Law Policy 10, 2010: 309-358. Web. 20 March 2015. The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Race, Ethnicity, and Health Care Issue Brief: Policy Challenges and Opportunities in Closing the Racial/Ethnic Divide in Health Care, March 2005. Web. 11 March 2015. Theadvocatesforhumanrights.org The Facts: Undocumented Immigrants. The Advocates for Human Rights, 2006. Web. 11 March 2015.