The Effectiveness Of Subliminal Mind Messaging

The Effectiveness Of Subliminal Mind Messaging Subliminal stimuli, contrary to supraliminal stimuli or above threshold, are any sensory stimuli below an individuals absolute threshold for conscious perception. Visual stimuli may be quickly flashed before an individual may process them, or flashed and then masked, thereby interrupting the processing. Audio stimuli may be played below audible volumes, similarly masked by other stimuli, or recorded backwards in a process called backmasking. Introduced in 1897, the concept became controversial as subliminal messages in 1957 when marketing practitioners claimed its potential use in persuasion. Subsequent scientific research, however, has been unable to replicate most of these marketing claims beyond a mere placebo effect. Used in advertising to create familiarity with new products, subliminal messages make familiarity into a preference for the new products. Johan Karremans suggests that subliminal messages have an effect when the messages are goal-relevant. Karremans did a study assessing whether subliminal priming of a brand name of a drink would affect a persons choice of drink, and whether this effect is caused by the individuals feelings of being thirsty. His study sought to ascertain whether or not subliminally priming or preparing the participant with text or an image without being aware of it would make the partaker more familiar with the product. Half of his participants were subliminally primed with Lipton Ice (Lipton Ice was repeatedly flashed on a computer screen for 24 milliseconds), while the other half was primed with a control that did not consist of a brand. In his study he found that subliminally priming a brand name of a drink (Lipton Ice) made those who were thirsty want the Lipton Ice. Those who were not thirsty, however, were not influenced by the subliminal message since their goal was not to quench their thirst. Subconscious stimuli by single words are well known to be modestly effective in changing human behaviour or emotions. This is evident by a pictorial advertisement that portrays four different types of rum. The phrase U Buy was embedded somewhere, backwards in the picture. A study was done to test the effectiveness of the alcohol ad. Before the study, participants were able to try to identify any hidden message in the ad, none found any. In the end, the study showed 80% of the subjects unconsciously perceived the backward message, meaning they showed a preference for that particular rum. Though many things can be perceived from subliminal messages, only a few words or a single image of unconscious signals can be internalized. As only a word or image can be effectively perceived, the simpler features of that image or word will cause a change in behaviour (i.e., beef is related to hunger). This was demonstrated by Byrne in 1959. The word beef was flashed for several, five millisecond intervals during a sixteen-minute movie to experimental subjects, while nothing was flashed to control subjects. Neither the experimental nor control subjects reported for a higher preference for beef sandwiches when given a list of five different foods, but the experimental subjects did rate themselves as hungrier than the control subjects when given a survey. If the subjects were flashed a whole sentence, the words would not be perceived and no effect would be expected. In 1983, five studies with 52 undergraduate and graduate students, found that although subliminally flashing and masking the words affects the availability of conscious processing, it however has little effect on visual processing itself. This suggests that perceptual processing is an unconscious activity that proceeds to all levels of available and redescription analysis. For example if flashed the word butter the individual would be quicker to identify the word bread than an unrelated word such as bottle. In 1991, Baldwin and others in two studies questioned whether priming individuals with images flashed for an instant may affect experiences of self. In the first study, images were flashed of the scowling face of their faculty adviser or an approving face of another before graduate students evaluated their own research ideas. In the second study, participants who were Catholic were asked to evaluate themselves after being flashed a disapproving face of the Pope or another unfamiliar face. In both studies the self-ratings were lower after the presentation of a disapproving face with personal significance, however in the second study there was no effect if the disapproving face were unfamiliar. In 1992, Krosnick and others, in two studies with 162 undergraduates, demonstrated that attitudes can develop without being aware of its antecedents. Individuals viewed nine slides of people performing familiar daily activities after being exposed to either an emotionally positive scene, such as a romantic couple or kittens, or an emotionally negative scene, such as a werewolf or a dead body between each slide. After exposure from which the individuals consciously perceived as a flash of light, the participants gave more positive personality traits to those people whose slides were associated with a emotionally positive scene and vice-versa. Despite the statistical difference, the subliminal messages had less of an impact on judgment than the slides inherent level of physical attractiveness. In order to determine whether these images affect an individuals evaluation of novel stimuli, a study was conducted in 1993 which produced in similar results. In 1998, Bar and Biederman questioned whether an image flashed briefly would prime an individuals response. An image was flashed for 47 milliseconds and then a mask would interrupt the processing. Following the first presentation only one in seven individuals could identify the image, while after the second presentation, fifteen to twenty minutes later, one in three could identify the image. Backmasking is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. During the 1970s, media reports raised a series of concerns of its impact on listeners, stating that satanic messages were calling its listeners to commit suicide, murder, abuse drugs, or engage in sex-which were all rising at the time. In a series of scientific studies, individuals listening to messages played backwards with no accompanying music could discern: the gender of the speaker; whether the message was in English, French, or German; whether the sentence was declarative or a question; and occasionally a word or meaning of a sentence. However when comparing sentence pairs, individuals were more likely to be incorrect than if their response were by pure chance: if the message were spoken by different speakers; whether two sentences were semantically related; and label beyond pure chance whether a message was positive or negative in nature-suggesting that individual expectations influenced their response. Across a variety of tasks, the studies were unable to find evidence that such messages affected an individuals behaviour, and reasoned that if the individual could not discern the meaning of the message, then the presence of these messages would be more likely due to the listeners expectations than the existe nce of these messages in them. Effectiveness The effectiveness of subliminal messaging has been demonstrated to prime individual responses and stimulate mild emotional activity. Applications, however, often base themselves on the persuasiveness of the message. The near-consensus among research psychologists is that subliminal messages do not produce a powerful, enduring effect on behaviour; and that laboratory research reveals little effect beyond a subtle, fleeting effect on thinking. For example, priming thirsty people with a subliminal word may, for a brief period of time, make a thirst-quenching beverage advertisement more persuasive. Research upon those claims of lasting effects-such as weight loss, smoking cessation, how music in popular culture may corrupt their listeners, how it may facilitate unconscious wishes in psychotherapy, and how market practitioners may exploit their customers-conclude that there is no effect beyond a placebo. In a 1994 study comparing television commercials with the message either supraliminal or subliminal, individuals produced higher ratings with those that were supraliminal. Unexpectedly, individuals somehow were less likely to remember the subliminal message than if there were no message. Origins The director of Yale Psychology laboratory PhD E. W. Scripture published The New Psychology in 1897 (The Walter Scott Ltd, London), which described the basic principles of subliminal messages. In 1900, Knight Dunlap, an American professor of psychology, flashed an imperceptible shadow to subjects while showing them a Mà ¼ller-Lyer illusion containing two lines with pointed arrows at both ends which create an illusion of different lengths. Dunlap claimed that the shadow influenced his subjects subliminally in their judgment of the lengths of the lines. Although these results were not verified in a scientific study, American psychologist Harry Levi Hollingworth reported in an advertising textbook that such subliminal messages could be used by advertisers. During World War II, the tachistoscope, an instrument which projects pictures for an extremely brief period, was used to train soldiers to recognize enemy airplanes. Today the tachistoscope is used to increase reading speed or to test sight. 1950-1970 In 1957, market researcher James Vicary claimed that quickly flashing messages on a movie screen, in Fort Lee, New Jersey, had influenced people to purchase more food and drinks. Vicary coined the term subliminal advertising and formed the Subliminal Projection Company based on a six-week test. Vicary claimed that during the presentation of the movie Picnic he used a tachistoscope to project the words Drink Coca-Cola and Hungry? Eat popcorn for 1/3000 of a second at five-second intervals. Vicary asserted that during the test, sales of popcorn and Coke in that New Jersey theater increased 57.8% and 18.1% respectively. However, in 1962 Vicary admitted to lying about the experiment and falsifying the results, the story itself being a marketing ploy. An identical experiment conducted by Dr. Henry Link showed no increase in cola or popcorn sales. A trip to Fort Lee, where the first experiment was alleged to have taken place, would have shown straight away that the small cinema there couldnt possibly have had 45,699 visitors through its doors in the space of 6 weeks. This has led people to believe that Vicary actually did not conduct his experiment at all. However, before Vicarys confession, his claims were promoted in Vance Packards book The Hidden Persuaders, and led to a public out-cry, and too many conspiracy theories of governments and cults using the technique to their advantage. The practice of subliminal advertising was subsequently banned in the United Kingdom and Australia and by American networks and the National Association of Broadcasters in 1958. But in 1958, Vicary conducted a television test in which he flashed the message telephone now hundreds of times during a Canadian Broadcasting Corporation program, and found no noticeable increase in telephone calls. 1970-2000 In 1973, commercials in the United States and Canada for the game HÃ…Â «sker DÃ…Â «? flashed the message Get it. During the same year, Wilson Bryan Keys book Subliminal Seduction claimed that subliminal techniques were widely used in advertising. Public concern was sufficient to cause the FCC to hold hearings in 1974. The hearings resulted in an FCC policy statement stating that subliminal advertising was contrary to the public interest and intended to be deceptive. Subliminal advertising was also banned in Canada following the broadcasting of HÃ…Â «sker DÃ…Â «? ads there. The December 16, 1973 episode of Columbo titled Double Exposure, is based on subliminal messaging: it is used by the murderer, Dr. Bart Keppler, a motivational research specialist, played by Robert Culp, to lure his victim out of his seat during the viewing of a promotional film and by Lt. Columbo to bring Keppler back to the crime scene and incriminate him. Lt. Columbo is shown how subliminal cuts work in a scene mirroring James Vicarys experiment. In 1978, Wichita, Kansas TV station KAKE-TV received special permission from the police to place a subliminal message in a report on the BTK Killer (Bind, Torture, Kill) in an effort to get him to turn himself in. The subliminal message included the text Now call the chief, as well as a pair of glasses. The glasses were included because when BTK murdered Nancy Fox, there was a pair of glasses lying upside down on her dresser; police felt that seeing the glasses might stir up remorse in the killer. The attempt was unsuccessful, and police reported no increased volume of calls afterward. A study conducted by the United Nations concluded that the cultural implications of subliminal indoctrination are a major threat to human rights throughout the world. Campaigners have suggested subliminal messages appear in music. In 1985, two young men, James Vance and Raymond Belknap, attempted suicide. At the time of the shootings, Belknap died instantly. Vance was severely injured and survived. Their families were convinced it was because of a British rock band, Judas Priest. The families claimed subliminal messages told listeners to do it in the song Better by You, Better than Me. The case was taken to court and the families sought more than US$6 million in damages. The judge, Jerry Carr Whitehead said that freedom of speech protections would not apply to subliminal messages. He said he was not convinced the hidden messages actually existed on the album, but left the argument to attorneys. The suit was eventually dismissed. In turn, he ruled it probably would not have been perceived without the power of suggestion or the young men would not have done it unless they really intended to. In 1985, Dr. Joe Stuessy testified to the United States Senate at the Parents Music Resource Center hearings that: The message of a piece of heavy metal music may also be covert or subliminal. Sometimes subaudible tracks are mixed in underneath other, louder tracks. These are heard by the subconscious but not the conscious mind. Sometimes the messages are audible but are backwards, called backmasking. There is disagreement among experts regarding the effectiveness of subliminals. We need more research on that Stuessys written testimony stated that: Some messages are presented to the listener backwards. While listening to a normal forward message (usually nonsensical), one is simultaneously being treated to a back-wards message. Some experts believe that while the conscious mind is trying to absorb the forward lyric, the subconscious is working overtime to decipher the backwards message. A few months after Judas Priests acquittal, Michael Waller, the son of a Georgia minister, shot himself in the head while supposedly listening to Ozzy Osbournes song Suicide Solution (despite the fact that the song Suicide Solution was not on the record [Ozzy Osbournes Speak Of The Devil] found playing in his room when his suicide was discovered). His parents claimed that subliminal messages may have influenced his actions. The judge in that trial granted the summary judgment because the plaintiffs could not show that there was any subliminal material on the record. He noted, however, that if the plaintiffs had shown that subliminal content was present, the messages would not have received protection under the First Amendment because subliminal messages are, in principle, false, misleading or extremely limited in their social value (Waller v. Osbourne 1991). Justice Whiteheads ruling in the Judas Priest trial was cited to support his position. 2000-Present During the 2000 U.S. presidential campaign, a television ad campaigning for Republican candidate George W. Bush showed words (and parts thereof) scaling from the foreground to the background on a television screen. When the word BUREAUCRATS flashed on the screen, one frame showed only the last part, RATS. The FCC looked into the matter, but no penalties were ever assessed in the case. A McDonalds logo appeared for one frame during the Food Networks Iron Chef America series on 2007-01-27, leading to claims that this was an instance of subliminal advertising. The Food Network replied that it was simply a glitch. On November 7, 2007, Network Ten Australias broadcast of the ARIA Awards was called out for using subliminal advertising in an exposà © by the Media Watch program on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). In February 2007, it was discovered that 87 Konami slot machines in Ontario (OLG) casinos displayed a brief winning hand image before the game would begin. Government officials worried that the image subliminally persuaded gamblers to continue gambling; the company claimed that the image was a coding error. The machines were removed pending a fix by Konami. In 2007, to mark the 50th anniversary of James Vicarys original experiment, it was recreated at the International Brand Marketing Conference MARKA 2007. As part of the Hypnosis, subconscious triggers and branding presentation 1,400 delegates watched part of the opening credits of the film Picnic that was used in the original experiment. They were exposed to 30 subliminal cuts over a 90 second period. When asked to choose one of two fictional brands, Delta and Theta, 81% of the delegates picked the brand suggested by the subliminal cuts, Delta. Although, Delta is also a real brand. In 2010, Ferraris Formula One cars sported a barcode design that was criticized for subliminally evoking the logo of sponsor company Marlboro, flouting a ban on tobacco advertising. The design was removed in response. Backmasking Backmasking (also known as backward masking) is a recording technique in which a sound or message is recorded backward onto a track that is meant to be played forward. Backmasking is a deliberate process, whereas a message found through phonetic reversal may be unintentional. Backmasking was popularized by The Beatles, who used backward vocals and instrumentation in recording their 1966 album Revolver. Artists have since used backmasking for artistic, comedic, and satiric effect, on both analog and digital recordings. The technique has also been used to censor words or phrases for clean releases of songs. Backmasking has been a controversial topic in the United States since the 1980s, when allegations from Christian groups of its use for satanic purposes were made against prominent rock musicians, leading to record-burning protests and proposed anti-backmasking legislation by state and federal governments. Whether backmasking can be used subliminally to affect listeners is in debate by both sides Subliminal Advertising Subliminal advertising, as some call it, is primarily a set of techniques that focus and defocus the viewers attention and awareness. Doing this has an impact on what the audience will be able to consciously recall about the ad and what it will remember, but not be able to consciously recall. In magazines, for example, the advertisers main problem is that the typical reader gives a full-page ad only a glance in passing. Less than 3 seconds, typically, the time it takes to slowly turn a page and glance at it as it goes by on the way to the next page. So, in a magazine or newspaper, how can the potential buyers attention be captured and focused, in the absence of what TV depends on: motion, music and natural sound, and a human voice? To do this more efficiently, different levels of attention can be managed within microseconds of each other so that the most conscious level of perception will partially mask, but will not overwhelm low-level awareness at one or more other levels. Subliminal Marketing The use of subliminal marketing is a popular method of enhancing ones life. These messages are hidden in the many form in any music, video or text message. They reach directly the subconscious level of our mind and generally have a positive effect on our attitude, behaviour and thoughts. These subliminal marketing message are many times present in TV ads, movies and in music. They are so well implanted that they are not perceived by conscious mind, but are only received and deciphered by subconscious mind. Subliminal messages have now become a means of using in personal development. With the means of using positive statements to the subconscious mind, people have used it for losing weight, quitting bad habit or improving the overall personality. It gives a positive outlook to the person using it. You can use these subliminal messages to make your wishes and desire obvious. Many times you think of a goal as impossible, but after going through sessions of subliminal messages these goals seem to be quite probable top achieve. It is a powerful tool of your mind that allows you to do things which you consciously never attempted. It removes the mental block from your mind. It makes your brain change the way your subconscious mind wants to do it. It takes time to feel the change come through with the help of this medium, but if done properly you will notice the changes coming in your life. http://www.articlesbase.com/self-improvement-articles/subliminal-marketing-2153211.html#ixzz0vA9MCgFI Studies have shown that every day, each of us is subject to about 10,000 marketing messages, brands, logos and product offers. 10,000? Yes, thats a huge number but when you think about it, its probably close to reality. Lets see for a minute. You wake up and turn off your SONY alarm clock, go to the bathroom and brush your teeth with your BRAUN electric toothbrush and use some COLGATE toothpaste. While youre brushing, you look unconsciously look around you and see your HUGO BOSS cologne, your NIVEA lotion. You turn on your LG TV or your PIONEER radio and hear a commercial for Mossy NISSAN, another commercial for PAPA JOHNS, and another commercial for BANK OF AMERICA. You get a SMS on your APPLE iPhone; its actually a special offer from MCDONALDS because you agreed to receive SMS alerts from them. You make some STARBUCKS coffee in your BODUM French press. Its time to go to work. You grab your keys and walk through the parking lot. You walk by a FORD, a TOYOTA, a BUICK, a KIA, an AUDI (thats mine ;-). You get in, turn on the radio and hear 5 commercials for BUDWEISER, GEICO, BEST BUY, TARGET, and T-MOBILE. You drive off the parking lot and thats when the marketing hammering really starts. You drive by hundreds of different cars (different brands), some of them with stickers for various brand names, you pass hundreds of billboards. OK, lets stop here. I think you get it. How much do you think you saw of all this? None? Guess again. Reality is you saw most of it, even if youre not aware of it. Scary, huh!? But thats what marketing is all about. Its not because you didnt read the billboard that your brain didnt register the information. When you drive by this billboard, your eyes just lay on it without reading it, but your brain is smarter than you and takes a picture of the billboard, processes it in the background and register all the information without letting you know. Then you go to the store and without thinking about it, you grab some Gatorade. Why Gatorade? Maybe because its your favourite drink? Or maybe because you heard 21 commercials about it within the last week, saw 15 football teams with the Gatorade logos on their bottles, or maybe you just really like ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ No! You dont just really like it. Youve been somewhat brainwashed by marketing genius to think you really like it. These are some of the basics of marketing. I remember my first class of marketing in Business School. The teacher asked: what is the goal of marketing? Most answers were: advertising a product, or selling products. The right answer is that the goal of marketing is to create a need! Do you really an iPhone? I mean, your old BlackBerry Pearl pretty much does it all. Well, marketing creates this need for the iPhone. And theyre so good at it they even make you wait for hours in line to get ità ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Subliminal Messages in Marketing Fact or Fake The Latin word sublimis (meaning uplifted) is the root of the word sublime. It is not at all related to sub-limen (meaning below the threshold). Subliminal messages are very much prevalent in the world of advertising. These are messages which are presented below the threshold of human understanding. The chances of they being understood by humans is lesser than 25%. The technique is to give inputs below the threshold of conscious perception. To illustrate, consider an advertisement that flashes in front of you on TV or cinema, but is so short and fast that your conscious mind does not acknowledge it. Nevertheless, the message does get registered below your level of conscious and thus becomes an input for you to act on. This is easy to practice in cinema halls. Let me explain. It is possible to insert a single frame in twenty four. Suppose the message You are Hungry is flashed a hundred times in short periods of rime. This could stimulate your hunger and make you buy something to eat. Critics say that any kind of message can be induced in this manner, which may lead to violent and criminal tendencies in people to rise. But there is no proof to prove if this principle is true. Yes, subliminal messages are not a fiction, they are real and existent. But the issue is: How often do we encounter them? A study involving advertising executives has found that, agencies practicing subliminal messages are very few in number. Advertisements, by themselves, are very strong means to influence our brains. Hence, ad-designers will not waste efforts into inserting subliminal messages in their work. Also, if any agency practiced subliminal messages, it will sooner or later be discovered by the media. This will definitely cause a huge dent on the image of the agency. Hence subliminal messaging, although it may exist, is not commercially feasible to be practiced. Subconscious Awareness: Each of us has a certain set of principles, ethics, habits, personality which we have cultivated over a period of time. Ever wondered we develop all the above traits? Each second we are bombarded with information in all forms. Our senses observe many of them, and some get registered in our conscious mind. But the rest doesnt get wasted. It is the subconscious mind that stores it and these influence us and play a very significant role in shaping up our habits, personality and skills. So what you are today is a result of what your subconscious mind has stored. We observe a lot of things in our life, but not all information is useful to us, some of it is bad. The ratio of positive to negative feelings is very high as high as 1: 20. Though we are not conscious of these, our subconscious mind registers all the information since it takes everything to be true. Many of these thoughts also make us underestimate ourselves and limit ourselves to trying only thing we are comfortable with. This shapes us what we are today and what capabilities we believe in. We will always be subjected to good and bad experiences and we can control the amount of influence they have on us. When we limit ourselves to our comfort zone, it is indicative of the fact that we are having a high influence of our thoughts which bar us from realizing our full potential. This hampers our creative skills and out of box thinking to a very huge extent. It is very much necessary to overcome these negative influences in our personality if we ever want to taste success. Human being is different from every other living thing on the earth because we are endowed with a unique feature that of thinking. But this has the potential to be our best buddy and even the worst of all enemies. What you think largely shapes up your life. We are never bound to adhere to some predetermined set of values, ethics and culture. We are free to try out all new things and then think over to select some and reject some. The most value adding investment is on oneself. This investment should be such that we become more proactive, creative, inspired, perfectionist and confident to list few of the many possible positive traits. The subconscious mind is not a new concept at all. Its been a subject of huge research for more than a century now. A number of studies and researches have been conducted to understand fully the human behaviour. Hypnosis was a technique which became popular and known in the 1800s. It is from this time that we became our mind that in addition to the conscious intake of input we are also capable of responding to audio, visual stimuli which is below the threshold of conscious brain or in other words we can respond to subliminal stimuli too. Subliminal the literal meaning is below (sub) the threshold (limen) i.e. below the limit of our conscious mind. It is a very self explanatory term. Computers and technology have been very helpful to discover new traits about these subliminal phenomena. A thorough understanding of bio computer has also helped light some light in the dark and mysterious arena of the subconscious. It is the advertising world that is believed to be the pioneer in using subliminal concepts for practical purposes. But it came to the fore only in 1958 through James Vicarys experiment. An experiment was conducted for a period of six weeks during which people watch Kim Novak in the movie Picnic, at Fort Lee, New Jersey were subjected to flash messages displayed on the theatre screen. These messages conveyed them to eat popcorn and drink Coca- Cola. The results were astounding. The sales of Coca cola and popcorn had increased by 18 and 55 per cent! But the degree of influence was not uniform. People, who never ate them, could not be influenced. Subliminal advertising is banned in the US. There are specific norms framed so as to discourage anyone from using subliminal messages. While we can be vigilant towards things that are visible and audible, we cannot be certainly sure about monitoring things like music, colour and the fragrance. To illustrate for colour, Chinese restaurants use a lot of red while designing the ambience. Red is known to stimulate hunger, hence useful for any restaurant. A department store uses a variety of fragrance, which also is a powerful means to communicate subliminal messages. The most powerful way to influence your subconscious for self-help and self hypnosis purposes is, definitely, visual subliminal messaging. There are a lot of programs based on subliminal messages in the Web, the most powerful for today is Subliminal Flash, that displays subliminal messages on your computer screen (duration of every separate message is not more 10 milliseconds, but your subconscious mind is able to notice and accept new objectives that are being sent to it every second). Subliminal Advertising Works Subliminal advertising involves the use of messages sent to the subconscious in order to convince people about a particular product or service from the inner depths of their minds. The subconscious mind of a person is responsible for controlling every action and thought instigated by certain conditions. These thoughts and actions include memory extraction and storage as well as breathing and body temperature maintenance among others. The subconscious mind even controls most of the cor

“The Importance of Mother Tongue-Based Schooling for Educational Quality”

Commissioned study for EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005 Carol Benson, Ph. D. Centre for Research on Bilingualism Stockholm University 14 April 2004 Part A: Overview While there are many factors involved in delivering quality basic education, language is clearly the key to communication and understanding in the classroom. Many developing countries are characterized by individual as well as societal multilingualism, yet continue to allow a single foreign language to dominate the education sector.Instruction through a language that learners do not speak has been called â€Å"submersion† (Skutnabb-Kangas 2000) because it is analogous to holding learners under water without teaching them how to swim. Compounded by chronic difficulties such as low levels of teacher education, poorly designed, inappropriate curricula and lack of adequate school facilities, submersion makes both learning and teaching extremely difficult, particularly when the language of instruction is also foreign t o the teacher.Mother tongue-based bilingual programs use the learner’s first language, known as the L1, to teach beginning reading and writing skills along with academic content. The second or foreign language, known as the L2, should be taught systematically so that learners can gradually transfer skills from the familiar language to the unfamiliar one. Bilingual models and practices vary as do their results, but what they have in common is their use of the mother tongue at least in the early years so that students can acquire and develop literacy skills in addition to understanding and participating in the classroom.Bilingual as opposed to monolingual schooling offers significant pedagogical advantages which have been reported consistently in the academic literature (see reviews in Baker 2001; Cummins 2000; CAL 2001): Use of a familiar language to teach beginning literacy facilitates an understanding of sound-symbol or meaning-symbol correspondence. Learning to read is most efficient when students know the language and can employ psycholinguistic guessing strategies; likewise, students can communicate through writing as soon as they understand the rules of the orthographic (or other written) system of their language.In contrast, submersion programs may succeed in teaching students to decode words in the L2, but it can take years before they discover meaning in what they are â€Å"reading. †  ¦ Since content area instruction is provided in the L1, the learning of new concepts is not postponed until children become competent in the L2. Unlike submersion teaching, which is often characterised by lecture and rote response, bilingual instruction allows teachers and students to interact naturally and negotiate meanings together, creating participatory learning environments that are conducive to cognitive as well as linguistic development. Explicit teaching of the L2 beginning with oral skills allows students to learn the new language through commun ication rather than memorization. In submersion schooling teachers are often forced to translate or code-switch to convey meaning, making concept learning inefficient and even impeding language learning, while bilingual programs allow for systematic teaching of the L2.  ¦ Transfer of linguistic and cognitive skills is facilitated in bilingual programs.Once students have basic literacy skills in the L1 and communicative skills in the L2, they can begin reading and writing in the L2, efficiently transferring the literacy skills they have acquired in the familiar language. The pedagogical principles behind this positive transfer of skills are Cummins’ (1991, 1999) interdependence theory and the concept of common underlying proficiency, whereby the knowledge of language, literacy and concepts learned in the L1 can be accessed and used in the second language once oral L2 skills are developed, and no re-learning is required.Consistent with these principles, it is possible for chi ldren schooled only in the L2 to transfer their knowledge and skills to the L1, but the process is highly inefficient as well as being unnecessarily difficult. Code-switching and code-mixing involve alternation between languages, and are common communication strategies in bi- and multilingual contexts. Code alternation functions best when all parties are competent speakers of the languages involved, but in submersion classrooms it is more of a coping strategy for dealing with a foreign instructional medium and does not necessarily contribute to second language learning.As specialists Lanauze & Snow explain, transfer means that â€Å"language skills acquired in a first language can, at least if developed beyond a certain point in L1, be recruited at relatively early stages of L2 acquisition for relatively skilled performance in L2, thus shortcutting the normal developmental progression in L2† (1989: 337).  ¦ Student learning can be accurately assessed in bilingual classrooms . When students can express themselves, teachers can diagnose what has been learned, what remains to be taught and which students need further assistance.In submersion schooling cognitive learning and language learning are confounded, making it difficult for teachers to determine whether students have difficulty understanding the concept itself, the language of instruction, or the language of the test.  ¦ The affective domain, involving confidence, self-esteem and identity, is strengthened by use of the L1, increasing motivation and initiative as well as creativity.L1 classrooms allow children to be themselves and develop their personalities as well as their intellects, unlike submersion classrooms where they are forced to sit silently or repeat mechanically, leading to frustration and ultimately repetition, failure and dropout.  ¦ Students become bilingual and biliterate. Bilingual programs encourage learners to understand, speak, read and write in more than one language. In co ntrast, submersion programs attempt to promote skills in a new language by eliminating them from a known language, which may actually limit learner competence in both.All of these advantages are based on two assumptions: one, that basic human needs are being met so that schooling can take place; and two, that mother tongue-based bilingual schooling can be properly implemented. Simply changing the language of instruction without resolving other pressing social and political issues is not likely to result in significant improvement in educational services. However, because language cross-cuts race, ethnicity, gender, and poverty, even minimally implemented bilingual programs have the potential to reach those who have traditionally been left behind by L2 submersion schooling.This paper will discuss how choosing an appropriate language of instruction has positive implications for education in terms of both increasing access and improving quality. Education for All: Building Strong Learn ing Foundations thru the Mother Tongue * Philippine basic education is now at a critical crossroad. It now calls for the revisiting of our commitment to Education for All (EFA) 2015. All stakeholders have to be vigilant and involved. Otherwise, education will just be a weak transformative power in our society.Instead of education for all, it will be education for the few; instead of seeing Filipino youth become critical thinkers, coherent communicators, and productive citizens; we will see a generation of unreflective and mediocre mouthpieces of languages not their own. We affirm the need to improve learning competencies in all subject areas, including English. Our educational system has to move forward following a roadmap drawn by experts in language and education based on empirical proofs. Experiences of other multilingual countries all point to the mother tongue as the best language of learning, especially in the early grades.The mother tongue is the most effective bridge to and foundation for the learning of other languages like English. At this stage, however, many of our lawmakers and national leaders still hold on to the unfounded but long-held belief that an English-dominated initial basic education will produce superior learners. We submit that such educational strategy will only benefit a very small number of Filipinos—those who belong to families where English is the home language. But the truth is that the majority of our school children come from homes where the mother tongue is the predominant language.This explains their marginalization in the classroom. Such marginalized learners, as pointed out by scientific evidences face the double burden of learning. They are struggling to learn the 3Rs on top of the big burden of learning an alien language in which they are taught. This predicament is one of the major culprits of poor performance and high drop-out rates. All of these imply the needed approach– teach the yet unknown 3Rs throug h the already familiar local language and culture, build the learner’s capacity to learn and introduce a second language with the correct phasing.With such mother tongue-based multi-lingual education (MLE) framework, the mastery of all the learning areas including English is effectively attained. It is a basic truth that language embodies a person's cultural identity and heritage. To uphold this truth, even international law guarantees and directs states’ educational system to develop respect for the child’s own cultural identity and language (Article 29-c Convention on the Rights of the Child). Thus, we reject any assertion that a local language may be inferior, inadequate and poses an obstacle to learning.We also reject the usual argument that MLE is costly and, therefore, very hard to implement in the face of limited financial resources. Papua New Guinea, a poor Asian country of more than 800 languages, has demonstrated that reliance on local initiatives and resources for MLE is highly feasible and substantially saves on much costs of developing and producing learning materials. Recently, our own DepEd’s Agusan Pilot MLE Study corroborated the practicality and merits of local self-reliance and initiatives.Thus, we submit that ultimately, to insist on teaching with an alien language is more costly and inefficient when children do not become functionally literate and hardly develop higher order thinking skills and whose English competencies are mediocre. Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education Many Filipino learners face barriers in education. One of these barriers is that our learners often begin their education in a language they do not understand. Because they do not understand the language of education, many learners become discouraged and tend to drop-out from school.Content of material is often culturally distant or unfamiliar to the learners. The limited education that learners receive does not prepare them for lifelong l earning. Mother tongue-based multilingual education (MLE) is a formal or nonformal education, in which the children’s mother tongue is used in the classroom as a bridge in learning Filipino and English. Children begin their education in a language they understand, their mother tongue, and develop a strong foundation in their mother language.The purpose of a multilingual education program is to develop appropriate cognitive and reasoning skills enabling children to operate equally in different languages – starting in the mother tongue with transition to Filipino and then English. It is a structured program of language learning and cognitive development which provides learners with a strong educational foundation in the first language. If the mother tongue is not used, we create people who are illiterate in two languages.Children do not become sufficiently fluent in their mother tongue (L1) in both oracy and literacy if their vocabulary in L1 is limited, thus restricting their ability to learn a second language (L2). A strong foundation in L1 is required for learning L2. Children’s understanding of concepts is limited or confused if leaning is only L2. The benefits of MLE include the following: †¢ Reduced drop-out †¢ Reduced repetition †¢ Children are attending school. †¢ Children are learning. †¢ Parents and community are involved. †¢ It is more cost – effective to implement mother tongue programs.A region wide training was conducted last summer in preparation for this school year’s pilot implementation. A Regional association of supervisors, school heads and teachers was organized during that training. Feedback gathered from the pilot implementers revealed that teachers find the use of the MTB-MLE very useful. Pupils are very participative and most of them have learned to read by this time. Although some teachers find it tiresome, especially in the preparation of materials, but they feel rewarded by seeing the enjoyment among the pupils in their learning experiences.

American Transcendentalists Essay

American transcendentalists sought the permanent spiritual reality behind physical appearances. They were optimistic and believed in human perfectibility; they engaged in projects that tried to create the ideal reality. They believed that the universe is one great entity. Transcendentalism centres on the divinity of each individual. But this divinity could be self-discovered only if the person had the independence of mind. They believed in democracy, equality, the unlimited power of the individual and the beauty of the human spirit and the natural world. They focused on the positive aspects of life, while working to improve the injustices of the world. Transcendentalists’ view on Nature is unique and interesting. They believe that there is an inner spark contained by and connecting all facets of nature, including mankind, which can be discovered not through logical reasoning but only through intuition and the creative insight. They stressed the importance of harmony with nature.   Transcendentalism is an idealism that encompasses a diverse and sometimes confusing set of beliefs regarding man’s role in nature and the universe. As for the human nature, transcendentalists saw no need for any intercession between God and man and therefore called for an independence from organized religion. They stated that God is energy, a force, not a particular separate being; God breathes through nature and man attempts to open himself up to this influx. Their claim was that the divinity is self-contained in every being. They believed in the unlimited potential of human ability to connect with both the natural and spiritual world. People should, through their intuition, the external symbols of nature and translate them into spiritual facts. Transcendentalists were idealistic and optimistic because they believed they could find answers to whatever they were seeking. Transcendentalist declared there was meaning in everything and that meaning was good and connected by and parts of a divine plan. This philosophy led to an optimistic emphasis on individualism; one aspect of individualism is the value of the individual over society. One must follow his instincts and not conform to what society dictates. Although society will influence an individual towards conformity, it is important to remain true to one’s self and to one’s identity. Transcendentalism believes the spiritual reflection of each person as they move from the rational to the spiritual is the very essence of life, and this is an individual accomplishment. Thoreau stated that the world around us as a miracle in itself. It is in this living we move toward the conscience of the reality we cannot see, and this is part of Thoreau’s point. Thoreau argued in Walden that the divine exists not just in all people but can be perceived in all of nature. The idea of immanence served to strengthen Thoreau’s belief in the equality of all people â€Å"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads,† cited Thoreau in Walden. â€Å"Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only,† is another valuable quotation from his book. Transcendentalists believed in individual creative spirit and empathized natural way of life. Thus, transcendentalists were extolling the spiritual benefits of living in nature. Thoreau believed that â€Å"most men live lives of quiet desperation,† and he wanted to show the humanity a way out. Anti-transcendentalists rejected the optimistic outlook on humanity and life declaring that the optimism of their predecessors was naà ¯ve and unrealistic.   The anti-transcendentalists reflected a more pessimistic attitude and focused on man’s uncertainty and limited potential in the universe. The writing of anti-transcendentalists focuses on imagination, intuition, the power of nature and individual emotion, but they deal with the darker side of human nature. The anti-transcendentalists viewed nature as vast and incomprehensible, a reflection of the struggle between good and evil. The anti-transcendentalist felt humans were depraved and had to struggle for goodness.  Although they thought goodness was attainable for some, they believed in evil as its own entity. They believed sin was an active force; it was not just the absence of good; they really did think, on some level, that the devil existed. The anti-transcendentalists believed in a higher authority and that nature is ultimately the creation and possession of God and can not be understood by humans. The anti-transcendentalists feared that people who desired complete individualism would give into the worse angles of man’s nature. They were concerned that without external constraints, such as societal mores, people would be motivated only by their immediate need and desire for sensory gratification. They believed that both nature and human nature had a dark side that could not be ignored. Anti-transcendentalist writer would hold readers’ attention through dread of a series of terrible possibilities and feature landscapes of dark forests, extreme vegetation, concealed ruins with horrific rooms, depressed characters. Melville’s perspective on life is that God created the universe with an infinite number of meanings and man is always trying to determine one specific meaning. The writer believed the single-minded idealist could draw society into danger. Melville illustrated this fault through his main character, Ahab, who embarked on a journey to avenge the whale that dismasted him. Ahab had excessive pride, which blinded his common sense and endangered his crew as he set out on a futile mission of revenge. When Ahab said, â€Å"I would strike out at the sun if it insulted me. Who’s over me?† † it showed his transformation into a single-minded idealist. In this story the whale, Moby Dick, serves to symbolize any force that we allow to hold us back. Melville, through symbolism in the story, taught the moral that when human beings have few external constraints, their inner needs and drives serve as their motivation. He also warned of the inherent dangers in a person such as Captain Ahab. On the contrary, Ishmael’s character allows the reader to relate to a love for nature and the earth, as well as a feeling of inner peace and serenity. The â€Å"man vs Nature† is one of the central in the book. This conflict contradicts totally the notion about the integrity of humankind and natural world. Still, Melville gives credit to natural world, while referring to it as to the, â€Å"God’s great, unflattering laureate, Nature.† But in his writing the integrity and spiritual fullness of Nature is questioned, his approach is more scientific than philosophical. Hawthorne was another representative of anti-transcendentalist trend in American literature. In Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment an invitation to taste from the fountain of youth is offered. Four Heidegger’s friends agree to do so and they become young again, but they are soon devastated by the transience of the experience. Again, the motif of the uncontrolled power of the science is central in the story. Another contradiction between transcendentalists and their opponents concentrated around the concept of self-reliability. For instance, Hawthorne saw the self-reliant person as selfish, insecure, and desperate for attention. The need for a person to depend on society is as great as the need for society to depend on the individual. But the term â€Å"society† in the story has more specific application. â€Å"Society† is the familiar circle, the system of social relations of each individual. By becoming suddenly young, people endanger themselves of loosing their familiar circle of friends and acquaintances. Hawthorne depicted people who had no regard for societal values at all; he was among the first to introduce the problem of ethic of science. As for the human nature, Dr. Heidegger advices his friends that they should, â€Å"think what a sin and shame it would be, if, with your peculiar advantages, you should not become patterns of virtue and wisdom to all the young people of the age.† The issue of sin has attracted many anti-transcendentalist writers. So we mak3e a conclusion that transcendentalist authors had optimistic view of life and believed in the spiritual nature if the world and integrity of Man and Nature, they put on emphasis over individualism and self-reliance. Anti-transcendentalists had more pessimistic view on life and concentrated on the darkest side of human nature. Sources: Herman Melville, Moby Dick or the Whale, Modern Library, Reprint edition, 1992, ISBN: 0679600108 Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tales and Sketches, Library of America, 1982, ISBN: 0940450038 Henry David Thoreau, Walden: An Annotated Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1995, ISBN: 0395720427   

Names of Common Flowers in Mandarin Chinese