Effect of New Labour on Social Policy for Children

Effect of New Labour on Social Policy for Children The Preventive State. How far has New Labour changed the direction and scope of social policy for children and families? New Labour has reformed the scope and direction of social policy in the United Kingdom indelibly. These changes have permeated every level and shade of social policy related to children and families. The tax credits system, and in particular the Child Tax Credit and Working Tax Credit system has been introduced; fathers have gained more extensive paternity rights; parents with young children and parents with disabled children now enjoy the right to ask employers for more flexible working hours and a minimum wage has been introduced. This essay will explain the various social policy initiatives which have been formulated by New Labour and will attempt to explain the impact these have had upon children and families. An examination of how far New Labour has changed the direction and scope of social policy for children and families necessitates an examination of how the Labour Party traditionally dealt with policy in this area, and inevitably the transition from Old Labour to New Labour will have to be looked at since this has probably represented the single biggest catalyst for political change relating to social policy. In this way the question of how far New Labour have changed the direction and scope of social policy for children and young families will be evaluated and answered. Also, the question of whether the social policy objectives of New Labour allow one to characterise New Labour as the ‘Preventive State’ will be addressed throughout the essay. What is ‘New Labour’? New Labour was the name given to the Labour Party under the leadership of Tony Blair. New Labour swept to power with a landslide victory over the Conservatives in 1997. Prior to 1997, Labour had not been in power since James Callaghan’s Labour party lost power to Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative Party in 1979. Historically, the Labour Party in Britain has been the main left wing political party, and was built upon strong association with the trade union movement (Minkin, (1991))[1]. The historical concerns and ideology of the Labour Party, before the transition to New Labour has been set in context by Bevir (2005): ‘The leading figures in the early Labour Party Keir Hardie, Philip Snowden, and Ramsay MacDonald condemned capitalism in much the same terms as had the ethical socialists. Snowden condemned the competitive market for bringing out our animal instincts not our moral ones; it makes men hard, cruel, selfish, acquisitive economic machines†¦..Snowden followed Webbs theory of interest as analogous to land rent, arguing that just as the landlord gets an unearned income from the increase in the value of land, so the capitalist gets an unearned increment from improvements in productive methods and in other ways not the result of his own efforts or abilities. MacDonald followed the Webbss denunciation of the uncoordinated nature of the market, arguing that whereas capitalism relied on a haphazard and chaotic clash of individual interests, socialism would eliminate waste by organising economic life on a scientific basis†¦[2]’. Tony Blair became leader of the Labour Party in 1994, after the death of John Smith, and gradually came to realise that ideological reform of the foundations of the party, as expressed above were necessary if Labour were to be regarded as a credible party in the eyes of voters. Therefore, ‘New Labour’ came to represent this ideological shift which rejected the old democratic socialist underpinnings of the Labour Party in favour of neo-liberal policies, which had proven so popular under the premiership of Margaret Thatcher. This ideological shift drew the Labour Party further to the centre-right, and led to much division among the ranks of Labour Party members who saw this development as positive and progressive and those who regarded it as incongruous with the traditional function of the Labour Party. Therefore, Labour, as a party has undergone considerable change in the last two decades, and this process of change can mainly be attributed to the transition from Old Labour, with its focus on traditional socialist values, to New Labour, a party whose ideologies had shifted towards the centre-right and which seem to be driven more by political pragmatism than by any particular allegiance to ideology. The writings of Denver et al. (1998) give us more guidance on the rationale and impetus for this transition to New Labour: ‘†¦After private polling immediately following the 1992 general election and again at the end of that same year revealed that, among wavering Conservative voters, the Labour Party was regarded as too old fashioned, too tied to the past, too linked to minorities rather than majorities, and too associated with old images of the trades unions, Hill wrote that the party lacked clear identity and was the party of the past.†¦.The view that, notwithstanding any opinion poll leads Labour might gain, the party would not win an election unless it reassessed itself in a fundamental manner was held among a group of party modernisers, including Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman, Peter Mandelson, and Philip Gould. The 1992 defeat confirmed these modernisers view that fundamental changes were necessary†¦.Their target included both the left and the right of the party. Harold Wilson, James Callaghan, Tony Crosland, and Tony Benn were all equally identified with the flawed politics of old Labour. In Blairs view, â€Å"Labour needed a quantum leap to become a serious party of government again.†¦.His project, as first publicly articulated in his 1995 party conference speech, was to eradicate all aspects of party doctrine and ethos, of policies and strategies, that were of the past†¦.[3]’. The changes to the ideological foundations of the Labour Party, brought about principally by Blair, have in turn precipitated wide reaching change to the social policy which is now espoused by the Labour Party, and these changes have arguably impacted upon families and children more sharply than they have impacted upon any other groups or sectors. The next sections will chart these changes to the social policy perspective of the Labour Party under Blair and will attempt to relate this discussion to the situation of families and children. In a wider sense, this discussion will address the issue of whether New Labour can be regarded as a ‘preventive state’. New Labour in Power New Labour has changed the face of social policy which can be seen to have a direct effect upon the family and children. The introduction of the minimum wage in 1999; the revolutionary idea of allowing fathers paternity rights and the ideas about flexible working arrangements for women, parents with children and disabled people have all had the effect of bringing the institution of the family in the UK into the modern era. Labour have worked to reduce poverty and to improve working arrangements for those with families, partly as an expression of commitments to ‘popular’ politics, but also as a necessary series of measures to ensure that the UK complies with the requirements of European Union. This section will examine these measures, how they have come about and how effective they have been at changing the direction and scope of social policy within the UK. When Labour took power in the 1997 General Election, they promised to radically reform government policy to make it appeal more to the average voter, they promised to eliminate ‘sleaze’ which had been a central flaw in the previous Conservative administration, and they also promised to radically reform their own party, not just ideologically but in terms of a general democratic function, which they argued had put too wide a distance between Government and groups including families and children[4]. Therefore Labour was committed to make the party more geared towards the concerns of contemporary voters who saw issues relating to family and children as important. These were all rhetorical promises, of course, yet nonetheless they can be regarded as being of particular significance to the core social policies which were to emerge following the election of the fledgling Labour Government in 1997. The appointment of Frank Field in 1997, as Welfare Reform Minister communicated the first message that the object of this radical rhetoric was to be social policy, in particular. Field identified flaws in the social policy system which had been inherited from the Conservatives, and these problems, according to Field emanated from the antiquated system of means testing for benefits. Mainly, Field objected to the fact that the social security system, in particular the system of means testing seemed to create disincentives for those returning to work, after a period of dependency on benefits. This flaw, in particular, affected children and families because many families with young children faced the decision either to return to work, or to remain on benefits with an adult in the home to look after the child or children. However, Field’s rationale in regards to means testing did not find favour with the Government. However, Field’s proposals for reform of the youth employme nt policies fared a little better. The New Deal for eighteen to twenty four year olds was introduced as a way of addressing wider social concerns about youth unemployment and a link between crime or ‘anti-social’ behaviour and young people leaving education with few qualifications or prospects. This policy was arguably the main social policy reform introduced during the tenure of Frank Field[5]. The New Deal was first publicised in October 1997, as part of the Government’s ‘Welfare to Work’ strategy, and was a policy directed at providing work opportunities for young people leaving school at eighteen, and was also intended to indirectly benefit those families who had young people living in the family home just after that young person had left education. The New Deal was not a new conception. As a policy, it was first introduced by F. D. Roosevelt to deal with the consequences of the depression in America, in the early 1930s. However, the Labour Government of 1997 adopted the ‘New Deal’ brand to communicate a policy which was targeted towards young people, and was intended to operationalise New Labour’s social policy objective of encouraging young people aged 18-24 to enter the UK workforce. In this sense, the social policy initiatives which were products of the tenure of Frank Field can be regarded as ‘preventive’ since they recognised the problems which disillusioned youths might pose to society if they were not encouraged to follow a smooth transition from schooling to the world of work. However, Field’s tenure as Minister for Welfare Reform was thwarted by Cabinet feuds and grassroots suspicions (in particular from backbenchers) that a radical reform of the social security system would disenfranchise those within the Labour Party who remained loyal to socialist ideology[6]. Therefore, although it is true that Frank Field did not precipitate radical reform of the social security system or wider social policy, he did lay the foundations for Labour’s social security policy focus which was pivoted upon encouraging individual self sufficiency and recognition that working was more beneficial than reliance upon the support of the social security system. Ironically therefore, although Field’s title as Minister for Welfare Reform would have suggested otherwise, Field’s ideas were regarded as too revolutionary, and even as subversive by some. The translation of Field’s reform ethos was arguably stunted while he was in power, for many reasons , but principally because, during this time New Labour struggled to repudiate old socialist ideological ideas, which traditionally and historically were central to the Labour Party. The reform of means testing became government policy in 1998[7], and the conception of welfare rights coupled with ‘responsibility’ reflected a wider rationale which encouraged people on welfare to regard state support as a mechanism which might be relied upon where an option to support oneself was impossible as opposed to undesirable. We have seen this rationale continue into 2006, with the recent reform of Incapacity Benefit, which is now more difficult to claim. These reforms of the social security system, although some have not been specifically targeted at children and families, have indirectly benefited children and families in significant ways. However, if one looks to the reform of the tax credit system, New Labour’s direct concern to change the circumstances of families and children, by implementing the rationales which have been explained above can be seen more sharply. The Child Tax and Working Tax Credit System The 2000 Budget communicated the Government’s plans to revise the benefits system, and this process resulted in the creation of the tax credits system, which was intended to be a singular system which would provide social welfare support to families, disabled people, low income employees and children which had previously been available through a plethora of complex individual benefit schemes. In particular, the system replaced the WFTC (Working Family Tax Credit) and the DPTC (Disabled Person Tax Credit) systems. The tax credit system was aimed at operationalising New Labour’s commitment to eradicating poverty and social exclusion, especially poverty among children and families. Tax credits were also intended to target relief towards those who were in need of it the most, and financially reward families for choosing to work. A special tax credit was also introduced and this was aimed at assisting families with young children with childcare costs, which arose because a parent needed to work. The tax credit system was seen by many as the Government’s response to the criticism that families who worked were not much better off financially than families who did not work and sought financial support from the social security system. The system of tax credits was also seen as a way to eliminate the problem with the previous means testing approach to welfare calculation which tended to heavily penalise those families and individuals who had savings. The tax credit system was operationalised alongside targets to reduce child poverty rates and specifically to deal with the fact that Britain was criticised as having one of the highest child poverty rates in Europe. However, the tax credit system is a transitional policy initiative and has suffered from various criticisms which have resulted directly from the transitional nature of the system. Current criticisms of the tax credit system point to the persistent problem of over payments which have to be recovered from low income families. The bureaucracy of the system has also encountered heavy criticism, in much the same way as the Child Support Agency has under New Labour. Also, under New Labour the Housing Benefit and Council tax systems have remained largely untouched, and this can arguably be criticised as an inconsistent social welfare policy approach. The rationale for this particular critique is that the problems which prompted reform of the social welfare system and the resultant introduction of the tax credit system still exist, albeit in different niches within the social welfare system, giving rise to an inconsistent and inadequate reform focus. Children and Anti-Social Behaviour New Labour has also been radical in dealing with concerns about anti-social behaviour in children. Their approach has arguably been to impose a more paternalistic and authoritarian culture upon young children, while at the same time increasing the responsibilities and duties which parents owe to their children, and those children in their care. These trends have taken shape in the form of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003, which has classified littering, causing criminal damage, vandalism, noise, hoax calls and street drinking amongst other things as anti-social behaviour. New Labour: The Preventive State? New Labour can be seen to have assumed the mantle of the ‘preventive state’ given the focus it has directed towards, dealing with the ‘causes[8]’ of crime and dysfunction in the youth sector and in relation to the family. This focus, coupled with New Labour’s focus on trying to eradicate poverty through the welfare initiatives which have been explained above, and the attempts which have been made to make youth transition from the end of education to the beginning of employment more smooth (i.e. the New Deal initiative) has cast Labour as being concerned with preventing problems associated with the family and children before they arise. In this sense, New Labour can certainly be seen as a ‘preventive’ state. Their concerns are paternalistic in the context. However, one only has to turn to the provision of social services within the UK to see the converse of new Labour’s role as a preventive state. In particular, the death of Victoria Climbie provoked criticism that the social services system, under the supervision of the Blair administration was grossly inadequate and fraught with flaws which undermined the institution of the family and endangered to position of children by failing those vulnerable individuals who either need assistance from the state to help them support children, or those individuals who are children and indirectly need to state to provide this support to those caring for them. The next section of the essay will examine this critique of the New Labour Government. Children and Social Services in the UK New Labour has implemented a series of legislative initiatives aimed at protecting the situation of the child in the UK. A Children’s Minister (currently Beverley Hughes) has been appointed to oversee the needs of children. The Children’s Act 2004 and the Every Child Matters agenda were aimed to improve and modernise the protections available to children within the UK, a system which had been highlighted as containing serious flaws, particularly in the aftermath of the death of Victoria Climbie, an eight year old child who died following systematic abuse inflicted by her carers, which was not identified by the social services whose ultimate role it had been to oversee Victoria Climbie’s care. These initiatives were aimed at bolstering the protections offered by The Children Act 1989 and responding to a climate of deep unhappiness about New Labour’s handling of the social support mechanisms available to children and families of children who needed to avail of such support. The area of the social services and how these actors assisted families and children was a policy concern largely ignored by the Labour administration when it assumed power. Labour’s concerns, as has been explained above were mainly ideological in focus and concerned ‘bigger picture’ issues which included education, crime, social exclusion, poverty, employment, welfare and other such issues which existed as inter-related and intersecting socio-legal and socio-political policy concerns. It is possible to make an argument therefore that New Labour’s concern for these ‘bigger picture’ issues has resulted in relative neglect of issues which concern policy niches, and policy concerns which exist at a more micro, but nonetheless critical level. Among these niche issues are the services provided to children and families through the social services. Lord Laming’s enquiry into the needs of children in care was established after the death of Victoria Climbie in 2000. Laming published his report in January 2003, and it heavily criticised the government for not having enough communication channels open between agencies working within the social services sector separately, while at the same time serving a singular function to provide support to children and families in need to state support. Therefore, one of Laming’s main recommendations was the formulation of a national database where social services actors would be able to access information about children, nationally. Commenting on Lord Laming’s report, the Children Minister, Barbara Hughes has made the following statement, acknowledging the accuracy of Laming’s criticisms: We have seen the tragic consequences that the failure to intervene early can have, as identified in Lord Lamings report on Victoria Climbie. But even in less extreme circumstances, all too often children who need additional help are faced with services which are not joined up. We need to ensure that professionals work together across service boundaries for the benefit of children†¦..These proposals balance the need to do everything we can to improve childrens life chances whilst ensuring strong safeguards to make sure information stored is minimal, secure and used appropriately. Parents and young people will be able to ask to see their data†¦[9]’. It is clear therefore that New Labour has taken Laming’s concerns seriously and the policy response that New Labour has delivered has been open, direct and speedy. However, this does not absolve the Government of the responsibility for failing to foresee the problems that eventually did arise for families and children because the social services sector had been sidelined while the Government dealt with ‘bigger picture’ issues. Perhaps it is arguable therefore that the Labour Government have changed the direction and scope of social policy ideologically, while failing to understand that grassroots issues such as social services provisions, needed ‘on the ground’ were under resourced and outdated. This rationale can account the apparent contraction in terms which emanates from a vision of the Labour Party as a modernising party who changed the face of social policy indelibly and undoubtedly in positive ways, while simultaneously failing in their responsibility to effectively oversee the operation of services on a more micro level. In this sense, the Labour Party can be critiqued as thinking preventively about ideological and holistic policy concerns while only thinking and behaving reactively to grassroots level services for the family and children. It is clear, however, that lessons have been learned from policy failures and policy ‘gaps’, and while these critiques are certainly serious they are ameliorated through the Labour Party’s willingness to accept criticisms, such as those delivered by Laming and to implement far reaching changes as a response to these. Conclusion In conclusion therefore, the New Labour Government, which has been continuously been in power since 1997 has implemented far reaching change within the area of social policy relating to children and the family. These social policy developments have been explained throughout this essay, and an argument has been made that in many ways, New Labour has drastically changed the direction and scope of social policy within the UK. However, as has been one of the central arguments of this essay; this far reaching change has been manifested more at an ideological than at a grassroots level. In this sense, New Labour can be regarded as being a ‘preventive state’ more at an ideological than at a grassroots level. Grassroots services and social policy concerns relating to the family have recently been highlighted as seriously deficient, but as has been another central argument within this essay, these failures have been offset to an extent by willingness on the part of New Labour to accept and respond constructively to political criticism. Bibliography Books Bevir, M. (2005). New Labour: A Critique. Publisher: Routledge. Place of Publication: London. Denver, D., King, A., McLean, I., Norris, P., Norton, P., Sanders, D. and Seyd, P. (1998) New Labour Triumphs: Britain at the Polls. Publisher: Chatham House Publishers. Place of Publication: Chatham, NJ. Minkin, L. (1991). The Contentious Alliance: Trade Unions and the Labour Party. Publisher: Edinburgh University Press. Place of Publication: Edinburgh. Articles Hayton, A. and Leathwood, C. (2002) Educational Inequalities in the United Kingdom: A Critical Analysis of the Discourses and Policies of New Labour. Title: Australian Journal of Education. Volume: 46. Issue: 2. Anonymous. (2005) Better Services for Children as Government acts on Lord Laming Recommendation. Available at: http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/3938 >>. 1 Footnotes [1] P192. Minkin, L. (1991). The Contentious Alliance: Trade Unions and the Labour Party. Publisher: Edinburgh University Press. Place of Publication: Edinburgh. [2] P133. Bevir, M. (2005). New Labour: A Critique. Publisher: Routledge. Place of Publication: London. [3] P51. Denver, D., King, A., McLean, I., Norris, P., Norton, P., Sanders, D. and Seyd, P. (1998) New Labour Triumphs: Britain at the Polls. Publisher: Chatham House Publishers. Place of Publication: Chatham, NJ. [4] P138+. Hayton, A. and Leathwood, C. (2002) Educational Inequalities in the United Kingdom: A Critical Analysis of the Discourses and Policies of New Labour. Title: Australian Journal of Education. Volume: 46. Issue: 2. [5] See Hayton, A. and Leathwood, C. ((2002) P138+). [6] See Denver et al. ((1998) P201). [7] Under the supervision of Alistair Darling who had succeeded Frank Field as Secretary of State at the Department of Social Security in 1998. [8] As Blair famously remarked in the 1990s. [9] Anonymous. (2005) Better Services for Children as Government acts on Lord Laming Recommendation. Available at: http://www.egovmonitor.com/node/3938 >>.

The Natural Approach Stephen Krashen’s Theory of Second Language

THE NATURAL APPROACH Stephen Krashen's Theory of Second Language Acquisition â€Å"Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require tedious drill. † â€Å"Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language – natural communication – in which speakers are concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages they are conveying and understanding. † â€Å"The best methods are therefore those that supply ‘comprehensible input' in low anxiety situations, containing messages that students really want to hear.These methods do not force early production in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are ‘ready', recognizing that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input, and not from forcing and correcting production. † â€Å"In the real world, conversations with sympathetic native speakers who are willing to hel p the acquirer understand are very helpful. † Introduction Stephen Krashen (University of Southern California) is an expert in the field of linguistics, specializing in theories of language acquisition and development.Much of his recent research has involved the study of non-English and bilingual language acquisition. During the past 20 years, he has published well over 100 books and articles and has been invited to deliver over 300 lectures at universities throughout the United States and Canada. This is a brief description of Krashen's widely known and well accepted theory of second language acquisition, which has had a large impact in all areas of second language research and teaching since the 1980s.The Natural Approach (NA) is a product of Stephen Krashen, an applied linguist at the University of Southern California and Tracy Terrell, a teacher of Spanish in California. Krashen's work on second language acquisition and Terrell's teaching experiences form the bases of the Natural Approach. The principles and practices of this new approach have been published in â€Å"The Natural Approach† (Krashen and Terrell, 1983). The book contains theoretical sections prepared by Krashen and sections on implementation and classroom procedures prepared mostly by Terrell. The most triking proposal of the NA theory is that adults can still acquire second languages and that the ability to ‘pick up' languages does not disappear at puberty. Thus, Krashen's contribution to Chomsky's LAD proposition is that adults follow the same principles of Universal Grammar. The theory behind the NA implies that adults can acquire all but the phonological aspect of any foreign language, by using their ever-active LAD. What makes adults different from children is their abstract problem solving skills that make them consciously process the grammar of a foreign language.Therefore, adults have two paths to follow: Acquisition and learning. However, children have only one: Ac quisition. In their book, Krashen and Terrell refer to their method of picking up ability in another language directly without instruction in its grammar as ‘the traditional approach'. They consider their approach as a traditional one whereas many methodologists consider Grammar Translation Method as the traditional method. For Krashen, even Grammar Translation Method is not as old and traditional as the method of acquiring a language in its natural environment, a method which has been used for hundreds of thousands of years.The term ‘natural' emphasizes that the principles behind the NA are believed to conform to the naturalistic principles found in successful second language acquisition. One may think that the Natural Approach and the Natural Method are similar. The Natural Method (or the Direct Method) and the Natural Approach differ in that the former lays more emphasis on teacher monologues, formal questions and answers, and error correction. Krashen and Terrell not e that â€Å"the Natural Approach is in many ways the natural, direct method ‘rediscovered'[and] it is similar to other communicative approaches being developed today†.The Natural Approach, like TPR, is regarded as a comprehension-based approach because of its emphasis on initial delay(silent period) in the production of language. What is novel is that the NA focuses on exposure to input instead of grammar practice, and on emotional preparedness for acquisition to take place. II. THEORETICAL BASIS OF THE NATURAL APPROACH II. 1. Theory of Language Krashen regards ‘communication' as the main function of language. The focus is on teaching communicative abilities. The superiority of ‘meaning' is emphasized.Krashen and Terrell believe that a language is essentially its lexicon. They stress the importance of vocabulary and view language as a vehicle for ‘communicating meanings' and ‘messages'. According to Krashen, ‘acquisition' can take place on ly when people comprehend messages in the TL. Briefly, the view of language that the Natural Approach presents consists of ‘lexical items', ‘structures' and ‘messages'. The lexicon for both perception and production is considered critical in the organization and interpretation of messages.In Krashen's view, acquisition is the natural assimilation of language rules by using language for communication. This means that linguistic competence is achieved via ‘input' containing structures at the ‘interlanguage + 1' level (i +1); that is, via ‘comprehensible input'. II. 2. Theory of Language Learning (1) The Acquisition-Learning Hypothesis Krashen, in his theory of second language acquisition (SLA)suggested that adults have two different ways of developing competence in second languages: Acquisition and learning. â€Å"There are two independent ways of developing ability in second languages. Acquisition' is a subconscious process identical in all import ant ways to the process children utilize in acquiring their first language, †¦ [and] ‘learning' †¦ , [which is] a conscious process that results in ‘knowing about' [the rules of] language† (Krashen 1985:1). The Acquisition-Learning distinction is the most fundamental of all the hypotheses in Krashen's theory and the most widely known among linguists and language practitioners. According to Krashen there are two independent systems of second language performance: ‘the acquired system' and ‘the learned system'.The ‘acquired system' or ‘acquisition' is the product of a subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo when they acquire their first language. It requires meaningful interaction in the target language – natural communication – in which speakers are concentrated not in the form of their utterances, but in the communicative act. The ‘learned system' or ‘learning' is the product of f ormal instruction and it comprises a conscious process which results in conscious knowledge ‘about' the language, for example knowledge of grammar rules.According to Krashen ‘learning' is less important than ‘acquisition'. Krashen believes that the result of learning, learned competence (LC) functions as a monitor or editor. That is, while AC is responsible for our fluent production of sentences, LC makes correction on these sentences either before or after their production. This kind of conscious grammar correction, ‘monitoring', occurs most typically in a grammar exam where the learner has enough time to focus on form and to make use of his conscious knowledge of grammar rules (LC) as an aid to ‘acquired competence'.The way to develop learned competence is fairly easy: analysing the grammar rules consciously and practising them through exercises. But what Acquisition / Learning Distinction Hypothesis predicts is that learning the grammar rules of a fo reign/second language does not result in subconscious acquisition. In other words, what you consciously learn does not necessarily become subconsciously acquired through conscious practice, grammar exercises and the like. Krashen formulates this idea in his well-known statement that â€Å"learning does not became acquisition†.It is at this point where Krashen receives major criticism. (2) The Natural Order Hypothesis According to the hypothesis, the acquisition of grammatical structures proceeds in a predicted progression. Certain grammatical structures or morphemes are acquired before others in first language acquisition and there is a similar natural order in SLA. The average order of acquisition of grammatical morphemes for English as an ‘acquired' language is given below: -Ing——–Aux———Irregular——Regular Past Plural—–>Article—->Past———->3rd Sing.The implication of natura l order is not that second or foreign language teaching materials should be arranged in accordance with this sequence but that acquisition is subconscious and free from conscious intervention (Ellidokuzoglu, 1992). (3) The Input Hypothesis This hypothesis relates to acquisition, not to learning. Krashen claims that people acquire language best by understanding input that is a little beyond their present level of competence. Consequently, Krashen believes that ‘comprehensible input' (that is, i + 1) should be provided. The ‘input' should be relevant and ‘not grammatically sequenced'.The ‘input' should also be in sufficient quantity as Richards pointed out: â€Å".. child acquirers of a first language are provided with samples of ‘caretaker' speech, rough – tuned to their present level of understanding, .. [and] adult acquirers of a second language [should be] provided with simple codes that facilitate second language comprehension. † (Richa rds, J. 1986:133) (4) The Monitor Hypothesis As is mentioned, adult second language learners have two means for internalising the target language. The first is ‘acquisition' which is a subconscious and intuitive process of constructing the system of a language.The second means is a conscious learning process in which learners attend to form, figure out rules and are generally aware of their own process. The ‘monitor' is an aspect of this second process. It edits and make alterations or corrections as they are consciously perceived. Krashen believes that ‘fluency' in second language performance is due to ‘what we have acquired', not ‘what we have learned': Adults should do as much acquiring as possible for the purpose of achieving communicative fluency. Therefore, the monitor should have only a minor role in the process of gaining communicative competence.Similarly, Krashen suggests three conditions for its use: (1) there must be enough time; (2) the foc us must be on form and not on meaning; (3) the learner must know the rule. (5) The Affective Filter Hypothesis The learner's emotional state, according to Krashen, is just like an adjustable filter which freely passes or hinders input necessary to acquisition. In other words, input must be achieved in low-anxiety contexts since acquirers with a low affective filter receive more input and interact with confidence. The filter is ‘affective' because there are some factors which regulate its strength.These factors are self-confidence, motivation and anxiety state. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION   Ã¢â‚¬â€œ   LANGUAGE LEARNING The expression â€Å"language learning† includes two clearly distinct, though rarely understood, concepts. One involves receiving information about the language, transforming it into knowledge through intellectual effort and storing it through memorization. The other involves developing the skill of interacting with foreigners to understand and speak their la nguage. The first concept is called â€Å"language learning,† while the other is referred to as â€Å"language acquisition. These are separate ideas and we will show that neither is the consequence of the other. The distinction between acquisition and learning is one of the hypotheses (the most important) established by the American Stephen Krashen in his highly regarded theory of foreign language learning. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION Language acquisition refers to the process of natural assimilation, involving intuition and subconscious learning, which is the product of real interactions between people where the learner is an active participant.It is similar to the way children learn their native tongue, a process that produces functional skill in the spoken language without theoretical knowledge; develops familiarity with the phonetic characteristics of the language as well as its structure and vocabulary, is responsible for oral understanding, the capability for creative communi cation and for the identification of cultural values. Teaching and learning are viewed as activities that happen in a personal psychological plane.The acquisition approach praises the communicative act and develops self-confidence in the learner. A classic example of language acquisition involves adolescents and young adults who live abroad for a year in an exchange program, attaining near native fluency, while knowing little about the language in the majority of cases. They have a good pronunciation without a notion of phonology, don't know what the perfect tense is, modal or phrasal verbs are, but they intuitively recognize and know how to use all the structures. LANGUAGE LEARNINGThe concept of language learning is linked to the traditional approach to the study of languages and today is still generally practiced in high schools worldwide. Attention is focused on the language in its written form and the objective is for the student to understand the structure and rules of the lang uage through the application of intellect and logical deductive reasoning. The form is of greater importance than communication. Teaching and learning are technical and governed by a formal instructional plan with a predetermined syllabus.One studies the theory in the absence of the practical. One values the correct and represses the incorrect. There is little room for spontaneity. The teacher is an authority figure and the participation of the student is predominantly passive. In the teaching of English, for example, one studies the function of the interrogative and negative modes, irregular verbs, modals, etc. The student learns to construct sentences in the perfect tense, but only learns with difficulty when to use it.It's a progressive and cumulative process, normally tied to a preset syllabus that includes memorization of vocabulary and seeks to transmit to the student knowledge about the language, its functioning and grammatical structure with its irregularities, its contrasts with the student's native language, knowledge that one hopes will become the practical skills of understanding and speaking the language. This effort of accumulating knowledge becomes frustrating because of the lack of familiarity with the language. Innumerable graduates with arts degrees in English are classic examples of language learning.They often are trained and theoretically able to teach a language that they can communicate in only with extreme difficulty. INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ACQUISITION AND LEARNING AND ITS IMPLICATIONS The clear understanding of the differences between acquisition and learning makes it possible to investigate their interrelationships as well as the implications for the teaching of languages. First, we ought to consider that languages, in general, are complex, arbitrary, irregular phenomena, full of ambiguities, in constant random and uncontrollable evolution.Therefore, the grammatical structure of a language can be too complex and abstract to be cate gorized and defined by rules. Even if some partial knowledge of the functioning of the language is reached, it is not easily transformed into communication skills. What happens in fact is a dependency predominantly opposite: to understand the functioning of a language as a system and to understand its irregularities is a function of familiarity with it. Rules and exercises only will make sense when we have already developed solid intuitive control of the language in its oral form, that is, when we have assimilated it.On the other hand, Krashen admits that the knowledge obtained through formal study (language learning) can serve to monitor speaking. Krashen, however, doesn't specify the language that would be the object of study, but he was probably using the study of Spanish as the basis for his inferences and conclusions because it is the dominant foreign language in the United States, and particularly in the state of California, where Professor Krashen lives and works.Therefore, i t is necessary to explore the degrees of irregularity and difficulty of the target language and how that affects Krashen's theory. THE DEGREE OF PHONETIC SIGNALING IN THE LANGUAGE AND THE INEFFICIENCY OF LEARNING: It's also easy to assess the degree of phonetic signalling of languages and understand the importance that that aspect has. If we analyse and compare Spanish and Portuguese with English, we conclude that there is a significant difference, being English considerably more economical and compact than the Romance languages.This means a greater difficulty in achieving oral proficiency in the target language when going from Portuguese or Spanish to English than going the opposite direction. It also means that more time needs to be devoted to the practice of the spoken language (especially listening) and less time spent on the study of text and grammatical items. |Let's-work. (2) |  (5) Va-mos-tra-ba-lhar. | |I-like-be-er. (4) |  (7) Eu-gos-to-de-cer-ve-ja. | |A-brick-house. (3) |  (8) U-ma-ca-sa-de-ti-jo-los. |Help-me-please. (3) |  (7) A-ju-de-me-por-fa-vor. | |How-old-are-you? (4) |  (7) Quan-tos-a-nos-vo-ce-tem? | |Where-is-the-bath-room? (5) |  (8) On-de-fi-ca-o-ba-nhei-ro? | |I-want-cof-fee-with-milk. (6) |  (8) Eu-que-ro-ca-fe-com-lei-te. | |Did-you-watch-that-mo-vie? (6) |(10) Vo-ce-as-sis-tiu-a-que-le-fil-me? |Third-world-coun-tries-are-             |(24) Os-pa-i-ses-do-ter-cei-ro-mun-do- es-tao- | |  fac-ing-e-co-no-mic-pro-blems. (13) |en-fren-tan-do-pro-ble-mas-e-co-no-mi-cos. | |TOTAL: 46 silabas |84 silabas | |35,3% |64,6% | ac-cess   /   a-ces-so |me-thod   /   me-to-do | |a-gri-cul-ture   /   a-gri-cul-tu-ra |mu-sic   /   mu-si-ca | |air-plane   /   a-vi-ao |na-ture   /   na-tu-re-za | |ca-len-dar   /   ca-len-da-rio |o-cean   /   o-ce-a-no | |cho-co-late   /   cho-co-la-te |po-li-tics   /   po-li-ti-ca | |ci-ty   /   ci-da-de |prin-ter   / m-pres-so-ra | |com-pu-te r   /   com-pu-ta-dor |pro-cess   /   pro-ces-so | |cre-a-tive   /   cri-a-ti-vo |pro-ject   /   pro-je-to | |de-part-ment   /   de-par-ta-men-to |psy-cho-lo-gy   /   psi-co-lo-gi-a | |dif-ference   /   di-fe-ren-ca |pu-blic   /   pu-bli-co | |gram-mar   /   gra-ma-ti-ca |qua-li-ty   /   qua-li-da-de | |im-por-tant   /   im-por-tan-te |stu-dent   /   es-tu-dan-te | |in-tel-li-gent   /   in-te-li-gen-te |te-le-phone   /   te-le-fo-ne | |ma-chine   /   ma-qui-na |trans-port   /   trans-por-te | |mo-dern   /   mo-der-no |ur-gent   /   ur-gen-te | WORD STRESSING:The unpredictability of word stressing in English and the absence of any indication of stress from spelling is another element to demonstrate that Krashen's arguments acquire even greater strength. There are many other points of contrast between English and Spanish that show the greater degree of irregularity and difficulty of English. The fact is that e ven with a target language with a large degree of regularity such as Spanish, the contribution of learning will only be effective and durable if the student simultaneously develops familiarity and skill with the language in natural environments. |(stress on the last syllable)   |hotel, control, police, improve, exchange, etc. only two-syllable | | |words) | |(stress on one before the last)   |video, English, important, united, revolution, etc. | |(stress on two before the last)   |excellent, hospital, government, photograph, photographer, etc. | |stress on three before the last |approximately, significantly, intelligible, objectionable, etc. | |double stress |approximation, refrigerator, characteristic, category, necessary, | |   |dictionary, fundamental, introductory, etc. | ———————– [pic]

Emergency nursing

Speaking about the Emergency nursing, we should take into account the role of the emergency nurse in the modern hospital and to take into account the most widespread mistakes, done by the nurses in the emergency department. Also, to analyze the causes of these mistakes. To begin with, emergency nurse is usually the first person, meeting the patient in the hospital. Due to the triage system it is the nurse, who decide, according to the type of the injury, to what kind of doctor the patient should be sent. Sometimes nurses in the emergency department do play a role of the doctor as well –they can prescribe some kind of medicines and to give them to the patient. The kind of mistake in this case can be like this: 1.    Wrong diagnose. 2.    Non –well-organized work of the staff. As to the second one, here can be shown the episode from one of the hospitals, where the mistake was done according to the miscommunication of two nurses. A 50-year-old man with new atrial fibrillation was placed on a diltiazem drip in the emergency department for rate control. After arriving at the cardiac care unit (CCU), he was noted to be hypotensive and a saline bolus was ordered. The nurse asked a coworker to get her a bag of saline and went to check on another patient. When she returned to the first patient’s bedside, she noticed that an intravenous (IV) bag was already hanging from the IV pole, and thought that her coworker must have placed the saline bag there. Believing the patient required a rapid saline infusion, she opened the IV up, and the solution infused in rapidly. At that moment, her coworker arrived with the 500 cc saline bag, which caused the patient’s nurse to realize, in horror, that she had given the patient an IV bolus of more than 300 mg of diltiazem. The patient suffered severe bradycardia, which required temporary transvenous pacemaker placement and calcium infusion. Luckily, there was no permanent harm. The commentary to this case was given by Mary Caldwell, RN, PhD, MBA, and Kathleen A. Dracup, RN, DNSc. This case study raises several troubling issues. A patient was given an inadvertent overdose of diltiazem during a hypotensive episode due to a miscommunication involving two nurses. Intravenous diltiazem can cause bradycardia, hypotension, and reduced myocardial oxygen consumption, all serious side effects in an already unstable patient.Reported error rates for the administration phase of medication procedures are significant, ranging from 26% to 36%. With respect to intravenous medication preparation and administration, the possibilities for error are magnified compared with oral agents. In one large study, the investigators reported an overall error rate of 49% for intravenous medications, with 73% of those errors involving bolus injections. Providers are likely to encounter at least four complications specific to intravenous drug administration. First, the drug can be infused too quickly or too slowly, unlike oral agents, which have only one rate of administration. Second, IV pumps used to control the rate of administration can fail to operate properly or can be set up incorrectly by a nurse. Third, preparation of the drug can lead to error, as when the drug is added to an incompatible solution or mixed using the wrong ratio of drug-to-IV solution. And finally, the medication can be given through the wrong port, such as into the right atrium rather than into a peripheral vein. Intuitively, one might guess that the critical care environment would be the site of more medication-related errors than less acute units. In one study that compared intensive care unit (ICU) with non-ICU medication-related errors, preventable adverse drug events were twice as common in ICUs as in non-ICUs. However, when these data were adjusted for the number of drugs used or ordered , there were no differences between the settings. The fact that the patient-to-nurse ratio in the ICU is usually less than or equal to 2:1, while a single nurse on a medical-surgical unit may be responsible for 5 to 10 patients, may mitigate the risk of drug errors in the critical care setting. The Institute for Safe Medication Practices cites the â€Å"five rights† of medication use (right patient, drug, time, dose, and route) as touchstones to aid in the prevention of errors. In this case, following the five rights may have prevented the overdose. However, one must also recognize that many processes used to prevent errors are more difficult to design and implement in critical care units because of the rapidity with which nurses and physicians must act. Therefore, the basics of safe drug administration practice take on even greater importance. Building in manual redundancies (such as verbal read-backs, similar to those used when administering blood transfusions) may help when there are variances to standard protocol, such as an IV bolus. The high error level documented in IV bolus infusions provides important support for reviewing hospital policies related to their administration. System failures also contributed to the error in this case. If the patient was unstable enough to require a 500 cc bolus of saline, why did the nurse leave the room to check on another patient? Was the staffing inadequate? Workforce issues have been an enormous concern in recent years as nursing shortages reach crisis proportions. Nurses are stretched thin, and the shortage is felt most acutely among specialty nurses. The clinical impact of staffing shortages on increased mortality and ‘failure-to-rescue’ have been noted. A survey conducted by NurseWeek/A-ONE found that 65% of RNs felt the shortage impeded their ability to maintain patient safety. Although specific figures regarding the extent of shortages in critical care are not available, the American Association of Critical Care Nurses states that requests for registry and traveling nurses have increased substantially across the country, with a 45% increase for adult critical care, 50% for Pediatric/Neonatal ICUs, and 140% for Emergency Departments. In the past, most ICUs accepted only experienced nurses (with more than 2 years clinical post-graduate experience) as staff. However, this requirement of previous experience is often waived in times of staff shortages. Although new graduates usually participate in hospital ICU training programs, the learning curves are steep and new nurses may become overwhelmed, leading to errors in communication and execution. A recent Food and Drug Administration (FDA) report listed a number of human factors associated with medication errors. Performance deficit (as opposed to knowledge deficit), such as seen in this case, was the human factor listed most commonly (30%). Poor communications contributed another 16% to total errors. Thus, this case illustrates a common source of error—a problem of performance related to poor communication. This case study also provides an opportunity to evaluate mistakes on the personal level. A serious, commonly identified shortcoming of the current medical system is the fear of disclosing errors. When errors occur, the responsible staff member should be an active participant in an evaluative process aimed at preventing similar errors from reoccurring. Results of the evaluation on an individual, unit, and hospital level should be shared with the entire hospital so that similar errors might be prevented in the future. The tradition of morbidity and mortality conferences, used commonly by physicians, has not been adopted by nursing staff and might be an appropriate strategy if it provided a blame-free environment in which mistakes and system level issues could be discussed openly. Specific measures to prevent errors in situations similar to this case might include: Standard policy typically dictates the use of IV pumps on all vasoactive drips. (Because it was not specifically noted in this case study, we are compelled to state the obvious.) Standard policy usually dictates that vasoactive drugs be infused through a site dedicated to only that drug. Therefore, at least one other separate IV site should be used for other fluids and medications. This practice eliminates the need to use the high risk IV and the potential for an inadvertent overdose. More obvious labeling of ‘high risk’ IV drips (eg, bigger, brighter labels; duplicate labeling on IV   Ã‚  bag, pump, monitor). Independent double-checks of bolus fluids by nurses prior to administration. Reevaluation of staffing requirements if a patient becomes unstable so that the patient–nurse ratio can be appropriately adjusted. Participation of nurses as well as physicians in morbidity and mortality conferences. Sometimes the mistakes occur because of inattentiveness of the nurse. By the way, the documents, fulfilled by the nurse, have to be readable and clear not only for the nurse herself, but for the other well-educated staff as well (I mean, the doctors, etc. ). The data’s have to be collected precisely and correctly. But let’s have a look at one of the patients cards, taken from the Hospital. (Pict.1) The information is just not readable, and it is rather difficult to understand, what were the results. This patient’s card look likes an album of the child, but not as a professionally made card of the well-qualified staff.   Speaking about this case of the 72 years old woman, it is possible to suggest, that the wrong diagnoses have been done, what approximately lead to the death of the patient. As to the medicines given, it is seen, that not all the medicines needed were given to the patient (at the age of 70 there have to be given some medicines for blood –Heparin and as well some medicines for keeping the heart activity. In this case it looks like that on the base of the cough (probably pneumonia) there was a kind of heart attack (probably cardiac infarction) with the complications as pulmonary edema(or edema of lungs). 1. Bates DW, Cullen DJ, Laird N, et al. Incidence of adverse drug events and potential adverse drug events. Implications for prevention. ADE Prevention Study Group. JAMA. 1995;274:29-34. [ go to pubmed]2. Taxis K, Barber N. Ethnographic study of incidence and severity of intravenous drug errors. BMJ. 2003;326:684. 3. Cullen DJ, Sweitzer BJ, Bates DW, Burdick E, Edmondson A, Leape LL. Preventable adverse drug events in hospitalized patients: a comparative study of intensive care and general care units. Crit Care Med. 1997;25:1289-1297. ]4. Aiken LH, Clarke SP, Sloane DM, Sochalski J, Silber JH. Hospital nurse staffing and patient mortality, nurse burnout, and job dissatisfaction. JAMA. 2002;288:1987-1993. 5. NurseWeek. NurseWeek/A-ONE National Survey of Registered Nurses: NurseWeek/A-ONE; 2002. ]6. Critical Care Nursing Fact Sheet. American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. ]7. Phillips J, Beam S, Brinker A, et al. Retrospective analysis of mortalities associated with medication er rors. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2001;58:1835-1841.

Pope Francis Quotes on Racism, Xenophobia, Immigration

Pope Francis has received praise for his forward-thinking views since 2013 when he became the first pontiff from Latin America. While the Catholic Church leader has not backed same-sex marriage or reproductive rights, he’s suggested that gay people and women who’ve had abortions deserve empathy and forgiveness, a departure from previous pontiffs. Given his views on these issues, progressives wondered what the pope might have to say about race relations when he made his first visit to the United States in September 2015. At that time, racial tensions continued to run high in the nation, with police killings and allegations of police brutality routinely making the news and trending on social media networks. Prior to his U.S. visit, Pope Francis had not specifically commented on the Black Lives Matter movement, but he had weighed in on racism, xenophobia, stereotypes, and diversity around the world. Familiarize yourself with the pope’s views on race relations with the following quotes. All Forms of Intolerance Should Be Fought Pope Francis  came down hard on intolerance while speaking to a group from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Rome in October 2013. He highlighted the center’s goal â€Å"to combat every form of racism, intolerance, and anti-Semitism† and noted that he’d recently reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s condemnation of anti-Semitism. â€Å"Today I wish to emphasize that the problem of intolerance must be confronted in all its forms: wherever any minority is persecuted and marginalized because of its religious convictions or ethnic identity, the well-being of society as a whole is endangered and each one of us must feel affected,† he said. â€Å"With particular sadness I think of the sufferings, the marginalization and the very real persecutions which not a few Christians are undergoing in various countries. Let us combine our efforts in promoting a culture of encounter, respect, understanding, and mutual forgiveness.† Although the pope could have limited his discussion of religious intolerance, he included intolerance based on ethnic identity in his speech as well, an indication that he’s concerned about the treatment of all minority groups. The World Cup as an Instrument of Peace When the FIFA World Cup kicked off in June 2014, many sports fans focused exclusively on whether their favorite teams would advance in the soccer (football) tournament, but Pope Francis offered a different viewpoint on the games. Before the opening match between Brazil and Croatia, Francis said the World Cup could teach the public a great deal about solidarity, teamwork, and honoring opponents. â€Å"To win, we must overcome individualism, selfishness, all forms of racism, intolerance, and manipulation of people,† he said. One cannot be a self-centered player and experience success, he said. â€Å"Let nobody turn their back on society and feel excluded!† he said. â€Å"No to segregation! No to racism!† Francis is reportedly a lifelong fan of the Buenos Aires soccer team San Lorenzo and hoped the World Cup served as a â€Å"festival of solidarity between peoples.† â€Å"Sport is not only a form of entertainment but also — and above all I would say — a tool to communicate values that promote the good that is in humans and help build a more peaceful and fraternal society,† he said. End Racism Against U.S.-Bound Migrants A year before real estate mogul-turned-President Donald Trump branded some undocumented immigrants from Mexico as rapists and drug traffickers, Pope Francis called on the United States to adopt a humanitarian approach to the migrants crossing the border, especially children. â€Å"Many people forced to emigrate suffer, and often die tragically,† the pope stated on July 15, 2014, in a message addressing a global conference in Mexico. â€Å"Many of their rights are violated, they are obliged to separate from their families and, unfortunately, continue to be the subject of racist and xenophobic attitudes.† Francis could have framed the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border as a humanitarian crisis without invoking racism and xenophobia, but he made a point to recognize how attitudes about â€Å"the other† influence immigration policy. The pope has a history of advocating for refugees, remarking on an Italian island in 2013 that the public was indifferent to the dire circumstances in which North African and Middle Eastern migrants find themselves. Stereotypes and the Criminal Justice System On Oct. 23, 2014, Pope Francis addressed a delegation from the International Association of Penal Law. Speaking to the group, Francis discussed the widespread idea that public punishment is the solution to difficult social problems. He expressed his disagreement with this view and questioned the motives of public punishment. â€Å"Scapegoats are not only sought to pay, with their freedom and with their life, for all social ills such as was typical in primitive societies, but over and beyond this, there is at times a tendency to deliberately fabricate enemies: stereotyped figures who represent all the characteristics that society perceives or interprets as threatening,† he said. â€Å"The mechanisms that form these images are the same that allowed the spread of racist ideas in their time.† This is the closest Francis came to addressing the Black Lives Matter movement before his visit to the U.S. in September 2015. Like many activists in the movement, Francis suggests that racial scapegoating factors into why society favors taking freedom away from some groups and placing them behind bars for years rather than remedy the social ills that keep prisons overflowing. Embracing Differences While discussing tensions between Catholics and Muslims in January 2015, Pope Francis once again emphasized the need to accept differences. He told a delegation affiliated with the Pontifical Institute of Arab and Islamist Studies that â€Å"patience and humility† are musts in the Islamic-Christian dialogue to avoid fueling â€Å"stereotypes and preconceptions.† â€Å"The most effective antidote to every form of violence is education about discovering and accepting difference as richness and fertileness,† Francis said. As his other remarks on diversity indicate, accepting differences can apply to religious faith, ethnicity, race and much more. The lesson to be learned, according to the pope, is that people don’t divide themselves and lash out against others based on differences.