Nhs Database Administrator Criteria and Job Description

? On of the tree jobs I chose to research is as an NHS Database Administration in this page I will explain some of the tasks that a Database Administrator will do and how many files need updating. And why the job role is available and what skills I would need to have to apply for this job. The role of a database administrator is to: Ensure patient medical records are correctly updated Make appointments Check in arriving patients using an internal database system Problem solving skillsTelephone work both internally and externally Administration Support In this job there are a large number of files that need to be updated because they have incorrect information included in them. This problem is solved by the database administrator who investigates the files and resolves any issues that crop up so that the information in these files is completely correct and filed correctly. Part of the reason this job is available is because clients have a back log to get through.Database Management Sy stem and DataI think this job would be good for me because it is a temporary ongoing position that requires the person that gets this job to be flexible in the tasks asked of them. The skills I would need for this job are as follows: Experience working within the NHS. Minimum of 1 year of administration experience. Good IT skills using Microsoft word and excel. I would need to be able to work towards meeting and meet the agreed deadlines. And I would need good communication skills.

Hit and Run Sports and Lesiure Company Essay

* The company provides wide range of sports and leisure facilities to members and non-members. The facilities include golf courses, football pitch, basketball court and swimming pool. Members have to book to use facilities and bill is charged to their account. * The leisure club’s shop provide to customers wide range of sports goods such as clothing, golf clubs and tennis racquets. For members there is 10 % discount. * The club provides qualified coaches for different sports that can be booked to give lessons to individuals or groups. The fee is charged for each lesson and the company receives half of the fee. Types of members Type of membership Description Individual They are any one of the ages from 16 to 60, who are not students, under corporate or affiliated team member. Student This membership is available to anyone over 16 and under 25 years of age who is in full time education. Senior For elderly people who are over the age of 60. Corporate For nominated employees from a company who has account with the leisure centre. Family This is available up to 2 adults and 4 children. Children who are under the age of 12 can only join the club as part of a family membership. Affiliated team Available to local sports teams. It allows them for priority bookings and discount rates for regular bookings. Functions of each department within the clubs The club shop The primary function of the shop is to sell sports equipment. However the sales assistants are also responsible for replenishing the stock on display from the stockroom. Also the shop can take bookings for the facilities. They hold all their stock item’s details and quantities on the database. When a member purchase an item, the item code is typed in and the description and the price is displayed on the screen. Also the member’s number is entered from their membership card. This allows them to identify the member and available discount is automatically calculated. The shop also allows members to pay through their account, cash, cheque or credit card. If credit card is used, the Sales assistant has to contact the credit card Company, usually by telephone, to check the credit availability. Receipt is issued when the sale is complete and the appropriate stock item quantities are decreased. The Sales manager is responsible for regulating the stock of all equipment. The sales manager has to make sure that the quantities are up to the required levels. If there is a shortage of any equipment, the database automatically produces a report. This operates at the end of each working day. The following day, the Sales manager telephones the appropriate equipment suppliers and orders the equipment required. The confirmed purchase orders are printed and sent by post. The shop also has specially printed carrier bags for customer’s purchases. The design of the bag changes every year however it always includes the Hit and Run name and logo. Every year the Sales and Marketing Director negotiates a new order for bags for all clubs. Administration The administration manager handles all applications for membership with the help of assistant. The administration assistants are responsible for all office procedures within a club. They produce and post out all correspondence from the club such as letters to members. They also produces invoices for goods and services. One of the administration assistants is responsible for updating the member’s details on database and also ordering membership cards. The summary of all membership transactions which include new members, bookings and membership renewals, is sent to Head office on a floppy disk. The floppy disk also contains information about financial summaries for shop sales, membership and booking fees and lastly a summary of all purchase orders raised. Administration assistant sends all the invoices received by suppliers on the goods received or service done, to head office. This is done at the end of each week. Head office then deals with the payment. Most important function of Administration department is keeping records of the hours worked by each member of the club’s staff along with any coaching fees received. The information is sent to the Human Resource department in head office. The human resource department deals with the information so that wages due can be calculated and paid. Reception Reception department deals with bookings. When a member books facilities, receptionist take member number on a booking login screen together with expiry date on the card. The member’s details are displayed on the screen. Receptionist asks for member’s address and name. When it is confirmed booking screen is displayed. The member’s number is copied onto the booking screen. Also code for facility, the date and the start time is required. The booking system then checks the availability of the facility and if it is the booking is confirmed. Then a booking card is produced containing the information to the member. Reception also deals with members checking in. The member provides the receptionist with the booking number. The details of the booking are displayed on the computer when the booking number is typed in on a check in screen. The receptionist checks and allocation of the facility is confirmed. Then another card is printed for the member. This confirms that the facility has been booked. Facilities maintenance The facilities manager deals with maintenance of all the buildings and facilities in the club. Outdoor facilities such as pitches and the golf course are maintained b a team of green keepers. A team of maintenance staff maintains the indoor facilities and the structure of the buildings. The facilities manager must schedule regular maintenance. This will reduce the chance of member’s disruption on using facilities and also to make efficient use of available staff. The manager also contacts contractors from outside the club for tasks such as the servicing or repair of mowers, rowing machines and other equipment. Once a month the manager contacts suppliers for cleaning materials. Coaching Qualified coaches provide lessons for each of sports. They provide this service to groups or individuals. They also supervise the use of club facilities. The head coach is responsible for ordering sports equipment needed such as tennis balls, shuttlecocks, nets or racquets. This is sent off to the suppliers by fax. Suppliers to the club and relationship between these suppliers and the department/individuals within the company * Sports equipment retailers – They provide stocks for the shop in the clubs. The sales manager phones the suppliers when there are shortage of equipment. They also provide equipment for the coaching department. * Card Company – They provide membership cards for the administration department. The administration assistant sends the details of the membership card. * Cleaning material suppliers – They provide cleaning materials to the facilities maintenance department. The facilities manager places the order. * Maintenance equipment service – The service is provided for repairing or servicing mowers, rowing machines and other equipment for facilities maintenance department. Facilities manager also places the order. * Carrier bag suppliers – They provide carrier bags for the sport shop. The sales manager and marketing manager change the design every year. The supplier provides yearly allocation. * ICT service and suppliers – The club uses ICT facilities. There are computer workstations at the main desk, in the sports shop, administration office and the General Manger’s office. They need software, which hold data for all sports equipment in sports shop. Also for membership database and booking data. The ICT suppliers along with ICT department in head office supply this.

Mythology by Edith Hamilton Critical Analysis

Mythology by Edith Hamilton Edith Hamilton: Mythology is a collection of Greek and Roman myths retold by Edith Hamilton. It is rewritten in a way that more readers could comprehend its content. The book was published in 1999 by Grand Central Publishing in New York, New York. Edith Hamilton believed that Greek myths â€Å"show how high the ancient Greeks rose above ancient filth and fierceness. † However, she also believed that â€Å"Greek mythology do not throw any clear light upon what early mankind was like† (14).They were simply written by ancient societies or civilizations to express themselves or to explain natural events that occurred around them. In addition, Edith Hamilton also says that the â€Å"best guides to a knowledge of Greek mythology are the Greek writers who believe what they wrote† (23). Edith Hamilton: Mythology can be described in many ways. It can be described and analyzed by its purpose, organization and language, and interpretation. One wa y that it could be described is by analyzing the book's purpose. This book was written for many purposes.In Hamilton's perspective, the purpose of this work was simply to â€Å"show us the way the human race thought and felt untold ages ago† (13). Another purpose of the book was to entertain its readers and audiences. Reading Edith Hamilton's collection of Greek and Roman myths gives its readers more knowledge about how ancient civilizations explained things. Hamilton's purpose for writing this literary work was also to â€Å"make the reader see some differences between writers [of the original], who were so different† from each other.She accomplished this by writing short passages about the original writers at the beginning of each story. Her goal for this book was to be accurate and close to the original and for readers to gain knowledge of myths and an idea of what each original writer was like (Foreword). The organization and language of Edith Hamilton: Mythology i s another way to analyze this book. Hamilton organized her work in easy-to-follow groups. Short love stories were all in one chapter, and the events of the Trojan War were all in another chapter.She also kept the Greek stories and the Roman stories separated by using only Greek characters in some stories and using only Roman characters in the next. While that organization made the book more convenient, it may also have confused some readers. The transition from Roman gods in one story to Greek gods in the next story came so unexpectedly that it may have surprised or confused readers. Hamilton was very sophisticated with her use of words and language in the book. While that may have impressed some of her audiences, others may have preferred the use of simple and easy-to-understand language.Edith Hamilton: Mythology can be interpreted by its effectiveness and appeal to its audience. It was very educational and effective in letting the reader understand the interaction between mortals and immortals. This literary work was definitely a monomyth, a hero with a thousand faces. Most of the stories all related to each other, and some were basically the same stories, only told by different writers using similar gods, goddesses, and mortals. The myths also contained a few recurring themes such as the theme of love.In several stories, readers were told that love was given to mortals by the gods and that it was unavoidable. The stories and myths appealed to the reader and audience in many ways. Some stories or myths contained humor, while others were quite moving and heart-warming. For example, in Hercules's story, we are told that Hercules drank and partied one night while everyone else around him was mourning a woman's death. Hercules regretted being merry on such a night that he did all that he could to bring the woman back to life (176-178). That story was very sweet and heart-warming.It also showed the readers Hercules's true character and how much he cared about the people around him. Other myths and stories provided suspense or even mystery to its audience. The story of â€Å"The Quest of the Golden Fleece† kept some readers wanting to keep reading just to find out what the future held for Jason, the Argonauts, and Medea. Overall, Edith Hamilton: Mythology was a collection of Greek and Roman myths rewritten by Edith Hamilton. Her book can be analyzed by its purpose, organization and language, and its interpretation.It was written to inform its audience about how humans thought and felt ages ago. Its content was organized in such a way that made it easier to understand for some readers. The book's stories were very effective in letting its audience know about the relationship between the gods and the mortals. They also appealed to readers because of their humor or suspense. People all over would now be able to read and understand Greek, as well as Roman, mythology because of the literary work, Edith Hamilton: Mythology.

Effects of Culture on Art Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Effects of Culture on Art - Dissertation Example Culture is related to significance, understanding, aptitudes, business, society and standards. The purpose of the study is to have a better perceptive of the control of culture on art, a motor of financial as well as communal modernization. The culture related art is connected to the aptitude of individuals, particularly artists, to think creatively or symbolically, to test the conservative, and to call on the representational as well as affective to correspondence. Culture related art has the ability to â€Å"break conventions† (Greenberg, p. 93, 1971), the standard approach of assessment, to let the expansion of a fresh image, a thought or a product. The temperament of culture related art is directly correlated to the â€Å"nature of artistic contribution as expressed in art or cultural productions; the spontaneous, intuitive, singular and human nature of cultural creation enriches society† (Benton & DiYanni, p. 43, 2007). Theories as well as methodical advancements o ffer accommodating tools to be aware of art but are not enough to understand the cultural aspect of art. Research on creativity in relation to culture has been inclined to concentrate on the perceptive of artistic accomplishment. As a result, the importance of art is randomly applied and has been mainly influenced by business management literature background regulations to facilitate the materialization of creative administrations. The Effect of British and African Culture in their Art The contact between culture and art is difficult and culture â€Å"cannot always be associated with art† (Crowley, p. 52, 2011). Culture is as well regarding acknowledged conventions while communicating for instance legacy, customs or when it communicates to civilizing inventions that construct on the flourishing as well as the tested (results, directory management, legends). Cultural principles may as well give rise to prejudice and fanaticism that hold back creativity. On the other hand, with out art there would not be melody, verse, images, creative writing as well as all imaginative work linked with art as well as cultural industries. Foreign artists, throughout much of the Renaissance, ruled British art, however, during the 18th century a local practice turns out to be more accepted. It is mostly known to be characterized by scenery images, for instance, the work of â€Å"Turner and John Constable† (Draper, p. 54, 2004). â€Å"Portraitists like Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds and William Hogarth† (Draper, p. 69, 2004) are as well very noteworthy. Hogarth also introduced a unique technique of satirical imaging. British creative writing starts with Anglo-Saxon narrative. For a lot many years, Latin as well as French were the chosen legendary languages of England, although during the medieval phase there was a blooming of literature within Middle British; â€Å"Geoffrey Chaucer is the most well-known writer of this period† (Draper, p. 102, 2004) . The Elizabethan period is occasionally called as the â€Å"golden age of English literature† (Draper, p. 130, 2004), as a number of outstanding writers was writing in English, and the Elizabethan plays created William Shakespeare, frequently recognized as the English national writer. As a result of the growth of English into a world language at some point in the British Empire, narrative is now written in English all over the world. Authors usually connected with England or for expressing Englishness take account of

Fifth Amendment Confessions and Interrogations Research Paper

Fifth Amendment Confessions and Interrogations - Research Paper Example However, Amanda had a right to contest the quality of the drug under the conspiracy count at the time of her sentencing hearing. Before the hearing, she was told that her plea had been accepted and that she was going to face a mandatory minimum sentence in prison for one year for the offence. But if the prosecution could prove that the amount of the cocaine that was involved required five kilograms, that was necessary for longer sentence, she would face a minimum of not less than ten years in prison. During the trial, Amanda was informed that by making the guilty plea, she was relinquishing her Fifth Amendment right that she had the right to remain silent at the time of trial (Berger, 111). During the trial, the District Court heard several testimonies from Amanda’s co-defendants, they testified that the alleged drug amount that Mitchell sales put her above the five-kilogram threshold. Mitchell on the other hand never testified in defence of the charges made by the government regarding the mass of the drug. Her lawyers argued that the mass of the cocaine that was attributed for her sentence purpose was not equivalent to the threshold. But as a result of her pleading guilty, the District Court ruled that Amanda had given up the right of remaining silent on the crimes that were detailed. As a result, the District Court agreed with testimonies given by her co-defendants’ that had put her on the five-kilogram threshold. As a result, a minimum sentence of ten years was mandated (Hickey, 55). It was noted that the failure on testifying had contributed to the decision that was made by the court to accept the very testimonies that were given by her co-defendants. The Court of Appeals affirmed this decision. However, the District Court held that at sentencing, the pleading guilty was not a waiver of privilege. In addition, it held that trial courts might not draw antagonistic inference though the silence of

SWOT Presentation Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

SWOT Presentation - Research Paper Example Each village has a major subtropical swimming paradise that is heart to its activities with a constant temperature of 84 degrees Fahrenheit. In addition, the area is filled with wild water rapids, spa pool, solaria and pools for children playing, wave pool, water slides in the midst of luxuriant tropical trees and other plants. The Sherwood Forest village was the first of the Center Parcs villages opened in July 1987; it can accommodate over 4,200 guests per break on a 400 acre facility (Center Parcs, 2012). It also has a range of leisure, outdoor and indoor facilities. The villages offer luxurious but relaxed atmosphere and holidays over short breaks: weekends and midweek breaks all year round as well as increased stays during normal periods of visiting. This strategy has been successful in that each village records occupancy figures of above 90% and repeated bookings in a year that rise above 60% (Center Parcs, 2012). Strategic Business Units at Center Parcs These are the organizat ional units/villages developed by Center Parcs Ltd. and function independently but under one corporation, Center Parcs. Center Parcs Ltd had four villages, namely Sherwood Forest, Elveden Forest Brandon in Suffolk, Oasis Whinfell Forest Penrith Cumbria and Longleat Forest in Warminster, Wilshire (Center Parcs, 2012). Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire This village boosts a conference centre, the Venue, which has a variety of modern and comfortable air-conditioned rooms of varying sizes. Delegates enjoy this village due to its ideal atmosphere in a peaceful environment. In addition, Center Parcs (2012) reveals that the village has a wide range of leisure activities as well as the Aqua Sana spa to ensure a relaxed mind after meetings. The Venue has rooms that can accommodate up to a maximum of 600 guests while other rooms like at the Major Oak can accommodate 300 guests (Center Parcs, 2012). Other rooms are available at various points at the Sherwood Forest village. Whinfell Forest, Cum bria This village is located on the rim of Lake District that boosts wildlife and is home to few colonies of Red Squirrels still surviving in the UK. This village is the best in providing activities involving energetic building of teams, informal meetings or relaxing retreats. The village’s Green Room can accommodate a maximum of 350 guests (Center Parcs, 2012). Elveden Forest, Suffolk Similar to Sherwood Forest village, this village too has the Venue - a purpose built conference room with a variety of modern and comfortable air-conditioned rooms of varying sizes. Delegates enjoy this village due to its environment. Anglia 1, 2, 3 accommodates a maximum of 450 guests while the least, 8, can be accommodated at Wolsey. Longleat Forest, Wiltshire Longleat Forest is home to the Venue – a conference centre purposefully built for meetings of delegates who come here due to peaceful setting and an environment that enables them to prepare constructively for their meetings and o ther activities. In addition, the village has a variety of modern rooms well equipped with air conditioners and of varying sizes. The wide variety of leisure activities, including the ward winning spa, Aqua Sana, ensures that the delegates are well refreshed and relaxed before and after their meetings. The Venue can accommodate a

Managment Planning Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Managment Planning - Research Paper Example Presently, the organization operates in over 60 international markets. The objectives of the organization are to attain an overall growth in terms of governance, organizational culture, customer retention and enhanced financial strength (Tyco, 2011). Therefore, management planning holds a vital role in the decision-making process of the organization. The objective of the paper will be to recognize the various management functions considered in the organization, i.e. ‘planning, organizing, leading and controlling’ as identified by Bateman & Snell (2009). It will further intend to evaluate the influences of legal issues, ethical considerations and corporate social responsibilities (CSR) on the management planning. It will also intend to identify and evaluate three other factors in the external and/or in the internal environment which have a significant influence on the strategic, tactical, operational and contingency planning. 2.0. Planning Functions of Management Accordin g to Bateman & Snell (2009), â€Å"management is the process of working with people and resources to accomplish organisational goals†. In order to execute the process with efficiency it is quite essential for the managers to take the support of a well-structured management planning. ... organizational leaders to identify the further scope of the business in terms of product line and efficiency but also plays a major role in rewarding an enhanced strategic value to the organization (Bateman & Snell, 2009). To be related with Tyco’s long-term management planning, its further initiation concentrates on its growth strategies. During the management planning for the future years, the company leaders also consider the opportunities focusing on the investments in ADT, marketing & sales and R&D (research & development). The planning also includes ‘bolt-on acquisitions’ along with further concentration on productivity improvements and capital allocations (Tyco, 2011). The planning function executed by Tyco can be observed as entirely based on the goals, i.e. to attain overall development comprising every aspect of the organization. Hence, the planning functions of the organization can be referred to be as highly effective considering the aspects raised by Bateman and Snell. 2.2. Organizing Organizing is referred to as a complex process considering almost every aspect involved in the management decision-making, from financial factors to the issues related with human resources. While executing the function, managers should not only consider the aspects active in the internal environment of the organization, but also emphasize on the external influencing factors, such as laws, socio-demographic features and others (Bateman & Snell, 2009). In this regard, the organizational leaders can be witnessed to effectively organize the available resources with due consideration to the external influencing factors. For instance, the strategic objective of the organization correlates with the technological, operational and branding or marketing along with the

Difference between Chinas economic management style and the Western Essay

Difference between Chinas economic management style and the Western style - Essay Example 1). The transition from a planned economy to a market economy has been particularly smooth with significant opportunities for entrepreneurship and expansion both at home and abroad (Long & Han, 2008, p. 52). The market-oriented economy is vastly similar to Western economies, yet China’s economic management style differs because of the remnants of the post-Maoist market socialism (Krau, 1996, p. 96). In the meantime, the Chinese government maintains strong control (Krua, 1996, p. 96). The purpose of this research study is to determine the extent to which this mixture of capitalism and socialism in China’s economy differs from the economic management style of the West. It will be demonstrated that what makes China’s economic management style unique and different from the West is the remnants of past socialist influences, persistent government control and the adoption of a market-oriented economy. From the outset, it is worth noting that the most obvious difference between China’s economic management style and that of Western countries is China’s persistent adherence to five year economic plans regardless of leadership changes. The first five year plan from 1953-1957 was influenced by the Soviet Marist style Communism and emphasized industrial growth. At the time, the ideal economic plan for Communism was to develop industry and the economy via â€Å"heavy industry, fuels, electric power, iron, and steel, machinery manufacturing, and chemicals†.... In China, during the first Five Year Economic Plan, the government owned 75% of all of China’s production and private enterprises owned the remaining 25%. During the first Five Year Plan, China was determined to further erode the percentage of private ownership. Rather than immediately turn these private ventures into state properties, the government decided to first form partnerships between private firms and state-owned firms (Galloway, 2011). As China moved forward in the 20th century, it looked for a â€Å"cultural formula† that would help it embrace modernity (Lu, 2004, p. 201). China was struggling with what is often referred to as a â€Å"cultural revolution† in which much of the blame for China’s â€Å"backwardness† was placed on â€Å"Confucianism, the foundation of traditional Chinese culture† (Lu, 2004, p. 201). There were scholars advocating for more â€Å"Western democratic† ideology (Lu, 2004, p. 201). These scholars†™ arguments would find currency in Mao’s belief that in order to embrace a proletarian culture that focused on the masses and not the elite, the old culture had to be left behind (Lu, 2004, p. 201). In the meantime, adherents to China’s traditional culture were entirely resistant to abandoning old values and norms. As Lu (2004) notes: China has been wrestling with the dilemma of modernity versus traditionality and Westernization versus national identity. Given that China now embodies a seemingly contradictory combination of authoritarian government and market economy, the path to culture reconstruction seems even more uncertain and unsettling (p. 201). Mao’s concept of a looking after the masses included state-owned enterprises and a centrally planned market. According to Kshetri (2009), under Mao’s centralized market plan,

Tax Law Research Worksheet Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Tax Law Worksheet - Research Paper Example Rulings in agreement with administrative rules together with court rulings permit for the formation of public agencies that regulate and govern statutes and judicial decisions. The purpose of these administrative agencies aid in administering rulings that are being geared towards implementation of the duties and powers of the laws stipulated. Additionally, it prevents against impunity regarding the violation of laws and regulations enforced by these administrative agencies. Administrative rulings and court cases have helped in the design of a system of checks and balances that aims to minimize the risks of bureaucracy (Tax Law, 2003). In many occasions, there has been inconsistencies and conflict about court rulings. If I had a choice to choose the judgment to go with, then I would rely on the hierarchical rule between the two court rulings. The hierarchical rule will dictate the case ruling that will dominate over the other and that is the position I will take. It is because a court case ruling based on the internal revenue code will always prevail over a case ruling basing on other tax law. It is because the code is supreme over the other tax laws (Tax Law, 2003). It is possible to use timing strategies to have an impact (AGI) Adjusted Gross Income deductions, tax credits, itemized deductions and dependency exceptions. It is possible by strategically timing when the year ends. It means that there will be less uncertainty to the short-term viewpoint for tax law as opposed to the beginning of the next year. With this brief tax reprieve comes the opportunity to form a tax saving plan that is sound. It is essential to time strategically the moment to implement the plan. For example, one can reap benefits on tax retirement savings by making a maximum amount allowable at the end of every year. On the other hand, income shifting strategies impacts or alters these deductions by reducing the central income tax

Negotiation Journal Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Negotiation Journal - Research Paper Example There are different pointers of what strategy to adopt in an impending negotiation activity. Before choosing a given strategy to use in a negotiation, it is important to consider three main factors. The first factor is extent of valuation of a product, issues or services that cause negotiation to happen. If a given party values an issue, product or service under consideration extremely than relationship, then a win-lose strategy is appropriate. In a win-lose negotiation strategy, relationship is not important and one party of the negotiation will wish to win and does not care of the other party. Win-lose strategy also applies when a party is discussing a fixed position or idea. It is applicable when a price of a product or an idea is fixed. Second factor to consider is the relationship between negotiators. If both parties perceive that they need each other after the negotiation, then win-win negotiation strategy is the most appropriate. In a win-win negotiation strategy, both parties to a negotiation must cooperate, participate or compromise part of their interest to accommodate each other. Both parties to a negotiation agree and discus mutually profitable actions to take. Consequently, both parties benefits after the negotiation. ... Some cultures may prefer win-win strategy while others may prefer win-lose strategy. Win-win negotiation strategy is always possible. It is also one of the most preferred business negotiation strategies available. The purpose of two parties entering into a negotiation is always to benefit from one another. Therefore, it is possible to pursue win-win strategy especially when both parties can cooperate and compromise without incurring any loss. For example, a supplier may agree to reduce a price by a certain percentage and retain some substantial profits. Both parties win because a buyer saves some money and supplier builds a favourable business relationship. At times, win-lose negotiation becomes the only negotiation strategy viable. This is often applicable where a situation or price product is fixed and cannot be changed further because it will result in a loss. Therefore, there will be no room for adjustments and the other party can either agree to the terms of the situation as the y are or forfeit the matter or the product altogether. Win-lose negotiation is always confrontational and each party tries to take advantage of the other party. The forty-eight laws of power can be helpful when crafting a distributive negotiation strategy and tactics. This applies when the other party to a negotiation is confrontational, short sighted, stereotype, aggressive and uncooperative. Forty-eight laws of power can be useful in disarming the other party’s uncompromising stance. However, if the other party is genuinely willing to cooperate, compromise and is interested in long-term relationship, it may not be an appropriate strategy. Therefore, negotiation strategies should be used according to the

Hp Case Study Essay Example for Free

Hp Case Study Essay In looking at this issue from all perspective, I would recommend HP to adopt universal power supply as the potential benefits outweigh the costs. From one perspective, $30 increases in product that sale for $1000 which is only 3%. This 3% increase will eliminate a lot of marketing, manufacturing, forecasting, and logistical problem that HP is spending millions each year. I believe that by spending 3% more upfront will have better bottom line effect in end. Not to mention, it will also add value to customer in sense HP may be the only company that offers universal power supply. Given the short life cycles of laser printers (18 months) along with high demand uncertainty, and the past experiences (the VIPER example), we recommend adopting the universal power supply strategy. However, clearly, to make the final decision, a thorough cost vs. benefit analysis needs to be carried out in order to determine the trade-off between the increase in manufacturing costs ($30 per printer for the universal power supply) and the decrease in stock-out and inventory holding (and improved forecasts) costs due to risk pooling and data aggregation as well as re-configuration and transshipment costs. The main component of a printer that actually performs the printing. The printer engine determines how fast and at what resolution the printer can print. Although there are many manufacturers of printers, many use the same printer engines. The difference between printers using the same printer engine revolves around other features, such as paper handling abilities and the console. Central mechanism of a laser printer that translates a printer controllers signals into the printed image. Print engines are differentiated by their output quality (resolution), print speed (pages per minute), and type of ink (or toner) used. A laser printers manufacturer (such as Hewlett Packard) is not necessarily the same as its print engine manufacturer (such as Canon). A printer fuser is the part of any laser printer or copier that makes the toner ink stick to the paper. A fuser consists of two heated rollers, and it often is the main culprit in printer breakdowns. Without it, though, toner ink would constantly smudge and would become illegible after hands touched it. A laser printer fuser or copier fuser is essential to printing. The ink drum first spreads out the ink into a pattern of a photo, term paper or whatever is being printed. At this point, the ink is very volatile because it simply sits atop the paper and has not yet become one with the sheet. This wet ink immediately goes between both rollers. Thanks to the heat and the pressure from the fuser, the ink is integrated into the paper and will not smudge as easily.

Language acquisition Essay Example for Free

Language acquisition Essay Psychological principles of SLA form the foundation stones for building a comprehensible understanding of the acquisition of the linguistic system. The studies was centered on the contrasts between the native lang and the target lang (contrastive analysis) and the effect of the native on the target lang (cross linguistic influence). 1-The contrastive analysis Hypothesis It’s the study of two languages in contrast. Based on the behavioristic and structuralism approaches, it claimed that the principal barrier to SLA is the interference of the FL system with the SL system, and that a scientific, structural analysis of both lang in question would shield a taxonomy of linguistic contrasts between them which in turn would enable the linguist to predict the difficulties a learner could encounter. This would enable the linguist to accurately describe the two langs in question, and to match those two descriptions against each other to determine valid contrasts between them. Behaviorism contributed to the notion that human behavior is the sum of its smallest parts and components, and therefore that lang learning could be described as the acquisitions of all of those discrete units. Moreover, human learning theories highlighted interfering elements of learning, concluding that where no interference could be predicted, no difficulty would be experienced since one could transfer positively all other items in a lang. (SL basically involved the overcoming of the differences between the two lang systems-the native and target langs) Some rather strong claims were made of the CAH by lang teaching experts and linguists. A well-known model was offered by stock-well, Bowen and martin who posited what they called a hierarchy of difficulty by which a teacher could make a prediction of the relative difficulty of a given aspect of the target lang. They suggested eight possible phonological degrees of difficulty and they also constructed a hierarchy of difficulty for grammatical structures which included 16 levels of difficulty. Clifford Prator captured the essence of this grammatical hierarchy in six categories of difficulty which was applicable to both grammatical and phonological features of lang. * Level 0: Transfer. No difference or contrast is present between the 2 langs. The learner can simply transfer positively a sound, structure, or lexical item from the native lang to the target lang. EG: mortal, inteligente, arte, Americanos, etc. *Level 1-coalescence. Two items in the native lang become coalesce into one item in the target one. This requires the learner overlook a distinction they have grown accustomed to. EG: English 3rd person possessives require gender distinction while in Spanish they don’t. *Level 2-underdifferenciation: an item in the native lang is absent in the target lang. The learner must avoid it. EG: auxiliaries: DO. *Level 3-Reinterpretation: an item that exists in the native lang is given a new shape or distribution. *Level 4-Overdifferentiation: a new item entirely must be learned. English speakers learning Spanish must learn to include determiners in generalized nominal. (Man is mortal/El hombre es mortal); to learn Spanish grammatical gender inherent in nouns. *Level 5-Split:one item in the native lang becomes two or more in the target lang, requiring the learner to make a new distinction. E. g. an English speaker learning Spanish must learn the distinction between â€Å"Ser† o â€Å"estar† (TO BE). Prator and Stockwell both claimed that their hierarchy could be applied to virtually any two langs and make it possible to predict SL learner difficulties in any lang with a fair degree of certainty and objectivity. 2-From the CAH to CLI However, The CAH was not accepted for various reasons. First, it was oversimplified because it didn’t account for subtle phonetic, phonological and grammatical distinctions. Secondly, it was difficult to determine exactly which category a particular contrast fit into. That’s why Ronald Wardhaugh called the attempt to predict difficulty by means of contrastive analysis, the Strong version of the CAH due to the fact that it was quite unrealistic and impracticable and also it was built on sound theory to contrast the forms of langs. Nevertheless, he also noted that CA had intuitive appeal, and that teachers and linguists had successfully used the best linguistic knowledge available in order to account for observed difficulties in SL learning. He termed such observational use of CA the WEAK version of the CAH which recognizes the significance of interference across langs, the fact that such interference does exist and can explain difficulties and also recognizes that linguistic difficulties can be more profitably explained after the fact. This WEAK version is what now is called CROSS LINGUISTIC INFLUENCE. (implies much more than simply the effect of one’s first lang on a second: the second lang also influences the first). 3-Markedness and universal grammar  Fred Eckman proposed a useful method for determining directionality of difficulty. His markedness Differential hypothesis accounted for relative degrees of difficulties by means of principles of universal grammar. It distinguishes members of pair of related forms or structures by assuming that the marked member of a pair contains at least one more feature than the unmarked one. E. g. indefinite articles (a/an), an is the more complex or marked form (it has an additional sound) and a is the unmarked form with the wider distribution. Eckman showed that marked items in a lang, which are acquired later, will be more difficult to acquire than unmarked In recent years, the attention of some SL researchers has expanded beyond markedness hypothesis alone to broader framework of linguistic universals in gral, some of which focus on the applicability of notions of UG to SLA. Many rules acquired by children learning their FL are presumed to be universal. By extension, rules that are share by all langs comprise this UG. Such rules are a set of limitations or parameters of lang. Different langs set their parameters differently, thereby creating the characteristic grammar for that lang. The hope is that by discovering innate principles that govern what is possible in human langs, we may be better able to understand and describe contrasts between native and target langs and the difficulties encountered by adult SL learners. However, we do well to remember that describing and predicting difficulties amidst all the variables of human learning is still an elusive process. 4-Learner Language. The CAH, as we said before, ignores the intralingual effects of learning and other factors. This is the reason why researchers and teachers have come more and more to understand that SL learning is a process of the creative construction of a system in which learners are consciously testing hypothesis about the target lang from a number of possible sources of knowledge. They, in acting upon their environment, construct what to them is a legitimate system of lang on its own right-a structured set of rules that for the time being bring some order to the linguistic chaos that confronts them. By a gradual process of trial and error and hypothesis testing, learners slowly and tediously succeed in establishing closer and closer approximations to the system used by native speakers of the lang. A number of terms were coined to describe this process: Selinker: interlanguage: refers to the separateness of a SL learner’s system, a system that has a structurally intermediate status between the native and the target langs; Nemser-Approximate system; Corder-Idiosyncratic dialect: refers to the idea that the learner’s lang is unique to a particular individual, that the rules of his lang are particular to the lang of that individual alone. But we can highlight the importance that SL learners form their own self-contained linguistic systems. The most obvious approach to analyzing interlanguage is to study the speech and writing of learners or also called Learner Language. Production data is publicly observable and is presumably reflective of a learner’s underlying competence. Comprehension of a SL is more difficult to study since it is not directly observable and must be inferred from overt verbal and non-verbal responses, by artificial instruments, or by intuition of the teacher or researcher. It follows that the study of the speech and writing of learners is largely the study of errors of learners which is known as ERROR ANALYSIS. 5-Error analysis Human learning is fundamentally a process that involves the making of mistakes, by using mistakes to obtain feedback from the environment, and with that feedback to make new attempts that successively approximate desired goals. Lang learning, is in this sense, like any other human learning. Many of these mistakes are logical in the limited linguistic system within which children operate, but, by carefully processing feedback from others, children slowly but surely learn to produce what is acceptable speech in their native lang. SL learning is a process that is clearly not unlike FL learning in its trial-error nature. Inevitably learners will make mistakes in the process of acquisition, and that process will be impeded if they don’t commit errors and then benefit from various forms of feedback on those errors. 6-Mistakes and Errors. A mistake refers to a performance error that is either a random guess or a slip, in that it’s a failure to utilize a known system correctly. All people make mistakes, in both native and Slang situations. Native speakers are normally capable of recognizing and correcting such lapses or mistakes. (hesitations, slip of the tongue). So mistakes can be self-corrected. An error, a noticeable deviation from the adult grammar of a native speaker, reflects the competence of the learner. An error cannot be self-corrected. However, the learner’s capacity for self-correction is objectively observable only if the learner actually self-corrects, therefore, if no such self-correction occurs, we are still left with no means to identify error vs mistake. 7-Identifying and describing errors The first step in the process of analysis is the identification and description of errors. Corder provided a model, and according to it, any sentence uttered by the learner and subsequently transcribed can be analyzed for idiosyncrasies. A major distinction is made at the outset between Overt(sentence level) and Covert (discourse level) errors. Overtly erroneous utterances are unquestionably ungrammatical at the sentence level. E. g. â€Å"Does john can sing? † Covertly erroneous utterances are grammatically well-formed at the sentence level but aren’t interpretable within the context of communication. E. g. â€Å"I’m fine, thanks. † Is grammatically correct at the sentence level, but as a response to â€Å"Who are you? † it is obviously an error. A number of different categories for description of errors have been identified in research on learner lang. 1-errors of addition, omission, substitution, and ordering: eg: in English a do auxiliary might be added (Does john can sing? ), an item substituted (I lost my road). 2-levels of lang: phonology or orthography, lexicon, grammar, and discourse. It’s difficult to distinguish different levels of errors because a word with a faulty pronunciation might hide a syntactic or lexical error. 3-errors may also be viewed as Global or local. The global ones hinder communication: they prevent the hearer from comprehending some aspect of the message. Local errors don’t prevent the message from being heard, usually because there is always a minor violation of one segment of the sentence, allowing the hearer/reader to make an accurate guess about the intended message. (a scissors). 4-Lennon suggests that two related dimensions of errors, domain and extent, should be considered in any error analysis. Domain is the rank of linguistic unit that must be taken as context in order for that error to become apparent, and extent is the rank of linguistic unit that would have to be deleted, replaced, supplied, or reordered in order to repair the sentence. (a scissors: the domain is the phrase and the extent is the definite article) 8-Sources of errors It has been identified 4 sources of errors. 1-interlingual transfer: The beginning stages of learning a SL are especially vulnerable to interlingual transfer from native lang or interference. We have all heard English learners say â€Å"the book of Jack† instead of â€Å"Jack’s book†. These errors are attributable of interlingual transfer because before the system of the SL is familiar, the native lang is the only previous linguistic system upon which the learner can draw. 2-intralingual Transfer: (within the target lang itself) is a major factor in SL learning. As I say before, the early stages of lang learning are characterized by a predominance of interference (interlingual transfer), but once learners have begun to acquired parts of the new system, more and more intralingual transfer(generalizations within the target lang) is manifested. As learners progress in the SL, their previous experience and their existing subsumers begin to include structures within the target lang itself. (eg: the omission of THE: before unique nouns: the sun-sun) 3-Context of learning: context refers, E.g. to the classroom with its teacher and its materials in the case of school learning or the social situation in the case of untutored SL learning. In a classroom context the teacher or the textbook can lead the learner to make faulty hypothesis about the lang. (Richards: false concepts; Stenson: induced errors). Sts often make errors because of a misleading explanation, faulty presentation of a structure, word in a textbook, or even because of a pattern that was rotely memorized in a drill but improperly contextualized. 4-communication strategies: learners obviously use production strategies in order to enhance getting their message across, but at times these techniques can themselves become a source of error. (word coinage: creating a non-existing SL word based on a supposed rule e. g. vegetarianist-vegetarian; circumlocution: describe or exemplify the target object of action: the thing you use to write on the board: chalk; prefabricated patterns: use memorized stock phrases, usually for survival purposes) 9-Stages of learners lang development. There are many different ways to describe the progression of a learner’s linguistic development as their attempts at production successively approximate the target linguistic system. Based on observations of what the learner does in terms of errors alone, we can say that there 4 stages: 1-random errors: (corder: presystematic) the learner is only vaguely aware that there is some systematic order to a particular class of items. Inconstancies like â€Å"She cans sing†, and â€Å"she can singing†, all said by the same learner within a short period of time, might indicate a stage of experimentation and inaccurate guessing. 2-Emergent: the learner has begun to discern a system and to internalize certain rules. These rules may not be correct by target lang standards, but they are nevertheless legitimate in the mind of the learner. In gral, the learner is still unable to correct errors when they are pointed out by someone else. (Avoidance of structures and topic are typical) 3-Systematic: the learner is now able to manifest more consistency in producing the SL. While those rules that are sorted out in the learner’s brain are still not well-formed, they are more internally self-consistent and, they more closely approximate the target lang system. The learner can correct some errors when they are correct by someone else. 4-stabilization: the learner has relatively few errors and has mastered the system to the point that fluency and intended meanings are not problematic. (The learner’s ability to self-correct). At this point learners can stabilize too fast, allowing minor errors to slip by undetected, and thus, manifest fossilization. All the stages, however, don’t describe the learner’s total SL system because they do no account for sociolinguistic, functional, pragmatic or nonverbal strategies of which are important in assessing the total competence of the SL learner. 10-Fossilization It refers to the relatively permanent incorporation of incorrect linguistic forms into a person’s SL competence. It’s a normal and natural stage for many learners, and should not be viewed as some sort of terminal illness, in spite of the forbidding metaphor that suggests and unchangeable situation etched in stone. How do items become fossilized? It could be the result of the presence or absence of internal motivation factors, of seeking interaction with other people, of consciously focusing on forms, and of one’s strategic investment in the learning process. By using conditioning, reinforcement, need, motivation, self-determination, and others. It takes place by means of the same process as the internalization of correct forms. The latter is referred as learning, but the same elements of input, interaction, and feedback are present. When incorrect forms are produced, feedback that says â€Å"I understand you† reinforces those forms. 11-Form-focused instruction. It refers to put emphasis on lang forms and also to any pedagogical effort which is used to draw the learner’s attention to lang from either implicitly or explicitly (Spada). It has been used for many decades. But its practices (grammatical explanations, rote practice, etc) is clearly nor justified. ministerio. [emailprotected]. com. ar Telefono: (0362) 423637 directo – 453017/16 – 448014 – 53001/02 / Fax: 423637 – 448014 Error treatment and focus on lang forms appear to be more effective when incorporated into a communicative, learner-centered curriculum, and least effective when error correction is a dominant pedagogical feature, occupying the focal attention of sts in the classroom. Another important issue is whether the teacher should interrupt a student in the middle of an attempt to communicate. The answer is no because it should be after the sts finishes with the e? intended message. 12-Error treatment One of the major issues involved in carrying out FFI is the manner in which teachers deal with sts errors. Should errors be treated? Vigil and Oller proposed a model called The feedback model. The green light of the affective feedback mode allows the sender to continue attempting to get a message across; a red light causes the sender to abort such attempts. The traffic signal of cognitive feedback is the point at which error correction enters. A green light symbolizes non-corrective feedback that says I understand your message. A red one symbolizes corrective feedback that takes on a myriad of possible forms and causes the learner to make some kind of alteration in production. A yellow one could represent those various shades of colour that are interpreted by the learner as falling somewhere in between the green and the red lights, causing the learner to adjust, to alter, to recycle, to try again in some way. The most useful implication of this model for a theory of error treatment is that cognitive feedback must be optimal in order to be effective. Too much negative cognitive feedback- a barrage of interruptions, corrections, and overt attention to malformations- often leads learners to shut off their attempts at communication. They perceive that so much is wrong with their production that there is little hope to get anything right. On the other hand, too much positive cognitive feedback,- willingness of the teacher-hearer to let errors go uncorrected, to indicate understanding when it may not have occurred-serves to reinforce the errors of the speaker-learner. The result is the persistence, and perhaps the eventual fossilization of such errors. The task of the teacher is to discern the optimal tension between positive and negative cognitive feedback: providing enough green lights to encouraged continued communication, but not so many that crucial errors go unnoticed, and providing enough red lights to call attention to those crucial errors, but not so many that the learner is discouraged from attempting to speak at all. Set II: Communicative Competence The term was coined by Dell Hymes who was convinced that Chomsky’s notions of competence were too limited. Chomsky’s rule-governed creativity that so aptly described a child’s mushrooming grammar at the age of 3 or 4 didn’t account for the social and functional rules of lang. So he referred to communicative competence as that aspect of our competence that enables us to convey and interpret messages and to negotiate meanings interpersonally within specific contexts. Savington noted that communicative competence is relative, not absolute, and depends on the cooperation of all participants involved. It’s a dynamic, interpersonal construct that ca be examine only by means of the overt performance of 2 or more individuals in the process of communication. In the 70s, research on CC distinguished between linguistic and communicative competence to highlight the difference between knowledge about lang forms and knowledge that enables a person to communicate functionally and interactively. James Cummins proposed a distinction between Cognitive/Academic lang proficiency (the dimension of proficiency in which the earner manipulates or reflects upon the surface features of lang outside of the immediate interpersonal context, it is what learners often use in classroom exercises and tests and that focus on forms) and Basic Interpersonal communication skills (is the communicative capacity that all children acquire in order to be able to function in daily interpersonal exchanges. Later he modified his notions I the form of context-reduced and context-embedded communication considering the context in which lang is used. A good share of classroom, school-oriented lang is context-reduced, while face-to-face communication with people is context-embedded. In Canale and Swain’s definition, 4 different components make up the construct of CC. The first 2 reflect the use of the linguistic system itself and the last 2 define the functional aspects of communication: A-Grammatical competence: is that aspect of CC that encompasses knowledge of lexical items and of rules of morphology, syntax, sentence grammar semantics, and phonology. (the mastery of the linguistic code of a lang). B-discourse competence: the ability we have to connect sentences in stretches of discourse and to form a meaningful whole out of a series of utterances. (from simple spoken conversation to lengthy written texts, it has to do with the inter-sentential relationships) C-Strategic competence: the verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that may be called into action to compensate from breakdowns in communication due to performance variables or due to insufficient knowledge (Canale); the strategies that one uses to compensate for imperfect knowledge of rules (Savington); It’s the competence underlying our ability to make repairs, to cope with imperfect knowledge, and to sustain communication through paraphrase, circumlocution, repetition, hesitation, avoidance, and guessing. However, this model has undergone some other modifications over the years. Backman places grammatical and discourse (textual) comp under one code, which he called organizational competence: all those rules and systems that dictate what we can do with the forms of lang: whether they may be sentence level rules (grammar) or rules that govern how we string sentences together (discourse). The sociolinguistic competence is now broken down into two separate pragmatic categories: functional aspects of lang (Illocutionary comp, or, pertaining to sending and receiving intended meanings) and sociolinguistic aspects (which deal with such considerations and politeness, formality, metaphor, register, and culturally related aspects of lang). 1-Language Functions They are essentially the purposes that we accomplish with lang, e. g. , stating, requesting, responding, greeting, etc. They can’t be accomplish without the forms of lang (words, morphemes, grammar rules) because they are the outward manifestation of lang while functions are the realization of those forms. Communication may be regarded as a combination of acts, a series of elements with purpose and intend, it’s functional, purposive, and designed to bring about some effect on the environment of the hearers and speakers. It’s a series of acts or speech acts which are used systematically to accomplish particular purposes. (consequences=perlocutionary force: the effect that utterances achieve). The functional approach to describing lang is one that has its roots in the traditions of British linguist Firth, who viewed lang as interactive and interpersonal, a way of behaving and making others behave. Michael Halliday used the term to mean the purposive nature of communication and outlined 7 different functions: A-The instrumental function serves to manipulate the environment, to cause certain events to happen (This court finds you guilty, danger: they are communicative acts that have a specific perlocutionary force, they bring about a particular condition. B-The regulatory one is the control of events, e. g. approval, disapproval, behavior control, setting laws and rules. C- The representational is the use of lang to make statements, convey facts and knowledge, explain and report; to represent reality as one sees it (The sun is hot). D-The interactional serves to ensure social maintenance (Phatic communion-Malinowsky- refers to the communicative contact between and among human beings that simply allows them to establish social contact and to keep channels of communication open and this requires knowledge of slang, jargon, jokes, folklore, cultural mores, politeness, and formality expectations, and other keys to social exchange. E-The personal allows a speaker to express feelings, emotions, personality. A person’s individuality is usually characterized by his/her use of `personal function of communication. F-The heuristic involves lang used to acquire knowledge, to learn about the environment which are often conveyed in the form of questions, that will lead to answer. (Children’s why questions) G-The imaginative serves to create imaginary systems or ideas (Telling fairy tales, joking, or writing a novel). Through this we are free to go beyond the real world to soar to the heights of the beauty of lang itself, and through that lang to create impossible dreams if we so desire. 2-Functional syllabuses The functional part of the notional-functional syllabus corresponded to lang functions. Curricula were organized around such function as identifying, reporting, denying, declining an invitation, asking permission, apologizing, etc. 3-Discourse analysis It is the relationship between forms and functions of lang which encompasses the notion that lang is more than a sentence level phenomenon because we string many sentences together in interrelated, cohesive units. In most oral lang, our discourse is marked by exchanges with another person or several persons in which a few sentences spoken by one participant are followed and built upon by sentences spoken by another. Both the production and comprehension of lang are a factor of our ability to perceive and process stretches of discourse, to formulate representations of meaning not just from a single sentence but from referents in both previous sentences and following sentences. Without the pragmatic contexts of discourse, our communication would be extraordinarily ambiguous. 4-Conversation Analysis. Conversations are excellent examples of the interactive and interpersonal nature of communication. They are cooperative ventures. What are the rules of our conversations? How do we get someone’s attention?. Very early in life children learn the first and essential rule of conversation: attention getting. If you wish linguistic production to be functional and to accomplish its intended purpose, you must of course have the attention of your audience. The attention getting conversations within each lang-both verbal and nonverbal- need to be carefully assimilated by learners. Once learners have secured the hearer’s attention, their task becomes one of topic nomination. Rules for nominating topics in conversations which involve both verbal and non-verbal cues, are highly contextually constrained. Once the topic is nominated, participants then embark on topic development, using conventions of turn-taking to accomplish various functions of lang. Aside from turn-taking itself, topic development, or maintenance of a conversation, involves clarification, shifting, avoidance, and interruption. Topic termination is an art that even native speakers of a lang have difficulty in mastering at times. 5-Pragmatics It constraints on lang comprehension and production may be loosely thought of as the effect of context on string of linguistic events. 6-Lang and GenderThe effect of one’s sex on both production and reception of lang is one of the major factors affecting the acquisition of communicative competence in virtually every lang. Among American English speakers, girls have been found to produce more standards lang than boys, a pattern that continue through adulthood. Tanner and others have found that males place more value, in a conversational interaction, on status and report talk, competing for the floor, while females value connections and rapport, fulfilling their role as more cooperative and facilitative conversationalists, concerned for their partner’s positive face needs. 7-Styles and Register Another important issue is the way we use lang in different styles depending on the context of a communicative act in terms of subject matter, audience, occasion, shared experience, and purpose of communication. A style is a variety of lang used for a specific purpose. When you converse informally with a friend, you use a different style than you use in an interview for a job with a prospective employer. Native speakers, as they mature into adulthood, learn to adopt appropriate styles for widely different contexts. Adult 2nd lang learners must acquire this styles in order to be able to encode and decode the discourse around them correctly. Martin Joos provided one of the most common classifications of speech styles using criterion of formality: there are five levels: 1-An oratorical style is used in public speaking before a large audience; it is planned in advance intonation is somewhat exaggerated and numerous rhetorical devices are appropriate. 2-A deliberative style is also used in addressing audiences to permit effective interchange between speaker and hearers, however, it is not as polished as the previous style: a typical university classroom. 3-A consultative style is typically a dialogue, through formal enough that words are chosen with some care. E. g. business transactions, doctor patient’s conversations. 4-Casual conversations are between friends or colleagues or sometimes members of family. Words don’t need to be guarded and social barriers are moderately low. 5-an intimate style is one characterized by complete absence of social inhibitions. Talk with family, loved ones, and very close friends. Styles are manifested in both verbal and nonverbal(how you say sth) features. Difference in styles can be conveyed in body lang, gestures, eye contact and they are very difficult aspects of lang for the learners to acquire. A-Body lang or kinesics: all cultures throughout the history of humankind have relied on kinesics for conveying important messages. However, there is a tremendous variation cross-culturally and cross-linguistically in the specific interpretation of gestures because sometimes a gesture that is appropriate in one culture is obscene or insulting in another. Nodding the head, for example means â€Å"yes† among most European lang speakers. But among japan, â€Å"Yes† is expressed by bringing the arms to the chest and waving them. B- Eye contact: the gestures of our eyes are in some instances keys to communication. Eyes can signal interest, boredom, empathy, hostility, attraction, understanding, misunderstandings and other messages. C-proxemics: physical proximity is a meaningful communicative category. Cultures vary widely in acceptable distances for conversation. Sometimes objects- desk, other furniture- serve to maintain certain physical proximity and tend to establish both the overall register and relationship between participants.

Health Promotion And HIV

Health Promotion And HIV The origins of health promotion lie in the 19th century when epidemic disease eventually led to pressure for sanitary reform for the overcrowded industrial towns. Alongside the health movement emerged the idea of educating the public for the good of its health (Naidoo and Wills, 2000). In 1977 the World health Assembly at Alma Ata committed all member countries to the principles of Health for all 2000 (HFA 2000) that there should be the attainment by all the people of the world by the tear 2000 of a level of health that will permit them to lead a socially and economically productive life Naidoo and Wills, 2000). The Ottawa charter held on the 21st of November 1986 was the first international conference on health promotion and provided the basis for the current practice of health promotion. It defined health promotion as the process of enabling people to increase control over, and to improve, their health. To reach a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, an individ ual or group must be able to identify and to realize aspirations, to satisfy needs, and to change or cope with the environment (WHO, 1986). Health is, therefore, seen as a resource for everyday life, not the objective of living. Health is a positive concept emphasizing social and personal resources, as well as physical capacities. Therefore, health promotion is not just the responsibility of the health sector, but goes beyond healthy life-styles to well-being. It went ahead to identify strategies for health promotion namely; build healthy public policy, create supportive environment, strengthen community actions, develop personal skill and reorient health services (WHO, 1986). HIV/AIDS BACKGROUND AND ZIMBABWE The HIV virus is the cause of the Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). All countries of the world are now affected with about 39.5million people living with the disease globally. 2.1million of the global 2.9million deaths due to AIDS in 2006 occurred in Africa ( UNAIDS/WHO, 2007). The extent of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic in Africa makes it qualitatively different from other regions. According to UNICEF (2005), the HIV/AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa has already orphaned a generation of children and it projected that by 2010, 18 million African children less than 18 years are likely to be orphaned by HIV. Africa has the worlds youngest population, with the youth constituting 33% of the total population. Subà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ Sahara Africa is home to 70% of young people living with HIV/AIDS and 90% of the AIDS orphans in the world. Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is compounded by gender and age, making young people and women in particular more likely to contract the virus than others. The age distribution of HIV infection in Africa is skewed towards younger females, with infection rates among teenage girls five times higher than teenage boys in some countries.Zimbabwe is not spared this burden. One in six African is a Zimbabwe which has a population of about estimate of 140 million people. The first case of the Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) was identified in Zimbabwe in 1986. HIV prevalence then rose steadily from 1.8% in 1998 to 5.8% in 2001. However, in the 2003 survey, the National HIV prevalence had dropped to 5%. At a current level of 5.6%, HIV/AIDS prevalence is highest amongst young people less than 30 years (World Bank, 2006). Several factors have been identified as the most important in driving the HIV epidemic in Zimbabwe. These include; early marriage of females and inadequate access to condoms and contraceptives particularly for young people. Young peoples lack of access to contraceptives is exacerbated by the age-structured society where children and young people have little or no control over their health, especially sexual health. There is also inadequate sexual education in schools as well as a restricted discussion of sexual health matters in public and even in families. Zimbabweans can have multiple wives as they think they can afford to take care of. This is very ambiguous and the result is that a lot of women are mistreated and left to take care of themselves without actually being empowered to do so. Other factors implicated are the presence of other sexually transmitted infections (STIs), stigmatization and the inadequacy of health care systems (APIN, 2006). In addition, various cultural prac tices and values influence the health practices and sexual behaviour of our focus group. This makes them particularly vulnerable. Vulnerability can be defined as the degree to which an individual or a population has control over their risk of acquiring HIV, or the degree to which those people who are infected an affected by HIV are able to access appropriate care and support. (AIDS Vancouver, 2005) Zimbabwe being a male-dominated society, women are viewed as inferior to men, in some areas in particular in rural areas and some townships. Womens traditional role is to have children and be responsible for the home. Their low status, lack of access to education, and certain social and cultural practices increase their vulnerability to HIV infection. Many marriage practices violate womens human rights and contribute to increasing HIV rates among women and girls. Zimbabwe has legal minimum age for marriage, however in some areas early marriage is known to be allowed by parents, as they consider it a way to protect their young daughters from the outside world and maintain their chastity. Girls may get married between the ages of 14 and 15, and a large age gap usually exists between husbands and wives. Young married girls are at risk of contracting HIV from their husbands because it is considered acceptable for men to have sexual partners outside of marriage and even for some men to have more than one wife. Because of their age, lack of education, and low status, young married girls cannot negotiate condom use to protect th emselves against HIV and other STIs. Practices such as female genital mutilation also contribute to the scourge (APIN, 2006). COMPARATIVE STATISTICS From Appendix 1(behind), the tables show WHO statistics (2007) and compares different parameters from Zimbabwe, Brazil and South-Africa. It estimates Zimbabwes population, for 2005, at 131.5 million. This is compared to South Africas figure of 47.4 million and 186.4 million for Brazil. Zimbabwe and Brazil are classed as developing countries while South Africa is a middle-income African country. All these countries have achieved varying degrees of success in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Deaths due to HIV (per 100,000) are 8 for Brazil, 167 for Zimbawe and 675 for South Africa. Figures for HIV prevalence in adults aged 15 years and above show that the prevalence is reduced in Brazil (454 per 100,000 people), but Zimbabwe (3,547 per 100,000 population) and South Africa (16,579 per 100,000 population) still have very high numbers. This buttresses the fact that Africa still has major problems in the fight against HIV/AIDS. HIV/AIDS POLICY IN ZIMBABWE According to the Federal Government of Zimbabwe, the overall goal of the HIV/AIDS Policy is to control the spread of HIV, to provide equitable care and support for those infected by HIV and to mitigate its impact to the point where it is no longer of public health, social and economic concern, such that all Zimbabweans will be able to achieve socially and economically productive lives free of the disease and its effects. (Federal Government of Zimbabwe, National Policy on HIV/AIDS, 2003; pp. 13-14). The objectives of the policy include, among others to foster behaviour change as the main means of controlling the epidemic and to ensure that prevention programmes are developed and targeted at vulnerable groups such as women and children, adolescents and young adults, sex workers, long distance commercial vehicle drivers, prison inmates and migrant labour. The target is to improve the knowledge, attitude, behaviour and practices of high-risk populations, including youths and adolescents , to HIV/AIDS by 20 percent by the year 2005 and 40% by 2010. With the WHO statistics, there seem to be a lot of work to be done in achieving the above target. YOUTH EMPOWERMENT MODEL THE INTERVENTION The model was developed by a combination of two existing models of health promotion namely Caplan Holland (1990) and Beattie (1991) (Naidoo and Wills, 2000). Beatties model uses criteria of mode of intervention (authoritative-negotiated) and focus of intervention (individual-collective) whereas Caplan and Holland use theories of knowledge and theories of society (Naidoo and Wills, 2000). From Caplan Holland (1990) the following components were taken: radical humanistic perspective (empowerment approach) and humanistic perspective (educational approach). From Beattie (1991) were taken; health Persuasion (educational approach) and personal counselling (behavioural approach). This model thus comprises of the 4 components namely; Radical Humanist/Empowerment approach where individuals are encouraged to form social and organizational networks including self-help groups, Humanist/Health Education approach this involves peer education and awareness campaigns, including activities such as dramas, role plays and debates, Health Persuasion which is essentially behaviour modification and life skills, Personal counselling which is client led and focus on personal development. The health promoter is a facilitator rather than an expert. (Naidoo and Wills, 2000). APPROACHES The components of this model made use of three main approaches to health promotion: behavioural, educational and empowerment approaches. The empowerment approach is based mainly on the formation of social and organisational networks including self-help groups, peer groups, abstinence clubs etc. The emphasis of this approach is to help people to identify their own concerns and gain the skill and confidence to act upon them Naidoo and Wills, (2000), and the behavioural approach aims at behaviour modification. It also uses personal counselling as a means of promoting healthy sexual behaviour, therefore aiming to impart life skills to the students, which would teach them to communicate, to learn to say no to casual sex, to wait till the right time and to make the right decisions. The educational approach aims to provide knowledge and information with the hope that this information would enable the students to make the right and informed choices (Naidoo and Wills, 2000). This would be achieved by means of awareness campaigns, debates, lectures, dramas, role plays, posters and other information, education and communication (IEC) materials. A key part of the education of these students would be peer education. Over the years, there have been various studies and theories supporting the use of peer education as a successful health promotion strategy. Peer pressure can be quite enormous and influential particularly in the focus age group. APPLYING THE COMPONENTS OF THE MODEL DISCUSSION As earlier mentioned, there are four main components of this health promotion model: health education, health persuasion, empowerment and personal counselling. EMPOWERMENT Empowerment in the broadest sense is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.the process by which disadvantaged people work together to increase control over events that determine their lives'(Laverack, 2004). This entails raising consciousness of both the primary and secondary audiences; emphasis is on the exploration of personal responses to health issues. The students are encouraged to form social networks such as self-help groups and peer-educator-led groups. These social networks can lead to self-empowerment. The WHOs definition of health promotion as increasing peoples control over their health places it alongside the key concept of community empowerment (Laverack, 2004). Community empowerment can be viewed as both a process (something used to accomplish a particular goal or objective) and an outcome (in which empowerment is the goal or objective itself). There is considerable overlap between community empowerment and other concepts such as community participation and community development. Community empowerment builds from the individual to the group to the broader community (Laverack, 2004). Health promoters have conventionally viewed community empowerment as a part of bottom-up approached. In this the outside agent act to support the community in the identification of issues which are important and relevant to their lives, and to enable them to develop strategies to resolve these issues. Community empowerment includes personal (psychological) empowerment, organizational empowerment and broader social and political changes. Community empowerment has been viewed in health promotion literature as a five-point continuum model comprising the following elements; personal action, the development of small mutual groups, community organizations, partnership, social and political action. Each point on the continuum can be viewed as an outcome in itself, as well as a progression onto the next point. If not achieved the outcome is stasis or even a move back to the preceding point on the continuum (Laverack, 2004). The latter goes on to say the dichotomy between top-down disease prevention and lifestyle change and bottom-up community empowerment approaches is not as fixed as it is sometimes portrayed. As applied in this youth empowerment model, both approaches were used. HEALTH EDUCATION Health promotion is rooted in the narrower, more established field of health education. Health education is communication activity aimed at enhancing positive health and preventing or diminishing ill-health in individuals and groups, through influencing the beliefs, attitudes, and behaviour of those with power and of the community at large (Downie et al, 2006). Use of education in health promotion has to do with communication aimed at enhancing well-being and preventing ill-health through influencing knowledge and attitudes. The purpose is to provide knowledge and information, and to develop the necessary skills so that a person can make informed choice about their health behaviour (Naidoo and Wills, 2005). Health education interventions are valued because they empower people, enabling them to make desired changes and increase their control over their health. It involves working directly with them, enabling communication and feedback that in turn can be used to fine-tune the intervention, enhancing its effectiveness (Naidoo and Wills, 2009). This can be carried out in classrooms, and clubs aiming to empower the students. The peer educators will also be used at this stage as well as PLWHA. The contents for education in HIV prevention will include issues such as meaning and cause of HIV/AIDS, means of transmission non-transmission, modes of prevention, available treatment and management for PLWHA. HEALTH PERSUASION Health persuasion in this initiative forms a part of the Prevention Education. These are intentions directed at individuals and involve mainly health professionals, trained counsellors and peer educators, all acting as facilitators. The aim of this is to influence the development of positive health behaviour in the students, so that as they grow older, they can have good sexual health. People Living with HIV/AIDS are also involved as they are some of the greatest champions of HIV prevention as earlier mentioned. The ultimate aim of health persuasion is encouraging people to adopt healthy and careful lifestyles. The emphasis is on abstinence, safer sex and faithful partnership. The avenues included: classrooms and School HIV/AIDS prevention clubs, distribution of fliers and Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials and involvement of People Living with HIV/AIDS. PERSONAL COUNSELLING This focused on personal development and students (one-on-one or in groups) are helped by a facilitator to identify their health needs to increase their confidence and life skills. Peer Education This is the teaching or sharing of information, values and behaviours between individuals with shared characteristics such as behaviour, experience, status or social and cultural backgrounds (Macdowall et al, 2006). It is a prevention strategy for reaching youth either in school settings or for marginalized out of school youth, mainly through community based out reach programmes. Approaches to recruiting peer educators have included; providing information about a project and then asking for volunteers (Macdowall et al, 2006) identifying and approaching popular opinion leaders from among target groups; and asking members of the target groups to nominate peers. HEALTH PROMOTION RATIONALE Zimbabwe for obvious reasons stated above has a problem in tackling the scourge of HIV/AIDS and this required a multi-pronged approach in order to make an impact. Thus, developing a health promotion model targeted at the youth is in place. According to WHO, it is imperative to focus on young people because they have a high risk of contracting HIV since once they become sexually active, they often have several, usually consecutive, short-term sexual relationships and do not consistently use condoms. Likewise, IV drug use spreads at an alarming rate in this age group. Furthermore, young people often have insufficient information and understanding about HIV/AIDS; they may not be aware of their vulnerability to it or how best to prevent it. They also often lack access to the means of protecting themselves (WHO, 2004). The National HIV/AIDS policy specifically focuses on adolescents and youths, with a view to changing their sexual behaviour and practices, particularly before they become s exually active. School based programmes are logical avenues to provide most youth with preventive health education which should include helping the youth to identify their personal values and to promote positive self -esteem to enable them to resist pressure to engage in risky sexual behaviour. Zimbabwe practices a 7-2-3 system of education. Here individuals are expected to spend 7 years in the primary school, 2 years in sixth form 3-4 years in the University. The secondary school age in Zimbabwe is between 12-18 years. The focus for the model is in high school students aged 12 to 18. There were several reasons why the school is a key arena for health promotion. First, in accordance with a prevention is better than cure philosophy, it is better to encourage young people to adopt healthful lifestyles than to try to change unhealthful behaviour patterns in adulthood. Secondly, there is evidence that risk factors for disease in adulthood often originate early in life. Thirdly, schools provides a unique opportunity to augment other influences on health-related behaviour with properly planned programmes of health education (Downie et al, 2006). As early as 1982, it was reported that the age of first sexual intercourse had continued to drop in Zimbabwe and was then such that 50% of 16 year kids were already sexually active (Nwokocha and Nwakoby, 2002). Thus, the age range for the study is appropriate to equip them before they become sexually active. Mzikazi High School Bulawayo, Zimbabwe was the chosen high school. Mzilikazi is in Matebelaland, second capital city of Zimbabwe with an estimated population of 1.2 million residents. The city has a rich tourism culture and hospitality. Current research estimates the prevalence of HIV in Bulawayo at 6.19% , making it the second highest of all the states in Zimbabwe (The Herald News, 2006). Its easy access to Victoria Falls makes it a centre for visitors from different parts of the world. All these aid the sex trade in a country so rich yet poverty is the order of the day. People who do possess some knowledge about HIV often do not protect themselves because they lack the skills, support or incentives to adopt safe behaviours. High levels of awareness among the youth, a population group particularly vulnerable and significant as regards the spread of HIV/Aids, have not led, in many cases, to sufficient behavioural change. Young people may lack the skills to negotiate abstinence or condom use, or be fearful or embarrassed to talk with their partner about sex. Lack of open discussion and guidance about sexuality is often lacking in the home, and many young people pick up misinformation from their peers instead. PARTNERS IN THIS HEALTH PROMOTION The key partners in this initiative were the primary the students, and the secondary parents, teachers, school nurse and other members of the school community including staff. Other partners included professionals such as all clinical health practitioners such as doctors, nurses, and others health professionals who will act as facilitators, the local School Authorities, and donor agencies that are focused on HIV/AIDS issues they play a very crucial roles in community HIV prevention programmes. Donor agencies were involved in the provision of funds that were used in executing the project. PLWHA (People living with HIV/AIDS) have very important impact as people see for themselves living testimonies of the HIV scourge. It must be stated that stigmatization and discrimination against PLWHA are common in Zimbabwe. Nevertheless, some progress has been made more recently because of increased national campaigns and more visible and vocal societies and support groups for people infected with or affected by HIV. Their efforts have helped educate the public about HIV/AIDS, dispelling myths and giving the disease a human face (APIN, 2006). A potential reason for failure of school health promotion is that of culture clash between the school and the home and elsewhere (Downie et al, 2006) hence the inclusion of the parents in the secondary audience. However while the concepts of outcome succees were addressed to some degree in the study, there was nevertheless, a lack of firm and consistent evidence that positive outcomes had been achieved by the partnership concerned. Partnership working is seen as providing benefits that are achievable, improve health of whole population through working in partnerships with groups and individual to systematically address health needs within a community, (Coles and Porter, 2009). The science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organised efforts of society, (Achenson, 1998). Wilson and Charlton (2004), claim that culture clashes in partnership working can often expected between people from different social background. In this study the barrier between the partners was the cultural background for the children , parents and the leaders. In this instance the NGOs were the leaders of the health promotion. The break down in communication and understanding of the intended education started when the educators told the students it is advisable to use condoms whenever you have sex. In Zimbabwe there is a deep-seated unwillingness to talk openly about sex, partly due to rules of re spect that lie at the heart of family and kinship structures, which limit communication across generation and sexual divides. Certain prevalent cultural norms and practices related to sexuality contribute to the risk of HIV infection. Negative attitudes towards condoms, as well as difficulties negotiating and following through with their use. Men in southern Africa regularly do not want to use condoms, because of beliefs such that flesh to flesh sex is equated with masculinity and is necessary for male health. Condoms also have strong associations of unfaithfulness, lack of trust and love, and disease. Certain sexual practices, such as dry sex (where the vagina is expected to be small and dry), and unprotected anal sex, carry a high risk of HIV because they cause abrasions to the lining of the vagina or anus. In cultures where virginity is a condition for marriage, girls may protect their virginity by engaging in unprotected anal sex. The importance of fertility in African communities may hinder the practice of safer sex. Young women under pressure to prove their fertility prior to marriage may try to fall pregnant, and therefore do not use condoms or abstain from sex. Fathering many children is also seen as a sign of virile masculinity. Polygamy is practised in some parts of southern Africa. Even where traditional polygamy is no longer the norm, men tend to have more sexual partners and to use the services of sex workers. This is condoned by the widespread belief that males are biologically programmed to need sex with more than one woman, ( ). Urbanisation and migrant labour expose people to a variety of new cultural influences, with the result that traditional and modern values often co-exist. Certain traditional values that could serve to protect people from HIV infection, such as abstinence from sex before marriage, are being eroded by cultural modernisation. ( ). However the NGOs wanted to continue with this education even the other secondary partners could tell it is affecting the whole process, with advice to first stop teaching the children, educate the parents first so when the children are taught it does not cause conflict. This dilemma here appears largely about power who has it, who needs it, and how much? Successful partnership requires leaders to redefine the boundaries of power in the organisation, and this can prove challenging, ( ). Careful design of the organisations decision-making processes and the setting of clear boundaries can help you tackle the leadership dilemma. Therefore with partnership, effective communication enables us to discuss each others concerns, acknowledge our different points of view and strive to understand those views. Good communication is especially important when there are strong views or feelings about an issue. The key thing to remember is that communication goes in all directions. Effective communic ation isnt just about telling people things. Its mostly about listening to each other. Consequently good communication is crucial to partnership. Lack of communication often creates an information vacuum. This vacuum is sometimes filled with rumour and speculation. . Evaluation Two different views of evaluation pervade the literature on health promotion. From the first view point, evaluation involves assessing an activity in terms of the aims or specific objectives of that activity. William (1987) has written as follows: .the purpose of evaluation is that it should demonstrate whether an activity has been successful or to what degree it has failed to achievee some stated aims. Before we can evaluate, then, we need to be clear about the aims of the activity in relation to the degree of attainment of these aims. From the second view point, evaluation is a broader process. It involves assessing an activity by measuring it against a standard which is not necessarily related to the specific objectives or purpose of the activity. This approach has been advocated by Green et al. (1980). From the second view point, evaluation is a broader process (Downie et al, 1996). Evaluation can be defined as the critical assessment of the value of an activity (Macdowall et al, 2006). Evaluation is needed to ensure that health promotion activities are having the intended effects. Evaluating activities helps inform future plans and contributes to the building up of a knowledge base for health promotion. It also helps prevent the reinvention of the wheel, by informing other health promoters of the effectiveness of different methods and strategies (Naidoo and Wills, 2000). Downie et al (1996) identifies reasons for evaluating health promotion activities. These are to assess the extent to which projects are achieving their stated objectives, to inform the development of materials and methods, to ensure ethical practice, to optimize use of resources and to assess the place of health promotion within overall efforts to achieve health gain. Evaluation includes assessments of different kinds of events at varying time periods. A distinction is often made between process, impact and outcome evaluation. Process evaluation: this involves assessing the process programme implementation. It addresses participants perceptions and reactions to health promotion interventions. It is therefore a useful means to assess acceptability and may assess the appropriateness and equity of a health promotion intervention (Naidoo and Wills, 2000). In doing this in our health promotion study, inputs (time, IEC materials, money); self-evaluation (self-reflection); feedback from primary and secondary audience (using questionnaires, question and answer sessions, individual discussions) will be used. Impact and Outcome evaluation: Evaluation of health promotion programmes is usually concerned to identify their effects. The effects of an intervention may be evaluated according to its impact ( the immediate effects such as increased knowledge or shifts in attitude) and outcome ( the longer-term effects such as changes in lifestyle). Impact evaluation tends to be more popular because it is easier to do. Outcome evaluation more difficult because it involves an assessment of long-term effects (Naidoo and Wills, 2000). Evaluation of the impact could be planned or unplanned. Planned impact can be assessed using pre-session and post-session questionnaires or a review session with the target audience. Some of the planned impact/outcomes would include increasing attendance to activities, increase in the number of people taking part in voluntary counselling and testing (VCT), increase in age of first sexual encounter and reduction in HIV prevalence rate. Unplanned impact/outcome will include counselling for other issues such as drugs and alcohol use, provision of support for PLWHA within the school community by referrals to NGOs and other support groups that can provide treatment and help them cope with other effects of living with HIV/AIDS. Limitations There are limitations to the implementation of this health promotion model. There is an ethical dilemma with regards what will be too much sexual information for the teenagers considering the cultural background. Many parents will object to some information given to their children. Issues pertaining to funds for running and sustaining the programme need to be considered. There could also be some logistics problems in terms of accessing rural areas: power, security, mobility and communication facilities all have to be provided and these are all functions of funds. Acceptability of the programme by the primary audience may be in question. The students may view the activities as being prescriptive rather than participatory, also, they may view the health professionals and facilitators as being old school in terms of age or social background or socioeconomic status and this could be a barrier which might face the programme. This is where the peer educators come in and may go a long way in overcoming this problem. If the students are able to see the project/activities as theirs, it would help to sustain the efforts after the health professionals may have left. Such continuity could be anchored on peer educator groups, abstinence clubs and other social networks. Long-term assessment of empowerment and change in behaviour is difficult. Is there any behaviour change? If so, is the behaviour change due to this Health Promotion activity alone?. These are pertinent questions which will need to be addressed at the long run. The model focuses mainly on empowerment without addressing other socio-economic determinants of sexual hea