Forgiven Mortgage Debt should not be considered as an Income - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 6 Words: 1807 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Finance Essay Type Argumentative essay Level High school Did you like this example? Forgiven mortgage debt should not be considered as an income and people should not be taxed based on that because those who are in this situation already are in trouble and basically à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“underwaterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Taxation based on forgiven mortgage debt causes business unfairness and a lot of troubles for our economy in general and especially for lower and middle class families as well as for first time home buyers. During the economic recession which started in 2007, many people lost their job and many of them ended up losing their homes as well because of financial problems. Many of these people who had mortgage loans had trouble paying it, also many of them owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth it. Homeowners who were underwater they were able to sell their houses in short sale which means they sold their homes for less amount of money that their mortgage was and this was done with the bank agreement which allowed them to do so. The number of these underwater homeowners is decreased, however a lot of people still are struggling with their mortgage payments and according to IRS the number of tax fillings for mortgage debt exemption from 2007 until 2011 is increased. Difference between mortgage and forgiven debt is considered as income by government and is taxable, even though is à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“phantom incomeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ , income that you do not get in reality. Example, someone who owns $150,000 on his/her mortgage and they agree with the bank who lend the money to sell the house in short sale for $100,000 the difference which is for $50,000 is considered as an income and this difference is taxable. Mortgage Forgiveness Debt Relief Act was granted temporary by Government in 2007 until 2009 by President G. Bush and was extended twice by Obamas administration, first until December 31, 2012 and second until December 31, 2013. This Act was more than welcome for all those people who were down on their luck fi nancially. According to this some people may argue that mortgage forgiven debt should be taxable just like government thinks, regardless that those homeowners who came to this situation to sell their homes in short sales are people who did a lot to keep their homes and they have different reasons for doing it. Many of those people have lost their job due to a bad economy and simply cannot afford the home anymore. Sometimes there are large medical bills that suddenly came into play, also divorce can cause financial hardship. There are dozens of other legitimate reasons why someone is unable to afford his/her home. Simply these people are not dumb and didnt read what they were getting themselves into. I personally know people that I have worked with and that they lost their homes, they did not lose their home because they are not intelligent or they are not very well educated people actually they are very intelligent and educated people but it happen that they got themselves int o a very sad and unfortunate situation e.g. one of them got divorce and couldnà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢t effort to pay the mortgage by them self, also we have families who went through medical problems and so on. However; this bad situations some of them they survived somehow to keep their homes till now bur after expiration of the mortgage forgiveness debt relief act many of them are going to get tax bill on their phantom income. In interview given for New York Times, Senator Isakson said that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“forgiven debt was nothing more than à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“phantom incomeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  and should not be taxed. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦is unfair to end the exemption for those families who have manage to hold on their homes.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  And more over he stated that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“These are the people who have tried the hardest to hang on their homes and keep the economy strongà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . [Shaila Dewan à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“NYTimesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ] When I mentioned at the beginning that taxat ion based on forgiven mortgage debt causes business unfairness is that there are other common situations in which cancellation of debt is not taxable example Bankruptcy where debts discharged during this process are not deemed taxable income. Moreover, we have to make difference between those people who bought house for investment, and people who they took out a home equity loan and took that world trip that theyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ve been dreaming of instead of using the money to improve their house from those who bought a house to live in it and invested in it. So here is a big issue government should make difference between these categories. I agree with K. Phillips when she question about exclusion thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦why keep putting a band-aid on it? Why stop with one year? Why not five years? Or ten years? Why not make it a permanent exclusion?à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  [K. Philips Erb à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Forbesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ] making permanent exclusion is the best way to h elp at least those people who worked hard to keep their house such as those people who invested in their house and faced finance troubles because of their unfortunate situations. It is clear that debt forgiveness is effective at preventing foreclosure. Theres an obvious reason and a not-as-obvious reason that principal reductions result in fewer foreclosures. The obvious reason is that less debt equals a smaller monthly payment. People get modifications because they have trouble making their mortgage payments, so smaller payments tend to help. Im just curious as to where IRS expect a homeowner to come up with $25-100,000 to pay for taxes when they cant come up with $1,000-1,500 a month for a house payment. Its not like they can go to a bank and get an unsecured loan, their credit score has just taken a 150 point hit according to Credit Score regulations. By taxing these people for their forgiven debt government not just is going to make extra trouble for these category o f peoples but it is going to make more dependent people to government; example maybe many of them that they will end up asking for help from government e.g. asking for food stamps because of their financial problems. In one way IRS is collecting some extra money but on the other hand government is making people more dependent on food stamps or on other government programs. One thing is clear that if government is not going to extend mortgage forgiveness debt relief act many lower and middle class families as well as first time home buyers are going to be in trouble because of many reasons that were mentioned above and à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Housing advocates argue that not extending the Act is simply bad policy, punishing those already facing serious financial difficulties and pushing off a potential recovery in the housing market.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  [K. Phillips Erb] I understand your frustration with others seemingly getting free money because of a tax exemption. What you maybe arent t hinking about are the various reasons for a short sale. I have helped multiple families with short sales, and they have different reasons for doing it. Many times they have lost a job and simply cannot afford the home anymore. Sometimes there are large medical bills that suddenly came into play. A divorce can cause financial hardship. There are dozens of other legitimate reasons why someone is unable to afford his/her home. Was some of this due to inflated housing prices? To an extent, sure, but I dont think that very many of us could foresee how drastically prices would fall from their peak in 2005-06. I also reject the notion that all of these people that have found themselves in this situation were simply dumb and didnt read what they were getting themselves into. The people that I have worked with are very intelligent, educated people who got themselves into a very sad and unfortunate situation. Im just curious as to where you expect a homeowner to come up with $25-100,000 to p ay for taxes when they cant come up with $1,000-1,500/month for a house payment. Its not like they can go to a bank and get an unsecured loan, their credit score has just taken a 150 point hit. And yes, most of them tried to refinance/restructure their loans with the bank, but were declined or the offer they were given was not any better than their current situations. Maybe one of you will loan it to them? All this is due to faulty trickle down economy . We dont need this trickle down economy (Top Down Approach) anymore in which bankers get money from govt. then spend it as they like and do all kinda ponzi business, sub-prime crisis , etc etc. Now due to the fear of collapse they want more free money from govt. Why , why should they be rewarded for the problem they created in the first place . Is US govt. their puppet? Is the govt. by the bankers , of the bankers for the bankers. Or are these bankers have united as a secret organisation to squeeze out as much money from US govt. and US citizens. These bankers fat capitalists should be allowed to rest in peace (RIP) and US govt should change their economic policy drastically by accepting the Bottoms UP Approach in which govt. gives sustenance allowance DIRECTLY to each citizens bank account. This is because govt. is the only institution that can create free money. People no longer need jobs and factories should be run by robots completely. Only niche areas should have jobs such as robotics research but that also by the committed dedicated interested people. Since money would go directly to bank accounts of individuals, the money is still with banks. But now bankers and industries would have to provide quality products and services to earn that money from the individual citizens. So with this approach all poverty , hunger, homelessness, unemployment will vanish. This will be true democracy. None of this changes the fact that people signed a contract stating they would pay the bank x amount of dollars. If I bought ABC Company stock for $60/share and it plummets to $20/share, do I get any money back, no I do not. If I sign a legal document stating I owe x to the bank and they pay the difference on my behalf, why shouldnt I have to pay taxes on it? After all, I am the one who signed the note promising to pay them back. Sites: Dewan, Sh. (February 4, 2014). Welcome Relief for Homeowners, Until the Tax Bill Arrives. In The New York Times. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/05/business/economy/lenders-see-write-off-while-underwater-homeowners-face-stiff-taxes.html. Kelly, K and Rich, S. (December 30, 2013). New Maryland bill could shorten debt collection after foreclosure. In The Washington Post. Retrieved February 10, 2014, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/new-maryland-bill-could-help-foreclosed-homeowners-avoid-lengthy-debt- Swanson, J. (January 24, 2014). Official Argues Against Short-Sale/Foreclosure Deficiency Counting a s Income in 2014. In Mortgage News Daily. Retrieved February 11, 2014, from https://www.mortgagenewsdaily.com/01242014_loan_modifications.asp. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2013/12/27/tax-break-ending-for-underwater-homeowners-is-it-the-right-time/ Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Forgiven Mortgage Debt should not be considered as an Income" essay for you Create order

The Movie 12 Angry Men - 865 Words

As a Criminal Justice major, the classic movie 12 Angry Men has always been very influential and essential in my studies. This brilliant film is based on the concept of a fair trial to a young man, aged eighteen, who has been accused of stabbing his own father to death. Being tried for first-degree murder, the jurors vote most be unanimous on whether or not this child is to be sentence to death. Demanding the viewers to question the veracity behind our â€Å"fair† criminal justice system, this 1957 trial film will surely be one to make one ponder. Outlined in the Sixth Amendment of the United States Constitution is the criminal defendants right to a public trial by an impartial jury, meaning that all juries should be fair and unbiased. Unfortunately in our American Criminal Justice system today, it is nearly impossible to find a jury full of unbiased citizens. Throughout the film the characters remain anonymous, expect for the fact that they drop subtle hints to their underly ing biases. For example, we are aware that the defendant is a minority of that time, and of low social standing. Immediately, biases are set within the jurors whether they are aware of it or not. During the first preliminary vote, eleven of the twelve jurors vote guilty, excluding the one not guilty vote from juror eight. Juror eight then makes it clear that it is in his belief that the vote was made far too swiftly, and it was necessary for them to discuss the specifics of the case before jumping to anyShow MoreRelated12 Angry Men In The Movie : 12 Angry Men808 Words   |  4 Pagesoften touchy subjects in a unique light. In this movie the audience is faced with 12 jurors who hold the fate of a young man on trial for murder in their hands. It is supposed to be that one is innocent until proven guilty; however that is not the case in this movie. The Jurors are very prejudiced and closed minded throughout most of the movie for the most part. However, the one juror who is not that wa y is number 8. In the 1957 MGM film 12 Angry Men Juror number 8 relies primarily on his core valuesRead More12 Angry Men : Movie Analysis : 12 Angry Men1103 Words   |  5 PagesThe 1957 movie version of 12 angry men, brings twelve people together with different personalities and experiences to discuss the fate of a young boy that allegedly killed his father. At the very beginning many agree that the boy is guilty except for one man. Juror #8 votes not guilty and pushes to have the evidence talked through. Slowly after reviewing all the evidence carefully the eleven to one vote switched from eleven thinking guilty to eleven thinking not guilty. Each juror brought differentRead More12 Angry Men: Movie1698 Words   |  7 Pages12 Angry Men In a world where the jury is the voice of the peoples justice, twelve men sit in a room poised to determine the fate of one boys life. Did he do it? If he didnt, who did? Why would a young man kill his beloved father with a switchblade knife? The moment that the jury-comprised of twelve Caucasian men, abhorrent in todays society-entered the small, blank, bleak room, they had already come to the conclusion that the young man was guilty as charged without deliberation.Read MoreMovie Paper (12 Angry Men)1493 Words   |  6 PagesCOMM 132 October 2, 2014 Movie Paper (12 Angry Men) In the Movie, 12 Angry Men, 12 jurors were tasked with finding a young man guilty or not-guilty of murdering his own father. In order for the men to fulfill their duty as jurors, they had to come to a consensus of whether the young man was guilty or not by working together, as a group, in order to analyze the trials evidence and testimonies, to then come to an agreement on the defendant’s guilt or innocence. As a group that was formed solelyRead MoreMovie Analysis : 12 Angry Men1639 Words   |  7 Pageswithin a diverse group.The purpose of this paper is to analyze the importance of cooperative communities while providing different aspects of leadership. Movie Summary The movie 12 Angry Men is a depiction of a jury deliberation in the 1950’s involving the trial of a teenager that is accused of murdering his father. These twelve men were brought together by a random selection process to make a unanimous decision. In the beginning, all jurors believed the boy to be guilty without a doubtRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie 12 Angry Men 933 Words   |  4 Pages12 Angry Men Overview In the movie of 12 Angry Men, a group of jurors must decide the fate of an inner-city boy, who is charged with killing his father. The case should have been a slam dunk, yet one man (Juror No. 8) in the initial vote cast reasonable doubt over the evidence of the trial. While deliberating their verdict, the details are revealed. Subsequently, the jurors slowly changed their vote to innocent on the basis of doubt. Despite their duty to separate personal matters from the factsRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie 12 Angry Men 946 Words   |  4 Pages12 Angry Men For the purpose of this paper I will be using a movie based on a teen male who is on trial for the murder of his father in 1957. There are twelve men on the jury who are from all different areas of society. They have one goal, to decide based on testimony and evidence on whether the accused is guilty or not. The following information is one person’s observation of the movie â€Å"12 Angry Men† using the 5 Stages of Group Development. Keywords: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, AdjourningRead MoreMovie Review 12 Angry Men607 Words   |  3 PagesAns 6. â€Å"Prejudice always complicated the truth.† The movie 12 Angry Men, by means of several situational examples, reaffirms the fact. The first case in point is of the boy on trial who is born and brought up in slums. Many of the jury members, especially jurors 10, 7, 4 and 3 are heavily influenced by the prejudices they hold against children from the slums. In one of the scenes, juror 10, goes into a rage and explains why people from the slums cannot be trusted and calls them little better thanRead MoreAnalysis Of The Movie 12 Angry Men 2223 Words   |  9 Pages12 Angry Men is a movie centered around a murder case and the 12 men that are in charge of providing a verdict for a kid charged of first degree murder of his own father. In this movie, the characters have to face a long and grueling procedure of figuring out how to charge the kid after a six day long trial and hours long deliberation between the jurors. The film of 12 Angry Men has several key psychological aspects to it that can be accurately and summarily described. In the movie, the jury hasRead MoreMovie Analysis : 12 Angry Men1404 Words   |  6 PagesThe group type presented in the film 12 Angry men appears to be a task group. Task groups typically come together to accomplish a specific charge. In this case, their task was to decide a verdict of guilty or not guilty for the boy on trial. According to our text, some feature of this task group would include those listed under the â€Å"teams† category such as appointed leadership and focus on a specific task or charge. The members’ bond is simply there interest in the task, as they have no previous

Vocabulary Free Essays

string(175) " is a very learner-centered activity with the effectiveness of the learner’s strategies depending on his/her attitude and motivation towards new vocabulary acquisition \(p\." 3 Developing Vocabulary in Second Language Acquisition: From Theories to the Classroom Jeff G. Mehring Abstract This paper examines the theories behind vocabulary acquisition in second language learning in order to put these theories into practice in a class. Learning vocabulary is an ongoing process which requires systematic repetition to help students learn, especially low context vocabulary. We will write a custom essay sample on Vocabulary or any similar topic only for you Order Now Students can retain the vocabulary they find useful and relevant to their subject matter by learning vocabulary through context, cooperative learning, and using technology. Results from an action research project will be reported. Introduction Until recently vocabulary had been widely overlooked in the ESL/EFL classroom. Maiguashca (1993) stated that teaching or studying grammar is based on a set of rules with a coherent structure which students follow or remember, but the same is not true of vocabulary (p. 91). Within the last few years, vocabulary has become viewed as an important aspect in second language learning, in fact, many believe just as important as the main skills of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. Nation (as cited in Nation and Waring, 1997) explained, â€Å"Vocabulary knowledge enables language use, language use enables the increase of vocabulary knowledge, knowledge of the world enables the increase of vocabulary knowledge and language use and so on† (p. 6). This contextualized approach to learning vocabulary will help students increase their vocabulary though authentic interaction. In this paper, I will examine the theories behind vocabulary acquisition and some results when they were put into practice during my student teaching. Theoretical Concepts Building vocabulary is extremely important for success in undergraduate or graduate studies. Nation and Waring (1997) reported that 5-year-old native English speakers beginning school will have a vocabulary of around 4,000 to 5,000 word families, adding roughly 1,000 word families a year until graduating from university with a vocabulary of around 20,000 word families (p. 7). Bauer and Nation (as cited in Nation and Waring) defined a word family as the base word, its inflected forms, and a small number of regular derived forms (p. 7). This means that students such as those in the English Foundations Program (EFP) at Hawai‘i Pacific University (HPU) have an enormous challenge ahead of them, considering that their previous schooling was in their L1, not English. If one uses Nation and Waring’s statement that native speakers have a vocabulary of around 20,000 word families at the time of university graduation, non-native speakers, before finishing EFP 1310, an advanced-level class in the EFP, and entering the undergraduate program, would have to increase their vocabulary from between 5,000 to 15,000 word families, depending on their previous English language studies. The good news is that according to Jamieson (as cited in Nation and Waring), once ESL students enter a school where English is the primary language, their vocabulary grows at the same rate as native speakers, around 1,000 word families a year; however, the initial gap never closes (p. 7). Understanding where ESL students are starting from will help in providing the vocabulary needed in order for them to improve and catch up. Learning vocabulary is an ongoing process that takes time and practice. Nakata (2006) acknowledged that vocabulary acquisition requires continual repetition in order for effective vocabulary learning (p. 9). Vocabulary acquisition is not something a student can spend time learning or memorizing, like grammar, and be successful. Acquisition requires the learner to be disciplined, spending time each day working on words he/she does not know in order for 4 learners to remember high frequency words and put them into their long term memory, Nation and Waring stated th at learners need to encounter the word multiple times in authentic speaking, reading, and writing context at the student’s appropriate level (p. 8). Developing lessons which allow the student to encounter new words multiple times, allowing them to put the new words into his/her long term memory can be time consuming. Developing word lists from the context of the lesson can reduce the work load, enabling the student to encounter the word multiple times through reading, listening, and speaking. Learning new vocabulary through context also helps the student understand the word’s correct usage and prevents students from making sentences from dictionary definition such as, There is a large cleavage between the rich and poor in America. Learning new words from a word list is much different from learning them in the context of a sentence or story. Yongqi Gu (2003) stated that learning new words through context is only one step students may use, and that students should think meta-cognitively and learn new words within the context of where they appear. (p. 14). To help the student learn the important words from the context of a lesson a teacher needs to focus on low context words, which necessitates a second distinction: high frequency and low frequency words. Nation (2005) defined high frequency words as words that occur quite frequently in the language, such as the, a, man, and woman. High frequency words occur so regularly in daily conversation that if students understand these words, they are able to write and speak in comprehensible English. Low frequency words, as described by Nation, are words that deal more with academic studies, words that appear throughout all academic texts and courses, but not very often in day to day speech, such as formulate, index, and modify (p. 48). This helps ease the burden a teacher has when trying to understand what words students understand; however, low frequency words are the more difficult aspect for teachers to teach and learners to understand. Creating vocabulary lists from the students’ textbooks and presenting these words through context in the lesson should help them to retain and use the new vocabulary. It will also carry through that students learn vocabulary better when they find the items to be useful and are able to put the new words into use more often while they study. Vocabulary, like other aspects of language learning, can be facilitated when done through cooperative learning. Yongqi Gu (2003) pointed out that vocabulary acquisition is a very learner-centered activity with the effectiveness of the learner’s strategies depending on his/her attitude and motivation towards new vocabulary acquisition (p. You read "Vocabulary" in category "Papers" 2). This is true because the main motivational learning factor must come from the student, but when learning vocabulary in a cooperative learning environment it allows students to learn from peers closest to them. Murphey and Arao (2001) pointed out that students felt more relaxed and learned more from peers since they saw that making mistakes is acceptable, having goals is good, and learning English can be fun (p. 2). So, even though vocabulary acquisition is a learner-centered activity in regards to studying and being disciplined to set goals, when done in collaboration with peers students may enjoy the activity more, learning more vocabulary in the end. Understanding that vocabulary learning is an ongoing process, that learning new vocabulary through context, and learning new vocabulary can be done cooperatively are what guided the classroom practices below. Vocabulary Development in Classroom Practices Context The course in which vocabulary development in line with the above theoretical concepts was implemented was EFP 1310 College Listening Skills, an advanced course in listening and note-taking. It stressed comprehension of classroom discussions and lectures, as well as a variety of other media presentations. The class was taught by two instructors: Dr. Hanh Nguyen as the lead teacher and myself as a student teacher. Together we worked to develop the students’ vocabulary in class. In this class there were 5 eighteen students, eleven females and seven males. Of the eleven females, seven were Taiwanese, one Belarusian, one Japanese, one Chinese, and one Indonesian. Of the seven males, three were Korean, two Japanese, one Taiwanese, and one Serbian. One male student was repeating this class for the second time. For two of the males and three of the females, this was their first English language class at a university. The average number of years spent studying English in the student’s home country was 6. 2 years and in the US, just over one month. explained that Test Your Word Level is adapted for the web from Paul Nation and Batia Laufer’s word levels tests, developed for learners with vocabularies of different sizes and types, with the 1,000 to 10,000 most frequent English words (p. 2). At the 1,000 word level, the items are multiplechoice and based on either pictures or short sentences. Learners check their answers and move on to a second test at a higher level, (80% or higher to move up), or moved down to a lower level, depending on their score. Assessing the student’s vocabulary level in the beginning of the semester was needed to set a starting point. It also helped students understand where they were and where they needed to go in order to do well in undergraduate studies. All of the students assessed in the EFP 1310 class scored in the 2,000 level except three students who were assessed at the 3,000 level. This means that their vocabulary level was between 2,000 and 5,000 word families, whereas their native-speaking counterparts would have around 15,000 word families. The second activity required students to learn three new words each week. The first time this class was taught each week students were required to write three new words in a journal along with a definition for each word and three example sentences using the word in context. They could pick these words from three sources: the next level up from the website where they had their level assessed, words from their textbook, and words from the AWL provided by the teacher. The website informed the students at what level they were assessed; then the students picked words from the level above that, studied them, and hopefully did better on the exam at the end of the semester. For example, students who were assessed at the 2,000 level would then study words from the 3,000 level to improve their vocabulary. If they did not want to do this, they could choose vocabulary words from the new vocabulary section listed at the beginning of each chapter of the textbook. Their last choice, if they did not wish to do the other two, was the AWL provided by the teachers. This list was prepared by examining the lectures in the text- Vocabulary Development Activities As mentioned earlier, Nation and Waring stated that learners need to encounter a word numerous times in order to use it properly. Building vocabulary is an ongoing process, and I believe good progress was made during the semester. The biggest obstacles encountered were the limited time and the number of words students had to learn in order to be well-prepared for undergraduate studies. Students now understood the importance of a large vocabulary and the amount of work they needed to put forth in obtaining it. In order to build the students’ vocabulary, and help close the vocabulary gap as much as possible, we carried out the following steps: (a) Students assessed their present vocabulary level, a starting point had to be determined so progresses could be assessed, (b) students learned three new words each week, getting the students motivated and changing their attitude on learning vocabulary, (c) the teachers created an academic word list (AWL) xtracted from the lectures and the textbook, developing vocabulary that the students would learn in the context of the lectures and use in the class discussions that followed, and (d) the students assessed their vocabulary at the end of the semester to see if they made any progress. To see their progress would motivate the students to continue the learning process. To begin with, the students needed to assess their pr esent vocabulary level. To do this, students visited http://www. lextutor. a and took a vocabulary test to determine their present level. Sevier (2004) 6 book, pulling out the academic words, and putting them on a piece of paper to be given to the students. Some of the words on this list were the same as the words from the new vocabulary section of the textbook. Getting the students to learn three new words each week posed the most difficult task. Students did not have these lists checked every week, but at the mid-term and final exams, so a few students quickly created these books just before this time period. At first it was planned to have each student post his/her three new words on WebCT so they could be checked more regularly and other classmates could learn from other student’s words. After this plan was put to a vote in class, the students decided to place their vocabulary words in a notebook and turn the notebook in before the mid-term and final exams. Learning from mistakes, we feel that it would have been better to check their vocabulary notebooks weekly, or have students post their new words on WebCT to help them acquire more low-context vocabulary, thus creating an even better activity for the class. To overcome these weaknesses, when I had the opportunity to teach the class again in the following semester (now as the sole teacher), students were required to post their three new words on WebCT instead of in a journal. They could choose the words from the same areas described above, but each week instead of writing them in a journal they needed to post them on WebCT for the teacher and classmates to see. The first reason was because the previous semester some students did not keep their journal regularly, only making the journal the day before it was due. The second reason was so classmates could learn from each other, near peer role modeling, and the teacher could use the words students were posting as part of the vocabulary section of the test. Students seemed to have taken a stronger interest in learning new vocabulary by transferring words they need to learn into a vocabulary journal or flash cards to help them study. Whether this process is successful or not will be seen at the end of the semester when the students take the vocabulary exam again to see their progress. The third activity was to provide lists of words for the AWL that appeared in the lectures in the textbook. Since EFP 1310 is an advanced course in the EFP program, and after this course most students enter undergraduate studies, the AWL is the appropriate list for this class. If it were a lower level class, lower levels of vocabulary would have been used. By pulling out the contextualized vocabulary from each lesson, we were hoping not only to increase the student’s vocabulary but also make the lectures more comprehensible. I helped with scanning and running each lecture through â€Å"RANGE† a software program developed by Nation (2005). This program allowed me to create a contextualized AWL specifically for our class, focusing on the vocabulary from the given lectures. Nation and Waring (1997) developed three levels of vocabulary lists: level 1 is the first 1,000 word families, level 2 is the second 1,000 word families, and level 3 is the university word list (UWL) or AWL (p. 14). RANGE is used to create word lists based on frequency and is useful for seeing what low frequency words are contained in a paper, technical information note, or a text aimed at foreign readers. It creates three ready-made base lists. Figure 1 shows an example of a lecture that was run through RANGE. The first includes the most frequent 1,000 words of English. The second includes the next 1,000 most frequent words, and the third includes words not in the first 2,000 words of English but which are frequent in upper secondary school and university texts from a wide range of subjects. All three base lists include the base forms of words and derived forms; thus, the first 1,000 words consist of around 4,000 forms or types. 7 Figure 1. An example of RANGE analysis output (see the Appendix for the sample text of this analysis) Tables Table 1 Three Base Lists Created from RANGE Software Program Types found in base list one Type a all also and bank business employees Range 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Freq 9 2 1 3 2 13 2 F1 9 2 1 3 2 13 2 Types found in base list two Type competition critical hurt lot rush Range 1 1 1 1 1 Freq 1 1 1 3 1 F1 1 1 1 3 1 Types found in base list three Type affect community factors financing investigate obtain project range require Range 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Freq 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 F1 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 11 After scanning each lecture and running it through the program, we pulled out only the level 3 words, the AWL, and put them into a word document. Before each lecture, the teacher printed out the appropriate AWL and gave it to the students to prepare them for the lecture. This practice was inspired by the notion that new words are best learned in context, or as Sternberg claimed, â€Å"Vocabulary using context is the most effective, or even a relatively effective, way of teaching that vocabulary† (p. 89). Since students had the chance to study and understand the vocabulary before listening to the lecture, we aimed to help them to concentrate on the content of the lecture and hear the vocabulary being used in context. Extracting the high context vocabulary from the lectures was a great way to focus on the content words from the lessons so students would be using them regularly in class, hopefully committing them to long term memory. It also saved the teachers a lot of time by not having to read the lectures and pull the vocabulary out. This allowed more time to focus on presentation of the lessons and vocabulary. The final activity took place at the end of the semester when students revisited the website, http://www. lextutor. ca, and had their vocabulary assessed a second time to see if it had grown. All of the students scored at the same level from the beginning of the semester, except one student who scored higher. The use of the same exam at the end of the semester gave validity to their scores since the level of the test did not change. Even though most students scored at the same level in the end, I do not believe that the vocabulary learning activities done in class failed. One level contains roughly 4,000 word forms and types, so a student may have tested into the lower end of level 2,000 at the beginning of the semester, and tested at the same level but toward the higher end at the completion of the semester. Since the test does not show this in more detail, it is difficult to know if the students have or have not made some progress. Conclusion Vocabulary acquisition has become an extremely important part of second language acquisition, and teachers cannot rely on students acquiring the needed vocabulary just through interaction with the language. I always understood that vocabulary was important in second language learning, but understanding what words to teach and in what manner have helped me to better plan my lessons so students can acquire the necessary vocabulary. Students need to be taught vocabulary in context so that they can retain the words and use them more frequently. Learning how the computer can help to develop word lists from the student’s textbooks has enabled me to focus on the words that were necessary in each lesson. Allowing the students to use the new vocabulary during the course of the lesson should help them retain it in their long term memories. Using a computer program to assess the student’s present vocabulary level also helped me to see what words needed to be taught to help students progress or catch up. In the end, however vocabulary is presented to the students, like all materials, it must be in appropriate situations, giving them the chance to use the vocabulary and build upon their language repertoire. 9 References Cobb, T. (1999). The compleat lexical tutor (Version 4. 5) [Computer software]. University of Quebec at Montreal. Maiguashca, R. U. (1993). Teaching and learning vocabulary in a second language: Past, present and future directions. The Canadian Modern Language Review, 50(1), 83-100. Murphey, T. , Arao, H. (2001). Reported belief changes through near peer role modeling. TESL-EJ, 5(3). Retrieved June 1, 2006, from http://wwwwriting. berkeley. edu/TESLEJ/ej19/a1. html Nakata, T. (2006). Implementing optimal spaced learning for English vocabulary learning: Towards improvement of the low-first method derived from the reactivation theory. The JALT CALL Journal, 2(2), 3-18. Nation, P. , Waring, R. (1997). Vocabulary size, text coverage and word lists. In N. Schmitt M. McCarthy (Eds. , Vocabulary: Description, acquisition and pedagogy (pp. 6-19). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Retrieved March 3, 2006, from http:// www1. harenet. ne. jp/~waring/papers/ cup. html Nation, P. (2005). Range and frequency instructions [Computer software]. Retrieved March 3, 2006, from http://www. vuw. ac. nz/lals/staff/paul -nation/nation. aspx Nation, P. (2005). Teaching vocabulary. Asian EFL Journal, 7(3), 47-54. Sevier, M. (2004). The compleat lexical tutor, v. 4. TESL-EJ, 8(3). Retrieved May 26, 2006, from http://wwwwriting. berkeley. edu/TESLEJ/ej31/m2. tml Sternberg, R. J. (1987). Most vocabulary is learned from content. In M. G. McKeown M. E. Curtis (Eds. ), The nature of vocabulary acquisition (pp. 89105). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Yongqi Gu, P. (2003). Vocabulary learning in second language: Person, task, context and strategies. TESL-EJ, 7(2). Retrieved October 3, 2006, from http://www-writing. berkeley. edu/ TESL-EJ/ej26/a4. html 10 Appendix Sample text for RANGE analysis example Starting Your Own Business When starting your own business, it is important that you put a lot of thought into what you are going to do. 0-85% of all business will fail, so the first point is to start with something you know well. Study what the kind of store you want to open. If it is a retail store, then look around. Do you see someone else selling what you plan to sell? How many possible competitors do you s ee? The next step to plan: There are two reasons for business planning. One is that it makes the entrepreneur investigate where he will open his business and what factors could affect his business. Second, a business plan will also help the entrepreneur obtain financing from a bank. All banks will require a business to make sure enough thought and planning have gone into the project before the banks gives any money. Looking at the first point: By looking at your possible market from a business person’s point of view, you may look with a more critical eye. You don’t want to rush into something where you could lose a lot of money. Possible factors that could affect your business range from employees, to possible growth of the community, to your competition. If there are not a lot of people living around your business, where will your employees come from? Is the community going to grow where you plan to open your business or is it shrinking? If it is shrinking will that hurt your business? The second point is more for the bank. They like to see that you have thought through many of the possibilities that could affect your business. They want to see that you know what your expenses will be, how well you know your product, and how much money you think you can make selling your product. (Prepared by Jeff G. Mehring, 2005) How to cite Vocabulary, Papers

Nursing Leadership in Nursing

Question: Define the Report about Nursing for Leadership in Nursing. Answer: Patients receive health care services in varied environments. Such environments rely on varied factors and complicated interactions like disease, treatment, technology, clinicians, procedures, patient care, policies, resources etc. When these factors merge or collide, if the sync is improper, there can be unpredicted harmful and unwanted outcomes. These errors can be life threatening. Hence, the environment under which a nurse or a doctor provides care to the patients directly affects the patients safety, care and recovery. At health care workplaces, nurses are expected to apply their skills, knowledge and experience for taking care of the varied and changing needs of the patients. The key contributors to the ability of a hospital to meet the challenges of patient safety are nurses and midwives. More than half of the entire registered workforce health practitioners are constituted of nurses and midwives. They are an integral part of health care system (ACN, 2015) If such care falls behind the standards, either because of negligence, unavailability of resource, lack of procedures in place or irresponsibility of the staff can lead to numerous complex results. So, this thesis is basically to understand the connection in between good leadership in a clinical system and how it impacts patient safety. When one is clear about the complexities of health care workplace, then one can engage into strategies and technique to improve the procedures. Nurses leadership is a bit different from general leadership. In leadership by nurses the major emphasis is on the speculation of the responsibility of the nurse for improving and influencing the environment of the patient (Curtis, 2011). Safety of patients is clearly defined as the measure that prevents any harm to patients. An example can be given that each year in US; 30-50% of injuries caused to patients are by falling within the health care unit. Such fall signifies added treatment and a longer stay. Prevention of such falls requires excellent leadership know how of the staff who is in constant communication with the patient. And in this case it is the nurse (Anonymous, 2015). During the 1990s a realization occurred that in spite of all the advanced medical knowledge and cure invented still hospitals or health care clinics were not safe places for complete healing. Instead there occurred risks of harms. As a result of this realization there was a growth in taking measures to ensure patient safety. Soon it became a disciple and a separate subject where members were taught how to take care of patients under their leadership (Emanuel, 2008). The IOM or the Institute of Medicine considers safety of patients associated with health care itself. Quality service under the leadership of staff in a clinical system is today a separate subject of research and constant development. The IOM defines quality service as the degree towards which any health related service for patients enhances the chances of recovery and are in sync with current body of professional health care knowledge (Mitchell, 2000). The definition of quality patient safety procedures is hence those steps that reduce the occurrences of adverse outcomes or events related to medical care, diagnosis or environment. It is a concrete definition but not the most complete of all. This is because there are many practices which have not studied well in terms of their effectiveness (Mitchell, 2000). Majority of the healthcare systems uses leadership paradigms where the main priority is role of administrators rather than development of leadership as a method to collaborate knowledge with real time requirements. This continued since the Industrial Age. Pos this time the values or leadership models devised were more relational and in sync with the collective objectives of any organization. In a health care system safety of patients lie greatly on the leadership of the health care professionals. Redefining health care services for better effective patient care can improve their safety outcomes. Organizations must redefine their practices of leadership in such a way that it promotes improvement and development (Uhl-Bien, 2007). The scenario of health care has been transforming dynamically and the challenges of working as a nurse has increased manifolds. More expert managerial training and leadership services are needed to fight important issues. For promoting patient safety nurses needs to undergo the following different leadership styles. Transformational leadership skill In this style of leadership the nurse is empowered to transform the belief, need and value of the follower for achieving a certain objective Transactional leadership skill - The outcomes of the transformational leadership skills are enhanced and completed by the transactional leadership style. Visionary leadership style Under this style of leadership nurses emphasizes on the vision of the health care organization and accordingly provides information to employees. Coaching leadership style- Both for the nurses and supervisors in a health care unity, under coaching leadership they take into account the professional development of the employees along with the delegation of their work. Affiliate leadership style In this style also, the nurse takes into account harmony and accepts differences with proper judgment. The priority here is for the best interest of patients, employees and the organizational goals. Democratic leadership style Here participation of employees and working in a team to ensure patient safety is the main objective of the nurses. Commanding leadership style- A clear and commanding leadership styles helps convey messages clearly and direct. This way every one is clear about their job roles. Leadership is itself an art and it is a subject of directing, guiding, motivating and inspiring an individual or an organization to achieve certain common objectives (Marshall, 2011). In nursing, leadership is what needs effective communication, self awareness and extreme social awareness (Taft, 2009). Here are the 3 different styles of leadership promoting patient safety in the maternity ward of the healthcare workplace and we will make an analysis of these. Transformational Creating a perfect environment is the basis for patient safety in a health care unit.To does this one needs to make certain changes based on their leadership capabilities. These can be about the employee deployment and an organizations role in ascertaining a safety environment. Such style of leadership is termed as transformational leadership (Anonymous, 2004). Dissonant and Commanding In the dissonant style of leadership there is less focus on the emotional well being of employees. Here the major concern is reaching the organizational goals. Resonant and Democratic In this type of leadership the nurse is concerned about the emotional and professional well being of his or her team of employees. By prioritizing on personal growth and values, nurses helps build up teamwork and loyalty. The next important component of the health care nursing leadership framework is working in a team to work towards patient safety effectively. There are two levels to this. One is the near leadership where the interpersonal skills are of utmost importance. Then there is distant leadership. This means scenarios where the immediate authority is not in the exact situation and is far. The main objective of leadership is to motivate the entire team to work in an emotional environment. The maternity unit of a hospital needs a lot of personalized care and services for an ultimate care and safety experience (Storey, 2013). Nursing leadership frameworks needs constant improvement based on real time needs of patients. There cannot be a predefined rule or strategy to do this. The framework clearly defines engaging the staff for improvement. Under this there are four components. First, Nurses as leaders must be always on alert for the needs of the patients. Secondly, there must be intellectual stimulations. Senior leaders must constantly help nurses in direct contact with patients learn and implement leadership ideas. Thirdly, nurses must be a constant source of inspiration to the patients. Fourth, they must act as a role model. In all the studies and findings one can conclude that there is a need of positive relationship in between relational health care leaders and patients. There is a correlation in between leadership style and patient satisfaction. Recruiting, retaining and redefining staff in lines with what is required will help create better clinical environment and ensure better patient safety at all levels in a health care workplace (Cummings, 2013) References Emanuel, L. (2008), Crossing the classroom-clinical practice divide in palliative care by using quality improvement Methods, Retrieved from https://www.ahrq.gov/downloads/pub/advances2/vol1/advances-emanuel-berwick_110.pdf Mitchell, P. (2000), Framing the problem of measuring and improving healthcare quality: has the Quality Health Outcomes Model been useful? Uhl-Bien, M. (2007), Complexity leadership theory: Shifting leadership from the industrial age to the knowledge age, Retrieved from www.antiochne.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/.../Uhl-Bien-et-al-2007-complexity.pdf Marshall, E. (2011), Transformational leadership in nursing: From expert clinician to influential leader, Retrieved from https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=walsh1398030398disposition=inline Taft, S. (2009), Emotionally intelligent leadership in nursing and health care organizations. Cummings, W. (2013), The relationship between nursing leadership and patient outcomes: a systematic review update. Retrieved from https://elearning.loyno.edu/masters-nursing-degree-online/resource/nurse-ldshp-patient-result ACN, (2015), Nurse Leadership, Retrieved from https://www.acn.edu.au/sites/default/files/leadership/ACN_Nurse_Leadership_White_Paper_FINAL.pdf Curtis, E. (2011), Developing leadership in nursing, Retrieved from https://www.nurse2nurse.ie/upload/na6873leadershp.pdf Anonymous, ( 2015), Preventing falls and Falls-related injuries in health care facilities, Retrieved from https://www.jointcommission.org/assets/1/18/SEA_55.pdf Anonymous, (2004), Keeping Patients Safe, Retrieved from https://www.nap.edu/catalog/10851/keeping-patients-safe-transforming-the-work-environment-of-nurses