Bilingual Language Acquisition by Korean Schoolchildren

Bilingual Language Acquisition by Korean Schoolchildren Bilingual language acquisition by Korean schoolchildren in New York City Sarah J. Shin & Lesley Milroy Presented by: Cyndy Gomez Introduction The present study addresses to main topic of bilingual language acquisition in Korean-American children. Specifically researchers were interested in acquisition of grammatical morphemes and plural marking systems. The researchers addressed two main questions: (1) â€Å"do L1 and L2 learners acquire the grammatical features of a given language in the same sequence? (2) do L2 learners of different L1 backgrounds learn the grammatical features of a given second language in the same sequence?† (Shin & Milroy, 1999). Previous studies related to acquisition of a second language are reviewed in this article. The most important previous research was conducted by Brown (1973) that found a â€Å"common invariant sequence of at least 14 bound morphemes by children learning English as L1†. Studies since them have tried to see wheth er or not these morphemes are the same for English as L2. Most researchers believe that children and adult learners of L2 are more similar than children learning L1. (Wode, 1976).The most recent debates have been on whether or not L2 learners have access to universal grammar. Rationilist have said that they do not and stated fundamental differences in L1 and L2 acquisition (Felix, 1984,Clahsen 1990,Meisel, 1991).It is not yet clearly known whether or not acquisition of grammatical features for L2 is dependent on L1, and this is what the present study aims to find out. The hypothesis is stated in the questions stated earlier in the introduction. Method Twelve Korean first grade children from New York City were used as subjects in this study. Half were male and half were female. Six pairs were made to group two kids together who were on similar levels of proficiency in both English and Korean. The children were all in the same class and each spoke Korean as their native language. Data was recorded through a wireless radio microphone that was located in the classroom. A fieldworker was placed into the classroom as an assistant to be able to record spontaneous speech and to be able to observe the children’s free speech. The audio was recorded in three situations: storytelling, math and play. Only monolingual English data was used. Each recording lasted between 20-75 minutes. The morpheme scoring of Dulay and Burt (1974)were used in this study. 10 obligatory occasions morpheme items were measured in this study (Table 1). The items were scored and a group score was created (Fig. 1). The procedure was then to rank the 10 morphemes in a decreasing group score. A study for plural marking was also conducted. 48 flashcard were used and each flashcard had either a photograph or a colored drawing of an animal or a common object. Each card was presented in a way to manage how children perform plural marking. There was an experimental task (with two stacks of flas hcards, one in Korean one in English).The second, a game task, was used to see whether or not use of plural markers was the same in spontaneous speech. Discussion This article examined English grammatical morpheme acquisition in children who’s native Language was Korean. The main finding was that the children were not able to grasp grammar for third person – s , plural – s, and the article. Evidence of plural marking also showed that Korean L1 children do not park for plurals at the time as English L1 children. It comes later in development for them. A clear difference was also found when comparing this study to other morpheme studies in the order of how morphemes are ranked/acquired in English as an L2. When addressing the research question, this research found that there is a difference in how L1 learners of English and L2 learners of English acquire the English grammatical features. The researchers also found that there is in influence on English as L2 depending on what the L1 was. Questions related to universal grammar were not answered. This article is, according to Google Scholar, to be cited 49 times. There were no linked comments or discussions, but the linked cited papers all showed similar research in the field on bilingual language acquisition. I think this study helped to clear the debate of whether or not L1 affects the acquisition of L2, so this study helped guide research in the right direction. This study contributed to the field of bilingual language acquisition by showing that language acquisition patters need to be considered differently for bilingual children. Table 1 Fig 1 Fig 2 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 References Brown, R. (1973). A First language: The early stages. Harvard University   Press . Clahsen, H. (1990). The comparative study of first and second language development. Studies in   Second Language Acquisition, 12, 135 -153. Dulay, H. C., & Burt, M. K. (1974). Natural sequences in child second language acquisition.   Language Learning, 24, 37-53. Felix, S. W. (1984). Maturational aspects of universal grammar. University Press. 133-61. Meisel, J. M. (1991). Principles of Universal Grammar and strategies of language use: On some  similarities and differences between first and second language acquisition. Universal   Grammar in the second language , 231-276. Wode, H. (1976). Developmental sequences in naturalistic L2 acquisition. Working Papers on   Bilingualism, 11, 1- 31.

Why do some international joint ventures succeed whereas others fail Essay

Why do some international joint ventures succeed whereas others fail - Essay Example Hence owners can disagree on the international venture’s goals making the performance of the venture more difficult to define and measure than performance of conventional organizations. Therefore, dissolution of international joint ventures (IJVs) signals not only the failure of the joint venture but also a realization of agreed goals by involved partners. Various scholars draw upon various contextual and internal factors organised in various theoretical perspectives to explain instability and failure of international joint ventures. First, the study considers benefits of conceptualising IJVs as cooperative or expedient collaboration and secondly draws on the distinctions to examine differences between instability and failure theories through structural and processual lenses. International joint ventures as cooperation experience instability from factors that erode trust, commitment, forbearance and other similar partnership qualities. For instance, a venture that lacks compli mentary with the partner is bound to be unstable; moreover, the same applies to ventures associated with significant partner differences regarding values, identities, goals, interests and practices (Salk and Shenkar, 2001). The perspective of selecting the wrong partner reduces the possibility of developing trust, which compromises cooperation making the venture vulnerable to instability. Another view conceptualises IJV as transitional organization, whose initial structure and internal dynamism create inevitable tendency to instability, which results in dissolution (Peng and Shenkar, 2002). The approach presumes that partners engage in IJVs with expedient motives seeing the partnership as a short-term instrument for serving their competitive self-interests by exploiting other partners’ weaknesses or gaining at the expense of other partners. Within this view, one variant stresses structural factors to explain imminent instability of IJVs and the other theorises instability and failure as products of internal political processes. Early influential approaches emphasise the need for parent partner to establish appropriate governance structures because when expedience prevails, IJV pose great risks to the parents like the loss of technical or strategic capabilities to opportunistic behaviour (Noe, Rebello, and Shrikhande, 2002). Most scholars are persuaded that that dominant equity control by one parent likely leads to venture success since benefits are associated with the unitary control framework (Hauswald and Hege, 2003). Similar to equity shares, which have gained dominant management control associated with the success of IJV, equal division of management control is associated with inter-parental disputes, instability and failure. Hence, structures suggest IJV’s destiny avails itself in control structures established in the original bargain. However, another complementary perspective argues that venture instability is a process dev eloped by paren ts in the lifetime of the IJV. As competition for competence, the IJV process involves multiple ‘micro bargains’ between parents as each seek to acquire the strength to exploit weaknesses of the other, the processual approach accentuate the significance of bargaining power as each manoeuvre within the IJV structure to augment its control and attain its ends (Hamel, 1991; Inkpen and Beamish, 1997). Acquisition of knowhow appears to the central aspect in joint ventures, besides joint ventures seem to be temporary in nature since there is no competition where optimal contracts are used. Moreover, duration of joint ventures relies on the

Ethical Challenges for Non-Profits Research Paper

Ethical Challenges for Non-Profits - Research Paper Example These organizations perform a vital function and oftentimes subject only the guidance of their benefactors. Their workers fight many fronts, in diverse fields, such as helping eliminate racial discrimination, poverty, diseases, hunger and political persecution, for example. They provide an important service which is often not very much appreciated and in many instances, overlooked because they work without much fanfare. A good example are religious organizations which provide food or soup kitchens, helping homeless people get a warm meal in the middle of winter. Their efforts cannot be underestimated for they fill in the gaps where the government and the private sectors fail at times. By working and aiding the marginalized sectors of society, they provide hope and meaning to many lives. There are many pitfalls and benefits to capitalism but one of the most egregious failures is that certain sectors of society can get left out. Globalisation has been increasing due to the big innovati ons in communications and technology which helped move people, goods and services much easier worldwide, as shown by higher flows of capital in foreign direct investments (FDI) but one drawback is that in some instances, some people ended up poorer instead of being richer. People with conscience are rightly concerned with this inequality and this gave rise to corporate social responsibility (CSR) and this paper takes a deeper look at one aspect of this issue. Discussion Corporate social responsibility had become a buzzword in business sectors because it is now considered a part of doing business; it is one form how an economic entity gives back to the community which has sustained it and is now generally conceded a part of continuing success. A good number of big or global organizations have adopted CSR as a part of their business model. It is now an integral part of doing business, and in this connection, many of them had developed their own models of doing so. The lofty goals of C SR evolved from its own attempts of having a good code of ethics in the wake of some previously questionable business practices; the goals are intended to make a company compliant with legal regulations, ethical and moral standards, and a good way to practice and embrace generally-accepted international norms of doing business. The prevalence of CSR today had been partly due to the active advocacies of nonprofit groups in the prior years which are now bearing the fruits of their work only today. A good CSR policy put in place guides the firm in making the best decisions for all stakeholders involved. A business firm can opt for several modes in how to go about implementing its CSR but three forms have been suggested within the context of this issue in which there are some nagging concerns on how best to execute a CSR policy in view of their profit motives as for-profit firms. A key issue involved is one of costs, in which funds and resources devoted to this policy can be evaluated i n terms of their efficiency and effectiveness. Activities and funds related to CSR must be maximized and the three options are to contribute (giving to charitable or nonprofit groups), to collaborate (by working closely and partnering with a chosen nonprofit organization) or lastly, to just build up an in-house program