Merry Christmas! I have a big present for you. It is LIFE. Well, the topic of my speech is AIDS, acquired immune-deficiency syndrome, and those who are suffering from AIDS. I know you think, “Here comes another serious speech and this time it is about AIDS.” Hmm, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever taken AIDS seriously? Have you ever thought of how the patients feel? I never think you have and I do not mean to blame you about it. Actually, I had had no interest in AIDS before I decided to write a speech about the disease. Today, I am standing here to discuss the social environment for AIDS patients and suggest how we can deal with the situation.
As you know, the cause of AIDS is human immune-deficiency virus, HIV. According to an article in Mainichi Newspaper, over 4,000 people in Japan are HIV positive. Some people hide or do not notice the status, so the actual figure is said to be much bigger than 4,000. Please keep in mind that you may be a HIV-Carrier, only do not know it.
What do think of AIDS patients? If you are found HIV-positive, you have to fight against two things. The first thing is, not to mention, the fear of the heavy symptom of HIV. The second enemy is social pressure against the HIV-Infected. In other words, the patients are suffering from people’s cold looks to them, discrimination.
You may wonder, “Are the patients really suffering from the discrimination?” I must say, “Yes.” Here is a true story.
It's Gettin' Hot in Here!
Presented by :
ECOSCI
The Academy of Mt. St. Ursula
Global Warming – What is it?
Rise in earth’s temperature
Results from changes in the natural environment
Caused by too much carbon dioxide
The Greenhouse Effect
Solar radiation from the Sun reaches the Earth’s atmosphere
The surface of the Earth absorbs most of the short-rayed insolation and later releases this heat in the form of infrared radiation into the atmosphere.
Some of the heat is absorbed by particles known as “greenhouse gases.”
The heat retained by the gases acts as a “heat blanket.”
The Greenhouse Effect
Without With
Burning of fossil fuels
The burning of fossil fuels releases Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
In the past 150 years, burning fossil fuels has caused a 25 % increase in Carbon dioxide emissions.
Carbon dioxide
Burning of fossil fuels
In the last 200 years:
Nitrous oxide has increased 17%.
Methane has increased 150%!!
CO2 | NH4 | N20
The Ties Between Sardines & Global Warming
The over-hunting of sardines has caused higher levels of phytoplankton in the ocean.
While living, phytoplankton release oxygen into the atmosphere and use Carbon for photosynthesis
When they die, their decay releases large amounts of methane and the poisonous gas, hydrogen sulfide. It also uses large amounts of oxygen.
Sardines & Global Warming (Cont.)
Methane is 21 times more effective than carbon dioxide in maintaining heat in the atmosphere.
This results in the deaths of numerous marine animal
The audio-lingual method is a style of teaching methods that prevailed fifties through late sixties. It focuses on oral practice exercises to develop oral proficiency and sets aside the study of grammar or literature as the goal of foreign language teaching. Also, it especially centers on the acquisition of the grammatical structure and pattern rather than the understanding of the contexts and meanings. It is because the notion of the audio-lingual method is based on the belief that grammar is acquired unconsciously. (My translation from M.フィノキアーロ、C.ブラムフィット/織田 稔、萬戸 克憲訳、1987 『言語活動中心の英語教授法』on page 10 ) This method is still in use, however, not as the foundation of a course, but integrated to use in individual lessons. The reason is that it included crucially defective methodology compared with other teaching methods that appeared later.
First of all, the audio-lingual method is based on both behavioral psychology and structural linguistic theory. It was preceded by ASTP (Army Special Training Program) used for teaching the people involved in military during and post WWII, and Behaviorism was attracted among U.S. in fifties; therefore errors were seen as unfavorable and accuracy was required.
How can international students succeed in overseas college life? Together with the increase number of overseas students in the US, this question has been in the spotlight of the research (Ying, 2003, p.2, para.1). Following that, this paper tries to find salient elements that lead international students for successful overseas college life.
Needed first is to define what we mean by “success” in college life. According to Yu-Wen Ying’s definition (2003), characteristics of successful international students fall into two categories: good quality of abroad life and academic achievement (p.1, para.1). The former covers covert assessment such as mental satisfaction, and latter deals with overt evaluation of students such as GPA. Also, Ying (2003) postulates the possibility of correlation between mental status and academic performance of international students (p.6, para.2). In accordance with this indication, this study includes both the two key elements for students’ life to be called successful.
Preceding research already shows that language proficiency more or less alters academic erformance. Ying (2003) acknowledges those studies on elationship between English proficiency and academic achievement that “the international students’ academic performance was significantly predicted by better English writing skills” (p.1, para.1). However, Stoynoff (1997) adds to the assumption that when language proficiency comes to above a particular level, it becomes mere a tiny factor for academic achievement;
Most common way of communication is use of “language”. We speak or write “language” to communicate with each other. We tell our feelings using language. I think “language” is a necessary for our human life. However, “language” often does not make things clear. Instead, it creates lots of confusion because “language” is difficult and complex thing. Many factors can change the meaning in “language” and also the structure of “language” also can change the meaning. I’d like to talk about 4 main points that which makes “language” unclear and make us confuse.
First, most common “language” that we think unclear is a type of idioms and metaphor. We need imagination or knowledge to understand the true meaning. These types of the “language” are very vague and there are many possibilities of the meanings. For example, if we say, “baby is an angel”, this phrase’s true meaning is a baby is innocent and cute like an angel. Truly, a baby is not really an angel but our image of an angel is innocent and cute. This fits to baby’s image so I used this word, “angel” to describe a baby. Some word or phrases does not describe thing directly.
Next, I want to talk about the lies. I mean all kind of lies, both good and bad. Sometimes we say different then what we are truly thinking inside in our heart. Some lies, we can easily understand true thinking but, sometimes we couldn’t understand we even do not think like “is that lie or not”.