Crooks

Blacks originally came from West Africa (Nigeria, Ghana and Liberia). Rich white land owners wanted slaves to work on cotton plantations in the Deep South (Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia). In the early 1800 century blacks grew in numbers in small community theses are commonly referred to as nigger nests. People in the north did not agree with slavery and thus forth created the American civil war. In the 1860's the north won and slaves were freed but wee still classed as second class citizens. Crooks from â€Å"Of Mice and Men† is a prime example of how blacks were treated in the 1860's. He is called â€Å"a nigger† by the other workers this shows that they don't give him enough respect to call him by his own name. Crooks is only allowed in the bunkhouse during Christmas and then is only used for sport for the other workers entertainment. The other workers shout at him and in the last paragraph curly steal's his gun. This shows that he is treated with no respect at all by the other workers. Crooks' living accommodation tells us how mistreated he is for example Crooks lives in a â€Å"little shed† .this tell us that he is seen as small and weak. â€Å"Square four panel window† this makes his home sound like a prison. This tells us he is trapped in his job with no chance of escape. His bed is a box of straw. This tells us he is treated like an animal and not even aloud a real bed. Outside of his window there is a pile of horse poo this tells us he is treated like shit. Crooks has few possessions he has books this tells us he is very literate and likes to read, a gun this tells us he needs to protect himself from something, an alarm clock this tells us he stick to a schedule and has duties to attend to, several pairs of shoe's this Shows us he works hard and has to replace his shoes often. His possessions are the only things he can use's to pass the time this helps us to understand his extreme loneliness. Crooks was injured by a horse kicking him now he is disabled this adds to his problems. Steinbeak reminds us that he is like white i.e. pink palms and pink lips. All of the people in the ranch judge him except from slim and Lennie this tells us he is an outsider. On the ranch crooks works as a stable buck (attends to the horse's) the owners and the workers actually need him but they don't lets it seem like they do. He is actually more skilled then most men but because of his colour he is treated much worse than the other men. The only thing he can really do as a pass time is read his books and tend to the horses this tells us he is educated an able to read and he is dedicated to his job because even in his free time he is still tending to the horses. His extreme loneliness suggests that some of his books are pornographic. This exaggerates his loneliness. Crooks's feelings are conflicted when it comes to the workers he wants company but he feels threatened by the other workers. The only people he willingly let into his home is lennie and slim he doesn't see them as a threat because only there the only people on the ranch that don't judge him for being black. The only other person he lets in is his boss but does this unwillingly. This tells us that he is very protective of his little piece of land. Crooks is constantly in pain from his accident. This makes him angry and short tempered. He is also in a lot of mental pain. He deals with the fact that he is a nobody and is under constant fear that the other workers will turn on him. Crooks was brought up in California .but is an immigrant from Mexico. Therefore he has always been an outsider. He has some companions like lennie and slim but not often most of the time he is either with the horses or on his own. Curly's wife destroyed his hope of any future friendship by reminding him of his worthlessness and belittling him. Crooks cause his own isolation by shutting people out. He wants to build a wall to block everyone else out ban leave isolate himself from the rest of the world.

Leadership Theories Essay

Path-Goal: creating a shared, common goal or vision and following through to reach the goal or vision by determining the best path * defines goals, clarifies path, removes obstacles, provides support * designed to explain how leaders can help subordinates along the path to their goals by selecting specific behaviors that are best suited to subordinates’ needs * in theory, it provides a set of assumptions about how various leadership styles interact with characteristics of subordinates and the work setting to affect the motivation of subordinates; in practice, it provides direction about how leaders can help subordinates to accomplish their work in a satisfactory manner * positive features of the path-goal theory * provides a useful theoretical framework for understanding how various leadership behaviors affect subordinates’ satisfaction and work performance * it attempts to integrate the motivation principles of expectancy theory into a theory of leadership * provides a very practical model – it underscores and highlights the important ways leaders help subordinates * fairly straightforward – an effective leader has to attend to the needs of subordinates * provides a set of general recommendations based on the characteristics of subordinates and tasks for how leaders should act in various situations if they want to be effective; it informs us about when to be directive, supportive, participative, or achievement oriented * leaders should adapt their styles to the situation or to the motivational * a leader must carefully assess the subordinates and their tasks, and then choose an appropriate leadership style to match those characteristics * needs of their subordinates, as well as utilize not only one of the leadership traits, but a combination of them * Directive Leadership: characterizes a leader who gives subordinates instructions about their task, including what is expected of them, how it is to be done, and the time line for when it should be completed * a directive leader sets clear standards of performance and makes the rules and regulations clear to subordinates * Supportive Leadership: consists of being friendly and approachable as a leader and includes attending to the well-being and human  needs of subordinates * leaders using supportive behaviors go out of their way to make work pleasant for subordinates; in addition, supportive leaders treat subordinates as equals and give them respect for their status * Achievement-Oriented Leadership: characterized by a leader who challenges subordinates to perform work at the highest level possible * The leader establishes a high standard of excellence for subordinates and seeks continuous improvement * In addition to expecting a lot from subordinates, achievement-oriented leaders show a high degree of confidence that subordinates are capable of establishing and accomplishing challenging goals * Subordinate Characteristics: determine how a leader’s behavior is interpreted by subordinates in a given work context * Researchers have focused on subordinate’s needs for affiliation, preferences for structure, desires for control, and self-perceived level of task ability * these characteristics and many others determine the degree to which subordinates find the behavior of a leader an immediate source of satisfaction or instrumental to some future satisfaction * needs for affiliation – prefer supportive leadership because friendly and concerned leadership is a source of satisfaction * desires for control – path-goal theory suggests that for subordinates with an internal locus of control participative leadership is most satisfying because it allows them to feel in charge of their work and to be an integral part of decision making * subordinates perception of their own ability – as subordinates’ perception of their own abilities and competence goes up, the need for directive leadership goes down Social Change: change for the common good; individual, group, and societal values are fundamental to change * guides the design of a leadership development program that emphasizes clarification of values, development of self-awareness, ability to trust, capacity to listen and serve others, collaborative work, and change for the common good * basic premise is that values demand a conscious focus, that leadership ought to bring about desirable social change, that leadership is a process and not a position, that all students are potential leaders (principle of inclusiveness), and that service is a powerful vehicle for developing leaders * these premises differentiate this model from earlier theories as it does not focus  on the development of leadership skills * includes learning, developing, and implementing core values, the Seven Cs of Social Change, which are required in individual, group, and community leadership * Personal/Individual Values- * Consciousness of Self: means knowledge of yourself, or simply self-awareness; it is awareness of the values, emotions, attitudes, and beliefs that motivate one to take actions * Congruence: thinking, feeling, and behaving with consistency, genuineness, authenticity, and honesty toward others; consistent with their most deeply held beliefs and convictions * Commitment: implies intensity and duration in relation to a person, idea, or activity; requires a significant involvement and investment of self in the object of commitment and in the intended outcomes; it is the energy that drives the collective effort; essential to accomplishing change * Group Values- * Collaboration: a central value in the model that views leadership as a group process; increases group effectiveness because it capitalizes on the multiple talents and perspectives of each group member, using the power of that diversity to generate creative solutions and actions * Common Purpose: develops when people work with others within a shared set of aims and values; shared aims facilitate group members engagement in collective analyses of the issues and the task to be undertaken; best achieved when all members of the group build and share in the vision * Controversy with Civility: recognizes two fundamental realities of any group effort: first- differences in viewpoint are inevitable and valuable, second- such differences must be aired openly and with respect and courtesy; disagreements bring valuable perspectives and information to the collective group, but eventually need to be resolved * Societal and Community Value * Citizenship: names the process whereby the self is responsibly connected to the environment and the community; it acknowledges the interdependence of all involved in the leadership effort; recognizes that effective democracy requires individual responsibility as well as individual  rights Situational: involves using different types/styles of leadership at specific times which vary and are determined buy each situation; made of directive and supportive behavior * motivation is key * basically just changing leadership based on the situation * involves directive and supportive behavior * Directive Behavior: one way communication; helps group members accomplish goals, includes what is to be done and how it is to be done * Supportive Behavior: two way communication; helps group members feel comfortable about themselves, their coworkers, and the situation Tranformational: process where leader creates a connection with others to create a positive change * Developmental in nature * Attentive to the needs of the followers and aids them in reaching their full potential * Moves followers to accomplish more than what is usually expected of them * About positive change * a combination of idealized influence, individualized consideration, inspiration motivation, and intellectual stimulation * Pros vs Cons * Widely studied & accepted * Involves individuals and followers * Gives a broad view on leadership * Might be innate rather than learned * Might be abused * Pseudotransformational – leaders who are transformational in a negative way * Uses warped values to negatively lead followers (i.e. Hitler, Bin Laden, etc.) Ethical: involve virtuous values and morals in all decision-making * ethics is a dimension of all leadership theories * ethical leadership involves serving others, building community, justice, honesty, and respect * concept dates back to Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle * comes from Greek word â€Å"ethos† which translates to character References: Northouse, Peter Guy. Leadership: Theory and Practice. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2010. Print.

Many of todays drivers have dangerous habits Essay

Many of todays drivers have dangerous habits - Essay Example One of the main reasons for this increase in figure is that people have very little regard for traffic laws and many have a poor road sense. Moreover, the condition of the roads is very poor and needs lot of improvement. No amount of booking cases and fining motorists can cure this menace. One incident that constantly reminds me of the ugly face of rash driving is from news clipping, when an old man was hit from the back on the highway while he was driving within the speed limit. He suffered a severe shock and when he climbed out of the car and attempted crawling to cross the road to reach a point of safety, none of the many motorists on the road stopped to help him. I have particularly pointed out this incident not because it was the case of an old man but because it was a case of inhumanity or human insensitivity. Drunken driving has shown a gradual rise over the years. No amount of cajoling or strictness has hampered the enthusiasts who enjoy driving after getting heavily drunk. It has been observed that such incidents increase especially on festive occasions. Everyday, 36 people in United States die, and approximately 700 more are injured in motor vehicle crashes because of alcohol impaired drivers. This demands a zero tolerance laws against drunk drivers. Laws for the road should be followed with more determination. According to some members of the law and administration branch, fast driving does not mean rash driving. Thus, in case of an accident, it needs to be seen whether the driver was driving fast or rash. Rash and negligent driving accounts to the maximum percentage of life-claiming accidents all over the world. Next is the crop of under-age drivers who very often violate the traffic rules. The best possible way to address this road safety hazard is to educate both the parents and the children on road safety and bring about more strict rules for such offences which cradle under the term childish. About 30% of crashes killing young

Critical Thinking Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Critical Thinking Questions - Essay Example The use of this method will provide different ways of making sense of ideas, developing product, attaining content, and processing information so as to promote effective learning. Question a (ii) The six-column framework highlights the basics of an individual. Everyone must employ these questions to be complete. In addition, scopes of the framework classification technique, the abstractions, and perspectives are complete and can categorize any concept or knowledge. An individual can utilize the what, who, how, where, why, and when questions to classify students. This is because the differentiated instruction understands every student is unique. This framework will assist the teacher to instruct according to student’s learning style and needs. The framework will also determine the students’ skills, level of knowledge, and comprehension in a unit of study. Question a (iii) The leader may employ the framework to assess the readiness and growth level of students. This will help improve instruction. The leader may use the framework to retrieve information on different aspects, for example; the leader may ask the instructor â€Å"how can below average students improve?† or â€Å"how are the students coping with the new teaching techniques?† The different responses will guide the leader on areas that need Improvement or change. The leader may also employ the framework to ensure students are responsible and active. This framework will make both the instructors and students fill challenged whenever they are engaged in an activity, in class (Caine & Caine, 1994). This will help improve instruction or change instruction. Question b (i) Concept formation is an inductive educating technique that assist learners establish an apparent understanding of an idea or concept by examining a small number of examples of a concept. Concepts may be presumed to be fittings in the mind. A mind that is well fitted provides lifelong learning, joy, career satisfa ction, citizenship, and academic satisfaction. When the teachers create a concept from its example, they know more exists to a practice or concept. For example, if they see a student is underperforming in class, they know there is more to it than lack of understanding or grasping of ideas (Tomlinson, 1999). Step 1 allows the teachers examine their preferred or presumed comfortable learning environment. Step 2 permits the teacher compare their findings on suitable learning environment and enable them device the most suitable environment. Step 3 enables the teachers categorize the learning environment in terms of the most suitable. Question b (ii) The steps will act as a pre-assessment to the extent to which the teachers have established their concepts. This is because the proof is not in the decisions they have reached, but the reasons they will provide. In addition, each step provides the leader a chance to understand the backgrounds, interests, weaknesses, strengths, and the dissim ilarities between the teachers in several areas. The pre-assessment will also allow the teachers become extra purposeful in conducting class activities. Question c (i) The factors include cooperative learning groups, ability grouping of learners, class size, and the instructor. Cooperative groups have learners with strong class cohesion, positive perception, adequate degree of social support, and high scores of achievement. The ability grouping

Paper on Elder Abuse Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

On Elder Abuse - Research Paper Example They may not see or hear also or sense as clearly as they used to, leaving chances for immoral people to get benefit from them. Psychological or physical disorders may make them more demanding companions for those who live with them. A large number of elders all over the United States are   being abused: harmed in some considerable way often by people who are directly liable for their care. Over half a million accounts of abuse against elderly Americans get to concerned authorities each year, and millions more cases go unheard. Elder abuse is likely to occur where the senior resides; most frequently within the home where abusers are likely to be grown person; other relatives, for instance, grandchildren; or spouses of elders. Institutional situations particularly continuing care services can as well be sources of elder abuse. Every year many older individuals are badly treated, ignored, as well as subjugated. Several sufferers are people who are elder, weak, as well as defenseless and cannot help themselves and rely heavily on others to meet even their most fundamental requirements. Abusers of elder people are both males and females, and may be relatives, friends, or â€Å"trusted others† (Ulsperger & Knottnerus, 2010). Executors of elder abuse can incorporate any person in a position of dependence, power or influence. Family members, neighbors and associates, are all collectively known as relations of dependence, whether the older adult really consider people as reliable or not. A number of perpetrators may groom an older person by building a bond with them, with the intention of establishing a bond of dependence. Older people staying unaccompanied who have no grown children living near are mainly susceptible to ‘grooming’ by neighbors and friends who would look forward to to get control of their assets. The greater part of abusers is family members, usually the older adult's spouse or offspring, even though the form of abuse varies in ac cordance with the relationship. In several circumstances, â€Å"the abuse is domestic violence grown old, a situation in which the abusive behavior of a spouse or partner continues into old age† (Sandell & Hudson, 2010). During the year 2006, â€Å"the International Network for Prevention of Elder Abuse (INPEA) selected June 15 as World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD)† (Sandell & Hudson, 2010) and a growing number of events are organized around the globe on this day to increase knowledge of elder abuse, and draw attention towards ways to confront such abuse. Types of elder abuse Physical abuse Physical elder abuse is non-accidental use of strength against an aged individual that causes physical hurt, wound, or injury. This sort of abuse incorporates not just physical attacks such as beating or pushing but the unsuitable use of medicines, restraints, or detention. Emotional abuse In emotional or psychosomatic elder abuse, people talk to or treat aged individuals in wa ys that become reason for emotional hurt or grief. Verbal types of emotional elder abuse consist of threatening by shouting or warnings, dishonor and ridicule, and usual blaming or ‘scapegoating’. Nonverbal emotional elder abuse can take the shape of disregarding the elderly individual, separating an elder from associates or activities, and frightening or intimidating the elderly person. Disregard or rejection from caregivers Elder disregard, failure to carry out a caretaking responsibility, forms over half of all reported cases of elder abuse. It can be active (also known as

Southern California Edison Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Southern California Edison - Essay Example Based in Rosemead, California, the company was founded in the year 1886 by the name Holt & Knupps. They were "primarily a provider of street lights" then. (About, par.1) Later, in 1897, West Side Lighting Co. and Los Angeles Electric Co. merged to form Edison Electric Co. of Los Angeles. The company changed its name to Southern California Edison in 1909. Today's Southern California Edison is a 122 years old company, "serving more than 13 million people", (EI 1, par.1) providing reliable electric service covering more than "50,000 square miles" (EI 1, par.1) of central, coastal and central southern California, "employing more than 15,500 employees", (SCE 1, par.7) While going through the news releases of SCE, one happens to come across this recent article about "Safe holiday lighting tips."(EI 2, par.4) saying "As the excitement of the season sets in with decorative displays, many people are inadvertently exposed to a greater safety risk of becoming the victim of a fire or electrical accident, such as shock or electrocution." And the rest is about safety measures and light saving tips. It sounded more like an advisory. After going through it, one gets the feeling that they have written it less out of concern for their customers and more out of concern about the 'blame' people would put on their head in case if something went wrong and even if it wasn't their fault. Not without a reason, since I came across another article in Los Angeles Times which said "Power lines are the suspected culprits behind 12 major fires destroyed 1041 homes and killed two people." (Mozingo, par.1) Somehow, I feel, this is another typical case of strained relations between a 'big' company not being able to keep 'all' its customers happy. A common observation involving monopoly businesses. Suppliers: Like every other 'big' company, SCE manages its suppliers in a very systematic manner. SCE requires vendors for various purposes like managing scrap, meter data management, managing its ERP, energy procurement (natural gas and whole sale electric supplies), various materials, etc. One remarkable feature is that it does its energy efficiency program jointly with other utility companies viz. Pacific Gas and Electric Company and San Diego Gas and Electric Company. As such, vendors for efficient energy management are evaluated jointly. One very optimistic feature is SCE's active encouragement for renewable and alternative power generation. In fact, it has a special power contracting option for smaller biomass generators so as to contribute towards California's renewable energy as well as environmental goals. Competitors: Until California's rush into energy deregulation in 1996, SCE had a tightly regulated but a 'natural' monopoly. Though it was intended to move towards a less regulated energy market so as to decrease the cost of electricity by fostering competition among producers, its practical effect has been divestment of generation facilities by utility companies. SEC is the primary electric supplier for much of Southern California. However, the Los Angeles

Strategic management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Strategic management - Assignment Example In addition, an environmental analysis plays an important role in pointing out the potential opportunities or threats that a company may face in its external environment. The examples of external environment include the technological, political, environmental, and sociological trends that affect the business operations directly or indirectly. The main purpose of an environmental analysis is to aid in the development of strategies that helps in decision making within an organization in regards to the external environment (Caratti, 2004). An environmental analysis involves the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats during the development of a strategic plan. It is important for managers to conduct environmental analysis after a certain period of time depending on the nature of the business and be able to identify conditions or events in the external environment that help achieve a competitive advantage (Hitt & Ireland, 1999). Walmart is a multinational retail corporation founded in 1962 by Sam Walton. Their focus is to make a difference in people’s lives by selling their products at a discount thus making them save money and live better. The objectives of Walmart are to meet the needs of their customers at a value and treating people with dignity and depend on the associate partners for success. The company has implemented some environmental measures to increase efficiency and has grown to be the world’s largest and emulated retailer. A SWOT analysis represents an organizations core competency. Its framework is popular due to its ability and power to develop strategy. The analysis of the internal strengths and weaknesses of a company focuses on the internal factors that give it various advantages and disadvantages in meeting the needs of its target market. Strengths are the core competencies that provide a firm with the advantage of satisfying its customers. Analysis of an organizations strengths

Sociology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

Sociology - Essay Example Urged by his therapist to see his son, Bree and Toby then went on a journey that saw the development of their relationship, first, from being based into a mutual respect then into a father and son’s. Clearly, TransAmerica primary theme is that of self-discovery. For example, Bree’s character is full of contradiction and that he has difficulty in making decisions for his life. This is not surprising given that he is quite unusual for being transsexual and that he is forced to deal with conflicting and antagonistic social messages. He has also a very conservative mindset and, interestingly, along with his positive attitude, this has helped him get over his own crises. We have an entirely different and almost opposite character in Toby. He lacks moral and emotional capacities but he is matured and knows what he wants for his future. In a way, Bree’s and Toby’s characterization were complex that everyone in the audience could identify with an aspect of their personality. The movie was unique not simply for its entertainment value but, most importantly, for its social relevance. The Dreams of Sparrows is a documentary about Iraq by Iraqi filmmaker Hayder Daffar. The backdrop of this film is the post-Saddam era, and that it aims to document what the war has brought to Iraq as a country and to its people. Daffar’s attempt at searching for the truth in the film takes us with him as he cover all walks of life in Iraq, starting off with the arts and culture of Baghdad where we encounter Iraqi painters, writers and filmmakers and we learn their perspectives and point of views. As the film continues, the interviews proceed on discussing the politics of occupation as well as the Iraqi resistance. It concluded with the battle over Falluja and the devastating death of one of the crew members of the documentary. Interestingly, at the end of the film the filmmakers did a series of self interviews which was made

Questions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 11

Questions - Essay Example Other aspects of diversity include education levels, religion, sexual orientation and personality types (Rice, 2005). Effective management of diversity within an organization can be a source of competitive advantage in business. A competitive advantage refers to a marketing action that a company employs that sets it apart from its competitors. To understand how diversity can affect a firms competitive advantage or competition, in general, it is essential to explore some of the benefits of diversity to an organization. Firstly, diversity brings a great variety of opinions and viewpoints to an organization. In a case where the management wishes to make a decision, the difference in opinion, as presented by different members, gives a broad perspective of the subject. This will lead to the selection of the best possible set of actions that can yield best results. Restricted or few opinions can be misleading resulting in poor business decisions that might not compete fairly in a business environment. Secondly, diversity can result in a wide range of talents in an organization. A variety of talent is a major contributor to the efficiency of a firm. Matching the different talents to the different tasks in an organization will lead to better execution of tasks. Efficiency in tasks is a major competitive advantage. This is because efficiency in production can lower the costs of production, and the saved resources can be channeled elsewhere within the firm for improvement of services. Finally, the diversity of a firm is a basis for the provision of a wider range of services. In marketing, for instance, cultural diversity of a firm can play a major role in reaching a broader market. An organization with a workforce of diverse cultural background is better placed to reach a multicultural market. It is possible to achieve this by understanding the different requirements of the cultures and the language to

Network Security Essay Example for Free

Network Security Essay You are interested in starting your own Music Store, QualitySounds, in a suburban area of your town. You need to design and build a network and computing solution for your stores. You have done some initial planning and you will start with two stores (but you plan to add two more stores across town within one year). Your store will sell new and used music and allow customers to get â€Å"online† in your stores and download music. You also will offer classes on how to setup music downloads and configure MP3 devices. You took computer networking courses in college and you feel you can tackle this solution yourself. Upon initial planning, you have identified the following requirements for your network: * Connects three office computers and one computer used for Point-of-Sale (POS) services at each of your stores. You also want six (6) computers in the lobby/store where patrons can download music and you can run â€Å"training classes† for people to learn about using MP3 players and get other basic information. The two offices have to be connected into one cohesive network, sharing POS services and other critical company information. You also need to provide a â€Å"hand out† casual area for people to stop in and discuss music and connect wirelessly to the Internet (you might even offer free coffee to entice people to come in to your store). * Provides adequate security for all of the company communications and documents (especially sensitive sales documents). All POS services must be protected. All general network access should be segmented from the company POS services. * Fast and have additional capacity as the company grows * Provides for centralized printing * Supports the eventual addition of other stores to the network * Provides customers with a general information Website and a secure Website where clients can buy services, and products * Provides for limited downtime (24 hour downtime maximum) * Provides for centralized management and control of the computers in the two stores, so that you can maintain the network from off-site * Provides for long-term cost effectiveness * Provides a suite of software tools for the employees to effectively communicate and a POS solution for the stores The company does not have any equipment. Your plan should include a complete network and computer system that meets these requirements and future expansion plans. The two store locations will (eventually) be within a five-mile radius of each other. The locations are within a suburban area that has current technological infrastructures and related technology offerings. The stores will need a sales system and print services for invoices. Complete your proposal including costs for computing equipment, network infrastructure, network servers, printers, and related hardware, software, and accessories. Include as much detail as possible as well as justification as to your selections. Diagram and explain your physical network and computer design as well as the logical network design (server installation, domain layout, etc.). As you are a small business, cost is a major factor and should be minimized.

Factors of Single Parent Families

Factors of Single Parent Families Single-parent families  can be defined as families where a parent lives with dependent children, either alone or in a larger household, without a spouse or partner. Single-parent is a parent who cares for one or more children without physical assistance of another parent in home. Single parenthood may vary according to the local laws of different nations or regions. Single-parent families which are families with children under age 18 headed by a parent who is divorced, widowed, adoption, artificial insemination, surrogate motherhood or not married. But mostly single-parent families came about because of the death of spouse. Besides that, most of the single-parent families face common problem and special challenge, the most common problem is their children. Children who live with single father or mother, they have to take care themselves and get less care from parent because of busy working. According to social scientists, children who growing up in single-parent families are disadv antages in other ways when compared to a two-biological-parent families. Many of these problems are directly related to the poor economic condition of single-parent families, not just to parenting style. Factors of Single-Parent Families The effect on children In single-parent families, children tend to experience short-and long-term economic and psychological disadvantages, higher absentee rates at school, lower levels of education, and higher dropout rates (with boys more negatively affected than girls). Besides that, they will more delinquent activity, including alcohol and drug addiction. Teenagers, on the other hand, are more negatively affected by parental discord prior to divorce than by living in single-parent families and actually gain in responsibility as a result of altered family routines. In addition, children in single-parent families more likely to suffer emotional problem, due to mother and father split up or any other reason. Children in single-mother homes are also more likely to experience health-related problems as a result of the decline in their living standard, including the lack of health insurance. In future, children who from single-parent families become adults, they are more likely to marry early, have children early, and divorce. Girls are at greater risk of becoming single mothers as a result of noncapital childbearing or divorce. Economics of single-parent families The main problem of single-parent families is economic, in single-father families, there will be no any problem, because father have particular job, have no worry. But in single-mother families, there might have problem, for example, when single-mother divorced or widowed, she have no any job or any income to maintain the families. Single-mother has to face economic problem, such as lack of money paid for children studies. Lower level of educational achievement Children or teenagers who live under single-parent families will face lower level of education problem, this is because the families facing finance problem, having poor economic condition, so the parent have no enough money send the children to tuition, or any learning centre to have extra learning, children just only go to the government school study. Besides that, parent who have finance problem, he or she dont have enough money to buy the reference books for their child, they just study the text book, cant get extra learning material or knowledge. Children / Teenagers having conflict with their parent Children or teenagers who lives in single-parent families will have conflict with the parent, this is because the parent are busy working outside and spend less time with their children, or even cant have a good communicate with them, lack communication between parent and their children, then the conflict occur. Parent who busy working outside, they cant spend more time on them, thats why the parent dont even know what their child need or wants. Besides that, children or teenagers with argue with their parent because the parent cant understand them, cant have a good communicate with them. Less supervised by parent In a single-parent families, single father or mother are busy working at outside, they dont have much more time supervised their children. This will cause the children turn to bad side, because the parent cant spend time on supervise them. When parent busy working not at home, or parent dont have much time with the children, so when the children will feel alone or boring, they will hanging out with friends, truancy with friends, smoking with friends, or taking drugs. In this situation, the parent doesnt know at all, they dont know what their children doing outside, making good or bad friends. No discipline Children who lives in single-parent families, most of them dont have discipline, this is because single father or mother didnt spend time on family education, they just busy with their job. Family education is important for children, for example, children who dont have discipline, he or she is just a rude boy or girl, they dont know what is respect and how to respect other people. Besides that, when the children study in school without discipline, he or she dont know how to respect the teacher and not following the instruction, for example, when teacher teaching the lesson, he or she playing with other friends and disturbing other students, he or she will be punish by the teacher or headmaster due to dont have any discipline. Divorce parent/single parent finds new partner who treats the children of the previous partner badly When a divorce parent or single parent live single for few years, he or she might find a new partner for accompany his or her. But here is the problem, if the parent find the new partner is bad, the new partner will treats the children of the precious partner badly. For example, if the new partner of the parent doesnt like the children, he or she will keep making trouble on them, such as beating them, threaten the children, and any other worst things on them.

Robert Frosts Poems Essays -- essays research papers

Robert Frost's Poems Robert frost has many themes in his poetry. One of the main themes that is always repeated, is nature. He always discusses how beautiful nature is or how distructive it can be. Frost always discusses nature in his poems. First, in the poem "Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening" there is a lot of nature expresses. Frost's very first sentence already talks about the woods. whose woods these are I think I know (Ln 1, 1105). Also, in the poem he states that the narrator likes to sit and watch the snow. He is also a nature lover. In the second stanza Frost refers back to the woods. He must also like ice, because he brings ice and cold up a lot in his poems. Once again Frost brings ice up when he mentions flake and cold wind. Then in the last stanza F...

An Analysis of The Other in All of Us, As Evoked by E.R. Burroughs Tar

An Analysis of The Other in All of Us, As Evoked by E.R. Burroughs' Tarzan Human nature is one of self-awareness. Because of that awareness, it is necessary for us to define ourselves by looking at the world around us and deciding what groups we fall into, and what groups we do not. Those groups we feel a part of become a safe haven, and those groups we feel separated from are seen as foreign, exotic, dangerous, or even subhuman. â€Å"The Other† must exist for human beings to define themselves individually. Our recognition of our differences in relation to others gives us our humanity and our individuality. But our curiosity about The Other still remains. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ novel, Tarzan, is a discourse on our fascination with otherness: our reactions to â€Å"the other,† and our desire to discover how the other sees us. Burroughs’ has structured the novel so that readers are forced out of their traditional roles, taking on those of The Other. In so doing, readers see things about themselves that were invis ible to their individual selves, but obvious to outsiders. Burroughs avoids using this technique to reveal any great truths about society, choosing rather to entertain and amuse, but through entertaining his readers, he cannot help but give them a vehicle for rediscovering themselves. In Tarzan, there are two main kinds of â€Å"other,† two worlds, juxtaposed. Tarzan and his jungle constitute one world; Jane and â€Å"civilization† constitute another. Orbiting these two main worlds, are several moons, such as the Mbonga village and the mutineers. Tarzan might even be considered a moon, since there is no one like him, and he belongs to no group but his own. Tarzan’s jungle world would likely be foreign to most rea... ...girl, but found a new sense of self and identity, as does the reader. Burroughs has taken the readers on a journey away from themselves and into a place they could never go alone. He takes them outside of themselves, away from all that is safe and predictable, and gives them a chance to be reborn as an â€Å"other.† And in remaking the reader into an â€Å"other,† the reader is naturally given the opportunity to see society, and perhaps even his own little corner of society, through new eyes. He warns the reader to remember the feelings evoked by Tarzan and to be true to his new self. It is not only the places or events described in Tarzan that make it so enduringly entertaining; it is the chance to see our own lives as something unique, unusual, and significant. Works Cited: Burroughs, Edgar Rice. Tarzan: The Adventures of Lord Greystoke. Ballantine Books, 1972.

Nick Carraway in Great Gatsby Essay -- essays research papers

NICK CARRAWAY has a special place in The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. He is not just one character among several; it is through his eyes and ears that the story takes place. In this novel, Nick goes to some length to establish his credibility, indeed his moral integrity, in telling this story about this "great" man called Gatsby. He begins with a reflection on his own upbringing, quoting his father's words about Nick's "advantages,† which we could assume were material but, he soon makes clear, were spiritual or moral advantages. Nick wants his reader to know that his upbringing gave him the moral fiber with which to withstand and pass judgment on an amoral world, such as the one he had observed the previous summer. He says, rather pompously, that as a consequence of such an upbringing, he is "inclined to reserve all judgments" about other people, but then goes on to say that such "tolerance . . . has a limit.† This is the first sign the narrator gives the reader to show he will give an even-handed insight to the story that is about to unfold. Later the reader learns he neither reserves all judgments nor does his tolerance reach its limit. Nick is very partial in his way of telling the story about several characters. He admits early into the story that he makes an exception of judging Gatsby, for whom he is prepared to suspend both the moral code of his upbringing and the limit of intolerance, because Gatsby had an "extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness.† This inspired him to a level of friendship and loyalty that Nick seems unprepared to extend towards others in the novel. Nick overlooks the moral implications of Gatsby's bootlegging, his association with speakeasies, and with Meyer Wolfsheim, the man rumored to have fixed the World Series in 1919. Yet, he is contemptuous of Jordan Baker for cheating in a mere golf game. While he says that he is prepared to forgive this sort of behavior in a woman: "It made no difference to me. Dishonesty in a woman is a thing you never blame too deeply - I was casually sorry, and then I forgot," it seems that he cannot accept her for being "incurably dishonest" and then reflects that his one "cardinal virtue" is that he is "one of the few honest people" he has ever known. When it comes to judging women - or perhaps only pote... ...e said, even through his appalling sentimentality, I was reminded of something - an elusive rhythm, a fragment of lost words, that I had heard somewhere a long time ago . . ." These are Nick's words. Whose "appalling sentimentality" is operating here? Has Nick reported any of Gatsby's words - which comprise so little of the novel - to suggest that he would even begin to put his love for Daisy in these "sentimental" terms? Is not this excess of sentiment in fact Nick's sentiment for Gatsby or perhaps Nick's attempt at displaying those "rather literary" days he had in college? Or both? The reader should consider the distance that Fitzgerald has created between his presence in the story and Nick's and their implications. Fitzgerald has created a most interesting character in Nick because he is very much a fallible storyteller. When an author unsettles an accepted convention in the art of storytelling by creating a narrator like Nick, it draws attention to the story as fiction, as artifice. Ironically, in doing this, he has created in Nick a figure who more closely resembles an average human being and thus has heightened the realism of the novel

Interracial Marriage Essay

Today interracial marriages are happening more and more despite that many disapprove as we become more diverse, both racially and ethnically. In the past, though considered to be taboo interracial marriages are a quickly growing segment of the population. Interracial marriage is a marriage of two individuals each of different races. The focus of this paper is to address interracial marriage increase, effects on children, acceptance and challenges, and my personal views. Interracial marriage is used to describe marriages that take place between people who are from different racial or ethnic groups. Interracial marriage can convey a relationship between a Black and an Asian, a White and a Korean, a Hispanic and an Asian, a White and a Hispanic, a Black and a White, and etc. However, when people talk about race relations, the focus is on Blacks and Whites. 1. Interracial marriages hits a new high 2. Interracial marriages and the effect on children 3. Acceptance of interracial marriage 4. Difficulties and challenges of interracial marriage 5. Views on interracial marriage Interracial Marriages Hits a New High For most of U. S history, in most communities, such unions were taboo. Interracial marriage approval is at a high point in the United States at 86 percent, a Gallup poll indicated. The poll of 1,319 adults found the United States is on the verge of unanimity on the topic of interracial marriage, Gallup reported. Ninety-six percent of African-Americans, who have always been more approving of marriage between blacks’ whites, approve of such unions, while 84 percent of whites approve. The gap of approval ratings between blacks and whites has narrowed considerably. The gap since 1997 has been averaging 13 percentage points. From 1968 to 1994, the average gap was 32 points. When Gallup first asked about interracial marriage in 1958, only 4 percent of those asked approved. Approval of black-white marriages is slightly lower among Southerners, Republicans, conservatives and those in lower education levels. The elderly are the least approving group at 66 percent (UPI. com, 2011). Interracial Marriages and the Effect on Children No matter what ethnic groups are involved, one major result of these marriages are children. Children are far more negative than a lot of adults are today regarding interracial relationships. It’s not that they approve or disapprove; it’s more like they don’t understand. If a child has never been exposed to other races or seen two different races married and living together than their first reaction might be to think its â€Å"weird†. When kids don’t understand something their first reaction is to tease the child with the interracial parents. There are more serious effects of a child being interracial †¦ labeling and racism. Encountering an identity crisis, which group does she/he belong to? Having siblings that can actually pass as white, who may result in receiving privileges that society may deny the child of more color (darker). Acceptance of Interracial Marriage The willingness of people entering into interracial relationships has grown and so does acceptance. There still some that frown upon mixed marriages with the belief that marriage is tough enough without having to deal with the burden racial differences. A report released by the Pew Research Center says that 43 percent of Americans believe that marriage between people of different races has been productive in our society while only 10 percent believe it has changed America for the worse (AFRO. com, 2012). Difficulties and Challenges of Interracial Marriage As an interracial couple you will possibly face extra challenges in your marriage from people outside your marriage. These include antagonistic and unfair treatment from others, suffering rejection from family members or disinheritance, and dealing with prejudices from friends. All of these things combined can push a couple into social segregation. If you or a couple you know is dealing with these kinds of things (even same-race couples do), think about the following: Have confidence in your choice; Deal with your feelings; Stand up for each other and your marriage; Surround yourselves with supportive people. What can cause an interracial marriage to fall apart is the inability of a couple to handle their differences and a failure to talk about stress and prejudice created by others (Marriage Matters, 2009). The problems and issues that used to occur with interracial marriages are no longer as adamant and noticeable. Views on Interracial Marriage Interracial marriages are more common today than ever before and I support it. There are cultural differences, but if anything, I believe that in interracial marriages couples can help each other to grow as a person. Love as no boundaries†¦what difference does the color of your skin make if two people are in love. You can’t help with whom you fall in love with, and people should stop seeing mixed race relationships as a political statement. If people attempt to understand the different beliefs, traditions and values of the diverse groups that make up this world, then they could work together for the good of all. Love has no color! Interracial marriage in the United States has been fully legal in all U. S. states since the 1967 Supreme Court decision that deemed anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, with many states choosing to legalize interracial marriage at much earlier dates. The United States has many ethnic and racial groups and interracial marriage is fairly common among most of them (The Full Wiki, n. d. ). In conclusion ethnic groups bring diversity and wealth to a society by introducing their own ideas and customs. Interracial marriages introduce such variety. In a picture-perfect world, everyone should celebrate this. However, the world is not perfect. I think that the more love there is in this world, the better off we all are†¦ regardless of whom it is we love.

Proficiencies of Human Resources Manager Essay

HR Proficiency: Employee selection, training and compensation falls under this proficiency. It represent traditional knowledge and skills in those areas. †¢Business Proficiency: A Human Resource Manager has lots of duties and responsibilities. To assist top level manager for formulating strategies a HR manager should be familiar with strategic planning, marketing, finance, production, etc. Those knowledge will help top level manager to formulate new strategies for the company. †¢Leadership Proficiency: A HR Manager should posses Leadership Quality. This is must for a HR Manager. They need to have the ability to control and manager a team and lead the workforce toward a specific goal. HR managers also need to aware about modern changes and will lead the team as it permits. †¢ Learning Proficiency: Without learning nothing can be achievable. A HR manager must learn new things and need to be updated as time passes. Technologies are changing rapidly, learning proficiency will help to cope up with this changing environment and control the workforce in an effective way. He or she must have the ability to stay abreast and apply all the new technologies and practices affecting the profession. For Example is Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), their recruitment involving a series of test and selection. After they are recruited to PLN, they received training in order to make them professional that have integrity, proactive, skills and have experience along with strong mentality. To ensure that the new recruitments are capable, effective & up to the standard that PLN set. And that this will be affected for the future of PLN itself.

Online Shopping Essay

Online shopping has become a popular shopping method ever since the internet has declared a takeover. There are many individuals that are looking for other amazing alternatives shopping and online shipping is just the fix for that. There are many advantages of online shopping; this is the reason why online stores are a booming business today. If there are advantages, most likely there will be disadvantages. Despite the success of purchasing through online shopping stores, there are still some disadvantages that most people complain about. The advantages There are many advantages of internet shopping, firstly is it save time. Do you have the specific list that you want to buy? With just a couple of clicks of the mouse, you can purchase your shopping orders and instantly move to other important things, which can save time. Second is save fuel. The market of fuel industries battles from increasing and decreasing its cost every now and again, but no matter how much the cost of fuel are it does not affect your shopping errands. One of the advantages of shopping online is that there is no need for vehicles, so no purchase of fuel necessary. Third is save energy. We admit it, it is tiresome to shop from one location and transfer to another location. What is worse is that there are no available stocks for the merchandise you want to buy. In online shopping, you do not need to waste your precious energy when buying. Forth is comparison of price, the advanced innovation of search engine allows you to easily check prices and compare with just a few clicks. It is very straightforward to conduct price comparisons from one online shopping website to another. This gives you the freedom to determine which online store offers the most affordable item you are going to buy. Fifth is available in any time. Online shopping stores are open round the clock of 24/7, 7 days a week and 365 days. It is very rare to find any conventional retail stores that are open 24/7. The availability of online stores give you the freedom to shop at your own pace and convenience. Sixth is no need to waiting in lines. When buying items online, there are no long lines you have to endure, just to buy your merchandise. The idea of shopping online is cutting down those bad habits of standing in a long line and just waiting. Every online store is designed with unique individual ordering features to purchase the item. Lastly is easy to search merchandise you want to buy. You are able to look for specific merchandise that includes model number, style, size, and colour that you want to purchase. In addition, it is easy to determine whether the products are available or out of stock. The disadvantages There are few disadvantages of internet shopping despite of advantages. Firstly is personally check the item. If you are one of those shoppers who want to touch, see, and test the product personally, at online shopping, you are not able to do so. Online stores are only showing product description and photos of the merchandise, which can be a disadvantage for many online shoppers. Second is diminished instant satisfaction. Unlike buying at retail stores, you are able to use the product instantly after you buy it, which can be satisfying. However, online shopping requires patience to wait for the item to arrive at your door step about 2 to 3 days or even longer depending on the location you’ve ordered it from.

Compare and Contrast Between Egypt and China

Clinical Forum The Lexicon and Phonology: Interactions in Language Acquisition Holly L. Storkel1 Michele L. Morrisette Indiana University, Bloomington 24 LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING SERVICES IN SCHOOLS †¢ Vol. 33 †¢ 24–37 †¢ January 2002  © American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 0161–1461/02/3301–0024 ABSTRACT: The purpose of this paper is to underscore the importance of the link between lexical and phonological acquisition by considering learning by children beyond the 50-word stage and by applying cognitive models of spoken word processing to development. Lexical and phonological variables that have been shown o influence perception and production across the lifespan are considered relative to their potential role in learning by preschool children. The effect of these lexical and phonological variables on perception, production, and learning are discussed in the context of a two-representation connectionist model of spoken word processi ng. The model appears to offer insights into the complex interaction between the lexicon and phonology and may be useful for clinical diagnosis and treatment of children with language delays. KEY WORDS: language development, lexicon, phonology, neighborhood density, phonotactic probabilityLSHSS To acquire the native language, a child must do two things: Learn the words of the language and extract the relevant phonological characteristics of those words. For the most part, the acquisition of words and sounds has been investigated independently. That is, some lines of investigation concentrate exclusively on how the words of the language are acquired (e. g. , Carey & Bartlett, 1978; Dollaghan, 1985; Heibeck & Markman, 1987; Jusczyk & Aslin, 1995; Rice & Woodsmall, 1988), whereas other lines of research examine how the sounds of the language emerge (e. g. , Dinnsen, Chin, Elbert, &Powell, 1990; Dyson, 1988; Smit, Hand, Freilinger, Bernthal, & Bird, 1990; Stoel-Gammon, 1985). The mutual influence of lexical and phonological development is an area that has received only limited attention. The few descriptive and experimental studies that have addressed this issue, however, provide preliminary evidence for an interaction between lexical and phonological development. Descriptive studies primarily have examined the relationship between the phonological characteristics of babble and first words. Studies of typically developing children have shown that first words are phonologically similar to babble (e. . , Oller, Wieman, Doyle, & Ross, 1976; Stoel-Gammon & Cooper, 1984; Vihman, Ferguson, & Elbert, 1986; Vihman, Macken, Miller, Simmons, & Miller, 1985). For example, the distribution of consonants and the syllable structure of first words are identical to that of babble (Vihman et al. , 1985). This association between lexical and phonological development is observed in children with precocious language development as well as in children with delayed language development (Paul & Jennings, 1992; Stoel-Gammon & Dale, 1988; Thal, Oroz, & McCaw, 1995; Whitehurst, Smith, Fischel, Arnold, & Lonigan, 991). In particular, children who know many words tend to produce a greater variety of sounds and sound combinations, whereas children who know few words tend to produce a limited variety of sounds and sound combinations. There appears to be a potentially robust relationship between the phonological characteristics of first words and babble. This is suggestive of an intimate connection between word learning and productive phonology. In addition to descriptive evidence, experimental studies provide further support for the hypothesis that lexical and phonological development influence one another. For xample, one study of young children with expressive language delay demonstrated that treatment focused on 1 Currently affiliated with the University of Kansas. Storkel †¢ Morrisette: The Lexicon and Phonology 25 increasing a child’s expressive vocabula ry led to subsequent improvements in phonological diversity (Girolametto, Pearce, & Weitzman, 1997; but see Whitehurst, Fischel et al. , 1991). This finding suggests that the breadth of a child’s lexical knowledge may influence phonological acquisition. An expansion of vocabulary in this case went hand in hand with an expansion of the sound system.In complement, there is experimental evidence that phonological characteristics may influence lexical acquisition. In particular, infants have been shown to produce novel words composed of sounds that are in their phonetic inventory more frequently than other novel words composed of sounds that are out of their phonetic inventory (Leonard, Schwartz, Morris, & Chapman, 1981; Schwartz & Leonard, 1982). Here, the child’s phonetic inventory influenced the acquisition of new words. Taken together, descriptive and experimental evidence suggests that phonological development and word learning utually influence one another, but one l imitation of this work is its emphasis on infants who produce fewer than 50 words (but see Shillcock & Westermann, 1998; Stoel- Gammon, 1998). This is relevant because a rapid increase in rate of word learning has been noted as children cross the 50-word threshold, leading some researchers to posit a fundamental change in the word learning process (Behrend, 1990; Bloom, 1973; Dore, 1978; Gopnik & Meltzoff, 1986; Mervis & Bertrand, 1994). Also at this point, it is hypothesized that children transition from a holistic to an analytic phonological system, which may demarcate a fundamental hange in phonological learning (Ferguson & Farwell, 1975; Vihman, Velleman, & McCune, 1994). The purpose of this paper is to examine this link between lexical and phonological development by considering the acquisition process beyond the 50-word stage and by applying a cognitive model of spoken word perception and production to this issue. In particular, lexical and phonological variables that have bee n shown to influence perception and production across the lifespan will be considered relative to their potential influence on learning by preschool children. Furthermore, a model that has been sed to explain spoken word processing in the fully developed system of adults is used to provide a framework for understanding the interaction between the lexicon and phonology in development. The term spoken word processing refers collectively to the act of perceiving and producing words in spoken language. The paper is organized to first provide background to the lexical variables of word frequency and neighborhood density and the phonological variable of phonotactic probability. A two-representation model of spoken word processing is introduced. This model depicts two types of mental representations, words versus sounds, providing a eans of understanding the interaction between these two different representations. The model is then applied to spoken word processing in the developing system of children and to lexical and phonological learning. Finally, the interaction between the lexicon and phonology will be reconsidered by examining the role of lexical variables in sound learning and phonological variables in word learning by preschool children who have surpassed the 50-word stage. A discussion of the implications of these lexical and phonological variables for clinical diagnosis and treatment will conclude the article. BACKGROUND TO LEXICAL ANDPHONOLOGICAL VARIABLES Two lexical characteristics that have emerged as relevant predictors of spoken word processing are word frequency and neighborhood density. Word frequency is the number of times a word occurs in the language. For example, sit is an infrequent word occurring only 67 times in a written sample of 1 million words. In contrast, these is a frequent word occurring 1,573 times in a written sample of 1 million words (KucUera & Francis, 1967). 2 Turning to neighborhood density, words presumably are organized into similarity neighborhoods in the mental lexicon based on phonological similarity.In particular, it is assumed that a similarity neighborhood includes all of the words differing from a given word by a one phoneme substitution, deletion, or addition (Luce & Pisoni, 1998). For example, neighbors of sit include words such as sip, sat, hit, it, and spit and neighbors of these include words such as those, tease, and ease. The number of neighbors defined in this way is the word’s neighborhood density. In total, sit has 36 neighbors and these has 9 neighbors (Nusbaum, Pisoni, & Davis, 1984). Thus, sit is said to reside in a dense neighborhood because it has many neighbors, whereas these is said to eside in a sparse neighborhood because it has relatively few neighbors. A phonological characteristic that appears influential in spoken word processing is phonotactic probability. One observation that has emerged from studies of language structure is that certain sound patterns are more li kely to occur than others. This likelihood of sound occurrence is termed phonotactic probability. Phonotactic probability generally is determined by counting the words in the language that contain a particular sound or sound pattern as well as the number of times those words occur (see Jusczyk, Luce, & Charles-Luce, 1994; Luce, Goldinger,Auer, & Vitevitch, 2000; Storkel, 2001; Storkel & Rogers, 2000; Vitevitch & Luce, 1998, 1999). To illustrate, the sound pattern of sit is a common sound sequence in English. The individual sounds (/s/, /I/, /t/) frequently occur in their given word positions in many frequent words of the language. For example, word-initial /s/ occurs in the words seat, safe, said, sat, sun, surge, soon, soot, soap, song, sock, south, soil, and size, as well as in many other words of the language. In addition, the adjacent sounds in sit (/sI/, /It/) frequently occur together in many frequent lexical items.The sound combination /sI/ is found in the words sing, sip, si ck, sin, and sill, as well as in other English words. In contrast, the sound pattern of these is a rare sound sequence, having individual sounds (/D/, /i/, /z/) 2Word frequency counts are available from a variety of sources including adult written (e. g. , KucUera & Francis, 1967), adult spoken (e. g. , Brown, 1984), child written (e. g. , Rinsland, 1945), and child spoken (e. g. , Kolson, 1960) databases. 26 LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING SERVICES IN SCHOOLS †¢ Vol. 33 †¢ 24–37 †¢ January 2002 and sound combinations (/Di/, /iz/) that occur in relatively few words of the language.In fact, word initial /D/ is found only in the words this, them, then, thus, their, those, that, and their, and the sound combination /Di/ is not contained in any other words of the language. MODEL OF WORD PROCESSING The lexical variables of word frequency and neighborhood density and the phonological variable of phonotactic probability reportedly influence adults’ perception and production. This influence may be accounted for by a tworepresentation model of word processing (e. g. , Gupta & MacWhinney, 1997; Luce et al. , 2000). 3 This model may potentially provide insights into the complex interaction etween the lexicon and phonology in development, but the characteristics of the model and its success in capturing spoken word processing by adults will first be considered. An illustration of this model is given in Figure 1 for the word sit and in Figure 2 for the word these. The two types of representations in the model are lexical and phonological. The lexical representation corresponds to a word as a whole unit. In Figures 1 and 2, the lexical representation for the word sit, /sIt/, and these, /Diz/, is denoted by rectangles. In contrast, the phonological representation corresponds to the individual sounds or sound sequences.In Figures 1 and 2, the phonological representations for the words sit, /s/, /I/, and /t/, and these, /D/, /i/, and /z/, are illustr ated by the open circles. The structure of the lexical representation may influence perception and production by adults. Likewise, the characteristics of the phonological representation may play a role in adult spoken word processing. Interactions between lexical and phonological representations may also occur in adult word recognition and production. Each of these issues will be considered in turn. Lexical Representations This two-representation model is a connectionist model.One feature of a connectionist model is that representations can be activated. That is, hearing or thinking about a word provides external activation to a lexical representation. For a word to be recognized or produced, the activation of its representation must reach a set activation threshold. An activation threshold refers to the amount of activation that must accumulate in order for the representation to become available to consciousness. It is at this point that the listener recognizes the word or that the speaker selects the word to be produced. Representations can differ from one another in their resting threshold. The resting threshold efers to the initial level of activation of a representation before further external activation is accrued either by hearing the word or by thinking of the word. Past experience with the language has been proposed to alter the resting threshold of lexical representations. Specifically, when a lexical representation is frequently activated for recognition or production, the resting threshold supposedly increases. This provides a mechanism for learning the characteristics of the language, namely word frequency. Thus, words that are frequently recognized or produced presumably will have a higher resting threshold than words hat are infrequently recognized or produced. In Figures 1 and 2, resting threshold is depicted by the thickness of the rectangles. Heavier rectangles represent higher resting thresholds; lighter rectangles represent lower resting th resholds. The lexical representation of the frequent word /Diz/ in Figure 2 has a darker rectangle indicating a higher resting threshold than the lexical representation of the infrequent word /sIt/ in Figure 1. The implication of this difference in resting threshold for perception or production 3Note that the two-representation model we describe is a simplified and generic version of those described by Luce et al. 2000 and Gupta & MacWhinney, 1997. The interested reader is referred to the original manuscripts for complete details of the full models. Also, we consider the ability of this model to account for both perception and production, although the original models focus primarily on one aspect of spoken word processing. Figure 1. Illustration of a two-representation connectionist model of word processing for the word sit. Lexical representations are illustrated with rectangles. The thickness of the rectangle indicates the resting threshold as determined by word frequency (e. g. , sit is infrequent).Inhibitory connections between words are indicated by lines terminating in circles. The number of connections between words illustrates neighborhood density (e. g. , the neighborhood of sit is dense). Phonological representations are illustrated with circles. The thickness of the circle indicates the resting threshold based on phonotactic probability (e. g. , /s/, /I/, and /t/ are common). Facilitory connections between sounds are indicated by lines terminating in arrows. The thickness of the connecting line indicates the strength of the relationship based on phonotactic probability (e. g. /sI/ and /It/ are common). Storkel †¢ Morrisette: The Lexicon and Phonology 27 is that words with higher resting thresholds (i. e. , frequent words) are already more activated at rest than are words with lower resting thresholds (i. e. , infrequent words). As a result, these frequent words should require less external activation than infrequent words to reach the activatio n threshold for recognition or production and, thus, recognition or production should be facilitated. In fact, studies of spoken word recognition and production with adults support this claim. Adults recognize frequent words more rapidly nd more accurately than infrequent words (Landauer & Streeter, 1973; Luce & Pisoni, 1998) and produce frequent words faster and more accurately than infrequent words (Dell, 1990; Dell & Reich, 1981; Huttenlocher & Kubicek, 1983; Oldfield & Wingfield, 1965; Stemberger & MacWhinney, 1986; Vitevitch, 1997). This influence of experience on resting thresholds also allows for the possibility of individual differences across speakers because the exact resting threshold of a given word may vary from speaker to speaker based on a particular speaker’s unique language experience.Another feature of this two-representation connectionist model is that relationships among words are represented by connections. Connections between words are illustrated by lin es in Figures 1 and 2. These connections are important because they allow activation to spread between related words, damping or amplifying the related lexical representation’s activation. In this way, related lexical representations can influence the activation of the target lexical representation. The presence of two antagonistic processes, damping versus amplifying, are important in capturing decrements in performance and improvements in erformance, respectively. Damping activation is depicted in the model by inhibitory connections; amplifying activation is depicted by facilitory connections. An inhibitory connection damps the activation of the connected representation, thereby impeding that representation from reaching the activation threshold for recognition or production. In this case, recognition or production of the word would be slower or less accurate. In contrast, a facilitory connection amplifies the activation of the connected representation, thereby helping that representation reach the activation threshold for recognition or production.In this case, recognition or production of the word would be faster or more accurate. In Figures 1 and 2, inhibitory connections are depicted by lines terminating in filled circles and facilitory connections are depicted by lines terminating in arrows. Neighborhood membership is depicted by inhibitory connections between related lexical representations. For example, the lexical representation /sIt/ in Figure 1 has inhibitory connections to the lexical representations of all of its neighbors, such as /sut/, /pIt/, and /nIt/. Likewise, the lexical representation /Diz/ in Figure 2 has inhibitory onnections to its neighbors, such as /DoUz/, and /tiz/. Note that not all of the neighbors of sit and these are displayed in Figures 1 and 2 due to space limitations. For example, spit is omitted as a neighbor of sit. The strength of these connections are also based on the degree of association between words. Thus, wor ds that are more similar to one another will spread more activation between each other. In Figures 1 and 2, the strength of a connection is depicted by the thickness of the line. Heavier lines indicate stronger associations than lighter lines. Note that connections between lexical representations are all imilar in strength, as indicated by the uniform thickness of the lines. In Figure 1, the lexical representation /sIt/ has equally strong connections to /sut/, /pIt/, and /nIt/, as well as to all of its other neighbors. Similarly, in Figure 2, the lexical representation /Diz/ has equally strong connections to /DoUz/, /tiz/, and all of its neighbors. Thus, all neighbors of a word are considered equally related to the word. The importance of this architecture for perception and production is that the number of neighbors determines the degree of activation damping for the target word. A word like sit, which resides in a dense neighborhood, will eceive inhibition from many more words tha n a word like these, which resides in a sparse neighborhood. This leads to greater damping of activation for sit relative to these. As a result, a word from a dense neighborhood will be impeded in reaching the activation threshold for recognition or production. This claim is once again supported by data Figure 2. Illustration of a two-representation connectionist model of word processing for the word these. Lexical representations are illustrated with rectangles. The thickness of the rectangle indicates the resting threshold as determined by word frequency (e. g. these is frequent). Inhibitory connections between words are indicated by lines terminating in circles. The number of connections between words illustrates neighborhood density (e. g. , the neighborhood of these is sparse). Phonological representations are illustrated with circles. The thickness of the circle indicates the resting threshold based on phonotactic probability (e. g. , /D/, /i/, and /z/ are rare). Facilitory co nnections between sounds are indicated by lines terminating in arrows. The thickness of the connecting line indicates the strength of the relationship based on phonotactic probability (e. . , /Di/ and /iz/ are rare). 28 LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING SERVICES IN SCHOOLS †¢ Vol. 33 †¢ 24–37 †¢ January 2002 from studies of word processing in adults. Adults recognize words from dense neighborhoods more slowly and less accurately than they do words from sparse neighborhoods (Luce & Pisoni, 1998; Luce, Pisoni, & Goldinger, 1990). Likewise, word pairs from dense neighborhoods are produced more slowly than are word pairs from sparse neighborhoods (Goldinger & Summers, 1989, but see Vitevitch, 2001a). 4 Phonological Representations The second type of representation in the model is the honological representation. It has been proposed that two aspects of the phonological representation are affected by phonotactic probability—resting threshold and connection strengt h. Considering resting threshold, recall that language experience alters resting threshold. As a result, sounds that are commonly encountered in recognition or production will likely have higher resting thresholds than those that are encountered rarely. In Figure 1, the phonological representation /s/, /I/, and /t/, has dark circles, indicating a higher resting threshold because these sounds commonly occur in the language.In contrast, in Figure 2, the phonological representation /D/, /i/, and /z/,5 has light circles, indicating a lower resting threshold because these sounds rarely occur. This difference in resting threshold indicates that common sounds are more activated at rest than are rare sounds. Consequently, common sounds should reach the activation threshold for recognition or production more rapidly than should rare sounds. Turning to connection strength, each sound has a facilitory connection to sounds that it may co-occur with, and the strength of these connections may be altered by language experience. When sounds are commonly encountered ogether in word processing, it is thought that the connection between the two sounds is strengthened. In this way, the model captures how an adult or child would learn the phonotactic probability of the language through experience. In Figure 1, the phonological representation /s/ has a strong facilitory connection to that of /I/ because these sounds commonly occur together in words of the language. In contrast, in Figure 2, the phonological representation of /I/ has a weak facilitory connection to that of /i/, because these rarely occur together. Because the strength of the facilitory connection determines how much ctivation will spread to the related sound, sound sequences with strong facilitory connections, namely common sound sequences, should reach the activation threshold for recognition or production more rapidly than should sound sequences with weak facilitory connections, namely, rare sound sequences. The i nfluence of phonotactic probability on resting threshold and connection strength leads to the prediction that common sound sequences should be recognized or produced more rapidly than rare sound sequences. Support for this hypothesis is found in studies of spoken word processing by adults. In fact, adults recognize common ound sequences more rapidly than they do rare sound sequences (Vitevitch & Luce, 1998, 1999; Vitevitch, Luce, Charles-Luce, & Kemmerer, 1997). A similar pattern is observed in speech production, where adults are faster to name a word if it is composed of a common sound sequence rather than a rare sound sequence (Levelt & Wheeldon, 1994). Interactions Between Lexical and Phonological Representations Turning to the interaction between lexical and phonological representations, it is important to note that there are facilitory connections between lexical and phonological representations.That is, /sIt/ has facilitory connections to /s/, /I/, and /t/, whereas /Diz/ is co nnected to /D/, /i/, and /z/. The lexical representations of the neighbors of /sIt/ and /Diz/ also have connections to phonological representations, but not all of these connections are shown in Figures 1 and 2 because it becomes difficult to follow the connections when all are presented together. For example, /sut/ should have facilitory connections to /s/ and /t/, but these are not displayed in Figure 1. The implication of these lexicalphonological connections is that once a lexical representation is activated, it will also activate its corresponding honological representation. Activation can also occur in the opposite direction, with a phonological representation activating corresponding lexical representations. These connections between lexical and phonological representations allow for interactions between lexical and phonological processing. One way that the interaction between lexical and phonological representations has been investigated in the fully developed system of adul ts is by considering the unique relationship between neighborhood density, a lexical variable, and phonotactic probability, a phonological variable. Namely, words from dense neighborhoods tend to e composed of common sound sequences, and words from sparse neighborhoods tend to be composed of rare sound sequences (Vitevitch, Luce, Pisoni, & Auer, 1999). The evidence detailed in the previous sections indicated that dense neighborhoods slow spoken word processing, whereas common sound sequences speed word processing. Given the association between neighborhood density and phonotactic probability, the inhibitory effect of neighborhood density and the facilitory effect of phonotactic probability would seem incompatible. If the two factors are associated, how is it that one aids word recognition and production but the ther interferes with it? If one appeals to the variable of neighborhood density, one would predict that processing of a word from a dense neighborhood, such as sit, would be 4In some cases, asymmetries have been noted in the effect of neighborhood density across perception and production. In fact, some models predict that dense neighborhoods should facilitate production (see MacKay, 1987; Vitevitch, 2001a). 5Note that computations of phonotactic probability are based on a 20,000- word dictionary generally consisting of uninflected word forms (see also Jusczyk et al. , 1994; Luce et al. 2000; Storkel, 2001; Storkel & Rogers, 2000; Vitevitch & Luce, 1998, 1999). Therefore, /z/ is considered to occur infrequently in uninflected word forms, although it may occur often as a plural morpheme. The status of lexical representations of inflected words is an open question. Storkel †¢ Morrisette: The Lexicon and Phonology 29 inhibited relative to a word from a sparse neighborhood, such as these. In contrast, if one appeals to the variable of phonotactic probability, one would predict that processing of a word having a common sound sequence, such as sit, would be facilitated relative to a word having a rare sound equence, such as these. How can processing of sit be both inhibited and facilitated? This paradox may be resolved by appealing to the tworepresentation model. If one type of representation is able to dominate word processing in a given context, this will dictate whether an inhibitory or facilitory effect is observed. The lexical status of the stimulus is predicted to influence the effect of neighborhood density and phonotactic probability on processing. In particular, lexical processing is predicted to dominate language tasks involving real words because real words have a lexical representation.In contrast, phonological processing is predicted to dominate language tasks involving nonwords because nonwords have no lexical representation. This prediction is borne out by evidence from studies of spoken word processing by adults. In fact, recognition of real words from dense neighborhoods is inhibited relative to real words from spar se neighborhoods, supporting the dominance of lexical processing (Vitevitch & Luce, 1998, 1999). In complement, recognition of nonwords composed of common sound sequences is facilitated relative to nonwords composed of rare sound sequences, supporting the dominance f phonological processing (Vitevitch & Luce, 1998, 1999). Because spoken word processing typically involves real words, lexical processing generally should dominate recognition and production (but see Vitevitch, 2001b). APPLICATION TO DEVELOPMENT The two-representation model seems to capture lexical and phonological influences on perception and production successfully in the fully developed system of adults. Can this model be applied to perception and production in the developing system of infants and children? To address this question, evidence of how the lexicon influences spoken word processing in infants and children is reviewed and ompared to the findings from adults. If the findings from the developing system parall el those from the fully developed system, then the two-representation model may easily be extended to the developing system. In contrast, if word processing in the developing system differs from word processing in the fully developed system, then the tworepresentation model may require modification before application to the developing system. This question is important because it bears on the issue of whether the tworepresentation model may offer insights into learning and clinical practice. Studies of the developing language system provide urther insight into the role of word frequency and neighborhood density in spoken word processing. Perception studies with infants have investigated aspects of the spoken input that infants attend to while building the mental lexicon (see Jusczyk, 1997 for review). In one representative study of word frequency, infants were exposed to sets of words that were frequently repeated in stories versus other sets of words that were infrequently repeated (Hohne, Jusczyk, & Rendanz, 1994; Jusczyk & Aslin, 1995). Results indicated that infants preferred listening to the frequently occurring words in the story. This finding suggests that nfants have the ability to attend to specific words in the input. Moreover, the infants in the study were able to differentiate words based on their frequency of occurrence. Word frequency has also been shown to influence young children’s production accuracy of target sounds. Leonard and Ritterman (1971) found that 7-year-old children had better production accuracy of target /s/ sounds in frequent versus infrequent words in the language (but see Moore, Burke, & Adams, 1976). Computational studies of young children have further explored the structure of words in the early lexicon relative to neighborhood density.These studies used receptive and expressive estimates of young children’s lexicons. One important finding was that young children have relatively sparse neighborhoods in compariso n to older children and adults (Charles-Luce & Luce, 1990, 1995; Logan, 1992). That is, a word in a young child’s lexicon would have fewer neighbors than that same word in an older child’s or an adult’s lexicon. Neighborhood density may increase across the lifespan as more phonetically similar words are added to the lexicon (Logan, 1992). This finding led to the hypothesis that young children se global recognition strategies to identify words (Charles- Luce & Luce, 1990, 1995). Because neighborhoods are so sparse, all of the fine-grained phonetic contrasts of language may not be necessary to uniquely disambiguate one word from another. Alternatively, it has been argued that children do rely on fine-grained recognition strategies (Dollaghan, 1994). The basis for this comes from the fact that young children do differentiate between minimally and phonetically similar words of the input. Even a word that has only one neighbor must still require fine-grained coding o n the part of the child for accurate recognition.Although these views about whether children use global or finegrained recognition strategies remain at odds, it is clear that the structure of words in the lexicon appears to be critically linked to the nature of a child’s phonological representations. Taken together, these findings support that a word’s frequency and its neighborhood density play a similar role in fully developed and developing lexicons. In the developing language system, sensitivity to phonotactic probability emerges early, with phonotactic probability influencing perception in a manner similar to adults.In perceptual tasks, 9-month-old infants listen longer to lists of words composed of common sound sequences than to those composed of rare sound sequences (Jusczyk et al. , 1994). Moreover, infants appear to acquire phonotactic probability rapidly in controlled listening conditions (Aslin, Saffran, & Newport, 1998; Saffran, Aslin, & Newport, 1996). Aft er listening to strings of nonsense syllables for a short period of time, 8-month-old infants are able to discriminate syllable sequences that commonly co-occur from those that rarely co-occur. That is, syllables that commonly co-occurred in the speech 0 LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING SERVICES IN SCHOOLS †¢ Vol. 33 †¢ 24–37 †¢ January 2002 sample were treated as a whole word; syllables that rarely co-occurred were not treated as a whole word. The evidence indicates that infants may learn the likelihood of occurrence of sound sequences in the ambient language, and then they use this to parse continuous speech into individual words. Sensitivity to phonotactic probability continues into childhood, as shown in metalinguistic, perceptual, and production tasks. In metalinguistic tasks, children and adolescents are able to differentiate sound sequences that re legal in their language from those that are illegal (Messer, 1967; Pertz & Bever, 1975). Children, like adults , seem to have intuitions about phonotactics (e. g. , Vitevitch et al. , 1997). Perceptual and production studies provide evidence that children are also sensitive to the more finegrained distinction of common versus rare sound sequences. Relative to perceptual evidence, children rapidly extract the phonotactic probabilities of continuous strings of nonsense syllables. Like infants, children treat strings of syllables that commonly co-occur as an entire word and strings of yllables that rarely co-occur as a part of a word (Saffran, Newport, Aslin, Tunick, & Barrueco, 1997). In production, children are more accurate at producing sound sequences that are permissible in the ambient language than those that are not (Messer, 1967). Moreover, children are more accurate at repeating common rather than rare sound sequences (Beckman & Edwards, 1999). Likewise, when given a list of nonwords to remember, children recall more nonwords if the list contains common sound sequences than if it conta ins rare sound sequences (Gathercole, Frankish, Pickering, & Peaker, 1999).In childhood, sensitivity to phonotactic probability remains and appears to influence spoken word processing in a manner that parallels the fully developed adult system. The effects of word frequency, neighborhood density, and phonotactic probability on language perception and production in the developing system parallel those in the fully developed system. In terms of lexical variables, across the lifespan, processing of frequent words was facilitated relative to infrequent words, and processing of words from dense neighborhoods was inhibited relative to words from sparse neighborhoods. In terms of phonological variables, cross the lifespan, common sound sequences were recognized and produced more rapidly than were rare sound sequences. Given the similarity between the adult and child findings, it appears that the two-representation model can be applied to perception and production by children. APPLICATION T O LEARNING Because the two-representation model captures perception and production by children, it may also provide insights into learning by children. In the following two sections, insights of the two-representation model for sound change and word learning will be offered and evaluated relative to current findings.The studies reviewed focus on interactions between the lexicon and phonology in preschool and school-age children who have lexicons with many more than 50 words. These investigations provide evidence of whether lexical-phonological interactions continue in development beyond the 50-word stage. Promoting Sound Change When a sound is unknown, the child presumably will have no ambient, or adult-like, phonological representation for the target sound. In some cases, treatment may be needed to promote sound change. The goal of treatment then is to create an ambient phonological representation for the nknown sound, often by presenting the target sound in words and providing fee dback regarding production accuracy. Given the absence of an ambient phonological representation, lexical processing is predicted to dominate sound learning in this treatment context. Thus, lexical representations may influence the success of phonological treatment. In particular, treatment of the sound in frequent words should promote sound change relative to infrequent words. Furthermore, embedding the sound in words from dense neighborhoods should inhibit learning when compared to treatment of the sound in words from sparse neighborhoods.An experimental treatment study by Gierut, Morrisette, and Champion (1999) examined the role of lexical variables in phonological treatment (see also Morrisette & Gierut, in press). Twelve children with functional phonological delays, aged 3;0 (years;months) to 7;4, participated in an alternating treatments design to promote sound change. The characteristics of word frequency and neighborhood density were manipulated experimentally. Experimental conditions included treatment of all possible combinations of frequent/ infrequent words from dense/sparse neighborhoods. Each child was taught two sounds affiliated with the lexical haracteristics of the assigned conditions. For example, a child assigned to the frequent versus infrequent condition was taught one sound in frequent words and another sound in infrequent words. Treated sounds were excluded from the pretreatment inventory and were produced with 0% accuracy. Generalization accuracy in production of the treated sounds to untreated words and contexts was measured as the dependent variable and submitted to statistical analysis. Treatment conditions and corresponding results are shown in Table 1. Results revealed that for the lexical characteristic of ord frequency, phonological treatment using frequent words induced significantly greater generalization learning than did treatment of infrequent words. For neighborhood density, treatment in words from sparse neighborhoods ind uced significantly greater generalization learning than did treatment in words from dense neighborhoods. When the frequency conditions were compared to the density conditions, treatment in both frequent and infrequent words resulted in significantly greater generalization learning than did treatment in words from dense neighborhoods. Further, treatment in frequent and infrequent words resulted in reater or equivalent generalization learning than treatment of words from sparse neighborhoods. Overall, the characteristic of word frequency was most salient in inducing phonological change as compared to neighborhood density. Moreover, in every comparative Storkel †¢ Morrisette: The Lexicon and Phonology 31 condition, frequent words consistently facilitated sound change, whereas words from dense neighborhoods consistently failed to promote generalization learning. These results were replicated by Morrisette and Gierut (in press) and are consistent with the predictions of the two-repr esentation model.Frequent words in the language consistently emerged as facilitating spoken word processing and learning, whereas words from dense neighborhoods in the language consistently emerged as inhibiting spoken word processing and learning. Moreover, phonological learning by preschool children was influenced by the lexicon, paralleling previous findings from much younger children. Novel Word Learning Applying the two-representation model to novel word learning, a child presumably will have no corresponding lexical representation for a newly encountered word. In the absence of a lexical representation, the two-representation odel predicts that phonological processing will be most influential. Thus, phonological processing is hypothesized to influence the creation of a lexical representation for the novel word. Because phonological processing is facilitated for common over rare sound sequences, children should learn novel words composed of common sound sequences more rapidly t han they should those composed of rare sound sequences. Storkel and Rogers (2000) provided a direct test of this hypothesis that phonotactic probability should influence word learning. Typically developing school-age children from three age groups, age 7, 10, and 11, participated in a onword learning task, where half of the nonwords were composed of common sound sequences and half were composed of rare sound sequences. The target nonwords were associated with unfamiliar objects. Children were exposed to the nonword-object pairs in a lecture format, and referent identification was tested immediately following exposure. The results showed a significant interaction between phonotactic probability and age. The two older groups of children learned more common than rare sound sequences; the youngest group of children showed no difference in learning common versus rare sound sequences.This interaction between phonotactic probability and age was not predicted and was further investigated in a second study (Storkel, 2001). In Storkel (2001), word learning by preschool children was investigated in a multi-trial word learning paradigm. In particular, nonword learning was assessed in several tasks emphasizing either form or referent learning at multiple points in time. Preschool children were exposed to nonwords: Half were composed of common sound sequences and half were composed of rare sound sequences. The nonwords served as names for nonsense objects. The nonword-object pairs were mbedded in a story containing multiple story episodes with learning being assessed after each episode. Results showed that across measures of learning and exposures, preschool children learned more nonwords composed of common rather than rare sound sequences. Across the two studies, younger and older children seemed to learn novel words composed of common sound sequences more rapidly than they did those composed of rare sound sequences, supporting the predictions of the two-representation mod el. As in language perception and production tasks that are dominated by phonological processing, word learning was facilitated for common ound sequences relative to rare. Phonological characteristics appeared to play a role in word learning by preschool and school-age children, complementing previous findings with younger children. Phonology appeared to influence lexical development beyond the 50-word stage. Moreover, various aspects of phonology seem to impact development of the lexicon, including the child’s phonetic inventory and the phonotactic probability of the novel word (Leonard et al. , 1981; Schwartz & Leonard, 1982; Storkel, 2001; Storkel & Rogers, 2000). CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS The finding of a continued interaction between the exicon and phonology in children who have surpassed the 50-word threshold has clinical implications for children with functional phonological delays and children with specific language impairment. Children with functional phonological delays reportedly have a primary delay in the acquisition of phonology. Given the evidence documenting an interaction between the lexicon and phonology, lexical characteristics may play a role in promoting sound change. In contrast, children with specific language impairment appear to exhibit delays in lexical acquisition (e. g. , Dollaghan, 1987; Oetting, Rice, & Swank, 1995; Rice,Buhr, & Nemeth, 1990; Rice & Woodsmall, 1988). Phonological variables may provide insights in the diagnosis and treatment of delays in word learning. Children With Functional Phonological Delays The results of Gierut and colleagues (1999) indicate that lexical variables of target words do appear to influence the Table 1. Experimental results of the Gierut et al. (1999) study. Treatment condition Generalization results Frequent versus infrequent Frequent > infrequent Dense versus sparse Sparse > dense Frequent versus dense Frequent > dense Infrequent versus dense Infrequent > denseFrequent versus sparse Frequent = sparse Infrequent versus sparse Infrequent sparse Note. The symbol â€Å">† indicates â€Å"greater than† (e. g. , treatment of sounds in frequent words resulted in significantly greater generalization learning than infrequent words). The symbol â€Å"? † indicates â€Å"greater than or equivalent† (e. g. , treatment of sounds in infrequent words resulted in greater or equivalent generalization learning than sparse words). The symbol â€Å"=† indicates â€Å"equivalent† (e. g. , treatment of sounds in frequent words resulted in generalization learning that was equivalent to sparse words). 2 LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING SERVICES IN SCHOOLS †¢ Vol. 33 †¢ 24–37 †¢ January 2002 process of sound change in treatment for children with functional phonological delays. When children were taught sounds in frequently occurring words, they made significant gains in their production accuracy of the target sound. In contrast, whe n children were taught sounds in words from dense neighborhoods, they failed to learn the treated sound. This suggests that phonological treatment should focus on frequent words in the language and avoid the use of words from dense neighborhoods. These results have direct linical implications for the kinds of words that should be selected for phonological treatment. A sample of treatment words is presented in Table 2. These words were adapted from the Morrisette and Gierut (in press) study and are consistent with procedures for the selection of treatment words in the Gierut et al. (1999) study. In this sample, the target fricative /f/ was taught in the word-initial position of frequent words in the language. Word frequency counts were obtained from KucUera and Francis (1967); neighborhood density values came from a computational database of 20,000 English words (Nusbaum et al. 1984). Frequency counts and density values are more generally available for clinical use through the online Neighborhood Database at http://www. artsci. wustl. edu/ ~msommers. Operational definitions for frequent versus infrequent and dense versus sparse neighborhoods were consistent with previous investigations of word frequency in phonological acquisition (e. g. , Morrisette, 1999). Frequent words were selected based on a word frequency count greater than 100. Thus, all of the words in Table 2 have a word frequency greater than 100. Further, because a word has both a frequency and a density, the words were alanced for neighborhood density. Half of the words came from dense neighborhoods, with 10 or more neighbors, and half of the words came from sparse neighborhoods, with fewer than 10 neighbors. Following from the Gierut et al. (1999) and Morrisette and Gierut (in press) studies, treated words were pictured on a computer screen and elicited through drill activities. Children attended three 1-hour treatment sessions each week and proceeded through two phases of treatment— imitat ion and spontaneous production. During the imitation phase, the child named the treated words following a clinician’s model.Imitation continued until the child achieved 75% production accuracy of the target sound across two consecutive sessions or until seven sessions were completed, whichever came first. During the spontaneous phase, the child named the treated words without a model. This phase continued until the child achieved 90% production accuracy of the target sound across three consecutive sessions or until twelve sessions were completed, whichever came first. Feedback related to the accuracy of the child’s production of the target sound was provided during both phases. Generalization learning for each child was monitored hrough spontaneous picture-naming tasks or probes. These probes were designed to sample the treated sound and other untreated sounds that were excluded from the child’s pretreatment sound inventory in untreated words and across contexts . Probes were administered throughout treatment, immediately following treatment, and at 2 weeks and 2 months posttreatment. Percentages of accuracy were then calculated and plotted as generalization learning curves. Thus, based on results from Gierut et al. (1999), it is predicted that phonological treatment using the frequent words illustrated in Table 2 would result in generalization f /f/ to untreated words and contexts. It should be noted that although half of the frequent words selected were from dense neighborhoods, the consistent variable was word frequency. Treatment programs consisting of words that are all from dense neighborhoods should be avoided. Based on the Gierut et al. (1999) study, treatment in words from dense neighborhoods resulted in minimal or no learning of the treated sound. Children With Specific Language Impairment The results of Storkel (2001) suggest that the phonological characteristics of novel words influence lexical acquisition. Thus, clinically, it may be important to consider honotactic probability in the diagnosis and treatment of delays in lexical acquisition in children with specific language impairment. These children may have difficulty learning phonotactic probability due to either perceptual processing deficits (Ellis Weismer & Hesketh, 1996, 1998) or limited lexical exemplars resulting from delays in language acquisition. Children with specific language impairment may fail to show a learning advantage for common over rare sound sequences. In support of this hypothesis, Storkel reported that increased vocabulary size was correlated with an increased learning advantage for ommon over rare sound sequences in children with ageappropriate lexical development. Delays in word learning and a decreased effect of phonotactic probability may go hand in hand. As a result, it may be necessary to examine the influence of phonotactic probability on word learning in this population. Unfortunately, standardized measures of vocabulary may not be sensitive to the factors that affect word learning because these tests examine the products of learning rather than the process itself. Therefore, clinicians may need to construct tasks that investigate the process of word learning to provide further insights into the factors hat contribute to a particular child’s poor word learning ability. Here, guidance is provided by past experimental Table 2. Sample of frequent treatment words. Word Word frequency Neighborhood density fine 161 28 full 230 15 feed 123 19 far 427 18 family 331 0 field 274 9 final 156 6 forward 115 0 Note. Neighborhood density counts in bold indicate words from dense neighborhoods. Storkel †¢ Morrisette: The Lexicon and Phonology 33 studies that have employed procedures that may be adapted for clinical use. In particular, the procedures used in Storkel (2001) may be appropriate. This multi-trial word earning paradigm was administered individually in one 30- minute session with a follow-up 10 -minute session to examine retention. Thus, the time commitment is similar to other standardized test protocols. Moreover, Storkel and Rogers (2000) successfully administered their word learning task to groups of students in a classroom. There are several important steps in constructing a measure of word learning: (a) identifying the stimuli to be learned, (b) exposing the child to the stimuli, and (c) measuring learning. Each step will be described in turn. Stimuli. Identification of the stimuli to be learned nvolves choosing nonwords or unknown real words and associating these with referents. In Storkel (2001), nonwords were selected as stimuli so that the phonological characteristics could be controlled. Specifically, all nonwords were composed of early acquired consonants that were articulated correctly by the participating children. This guarded against the influence of misarticulation on word learning (Leonard et al. , 1981; Schwartz & Leonard, 1982). Half of the nonwords were composed of common sound sequences and half were composed of rare sound sequences. Calculation of phonotactic probability is complex and equires access to a database; however, several published studies provide lists of common versus rare nonwords (e. g. , Jusczyk et al. , 1994; Storkel, 2001; Storkel & Rogers, 2000; Vitevitch & Luce, 1999) or words (e. g. , Vitevitch & Luce, 1999). The nonwords used in Storkel are shown in Table 3. The nonwords were paired with object referents to parallel real words. Novel objects were invented or adapted from published children’s stories. Objects were selected in pairs from the same semantic category. Each object from a semantic pair was associated with either a common or a rare sound sequence.In this way, semantic and conceptual factors were similar across the levels of phonotactic probability. A description of the objects is provided in Table 3. Exposure. For exposure, the nonword-object pairs were embedded in a story containing three st ory episodes. Pictures were adapted from children’s stories (Mayer, 1993) to show two main characters interacting with one another and with the nonsense objects. Semantically paired objects were shown in the same picture, with each being associated with a different main character. A story narrative was created to accompany the story pictures. The narrative is shown in the Appendix.Note that the exposure sentences were matched across common and rare sound sequences. For example, in the first episode, the exposure sentence for the common sound sequence /pin/ is â€Å"My favorite is the pin† and for the rare sound sequence /mOId/ is â€Å"My favorite is the mOId. † This matching of sentences was intended to equate syntactic factors across the levels of phonotactic probability. Another feature of the story narrative was that the number of times the nonwords were repeated varied across the episodes. That is, the children heard each nonword one time in Episode 1, but three times in Episodes 2 and 3.Given that children with specific language impairment reportedly need more exposures to learn novel words, it may be necessary to increase the number of repetitions of the nonwords for this clinical population. This could be accomplished by revising the story narrative or by having the child listen to the narrative twice. Measurement. Storkel (2001) measured learning after each story episode. Three measures of learning were obtained: referent identification, form identification, and picture naming. In the referent identification task, a nonword was presented and the child attempted to select he object from a field of three picture choices that included the target, the semantically related referent, and a semantically unrelated referent presented in the story. For the target nonword /pin/, the child saw pictures of both candy machines and a picture of one of the pets. In the form identification task, an object was presented and the child attempted to s elect the nonword from a field of three Table 3. The phonetic transcription of the common and rare sound sequences and their corresponding referents as invented or adapted from published children’s stories. Form characteristics Referent characteristicsCommon Rare Category Item 1 Item 2 w I t n aU b Toys punch toy cork gun (Geisel & Geisel, (Geisel & Geisel, 1958, p. 53) 1958, p. 45) h ? p g i m Horns orange trumpet yellow hand-held downward orientation tuba (Geisel & Geisel, (Geisel & Geisel, 1954, p. 50) 1954, p. 50) p i n m OI d Candy machines red candy + 1 chute blue candy + 2 chutes (invented) (invented) k oU f j eI p Pets green gerbil with antenna purple mouse-bat (DeBrunhoff, 1981, p. 132) (Mayer, 1992, p. 43) 34 LANGUAGE, SPEECH, AND HEARING SERVICES IN SCHOOLS †¢ Vol. 33 †¢ 24–37 †¢ January 2002 choices. The choices paralleled those of the referent dentification task. For example, the child was shown a picture of one of the candy machines and hea rd three possible names, /pin/, /mOId/, and /koUf/. As each nonword was played, the investigator pointed to one of three squares. The child then pointed to the square associated with his or her answer. In the picture-naming task, an object was presented and the child attempted to produce the nonword. Again, the child might see a picture of one of the candy machines, but this time be asked to produce the nonword associated with the object with no choices or prompting provided by the investigator.Following administration of these procedures, proportion correct can then be computed for common versus rare sound sequences at each test point (Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3) for each measure of learning (referent identification, form identification, picture naming). Difference scores can then be computed by subtracting proportion correct for rare sound sequences from proportion correct for common sound sequences. If there is an advantage of common over rare sound sequences, the resulting number will be positive. This would parallel the findings for typically developing children (Storkel, 2001; Storkel & Rogers, 2000).If there is no difference between common and rare sound sequences, then the resulting number will be zero. If there is a disadvantage of common relative to rare sound sequences, the resulting number will be negative. In either of these last two cases, the result would differ from those reported for typically developing children. This would suggest that one contributing factor to the child’s difficulties with word learning may be difficulty using phonological information to support word learning. CONCLUSION The findings reviewed support the hypothesis that the lexicon and phonology seem to continue to influence one nother even after the 50-word threshold has been surpassed. In particular, the relationship in preschool and school-age children appeared to be bidirectional in nature, with the lexicon influencing phonological acquisition and phonology influencing lexical acquisition. 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