Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Ethical Delimas Facing a Profession Essay

Healthcare professionals often face complex ethical dilemmas in the workplace. These dilemmas often arise when employment obligations conflict with personal beliefs. An ethical dilemma that is becoming more common in the workplace involves emergency contraception. Emergency contraceptives or morning-after pills are a fiery topic. Some pharmacists are refusing to dispense morning-after pills because it is against their beliefs. Imagine yourself in the position of needing this medication. Should the beliefs of the pharmacist outweigh your rights as the patient? For me, the answer would be a resounding no. According to The Code of Ethics for Pharmacists (â€Å"Pharmacist. com,† 1994), adopted by the membership of the American Pharmacists Association October 27, 1994, â€Å"Pharmacists are health professionals who assist individuals in making the best use of medications. This Code, prepared and supported by pharmacists, is intended to state publicly the principles that form the fundamental basis of the roles and responsibilities of pharmacists. These principles, based on moral obligations and virtues, are established to guide pharmacists in relationships with patients, health professionals, and society. † The Code of Ethics further states, â€Å"A pharmacist promotes the right of self-determination and recognizes individual self-worth by encouraging patients to participate in decisions about their health. In all cases, a pharmacist respects personal and cultural differences among patients. A pharmacist avoids discriminatory practices, behavior or work conditions that impair professional judgment, and actions that compromise dedication to the best interests of patients. This guideline clearly states the responsibilities and duties of the pharmacist are to serve the needs of the patient even when doing so contradicts their personal beliefs. In some states, legislators are introducing bills that would grant pharmacists the right to refuse (refusal clauses also known as â€Å"conscience clauses†) to dispense drugs related to contraception on moral grounds. Other state legislators are introducing legislation that would require pharmacies to fill any legal prescription for birth control. NCSL Health Program, 2011) APhA has had a policy supporting a pharmacist’s conscience clause since 1998. APhA’s two-part policy supports the ability of the pharmacist to step away from participating in activity to which they have personal objections—but not step in the way. The Association supports the pharmacist’s right to choose not to fill a prescription based on moral or ethical values. But recognizing the pharmacist’s important role in the health care system, APhA supports the establishment of systems to ensure that the patient’s health care needs are served. â€Å"Pharmacist. com,† 1994) When it comes to ethics or morality, arguments and counterarguments will never cease. If a person’s religious objections to emergency contraception interfere with their ability to do their job, then they shouldn’t be in that profession. Refusing to do your job because your conscience won’t allow it comes with consequences that you must accept. Businesses and society cannot function if people are able to ignore rules, regulations, standards, and laws on the basis of â€Å"conscience† or religious desire.

An Analysis Of Nitrate Vulnerable Zones Environmental Sciences Essay

Throughout the nineteenth century, H2O resources became limited and the demand on H2O increasing with the over big population, so the universe started looking for new beginnings of H2O and take attention of useless H2O. Groundwater considered as an of import clean H2O beginning although there are polluted and contaminated, but the most of import and toxic dross is nitrate, which can do serious hazards on human wellness. Nitrate concentration have been increasing rapidly in groundwater due to mixture of its beginnings, for illustration: agricultural use where intensifier of fertilisers is used, waste stuff, discharging of chemical waste H2O of several industrial workss on the state countries as shown in figure below ( Reddy and Linm, May 1999 ) such as ; production of fertilisers, explosives, and polyurethane. Figure ( 1 ) : Nitrate Resources.[ 1 ] The largest sum of the nitrate comes from the fertilisers mills, where the mean usage of the fertiliser use in the universe increases yearly ; this makes nitrate H2O pollution, which considered as one of the most serious environmental jobs in developed states. ( OECD, 2005 ) GENERAL IDEA OF NITRATE VULNERABLE ZONES: The countries which has the chance of nitrate pollution, is brought in head by United Kingdom in 1996 to set the maximal content of nitrate in imbibing H2O to be 50 mg/l. It is brought by to forestall H2O resources from the exposure to nitrate pollution as of agricultural beginnings and it were applied in approximately 8 % of the English land to command the sum of the fertilisers required by the husbandmans. ( Barclay and White, 2009 ) In December 2000, the United Kingdom had failed to propose none usage values European tribunal of justness to protect all H2O resources non merely the imbibing H2O. After that, the authorities in England discussed with husbandmans to finish the nitrates instruction execution which was at beginning of 2002. On June 27th the authorities decided to present excess nitrate vulnerable zones in the state. In 2009, some of ordinances came into position and called NITRATE POLLUTION PREVENTION REGULATIONS 2008, which puts into pattern the nitrates direction in England. Today, the nitrate vulnerable zones are applied in 62 % of England countries. ( Defra, environment bureau, April 2009 ) Figure ( 2 ) : The English country using the NVZs in 2010[ 2 ] The environment bureau is the 1 responsible for gauging and taking down notes the husbandmans jobs by fixing unexpected visits to the farms. There are nine Guidance cusps related to the husbandmans when they are using the nitrate vulnerable zones and they are: Summary of the counsel for husbandmans in nitrate vulnerable zones. Implementing the regulations capacity, timing and enforcement. Reference information criterion values, fertiliser trying protocol and glossary. Storage of organic fertilisers. The stock fertiliser and farm bound. Planing N usage. The harvest nitrogen demand bound. Field application of organic fertilisers. Field application of manufactured N fertilisers. There are many procedures applied and used by the husbandmans in the nitrate vulnerable zones need to be evaluated and controlled by jurisprudence enforcements introduced by the environmental bureau of England, some of these will be discussed subsequently in this study. 2.1 Storage OF ORGANIC Fertilizers: The Torahs or regulations which control the procedure of storage of the organic fertilisers and which the husbandman should follow them in the nitrate vulnerable zones are: The maximal capacity of pigsaa‚Â ¬a„? slurry and domestic fowl storage is 6 months. The maximal capacity of other stock such as cowss slurry storage is 5 months. The storage must be in particular topographic points like stock houses or covered edifices, with exclusion to hive away them temporarily in the field site and guarantee there is no liquid draining during the storage periods. Reconstructing fertiliser storage installations must obey the building criterions set by the control of pollution. New, well enlarged or well reconstructed manure storage installations must follow with the building criterions set down in The Control of Pollution. ( Silage, Slurry and Agricultural Fuel Oil Regulations 1991 ) 2.2 THE STOCK FERTILIZER AND FARM LIMIT: The husbandmans can non travel beyond a maximal storage of 170 kg/ha of entire produced by stock in each twelvemonth averaged by over the country where the European committee has approved an understanding which will let qualified husbandmans those who have with more than 80 % of the farm country as green lands to hive away at a higher sum of 250 kilograms of entire merchandise. The husbandmans must enter information related to this stuff to demo it to the authorities, some of these informations are: The Numberss and types of stock per twenty-four hours during the twelvemonth, every bit good as disbursement or keeping. The sum of N which produced by the stock per twenty-four hours over the twelvemonth must non transcend the standard values including the exported sum of stock to another farms. 2.3 THE HARVEST NITROGEN REQUIREMENT LIMIT: The husbandman must vouch that the content of the N in the crop fertiliser do non transcend the maximal criterion value which specified by the regulations and cusps of nitrate vulnerable zones. 2.4 FIELD APPLICATION OF ORGANIC Fertilizers: All husbandmans at the nitrate vulnerable zones must do certain about the content of the nitrate before using the organic fertilisers, and do n't hold to utilize them if they exceeded the acceptable bounds. The manufacturers of the organic fertilisers must use the fertilisers during the fixed periods within a certain conditions. At the terminal of the closed period, the maximal applying sum is about 50 M3s / hour angle of slurry and 8 tones of domestic fowl. 2.5 THE ORGANIC FERTILIZERS AND FIELD LIMITS: For a twelvemonth, 12 months, the husbandmans must non transcend the degree of N which is 250 kg/ha by utilizing organic fertilisers including stock fertilisers. There must be at least three hebdomads between each single application. 2.6 CLOSED Spread PERIODS FOR MANUFACTURED FERTILIZER: The maker and the client of the organic N fertiliser must non use the production during the specific period of the twelvemonth, but can allow either the specified crops or obtain advice for the other crops from the authorities. 2.7 KEEPING NITROGEN OUT OF SURFACE WATERS: By the beginning of every twelvemonth, there are some demands from the husbandman in the nitrate vulnerable zones, and they are: Transporting out a hazard appraisal in instance of utilizing either organic manure or one of its applications. Producing a hazard map to place suited field locations for fertiliser applications. Where applicable, the map must besides demo sites suited for impermanent field tonss of solid fertilisers. When the husbandmans start the field operations, there are some necessities which are listed below: They should non utilize fertilisers contains N or organic fertilisers when the dirt is H2O logged, flooded, or snow covered, or has been frozen for more than 12 hours in the past 24 hours. They ca n't use organic fertilisers within 10 metres of surface H2O, except on land managed for engendering birds and under certain other limitations. Organic fertilisers must be put within 50 metres of a spring, good or borehole. The manufactured N fertiliser must be used within 2 metres of surface H2O. The husbandmans must do a field review to impose the hazard of skip through to come up H2O before distributing manufactured nitrogen fertiliser or organic fertiliser. If there is any possibility of leaking some of manufactured nitrogen fertiliser or organic fertiliser to the surface H2O, so the husbandmans must halt utilizing the fertilisers and delay while the job is solved and the husbandman must be responsible. The acceptable angle of the land where the fertilisers are used must non transcend or within 12 grade as a maximal value. The ability to utilize and the sanctioned sum of fertiliser depends on: Land drain. Land H2O screen. The nature and type of the dirts and the fertilisers. The husbandmans must enter all informations related to the old regulations in order to look into the records by the environment bureau and guarantee that they apply the nitrate vulnerable zones regulations and set of ordinances. 3. SCOTLAND AS A CASE STUDY: 3.1 CONCERNING EASTERN SCOTLAND: Eastern Scotland considered as one of the largest agribusiness countries in the United Kingdom, and it started using nitrate vulnerable zones instruments and regulations from this twelvemonth. The husbandmans in eastern Scotland are considered as a instance survey in this study to better the storage of slurry in those countries. Where on the other manus Scotland contains tonss of agribusiness countries, so it can be applied and evaluated by the nitrate vulnerable zones regulations on it. The husbandmans in Scotland are carrying up and utilizing the organic slurry for the agribusiness purposes, but this slurry is full of organics and N which may change over to guess nitrate as the undermentioned chemical equation: N2 + 6 H2O 2 NO3 + 6 H2 Then, this nitrate will foul a immense sum of resistance and surface H2O, the simplest solution of this job is using nitrate vulnerable zones on Scotland. 3.2 THE CONDITION OF SCOTLAND: There are many features and belongingss of Scotlandaa‚Â ¬a„?s dirts, and every bit recognized as organic dirts which has the ability to hive away big sum of C contents comparing with other agribusiness zones in UK. The surface of Scotland dirts indicates that it is sensitive to pollution or in peculiar nitrate pollution. Figure ( 3 ) : The types of the Soils in Scotland.[ 3 ] Depending in the maps above, one can observe that the land of the Scotland can be divided in to four basic types: Podzols dirt, which describes a presence of organic that is suited for the forest agribusiness with ash Grey and rich with silica content and have light Greies colour. AA . Brown colored dirts, reasonably contains a thin bed of organic bed, included of mineral medium and good construction with the stone pulverization dirts. Gleys dirts, the dirt consist of many metallic ions like Ag which have the graded blue colourss in comparing to the normal organic content, it responsible for surface H2O production. Organic peat dirts, it contains larger than 60 % of organic content with high surface bed which gives it high ability to agriculture even the sourness is so high ( & lt ; 5 PH ) . 3.3 Evaluation: From the information above, it can be noted that the dirts of Scotland in peculiar the agribusiness countries do non necessitate larger sum of natural or manufactured nitrogen fertilisers, so the authorities and the environmental bureau should do surveies about the needed sum of these fertilisers to procure the maximal sum of use to protect the surface and belowground H2O from the nitrate pollution jeopardy. The function of the nitrate vulnerable zones instrument is to command and oversee the storage procedure for these countries particularly that Scotland is well-known with stock where the Fieldss will be affected by the overall nitrate contents. Problem Impact Recommendation STOCK Storage Leaking to come up country. Using particular storage topographic points. Exploitation Fertilizers Reacted with the surface H2O. Restriction and unchanging the use for particular instances. APPLYING THE RULES The husbandman may non use the regulations. Making difficult regulations to command the countries related to nitrate vulnerable zones. KNOWLEDGE OF THE RULES Some husbandmans do non cognize plenty about regulations. Commercial advertizement. Table ( 1 ) : some of the proposal for existent job. 4. Decision: The nitrate vulnerable zones is a pattern introduced by the environmental bureau of United Kingdom to cut down the H2O nitrate pollution of the agribusiness country in the land, and this pattern is related to the husbandmans who live in the zones where high content of nitrate is caused by the procedure of storage and utilizing the manufactured or natural N fertilisers. From the rating and perusal of Scotland, one can observe that the nature of the dirt needs using nitrate vulnerable zones on those countries to get the better of the job of nitrate. Recommendations: The thought of nitrate vulnerable zones is really of import particularly for the countries causesaa‚Â ¬a„? H2O pollution of nitrate, but it should be international pattern all over the universe, in add-on to do difficult regulations on people who try to change with this pattern. In add-on, this topic is interested by every individual in the universe so the international organisation should assist the hapless husbandman to use nitrate vulnerable zones.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Secret to Success

Everybody wants to judge themselves to the lens of a moment. They want to be cool right now and they are asking themselves, â€Å"What's the least I need to do to feel invigorated? What's the least I need to do to be successful?† Once I stopped asking these questions and I started thinking about really who I could become and really harnessing the human ability to adapt what people need to ascertain. Humans have become the apex predator not by being the toughest, not even by being the most intelligent but rather by being the most adaptive to change and when you realize all of us are born with nothing. Our job isn't to be peerless today. It is to build ourselves brick by brick and that is what separates the illustrious from everyone else. It's about actually delivering a result. We all have things that we're believing for, dreams that we want to attain but sometimes as it goes on month after month even year after year, we don't see anything changing. It's easy to get disheartened and think, â€Å"This is never going to happen. I'll just learn to live with it.† We all go through despondency, setbacks, and loss. Pain is a part of life; they don't leave us the same. Now, how it changes you is up to you. The challenge is don't just go through it, grow through it. There will always be forces trying to induce us to settle where we are. Life has a way of pushing our dreams down. They can become buried under discouragement, past mistakes, and low self-esteem. It's easy to settle from mediocrity even though we have all this potential obscured on the inside. Turn it all around and remember our aspirations. Stop worrying about the echo and start cogitating about the shout. Believe in who you can become tomorrow and let every day until the day you drop. Be about ringing that potential out of yourself, building something and becoming competent of something today that you weren't capable of yesterday of asking yourself how far you can go of becoming obsessed with that process and no longer thinking about the end. When you assimilate the difference between no longer focusing on being a titleholder and instead of delivering a championship performance, everything changed because it's the people who build themselves into someone who can give championship performances that win. The people you see who are victorious are the ones who tough grind every single day. They're the ones who have decided to keep working on enriching themselves and their work every time someone told them they weren't good enough or they weren't what they were looking for; the ones who never took no for an answer, who kept pushing forward when the world was telling them to quit because those were the people with a vision and a dream. These are the secrets to success, never giving up even when the cards are all dealt against you because they are just human. They had a goal but they didn't stop pursuing it, no matter what life threw their way. Having a strong will is a must and don't take no for an answer if it's what you really want. That's how you make it and that's how you become successful.

Monday, July 29, 2019

This assignment requires you to address the following question in the Essay

This assignment requires you to address the following question in the form of an ; To what extent are people subordinated to systems and organisations in the 21st century - Essay Example Organization cultures have also changed from the centralized organization cultures and industrialist cultures to people oriented cultures, task cultures and role cultures which have added to the spectrum of culture in the 21st century. The employee environment is characterized by Senge’s (1990) learning organization, whereby employees are allowed to grow and learn with the organization and therefore given enough time to be able to articulate the organization’s system. Also, Morgan’s (2006) eight metaphor system whereby the organization is grouped into eight metaphors which are brought together so that the organization is seen in all its perspectives, which are: - organization as a machine, organization as organism, organization as brain, organization as culture, organization as political system, organization as psychic prison, organization as system of change and flux and organization as instrument of domination. Managers are advised to look at organizations in d ifferent perspectives according to the eight metaphors as a means to an end. The basic definition of an organization is a social unit of people assembled together to achieve and pursue common goals and objectives through division of labor. All organizations have management structures that define relationships between different individuals in the organization accordingly (Business Dictionary, 2013). Over the years there have been very many theories on how people in organizations relate to each other and the management aspects and functions of the organizations. This report therefore analyses the different organizational theories in the 21st century in relation to the subordination of people in the organization and its systems. In the 20th century, business management was categorized into six main groups: - human resource management, operations management, strategic management, marketing management, financial management and

Sunday, July 28, 2019

MGT501 - Mgmt. and Org. Behavior session long project 2 (Jung Typology Essay

MGT501 - Mgmt. and Org. Behavior session long project 2 (Jung Typology Test.) - Essay Example This feature is true however has gone unnoticed throughout my life. The results show that in an organization I will be very decisive and that I am a very organized person. This along with my strong interpersonal skills together will prove to be my strengths in an organization. I believe, and as confirmed by the test, I have the excellent entrepreneurial abilities and have the ability to juggle between numbers of responsibilities. This I believe is my biggest strength and is my mode of opportunity in a workplace as well. One of the other features that the test has brought out is the fact that I follow the open door policy and am ready to be interrupted by other admits my work. I provide undivided attention, and this I think will be very useful in a work place. One of the few things that I might have a problem with includes my sensitive nature and my â€Å"thinner psychological boundaries†. Truly as an individual I tend to go out of the way to help others and in a number of cases, I tend to get into trouble because people tend to take advantage of me. This I feel will be one of the biggest issues that I might face in an office environment. In order to improve my overall managerial competence, I believe that I need to practice being stronger and need to learn to say ‘No’. This I can achieve by taking up the self improvement courses and with the help of my friends and family. I will also practice this in all aspects of life so that I do not become a push over and people do not take advantage of me. In conclusion I feel that this assessment of my nature and personal managerial competence is very accurate. The ENFJ category of people are referred to as, ‘the Caregivers’, which I feel is a true portrait of my nature. This assessment has brought out the best of my qualities as well as the biggest of my weaknesses and has provided me with a chance to learn and improve

Saturday, July 27, 2019

RYAN AIR THE LOW FAIR AIRLINES Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

RYAN AIR THE LOW FAIR AIRLINES - Case Study Example On the one hand, in August 2006, an Air Transport World magazine reported that Ryanair was the most profitable airline in the world, based on its operation and net profit margins, and on a per-airplane and per-passenger basis (Higgins 2007: 2). In November 2006, the company announced new record half-year bottom line of â‚ ¬329 million for the first half of fiscal 2007 (Higgins 2007: 2). Furthermore, traffic increased by 23 per cent to 22.1 million passengers, while yield jumped by 9 per cent as total revenues increased by 33 per cent to â‚ ¬1.256 billion (Higgins 2007: 2). In addition, even as fuel costs increased by 42 per cent to â‚ ¬337 million, Ryanair’s after-tax margin increased by 1 point to 26 per cent (Higgins 2007: 2). Ryanair expects high demand in the future, so it plans to expand routes and its fleet. On the other hand, Ryanair faces legal battles and acquisition challenges for its Irish rival, Aer Lingus (Higgins 2007: 1). Ryanair also faces stiff opposi tion for its union-busting policies and long working hours and low salary, although it claims the opposite (Higgins 2007: 6). There are, additionally, environmental challenges that threaten to impinge on Ryanair’s low-cost, no-frills business model. These environmental threats can increase operational costs. This paper analyses the case of Ryanair. It evaluates Ryanair’s strategy compared to competitors, by analysing its low-cost business model through the stakeholder approach analysis. It also determines the key internal and external issues of Ryanair. Furthermore, it evaluates O’Leary’s leadership using the transformational leadership framework. Finally, it examines the sustainability of Ryanair’s future strategies. 2. Evaluation of Ryanair’s strategy compared to competitors Ryanair’s business strategy compared to competitors will be analysed using the stakeholder approach. 2.1 Stakeholder approach The society, in general, is becomi ng more concerned of the role that business plays in managing stakeholder relations and responding to the environment. Many customers also prefer to deal with companies that actively reduce their ecological footprints (Rueda-Manzanares, Aragon-Correa, and Sharma 2008: 188). Similarly, shareholders, as well as financial and insurance companies, seek to lessen liabilities associated with environmental risks that come from corporate operations, such as pollution and harmful human health effects. The European Union has, in response, as well as the United Kingdom (UK) passed environmental regulations, sanctions, fines, penalties and legal costs for companies that are not operating in an environmentally responsible manner (Henriques and Sadorsky 1996 cited in Rueda-Manzanares et al. 2008: 188). These political institutions recognise that stakeholders clearly know their rights and responsibilities and are willing to generate partnerships and networks that can result to win-win situations. Companies that neglect crucial stakeholder relationships, however, may compromise competitiveness in the long-run, particularly now in a globalised world, where stakeholder interests matter (Rueda-Manzanares et al. 2008: 188). Stakeholder theory has rise amidst the public clamour for corporate governance and business ethics (Elms et al. 2010: 405). The theory can be rooted from the integration of business strategy and ethics and gained greater attention from management scholars for the past fifteen years (Damall, Henriques, and Sadorsky 2009 cited in

Friday, July 26, 2019

Every Child Matters and Educational Outcomes Essay

Every Child Matters and Educational Outcomes - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that changing the school setting from traditional methods of teaching to newer implementation is based on several dimensions.   The environment, agenda, and curriculum for teaching are all considered for teachers, administrators and children receiving an education. The need to offer more to students and to monitor learning activities is currently being implemented through the Every Child Matters agenda, also known as ECM. The implications of this program are based on providing more opportunities for children of diverse backgrounds. The main policies and trends in this policy are being furthered by changing school settings and community values for education. Understanding the provisions and benefits of teaching under this agenda also provides a deeper understanding of how teachers and administrators can alter teaching styles according to the newer methods and requirements. The ability to incorporate the Every Child Matters agenda will alte r the way in which teachers focus on enhancing education among children. The Every Child Matters initiative began with the governmental decision to change educational programs and attention for children in 2003. In 2004, the Children Act became a law of the government, which focused on a formal approach to assisting children. The main act resulted from the death of Victoria Climbie, a child who was not able to receive proper care because of her socioeconomic status.  

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Ancient Dance References Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ancient Dance References - Essay Example Ancient Dance References Dance is a pastime and a ritual that, while historical, has very little traceable history. There is plenty of evidence to show that it has existed for many millennia, perhaps even since the dawn of mankind, but there are great gaps between the dance that we know now and the dance that existed back then.Dance, being a physical activity, is unable to leave behind concrete proof of its presence. As such, it is only a guess that dance has been around since the beginning of human beings. We are able to rely on the few bits of historical evidence to accompany this assumption, even though it still remains to be just an assumption. Likewise, the questions of where dance originated from, why it was started, and how it was originally practiced are only able to be answered with educated guesses. Descriptions of ancient dances are few and far between, but they do exist. This allows us a glimpse into the past of dancing. One of the first greatest descriptions of dance com es from India and was written by Bharata Muni, a man who lived approximately between 500 BC and 200 BC. The textbook that he wrote, which was called the Natya Shastra, outlined many things in regard to theatre and music, but the majority of the book was based on dance. Bharata wrote in great detail about a variety of dances, focusing a lot of pages to every movement in each of the dances. He also divulged into descriptions of the social contexts that these dances would be used in. This book is considered to be the first detailed account of dance.

Analytical Argument Ford Mustang Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analytical Argument Ford Mustang - Assignment Example The bold and loud design was an acknowledgment of the rebel hippy culture that was in vogue(Kleihauer). The colors of the cars are to this day a reflection of the strong American pop culture. The automakers found a creative way to incorporate the youthful 60’s counterculture into the rumbling machismo of the Mustang. These underlying currents are vividly visible in the verbal and visual texts regarding Ford Mustang over the years. There haven’t been many drastic changes in the car's design, accept a few, over the past 48 years reflecting a consistency of belief of the American culture in qualities such as Strength and Speed. The Ford Mustang came out amongst a publicity blitz with the print and the TV media ablaze with its advertisements. On Memorial Day, in the same year, a white Mustang with blue dorsal racing stripes leads the field(Mustang). It was a strong visual text for the millions of people who saw the picture of the muscle car painted out in national colors which reflected the fascination of the Americans with strength. In the first verbal example, the Mustang is referred to as the stuff dreams are made of. This was the first official commercial of the car, but the point to ponder here is how this verbal text molds the mind of an average man into believing that a sports car is what defines his dreams. The American perception of luxury was defined by the unprecedented success of the Mustang in its initial years. It did not hold any economic significance as it was not fuel consumption friendly nor of much domestic use. But marketers carefully targeted the youth through their verbal text b propagating the idea of independence to live the dream life of adventure and freedom. Â  

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Philosphy of education Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Philosphy of education - Term Paper Example It helps in developing a world where justice, equality and standards of life are core principles to aid and guide humanity. The acquisition of education, however, requires a great deal of struggles form the individual. An educated person is the one who is civilized, morally enlightened and understands human dignity as a core principle which should not be compromised in any field. An educated society hence, creates certain implied duties on the individuals to work for mutual benefits leading to technological advancements, help each other to maintain peace in the society and maintain relationships to keep the learning track going. Plato’s theory of education explained learning as an ongoing process where learning develops with the growth of a person. He proposes that an individual’s learning continues from 6 to above 50 years of age. Learning, according to Plato, is a must to thrive in the society. In the same way I consider learning as an important and integral part of a person’s life which cannot be separated but rather a person should stay open to accept and follow new ideas, thoughts and issues.

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

LAW2040 PROPERTY LAW 2B Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

LAW2040 PROPERTY LAW 2B - Essay Example This arrangement went on for seven years – James making the mortgage repayments, while Cara did domestic chores. Cara did not make any mortgage payments on this flat, nor did she have a child at home to care for. Because the proceeds from the flat were used to buy the pig farm, it is therefore pertinent to analyze whose property was the flat in the first instance. Therefore, the real question here is whether Cara’s domestic contribution towards the household factors into who would be entitled to lay claim to the original flat? This question can be answered by examining Burns v. Burns [1984] Ch 317. In Burns, the plaintiff, Valerie Burns, lived with the defendant for 19 years, without the benefit of marriage. Valerie did not contribute financially towards the purchase price of the home or the mortgage installments, and acted as a homemaker. She also paid some household bills and paid for expenses related to redecorating. However, the Burns court stated that, absence any proof that Valerie made financial contributions to the purchase price or the mortgage installments, she did not have the right to beneficial entitlement to the home. In this case, Cara did contribute to purchase price, then made no other financial contributions for the next seven years. Therefore, the property would be Cara’s to the extent that she financially contributed to it, and no more, and the rest would be considered to be James’. It is unclear how much Cara put towards the property when the property was purchased, and for how much the flat was sold, but any money that was realized from the sale of this property would belong mostly to James, which means that James put most of the money towards the financing of the pig farm, even though the pig farm was titled only in Cara’s name. That said, other cases indicate that Cara would be entitled to a share of the original flat, beyond what she contributed financially, so the analysis will also take this into acc ount. The leading case which would answer this question would be Oxley v. Hiscock [2004] EWCA Civ 546. In this case, two unmarried parties purchased a house, and the property was transferred into the name of the male partner, who was the defendant. In this case, as in the case at bar, both parties directly contributed to the purchase price of the house. Because the non-owner of this home did directly contribute directly towards the purchase price, the non-owner was entitled to a beneficial share of the home. Therefore, the principle established by Lloyds Bank plc v. Rosset [1990] UKHL 14 would not be used. The principle in Rosset, which echoes the principle in Burns, is that conduct alone would not entitle an individual to a beneficial interest in property. Nothing less than direct monetary contribution would suffice. That said, Abbott v. Abbott [2007] UKPC 53 states that a party’s course of conduct would be examined in relation to the property, in order to determine who had what share of the home. However, Holbech states that the Abbott court would only look at indirect contributions towards the purchase price, such as payments into a joint account out of which the mortgage was paid, or works to improve the property. Drake v. Whipp [1986] Ch 638 is another case which addresses these concerns.

Monday, July 22, 2019

Assessment Tool Essay Example for Free

Assessment Tool Essay †¢ Assessment is an ongoing process that includes collecting, synthesizing and interpreting information about pupils, the classroom and their instruction. †¢ Testing is one form of assessment that, appropriately applied, systematically meas- ures skills such as literacy and numeracy. †¢ While it does not provide a complete picture, testing is an important tool, for both its efficiency and ability to measure prescribed bodies of knowledge. †¢ Alternative or â€Å"authentic† forms of assess- ment can be culturally sensitive and pose an alternative to testing, but they require a larger investment in establishing criteria for  judging development and training evaluators. †¢ Child assessment has value that goes well beyond measuring progress in children – to evaluating programs, identifying staff development needs and planning future instruction. †¢ The younger the child, the more difficult it is to obtain valid assessments. Early develop- ment is rapid, episodic and highly influenced by experience. Performance on an assessment is affected by children’s emotional states and the conditions of the assessment. Policy Recommendations: †¢ Require that measures included in an assess- ment be selected by qualified professionals  to ensure that they are reliable, valid and appropriate for the children being assessed. †¢ Develop systems of analyses so that test scores are interpreted as part of a broader assessment that may include observations, portfolios, or ratings from teachers and/or parents. †¢ Base policy decisions on an evaluation of data that reflects all aspects of children’s development – cognitive, emotional, social, and physical. †¢ Involve teachers and parents in the assess- ment process so that children’s behaviors and abilities can be understood in various contexts and cooperative relationships among families and school staff can be  fostered. †¢ Provide training for early childhood teachers and administrators to understand and inter- pret standardized tests and other measures of learning and development. Emphasize precautions specific to the assessment of young children. NIEER Assessment of preschool-age children who may not reliably or uniformly respond to inquiry has been the subject of much debate. The growing emphasis on testing young children as a means of holding programs accountable for their learning has intensified the discussion. Though there are legitimate concerns regarding standardized testing, it and other forms of assessment are necessary  components of all high-quality early education programs. Properly conceived assessments are important to understanding and sup- porting young children’s development. They are also essential to documenting and evaluating how effectively programs are meeting young children’s educational needs. For assessments to be effective, they must be practical, cost-efficient and meet reasonable standards of efficiency and validity. Testing usually involves a series of direct requests for children to perform, within a set amount of time, specific tasks designed and administered by adults. These tasks have predetermined answers. Alternative forms of assessment are more open-ended and often look at performance over an extended period. Examples include structured observations, portfolio analyses of individual and collaborative work, and teacher and parent ratings of children’s behavior. What Can Be Learned Assessment can provide the following four types of information for and about children and their parents, teachers and programs: †¢ Screen children to see if they need intervention—particularly when par- ents and teachers suspect a problem. †¢ Plan instruction for individuals and groups of children. †¢ Identify program improvement and staff development needs. †¢ Evaluate how well a program is meet- ing goals and needs for children. Data should be aggregated to determine whether desired outcomes are being achieved. Why Assessment is Important Preschool Policy Facts â€Å"Assessment is the process of collecting, synthesizing and interpreting information to aid classroom decision-making. It includes information gathered about pupils, instruction and classroom climate. â€Å"Testing is a formal, systematic procedure for gathering a sample of pupils’ behavior. The results of a test are used to make generalizations about how pupils would have performed on similar but untested behaviors. † — Peter Airasian, Assessment in the Classroom 2 The quality of an assessment depends in part on decisions made before any meas- ure is administered to a child. Project designers should be able to explain why specific measures are used and what they hope to learn from the results. Assess- ment strategies can be formal (standard- ized testing) or informal (observation, portfolios, teacher and parent ratings). The selection of a strategy is guided by the purposes and goals of the assess- ment and is also affected by the available resources in terms of time, money and staff. Formal and informal assessment  strategies each have strengths and weak- nesses. Therefore, a comprehensive assessment requires a multi-method approach in order to encompass the many dimensions of children’s skills and abilities. Standardized Testing †¢Most rigid of assessment strategies, places the greatest constraints on chil- dren’s behavior. Considered objective, time- and cost-efficient, and suitable for making quantitative comparisons of aggregated data across groups. †¢ Preschoolers’ performance is highly influenced by children’s emotional states and experiences, sometimes causing unstable scores over time. Most individual tests of cognitive  ability must be administered in a controlled, relatively quiet area. Observations †¢ Intrude minimally into children’s activities, which naturally integrate all dimension of development— intellectual, motivational, social, physical, aesthetic, etc. †¢ Should be used to complete develop- mental scales of proven reliability and validity, they are not sufficient alone. Portfolios †¢ Involve multiple sources and methods of data collection, and occur over a representative period of time. A collection of student work, the process provides richer information than standardized tests. †¢ Encourage collaboration – between  students, teachers, and parents – and integrate assessment with instruction and learning. Teacher Ratings †¢Can be used to assess children’s cogni- tive and language abilities as well as social and emotional development. †¢ Can be specifically related to other types of assessments, including stan- dardized test scores, other validated assessment tools, or global assessments of children’s traits. Parent Ratings †¢ Encourage parents to observe and listen to their children. †¢Inform parents about the important behaviors and milestones in young children’s development and allows teachers to involve parents as partners  in assessment. Assessment Methods Preschool Policy Facts 3 Issues and positions involving assessment are summarized in a document from the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) and the National Association of Early Childhood Specialists in State Departments of Education (NAECS/SDE) titled Early Childhood Curriculum, Assessment and Program Evaluation: Building an Effective, Accountable System in Programs for Children Birth through Age 8. Given the pervasive use of testing and its probable expansion, when and under what conditions can this type of assessment be used appropriately with preschool-age  children? What characteristics of tests and their administration will guarantee that we â€Å"do no harm† to children and that we â€Å"do help† adults acquire valid informa- tion? Also, given that even the most well-designed tests can provide only limited data, how can we maximize the use of non-test assessments so they add valuable information beyond that obtained through standardized testing procedures? To produce meaningful data and minimize the risk of creating a harmful situation, all assessment tools for preschool-age children, whether formal or informal, should satisfy the following criteria: †¢ Assessment should not threaten children’s self-esteem, make them feel they have failed, or penalize them for what they do not know. †¢ Information should be obtained over time, or if time-distributed measurements are not feasible, unusual circumstances in the situation (e. g. , noise) or child (e. g. , fatigue) should be noted to avoid invalid, single-encounter results. †¢ Information should be obtained on the same content area from multiple and diverse sources, such as standardized tests, classroom observations and parent ratings, especially when repeated instances of data gathering are not feasible. †¢ The length of the assessment should be sensitive to young children’s interests and attention spans and therefore should probably not exceed 35-45 minutes. †¢ Testing for purposes of program accountability should be administered to a representative sample of students whenever feasible to reduce the overall time spent in testing and to minimize the chances for placing undue stress on children and burden on teachers and classrooms. Reliable and Valid Preschool Assessment To be reliable and valid, standardized testing should: †¢ Contain enough items to allow scores to represent this diverse range of indi-  vidual ability, in order to identify and distinguish among children of low, average and high levels of ability. †¢ Take place in a controlled environment that at least approximates the condi- tions experienced by the population on which the measure was standardized. †¢ Be administered by appropriately trained examiners who are familiar with testing materials and procedures and with working with young children. To obtain scores that resemble natural performance, informal assessments should: †¢ Take place in or simulate the natural environment in which the behavior being evaluated occurs to avoid meas-  uring the child’s response to an artifi- cial environment rather than the child’s ability to perform on the content. †¢ Be conducted by an assessor who is knowledgeable regarding the assess- ment materials and familiar with the children being assessed. When an outside researcher or evaluator must administer the assessment, it is best if the individual spends time in the classroom beforehand. †¢ Measure real knowledge in the context of real activities, resembling children’s ordinary activities as closely as possible. In addition, parent or teacher ratings should evaluate naturally occurring  behavior. †¢ Be conducted as a natural part of daily activities rather than as a time-added or pullout activity. This fact sheet is based on the policy brief â€Å"Preschool Assessment: A Guide to Developing a Balanced Approach† by Ann S. Epstein, Lawrence J. Schweinhart, Andrea DeBruin-Parecki and Kenneth B. Robin. The brief includes full references and is available at www. nieer. org. It was made possible by the generous support of The Pew Charitable Trusts. The opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Pew Charitable Trusts. Preschool Policy Facts.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

The Role Of Communicative Language Teaching

The Role Of Communicative Language Teaching Introduction Foreign languages play a very important role in our system of knowledge. They are not only an effective tool for us to exploit information to acquire scientific technology, to share experiences with or to learn experiences from others in specialized fields but also a useful means of improving peoples material and spiritual lives. In the sixteenth century English became known as a communication language for people around the world. Its popularity as a foreign language has been increasing since then and been developing into the second language of many countries (Richards and Rodgers, 2002). English is now the most popular foreign language in Vietnam and English competence is considered one of the most necessary characteristics for anyone who would like to integrate themslves into the global society and access the worlds knowlege to be sucessful in life. English gradually becoming the main communication language in parts of education, business, entertainment and culture exchanges with o ther cultures excitingly taking place in daily life in Vietnam require appropriate recognition of English speaking from Vietnamese learners, especially teachers and those who are working in education. Language teaching profession has experienced many changes and a number of different language teaching methods and approaches have been proposed and applied for the sake of teachers and learners benefits in their teaching and learning so far. However, which one is the most appropriate for teachers and their learners depending a lot in their teaching and learning context. Therefore, Communicative Language Teaching has been employed in most of Vietnamese classrooms, especially in PVMTC, for its advantages in improving the speaking skills though it is not the latest one. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND THE MAJOR TRENDS OF LANGUAGE TEACHING METHODS AND APPROACHES. Since the begining of the twentieth century, communication between people of different cultures in differrent parts of the world has became urgent request. Teaching and learning a foreign language became more and more popular. However, to teach a foreign language effectively requires a lot of effort from the teachers who have direct and significant impact on their students achievement which is controled by the methodology they choose to apply to their language teaching in different learning and teaching contexts. Understanding the importance of the matter , linguists and teachers themselves have been done a large number of studies on language teaching in order to find out and introduce more practical and effective language teaching methods and approaches that help teachers in performing well their job. The two recent centuries have witnessed ceaseless changes and innovation in language teaching in terms of teaching methods and approaches. These decide how the language is taught and what materials and activities are used in the classroom to help learners get the best achievement in their language learning. Thus, each approach shows its own view of the nature of the language and how the language is learnt. According to Richards and Rodgers (2002, p. 3), Latin was the dominant language of education, commerce, religion and government in the Western world until the sixteenth century when French, Italian and English gradually replaced it to become the languages of communication. However, the tremendous impact of Latin teaching and learning principles and procedures on the way of teaching and learning the newly emerging languages was still occuring until the nineteenth century. This language teaching method has been known as Grammar Translation Method (GMT). As the result, the language lessons occured mostly in students first language, heavily focused on grammar rules which were deductively taught to students in order to guide them to decoding written texts and producing correct writing in target languages (Prator Celce-Murcia, 1979). Translation activities with the assistant of billingual dictionaries were conducted to achieve the accuracy. Students were expected to memorize a number of w ords and their meanings and all grammar rules and then apply them to make sentences. They were also expected to read, comprehend literature and write sentences without errors. Listening skill and speaking skill were completely ignored (Larsen-Freeman, 1986) in GMT classrooms. However, the changes in the society at the time resulted in the change of learners goal of learning languages: learning languages to communicate. The Grammar Traditional Method then couldnt meet the requiement since it appeared to fail to equip learners with interaction and communication skills in the target language (Larsen-Freeman, 2000, p. 23). In 1880 Francois Gouin, a teacher of Latin in France introduced a famous book called Art of teaching and learning of languages to the public. His assumptions of how a foreign language could be taught together with those of Henry Sweet, an English philologist, came together on encouraging students to think in the target language in learning process (Nagaraj, 1996, p. 71-72). This shaped the early version of the Direct method, a revolution in foreign language teaching, which went against the current traditional one. The Direct Method (known as Natural Method) was first introduced in Germany and France and it was the strong response to the dra wbacks of the Grammar Translation Method. It then became popular in The United States in the late of nineteenth century. At the time, Lambert Sauveur, an extraordinary man and his colleage, Gottlied Henness, first applied object lesson technique to teach German and French in their classrooms and they enjoyed great success. Sauveur after that developed this teaching method to the one known as Natural Method and used it widely in his language schools (Howatt, 2004, p. 217). At the same time, Maximilian D Berlitz also used this teaching method in his language schools in the US but in another name: Berlitz Method. Basically, the Direct Method based on the assumption of using the target language to teach itself and that oral practice could help students assess the target language in terms of forms and meanings. It was also the advocacy for the natural language learning principles and teaching of oral skill. So all instructions in the classroom were in the target language. Pronunciation a nd speaking skill were strongly emphasized by conducting question-and-answer activities to motivate and encourage students in using the language confidently (Larsen-Freeman, 1986). Interaction between teacher and students in the target language was considerd a way to present it. Grammar, vocabulary and translation skills which were very important under the Grammar Translation method was now marginalized to guaratee the acquisition of oral proficiency because the proponents of the method had a strong belief that everyday vocabulary used in the classroom could be learnt effectively through visual presentations and that grammar rules could be worked out by students through the teachers inductive grammar teaching. By means of its innovation in language teaching, the Direct method, which negated the effectiveness of the Grammar Translation method, became the first and the most concerned language teaching method that marked the begining of the method era (Richards Rodgers, 2002, p. 14). However, apart from being a breakthrough in teaching interactive speaking skills, the Direct Method also showed its weaknesses in terms of applied linguistics which made the method not take well in public education where the constraints of budget, classroom size, time, and teacher background made such a method difficult to use (Brown, 1994, p. 54) or to Richards and Rodgers it was a dramatic alteration in language teaching which firmly focused on oral skill but lacked a systematic basic in applied linguistic theory and practice (2002, p. 38). In the 1920s and 1930s in Britain, British applied linguists led by Harole Palmer and A. S. Hornby exerted themselves to establish an approach called Oral Approach (or Situation Language Teaching) to language teaching based on more scientific foundation, in which sponken language was important, only general and useful vocabulary was introduced, grammar was graded strictly and all practice took place in situations. The approach also enjoyed the popularity in English for decades there and many textbooks and courses were designed under it principles (Richards and Rodgers, 2002, p. 36-41). Another method became known as the Army method fisrt and then Audio Lingual Method (ALM) as we know it now was a new creative trend in language teaching methodology in The US in the second World War. It was first applied in a special language training programs of Military of the United States. It was devised by an American linguist, Leonart Bloomfield for the servicemen who were going to work as translators, interpreters and quickly needed to have perfect communicative proficiency to perform their jobs in different parts of the world. The method was the combination of language teaching through intensive practice of speaking skills to develop communicative competence with the language learning method based on the disciplines of descriptive linguistics and behaviuor pychology (which considers language learning is a set of language). In this method, immitation, repetition, memorization and reinforcement were impressed within speaking practice with variety of drills. Limited vocabulary w as introduced. Grammar was important but was taught inductively and inexplicitly throughout the conversational dialogues that learners practised orally but no errors were accepted because according to them errors could become bad habits. It was Charles Fries, another American linguist advocating Audio Lingual Method applied the method widely in his English language center, who deserved credit for making this method popular in foreign language teaching in the United States particularly in the 1950s and 1960s (Wong, 2006) and the world. However, the effectiveness of Audio Lingual Method on oral proficiency got questioned in the 1960s. Many experiments were done and according to Scherer and Wertheimer (1964), this effectiveness was not significant. In the 1970s, the new method based on the wiew of language learning as active mental processes, which was advocated J.B. Carroll and K. Chastain in the 1960s, Cognitive-code-Method was born. As Carrol stated, this deductivist method was a modified, up- to-date grammar-translation theory (1966 cited in Stern, 1987, p. 469). It adopted generativist grammatial theory (Danesi, 2003) and focused on grammar structures and all four skills. Clear examples and grammar structure explanation to learners came first. Learners were then asked to pracise them in meaningful contexts. Despite the fact that the method did not win the teachers and linguists favour for long, it deserved merit in leaving contexttualized gramar tranning and the technique of Error Analysis to language teaching ( Danesi, 2003, p. 11). In the early 1980s, the Natural Approach was developed by Tracy Terrell and Stephen Krashen based on Krashens theory about second language acquisition. It looks at language as a set of messages which can be understood. Vocabulary and meaning are primary (Terrell Krashen, 1983 cited in Richards and Rodgers, 2002) and the principles for teaching a language are based on the five hypotheses in Krashens second language acquisition theory. The approach was widely welcomed in the US and around the world for its positive influence on forming more overall principles for effective language teaching that have been considered in the later approaches. In the 1970s, the need for communicative competence continued to increase in line with the changes of economic and political situation in Europe. But teachers and linguists did not satisfy with the current language teaching methods and approaches which were not effective in helping learners use the target language to interact or communicate in real life situations. Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) or Communicative Approach to the teaching of foreign languages then emerged as the answer to the problem. It has didfferent features from those of the other approaches since one of the most characteristic features of Communicative Language Teaching is that it pays basic attention to functional as well as structural aspects of language (Littlewood, 1992, p. 1). To serve communicative goal of language learning, the Communicative Approach is based on the premise that what we do in the classroom should have some real life communicative values or it looks at what people do with language and how they responde to what they hear (Flowerdew Miller, 2005, p. 12). Therefore, all activities used in a CLT classroom are appropriately designed based on these principles. Teachers measures language learnerssuccess by looking at their development in communicative competence which is implied in their making use of any means of communication, verbal or nonverbal, within the limited knowledge of the language they have to. To some extent, CLT makes use of presenting and practising speaking and listening in real life situations to help students complete tasks and build their fluency and confidence. The last approach I would like to mention is Task-Based Approach popularized by Prabhu. The method has attracted teachers and linguists in recent years. It impresses on using authentic language in real life, classrooms are managed to take place in real world communicative context in form of tasks and the tasks outcome, not the accuracy of language forms, is used to evaluate students progress and competence. The activities in the classroom mainly focus on speaking and students are required to be highly active and cooperative. The approach is rather new and not very familiar to teachers and students in some Southeast Asian countries. However, nobody who concerns linguistics negates its state of the art in the field and it is considered the development of CLT. ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING IN VIETNAM: STATE OF THE ART In the last twenty years, the demand for communicating between people of different cultures has pushed English to its recent status as a popular global language. English has become an official languge in Singarpore, India, the Philipines, Hongkong and a popular foreign language in most Asian nations for economic and political reasons. English teaching profession in the region, as the result, receives more concern of teachers, educators and linguists. In line with the current language teaching trends of the world, English language teaching in Asia has also been inspired by a more effective alternative, Communicative approach which emerged in the ash of less effective approachs and methods of language teaching that had big impact on English language learning and teaching for a long time. The wind of changes prevails and results in a lot of other changes related to English language teaching. Teachers have been encouraged to employ CLT in their English classrooms to improve students spea king skill. However, in some Asian countries of ESL where CLT and other later approaches have been imployed in English classrooms and claimed for some success whilst in Asian EFL classrooms whether CLT has been really applied or not, and if it has, how effective it has been, is still questioned. So, what has been the problems? In his study, Hird (1995, cited in Lewis McCook, 2002) stated that the differences in cultures led to the differences in interpreting CLT. The Asian traditionally appreciate the perfection such as acurracy in learning, CLT to their understanding, however, emphasizes more on fluency, appropriateness and spontaneity, not acurracy. Therefore, teachers as well as students were dubious about the effectiveness of CLT. A study of Musthafa Personal author, compiler, or editor name(s); click on any author to run a new search on that name. (2001, p. 1-10) on CLT in Indonesian argued that the communicative approach has failed to help students become any more competent in the use of the English language for real-life purposes. Or Manajitt (2008, p. 83-87) pointed out, although most of the Thai EFL school teachers in Bangkok were very intersted in CLT, learnt about it in many ways and had clear CLT conceptualization, their teaching and their students learning was still a combination between trad itional and communicative approach or still stayed traditional because of difficulties they faced while organizing a CLT classroom. In Vietnam, English became one of the subjects at school in 1987 after Vietnam started Doi Moi in 1986. English appeared in classrooms in some parts of the country. The course books at the time focused on reading skills and grammar and the Grammar Translation Method was applied widely in English teaching in Vietnam (Denham, 1992) beacause the new approaches and methods of teaching English did not reach the country yet and the teachers who were trained before 1986 felt most confident using it (Pham, 1999). Speaking skills were overlooked. Students had to work very hard with grammar rules to past the examinations. Teachers taught to test and students studied to do tests. In 1996, English proficiency at different levels was required to high chool and university students when they finished their study. English joined the rank of major subjects at education institutions. However, teacher-centred or teacher-fronted classrooms remained typical ones in Vietnam (Sullivan, 2000). Students cont inued with their rote learning in teacher-centred classrooms and the English teaching methods of the teachers in Vietnam in the late of 1990s were out-of-date (Kennett Knight,1999). The fact that teaching and learning English in Vietnam for over a dacade was staying the same. Yet the social demands for English for communication purposes were increasing because more and more activities in different fields needing poeple with good communicative English competence urgently required a significient change in language teaching profession. In an attempt to improve the quality of teaching and learning English especially the speaking skill, a movement to transform curriculum, text books, and teaching methodologies (Kim, 2001, p.140) was launched. Now, CLT has been announced to be the best choice to replace Grammar Translation approach in Vietnam. Teachers are annually invited to attend workshops about CLT. The new versions of English text books for students at secondary and high schools have replaced the old ones. The new text books, however, include more every day dialogues as the only evidence for the change since long reading texts and grammar exercies which promise to be the most in typical tests that students are going to take still predominent these books. As a result, speaking skills are skipped in class. Teachers spend most of the time on explaining grammar rules and translating reading texts to students. Students have to work with reading and grammar even harder than ever to survive the exams which mainly compri se long reading texts and extremely complicated grammar points. So, CLT although is officially prefered in Vietnam but whether it is really applied in classrooms to enhance students communitive competence or not is still a big question to anyone who has ever taught English in Vietnam. These lead to far-reaching consequence. At universities and colleges, Communicative course books are also chosen for students like the Lifelines set (Hutchinson, 2001), International Express set (Taylor Lane, 2007). The course books cover four macro skills. However, no oral or listening tests but reading and writing tests are carried out during the course. Inconsistencies between teaching and examinations lead to serious consequence like speaking skills are inorged in such these test-oriented tertiary EFL classrooms, students dont even have oppotunities to use the language verbally inside their classrooms because Vietnamese is used by teachers and students most of the time (Bui, 2006). Under these con ditions, students suffer from the failure in communicating or interacting. In terms of applying effectively new methods to teach English to students to help them use English communicatively, teachers fail to teach their students how to speak or listen but read and write in the target language. According to Pham (1999), there are socio-cultural factors against success in tertiary English language training programs in Vietnam. He emphasizes the fact that not only students but also teachers who lack ability of communicating in the target language get so scared to be in CLT classrooms where speaking skills are focused. The new method required both teachers and students really work actively in class. However, they got used to learning and teaching passively with Grammar Translation Method and they have to struggle to overcome their inherent passiveness, shyness, inferiority and fear to deal with the lesson in the new method. To these teachers and students, their English class put them in a state of panic. These have resulted in the quality of teaching speaking skills at university in Vietnam is still poor. And the explanation of the poor quality speaking teaching in English language tertiary education in Vietnam which results in a large number of graduates who have difficulty with communicating English (Bui, 2006) must take into account the concrete factors such as teachers and students conceptualization and practice of CLT, teachers ability and enthusiasm for their badly paid jobs, budget for language education, syllabus design, material and assessment which are the same in most developing countries (Gorlach, 1995). PetroVietnam Manpower Traning College (PVMTC) belongs to the system of vocational schools in Vietnam but mainly funded by Petrovietnam. For nearly fifteen years, the Streamlines set was used as the main course books and Grammar Translation Method was applied in teaching English in our college. But since 2007, we have replaced the course books with the Lifelines and International Express set. CLT has hardly received any warm welcome from the senior teachers beause they do not want to change the method that they have used for such a long time and as for them, they do not believe in the effectiveness of the new method and they even do not exactly know what CLT is and how to apply it. However, it has enjoyed the popularity among the younger teachers like me. We have been sent to have training courses on CLT together with our colleagues from other schools and colleges. We have excitingly discorvered it and applied or adapted it to our classes when we teach thousands of both types of stude nts studying English there: regular students and project students. Most of the students in PVMTC now are project students who are recent graduates or experienced technicians and engineers from different parts of Vietnam recruited to work for projects of Petrovietnam. They are paid to take a special intensive English course at PVMTC to improve their English skills, especially speaking skills, to perform their job together with foreign experts in their field at industrial facilities or in offices. They are highly motivated because they are given test of four skills and they are expected to achieve at least 650 marks on TOIEC when they finish the training course. They already took a placement test before doing the course and their English proficiency is Pre-intermediate. These are also advantages to us to apply CLT in these classrooms. International Express set is chosen for the course for its characteristics which support teachers and students a lot in conducting a communicative approach classroom. Inductive approach to grammar employed to guide stude nts to work out rules and usage which is usually a foreseen failure to many regular classes for regular students can be acceptable in these classes although both teachers and students have to work extremely hard when dealing with complicated grammar points and occasional failures are inevitable. Students are offered oppotunities speak, to discuss to complete all the task given by the teacher or to solve the problems emerging in the lessons. They are encouraged to use their own experiences, limited language they have learnt and appropriate learning strategies to deal with the English language in particular situations together in pair and group work activities. They are encouraged to keep speaking English with their classmates and teachers as much as they can without caring much about making mistakes when speaking. Authentic materials such as video clips or articles from the internet or newspapers, or any sourses relating to the topics of the lessons can be taken into the classroom to link the language they learn in the cousre book and those in real life. Although English is used by teachers and students most of the time in class, most of the students, especially more advanced and senior ones, generally appear to be successful and get progressed in their learning in terms of using the language communicatively, fluently and confidently. With regard to applying CLT in teaching English speaking effectively in these kinds of classrooms, we proudly claim that both the teachers and students in PVMTC have worked increadibly hard to make it success. We, however, confess our less successful outcome when applying CLT to most of the classes for regular students who are young adults at college and are being trained as workers to work for PetroVietnams subsidiaries. Most of them have been studying English for at least three years at high school but their English proficiency level is still beginner only. They are required to pass an English reading and writing test after finishing 90 hours of learning English in the first semester. Then they are offered a free optional 200 hour course of English to get the A level certificate as the education policy of PetroVietnam. The impacts of the different learning context on English teaching and learning are obvious in this situation. Therefore, as motivated language teachers, we have been doing our best to adapt the most appropriate teaching methods we have known to teach our students to get them improved and to these classrooms, an adapted combination of Audio Lingual Method and CLT has appear ed to be the most appropriate. To a large extent, CLT has enjoyed the popularity in PVMTC for proving itself a more effective method in teaching and learning English speaking skills in PVMTC context in this stage. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION FOR FUTURE DIRECTIONS In conclusion, language teaching profession has undergone great changes. Teaching approaches and methods ranging from Grammar Translation to Task-based were born in different stages in teachers, linguists tireless attempts to improve quality of teaching and learning languages. The later coming into the world does not completely exclude of the previous ones but it maintains the quintessence and condemns the drawbacks of them and contributes innovation to the field ensuring its appropriateness for teaching and learning contexts in a particular period. A number of studies have been done for centeries on teaching approaches and methods reflecting increasingly concerns about speaking skills and the recognition of the importance of the the skills in teaching, learning and using the target language. Improving the quality of teaching and learning English are the main chalenges facing Vietnam educators and government beacause it has been considered part of its social, economic and political development strategies. The first step as access to expected success has been made. In Vietnam, CLT has just really been popularized and used in English classrooms to ameliorate learners English competence. A lot of objective and subjective factors impacting on the effectiveness of this communicative method are still existing in Vietnam education system. So CLT will be the most appropriate one to use in the next years in Vietnamese teaching and learning context before trying to exploit the later ones. PVMTC have become aware of the neccessary of choosing and applying CLT in teaching English to acheive the proposed objective of any English courses to satisfy our students need, to prepare them for their future jobs by getting students involved in using English communicatively effectively, And as I mentioned early, we have enjoyed remarkable success but sometimes our teaching ends in falures. In spite of those, I believe that no teaching methos or approaches are perfect to all types of learners and that depending on object of the courses, as asthusiastic language teachers and if we are creative enough in teaching art, we will know how to adapt the methods we have known for use in each of our particular teaching and learning contexts and we will be successful in preparing our students with communicative competence.

Responsibilities Under the Health and Safety at Work Act

Responsibilities Under the Health and Safety at Work Act STUDENT NAME: IP OGOLO INTRODUCTION The purpose of this assignment is to compare and contrast the responsibilities imposed by the duties under sections 2,3,4,7 and 8 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. This would be achieved by critically analysing different case law, the Health and Safety at Work Act and other relevant literature. In this assignment, the interpretation of various words and phrases in the above mentioned sections of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 would be looked at and the elements of convictions would also be analysed. OVERVIEW OF SECTIONS 2,3 AND 4 SECTION 2 OF THE HASAWA 1974 Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASAWA) 1974, imposes duties on the employer towards his employees. Section 2(1), states that it shall be the duty of every employer to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable the health, safety and welfare at work of all its employees. The words health, safety and welfare are not clearly defined (Moore and Selwyn 2015) in the HASAWA 1974 but health includes both mental and physical health. Safety refers to the absence of foreseeable injury while welfare refers to water, lighting, toilet facilities, cloakroom, canteen etc. This duty is imposed on every employer irrespective of the size of the business or organisation, to ensure that such workplace is safe provided it is reasonably practicable for such employer to make it safe. The duties imposed by the HASAWA 1974 do not exempt employers of small businesses and the only defence from employers would be reasonable practicability. For example, an off-license shop employer who only has two part-time employees must also comply with the duties of the employer to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its part-time employees. Section 2(1) also included welfare unlike other sections of the HASAWA 1974 which only focus on health and safety. This means that employers have a duty to provide welfare facilities such as toilets, change room, eating area, adequate ventilation, adequate lighting, etc. The only defence for small business employers or any other employer who is non-compliant with these duties is the reasonably practicability of such health and safety measures. Reasonably practicability is one of those issues of debate. Reasonable practicable depends on a number of factors which are used to test if it was reasonably practicable for the workplace to be safe or not. These factors are weighed on a scale which measures the risks versus the sacrifices which the employer has to make in order to comply with the duties. These sacrifices could be ( Matthews and Ageros 2016) time, money, man-power or the effort/knowledge available to eliminate or mitigate those health and safety risks. An example of a case law where so far as is reasonably practicable played a significant role in the judgement is in Edwards v National Coal Board [1949] 1 ALL ER 743, where a timberman who worked in a coalmine was killed by the collapse of the side walls of the road in the course of his work. The National Coal Board was taken to court and they argued that it was not reasonably practicable for them to have prevented the accident. They contended that it was not possible for them to predict where and when a collapse would occur, and the cost; labour and effort in propping and lining all their mines outweigh the risk. Reasonably practicability ( Moore and Selwyn 2015) varies in each prosecution and it is a question of fact and evidence; this depends on the employer having sufficient evidence to show that everything reasonably practicable was done to make the workplace safe . Therefore, what might be reasonably practicable for company A may not necessarily be reasonably practicable for company B Figure 1 (Reasonably practicable)    Subsection 2(2) of the HASAWA 1974 states that it is the duty of the employer to ensure that plants are well maintained and safe systems of work are available so far as is reasonably practicable. Safe systems of work (Moore and Selwyn 2015) for plants can only be provided by an employer if the plant is located in a place where the employer has control over it and can give clear directions and procedures on how it should be used. Plants should be regularly maintained and efficient at all times in order to comply with the duties under subsection 2(2)(a). The maintenance (Moore and Selwyn 2015) of plants is a matter of foresight. The employer could have planned routine checks by competent persons or monitoring program in place to meet the requirements of this section. In section 2(2) the employer also has a duty to provide information, training, instruction and supervision to its employees. The information (Moore and Selwyn 2015) which is provided must be accurate and meaningful and also extends to contractors where necessary to ensure safety. In most cases, employers use induction training as one of the ways to provide information to its employees. Some employers use toolbox talks and organised in-house training as means of conveying health and safety related information to their employees. Any employer who does not provide adequate supervision to its employees would be in breach of this section. Section 2 (3)-(7) imposes duties on the employer to provide and revise health and safety policy and also have safety representatives and safety committees depending on the size of the organisation. An example of a prosecution under section 2(3) is Osborne v Bill Taylor of Huyton Ltd [1982] ICR 168. This breach was (Barret and Howells 1995) a failure to prepare an adequate written health and safety policy. The company carried out betting business in thirty-one separate betting shops connected by a central accounting system, management training program etc. The judges decision in this case was that the company was not in breach of section 2(3) because it had less than five employees for the time being. In my opinion, I would disagree with the Judges decision because the fact that the betting shops are centrally controlled means that it is one single undertaking, taking place in several locations and the total number of employees should be about ninety-three (93), see below for details; ÃÆ'- = 93 employees Figure 2 And therefore, should have been found guilty for a breach of section 2(3) because more than five employees were conducting a single undertaking in various locations. 2.2. SECTION 3 OF THE HASAWA 1974 Section 3 of the HASAWA 1974 covers the general duties of employers and self-employed to the public/ other people not employed by them. It states that it is the duty of every employer to conduct its undertaking in such a way to ensure so far as is reasonably practicable that persons not in his employment are not exposed to health and safety risks. (The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act, 1974) Lays emphasis in subsection 3(3) that the employer and self employed persons must give information about the hazards and risks associated with the conduct of its undertaking to those who may be affected by the conduct of his undertaking in a prescribed manner. This basically means that in some cases, it would be necessary for the employer or self employed persons to provide information which could be in the form of mailed newsletters, letter or formal visits to those who may be affected by the conduct of their undertaking to provide the necessary information about the areas in which these people may be affected and ways to reduce exposure for the benefit of their health and safety. For example, before a construction project commences, the neighbouring community needs to be aware of the health and safety risks such as noise, moving plants and heavy duty vehicles, etc in order for both parties to agree on ways to reduce their exposure. In section 3, the phrase reasonably practicable has been used which means that the employer or self employed persons need to weigh the risks versus the cost to determine if it is reasonably practicable for these safety measures to be in place. Additionally, this section refers to the word prescribed which to my understanding means a specified manner in which the information has to be presented to those who may be affected by the conduct of the employers or self-employed persons undertaking. One of the most common prescribed ways in which such information may be conveyed is through induction training for visitors. In this section, the word risk has been used which means (Moore and Selwyn 2015) the possibility of danger and not actual danger. The HASAWA 1974 does not state that an employer needs to wait for an accident to occur before measures and procedures would be in place. It states that provided there is a possibility of danger or injury, then it is the duty of the employer to either eliminate or mitigate such hazards. Another important word used in section 3 is undertaking which means (Moore and Selwyn 2015) business, work activities, enterprise etc. For instance, if company A gives a contract to company B (Brick-layer) who lays bricks in company As site, then the layering of bricks forms part of company As undertaking. However, the question of how much control the employer has (Moore and Selwyn 2015) over the operation as part of his undertaking could make it difficult in any criminal conviction. For example, if Company B decides to lay the bricks outside company As construction site, then company A may not have much control over how the bricklayers decide to lay those bricks with regards to health and safety. Some case law examples referring to undertaking are R v Swan hunter Shipbuilders Ltd [1981] ICR 831 and R v Mara [1986] IRLR 154, which would be discussed later in the assignment. It is important to note that an employer (Moore and Selwyn 2015) may still be conducting his undertaking even though the business is closed. For example, a food factory may be closed but the cleaning and maintenance of machinery may still be taking place which would still form part of the employers undertaking. 2.3.  SECTION 4 This section states the general duties of persons concerned with premises to persons other than their employees. It imposes duties on people such as landlords, security officers, estate agents etc. who have (Moore and Selwyn 2015) control over non-domestic premises or the means of access (such as doors, stairs, lift etc) or exit or any plant or substances which are used by non-employees as a place of work, to ensure that such areas or plants are safe so far as is reasonably practicable. It is important to note that residential premises are clearly domestic premises except the communal areas such as lifts, stairs, main door etc. which could be used as access for persons such as handyman, repairers, plumber, electricians, etc. as a place of work. The phrase reasonably practicable has also been used in this section of the Act. When a person makes (Moore and Selwyn 2015) available premises for the use of others, the reasonableness of the measures taken to ensure safety must be determined in the light of the controllers knowledge of the anticipated use of those premises and his knowledge of the actual use. For example, if a Landlord rents out offices to businesses, the landlord needs to know the scope of these businesses in order to put certain safety measures in place. This means that the reasonableness of such safety measures (Moore and Selwyn 2015) would be weighed against the controllers knowledge, the finances and effort it would take for such hazard to be eliminated or mitigated. For instance, an uneducated landlord who owns business premises may have the finances but may not have the knowledge or effort in ensuring that such premises is safe however evidence is needed to this defence of reasonably practicability. It is important to note that the duties (Moore and Selwyn 2015) under section 4 are not limited to persons who are at work. Section 4(1)(a) states that these duties are in relation to non-employees, which would protect the general public including children. For example, a person who controls childrens play centres, libraries, schools etc would still have a duty to ensure that such premises are safe and without risks to those who may be affected by the conduct of their undertaking. A case law example under a breach of section 4 is Mailer v Austin Rover Group Plc [1989] 2 ALL ER 1087, where an employee of a contractor was killed while working for Austin Rover. Austin Rover was charged for a breach of section 4 because it had total control of the premises and could have taken measures to prevent such fatality. Another example of a prosecution under section 4 is the case of Westminster City Council versus Select Management Ltd [1984] 1 ALL ER 994. This company managed blocks of flats in London and had control of the common areas such as lifts, staircase, and landings etc and failed to ensure that the lifts and electrical installations were safe and without risk to health and safety. SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SECTIONS 2, 3 AND 4 2.4.1 Sections 2 and 3 refer to the duties of the employer either towards their employees or non-employees. The employer has an obligation to ensure that the workplace is safe. Non-employers would be exempted from the duties under sections 2 and 3. Additionally, sections 2 and 3 create criminal offences for the employer if not complied with (R v Tangerine confectionery Ltd [2011] EWCA Crim 2015). A case law example is R versus Swan Hunter Shipbuilders [1981] ICR 831, where these companies were charged for breaching sections 2 and 3 of the HASAWA 1974. On the 25th of September 1976, a welder (an employee of Telemeter) went into a small compartment in the deck where a fire started the moment he started welding. The question that was raised (Barrett and Howells 1995) was whether the duties imposed on Swan hunter under sections 2 and 3 include to provide the employees of sub-contractors with information about the dangers of oxygen enriched atmosphere and secondly with instructions to ensure that safety of the workers on board, including the employees of Swan hunters and Telemeter. Figure 3 From the above diagram the relationship between Swan hunter and Telemeters is wide and the jury made emphasis that the duties under section 2 and 3 are wide enough to cover providing information and instruction to contractors and subcontractors as well. The precedent that was established in the above case law is the meaning of the phrase conduct of its undertaking in relation to the duties imposed on the employer in section 3 of the HASAWA 1974. With regards to undertaking, the welding job done by Telemeter was part of Swan hunters undertaking and therefore, failed to ensure the health and safety of persons not in its employment. Furthermore, section 2 is concerned with ensuring safety and section 3 is concerned with ensuring an absence of safety (Matthews and Ageros 2016) which mean the same thing. The level of safety in the workplace would be determined by what is reasonably foreseeable by the employer. Reasonably foreseeability is an important element in managing risks in the workplace. An example of a case law where foreseeability of risks played an important role in the judgement is R versus Tangerine Confectionery Ltd [2011] EWCA Crim 2015. In this case, the defendant was charged in breach of section 2 of HASAWA 1974 because an operator of machinery was crushed to death by a WD machine used in manufacturing sweets. The judge in R v Tangerine Confectionery Ltd [2011] EWCA Crim 2015 stated, Safety must be judged by what might be reasonably foreseen by a reasonable and prudent employer. The defendant stated that the accident was not foreseeable. The foreseeability of risk (R v Tangerine Confectionery Ltd [2011] EWCA Crim 2015) is only reasonably practicable if a reasonable person can foresee a material risk which is created by a plant, machinery or work-related activity. In this case, the foreseeability of an injury occurring with the use of the WD machine was obvious. However, the jury had no evidence that (R v Tangerine Confectionery Ltd [2011] EWCA Crim 2015) the foreseeability of the risks of this machine caused the accident because the machine had been used for thousands of hours without any accidents. Irrespective of the lack of evidence on foreseeability, the jury concluded that there was a foreseeable possibility that someone might get entangled in the arms of this machine (R v Tangerine Confectionery Ltd [2011 ] EWCA Crim 2015). The precedent that was established in the above case is the meaning of foreseeable risk. The risk has to be a material risk which a reasonable person can foresee to be a source of danger. Foreseeability of risks is relevant to the question whether a material risk to safety exists. That is why a risk assessment is an exercise in foresight. Sections 2 and 3 impose a duty on employers to ensure an absence of safety (R v Tangerine Confectionery Ltd [2011] EWCA Crim 2015) which makes them think deliberately about risks which are both obvious and not obvious. If an employer does not have the knowledge to enable him/her foresee risks, then it is his/her responsibility to employ a competent person such as a health and safety advisor to assist him in conducting an adequate risk assessment. Another example of a prosecution where foreseeability influenced the judgement is Regina v Pyranha Mouldings Ltd [2014] EWCA Crim 533. Pyranha Mouldings Ltd was prosecuted for a breach of section 2(1) of the HASAWA 1974 due to an incident which occurred on the 2nd of March 2011. This company manufactured plastic Kayaks and canoes which were shipped in shipping containers. On this particular day, the loader/ banksman Mark Malcom was crushed against the roof of container because the forklift driver could not see him. This company was prosecuted because the unsafe system of work had existed for over eighteen years without any risk assessment and lack of supervision of work. The jury stated that (R v Pyranha Mouldings Ltd [2014] EWCA Crim 533) the risk of serious injury or death was substantial and foreseeable but the company did nothing about it. The foreseeability in this case played an important role in the judgement and the elements of conviction for a breach of section 2(1) are that Pyranha mouldings was the employer of Mr Malcom (the injured worker) and the employer also failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare of Mr Malcom and other employees including the forklift driver Mr Kevin. The burden of proof rests on Pyranha Mouldings to show the Jury that it took all reasonably practicable steps to keep the workplace safe, which it failed to do therefore was guilty of the offence under section 2(1) of the HASAWA 1974 . Another similarity between sections 2 and 3 is that the duties (Matthews and Ageros 2016) imposed are personal and cannot be delegated. The employer and self-employed have full responsibility to ensure health and safety and have no defence that the duties were delegated to a member of staff who failed to ensure compliance. The difference between sections 2 and 3 (R v Tangerine Confectionery [2011] EWCA Crim 2015) is on the person to whom the obligation is owed. Section 2 creates an obligation towards employees while section 3 is towards non-employees or the general public who may be affected by that employers undertaking/ job activities. An example of a case law is Veola ES v The Queen [2011] EWCA Crim 2015), a refuse collection company that was sentenced for a breach of sections 2 and 3 of the HASAWA 1974. In this case, an employee Mr Griffiths was killed on a fast dual carriage way while collecting litter. The defendant argued that the accident had nothing to do with the operation of the defendants undertaking. The appeal was dismissed because the court did not have to prove causation of the accident. Causation of the accident (R v Tangerine Confectionery [2011] EWCA Crim 2015) was a matter of evidence but not an essential ingredient of the offence. An accident is enough evidence that a material risk existed and his employees health, safety and welfare were not ensured. Under sections 3 of the HASAWA 1974, it was the conduct of the defendants undertaking of litter collection which exposed the defendants non-employees to the accident (R v Tangerine Confectionery [2011] EWCA Crim 2015). Another similarity between sections 2, 3 and 4 is that the phrase so far as is reasonably practicable is being used, which means that these duties are not absolute. This phrase gives those obliged to fulfil their duties the freedom to weigh the risks versus the cost, in order to ensure that the workplace or premises is safe. What is reasonably practicable depends (R v Tangerine Confectionery [2011] EWCA Crim 2015) on degree of foreseeable risk of injury, the gravity of the injury if it occurs and the implications of the measures/ methods in avoiding it. An offence is committed under section 2 if the defendant cannot prove that all reasonably practicable steps have been taken to ensure that its employees are safe in the workplace. While under section 3, an offence is committed if there is a material risk to the health and safety of non-employees (R v Tangerine Confectionery [2011] EWCA Crim 2015) who may be affected by the employers undertaking and the defendant has not taken such steps as are reasonably practicable to avoid those risks. Under section 4, an offence is committed if the person in control of premises so far as is reasonably practicable has not ensured that such premises is safe and without risks to the health and safety of those who might be affected. Another similarity between sections 2 and 3 is that they both refer to the phrase in such cases as may be prescribed and in a prescribed circumstance and prescribed manner which gives an indication that the responsible person based on the situation would fulfil these duties in a particular way. Section 3 and 4 refer to the word undertaking. In section 3 the employer needs to ensure the health and safety of non-employees who may be affected by any risks arising from his work activities. Subsections 4(4) refers to the controllers business activities or undertaking which means that any work activity connected with such controller of premises need to be done in a safe manner. Sections 2(2)(d) and 4 have similarities, in that they both refer to the provision of safe access and exit from work premises, provided it is reasonably practicable to do it. These sections also refer to the extent of control which the employer or controller of such premises has. For example in the Swan Hunter Shipbuilders [1981 ICR 831] case, the issue of control was also raised. Another case example (Barret and Howells 1995) is that of Westminster City Council v Select Management Ltd [1985], where the appellant was in breach of section 4 of the HASAWA 1974 because it failed to ensure that the communal areas of a block of flats were safe. Subsection 2(2)(a) imposes duties on the employer to ensure that plants are safe and without risks to (Barret and Howells 1995) employees, which is similar to those duties under sections 4(2). ELEMENTS OF AN OFFENCE OF BREACHING THE DUTIES UNDER SECTION 2 In order for the jury to convict an employer for a breach of sections 2(1) the following elements would need to be proven; (Matthews and Ageros 2016) That the defendant was at the material time an employer That the defendant failed to ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees at work. A failure to ensure health and safety occurs when there is an exposure to a material risk to health and safety. The employee (Matthews and Ageros 2016) has to be at work for this to be applicable. This means that when the business is shut or closed for the day and there is no one at work then it is not applicable because no employees are exposed (Matthews and Ageros 2016). The employer would be guilty of a breach of section 2(1) unless it can prove that it was not reasonably practicable to minimise or eliminate the risk to the health, safety and welfare of its employees. Satisfying the test of reasonably practicability (Barret and Howells 1995) involves placing the risk on one scale and the sacrifices involved in taking the necessary measures for eliminating or mitigating the risk ( time, money, effort etc) being placed on the other scale. ELEMENTS OF AN OFFENCE OF BREACHING THE DUTIES UNDER SECTION 3 In order for an employer to be convicted for a breach of section 3(1) the burden of proof rests on the prosecutor to show the following; (Barret and Howells 1995) That the defendant at the material time was an employer That the defendant failed to conduct its undertaking in such a way as to ensure (Barret and Howells 1995) that persons not employed by the defendant who might be affected thereby were not exposed to material risks to their health and safety. AREAS OF CONTROVERSIES AND DIFFERENT INTERPRETATIONS OF THE DUTIES Some words and phrases relating to the duties under sections 2, 3 and 4 have been interpreted differently by different judges and have also created controversies in the court of law. Firstly, the HASAWA 1974 does not directly define the word employer but defines an employee to be someone who works under a contract of employment. Thus, an employer is a person who employs an employee. Therefore, if a person has no employees he/she is not an employer and does not owe a duty under section 3(1) but could be prosecuted under section 3(2) as a self-employed person. The fact that the act does not clearly define the word employer creates ambiguity in the court where someone may be regarded as an employer but no written contract of employment exists between such employer and the employee. This also creates another issue between the contract of employment and contract of service. For example, a small business may have a contract of service with a self-employed cleaner to clean their premises on a daily basis, but there is no contract of employment between them. Would the jury regard such a cleaner as an employee or a contractor? And would the employer still owe a duty under section 2? These questions could only be answered based on the situation and evidence. Moreover, there are companies which employ nobody under a written contract of service but engage a significant number of self-employed workers. In this case, a prosecution of such a company may be undertaken for a breach of sections 2(1) or sections 3(1) with the company alleged to be an employer (Matthews and Ageros 2016) through the extent of its control over those performing the work .For example, R versus Swan Hunter shipbuilder [1981] ICR 831 case. Another area of controversy under these duties is with the phrase exposed to risks to health and safety. It is important to note that an exposure to health and safety risks (Matthews and Ageros 2016) occurs where there is a possibility of danger and this does not require the danger to have occurred or any dangerous occurrence to have come to pass. In some prosecutions, the prosecutors argued that an accident or injury is sufficient evidence to prove that a material risk exists in the workplace. An example of a prosecution relating to this phrase (Barret and Howells 1995) is the case of R v Board of Trustees of the Science Museum[1993] 3 All ER 853 ,where the museum was in breach of section 3(1) because two of its cooling towers could possibly be containing legionella Pneumophila bacteria. The prosecutor stated (Barret and Howells 1995) that they did not have to prove that the members of the public actually inhaled the bacteria and that the word risk means the possibility of danger and not necessarily actual danger. Even where an injury has occurred, it may not be enough for the prosecutor to simply claim that the injury demonstrates that there was a risk. Where a prosecution is brought under section 3(1), it may be necessary to identify and prove the respects (Matthews and Ageros 2016) in which the injured person was liable to be affected by the way the defendant conducted its undertaking. Furthermore, could an employer be prosecuted under section 2 when no employee is at work? This is an area where prosecutors have debated over. For example, Bolton Metropolitan Borough Council versus Malrod Insulations Ltd [1993] ICR 358, where the prosecutor appealed on allegations made against an asbestos removal company called Malrod Insulations Ltd. This company was contracted to strip asbestos insulation from the premises of Ingesoll Rand Ltd. On the 21st of November 1989, the premises were inspected by the environmental health services of Bolton metropolitan Borough council. During this inspection, there were no employees at work and it was evident that the asbestos decontamination plant had electrical defects. The prosecutor took (Barret and Howells 1995) this case to court but at the end of the case, the recorder upheld a submission that there was no case to answer because in order for Malrod Insulations Ltd to be found guilty of the offence under section 2 of the HASAWA 1974, its employees had to be at work. The appellant argued (Barret and Howells 1995) that it is not the fact of men being at work while in the course of employment which creates the offence, but the HASAWA 1974 must protect the employees who would come to work the next day. In the above case, the interpretation of the employers duties seems ambiguous. In my opinion, section 2(1) states that the employer should ensure the health, safety and welfare of its employees at work and then section 2(2) lays down examples of how these duties can be carried out. However, (Moore and Selwyn 2015) it begins with the sentence without prejudice to the generality of the duties under the preceding subsection. Subsection 2(2)(a) states that the provision of safe plants is a requirement irrespective of whether or not employees are at work. Referring to the above case, the fact that such unsafe asbestos decontamination plant is within the place of work increases its likelihood of been used when workers resume work the following day. The employer could argue that such unsafe plants would undergo repairs before anyone is permitted to use the