In a world where financial landscapes are constantly evolving, understanding the intricacies of finance becomes not just an asset but a necessity. This book, encompassing a wide range of financial topics, is crafted to demystify the complex world of finance for learners, enthusiasts, and professionals alike. Each lesson in this book is designed as a standalone module, allowing readers to dive into topics at their own pace and according to their interests. Starting with the "Fundamentals of Financial Planning," we lay the groundwork for sound financial understanding. As we progress, topics like "Digital Banking and Online Finance" and "The Role of Technology in Modern Finance" explore the digital revolution reshaping the financial sector. We delve into specific markets with lessons on "Stock Market Indices," "Real Estate Investment Basics," and "Commodities Trading," offering insights into different investment avenues. The book also addresses critical issues such as "Financial Consumer Protection" and "Cybersecurity in Financial Transactions," emphasizing the importance of security in the digital age. Global financial mechanisms are unraveled in lessons like "Understanding the International Monetary Fund (IMF)" and "Global Trade Financing," providing a macroeconomic perspective essential for grasping international finance. The chapters on "The Rise of Cryptocurrencies" and "History of Ethereum" bring readers to the forefront of modern financial innovation, while "Understanding the OneCoin Scam and Scandal" and "Understanding Pyramid Schemes in Finance" serve as cautionary tales highlighting the importance of vigilance in investments. For entrepreneurs, "Financial Literacy for Entrepreneurs" and "Starting and Growing Your Business: Financial Strategies for Entrepreneurs" offer practical guidance on managing and growing a business effectively. We also explore economic systems and government policies in chapters like "Understanding the Communist Economic System" and "Understanding the Cuban Government and Economic System." As we approach the culmination of this journey, "Jobs That May Disappear Due to AI in the Future" and "Understanding the Possibility of a Global Financial Collapse" prompt readers to think about the future of finance and its challenges. This book is more than just a collection of financial lessons; it's a guide to navigating the ever-changing currents of the financial world. Whether you're a student, a professional, or simply curious about finance, these pages are designed to enlighten and empower you in your financial journey.
Backgroud and the state of the art This research focuses on the development of content and teaching strategies that encourage the acquisition of Spoken Arabic. Because of the focus on a speech-oriented approach, interaction, listening, and comprehension are identified as key skills, as well as basics for building a command of Arabic in non-native speakers.
Neglecting all the above considerations, the majority of Arabic teachers introduce early on the study of the classical variant (or standard or formal), starting from elementary levels. They likely without notice commit a procedural and pragmatic mistake.
Ryding claimed that Arabic studies have been giving preference to a 'reverse privileging' in the variety of Arabic to teach. Priority has been given to the standard variant, which is used for the secondary functions of the language. We rather need to accord a privileged place to Spoken Arabic, for it is useful in familiar primary functions. Many scholars like Wahba, Younes, Palmer, and Chouairi have stated that teaching MSA does a disservice to students, in the sense it that does not equip them with basic tools for a minimal communicative competence. As a consequence, the instructors who refuse to adapt their practice to this new orientation , explicitly reject the achievement of pragmatic competence goals and do not abide by the requirements posed by the European Council, for example, in term of ?performance? and ?know how?.
Alosh invited to help students in achieving ?minimum performance standards?. This ?minimum? can be reached through precise planning, setting in advance a specific sequence to cover all the required aspects for skill development. Grammar is not addressed directly, but constitutes organizational criteria for the linguistic elements to be learned.
Instructional development and design (IDD) in general must give priority to training and exposure to the language at stake, which is constituted by a number of informal Arabics. Like native speakers, nonnatives too should begin to interact in a daily register, avoiding recurrence to the standard register (MSA). Then, with conversation and interaction becoming less concrete, they may experiment with the formal language, at a later stage.
This project takes into account the data collected in 2016 from a survey of students? opinion, as already mentioned. It emerged that instruction in Arabic begs a total renovation in the field. The profile of a student of Arabic corresponds to a person that in the near future will be employed in linguistic mediation with migrants, interpretation at city hospitals, or in tourism and leisure related sectors. Not one of the cited environments suggests that standard Arabic would be the more suitable variety used in interaction. In practice, the Arabic we come in contact with is the language found in informal specific micro-settings, and I am referring to the chances of practicing it in Europe or Western countries.
Job description: methodology and results Conceptually, the thesis is divided into two sections, one for theory and one for practice. The analysis starts with some fundamentals related to Arabic language and teaching (1), including the most prominent arguments (2) both for pro and against standard Arabic and spoken Arabic. The teaching of Arabic, specifically, is analyzed both in terms of needs (3), and teaching strategies and content (4). As a further proof of the my action-oriented approach, two chapters are dedicated to the gathering of information from students (5) about the teaching/learning of Arabic, and the presentation of some relevant findings (6). This data was obtained in 2016, by submitting a questionnaire to learners enrolled in four public universities (Sapienza, Cadiz, Florence, Leipzig) of three different countries.
Here ends the section dedicated to theory. The second part is dedicated to teaching practice, and contains concrete proposals to be implemented during class activity, such as the definition of precise teaching techniques (7). These are separately detailed for the development of the various skills such as pronunciation, writing and reading, listening and understanding, conversation and interaction. With the aim of creating a feasible and credible proposal, I summarized in ?Teaching Observations? the most relevant didactic practices I observed in Texas (8) and Beirut (9). I included those observation in my thesis as an additional reference for further explanation of the orientation of my project. Finally, chapter 10 provides a detailed sequence for teaching and its contents, intended as requirements to meet for an effective instruction centered on spoken Arabic. It consists of four Syllabi corresponding to four urban variants of Arabic (Lebanese, Omani, Moroccan, Egyptian), each made of several modules (about 35). These modules, which also result from research in the field, exemplify both the contents and the mechanisms to be adopted in class in order to facilitate the so-called activation and fixation steps of the learning process. My primary concern was to create an instrument that could guide teacher activity, without binding their creativity too much. I preferred for this reason a schematic drafting, still subject to enrichment with additional materials on a case-by-case basis. The Syllabi are to be considered an essential guide, subject to re-negotiation after having received and evaluated a first feedback from the class. There is not a perfect receipt for an instructional design and development, yet taking practice as a reference and observing different teaching practices provides great insight both at the planning and implementation level.
This thesis ends with a concrete proposal for teaching: the four Syllabi. They represent the tangible conclusion of my investigation, moreso than any other discourse. The syllabi provide a precise instructional sequence and include the contents and linguistic structures to be addressed during class time, together with a selection of drills that trigger the activation and fixation of the target content. The methodology consists of many techniques: from the flipped-classroom to task-based learning; on one side; the trifold partition of every lesson into preparation-activation-fixation as well as the fish&feed method on the other. According to the structure of my dissertation, divided into two parts, the results are also separated into theory and practice.
On the theoretical level, I attempt to get out of ambiguity, taking a strong position in favor of the teaching of Spoken Arabic, as a priority. I provided many arguments and opinions to support this claim and to explain why spoken Arabic plays a crucial role since the first steps of teaching.
On the practical level, I elaborated the mentioned syllabi, one for each urban variant considered, to serve as a guide for the teacher.
My greatest aspiration remains to refine the techniques, methods, and contents for the teaching of Arabic, both with further research and occasions for discussion.
Given the increasing popularity amongst mainland European higher educational institutions to offer some of their classes and courses in English, this paper addresses the roles English plays in such classroom discourse. By focussing on one specific English-medium hotel management programme, it is argued that English functions, on the one hand, as language of the learners' future expertise and, on the other, as their only shared medium of communication, i.e., their lingua franca. A detailed analysis of question-initiated exchanges taken from critical phases throughout the programme accompanied over its whole duration illustrates the realities of this multifunctionality of English as revealed in teachers and students raising, and responding to, different kinds of question at different points in time. On the basis of these discourse-pragmatic findings it is suggested that (language) learning processes depend in their complexity and dynamics on English in its roles as lingua franca and as professional language, but also on how these roles are conceptuald within a generally content-focussed teaching programme.1 IntroductionEspecially in the European context, 'Bologna' has become almost synonymous with 'internationalising tertiary educational institutions'. The structurally clearest consequence is most likely the three-level architecture of study programmes into bachelor/master/doctorate, but an arguably equally obvious result is the burgeoning use of English as medium of instruction at universities in mainland Europe, which have had a tradition in lecturing in the respective national language. This popularity of university teaching in English is fuelled by internationalisation on two levels: as regards the exchange of information, i.e. academic knowledge and thought, and of lecturers and students as relevant social agents.Understandably, this recent development of offering study programmes or, at least, individual classes in English, has attracted a considerable amount of applied linguistic research interest (e.g. Wachter and Maiworm, 2008; Wilkinson, 2004; Wilkinson and Zegers, 2007). As regards the micro-level of the classroom language itself, the conceptual frame tends to be the one of English for specific purposes (ESP). Put somewhat crudely, it pictures and describes classroom discourse in relation to language norms established either in works of language codification or by the expert community of the specialisation in question (e.g. Fortanet-Gomez & Raisanen, 2008). This underlying prescriptive orientation seems compatible with the educational setting at stake and its central focus on formal learning. Inspired by the modelling of primary and secondary education in an additional language as 'CLIL' (content and language integrated learning), the learning process is argued to include the respective knowledge content area as well as the additional language used (Coyle, Hood and Marsh, 2010), giving it the label 'integrating content and language in higher education' (ICLHE) (Wilkinson and Zegers, 2007). In other words, English as classroom language is modelled as object of learning itself.While such a conceptualisation has its clear merits - the range and variety of publications and their insights provide ample proof of that - the emphasis placed on ESP arguably sidelines the fact that English has yet another function, and at that a very crucial one. In view of the internationalisation of academia in research and teaching it is used as the multilingual social actors' common medium of communication, which permits direct exchange of information and construction of knowledge across language borders. In other words, English is the lecturers' and students' lingua franca (e.g. Bjorkman, 2009; Smit, 2010a). Recently, research into ELF has been booming, resulting in an impressive array of findings and insights with the underlying endeavour to describe English as it is used in communication, rather than in contrast with what ought to be the case in comparison with norms and expectations, reflecting language learning outcomes. …
This book provides an overview of the principles used by policy makers in western industrialized countries as they seek to meet the educational needs of cultural and linguistic minorities as diverse as Australian aboriginal peoples, resident foreign workers in Western Europe and Francophone minorities in Canadian provinces. This is a synthesis of information gathered in more than 30 national case studies and consultants' reports prepared for an OECD-sponsored study entitled: Finance, Organisation and Governance of Education for Special Populations. Drawing on this data, the author shows that current policies fit within a relatively simple framework of development by stages, each stage determined by the assumptions used in defining the educational problem to be solved. At the lower end of the scale, methods are borrowed from special education of the mentally retarded; at the upper end, the minorities are treated as equals or near equals in mature bilingual and multilingual nations such as Finland or Switzerland. The emphasis is on showing how policy makers grapple with tradeoffs to determine the best policy mix, such as between centralization and decentralization or between financial incentive schemes and direct regulation, in order to ensure adequate educational services for the minorities. The entire analytical framework is shown to fit within an integrated model linking minority aspirations, public attitudes and governmental policy responses.