Why numbers matter Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Why numbers matter - Essay Example The principles concerned with managing money are important to be taken into account while planning to save or invest money somewhere. To discuss and understand these principles, an article from Msnbc The Bottom Line dated November 06, 2011, ‘After steadying, home prices begin falling again’ has been taken into account which entails the scenario of the United States’ real estate industry. The author of the article tells about the falling prices of homes in the United States which were on a steady trend in the summer of 2011. He says that due to the imbalance between demand and supply, there are numerous houses unsold in many states of the US until the end of September 2011. This price fall is being observed by investors and analysts and they are waiting for these to be bottomed that is a rise is being expected after massive falls, though not in the short term. Considering the poor interest rates of US short term Treasury Bills; 0.005% for 3-months and 0.035% for 6-month bills as per the recent auction; this investment aspect has been kept on a farer side by many investors as the rate of return is minimal. Considering this point, other investment opportunities should be searched for. This shows that it is a nice time to buy some lower priced houses and benefit from the capital gains arising in the future, though not in the short term (Schoen, 2011). Taking control of finances is very crucial and an investor should read about some financial trends using mathematical concepts such as percentages and shares in different investments and then take calculated actions. This leads to the understanding of the compounding concept. Just as an investor determines the amount of investment he or she can do, he must take into account the related rate of return and use it to compound his or her future inflows from the investment over the concerned time period. The simple formula for it to be calculated is: Amount of investment * (1 +

Learners' perceptions about listening comprehension problems, Dissertation

Learners' perceptions about listening comprehension problems, strategies and teachers' solutions to improve students' list - Dissertation Example Additionally, the study establishes that learners encounter a range of listening problems, which can be overcome through various techniques that help learners to utilize effective strategies in confronting them; nevertheless, this literature observes that learners’ perceptions of their listening problems may or may not be valid because several factors may interact to influence their perceptions. This literature makes a clear distinction between listening and comprehension processes with the former requiring no interpretation or reaction to the text while the latter requires the meaningful interactive activity to facilitate understanding of the text. In the context of this research, listening comprehension refers to the manner in which listeners discriminate and construe meaning from information that they receive through their auditory and visual clues to make sense of the communication process. This perspective of listening comprehension is in line with the Second language app roach, according to which listening to verbal language is both a vigorous and intricate process, requiring learners to pay particular attention to selected areas of audio, to make meaning, as well as relate what they hear to their mind frames. Hamouda (2012) argues that, despite its profound significance in foreign language learning, listening has long been ignored in foreign language acquisition, research, teaching, and assessment especially given the little focus on listening problems encountered by L2/F1 learners in listening to spoken English. This literature reports findings from a study that investigates the listening problems experienced by a group of first year English Major Students of Qassim University, which include accent, pronunciation, speed of speech, insufficient vocabulary, different accents of the speakers, poor concentration, anxiety, and bad quality of recording. Knowing the various difficulties learners encounter in listening comprehension is paramount in EFL te aching because it enables EFL teachers to guide learners in developing effective learning strategies that will eventually enhance their English listening competence. Listening plays a very significant role in communication because it enables listeners to take in new ideas and information from discourses; listening takes a lion’s share of the total time spent on communication and it is central to students’ educational development because it is the most frequently used language skill in the classroom. EFL learners have major problems in English listening comprehension because educators overemphasize English grammar, reading, and vocabulary competence areas at the expense of listening skills in EFL teaching courses. This literature suggests that adapting and improving listening materials, and improving teachers' classroom techniques on the part of the teachers, in addition to, improving English proficiency, and improving listening strategies on the side of the students ca n help alleviate the various listening comprehension problems. Graham (2006) explores the perceptions of English students between the age of 16 to18 concerning listening comprehension in French; in addition to that, this literature also examines the students’ viewpoints on the influences that result to either success or failure in listening comprehension assignments. According to this study, a substantial proportion of students in the higher levels of education rate their competence in