Immigration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Immigration - Essay Example African countries have been the world’s leading source of immigrants for centuries. As Okome (2005) states, the ceaseless civil wars, communal riots, famine and military sabotage in African countries including Ethiopia, Nigeria, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra have been providing the world with thousands of refugees every year. Among these, a major portion is accommodated by the US. Nigerian civil war, Somalia conflict, Liberian civil war and the Eritrean-Ethiopian war also caused intense immigration to western countries and to the US (Okome, 2005). Since religious and ethnic conflicts have increased more than ever before, people in many parts of the world are under the threat of anytime forced migration. In other words, ‘ethnically and politically divided states, unstable and corrupt governments and political systems, and dictatorships, lack of civility, increased lawlessness’ (Cox & Pawar (2005 p.277), are the major causes of forced migration. In addition, certain environmental factors also cause massive migration in various parts of the world. For instance, natural phenomena such as sea level rise, hurricanes and typhoons, drought, wildfire, heat waves, volcanoes, and earthquakes make millions of people ecological refugees every year. Furthermore, governments’ infrastructure projects such as building of dams, roads or tourist resorts often demand forced migration. World Bank estimates that 90 million people were displaced in the 1990s as a result of infrastructure projects (Digby B, 2001p.167). Therefore a few causes of immigration such as globalization, financial policies, and infrastructure modification are closely associated with global change. The recent developments like globalization and the subsequent economic growth and downfalls also contributed to the extraordinary level of migration. Obviously, Globalization exposed a new world of opportunities to the people of African Continent and

The Serena Group and Its Personnel System Assignment

The Serena Group and Its Personnel System - Assignment Example The group has approximately five thousand employees working in various departments. For efficiency of service, the industry has various departments where employees are deployed (Tanke, 2009). In its operation, the industry operates under Tourism Promotion Service (TPS). The industry has three major departments: food and beverage, accommodations, and travel and tourism. These departments are managed by the general manager. Executive committees are under the general manager. These are the Executive Housekeeper, Front office manager, food and beverage manager, chief engineer controller, room division manager, chief chef, personnel manager and marketing manager. These staff members work congruently in all the branches. Below the executive committees are the heads of different sections. These are the restaurant managers, room service manager, banquet manager, security guest relation accountant, horticulturist preventive maintenance manager, cashier, reservation manager stewards, laundry m anager and the bar manager. All these employees work in ensuring that their customers get the best services. Â  Although the industry has exceptionally shown outstanding performance, it has internal challenges that are facing. One of the distinct challenges is the high turnover ratio. Most of the employees lay off their duties haphazardly due to the nature of the work they do or for other reasons. Although every workplace has its challenges, hospitalities industries, more so, Serena group has high turnover rates due to the following: Â  Most of the luxury hotels, if not all, depending on the tourists and travelers for their operation. As the tourists travel across the continents, they exploit on these luxurious hotels for their meals, accommodations and stay.

Defining Collaborative Planning Forecasting And Replenishment Commerce Essay

Defining Collaborative Planning Forecasting And Replenishment Commerce Essay In manufacturing and retail, poor inventory control can lead to overstocking as a result of bad forecasting, this over stocking is called buffer inventory or safety stock which can lead to waste and inefficiency. In 1996 about $700 of the $2.3 trillion retail supply chain inventory was in safety stock. That is, almost 30% was tied up due to waste and inefficiency.(Lambert, Stock, 2001) Collaborative Planning, Forecasting and Replenishment (CPFR), is a business process using an internet based business model, as shown in figure 1. This model takes a holistic approach to information exchange and supply chain management between trading partners, by using a standard set of business processes in order to improve supply chain efficiencies, and is seen as a replacement to the old approach of electronic data interchange (EDI) (Fliedner, 2003). The objective of CPFR is to share data on a central web server that all of the trading partners can access to enable a more reliable forecast for long term future demand in the supply chain, this eliminates the problems associated with EDI such as: supply partners manually entering identical data in their records (Joachim, 1998), and the EDI process typically being done in batch transfers which can further add to delays in information (Cooke, 1998) etc. History of CPFR CPFR began in 1995 with the company Wal-Mart and was originally called C-FAR for collaborative forecasting and replenishment. The acronym has evolved into CPFR standing for collaborative planning, forecasting and replenishment. Wal-Mart found that the pharmaceutical company Warner-Lamberts in-stock averages were not up to par with Wal-Marts vendor performance standards. Wal-Mart, along with Warner-Lambert, Surgency (formerly Benchmarking Partners), and two software companies, SAP and Manugistics, launched an effort to define a process that would link customer demand with replenishment needs through the entire supply chain. The pilot focused on stock of Listerine mouthwash kept in stores. The group first tested the collaborative concept on paper, and then demonstrated in a computer lab that the Internet could be used for the information exchange. The results of the test were: Warner-Lamberts in-stock averages rose from 87% to 98%. Lead times dropped from 21 to 11 days, and sales increased by $8.5 million over the test period-even though the pilot was limited to one Warner-Lambert manufacturing plant and three Wal-Mart distribution centres. (free-logistics.com, 2010) Case study: West Marine Today West Marine is the largest boating-supply retail chain in the United States, with a product range of more than 50,000 products selling throughout more than 400 company owned retail stores, as well as their retail catalogue, generating annual average sales of $690 million. The company was founded in 1968 by Randy Repass as a mail-order firm selling to boating enthusiasts, and opened its first retail store in Palo Alto, California in 1975, three years later, the company created a separate sales channel to commercial customers such as boat yards and boat dealers. In 1997 West Marine a 73 store operation at the time acquired one of their East Coast competitors, EB Marine a 63 store operation. The consequences of the acquisition became quickly apparent: Sales fell by almost 8 percent, and peak-season out-of-stock levels raised more than 12 percent compared to the prior year, and after six years of steady growth, net income dropped from $15 million in 1997 to just over $1 million in 1998. (Highbeam Research, 2006) The main contributing factor of this was that following the transaction, West Marine discovered that internal EB operations were in worse condition than expected. The investment group that had been running EB had let the companys infrastructure deteriorate and inventories dwindle. This further compounded the acquisition by adding to the problem that it took six months to implement the most basic of systems integration due to the poor infrastructure, leading to stock outs within the stores. West Marines first impulsive reaction was to rebrand all the EB stores convert them to West Marines products and pricing, West Marines CEO John Edmondson (who was brought in after the acquisition to execute a company turn around) said regarding the acquisition, West Marine bought EB because it was different and unique. Then, they turned all the stores into West Marine stores and locked out the customer base. Adding to this Bruce Edwards (West Marines senior VP of store operations) said, We created a lot of damage to both chains, as well as losing ground on comparable sales as a combined organization. (Standford, Graduate School of Business, 2005) How West Marine Turned the Company Around In order to turn the company around after the acquisition Edmondson identified four supply chain problem areas: the distribution centres (DCs), transportation, replenishment, and the systems supporting these operations; his solution to these problems was to implement a CPFR programme. The first thing as part of West Marines CPFR programme was implement an aggregate ordering or multi-echelon replenishment process. A multi-echelon system is defined as A series of two or more production or supply facilities where any change in policy parameters of one facility affects the other facilities, either directly or indirectly.(Gopalakrishnan, 2004). According to (Standford, Graduate School of Business, 2005) prior to the implementing of the multi echelon system West Marine were using JDAs Merchandise Management System (MMS). The MMS was interfaced with the companys point-of-sale system in the stores (also provided by JDA) to keep track of basic inventory levels and product sales at the store level. West Marine also used JDAs Warehouse Management System (WMS) as the software engine for its distribution centre (DC) operations. As well as these systems West Marine also made use of JDAs advanced forecasting tools, both Advanced Store Replenishment (ASR) and Advanced Warehouse Replenishment (AWR). The problem with these systems was that while they were good on their own, none of the systems had the ability to directly interact with each other leading to extensive duplicate work and maintenance. At the time no software provider offered a fully integrated solution, it was left to West Marine as well as Matt Henderson a systems engineer and integrator from the San-Francisco based software company Amigo Inc. to design a system that integrated linkages between the point of sale systems to the DC systems. The system they designed was the first true multi echelon system in the retail sector. (bisg.org, 2005)The way in which West Marine implemented their multi echelon replenishment solution was to integrate data from the retail stores and warehouses with relation to seasonal forecasts, promotions and stock levels, enabling suppliers to deliver more accurate, on time orders to satisfied customer demands. West Marines multi-echelon replenishment solution resolves the store-warehouse disconnect. Warehouse replenishment immediately responds to all store-level overstocks and understocks. Similarly, all promotions and store level assortment changes are planned in the store system, and warehouse replenishment immediately responds to them. The solution eliminates duplicate forecasting tasks and creates more accurate supplier-order forecasts. (Reed Business Information, 2006) The West Marine multi echelon system is shown in figure 2. C:UsersAmyElizabethDesktopSCM0654WESTERN2.gif SUPPLIER INTERGRATION The next problem that West Marine encountered was to get its suppliers to buy into the idea of CPFR. In order to address this problem West Marine introduced a pilot program with 12 handpicked companies that were major suppliers to West Marine, that all had previous issues with their supply chains in some form. To these companies West Marine laid out specific performance levels and expected goals, although no formal written agreements were created each company was expected to comply to the performance standards. For the suppliers that joined West Marines supply pilot there was no capital investment outlay in technology, they were only required to designate recourses to act as counterparts to West Marines supply chain merchandise planners. With this set in place West Marine began sharing its forecasts on a weekly basis with its vendors, as a weekly update report on vendor performance. There was also the introduction of weekly meetings with cross functional teams made up of members from all the organisations involved, in order to discuss potential improvements as well as to maintain a holistic integrated perspective on each vendor relationship. The results of the CPFR programme were; in stock rates at the stores came close to the goal of 96 percent in every store, even during peak season. Forecast accuracy climbed to approximately 85 percent. On-time shipments, on the other hand, were improving but only reached 30 percent against a stated goal of 90 percent in 2002. However, West Marine expected them to climb to at least 50 percent by the end of 2003. (Standford, Graduate School of Business, 2005). Even after the pilot programme with the evidence to back up that CPFR works, West Marine still had problems getting supplies to buy into the CPFR programme, West Marines solution to this was to offer its suppliers an incentive in the form of a guarantee. This guarantee was that based on the forecasts, West Marine promised to purchase one hundred percent of the forecasted stock. This meant that if there were any errors in the system, then West Marine would bear the brunt as a result. It was this action that was responsible for convincing and instilling vendor trust in West Marines CPFR forecasts. The knock on effects of having the suppliers buy into West Marines CPFR programme were that the company were able to use their demand forecasts to stream line their shipping and receiving activities. The forecasts enabled West Marine to maximise efficiency in its inbound and out bound shipments and to use its dock space more effectively, in turn allowing West Marine to smooth demand spikes. Conclusion In conclusion as the evidence shows in both the Wal-Mart pilot programme and the West Marine case study CPFR is a powerful logistics stock forecasting tool http://www.free-logistics.com/index2.php?option=com_docmantask=doc_viewgid=268Itemid=26 http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-145836210.html http://www.lomag-man.org/cpfr_industrie_achat_distribution/documentation_cpfr/WestMarineA_CPFRSuccStorySupChManReManNet_an.pdf http://www.stanford.edu/group/scforum/Welcome/White%20Papers/Multi-Echelon%20Inventory%20Optimization%20-%20Evant%20white%20paper.pdf Gopalakrishnan, P., 2004. Handbook of Materials Management, Prentice-Hall of India Pvt.Ltd http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:1UbbYNftcc8J:www.bisg.org/docs/West_Marine_Case_GS-34_FINAL_092704.doc+matt+henderson+amigo+inc+cpfrcd=2hl=enct=clnkgl=uksource=www.google.co.uk

Essay --

BRASS MASTERS, INC. â€Å"Serving your brass needs since 1950† February 26, 2014 Ms. Sabrina Nilufar Talbot Laboratories, Inc. 104 South Wright Street Urbana, IL 61801-2958 Dear Ms. Nilufar, I am pleased to report that the testing of your brass wedges is complete. You will find included a summary of our findings along with charts and micrographs of our results. A full laboratory report is available upon request. You are free to use these results as needed and to publish them as documentation for your finished brass products. Four brass wedges were tested. Two were cold rolled to a thickness of 5.0 mm and two were cold rolled to a thickness of 2.5 mm. One wedge of each thickness was then annealed for 1 hour at 350  °C. Because the wedges varied in thickness across the length, multiple cold work values were able to be recorded. Hardness and thickness measurements were taken before and after the cold rolling and after the annealing as shown in Figure 1. Generally, as cold work increased, hardness increased. As the wedges were rolled, the width slightly increased and the length significantly i...

Human Resource Management Essay

Introduction The new trend in human resource management is strategic human resource management. It is gaining popularity edging out the traditional human resource management. Strategic human resource is critical to the success of any organization because it is management that is tied to achievement of the broader goals and the objectives of the organization. Strategic human resource gives the firm competitive advantage in the industry within which it operates as it boosts the productivity of labor, which is oriented towards the long term, and short-term goals of the organization. In pursuit of strategic human resource management there is an obvious consequence, which is attainment of competitive strategies and improved firm performance. This is so because the essence of strategic management is its ability to influence the employee to develop an attitude that leads the organization into competitive edge and productivity. A firm cannot obtain growth and expansion which strategy that facilitates ope rations towards the objective. 3.1 Identify a range of HR strategies for an organization There are a range of human resource strategies that are adopted by organizations in order to improve their business performance and their competitive strategies. First and foremost, the organization has resourcing strategy which ensures that the management puts in place proper human resource planning, maintains high retention rate of employees, and harness the immense talents of employees to the betterment of the organization. Secondly, there is the learning and development strategy which aims to give employees platform to engage in further training and career development. The other strategic human resource strategy is reward strategy. This strategy ensures that the employees are paid remuneration which is equal to the effort they put in the organization. Finally there is employee relation strategy which helps to ensure there is good rapport between management and employee. The employee relation strategy is achieved through having various communication channel and sound conflict reso lution mechanisms (Legge, 2005 P.154). 3.2 Assess HR strategies and their application in an organization Each organization exists in a unique industry and it is therefore prudent that each of the human resource strategies are applied uniquely depending on the industry. Industry such as manufacturing and construction industry are such that it is easy to measure employees input by physically looking at the work they have done over a given period of time. It is therefore easier for the management of the organizations in those industries to adopt reward strategy. This strategy ensures that the employees are paid remuneration which is equal to the effort they put in the organization, on the other hand, in most service industry such consultancy services it is not easy to measure employees input since input can only be assessed in terms of clients’ satisfaction (Price, 2011 P.89). Quantify client satisfaction and tying it to pay for employee is therefore almost impossibility. Other strategies are largely uniform across several organizations with only slight differences and hence they ar e applicable across organizations in different industries. 4. Identify contemporary issues affecting strategic human resource management Strategic human resource management is very dynamic and keeps changing because better approaches to the concept are realized frequently. The  dynamism that has characterized strategic human resource is driven by the fact that organizations wants to increase their competitive edge and boost their performance in the organizations within which they operate. The major contemporary issue that influences strategic management is globalization. All firms want to expand and grow into new markets to increase their revenues. In achieving this they must strategically direct the efforts of employees toward this objective. The other contemporary issue is downsizing. Firms usually are operated with profitability incentive they must therefore have cost cut measures to reduce expenses and enhance receipts (Scholes & Johnson, 2007 p.69). Downsizing offers the best option to cost cutting because salaries constitute a lion’s share of organizations’ expenses. The management is therefore forced to retrench some its workers in a bid to realize profitability. Automation of systems is yet another contemporary issue affecting organizations’ strategic human resource management. Automation compels organization to ensure that their employees are knowledgeable in as far as technology is concerned. Installing system in organization is not any easy fete to achieve, it involves a lot of costs to procure the software and hardware components for the system. The other challenge is that it is time consuming because a lot of procedures have to be followed in integrating a system to the organization. The most challenging part of a management system is managing the system and its associated risks. The first risk is that the employees who are supposed to be part and parcel of such a system may refuse to embrace because they may not fully understand how such a system would be beneficial to them. The human resource team should therefore rise to the occa sion by finding ways and means of influencing the employees to embrace such system within their ranks (Sharma 2011 p.48). Conclusion . Strategic human resource is critical to the success of any organization because it is management that is tied to achievement of the broader goals and the objectives of the organization. Strategic human resource gives the firm competitive advantage in the industry within which it operates as it boosts the productivity of labor which is oriented towards the long term and short term goals of the organization. In order to achieve this daunting task human resource management is responsible for several strategic functions such as recruitment, motivation of workers, designing job analysis, making of remuneration and other non-financial packages to employees, as well as facilitating staff training and development. References Armstrong, M. & Baron, A. (2004) Managing performance: Performance Management in Action. London: CIPD. P.136 Bamberger, P. & Meshoulam, H. (2000).Human Resource Strategy: Formulation, Implementation and Impact. Sage Publishers, p.254 Bechet, T. P. (2008). Strategic Staffing: A Comprehensive System for Effective Workforce Planning. New York: AMACOM, p.145 Cox, W. & Klinger, E. (2011) Handbook of Motivational Counseling: Goal-Based Approaches to Assessment and Intervention with Addiction and Other Problems, Wiley & Sons p.125 Goodstein J. (2009) A Practical Guide to Job Analysis, John Willey and Sons pp. 68 Griffin, W. & Moorhead, G. (2011) Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations, Cengage learning, p.32 Henry A. (2008) Understanding Strategic Management, Oxford University Press pp. 51 Legge, K. (2005) Human Resource Management Rhetoric and Realities, London: Palgrave Macmillan, p.154 Price A. (2011) Human Resource Management, Cengage Learning, p.89 Scholes, K. & John son, G. (2007) Explaining Corporate Strategy, Hempstead: Prentice Hall, p.69 Sharma K. (2011) Human Resource Management: Strategic Approach to Employment, Global India publications p. 48 ASSIGNMNET 2 Executive summary Strategic human resource is critical to the success of any organization because it is management that is tied to achievement of the broader goals and the objectives of the organization. The report analyses how British Airways has adopted different strategies in strategic human resource management to achieve competitive strategies and improved firm performance. The reports also put into perspective the impact of merger between British Airways and Iberia on strategic HRM at British Airways Overview of British Airways The company commenced business in the 1974 after the successful merger of BOAC and BEA. It was owned by the state until 1987 when it undergone privatization. Up to date British Airways is the leading airline is UK flying over 400 destinations across the world through both its freight and passenger business. The company decided to merge with Iberia a Spanish Airline in order to produce synergies and as cost cutting measure through economies of scale. Task 1: Human resource strategies and their application to British Airways There are a range of human resource strategies that are adopted by British Airways in order to improve their business performance and their competitive strategies. First and foremost, the organization has resourcing strategy which ensures that the management puts in place proper human resource planning, maintains high retention rate of employees, and harness the immense talents of employees to the betterment of the airline. Learning and development strategy which aims to give employees platform to engage in further training and career development is equally applicable to British Airways. Several roles at the airline such as pilot and aeronautical engineer require immense skills and experience and as such the strategy ensures that employees attain this standard (Scholes & Johnson, 2007 p.69). The other strategic human resource strategy applicable to British Airways is reward strategy. This strategy ensures that the employees are paid remuneration which is equal to the effort they put in the organization. By adopting this reward strategy employees at British Airways are driven by reward incentive to increase their productivity consequently earning the airline more business performance in terms of profitability and revenues. Finally there is employee relation strategy which helps to ensure there is good rapport between management and employee. British Airways can achieve employee relation strategy through having various communication channel and sound conflict resolution mechanisms. Task 2: Impact of merger between British Airways and Iberia on strategic HRM at British Airways The merger between British Airways and Iberia has had tremendous impact on strategic human resource management of British Airways. The merger was driven by the fact that organizations wants to increase their competitive edge and boost their performance in the organizations within which they operate. Through the merger the Airline hoped to increase its global presence by increasing its flights to the over 400 dest inations that it had before the merger. Globalization through merging with Iberia ensures that the airline now under the holding company, International Airlines Group (IAG) expands and grows  into new markets to increase its revenues. In achieving this they must strategically direct the efforts of employees toward this objective. The other impact of the merger is downsizing. (Henry, 2008 p.51) says that downsizing offers the best option to cost cutting because salaries constitute a lion’s share of organizations’ expenses. The management is therefore forced to retrench some its workers in a bid to realize profitability. British Airline after the merger embarked on an elaborate cost cutting measure; this involved reducing their costs by a whopping  £400 million in five years, one major way of achieving this would involve downsizing the workforce. The other impact of the merger is that the business adopted a new model. Installing system in organization is not any easy fete to achieve, it involves a lot of costs to procure the software and hardware components for the system. The most challenging part of a management system is managing the system and its associated risks. The first risk is that the employees who are supposed to be part and parcel of such a system may refuse to embrace because they may not fully understand how such a system would be beneficial to them (Armstrong & Baron, 2004 p.123). The human resource team should therefore rise to the occasion by finding ways and means of influencing the employees to embrace such system within their ranks. The management of the International Airlines Group (IAG) decided to train 900 of British Airways staff and 4000 of Iberia staff on various aspect of this new business model Conclusion International Airlines Group (IAG) has no choice but to restructure its human capital by implementing the strategic needs of this factor of production to allow the firm a competitive edge in the industry. The management of IAG needs to integrate all the strategies of strategic human resource management to ensure that the employees are influenced towards achieving the strategic needs of the merger. The merger despite the challenges promises better gains for the holding company in terms of increased profitability and efficiency n operations. References Armstrong, M. & Baron, A. (2004) Managing performance: Performance Management in Action. London: CIPD. P.123 Henry A. (2008) Understanding Strategic Management, Oxford University Press pp. 51 Scholes, K. & Johnson, G. (2007) Explaining Corporate Strategy, Hempstead: Prentice Hal, p.69

5. the Best Way to Spend a Holiday.

1. Intonation. Its functions. Much has been said about the importance of paying due attention to intonation when studying a foreign language. The process of communication cannot be performed without intonation as it has its own functions in a sentence. These functions are: 1. The constitutive 2. The distinctive (1) Intonation forms sentences. Each sentence consists of one or more intonation groups. An intonation group is a word or a group of words characterized by a certain intonation pattern and is generally complete from the point of view of meaning. E. g.You’ll come early | and stay as long as you can | won’t you || Sentences are separated from each other by pauses. The end of a sentence is always recognized by a long pause; the end of a non-final intonation group is usually characterized by a shorter pause. E. g. He’s passed his exam || He is a student now || Like most old people | he was fond of talking about old days || (2) Intonation also serves to disting uish the communicative types of sentences, the actual meaning of a sentence, the speaker’s emotions or attitudes to the contents of the sentence, to the listener or to the topic of conversation. E. g.He’s passed his exam || Low-Fall – a statement of fact High-Rise – a question Low-Rise – a question with surprise High-Fall – an exclamation One and the same sentence pronounced with different intonation can express different emotions. Intonation is also a powerful means of differentiating the functional styles. 2. The components of the intonation 1) Speech melody or the pitch. The sentence possesses definite phonetic features: variations of pitch or speech melody, pauses, sentence stress, rhythm, tempo and timbre. Each feature performs a definite task and all of them work simultaneously.It is generally acknowledged that the pitch of the voice or speech melody, sentence stress and rhythm are the three main components of intonation, whilst pauses , tempo and timbre play a subordinate role in speech. The pitch of the voice does not stay on the same level while the sentence is pronounced. It falls and rises within the interval between its lower and upper limits. Three pitch levels are generally distinguished: high, medium and low. The pitch of the voice rises and falls on the vowels and voiced consonants. These falls and rises form definite patterns typical of English and are called speech melody.Pitch Range is the interval between two pitch levels. It may be normal, wide and narrow. E. g. I didn’t know you’ve been to London. The use of this or that pitch (and range) shows the degree of its semantic importance. As a rule the low pitch level expresses little semantic weight, on the contrary the high pitch level is a sign of importance, stronger degree of feeling. 2) Rhythm Rhythm is a regular recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables at definite intervals. The characteristic features of English speech rhythm may be summed up as follows: 1.The regularity of the recurrence of stressed and unstressed syllables results in the pronunciation of each rhythmic group in a sense-group in the same period of time irrespective to the number of unstressed syllables in it. Which in its turn influences the length of sounds, especially vowels. 2. The alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables results in the influence of rhythm upon word-stress and sentence-stress. There are as many rhythmical groups in a sense-group as there are stressed syllables. Rhythmic groups can be of two types:  ·enclitics – a rhythmic group in which an unstressed syllable clings to the preceding stressed syllable. proclitics – a rhythmic group in which an unstressed syllable clings to the following stressed syllable. To acquire a good English speech rhythm one should arrange sentences: 1) into intonation groups; 2) into rhythmic groups; 3) link the words beginning with a vowel to preceding words; 4) weaken unstressed words and syllables; 5) make the stressed syllables occur regularly within an intonation group. Sentence stress A separate word when used alone as a sentence is always stressed. In a sentence consisting of more than one word, some of the words are left unstressed.They are the words of small semantic value or those with a purely grammatical function: articles, prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary, modal and link verbs, personal and reflective pronouns. Words essential to the meaning of the utterance are normally stressed (nouns, adjectives, notional verbs, adverbs, demonstrative and interrogative pronouns). So words that provide most of the information are singled out by means of sentence stress. Sentence stress is a greater prominence with which one or more words are in a sentence are pronounced as compared with the other words according to their informational (semantic) importance.This greater prominence is achieved by: 1. Greater force of exhalation and muscular tensi on. 2. Changing of the pitch level. 3. Pronouncing the stressed syllables longer. 4. Not changing the quality of a vowel in the stressed syllable. The most important piece of information conveyed in the sentence is called its communicative centre. It may be expressed by a single word or a number of words. Usually it is the last word in a sense-group and it carries the terminal tone. The main function of sentence stress is to single out the communicative centre of the sentence, which introduces new information.So it performs a distinctive function and distinguished the speaker’s modal and emotional attitude to the words. Sentence stress may vary in degree. It may be full and partial. Full sentence stress in its turn may be unemphatic and emphatic. 1) Partial sentence stress is indicated by single stress-marks places below the line of print. E. g. I haven’t the slightest idea. 2) Full unemphatic sentence stress is indicated by single stress-marks placed above the line of print. E. g. I haven’t the slightest idea. ) Full emphatic sentence stress is effected by greater force of utterance, greater force of exhalation and lengthening the sounds. Emphatically stresses syllables become more prominent and sound longer than syllables with unemphatic stress. It is indicated by double stress-marks. E. g. Stop talking! Sentence stress can also be subdivided as to its function into syntagmatic stress, syntactic stress and logical stress. Syntagmatic stress presents the most important functional type. Together with the main tones it singles out the semantic centre of the sentence or a sense-group.In sentences where no word is made specially prominent syntagmatic stress is usually realized in the last stressed word. E. g. I am sending you two tickets for the theatre. Syntactic (or normal) stress marks the other semantically important words within the utterance. E. g. I am sending you two tickets for the theatre. Logical stress is connected with the shifti ng of the syntagmatic stress from its normal place on the last stressed word to one of the preceding words. It often expresses something new to the listener and creates a new communicative centre. Specific features of the English sentence stressThough we know that usually notional words are stressed in the sentence and form (functional) words are unstressed it is necessary to point out that any word in a sentence may have logical stress. A word which is made prominent by logical stress may stand at the beginning; at the end or in the middle of a sense-group but it is usually the last stressed word in it. Sentence stress on words following logical stress either disappears or becomes weak. Besides functional words may be stressed in some special cases: I. Auxiliary, modal and link verbs are stressed in the following positions: 1.At the beginning of the sentence in general and alternative questions. E. g. Can you come? Did you meet him? 2. When they stand for a notional verb in short a nswers for general questions. E. g. Yes, I am. Yes I have. 3. In contracted negative forms. E. g. He didn’t do it. 4. to be is stressed when final and preceded by the object which is unstressed. E. g. I want him to be here. 5. Auxiliary verb to do is stressed in emphatic sentences. E. g. I do like it! II. Prepositions are stressed when they consist of two or more syllables and are followed by an unstressed personal pronoun. E. g. The dog ran after him.III. Conjunctions are stressed at the beginning of a sentence when followed by an unstressed word. E. g. When he had gone | she went home too. If he drives | he may be here at any moment. IV. When a personal pronoun is connected by the conjunction ‘and’ with a noun they are both stressed. E. g. My mother and I. V. ‘Have to’ is stressed in the meaning of ‘must’. E. g. He has to go. The general rules for sentence stress are sometimes not observed: a word that should be stressed according to t hese rules may be left unstressed. In most cases it is rhythm that is responsible for the omission of stress.Compounds are influenced in the following way: 1. When preceded by a stressed syllable they are stressed on the second element. E. g They are all first-class. It is too old-fashioned. 2. When used as attributes before nouns stressed on the first syllable, the stress falls on the first element of the compound. E. g. She is a good-looking girl. 3. When two nouns occur together the first being used attributively, the second is not stressed. E. g film-star, telephone-book. But if the second noun is polysyllabic it must be stressed. E. g. picture gallery, detective story.Some words belonging to the notional parts of speech are not stressed in certain cases: 1. When a word is repeated in a sense-group immediately following, the repetition is generally unstressed. E. g. – How many books have you got? – Two books. 2. Word-substitutes like ‘one’ are usually unstressed. E. g. I don’t like this dress. Show me that red one. 3. When the word ‘most’ does not express comparison, but a high degree of quality and is equivalent to ‘very’, ‘extremely’ it is not stressed. E. g. This is a most beautiful picture. 4. The pronoun ‘each’ in ‘each other’ is always unstressed. E. g.They loved each other. 5. The adverb ‘so’ in ‘do so’, ‘think so’ is not stressed. 6. The conjunctions ‘as’ in the constructions of the type ‘as well as’ is not stressed. 7. The word ‘street’ in the names of streets is never stressed. E. g. Oxford street. Differences with the Russian language 1. Good morning! ! Good night! ! 2. She’s as pretty as her mother. ? . 3. He did not say a word. . 4. In English the final stress does not fall on the last element in the word combinations: ‘and so on’, Ã¢â‚¬Ë œand so forth’, ‘in a day or two’ etc. nd so on? . He will come in a day or two. . 5. In English general questions the final stress falls on the adverbials or on direct object following the verb (in Russian on the verb). Do you speak English? - Will you go home? The Intonation Group An intonation group may be a whole sentence or a part of it. In either case it may consist of a single word or a number of words. An intonation group has the following characteristics: 1. It has at least one accented (stressed) word carrying a marked change in pitch (a rise, a fall†¦). 2.It is pronounced at a certain rate and without any pause within it. The pitch-and-stress pattern or the intonation pattern of the intonation group consists of the following elements: 1. the pre-head – unstressed or partially stressed syllables which precede the first full stressed syllable; 2. the head (scale, body) – the intonation pattern extending from the first stress ed syllable up to (but not including) the nuclear syllable; 3. the nucleus – the syllable bearing the nuclear (terminal) tone; 4. the tail – unstressed or partially stressed syllables following the nucleus. He told me he would think of it. _____________________ ______________________ pre-head head nucleus tail There are different types of pre-heads, heads and tails. Types of heads. Head patterns are classified into three groups: descending, ascending and level according to the way it begins from the point of view of pitch movement. Descending heads move down from a medium or a high pitch level to the low one. The first stressed syllable is the highest. In the stepping head the stressed syllables gradually descend in pitch levels, unstressed or partially stressed syllables are pronounced on the same level as the preceding stressed ones.This head conveys the impression of the balanced, active, â€Å"normal† mood of the speaker. I don’t want to go to the cin ema. _________________________ _________________________ The unstressed syllables may gradually descend in pitch too. In this case the head is called a falling head. ________________________ ________________________ A fall in pitch may not be gradual but rather jumpy which is achieved by a considerable lowering of the pitch inside the stressed syllables or by pronouncing unstressed syllables at a much lower level than the preceding stressed ones. Such a head is called the sliding head.It usually reflects an excited state of mind and, sometimes, a highly emotional attitude to the situation. I don’t want to go to the cinema. _________________________ _________________________ Ascending heads are the opposite of the descending heads: their stressed syllables move up by steps with the intervening unstressed ones continuing the rise and in this case it is a rising head. I don’t want to go to the cinema. _________________________ _________________________ If the voice moves up jumpy the head is called climbing. Unstressed syllables glide up too. __________________________ _________________________ In level heads all the syllables are pronounced on the same level (or gradually ascends towards the nucleus) either high or medium or low. So there are three level heads correspondingly. It is shown by the tone mark before the first stressed syllable. [ ] Low head conveys an impression ranging from cool and indifferent to sulky and hostile. Types of pre-head There are two types of pre-head: the low pre-head and the high pre-head. The low pre-head is pronounced at a low pitch and may occur in all unemphatic and many emphatic utterances.Its main semantic function is to mark the comparative unimportance of initial unstressed syllables. The high pre-head is pronounced at a high pitch level. It has a clearly emphatic function. Before a rising tone it usually gives a bright, lively, encouraging character to the utterance. The high pre-head is marked by the tone-str ess mark ( ) placed before the first syllable above the line of print. Types of tails There are two types of tails: the low tail and the rising tail. The low tail goes after the falling tone and is pronounced at a low pitch. Show me. __________ __________The rising tail occurs after the rising tone and gradually rises in pitch producing the very effect of the rising tone whilst the word carrying the syntagmatic stress is pronounced on the lowest level in the sense-group. Really? ________ ________ The notion of â€Å"tone†. Static and kinetic tones. Prominent segments of an utterance are usually associated with a pitch change (or a pitch contrast) combined with increased force of articulation and increased duration. Such a cooperation of different phonetic features is reflected in the notion of the tone – the basic element of English intonation.Tones are divided into two classes: static and kinetic. Static are level tones, their number corresponds to the number of pitch levels. Kinetic tones are classified according to the following criteria: a) the direction of the pitch change; b) the interval of the pitch change; c) the relative position of the pitch change within the speaker’s voice range. Static and kinetic tones differ not only in form but also in function. Static tones give prominence to words. The degree of prominence is proportional to the pitch height of the static tone – the higher the tone, the greater the prominence.Kinetic tones are more significant for the sentence. Kinetic tones perform a number of functions in a sentence: 1. Indicate the communicative type of a sentence. 2. Express the emotional state of the speaker, his attitude towards the subject-matter and the situation. 3. Single out the centre of semantic importance in a sentence. The most common kinetic tones of Modern English are: The Low Fall – the voice falls from a medium to a very low pitch. The Low Rise – the voice rises from a low to a med ium pitch. The High Fall – the voice falls from a high to a very low pitch. The High Rise – the voice rises from a medium to a high pitch.The Fall-Rise – the voice first falls from a fairly high to a rather low pitch and then rises to a medium pitch. The Rise-Fall – the voice first rises from a medium to a high pitch and then falls to a very low pitch. The falling tones carry a sense of completion and finality and are categoric in character. The rising tones carry incompletion and are non-categoric in character. Combinations of nuclei, heads, tails, and pre-heads lead to a great variety of melodic patterns in English intonation. The melodic structure of the language is a simple system of patterns based upon the most important linguistic functions of intonation.Since the most significant component of intonation is speech melody, and the most important word of an utterance is made prominent by one of the special tones typical of the language, it is natural to systematize the melodic patterns according to these special tones. Thus the great variety of possible patterns can be reduced to six Intonation Contours (IC), based on the six main tones used in the nuclei. These tones, when combined with different heads, tails and pre-heads, give rise to a few significative variants of the intonation contour.