The Merchant of Venice Essay Example for Free

The Merchant of Venice Essay The Merchant of Venice tittle has been carefully chosen and it is apt and suggested. There has been some controversy among the critics that the tittle belong to Shylock or Antonio. This controversy arose because in the first entry the play had been named The Merchant of Venice or The Jew of Venice. Later on the double tittle disappeared and it was named The Merchant of Venice. So critics supposed that it is Shylock who is real merchant of Venice and the play is slightly named after him. They pointed out that Antonio is passive and has a colorless personality in the play and remains in the background with very little appearance on the stage, whereas Shylock has a dominant role in the play. Therefore it is said that Shakespeare must have had the Jew in his mind and not Antonio while naming the play. However a superficial reading of the play makes it clear that Antonio is the real merchant of Venice. His name is referred repeatedly as the royal merchant and good Antonio and also in the main trail scene Portia asked pointedly which is the merchant which is the Jew. From the beginning of the play Antonio is presented as a rich merchant and a world trader who sent argosies to various countries. On the other hand Shylock is never referred to as a merchant but sketched as an usurer and a cruel money lender. Though Antonio is a passive figure we can say that the play is rightly named after him. It was Antonios action that gave rise to the plot of the drama and indirectly he is related to the casket story, the second main plot of the drama. The bond story rises directly out of his execution of the bond. The casket story is indirectly but vitally related to him as he is the person who enters into the bond, borrows money from Shylock and helps Bassanio to reach Belmont as a suitor. In the final scene the battle is fought over his fate and every incident of the play converges this scene. Hence the play can be aptly be called The Merchant of Venice after him.

Causes of Material Failure

Causes of Material Failure Safety, reducing weight and maintenance costs of structural components, have always been a target in structural design, particularly where lighter structures result in higher load carrying capacity in industrial projects (Li et al. 2003). Since the high strength steel (HSS) is susceptible to weld defects, specifically in structures subjected to alternating stresses, the bolted connections are used as an effective and versatile joining technique in a variety of structures compared to welded equivalents (Jimà ©nez-Peà ±a et al. 2016). In this respect, various authors have investigated the performance of bolted joints under static loading condition. Despite this, the behavior of bolted joints under cyclic loading is still not well documented and fully understood (Mà ­nguez and Vogwell 2006). A deep concern that engineers have regarding the serviceability of commercial structures is the detrimental failure resulting from metal fatigue. As a matter of fact, the design philosophies have changed over recent years in a way that static strength has been replaced by fatigue life, durability and damage tolerance (Mà ­nguez and Vogwell 2006). Design rules for bolted connections are available in Canadian and American standards in conjunction with extensions for fatigue design considerations. Material failure happens in several forms, such as wear, corrosion, deformation, and fracture. When a component is subjected to a cyclic loading and results in the separation of the component into two or more pieces, this is plain fatigue or conventional fatigue. On the other hand, fatigue failure might occur due to a phenomenon known as fretting fatigue (Hà ¤mà ¤là ¤inen and Bjà ¶rk 2015). For example, one of the bolts that connects the bottom bracket to the support broke was fractured due to fretting fatigue and another was failed because of plain fatigue during the round four of accelerated fatigue test under 113 kN at 2 Hz of fatigue as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. Therefore, it proves why an extensive research should be undertaken to investigate the precise mechanism of fretting fatigue in bolted connections. Fretting can occur when a pair of structural components are in contact under a normal load while cyclic tangential stress and relative displacement are applied alongside the contact surface. The phenomenon of fretting has been recognised initially as a surface damage phenomenon, what today are called fretting wear. During fretting the fatigue strength decreases to less than one-third of that without fretting (Hattori et al. 2011). This kind of fatigue can be seen widely in bolted and riveted connections. The fatigue life performance of bolted joints depends on several factors, such as size of the bolts, the number and arrangement of used bolts, the level of pretension or torque tightening applied to the bolts, the material plate thickness and surface roughness. Understanding in what way all these factors affect the fatigue life of a joint is fairly complex and has not been thoroughly investigated (Mà ­nguez and Vogwell 2006). The primary objectives of this literature review are (1) to review a comprehensive understanding of the underlying mechanisms lead to fretting fatigue failure; (2) to determine the factors which influence the fatigue strength of bolted joints; (3) to indicate predictor tools used in order to estimate the fatigue lifetime of bolted joints; (4) to propose different approaches to address the aforementioned objectives. Fig. 1: Plain fatigue in bolt shank and fretting fatigue in bottom surface of bolt head Fig. 2: Plain fatigue Bolted connections are classified on basis of the mechanism in which the forces are transferred. When members are not pressed together by torque tightened bolts, the joint members can move freely (bearing-type bolted connection); thus, a large portion of load is transferred from bolt to the edge of plates as shown in Fig. 3. Elongation of the holes due to the stress transmitted through the bolts into the members might occur, if the stress levels within the hole are adequately high to cause plastic deformation. In this case, the major failure modes for a joint subjected to shear loading would be as shown in Fig. 4. On the other hand, when the plate members are compressed together by application of tightening torque on the bolts, the members Fig. 3: A bearing joint, with the bolt acting as a shear pin slippage could be prevented; therefor, the friction in contact interface transfers loads directly, instead of transmitting through the bolt to the plates hole. In this way, the connections benefit greatly with respect to the failure modes presented in Fig. 4, because the stress concentrations caused by the bearing of the bolts at the edge of plates hole will be lowered significantly (friction-type bolted connection). Fig. 5 illustrates the behavior of a friction-type joint under static loading in shear. The joint deforms elastically until the load reaches the critical value. At region (2) the joint begins to slip and it continues until the bolts start bearing on bolt holes. Elastic deformation happens again in region (3), until the yielding of plates or bolts occurs in form of plastic deformation in region (4). Eventually, joint will be failed at point (5) (Mà ­nguez and Vogwell 2006). Fig. 4: Failure modes for joints loaded in shear Fig. 5: Behavior of a joint under increasing loading The phenomenon of plain fatigue refers to the behavior of materials under the action of repeated stress and strain which distinguishes it from their behavior under monotonic or static stresses or strains. The plain fatigue is defined more precisely by the process in which the progressive localized permanent structural changes occur in a material subjected to conditions that produce fluctuating stresses and strains at some points and that culminate in cracks or complete fracture after a sufficient number of fluctuations. A plain fatigue failure is often very sudden, with no obvious warning; however, the mechanism might have been operating from the beginning of the components usage. Fig. 6: Crack growth path in sheet (a) single shear (b) double shear Fig. 6 shows fatigue crack initiation and propagation schematically. At short crack length where crack tip plastic zones are small, the crack path is usually flat. As crack grows, the crack tip plastic zone increases in size and the crack plane can turn to 45 ° shear or slant mode. This can be either single shear as shown in Fig. 6(a) or double shear as shown in Fig. 6(b). The aspects of plain fatigue fracture can be summarized as follows: The entire fatigue process involves the nucleation and growth of a crack or cracks to final fracture. The plain fatigue crack at fracture can be very small or very large, occupying less than 1 percent of the fracture up to almost 100 percent. The plain fatigue crack region can be distinguished from final fracture region by beach marks, smoothness, and corrosion, However, there are many exceptions. Microscopic plain fatigue cracks often grow in the plain of maximum tensile stress. However, for multiaxial loading, macroscopic fatigue cracks have also been observed on the plane of maximum shear (Stephens et al. 2000). It is one century since the problem of fretting first has undergone scientific investigation. Fretting was recorded first by Eden, Rose and Cunningham in 1911, who observed a red rust in the grips of fatigue machines by which they were testing steel specimens. The removal of the specimens was encumbered by the rust and its formation was mainly attributed to the varying stress between specimens and grips. This phenomenon was experimentally investigated first via Tomlinson in 1927, and coined the term fretting wear by which name it is generally known today (Scott 2013). Intensive study of the fretting process and mechanism has been undertaken during the 1950s and 1960s. Various theories regarding the nature of fretting have been summarized by Hurricks and then published in 1970. In 1974 Golego et al. recapitulated the results of experimental and analytical investigations conducted in the Soviet Union and other countries (Kovalevskii 1981). Based on these meticulous and intensive investigations, it appeared that the problem of fretting fatigue has adequately been solved, and it is of least interest. At the end of the 1930s and the beginning of 1940s fretting was observed in a new form, as a rapid lowering of the fatigue strength of metals. Warlow-Davis was the first scholar who studied the effect of fretting corrosion on fatigue life. Numerous investigations regarding this complicated phenomenon have been carried out subsequently, and interesting and informative results were obtained on basis of empirical and factual observations. Fretting fatigue has generally been considered in terms of the contribution of fretting to the fatigue strength of material. The recognition and interpretation of mechanism of fretting fatigue by means of this approach is more difficult. It thus appears more reasonable to attempt to postulate the mechanism of fretting fatigue on basis of a combination of the basic theory of fretting wear and t he fatigue failure of metals (Kovalevskii 1981). Fretting maybe defined as surface damage caused by low amplitude oscillatory sliding between two contacting surfaces. Fretting fatigue and fretting wear lie within this broad definition. Fretting is divided into two categories: fretting wear and fretting fatigue. The removal of material from contacting surfaces through fretting action is called fretting wear, whereas fretting fatigue is the reduction in fatigue life due to fretting surface damage (Bill 1983). Both types often occur within the same contact, but in different areas. Partial slip region is the area where contact pressure caused by normal force is high, while displacement amplitude caused by alternating tangential force is relatively small. In these areas, possibly fretting occurs as fatigue. On the other hand, those areas of the contact where the displacement amplitude is somewhat large compared to contact pressure are called gross slipping regime. In these areas fretting happens as fretting wear. There is another regime between these two regimes in a way that both mechanisms overlap, mixed fretting regime. Running condition fretting map is a useful tools (RCFM) used to present these regimes and the effect of those in the specimen failure can be translated into a material response fretting map (MRFM). Fig. 7 shows the schematic illustration of these maps (Hà ¤mà ¤là ¤inen and Bjà ¶rk 2015). Fig. 7: Schematic illustrations of (a) running condition fretting map (b) material response fretting map Fretting fatigue is a complicated tribological behavior of components which are in contact together having a small relative oscillatory motion. Due to high stress gradients generated at interface of connected surface caused by fretting, the fatigue lifetime of materials is reduced considerably compered to plain fatigue (Hojjati-Talemi et al. 2013). Fretting often occurs in structures subjected to oscillating tangential loads with low-amplitude and high frequency vibrations. Since fretting happens in counterpart surfaces, where crack initiation and crack propagation is hidden, and there is no easy access for inspection, crack detection is often impossible; hence, it is a particularly dangerous phenomenon. Sometimes the development of fretting damage is not detected until critical fracture or even catastrophic failure is occurred (Hoeppner 2006). Consequently, fretting fatigue heightens a serious concern for industrial structures, and analytical and numerical techniques for prediction of fretting fatigue are much in demand. Fig. 8 illustrates an example of failure due to fretting. Fig. 8: Typical critical locations for fretting fatigue crack initiations in (a) bolted flange and (b) riveted panels 4.1 Fretting wear and fretting fatigue-How are they related? The extent to which fretting wear correlates fretting fatigue is not fully cleared. The surface damage and contact stress distribution are similar in fretting fatigue and fretting wear for a given set of contact conditions. The remarkable feature which is evident in fretting fatigue, while is not for fretting wear necessarily, is an alternating bulk stress in one of the contact bodies. Furthermore, the edges of contact area or near slip/nonslip interfaces are the spots where fretting fatigue occurs consistently. The sequence of crack initiation and propagation in fretting problems involving fretting wear or fretting fatigue is important, because it generally causes microspalling in the former case and fatigue failure in the later (Bill 1983). Fig. 9 presents the loading conditions for a typical fretting contact. The significant feature which distinguishes fretting from gross sliding wear is the formation of a partial slip zone within the contact area when the tangential force is less that the frictional force. Eq. 1 The small displacement amplitude traps the wear debris and prevents those from existing contact zone. Different combinations of normal load and displacement lead to different forms of damage mechanism. Another comprehensive fretting maps proposed by Vingsbo in 1988 is plotted schematically in Fig. 10. The area is divided into various regimes and the dominant damage mechanism is specified in each zone as following: Fig. 9: Fretting contact and loading Partial slip regime or Stick regime: Although some slip occurs by application of tangential loading, most of the contact zone remains in stick. Fretting fatigue is the dominant mode of failure in this area; however, some wear occurs even when reciprocating motions are as small as 0.25  µm. Mixed stick and slip regime or mixed fretting regime: This regime is categorized by transition of the fretting contact from partial slip to the gross sliding. The dominant mode depends on whether the fatigue cracks grow fast enough to avoid removal by wear. Gross slip regime or gross sliding regime: Slip exists throughout the contact in this regime. The excessive volume of debris produced by fretting cycle, would prevent crack from propagating. Although the slip happens all around the contact, the debris formed during fretting cycle would trapped within contact area. This is a fundamental characteristic which distinguishes this regime from reciprocating sliding phenomenon. Reciprocating sliding: Once the amplitude meets a critical level, the wear mechanism will be similar to unidirectional sliding. The remarkable feature of reciprocal sliding wear is that for different amplitudes within reciprocal sliding, wear volumes is almost being kept constant, whereas the production of oxidized debris and a wear coefficient would increase rapidly by the increase of amplitude of motion (Patil 2010). Fig. 10: Typical fretting map for Hertzian contact Although, it is very difficult to establish a precisely distinct line of demarcation between fretting wear and reciprocal sliding wear, some literatures suggest that the critical amplitude of slippage in which the occurrence of reciprocating sliding wear will be imminent. Due to complexity of fretting phenomenon, different refrences presented different transition values for different materials. Vingsbo and Soderberg in 1988 as well as Ohmae and Tsukizoe in 1974 suggested the transition value lies at 300  µm, Toth suggested 50  µm, while Lewis and Didsbury concluded transition value equal to 70  µm (Chen and Zhou 2001).

Abortion is a Womans Choice Essay -- Abortion, Argumentative, Pro-Cho

Today, abortion is a big issue concerning women because for years it had been said that abortion should not be legal. Many people feel aborting an unwanted child, or killing an unwanted child should be against the law. Many people don’t’ know what abortion is, who can receive abortions, and why people would even choose to get them. I feel as though a woman’s body is her own to do with what ever she wants. Therefore, on the topic of abortions, I am pro-choice. First of all, before a person makes a decision about abortions, they should know exactly what it is. The dictionary defines Abortion as: The termination of pregnancy and expulsion of an embryo or of a fetus that is incapable of survival. This simply means, inducing birth to kill the fetus, or baby before it is carried to full ...

Clinton Administrations Proposal To Increase Taxes For Multinational Co

My topic is the increase if the taxes which Clinton Administration is planning. This increase in taxes will target "multinational Corporations, end the favored tax treatment of extra long term bonds", It will also raise capital gains taxes by â€Å"changing the rules for computing the cost basis of securities when they are sold at a profit†. What this will do is increase the taxes for the rich and will decrease the difference between the rich and the poor. The plan is intent on cutting the middle class tax and finance higher education (yeah right). The current tax law decreases the Federal Treasury Revenue and makes the economy less efficient or less competitive. The multinational tax would disallow multinationals to assume half of their goods are foreign even if they are made in the US. Thus they could export to a country with low taxes and thus pay less taxes. This change would bring an increase of 7.9 Billion in corporate taxes over the next 5 years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This withdraws a lot of money from the economy and may thus decrease demand for goods, as people have less money to spend. The multinationals would employ many people and with and increase in their cost (tax is a type of cost) they would be forced to decrease the average amount of wages which the their employees received. This may take the form of decreased raises, or the laying off of some people. This would thus decrease aggregate demand for goods Nationally (as Multinationals would employ people in th...

Islam :: essays research papers fc

It may seem similar and it may not, but what we do know, is that they both believe that they are Muslims. The Islamic beliefs of the black American male and the males of the Middle East are the same. My argument lies in the question of whether or not Africans can call themselves true Muslims, believers and followers of the Islamic faith. To be considered a true Muslim you must follow the rules and regulations of the Islamic faith. What is Islam? Islam is defined as "the complete acceptance of and obedience to the teachings of Allah " (I. A. Ibrahim 45) As a Muslim you are to believe in Allah, who is incomparable. He has no son nor does he have a partner, he is unique and he is one. You shall not worship, magnify, or pay tribute to any other, for all others are false. Yet we see otherwise in Africans who call themselves Muslims. In John S. Mbiti's book, "Introduction to African Religion" he states traditional African beliefs mixes those of Islam to suit the require ments of the people concerned so they get the best out of both religions (188-189). How can one say such a thing? To believe in something is to fight for it, is to die for it. You can not get the best of a religion if you do not fully believe in it. You should not "adopt the way of dress and some other cultural forms" (Mbiti 189), just to suite a community. Religion is something that is held dear to the heart of many people and to mix and mingle them does not allow you to truly believe in one. When you convert to a religion it is not to convert halfway, it is not to convert three- fourths of the way, but to convert all the way. It is stated that even if Africans "convert to another religion, they do not completely abandon the traditional religions" (Mbiti 14) Here we see that the first real defiance has already occur. By mixing the two would not you be doing an injustice to the true believers of the Islamic faith and defying Allah the leader of the Islamic faith. in addition, are you not doing an injustice to the rites and rituals to the Gods, Spirits, and Divinities of the African religion? How can you please the leader/leaders of these separate religions if you are not even following them fully with your heart, mind, body and soul?

Narrative Assignment

Unit 2 narrative Assignment Kaplan University Pamela Baker HU 300 – 25 Folk tale, fairy tales, and fables have been used for generations and have been passed down from generation to generation to teach children about morals, what’s right and wrong, cultures and believes. The emotional connection to feelings that children develop from them will help them develop a sense of belonging. Folk tales, fairy tales and fables have changed over time depending on how and where they are told but the outcomes are always the same. My favorite fable growing up was Aesop’s the Tortoise and the Hare.This fable was about a hare that thinks he is faster than anyone else. He is always boosting about how he is so fast that no one can beat him. He is always piking on the tortious about how slow he is. One day the tortious is fed up with the hair and his bragging and tells him that he can be beat. The hair laughs and asks by who you? The tortoise agrees to race the hair. They decide to start the race early the next morning. The tortoise started at a slow and steady pace. Since the tortoise is moving at a slow and steady pace. The hare feels that the tortoise is moving so slow he has time to take a nap even before he starts racing.When he awakes he sees that the tortoise is only about a third of the way to the finish line. The hare then decides to get something to eat. He eats and eats until he is full. Now with his belly full and the warm sun shining he starts felling very heavy eyed so he decides to take another nap. This time when he awakes he sees that the tortoise has almost made it to the finish line. The hare jumps up and rushes out of the field. The hare runs and runs as fast as he can towards the finish line. He is running so fast he become so tired. He is too tired and cannot make it across the finish line because he is too tired.The tortoise that has kept going at a slow and steady pace is not tired at all. He is able to crosses the finish line. The mor al of this fable is that it is better to pace yourself then to procrastinate and then rush to get it done. You can get more accomplished and accomplished well if you take your time. I also think that another lesson that could be learned is that it is not nice to keep boosting about thing that you are better at than everyone else. It is also not nice to pick o people when they cannot accomplish or perform at the same rate as you.I do think that the morals that could be learned from fairy tales, folk tales and fables could indeed effect the guiding of an individual’s action. If an individual understands the story being told then they will learn and will think twice about their actions. They will also learn that they should keep other individuals feelings into consideration. The narrative or story telling depend on which culture the story is being told. Communication a lesson though story telling parents, caregivers and educators can create an emotional connection to feelings.Th is is a lot different than just giving a child a list of ruses to follow. Children tend to learn and retain better if it something fun. Rather than give them a set of rules. Families have used folk tales, fairy tales and fables to teach children a lesson or morals for many generations. Though the stories have changed over the years and cultures are not the same the meaning of the story is still remained the same. References : Janaro, R. P. , & Altshuler, T. C. (2012). The art of being human: The humanities as a technique for living (Kaplan University 3rd custom ed. ). New York: Pearson Education.

Assessing Writing Skills in a Communicative Paradigm Essay

Communicative Language Testing is intended to assess learners’ ability to using the target language in real life situations. Its now ten years since Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been introduced in secondary English curriculum of Bangladesh. Therefore, the test of English at the SSC level is now facing the challenges of assessing learners’ communicative skills. This study looks at the existing model of the SSC English test and explores the possibilities of incorporating a more communicatively based test format. The study is carried out on the basis of an evaluation of the test items on writing skills set in the SSC test papers. It also explores the views of Bangladeshi secondary English teachers and internationally renowned Language Testing Experts. In this paper, it is argued that, though secondary English education in Bangladesh has stepped into a communicative era ten years back, the current SSC test is not in accordance with the curriculum objectives. It is found that the test items on writing lack both validity and reliability. Suggestions made for improving the current SSC test include: defining the purpose of communication in English for SSC level learners, drafting test specifications, setting test items which are more relevant to a communicative purpose, and developing a marking scheme to mark the subjective items. Introduction The concept of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has had much influence in the fields of English language teaching, curriculum and test design. Since the 1970s, there have been considerable developments in the area of language testing. Various theories and practical testing models have evolved following the concept of communicative competence. Bangladesh has introduced a communicative English curriculum at its secondary education sector. However, the aims and objectives of the communicative curriculum can never be achieved without a testing system that assesses the communicative ability of learners. This paper looks at the existing Secondary School Certificate (SSC) English examination to identify the elements of communicative testing in it and examines the suitability of this testing system to the curriculum goals. The study involves a critical analysis of the current SSC test. It also explores the views of Bangladeshi secondary English teachers and two internationally renowned language testing experts on the SSC test and investigates the ways of making it more communicatively based. Background of English Language Teaching (ELT) in Bangladesh The teaching of English in Bangladesh has a long history that traces back to the colonial era. However, the British models of teaching English continued to influence the ELT scenario of post-colonial Bengal even after the colonial rule was over in 1947. Since then the grammar translation method continued to influence the ELT scenario as the most dominant teaching method in the Indian subcontinent. After the independence of Bangladesh (1971), several attempts were made to re-design ELT sector with little or no success. In 1990, a four year ELT project called Orientation of Secondary School Teachers for Teaching English in Bangladesh (OSSTTEB) was jointly launched by the Government of Bangladesh and DFID, UK to improve English Language Teaching and Learning at secondary level. This project revised, adapted and revamped the secondary English curriculum (Hoque, 1999). In 1997, a major step was initiated with the introduction of English Language Teaching Improvement Project (ELTIP). The project started working with a view to improving the communicative competence of the secondary level learners. Under this project, a communicative curriculum, revised text books and newly written Teachers’ Guides (TGs) were developed and some 30 thousand English teachers, test administrators, and markers were trained. The SSC examination The SSC is the first public examination in Bangladesh that learners sit for after 10 years of schooling. Students take English as a compulsory subject at this level. The examination is administered countrywide through the seven Boards of Intermediate and Secondary Education (BISE). The question papers are set by the respective BISE independently following the national curriculum and syllabus of National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB). The syllabus document of NCTB explicitly recommends a testing system that is in keeping with the spirits of CLT. The new syllabus document for classes 9-10 (NCTB 1999: 135) mentions, â€Å"Until and unless a suitable public examination is devised that tests English language skills rather than students’ ability to memorise and copy without understanding, the aims and objectives of the syllabus can never be realised.† Moreover samples of question papers were provided in the TGs and Teachers were encouraged to follow the test models. Research Questions This study is concerned with the following research questions: 1. How are students’ writing skills tested by the existing SSC English examinations? 2. To what extent are these test items communicatively based? 3. What do Bangladeshi teachers and the international testing experts think of the current SSC English examination? 4. How can the SSC examination be improved to reflect the goals stated in the national curriculum and syllabus document? Research methodology The approach to this resaerch belongs to the interpretative epistemology which argues that knowledge, in social research, is concerned not with generalization, prediction and control but with interpretation, meaning and illumination (Usher, 1996: 12). The approach here is guided by the belief that reality is a complex phenomenon which does not admit orderly events or simple cause-effect relationship. The data used is not only concerned with facts but also with values. In looking at a testing system which is comparatively new in the context of Bangladesh, it is admitted that reality is a human construct. The aim here is to explore perspectives and shared meanings (Wellington, 2000: 16) and the data used here is qualitative. The research procedure uses three different sources for collecting data and involves three steps. They are: a) a critical evaluation of the SSC English test format, b) collecting the views of Bangladeshi English teachers through questionnaires and, c) interviewing the two Australian testing experts based at Melbourne Univeristy. The evaluation of SSC examination includes a close analysis of the existing SSC test papers, syllabus document and marking criteria. The questionnaire attempts to explore the values and attitudes of secondary English teachers in relation to the SSC English testing system. The interviews with the language testing experts are intended to generate valuable ideas that could be applicable in improving the testing system of SSC. The development of modern language testing The development of modern language testing occurred in three historical phases prior to and during the 1970s. These three periods are- the scientific era, the psychometric-structuralist era and the integrative sociolinguistic era Spolsky (1978:5). According to Spolsky, the pre-scientific era was characterised by a lack of concern for statistical matters or for such notions as objectivity and reliability in language testing whereas the psychometric-structuralist period was concerned with tests that focus on discrete item tests. In fact, the psychometric-structuralist approach provided the basis for the flourishing of the standardised language test with its emphasis on discrete structure point items. However, discrete point tests were also criticised for being insufficient indicators of language proficiency (Oller 1979: 212). Language testing was directed to global tests in the 1970s, which opened up the psycholinguistic-sociolinguistic era (Weir, 1988: 3). This format of global and in tegrative tests (such as cloze) gained theoretical support from many researchers. Davies distinguishes four important types of language tests on the basis of their function or use- achievement tests, proficiency tests, aptitude tests and diagnostic tests (Davies and Allan 1977: 46-7). While achievement tests are concerned with assessing what has been learned of a known syllabus, proficiency tests are based on assessing the learning of either a known or unknown syllabus. The concept of communicative competence The idea of communicative language teaching emerged in the 1970s following Hymes’ theory of communicative competence, which greatly emphasised learners’ ability to use language in context, particularly, in terms of social demands of performance (McNamara, 2000: 116). Hymes believes that knowing a language is more than knowing its rules. Once Hymes proposed the idea of communicative competence, it was expanded in various ways during the following two decades. The term competence was interpreted in many different ways by researchers. To some it simply means the ability to ‘communicate’; to others it means the social rules of language use; and to yet other, it refers to a set of abilities including knowledge of linguistics, socio-linguistics and discourse rules (Bachman & Palmar, 1984: 34). However, the basic idea of communicative competence remains the ability to use language appropriately, both receptively and productively, in real situations (Kiato, et al. 1996: 1) The development of communicative language testing The idea of communicative testing was developed on the basis of Hymes’ two dimensional model of communicative competence that comprises a linguistic and a sociolinguistic element. Davies et al. gives the following definition of communicative language tests: Communicative tests are tests of communicative skills, typically used in contradistinction to tests of grammatical knowledge. Such tests often claim to operationalise theories of communicative competence, although the form they take will depend on which dimension they choose to emphasise, be it specificity to context, authenticity of materials or the simulation of real life performance.   (Davies et al. 1999: 26) Harrison mentions three ingredients which distinguishes a communicative language test from other tests. He argues: 1. A communicative test should assess language used for a purpose beyond itself. 2. A communicative test should depend on the bridging of an information gap. It has to propose a language using purpose which can be fulfilled by the communicative skill so far acquired by the learners. 3. A communicative test should represent an encounter. The situation at the end of it should be different from what it was at the beginning, and this means that there has to be some sequence within the test. (Harrison, 1983: 77-8) Competence Vs performance There have been debates among the researchers regarding the nature and function of communicative tests. One issue of controversy was how to specify the components of communicative competence and to relate them in measuring performances. Another complication arose as the terms ‘competence’ and ‘performance’ were used differently by various researchers suggesting important distinctions between them. Chomsky (1965) claimed that ‘competence’ refers to the linguistic system which an ideal native speaker has internalized whereas ‘performance’ is mainly concerned with the psychological factors that are involved in the perception and production of speech. Later Hymes (1972) explicitly, and Campbell and Wales (1970) implicitly proposed a broader notion of communicative competence in which they included grammatical competence as well as contextual or sociolinguistic competence. They, however, adopted the distinction between communicative ‘competence’ and ‘performance’. According to Canale and Swain (1980: 3) ‘competence’ refers to knowledge of grammar and other aspects of language while ‘performance’ refers to actual use. For the language testing researchers it was difficult to determine an ideal test model, which could be valid and reliable enough to test communicative competence. They were concerned with what performances for task based activities need to be devised in order to assess learners’ communicative competence. The most discussed answer to this query is the one provided by Canale and Swain (1980) who, in their influential work ‘Approaches to Second Language Testing’ specified four aspects of knowledge or competence- grammatical competence, sociolinguistic competence, strategic competence and discourse competence. What makes good communicative tests? Though a communicative language test intents to measure how students use language in real life, it is difficult to set a task that can measure communicative competence in real contexts. Ellison (2001: 44) argues that testing by its very nature is artificial and unless we are to follow an examinee around all the time noting how he/she deals with the target language in all situations, we necessarily have a less than real situation. However, it should be the aim of the test setter to try and complement real situations as much as possible. Referring to the difficulty of identifying the elements of communicative testing Morrow (1991) states: The essential question which a communicative test must answer is whether or not (or how well) a candidate can use language to communicate meanings. But ‘communicate meanings’ is very elusive criterion indeed on which to base judgment. (Morrow, 1991: 112) There have been attempts to develop a model for communicative competence and valid tests of its components. Bachman and Palmer (1984: 35) describe three approaches: the skill-component approach, communicative approach and measurement approach to specify what language tests measure. Offering a detailed interpretation of the Canale-Swain communicative approach, Bachman and Palmer specify some factors (trait factors, modal factors, method factors) that should be considered while designing a performance test. Having examined the structure of a model which encompasses these three factors, Skehan (1991: 9) regarded it as ‘being of pivotal importance in influencing the language testing theories and practices throughout the 1990s.’ Later Bachman went further as he offered important distinctions between task-based and construct-based approaches to test design. He explained: The procedures for design, development, and use of language tests must incorporate both a specification of the assessment task to be included and definition of the abilities to be assessed. (Bachman, 2000: 456) Task based language assessment gave rise to two questions: a) How real-life task types are identified, selected and characterized and how pedagogic or assessment tasks are related to these (Bachman, 2000: 459) . The discussion of different approaches to language testing are concerned with their strengths and limitations in terms of the criteria of validity and reliability. Validity in language testing is about whether a test can measure what it is intended to measure. Other arguments regarding the test validity include the question of content relevance and representativeness, task difficulty etc. Reliability refers to the extent to which test scores are consistent. Assessing second language writing Assessment of second language writing has been discussed on the basis of two different approaches: objective test of writing and direct test of writing. Objective tests claim to test writing through verbal reasoning, error recognition and other measures that have been shown fairly highly with measured writing ability (Lyons, 1991: 5). In direct tests of writing, actual samples of students’ writings are assessed. In fact, direct tests of writing have won the support of many researchers as they engage students with more communicative and creative task types. However, this approach has also been criticised for lacking reliability. Despite their problems with reliability, direct tests are still very popular in many academic settings throughout the world. Kiato et al. (1996: 2) refer to some typical problems of testing writing. They point out that testing writing objectively may not necessarily reflect the way it is used by the students in the real world. On the other hand, testing of writing in a way that reflects how the students use writing in real world is difficult to evaluate objectively and the test setters has less control over the writing tasks. However, they argue that the ability to write should involve six component skills- grammatical ability, lexical ability, mechanical ability, stylistic skills, organisational skills and judgment of appropriacy. Among the writing tasks they find useful are: gap filling, form completion, making corrections, letter and essay writing. Weir (1988: 63-4) offers an elaborate discussion on both indirect (objective) and direct tests and distinguishes the two types. He argues that writing can be divided into discrete elements such as grammar, vocabulary and punctuation etc. and these elements are tested separately by the use of objective tests. He suggested that both productive and receptive skills can be broken down in to levels of grammar and lexis according to a discrete point framework and objective tasks such as cloze, selective deletion, gap filling etc. can be designed for testing reading with writing. Weir describes the direct test of writing as a more integrative test which tests a candidate’s ability to perform certain of the functional tasks required in the performance of duties in the target situation. Research on writing involving both native speakers and second language are also concerned with basic studies of the nature of writing process in order to relate them to the validity of writing test tasks. Some of the questions concerned are: 1. To what extent is performance influenced by the amount of prior knowledge that writers have about the topic that they are asked to write about in a test? 2. Does it make a difference how the writing task is specified on the test paper? 3. Do different types of tasks produce significant difference in the performance of learners in a writing test? (Read, 1991: 77) Johns (1991: 171) suggests three criteria for academic testing of writing- (1) use of reading for writing assessment: testing for audience awareness, (2) exploitation of common writing genres: argumentation and problem solution, and (3) testing of subject matter, conceptual control and planning. He insists that reading and writing be combined to give a more authentic context for testing writing for academic purpose. He says: Because reading and writing are interconnected at all academic levels, it seems unprofessional and certainly unacademic to test writing without the genuine interactivity that reading provides. (Johns, 19991: 176) Literature on testing has suggested different strategies to cope with the problem of making direct writing tasks. The problem with these tasks is they are very difficult to mark as the marking of such tasks is somewhat subjective. One solution suggested by many testing experts is to use an analytical marking scheme to help make the marking consistent. Murphy (1979: 19) outlined the nature of a marking scheme demanded by the Associated Examining Boards, â€Å"A marking scheme is a comprehensive document indicating the explicit criteria against which candidate’s answers will be judged; it enables the examiners to relate particular marks to answers of specified quality.† There have been discussions on two types of marking for free writing tasks- impressionistic and analytic. However there are arguments over what valid and reliable measures of writing can be used and what might be the relationship of these measures to overall impressionistic quality rating. The TOFEL examination included a direct writing measure (Connor, 1991: 216) in 1986 for the test of written English that was marked holistically (TOFEL test of written English guide 1989). A great deal of research was conducted by the Educational Testing Service into the development and validation of a measure to assess communicative competence in writing (Bridgman Carlson, 1983; Carlson et al. 1985). A holistic scoring guide was developed to mark two general topics-comparison/contrast and describing a graph that had six levels and included syntactic and rhetorical criteria. The Test of Written English Scoring Guidelines (1989) identified the following criteria of a written task. An essay in the highest category is- well organized and well developed, effectively addressed the writing task, uses appropriate details to support or illustrate ideas, shows unity, coherence and progression, displays consistent facility in the use of language, and demonstrates syntactic variety and appropriate word choice. (The Test of Written English Scoring Guidelines, 989) The marking scheme suggested by ELTIP to help teachers assess writing compositions is made on the basis of five criteria- grammar, vocabulary, mechanical accuracy, communication and content. A Marking scheme like this shows how developments in language testing research are providing models to cope with the challenges of marking writing tasks. The SSC Curriculum, syllabus and the test The SSC is the school leaving public examination for grad 10 students. English is a compulsory subject at this level and the test of English is an achievement test in kind. The test is designed to test reading and writing skills only as there is no provision of testing listening and speaking skills. The NCTB syllabus of English focuses on the development of the four skills through learner-centred activities within meaningful contexts. It gives importance to choosing contexts which reflect actual social situations outside the classroom and make the learning of English ‘relevant, interesting and enjoyable’. It is expected as per the syllabus that students should achieve an ‘elementary to intermediate command of the four language skills’ by the end of secondary level. The curriculum document specifies the objective and purposes of learning English as it states: English needs to be recognised as an essential work-oriented skill that is needed if the employment, development and educational needs of the country are to be met successfully. Increased communicative competence in English, therefore, constitutes a vital skill for learners at this stage. (SSC Syllabus Document, 1999, NCTB: 136) Terminal competencies in four skills are specified in the NCTB syllabus. The competencies for writing skills for grade 10 are defined as follows: Students should be able to- a) write simple dialogues, formal and informal letters including letters of application and reports. b) demonstrate imagination and creativity in appropriate writing forms. c) fill in the forms (i.e. job applications etc.) and write a curriculum vitae d) plan and organise the above tasks efficiently so as to communicate ideas and facts clearly, accurately and with relevance to the topic. e) take notes and dictations f) use different punctuation and geographical devices appropriately.