FACULTY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

SEMESTER 4 2014

OUMH1203

ENGLISH FOR WRITTEN COMMUNICATION











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ISI KANDUNGAN M/S
1.0 Children learn best by observing the behaviour of
adults and copying it. Do you agree or disagree?...................................... 2-4
1.1 References

2.0 What do schools need to do to prepare students for
the 21st Century. 5-7
2.1 References

3.0 Technology is making communication easier in todays world,
but at the expense of personal contact as many people choose
to work at home in front of a computer screen.
What dangers are there for a society which depends on
computer screens rather than face-to-face
contact for its main means of communication?.......................................... 8-10
3.1 References

4.0 Why is community service important in todays world? .......................... 11-13
4.1 References

5.0 Tourism is becoming increasingly important as a source
of revenue for many countries but its disadvantages
should not be overlooked.
What are some of the disadvantages of tourism?....................................... 14-16
5.1 References





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1.0 Children learn best by observing the behaviour of adults and copying it. Do you
agree or disagree?.

I agree with children learn best by observing the behaviour of adults and copying it. From
the first day of birth, spoken languages are unfamiliar to a child; they observe emotional
changes from an adult through their gesture and body language. Therefore, at the
beginning of a childs learning process, observation and imitation plays a major part
(Carlson et. al., 2005). This is because during a childs childhood, they are not able to
compare the things that are beneficial of harmful for them; thus they adopt all things that
they observe in their daily life. Moreover, a childs mind is like a blank piece of canvas
which is painted slowly by the things they observe from the adults. In the first place, they
observe the ways adults communicate with each other and how are their lifestyles then
they have the information which is the most characteristic of humans and imprint it in
their mind (Mcleod, 2011). In addition to it, adults are like role models to them and the
perfect stereotype of a good citizenship.

At young age, children are in the phase of sensitive learning where they rapidly copy the
behavior of adults which are set in their mind by observation. Although, adults did not
intentionally teach the children a particular habit or behaviour but the children will
slowly pick up the same characteristics from their parents or family members. This is
because they watch and imitate it when they meet the person often. Therefore, family is
the backbone of the development of a childs behaviour such as emotions.

Furthermore, children always have the curiosity and interest in doing what the adults do
because they wanted to act like a grown up. It makes them feel tall and strong. For
example, when a group of adults smoke in front of the children; the children will have
high tendency to pick up the same behaviour although they are aware of dangerous
aftermaths of smoking because they think it is a cool thing to do.

If good behaviours are presented by the adults when they are in front of children; the
children will also pick up the behaviour. For example, if the parents always return the
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things they took after usage to their appropriate places, the child will also follow suit by
returning their play toy to the place they took after they played with it.

Another good example of children learn from observation is by the manner they speak.
There are difference in the manner of the speech between city people and small towns.
This is because they learn to speak like they do when they hear the pronunciation of the
people near to them, especially from the people they respect. They will be certain slang
used in pronouncing a word. This is especially true in a family, how the child calls their
parents is based on the first and repeatable name the parents repeated in front of them. It
is often in our culture to compete with our spouse to see who the child call first when
they learn to speak; so we keep repeating father and mother in front of them. Thus, in
different family the ways they say father and mother is different like papa for father or
mama for mother.




















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1.1 Rujukan
1. Carlson, NR., Buskist, W., Enzle, ME., Heth, CD. 2005. Psychology: The Science
of Behaviour (3rd ed.). Pearson Education Canada. 384.

2. McLeod, SA. 2011. "Bandura: Social learning theory". Simply Psychology.

























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2.0 What do schools need to do to prepare students for the 21st Century.

In the past, the education system was built for the manufacturing and agrarian economies
which is emphasizing on the Three Rs (reading, writing and arithmetic). But in todays
global society, having the Three Rs are insufficient. The new education system
nowadays gives great importance in the Four Cs (communicator, creator, critical
thinker and collaborators (Shames, 2012). Schools have to encourage educators to
complement all the subjects with the Four Cs to prepare the young people for the
global workforce.

In the 21
st
century, workforce skills and demands have changed from the routine work to
non-routine work which requires analytic skills and interactive skills. Thus, schools shall
equipped students with critical thinking ability and good communication skills so that
when the students are ready to walk into the working society; they will be able to interact
and compete with people from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds (Hanushek
et. al., 2008). Teaching critical thinking and problem solving in classroom is important
for students because this will subsequently leads them to develop other skills such as
building deeper analytical skills, better concentration and enhanced thought processing.
Educators shall provide students with situations where students need to figure out the
answers themselves. This will force them to see problems in different angles and
formulate their own solutions.

Communication skills are also important because it is a way of expressing own thoughts
clearly and it is important in articulating opinions. Other than that, if the students are
able to communicate well; they can give provide good instructions and motivating others
with powerful speech.

Schools shall cultivate collaborative skills between the students. This is important to
prepare the students to work effectively and respectfully in a diverse team. This skill
enables students to work flexibly and willingly to make necessary compromises to
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achieve a common goal (Trilling and Fadel, 2009). It also makes them share equal
responsibility and values the effort of other contributors towards the project. Educators
can divide students into groups to complete a project. In the project there will be break
down of several tasks where student is encourage to take on different roles within the
group for each task within the project. For example, the leader of a task will have the
role change to the designer of the team for the next task.

Creativity and innovation plays another vital part for students in the 21
st
century. Both
this skills enable students to create a wide range of new and worthwhile creations or
refine and reanalyze original ideas to improvise it. Other than the Four Cs, schools
have to cultivate agility and adaptability in students. Students shall be nurture to be
comfortable with the idea of change and be willing to adapt to the changing environment.

Schools shall also prepare students with leadership, accountability and productivity skills
(Pacific Policy Research Center, 2010). Leadership skill is important to inspire others by
example and lead individuals to work for the interest of the larger community. Whereas
accountability and productivity is vital to enable student to manage a project smoothly,
set and meet goals, prioritizing needs, work ethically and efficiently.






















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2.1 References :
1. Shames, A. 2012. The Four Cs of 21
st
Century Education. Available from:
http://blog.entrepreneurthearts.com/2010/05/06/the-four-cs-of-21st-century-
education/ [Accessed on: 2 March 2014].

2. Trilling and Fadel 2009. 21st Century Learning Skills. San Francisco, CA: John
Wiley & Sons.

3. Pacific Policy Research Center 2010. 21
st
Century Skills for students and
Teachers.Available.from:http://www.ksbe.edu/spi/PDFS/21%20century%20skills
%20full.pdf [Accessed on: 2 March 2014].

4. Hanushek, E., Jamison, DT., Jamison, EA., and Woessmann, L. (2008).
Education and Economic Growth. Education Next.
















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3.0 Technology is making communication easier in todays world, but at the expense of
personal contact as many people choose to work at home in front of a computer
screen. What dangers are there for a society which depends on computer screens
rather than face-to-face contact for its main means of communication?

In the 20
th
century, the advancement of technology has made communication and
interaction between people much easier and time saving. Nowadays, people prefer to look
at a screen to communicate which each other because they can be connected to people all
around the world not just within the neighbourhood.

However, a prolonged period of using highly developed technology such as computer
will cause high risk in health. This is due to prolonged hour sitting in front of a screen
which will subsequently causes spinal problem and backache (Victor, 2014). Moreover,
the eyes will be strand and tired and cause astigmatism. Another danger to health is
obesity because working at home using computers requires the person to sit most of the
time while working without the need to move around office area like walk, dress up, go
up and down the stairs (Glatter, 2012). When obesity starts to develop; it will slowly
triggers other physical illness such as heart disease.

Furthermore, some people will start to live a life without social contacts. This will lead
them to develop mental disorder by being delusional; they could not differentiate between
reality and virtual (Pies, 2009). They will develop illusions that they have millions of
friends out there which will be there for them at all times. In addition to it, people that
play online games will develop a mindset that they have special abilities and powers like
their hero in the game. Slowly they will not be able to differentiate between human and
fantasy because they are to absorb into the virtual game their playing and become
fascinated by the role play. An addiction to the games will also affect the health and
wellbeing of the individual because they spend prolonged time in front of the computer
screen and forgot about the daily routine of life like eating and going to toilet. When this
incident accumulated for a few days, it will cause high blood pressure and fatigue to the
body and ends up with death. This is proven in several news reports within this few years
where people die from playing online game for a long period of time.
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People that depend on computer screens and miss out on face to face contact will have
poor social skills (Cafferty, 2011). They cannot struck up a conversation with strangers
easily and interpret the body language of the other person. Consequently, this will lead to
them become less friendly and more stand-offish when meet up with others face to face.
They will also lose their personal attachment with other people like family members and
friends because they use instant messaging as a tool of communication rather than
personal interaction. The bonds form between family and friends will not be as strong as
personal interactions because we cannot feel the emotion and connection.

The help of computer has also cause poor literacy skills in younger generations. This is
due to the ways they text message their peers and families using broken and simplify
abbreviations. If this continues on, they will have a weak command of written skills due
to incorrect spelling of words and grammatical error.



















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3.1 References:
1. Glatter, R. 2012. Why Sitting at Work can be so deadly. Available from:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertglatter/2012/05/27/sitting-at-work-increases-
your-chance-of-dying/ [Accessed on 28 February 2014].

2. Pies, R. 2009. "Should DSM-V Designate Internet Addiction a Mental
Disorder?" Psychiatry. 6(2): 31-37.


3. Cafferty, J. 2011. Technology replacing Personal Interactions at What Cost?
Available from: http://caffertyfile.blogs.cnn.com/2011/01/03/technology-
replacing-personal-interactions-at-what-cost/ [Accessed on 1 March 2014].

4. Victor, M. 2014. Back Pain from Sitting at a Desk. Available from:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/140745-back-pain-from-sitting-desk/
[Accessed on 2 March 2014].















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4.0 Why is community service important in todays world?

Community service is a service or activity that is performed by an individual or a group
of people for the benefit of the public or an institution. There are several types of
community services such as requirement by the government as part of the citizenship
requirements or by courts.

Community service is beneficial for all because it provides an opportunity for each
individual to become active in the community and become a positive contributor to the
society. It gives a chance for the individual to give back to the community they live in.
Other than that, it also enables an individual to acquire new skills and knowledge as well
as provide service to others that is in need (Civic Literacy Project, 2005).

One of the importance of community service is it builds an individuals character. When
someone is involved in community service; they will learn communication skills with
people, organizational skills and team work (Billig, 2002). Communication skills with
people is important because throughout our life, we have to communicate with different
levels of people; being able to communicate and express ourselves well can help us deal
with others better (Brewster et. al., 1991). Moreover, community service enables an
individual to gain good values such as compassionate, humble, respect and care for
person in need. These values cannot be taught in classroom but can be instilled by
performing the actions.

Community service is like an eye opening experience for the young generations before
stepping out to the working world. They will gain important experience and skills which
will ease them into the working world and enable them to understand what was expected
of them at the place of employment (Smith, 1999). This will also enables them to take on
responsibility on their job position assigned where they learn to be punctual and perform
brilliantly. This will also develop their good work ethic as an adult. Other than that, it
gives them a great opportunity to build up connections with professional organization and
learn more about career options. This might enable them to get a job position upon
graduation. Another benefit of community service is uniting people from diverse
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background together for a common goal. It enables an individual to understand and gain a
better perspective of the people living in their own community.

In young adults, community service looks great in resume by making them stand out
from the crowd. Employers will be impressed with the involvement and contribution of
an individual towards their community. For example, if an individual that is interested in
health care field; he or she shall be volunteering in hospital or clinic because it shows that
their serious in the particular field and are keen in what he or she wants to accomplish.
Other than that, new skills are obtained from the hands on participation in community
service.

In some studies, it is proven that young individuals that are involved in community
service are less likely to act destructively or to abuse unhealthy substances such as drug.
In addition to it, they are more likely to go to college, graduate and vote.



















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4.1 References :

1. Civic Literacy Project. 2005. Available from: http://serve.indiana.edu/ [Accessed on
28 February 2014].

2. Billig, SH. 2002. The Impacts of Service-Learning on Youth, Schools and
Communities: Research on K-12 School-Based Service-Learning, 19901999.
Denver: RMC Research Corporation.


3. Brewster, M., Gillespie, JS., Burke, J., Hilt, S., Megyeri, K., Jokela, M. and Whittle,
DD. 1991. The English Journal. 80(6): 89-91.

4. Smith, SR. 1999. Comment: Volunteering and Community Service. Law and
Contemporary Problems. 62 (4).

















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5.0 Tourism is becoming increasingly important as a source of revenue for many
countries but its disadvantages should not be overlooked. What are some of the
disadvantages of tourism?

Tourism has become a source of income in our country and this becomes more significant
this year because it has been highlighted as the Visit Malaysia Year 2014.

One of the disadvantages of tourism is it gives a negative effect to our countrys own
cultures and values (Sharpley and Telfer, 2002). The influx of tourist causes the inflow of
a variety of new cultures and traditions which was slowly adapted to our own cultures
and values. This slow adaption causes the identity of our true cultures and values to
diminish through time.

Other than this, tourism causes destruction to the environment (Thullen, 1996). For
example, our islands; if it is frequently being visited by tourist, the beaches will become
polluted and over use. The sandy beaches will be stripped away from the coastline to
build new constructions like chalet on top of the sea water. In addition to it, the increase
in coastal development will contributes to global warming. The marine life will also be
endangered because some tourist might break the corals or feed harmful things to them
when they go for snorkelling or diving. The rubbishes like plastic bags thrown by tourist
into the sea or near the beach will cause death to marine creatures because they might
think the transparent plastic bags as food. The increase of speedboats transporting tourist
from land to island will cause pollution to the sea due to the fuel they use to start the
engine of the boats. In a long run, it will destroy the ecosystem of the environment and
discourage tourists from further entering the attraction. The booming of tourism will also
cause deforestation because more spaces are needed to build new infrastructure for
tourism activities. This will subsequently causes loss of habitat for the flora and fauna.

Tourism also causes the widespread of contagious disease from one country to another
(Wilson, 2003). An example of it is bird flu; normally the disease is originated from a
country and would not spread to the other parts of the contingent but because a tourist
caught the disease in their home country and when they travel they bring the virus to the
country they are visiting. The virus has an opportunity to sprout in other contingents.
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Another disadvantage of tourism is the effect on social life (Mirbabayevm and
Shagazatova, 2002). For example traffic and pedestrian congestion, drugs trafficking,
prostitution and crimes. Furthermore, the living expenses will also increase in areas
frequent by tourist because tourist pays more for local goods. Foreign investor will invest
in the properties such as hotels and holiday homes in tourist hotspots causing the house
prices to increase and become too expensive to the locals.

Tourism has been said to provide job opportunities for the local community but this often
true for the seasonal job positions (Kreag, 2001). This positions are poorly paid and only
be available during the peak seasons. Moreover, these positions are all low skilled with
unsatisfactory working conditions whereas the management levels positions are
employed with foreign people which were brought in by the huge international
companies to run the business.



















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5.1 References:

1. Kreag, G. 2001. The Impact of Tourism. Minnesota Sea Grant, T13.

2. Mirbabayevm, B. and Shagazatova, M. 2002. The Economic and Social Impact of
Tourism.Availablefrom: http://www.grips.ac.jp/alumni/UzbekistanTourism(2).pdf
[Accessed on 1 March 2014].


3. Wilson, ME. 2003. The traveller and emerging infections: sentinel, courier,
transmitter. Journal of Applied Microbiology. 94:1S11S.

4. Thullen, SA. 1996. Tourism and its Impacts on the Environment. Available from:
http://www1.american.edu/ted/projects/tedcross/xtour8.htm [Accessed on 28
February 2014].


5. Sharpley, R. and Telfer, DJ. 2002. Tourism and Development: Concepts and
Issues. Great Britain: Cambrian Printers Ltd.