Critical Analysis of International Negotiation between Israel and Gaza Essay

Critical Analysis of International Negotiation between Israel and Gaza in 2008-2009 - Essay Example It has been reported that they Qassam rockets have been launched over Israel over three thousand times in 2008. However, principle leaders of Hamas have been enraged by the continuing blockades which Israel have maintained and the lack of any significant political movement made by the agreement from June to December, therefore increased the number of rockets launched over Israel yet again. In response Israel instigated a counter-attack against Hamas, with a combination of air attack and naval attack on the Gaza Strip, ending with more than three hundred and fifty people dead, almost fifteen hundred injured and many buildings ruined. In further retaliation, Hamas leader declared that they would increase the amount of rockets launched, and send into Israel more suicide bombers (Taylor, 2008). On the 27th December air attacks over the Gaza Stripe, initiated by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), found target with over forty hits on Hamas headquarters, buildings and stores. This was the dea dliest day in the sixty years that this war has been raging between Israel and Palestine. These events ignited protests in and around both these countries (Global Voices, 2008). Since the attack on 27th December by Hamas who broke the cease-fire by launching Qassam rockets over their territory, Israel have stated that they then had no alternative but to fight back by declaring hostilities on Gaza in retaliation. The Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, stated that they had attempted all they could in order to halt an offensive attack (Niva, 2009). Niva (2009) however, argues that these sentiments are extensively in opposition with the reality that Israel’s political, and also military leadership took several forceful moves throughout the cease-fire which made worse the crisis with Hamas, and may have even motivated Hamas to generate an excuse for the attack. Therefore, Niva (2009) believes that the current war that is now raging at the beginning of 2009, between

Customer Relationship Management in Banking

Customer Relationship Management in Banking ABSTRACT Today the world is globalized and customers are well educated and well informed. This has increased the competition among the firms and organisations. The competition elevates the customer bargaining power and switching power to choose the best product and service. Therefore customer relationship has become a focus of importance to all the companies in order to retain the customer as well as maximize revenues. Today marketing is no more developing, delivering and selling of goods and services, it is moving towards developing and maintaining long term relationship with customers. Therefore relationship marketing has making its important in all the business sectors so as in financial services. Customers Relationship Management creates the opportunity through which the banks can benefit by developing good relationships with their customers. The aim of the project is to gain a better understanding how the CRM has benefited both the bank as well as its customers. This research also aims to identify how critically CRM has been practiced in Lloyds Banking Group, analysis the data mining process of Lloyds Banking Group, to find out the customer segmentation procedure of the bank to analysis the customer retaining strategy of the bank, to find out how does the bank measure customer life time value and to verify the relationship between the customers and the Lloyds Banking Group. To validate the purpose of the project has addressed to set of questionnaires, one is for Lloyds Banking Groups employees and other is for customers of the bank. The literature review has also help to understand the answer for the research questions. Both the quantitative as well as qualitative data collection techniques have been adopted namely, survey questionnaire and semi-structure interviews. Some data has also collected through interview of Lloy ds employee and a group of their customers. Lloyds use CRM as an effective business strategy to classify the most profitable customers for bank. And accordingly bank gives priorities those customers through individualized marketing, reprising, flexible conclusion building and modify service-all delivered through a variety of sales channels that the bank use. Researcher has found that Lloyds is conducting a campaign management by using data mining task. This campaign helps to make crucial business decisions by exacting suitable, beforehand strange and ultimately logical and actionable awareness from huge databases. Researcher also has suggested suitable recommendations to the bank to improve the CRM practice in Lloyds Banking Group. 1.0 INTRODUCTION This chapter provides the brief introduction of research. Furthermore, it also discusses the aims, objectives of the research questions and scope of the study. 1.1 TOPIC OF THE RESEARCH Customer Relationship Management of Lloyds Banking Group PLC; A Critical Evaluation 1.2 INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH Peter Drucker said, â€Å"The purpose of a business is to create customers†. Customer Relationship Management can be the single strongest weapon we have as manage to ensure that customers become and remain loyal. Customer Relationship Management (CRM), is an vital division of modern business organization. CRM concern the relation between the organisations along with its consumers. Consumers are the means of support of any business in a universal business with thousands of workforce and a multi-billion earnings, or a single broker with a handful of standard consumers. CRM is the same in principle for both examples. Globalization and technology improvements have pushed companies into hard competition. In this new era organisations are targeting on managing customer relationships, mainly customer satisfaction, in order to maximize revenues (Constantinos 2003). Today, marketing is not just developing, delivering and selling; it is shifting towards developing and maintaining equally long term relationships with customers (Buttle, 1996). This new business values is called relationship marketing (RM), which has involved significant interest both from marketing academics and practitioners (Gronroos, 1994). The Greek philosopher, Epictetus said that â€Å"what concern me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are† (Szwarch, 2005, p.3). The concepts of consumer satisfaction were depending on the thinking of consumer. Research suggests that customer satisfaction, basic concept of relationship marketing, is important in achieving and retaining competitive advantage. Research studies have discovered that retaining current customers is much less expensive than attracting new customers (Desatnick, 1988; Stone et al., 1996; Bitran and Mondschein, 1997; Chattopadhyay, 2001; Massey et al., 2001). The best way to retain customers is to keep them satisfied, a number of studies have shown that customer satisfaction can guide to brand loyalty, repurchases intention and repeat sales (Day, 1984; Swan and Oliver, 1989; Oliver, 1999). Customer retention, in turn, seems to be related to profitability (Oliver, 1999). Relationship marketing is becoming significant in financial services (Zineldin, 1995). If a bank develops and sustains a solid relationship with its customers, its competitors cannot easily replace them and so this relationship provides for a continued competitive advantage (Gilbert, 2003). Moriarty et al. (1983) has suggested relationship concept in the banking sector which states that banks can increase their profits by maximising the profitability of the total customer relationship over time, instead of looking for to get more profit from any single transaction. Perrien et al. (1992) observed severe competitive pressures that forces financial institution to restructure their marketing strategies by developing into long-term relationship with customers. And banking industry purely related to financial services, which needs to create the trust among the people. This research is exploratory in nature and design. The data which is collected is going to be mostly primary data collected from the relevant persons within the bank. The data has gathered from the face to face interviews with the help of structured and semi-structured questionnaire with those persons. The above describe interviews has last 40 (fourty) to 45 (fourty five) minutes (approx). On the other hand the researcher has decided to collect primary data from random interviews of Lloyds Banking Groups customers. Sample size is around 200 customers and of structured questionnaire. But of course this research paper has relied on reviewing the various secondary data available from various researches such as books, magazines, website, previous research and publication etc. The collected data has been analysed by graphs, table and pi chart drawn from Microsoft excel. 1.3 AIM OF THE RESEARCH The aim of the research is to study why CRM is important in bank, how the CRM works in banks and also the effectiveness of Lloyds Banking Group in obtaining long term customer relationship, customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction by the use of CRM. And also suggest feasible recommendations to Lloyds Banking Group to increase the customer satisfaction and market share by the effective use of CRM. 1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH The followings are the objectives of this research; To study how critically practised in Lloyds Banking Group Analysis the data mining process of Lloyds Banking Group To find out how the bank segments their customers To analysis how the bank retaining their customers To find out how does the bank measure customer Life Time Value To verify the relationship between the customers and the Lloyds Banking Group 1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY The scope of the study and research work has limited to Lloyds Banking Group only. This chosen level of aspects has stayed at large in the study so that it can be studied well and analyzed thoroughly to get a deeper understanding. Trying to cover too much ground may lead to a very superficial and confused analysis and may involve long time duration to complete the project work or report. Therefore a specified and narrow down approach with Lloyds Banking Group and an evaluation of its success has comprised with the researchers scope of the study to avoid confused analysis and a weaker report. 1.6 OUTLINE OF THE SUBSEQUENT CHAPTERS Chapter 1; INTODUCTION This chapter provides the brief introduction of the research. Furthermore, it also discusses the aims, objectives of the research questions and scope of the learning. CHAPTER 2; LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter determines the theoretical issues relating to CRM which is relevant to the research. CHAPTER 3; METHODOLOGY This episode discusses about primary and secondary methods of research used by the researcher. CHAPTER 4; CONTEXT Chapter 4 deals with the information about Lloyds Banking Group. CHAPTER 5; FINDINGS This chapter deals with the result of primary data. CHAPTER 6; ANALYSIS Analysis part deals with findings in the context of literature review in chapter 2. CHAPTER 7; CONCLUSION This chapter includes the overall conclusion of the research. This chapter produce the conclusion compared and contrasted with the finding of the research and the literature review. It summarises the aims and key findings and acknowledges the limitation of the works. CHAPTER 8; RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter is the last chapter of the research. This chapter provide the recommendation for the managerial implication in the Lloyds Banking Group. At the end, chapter provide recommendation for the future research. CHAPTER 9; REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY This chapter includes a systematic list of books, web site and other works such as journal, magazine etc which have been used as secondary data or as reference in this research. CHAPTER 10; APPENDICES This chapter contain all questionnaires and some graphs, chart and tables which have been made on the basis of customer survey. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter contains a review of literature relevant to the research. This literature review deals with, about CRM, the history and goals of an integrated banking CRM, the technological factor of CRM, the process cycle in banks, data warehouse technology, data mining process, how to analysis the data, customer segmentation process, communication strategies of bank to the customers etc. 2.1 CUSTOMER RELATIONSIP MANAGEMENT Existing research states that ‘relationships are the base to the successful development and edition of new business viewpoint, though business have taken care of relationships with their customers for many centuries (Gronroos, 1994). Sheth and Parvathiyar, (1995) said that relationships demand much more than mere transactions. Rather, they symbolize strategic and tactical issues based on a new philosophical move that geared in the direction of long-term organisation survival. According to Storbacka, (1994) relationship marketing got popular in 1990s but it has a long history under different names. In its starting, one-to-one marketing appeared in the mid 1990s, which transformed into Customer Relationship Management. Parvatiyar and Sheth gave a static definition of CRM. â€Å"Customer Relationship Management is widespread tactic and process of acquire, retaining and partnering with careful consumers to create better-quality value for the business and the consumer† (Parvatiyar and Sheth 2000, p.6) 2.2 THE HISTORY AND GOALS OF AN INTEGRATED BANKING CRM According to Puccinelli (1999) the financial services industry as entering a new era where personal attention is decreasing because the institutions are using technology to replace human contact in many application areas. Sherif, 2002 advocated that, now global changes brought new trends, directions and new ways of doing business, which also brought new challenges and opportunities to financial institutions. In order to complete with newly increasing competitive pressures, financial institutions must recognize the need of balancing their performance by achieving their strategic goals and meeting continues volatile customer needs requirements. Different ways must be analyzed to meet customer needs. Foss said that banks are highly focusing on CRM for the last five years that is expected to continue. According to Peter (1998) and Chablo (1999) the main goals of an effective integrated CRM solution in the banking sector are to enable financial institutes to; Widen customer relationship through acquiring new customers, identifying and targeting new segments and expanding in new markets. Lengthen the existing relationship developing longer term relationships, increasing perceived value of products and introducing new products and Deepen the relationship with customers initiating the cross selling and up selling opportunities, understanding the propensity of different customer segments to purchase and increase sales. The implementation if CRM system in a bank helps the business organisation to obtain a complete picture of their existing customers, design both customer-oriented and market-driven financial products and services, as well as implement extensive and reliable financial marketing research and efficient campaigns, to achieve and enhance customer loyalty and profitability. The above goals can be achieved through the seamless integration of information technology solutions and business objectives at every process of the bank business that affects the customer. 2.3 THE PHASES OF CRM The main phases of CRM are as follows; Customer selection or Segmentation According to Dave Chaffey (2009), customer selection is defining the types of customers that a company will market to. It means identifying different groups of customers for which to develop offerings and to target during acquisition, retention and extension. Different ways of segmenting customers by value and by their detailed lifecycle with the customer are reviewed. Many companies are now only proactively marketing to favoured customers. Seth Godin (1999), says â€Å"Focus on share of customer, not market share fire 70 per cent customers and watch your profits go up!† According to Efraim Turban (2008), the most sophisticated segmentation and targeting schemes for extension of customers are often used by banks, which have full customer information and acquire history data as they search for to boost Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) through encouraging increased use of products overtime. The segmentation approach used by banks is based on five main basics which in result are covered on top of each other. The amount of options used, and therefore the complexity of approach, will depend on resources obtainable, opportunities, capabilities and technology afforded by catalog. i. Identify customer lifecycle groups When guests use online services then they basically pass those seven or more stages. The organisations have clear these segments and establish the CRM infrastructure to categories customers in this manner; then they deliver focused messages, whichever by modified web messaging or by e-mails that are triggered routinely because of various rules. First-time guests recognized by a cookie placed on their PC. When guests registered, they are tracked through the residual stages. The customers who have purchased one or more products are one particular important group. The key challenge is for a company to encourage a customer to shift from the first product to the second and then go on. Explicit offers can be try to push customer for further products. In the same way, when customers turn into an inactive then the customer required follow-up. ii. Identify customer profit characteristics This is a conventional segmentation which is based on the nature of customer. For Business 2 Business Companies it includes sex, age and geography. It includes volume of the organisation and the type of sector or application, the organisation operates in. iii. Identify behaviour in response and purchase As shown in figure 2.2 through analysis of data base when customer progress through the lifecycle, company is capable to build up a detail reaction and buy history which judges the details of frequency, recency, group of product buy and monetary value. This approach is known as ‘RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary value) analysis. iv. Identify multi-channel behaviour In spite of of the eagerness of the company for online channels, various customers are chosen for using online channels and others customers are chosen conventional channels. This is an degree, be indicated by RFM and rejoinder examination since customers with a preference for an online channel is more reactive and make more use online. Customer who likes online channels is focused mostly by online communications such as e-mail, but when customer like conventional channels is focused by conventional communications such as direct mail or phone. This is known as ‘right-channelling. v. Tone and style preference In a same way to channel liking, customers are respond in their own way to various types of message. Some customers like rational application, in that time a detailed e-mail may work best. On the other hand some customers are preferred an emotional appeal. Companies are test for this in customers or conclude it using profit description and response performance and then expand various inventive treatments consequently. 2. Customer acquisition Processes used to add new customer. According to Turban (2008), customer acquisition refers to marketing activities intended to form relationship with new customers while reducing acquisition cost and targeting high-value customers. Service value and selecting the right path for various customers are essential at this stage and during the lifecycle. The conventional manner to customer acquisition include a marketing manager developing a blend of mass marketing (billboards, magazine advertisements etc.) and direct marketing (mail, telephone, etc.) campaigns based on their knowledge of the particular customer base that was being focussed. Marketing campaign trying to pressure new customers to buy a particular type of diapers, the mass marketing ads might be determined in parenting magazines. The advertisements could also be positioned in more conventional publications whose readership demographics were alike to those of new parents. Customer acquisition is comparatively similar to mass marketing. A marketing manager selects the demographics that they are involved in and after that works with a data vendor to obtain lists of buyers who meet those features. The data vendors have large database holding millions of eventual customers that can be segment based on explicit demographic criteria. The idea of â€Å"similar demographics† has conventionally been an art rather than a science. Usually there are not hard-and-fast systems about whether two groups of buyers share the similar features. Most of the segmentation that took place in conventional direct marketing involves hunches on the division of the marketing professional. 3. Customer retention Dafe Chaffey 2009 said that customer retention refers to the marketing actions taken by a company to keep its current customers. Identifying applicable offerings based on their personal needs and complete position in the customer lifecycle (e.g. purchase value or number) is key. Customer retention strategy aims to keep a high percentage of valuable customers and a customer development strategy aims to boost the value of those retained customer to the organisation. Customer retention is based on customer loyalty. And customer loyalty is the point to which a customer will continue with a specific brand or vendor. Customer acquisition to retain and extend create long-term customer relationship. We need to calculate customer satisfaction, as satisfaction drives loyalty and loyalty drives profitability. This relationship is exposed below; The marketers aim is to push customers up the curve towards the affection zone. But the majority are not in that zone. Marketers must understand to achieve retention,why customers defers or are indifferent. 4. Customer extension This technique is encouraging customers to increase their involvement with a company. According to Turban 2008, customer extension is increasing the range of products that a customer buys from an organisation. Sometime it is referred ‘customer development. Increasing the lifetime value (CLV) of a customer is the main objective of customer extension by encouraging cross-sell. For example a customer of Egg credit card may be offered the loan or a deposit account. There are many of customer extension technique for CRM as follows; Re-sell: same type of products to existing customers-particular vital in some Business 2 Business background as re-buys or modified re-buys. Cross-sell: sell extra products which may be closely related to the original buy. Up-sell: this is mean, selling more expensive products. Reactivation: Customers who have purchased for some time or have lapsed can be encouraged to buy again. Referrals: generating sells from recommendation from existing customers. 2.4 CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE MODELLING Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is also an important theory and practise of CRM. But the calculation of CLV is not straightforward. There are so many company, they do not calculate it. According to Dave Chaffey (2009) â€Å"Lifetime value is the total net benefits that a customer or group of customers will provide a company over their total relationship with the company†. CLV is based on estimating the income and costs related with each customer over a phase of time and then calculating the net present value in present monetary terms using a discount rate value applied over the stage. Efraim Turban (2006) said there is various scale of complexity in calculating LTC. Those are exposed in figure 2.6. Option 1 is a realistic way or estimated proxy for future LTV, but the true LTV is the future value of the customer at individual level. CLV modelling at a segment level 4 is crucial within marketing since it answers the question; How much can I afford to invest in acquiring a new customer? Lifetime value analysis helps marketers to: Create the true value of a companys customer base Recognize and compare crucial target segment Calculate the effectiveness of another customer retention strategy Plan and calculate investment in customer acquisition programmes Make decisions about product and offers Figure 2.7 gives an example of how LTV can be used to develop a CRM strategy for different customer groups. There are 4 (four) main types of customers are indicated by their present and future value as bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Separate customers groupings (circles) are recognized according to their current value (as indicated by current profitability) and future value as indicated by CLV calculation. Every group will have a customer segmentation based on their demographics. Therefore this is used for customer selection. Within the four main value groupings, there are various strategies are developed for various customer groups. Few bronze customers such as group A and B practically do not have development potential and are usually unprofitable, therefore the objective is to reduce costs in communications and if they do not stay as customers this is acceptable. Some bronze customers like group C may have potential for growth; therefore for group C the strategy is to extend their purchases. Silver customers are focused with customer extension offer and gold customers are extended. Platinum customers are the best customers; therefore the communication is very important with these customers. 2.5 THE TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS OF CRM According to Davenport and Short, (1990); Porter, (1987) ‘information technology is an enabler to thoroughly redesign business process to achieve improvements in organisational performance. ‘Information Technology help helps a business process by facilitating changes to job practices and establishing new techniques to link a customer with organisations, suppliers and stakeholders (Hammer and Champy, 1993). Eckerson and Watson (2000) advocated that ‘CRM take full advantage of technology to collect and analyze data on customer patters, expand predictive models, interpret customer behaviour, proper respond with communications, and deliver product and service to individual customers. By using technology a business can generate a 360 degree view of consumers to find out from past interactions to optimize future ones. Peppard (2000) said that ‘the leading factors in CRM development are improvement in set of connections communications, client/server compute, and business cleverness application. CRM collect, store, maintain and distribute customer knowledge all over the organisation. The effectual management of information has a vital role to play in CRM. In the case of scheming customer duration importance, consolidated view, product tailoring and facility improvement, the information is essential. Along with data warehouses, enterprise resource planning (ERP) organization and the internet are the vital infrastructures to CRM application. Fickel (1999) said ‘CRM application links front office (e.g. marketing, sales and customer service) and back office (e.g. financial, logistics, operations and human resources) functions with the businesses customer contact point. A companys touch point is â€Å"all of the communication, human and physical interactions your customers experience during their relationship lifecycle with your organisation. Whether an commercial, Web-site, sales individual, store or office, finger points are vital because customers from perceptions of your organisation and brand based on their cumulative experiences† (Source; http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/4508.imc at 16/10/2009 on 15:25) According to Eckerson and Watson (2000), ‘CRM integrated touch points is something like a common view of the customer. A separate information systems controlled these touch points. Figure 2.8 demonstrates the correlation between customer touch point with back and front office operations Peppers and Rogres, (1999) said ‘In many companies, CRM is just a technology solution that extends divide databases and sales force automation tools to link sales and marketing functions in order to develop targeting efforts. On the other hand some organisations consider CRM as a tool that is exclusively designed for one-to-one relationship. According to Goldenberg (2000) ‘CRM is not just a tools application for sales, marketing and service, but when CRM completely and successfully implemented, customer-driven, a cross-functional, technology-integrated commerce process management scheme that improves relationships and encompasses the whole organisation. 2.6 DATA WAREHOUSE TECHNOLOGY According to Watson (2000) ‘data warehouse is a tools of information technology management that helps business decision makers to instant access of information of customer data throughout the organisation by combining all database and operational systems like sales and transaction, human resource, inventory, purchasing, financial and marketing system. Data warehouse pull out, clean, convert and manage large volumes of data from various systems and creating a historical record of all customer. Data warehousing technology is the most crucial part of CRM because it makes CRM possible. Shepard et al. (1998) said ‘a better understanding of customer behaviour is possible because data warehousing technology consolidates correlates and convert customer data into customer intelligence. Thoughts of customers and their buying pattern can improve information relating to customer service interactions, bill and account status, back orders, product returns, product delivery, and internal operating cost. The capacity of a data storehouse to store hundreds and thousands of gigabytes of data compose an analysis feasible as well as immediate. Organisational benefits with a data warehouse are as follows; exact and faster access of information bad and duplicate data eliminate by quality data and filtering customer profiling and retention modelling it compute total present importance and approximate future value of every customer it gives detail report 2.7 DATA MINING TECHNOLOGY Peppers and Rogres, (1999) said that ‘the first analytical step of data mining is to describe the data. Data mining summarize its statistical attributes like standard deviations and means, visually review it by use of charts and graphs and distributes the value of the field in our data. But alone data description can not provide an action plan. We have to build a analytical model based on pattern determined from known output and after that we have to test the model on result outside the original sample. An ideal model must never be puzzled with reality, but it is useful guide to understanding our businesses. According to Eckerson and Watson (2000) ‘we can use data mining for both classification and regression problems. In first problem we can predict what type something will fall into. In second problems we are predicting a number like prospect that a person will react to an recommend. In CRM process, data mining is often used to allocate a score to a particular customer. Data mining is also often using to recognize a set of characteristics, which is called profile. Data mining segments customers in to groups with similar behaviour like purchasing a particular product. 2.8 THE CRM PROCESS CYCLE IN BANKS Pound (2000) said that exploration and alteration process should be done by the banks on basis of customer information captured; this shows the full value of CRM initiatives. Banks set up a closed CRM cycle with the help of an integrated CRM solution, which composed of a set of continuous iterative process. It manages the whole customer related process for bank, analysing customer profile, customer data and life time value, which is helping to making marketing decision and optimizing the execution of marketing campaigns, customer service strategies and sales strategies across various channels during the bank. According to Professor Constantin Zopounidis (2002) CRM process cycle is based on a generic business view. It presents a continuous improvement of value between customers and banks across touch points. Pound 2000 said that ‘recent banking data sources are extremely heterogeneous. Geographic information is dispersed due to continual acquisitions, mergers and reorganizations. For example a bank might use web site, ATMs, e-mail, sales, call centres and marketing automation applications that must be integrated in a unified environment of CRM banking. An effective multi-channels customer interface will not be possible without a centrally integrated warehouse driving the entire CRM process cycle. This should be update real time. The historical data should be recorded by it, which is used to create propensity models and customer life time value models to recognize past behaviour and action in order to take future marketing strategy. 2.9 CUSTOMER DATA COLLECTION Kristin Anderson Carol Kerr (2002), said that in banki Customer Relationship Management in Banking Customer Relationship Management in Banking ABSTRACT Today the world is globalized and customers are well educated and well informed. This has increased the competition among the firms and organisations. The competition elevates the customer bargaining power and switching power to choose the best product and service. Therefore customer relationship has become a focus of importance to all the companies in order to retain the customer as well as maximize revenues. Today marketing is no more developing, delivering and selling of goods and services, it is moving towards developing and maintaining long term relationship with customers. Therefore relationship marketing has making its important in all the business sectors so as in financial services. Customers Relationship Management creates the opportunity through which the banks can benefit by developing good relationships with their customers. The aim of the project is to gain a better understanding how the CRM has benefited both the bank as well as its customers. This research also aims to identify how critically CRM has been practiced in Lloyds Banking Group, analysis the data mining process of Lloyds Banking Group, to find out the customer segmentation procedure of the bank to analysis the customer retaining strategy of the bank, to find out how does the bank measure customer life time value and to verify the relationship between the customers and the Lloyds Banking Group. To validate the purpose of the project has addressed to set of questionnaires, one is for Lloyds Banking Groups employees and other is for customers of the bank. The literature review has also help to understand the answer for the research questions. Both the quantitative as well as qualitative data collection techniques have been adopted namely, survey questionnaire and semi-structure interviews. Some data has also collected through interview of Lloy ds employee and a group of their customers. Lloyds use CRM as an effective business strategy to classify the most profitable customers for bank. And accordingly bank gives priorities those customers through individualized marketing, reprising, flexible conclusion building and modify service-all delivered through a variety of sales channels that the bank use. Researcher has found that Lloyds is conducting a campaign management by using data mining task. This campaign helps to make crucial business decisions by exacting suitable, beforehand strange and ultimately logical and actionable awareness from huge databases. Researcher also has suggested suitable recommendations to the bank to improve the CRM practice in Lloyds Banking Group. 1.0 INTRODUCTION This chapter provides the brief introduction of research. Furthermore, it also discusses the aims, objectives of the research questions and scope of the study. 1.1 TOPIC OF THE RESEARCH Customer Relationship Management of Lloyds Banking Group PLC; A Critical Evaluation 1.2 INTRODUCTION TO RESEARCH Peter Drucker said, â€Å"The purpose of a business is to create customers†. Customer Relationship Management can be the single strongest weapon we have as manage to ensure that customers become and remain loyal. Customer Relationship Management (CRM), is an vital division of modern business organization. CRM concern the relation between the organisations along with its consumers. Consumers are the means of support of any business in a universal business with thousands of workforce and a multi-billion earnings, or a single broker with a handful of standard consumers. CRM is the same in principle for both examples. Globalization and technology improvements have pushed companies into hard competition. In this new era organisations are targeting on managing customer relationships, mainly customer satisfaction, in order to maximize revenues (Constantinos 2003). Today, marketing is not just developing, delivering and selling; it is shifting towards developing and maintaining equally long term relationships with customers (Buttle, 1996). This new business values is called relationship marketing (RM), which has involved significant interest both from marketing academics and practitioners (Gronroos, 1994). The Greek philosopher, Epictetus said that â€Å"what concern me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are† (Szwarch, 2005, p.3). The concepts of consumer satisfaction were depending on the thinking of consumer. Research suggests that customer satisfaction, basic concept of relationship marketing, is important in achieving and retaining competitive advantage. Research studies have discovered that retaining current customers is much less expensive than attracting new customers (Desatnick, 1988; Stone et al., 1996; Bitran and Mondschein, 1997; Chattopadhyay, 2001; Massey et al., 2001). The best way to retain customers is to keep them satisfied, a number of studies have shown that customer satisfaction can guide to brand loyalty, repurchases intention and repeat sales (Day, 1984; Swan and Oliver, 1989; Oliver, 1999). Customer retention, in turn, seems to be related to profitability (Oliver, 1999). Relationship marketing is becoming significant in financial services (Zineldin, 1995). If a bank develops and sustains a solid relationship with its customers, its competitors cannot easily replace them and so this relationship provides for a continued competitive advantage (Gilbert, 2003). Moriarty et al. (1983) has suggested relationship concept in the banking sector which states that banks can increase their profits by maximising the profitability of the total customer relationship over time, instead of looking for to get more profit from any single transaction. Perrien et al. (1992) observed severe competitive pressures that forces financial institution to restructure their marketing strategies by developing into long-term relationship with customers. And banking industry purely related to financial services, which needs to create the trust among the people. This research is exploratory in nature and design. The data which is collected is going to be mostly primary data collected from the relevant persons within the bank. The data has gathered from the face to face interviews with the help of structured and semi-structured questionnaire with those persons. The above describe interviews has last 40 (fourty) to 45 (fourty five) minutes (approx). On the other hand the researcher has decided to collect primary data from random interviews of Lloyds Banking Groups customers. Sample size is around 200 customers and of structured questionnaire. But of course this research paper has relied on reviewing the various secondary data available from various researches such as books, magazines, website, previous research and publication etc. The collected data has been analysed by graphs, table and pi chart drawn from Microsoft excel. 1.3 AIM OF THE RESEARCH The aim of the research is to study why CRM is important in bank, how the CRM works in banks and also the effectiveness of Lloyds Banking Group in obtaining long term customer relationship, customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction by the use of CRM. And also suggest feasible recommendations to Lloyds Banking Group to increase the customer satisfaction and market share by the effective use of CRM. 1.4 OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCH The followings are the objectives of this research; To study how critically practised in Lloyds Banking Group Analysis the data mining process of Lloyds Banking Group To find out how the bank segments their customers To analysis how the bank retaining their customers To find out how does the bank measure customer Life Time Value To verify the relationship between the customers and the Lloyds Banking Group 1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY The scope of the study and research work has limited to Lloyds Banking Group only. This chosen level of aspects has stayed at large in the study so that it can be studied well and analyzed thoroughly to get a deeper understanding. Trying to cover too much ground may lead to a very superficial and confused analysis and may involve long time duration to complete the project work or report. Therefore a specified and narrow down approach with Lloyds Banking Group and an evaluation of its success has comprised with the researchers scope of the study to avoid confused analysis and a weaker report. 1.6 OUTLINE OF THE SUBSEQUENT CHAPTERS Chapter 1; INTODUCTION This chapter provides the brief introduction of the research. Furthermore, it also discusses the aims, objectives of the research questions and scope of the learning. CHAPTER 2; LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter determines the theoretical issues relating to CRM which is relevant to the research. CHAPTER 3; METHODOLOGY This episode discusses about primary and secondary methods of research used by the researcher. CHAPTER 4; CONTEXT Chapter 4 deals with the information about Lloyds Banking Group. CHAPTER 5; FINDINGS This chapter deals with the result of primary data. CHAPTER 6; ANALYSIS Analysis part deals with findings in the context of literature review in chapter 2. CHAPTER 7; CONCLUSION This chapter includes the overall conclusion of the research. This chapter produce the conclusion compared and contrasted with the finding of the research and the literature review. It summarises the aims and key findings and acknowledges the limitation of the works. CHAPTER 8; RECOMMENDATIONS This chapter is the last chapter of the research. This chapter provide the recommendation for the managerial implication in the Lloyds Banking Group. At the end, chapter provide recommendation for the future research. CHAPTER 9; REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY This chapter includes a systematic list of books, web site and other works such as journal, magazine etc which have been used as secondary data or as reference in this research. CHAPTER 10; APPENDICES This chapter contain all questionnaires and some graphs, chart and tables which have been made on the basis of customer survey. 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter contains a review of literature relevant to the research. This literature review deals with, about CRM, the history and goals of an integrated banking CRM, the technological factor of CRM, the process cycle in banks, data warehouse technology, data mining process, how to analysis the data, customer segmentation process, communication strategies of bank to the customers etc. 2.1 CUSTOMER RELATIONSIP MANAGEMENT Existing research states that ‘relationships are the base to the successful development and edition of new business viewpoint, though business have taken care of relationships with their customers for many centuries (Gronroos, 1994). Sheth and Parvathiyar, (1995) said that relationships demand much more than mere transactions. Rather, they symbolize strategic and tactical issues based on a new philosophical move that geared in the direction of long-term organisation survival. According to Storbacka, (1994) relationship marketing got popular in 1990s but it has a long history under different names. In its starting, one-to-one marketing appeared in the mid 1990s, which transformed into Customer Relationship Management. Parvatiyar and Sheth gave a static definition of CRM. â€Å"Customer Relationship Management is widespread tactic and process of acquire, retaining and partnering with careful consumers to create better-quality value for the business and the consumer† (Parvatiyar and Sheth 2000, p.6) 2.2 THE HISTORY AND GOALS OF AN INTEGRATED BANKING CRM According to Puccinelli (1999) the financial services industry as entering a new era where personal attention is decreasing because the institutions are using technology to replace human contact in many application areas. Sherif, 2002 advocated that, now global changes brought new trends, directions and new ways of doing business, which also brought new challenges and opportunities to financial institutions. In order to complete with newly increasing competitive pressures, financial institutions must recognize the need of balancing their performance by achieving their strategic goals and meeting continues volatile customer needs requirements. Different ways must be analyzed to meet customer needs. Foss said that banks are highly focusing on CRM for the last five years that is expected to continue. According to Peter (1998) and Chablo (1999) the main goals of an effective integrated CRM solution in the banking sector are to enable financial institutes to; Widen customer relationship through acquiring new customers, identifying and targeting new segments and expanding in new markets. Lengthen the existing relationship developing longer term relationships, increasing perceived value of products and introducing new products and Deepen the relationship with customers initiating the cross selling and up selling opportunities, understanding the propensity of different customer segments to purchase and increase sales. The implementation if CRM system in a bank helps the business organisation to obtain a complete picture of their existing customers, design both customer-oriented and market-driven financial products and services, as well as implement extensive and reliable financial marketing research and efficient campaigns, to achieve and enhance customer loyalty and profitability. The above goals can be achieved through the seamless integration of information technology solutions and business objectives at every process of the bank business that affects the customer. 2.3 THE PHASES OF CRM The main phases of CRM are as follows; Customer selection or Segmentation According to Dave Chaffey (2009), customer selection is defining the types of customers that a company will market to. It means identifying different groups of customers for which to develop offerings and to target during acquisition, retention and extension. Different ways of segmenting customers by value and by their detailed lifecycle with the customer are reviewed. Many companies are now only proactively marketing to favoured customers. Seth Godin (1999), says â€Å"Focus on share of customer, not market share fire 70 per cent customers and watch your profits go up!† According to Efraim Turban (2008), the most sophisticated segmentation and targeting schemes for extension of customers are often used by banks, which have full customer information and acquire history data as they search for to boost Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) through encouraging increased use of products overtime. The segmentation approach used by banks is based on five main basics which in result are covered on top of each other. The amount of options used, and therefore the complexity of approach, will depend on resources obtainable, opportunities, capabilities and technology afforded by catalog. i. Identify customer lifecycle groups When guests use online services then they basically pass those seven or more stages. The organisations have clear these segments and establish the CRM infrastructure to categories customers in this manner; then they deliver focused messages, whichever by modified web messaging or by e-mails that are triggered routinely because of various rules. First-time guests recognized by a cookie placed on their PC. When guests registered, they are tracked through the residual stages. The customers who have purchased one or more products are one particular important group. The key challenge is for a company to encourage a customer to shift from the first product to the second and then go on. Explicit offers can be try to push customer for further products. In the same way, when customers turn into an inactive then the customer required follow-up. ii. Identify customer profit characteristics This is a conventional segmentation which is based on the nature of customer. For Business 2 Business Companies it includes sex, age and geography. It includes volume of the organisation and the type of sector or application, the organisation operates in. iii. Identify behaviour in response and purchase As shown in figure 2.2 through analysis of data base when customer progress through the lifecycle, company is capable to build up a detail reaction and buy history which judges the details of frequency, recency, group of product buy and monetary value. This approach is known as ‘RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary value) analysis. iv. Identify multi-channel behaviour In spite of of the eagerness of the company for online channels, various customers are chosen for using online channels and others customers are chosen conventional channels. This is an degree, be indicated by RFM and rejoinder examination since customers with a preference for an online channel is more reactive and make more use online. Customer who likes online channels is focused mostly by online communications such as e-mail, but when customer like conventional channels is focused by conventional communications such as direct mail or phone. This is known as ‘right-channelling. v. Tone and style preference In a same way to channel liking, customers are respond in their own way to various types of message. Some customers like rational application, in that time a detailed e-mail may work best. On the other hand some customers are preferred an emotional appeal. Companies are test for this in customers or conclude it using profit description and response performance and then expand various inventive treatments consequently. 2. Customer acquisition Processes used to add new customer. According to Turban (2008), customer acquisition refers to marketing activities intended to form relationship with new customers while reducing acquisition cost and targeting high-value customers. Service value and selecting the right path for various customers are essential at this stage and during the lifecycle. The conventional manner to customer acquisition include a marketing manager developing a blend of mass marketing (billboards, magazine advertisements etc.) and direct marketing (mail, telephone, etc.) campaigns based on their knowledge of the particular customer base that was being focussed. Marketing campaign trying to pressure new customers to buy a particular type of diapers, the mass marketing ads might be determined in parenting magazines. The advertisements could also be positioned in more conventional publications whose readership demographics were alike to those of new parents. Customer acquisition is comparatively similar to mass marketing. A marketing manager selects the demographics that they are involved in and after that works with a data vendor to obtain lists of buyers who meet those features. The data vendors have large database holding millions of eventual customers that can be segment based on explicit demographic criteria. The idea of â€Å"similar demographics† has conventionally been an art rather than a science. Usually there are not hard-and-fast systems about whether two groups of buyers share the similar features. Most of the segmentation that took place in conventional direct marketing involves hunches on the division of the marketing professional. 3. Customer retention Dafe Chaffey 2009 said that customer retention refers to the marketing actions taken by a company to keep its current customers. Identifying applicable offerings based on their personal needs and complete position in the customer lifecycle (e.g. purchase value or number) is key. Customer retention strategy aims to keep a high percentage of valuable customers and a customer development strategy aims to boost the value of those retained customer to the organisation. Customer retention is based on customer loyalty. And customer loyalty is the point to which a customer will continue with a specific brand or vendor. Customer acquisition to retain and extend create long-term customer relationship. We need to calculate customer satisfaction, as satisfaction drives loyalty and loyalty drives profitability. This relationship is exposed below; The marketers aim is to push customers up the curve towards the affection zone. But the majority are not in that zone. Marketers must understand to achieve retention,why customers defers or are indifferent. 4. Customer extension This technique is encouraging customers to increase their involvement with a company. According to Turban 2008, customer extension is increasing the range of products that a customer buys from an organisation. Sometime it is referred ‘customer development. Increasing the lifetime value (CLV) of a customer is the main objective of customer extension by encouraging cross-sell. For example a customer of Egg credit card may be offered the loan or a deposit account. There are many of customer extension technique for CRM as follows; Re-sell: same type of products to existing customers-particular vital in some Business 2 Business background as re-buys or modified re-buys. Cross-sell: sell extra products which may be closely related to the original buy. Up-sell: this is mean, selling more expensive products. Reactivation: Customers who have purchased for some time or have lapsed can be encouraged to buy again. Referrals: generating sells from recommendation from existing customers. 2.4 CUSTOMER LIFETIME VALUE MODELLING Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is also an important theory and practise of CRM. But the calculation of CLV is not straightforward. There are so many company, they do not calculate it. According to Dave Chaffey (2009) â€Å"Lifetime value is the total net benefits that a customer or group of customers will provide a company over their total relationship with the company†. CLV is based on estimating the income and costs related with each customer over a phase of time and then calculating the net present value in present monetary terms using a discount rate value applied over the stage. Efraim Turban (2006) said there is various scale of complexity in calculating LTC. Those are exposed in figure 2.6. Option 1 is a realistic way or estimated proxy for future LTV, but the true LTV is the future value of the customer at individual level. CLV modelling at a segment level 4 is crucial within marketing since it answers the question; How much can I afford to invest in acquiring a new customer? Lifetime value analysis helps marketers to: Create the true value of a companys customer base Recognize and compare crucial target segment Calculate the effectiveness of another customer retention strategy Plan and calculate investment in customer acquisition programmes Make decisions about product and offers Figure 2.7 gives an example of how LTV can be used to develop a CRM strategy for different customer groups. There are 4 (four) main types of customers are indicated by their present and future value as bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Separate customers groupings (circles) are recognized according to their current value (as indicated by current profitability) and future value as indicated by CLV calculation. Every group will have a customer segmentation based on their demographics. Therefore this is used for customer selection. Within the four main value groupings, there are various strategies are developed for various customer groups. Few bronze customers such as group A and B practically do not have development potential and are usually unprofitable, therefore the objective is to reduce costs in communications and if they do not stay as customers this is acceptable. Some bronze customers like group C may have potential for growth; therefore for group C the strategy is to extend their purchases. Silver customers are focused with customer extension offer and gold customers are extended. Platinum customers are the best customers; therefore the communication is very important with these customers. 2.5 THE TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS OF CRM According to Davenport and Short, (1990); Porter, (1987) ‘information technology is an enabler to thoroughly redesign business process to achieve improvements in organisational performance. ‘Information Technology help helps a business process by facilitating changes to job practices and establishing new techniques to link a customer with organisations, suppliers and stakeholders (Hammer and Champy, 1993). Eckerson and Watson (2000) advocated that ‘CRM take full advantage of technology to collect and analyze data on customer patters, expand predictive models, interpret customer behaviour, proper respond with communications, and deliver product and service to individual customers. By using technology a business can generate a 360 degree view of consumers to find out from past interactions to optimize future ones. Peppard (2000) said that ‘the leading factors in CRM development are improvement in set of connections communications, client/server compute, and business cleverness application. CRM collect, store, maintain and distribute customer knowledge all over the organisation. The effectual management of information has a vital role to play in CRM. In the case of scheming customer duration importance, consolidated view, product tailoring and facility improvement, the information is essential. Along with data warehouses, enterprise resource planning (ERP) organization and the internet are the vital infrastructures to CRM application. Fickel (1999) said ‘CRM application links front office (e.g. marketing, sales and customer service) and back office (e.g. financial, logistics, operations and human resources) functions with the businesses customer contact point. A companys touch point is â€Å"all of the communication, human and physical interactions your customers experience during their relationship lifecycle with your organisation. Whether an commercial, Web-site, sales individual, store or office, finger points are vital because customers from perceptions of your organisation and brand based on their cumulative experiences† (Source; http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/4508.imc at 16/10/2009 on 15:25) According to Eckerson and Watson (2000), ‘CRM integrated touch points is something like a common view of the customer. A separate information systems controlled these touch points. Figure 2.8 demonstrates the correlation between customer touch point with back and front office operations Peppers and Rogres, (1999) said ‘In many companies, CRM is just a technology solution that extends divide databases and sales force automation tools to link sales and marketing functions in order to develop targeting efforts. On the other hand some organisations consider CRM as a tool that is exclusively designed for one-to-one relationship. According to Goldenberg (2000) ‘CRM is not just a tools application for sales, marketing and service, but when CRM completely and successfully implemented, customer-driven, a cross-functional, technology-integrated commerce process management scheme that improves relationships and encompasses the whole organisation. 2.6 DATA WAREHOUSE TECHNOLOGY According to Watson (2000) ‘data warehouse is a tools of information technology management that helps business decision makers to instant access of information of customer data throughout the organisation by combining all database and operational systems like sales and transaction, human resource, inventory, purchasing, financial and marketing system. Data warehouse pull out, clean, convert and manage large volumes of data from various systems and creating a historical record of all customer. Data warehousing technology is the most crucial part of CRM because it makes CRM possible. Shepard et al. (1998) said ‘a better understanding of customer behaviour is possible because data warehousing technology consolidates correlates and convert customer data into customer intelligence. Thoughts of customers and their buying pattern can improve information relating to customer service interactions, bill and account status, back orders, product returns, product delivery, and internal operating cost. The capacity of a data storehouse to store hundreds and thousands of gigabytes of data compose an analysis feasible as well as immediate. Organisational benefits with a data warehouse are as follows; exact and faster access of information bad and duplicate data eliminate by quality data and filtering customer profiling and retention modelling it compute total present importance and approximate future value of every customer it gives detail report 2.7 DATA MINING TECHNOLOGY Peppers and Rogres, (1999) said that ‘the first analytical step of data mining is to describe the data. Data mining summarize its statistical attributes like standard deviations and means, visually review it by use of charts and graphs and distributes the value of the field in our data. But alone data description can not provide an action plan. We have to build a analytical model based on pattern determined from known output and after that we have to test the model on result outside the original sample. An ideal model must never be puzzled with reality, but it is useful guide to understanding our businesses. According to Eckerson and Watson (2000) ‘we can use data mining for both classification and regression problems. In first problem we can predict what type something will fall into. In second problems we are predicting a number like prospect that a person will react to an recommend. In CRM process, data mining is often used to allocate a score to a particular customer. Data mining is also often using to recognize a set of characteristics, which is called profile. Data mining segments customers in to groups with similar behaviour like purchasing a particular product. 2.8 THE CRM PROCESS CYCLE IN BANKS Pound (2000) said that exploration and alteration process should be done by the banks on basis of customer information captured; this shows the full value of CRM initiatives. Banks set up a closed CRM cycle with the help of an integrated CRM solution, which composed of a set of continuous iterative process. It manages the whole customer related process for bank, analysing customer profile, customer data and life time value, which is helping to making marketing decision and optimizing the execution of marketing campaigns, customer service strategies and sales strategies across various channels during the bank. According to Professor Constantin Zopounidis (2002) CRM process cycle is based on a generic business view. It presents a continuous improvement of value between customers and banks across touch points. Pound 2000 said that ‘recent banking data sources are extremely heterogeneous. Geographic information is dispersed due to continual acquisitions, mergers and reorganizations. For example a bank might use web site, ATMs, e-mail, sales, call centres and marketing automation applications that must be integrated in a unified environment of CRM banking. An effective multi-channels customer interface will not be possible without a centrally integrated warehouse driving the entire CRM process cycle. This should be update real time. The historical data should be recorded by it, which is used to create propensity models and customer life time value models to recognize past behaviour and action in order to take future marketing strategy. 2.9 CUSTOMER DATA COLLECTION Kristin Anderson Carol Kerr (2002), said that in banki

Belle Boyd Newspaper Obituary :: American History Civil War

Yesterday, June 11, 1900, we lost Belle Boyd, one of the most heroic ladies of the Civil War. This famous Confederate spy has died after a cardiac arrest at age 56, while on tour in Kilbourne City, Wisconsin. She will be remembered as a great writer, actress, and spy who had courage in even the most trying times. Belle Boyd played the part of spy as if the war were a lighthearted game of cards. Born on May 4, 1843, she was raised just like any other southern lady. She was the daughter of a merchant and grew up in Martinsburg, West Virginia with her parents, Benjamin Reed Boyd and Mary Rebecca Glenn, three brothers, one sister, and grandmother. She went by the name Belle Boyd instead of her original name, Maria Isabella Boyd. Boyd attended Mount Washington Female College of Baltimore from age 12 to 16 after receiving a preliminary education. People knew her to be a fun-loving debutante. Her low voice was charming and her figure, flawless. Her irregular features rendered her either completely plain or extremely beautiful. The Civil War started when Boyd was 16, and she became a die-hard secessionist. She raised money for the South and organized parties to visit the troops until her career took a more active turn. Her spying profession began by chance when Boyd?s father and brothers were off to fight the war, leaving her with her mother, grandmother, baby brother, and sister. A band of drunken Union officers broke into her home, intent on raising the Federal flag over her house and one of the men insulted her mother. She drew a pistol and killed the man. Union officers were so charmed by her and felt such sympathy for her that they spared her from punishment. Though she was acquitted of the crime, officers still kept close watch over her. Clever Boyd took advantage of them and bewitched them into revealing military secrets. She then made her slave, Eliza Hopewell, carry the secret messages to confederate soldiers in a hollowed out watchcase. Her espionage career continued when in 1862, a Union troop gathered in her local hotel. Boyd hid upstairs, eavesdropping through a hole on the floorboards where clandestine Union information was revealed. Late that night, Belle rode out acting and bluffing her way past the Union sentries and conveyed this information to Col. Turner Ashby, who was scouting for the Confederates.

Applied Linguistics Essay

Learner: * We see learning in different ways (Behavior –habit formation-; Innatism –response to behaviorism- ). â€Å"If we learn through habits, what about children? * Chomsky’s LAD theory: * Universal Grammar * We’re programmed to learn at least one language! Interactionism * Snow: Interaction is a vital factor, not LAD * Evidence: Accommodation of Language: * Language is modified by the kind of subject you’re talking to. * Modifying the way we’re using a language. * When we talk to children, we do it in a different way. * Subconscious act * Between Children and caretakers. * Between Natives and non-natives * The idea is to use a comprehensible input (Krashen) * The only way to learn English is to modify the way we speak – comprehensible input * Communication as a goal * Focus is on problem solving or accomplishing tasks Key concepts (cont. ) Intersecting angles: * Teaching methods and language assessment (Common European Framework of Reference) * Different Benchmarks for competence * International exams and certifications * Relationship between language and teaching * Teaching materials informed by linguistic corpora. * British national corpus * Language and language * Learner’s age * Kids and young people * Critical period * Content based language teaching – more flexible * Older people * It is more complicated to acquire a language when you’re getting old * Different focus of instruction, different reasons e. g. occupational, academic, etc. * You can teach different things in a certain age * Context * Physical locale (classroom or outside? ) * Immersion programmes * Teachers are putted into a context to teach to the target required * Problems: fluent, but no accurate. * Political pressures in some parts of the world e. g. Iraq, Japan, * Multilingualism in American classrooms – is not a priority right now * National language policies * What does it mean to learn a language? Money? Fun? * Tajikistan’s case: change from Russian to English * Future trajectory * Learn other subjects in an L2? How? * Is it possible that Chile would be a bilingual country? * Teaching in a language target * Endangered languages * People stop using a certain language * Reflection of a certain culture. * â€Å"The end of a language is also the end of a culture† * Linguistics Imperialism * We’re acquiring the English/American culture – English language is fixed by the culture: e. g. African English * English as a Lingua Franca * Universal language * Clusters: issues as non-native speakers – in fact, beach, special * Native speakers vs Non-native speakers â€Å"norms† * Technology * Computer-mediated contact with other languages and cultures * Internet-delivered language instruction * Use of corpora to access to the information. An introduction to Applied Linguistics * Language as a powerful tool * It gives access to information * Convincing (ads, politics) * Definition: * Is NOT the application of linguistics * Means many things for many people (Cook, 2006) * A group of semi-autonomous disciplines (Spolsky, 2005) * â€Å"†¦AL (is now) a cover term for a sizeable group of semi-autonomous disciplines, each dividing its parentage and allegiances between the formal study of language3 and other relevant fields, and each working to develop its own methodologies and principles† * Cook, 2003. * â€Å"the task of applied linguistics is to mediate between linguistics and language use† * The academic discipline concerned with the relation of knowledge about language to decision making in the real world * The scope of applied linguistics remains rather vague, but attempts to delimit its main areas of concern as consisting of language and education; language, work and law; and language information and effect. * Two interpretations * The source of applied linguistics. What applied linguistics draws on: * Narrow interpretation * (Linguistics) – Language teaching. * Usage of linguistic elements – semantics, phonology, pragmatics * Broad interpretation * (everything to do with language) * There are the different connotations of language * The target of AL * What applied linguistics equips you to do (SLA) * Language Acquisition (L1 and L2) * Psycho and Neurolinguistics * Sociolinguistics * Humor Studies * Pragmatics * Discourse Analysis and Rhetorics * Text/Processing/translation * Computational Linguistic * Corpus Linguistics * Dialectology BBC Documentary Horizon: Why do we talk? * Humans have a unique feature: we have a different language like animals * We have requests. * Complex process to pronunciate a word when child (â€Å"wa der† to â€Å"water†) * Language is exclusively human * Not much evidence about origins of language * Why chimps can make similar sounds like humans? * There are some parts of the brain involved in creation of words * Roots of language reception: Test on newborn babies * How much a baby is attending to a particular sound * We can recognize sounds from our beginnings * Chomsky’s theory: An innate ability to learn a language * Ability to talk is composed by words, meaning and sounds. It also INNATE * We’re BUILT ON SPEECH. * The KA family: communication in other ways are perfect, neither the speech * A DNA failure to create words * There’s no fossil evidences of speech communication * It is supposed that language was a practical way to defining rules * No one designed any language * Combination of words that can be easily remembered * Make sound to build a meaning * Dominant Theory of learning psychology: Behaviorism * Positive reinforcement * Habits are automatic and difficult to eradicate * If L1 differs to L2, L1 will interfere with formation of L2 habits e. g. use of articles (a/an, the) * Interference manifests itself in error (undesirable). * Learners need to overcome L1 features and replace them Contrastive Analysis Hypothesis (CAH) * Analysis of L1 and L2 features (grammar and phonology) to determine similarities and differences between languages * Comparisons * CAH prediction * L2 features which are similar to L1: easy features to learn * Present simple, present perfect * L2 features which are different to L2: errors in L2 * People is are * Role of L2 instruction: teachers should focus on features which could be potential errors. Teaching via imitation, practice and error correction. * Mistakes are very dangerous here! – Immediate correction * E. g. â€Å"repeat after me! † Problems with CAH * Researchers trying ti apply CAH in analyzing L2 errors, soon found that: * Many errors could not be explained only by reference to L1 e. g. I goed * Many predicted errors were not made in L2 * Learners from different L1 made similar errors L2 * New weays of loking at L2’s errors Error Analysis * Corder (1967) * Learner language is a system in its own right * Errors are an important reflection of the state of L2 knowledge (system) and processing strategies. * Errors were a good thing; there is a reflection about thinking of new things * Developing rules – trial and fail * Processing: * Learners form hypothesis about L2 on the basis of their exposure to the L2 * These hypothesis are tested receptively and productively * If hypotheses disconfirmed, this leads to the formation and testing of new hypothesis Interlanguage (IL) * Concept created by Selinker (1972) * Coined the term Interlanguage to describe a learner’s language * Is the whole process of learning a language * No competence Native-like competence * Interlanguage is rule governed (systematic) and dynamic (in flux) * U shape performance: * High performance is developed in Beginner’s level and the Advance one * Explaining learner’s errors. * Main processes which can explain errors in L2 * L1 transfer * L1 rules interfering with L2 * Overgeneralization of L2 rules e. g. goed (use regular past tense with all verbs) * It happens a lot with children * Transfer of training errors due to the way L2 was taught e. g. overuse of â€Å"he† because teaching materials contain mainly reference to males * Formal language in formal contexts * Simplification e. g. omission of referent elements (articles, prepositions) * Elision / wanna talk to me? – instead of â€Å"do you wanna talk to me? † Problems with IL and errors analysis. * Focus on errors rather than entire learner language output (i. e. what a learner can do * Oriented to L2 norms – norms are often difficult to define (e. g. variety of acceptable pronunctiations of some words) * Attribution of errors to processes not always clear cut * Doesn’t consider variability Morpheme studies * Morpheme: the smallest unit of meaning in English e. g. plural â€Å"s† (bound morpheme), article (unbound morpheme) * Influential study: Brown (1973) on First Language Acquisition (FLA) * Order of acquisition determined on basis of accuracy i. e. * Most accurate: acquired earliest. * The most developed item is the one which was developed earlier * Findings: although rate of acquisition may differ, order of acquisition same for all children. Acquisition order in FLA RANK| MORPHEME| EXAMPLE| 1| Present progressive| Boy singing| 2| Preposition| Dolly in car| 3| Plural| Sweeties| 4| Past Irregular| Broke| 5| Possesive| Baby’s toy| 6| Articles| A car| 7| Past regular| Wanted| 8| Third person singular| He eats| 9| Auxiliary â€Å"be†| He’s running| * Dulay and Burt (1973-1975) * Suppliance of a set of morphemes in obligatory context * Developmental Secquences. * Longitudinal research on acquisition of grammatical structures (e. g. negation, question formation word order) found: * Learners follow a set of order of stages of acquisition * L1 may affect how long a learner stays at any one stage * Learners cannot skip a stage, regardless of L2 instruction * Instruction can only affect speed of acquisition and whether learners reach final stage. Index readings – Test 1 – Monday 8th!! * Key concepts in language learning and language education * History and definitions * Introduction to SLA * Development of learner language. Developmental sequences Longitudinal research on acquisition of grammatical structures (eg negation, question formation word order) found: * Learners follow a set order of stages of acquisition * L1 may affect how long a learner stays at any one stage * Learners cannot skip a stage, regardless of L2 instruction * Instruction can only affect speed of acquisition and whether learners reach final stage * Naturalistic statement: the most important thing will be communication – people won’t correct anyone Variability in learner language. If IL is systenmatic, we should go thourg different stages. How can we account for variability in a learner’s interlanguage? * Need to distinguish between free vatiation and systematic variation: * Free variation may be due to: * Random errors * Performance factors, e. g. anxiety * Anxiety affects production * Early stage of IL: experimentation * People is is not a taboo * Systemic variation may be due to * Linguistic environment: e. g. omission of final ‘s’ may vary according to what sounds come before or after the letter ‘s’s * Situational context: e. g. the person the learner is speaking to (interlocutor) or setting may affect the perceived level of formality and thus how much attention Is given to accuracy * Fluency is affected by focus on accuracy * Psycholinguistic context: e. g. amount of planning time given before being asked to perform the task Input & Interaction * Input:anything that a learner is exposed to in the environment. Anything that is perceived. * Intake:processing. When you’re receiving language, you realize a certain structure subconsciously. * Uptake: when you do something observable with your input, if you make a mistake and then you have the correct version * Output: production of language – errors and mistakes are included * Comprehensible input:refers to modify the language and make it comprehensible * Negotiation of meaning: looking for answers for what you want to say – negotiatate what someone say: what? Could you repeat that? You said (†¦) or you said (†¦)? * Positive evidence vs. Negative evidence: * NE: corrections. Could be related to grammar * PE: Discrete parts of the language. It’s just language * Implicit vs. explicit feedback * Implicit feedback: we don’t really saying what the mistake is directly, but you’re uttering what you say. * Explicit feedback: correction – looking a language as an object * Recast: implicit feedback – fixing what you’re trying to say. When you’re emphasizing, it turns to explicit feedback. It’s supposed to be implicit. Introduction * Range of perspectives (theories) which explain how language (L1 and L2) is processed and ultimately acquired * All theories agree that learners need exposure to language (input – from a behaviorism focus, is important), but the kind of input and how that input is processed in order to become acquired vary * Today’s seminar focuses on the interaction hypothesis, a very influential theory in the field of SLA INPUT * Input is everything that you can get into the language * Language learner is exposed to (available for processing). * Two types of input: * Positive evidence: authentic or modified language – * Negative evidence: corrections Behaviorist perspective – Lado and Lee * From a behaviorist approach, Learners need positive and negative evidence (both) * Positive evidence: models that learners imitate and repeat (thus forming habits) * Negative evidence: given to prevent formation of â€Å"incorrect habits† * Language learning: process of imitation & habit formation Universal Grammar Perspective * Proponents: Chomsky (L1) White and Schwartz & Sprouse * Learners need ONLY exposure to positive evidence. * Positive evidence triggers processing in an innate language acquisition device * LAD contains principles (general rules about all human languages – e. g. Parts of speech) and parameters (rules which are language specific – e. g. â€Å"no voy† instead of I cannot) * Pro-dropped language * Dummy subjects * Second language acquisition: resetting parameters based on L2 evidence * Some debate in SLA: Is UG fully, partially on not at all available for adult L2 learners? * Is very unlike that is available. Is mostly partially available Krashen. Main argument: learners need only exposure to appropriate input (positive evidence) * Appropiate input: comprehensible input at a level slightly above the learner’s current level (i+1) input + something a bit higher * Comprehensible input will activate LAD: subconscious process * Comprehensible input: acquired knowledge (implicit knowledge used to produce language) * Is comes out, it flows * Conscious learning: learnt knowledge (explicit knowledge used to monitor language production) * If you’re giving negative evidence, they will acquire language * Difference between learning and acquiring language * Explicit knowledge does not become implicit knowledge (the non-interface position) * When you learn, you will not be able to acquire language Long’s interaction hypothesis * Built on Krashen’s notion of the importance of copmprehensible input for SLA * However difference in what makes input comprehensible * Krashen: emphasis on learner’s individual processing i. e. learner uses contextual clues, world knowledge to comprehend i+1 * Long (1983): interactions (negotiation of meaning) make input comprehensible * Findings: * â€Å"Speech modifications alone are rarely sufficient. Native speakers also make a lot of adjustments to the interactional structure of conversations, and it is conversational modifications of the latter sort that are greater, more consistently observed, and probably more important for providing comprehensible input† * Conversational modifications: * Repetitions * Confirmation checks (is that what you mean? ), often involve repetition uttered with a rising intonation * Clarification requests (what do you mean? ) e. g. Sorry? What? * Comprehension checks (do you follow me? ) e. g. OK? I+1: our current level of english Positive evidence: language Negative evidence: corrections Long’s interactional hypothesis Original version (1983): * deductive argument * Conversational modifications make negotiation input (negotiations of meaning) make inupt comprehensible e. g. Having conversations with native speakers will improve development of language THEN * Comprehensible input promotes acquisition (krashen) THEN * Negotiations of meaning -> promote SLA Research based on Long’s interaction hypothesis. * Variables that affect the quantity and type of conversational modifications (negotiation * moves) * Task type e. g. Doughty & Pica, 1986 * Learner variables (L1, proficiency in L2, gender) e. g. Pica et al. , 1991; Polio & Gas, 1998 * Extent to which negotiations facilitate comprehension e. g. Ellis et al. , 1994 * Extent to which negotiations lead to acquisition: results mixed e. g. Iwashita, 2003; Mackey, 1999 * Family will promote more negotiation Criticism of research and interaction hypothesis * Number of assumptions questions e. g. the more negotiations moves the better? * A social nature of research: ignores context and learner’s goals (ie is there always a clear one-to-one mapping of interaction moves and speaker’s intented meaning? * Deductive nature of argument: no mechanism to explain acquisition * Lack of robust evidence for L2 learning * Is anybody learning a language, or acquiring it? Negotiation of languge: Chance to process more the input and do something with that Swain’s outpout hypothesis * Research: language proficiency of students in Canadian immersion program, found that learners fluent but not accurate * Main argument: * Comprehensible input alone insufficient for learners to develop grammatical accuracy * Comprehension requires learners only to process language for meaning, not for syntax * Learners need to be pushed to produce accurate and appropriate language (output) * Students were fluent, but not accurate * Push them to produce more and more INPUT * Grammatical processing: basic to improve accuracy * Long * Role of input * Output provides learners with opportunities to: * Move from semantics, open-ended processing of language prevalent in comprehension to grammatical processing needed for accurate production. * Notice â€Å"gaps† in their interlanguage. * Test hypotheses abput language + receive feedback abput hypotheses * Reflect abput their language use + develop automaticity through practice (Gass, 2004) * Note: focus shifted from focus on positive evidence to negative evidence (corrective feedback) ->negative evidence * Negative feedback may be facilitative of L2 development * MEDIATED BY SELECTIVE ATTENTION: Focus on learner’s internal factors, drawing on work of Schmift’s (1999, 1993) on attention and noticing nypothesis * DEVELOPING L2 PROCESSING CAPACITY: draws on studies on developmental sequences & pieneman’s work on learnability to explain mixedfindings on negotiations and acquisition * NEGATIVE FEEDBACK OBTAINED DURING NEGOTIATION WORK: shift in focus from interactions providing comprehensible input to conversations providing opportunities for negative feedback * MAY BE FACILITATIVE†¦ ESSENTIAL FOR LEARNING CERTAIN SPECIFIABLE L1-L2 CONTRASTS: prediction abput which language structures are most likely to need negative feedback (L1-L2 contrats, e. g. dative alteration, adverb placement) * If the verb comes from latinate origin, is not possible to have dative alternation. If Germanic, it is. Why Long was unwilling to unchanged his hypothesis? * Previous hypothesis: * Krashen’s monitor hypothesis! * IS a contradiction: Monitor check contents to learn, but it doen’t help to ACQUIRE * Closest to BEHAVIORISM * Current Hypothesis: * New ways of correcting * KEY: GIVING FEEDBACK Cognitive accounts of SLA * SLA: acquiring a new knowledge system. Learning new information * Based on cognitive psychology, which models the human mind similar to a computer (up to a point) * Learning& ability for use: * NOTICE NEW INFORMATION, e. g. a vocabulary item (an interesting word such as â€Å"nuts†) or a feature of syntax like 3rd person singular –s * INTEGRATING NEW INFORMATION and comparing with the old one, e. g.relating the vocabulary item to similar ones or 3rd person-s to indicative present tense verb use * PROCEDURALIZING OR AUTOMATIZING, e. g. accessing the vocabulary itam / applying the 3rd person –s rule Areas of interest * A great deal of work in SLA has focused on noticing and attention because it is central to learning (Schmidt) * There is also some work on the interaction of new language information in long-term memory (Bialystok) * The type of knowledge (explicit/implicit) has also been studied, which is related to proceduralization / automatization The human cognitive system Outside world -> sensory register -> working memory -> long-term memory.

Everyone Struggles with Their Identity Essay

Identity is an intrinsic idea of one’s life. Whilst there are no certainties, the struggle of identity often happens, and the conflicts may depend on the individual himself. The conflict may occur due to various factors in one’s identities including their sexual orientations, skin colour and religious background. These variables may cause noticeable damages to one’s mentality and psychology, and hence lead the individual to struggle with who they are. Individuals with homosexual preferences often experience conflicts in terms of their identities. Homosexuality is considered wrong by part of the society because the majority- heterosexual human beings- partially as a result of religious influences over the past centuries due to the mass control the several religious convictions had over the human’s civilisation as a whole, sees homosexuality as breaching the norm of the social order. Homosexual individuals often try to avoid the controversy caused by confessing their sexual preferences, as ignorant people often judge them by being different to the society. In ‘The First Kiss’ written by Lian Low, Lian was a typical example of homosexual individuals struggling with their identities. She has failed to embrace the fact that she was interested in women instead of men during her teenage years. ‘‘You’re not the L-word, are you? ’ Of course I denied it. ’ She didn’t want her ‘Malaysian Christian friends’ or ‘badminton buddies’ to judge her by her sexuality which caused a conflict throughout her high school life. Lian has been in a conflict between whether she should confess her sexual preference to her loved ones, or just pretending to be interested in men like all her peers. Like Lian, some homosexual individuals may have same issues as Lian faced and struggled in the same way with their character as she did. Although homosexuality causes a lot of people to struggle with their identity, the damage caused by racism due to diverse skin colours is worse. As a result of historical factors, coloured races are often ignorantly considered inferior to Caucasian people, especially those with white skin throughout the world. Examples such as the 2005 Cronulla riots in Australia, a racial conflict involving Middle East Appearance, show that until today, people with coloured skins are still targets of racism due to bigotry and conservatism. In the movie ‘Skin’, Sandra Laing has been struggling to figure out whether she was a ‘black’ or ‘white’ throughout her school life which can be shown when she said to her maid, ‘Am I black? ’ Sandra has been discriminated for her skin colour all through her tragic life. From her primary school classmates calling her ‘monkey’, the boy she went for a ‘date’ with saying, ‘you don’t have to feel bad for looking like a coloured person’, finally to her husband Pietrus who said ‘her skin is a curse’. Sandra’s miserable life was a classic situation of a coloured person in the last century. She has been exploring her identity throughout the entire film including a change of skin colour identification twice, before she finally defined herself as nobody else but her children’s mother. Under the influence of bias opinions over coloured appearance individuals, for instance the apartheid system in South Africa, a vast amount of people are possibly undergoing similar conditions as Sandra, persevering to figure out there true identity. Besides racism, a personal choice of approach to an event, one’s cultural background can also possibly cause struggle to their identity. As the modern society involves more immigrants changing their nationalities, children in recent generations may have multiple identities in terms of where they are from, and has become a social norm for the new decade. For instance, the Australian-born-Chinese people, also known as ‘ABC’ in general, has developed into a stereotype or even a race over the history of Chinese immigrating into Australia since the gold rush. However, it is difficult for these immigrant’s offspring to relate to their family’s culture as they may not have had any type of interaction with it. In the short story ‘Sticks and Stones and Such’ written by Sunil Badami, Sunil failed to understand the meaning of his name due to the lack of understanding to the Indian naming culture, was however conscious of his peers not pronouncing his name correctly, which further led him into obstacles of fitting into his friends’ groups and referring himself as ‘Neil’. These immigrant’s offspring may even find it challenging to answer questions like, ‘where are you from? Using the ‘ABC’s as an example, should they answer Australia, where they have grown up in, or China, where their parents are from? According to a survey done by the Herald Sun in January, 77% of the participants answered ‘I don’t know’. The result has portrayed the difficulty of self-identification by ‘ABC’ racial groups, which also may apply to various societies with similar cultural conditions. Despite the main causes of identity struggling mentioned above, every individual in the human’s society will somehow doubt their identities in their own manner, including you and me. Let us think back together, have we ever felt left out in a group of people? Did we question ourselves on sporting fields when we had a bad game? Did we ever think why are we even born in this world? The answer is yes. We have all questioned ourselves at some stage throughout our lives. It isn’t something to be ashamed of. By doubting ourselves, we can revise what actions have we done wrong, it is a motivation for ourselves to do better in all areas, with the ultimate goal to not doubt ourselves ever again-noting it isn’t possible. One’s identity is intrinsic to the individual. Without the desire to explore their own identities, human beings are not very different compared to beasts like monkeys or chimpanzees. Although some particular individuals may experience conflict in their process of discovering their identities, but please note, a perfect elite in all areas only exist in fairy tales. As an ordinary human being like everybody else, I would like to say, ‘please keep on questioning yourself’.