Critical Analysis Of A Midsummer Nights Dream Essays -

Critical Analysis Of A Midsummer Night's Dream William Shakespeare, born in 1594, is one of the greatest writers in literature. He dies in 1616 after completing many sonnets and plays. One of which is A Midsummer Nights Dream. They say that this play is the most purely romantic of Shakespeares comedies. The themes of the play are dreams and reality, love and magic. This extraordinary play is a play-with-in-a-play, which master writers only write successfully. Shakespeare proves here to be a master writer. Critics find it a task to explain the intricateness of the play, audiences find it very pleasing to read and watch. A Midsummer Nights Dream is a comedy combining elements of love, fairies, magic, and dreams. This play is a comedy about five couples who suffer through loves strange games and the evil behind the devious tricks. This play begins as Theseus, the Duke, is preparing to marry Hippolyta. He woos her with his sword. Hermia is in love with Lysander. Egeus, Hermias father, forbids the relationship with Lysander and orders her to marry Demetrius. Demetrius loves Hermia, but she does not love him. On the other hand, Helena is in love with Demetrius. To settle the confusion, Theseus decides that Hermia must marry Demetrius or become a nun. In retaliation to her fathers command, Hermia and Lysander run away together. Amidst all the problems in the human world, Titania and Oberon, the fairy queen and king, continually argue about their various relationships that they have taken part in. (Scott 336) Titania leaves Oberon as a result of the arguments. Oberon is hurt and wants revenge on Titania. So he tells Puck, Oberons servant, to put a magic flower juice on her eyelids while she is sleeping. This potion causes the victim to desperately in love with the first creature that they see. Oberons plan is carried out, but the potion is also placed on Lysanders eyes. Lysander awakes to see Helena, who is aimlessly walking through the woods, and instantly falls in love with her. She thinks that he is making fun o f her being in love with Demetrius, so she leaves and Lysander follows. This leaves Hermia to wake up alone. Puck now has journeyed to the area where several actors are rehearsing. He uses his magic to turn one of them into a donkey, in hopes that Titania will awake to see it. Just as planned, she awakes and falls in love with the donkey. Oberon and Puck overhear Demetrius and Hermia arguing about their relationships and realize that they had made a mistake. In hopes of solving the problem, Puck places magic juice on Demetrius while he is sleeping. He awakes to Helena, who now has two men in love with her. Hermia is devastated because Lysander does not love her anymore. Helena and Hermia argue because Helena thinks that Hermia is in on the mens joke. All four argue and leave. Puck persuades them to sleep all together and more of the antidote is placed on the eyes of Lysander. Titania also receives another dose of the potion, and awakes to her husband Oberon. A triple wedding is plan ned and everyone is happy. (thinkquest.com 1-3) Throughout the play there are many references to the gender and sex roles of the characters. As described in the critical essay by Shirley Nelson Garner, the dominating male power and strange sex roles of the characters is fluent throughout the play. The ordering of the fairy, human, and natural worlds is a movement toward satisfying mens psychological needs; but it also disrupts womens bonds with each other. The argument between Titania and Oberon arises from Titanias focus of attention toward a stolen Indian boy. Oberon uses his authority to force Titania to give up the boy, and he is shocked when she disobeys him and leaves. Her attachment to the boy is erotic, because she treats him similar to Bottom after she falls in love with him by a spell. The underlying reason for Oberons complaint of Titania and the boys relationship is that he secretly wants the boy for himself. Oberon takes action because his power is threatened by Titania s love for the boy. He needs her

Hitlers Killing Factories essays

Hitlers Killing Factories essays Hitlers rise to power following World War I was nothing short of mercurial. He was able to rise to this position of dominance by offering Germans a chance to shed the fetters imposed upon them by the Treaty of Versailles. As a master of rhetoric and deception he was able to place the blame for the loss of World War One on the subversive forces within Germany. Number one on this list of subversives were the Jews. Through propaganda in support of nationalism and social Darwinism he made it obvious that Germany must rid itself of negative forces that reduced the purity of the master race. In this way the Jews became scapegoats of Germanys decline and decay socially, politically and militarily. The leaders of the Riech deemed it neccessary to remove the blemish on their pure society, covertly at first and then successively in a more principled and well orchestrated program of genocidal activity, known to them as the Final Solution. Hitlers idea to eradicate the Jews was conceived long before he became Chancellor in 1933. Murdering an entire people was a daunting, but for Hitler, a necessary task designed for the restoration of Germany and the master race. The logistics and economics behind the plan of mass genocide required the investment of excessive amounts of time, labour and money. Despite the high cost of the operation Nazi leaders felt the solution must be imposed in order to cleanse the Fatherland. Social restrictions, exclusion and alienation were the first of the progressive steps taken to disenfranchise German Jewry. In the face of the threats of an escalating war in the east and the entry of the United States into the global conflict following Pearl Harbor, the answer to the Jewish question became increasingly imminent as Hitler felt he no loner needed to shroud his intentions. The Final Solution was the vision of Adolph Hitler, but its architects were Reichsfuhrer SS Heinrich Himmler...

Developing Personal Management Skills Assignment

Developing Personal Management Skills - Assignment Example Like any other business, organizations have little or no interest on good management and emphasize on exciting and glamorous work of leadership. Nevertheless, managers are subjects for good performance. Generally, managers should translate their leadership skills to high productivity and good governance. Whereas leaders bring forth vision, motivation and challenge, all these things are in vain if there is no effective implementation as a result of good management. Essentially, a good manager should be equipped with vast skills, ranging from planning, communication, and delegation to motivation. Since there are several management skills required for proper management, it is very tricky to build skills in areas you are not comfortable. Leaders have different management skills, and their applications vary (Mcgrath, 2009). However, for good results and long-term success, it is worth analyzing your personal managerial skills, knowing your strengths and weaknesses and capitalizing on your best management skills. As if this is not enough, pose a challenge to your to improve in your weakest points. This helps you to identify your strong and weak areas, take advantage of past and manage the latter (Hannaway & Gabriel , 2005). Communication is a very crucial tool in the management. In any organization, you have to communicate with your workmates, seniors, juniors and the stakeholders. This tool has given me confidence in place of work and build a lot of trusts. As long as I know what am talking about, worries have no place. It implies that as I communicate with staff, I should have substance so that they can listen to me. Likewise, as they pass information, they should have a clear conscience of what they want to pass across. Communication is a very critical skill for managers. For a number of years, employe es in one of the organizations, I once worked went for a strike because of reshuffling their supervisors. Essentially, there was a  need to make changes, but most of them were unwilling. When I joined as one of the managers, the tension was all over. I took some time to study the organizational structure and the entire set up, and I realized there was need indeed to reshuffle.  

Media Technology Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Media Technology Management - Assignment Example .8V-unbuffered-non-ECC, Operating System – Windows Vista Business (SP1), Graphics card – Inno3D nVIDIA GeForce 9800GT Graphics Card - 1GB GDDR3 - PCI-E - 256-Bit - Dual DVI - Memory clock - HDCP - HDTV, Hard drive – Seagate OEM 500GB Barracuda 7200.12 Internal Hard Disk Drive (7200RPM, SATA, 32MB Cache), Monitor – LCD Samsung T220HD 22-inch Widescreen LCD TFT Monitor, 2ms, Rose Black, 10000:1, TV Tuner. As far as the software for audio editing, video editing and authoring is concerned, Vegas Pro 8 of Sony Creative Software would suit both our needs and the pocket. Now entering into the cost part, the PC computer costs totally -  £ 913.07 and the Vegas Pro 8 software costs  £524.34. So the total expenditure for the computer and software bundle would be -  £1437.41 (including VAT). External hard drive which we employ here for archiving work is of the following specification – 500 GB space & USB2.0 compliant. This is a product of G-Tech, and we use them because they are one among the leaders in external hard drive manufacturers. The model is G-Drive FW400, and it costs  £113.25 The duplicator that we use is, Copystars CD DVD Duplicator. It’s specifications are – 115/230v switchable with AC Adaptor power cord and ready to use duplication tower. It has been chosen because it has the capability to duplicate dual layer and various formats of discs, it can also name hard drives, count discs, perform error and data integrity checks etc. They are also very user friendly as they use smart DVD duplicator technology. It will cost  £250 We have gone for an - All-in-One Multifunction Scanner and CD/DVD Printer as it saves considerable amount of money. We are employing a Hewlett Packard’s product of the following specification: Print technology – Thermal Inkjet, Print speed – 32 ppm, Maximum scan size – 216 x 297 mm, Scan speed – 10 x 15 cm color photo into Microsoft Word less than 22 sec, Scan Technology - Contact Image Sensor (CIS), Model Number –

An overview of YouTube Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

An overview of YouTube - Essay Example An overview of YouTube â€Å"YouTube was founded by three former PayPal employees, who, witnessing the boom of online grassroots video, realized the need for a decent service that made the process of uploading, watching and sharing videos hassle-free† (Yadav). It was on February 15, 2005 that they registered the domain YouTube. In the initial periods YouTube came out with many contests in order to publicize the domain. The major target of YouTube was teenagers and college students. They offered attractive gifts for the winners of the contest. This created more traffic in the website. A person can watch the videos in YouTube even without registering. But if he intends to upload a video into YouTube, he should at first create an account with it. Both signing up process and uploading video are made simpler than what was during the initial stages. YouTube uses Adobe flash technology for enabling the videos to be watched on the internet. YouTube and Web 2.0: Web 2.0 is referred to as the network of websites that are used regularly by ordinary users. The ordinary users of the web are referred to the students, hobbyists, diarists etc. The ordinary users express themselves through their avatar in various social networking sites and blogs. â€Å"You can visualize Web 2.0 as a set of principles and practices that tie together a veritable solar system of sites that demonstrate some or all of those principles, at a varying distance from that core† (Tim). Thus they look for an opportunity to express them through internet.

Benefits of Subtitles in English Learning

Benefits of Subtitles in English Learning CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background All through the years, there has been an increasing emphasis on teaching English as an instrument for communication, and technology has played a critical function in facilitating authentic communication. The movement of language teaching objectives and practices has changed from the printed word and knowledge of language systems to the use and communicative value of the spoken language in the everyday setting (Vanderplank, 1993). In a sense, the efficacy of multimedia has drawn great consideration and is presumed, under the theory of adding an additional channel of media to send out a message, to significantly improve communication and comprehension (Dwyer, 1978). Multimedia technology (like TV, computers, networks, emails video cassette recorders (VCRS), compact disc ready-only memories (CD-ROMs) and interactive multimedia) aids the teaching technique of integrating real-life situations with the target language into the language classroom. In this meticulous setting, learners slowly expand their language acquisition by being exposed to the authentic environment of the target language. According to one of the most outstanding theories of second language acquisition, Krashen (1985) proposed that learners can learn a large amount of language unconsciously through ample comprehensible input. The Input Hypothesis, stated by Krashen, argues that the use of a target language in real communicative environments and the stress on rich comprehensible input by exposing the learners to the target language in the classroom facilitate their language acquisition. In other words, language acquisition only happens when comprehensible input is suitably delivered. In this respect, language teachers struggle to employ a wide range of teaching techniques to make authentic situations and to promote learners language acquisition. Many researchers have presented strong evidence that multimedia (like computers, video, and TV) have helpful effects on language learning due to rich and authentic comprehensible input (Brett, 1995; Egbert Jessup, 1996; Khalid, 2001). Results of these studies demonstrated the significance of the use of multimedia develops learners language performance in reading, listening comprehension and vocabulary recognition. One survey study by the American Association of School Administrators showed that 94 percent of teachers and supervisors believe that technology has enhanced students learning considerably. Similarly, many English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) teachers concur that educational technology presents many possibilities for progressing students language proficiency, including their vocabulary, reading, listening, and speaking. Similarly, television programs and videos have created a place in the communication of information and are powerful apparatus in improving language teaching (Anderson Lorch, 1983). Both TV and videos communicate not only visually through pictures but also aurally throughout the spoken word, music and sound effects. The subtitle, a key role on television and videotapes, is coordinated with the dialogue or narration of the programs audio track, expanding comprehension and understanding of TV programs and videos. Lambert, Boehler and Sidoti (1981) have asserted that the constant general movement indicates that information coming through two input types (e.g., dialogue and subtitles) is more systematically processed than if either dialogue or subtitles are presented alone. This result is in agreement with the dual-coding theory by Allan Paivio (1971), sustaining the usefulness of multiple-channel communication. In the same way, Hartmans (1961a) findings support the between-channel redun dancy theory which suggested that when information is redundant between two input sources (e.g., dialog and subtitles), comprehension will be superior than when the information is coming through one input form, (e.g., dialog). He also gave a description of redundant information as identical information from the visual and verbal stimuli. In this respect, Hartman completed that the benefit of the multiple-channel learning system is this: information coming from two information sources is more comprehensible than that through one. Information input through different sensory channels supplies receivers with additional stimuli reinforcement to guarantee that more complete learning happens. More explicitly, the additional stimuli reinforcement helps out learners in systematizing and structuring the incoming information. However, a contrasting theory, the single channel theory proposed by Broadbent (1958), states that human can only process information throughout one channel at a time. This theory assumes that the decline of learning takes place if the information is received through two or more sources. The learning is delayed when the multiple-channel presentation of information is used in the teaching-learning process. Along with this contentious viewpoint between the single and the multiple-channel presentation, an awareness of and interest in the use of multimedia resources have been increasing, like the presentation of subtitled materials. Today, language learning has turned out to be more available by implementing multimedia with spoken information and full visual context, such as subtitles. For instance, subtitled videos representing words and pictures in an aural and in a visual form are more probable to activate both coding systems in the processing than words or pictures alone. The dual-coding theory proposed by Paivio (1971) suggests that when pictures are added to the meaning, the number of signals connected with the message increases. Viewers then will be more probable to keep the message in mind. Therefore, the results of the past research appear to sustain the aspect that the use of subtitles causes multi-sensory processing, interacting with audio, video and print mechanisms. These information input foundations get the process of language learning better, improve the comprehension of the content, and increase vocabulary by looking at the subtitled words in meaningful and stimulating circumstances. In addition , a lot of teachers consider subtitles shed some new light on a better way of using various multimedia in the ESL classroom. When subtitled technology appeared more than 15 years ago, many educators quickly saw value in exploiting its potential in helping students process language in a different way and effectively by means of the printed word. (Goldman, 1996; Holobow, Lambert, Sayegh, 1984; Koskinen, Wilson, Gambrell, Neuman, 1993; Parks, 1994; Vanderplank, 1993). 1.1.1 Subtitle Subtitles, which are English written subtitles on instructional English-as-second-language (ESL) videos in this study, are the written version of the audio constituent that permits dialogue, music, narration and sound effects to be shown at the bottom of the screen on most televisions. There are two kinds of subtitles explained in general terms: the open subtitle and the closed subtitle. Closed subtitles refer to the subtitles that are not automatically visible to the viewer; however can be viewed by turning on through use of a remote control or an electronic subtitle decoder. By contrast, open subtitles are visible to all viewers without turning them on with a remote control. Subtitling is not only the main function of the TV but a positive function of video tapes. Video tapes offer subtitling by those who specialize in computer workstations. To make subtitles visible, an electronic subtitle decoder is obligatory, that is easily attached to a television set. Although it is not avail able in some areas of the world, subtitling technology is broadly accessible and draws great attention in the United States. In 1990, the U. S. Congress passed the Television Decoder Circuitry Act requiring that all new televisions, thirteen inches or larger, be prepared with subtitle decoder circuitry. The function of the decoder circuitry is to receive, decode, and show closed subtitles from cable, DVD signals and videotape appropriately. With reference to this regulation, the consumer is no longer required to pay for a separate decoder, when in possession of an applicable TV set. Therefore, thousands of people in the U.S. have access to subtitles without any trouble by pushing the button on the remote controls (National Subtitleing Institute, 1989). However, available access of subtitles on foreign film videos is still restricted in other countries, such as Taiwan and Japan, where external subtitle decoders are necessary for viewing. Subtitleing was devised initially for the hearing impaired. The statistics on the number of decoders sold confirm that more than half were bought for the hearing impaired who assert that decoders are helpful to them. Increasingly, the use of subtitles has also augmented among the non-native speakers who are motivated to improve their language learning. A study by Hofmeister, Menlove, and Thorkildsen (1992) discovered that 40 percent of people other than the hearing impaired buy the decoders, such as foreign students. To be explicit, the motive for this phenomenon is that subtitles show words in a motivating atmosphere where the audio, video and print media help viewers comprehend the unknown words and meanings in their context. However, subtitles have a great impact on comprehension improvement of specific TV programs and improve English language learning progressively. For the benefits of the multimedia approach, ESL programs began to incorporate subtitled materials into the curricula to help ESL students language learning. The focus on teaching techniques and on means of optimizing students comprehension of the second language has been of great concern through this multimedia. Koskinen, Wilson, Gambrell, and Neuman (1993) stated that the subtitled video is a new and promising approach for improving students vocabulary, reading comprehension, and motivation. Other researches have been conducted to inspect whether subtitled TV and video improve or obstruct students learning. The results have indicated that subtitled TV and videos are helpful for the hearing impaired, ESL students and disabled students (Bean Wilson, 1989; Borras Lafayette, 1994; Ellsworth, 1992; Garza, 1991; Goldman, 1996; Goldman Goldman, 1988; Markham, 1989; Nugent, 1983; Parlato, 1985; Price, 1983; Vanderplank, 1991; Webb, Vanderplank, Parks, 1994; Wilson Koskinen, 1986). Despite a large number of studies suggesting/demonstrating the benefits of the use of subtitles for the hearing-impaired, language learners, and disabled students, similar studies on the use of English subtitles in English teaching are still limited in Iran. Thus, there is great scope for additional examination into the potential use of subtitled television videos to enhance language teaching to English-as-Foreign-Language (EFL) students. The design of this research elaborates mainly on the language learning achievements. This study adds to the aforementioned to investigate the exposure of target language input to students through the presentation subtitled videos. This research focuses on the absence or presence of 10 English subtitled ESL instructional video episodes for a period of five weeks as a primary variable in an experiment to help determine the conditions for the improvement of Iranian college students learning English as a foreign language in Iran. 1.2 Statement of the Problem Many people in Iran have problems when it comes to communicating with foreigners in English. In addition, to get information from the Internet, having a fair amount of English knowledge is required. That makes accessing information a problem for those with limited English language proficiency. In addition, those Iranian students who wish to study abroad, language is the main problem since they have studied in Farsi for all their educational life, and thus adapting to a non-Persian environment is consequently very difficult. Students in Iran, start learning the Basic English at their secondary schools, however the curriculum structure, is based on teaching grammar rather than oral skills; therefore, most students oral communication skills are limited. . Moloney (1995) states that the emergence of English in the global market has resulted in the current ardor for learning English in developing countries. The need for English in Iran is unique. English is not only a required course for Iranian students, but also required and tested as part of major entrance examinations in Iran. These mentioned issues are going to be considered in proposing subtitles in videos and English learning movie solution. 1.3 Objectives of the Study The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of subtitled videos in enhancing university students language learning in Iran [English as a foreign language (EFL)]. In the study, the term language learning represents two types of performances. The first is students content comprehension of a particular video episode, as evaluated by a Content Specific Tests (CST) and the second is to investigate the learners vocabulary acquisition. 1.4 Significance of the Study Teachers professional development activities always focus on those types of teaching strategies that help students improve along with their path of learning process. As the research has been designed to discover the effectiveness of presenting subtitles on the movies on vocabulary acquisition and content comprehension, it would be of much significance if confirmed that this strategy works. Generally speaking, it can also been resulted that the finding of this research also could be added to the body of language teaching, learning and use of multimedia technology knowledge. The findings of this study can be share with the curriculum designers, EFL/ ESL teachers for the technology to be implemented in the classroom, materials developers for English teaching 1.5 Hypotheses This study focuses on English language learners performance on the Content-Specific Tests (CST) of vocabulary, and content comprehension of videos with and without subtitles. The researcher tested each of the following null hypotheses as she controls the initial differences of the participants in their general English proficiency. Ho 1: There is no significant difference on the scores of the content comprehension subtest of the CST between subjects watching videos with subtitles and those watching videos without subtitles. Ho 2: There is no significant difference on the scores in the content vocabulary subtest of the CST between subjects watching videos with subtitles and those watching videos without subtitles. 1.6 Research Question 1. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their vocabulary significantly? 2. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their content comprehension significantly? 3. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their English language proficiency significantly? 1.7 Definition of the Terms The definitions are given here to make sure uniformity and understanding of these terms throughout the study. 1.7.1 Subtitle Subtitle is the spoken words designed for the deaf and hearing-impaired people helping them read what they cannot hear. The terms subtitles and subtitles are interchangeably used in this research and are described as the translations of the spoken words to the written with the identical language shown at the bottom of the screen. 1.7.2 Closed Subtitle A subtitle of spoken words viewed by a special decoding device installed in the television set or a special decoder machine. 1.7.3 Open Subtitle A subtitle of spoken words that always is printed at the bottom of the screen. 1.7.4 Content-Specific Test (CST) An instrument designed by the researcher for this study used to measure learners overall comprehension in terms of vocabulary and content comprehension of a particular video segment. The CST includes the two subtests: vocabulary and content comprehension. 1.7.5 Content Vocabulary The vocabulary that comes into sight from the particular video piece viewed by the subjects 1.7.6 Content Comprehension Content comprehension that focuses mainly on the whole story script and test viewers comprehension of the particular information shown in the video 1.8 Limitation of the Study The researcher encountered difficulty in access to the samples of all Iranian population of EFL learners since the country is very huge and the numbers of English learners are so many. It was very hard to control teachers inside-class activities based on the methodologies presented to them. Non-generalizability of the findings to all English learners, especially ESL learners is another which is because the research is conducted in an EFL (Iran) context. The last but not the least limitation is the material choice since there are various types of videos. Therefore, the researcher had to restrict the video to an instructional video, connect with English since it is both with and without subtitle available as well as being suitable for the proficiency level of the participants. 1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter I introduces the foundation for this research, the purpose of the study, and definitions of key terms used throughout the study to diminish potential misunderstanding. Chapter II presents a review of the literature of the use of subtitles. It starts with a theoretical review of the cognitive information processing relevant to the single channel theory and the multiple-channel theory, with focus on the cue-summation theory, the between-channel redundancy theory, the dual-coding theory and the capacity theory. It then keeps on with a discussion of the schemata theory, the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis by Krashen and the ACT Model by Anderson. Subsequently, the relevant major research on subtitles for the hearing-impaired, disabled, normal reading ability, and language learners is offered. Chapter III outlines the method of hypotheses testing formulated in Chapter I. It also includes the research design, followed by a description of the subjects in this study, the treatment materials employed, the testing instruments, the data collection procedure, and the details of the data analysis applied. In Chapter IV, the analyses are performed to reveal the research hypotheses are explained in detail, with the quantitative results of these analyses and an interpretation of the results. The final chapter, Chapter V, summarizes the findings of the study in light of research hypotheses and discusses the performance of the subjects and the results of the analyses shown in Chapter IV. The conclusion interprets the effect of subtitled videos on EFL students language learning in relation to their listening and reading comprehension and their vocabulary. To synthesize the conclusion of this study, pedagogical implications, the limitations of the study and further research are presented. CHAPTER II 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Cognitive Processing Theories In many communities around the world, competence in two, or more, languages is an issue of considerable personal, socio-cultural, economic, and political significance. (Fred Genesee McGill University, WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT BILINGUAL EDUCTION FOR MAJORITY LANGUAGE STUDENTS). Historical documents indicate that individuals and whole communities around the world have been compelled to learn other languages for centuries and they have done so for a variety of reasons such as language contact, colonization, trade, education through a colonial language (e.g., Latin, Greek), intermarriage, among others (Lewis, 1977). The term learning has been considered in different ways by psychologists throughout history. Some behaviorists believe that learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior which occurs as a result of experience or practice. In addition Iranian students consider the radical-changing world as a situation of globalization that makes them study English as their second language and also a key to main language of scholarship. Thus Iranian government obliged students to start studying courses in English from early primary school through to university over a course of about 7 years. Despite this, reports show poor linguistic results; thus there is a requirement for an in-depth analysis of the teaching methods to understand the reasons for failure. Analyzing the process of effective learning, usually this is divided into two different components, first is individual interest in a topic and the second part is situational interest (Hidi, 1990). Individual interest is said to be the degree to which the learner or the reader is interested in a certain topic, subject area, or any special activity (Prenzel, 1988; Schiefele, 1990). Situational interest is explained as an emotional state aroused by situational stimuli (Anderson, Shirey, Wilson, Fielding, 1987; Hidi, 1990). The literature shows that the individual interest of the reader learner has a positive influence on text comprehension (Anderson, Mason, Shimey, 1984; Asher, 1980; Baldwin, Peleg-Bruckner, McClintock, 1985; Belloni Jongsma, 1978; Bernstein, 1955; Entin Klare, 1985; Osako Anders, 1983; Renninger, 1988; Stevens, 1982). However these researchers defined individual interests as the relatively long-term orientation of an individual towards a type of object, activity, or area of knowledge. This is why exciting tools such as movies seem to have positive effect on learning. (Schiefele, 1987). Schiefele also believes that individual interest is itself a domain-specific or topic-specific motivational characteristic of personality, composed of feeling-related and value-related valences. Then, individual interest is naturally generated by a text that constitutes a feeling of enjoyment or involvement. Individual interest motivates the learner to become involved in reading the specific subject matter. Fransson (1977) indicated that students who were interested in a special topic exhibited and showed deeper processing of a related text. Using free recall and extensive interviews, Fransson found that high-interest subjects made more connections between both different parts of the text and also between what was read and prior knowledge or personal experience. Benware and Deci (1984) and Grolnick and Ryan (1987) arrived at almost the same results, demonstrating that topic-interested We shall also call it intrinsically motivated students exhibited markedly greater conceptual comprehension of text content in contrast with non-interested and extrinsically motivated students. The process of the language learning is seen as a complicate cognitive skill. According to Neisser (1967), cognitive psychology considers that all information passes a process through which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, focused, stored, recovered and used. Gardner and Lambert (1972) are said to be pioneers in the investigation of socio-psychological aspects of second-language learning. They conducted numerous studies on the relationships of attitudes and social-context to the process of learning a second language. They proposed a distinction between these two models: integrative and instrumental motivation. The former is defined as a full identification by the learner with the target-language group and readiness to be identified as part of it. The latter indicates interest in learning L2 only as a tool to procure a better future through social mobility; in this case the learner does not identify with the target-language speakers. However integrative motivation is often considered more likely to lead to success in second language learning than instrumental motivation. Banduras (1986) and Zimmermans (1989). In particular, some of cognitive theorists believe that information-processing theory has the concept of capacity theory within itself. They suggest that the human capacity for learning a language is not regarded as an apart and disconnected from cognitive processes. According to Beck and McKeown (1991), most research on vocabulary leaning has focused on written text, probably because vocabulary research has developed under the umbrella of reading research. Having this fact in mind that arousing interests causes effectives in learning, is supported by a number of studies which have clearly indicated that television programs and movie videos may also be used as a motivational tool to affect teaching techniques in the field of language learning, especially in the area of vocabulary learning. For instance, Rice and Woodsmall (1988) found that children learn words from their first language when watching animated films with voice-over narration. Such learning can be further improved when the films are subtitled, i.e., when voice is accompanied by orthographic information. Schilperoord, Groot, Son (2005). Researches shows that in countries like the Netherlands, where almost 20% of all programs on Dutch public TV and commercial televisions are foreign, learners are provided with opportunities to learn foreign languages, especially since the 1980s, when the teletext was introduced. Similarly, Koolstra and Beentjes (1999) maintain that in the small language communities, a considerable number of television programs are subtitled, causing and creating the possibility of vocabulary acquisition not only in ones first language but also in his foreign languages learning process. Actually, the use of television programs and movie videos for educational purposes is not new. What researchers are interested in is how much learners can learn from films and television programs, and what factors influence the amount and kind of learning and how much. According to Reese Davie (1987 ) to address this concern, researchers have examined features like message structure and format characteristics to identify those which best facilitate learning. Reese Davie report studies which suggest that visual illustrations are most effective when they are accompanied by the script. Looking at socio-cultural factors attitude affecting in success of learning, however the combinations of traits explain the use that the learner makes of the available learning opportunities, all of which affect L2 learning. Wong-Fillmore (1991) indicates three main factors affecting L2 learning: the need to learn the second language, speakers of the target language who provide learners access to the language [cultural openness], the social setting that brings learners and target-language speakers into contact frequently enough that makes language developments possible [social openness, cultural openness, interaction between learners and target-language speakers]. Clement (1980) also places great emphasis on the L2 learners motivation and the cultural milieu. In Clements model, primary motivational process, is defined as the net result of two opposing forces—integrativeness minus fear of assimilation. Integrativeness refers to the desire to become an accepted member of the tar get group; fear of assimilation refers to the fear of becoming completely like the other culture and losing ones native language and culture. Fear of assimilation along with fear of loss of ones native language and heritage may weaken L2 learning motivation, especially in the countries like Iran where people are brightly proud of the history and heritage. Schumann (1986) suggests a model focusing on a cultural aspect of learning that he terms â€Å"acculturation,† that is, integration of the social and the psychological characteristics of learners with those of target-language speakers. Under this heading, he classifies the social and affective factors cluster both as a single variable. According to Schumann, there are two factors in acculturation [social integration psychological openness] namely, sufficient contact and receptiveness between members of target-language and L2-learner groups. There are clearly a number of common features between the above models. They all include the effect of social context attitudes (integrative or instrumental) and acculturation. A problematic social context usually affects L2 learning negatively, especially when the learners are minorities learning L2 as the language of the dominant group like it seems to have the same role with English language as a semi-dominant language of the world especially in contrast with the middle east languages. However, learners awareness of the necessity for learning the L2 affects their success positively even if it symbolizes a conflict between the minority and the majority. L2 learners apply instrumental motivation, which operates as a meta-cognitive strategy whereby they persuade themselves to engage in L2 learning even though they have no liking for the language and the culture (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993; Bandura, 1986; Zimmerman, 1989). Looking to the movies and TV programs as a motivational tool in learning a language, and based on a justification of the outperformance of students exposed to subtitled video theories are grounded in research either on the single channel theory or on the multiple-channel theories. Multiple-channel theories hold an overview of the cue-summation, the between-channel redundancy theory, the capacity theory and dual-coding theory. Moreover, the schema theory, the Krashens Comprehensible Input Hypothesis and the ACT model by Anderson are also evaluated in the following part, attending to how information processes and learning happens. 2.2 Schema Theory According to Bartlett (1932), a schema is defined as a store of perceived sensory information in memory. He explains that schemata are formed and culturally regulated. As the number of schemata increases, one is able to recall an ever-larger amount of information in minimum time; adapting new information to an appropriate schema allows one to remember new and important ideas (Rumelhart, 1981, 1984). However consistency with an existing schema leads to understanding and inconsistency generally causes problems in the comprehension process. Schemata can impede and slow down reading comprehension and memory; details that are inconsistent with ones schema are deleted, or transformed, and rationalized to fit the existing schemata in the memory. On the other hand, schemata can also play a facilitating role when their details are consistent with the reading content; in this case cognitive processing occurs quickly without serious obstacles (Anderson, 1987; Van Dijk Kintsch, 1983). Researche rs usually compare reading of culturally-familiar and unfamiliar stories by students from different ethnic backgrounds. Results have shown that students comprehension of cultural stories is a function of their cultural familiarity with these stories (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993, 1995; Abu-Rabia Feuerverger, 1996; Adams Collins, 1977; Anderson Gipe, 1983; Anderson, Reynolds, Schallert, Goetz, 1977; Baldwin et al., 1985; Carrell Eisterhold, 1983; Lipson, 1983; Paul, 1959; Reynolds, Taylor, Steffensen, Anderson, Shirley, 1982; Steffensen, Joag-Dev, Anderson, 1979; Yousef, 1968; Zegarra Zinger, 1981). However, learners awareness of the necessity for learning the L2 affects their success positively even if it symbolizes (according to Abu-Rabias above) a conflict between the minority and the majority. Second language learners apply instrumental motivation, which operates as mentioned like a meta-cognitive strategy whereby they persuade themselves to engage in L2 learning even though they have no liking for the language and the culture (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993; Bandura, 1986; Zimmerman, 1989). 2.3 The Single Channel Learning Theory The single channel theory is based on the principles that the human processing system has limited capacity in the central nervous system (Trave Benefits of Subtitles in English Learning Benefits of Subtitles in English Learning CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background All through the years, there has been an increasing emphasis on teaching English as an instrument for communication, and technology has played a critical function in facilitating authentic communication. The movement of language teaching objectives and practices has changed from the printed word and knowledge of language systems to the use and communicative value of the spoken language in the everyday setting (Vanderplank, 1993). In a sense, the efficacy of multimedia has drawn great consideration and is presumed, under the theory of adding an additional channel of media to send out a message, to significantly improve communication and comprehension (Dwyer, 1978). Multimedia technology (like TV, computers, networks, emails video cassette recorders (VCRS), compact disc ready-only memories (CD-ROMs) and interactive multimedia) aids the teaching technique of integrating real-life situations with the target language into the language classroom. In this meticulous setting, learners slowly expand their language acquisition by being exposed to the authentic environment of the target language. According to one of the most outstanding theories of second language acquisition, Krashen (1985) proposed that learners can learn a large amount of language unconsciously through ample comprehensible input. The Input Hypothesis, stated by Krashen, argues that the use of a target language in real communicative environments and the stress on rich comprehensible input by exposing the learners to the target language in the classroom facilitate their language acquisition. In other words, language acquisition only happens when comprehensible input is suitably delivered. In this respect, language teachers struggle to employ a wide range of teaching techniques to make authentic situations and to promote learners language acquisition. Many researchers have presented strong evidence that multimedia (like computers, video, and TV) have helpful effects on language learning due to rich and authentic comprehensible input (Brett, 1995; Egbert Jessup, 1996; Khalid, 2001). Results of these studies demonstrated the significance of the use of multimedia develops learners language performance in reading, listening comprehension and vocabulary recognition. One survey study by the American Association of School Administrators showed that 94 percent of teachers and supervisors believe that technology has enhanced students learning considerably. Similarly, many English-as-a-Second Language (ESL) teachers concur that educational technology presents many possibilities for progressing students language proficiency, including their vocabulary, reading, listening, and speaking. Similarly, television programs and videos have created a place in the communication of information and are powerful apparatus in improving language teaching (Anderson Lorch, 1983). Both TV and videos communicate not only visually through pictures but also aurally throughout the spoken word, music and sound effects. The subtitle, a key role on television and videotapes, is coordinated with the dialogue or narration of the programs audio track, expanding comprehension and understanding of TV programs and videos. Lambert, Boehler and Sidoti (1981) have asserted that the constant general movement indicates that information coming through two input types (e.g., dialogue and subtitles) is more systematically processed than if either dialogue or subtitles are presented alone. This result is in agreement with the dual-coding theory by Allan Paivio (1971), sustaining the usefulness of multiple-channel communication. In the same way, Hartmans (1961a) findings support the between-channel redun dancy theory which suggested that when information is redundant between two input sources (e.g., dialog and subtitles), comprehension will be superior than when the information is coming through one input form, (e.g., dialog). He also gave a description of redundant information as identical information from the visual and verbal stimuli. In this respect, Hartman completed that the benefit of the multiple-channel learning system is this: information coming from two information sources is more comprehensible than that through one. Information input through different sensory channels supplies receivers with additional stimuli reinforcement to guarantee that more complete learning happens. More explicitly, the additional stimuli reinforcement helps out learners in systematizing and structuring the incoming information. However, a contrasting theory, the single channel theory proposed by Broadbent (1958), states that human can only process information throughout one channel at a time. This theory assumes that the decline of learning takes place if the information is received through two or more sources. The learning is delayed when the multiple-channel presentation of information is used in the teaching-learning process. Along with this contentious viewpoint between the single and the multiple-channel presentation, an awareness of and interest in the use of multimedia resources have been increasing, like the presentation of subtitled materials. Today, language learning has turned out to be more available by implementing multimedia with spoken information and full visual context, such as subtitles. For instance, subtitled videos representing words and pictures in an aural and in a visual form are more probable to activate both coding systems in the processing than words or pictures alone. The dual-coding theory proposed by Paivio (1971) suggests that when pictures are added to the meaning, the number of signals connected with the message increases. Viewers then will be more probable to keep the message in mind. Therefore, the results of the past research appear to sustain the aspect that the use of subtitles causes multi-sensory processing, interacting with audio, video and print mechanisms. These information input foundations get the process of language learning better, improve the comprehension of the content, and increase vocabulary by looking at the subtitled words in meaningful and stimulating circumstances. In addition , a lot of teachers consider subtitles shed some new light on a better way of using various multimedia in the ESL classroom. When subtitled technology appeared more than 15 years ago, many educators quickly saw value in exploiting its potential in helping students process language in a different way and effectively by means of the printed word. (Goldman, 1996; Holobow, Lambert, Sayegh, 1984; Koskinen, Wilson, Gambrell, Neuman, 1993; Parks, 1994; Vanderplank, 1993). 1.1.1 Subtitle Subtitles, which are English written subtitles on instructional English-as-second-language (ESL) videos in this study, are the written version of the audio constituent that permits dialogue, music, narration and sound effects to be shown at the bottom of the screen on most televisions. There are two kinds of subtitles explained in general terms: the open subtitle and the closed subtitle. Closed subtitles refer to the subtitles that are not automatically visible to the viewer; however can be viewed by turning on through use of a remote control or an electronic subtitle decoder. By contrast, open subtitles are visible to all viewers without turning them on with a remote control. Subtitling is not only the main function of the TV but a positive function of video tapes. Video tapes offer subtitling by those who specialize in computer workstations. To make subtitles visible, an electronic subtitle decoder is obligatory, that is easily attached to a television set. Although it is not avail able in some areas of the world, subtitling technology is broadly accessible and draws great attention in the United States. In 1990, the U. S. Congress passed the Television Decoder Circuitry Act requiring that all new televisions, thirteen inches or larger, be prepared with subtitle decoder circuitry. The function of the decoder circuitry is to receive, decode, and show closed subtitles from cable, DVD signals and videotape appropriately. With reference to this regulation, the consumer is no longer required to pay for a separate decoder, when in possession of an applicable TV set. Therefore, thousands of people in the U.S. have access to subtitles without any trouble by pushing the button on the remote controls (National Subtitleing Institute, 1989). However, available access of subtitles on foreign film videos is still restricted in other countries, such as Taiwan and Japan, where external subtitle decoders are necessary for viewing. Subtitleing was devised initially for the hearing impaired. The statistics on the number of decoders sold confirm that more than half were bought for the hearing impaired who assert that decoders are helpful to them. Increasingly, the use of subtitles has also augmented among the non-native speakers who are motivated to improve their language learning. A study by Hofmeister, Menlove, and Thorkildsen (1992) discovered that 40 percent of people other than the hearing impaired buy the decoders, such as foreign students. To be explicit, the motive for this phenomenon is that subtitles show words in a motivating atmosphere where the audio, video and print media help viewers comprehend the unknown words and meanings in their context. However, subtitles have a great impact on comprehension improvement of specific TV programs and improve English language learning progressively. For the benefits of the multimedia approach, ESL programs began to incorporate subtitled materials into the curricula to help ESL students language learning. The focus on teaching techniques and on means of optimizing students comprehension of the second language has been of great concern through this multimedia. Koskinen, Wilson, Gambrell, and Neuman (1993) stated that the subtitled video is a new and promising approach for improving students vocabulary, reading comprehension, and motivation. Other researches have been conducted to inspect whether subtitled TV and video improve or obstruct students learning. The results have indicated that subtitled TV and videos are helpful for the hearing impaired, ESL students and disabled students (Bean Wilson, 1989; Borras Lafayette, 1994; Ellsworth, 1992; Garza, 1991; Goldman, 1996; Goldman Goldman, 1988; Markham, 1989; Nugent, 1983; Parlato, 1985; Price, 1983; Vanderplank, 1991; Webb, Vanderplank, Parks, 1994; Wilson Koskinen, 1986). Despite a large number of studies suggesting/demonstrating the benefits of the use of subtitles for the hearing-impaired, language learners, and disabled students, similar studies on the use of English subtitles in English teaching are still limited in Iran. Thus, there is great scope for additional examination into the potential use of subtitled television videos to enhance language teaching to English-as-Foreign-Language (EFL) students. The design of this research elaborates mainly on the language learning achievements. This study adds to the aforementioned to investigate the exposure of target language input to students through the presentation subtitled videos. This research focuses on the absence or presence of 10 English subtitled ESL instructional video episodes for a period of five weeks as a primary variable in an experiment to help determine the conditions for the improvement of Iranian college students learning English as a foreign language in Iran. 1.2 Statement of the Problem Many people in Iran have problems when it comes to communicating with foreigners in English. In addition, to get information from the Internet, having a fair amount of English knowledge is required. That makes accessing information a problem for those with limited English language proficiency. In addition, those Iranian students who wish to study abroad, language is the main problem since they have studied in Farsi for all their educational life, and thus adapting to a non-Persian environment is consequently very difficult. Students in Iran, start learning the Basic English at their secondary schools, however the curriculum structure, is based on teaching grammar rather than oral skills; therefore, most students oral communication skills are limited. . Moloney (1995) states that the emergence of English in the global market has resulted in the current ardor for learning English in developing countries. The need for English in Iran is unique. English is not only a required course for Iranian students, but also required and tested as part of major entrance examinations in Iran. These mentioned issues are going to be considered in proposing subtitles in videos and English learning movie solution. 1.3 Objectives of the Study The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of subtitled videos in enhancing university students language learning in Iran [English as a foreign language (EFL)]. In the study, the term language learning represents two types of performances. The first is students content comprehension of a particular video episode, as evaluated by a Content Specific Tests (CST) and the second is to investigate the learners vocabulary acquisition. 1.4 Significance of the Study Teachers professional development activities always focus on those types of teaching strategies that help students improve along with their path of learning process. As the research has been designed to discover the effectiveness of presenting subtitles on the movies on vocabulary acquisition and content comprehension, it would be of much significance if confirmed that this strategy works. Generally speaking, it can also been resulted that the finding of this research also could be added to the body of language teaching, learning and use of multimedia technology knowledge. The findings of this study can be share with the curriculum designers, EFL/ ESL teachers for the technology to be implemented in the classroom, materials developers for English teaching 1.5 Hypotheses This study focuses on English language learners performance on the Content-Specific Tests (CST) of vocabulary, and content comprehension of videos with and without subtitles. The researcher tested each of the following null hypotheses as she controls the initial differences of the participants in their general English proficiency. Ho 1: There is no significant difference on the scores of the content comprehension subtest of the CST between subjects watching videos with subtitles and those watching videos without subtitles. Ho 2: There is no significant difference on the scores in the content vocabulary subtest of the CST between subjects watching videos with subtitles and those watching videos without subtitles. 1.6 Research Question 1. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their vocabulary significantly? 2. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their content comprehension significantly? 3. Does presence of English subtitles on the videos help learners improve their English language proficiency significantly? 1.7 Definition of the Terms The definitions are given here to make sure uniformity and understanding of these terms throughout the study. 1.7.1 Subtitle Subtitle is the spoken words designed for the deaf and hearing-impaired people helping them read what they cannot hear. The terms subtitles and subtitles are interchangeably used in this research and are described as the translations of the spoken words to the written with the identical language shown at the bottom of the screen. 1.7.2 Closed Subtitle A subtitle of spoken words viewed by a special decoding device installed in the television set or a special decoder machine. 1.7.3 Open Subtitle A subtitle of spoken words that always is printed at the bottom of the screen. 1.7.4 Content-Specific Test (CST) An instrument designed by the researcher for this study used to measure learners overall comprehension in terms of vocabulary and content comprehension of a particular video segment. The CST includes the two subtests: vocabulary and content comprehension. 1.7.5 Content Vocabulary The vocabulary that comes into sight from the particular video piece viewed by the subjects 1.7.6 Content Comprehension Content comprehension that focuses mainly on the whole story script and test viewers comprehension of the particular information shown in the video 1.8 Limitation of the Study The researcher encountered difficulty in access to the samples of all Iranian population of EFL learners since the country is very huge and the numbers of English learners are so many. It was very hard to control teachers inside-class activities based on the methodologies presented to them. Non-generalizability of the findings to all English learners, especially ESL learners is another which is because the research is conducted in an EFL (Iran) context. The last but not the least limitation is the material choice since there are various types of videos. Therefore, the researcher had to restrict the video to an instructional video, connect with English since it is both with and without subtitle available as well as being suitable for the proficiency level of the participants. 1.9 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY This study is divided into five chapters. Chapter I introduces the foundation for this research, the purpose of the study, and definitions of key terms used throughout the study to diminish potential misunderstanding. Chapter II presents a review of the literature of the use of subtitles. It starts with a theoretical review of the cognitive information processing relevant to the single channel theory and the multiple-channel theory, with focus on the cue-summation theory, the between-channel redundancy theory, the dual-coding theory and the capacity theory. It then keeps on with a discussion of the schemata theory, the Comprehensible Input Hypothesis by Krashen and the ACT Model by Anderson. Subsequently, the relevant major research on subtitles for the hearing-impaired, disabled, normal reading ability, and language learners is offered. Chapter III outlines the method of hypotheses testing formulated in Chapter I. It also includes the research design, followed by a description of the subjects in this study, the treatment materials employed, the testing instruments, the data collection procedure, and the details of the data analysis applied. In Chapter IV, the analyses are performed to reveal the research hypotheses are explained in detail, with the quantitative results of these analyses and an interpretation of the results. The final chapter, Chapter V, summarizes the findings of the study in light of research hypotheses and discusses the performance of the subjects and the results of the analyses shown in Chapter IV. The conclusion interprets the effect of subtitled videos on EFL students language learning in relation to their listening and reading comprehension and their vocabulary. To synthesize the conclusion of this study, pedagogical implications, the limitations of the study and further research are presented. CHAPTER II 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Cognitive Processing Theories In many communities around the world, competence in two, or more, languages is an issue of considerable personal, socio-cultural, economic, and political significance. (Fred Genesee McGill University, WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT BILINGUAL EDUCTION FOR MAJORITY LANGUAGE STUDENTS). Historical documents indicate that individuals and whole communities around the world have been compelled to learn other languages for centuries and they have done so for a variety of reasons such as language contact, colonization, trade, education through a colonial language (e.g., Latin, Greek), intermarriage, among others (Lewis, 1977). The term learning has been considered in different ways by psychologists throughout history. Some behaviorists believe that learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior which occurs as a result of experience or practice. In addition Iranian students consider the radical-changing world as a situation of globalization that makes them study English as their second language and also a key to main language of scholarship. Thus Iranian government obliged students to start studying courses in English from early primary school through to university over a course of about 7 years. Despite this, reports show poor linguistic results; thus there is a requirement for an in-depth analysis of the teaching methods to understand the reasons for failure. Analyzing the process of effective learning, usually this is divided into two different components, first is individual interest in a topic and the second part is situational interest (Hidi, 1990). Individual interest is said to be the degree to which the learner or the reader is interested in a certain topic, subject area, or any special activity (Prenzel, 1988; Schiefele, 1990). Situational interest is explained as an emotional state aroused by situational stimuli (Anderson, Shirey, Wilson, Fielding, 1987; Hidi, 1990). The literature shows that the individual interest of the reader learner has a positive influence on text comprehension (Anderson, Mason, Shimey, 1984; Asher, 1980; Baldwin, Peleg-Bruckner, McClintock, 1985; Belloni Jongsma, 1978; Bernstein, 1955; Entin Klare, 1985; Osako Anders, 1983; Renninger, 1988; Stevens, 1982). However these researchers defined individual interests as the relatively long-term orientation of an individual towards a type of object, activity, or area of knowledge. This is why exciting tools such as movies seem to have positive effect on learning. (Schiefele, 1987). Schiefele also believes that individual interest is itself a domain-specific or topic-specific motivational characteristic of personality, composed of feeling-related and value-related valences. Then, individual interest is naturally generated by a text that constitutes a feeling of enjoyment or involvement. Individual interest motivates the learner to become involved in reading the specific subject matter. Fransson (1977) indicated that students who were interested in a special topic exhibited and showed deeper processing of a related text. Using free recall and extensive interviews, Fransson found that high-interest subjects made more connections between both different parts of the text and also between what was read and prior knowledge or personal experience. Benware and Deci (1984) and Grolnick and Ryan (1987) arrived at almost the same results, demonstrating that topic-interested We shall also call it intrinsically motivated students exhibited markedly greater conceptual comprehension of text content in contrast with non-interested and extrinsically motivated students. The process of the language learning is seen as a complicate cognitive skill. According to Neisser (1967), cognitive psychology considers that all information passes a process through which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, focused, stored, recovered and used. Gardner and Lambert (1972) are said to be pioneers in the investigation of socio-psychological aspects of second-language learning. They conducted numerous studies on the relationships of attitudes and social-context to the process of learning a second language. They proposed a distinction between these two models: integrative and instrumental motivation. The former is defined as a full identification by the learner with the target-language group and readiness to be identified as part of it. The latter indicates interest in learning L2 only as a tool to procure a better future through social mobility; in this case the learner does not identify with the target-language speakers. However integrative motivation is often considered more likely to lead to success in second language learning than instrumental motivation. Banduras (1986) and Zimmermans (1989). In particular, some of cognitive theorists believe that information-processing theory has the concept of capacity theory within itself. They suggest that the human capacity for learning a language is not regarded as an apart and disconnected from cognitive processes. According to Beck and McKeown (1991), most research on vocabulary leaning has focused on written text, probably because vocabulary research has developed under the umbrella of reading research. Having this fact in mind that arousing interests causes effectives in learning, is supported by a number of studies which have clearly indicated that television programs and movie videos may also be used as a motivational tool to affect teaching techniques in the field of language learning, especially in the area of vocabulary learning. For instance, Rice and Woodsmall (1988) found that children learn words from their first language when watching animated films with voice-over narration. Such learning can be further improved when the films are subtitled, i.e., when voice is accompanied by orthographic information. Schilperoord, Groot, Son (2005). Researches shows that in countries like the Netherlands, where almost 20% of all programs on Dutch public TV and commercial televisions are foreign, learners are provided with opportunities to learn foreign languages, especially since the 1980s, when the teletext was introduced. Similarly, Koolstra and Beentjes (1999) maintain that in the small language communities, a considerable number of television programs are subtitled, causing and creating the possibility of vocabulary acquisition not only in ones first language but also in his foreign languages learning process. Actually, the use of television programs and movie videos for educational purposes is not new. What researchers are interested in is how much learners can learn from films and television programs, and what factors influence the amount and kind of learning and how much. According to Reese Davie (1987 ) to address this concern, researchers have examined features like message structure and format characteristics to identify those which best facilitate learning. Reese Davie report studies which suggest that visual illustrations are most effective when they are accompanied by the script. Looking at socio-cultural factors attitude affecting in success of learning, however the combinations of traits explain the use that the learner makes of the available learning opportunities, all of which affect L2 learning. Wong-Fillmore (1991) indicates three main factors affecting L2 learning: the need to learn the second language, speakers of the target language who provide learners access to the language [cultural openness], the social setting that brings learners and target-language speakers into contact frequently enough that makes language developments possible [social openness, cultural openness, interaction between learners and target-language speakers]. Clement (1980) also places great emphasis on the L2 learners motivation and the cultural milieu. In Clements model, primary motivational process, is defined as the net result of two opposing forces—integrativeness minus fear of assimilation. Integrativeness refers to the desire to become an accepted member of the tar get group; fear of assimilation refers to the fear of becoming completely like the other culture and losing ones native language and culture. Fear of assimilation along with fear of loss of ones native language and heritage may weaken L2 learning motivation, especially in the countries like Iran where people are brightly proud of the history and heritage. Schumann (1986) suggests a model focusing on a cultural aspect of learning that he terms â€Å"acculturation,† that is, integration of the social and the psychological characteristics of learners with those of target-language speakers. Under this heading, he classifies the social and affective factors cluster both as a single variable. According to Schumann, there are two factors in acculturation [social integration psychological openness] namely, sufficient contact and receptiveness between members of target-language and L2-learner groups. There are clearly a number of common features between the above models. They all include the effect of social context attitudes (integrative or instrumental) and acculturation. A problematic social context usually affects L2 learning negatively, especially when the learners are minorities learning L2 as the language of the dominant group like it seems to have the same role with English language as a semi-dominant language of the world especially in contrast with the middle east languages. However, learners awareness of the necessity for learning the L2 affects their success positively even if it symbolizes a conflict between the minority and the majority. L2 learners apply instrumental motivation, which operates as a meta-cognitive strategy whereby they persuade themselves to engage in L2 learning even though they have no liking for the language and the culture (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993; Bandura, 1986; Zimmerman, 1989). Looking to the movies and TV programs as a motivational tool in learning a language, and based on a justification of the outperformance of students exposed to subtitled video theories are grounded in research either on the single channel theory or on the multiple-channel theories. Multiple-channel theories hold an overview of the cue-summation, the between-channel redundancy theory, the capacity theory and dual-coding theory. Moreover, the schema theory, the Krashens Comprehensible Input Hypothesis and the ACT model by Anderson are also evaluated in the following part, attending to how information processes and learning happens. 2.2 Schema Theory According to Bartlett (1932), a schema is defined as a store of perceived sensory information in memory. He explains that schemata are formed and culturally regulated. As the number of schemata increases, one is able to recall an ever-larger amount of information in minimum time; adapting new information to an appropriate schema allows one to remember new and important ideas (Rumelhart, 1981, 1984). However consistency with an existing schema leads to understanding and inconsistency generally causes problems in the comprehension process. Schemata can impede and slow down reading comprehension and memory; details that are inconsistent with ones schema are deleted, or transformed, and rationalized to fit the existing schemata in the memory. On the other hand, schemata can also play a facilitating role when their details are consistent with the reading content; in this case cognitive processing occurs quickly without serious obstacles (Anderson, 1987; Van Dijk Kintsch, 1983). Researche rs usually compare reading of culturally-familiar and unfamiliar stories by students from different ethnic backgrounds. Results have shown that students comprehension of cultural stories is a function of their cultural familiarity with these stories (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993, 1995; Abu-Rabia Feuerverger, 1996; Adams Collins, 1977; Anderson Gipe, 1983; Anderson, Reynolds, Schallert, Goetz, 1977; Baldwin et al., 1985; Carrell Eisterhold, 1983; Lipson, 1983; Paul, 1959; Reynolds, Taylor, Steffensen, Anderson, Shirley, 1982; Steffensen, Joag-Dev, Anderson, 1979; Yousef, 1968; Zegarra Zinger, 1981). However, learners awareness of the necessity for learning the L2 affects their success positively even if it symbolizes (according to Abu-Rabias above) a conflict between the minority and the majority. Second language learners apply instrumental motivation, which operates as mentioned like a meta-cognitive strategy whereby they persuade themselves to engage in L2 learning even though they have no liking for the language and the culture (Abu-Rabia, 1991, 1993; Bandura, 1986; Zimmerman, 1989). 2.3 The Single Channel Learning Theory The single channel theory is based on the principles that the human processing system has limited capacity in the central nervous system (Trave

The Child in Flannery O’Connor’s A Temple of the Holy Ghost Essay

The Child in Flannery O’Connor’s A Temple of the Holy Ghost â€Å"None of their ways were lost on the child† (236). This passage introduces the main character only named the â€Å"child† in Flannery O’Connor’s short story â€Å"A Temple of the Holy Ghost† and indeed she is influenced not only by the two girls that this line refers to, but by everything she hears and sees. She is very direct and speaks without thinking, for example when she asks her mother to invite Mr. â€Å"Cheat,† an admirer of Miss Kirby’s, the schoolteacher who is lodging with her family. Her directness can be read as â€Å"ugliness† as she herself calls it. The line â€Å"None of their ways were lost on the child† (236) mentions for the first time the very important characteristic of the child that turns out to be central to the story, that really nothing, especially things that are said, are lost on the child, they are much more repeated and reappear throughout the story in different contexts. The story shows a girl caught between Catholicism and secular things, as she mixes everything in her very own picture of the world. The first thing that has an impact on the â€Å"child† is when the girls tell how Sister Perpetua told them to stop â€Å"ungentlemanly boys† by saying â€Å"Stop sir! I am the Temple of the Holy Ghost!† (238). She sees how the phrase influences Miss Kirby and she herself feels â€Å"as if somebody as given her a present† (238). This phrase reappears as a motif later in the story and already in this original context the religious is confronted with the secular. She constantly thinks about being a â€Å"good person,† she would even like to have been a saint, â€Å"because that included everything you could know† (243) but she thinks that she has too many faults such as being a liar, ... ... smell and she finally realizes she is â€Å"in the presence of God† (247). These effects make her calm down and start to pray and confess her â€Å"sins† although â€Å"mechanically†: â€Å"Hep me not to be so mean†¦Hep me not to give her so much sass. Hep me not to talk like I do.† When the priest finally raises the monstrance â€Å"with the Host shining ivory-colored in the center of it† she is in turn reminded of the freak at the fair and what he said and the religious world and the world of the fair are mixed together in her mind. The last image of the story is the child seeing the setting sun from the car on their way back home from the convent and she imagines it to be a Host that is â€Å"drenched in blood.† One last time the interrelation of church and fair become visible as she imagines this scene right after Alonzo mentions that the fair has been shut down on request of preachers.

On Adam’s Curse Essay

William Butler Yeats is an Irish dramatist, author, and poet whose works are mostly classified as lyric and almost belonging to the age of the English romantics. He was a Nobel Prize awardee and one of the founders of the Irish Literary Revival. His works are the utmost expressions of his emotions and opinions and for such they are renowned. They have made Yeats the most influential English-writing poet of the twentieth century (â€Å"William Butler Yeats†). In his work, â€Å"Adam’s Curse†, which was published in 1902, Yeats exposed to his audience the depths of his mind. He spoke of his beliefs in beauty, how it may truly be seen, and achieved. More importantly it explained how beauty is truly understood and appreciated. Typical with Yeats’ other works, the poem has a consistent rhyme and meter. For every stanza, there is a definitive sound that ties all the lines together and makes the lyric piece progress smoothly to its meaning. The rhymes are external mostly by the end of each line and the point of view utilized is first person. This means that the speaker of the poem is present as the story of the piece unfolds. The speaker is the one who experienced a disturbing occurrence. Also the speaker is the one opining on the given occurrence, the one conveying the writer’s message. The initial clue as given by the speaker of the poem is in the first stanza, where the speaker was seemingly disappointed by people’s perception of true beauty. He said that he, together with the object of his affection is talking about poetry, and how beauty is created in difficulty. The disappointment set in when he stated that there are people who believe that they know beauty and yet they find artists and poets as lazy people. They do not see the labor that is poured into by creators in their works, yet they claim to know how to appreciate real beauty (Yeats). In the second stanza, the object of the speaker’s affection agreed with the speaker in saying that beauty needs to be labored upon. Merely admiration is not the basis for knowing true beauty, nor is merely reciting a beautiful poem. This is supported by the succeeding lines where the speaker further pointed that after Adam’s fall, there had not been anything beautiful that was not a result of hard labor. In the example which was given in the poem, the beautiful feeling of love. The speaker indicated that love is beautiful and it is not easily earned. A man needs to work to achieve the love of a woman. Merely knowing the feeling of love and not taking action upon it is not the true way of appreciating love. Lovers who work for their feelings are the good laborers, while those who keep their emotions are idlers. In the case of artists and poets, which seems to be the trade of the speaker, he who creates beauty by combining words to create an image that can convey a message are the true laborers. The businessmen and merchants who claim that they are lazy have no right to claim that they know the beauty in poetry or in paintings and many other forms of art. They have no right to attest that a work is of beauty because they do not accept the labor that is behind it. They fail to accept that the secret of beauty is that it never looks like it has been labored upon. Its power is to trap life’s wonders and make it appear at an arm’s reach. This is why it is relaxing and comforting. This is the message that the poem tries to convey. The writer is telling that artists and poets are not idlers. In fact, they have what may be considered as the biggest burden of all. They are to contemplate, imagine, and create a work that can console a sorrowing heart, or bring excitement to a bored soul. Their task is difficult as they are to hide hardships in their works. It is even worse than computing for the day’s sale. There is nothing routine in it, for routine can destroy its essence. Adam’s curse that made laboring necessary is a curse that is heaviest on an artist’s shoulder and this is what Yeats conveyed in his poetry. Works Cited â€Å"William Butler Yeats†. 2009. Nobelprize. org. 27 April 2009 < http://nobelprize. org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1923/yeats-bio. html >. Yeats, William Butler. 1902. â€Å"Adam’s Curse† the beckoning. com. 27 April 2009 < http://www. thebeckoning. com/poetry/yeats/yeats4. html >.

Sustainable Tea at Unilever

rP os t 9-712-438 REV: DECEMBER 21, 2011 REBECCA M. HENDERSON FREDERIK NELLEMANN Sustainable Tea at Unilever op yo To survive and prosper over the long term, learn how to adapt your business model by making it servant to society and the environment. Not the other way around. — Paul Polman, CEO, Unilever In 2010 Unilever announced its commitment to a new â€Å"Sustainable Living Plan†, a document that set wide-ranging company-wide goals for improving the health and well-being of consumers, reducing environmental impact, and, perhaps most ambitiously, sourcing 100% of agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020.Such a goal implied a massive transformation of a supply chain that sourced close to 8 million tons of commodities across 50 different crops. Unilever CEO Paul Polman believed that the company’s ambitious goals could drive savings, product innovation, and differentiation across the company’s portfolio of products. But more importantly, it would cre ate a company better suited to survive in the future which Polman envisaged: tC This is a world that is challenged. When you look at the interdependent challenges that we face on food security, poverty reduction, sustainability f resources, climate change, and social, economic, environmental development, these challenges have never been greater. And I believe that these pressures will only increase as 2 billion more people enter this world and many aspire to increase their living standards. 1 No The changes happening at Lipton, Unilever’s â‚ ¬3. 5 billion tea brand, were an important cornerstone of Unilever’s plan. For over five years, Michiel Leijnse, the global brand director for Lipton Tea, and the Unilever Procurement team had led the transformation of the Lipton brand and its supply chain towards a goal of 100% sustainable sourcing.Approximately 25% of all Unilever tea now came from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms and real gains had been made in the social, environmental and economic sustainability of tea production. The scale of Unilever’s mainstream partnership approach was unprecedented in the beverages industry, where â€Å"ethical† brands had failed to grow beyond niche market positions. Unilever’s goal was to have all of the tea in Lipton teabags sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified farms by 2015, and to have every kilogram of Unilever tea sustainably sourced by 2020.Michiel Leijnse was confident that these goals could be achieved but the business faced two critical issues as they worked to make them a reality. Do The first issue was how Unilever could transform a supply chain that was not only geographically very diverse but also highly fragmented. Unilever bought tea from all producing regions, and in many markets the majority of production was contro lled by smallholders who sold their tea at open auctions.Unilever and the Rainforest Alliance had successfully certified Unilever’s own tea esta tes ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professor Rebecca M. Henderson and Research Associate Frederik Nellemann (MBA 2011) prepared this case. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for class discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. Copyright  © 2011, 2012 President and Fellows of Harvard College.To order copies or request permission to reproduce material s, call 1-800-5457685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to www. hbsp. harvard. edu/educators. This publication may not be digitized, photocopied, or otherwise reproduced, posted, or transmitted, without the permission of Harvard Business School. This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Sustainable Tea at Unilever rP os t 712-438 nd those of many large plantations, but the firm now faced the increasingly difficult task of convincing smallholders in markets across the world of the benefits of changing agricultural practices and pursuing Rainforest Alliance certification. India, for example, was a major tea producer and consumer, but the small scale of many of the farms and the nature of local farming practices made certification a significant challenge. What should Unilever do in such markets? Should Unilever hold fast to Rainforest Alliance certification or instead work to implement incremental change through standards better suited for Indian practices?How could they persuade hundreds of thousands of smallholders to adopt new farming methods in market s where most tea production and consumption was local and Unilever was far from the dominant buyer? op yo The second issue was whether and how Unilever could gain market advantage from its move to sustaina ble tea. While the adoption of Rainforest Alliance certification appeared to have led to market share growth in some Western markets, it was not clear either that this would continue or that the concept of a sustainability message would resonate with consumers in developing markets like Turkey, India, or Russia.How should Unilever market its sustainability efforts in emerging markets? Beyond these two key issues several other smaller but also potentially important questions also consumed Unilever’s attention. The Unilever Sustainable Living Plan committed the company to sourcing 100% of all agricultural raw materials sustainably by 2020. Did this mean moving to sustainable paper in tea bags and packaging or to sustainable ingredients sourced in very small amounts—such as chamomile—where there was currently no sustainable supply?If so, what was the best way to approach such moves? And more broadly, were there lessons in Lipton’s experience for the rest of Unilever’s agricultural supply chain and for the power of sustainability as a source of consumer differentiation? Unilever tC Unilever and Lipton Tea No In 2011 Unilever was one of the world’s leading consumer goods companies, selling everything from food products to personal care and home care goods. It was a company with a global reach, with sales coming from more than 180 countries, over half of which were in the developing world.Worldwide, over two billion consumers used Unilever products each day, and 2010 revenue was over â‚ ¬44 billion ($59 billiona). 2 Just over half of these sales came from foods and beverages, with 31 % of sales in personal care and 17% in home care (see Exhibit 2 for breakdown by segment). The company employed 167,000 people globally. Much of the company’s success was due to its portfolio of strong brands. The company had 12 brands with individual sales over â‚ ¬1 billion per annum, including such widely recognized products as L ipton, Dove, and Axe . DoThe company faced competition from a number of other large consumer goods companies , including Procter & Gamble, Nestle, and Colgate-Palmolive. (See Exhibits 3-5 for further comparison financial figures). a Using exchange rate of â‚ ¬1 = $1. 35 as of December 2, 2011. 2 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. 712-438 rP os t Sustainable Tea at Unilever Unilever Tea Lipton Tea was the largest tea brand in the world with annual sales of approximately â‚ ¬3. billionb. Unilever’s tea portfolio contained a number of other strong regional brands such as PG tips in the United Kingdom (U. K. ), Lyons in Ireland, and various other brands in countries around the world, including India, Pakistan, Russia, and Poland. Lipton’s global market share was nearly three times that of its nearest rival, Tata Beverage s, the owners of Tetley Tea. Lipton teas were sold in over 130 countries, with particular popularity in Europe, North America, the Middle East, and parts of Asia.Growth in the developed world was in the order of 1%-2% a year, but the markets of the developing world—specifically India and China—were seen as particularly promising, with anticipated annual growth rates of close to 10%. op yo In 2010, Unilever sold nearly 350,000 tons of tea. Approximately 90% came from external suppliers, with the remainder coming from Unilever’s own estates in East Africa, including its flagship estate in Kericho, Kenya. Every market had a distinct taste in tea, making it to some extent reliant on supply from particular countries.For example, the North American market sourced much of its tea from Argentina, since its tea was particularly well suited for iced tea, which was popular in the U. S. The Global Tea Market tC Tea was the world’s most popular beverage after water. I n 2009, approximately 4 million tons of tea was produced in 46 countries, with China, India, Kenya, and Sri Lanka accounting for 70% of global production. 3 Kenya, where much of Lipton’s tea was produced, accounted for approximately 8% of global production,4 but was the world’s largest exporter of tea (see Exhibit 14 for a breakdown of global tea production). No Russia, the U. S. , and the U. K. were the biggest net importers of tea, accounting for nearly 30 % of global imports. 6 Tea was consumed for a variety of reasons and in a wide variety of blends. For example, Japan with its strong preference for green tea consumed approximately a fifth of all global green tea supply. Tea was an ingrained part of daily life in many countries for cultural and historical reasons. In other parts of the world, tea was becoming increasingly popular due to its perceived health benefits. 7Historically, global tea markets had suffered from over-supply. The resulting price pressure was e xacerbated by tea’s high degree of commoditization, low switching costs for consumers, and tea’s perishability, which meant prices were often cut drastically to clear stocks. 8 As seen in Exhibit 6, despite moderate gains in the price of tea since 2000, the price of tea in real terms in 2010 was still 35% lower than its peak in the mid-1980s. 9 Tea Production and its Consequences Do Tea production was a very labor-intensive activity.With a few regional exceptions, tea production occurred year-round, as the top two to three leaves of the plants were carefully hand- b This figure included some sales realized through the joint-venture with Pepsi on ready-to-drink products. These sales are not included Unilever’s total turnover. 3 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Sustainable Tea at Unilever rP os t 712-438 icked every 7 to 21 days, depending on the altitude and climate. 10 Tea plantsc could grow to a height of 30 feet or more, but were usually cropped at about 2 to 3 feet and then pruned regularly in order to make them easier to pick. 11 The leaves were plucked by hand and then processed immediately either on-site at the plantation or at a bought-leaf factory. 12 During processing, tea leaves were withered, macerated, oxidized, dried and sorted on site. The processed tea was then transported to a broker or auction, after which it was blended, sometimes flavored, and packaged.Finally, it entered the relevant retail sales channel before ending up with the consumer. op yo Inappropriately managed, tea production could raise a number of social and environmental concerns. The industry contained a mix of large-scale estates and smallholders, each with their own challenges. Over the years there had been reports of bad working conditions on poorly managed plantations that damaged worker health through ex posure to harmful pesticides and agrochemicals. In certain cases, the workforce included migrant laborers with no protection in case of illness, pregnancy or other factors. 3 They generally received low wages and were not always given medical care, housing, education or pensions. Further, in some cases independent trade unions, when they existed, had been accused of corruption or ineffectiveness. 14 tC For some smallholders who grew tea as a cash crop, tea production implied the conversion of tropical forests into agricultural land which could lead to reductions in local species diversity and to soil degradation. 15 However, for most farmers unsustainable practices were a result of focus on increasing yields and not acreage.Logging for the firewood needed to dry tea could lead to local deforestation, which could in turn led to problems in water retention. Some farms used excessive amounts of fertilizers and pesticides, which could negatively affect soil quality and pollute local soi ls and waterways. Years of commoditization had contributed to a downwards price spiral that put pressure on workers and the environment as farmers tried to safeguard their income. Unilever’s Commitment to Sustainable Tea No Unilever first established a set of good agriculture practice guidelines in 1998.The guidelines outlined sustainable farming practices for the suppliers of its major crops, including tea, palm oil and tomatoes, and included 10 key indicators of environmental, social, and economic performance, each with their own sub-parameters (see Exhibit 7b for more details). The guide was not imposed on external suppliers, but it was shared with them and with the broader public. This was the first move of this kind in the industry. Do In 2006, Michiel Leijnse began the process of transforming this internal commitmen t into a major consumer-facing initiative.He believed that many Western consumers had become sufficiently concerned about sustainability that it might help drive product differentiation. More importantly, he saw this as an opportunity to transform the entire tea industry , benefiting not only tea workers and the environment, but also purchasers of tea who were reliant on a healthy supply chain. Aware that such a transformation was not costless, Leijnse explained the initiative’s rationale: If we didn’t do something to transform the industry, at some point we just wouldn’t be able to get the quality and quantity of tea we need.While we might see market share gains in c There are two main varieties of the tea plant: China and Assam. The Assam variety, which is used in India and Kenya, is the most common. All varieties can and are used to produce green and black tea. There are many kinds of hybrids between the varieties, and other factors like soil, climate, altitude, picking time, and processing all affect t he flavor. 4 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. 712-438 rP os tSustainable Tea at Unilever some markets, it won’t always be the case. It is a challenge to properly align the short -term and long-term interests of the brand. Tea Certification and the Rainforest Alliance op yo Leijnse and his team decided to pursue certification for the brand, and chose the Rainforest Alliance, a founding member and secretariat of the Sustainable Agriculture Network (SAN), as its certification partner. There was significant overlap in both Unilever’s and Rainforest Alliance’s approach to sustainable agriculture practices, in that both focused on environmental, economic, and social factors.Further, the Rainforest Alliance focused on market-based premiums rather than fixed price supports (characteristic, for example, of FairTrade products) as the best way to create change. The Rainforest Alliance had some consumer recognition from previously su ccessful campaigns certifying a range of other commodities, including bananas, coffee, and cocoa but had no prior experience with tea certification or on the African continent, where Unilever had decades of experience from its tea estates. Unilever set ambitious targets for the implementation of Rainforest Alliance certification.By 2011, its initial target of having all Lipton Yellow Label and PG tips tea bags in Western Europe certified by 2010 had been successfully achieved. Lipton had committed to sourcing all the tea in Lipton tea bags from Rainforest Alliance-certified estates by 2015, approximately a third of all Unilever tea volume. And if Lipton were to meet the commitments of the Sustainable Living Plan, by 2020, 100% of Unilever’s tea would need to be sustainably sourced, although the Plan did not commit Unilever to using tea from Rainforest Alliance certified farms. tCThe certification process Rainforest Alliance certification evaluated farms according to 10 princi ples covering issues such as worker welfare, farm management, and environmental protection , each with its own criteria. 16 The Rainforest Alliance certified entire farms, so that in order for any of a farm’s crops to be certified, the entire production area for all crops had to meet the standards. In order to obtain and maintain certification, a farm had to be in compliance with at least 50% of the applicable criteria associated with each principle and with at least 80% of the total set of applicable criteria.Further, there were fifteen critical criteria which were mandatory for certification, regardless of overall compliance (see Exhibit 7a for information on certification standards). 17 Do No While independent farmers bore the costs of complying with the Rainforest Alliance standards (for each estate or group being certified covered, there was a certification cost of approximately â‚ ¬3,000 to â‚ ¬4,500, or $4,000 to $10,000, depending on farm size18), Unilever also incurred costs in choosing to buy certified tea. First, Unilever paid a premium for the tea. In 2011, this was approximately â‚ ¬0. 08 per kilogram of tea.In 2010, the average market price per kilogram of tea was â‚ ¬1. 69 ($2. 28). 19 In the market for certified coffee, price premiums of 15% had been seen. From 2011, Unilever had to pay the Rainforest Alliance a participation fee in order to carry the organization’s frog logo on its pack.. This fee was â‚ ¬0. 0089 ($0. 0125) per kilogram of tea. Unilever’s Procurement organization devoted six full-time equivalent people to work on the roll-out of global certification education and spent approximately â‚ ¬200,000 per year on the development and deployment of farmer training in conjunction with the Rainforest Alliance.Scaling Certification in the Supply Chain Unilever had to certify almost a quarter of its tea volumes to meet its 2010 goals. Given the lack of any pre-existing certified sources, Unilever and the Rainforest Alliance faced a significant challenge in developing large volumes of certified tea in a relatively short time period. To address this, 5 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Sustainable Tea at Unilever rP os t 712-438Unilever’s efforts initially focused on certifying Unilever’s own production in Kenya and Tanzania as well as some of its larger and better-managed tea suppliers. Achieving the firm’s 2015 and 2020 goals would require working further down the supply chain with smaller, less organized suppliers operating in a wide variety of different countries, each of whom had different agricultural practices, government support, and institutional capacity. Unilever had been successful in building a certified supply chain in East Africa. Could this be replicated across the entire supply chain?The Certific ation of Unilever’s Own Estates in East Africa op yo The Unilever estates in Kenya and Tanzania were the first sites to be certified. Unilever had actively worked to maximize long-term yields and to control costs ever since planting commenced on the 13,000 hectare estate20 in Kericho, Kenya, in 1928. For example, tea bush prunings were left on the field to rot, rather than being removed as waste or for use as firewood or cattle food, a practice that maximized soil fertility and water retention. The estate also carefully managed its fertilizer use.Fertilizer was not only expensive but also a potential threat to soil quality if mismanaged. On-site hydropower provided reliable electricity at one-third the cost of power bought from the Kenyan grid , and the tea was dried using wood sourced from fast-growing eucalyptus forests planted on the edge of the estate. In contrast to estates in Asia, Kericho made only minimal use of agrochemicals and other pesticides, both because of the favorable climate and also through appropriate management of the surrounding land which was home to natural predators of many pests. tCThe Kericho estate also invested in the health and well-being of its 16,000 employees and their dependents. The employees, who were paid a fixed sum per kilo of tea plucked, typically earned twoand-a-half times more than the local agricultural minimum wage. In addition, Unilever provided them with free access to company housing and health care, including the company’s hospital and pharmacies and the employees’ children were educated in company-owned schools. 21 The company had recently invested â‚ ¬1. 2 million to update many of these facilities. No The Kericho estate achieved some of the highest yields in the world , with annual yields of 3. to 4 tons per hectare, compared to an average of 2 to 3 tons per hectare in India. At the Unilever estate in Tanzania, which followed similar practices, the yields were 3 tons per hectare compar ed to less than 2 tons per hectare in the rest of the country. â€Å"The sustainability work we did at Kericho made good agricultural sense, and in the long run it also made good financial sense,† explained Richard Fairburn, former managing director of Unilever Tea East Africa. â€Å"We understand that this is simply the way the industry needs to operate in order to survive and thrive. To further increase the supply of certified tea, Unilever identified a priority list of its larger suppliers in Africa, Argentina and Indonesia. Many of these estates were already professionally managed and were certified following adjustments to existing practices using available tools. 22 Working Down the Supply Chain Do Initial success with small-hold farmers in East Africa Certifying the 500,000 Kenyan smallholders from which Unilever purchased tea was a critical component of the Rainforest Alliance roll-out since East Africa alone accounted for nearly one third of Unilever’s total tea requirement.Fortunately, Unilever was able to work with the Kenyan Tea Development Agency (KTDA) and with the IDH, the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative, to design a program that â€Å"trained the trainers† and led to the rapid diffusion of sustainable farming practices across the country. 6 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. 712-438 rP os t Sustainable Tea at UnileverThe KTDA was a highly respected farmer’s cooperative covering 62% of all Kenyan prod uction through 59 factories. Its goal was to help local farmers receive better prices as well as to provide training and other extension services. In 2011, Unilever bought approximately 40% of KTDA’s production. 23 Unilever worked with the Kenyan Tea Development Agency (KTDA) and the Rainforest Alliance to educate the locally-elected lead farmers who did the bulk of the smallholder training. Each factory elected 30 to 40 lead farmers, each of whom received approximately three days training.Most of the training costs were covered by international donors like IDH but it was expected that the KTDA would ultimately take over this responsibility, estimated to be about â‚ ¬1 to â‚ ¬2 ($1 to $3) per tea farmer. 24 op yo Each lead farmer was expected to train approximately 300 other farmers through group and individual training, with the focus of the training being hands-on demonstration of sustainable agricultural practices. The meetings could also be used as a way to increase awareness of the potential price premiums paid for Rainforest Alliance certified tea.The certification criteria were broken down into actionable activities that could be easily communicated and the Rainforest Alliance helped develop simple posters and check lists that the lead farmers coul d distribute (see Exhibit 9 for an example). The process was designed to be very participatory, and further technical support was provided by the KTDA’s extension officers, who also received training. 25 Certification was organized at the factory level. For the external audit, the Rainforest Alliance or an authorized third party checked compliance with a sample of farmers at random.Prior to this, each farmer was also internally audited by a lead farmer, but never by the same lead farmer who trained them. Lead farmers received some modest financial support in the first year to cover the costs associated with their efforts. tC Most of the changes asked of farmers did not require huge changes in practice or much investment. For example, getting farmers to leave their pruning in the field (to improve soil quality) rather than removing them for use as firewood required persuading farmers to plant trees for fuel. Tree seeds were very cheap and Unilever subsidized the cost.Farmers were also encouraged to make compost from organic waste rather than burning it, as well as making better use of waste and washing water. No Some changes were expensive. For example, the Rainforest Alliance standards required the use of personal protective equipment for the spraying of (approved) pesticides. This could cost up to $30, half a month’s salary for a smallholder 26. However, the KTDA set up its own micro-credit scheme to assist farmers with these kinds of purchases, and in some places, the local smallholders had pooled money to buy a single set which was shared. 7 A pilot study done by Unilever in 2004 showed that total net investments were less than 1% of total cash farm income for the first year. Do Many of the farms saw yield gains of 5%-15% from the implementation of more sustainable practices, improvements in the quality of the tea, and reductions in operating costs as well as higher prices for their tea. Average income increased by an estimated 10%-15% and Unilever also felt that sustainable practices would help farmers better adapt to the climatic changes, like abnormal rainfall patterns, that many locals were already witnessing. 8 But according to Richard Fairburn, the most salient benefit to farmers was in their personal empowerment: â€Å"The Kenyan smallholders are ultimately interested in creating a farm in good health that can be passed on to future generations. That was the ’sustainability’ that resonated with them. † By 2011 the Rainforest Alliance had successfully certified over one-third of the smallholder farmers in Kenya, and Unilever was confident that eventually all Kenyan smallholders would gain certification.One encouraging sign was that some of the first groups to become certified had since 7 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Sustainable Tea at Unilever rP os t 712-438 independently renewed their certification. 29 Whether this mode l could be rolled out to other tea growing regions like Turkey and India was, of course, still in question. Marketing the Sustainable Message to Consumers op yoWhile Unilever’s procurement organization took the lead on sustainable sourcing, Leijnse’s major task was to explore whether and how the company’s commitment could be translated into increased sales or market share. This effort was complicated by the fact that Unilever had a portfolio of tea brands, each with its own distinct brand proposition. Leijnse had responsibility for Lipton, the largest of the brands, but he needed to work closely with his fellow brand managers across the category to frame appropriate messages and to communicate them well.His research suggested that an increasing number of consumers were interested in a brand’s ethical position and that credible action could change consumer preferences, but no one believed that any of Unilever’s tea brands should become â€Å"greenà ¢â‚¬  brands. â€Å"Certification was never approached as green marketing, but rather as a new marketing message for consumers,† explained one manager involved with the U. K. campaign. â€Å"Consumers aren’t choosing our product because it’s green, but because this new message was aligned with their expectations for our brand. †Retailers were very supportive of the certified tea —some even demanded it—since the product was well aligned with the retailers’ own sustainability initiatives for their businesses and supply chains. Despite this, none of the brand managers wanted to charge a premium for sustainable tea. Instead they hoped to use certification to boost brand equity and, possibly, market share. The Early Successes of the Rainforest Alliance Initiative tC Rainforest Alliance certification was launched with full-scale marketing campaigns for all of Unilever’s biggest Western European and Australian tea brands, including L ipton Yellow Label, PG tips, and Lyons.In some markets the campaigns met with significant success. In others, however, the impact was much more limited. No The PG tips success The U. K. market was a large and important one for Unilever , representing just under 10% of the firm’s tea production. The almost â‚ ¬990 milliond (? 850 million) market was dominated by two major brands, PG tips and its rival Tetley Tea, who each had roughly a quarter of the market. 30 PG tips was a classic black tea blend, with few line extensions. The U. K. was broadly seen as a progressive country when it came to environmental policies .However, while Unilever’s research suggested that the mass-market consumer was aware and concerned about â€Å"sustainability issues,† broadly defined, they were not interested in paying more for green products. The PG tips brand was a mass-market, working class brand that held a place in the everyday lives of it consumers, who were in general middl e-aged and middle-income. The brand proposition was one of sociability, family, and light-heartedness. This was captured in its ad campaigns which were infused with off-beat British humor. Do In 2008, PG tips was the only brand on the market proposing any sustainability differentiation.The marketing team treated the initiative as a major brand innovation and devoted the entire â‚ ¬12 million (? 10 million) marketing spend in the launch year 2008 to promoting the efforts. Previous U. K. experience found that it took 12 to 18 months to address mental barriers and fully land a message with consumers. The challenge for the PG tips team was to find a message that would resonate with d Using exchange rate of â‚ ¬1 = ? 0. 86 as of December 2, 2011 8 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011.Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. 712-438 rP os t Sustainable Tea at Unilever its core co nsumers while maintaining consistency with the brand’s core proposition. â€Å"It was a huge challenge,† explained Neil Gledhill of the PG tips campaign. â€Å"We had to talk to mainstream consumers in a way that explained a complex topic without preaching, all in a languag e aligned with the brand. † op yo The chosen message, â€Å"do your bit: put the kettle on,† emphasized the positive action that consumers could take by drinking PG tips.The campaign tried to keep the light-hearted spirit of the brand’s previous campaigns and used its well-established characters: a talking monkey called Monkey and a working class man named Al. In one of the ads, for example, Monkey, presenting a slide show in the kitchen, explained to Al what certification meant, and how easy it was for him to do the right thing (see Exhibit 11). The campaign used TV and print, as well as a short movie that was shown as a preview in cinemas and ultimately included as a DVD in sp ecial promotion packs along with a tea towel.Packaging was also changed to include the certification seal and a description of the alliance. Prior to the campaign, PG tips and Tetley Tea were battling hard for the top spot in the British market. However, following the campaign, PG tips developed a significant lead in market share, with its market share increasing by 1. 8 points, while Tetley remained relatively flat ; and the purchase repeat rate increased from 44% to 49%. Sales of PG tips increased by 6%. Surveys suggested that there had been a steady increase in the perception of PG tips as an ethical brand following the launch of the campaign. No tC Project Sunshine†: the Australian success Like the U. K. , Australia was a relatively straight-forward tea market with only a handful of available products, and most sales in black tea. Prior to the launch of the campaign in 2009, the Lipton brand held nearly a quarter of the â‚ ¬260 millione (A$345 million) market. Unileverà ¢â‚¬â„¢s other brand, Bushell’s, had an approximately 13 % share of the market. The local team chose the phrase â€Å"Make a Better Choice with Lipton, the world’s first Rainforest Alliance Certified tea†, and because of the relatively small portfolio, it was implemented across the majority of the products.They felt that it was aligned with the existing brand vision, which had been â€Å"Drink Better, Live Better†, an attempt to increase the perceptions of quality and health benefits of the Lipton brand. The â‚ ¬1. 1 million (A$1. 4 million) campaign covered television, print, and public relations. Unilever also supported the initiative with in-store promotions. Packaging was changed to include the Rainforest Alliance seal on the front of the pack, with further explanation of the initiative and its benefits placed on the back and sides.Customers were not charged a premium for certified tea since surveys had found that higher prices were a perceived bar rier to sustainable consumption. Relative to the same test period the year before the campaign, sales were up 11 % and Lipton’s market share rose by 158 basis points from 24. 2 % to 25. 8%. Average purchase value per occasion rose from â‚ ¬3. 11 to â‚ ¬3. 23 (A$4. 10 to A$4. 25). The only area where the Lipton brand did not improve was on perceptions of quality, which decreased slightly during the campaign. Do Full activation in Italy The Italian tea market was estimated to be approximately â‚ ¬285 million in 2010.Unilever had an approximately 12% share. 31 The Italian marketing team supported the certification with a â‚ ¬3 million mixed campaign of television, press, online, public relations, in-store promotions, and packaging updates. The message chosen was â€Å"your small cup can make a big difference†. Following the first year of the campaign in 2008, Lipton saw s ales of its Yellow Label brand increase by 10. 5% and market share increase by over 2 ful l percentage points. It also witnessed an increase in its buyer base, which came mostly from younger and more upmarket consumers. The Using exchange rate of â‚ ¬1 = A$1. 31 as of December 2, 2011 9 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Sustainable Tea at Unilever rP os t 712-438 team continued to support the campaign with in store promotion in 2009 and a web and editorial partnership with Italy’s National Geographic magazine in 2010, all of which cost â‚ ¬250,000. The French market disappointment In 2010, Lipton had a 37% market share in the â‚ ¬430 million French teaLipton’s main competition came from retailers’ private label brands, which accounted for 30%-40% of sales. In France, Unilever’s portfolio was more diversified: Lipton sold over 40 different tea products. Whereas in the UK and Australia Uni lever had been able to carry the certification message on the majority of its products, in France it was initially only linked to the Lipton Yellow Label black tea product, representing only about a fifth of sales. market. 32 op yo The first wave of the campaign in France relied heavily on a significant public relations effort to educate consumers and customers (i. . , the retailers) to inform them of Lipton’s certification efforts. The team focused on engaging key opinion leaders and journalists with press releases, media and press conferences, and trips to the Kericho estate in Kenya. The brand’s efforts were widely covered in the press and the team felt that they had made significant inroads attracting attention. Print ads with the message â€Å"your tea can make a difference† were placed in travel and cooking magazines and were primarily focused towards current consumers, who tended to be female and over the age of 50.The team’s research had suggested that French consumers were less likely to buy with a Rainforest Alliance seal on the box. This reluctance appeared to reflect a dislike of packaging change rather than any lack of concern for environmental issues, but as a result the team chose a staggered approach to package change, whereby certification was initially only announced on the inside of packs, before being added to the back of packs. Only in 2010 did the seal start to appear on the front of packs. This made it harder for consumers to link advertising support to the product they were seeing on shelves.No tC The campaign received TV support in 2009 and 2010 as well as an online competition , where the winners won a trip to Kenya, intended to engage consumers and bloggers. The limited television advertisements ran Q4 2009 and Q1 2010 and contained scenes of sustainable farms in Africa, as well as information about the Rainforest Alliance (see Exhibit 11). In total, only 10% of the team’s marketing spend went towar ds supporting the Rainforest Alliance message, with the remainder going towards more conventional promotion and support of other innovations.Lipton market share remained flat and awareness of the brand did not increase. Further, the campaign was not successful in linking Lipton to Rainforest Alliance, and Lipton was not seen as more ethical than other tea brands. Do The United States experience The U. S. tea market was an almost â‚ ¬1. 5 billion ($2 billion) market in 2010. 33 Unilever’s U. S. campaign was launched in the summer of 2009 with a particular focus on the brand’s green tea line, where Lipton was second in the market. The mainstream black tea range was not linked to the Rainforest Alliance initiative.Company research had shown that 80% of U. S. consumers wanted to buy eco-ethical brands, although without sacrificing on cost or quality. Only 5% were willing to pay a premium. The message used was â€Å"Your Small Cup Can Make a Big Difference,† altho ugh Unilever also had other messaging for its ready-to-drink beverage line running concurrently. To generate credibility, Unilever allowed National Geographic to create independent TV, print, and online content about the certification, which was published between June and September of 2009.The campaign was also supported by a sponsored trip to the Kericho estate for three online bloggers and journalists, as well as advertising in online and social media. The packaging was changed to include the Rainforest Alliance seal on the front of the pack and information about certification on the pack side and flap. A retail partnership with Walmart and Sam’s Club provided information and positive images at the point of purchase, which helped 10 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. du or 617. 783. 7860. 712-438 rP os t Sustainable Tea at Unilever reinforce percepti ons of health and quality benefits (see Exhibit 13). Analyses done by the marketing team indicated a strong ROI for the â‚ ¬740,000 ($1 million) dollar campaign; however given the size of the business, the investment was relatively small. Unilever did not see any significant effect on overall market share for Lipton or the Rainforest Alliance certified -green tea. Challenges Going Forward op yo A few years after the launch of the certification scheme many of Unilever’s major competitors responded with their own certification programs.Tetley, Twinings, and Yorkshire Tea all made arrangements for some or all of their tea suppliers to obtain Rainforest Alliance certification, while Pickwick and Carmien Tea opted to use UTZ, a certification scheme originating in The Netherlands. Yorkshire Tea announced a goal of selling 100% Rainforest Alliance certified tea by 2015 . 34 Twinings had goals of 100% certification by 2015 for its Everyday brand tea. 35 Tata’s Tetley Tea vo wed to have 100% of its branded tea certified by 2016, a year after Lipton. 6 The surge in demand placed pressure on the Rainforest Alliance, who expected to be certifying close to 20 %-25% of the world’s tea supply by 2015. 37 The Emerging Market Challenge tC With competitors committing to third party certification, sustainable tea at Unilever faced a number of challenges going forward. On the supply side the company had to improve farming practices in some very difficult markets in order to meet the company’s targets. On the marketing side, Leijnse and his colleagues had to decide how to proceed in emerging markets. Could consumers in countries like Turkey, Russia or India be persuaded to value certified tea?If so, how? And how could Lipton maintain a point of difference in countries where competitor brands had followed suit? Reaching 100% Sustainable Sourcing No In 2011, Unilever sourced approximately 25% of its global tea requirement from India; most of it was cons umed domestically. Some Indian tea growers had already achieved Rainforest Alliance certification, but they were generally exporters and Unilever purchased a significant share of their production. Converting smaller domestic producers to sustainable practices presented (at least) two tricky challenges.First, developing an organizational model that could handle training and roll out seemed likely to be difficult. A large proportion of India’s tea was grown by smallholders who sold to local tea factories. However, in contrast to the situation in Kenya, there were no government sponsored tea-cooperatives, and farmers were free to sell to any factory. Some factories did provide extension services and training for their farms, but the quality of these services varied dramatically. Do Second, farming practices in India were in conflict with the Rainforest Alliance over two main issues, child labor and pesticide use.The standards did not permit certified farms to employ anyone under the age of 15, but Indian law and the United Nation’s International Labor Organization permitted the employment of 14 year olds in developing countries. Moreover in India the pesticide paraquat was widely used in tea production. It was quick and effective but it was also highly toxic when ingested or absorbed without protective equipment 38 and it was implicated in many suicides in the developing world due to its low cost, potency, and widespread availability. Paraquat was banned by the European Union but allowed under restricted use in the U.S. 39 Rainforest Alliance standards did not permit its use, and as paraquat use was one of the critical criteria; exceptions could not be made by country. 40 11 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Sustainable Tea at Unilever rP os t 712-438 Unilever could potentially address these issues by introducing an alternative standard tailored to India’s local practices. This standard could act as a stepping stone towards future certification.Unilever would almost certainly need partners to transform Indian tea growing. One option was to work with local NGOs, as they had in Kenya, but another was to consider working with industry wide initiatives. Marketing in India and Other Emerging Markets op yo Getting the messaging right in India would be another important challenge. Tea was the traditional hot beverage of India and the market was estimated to be â‚ ¬1 billionf (RS 64. 6 billion) in size, with Unilever the market leader with a share around 30%. Demand for tea was robust, with the market growing an estimated 12% per annum by value and 3% per annum by volume from 2005 to 2010.The demand for tea had actually outstripped the growth in national tea production, resulting in tea price increases in 2010. 41 Approximately two-thirds of the market, by volume, was sold as u nbranded loose black tea (in bulk). Only one-third of the market was branded tea, which was almost exclusively loose black tea in packets. Tea bags represented less than 2% of the market, but were a growing segment. G reen tea was another high-growth category, particularly in urban areas, because of its perceived health benefits. 2 Almost three-quarters of all tea was still sold through independent small grocers, but supermarkets and hypermarkets had begun to slowly increase their share as rising incomes began to shift consumer buying behavior. Branded coffee shop chains had also become popular, particularly with young Indian consumers, who increasingly viewed tea as an old-fashioned beverage. 43 tC Unilever’s Indian subsidiary, Hindustan Unilever, sold mostly through two major brands, Brooke Bond and Lipton, who had market shares of 19 and 6% respectively in the branded tea market.Its main competitor was Tata Global Beverages who had a market share of 26%, mostly under its T ata Tea brand, which had almost 20% of the market by retail value. 44 But Unilever also faced competition from regional tea companies who took pride in tailoring their blends and preparation methods according to local preferences and who often competed aggressively on price. No Under the Sustainable Living Plan umbrella, Hindustan Unilever had begun to introduce products designed to improve the quality of life of India’s poorest consumers, including new, highly effective hand soaps and a range of water purifiers.The company had also been marketing Surf Excel, a concentrated laundry detergent, which required up to two fewer buckets of water for washing than competing products. 45 The company believed that if the environmental issue was tangible and had an immediate local impact, awareness and appreciation of the issue was generally high. But it was less clear if Unilever could communicate the comparatively distant benefits of sustainable tea farming. Do Michiel Leijnse wondere d whether the company’s recent experience in Turkey could provide any lessons.In Turkey, the tea growing industry played a promine nt role in national cultural identity, and the Turkish team had chosen a message that suggested certified tea offered national benefits, highlighting gains to domestic producers, as well as to the country’s tea crops (see Exhibit 8). Should something similar be attempted in India? He also had to consider how tea could be marketed in emerging markets where there was no tea growing base. One such example was Russia, where Unilever had a 16% share of the almost â‚ ¬3 f Using exchange rate of â‚ ¬1 = RS 69. 6 as of December 2, 2011 12This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. 712-438 rP os t Sustainable Tea at Unilever billiong (RUB 115 billion) market in 2010. Tea was a traditional Russian drink con sumed by almost everyone. 46 The market was led by a domestic tea manufacturer, and while volume growth had been limited, sales in the market had been growing at close to 15% since 2005, as consumers switched to more expensive varieties of tea and as the major Russian brands continued to expand the range of their offerings. 7 Could Unilever’s sustainable tea platform serve as the basis for product differentiation that would drive growth and market share in Russia? Or should Unilever forego any promotion of sustainability and instead focus on other ways of competing in the Russian market? Concluding Thoughts op yo With the launch of Rainforest Alliance certification in 200 7, Unilever had started the transformation of the tea industry and improved the lives of hundreds of thousands of farmers. It had also demonstrated that in certain markets certification could increase market share.However, with most major tea manufacturers implementing aggressive certification targets of the ir o wn, it appeared that sustainability might, at least in Western markets, become increasingly more a cost of doing business and less a source of competitive advantage. Unilever needed to decide not only how to ensure that 100% of its supply chain could be sustainably sourced, but also how that message could be communicated in a diverse group of emerging markets. Michiel Leijnse also needed to decide how far he could push sustainability in the brand.If Unilever were to reach its targets under the Sustainable Living Plan, all agricultural raw materials would eventually need to be sustainably sourced, including the paper and board used for the tea packaging and tea bags (see Exhibit 10). Could this be communicated to consumers in a useful way? Do No tC Looking across Unilever, Leijnse wondered if his experiences in tea had anything to contribute to marketing managers grappling with the potential benefits of 100% sustainable sourcing.From a marketing perspective, tea and the Lipton b rand had been an obvious choice to st art talking about sustainability given the tight link between the raw material and the end product. The same could not be said for many of the other raw materials that Unilever purchased. For example , Unilever was the world’s largest buyer of sustainable palm oil and it had committed to ensuring that all its purchases came from sustainable sources by 2015. Consumers did not ultimately buy sustainable palm oil, but rather products such as soap and edible fats that used it as one among many ingredients.Unilever was uncertain whether to create awareness of its efforts among consumers. Moreover, Leijnse had experienced increased attention and criticism from activists since launching the Rainforest Alliance partnership; would the Sustainable Living Plan potentially make Unilever a bigger target for scrutiny? Were there any lessons that could be learned from Lipton? g Using exchange rate of â‚ ¬1 = RUB 41. 4 as of December 2, 2011 13 This d ocument is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Exhibit 1Sustainable Tea at Unilever rP os t 712-438 Unilever Income Statements, 2006-2010 (â‚ ¬ Millions) 2010 44,256 37,637 6,619 15. 0% -992. 86 6,338 14. 3% 206. 97 -413. 94 6,131 1,534 4,597 2008 40,519 21,340 19,179 47. 3% 12,012. 79 1,002. 90 7,166 17. 7% 361. 96 -399. 96 7,128 1,844 5,284 2007 40,116 20,522 19,594 48. 8% 13,790. 41 941. 28 5,235 13. 1% 646. 66 -5,175 1,126 4,049 2006 39,647 20,095 19,551 49. 3% 13,900. 57 982. 07 5,408 13. 6% 181. 87 -4,832 1,146 3,686 3,370 -3,370 3,370 8. 5% 5,284 0 5,284 5,026 12. 4% 3,801 80 3,881 3,881 9. 7% 3,415 1,330 4,745 4,745 12. 0% 1. 46 1. 46 1. 46 0. 86 1. 17 1. 17 1. 17 0. 69 1. 3 1. 73 1. 73 0. 69 5. 12 5. 24 5. 24 0. 72 4. 6 6. 4 6. 4 0. 45 op yo 2009 39,821 33,933 5,888 14. 8% -1,031. 94 5,020 12. 6% 324. 98 -428. 98 4,916 1,257 3,659 4,243 -4,24 3 4,243 9. 6% Revenue Cost of Goods Sold Gross Profit Gross Profit Margin SG&A Expense Depreciation & Amortization Operating Income Operating Margin Non-operating Income Non-operating Expenses Income Before Taxes Income Taxes Net Income After Taxes Continuing Operations Discontinued Operations Total Operations Total Net Income Net Profit Margin tC Diluted EPS from Continuing Operations Diluted EPS from Total Operations Diluted EPS from Total Net IncomeDividends Per Share Source: Unilever income statements, via Hoover’s Inc. , www. hoovers. com, accessed November 2011. Exhibit 2 Revenue and Operating Income by Divisiona, 2010 (â‚ ¬ Millions) Ice Cream & Beverages Personal Care Home Care Total 14,164 11,318 2,846 20. 1% 8,605 7,881 724 8. 4% 13,767 11,471 2,296 16. 7% 7,726 7,253 473 6. 1% 44,262 37,923 6,339 14. 3% No Savory, Dressing, & Spreads Revenue Operating Expenses Operating Income Operating Margin Source: Company documents. a Some of Unilever’s other brands i nclude Hellman’s, Knorr, Becel, Heartbrand Icecream, Breyers, Axe, Dove, Vaseline, Omo,Do and Surf. 14 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. L'Oreal Reckitt P Danone Nestle Colgate Unilever Revenue Growth by Company (%) CAGR, 1980-2009 9. 4% 8. 5% 6. 9% 6. 0% 5. 2% 3. 8% 3. 5% Source: Company documents. Exhibit 4 Nestle Reckitt L'Oreal Danone Colgate P&G Unilever CAGR, 1980-2009 18. 6% 16. 9% 16. 6% 14. 0% 12. 6% 12. 4% 10. 2% 2000’s 3. 6% 10. 6% 7. 8% 0. 5% 3. 1% 6. 1% -2. 0% tC 1980-1989 37. 5% 24. 2% 23. 4% 31. 1% 16. 0% 17. 1% 1. 5% 1990-1999 21. 7% 7. 6% 34. 7% 10. 3% 23. 0% 17. 7% 10. 6% 2000-2009 3. 4% 16. 1% -3. 1% 2. 4% 0. 9% 6. 6% -3. 4% EBIT Margins by Company (%) 1980 11. 0% 10. 5% 9. 3% 8. 4% 7. 9% 6. 8% 5. 7% No L'Oreal P Reckitt Nestle Colgate Danone Unilever 1990’s 9. 8% 5. 9% 4. 8% 5. 7% 5. 4% 5. 4% 2. 5% Enterprise Value Growth by Company (%) Source: Company documents. Exhibit 5 1980’s 13. 7% 8. 9% 8. 3% 11. 5% 7. 8% -0. 2% 8. 1% op yo Exhibit 3 712-438 rP os t Sustainable Tea at Unilever 2009 14. 2% 20. 5% 25. 2% 14. 6% 24. 0% 16. 4% 14. 8% Margin growth (bps) 326 999 1591 621 1610 963 912 DoSource: Company documents. 15 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Global Average Tea Pricesa, 1960-2010 (US cents per kilogram) op yo Exhibit 6 Sustainable Tea at Unilever rP os t 712-438 World databank, tC Source: Adapted from World Bank data, Global Economic Monitor (GEM) Commodities, http://databank. worldbank. org/ddp/home. do? Step=1=4, accessed November 2011. Do No a Base year is 2000. Prices are averages of Colombo, Kokata, and Mombasa auctions. 16This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copyin g or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Exhibit 7a Ten Core Principles of Sustainable Agriculture Network Social and Environmental Management System Ecosystem Conservation Wildlife Protection Water Conservation Fair Treatment and Good Working Conditions for Workers Occupational Health and Safety Community Relations Integrated Crop Management Soil Management and Conservation Integrated Waste Management op yo 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 712-438 rP os t Sustainable Tea at UnileverSource: Sustainable Agriculture Network, â€Å"Our Standards : SAN Principles,† Sustainable Agriculture Network website, http://sanstandards. org/sitio/subsections/display/7, accessed December 2011. Exhibit 7b Company documents. Do No Source: Agrochemicals and fuels Soils Water Biodiversity Energy Waste Social and human capital Animal welfare Value chain & local economy Training tC 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Ten Indicators of Unilever Sus tainable Agric ulture Code 17 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 83. 7860. Exhibit 8 Sustainable Tea at Unilever Rainforest Alliance Messaging in Turkey rP os t 712-438 tC op yo â€Å"As Lipton, Turkey's expert tea brand and responsible tea producer, we want to ensure that our tea will be passed on to our children and future generations. To this end, we are taking the first steps in our ‘Sustainable Tea Farming Project’ by combining our expertise with the passion of the tea growers in Black Sea Region. Our goal is to enhance existing agricultural practices and to generalize the use of those that conserve the ecological balance by raising awareness among more than 15,000 tea growers in the egion about the tea planting and harvesting. We are committed to accomplish this goal in a way that will enable to gain Rainforest Alliance Certifi edâ„ ¢ status for our farmers. Remember that you support our farmers with every cup of Lipton tea you drink. † Do No Source: Company documents. 18 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Educational Poster for Smallholders in East Africa Do No tC op yo Exhibit 9 712-438 rP os t Sustainable Tea at Unilever Source: Company documents (via Rainforest Alliance). 9 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Sustainable Tea at Unilever Unilever Agricultural Raw Materials by Volume, 2010 Do No tC Source: Company documents. op yo Exhibit 10 rP os t 712-438 20 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  prote cted] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Exhibit 11 712-438 Examples of Rainforest Alliance Advertising tC op yo PG tips (U. K. ): rP os tSustainable Tea at Unilever Do No Lipton (France): Source: Company documents. 21 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. -22- tC No Source: Company documents. Exhibit 12 Do Unilever Sustainable Living Plan Targets op yo rP os t 712-438 This document is authorized for use only by LINDA KELLY-HAYES until June 2011. Copying or posting is an infringement of copyright. [email  protected] harvard. edu or 617. 783. 7860. Examples of U. S. In-Store Promotions Exhibit 14 Global Tea Production, 2009 (Tons)