Retail industry of UK has been one of the most growing industries over Dissertation

Retail industry of UK has been one of the most growing industries over the years - Dissertation Example Introduction: 17 3.2. Research Purpose: 17 3.3. Research Strategy and Method: 18 3.4. Research Design: 19 3.5. Data Collection: 19 3.6. Methods and Tools used for Collecting Data: 20 3.7. Analysis Techniques: 20 3.8. Validity and Reliability of the Research: 25 3.9. Ethical Considerations: 26 3.10. Summary: 26 4. ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS 27 4.1. Introduction 27 4.2. Financial ratios 27 4.2.1. Profitability Ratios 28 4.2.2. Liquidity Ratios 39 4.2.3. Activity Ratios or Efficiency Ratios 47 4.2.4. Leverage Ratios 51 4.2.5. Market Ratios 57 5. CONCLUSION 63 5.1. Summary of the findings 63 5.2. Recommendations 65 5.3. Lessons learnt from the study 66 5.4. Limitations 67 5.5. Further research 67 1. introduction 1.1. Background Of The Study Retail industry of UK has been one of the most growing industries over the years, specifically the food retail industry. Because of recession, the overall world economy was not growing despite of that, food retail industry has been one of the industries wh ich reported considerable amount of growth. The food retail industry of UK has a long and solid history. During the fifties and sixties the concept of supermarkets and self service shops became popular; this has been marked as the starting of retail industry in the United Kingdom (Hamlett, Alexander, Bailey, & Shaw, 2008). Despite of the fact that the UK economy was going through recession, the overall sales of the industry had increased in 2009 as it reached a figure of over ?285billion. It has been estimated that this figure will further increase in the years to come. Also with the world economy and UK economy recovers itself from recession, retail industry would be one of the most beneficial industries as this would further increase the total revenue of the firms in the industry (The Scottish Government, 2010). By the end of 2010, the total retail units in the kingdom were approximately 286,000 (Arch, 2010). The food retail industry is an important industry for the UK economy as over the years it has been able to contribute a lot to GDP of the country. In addition to this, food retail industry is a significant one for United Kingdom economy as it has been able to consume considerable portion of the employment. According to a report, there are more than half a million people working in the industry representing almost 13% of the total workforce of United Kingdom. Food retail industry consumed more than 12,750 permanent jobs throughout 2010 which represents an annual growth of 2.1% in the jobs of food retail industry from the year 2009 (The Scottish Government, 2010). There has been an increasing trend of online shopping for people in the UK and this has attracted more people to start online businesses. There are more than 150,000 online retail businesses in United Kingdom and more than 600,000 people are employed because of e-retail industry either directly or indirectly. At present, the online retail business contributes only 7% of the total retail industry revenues (Experian Hitwise, 2008), however it has been predicted that the contribution from online business would further improve with the passage of time. The total sales of online retail industry equalled ?2.8 billion from December, 2009 to December, 2010 i.e. in a year the total sales of the industry was equal to ?2.8 billion (Internet Retailer, 2011). Tesco is the market leader in the UK food retail industry for years and it has been dominating the market with market share of almost 31% (Tesco, 2011). Tesco is

Policy And Practice In the Education of Bilingual Children Essay

Policy And Practice In the Education of Bilingual Children - Essay Example The physical environment of the school and classroom Upon entering the school, a large map welcomes people with the sign that read: â€Å"Welcome to our school. We come from all over the world and we speak 27 languages†. For each language, it was connected to the country of origin as indicated in the map. This sign gave a very warm welcome to anyone who visited the school no matter what culture he or she comes from. An IT room is available for any EAL learner to use whenever one needs to consult a computer for spelling or grammar or anything that pertains to the English language. This additional resource to support their learning is another indication that the school anticipates learners’ needs and provides them when called for. The classroom observed had a big inflatable globe which represents a wide range of diversity is accepted there. The children can freely explore the globe and search for their own countries and link it to their native language. A trained EAL teac her was employed by the school to help facilitate the cognitive, language and literacy development of foreign children. Adults play a huge role in the language development of children, as they need someone who uses simple language in correct form and is flexible enough adjust his language to suit the child’s (Clay, 1988). Having a good second language teacher is essential to learning the language more fluently. The researcher does not discount the fact that imitation of proper pronunciation and intonation is necessary. Hence, learners should have attentive ears and retentive minds, and of course, cooperative tongues to be able to speak fluently in such language. Children also need opportunities to practice speaking and listening to the second language outside the language lessons, so that... This paper approves that in EAL, scaffolding comes in three forms, One is scaffolding by adults by making their expectations clear by sharing learning objectives and criteria for success with the students by way of modeling and demonstrating the English language, ‘recasting’ of the children’s language from their L1 and providing them with opportunities to use their whole language repertoire to aid them in understanding their L2. The teacher may also use scaffolding through visual support, via pictures, props, models, frames and language prompts, graphic organizers, diagrams, maps, plans and essentially all the print and picture cues they put up in the environmental setting. This report makes a conclusion that the numerous issues on second language learning, especially English, only prove that it is creating much impact on the development of children from diverse cultures. More and more people consider its advantages and possible disadvantages. Such amount of attention is worth it because people think up of ways on how to maximize its benefits. Learning another language apart from one’s native language helps children be ready to be highly competent in an increasingly globalized world. However, although they become bilingual, it should not be forgotten that they also become bicultural, and learning of one language and the culture that goes with it does not mean forgetting their original one. Teachers should take into consideration that their non-English speaking students should learn English in both its context and language elements so the students gain a better understanding and appreciation of the English language.