PERSPECTIVES: MY ENGLISH JOURNEY ALANIS CHICAIZA ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM LEVEL 6 YACHAY TECH, ECUADOR
PERSPECTIVES: MY ENGLISH JOURNEY
BY ALANIS CHICAIZA
January 8, 2017 IMBABURA ECUADOR
TABLE OF CONTENTS PORTFOLIO LETTER RESPONSE ESSAY
LITERARY ANALYSIS ESSAY INTERPRETATION ESSAY FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT ESSAY REELECTIONS THANK YOU LETTER
Alanis Chicaiza Yachay Tech University Imbabura, Ecuador
December 09, 2016
Dear Portfolio Reader: My name is Alanis Chicaiza. I am delighted to be able to share my experience and that you can read my English Language Portfolio. It is a compilation of my best essays performed in my level 6 English course, and it proves my capacity as an English language student at Yachay Tech. My portfolio contains a response essay, a proposal essay, an interpretation essay and a final project that I created based on a deep research about the relationship between education and economy of Ecuador. I am very excited with the creation of my portfolio and I am ready to continue a promising career using my knowledge. As an English learner, I have come a long way at this level. At the beginning of the semester, the tasks and jobs seemed simple. However, he obtained low grades. Then, I realized that I needed to learn to be more organized in my ideas, therefore, my main problem was to learn the structure of the essays. For example, in my early work I got a low rating, because I did not relate my ideas to the thesis and the essay base itself, losing meaning throughout the work. Throughout level 6, I have learned how to organize and structure my ideas.
Progression and improvement as an English language learner have been important at this level. At first, to be honest, I was a student totally dependent on the translator and it was difficult for me to do my essays without help. Gradually, with the lectures given by my teacher, I was writing my essays in a fluid way. These readings helped me simultaneously to improve and expand my knowledge of grammar. Aside from writing, another of my great problems as a student are the exhibitions, since I am good at talking however I am terrible at memorizing and sometimes it is necessary for the public to understand the idea that you want to convey. Finally, I can say that my biggest problem throughout my student life has been working in groups since I can not share ideas correctly. However, throughout this semester I have been able to do great things and I learned that working in groups helps you to get to know people and contribute a lot of your knowledge to your work and to your life. I am proud to have been able to overcome these problems throughout level 6. My level of English has improved much, think mainly that I lost the fear to speak in public in English and to speak with a personal that has the English as language maternal. Interaction, the methodology that teachers possess is essential so that a person can feel confident in says it and thinks. Also, is has arrived to a change of mentality by the reason of that is manages to think and reason in English and already not the activity typical of listen in English, translate it, understand it, think a response, translate it to English, verify if what is goes to tell has sense and finally talk. All this obviously entails much time, but with the new tools that the teachers us have awarded is can get to do all these activities in English, reducing the time and leading to an increase of knowledge. Thank you, Alanis Cecilia Chicaiza Zambrano
RESPONSE
ESSAY
College Education is not an Investment, the Real Investment is in your Capabilities. Alanis Cecilia Chicaiza Zambrano Yachay Tech University September 30, 2016
College Education is not an Investment, the Real investment is in your Capabilities.
If a College degree remains a good economical investment, where is the job? Good hook. For several years, some recent college graduates are unemployed or in jobs that just required basic skills, where they cannot exploit their abilities. Nonetheless with these facts, higher education propellers persist in the idea that it is a wise investment to get a good charge in a job, but they are in the wrong way. The actual situation demonstrate that a college degree has not served to advance in this society. An article of George Leef named “Don’t Buy the Hype, College Education Is Not an Investment� supports this idea, and mentions that no one receives any payment or premium merely for having finished college but they reward workers for their productivity (2013). George Leef claims that higher education is not an investment, and he is realistic, because higher education is just one way to increase human capital. A good academic foundation make productive people in jobs in order to raise the level of knowledge, not just to get a degree. A good formation in school could help the students to focus in their future, by having or showing care and conscientiousness in one's work or duties. For example, Leef's article shows two examples about students that have this qualities. The first student of the example, were diligent and so smart in high school. Years later, this student enrolls in college just to raises his level of knowledge. When he was a recent college graduates, he found a job in his major field and he could develop their abilities on it. This example, show us how college serve to raise the human capital if you learn to be productive by yourself and not just to get a college title and search any job where you cannot develop your skills.
Another opportunity that you have to be success is showing your capabilities because they are a great investment. For students that really are interested in develop their capabilities, and use it in order to get a good job loving what they are going to do, get certificates and demonstrate that they are good on this field is really important because it can give them an excellent future. For example, in the article previously mentioned, the second student of the examples cannot enrolls in college because she knows that she was really good in another field. This field was programming, and with some certificates and with the capability to demonstrate her work, she get a promising future with a good job. Actually, she is doing well without a college degree because she understood that you’re not rewarded for credentials, but for capabilities (Leef, 2013). This is a good life lesson and a good form to contribute with the world because show your capabilities is the real investment to be someone in a workplace. College education is not an investment because students also need to exploit their abilities and college does not teach them how to do it. As George Leef express in his article on American youth, higher education is not a good investment these days because society is accustomed to buying merits, but not to win them and strive for them. Resulting in a devastating future work in poor conditions where they cannot develop their skills as cleaners or cooks where they never use their college degrees, and even without work because they cannot demonstrate your skills and abilities to perform work well. The publication of Leef has very important information for young people with an understandable language, and is based on realistic facts and events that everyday lives of young men and society. Concretely, it explains the situation and possible cases with existing studies and examples raised. For example, the study by the Public Policy Institute of California that pretends to show that the average earnings of workers who
enrolls in college and get a degree are better than average earnings of workers who don’t. This study was made forty years ago and it does not consider the different and hard conditions that we maintain nowadays with regard to college academic rigor and the labor market and they are nothing promising. In conclusion, college education used to look like a good investment because society offers a good job for the degree, but it not is true today. Sincerely, what the young Americans can do is invest their lives and remain productive and consistent in what they do. All they need to have a good future is two things. First, make school education in developing their abilities and increase their knowledge here and second, earning certificates and demonstrating the capabilities we have to develop ourselves in a job. Finally, as a recommendation, if you still think that getting a degree is effortless to get a good job is a good investment should be investigated on current working conditions and productivity, do not waste your life.
References
Leef, G. (2013). Don´t buy the hype, college education is not an investment. Forbes. 12. Recovered in September 19 of 2016, in
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/0B5RLgvfNbX5ZnZRUWhNMEhxQ U0
LITERARY ANALYSIS
ESSAY
Literary Analysis Essay of Why don’t you Dance? by Raymond Carver
Many stories talk about happiness, but nobody can see the loneliness of the narrator behind the story. “Why you don’t dance” is a story by Raymond Carver that represents the theme or the main idea of the story by the entire description of the setting. This setting reveals that the loneliness can be less if you make friends on your place, in a yard for example, with your things around you. The story shows in detail the place where it is developed. Raymond Carver reveals that the setting is created by a lonely man that just want to called the attention and avoid his loneliness. Carver claims that the setting is just to show the real of “loneliness”. The setting show us the real reason of the sale in the yard. This story is developed in a garage sale on the yard of the seller. All things in the garage sale are located in a specific place that allow to the reader imagine the place. The narrator of the story describes all things like trying to explain that the seller is giving all his things in the garage sale and he does not want nothing. Maybe, because, he does not have family. Then, the seller gets two friends and he enjoys a good time with those guys around his things in the yard, giving readers and idea of how the seller feels and the reason of the garage sale. This reason was to avoid his loneliness, sharing some time with someone. The environment that the narrator creates is comfortable to avoid loneliness, why? The story is focused in a setting with whiskey and beer creating a comfortable environment. This setting offers to the reader a dude of what it means because a normal person does not make friends in a yard sale with whiskey and beer selling all things like the bed or the TV without a reason. This analysis show us another perspective of the
story, for example the relationship that the seller wants with the guys and allows us to think that he wants more than cash. The narrator’s perspective about the setting explains the main idea of the story. Behind all, what the narrator feels with the creation of this setting? During the story, the place where the characters can develop their rolls. He shows a good perspective of life like a normal person, but let to the reader imagine what is the real situation behind all. In other words the narrator shows the real feeling of someone alone, just presenting how the environment. In this case, “Why Don’t you Dance?” shows a clear idea about how the main character lives.
In conclusion, this story tries to shows to the reader the real theme “loneliness” by the description of the setting and the analysis of it. During the story, the reader can interpret what this story means with respect to life. Finally, we can say that the narrator of this story experiments a new form to relate the life with the setting of a story just describing the environment of a person, he can describe an entire life.
INTERPRETATION
ESSAY
Alanis Chicaiza. English L6-007 Matthew Craing November 18, 2016
Interpretation essay of a painting “Mother and Child” by Oswaldo Guayasamin. Art is not what you see, but what is possible. Oswaldo Guayasamin is a famous Ecuadorian painter who was totally involved in art. His painting is basically the fervent desire of a populance looking for its freedom, looking for the full expression of being human. One of Guayasamin’s paintings that highlights the nature of the human being is called “Mother and Child” created in 1942. This painting is about a person holding a child but it shows more than we can see. The painting “Mother and Child” by Oswaldo Guayasamin show us the protective nature of a mother towards her innocent and delicate son, expressing humanity´s great need to take care of each other (Lassaigne, 1977). On leaving the National School of Fine Art in Quito, where Guayasamin worked on painting and sculpture for seven years, he was acquiring much skill to improve his works. Since his youth he wanted to tell us of the drama and mystery which has found trying put us in favour of mankind, because he believes in our infinitive tenderness. Guayasamin had in his hands the means of expressing the emotion which disturbed him and later the claims to encourage him. These means, which he acquired so patiently for represent, progress and facility to complete his works. His works are based on his feelings and wishes with the objective to transmit his mood and know the interpretation
of the people about him. Love and faith are the elemental pieces for representing the Man who was Guayasamin. The picture “Mother and Child” has black and white colors (dark colors), and represent a darken tone. This colors calls the attention of the people, and cause the first impression that the author wants to get, that is transmit sadness. The picture was probably tried to do with straight lines and curves not so pronounced to get achieve a simplicities, and a beautiful when the picture is completed. The presence and position of shadows told us that probably the Mother and Child is under light sun or spot light. These external evidence is the things that are superficial, and principally abstracts that try to not have or express feeling yet. The painting “Mother and child” shows a boy in the womb surrounded by a hug. In the painting the mother is hugging her son but in a specific way. The mother’s hands are around the head and heart of the boy. It could be interpreted like one hand is around the head of the child because the mother is protecting him and the other hand is around the chest and heart because a mother never wants to separate of her son. The position of the child is like a baby inside of the mother’s belly. In addition, the gaze of the mother and child are in different ways. It could be interpreted like the experience of the child never will be compared with the experience of a mother. Furthermore, the painting shows different face expressions between the mother and child. For example, the face expression of the mother can be seen like disposition and courage that a mother has when she protects her son. Also, her gaze is a long fixed look which can be represented as the perspective of the mother about life. In the other hand, the gaze of the child is an innocent and inoffensive look which can be interpreted as the naivety, simplicity and weakness of a child in the world but in this case he is protected and saved by his mother.
In conclusion, it’s beautiful that we can observe in this painting the protective nature that exist in a delicate being like a mother to her child, and to him achieve something huge in the world good or bad. Furthermore, the painting transmits the tenderness and love that exist in a mother to his child after giving birth and after her death, showing the limits of our humanity. Besides, this painting looks to highlight the most authentic of human relations, those who identify us as human beings and take us to get great achieves, that’s the strong link that exist between a mother and her child. This feeling of protection that shows the painting of Guayasamin, is born due to every person has a maternal figure. But, as the mother´s stare shows in the picture, it is really hard for a woman to become a mother, due to it beholds too many sacrifices, one of them is the fear to fail, because nobody is born ready to raise a child. However, the painting teaches us that even with the empty and concerned stare of the mother, the expression of humanity that shows from the love she feels for his son is much bigger. In both, the care of a mother is important due to in the moment of birth the human is vulnerable to any type of external agent and needs the care of a person that is his mother, to next when the son has enough force he can take care of her.
REFERENCES:
Lassaigne, J. (1977). Guayasamin. Nauta Editions. Recovered el 15 de 11 de 2016
FINAL
PROJECT
The development of Ecuador Depends on the Creation of an Innovative Educational System Alanis Cecilia Chicaiza Zambrano Yachay Tech University
Abstract Ecuador has lived for centuries under the regime of an outdated educational system that has not meant an economic contribution for the country. In the last decade, this situation is being reversed towards an education of excellence that has involved the use of many resources, not only economic but human resources. First, the fact of depoliticizing education has had a positive social cost since the largest beneficiaries are the students and therefore the country. Second, government policies, such as Senescyt, applied to the education system now contribute to maintaining a high standard of quality and to implementing research, creating science and technology. Finally, both national and foreign investment are contributing to improve the quality standards that the Ecuadorian educational system needs through the creation of new universities and contributions to them, concluding in a progress of the academic and economic situation of Ecuador. Keywords: Regime, educational system, economic contribution, depoliticization, investment.
The development of Ecuador depends on the creation of an innovative educational system. Ecuador bets on the future by investing in innovative and quality education. For a long time, Ecuador has maintained its current conservative educational system without changes or modifications that improve the quality of it. However, now with innovative projects as the creation of new Universities like the University of Research and Technology "Yachay Tech", located in the north of the country, Ikiam, Unae and Uartes the education is giving a total turn and, at the same time, helps the development of the country. Recently, a study published by Anna Valero and John Van Reenen, professors of the prestigious English university London School of Economics, shows the positive link between the creation of new universities based on the innovative education and the Gross National Product of each country. The study concluded that if a country doubles the number of universities, it can expect a consistent and rapid increase in GDP per capita by almost 5% (Valero & Van Reenen, 2016). Thus, according to the actual situation of the country, it needs a new source of income based on education and human talent. The economic development of Ecuador depends of the improvement of the education by the creation of new universities based on an innovative educational system. Ecuador needs a change in the productive matrix by the creation of an innovative education system because the current situation does not ensure a future for the country. Now, according to FMI Ecuador's economy, which will fall 4.5% this year and 4.3% the next, will face a complicated scenario because it will depend on the availability of external financing and suffer losses of competitiveness due to the revaluation of the dollar (Ecuador´s Economy, 2016). For now, the strategy to meet fiscal needs is summarized in a greater efficiency in the collection of taxes, use of domestic liquidity to
buy government bonds, delivery of state assets in exchange for fresh resources and reduction of subsidies. These data explain the current crisis in the country and its future is not promising as the situation will remain even for the following year. For this reason, the government seeks to generate more wealth, achieve a more sustainable development and promote activities linked to human talent, technology and knowledge, through the change of the productive matrix and the creation of new universities. The creation of new universities and the change of the productive matrix go hand in hand. The goal is to leave the traditional academic curriculum, to choose careers of the future that will represent income for the country through the creation of companies and sales of advice to countries that need our new technology that we must gradually improve. Another contribution in our education system is foreign investment, for example, the investment made in the city of knowledge Yachay Tech, the new university of the Ecuadorian state, by the Russian Federation through the upcoming Institute of Serums and Vaccines in St. Petersburg to invest in the development of specialists in the fields of pharmaceutics and research of new vaccines that will bring income into knowledge for Ecuador and foreign exchange for professional work (Andes, 2016). Consequently, the first fruits in Ecuador can already be seen in new universities of the country. The improvement of the education system by the creation of new universities have the ability to develop the economic status of Ecuador. According to the crisis scenario in the country, Ecuador needs new sources of foreign exchange earnings, which improvement in higher education can achieve. So, for this reason, the government has invested in improving higher education and has allocated about 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) for improvement, development and construction of higher education institutions. This investment places Ecuador above all the nations of
the region and over countries such as Germany which has invested the 0.7%, Canada with 0.9%, the United States with 0.9%, Belgium and France with 1%, Norway with 1.2%, Australia and the Netherlands with 1.3%, Finland, Switzerland and the United Kingdom with 1.4% and Switzerland with 1.6% (RamĂrez, 2015). The results of this investment have been seen in the improvement of the educational system of Ecuador in the last seven years. The creation of new universities have the ability to develop the economic status of the country because, apart from forming good professionals, are forging entrepreneurs able to create new means of production that will be translated into an increase in employment, income and therefore, development for the country. Is the responsibility of the Ecuadorian education improve the actual situation of the economic status because the results that have had the recently created universities have left a good impact on the productivity of the country in a short time. The creation of Universities like Yachay, Ikiam, Unae and Uartes, will allow scientific and technological development in the country, said Esperanza GalvĂĄn Gracia, a member of the Economic Development Commission. This new universities are giving their first results, is how Ikiam, are forming our first biologists in charge of protecting our ecosystem and in a future those in charge of managing nonrenewable resources such as water, raw material, minerals, among others. Secondly, Uartes, which directs his teaching and research activity to creative production in the arts and critical reflection on the arts, attending to the development of diverse aesthetic concepts and criteria, stimulating creative talent that uses a maximum of expressive capacities and linking the Art with social transformation (University of the arts, 2016). Third, join the University of Teachers whose vision is the development of research, strengthening the training of human talent through the production of knowledge in the educational field to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the population. Finally, Yachay Tech aims to mark the history of Latin
America and turn the country into a nerve center for scientific research and interdisciplinary engineering activities, through the application of an ecosystem of higher education that offers international academic standards, state-of-the-art laboratories, and applied research with the industry. Yachay Tech represents a new generation of scientists with confidence in the knowledge to generate new models of science, technology and innovation for Latin America. Yachay Tech seeks academic minds that can revolutionize the world and make a lasting and transcendental impact on society (YachayTech, 2016). Having a citation at the end of the paragraph tells the reader that this whole paragraph is from someone else, but you want to be careful. Try concluding your body paragraphs with your own comments. Most Ecuadorian society believes that the creation of new universities in Ecuador to develop the current situation of the economic status is necessary. However, there are several factors why education and economics could not be developed in the country. Among the most important are first, the majority of Ecuadorian society used to be accustomed to mediocre education because of this, universities that did not impart knowledge and only handed the professional titles without any academic guarantee and is one of the causes for Ecuador to have stagnated academically, technologically and economically. Second, the country stalled was that the educational system was hijacked by a political party called "MPD" (Popular Democratic Movement), which became entrenched mainly at the secondary and higher levels which was an obstacle to academic development. Finally, the most important reason for Ecuador has not developed academically should be noted in that the investment devoted to education was minimal compared to the current investment, constituting a serious impediment to the development of the country.
In the last decade great changes in the education have been made attacking the great problems that crossed the educational system. Such as: first, closing the garage universities that did not offer academic or professional guarantees and did not comply with the minimum required by law and open universities of excellence that meet the necessary standards. Second, education policy was separated and political groups such as the MPD no longer have influence in the higher education system. At present, the Senescyt (National Secretariat for Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation) is responsible for regulating and regulating educational policies, whose main objective is to promote the transition from an extractive economy based on limited resources to the Unlimited resources: knowledge, ideas, creativity and human talent (Senescyt, 2016). Finally, the government realized that resources are needed to promote education, so it currently allocates 2% of GDP, equivalent to an investment of 10 times that invested by previous governments. In conclusion, today we are aiming to achieve an education of excellence that will eventually pay off. To sum up, Ecuador is directed towards the progress and development of the economy through the creation of an innovative educational system. In spite of the obstacles that prevented the country from advancing and developing in the past, depoliticizing education, devoting more resources to education, changing the productive matrix, creating new universities, and implementing sound policies in this field we guarantee that our goals will be achieved in the short term. In addition, the cooperation of countries that believe in us and that have allocated resources for our academic and economic development commits us to believe that Ecuadorians can and can create unlimited sources of income based on knowledge.
References
Andes. (2016, November). Public News Agency of Ecuador. Ecuador´s Economy. (2016, April). The Universe. Retrieved from http://www.eluniverso.com/noticias/2016/04/12/nota/5520138/economiaecuador-caera-45-este-2016-segun-fmi RamĂrez. (2015, May). EcuadorUniversitario.com. Retrieved from http://ecuadoruniversitario.com/noticias_destacadas/ecuador-invierte-el-212-delpib-en-educacion-superior/ Senescyt. (2016). Secretariat of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation. Retrieved from http://www.educacionsuperior.gob.ec/ University of the arts. (2016, December). Retrieved from http://www.uartes.edu.ec/ Valero , A., & Van Reenen, J. (August de 2016). The National Bureau of Economic Reserch. Recovered in 02 de December de 2016, de http://www.nber.org/papers/w22501 YachayTech. (2016). Yachay Tech . Retrieved from http://www.yachaytech.edu.ec/
REFLECTION Some beautiful phrases about friendship and teamwork.
THANK YOU ALL FOR READING MY PORTFOLIO. REMEMBER THAT EFFORT ALWAYS HAS REWARD.
THANKFUL,
ALANIS CHICAIZA