Andrea Cevallos Yachay Tech University English Language Program Yachay, Ecuador
Panorama of my English journey Andrea Cevallos English Language Program Yachay Tech University Level 6-007 Teacher: Matthew Craing Mackey January 09, 2017 UrcuquĂ-Ecuador
Contents 1. Portfolio letter 2. Response essay 3. Interpretation essay 4. Argumentation essay 5. Final research project essay 6. Additional materials 7. Thank you letter
Andrea Cevallos San Miguel de UrcuquĂ, Imbabura, Ecuador January 9, 2017. Dear Portfolio Reader, Welcome to my journey in level Six English. My name is Andrea Cevallos. I am very grateful for you for taking your time to read my portfolio, so now I am going to introduce to you my journey. At the beginning of the semester, I found it very difficult to communicate with people in English because I was so afraid of what they think about my English. During this semester, my English teacher always helps students to feel comfortable using English, and he put so much emphasis on teaching us that the key to be good at English is practicing. Moreover, onto my journey I realize some of my strengths using English, one of these is that I am good at making arguments by reason of I really like to make opinions about everything, especially about controversial topics. The teacher help me in this way because he always brings new controversial topics to discuss in class and I practice a lot, responding to him. Also, I understand a lot of vocabulary and it is easy to me to understand what other people are trying to say me. On the other hand, my problem is that even understanding a lot of vocabulary, I often use false cognates. As long as I am a native Spanish speaker I usually associate some English words with Spanish words because sometimes a word looks so similar in
both languages but has two completely different meanings. It is sure that this is a severe problem, but frequent use of English help me a lot to avoid this problem. Talking of helps I can say that music videos, movies, and blogs helped me to become familiar with English. With respect to writing, this semester I have been working a lot writing essays about some interesting topics. I bring to you some of these essays in my portfolio. Actually, the abilities that I develop speaking also works in my writing activities. At the same time, I learn to connect my ideas well through writing, and this is helpful while speaking. In addition, the most enjoyable things for me in this journey were in class activities like the conversation in which I explain what I think about the topic of one of my essays to the teacher. Moreover, I like in class essays because these are about my opinion about a topic that I read about, and this is interesting because I have just enough time to write my essay and I need to think fast. Finally, I hope to use my English abilities in my future life like a scientist. English is the language that people use to communicate in sciences, so I go to continue practicing this. Thank you again for reading my portfolio. I put all my effort in this. I hope you liked my job and I also hope that you agree with me about my progress. Sincerely, Andrea Cevallos
Languages and their influence in human thinking Andrea Cevallos GuanopatĂn Yachay Tech University Friday, September 30, 2016
Languages and their influence in human thinking “Language is central to our experience of being human, and the languages we speak profoundly shape the way we think, the way we see the world, the way we live our lives.� (Boroditsky, 2016). Communication is one of the biggest and important experiences of being a human, and language is the way that humans use to communicate with others; no matter your culture or faculties, every people in this word use a type of language. Even people who cannot speak use one. So there is the importance to identify the differences between languages, not only about grammar and words; also the culture behind the language and what implicates to learn a new language. Lera Boroditsky presents the idea that language shapes the way we think, which is interesting because learning another language gives us different ways of perceiving the world. Lera Boroditsky presents this idea basing on her research with collect data around the word. This idea generates a lot of polemic through centuries with two so different points of view: first people who believe that speakers of different languages have a different perception of the world and think differently, and people who believes that languages do not make a difference in the way of thinking and is only a way of communication. Lera Boroditsky gives support to her idea with her investigation and the results of her experimentation in which she found certain differences between different language speakers, like the importance that some speakers give to different shades of colors, and give a different name to each shade; other important point is the way of describing space and how some languages need that the speakers stay oriented all the time. Languages even can determinate the gender of the things, in this way something that for the speakers of a determinate language is feminine, for the speakers of a different language can be masculine.
When somebody learns a new language, they actually learn much more than just words and grammar. Lera Boroditsky said “learning a new language is not only about learning a new way of talking, but it is also learning new ways of thinking.� Basing on experience is evident that when somebody start to learn a new language, they also need to start to think in this language. Starting to think in the new language is the only way to learn how to speak correctly in this language. For example , when a Spanish speaker start to learn English , is important that this person start to think in English , because the Spanish is so different than English in some things like in the order of put words in sentences and also in the way of identifying things ,and even in the feelings and expressions .The Spanish speakers focus more on the feelings that a situation , a person or thing represents and includes this in the normal communication; but when people speak in English the message is more important and they talk more directly. Therefore, thinking in a new language is important because people have a more complete experience. Speaking a new language requires more than knowing all the vocabulary, is also to pay attention to the right things to communicate in that language. The requirements to speak in a language is different for each one. The example of the Kuuk Thaayorre, it is a really good one, in their language they need to pay more attention to the space this is really important to stayed oriented, because to speak correctly they need describe situations using the special orientation. This situation makes a little more difficult to learn how communicated in the Kuuk Thaayorre language (Boroditsky,2016), but is the interesting part of this. Learning a new language clearly changes the way in which people experience the situations. Because of this, it is
important to be informed about what are the requirements inherent in a language, before to start the study of this. Finally, when someone learns a new language, they acquire new abilities and qualities. Depending of the language people can learn more about perceptions and new forms of reasoning, this allows people to discover new ways to solve problems. The process of learning a new language is so useful to open minds, giving people new points of view and keeping the brain working in associating different cultures and knowledges acquiring. Other quality related with learning a different language is the increment of people confidence, giving them the opportunity of meeting more people that speak this language, and with these learn more about the culture. Then, it is easy to notice that learn a new language have lots of benefits in the formation of a person. In conclusion, when people are learning a new language they acquire a new perception of world and they start to think in different ways that allowed people to explore new options to solve problems. Also, learning different languages requires different efforts like learn more about cardinal directions, and we need to prepare about everything that learn a language implicate. This experience is a complete change in the life of people and all the effort is worthy, because it helps people have confidence and learn more about other cultures. Everyone should be interested about learning a new language, and this supports that language really shapes the way of human thinking.
Reference Boroditsky, L. (2016). How does our language shape the way we think? Edge. Retrieved September 30, 2016, from https://www.edge.org/conversation/howdoes-our-language-shape-the-way-we-think.
Interpretation of “Las Meninas” by Diego Velásquez Ronny Quinatoa Andrea Cevallos Anthonny Montero María Judith Caisachana Yachay Tech University November 18 ,2016
“Las Meninas” by Diego Velásquez “Normally is a paved road: It’s comfortable to walk, but not flowers grow on it” (Van Gogh). According to Don Quijote web site Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez is one of the most important and controversial paintings in the word history. The art piece was created in Spain in 1656, during the Spanish monarchy. “Las Meninas” is an art piece that have so many details that makes people have different perspectives and it is very impressing to see it. The interpretation depends on the observer's viewpoint, and can be multiple depending in what the details represents to them. “Las Meninas” is a masterpiece that represent real power is given by others. The expressions of the subjects give an impression to the viewers of the art piece. The eyes of the majority of people who appear in the painting are focusing in something or someone in front of them and some of them have their attention in the little girl in the middle of the painting. The way of looking of the subjects give to observers the impression that the subjects are watching something so important to them, this is probably something that they need to pay homage. If observers put their attention to the background of the painting can realize that there is something similar to a mirror, but basing on the idea that this is a mirror we can suppose that the people on the mirror are those who deserve respect. Do to this is easy to realize that paying attention to the details that expressions on the faces of the characters of a painting people can have a perspective about the meaning that the artist what to transmit. The clothes of the people present in the painting attacks attention. In this painting women wear exaggerated dresses; these are pompous and have a lot of details in the design, for example have flowers, folds, on the hips the dress goes very tight. And men wear cloths decorate with remarkable embroidery. These cloths are elegant and raffinate. Besides is easy to distinct that the little girl in the center of the painting wears a dress
more striking and refined than the rest, because the clothes represent a status of people. This shows that Velazquez lived in the baroque period. This period is characterized for wear exaggerated cloths and refined. In addition, the royalty wear clothes more striking and refined that the rest of persons, because with these cloths indicate their power. For this reason, the girl belongs to royalty, because wear a dress more extravagant than the rest and she is the principal character of the painting, besides around of she is the representation of servants. The picture shows a sophisticated environment where the people can appreciate some details that allows to think that the people painted there have an excellent economic situation. Examples of these things are the artworks hanged in the back wall, the companion dog on the front, details on the infrastructure of the building like a door made of carved wood or the candelabra in the ceiling. The picture allows to interpret the period when the picture was painted through the characteristic hairstyles of the middle age, infrastructure´s features as curves, ellipses and spirals that are characteristics of the architecture in the baroque age. It has sense with the setting of the art because the painter requested a lot of money to work and he was the official painter of the king Felipe IV and after the camera painter of the court. The artist tries to show that the observer of the painting forms part of the painting. The painting inspires a feeling of curiosity and anxiety because it traps the observer in the room, that is to say that part of the room continues where the observer would be standing, and the only way out is the door that opens in the room in the background. In this painting, the artist inspires a feeling of restlessness because if people look at the person who has the canvas and a brush, he seems to be painting a portrait of the observer because it causes the impression that the painter is watching the observer. The artist gets
all of these effects across because he uses optical effects and combinations of colors to give the impression that the observer forms part of this painting. The painting reflect that could be a hierarchy because the painter focuses on the girl of the center, this could mean that the girl mean something important. The author locates other important characters at the top of the work, for example himself is standing on one side and appears as the tallest character, the queen and the king are in the center of the work reflected in a mirror that share a power sensation with the observer. Basically, in that age the position of people like kings, queens and princesses had whole attention of other people. Based on the perspective that the painter gives to people, it could say that when that painting was done, the whole illumination highlight the beauty of the girl that can assume as the princess. Furthermore, all people that are around the girl of the center, seems like if they give the attention to the painter. The position of this painting looks like people are seeing a mirror in front of them, because all people are in a specific position, located to give a confusing but perfect masterpiece. To sum up, this painting has many perspectives to show to people. This is an abstract art that give a confusing idea of the age in that was done. Velasquez, the author, shows to people a magnificent environment in which is developed many points of view; in addition to this, the vestment which all people are dressing, means that this painting was of a past age of places like Spain. Furthermore, the painter shows the power that people have to handle others, and their way to represent that is very suspicious and some confusing with her masterpiece “Las Meninas�.
References Ellsworth. B. (2010). The Mirrors of Las Meninas: Cochineal, Silver, and Clay. Retrieved November 15, 2016. Don Quijote Spanish School(n.d.).Las Meninas - Famous Velazquez Painting | don Quijote. Retrieved November 18, 2016, from http://www.donquijote.org/culture/spain/art/painters/las-meninas Foucault, M. (1968). Las palabras y las cosas, una arqueología de las ciencias humanas. Retrieved November 14, 2016 from: http://www.uruguaypiensa.org.uy/imgnoticias/682.pdf Monge, C. (2003). Las sombras de la duda (Velázquez y el barroco literario español). Retrieved November 16, 2016 from: http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S071804622003048800007
English for children Andrea Cevallos GuanopatĂn Yachay Tech University Wednesday, November 23, 2016
English for children My moral center, my deep-seated sense of right and wrong, that is an essential part of who I am (Sedivy, 2016). Languages are essential to communication, no matter the type of language that a person uses; every person has a language. Languages are more than only words, because a language also includes the meaning that people give to this words. The culture behind the language is important for the speakers, because culture give sense to these words. In other words, people that learn a new language, also learn a new way to see the world. Children should be made to learn English at early age because this help them to have different perspectives about the world. English is a language that helps people to be assertive when they made a decision or give an opinion. People that speak English reflect more about a situation, English promotes to their speakers the reflection about the intentions of an action, but also English speakers are focused in the result of this actions. The effect of the English language is even bigger if people are not native speakers. Usually, people that are speaking in their native language allow to emotions to take place in their opinions, but this do not happen if people are using foreign language like English (Sedivy, 2016). Therefore, Children that learn English are capable to make better decision when they use this language. According to Julie Sedivy in her article How Morality Changes in a Foreign Language people that use a foreign language make better decisions because their cognitive system is prepared to make a better effort (2016). For example, when people read mathematical problems that are writing in a mathematical problem that are writing in a mathematical language, using letters like Îą, they need to make a better effort to understand the meaning of the problem, so their brains are working harder to understand the things better. These working process of the brain helps people to have the result that
they need (Sedivy, 2016). Eventually, people that use English makes a better analysis about things, and gives better results to them. A foreign language affects moral judgments of people (Sedivy, 2016). People that need make a decision that affect others are usually affected by feelings in their own languages, but this is different in a foreign language. People that are thinking in a foreign think in what resolution would work better and make a decision based on this. Due to this is better for children to learn to thing in different languages. According to a recent study published in the Journal Cognition, when people are using a foreign language, they “place greater weigh on outcomes and less weigh on intentions in making moral judgments� (Cognition, 2016). This makes people think that a foreign language does not help people to think more deeply. Besides, the view point of this article matches with the idea that using a new language people give less importance to feelings. People that avoid feelings are more capable to reflect about a problem or situation; focusing more impact of an action. In conclusion, children that learn a new language develop their capacity of making decisions basing on a deeply understanding of a situation. Learning a new language helps people to reflect better about actions and results. People that learn a new language can use this to develop all their activities in their daily live. Make children learn since an early age help them to have a more assertive perspective of the word.
Refences Sedivy. J (2016). How Morality Change in a Foreign Language. Scientific American. Retrived on Nov,23,2016 From: https://scientificamericam.com. Kahane . G, Everett.J(2016) ‘Utilitarian’ judgments in sacrificial moral dilemmas do not reflect impartial concern for the greater good Guy. Cognition International Journal of Cognitive Science. Retrived on Nov,23,2016 From: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027714002054.
Changing Education System to Reach a Successful Country Future Andrea María Cevallos Guanopatín Yachay University of Experimental Technological Research December 4, 2016
Abstract The Ecuadorian government should make an investment in its education system in order to have a successful future. The problem with the Ecuadorian education system is that the majority of the Ecuadorian teachers do not have the correct training, in particular on public education; besides, another problem with the public education in Ecuador is the infrastructure of the school’s buildings that used to be terrible without the necessary conditions and in the same way without provision of necessary materials or technology. The first government in take place in the revolution of the education system in Ecuador was Rafael Correa government (Cevallos,2015). Indeed, an investment on education system is the key to give better future to Ecuador, due to a good education system provides people with skills that help them to solve problems illustrated by improving their innovative capacity. Besides innovators create new entrepreneurships that generate monetary income to the country (Australian Government, 2014). Therefore, an investment on education is related with a lot of benefits for society. Keywords: education, Ecuador, entrepreneurship, innovation, development.
Changing Education System to Reach a Successful Country Future Educator George Washington Carver once stated, "Education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom" (Iowa State University, 2002). Ecuador is a country that suffer a lot of struggles during the past years. The biggest example of this is the bank crisis between 1998 and 1999 which caused the closure of banks (Jácome,2009). Moreover, Banks that closed their doors kept all the money in consequence the economic Ecuadorian crisis started. These kind of problems does not help to create a satisfactory education system otherwise increased child labor especially in rural sections (Liebel,2004). A quality education helps countries to develop in all the areas. Education help people to get out of poverty because a good education provide them with the skills that they need to work or create new things for their benefit and their country benefit (CGD,2012). The Ecuadorian government should make an investment in its education
system in order to have a successful country future. A successful country is more that economic grown. According to Rurigdh McMeddes in his article What Makes a Successful Country? The Madness of Sustainable Economic Growth the success of a country is not about have the highest per-capita score, in fact it is about citizen’s happiness and health. The citizen’s happiness and health depends on good life conditions, in particular they need to have the basic necessities covered, also they need a good environment in which they can live normally (2014). Notably equal opportunities help people to have these things covered, for example an equal education that help people to be prepared to world of work. In particular, Sustainable economic growth is a model that cover all this conditions. This model is about find a way in which the country can develop areas like the economic without affecting the environment and with this the country can take care of the health
of their citizens. And, education may be the best way to accomplish happiness and health for a country’s citizens. The Ecuadorian education system needs to change to solve problems. As observed by Manfred Liebel in his book A will of their own, the biggest problem with the Ecuadorian education system is that the majority of the Ecuadorian teachers do not have the correct training, in particular on public education; they are not able to teach because in most of the cases they do not know about pedagogy and also their knowledge is limited. Ecuadorians usually have a bad perception of the teaching profession; this is because salaries of teachers used to be too low and just the teachers that works on private schools used to have better conditions. Another problem with the public education in Ecuador is the infrastructure of the school’s buildings that used to be terrible without the necessary conditions and in the same way without provision of necessary materials or technology. The effects of these problems were notably in the rural zones (2004) in which children that do not have the correct conditions to study played the role of workers. Consider this, the Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa started with a reform of the education system in 2007. “Before 2006, the Ecuadorian state lacked effective control over what was happening in its schools; the Ministry of Education limited itself to centrally managing the education system (paying the salaries of teachers and other administrators, for example) but did not generate or manage public policies” (Cevallos,2015). Rafael Correa included new education policies on the Ecuadorian Constitution of the 2008; one of them is public education as a right. During Rafael Correa government, a lot of reforms of the education system were realized. Illustrated by the infrastructures of schools and universities become better. Additionally, education program start to be regularized by institutions that ensure equal opportunities of access
to education for all citizens (Cevallos,2015). The investment that the current Government did to start this change provides Ecuador opportunity of achieve their educational objectives and. Also, education development is the is the basis to achieving other goals, like political or Scientific goals, because power the innovative ability to people. A good education helps students to improve their innovative capacity. Innovation is about changing process, ideas or products to adapt these to their environment or create new ones that become more effective. Indeed, innovation is a component that belongs to all areas this include sciences, politic, economy and also education because innovative thinking help people to be creative at the moment of solving a problem. (Australian Government, 2014). Actually, a good education system is in which teachers have the capacity to create new methods of teaching that help their students to develop their innovative capacity. In the case of Finland (the country with the best education system),” teachers have freedom to innovate and experiment as teams of trusted professionals”, they have the capacity and obligation of finding the best way to prepare students to face problems in their future lives (Doyle,2016) . Besides, a good education trigger skills that helps people to develop areas like technology, moreover most of the technological advances are beneficial to the development of a country, such as medical technological advances which improve the health of the country citizens and even of the whole humanity (Falch & Mang, 2015). An education that motivates students to innovate improves a more effective and productive society. The innovative capacity allows people to create new entrepreneurships ideas. According to Stevenson in his book Howard's Gift “entrepreneurship is the pursuit of opportunity beyond resources controlled” (2012). Entrepreneurs find opportunities of putting their ideas in operation, these people take risks like make an economy
investment to carry out their plans. Normally, entrepreneurs find ideas in the appropriate moment to cover a society necessity, most of time using minimums resources or finding completely resources that other people cannot even imagine to use. Besides entrepreneurs need to be related with people that have the same capacity of watching further away of limitations, they contact partners and employers to support their projects. The jobs generated as a result of entrepreneurship are related with educations because entrepreneurs generate innovative ideas due to the skills that they have to solve problems. These skills are developed as a result of a proper education. Also, entrepreneurial activities are related with country economic development because the industries created in the process of carried out these ideas generates not only job opportunities but also taxes and international associations that improve economic development (Eisenmann , 2013). This economic grown help society to become more sustainable. Economic development influence social change. Social change is an evolution of the social system produced by different factors, one of these factors is economic development (Form & Wilterdink, 2009). Economic development is a factor that attacks directly to poverty which is one of the biggest social problems. In particular, innovative minds create new job opportunities and contributes to economic development (Stathakis & Vaggi, 2006). Do to this invest in an education that improve innovative capacity is also a way of social investment. Alternatively, according to Heeks and Stanforth in their article Technological change in developing countries: opening the black box of process using actor–network theory, the correct mechanism to make a change in the development of a country is, like a lot of people think, technology and not education (2015). The use of technology in the past years has been generating a lot of socio-economic benefits in countries, illustrated
by the growth of economies and social progress presented in countries which investment on technology. Opponents to education reform argue that the development of countries depends on “the introduction of new public expenditure technological management (PEM)” which helps to secure the integration of technology in all the fields (Heeks & Stanforth, 2015)The integration of technology allows interconnection between the public sectors to collaborate in projects to the country development. Therefore, “Processes of technological change – innovation, transfer, adaptation, implementation – are central to development” (Heeks & Stanforth, 2015). Heeks and Stanforth suggest to people that the best thing to develop a country it is through investment in technological advances. This is incorrect because the creation and implementation of technology depends on education. According to the WHITE HOUSE website in their article Educate to Innovate, education provides people the necessary skills to students in fields of science, technology, engineering, and math. Therefore, the investment on education needs to come first; the regeneration of the educational system is the first step to change the future of a country. According to Sir Ken Robinson in the video Changing Education Paradigms, every country in the world are changing their educational system to help economy and to incentive culture in the new generations. People need to have a proper education to create new tools that helps to the development of a country, one of these tools is clearly technology, but to create or use technology is necessary to have the correct skills. Therefore, the investment of the education is the most important part in the change of a country.
In conclusion, a change in Ecuadorian education system is a way of routing Ecuador to become in a developing country, whereas developing is not the same thing that consumerism. Education help people to improve their innovative capacity but also a
quality education help them to solve problems in the most effective way. People with a developed innovative capacity, generates new ideas that can be turned into entrepreneurships. Additionally, entrepreneurial activities generate jobs and monetary income to the country. An investment on education is related with a lot of benefits for society. Overall the governments that try to reform the complete society need to start with education because the biggest changes star by educating people.
References
Doyle. (2016). How Finland broke every rule - and created a top school system -The Hechinger Report. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from http://hechingerreport.org/how-finland-broke-every-rule-and-created-a-to schoolsystem/ Australian Government Department of Industry, Innovation and Science (2016). Research and innovation. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from https://www.business.gov.au/info/run/research-and-innovation Cevallos. P. (2015). The Dialogue. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from http://www.thedialogue.org/blogs/2015/08/why-should-we-study-ecuadorseducation-reform/ Liebel. M. (2004). A will of their own Cross- Cultural perspectives of working children. London, England: Zed books. Jรกcome. L. (2009). Central banks and financial crises: Lessons from recent Latin American history | VOX, CEPR's Policy Portal. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from http://voxeu.org/article/central-banks-and-financial-crises-lessons-recentlatin-american-history Center for Global Development (2002). Education and the developing world Retrieved November 30, 2016, from http://www.cgdev.org/files/2844_file_EDUCATON1.pdf McMeddes. R. (2014). What Makes a Successful Country? The Madness of Sustainable Economic Growth - Planning Democracy. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from
http://www.planningdemocracy.org.uk/2014/what-makes-a-successful-countrythe-madness-of-sustainable-economic-growth/ Form.W., & Form. W. (2009). Social change. Retrieved November 30, 2016, from https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-change Stathakis. G., & Vaggi. G. (2006). Economic Development Historical roots and modern perspectives. Routledge -Taylor and Francis Group. Falch. T., & Mang. C. (2015). Innovations in education for better skills and higher employability. European Expert Network on Economics of Education (EENEE). Stevenson. H. (2012). Howard's Gift: Uncommon Wisdom to inspire your life's work. NY, New York: St. Martin's Press. Eisenmann. T. (2014). Entrepreneurship: A Working Definition. Retrieved December 01, 2016, from https://hbr.org/2013/01/what-is-entrepreneurship Heeks. R, and Stanforth. C. "Technological Change in Developing Countries: Opening the Black Box of Process Using Actor–network Theory." Taylor and Francis Online 2.1
(2015): 33-50. Web.
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080%2F21665095.2015 .1026610
K. Robinson. (Producer). (2010, October 14). Changing Education Paradigms [Video file].
Retrieved November 11, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U
W. (2013, April 01). Educate to Innovate. Retrieved November 11, 2016, from https://www.whitehouse.gov/issues/education/k-12/educate-innovate.
Iowa State University. (2002). George Washington Carver Program. Retrieved December 01, 2016, from http://www.multicultural.dso.iastate.edu/programs/gwc Cevallos .A.(2016). Innovators as the key of development.
Here are some photos of my English class.