MY WORK IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE BY BAYRON VALLE ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM YACHAYTECH LEVEL 6-009
TEACHER: JOSEPHINE JAVENS JANUARY 10, 2015 IMBABURA, ECUADOR
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Portfolio Letter Response Essay Literary Analysis Interpretation Essay Argumentation Essay Final Research Project: Essay
Bayron Valle Universidad Yachaytech Imbabura, Ecuador December 09, 2016 Dear Portfolio Reader: My name is Bayron Valle. Thank you for reding my portfolio. I am a student of third semester in Yachaytech. In this portfolio I show my best work in english course, with this I also intend to show the abilities that I have achieved while attending all levels of the English course of YachayTech and demonstrate that I am ready to start my life as a english user. In the portfolio I included 4 essays that I have done in classes and the final research project, plus some reflections and my expectations to finish at the end of level 6. The English course has not only helped me to learn the language, I also learned to be a better student and have more responsibility. The English course has the clear rules for each thing, there are deadlines to deliver works, this makes us prepare the homeworks in time. I have used this also to do my work in other subjects of Yachay, I would have wanted to have a Spanish course in high school like this English course. The essays and the research work has helped me a lot since it can be applied in my academic life. I learned how to prepare good essays and how to do a research. With all these skills I will surely do a good job as a student and in the future as a scientist. The English course has given me a lot and I am grateful for that. There are 2 main things I need to improve to be a better english language user: pronunciation and listening. I consider that I have a good English vocabulary that I have learned in these years, but
when I have to make a presentation or speak in English I forget many words that I know but I cannot remember at that moment. Practice is very important to learn a language and that is what I need. The same goes for listening but I think I can do this on my own. The essays served me to improve my writing. With the response essay I learned to make an unbiased analysis of an article, without giving personal opinions based on feelings but based on logical and supported arguments. With the interpretation essay I learned to read between the lines and to deepen in the ideas that I found in a text or work. The argumentation essay served me to improve my way of showing my ideas and taught me to give clear arguments to what I write and to look for the necessary sources to support my ideas. How to respond, how to interpret and how to argue are very important skills and I learned them at this level 6. The most valuable work I have done has been the research paper. The research is what I want to dedicate on my live and in the English course I learned how to do it correctly. I saw in this level the process that must be carried out for an investigation , first as choosing a good topic, then a correct thesis, evaluate the resources I use, peer review, quote correctly and write with order are things I will use for the rest of my life, and for that reason are the most valuable of this semester. I will always be a student, I will never stop learning and English is no exception. I have come a long way, but I have much to go. The Yachaytech English course is very good and I congratulate all those who are part of the English department. I will continue to improve to be a better english user and improve my communication. Thanks for two incredible years. Sincerely, Bayron Valle
Response essay to:” The ethics of Human Enhancement” Bayron Valle Yachaytech
Response Essay to: “The Ethics of Human Enhancement”
How do you make sure that something in science is not ethical? Ethics is too general and ambiguous. It is also different for each person. For example, in some countries the cloning of animals is allowed but elsewhere it is prohibited. Therefore, the ethical principles in science are different in each country. In the article: The Ethics of Human Enhancement by Andy Miah, the author presents a discussion on ethical issues in technologies to improve the human. Miah shows several problems about ethics in science, but their arguments are very weak and do not respond to the questions posed in the introduction. It is interesting but not extraordinary. Why? There are many reasons for this but first I go to explain more about text. “The Ethics of Human Enhancement” was wrote by Andy Miah, it was published in technologyreview.com on September 8, 2016. The publication shows information about the author: “He have Chair in Science Communication & Digital Media, in the School of Environment & Life Sciences, University of Salford, Manchester and others.” (Miah, 2016)
The author raises two big questions at the beginning of the text: “how far society is prepared to accept these kinds of applications and what ethical issues they create.” (Miah, 2016). The first refers to the types of applications that are used to manipulate life and the world is in “transhuman” era. The second says that these applications create ethical problems.
The first argument shows a relationship between improvements in human beings and the value of the objectives achieved: “The means by which people achieve their goals in life matter…… if a person uses a technological shortcut to achieve a goal, that choice may decrease the accomplishment's value.” (Miah, 2016). For example, if I run 10 Km with robotic legs designed to resist and other person run with their normal human legs. What goal is more valuable? It is normal if I say that most valuable is without technological help.
Another ethical problems that Miah shows: “psychopharmacological substances….. Transform the patient into someone else.” “Human enhancement may narrow a person's prospects, violating the principle of preserving an “open future.” “Numerous enhancements require having a range of decision makers charged with developing policies for their use” “Enhancements might undermine some essential quality of our human identity that we would rather preserve.” (Miah, 2016). These four aspects can be summarized in two: How does it will affect us as human beings? And who makes most important decisions? The author concludes his article saying: “It's crucial to establish some general principles that govern the ethical conduct of human enhancement at all levels.” (Miah, 2016).
I think the article is very simple and the text lacks details. Paragraphs are very short and do not explore anything. For example in the first paragraph the author raises two interesting questions but are not analyzed to depth. Also, he never explained about the trans-human era and what was its connection with the ethical issues in human enhancement. The text showed several problems of ethics in science but none was good enough to prove anything. In the end, the author pose four ethical problems that could be summarized in two because three of them were very similar to each other. The first He spoke about the effects that could induce to humans the biological
changes caused by technological improvements And the last he spoke about the importance of political leaders take steps to regulate changes in humans. At the conclusion Miah gives little tips but adds nothing new to solve the problem. The five examples he uses are not sufficient for the conclusion that author gets.
The first argument shows doubt about which is the difference between the methods that have ethical problems with similar ones that are more common and nobody criticizes them. In the second argument the author discusses about the value of doing something with the help of human enhancement, this is a very good argument but needs more development. Then the author argues that improvements could transform us into someone else and we could lose our essence of human. And the last point says that improvements can make finish our objectives too quickly and this can eliminate us open future. The author does not provide a clear view about what he thinks. In the text the author discusses the problems of ethics in science but does not give its general view about what he writes. It is necessary that a so important issue which Miah showed needs to be analyzed deeper. There are many arguments and examples that could be used and also many resources which could be taken to improve the article.
REFERENCES
Miah, A. (2016). The Ethics of Human Enhancement. MIT Technology Review. Available at: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602342/the-ethics-of-human-enhancement/ [Accessed 4 Oct. 2016].
Literary Analysis to:”Araby” Bayron Valle Yachaytech
ARABY
When do you become to adult? Do you remember? James Joyes wrote Araby in 1994. Araby talk about a boy he want to buy a present for a girl because he loves her or he believe this. He want this. He want to go to Araby. Araby is a bazaar. Araby is a story that show a boy s mission to become to be an adult. In this essay I talk about the theme that the text portrays, next I show how the author uses the literary elements and last I conclude the thesis. The most important theme in the story is: the boy to adult trantition, because this theme is the reason for all the things that the boy do in the story. For example he loves Mangan’s sister she is his first love , maybe his first real love. This kind of love begins when a boy has a transition to teen, all of this is connected to theme. Other reason when he say: “I will bring your something” (Joyce, 1914) He accepts a mission, the mission is Araby. Araby represents the goal and the goal represents the adult live. Araby is not a boy’s mission, Araby is an adult’s mission. The author uses some literary elements. I am going to talk about metaphor and simile, conflict and symbolism. The central conflict in the story is: the boy needs to buy something special for Mangan’s sister, and he needs to go to Araby but he has problems for do this. The story is narrated to the same boy in the text but in other time. It is the point of view. “Her name was like a summons to all my foolish blood”(Joyce, 1914) the author uses this simile to compare the girl name with a summons. “Her image accompanied his all time and in all places” “ the syllables of the word Araby were called to me through the silence in wich my soul luxuriated and cast and Eastern enchantment over me”(Joyce, 1914)
The last part of the text proves my thesis. Araby is not a place, Araby represents more. It represents the Eastern a wild place, a hard mission. The boy does not go to Araby only for her. He does it for himself. It is his mission. He needs to demonstrate that he is an adult. Araby is the first thing that he begings like an adult.
Interpretation essay to:”The Raven” Jorge Cardenas - Bayron Valle Yachaytech
THE RAVEN: AN ANALYSIS “And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor shall be lifted— nevermore!” Poe (2016/1845). This is a fragment of the poem The Raven of the writer Edgar Allan Poe. He was born on January 19, 1809, in Boston, Massachusetts, writer, poet, critic, and editor. Edgar Allan Poe's tales of mystery and horror. “"The Raven," which he published in 1845, is considered among the best-known poems in American literature.” Biography Editors (2016). The poem is made up of 18 stanzas of six lines each. The raven is a poem with literary richness and expresses several hidden feelings. An anguished man sleeps on a few books, unable to remove from his thoughts the image of his beloved Leonora, wishing that the night disappears and the new day calms his pain. Some blows wake him up. He does not know who knocks at his door, and when he opens it, he discovers a raven, almost out of nowhere. The raven perches on the lintel of the door, and answers all the questions with a single answer: "Nevermore". The narrator places his chair right in front of the crow, to know more about him. he remains silent thinking about the loss of her Leonor. He thinks that the air becomes more and more dense and he feels the presence of angels, the narrator becomes furious, calling the crow "thing of the devil" and "prophet". Finally the narrator admits that his soul is under the shadow of the crow and that he will not be released "nevermore".
When we read “The Raven” we find feelings such as anguish, sadness and a feeling of abandonment. The sadness of the poem is established from the beginning, when the narrator reads in order to get his mind off of Lenore. For example:” Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary” Poe (2016/1845) The poem starts with this, which gives us an idea of how the whole text will be. Poe shows how he remembers a sad day wishing to see his beloved that he will not return, in the following verse: “I had sought to borrow. From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore” Poe (2016/1845)
The Raven being a work where the richness literary is shown in each stanza allow us match many pieces of a puzzle to interpret the ideas and feelings that the author hides in each analogy during develop of poem. Many ingredients literary are hidden, for example, alliteration shown in the dialogue that said: “Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before” , simile: “Suddenly there came a tapping, as of someone gently rapping.”, metaphor: “And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor”, onomatopeia: “…and so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door” and assonance: “rusting of each purple curtain, thrilled me-filled me”, among others. People who are experts on the literature agree in that The Raven is a literary work where the use of literary terms help to understand the meaning of some ideas a little confuse and the feelings hidden by the author for that the readers can enjoy mystery of the literature. In the literature the objective is to show feelings, ideas, and histories to the readers and so, try to share theses emotions through a pencil and paper for what different persons can understand
what kind of feelings the author want to transmit. Our feels while we are reading The Raven are sadness and nostalgic because we can see that the history is centered in Leonora, a dead women, and his eternal lover who those night was thinking on her, other feelings that the history show us is the melancholic due to in several times while the raven was in the door and finally the madness is a feeling that the raven could let us show, because, each time that the raven said his words “Nevermore� the author try to scape of his remember and scream for salvation and sanity. Although the feelings that a history or poem can transmit depend of the reader, because, not all the people feel the same, but, in some case could agree in the sadness and nostalgic which are for us the most important feelings that the author want to transmit. Finally, Edgar Allan Poe is a writer very recognized in the literature for his works in which the literary terms, feelings and histories are mixed to give to the reader a great experience. The Raven being one of his most recognized works has a richness literary abundant which can take examples and try to discover what the ideas that authors want to transmit are. The use of the literary terms are very important because are the hook to a great history and a very hard interpretation for each reader interested on the literature, art and language.
References Edgar Allan Poe (1845). The Raven. Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 17 November 2016, from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poems/detail/48860 Biography Editors (2016). Edgar Allan Poe Biography. biography.com Retrieved 17 November 2016, from http://www.biography.com/people/edgar-allan-poe-9443160
TECHNOLOGY IS MAKING US LESS SMART
When you don’t have internet, do you feel smarter or less smart? Many people have a smartphone, computer and internet. Students and teachers use technology in their academic life, and other people use it to work, but generally, the technologies for entertainment and social networks. How many people use technologies to learn new information? How many people memorize and understand the information? And how many use the information that they obtain on the internet? A smart person can memorize, understand and use the information in their routine. The use of technologies make us less smart because we don’t memorize and understand the information. The people don’t remember the information that they search for internet, in the introduction I defined a smart people as those who can memorize information. When we need information about something we only go to the google, type, and press enter, in two second we have more information than we can read, but the next day, can we remember this information? If the answer is no, maybe we have “digital amnesia”. “A recent study suggest 90% of us suffering from digital amnesia” (Roberts, 2015). This amnesia is not only for internet information. If we have all phone numbers on our phone, maybe we don’t remember important numbers. “More than 70% of people don’t know their children numbers, phone numbers by heart, and 49% have not memorized their partner numbers.” (Roberts, 2015) If we can’t memorize the information, we can’t understand the information and we can use it in the future, therefore, we can’t be smart people with technology.
With technology we can to access a lot of information. Technology is making us less smart because we only obtain information but we don’t understand this information. The information is important but we need to understand to use it in many context. “Technology has made us able to do more while understanding less about what we are doing and increased our dependence on others” (Coopersmith, 2016) so with technology we are not smarter only more information . The anthropologist Dr Genevieve Bell says technology “help us live smarter” because we decide what information we want to extract and how we want to use it. Bell concludes about technology: is not making consumers dumber, instead it is helping them to think smarter” and she says that when we use technology to search information we doing act of intelligence and for this reason make people smarter. (Roberts, 2015) The technology make people less smart because people don’t memorize and understand the information. Is important that people use information correctly.
REFERENCES: Roberts, Genieve, 2015, Google effect: is technology making us stupid? Retrieved from: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/google_effect-is-technologymaking-us-stupid-10391564.html Coopersmith Jonathan, 2016. Is technology making us dumber us smarter? Retrieved from: http://www.theconversation.com
Grading system: an unfair way of evaluating. Bayron Valle Yachaytech University
Grading system: an unfair way of evaluating.
Have you ever felt that the grades you received at school did not represent your abilities? Since the appearance of formal schools, grades have been used in the education system to measure achievements and to measure whether a student meets what is necessary to continue in the education system. The achievements, in this case, are the knowledge necessary to pass a subject. If a student fulfills what is necessary, he can move to another level. The grading scale is different in each region, it can be from A + to F as in the United States, from 100 to 0 or from 10 to 0 as in Ecuador, but all of these have a maximum score to approve. The grades have served to discriminate against some students and to called them as "bad". In this case, a "bad" student is one who has not achieved the required score to pass. It is necessary to discuss the reasons for changing the grading system and seek alternatives to replace it. The grading system should be abolished from the schools. In schools grades have been used to predict the success a student will have in his professional life, but this is not so, the future of a student is not determined by the grades obtained. First of all, what is success? Success is not a universal concept, so we cannot measure something that is different in each place. For example, a NACAC (National Association for College Admission Counseling) study presents surprising results on the relation between grades and success. “Those students with low high school grades but high test scores generally receive low college grades, while those with high grades in high school, but low test scores, generally receive high grades in college.� Jaschik (2014)
These results are summarized in the article “Virtually No Difference” published by: Scott Jaschik, and shows that the high grades in the school do not mean success in life, it is rather a variable situation since normally students constantly change their academic performance throughout their student life. There are many things that qualifications do not measure like: effort, critical thinking, creativity and human values, all these necessary to reach success in many areas, then how could the qualifications tell us if someone will or will not succeed. The grades put so much pressure on students that they end up failing. The pressure to get good grades causes some students to overkill and end up lowering their performance through stress. A student focuses too much on qualifications that forget that it is not the most important thing that is why their performance decreases. There are other reasons to change the school grading system. Students need to pass subjects in which they have no interest, this causes too much stress because they are forced to try to learn about subjects they do not feel they will use in their life, for example a student interested in the arts who must learn mathematics. The lack of interest in something discourages students and causes them not only feel bad for the matter they failed, but also for their life in general. With the current system a student without interest in an area will not perform well in general in his academic life. For example a study published by the Journal for Research in Mathematics Education on 2001 called "The Relationship between Academic Interest and Achievement in Mathematics" shows the following results: “A total of 602 students (59.5% female) from academically selected schools in Germany were tested in order to investigate the relationships between academic interest and achievement in mathematics... Results suggest that, at least from Grade 7 to Grade 10, achievement is affected by interest, that is, high achievers expressed more interest than low achievers.” Köller (2001) This means that there is a direct relationship between grades and interest, then the current system
does not take this factor into account, we simply see all students as a single mass, without individualities or characteristics of their own, for this reason so many fail. It is necessary to eliminate the current system, so that the future of many students will not be interrupted due to lack of interest in a specific area. A person with artistic qualities should not see his dreams truncated for failing math and a mathematician should not be forced to be the best biologist in his class, the system should adapt. Grades teach students to compete for the best scores, but they make them forget that learning is the most important. There are students who get good scores but then quickly forget the knowledge they learned. According to Dr. Maryellen Weimer, PhD even the students with higher grades forget faster than the average grades students. The "A students” had higher achievement in the beginning, they lost knowledge at a faster rate than “C students,” so that after two years the difference between what the two knew was much smaller." Weimer (2008) In this case the "A students" with students who take A on their exams, according to the United States qualification system; The same happens with the "D students" These data are based on a study conducted in 2006 and published in the Journal of Marketing Education. And it shows that the grades give students a false perception that they have the knowledge necessary for their professional life. Grade is a momentary rewards, but many students think it is the most important in education. There are some positions in favor of the current system of grades, one of them states: “Employers have an additional assessment of a candidate’s value (grades). They can partially rely on their superior grades to demonstrate their abilities”. Green, B. (2016) The article shows that for some companies, qualifications are more important than experience because excellent qualifications demonstrate the prestige that someone has
achieved in his academic life. Many employers ask for the qualifications that candidates for a job had in their academic life, use this information to get an idea of which candidate could have a better job performance compared to the performance they had throughout their studies. The article says that this information can measure the prestige with which a candidate gets to apply for a job. The prestige gained in your life is that additional element that an employer can use to make a final decision in case of doubt, that is to say that the grades can serve to differentiate of the others and to obtain a job. If we start from the fact that grades are important to get a job because they represent the prestige that someone has achieved that "prestige" is not real if it is based on an unfair qualification system. Anything derived from an unfair qualification system will not represent reality. It is not a very strong argument to say that we need the qualifications to find a job because they can measure the prestige we have had in our academic life. As we have said the current grading system has serious problems, and does not represent the real skills that a student has achieved, then such a system cannot represent the prestige that someone has achieved and if we take a system that has failed to deduct prestige then that prestige will also have failed, something that is derived from such an unfair system will also be unfair. The only way to better evaluate students is to abolish the current grading system and change it to one that only shows two outcomes: "achieves the necessary knowledge" and "does not achieve the necessary knowledge" Suppose the case that a student needs a six to pass the exam, but obtains one, then it is worse than the one that obtained five, but both failed the subject. In the same case if a student gets a ten is better than the one who gets a seven, but both passed. The system must be created so that if a student meets all the necessary knowledge for a subject can approve, and if a student does not meet all the required knowledge he has the opportunity to
try several times. If it is the case he can choose not to take that subject if it does not go according to goals that he want to achieve. The education system must adapt to the abilities of each student, so that he can continue with his studies without being truncated by qualifications that do not represent his true potential. This is just one of many options that exist to replace this obsolete and unfair system. The grading system should be abolished from the schools. The grades have been used to determine the success that someone will have in their future, but this is not so, Success cannot be predicted through grades because throughout your life a student has fluctuations in performance and it is unpredictable to say this. Grades cause students stresses to get the best grades and that makes them fail or drop out of school. Many students strive to get good grades and he neglect knowledge, even according some studies the students with the best grades forget more about what they have learned. The argument that grades measure prestige is also incorrect. The grading system in schools affects students, it is important to discuss to find an alternative that will help us all. It is necessary to abolish the current system and change it for a fairer one that actually reflects the skills that someone has achieved in their academic life.
REFERENCES
Jaschik, S. (2014). Virtually No Difference. Insidehighered. Retrieved 21 November 2016, from: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2014/02/19/study-finds-little-difference-academicsuccess-students-who-do-and-dont-submit-sat
Kรถller, O. (2001). Does Interest Matter? The Relationship between Academic Interest and Achievement in Mathematics. Jstor.org. Retrieved 30 November 2016, from: https://www.jstor.org/stable/749801?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
Weimer, M. (2008). Student Learning and Course Content: How Fast Do They Forget? Facultyfocus. Retrieved 22 November 2016, from: http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/student-learning-and-coursecontent-how-fast-do-they-forget/
Green, B. (2016). The Surprising Importance of Grades. Kellogg Insight. Retrieved 14 November 2016, from http://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/the_surprising_importance_of_grades
Thanks for reading my work, I wish you luck.
Bayron Valle