YACHAY TECH UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM
DAVID REVELO
YACHAY, ECUADOR
MY ENGLISH JOURNEY BY: DAVID REVELO M. ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM YACHAY TECH LEVEL 6 013 TEACHER, HAMILTON QUEZADA
JANUARY 13rd, 2017 IMABABURA, ECUADOR
Contents 1. Portfolio letter 2. Response essay 3. Literary Analysis 4. Interpretation essay 5. Argumentation essay 6. Final research project essay 7. Additional materials (pictures/videos/other works) 8. Thank you letter
David Alejandro Revelo Muñoz Universidad de Investigación de Tecnología Experimental Yachay Tech Hacienda San José s/n Proyecto Yachay Imbabura, Ecuador December 15th, 2016
Dear Portfolio Reader,
Never stop trying. I am David Revelo and this is my reflection letter. Thank you for reading my English Language Portfolio. This is a required to show my growth and development as an English language user. This is a collection of my work during the English Language Program Level 6 at Yachay. Here, there are essays and my research project. I think that this portfolio reflects my efforts and my development through this semester. I was not sure about what really highlight my experience through these semesters, but now, I am sure that my shoes represent my way through this experience. Now, almost everybody may be asking the reason of my shoes, except who have been part of the English Language Program. Each semester, since the second, I have had my English classes in the IST. The sun, the wind and the “chocapic road have been parts during my way as an English language learner. And that is the reason why I chose it. My father always told me that English is very important in the labor field, so I should learn to speak it. Actually, the time have also shown me its importance. And the best example of that is fifth semester where I will have all subjects spoken in English. I hope to be prepared for that.
Since the beginning of Level 6, I had essays, presentations and many other assignments. I am sure that this have been the most difficult. During this semester, I improved my writing and speech. I remember my first essay. It had a lot of mistakes and the most commons were: run on sentence, wrong tenses, subject missing, wrong structure. When I checked my essay, it was all with comments, but now, my essays have less comments. About my speech, I cannot say much. I believe that this is something that needs more than a life, even that my presentations have improved. For me this have been a big step. And I know that even that the English program have finished, this is not the end. No matter if was the end of the English program, I want to continue improving my grammar and speech. Trying to speak fluently and writing in the same way. Thank you again for reading my portfolio, I hope you enjoy it.
Sincerely,
David Alejandro Revelo MuĂąoz
http://viniliza.com/tienda/murales-vinilos-paisajes/pradera-2/
The ethics of Human Enhancement David Alejandro Revelo MuĂąoz Level 6 013 16:00 pm - 18:00 pm Yachay Tech October 06th , 2016
The ethics of Human Enhancement “Humans have constantly wanted to improve themselves with technology” (Stewar, 2013). Nowadays, human experiments have increased by the craving of the people who wants to improve their body and their minds. These things that yesterday were fiction now are called technology. These innovations open the possibility to “improve our species”, but at the same time, the ethical concerns arise. In the article mentioned below, Andy Miah claims that the main problem about human enhanceme nt is that it requires a global response because it can change some essential qualities of our human identity. And it can be seen from two points of view, people who agree or disagree. In an article called The Ethics of Human Enhancement of Andy Miah. The author treats the theme of Human modifications and their ethics consequences. In this article, he proposes some comments about why people agree or disagree with this practice. In addition, he mentions that the main reason of these enhancements is because people have always sought to improve themselves. Finally, the author concludes highlighting the importance of a system that regulates these experiments and the existence of some general principles that govern the ethical conduct of humans. There are many ideas about human enhancement that people agree or disagree with this kind of experiments. The author of this article lists some of these thoughts and at the end, he proposes his idea about it. In my opinion, I share his way of thinking because it is necessary an organism that controls these experiments. These experiments could be well if we think in the way that they have objectives that let people improve their lifestyle and save their lives, but on the other hand, this kind of experiments can change who really they are. They can convert people in someone else. Also, Andy Miah introduces the idea about “how far society is prepared to accept these kinds of applications and what ethical
issues they create� (Miah, 2016). And in order to answer this doubt is necessary to evaluate some arguments of people about enhancements. One good reason why people disagree with human enhancement is this: The way that people follow to achieve their goals come to be unjust in front of others who use some technological modifications. People who use these methods, in many cases, they make these goals look less valuable in front of what they really represent. In another way, these people earn a lot of time that they could dedicate to another activity or maybe to achieve another goal. Another good point that the author mentions is about work. People always work hard in order to improve themselves, but if there exist another way that could promote the early success in life, at least in the scientific ambit, it could be great! And yet, the enhancements are not as brilliant as it sounds because actually, many of this kind of enhancements bring serious issues later. Some good examples that Miah mentions are drugs which can provide to people physical strength or increase their creativity, but with the pass of the time it can carry health risks. In brief, human enhancement has positive points and it has negative points. There are good opinions mentioned by Miah about people who agree and at the same time good arguments of disagreeing.
Consequently,
it is almost impossible to evaluate if
enhancements are right or not, but is clearly a necessity to establish some general principles that control the ethical conduct of human enhancement. As the author says, “Human enhancements requires a global response, rather than just domestic policy� (Miah, 2016). It means a global implication, a world with a conscience that has to develop strategies for managing in a correct way the human enhancement.
References: Miah, A. (2016). Ethics Issues Raised by Human Enhancement - OpenMind. Retrieved October 05, 2016, from https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/article/ethics- issues-raisedby-human-enhancement/ Steward, J. (2013). Human Enhancement.
Retrieved
October 03, 2016, from
http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/2013/11/human-enhancement/#.V_Vq_-DhDcd
http://viniliza.com/tienda/murales-vinilos-paisajes/pradera-2/
Attitudes of marriage David Alejandro Revelo MuĂąoz Level 6 013 Yachay Tech
Attitudes of marriage Everybody has listened at least one time in life that some years ago, maybe 30 years ago, women were considered as a housewife, and their main role in house was the care of children. In my opinion despite the years that have passed, many marriages work in the same way. The role of woman in many cases continues being at home. So, these chauvinism attitudes are still living in the society. Although years have passed since the story was published, many cases of women who have to leave their jobs in order to take care of their children are listened yet. Even there are cases where men are who leave their jobs for doing this role, the cases are not enough in contrast to women who have done it. And the main reason for that is because people continue believing that the work at home is just for woman. The author Kate Chopin in The Story of an Hour presents a marriage of the nineteenth century. Some words that one of the characters says (Louise), “Free! Body and soul free!�, after that her husband died. They show how was the life of women in that time. If we compare this case with cases of this century, people can find that the attitudes of a marriage in the nineteenth century represents many attitudes about marriages today. And if we think about why these attitudes can represent a marriage yet, the answer is stereotypes. Another aspect that have contributed to the chauvinism continues living in the society, and it is stereotypes. Chauvinism has been transmitted in each generation by stereotypes. For example, people always say that men are stronger than women. And this is not really true, but people continue believing in that and it is a problem. Women have the same abilities as men. The treatment to women should be in same conditions as men. In conclusion, the main issue of society that contributes with the existence of chauvinism is out way of thinking. And it will not change if we do not put stereotypes away. We cannot continue living with attitudes of the nineteenth century. The attitudes of marriages need to change, the work at house is for both. Women and men have to live in the same conditions
Reference Chopin, k. (1894). “The Story of an Hour”
http://viniliza.com/tienda/murales-vinilos-paisajes/pradera-2/
Interpretation Essay David Revelo Patricio Tinoco Mayra JimĂŠnez Level 6-0013 Yachay Tech November 15th , 2016
Interpretation Essay In the episode "The D'oh-cial Network", the director, Chris Clements and the screenwriter J. Stewart Burns describe social media, facebook, because they tried to show the impact that facebook has had since it came out in 2006 and the importance that it had in the world. Then they used characters from all ages to show how facebook is involved in every step of the life that means since you are child, teenager, adult or ancient. All begins with a poor ability of Lisa to make friends and that is the main reason why "springface" was created. Then the addiction for this app creates a lot of situations like: traffic accidents, avoid every kind of human touch, etc. J.Stewart Burns, the screenwriter, at the beginning of the episode wants to transmit the reasons why “Springface” was created, in the reality Facebook was created by Mark Zuckzerberg and his reasons were: (1)share information, (2) interaction inside the University, (3) privacy and (4)business. Instead of that in the episode Liza creates “Springface” because she wants to make friends and also because she feels alone and that would be a good idea for sharing your feelings and what is happening in your life. Another good reason is proposed by the episode. In this case, Lisa Simpson is in a school park with some of her "springface friends". She is trying to talk with them, but no one answers or pays attention to what she says. In this scene the author shows a false sense of connection that the social networks produce on people who use it because these people forget the real world and they cannot distinguish the real meaning of a relations hip in the real world. Once using social networks, people tend to want a lot of followers and friends, and in some way, it produces the false illusion of being popular and something that is not necessarily true in real life. Friends mean support, love, and company: they help us
overcome loneliness. One of the fears that people have in the present is being lonely, for this reason it is not weird that people search for friends anywhere, including social networks. Keeping with the illusion of having a lot of friends by adding people on social networks. We could realize it is an illusion when having problems or, in general, simply needing a friend in front of us. There are a lot of people that have thousands of friends and followers, but sometimes in real life, they do not have anyone very close whom they can share personal interests with. When needing someone, a person would have much less people to call than friends or followers, as in the end, at the moment we enter a social network, we know that the people we add practically stay in a digital place. One of the direct consequences of entering a social network is that we start being a part of something bigger than ourselves. Joining a group goes in the same line as having friends: people could overcome loneliness by having a distraction or being an active part of something related to other people. Being part of a group means to be accepted and share common things, in such a way that people could see that they are not so alone; but is it really true? And is entering a social network really something helpful for us or for the world in that sense? The bad uses of the social networks also involve when they are used. Many people do not distinguish when they should use it. It is not easy to agree about when the right moment is. It depends on the decision of each one, but there are many situations that everyone must consider before using social networks. Some specific situations that social networks put in danger user’s life or the society in general are prohibited by laws. Many examples are presented in the episode, one of them is in a scene where Homero is driving a car and his family are passengers. He is modifying his state in a social network while
he is driving. After that, he runs over an old man. In this example, the author puts in evidence one of the most common irresponsible attitudes of social networks users. On the other hand, social networks are used in order to share pictures, documents, some words or just to know about others. Recently, “Facebook� has launched a differe nt way to share videos with others. Their users can transmit live all what they are recording in that moment. This is a good tool that in many cases is used in a wrong way. People use it for transmitting tragedies to others. As a critique of that, in the chapter there are some firefighters in a fire. They are taking photos during the fire and they uploaded the photos to the social network. They are not doing their work and they are not concentrated in what they really have to do. Finally, despite the fact that all critiques during the chapter are parodies of people who use social networks, many of these examples presented are not so far from reality. Social networks have connected the world, but their wrong uses have created many issues in the society. Some problems have been accidents, disagreements, bullying, etc. We need to reconsidered the purpose of social networks. It is necessary raise awareness in the society in order to create responsible people of the uses of social networks. And this is possible by putting in evidence their bad habits using social networks.
References [TuCanalDeSeries]. SPRINGFIELD
(2016,
October 26).
[Archivo
de
LOS
SIMPSON FACEBOOK
video].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NSDIUsWDq8&t=664s
Recovery
DE from
http://viniliza.com/tienda/murales-vinilos-paisajes/pradera-2/
Should English be changed by Kichwa? David Alejandro Revelo MuĂąoz Level 6 013 Yachay Tech November 23rd, 2016
Should English be changed by Kichwa? Ecuador, a diverse and multicultural country. Ecuador is a rich country in traditions and customs. In this country 14 native languages exist, but kichwa is one of the most important languages. As well as knowing kichwa is important for getting the identity of the country, but their speakers are few against other languages. English should never be changed by Kichwa because English is a global scientific language. Also, this language gives more opportunities than others. And finally, English is one of languages with more speakers around the world. Kichwa is a native language of Ecuador and it is part of our identity. This is one of the common arguments used by people in favor of replace English by Kichwa. This is a right argument because Kichwa is part of Ecuadorian people, but Kichwa does not represent the same importance for Ecuadorian people outside the country. Their speakers are limited ant many of their words cannot be translated into other languages. Another good reason is used by people in favor, Kichwa is recognized as an official language in Ecuador as Spanish. And it represents the importance of Kichwa for our country. Even that this is true, many years have passed since the Kichwa was recognized as a native langue and kichwa speakers continue decreasing through the years. Some studies from 1980 showed that Kichwa speakers in that age represented a 14% of Ecuadorian population, but another study from 1990 showed that in just 10 years, Kichwa speakers represented 4% of Ecuadorian people. So truly, Kichwa has reduced their speakers while English speakers are rising, but what is happening with other languages? In Ecuador, there are 14 languages and Kichwa just represent one of them. Defining English as an official language in Ecuador does not mean that the other languages will be forgotten. An author of an article called, “Why Pakistan is Replacing English with Urdu?”, he mentions that, “defining native languages as official languages does not mean that it will increase the speakers of that language because the unique fact that contributes with it is their importance”.
Nowadays, English has become one of the most important languages in the world. The importance of this language in science has turned English into a language with more speaker around the world. Finally, if we think in the possible fact that English will become an official language of Ecuador, it does not mean that this change will be over with the Ecuadorians identity. English is the global science language and its importance around the world will continue rising. So, it is a fact that Ecuador needs policies which contribute with the learning of this language
Reference: Agragal, A. (2015, June 28). Why Pakistan is Replacing English with Urdu. Retrieved from: http://time.com
http://viniliza.com/tienda/murales-vinilos-paisajes/pradera-2/
“Animal Testing” Revelo Muñoz David Alejandro Class: L6-013 Urcuquí-Ecuador December, 2016
Abstract This paper compares arguments of people in favor and against animal testing. Also, this paper discusses the importance of animal testing in science and how it contributes to the development of cures for some illnesses. Moreover, it will answer some doubts related to restrictions that animal testing presents. What are the associations who protect animals? And what are the most common animals used for experimentation?
Is animal testing really working as an alternative to testing human products? Could human testing be possible? Is animal experimentation science or cruelty? If we think in a controversial topic, Animal Testing is one of the most common topics. In many web sites, we can find information about that. Arguments in favor and against can be found about this practice. And as a result, laws and groups in order to regulate the Animal testing have been created. But, what are the main reasons presented by people against animal testing? Their main reasons are two. The first discusses the suffering that animals feel during the experiments. The second is that if the experiments are for testing human cosmetics, we may test these products in humans. And those reasons are not enough to ban animal testing. Animal testing is effectively working as an alternative to human testing. So, this practice should not be stopped for three main arguments: first, the developing of products without animal testing would be dangerous for many human lives; second, scientists would achieve better results because they can do more experiments in animals taking into account the time that each experiment means. And the last reason is because the use of animals in research is essential. One of the most important reasons about the uses of animal in experiments is that some animals share similar characteristics with humans. One example of that are experiments with mice. Mice share with humans approximately 98% of their genes, so it does possible practice experiments of human products over mice. Also, if we compare the metabolism of mice against a metabolism of a human, the contrast shows that mice metabolism is faster than a human. For that reason, experiments with mice are more viable than human experimentation because it means less time and less research cost. These reasons make animal testing an alternative to human testing. Another important point is the economic factor. How as mentioned before “less time means less research cost�. It is a fact that the time is an important variable in all experimentations. While the test of a medicine in a human needs more time until achieving results, animal testing reduces the time needed for the development of the animal. This means that a mouse needs just two months to become an adult. And this is one of the most important benefits that animal testing presents when drugs are tested in order to evaluate their effects over humans.
On the other hand, the majority of people believe that animal testing is so cruel because animals suffer a lot during experiments, but this is one of the most common situations that people against do not know. Is ss a big mistake to think in that because there are laws in all the world regulated by some organisms who control animal experimentation. But this has a restriction because there is not an organism that defend animals in each part of the world. So, organisms regulate the treatment of the animals just in some parts and their laws are different in each part. One example of that is China, while the use of animals to test cosmetic products in some parts of the world are banned, in China, it is mandatory to test cosmetic products in animals before launching these products to the market. While it is true that the majority of experiments are cruel. All these experiments have been an important contribution for the medicine and they have helped to save many lives. And the importance of highlighting this fact is the impact that these organizations and groups have done over research community. Expanding notions explored in the last idea, many experiments applicated in animals have contributed with the development of cures of many diseases. The reason is that humans and animals have similar organs, tissues and many illnesses. So, that have had an important impact in medicine since a century ago. For that reason, according to a journal of Nature, ”90% of respondents agreed that the use of animals in research is essential” (Cressey, 2011). Moreover, Kristina Cook, Chemistry/Biochemistry at Oxford University, argues that,” Without research involving animal testing we would not have insulin to treat diabetes. We would not have antibiotics for infections, vaccines to prevent disease and surgeries to treat the injured” (2006). In short, this means that animal testing represents an important variable in medicine research, but the pressure of many activists or groups against animal testing have prompted fear in scientists by some physical attacks of activists. Events that have delayed the develop of researches. Considering that the
time has shown
the
past of the
human
experimentation and how it has affected many people, it is really hard to think about new attempts for human testing, but Zernhouni has a different perspective. Zernhouni says, “Animal testing has not worked, and it is time we stop dancing around the problem…” (2015). Having said that, he mentions that new
technologies have come to change the panorama. It is necessary to develop new methodologies to allow continuation on human testing. Even the cost that they mean, experimentation on human subjects is essential to scientific progress. The contributions recollected from human experimentation have been used for improving the life conditions. As well as, the history has shown the bad side of human experimentation, it showed how these experiments have contributed with the development of new cures or medicine for save many lives. Taking into account the cost that human testing represented against animal testing, just focusing on their metabolism, it represents a high difference taking into account the time. In an experiment with mice, results can find in a less period of time because their metabolism is quicker than a human metabolism. This means fewer costs and results in less time. Tom Holder argues that “It would not make scientific sense to use humans as a replacement for animals� (2015). Animal testing is a quickly way to obtain results and an easy way to practice many experiments
with a low cost. Many
stories have
shown that human
experimentation should not be allowed. The second world war is an example of that. During 1939 to 1945 many research were practiced in humans and it resulted in the death of many people. In conclusion, the relevance of animal testing over the development of science makes that experimentation in animals cannot be banned. Since their beginnings, a century before animal testing has showed that it has contributed with the development of many cures and also it will continue to be necessary in the development of the treatment for Parkinson and to find a cure for cancer. For those reasons, I truly believe that animal testing should not be stopped. Animal testing is necessary and it cannot be replaced by human experimentation for the disadvantages mentioned before. So, human experimentation does not have another viable alternative as animal testing.
References: Animal Testing - ProCon.org. (2016, May 24). Retrieved December 01, 2016, from http://animal-testing.procon.org/ Cook, K. (2006, April 04). Stand Up for Science. Retrieved December 01, 2016, from http://www.pro-test.org.uk/2006/04/why-animal-research-is-importantand.html Cressey, D. (2011, February 23). Animal research: Battle scars. Animal Research: Battle Scars, 02(02). Retrieved from http://www.nature.com/news/2011/110223/full/470452a.html Murnaghan, I. (2016, June 2). Allegations of Abuse in Animal Testing. Retrieved December 05, 2016, from http://www.aboutanimaltesting.co.uk/allegations abuse-related-animal-testing.html
Thank you for reading my Portfolio! I hope you enjoyed reading
Sincerely, David Revelo