Portfolio Letter Response Essay Literary Analysis Essay Argumentation Essay Final Research Project Essay Additional materials Thank you Letter
Fernanda Romero Yachay Tech University, UrcuquĂ January 11, 2017
Dear Portfolio Reader:
My name is Fernanda Romero. I am Spanish native speaker, and currently, I am finishing the English Program at Yachay Tech. It gives me great pleasure to present my English Language Portfolio. It is a compilation of my best work in this semester that includes three essays and the research project. I am very enthusiastic to finish my preparation in English Program and start with my career in English language. For me, it is great to reach the English level that allows me to apply it on what I like to do the most, study chemistry. Throughout this semester, I have felt that I improved my English significantly, and that makes me very happy. Writing and speaking were the most difficult skills for me, but, I can feel the improvement significantly. During the semester we wrote a lot of different types of essays. Sometimes maybe I felt stressed because of the time spent to do all the writing assignments, but actually it helped me a lot to improve it for my future. As a Yachay student, writing is one of the most important things that we must to learn because, in science, you must to write a lot of papers and describe what happens in a laboratory, for example. Another useful activity was the warm-up in order to improve my speaking skill. Every day we had to express ourselves under different situations without much time to think about or plan what we will say. At the beginning, I hated this activity because I am a very shy person, and talking in front of people is so difficult. Finally,
to organize better my schedule is another of the most important improvements. That will be very important for the next years during my career. Some activities that I hated but were useful are presentations, in-class essays, and group work assignments. Presentations made me to plan my ideas and how to express them. The most challenging part was the control of nervousness, but now presenting and talking to the public became easier. On the other hand, in-class essays were like a little torture. If I could change or delete any assignment of this semester, I would like to delete in-class essays. However, I have to recognize that it helps me a lot because our in-class essays were based on only one source, and it is necessary to understand the source completely to do it well. It was a very good challenge for me. Maybe I thought that some activities did not help me but now I realize that I have improved these skills, and every day my English is better. I will put all my effort to continue the improvements in English after the final of the English Program. Now, I feel prepared to receive my career in English, and I hope someday I speak, and also write, in English like a native speaker. Finally, I hope you enjoy reading my portfolio, and thank you again for reading it.
Sincerely,
Fernanda Romero.
Running Head: FORMAL EDUCATION’S COMPLEMENT
Self-education could be an Important Complement in Formal Education Fernanda Romero Level 6 – 002 Yachay Tech University October 2, 2016
FORMAL EDUCATION’S COMPLEMENT Self-education could be an Important Complement in Formal Education Students may think that self-education is not an important complement of their educational system because they do not know all its advantages. Self-education is a method which you learn by your own sources, such as reading books, searching interesting topics on Internet, or investigating things for yourself. The main point of self-education is that you do not need someone teaching you anything. On the other hand, formal education is based on going to university or institute to attend classes, complete the homework that professors give you, and finally, have a degree. The text “Why Self-Educated Learners Often Come up Short”, written by Scott H. Young (2010) maintained a deep discussion comparing formal education with selfeducation where he mentioned that self-learners have to face more troubles during the learning process than a formal educated people. Therefore, self-education may be considered the best complement of formal education because self-learners lack two main aspects: deep knowledge with practice, and the discipline to establish a continuous learning process. One of the most important characteristics of any learning process is how much deep knowledge it covers. But, what is deep knowledge exactly? It could be how much content a student found on his sources, or how much practice the student did. Therefore, deep knowledge has different meanings, and covers different aspects. On one hand, self-education could involve deep knowledge easily. On the other hand, formal education means more than reading books and searching information; it is more efficient and reliable. The students’ experiences are based on working in projects, writing reports, applying their theory classes in labs, etc. In addition, as Young (2010) mentioned “The problem is when one tries to replace self-education for more formal training.” And then, people start thinking about self-education cannot replace formal education -that is correct-, and also, formal education is not sufficient if a student want to be the best –that is correct, too. Both are important points in the student’s life. Therefore, the
FORMAL EDUCATION’S COMPLEMENT combination of them is the best way to improve your knowledge deeply and experimentally. Just as the text commented “you also need deeper knowledge of the technical details of the field”. (Young, 2010) So, self-education gives the student the deep knowledge, and formal education gives the student the experience, and then, the education will consider reliable and complete. It is important to consider that self-education does not always involves deep knowledge. This is the point that Young (2010) mentions with the example of the T model. On the top, there were some subjects that you have a basic idea and know the main concepts. And, on the narrow stem, there were the skills that you know deeply, such as details and complicated skills. I agree with this idea because it happens in real life –at school, for example. Students acquire a lot of things that maybe they will use once in our lives (this is the basic information), and then, the information that we learn during our career is the specific skills that they are experts (this is deep knowledge). So, a student could face two situations during his career. He could feel comfortable with the classes, and that is enough for him. Or he could be a non-conformist student that usually goes home and looks into more knowledge reading books or surfing on Internet. The second situation is the great example of a self-learner with his university training. Another important thing about the learning process is how that method is consistent, in other words, how much discipline has the students during their educational method. For example, what will happen with the self-learner over time? Probably, the student will feel full of energy to be a self-educated person during the first months. Through the days, the student will pay attention at other things, and self-education disappears gradually, and not completely, but the most part of that. So, avoid that it happens, the student needs enough attitude and the necessary discipline; and also, time to dedicate himself to continue studying. However, going to the university makes a schedule for your life. The student will know when he must study, or when he had free-time to dedicate himself to his hobbies. In other words, when students are learning, even if they are
FORMAL EDUCATION’S COMPLEMENT university students, sometimes they feel tired and stressed, and they do not want to do anything, just relax themselves. After that, the students at least do the homework easily or study a little, because they know that is their obligation because they chose this learning process. So, the educational method gives you the possibility to organize yourself in different ways. The important thing about discipline is that you educate yourself to do or not the things. Normally, formal education is the best method to reach discipline which is more difficult to reach during self-education. The issues of self-education could be solving with both parts, self-education and formal training. Self-learner always wants more information, and a university student have the experiences, so the mix of both are amazing for a student. Additionally, it is correct to think that self-education has had more troubles than university learning method. Two clear examples – discipline and lack of experiences- are important problems that a self-educated person have to face, but it does not mean that self-education is worse, or even formal education is the best option to learn. Students need to establish a learning process based on both to reach deep knowledge and feel satisfied with their career. “In either case, whether you pursue university doggedly or abhor it, you’ll need to spend a lot of time teaching yourself if you want to become really good at something.” (Young, 2010)
FORMAL EDUCATION’S COMPLEMENT References Young, S. (2010, February). Why self-educated learners often come up short [Blog]. Retrieved from https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2010/02/24/self-education-failings/
Running Head: ARABY
Literary Analysis of Araby Fernanda Romero Level 6 – 002 Yachay Tech University October 13, 2016
ARABY Literary Analysis of Araby “Araby”, by James Joyce is a story about a little boy that is fell in love with a girl but they have never talked before. The story has three main scenes. First, it begins describing the place, then, how they met for the first time, and finally how this meeting changed the thoughts of the boy. Throughout the story, the reader can notice that it involves some aspects that may have a religious meaning. First, the author starts the story by describing the place near the house and he told that the farmer tenant died in one of the rooms. The boy told how he saw the sister of his friend when she called her brother to drink tea. He described how their emotions were shake. In the boy’s words “If I spoke to her, how I could tell her of my confused adoration” (Joyce, 1914). Again, the boy related religious terms with the love and that means that the love that he felt probably was not a normal kind of love. Then, the protagonist told how he met his love for the first time and how weird was it. The girl told him how much she wanted to go to the “Araby” bazaar, but she could not go because she there would be a retreat in her convent (Joyce, 1914). So, again the writer uses religious terms that makes the story with double thoughts. In the story, the boy said that if he goes to the bazaar, he will bring her something (Joyce, 1914), and here the reader could realize that the protagonist represents the follower and the girl represents the adoration. Finally, the third scene of the story told how the boy convinced his uncle to go to the bazaar. He wanted to go so much, nut the things did not happen well. The uncle forgot it and the boy went alone to the bazaar. Then, he cannot buy something because almost all of the sites were closed. He was sad and he stopped hear the stalls and heard a woman talking with two gentlemen. Then, the protagonist realized that he was a person “driven and derided by vanity” (Joyce, 1914).
ARABY That means, in my point of view, that the boy that seriously he adored the girl, but he did not love her. In conclusion, the story is about a kind of love that might was confused with religious adoration. The boy is the follower and the girls who he admired was the Virgin Mary. When the boy wanted to buy something in the bazaar seems when the followers want to reach the offerings that religion establishes. And finally, the boy realizes that he was confusing his love with simple adoration.
ARABY References Joyce, J. (1914). Araby. Dubliners.
Running Head: ETHICS, MORALITY AND CULTURE
Ethics, Morality and Culture Fernanda Romero Level 6 – 002 Yachay Tech University November 22, 2016
ETHICS, MORALITY AND CULTURE Ethics, Morality and Culture Does language any effect in the way to think or even to live when we are under a moral situation? Morality is a personal characteristic that reflects the good and the bad side of your mind. When you have a difficult situation, you have the choice to do something in your benefit or just follow the rules, for example. So, is the something that can affect our morality? Well, some studies affirm that yes, there is something and the discussion carries us to think about the language, or even the culture. Both might affect morality, but culture has the greater impact on moral situations. The main reason is because there are some cultures with habits that seem normal and common while, in other countries, maybe that could be unethical and immoral. Animal protection could be a great example. In USA and European Union, for example, people commonly consider that animals have rights, even if some people love or not animals. People see the abuse of animals (dogs principally) or massive haunter like something immoral. But, there are some countries like China or Japan (and most the Oriental countries) where people do not care about animal protection, and they have not thought that the massive hunt of animal is something bad and unethical. In the opposite, Sedivy (2016) affirms that the language is the principal cause of morality. She mentioned some experiments those show how the brain acts morally depending on the language that the person is using. The principal reasons are that “such judgements involve two separate and competing modes of thinking –one of these, a quick, gut-level ‘feeling’ and the other, careful deliberation about the greatest good for the greatest number” (Sedivy, 2016). She emphasized that the native tongue make us more sensitive, and the foreign language make us more abstract and coreless.
ETHICS, MORALITY AND CULTURE However, that carries is to think that the moral depend on our language. So, maybe we could think about having two personalities, one reflecting our sensitive side and other reflecting our less care about some situation. That could be wrong because if this will happen, for example, we will have two separate classes of a scientists. As science is done in English (to make it international) there will be the English scientists doing the good things and acting moral, for example using animals in labs; and there will be the scientists that learnt English acting immoral and careless. But that is not the reality. The use of animals on labs is more something about the culture of the country because some of them have less care or pay more attention about that than other countries. In conclusion, it is not wrong to think about the language as a cause of the moral and ethical actions, but culture has more impact. Most the cases carry us to think about that the way to see it (like something moral or not) is depending on our environment, and also on our culture.
ETHICS, MORALITY AND CULTURE References Sedivy, J. (2016, September 14). Fascinating ethical shifts come with thinking in a different language. Retrieved from Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-morality-changes-in-a-foreign-language/
Running Head: ETHICS OF ANIMAL TESTING
Animal Testing and its Ethical Issues Jocelyn Fernanda Romero Herdoiza L6 – 002 Yachay Tech University December 6, 2016
ANIMAL TESTING AND ETHICS Abstract The use of animals in research has led many ethical issues since science has increased the necessity of investigating and knowing more about the human body. The purpose of this research is to identify the unethical issues involved in animal testing, and present one of the current possible solution, virtual simulators. The mentioned method is able to imitate some human organs or little animals, and scientists can use it instead of animals to test new drugs or painful experimentations (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [DFG], 2007). Nowadays, science cannot avoid the use of animals totally because the recent technology is not able to replace the entire body of animals or humans. Nevertheless, simulators could significantly reduce the excessive use of animals, and that is a relevant advance in the practice of a more ethical science. Keywords: ethics of science, animal testing, virtual simulators.
ANIMAL TESTING AND ETHICS Animal Testing and His Ethical Issues Scientists cannot explain what they are doing to animals in a laboratory. And if they could, what would they say? Animal testing is the current method used by scientist to do research, but it is considered one of the most important social issues because it goes against respect for all living things. That practice is based on the use of non-human animals in laboratory and development projects for different purposes to guarantee the safety of some substances whose effects are unknown in humans. (Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon, n.d.) Animal testing involves certain kind of suffering and different secondary effects on animals, some of them more painful than others. Scientists should consider if animal testing is so necessary when they do research using a very painful method. Thus, animal testing could be replaced with different methods that are as effective as animal testing, less painful, and more ethical. Many corporations and institutions have made protocols and codes in order to establish the ethical conduct using animals in laboratory. According to Resnik (2015), the general ethical protocol for scientist can be summarized in 29 codes that might seem apparent, but in some cases scientists do not realize they are disobeying some rules of the protocol. The most common include plagiarism, misrepresenting data, research misconduct, human subject’s non-protection, and also the abuse of animals. Moreover, Resnik (2015) pointed out two codes about animal care: “wasting animals in research” and “making significant deviations from the research protocol approved by your institution’s Animal Care and Use Committee or Institutional Review Board for Human Subjects Research without telling the committee or the board”. Both could be acknowledged unethical practices, or even illegal in some cases. In general, there are a lot of important reasons why is important to put more emphasis on ethical practices in research. But one representative is that every scientist has values, and his actions are the reflection of his
ANIMAL TESTING AND ETHICS values. These actions reflect the respect for science, and moreover, promote a better visualization of the researcher’s objectives. The point is that values are an important characteristic of any person, even for scientists. Hence, an ethical scientist would take every opportunity to avoid the suffering of animals. Nowadays, scientists could implement real simulators instead of animal testing in dangerous laboratory practices thanks to the current technology and virtual reality development. These simulators are important because they could replace the most painful practices, reducing significantly the number of species that are under free experimentation, and moreover it demonstrates animal respect. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation, [DFG]) is a foundation of German scientists that cares about the animal testing's major problems and give possible alternative solutions that consider the sensitivity of the animal. Also, the DFG are aware that experimentation on animals must be a prudent practice, and that is not only an ethical issue; it is necessary as a precondition for guarantee the quality of animal experiments. So, scientists should know how using different methods could work instead of animal testing implementation. These replacement methods are based on acquiring detailed knowledge in laboratory processes that usually are tested on animals. Nowadays, computer simulation is the developed option that can allow the scientist to do experiments using virtual reality. Then, when they are aware of the good behavior of the simulator, the experiment could be tested in animals only if there was necessity. That can reduce significantly the animal's suffering. And finally, if applicable, the necessary changes will be implemented so that the experiment works correctly in humans. (DFG, 2007) It is important to notice they are not radically against the animal testing; they consider that causal research is impossible without animal experiments, but the
ANIMAL TESTING AND ETHICS implementation of any complementary methods could improve significantly the respect of animal rights and reduce suffering. In the same way, many countries do not support animal testing because of its secondary effects. In consequence, they have created strict policies, and their compliance is serious. Festing and Wilkinson (2007) wrote a talking point about the use of animals during scientific research in the UK. In the authors' terms “animal experimentation is cruel and unnecessary, regardless of its purpose or benefit”. Therefore, UK declared that scientists have the permission to practice animal testing provided the animals are not suffering any kind of pain, moreover, “only within an ethical framework.” That framework refers to establish laws about animal protection on the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 based on the 3Rs (Reduction, Refinement and Replacement) respecting the animal rights. Nowadays, their current policies have had good results in terms of the animal protection. The 3Rs promotes high-quality of the research, and the principal aim is to replace as much as possible the use of animals in a laboratory by experimenting with the alternative techniques, such as human studies, in vitro or in silico studies. Nevertheless, the institution considers the realistic part: animal testing could not be replaced in every area of scientific research because the simulation of complex organisms is the biggest challenge (Festing & Wilkinson, 2007). That refers to animal testing has been impossible to substitute totally, but there will be a big change if scientists will implement little by little alternative methods. The current technology does not have the complete and wide field to simulate an entire human, but it could simulate different organs, and that is a sufficient and important advance to reduce the use of animals on laboratories. In spite of ethical issues about animal testing, nowadays many scientists are trying to justify it; one of the most common reasons is that they cannot avoid that practice. Science has
ANIMAL TESTING AND ETHICS always had the responsibility and the necessity to use animal in laboratories. Scientists need to look for cures to diseases that people suffer from, discover more effective drugs, or just test the actual ones to improve the science and prevent possible future diseases, and these things are difficult to do without testing on animals. Some examples like investigate the cancer disease or how will be the person’s reaction in the face of a new drug preventing high levels of cholesterol try to justify the use of animals in laboratories (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA], n.d.). That is to say, that using animals is inevitable, and that point is correct. Animal testing, as previously seen, is a practice that could not be replaced easily. The improvement of the medicine is not a good justification to practice animal testing and science could reduce the use of animals significantly. So, animal rights and respect could be a sufficient reason to reduce significantly the use of animals on laboratories. When scientist are testing on them, they suffer, developing anomalies and mutations, but they cannot just talk and express their suffering. In the article “The 'Necessity' Of Animal Research Does Not Mean It's Ethical” posted on the NPR (National Public Radio) web, Garner (2016) emphasized how scientist think about the good points of animal testing. Researchers state that medicine could not have been possible without the experimentation on animals. It means, if medical progress occurs testing on animals, human testing also should be important to do research, but no one scientist has the permission to test it on humans. So, here, the main point is why the strict limits of pain or suffering on human testing are most important than animal suffering. The usual justification is that animal suffering is not extreme, animals does not feel pain or harmful, or even that animals can afford that pain, and as the author mentioned “…the reality is that the level of protection afforded to research animals is far, far less than that afforded to human participants in research” (Garner, 2016).
ANIMAL TESTING AND ETHICS On the other hand, in the U.S., the practice of animal testing covers a couple of billion of dollars, and health care covers near to 3 trillion of dollars. Nonetheless, the U.S. is actually on the list of top 50 countries with worst expectancy of life. In addition, animal testing continues to increase every year. That probably means that the relation between health care and the testing on animals is irrelevant. The medicine does not depend only on animal tests. Moreover, health care could be better if society educate women, men and children to take care of their own health. Avoiding practices like smoking, consuming fatty and high level of cholesterol food are the main helpful actions that humans could consider. (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA], n.d.) So, science cannot blame animals and use it in laboratories because the health care in the majority of the cases depends on how the person is concerned with his self-care. Animals should have the same rights as humans. The respect of them depends only on every scientist, and how much important he consider this respect. It is important to notice that every animal test involves painful practices, anomalies or mutations, and they do not deserve this. It is evident that animal testing is necessary during research because there is not the current technology to replace it entirely, but it could be reduced a lot if scientists try and search for alternatives to animals' use. Animal testing should be avoided as much as possible because animals can feel everything, as humans. Animals do not have the right of suffering, and society cannot choose it in their place.
ANIMAL TESTING AND ETHICS References Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. (2007). Animal Experiments in Research. Retrieved 2016, from https://www.biochem.mpg.de/755332/dfg_tierversuche_engl.pdf Dictionary.com's 21st Century Lexicon. (n.d.). animal testing. Retrieved November 28, 2016, from http://www.dictionary.com/browse/animal-testing Festing, S., & Wilkinson, R. (2007, June 8). The ethics of animal research. Talking Point on the use of animals in scientific research. doi:10.1038/sj.embor.7400993 Garner, S. (2016, February 14). The 'Necessity' Of Animal Research Does Not Mean It's Ethical. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/02/14/464265210/the-necessityof-animal-research-does-not-mean-it-s-ethical People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. (n.d.). Experiments on Animals: Overview. Retrieved 2006, from http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-forexperimentation/animals-used-experimentation-factsheets/animal-experiments-overview/ Resnik, D. (2015, December 1). What is Ethics in Research & Why is it Important? Retrieved from http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/