MY ENGLISH JOURNEY
JOSEPH COBO YACHAY TECH UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM
YACHAY, ECUADOR 2016
ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM YACHAY TECH LEVEL 6-007 TEACHER: MATTHEW MACKEY
JANUARY 9 URCUQUI-ECUADOR
BY JOSEPH COBO
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PORTFOLIO LETTER
PROPOSAL ESSAY
RESPONSE ESSAY
INTERPRETATION ESSAY
FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT
PORTFOLIO LETTER
Joseph Cobo Universidad Yachay Tech Imbabura, Ecuador.
January, 9, 2017
Dear portfolio Reader:
Thank you for Reading my English language portfolio. It is the collection of my best work at 6 level of English language program at Yachay Tech University. My portfolio consists of four essays and they show my abilities and development as an English language learner.
As a student, I think level six has been a little bit difficult but it helped me to improve and develop many skills and capabilities to share all my ideas, opinions and thoughts with English speakers. I have faced many mistakes as English learner but now those mistakes are my improvements. For example, I struggled with the pronunciation and accent of unknown words. Now, I can pronounce most of words that I use in the correct way. Also, I struggle with the meaning of many phrasal verbs, now I know most of them.
One can see my growth in many aspects of my work at level six. For example: my portfolio shows three of my essays and my research paper. They show my organization to write and express my ideas. In addition, they show my capability to write and propose thesis and topic sentences and
how develop them in the body of my essays. Also, they show how I can give concrete examples to support thesis and topic sentences.
Furthermore, I personally think that other of my improvements is the fluency when I am speaking. Now I can speak and transmit what I want to say in a more fluid way. And, I use different words, they were unknown for me before level 6, for a better understanding. It is important to say that all my improvements come from oral expositions, writing essays at home and in class, debates in class, writing power point presentations and the relationship between teacher and students. All of this helped me to solve doubts, correct mistakes and acquire trust in myself to speak English properly. Additionally, I could improve my English by lab classes. Lab classes are not grammar or writing classes but interactive classes. Interactive classes are classes when students can interact with others and learning in other way for example: listening to music, watching films, playing games and doing extra activities. All of this makes students be interested on learning by funny methodologies.
INTERPRETATION ESSAY
Alejandro Freire, Joseph Cobo, Daniel Lituma, Alanis Chicaiza. English L6-007 Matthew Craing November 18, 2016
Interpretation essay of a painting “Mother and Child” by Oswaldo Guayasamin. Art is not what you see, but what is possible. Oswaldo Guayasamin is a famous Ecuadorian painter who was totally involved in art. His painting is basically the fervent desire of a populance looking for its freedom, looking for the full expression of being human. One of Guayasamin’s paintings that highlights the nature of the human being is called “Mother and Child” created in 1942. This painting is about a person holding a child but it shows more than we can see. The painting “Mother and Child” by Oswaldo Guayasamin show us the protective nature of a mother towards her innocent and delicate son, expressing humanity´s great need to take care of each other (Lassaigne, 1977). On leaving the National School of Fine Art in Quito, where Guayasamin worked on painting and sculpture for seven years, he was acquiring much skill to improve his works. Since his youth he wanted to tell us of the drama and mystery which has found trying put us in favour of mankind, because he believes in our infinitive tenderness. Guayasamin had in his hands the means of expressing the emotion which disturbed him and later the claims to encourage him. These means, which he acquired so patiently for represent, progress and facility to complete his works. His works are based on his feelings and wishes with the objective to transmit his mood and know the interpretation
of the people about him. Love and faith are the elemental pieces for representing the Man who was Guayasamin. The picture “Mother and Child” has black and white colors (dark colors), and represent a darken tone. This colors calls the attention of the people, and cause the first impression that the author wants to get, that is transmit sadness. The picture was probably tried to do with straight lines and curves not so pronounced to get achieve a simplicities, and a beautiful when the picture is completed. The presence and position of shadows told us that probably the Mother and Child is under light sun or spot light. These external evidence is the things that are superficial, and principally abstracts that try to not have or express feeling yet. The painting “Mother and child” shows a boy in the womb surrounded by a hug. In the painting the mother is hugging her son but in a specific way. The mother’s hands are around the head and heart of the boy. It could be interpreted like one hand is around the head of the child because the mother is protecting him and the other hand is around the chest and heart because a mother never wants to separate of her son. The position of the child is like a baby inside of the mother’s belly. In addition, the gaze of the mother and child are in different ways. It could be interpreted like the experience of the child never will be compared with the experience of a mother. Furthermore, the painting shows different face expressions between the mother and child. For example, the face expression of the mother can be seen like disposition and courage that a mother has when she protects her son. Also, her gaze is a long fixed look which can be represented as the perspective of the mother about life. In the other hand, the gaze of the child is an innocent and inoffensive look which can be interpreted as the naivety, simplicity and weakness of a child in the world but in this case he is protected and saved by his mother.
In conclusion, it’s beautiful that we can observe in this painting the protective nature that exist in a delicate being like a mother to her child, and to him achieve something huge in the world good or bad. Furthermore, the painting transmits the tenderness and love that exist in a mother to his child after giving birth and after her death, showing the limits of our humanity. Besides, this painting looks to highlight the most authentic of human relations, those who identify us as human beings and take us to get great achieves, that’s the strong link that exist between a mother and her child. This feeling of protection that shows the painting of Guayasamin, is born due to every person has a maternal figure. But, as the mother´s stare shows in the picture, it is really hard for a woman to become a mother, due to it beholds too many sacrifices, one of them is the fear to fail, because nobody is born ready to raise a child. However, the painting teaches us that even with the empty and concerned stare of the mother, the expression of humanity that shows from the love she feels for his son is much bigger. In both, the care of a mother is important due to in the moment of birth the human is vulnerable to any type of external agent and needs the care of a person that is his mother, to next when the son has enough force he can take care of her.
REFERENCES:
Lassaigne, J. (1977). Guayasamin. Nauta Editions. Recovered el 15 de 11 de 2016
LITERACY ANALISIS
How does the setting help us understand the ending of story? Joseph Cobo Espinosa Yachay Tech University Thursday October 13, 2016
Why don’t you dance? Is a story written by Raymond Carver. This story talks about a man who started a yard sale of his house. He had decided out the closets, and all the stuff was out of home. Also, he had run an extension card on out and everything connected. Things worked, so different from how it was when they were inside (Carver). People started his yard sale but no one stopped. Then a boy and a girl who were furnishing a little apartment stopped in the yard sale because they were interested in a bed. When they stopped in the sale yard nobody’s in home and they started all things in that yard sale. The boy and the girl were interested in something while they were in the yard sale. Them, the man who started the yard sale came out the side walk with a sack from market. He has sandwiches, beer and whiskey. The man started to talk with the boy and the girl started to offer money for the bed. The boy and the girl continued offering money for several things while the man was drinking beer and whiskey. Them, the man offered them whiskey, they started to drink with him. At the ending the man decided to say them why don’t you dance? And then they started to dance while the man was playing records for them. Thus, the setting of the story provides a sight to understand the ending of the story. The man who started the yard sale remind someone. According to Raymond Carver in his history “Why don’t you dance? The narrator of the story started to describe a nightstand and reading lamp referring to a woman he said “nightstand and reading lamp on his side of the bed, nightstand and reading lamp on her side”. Then the man started to put all stuff out in a yard sale. This could mean the man wanted to start a new life and he want to sell everything which reminded him of something about his past. Moreover, in the context of the story the narrator talks about a yellow muslin doth which is observed for the girl when the boy and girl who were furnishing a little apartment stopped in the yard sale. So the man wanted to restart his life.
The man does not care about how much the boy and girl offered for things in the yard sale. In context of the story the boy and girl offered ten dollars less when they ask for something. When the boy and girl offered ten dollars less the man say ok he did not care about the price, merely said “ok”. Also, the man offered the boy and girl whiskey while they were starring the stuff. The man was enjoying their company drinking whiskey even though they were in a yard sale. The man wanted to sell everything for any reasons. When the boy and girl were in the yard sale the man said “everything goes”. It could mean the man did not want anything of that in his home even though he likes something like the play record. He said the boy and girl the play record was too cheap and he wanted on offer for it; he turned off the TV and played a record, then he said them why don’t you dance? And they danced while he was respecting the record was over. It could mean that play record and the records remind the man some memories. In conclusion, the man was in despair or sad because he wanted a new life. He did not want any memory about his past. Also, when he was in the yard sale with the boy and girl he wanted to enjoy the last time with his things which formed part of his past. Especially, the play record and the records because when played a record he said the boy and the girl that he wanted to them to dance and it was important for him. So the man wanted to regret something or someone and found the way to do it.
RESPONSE ESSAY
1 LANGUAGE PROVIDES US ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE
LANGUAGE PROVIDES US ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE
YACHAY TECH UNIVERSITY Joseph Cobo September 30, 2016 Urcuquí – Ecuador
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“A different language is a different vision of life� Federico Fellini
Language is a specific and complex system of communication, it is a physical and biologically innate form of communication. Everyone has the ability to exchange or share thoughts, ideas, feelings, points of view, opinions, wishes, beliefs, knowledge, etc. by using a language. Also, language can be defined as the capacity to exchange verbal or symbolic utterances. All human beings can communicate each other using two forms of communication: verbal communication and no verbal communication. Verbal communication involves oral and written communication. In the other hand, no verbal communication involves visual communication, eye contact, facial expressions, body gestures and sounds. However, every form of communication is related with a language. Furthermore, exists three types of language: informative language, persuasion language and directive language. It is important to say each language has a specific accent and certain structure which is composed of semantics, sounds, symbols and grammar. All of these allow a person communicate with others in a correct way. Thus, different languages have different structures to refer to something. This fact is really important because people with different languages think about in different ways. Lera Boroditsky claims another language shapes the way we think because language affects the way we see the world. Therefore, we should all learn another language because learning a new language provides us another perspective.
Lera Boroditsky in her article How does our language shape the way we think? (2016), shows several differences in languages. Her article talks about how people who speak different languages do not have the same perception of things. For example, she compared how people describe time and space in different places around the world. One of the results was English
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speakers talk about using horizontal spatial metaphors whereas Mandarin speakers use vertical metaphors for time. Another result was English speakers talk about duration in term of length while Spanish and Greek use terms of amount for time. She wonders if it is language itself that creates that different perception of things and not other aspect like culture. Mainly, she did an experiment in a lab to argue this fact. This experiment consisted in English speakers learned different ways of talking about time. For instance, English speakers were taught to use size metaphors to describe duration or vertical metaphor to describe event order. Once English speakers had learned to talk about time in these ways, their cognitive performance began to resemble that of Greek or Mandarin speakers. This fact suggests that patterns in language affects how people think. With this in mind, Sara B. argues when people are learning another language, they are not simply learning a new way of talking, they are also learning a new way of thinking.
Learning another language affects our vision of things. People can have different points of view about something if they learn other language because two languages describe things in different ways. It means people around the world have different visions about things even though the meaning of things is not altering in different languages. Lera Boroditsky in her article How does our language shape the way we think?, says that people of different countries describes things with different perspective. For example, people in a small aboriginal community on the western edge of Cape York, in northern Australia, talk about space differently of English speakers do. That people instead of words “right”, “left”, “forward” and “back” use cardinal- direction terms “north”, “south”, “east” and “west” (Borodistky, 2016). It provides another perspective to understand them when they are talking about. For instance, in English when people refer to past and future they can use “back” and “forward”, like moving forward or going back to, but if they use cardinal-direction terms like people in Australia it
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does not make sense for English speakers. Moreover, another aspect which affect the vision of things is the gender. For instance, in Spanish nouns are either masculine and feminine. In many other languages nouns are divided into many more genders. Grammatical gender for a language means different pronouns, verb endings, numerals, possessives and so on, depending on the noun´s gender. So, the perspective of things depends on gender. For example, chairs as masculine and bed as feminine in the grammar make Russian speakers think of chairs as being more like men and beds as more like women. Another example is the description of a key in German and Spanish. These two languages have the opposite gender to describe the word key. German speakers think about key like masculine, and their description was words such as hard, heavy, metal, useful serrated. Whereas Spanish speakers think about key like feminine, and they described it with words such as beautiful, elegant, fragile, peaceful and pretty (Boroditsky, 2016). Thus, gender meddles in a language to change the perception of things.
Learning a new language need a different reasoning. According to Lera B. in her article How does our language shape the way we think?, people who speak different languages describes things in different ways. For instance, people with different languages refer to something or describe an idea or fact with different words, information, details or opinions but expressing the same meaning. Lera B. in her article shows that Russian, Indonesian, Turkish and English people say a fact with different reasoning. The fact is “Bush read Chomky`s latest book”, in English people have to mark the verb for tense, Indonesian people alter the verb to mark tense, Russian people have to alter the verb to indicate tense and gender, Turkish people have to include how they acquire that information. All these different ways to express the same fact allow people reasoning in different ways because a specific language requires a specific description innate of that language to communicate with others properly. Thus, the description of things in a certain language depends of how people who use that language see things. In
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addition, Lera B. provides another example like a test which compare Russian and English speaker`s ability to discriminate shades of blue. The result was in Russian there is no single word that covers all the color that English speakers call blue. Russian make a distinction between light blue and dark blue. So, Russian people can describe the light or dark blue depending of what cognition they have about these two shades of color blue.
In conclusion, all languages have a lot of ways to talk about properly. They have a lot of rules, words, nouns, adjectives, subjects, and so on, but people depend on how they think about, to use language utterances to express what they want to say or what they want to communicate. In addition, different languages provide different ways of seeing things because language utterances affect the way people refer to something. It can change their mind to have another vision of things. Consequently, people can get another perspective about everything which surrounds them because language affects the way people see the world.
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REFERENCES
Borodistky L., (2016, September 2). How does language shape the way we think? Edge. https://www.edge.org/conversation/how-does-our-language-shape-the-waywe-think
FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT
EDUCATION, ECONOMY AND PROGRESS IN ECUADOR
The relationship between: Experimental and Technological Education, and Economy and Progress in Ecuador. Joseph Cobo Technological and Experimental University Yachay Tech
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Abstract Experimental and technological education is a model of learning which describes peculiar and innovative methodologies of augmenting knowledge. These methodologies are based on learning through experience and technology use. In addition, experimental and technological education provides a technical knowledge focused on innovation, solving problems, creation of new goods and services. Significantly, knowledge from experimental and technological education might be applied and implemented in all existing fields for many purposes. This article argues that knowledge from experimental and technological is a very important resource in small countries. The application and implementation of this knowledge help small countries to go forward improving its economy and develop its progress.
Keywords: Experimental, technological, innovation, economy, progress.
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The relationship between: Experimental and Technological Education, and Economy and Progress in Ecuador. “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world” Nelson Mandela.
The main purpose of this paper is to show how a country goes forward by knowledge from experimental and technological education. Knowledge is the acquaintance of information and skills through experience and education. Education allows the diffusion and transmission of knowledge needed to understand and process information. Further, knowledge generates important tangible and intangible values. It is important to say that knowledge is applied to the implementation of new technologies that try to solve problems, improve people’s life and achieve new information. According to Ilhan Ozturk in his article “The role of education in economic development: a theorical perspective” (2001), the application of science and knowledge to the development of new goods has produced a good change in the economy, education system and technology in the 21st century. Thus, knowledge is a contributor to technological capability and technical change. Also, the knowledge from a good education system or from an education focused on strategic visions like experimental and technological visions increase the innovative and creative capacity. This capacity can be applied on every field in a country. So, knowledge is an important source which can change many aspects in a country like economy, progress and development. Any country might use this source to go forward and develop itself. With this in mind, knowledge from experimental and technological education can change the development of Ecuador by improving the economy and promoting progress.
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First of all, the application of knowledge from experimental and technological education to innovation improves the economy in a country. According to (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 1996); it is not a new idea that knowledge plays an important role in the economy. The investments on knowledge can increase the productive capacity and create new products and processes. With this in mind, Ecuadorian people can apply this knowledge to innovations in different fields. For example, Ecuadorian people can innovate in medicine. People in Ecuador use alternative medicine to treat illnesses. Alternative medicines mean medicines which have not been synthetized in laboratories, for example plant and herbs, and processes with them as beverages or ointments. It is important to say, alternative medicine is used to get better and it comes from of ancestors who have adopted it through experience. Thus, knowledge from experimental education can be applied in alternative medicine to study its characteristics, properties and compounds. After that, knowledge can be used to synthetize the compound related with the treatment of illnesses. This fact can be considered an innovation because alternative medicine does not have secondary effects due to absence of chemical compounds. In the same way, people can use these compounds in medical processes with the objective of take less time in treatments. So, Ecuador might produce medicines without harmful side effects and export it to other countries. In the other hand, knowledge from experimental and technological education can be applied to technology innovation. Everyone is surrounded by technology. It means everyone buys and great percent of them sell technology. Technology is the collection of knowledge, skills and methods in the creation of new goods and services. Also, technology is related with innovation because innovation is the use of imagination and creativity to do new things or improve them. Innovation has only one vision that is solving problems in people’s life. In addition, technology has been implemented as a tool to improve our lives. It is
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important to say that the implementation of technology comes from people needs and its objective is to solve those needs. In particular, technology innovation produces a technological change. It raises the relative marginal productivity of capital through education and training of the labour force, investments in research and development and the creation of new managerial structures and work organization (OECD, 1996). So, technology innovations can be applied on services, raw materials, machinery, tools and so on. And it is applied in all existing fields. Thus, technology can be implemented and applied in specific fields in Ecuador. For example, technology innovation can be implemented in oil exploiting. It means technology innovation can be applied to the machinery which is use to dig out the oil. This fact would increase the effectiveness and efficiency in the extracting oil process. In the same way, technology innovation might be applied to banana cultivation, flower growth, shrimp fishing and other important exploiting resources in Ecuador. Thus, the earnings rate would increase. Furthermore, knowledge from experimental and technological education in universities promote the progress in a country. Knowledge from tertiary education supports the development of basic science, the domestic adaptation and development of technologies (Ozturk, 2001). The most important outcome of the experimental and technological education is a technical knowledge. It can be applied to solve big problems in different fields. For example, the technical knowledge can be applied in services and emergency attention. The health service in Ecuador is not efficient, this is a big problem inside the country. This fact can be seen in the time we wait for attention in hospitals or in the appointments with doctors. Many programs and systems might solve this problem. For instance, technical knowledge can be used in the creation of a data base applied to the health attention. This data base might allow people schedule the date and the time available for them to get an appointment with a doctor. Moreover, the application of the
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technical knowledge in Ecuador might change and improve the emergency attention. For example, knowledge from technological education may be implemented to the development of a fast system which alert the police of an emergency. This system could be a software which do not need internet to work. In the same way, technical knowledge might be applied to firemen system. I think instead of a calling the people should use an app to send a signal with just one touch; firemen should receive the emergency signal with the address of the place in emergency. It also would be possible with a software without internet to work, and the firemen would take less time to know where they need to go. All of this would help to the progress of a country because everyone would have less difficulty being attended to, and a country would protect their population in a better way. Moreover, knowledge from experimental and technological education increase working performance. According to George Leef in the article “Don`t Buy The Hype, Colleague Education Is Not An Investment� (2016), a degree is a competitive advantage in landing a job but success always depends on personal performance rather than education pedigree. The knowledge from experimental and technological education provides enough information about how things are made or how they are working. So, people can use everything which is surrounding them in the best way. It means people can apply experimental and technological knowledge at work. For instance, people might know how machines are working in factories, how to solve problems at work or how optimize time in production of goods or services. For example, Ecuadorian people at factories would be able to get the maximum use with the machines. In addition, Ecuadorian people would be able to solve technical problems like the modification of programs to enroll children at schools and high schools. Moreover, people would be more efficient using systems in many important entities like ANT (Agencia Nacional de
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Tránsito) and SRI (Servicios de Rentas Internas) because employers would know exactly how systems and programs are working. A basic experimental and technological knowledge gives people these competitive capabilities. Hence, people with these capabilities have a better working performance and a country can improve its effectiveness in attention and production. Some people think the experimental and technological education cannot change the economy and the progress in small countries because small countries do not have the enough money and resources to invest in technology and make innovations. Similar to Lino Briguglio in the article “Small Island developing states and their economic vulnerabilities”, small countries face special disadvantages associated with small size, insularity, remoteness and proneness to natural disasters. These factors render the economies of these states very vulnerable to forces outside their control. In the same way, according to Paul Streeten in the article “he special problems of small countries” (1993), small economies by their very nature tend to be less diversified and to have relatively high foreign trade risks. In addition, small countries do not have great resources to exploit them or to research on them. Also, small countries do not have a lot money to do these investments compared with big countries. However, any country can invest in experimental and technological education. It is important to say small countries cannot invest like big countries but in a smaller percent. In addition, every country has innate resources and specific raw materials. So, small or big countries can apply knowledge from experimental and technological education in what a country has with the purpose of trying to get good outcomes and benefits. Also, small countries have done amazing contributions to other countries. It can be seen in the exportations of products. Moreover, small countries can focus in what it has for example in its innate resources or its raw material. So, the application of technical knowledge in research and exploitation that things a small country can do innovations, improve its economy,
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get benefits or create new goods. All of this allows a country get a better development and improve its progress. In conclusion, knowledge from experimental and technological education change important characteristics and aspects in a country. According to Hanushek E. & Woßmann L. in their article “Education and Economic Growth” (2010), extensive evidence on knowledge development and cognitive skills indicates a variety of factors have direct and powerful influence. So, knowledge from technological and experimental education can be one of the most important resources to get effectiveness in production and services in a country. Significantly, countries go forward with the application of knowledge from experimental and technological education. Hence, countries can develop its progress and improve its economy by the implementation of technological and experimental education.
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References Briguglio L. (1995). Small island developing states and their economic vulnerabilities. Elsevier. (Vol. 23, pp. 1615-1632) doi:10.1016/0305-750X(95)00065-K Hanushek E., & WoĂ&#x;mann L. (2010). Education and Economic Growth. In Encyclopedia International Encyclopedia of Education. (Vol. 2, pp. 245-252). Oxford: Elsevier Retrieve from: http://hanushek.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/Hanushek%2BWoessmann% 202010%20IntEncEduc%202.pdf Leef G. (2013). Don’t Buy The Hype, Collegue Education Is No An Investment System. Forbes. Retrieve from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/06/12/dontbuythehypecollegeeducationisnotan investment Ozturk I., (2001). The role of education in economic development: a theoretical perspective. Journal of Rural Development and Administration (vol. 33, pp. 39-47). Retrieve from: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/9023/1/MPRA_paper_9023.pdf Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (1996). The Knowledge-Based Economy: Trends and Implications. Paris: Andre Pascal. Retrieve from: https://www.oecd.org/sti/sci-tech/1913021.pdf Streeten P. (1993). The special problems of small countries. Elsevier. (Vol. 21, pp. 197-202) doi:10.1016/0305-750X(93)90014-Z
TANK YOU FOR READING MY PORTFOLIO
SINCERELY,
JOSEPH COBO