My English Journey Marlon Gancino Yachay Tech University English Language Program Yachay, Ecuador
Credits My English Journey Marlon Gancino English Language Program Yachay Tech University Level 6-003 Teacher: Daniel Beal January 09, 2017 Urcuqui – Imbabura
Contents 1. Portfolio letter 2. Literary Analysis 3. Interpretation Essay 4. Argumentation essay 5. Final research project essay 6. Additional materials (pictures/videos/other works) 7. Thank you letter
WELCOME TO MY PORTFOLIO
Portfolio Letter Marlon Gancino San Miguel de Urcuquí, Hacienda San José s/n y Proyecto Yachay December 14th, 2016
Dear Portfolio Reader,
Once Ludwig Wittgenstein claimed: ❝The limits of my language are the limits of my world❞. This quote has been the main pillar in my learning because it means that all the limitation I could have depends directly of the capacity that I have to express my ideas to the people. As we already know, English is the business and scientist language and in order to be a successful person in my laboral life it is imperative for me to learn how to use English language correctly. Thus, it can say that so far, the Yachay Tech English program has taken away the main limitation in my current life. Until this moment, my improvements in the basis of this foreign language (speaking, listening, and writing) has been so amazing. However, to reach this advance it was necessary to work hard. In the whole final course of the English program I prepared more than 5 presentations, I wrote around 8 essays, and I have listening and viewing a lot of presentations and videos. All the works were necessary to cover and to repair the greater fails I had in my grammar and speaking. Now, I can say I am an expert in English grammar and I have more confidence and experience to give a presentation in English. In addition, I feel the responsibility to say to the new English students of 6th level several clues I could develop since my experience in the whole English program. One of those tips is being responsible and perseverant because this level is so exigent and it needs a lot of dedication to make it in a success way. Furthermore the new students need to practice
english and the way I achieve this was singing songs. In fact, one of the most significant experience that I could gather in this semester was the day when I dared to sing an English song in front of all my class, also to see movies in English and to generate conversations, this last ones in english too. However, the most important tool to success is to learn how to work in collaboratives groups. In fact, it is amazing what you can learn from your classmates when you interact with them. The things I expect now it is to continue learning. I still have several weakness that I need to turn on in strengths. I know that the pathway to learn will be easier from now because all the difficult stuff I have already learned in this semester. For this reason, I want to end this letter with another important quote claimed by Frank Smith â??One language sets you in a corridor for life. Two languages open every door along the way.â?ž In conclusion, learning another language takes away any limit and makes our life easier. Level 6 gives the tools that students need to develop their English learning. To take advantage of this course student must be responsible and learn how to collaborate in work groups. Life consists in a continuous learning in order to be better every day.
Thank you,
Marlon Gancino
Literary Analysis
Interpretation Essay
“ The Lovers II � Interpretation Essay Martha Galarraga, Nigel Haro, Marlon Gancino, David Moreno Yachay Tech
“The Lovers II” Interpretation Essay “Mystery means nothing, it is unknowable." Rene Magritte. The Lovers II is a painting done by Rene Magritte in 1928 which shows a woman and a man kissing each other but with a coat in their faces. So, what does that mean? To understand this masterwork we have to know who Rene Magritte is. This painter was a recognized artist who born in Belgium in 1898 in a wealthy family. In 1912 when he was 14 years old his mother had committed suicide and she was found drowned in the River Sambre. Since 1916 to 1918 he studied in the Beaux-Arts academy in Brucelas. During his painter career, he was influenced by the work of artists like Picasso (founder of cubism), Andre Breton (founder of surrealism), Joan Miro, and Salvador Dali. His life was marked by several key stages like the suicide of his mother, his great failure in the exposition at the Galerie la Centaurie in Brussels, his trip to Paris where he adopted new styles to his paintings, his return to Brussels where he enriched his painting techniques ("Rene Magritte Biography", 2009). The majority of his works were done following the surrealist style and included in the most of his paintings are scenes which contain human figures, inanimate objects, floating rocks, and even several of his works kept paintings within paintings. One of his iconic works is the painting called The Lovers II, this masterpiece was done on oil canvas following the features the surrealist chefd’oeuvres have. But, why this work is so special? Because in this work we can see expressed a mixture of senses and emotions at the same time enclosed in an action among a couple of people. Since an inexpert point of view, the painting could be seen as a forbidden love where the couple cannot show their faces to society and they must keep their love hidden among sheets or as the couple does not want to implicate any senses in their relationship and they prefer to be separate by a coat between both.
When we see this painting, is inevitable see two people kissing with two veils occulting their faces. As the cloaks are glued to the faces and the clothes that each one carries can be known who the man is and who the woman is. The man is wearing a very formal suit, with shirt and a black tie, by another side, the woman is wearing a short-sleeved blouse. We assume they both are a couple because they are kissing. It gives a feeling of suffocation. The painting of a kissing couple with their faces covered by smooth textured mantles and cream or white color which makes it stand out very quickly when one looks at the painting. The kiss it gives the sensation of being a passionate kiss but at the same time as they are covered by the mantle they could not feel the skin each one. This situation express that they do not want to involved their feelings. They are in a room of two walls: one of red that is a warm color and the color of the other wall is blue that is a cold color. It has the three lines that are height, width and depth. The bottom wall does not look like a wall, if it does not look like a sky because, the texture of it which is as if you were out in the open, the blue wall is not uniform. Additionally, in this painting we can appreciate an awesome surrealist work which can be interpreted as the forbidden love between two lovers that, for fear of society, are hiding. At first glance, the emotions that are generated when seeing this painting can be of intrigue and melancholy, as if of a tragic scene it was. In the painting the affection between the two of them is evident in the positions of the character who are apparently embraced and in the position of their heads to be able to kiss each other, you can appreciate a clear romantic and loving gesture. In addition, the contrast of the colors found in the background can be interpreted as red for closeness, love and passion and on the other hand the dark blue behind them could mean remoteness and sadness. This in turn can relate to not feeling, because despite the kiss they are given which seems passionate about the proximity of the faces, they cannot touch the skin, they cannot be together. So that, we can interpret all this as the
impossibility of amorous fusion, the absolute union of the couple is a utopia and as its name indicates they are two lovers. For this reason, their relationship is frowned upon by society and they need to hide. The interpretation of the author is not the one that defines the work of art, the interpretation that the audience or the spectators give to the work is the one that defines it. These opinions may vary depending of the person who interprets the painting. The article " The Lovers of Rene Magritte: A Bitter Kiss" by Esther Bengoechea is a good example of the varieties of interpretations. Bengochea (2010) says that "Their identities are secret after two humid veils that cover the face" in our interpretation we can't ensure that the veils are humid because do not anything that can ensure this as water. Other interpretations are about the meaning of the kiss some people says that it represent the blind love between both, our interpretation is similar but for us it not only represent this, but also the innocence of two lovers that do not care about beauty but about feelings. In conclusion, to make an interpretation of this masterpiece we can only base our work on assumptions. At the same time this painting could represents a feeling of suffocation, a limitation of feelings between both, that the absolute union of the couple is a utopia, or also it might give a sensation that they are kissing each other passionately. We cannot ignore the fact that this surrealist work involves many factors that provides itself of a deeper meaning. These factors as the color used to elaborate it may be related with depression, sadness, intrigue, and melancholy, but we can also can interpret this mixture of color as a mixture of feeling which ends in an expression of love. However, the whole of this work has a remarkably ambiguous meaning and this just depends on the point of view which a person will see the painting. The truth is that we will never know that due to that when Rene Magritte was interrogated by public for the meaning of his paintings he always avoided to
answer the question saying, “It does not mean anything because mystery means nothing, it is unknowable�.
References Bengoechea, E. (2010, March). The Lovers of René Magritte: a bitter kiss. Magazine Atticus. Retrieved November 14, 2016, from http://revistaatticus.es/en/2010/03/23/los-amantes-derene-magritte-un-amargo-beso/ Cumming, L. (2011). René Magritte: The Pleasure Principle – review. the Guardian. Retrieved 14 November 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jun/26/magritte-pleasure-principletate-review Kitto, M. (2010, June). René Magritte’s The Lovers. Knowledge Lost. Retrieved 15 November 2016, from http://www.knowledgelost.org/art/rene-magrittes-the-lovers/ Rene Magritte. (2009). René Magritte Biography. Renemagritte.org. Retrieved 15 November 2016, from http://www.renemagritte.org/biography.jsp MoMa. René Magritte. The Lovers. Le Perreux-sur-Marne, 1928. MoMA. (2016). The Museum of Modern Art. Retrieved 15 November 2016, from https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79933 Rene Magritte. (2009). The Lovers, 1928 by Rene Magritte. Renemagritte.org. Retrieved 15 November 2016, from http://www.renemagritte.org/the-lovers-2.jsp
Argumentation Essay
Final Research Project Essay
The Use of Digital Tools for Educational Purposes in Schools in Urcuqui Marlon Gancino Yachay Tech
Abstract The purpose of this work is to analyze the impact that the use of technological devices for educational purposes has in schools in Urcuqui. At the same time it is an ethnographic analysis to study the learning conditions that the students of Urcuqui have in their educational centers. The essay presents several data and statistics about the academic success of two Ecuadorian cities: Quito and Urcuqui using as reference data of INEC and GAD Urcuqui. Then, a bibliographic revision it is made to gather important data to highlight the importance that technology has in education.
Keywords: Digital tools, Technological development, Infrastructure, Academic success, Technological access.
The Use of Digital Tools for Educational Purposes in Schools in Urcuqui Wainwright, the marketing coordinator at SecurEdge Networks, once claimed that “technology helps the teachers prepare students for the real world environment. As our nation becomes increasingly more technology-dependent, it becomes even more necessary that to be successful citizens, students must learn to be tech-savvy”. This statement can be proved through analyzing the educational success among two cities with different technological environments like Quito and Urcuqui. The first one has a higher technological access and development than the second one. According to a census presented in 2012 by INEC (National Institute of statistics and census), Quito has less scholar desertion that Urcuqui. In Quito, the percentage of students who reach a high-school title is approximately the 90 percent of students (INEC, 2012) in contrast with Urcuqui, where just the 47 percent of students achieve to end the high-school (GAD Urcuqui, 2014). For this reason, Quito has a higher scholarly success rate because its students and teachers take advantage of technological tools for academic purposes in contrast with Urcuqui where the using of technological devices for educational purposes is a uncommon practice. Urcuqui needs urgently to implement a technological improvement in its all educational practices in order to have the same opportunity of social development that the big towns throughout the country currently have. The first problem that schools in Urcuqui have is the infrastructure (GAD Urcuqui, 2016). Urcuqui’s educational establishments do not satisfy the minimum needs that students and teachers require to carry out a successful education (CAF, 2016). As shown in Figure 1, there are a lot of students in a class, the classroom has a bad illumination system, the chairs in the classroom are bad constructed, the whole of the class has a scarce aesthetic value and the unique technological aid that the teacher has is a slide projector. These deficiencies have a high impact on the quality of education because according to the Development Bank of Latin
America (2016), “a good school infrastructure, with renewed spaces, makes it possible for children and youths that live in remote areas to study and, in addition, tends to improve the attendance and interest of students and teachers in learning.” This means that it is imperative to have a suitable educational environment in order to boost learning in students. So, the high percentage of academic desertion may be strongly related to the poor infrastructure that these establishments present.
Figure 1. A common class in the high-school of Urcuqui The problem of academic desertion is bigger than a problem of infrastructure. The Urcuqui’s students have little exposure to technology both at school and in the home. In fact, a survey conducted on the students of the last year of the Urcuqui’s high-school showed that currently more than the 60 percent of students do not have a smartphone and that just the 20 percent of students have a computer in their houses. These data are alarming because this could mean that this population does not see important to know how to take advantage of the technological tools to study or they do not have access to them. A cause of the first and the second problem mentioned raises another issue which is that Urcuqui’s students have a poor yield in basic sciences like chemistry and physics. These data were gathered through an ethnographic research where it took a diagnostic test to the last year high-school students. This test showed that the Urcuqui’s students have a great lack of basic knowledge. According to Mobile World Capital Barcelona (2014), the initial problem
that Urcuqui’s students have is that they possess technological restrictions which do not allow them to develop their multiple intelligences, such as linguistic, logical-mathematical, intrapersonal, etc., because Urcuqui’s educational centers do not promote the use of technological devices; this is causing a great disadvantage in their students in comparison with students in the developed cities and according to GAD Urcuqui (2014), this is one of the heavier problems that impede this town has a successful social development. However, Ecuador, through the LOEI (Organic Law of Intercultural Education), made several educational reforms where it was stipulated to make a great change in the whole of the academic infrastructure in the country and to make the education more accessible for all economic sectors in order to create a better Ecuadorian educational system (Ecuadorian embassy, 2016). For that reason in the last 8 years, Ecuador has had an improvement in its educational infrastructure and its current invest in education have increased four hundred times the invest done in this area before these 8 years (INEC, 2016). All of these things have provoked a general improvement in the whole Ecuadorian educational system and they have allowed that the most of the students have access to technological devices to study (ME, 2011). Nevertheless, this information can be contrasted putting as a clear example to educational centers in Urcuqui. It cannot be denied the current improvement in the Ecuadorian educational system but neither it can be generalized the fact that every single student in Ecuador has access to technological devices to study, and the fact that all of the educational educative centers have been repaired and improved. In fact, according to IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), SERCE studies showed a wide gap between rural and urban schools. “For example, 81% of private urban schools had computer rooms, while less than 13 percent of rural schools had such facilities. The gap in basic services was even larger: virtually all private urban schools had access to drinking water, electricity, and telephone
service, while only 65% of rural schools had drinking water, 80% electricity, and 17% telephone” (IDB, 2016). As we can see, these data break away with what the Ecuadorian embassy claimed. The community in and around Urcuqui must emphasize the use of technology for educational purposes due to all the benefits that this practice might have. According to the U. S. Department of Education (2016), the implement of digital tools, such as handheld devices and computers, increases student motivation and engagement generating significant improvements in scholarly productivity. At the same time to integrate technological implements into the classrooms “is a definitely great way to reach diversity in learning styles” (Wainwright, 2016) which could cause that all Urcuqui’s students develop their full human potential. This educational change could be carried out through projects in which it seeks the deprivatization of education (Unicef, 2016) and where all of the students can access to the technological tool they need to carry out their studies in order to enhance their academic life. In conclusion, technology plays an important role in education. The way it is implemented in educational systems can determine the academic success that a student could have. One can appreciate that education in Ecuador has several changes and restriction depending of each region. This is the case of Quito and Urcuqui, where the city more developed has one of the best results in scholar success and social development in the whole of Ecuador but the other one has great problems of scholar desertion and access to technological tools for educative purposes. Although the Ecuadorian government has been trying to improve the national education the improvement has not arrive in small towns like Urcuqui which still retains educational centers with obsolete infrastructure. To chance this current panorama could mean a significant improvement in the educational productivity in
whole Ecuador but the unique way to achieve this goal is through reforms which seek the deprivatization of education.
References CAF (2016). The importance of having a good school infrastructure. (2016). Caf.com. Retrieved 5 December 2016, from https://www.caf.com/en/currently/news/2016/10/the-importance-of-having-a-goodschool-infrastructure/ Ecuadorian Embassy. (n.d.).Improvements achieved by the Ecuadorian government in economy, education and health. Retrieved from http://www.ecuador.org/blog/?p=1271 IDB. (n,d). School infrastructure and educational in Latin America. (2016). Iadb.org. Retrieved 11 November 2016, from http://www.iadb.org/en/news/webstories/201110-18/school-infrastructure-and-educational-in-latin-america,9615.html Ministerio de Educaciรณn. (2015). Educative Codes. Retrieved 5 December 2016, from https://educacion.gob.ec/wpcontent/uploads/downloads/2016/01/Publicaciones/PUB_EstadisticaEducativaVol1_ mar2015.pdf Mobile World Capital Barcelona. (2016). Technology plays a key role in the development of multiple intelligences. Retrieved 5 December 2016, from http://mobileworldcapital.com/790/ Saxena, S. (2013). How Important is use of Technology in Education - EdTechReviewโ ข (ETR. EdTechReview. Retrieved 24 September 2016, from http://edtechreview.in/news/681-technology-in-education U.S. Department of Education. (2016). Use of Technology in Teaching and Learning. Retrieved from http://www.ed.gov/oii-news/use-technology-teaching-and-learning
Unicef Ecuador. (2016). Education and Child Development - The first year of school: Playing and learning. Unicef.org. Retrieved 24 September 2016, from http://www.unicef.org/ecuador/english/education_child_development_2993.htm Waingwring, A. (2016). 10 Reasons Today’s Students NEED Technology in the Classroom. Securedgenetworks.com. Retrieved 24 September 2016, from http://www.securedgenetworks.com/blog/10-Reasons-Today-s-Students-NEEDTechnology-in-the-Classroom Whiteside, R. (2011). How technology can help improve education. | Tech Learning. Techlearning.com. Retrieved 24 September 2016, from http://www.techlearning.com/default.aspx?tabid=100&entryid=261 IDB. (n,d). School infrastructure and educational in Latin America. (2016). Iadb.org. Retrieved 11 November 2016, from http://www.iadb.org/en/news/webstories/201110-18/school-infrastructure-and-educational-in-latin-america,9615.html
Fake it ‘till you make it
Thank you letter for reading my portfolio. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Sincerely, Marlon Gancino