RAY ROMERO YACHAY TECH UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM YACHAY, ECUADOR
Credits
Portfolio Ray Romero English Language Program Yachay Tech University Level 6-004 Teahcer: Matthew Mackey July 25, 2016
Yachay, Ecuador
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PORTFOLIO LETTER LANGUAGE, BOND OR BARRIER, LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL IDENTITY (RESPONSE ESSAY). ETHICS AND SCIENCE: PLAGIARISM (EXPLORATION ESSAY).
THE SCREAM (INTERPRETATION ESSAY).
SHOULD CENSORSHIP BE PRACTICED IN SCHOOL? (ARGUMENTATION ESSAY). CAN DIFFERENT LANGUAGES GENERATE DIFFERENT COGNITIVE ABILITIES? (FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT).
THANK YOU LETTER
Ray Romero San Miguel de UrcuquĂ, Hacienda San JosĂŠ s/n and Proyecto Yachay. Imbabura, Ecuador.
July 14, 2016
Dear Portfolio Reader,
At Yachay Tech, we must pass all 6 levels in the English Language Program because in the fifth semester, we will begin to take all of our classes in English. Now, I am in my last level. Since Yachay Tech is a university focused in the science field, and English is the language of science, being an English user is fundamental to growing in this field. This is one of the most important reasons to learn English, also there are another some important things because English will open to you professional doors and skills to face your future.
In this level of the English program, you will have a lot of activities for improve your skills in this idiom. At the start of the course, you will have some many opportunities to lose your shyness because you will talk a lot with your class and my teacher. In my first days of this semester, the only person who spoke was the teacher, so he seemed like he was talking with anybody. With the pass of the days, my classmates and I began to develop ourselves better and to increase our commitment to the class. The little group talks were very useful to share our ideas and take confidence with ourselves and classmates.
The direct communication between teacher (native English speaker) and students will help you to improve your level of listening and speaking. For us is really important have the opportunity to be in contact direct with expert English users. The teacher will give us the chance to learn more about pronunciation and intonation of English language. Also, we will not have the chance to express our dudes and thoughts in Spanish because our
teacher will not understand us. So, the students in this level will learn to express their ideas in English.
Since the start of the semester, I wanted to improve my level of understanding because my wish was be available to read and understand scientific texts written in English. Nowadays, I can understand better a lot of things. I consider myself in the capacity to study in English. How could I improve myself in this field? The English class was very important because we had many articles about 3 basic topics: language, education and ethics. Those were very interesting topics, so we were very interested reading and learning more about each one. Also, study after classes is very important, so I try to read and listen to more things in this language.
I feel fine with my level of English because I can talk, read and understand a lot of new things in this idiom. Nowadays, I study some things in English. Like I said before, English is a tool for your entire life; now, I watch movies, listen to music, read articles and books and I can have a natural conversation with a foreign person that talk English. I am sure that this language will help me to have more opportunities, open and my mind and meet a lot of people because I will understand them and they will understand me.
There are a lot of things that helped success. For example, I studied almost every day after classes. I used to translate my other subjects to this language, so, in this way, I could improve my English and study my other subjects at the same time. Being really involved with the class is very important to increase our abilities. Our colleagues are helpful because they can interact with us every day. A clear example is the debate we had in class. We defended one position and presented our ideas fluently. Another challenge was to write an essay to hand in class. This is really hard because you have no tools to translate some things, so you should make available all your vocabulary to succeed in this assignment and all the course.
I see myself in the future with the ability to work with English users. The language will be not an obstacle in my future career. English will open the door to me for catching
a lot knowledge around the world. I will be in the same position to get knowledge that I need to get a good job. I will not close my options just to work in a Spanish country because, with English like a global language, I will be able to study and/or work in all the world. Being an English user is one of the most important things in the successful students’ and workers’ life, so we should prepare ourselves in this language every day. We have the tools and we have to use it.
Respectfully yours,
Ray Romero
Language, bond or barrier, language and social identity.
All around the world, there are a lot of societies and they have a lot of different perceptions about the same thing. Language have an enormous influence in this; in our life, exist two key words to understand the language: denotation and connotation. In general, the people are guided by the denotation and this is the origin of the stereotypes; prejudices have a big influence in how we treat a person without known him or her. So, a black men is consider a drug dealer and perpetrator of crime and he has two choices: be all that society expect him to be or not. Stereotypes define our behavior because they are part of our social framework
We are surrounded of people every day, every time. We have to coexist with thousands of persons; but, a specific society has its own traditions and stereotypes. Since a person is born, he or she has to learn the dogmas of his or her community. This is an environment in which we have to live and grew and we can call it as a social framework. In each social framework, people have to live with specific language and traditions; they give different meanings to similar things. Between one and another society, its framework change because each one see the things in a different way.
The connotation plays a fundamental role in the way we think. Charles Campbell (2015) says “connotation is the negative and positive associations the words naturally carry with them�. Although, there is another important concept like denotation that is the literal definition of the word; for example, if you see a color red, it is just a color (denotation). But, the people use the connotation and give to the word double and triple meanings. With the same case, if someone see the color red, for that person, it could mean love, stop or dangerous. The connotation is the origin of the stereotypes because, since
the start of civilizations, people give a lot of meanings to the same thing (in each society), but we know with any knowledge about anything and the society impose us their way of think.
Around all the world, people have different perceptions about the same things. In different countries have different traditions for the same event; for example, in a wedding in China, the bride should use a red dress, but in almost all South America, the bride should use a red dress. If we see this without stereotypes, it is not a big a difference because both brides are going to do the same thing, but if we see this with stereotypes, South American people think that white color means the purity of a woman. Some perceptions do not have a big relevance; although, exist stereotypes that can be a really dangerous social problem.
Every perception could derive in social problems like racism, sexisms, xenophobia and others. When we just look someone, we started to analyze that person without know anything about him or her. For example, in Ecuador, when the people listen to talk about Colombian people, the first in their heads is drugs dealers and this is a big barrier because we turn away from them because we think they are bad people, but, in reality, they can be spectacular people. Black people have to live with the same barriers. Since you are a child, adult people (not all) teach you that black people are robbers or murders and you grow up with that way of think and that goes generation after generation.
Stereotypes like these are the worst for a society and we have to change it. All of us must be like children because the kids do not judge you for anything; they are your
friends what you are and not for what society expects you to be. People do not deserve born with options about what is he going to be; people are free and they can live without barriers because white or black is just a color and it does not define a person.
References
Campbell, C. [TEDXYouth@Buffalo] (2015) Bond or Barrier, Language and Social Identity. Recovered from: Google Classroom.
Ethics and Science: Plagiarism
Everyone has ever heard about ethics. It is very important in every field of human life because the ethics distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable behavior. Humans are basically guided by three principles: Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”, Hippocratic Oath: “First of all, do not harm” and, for the religious people, the Ten Commandments (NIEHS, 2015). A lot of people learn about ethics (norms) at home, at school or at the church; but if ethics is a social setting topic, why are there a lot of different interpretations about what is correct or not? Well, there could be a million of reasons, but the most important is that the human beings base our behavior and our conception of good or evil in our own experiences. Although, the humanity have some social rules based in “basic ethics” that everyone must follow.
In the science world, ethics play a very important role; but, some many people do not like to follow norms or social rules. For a lot of people, the science is a work and, like in any other job, it has a code of professional conduct. The scientists live of their researches and publications, but there are persons that do not respect the work of another person. Some people still scientific articles and publish them as their own and that is the worst to the owner of that article. This is very common in students because they search about any topic in the internet and they use that information without do a reference about the author. There are not difference between a person who steal a scientific article or a student that use the information (without cite) to do a homework because they are exchanging the work of another person for money or a qualification.
Some many people think that they are not stealing when they copy, although one of the most important things that the humans beings have is their knowledge because they have to work very hard to get it; but why the people copy these works without guilt? Most of the humanity learn about norms and good behavior in their childhood. While the children are growing up, they should be educated and guided in a good way; pitifully, this does not usually happen. At school and home, the most important thing is to get a good grade, no matter what. At school, some many teacher just say “do not copy�; but they are just words. The teachers do not take time to check is copy or not, so the children continue copying because they do not see any consequence about their plagiarism. In home, parents just worry about the grades of their child and they do not care about how their son or daughter got it. All this makes people grow up thinking that copying is not bad and that is when plagiarism reproduces rapidly.
Although there are some laws that punish the plagiarism with jail; it will continue growing if it is not finished from the root. Plagiarism could be finished if children learn from the start of their academic life that copying is stealing. Parents and teachers should be interested in the values and the real knowledge of children. An education based on ethics will make humans respect the work of another people. Although the first to change their thinking must be adults and this is the real challenge because they have their perception of life based in their experiences; but they have to accept the change because it is the best for the children and they are the future of our society.
If people learn from their childhood to create their own knowledge, someday, they will discover a fantastic thing. They will be real professionals, no matter in what field. If
people respect the ethics of a society, they will walk in a good direction. Children are our hope of a better society, but if the adults do not change their way of thing and children are nor educated in correct way, someday, we will find an impossible barrier to overcome because people will just copy the work of other people and our progress will be stalled. The knowledge is the base of an advanced society and while the people are making own knowledge, the society will improve in every field.
References
Resnil, B. What is Ethics in Research & Why is it Important? National Institute of Health and Sciente. (2015). Taked from: http://www.niehs.nih.gov/research/resources/bioethics/whatis/
The Scream By Edvard Munch
"Nature is not only all that is visible to the eye... it also includes the inner pictures of the soul. "
The Scream is a work painted by Edvard Munch (1863-1944); it is a work that originated through the traumas in the author's head for all the misfortunes that had to suffer. After having created the best work of his career, Munch said "Sickness, insanity and death were the angels that surrounded my cradle and followed me throughout my life". The Scream is a painting which reflects the feelings of the author; involve distress, despair and sadness such as the moment experienced by the author. To get a better understanding of this painting, we will divide it in two parts: the path with the vallas and the lake with the land and the red sky.
In the first part, there is an almost human being in a path, with fence; in the background of the path there are two silhouettes which are walking away from the person who is screaming. The person screaming with his hands supporting his heads, represents the moment in which the author felt anguish and despair and caused by that moment and the memory of the sadness life that he had. The two silhouettes which are in the background are his friends. They were walking on the path, when Edvard Munch stopped to appreciate the landscape, especially the intense and red sky. Suddenly, he felt despair, anguish and sadness. After that, he wanted to express that feeling but without use words, so he decide to make this famous painting (Sooke, 2016).
"I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous infinite scream of nature." (Edward Munch, 1893)
Edward Munch was so inspirited by this scene that want to reflect those feelings on a canvas. The scene of The Scream was based on a real, actual place located in Norway. In the background of the painting we can see the landscape where the scene of the scream unfolded. A fund that contains the landscape of Oslo at that time, where it is possible to distinguish: the sky, the lake and the mountains.
The colors used in the background of the painting are a combination of warm and cool colors. Soft touches of colors: orange, red and yellow to portray the sky and lake. These colors were used to show the sunset that the author of the painting witnessed at that time. These colors can have different perspectives, in the painting the color red can be interpreted as “blood”, which could mean “the blood of the nature”. The author wanted to paint with this colors to represent the anguish and despair that he felt upon hearing the infinite scream of nature. The cool colors were used to represent the frivolity and the enormous void that can exist in the author's soul for a memory of the sadness life that he had. In the background of the panting are minimum and simple forms in order to represent maximum expressiveness. In conclusion, “the scream” is one of the most important artistic works of all human history. This work changed the perception of painting and opened a new path to later painters of his time. Before coming to light this work of Edvard Munch, listen to a painting seemed only a fairy tale, but his work changed all standards embodied in painting art. This mix of colors and shapes means a breakthrough in seeking artistic works that evoke feelings in the depths of the soul of his audience and awakens a range of fantastic feelings that only a work of this kind can awaken in humans.
References
Edvard Munch.org. (2011). Edvard Munch. Retrieved from Edvard Munch, paintngs, biography and quotes : http://www.edvardmunch.org/link.jsp
Sooke, A. (2016). What is the meaning of the scream. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160303-what-is-the-meaning-of-the scream.[17,06,2016]
Should censorship be practiced in school?
Since the start of societies, human being started to think about what is good or bad. Censorship was determinated by, almost always, the religion. People who lived in a country could be relegated by all the world because in their country consider that if somebody has a different point of view, she or he is wrong. Also, censorship was used by some political systems such as dictatorship. In the XX century, there were some South American countries living in dictatorships. In this kind of government, Censorship was used to control every aspect of the citizens’ life. The government controlled all the information; for example, if one book or song was written against the system, anybody could read or listen to that song. Human beings have the ability to identify what is good or bad for them; children should have the complete access to the information. In the academic field, there should not be censorship because everybody deserves to know what is happening and the different points the different points of view around the world.
Anybody should control students’ brain. Everybody grows up in different situations and everyone create their way of see the world from their own experiences. Little experiences like reading a book or listening the letter of a song could change our perspective of the world; but, what if we do not have the access to every book? When schools censure a book or some information, they are trying to limit our resources of knowledge. All the information should be global and everybody must have the access to it. In some countries, students do not have the access to the books or articles about freedom because those countries do not want to create people with their own thoughts; they just want to create tools. In fact, almost every school is just focused in developing the logical part of the students’ brains and this limit the options and skills of the students. In another words, this world is full of opportunities, knowledge and information and everybody deserves to choose what they want to know.
The consequence of have free access to the information is that we could create new and useful knowledge for all the world. The science is universal and everyone could contribute to it. Some countries censure information because that information come from a country that was conflict with them; but, what if that information can help to the
development of their students? The censorship just limit the resources of the students. The principal goal of the schools should help the students to find their way, but they cannot control it. Students should be allow to read whatever they want. In this way, they could follow their own dreams and that should be their goal. With the censorship, schools are trying to control the future of the students, but if someone else control our life, we will never find our own happiness.
Some might say that there are things in this world that are not good for the students, especially, for children. Children are very available to be influenced by almost everything that they can read. If schools do not control the information that arrive to the students, they could follow bad examples of life. The objective is make people that help to the society. Schools should work for make doctors, engineers and scientists. Furthermore, they are children, they do not know what they want. If schools expose to their students information that will do not help with the goal of the country, someday they just will be one person more that is not productive to the society. So, schools must choose the information in the students.
Everybody can hide from the obstacles of this world. If professors do not teach to the students how the real world is, someday students will not know how to face it. Furthermore, everyone have different skills and the work of schools should be help the students to discover their real skills; but, if the schools just allow to students read and catch some information of the world, they will never know in what field they are really good. Also, the stereotypes of what is a good citizen are changing; although, a lot of people think that an artist do not contribute to a society. An artist could change with his or her job, and this artist could find his/her inspiration in a book that he or she read in the school; but what if the artist did not have the access to that book because the school censured it? Society had lost a great artist.
In conclusion, censorship was made to control the information that people receive. Anybody have the right to control something like that. Like human beings, students deserve to know what is happening around them. Everyone deserve the truth because it is
the way to find ourselves. Schools cannot choose the future of their students; all of us should learn take the inspiration that is necessary for us. With this, we will create a critical sense inside us, and we will be people that can help, whit no limits of knowledge, to our society. In other words, we will not be just tools.
Can different languages generate different cognitive abilities?
Since the start of civilization, all human beings have had the need to communicate. Language plays a fundamental role in this need; it gives us the ability to transmit our thoughts. But, can different languages generate different cognitive abilities? Like George Orwell (1903-1950) said, “If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.� Every society has their own customs, traditions and language. Around the world, we can find a lot of different cultures with different perceptions about the life. These points of view are formed by the experiences of each person, and these experiences are limited by his or her culture which, at the same time, is delimitated by language. Language and thinking are closely related because they are influenced by each other; therefore, language can be used to empower ourselves and engage with the world.
Language and thinking are closely related because they are influenced by each other. The ability to see, hear, think and speak are innate or genetic acts. Speech is a biological gift with which humans are born, and that cognitive experience is just a stimulus for further development. We do not born with own conscience, but we born with our own language. When we are little children, we do not have clear thoughts; but, when we start to talk, we understand everything in a better way. Also, the start of learn about new cultures is learn a new language; when we speak more than one language we can get better the information about more things. Open our minds is really necessary to live in a constantly evolving world, so the origin of our new perceptions about the world start with the learning of a new language.
Language influences or determines the mental capacity (thought). In this linguistic current influences the "generative grammar" of Noam Chomsky, for whom there is an innate linguistic mechanism, which suggests that thinking develops as a result of linguistic development. Therefore, if you consider that language is an inner state of the brain of the speaker, independent of other acquired elements of the social environment, then it is easy to assume that the language is first and then thought; more if it is of the view that the language accelerates our theoretical, intellectual activity and our higher mental functions.
Downes shows us in his book, Language and society, the different functions of language in human behavior. The definition of language throughout human history has been an unsolved puzzle; this definition is changing according to the need of the speaker. Some person could understand the nature of language helped us to understand the different functions that have this over thinking and human behavior. The human brain receives stratospheric amounts of information per minute and how each person interprets the same things in different ways is unique; this is due largely to the cultural roots of the receptor that is very different to talk to someone or someone Asian European. It is true that with the passing of time each person will form an own point of view, but this is largely influenced their language of origin. The language of origin of each person imposes a way that the rest of persons belonging to that culture should follow.
Broad grammatical differences between languages exist too. These differences can help us understand the difficulties we experience in acquiring certain aspects of a second language that are not present in our mother tongue (p. Eg., The different kinds of inanimate objects or certain tenses). Also, research how the use of different active languages other mental representations can help us understand under what circumstances the speakers of those languages to the same objects give different meanings.
Tuszynski shows several ways in which our language changes our way of thinking and seeing the world. Traveling around the world we can realize that the perception about the same things takes a different tack. Different cultures around the world have different types of views, which have been acquiring and modifying generation after generation. The linguistic richness that exists on our planet is the basis for our mind to develop a point of seen itself but this will always be influenced by the place where we come from. It is important to know how it changes the general knowingness of different societies around the world because little things or misunderstandings can generate major conflicts or make us lose unimaginable things.
Some might say that different languages does not mean different ways of thinking. There are a lot of more important facts that make different the people’s perspective about life. For example, the religion is one of the most important things in the life of any person because shows the correct behavior of a person in a society and that has nothing to do with the language because, in this case, only works as a messenger. Our mind change with our environment; the experiences of each person determine how to see the world the same because no matter where you have these experiences, the result will be the same.
Experiences define the behavior of a person, but the language has a lot of things to see in it. The language could be determinant in a lot of cases because if we just see South America, we will find a lot of words written exactly the same but with a totally different meaning. Little differences between countries could change the perception of a lot of things. For example, the sense of punctuality and discipline can change drastically in different society; while for a society is not very important, for others it can is the cornerstone of all its progress. The importance of little words could change the complete behavior in one person.
A persuasive message consisting of several elements, and, in this is the language. Hosman presents to us, in this chapter of his book “The Persuasion Handbook: Developments in Theory and Practice�, the basic elements of language such as phonology, syntactic, lexical, pragmatic style and the power of speech. Each of these factors contributes to the receiver has a higher level of acceptance and conviction by the issuer. The nature of language presented in this book will be analyzed, which is divided into two parts: use component and structural component. Language can change the perception of people around the world; this can be used by many people to convince their audience, so it is very important to know the interaction between them.
The development of our brain (how the brain structure our performance in the future) depends largely on the language we speak. The native language is the key factor that we develop ourselves as Spanish, German, English, and Japanese between others. Each country that develops its own culture, depends largely on the source of the native
language. If a country changes its culture by the time it is because there are other languages. For example, although migrants have learned the new language, their way of thinking and acting is still the same as this developed according to the brain. A theory being base imigrants integrating fails in many countries. Not because the immigrants have not learned the language of their country of welcome but by the simple fact that the brain and its structural performance is formed according to the learned native language.
L. S. Vygotsky, who explained that thought and language were developed in a dialectical relationship, but believes that the structures of speech become basic structures of thought and conscience of the individual is primarily linguistic, due to the significance of the language or linguistic activity in the realization of higher mental functions of man. Also, "The language is particularly linked to thought. But among them there is not a parallel relationship, as is often considered the logical and linguists trying to find the exact equivalent thought to linguistic units and vice versa. On the contrary, thought is language by its nature; language is the instrument of thought. No less strong ties linking the language to memory. The real human memory (intermediating) most frequently relies on the language in other forms of intermediation. in equal measure performs perception with the help of linguistic activity "(Petrovski, A.).
In conclusion, the way of thinking for a human being can be affected by various factors, but, undoubtedly, the language has a great influence on it. The language of a culture specifies the meaning of time and space. Although, things seem unimportant are essential for the development of an individual in society can change. For years, humans have been analyzed, from different perspectives, the development of our own ideas, which come from our experiences that are involved in our language greatly. Language is something so incredible that varies between nation and nation, culture and culture, person and person; therefore, there is a stratospheric variety of ways to see the world. Humans are used to seeing the world from the influence of their mother tongue, but when you learn another language, you become familiar with the culture and open your mind to new horizons, thus empowering us to achieve new opportunities. The cultural richness of the human beings calls us to keep alive the different languages that exist around the world
because they are the basis to design own thoughts, which can be shared with the world and other people to interpret them in different ways.
References
Petrovski, A., General Psychology , 1980, p. 205
Hosman, L. A. (2002). Language and persuasion. The persuasion handbook: Developments in theory and practice, 371-390.
Downes, W. (1998). Language and society. Cambridge University Press.
Tuszynski, A. (2010). How does language shape the way we think. USA. p 225
Sapir, E. (1921). Language: An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt Brace.
THAN YOU FOR READING MY PORTFOLIO AND GOOD LUCK IN THE LAST LEVEL OF YACHAY TECH UNIVERSITY ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM.