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Portfolio Richard Bastidas G. Yachay Tech University English Language Program Yachay, Ecuador
Credits Portfolio Richard Bastidas G. English Language Program Yachay Tech University Level 6-017 Teacher: Susan Gong December 21th, 2016 Ibarra
Contents 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Portfolio letter Response essay Interpretation essay Final research project essay Additional materials (pictures/videos/other works) Thank you letter
December 4, 2016 Dear Reader: My name is Richard Bastidas, I study at Yachay tech and this is my English language Portfolio. The process of learning a new language is an essential part of my professional training because, nowadays English is not an advantage it is a necessity for professional competition. This portfolio is a sample of how I can improve in this English level. It has every single work that I did in all of this level where I have different kinds of essays, my reflection and my final project. At the beginning of this semester I felt scare because, I have some friends that they passed level six before and they told me that it was very difficult. Now that I am in level six I know that it is difficult but, it´s really worth it. This semester represents an improvement in every single skill that I need in English as speaking, reading and writing. Each assignment that I did represented a challenge for me and for my professional life and training. Speaking was one of my biggest weaknesses because, every time when I spoke I felt scare and I couldn´t express myself in the best way. I had problems with grammar times in many cases. Now with all of the activities that I did during this semester I can improve myself especially in my speaking skills because, we did a presentation with every single essay that we did during this semester. The English program this semester help me to become a better student because, I had more responsibilities. I needed to prepare presentations, essays, projects, and many different activities that helped me to achieve my goals this semester. It helps me to set goals for my future. In conclusion, this semester represented to me an excellent opportunity to learn and to improve my English in many different fields. It helped me to develop different skills in English especially my speaking skills. Thank you to read my portfolio, and I recommend to everybody that learning a new language is a wonderful opportunity to improve ourselves in different aspects. Do not waste the opportunities and do your best every time. Sincerely; Richard Bastidas Gonzalez.
Don´t buy the hype, college education is not an investment. Richard Bastidas G. Universidad Experimental Yachay Tech September 29th, 2016
Education in college is a controversial topic around the world. In this essay I am going to talk about the article “Don´t Buy The Hype, College Education Is Not An Investment” by George Leef. Can College education really change our future? This is a discussion that has two opposite positions. There are people who think that if they enroll in college they will have a secure future; on the other hand there are people who think that the best way to succeed in life is without education. It causes that a college education or a college degree to lose a percentage of credibility. College education is viewed by some parents as a way to invest for children´s future because, a college degree is too important for them. The thought that “College itself isn´t an investment, just one way of increasing your value” from George Leef (2013) is interesting because in these times many people consider that college education is not enough, but it always depends on your own effort or the advantage that you take from it. Nowadays, there are no publications about the situation of the college graduates. Most of the graduates are unemployed or they have jobs that don´t need any preparation; they are trying to pay their college loans. Graduates apply for jobs that need basic skills and a third of them don´t add anything to their human capital. However, impellers in higher education claim that college education is a good investment. There is a technique to demonstrate if college education worth it. It compares the earnings of workers that have a college degree and the ones who don´t have it. As a result, the ones who have a degree made it better, so college education represented a good investment in those cases. Now, this analysis is exceedingly deceitful because, graduates and undergraduates conditions are totally different. The future won´t be the same than the past, and the opportunities for graduates will be different for each of them. Therefore, college is not an investment as many people said; nobody receives any payment for finished it. Having a degree makes you a competitive professional only, but success depends on your personal effort and performance in life. Now the labor market is
saturated by college graduates, this is why the time and money spent on college is wasted in some cases. College is not an investment; it only helps you to increase your value (Leef, 2013). According to Leef (2013) “No one receives any payment or premium merely for having finished college” this is true, I agree with this because it always depends on your effort and the way you unwind in life. There are many people who think that you will solve your future by assisting to class. They have to consider that there are many factors that will affect your future or change it totally. They have to think that the professional competition is increasing day by day in our world, and the employers will consider the best one to increase their productivity. Employers will check many important factors before employing someone. George Leef (2013) said that “The future won´t be similar to the past” I consider that it is a reality because, in the past we had less competition and having a degree represented a special advantage to acquire a better work. Nowadays, it is not like in those times because workers have more studies than a college degree. They are more prepared and day by day the labor competition increase, but it will depend on your own effort to be the best to acquire a better work than others. I agree with George Leef (2013) when he said “Success always depended on personal performance”. It is totally true because I consider that when you really want something you will make your best effort to get it. Success is a decision that you take in every opportunity that presents you in life, and every time when you do something for your future. This is why I agree with the author of the article when he expresses this about success. According to Leef (2013) “These days with the labor market saturated with college graduates, the time and money spent on college is often wasted.” This is not totally true because it will depend on your personal effort and the time that you spent on learn something new is not wasted time. Every time when you study even if you are not making your best you
learn something new that will help you in the future. It doesn´t depend on the labor market, it depends on you. It depends on how you do your best, if you really make an effort to be the best one to have a different future. This is why I disagree with the author in this case. I contrast with the way that the author explains his ideas about college education and the examples that he uses to support his thoughts. I consider that those examples are particular cases; they don´t mean that those cases will happen to you. He never uses statistics to support what he said; he only said an example that can happen or not. I feel those examples as they are unrealistic. There is one part when the author expresses one idea that he has, but he doesn’t open any possibility. When Leef (2013) says that “…college is not an investment at all” in my personal experience it is not true. Two years ago I enrolled in one expensive college because I knew that there were a lot of possibilities to acquire a good job. I created a good relation with one of my teachers and he offered me a good job because I was an excellent student in his class. In this case I saw college as an investment to make contacts. In conclusion, I consider that college education represents a good opportunity for everyone if we know how to take advantage of this. There will be people who think that education in college is necessary to succeed in life, and the ones who think that it is not. Everyone needs to consider many factors if they take college education as an investment because, only assisting won´t change your future. As everything in life if we want to succeed, we have to do our best; we need to effort every time to acquire what we want. So, college education can be seen as investment if we take advantage of it or if we do our best to achieve what we want.
References: G. L. (2013, June 12). Don´t Buy The Hype, College Education Is Not An Investment. Retrieved September 29, 2016, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2013/06/12/dontbuy-the-hype-college-education-is-not-an-investment/
Persistence of Memory Pedro Altamirano Richard Bastidas Diego Chavez Yachay University for Experimental Technology and Research November 16th, 2016
According to Robert Kiyosaki time is the most valuable source; it doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, nor your race nor your skin color. Everyone lives under the laws of time. The painting “Persistence of Memory” by Salvador Dali is one of the famous painting of all times, and still being one of the best due to its many interpretations. The painting represents how time is wasted in the world. It expresses a dry landscape behind the watches, and this shows how the souls of people who waste time are. It has a leafless tree that represents how time pass in life. There is also an empty canteen that portrays an empty life. We consider this because time it is the most precious source that every human has. In the first place, as reported by Steve Jobs, Abraham Lincoln and Robert Kiyosaki time is limited and you have the control of yours. The painting represents the waste of time in the world and this is evident due to the melted clocks painted. The clocks are dropped in many places meaning each one a different perspective. For example, the one on the wood is almost in the floor, so this time is wasted but not at all. The second clock is above a blanket that is on the floor, this time is completely wasted sadly. And the last clock is in a tree’s stick meaning that one person wastes its time but is not too late. An interesting detail is the fly posed on the first watch. We believe that the clock represents the time of a random person whose waste of time will cost her/him life. How can this happen? It could be a person with obesity who refuses to exercise or do something instead of lay in a sofa. Something curious about these melted clocks is that the time set in each of the three clocks is different. This might be related to the relativity law that says time is not the same depending on what situation you are living in. This caught our attention because it is true, it is not the same one minute of playing soccer than one minute of writing an essay. We associate these three different times with how time really passes. For example: time might pass faster for me and slower for you, so we believe that we are in different times. The title of the painting “The Persistence of Memory” gave us one clue related to relativity. This is the time
that a good memory lives in us, but the time varies depending on the person. Next, there is an empty canteen that symbolizes a life with no direction; in other words an empty life. This canteen is next to the second watch, the one that has the fly on. This is related in how the life of a random person who wastes time is empty. So, the canteen is a symbol that helps the viewer understands how the waste of time is directly related with an empty life. The canteen has also many bugs on it. These ants are gathered in the center of the object; is like the bug has taken the canteen. Now, ants might represent the bad habits; how one bad habit attracts others until these take your entire life. To end, the combination of these two objects (canteen and melted clock) shows the consequences of not approaching time. In this piece of art the author used many different aspects to show how time passes is the case of the leafless tree. This is a strong way to represent how time pass to create a strong impact in the viewers of this piece of art. This is why the author put a clock on one of it´s branches, it creates a closer relationship between the state of the three and how time passes. There are many different interpretations for using a tree in a piece of art, but in most of the cases artists use a tree to represents life. If we analyze the cycle of a tree is similar to human´s cycle, and the basic elements that a tree needs to grows as water, land, air, and sun are the same to the ones that humans need to grow. Based on this information, we can create a direct relation between a tree and a human, so the author tried to represent a human that lost its time and its opportunities. Then, in this piece of art we have a direct relation between all of the aspects with the personification that we made in the previous paragraph. As we can see in the paintings we have a brown land that represents an arid ground, the water is away from the tree, and the tree is far from the ground. The situation that the tree is far from the ground represents that the tree cannot acquire the nutrients to grow or to be alive again. This is the same for a person, a
person needs those nutrients and opportunities to grow, but in some cases people lost their opportunities and they cannot reach those nutrients to grow. In the painting we can see a stage where the tree is far from the ground and at the same time it is an arid ground, and the tree is away from the water. So, with all of those aspects we can deduce what the author wants to express or represent. The author tries to show us how in some cases people waste their time in the world. It represents a situation when people lost their opportunities, and the experiences that will be only in their memories. In conclusion, this famous painting can has many different interpretations because; it has a lot of details that we need to consider when we analyze it. When we interpreted this painting we considered fundamental details as the landscape in general, the ground, the water, the tree, and the watches. Those fundamental details when we related them, we conclude that all of them represent how time is wasted in the world. The leafless tree with all of the aspects around it, represents how time pass in life, especially in human life. How the canteen represents or shows us an empty life. This painting has a strong impact in humans because, it shows us how time is wasted in our world and in our life. When time is wasted we lose opportunities and experiences that will be only in our memories. This is why time is the most important source for humans.
References: Dali, S. (1970). The Persistence of Memory, 1931 - Salvador Dali. Retrieved November 15, 2016, from https://www.wikiart.org/en/salvador-dali/the-persistence-of-memory-1931
Discrimination in Education Affects Students’ Development. Richard Nelson Bastidas Gonzålez Universidad Experimental Yachay Tech December 11th, 2016
Discrimination in education is one of the most controversial topics in the whole world. There are many different ways to discriminate:
racial discrimination, economic
discrimination, and gender discrimination. Economic discrimination can be presented in many different ways, but the principal is done by private institutions. This happens because, private institutions represents a way to exclude the poor class. Gender discrimination presents itself among students, because they are not aware that there are no differences between genders. The gender concepts formed by educational institutions are essential for gender equality and to integrate society. Racial discrimination represents the biggest percentage of discrimination cases; it presents itself in all forms of education. People need to consider that from the beginnings discrimination in society was based on race. Racial discrimination is done by the educational institutions or by the students. People need to create awareness in our society to abolish discrimination, and at the same time to develop us as human beings and as a society. There are many entities that try to stop discrimination in education by regulating laws. Discrimination manifests in primary schools, high schools, or even in universities. The latter has been affected in their students´ development. The economic status is one of the three principal reasons why discrimination exits. The economic discrimination presents in many different situations but, it especially appears in education institutions. This kind of discrimination can be made by students, teachers or even by the educational institution. In most of the cases it has been made by institutions as is the example of Private educational institutions. Private institution is a strong example of how poor economic class can be excluded from the high economic class. According to Hanna and Linden (2009) “…children who belong to these minority groups perform worse in school, on average, due to discrimination or due to these other characteristics that may be associated with a disadvantaged background.” This support the idea on how discrimination in this case
economic discrimination affects students’ performance because, the presence of discrimination destroy the academic environment for the students that have been affected. There are people who believe and ensure that the level of economic discrimination has been reduce in educational institutions because, they believe on new laws. There are new laws that obligate private institutions to give a percentage of scholarships but, they give them to people who have the same economic level. If those students don´t have the same economic level they will suffer economic discrimination from their classmates or from their teachers. According to Hanna and Linden “While education has the power to transform the lives of the poor, children who belong to traditionally disadvantaged groups may not reap the full benefits of education if teachers systematically discriminate against them.” This is true and it is supported by evidence and experiments. Even if educational institutions don´t discriminate people from poor class, there are different ways in which they can suffer discrimination. In most of the cases economic discrimination is made by teachers, and there are many ways to show it especially if we focus on how they grade poor students. As Hanna and Linden rightly state (2009) “Through an experimental design, we find evidence that teachers discriminate against low caste children in grading exams.” This represents how economic discrimination can affect student´s future and opportunities. Gender in general has represented a strong way to discriminate in many different fields in human life because; there has always existed sexist thoughts to exclude women from important roles in society. This problem has been presented in different situations or places as work, schools, high schools, universities, etc. Gender discrimination is a real big problem for society development, this is why people are trying to get and promote gender equality. But the problem is that there exists a big percentage of gender discrimination in many different societies.
According to Popa and Bucur (2014) “Gender discrimination (GD) is still very much a big issue in many societies and, to a certain degree, this is a result of the way people get educated within the school system.” This is totally true because, the problem of discrimination comes from different ways. There are people who consider that this kind of discrimination is the result of house education and schools’ educational programs. In educational institutions there are many ways in which the students can learn this way to discriminate; it can comes from a student, teacher or even from an authority. There are many different ways to try to avoid it but, the problem is that there are many societies that don´t want it. The importance of it is that students can learn from history classes or social studies about how wrong discrimination thoughts are. Educational institutions play a very important role in which it helps to integrate individuals to society; but the problem is that in some cases those institutions encourage prejudices that people have or stereotypes that can be presented in societies. As Popa and Bucur rightly state “GE might gain a different status, the one which is wished for now.” this true because, societies need to increase their development by gender equality. People need to learn that there are no differences between men and women because this is affecting students’ opportunities and development´. Gender equality needs to be promoted in educational institutions to give the same opportunities for everyone. Racial discrimination is an historical problem that society has suffered from the beginnings because race has been the biggest reason to discriminate. From the beginnings people can see many different examples of racial discrimination as black slavery when black people were treated as animals. This especial example is a crime that white people made to black people; this kind of example has to create awareness in society. The reality is that in the actual situation of society there still exists racial discrimination. Racial discrimination as the other ways of discrimination can presents in many different ways, situations or places.
Nowadays, racial discrimination presents in educational institutions; it still affect especially African American students in different ways. According to Gong, Eccles, & Sameroff (2003)“Racial discrimination and its impact on depressive symptoms.” This show people how racial discrimination affects students; it can be seen in different symptoms that students who suffer discrimination can present. Those students present depressive symptoms because, the discrimination that they suffer affects especially their psychological state. As English, Lambert, & Ialongo rightly state “…racial discrimination affects academic performance for African American youth.” This is why discrimination is one of the worst issues that society can have especially in educational institutions because, it affects their students’ performance and future opportunities. People have to be conscience that discrimination is affecting society in general because, if it affects students’ opportunities and development, it affects society development at the same time. There are many people who believe that there are no influences in students’ performance because, they affirm that racial discrimination doesn´t exist anymore especially in this kind of institutions. The reality is that the percentage of racial discrimination has not been reduced and it is continue affecting all of them even the ones who practice discrimination; it is affecting society in many different ways. There are many studies that prove that discrimination is a negative factor that really influences in students’ life. According to English, Lambert, & Ialongo (2016) “The results indicate that racial discrimination affects academic performance through its impact on the depressive symptoms of these students.” This is part of the conclusion of a recent study in which people can affirm the influence that racial discrimination has in students’ development especially in African American students. They are the ones that suffer discrimination in most of the cases and it has to stop. Society needs to create awareness about this important problem.
There are a lot of people that indirectly support discrimination or discriminate; this is what people called exclusivity. Exclusivity represents a way to discriminate people because, as the word says people exclude others based on requirements that they consider that others don´t satisfy. In most of the cases those requirements are based on race, economic status or even gender. In other words, exclusivity is an excellent example of all of the forms of discrimination. This is why society needs to abolish exclusivity in all of the fields that it can exist because, if people justify exclusivity they are justifying discrimination. In conclusion, discrimination represents one of the worst issues in our world. Discrimination is a very strong way to exclude a big percentage of society based on wrong thoughts. Discrimination in all of its forms is still presented in educational institutions and it can be done by other students, teachers or even by the institution. Racial, gender, and economic discrimination are presented in educational institutions and they are affecting the students´ performance and development. People need to be aware of this situation because, it affects students’ opportunities and at the same time it affects the development of society in general.
References: English, D., Lambert, S. F., & Ialongo, N. S. (2016, May 18). Adding to the Education Debt: Depressive Symptoms Mediate the Association between Racial Discrimination and Academic Performance in African Americans. Journal of School Psychology, 57, 29-40. doi:10.1016/j.jsp.2016.05.007 Hanna, R., & Linden, L. (2009, June). Measuring Discrimination in Education. Retrieved November 15, 2016, from http://www.nber.org/papers/w15057.pdf Popa, O., & Bucur, N. (2014, April 22). Gender Discrimination and Education Practitioners. Reality, Perception, Possible Solutions. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 127, 459-463. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.290
Reflections:
Thank you for read my portfolio, I hope you enjoyed it. I did my best in this project.