Final (End of ESP course) Self – Assessment

Writing.

• Summaries:
  Unfortunately, it was not easy to write summaries at the beginning of the first semester and even during whole second semester. I was making the same mistakes and it was also hard to distinguish the main points of a text and not to write anything else, that was not so important. But at the end of the second term I noticed that I get even better marks, at least, it was not very high – from 5 to 6, but anyway I was hoping to improve my summary writing skills. Perhaps I can say that I succeeded, because from the last summary I got 10. I do believe, that the same success will go along with me on exam day.

Speaking.

• Short talks:
  I prefer speaking with preparation than speaking on the spot, but despite that, it was one of the most frightening tasks. I did not feel very confident about my spoken English skills, but when I had an opportunity to prepare for my speech at the home, I felt more comfortable. In my opinion, my marks were adequate to my knowledge and preparation. During both semesters there were lots of interesting subjects to talk, for example cloning or happiness in nations, but discussing the results from various test was not what I exactly enjoyed. It looked hard to me to decide, what should I talk about – only about my results and support them or not, or also about a particular test – for which purposes it was used, who made it and when and so on.
• Impromptu:
  Sadly, there was no progress, comparing both semesters. I was quiet during lectures, because as I have mentioned already, I did not think that I am able to speak English on the spot. I kept the idea, that if I could not say it perfectly, it would be better not to say at all. I must confess, that was not the best idea I had made, perhaps. No wonder, that my performance in this task was the worst from all tasks I had had during whole years.
• PPP:
  Despite all fears of public speaking, making the presentation and showing it during lecture at this semester was not so frightening as at the first time. I knew that the most important point in preparation was the choice of a subject. I took the topic from health psychology theme, because it looked the most reasonable to me. Honestly, I really enjoyed representing it, because in my mind, I done my best: made good slides, without too much text, only with main points, prepared to speak about this subject properly, mentioned not only main, but also an additional information and, to my surprise, even answered to the questions from audience.
  I am very glad with the work I done and of course with the mark I got.

Listening.

• Online materials:
  Listening always was a complicated task, because very often it was hard to follow what I was hearing, speakers used some words that I did not recognize. What about online listening, I have to notice, that it was a little bit easier than traditional listening. The reason is that exercises, related with online listening were clearer, because firstly we had to catch the main mentioned points, then to do fill in the blanks, synonym match and true or false tasks. Doing such tasks (except true or false) requires more grammar skills, not listening and what is more, reproduce or recognize some things that you have heard, is much more easier than to memorize them or to write on the spot during listening task. Sometimes there were easier tasks from cassettes, sometimes from the Internet listening. Perhaps it was linked to the subject of speech, it's urgency and simplicity. Anyway, I still believe, that listening to native English speakers is one of the best ways to improve my spoken English skills.
  To sum up, I am quiet satisfied with my results in online listening.
• Cassettes: 
  Well, the key points were already mentioned, I would only like to add that the most challenging task during traditional listening was to complete sentences, because you need to have perfect listening and grammar skills in order to write missed information correctly.

Esp Vocabulary.

• Formal tests in class:
  Writing ESP tests always was a great opportunity to get a good mark. In order to be honest, I have to say, that I was learning definitions by heart. Not because it was difficult to understand or translate them, but because usually they were too scientific to write in your own words and not change the real meaning in this way. I was surprised, when the form of tests had changed in the second semester. Writing a correct definition became not the main task, it was much more important to remember the material of the topic. Firstly, it looked impossible to do it, but after few failed tests I found the way to higher mark. It was not only learning definitions, but also doing moodle tests and online tasks on each topic of Feldman's online course book straight after reading the module and re-looking everything before writing the ESP test.
  Unfortunately, I had never got 100% again after such turning, but I hope that it was more useful for me.
• Class tests online:
  Doing these tests was very helpful in revising what I had read before. The fact, that we could discuss and share our minds, sometimes led me to laziness and I did not work very hard. I can not deny that it was useless, because as I have said, after some changes I saw the benefit of doing such tests.
• Moodle tests:
  They were very similar to those online tests which we were doing during lectures. The one difference and the main advantage was that we were doing them on ourselves – whenever we wanted and as far as we wanted. The multiple choice part I always done without looking at book, but what about fill in the blanks task, I was not so ensured. Anyway, it was very helpful not only in revising material, but also in preparing for ESP tests. What is more, the results which I got from moodle tests in the second semester were better, comparing with the results in the first semester and I am very glad about it, because I see my progress.

Happiness in nations. What makes people happy?

I am going to discuss the level of happiness in three countries, based on the World Database of Happiness. It takes into account a number of different things, such as average life expectancy and the most importantly, the answer to the multiple choice question about how happy people are.

There are two main types of measures: verbal, when people have to choose one suitable statement and numeral, when they have to quantify their life. Such investigation has been done for several years, but I am going to submit only the latest data. I chose three European countries: Estonia, Greece and Norway.

First of all, about Norway. The average life expectancy in this country is 79 years. Norway is in the 3^rd place of the richest countries in the world, but not in the list of 10 happiest nations. The average verbal measure type of happiness is about 5,3 from a range 1 to 7. The average of numeral measure type is 8,07 from a range 1 to 10. Speaking about life satisfaction, the average of verbal measure is 4,17 from a range 1 to 5 whereas the numeral is 7,8 from a range 0 to 10.

Secondly, about Greece. The average life expectancy in this country is the same as in Norway – 79 years, but the level of happiness is smaller. Verbal measure of happiness shows that Greeks are fairly happy; the average is 2,9 from a range 1-4. the average score of numeral measure of happiness is 7,4. moreover they are fairly satisfied with their lives – the average of verbal measure is 2,2 and of numeral 6,6.

Estonians seems to be less happy. The average life expectancy in this country is 72 years. According to verbal measure of happiness, they are fairly happy; the average is 4,1 from a range 1 to 7 and the average of numeral measure is 7. What about life satisfaction, Estonians tend to be not very satisfied, because the score from verbal measure is 2,7 and from numeral only 5,8.

Speaking about factors, which have influence on the level of happiness in these countries, I would like to say, that it is hard to distinguish certain elements. But in my opinion, there is no doubt, that economy plays the main role. In order to be happy, people have not only to provide themselves with food and shelter, but also find time and money for entertainments, travel, cultural life. People want to be sure about their future, that means social security is extremely important for them. Since early times Norway was very strong and stable in economy. Even nowadays people emigrate from other countries to live and work here. Greece recently experienced a financial crisis and Estonians were in the Soviet Union for a very long time and have no opportunities to develop strong economy and establish themselves in a top richest countries. Also it is very common to think, that climat affect people's mood. According to these results, it is not true. Because Greece is in the South, where it is warm and sunny, and Norway is in north, but the level of happiness is not linked to this. This research only confirm, that life expectancy and happiness are highly related.

Speaking generally, I would like to add, that it is also very important political situation. War, various conflicts and repressions affect society very strongly and if people are satisfied with their government, perhaps, they will feel more happier about life in that country.

To sum up, happiness is a very subjective feeling, but it is scientifically proved that it consists not only of certain emotions, but also of more precise factors which can be established, measured and evaluated by such surveys.

10 keys to happier living. What make people happy?

1.Giving. Do things for others

Helping others is not only good for them and a good thing to do, it also makes us happier and healthier too. Giving also connects us to others, creating stronger communities and helping to build a happier society for everyone. And it's not all about money - we can also give our time, ideas and energy.

2.Relating. Connect with people.

People with strong and broad social relationships are happier, healthier and live longer. Close relationships with family and friends provide love, meaning, support and increase our feelings of self worth. Broader networks bring a sense of belonging.


3. Exercising. Take care of your body

Our body and our mind are connected. Being active makes us happier as well as being good for our physical health. It instantly improves our mood and can even lift us out of a depression. We don't all need to run marathons - there are simple things we can all do to be more active each day.




4. Appreciating. Notice the world around.

We just need to stop and take notice. Learning to be more mindful and aware can
do wonders for our well-being in all areas of life - like our walk to work, the way we eat or our relationships.

5. Trying out. Keep learning new things

Learning affects our well-being in lots of positive ways. It exposes us to new ideas and helps us stay curious and engaged. It also gives us a sense of accomplishment and helps boost our self-confidence and resilience. There are many ways to learn new things - not just through formal qualifications. We can share a skill with friends, join a club, learn to sing, play a new sport and so much more.


6. Direction. Have goals to look forward to

Feeling good about the future is important for our happiness. We all need goals to
motivate us and these need to be challenging enough to excite us, but also achievable. If we try to attempt the impossible this brings unnecessary stress. Choosing ambitious but realistic goals gives our lives direction and brings a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when we achieve them.

7. Resilience. Find ways to bounce back

All of us have times of stress, loss, failure or trauma in our lives. But how we respond to these has a big impact on our well-being. We often cannot choose what happens to us, but in principle we can choose our own attitude to what happens. In practice it’s not always easy, but one of the most exciting findings from recent research is that resilience, like many other life skills, can be learned.

8. Emotion. Take a positive approach

Positive emotions – like joy, gratitude, contentment, inspiration, and pride – are not just great at the time. Recent research shows that regularly experiencing them creates an 'upward spiral', helping to build our resources. So although we need to be realistic about life's ups and downs, it helps to focus on the good aspects of any situation – the glass half full rather than the glass half empty.

9. Acceptance. Be comfortable with who you are

No-one's perfect. But so often we compare our insides to other people's outsides.
Dwelling on our flaws - what we're not rather than what we've got - makes it much harder to be happy. Learning to accept ourselves, warts and all, and being kinder to ourselves when things go wrong, increases our enjoyment of life, our resilience and our well-being. It also helps us accept others as they are.

10. Meaning. Be part of something bigger

People who have meaning and purpose in their lives are happier, feel more in control and get more out of what they do. They also experience less stress, anxiety and depression. But where do we find 'meaning and purpose'? It might be our religious faith, being a parent or doing a job that makes a difference. The answers vary for each of us but they all involve being connected to something bigger than ourselves.




Honestly, I can not oppose to any point, because in my opinion, they are really clear and so accurate that it will be impossible to say something against. I would like only to add, that, perhaps, every person know these things, but it is very hard to rely on them in daily life, when people have to cope with stress, face with various problems and very often they feel hopeless to change something. So my advice will be to print these 10 keys and hang them on the wall, fridge, mirror in the bathroom or any other place and read them everyday in order not only to remember them perfectly, but also to make them the rules of your life.
I have already hung them on the wall in my workplace :)

References:
http://www.financialjesus.com/
http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/
http://www.actionforhappiness.org/10-keys-to-happier-living

Biorhythms

To start with, biorhythm is an attempt to predict various aspects of person's life through simple mathematical cycles.

Honestly, I have never heard about biorhythms, until lecturer mentioned them during the lecture and asked us to calculate our biorhythms on certain day and compare  the results with our performance in doing Stress Test and writing the ESP test.

First of all, about biorhythms on March 31st, when I was doing an on-line Stress Test. Biorhythm calculator showed, that all my primary rhythms were under the zero that day. Perhaps the main reason of it was that March 31st is my birth day, and it is said, that such day is a critical day in a person's life. Speaking about secondary rhythms, only awareness and aesthetic were higher - 60 and 40 percent.

I believe, that there is a strong correlation between biorhythms and the results, which I got from Stress Test, because they showed that I am very stressed person.

What about results on April 5th, they were a little bit higher. One of primary rhythms, intellectual, was 13 percent - the highest of that week and all secondary rhythms were higher than zero. Despite that, my performance in ESP test was not such good.

I am not tend to search the link between my biorhythms and low mark, because to my mind it was adequate to my preparation for this test.

To sum up, I do not think that it is worth to rely on biorhythms in every situation and "blame" them for your failures or success, because they have no more predictive power than chance.

References:
http://biorhythms.perbang.dk/

http://www.degraeve.com/bio.php

Stress Test

Stress is the body's reaction to a change that requires a physical, mental or emotional adjustment or response. Stress can come from any situation or thought that make people frustrated, angry, nervous or anxious.

There is a great variety of stress tests. I have done on-line test, which measures the level of stress. There are four types of scores in this test: overall, quality of life, symptom distress and level of functioning score.

The basic, overall score generally shows emotional well-being. My score is 3,1 on a range of 1 to 5. To my mind, my results is quiet low, but correct. At this period of life I am very stressed and sometimes do not feel emotionally stable.

Quality of life score shows that I am not very satisfied with my life, including self-esteem, health, friends, family, work. Speaking generally, I am happy with my life, only some parts of it make me embarrassed, for example, my studies. They take a lot of time, mental and physical strength. But what about relationships with family and friends, I feel really comfortable.

According to symptom distress score, I feel little symptoms of depression, also anxiety and hostility. I can not confirm whether I am depressed or not, but in my opinion perhaps I feel more anxiety than others. There are lot of things I am worry about: my studies, my future plans or financial state.

Finally, level of functioning score established that it is hard for me to get along in the community. I tend to disagree with it, because I consider myself as communicative and flexible person, and it does not cause any problems to be on good terms with others.

Anyway, speaking generally, I agree with the results, because there are more things which are acceptable for me, than those, which are not.

To conclude I would like to say, that doing such test can help for people to identify what exactly causes their anxiety and makes them stressed. And maybe finding out the ground of it will help to cope with stress in a more effective way.

References:

http://stresstest.net/ 

Personality Tests

Personality test - a test, usually involving standartized series of questions or tasks, used to describe or evaluate personality characteristics.

I have done two personality tests on the Internet and I would like to discuss the results.

Results from the first Jung typology test showed that my type is ENFJ, that means extraverted, intuitive, feeling and junging. I agree that I am only slightly expressed extraverted. I tend to interact with others and I am not very shy in social situations, although in some circumstances I used to be quiet and prefer being in small companies. Also I have a strong intuition and I try to trust my inner voice almost in every situation. Perhaps, no wonder, why feelings play an important part in my life. There are many things, which make me cry: books, movies, stories, homeless dogs and so on. What about judgement, I must confess that I tend to form my strong opinion before something happens. Unfortunately, such preconception does not help me, because my attitude almost always is negative and the world seems to be much more worse than it really is.

Speaking about The Big Five test, I can agree with the results only partly. Extraversion and an openness to experience were only two acceptable for me. According to this test I am unconscientious and disorganized, because I tend to do things somewhat chaotic. Honestly, I do not think I am such an undependable person. Although, sometimes it is really hard to plan my shedule, but I try to keep deadlines as much as possible. Another point, with wich I disagree, is low results from agreeableness. They showed that I tend to be rude and callous, but as I have mentioned, I consider myself as a sensitive person and to my mind, these things are inconsistent. On the other hand, this test confirmed my sensitivity, because the results from neuroticism was very high. I must confess, I am nervous, insecure and worrying, bet now I try to cope with it.

If I tried to compare both tests, I would like to say that the results from Jung's test were more acceptable for me, but I appreciated the type of The Big Five test more, because I had the opportunity to choose among several statements, not only between YES or NO. In my opinion, it makes the test more reliable.

In conclusion, I would like to say that I do not think that doing such tests is worthless, because they can not only show things, which we already know, but maybe also show other side of personality which we try to hide or not accept.


References:
http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp

http://www.outofservice.com/bigfive/

Myths about cloning

To start with, cloning is the creation of an organism that is an exact genetic copy of another. This means that every single bit of DNA is the same between the two. There are lots of discussions whether cloning is useful, harmful, risky or not, but usually such doubts come from beliefs, which are not correct, but widely spread among society. That is why I decided to discuss five common myths, which are related with cloning of animals.

Myth: Cloning is a new technology.

Actually, cloning isn’t new at all. In fact, we eat fruit from plant clones all the time, in the form of bananas and grafted fruits. We’ve been cloning plants for decades, except that we refer to it as “vegetative propagation.” It takes about 30 years to breed a banana from seed, so, to speed the process of getting fruit to market, most bananas, potatoes, apples, grapes, pears, and peaches are from clones.

Some animals can reproduce themselves by vegetative propagation, including starfish and other relatively simple sea creatures. Amphibians such as frogs first underwent cloning in the 1950s. Identical twin mammals can be thought of as naturally occurring clones, but producing clones of mammals in the laboratory is relatively new. Using cells from animal embryos to make clones has been around since the early 1990s, but the first animal cloned from a cell from an adult animal was Dolly the sheep, who was born in 1997.

Myth: Clones are a specific animal’s DNA grafted onto another body.

Absolutely not. Despite science fiction books and movies, clones are born just like any other animal. The only difference is that clones don’t require a sperm and egg to come together to make an embryo. Clone embryos are made by using a whole cell or cell nucleus from a donor animal and fusing it to an egg cell that’s had its nucleus removed. That embryo is implanted into the uterus to grow just as if it came from embryo transfer or fertilization.

Myth: Offspring of clones are clones, and each generation gets weaker and weaker and has more and more problems.

No, not at all. A clone produces offspring by sexual reproduction just like any other animal. A farmer or breeder can use natural mating or any other assisted reproductive technology, such as artificial insemination to breed clones, just as they do for other farm animals. The offspring are not clones, and are the same as any other sexually-reproduced animals.

Myth: Clones have exactly the same temperament and personality as the animals from which they were cloned.

Temperament is only partly determined by genetics; a lot has to do with the way an animal has been raised. It’s the old “nature versus nurture” argument.

For example a farmer wants to clone his horse because of his gentle and sweet temperament. Although his horse’s clone may be easy-going, he would have to have exactly the same life experiences as original horse in order to have the same temperament.

Myth: Cloning can cure diseases in livestock.

Cloning can’t directly cure diseases in livestock, but the cloning process may be one way to make a healthy copy of a valuable animal that has contracted a disease, been injured, or died. In addition, cloning may also be a way to duplicate a disease-resistant animal, and over generations create a disease-resistant herd.

All things considered, I would like to say, that cloning can not be good or bad by itself, it depends on purposes and ways in which it will be used.

References: http://www.fda.gov/animalveterinary/safetyhealth/animalcloning/ucm055512.htm

Learners' beliefs about English learning and strategies of learning

To start with, there is a theoretical construct of language learning beliefs, which is composed of two primary dimensions: metacognitive and motivational.
The metacognitive dimension refers to learners' metacognitive beliefs about second language learning. It includes three main components:

1. What learners know about themselves as second language learners
2. What learners think about the task of second language learning
3. What is their knowledge about learning strategies

The motivational dimension refers to learners' motivational beliefs about second language learning and also includes three motivational components:

1. Learners' beliefs about their ability to learn a second language and their expectations about the results or difficulty of the learning task
2. Their goals for second language learning as well as beliefs about the importance, utility, and interest in the learning task
3. Learners' emotional reactions to second language learning

What about learning strategies, there are six main strategies, commonly used by all students.

Formal oral-practice strategies focus on formal practice for speaking English, such as practicing the sounds of English, trying to imitate native English speakers and paying attention when someone is speaking English. The majority of students endorse the importance of excellent pronunciation and the need to repeat and practice a lot.

Compensation strategies enable students to make up for missing knowledge in the process of comprehending or producing the target language. Many students read English without looking up every new word and they make guesses to understand unfamiliar English words. When they have difficulty producing the language, they use gestures or make up new words to get their meaning across.

Social strategies are actions that involve other people. The majority of students usually practice English with other students. They try to ask other people to slow down or repeat when they do not understand something during an English conversation.

Metacognitive strategies include: finding out a better way to learn English, monitoring learning process for errors, reviewing English lesson frequently, evaluating the progress and planning schedules for English study.

Functional practice strategies involve actively seeking or creating opportunities to use or practise English functionally. These strategies enable learners to increase their exposure to the second language outside the formal classroom. Some of the most popular functional practice strategies used by students are: watching TV shows or movies spoken in English, listening to English radio programs, encouraging themselves to speak and starting conversation in English, avoiding word-for-word translation, reading as much as possible in English.

 Cognitive-memory strategies involve direct analysis, transformation, association or synthesis of the target language, which, whether intentionally or not, will consequently facilitate the memory process. Some of the cognitive-memory strategies are: creating associations between new material and what is already known, dividing words for meaning, finding patterns in English and using mental images to remember new English words.

A lot of research has been done to find out if there is any relationship between learners' beliefs and strategies of learning. It was established that students' self-efficacy beliefs about learning English were strongly related to their use of all types of learning strategies, especially functional practice strategies. In addition, students' beliefs about the value and nature of learning spoken English were closely linked to the use of formal oral-practice strategies. Anyway, it can not be denied that learners' use of learning strategies shape their beliefs about language learning and it is also possible that other factors may cause learners' beliefs and affect use of learning strategies.

In conclusion, by encouraging appropriate beliefs, teachers may enhance effective use of learning strategies and therefore, contribute to students' continuing motivation to learn a second language.

References: http://www.sciencedirect.com/