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/