FINAL (END OF ESP COURSE) SELF-ASSESSMENT

WRITING: summaries

It became much more easy to write summaries. However, sometimes I make vocabulary and grammar mistakes.

SPEAKING: 1) Short talks

I think that my language skills level up. Compared with the first term I can speak much more fluently.

2) Impromptu

It is quite difficult activity for me. I need some time to think what I should say.

3) PPP

It is very creative and useful activity. Presentation upgrades my ability in English. I improve language and writing skills.

LISTENING TO:  1) Online materials

This activity is quite difficult for me. Sometimes listening tasks are easy and I don't have problem to understand the main idea and to write the right answer. However, I have difficulty to understand when speakers talk very fast, use unknown words and phrases. I can’t say that my ability in this activity became better than in the first term.

2) Cassettes

This activity is similar to online materials. So, I have same difficulties.

ESP VOCABULARY: 1) Formal tests in class

The result in this activity depends on how much time you spend for preparing. I did my best, but sometimes I haven’t enough time.

2) Class tests online

In my opinion it isn’t a difficult task, because we do it together and can use useful material.

3) Moodle tests

This task is quite easy for me, because we do it at home and have enough time. Also we can use useful material.

My performance on ESP test and biorhythm calculations

I did psychology test on 5^th of April and my score was not very high is only 50%. When I did biorhythm calculations I understood the reason of the follow result. I calculated my biorhythms from different web sites and results were the same.

The biorhythm chart illustrated that on 5th of April my emotional state was not stable. It means that I had a critical day. It was observed that people make more mistakes on these days. Thescore of my intellectual rhythms is a minus 100%.  However, my psychical state was perfect on this day and I got 95%on it. Moreover, biorhythm calculations showed spiritual, awareness, aesthetic and intuition rhythms. It is a minus 74% of spiritual, 71% of awareness, -95% of aesthetic and -61% of intuition.

To sum up, results demonstrated that low biorhythm rhythms have affected my performance. I think that it is an interdependent and biorhythms really have a great influence in our lives.

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

http://daily-biorhythms.com/

The mystery of memory

Summary

Memory is one of the most unexplored human phenomenon which scientists are trying to understand over the last one hundred years.  Specific thing is that it transfers into different types of forms, two of them is a short-term and a long-term memory. There are also many distinctions, which explorers try to analyze.

Experiments show that it is easier for humans to forget how to call a thing, but not how to use it. It is because of procedural memory, which is more steady than declarative.

Another scientific phenomenon is that photographic memory has a tendency to lose power when a young man grows up. In early childhood associations are more colourful, especially at the age of eight.

Also, they found that new memory creates a new pattern of connections. It is the same as the “memory” of the scene is stored on the tape of a video recorder. Many different regions of brain store various types of  information, things that human try to remember, like names of persons, where to go or what they did yesterday.

Anyway, such scientific things have been not explored till the end and scientists have to make a careful close study of how memories are made because to understand the mystery of human memory.

Giving Entire Cultures a Personality Test

                                            Summary

This report presents the idea of giving entire cultures a personality test.  

There are some stereotypes such as Americans are extraverted, German and Japanese people are conscientious and organized and British people are unemotional. To check up correctness of these stereotypes was created a personality test by a large group of researchers called NEO Personality Inventory. The researcher’s personality consisted of a short questionnaire which could indicate the characteristics of a member of their culture. Furthermore, they administered a measure of perceptions of national character; it is a common belief about people from different cultures.  In fact there are also some results of interviews; Canadians see themselves as highly agreeable, Americans see themselves as extraverted, and on the other hand, not particularly agreeable. These facts appear to be the major cause that the researchers concluded that national character is not a generalization about the real personality characteristics of a culture’s members.

The report finds that national character shows how people see themselves in a culture, rather than how they actually are.

English language invasion

Summary

This report presents the idea that the invasion of English words into the Chinese and French languages must be stopped.

The research draws attention to the fact that English has invaded other national languages and became increasingly popular in all fields of technology, business and even taking some native tongue as a hostage.  Further investigation revealed that France introduced law in 1994, which stated that all English words on billboards had to come with a translation. The fact is that in 1997 about 40 percent of documents at the EC were written in French and 45 per cent in English. Over the next eleven years, the ratio of French language had fallen up to 14 per cent.  In 2010 the French carmaker decreed that all technical documents and top meets should be in English. The similar is in China, many words in modern Chinese come from English-speaking world, such as DVD, MP3, okay and other.  These facts appear to be the major cause for baning websites, including YouTube, Facebook and Twitter.  Moreover, there are only 20 foreign films allowed to be screened.  English-language television shows are available which resulted in many young people using foreign words and thinking that it is a positive sign of cultural assimilation.

The report finds the prospects to save native languages in its current situation are not positive. The groups are demanding a great debate and support from the society on defending an official language.

Stress Test

I have done the test which described my stress level. I would like to talk about my results.
Overall score. This score is measure of overall emotional well-being. My score is 4.04 on a range of 1 to 5. It means that I don't need any kind of psychological services and I am well-adjusted.
Quality of life score. This is a measure of how happy or satisfied I am with my life and I fee stress. The reason can be not absolutely good relations with my family.
Symptom distress score. This score measures my symptoms of depression, anxiety, and hostility. My score is 4.44. My score indicates that last month I didn't feel depressed.
Level of functioning score. This score is a measure of how well I am able to get along in the community. My score is 4. My score shows that I feel stress in it. Sometimes I really can be impulsive and aggressive.
To sum up, I agree with these results and I think that this test is really valid and reliable. I recommend this test to others.

Reference: http://stresstest.net/

Self-esteem

Some people think that self-esteem means confidence – and confidence comes into it – but it's rather more than that.
There are any number of apparently confident people who can do marvellous things but who have poor self-esteem.
Many people in the public eye fall into this category. Actors, comedians and singers in particular can glow with assurance on stage, yet off-stage feel desperately insecure.
The word 'esteem' comes from a Latin word that means 'to estimate'. So, self-esteem is how you estimate, or regard, yourself.
To do that, you need to ask yourself certain questions.

        Do I like myself?

        Do I think I'm a good human being?

        Am I someone deserving of love?

        Do I deserve happiness?

People with low self-esteem find it hard to answer yes to these questions.

There are same ways how improve your self-esteem.

You can begin by accepting that you are certainly not alone. Masses of people have this problem.
Secondly, take on board the fact you're a special person – and that there's no one quite like you.
Not only are your fingerprints and DNA different from everyone else's, but your mind and how it thinks and operates is totally your own.You have other rights, too. One of them is the right to make mistakes. Don't forget that 'to err is human' – and most of us learn through getting things wrong before we get them right.
Finally, and perhaps most important of all, we have the right to say yes or no for ourselves.