Facultad de Filosofía, Letras y Ciencias
Escuela de Lenguas y Linguistica
Class of 2012 - American Literature
1.- Who we are
We met each other in this university, sharing in work group and extracurricular activities through the years and we knew each other in our character and personality. We think we are very lucky to have met at the right time and place and have enriched our lives through good and bad experiences during these years of study. Because of this we can have a better friendship and we hope our sincere friend relationship can endure forever.
2.- Our City
Guayaquil, the "Pearl of the Pacific"
http://www.ecostravel.com/ecuador/ciudades-destinos/guayaquil.php
Guayaquil, known as the "Pearl of the Pacific", is a city that holds history and tradition. It was founded in 1538 and, in colonial times, became the largest shipyard in South America. Today, Guayaquil, Ecuador's economic capital is the main port of the country, considered one of the largest in the world, because its location and infrastructure provides facilities for international maritime trade. Guayaquil is full of impressive and important commercial buildings, parks turned into gardens, mansions, warm and hospitable people, has an excellent hotel infrastructure, allowing it to meet the most demanding needs of its visitors.
3.- Our classes
a.- American Literature (502 - Fifth Course)
a.- Objective
In this course we survey selected American authors representing the major authors, literary movements and fragments of the most significant works of literature produced in the U.S. since its beginnings to the present date. It also helps future teachers to improve their reading, communicative and critical thinking skills, letting them express judgements and comments about some chapters and creating a greater cultural awareness when exposed to essays, poetry, literary or film adaptations of the fragments.
b.- Activity during the semester
Kate Chopin
Kate Chopin was an American author now considered as a main forerunner of feminist authors of the 20th century. She belonged to the victorian period and her stories contain much psychological insight that draw attention to her characters and plots exploring the role of women in society. She is also well known in American literature for her use of southern regionalism (local color). She was involved in an American realist modern art movement called Ragionalism that was popular during the 1930s. In Ragionalism, the artistic focus was from artists who rejected city life, and rapidly developing technological advances to create scenes of rural life.
The Story of an Hour
One of the most important Kate Chopin's work was "The Story of an Hour" that was acted by a group of classmates in the Open House at the University at the end of October 2012. This work is about the life of Mallard's marriage. The story focus in the Mrs. Mallard's mixture of feelings, emotions, sensations which she experienced in a period of just an hour.
During her marriage, she didn't have a happy life despite of the fact her husband didn't treat her badly. When she believed she was going to be a widow, she started feeling a sensation of freedom and relief therefore she said "Free, body and sould free". When she discovered her husband was alive, she fell down and died, the cause of her death was "the joy that kills".
These are the most remarkable words.
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| Karina was the narrator of "The Story of an Hour" in the Open House |
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Germania played the rol of Mrs. Mallard who believed to know her husband had died and said: "Free, soul and body free". |
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| It was the dialogue between Josephine, Mrs. Mallard's sister (Sandra) and Richard, Brently's best friend (Gisela) talking about the supposed Mr. Mallard's death |
4.- Reflective Learning
We, through American Literature, learned about the different Literary Movements and the literary styles of every author which this makes us have more academic knowledge. On the other hand, literature made us to comprehend, to have more vocabulary according toTimothy Peckinpaugh and practice reading using the technology through presentations and the on-line research. We had the opportunity to participate in dramas in order to represent every author's work. During this year, we learned to value all this knowledge, bringing to our lives values like responsability, cooperation, respect, friendship and tollerance. Also Miss Glenda Morales was our guide who encourages us to learn about these important american authors and to have enough knowledge for being good teachers in a near future. Patrick J. Eggleton said: "Motivation involves a wide variety of learning experiences for the student"
http://www.ehow.com/how_7786499_improve-vocabulary-literature.html
Values in a team
by Arnold Anderson, Demand Media
Teamwork can be an important part of an effective workplace. An efficient team can be trained as a group, help each other maximize their job performance, and help to make an inviting and productive atmosphere for new team members. Certain elements of teamwork in the workplace should be in place for your company to benefit from group organization.
http://www.ehow.com/how_7786499_improve-vocabulary-literature.html
How to Improve Vocabulary with Literature
by Timothy Peckinpaugh
Reading challenging literature is the single most effective way to improve your vocabulary. To increase your vocabulary, you must choose difficult reading material most likely to expose you to a wide range of new vocabulary words. Once you have acquired an extensive vocabulary you will find that you are able to express your thoughts and ideas with ease, whether you are writing or speaking. Furthermore, you will be more adept at understanding difficult reading passages.
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| Reading is the most effective way to increase your vocabulary. |
Values in a team
by Arnold Anderson, Demand Media
Collaboration
Collaboration is an important element to any team. According to Penn State University, teamwork allows projects to get done that one person alone is not able to complete. Members of the team bring in their own experiences and level of expertise to a project to help create an effective finished product. To collaborate effectively the team must be able to communicate and share ideas, and there also needs to be a feeling of respect in place for each team member's contribution.Conflict Resolution
After a team has started working together there can be conflict, according to the online Reference for Business. Some people feel their ideas are not being heard, and others feel that their ideas should always be part of the team's solution. There could also be a struggle for leadership of the group that can threaten to diminish the group's effectiveness. The element of conflict resolution within a team means leaving room for everyone's contributions, developing the ability to listen to all ideas and creating a method of consensus that is used to develop a solution the team can agree on.Roles And Responsibilities
A team is only effective when the members understand their roles and responsibilities within the group, and endeavor to execute them effectively. According to the Missouri Small Business and Technology Development Centers, a task given to a group is completed more effectively when the responsibilities are distributed fairly among the group members. Each member is assigned a part of the task based on his role within the group and his level of expertise.Differing Points of View
One of the strengths of teamwork within an organization is the ability to bring together differing points of view to create a solution to an issue. According to Penn State University, an effective team creates solutions that are manufactured from the many different perspectives of the individual group members. This helps to see a situation from several different angles, and can create a solution that no one individual could create on his own. |
| Responsability and Tollerance |
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| Collaborativeworkteam |
Motivation: A Key to Effective Teaching
Patrick J. Eggleton
The problem is that motivating students is not a simple, one-step process. Implementation of motivation strategies is very personal and depends on the teacher's personality and style. It involves a wide variety of learning experiences for the student. It is also dependent on the structure and routine of the class period. Since motivation seems to play an important role in teaching, it is important for teachers to become familiar with various aspects of motivation.
Motivation Through Teacher Personality
Like all human beings, teachers perceive the behaviors that are appropriate in a given environment. The classroom environment can be one of the most demanding environments on individuals' perceptions of their self-worth. In addition, from my own experience, most children exhibit the ability to see through a person's actions, recognizing those actions as genuine or fake. Consequently, the teacher's task of exhibiting the characteristics necessary to motivate a class is a careful daily process that inevitably meets some failure and need for improvement.
5.- Important Event
International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women- November 25
By resolution 54/134 of 17 December 1999, the United Nations General Assembly designated 25 November as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and invited governments, international organizations and NGOs to organize activities designed to raise public awareness of the problem on that day. Women's activists have marked 25 November as a day against violence since 1981.
Class of 2012 - Linguistics
1.- Objective
The purpose of this class is to give students the tools, tips and techniques to speak English clearly and accurately. The variety of activities, authentic audios, students´ presentations make learning innovative, fun and close to reality that they will handle in elementary and high school settings in Ecuador. This year we are using Focus on Pronunciation Nbr. 3, from Pearson, Longman, as well as several interactive links.
2.- Activity during the semester
During the first mid-term of Linguistics classes, we carried out presentation of different sounds and one of our classmates in the group together with another classmate did a presentation about the sound g / k and explained the articulation of g. This is a sound produced with vibration and is put in contract with the sound k without vibration. We learned about these sounds and it was very useful to improve our English pronunciation when we speak. At the same time, we could recognize the way to articulate the g sound. The other presentations were important for our speech as well. We know that the learning in ESL students who are taught a foreign language must be fluently but It is not easy. On the other hand, if we mispronounce the words would be a real problem of communication and it may be so frustrating. We need to take time and practice as much as possible and not to be afraid of making mistakes. It is a challenge for all of us.
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| Teresa Medina did a practice of the sound "g" in different words |
3.- Reflective Learning
During the first mid-term, the presentation and oral exercises of the "g" sound in the linguistic class was done by one of our classmates, we realized as ESL students that we have had some difficulties to pronounce some sounds from English Alphabet that don't exist in our native language for example the "g" sound which is vibrant and in some words is silent. We must become concious of the place and manner of articulation that interfere in production of the correct pronunciation of the sound "g". The oral production of this sound can be improved through audio system. It is important to have good, clear and effective pronunciation since in this way we avoided misunderstandings in the communication in English language. On the other hand, through this practice, we learned about sound "g"in contrast with sound "k", although these sounds use the same place and manner of articulation "g" vibrates and "k" doesn't.
G Sound
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| Cords are vibrating |
The Letter G Sound is a voiced velar plosive and has two different sounds: Hard G Sound and Soft G Sound. The Hard G Sound is represented by the /g/ sound and the Soft G Sound is represented by the [g] sound.
Put your hand on your throat and make the /g/ sound. Can you feel the vibrations? we put your hand in front of your mouth again and make the /g/ sound (the voiced sound). Feel only a little puff of air?
Put your hand on your throat and make the /g/ sound. Can you feel the vibrations? we put your hand in front of your mouth again and make the /g/ sound (the voiced sound). Feel only a little puff of air?
Letter G Words
Hard G Words
gain, game, gap, gas, gasp, gate, gave, gear, geese, get, gift, gill, girl, give, go, goal, goat, goes, gold, golf, gone, good, goof, goose, guitar, gum, gun, gush, gust
Soft G Words
garage, gee, gem, general, generous, genius, gentle, gentleman, genuine, geography, geranium, germ, giant, gigantic, ginger, gingerbread, giraffe, gym, gypsy, age, bulge, cabbage, cage, change, collage, courage, damage, danger, engineer, forge, fringe, hinge, huge, large, magic, manager, message, orange, package, page, passage, pigeon, rage, stage, stingy, strange, stranger, urgent, village, wage
Phonetics & Phonology Tutorial (answers)
Study the diagrams below and in the spaces below, state (1) the place(s) of articulation, (2) the manner of articulation of each sound. In addition, give (3) the IPA symbols and (4) descriptions of the possible phone(s) that is depicted in each illustration and (5) an example of an English word beginning with the sound(s) illustrated in each.
Diagram: G
Place of Articulation: Labials / lips
Manner of Articulation: Plosive
IPA Symbol(s): [p] [b]
Description: Bilabial plosive
Example: pin, bin
Place of Articulation: Labials / lips
Manner of Articulation: Plosive
IPA Symbol(s): [p] [b]
Description: Bilabial plosive
Example: pin, bin
http://www.soundsofenglish.org/pronunciation/gk.html
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The
sounds in "git" and "kit"
about ** links ** handouts ** pronunciation ** activities & exercises ** tips for teachers ** home |
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/g/
/k/
 The consonant sounds in "git"
and "kit" are both made by putting the back of our tongue up against
the roof on the back of our mouths to release a small puff of air.
If we make these sounds the same way,
then what is the difference between them? The difference is not what
we do with our mouths, but what we do with our voice. When we make a /k/ sound, we do not use our voice; the sound is quiet. Put your hand on your throat and make the sound /k/. You should not feel any movement in your throat. However, when we make a /g/ sound, we do use our voice. Put your hand on your throat and make the /g/ sound. Can you feel the vibrations? Another way to help you learn the difference between these two sounds is that /k/(the voiceless sound) makes a bigger puff of air. Put your hand in front of your mouth and make the /k/ sound. Feel the big puff of air. Now put your hand in front of your mouth again and make the /g/ sound (the voiced sound). Feel only a little puff of air? Good!
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last updated 2/14/10
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G Silent Sound (video below)
How to learn English pronunciation
English uses different sounds than your native language. If you want to speak English well, you have to teach yourself to recognize them and pronounce them.
Study the sounds of English and their IPA symbols. Learn to recognize all the sounds. Recognition is important because it lets you learn pronunciation from spoken English. In order to learn the correct pronunciation of a word, you need to know what sounds you hear — for example, whether you just heard
/dɒk/ or /dʌk/. You have to be able to tell the difference. - Learn about phonetic transcription and word stress.
- Choose your pronunciation model: American or British.
- English pronunciation is unpredictable, so guessing the pronunciation of a word rarely works and can lead to bad habits.
- That’s why you have to be a bit obsessive about checking the pronunciation of words, especially in the beginning. You should think of every word as a potential trap — not just the “difficult” words like determine or process. Basic English words like of, won’t, does or most can have very surprising pronunciations.
- Get in the habit of checking the pronunciations of words in a dictionary.
- When you’re speaking and you’re not 100% sure how to pronounce something, don’t guess — if possible, check the correct pronunciation before you say it. If not, then at least check it soon afterwards.
- While you’re reading in English, keep asking yourself: “Do I know how this word is pronounced? Can I transcribe it with phonetic symbols?”. If you’re not sure, look it up in a dictionary. This should happen very frequently when you’re a pronunciation beginner.
- Listen and notice. Get some spoken input: TV, podcasts, movies, audiobooks, recordings in dictionaries, etc. When listening, pay attention to how sounds and words are pronounced. Think about what sounds you hear. When you listen to non-native speakers, notice their mistakes.
- Practice pronouncing English words and phrases from time to time. Practice can take many forms. You can practice in a systematic way (e.g. a 15-minute session with a dictionary or online pronunciation exercises), or you can just repeat a couple words while you’re doing something else (e.g. watching a movie or taking a shower). The important thing is to do it regularly — that way, you will make steady progress.
- Consider learning the pronunciations of the most common English words in a systematic way. You could get a list of most frequent words and look up their pronunciations. Or you could use our English pronunciation software that teaches you the pronunciations of the most frequently used English words and makes you remember them.
