Self-Assessment

WRITING (A SUMMARY). I have written some restatement summaries this term. In my view, I have done this task quite well. In comparison with the last term, I have made less grammar, spelling mistakes. Furthermore, I could do this task quicker than before. However, my few summaries were too long and I mentioned too much facts. The fact is, that I have to learn further how to write them better.
PERFORMANCE IN ESP VOCABULARY TESTS. It is not easy task for me, but I usually get quite good marks for it. The reason is, that I make a lot of efforts doing this task. So, nothing has changed since last year.
PERFORMANCE IN CLASS DICTATIONS. To be honest, I have not done any progress in writing performance. It is very hard for me to be in time with dictations. I often miss a lot of words, prepositions and articles. Moreover, I find it difficult to understand some words, which are dictated. Due to this, I could not always understand the text.
LISTENING PRACTICE IN CLASS. I am confused due to this practice. Sometimes I both hear and understand the text quite well, at other times I am nervous, because I can not fill a lot of gaps. To my mind, both my stress and a complication of the text have influence on it. Moreover, If I do not understand the meaning of the word, which I have to write in the gap I make spelling mistakes.
LISTENING TO PEERS’ POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS. My classmates presentations appeal to me. I could enjoy when I see a lot of excited pictures or hear new ideas related with our modules. It is always useful to get more information about psychological things. Furthermore, I could ask my classmates some questions during their presentations. are the reasons why I am very satisfied with a time of power point presentations.
MAKING POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS. I could claim that it is the most interesting task for me. I have made a presentation about depression this term. I have spent much time and have made a lot of efforts in this presentation. However, it was not difficult for me, because I often think about people who suffer from depression. I would like to work and help such people in my future. Despite this, a very disappointing fact that my presentation was too long and I have made a lot of grammar mistakes in it. In my opinion, such mistakes depend on my involvement in retrieval of interesting facts about depression. So, I have not paid enough attention to grammar.
SHORT TALKS ON ESP THEMES IN CLASS. I can not tell a lie, it is not very easy for me to talk impromptu. I still worry about mistakes and my pronunciation. Furthermore, sometimes I forget words which I would like to say. Despite this, I am very happy that my classmates are quite intelligent and they get me off such unpleasant situations. In addition, this task is very useful because I could learn from my mistakes.
To sum up, there are a lot of things which I still could improve.

Your true colours

Summary

Colours have a huge influence on both people’s feelings and behavior. They could also reveal some information about person’s character.

Colours are usually used in marketing to attract customer’s attention. Color attractiveness depends on person’s custom and also his individual temperament.

According to John Ott, colours affect people’s nervous systems. It was unfolded that red colour could rise blood pressure. Due to this fact, red colour is used to make people feel hungry.

In addition, colours have a great impact on people’s opinion about various products. Too bright or pale products could make customers avoid them. Therefore, it is important to find intermediate variant.

To sum up, all colours could have different influence on individual person.

SELF-ASSESSMENT OF PODCASTING SKILLS

The aim of this summary is to evaluate my performance in listening practice according as I have done two podcasts: “Philosophy of happiness”, “Treatment of teenage depression”.
THE RATE OF SPEAKING. In my opinion, it was average.
HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU LISTENED TO SELECTED PODCASTS? To be honest, I have listened both podcasts three times. A main reason why I spend so much time was my absence of mind. Furthermore, I was in a flap that I would not understand the text and answer to questions. My fears were realized. Only when I afford to concentrate and stop worry, I could hear people’s voices and do the task.
WHICH EXERCISES ARE USEFUL FOR IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS? To my mind, all exercises are beneficial for development of listening skills. Open- ended questions could help to achieve better results not only in listening but also in writing practice. During this task, you have both to hear right answers and know how to write them properly. According to this, open- ended questions are challenges for me, because I usually do a lot of mistakes. However, I can learn from them. Exercises of multiple choice or True/ False are also not easy tasks. Usually they are very deceptive. I often mislead and correct wrong answer if I do not listen intently.
HOW DO YOU EVALUATE YOUR ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AUTHENTIC SPEECH? In my opinion, my ability to understand authentic speech is satisfactory. Of course, it depends on average rate of speaking, clear pronunciation and my concentration. Another important thing is whether I know certain words or not.
DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO PASS A LISTENING EXAM PAPER IF YOU HAD TO TAKE AN EXAM TODAY? I am afraid, that I am still not prepared enough to pass a listening exam paper. There are a lot of places, where I have to make a progress. So, I feel a huge need to do more listening practice,
HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING SKILLS? There are a lot of things which could help me to develop my listening skills, for example podcasts and cassette recordings listening as often as possible. Moreover, I watch a lot English films on my computer, listen my favorite songs and try to translate them if something is unclear for me. I have noticed these methods have a good impact for my understanding of English language. I could say that my vocabulary have become wider.
To sum up, I still have to make a lot of efforts that my listening skills would become better. I strongly believe, that listening practice and my own wish help me to implement it.

END-OFF-TERM SELF-ASSESSMENT

WRITING (A SUMMARY). I have written a lot of summaries this term. Not all of them were perfectly evaluated. The reason why it happened I think was a new task for us- writing a restatement summary. I have had to change my skills of writing analytical summary to restatement summary. It was rather difficult for me. However, now I could do this task quite well and quickly. Of course, it depends on hardness of a text. Furthermore, this task is very beneficial, because I could learn from my mistakes.
PERFORMANCE IN ESP VOCABULARY TESTS. My result of this performance was quite good like before. However, I still put a lot of effort in memorizing of information. I strongly believe that next year I could prepare for this task much easier.
PERFORMANCE IN CLASS DICTATIONS. I am afraid that it is one of the most difficult tasks for me. During this performance, I have to write a text in a rush. Due to this, I make a lot of mistakes, such as words missing, mixing both articles and prepositions. Sometimes I heard words incorrectly. At that time, I do not understand sentences, which I write. I hope that I will improve my performance in the future.
LISTENING PRACTICE IN CLASS. To be honest, this task makes me nervous. I still do not feel a progression when I do listening practice. Of course, we had some really interesting listening tasks this term. In my attitude, if a text is attractive for me, it is much understandable and I can mark a right answer. Despite this, I discomfit when I have to feel gasps.
LISTENING TO PEERS’ POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS. It is lovely time that I could genuinely call a relaxation. My classmates are very creative and they have a lot of unexpected ideas. I could both revise important information related with our modules and gain new knowledge from such presentations.
MAKING POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS. Unfortunately, I should confess that I have not done this task yet because I have not had enough time. However, I enjoyed this task the last term. So, I am confident that I will present my presentation in the short term and I do it with a huge pleasure.
SHORT TALKS ON ESP THEMES IN CLASS. This task appeals to me, because we can exchange of our different views about various themes. Moreover, this task helps me improve my speaking skills. I notice that I am not so afraid to talk as earlier. I know that I make a lot of mistakes in my short talks, but I can learn from it.

To sum up, all tasks help me improve my English skills. I know that only with a lot of practice I could achieve good results.

Phobias

A phobia is an irrational, persistent fear of certain situations, things, or people. The main symptom of phobias is the unreasonable desire to avoid the feared subject. If the fear is beyond one's control, it could be called the anxiety disorder.
According to the study, there was found that phobias
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arise from a combination of internal predispositions and external events. Heredity, genetics, and brain chemistry combined with life-experiences play a major role in the development of them.

Taphophobia is one of the strong fears. It is the fear of being placed in a grave while still alive as a result of being incorrectly pronounced dead. There are a lot of legends of people being accidentally buried alive, what is the main cause of taphophobia. Legends have elements such as coffins opened to find a corpse with a long beard. Another legend tells of someone entering into the state of coma only to wake up years later in a grave and die again a horrible death. People with this phobia try to make all sorts of arrangements for the construction of a “safety coffin”. There are some stories about "Dead ringer", which means that people prepare a rope attached to a bell outside the coffin, which could alert people that the recently buried person is not yet deceased.

Another abnormal and persistent fear is phasmophobia. Phasmophobia is the phobia of ghosts or phantasms. It is usually brought about by experiences in early childhood, when people believe that they have had a meeting with ghosts. Other causes of this phobia are influences of both films and tale stories. The sufferer often has panic attacks and experiences intense feelings of terror. Person also has increased or rapid heart-beat. Furthermore, such people avoid situations in which they think they could encounter apparitions. Sufferers are not only afraid of ghosts but rather what they perceive to be a ghost. If person is under stress, he could lose his rationally thinking and cannot afford to differentiate reality from his fantasies.

There are some methods which could be useful in treating of both these phobias. Some therapists offer cognitive behavioral therapy. During this therapy, psychotherapists try to help sufferers to reveal their negative thought patterns and ways to change them to positive. Another technique is hypnotherapy. It could help remove the associations that trigger irrational fears. Moreover, anti-depression medications could be beneficial. It is clear, that all of these methods have to be applied by specialists.

Nobody could argue that each person could have a phobia. Famous people are not exception. There is information that George Washington had taphophobia. On his deathbed, Washington made his attendants promise not to bury him for three days. Sigmund Freud had siderodromophobia, fear of train travel. Gas of trains for him looks similar to souls burning in hell.

To sum up, a phobia is not a simple fear. Phobias are serious anxiety disorders. If people cannot control their fears and carry out daily activities without incident, it is a notice that phobias have to be treated.


References:

http://209.85.129.132/search?q=cache:QvfXAipVMZkJ:www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/phobias.html+phobias&cd=3&hl=lt&ct=clnk&gl=lt

http://209.85.129.132/search?q=cache:nkIkd6i0UKEJ:www.adaa.org/GettingHelp/AnxietyDisorders/SpecificPhobia.asp+phobias&cd=10&hl=lt&ct=clnk&gl=lt

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia

Richard Wiseman's Experiments

Richard Wiseman is a professor of the Public Understanding of Psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in the United Kingdom. Wiseman has gained an international reputation for research into quirky areas of psychology, including deception, humour, luck and the paranormal. In Richard’s website you can find exciting experiments related with belief in ghosts, magic tricks, the power of both memory and suggestion and etc.

There is Wiseman‘s amazing project which is called „The People Watchers“.It consists of many small experiments. Three psychologists perform hidden-camera stunts on unsuspecting members of the public to demonstrate why we behave the way we do in everyday situations. In one of these experiments Richard Wiseman questions how people choose a person for whom they would like to help. Three people: the young nice women, the old lady, and the fat fellow collected money from the customers for the charity in the supermarket. Lots of people passed the old lady and the stout and gave money for the beauty. In this experiment Richard reveals that people are unconsciously attracted by attractive people.

Another experiment is related with people credulity. People got invitations to use facilities of the established hairstylist and evaluate her work. Although she had done nothing only brushed and wetted out people hair, all of them claimed that the hairdresser was the perfect specialist. This experiment demonstrates how easy is to persuade people and make them believe in silliest things.

There is the interesting experiment related with people honesty. Two tables were left in the supermarket. On one of them were laid a lot of magazines. On another was put the box with advertisement: “In a hurry? Take a paper and put your change in here”. Only two girls paid for magazines. A reason for this was people’s belief that nobody could watch them. So, this experiment exposed that the public has huge influence on people’s behavior.

Richard Wiseman’s experiments are both interesting and very beneficial. We could have a lot of knowledge about ways of thinking and perception of people, their behavior causes and understand how we could change that behavior from Richard’s experiments.

References: http://www.richardwiseman.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2rF3THVuhs&feature=PlayList&p=394E176D57B63320&index=0

Learning Languages

There is not universal system of learning languages. There are some recommended ways how to learn. We could use them but at the same time each person chooses an individual method which appeals to him mostly.

There are some strategies which a teacher could use to help us to learn. It would be perfect if students have opportunity to work through past examination papers. If we do not sort out our mistakes, we will make it again and again. Moreover, practice in different types of writing tasks and regular homework is a good method, but not always. If we get too much homework we will not make it intently with our all strength.

It is clear that there are some methods of learning languages which we could apply individually. One of beneficial methods is to keep a vocabulary notebook and revise new vocabulary regularly. Another good idea is to use a bilingual dictionary when you write summaries, contributions or prepare to talk. In that way, your vocabulary could become much wider. Furthermore, it is beneficial to read English newspapers or magazines. There is a good practice when students have foreign language literature to prepare their subjects. Because it is double benefit: knowledge and memorizing of various new words. The best way of learning languages at all is to mach various methods.

There are some learning habits which could become unhelpful in the long run. For example, if you always use a grammar reference book or translate every unknown word as you read without learning grammar rules or revising new words you will not remember them. Furthermore, when people guess all unknown words as they read is not useful. Due to this, they could understand context in wrong meaning. So, it is very important to choose suitable methods.

To sum up, people could learn languages only with their personal wish and a lot of efforts. As Oliver Wendell Holmse is said „Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow“. So, it is really worth to learn so many languages as you afford.

References: http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/index.html
http://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/proverbs.htm