Self - Assessment of ESP Learning

WRITING (summaries). I forgot how to write summaries because in this term I have to write only one summary.
WRITING ESP VOCABULARY TESTS. I haven't writen a lot of tests but I think my vocabulary have improved because I am preparing for my exam papper.
WRITING CLASS DICTATIONS. This task was hard for me bacause sometimes I could not understand the words and make a lot of mistakes in punctuation. I think, I need more practice on that.
LISTENING COMPREHENSION IN CLASS. It is difficult task for me because I always make mistakes in listening tasks. I think, I have not improved in this task even that I have listened in class a lot.
LISTENING TO PEER'S POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS. I think, this activity is important for me because I hear some interesting and new information. I am quiet when we have to ask questions so in this way I am not improved.
MAKING POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS. I think I am improved in this task because I have made a lot of presentations in these terms.
SPEAKING ON ESP THEMES IN CLASS. I am quiet in speaking tasks but sometimes I say my oppinion. So I think I have improved a little.

Luck

There are many definitions to discribe luck. I will write some of them:
1.Luck (also called fortuity) is a chance happening, or that which happens beyond a person's control. Luck can be good or bad (as in; Good fortune or misfortune).
2.fortune: your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you); "whatever my fortune may be"; "deserved a ...
3.an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another; "bad luck caused his downfall"; "we ran into each other by pure chance"
Everyone choses the definition about luck for itself.
I think that luck is something good or bad that happens to person that doesn't depend on people. Something mystic that cannot be explain.
I like when people say for me "Good luck", then I feel more relaxed and confident.
All in all, luck is very useful for us, so I want to say everyone "GOOD LUCK"!


References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luck
http://www.google.lt/search?hl=lt&defl=en&q=define:luck&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title

Self - Assessment of ESP Learning

WRITING SKILLS:

• Summaries. I think, I improve my summary writing. First, it was hard but after some writings I understand how summaries should be writen.


• ESP vocabulary tests. I did not pay a lot of attention at that so it is not so good as I wish it would.
• Self-designed tests. I think, I was good in this task. This helped me to plug in in the text.
• Dictations. This task was hard for me bacause sometimes I could not understand the words and make a lot of mistakes in punctuation. I think, I need more practice on that.
• Contributions to weblogs. In this term I did not write a lot of contributions to weblogs so I think, I am standing in the same place as I was last term.

SPEAKING SKILLS:

• Participation in class discussions. When I am talking in discussions I feel that I make a lot of mistakes. It is hard to improve my speaking because I do not speak a lot in English.
• Presentations. I do not like doing presentations because I have public speaking fear. Also, it is hard to remember all the information. But now I know how to make a good presentation.
• Speaking in pairs. I like this task because it helps me to improve my speaking and also, I hear sometimes new information and of course it helps me to learn how to listen people.

LISTENING SKILLS:

• Listening activities in class. I think, my listening improved because the texts which we listened were quite easy so it was not so hard to plug in the text.
• Listening to podcasts. This task was good because I could read the text of podcasts and translate the words I did not know.
• Listening outside of class if any. I am watching movies in English. I think, that helps me to improve the understanding of this language and also, it helps me to cream off what is the most important.

READING SKILLS.

• Home reading. I think, my reading improved because I read a lot of text in this term which is related to psychology.
• Class reading. I think, this also improved because we discussed about text we had read.
• Read comprehension exercises. This task was a bit hard for me because not always I could cream off what is important.
• Computer tasks. I think, I improved this because first of all, I found out new pages which I can use after classes, moreover these tasks where interesting so I wanted to plug in into these texts.

Artificial Intelligence

When I am talking about artificial intelligence I always imagine not computers but robots. Now inventors are trying to construct robots which could change people in some areas in the nearest future and I am afraid that it is not as good as it looks like.
If robots replace humans in work area, what will people then do? How they get money? If person doesn’t have a job, he doesn’t earn money, and then there is no ability to survive. Also, we should raise a question: are humans replaceable, especially with robots? I think, absolutely not! What if robots get a virus? I think, then they will not help us but do a lot of harm.
So everyone should think carefully about robots and artificial intelligence.

Body language

Body language is a term for communication using body movements or gestures instead of, or in addition to, sounds, verbal language or other communication.
I found in the Internet one chart in which was written about nonverbal behavior and how to interpret it. I will write here some examples.
Examples:
1) Standing with hands on hips that mean readiness, aggression.
2) Hand to cheek that mean evaluation, thinking.
3) Biting nails that mean insecurity, nervousness and etc.
It is good to know about body language because than you can more easily to understand people.

Chimps beat humans in memory test

Restatement sumarry

Three pairs of mother and baby chimpanzees and university students were tested in memory tests which were made-up by Japanese scientists.
Before tests chimps had already been taught to "count" from one to nine. During the experiment, each subject was asked to look into the monitor in which numbers were shown for a short time and when the numbers were replaced with blank squares, touch them in appropriate order.Scientists found that young chimps showed better results than their mothers and university students.
Dr Liza Pair said that this happened because of our increasing reliance on language-based memory skills.

Meditation

I have to confess that about meditation I know nothing, just that it is a form of relaxation. And also, when someone tell word meditation I imagine a person sitting cross-legged and saying "aaammmm".
But I thought that it is not enough to write one paragraph about meditation so I decided to find some information in the Internet. And I  found one interesting page. I want to share it with you http://www.learningmeditation.com/ (2007-11-26)
Now I know that there are different ways of meditation and it is enough to spend a few moments of relaxing if you do it in correct way.
I think meditation is useful in our fast-moving world because of its help we can relax and find some time for ourselves.