E-portfolio

UNIVERSIDAD DE ORIENTE
Introduction to
Linguistics
Teacher´s name: Lic. Francisco
Javier Andrade.
Student´s name: Jennifer Lisseth
Medrano Martínez.
E- Portfolio
,
2016
S a n M i g u e l

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….PAGE 2
SELF-REFLECTIVE ESSAY……………………………………………..PAGE 3-4
PICTURES REPRESENTING WHAT LANGUAGE IS…………..PAGE 5
ESSAY: “COMMUNICATION”……………………………………….PAGE 6-7
SUMMARY : “LINGUISTICS AS A WINDOW TO UNDERSTANDING
THE BRAIN”……………………………………………………………PAGE 8
PHONOLOGY PRESENTATION…………………………………….PAGE 9-11
ANALITICAL QUESTIONS ABOUT LINGUISTICS
VIDEO……………………………………………………………………..PAGE 12-13
MORPHOLOGY DIAGRAM…………………………………………..PAGE 14
EXERCISES OF MORPHOLOGY……………………………………..PAGE 15-18
RESPONSE TO REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS……………………….PAGE 19-20
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INTRODUCTION
This E-portfolio contains several activities assigned by the teacher during this first period
and a personal essay about my self-reflective learning stage. The portfolio is divided into
three main items which are: My personal statement, content (activities) and responding to
some reflective questions.
A personal statement or essay includes giving a precise description about your selfreflective
learning, the things you´re doing good and wrong to get your objective, it gives a
detailed description of your strengths and weaknesses; all of us have them. In order to
give your best, it is important to know in what you are bad or good at, then working on
strengthening your weaknesses to be able to improve.
There are some activities presented on this portfolio as the result of all the topics seen in
classes during this period, these include an analysis of the human language and
communication process, a brief study of some branches of Linguistics such as Phonetics,
Phonology and Morphology. There are several analytical questions, a summary about
some videos, exercises about Morphology analysis like morphemes, morphs and
allomorphs and also some grammatical components like the different types of phrases,
their form and function as well.
Besides, there are some self-reflective questions about the way we have been learning,
the enthusiasm we show to learn new things and the attitude we have when we´re in
classes. These questions are useful to have an idea of what are we doing with our personal
and academic performance.
So this is a complete portfolio that includes not just academic aspects but personal as
well.
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SELF-REFLECTIVE ESSAY
"Reflection leads to growth of the individual – morally, personally, psychologically, and
emotionally, as well as cognitively". I think is very important to have a reflection about our
academic and personal growth because in this way we can have a better and clear idea of
what we are doing well and wrong so that we can correct our mistakes. For this reason, as
a student, I can say that I have learned a lot of useful things, during this first period I have
been interesting in classes because they have been a challenge for me, I am aware that I
have strengths and weaknesses and my job is to strengthen my weaknesses in order to
improve and be better.
I have identified some of my academic strengths which are writing skills, when I want to
express my ideas and thoughts it is much better for me to do it by writing in a piece of
paper. My memory skills are very good, it is not so hard to me to memorize some rules,
concepts and stuff that I need to remember in order to manage some topics. Another of
my strengths is my visual ability; I mean the way I learn is by visual, when I see mind maps,
diagrams, pictures and all things I can perceive with my sight is easier to get as much as
possible information in my brain and I can remember some specific details by observing
colorful images. Besides, there are also personal strengths that contribute to my learning
process like be concentrated on what I am doing or performance, to be patient when I do
not understand something and try to look for another accessible resources or seek for
extra-information, this also means my perseverance to try to acquire the knowledge I
need in my mind.
On the other hand, as anyone I have weaknesses, which are my speaking skills, sometimes
is a little bit more difficult for me to express my own ideas in an oral way. Also I have not
developed well my reading comprehension skills and my critical thinking, when I read
something about any topic it is not enough to read just once because it is so hard to
understand about what I have read and make an analysis of that. I am conscious that I
have not been practicing too much and I have not tried to improve this important skill.
One of the personal weaknesses I have is to be insecure of what I am able to do and this
sometimes affects my academic performance as well as my personal performance and I
definitely know I must change this in order to improve it.
I have been thinking on my learning stage, if I make a comparison between a couple
months ago and now, during the time I have been studying English there is a huge
difference because I have been working in all aspects I need to improve, I have been
perseverant to maintain my objective and go for it although, there are few times in which I
feel down and do not want to follow but at the end I prefer not to quit. The process of
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learning is very complex because it can change in some stages of your life and it is precise
to know which style learning fit you better to get knowledge in an easier way.
To conclude, first I have identified my strengths and weaknesses; this would help me to
have a better understanding of what I am doing and try to change all the aspects or
elements that are not good for my academic and personal performance. Besides, it is
helpful for me to think about my learning stage and be reflective on this aspect in order to
improve and give my best effort as a student. Thus, it is recommendable that certain
period of time we stop to think about this and we correct all the mistakes we are making.
4

PICTURES REPRESENTING WHAT LANGUAGE IS
5

ESSAY: “COMMUNICATION”
6

7

SUMMARY : “LINGUISTICS AS A WINDOW TO UNDERSTANDING THE BRAIN”
8

PHONOLOGY PRESENTATION
9

10

11

ANALITICAL QUESTIONS ABOUT LINGUISTICS VIDEO
12

13

MORPHOLOGY DIAGRAM
14

EXERCISES OF MORPHOLOGY
15

16

17

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RESPONSE TO REFLECTIVE QUESTIONS
1- What did you learn during this period?
What I learned first is about the origin of language, properties of language, how is
the process of communication and the main differences between animal and
human language; this is, as an introduction to Linguistics. Besides, I learned about
some branches of Linguistics such as Phonetics, Phonology and Morphology. I also
have improved my speaking and reading comprehension by doing some interviews
and making an analysis of the materials given by my teacher. Thus, I have
improved a lot my writing skill by doing essays and creating mind maps of what I
have understood about those topics seen in classes.
2- Did you give your best effort on this E-portfolio project? Why?
Yes, I did. The reason is because during this first period, I tried to do all the
exercises and activities with care. I read all materials given in class and researched
extra-information about what I hadn´t understood. I also followed all the steps
required on this E-portfolio and I thought on my academic performance in this
subject. But I know we always can be better and give more of our effort.
3- Did this portfolio activity help you learn more than others we´ve done? Why?
Yes, it did. This is because it helped me to improve my English skills and to think
about my academic performance, what I am doing well and what I am doing wrong
in order to correct my mistakes and give my best all the time.
4- Did you come to class prepared to learn (in both your attitude and with all your
supplies)?
Yes, I prepared for every class. I carried everything I needed and tried to read a
little before classes. I think my attitude was positive because I really like this
subject and I want to learn more and more, when the class starts I think I am in
the right place in order to get my objective which is manage the English language.
5- If you could do this assignment over, what would you do differently?
Maybe there is just one thing I would change, I think it would better do it by
manual and not by digital.
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6- What class activities or assignments help you learn the most?
I think interviews help me more because I must read materials, try to comprehend
and analyze about what I read and then talk and provide my own ideas and
explanations. Another type of activities is the creativeness of mind maps, these
help me to organize my ideas and have a better understanding on a specific topic.
7- What do you believe the teacher could have done differently to help you learn
the lessons easier?
Well, maybe the teacher can explain a little bit more some specifics topics when
these are more difficult to understand, but I am aware that it is almost impossible
to cover all the topics to stop to explain them in a deeper way, because of time
and it is supposed that we already know about some topics seen in previous
courses.
8- What´s one thing the teacher did during class that you really liked?
One of the things my teacher did is making his students feel confidence and
comfortable to express our ideas and not to be afraid of making mistakes. He
generates a good and safe environment; besides, in his classes the students play
an active role by doing different kinds of activities.
9- How can you prove to the teacher that you master the contents from the first
period?
I think I can prove it by delivering all the activities assigned by the teacher like the
ones on this E-portfolio, I also can prove it by doing some tests or giving
presentations about my own explanations on a specific topic seen in class.
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