2009 m. gruodžio 3 d., ketvirtadienis

ESP COURSE SELF-ASSESSMENT


· WRITING (A SUMMARY)


It was my first time of writing a summary at university, at the beginning of this task it was quite difficult. But later I got it and in second term my performances in summary writing were quite good. In last term we haven‘t had many writings, but I hope that my performance in exam summary writing will be good enough.



· PERFORMANCE IN ESP VOCABULARY TESTS


My performances were very different. Some was total failure, in some tests my performance were perfect. Firstly preparation for these tests were quite hard, because it was difficult to remember a lot of specific words or phrases, but later it become easier. Also my performances were depended on my preparations: more preparations – better performance.



· PERFORMANCE IN CLASS DICTATIONS


This activity was the hardest thing in all course. Because I hadn‘t had such king tasks at school, it was my first time of doing these tasks at university. It is very hard for me to listen, to understand the point of the text, to write and to think about grammar at the same time. The first performances were terrible, but later it got better, but not nearly perfect.



· LISTENING PRACTICE IN CLASS


Doing listening wasn‘t my forte and favorite. Also my performances weren‘t perfect. However with more practice, my performances become better.



· MAIKING POWER POINT PRESENTATION


This task was my most favorite in all course. And my performances in it were the best. I think that it is so because I have chosen interesting topics and then making become enjoyable.



· IMPROMPTU SPEAKING IN CLASS


I think that I was quite successful in this activity, especially then topics were interesting and then I had what to say, some ideas. I know that I do many mistakes while speaking, but I think it is better to try to say something with mistakes than don‘t say anything.



· WRITING CONTRIBUTIONS TO E-PORTFOLIO (WEBLOG)


This activity was one of the most interesting think in ESP course. And now it is really interesting to look at my and my colleagues’ weblogs, to read some interesting contributions and I think it will be really nice and interesting remembrance. ;)

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2009 m. spalio 12 d., pirmadienis

YOUR TRUE COLOURS

Summary
Colours influence the mind in mysterious way, and others use it very successfully to influence people.

The marketing world is one of the most business zones which successfully use psychology of colours. There are many principles which fit to all people, but it is very important to remember that there are cultural differences, that some colours can differently influence people.

There are some researches which proved that color affect peoples’ nervous system. It’s like that red increase energy and hunger or that blue makes people to relax. Some these experiments explain why such places like McDonalds use red color and how soup’s colour influence it’s selling.

To sum up, psychology of colours could be used not only in marketing world or food industry but also in peoples’ daily life.

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2009 m. spalio 6 d., antradienis

SELF-ASSESSENT OF PODCASTING SKILLS


This term we are going to take an English exam and the listening is one of the exam‘s task. So if you want to get great mark of this exam, it’s very important to have good skills of listening. One of the ways to improve it is to listen the podcasts from the http://martinmcmorrow.podomatic.com/ website. I have listened two podcasts: „Dream your life, live your dream“ and “Intelligent design the future“

· THE RATE OF SPEAKING

First‘s podcast‘s rate of speaking was very fast, but in second podcast rate of speaking was average, so it was more easier to listen it.


· HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU LISTENED TO SELECTED PODCASTS?

First podcast I was listening twice, because of very fast rate of speaking. Second podcast was easier to understand so to listen twice were no need.


· WHICH EXERCISES ARE USEFUL FROM IMPROVING LISTENING SKILLS?

I think that all exercises are useful (open-ended questions, multiple choice, true/false, etc) because they all improve our listening skills from different sides.


· HOW DO YOU EVALUATE YOUR ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND AUTHENTIC SPEECH?

I think my ability to understand authentic speech is satisfactory, however, if speaking is not very fast it is easier to understand even authentic speech, althought very fast speech makes me some problems.


· DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO PASS A LISTENING EXAM PAPER IF YOU HAD TO TAKE AN EXAM TODAY?

I‘m not sure. I think it depend on the task. If it would be difficult, I think I would fail it, but if task would be easier, fortune will smile me.


· HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR LISTENING SKILLS?

There are many ways to improve listening skills. The best, in my opinion, are to talk to native speakers and watch English films. Also I think it is very good to go abroad for minimum one month, but not all can presume it.
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2009 m. gegužės 14 d., ketvirtadienis

Psychology at MRU and abroad

Many young people are dreaming about studying in university. Some are dreaming about local universities, some about going abroad. Here I‘m going to compare Mykolas Romeris university and University of Jyväskylä (Finland).
The University of Jyväskylä is among the leading research universities in Finland with some 16 000 students, a wide range of disciplines, and active international cooperation. It comprises of seven faculties and state-of-the-art research facilities. Human-centred Sciences, Natural Sciences and Mathematics, Sport and Health Sciences, and Teacher Education form our core fields of research and education. The University of Jyväskylä is one of the most popular higher education institutions in Finland.


Mykolas Romeris University is a modern and dynamic European university with a creative and efficient research and academic community. Bachelor, Master and Doctoral Studies are carried out in compliance to the major principles of Bologna process in seven faculties. The University currently enrolls over 20,500 students. A total of 200 doctoral students study in the fields of law, management and administration. The University offers more than 70 different study programmes. Presently over 80% of study programmes have international accreditation.
The goal of the basic study programme of psychology is similar in both universities: to learn the basics of scientific psychology. The student is introduced to the central issues, concepts, theories and research methods in several fields of psychology. In The University of Jyväskylä the basic study programme is worth 25 ECTS credits. It consists of five 5- ECTS credit courses. Each course consists of two sections worth 2.5 ECTS credits apiece. One section is always completed either as an exam or a concept map assignment and the other as a written assignment. In MRU study programme is worth 160 credits, no less than 40 credits a year. Every semester students‘ knowledge is tested by exams or records negotiations.

Different than in our university in The University of Jyväskylä studying is not tied to any place or time – there are no fixed schedules, and it is possible to complete all studies at home, for example. You can register as a student at any time and complete your courses in the order you consider best.
To sum up, I think that all universities are good and interesting in their own way and it is hard to say which is better or worst, because I don‘t try any, apart MRU ;)



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2009 m. gegužės 12 d., antradienis

END-OF-TERM SELF-ASSESSMENT


· WRITING (A SUMMARY)
Writing a summary was easier in this term than in the first because now I have more skills and understanding how to do it. And I think that if I would stop doing grammatical mistakes, my writing would be perfect.

· PERFORMANCE IN ESP VOCABULARY TESTS
Some tests have been easier and some took a lot of time to prepare. But how to prepare to them I have learnt in the thirst term: try to rewrite definitions in your own words, to understand it and to repeat it many times. To sum up, I think that I was quite successful in it.

· PERFORMANCE IN CLASS DICTATIONS
This activity was the hardest thing in all term. I was absolute loser. It was very hard for me to hear what to write, to think how to write it and to do it without any mistakes. I think it is because text has been dictated very fast and I have no skills in this activity.

· LISTENING PRACTICE IN CLASS
This ground is neither my best nor the worst. I think that by the time and with more practicing my skills at this will be better and better.

· LISTENING TO PEERS’ POWER POINT PRESENTATIONS
I like this activity, because it isn’t in all lectures and when someone is making a presentation we can walk off from usual works. Naturally not all presentations are equally interesting, but the bigger part was exciting.

· MAIKING POWER POINT PRESENTATION
Making power point presentation hasn’t been very hard and I enjoyed it. Because I have chosen interesting topic, maiking presentation was interesting too, and I hope that others was interested as well as me.

· SHORT TALKS ON ESP THEMES IN CLASS
I think that this activity was successful too. As much time I have spared to prepare to talks, a much better my performance was. But I like it and I can feel how my ability to speak in English become better and better.

Picture:
http://suglumes.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/fall_from_grace_by_lithp.jpg
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2009 m. gegužės 11 d., pirmadienis

PHOBIAS


Almost everyone has an irrational fear or two. For most people, these fears are minor. But for some, these fears cause tremendous anxiety and interfere with normal day-to-day life. When fears are irrational and disabling, they are called phobias. A phobia is an intense, unrealistic fear, which can interfere with the ability to socialize, work, or go about everyday life that is brought on by an object, event or situation. There are about 500 different phobias in the world, and this number is always growing! However I am going to describe just two phobias: brontophobia and aviophobia


BRONTOPHOBIA:


Brontophobia is an abnormal and persistent fear of thunder and lighting. This type of phobia is often present in a mild form with young children, but normally begins to subside as the child enters adolescence. Household pets also sometimes exhibit this fear.

When lightning bolts appear in the skies or the sound of distant thunder reaches the ears of the Brontophobic, anxiety begins to mount. Brontophobia symptoms may include the outbreak of a fully fledged panic attack, including a sense of losing control, the heart begin to palpitate rapidly. Then person may hide under bends, desks, behind sofas or in closets.

The causes of Brontophobia are often linked to frightening childhood experiences during a storm and also thinking that thunder can hurt a person.

Brontophobia treatment is usually structured to address the specific symptoms of Brontophobia exhibited by the patient. Neuro Linguistics Program is the fastest way to treat this phobia. This program eliminate negative thoughts and habits and improve one‘s daily life.
Madonna is suffering from this phobia.

AVIOPHOBIA:

Aviophobia is the term used to define an irrational fear of flying. Common symptoms of Aviophobia include breathlessness, nausea, dry mouth, unclear speech and thought, giddiness, excessive perspiration, losing of psychological control, heart palpitations, shakes and occasional bouts of anxiety and depression. This fear can become a life altering phobia due to today's fast paced and fast traveled world.

Aviophobia is a learned response that can be passed down from first hand or second hand experiences. Also The fear of flying may be created by various other phobias and fears such as claustrophobia, a fear of heights (acrophobia), fear of hijacking or terrorism, fear of crashing resulting in injury or death.

Learning about the safety of flying can help take the edge off. Other effective way to overcome this phobia is Cognitive behavior therapy.
Jennifer Aniston is suffering from this phobia.


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2009 m. balandžio 27 d., pirmadienis

AVERAGE HAPPINESS


Happiness is one of the most important life’s components. Our life’s quality relies on how much we are happy. Are all people equally happy? Obviously not. That was proved by Ruut Veenhoven’s current research how much people enjoy their life-as-a-whole.


Ruut Veenhoven studied sociology. Also is teaching work in social psychology raised his interest in individual differences in happiness and in the possibilities of increasing individual happiness through training and advises. His World Database of Happiness is an ongoing register of scientific research on the subjective enjoyment of life. It brings together findings that are scattered throughout many studies and provides a basis for synthetic work.


An average happiness calculation was made in 95 nations 1995-2005. How much people enjoy their life-as-a-whole was evaluate on scale 0 to 10. In the top of all 95 nations is Denmark! It was evaluated even 8.2 points. Others the happiest nations are Switzerland, Austria, Iceland and Finland. I think that these results were influenced by good political and economical situation in these countries. However, this list shows us, which nations are the unhappiest. In the bottom of the list we can find Armenia, Ukraine, Moldova, Zimbabwe and the rearmost is Tanzania. It was evaluated on 3.2 points. And what evaluation gets Lithuania? Only 4.6 and it is 85 of 95 nations. Sad to see these results, but this is fact. I think, that apart economical and political situations people’s happiness is affected by climate, temperament, nature and other different facts.

To sum up, nobody else can make us happy than we. People should take pleasure in simple, small things and luck will come by itself. So, don’t worry, be happy ;)



References: http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/hap_nat/nat_fp.php
http://www2.eur.nl/fsw/research/veenhoven/Pub2000s/2007c-full.pdf
Pictures: http://www1.eur.nl/fsw/happiness/people.htm
http://fc54.deviantart.com/fs35/f/2008/239/f/8/Taste_of_happiness_by_uploathe.jpg
http://blogs.psychologytoday.com/files/u15/Happiness_2.jpg
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