MEMORIES
BYRON VELASCO ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM LEVEL 6 YACHAY TECH, ECUADOR
MEMORIES By: BYRON VELASCO ENGLISH LANGUAGE PROGRAM YACHAY TECH LEVEL 6-018 TEACHER: MARK POESE JANUARY 13, 2017 IMBABURA, ECUADOR
|
TABLE Of Contents 1. Portfolio letter 2. Response essay 3. Interpretation essay 4. Argumentation essay 5. Final research project essay 6. Thank you letter
December 10, 2017 Dear Portfolio Reader: My name is Byron Velasco. Thank you very much for reading my English Language Portfolio. My portfolio is a recompilation of all my works made throughout this English course. My portfolio shows my ability to make works in English language like essays, presentations and reflections. This portfolio consists of four essays, a reflection, and a research project that I developed throughout my English classes. I think that English was necessary for me because I have learned a lot during this semester. I show this improvement in my essays. My responsibility was to complete my tasks each class. I learned that for a big project, I have to do it in parts along the time expected for this, in this way the assignment does not accumulate at the last minutes. Thanks to this, I learned to manage my time, and make a schedule for my assignments. Thanks to English classes, I have grown in many ways for my personal behavior, for example my responsibility with homework and presentations. In this semester I learned that I have to read a lot in order to have an idea of what we are talking about. I am really happy to pass this English level because I improved my listening skill which was the most difficult for me. I think that I have improved my writing skills throughout this semester. I remember that in my first essay I did not know what APA format was about. I did not have any idea of how to choose a good external reference, but in each work I was selecting better sources. For the first essay, it was difficult for me to write the information that I found because I had to be more specific on my thesis and the argumentative paragraphs. I have learned how to write any work in APA style throughout this sixth level of English.
I would have liked to practice more speaking by myself during this semester because I realized that speaking is a strong skill as an English language user. I would have liked to speak in classes when the teacher asked something. I feel sad about this because I am very shy, and it did not allow me to speak in class. I always had that problem since I entered to fourth level. When I entered sixth level, I expected to learn more listening and speaking. Now, I can see that we practiced a lot for these skills and I am satisfied for this. Thanks to this semester in English classes, I have practiced a lot for presentations, writing essays, and performing research. Now, I have the basis to develop myself for academic assignments. I learned that I can improve my language and vocabulary reading some articles, news and searching for new words that I read. I am really grateful about all these accomplishments throughout my English classes. They helped me a lot to grow as a person and as a student. Now, I can follow my academic studies and I am not afraid of take English classes anymore. I know that I am ready to take classes in English and understand what the teacher is saying and teaching. Thank you again for reading my portfolio. I hope you enjoy reading my works that I did with a lot of effort, creativity and inspiration. Also, I hope that these works would be helpful for you when you have to do an essay. I hope these works would be an example to follow for students. I am confident that you will agree with me that I have improved a lot since the beginning to the end, and I have improved my writing skills. Sincerely, Byron Velasco
RESPONSE ESSAY
Does the Language I Speak Influence the Way I Think? Byron Velasco Yachay Tech
Author Note ELP Level 6-018 Fall 2016
Does the Language I Speak Influence the Way I Think? Our way of thinking can be influenced by many factors like language. Language is an important way to transmit information to other people. Our experiences can be transmitted to other persons. It is practiced by most of people in the world. Every person can talk to others thanks to language, but to what extent can a person understand someone who speaks a different language? All languages have something different in the way they give the information. A specific language can understand a word differently than another language does. “Based on his studies, Whorf claimed that speakers of Hopi and speakers of English see the world differently because of differences in their language.” (Birner, n.d.). It seems like different languages are a different way of thinking because each language comes from different cultures, as Birner (n.d.) quotes Whorf “your culture — the traditions, lifestyle, habits, and so on that you pick up from the people you live and interact with — shapes the way you think, and also shapes the way you talk.” . Whorf claims that learning a new language very different from your own can help you to understand how the other culture is and its lifestyle because all cultures have different customs, and hence a different way of seeing the world. In this research Benjamin Lee Whorf, who is a member of Linguistic Society of America, made a study about the influence of the language in our way of thinking. Whorf studied Hopi and claimed that Hopi speakers and English speakers see the world differently. This question involves more than just language and thoughts, it is also involved the culture which shapes your way of thinking and your way of speaking. Whorf claimed that the most probable is that language, thoughts and culture have grown up together. Hopi speakers use verbs in different way than English speakers do. Hopi speakers focus on how you got the information and for general knowledge. On the other
hand, English speakers focus on the time of the event. English speakers differentiate countable and uncountable nouns, but Japanese use classifiers for all nouns. People can conjure up mental images and sensations which are hard to describe with words. For example, the color spectrum is continuous, but we cannot describe all the colors which appear while red is turning into purple. Instead, we can imagine all those colors in our mind. Whorf’s main idea is that language doesn’t change our way of thinking, but it influences in our way of seeing the world and explains some things from another culture. This is supported by his studies in many languages like Russian, Hopi, English, Guugu Yimithirr, etc. He explains the differences in a language compared to another one. For example: “…Guugu Yimithirr…doesn’t have words like left and right or front and back. Its speakers always describe locations and directions using the Guugu Yimithirr words for north, south, east, and west.” (Birner, n.d.). I agree with Whorf’s main idea because the only one factor that can makes us change our mind is culture. Culture is our surroundings, people who we interact with and the environment we live in. Maybe a different language can influence just a little bit our way of thinking because we talk to a person from another culture, so we are catching information from another lifestyle. I think that we also shape our way of thinking based on our own experiences, feelings and emotions, because it is the way we see the world and this shapes what we think about it. “Most likely, the culture, the thought habits, and the language have all grown up together.” (Birner, n.d.). This idea is a great support for Whorf’s main idea, because it says that we need the culture as a factor for changing our mind. We are not just language, we combine our thoughts and culture with our language. Since we were children, we have formed our way of thinking based on the place where we have grown
up. From that moment, our thoughts depend on what we see in our surrounding and what people say. According to Birner (n.d.), another of Whorf’s ideas is “objects are treated differently by the syntax of different languages as well.” Because of syntax of different languages, many things can mean something different in another language. I think that this is the reason why different languages make us see the world in a different way. I do not agree with the Whorf’s example which says that if a Hopi speaker says that a boy is standing at the east of your house, an English speaker would think about the boy as standing in front of the house. All people know the cardinal points, so I think that a person is able to differentiate that east is at the right, west at the left, north in the front and south in the back. I think that Hopi speakers and English speakers will not have a problem in getting this information right. The text is really good in giving information because it is clear and with understandable words. I think that Whorf made a good study because he did not limit himself to two languages; he compared more than five languages, so there is a strong comparison. Its purpose is to answer a question that was made in the 1940s by giving examples which support the answer. This text is directed to an open public because the author is using a basic language. The author does not use technical words which are unique of subject. This text has a great value because it is published by a recognized society called Linguistic Society of America which specializes in these themes (language). In addition, his ideas are well organized, it is formed by short paragraphs, each one with a different idea which supports the main idea. I think that the author is impartial because he gives ideas about what way language influences our way of thinking but he is also giving examples to show that the language does not always influence thinking.
Finally, language does not influence our way of thinking much. Language just influences our way of seeing the world. Culture influences our way of thinking. Culture is always related to our language and thoughts. Different languages have different meaning for specific words, so there could be a bad understanding about it. In different languages, some objects are treated in different ways, like the locations. I agree with the author’s thesis, and I think that he made an excellent study. The format that the author followed is easy to understand and clear.
Reference Does the Language I Speak Influence the Way I think? (n.d.) Retrieved September 28, 2016, from http://www.linguisticsociety.org/sites/default/files/Does_Language_Influence.pdf
Interpretation essay
“The Hands of the Protest,” the Prayer and the Cry of the Ecuadorian Painter Guayasamin Veronica Quilumba, Byron Velasco, Iskra Zambrano Yachay Tech University
Authors Note ELP L6 – 018 Fall 2016
Fig. 1. The Hands of the Protest by Oswaldo Guayasamin Image Source: http://vidayobradeoswaldoguayasamin.blogspot.com/
“The Hands of the Protest,� the Prayer and the Cry of the Ecuadorian Painter Guayasamin Through the painting, we can express our emotions and the reality in which we live. This was the main purpose of Oswaldo Guayasamin, an outstanding Ecuadorian painter, who through the artistic movement "The Cubism" succeeded in translating into each of his pictorials works the social, political and personal problems of the human being. We can highlight the talent of Guayasamin in one of his most valuable pictorial work, "The Hands of Protest," a work belonging to the project "The Age of Wrath." Additionally, lovers of cubist art from the works of Oswaldo Guayasamin will be able to discover in "The Hands of Protest," the result of the thought of a lifetime. Also, the
message that Oswaldo shouts in his paintings throughout a career is dedicated to the sensitivity for the most unprotected beings, and for that reason “The Hands of the Protest” is a mixture between a prayer and a cry. "My painting is of two worlds. From the skin to the inside it is a cry against racism and poverty, and from the skin to the outside is the synthesis of the time that I had to live." (O. Guayasamin) Oswaldo Guayasamín, son of indigenous father and mestiza mother, was born in Quito on July 6, 1919. He started to draw when he was a child, and his talent excelled at a tender age. Oswaldo spent his time drawing caricatures of his classmates and teachers when he was eight years old, and that situation gave him fame among his friends and instructors. In addition, he sold his pictures to foreigners, and with that money he used to pay his studies in the “Escuela de Bellas Artes” in Quito. When he was 20 years old, he won a scholarship to study arts, and the opportunity to expose his pictorial works in Mexico. Years later, when he was 36 years old, he won the Great Prize of the SpanishAmerican Biennial in Barcelona and later the Great Prize of the Biennial of Sao Paulo. Guayasamin did several humanist works where he reflected and expressed pain and misery that the society of his generation endured. He also denounced, through his pictorial work, the violence between human beings during the 20th century marked by world wars, civil wars, genocide, concentration camps, dictatorships, and torture. As a result of his work, Guayasamin marked the tendency of the social realism, and he became a reference of the Ecuadorian painting in the world. “My painting is to hurt, to scratch and strike in the hearts of people. To show what man does against.” (O. Guayasamin). Through his pictures, Guayasamin searched for justice in society and a better life for all. For example, one of his most important
collections of his pictorial stages is “The Age of Wrath” which contains the painting “The Hands of the Protest.” In the art sense, Oswaldo Guayasamin shows the despair of human beings against problems that affect them. Also, it reflects the misery that most of humanity suffers and denounces, the poverty, the corruption, the pain of a mother who loses her son due to the war, and the abuse of power of people who believed themselves superior to the others. “I know that examples of physical and mental torture, of everyday crimes, are more or less known. But there is another form of official torture, less visible, less known, but more devastating, that aims at the same goal: the destruction of our peoples, annihilating our culture, making them consumers of products and concepts elaborated thousands of kilometers from our countries, in that total war that fascism has once again declared to culture.” (O. Guayasamin) As Guayasamin said, there exists another type of war that annihilates the culture of our peoples, and we saw that in “The Hands of the Protest.” On the one hand, we saw the signs of despair in a human face and the position of two hands which cry silently for help for our world that is crumbling because of the ambitious man who consumes his mother earth. On the other hand, the battered hands of the man, the color of his skin and his facial features, bring to our minds the image of our indigenous peoples. People who are characterized by their hard work of every day to achieve a "dignified" life that in the past and nowadays is remunerated with unjust salaries. In addition, it reminds us of their future that is taken away by those who think themselves superior, the great landowners who nowadays disguise themselves as politicians; the picture reminds us of his struggle for equality and liberation. As we mentioned before, “The Hands of the Protest” is part of “The Age of the Wrath,” and for that reason, it reflects the catastrophe. It also reflects the loss of lives of
human beings under the ambition of individuals with the thirst for power for governing our planet causing violence, wars, and injustices. The color at the bottom of the picture gives us a feeling of sadness. The blue color gives us the idea of a man who has suffered and who has repressed his feelings for fear of being judged. Also, the mixture between blue and black shows us and the sadness due to the slavery of our indigenous peoples and their culture. “In spite of everything, we have not lost faith in man, in his ability to rise and build; because art covers life. It is a way of loving.” (O. Guayasamin). Finally, Oswaldo Guayasamin tried to give us a message represented by a cry which protests for freedom and justice for all those who have been repressed; a cry against the discrimination of aborigine peoples. Additionally, Guayasamin achieves to connect his feelings with the viewer and makes that the viewer feel the author feelings with the purpose of transmitting a profound message of protest. To conclude, in the pictorial work done by Oswaldo Guayasamin, “The Hands of the Protest,” shows the sensitivity that Guayasamin had for the most unprotected beings. Also, this is evident because the painting shows a desperate man who cries for injustice of the society. “The Hands of the Protest” is the proof of the great talent that Guayasamin had, and we believe that his pictorials works leave us a legacy of love for art.
Reference BiografĂas y Vidas. (2012). Guayasamin (November,2016). Retrieved from http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/biografia/g/guayasamin.htm BiografĂas, E. d. (December, 1999). Searching for biographies, Oswaldo Guayasamin. November, 2016. Retrieved from http://www.buscabiografias.com/biografia Viaje de Radio. (February, 2010). The Hands of the Protest by Oswaldo Guayasamin, November, 2016. Retrieved from http://viajederadio.blogspot.com/2010/02/lasmanos-de-la-protesta-oswaldo.html
ARGUMENTATION ESSAY
Censorship is Necessary to Protect People’s Safety, Integrity and Moral Byron Velasco Yachay Tech
Author Note ELP Level 6-018 Fall 2016
Censorship is Necessary to Protect People’s Safety, Integrity and Moral Many countries practice censorship in various forms. Censorship can be used to protect people’s safety, integrity and morality. Around the world, there is much information which is considered bad for people. This kind of information must be censored. I think that governments must censor all bad information, for example child pornography, drugs, explicit murders, torture, etc. I consider that governments must use censorship for three reasons: to save children’s conscience and behavior, to avoid criminal acts, and to not transmit information which attempts to harm people’s lives. Children are the most innocent people in the world. A child does not know anything about the violent world. Children do what they see in their surroundings. Governments have to emphasize the information given in schools, on TV, etc. In schools, libraries must have books which do not contain violence, pornographic images or content for adults. Governments also have to supervise the content of TV programs on family schedule. Governments have to censure violent cartoons like Dragon Ball, Power Rangers, etc., because children try to do the same actions from these programs. People are influenced by information on the Internet. The Internet is a huge world of information. When a person surfs on the Internet, he or she can look for anything. In the same way, people try to upload any information on the Internet, and they do not care if that information is good for people or not. Governments have to censor websites which contain information about buying drugs, hiring a hit man and websites where child pornography is shown. In this way, we can stop these illegal actions of people, we can avoid the illegal selling of drugs, traffic of people, and the use of children for adult’s satisfaction. In the world, there are also sick people who just look for this kind of information on the Internet. I think that with censorship we can avoid all these activities.
Bad people use Internet to transmit their ideas to the world. I consider that governments have to censor satanic groups, because they attempt to harm God’s ideas. These persons follow a bad idea of religion, and sometimes they do something against other persons. This is caused because the information that they transmit is not censored and they get more people to enjoy them. I consider that this kind of religious groups must be censored. Also, the Islamic religion is dangerous for the world because they follow a God that asks to die in his name and do evil things to others. Thanks to this, in actuality there are terrorist groups in the world. Governments have to censor these religions in order to avoid these terrorist groups which attempt to harm people’s lives. Finally, I consider that censorship is a helpful tool which helps to keep order in a country, and save children’s morality. In the world, there is a lot of bad information that must not be transmitted to people. I consider that Government is the right entity able to use censorship. In conclusion, censorship is the best tool to avoid bad things in the world.
Reference Baum, D. (2015). Legalize It All. How to win the war on drugs. Harper’s Magazine. Yu, B. (2013). Speaking against the Silence: An ethical analysis of Censorship practices within China today. Global Ethics Network. Retrieved November 22, 2016 from http://www.globalethicsnetwork.org/profiles/blog/list?user=3lm0n3q2qm340 Petress, K. (n.d.). The Role of Censorship in School. Journal of Instructional Psychology, Vol. 32, No 3. Cooper, J. (2010). Intellectual Freedom and Censorship in the Library. Community & Junior College Libraries. Pappas, S. (2013). New Sexual Revolution: Polyamory May Be Good for You. Scientific American.
FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT ESSAY
Video Games Are a Useful Tool to Improve Academic Performance at Yachay Tech Byron Velasco Yachay Tech
Author Note ELP Level 6-018 Fall 2016
Abstract Students at Yachay play a lot of video games in order to spend time when they have free time. Video games have many benefits like improving skills, developing your way to make strategies and improving reaction time and way of thinking in different situations, but there are also many disadvantages like waste of time, lack of concentration and they can isolate the person from their closer friends or family. Yachay Tech is a new university in Ecuador which is recognized around the world. In a short time, Yachay has accomplished many achievements because of the students’ works. I think video games influence students in a good way with many benefits like concentration and observation. In this way, students at Yachay improved their academic performance. I based my research on the following questions
How do video games affect students’ academic performance in Yachay Tech?
Are video games a good choice for students in order to get a better academic performance?
For this research, I made a survey of students at Yachay based on questions about video games, and academic performance (with some student’s opinion). This research is supported by the results of my survey. Keywords: Yachay Tech, video games, benefits, survey, skills, de-stress, friendship, strategy, concentration, customs
Video Games Are a Useful Tool to Improve Academic Performance at Yachay Tech
Introduction Video games introduce us into a virtual world. “The child then manipulates a joystick or controller to control the actions of a character or series of characters as the characters face obstacles displayed on the screen” (Davidson & Klasen, 2006). In the modern world, video games have a big impact on people, especially on young people. Video games are present in almost all the world. They are played in different consoles like PlayStation, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and others. Video games play with people’s minds because people have to strategize, solve puzzles and simulate that they are in the real world. Video games are a useful tool to improve academic performance at Yachay Tech. Video games are beneficial for students; in this way, they can get de-stressed, improve their skills and strengthen friendships. Research Questions In this research, I am going to develop the following questions:
How do video games affect students’ academic performance in Yachay Tech?
Are video games a good choice for students in order to achieve a better academic performance? Methodology For this research, I searched information about video games. I used information
about the advantages and disadvantages of video games, including research from the BBC and U.S.News which helped me to support my ideas. I decided to work on
university people because they do not believe anything from the games, and they know video games are just games and its content does not mean anything for the real world. For this research, I made a survey of students at Yachay based on questions about video games and academic performance (with some student’s opinion). This research is supported by the results of my survey. Also, I will give my experience with video games played in Yachay. Arguments Yachay is a new project in Ecuador, but students still prefer playing before studying. “With more than 90 percent of American kids playing video games for an average of two hours a day, whether that's a good idea is a valid question for parents to ask” (Woodham, 2014). Academic performance depends on how students arrange their time in order to do whatever they want. In this way, students can expend their time studying, being with friends and playing. In the same way, if a person does not arrange his time well, this person will expend more time doing something different instead of studying. Students at Yachay are influenced by video games like any university. Students at Yachay Tech have to live together inside the university. Students have to share an apartment with others students, and they have to learn how to live together. Thanks to this, many students transmit their customs to others. In this manner, some students ask their apartment partners to join them in playing video games in order to expend time with friends. Video games can develop new skills in people. According to Krcmar (2014) in an article published by U.S.News “Video game play is associated with improvements in hand-eye coordination, faster reaction times, improved visuospatial skill and peripheral awareness, while some educational games can also improve math, spelling and reading skills.” People who create video games take advantage of them in order to teach people
new things, and make people understand that they can solve any problem in different ways. Students can use this advantage to improve their skills in mathematics, physics, chemistry, and other subjects. Students who play a strategy game plan first before doing something. Puzzle video games are advantageous in developing the brain and making people take on more challenging problems. Solving puzzles is useful for students at Yachay. Puzzles are a challenging kind of game because they are difficult to solve. First, the student has to observe and explore all the puzzle before taking any action. The student has to pay much attention in order to find any obvious movement. In this way, students can improve their attention and concentration. Similarly, strategic video games use the same methodology. First, the person has to analyze the situation in order to think about any movement. For this reason, people who play puzzles and strategic video games improve their concentration, observations and reactions in different situations. In my personal opinion, when I have to do any homework which needs some concentration, I usually play Sudoku or chess. In this way, I achieve more concentration, and I can focus on what I am doing. I think that it works for me and makes me understand what I am doing in my homework. In addition, I have improved different skills by playing strategic games. For example, I think first about what I am going to do on a calculus or physic problem, and then I solve the problem. I analyze the problems from different points of view (this makes the problem easier), and I focus more on the class. Based on the results of the survey, many students have improved in different areas thanks to video games, for example mathematics, algebra, algorithms, and even English. Because they have played video games since school, they learned about computers. Also, some students say that thanks to video games, they were interested in
technology, and they started their career in Information Technology in Communication (ITC). Many students think that playing video games for two hours per day is useful in order to achieve better academic performance. Also, students say that playing video games helps to memorize better. (Velasco, 2016). Video games are a tool to de-stress people by taking them to another world. In a study made by Dube (2015), he found that “…if you make the conscious choice to play video games after work, you will experience faster recovery from the stress you experienced, and you’ll be able to handle that stress all that much better the next day.” The main objective of video games is to entertain people by its story and its game mode. In the actual world, there are a lot of video games, and each one has something different. In this way, there are video games about wars, zombies, countries, empires, and others. Because of the people’s interest, there are many types of video games. People de-stress with video games because they feel like they are the character and they can do all the actions of the character. In my personal opinion, when I have much homework to do, I work on it for an hour, and then I play video games for fifteen minutes so as to get relaxed. Obviously, in this case, I play games which do not require me to solve any puzzle because I want to clear my mind. In this way, I arrange my time well, and I have time for studying and playing. For this reason, I get de-stressed for every class that I take and do not worry so much about the amount of homework. According to the results of the survey, many students choose to play video games as the best way to de-stress. They play video games when they have a long day. Also, one reason why they play video games is that video games keep them awake to go on studying. Students play video games with other people, and this makes video games more enjoyable and more interesting. Students think that video games erase all the
fatigue that you have accumulated during the day. They think that playing video games after all the academic activities is good for health. (Velasco, 2016). Video games strengthen friendships. “These children were found to have fewer emotional problems and less hyperactivity, and they were more sociable overall.� (Woodham, 2014). There are many types of video games, and some of them are multiplayer. This means that video games are made also for playing in groups. In this way, people strengthen friendships with video games because they talk, share their ideas about the game, and they start to think in groups. For example, the game called Call of Duty (war game), requires the cooperation of the team in order to win the match. Yachay has students from all over Ecuador, even from Galapagos, so each student has different customs. Thanks to this, when a group of students is playing, all of them share their customs with others and they have a good time. In my personal opinion, I get closer to my friends when I play Call of Duty with them. I call to others friends and ask them to join us in our apartment. In this manner, my friends bring food and share with us while we are playing. The time when we play is full of laughs and jokes. Thanks to this, I have strengthened my friendships, and I have made more friends who like to play with me. I think this is an important point of view because most of these students are far away from their family, and playing video games makes us forget this and we feel better. The results of the survey show that most of students prefer multiplayer video games. Students prefer to play with their friends instead of playing alone. Students say that video games help people to be more sociable with others. Video games make people free to talk because they have to talk in order to help each other in the game. Other students say that playing this kind of video games converts you into a leader
because you give the orders which lead you to victory. All students feel less depressed when they play video games, even if they had a bad day (Velasco, 2016). As all the things in the world, video games have their advantages and disadvantages. “…the effects of playing video games also include its pros and cons at the same time” (Bowei, 2012). Video games give many benefits and detriments at the same time. For example, video games make gamers analyze strategies, think immediately or manage resources. On the other hand, gamers waste time playing, they could be thinking about the game all the time, but this depends on how people assimilate to video games. Playing video games can produce negative consequences for academic performance. Opposite Point of View People waste a lot of time playing video games. “The disadvantage of video games, other experts point out, is the simple fact that time spent playing them is time not spent doing such activities as reading a book, playing outside or engaging with friends” (Woodham, 2014). Video games are one of the biggest reasons why people lose their concentration because gamers think about games all day long. Gamers’ minds are in a virtual world all the time. In my personal opinion, after playing a video game, I might think about the game, and occasionally I do not pay attention to class. This factor can also lead gamers to lose interest in other daily activities. Many times, gamers would prefer to play a video game instead of going out with friends. This can affect academic development because students choose to play video games in place of studying. Students prefer a computer instead of a book. In that way, students waste their time playing video games for around one or two hours rather than using that time studying. Students know how to control themselves, and it depends on the person if he wants to expend the time playing video games. If a person knows how to arrange his
time, he will have time for playing for more than two hours. Yachay is a university with a high level of teaching, so the students have to be studying all the time, and preparing themselves, so there are many times that someone would not be able to play video games. Also, playing video games rewards you with the development of your skills and helps improve academic performance. "It is the accumulation of risk factors that tends to lead to aggressive or violent behavior. The research reviewed here demonstrates that violent video game use is one such risk factor" (Kleinman, 2015). Violent video games are a factor that may lead to violence in people. There are cases where playing video games is bad for behavior because many of them have violent content. Students at Yachay must coexist with other students, and a violent environment can cause many problems with students. In this way, these students worry about the problems instead of studying. This can impair students’ academic performance. Students at Yachay are young people, so they know how to assimilate to video games. They are the only ones who control how video games influence them. In addition, people in universities have formed their way of thinking and their behavior. I think that violent games make us see the bad things that we never have to do, they teach us what is bad for society and the place where we live. According to the survey, people think that video games are not a reason for being violent or aggressive with each other. (Velasco, 2016). Conclusion In conclusion, video games are a useful tool to get better in academic performance. Students have to learn how to control themselves because if they do not do it, they can fall into addiction. Video games are a creation of the modern world because of technology development, so they can develop people’s brain in different
ways. Thereby, students in Yachay can take advantage of video games in order to achieve a better academic performance, but they must learn to manage their time, and study before playing. Video games have some disadvantages. People waste a lot of time playing video games. Video games are an important issue in society and people’s lives. This factor can also lead a gamer lose interest in other daily activities. Students prefer a computer instead of a book. Video games are one of the reasons to lose concentration because gamers often think about games. On the other hand, video games bring many advantages for people, for example, developing new skills, de-stressing and strengthening friendships. All these advantages will help students to get better in academic performance.
References Bowei, Z. (2012). Video Games Argument Essay. Retrieved October 19, 2016, from http://boweizhangelc.blogspot.com/2012/11/video-games-agrument-essay.html Davidson, T. & Klasen, M. (2006). Video games. Gale Encyclopedia of Children’s Health: Infancy through Adolescense. Retrieved October 05, 2016, from http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G2-3447200600.html Dube, R. (2015). Science proves that playing video games reduces your stress. Retrieved October 24, 2016, from http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/video-gamestress-reduction-need-start-playing-right-now/ Kleinman, Z. (2015). Do video games make people violent? BBC News. Retrieved October 19, 2016, from http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33960075 Velasco, B. (2016). How do video games affect student’s academic performance in Yachay Tech? Survey. Ibarra, Ecuador: Yachay Tech. Woodham, C. (2014). To Play or Not to Play: The Great Debate about Video Games. Retrieved October 19, 2016, from http://health.usnews.com/health-news/healthwellness/articles/2014/10/07/to-play-or-not-to-play-the-great-debate-aboutvideo-games
Thank you for reading my portfolio, and I hope you enjoyed reading it. I am really happy to show the progress of my writing works in this portfolio and give you the basis for yours.
Sincerely, Byron Velasco