Learning Languages

One of the best ways to broaden your minds and know something really useful is languages learning. Although the most important role in learning is for us, teacher is very important too.

There are some ways how teacher can help students. Firstly, it is important to give plenty of practice in speaking. Also, work in pairs or groups can be very useful, because when students communicate with each other they are more inclinable to learn. Regular tests, practice in pronunciation, different writing tasks are very important for students if they want to learn language better.

Moreover, when I’m learning I can help myself by discovering my own learning habits. Sometimes I record new vocabulary in a short phrase or sentence. It is very useful for me to read magazines and listen to spoken foreign language. In this way I can learn more unknown words which we don’t use in class. Furthermore, I think asking questions in class is very important too.

There are some habits which can be setbacks in learning. Students sometimes translate from their own language to another before they speak or write. It is bad because languages are very different: grammar, word order in sentences can be not the same. Also, a lot of people are bashful and afraid to speak in class because of their pronunciation or some other things. They have to be more self-confident and speak more due to improve their speaking habits.

Finally, there are a lot of different learning techniques and every person should choose the best for him. Even so, our achievements in learning depend only of our efforts.

Richard Wisemans' experiments

Professor Richard Wiseman has made research into several unusual areas of psychology, including luck, humour, deception, and the paranormal. His investigations spread all over the world and now Professor Wiseman and his experiments are very popular.

One of his works is about lucky and unlucky people. Professor Wiseman tried to understand why some people are happy ant lucky without any talents. This research identifies four basic principles which use lucky people in order to make their lives better and create good future.

Moreover, Professor Wiseman has made a widespread research about humour. This project was an internet-based and called ‘LaughLab’. The project was reported across the globe, resulting in receiving over 40,000 jokes and 1.5 million ratings. It discovers the world’s funniest joke.

All Professor Richard Wiseman experiments are very interesting. His magic tricks coherent with psychology are breathtaking. This modern-day psychologist can expand our knowledge and everybody should read about him and his experiments.

References:

http://www.richardwiseman.com/

Psychology studies in mruni and abroad

All over the world are plenty of universities in which people can study psychology. In some cases these studies are similar, but also the syllabus at our Mykolas Romeris University has some fundamental differences from other universities. I’ll compare our and University of Bradford studies of psychology.

At first, in our University studies continue four year and involve more subjects which are not directly concerned with psychology. In Bradford University people study three year and there aren’t any extra subjects.

Moreover, there are more differences in syllabus than similarities. At our Mykolas Romeris University psychology students encompass much more different subjects, such as Logics, Philosophy, Language of Specialty, Human Anatomy and Physiology. Whereas Bradford students learn fundamental subjects, such as The Psychology of Learning and Study, Cognitive Psychology, Psychobiology and Perception, Social Psychology. Comparing with our university there are similar lectures of Neuropsychology, perception, personality, developmental psychology. Bradford University in the first year gives a foundation in a number of core subjects, and in the second year build upon the foundations that were laid in the first year, by expanding and deepening knowledge of these areas. In the third year Bradford students have to write dissertation and they learn how to do it. Also, they take modules from a range of options, which will reflect the lecturers’ research interests and areas of specialism. Therefore, our University students have to write term papers after forth and sixth semesters and the dissertation only after four year.

In my opinion in our university are too many not very necessary subjects. I think that it will be better to learn only those things which are really essential for our specialty. But if I can choose there I want to study I will pick Mykolas Romeris University.

References:

http://www.brad.ac.uk/acad/socsci/course/undergraduate/psychological/psychology.php

http://www.mruni.lt/en/

Happiness

Happiness is a state of mind or feeling such as contentment, satisfaction, pleasure, or joy. It can mean different things to different people.

The sociologist Ruut Veenhoven has made a study about happiness in 95 nations. According to his studies happiness doesn’t correlate with gender, age, education, income or other material things. The happiest people are in Iceland and Denmark. Also, independent of lack of food, water and good living conditions people from Africa or Australia are happy too. As we can see from World Database of Happiness people from rich countries aren’t very happy. Moreover, Lithuania is in the end of the list – 83. What are the reasons of such as situation? Maybe our countrymen are so unhappy because of volatile climate, unemployed, low salaries or something like that. But in my opinion some people just doesn’t understand that happiness brings trivial, daily details such as meetings with friends, their smiles, sunny days, the first spring flower…

“Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder…” said Thoreau. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, how old are you, what is your gender or nation – everybody can and must be happy.

References:

http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/

http://www.whatismykarma.com/entrance/images/happiness.jpg

Picture:

http://docwhisperer.wordpress.com/2007/08/11/positive-psychology-the-science-of-happiness/

Self-assessment of success in learning ESP

Writing a summary
In first summaries I faced with some difficulties such as formulating the sentences and recognizing the main points of the text. But now I progress and my summaries are much more accurate.

Writing comprehension tests on modules in psychology
My performance was very good, because I spent a lot of time on learning. However, some material was confusing, not all of the definitions were understandable. So, there were some tests in which I did not avoid mistakes.

Making power point presentations
I did my presentation a lot of time ago and it was not very difficult. The theme I had chosen was not very interesting so I try to brighten it with some funny pictures. However, I did not present my work in front of the class yet. I think it will be quite difficult for me, but I try to do my best.

Impromptu speaking in class
My performance in this skill did not improve. I have some difficulties speaking in class and I do not fight with this problem. Next semester I pay attention to this skill and try to improve it.

Performance in listening practice
On the one hand, I think there were some easy tasks with already known information. On the other hand, I faced with some difficulties when information was new. It was hard to follow the text and answer to the questions in one time. Despite this, I think this practice improve my performance a little bit.

Writing contributions to e-portfolio (WEBLOG)
This task was the most interesting for me. I am keen on writing such as contributions. It was very interesting to search the new information and wrote it in my weblog. My performance was not very bad, but now I learned a lot of new words connected to my speciality.

Learning ESP

Foreign languages are necessary for all of us, particularly in our improving world. Learning ESP (English for specific purpose) is quite difficult, because of the new information which we have not only to understand, but also to learn. There are some effective ways of learning English.

Firstly, it is very important to get speaking practice. Most students are motivated to be active in class, because they can improve their speaking skills. Short talks on ESP issues help to get more speaking practice using specific terms and new knowledge. However, there are plenty of students who afraid to participate in class discussions because of mistakes. Generally, the best way to learn is learning from our mistakes.

Moreover, ESP includes some listening practice. Students have not only tried to raise their ability to hear in the class, but also watch some movies related to specific subject. Thus, the students improve pronunciation and can understand more quickly.

Another method to gain more knowledge on ESP is writing. Individual Power Point presentations on ESP themes, summaries writing and contributions enlarge student’s ability to write accurately and clearly. Students understand that is the main information in the text, as a result they can easier read specific books and write specific texts related with their future profession.

All in all, to learn ESP isn’t very difficult if you are active, reasoned and want to be the good specialist.

Analytical summary

Robert S. Feldman
Sleep and Dreams

In the module “Sleep and Dreams” Robert S. Feldman introduces our states of consciousness during sleep. Author explains different stages of sleep, dreams theories and sleep disturbances.

Firstly, Feldman describes four stages of sleep and gives short definitions. Furthermore, the writer explains REM sleep and gives some charts. What is more, author mentions sleep deprivation and its consequences.

Secondly, the writer argues about the function and meaning of dreaming. Moreover, Feldman describes three major theories of dreams and talks about it quite broadly.

Thirdly, author introduces main sleep disturbances. After this, the writer discusses circadian rhythms and gives graphic view of human body changes over every 24-hour period. Furthermore, Feldman describes daydreams and gives some advice to avoid insomnia.

Finally, Feldman’s main idea is to explore major information on sleep and dreams.