G. Chaucer's view of "TRUTH"

“Truth” for Chaucer embodies the way human beings can live happily and peacefully, in harmony with god. He is presenting a world corrupted, which is not so different from the one we’re living now. As he said: "for greed entails hate and social climbing uncertainty”, my interpretation is that greed equals hate, since wanting to have or to own more personal possessions, like material goods are, generates envy, therefore, hate.

Social climbing entails uncertainty, why? Is it because of money or a need of self-assurance? How can you socially climb? Through pretending being another person you aren't to get what you want? Well, things change so easily that if social status it’s important for you, one can become even more insecure when having a high social status. Furthermore, he mentions the existence god, and it means he is devoted to his image and how he feels that truth and god gives people an unbeatable balance and harmony in life which will enable them heaven.

I wonder...is that so?

Epic Poem : BEOWULF.

It certainly didn’t ring a bell when I heard about Epic Poems. Beowulf? “That’s a movie”, I thought!

After going through its chapters, I realized that an epic poem, like this one is, represents a historical time and place, unknown and mystical that becomes real thanks to all the heroic and brave characters it holds. Perhaps epic poems embodies a part of history that nobody has been able to fully discover, therefore, it may be so wisely written that contains a secret only few have been able or will discover. Maybe it’s just fictional, who knows, at least I’m certain that it is worth interpreting and analyzing it.

Literature

Learning has wonderful paths. One always discovers something new that makes exciting and adventurous the road of learning one has undertaken. We’ve read Todorov, a franco-bulgarian philosopher, in his pursuit of the meaning of literature and its use.

The following is a quotation written by this author:

“The texts that I was reading- personal narratives, memoirs, historical works, testimonies, reflections, letters, anonymous texts from folklore- did not have, like literary works, the status of fiction, because they directly described lived experience. However, like literary works, they let me discover unknown dimensions of the world, they moved me profoundly, and they made me think” ( Todorov 16- 17)

Personally, I thought literature was “sophisticated” writing. Now, after reading and becoming more knowledgeable about literature, I can state there’s no unique definition for it. It enables us to interpret, to have our own representation of the written text and spoken speech, provoking a reaction an impact. For instance, there’s no need for literary works to be fictional, since personal and real experiences such as: memoirs, testimonies among others, can make an impact on us, therefore, as long as they are valuable texts, they will equal literature.



Todorov, Tzvetan. “What is Literature for?” Project Muse 38.1(2007): 13-32

“Tzvetan Todorov.” Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. 13 March 2009. 3 April 2009

Throughout this course we have gone through several aspects involved in culture and civilization. We also found out the diverse ways we see other people and face situations in life. What’s more we learned the importance of critical thinking in education. Due to the latter, I have concluded that without the ability of critical thinking we would not be able to get the gist of out of the information examined in all our subjects. Thus, I will write about critical thinking in EFL students and to what extent culture impacts our teaching.

According to Chance, Critical Thinking is "The ability to analyze facts, generate and organize ideas, defend opinions, make comparisons, draw inferences, evaluate arguments and solve problems"( 1986, p.6). In my opinion, that is an accurate and very close definition of the whole concept and aim of being critical. Therefore, when learning, it is not only important to know something by heart, like rote learning, but to be an active subject. By this I mean, one needs to question oneself: how? Why? What's my input in this subject? Is this a reliable source? Etc. So, it is a powerful skill we should all be able to manage.



It takes discipline to be efficiently critical, though. That is why teachers’ should aspire to model critical thinking skills as a process, so as to progressively provide hints, questions, activities and so on for students to digest and internalize what’s being learnt. But how? We should explicitly pass on our own thought processes by explaining how we come to certain solution or reason something, evaluating evidence given, as well as sources and probing their credibility, and also by telling them which things confused us or complicated us while studying or trying to understand something. Activities like grouping students, collaborative work, in which they “think aloud” and are able to widen their options, regarding views and ideas related to the main topic of study. We could develop critical thinking through questionnaires and interviews, through research projects or reflective journals too. This way we would also develop self-awareness and metacognitive strategies.


However, is not only important to know how, but why critical thinking is so important for our EFL students. As mentioned in the introduction, believing that memorizing facts is the right way people should learn is a completely mistaken belief. In contrast, we all know how important is to contextualize information in order to accurately internalize it. Especially when teaching EFL, we can’t pretend teaching grammar as a set of disconnected rules will be instantly or even accurately learned. We need to contextualize information for making learning more meaningful for our students. That is the why is important. We are empowering students, not only by helping them understand what has been shown to them, but through building up their knowledge without guiding them the entire time, we should promote independent thinkers at the same time.On the other hand, Culture can impact TEFL in the sense that we are immersed in a culture so we are used to certain ways of life in our society. Still, when teaching L2, in this case English, we can encourage students’ interest in the target countries, where the language is spoken. If we’re promoting critical thinking, we can take part through guiding our students’ to open their minds when faced to other cultures. Perhaps, they won’t go to the UK or Canada, but we should be able to transmit knowledge about those so they can relate to it. I would say it will be beneficial for our students’ knowledge of cultural facts. Consequently, it plays an important role in general education. Besides, we’re increasing tolerance towards, religions, ideologies, customs, people etc. I mean, as we are teaching aspects of other cultures we are helping them being aware of their own culture, so they critically think over these facts. This will be helpful because they’ll be able to have a say when asked about diverse topics.

In conclusion, as a future English teacher I believe I have the chance to encourage critical thinking while teaching different social and cultural contexts so as to put this skill into practice. Giving them the opportunity to know and understand other countries’ cultures will enable them to feel as equal and intelligent as people who have travelled everywhere. Teachers ought to use the power of promoting, encouraging and helping our students in a beneficial and constructive way for them.

Almost finished

Outline

I. Introduction

II. Critical Thinking
a. What is Critical Thinking
b. How to promote it
c. Importance for EFL students

III. Interaction between Culture and Critical Thinking
a. How is Culture related with Critical Thinking

IV Conclusion


Introduction: Throughout this course we have gone through several aspects of culture and civilization. In order to understand and comprehend the topics and history studied this semester, I found necessary to underline one of its highlights, this is Critical Thinking. Was there another way to get the gist out of Culture and civilization contents? I will, then, explain why it is a must promoting it in every classroom. What’s more, it will be discussed and analyzed culture implications and interferences in the process of developing it.


According to Chance, Critical Thinking is “The ability to analyze facts, generate and organize ideas, defend opinions, make comparisons, draw inferences, evaluate arguments and solve problems”( 1986, p.6). In my opinion, that is an accurate and very close definition of the whole concept and aim of being critical. When learning, it is not only important to know something by heart, like rote learning, but to be an active subject. By this I mean, one needs to question oneself: how? Why? What’s my input in this subject? Is this a reliable source? Etc. So, it is a powerful skill we should all be able to manage. It takes discipline to be efficiently critical, though. That is why we could follow Bloom’s taxonomy of the cognitive domain, if we are ready to undertake the process of developing it in our every day lives.

How is Critical Thinking promoted? Our labour as teachers is not only teaching a second language, unless you mean to teach disconnected chunks of language. If you want to develop and enhance your students` abilities and skills, you should integrate activities for making one’s learning more critical and beneficial at the same time. For instance, when given an activity, students`task will be relating the topic with something from their own daily lives, or something they know. This will help them use knowledge meaningfully, consequently you can ask them to work in groups; you are enhancing collaborative work in which they can compare answers, defend opinions, understanding and respecting different views, and so on.

Chaplin's outlook in Modern Times

“Modern Times” is a movie that tries to illustrate the consequences of Industrialism, in this case, through the Great depression. Charlie Chaplin represents a factory worker, who ends up having a nervous breakdown. After going through medical treatment, he is advised to relax. Although, it was a good thing that he was released from hospital, he would not even imagine or conceive what would be happening in the streets...

As a general view, if you are going to watch it, you’ll find that the aim of this movie is to explain and to increase people’s awareness, regarding the situation suffered by workers and families back then. It is important to underline, that is not shown in such a cruel way, but rather in a humorous aspect which will keep you interested and expectant.

So, “Modern Times”, why is the movie called that way? The name probably relies on, new technological instruments and machines. Also, it can be called modern because thanks to the Industrialism, several things changed, regarding working conditions and so on. What’s interesting of this movie is that no matter the situation they were living in, people were starting to realize the unreasonable treatment they had put up with, for so long. You should definitely watch the movie, and come up with an idea of the reason of its name.




I enjoyed Chaplin’s role in the movie. He was, after all, quite positive, brave and he would take risks no matter what. The role of the girl in the movie implies the difficulties that a homeless girl would have to deal with in those times. I strongly feel that Chaplin saw in her a bit of his personality too, strong persons and fighters regardless the problems.

In conclusion, “Modern Times” it is an entertaining, but still, interesting movie. In fact, it also lectures us on tough times and how to cope with difficulties. Moreover, it gives us a lesson of no matter how low we can feel and regardless life’s obstacles. You can still set goals and try to accomplish them, as long you are really willing to improve and have a better future. Finally, the movie will encourage you to reflect on the ways you would cope with a crisis, unjust actions and social frustration. You should definitely watch it and create your own views of it.

King James II

James II was a stuart king of England, Scotland and Ireland from 1685 until 1688. At the beginning of his reign, he had to face a rebellion, which failed, resulting in savage punishments of all of those involved. Later on, the king clashed with the parliament for trying to give civic equality to catholics and protestants. So, he decided to dissolve it and ruled alone. He attempted to promote Catholicism by signing up Catholics to military, political positions and into universities. In 1687 he even issued a Declaration of Indulgence aiming at complete religious toleration .


When his second wife’s son was born, and fearing that a Catholic succession was now assured, a group of Protestant aristocrats appealed to William of Orange, husband of James's older, and Protestant, daughter Mary. In November, William landed with an army in Devon. But the King was abandoned by an army and navy who he had completely alienated; James completely lost his nerve and fled abroad. In February 1689, parliament declared that James's flight represented an abdication (or abandonment) and William and Mary were crowned joint monarchs.

When James landed in Ireland, with French support, he raised an army. Despite of this, he was defeated at the Battle of the Boyne in July 1690. Dying in exile in France on September 1701.



Not enough???

http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/james_ii.shtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_II_of_England