Synergy

6

Authors: Nora TOMOŞOIU

The present article highlights some of the important aspects to be taken into account when teaching commercial correspondence and business English. The most important points that the paper discusses are related to the use of modal verbs, to the ways in which they can be mistaken for other structures (like auxiliary verbs for instance), and to the ways in which students can be taught to grasp the respective meanings correctly. Also, traditional language structures are compared to the new, modern uses of some of these modals.

7

Authors: Adriana CHIRIACESCU

Persuasion is of utmost importance in business and the students who are going to become businesspersons deserve a special training in this respect. The topic could be introduced for study during the language classes, when communication skills are taken into consideration; the results obtained could make the attempt worthwhile.

7

Authors: Monica CONDRUZ-BĂCESCU

This article aims to present an overview of the benefits of education, training and skills and their consequences on individual development. Education and training can take quite different forms as regards their type, content, degree of formality and resources invested. As concepts of education, as well as training and skills, differ strongly not only among European countries but also because of different schools of tradition, it is necessary to clarify the definitions of education and training

7

Authors: Mihaela Şt. RĂDULESCU

The study analyses Jean-Paul Sartre’s view of the place the human beings hold in the world, a place which focuses on the ideas of freedom and responsibility. Also it takes into consideration the means used by the author to make this view known: theoretical studies, novels, theatre plays, articles and political action. In the final part of this paper Sartre’s doctrine of engagement and its large social influence are presented.

8

Authors: Yolanda-Mirela CATELLY

This article presents a non-prescriptive modular approach to designing tests in relationship with teaching English - using certain coursebooks - to engineering students of the Bucharest Polytechnic. The main aim is to create ways of developing a database of tests pertinent to each particular book. The role of a modular Test Specification, as well as that of a Taught Materials Card is described. The possible limitations and risks taken in various concrete situations are briefly discussed.

10

Authors: Lora CONSTANTINESCU

Before blaming the seductive charms of the eye-caching and mind-shaping ads, one should remember that advertising has so far successfully adapted to new fashions, topics and ideologies. In my paper I refer to how the advertising message qualifies as a sort of “moral trumpet” for social engagement and how a low-involvement matter (the recycling of used materials such as beer cans) can be presented in a persuasive manner. And what you see is not only what you get. The recipients of this message are taught a nice lesson in German “ecological correctness”: people are being educated via ads and consumerism goes along with environment-friendly policies; “greenness” turns out to be also an aspect of the German political landscape and “flower-power” is more than an attitude, it already represents a well developed industry.

13

Authors: Roxana MARINESCU

This article deals with the issue of violence in its colonial stages in South-Asia and also in its everyday postcolonial manifestations, as reflected in three novels by Salman Rushdie: Midnight’s Children, Shame and Shalimar the Clown. The symbolic violation of the National Body by the Imperial transgressor leads to national identity forging in the case of three territorial units once part of the British Empire: India, Pakistan and Kashmir. Violence is regarded as the basis of this quest for national identity; it is a dimension of people’s existence, not something external to society and culture. Moreover, it is a cultural construct, a potential in essence that is given shape and content by specific people (victims and perpetrators, as well as witnesses) caught in conflicts that they can no longer control, within the context of their particular histories. Also, it is an “intricately layered phenomenon”, with each participant and witness bringing their own perspectives, which can vary dramatically

17

Authors: Adela SIMOIU

The article looks at one of the topics for research within the field of second language acquisition. In particular, it presents an experiment of speakers of a [+ pro drop] language, Romanian, learning a [- pro drop] language, English, with an analysis of whether the Romanian speakers can reset their pro drop parameter from the L1 value to the L2 value. The experiment was carried out with 27 speakers of 4 main levels, elementary, intermediate, upper intermediate and advanced and it presents evidence to support the hypothesis of the Full Access Full transfer with respect to second language acquisition, i.e. although speakers have access to UG when learning a L2, they cannot reset the parameters completely. The article presents a discussion of the experiment in terms of all the properties related to the pro drop parameter.