Synergy

5

Authors: Maria LĂCĂTUŞ

The main challenge for professors who conduct in-service teacher training for teachers with different backgrounds is to identify a common domain of interest in order to discuss specific issues of teaching a particular subject. In the 2009 course we conducted at the Department for Teacher Training in The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies we thought that economic processes that affect our daily life could be the connecting factor in a diverse group, especially during recession periods of time when people are more interested than usual in understanding economy and economic public policies. In spring 2009, the Romanian government started negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a loan that would help Romania in the crisis, which was discussed a lot in the media and many controversial opinions were expressed by representatives, decision makers and different public personalities. In this context, at our post-university course we conduct a session focused on the IMF. The lesson “What is the International Monetary Fund and What Does It Do?" demonstrated how effective cooperative learning activities are.

5

Authors: Maria LĂCĂTUŞ

The main challenge for professors who conduct in-service teacher training for teachers with different backgrounds is to identify a common domain of interest in order to discuss specific issues of teaching a particular subject. In the 2009 course we conducted at the Department for Teacher Training in The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies we thought that economic processes that affect our daily life could be the connecting factor in a diverse group, especially during recession periods of time when people are more interested than usual in understanding economy and economic public policies. In spring 2009, the Romanian government started negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a loan that would help Romania in the crisis, which was discussed a lot in the media and many controversial opinions were expressed by representatives, decision makers and different public personalities. In this context, at our post-university course we conduct a session focused on the IMF. The lesson “What is the International Monetary Fund and What Does It Do?" demonstrated how effective cooperative learning activities are.

7

Authors: Mihaela ZOGRAFI

Foreign language teaching has recently shown increased interest in the relationship between language and culture. One of the objectives set forth in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) published by the Council of Europe (2001) is the development of socio-cultural competence in foreign language learners,as this promotes intercultural communication. This article aims to emphasise the necessity to acquire intercultural competence - ICC as one of the core competences required today. It further defines the concept and presents guidelines and strategies to train it. Lastly, the foreign language classroom is presented as an ideal environment in which to teach language and culture in integrated ways.

7

Authors: Mihaela ZOGRAFI

Foreign language teaching has recently shown increased interest in the relationship between language and culture. One of the objectives set forth in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) published by the Council of Europe (2001) is the development of socio-cultural competence in foreign language learners, as this promotes intercultural communication. This article aims to emphasise the necessity to acquire intercultural competence - ICC as one of the core competences required today. It further defines the concept and presents guidelines and strategies to train it. Lastly, the foreign language classroom is presented as an ideal environment in which to teach language and culture in integrated ways.

8

Authors: Alexandru W. A. POPP

We describe a candid model for learning, why and how learning transpires. We investigate the original as well as the leading conditions of the learning process. We provide an insight into the realm of beliefs and their formation, their interaction and influence with the actor’s environment. In addition, we provide to our terms (and terminology) real definitions, thus differentiating between nominal and real definitions. Having this approach, the same terminology can be employed by other models, theories or frameworks without creating ‘expert language’ barriers. Moreover, we provide an understanding of the influence that learning in general has on human behavior.

9

Authors: Monica CONDRUZ-BĂCESCU

The existing literature on the relationship between culture strength and performance focuses on the consequences of strong cultures for performance levels but has not examined how strong cultures affect performance variability, or the reliability of firm performance. This is surprising, since the arguments relating culture strength to performance draw particular attention to the benefits of having greater internal consistency in goals and behaviors. One should therefore expect strong-culture firms to exhibit less variable performance. This expectation is complicated, however, by the fact that the variability of a firm's performance depends not only on the ability to maintain consistency in internal processes but also on the firm's ability to adapt to environmental change. The relationship between culture strength and performance reliability, therefore, should depend on how strong-culture firms learn from and respond to both their own experiences and changes in their environment.

9

Authors: Dana Sorana URS

This article suggests a possible interpretation of the sentence by resorting to the ancient Hindu grammar and the model of Archetypes. According to the former, Language belonged to a superior ontological level that was called the Primordial Word unifying the material reality and awareness into the causal realm of all objects and their corresponding words (an equivalent to the Archetypes). This causal level manifests only through the Sentence which is an indivisible content. The relationships between its parts illustrate the structure of the Cosmic Ritual that operates a magic transfer leading to completeness and transformation.

9

Authors: Monica CONDRUZ-BĂCESCU

The existing literature on the relationship between culture strength and performance focuses on the consequences of strong cultures for performance levels but has not examined how strong cultures affect performance variability, or the reliability of firm performance. This is surprising, since the arguments relating culture strength to performance draw particular attention to the benefits of having greater internal consistency in goals and behaviors. One should therefore expect strong-culture firms to exhibit less variable performance. This expectation is complicated, however, by the fact that the variability of a firm's performance depends not only on the ability to maintain consistency in internal processes but also on the firm's ability to adapt to environmental change. The relationship between culture strength and performance reliability, therefore, should depend on how strong-culture firms learn from and respond to both their own experiences and changes in their environment

12

Authors: Yolanda-Mirela CATELLY

This article is meant to share with fellow teachers of foreign languages some of the insights on the patterns of efficient learning behaviour of Good Language Learners (GLLs), as they were studied by the author within the framework of a larger empirical investigation on ways and means of developing students’ awareness as far as their language learning and using strategies repertory is concerned. The concept of GLL, its evolution and meaning in the literature are briefly reviewed, then the usefulness - for both students of the foreign language and their teachers – of learning more about Good Language Learners’ know-how is discussed. Finally, a set of activities focused on GLLs’ are presented and rationales are provided for each of them.

18

Authors: Mariana SĂNDULESCU

The mechanisms of declarative responsibilities contribute to text coherence, explaining - on one side- the various evaluations (judgements, opinions, feelings) expressed upon the aspects of the theme contents and - on the other side, the sources of those evaluations. This article aims at identifying the instances assuming those evaluations i.e. who bears the responsibility for the statement - task usually and classically given to the author but also to other responsible, formal, intrinsic instances (like the narrator and/or the presenter.)

5

Authors: Mădălina ALAMĂ

The following article wants to offer a brief tentative analysis of the impact that the concept of body ideal presented and promoted by different mass media has on the feminine readers from the European cultures. I will not attempt a very clear definition of European cultures here due to the fact that the participants to the surveys I have used come from most European geographical spaces. In this paper European magazines and especially readers can be understood by contrasting them to American readers.

7

Authors: Cristina PRELIPCEANU

As contexts for writing are not always easy to create, especially for students whose future needs in English are difficult to predict, in this article we have chosen to describe simulation as a very efficient and productive method used in business writing activities.

8

Authors: Georgeta GHIGA

This article sets out to meet questions about intercultural communication in an increasingly demanding communication environment. It is an account of the evolution of key terms in the field of language training and research and although it does not offer explicit practical input into teaching a language interculturally, it contains information on guidelines and patterns of thought that helped to design the view of language teaching that we share today. The analysis of the evolution of the English language as an international means of communication is meant to raise awareness to the complex problems that teachers of English face when they have to teach intercultural competence and not just language in a restricted sense.

9

Authors: Lora CONSTANTINESCU

Fit for Europe – it is the core idea of a unit in a new book for teaching German for Special Purposes (”Mit Deutsch in Europa”/A2-B1). FL-acquisition means linguistic communication patterns and sometimes different cultural perceptions as well as the attribution of (possibly) different meanings. Therefore, the learners should be offered means and opportunities to get insights into what the foreign cultural background holds. It is the aim of this paper to highlight some basic theoretical positions and practical aspects when teaching German to students of Economics on L2-level.The focus lies on the chances/challenges of integrating a “blended choice” of L2-competences, business and intercultural communication skills.

9

Authors: Ştefan COLIBABA

This article looks at one of the most interesting aspects related to Raymond Carver’s minimalist short fiction, i.e. the creative and philosophic transformation it undergoes. To that purpose, we analyze a number of early stories and compare them to revised versions and/or later stories in order to show how Carver moves through revision to solution.

9

Authors: Roxana BÎRSANU

The main drive behind Ezra Pound’s translating efforts was to present the American readership with literary experiences that were remote both in time and in place. The purpose was, on the one hand, to make readers aware of the existence of distinct and distant literatures, and, on the other hand, to revitalize the American literature with the help of the infusion of such foreign and sometimes exotic literary manifestations. An innovator in the field of translation, Pound drew away from the domesticating strategies of the time, which had a tendency to efface and appropriate the difference presented by other literatures, and, acting as a true visible translator, strived to emphasize Otherness with all its mystery and exotic flavour.

10

Authors: Adriana CHIRIACESCU

In the context of the rapidly changing world order and of globalization, both of them determining subsequent developments, the concept of “national culture” is expected to undergo fundamental changes with spectacular reshaping, but with tensions and contradictions emerging from the nations’ involvement in the new political, administrative and economic bodies, as well. The national identities are expected to be recast, preserving the fundamentals of the individual heritage, but suffering the consequences of new forms of devolution, regionalism and nationalism.

12

Authors: Monica CONDRUZ-BĂCESCU

At present, the world has become a network of social relations and, between its different regions; there is a circulation of directions similar to the circulation of people and goods. In the whole world, this context of integrating in the network cultural practices and experience can be understood to represent a world culture. Certainly, the idea of a global culture was not possible only during global modernity. At the same time with the world development, facilitated by media and contemporary transport means, the circulation of texts (religious,political, literary, scientific ideas) shows a quick acceleration. Political, cultural and religious powers prove to be unable to stay against people circulation and communication development, therefore ideas and opinions. In conclusion, we can state for sure that Romania enters faster and faster in the epoch of culture and civilization mixture, speeches and passions.

15

Authors: Carmela FRANZESE

This article focuses on the educational strategy of “peer education”, as a horizontal communication model designed to be a valid educational alternative to more traditional to-down ones, in which the teacher is the central element of the process. Peer education on the contrary emphasises the social dimension of the education process, with its collective renegotiation of the signifiers, favouring information exchange, reciprocity, collaboration.

15

Authors: Roxana MARINESCU

This article considers different types of racist and xenophobic attitudes as presented in some postcolonial novels written in English by authors of South-Asian origin, such as Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Meera Syal, Hanif Kureishi, Hari Kunzru or Monica Ali. The causes include Darwinist explanations of skin colour and inferiority of the darker races, which constituted the basis for their colonial conquest by the white race (who had this “burden” to carry) to the postmodern cultural constructs of the Other as different and therefore dangerous. Several instances of implicit and explicit racist and xenophobic attitudes and actions as they appear in the novels are analysed, together with the types of response received, which ranges from exacerbation of religious attitudes to direct acts of terrorism.

15

Authors: Roxana MARINESCU

This article considers different types of racist and xenophobic attitudes as presented in some postcolonial novels written in English by authors of South-Asian origin, such as Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy, Meera Syal, Hanif Kureishi, Hari Kunzru or Monica Ali. The causes include Darwinist explanations of skin colour and inferiority of the darker races, which constituted the basis for their colonial conquest by the white race (who had this “burden” to carry) to the postmodern cultural constructs of the Other as different and therefore dangerous. Several instances of implicit and explicit racist and xenophobic attitudes and actions as they appear in the novels are analysed, together with the types of response received, which ranges from exacerbation of religious attitudes to direct acts of terrorism.