English Studies at NBU

15

Authors: Ellie Boyadzhieva

Pluralism, multiculturalism, leaner autonomy and motivation have become buzz expressions discussed widely both by the Common European Framework of Reference and the European Centre for Modern Languages. However, despite the hard work to implement these new approaches in the classroom, some countries seem to be more adaptive compared to others. In the author’s opinion, the answer is rooted in the specifics of national cultures. The article discusses the roles of teacher and student as an archetypal case of micro social organization as they reveal typical patterns of social behaviour. Provided is a detailed description of the specifics of the Bulgarian national culture along the six dimensions of Hofstede’s theory of organizations and cultures with regard to the educational system. The readiness of the Bulgarian teachers and students to comply with the concepts of pluralistic approaches, multiculturalism, learner–centred teaching and autonomy in the Bulgarian classroom are explored. The general conclusion is that these ideas are highly culture-sensitive and the success of their implementation depends on the closeness of the cultures where they emerged and the recipient countries to which they are exported.

12

Authors: Dmitry Yermolovich, Pavel Palazhchenko

The paper examines in a critical light the approaches and theoretical grounds of certain educational projects seeking to promote "intercultural competence" in translators, both in Russia, the contributors’ home country, and in Western Europe, as exemplified by a European Union project. Some textbooks as well as teaching material and recommendations are placed under scrutiny for consistency, relevance and value to the training of professional translators/interpreters, especially at postgraduate level. It is shown that some guidelines presented as an improvement on current translation teaching practices repeat or repackage ideas developed decades ago by Russian and Bulgarian translatologists. The paper argues that there is no special need for artificially implanting or isolating an "intercultural communication" module in translation teaching, as translation is itself a primary form of international and, therefore, intercultural communication, and the best practices of its teaching, at least in the leading translator/interpreter schools of Russia, have incorporated the cultural component in harmony with other essential translation competences for at least half a century.

15

Authors: Azamat Akbarov, Larisa Đapo

This paper aims to investigate differences in the acquisition of English word order between Bosnian and Turkish students resulting from word order in these two languages (Bosnian and Turkish). In second language acquisition, the knowledge of the native language (L1) in acquisition of a foreign language (L2) can indeed have a facilitating or inhibiting effect on the learner’s progress in mastering a new language. Thirty children from the first grade at the International School of Sarajevo were tested. Some of them attended the kindergarten where English was a language of communication and the rest of them had six months of exposure of English in school settings. We wanted to find possible differences in acquiring word order in English in these groups of children as well. This study offers new results for acquiring correct word order in English.