Synergy

6

Authors: Ruxandra CONSTANTINESCU-ŞTEFĂNEL

This article presents the author’s experience in teaching business correspondence in French to students who learn both business French and business English. The author is interested in the interferences between the French and the British communication styles and in the errors such interferences cause in the students’ written productions. She proposes an original solution to diminish or even eliminate these errors. At the same time, her solution increases students’ cultural awareness and their motivation

8

Authors: Diana TSOTOVA

The article describes a model of the European Language Portfolio specially developed for people with visual impairments within a European project and received the accreditation of the Council of Europe. It outlines specific features of the electronic model, gives a short review of its structure and provides some practical recommendations on introducing the ELPBVI in the language classroom with a particular focus on building of self-evaluative skills. Furthermore, the article briefly presents further initiatives of the developers to disseminate the ELPBVI and support both teachers using the application and individual unsighted language learners. Keywords: European Language Portfolio, electronic format, blind and visually impaired, self-evaluative skills, self-assessment checklist

11

Authors: Sanja MARINOV Gorana DUPLANČIĆ ROGOŠIĆ

With the advent of computing and the Internet, language teachers have been given a new tool that could be used in English language teaching classrooms. However, the use of technology is showing its drawbacks and the biggest one is definitely the sense of déjà vu. Students too often use the Internet to find already made solutions for their take-homeassignments and simply copy-paste them. In order to battle plagiarism (more) successfully, we decided to have our students do one of their tasks in the computer lab during class. It was believed that doing this task in the lab would also increase student motivation and encourage peer correction and cooperation. This paper will present the results of using web-based materials with first-year, second-semester students of Tourism, enrolled in the course “English in Tourism II” at the Faculty of Economics, University of Split.

13

Authors: Monica CONDRUZ–BĂCESCU

The main topic of the article is effective communication in modern companies. Employees of the companies who can communicate feel connected to the progress of business and understand how their actions can support that business. A company or organization that communicates effectively – both outside and inside – records higher profits than "introverted" companies with a poor or nonexistent communication strategy. Basically, it shows that the communication process is not a "software" function of a company, but a driver of business performance, playing a key role in the organization’ performance. Measuring the communication process becomes mandatory to design, implement and change – where necessary – the communication strategy of a company or organization, in order to increase its profit

14

Authors: Raluca Şerban Mihai Şerban

John Barth’s Book of Ten Nights and a Night seems to mark if not a turning point in Barth’s writing, at least an isle of concern for everyday reality, with its complex social and political matters, in the midst of an ocean of playfulness and “irrelevant” storytelling, as the author himself labels his fiction. The eleven stories themselves are light, playful, funny, ironic, in his words, “irrelevant” to the world out there – in one word, entertaining. They self-reflexively turn towards obsession themselves, as the author’s fascination, indeed , with writing and story-telling is as noticeable as ever: virtually all stories, one way or another, revolve around writers and teachers of literature, and they include extensive commentary on writing, yet something is radically different: the real world finally managed to creep into Barth’s writing in a way it had never done before. Even a writer of so “light” novels could not turn his face from the nightmarish Ground Zero, the scene of the 2001 terrorist attacks that literally put an end to the world as Americans knew it. The full horror of September 11 is depicted in the frame of the stories. The moral seems to be that if mankind, if America is to survive such horror, it is going to be through storytelling.

14

Authors: Raluca Şerban, Mihai Şerban

John Barth’s Book of Ten Nights and a Night seems to mark if not a turning point in Barth’s writing, at least an isle of concern for everyday reality, with its complex social and political matters, in the midst of an ocean of playfulness and “irrelevant” storytelling, as the author himself labels his fiction. The eleven stories themselves are light, playful, funny, ironic, in his words, “irrelevant” to the world out there – in one word, entertaining. They self-reflexively turn towards themselves, as the author’s fascination, indeed obsession, with writing and story-telling is as noticeable as ever: virtually all stories, one way or another, revolve around writers and teachers of literature, and they include extensive commentary on writing, yet something is radically different: the real world finally managed to creep into Barth’s writing in a way it had never done before. Even a writer of so “light” novels could not turn his face from the nightmarish Ground Zero, the scene of the 2001 terrorist attacks that literally put an end to the world as Americans knew it. The full horror of September 11 is depicted in the frame of the stories. The moral seems to be that if mankind, if America is to survive such horror, it is going to be through storytelling