Journal of Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics

8

Authors: Clare J. Zuraw

Linguistic homogeneity in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) programs can be a challenge to curriculum design and implementation. In university EAP programs where the majority of students share an L1 with classmates, instructors sometimes struggle to balance the use of the L1 and L2 in class. Despite the potential for immersion, students in these settings may also socialize primarily in their L1 rather than English, the target language. These factors demand special consideration in courses focused on oral production and comprehension where sustained interaction and negotiation of meaning is crucial. Ninety percent of the students in the Intensive English as a Second Language Program at Michigan Technological University come from China and share an L1. In this context, the classroom provides important opportunities for interaction and negotiation of meaning in the target language. The program recently redesigned, piloted, and evaluated a new curriculum. Using examples from the curriculum and the classroom to present this case, I argue that linguistically homogeneous classrooms focusing on oral and aural communication require different curricula than more diverse EAP settings. Examples from the development and delivery of the new listening and speaking curriculum are potentially applicable in both ESL and EFL settings.

9

Authors: Arta Toci

Writing as a productive skill isan integral part of the language-learning process. However, students do not consider writing an easy skill to learn and many ESL teachers certainly consider it a difficult skill to teach.Creative writing normally refers to the production of texts that have an aesthetic rather than a purely informative, instrumental or pragmatic purpose. Creative writing in ESL classes has started developing lately, but only to be incorporated as a supportive skill in teaching writing.Responding to students’ writing is an important issue to discuss when considering teaching creative writing. Response is a process that includes peer review, peer editing and continuous feedback through the stages of creative writing. By providing constructive feedback, the teacher understands a writer’s problems and intentions by making students responsible for finding and analyzing what needs to be improved.

9

Authors: Marija Kusevska

The principal motivation of this study is to investigate how Macedonian learners of English mitigate their disagreement. It is a follow-up of a much broader study in the field of cross-cultural pragmatics focusing on disagreement in Macedonian and American English (Kusevska, 2012). Our cross-cultural analysis reveals that Macedonian and American native speakers show preference for different types of disagreement, the major difference being the frequency of mitigation as well as the linguistic means used for its realisation. For the purpose of this study, we have accepted the definition that mitigation is the linguistic communicative strategy of softening an utterance, reducing the impact of an utterance, or limiting the face loss associated with a message (Fraser, 1980; Caffi, 1999, 2007; Martinovski, 2006; Clemen, 2010; Czerwionka, 2012). As mitigation in disagreement is closely connected with politeness, we have also relied on the model of politeness and the strategies for FTA realisation proposed by Brown & Levinson (1978/1987). We have looked at lexical and syntactic devices such as modal auxiliaries (e.g., can/could; may/might), hedges (kind of, sort of), discourse markers (well, but, look), verbs expressing uncertainty (I think, I don’t think), verbs expressing vagueness (seem, assume, guess), conditionals etc., that learners use to mitigate their utterances.

10

Authors: Amela Šehović & Đenita Haverić

Before it was fully adopted by the Bosnian language, a Persian loanword, from the moment it was borrowed from the source (Persian) to the receiver (Bosnian) language, would undergo various stages of adaptation on the phonological, morphological, and semantic plane. Due to the fact that many Persian words entered the Bosnian language through Turkish as the mediator language, a great number of semantic changes occurred when the word was borrowed from Persian and later used in Turkish. Later on, the same meaning from Turkish would be transferred to Bosnian language. Words of eastern origin, i.e. words from Turkish, Arabic or Persian, made their way into the Bosnian language due to various influences and during various periods of time. These words were introduced to the Bosnian language mostly through Turkish and are, for that reason, referred to as turcisms. However, a more scientifically approved term is orientalisms since not all of these words belong to the Turkish lexical material, and since they involve a great number of Arabic and Farsi phrases. This paper examines the significance and role of the Turkish language as the language mediator in the case of words of Persian origin entering the Bosnian language. As loanwords, turcisms were used mainly during the 500-year-long Ottoman rule in Bosnia-Herzegovina, when the contact with the Turkish language and culture was most immediate. For that reason, the number of turcisms in the Bosnian language is quite impressive. For instance, Škaljić’s Rječnik turcizama (Dictionary of Turcisms) contains 8,742 words (expressions) and 6,878 terms (1979: 23). During the Ottoman period, Persian was the language of literature, especially poetry. The most of the lexis of Persian origin entered the Bosnian language owing to great Iranian classics, but also, indirectly - through Turkish. Compared to Turkish and Arabic, lexis of Persian origin is the least present – more than 600 words in Škaljić’s Dictionary of Turcisms (Akopdžanjan 2010: 18).

10

Authors: Gabriela Tucan

Fauconnier and Turner (2002, pp. 389-396) provide an overview of how blending affects the course of a human life, and more specifically, how young children are engaged in building complex blends in very early stages of their lives. Their detailed analysis shows that only after the young child is able to master culturally recognized blends will s/he be effectively ‘living in the blend’ and prove capable of further achieving other blends with more flexibility. During early childhood, it appears that learning and mental development are intrinsically linked to our human ability to blend and deblend. Besides engaging in direct cultural blends, the young child can operate on conceptual blends that are not physically (biologically) given. For instance, this may happen when their imaginative processes are at work in a wide variety of games or fun activities, starting with Lego construction sets to fictive interactions with imaginary companions. In such games and activities, children manifest an extraordinary capacity for double-scope blending. Therefore, by playing games or getting involved in free activities, young children will bring to mastery mental integrations that are essential for their lives as adults. In this light, the paper examines a set of children-designed games and activities that can all account for cases of fictive or potential reality. That is, the mental spaces created do not refer directly to entities in the outside world. I argue that an analysis of such fantasy mental spaces (with the tools of the mental space theory) can shed new light on learning and human creativity. While playing and blending mental spaces with their counterfactual counterparts, the young subject has to manipulate his/her ‘split self’ (Lakoff & Johnson 1999) or counterfactual self. With the knowledge of early evolution of conceptual blending in children’s games, I propose that educators may apply the results in diverse areas of instruction and learning in order to better deal with the cognitive side of learning, and eventually come to terms with human creativity.

11

Authors: Luis Armando Villalobos Nájera

The objective of this paper is to share the experiences regarding the design and implementation of a Translation and Interpretation Diploma Course (TIDC) in a public university located in central Mexico.The main point of designing and implementing the diploma course was to produce a new generation of translators and interpreters, since a number of BA in ELT graduates from local universities,as well as many other translators from the region, wish to grow professionally in both translation and interpretation areas.Moreover, the implementation of this diploma course was necessarybecause no institutions in this region offer a course of this kind. The TIDCwas designed taking into account the demand for professional translators and interpreters derived from the industrial and commercial growth in the state of Aguascalientes, Mexico. The curriculum for the TIDCconsists of 14 modulescentered on thetheoretical aspects of translation and thetranslation practice of financial, scientific, technical and legal texts. Spanish writing, terminology, and CAT tools training are also part of the curriculum.The students are also introduced to Consecutive and Simultaneous Interpretation using theappropriate interpretation equipment.Allacademic staffinvited to collaborate in this program hold an MA in Translation and Interpretation. They are also certified translators and currently teach translation and interpretation in various universities. Most of them belong to translators and interpreters associations.

11

Authors: Ryan Mcdonald & Hannah Murtagh

In studies of writing, linguistic proficiency has been assumed to play an important factor contributing to writing proficiency (Raimes, 1987; Bereiter&Scardamalia, 1987; Hayes 1996). Additional factors such as “cognitive” processes (i.e. planning and reviewing) (Ellis, 2005), memory (McCutchen, 1996, Alamargot&Chanquoi, 2001), and the matter of the quality of writing and lexical fluency (Van Gelderen&Oostdam; 2002, 2004) and error correction (Ferris & Roberts, 2001; Ferris;1999, 2002, 2004) have been among the focus areas. This study examines whether instruction in a university preparatory EFL program increases the quality of writing. A typical criticism from university academic writing classes often argues that short preparatory programs do not produce able, coherent, and proficient writers as preparatory reading and writing programs face the dual challenge of integrated skills instruction as well as covering many of the conventions of academic writing. In an effort to evaluate the effects of teaching academic writing within an EFL preparatory program, this research aims to compare the quality of writing within two groups of students, low level EFL students (preintermediate and intermediate levels) after a twothree semester program against students whose initial fluency was significantly higher at the time of university entry (direct-entry students with an IELTS 6.5 equivalency or higher). To this aim, four factors which are readability, lexical density, coherence and grammar complexity in 50 essays have been examined quantitatively. In this presentation, we aim to highlight implications of the findings for academic writing instruction at EFL university settings and for the broader context academic programs in EFL context. Our findings indicate that EFL students graduating from the ELC score well below their direct-entry peers in a number of categories.

12

Authors: Dragana Božić Lenard

Many people would argue that metaphor is a characteristic of extraordinary rather than ordinary speech. However, Lakoff and Johnson (2003: 8) strongly disagree, claiming that our conceptual system is fundamentally metaphorical in its nature. Moreover, metaphors do not only shape our communication but the way we think or act. Occurring primarily in thought, metaphors are grounded in culture; hence they serve as a valuable resource for crosscultural linguistic research. This paper aims to study similarities and differences of the English and Croatian perspectives on love in terms of a journey. For the purpose of this research, Lakoff and Johnson’s eight metaphorical linguistic expressions of the LOVE IS A JOURNEY conceptual metaphor from Metaphors We Live By (2003) were used in a survey and offered to 28 native Croatian speakers and former English language and literature students majoring in the field of translation studies who were asked to provide their Croatian equivalents. After the survey was conducted, the research has shown the great similarity of metaphorical linguistic expressions in English and Croatian language. However, it has shown that, in order to maintain the same effect, sometimes different tenses or voice perspectives have to be used. Furthermore, it has shown the existence of the same metaphorical expression in the respective languages, yet used within different conceptual metaphors. Moreover, the research has shown not only interliguistic but also intralinguistic differences, i.e. synonimical options that the Croatian language has due to close geographical, historical, cultural and linguistic contact with Serbian language. In conclusion, it has been proved that even though two languages might share the same conceptual metaphor, the actual linguistic expressions underlying the conceptual metaphor may be coined on the basis of cultural-ideological differences, thus referring to metaphors being both cognitive as well as cultural entities.

13

Authors: Marijana Sivrić & Dijana Jurčić

Public speakers have always had a sense of authority and power upon them, and this area was male area for a long time. Together with different social changes such as Women’s Movement, women became more emancipated, participating in public sphere to a larger extent influencing thus the area of political discourse too. Key question is whether gender and supposed gender characteristics and differences connected to interaction styles and public speaking affect creation of political discourse and differences in its structure between male and female politicians or they are not an important factor for political discourse. In other words, does gender affect a person’s political subjectivity? The thesis is that gender specific differences in language use and use of syntactic, semantic, pragmatic structures, lexical style and rhetorical strategies create differences in political discourse between male and female politicians. Can these differences help the hegemonic construction of female identity in political discourse? The aim of the paper is to analyze language differences in connection with supposed gender characteristics and place them into context of political discourse.

14

Authors: Paul Nkuna

Learning a language through another language is trivialto any type of language learning, whether it is the learning of a local or a foreign language. South Africa’s language policy for higher education recommends the study of foreign languages (FLs) and indigenous languages.A decade after its adoption, the learning of a foreign or indigenous language in that foreign or that indigenous language, respectively, at universities has been overlooked. In essence, the learning of foreign languages at the country’s universities dates back to the 19th century, when the first higher education institution,the South African College was established. At that College a Department of General Literature that offered Dutch, English, Latin and Ancient languages was established. English and Dutch teachers provided instruction in the English and Dutch language, respectively. The instructions involved theory, history and practice of English grammar and literature or Dutch grammar and literature. The learning of indigenous languages at the country’s universities began in the 20th century under the departments of Bantu Studies. They were learnt through English, and then later through English andAfrikaans. The instructions involved theory, history and practice of English grammar and literature. The aim of this study is to gain knowledge on the different approaches that may be used to learn a foreign language and an indigenous language. The study focuses on the complex challenges facing the country’s universities to adopt new, different and best models for the teaching of foreign and indigenous languages after many decades of using English and Afrikaans mediums. A case study method is used for this study. The emphasis is on the learning of foreign versus indigenous languages in South African universities (SAUs). The paper consists of an introduction, the theory of Grammar Translation Method (GTM), a case study on the learning of foreign versus South African indigenous languages (SAILs) at the SAUs, and a conclusion.

21

Authors: James St. André

While teaching first in Singapore and now in Manchester, it has come to my attention that there are certain difficulties in teaching translation theory either outside of Europe or, in Europe, to students from outside of Europe who come here to study. This paper concentrates on the role of examples in theoretical works, the problems they pose in teaching theory and the implications for universalism in translation studies. I draw on Edward Said’s discussion of travelling theory, postcolonial critiques of the hegemonic role of English, and skopos theory to propose two courses of action to help overcome the problem: first, the incorporation of the translation of theoretical material both from and into European languages as part of practical postgraduate training; and second, the use of a radical substitution policy for examples, with new examples centred around the target language, rather than preservation of the original examples, which are centred around the sourcelanguage. Using the example of China, I will demonstrate how these two strategies push us to reconsider how we approach teaching theory. Firstly, the translation of Chinese theoretical texts into English will allow for a deeper appreciation of writings in Chinese and their wider dissemination. Secondly, the search for examples which involve the target language should lead to an engagement between the target culture and the theory. Translating Vinay and Darbelnet’s path breaking essay on translation processes, for example, immediately raises the question of what exactly is meant by ‘borrowing’ in the Chinese context, and for the need to distinguish between retaining the use of the roman alphabet and transliteration using Chinese characters, a distinction that would never arise between French, English and German.