Modern Languages Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

"Words and Phrases, Unchanged for Centuries. Containing a rich glossary and in excess of 300 words and phrases, the texts demonstrate the strength of the Macedonian language through preservation. Following is a comparison of... more

- by
- •
- Philology, Languages, Modern Languages, History

En Venezuela, las oportunidades de estudio no abundan tanto como uno quisiera. Por ello, entre mis compañeros y yo decidimos realizar un abreve presentación sobre las oportunidades de estudio en nuestro país de una de las carreras más versátiles a nivel profesional: la carrera de Idiomas Modernos. En esta breve presentación, encontrarán información detallada sobre la estructura de los pensums de la UCV, de la Unimet y de la IPC-UPEL, seguidas de una breve comparación entre las mismas para su posterior reflexión.

- by Susana Arenas and +1
- •
- Modern Languages, Venezuela, Modern Foreign Languages Teaching and Learning

A study of the limits of multilingual literary expression in print culture. Beginning with the insight that multilingual literature defies simple translation, Brian Lennon examines the resistance multilingual literature offers to book publication. Looking closely at the limit of multilingual literary expression and the literary journalism, criticism, and scholarship that comments on multilingual work, In Babel’s Shadow presents a critical reflection on the fate of literature in a world gripped by the crisis of globalization.

This is a visual support for an oral presentation given at the Université d'Orléans on 6/13/2015 during the international conference "Recherche et transmission des cultures étrangères : quelle utilité dans l’université d’aujourd’hui ?" Based on contemporary research, particularly on the work of British philosopher Peter Critchley (http://pcritchley2.wix.com/beingandplace, https://mmu.academia.edu/PeterCritchley), this paper examines notions of "world citizenry" or "eco-citizenship" from philosophical, ecological, literary and pedagogical perspectives. It provides practical examples of how to implement a rekindled notion of world citizenship into a university environment, more specifically into foreign language, culture and literature studies. Pedagogical tools include holistic, progressive classes, an intelligent cross-level articulation of course contents, and a centering of teaching modules on intercultural concepts. Examples based on California State University Fullerton's language and literature programs (specifically French) demonstrate how a multi-disciplinary approach, a focus on the interconnectedness of humans and earth, an emphasis on public space as condition for citizenship, and various forms of participatory "eco-praxis" (Critchley) strengthen our academic mission to co-create a genuine political and ecological vision with a planetary dimension that can revitalize and reconnect all scientific, humanistic and pedagogical actions.

- by Hélène Domon
- •
- Modern Languages, World Literatures, Philosophy, Languages and Linguistics

This article seeks to develop the research agenda of multilingualism and multicompetence by bringing together three research fields and their related methodologies: bilingualism, third language acquisition and language learner strategies. After a brief introduction to each area, it describes a study to explore whether bilingual adolescent students learning French in two London schools outperform their monolingual peers in reading and listening comprehension. The significant difference in bilinguals students’ listening comprehension test scores leads to in-depth analysis of qualitative data of three case study students in order to identify the differential features involved in the interaction of the languages. It appears that their greater use of oral/aural strategies is developed through the home environment; code-switching in the parental input fostering the development of the strategies. The article concludes with implications for pedagogy and for research.

In this work the author reports her experience with self-evaluation in an English teaching
methodology course at college level. The author raises some questions related to self-evaluation,
from the point of view of the Brazilian Guidelines for Primary and Secondary Education
(“formative” and “interactive-formative evaluation”), as well as to the “traditional”,
“independent” and “autonomous” modes of evaluation. Next, she presents examples of an
evaluation assignment and of a self-evaluation guide which were applied to her class. The
analysis of the results suggests that, if a totally autonomous self-evaluation style might still be
impractical, the gradual introduction of a guided self-evaluation mode, well-tuned to a specific
teaching/learning reality can bring very encouraging results.

- by Deborah Scheidt
- •
- Modern Languages, Education, Self Evaluation

Despite the limitations frequently pointed out by instructors and researchers, language textbooks continue playing a central role in foreign language education. Investigations of cultural representations in pedagogical resources suggest that textbooks tend to essentialize culture and scholars have called for the inclusion of diverse linguistic and cultural perspectives. Nevertheless, change has been slow. This article first summarizes findings of language textbooks analyses in relation to cultural representations. Next, implications of the findings of textbook analyses in relation to the teaching of culture in language courses are considered. Finally, concrete pedagogical suggestions for language educators are proposed to socialize beginner language learners into practices of reflection and interpretation utilizing the available pedagogical resources.

Joannes Leo Africanus, (c. 1494 – c. 1554?) (or al-Hasan ibn Muhammad al-Wazzan al-Fasi, Arabic:حسن ابن محمد الوزان الفاسي) was an Andalusian Amazigh Moorish diplomat and author who is best known for his book Descrittione dell’Africa... more

- by Arturo Sanchez Sanz
- •
- Modern Languages, Religion, History, Ancient History
- by Peter De Costa
- •
- Discourse Analysis, Modern Languages, Book Review, MDA

The core objective of this paper is to review the origin and evolution of Urdu as a language of influence. The debate of the origin of the Urdu language is very engaging and diverse. Various theories and arguments have been developed by different scholars and linguists throughout the study of the origin and history of the Urdu language and literature. Its origin from different dialects such as "Khari Boli" and "Baraj Bhasha" is also debatable. Apart from this unending discussion about its origin, the study of its advancement is also crucial. Historically, Urdu is associated with the establishment of Muslim rule in the subcontinent. It has adopted the Persian alphabet as a writing style and relies heavily on Persian and Arabic calligraphy as a source for technical and literary vocabulary. Urdu had many names throughout its evolution and in the end, it became famous as "Urdu", during the 19th century. Like its predecessors, Persian and Arabic it also developed its own literature. Urdu literature was served and watered by several famous and noted writers and poets of Persian literature. It had begun to become famous among Indian intelligentsia, a newly emerging class in the Indian subcontinent, during the last phase of Medieval India. After the decline of the Persian language, it became one of the main lingua-franca of Indian literates. So the present study will also describe that how the Urdu language and Its literature became very popular among all the sections of Indian society at the dawn of the 19th century and how it achieved a reasonable position in the Indian subcontinent up to 1857.

- by Mohd Tahir
- •
- Modern Languages, Early Modern History, South Asian Studies, South Asia

English translation of a text on the Polis Method which will be published in French in the Proceedings of the symposium Fabula Agitur that was held in Grenoble in January 2015. The text describes a method to teach ancient Greek through full immersion that has been developed in recent years by the Polis Institute. Students are taught to talk ancient Greek as a living language in order to become able to reach fluency in reading original texts. Translated from the original French by Anthony Antunes and Janet Safford (Polis Institute)

- by christophe rico
- •
- Languages, Modern Languages, Ancient History, Second Language Acquisition
- by Alexander Ghersi and +2
- •
- Modern Languages, Venezuela, Educación superior

In the era of the 4th Industrial revolution and with globalization rapidly burgeoning, transforming the world and minimizing land and language borders, the propensity of individuals is to become fluent in some foreign language, one of which is French. To acquire this fluency, one must be able to effectively participate in listening, one of the primary skills needed to acquire a language: which is generally noted as being a difficult skill to master. This research is to ascertain how effective the use of audio-visuals is in the augmenting of the listening skill.
This research, was done at a prominent High School in corporate area Jamaica using a sample group of 10 from a grade eight, French foreign language class. The findings showed that the students in the sample (and the class on a whole) got significantly higher average scores for listening comprehension, (when listening activities include visual aids) leading to the conclusion that listening done with audio-visual materials are effective in improving listen skills of learners of French as a foreign language.

- by Richard Palmer
- •
- Modern Languages, French Studies, French Language Teaching, French

In questo lavoro si è cercato di delineare lo stato dell’arte riguardo
all’insegnamento della lingua italiana agli stranieri. Si è affrontato il tema della diffusione delle lingue in Europa, con la descrizione dei lavori che hanno portato il Consiglio d'Europa alla costruzione del "Common European Framework of Reference for Language". Si è successivamente ristretto l'interesse al solo ambito italiano, analizzando la storia dell'educazione linguistica in ambito scolastico. Si è in seguito descritta la condizione attuale della lingua italiana all'estero: dove e come viene studiata, cosa viene fatto per favorirne e monitorarne la diffusione, quali istituzioni sono coinvolte. Infine, il cuore della tesi comprende un’analisi degli strumenti ad oggi disponibili per la progettazione didattica nell'ambito dell'italiano lingua straniera e seconda, con un particolare focus sui sillabi. La conclusione è dedicata all'ultimo lavoro pubblicato, il "Piano dei corsi ADA" curato dalla Società Dante Alighieri, il quale sembra spiccare per completezza, flessibilità e ambizioni.

A DOCTORATE DEGREE DISSERTATION CARRIED OUT IN THE DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND TRANSLATION STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF CALABAR- CALABAR

- by mark nku and +1
- •
- Modern Languages
- by Kevin McManus
- •
- Modern Languages, Second Language Acquisition, Spanish, Applied Linguistics
- by Basil Chulev
- •
- Languages, Modern Languages, History, Ancient History

The Ibero-Romance-speaking Jews of medieval Christian Iberia were linguistically distinct from their non-Jewish neighbors primarily as a result of their language's unique Hebrew-Aramaic component; preservations from older Jewish Greek, Latin, and Arabic; a tradition of translating sacred Hebrew and Aramaic texts into their language using archaisms and Hebrew-Aramaic rather than Hispanic syntax; and their Hebrew-letter writing system. With the expulsions from Iberia in the late 15th century, most of the Sephardim who continued to maintain their Iberianorigin language resettled in the Ottoman Empire, with smaller numbers in North Africa and Italy. Their forced migration, and perhaps a conscious choice, essentially disconnected the Sephardim from the Spanish language as it developed in Iberia and Latin America, causing their language-which they came to call laðino 'Romance', ʤuðezmo or ʤuðjó 'Jewish, Judezmo', and more recently (ʤudeo)espaɲol 'Judeo-Spanish'-to appear archaic when compared with modern Spanish. In their new locales the Sephardim developed the Hispanic component of their language along independent lines, resulting in further differentiation from Spanish. Divergence was intensified through borrowing from contact languages of the Ottoman Empire such as Turkish, Greek, and South Slavic. Especially from the late 18th century, factors such as the colonializing interests of France, Italy, and Austro-Hungary in the region led to considerable influence of their languages on Judezmo. In the 19th century, the dismemberment of the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian empires and their replacement by highly nationalistic states resulted in a massive language shift to the local languages; that factor, followed by large speech-population losses during World War II and immigration to countries stressing linguistic homogeneity, have in recent years made Judezmo an endangered language.

One of the primary struggles for scholars and practitioners of instructed foreign languages today is how to best teach language as discourse in all its complexity. Digital games, as massively semiotic ecologies, arguably offer a unique opportunity for language learners to experience that complexity in action. This article provides a model for teaching language as discourse in action through digital games, as a means of presenting language learners with opportunities to experience the complexity of text, genre and discourse. The model integrates three levels of discourse essential to digital gaming: (1) the designs of the games, (2) the interactions between gamers, both those that take part in the gaming platform (such as in-game chats) and those between participants in the classroom and (3) social discourses about gaming.

- by Chantelle Warner and +1
- •
- Modern Languages, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Applied Linguistics, Digital Media & Learning

Technological advance in mass media has always promoted contact between human communities, and as a result linguistic and cultural interactions have also been enhanced. By 1842 the mobility from country to country was increasing, and the demand for phrase books became evident. Eugenio de Ochoa published (in Paris and in Madrid) one of those phrase books in four languages: Spanish, French, Italian and English. It was especially aimed at travellers, so that it basically contains lists of common expressions, useful in everyday situations, but it also includes cultural notions, particularly those transmitted by tradition and enriched by a concrete view of reality. This cultural knowledge has turned out to be essential in language teaching in order to achieve both linguistic competence and understanding of cultural identity.

Article published in the "Criticism in Translation" section of the PMLA journal. It contains my English translation of an almost completely unknown early piece by Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben on the mystical philosophy of John of the Cross and its relationship to modern European philosophy and poetry. Agamben wrote it as an introduction to his own translations from Spanish into Italian of John of the Cross' poems for the publisher Einaudi in 1974. The piece is introduced by a brief text of mine, which contextualizes it and explains its importance in Agamben's larger philosophy.

- by Alberto Parisi
- •
- Modern Languages, Comparative Literature, Philosophy, Poetry
- by Alice Crosta
- •
- Modern Languages, Comparative Literature, Italian Studies, 19th Century
- by Masood Ghayoomi
- •
- Modern Languages, Persian Language, Word prediction

The pantun, a classical verse form which began as an oral tradition, is part of the cultural heritage of the Malay people. The earliest known Malay pantun translations into English in print have been identified in approximately seven different types of text written by British colonialists in nineteenth century Malaya. These texts include two grammar references, a statistical record, three historical narratives and a collection of personal letters. This paper focuses on pantun translations into English in the two well-known Malay grammar texts of the time which were produced by William Marsden and John Crawfurd. A descriptive analysis of Marsden’s and Crawfurd’s translation styles on a selection of pantun alongside the translational considerations which had influenced their translation style will form the main discussion of this paper. A case of present-day criticism levelled at Marsden’s translation of a particularly well-known linked pantun is also reviewed here against a number of...

- by KRISHNAVANIE SHUNMUGAM
- •
- Modern Languages, Translation and literature
- by Alex Kasonde
- •
- Modern Languages, Multilingualism, Lexicography, Translation

Although it is easy to fathom why Eurolinguistic research tends to concern what is
called Standard Average European (see Haspelmath 2001) rather than peripheral non-Indo-European languages of Europe this author’s opinion is that a closer look precisely
at the latter makes the linguistic picture of Europe more interesting, more true and
more complex. At the same time a few methodological questions arise. Some of them
are presented and (partially) discussed in this study

- by Marek Stachowski
- •
- Languages, Modern Languages, Eastern European Studies, European Studies
- by Elisa Pierandrei
- •
- Modern Languages, Wikipedia Studies
- by Simona Di Martino
- •
- Modern Languages, History Of Emotions

Um Deutsch als Fremdsprache (DaF) in einer motivierenden Lernumgebung zu vermitteln, habe ich einen besonderen Sprachkurs konzipiert und durchgeführt, der hier vorgestellt wird. Bei einer vierstündigen Sightseeing-Fahrradtour in Englisch und Deutsch können die Teilnehmer Deutsch ganzheitlich, d. h. kognitiv, affektiv und körperlich erwerben sowie landeskundliche und interkulturelle Kompetenzen ausbauen. Insbesondere wird das Hörverständnis geschult. Dieser Kurs kann sowohl in traditionellen Deutschkursen integriert als auch als eigenständiger Kompaktkurs durchgeführt werden. Daher besteht die Zielgruppe aus Teilnehmern regulärer Sprachkurse, aus in Deutschland lebenden Ausländern oder auch aus Touristen mit Deutschkenntnissen.

- by Devon Donohue-Bergeler
- •
- Languages, Modern Languages, German Studies, Languages and Linguistics

To promote multilingualism at their university, several educators initiated a video and campus event that highlighted translations of two college slogans. The project increased the visibility of international and multilingual students online and on campus, established new institutional partnerships, and provided some validation for reframing English language education at Norwich University.

- by Stefan Georg
- •
- History of Linguistics, Philology, Languages, Modern Languages
- by Basil Chulev
- •
- Languages, Modern Languages, Religion, History
- by Roberto Tartaglione
- •
- Modern Languages, Art, Language, Teaching

This book examines comic book adaptations of Aristophanes’ plays in order to shed light on how and why humour travels across cultures and time. Forging links between modern languages, translation and the study of comics, it analyses the Greek originals and their English translations and offers a unique, language-led research agenda for cultural flows, and the systematic analysis of textual norms in a multimodal environment. It will appeal to students and scholars of Modern Languages, Translation Studies, Comics Studies, Cultural Studies and Comparative Literature.

- by Dimitris Asimakoulas
- •
- Modern Languages, Greek Comedy, Translation Studies, Greek Language

THE " changed world " indicated in the title of the 2007 MLA report " Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World " marks a shifting affective reality for foreign language educators. Suddenly, with the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the ensuing United States military engagements, there was a heightened recognition at federal levels that the United States had a deficit, a crisis, in language and international expertise, especially in key critical languages needed desperately for defense. The authors of the report could not have anticipated that less than a year after its publication, the United States would be hit by another crisis—the recession in 2008. As state legislatures embraced a rhetoric of austerity and many universities followed suit, the need to validate our role in the enterprise of the university was felt keenly by those of us in the modern language and humanities departments across the country. This state of systemic crisis has become a defining narrative for foreign language, literature, and culture departments in the United States. The combined pressures of a language deficit and an economic crisis have created a narrative in which there is this phenomenon, a " language crisis, " which looms because of the potentially precarious positioning of American graduates in tomorrow's world, which is primarily shaped by defense initiatives and the global market. The logical conclusion drawn from these converging narratives of crisis is that foreign language departments must optimize their curricula so that they can provide access to the language and culture resources students will need in the most cost-effective and efficient way possible—or risk downsizing and closure. The morals of the crisis narrative align well with the " regimes of anticipation " that pervades postrecession university culture (Adams et al. 247); indeed, a wide range of laudable efforts and initiatives in foreign language education have been developed in response to these pressures. However, advocating for the study of foreign languages, literatures, and cultures from an affective position of perpetual crisis all too often results in what Berlant describes as " cruel optimism " : " a relation of attachment to compromised conditions of possibility " (21). The modes of prediction , optimization, and instrumentality preferred by regimes of anticipation differ importantly from the kinds of needs analysis and backward design familiar to those of us in language pedagogy because they are tethered to preordained interests and value sets—perceived immediate threats to national security, an imagined corporate world within which students will need to compete. Securing the best possible future risks becoming less about education in any transformative sense and more about checking off boxes and shoring up skill sets. Even more cruelly, arguments grounded in globalization and optimization more often than not lead to conclusions that

- by Chantelle Warner
- •
- Modern Languages, Humanities, Teaching of Foreign Languages, Foreign languages