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1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
English for Mathematicians: from Language to Tasks
Martin Mikuláš
Department of Language Education
Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, Charles University
Prague, Czech Republic
martin.mikulas@mff.cuni.cz
Abstract: The author describes the language education system implemented at a faculty
preparing professional mathematicians, physicists and IT specialists, paying special
attention to the course for mathematicians. The article also presents a profile of a typical
attendant of the course based on the theory of learning styles, which together with the
stylistic features of the language of mathematics, predetermines the syllabus and
appropriate teaching methodology. The author proposes some essential principles on the
background of the theory of ESP, EAP and task-based teaching and learning, giving a
number of examples from his teaching practice.
Key words: artificiality, curriculum, EAP, ESP, language of mathematics, language of
science, linguistic competence, mathematical text, naturalness, pragmatic competence,
register, symbolic language, style, task-based teaching
Introduction
About the department and the target group
The Department of Language Education at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in
Prague provides education in a number of European languages, namely English, French, German, Spanish and
Russian. Its main task is to prepare their students for future international cooperation, further educational prospects
and scientific activities. The faculty offers education in three study programmes, which are physics, mathematics and
informatics. The Faculty, being a part of Charles University, is a research institute. Its students are therefore
expected to reach prominent positions in Czech research and educational institutions.
The Department of Language Education thus has to reflect these aspects and offer adequate language
courses. Language training is realized in five semesters in bachelor study programmes and a two-semester
postgraduate course. Undergraduates are bound to pass a comprehensive examination in English. After passing the
exam, they can enrol on the courses of English for Specific Purposes (i.e. for mathematicians, physicists and
information scientists). Combining language education with such specific specializations is not an easy task,
considering the scientific profile of the studies. When designing the language curriculum, the specialists of the
department had to deal with two main restraining aspects – the nature of the scientific language (discourse) and
specific learning needs of students (probable future scientists).
Language of Science
The language of science is a very specific domain of stylistics. This particular character results from the
function of scientific texts and the narrow community it is aimed at and used by. The main function is to formulate
accurate, clear and relatively complete utterance (ĥechová, 2008). The choice of information and the form are to
have the reader create an unambiguous and entire image of the scientifically described reality. In addition, the
recipient is expected not only to understand the main ideas but also to learn and cognitively process the content. It is
mainly because the result of studying a scientific text is to further develop the newly acquired thoughts and apply
them. Scientific texts are not intended to be read only but primarily to be studied. All the findings of theoretical
stylistics must be taken into account when preparing the curriculum of the language course for academic and
scientific purposes.
Linguistic features
Linguistic features of scientific texts appear to be rather rigid and stable as most of them have been
observed since the beginnings of science and the development of its discourse. They remain the same even though
the subject of science changes and extends dramatically. All the linguistic characteristics depend mostly on the
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essential criterion: the maximum parallelism between the language form and the meaning (ĥechová, 2008). To meet
this criterion, the language of science uses specific language means that cannot be found in any other texts.
Mathematization
Scientific language is dominated by facts and strictly logical argumentation. We can even observe that in
various disciplines of science, the language incorporates some characteristics of the mathematical discourse
(ĥechová, 2008).
Depersonalisation
Personal contribution towards the scientific topic is often depersonalized (e.g. by means of plural or
impersonal constructions).
Low emotional charge
Together with hiding the author‘s personality, scientific texts feature low emotional charge. The author
avoids showing any personal attitude towards the topic for the sake of objectivity. As ĥechová (2008)
claims, purely standard code is used in scientific texts as it prevents authors from expressing ideas with
emotional tone.
Composition
Paragraphs in scientific texts are very cohesive, dealing with a particular idea only. All sentences are
logically combined (not necessarily by means of connectors) to induce or deduce new ideas.
Syntax
Syntactic construction of scientific texts reflects its mental complexity. Thus, sentences in linguistic texts
are longer and more complex (the average number of words in paratactic and hypotactic clauses in Czech
scientific texts accounts for almost 20 words, combined in 4 or 5 sentences). Hypotactic sentences prevail
in written texts in which sentences are also longer (ĥechová, 2008).
Morphology
Some forms prevail in scientific texts in comparison with other texts. It is the use of present and future verb
forms. Among parts of speech, it is a repertoire of connectors, nouns and adjectives and a number of
prepositional phrases (ĥechová).
Lexis
Nouns are used technically in the form of scientific terminology (which is often based on words of Latin or
Greek origin). Low proportion of synonymy among the words used in scientific texts reflects the tendency
to avoid ambiguity. Consequently, the range of lexis suffers from monotonicity in scientific texts.
Understanding and using terms properly is more important for the author and the recipient than the variety
of the expressions used (low expressivity). Urbanová (2008) asserts that expressiveness and matter-offactness cannot be that easily separated since they concur in fulfilling the communicative purpose of texts
and utterances.
Thematic progression
Objective word order prevails in the sentences of scientific texts. Information is developed by means of
thematization of rhemes.
Text graphics
Because of the complexity of scientific texts, graphical means are used to make them comprehensible
(system of brackets, lettering, numbering, overuse of punctuation, symbols and other signs).
Language economy
Authors of scientific texts condense all information to be as precise as possible. Fewer words are used to
avoid redundant information. Sentences are therefore condensed by means of non-finite verbs forms.
Results and activity as an inseparable part of scientific texts
As we have stated above, in science texts do not fulfil only the informative function. Mlìkovská (1977)
claims that ―the content of language is formed under the influence of the circumstances of usage, the difference,
however, being that in science this process is predominantly organized and goal-directed: it is to help to obtain, fix
and deduce products of this specific human activity – products of a cognitive character.― This specific function of
scientific texts must be observed when developing students‘ reading comprehension in English for academic and
scientific purposes classes. Comprehension cannot be acquired and later tested as simple understanding general or
specific information in a text. In the field of science, this concept of comprehension might lead to formalism.
Especially in mathematics, understanding a text is a synonym for understanding a particular theory, which can only
by demonstrated by human activity, e.g. solving scientific (mathematical) problems. Mlìkovská (1977) tries to
specify the whole process of creating a text and its functioning in science distinguishing five stages:
1. The speaker or author finds and creates
2. a concrete mode of linguistic expression of
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3.
4.
5.
a set of thoughts, of information on the empirical or theoretical level, in order to
ensure adequate understanding of the recipient or reader
the effect of understanding being shown by certain specialized activities of the recipient, the final
effects of which manifest themselves not only in the mind of the recipient, but, first and foremost,
outwardly.
When designing a specialized course of English for mathematicians, one should necessarily consider the different
use and purpose of the language of mathematics (not English necessarily). Let us make a short outline of the
particularities that a ‘mathematical English‘ is specific for.
Specifics of Mathematical Texts
The relation of mathematics and mathematical texts is closer than that of biology and biological texts. As
Nebeský (1977) states, text in mathematics has the same functions as experiments, measurements and collecting or
interpreting empirical data for other sciences. This close relation is obvious from any part of a mathematical text
(numerous graphemes or the structure of the text).
Symbolic language
Texts in mathematics feature the parallel use of verbal and non-verbal expressions:
There exists a natural number n such that
3 2n 1 .
All these combinations can be expressed verbally, using a subordinate clause. Still, it is inappropriate for
mathematicians to avoid using mathematical formulae in such cases. Nebeský (1977) asserts that symbolic language
is used in mathematics where natural, non-symbolic language appears to be unreliable to express the mathematical
idea. Symbolism is simply used not only to shorten the ideas (complex thought expressed in a minimum number of
symbols) but also to point out the structure of the idea. This can easily by seen in such structures that are not linear
but two-dimensional (e.g. symbolic expression of matrices).
1 2 3
det 2 5 6
3 4 5
The matrix can be interpreted as a three-membered sequence of the three-dimensional vectors (1; 2; 3), (2;,
5; 6), (3; 4; 5) or a three-membered sequence of the three-dimensional vectors (1; 2; 3), (2;, 5; 4), (3; 6; 5). The
symbol det turns this geometrical interpretation to a numerical one. The whole expression can therefore be calculated
resulting in a numeric sum, which is equal to -4. Its absolute value then represents the volume of the tetrahedron
determined by either of the two sequences of the three vectors. The symbolic representation therefore structures the
idea, gives it a spatial model, which can be interpreted numerically again. This comprehension is only possible
because of the (cognitive) activity of the reader. This activity is not necessarily mental but also physical as the reader
must use a pen and a paper to process the mathematical language into its comprehensive interpretation.
Moreover, symbolic (non-verbal) and verbal expressions are used in an extraordinary unity. Nebeský (1977)
gives an example similar to the following one:
389 + lg abc
and claims: ―The dividing-line between the symbolic and the verbal would not appear to be the main dividing-line in
mathematical language. This is not merely because part of the vocabulary employed in a given mathematical text is
technicalized, but also because the symbolic material of a mathematical text is often not homogenous.‖ In the abovementioned expression, there are three components: sin, abc and 274. Each of these three-signed symbols has a
different function. 389 is a decimal representation of a number, abc represents two algebraic multiplicative
operations between three unknowns (a, b ,c). The sign lg represents a function. Implicitly, the information given is
much more complex. The symbol identifies not only the name of the function, but also an action that must be do
ne with abc. In addition, the knowledgeable reader is aware of the properties of such a function (e.g. the
domain, the range and the basis).
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Another example in which verbal and non-verbal expression mutually coincide is the (over)use of let, which is
usually used to ―set the scene‖. In other words, let introduces some necessary conditions to be considered in what
follows:
Let a R. Then ...
The verbal interpretation of the mixture of verbal and symbolic expressions (Let a be an element of the domain of
real numbers.) mutually coincides. The reader/speaker combines their content and linguistic knowledge, which is
especially apparent from the use of the bare infinitive of the verb to be.
Lexis
Stiff and Live Expressions
Texts in mathematics are also full of fixed and live expressions (Nebeský, 1982, 1984). Fixed expressions
are those whose use is properly determined, fixed or defined. Contrary to other sciences, mathematical texts are full
of stiff expressions adopted from other texts (frequent intertextuality) while many other expressions become fixed
only for the purpose of the text itself. The letter n can represent any natural number in one text, but a number of the
vertices of a triangle in another. In addition, one symbol can play more functions within one text for the sake of the
language economy. In such cases, expressions can be continuously redefined by the author of the text. Stiff
expressions are not only symbols and longer symbolic formulations but also words and phrases. Some of them can
be so widespread that they can be found in many fields of mathematics (e.g. set, empty, or, normal). Stiff
expressions thus turned into terms. As Nebeský claims, ―It is impossible to recognize which expressions are stiff if
one does not have good command of the mathematical discipline and without an overall knowledge of the text―.
Besides stiff expressions, mathematical texts are full of live expressions. Their function is usually not
clearly defined. They only help mathematicians to speak about mathematical objects (stiff expressions) or order the
ideas of mathematicians properly. The use of live expressions is always highly dependent upon the stiff expressions
which the text describes and the branch of mathematics. Some expressions can therefore be used as stiff in one text
but as live in another. The use and interpretation of live and stiff expressions is determined by the topic, text (cotext) and convention. This peculiarity of mathematical texts is caused by the fact that mathematics deals with
abstract and uniquely constructed ideas which must be expressed unambiguously by means of a natural language.
We can thus conclude that interpretation and comprehension of a mathematical text can be extremely
difficult for a mathematician (without really deep knowledge of the whole text/theory) and impossible for a
mathematically non-educated person. Moreover, composing a mathematical text is based on balancing the use of
stiff and live expressions properly, which is a matter of real mastery. This mastery represents an indispensable
competence of the author, which is unique and specific for mathematicians.
Terminology
Mathematics has a significant position among other sciences given by its strictly axiomatic structure,
deductive reasoning and very precise terminology. Every term in mathematics is profoundly defined to such an
extent that no ambiguities are acceptable. This tendency is only possible because mathematics anywhere in the world
describes and interprets the same abstract reality, regardless of external (socially determined) influences.
Surprisingly, this phenomenon does not eliminate a number of discrepancies in the mathematical terminology of two
different languages. Students of mathematics are often disconcerted when they find such differences as follows:
Non-existent lexis
The most substantial discrepancy in the system of terminology is the case of non-existent lexical unit for the
same entity in either the native or the foreign language. Such terms are usually described by means of a defining
term and a specifying modifier, phrase or clause, such as in the following examples:
incentre (English)- střed kruţnice vepsané (Czech) (i.e. the centre of an inscribed circle)
circumcentre (English)
- střed kruţnice opsané (Czech) (i.e. the centre of a circumscribed circle)
or vice versa
rectangular prism (English) – kvádr (Czech)
Students of mathematics usually do not expect non-existence of equivalent terms in either of the languages.
Non-equivalent polysemy
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Some terms are polysemous in either the source or the target language, but there is no one-to-one
correspondence between the range of meanings.
segment (English) – úsečka (Czech)
segment (English) – úseč (Czech)
circle (English) – kruţnice (Czech)
circle (English) – kruh (Czech)
As students of mathematics expect one-to-one correspondence between the terminologies of the source and the
target language, they can be disoriented and search for other forms of naming the entity.
False friends
Students of mathematics can also be confused by numerous ―false friends‖. They usually use these expressions
incorrectly in their oral or written production.
chord (English)
radical axis (English)
–
–
tětiva (Czech)
chordála (Czech)
derivation (English)
differentiation (English)
derivative (English)
-
odvozenì (Czech)
derivování, derivace (Czech)
derivace (Czech)
Different perception of reality
Reality can be perceived differently in two different codes (Pinker, 2009). This can easily be demonstrated on
the verbal expression of geometrical interpretation of reality. For instance, names of solid figures in one
language are derived on the basis of different criteria:
triangular prism (English) (the bottom face is a triangle) – trojboký hranol (i.e. three-faced prism)
hexagonal prism (English) (the bottom face is a hexagon) – šestiboký hranol (i.e. six-faced prism)
All the lexical discrepancies can combine with one another as it is apparent in the following example:
circumference (English) – délka kruţnice (the length of a circle) or obvod kruhu (the perimeter of a circle)
The word circumference does not have a lexical equivalent in Czech and the entity of a circle is perceived
differently in Czech. The two manners of translation are therefore very difficult to explain to an English native
speaker.
Grammar
Performative verbs
Mathematical texts differ from texts of other sciences in use of specific grammatical means. It is quite
frequent to use the first person singular imperative forms (e.g. Let us consider, Let us define) or the first person
plural future forms (e.g. We will consider, We will choose). These are usually used when indicating performance. As
it has been claimed above, text is a laboratory of a mathematician and all performance must therefore be described in
detail (performative hypothesis by Yule, 1996). It is a convention of mathematical text to avoid using the more
traditional performative form, i.e. the first person singular or plural indicative present form.
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Articles
The relation between grammatical means and the structure of mathematical texts can also be demonstrated
on the use of articles. Mathematical texts are structured in such a way that one section functions as a whole (it can be
a sentence). One mathematical object can therefore be named and renamed repeatedly by the same designation. This
affects the use of indefinite article, which is used for each new use of the object. Such use is unnatural in fiction and
texts of other sciences.
The use of articles also differs in case of objects determined by numbering and lettering. In academic
grammar books, nouns combined with numbers and letters are thought to be used with no articles, such as Room 10,
Tram 210, Paragraph A. In the mathematical (scientific) text, numbering and lettering is frequent. It is used either to
structure the text (Theorem 5: Let us...), as a means of intratextual reference (...as we have proved in Theorem 5.) or
to refer to objects that are being considered (the triangle ABC). The last example makes difficulties to students. ABC
refers to the whole class of objects (it is not any particular triangle, there is no singular reference) but it is
determined by lettering. The mathematical generality seemingly clashes with the grammatical definiteness
(expressed by lettering).
Conclusion: Artificiality and Naturalness
We can thus conclude that in comparison with other specialized texts, mathematical texts can simply be
labelled as artificial. As we have demonstrated, this artificial nature affects the repertoire of lexical and grammatical
means used by mathematicians. It can also be demonstrated on the discourse structure of a mathematical text, which
is characteristic for the sequences of definitions, theorems and proofs. Still, texts in mathematics also depend on the
expressive power of natural (non-technicalized) language devices. The border between natural and artificial is not
clear as natural expressions are technicalized in mathematical texts and, vice versa, artificial (technical) expressions
are used naturally by mathematicians. As Nebeský (1977) states: ―The very exactness of a mathematical idea admits
the undisturbed transfer of the content of the idea, even given a certain natural looseness of the means of expression
employed. The exact content of an idea can be extracted and understood from a mode of expression that may well be
considered somewhat inexact, unclear or incomplete.― Teaching students of mathematics to express mathematical
ideas in a foreign language must take the dichotomy of artificial and natural into great consideration.
Students of mathematics as a target group
The other aspect that had to be taken into consideration when designing the curriculum of the course
English for Mathematicians was the nature of students of mathematics.
First, it is their language needs that arise from the profile of the study programme they enrolled on. As we
have said, students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University in Prague are supposed to by
theoretical physicists, mathematicians and informatics specialists. They are expected to continue in the postgraduate
studies and most probably they will become scientists and researchers in these disciplines.
Second, it is necessary to consider the specific aptitudes of our students. It is highly presumable that it is
mathematical and logic intelligence that dominates their intelligence distribution pattern (Gardner, 1999). The
essential function of this intelligence is confrontation of a human being with the world of entities, their arrangement
and organisation (Gardner, 1999). People dominated by mathematical and logic intelligence are able to estimate
quantity, easily understand symbols and symbolic language, handle abstract operations. They are keen on computing
and solving problems. They do experiments and are eager to deal with puzzles that they do not understand. They
want to do things themselves. Folprechtová (2006) claims: ―In any school subject all types of intelligence can be
developed. … Teaching and learning a foreign language is such a complex activity that it calls for this combination
of approaches and, what is more, it also offers opportunities for them from its essence.―
Besides Gardner‘s theory of multiple intelligence, the theory of learning styles might help us reveal specific
learning needs of students of mathematics. We have therefore done research into our students learning styles, using
Kolb‘s research method and classification. This year, we have asked a number of our students to voluntarily and
anonymously fill out a questionnaire. It was Kolb‘s LSI II A questionnaire published at Auburn University of
Montgomery in 1986 (in translation by professor Mareń, the Faculty of Medicine, Charles University in Prague,
published in Turek, 2001). We received 47 properly completed questionnaires.
Kolb distinguishes four learning styles on the basis of two criteria:
Perception of information: in either concrete or abstract form
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Processing of information: by means of reflective observation or active manipulation
These four poles divide learning styles into four quadrants:
concrete experience
dynamic (accommodator)
innovator (diverger)
active
experimentation
reflective observation
practitioner (converger)
analyst (assimilator)
abstract conceptualisation
Our research revealed the following distribution of our students in the four types:
It is apparent that two learning styles predominate (converger and accommodator) while the other two are
rare (diverger and assimilator). The vast majority (89%) of the students who participated in the inquiry have the
same approach towards learning in terms of processing new information. Since they are either accommodators or
convergers, they prefer learning by active experimentation. 60% of them prefer abstract conceptualization
(convergers and assimilators) and 40% privileges concrete experience (accommodators and divergers). Let us now
consider the two dominant learning styles more profoundly.
Convergers (called practitioners by Kolb) perceive information in an abstract form but process them
actively. They want to know how abstract concepts work in real situations. They like solving problems and apply
ideas. They consider teachers as trainers who organize and manage the teaching and learning process. They are said
to prefer studying applied sciences. They are introverts who are best motivated by problems as they want to know
how abstract ideas function. They learn faster if they can be active, do things ―with hands― (have preference of
kinaesthetic activities). The heuristic method is an effective way of teaching which they appreciate most.
Accommodators prefer gaining information in a concrete form which they process actively. They often
learn new things by trial-and-error method. They are impulsive and impatient. They need to deal with problems
practically since they want to discover things and ideas and to apply what they have learnt. They are best motivated
if they can see the result of their hard work. They prefer cooperative and project teaching methods.
The micro-research did not prove the hypothesis entirely that the type of assimilators and convergers would
prevail. As we expected it is abstract conceptualisation that is a dominant means of perceiving information.
Surprisingly, 89% learn by active experimentation rather than reflective observation.
Curriculum of the course English for Mathematicians
When designing the curriculum of the course English for Mathematicians, we had to consider all the specifics
of the learning needs of mathematicians and the peculiarities of mathematical texts and language briefly described
above. We can thus summarize some prerequisites:
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The content and methods involved in the course must reflect the needs and learning style of students of
mathematics. Teachers should always be aware of the particularities, focusing on developing analytical skills of
the students of mathematics. Students of mathematics are capable of processing abstract ideas (content) but
they appear to prefer learning by doing and applying their knowledge in experiments and problem solving tasks
(methods).
Special attention must be paid to the stylistic features of mathematical texts. Students cannot simply start
developing their receptive and productive skills without explicitly dealing with the language and style of
mathematical/scientific language.
Since mathematical ideas must always be expressed precisely and unambiguously, the course must
primarily focus on the development of linguistic and pragmatic competence (Hedge) to result in accuracy.
As we have shown, in comparison with other scientific texts even the style and structure of mathematical
texts are fixed and rigorous. Thus, it is also necessary to focus on developing discourse competence (Hedge). In
addition, students have almost no experience with the concepts of the particular genres of scientific
(mathematical) texts in English.
Since the lexical level of mathematical texts plays a substantial part in the language of mathematics, the
course should explicitly deal with mathematical terminology. Particular attention must be paid to discrepancies
in the terminological systems of the national and foreign languages. Misuse of terminology in mathematics is
totally unacceptable.
Comprehension of a mathematical text in a foreign language in its complexity is to result in activity based
on solving problems, explaining and deducing theories. The course of English for mathematicians should
therefore be task-based oriented.
All these prerequisites are essential to premeditate as the attenders of the course English for Mathematicians
usually have some experience with studying foreign languages. At primary and secondary schools in the Czech
Republic, the paradigm in the theory of teaching foreign languages follows the principles of communicative
approach (Larsen-Freeman, 2000). Undergraduates can therefore deal with a number of situations from their
everyday life in a foreign language because their strategic competence (Hedge, 2000) has been fairly highly
developed. But their language command sometimes lacks in accuracy.
Curriculum
The syllabus of the course of English for Mathematicians was divided into three stages, observing the abovestated prerequisites. It can be described briefly by the following table:
AREA
LANGUAGE FOCUS
a)
STAGE ONE
b)
STYLE AND STRUCTURE
c)
d)
STAGE TWO
-
a)
b)
The language of science –
discourse/text
analysis,
orality vs. literacy, the level
of formality, formal and
informal academic words
and expressions
Research articles and other
research genres (abstracts,
research
presentations,
theses and dissertations),
organizing academic writing
Presentations – language,
structure
and
analysis,
making presentations
Symbolic language and
mathematical
notation,
punctuation
Quantifying expressions
Talking
about/describing
facts, evidence and data,
numbers, statistics, graphs
and diagrams, cause and
TASKS
Simple arithmetic and algebraic
tasks in order to practise reading
symbolic language.
Each student is to prepare and
present a mathematical topic.
Complete analysis of a scientific
text.
Simple arithmetic and algebraic
tasks in order to practise reading
symbolic language.
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FUNCTIONS AND NOTIONS
STAGE THREE
GRAMMAR
TERMINOLOGY
AND
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
h)
i)
j)
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
f)
g)
effect
Analysing results
Presenting an argument
Describing research methods
Classifying
Comparing and contrasting
Defining
Stating theorems
Proving theorems
Non-finite verb forms
Passive voice
Inversion
Articles
The language of geometry
The language of algebra
The language of analysis
Formulating definitions, theorems
and their proofs.
Complex mathematical problems
and sequences of problems from
the
basic
disciplines
of
mathematics.
Stage one
In the introductory part of the course of English for Mathematicians, students deal with the stylistic
properties of scientific and mainly mathematical texts (grammatical, lexical, structural and other features). Students
analyse a number of texts pointing out the differences between technical and literary/popular texts. Particular
attention is paid to genres that students are supposed to deal with in their further practice, namely abstracts, research
papers, articles and presentations. The analysis is based on noticing and subsequent interpretation mainly.
It is important to work with texts that are natural for mathematicians. Authenticity is not the only criterion
because there are authentic texts about mathematics that do not observe the naturalness of the language of
mathematics. They are either written by non-mathematicians for other non-mathematicians or by mathematicians for
non-mathematicians (popular texts, journalistic texts). Still, such texts lack in the purpose of goal-directed scientific
activity (Mlìkovská, 1977). These texts were and sometimes are used in textbooks of English for mathematicians as
we can see in the following examples:
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A sample text on Cartesian Geometry used in the textbook Úvod do četby anglických odborných textů pro
posluchače MFF UK by Vladimìr Mach.
Adequate texts used in the classes of English for mathematicians should not only be authentic but mainly
natural. They must be written by mathematicians for mathematicians. Such texts can only fulfil the criterion of
cognitive scientific activity as the result of comprehension. Comparison of the two kinds of natural texts reveals
obvious and fundamental differences:
A mathematical text on Logarithmic and Exponential Function from the book Introduction to Analysis by
Maxwell Rosenlicht
Besides studying the specifics of the style and structure of natural texts, students must learn the verbal
interpretation of the symbolic mathematical language. Although such knowledge is not essential for comprehension,
it is simply necessary for reading the texts. The teacher should therefore assign tasks like these:
Verbal interpretations and reinterpretations
Read the following expression.
{x X : P( x)}
Calculations
Find the result.
1 2 2 4 ? ?
3 1 3 1 ? ?
Students can even assign such tasks to each other, dictating verbal expressions for their partners to write
them down symbolically. Only then can they appreciate indispensable command of the symbolic language and its
verbal expression.
Stage two
In the second stage, students learn to use grammatical and lexical means in order to express basic functions
and notions. It is crucial for mathematicians to correctly formulate mainly definitions, theorems and proofs.
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First of all, students are exposed to language forms which are sorted according to the criteria that were formulated in
Stage One (e.g. first person plural, Let, overuse of the passive). Students study such language forms to be able to
formulate definitions, theorems and proofs on their own. All the examples were excerpted from original (authentic
and natural) English mathematical texts and are distributed in the form of worksheets weekly.
Finally, the stage of language practice comes, in which purely linguistic assignments and mathematical problems are
combined. When selecting the methods of practice, we took into consideration the specifics of our students‘ learning
style and the characteristic combination of stiff and live expressions in mathematical texts.
Therefore, the assignment types include:
contrastive analysis
Students are to compare forms used in Czech and English, focusing on equivalent counterparts of Czech
and English sentences.
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Věta 6.3 je kritériem pro rozhodovánì o konvergenci posloupnosti.
Theorem 6.3 provides criterion for deciding on convergence of the sequence.
translation into Czech
Students are asked to translate some English sentences into Czech, paying special attention to the forms
underlined.
First we prove the theorem when n = 1, in which case the ordering on R can be put to good use. Indeed we
have the following result.
gap-filling
Students are required to fill in gaps extracted from authentic sentences.
___________ the rank of the matrix A is less ___________ the number of columns in A (r<k), then the
columns of A are linearly dependent. ___________ the rank of A equals the number of columns in A (r=k),
___________ the columns of A are ___________.
translation into English
Students are ready to translate selected Czech mathematical sentences (definitions, theorems, proofs) into
English. They are asked to pay attention to the phrases underlined.
Lagrangeovu větu lze vyslovit následovně:
Věta 3: Nechť funkce
je spojitá na intervalu
Pak existuje bod
takový, ţe platì
a má v kaţdém bodě intervalu
derivaci.
.
production
Finally, students have to produce their own mathematical texts (definitions, theorems, proofs).
All tasks are designed to emphasize structures that are natural (stiff and live according to Nebeský, 1982,
1984) in English mathematical texts. Students‘ written and oral production is therefore stimulated to be not only
acceptable and grammatical but also natural.
Some activities can be organized as games. Students define mathematical terms while the others guess. If
the teacher wants to direct students‘ attention to some terms only, they can put the desirable terms on the board or
distribute them on a piece of paper. In case of proofs, students are activated by the task to present their proofs on the
board. Geometrical proofs of algebraic theorems are especially appreciated.
Stage three
In the final stage, all the work in the language classroom is framed by particular mathematical disciplines.
In a semester course, we usually manage to deal with three essential fields, i.e. algebra, geometry and mathematical
analysis. Students are assigned to focus on terms whose meaning can easily be transferred from Czech. Students use
the language means acquired in the second stage of the course (defining).
Define the following terms:
isomorphism, algebraically closed field
Particular attention if subsequently paid to terms which students are expected not to be able to define. These include
lexical discrepancies described above.
Finally, students deal with various mathematical problems from the selected mathematical disciplines. In
this phase, students have to use all the language from the previous stages. They have to prove some theorems, do
calculations and solve problems.
Prove the following theorems:
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Let k be a circle and AB a chord of the circle k. Then the central angle over AB with respect to k equals two
angles over AB at the circumference of k.
Solve the following problems:
Find the radical axis of two arbitrary intersecting/nonintersecting circles. Describe the construction.
Students are also ready to present their results to the others and compare other students‘ approaches towards these
tasks. At the same time, they are expected to sound natural in terms of the language they use.
Conclusion: Task-based approach
As we have shown, the whole curriculum is task-based oriented. Since the very beginning, students are
exposed to language by means of authentic and natural mathematical texts. Their learning always leads to activity
typical of workers (researchers) in mathematics.
The whole course proceeds from the focus on language (style, structure, functions, grammar and lexis)
towards problem-solving in some mathematical disciplines. What is more, this task-based orientation is twodimensional. Each lesson in the course of English for Mathematicians starts with language focus (e.g. notation in
Stage One, language used to give definitions in Stage Two, lexis in Stage Three) and moves gradually to activity in
the form of mathematical tasks. At the same time, the complexity of language as well as tasks is successively
upgraded.
The use of symbolic language as well as terminology and functional language is mutually combined and
included in tasks. In the following example, the symbolic definition (STAGE ONE) of the limit is to be expressed by
means of the functional exponents used for defining (STAGE TWO) and finally explained within the frame of the
theory of mathematical analysis (STAGE THREE):
Write, read and explain the following definition:
def .
lim f ( x) A 0 0x 0 D f : x P (a) f ( x) U ( A)
x a
Simple calculations gradually turn into more complex problems. Finally, isolated problems turn into sequences of
interrelated problems (Willis, 2007) towards the end of the course. In the following examples, c follows form b
which is deduced from a.
a) Let k be a circle and AB a chord of the circle k. Then the central angle over AB with respect to k equals
two angles over AB at the circumference of k.
b) Let k be a circle and A a point lying out of the circle k. Let p, p‘ be lines passing through A intersecting
the circle k at points A, B p, A‘, B‘ p‘. Then the following equality is true:
AB=A‘B‘
c) The set of all points whose power with respect to a given circle is equal is a straight line.
The process of proceeding towards the proof of theorem c simulates the desired mathematical research activity.
Conclusions and Recommendations
Courses of English for specific purposes are definitely unique not only in their content but also teaching approaches,
methods, materials and aids used. But courses of English for mathematicians differ in a greater extent. First, the
many specifics of the language of mathematics and stylistics of mathematical texts require explicit knowledge of
these features. Students have usually very poor knowledge of the peculiarities from their previous studies. As
communicatively-oriented language classes place emphasis on development of discourse and strategic competence,
students‘ communication in English is fairly fluent but sometimes lacks in precision and accuracy. The course
English for Mathematicians should therefore focus on developing linguistic and pragmatic competence, paying
particular attention to the style, genres, their structures, and lexical and grammatical features of this register. In
addition, understanding a mathematical (scientific) text does not result only in comprehension based on
reinterpreting general or specific information included in the text. It is special mathematical (scientific) activity that
proves thorough understanding. This goal and activity-oriented aspect of mathematical texts correspondents with the
nature and prevailing learning style of students of mathematics, physics and informatics. Although they perceive
new information on the basis of abstract conceptualisation, they mostly process what they have learnt by means of
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active experimentations. To meet these learning needs, the course of English for mathematicians should therefore
deal with applications of the theoretic language and content basis in real mathematical activity. To sum up, the
course activities should always result in task-based assignments, using heuristic teaching methods such as problemsolving tasks (ideally mathematical).
References
ĥechová, M. et al. (2008). SouĦasná stylistika. Praha: NLN.
Folprechtová, J. (2006). Gardnerova teorie rozmanitých inteligencì, in NeĦasová P. (ed.) Činnostnì pojetì vyučovánì
cizìm jazykům, Praha: PedF UK, (pp. 36 - 40)
Gardner, H. (1999). Dimenze myńlenì: teorie rozmanitých inteligencì. Praha: Portál.
Hedge, T. (2000). Teaching and Learning in the Language Classroom. Oxford University Press.
Jelìnek, S. (2006). K rámcové charakteristice Ħinnostnìho pojetì vyuĦovánì cizìm jazykům, in NeĦasová P. (ed.)
Činnostnì pojetì vyučovánì cizìm jazykům, Praha: PedF UK, (pp. 12 - 20)
Larsen-Freeman, D. (2000). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Oxford University Press.
Mach, V. (1981). Úvod do Ħetby anglických odborných textů. Praha: SPN.
Maxwell, R. (1986). Intorduction to Analysis. New York: Dover Publications.
Mlìkovská, V. (1977). Scientific Language: Cognitive Status, in Romportl M. (ed.), Linguistica Generalia 2 –
Language of Science and Theoretical Linguistics, Praha: Univerzita Karlova. (pp. 11 - 20)
Nebeský, L. (1977). The Artificiality and Naturallness of the Language of Mathematics, in Romportl M. (ed.),
Linguistica Generalia 2 – Language of Science and Theoretical Linguistics, Praha: Univerzita Karlova. (pp. 11 - 20)
Nebeský, L. (1982). O jazyce matematického textu, in Slovo a slovesnost 43, (pp. 88 - 92)
Nebeský, L. (1984). Znovu o jazyce matematického textu, in Slovo a slovesnost 45, (pp. 121 - 127)
Pinker S. (2009). Jazykový instinkt: jak mysl vytvářì jazyk. Praha: Dybbuk.
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Trzeciak, J. (1995). Writing Mathematical Papers in English. Gdańsk: European Mathematical Society.
Turek, I. (2001). Didaktika. Bratislava: Iura Edition.
Urbanová, L. (2008). Stylistika anglického jazyka. Brno: Barrister&Principal.
Willis, D., Willis, J. (2007). Doing Task-based Teaching. Oxford University Press.
Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. Oxford University Press.
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English for Mathematicians: from Language to Tasks
Author
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Mikuláš, Martin
Abstract
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The author describes the language education system implemented at a faculty preparing professional mathematicians, physicists and IT specialists, paying special attention to the course for mathematicians. The article also presents a profile of a typical attendant of the course based on the theory of learning styles, which together with the stylistic features of the language of mathematics, predetermines the syllabus and appropriate teaching methodology. The author proposes some essential principles on the background of the theory of ESP, EAP and task-based teaching and learning, giving a number of examples from his teaching practice.
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2011-05
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P Philology. Linguistics
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1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
‖Sight‖ – ‖Vision‖ Binomial or the ―Poetic Dwelling‖ of the World:
(Pre)Modern Perspectives in Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s Study "Eminescu
and the Mutations of the Romanian Poetry"
Silviu Mihăilă
―1 Decembrie 1918‖ University of Alba Iulia, Romania
silviu_emin@yahoo.com
Abstract: The present study attempts to offer ‗a cartography‘ of the internal
‗morphology‘ of the ‖sight‖ – ‖vision‖ dialectics proposed by Ioana Em.
Petrescu in her work, Eminescu and the Mutations of the Romanian Poetry.
This internal ‗morphology‘ is analysed from double perspective: from the
perspective of the history of the literary ideas and from the point of view of
the history of the pre-modern science.
We believe that Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s work found its theoretical and
conceptual sources primarily in the (pre)modern philosophy theorized by
Aristotle, Plato and Tomas Aquinas whose studies were highly read by the
Romanian critic. In other words, it is our endeavor to demonstrate the
existence of a semantically ontological superposition between the pre-modern
text and that of the Romanian critic.
Our premise is that the "sight – vision” axis presented in Ioana Em.
Petrescu‘s volume underlies in the explanation provided by Aristotle gave to
the sense of sight (‗cognition through intellect‘, and noũs – ‗the Eye of the
Soul‘). We therefore believe that even if they belong to two different scientific
paradigms, the texts of the two authors generate a dialogue between them.
Undoubtedly, Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s ―theory of sight‖ initially communicated
in an osmotic manner with pre-modern texts; afterwards, the Romanian critic
turns her attention to modern concepts of scientificity with a view to
sustaining her convictions in the field of literary poetics.
Key Words: sight, vision, pre-modern and modern paradigms, close-reading,
objective-correlative, annotation
Motto: ―We insist in talking about vision as a cause of philosophy, as: the god
invented it and gave it to us because –noticing the aspects of cosmic intelligence- we
should apply it at the movement of our own thoughts as they are related…‖ (Plato,
Timaios)
Preliminaries. Theoretical confluences: pre-modern science vs. modern science
Our research aims at revising an internal morphology of the dialectic ―see-sight‖ proposed by
Ioana Em.Petrescu in her study, Eminescu and the Mutation of the Romanian Poetry, analyzed from a
double perspective: one of the history of the literary ideas and the other of the history of the
(pre)modern science. My arguments will be proved by a theoretical-conceptual descendence of the
Eminesciology study that finds it primary sources in pre-modern philosophy (Aristotle, Plato and Toma
D‘Aquino represent the main Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s readings.) In other words, I try to demonstrate an
overlapping - at least one of ontological semantics essence - between the pre-modern text and that of
the Romanian critic. I am sure that the ―see-sight‖ axis from the critic‘s volume originates, in its main
aspects, in the explanation given by Aristotle to sight, thing that only makes me think that although the
two texts have different time origins they are in a tight relation. There is no doubt that if at a first level
Ioana Em.Petrescu‘s sight theme communicates with pre-modern texts, the author is heading during her
research towards modern scientific concepts in order to support her own literary poetics convictions.
There are two reasons which encouraged me to start this study: on the one hand, a possible
reunification of the two paradigms - the pre-modern and the post-modern one with their common and
divergent points like they appear customized in About the Soul (and not only) and in Eminescu and the
Mutation of the Romanian Poetry -, on the other hand, relying on my personal notes taken down during
a semester in which I conducted a research project in the archive of the ―Popovici-Petrescu‖ book
collection held at the ‗Octavian Goga‘ County Library from Cluj-Napoca, I try to get close to the
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analyzed literary work by detecting some reading methods that dialogically found the ideas of the new
literary work. These methods can be traced down through what we could call close reading – an
attempt to decipher the work of the writer who is ‗investigated‘ from both the perspective of our
literary ideas and from that of the proposed hermeneutical patterns.
The Binomial ―see-sight‖ or about the ―Poetic Dwelling‖ of the World
Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s study, Eminescu and the Mutation of the Romanian Poetry, builds a
―see-sight‖ dialectics based on the interpretation of sight as defined by Aristotle. Therefore, I conclude
that for both writers sight represents the most evolved form of sensibility and being in the same time
the most complex of all the human senses. First of all, theoretically speaking, Ioana Em. Petrescu
brings into discussion the original relation between theory (with focus on the dissociation made by
Aristotle between ‗theoretical sciences‘, ‗practical sciences‘ and ‗poietical sciences‘) and sight,
contemplation, show taking into consideration Anton Dumitriu (1986: 382-383): ―There are two
themes that create the word θεωϱία: θέα and Fοϱ (this being the basis that means <<to take care of>>,
<<to observe>>, <<to look>>). Starting from this point we will have the following words: Fοϱ that
derivates in – to observe, to look; I watch; I see; show; sight; spectator etc. On the other hand the theme
θέα means <<sight>>, <<contemplation>>.‖
Second of all, Ioana Em. Petrescu tries to explain the privileged statute of the eye in the
hierarchy of sense organs making reference to Toma D‘Aquino‘s Summa Theologiae (Ioana Em.
Petrescu, 1986: 182, 183): ―the first meaning of the word sight (visio) is that of designating the activity
of the sense organ of vision; but because of its importance and significance, the meaning of the word
was extended through the use of the speakers referring to any other knowledge by means of other
senses and, lately, to knowledge through intellect‖ – and to Aristotle‘s idea: ―the association of the eye
with the intellect comes from Aristotle who, in his Nicomachean Ethics, presents the intellect (noũs) as
an eye of the soul, << Noũs is for the soul what the eye is for the body.>>‖ These ‗discursive
formations‘ from the pre-modern science characterizing sight - ‗knowledge through intellect‘, (noũs) as
the eye of the soul - help the Romanian critic to set her scientific discourse of poeticism in a larger area
of research. Sight is for Ioana Em. Petrescu an attribute of cosmos, it has a high value of generalization
and articulates the ontological relationship between myself and the world through an attempt of
communication/communion with the cosmic environment, with everything that has to do with
transcendence (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 1986: 184): ―the sight is the perfect expression of the relationship
between myself and the world.‖ At the level of this analogy between intellect and soul, Ioana Em.
Petrescu by ‗sight‘ understands an attempt of self-definition of the creative ego as compared to ‗the
great being of the world‘ with the essential meaning of the verb ‗to be‘: (Alexander Baumgarten, 2002:
45) ―the eye can see, if this may ever be visible, the condition of transcendental possibility of its own
generic sight is stated in the principle of each mental action, mainly in what Plato calls <<sky>>.‖
The privilege of sight symbolizes a reality that was imagistically established and intended to express
the unity of the cosmos in thinking in such a way that the essence of the world could be aware of its
consubstantiality with the universe (see ***, 1978 and Ioana Em. Petrescu, 2009), (Ioana Em. Petrescu,
2002: 24) ―only the uncertain geometry of our body, only the rather hesitating rhythms of our blood
make us capable of understanding the divine geometry of the astral movements and to create between
the two of them, the clear geometry of the art or of the Idea.‖ The idea according to which for Ioana
Em. Petrescu synchronizing with the rhythms of the Universe and being in consonance with the cosmic
forces means an attempt of reaching the meaning, the meaning of the world is clear enough. This
triggers the divine nostalgia and that of wholeness mentioned by Aristotle and Toma D‘Aquino- great
thinkers whose ideas are quoted by the Romanian author (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 1986: 26): ―this is why
the movement of the planets is at Aristotle the result of the attraction the divinity has towards the
matter, <<the fruit of love>> or that of nostalgia of the matter towards another form. The Aristotelic
explanation is also taken over by Christian thinkers: for Toma D‘Aquino the <<cosmic engines>> are
the angels- forms of intelligence governing each planet and inducing its movement, expression of an
<<intellectual desire>>, of the divine nostalgia.‖
The conceptual dialectics ‗see-sight‘ - which stays at the basis of the study Eminescu and the
Mutation of the Romanian Poetry - is a type of knowledge used for decoding the interrelation between
the individual and the universe (Saint Augustine, 2000:444): ―of all the senses, the eyes are the main
instruments of research.‖ Many of Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s readings that served as starting point in
writing the Eminesciology study are representative in this direction- that of supporting the theory
according to which sight is the objectual universal core that controls the condition of the existence in
this world. More than that, the notes made on the edges of the book she read or the reading reports are
truly revealing in this case. She sees in the radical changes in language and poetic imaginary brought
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by Mihai Eminescu, Tudor Arghezi, Lucian Blaga, Ion Barbu and Nichita Stanescu - who are
thoroughly analyzed - are a way of understanding man in rapport to universe and universe in rapport
man (William Kelly Wright: 1967:25): ―so everything in man, the microcosm, corresponds to
something in the macrocosm. Man is to be understood through the universe and the universe through
man. All knowledge of the outer world is self-knowledge.‖ In conclusion, if the first part of the volume
is concerned with the ‗theory of sight‘ (in close relation to eye, taste, mouth) listing scientific rules of
comparatist comprehension from the pre-modern science, the following chapters reorganize the lyrical
universe of the reminded poets by means of the axis ‗sight-vision‘ from one of the perspectives of the
modern science which facilitates expressing some statements of value regarding (Ioana Em.Petrescu,
1986: 186): ―the privileges of taste towards sight, of mouth towards eyes.‖
Regarding the modernist poetic episteme, Ioana Em. Petrescu uses the binomial ‗see-sight‘
with the meaning of ‗objective correlative‘ - this is the way in which it appears theorized by T.S. Eliot,
Anglo-American poet whom she reads avidly - whose axiological significance about poetry will be
applied in her studies, too (not only in Eminescu and the Mutation of the Romanian Poetry but also in
Configurations or in Ion Barbu and the Poetic of Postmodernism). The meaning of ‗objective
correlative‘ - briefly defined by N. Frye (1981:29) as ―terrifying clairvoyance‖ - is useful on a first
‗intra-textual‘ level for identifying the ‗structural mutations‘ regarding thematology, phenomenology,
style, poetry and so on, objectified by the lyrical universe of each analyzed writer (for example the
terrifying clairvoyance of Ion Barbu is under the sign of objective correlative intentionally
characterized as ‗big eyed‘), while the second ‗extra-textual‘ level is a lot broader and goes beyond the
‗form‘ of the text – expresses the unity of the cosmos in thinking in such a way that the poetic being
realizes its consubstantiality with the universe. In a broader meaning the objective correlative,
―terrifying clairvoyance‖, similar to the dichotomy ‗sight-vision‘ helps our critic in establishing the
defining poetic substance of the creating universe for each poet separately, using it in the sense given to
‗the metaphor of interpretation‘ by Wolfgang Iser (2001: 280) as revelation, i.e. access to the depths of
the text and exploitation of the untold or partially revealed aspects- extracting and clarifying these
aspects.
Ioana Em. Petrescu identifies three ‗general patterns of thinking‘ (cultural episteme
characteristic for the European thinking) that represent the theoretical coordinates regarding the
taxonomy of the Romanian poetry evolution (Sanda Cordoș, 1991: 112-113): ―1. The pattern of the
Renascentist individualism (<<Renascentist anthropocentrism>>) that is characteristic for Renaissance
and close to our century. This is the pattern in which the existence is centered on the individual,
detached subject, outside of the object-world in which the scientific reality is understood as
generalization of data supplied by a reality that is perceived empirically and for which the abstract
observation, from outside the system is symptomatic and comes from the Newtonian physics that
accepts an absolute time and space, and that builds the pattern of the universe having as basis the
Euclidian geometry; 2. The modernist pattern is built as a reply to the Renascentist pattern and its crisis
during the last century. The old subject-object relation is falling apart. The subject becomes - if I was to
use Ilya Prigogine‘s expression - participating-observer, establishing in this way a sort of participative
knowledge that makes this pattern quite similar with the old mysteries and, generally, with the preSocratic thinking: the new image of the world is not composed of discrete objects anymore, of distinct
individual entities, but of an interrelation like a woven material in which the dynamic relationship is
preferred in rapport to entity, the phenomenon being nothing else but a web of relationships; 3. The
postmodernist cultural pattern develops in parallel with the modernist one starting with the period
between the two world wars, tries to regain the place of the individual in the system, this time not as an
isolated entity (like that of the Renaissance), but more like a knot in the web of relationships. This
pattern is configured through the cosmotic subconscious from Blaga‘s philosophy, the archetypal
structures that Mircea Eliade decodes in the mythical thinking and in the mechanisms of the
contemporary novel, the dynamic Neo- Pythagoreanism of Matilda Ghyca and Constantin Noica‘s
holomers.‖ Subsequently, in her study, the author applies the three ‗general patterns of knowledge‘ of
the Romanian poetry through which she analyses the evolution and mutations of the poetic language
and that of the concept of poeticism illustrated by Mihai Eminescu, Ion Barbu and Nichita Stanescu‘s
writings. The above poets enormously innovated in the sense in which we can talk about a poetic of the
rupture in which the poetic language and imaginary are irreversibly altered.
Mihai Eminescu or about the role of the ‗intermediary‘
Ioana Em. Petrescu is interested in producing a history of the literary poetics seen in its
‗mutation‘, ‗rupture‘ aspects, while knowledge through sight helps her decode signs of the scientific
real defined by the new poetic codes that are in the process of formation, of clotting. Mainly the option,
for Mihai Eminescu, Ion Barbu and Nichita Stanescu, is due to the fact that they deeply restructured the
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Romanian poetry, each of them imposing a new poetic sensibility. Consequently, they are seen as
pioneers: the core of their poetics foresees, after all, larger changes in mentality that happen in the
scientific and philosophic fields.
This construction of the evolution of the Romanian poetry seen in synchrony starts from
Eminescu and reaches, at the end, at Nichita Stanescu, also inserting transition moments represented by
Tudor Arghezi and Lucian Blaga. The most interesting part in the making of the history of our literary
ideas and that of the pre-modern science ideas is the motivation of placing our ‗national poet‘ at the
very beginning of this critical presentation of the evolution of the Romanian poetry. If one of the first
explanations confirms the synchronization of the analyzed poetical-literary phenomenon organization,
the second explanation represents, with no doubt, one of the major thesis of the present study. As a
conclusion, Ioana Em. Petrescu starts with Eminescu because our ‗national poet‘ represents a literary
pattern that is often referred to by post-Eminescian Romanian literature as a type of epistemic claim.
Mainly, the contact with the Eminescian poetics for those who followed him is realized through a
statement of adopting the Eminescian language emblematic by now, even prototypic: its main function
being that of stylistic, configurative, ontological innovation. So, in Aristotle‘s words (Book II, chapter
7 of About the Soul), I strongly believe that Eminescu is seen by Ioana Em. Petrescu as playing the role
of the needed intermediary that allows the Romanian poetry to evolve (Aristotle, 2005: 123): ―sight is
realized only when something affects the sense organ. But this <<agent>> cannot be just the color one
sees: so he/she must be the intermediary in such a way that the very existence of an intermediary
becomes necessary.‖ In other words, Eminescu - the needed intermediary - sets, according to the
theoretician, an epistemic method of claim of an aesthetic ‗program‘ (canonic convention) to which
post-modernist literature will certainly appeal. One of Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s notes supports the idea
according to which the poets following Eminescu are to be ‗seen‘ through ‗him‘ (the great pattern)
(Jean-Paul Sartre, 1943: 421): ―nous nous résignons à nous voir par les yeux de l‘autre‖ (we submit to
seeing ourselves through the eyes of the other, o.t.)
Knowledge through ‗sight-vision‘. About the mutations of the Romanian poetry
A poetical innovation identified by Ioana Em. Petrescu at Eminescu - and which will
definitely mark the becoming/evolution of the Romanian poetry - is the passage from ‗sight‘ to ‗vision‘
or, in other words, the passage from a referential mimetic poetics (in which the poet renders what
he/she sees in the environment) to a visionary one (Ioana Em.Petrescu, 2002: 187): ―in the Romanian
artistic environment Eminescu‘s poetry is the place where vision takes the place of sight[…] and
defines the marks of a standard concept of <<poeticity>>.‖ In fact, Ioana Em. Petrescu wants to
emphasize the inspired way in which the poet chooses to process the outer space/environment,
Eminescu‘s imaginary requires a change of meaning, add of meaning in most of the times for common
places, reinventing new landscapes, new worlds: (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 2002: 223): ―what Eminescu
sees in a landscape is not the sign of reality recorded mimetically but their hidden, noumenal meaning
unveiled to the visionary eye.‖
Tudor Arghezi and Lucian Blaga‘s poetics do not produce any mutation at the level of
Romanian poetry; they do not radically change the meaning of the poetic language, that is why they are
rather representatives of the so-called ‗passage stage‘, being the connection between the two general
patterns of thinking. Being under the influence of the ―Baudelaire‘s satanic Romanticism through its
opaque, visionary-creative sight‖ (Arghezi), and ―under a ‗high Romanticism‘ through Rilke
respectively, by passing from the motif of the blind eye to that of silence and hush (Blaga)‖ (Corin
Braga, 2002:106) the two poetical discourses innovate inside the same episteme: the romantic one.
A second moment in the evolution of the Romanian poetry, of important structural mutations,
is considered to be Ion Barbu‘s lyric. To Ioana Em. Petrescu, Ion Barbu is a representative of such a
trans-individual and non-anthropomorphic poetics specific to the new ‗scientific reality‘: the
mathematic humanism. Unlike the traditional analyses that set Ion Barbu among the major modernist
poets whose lyric is listed - in an old-fashioned manner - as hermetic, obscure and encoded, Ioana Em.
Petrescu gives his work the attribute of a new poetic code situating him nearer to Post-modernism as
the poet surpasses the area of the Modernist cultural pattern and prevailing instead a new paradigm. As
discussed in Modernism. Postmodernism. A hypothesis (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 2003), the two cultural
patterns coexist as Postmodernism does not appear like a reaction to Modernism but rather as a sequel.
This having been said, Ion Barbu‘s work (which can be substituted to the ‗objective correlative‘
suggestively perceived as ‗big eyed‘: a distorted, reversed vision of reality) is revealed as an evolution
from the Modernism towards Postmodernism through the introduction of absolute lyricism - meaning
a non-mimetic, non-figurative art and (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 2006: 22): ―poetry that was understood as
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great sensuality […] always new and numerous as the different faces of creation‖ - and that of infrarealism that has as art objective ―the cosmic chaos‖ and which defines (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 2006:29)
―the initiating component through which the trans-individual does not damage the individual (thing
that happened in Modernism) but transcends him/her by integrating him/her, that is offering him/her
the function of ‗holomer‘ that is assigned by Postmodernism.‖ Once Ioana Em. Petrescu places Barbu‘s
work somewhere at the end of Modernism and the beginning of Postmodernism, in an ending-point of
crisis, the poetic reality defines itself as a synthesis of new and old, prefiguring the changes of the
poetic language and of the semantic figures that the new paradigm (that of Postmodernism) had put in
question.
The third moment in the evolution of the Romanian poetry is marked by Nichita Stănescu‘s metalinguistic poetics which defines true structural mutations. Stănescu‘s lyric universe is centered on the
dialectic ‗sight-devouring, consuming‘ understood as a series of paradigmatic poetic changes as: ‗the
slit-man‘ (broken image of the past), ‗the modern ontological crisis‘ (the rupture between conscience
and self, subject and object) and others under the syntagm of ‗correlative objective‘: ‗the toothed eye.‘
Instead of conclusions. Pre-modern science as ‗perpetual return‘
Following a development of the Pre-modern science into a modern one with the gnosiological
dichotomy ‗of a characteristic coupe semiotique (semiotic cut)‘ - ‗sight-vision‘ - Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s
study, Eminescu and the Mutations of the Romanian Poetry, is constructed as an attempt of rendering
the Universe in the Idea. This is because by studying the branches of a Pre-modern science and
philosophy - starting with Aristotle and up to Romanian neo-modernism (Nichita Stanescu) - it means
to follow the way in which the concepts of these sciences and philosophies can become any more
productive at the end of the 20th century. As a final remark, I think that Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s study
makes us aware, just one more time, of the fact that the roots of modern science are in Pre-modern
science. In other words, Pre-modern science and philosophy become a productive principle, a grid of
perceiving reality in order to form future Modern science and philosophy. This idea makes us consider
Ioana Em. Petrescu one of the most important theorizers of the last century (Ioana Em. Petrescu, 1986:
10): ―because, placed at the emerging point of conscience in the world, lyric is made through word,
meaning through a permanent break of the limits of language, preparing the language for new
concepts through which it can express itself regarding the human thinking and universe.‖
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References
Adamek, Diana (1991) Portret de grup cu Ioana Em. Petrescu. Cluj-Napoca: Dacia .
Aristotel (2005) Despre suflet. BucureĢti: Humanitas
Augustin, Sfântul (2000) Confesiuni. BucureĢti: Nemira.
Baumgarten, Alexander (2002) Principiul cerului (eternitatea lumii Ģi unitatea intelectului în filosofia
secolului al XIII-lea). Cluj-Napoca: Dacia.
Braga, Corin (2003) Portret de grup cu Ioana Em. Petrescu. București.
Dumitriu, Anton (1986) Eseuri. BucureĢti.
Frye, Herman Northrop (1981) T.S.Eliot: an introduction. Chicago-London: The University of Chicago
Press.
Iser, Wolfgang (2001) The range of interpretation. Columbia University Press.
Petrescu, Ioana Em (2000) Configuraţii. Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărții de Știinţă.
Petrescu, Ioana Em (2009) Studii eminesciene. Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărţii de ġtiinţă.
Petrescu, Ioana Em (1978) Eminescu-modele cosmologice Ģi viziune poetică. BucureĢti: Minerva.
Petrescu, Ioana Em (2006) Ion Barbu Ģi poetica postmodernismului. Cluj-Napoca: Casa Cărţii de
ġtiinţă
Platon (1993) Opere VII. BucureĢti: ġtiinţifică.
Sartre, Jean-Paul (1943) L‘étre et le néant: essai d'ontologie phénoménologique, Paris: Gallimard.
Wright, William Kelly (1967) A history of modern philosophy. New York: Macmillan.
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‖Sight‖ – ‖Vision‖ Binomial or the ―Poetic Dwelling‖ of the World: (Pre)Modern Perspectives in Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s Study "Eminescu and the Mutations of the Romanian Poetry"
Author
Author
Mihăilă, Silviu
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
The present study attempts to offer ‗a cartography‘ of the internal ‗morphology‘ of the ‖sight‖ – ‖vision‖ dialectics proposed by Ioana Em. Petrescu in her work, Eminescu and the Mutations of the Romanian Poetry. This internal ‗morphology‘ is analysed from double perspective: from the perspective of the history of the literary ideas and from the point of view of the history of the pre-modern science. We believe that Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s work found its theoretical and conceptual sources primarily in the (pre)modern philosophy theorized by Aristotle, Plato and Tomas Aquinas whose studies were highly read by the Romanian critic. In other words, it is our endeavor to demonstrate the existence of a semantically ontological superposition between the pre-modern text and that of the Romanian critic. Our premise is that the "sight – vision” axis presented in Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s volume underlies in the explanation provided by Aristotle gave to the sense of sight (‗cognition through intellect‘, and noũs – ‗the Eye of the Soul‘). We therefore believe that even if they belong to two different scientific paradigms, the texts of the two authors generate a dialogue between them. Undoubtedly, Ioana Em. Petrescu‘s ―theory of sight‖ initially communicated in an osmotic manner with pre-modern texts; afterwards, the Romanian critic turns her attention to modern concepts of scientificity with a view to sustaining her convictions in the field of literary poetics.
Date
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2011-05
Keywords
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Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/08eea17904b17edc71d22c71ac938ff4.pdf
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1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Applying Cognitive Development on Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
Dr Wafaa Abdel Aziz Metwalli
Faculty of Mass Communication and Al Alsun,
Al Alsun Department,English Language
Misr International University, Cairo, Egypt
wafaa.metwalli@gmail.com
Abstract: ―Language Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target
language- natural communication- in which speakers are concern not with the form of
their utterances but with messages they are conveying and understanding.‖ Stephen
Krashen.
Second language acquisition (SLA) is the process by which people learn a second
language in addition to their native language(s). The term second language is used to
describe the acquisition of any language after the acquisition of the mother tongue.
The language to be learned is often referred to as the ‗target language‘ or L2,
compared to the first language L1.
Cognitive learning theory has focuses on unobservable change in mental knowledge.
Cognitivsim or mental change, as psycholinguists say, should no longer be ignored as
a rejection of the behaviorist views. Cognitive abilities of SLA vary from one person
to the other; presumably the recent studies suggested a synthesis in which the process
of language acquisition may interact with cognitive development to produce an
improvement in acquired language.
SLA is often viewed as part of Applied Linguistics; it is typically concerned with the
language system and learning processes, whereas applied linguistics may focus more
on the experiences of the learner particularly in the classroom. The cognitive
development of the second language acquisition is developed in this research through
student –directed projects, presentations and classroom discussions to supplant the
traditional lecture format.
The purpose of this research is to combine these vital strands of investigation into
close dialogue that will be applied on a group of university students studying a course
of Sociolinguistics in Al Alsun Faculty, English Department. Results will be recorded
to show the improvement of the second language (English Language) on this group
viewable in their presentations and performances.
Introduction
The purpose of language learning is to improve the speakers‘ four skills of listening, speaking,
reading and writing, with the base of large vocabulary and good grammar but this is not the final purpose.
The final purpose is to let speakers be able to use the language. Most of the speakers do better in reading and
writing than in listening and speaking. They can hardly communicate and express themselves (LingualinksLibrary1999).
The four basic skills are related to each other by two parameters: the mode of communication: oral and
written and the direction of communication: receiving or producing the message (Perego,S.F.,& Boyle, O.F.
2001).
Since 1960‘s the Cognitive Learning Theory has provided the predominant perspective within which
Leaning Research has been conducted and theories of learning have evolved. The theory of Cognitive
Learning, one of the most historically influential theories, was developed by Jean Piaget a Swiss Philosopher
(1896-1980). His genetic epistemological theory provided many central concepts in the field of developmental
psychology in relation to the growth of intelligence which for Piaget, meant the ability to more accurately
represent the work and perform logical operations on representations of concepts grounded in interactions with
the world. The theory concerns the emergence and construction of schemata – schemes of how one perceives
the world – in ‗developmental stages‘, times when children are acquiring new ways of mentally representing
information. The theory is considered ‗constructivist‘, meaning that it asserts that we construct our cognitive
abilities through self-motivated action in the world (Chapman 1988).
The cognitive theory is best defined by exclusion, as it is not behaviorist or humanist but cognitive.
Broadly cognitive theory is interested in how people understand material and the aptitude and capacity to
learn. Cognitive processes and mental events which are central to human learning must therefore be
incorporated into theories of learning. Individuals are actively involved in the learning process they are not
passive receivers of environmental conditions, they are active participants in that learning process. Learning
involves the formation of mental associations that are not necessarily reflected in overt behavior changes. An
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individual‘s knowledge is self organized through various mental associations and structure. Learning is a
process of relating new information to previously learned information in other words learning is occurred
when an individual associate new learning with previous knowledge (Lightbrown &Spada 2006). To
conclude, the cognitive theory focuses on how people process the information they receive from the
environment how they find what they have learned when they need to use the knowledge (Ormrod 1999).
Cognitivism focuses on an observable change in mental knowledge,it came about as a rejection of
the behaviorist views . Psychologists believed that mental events and cognitivism could no longer be ignored.
Cognitivism emphasizes mental processes and proposes that many aspects of learning may be unique to the
human species. It has affected educational theory by emphasizing the role of the teacher in terms of the
instructor‘s effectiveness of presentation of instructional material in a manner that facilitates students‘ learning
(e.g. helping students to review and connect previous learning on a topic before moving to new ideas about
that topic, helping students understand the material by organizing it effectively, understanding differences in
students‘ learning styles, etc. (Bransford, Brown & Cocking, Rodney, ed., 2000) (Scaffolding Teaching
Strategy).
―Language acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and does not require
tedious drill‖ Stephen Krashen.‘ ―Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language-natural
communication- in which speakers is concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the messages
they are conveying and understanding‖. ―The best methods are therefore those that supply ‗comprehensible‘
input in low anxiety situations, containing messages that student really want to hear. These methods do not
force early prediction in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are ‗ready‘, recognize
that improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input , and not from forcing and
correcting production‖ Stephen Krashen (1988).
According to Krashen there are two independent systems of second language performance: ‗the
acquired system ―and ‗the learned system‘. The acquired system or ‗Acquisition‘ is the product of a
subconscious process very similar to the process children undergo when they acquire their first language. It
requires meaningful interaction in the target language –natural communication- in which speakers are
concentrated not in the form of their utterances, but in the communicative act.
The learned system or ‗learning‘ is the product of formal instruction and it comprises a conscious
process which results in conscious knowledge about the language, for example knowledge of grammar rules.
According to Krashen ‗learning is less important than ‗acquisition ‗, the acquisition system is the utterance
initiator, while the learning system performs the role of the ‗monitor‘ or the ‗editor‘.
Theories concerning the relationship between language acquisition and cognitive development are
examined and implications for education are discussed. There is disagreement about the sources and processes
involve in achieving linguistic performance and in particular determining linguistic competence. Among many
theories and modifications is the Speaking Skill as a function of thinking. Various interpretations of this skill
have been proposed by Chomsky (1965), McNeill (1966), Katz (1966) and Piaget (1967). It is suggested that
while language acquisition may not be a sufficient condition for thought with respect to most cognitive
functions, it may play a role in significant ways that are at present little understood. Language may well have a
more significant role in the formation of thought than Piaget would allow, even though it may still not be the
principal determinant of thought claimed by Bruner and Vygotsky (Reed, Rodney. Louis 1977).
Researchers have found that most learners begin their acquisition process of the language with the
process of ‗Silent Period‘ in which they speak very little if at all, and while appearing silent they are
rehearsing important survival phrases and lexical chunks. These memorized phrases are then employed in the
subsequent period of ‗Formulaic Speech‘. (Naiman 1975)
The study of the effects of teaching on second language acquisition seeks to systematically measure
or evaluate the effectiveness of language teaching practices. Such studies have been undertaken for every
level of language, from phonetics to pragmatics and for almost every current teaching methodology (Cook
2001). It is therefore impossible to summarize their findings here. Researches have indicated that many
traditional language–teaching techniques are extremely inefficient (Mitchell & Myles 2006).
The aim of this study is to solve the problem of the students at the university level encountering the
problem of communication using their second language.
Case Study
Students understand the Second Language but they cannot speak it, students start learning their
second language which is the English language at a very early age probably the elementary stage, the target is
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always to teach new vocabulary and to read short passages along with some rules of grammar .The evaluation
is always in a written form testing their knowledge of grammar and vocabulary.
The problem is observed in Al Alsun Faculty, when the students participate in class using the
second language, which is considered a major element in their studies as they comment and state their ideas on
the material they read and study. When they speak they focus on the wording of the language not the meaning,
they are always worried of making mistakes which proves lacking of skill and self-confidence.
When applying the cognitive theory on the students to develop their Second Language Acquisition,
the reflection of the cognitive learning that took place in their minds unconsciously declares itself in their
performance. The factors which help in developing the acquisition of the language are: the relaxing learning
atmosphere inside the class as well as the handy material used that encourage them to perform without the
fear and the emphasis is on the meaning delivered not the wording utterances.
The following hypothetical questions are answered in the study
What is the effect of applying the cognitive processes on acquiring the second language?
Does the class atmosphere accelerate the acquisition of the second language?
How does the role of the activities inside class improve the cognitive development which leads to
the second language acquisition?
Method of the study
This study is designed as a qualitative research approach which aims at gather in depth
understanding of human behavior and the reasons that govern such behavior. The qualitative method
investigates the‘ why‘ and ‗how‘ of decision making, not just what, where and when. It produces information
only on the particular cases studied and any more general conclusions are only propositions (informal
assertions).Qualitative method is more subjective: describes a problem or condition from the point of view of
those experiencing it. The most common analysis of qualitative data is observer impression by expert or
stander observer.
The problem in this study is diagnosed by observation of students at the university level having
difficulty with their second language speaking skill.
Criteria
Learning as a process of relating new information to previously learned information influenced the
choice of the course because the students have to have previous knowledge about it (schemata).
‗Introduction to Sociolinguistics‘ is the course of application and the rational behind it is that the core of
the course is the relation between language and society, the students are able to link their society and
their language to the information introduced in the course.
The role of the instructor is effective to facilitate the students‘ learning by helping them to understand
the material, organize it and understand the students‘ different learning styles. Accordingly the
preparation for the new atmosphere in class started by explaining the idea of splitting the class into
groups of their choice and each group choose a name for identity. They in turn will perform a
presentation, with or without the data show, or a debate or a mind mapping chart or a discussion. The
choice of the activity should match the material introduced.
Rules in class are set:
Listen and watch attentively to the performance of your colleagues
Keep the questions till the end of the performance
Respect the ideas of each other
Each one in the group should get involved in the activity
English language is the language of communication in class
Time your performance so as to leave time for discussions and questions on what
has presented
The groups should vary the activity they present every time
New strategies in class stemmed from the cognitive theory which is incorporated into theories of
learning. Learners accordingly are not passive receivers but active participants. The mental process
that emerges along with the progress in language acquisition can be detected and evaluated
―The best methods are therefore those that supply ‗comprehensible ‗input on low anxiety situations,
containing messages that students really want to hear. These methods do not force early prediction
in the second language, but allow students to produce when they are ‗ready‘, recognize that
improvement comes from supplying communicative and comprehensible input , and not from
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forcing and correcting production‖ Stephen Krashen (1988). Students are given the freedom to
design their own performances the way they think is agreeable and easier to deliver the message.
They come up with new ideas such as acting scenes in their first language to emphasis meanings
like: Diglossia and its two varieties, the different dialects of one language, code switching and code
mixing. They even video tape scenes in the street acting and interacting with the public. When they
feel that they are controlling and producing their own ideas and they feel the reaction of their
performances on their colleagues and professor they feel more self confident and get stimulated to
immerse new ideas.
Among many theories and modifications of theories is the Speaking Skill as a function of thinking
,
various
interpretations
of
the
last
notion
have
been
proposed
by
Chomsky(1965),McNeill(1966),Katz(1966)and Piaget(1967). The importance of the speaking skill
is unquestionable because it consolidates the acquisition of the language. The student should cross
the ―Silent Period ―into the ―Formulaic Speech‖. In this study the students passed the silent period
and with motivation and encouragement in a proper atmosphere they become capable of using the
language more effectively and fluently (formulaic speech).
Conclusion
The students need to use all their skills in reading, writing, listening and speaking. The difference
between the students at their early join to the university and towards their graduation is recognizable, they
acquire more self confidence and their English language improves immensely. The more practice and
interaction in class the more the development of the oral skill occur. The implementation of this experience
on the students taking a course of Sociolinguistics in spring 2007 proves success. Since then I continued
using the same procedures and adding more to the idea. It is noticed that they started with a very timid and
reserved attitude being unable to use the language freely and fluently and by time they gain more confidence
and signs of progress in their language is detected.
The students develop their speaking skill as well, it is the reflection of the cognitive learning that
took place in their minds and unconsciously it declares itself in their performance. The factors which help in
developing this skill is the relaxing learning atmosphere inside the class as well as the handy material used to
encourage them to perform without fear and the emphasis is on the meaning delivered not the wording
utterances. The steady state and the continuity help in forming the skill and polishing it. The recurrence of
the performance for each group brings us nearer to our target.
It is as if we are cleaning the path of the river from the rocks to let the flow of water runs smoothly
and rapidly. It did flow.
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References
Anderson & Krathwohl,(2001) Taxonomy of Educational Objectives Categories in the cognitive domain
of Bloom‘s Taxonomy From Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia.
Atherton .J. S. (2005) Learning and Teaching: ―Aspects of Cognitive Learning Theory‖ (on- line) UK:
available: http:www.learningandteaching.info/learning/aspects cog.htm Accessed: 11 August 2008.
Bransford, John D., Brown, Ann L., & Cocking, Rodney R., ed., (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind,
Experience, and School: Expanded Edition. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press.
Canale,M. and M. Swain(1980).Theoretical bases of Communicative approaches to second language
teaching and testing. Applied linguistics 1(1):1-47
Chapman, M. (1988).‖Constructive Evolution Origins and Development of Piaget‘s Thought‖. New
York: Cambridge University Press.
Chomsky,N.(1965). ―Aspects of the Theory of Syntax‖. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Cook, Guy (2001) the Discourse of Advertising, 2nd ed. Routledge.
Mitchell, H., & Myles, F. (1988). Second language learning theories. London: Arnold.The Reading
Matrix Vol. 6, No. 3, December 2006 5th Anniversary Special Issue — CALL Technologies and the
Digital Learner- Lianrui Yang & Kate Wilson (2006)
Dornyei, Z.(2001)‖New themes and approaches in second language motivation research‖. Annual Review
of Applied Linguistics, 21, 43-59.
Dewaele,J and Furnham,A(2000): ―Personality and Individual differences ―. Personality and Speech
Production: A pilot Study of Second Language Learners.
Erin C. Barret Cunia (2003-2007) Cognitive Learning Theory- Web Quest
Katz, B. (1966). ―Nerve, muscle, and synapse‖. New York, McGraw-Hill.
Krashen, Stephen D. (1978).‖Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition‖.Prentice Hall
International,
Krashen, Stephen D. (1988)‖ Second Language Acquisition and Second language Learning‖.Prentice Hall
International,.
LinguaLinks Library, Version 3.5, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, (1999). [Ordering
information.]Page content last modified: 21 March 1999.
McNeill, David. paper (1966 )"Developmental psycholinguistics"1 presented at a conference in the United
States on "Language development in children".
Ormrod. J. E. (1999): ―Human Learning‖ (3rd ed.), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Perego,S.F.,&Boyle, O.F. (2001). ―Reading ,Writing & Learning in ESL‖ a resource book for K-12
teachers.New York: Longman.
Piaget, J.-P. (1981). ―Intelligence and Affectivity‖. Basic Books, New York.
Second Language Research, Vol. 17, No. 4, 368-392 (2001)
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Title
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Applying Cognitive Development on Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
Author
Author
Metwalli, Wafaa Abdel Aziz
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
―Language Acquisition requires meaningful interaction in the target language- natural communication- in which speakers are concern not with the form of their utterances but with messages they are conveying and understanding.‖ Stephen Krashen. Second language acquisition (SLA) is the process by which people learn a second language in addition to their native language(s). The term second language is used to describe the acquisition of any language after the acquisition of the mother tongue. The language to be learned is often referred to as the ‗target language‘ or L2, compared to the first language L1. Cognitive learning theory has focuses on unobservable change in mental knowledge. Cognitivsim or mental change, as psycholinguists say, should no longer be ignored as a rejection of the behaviorist views. Cognitive abilities of SLA vary from one person to the other; presumably the recent studies suggested a synthesis in which the process of language acquisition may interact with cognitive development to produce an improvement in acquired language. SLA is often viewed as part of Applied Linguistics; it is typically concerned with the language system and learning processes, whereas applied linguistics may focus more on the experiences of the learner particularly in the classroom. The cognitive development of the second language acquisition is developed in this research through student –directed projects, presentations and classroom discussions to supplant the traditional lecture format. The purpose of this research is to combine these vital strands of investigation into close dialogue that will be applied on a group of university students studying a course of Sociolinguistics in Al Alsun Faculty, English Department. Results will be recorded to show the improvement of the second language (English Language) on this group viewable in their presentations and performances.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
-
https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/23016481231e3dff7eddaba2d6021888.pdf
034a85d18f1ec405b1b2f4237f9044fc
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Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Writing War and Feminine Discourse
Alisa Mesihovic
International University of Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina
alisamesihovic@gmail.com
Abstract
The main aim of this paper is to prove that feministic discourse related to war, is the
best example that there is still enough space for debates whether it is necessary to
separate feminine writing from ―traditional/masculine style― and that the feminist
critique of a language is absolutely necessary segment of contemporary discourse
analysis.
Feminine writing is the term presented by French philosopher and writer, Helene
Cixous who claims that women write/rewrite signs inscribed in their bodies, but she also
explains that this style is not reserved exclusively for women, that men can also write
feminine.
Following above mentioned theory, this paper is using writing styles of two Bosnian
artists, one writer and one film director, who both described the most painful and violent
stories using non-violent language, and who managed to show the reality of war
perceived by woman without using any aggressive or offensive discourse.
Even though I do believe that there is no such thing as essential womanhood, common
to all women repressed by patriarchy, the aim of this paper is show that feministic war
discourse is exactly the place where class, origin, race and all other differences, are
utterly minimized among all women around the world.
Introduction - Feminist Critique of a Language
Ever since Simone DE Beauvoir‘s ―Second Sex‖ appeared, nothing remained the same in this world,
especially not the prism of understanding feminine voices. The ink became white or no! It has finally been
perceived as white, since it‘s obvious that for example V. Woolf lived long before 1949. as well as many other
great female writers. The milestone in understanding feminine writing came with the new generation of
poststructuralist philosophers and theoreticians like Lucy Irigary, Julia Cristeva and Helene Cixous. For
Cixous, the heart of écriture féminine is a relinquishing of the (masculine) self, and an acceptance and inclusion
of the other in ways which will necessarily call into question the prevailing ideology and its mode of perception
and expression, and hence create a new 'order' to replace the patriarchal and capitalist hegemony.
In order to understand why and how feminine writing emerged, it is essential to have the knowledge of
the patriarchal language system and its hegemonic power. One has to have a clear idea of the use of language as a
weapon for political aims, particularly for domination. Therefore, it is necessary first to take a look at Lacan's
theories on entering the symbolic order, that is, the entrance into the discourse affected by gender. Because in the
patriarchal culture the most privileged symbol of signifier is phallus, the order of language is masculine order
dominated by phallus; hence those who do not possess the phallus – women – remain marginal to language. It is
from these ideas where Irigary‘s isomorphism with masculine sex gain its significance. (Cameron, 1990) After
realizing how this phallocentric structure works, how it dominates and controls all aspects of human life, then it
would be easier to find means to deconstruct it because then women would know where to turn to in order to base
their own language on. After acquiring that knowledge, women would realize that they should go back to the
presymbolic stage, step outside the realm of language and start anew. Thus, it would be useful to see what
Kristeva says about this preoedipal stage which she calls the semiotic, and also Cixous' revolutionary argument on
writing the body.(Peksen, 2005)
To start from the beginning, I must explain the stage Lacan calls Real. This is a stage that infant goes
through before he/she enters the language. The Real is important since this is the stage where no law exists i.e. no
domination, no patriarchal is present. In terms of the language this phase is important since it is the phase where
woman should go back to find her language.
Real is also important since it is the phase where there is no language. In this case there is no luck, no
absence. (Klages, 2001) Helene Cixous takes up where Lacan left off, in noting that women and men enter into
the Symbolic Order, into language as structure, in different ways or through different doors and that the subject
position open to either sex within the symbolic orders are also different. She understands that Lacan‘s naming the
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center of the Symbolic as the Phallus highlights what a patriarchal System language is – or more specifically,
what phallo(go)centric system is. (Klages, 1997) This word phallocentric is a coin word stemming from the idea
that the structure of language is centred by the phallus. Later Jacques Derrida came with the idea that spoken
words are privileged over written ones and he coined the term ―logocentric‖. Cixous and Irigary combine two
ideas to describe Western cultural systems and structures as ―phallogocentric‖ (Klages, 1997) based on the
primacy of certain terms in an array of binary oppositions. Thus phallogocentric culture is one which is structured
by binary oppositions – male/female, order/chaos, language/science, presence/absence, speech/writing, light/dark,
etc and in which the term is valuated over the second term (cf De Saussure)
Cixous follows Lacan‘s psychoanalytical paradigm which argues that a child must separate from its mother‘s
body (the Real) in order to enter the symbolic. Because of this, Cixous says, the female body in general becomes
unrepresentable in language; it‘s what cannot be spoken or written in phallogocentric Symbolic order. Cixous
makes a leap from maternal body to female body. Rewriting Freud via Lacan, Cixous conceded that there is no
such thing as female sexuality in and of itself in this phallogocentric system – it‘s always sexuality defined by the
presence of a penis, and not by anything intrinsic to the female body (Klages, 1997).
Cixous and other poststructuralist theoretical feminists are both outraged and intrigued by these possibilities for
relation between gender and writing (or language use in general) that Lacan‘s paradigm opens up.
Position of men and women in the Symbolic
Lacan‘s description of the Symbolic (two doors) places women and men in different positions within
the Symbolic in relation to the Phallus; men more easily misperceive themselves as having the Phallus, as being
closer to it, whereas women (because they have no penises) are further from that center. Because of that distance
from phallus, the poststructuralist theoretical feminists argue, women are closer to margins of the symbolic order;
they are not as firmly anchored or fixed in a place as men are; they are closer to Imaginary, to images and
fantasies, and further from the idea of absolute fixed and stable meaning than men are. (Klages, 1997)
Because women are less fixed in the Symbolic than men, women- and their language- are more fluid, more
flowing, and more unstable than men. It is important here to note that when Cixous talks about women and
woman here, sometimes she means it literally, as the physical beings with vaginas and breasts etc. and sometimes
she means it as a linguistic structural position ―woman‖ is a signifier in the chain of signifiers within the symbolic
just as ―man‖ is; both have stable meaning because both are locked in place; anchored, by the Phallus as center of
the symbolic order. When Cixous says that woman is more slippery, less fixed than men, she means both the
literal woman and, the person, and the ―signifier‖ woman. (Klages, 1997).
Again when she says ―woman must write herself‖ she is explaining this on two levels. One meaning is
that woman must write her own stories her own experience, signs inscribed in her body, i.e. she must retell her
experience, but she also must have a (new) way to be connected to the signifier ―I‖ to write the signifier of
selfhood/subjecthood offered within the Symbolic order (Klages, 1997)
Cixous argues that most women do write and speak but that they do so ―from the masculine position‖.
In order to speak women have assumed they needed a stable, fixed system of meaning, and thus aligned
themselves with the Phallus. Cixous further argues that there has been little or no ―feminine‖ writing (The Laugh
of Medusa p. 311)
Further on, Cixous notes that writing is always marked with a Symbolic order that is structured through
binary opposites including ―masculine/feminine‖, in which feminine is always repressed. So she argues that only
women can produce feminine writing because it must come from their bodies but she is also arguing that men
could occupy a structural position from which they can produce feminine writing.
Feminine writing will show the structure of the Symbolic as a structure not as inevitable order and thus will
allow us to deconstruct that order. (Klages,1997).
On the second level, when women speak/write their own bodies, the structure of the language itself will
change, as women become active subjects not just being passively acted upon, their position in language will
shift. Women who write, if they do not merely reproduce phallogocentric system of stable ordered meaning which
already exists (and which excludes them) – will be creating a new signifying system; this system that may have
built into it fare more play, more fluidity, then the existing phallogocentric symbolic order. (The laugh of Medusa
p. 319)
Cixous is comparing écriture feminine with mother‘s milk, with rhythm and song, with pulse but not with
representational language.
To define something is to pin it down, to anchor it, to limit it, to put it in its place within a stable system
or structure- and Cixous says that feminine writing is too fluid for that. (Klages, 1997).
Feminine writing, than, is outside of the structure but to different degrees depending on which theorist
we read. Irigary speaks of a language in which the masculine structure has entirely broke down; another writer in
the psychoanalytic tradition, Julia Kristeva, talks about pre-symbolic features ‗disrupting‘ discourse, producing
the oddness and fragmentation typical for modernist and symbolist poetry. Some women, including Woolf are
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particularly concerned with expressing in their language a less linear conception of time and space. (Cameron,
1990) Space is important here in terms of ‗nations‘, imagined communities that always imply ‗common spaceterritory‘ they share (cf Nira Yuval Davis). But feminine writing done by either sex is progressive because it
challenges certain myths (rationality, unity) that are essentially patriarchal. And this very challenge of the
patriarchal discourse is so important characteristic of Bazdulj‘s novel ―Kad je bio juli‖ where she has, in the most
direct way ‗undermined‘ (challenged) myths of nation, unity, revenge, history etc.
Nation – The myth of nation called into question
We should keep in mind that the nature of all wars has drastically changed recently. For example
during the 1st world war although civilians were suffering, still the main battlefield were not close to civilian‘s
homes. The stereotype of that war was a male figure fighting under a flag for the honour of nation for
womenandchildren (Yuval-Davis). With the 2nd world war the situation has already started to change, while on the
example of wars in Balkans, Ruanda, Iraq, Ireland..., we can see that civilians are at the first front lines and the
most directly involved in wars. Women are asked to preserve the society in which they usually have no voice.
But in Bosnian/Serbian /Croatian language it is especially interesting to analize a word Rod which has the
meanings like: gender, family, production... It is a stem of words: Porod and further on Narod that is a kind of
synonym for Nation. This relationship reflects the importance of women‘s procreative roles , especially
emphasised during wars since this is the time of great repatriarchalization. In this circumstances women are being
glorified all the time but not as subjects who perceive wars from their perspectives but rather as objects, symbols
of nation, imagined community that is difficult even to define, since as Nira Yuval-Davis wrote, some of these
defining characteristic sometimes look like a shopping list. So while women‘s writing on war is still not so
abundant in Balkans, more and more writers and film directors occupy female position in their writings, escaping
phallogocentric, anchored stories as a part of their efforts to present the whole absurdity of wars.368
Despite the obvious differences in their fictional representations of women‘s wartime experience, works
of Zbanic and Bazdulj reveal almost uncanny resemblance, resemblance that seems to set them apart from the
wartime memories and perspectives of ―mankind‖. Both authoresses‘ works concentrate on the moments of
suffering and both of them question the purpose of war through the examples of what is so often called ―collateral
damage‖ .
This might serve to distinguish them from masculine war memories, which tend to emphasize actions
that led to the ultimate victory. My greatest inspiration for this study was a fact that Ms. Zbanic made a film
about rape without a single scene of sexual intercourse. She managed to hold spectators awareness of the whole
horror of the war and rape, to represent trauma using completely unaggressive language, free of hatred and heavy
myths of past, which represent the trigger of all wars at this planet. Grbavica consciously ignores the past,
choosing to show Esma moving through her everyday life rather than examining her time in a prisoner of war
camp or depicting the multiple gang rapes she suffered. Instead of constantly retelling the past, Zbanic focuses on
―Esma‘s struggle to exist in the present.‖
Rather than being a personal, narrative account of something completed in the past, this ―memory-knowledge‖ is
not locatable in time or easily narrated. Instead, it is felt as a constant presence that shapes current events and how
the survivor experiences them. (Gold, 2010. )As Cixous suggested, there are signs that are inscribed and must be
retold but the language used in the whole film suggests that Esma tells her story without full agency in her
expression. There is a certain dose of pain and trouble which shows that behind all these painful realities, that
produced many victimized identities, there is still a woman, the final winner of all wars and battles, still ready to
carry on in non-aggressive way without seeking for revenge.
Through the idea of accepting a child of her rapper and looking to the future Esma is denying the
importance of blood relationship, so often mentioned as a basic myth in building nations and one of the most
common
motives
for
starting
and
conducting
wars
or
aggressions.
Once again mother‘s love is the absolute winner.
At the same time Bazdulj-Hubijar is writing about the biggest genocide in Europe after the 2nd WW
from a perspective of ten-years old boy who lost his parents and baby sister but still believes that his father is
somewhere alive. At the first glance it is obvious that the language of this novel is different . Bazdulj is using
minor, vernacular language, that introduces one new dimension and separates this novel from classic novels
written in established language of literature . Her writing style also implies a certain political dimension, also and
as Cixous explains women who write, if they do not merely reproduce phallogocentric system of stable ordered
meaning which already exists (and which excludes them) – will be creating a new signifying system; this system
that may have built into it fare more play, more fluidity, then the existing phallogocentric symbolic order. So the
narrator of ―Juli‖369 is Mirza, who has lost everything in the war and the only worthy possession he still owns, and
368
369
Ex. „Trench as a trench they are all the same― a famous end sentence from No Man's Land; oscar-winner film by Danis Tanovic
The novel Kad je bio juli soon became famous as Juli
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which nobody can take away from him is his enormous honesty that remains his biggest fortune gained in his
parent‘s home. By the end of the novel Mirzas‘ honesty serves as a light motive to oppose all other human evils
like greed, lies, selfishness... There is also hope that Mirza will, one day, go back to his parent‘s house, their own
Citadel370
At the end of novel Mirza realizes that all his family is dead and he stops hoping, but they still live in his
memories. By this time Mirza is already young man and authoress sooths his pain by introducing a girl Biljana
that Mirza fells in love with since she is very carrying young woman. It is interesting that Biljana is
Serbian,(Bosnian?) who had spent the war at the territory under control of aggressor‘s forces but who has also
lost her brother in Bosnian army. The whole novel has this dimension of absurdity, and in character of Biljana,
Bazdulj reflects famous sentence of Virginia Woolf ―As a woman I have no country...‖ since Biljana cannot be
identified as a person who has only one national identity.
Through the whole novel authoress does not question the role of aggressor neither she is neutral.
"U ovom ratu su četnici bili morebit još gori od onije onda. Da su samo uradili ono što su moje oči
viĎele to je da bog sačuva i zakloni a njiha babo u bosni i dan danile ima i ne srame se i ne stide neg se
diče tijem i vazda na vas avaz govore mi smo četnici i borimo se za svoju otadţbinu majku srbiju i vas
srpski narod. I na vrh vlasti ima jedan predsjednik pa da vidiš kako mu se oči zacakle kad na televizoru
priča da mu je ćaća bijo četnik u onome ratu, a bezbeli je i on u ovom (...) I još ne znam babo kako je
nekome ono što je za vas bijeli svijet bruka i sramota za nekoga dika i ne znam više ništa pa više
ništa"371
In this war chetniks are even worse than in he previous one (2nd ww)…
That is why it surprises even more, when in the end of her novel Bazdulj celebrates the idea if fraternity and
unity
that
was
crucial
during
fifty
years
of
communism
in
Balkans.
But this is not the only part of the novel that questions the myth of nation. There is another part where
authoress explicitly writes that human suffering has no nation, because now, after the war three similar things
happened to three persons
of different nationalities; just in May 2005. Three men poured gas on
themselves and burned themselves to the death and what is even more strange:
"jedan se spalio u Sarajevu bio musliman jedan u Banjoj Luci bio Srbin, a treći u Mostaru bio Hrvat. A
more biti da su sve dok se nijesu polili jedan na drugog poprijeko gledali, a mučile ih iste muke"
One of them was a Muslim and had lived and burned himself in Sarajevo, one had lived in Banja Luka
and was Serb and one had lived in Mostar and was Croatian. And it is possible that they were looking
at each other as enemies but they had shared the same sufferings .
I had read Bazdulj‘s novels before and I always had the impression that she intentionally levels some dilemmas
for reader, but this time I was shocked. At first I could not understand what was the authoress trying to suggest.
But the answer to this question I have found in the interview that Kathleen O'Grady made with Helene Cixous.
Even in this way, cut out from the context, this sentence explains why only woman could write a novel like Kad
je bio Juli and why the novel ends up this way:
Literature is a transnational country. The authors we read have always been the citizens of the
other
world, border-crossers and out-laws372
Both authoresses, Zbanic and Bazdulj showed that there is no the ultimate victory as well as there is no unique
definition of the war purpose.
Conclusion
Feminine writing and feminine war discourse is the best example that one text cannot be essentialized, that a text
has not only one meaning and that there are so many messages one text can comply. It has been clear for a long
time that there is a ‗gendered‘ side of reading and inseparable writing. Examination method of sexual difference
in the literary text is deconstruction by Jacques Derrida. Deconstruction, of course, is not destruction. The act of
deconstruction is going on in two directions simultaneously, certain entities are decomposed in order to
create/compose new ones. Deconstruction is not ruining author‘s ideas but rather enabling a reader to escape
rough meaning of binary oppositions (that are hierarchized in its nature) and is providing a new, enriched way of
reading. Binary opposition male/female is structruralistic and essencialistic one in its nature since it assumes an
370
Citadel by Mesha Selimovic is a novel that symbolizes unity and protection that a human finds within its family, marriage, love...
372
GUARDIAN OF LANGUAGE: An Interview with Hélène Cixous (March 1996)by Kathleen O'Grady Trinity College, University of
Cambridge
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option that between these two terms, among which one is always privileged in relation to another, and where a
signifier is always superior to a signified, there are terms that cannot be expressed through these two signs.
Escaping to both essenialistic and structuralistic nature of language, Bazdulj and Zbanic showed that under a
rough surface of war aggressive discourse, there is endless richness of language, stories still to be told and heard,
signs inscribed to be rewritten... that are common to all people all over the world regardless of colour, nation,
race, place etc.
Feminine war discourse might actually be the closest point where we should search for essential womanhood and
the meaning of patriarchal oppression.
References
1. Bazdulj-Hubijar, Nura Kad je bio juli; Zagreb : V.B.Z., 2005
2. Cixous, Hélène. Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing. The Wellek Library Lectures at the University of
California, Irvine. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
3.Klages , Mary. Helene Cixous ―The laugh of Medusa‖ 1997 available at :
http://www.colorado.edu/English/ENGL2012Klages/cixous.html, May 2001
4. http://www.engl.niu.edu/wac/cixous_intro.html
(Introduction To Cixous) March 2009.
5. http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/english/English295/albright/conquer.htm
(The Laugh of Medusa), March 2009.
6. de Sausseure Ferdinand,Course in General Linguistics, translation: Wade Baskin London
Fontana(1974)
7. Gold, A. Michael, Memory and Trauma, Recovering from rape in Jasmila Zbanic‘s Grbavica
http://www.studentpulse.com/articles/211/embodied-memory-and-trauma-recovering-from-rape-in-jasmilazbanics-grbavic
8. Lacan, Jacques. ―The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in Psycholoantic
Experience‖. 1949. Literary Theory: An Anthology.
Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden:
―The Symbolic Order‖. 1956. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Eds. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan
Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 1998.
9. Peksen, Seda MP: Feminine Writing as an Alternative to the Patriarchal Language
An Online Feminist Journal March 21, 2005
available at: http://academinist.org/wp-content/uploads/2005/03/010201Peksen_Feminine.pdf
10. Yuval-Davis, Nir: Gender nad Nation; translated by Mirjana Pajic- Jurinic
Ņenska infoteka, Zagreb 2004.
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694
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Writing War and Feminine Discourse
Author
Author
Mesihovic, Alisa
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
The main aim of this paper is to prove that feministic discourse related to war, is the best example that there is still enough space for debates whether it is necessary to separate feminine writing from ―traditional/masculine style― and that the feminist critique of a language is absolutely necessary segment of contemporary discourse analysis. Feminine writing is the term presented by French philosopher and writer, Helene Cixous who claims that women write/rewrite signs inscribed in their bodies, but she also explains that this style is not reserved exclusively for women, that men can also write feminine. Following above mentioned theory, this paper is using writing styles of two Bosnian artists, one writer and one film director, who both described the most painful and violent stories using non-violent language, and who managed to show the reality of war perceived by woman without using any aggressive or offensive discourse. Even though I do believe that there is no such thing as essential womanhood, common to all women repressed by patriarchy, the aim of this paper is show that feministic war discourse is exactly the place where class, origin, race and all other differences, are utterly minimized among all women around the world.
Date
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2011-05
Keywords
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Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/c9467e8d7559f946411a35f1642115b7.pdf
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Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Building a community of shared practice by localizing externally-derived
professional development in educational reform‘
John McKeown
Senior Lecturer, English Education, Mevlana University,
Konya, Turkey
jmckeown@mevlana.edu.tr
Michael Diboll,
Assistant Professor, Bahrain Teachers College, Manama,
Bahrain
mdiboll@hotmail.com
Abstract:This research focuses on sociolinguistic aspects of education reform in the Gulf
Cooperation Council Countries (GCC) region and the strategies by which the
achievement of ‗linguistic convergence‘ and corresponding ‗cultural convergence‘ or
‗optimal convergence‘ can enhance in-service teachers‘ Continuing Professional
Development (CPD) participant learning. This professional reflection, situated within the
evolving context of reform underway in Bahrain, is based on research conducted at the
Bahrain Teachers College (an autonomous professional college founded in 2008 within
the University of Bahrain) during 2008-2010. The data, gathered from in-service CPD
modules with mid-career Bahraini teachers, includes a wide range of practice-based
sources including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observation.
Managing the shift from externally-prepared in-service CDP, toward contextualizing the
materials, curriculum, and program delivery to the cultural, social, and educational
environment of Bahrain is challenging. Developing ―ownership‖ of new approaches to
learning, can make effectively localize the training at the classroom level. The data
points to ways that balance the learning needs of local in-service teachers with the
internationalizing imperatives of multinational education consultancy:
KEY WORDS: Linguistic convergence, teaching environment, continuing professional
development, optimal convergence
Introduction
The study focuses on the evolving Continuing Professional Development (CPD) provision at Bahrain
Teachers College (BTC) and the factors that impact on the quality of participants' CPD experience including the
relevance of CPD provision (and the impact of this on participants' attitudes to learning and developing practice),
and, directing the BTC CPD programme in a way that builds on previously derived materials, while enhancing the
participant experience and maximising professional development potential for positive change.
The CPD curriculum was introduced by facilitators from the National Institute of Education, Singapore,
BTC‘s lead consultant on education reform.
Currently, CPD modules are offered at Cadre levels 4-8. To obtain promotion from one salary level to the
next highest, Bahraini state-sector teachers must complete 360 hours of CPD (twelve x thirty-hour CPD modules)
within a four-year period.
In order to carry out this research effectively, a needs assessment focussing on motivation, and satisfaction
of BTC PD participants was required. In regards to the specific needs of in-service Bahraini participants, interested
stakeholders had undertaken limited background research on participants‘ needs.
Background
During 2008-2009, and the first semester of 2009-10, NIE was responsible for the delivery of CPD
modules, using Singaporean facilitators working at University of Bahrain (UoB). The second semester 2009-10 was
the first semester of BTC‘s lead for CPD provision. The focus of delivery had been on the transfer of the 41 modules
developed by NIE.
In order to render CPD relevant to the needs of mid-career teacher, Bahraini CPD participants, this study
focuses primarily on the language of instruction, although it is hoped that it will also have a wider relevance
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encompassing participant motivation, participant satisfaction, cultural relevancy of CPD materials and delivery, and,
participants‘ expectations. This focus goes beyond ‗technical rationality‘ where participants are viewed as passive
learners (Schôn, 1983, 1987).
BTC‘s CPD provision began with the delivery of 17 NIE-derived thirty-hour CPD modules during March
and April 2010. These covered topics in Foundation, Maths, and Science with a maximum enrolment of 460
participants. In May and June 2010 a further batch of ten CPD modules were delivered, covering the same subject
areas, with an enrolment of 300 participants.
Ethics
Participants, both facilitators and course participants, were informed that coursework and data derived from
surveys would be used anonymously for the purpose of this research, and were given an opt-out option if requested
(no participants did). BTC Heads‘ Council granted permission to adapt CPD provision to gather data for this specific
research purpose. The Heads‘ Council also authorised the use of BTC materials otherwise deemed confidential.
Review of Theory
Theory is derived from three areas: Reflective Practice (RP); Sociolinguistics and Communication Theory,
with a focus on the Arab World; and, Studies in Cross-cultural Communication
The primary point of reference for reflective practice is Donald Schôn (1983, 1987), supplemented by more
contemporary sources, including Bigg‘s and Tang‘s, Teaching for Quality Learning at University (2007).
Howard Giles‘ Communication Accommodation Theory (―CAT‖; 1978, 1991) provides a starting point,
supplemented by Saravanan‘s work on sociolinguistic aspects of pedagogy and education reform in Singapore
(1985). More recent Arab World language use data is borrowed from Bassiouney (2009). Theoretical insights into
Cross-cultural Communication are informed by the work of Berger (1979), Gundykunst (2005), Hampden-Turner
(2004), and Hofstede (2001).
Timeframe
Data collection began with observations of NIE CPD delivery at BTC. February through December 2009,
with the following activities used to assess NIE provision effectiveness, and to gain insights into how this provision
might be improved and fine-tuned to make it better-suited to a Bahrain context: observations of NIE-delivered CPD
sessions; post-delivery tutors‘ focus groups; SWOT analyses; and, interviews with CPD participants.
The paper focuses on research activities on-going throughout CPD sessions beginning with one cohort of 17
sections of CPD (21 March - 6 May 2010), and with a second cohort of 10 sections (23 May - 5 July 2010) and
included:
A mid-course initial survey gathering qualitative feedback from CPD participants in two sections, one
facilitated by an Arabic speaking tutor, the other by a non-Arabic speaker
An end of course on-line survey gathering data from CPD participants in two sections
An on-line end-or-course tutor survey gathering quantitative and qualitative data from all 12 BTC faculty
members (Arabic speakers and non-Arabic speakers) delivering PD modules
End of course grades from all sections
The activities were conducted during class sessions. Certain issues emerged as significant to the effective
delivery of CPD; the language of learning was the most significant issue raised consistently by both participants and
facilitators. Facilitators also noted motivational and related attitudinal issues, while participants further mentioned
issues of cultural appropriateness, the applicability of the materials used in a Bahrain context, and the perceived
―foreignness‖ of the materials they had to work with.
Language issues
The language issues were significant as NIE-courses were delivered in English, and all course materials
were written in English. No NIE tutors spoke Arabic, and nearly all of them were Education specialists, with little or
no background in specialised English Language Teaching (ELT) or Cross-cultural Communication.
Communication was further complicated by the fact that many participants had difficulty in understanding
the accents and English usages of many of the Singaporean facilitators. Singapore has its own dialect of English,
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―Singlish‖, characterised by Chinese-influenced intonation patterns, different stress patterns, the simplification of
consonant clusters, different word-order, and additional morphemes derived from Chinese dialects and from Malay
(Saravanan: 1985, 67).
While like most Singaporean professionals, the facilitators used ―Singapore British English‖ (SBrE) as their
professional dialect, the pronunciation, syntax, and vocabulary of SBrE is often powerfully influenced by Singlish,
particularly when used by academics, to the extent that SBrE and Singlish can be seen as two ends of a continuum of
Singaporean English dialect use, rather than as two discrete dialects (Saravanan: 1985, 68-8). Thus, the language of
delivery was doubly ―foreign‖ to Bahraini participants: foreign because it was in English, and, foreign again,
because it is in a form of English unfamiliar to Bahrainis.
SBrE is well established as a language of instruction at all levels of the Singaporean education system and
across subject areas. It is an official national language in a multilingual, multiethnic island nation, and functions as
an important unifier for Singaporean society. Singapore has four official languages: English, Malay, Mandarin, and
Tamil, in recognition of the linguistic diversity of Singapore (Saravanam: 1985, 65).
None of this is true for Bahrain. Although English is widely used in Bahrain, particularly in the commercial
sector, it has no official or legal status. While English is taught from Grade 6 in Bahraini schools, it is taught as a
foreign language and is not the language of instruction for any core curriculum subjects. Even at BTC, the college‘s
regulations state:
―The official language of BTC shall be Arabic; the BTC Governing Council upon
recommendation of the BTC Council shall admit other languages in teaching, research and
professional activity as are necessary in the light of standards of international excellence of
the programmes‖ (Article 4,H)
Bahrain, like most Arab states uses Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) (a language learned at school but
which is seldom a natural means of spoken communication) as the sole official language (Bassiouney: 2009, 211).
In this highly diverse linguistic context, Standard English serves as a common language of professional
discourse, and as a national unifier (Saravanan, 69). English does not officially play this role in Bahrain, and there is
not the same level of awareness at a public policy level of the dynamics of pluralingualism as is found today in
Singapore.
Singaporean facilitators received little briefing on Bahrain, Bahraini culture, and language use or level of
the participants. As a result, it was perhaps too straightforward for NIE‘s otherwise highly skilled facilitators to
make assumptions about the status and role of English in Bahrain based on Singapore experience. Circumstances
could be interpreted that a ―culture clash‖ had unwittingly been set up, precisely the sort of situation that ought to be
avoided when implementing an education change project (McKeown, 2005), already seen by many as being
politically controversial.
It ought to be noted that there is a significant generational difference in the English-language abilities of the
middle-aged, mid-career Bahraini teachers on PD courses compared to those of the much younger ―globalised‖
Bahrainis on BTC‘s B.Ed. and PGDE programmes. While younger students generally have a very positive attitude
toward English, this is not necessarily the case with older teachers, who sometimes see the spread of English in
Bahrain as a form of ―linguistic imperialism.‖
Linguistic convergence
Linguistic convergence is a key factor in effective and positive cross-cultural communication. Sociolinguist
Howard Giles points out that ―convergent communicative acts reduce interpersonal differences‖, creating an
atmosphere conducive to co-operation across cultures and language groups, while ―divergent‖ acts in which
―speakers accentuate speech and non-verbal differences‖, can be used as a defensive mechanism to reinforce an ―us
and them‖ dichotomy that inhibits effective communication (1991, 7-9).
Effective communication is a key element in change management because change, however necessary,
often contains an element of fear. Michael West, Professor of Organisational Psychology at Aston Business School,
states that ―It‘s not change we fear, but the place in between. . . there‘s nothing to hold on to . . .‖. In a similar vein,
Vikky Wright, President of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development says ―It‘s not about changing
organisations, it‘s about changing people, being ready for the change on time‖ (CIPD, ―Managing Change‖, at 5‘.10‖
onwards).
It can be seen that divergent communication reinforcing a natural uneasiness about change in a politically
charged context might constitute a significant threat to the effectiveness of NIE‘s delivery of CPD programmes at
BTC. Whereas the problematic use of English outlined above undoubtedly created straightforward inter-linguistic
communication problems, there were motivational and attitudinal issues reported by NIE facilitators, and the cultural
inappropriateness and foreignness mentioned by participants might have been exacerbated by, or even created by, a
retreat into divergent communication on the part of both facilitators and tutors.
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Profile of Participants
This survey, conducted with 38 participants in May at BTC, had two sections, demographic data, and
participant‘s course satisfaction.
A sample of 38 participants enrolled in two sections of the Level 5 course EPD5001, Collaborative and
Cooperative Learning surveyed in May 2010, yielded the following results:
Language use: 57.9% self-identified as speakers of Arabic only; 35.9% self-identified as bilingual ArabicEnglish; 2.6% self-identified as bilingual Arabic-Other language
Genders were balanced more or less evenly, 52% to 48% in favour of females
The vast majority or participants were in their 30‘s: 60.5% were in their early thirties, 26.3% were in their
later thirties; just over 13% were older, in age bands falling between 40 and 60+
Years experience as teachers: the overwhelming majority, 76.3% had between 6 and 10 years‘ experience,
this is in keeping with their status as Level 5 teachers; 18.4% had between 11 and 15 years experience,
while 5.2% had between 20 and 30 years teaching experience
39.5% were primary teachers, 26.3 taught at intermediate level, 34.2% were primary teachers, and 2.6%
identified as ―other‖
The largest single group of subject specialists were Arabic teachers, at 20.6%; 14.7% were English
specialists, 11.8% taught Islamic Studies, 11.8% taught History, 11.8% taught Maths, and a further 11.8
taught Physical education; smaller percentages taught in Business, Science, or as General Class Teachers at
primary level.
The fact that 60.5% of the sample self-identified either as Arabic-only speakers, or as speakers of Arabic and
another language other than English, with less than 40% self-identifying as bilingual Arabic-English is highly
significant for a course which was delivered entirely in English by NIE, and for which the NIE-derived course
materials are entirely in English.
Data regarding participants‘ self-identification in terms of language ability corresponds well to their subject
specialisations: the largest single specialisation presenting in this sample was Arabic, at 20.6%. Further, the
combined percentage for specialisations that are taught either entirely in Arabic, or with very little English, was
46.2%.
The fact that 60.8% of participants taught in classes in which English was hardly ever used, while 60.5% of
participants self-identified as non-English speakers brings into question a rationale for English-only provision.
Response to the data
In order to address the bilingual language issue as indicated in the data, a variety of approaches were devised in
programme delivery by both Arabic and non-Arabic facilitators of CPD modules:
delivering teacher talk in a mix of about 70% Arabic, 30% English, code-switching (―the alternating use of
two or more recognisably different language variants within the same text‖, Dickins et al 2002: 233) for
technical terms
using about MSA on the whiteboard, often scribed by participants
encouraging participants to work collaboratively to produce their own Arabicisations (or ‗Bahrainisations‘),
of English-derived concepts. Rather than merely translating, the aim here was to support students in
understanding the concept, and to express it in Arabic, using metaphors and examples derived from real
Bahraini usage and experience, a form of ―cultural transplantation‖ (Dickins et al 2002: 32)
allowing group discussions to take place in Bahraini dialect (―natural‖ language use for brainstorming),
with presentations and demonstrations of teaching given either in standard languages, English or MSA
allowing coursework, lesson plans, posters, to be produced in Arabic
using translated bilingual handouts and other materials
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reducing the number of heavily English-language laden power-point presentations by simplifying the
language used, or replacing some of the slides with all-Arabic or bilingual versions
using targeted bilingual support for explanation of key concepts and concept-checking .
Results of the Mid-Course survey
This survey gathered qualitative data on participant satisfaction with the course EPD 5001, Collaborative
and Cooperative Learning (CL). The 38 participants arranged themselves into gender-specific groups, the smaller
group being female, the larger two group being male. Participants were instructed to brainstorm about the course
with an emphasis on how it could be improved. Below are main points presented by each group summarised in note
form:
Female group
Overall experience was that the class was ―refreshing‖
Participants felt empowered by learning new techniques
Primary general classroom teachers found the course less useful, due to the lack or primary school focus
Most participants though that more Arabic is ―a must‖ on this course
Most participants found the English language handouts and PPPs difficult and confusing
After work sessions, and the location (at BTC in the far south of the island) were highly inconvenient
PD sections should be organised on a subject-specific and/or a level-specific basic (e.g., sections for primary
teachers, section for English teachers, etc.)
Male Group 1:
The course needed a better and more diverse range of resources
Participants needed the opportunity to practice CL strategies in their schools and report back during PD classes
Arabic should be the language of instruction, with supplementary resources in English
PD courses should be run during the summer after the school exams period
Participants should have hands-on assistance in applying CL strategies in schools
Male Group 2:
Core CL concepts and practices should be developed through their application in schools
All PD classes should be bilingual Arabic-English
The course curriculum should be clearer and written in Arabic
There should be an active internet connection in class
There should be a more diverse range of learning materials
PD tutors should visit Bahraini schools
Participants‘ End-of-course survey
This survey, conducted with 38 participants in May at BTC, had two sections, demographic data, and
participant‘s course satisfaction.
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The results showed substantial numbers of participants (11- 44%) ‗always‘ using the ten Cooperative
Learning (CL) strategies highlighted in the course, with large majorities using these approaches either ‗often‘ or
‗sometimes‘. Only small minorities (1.5% to 3%) reported that they used these approaches only ‗rarely‘, or ‗never‘.
These results are impressive considering that prior to taking this course most of the participants had little or no
experience in CL.
A majority of 65% of participants rated tutor-participant interaction as ‗excellent‘, with 24% rating it as
‗very good‘. Participant-participant interaction was rated at 46% ‗excellent‘, with 40% rated ‗very good‘. Language
use in class sessions was rated at 42% ‗excellent‘, and 26% ‗very good‘. Only 5% of respondents thought that
language use on the courses was either ‗below average‘, or ‗poor‘.
Tutors‘ End-of-course survey
The 12 tutors facilitating PD sessions from March to May completed an end-of-course survey. Assessing
the relevance of the course materials to the Bahraini cultural context opinion was divided, 25% of tutors thought it
was ‗excellent‘, 33%, ‗very good‘, 25%, ‗good‘, and 16% ‗satisfactory‘. While no tutors thought it was
‗unsatisfactory‘, tutors did add comments on the cultural suitability of the materials, for instance:
―I would suggest that the NIE PD materials be consistent with the cultural and contextual
factors associated with the participants' life and educational experiences, their working
conditions and learning environment.‖
―Generally, the NIE materials were satisfactory, although too focused on the Singapore
setting.‖
―Overall, the materials, although relevant to the subject area, were not at a level the participants
could grasp quickly. There was also little breadth to the topics covered.‖
―These materials need revision, and more Bahrain relevant materials developed.‖
―I needed to make a few modifications because of cultural context. But overall it is very well
prepared. Also, I needed to add more demonstrations based on availability of materials. We did
not have teaching materials.‖
―I'd try to get more materials translated into Arabic and use those more.‖
―I would have an Arabic-speaking tutor visit the class earlier than I did to provide
translation. I would also give the participants class time to prepare their assignments so I
could check to make sure they understood the assignment rather than relying on the Englishspeakers‘ assurances that everyone‘s 'got it'.‖
Concerning the language of tuition, 91% of tutors thought that the courses should be bilingual, and 9%
thought they should be taught in Arabic only. Not a single tutor supported English-only provision.
When offered bilingual teaching options, 80% favoured bilingual versions of the NIE materials, and 20%
Arabic only versions. 90% favoured BTC developing its own bilingual teaching materials, and 40% favoured
bilingual co-teaching. 67% of tutors thought that enhanced bilingual provision was the single most important thing
that could be done to improve participants‘ learning experience.
On motivation, 33% of tutors thought their participants were ‗somewhat motivated‘, although 25% considered them
to be ‗very motivated‘. Tutors own attitudes toward PD were divided: 47% said they were ‗enthusiastic‘ about
teaching it again, while 33% said they would either ‗rather not‘, or ‗certainly not‘ want to teach PD again.
End of course grades
Assessment of NIE CPD is designed with a pass/fail grade. The individual assessment component is 30% of
the total, and the group project at 40%. Most assessment is either for group work assessed on a group basis, or for
collaboration.
At present, the BTC is obliged to follow the UoB system for academic grading, which has grade bands from
F to A, with plus or minus grades, e.g., C-, C, and C+, separated by three marks. This schema is obviously designed
with summative, exam-type assessments in mind, where getting one or two questions right or wrong can
meaningfully distinguish between a C and a C+. This schema does not fit well with PD courses, where only a
minority part of the mark is given for purely individual effort. When marked according to the NIE rubric, successful
completion of the tasks assigned on these PD courses will in all likelihood lead to an academic grade in the A or B
range.
However, the final grades for sections were interestingly divergent. Several facilitators who diligently
aimed for linguistic convergence had 100% pass rate with many grades in the A and B range. The final results
posted by Dr. X and Dr. Y make an interesting point of contrast.
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Dr. X is a non-native speaker of English and an experienced practitioner. However, Dr. X did not know Arabic and
used English exclusively. Dr. Y, also a non-native speaker of English, knows no Arabic, and is an experienced
educator and an active researcher. In the course, English was used exclusively. Neither facilitator opted for bilingual
support.
Dr. X‘s section had 27 participants. With 11 no-shows, and four drop-outs, there were 7 passes: 4 A-grades,
1 B; and two Cs. There were 5 fails resulting from non-completion of course work. Dr. Y‘s had 32 enrolled
participants with 14 no-shows. The remaining participants achieved 5 A-grades, 6 Bs, and 1 C. 7 fails were due to
non-completion of coursework. Although popular and competent tutors in graduate and undergraduate courses, both
Dr. X and Dr. Y were the subject of subject of formal CPD participant complaints regarding attitude and
communication skills.
Analysis
In the mid-course survey, all groups identified the lack of Arabic as a weakness, and individual participants
reported this to be a serious weakness. All groups stressed the need for bilingual learning materials, and/or bilingual
instruction. Some groups reported that in addition to the language issue, PD materials should be developed to make
them more relevant in a Bahraini context.
Based on findings, those tutors who made significant efforts to factor bilingualism into the existing NIEderived provision seemed to have positively enhanced the participant‘s learning experience.
Giles and Smith (1979) cite a number of factors that influence the effectiveness of cross-cultural communication:
―similarity attraction‖, that ―the more similar are attitudes and beliefs are to certain others the more likely it is we
will be attracted to them‖ (47); the ―social exchange‖ process, ―the rewards attending a convergent act, that is an
increase in attraction or approval‖ (48); ―causal attribution‖, where ―we interpret other people‘s behaviour, and
evaluate persons in themselves, in terms of the motivations and intentions that we attribute as the cause of their
behaviour (50); ―intergroup distinctiveness‖, wherein members of different groups, when they are in contact,
―compare themselves on dimensions that are important to them‖ (52). Building positive inter-cultural relations and
effective communication depends on aligning these factors to achieve ―optimal convergence‖ leading to positive
inter-evaluation (53-4).
Thus, focusing on the importance of language in tutor-participant relations is of value to other BTC PD
faculty, especially non-Arabic speaking faculty, as it enables outsiders to achieve optimal convergence in a cultural
setting which values ―a close long-term commitment to the member 'group'‖ where ―loyalty in a collectivist culture
is paramount, and over-rides most other societal rules‖ (Hofstede, Cultural Dimensions: Arab World).
Eckert (2005) calls this a ―community of practice‖:
An aggregate of people who come together on a regular basis to engage in some enterprise:
a family, a linguistics class, a garage, band, roommates, a sports team, even a small village.
In the course of their engagement, the community of practice develops ways of doing things –
practices. And these practices involve the construction of a shared orientation to the world
around them – a tacit definition of themselves in relation to each other, and in relation to
other communities of practice‖ (quoted in Bassiouney: 2009, 94).
Clearly, BTC CPD classes are, in this sense, communities or practice, bilingual, cross-cultural communities,
in each of which a unique ‗social meaning‘ is constructed in the interactions between participants and tutor, and,
perhaps more significantly, between the participants themselves.
Therefore, there is a need for CPD tutors to ‗firm up‘ theır modelling micro-levels of community of practice by
careful consideration of the roles of language and culture in achieving optimal convergence. This is particularly the
case where socio-cultural dynamics can constitute a serious obstacle to effective communication, and the
achievement of learning outcomes.
The mid-course survey results suggest that to achieve optimal convergence, it is not necessary for non-Arab
tutors to be fluent in Arabic in order to be successful in facilitating learning, even with groups where over half the
participants self-identify as ―Arabic only‖ speakers. Rather, it is sufficient that participants are allowed to use Arabic
for discussion and presentation; that bilingual resources are employed; and, that the tutor uses some Arabic and
signals interest and respect for participants‘ cultural perspectives. This minimises ―perceived threat‖ and
―uncertainty‖, which are serious obstacles to effective inter-cultural communication (Berger 1979, 133-4), and helps
achieve ―optimal convergence.‖
By respecting the importance of language and culture in the sessions, several tutors were able to achieve
greater levels of optimal convergence. This led in turn to positive learning outcomes for the participants, as
evidenced by the participants‘ end-of-course survey in which participants, previously unfamiliar with CL techniques
reported high levels of usage across ten different strategies.
The tutor‘s end-of-course survey indicated an awareness of the importance of language and cultural issues.
The overwhelming majority of tutors (91%) were strongly in favour of enhanced bilingual provision, both in terms
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of human and material resources. Most commented on the difficulties encountered in working with the existing
English-only materials and many reflected on the need to make the materials more relevant to the Bahraini cultural
context.
Subsequent experience with tutors with little or no Arabic showed that linguistic convergence can still take
place, and still be nearly as effective as the convergence that takes place between an Arabic-speaking facilitator and
Arabic-speaking participants. Often a ―gesture‖ towards convergence is all that is needed to facilitate attitudinal and
behavioural convergence. Tutors received comparable positive evaluations for respectfulness and attitude,
demonstrating the way that in cross-cultural communication language skills and cultural sensitivity are equally
valuable.
However, ―linguistic convergence‖ either on the level of language or dialect can have a very positive
influence on morale, attitudes, and motivation, creating an ownership of learning for the participants, and, genuine
inclusion for the tutor. Thus, Arabicisations of core concepts and practices that can come out of ―convergence
learning‖ between Arabic-speaking tutors and participants are a significant contribution to existing knowledge. The
supporting data confirms that improving tutor-participant communication is an essential aspect for the learning
environment, positively influencing participants‘ perception of culturally ―Other‖ tutors, and, improving participantparticipant communication.
However, it also shows the need for improvement in inter-personal cross-cultural communication to be
supplemented by the development of bilingual and culturally sensitive and relevant course materials. During these
PD sessions tutors had limited opportunities to develop such materials because adaptations of NIE-derived materials
had to undergo a process of approval that was not feasible in the given time-frame.
The data demonstrates conclusively that participants’ needs, attitudes, and expectations are rooted in a
cultural context and in evolving communities of practice, and this realization feeds directly into on-going
discussions around how teaching and learning on CPD can be made more effective.
Conclusion
In his Language Policy and Language Planning: From nationalism to globalisation Wright (2004) states:
Language policy is primarily a social construct - policy as a culture construct rests
primarily on other conceptual elements – belief systems, attitudes, myths – the whole
complex that were are referring to as linguistic culture, which is the sum totality of ideas,
values, beliefs, attitudes, prejudices, religious stricture, and all the other cultural ‗baggage‘
that speakers bring to their dealings with language from their background. (276).
At a macro- and a micro-level, the public policy economic and educational reform project of which BTC is
a part involves every aspect of what Wright calls ‗linguistic culture‘. It is not unsurprising, therefore, that this study
confirms the centrality of Giles‘ linguistic ‗optimal convergence‘ to effective cross-cultural communication in
BTC‘s CPD classrooms.
In short, if CPD externally-derived provision is to be effective, the ‗language question‘ cannot be avoided. This
study opens a path to research the importance of linguistic and cultural factors at work in CPD, and the bridges it can
establish between cultures in an increasingly globalized educational context.
References
Bassiouney, R. (2009) Arabic Sociolinguistics. Edinburgh, UK: EUP.
Berger, C. ―Beyond Initial Interaction: Uncertainty, Understanding, and the Development of Interpersonal
Relationships‖ in Giles, H and St. Clair, R. Language and Social Psychology.
Biggs, J. and Tang, C. (2007) Teaching for Quality Learning at University. (3rd edition)Maidenhead, UK: OUP.
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Boise
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University.
(2007)
Performance
Management:
http://hrs.boisestate.edu/td/pdf/SMARTgoals.pdf Accessed 15th July 2010.
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SMART
Objectives.
Bosch, K. (2006) Planning Classroom Management: A Five-Step Process to Creating a Positive Learning
Environment. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Cohen, L. Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2007) Research Methods in Education (6th Edition). Oxford: Routledge.
Dickins, James. Hervey, S. and Higgins, I. (2002) Thinking Arabic Translation: a Course in Translation Methods,
Arabic to English. London, Routledge.
Giles, H. (ed.) Contexts of Accommodation: Developments in Sociolinguistics. Cambridge, UK: CUP, 1991.
Giles, H. and Smith, P. ―Accommodation Theory: Optimal Levels of Convergence‖ in Giles, H. and St. Clair, R.
Language and Social Psychology.
Giles, H. and St. Clair, R. (1979) Language and Social Psychology. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
Gopinathan S. & Vanithamani Saravanan . (1983) ―Varieties of English and Education Linguistics‖: Singapore
Journal of Education. 7: 64-71
Gudykunst, W.B. (2005) Theorizing about Intercultural Communication. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Hampden-Turner, C. Trompenaars, F. (2004) Managing People Across Cultures. Chichester: Capstone.
Heil, G. Bennis, W. Stephens, D. (2000) Douglas McGregor, Revisited: managing the human Side of the enterprise.
New York: Wiley.
Hofstede, Geert. (2001) Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations
Across Nations. Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.
Hofstede, Geert. Cultural Dimensions: Arab World. http://www.geert-hofstede.com/hofstede_arab_world.shtml
Accessed 12th July 2010
Lambert, W. ―Language as a Factor in Intergroup Relations‖, in Giles, H and St. Clair, R. Language and Social
Psychology.
Maamouri, Mohamad. (1998) Language Education and Human Development: Arabic Diglossia and its Importance
to the Quality of Education in the Arab Region. Philadelphia, PA: The World Bank/International Literacy Institute.
McKeown, J. (2005). Toward a professional learning community: societal and cultural factors affecting the
development of informed professional practice at Turkish Foreign National Schools. Education doctoral dissertation:
Warnborough College, Canterbury, UK. Unpublished doctoral dissertation.
Mcniff, J. Lomax, P. and Whitehead, J. (2003) You and Your Action Research. (2nd edition) Oxford: Routledge.
Saphier, Jon. and Gower, R. (1997) The Skillful Teacher: Building Your Teaching Skills. (5th edition) Carlise, MA:
Research for Better Teaching.
Schôn, D. (1987) Educating the Reflective Practitioner: Toward a New Design for Teaching and Learning in the
Professions. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Schôn, D. (1983) The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think in Action. London: Maurice Temple Smith.
Wight, S. (2004) Language Policy and Language Planning: From nationalism to globalisation. New York: Palgrave
Macmillan.
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Building a community of shared practice by localizing externally-derived professional development in educational reform‘
Author
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McKeown, John
Diboll,, Michael
Abstract
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This research focuses on sociolinguistic aspects of education reform in the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC) region and the strategies by which the achievement of ‗linguistic convergence‘ and corresponding ‗cultural convergence‘ or ‗optimal convergence‘ can enhance in-service teachers‘ Continuing Professional Development (CPD) participant learning. This professional reflection, situated within the evolving context of reform underway in Bahrain, is based on research conducted at the Bahrain Teachers College (an autonomous professional college founded in 2008 within the University of Bahrain) during 2008-2010. The data, gathered from in-service CPD modules with mid-career Bahraini teachers, includes a wide range of practice-based sources including surveys, interviews, focus groups, and observation. Managing the shift from externally-prepared in-service CDP, toward contextualizing the materials, curriculum, and program delivery to the cultural, social, and educational environment of Bahrain is challenging. Developing ―ownership‖ of new approaches to learning, can make effectively localize the training at the classroom level. The data points to ways that balance the learning needs of local in-service teachers with the internationalizing imperatives of multinational education consultancy:
Date
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2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
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PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/42e851e04c043bd2d97e7f24d7580818.pdf
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1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
On the Acquisition of English Articles with Bosnian L2 Learners of English
Adi Maslo
Department of English Language and Literature
University of Dņemal BijediĤ Mostar, BiH
adi.maslo@unmo.ba
Abstract: Regarding the discrepancy between the English and the Bosnian language
concerning an article system, this paper attempts at clarifying the difficulties for Bosnian
L2 learners of English. Based on a similar study and an experimental study with Bosnian
learners, this paper illustrates and copes with the very apparent and widely present issue
of English articles among Bosnian learners. The principles of Definiteness and Specificity
are introduced to contrast the two languages, aiding to a deeper understanding of this
conceptual difference between English and Bosnian. The paper first states the current
position of the English (definite and indefinite) article in the light of the Bosnian
language, and specifies their respective Bosnian equivalents, eventually giving a
suggestion to a deeper understanding.
Key Words: articles, the, a, English, Bosnian, language, article, system
Introduction
According to different authors, the English article system is one of the most difficult elements for L2 learners of
English. The problem can be found by both English language learners whose L1 language has an article system,
and the ones whose L1 language lack such structural element. However, the manifestation of this issue is
different. Students of the English language whose L1 language does have an article system, tend to reflect the
article system regulations onto the English article system, whereas ESLs whose L1 language lacks an article
system cannot find underpinnings in their mother tongue. Among languages such as Japanese, Russian, Finish
and Chinese, the Bosnian language is one that lacks a formal element which would stay for the English article.
However, the Bosnian language has different means of referring. Be it as it may, for the purposes of a better
cross-cultural understanding, such a discrepancy must be kept in mind, being aware that English articles are the
most widely spread in any written text or speech in English.
Having stated that there is no formal item which would be an equivalent for the English article, the
question arises – how to teach Bosnian students to adopt this phenomenon? What does it depend on, if there isn‘t
a formal substitute for the English article? What the Bosnian literature offers is merely a division of places where
the or a(n) or a zero article appear which is not a solution to the issue, since this issue is more deeply rooted and
linked to a conceptual understanding of language.
The English articles as perceived in Bosnian
The English articles are not to be omitted in Standard English language. They represent a common
picture of both spoken and written English. As it is formally known, the English language article system consists
of the definite the, the indefinite a(n) and the so-called zero article. The definite article is a demonstrative
determiner in its origin, whereas the indefinite article is a number by its origin – both must be kept in mind. The
definite article is most often translated with Bosnian demonstratives whereas the indefinite article is most
commonly translated (if at all) with numerals (TanoviĤ, 2002: 127). Both cases reflect their respective origin, but
this is the case in few contexts where the article is to be understood literally i.e. when the English language refers
to it like that. Examples for this are:
(1)
(2)
There is a man waiting for you. (ĥeka te jedan Ħovjek.)
This is the woman I told you about. (Ovo je ta ņena o kojoj sam ti govorio.)
The meaning of the numeral jedan in (1) is close to that of the English indefinite article (a, an). Unlike
English, however, which must use a or an whenever the meaning expressed by the indefinite article is desired,
the use of jedan in Bosnian is optional. When a speaker chooses to use it, s/he sometimes has in mind the
additional idea a certain (Alexander, 2006: 44). As another substitute for the English indefinite article, however
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not functioning as such, there is the indefinite pronominal adjective neki meaning some/certain. However, these
differ in their function, and don‘t stand as the counterpart of English articles but for purposes of the inner
structure of Bosnian.
The perception of English articles by Bosnian L2 learners is ‗blinded‘ by the lack of their own language
i.e. language learners simply skip these ‗little words‘ in front of the noun(s). One reason for this could be the fact
that these ‗little words‘ have no semantic meaning in Bosnian and they cannot occur as the head of a (Bosnian)
phrase. Were it only for the ‗size of the word‘ prepositions wouldn‘t be recognized either, and were it only for
the semantic meaning, prepositions, again, at time have no formal equivalent in the Bosnian language, but that
doesn‘t make them disappear in a Bosnian learner‘s usage. However, the conceptual basis of referring in the
respective languages tends to be the issue number one.
Referring in English and in Bosnian
The English article system is simple in its form, not, however, in its use. Articles are used as follows:
the definite article is used for referents which are either an apparent element of the context in which the speech
act is taking place or they are previously used (Jeffries, 2006).
The criterion for the usage of either the definite or indefinite article can briefly be described as such: the
definite nominal phrase (NP) has a referent which the speaker holds as an undoubtedly clear element (familiar)
to the hearer, whereas the indefinite NP has a referent for which the speaker doesn‘t assume to be clear (familiar)
to the hearer (Chesterman, 1991).
According to the above quotes, we can see that the distinction is made on the principle of common
knowledge of the speaker/hearer. The speaker and the hearer need to know what the other is referring to i.e. the
speaker needs to linguistically isolate an entity from the non-linguistic reality to make the hearer understand
which referent is being referred to.
This can be explained with an example given by TrenkiĤ1 (2009). She makes us imagine a situation
where both the speaker and the hearer are standing in a kitchen, both having this image (Figure 1) in front of
them. The speaker wants the hearer to hand him the black mug. An English speaker would express his/her wish
with:
(3)
Pass me the black mug, please.
The NP is marked for definiteness by the usage of the definite article the. The definite article signals
that the referent is uniquely identifiable, that it exists and is unique in one of the pragmatically delimited
domains mutually manifest to speaker and hearer on-line – in this case the visually present objects in the
immediate situation (Hawkins, 1991).
Figure 1
Speakers of the Bosnian language wouldn‘t have the choice to use a definite article, but they could
express their request with:
(4)
Dodaj mi crnu šolju, molim te.
1
TrenkiĤ's research was conducted with Serbian L2 learners of English, but the two languages (Bosnian and Serbian) don't
differ in this matter
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[Pass me black mug, please.]
The NP isn‘t marked for definiteness; however, reference is successfully remained. The referent exists
(there is a black mug in front of them) and is unique (there is only one black mug) in one of the pragmatically
delimited domains (TrenkiĤ, 2009). The context is definite even though not marked as such. The speaker would
have every reason to expect his reference to be unambiguous and successful; the outcome of reference resolution
in (4) should be identical to that in (3). This example illustrates how definiteness is perceived differently; the
context, and therefore the non-usage of articles, for Bosnian speakers would be even more justified for the entity
referred to is visible i.e. the context is obvious. The Bosnian sentence, and language in general, are case marked,
and the accusative case of the above Bosnian sentence does perform a deictic function.
If an English speaker wanted to receive one of the white mugs, s/he would say:
(5)
Pass me a white mug, please.
whereas the Bosnian speaker would express the request with:
(6)
Dodaj mi bijelu šolju, molim te.
[Pass me white mug, please.]
The NP in (5) is marked as indefinite by means of the indefinite a. The indefinite article signalizes that
the criterion for uniqueness isn‘t fulfilled, for there is more than one referent which could be referred to with
white mug. The Bosnian sentence (6) isn‘t marked as indefinite but the context is the same: the speaker is aware
that there are more referents which could be referred to with ‗bijela ńolja‘. In both cases, the need for a specific
white mug would need more explanation (TrenkiĤ, 2009). However, in (6) the numeral jedan (Dodaj mi jednu
bijelu ńolju, molim te.) would be even more appropriate to, in a slightly different way, refer to the entity not
being unique. Formally, sentences (4) and (6) don‘t differ, but referring is conducted successfully.
On this example we can see that each language has its own means of remaining reference within its
structure. In English, it is an article; the Bosnian language doesn‘t offer an equal element, but still doesn‘t lack
reference and the successful communication isn‘t threatened.
Specific and generic reference
When we speak about articles, a major point is the distinction between specific and generic reference
(Quirk, Greenbaum, 1973). If we say,
(7)
A lion and two tigers are sleeping in the cage.
The reference is specific, for we have an image of a specific kind from the group tiger. If we, on the
other hand, say
(8)
Tigers are dangerous animals.
The reference is generic, for we think of the species tiger, without having one particular animal on mind
(Quirk, Greenbaum, 1973).
We use generic reference when the linguistic expression needs to indicate a group of things, people or
phenomena, whereas the specific reference is used when we want to talk about individual entities (Bilbija, 2001).
For the realization of the generic reference we have three forms; one with the definite article, one with the
indefinite article, and one without an article (zero articles) in plural form.
(9) The tiger is a dangerous animal. (Quirk, 1985)
(10) A computer can only do what you program it to do. (Collins Cobuild English Grammar)
(11)
Girls can be tough. (Biber, 1999)
Examples (9), (10), and (11) can represent an individual‘s statement about the non-linguistic reality.
Generic reference, being a sub-group of the anaphoric reference, enables us to talk about something that isn‘t
present in the same spatial environment as the speaker. This, however, may not be evident to an ordinary L2
Bosnian speaker of English, but his/her mother tongue will ‗force him/her‘ to omit the English article. We could
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easily state here that when talking about things in general i.e. using the generic reference the most secure way is
to use the plural noun without an article.
Specific reference is somewhat more complex. In its specificity, the referent can be definite and
indefinite, which might sound perplexing to a non-native of English. In,
(12)
A cat was the victim of a cruel attack when she was shot in the neck by a pellet. (Biber, 1999)
The nouns cat and pellet are specific (belong to specific reference) in the sense that there is a/some (a
specific) cat/pellet, but they are indefinite in terms of us not knowing which cat/pellet in particular, therefore the
use of the indefinite article. The same kind of sub-reference is employed with nouns in plural which denote one
specific/particular entity but we don‘t know (or it is of no importance) details about it:
(13)
The House passes laws with a certain honesty of intention behind them. (Bilbija, 2002)
Definiteness and Specificity
Ionin, Ko and Wexler (2004) tested the acquisition of English articles among two groups of learners,
Korean and Russian. Both languages, Korean and Russian, don‘t have a formal equivalent for the English article.
They found out that Korean and Russian L2 learners of English fluctuate between English articles according to
their Article Choice Parameter – Definiteness and Specificity. Speakers of these two languages tend to use the
definite article both in definite and indefinite specific context whereas the indefinite article is used in both
indefinite and definite non-specific contexts.
Cross-linguistically, articles encode semantic distinctions of Definiteness and Specificity (Ionin, Ko,
Wexler 2004). The notion of Definiteness refers to the state of knowledge shared between the speaker and the
hearer (or writer and reader). The notion of Specificity refers to knowledge only the speaker (writer) has (Kim,
Lakshmann, 2009). Ionin, Ko and Wexler defined Definiteness and Specificity as follows:
If a Determiner Phrase (DP) of the form [D NP] is :
a. [+definite], then the speaker and hearer presuppose the existence of a unique individual in the set
denoted by the NP.
b. [+specific], then the speaker intends to refer to a unique individual in the set denoted by the NP and
considers this individual to possess some noteworthy property. (Ionin, Ko, Wexler 2004)
It is important to note that in the Standard English language, article choice depends on the notion of
Definiteness, not Specificity (Kim, Lakshmanan, 2009) i.e. the shared knowledge is the context for the definite
article the, whereas a nondefinite context, where there is no shared knowledge, the indefinite article is introduced
(a, an, or the indefinite quantifier some). For example, if we A says to B:
(14)
A: I saw a girl
the context is indefinite for the shared knowledge is not given, therefore the indefinite article. However,
if in a subsequent sentence, speaker A was to mention the same referent (girl), it should be expressed as:
(15)
The girl was blond.
The concept of the English language understands the second mention (even only a second later) of an
entity as falling under the notion of shared knowledge – therefore, the definite article is to be introduced. But not
only it is shared knowledge but, hearer B would be able to understand that speaker A still speaks about the same
referent (girl). This is a point the Bosnian language doesn‘t reflect.
That the notion of Definiteness is perceived differently by speakers whose L1 language doesn‘t have an
article system is reflected in the study of TrenkiĤ (2002). Her research on a group of Serbian speakers of an
intermediate level showed that article omission was more present in the second and each subsequent mention of
a referent which on the first mention had an article. The research of Avery and RadińiĤ (2007) showed the same
– on a retelling task, Serbian learners of English tended to omit articles.
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―… but in the middle of the wallet there is a lottery ticket… he took the lottery ticket… He
took the money and the lottery ticket… he checked the lottery ticket… to give back lottery ticket… the original
owner of lottery ticket… he took money and lottery ticket…‖
This example given by Avery and RadińiĤ (2007) shows the perception of the notion of Definiteness by
Serbian speakers. The Serbian speaker (and so the Bosnian) perceives that each subsequent mention the referent
is (more and more) ‗settled‘ and that it need not more be marked with a definite article. The perception of the
two speakers (Bosnian/Serbian and English) is rather swapped – whereas the English language in each mention
of a referent needs an article, the Bosnian language, even without an article equivalent, perceives a referent
‗settled‘ and doesn‘t need to define it further. A referent becomes more established with every mention, and the
more established a referent is in a discourse model, the more likely the article is to be omitted (Ņegarac 2004).
Besides the dropping articles in subsequent mention Huebner (1983), Jarvis (2002) and TrenkiĤ (2002) observe
that articles are more likely to be dropped in a topic than in a non-topic position, just as Robertson (2000) stated
that when speakers are referring to objects present in the immediate environment than in other definite contexts.
TrenkiĤ (2007) states that the article dropping patterns can be observed even in highly advanced L2 speakers.
Previous research on L2 article use suggests that articles tend to be omitted more often when reference is to a
more salient than to a less salient referent. This asymmetry has been observed in several guises (TrenkiĤ, 2009).
These empirical findings will be tested on Bosnian L2 learners of English in order to find out if they
apply to Bosnian learners, too.
Research with Bosnian L2 learners of the English language
Method
Three groups of English language learners will be tested: Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate, and
Advanced. The theoretical frame is adopted from Huebner (Table 1) where the use of English articles is
determined by the semantic function of the NP in discourse. In the model, English NPs are classified on the basis
of referentiality i.e. whether a noun is [+specific], and whether it is assumed as known to the hearer [+definite].
In this model sentences are given in five contexts to determine article use.
Environment for the appearance of articles
Type 1 – [-specific], [+definite]
Environment
Articles
Examples
Generic nouns
a, the, 0 0 Fruit flourishes in the valley.
The Grenomian is an excitable person.
A paper clip comes in handy.
____________________________________________________________________________
Type 2 – [+specific], [+definite]
Environment
Articles
Examples
Referential definites
the
Pass me the pen.
previous mention
The idea of coming to the US was…
specified by entailment
I found a book. The book was…
specified by definition
The first person to walk on the moon…
unique in all contexts
unique in a given context
____________________________________________________________________________
Type 3 – [+specific], [-definite]
Environment
Articles
Examples
Referential indefinites
a, 0
Chris approached me carrying a dog.
First-mention nouns
I keep sending 0 messages to him.
____________________________________________________________________________
Type 4 – [-specific], [-definite]
Environment
Articles
Examples
Nonreferential nouns
a, 0
Alice is an accountant.
Attributive indefinites
I guess I should buy a new car.
Nonspecific indefinites
0 Foreigners would come up with a better solution.
____________________________________________________________________________
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Type 5 – [-specific], [-definite]
Environment
Articles
Examples
Idioms
a, the, 0 All of a sudden, he woke up.
Other conventional uses
In the 1950s, there weren‘t many cars.
His family is now living 0 hand to mouth.
Table 1
Students will receive 40 sentences (adapted) divided in four groups (tasks). The first ten sentences are
translated into the Bosnian language and they need to be translated back into English. This will show how
students perceive articles in direct contrast of the two languages. Students aren‘t told they are being tested on
articles. In the second group of sentences, students are told to insert a word into sentences where they are needed
– students aren‘t told the focus is on articles. However, most of the sentences do need articles, but there are
distracting items with banal mistakes also. In the third group of sentences students are told to insert an article
into each sentence. Here the point is to contrast the conditions when students are focused on articles, and where
they are not. In the last group of sentences, students are told that there are five incorrect sentences and five
correct ones. Students need to correct the false ones by adding words (mostly articles, but students aren‘t told
so). In the 40 sentences, there are 50 places where articles are needed: Type 1 – 10 entries, Type 2 – 15 entries,
Type 3 – 10 entries, Type 4 – 10 entries, Type 5 – 5 entries. Sentences skipped by the students were not
considered.
Data analysis
Table 1 - Mistakes in article usage per article context type
It can be observed that the incorrect use of articles with Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate groups is
just slightly less in favor of the Upper-Intermediate group. It is only in Article Context Type 5 i.e. idiomatic and
conventional usage with articles, that the Upper-Intermediate have the better proficiency. Surprisingly enough,
this is the context where the Advanced group is almost at the same level with the Upper-Intermediate i.e. fairly
no distinction. However, let us treat the groups in detail.
It can be observed that the Intermediate learners have the lowest proficiency in articles, obviously
enough. On the translation task there were quite interesting remarks. Out of ten learners none of them recognized
the need of an article when a sequence of Type 3 and Type 2 (a referent is firstly mentioned, and in the next
sentence referred again) is needed. The ones that did do it correctly relied rather on possessives or pronouns than
articles. In general, the sequence of Type 3 and Type 2 are not at a high level. Surprisingly enough, this is a point
that is being treated in the Bosnian literature when articles are concerned.
However, article proficiency is better in the third task where the learners were told to insert an article.
But even here only one out of ten Intermediate learners recognized the Type 3 – Type 2 sequence. It can be
observed that compound NPs are considered as one and therefore added (if at all) only an article in front of the
first noun, as in the sentence the learners were given:
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(16)
Jane bought a ring and a necklace for her mother‘s birthday. Her mother loved the ring but
hated the necklace.
At this level L2 learners of English don‘t seem to distinguish, or at a very low percentage, the
difference between nouns mentioned for the first time and the ones specified by entailment.
Another remarkable finding was that Intermediate L2 learners of English have difficulties in
distinguishing specific and generic reference. This yields in a result that the latter is being thought of as
nonspecific indefinites, whereas they are quite the opposite. The following three sentences were included:
(17)
(18)
(19)
Is it true that the owl cannot see well in daylight?
The telephone is a very useful invention.
We don‘t know who invented the wheel.
None of the Intermediate learners could recognize the generic reference here. But a more remarkable
error rate was with context Type 2 with specific definites and even unique nouns, some of them yielding in
grammatically incorrect sentences like:
(20)
(21)
*French are against war in Iraq.
*In 1960s, there were lots of protests against Vietnam War.
Upper-Intermediate learners of English don‘t differ too much in regard to Intermediates. Context Type
2 remains an issue. Even at this level learners tend not to make definite, by means of the definite article, NPs in
generic reference. Again, context Type 2 where the referents were both specific and definite yielded in ample of
mistakes even among Upper-Intermediate ESL learners. This illustrates the different perception of definiteness
between the two languages. It is especially with the sequence of Type 3 and 2 where a referent is being firstly
mentioned and then referred to again. Here we have the same finding as TrenkiĤ and Ņegarac where we see that
ESL learners tend to omit articles in subsequent mentions. An overuse in zero articles can only be stated as such
having in mind that Bosnian L2 learners of English don‘t see it as a zero article, but simply reflect their own
language in English and omit the article.
Advanced learners are weakest in context Type 2, just as the two other groups of learners. Surprisingly
enough, advanced learners seem to have a lower proficiency in idiomatic and other conventional uses, in
comparison. Again, we have least mistakes in sentence Type 3 and 4 where the indefinite article prevails and this
seems to be reoccurring with all three groups. However, advanced learners do show a higher proficiency in
general.
Discussion
Regardless of the level of learners, articles remain an issue for Bosnian L2 learners of English. As we
have previously stated, it is a matter of referring in the two languages that makes the difference, and, in the end,
yields in mistakes in article usage. On one hand, each group of learners had the majority of mistakes in context
Type 2, where referents are specific and definite – why is this so? The answer to this question lies in the fact that
the English language depends on the notion of definiteness, not specificity, as opposed to the Bosnian language.
On the other hand, each group had least mistakes in context Types 3 and 4. This may, then, lie in the fact that
definiteness is excluded and specificity more emphasized. Be it as it may, Bosnian L2 learners of English should
be more effectively taught articles, for they seem disregarded in the teaching process.
It has been observed that all levels of learners misunderstand referents in definite contexts and even
unique ones. L2 learners of English should be taught that shared knowledge is a key notion (and this is
disregarded). They have to be taught that each of these has to be regarded as unique in its context, and taking the
mug example from above we can state that it is unique in its context even though there are numerous other black
mugs in the world. If we take a sentence from the test given to students as an example:
(22) Fred bought a car on Monday. On Wednesday, he crashed the car.
We can see that we have shared knowledge but that the car is unique in its context, too. Or let‘s take
another sentence:
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(23) Sally Ride was the first American woman in space.
We again see that the entity referred to is unique. This may be the more obvious case for using the
definite article because the entity is marked for uniqueness in a wider context, and it seems to be the case that the
smaller the context the higher the fluctuation rate. Here we have another sentence which carries this same
attribute:
(24) The French are against the war in Iraq.
There is only one people called ‗The French‘ and there is only one war that can be referred to as ‗the
war in Iraq‘, however, this sentence yielded in a majority of mistakes. So, these entities are linguistically isolated
from all other entities and they shouldn‘t be mistaken when articles are concerned.
Another key problem seems to be generic reference or Type 1 context. Bosnian L2 learners of English
don‘t seem to distinguish the ‗generalization‘ of this reference, so the sentence
(25) The Telephone is a very useful invention.
was, in a majority of cases, written without the definite article. Entities under this reference are by their
attribute of generalization unique. It is not that some telephone or a specific telephone is a very useful invention,
but telephones in general. So, this makes the given context definite and therefore it needs the definite article. It
may be the most convenient way to tell students to talk about things in general to use plural forms without
articles. However, more advanced learners should be taught all forms of realization within generic reference.
Articles should generally be given more emphasis in the teaching process. They should be taught in the
context of referring and shared knowledge. It is, basically, most convenient to teach students to always consider
article use in front of NPs. As we have suggested, students should be advised to consider referents in isolated,
unique, contexts and then decide on an article. As the study has shown, generic reference remains a greater
problem than specific reference, and we recommend the pieces of advice mentioned above. In (19) (and in other
cases) generic reference is quite obvious, but students should only be taught the conceptual basis of this
reference, and the issues of referring in general. Conclusively, the advice for teacher is that semantics should be
used as a means to explain the act of referring and eventually be able to teach articles more effectively.
Conclusion
As we have seen from both the theoretical findings of other authors and the one conducted with Bosnian
learners, English articles still remain to be an issue. Bosnian L2 learners of English, not having the linguistic
background in their own language, when articles are concerned, don‘t feel the necessity for the usage of articles.
As we have recommended here, it is the lack of semantic interpretation (or the unwillingness to use it) of articles
(on the teachers‘ side). The act of referring should be put into the center of interpretation where the different
kinds of references should be introduced. As it was noticed, proficiency in generic reference and NPs as
referential definites should also be improved. The conceptual underpinnings and the need for articles should be
introduced very carefully. The notions of Specificity and Definiteness, and a cross-linguistic view of these two,
as we have suggested, ought to be introduced as a cross-cultural perspective and means of teaching articles more
effectively.
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References
Alexander, R. (2006), Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Grammar – With Sociolinguistic Commentary, The
University of Wisconsin Press, London
Avery, P., RadińiĤ, M. (2007), Residual Optionality at the Interface: The L2-Acquisition of Articles, presented at
the EUROSLA 2007., Newcastle upon Tyne
Berry, R. (1996), English Guides 3: Articles, HarperCollins Publisher, London
Biber, S. (1990), Pronominalni anaforički proces u savremenom engleskom, Univerzitet u Sarajevu, Sarajevo
Bilbija, S. (2001), Introducing Semantics, Komunikolońki fakultet Banja Luka, Banja Luka
Chesterman, A. (1991), On Definiteness – A Study with Special Reference to Finnish and English, Cambridge
University Press, New York
Ekiert, M. (2010), Acquisition of the English Article System by Speakers of Polish in ESL and EFL Settings,
Teachers College, Columbia University Working Papers in TESOL & Applied Linguistics, Vol. 4, No. 1
Huebner, T. (1983). A longitudinal analysis of the acquisition of English. Ann Arbor, Michigan: Karoma Press
Ionin, T., Ko, H. i Wexler (2004), Article Semantics in L2-Acquisition: The Role of Specificit. Language
Acquisition 12: 3-69
Kim, L., Lakshmanan, U. (2007), The Processing Role of the Article Choice Parameter, Second Language
Acquisition of Articles, (87-113), John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam/Philadelphia
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S. (1973.), A University Grammar of English, Longman Group UK LIMITED, London
TanoviĤ, M. (2002.), Gramatika engleskog jezika, Fakultet humanistiĦkih nauka Univerziteta 'Dņemal BijediĤ' u
Mostaru, Mostar
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On the Acquisition of English Articles with Bosnian L2 Learners of English
Author
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Maslo, Adi
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Regarding the discrepancy between the English and the Bosnian language concerning an article system, this paper attempts at clarifying the difficulties for Bosnian L2 learners of English. Based on a similar study and an experimental study with Bosnian learners, this paper illustrates and copes with the very apparent and widely present issue of English articles among Bosnian learners. The principles of Definiteness and Specificity are introduced to contrast the two languages, aiding to a deeper understanding of this conceptual difference between English and Bosnian. The paper first states the current position of the English (definite and indefinite) article in the light of the Bosnian language, and specifies their respective Bosnian equivalents, eventually giving a suggestion to a deeper understanding
Date
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2011-05
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Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/a6a72dc735691e289290eed308fa1c61.pdf
019c5bb9e41802684388882992f3d312
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Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Mass Culture and Literature in Japan in the Interwar Period
Ljiljana MarkoviĤ
Filolońki fakultet Univerziteta u Beogradu
ljiljana.markovic@fil.bg.ac.rs
Marina JoviĤ DjaloviĤ
Univerziteta u Beogradu, Serbia
mvjovic@rcub.bg.ac.rs
Abstract: The paper deals with the conditions influencing the emergence of mass culture
in Japan in the interwar period. It describes the spread of mass media, statescript reform,
appearance of the enbon and specifics of big publishing companies. Special attention is
devoted to the characteristics of popular literature and the emergence of historical and
detective novels as new genres.
Key Words: Japan, mass media, elite and mass culture, popular literature
Introduction
The development of social and economic relations during the 20th century brought about changes in the
creation and use of cultural values, resulting in the emergence of two types of culture: mass and elitist. Such a
division is based on the views of Spanish philosopher Jose Ortega y Gasset that society is always a dynamic unity
composed of two factors: minorities and masses.[4]
The basic difference between elitist and mass culture lies in their commercial components. Elitist culture is
an artistic product, which is created not only for commercial purposes, while mass culture is a commodity, which is
produced for the market in an industrial process and earns profit through its sale to mass consumers.
Cultural scientists and art historians differ in their views concerning the time when the elements of mass
culture began to emerge. According to American sociologist D. White, the first elements of mass culture can be
found in gladiatorial fights in ancient Rome because they attracted large audiences. T. Adorno holds that the
prototype of modern mass culture emerged in England with the rise of capitalism (at the turn of the 17th to the 18th
century). In his opinion, the novels from that period, like those of Defoe and Richardson, had a distinct commercial
component.
According to the modern view, mass culture first emerged in America at the turn of the 19th to the 20th
century, with the spread of capitalism and its penetration into all spheres of life: economics, politics, administration,
control, communications and human relations. The development of global market relations could not bypass the
sphere of intellectual activity. The commercialisation of all social relations, associated with the fast development of
the means of mass communication, brought about the emergence of mass culture. The notion of ―mass culture‖ does
not give a true picture of the changes that occurred. The basic meaning of ―mass culture‖ is culture for the masses,
culture intended for people or, in other words, popular culture. However, in essence, ―mass culture‖ is consumer
culture, or the market opened to consumers of culture.
The emergence of mass culture was accompanied by the creation of a new social class, which was termed
―middle class‖ and represented the consumer masses. In Western countries, the middle class became the basis of
industrial society.
On the artistic plane, mass culture performed special social functions, the most important being the illusory
one – the introduction of man into the world of illusions and unfulfilled dreams. All this was coupled with the overt
or hidden propaganda of the dominant ideology aiming at separating the masses from social reality, inducing
conformism and adjusting people to the existing living conditions. Therefore, literature belonging to mass culture is
characterised by light genres: detective and Western fiction, melodramas, musicals and comics. They form a
simplified view of life, which reduces everything bad to psychological and moral factors, while at the same time
making wide use of the launched axioms that ―a good deed is always awarded‖ and that ―love and faith (in God, in
oneself) always win‖. However, despite being seemingly insubstantial, mass culture has a serious basis in the
method of its functioning and not in its quality.[7]
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The Specifics of The Emergence of Mass Culture in Japan
Mass culture emerged in Japan after the Great Kanto Earthquake. In considering mass culture in Japan in
the interwar period, Fujitake Akira points out that it owes its emergence to the creation of four crucial preconditions
from the end of the Meiji period to the mid-Taisho period:
-
The emergence of the people as a force in the political and social sphere;
The rise of capitalism during the First World War and postwar economic crises;
The strengthening of Japan‘s international position over a condensed period of time; and
The introduction and flourishing of foreign culture within the middle class.[3]
During the 1920s, two events had a decisive impact on the formation of mass culture. The first was the
Great Kanto Earthquake in September 1923, while the second one was the adoption of the Universal Male Suffrage
Law (Futsu senkyo kisei domeikai), which gave rise to the pro-democracy movement in the Taisho period, and the
Peace Preservation Law (Chian iji ho), which was adopted in 1925 as a counterweight to the mentioned democratic
law.
On 1 September 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake destroyed Tokyo and Yokohama. Apart from its
disastrous material consequences and human casualties, it had a great psychological impact on the Japanese people.
In 1934, during his visit to France, Yokomitsu Riichi stated that it had the same impact on the Japanese way of life
and culture as the First World War on the fate of Europe. He held that, after the earthquake that had destroyed the
old culture, it was necessary to develop some other artistic values. He also believed that, after rejecting its past, a
new Japan would emerge from the ruins and flames of Tokyo. By a new culture he primarily meant the literature and
art of modernity, which abruptly began to spread in Japan, like in Europe, after the First World War.[5]
The earthquake caused the enormous destruction of residential and commercial buildings. Over 80 per cent
of all buildings in Tokyo and Yokohama were destroyed and over 100,000 people were killed. Tremendous material
damage (over 5.5 billion yens) brought into question the overall Meiji modernisation project, revealing its
uncertainty. Thus, Seiji Lippit quotes Uno Koji: ―This metropolis, built for more than 50 years during the Meiji and
Taisho periods… vanished in smoke in a moment during the September earthquake.‖[9]
Most printing houses and editorial offices were also destroyed, so that many avant-garde, proletarian,
women‘s, civil and other journals ceased to come out (Shinko Bungaku, Aka to Kuro, Tane mako hito). In 1925, the
government adopted the new Public Order Preservation Law in order to provide additional legal grounds for
sanctions against radical activities, which affected the further work of Marxist-oriented societies, including
anarchist-minded groups of poets.[8]
The great destruction of old Edo enhanced the feeling of distance from the past because it did not exist any
more. Thus, Western technology was adopted in its entirety and implemented in the rebuilding of the city within a
few years (formally – until 1930). This new ―Westernisation‖ helped build the city, but that was not old Tokyo any
more. It was a fully urbanised, modern new city, which completely adopted the Western principles.
Apart from the reconstruction of productive industries, publishing activity was also modernised, thus
creating a scope for the spread of mass culture and popular literature. Owing to the import of fast rotating machines,
the circulation of commercial periodicals and non-periodicals sharply increased. Thus, for example, from 1920 to
1924, the circulation of the newspapers Osaka Shinbun and Tokyo Shinbun rose from 600,000 to 1,000,000 and from
350,000 to 710,000 respectively. This was also contributed by the script reform carried out by the Ministry of
Education.[2]
In addition, the publishing companies Asahi and Mainchi seated in Osaka and Tokyo, which published the
high-circulation dailies Asahi Shimbun and Mainichi Shimbun, introduced special systems for fast information
transmission (telegraph and air mail), thus considerably improving information gathering and transmission. Thanks
to the actualisation of information, the press was transformed from ―opinion journalism‖, as it was since 1910, into
―mass journalism‖, which was explained by the President of the Mainichi publishing company, Mojoyama Hikoichi
by saying that ―newspapers are a commodity‖.[3]
The content of newspapers also changed. It became diverse and, apart from information and advertisements,
included novels in instalments and comics, which were later to develop into a very popular genre in Japan. This
considerably increased the number of middle-class subscribers, so that the circulation of some newspapers reached
one million.
Journals began again to be published under their old or new names. The best-known journal of general
character was ―King‖ (Kingu), whose first issue, published in 1925, was sold in 750,000 copies. Such a high
circulation was largely due to a well-organised advertising campaign which, inspired by American ones, was
conducted by all publishing companies. This practice was also adopted in book publishing. In 1926, low-priced (oneyen) paperback series began to come out (the enbon programme). The first series consisting of 50 volumes was
published by the Kaizosha publishing company under the title ―Complete Collection of Modern Japanese Literature‖
(Gendai nihon bungaku zenshu). It was followed by ―Complete Collection of World Literature‖ (Sekai bungaku
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zenshu), launched by the Shinchosha publishing company in 1927. The series also consisted of 50 volumes. A quote
from the advertising message shows the way in which the reader is approached: ―`We enable you to read books at
the lowest possible prices!‖ With this slogan our company carried out a great revolution in the world of publications,
liberating art from the privileged class and giving it to the masses.‖[2] An aggressive advertising campaign and the
low prices of newspapers, journals and books contributed to the democratisation of culture, increase in the reading
public and, thus, an increase in the cultural level in general.
Apart from King, other weekly journals also began to come out. In 1922, Asahi and Mainichi began to
publish Shukan Asahi and Sande Mainichi respectively. The following year, Asahi began to publish the illustrated
weekly journal Asahi Gurafu. Iwanami Shoten and Kondasha Ltd. also began to publish such publications.
The publishing company Iwanami Shoten was established in 1913 by Iwanami Shigeo, who evolved from
an antiquarian book seller into a successful publisher of novels, scientific journals and paperback series. His success
encouraged many leading scholars to contribute to his publications. With the series entitled ―Iwanami Library of
Classics‖ (Iwanami Bunko), launched in 1927, the company definitely shifted to serious, elitist intellectual culture.
Such an activity became known as ―Iwanami Culture‖. A series of articles on Japan‘s capitalism (Nihon shihon shugi
hattatsu shi koza), published by the company since 1932, became the Marxist forum before the Second World War.
In 1938, the company also began to publish a series of articles on current issues, like the Iwanami Shinsho series.[1]
The Kodansha publishing company is one of the most important companies of its kind in Japan. Its
predecessor was the Greater Japan Oratorical Society (Dai Nippon Yuben Kai), which was founded by Noma Seiji
(1878-1938) in November 1909. In February 1910, he started to publish the periodical ―Oratory‖ (Yuben) under the
motto ―The judiciary will suffer if oratory gets worse‖. One year later, Noma founded another publishing company,
Kodansha, with the aim of publishing less serious journals. The first was Kodan kurabu, which was followed by
several other journals published during the period 1914-1923. In 1925, he began to publish his best known journal
―King‖ (Kingu). That same year, Noma merged his two publishing companies into one company, Dai Nippon Yuben
Kai Kodansha, which published nine Kodansha journals. In the interwar period, they covered 70% of the Japanese
journals market.[6]
The publications of Iwanami Shoten and Kodansha Ltd. had a great impact on the Japanese patterns of
thinking and behaviour in the interwar period. The journals published by Iwanami Shoten were intended for the
elitist (intellectual) pubic, while the publications of Kodansha appealed to the middle class and provided a special
impetus to the formation of mass culture in Japan. Due to the difference between these influences, they are called
―Iwanami Culture and ―Kodansha Culture‖.[3]
Radio was another means of disseminating mass information. Radio Tokyo began broadcasting in 1925.
The basic characteristic of radio broadcasting was monopolism, since three state companies, established in Tokyo,
Osaka and Nagoya in 1925, later merged into one state company – Japan Radio Corporation (Nippon housou
kyoukai, NHK), thus consolidating the work of all existing radio stations. It retained its monopolistic position until
1951 when, under the American influence, private commercial radio stations were opened. Therefore, radio
broadcasting was initially used to promote the state‘s interests and later the military regime.
The period 1920-1930 was characterised by modern literature and a significant rise of the proletarian
movement and its literature. The development of material civilisation during the 1930s brought fast progress in mass
communication technology which, in the aftermath of the depression, encouraged the atmosphere of eroticgrotesque-nonsense (ero guro nansensu). Labour force urbanisation linked to the development of Japanese
capitalism and increased national coverage by the mass media diminished the conflict between the rural provinces
and urban Tokyo, which was the main recipient of mass culture. Opposition to these trends emerged in the form of a
fascist movement,257 which advocated the imposition of military rule. The coming into power of the military regime
in 1937 marked the end of mass culture in the interwar period.
During the 1920s, mass literature of foreign origin, especially American and European one, included
detective and romance novels, fantastic fiction and historical adventure novels, which did not exist in Japanese mass
literature (taishu bungaku) on such a scale. Popular literature emerged as an entertaining genre in the Taisho period.
It was published in high-circulation newspapers and journals, especially after the establishment of large and
influential publishing companies and the emergence of new mass-scale non-fiction. Some authors who were
previously associated with ―pure literature‖, like Kikuchi Kan and Kume Masao, also began to write for a broader
public. At the same time, authors of historical novels adopted new topics in popular literature.
The development of mass culture was accompanied by the rise of popular literature, including historical
novels, detective stories and the beginnings of science fiction. The best known historical-fiction authors were Shirai
Kyoji and Naoki Sanjugo, while the best known writers of detective stories were Edogawa Rampo, as well as Shrai
257
It is necessary to explain the notion of fascism in Japan. In essence, there is a distinction between the notions of fascist regime
and fascist movement. A fascist regime implies a totalitarian political structure based on ideological monism, in which absolute
power is concentrated in the hands of its leaders. On the other hand, a fascist movement is an opposition nationalist movement
which is usually terrorist in character and aspires towards a dictatorship in one form or another. In Japan, it was the question of a
fascist movement, while Germany and Italy first had a fascist movement and then a fascist regime.
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and Naoki. In 1925, they founded Club 21 and, in January next year, began to publish the journal ―Popular
Literature‖ (Taishu bungei). In May 1927, the Shirai publishing company began to publish mystery and detective
stories as the enbon series (Gendei taishu bungaku zenshu).
Under the strong influence of American culture, Japanese mass culture assumed a number of characteristics
common to mass culture in other countries. However, like many times in its history, Japanese culture absorbed only
those foreign elements which were suited to the Japanese mentality, thus preserving its specifics. This especially
refers to Japanese mass literature, while the culture of entertainment and leisure was adopted without any special
critical framework, particularly by young people, since it was something that did exist in Japan before. This
especially became evident after the Second World War.
The best known genres of this literature in the interwar period included historical and detective novels. The
main characters in historical novels were the samurai who, at the beginning, were depicted as ideal figures,
protectors of their lord and his family. Later on, under the influence of American Wild West literature, they were
increasingly portrayed as robbers and bandits, who used to kill men and insult women. The best known novel of this
kind was Nakazato Kaizan‘s novel ―Daibosatsu Pass‖ (Daibosatsu Toge).
Detective novels were very popular because they offered widely varied entertainment. Apart from mystery,
they also included fantasy, grotesque and horror. Only after the Second World War, the detective genre became
confined to the European framework. Detective fiction was published not only in daily newspapers, but also in the
specialised journal ―New Youth‖ (Shin seinen), which was published by Hakubunkan during the period 1920-1950.
It was an entertaining journal specialising in detective stories. The best known author of this genre was Edogawa
Rampo (1894-1965).258 He published his first story ―The Two-Sen Copper Coin‖ (Nisan doka) in the journal Shin
seinen, in 1923. It was followed by ―The Psychological Test‖ (Shinri shiken, 1925) and ―Watcher in the Attic‖
(Yaneura no samposha, 1925), thanks to which he assumed the leading position in this genre. His best known story
from this period is ―Beast in the Shadow‖ (Inju, 1928). He later tried to switch to crime fiction with the mixture of
the erotic and the grotesque, but his stories ―The Spider Man‖ (Kumootoko, 1929-30) and ―The Golden Mask‖
(Ogon kamen, 1030-31) were not so successful. Thus, he returned to detective fiction and, in 1936, published the
novel ―The Mystery Man of Twenty Faces‖ (Kaijin nijumenso, 1936), which is considered one of his best works.
After the war, he published the anthology ―Forty Years of Detective Stories‖ (Tantei shosetsu yonjunen, 1961) in
which he presented the development of the detective fiction genre.[10]
Literary critic Chiba Kameo dealt with the specifics of popular literature in his essay ―The Essence of
Popular Literature― (Taishu bungaku no honshitsu), published in the journal Chuo koron in July 1296.[11] In
considering the essence of popular literature, Chiba gave three fundamental characteristics to this literature:
romantic, instructive and entertaining. The first characteristic is contained in historical, detective and entertaining
fiction, which directs the reader‘s sentiment toward rightfulness or an ideal world that can never be attained. As for
the second characteristic, Chiba points out that popular literature appeals to human emotions and not to reason. The
third characteristic implies that one must devote great attention to the way in which entertainment is offered to the
reader – this must be done without sensationalism and vulgarity. In Chiba‘s opinion, this requires a special skill.
Mass culture in Japan in the interwar period created a basis for the development of mass culture after the
Second World War, when Japanese popular literature adopted all genres of American light literature and culture,
including detective novels, westerns, melodramas and musicals. However, a specific, purely Japanese genre – manga
or comic books with light, serious and educational topics – also began to be developed.
Conclusion
The emergence of mass culture and popular literature was a major characteristic of this period. It was
important for modern literature and avant-garde poetry not only because it increased readership and the number of
sold copies, but also because of the possibility to highlight their role in society, literature and politics. In contrast to
―popular literature―, this literature declared itself to be ―pure literature― (jun bungaku). Mass culture is not only the
characteristic of Japanese society; it is part of world culture. Its roots lie in the aspiration to turn man‘s spiritual
activity into a commodity and impose it on consumer society under the mass media influence.
References
258
His real name was Hirai Taro. He also used the pseudonym Edogawa Rampo, which is a Japanese rendering of Edgar Allan
Poe‘s name.
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Arase Yutaka (1983), ―Iwanami Shoten―, Kodansha, Vol. 3.
Gardner W. (2006), ―Advertising Tower: Japanese Modernism and Modernity in the 1920‘s―, Harvard
University Press.
Fujitake Akira (1967), ―The Formation and Development of Mass Culture―, Developing Economies, 5, 4.
Jose Ortega y Gasset (1972), ―Las deshumanizaciñn del Arte e Ideas sobre la novela― (1925), Princeton
University Press.
JoviĤ DjaloviĤ Marina (2008), Doctoral Dissertation.
Kakegawa Tomiko (1983), ―Kodansha Ltd―, Kodansha, Vol. 4.
Kurt Lang, Gladys Engel Lang (2009), ―Mass Society, Mass Culture, and Mass Communication: The Meanings
of Mass―, International Journal of Communication, 3.
Lippit, Noriko Mizuta (1980), ―Reality and Fiction in Modern Japanese Literature―, MacMillan Press, New
York.
Lippit, Seiji M.(2002), ―Topographies of Japanese Modernism―, Columbia University Press.
Satoru Saito (2000), ―Japanese Popular Literature―, Columbia University.
Yasuko Claremont (2008), ―Shinseinen in the interwar period (1920-30)―, 17th Biennial Conference of the
Asian Studies Association of Australia, Melbourne, 1-3 July
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111
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Mass Culture and Literature in Japan in the Interwar Period
Author
Author
Marković, Ljiljana
Jović Djalović, Marina
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
The paper deals with the conditions influencing the emergence of mass culture in Japan in the interwar period. It describes the spread of mass media, statescript reform, appearance of the enbon and specifics of big publishing companies. Special attention is devoted to the characteristics of popular literature and the emergence of historical and detective novels as new genres.
Date
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2011-05
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PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/acdefdfdcd7c11cbd984430bd9ed52e0.pdf
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Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
‗GROWN-UP‘ SYNTAX IN CHILDREN‘S STORYBOOKS
Tatjana MarjanoviĤ
Department of English
University of Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
tatjanam@inecco.net
Abstract: The study hopes to challenge the view that syntax in children‘s storybooks
is custom-made to match the general abilities of young listeners and readers. Reading
with an adult mind and eyes prompts the question whether at least some children‘s
storybooks make it difficult to draw a line between ‗young‘ and ‗grown-up‘ syntax.
The small-scale research was a text-based analysis of three children‘s stories aimed
at pre-teen children aged seven through twelve. With a manually handled corpus kept
within manageable limits it was possible to determine the presence or absence of
syntactic structures associated with advanced language use, i.e. those believed to
require considerable experience, knowledge and skill in language production and
reception. The main finding to report is that syntax in children‘s stories is little
different from what may be informally described as ‗grown-up‘ syntax. The paper
also invites the reader to acknowledge the difficult task of balancing a downgraded
version of syntax against an urge to tell an engaging story that wants to be read.
Key words: syntax, clause, paratactic, hypotactic, embedded, non-finite
Introduction
To say that storytelling lies at the very root of human communication is to say nothing new and
startling. To say that storytelling is a practice deeply ingrained in our linguistic and social behaviour may
seem all too familiar to deserve yet another echo. Indeed, Bell (1999, p. 147) reminds us that ‗much of
humanity‘s most important experience has been embodied in stories.‘
It is also a practice we are introduced to very early on in our lives. Very young children who may
not even be able to speak properly eagerly await their bedtime story and savour the familiar voice of their
reader taking them to a safe haven of imagination.
But beyond the nostalgic reminiscences of a happy childhood loom many unanswered questions
puzzling the adult minds of researchers who resort not to imagination but to empirical tests involving texts
and subjects. Experts have strived in their many efforts to find out what a children‘s story does and does not
do. The following are some of the frequently asked questions. To what extent is it an aid in enhancing
children‘s reading skills? Does and should it contain language within absolute reach of the target age group?
Is and should there be a shift of focus from attaining full comprehension to merely creating imagery as a
powerful tool for teaching desired or acceptable forms of social behaviour? Owing to an excess of
conflicting evidence, research is still very much ongoing in this field, as the lines below suggest.
In her study of nonfinite clauses in children‘s literature, Puurtinen (1998) reports that these tightly
packed and therefore inevitably less explicit units of meaning affect readability (i.e. ease with which texts
are read and understood) more than sentence length does (Role of Children‘s Literature section, para. 2).
However, recent trends in children‘s literature reveal greater freedom in the choice of complex syntactic
structures, which may be a result of a relatively relaxed attitude towards children's literature in general
(Conclusion, para. 1).
Some justification for such trends is found in the work of Eisenberg et al. (2008), who report quite
encouraging results of a study testing school-aged children‘s production of noun phrases with pre- and postmodification in fictional narratives. Accordingly, descriptive noun phrases were produced by all children at
the age of 8, and noun phrases with post-modification by all children at the age of 11 (Abstract).
More tentative forecasts are reported in Paris, Carpenter, Paris and Hamilton (2005), who claim that
syntactically difficult stories or those containing unfamiliar vocabulary may lead to more gap-filling than
texts which are less complex and more accessible to younger readers (p. 136).
Verhallen (2009) agrees that the sophisticated language of children‘s books is often riddled with
complex sentences and may thus be out of reach for young children with little previous exposure to
storybooks (para. 1).
To fully understand a narrative may not be of primary importance indeed: a simple act of reading or
being read to may help a child grow and develop more creatively. With loyalties lying in that camp, the issue
of a child‘s linguistic abilities matching the linguistic complexity of children‘s literature possibly gives less
cause for concern.
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The following study hopes to challenge the view, should it still persist amongst linguists, teachers,
and story readers and tellers in general, that syntax in children‘s storybooks is custom-made to match the
general abilities of young listeners and readers. Reading with an adult mind and eyes prompts the question
whether at least some children‘s storybooks make it difficult to draw a line between ‗young‘ and ‗grown-up‘
syntax. Sentence and phrase length put aside, what remains is a number of highly sophisticated syntactic
structures and strategies expressing some of the most subtle layers of meaning.
This paper is certainly not meant to criticize the syntactic make-up of children‘s storybooks (nor
would it be fair in light of so many opposing views prevailing with language acquisition experts in this line
of study); instead, it invites all parties concerned to acknowledge the difficult - if not impossible - task of
balancing a downgraded version of syntax against an urge to tell an engaging story that wants to be read.
The aim of the research is not to support one view against the other, but merely to report the finding that
syntax in children‘s literature is little different from what may informally be described as ‗grown-up‘ syntax.
Corpus
The corpus underlying the study consists of three children‘s storybooks 339 online340 amounting to
3,987 words distributed over 388 lines. The stories are aimed at pre-teen children aged seven through twelve.
A total of only three stories points to a small-scale research in which a manually handled corpus had to be
kept within manageable limits.
Method
An analysis was performed of syntactic structures associated with advanced language use,
especially hypotactic and embedded clauses, each realized by both finite and non-finite varieties. Their
occurrences were then compared against those syntactic structures that are intuitively considered less
demanding, mainly paratactic clauses.
A selective list was also created reporting additional syntactic features and strategies - some of
them with clearly marked discourse functions - believed to require considerable experience, knowledge and
skill in language production and reception, i.e. cleft sentences, discontinuous modification, extraposition,
fronting, inversion, thematic dislocation, along with ellipsis and substitution at clause level. Each of the
categories selected was then defined and exemplified with verbatim corpus material.
Finally, tabular representations of syntactic structures and features containing percentages and
numbers of occurrences were provided in order to visualise the findings rather than present the study as
essentially quantitative. The aim was to point to a syntactic wealth and diversity in children‘s stories rather
than claim categorical supremacy in numbers.
Findings and discussion
Following a count of 313 sentences and 690 clauses, the latter were grouped and analysed as
belonging to paratactic, hypotactic or embedded varieties. Parataxis is a relationship of independence and
equality between clauses, with each clause in the complex preserving its self-sustainability. Two or more
clauses can be conjoined in this way both with and without the presence of a coordinating conjunction (when
there is no coordinator, a comma is used instead). Hypotaxis, on the other hand, signifies a relationship in
which one clause assumes the position of subordination to the other clause or clauses (Downing and Locke,
2003, p. 281). We have, however, regarded as hypotactic only those clauses that have adverbial meanings
(Carter and McCarthy, 2006, p. 560), along with the odd sentential relative341. Such an approach enabled a
separate treatment of embedded clauses, those that act as immediate constituents (i.e. subject, object or
complement) of a superordinate clause, or even as constituents of phrases (e.g. relative clauses acting as
post-modifiers in noun phrases).
339
The storybooks selected for analysis are McFeeglebee‘s Pond, an illustrated story, The Wumpalump, an illustrated
religious parable, and The Littlest Knight, an illustrated fairy tale. The names of the authors are acknowledged in the
References below.
340
The reminder that the storybooks appear online is not meant to imply a lower standard of production; on the contrary,
www.magickeys.com, the site from which the storybooks were downloaded, is a multiple award-winner, with some of its
content distributed to schools all over native Australia.
341
E.g. As big as three houses with breath like a gale, it looked rather hungry, which made Georgie pale. This sentence
from McFeeglebee‘s Pond contains a sentential relative, which made Georgie pale, which, as the name suggests, harks
back to the entire proposition of the preceding sentence rather than the more usual noun antecedent.
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On a final note, sentence is here understood as an orthographical unit ending in a full stop or, less
frequently, in a question or exclamation mark.
The following are examples of all three types of clauses:
(1a) "I'm gonna lie down with my knees in the air and the pole through my toes and doze like a lazy catfish
in summer.["]
(1b) The water, seething and boiling, turned bright red then dark as that grisly catfish became a shark.
(1c) But little Georgie P. Johnson just wiggled his nose and pretended not to hear, as if he had molasses
stuck in his ear.
(from McFeeglebee's Pond)
In (1a) the coordinator conjoining the two clauses is the semantically universal ‗and‘, while other
coordinators found in the texts include but, so, or, nor, for, and then. (1b) features the subordinator ‗as‘,
which has been chosen from a long list of subordinators in the texts, e.g. before, when, while, until, where,
because, as if, just as, though, so that, now that, etc. Example (1c) is interesting because it brings together all
three types of clauses: ‗stuck in his ear‘ is embedded, ‗as if he had molasses stuck in his ear‘ hypotactic, and
‗but little Georgie P. Johnson just wiggled his nose and pretended not to hear‘ comprises two paratactic
clauses.
The distribution of clauses based on the classification outlined is presented in Table 1 below.
Clause
Percentage
Paratactic
67.5
Hypotactic
14.1
Embedded
18.4
Table 1: The distribution of dependent and
independent clauses in the texts
It is not surprising that parataxis should represent the dominant syntactic relationship in the stories,
but the two dependent categories surely manifest a great deal of complexity and thus make up for what they
may lack in numbers. Embedding takes place in all permissible constituent positions – that of subject, object
and complement. At phrase level, clauses post-modify nouns, complement adjectives and prepositions, and
qualify adverbs342. Even more strikingly, the corpus abounds in sentences with multiple or recursive
embedding, i.e. embedded clauses containing other embedded or hypotactic clauses, for example:
(2a) The King declared whosoever killed the dragon would be granted half his kingdom.
(2b) When he reached the dragon's lair he saw that the cliffs of the ravine were so far across that
building a bridge would take a year.
(from The Littlest Knight)
In (2a) the embedded clause ‗whosoever killed the dragon would be granted half his kingdom‘
acting as direct object introduces yet another embedded clause - ‗whosoever killed the dragon‘ - in subject
position. Similarly, in (2b) the nominal clause ‗that the cliffs of the ravine were so far across that building a
bridge would take a year‘ accommodates the adverb phrase ‗so far across that building a bridge would take a
year‘, with the clause ‗that building a bridge would take a year‘ acting as qualifier, which in turn holds the
non-finite clause ‗building a bridge‘ in subject position.
As a matter of fact, hypotactic and embedded clauses are realised by a great number of nonfinite structures (e.g. infinitival and participial, along with verbless clauses), as displayed in Table 2
below.
Clause
Percentage
Finite
62.5
Non-finite
37.5
Table 2: Finite versus non-finite hypotactic
and embedded clauses
Let us briefly consider the following examples:
(3a) So now whenever a little lump believes on the Word and knows to give of himself is life... so shall he
too feel all love, all joy, all peace.
342
The terminology used is from Greenbaum and Quirk (1990) and Downing and Locke (2003).
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(from The Wumpalump)
(3b) Grabbing the pole and holding on tight he used every muscle to fight what was without doubt the
biggest of trout.
(from McFeeglebee's Pond)
(3a) introduces the infinitival clause ‗to give of himself‘, which functions as the subject of the
higher-ranking nominal clause ‗to give of himself is life‘, in turn filling the object slot of the main clause.
(3b) accommodates the coordinated V-ing adverbial clauses ‗grabbing the pole and holding on tight‘, as well
as the infinitival adverbial clause ‗to fight what was without doubt the biggest of trout‘, which additionally
holds the wh-nominal clause ‗what was without doubt the biggest of trout‘ in the object slot.
Adding further to an already complex syntactic make-up are non-finite clauses containing explicit
subjects, for example:
(4) It was in misery with its eyes swollen shut and its forked tongue lying on the ground.
(from The Littlest Knight)
The coordinated non-finite clauses, the first known as the V-en, and the second as the V-ing type,
are introduced by the reinforcing preposition ‗with‘ and accompanied by the subjects ‗its eyes‘ and ‗its
forked tongue‘ respectively.
For an overview of syntactic categories analysed see Table 3 below.
Syntactic feature
Occurrences
Clefting
3
Discontinuity
6
Ellipsis
5
Extraposition
4
Fronting
8
Inversion
11
Preposed theme
3
Postposed theme
1
Substitution
2
Table 3: The number of occurrences reported for
advanced syntactic structures and features
Greenbaum and Quirk (1990, p. 407) define fronting as ‗the achievement of marked theme by
moving into initial position an item which is otherwise unusual there.‘ In a functional grammar framework
(cf. Halliday and Matthiessen, 2004, p. 73) subject is theme by default, the most usual point of departure that
signals what the clause is going to be about, while adverbials, which are frequently found in clause-initial
positions in English, represent the least marked thematic choice. Because objects and complements are
exceptionally rare in clause-opening positions, they are regarded as highly marked thematic elements in
English (Downing and Locke, 2003, p. 42). When fronted, these elements serve specific discourse functions.
Baker (2002, p. 134) suggests that their thematic effect is to achieve contrast and highlight the speaker‘s
attitude to the message. As shown in the examples below, instances of fronting identified in the corpus
assume some of the most marked forms:
(5a) … and no one there was to save them from the nothingness.
(5b) … for no one there is to share with.
(from The Wumpalump)
(5c) Of fishing he was very fond, why should he fear McFeeglebee's pond?
(from McFeeglebee's Pond)
Compare the following unmarked versions with no fronting, leading to a more standard word order:
(5d) … and there was no one to save them from the nothingness.
(5e) … for there is no one to share with.
(5f) He was very fond of fishing, why should he fear McFeeglebee's pond?
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Examples (5a), (5b) and (5c) exhibit another interesting feature - that of discontinuity or
postponement. Namely, post-modifiers in noun phrases and complements in adjective phrases can be
separated from their respective heads to enable heavy structures to be placed towards the end of the utterance
(Downing and Locke, 2003, p. 263). This communicative strategy in turn reflects the existence of two
complementary principles: end-focus and end-weight. The former suggests that new or most informative
content is customarily placed towards the end of the clause, whereas the latter claims the end-position
preference for weighty structures, usually long and/or complex ones (Leech and Svartvik, 1993, p. 175).
Both in their syntactic and communicative aspects, fronting and discontinuity emerge as two fairly
sophisticated expressive tools. Of course, writers may resort to advanced syntax to achieve a rhyming effect,
as observed in (5c) above and (6a) below, which contains a discontinuous noun phrase, but without the extra
fronting:
(6a) And some little lumps arose who were wiser than their fellows.
(from The Wumpalump)
End-weight principle is clearly at work in (6a), and is justified by the awkwardness of having the
whole noun phrase placed before the predicate:
(6b) ?And some little lumps who were wiser than their fellows arose.
It has not escaped our attention that discontinuity and fronting are almost exclusively associated
with The Wumpalump storybook, which may be attributed either to the writer‘s syntactic preferences or even
to her conscious attempt to emulate the style of religious writing.
When the subject of a clause occurs in post-verbal position, the resulting word order is typically
described as inversion. (7a) below qualifies for a textbook example:
(7a) Out behind the big red barn at the edge of the walnut grove is a most magnificent pond shaded by an old
oak tree.
(from McFeeglebee's Pond)
The inversion found in (7a) is meant to give greater prominence to the subject (Huddleston, 2000,
p. 456), which is achieved by placing a scene-setting adverbial at the beginning of the clause. It is generally
acknowledged that clause-opening adverbials denoting place reinforced with verbs of position and motion
provide two important conditions in order for a successful subject-predicate switch to take place.
As (7b) and (7c) below indicate, there are also adjunctive and conjunctive elements such as ‗not
only‘ and ‗nor‘, which typically (or even obligatorily) trigger subject-operator inversion (Huddleston, 2000,
p. 456; Thomson and Martinet, 1992, p. 63):
(7b) But when he got back to the dragon he discovered that not only had the cup been chipped but it had a
crack he had not seen.
(7c) One man can't carry 1,000 swords, nor can you cross a bridge which isn't there, and if you fill an empty
cup it won't be empty any more.
(from The Littlest Knight)
On the whole, inversion seems to be a useful tool in creating relevant discourse features such as
scene-setting, focus and emphasis, adding the much-needed dramatic touch to storytelling. Since both types
of inversion (i.e. subject-predicate and subject-operator switch) are performed in accordance with clearly
defined criteria, the structure suggests a substantial degree of productive skill and receptive knowledge on
the part of the speaker/writer and listener/reader, respectively.
Another discourse-oriented syntactic strategy used for roughly the same communicative purposes
and involving a rearrangement of clausal elements is known as extraposition. The notional subject, which is
typically a long clause, is postponed or extraposed, and its initial position filled by an anticipatory it
(Downing and Locke, 2003, p. 35-6). The following sentence offers a textbook example of extraposition,
which practically has no alternative in this case:
(8) The Princess was the King and Queen's only child and it should come as no surprise that the little
blacksmith loved her very much for she was both kind and beautiful.343
343
The notional subject extraposed is ‗that the little blacksmith loved her very much‘, while the ‗it‘ preceding the
operator ‗should‘ is the obligatory slot-filling grammatical subject.
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(from The Littlest Knight)
Consider the awkwardness of ‗that the little blacksmith loved her very much should come as no
surprise‘. Indeed, some clausal subjects are obligatorily extraposed, e.g. when followed by verbs of seeming
and happening or the passive of say and hope. Generally, the complementary principles of end-weight and
end-focus are the main driving force behind this syntactic transformation too, which once again requires a
knowledgeable handler to follow it through.
Assigning focus lies at the heart of another syntactic strategy commonly referred to as clefting.
Although clefting was extremely rare in the storybooks analysed, both varieties, wh- and it-structure, were
nevertheless documented:
(9a) What was left were sacks and sacks and sacks of money piled everywhere.
(9b) It was shortly after that he found the dragon or rather it found him.
(from The Littlest Knight)
What may easily escape the attention of an unsuspecting reader is a range of informational and
stylistic effects achieved by the two structures. The wh-cleft in (9a), also known as pseudo-cleft, first broadly
identifies an element as thematic, i.e. ‗what was left‘, and then returns to it in post-verbal position by
revealing that it is ‗sacks and sacks and sacks of money piled everywhere‘. The structure conveys both an
idea of implicit contrast as well as a sense of exclusiveness (Baker, 2002, p. 135-6): the finding that what
was left were sacks of money is most likely to counter the reader‘s expectations; moreover, the reader is
supposed to infer that the sacks of money were the only thing left and that there was nothing else there.
The cleft in (9b) above places an element following ‗it‘ and the verb ‗be‘, i.e. ‗shortly after‘, in
focus, with an idea of implicit contrast wielding the sentence in the desired direction (e.g. it was shortly after
rather than years later that he found the dragon). Clefting in general subsumes several layers of meaning that
are not exactly self-explanatory, and may take an expert to develop a full and proper understanding of their
fine-grained linguistic properties.
Unlike most of the afore-mentioned strategies, pre- and postposed themes are not to be associated
with contrast or focus assignment. Instead, what takes place here is essentially thematic dislocation 344 in
which pronominal forms serve as repetitions of more substantial nominal or, less frequently, clausal thematic
elements, or in which an attenuated pronominal theme is subsequently disambiguated by a fully fledged
theme. Non-pronominal themes can occur either in initial or final position in a clause (hence the term
dislocation), as illustrated below:
(10a) You must think I'm here to fiddle,1,000 men--that's not the riddle.345
(from The Littlest Knight)
(10b) For this is the grace of God... that we should know him who in love created us and his son who in love
died for us.346
(from The Wumpalump)
Their appearance in the corpus is significant as dislocated themes are not commonly found in
written English. McCarthy (2005, p. 51) cautions that these structures, which regularly emerge in natural
spoken data, are nevertheless often ‗underplayed in language teaching, probably owing to the continued
dominance of standards taken from the written code.‘ Pre- and postposed themes reflect the ‗online‘ nature
of spontaneous speech styles, and the fact that they are documented in the corpus gives the storybooks a
certain advantage over other forms of writing that ignore or find fault with these and similar aspects of
grammar. They also add variety to an already diverse list of syntactic categories in the children‘s storybooks.
Although probably a universal feature of language, ellipsis and substitution may be structurally
realised in considerably different ways in different languages, presenting great difficulties even to the most
proficient of learners (McCarthy, 2005, p. 43-4). (11a) below illustrates the omission of the linking verb ‗be‘
in the clause ‗and he but a lowly blacksmith‘, whereas (11b) is an example of clause-level substitution or
replacement facilitated by the complex pro-form ‗not to‘:
344
Themes are normally realised by a single notional element occupying the first position in a clause. With preposed
themes, however, nominal and pronominal thematic elements with single reference immediately follow each other, e.g.
The Browns, they will know what to do. When the result is a postposed theme, the opening pronoun develops into a fullfledged coreferential structure at the end of the clause, e.g. They will know what to do, the Browns.
345
‗1,000 men‘ is a preposed nominal theme, and ‗that‘ its pronominal reinforcement.
346
The pronominal theme ‗this‘ refers to the postposed clausal theme ‗that we should know him who in love created us
and his son who in love died for us‘.
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(11a) But, alas, the little blacksmith could admire the Princess only from afar because she was, after all, a
princess and he but a lowly blacksmith--not even that tall.
(from The Littlest Knight)
(11b) Did you look to the nothingness as I warned you not to?"
(from The Wumpalump)
It is with ellipsis and substitution347 that we bring to a close our discussion of advanced structural
devices found in the children‘s storybooks, posing the question whether there should be any justification for
regarding the syntactic make-up of children‘s stories as essentially different from many other forms of
writing that do not specifically target younger audiences.
Conclusion
This small-scale study was designed to challenge the popular belief that syntax in children‘s
narratives must have a childlike quality to it. Quite a long list of syntactic structures and features dealt with
in the previous section clearly contradicts this belief. The study casts real doubts over an attempt to make a
clear dividing line between ‗young‘ and ‗grown-up‘ syntax. Any expectations of that kind prove unrealistic
against the backdrop of highly sophisticated linguistic and expressive tools in the narratives.
(Most of the structures given in Table 3, e.g. clefting and fronting, I teach my 3rd and 4th year
students, foreign learners of English who are getting ready to take up teaching positions. My experience tells
me that many of them would struggle to derive the right forms and understand their corresponding
communicative roles.)
The question arises whether it is at all possible to tell an inspiring story using only the most
rudimentary of syntactic devices. Even if the answer is affirmative, the very next dilemma to resolve is
whether prioritising comprehension offers compelling enough an argument not to present language at its
best.
On the whole, it seems that syntactic simplicity in children‘s narratives is becoming increasingly
rare, but it remains to be seen what results these (un)conscious narrative practises will bring forth and
whether they will stand the test of time.
347
Only those cases of ellipsis and substitution operating at verb phrase and clause level were taken into account, and
precisely so because they are associated with a high degree of complexity, which explains why some simpler forms of
ellipsis (e.g. that of subject in coordinated clauses) were completely disregarded.
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References:
Baker, M. (2002). In Other Words: A coursebook on translation. London:
Routledge.
Bell, A. (1999). The Language of News Media. Oxford: Blackwell.
Carter, R. and McCarthy, M. (2006). Cambridge Grammar of English. Cambridge: CUP.
Downing, A. and Locke, P. (2003). A University Course in English Grammar. London: Routledge.
Eisenberg, S. L., Ukrainetz, T. A., Hsu, J. R., Kaderavek, J. N., Justice, L. M., and
Gillam, R. B. (2008). Noun phrase elaboration in children's spoken stories. Language, Speech
and Hearing Services in Schools, 39, 145-157. doi:10.1044/0161-1461(2008/014)
Greenbaum, S. and Quirk, R. (1990). A Student‘s Grammar of the English Language.
London: Longman.
Halliday, M. A. K. and Matthiessen, C. (2004). An Introduction to Functional Grammar.
London: Hodder Arnold.
Huddleston, R. (2000). Introduction to the Grammar of English. Cambridge:
CUP.
Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. (1993). A Communicative Grammar of English. Harlow: Longman.
McCarthy, M. (2005). Discourse Analysis for Language Teachers. Cambridge:
CUP.
Moore, C. (n.d.). McFeeglebee‘s Pond (Children‘s storybooks online). Retrieved September 17, 2010,
from http://www.magickeys.com/books/mcfee/mpp1.html
Moore, C. (n.d.). The Littlest Knight (Children‘s storybooks online). Retrieved September 17, 2010,
from http://www.magickeys.com/books/lk/index.html
Paris, S. G., Carpenter, R. D., Paris, A. H., and Hamilton, E. E. (2005). Spurious and genuine correlates
of children‘s reading comprehension. In Scott G. Paris and Steven A. Stahl (Eds.), Children‘s
Reading Comprehension and Assessment (pp. 131-160). New Jersey: LEA.
Pearson, C. (n.d.). The Wumpalump (Children‘s storybooks online). Retrieved September 17, 2010,
from http://www.magickeys.com/books/wumplump/page1.html
Puurtinen, T. (1998). Syntax, Readability and Ideology in Children's Literature. Meta: journal des
traducteurs / Meta: Translators' Journal, 43(4), 524-533. Retrieved from
http://www.erudit.org/revue/meta/1998/v43/n4/003879ar.pdf
Thomson, A. J. and Martinet, A. V. (1992). A Practical English Grammar (4th ed.). Oxford: OUP.
Verhallen, M. J. A. J. (2009). Video storybooks as a bridge to literacy (Doctoral dissertation summary,
Leiden University). Retrieved from http://media.leidenuniv.nl/legacy/verhallen-summary.pdf
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557
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GROWN-UP‘ SYNTAX IN CHILDREN‘S STORYBOOKS
Author
Author
Marjanovic, Tatjana
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
The study hopes to challenge the view that syntax in children‘s storybooks is custom-made to match the general abilities of young listeners and readers. Reading with an adult mind and eyes prompts the question whether at least some children‘s storybooks make it difficult to draw a line between ‗young‘ and ‗grown-up‘ syntax. The small-scale research was a text-based analysis of three children‘s stories aimed at pre-teen children aged seven through twelve. With a manually handled corpus kept within manageable limits it was possible to determine the presence or absence of syntactic structures associated with advanced language use, i.e. those believed to require considerable experience, knowledge and skill in language production and reception. The main finding to report is that syntax in children‘s stories is little different from what may be informally described as ‗grown-up‘ syntax. The paper also invites the reader to acknowledge the difficult task of balancing a downgraded version of syntax against an urge to tell an engaging story that wants to be read.
Date
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2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics
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https://omeka.ibu.edu.ba/files/original/6369b1e5744a3e31ba193847a566543f.pdf
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Text
1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
The Effect of L and L2 Word Glossary on Learning of
Technical Vocabulary in Reading Comprehension Texts
Saeedeh Mansouri
Department of English, Chaloos Branch
Azad University, Iran
S3724m@yahoo.com
Abstract: Recent studies suggest that word marginal glossaries are very useful
in reading text when readers have no knowledge about some words and help
them comprehend the text without wasting time for looking up the word
meaning in dictionaries or making mistakes because of incorrect guessing the
word meaning according context. The study aimed to compare the effect of L1
& L2 word glossary on learning and retention of technical vocabularies of Civil
Engineering students. The research question is: 'Is there any relation between
retention and learning of technical vocabulary and using of glossaries?' If so,
what is the difference between using of L1 and L2 word glossary and which of
these two sorts has more effect on retention and learning of technical
vocabulary? and the considered hypothesis is 'The effect of L1 and L2 word
glossary is similar on retention and learning of technical vocabulary‘. The
study was done by two tests (test 1 & test 2) with five passages of reading
comprehension. In test 1, the definition of words in word glossary of technical
vocabularies is in English language (L2) and in test 2, the definition of the
vocabularies is in Persian language (L1). These two tests were administered
one after another with 15 minutes break between them and 45 minutes was
considered to answer the questions for each test. The same students participated
in two tests. They were 40 Civil Engineering students of Engineering Technical
University (Azad University), Chaloos branch. All of them were male and they
were selected after administering a placement test among 60 Civil Engineering
students of the university. The placement test was administered one week
before the main tests. Comparison the scores of two tests and analyzing them
showed that the students answer test 2 (with Persian word glossary) better than
test 1 (with English word glossary). Although there were students that answer
test 1 better than test 2 and some of them act the same in two tests, most of
them answer test 2 (with Persian word glossary) better than test 1 (with English
word glossary) and totally result disapprove the hypothesis of the study and it
can be said L1 word glossary is more effective than L2 word glossary on
learning and retention of vocabularies and also technical word glossary.
Key Words: vocabulary, vocabulary learning, incidental vocabulary learning,
gloss and glossary.
Introduction
In learning a foreign language, vocabulary plays an important role. It is an element that links the
four skills of speaking, listening, reading and writing all together. Words are perceived as the building
blocks upon which the knowledge of the second language can be built (Celce-Murcia ,1991). In order to
communicate well in a foreign language, students should acquire an adequate number of words and should
know how to use them accurately. Vocabulary learning can take place in two general ways: intentional and
incidental. Intentional learning is designed, planned learning and incidental learning is the accidental
learning of information without the intention of remembering that information. Incidental vocabulary
learning takes place without awareness that involves just implicit learning processes (Krashen, 1993). An
incidental way of assisting students in their reading and vocabulary learning is using glosses. Glosses help
students to enhance general comprehension, improve vocabulary retention, and save student‘s time and
effort in reading L2 texts. Glosses have various functions in helping to decode the text by providing
additional knowledge in specific content, skills, strategies, and definitions of additional knowledge in
specific content, skills, strategies, and definitions of difficult words. In the case of second language (L2)
learning, gloss generally means information on important words via definitions or synonyms. Traditionally,
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glosses provide a short definition or note in order to facilitate reading comprehension processes for L2
learners (Lomika, 1998). This study explores incidental vocabulary learning through using glossary in
reading comprehension texts and compares the effect of L1 and L2 word glossary on retention of technical
vocabularies. Students can see the glossary and learn the meaning of unknown words while reading a text,
but the research question is which glossary presentation (in L1 or in L2) has more effect on retention of
technical vocabulary. The study aims to observe these effects.
Methodology
Subjects
The Subjects of the study were 40 Civil Engineering students of Engineering Technical University
(Azad University), Chaloos branch that were selected by a placement test one week before administering
main tests. The number of participants in the placement test was 60 and 40 students were selected among
them. All of them were male with the same ability in English language.
Instruments
The used instruments in this study are 3 tests:
English Placement Test
English Placement test was used to select subjects with the same level of ability in English
language teaching. The participants in this test were 60 students and finally 40 students were selected
among them by comparison of their scores in this test. There were 100 items in this test. It was multiple
choice test. This test was administered one week before the main tests (test 1 & test 2).
Test 1
There were 5 passages in this test with English word glossary for Civil Engineering Technical
vocabularies. There were 30 multiple choices items in this test. The test included reading comprehension
and vocabulary questions after each reading passage, there were the related questions. The considered time
to answer the questions was 45 minutes.
Test 2
Test 2 was administered 15 minutes after test 1 and the same students participated in this test. Test
2 was just like test 1, but the only difference was in their glossary. In test 2, definitions in glossary were in
Persian (L1). Test 2 also lasted 45 minutes.
Procedure
In order to test the research hypothesis, the study utilized the experimental paradigm by
administering two tests. The design of this study is referred as the pretest-posttest-control group design.
There was one group as both control and experimental group. In test 1, they are considered as control group
and in test 2, they are considered as experimental group. It was hypothesized that the effect of L1 and L2
word glossary is similar on learning and retention of vocabulary.
At first, test 1 was administered. There were 5 reading passages with English word glossary for technical
vocabularies. The vocabularies are typed italic in the reading passage. There were questions (including
reading comprehension and vocabulary questions) after each reading passage. In vocabulary items, one
vocabulary in glossary was omitted. Test 2 was just like test 1. The only difference was in their word
glossary. There was English word glossary in test 1 and Persian word glossary in test 2. There were 30
questions in each test. Each test lasted 45 minutes and 40 students (the same group) were participated in
two tests. This group was selected after administering the English placement test. The placement test was
administered among 60 Civil Engineering students of Engineering Technical University (Azad University),
Chaloos branch and 40 students were selected after comparison of their scores. There were 100 questions in
placement test and 1 hour was considered to answer it. One week after administering the English placement
test and selecting students, the main tests were administered.
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Results
The analyzing the subjects' two test scores and comparison of them showed that students' scores in
test 2 (The reading passages with L1 word glossary) was better than test 1 (The reading comprehension
passages with L2 word glossary); therefore, the hypothesis of the study was rejected. The researcher
concluded that L1 word glossary is more effective in learning and retention of technical vocabularies rather
than L2 word glossary. Because the scores were determined out of 30, the researcher calculated them out of
20. The frequency of the tests scores have been presented in the following Tables:
Table 3.1: Students' scores & their frequency in Test 1 & Test 2
Test 1
Score
29= 19.33
28= 18.66
27= 18
26= 17.33
25= 16.66
24= 16
23= 15.33
22= 14.66
20= 13.33
18= 12
17= 11.33
16= 10.66
15= 10
14= 9.33
13= 8.66
11= 7.33
Frequency
1
3
2
2
2
3
2
2
3
1
7
4
4
2
1
1
Test 2
Score
30= 20
29= 19.33
28= 18.66
27= 18
26= 17.33
25= 16.66
24= 16
23= 15.33
22= 14.66
21= 14
20= 13.33
18= 12
17= 11.33
15= 10
14= 9.33
13= 8.66
Frequency
3
7
3
3
6
1
1
4
3
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
Table 3.2. Differences between the scores of test 1 & test 2
Test 1 Score
1- 19.33
2- 18.66
3- 18
4- 18
5- 17.33
6- 16.66
7- 16
8- 16
9- 15.33
10- 18.66
11- 14.66
12- 14.66
13- 13.33
14- 13.33
15- 13.33
16- 11.33
17- 11.33
18- 11.33
19- 11.33
Test 2 Score
20
20
20
19.33
19.33
19.33
18.66
18
19.33
19.33
17.33
18
15.33
14.66
17.33
18.66
18.66
18.66
15.33
D (differences between two scores)
.67
1.34
2
1.33
2
2.67
2.66
2
4
.67
2.67
3.34
2
1.33
4
7.33
6
7.33
4
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20- 10
21- 10
22- 10
23- 10
24- 10.66
25- 10.66
26- 11.33
27- 11.33
28- 11.33
29- 10.66
30- 10.66
31- 12
32- 15.33
33- 16.66
34- 16
35- 18.66
36- 17.33
37- 9.33
38- 8.66
39- 9.33
40- 7.33
15.33
14
16
15.33
14.66
11.33
12
13.33
19.33
16.66
11.33
14
17.33
14.66
18
17.33
19.33
17.33
9.33
10
8.66
5
4
6
5.33
4
.67
.67
2
8
6
.67
2
2
2
2
1.33
2
8
.67
.67
1.33
Table 3.3: The mean score and standard division of test 1 & test 2
Categories
Number of Subjects
Mean
SD
Test 1
40
13.66
Test 2
40
14.662.22
Match-t-test Formula
Match-t-test was used in this study because the same group participated in two tests. When
formulating research hypothesis, the study researcher determined the level of significance (a) .05 and since
degree of freedom (d.f.) is 39, t-critical is 1.697. Now the observed t value should be checked against the
critical t value by regarding the degree of freedom. The results have been shown in Table 4.3.
Table 3.4: The Results obtained by Match-t-test
d.f.
Categories
Mean
SDFinal SD
t- observed
t- critical
Test 1 13.662.22
.35
2.85
1.697 39
Test 2 14.66
As shown in the Table 4.3., the observed t value is greater than the critical t value. So, the
difference between the means is said to be statistically significant and then treatment in test 2 is effective
and then the hypothesis is rejected.
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Discussion
Lexical competence recently has been identified to be the most significant predictor to general
language ability. (Carter and Nunan, 2001); however, it is also identified by most learners to be one of the
biggest challenges of language learning (Coady and Huckin, 1997).
Incidental learning has a sufficient role in leaning of new words. This kind of learning takes place
by listening, reading. The study aimed to observe incidental vocabulary learning about technical vocabulary
learning of Civil Engineering texts. Technical vocabularies of a certain field have important role in future
success of that field. Students have many problems when they do not know technical vocabularies of their
field of study.
The current study aimed to observe the effect of incidental vocabulary learning through reading on
learning and retention of technical vocabularies. In this study, reading texts were equipped with glossaries
in L1 and L2. The glossaries are summarized definitions of vocabularies. Glossaries are effective to cope
with authentic texts and they have been considered the means to facilitate reading comprehension by
providing information both at the word, sentence and also topic level (Widdoson, 1984). The current study
aimed to explorer which type of glossary (L1 and L2) is more effective on learning and retention of
technical vocabularies of Civil Engineering and the hypothesis was considered that 'the effect of L1 and L2
word glossary is the same on learning and retention of technical vocabularies'.
The result of the study refused the considered hypothesis and showed that L1 word glossary (in
this study, Persian language) is more effective rather than L2 word glossary on learning and retention of
technical vocabularies. In test 2 that L1 word glossaries was used for technical vocabularies, the scores of
test was better than test 1 that L2 word glossary was used.
It had been approved that word glossary is effective on incidental learning of vocabularies.
Hulstijn, J. H. & Hollander, M. & Greidanus, T. (1996) by a study approved the effect of word glossaries
on learning and retention of vocabularies. When students read a text and they do not know the meaning of
some words, glossaries are the best mean to help them to know the meaning of the words rather than
looking up them in dictionary or guessing them through context that may result in confusion or
misguessing.
Conclusion
Descriptive static indicates that L1 word glossary has more effective role in learning and retention
of technical vocabularies rather than L2 word glossary. In recent study first language was Persian and
second language was English and technical vocabularies were Civil Engineering technical vocabularies.
Subjects were 40 Civil Engineering students of Azad Noshahr-Chalous University that were selected by a
placement test that was administered among 60 Civil Engineering students of this university. One week
after the placement test, two tests administered. In test 1, the effect of L2 word glossary was observed. Test
2 was administered 15 minutes after test 1 and observed the effect of L1 word glossary. Both test1 and test
2 involved 5 reading comprehension passages with glossaries for technical vocabularies and the questions
related to each reading passages followed it. They were reading comprehension and vocabulary questions
and they were multiple choices. There were 30 questions in each test. Many of subjects gained high sores in
test 2 with L1 word glossary and the hypothesis of the study that believed the effect of L1 and L2 word
glossary is the same on learning and retention of technical vocabularies was refused.
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References
Carter, R. & Nunan, D. (2001).The Cambridge
languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
guide to teaching English to speakers of other
Celce-Murcia, M. (1991). Teaching English as a second or foreign language. USA: NUBARY HOUSE.
Coady, J. & Huckin, T. (eds) (1997). Second language vocabulary acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Hulstijn, J. H. & Hollander, M. & Greidanus, T. (1996). Incidental vocabulary learning by advanced
foreign language students: The influence of marginal glosses, dictionary use, and reoccurrence of unknown
words. The Modern Language Journal, Vol 80, No.3, 327-339. http://links.jstor.org/
Krashen, S. (1993). The power of reading insights from research. Englewood Co:Libraries Unlimited.
Krashen, S. (1993). The power of reading insights from research. Englewood Co:Libraries Unlimited.
Krashen, S. (1993). The power of reading insights from research. Englewood Co:Libraries Unlimited.
Lomika, Lara L. (1998). To gloss or not to gloss: An investigation of reading comprehension online.
Received at 2006/07/10. http://llt.msu.edu/vol1num2/article2/default.html
Widdowson, H. G. (1984). Teaching language as communication. Oxford: Oxford University Press
1057
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The Effect of L and L2 Word Glossary on Learning of Technical Vocabulary in Reading Comprehension Texts
Author
Author
Mansouri, Saeedeh
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Recent studies suggest that word marginal glossaries are very useful in reading text when readers have no knowledge about some words and help them comprehend the text without wasting time for looking up the word meaning in dictionaries or making mistakes because of incorrect guessing the word meaning according context. The study aimed to compare the effect of L1 & L2 word glossary on learning and retention of technical vocabularies of Civil Engineering students. The research question is: 'Is there any relation between retention and learning of technical vocabulary and using of glossaries?' If so, what is the difference between using of L1 and L2 word glossary and which of these two sorts has more effect on retention and learning of technical vocabulary? and the considered hypothesis is 'The effect of L1 and L2 word glossary is similar on retention and learning of technical vocabulary‘. The study was done by two tests (test 1 & test 2) with five passages of reading comprehension. In test 1, the definition of words in word glossary of technical vocabularies is in English language (L2) and in test 2, the definition of the vocabularies is in Persian language (L1). These two tests were administered one after another with 15 minutes break between them and 45 minutes was considered to answer the questions for each test. The same students participated in two tests. They were 40 Civil Engineering students of Engineering Technical University (Azad University), Chaloos branch. All of them were male and they were selected after administering a placement test among 60 Civil Engineering students of the university. The placement test was administered one week before the main tests. Comparison the scores of two tests and analyzing them showed that the students answer test 2 (with Persian word glossary) better than test 1 (with English word glossary). Although there were students that answer test 1 better than test 2 and some of them act the same in two tests, most of them answer test 2 (with Persian word glossary) better than test 1 (with English word glossary) and totally result disapprove the hypothesis of the study and it can be said L1 word glossary is more effective than L2 word glossary on learning and retention of vocabularies and also technical word glossary.
Date
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2011-05
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1st International Conference on Foreign Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics
May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
The Critical Study of the Dichotomous Representation of the Natives as the
Other in Hedayat‘s Blind Owl
Khalil Mahmoodi
National University of Malaysia (UKM)
School of Language Studies and Linguistics
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
Khalil.Mahmmodi@gmail.com
Dr. Shanthini Pilliai
Dr. Raihanah M. M.
Esmail Zeini
Abstract: Despite the voluminous amount of research on the Blind Owl, little is still
carried out on the representation of the natives in this work. This paper explores the text to
reveal how the author, by giving credit to himself as an ‗I‘, artist and a painter, tries to
establish a division between himself and the rest of the society, the world of Rajalehah,
the Rabbles. Through the employment of the new genre of writing, the novel, Hedayat not
only revolts against all the forms of traditional writings but also all the traditional customs
and at large makes use of it as a means of scattering his ideological concepts through the
mouth of the narrator. This discussion seeks to unveil the mask of orientalised system of
representation of the natives, as the peripheral, and finally the ‗Other‘.
Keywords: representation, rajalehah, Lakateh, unhomeliness, ‗Other‘.
Blind Owl and its Themes
This novelette has many themes. It encompasses uncertainty pertaining to the metaphysic, self-denigration,
desire and disavowal, identity dilemma, binary opposition, in-between status, stereotypical representation of the
natives and finally nationalism. I will concentrate on them vis-à-vis the content of the text. Blind Owl is a non-linear
story, it has no closure, and it is dark as well as bleak, filled with chaos. It begins from a very old times and proceeds
to the present, but it lacks a logical temporal arrangement (Etehad 2009: 82). The story begins with a statement
depicting the narrator‘s ontological and even one might find suitable to say epistemological view. The narration is
non-linear as it jumps from the present to the past and vice versa. Past and present are sometimes fused together that
if we are not careful, the details can be confusing. It is encased between two different eras, the past and the present.
The story starts by asserting that ―there are certain sores that, like a canker, gnaws at the soul in solitude and
diminish it (Hedayat 1984: 1). And he continues that he might pass away but still not know himself. From the very
beginning he establishes a division between himself and the rest of his own society, using the pronoun ‗I‘ he gives
himself a privilege status in comparison to the ‗other‘. He says ―I have realized that a frightful chasm lies between
the others and me‖ (Headyat 1984: 2).
Another significant feature of the story is that it is bleak and filled with chaos. Iran is shown as a country
that is ugly and backward. It is filled with people who are either superstitious, deteriorated by Islamic tradition for
which the ‗I‘ gives no care at all and a bunch of useless, shameless, diabolical rude, beggerish mule-drivers who lack
insight and wisdom (Hedayat 1984: 45)
Plot summary
The narrator, a pen-case decorator, falls in love with a girl who is at once angelic and devilish. Later, the
girl appears by his doorstep, enters his house, and lies on his bed, where he gives her some sips of poisonous win and
kills her. He dismembers her body and buries her. In the second part of the story ,after smoking a lot of opium, the
narrator wakes up in a world which is very close to his real world and he recounts his mental and physical decline
following his marriage to a woman who refuses to have sex with him but has countless lovers. He kills her.
Binary Opposition
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The story is built on the basis of binary opposition. Good in the opposite of bad, Islamic society in the
opposite of European society, Platonic or better to say pure unpolluted Sassanid love against contemporary,
Islamicised love, Ethereal girl in the opposite of Lakateh, The narrator against the Rajaleha , old Rey representing
Iranian historical glorious era in the opposite of post-Islamicised or the contemporary time, to mention just a few.
According to Ashcroft (2004: 23) ―binarism comes from ‗binary‘, meaning a combination of two things, a pair,
‗two‘, duality (OED)... The binary opposition is the most extreme form of difference possible... Such oppositions,
each of which represents a binary system, are very common in the cultural construction of reality.‖
binarism comes from ‗binary‘, meaning a combination of two things, a pair, ‗two‘, duality (OED), this
is a widely used term with distinctive meanings in several fields and one that has had particular sets of
meanings in post-colonial theory. The binary opposition is the most extreme form of difference
possible – sun/moon; man/woman; birth/death; black/white. Such oppositions, each of which
represents a binary system, are very common in the cultural construction of reality Ashcroft (2004:
23).
Binary oppositions are structurally connected with one another, and in colonial discourse there may be a
degree of diversity of the one underlying binary – colonizer/colonized – that becomes reemphasised and reexpressed in any particular text in many different ways (Ashchroft and et al 2004: 23). The binary opposition is the
most extreme form of difference possible through which the system of the cultural construction of reality works.
Through binary oppositions as the basic dichotomies which advocated in the West, what Western thought is
generally concerned is to see the world in terms of the Westerners against non-European Origins, the aliens. This
binary system establishes a relation of dominance and justifies ―the hierarchical cultural and radical assumptions of
European thought‖ (Royle 2000: 190). The binary system plays a very significant role in ―the constructing
ideological meanings in general and extremely useful in imperial ideology‖ (Ashcroft and et al 2004: 23-25).
Narrator and Rajalehah Dichotomy
Blind Owl is the author‘s manifesto in which he unquestionably attacks his private and social environment.
Hedayat in this treatise of hopelessness clarifies his political and social position from the very beginning. In the
Blind Owl, the narrator finds himself in a horrible way decomposing, identifies that he is alive, a living being who
has a dreadful life. Such an individual who has a half European characteristic and half native features, in other words
composed two contradictory derives (Mirabedini 2002: 791) is looking for a truth which he has been acquainted with
in Europe, so when he comes to native homeland he feels that ―everything related to the life-style and the joys of
others nauseated him‖ (Hedayat 1984: 37). This sense of anger will cause to establish a lid wall between himself and
others. He realises that ―a frightful chasm lies between others and him‖ (Hedayat 1984: 2). He finds himself lonely
and everyday this isolation becomes stronger. When he reaches where it is supposed to be the secure space of his
self-realization, he faces a bunch of what he calls superstitious gossipy and whores and he transcribes all these
observations onto the paper and he realises that that there is no more any place for the poetry and his feelings and
thoughts are not transmittable. At this time he depicts himself as the self who is enchained in such a trashcan full of
worms and dirt that he has no choice but to escape, but there is no loophole. The Rajalha, the rabbles have occupied
everywhere, they build chains with their polluted hands and place them before the feet of such a rare person (Ethad
2009: 186). This is the mode that the modern education and upbringing induced in many of our generation,
especially in those who had been fascinated by the Western literature, thoughts and customs, and ―Sadegh Hedayat
was one of them‖ (Safa 2003: 187, qtd in Ethad).
The Representation of the Natives as the Other
The narrator reveals society as distastefully sluggish and inactive filled with people who do not resemble
him in thoughts and manners. Thus in order to define and give meaning to himself as an ‗I‘, he creates a discourse
mostly oriented from his ideological and Westerly educational standpoint. As an avant-garde artist who was
supposed to push the boundaries of what is accepted as the status quo, traditional literature, religion and traditions of
people, Hedayat draws a line from the onset between himself and those who are different from him in thoughts and
behaviours.
This Oriental discourse puts face and a mould to the Oriental character [the natives, rajaleha, the rabbles,
the Lakateh, the whore, and all the others]. Ideas about it influence the idea of the West and the other. In many ways
this notion of the superior West and the inferior East is solidified because the difference between them is intensified
by the Orientalist discourse (Said 1978: 42). Discourse is governed by the ruling power; the ruling power determines
what is to be narrated and how to narrate an event. In the case of the Blind Owl, the narrator of the story appropriates
this authority to represent the natives the way he likes. Said (1978: 20) argues that an Orientalist writer must first of
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all locate himself or herself vis-à-vis the Orient. This will later on affect his/her interpretation of the Orient. the tools
that she/he uses: voice, structure, images, themes and motifs will direct the writer‘s approach towards his/her
readers, give him/her authority to represent and speak on the Orient‘s behalf and as well as providing means to
govern the Orient. All this does not occur in the vacuum because according to Said (1978: 20) all writers assume
some Oriental precedent and previous knowledge of the Orient that he/she refers to and relies on.
One of the famous themes in the Hedayat‘s works is the description and the judgments that he extends to
the people whom he names rajaleha, the rabbles. By the word rajaleha, he does not mean hooligans, thugs and
hoodlum in its ordinary sense, but all the people who in most cases do not believe in the values that they pretend to
have been attached. In order to gain success in the life they will not avoid any activities including begging,
embezzlement, lying, vulgarity, deception, fashion follower or to be an opportunist. In the Dark House (1995), the
isolated person tells the narrator ―Only a bunch of thieves, shameless fools and sick people are allowed to live in this
environment. Those unfit for thieving or baseness and those not given to flattery are pronounced 'unfit for living!‖
(Hedayat 1995: 40). In the story of Deadend (1942), the protagonist has fallen behind of his cheeky and thief
colleagues because of his honesty and sincerity. When he returns his hometown from Tehran, everything looks to
him narrow, limited, ordinary and low and ―his work pals had pushed their grip further into the abdomen of
life...some of them more or less had reached their limited aspirations: their belly had been grown bigger and their
sexual passions had been transmitted from their waist down to their jaws, or in the distresses of life, they had
focused on the swindling, plundering of their peasantry, cotton, opium and wheat products or their children‘s dippers
and their old gout‖ (Hedayat 1942: 42-43).
In another story named Gojaste Abālish (1940) which is according to Homa Katouzian (1993: 54) belongs
to Hedayat‘s Psycho-fiction stories- we read that ―you mean these people?...what controls them is firstly the belly
and secondly their sexual passion, with a bundle of anger and bundle of must and must not which are blindly
infiltrated into their ears‖ (Hedayat 1932: 249). And in the Three Bloods (1932), we witness some traces of the
rajaleha, the rabbles, in the male cat. When in the spring season, Nazi-Siyavash‘s female cat- emitted sorrowful
moan of love: ―Male cats from all around the neighbourhood heard Nazi's moans and came to meet her. After much
struggle and many cat fights, eventually, Nazi chose the strongest and the most boisterous of the suitors to be her
mate. Of prime importance in love making is the animals' special scent. That is why males that are tame and clean do
not move their females. While alley cats, cats on the prowl, thieving cats, emaciated cats, stray cats, and famished
cats; in general those cats whose hides have retained their primordial scent, attract the females most‖ (Hedayat 2000:
5).
But in the Blind Owl, the description and making judgments on the rajaleha is more detailed, much bitter,
much clearer and much harsher than any other Hedayat‘s works. The point that Hedayat does not mean the
hooligans, thugs and hoodlum in the street by the word rjaleha is more observable in the novelette. Among these
rajaleha, who are from every profession and social groups; a trip-peddler, a jurist, a liver-peddler, the chief
magistrate, a judge, a trader and a philosopher are some who have relationship with the Lakateh, the whore, the
narrator‘s wife. In one stage, the narrator tries to learn their manners and ethics with the hope to attract the whore,
but he says ―How could I learn the ways of the rabble anyway? But now I know that she loved them because they
were shameless, smelly fools‖ (Hedayat 1984: 29). He says that not only is he not afraid of the death but also longs
for it, but ―I was afraid, however, that the particles of my body might blend with those of the rabbles, an idea which I
could not bear‖ (Hedayat 1984: 45). He earnestly wished to die but he was frightened that such a thing happens to
him: ―Sometimes I wished that I had long hands and long sensitive fingers so that I could gather the particles of my
body carefully and prevent them from getting mixed with those of the rabbles‖(Hedayat 1984: 45). The narrator
describes these people this way when he talks about what he did to disappear and lose himself and escapes from all
these miseries and affliction that enmeshed him:
I passed through many streets and distraughtly walked by the rabble who, with greedy faces, were in
pursuit of money and last. In fact, I did not need to see them to know them; one was enough to
represent the rest. They were all like one big mouth leading to a wad of guts, terminating in a sexual
organ (Hedayat 1984: 33).
One of the things that like a canker gnaw at the soul of the narrator in solitude and diminish it is this
incurable disease. It is because of this disease that he has to be abject, worthless, deprived and isolated and those, the
rajaleha, because of their shamelessness and haughtiness and their ability to wear different masks to enjoy all the
blessings:
I had a feeling that this world was not made for me but for a group of pseudo- intellectuals: a group
of shameless, diabolical, rude, beggarish mule-drivers who lack insight and wisdom. It was made for
those who were created to suit it, those who, like the hungry dog in front of the butcher shop wagging
its tail for a bit of offal, are used to flatter the mighty of the earth and of the sky (Hedayat 1984: 45).
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And almost the same feelings and ideas will be uttered somewhere else in the story:
But for some reason everything related to the life-style and the joys of others nauseated me. What
relationship could exist between the lives of the fools and healthy rabble who were well, who slept
well, who performed the sexual act well, who had never felt the wings of death on their face every
moment--what relationship could exist between them and one like me who has arrived at the end of his
rope and who knows that he will pass away gradually and tragically (Hedayat 1984: 37).
According to Natel Khanlari (2002: 235) Hedayat belonged to a passive and immobilized social class which
were condemned to surrender before the movement of the lower social classes or to change its manners and method.
This social class had come to the end of its evolvement procedure because of superfluous comfort and was
deteriorating. For this reason all the characteristics of a demolishing generation was materialised in Hedayat. He
obviously witnessed the cancellation of the titles of Qajar period and the old families were condemned to
discolouring and deforming in the newly raised social classes and since Hedayat was not able to face this
compulsory evolvement, he was involved in a type of timidity and shyness and passivity. He was suspicious to
anyone from the low social classes who was working hard to heighten his/her social position and was taking them as
the usurpers of the social positions. He hated all those who worked hard to achieve a better life and he used a
particular idiom to refer to them. He used to call the Rajaleh, the rabbles.
This feeling toward his countrymen pushes him toward the verge of losing mental equilibrium. His mental
imbalance depicts him as an unusual figure among his native people and excludes him, making him to seem an
outsider, merely because he suggests foreign ideas resulted from his half European moods (Fardid 2003: 627).
Sadegh Hedayat apparently because of his fascination toward the western historical traditions had raised his arm
against the oriental traditions but he never succeeded to free himself from the grip of oriental family. Thus there was
always a binary opposition lived in him (Fardid 2003: 627-628). In this sense, he is very much like the Orientalist,
who judges the East from the West's viewpoint wherein there is a lack of traditional reform in the Orient. Therefore,
the East seems to be, in reference to the aforementioned worthy/unworthy duality, unworthy, according to the
narrator. He acts as though he were a member of the colonial class and, yet, his suffering, which results, in part, from
his never-ending contemplation of two polar opposites -- the existence or non-existence of metaphysics or the
ethereal girl representing the pre-Islamic and glorious time of Sassanid era and the present, post-Islamised
conditions embodied in the configuration of his wife, or even tradition represented in the people he names rajaleh,
religion and modernity-- parallels the suffering of the post-colonial subject who has been exposed to another set of
binary opposites: Eastern thought, and its antithesis; Western thought. The narrator cannot find source of comfort in
either culture.
Conclusion
Said (1978: 7) argues European culture is hegemonic and regarded as superior to non-European people and
cultures, because Orientalism has imparted the idea of a superior European identity to the world. The ―east‖ or
―Orient‖ being the entity of the Islamic countries which are viewed as ―inferior‖ by, and to, the Western
counterparts, has expressed, in many ways as the beginning and spreading of post-colonial sentiments relating to this
very Western domination. Mashallah Ajoudani (2003: 115-126)) claims that intelligentsia influenced by the Western
European view of the world as perhaps the only correct one rather than one possibility among many. This
Intelligentsia including Hedayat found themselves developing a sense of dislocating their feeling of place from Iran
to Western countries. This confused sense of identity contributes to an emotional and at large conceptual distance
between the mimic man and the others and this led him to reject the cultural traditions of his people and with them,
any comfort of traditional religious teachings.
References
Ajoudani, M. (2006). Hedayat, Blind owl and Nationalism. London: Fasl-e Ketab Publications.
Ashcroft B., G. G., & H. Tiffin (2004). Post-colonial Studies: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge.
Etehad, H. (2009). Pejouheshgaran-e Moa'ser Iran (The Iranian Contemporary Researchers) Tehran: Farhang-e
Moa'ser.
Fardid, A. (2002). Andeshehhay-eh sadegh Hedayat. In Yad-e sadegh Hedayat (In the Memeory of Sadegh Hedayat)
In A. Dehbashi (Ed.), Beyad-e Sdadegh Hedayat (on the memory of Sadegh Hedayat). Tehran: Sales
publisher.
Hedaya, S. (1995). The Dark House USA.
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May 5-7 2011 Sarajevo
Hedayat, S. (1932). Se qatre khūn (Three Drops of Blood) Tehran.
Hedayat, S. (1942). The daedlock In The Stray Dog. http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Stories/3Drops.html
Hedayat, S. (2000). Three Drops of Blood. Available at: http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Stories/3Drops.html
Katouzian, M. A. H. (1993). Sadegh Hedayat va Marg-e Nevsandeh (Sadegh Hedayat and the Death of the Author).
Tehran: Marklaz Publisher.
Khanlari, P. N. (2003). Khaterat-e Adebi Dar Barehy-e Sadegh Hedayat ( Literary Memory about Sadegh Hedayat).
In A. Dehbashi (Ed.), Be Yad-e Sadegh Hedayat (On the memory of Sadegh Hedayat). Tehran: Sales
publisher.
Mirabedini, H. (2009). Sad Sal Dastan Nevisi Iran (A hundered year of Iranian Prose writing). Tehran: Cheshmeh
Publisher.
Said, E. (1978). Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books.
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Title
A name given to the resource
The Critical Study of the Dichotomous Representation of the Natives as the Other in Hedayat‘s Blind Owl
Author
Author
Mahmoodi, Khalil
Shanthini, Pilliai
Raihana, M. M.
Zeini, Esmail
Abstract
A summary of the resource.
Despite the voluminous amount of research on the Blind Owl, little is still carried out on the representation of the natives in this work. This paper explores the text to reveal how the author, by giving credit to himself as an ‗I‘, artist and a painter, tries to establish a division between himself and the rest of the society, the world of Rajalehah, the Rabbles. Through the employment of the new genre of writing, the novel, Hedayat not only revolts against all the forms of traditional writings but also all the traditional customs and at large makes use of it as a means of scattering his ideological concepts through the mouth of the narrator. This discussion seeks to unveil the mask of orientalised system of representation of the natives, as the peripheral, and finally the ‗Other‘.
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2011-05
Keywords
Keywords.
Conference or Workshop Item
PeerReviewed
P Philology. Linguistics