“I’m in contact with foreign languages every day”

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Huhtala ◽  
Anta Kursiša ◽  
Marjo Vesalainen

AbstractThe focus of this article is the multilingualism of advanced university students of languages other than English. Our research questions are the following: 1) How many foreign languages do students know and use in their everyday life? 2) In which contexts do they use their various languages? 3) How do they reflect on their multilingualism? The data were collected at the University of Helsinki by means of an electronic questionnaire, through which students were invited to answer open questions about their language use. In all, 53 students of French, German, and Swedish answered the questionnaire. The results of this qualitative study have been presented from a holistic perspective, focusing on the dynamic nature of individual multilingualism (Jessner 2008). In the paper, we also discuss how the languages in the students’ language repertoire could be interpreted as being a part of (or outside) theirdominant language constellation(Aronin and Singleton 2012). The results show that students were aware of their language competence in their various L2s, although many of them did not seem to experience themselves as multilingual. Many students were strongly focused on one specific L2, but in some cases, it could be possible to talk about a more holisticmultilingual identity(Henry 2017) beyond the individual language-specific identifications.

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205-214
Author(s):  
M. Isabel Sanchez-Hernandez ◽  
Dolores Gallardo-Vazquez ◽  
Beatriz Corchuelo Martinez-Azua

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to determine the students’ opinion on their proficiency in one or more foreign languages, and the importance they attribute to their foreign language competence because the adaptation to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) implies the promotion of the mobility of teachers and students. Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative and quantitative approach conducted at the University of Extremadura in Spain. The method used was to triangulate the data resulting from three quite different procedures: promoting the participating students’ awareness of the issue through a seminar on the importance of mastering other languages and their relevance for graduate employability; inquiring into the students’ impressions when receiving an English class with a focus group; and a questionnaire on their opinions about the importance of proficiency in foreign languages. Findings – The findings highlight how teaching in English in European universities could bring real opportunities for the development of the EHEA. Furthermore, the development of foreign languages competences have to be a priority line of innovation in higher education in order to build a more meaningful relationship between education institutions and the European project. Research limitations/implications – The study is a first attempt to analyse the need to teach in English in European higher education institutions. Results are not completely generalizable because the study has been conducted in one university, in the field of social sciences in the branch of Economics and Business, and it has been examined only the views of students. Originality/value – The paper draws attention to the need for, and suggestions on how higher education institutions can be more aware to the needs of developing studentś English competences when designing programmes in the EHEA.


2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 1001-1012
Author(s):  
Mohd Sham Kamis ◽  
Md Jais Ismail ◽  
Muhammad Nazir Alias ◽  
Damien Mikeng ◽  
Syahrul Ghani Zainal Abidin ◽  
...  

CLIL approach refers to Content and Language Integrated Learning. This paper discusses the self-efficacy of Malaysian Gifted Students (MGS) at GENIUS@Pintar Negara in understanding Arabic tasks in the classroom, for example, understanding the Arabic terms in the lesson of Haji. These terms are; a) dam tertib and takdir, b) dam tertib and ta’dil, c) dam takhyir and takdir, d) dam takhyir and ta’dil. Besides, by employing the CLIL, the MGS can improve themselves because the CLIL approach encourages their self-efficacy to completely deal with the language task. The present study employs; qualitative study by using an interview, verbal report, and observation. This method is an instrument to answer two research questions. a) How the individual of MGS adapts his/ her situation to understand the four Arabic terms of the dam in Haji after undergo the three principles stages of classroom task in CLIL? b) What is the best method to memorize the four Arabic terms of the dam in Haji? In this study, three participants took part in the pilot study, and seven participants took part in the actual study. The present study revealed that the MGS in the Pusat GENIUS@Pintar Negara prefer to be independent learners by using the internet to understand the four Arabic terms and memorize by using keywords related to the four Arabic terms in performing Haji.


2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 22-38
Author(s):  
Christian Harwig ◽  
Johan Roeland ◽  
Hijme Stoffels

This study is a qualitative study into the meaning that visitors derive from participating in the Dutch online church Mijn Kerk (litt. My Church). By focusing on the experience of the individual visitors, the everyday context of visitors is taken into account. What people are looking for online is determined by their relationship with the local church as well as further offline circumstances. This can be roughly divided into two categories: connectedness (with other people) and sustenance (inspiration for everyday life). Within Mijn Kerk visitors both offer and search for fulfillment of these needs, resulting in four typical behaviors: to vent, to encourage, to inspire and to recharge. Being very approachable, relatively anonymous and non-committal, while at the same time offering stability, real personal contact and durable relationships, Mijn Kerk is a unique community online in which people try to overcome the tension between individualism and the desire for connectedness.


2006 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 153-171
Author(s):  
Carles De Rosselló ◽  
Emili Boix-Fuster

Due to the heterogeneous origin of university students and the diverse language use guidelines in their departments, as well as the peculiar language contact that takes place in the territory of Catalonia, the University of Barcelona is one of the most linguistically complex universities of the occidental world. Catalan, Spanish and English are seen as enriching elements although dissenting voices do arise concerning the use of each of these languages. For this reason, we carried out a qualitative study, asking thirty-two students of the University of Barcelona (UB), the first Catalan University, how they perceive and face the challenges of their sociolinguistic environment. Briefly, in this article we study—in the first place—how students view the fact that English is becoming a language of instruction; and secondly, we analyse the main arguments that local students use to justify their linguistic ideology regarding Erasmus students.


JALABAHASA ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-58
Author(s):  
Emma Maemunah

Keberagaman etnik dalam komunitas mahasiswa memunculkan suatu nuansa dan fenomena yang khas dan berbeda dalam penggunaan bahasa. Masyarakat multietnik cenderung menggunakan bahasa yang berbeda-beda ketika berkomunikasi dengan etnik satu dan etnik lainnya. Keberagaman etnik dan bahasa tersebut memungkinkan seseorang menjadi mampu menggunakan lebih dari satu bahasa. Komunikasi saat ini dapat dilakukan melalui berbagai media, salah satunya adalah media sosial. Banyak sekali media sosial yang dapat digunakan untuk berkomunikasi, seperti facebook, twitter, bbm (blackberry messenger), line, dan whatsapp. Penelitian dengan ancangan sosiolinguistik dan metode kualitatif deskriptif ini bertujuan mendeskripsikan bahasa yang digunakan dalam komunitas mahasiswa multietnik. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa bahasa yang digunakan oleh mahasiswa multietnik di Kota Semarang dalam media sosial adalah bahasa Indonesia, bahasa daerah, dan bahasa asing. Kemultietnikan mahasiswa dengan bahasa yang berbeda mengakibatkan penggunaan campur kode. Faktor penyebab penggunaan bahasa tertentu antarmahasiswa multietnik adalah stimulus atau inisiasi yang disampaikan oleh penutur pertama. Selain itu, faktor latar atau situasi bahasa tertentu digunakan, faktor penutur dan petutur yang melakukan percakapan, maksud dan tujuan yang diinginkan oleh penutur dan petutur, bentuk pesan dan isi pesan yang dipilih oleh penutur dan petutur turut memengaruhi bahasa yang digunakan. ABSTRACT The ethnical variety in the university student community has brought a unique phenomena and different nuance in their language use. The students in the multiethnic community tend to use various languages to communicate to each other. Those various ethnics and languages would encourage the member of the community to use more than one language. In the other hand, people could communicate nowadays through all sorts of media. One of them is social media. Some of the social medias such as facebook, tweeter, bbm (blackberry messenger), line, and whatsapp could be used as mean of communication. This research uses approach in sociolinguistics and qualitative-descriptive method. The aim of this research is describing the language use in students’ multiethnic community. The result shows that the language used in multiethnic students in Semarang in social media is Indonesian, local, and foreign languages. The students in different language multiethnic community used the code-mixing. The factor that causes a certain language use in multiethnic students is the stimulus or the initiation uttered by the fi rst speaker. The other factor such as setting or situation where a certain language used, speaker, and hearer that are involved in the conversation, form and contain of the message chosen by the speaker and the hearer, have also infl uence the language used. 


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
Author(s):  
Külliki Kuusk

Teesid: Artikkel vaatleb Uku Masingu poeetilist keelekasutust, täpsemalt tema metafoorsete keeleväljendite mõistmise ja moodustamise protsesse. Lähenedes tema luulele kognitiivse keeleteaduse meetoditega, kirjeldatakse, kuidas boreaalne vaimsus toob esile Masingu luule boreaalset isikupära.S U M M A R YThis paper focuses on the poetic language use of Estonian poet and theologian Uku Masing, and more speci­fically on his comprehension and construction of metaphorical linguistic expressions. One of the most unique authors in Estonian literature, his exceptional intellect and body of work, which covers a range of topics, have established him as a phenomenal figure in Estonian culture. Masing was a part of the ‘academics generation’ of Estonian literature in the 1930s. He completed his master’s degree at the age of twenty-one on the science of the Old Testament and Semitic philology (1930) and was probably one of the youngest MA degree holders at the University of Tartu at the time. Upon receiving his PhD in 1934, he published his first collection of poetry.Uku Masing’s religious poetry is a unique phenomenon in Estonian literature, both in its style and form. His poetry is so multi-layered that we could truthfully call him a mystic, shaman, soothsayer, or visionary, which explains the difficulty different generations have had in understanding him. It is important to note that being a poet and theologian during the years of Soviet Occupation (1940–1991) meant the doors to most publications were closed to Masing; therefore, aside from Neemed vihmade lahte (1935), he composed all of his poetry collections without considering the possibility of publishing them. Masing’s bibliography is a telling example of Soviet censorship and the lack of freedom of expression. The reception of his poetry at home showed signs of awakening after the political situation changed in 1987; however, ten more years passed before the first appearances of research on Masing’s work and worldview.The formation of Masing’s individual style would not have been possible without examples or fulcrum, which he found from his the surrounding culture, namely from archaic Estonian folksong (regilaul) traditions. Masing uses repetition the same way as it is appears in Estonian folksongs, through semantic parallelism with varying subjects of repetition. Via variation, he pursues precise expressions in such a way that his poetics resembles regilaul while retaining similarities to collective mythological patterns and religious influences.This paper illustrates the importance of the linguistic role of the ”I“ speech act in the interpretation of Masing’s poetic figures, including parallelism, and relies partially on pragmatics, since poetic figures in his poetry refer not only to the individual speech act of the here and now, but also to the subjective mythological reality of the ”I“ in an utterance. To describe a speech event in Masing’s poetry, one must first assume that his poetry is understood as a dialogical sensory or communication act. Secondly, when observing referentiality, one must assume that different levels of language use (i.e., the differentiation of Saussure’s langue and parole) also exist, which influence the semantic understanding of the sentence and utterance level of his work.Until recently, the hidden and repetitive patterns in Masing’s work have largely gone unnoticed. To many, his poetic language consists of a lexicon known only to him. When considering the basis of his creative process, I find that conceptual theory of metaphor, a cognitive linguistic approach popularized in the 1980s, helps to make sense of his poetic language system and, additionally, to differentiate the archaic boreal mentality and mytho-poetic symbols containing universal cultural meaning.The current article primarily uses material from Masing’s 1930s body of work, but also references later periods when necessary. I will show how Masing’s creative conscious is based on image schema, which in turn are based on archaic mythological patterns. These patterns form a corresponding system of concept formation in the text.The primary goal of this analysis is to observe Masing’s body of work, regardless of genre, be it poetry or prose, fact or fiction. Although many critics have analyzed Masing’s linguistic and theological ideas, mostly drawing from his essays and articles, this paper’s author finds that Masing’s poetry and essays are not two separate phenomena, but rather originate from one cultural-philosophical foundation.The article starts by following Masing’s own three-step division of the evolution of culture/belief: primal symbiosis – analytical phase – new synthesis. These three steps are considered to be different aspects of the human mentality, and accordingly, can be used to differentiate conceptual metaphor as different degrees of the ”I“ identity. Masing’s metaphorical models are constructed from his poetic utterances and divided into two large groups. This article aims to explain how conceptual metaphor based on experience can be interpreted on a wider cultural level as well as how boreal spirituality gives rise to Masing’s poetic boreal identity. 


Lire Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-275
Author(s):  
Milania Fitri Iwana ◽  
Emy Sudarwati

There are numerous studies of linguistics landscape or study of texts in public spaces. However, study on the culinary sign is still rare in Indonesia. Thus, this paper explores the linguistics landscape of culinary signs around campus in Malang, East Java, Indonesia, the melting pot of cultures and languages. The research aims to analyze the form of language use and its function. The data collection is photographing culinary signs around three advanced campuses in Malang, namely the University of Brawijaya, State University of Malang, and the University of Muhammadiyah Malang. Qualitative descriptive was used in analyzing the data. The results showed that Indonesian, English, and Javanese are the most frequent languages used in culinary banners or storefronts and other foreign languages (Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Malay) and vernaculars (Sundanese, Banjarese, Minangnese). It was found that the Malang culinary linguistics mirrored the taste and service of the store. Furthermore, foreign languages are becoming a way to go global and known by college students who most like modernization. The use of Javanese also acts as a symbol of maintaining the cultural heritage of Javanese people.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36-37 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-183
Author(s):  
Paul Taylor

John Rae, a Scottish antiquarian collector and spirit merchant, played a highly prominent role in the local natural history societies and exhibitions of nineteenth-century Aberdeen. While he modestly described his collection of archaeological lithics and other artefacts, principally drawn from Aberdeenshire but including some items from as far afield as the United States, as a mere ‘routh o’ auld nick-nackets' (abundance of old knick-knacks), a contemporary singled it out as ‘the best known in private hands' (Daily Free Press 4/5/91). After Rae's death, Glasgow Museums, National Museums Scotland, the University of Aberdeen Museum and the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, as well as numerous individual private collectors, purchased items from the collection. Making use of historical and archive materials to explore the individual biography of Rae and his collection, this article examines how Rae's collecting and other antiquarian activities represent and mirror wider developments in both the ‘amateur’ antiquarianism carried out by Rae and his fellow collectors for reasons of self-improvement and moral education, and the ‘professional’ antiquarianism of the museums which purchased his artefacts. Considered in its wider nineteenth-century context, this is a representative case study of the early development of archaeology in the wider intellectual, scientific and social context of the era.


Author(s):  
Pavlov B.S. ◽  
Sentyurina L.B. ◽  
Pronina E.I. ◽  
Pavlov D.B. ◽  
Saraikin D.A.

The state policy of health preservation of Russians and the process of introducing a healthy lifestyle into their everyday life is hampered by the lack of sufficient self-activity and purposefulness of the individual ecological and valeological behavior of representatives of various population groups. According to the authors of the article, one of the important indicators of the maturity of professional and labor competencies of school and student youth is their readiness and desire for permanent self-preserving behavior. “With numbers in hand,” the authors show the scale of deviant deviations and the phenomena of spontaneous irresponsibility in the educational and leisure activities of students, hindering the preservation and development of physical culture, the accumulation and effective use of their psychophysiological and labor potential. The conclusions of the proposal of the authors of the article are based on the results of a number of sociological surveys conducted in 2000-2020. at the Institute of Economics of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences in a number of secondary schools and universities of the Ural and Volga Federal Districts.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document