scholarly journals Sociocultural and Linguistic Diversity in the Mid-European (Slovak) Economic and Technological Space

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 576-590
Author(s):  
Pavol Burcl ◽  
Zuzana Kozarova ◽  
Olga Csalova ◽  
Renata Pavlova ◽  
Elena Zelenicka

Introduction. Social cultural aspect and linguistic diversity of educational background play an important role in teaching a foreign language. Although there are a lot of publications on this theme, it is hardly possible to find surveys which study the impact of globalization accompanied by the English language expansion, on transformation of cultural identity. The aim of this article is to analyse changes of social cultural phenomena and linguistic diversity in common life and foreign languages education in a Mid-European (mostly Slovak) economic and technological spheres. Materials and Methods. Within this research the content analysis method was employed together with critical comparison of relative scientific papers and other materials in the respect of the problem investigated. Questionnaires were developed and educators who run practice oriented professional programmes were interviewed. After the results of the interview being analysed and synthetized, some crucial points of the discussed problem were revealed. Results. The research revealed the main factors which determine diversity of linguistic communication in a Mid-European former socialist country (Slovakia as an example); reasons and types of social cultural transformations in the society under research were analysed; economic and technological conditions of the transformations discussed were defined; recommendations for educators who run practice oriented professional programmes were developed. Discussion and Conclusion. The results of the research done are considered to be some contribution to the development of bilingual practice oriented education under the condition of European economic and technological integration. However, the task of reserving peculiar cultural values of the nation which is subject to unavoidable social cultural transformations is the major one in this respect.

Multilingua ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 275-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jette G. Hansen Edwards

AbstractThe study employs a case study approach to examine the impact of educational backgrounds on nine Hong Kong tertiary students’ English and Cantonese language practices and identifications as native speakers of English and Cantonese. The study employed both survey and interview data to probe the participants’ English and Cantonese language use at home, school, and with peers/friends. Leung, Harris, and Rampton’s (1997, The idealized native speaker, reified ethnicities, and classroom realities.TESOL Quarterly 31(3). 543–560) framework of language affiliation, language expertise, and inheritance was used to examine the construction of a native language identity in a multilingual setting. The study found that educational background – and particularly international school experience in contrast to local government school education – had an impact on the participants’ English language usage at home and with peers, and also affected their language expertise in Cantonese. English language use at school also impacted their identifications as native speakers of both Cantonese and English, with Cantonese being viewed largely as native language based on inheritance while English was being defined as native based on their language expertise, affiliation and use, particularly in contrast to their expertise in, affiliation with, and use of Cantonese.


Life ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (10) ◽  
pp. 1095
Author(s):  
Stefania Lamponi

Natural anticoagulant drugs can be obtained from plants, rich in secondary bioactive metabolites which, in addition to being effective antioxidants, also possess anticoagulant and antiplatelet properties and, for this reason, can be excellent candidates for the treatment of thrombotic diseases. This review reports an overview of the hemostatic process and thrombotic disorders together with data on plants, more and less common from around the world, containing bioactive compounds characterized by antiplatelet and anticoagulant activity. The reported literature was obtained from Medline, PubMed, Elsevier, Web of Science, Google Scholar considering only articles in the English language, published in peer-reviewed journals. The number of citations of the articles and the impact factor of the journals were other parameters used to select the scientific papers to be included in the review. The analysis of the literature data selected demonstrates that many plants’ bioactive compounds show antiplatelet and anticoagulant activity that make them potential candidates to be used as new natural compounds able to interfere with both primary and secondary hemostasis. Moreover, they could be used together with anticoagulants currently administered in clinical practice to increase their efficacy and to reduce complications in the treatment of thrombotic disorders.


Author(s):  
I. Г. Мухіна

In the scientific article an analysis of the philosophical views of A.V. Lunacharsky concerning important social priorities that arise in the conditions of the cultural transformations of the first half of the twentieth century on the example of the social experiment of the Bolsheviks during the "cultural revolution" and in the period of the creation of the so-called proletarian society. The theorist believed that the proletariat, in the process of historical heredity and in the transition to socialist culture, should play an exclusive and avant-garde role and be a legitimate heir not only of the productive forces created in the depths of the bourgeois society, but also of the heir of all material and cultural values. By defending collectivism as the basis of communist education, the philosopher claims that one must think, as "we," to become a living, useful, responsible body, part of this "we". But at the same time A. Lunacharsky warned that this upbringing did not lead to the appearance of "herding", complete degradation of the individual, loss of originality and individuality rights. As a result of education in the personality, individual characteristics, talents, appropriate skills that people absorb and which society offers to them should be developed. It has been proved that the content and essence of cultural transformations during the formation of a socialist society contributed to the formation of totalitarianism on the basis of social myths and revolutionary romanticism. In general, through the prism of philosophical considerations, AV Lunacharsky, on the impact of cultural transformations on the values of society, we can see the attempts of the Bolsheviks to create a corporate system on a socialist basis, in which much attention was paid to the cultural and ideological spheres, without which it was impossible to create effective mechanisms for the management and management of society and to develop a social myth about the communist society as the spiritual reference point of mankind. The emphasis is placed on the fact that the so-called "revolutionary romanticism", which was inherent in many Soviet theorists of the first half of the twentieth century, essentially justified any means of violence and coercion of man in the cultural and ideological spheres in order to form a happy future, aimed at steadily moving in the fairway political attitudes and directives of the authorities. It is proved that the elements of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which were regarded as temporary measures, have gradually become the permanent basis for the formation of totalitarianism.


2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-46
Author(s):  
Claire Goode

This paper explores the literature on the status of the English language in Negara Brunei Darussalam, particularly in education. The review encompasses a total of 103 sources, including 44 journal articles, 27 book chapters, 15 books, and 17 other items (institution/organisation websites and reports, government documents, newspaper articles, and conference presentations), published between 1985 and 2020, with at least 70 sources published in the last decade. The author summarises findings from research in key areas in the Bruneian context including bilingual education, linguistic diversity, the status of English, educational policies, educational divides, and challenges to the student experience, particularly in higher education in the bilingual setting. The author found that: i) while there are concerns over the impact of English on the Malay language and on indigenous languages in the Sultanate, and apprehension around an educational divide, the majority of attitudes appear to be very positive about the use of English in Brunei, including in education; ii) the bilingual education policy has evolved over time, and now places an emphasis on English as a key competency for the 21st century; iii) the student experience in the bilingual context is a particularly under-researched area. Staff working in tertiary education can always benefit from further insights into different aspects of learning, teaching, and content delivery, which may be applicable in many settings. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research in Brunei.


RELC Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 003368822095490
Author(s):  
Angélica Araújo de Melo Maia

Contemporary literacy practices need to be addressed in school settings. That requires awareness by teachers and students of the cultural and linguistic diversity present in our cosmopolitan societies. In the field of English language teaching (ELT), one way of responding to such demand is engaging teachers with multiliteracies pedagogies throughout their professional preparation. Based on that assumption, this paper reports on a component experience of the Brazilian Government Program for Initial Teacher Education, where, in 2017, three teacher candidates planned and taught three English lessons using the multiliteracies pedagogy framework. It stands as a case study that seeks to identify the impacts of using multiliteracies pedagogy in a teacher education context, in terms of knowledge building and identity work. Teacher candidates engaged in a designing process of multimodal teaching materials and documented their experience in journals. Those items were used as data to investigate the impact of the pedagogy on teachers’ development, focusing on the following elements of design: reference, dialogue, structure, situations, and intention. Research findings suggest the positive impact of that experience, both as a source of professional knowledge and as a fruitful opportunity for teachers to change preconceptions about ELT.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Ramírez-Castañeda

AbstractThe success of a scientist depends on their production of scientific papers and the impact factor of the journal in which they publish. Because most major scientific journals are published in English, success is related to publishing in this language. Currently, 98% of publications in science are written in English, including researchers from English as a Foreign Language (EFL) countries. Colombia is among the countries with the lowest English proficiency in the world. Thus, understanding the disadvantages that Colombians face in publishing is crucial to reducing global inequality in science. This paper quantifies the disadvantages that result from the language hegemony in scientific publishing by examining the additional costs that communicating in English creates in the production of articles. It was identified that more than 90% of the scientific articles published by Colombian researchers are in English, and that publishing in a second language creates additional financial costs to Colombian doctoral students and results in problems with reading comprehension, writing ease and time, and anxiety. Rejection or revision of their articles because of the English grammar was reported by 43.5% of the doctoral students, and 33% elected not to attend international conferences and meetings due to the mandatory use of English in oral presentations. Finally, among the translation/editing services reviewed, the cost per article is between one-quarter and one-half of a doctoral monthly salary in Colombia. Of particular note, we identified a positive correlation between English proficiency and higher socioeconomic origin of the researcher. Overall, this study exhibits the negative consequences of hegemony of English that preserves the global gap in science. Although having a common language is important for science communication, generating multilinguistic alternatives would promote diversity while conserving a communication channel. Such an effort should come from different actors and should not fall solely on EFL researchers.


PRIMO ASPECTU ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 7-11
Author(s):  
Alexander PLESCHENKO

The article discusses how the spread and acceleration of technology, communication, informatization affects the social perception of reality by the population of the studied landscape, how does a spatial understanding of reality take place in the sociocultural landscape. The study characterizes the aspect of the impact of accelerating the receipt of information in the framework of technological progress, which sees one of the serious causes of social changes, the unevenness of cultural transformations of the sociocultural landscape and the emergence, alienation, simulacra, clip culture, hyperreality due to the massive spread of clip culture. The concept of “landscape” is argued as the term that is best suited for the study of global processes, that the semantics of the English language conveys the idea of mobility and irregularity, in the term (landscape) the suffix - “scape” means “to slip, topple, to avoid”, then which is dynamic in space. It is emphasized that fast media flows in sociocultural landscapes dictate the creation of new methodological approaches.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Rosina Fransisca J. Lekawael ◽  
Emzir ◽  
Zainal Rafli

This study aimed at investigating and understanding the cultural values in texts of English coursebooks in Ambon, Moluccas, Indonesia. The researchers used content analysis method to analyze data in depth, detailed, and complete about the cultural values. The result of this research revealed that the cultural values from texts view found in the English coursebooks were prestige, honesty, discipline, alignment, individuality, diversity, hard-working, generosity, creativity, beauty, equality, fighting spirit, mutual help, caring, proud, independent, and belief. Thus, there were three dominant values that are, diversity, beauty, and alignment. Those results lead to implication that English teacher can apply the cultural values in teaching processes. Then, for the further language researchers can conduct related research on the impact of the cultural values to the attitude and the teenagers’ age.


Author(s):  
Brynne D. Ovalle ◽  
Rahul Chakraborty

This article has two purposes: (a) to examine the relationship between intercultural power relations and the widespread practice of accent discrimination and (b) to underscore the ramifications of accent discrimination both for the individual and for global society as a whole. First, authors review social theory regarding language and group identity construction, and then go on to integrate more current studies linking accent bias to sociocultural variables. Authors discuss three examples of intercultural accent discrimination in order to illustrate how this link manifests itself in the broader context of international relations (i.e., how accent discrimination is generated in situations of unequal power) and, using a review of current research, assess the consequences of accent discrimination for the individual. Finally, the article highlights the impact that linguistic discrimination is having on linguistic diversity globally, partially using data from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and partially by offering a potential context for interpreting the emergence of practices that seek to reduce or modify speaker accents.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 190-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Günter Krampen ◽  
Thomas Huckert ◽  
Gabriel Schui

Exemplary for other than English-language psychology journals, the impact of recent Anglicization of five former German-language psychology journals on (1) authorship (nationality, i.e., native language, and number of authors, i.e., single or multiple authorships), (2) formal characteristics of the journal (number of articles per volume and length of articles), and (3) number of citations of the articles in other journal articles, the language of the citing publications, and the impact factors (IF) is analyzed. Scientometric data on these variables are gathered for all articles published in the four years before anglicizing and in the four years after anglicizing the same journal. Results reveal rather quick changes: Citations per year since original articles’ publication increase significantly, and the IF of the journals go up markedly. Frequencies of citing in German-language journals decrease, citing in English-language journals increase significantly after the Anglicization of former German-language psychology journals, and there is a general trend of increasing citations in other languages as well. Side effects of anglicizing former German-language psychology journals include the publication of shorter papers, their availability to a more international authorship, and a slight, but significant increase in multiple authorships.


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