scholarly journals “MYTHS”, “TRUTHS” AND THE ROLE OF APPLIED LINGUISTICS IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIETY

2021 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 455-466
Author(s):  
Naomi Orton
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Larisa Nikitina ◽  
Fumitaka Furuoka

AbstractApplied linguists and language educators have long acknowledged the prominent role that language attitudes play in the process of selecting and learning an additional language. The current study examines a mediating role of language attitudes in the Stereotypes–L2 motivation linkage in the context of learning a foreign language, an area which remains comparatively underexplored. It provides a detailed description of – and rationale for – applying a statistical procedure based on the Baron–Kenny method, which is rarely used in applied linguistics research. The findings indicate that stereotypes and language attitudes had a positive impact on L2 motivation when the former two variables were examined separately in two different analyses. However, when all the three variables were analysed together, language attitudes were found to remain a motivational factor while the stereotypes ceased to be such. This suggests that stereotypes had an indirect effect on L2 motivation through language attitudes. Hence, language attitudes were a mediating variable in the Stereotypes–L2 motivation linkage assessed by the Baron–Kenny method. These findings have some pedagogical implications.


Author(s):  
Cristina Garrigós

Forgetting and remembering are as inevitably linked as lifeand death. Sometimes, forgetting is motivated by a biological disorder, brain damage, or it is the product of an unconscious desire derived from a traumatic event (psychological repression). But in some cases, we can motivate forgetting consciously (thought suppression). It is through the conscious repression of memories that we can find self-preservation and move forward, although this means that we create a fable of our lives, as Nietzsche says in his essay “On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life” (1997). In Jonathan Franzen’s novel, Purity (2015), forgetting is an active and conscious process by which the characters choose to forget certain episodes of their lives to be able to construct new identities. The erased memories include murder, economical privileges derived from illegal or unethical commercial processes, or dark sexual episodes. The obsession with forgetting the past links the lives of the main characters, and structures the narrative of the novel. The motivated erasure of memories becomes, thus, a way that the characters have to survive and face the present according to a (fake) narrative that they have constructed. But is motivated forgetting possible? Can one completely suppress facts in an active way? This paper analyses the role of forgetting in Franzen’s novel in relation to the need in our contemporary society to deny, hide, or erase uncomfortable data from our historical or personal archives; the need to make disappear stories which we do not want to accept, recognize, and much less make known to the public. This is related to how we manage information in the age of technology, the “selection” of what is to be the official story, and how we rewrite our own history


2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 36-68 ◽  
Author(s):  
O.V. Shalygina ◽  
A.B. Kholmogorova

This article continues the theme of social standards assimilation and values relating to the visual appeal, starting from a very early age. The authors use the multifactor psycho-social model of affective spectrum disorders. They consider the risk factors for the formation of girls’ dissatisfaction by their bodies. In contemporary society this kind of dissatisfaction is an important factor of affective disorders and of the narcissistic attitudes formation. The role of fashion dolls in the internalization of extreme physical ideals is researched. The resources that support the fashion dolls (entertainment magazines for girls, ad sites, special channels’ reviews on the dolls’ younger schoolgirls posted in You Tube) are analyzed. These resources’ contribution to the promotion of dangerous to young generation’s mental and physical health is also analyzed in the article.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 79-99
Author(s):  
Brian Mossop

This semi-autobiographical article reflects on the discipline known as Translation Studies from the point of view of the author, who was a full-time Canadian government translator from 1974 to 2014, but also taught and wrote about translation. The narrative begins with the emergence of Translation Studies in Canada and in Europe and continues through the present neoliberal era, with reflection on a variety of topics including the English name of the discipline, the lack of definition of an object of study, the original role of the journal Meta, and the notion of translation as applied linguistics. The last section considers two fictive scenarios in which Translation Studies does not emerge, and translation is studied, right from the start, in ways much more closely linked to the translation profession, with a focus on translators rather than translations, and therefore on translational production rather than the analysis of completed translations.


Author(s):  
Maria Auxiliadora Fontana Baseio ◽  
Maria Zilda da Cunha

ABSTRACTIn fact, the cultural relationships between different groups are not something specific to contemporary society, but the globalized world is the place where cultural communities relate in a more intense and complex way. The dynamics of globalization approach groups of different cultures causing tensions and resistances. In the Arts, this phenomenon is represented in different ways. In Literature - in this case addressed to youth - understood as a cultural and symbolic production, there are various practices of meaning, which are responsible to build ways of seeing, being and living. These practices point out the perception of plural identities. Artists, with the construction of their aesthetic and political projects, can refuse hegemonic discourses, fighting against prejudice, disrespect, exclusion, denying the ideology based on dominant values. The main purpose of this study is to analyze, in the new perspectives of Comparative Studies, the role of literary art and their intercultural dialogues.RESUMOApesar de os entrecruzamentos culturais não serem algo específico da sociedade contemporânea, é neste mundo globalizado que as comunidades culturais se relacionam de maneira mais intensa e complexa. A dinâmica da globalização cada vez mais aproxima grupos de culturas diferentes, provocando tensões, negociações e resistências. No campo das artes, esse fenômeno cultural é representado de diferentes formas. Na literatura - neste caso a que se destina à juventude - compreendida como produção cultural e simbólica transformadora, agenciam-se práticas de significação, ou seja, formas de construir modos de ver, de ser e de estar no mundo que favorecem a percepção das identidades múltiplas. Pela elaboração de seus projetos - estético e político -, os artistas põem em revista os discursos hegemônicos, marcados muitas vezes pelo preconceito, pelo desrespeito, pela exclusão, desnudando relações de poder, classificações e rotulações instituídas a partir de uma ideologia forjada a partir de valores dominantes. O objetivo deste estudo é analisar, dentro das novas perspectivas dos Estudos Comparados, o papel da arte literária em seus diálogos interculturais.


Author(s):  
Tom W. Smith

This chapter examines trends in institutional confidence measured by the General Social Survey between 1973 and 2006. It begins by considering the construct of institutional confidence and describing the items and scales used to measure it. After presenting overall levels of confidence in 13 institutions during this period, it examines trends in general confidence scales and in individual institutions. Cohort analysis helps to illuminate these trends. The chapter next investigates correlates of institutional confidence, including experiences with specific institutions, party-in-power effects, education, misanthropy, opinionation, and a general demographic model. It briefly considers the relationship between institutional confidence and support for government programs and political matters. It closes by assessing the state and role of institutional confidence in contemporary society, and both general and event-driven models of trends in confidence.


2019 ◽  
pp. 1523-1544
Author(s):  
Abiodun Elijah Obayelu

This chapter provides an insight into why Green Marketing (GM) and Sustainable Consumption (SC) of green products are subject of research and discussion in contemporary society. It analyzed the extent of GM in developing countries using cases of Nigeria and Kenya, factors influencing GM, the benefits of GM on the environment and firms, and the challenges. The study is both exploratory with the use of structured literature review of publications in peer reviewed academic journals on GM and SC, and empirical in nature. The findings on respondents rating of factors influencing green purchase behavior showed that concern for health and environment was considered as the most important in Nigeria, while in Kenya it was social awareness and value. For an effective GM and SC, government at all levels has a role of creating awareness to boost green knowledge through educative campaign programs and enforcing green agenda. Government can make regulations relating to GM and ensure SC by lowering the cost when compared to the conventional marketing


Author(s):  
Orlando Pereira ◽  
Daniel Gonçalves Novo Gomes ◽  
Ana Martins ◽  
Isabel Martins

This chapter discusses the role of education in “humanizing the economy” and emphasizes its contribution to the development of a new socio-economic model that helps to overcome the irregularities present in contemporary society. It proposes the implementation of school practices aimed at the completeness of the individual and in favor of social balance. It also emphasizes the importance of the humanizing process in the attainment of values such as, justice, freedom, solidarity and cooperation, which are structuring values of social cohesion. The primary data focused on the Secondary Education in the Districts of Braga and Viana do Castelo, in the northwest of Portugal. Interviews were conducted with school principals as main actors in the research. In spite of the limitations of the work, the results show that, in Portugal, education is still focused on individualism. It is also noted that assimilation of social aspects and humanization is weak, which inhibits placing the individual at the center of economic concerns and produces negative externalities on economic and social performance including wellbeing.


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