scholarly journals The Library of Rudolf Steiner: The Books in English

2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 21-46
Author(s):  
John Paull

The New Age philosopher, Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), was the most prolific and arguably the most influential philosopher of his era. He assembled a substantial library, of approximately 9,000 items, which has been preserved intact since his death. Most of Rudolf Steiner’s books are in German, his native language however there are books in other languages, including English, French, Italian, Swedish, Sanskrit and Latin. His library hosts more books in English than in any other foreign language. Steiner esteemed English as “a universal world language”. The present paper identifies 327 books in English in Rudolf Steiner’s personal library. Fifty percent of the English-language books identified are categorized as Theosophy (n=164). Rudolf Steiner was the General Secretary of the German branch of the Theosophy Society from 1902, and he hived off his own Anthroposophy Society in 1912. The present study reveals that Steiner maintained his interest in theosophy throughout his life as he stayed up to date with the proliferating portfolio of Theosophy publications. The publication dates of Steiner’s Theosophy collection range from 1877 to 1923. The leading exponents of Theosophy in his day are well represented in Steiner’s collection, including Annie Besant (n=61), Charles Lead beater (n=13), William Westcott (n=13) and Helena Blavatsky (n=10). Of the other 50% of the Anglo-books identified, 20% are in the category of Religion (n=67), 10% are Social Science (n=33), 6% are Philosophy (n=21), 4% are Science (n=13), and 3% each are Anthroposophy (n=11), History (n=9) and Arts (n=9). The publication dates of Steiner’s Anglo-books span the period 1659 to 1925. This demonstrates that Steiner was acquiring Anglo-books right to the end of his life. Steiner’s library throws light on the development of the thoughts of this remarkable individual and the present paper reveals Steiner’s engagement throughout his life with the world of Anglo-publishing and thought.

2017 ◽  
pp. 7-19
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Gromkowska-Melosik

The article is aimed at reconstructing the selected problems of English language adaptation in Japanese society. The author is convinced that there is a whole range of phenomena and paradoxes in Japan that fit perfectly the dilemma of cultural and national controversies around the English as a global language and around the concept of cultural imperialism. The main tension is connected with the fact that such societies as Japan want to keep their own mono-ethnicity and it is obvious that one of the most important components of it is native language treated as a form of embodiment of Japanese values and traditions. So, English is a threat to monolith of Japanese nation. On the other hand Japanese are aware that English helps their nation to rise the chance in global competition in global markets as well as it connects Japan to the world culture.


Author(s):  
Anna Abryutina ◽  
Anna Ponomareva

The growing popularity of contrastive phonology as a branch of linguis-tics is seen now, in particular, due to the spread of bilingualism and multilin-gualism. Globalization involves the ability to speak several languages, in the study of which the phonetic level is primarily considered. The purpose of this work is to examine and describe the most likely consequences arising from in-terference in the articulation of vowel sounds in the English-language speech of Germans who study English as a foreign language. The article deals with monophthongs, diphthongs, and triphthongs, dis-cusses possible variations in the articulation of sounds, as well as the processes of reduction, elision, and substitution. Descriptive and comparative methods are the leading ones in the work, however, the instrumental method is also used to determine deviations from the norm and the nature of changes in articulation. The paper identifies a number of trends in the articulation of English sounds by Germans and reveals the reasons of the main difficulties which stu-dents face while studying phonetic norms of RP and speaking German as their native language, i.e. the qualitative and quantitative mismatch of allophones. The achievement of this goal testifies to the theoretical significance of this work, namely, the possibility of further detailed research in the field of sociophonetics and phonostylistics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 96-104
Author(s):  
Samar Alharbi

English language considers a global language spoken by a majority of people around the world. It is a language used mainly for communication, trades and study purposes. This widespread of English language being wildly spoken lead to different varieties of English as a lingua franca (ELF) means that non native speakers of English still be able to communicate with each other. Using ELF as a legitimate variety of English in language classrooms is questioned by some researchers. This paper will provide an overview of the concept of ELF. It will also present implications and limitations of using ELF in Saudi English as foreign language classrooms.


Paideusis ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-34
Author(s):  
Peter Kovacs

Since the end of World War II, English has become the virtual lingua franca of the planet. However, this development carries significant ethical and educational questions: What are the consequences of the worldwide dominance of the English language? How has it affected and how will it affect the fortunes of other languages? What can and should we as educators to do to minimize or eliminate the harmful effects on some of the endangered languages of the world? This paper will invite educators into a philosophical discussion of the ethical complexities of teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language.


2019 ◽  
pp. 177-185
Author(s):  
Nadežda Stojković

In the huge and most diverse discussion on the influence of the English language as a second, international, or bridge language, there are distinctive voices drawing attention to the fact that this language as nowadays so widely used in innumerable contexts, is no longer ‘owned’ by the community of speakers to whom it is mother language, those primarily of the countries from where English language originates. Moreover, the number of people speaking, or rather using English language today either as their second or foreign language, by far outnumbers people to whom it is native. Situation being such, it is further claimed the concept of ‘standard English’ reflects inherent inequality stance, for if it belongs to everyone speaking it, then insisting on the supremacy on only one of its variants means placing all those speakers of it in a subdued position, and this possibly being yet another facet of English an agent of neocolonialism and globalization (Pennycook 1998, Phillipson 1992). The spread of the English language has been much investigated as oppressive to the formation and expression of personal and collective identities, degrading national languages and through globalization diminishing the impact of local cultures (Bhaba 1990), that it challenges cultures and discourses, being the impetus for continuous re-codification and re-colonisation (Foucault 1980). However, equally significant in relevance and number, the opposing views claim English today offers an expanded community of users enabling new ways of expressing, changing, negotiating voices that offer chances for cultural renewal and exchange around the world, that the awareness of this brings “decolonizing of the colonizers mind” (Penycook 2013). Taking the flip side of the situation, English language natives are noted to be in a paradoxical situation of being expatriates from their own language, themselves “co-victims” (Bratlinger 1990). This insurgent knowledge of the status of English language today is certainly to instigate further investigation, ‘writing back’ of what ontology this language now embodies.


For a long time, ELT (‘English language teaching’) scholars and practitioners have used terms like ‘ESL’ (‘English as a second language’) and ‘EFL’ (‘English as a foreign language’) unquestioningly to describe the English used by people outside the so-called ENL (‘English as a native language’) circle. For example, ELT practitioners may conveniently refer to students from places like China, Vietnam and Thailand as EFL students. Interestingly, we find counterparts of such terms in ‘World Englishes’ studies; Braj Kachru’s ‘Inner Circle English’, ‘Outer Circle English’ and ‘Expanding Circle English’ essentially refer to ENL ESL and EFL respectively. Despite the popularity of such terms in scholarly circles, the problems associated with their use have not often been explored in depth. Nevertheless, some authors have described such problems. For example, commenting on the distinction between ESL and EFL, Nayar (1997, p. 10) states, “a great deal of referential fuzziness within the two and denotative overlap between the two are making the terminological distinctions unclear, impractical, and ineffective or, worse still, in some cases inauspicious and irrelevant.” This special issue aims to further examine the use and relevance of these terms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 273-293
Author(s):  
Ying Huang ◽  
Weishan Miao

This paper surveys the status of Chinese English-language journals in the humanities and social sciences (HSS-CELJs). HSS-CELJs are an important vehicle for disseminating Chinese scholarly voices and culture throughout the world. We used a mixed-methods approach to investigate the status of HSS-CELJs according to a number of attributes: growth rate over time, type of publisher, discipline, region of publication, publishing frequency, independence versus co-publication, and inclusion in citation indexes. We discuss some of the challenges facing HSS-CELJ publishing and highlight several contradictions of internationalization in the Chinese context. As of March 2020, eighty-seven HSS-CELJs covered nineteen disciplines, among which economics (17 per cent) and law (13 per cent) accounted for the highest proportions. The establishment of HSS-CELJs has increased significantly since 2004. Fifty-two per cent of HSS-CELJs were jointly operated with international publishers under two different models of cooperation, and twenty-eight (32 per cent) were indexed in international databases.


Author(s):  
Araigul Kozhakhmetova ◽  
Lyazzat Beisenbayeva

New approaches, methods, and tools are necessary for the implementation of the modern management system in educational organizations. The main purpose of this chapter is to determine using the lean method in foreign language teaching. The lean method is new in educational systems, but it is used in different spheres of industries all over the world. This chapter shows the history, its implementation, experiments, and how it can be used and developed further. Lean in education will create a clear understanding of its importance on lean process and increase the motivations of administrations, teachers, and students.


Author(s):  
Vladimir Šebek ◽  

Specialized anti-corruption institutions are not product of the new age. First specialized departments in fighting against corruption went into effect in the middle of last century, but the beginning of creation of these departments has been connected with founding of the most significant specialized institutions. Although its effects on democratic institutions and economic and social development have long been apparent, the fight against corruption has only recently been placed high on the international policy agenda. The UN Convention Against Corruption, which came into force in 2005, is the most universal in its approach; it covers a very broad range of issues including the formation of specialised bodies responsible for preventing corruption and for combating corruption through law enforcement. It is the author’s intention to present to the public the organizational solutions of the anticorruption bodies predicted in the UN Convention against Corruption and folloving standards to act effectively. On the one hand, this text represents models of specialized anti-corruption bodies in the world, and on the other hand, it contains display of institutional anti-corruption model in Republic of Serbia as well, with the focus on the Department for Corruption Suppression (OBPK) in the Ministry of Interior and special departmens of Public prosecutor's offices. In order to compare efficiency of police and prosecutorial work, a data analysis was performed for the period before and the period after the Law on organization and competence of state bodies in supression of organized crime, terrorism and corruption, entry into force.


2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abdul Fattah Soomro ◽  
Mansoor S. Almalki

Method-based pedagogies are commonly applied in teaching English as a foreign language all over the world. However, in the last quarter of the 20th century, the concept of such pedagogies based on the application of a single best method in EFL started to be viewed with concerns by some scholars. In response to the growing concern against the concept of a method, some scholars started to offer alternatives to a method in different forms. Kumaravadivelu is one of the scholars who offers his post-method macro-strategic framework as an alternative to method-based pedagogies. This small-scale study explores English language practitioners’ experience and their views about applying method-based and post-method pedagogies. Semi-structured pre- and post-interviews were conducted from eight participants. The pre-interviews investigated the teacher-participants’ views about the method-based pedagogies in practice and the post-interviews aimed at knowing the prospects and concerns in the application of post-method pedagogies in their context. Although participants were skeptical of the concept of methods, they considered them useful in making contribution towards learning and teaching English. They found post-method pedagogies as more preferable option to method-based pedagogies in ELT on the ground; the post-method pedagogies, according to them, give broad directions while specific methods make teachers to work within narrow guidelines. However, they showed certain concerns in the application of such pedagogies in their context.


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