scholarly journals Pulling Apart the Apparatus

2014 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-2-3) ◽  
pp. 59-73
Author(s):  
Will Straw
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Film Spectatorship

This article responds to a series of questions posed by Francesco Casetti to “Impact” conference panelists dealing with the fate of apparatus theory in film studies. I argue that the unravelling of apparatus theory has been a long, complex process, unfolding over four decades. A well-known feature of this unravelling within English-language film studies has been the assertion that spectators/subjects are not formal products of the functioning of an apparatus, but rather embodied individuals characterized by multiple forms of identity. This assertion has helped to detach the study of film spectatorship from theories of the apparatus, rendering the former more empirical and sociological. At the same time, difficulties in translation have resulted in a confusion, in English-language film scholarship, between the French termsappareilanddispositif, both of which have found themselves translated as “apparatus”. Drawing on the writings of Agamben and Vouilloux, I show how a key problem in apparatus theory is the extent to which the forces shaping spectator identity are themselves part of an apparatus or might be seen as external to the latter and as historical variables with which an apparatus interacts.

scholarly journals An Attitudinal Study of English as a Foreign Language in Sukkur Sindh Pakistan

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Ashfaque Hussain Soomro ◽  
Zaheer Ahmed Bango ◽  
Imran Khan Mahesar
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
Formal Education ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Foreign Language Learning ◽  
Target Population ◽  
Learning Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Complex Process

<p><em>Foreign language learning is a complex process and is influenced by various factors. The attitude of students towards language learning is a major decisive factor in this process; therefore, the current study was carried out to explore this phenomenon. The students of English Works Program Sukkur, Sindh, Pakistan were the target population for the current study. The said program was initiated by a Karachi based organization which enrolled fifty students for a 240 hours certificate course in English language. The students already had some formal education ranging from Intermediate to Masters level and belonged to different age groups. The aim of this quantitative study was to investigate their language learning attitudes from three aspects: behavioral, cognitive and emotional. For data collection purposes, a questionnaire comprising 30 closed-ended items was adapted from Eshghinejad, (2016), Boonrangsri, Chuaymankhong, Rermyindee, &amp; Vongchittpinyo, (2004) and Gardner (1985). This was followed by descriptive and inferential statistical analysis by using independent sample t-test (SPSS-22). The results show that the students have positive attitudes towards learning English as a foreign language.</em></p><p> </p>

scholarly journals POST-SCRIPT FROM FILM STUDIES: Whose choice? Watching non-English language films in the UK

Multilingua ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 619-624 ◽  
Author(s):  
Griseldis Kirsch
Keyword(s):  
English Language ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
Country Of Origin ◽  
Film Festivals ◽  
The Uk

Abstract In a market dominated by Hollywood, it is easy to overlook that the number of films (and televised productions) which are not in English is actually by far greater than those in English. However, although some non-English language film industries are vast, only a comparatively small number of productions are screened outside of their country of origin. Therefore, before being translated and brought to screens for us to watch, already a filter applies, as the films are chosen by curators of film festivals or the industry. For that reason, films that are perhaps less representative but more interesting, or by a well-known director may be chosen over others that may have been more successful in their country of origin, but are made by a less-well know director or perceived to be less interesting for ‘foreign audiences’. The choice of what we watch is thus never entirely ours. Using Japan, Germany and the UK as example, I will offer some thoughts on what impact such a filter might have on the consumption, and therefore the perception, of a film outside of its country of origin and what challenges this poses for audiences and researchers.

scholarly journals Fairy tales between transformation and repetition: How audiences rethink the big romantic myth through Disney princess stories

2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (3/4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatjana Menise
Keyword(s):  
Fairy Tales ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Fairy Tale ◽  
English Language ◽  
Participatory Culture ◽  
Promising Material ◽  
Walt Disney Company ◽  
Walt Disney ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Professional Critics

One of the ways in which culture becomes enriched is through reconsideration and reinterpretation of well-known stories, and classic fairy tales provide promising material for investigation of the nature of this complex process. The Walt Disney Company is among the most powerful tellers of classic tales, its line of princess animations being an example of simultaneous development and preservation of the fairy-tale phenomenon in a changing cultural context. We analyse the dialogue among classic and modern princess stories and the discussions that these stories give rise to in English-language academic criticism and English-based participatory culture. We focus on the interaction among authors, texts and readers, showing how traditional tales balance between mythological and nonmythological consciousness, between innovative and canonical art. The diversity of fans’ practices may be seen as a key to possible explanation of why fairy tales exist in culture as a complex, constantly growing web, not as a limited number of selected final versions. Amateur authors demonstrate their interest in the mythopoetics of classic fairy tale plots. They are attracted by the old romantic myth that stands behind princess stories, participate in the creation of the romantic antimyth that is supported by the professional critics, and expect the appearance of new modern myths that might be generated by the new productions of Disney. New fairy tales appear, but this does not result in the disappearance of the old ones. Not only the interests towards the plots themselves, but also discussions and conflict around classic stories keep them topical for contemporary heterogeneous audiences.

Conclusion

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuge Wei
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
English Language ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pearl Harbor ◽  
World War ◽  
National Image ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Nationalist Government ◽  
Current History

The period between 1928 and 1941 witnessed two marked trends: the growing sympathy for China’s anti-Japanese cause in the English-language press and the development of China’s foreign propaganda system. The two processes were closely connected. Even before China became a military ally of the United States and Britain after Pearl Harbor, it had already become an emotional ally. A change in national image is always a complex process. Other elements, such as the conflict of interests between the Western powers and Japan as well as Japanese atrocities in China, may well have contributed to the shift in public opinion. Yet it is undeniable that China’s continuous propaganda efforts intensified the existing tensions between Japan and the Western powers and strongly promoted the change. History does not allow “what if” questions. Yet some hypothetical scenarios are useful in urging us toward a reevaluation of the significance of certain stories and events that are absent from current history telling. Would the United States have entered the war in 1941 without any propaganda effort from the Nationalist government? Had the United States delayed confrontation with Japan and stayed out of East Asia, could Chiang Kai-shek’s government have survived Japan’s encirclement? If the Chiang Kai-shek regime had collapsed in the early 1940s, would World War II have ended with the same result?...

Unveiling the Inconvenient Truth

2020 ◽  
pp. 162-181
Author(s):  
Dennis Foung ◽  
Julia Chen ◽  
Linda H. F. Lin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
English Language ◽  
Continuous Process ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Personalized Feedback ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Data Application ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Big Data Application ◽  
English Program

This chapter defines the concept of innovation in the context of higher education by discussing the implementation of a dashboard in a university English program. A dashboard is a personalized feedback tool and a common “big data” application. The challenges arising in the process of developing and implementing such innovations have seldom been explored. However, in this study, the English Language Centre of a Hong Kong university developed a dashboard called course diagnostic reports (CDR) that was piloted with over 400 students from 39 classes. This chapter reports the findings of both a questionnaire evaluating the CDR and 14 interviews that were conducted with course leaders, subject teachers, and students. Discussions of the tool revealed the complex process of innovation. It was found that, for stakeholders, innovation is a continuous process that requires compromises and that an innovation must cross a minimum usability threshold before continuing through the innovation process.

scholarly journals Becoming Pedagogical: Sustaining Hearts With Living Credos

in education ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl Leggo ◽  
Rita L. Irwin
Keyword(s):  
Language Arts ◽  
Teacher Candidates ◽  
English Language ◽  
Curriculum And Instruction ◽  
Complex World ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Secondary Curriculum ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
The World ◽  
Bachelor Of Education

From September to December 2009, a class of teacher candidates completed a Bachelor of Education course titled English Language Arts: Secondary Curriculum and Instruction. The instructor introduced himself at the beginning of the course as an a/r/tographer who is an artist, a researcher, and a teacher. He invited students to think about the possibilities of their being a/r/tographers, and to think about how they live in the world, as well as in their new emerging identities in the Bachelor of Education program, as artists and researchers and teachers. The teacher candidates were invited to think about how they werebecoming pedagogical, and how they could sustain their hearts in the dynamic and complex process of becoming pedagogical.They were reminded that teacher candidates are not learning a toolbox of skills and strategies for teaching; they are learning how to navigate the tangled and complex world of human beings in communities called schools.Keywords: teacher education; lifewriting; a/r/tography; credo; creativity

scholarly journals English Language Teaching Methods and Reforms in English Curriculum in Iraq; an Overview

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 578
Author(s):  
Momen Yaseen M.Amin
Keyword(s):  
Teaching Methods ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
Language Teachers ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
English Curriculum ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
History Of ◽  
English Language Teachers ◽  
Language Teaching Methods

Language teaching curriculum and teaching methods is a complex process. This process needs the utility of a number of linguistic, psychological, sociological, pedagogical, and political disciplines. Also, a curriculum-designer has to answer the need of the theory. It also needs cooperative efforts in which experienced English language teachers move together with specialists in the subject-matter. (Corder, 1973:13) This paper aims to shed light on the history of English curriculum in Iraq and on the phases of reform it has witnessed. English language teaching methods (traditional and recent) in this country will be discussed as well.

The scenographic, costumed chorus, agency and the performance of matter: A new materialist approach to costume

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donatella Barbieri ◽  
Greer Crawley
Keyword(s):  
Meaning Making ◽  
Multiple Forms ◽  
Social Conventions ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Iterative Processes ◽  
The Core ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Relational Form ◽  
Eugene Onegin ◽  
Analytical Approaches

This article presents the performativity of costume as generated through materially discursive iterative processes that embed meaning in the production itself through the analysis of the chorus costumes for the 2018 Opéra du Rhin production of Eugene Onegin. It argues that a new materialist approach can reveal the ethical concerns, around gender, toxic masculinity and compliance to reactionary social conventions, that lie at the core of this costuming of an opera chorus, particularly when perceived through the multiple forms that shape its distinct materializations over three successive acts. In addition, a focus on the agential actions of materials will draw attention to the work of the costume department, which to date has remained largely unaddressed by analytical approaches that are solely based on spectatorship, semiotics or phenomenological perspectives. Identifying the agential actions that materials perform enables the articulation of the costume specialist’s response to the performativity of materials. Adopting a new materialist approach, ‘costuming’ is found to be an evolving and relational form that emerges from a complex process of meaning-making that addresses, through a distribution of agency, how materials connect to wider concerns.

Ambiguities in English Language Teaching: Designing English for Specific Purposes Courses for a Discipline-Specific Context

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mimi Nahariah Azwani Mohamed
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Teaching ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
English For Specific Purposes ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Language Courses ◽  
Professional Body ◽  
Specific Discipline ◽  
Language Needs

The need for English language teaching to address specific language needs for a discipline has instigated growing demands for English for Specific Purposes (ESP) courses in higher education institutions in Malaysia. In the context of a university which focuses on engineering programmes, monitored by an engineering professional body, ESP courses designed and developed for higher education are expected to include learning outcomes which reflect integration between English language and engineering fields. In other words, these English language courses need to address the language needs in the engineering field. Thus, English language educators within this context need to have relevant knowledge and skills to enable them to design and develop appropriate ESP courses. Questions arise in relation to how English language courses developed have addressed this expectation. This paper examines the extent to which this expectation is translated into the ESP courses at one technical university in Malaysia. The findings showcase how this expectation is disseminated to the English language educators. This paper provides insight into the complex process of designing English language courses that could address the language needs of the engineering field. In addition, this paper highlights aspects to consider when designing an ESP course for a specific discipline.

scholarly journals Audiovisual translation as orchestration of multimodal synergies

Target ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Jing
Keyword(s):  
Facial Expressions ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
English Language ◽  
Considerable Degree ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Semiotic Resources ◽  
Audiovisual Translation ◽  
And Linguistics

Abstract This study explores the coordination between subtitles and other semiotic resources in films, from within a systemic functional semiotic framework. The paper focuses on the subtitling of interjections (e.g., ‘oh’, ‘wow’, ‘yay’) to examine how subtitles are synthesized in films with respect to the presence of facial expressions and/or bodily gestures which might be perceived as conveying similar meanings. The analysis of multiple versions of intralingual subtitles of two English-language films shows that the seemingly random omission of soundtrack interjections from subtitles is patterned to a considerable degree – those interjections which are concurrent with semiotically correlated actions were frequently omitted. The findings suggest that subtitling is a complex process involving synergy between subtitles and other semiotic resources, which calls for interdisciplinary research integrating translation, multimodality, and linguistics.

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