Constructing meaning in a different language: the case of doctoral students in a French University

Drawing from a constructivist approach, this qualitative research presents results of teaching the Doctoral English Course (DEC) at the Center for Languages (CDL), University Paris 8 Vincennes-Saint-Denis. The DEC aims to train doctoral candidates in the practice of scientific communication in English. By allowing students to (re)think and approach their thesis in English, concrete research methods and tools to produce results related to their research were provided. The analysis explored students’ experiences on classroom activities and their reflections at the end of the course. Students reflected on meaningful experiences, collaborative learning, and impact of the process in developing their research. Overall, the study offers insightful contributions on the way rethinking in a different language influenced the way scientific meaning is reconstructed.

On the demarcation of mythological messages in the communicative space of contemporary culture: An interdisciplinary approach

The article considers myth as an element of social communication reproduced in both archaic and modern times. The author seeks criteria for identifying mythological messages in the general corpus of connotative messages. The empirical field of the search is the mass media. The author follows the interdisciplinary research principles and presents a combination of various approaches to the study of myth. In the contemporary culture, myth remains one of the most relevant ways for constructing meaning. In both modern and archaic myths, there is a single type of thinking, the logic of which is not limited to the logic of emotions or scientific normativity. The author distinguishes normal and transformed myths, and argues that the demarcation of the mythological is needed exclusively for transformed myths. In other cases, despite its obvious ubiquity, myth remains a by-product of communications, does not distort their main content and does not parasitize on their form. The article draws an analogy between how mythological thinking functions in the archaic and the methods for forming mythological content in the contemporary mass media. The author comes to the conclusion that the initial functional orientation of the mass media is distorted in mythological messages: in the transformed media (media + myth), the function of informing is replaced by the functions of motivation. The mass media code information/not information is distorted, values are presented as systems of facts, and the image of reality as reality itself. The demarcation of mythological messages can be achieved by identifying the distortion of the content and functions of the original form of culture. Such a transformation is a necessary but insufficient criterion for identifying mythological messages in the communicative space of contemporary culture.

Commemorative Practice in Aotearoa New Zealand: Exploring the bicentennial and sestercentennial of the Endeavour's arrival in Gisborne and Tairāwhiti

<p>In the midst of commemoration programmes for the centenary of the First World War, academic literature about and interest in the topic of commemoration has grown significantly. While studies in the UK and America focus on the use of the past and commemoration, there is little work on commemorative practice within a New Zealand context, particularly over a period of time. As museums and heritage sites increasingly look to new ways of making meaningful experiences for a diverse and changing public, this research seeks to address the gap in the literature and help to inform future management of commemoration in New Zealand. With the sestercentennial of the 1769 arrival of the Endeavour to New Zealand coming up in 2019, this research involved case studies of the earlier bicentennial in 1969 and the planning stages of the future commemoration in both Gisborne (the site of Lieutenant James Cook’s first landing) and Wellington. The methods employed for this dissertation comprised archival and documentary research, as well as interviews with professionals involved in the sestercentennial. Using a theoretical framework based in museum and heritage studies, as well as history, sociology and cultural studies this study considers the many ways we use the past, from institutional practices to vernacular interests. The findings revealed that in 1969 commemorations in Gisborne were a spectacle, a true performance. Depictions of Cook were everywhere and monuments were erected all around the city. From pageantry to legacy building, the 2019 focus is on educating the public and establishing meaningful legacies for the future. This dissertation concludes that commemoration should not be treated as a one-off event but rather as an ongoing practice that is shaped by the past and by social and political contexts as much as we are. I argue that the three most important, yet also most changeable, elements of commemoration are narrative, approach to management (top-down and/or bottom-up), and participation. It is common for some to want to ‘look forward’ rather than to the past to inform commemorative planning. However, I argue that more can be gained by consciously seeing the continuity and change of commemorative practice through time. By looking at commemorations in the past and plans for the future this research furthers our understanding of the practice and its role in constructing meaning.</p>

Commemorative Practice in Aotearoa New Zealand: Exploring the bicentennial and sestercentennial of the Endeavour's arrival in Gisborne and Tairāwhiti

<p>In the midst of commemoration programmes for the centenary of the First World War, academic literature about and interest in the topic of commemoration has grown significantly. While studies in the UK and America focus on the use of the past and commemoration, there is little work on commemorative practice within a New Zealand context, particularly over a period of time. As museums and heritage sites increasingly look to new ways of making meaningful experiences for a diverse and changing public, this research seeks to address the gap in the literature and help to inform future management of commemoration in New Zealand. With the sestercentennial of the 1769 arrival of the Endeavour to New Zealand coming up in 2019, this research involved case studies of the earlier bicentennial in 1969 and the planning stages of the future commemoration in both Gisborne (the site of Lieutenant James Cook’s first landing) and Wellington. The methods employed for this dissertation comprised archival and documentary research, as well as interviews with professionals involved in the sestercentennial. Using a theoretical framework based in museum and heritage studies, as well as history, sociology and cultural studies this study considers the many ways we use the past, from institutional practices to vernacular interests. The findings revealed that in 1969 commemorations in Gisborne were a spectacle, a true performance. Depictions of Cook were everywhere and monuments were erected all around the city. From pageantry to legacy building, the 2019 focus is on educating the public and establishing meaningful legacies for the future. This dissertation concludes that commemoration should not be treated as a one-off event but rather as an ongoing practice that is shaped by the past and by social and political contexts as much as we are. I argue that the three most important, yet also most changeable, elements of commemoration are narrative, approach to management (top-down and/or bottom-up), and participation. It is common for some to want to ‘look forward’ rather than to the past to inform commemorative planning. However, I argue that more can be gained by consciously seeing the continuity and change of commemorative practice through time. By looking at commemorations in the past and plans for the future this research furthers our understanding of the practice and its role in constructing meaning.</p>

Mediation as a strategy for constructing meaning in the teaching of a subject by integrating a foreign language

The increasing globalization as well as internationalization have influenced educational systems all over the world, contributing to widespread of the idea of teaching in a second or foreign language so as to allow students, ranging from primary to tertiary levels, to compete in an international context. The aim of this paper is to analyse and categorise the strategies of mediation used for presentation of subject content knowledge while teaching in bilingual French-Polish classes at secondary school level. In order to take the complex nature of the issue into account, variety of used strategies will be examined by means of corpus analysis. The material used for analysis comes from the bilingual lessons of chemistry and biology recorded in secondary school in Warsaw in the period between November and December 2019. The studies presented will allow conclusions to be drawn regarding the potential possibilities and problems of content-knowledge presentation in foreign langue.

An Ethnographic Study on the Linguistic Landscapes of the Coffee Shops in Songjiang University Town in Shanghai From the Perspective of “The Third Place”

This paper examines how coffee shops, as important public places, convey the owners’ understandings of the socio-economic conditions by constructing meaning through linguistic landscapes. Coffee shops’ features are further explored through a survey of the interactions or dialogues happening in these places. Qualitative Data are collected through an ethnographic study on the coffee shops in Songjiang University Town in Shanghai. The results indicate that the linguistic landscapes of these coffee shops construct a business-first ideology, and interactions or dialogues beyond time and space based on new media have replaced “coffee talk” and thus changed the characteristics of communication practice in these places. The paper concludes that the attributes of coffee shops as “the third place” have gradually faded in this increasingly commercialized society.

Testimony and Meaning: A Qualitative Study of Black Women with Cancer Diagnoses

Objectives: Research has established religion and spirituality as important resources for Black people in the US coping with adversity. Most research has been from an etic perspective, examining religious variables that are valid across multiple religions. In the present study, we asked what emic aspects of the Black church’s practices and theological emphases women with cancer drew on in constructing meaning-making narratives from their cancer experience. Methods: In this consensual qualitative research study, we interviewed 30 Black women with cancer histories with an average age of 64.5. Results: The religious practice of testimony emerged as the predominant theme. Testimony (a) provided a meaningful purpose to the cancer experience; (b) had a specific content of describing what God had done in their lives as well as some common theological emphases; (c) had dual desired outcomes of helping others and bringing glory to God; and (d) had an associated practice of giving testimony. Conclusions: We discuss testimony as a narrative structure and highlight its importance in informing culturally-sensitive interventions aimed at supporting Black women with cancer.