Relational Becoming: Considering Classroom Dialogue in Ethico-ontological Terms

This paper draws on Bakhtin’s ethico-ontological vision of dialogue to theorize “relational becoming” on a micro-level. To do so, it introduces three “ethical dimensions of dialogue” (responsibility, responsiveness, and capacitation) and develops the interrelated concepts of addressability and presencing as analytical lenses. Drawing on transcript data from a series of high school and college students’ discussions about controversial political issues, the analysis examines how interlocutors made themselves addressable, addressed each other, and were “presenced” in dialogue. It also discusses the ethico-ontological potential of these interactions, identifying a problematic tendency among interlocutors to not “show up” in verbal discourse in a variety of ways, including, in particular, reliance on abstractions.

A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Pictures in ELT Textbooks: Modes of Communication in Focus

There is a tight nexus between visual literacy and textbook picture representations. This is of paramount importance when textbooks in general and ELT textbooks, in particular, are under question. To conduct a visual and verbal discourse analysis based on modes of communication, ELT textbook pictures were analyzed under the assumption that visual and verbal discourse interacts with reflected modes of communication. To this end, 50 ELT textbook pictures were used as the corpus and analyzed according to KvL's (2006) visual images analytical strategies in multimodal texts and Halliday’s (1985) transitivity system for verbal analysis of textbook pictures. The analysis of multimodal resources revealed that the analyzed visual images were used to represent non-human images; close-up images, frontal images, left-right compositions were the most frequent visual modes in the selected pictures. In the case of verbal mode, the relational main-type and verbal minor-type level with 39% and 2% were the most and least frequent verbal strategies, respectively. The findings might have significant theoretical and pedagogical implications for scholars, L2 teachers, and ELT textbook designers to consider the potential of using multimodal resources for non-pedagogical purposes while integrating textbook visual images and verbal strategies to create meanings. Keywords: Multimodal Discourse Analysis, Transitive System’s Processes, Visual Images Interpretive Strategies, Modes of Communication, ELT Textbooks.

Thomas Hobbes on Civility, Magnanimity, and Scientific Discourse

Thomas Hobbes contends that a wise sovereign would censor books and limit verbal discourse for the majority of citizens. But this article contends that it is consistent with Hobbes’s philosophy to claim that a wise sovereign would allow a small number of citizens – those individuals who engage in scientific discourse and who are magnanimous and just – to disagree freely amongst themselves, engaging in discourse on controversial topics. This article reflects on Hobbes’s contention that these individuals can tolerate one another’s differences and engage in verbal disagreement without any risk to the commonwealth. By engaging in open discourse, these individuals can better create valuable technology and provide counsel to the sovereign that is necessary to maintain peace.

Embodied Rationality as a Mode of the Visibility of Ethics (To the Question of the Toolkit of Constructivism)

Emphasizing a keen interest in the corporeal/bodily in its dynamics and its cognitive characteristics, the authors show that the appeal to the corporeal as a cognitive option changes the understanding and perception of such traditional phenomena as the world, reality, space, things. The proposition that the subject constructs the world, and our bodily experience is determined by the word and constructed by discursive contexts, looks incomplete: its limited nature requires some additions. The authors underline that the study of human sensual cognitive capabilities and the analysis of the cognitive map of the bodily forces us to pay attention to embodied rationality. Addressing it allows us to overcome constructivism, focused exclusively on the discourse of the word, because our intelligence was also shaped in accordance with the form of body action. The authors turned to the problem of mode the visibility of ethics and posed a provocative question as follows: can the cognitive abilities of the bodily act as a basis for ‘construction the morality’ and occupy n equal position with verbal discourse? To solve this problem, the authors analyzed relevant scientific findings and their influence on the nature of the development of constructivist epistemology, studied the debate on the issue of ethics taking place among the representatives of constructivism, and, in particular, analyzed discussions on tools of the constructivism. At present, all ideas and works of constructivism must take into account bodily rationality as their obligatory component (in its general instrumental and methodological basis), and bodily rationality can serve as the basis for “constructing morality.”

Linguopsychological features of units of personality in English and Uzbek languages

The point of the show article is to appear a few issues of interpretation phraseological units from English into Uzbek dialect in see of them linguacultural highlights. The dialect culture of the individual is shaped at interaction of wonders "culture of dialect" and "culture of speech". In its premise the information of standards of composed and verbal discourse, semantic and expressive openings of framework, think about excellent craftsmanship, publicistic and a few other writings lays.

My performance is my world. Queer and normativity in the practices of New York’s ballroom culture

The central concept of the article is performance as a form of expression specific to non-normative people. In confrontation with the oppressive discourse of dominant groups, the body of an excluded individual and its metamorphoses in themselves appear to be an alternative way of non-alienated expression. This phenomenon is discussed via the example of the practices of New York’s ballroom culture — primarily via the example of the film Paris is Burning from 1990, directed by Jennie Livingston. In the ballroom community, black and non-heteronormative Americans found a safe space for experiments with their identity, thanks to which they could experience a form of capitalistic success through an ephemeral performance. However, these practices, despite their apparent subversiveness and emancipatory potential, did not have the ambition to change the status quo. They only allowed experiencing the feeling of social advancement within the existing system. The story that ballroom culture members in the 1980s told about themselves through their own performances was part of a unique, non-verbal discourse of excluded groups, which developed a specific communication code based on the human body, its ways of moving and its aesthetic metamorphoses.

Other Places

The final chapter of Modernist Disguise offers an analysis of the contemporary manifestations of masquerading in daily life, on the stage and in the gallery. In a series of physical sites where face and body masking are overtly displayed, ‘Other Places’ are evaluated for functional and poetic potential as showcase sites. The author argues that place profoundly impacts and determines the nature of a form’s statement and its theatricality, as a mise en scène of the body. Performers and participants in disguising events, like Carnivals, fashion shows, street theatre, circus and dance, produce meaning in an exchange of visual, non-verbal discourse. The photographs documenting these happenings extend the life of identity research. The complex interplay of masked subject, photographer and camera is deeply steeped in meanings and degrees of performativity. Dynamic spaces identified and diagnosed in this chapter include the artist’s studio, the photographer’s studio, scenographic and mediated spaces, formal proscenium stages, arena theatres and the actor-training studio. Nuances of the masked actor in the rehearsal atelier, stimulated by learning methodologies utilised by Jacques Lecoq in the French tradition, present the act of virtually, temporarily inhabiting an ‘Other Place’ through the act of fixed-form mask play and transformative performance.

ANALYSIS OF VERBAL DISCOURSE IN AN ILLITERATE ELDERLY SAMPLE

Background: Discourse is a natural form of communication, which can analyze language processing in a functional perspective. Aging can result in discursive changes, especially in a dementia context. About 18% of the elderly are illiterate in Brazil. Objectives: to analyze the performance of illiterate elderly individuals in a verbal discursive task. Methods: Cross-sectional study approved by ethics that evaluated illiterate elderly individuals in a public reference center in Federal District, Brazil. Individuals were stratified into groups with and without dementia. Participants were asked to describe the “cookie theft” picture. The total number of complete words spoken (NW) and information units (IU) were included in the analysis. Statistical analysis was performed using the Mann-Whitney test. Results: 9 individuals composed the dementia group (6 CDR1, 2 CDR2 and 1 CDR3) and 8 without dementia (3 CDR 0 and 5 CDR 0.5). There was no statistical difference regarding age and female was prevalent in both groups. Professions found in both groups were housewife and planter. There was no statistical difference regarding NW, total IU and for each IU. The group with dementia emitted 7 different IU while group without dementia spoke 14. Conclusions: Illiterate individuals without dementia performed similarly to illiterate individuals diagnosed with dementia in a verbal discourse task.

Interdisciplinary Connections through Transmedia Narratives in Art Education

The world of new media has inevitably changed teachers’ and students’ attitude towards information. Data of all kinds and from any scientific field are easily available at any time. Nevertheless, isolated data have nothing to do with knowledge. We refer to ‘knowledge’ when an interdependence of information has a particular significance in defined conditions. How to use and connect this information is one of the primary issues teachers have to engage with since they are still the main organisers of the educational process. Taking into account the objectives of his/her explanations, he/she chooses certain relevant contents, and connects them, striving for an interdisciplinary view of the world that makes sense and gives sense to his/her explanations, all in an attempt to motivate students in their approach to knowledge. This article presents research in which the participants, future art teachers, had to answer a questionnaire that required comparing artistic compositions and compositions present in nature. Almost half of them could not find proper examples, even though the participants were students who should have been able to manage contents from both fields. Understanding how art follows nature is an important goal within the education of future art teachers. Difficulty in connecting data, transferring knowledge, giving meaning to images and understanding visual and verbal discourse seem to be a persistent problem in many aspects of their education. Possible strategies to improve the situation using transmedia narratives are presented in the conclusion.