A cross-cultural study of condolence strategies in a computer-mediated social network

Among the various speech acts, an under-investigated one is condolence speech act. The present study sought to investigate the verbal strategies of expressing condolence used by (1) Iranian native speakers of Persian, (2) Iranian EFL (English as a Foreign Language) learners, and (3) American native speakers of English. Accordingly, a total of 200, 42, and 50 responses were collected respectively from the informants who responded to an obituary post followed by a picture consisting of a situation related to the news of a celebritys death on Instagram (In the case of Iranians: Morteza Pashaii , a famous singer in the case of Americans: B. B. King , an American singer-songwriter). After creating a pool of responses to the death announcements and through careful content analysis, the utterances by native Persian speakers, EFL learners, and native English speakers were coded into seven, nine, and seven categories, with expression of affection ( n = 109, 46.38%), wishes for the deceased ( n = 34, 59.64%), and wishes for the deceased ( n = 32, 23.70%) being the most prevalent ones, correspondingly. Moreover, tests of Chi-square revealed that there was a statistically significant difference among the three groups. The results showed that there were significant differences among the participants in terms of using condolence strategies in Expression of affection (love and grief), Wishes for the deceased, Expression of shock, use of address terms, expression of gratitude, Offering condolences, expression of happiness for his peaceful death, and Seeking absolution from God categories, with Expression of affection being the most prevalent one among Iranian Persian speakers. The findings have pedagogical implications for EFL teachers as wells as textbook and course designers.

Student-teacher interaction in CLIL and non-CLIL elementary education

This study analyzes interaction in a primary school science classroom. We compare the verbal scaffolding strategies used by a teacher during lessons from the same instructional unit taught in CLIL (English) and regular (Spanish) contexts. Results show that although there was no difference in the amount of information (‘content’) made available to students through the interactions, different verbal strategies were used (precision, justification and recall were more frequent in Spanish and exemplification in English) and that students were more active in engaging with science knowledge in the Spanish context. We discuss these findings in relation to the level of abstraction the teacher supported in interacting about science in the regular session, with implications for supporting children in learning both content and language in CLIL contexts.

LANGUAGE GAME AS AN ELEMENT OF BRITISH AND GERMAN POLITICAL POSTERS

Статья посвящена исследованию особенностей языковой игры в британском и немецком политическом плакате. Политический плакат рассматривается как проявление публичного политического дискурса, что и определяет вербальные и невербальные стратегии, используемые политическими силами в подобных обращениях к электорату. Использование языковой игры гарантирует семантическую ёмкость слоганов, их броскость и запоминаемость The paper deals with distinctive features of language game in British and German political posters. Campaign posters represent public political discourse, which defines verbal and non-verbal strategies used for addressing electorate in such posters. Usage of language game makes political slogans succinct, eye-catching and memorable.

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.

Engaging students in multimodal literacy practices in a university ESP context: towards understanding identity and ideology in government debates

This paper focuses on issues of multimodal literacy practices in ESP higher education settings. In particular, the research explores how students become engaged in various literacy activities aimed at enhancing their critical-thinking skills and interpretation of images. For this purpose, two datasets consisting of video clips were extracted from a larger multimodal corpus and developed for teaching applications: one involved a UK live parliament debate and the other a US House of Representatives debate. The main objective is to identify the key verbal strategies reflecting persuasive, argumentative rhetoric and the non-verbal features accompanying these verbal utterances such as prosodic stress, body/head movements, gaze, gesture. Thus, the focus of the analysis is on how different semiotic modes of communication construct meaning, especially in terms of how they reinforce the construction of identity and ideological stance. The results were systematically categorized and applied on a practical level to a teaching unit on ‘identity and ideology’.

Oral Communication Strategies Training: The Case of Pre-Service English Teachers in Indonesia

Background: Many researches on pre-service English teachers have been carried out in various aspects, from teaching techniques to psychology. However, research on oral communication strategies of pre-service English teachers is still little done. This study delved into the effect of oral communication strategies training on pre-service English teachers’ speaking performance. In addition, it revealed the relationship between gender and types of oral communication strategies. Methodology: This study involved 27 students who joined in Speaking 3 course. The OCSI as the instrument in this study consisted of eight categories of strategies for coping with speaking problems and seven types for dealing with listening problems Findings: Results from descriptive statistics showed that before the training, message reduction mainly was used while social affective and attempt to think in English was the least often employed strategy for resolving speaking difficulties. Meanwhile, after the training, a Non-verbal strategy while speaking was frequently used by the students. Message abandonment became the least used strategy after training was implemented. In dealing with listening problems, before the training, Non-Verbal strategies while listening was mostly used while the least used strategy was getting the gist. After the training, Word oriented became the most often employed technique Meanwhile, strategies for preserving fluency were the least frequently adopted. Conclusion: The MANOVA results of data analysis revealed that female students significantly performed better in speaking English than male students. However, there was no significant difference in Oral Communication Strategy used between male and female students.

Characterizing Caregiver Verbalizations to Infants During the Introduction of a Novel Food

Objectives To characterize parental verbal prompts to infants during feeding and the relation of parent verbalizations to infant acceptance of a novel food. Methods Feeding interactions of parent-child dyads (n = 106; 54% boys; mean age 13.3 ± 4.9 mo) were video-recorded and all parental verbal communications to infants and infant acceptance/rejection of the bites were coded. Verbal prompts, defined a priori, were categorized as positive (8 codes, e.g., verbal encouragement), neutral (4 codes, e.g., comments about color of food) and negative (6 codes, e.g., pressure) prompts. Trained coders classified each utterance and recorded the number and rate of bites accepted (mean K = .81 for all codes). Frequency of verbal prompts were examined by infant sex (M/F), age (6–11.9, 12–17.9, & 18–24 mo), and over the course of the feeding using Wilcoxon rank sums & Kruskal Wallis tests (p < .05). Spearman's rho tested associations between verbalization frequency and both the number of accepted and rejected bites and the rate of bite acceptance. Results Total parent verbalizations increased with infant age (p = .002). No differences were noted by infant sex. Positive verbalizations declined over the course of the feed (p = .02), whereas neutral (p = .20) and negative (p = .09) verbalizations exhibited no significant change. Total verbalizations were positively correlated with the number of rejected bites (p = .0009). In contrast, fewer negative verbalizations were correlated with more accepted bites (p = .02) and a lower rate of acceptance (p = .002). The absence of verbalizations was correlated with more accepted bites (p = .02) and a higher rate of acceptance (p = .004). Conclusions During the course of offering a novel food, caregivers generally spoke more often with older infants and when children rejected the food. Caregivers appear to be more likely to employ verbal strategies to coax the acceptance of a food when children are reluctant to eat, rather than proactively engaging children throughout the feeding interaction. Furthermore, the nature and tone of caregiver verbalizations during feeding interactions may change over the course of the feeding session with positive verbalizations waning and the use of negative and neutral prompts increasing if children show reluctance to consume the food. Funding Sources The Sugar Association.

UNSUR HIPERREALITAS DALAM VIDEO IKLAN PARFUM GUERLAIN: L’HOMME IDÉAL

<p>The glance of perfume advertising found in the previous study has two main themes: visual and verbal strategies. Video advertisement of Guerlain brand perfume from France for his latest male series, L’Homme Ideal, displayed containing both themes referred to the domination of monochrome colors and the narration of the explanation of perfume itself uploaded through YouTube social media. This study examines metaphors and signs in an advertisement to see how far the advertisement affects people’s minds in playing with their imagination, using a qualitative method and literature studies as a data collection technique. The analysis uses Kövecses’s metaphorical theory, Peirce’s semiotics, and Baudrillard’s hyperreality and is supported seven informants’ input. It is found that seductive language in the form of metaphors succeeded in attracting male consumers. Various signs are also found to help the metaphor visualize the ideal image of masculinity through handsomeness, intelligence, and strength. Combining these two types of themes in the depiction of lifestyle and the explanation of the perfume smell in this video advertisement has a great potential to affect people in achieving hyperreality.</p>

Why does Lee say what he says the way he says it?

This paper employs Kecskes’ socio-cognitive approach to analyze the varied speech styles and cognitive dynamics of the Chinese character (Lee) in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden. The discussion of the novelistic dialogue segments has shown that the Chinese interlocutor’s verbal strategies vary from pidgin to English or a combination of the two, which are predominantly hearer-centered and marked by deliberate and conscious attempts on the part of the speaker to meet the cooperation principle. Lee’s movement between different communication modes is partially predetermined by the disparate power relations between the interlocutors and partially determined by his own communicative needs, thus producing a unique pattern that governs his language use in the given intercultural communicative process. In particular, pidgin is used as a self-protection mechanism, a buffer and a way of identification by the Chinese character, which informs the wider socio-historical context of Chinese immigrants’ victimization of racial discrimination in the American society at the turn of the twentieth century. Just like his shifting verbal strategies in intercultural communication, Lee’s cultural identity is also characterized by fluidity in the in-between space of two cultures.