A functional model explaining the dynamics of flourishing during adolescence: an interpretative phenomenological analysis

PurposeThe objectives of the study were to explore the lived experiences of adolescents for understanding the process of their flourishing and develop a functional model to explain the dynamics of flourishing during adolescence.Design/methodology/approachGuided by the qualitative approach, the authors used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore how various factors affect the process of flourishing during adolescence. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 10 adolescents to collect qualitative data.FindingsA total of eight boosters (four internal and four external) and seven barriers (five internal and two external) emerged. The results highlighted the importance of a functional model that explained the dynamics of adolescents' flourishing. Though the authors conceded that the presence of boosters and absence of barriers were instrumental in enhancing flourishing during adolescence, based on the extant literature, the authors assumed the existence and operation of other intra-individual and inter-individual factors or correlates.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, the study participants are school-going adolescents living in a supported urban family environment where expectations to study and achieve are an important cultural component. Second, the study has focussed on the participants belonging to late adolescence—a transitional phase to emerging adulthood.Practical implicationsThere are three implications of the study—theoretical (conceptualisation of a functional model), practical (construction of a new measure of flourishing) and clinical (designing intervention programmes to enhance positive living in adolescents).Originality/valueThe study has provided a deeper insight into adolescents' flourishing from insiders' perspectives using the framework of IPA and discovered and elaborated a functional model of adolescents' flourishing.

The Necessity of Endowing EFL Learners with the Fifth Language Skill: A Key to a Successful Learning Experience

In this increasingly interconnected epoch, the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) along with culture that is considered as a fifth skill has become inevitable. Therefore, EFL teachers are impelled to introduce cultural instruction in their classes. They are then advised to combine the teaching of language skills with the foreign culture because it prepares their learners to behave successfully in intercultural encounters, gain solid cultural knowledge, overcome cultural obstacles, and promote their cultural awareness. The main questions addressed in this research focus on the inclusion of the cultural component in language subjects’ syllabuses, and the type of teaching strategies that can ameliorate the status of cultural instruction. This study points out the key importance of implementing intercultural information in EFL contexts founded on a case study undertaken at the University of Oran 2 in Algeria. This paper targeted a group of Master II students by using an array of data collection means including a questionnaire given to the learners, an interview done with the teachers, and classroom observation sessions carried out by the researchers. The major aims of this work were to verify the learners’ perceptions of cultural learning, and outfit students with core foundations of culture. The results demonstrated that the incorporated teaching techniques have enriched the students’ cultural understanding and intensified their linguistic adeptnesses. It is suggested that these teaching initiatives can aid learners be compassionate, understandable, and tolerant human beings.

Cultural Component in Professional Development of Non-philological Specialties Students in the Process of Studying a Foreign Language

The professional development of future specialists has to meet global and domestic standards. Cultural competence is essential for future professionals as it makes it easier to collaborate with foreign professionals, improve their competitiveness in the world labor market and increase the specialist’s ability to solve professional challenges. The study attempts to answer the questions about the importance of cultural competence development of non-philological students in the process of studying a foreign language and methodological approaches used in this process. The aim of the paper is to present the model of cultural competence formation of future non-philological specialties experts at the foreign languages classes and determine its main components and formation conditions. The study investigates how cultural competence development changes the value-based attitude towards future professional activity and promotes the interest in learning, personal and professional enrichment. Students of three Ukrainian higher educational institutions (from the first to third course) have taken part in the research. The research used conscious-comparative, audiolingual, and role-play methods. The study of the results, based on four criteria (cognitive, moral-axiological, communicative, cultural), showed that learners started to understand the necessity of cultural enrichment of disciplines. The research proved that the implementation of the given technique resulted in the improvement of students’ learning and cognitive activity and enhancement of the general level of training. The paper gives some recommendations for language teachers to organize the process of learning a language on a cultural basis.

CULTURAL HEGEMONY IN CHINUA ACHEBE'S THINGS FALL APART: A POSTCOLONIAL ANALYSIS

The current research paper considers theory of cultural hegemony as reflected in the Nigerian novelist Chinua Achebe's 1958 novel Things Fall Apart. The study aims to examine Achebe's novel as a profound example of cultural hegemony during the colonial era. The novelist exhibits his mother land Nigeria as a culturally hegemonized territory by the English colonizer at that time. The study also presents Antonio Gramsci's theory of cultural hegemony as the main subject in the development of both fields Cultural Studies and Postcolonialism. The research paper is divided into three main sections and a conclusion. The first section shows the development of cultural hegemony as a new theory at the hand of the Italian theorist Antonio Gramsci, who is known for his own perspective of hegemony as a cultural component. Based on Gramsci's theory, the second section examines the significance of cultural hegemony in the fields of Cultural Studies and Postcolonialism. As for the third section, it tackles the theory of cultural hegemony through a selective analysis of Achebe's novel. As far as Things Fall Apart is concerned, the analysis traces the novelist's attempt to expose colonialism as a hegemonic power through an overt portrayal of the cultural struggle between the colonizer and the colonized in Nigeria. Finally, the study ends with a conclusion that sums up the ultimate findings of the research..

The Necessity of Endowing EFL Learners with the Fifth Language Skill: A Key to a Successful Learning Experience

In this increasingly interconnected epoch, the teaching of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) along with culture that is considered as a fifth skill has become inevitable. Therefore, EFL teachers are impelled to introduce cultural instruction in their classes. They are then advised to combine the teaching of language skills with the foreign culture because it prepares their learners to behave successfully in intercultural encounters, gain solid cultural knowledge, overcome cultural obstacles, and promote their cultural awareness. The main questions addressed in this research focus on the inclusion of the cultural component in language subjects’ syllabuses, and the type of teaching strategies that can ameliorate the status of cultural instruction. This study points out the key importance of implementing intercultural information in EFL contexts founded on a case study undertaken at the University of Oran 2 in Algeria. This paper targeted a group of Master II students by using an array of data collection means including a questionnaire given to the learners, an interview done with the teachers, and classroom observation sessions carried out by the researchers. The major aims of this work were to verify the learners’ perceptions of cultural learning, and outfit students with core foundations of culture. The results demonstrated that the incorporated teaching techniques have enriched the students’ cultural understanding and intensified their linguistic adeptnesses. It is suggested that these teaching initiatives can aid learners be compassionate, understandable, and tolerant human beings.

Cultural Component in Professional Development of Non-philological Specialties Students in the Process of Studying a Foreign Language

The professional development of future specialists has to meet global and domestic standards. Cultural competence is essential for future professionals as it makes it easier to collaborate with foreign professionals, improve their competitiveness in the world labor market and increase the specialist’s ability to solve professional challenges. The study attempts to answer the questions about the importance of cultural competence development of non-philological students in the process of studying a foreign language and methodological approaches used in this process. The aim of the paper is to present the model of cultural competence formation of future non-philological specialties experts at the foreign languages classes and determine its main components and formation conditions. The study investigates how cultural competence development changes the value-based attitude towards future professional activity and promotes the interest in learning, personal and professional enrichment. Students of three Ukrainian higher educational institutions (from the first to third course) have taken part in the research. The research used conscious-comparative, audiolingual, and role-play methods. The study of the results, based on four criteria (cognitive, moral-axiological, communicative, cultural), showed that learners started to understand the necessity of cultural enrichment of disciplines. The research proved that the implementation of the given technique resulted in the improvement of students’ learning and cognitive activity and enhancement of the general level of training. The paper gives some recommendations for language teachers to organize the process of learning a language on a cultural basis.

Functions of Borrowed Vocabulary in Literary Texts by a Bilingual Author

The article is devoted to understanding the functional range of borrowed vocabulary in the Russian-language literary text of a bilingual author. In modern science, there is an opinion that this range is limited to a specific nominative function. Moreover, there is a research position that the fact of borrowing vocabulary from an ethnic language is an indicator of interference, that is, in a broad sense, it indicates an unconscious, often erroneous, inclusion of a foreign language word in a literary text. Based on modern research in the field of literary bilingualism, we refute this thesis and strive to show that the functional load of borrowings in works of verbal creativity is very significant: lexical units with a national-cultural component play an important role in text and plot formation, have conceptual, archetypal, symbolic content, act as significators of onto-linguistic being and perform an aesthetic function.

Sociolinguistic Analysis of the Process of Development of the Onomastic Space of Almaty City in the Conditions of Globalization

The process of globalization affects literally all spheres of public life of society, in which, undoubtedly, the protective mechanisms of the language are included, aimed at strengthening the national immunity of the language, strengthening the national identity of the state. The problem of language, including onomastics, is one of the strategically important areas of state policy. The article reveals semantic and word-forming features, quantitative and qualitative indicators of ergonyms as an important linguistic element that makes up the onomastic space of the Almaty city. These names require a comprehensive study, since they are an important factor that forms the linguistic, cultural and socio-ethical consciousness of the masses, residents and guests of the metropolis, foreign tourists, and also play an important role in the education of the younger generation. The study of the linguistic features of signage on the streets of the city,commercial enterprises, expressed in different languages as a result of the merger of many cultures and languages in the linguistic landscape of the city, will allow us to determine the modern cultural and social appearance of the metropolis, the quantitative and qualitative ratio of national content names, general directions of development. The positive influence of the globalization process can be called the fact that the onomastic names of Kazakhstan, including the onomasticon of the mega polis, are actively involved in the world, international information space. However, on the other hand, excessive Americanization, the tendency of Westernization, and the predominance of the English language weaken the mechanisms of nominating onomastic names in the state language; minimize the ethno-cultural component and the national content of the semantics of ergonyms. As a result of a comparative statistical analysis of the names of commercial enterprises (some shopping and entertainment complexes, business centers, restaurants, cafes), financial, educational institutions (banks, exchange offices, pawnshops and kindergartens), primarily attracting the attention of consumers on the streets of Almaty, the proportion of foreign-language names and ergonyms in the Kazakh language was revealed and comments were made. Recommendations on the ordering and coordination of urban onomastics for a more effective organization of the language space of the metropolis are given.

The Embodiment of Traditional Partería in the Colombian Pacific Region

A Traditional Partera refers to a woman who assists, by traditional practices, women during gestation, birth, and reproductive life, aside of the formal health care system. Their practice, Traditional Partería, is considered a key ancestral cultural component in marginalized communities in Colombia. A comprehensive description of the essence of Colombian Traditional Partería is currently missing, and this practice is facing the loss of its body of knowledge. Here, we describe the essence of being a Colombian Traditional Partera. Eight Traditional Parteras participated in phenomenological interviews and body maps focused on their embodied conscious experience of being a Traditional Partera in Colombia. Seventeen general meaning units were identified and grouped in three embodied components (Head, Heart, and Hands) related to practice, knowledge, feelings, perceptions, context, and culture. We discuss philosophical reflections and implications of knowing other’s world perspectives, describing a sensitive triad central in the Traditional Partería practice.