Using Science Standards to guide the development of high school linguistics

As the linguistics community is pushing for more introductory classes to be taught at the high school level, it is useful to create a course framework. This framework can help provide structure for a potential Advanced Placement (AP) test and course as well as help interested teachers create successful proposals to add linguistics to their school’s course offerings. Rather than reinventing the wheel, I suggest that the existing Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are an ideal starting point. Although not a science in the traditional secondary school sense, there is considerable overlap in methodology. Using the language of science can help those unfamiliar with linguistics see that it is the systematic study of language rather than just language learning, as well as help students transfer some of the skills and knowledge of practices that they already know from previous classes. This paper serves as an introduction to NGSS and the connections between the existing science standards and methodologies with the goal of demonstrating their usefulness for creating standards for linguistics.

The Concept and Functions of a Universal Language of Law

The subject of the article is the concept of a universal language and a reflection on its importance for law. The starting point is a presentation of the history of the concept of a common language for all mankind, a concept that has always accompanied man – it is present in the Bible, in the ancient writings of Near Eastern peoples, it was alive in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance, and it experienced its particular heyday – among other reasons because of the gradual abandonment of Latin as the language of science – in the seventeenth century, an age that was reformist by definition. Since its inception, the concept of a universal language has been inextricably linked with the idea of world peace and universal happiness for all people. It is significant that in most universal language designs, regardless of the era, there were, to a greater or lesser extent, references to the utility of such languages for law. The author, tracing the development of the concept of a universal language, focuses on its fullest contemporary development: Esperanto. Esperanto, like previous universal language designs, places particular emphasis on ideas linked to the concept of a universal language, especially the idea of peaceful coexistence and understanding between peoples. In this context, it is reasonable to ask what role Esperanto can play in the development of certain branches of law, especially international law. Given the position of English as the language of legal acts of international importance, the answer to this question is currently not clear.

The development soft skills and communication in English in engineering students

Mastering English is a must for all engineers in the current globalized world where English is the language of science, communication and business. In an engineering syllabus, however, in addition to technical skills and English proficiency, the development of other competences also needs to be considered. To adequately equip engineering students for their careers, we also have to promote the development of soft skills such as communication, problem-solving, teamwork, time-management or leadership, among others. ICLHE (Integrating Content and Language in Higher Education), which is itself evocative of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) approach extensively used in other educational levels, appears as an alternative to integrate language learning in non-language subject curriculums in higher education and to develop soft skills. This paper makes a literature review to find out the main aspects that engineering instructors should consider to properly implement ICLHE to enhance learners’ development of soft-skills through the active methodologies of Project-Based Learning and Flipped Classroom. In the last part of the study, a 10-step guideline is proposed, which will help teachers to integrate these active methodologies in an ICLHE engineering subject.

The Origin and Functioning of Myth: Linguistic Conditions

The article identifies two approaches to determining the linguistic conditions of the emergence and functioning of the myth. The first approach assumes that the myth is a manifestation of unconscious (M. Müller) or conscious (E. Cassirer, R. Barthes) distortion of language. Within this approach it is impossible to escape from myth because the presentation of the facts of the world in language is inescapable, which is always imperfect. These distortions are meant for political influence, as according to the proponents of the conscious mythologizing of language. Philosophy is tasked with resisting such distortions and, consequently, myth creation in general. This approach seems simplified, because the myth is identified here with the linguistic form of its distribution, reduced to the analysis of distortions of language presentation. At the same time, the psychological and epistemological preconditions of the myth, its unique status in the life of communities are lost. Conditions for the development of the second approach arise through the critique of classical rationality by several influential thinkers who undermined the belief in the exclusive ability of discursive language to present the truth (F. Nietzsche, L. Wittgenstein, M. Heidegger). The second approach assumes that the myth emerges and continues to exist due to the inability of the logos to present some important aspects of reality, especially its existential dimension (P. Tillich, H. Blumenberg, L. Hatab, K. Morgan). In this case, myth and logos become alternative and at the same time closely connected linguistic ways of presenting the truth. Logos (the language of science) presents primarily abstract causal connections of essences. At the same time, mythical narratives are better than science at presenting the mysteries of origin and existence, creating a hierarchy of values for communities.

Deiktiskās, prospektīvās un retrospektīvās frāzes zinātnes valodā

The article focuses on the dimensions of space and time in the Latvian language of science. The space dimension is expressed by the deictic constructions of place (demonstrative pronouns and adverbs), and the time dimension is expressed by prospective and retrospective constructions (adverbs and adjectives). The research material consists of the texts of scientific articles included in the project “The Latvian Language of Science in the Intralingual Aspect”. The aim of the present study is to explore research articles written in Latvian and to single out the most frequently used wording expressing the mentioned dimensions. In the present research, content analysis has been carried out to establish the knowledge gap present in the given field. It was found out that very few publications so far exist pertaining to space and time deixis in the Latvian language. The respective wording in the research material has been singled out with the help of AntConc; therefore, the present study is a study in Latvian Linguistics, with the elements of Corpus Linguistics. The content analysis and the study revealed that the deictic space and prospective and retrospective time constructions are present throughout the articles written in the Latvian language of science, i.e. in the introductory parts, in the main bodies, and the conclusions of the mentioned texts and serve the function of creating the joint psychological space of the author and the audience. They facilitate the process of communication between the author and the reader of the given texts.

Citāti zinātniskajos tekstos un ar to lietojumu saistītie komentāri

Not only is the structure of texts important in the language of science, but also the possible ways of expressing their individual structural elements by means of language. The material for researching the means of expression of the Latvian language of science is taken from the text corpus obtained in the project “Latvian language of science in the intralingual aspect” (2018–2020) using the program AntConc. This language corpus is based on scientific texts in the Internet environment (2008–2018) in all sectors of science and their sub-sectors. One of the important indicators of a scientific publication's quality is the purposeful use of previous research in own work. The article researches the formulations for the involvement of other authors’ work in the scientific publication and evaluates the comments related to their use. The thoughts, views, opinions, and conclusions of other researchers are involved in the text in various ways, but the most common types are quotations and retelling of the thoughts expressed by other authors, i.e. paraphrasing. The research of the corpus of scientific texts allows concluding that the references to the cited literature, sources, and authors are mostly used in accordance with the requirements of the style of scientific language and text format. A common record in these cases ensures objectivity, demonstrates respect for copyright, and prevents plagiarism. The collected material allows to judge not only the problems of the use of scientific language in one field but also provides an insight into the research of scientific texts in a broader context.

Zinātnes valoda Džeimsa Džoisa pētniecībā

Mogens Boisen, the Danish translator of Joyce’s “Ulysses”, has said that after working on Joyce’s texts, “One is not the same. One has been Ulyssified.” (Walsh 2016) A kind of “Ulyssification” can also be observed in the language of articles and books in Joycean studies. The aim of the article is to characterize, classify and illustrate the features of language in Joycean studies, which usually are not characteristic of the language of science. The language of Joycean studies frequently exhibits features that are characteristic to Joyce’s writing but not academic writing. Researchers use the features of Joyce’s language in their own texts to describe the object of investigation, emphasize their point, attract attention, and also as reverence to Joyce. These features include various games with language, use of Joyce’s lexis and marked or unmarked fragments of his works, specific “terminology” and stylistic features, and are manifested on all language levels.

Teaching Science Communication with Comics for Postgraduate Students

Data visualization and visual storytelling are increasingly common terms when institutions and scientists want to introduce people to their research and science through stories. Yet institutions mostly teach and train their scientists in the language of science and scientific journals, whereas research dissemination calls for other forms of communication. A new university course introducing such a new form of communication is proposed to postgraduate students at Université de Sherbrooke since January 2020. Its main objective is to help students develop their general interest and skills into science communication using comics as a working medium. While following a simple path, this course has generally led to results beyond initial expectations and large engagement from students. This study describes the general context and structure of the course, analyzes feedback from participants, presents some results, and summarizes lessons learned to help the diffusion of such a cross-disciplinary course.