BOOSTING STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION IN THE PROCESS OF STUDYING PRACTICAL COURSE OF THE GERMAN LANGUAGE DURING DISTANCE LEARNING

The article considers the question of boosting motivation of language specialty students during distance learning. The problem of increasing students’ motivation during distance learning is complex, completely unresolved and relevant. It is closely related to the questions of lesson organization and conducting, ways of intensifying students’ cognitive activities in the study group, the ability to provide constructive support and exchange views on different topics. The purpose of the given article is to check on the basis of the obtained practical results what means and methods can increase students’ motivation in the process of studying practical course of the German language. It is established that the crucial prerequisite for successful online learning is a conscious consideration of the motivational factor and the ability to manage it throughout the learning process. The effective factors of online lessons are indicated in the paper: well-selected and prepared material, teaching methods tested by experience and based on technical tools on various educational platforms, selected, structured and appropriately used content, forms and teaching aids. The means and methods of boosting students’ motivation in the process of studying Practical course of the German language are analyzed, considering the specific nature of this subject. It is established that the implementation of the conceptual ideas of education is carried out with the help of information technology, which is based on the fundamental didactic principles – activation, autonomy, constructiveness and a special role is paid to the whole study group. The functions and tasks of the tutor, his role in the formation of a sense of group unity in order to intensify students’ activities during distance learning are revealed. Recommendations for boosting students’ motivation in the process of online studying Practical course of the German language are developed.

The Effects of Collective Ritual on Affect, Unity, and Pro-Sociality: A Naturalistic Study

<p>Anthropologists have long speculated that collective group rituals endure due to their functional capacity to foster co-operation and cohesion within groups and thus help societies to overcome free-rider problems. Recently, experimental studies have provided empirical data to support this hypothesis and have suggested that synchronous group movement as a key element in this process. Further more, recent field studies have suggested that the sacred values surrounding rituals may mediate the synchrony/pro-sociality relationship. The current study aims to further explore the psychological affects of group ritual in terms of positive affect, perceptions of group unity, and pro-sociality in naturalistic settings. Additionally the current study extrapolates out physical arousal and religiosity as important elements of ritual as well as synchronous movement. Our results suggest that the psychological modulations of positive affect, perceived group unity, and pro-sociality in rituals are primarily due to the meaning context within which they are performed. Results have also shown that when used together in a religious context, rituals that use high levels of synchrony and physicality are associated with higher levels of positive affect and co-operation within groups. These findings may help to explain the expansion of charismatic religions in those regions of the world where there are lower levels of security. They also suggest that past laboratory studies of ritual have been limited due to their inability to assess the meaning contexts that may be driving the effects found. Further research is required to assess the rates of endurance of these psychological affects outside of ritualistic settings and also the generalisation of pro-sociality to outgroups. Also, future development of more accurate measures of variables for field use will provide additional strength and reliability within this field.</p>

The Effects of Collective Ritual on Affect, Unity, and Pro-Sociality: A Naturalistic Study

<p>Anthropologists have long speculated that collective group rituals endure due to their functional capacity to foster co-operation and cohesion within groups and thus help societies to overcome free-rider problems. Recently, experimental studies have provided empirical data to support this hypothesis and have suggested that synchronous group movement as a key element in this process. Further more, recent field studies have suggested that the sacred values surrounding rituals may mediate the synchrony/pro-sociality relationship. The current study aims to further explore the psychological affects of group ritual in terms of positive affect, perceptions of group unity, and pro-sociality in naturalistic settings. Additionally the current study extrapolates out physical arousal and religiosity as important elements of ritual as well as synchronous movement. Our results suggest that the psychological modulations of positive affect, perceived group unity, and pro-sociality in rituals are primarily due to the meaning context within which they are performed. Results have also shown that when used together in a religious context, rituals that use high levels of synchrony and physicality are associated with higher levels of positive affect and co-operation within groups. These findings may help to explain the expansion of charismatic religions in those regions of the world where there are lower levels of security. They also suggest that past laboratory studies of ritual have been limited due to their inability to assess the meaning contexts that may be driving the effects found. Further research is required to assess the rates of endurance of these psychological affects outside of ritualistic settings and also the generalisation of pro-sociality to outgroups. Also, future development of more accurate measures of variables for field use will provide additional strength and reliability within this field.</p>

The content and structure of reputation domains across human societies: a view from the evolutionary social sciences

Reputations are an essential feature of human sociality and the evolution of cooperation and group living. Much scholarship has focused on reputations, yet typically on a narrow range of domains (e.g. prosociality and aggressiveness), usually in isolation. Humans can develop reputations, however, from any collective information. We conducted exploratory analyses on the content, distribution and structure of reputation domain diversity across cultures, using the Human Relations Area Files ethnographic database. After coding ethnographic texts on reputations from 153 cultures, we used hierarchical modelling, cluster analysis and text analysis to provide an empirical view of reputation domains across societies. Findings suggest: (i) reputational domains vary cross-culturally, yet reputations for cultural conformity, prosociality, social status and neural capital are widespread; (ii) reputation domains are more variable for males than females; and (iii) particular reputation domains are interrelated, demonstrating a structure consistent with dimensions of human uniqueness. We label these features: cultural group unity , dominance , neural capital , sexuality , social and material success and supernatural healing . We highlight the need for future research on the evolution of cooperation and human sociality to consider a wider range of reputation domains, as well as their social, ecological and gender-specific variability. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

Collective identity development amidst institutional chaos: Boundary evolution in a women’s rights movement in post-Gaddafi Libya

Collective identity is important for the cohesion of social movements, yet there is an inherent tension between group unity and heterogeneity when multiple groups are motivated to come together to work for change. Through a three-year investigation of the early stages of a women’s rights movement following the Libyan revolution, we explore the dynamics of collective identity development. Our findings capture how two heterogeneous groups, Libyan locals and Libyan diaspora, interact to negotiate and re-negotiate the boundaries of collective identity. We find that this process unfolds through an ongoing struggle where the point of difference between the groups – their uncommon past – is the mechanism first used to ensure inclusion of insiders, and then to exclude outsiders from the collective identity. Our paper contributes to our understanding of the relational process through which collective identity co-evolves, and the challenges faced by heterogeneous groups engaging in collective action.

Secondary Burial Practices in the Middle Neolithic: Causes and Consequences

The article discusses the increasing evidence that burial traditions in the Neol ithic are more varied than is otten acknowledged, and focuses especially on the evidence of cremations as a continuous practice throughout the period. This variation should not be seen primarily as a result of competing cosmologies, but rather as different ways of expressing a main body of thought, depending on the cultural context and the need of the community members. Rituals are seen as events where structure is not only displayed, but also created and negotiated in a dialogue with the participants. Rituals therefore have the potential to both hinder and facil itate the changes that take place internally or externally. Evidence of secondary burial practices is given special attention, in particular regarding the mortuary houses of eastern middle Sweden in the late Middle Neolithic, since rituals linked to this tradition have been shown to involve a wider community and to emphasize on group unity over individualism. They also grant the participants a feeling ofcontrol over death, and through this the structuration of society. By acknowledging mortuary variation, which has often been overlooked as exceptions and curiosities, we are given additional insights into prehistoric strategies and mentaliities.

Oneness and ‘the church in Taiwan’

Worldwide followers of the late Chinese Christian reformers Watchman Nee and Witness Lee share a central concern with human-divine ‘oneness’, but there are different understandings in different localities about how such oneness works. I utilize one such difference by analyzing group unity in Euro-America using Taiwanese understandings of oneness, which involve things (selfsame unities) but not relations. Experimenting with Dumontian, Strathernian, and object-oriented anthropologies, I show that anthropological analysis is currently possible (a) by emphasizing things, (b) by emphasizing relations, and (c) entirely without relations. Anthropology entirely without things, however, has not yet been achieved. I conclude by suggesting reasons why we might want to attain this final possibility in our approach to things and/or relations.

Oneness and ‘the church in Taiwan’

Worldwide followers of the late Chinese Christian reformers Watchman Nee and Witness Lee share a central concern with human-divine ‘oneness’, but there are different understandings in different localities about how such oneness works. I utilize one such difference by analyzing group unity in Euro-America using Taiwanese understandings of oneness, which involve things (selfsame unities) but not relations. Experimenting with Dumontian, Strathernian, and object-oriented anthropologies, I show that anthropological analysis is currently possible (a) by emphasizing things, (b) by emphasizing relations, and (c) entirely without relations. Anthropology entirely without things, however, has not yet been achieved. I conclude by suggesting reasons why we might want to attain this final possibility in our approach to things and/or relations.

Moral and ethical standards of upbringing in traditional Japanese society

Presented is the analysis of moral and ethical standards, that determine the relationship between members of the community, that are primarily attributable to the Confucian doctrine of deification of ancestors, filial piety, unquestioning obedience to elders, detailed regulation of behavior of any member of society. Considering various categories of “duty” in the work, the authors reveal the main distinctive characteristics of interpersonal relations and perception of the world between Japanese and Western cultures, focusing on traditions of human upbringing and laws of communities. The concept of self-identification, that is suppressed against the background of the social in traditional Japan, is considered by the authors not from the point of view of moral and ethical considerations of a European person, but through the prism of group consciousness, which is a widespread phenomenon in Japanese society, since the feeling of being part of a group is one of the basic states of the individual in Japan. The signs of group unity are also reflected in the features of verbal communication that is due to a single lifestyle, a holistic model of education and the desire to satisfy the needs of the interlocutor, i.e. group unity. Drawing an analogy between models and concepts of European culture, the authors note the originality of the Japanese worldview, that is characterized by the desire to conform to the model presented by elders and is the basic infrastructure of education in a hier-archical Japanese society, and non-verbal ways of transmitting behavior models, and formation of group interaction skills are passed from generation to generation.

Warfare and group solidarity: From Ibn Khaldun to Ernest Gellner and beyond

Ibn Khaldun and Ernest Gellner have both developed comprehensive yet very different theories of social cohesion. Whereas Ibn Khaldun traces the development of intense group solidarity to the ascetic lifestyles of nomadic warriors, for Gellner social cohesion is a product of different material conditions. In contrast to Ibn Khaldun?s theory, where all social ties are generated through similar social processes, in Gellner?s model the patterns of collective solidarity change through time, that is, different societies produce different forms of social cohesion. While Ibn Khaldun argues that asbiyyah is the backbone of group unity in all social orders, Gellner insists that modern societies are underpinned by very different type of collective solidarity than their premodern counterparts. In this paper I offer a critique of Ibn Khaldun?s and Gellner?s theories of social cohesion and develop an alternative explanation, which situates the social dynamics of group solidarity in the organisational and ideological legacies of warfare.