Plurilingual and Literacy Competencies in Preschool

This chapter describes a didactic proposal with the main goal of introducing plurilingual and literacy competencies in early school years. Furthermore, the chapter offers a linguistic and intercultural analysis of two picture books that can be used at preschool to promote L2 learning and cultural awareness. Firstly, the legislation regarding preschool is commented on and related to L2 development and acquisition at this stage. Then secondly, children's literature is regarded as an intercultural vehicle and connected to “culture” in a preschool content and language integrated learning (CLIL) setting. Thirdly, two picture books are analysed with respect to their potential as language learning materials and cultural triggers, and finally, some brief reflections are made.

Song Translation Analysis as a Means for Intercultural Connectivity

In an increasingly interconnected and globalised world, the need for cross cultural understanding is greater than ever before. Exploring and analysing songs from different cultures can be an effective ‘entry point’ into learning about the nature of other peoples and societies lives and for developing a sense of ethnocultural empathy. Protest songs can provide a lens for intercultural analysis, especially for understanding minority or subcultural perspectives. Translating songs into different languages makes these works more accessible to a broader cross-section of people. We present translations of protest songs, two from Indonesian to English, and one from English to Indonesian. We discuss the respective importance of meaning and poetics in making song translations. Strict adherence to song rhymes is a challenge for translators and one which may impede meaning. The optimal approach depends on the format in which the translation is likely to be presented. Fluency in the target language, rather than the source language, is more helpful for successful translation. Finally, we make some recommendations about the usefulness of intercultural song (text) translation analysis and intercultural awareness.

Narrating African conflict news: An intercultural analysis of Burundi’s 2015 coup

This article adopts an intercultural narrative approach to investigate how the 2015 crisis in Burundi was represented in five online news outlets: The Guardian, the United Kingdom (English); Le Monde, France (French); Le Soir, Belgium (French); The Daily Nation, Kenya (English); and Le Renouveau, Burundi (French). As the analysis demonstrates, all the outlets, including the African ones, adopt essentialised clichés of barbaric perpetrators and innocent victims, embroiled in ethnic conflict. Various configurations of these elements of the story are identified as it travels from one context to another. In general, the international outlets focus on a brutal dictator and a passive, victimised mass, but this narrative is reversed in the government-run Burundian outlet, which assigns barbarism to the protestors and legitimacy to the president. The Daily Nation is unique in framing these elements within a broader international narrative, demonstrating Burundi’s relative vulnerability to international (neoimperial) actors. In the final discussion, the article considers how Western journalism can learn from this cross-cultural analysis, drawing on Venuti’s (1995) concepts of foreignisation and domestication. It is argued that The Daily Nation’s emphasis on neoimperial influence on Burundi may be a form of domestication to Kenyan readers but would undoubtedly be considered a foreignising strategy to Western European readers, as it would alert them to the injustices of supposedly legitimate international (Western) institutions. While recognising the challenges of such a strategy in journalism, it is argued that news outlets should nonetheless consider presenting African conflict news using less stereotyped narratives, informed by a postcolonial interpretative lens.

Majdi Bou-Matar’s Impact

The IMPACT Festival is an event dedicated to theatre that centralizes marginalized voices to address social issues, and in the process, works to constitute a vibrant intercultural community. At once a festival, a conference, and an opportunity for artists, scholars, and other cultural commentators—from international to local—to meet and engage with one another, IMPACT has happened biannually in Kitchener, Ontario since 2009. Yet despite its award-winning status among scholars and artists, the IMPACT Festival has struggled to be embraced by either the City of Kitchener or the citizens of the Region of Waterloo. Beginning with interviews with local theatre creators, and drawing on the intercultural analysis of Ric Knowles and Bruno Latour, among others, this article is an attempt to understand why the IMPACT Festival has encountered obstacles to sustainable success in its home town.

Plurilingual and Literacy Competencies in Preschool

This chapter describes a didactic proposal with the main goal of introducing plurilingual and literacy competencies in early school years. Furthermore, the chapter offers a linguistic and intercultural analysis of two picture books that can be used at preschool to promote L2 learning and cultural awareness. Firstly, the legislation regarding preschool is commented on and related to L2 development and acquisition at this stage. Then secondly, children's literature is regarded as an intercultural vehicle and connected to “culture” in a preschool content and language integrated learning (CLIL) setting. Thirdly, two picture books are analysed with respect to their potential as language learning materials and cultural triggers, and finally, some brief reflections are made.

An Intercultural Analysis of Personal Metadiscourse in English and Chinese Commencement Speeches

The existing metadiscourse studies on the comparison of English and Chinese language are relatively few, especially on spoken discourse. The present study examines the use of personal metadiscourse in English and Chinese commencement speeches based on Ädel’s reflexive model of metadiscourse and its adaption. The corpus for this study comprises 60 commencement speeches – 30 Chinese and 30 English – delivered in prestigious American and Chinese universities respectively. This study investigates (1) The similarities and differences in the use of personal metadiscourse in English and Chinese commencement speeches; (2) the possible reasons behind these similarities and differences. Qualitative and quantitative analysis indicates that American speeches feature markedly more personal metadiscourse than Chinese speeches. Textual analysis further reveals some similarities and differences in the discourse functions of personal metadiscourse between two sets of texts due to genre characteristics and social-cultural differences. The findings of this study provide some insight into the classification of Chinese metadiscourse and the awareness of cross-cultural communication.