Authors:Mohamed A. Mekheimer Abstract: This study seeks to identify the perceptions of teachers, native speakers, and non-native speakers in terms of the influence of teaching varieties of English on EFL curriculum development and teaching designs and which of these factors could predict how the English curriculum should be developed for a particular variety and culture. Using the Teaching Varieties Influence Survey (TVIS), this study introspected 126 respondents of native-speaker teachers (NESTs) and non-native-speaker teachers (non-NESTs) to reflect their views using t-tests, correlation coefficients, and stepwise multiple regression analysis. General findings from this study revealed no statistically significant differences in the two samples’ views of the influence of English variety in English as an International Language (EIL) on EFL learners’ curriculum development, indicating that both groups perceive English variety in the EIL curriculum as influential in determining other factors that contribute to the development of an EFL curriculum. NESTs believe that people in charge of the English curriculum will determine what variety to choose. In contrast, non-NESTs believe that units of curriculum analysis, reasons for learning English, and factors to consider in dialect choice will determine how the English curriculum is developed vis-à-vis a particular dialect. The article concludes by discussing these findings and their pedagogical implications in an EFL context. PubDate: Fri, 13 Oct 2023 10:21:13 PDT
Authors:Hapsatou Wane Abstract: This article explores the innovative language strategies employed by Senegalese writer Ken Bugul in her novel Aller et retour to construct a dynamic and interconnected linguistic landscape that challenges fixed language boundaries. Ken Bugul's "langue fabriquée" combines elements of French, Wolof, and English, reflecting a transglocal dimension that embodies the essence of afrophonics—a poetics of resistance that empowers local cultures in a globalized context. Through a detailed analysis of Ken Bugul's linguistic choices, including the use of quotation marks, footnotes, and arbitrary transcription, the study reveals how she creates a language that defies categorization and decolonizes French without resorting to conventional diglossia or creolization. Drawing on Edouard Glissant's errant aesthetics, Ken Bugul's fluid and rhythmic writing mirrors the interconnectedness of cultures and languages, emphasizing the rhizomatic roots of identity. By crafting a new language that transcends national and historical boundaries, Bugul's "langue fabriquée" serves as a powerful form of resistance, challenging dominant narratives and offering new possibilities for the future of global literature. PubDate: Thu, 05 Oct 2023 11:51:51 PDT
Authors:Bobby D. Nixon Abstract: Cercas’ protagonist, Gafitas, narrates his memories of being a member of "el Zarco's" youth gang in the barrio chino of Girona during the summer of 1978, from the vantage point of the early 2000s. The novel is simultaneously viewed through the intertextual lens of José Antonio de la Loma’s cycle of quinqui films based on the life of the famous Catalan delinquent, El Vaquilla, Juan José Moreno Cuenca. There is renewed interest in these films from the Transition period of the late 1970s and early 1980s, with the success of this novel and director Daniel Monzón's film based on Cercas’ novel (titled Outlaws in English). I argue that both the film and the novel allow a contemporary audience to enjoy the more liberating aspects of these earlier films, by creating an homage to this cycle, set during the same time and in a setting familiar to fans of this genre. While the films of the Transition were accused of glorifying violence, high-speed chases, sexual freedom, and drug use, Cercas' novel provides more of a nostalgic yet remorseful look at this period, through a commendable recreation of the original aesthetic, highlighting the complexity of interplay between the written and filmic forms. PubDate: Thu, 28 Sep 2023 09:11:09 PDT
Authors:Karen Acosta et al. Abstract: It is estimated that more than 1.5 billion students have been affected during the course of the global coronavirus pandemic by school and university closures. As a way to navigate this new instructional landscape, the researchers aimed to find a tool that would allow students to develop and practice communicative language skills in their online Spanish classes. In this research study, participants used VoiceThread over the course of a semester and then reflected on their comfort level using communicative skills in Spanish before and after using the tool, as well as whether they perceived that using the platform in their classes helped their language proficiency in the target language, and whether interacting with their peers in Spanish through VoiceThread made the online class experience better. The research findings may be helpful to educators in other contexts, as the tool that the researchers used and the activities that they designed may be compatible with other content, contexts, and class formats. PubDate: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 10:56:00 PDT
Authors:Caroline Strobbe Abstract: In La Sorcière, Jules Michelet uses the strength and the myth of the Medea character, which had already fascinated Corneille. In the second part of his work, Michelet creates nominative witches after authentic texts. In the first part, he creates an allegoric witch on the Medea model: the Woman, a victim of arbitrariness, injustice and repression, rises up against her oppressors, figuring the march of Humanity towards Enlightenment and Liberty. The analogies between the Witch and Medea are therefore numerous and necessary, since they help to render the defense of the oppressed against the oppressor. Would the somber Medea, descendant of the Sun, eventually help Man to get closer to the Lights' PubDate: Fri, 12 May 2023 09:31:06 PDT
Authors:MARIA A. GOMEZ Abstract: Le parfait crime (1995) by Jean Baudrillard and Crimen ferpecto (2004) by the Basque director Alex de la Iglesia are two works that not only have in common almost identical titles. They both reflect on how in consumer societies, an imperfect real world is substituted for an illusory hyperreality in which the distinction between subject and object has disappeared. While Baudrillard explains how the denial of a transcendent reality in contemporary society is “a perfect crime” that destroys the real, Alex de la Iglesia uses black humor and a mix of genres (mainly grotesque comedy and thriller) to show the way in which fashion and the obsession with a perfect body create a homogenizing and false world that excludes anybody who does not fit in the beauty canons or does not follow the dictates of mass media. In my essay I propose a reading of de la Iglesia´s Crimen ferpecto in the light of Baudrillard's theories on consumer objects, mass media, fashion, hyperreality, simulation, and desire. PubDate: Wed, 18 Jan 2023 12:16:13 PST
Authors:Jaime Chavez Abstract: This paper explores the concepts of "Border Culture" and "Borderlands" by Gloria Anzaldúa in Soy la Avon Lady and Other Stories, Homicide Survivors Picnic and Other Stories, by Lorraine López and the novel Mijito Doesn’t Live Here Anymore by Jaime Martínez. The paper argues that the Mexican American character in the southeast of the United States lives in the "Borderlands" and practices a "Border Culture" because they don't follow the traditional stereotypical role of the Mexican American character within the literary canon of both the dominant culture and Chicana/o literature. PubDate: Tue, 16 Aug 2022 12:36:02 PDT
Authors:Jorge L. Camacho Abstract: This article investigates the way in which Cuban literature reflected on indigenous people during the early half of the nineteenth century and uses the symbol of the Amerindians to demonstrate a moral disjuncture between them and the colonizer. In this article, I call attention to the way Cuban independentists and Spanish nationalists used this figure to support their views and thus created a split in the Cuban creole imagination. I start by pointing out that these appropriations started at the end of the 18th century when historian José Martín Félix de Arrate, and poets such as Miguel González and Manuel de Zequeira y Arango spoke about them. But my focus would be José María Heredia, given that he was the most important Cuban poet at the time, and his interpretation of Cuban Indians served as a counterpoint to Zequeira’s. To guide my discussion, I rely on Stuart Hall's approach to analyzing postcoloniality. PubDate: Thu, 23 Jun 2022 13:11:19 PDT
Authors:TIMOTHY P. REED Abstract: This article analyzes the narrative function of the fantastic in two commercial Spanish language movies, Guillermo Del Toro’s 2006 Pan’s Labyrinth and Juan Antonio Bayona’s 2007 The Orphanage, to compare how they encompass and reflect aspects of hauntological theory. The movies show how Ofelia and Laura embrace the fantastic to acquire knowledge and agency by deliberately communicating with specters. Through acknowledging the epistemological implications of the fantastic, deliberate disobedience and self-sacrifice, Ofelia and Laura are able to liberate themselves from a repressive present and envisage a more optimistic future for others too. Hauntological discourse in both films ultimately functions as an allegory for Spain’s ongoing efforts to come to terms with its own historical trauma. PubDate: Wed, 04 May 2022 06:21:30 PDT
Authors:Andrew J. DeMil et al. Abstract: Online language teaching has become a popular alternative to classroom learning (Liu et al; Warschauer and Meskill). This led to research comparing the two learning environments (Young). Regardless of the learning environment, in order to be effective, the second language classroom must be designed to lead learners to acquisition. Studies suggest that collaborative tasks that push learners to negotiate meaning lead to acquisition (Leeser; Loewen and Erlam; Mackey and Philp; Stafford, Bowden, Sanz). Participants in this study were in two environments; a second language classroom in the typical in person classroom format, and a language learning course in an online platform. Both the classroom and online environments were recorded and the amount of conversational interaction was coded and measured. The data suggest both classrooms and online platforms contain input and interaction necessary for acquisition to occur. PubDate: Tue, 05 Apr 2022 07:40:51 PDT
Authors:Andrew J. DeMil et al. Abstract: Over time, mobile devices have penetrated the classroom, requiring new and beneficial ways to implement classroom instruction. Research suggests that Short Message Service (SMS) based instruction is an effective tool for acquiring second language (L2) vocabulary and idiom knowledge (Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu,). Additionally, studies have found that students believe that mobile learning (m-learning) is beneficial to acquiring a second language (Cavus & Ibrahim; Hayati, Jalilifar, & Mashhadi; Lu, 2008). This study examined whether m-learning can lead to Spanish vocabulary familiarity and if sentence comprehension outperforms reading definitions. Participants were 29 native English speakers studying Spanish as a second language at the intermediate level. Learners received definitions of Spanish words in Spanish and sentences in Spanish on their mobile devices through a popular messaging application. The results demonstrate that vocabulary familiarity significantly improved and participants overall had a positive perception of m-learning. Our discussion explores the implications for classroom and mobile second language teaching. PubDate: Tue, 02 Mar 2021 14:16:40 PST
Authors:Stephanie R. Orozco Abstract: Laura Alcoba’s The Rabbit House (2008), belongs to the cannon of post- dictatorship child survivors—who themselves lived under the precarious life of militancy during Argentina’s Dictatorship (1976-1983). This paper exams the image of a young seven-year-old child’s who undergoes serious confrontational mischief's due to her inability to fully acquire militant norms and live by adult rules because of her child-like nature during her stay in la clandestindad. Moreover, rather than assuming the role of an innocent child figure of the 1970s Left-wing revolutionary war, Alcoba’s child protagonist assumes a politically active character that has the ability to perform childhood as though her life in secrecy did not exist. PubDate: Mon, 27 Jul 2020 06:11:50 PDT
Authors:Frederique Grim Abstract: Bilingual story time programs found in local community libraries not only benefit children, they can also serve a need for L2 college students: the development of their communicative skills in an authentic environment. In addition to linguistic benefits, experiential learning has proven to prepare students for real-world skills, such as networking, mock professional experience and a sense of community engagement. This paper recounts how a world language story time program supports L2 learners’ three modes of communication, as articulated by ACTFL, and necessary for language development. Based on students’ perceptions, this study highlights their increase in motivation and confidence in L2 usage, and lays out the organization of such a program. PubDate: Thu, 16 Apr 2020 13:57:04 PDT
Authors:Noriko Mori-Kolbe Abstract: Given name is a cultural component that reflects family life. The present study is a literature-based research on newborn baby naming practice in Japan from 1912-2018. Based on existing literatures on naming, examples and surveys on given names, an overview of a naming pattern in Japan is presented and discussed within a sociocultural framework. Historical observations of baby names include popular female and male names and their recent trends. The study also shows that in Japan computerization has changed learning method, information transmission method and communication modes, and that digital natives name their children in different ways than older generations. PubDate: Tue, 14 Apr 2020 07:11:38 PDT
Open Access journal
[10 journals]
