Colloquium: New Philologies (E-Journal)
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Advertisements as Authentic Materials in Business English Class
Get PDFAuthentic materials frequently complement coursebooks since they increase learner motivation and provide a realistic context for tasks relating to learners’ needs. However, using language from natural texts instead of ready-made examples can be counterproductive if not appropriately adapted. For that reason, the ESP teacher must consider the learner’s knowledge of language when preparing tasks, as authentic materials often contain difficult language, unnecessary vocabulary items, and complex language structures. This paper, first, summarizes the main advantages of using such materials in teaching and then focuses on the use of bank advertisements in Business English classes. In order to be properly implemented, these advertisements need to be analyzed in terms of their most frequent features at different linguistic levels. This analysis can help both ESP teachers to relate language instruction to particular universal characteristics of the register and ESP students to acquire language more naturally. Finally, the paper includes several ideas for exercises focusing on different language skills aimed at intermediate and upper-intermediate students
Synthetic and Analytic Present and Past Verb Forms in English, German and Czech
Get PDFThe paper compares three languages – English, German, and Czech in terms of the verbal subcategories that denote present and past states and actions. It shows that all three languages use precisely two tenses – present and preterite, and they can be expressed either synthetically (English, German) or analytically (Czech). Furthermore, the paper studies the issue of grammatical aspect, comparing English, which has perfect and progressive aspect, with German, which has perfect aspect, and Czech, which also expresses perfect aspect grammatically – this is frequently labelled as Slavic perfect. This structure in Czech is, however, not regarded as a purely grammaticalized category of aspect by many scholars, such as Karlík and Migdalski (2017)
On the Importance of History and Historicity in the (Socio-)Linguistic Reconstruction of Pidgins and Creoles: The Case of the Original Lingua Franca
Get PDFThe term “lingua franca” originally derives from an ancient Mediterranean language which was indeed called the Lingua Franca. The Lingua Franca was a commercial or trading language used at sea and in the ports of the Mediterranean basin ever since the 16th century. The paper outlines its history, deliberates the available sources of insight, and discusses the importance of historicity in sociolinguistic studies
Sex Workers in Comics and Graphic Novels
Get PDFProstitutes, or sex workers as they are often referred to nowadays, are usually marginalized and generally depicted in a negative light in comics and graphic novels. Most frequently, a stereotypical image of female sex workers as victims of society from a patriarchal viewpoint is perpetuated. Violence against prostitutes is often the central theme for graphic novels, like in From Hell (1989) by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell. Characters that are, or used to be, prostitutes are almost exclusively victimized or vilified. Even powerful, authoritative, and independent women, like most from the Sin City series (1991-2000) of graphic novels by Frank Miller, are, in the grand scheme of things, at the mercy of more powerful male figures.
In 2011 the Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown tried to counter this prevalent misogynist depiction of prostitutes in his graphic novel Paying For It. The autobiographical story centers on him as a “John”, a client of sex workers, for several years, and explains his experiences with escorts. My paper will focus on the depiction of prostitutes in Chester Brown’s Paying For It (2011) and will compare various comics and graphic novels also featuring sex workers with the book. I will show that Paying For It (2011), although partly flawed, is an important work for the portrayal of prostitutes in comics, and a valuable contribution in the debate about the decriminalization of sex work. 
Die gesellschaftliche Position der Frau in der Ära der Nationalisierung im postkommunistischen Kroatien: Eine diskursanalytische Untersuchung am Beispiel medialer Geschlechterkonstruktionen
Get PDFDie Ära Tudjman (1990–1999) ist eine durch politischen und gesellschaftlichen Umbruch definierte Zeit, der sozialistische Vielvölkerstaat Jugoslawien löste sich auf. Die vormaligen jugoslawischen Teilrepubliken bildeten neue unabhängige Nationalstaaten. Kroatien erlangte seine staatliche Unabhängigkeit unmittelbar nach Slowenien im Jahr 1991. In der postkommunistischen Ära dominierte in Kroatien der nationalistische Diskurs. Mit der Gründung des Staates Kroatien wurde die nationale Identität neu gezeichnet und mit ihr auch die Vorstellungen von ‚richtiger‘ Männlichkeit und Weiblichkeit. Die Neudefinition als Nation ist verbunden mit der Redefinition von Geschlecht
‘Fick Dich Südtirol’ – Dissatisfaction and Dissent in South Tyrolean Rap Music
Get PDFThis paper aims at showing how German language rap in South Tyrol, a bilingual region in Northern Italy, expresses dissatisfaction and dissent. Since the region seems to be so utterly different from American inner cities, and research on it is practically inexistent, the author, herself a native to the area, wished to examine if and how South Tyrolean rap music expresses social criticism and frustration. In a qualitative sociolinguistic investigation, selected lyrics from one particular rap crew, Homies 4 Life, are interpreted and analyzed against a theoretical background, South Tyrol’s history and bilingual and bicultural reality, focusing on the contents as well as language use. Furthermore, the investigation draws on interviews carried out with several hip-hop artists from the area by the author. The results demonstrate how these artists vocalize social criticism and frustration concerning politics, linguistic and cultural segregation between the language groups as well as racism, in both standard German as well as the local Tyrolean dialect, using humor, vernacular language, offensive language, and dissing and boasting
Investigating Learner Preferences in the Application of Language Learning Strategies: A Comparison between Two Studies
Get PDFThe general topic of this article is language learning strategies, i.e. activities that foreign language learners purposefully choose to improve their skills in a foreign language and to reach desired learning outcomes. To highlight the importance of combining quantitative and qualitative information in a study about strategic language learning, the article uncovers some weaknesses that may be created by a one-sided perception. It hence looks exclusively at the quantitative data gained in a mixed-methods study (Amerstorfer 2016) that used a popular strategy inventory (SILL; Oxford 1990) to collect numerical information about the language learning strategies of five English as a foreign language (EFL) learners. The core of the article is a comparison of the quantitative data with three strategy categories that resulted from a previous study (Griffiths 2013). The article closes with the statement that a one-sided perception is not appropriate for a study about strategic foreign language learning
La novella di Andreuccio da Perugia: Un documento di storia urbana e sociale, una parabola
Get PDFThe paper is divided into two parts. The first presents a short historical examination of the hygienic conditions of urban spaces in the Middle Ages of the West, especially in the 13th and 14th centuries. This provides a helpful introduction to the second section of the paper which is dedicated to the analysis and exegesis of the short story of Andreuccio from Perugia in Giovanni Boccaccio\u27s Decameron (Second Day, Novel V); an exegesis that sees the story (only on the surface a conte à rire) as a kind of parable of rebirth that can be defined as “spiritual”, albeit presented in a comic manner