6,691 research outputs found
The construction of Karen Karnak: The multi-author-function
No full textThis thesis is situated within the comparatively recent developments of Web 2.0 and the emergence of interactive WikiMedia, and explores the mode of authorship within a Read/Write culture compared to that of a Read/Only tradition. The hypothesis of this study is that the role of the audience has become merged with the author, and as such, represents new functions and attributes, distinct from a more conventional concept of authorship, in which the roles of audience and author are more separate. Read/Write and participatory culture, as defined by this study, is focused on collaboration, and includes the influences of D.I.Y. culture, Open-Source practices and the production of text by multiple authors. Multi-authorship presents a re-thinking of several concepts which support the notion of the individual author, since the focus of multi-authorship is not on attribution and ownership of a finished text, but on the continued malleability of a text. Modes of multi-authorship, demonstrated in the use of the pseudonyms Alan Smithee and Karen Eliot, represent declarative authors whose names signify multiple origins, whilst concurrently indicating a distinct body of work. The function of these names form an important context to this study, since primary research involves the construction of an experimental mode of multi-authorship utilising WikiMedia technology and the interaction of thirty nine participants, who are invited to create a body of work under the collective pseudonym Karen Karnak. The data generated by this experiment is analysed using aspects of Michel Foucault's author-function to identify and determine power structures inherent in the WikiMedia context. The interplay of power structures, including concepts such as identity, ownership and the body of work, affect the resulting mode of authorship and contribute to the construction of Karen Karnak, suggesting further areas of research into the emerging multi-author
The Use of Project Work to Promote Students’ Motivation toward English Class among 10 Graders of State Senior High School 1 Purworejo
No full textThis classroom action research aimed at using project work to promote the students’ motivation toward English class among 10 graders of State Senior High School 1 Purworejo in the Regency of Purworejo.
This research employed Kemmis & McTaggart’s model with two cycles. The subjects of the research were 10 graders of State Senior High School 1 Purworejo in the academic year of 2010/2011. The objects of this research were the project work and the students’ motivation toward English class. The data in this research were collected through observations, field notes, and interviews. The data of the research were in the forms of qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data were the observation records, interview records, field notes, students’ notes and photographs.
The data were analyzed through the reduction of data, display of data, and conclusion. The quantitative data were in the students’ scores from the questionnaire on motivation. The average scores of the preliminary test, first cycles’ test and the second cycle’s test were compared to see the progress made by the students on their motivation.
The results of the research showed that the use of project work promoted 80% of the students to have a high motivation toward English class on their attitudes, desires, and efforts in learning English. The results of the research were as follows. 1) The use of project work as a teaching technique changed the attitudes of students to be more proactive in English class. They found that learning English through project work was interesting and challenging. 2) The use of project work as a teaching technique promoted the effort of the students in mastering English. The students became active participants in practicing English in real life context. 3) Use of project work promoted the desire of students in learning English. 4) Project work also promoted the students' innovative, communicative and cooperative abilities.
The results of the analysis of the questionnaire on motivation showed that project work promoted the students’ motivation. In the preliminary test, it was found that
9.38% of students had low motivation, 59.38% of students had fair motivation, and 31.25% of the students had high motivation. Therefore, it was concluded that project work improved the students' motivation toward English class among 10 graders in State Senior High School 1 Purworejo
The social construction of meaning : Reading Animal Farm in the classroom
No full textThe novel, it has generally been assumed, was from its very beginnings a literary form designed to be read by solitary, silent individuals. One consequence of this assumption is that the class novel, read amid all the noise and sociality of the classroom, tends to be treated as a preparation formore authentic, private reading, or even as poor substitute for it. This essay argues that the history of novel-reading is more complicated and more varied than has been assumed; it goes on to explore, through the story of a single lesson, the possibilities for meaning-making that are the product of particular pedagogic practices as well as of the irreducibly social process of reading the class novel
The Globalization of English: Its Impact on English Language Education in the Tertiary Education Sector in Taiwan
No full textThe overall agenda for the research reported here grew out of semi-structured
interviews with senior educational managers from a tertiary educational institution
in Taiwan. These managers raised a number of issues, including the changing
profile of tertiary students, the changing nature of English curricula, the
increasing need for English teaching staff to be adaptable, highly qualified and
research-active, and the growing pressure on institutions to introduce English
language proficiency benchmarking. Each of these issues can be related to the
impact of globalization and, in particular, the impact of the globalization of
English, on the education sector. Following a critical review of selected literature
on the impact of globalization on the teaching and learning of English, each of
these issues, as it affects the tertiary education sector in Taiwan, was explored.
Analysis of the Taiwanese national curriculum guidelines for schools, strongly
influenced by academics in the tertiary education sector, revealed a number of
problems relating to a lack of proficiency benchmarking and a lack of coherence,
consistency and transparency in some areas. These problems may be associated
with the initial phase of transition from a grammar-based curriculum to a more
communicatively-oriented, outcomes-centered one. Problems of a similar type
were indicated in responses to questions relating to curriculum matters included in
a questionnaire distributed to a sample of teachers of English in the tertiary sector.
Among other things revealed by questionnaire responses was the fact that many
survey participants had received no training in English teaching.
The results of a C-test (one that was initially used in a major European study)
taken by a sample of entry-level and exit-level Bachelors degree students
indicated a wide variation in proficiency, with individual scores differing by as
much as 64 percentage points in the case of exit-level students. Furthermore, there
was a difference of almost 10 percentage points between the mean scores of
students from two different institutions who had majored in English. These results
indicate some of the difficulties that Taiwan faces in attempting to establish
graduation proficiency benchmarking.
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C-test participants completed a background questionnaire, the responses
indicating a generally positive attitude towards English-speaking people, a general
willingness to use English in situations where there was the option of not doing
so, and a strong tendency towards instrumental motivation. Although one of the
factors that appeared to have a positive impact on C-test performance was time
spent in an English-speaking country, fewer than 18% of respondents had done so.
Although there appears to be considerable anxiety and uncertainty associated with
the teaching of English at tertiary level in Taiwan, and some genuine cause for
concern, there are also many positive indicators of future success. Teachers and
educational managers are aware of the problems they currently face and appear
determined to resolve them. Taiwanese academics are increasingly involved in
language-related research and increasingly prepared to interrogate their own
practices, and Taiwan, unlike some other countries in Asia, is moving towards
graduation proficiency benchmarking
Music and power at the English court, 1575-1624
No full textThis thesis examines the functions of music and dance in English occasional entertainments between 1575 and 1624 by considering masques, country house entertainments, royal entries and civic pageantry. It explores the changing discourse of music's place within court entertainments, and the ways that different types of entertainment present music. Music's associations with court power are tested through an examination of the ways in which it is adopted and adapted on non-courtly public occasions.
This thesis contends that musical provision and musicality were crucial to the prestige of a particular event, and are therefore crucial to a contextualised interpretation of the textual traces the events have left behind. It seeks to understand the role of music in these events, both in terms of the way its particular qualities are deployed, and also
the way those qualities are presented and exploited within the allegorical schemes of the entertainments themselves.
This study interrogates the circumstances of particular occasions, including aspects such as the place and time of an event, the political standing of the people who attended
and commissioned it, and the resources and personnel available to provide the music and dance for such events. Rather than seeking to separate out these elements, this
thesis examines the way they interact, showing both how music can bring connotative meaning to the events it is part of, and also how the events themselves shape musical
meaning in particular ways. This thesis demonstrates that music's meanings are shaped by the extra-musical factors that surround it, and that music is able both to absorb and
bestow meaning across the boundaries of social differentiation that it is enlisted to reinforce
Xhosalising English? Negotiating meaning and identity in economics
No full textThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies on 23 December 2010 available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.2989/16073614.2010.545027.As yet, very few South African studies have explored multilingual learning contexts in order to develop a better understanding of the role that students' diverse primary or hybrid languages play in meaning making in English medium universities.This paper will report on a project which set out to investigate code-switching practices in informal learning groups in the university and to distinguish the forms and functions of these code-switching practices. A particular focus has been to gain insights into the ways in which concepts transfer from one language to another in order to develop thinking on language and learning in multilingual contexts and extend theories of conceptual transfer. The particular focus of this paper is the pedagogic and social functions of this hybrid language and how its use might be tied to questions of identity. We look particularly at the way the tutor in the peer learning group used code-mixing to negotiate different identities in dealing with first a rural and then an urban group of students. We will also illustrate by means of our data ways in which English is being appropriated and Xhosalised, particularly by the urban group of students in order to negotiate meaning, identity and status on this campus and in the wider community
South African black teachers/ learners attitude towards Standard English
No full textThis study grew out of concern over the declining standard of English among the South African Black teachers and students. This research project is also prompted by the emergence and development of English, which in pronunciation and linguistic structures differs from the standard form which is institutionalized and supposed to be taught in schools. This abstract overviews the main features of all the four chapters, underlining the links between them. Needless to say, much of the inherent richness and contributions in each chapter will be brief in order to meet the demand of a concise and integrative approach. The author will highlight the major different features in Educated South African Black English (ESABE) and British Standard English (BSE) as well as the attitudes held by these educated Blacks towards the two varieties. The first chapter identifies the problem which led to this research. This is followed by a section which provides the background to the identified problem. The second chapter, deals with literature review. In this section the researcher gives general background to the research problem. The project describes and synthesizes the major studies related to the dissertation topic
A case study in the evaluation of English training courses using a version of the CIPP model as an evaluative tool
No full textThis thesis presents an evaluative case study of the 20 English training courses offered in the Applied English Department (AED) of an Institute, given the pseudonym W.G, in southern Taiwan. No evaluation had been done since the AED had been set up and using Stufflebeam’s CIPP (Context, Input, Process and Product) evaluation model this research was carried out. The purpose of the research was to attempt, through the gathering of qualitative data from a variety of sources and using a variety of research instruments, an evaluation of the 20 English training courses which were designed for and taken by students who hoped, mainly, to become children's English language teachers. The courses were examined through four key components, namely, "course aims and objectives", "course contents and materials", "course conduct and teaching-learning process" and "assessment and student performance". Data were gathered through questionnaires, interviews and the review of existing documents and was obtained from current students, directors of the AED, instructors, alumni and employers of alumni. The resultant data served to present a comprehensive overview of the AED and the 20 English training courses and furnished evidence sufficient to allow for a number of recommendations for improvement and change to emerge. Fundamentally it is not clear that there is sufficient congruence of students needs and the courses offered. It emerged that the AED would probably benefit from a refocusing of student needs, a review of AED structures and governance, uniform syllabus design and presentation, a review of student feedback on instructor performance and a number of fundamental adjustments to the courses, in particular, their content, teaching methodology and assessment. Overall the AED had many positive aspects all of which could be built on and added to as the results of the data suggested. It emerged that the CIPP evaluation model has, in the educational context, a lot to commend it and this has been illustrated in this research. If followed carefully it covers all aspects and features of a program and provides a methodical, all-embracing design which can produce useful material for exploration and adoption if appropriate. It is in most cases a positive program enhancing exercise designed to develop rather than close existing programs
'Great Expectations': The motivational profile of Hungarian English language students.
No full textIn this article we investigate what characterizes the language learning motivation of Hungarian English language students in terms of Dörnyei and Ottó's process model of motivation (Motivation in Action, 1998). We used a mixed-method research design, in which qualitative interviews conducted with 20 students were supplemented with questionnaire data gained from 100 participants in order to have a better understanding of the apparent discrepancy between students' and society's expectations of teaching English Language at tertiary level and the present educational system in Hungary. The ambivalent nature of English language students' motivational profile was found to reflect this situation. The interview data revealed that the respondents had very favourable motivational characteristics but they did not invest sufficient energy in maintaining and improving their language competence. This is explained with reference to a low level of learner autonomy primarily caused by teacher-centered instruction
English Author Dictionaries as Contribution to National Heritage
No full textThe paper is devoted to cultural heritage dictionaries with special reference to the oldest branch of English lexicography – author lexicography, comprising three hundred reference books of different types: concordances, glossaries, lexicons, indices, thesauri, etc. The article describes the main trends in developing author linguistic dictionaries for general and special purposes to single and complete works of G. Chaucer, W. Shakespeare, J. Milton, other famous English writers since the 16th c. up to the present days. The architecture of author encyclopedic dictionaries (guides, encyclopedias, companions) and onomasticons (dictionaries of characters and place names, who is who in … series) and their significant contribution to the English language, culture and society are discussed. The main accent is made on the digital era of English heritage lexicography, innovative features of modern printed and Internet author reference resources, aimed at certain target groups users’ needs and demands
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