1,720,959 research outputs found
On Double Narration in Wuthering Heights
Get PDFEmily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights is characterized by the narrative mechanisms and techniques it employs. Building on its structure, the novel is obviously rich in its underlying elements that are worth examining. One of these elements is the choice of multiple narrators and the complex organization of narrative time. This theoretical framework deals mainly with narration and narrative techniques as approached by structuralist narratology. As an approach that examines narration and its major hybrids, narratology delves into a structural study of Wuthering Heights allowing for a deep examination of the underlying narrative elements in the novel. Having said that, it is believed that the study of narratology is pertaining in the sense that it sheds light on how the narrative structure of the novel puts into question the status of the narrators as reliable sources. This structure also mystifies the story giving the reader a chance to decipher the intent of the characters involved as both narrators and characters. Without taking such structure into account, the readers are missing some key elements in understanding and interpreting the stories told by the narrators
Developing Intercultural Competence via Virtual Exchange Programs: The Case of Moroccan University Students
No full textThis article presents the results of a study conducted at the School of Law and Economics of Casablanca. The study explores the effect of intercultural interventions in developing the learners’ intercultural competence. Two groups of informants representing two different master programs participated in this study. While the control group (29) attended only a traditional classroom course on Intercultural Awareness in Business, the treatment group (37) took the same class and also participated in a virtual exchange program that counted for 15% of their final grades. The study used the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (ISS) to investigate the developmental patterns of the learners’ intercultural competence following the two intercultural interventions. The study sought to investigate how virtual exchange programs affected participants\u27 intercultural competence and sensitivity in comparison to those who had a traditional classroom experience. The results exhibited significantly elevated levels of intercultural sensitivity in the treatment group compared to the control group, indicating that the treatment group exhibited markedly significant levels. The findings provide support for the recommendation to implement virtual exchange programs as a practical method to improve employability skills and global awareness among university students. Consequently, these findings substantiate the recommendation to incorporate virtual exchange programs as an efficacious approach for enhancing employability skills and fostering global awareness within formal academic settings, particularly among university students
Apologies in EFL: An Interlanguage Pragmatic Study on Moroccan Learners of English
Get PDFThis study explores the strategies Moroccan Learners of English (MLEs), American English Speakers (AEs)), and Moroccan Arabic speakers (MAs) use when performing the speech act of apology. The study basically investigates the interlanguage of MLE as compared to other groups. Equally important, the aim is to study whether MLEs displayed pragmatic transfer when using apology strategies. To this end, A written discourse completion test/ task was administered to the participants both native and English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners in order to elicit apologies through five hypothetical situations. The productions of Moroccan EFL learners were analyzed to see where they stand between native speakers norms and Moroccan Arabic norms in terms of strategies choices. In the analysis of the data, all responses were categorized according to Trosborg’s (1995) apology speech act set. The results show that Learners of English in higher education significantly deviated the overall desired strategies as compared to American native speakers of English. Meanwhile, some developmental patterns towards native like norms were perceived
Cultural Dimensions and Pragmatic Failure: The Case of Moroccan EFL University Students
Get PDFThis study examines the impact of cultural values on the production of three speech acts (complaints, apologies, and refusals) by Moroccan Learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The study involves three groups of participants: Moroccan EFL learners (MLE), American speakers (AE), and Moroccan Arabic speakers (MA). The objective of this cross-cultural pragmatic study is to explore and identify the extent to which pragmatic failure can be attributed to the cultural value and dimensions of the learners rather than their linguistic incompetence. Participants were given Discourse Completion Task questionnaires to elicit their reactions to various situations. The results, based on Hofstede's cultural dimension framework (2010) and Hall's cultural specifications (1976), showed that culture has a significant effect on the performance of the speech acts under investigation. Findings suggested that cultural specificities do affect the pragmatic choices made by the interlocutors across the three groups of informants
The Interlanguage of Moroccan EFL learners: The Case of Complaints
Get PDFThe present study aims to compare complaint realizations of Moroccan learners of English (MLE) with American English speakers (AE) and Moroccan Arabic speakers (MA) through an interlanguage pragmatic analysis. The study is carried out with reference to the degree of directness. The study involves 135 subjects: 108 of them are Moroccan students from Faculty of Arts and Humanities of Ibn Toufail. Kenitra. 45 MLE participants were recruited from the English department as the second group of informants, while the 45 MA group were recruited from the department of History and Geography. The 45 American participants included some volunteers from American Peace Corps Morocco and students from Duke university, North Carolina. A written discourse completion test/ task was administered to the participants both native and EFL learners in order to elicit their complaint speech act productions through five hypothetical complaint situations. Responses of Moroccan EFL learners were reviewed to verify whether they approach native speakers complaint norms or Moroccan Arabic norms in terms of directness. In the analysis of the data, all responses were categorized according to Trosborg’s (1995) complaint speech act set. The results show that Learners of English in higher education do not possess the desirable norms of complaint strategies as compared to native speakers of English. Additionally, MLEs exhibit pragmatic transfer from Moroccan Arabic in their use of high complaint strategies. The study ends up with a series of suggestions and recommendations that aim to enhance linguistic and cultural understanding of the target language.
Cultural Dimensions and Pragmatic Failure: The Case of Moroccan EFL University Students
Get PDFThis study examines the impact of cultural values on the production of three speech acts (complaints, apologies, and refusals) by Moroccan Learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The study involves three groups of participants: Moroccan EFL learners (MLE), American speakers (AE), and Moroccan Arabic speakers (MA). The objective of this cross-cultural pragmatic study is to explore and identify the extent to which pragmatic failure can be attributed to the cultural value and dimensions of the learners rather than their linguistic incompetence. Participants were given Discourse Completion Task questionnaires to elicit their reactions to various situations. The results, based on Hofstede’s cultural dimension framework (2010) and Hall’s cultural specifications (1976), showed that culture has a significant effect on the performance of the speech acts under investigation. Findings suggested that cultural specificities do effect the pragmatic choices made by the interlocutors across the three groups of informants
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
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