rss_2.0Sciendo RSS Feed for Journal of Language and Cultural Educationhttps://sciendo.com/journal/JOLACEhttps://www.sciendo.comhttps://sciendo-parsed.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/64722912215d2f6c89dbe18f/cover-image.jpghttps://sciendo.com/journal/JOLACE140216https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-0001<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This is the first known study of the socio-cognitive development of Lyuli children, a Roma-type group living in Bukhara in Uzbekistan. The research was conducted in schools in Bukhara serving both Lyuli children and Uzbek children, both of whom are multi-lingual but whose sociolinguistic circumstances are somewhat different. There has been less cross-cultural work on later stages of Theory of Mind development, in which children have to make inferences about the mental states of characters in a complex narrative. The research here shows that the children from both groups do remarkably well on these tasks, and their multilingualism is hypothesized to be the source of their success relative to other children studied with similar narratives.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-00012023-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-0002<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The relationship between the systems of language and of culture has been put forward and abundantly discussed since the late 60s, given that the second influences greatly the pragmatic level of the first. This issue has been explored in various empirical and experimental studies, particularly within the area of intercultural discourse, and thereon has been well documented in various analyses investigating pragmalinguistic (PML) failure. These linguistic pitfalls have been mostly justified and explained through applying the approach of the language transfer hypothesis to show that L1 conventions are inappropriately and unsuitably transferred from the L1 to the L2. However, there is reason to feel that approaching this failure from another standpoint is due, and that doing so will contribute to increased success in the teaching and learning of languages. This text initially presents the topic by drawing on examples from various studies, and it discusses this PML aspect in the teaching of a L2: a) to disclose its role in the communication tools used between native and non-native speakers by looking at an array of different types of L1s and language teaching setups, and b) through fingering distinctions between international and minority languages under the framework of intercultural communication. Various questions are raised and discussed, across a range/variety of opposing poles (e.g. the world’s largest and most influential to less commonly taught languages, teach/not teach, explicit/implicit), in order to produce answers that would help each language teacher find their own answers to tackle and overcome problems of what to include in their teaching and how to go about it. To draw the text to an eloquent end, teaching proposals that integrate digital technologies are presented.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-00022023-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-0006<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The issue of compulsory preschool education in the Czech Republic and Slovakia is a topical one as a result of the obligation to educate children prior to the start of basic school (primary education) being introduced over the past five years. The objective of the research whose results are presented in this study is to ascertain what attitude parents in the Czech Republic and Slovakia have in regard to the compulsory education of their children in the year prior to joining basic school. The research was based on two key concepts, specifically the obligation of educating children prior to joining basic school, and attitude as a relatively enduring evaluation of the object to which it relates. We used a scaled questionnaire of our own construction for data collection, administered via a web interface. In applying a Likert scale, a five-point scale was used, with statements separated into five dimensions. After validation, the research tool comprised 36 items. Convenience sampling was used to set up the research sample. Data collection was implemented in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, with the sample incorporating 337 respondents, each of whom had to have at least one child of preschool age. In processing the research data, both core statistical characteristics and a non-parametric Friedman Test were made use of. Calculations were made using the STATISTICA and SPSS programs. The surveyed parents assessed compulsory education a year prior to joining basic school as important, they did not see any exceptional change in the life of the family in the implementation of compulsory preschool education, and they appreciated its benefits for the future educational journey of their children. No fundamental differences were recorded between the attitudes of parents in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The research also showed that it would be useful to look at parents who are not in the mainstream and their children who appear disadvantaged upon joining basic school through the approach of their parents for further research on this issue.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-00062023-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-0009<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This article offers a discussion of the intricate relation between the human body and its technological supplementation. It argues that while the physical body may seem to sublimate in the plethora of discourses, it keeps reasserting its materiality via processes of technologization which capture perception and cognition in a constant cycle of disembodiment and re-embodiment. The article offers an analysis of Elizabet Goldring’s work with the Seeing Laser Ophthalmoscope, and her RetinaPrints (a unique form of visualization) to comment on the ways in which lived experiences are inexorably linked to practices of fragmentation, prosthesis and technological mediation.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-00092023-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-0004<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Student profiling and learning strategies have gained the interest of many researchers. In language learning in particular, understanding students’ learning strategies as well as their multiple intelligence profiles is significant because it allows the teachers to develop and design lessons and materials that are customised to their diverse learning needs. Hence, this study investigates the Multiple Intelligences (MI) and Language Learning Strategy (LLS) profiles of students from various science and technology faculties of Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Terengganu, with a focus on gender differences. The study’s objectives were to determine the dominant students’ MI profiles, their preferred LLS, and gender variations in these variables. Two instruments were adopted in this study, namely McKenzie’s Multiple Intelligences Inventory and the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL). The findings indicated that the students mostly acquire introspective intelligence, and the majority of male respondents use metacognitive learning strategies. However, the findings revealed a significant positive relationship between MI and LLS. Based on these findings, the study emphasises the importance of incorporating MI and LLS in language teaching and learning and provides recommendations for language teachers to create lesson plans and teaching materials that suit the students’ needs.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-00042023-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-0003<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Massive developments in technology, ICT, and artificial intelligence have been witnessed in recent years, with various projects emerging showing the apparent superiority of artificial intelligence over human intelligence, such as Deep Blue, AlphaGo, OpenAI Five, and GPT 3. In connection with them and with the favoured method of machine learning with deep learning, the term language model has appeared, which has the ambition to become the basis of general artificial intelligence (AGI). Critical responses, however, have been claiming that this is a dead end. An alternative view to these critical responses is attempted to be shown in this article, with consideration given as to whether the language model is just what critics consider it to be or whether something more can be sought behind it.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-00032023-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-0007<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>It is incontrovertible that African, and in particular, isiXhosa children’s oral songs play a significant role in the educational and instructional facets given their propensity to contribute to children’s cognitive development when used and applied meticulously. Bearing that in mind, this article aimed to unravel two selected children’s oral isiXhosa songs in respect of their didactic and pedagogical components. The principal objective, among others, was to determine their latent interplaying meanings. The sociocultural theory of learning was deployed to examine the two songs while the songs themselves served as a primary source of data subsumed under qualitative research methodology. The examination and discussions maintained that isiXhosa children’s oral songs contain educational and instructional dimensions that may not be privy to everyone, and as such, it is consequential that they continue to be probed. The closing remarks underlined the deficit in the evaluation of isiXhosa children’s songs concerning their didactic and pedagogical facets.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-00072023-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-0008<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>In Slovak kindergartens, teachers are increasingly encountering increased diversity from both children and parents. This is due to the introduction of compulsory preschool education from 2021 for all 5-year-old children and the gradual implementation of the vision of inclusive education, which increases the demands on teachers’ approach to children and the search for more effective strategies in mutual communication and cooperation with parents. This has received minimal consideration in the research field, despite the fact that it is the parents who can serve as important allies for teachers in the development and progress of children. The purpose of the present study was to explore parents’ experiences with institutional preschool education and to discover what kindergarten teachers and directors should know about parents with preschooler. Qualitative research was conducted with 7 parents whose experiences were explored using the methods of constellation with figures, semi-structured interview and researcher’s diary. The data collected were analysed and interpreted through an interpretative phenomenological analysis. The results of the research showed that parents’ subjective experience of their children’s preschool education in kindergarten is linked by 5 common themes, which include (1) selection of kindergarten, (2) the adaptation process, (3) teacher’s personality, (4) cooperation with kindergarten, (5) the importance of preschool education, while each theme includes subthemes and quotations that further specify parents’ experiences. At the same time, the research results revealed that institutional preschool education has significant relevance not only in the lives of children, but also for the parents.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-00082023-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-0005<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Based upon meaning holism in the philosophy of language, this article discusses issues of intercultural communication and explores the philosophical basis of cultural difference, pointing out that cultural difference does have its necessity, but can be bridged through language exchange and education under the guidance of a holistic view of language. This is so because culture essentially consists of a system of beliefs that a language user has of the world, life and society. Such being the case, this article proposes an independent, systematic and specialised curriculum for the teaching of culture so as to help students enrich their system of cultural beliefs, by virtue of questioning and speculating in an effort to find the rationale for foreign culture beliefs.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2023-00052023-09-14T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-0017<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The teaching of literature (and at the same time the teaching of the history of national literature) together with education in the field of the mother tongue has always been one of the key areas of education in the Slovak school system, therefore they have always received due and even special attention. Literary education (teaching literature) is a specific school process of literary communication and metacommunication, which can be interpreted in two ways in secondary school conditions: the first represents literary education as a traditional and stable part of the subject Slovak language and literature. Its goal is to prepare the pupil for the maturita exam. The second view presents literary education as a way to search for the meaning of human life through a functional chain of reception and interpretation of artistic texts. A fundamental problem of current education in the field of literature is the transfer of information from the latest scientific research into school practice. Another long-term and permanent problem of teaching literature at Slovak grammar schools and secondary schools is that literary education practice overestimates the informative component of the curriculum focused on memory acquisition. The paper introduces and discusses the number of theoretical and practical problems which arise in connection with the above-mentioned problems, as well as with teaching literary analysis and organizing the complex of tasks related to the meaningful reading of literary texts.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-00172022-02-17T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-0016<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Crowdsourcing is a new technique of gathering data or performing large scale tasks by outsourcing it to a wider public. Its role and potential in language education is investigated in first in its volume research - enetCollect (European Network for the Combination of Language Learning and Crowdsourcing Techniques) COST project. This paper presents the most pertinent data about highly successful crowdsourcing portals for language learning, some educational projects based on teacher’s contributions and analysis of a survey as a crowdsourcing activity. The paper analyses two surveys: a low response rate, large scale pan-European survey wherein a sample of language teachers od all station all over Europe was asked to answer some crowdsourcing related questions (Arhar Holdt et al., 2020) and a high response rate, small scale, survey among the distributors of the first survey in which they were asked to analyse the numbers and techniques they used to reach the crowd. The focus of this article is on an extension study to the teacher survey in which thousands of teachers were approached but the response rate was relatively low. While such low response data in other cases would have been perceived as a drawback and are rarely analyzed, in the context of crowdsourcing meta research this could be a goldmine of importance. The article demonstrates how educators mayor may not be willing to participate in a crowdsourcing activity.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-00162022-02-17T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-0019<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>This study is dealing with the travel notes and diaries in Hungarian and German from the 1950s and 1960s. The two examined authors are Karl (Károly) Kerényi (1897–1973) and Gábor Devecseri (1917–1971). Kerényi’s travel notes and diaries reveal the thoughts of a very wide-ranging scholar. Devecseri’s volume <italic>Crickets of Epidaurus, Sing</italic> (<italic>Epidauroszi tücskök, szóljatok</italic>) is actually a collection, condensed into the history of four trips: three to Greece and one to Italy. The present study examines the characteristics of these two perspectives, namely, the Western vs. the Eastern, the classic scholar’s vs. the scholarly poet’s using the contexts of travelogues and cultural memory as a point of departure. While for Kerényi, travel is a natural way of life, Devecseri travels and uses his idea based on his reading experiences as starting points. In the texts of both authors, we are confronted with both the archival and the current way of life of cultural memory.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-00192022-02-17T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-0020<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The study intends to explore and analyze the role of corporeality in expressing earlier repressed traumatic events as manifested in Margaret Atwood’s <italic>Cat’s Eye</italic> (1988). It shows that the protagonist, Elaine Risley, is imprisoned within the prison of her traumatic past memories that still live involuntarily in her present, shaping her language and behavior. It equally reveals that the connection between the protagonist’s body and her conscious self is damaged due to overwhelming effects of her trauma; triggering her body to unconsciously project those traumatic memories. The study specifically examines how Atwood’s protagonist’s trauma returns through the cracks of her consciousness in a form of auditory and verbal hallucinations and dissociation from herself. In order to probe the connection between soma and trauma in Atwood’s novel, the study leans on a distillation of psychological theorizations; particularly Sigmund Freud’s emphasis on the somatic expression of trauma. Through a textual analysis of Atwood’s novel, the study highlights that trauma is responsible for the protagonist’s anxiety, fear and loss of language, seeking to examine how Atwood’s protagonist strives to heal from her earlier traumatic memories through different mediums including art.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-00202022-02-17T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-0021<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Aiming at explicating structural prolepsis, and how temporality of reading and living are related, the study was conducted on <italic>Tell Me Your Dreams</italic> (1998) and its respective Amharic translation (<italic>Hilimishn Achawichgn-</italic>ህልምሽን አጫውችኝ, 2009).The English novel is anticipation of retrospection. The structural prolepsis propels the story without excursion. But the Amharic translation is not; there is no structural prolepsis. The present is constructed retrospectively and reveals that the best of times is yet to come in the English novel; the future has a retrospective significance of meaning to the present. There is a hermeneutic circle between the presentification of reading the English novel and the depresentification of real life present. The present of the English novel and the lived present of real life are experienced in preterite form in relation to a future to come. The future of real life and the English narrative are the same for both are unknown and imagined. The A and B philosophy of time solidified the literariness of the English narrative, but temporal becoming is emphasized in the Amharic translation. The past has just been, and so is not; the future is to be, and so is not yet. Thus, its literariness can’t be sensed.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-00212022-02-17T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-0018<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The library’s goal is to promote the culture of reading. Not only does the library promote the culture of reading, but also it facilitates access to books for those who love reading. Thus, through the library, its visitors can enjoy not only their lives, but also it allows them to spend their time intellectually. This program has been designed to help people discover the joy of the written word. The primary goal of fostering a love of reading among library patrons is to make it an enjoyable and rewarding pastime. As a result, it is critical to raise awareness about the value of reading for pleasure rather than only learning material for tests and encourage students to make reading a habit. Library Week, which is held each year during the academic session in high school, is one of the ways that libraries can help spread the word about the importance of reading and healthy reading culture. The relevant literature has been assessed in light of the topic by searching both published and unpublished relevant research works. Tylor and Francis Group, ERIC, Emerald, Elsevier, LISA, LISTA, ProQuest Research papers, and Wiley Online Library are addressed as relevant databases. The current study’s findings may also aid in better planning school library services and dealing with the required, complicated, and ever-increasing requirements for book selection, acquisition, and integration. The findings are also aid in the modification and enhancement of educational policy.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-00182022-02-17T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-0007<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Slovak language and Slovak literature is a specific subject in schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction and occupies a leading place in the hierarchy of subjects. Its specific role is determined by the fact that Slovak language has the status of a state language in the Slovak Republic, it is the language of the majority, a means of communication, i.e. a tool for communication for citizens of Hungarian nationality with citizens of other nationalities in the Slovak Republic and at the same time it is a second (specific target) language in schools with Hungarian as the language of instruction. Social requirements are taken into account when planning the curriculum and the educational process. Children and pupils of citizens belonging to national minorities and ethnic groups are guaranteed the right to learn the state language. The educational process in schools with the language of instruction of nationalities is carried out in accordance with the instrument of ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The importance of being able to speak the majority language by members of minorities is supported by a number of European recommendations.</p> <p>The paper deals with the concept and strategy of teaching Slovak language and Slovak literature as well as its central position: helping the overall personal development of students, acquiring habits of good behaviour, especially in the field of speech, positively influencing the development of language-analogous abilities, the development of feelings connected with the language, creativity and positive attitudes towards Slovak language.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-00072022-02-02T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-0014<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>There is a sharp decline in the performance of Igbo oral songs by children in recent times. Unlike in the days gone, children of nowadays rarely gather in groups in the evenings or during moonlight nights to play and perform some dramatic and musical renditions which are informal forms of education. Parents now encourage their children to watch home-movies and some channel programmes in the comfort of their homes; they encourage them to embark more on some in-door games while advancing security reasons as the basis for not allowing them to participate in various forms of open communal recreation. Such attitude deprives children of the essential moralistic and educational values expected to be imbibed from the rendition of native songs in playful groups. This paper which is based on a fieldwork carried out in 2018 in Umuawuchi, an Igbo community in Imo State Nigeria, investigates the instructional values of Igbo oral children’s songs. Reiterating the moral-imparting attributes of Igbo children’s songs, the paper applies Performance Theory to investigate the thematic standpoints of Igbo children’s songs while gauging the extent to which they can be applied to impart and extrapolate on key moral values of the Igbo. The paper restates certain measures that can be activated to incorporate children’s songs into mainstream educational and mass-communication media to avert the complete loss of such rich literary repertoires.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-00142022-02-02T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-0008<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Chinese students nowadays have more opportunities to engage in interactions with people from different cultures, but meanwhile, their performance in authentic intercultural communications may be impeded by a variety of barriers. In this study, we qualitatively explored and summarized various types of barriers of intercultural communication as perceived by 40 Chinese students, based on Rozkwitalska’s (2010) model. The findings revealed a series of universal barriers that coincided previous studies (e.g., lack of confidence, shyness, feelings of remoteness, nonproficient use of functional language), and enriched Rozkwitalska’s (2010) model with newly identified barriers (e.g., lack of stress tolerance, self-centered communication, protection of face, discrepant performance concerning SES and age). Our study examined intercultural communications in a more comprehensive manner and made an attempt to develop a well-established, coherent frame of theory-building in international education research. Practical implications for educators and schools are discussed.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-00082022-02-02T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-0009<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>Due to the interrelation with culture, politics, economy and other major spheres of social life, SPORT discourse occupies quite a significant part of a modern society, therefore, the analysis of SPORT metaphors is important and necessary. The research of conceptual metaphor within the framework of translation studies is a relatively new and unexplored field in Lithuanian linguistics. Since SPORT metaphors are especially popular in political communication, the cases where sport in public discourse is considered as a visualization of policies and related areas are frequently investigated. The aim of the research was to reveal translation strategies used for the translation of SPORT metaphors from English to Lithuanian in audiovisual discourse related to SPORT. The research revealed that four translation strategies, namely: word for word translation, substitution, paraphrase, complete omission and retention were employed by the translators. The results of the research also demonstrated, that the most frequent source domain for the sport metaphors was WAR, which was the most frequently preserved using word for word translation strategy. In the case of other translation strategies, either the source domain was substituted in the translated text, or, in the majority of cases, the metaphorization was escaped. The target domain SPORT was represented similarly in both the source and the target languages, either implicitly by a larger context, or explicitly by lexical units containing a semantic element “related to SPORT”. The research revealed that while choosing the translation strategy for the translation of conceptual metaphors, three key factors should be taken into consideration, such as cultural, cognitive and sociological factors.</p> <p>Conceptual metaphors are an inseparable part of SPORT and they reveal in what terms SPORT can be defined in a particular culture. In order to understand how conceptual metaphors are perceived and what ideas are conveyed it is necessary to analyse the way they are transferred from the source culture to the target one.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-00092022-02-02T00:00:00.000+00:00https://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-0011<abstract> <title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> <p>The intensification of language contacts has led to increasing problems of compliance between terms in different languages in the translation of subject-specific texts. Dictionaries are the main tool in clarifying term meanings and trying to find the most appropriate version which could be perceived by the representatives of different languages equally. More accurate dissemination and usage of the term equivalent allows the addressee (recipient) to better comprehend the contents of the language. Not only are meaning explanation and consistency of definition formulation significant aspects in compiling bilingual dictionaries but also determination of term equivalents. Although terms of economics have old traditions in various languages, it is possible to notice the cases of meaning discrepancy and different perception. The choice and usage of appropriate term remain crucial in communicating about various finance-related operations. The more accurate and clearer the term the better perception of the subtleties of other language. The purpose of this article is to determine the extent to which the concepts of a semantic group representing finance are equivalent, i. e. how similar and different their features are in English and Lithuanian. The research revealed that the majority of the analysed terms are partially equivalent in both languages. Hence, partial equivalents and surrogates in particular may cause confusion and discrepancy in term meaning perception.</p> </abstract>ARTICLEtruehttps://sciendo.com/article/10.2478/jolace-2021-00112022-02-02T00:00:00.000+00:00en-us-1