Remembrance of things past:the lingering impact of history on contemporary Polish-Ukrainian relations

This article investigates the continuing influence of the past on contemporary politics in Poland and Ukraine by examining the impact of the vocal 'informed' segment of public opinion on mutual relations between the two countries. The section 'What history?' examines the question of exactly what understanding of history matters so much in Polish-Ukrainian relations. The following sections examine how history influences the present, what are the contours of public opinion on Polish-Ukrainian relations within each state, and what is the impact of shared history on the contemporary politics of Polish-Ukrainian relations. Finally, the article suggests a potentially generaliseable hypothesis for future research.

The roles of family history of dyslexia, language, speech production and phonological processing in predicting literacy progress

It is well established that speech, language and phonological skills are closely associated with literacy, and that children with a family risk of dyslexia (FRD) tend to show deficits in each of these areas in the preschool years. This paper examines what the relationships are between FRD and these skills, and whether deficits in speech, language and phonological processing fully account for the increased risk of dyslexia in children with FRD. One hundred and fifty-three 4-6-year-old children, 44 of whom had FRD, completed a battery of speech, language, phonology and literacy tasks. Word reading and spelling were retested 6 months later, and text reading accuracy and reading comprehension were tested 3 years later. The children with FRD were at increased risk of developing difficulties in reading accuracy, but not reading comprehension. Four groups were compared: good and poor readers with and without FRD. In most cases good readers outperformed poor readers regardless of family history, but there was an effect of family history on naming and nonword repetition regardless of literacy outcome, suggesting a role for speech production skills as an endophenotype of dyslexia. Phonological processing predicted spelling, while language predicted text reading accuracy and comprehension. FRD was a significant additional predictor of reading and spelling after controlling for speech production, language and phonological processing, suggesting that children with FRD show additional difficulties in literacy that cannot be fully explained in terms of their language and phonological skills. It is well established that speech, language and phonological skills are closely associated with literacy, and that children with a family risk of dyslexia (FRD) tend to show deficits in each of these areas in the preschool years. This paper examines what the relationships are between FRD and these skills, and whether deficits in speech, language and phonological processing fully account for the increased risk of dyslexia in children with FRD. One hundred and fifty-three 4-6-year-old children, 44 of whom had FRD, completed a battery of speech, language, phonology and literacy tasks. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Apocalyptic Discourse in Contemporary Culture: Post-Millennial Perspectives of the End of the World

This interdisciplinary collection of essays focuses on critical and theoretical responses to the apocalypse of the late twentieth- and early twenty-first-century cultural production. Examining the ways in which apocalyptic discourses have had an impact on how we read the world’s globalised space, the traumatic burden of history, and the mutual relationship between language and eschatological belief, fifteen original essays by a group of internationally established and emerging critics reflect on the apocalypse, its past tradition, pervasive present and future legacy. The collection seeks to offer a new reading of the apocalypse, understood as a complex – and, frequently, paradoxical – paradigm of (contemporary) Western culture. The majority of published collections on the subject have been published prior to the year 2000 and, in their majority of cases, locate the apocalypse in the future and envision it as something imminent. This collection offers a post-millennial perspective that perceives "the end" as immanent and, simultaneously, rooted in the past tradition.

Between representation and figuration. Nouvelle Vague’s cinema: a history revision

50 years after the birth of the Nouvelle Vague, the inheritance that the contemporary cinema receives from it is inevitable. Figures and visual motifs; stories, themes, faces or common places; aesthetic and language devices. The echoes appear in various ways, each affiliation involves a different relationship and therefore a dissimilar approximation to its analysis. And yet, both the academy and the film critics maintain their will to think the Nouvelle Vague as a whole, a universe, a stream or an aesthetic trend. However, does a Nouvelle Vague’s aesthetic exist? And if so: why and how to address their historical revision? Taking Deleuze’s thesis on the time-image and Serge Daney’s assertion according to which 50 years after the birth of the Nouvelle Vague, the inheritance that the contemporary cinema receives from it is inevitable. Figures and visual motifs; stories, themes, faces or common places; aesthetic and language devices. The echoes appear in various ways, each affiliation involves a different relationship and therefore a dissimilar approximation to its analysis. And yet, both the academy and the film critics maintain their will to think the Nouvelle Vague as a whole, a universe, a stream or an aesthetic trend. However, does a Nouvelle Vague’s aesthetic exist? And if so: why and how to address their historical revision? Taking Deleuze’s thesis on the time-image and Serge Daney’s assertion according to which

Deictic Demonstratives in Japanese, Finnish and Swedish : First and Third Language Perspectives

The goal of this thesis is twofold. Firstly, it investigates the actual, native use of spatial-deictic demonstratives in Japanese, Finnish and Swedish. Secondly, it investigates and elucidates the interlanguage of Finnish-speaking and Swedish-speaking learners of Japanese regarding their use of Japanese spatial-deictic demonstratives in the light of respective native use and, in comparison to the descriptions of demonstratives in the teaching materials used. Thus, the present study deals with analyses of two sets of empirical data: data produced by native-speaking informants (L1 data) and data produced by language learners (L2 data). These were elicited by Discourse Completion Tasks (DCTs) designed, collected and analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methods by the author. The results showed that the actual use of demonstratives by the native informants was not always in accordance with the way described in grammars. The typological similarities between Japanese and Finnish were in this study not reflected in the native use of demonstratives, and some uses were not solely based on the spatial relations between the referent, the speaker and the addressee, but rather on social-interactional factors. The main findings regarding the learner data revealed some differences in the usage rate of the demonstratives between the two Finnish-speaking groups and the one Swedish-speaking learner group studied. There were, however, no particular differences found between them regarding the type of demonstrative used. It is suggested that these differences are first and foremost connected both with the teaching materials used and the more or less heterogeneous linguistic environment in which the learners reside, and only thereafter with the typological similarities or differences between their respective native languages, Finnish and Swedish, and the target language, Japanese. It is further argued that the learners’ use of the different Japanese demonstratives, that is the type of demonstrative used, could be explained in terms of familiarity with the grammar. That is, when the situations used in the DCTs were exemplified in teaching materials and were familiar to them, the learners seemed to use Japanese demonstratives as they are described in the teaching materials and as the native Japanese speakers use them. When the situations used in the DCTs were not exemplified in the teaching materials, the learners seem to rely more on their native language. The results, thus, suggest that the learners’ interlanguage is influenced by the grammar of the target language known to the learners, but also by the number of languages (or varieties) that the learners have contact with at the time of learning. The results of the present study have implications for the teaching of Japanese in at least two ways. Firstly, the importance of grammar instruction must be emphasized since its effect on the learners’ language is apparent. Secondly, the contents of teaching materials should be revised on the basis of the native speakers’ actual use of the grammar.

Target language use : An empirical study of the target language use in the Swedish 4-6 grade classroom

A consistent use of the target language during English lessons is beneficial for pupils’ linguistic development, but also challenging for both teachers and pupils. The main purpose for pupils to learn English is to be able to use it in communication, which requires that they develop the ability to comprehend input, produce output and use language strategies. Several researchers claim that a consistent use of the target language is necessary in order to develop these abilities. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the target language use during English lessons in Swedish grades 4-6, and what pupils’ opinions regarding target language use are. The methods used to collect data consisted of a pupil questionnaire with 42 respondents and an observation of two teachers’ English lessons during a week’s time. The results from the observations show that the teachers use plenty of target language during lessons, but the first language as well to explain things that pupils might experience difficult to understand otherwise. The results from the questionnaire mainly show that the pupils seem to enjoy English and like to both speak and hear the target language during lessons. The main input comes from listening to a CD with dialogues and exercises in the textbook and the workbook, and from the teacher speaking. The results also show that a majority of the pupils use the target language in their spare time. A conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that the TL should be used to a large extent in order to support pupils’ linguistic development. However, teachers may sometimes need to use L1 in order to facilitate understanding of the things that many pupils find difficult, for example grammar. Suggestions for further research in this area include similar studies conducted on a larger scale.

Upper Secondary Students’ Beliefs About Learning English as a Foreign Language : A contrast between the students’ beliefs and the Swedish curriculum

Learning English as a foreign language (EFL) entails different factors. Language learners use different strategies in order to make their language acquisition successful. Motivation and self-regulated learning are other factors that influence how successful the EFL learner is. This paper aims to analyze the beliefs of upper secondary students in a Swedish school about learning EFL, as well as how their beliefs relate to what is specified in the Swedish curriculum. An analysis of the differences between students’ beliefs and what is stated in the curriculum was done. A survey was conducted on a total of 54 students who were enrolled in the social sciences program. The results showed that students believed that motivation and self-regulated learning were important factors for a successful learning. For them, the language skill of reception is more important than production, which does not correspond with what it is stated in the national curriculum. First and second year students’ beliefs were similar in most of the cases, but not all of them.

To Succeed Is to Believe: Comparison of Self-Efficacy Beliefs in Language Learning between Learner Groups of English and Swedish in Finland

In this thesis, I studied self-efficacy in the learning of English and Swedish in Finland. The theory of self-efficacy, which was created by Albert Bandura, suggests that the beliefs a person has of his or her capabilities in a certain task affect the person’s performance in the task. My aim was to study whether there are differences in self-efficacy beliefs between the learners of English and Swedish, and whether these beliefs correlate with the performance in the language in question. My hypotheses were that the learners of English have higher self-efficacy beliefs than the learners of Swedish and that self-efficacy beliefs correlate with language performance. The study was quantitative, and it consisted of a self-efficacy questionnaire and a language test which were distributed to students of English and Swedish in an upper secondary school in Rovaniemi. The study was answered by 137 students, of whom 93 were learners of English and 44 were learners of Swedish. The results indicated that the learners of English had a higher sense of efficacy than the learners of Swedish. The analysis proved that there was a significant correlation between English students’ self-efficacy and their performance in the language measured by the test and the grades. In addition, a significant correlation existed between Swedish students’ self-efficacy and their grades. However, there was no correlation between the Swedish students’ self-efficacy and their test results. The difference in the self-efficacy beliefs of the two language groups indicates that people in Finland are more confident in using English than Swedish, which also implies that English is more valued in Finnish society than Swedish. It is important to acknowledge the lower self-efficacy beliefs in Swedish because various studies have proven that self-efficacy affects academic achievement. As a suggestion for further research, the self-efficacy beliefs of different language groups could be compared in a qualitative study in order to understand the development of self-efficacy more profoundly.

Every nation under heaven: the importance of the biblical concept of nations for contemporary mission practice

Is there a concept of nationhood in the Bible that can provide us with a framework for cross-cultural Christian mission? This thesis argues that current evangelical missiology has accepted too willingly the categories of the secular Enlightenment understanding of ethnicity and nationhood, and that it needs to rethink its understanding of nations from a biblical standpoint. While the pressures of globalisation are seen by some as rapidly eclipsing the nation-state, this thesis will argue that we need to move beyond the narrower secular categories of citizenship, political power and the boundaries of the state to recover a more biblical understanding of nationhood. By reference to Genesis 10-11, Acts 2:1-11 and those passages in the Book of Revelation that discuss the destiny of the nations, it will show that the biblical understanding of nations includes deeper ideas of shared history, culture and language as the essential components of nationhood. It will explain how nations are part of the created order, and explore the impact of the Babel narrative on our understanding of nations in relation to God. It will demonstrate that Pentecost did not reverse the curse of Babel, but served rather to honour the dignity and value of nations and their languages. It will also argue that nations have a destiny in the New Creation according to the Book of Revelation. This biblical concept of nationhood has significant implications in several areas: the development of a public theology; a Christian response to nationalism; the question of how urban mission fits within mission to the nations; and the importance of indigenous languages in cross-cultural mission, especially in the multicultural cities of Europe.

English, Swedish or both? : An empirical study on teachers’ choice of language in the EFL classroom

There are different ideas when it comes to the use of either Swedish or English during EFL lessons. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate teachers’ choice of language in the upper elementary EFL classroom in Swedish schools and their arguments for the use of one or the other. In order to find out which language different teachers use and why, semi-structured interviews with six different teachers were carried out. All respondents were currently teaching English in grade 4-6. The results of the study show that the teachers’ most commonly used language in the EFL classroom is English. However, several of the teachers mention that they also use Swedish, for example when it comes to explaining difficult instructions or grammar. All teachers participating in this study mention the importance of hearing and using English in order for the pupils to learn English and therefore they try to use mostly English. Nevertheless, this study only has six participants, all living in the same county and working at schools with many similarities, which makes it difficult to draw any generalizable conclusions. To be able to draw better conclusions, a study would have to be conducted with more participants within a larger area.

Can and may: Monosemy or polysemy?

This paper argues, on the basis of a corpus-based study of the meanings of can and may in contemporary British, American and Australian English, that a polysemy-based analysis is applicable to both modals. With may, epistemic possibility is the dominant meaning, but the dynamic and deontic possibility meanings still account for over 16.5% of tokens. By contrast the meanings of can, apart from a small percentage (1.1%) of epistemic cases, are united through the concept of potentiality. Nevertheless there are signs that the epistemic possibility meaning is becoming established, as it sheds its syntactic/semantic restriction to non-affirmative contexts.

Clifford Geertz, 1926-2006: Meaning, method, and Indonesian economic history

Clifford Geertz was best known for his pioneering excursions into symbolic or interpretive anthropology, especially in relation to Indonesia. Less well recognised are his stimulating explorations of the modern economic history of Indonesia. His thinking on the interplay of economics and culture was most fully and vigorously expounded in Agricultural Involution. That book deployed a succinctly packaged past in order to solve a pressing contemporary puzzle, Java's enduring rural poverty and apparent social immobility. Initially greeted with acclaim, later and ironically the book stimulated the deep and multi-layered research that in fact led to the eventual rejection of Geertz's central contentions. But the veracity or otherwise of Geertz's inventive characterisation of Indonesian economic development now seems irrelevant; what is profoundly important is the extraordinary stimulus he gave to a generation of scholars to explore Indonesia's modern economic history with a depth and intensity previously unimaginable.

A history of agricultural production at Neolithic Catalhoyuk East, Turkey

A history of agricultural production is proposed for Neolithic Catalhoyuk East, central Turkey, using archaeobotanical, environmental, population and settlement studies. In the aceramic early phase of site occupation, intensive strategies developed as changes in population and environment caused stress on food supplies produced within a limited territory. Food exchange may have been part of the social means by which Catalhoyuk and nearby contemporary settlements amalgamated into the single site of the main occupation phase. Population change, inherited territories and continuing environmental impact led to the development of an extensive system of agriculture using widely dispersed dry soils, with an intensive regime applied to nearby alluvial soils. Social tensions caused by the evolution of this system contributed to the fissioning of the site by the Chalcolithic.

Language and interdisciplinarity

Since language is multifaceted and heterogeneous, interdisciplinarity is natural to linguistic studies. In this article, after demonstrating that, I present two basic ways of doing science. One is ruled by the principle of exclusion, whereas the other is ruled by the principle of participation. The former leads to specialization, whereas the latter leads to the surpassing of specialization. From that, I discuss the advantages and problems of disciplinarity, and present the reasons why nowadays interdisciplinarity is a positive universal in scientific and pedagogical discourses. Also, based on etymology, I discuss the concepts of interdisciplinarity, multidisciplinarity, pluridisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity. Finally, I examine the bonds between linguistics and other sciences, by drawing a brief history of the relations between linguistics and literature in Brazil.