Variation in spoken discourse in and beyond the english foreign language classroom : a comparative study

This study is concerned with one of the most interesting and the least well-researched areas in contemporary research on classroom interaction: that of the discourse variability exhibited by participants. It investigates the way in which the language of native speakers (NSs) as well as that of non-native speakers (NNSs) may vary according to the circumstances under which it is produced. The study, therefore, attempts to characterise the performance of both NSs and NNSs (with particular emphasis placed on the latter) in various types of interaction in and beyond the EFL classroom. These are: Formal Interview (FI), Formal Classroom Interaction (FCI), Informal Classroom Interaction (ICI), Informal Classroom Discussion (ICD), and Informal Conversation (IC). The corpus of the study consisted of four NSs and fifteen NNSs. Both a video and a tape recording was made for each type of interaction, with the exception of the IC which was only audio-recorded so as not to inhibit the natural use of language. Each lasted for 35 minutes. The findings of the study mark clearly the distinction between the `artificiality' of classroom interaction and the `naturalness' or `authenticity' of non-classroom discourse. Amongst the most interesting findings are the following: Unlike both FCI and ICI, in the FI, ICD, and IC, the language of NNSs was characterised by: greater quantity of oral output, a wider range of errors, the use of natural discourse strategies such as holding the floor and self-correction, and a greater number of initiations in both ICD and IC. It is suggested that if `natural' or `authentic' discourse is to be promoted, the incorporation of FI, ICD, and IC into the EFL classroom activities is much needed. The study differs from most studies on classroom interaction in that it attempts to relate work in the EFL classroom to the `real' world as its prime objective.

The acquisition of French past tenses by tutored anglophone advanced learners : is aspect enough?

Following Andersen's (1986, 1991) study of untutored anglophone learners of Spanish, aspectual features have been at the centre of hypotheses on the development of past verbal morphology in language acquisition. The Primacy of Aspect Hypothesis claims that the association of any verb category (Aktionsart) with any aspect (perfective or imperfective) constitutes the endpoint of acquisition. However, its predictions rely on the observation of a limited number of untutored learners at the early stages of their acquisition, and have yet to be confirmed in other settings. The aim of the present thesis is to evaluate the explanatory power of the PAH in respect of the acquisition of French past tenses, an aspect of the language which constitutes a serious stumbling block for foreign learners, even those at the highest levels of proficiency (Coppieters 1987). The present research applies the PAH to the production of 61 anglophone 'advanced learners' (as defined in Bartning 1997) in a tutored environment. In so doing, it tests concurrent explanations, including the influence of the input, the influence of chunking, and the hypothesis of cyclic development. Finally, it discusses the cotextual and contextual factors that still provoke what Anderson (1991) terms "non-native glitches" at the final stage, as predicted by the PAH. The first part of the thesis provides the theoretical background to the corpus analysis. It opens with a diachronic presentation of the French past tense system focusing on present areas of competition and developments that emphasize the complexity of the system to be acquired. The concepts of time, grammatical aspect and lexical aspect (Aktionsart) are introduced and discussed in the second chapter, and a distinctive formal representation of the French past tenses is offered in the third chapter. The second part of the thesis is devoted to a corpus analysis. The data gathering procedures and the choice of tasks (oral and written film narratives based on Modern Times, cloze tests and acceptability judgement tests) are described and justified in the research methodology chapter. The research design was shaped by previous studies and consequently allows comparison with these. The second chapter is devoted to the narratives analysis and the third to the grammatical tasks. This section closes with a summary of discoveries and a comparison with previous results. The conclusion addresses the initial research questions in the light of both theory and practice. It shows that the PAH fails to account for the complex phenomenon of past tense development in the acquisitional settings under study, as it adopts a local (the verb phrase) and linear (steady progression towards native usage) approach. It is thus suggested that past tense acquisition rather follows a pendular development as learners reformulate their learning hypotheses and become increasingly able to shift from local to global cues and so to integrate the influence of cotext and context in their tense choice.

“I didn’t mean to steal someone else’s words!”:a forensic linguistic approach to detecting intentional plagiarism

The concept of plagiarism is not uncommonly associated with the concept of intellectual property, both for historical and legal reasons: the approach to the ownership of ‘moral’, nonmaterial goods has evolved to the right to individual property, and consequently a need was raised to establish a legal framework to cope with the infringement of those rights. The solution to plagiarism therefore falls most often under two categories: ethical and legal. On the ethical side, education and intercultural studies have addressed plagiarism critically, not only as a means to improve academic ethics policies (PlagiarismAdvice.org, 2008), but mainly to demonstrate that if anything the concept of plagiarism is far from being universal (Howard & Robillard, 2008). Even if differently, Howard (1995) and Scollon (1994, 1995) argued, and Angèlil-Carter (2000) and Pecorari (2008) later emphasised that the concept of plagiarism cannot be studied on the grounds that one definition is clearly understandable by everyone. Scollon (1994, 1995), for example, claimed that authorship attribution is particularly a problem in non-native writing in English, and so did Pecorari (2008) in her comprehensive analysis of academic plagiarism. If among higher education students plagiarism is often a problem of literacy, with prior, conflicting social discourses that may interfere with academic discourse, as Angèlil-Carter (2000) demonstrates, we then have to aver that a distinction should be made between intentional and inadvertent plagiarism: plagiarism should be prosecuted when intentional, but if it is part of the learning process and results from the plagiarist’s unfamiliarity with the text or topic it should be considered ‘positive plagiarism’ (Howard, 1995: 796) and hence not an offense. Determining the intention behind the instances of plagiarism therefore determines the nature of the disciplinary action adopted. Unfortunately, in order to demonstrate the intention to deceive and charge students with accusations of plagiarism, teachers necessarily have to position themselves as ‘plagiarism police’, although it has been argued otherwise (Robillard, 2008). Practice demonstrates that in their daily activities teachers will find themselves being required a command of investigative skills and tools that they most often lack. We thus claim that the ‘intention to deceive’ cannot inevitably be dissociated from plagiarism as a legal issue, even if Garner (2009) asserts that generally plagiarism is immoral but not illegal, and Goldstein (2003) makes the same severance. However, these claims, and the claim that only cases of copyright infringement tend to go to court, have recently been challenged, mainly by forensic linguists, who have been actively involved in cases of plagiarism. Turell (2008), for instance, demonstrated that plagiarism is often connoted with an illegal appropriation of ideas. Previously, she (Turell, 2004) had demonstrated by comparison of four translations of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to Spanish that the use of linguistic evidence is able to demonstrate instances of plagiarism. This challenge is also reinforced by practice in international organisations, such as the IEEE, to whom plagiarism potentially has ‘severe ethical and legal consequences’ (IEEE, 2006: 57). What plagiarism definitions used by publishers and organisations have in common – and which the academia usually lacks – is their focus on the legal nature. We speculate that this is due to the relation they intentionally establish with copyright laws, whereas in education the focus tends to shift from the legal to the ethical aspects. However, the number of plagiarism cases taken to court is very small, and jurisprudence is still being developed on the topic. In countries within the Civil Law tradition, Turell (2008) claims, (forensic) linguists are seldom called upon as expert witnesses in cases of plagiarism, either because plagiarists are rarely taken to court or because there is little tradition of accepting linguistic evidence. In spite of the investigative and evidential potential of forensic linguistics to demonstrate the plagiarist’s intention or otherwise, this potential is restricted by the ability to identify a text as being suspect of plagiarism. In an era with such a massive textual production, ‘policing’ plagiarism thus becomes an extraordinarily difficult task without the assistance of plagiarism detection systems. Although plagiarism detection has attracted the attention of computer engineers and software developers for years, a lot of research is still needed. Given the investigative nature of academic plagiarism, plagiarism detection has of necessity to consider not only concepts of education and computational linguistics, but also forensic linguistics. Especially, if intended to counter claims of being a ‘simplistic response’ (Robillard & Howard, 2008). In this paper, we use a corpus of essays written by university students who were accused of plagiarism, to demonstrate that a forensic linguistic analysis of improper paraphrasing in suspect texts has the potential to identify and provide evidence of intention. A linguistic analysis of the corpus texts shows that the plagiarist acts on the paradigmatic axis to replace relevant lexical items with a related word from the same semantic field, i.e. a synonym, a subordinate, a superordinate, etc. In other words, relevant lexical items were replaced with related, but not identical, ones. Additionally, the analysis demonstrates that the word order is often changed intentionally to disguise the borrowing. On the other hand, the linguistic analysis of linking and explanatory verbs (i.e. referencing verbs) and prepositions shows that these have the potential to discriminate instances of ‘patchwriting’ and instances of plagiarism. This research demonstrates that the referencing verbs are borrowed from the original in an attempt to construct the new text cohesively when the plagiarism is inadvertent, and that the plagiarist has made an effort to prevent the reader from identifying the text as plagiarism, when it is intentional. In some of these cases, the referencing elements prove being able to identify direct quotations and thus ‘betray’ and denounce plagiarism. Finally, we demonstrate that a forensic linguistic analysis of these verbs is critical to allow detection software to identify them as proper paraphrasing and not – mistakenly and simplistically – as plagiarism.

Utilisation of analogous climate locations to produce resilient biodiversity plantings for infrastructure developments

Developers have an obligation to biodiversity when considering the impact their development may have on the environment, with some choosing to go beyond the legal requirement for planning consent. Climate change projections over the 21st century indicate a climate warming and thus the species selected for habitat creation need to be able to withstand the pressures associated with these forecasts. A process is therefore required to identify resilient plantings for sites subject to climate change. Local government ecologists were consulted on their views on the use of plants of non-native provenance or how they consider resilience to climate change as part of their planting recommendations. There are mixed attitudes towards non-native species, but with studies already showing the impact climate change is having on biodiversity, action needs to be taken to limit further biodiversity loss, particularly given the heavily fragmented landscape preventing natural migration. A methodology has been developed to provide planners and developers with recommendations for plant species that are currently adapted to the climate the UK will experience in the future. A climate matching technique, that employs a GIS, allows the identification of European locations that currently experience the predicted level of climate change at a given UK location. Once an appropriate location has been selected, the plant species present in this area are then investigated for suitability for planting in the UK. The methodology was trialled at one site, Eastern Quarry in Kent, and suitable climate matched locations included areas in north-western France. Through the acquisition of plant species data via site visits and online published material, a species list was created, which considered original habitat design, but with added resilience to climate change.

Entering an academic discourse community: A case study of the coping strategies of eleven English as a Second Language students

This case study follows eleven non-English speaking students as they adapt to community college, content courses. The three classes examined are required freshman classes--Humanities, Social Environment, and Individual in Transition. In order to cope with the demands of these classes, students must penetrate the academic discourse community and have effective relationships with their instructors and their peers. The results of the study are based on interviews with eleven non-native speaking (NNS) students and their instructors and on an analysis of student writing assignments, course syllabi, and exams. Three general areas are examined: (a) students' first-language (L$\sb1$) education, (b) the requirements of their content classes, and (c) the affective factors which influence their adaptation process.^ The case of these students reveals that: (1) Students draw on their L$\sb1$ education, especially in terms of content, as they cope with the demands of these content classes. (2) In some areas L$\sb1$ educational experiences interfere with students' ability to adapt. (3) The content classes require students to have well developed reading, writing, oral, and aural skills. (4) Students must use higher level cognitive skills to be successful in content classes. (5) Affective factors play a role in students' success in content classes. The discussion section includes possible implications of this data for college level English as a Second Language courses. ^

An investigation into the comparable effectiveness of two tests of writing administered to college-level English as a Second Language students: The Computerized Placement Test and holistically scored essay exams

This dissertation describes the findings and implications of a correlational analysis. Scores earned on the Computerized Placement Test (CPT), sentence skills, were compared to essay scores of advanced English as a Second Language (ESL) students. As the CPT is designed for native speakers of English, it was hypothesized that it could be an invalid or unreliable instrument for non-native speakers. Florida community college students are mandated to take the CPT to determine preparedness, as are students at many other U.S. and Canadian colleges. If incoming students score low on the CPT, they may be required to take up to three semesters of remedial coursework. It is essential that scores earned by non-native speakers of English accurately reflect their ability level. They constitute a large and growing body of non-traditional students enrolled at community colleges.^ The study was conducted at Miami-Dade Community College, Wolfson Campus, fall 1997. Participants included 106 advanced ESL students who took both the CPT sentence skills test and wrote final essay exams. The essay exams were holistically scored by trained readers. Also, the participants took the Placement Articulation Software Service (PASS) exam, an alternative form of the CPT. Scores on the CPT and essays were compared by means of a Pearson product-moment correlation to validate the CPT. Scores on the CPT and the PASS exam were compared in the same manner to verify reliability. A percentage of appropriate placements was determined by comparing essay scores to CPT cutoff score ranges. Finally, the instruments were evaluated by means of independent-samples t-tests for performance differences between gender, age, and first language groups.^ The results indicate that the CPT sentence skills test is a valid and reliable placement instrument for advanced- level ESL students who intend to pursue community college degrees. The correlations demonstrated a substantial relationship between CPT and essay scores and a marked relationship between CPT and PASS scores. Appropriate placements were made in 86% of the cases. Furthermore, the CPT was found to discriminate equally among the gender, age, and first language groups included in this study. ^

Transcultural experiences: A literature bridge to English for ESOL students from Cuba

This qualitative study is concerned with exploring the transcultural experiences of ESOL students and connecting their lived experiences to literature in the classroom. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the transcultural perspectives of six high school and community college students: four Cuban born students and two American born/raised students of Cuban-American culture. The participants were from Barbara Goleman Senior High School and Miami-Dade Community College. The six phenomenological portraits were explored in the form of lived experience pieces, representing the students' transcultural experiences. The data was collected in the form of student interviews, researcher's journal, and document reviews. The following exploratory questions guided this study: (1) From the perspective of four Cuban-born, non-native English-speaking students (NNS), what are the essential structures of their transcultural identities? (2) What are the underlying themes that account for the Cuban NNS students' transcultural experiences? (3) What are the universal transcultural structures among the Cuban NNS students' transcultural experiences and the Cuban-American, native English/Spanish speaking (NESS) students' experiences? (4) What are the possible structural meanings of the Cuban NNS students' interests in relation to their transcultural experiences? (5) What are some connections between the structural themes inherent in the Cuban NNS students' transcultural experiences and teaching literature in ESOL? ^ A phenomenological approach was used to investigate the participants' transcultural experiences, focused on the students' lived experiences. The study consisted of three interview sessions for each of the six participants. The analysis of the data was conducted following the principles of qualitative research, which included participant interviews, thematic analysis, researcher's journal, document reviews, and triangulation. The researcher created portraits representing students' transcultural experiences. Subsequently, the participants' transcultural experiences were used to respond to the exploratory questions, including comparing and contrasting themes and drawing connections among teaching literature in the ESOL classroom. ^ The results of this study show some relevant specific statements and themes that emerged from the students' transcultural data. The results serve as a better understanding of these students' transcultural experiences and the potentiality of connecting their perspectives to literature in the classroom. In addition, this study shows the need for a better understanding of the connection between transcultural experiences and literature in ESOL. ^

The interactive effects of predators, resources, and disturbance on freshwater snail populations from the Everglades

The origins of population dynamics depend on interplay between abiotic and biotic factors; the relative importance of each changing across space and time. Predation is a central feature of ecological communities that removes individuals (consumption) and alters prey traits (non-consumptive). Resource quality mitigates non-consumptive predator effects by stimulating growth and reproduction. Disturbance resets predator-prey interactions by removing both. I integrate experiments, time-series analysis, and performance trials to examine the relative importance of these on the population dynamics of a snail species by studying a variety of their traits. A review of ninety-three published articles revealed that snail abundance was much less in the Everglades and similar ecosystems compared to all other freshwater ecosystems considered. Separating consumptive from non-consumptive (cues) predator effects at different phosphorous levels with an experiment determined that phosphorous stimulated, but predator cues inhibited snail growth (34% vs. 23%), activity (38% vs. 53%), and reproductive effort (99% vs. 90%) compared to controls. Cues induced taller shells and smaller openings and moved to refugia where they reduced periphyton by 8%. Consumptive predator effects were minor in comparison. In a reciprocal transplant cage experiment along a predator cue and phosphorous gradient created by a canal, snails grew 10% faster and produced 37% more eggs far from the canal (fewer cues) when fed phosphorous-enriched periphyton from near the canal. Time-series analysis at four sites and predator performance trials reveal that phosphorous-enriched regions support larger snail populations, seasonal drying removes snails at all sites, crayfish negatively affect populations in enriched regions, and molluscivorous fish consume snails in the wet season. Combining these studies reveals interplay between resources, predators, and seasonality that limit snail populations in the Everglades and lead to their low abundance compared to other freshwater ecosystems. Resource quality is emerging as the critical factor because improving resources profoundly improved growth and reproduction; seasonal drying and predation become important at times and places. This work contributes to the general understanding in ecology of the relative importance of different factors that structure populations and provides evidence that bolsters monitoring efforts to assess the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan that show phosphorous enrichment is a major driver of ecosystem change.

Synthesis of aromatic monothiols and aromatic dithiols to increase the folding rate and yield of disulfide containing proteins

Most pharmaceutically relevant proteins and many extracellular proteins contain disulfide bonds. Formation of the correct disulfide bonds is essential for stability in almost all cases. Disulfide containing proteins can be rapidly and inexpensively overexpressed in bacteria. However, the overexpressed proteins usually form aggregates inside the bacteria, called inclusion bodies, which contains inactive and non-native protein. To obtain native protein, inclusion bodies need to be isolated and resolubilized, and then the resulting protein refolded in vitro. In vitro protein folding is aided by the addition of a redox buffer, which is composed of a small molecule disulfide and/or a small molecule thiol. The most commonly used redox buffer contains reduced and oxidized glutathione. Recently, aliphatic dithiols and aromatic monothiols have been employed as redox buffers. Aliphatic dithiols improved the yield of native protein as compared to the aliphatic thiol, glutathione. Dithiols mimic the in vivo protein folding catalyst, protein disulfide isomerase, which has two thiols per active site. Furthermore, aromatic monothiols increased the folding rate and yield of lysozyme and RNase A relative to glutathione. By combining the beneficial properties of aliphatic dithiols and aromatic monothiols, aromatic dithiols were designed and were expected to increase in vitro protein folding rates and yields. Aromatic monothiols (1-4) and their corresponding disulfides (5-8), two series of ortho- and para-substituted ethylene glycol dithiols (9-15), and a series of aromatic quaternary ammonium salt dithiols (16-17) were synthesized on a multigram scale. Monothiols and disulfides (1-8) were utilized to fold lysozyme and bovine pancreatic trypsin inhibitor. Dithiols (11-17) were tested for their ability to fold lysozyme. At pH 7.0 and pH 8.0, and high protein concentration (1 mg/mL), aromatic dithiols (16, 17) and a monothiol (3) significantly enhanced the in vitro folding rate and yield of lysozyme relative to the aliphatic thiol, glutathione. Additionally, aromatic dithiols (16, 17) significantly enhance the folding yield as compared to the corresponding aromatic monothiol (3). Thus, the folding rate and yield enhancements achieved in in vitro protein folding at high protein concentration will decrease the volume of renaturation solution required for large scale processes and consequently reduce processing time and cost.

XML storage and retrieval using the semantic binary object -oriented database system (SEM-ODB)

Over the past five years, XML has been embraced by both the research and industrial community due to its promising prospects as a new data representation and exchange format on the Internet. The widespread popularity of XML creates an increasing need to store XML data in persistent storage systems and to enable sophisticated XML queries over the data. The currently available approaches to addressing the XML storage and retrieval issue have the limitations of either being not mature enough (e.g. native approaches) or causing inflexibility, a lot of fragmentation and excessive join operations (e.g. non-native approaches such as the relational database approach). ^ In this dissertation, I studied the issue of storing and retrieving XML data using the Semantic Binary Object-Oriented Database System (Sem-ODB) to leverage the advanced Sem-ODB technology with the emerging XML data model. First, a meta-schema based approach was implemented to address the data model mismatch issue that is inherent in the non-native approaches. The meta-schema based approach captures the meta-data of both Document Type Definitions (DTDs) and Sem-ODB Semantic Schemas, thus enables a dynamic and flexible mapping scheme. Second, a formal framework was presented to ensure precise and concise mappings. In this framework, both schemas and the conversions between them are formally defined and described. Third, after major features of an XML query language, XQuery, were analyzed, a high-level XQuery to Semantic SQL (Sem-SQL) query translation scheme was described. This translation scheme takes advantage of the navigation-oriented query paradigm of the Sem-SQL, thus avoids the excessive join problem of relational approaches. Finally, the modeling capability of the Semantic Binary Object-Oriented Data Model (Sem-ODM) was explored from the perspective of conceptually modeling an XML Schema using a Semantic Schema. ^ It was revealed that the advanced features of the Sem-ODB, such as multi-valued attributes, surrogates, the navigation-oriented query paradigm, among others, are indeed beneficial in coping with the XML storage and retrieval issue using a non-XML approach. Furthermore, extensions to the Sem-ODB to make it work more effectively with XML data were also proposed. ^

Recent Fish Introductions Into Everglades National Park: An Unforeseen Consequence of Water Management?

Non-native fishes present a management challenge to maintaining Everglades National Park (ENP) in a natural state. We summarized data from long-term fish monitoring studies in ENP and reviewed the timing of introductions relative to water-management changes. Beginning in the early 1950s, management actions have added canals, altered wetland habitats by flooding and drainage, and changed inflows into ENP, particularly in the Taylor Slough/C-111 basin and Rocky Glades. The first non-native fishes likely entered ENP by the late 1960s, but species numbers increased sharply in the early 1980s when new water-management actions were implemented. After 1999, eight non-native species and three native species, all previously recorded outside of Park boundaries, were found for the first time in ENP. Several of these incursions occurred following structural and operational changes that redirected water deliveries to wetlands open to the eastern boundary canals. Once established, control non-native fishes in Everglades wetlands is difficult; therefore, preventing introductions is key to their management. Integrating actions that minimize the spread of non-native species into protected natural areas into the adaptive management process for planning, development, and operation of water-management features may help to achieve the full suite of objectives for Everglades restoration.

Entering an academic discourse community: A case study of the coping strategies of eleven english as a second language students

This case study follows eleven non-English speaking students as they adapt to community college, content courses. The three classes examined are required freshman classes--Humanities, Social Environment, and Individual in Transition. In order to cope with the demands of these classes, students must penetrate the academic discourse community and have effective relationships with their instructors and their peers. The results of the study are based on interviews with eleven non-native speaking (NNS) students and their instructors and on an analysis of student writing assignments, course syllabi, and exams. Three general areas are examined: (a) students' first-language (L1) education, (b) the requirements of their content classes, and (c) the affective factors which influence their adaptation process. The case of these students reveals that: 1. Students draw on their L1 education, especially in terms of content, as they cope with the demands of these content classes. 2. In some areas L1 educational experiences interfere with students' ability to adapt. 3. The content classes require students to have well developed reading, writing, oral, and aural skills. 4. Students must use higher level cognitive skills to be successful in content classes. 5. Affective factors play a role in students' success in content classes. The discussion section includes possible implications of this data for college level English as a Second Language courses.

Commandeering Aesop’s Bamboo Canon: A 19th Century Confederacy of Creole Fugitive Fables

In my thesis, “Commandeering Aesop’s Bamboo Canon: A 19th Century Confederacy of Creole Fugitive Fables,” I ask and answer the ‘Who? What? Where? When? Why?” of Creole Literature using the 19th century production of Aesopian fables as clues to resolve a set of linguistic, historical, literary, and geographical enigmas pertaining the ‘birth-place(s)’ of Creolophone Literatures in the Caribbean Sea, North and South America, as well as the Indian Ocean. Focusing on the fables in Martinique (1846), Reunion Island (1826), and Mauritius (1822), my thesis should read be as an attempt capture the links between these islands through the creation of a particular archive defined as a cartulary-chronicle, a diplomatic codex, or simply a map in which I chart and trace the flight of the founding documents relating to the lives of the individual authors, editors, and printers in order to illustrate the articulation of a formal and informal confederation that enabled the global and local institutional promotion of Creole Literature. While I integrate various genres and multi-polar networks between the authors of this 19th century canon comprised of sacred and secular texts such as proclamations, catechisms, and proverbs, the principle literary genre charted in my thesis are collections of fables inspired by French 17th century French Classical fabulist, Jean de la Fontaine. Often described as the ‘matrix’ of Creolophone Literature, these blues and fables constitute the base of the canon, and are usually described as either ‘translated,’ ‘adapted,’ and even ‘cross-dressed’ into Creole in all of the French Creolophone spaces. My documentation of their transnational sprouting offers proof of an opaque canonical formation of Creole popular literature. By constituting this archive, I emphasize the fact that despite 200 years of critical reception and major developments and discoveries on behalf of Creole language pedagogues, literary scholars, linguists, historians, librarians, archivist, and museum curators, up until now not only have none have curated this literature as a formal canon. I also offer new empirical evidence in order to try and solve the enigma of “How?” the fables materially circulated between the islands, and seek to come to terms with the anonymous nature of the texts, some of which were published under pseudonyms. I argue that part of the confusion on the part of scholars has been the result of being willfully taken by surprise or defrauded by the authors, or ‘bamboozled’ as I put it. The major paradigmatic shift in my thesis is that while I acknowledge La Fontaine as the base of this literary canon, I ultimately bypass him to trace the ancient literary genealogy of fables to the infamous Aesop the Phrygian, whose biography – the first of a slave in the history of the world – and subsequent use of fables reflects a ‘hidden transcript’ of ‘masked political critique’ between ‘master and slave classes’ in the 4th Century B.C.E. Greece.

This archive draws on, connects and critiques the methodologies of several disciplinary fields. I use post-colonial literary studies to map the literary genealogies Aesop; use a comparative historical approach to the abolitions of slavery in both the 19th century Caribbean and the Indian Ocean; and chart the early appearance of folk music in early colonial societies through Musicology and Performance Studies. Through the use of Sociolinguistics and theories of language revival, ecology, and change, I develop an approach of ‘reflexive Creolistics’ that I ultimately hope will offer new educational opportunities to Creole speakers. While it is my desire that this archive serves linguists, book collectors, and historians for further scientific inquiry into the innate international nature of Creole language, I also hope that this innovative material defense and illustration of Creole Literature will transform the consciousness of Creolophones (native and non-native) who too remain ‘bamboozled’ by the archive. My goal is to erase the ‘unthinkability’ of the existence of this ancient maritime creole literary canon from the collective cultural imaginary of readers around the globe.

Seawater carbonate chemistry and calcification rate of the corals Oculina patagonica and Cladocora caespitosa in a laboratory experiment

In recent years, some of the ramifications of the ocean acidification problematic derived from the anthropogenic rising of atmospheric CO2 have been widely studied. In particular, the potential effects of a lowering pH on tropical coral reefs have received special attention. However, only a few studies have focused on testing the effects of ocean acidification in corals from the Mediterranean Sea, despite the fact that this basin is especially sensitive to increasing atmospheric CO2. In this context, we investigated the response to ocean acidification of the two zooxanthellate coral species capable of constituting the main framework of the community, the endemic Cladocora caespitosa and the non-native Oculina patagonica. To this end, we examined the response of both species to pCO2 concentrations expected by the end of the century, 800 ppm, vs the present levels. Calcification rate measurements after 92 days of exposure to low pH conditions showed the same negative response in both species, a decrease of 32-35% compared to corals reared under control conditions. In addition, we detected in both species a correlation between the calcification rate of colonies in control conditions and the degree of impairment of the same colonies at low pH. Independent of species, faster growing colonies were more affected by decreased pH. After this period of decreased pH, we conducted a recovery experiment, in which corals reared in the acidic treatment were brought back to control conditions. In this case, normal calcification rates were reached in both species. Overall, our results suggest that O. patagonica and C. caespitosa will both be affected detrimentally by progressive ocean acidification in the near future. They do not display differences in response between native and non-native species but do manifest differential responses depending on calcification rate, pointing to a role of the coral genetics in determining the response of corals to ocean acidification.