Understanding the information literacy experiences of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students

Purpose – This paper outlines research that explores the information literacy experiences of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students. The question explored in this research was: how do EFL students experience information literacy. Design/Methodology/Approach – This study used phenomenography, a relational approach to explore the information literacy experiences of EFL students. Phenomenography studies the qualitatively different ways a phenomenon is experienced in the world around us. Findings – This research revealed that EFL students experienced information literacy in four qualitatively different ways. The four categories revealed through the data were: process, quality, language and knowledge. This research found that language impacted on EFL students’ experiences of information literacy and revealed that EFL students applied various techniques and strategies when they read, understood, organised and translated information. Research limitations/implications – This research was conducted in a specific cultural and educational context, therefore the results might not reflect the experiences of EFL students in other cultural or educational contexts. Practical implications – The findings from this research offer an important contribution to information literacy practice by providing important insights about EFL students’ experiences and perceptions of information and learning that can be used to inform curriculum development in second language learning contexts. Originality/Value - There is currently a lack of research using a relational approach to investigate EFL students’ experiences of information literacy. There is also limited research that explores the impact language has on information literary and learning in English as a foreign or second language contexts.

Time, space, and text in the elementary school digital writing classroom

Theorists of multiliteracies, social semiotics, and the New Literacy Studies have drawn attention to the potential changing nature of writing and literacy in the context of networked communications. This article reports findings from a design-based research project in Year 4 classrooms (students aged 8.5-10 years) in a low socioeconomic status school. A new writing program taught students how to design multimodal and digital texts across a range of genres and text types, such as web pages, online comics, video documentaries, and blogs. The authors use Bernstein’s theory of the pedagogic device to theorize the pedagogic struggles and resolutions in remaking English through the specialization of time, space, and text. The changes created an ideological struggle as new writing practices were adapted from broader societal fields to meet the instructional and regulative discourses of a conventional writing curriculum.

Critical linguistics in the early years : exploring functions of language through sophisticated picture books and process drama strategies

In this chapter we describe a critical fairytales unit taught to 4.5 to 5.5 year olds in a context of intensifying pressure to raise literacy achievement. The unit was infused with lessons on reinterpreted fairytales followed by process drama activities built around a sophisticated picture book, Beware of the Bears (MacDonald, 2004). The latter entailed a text analytic approach to critical literacy derived from systemic functional linguistics (Halliday, 1978; Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004). This approach provides a way of analysing how words and discourse are used to represent the world in a particular way and shape reader relations with the author in a particular field (Janks, 2010).

Introduction : Picture Books ... Then, Now and Beyond

Picture books are known and familiar objects to many children and adults. They have been variously described as art objects, cultural documents, hybrid texts and verbal-visual art forms. They have also been variously categorised according to their readership – ranging from very young children to older readers, the latter can extend through the primary years to high school and even into adulthood. Scholars and students study picture books as part of an evolving literary and cultural landscape which has given rise to new genres and trends, such as ‘multicultural picture books’, ‘environmental picture books’ and ‘postmodern picture books’, and what Cherie Allan terms, ‘postmodernesque picture books’, that is, ‘picturebooks about postmodernity’ (Allan, 2012, p. 141). Picture books are also the staple literature in many early years and primary school classrooms for literacy and literary development, thus supporting the designated strands for literacy, literature, and language in the Australian Curriculum: English.

Picture Books and Beyond

Picture books and beyond examines a wide selection of picture books, graphics novels, films, e-picture books and apps that reflects the diversity of these evolving cultural artefacts, and their opportunities for education and delight. Picture books and beyond aligns closely with the goals and directions of the Australian Curriculum: English, and considers the potential of texts for enabling students to respond critically and creatively. It also highlights links to other curricula, general capabilities, and cross-curriculum priorities.

Audit committee effectiveness : informal processes and behavioural effects

Purpose This paper seeks to investigate the conditions and processes affecting the operation and potential effectiveness of audit committees (ACs), with particular focus on the interaction between the AC, individuals from financial reporting and internal audit functions and the external auditors. Design/methodology/approach A case study approach is employed, based on direct engagement with participants in AC activities, including the AC chair, external auditors, internal auditors, and senior management. Findings The authors find that informal networks between AC participants condition the impact of the AC and that the most significant effects of the AC on governance outcomes occur outside the formal structures and processes. An AC has pervasive behavioural effects within the organization and may be used as a threat, an ally and an arbiter in bringing solutions to issues and conflicts. ACs are used in organizational politics, communication processes and power plays and also affect interpretations of events and cultural values. Research limitations/implications Further research on AC and governance processes is needed to develop better understanding of effectiveness. Longitudinal studies, focusing on the organizational and institutional context of AC operations, can examine how historical events in an organization and significant changes in the regulatory environment affect current structures and processes. Originality/value The case analysis highlights a number of significant factors which are not fully recognised either in theorizing the governance role of ACs or in the development of policy and regulations concerning ACs but which impinge on their governance contribution. They include the importance of informal processes around the AC; its influence on power relations between organizational participants; the relevance of the historical development of governance in an organization; and the possibility that the AC’s impact on governance may be greatest in non-routine situations.

Writers as performers : developing reflexive and creative writing identities

Writing is a complex and learned activity in that it requires us to shape our thoughts into words and texts that are appropriate for the purpose, audience and medium of a variety of communicative forms. Writers must constantly make decisions about how to represent their subject matter and themselves through language. In this way, writing can be conceptualised as a performance whereby writers shape and represent their identities as they mediate social structures and personal considerations. In this paper I use theories of reflexivity and discourse to analyse interviews and writing samples of culturally and linguistically diverse Australian primary students for evidence of particular kinds of writing identities. Findings indicate a clear influence of particular teaching strategies and contexts on the writing identities of students. I argue that making students aware of their writing choices, the influences on, and the potential impact of those choices on themselves, their text and their audience, is a new imperative in the teaching of writing.

‘The struggle for welcome’ : valuing difference through refugee stories in the English Curriculum

This paper is concerned with how refugee stories can be used as the means of exploring values and developing intercultural understanding in the English classroom. To illustrate this possibility, André Dao’s (2005) Vuot Bien – The Search for Freedom: Huong Thi Nguen’s Story, about the impact of war and oppression on people’s lives, together with the experience of seeking freedom and acceptance in Australia as a Vietnamese refugee, is selected as the text for a Year 9 English class. In examining the features of this short story, we also consider how recent efforts to foster intercultural understanding in the new national curriculum in Australia might be advanced in the English classroom. We argue that this text and others in the genre of refugee narratives written by young people, provide vicarious opportunities to analyse how valuing freedom and having the courage to seek it can be brought to light when an individual survives one life and begins the challenges of creating a new life among strangers. Examining the values dimensions of such texts also allows young people to unpack and critique the ways in which cultural experiences, including their own, shape and form identities and how engaging with the experiences of others can be the vehicle for valuing difference. We hope our discussion might encourage teachers in other countries undergoing cultural shifts in response to the movements of people will be encouraged to consider this ‘double entendre’ in which the refugee experience is shaped not only by ‘the journey’ and also by ‘the arrival’ and the degree to which newcomers, refugee or asylum seekers, are made welcome by the receiving community.

Learning English pragmatics in China: An investigation into Chinese EFL learners’ perceptions of pragmatics

This paper reports the findings of a study investigating Chinese English language learners’ perceptions of pragmatics in the EFL learning context in China. A total of 237 Chinese EFL first-year university students participated in the study. A questionnaire and focus group interviews were used to collect data about learners’ pragmatics insights during their English language acquisition process. The findings of the study have provided empirical evidence for English educators and practitioners in China, indicating that there have been substantive changes in Chinese university students’ perceptions of English pragmatics. Except for organizational knowledge, they have a strong desire to acquire English pragmatic knowledge in their English language learning process, and would like to be pragmatically competent language users. This inquiry emphasizes the necessity to introduce pragmatics use and practice, which can effectively facilitate Chinese English learners to achieve pragmatic competence in communication.

Digital literacy in theory, policy and practice: Old concerns, new opportunities

The increasing ubiquity and use of digital technologies across social and cultural life is a key challenge for educators engaged in helping students develop a range of literacies useful for school and beyond. Many young people's experience of communication and participation is now shaped by almost constant engagements with digital technologies and media, as well as with global digital cultures. This increasing access and use has given many young people the opportunity to engage deeply with global media cultures via popular music, television and film franchises, the worldwide computer games industry, or countless other subcultures that connect fans and interested others from around the world via the internet. 'Digital literacy' is often the term associated with the ability to traverse these, and other, online and offline worlds; the notion has long been synonymous with the idea that digital technologies now mediate perhaps a majority of our social interactions. These forms of engagement with the world have important implications for educators and school systems which have historically recognised only a very narrow set of legitimate literacies.

Agreement Patterns in English : Diachronic Corpus Studies on Common-Number Pronouns

This study reports a diachronic corpus investigation of common-number pronouns used to convey unknown or otherwise unspecified reference. The study charts agreement patterns in these pronouns in various diachronic and synchronic corpora. The objective is to provide base-line data on variant frequencies and distributions in the history of English, as there are no previous systematic corpus-based observations on this topic. This study seeks to answer the questions of how pronoun use is linked with the overall typological development in English and how their diachronic evolution is embedded in the linguistic and social structures in which they are used. The theoretical framework draws on corpus linguistics and historical sociolinguistics, grammaticalisation, diachronic typology, and multivariate analysis of modelling sociolinguistic variation. The method employs quantitative corpus analyses from two main electronic corpora, one from Modern English and the other from Present-day English. The Modern English material is the Corpus of Early English Correspondence, and the time frame covered is 1500-1800. The written component of the British National Corpus is used in the Present-day English investigations. In addition, the study draws supplementary data from other electronic corpora. The material is used to compare the frequencies and distributions of common-number pronouns between these two time periods. The study limits the common-number uses to two subsystems, one anaphoric to grammatically singular antecedents and one cataphoric, in which the pronoun is followed by a relative clause. Various statistical tools are used to process the data, ranging from cross-tabulations to multivariate VARBRUL analyses in which the effects of sociolinguistic and systemic parameters are assessed to model their impact on the dependent variable. This study shows how one pronoun type has extended its uses in both subsystems, an increase linked with grammaticalisation and the changes in other pronouns in English through the centuries. The variationist sociolinguistic analysis charts how grammaticalisation in the subsystems is embedded in the linguistic and social structures in which the pronouns are used. The study suggests a scale of two statistical generalisations of various sociolinguistic factors which contribute to grammaticalisation and its embedding at various stages of the process.

Between Herbals et alia: Intertextuality in Medieval English Herbals

This study reports a corpus-based study of medieval English herbals, which are texts conveying information on medicinal plants. Herbals belong to the medieval medical register. The study charts intertextual parallels within the medieval genre, and between herbals and other contemporary medical texts. It seeks to answer questions where and how herbal texts are linked to each other, and to other medical writing. The theoretical framework of the study draws on intertextuality and genre studies, manuscript studies, corpus linguistics, and multi-dimensional text analysis. The method combines qualitative and quantitative analyses of textual material from three historical special-language corpora of Middle and Early Modern English, one of which was compiled for the purposes of this study. The text material contains over 800,000 words of medical texts. The time span of the material is from c. 1330 to 1550. Text material is retrieved from the corpora by using plant name lists as search criteria. The raw data is filtered through qualitative analysis which produces input for the quantitative analysis, multi-dimensional scaling (MDS). In MDS, the textual space that parallel text passages form is observed, and the observations are explained by a qualitative analysis. This study concentrates on evidence of material and structural intertextuality. The analysis shows patterns of affinity between the texts of the herbal genre, and between herbals and other texts in the medical register. Herbals are most closely linked with recipe collections and regimens of health: they comprise over 95 per cent of the intertextual links between herbals and other medical writing. Links to surgical texts, or to specialised medical texts are very few. This can be explained by the history of the herbal genre: as herbals carry information on medical ingredients, herbs, they are relevant for genres that are related to pharmacological therapy. Conversely, herbals draw material from recipe collections in order to illustrate the medicinal properties of the herbs they describe. The study points out the close relationship between medical recipes and recipe-like passages in herbals (recipe paraphrases). The examples of recipe paraphrases show that they may have been perceived as indirect instruction. Keywords: medieval herbals, early English medicine, corpus linguistics, intertextuality, manuscript studies

Style and Readability in Football Texts

Tutkielmassa tarkastellaan jalkapallokieltä erikoiskielenä tyylintutkimuksen näkökulmasta. Tutkimusaineistoksi on valittu kuusi noin 2000 sanan pituista otosta erilaisista jalkapalloa käsittelevistä teksteistä, joista kolme on kirjoitettu suomeksi ja kolme englanniksi. Työssä pyritään selvittämään, mitä eroa yleiskieltä lähestyvillä ja erikoiskieliksi katsottavilla jalkapalloteksteillä on ja kuinka jalkapallokieli erikoiskielenä vertautuu muihin erikoiskieliin. Tutkimukseen sisältyy lisäksi tutkittuja tekstejä koskeva kyselyosio. Lopuksi pohditaan sitä, mitä merkitystä saadulla tiedolla on kääntämiselle. Käytetty tutkimustapa on luonteeltaan melko kvantitatiivinen, ja se pohjautuu pitkälti käsityksiin hyvästä luettavuudesta. Ensin teksteistä lasketaan keskimääräinen lausepituus, eri sanaluokkien frekvenssejä sekä aktiivi- ja passiivimuodossa olevien verbien suhde. Tämän jälkeen pohditaan, mitä merkitystä tuloksilla voisi olla tekstien tyylille ja luettavuudelle. Tekstit annetaan vielä luettaviksi koehenkilöille, jotka vastaavat tekstit luettuaan tyyliä ja luettavuutta koskevaan kyselyyn. Lopulta kyselyn tuloksia verrataan tyylianalyysin avulla saatuihin tuloksiin. Analysoiduista teksteistä saadut tulokset eivät vastaa aiemmin erikoiskielistä saatuja tuloksia, eikä jalkapallon erikoiskielestä synny kiistatonta kokonaiskuvaa. Substantiivien määrä etenkin suomenkielisissä jalkapalloteksteissä on niin suuri, että se vaikuttaa tekstien luettavuuteen ja tyyliin. Teksteissä käytetyt virkkeet eivät toisaalta ole kovin pitkiä tai monimutkaisia, mikä yhdistää jalkapallokieltä ja muissa urheilulajeissa käytettyä kieltä. Englanninkielisissä teksteissä käytetään enemmän adjektiiveja ja anaforista viittausta kuin suomenkielisissä, mikä on huomionarvoista käännöksissä, koska suomalaisilla kirjoittajilla vaikuttaisi analysoitujen tekstien perusteella todellakin olevan taipumusta substantiivien liialliseen käyttöön. Kyselystä saadut tulokset eivät vastaa frekvenssianalyyseistä saatuja tuloksia, ja kysely paljastaa myös sen, ettei lukunopeus ole aina luotettava luettavuuden mittari. Jos aihetta tutkittaisiin lisää, olisi tutkimusaineiston syytä olla laajempi, jotta saataisiin kouriintuntuvampia tuloksia. Mikäli tutkitaan myös tekstien luettavuutta, on syytä ottaa huomioon, ettei lukunopeuden mittaaminen ole välttämättä luotettava menetelmä luettavuuden toteamiseksi. Avainsanat Nyckelord Keywords Tyyli, luettavuus, rekisteri, tekstilaji, erikoiskielet, tyylintutkimus Säilytyspaikka Förvaringställe Where deposited Käännöstieteen laitoksen kirjasto

Temple Emanuel (Andover, Mass.) records, 1939-2001; and Part II (addendum), undated 1952-2004

Temple Emanuel was founded in 1920 in Lawrence, Massachusetts. It began by serving a small immigrant Jewish community that has since grown to an affluent and lively congregation of about 600 families. This growth occurred largely under the tenure of Rabbi Harry A. Roth, who lead the congregation from 1962 until 1990 and oversaw the temple’s move to Andover, Massachusetts. This collection includes correspondence, photographs, and sermons.

Schutzbrief and marriage permit for Bonuit Hayum, granted by Friedrich August, Herzog zu Nassau, Wiesbaden

Schutzbrief and marriage permit for Bonuit Hayum, granted by Friedrich August, Herzog zu Nassau, Wiesbaden, manuscript and seal; includes English translation