Consumo c(l)iente: abordagem do gênero anúncio publicitário em livros didáticos de língua portuguesa do ensino médio

Portuguese language textbooks, according to what has been preconized on the official document to education, have been configured on discursive genres imported from diverse spheres of human activity. Adverts, genre of ample social circulation, spread from the Advertising sphere to the schools and started being approached by these collectaneas as an object and a tool for teaching. Therefore, this research deals with the approach of ads in Portugese textbooks. These discursive practices matter for the impact or appeal they exert over the (new) consumers, among which High School students; for their representation in the capitalist system, which guides us on our relationships and social practices; and for the mix of languages that end up at their composition, once they encapsulate the spirit of our time, par excellence, the one from the verbal-visual genres. To understand the treatment given to these advertising pieces, from questions/commentaries related to them, two collections were selected by the Programa Nacional do Livro Didático – Textbook National Program (PNLD 2012) among the ones more used by public High Schools in Natal/RN. From Applied Linguistics, from mestizo, nomadic and inter/transdisciplinary identity (MOITA LOPES, 2009), this study falls within the discursive chain of the interpretive tradition of historical-cultural approach (FREITAS, 2010) and names the Bakhtin Circle and its language‟s dialogical conception as inescapable partners. The data of the colletaneas show that the genre approach can happen as concrete utterance, as linguistic artifact and as hybrid, at work with questions and without questions, with the predominance of its occurrence in the portion of the volume devoted to the study of grammar. In the literature chapters and production/interpretation of compositions, it insert is incipient or it doesn‟t happen in the volume. Such a provision has implications for multiliteracies (ROJO, 2012) of the citizen student, once the lack or the abundance of critical reading proposals for this genre, that demand from the student the exercise of knowledge that is necessary to the construction of linguistic and social meanings, can be responsible for guide to a more conscious consumerism (material and cultural) by the chief customers of the work under review. The approaches of the genres seems to indicate a gradual transition that such material have undergone, which means, from the focus on clauses to the focus on utterances, or even the approach as linguistic artifact to hybrid and the concrete utterance, in search of overcoming the traditional tendency of taking advantage of formal aspects of the language, to the detriment of enunciative ones, and for coming into harmony with the guidelines and parameters of teaching in contemporary times, bringing the school duties close to the rights in life.

Operações linguístico-discursivas em relatos retextualizados por alunos do ensino fundamental

The following paper attempted to investigate and discuss the possible improvements in the writing of students from the public network in the 6th grade of elementary school. This research was run in the professional master degree In Portuguese Language. Also based upon Genetic Criticism, this study attempting to analyze in which way and in which proportions the alterations done in the texts reveal and perspective capacity in the students as they replace, broad, remove or just move terms in their assignments. We tried to develop our analysis in the pragmatic perspective in which Textual Linguistic is included, investigating the texts and appreciating them as a construction process of meaning. Our theoretical discussion will be based on and socio-interactional conception of language (MARCUSCHI, 2008), as well as in the postulates of Analyze of Discursion (ADAM, 2010, 2008). It has also been used the theoretical assumptions taken from Genetic Criticism which regard the relation between text and genesis, due to the fact that it considers the text and a the result of a construction of progressive elaboration and the writing as an activity of constant movement (DE BIASI, [2000] 2010; GRÉSILLON, 1989; [1990] 2008; [1992] 2002; SALLES, 2008a). To assemble the data in this research we took into consideration the social variables related to the students and the sociocultural context. Nonetheless, this investigation point towards a real classroom situation where we tried to analyze the language functioning in application conditions, thus, giving us authority to describe more precisely the reality we lived in, which provided us with a more attentive look to the observed particularities. This description of the reality appreciated built a path that point to a research of qualitative data approach to which meanings deriving from interpretation were attributed. To conduct this research we resourced to the Action-Research process. The data are comprised of ten personal reports that were created from rewriting assignments, which constitutes a range of twenty texts assessed starting from the linguistic operations acknowledged by Generative Grammar and continued by Lebrave and Grésillon (2009). As result of this analysis, we identified the operation of adding more often than the other ones. The replacement and removal operations display a very close offspring. Nevertheless, the moving operation was scarcely used. These results, besides demonstrating linguistic creativity of the students, revealed that for a text to be seen as “concluded”, the writing student articulates new elaborations through these linguistic operators and that these movements of coming and going, of erasures and amendments contribute significantly for the teacher to approach the relationship the student keeps with his textual and discursive expression, and then, with that, to hold information that eventually provides individual and collective directions in school productions.

An investigation into the tension arising between natural language and mathematical language experienced by mechanical engineering students

This investigation is grounded within the concept of embodied cognition where the mind is considered to be part of a biological system. A first year undergraduate Mechanical Engineering cohort of students was tasked with explaining the behaviour of three balls of different masses being rolled down a ramp. The explanations given by the students highlighted the cognitive conflict between the everyday interpretation of the word energy and its mathematical use. The results showed that even after many years of schooling, students found it challenging to interpret the mathematics they had learned and relied upon pseudo-scientific notions to account for the behaviour of the balls.

Introduction of novel video-based tasks to clinical fMRI: Comparing traditional fMRI tasks with novel video-based tasks for mapping brain language areas

Recently, blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become a routine clinical procedure for localization of language and motor brain regions and has been replacing more invasive preoperative procedures. However, the fMRI results from these tasks are not always reproducible even from the same patient. Evaluating the reproducibility of language and speech mapping is especially complicated due to the complex brain circuitry that may become activated during the functional task. Non-language areas such as sensory, attention, decision-making, and motor brain regions may also be activated in addition to the specific language regions during a traditional sentence-completion task. In this study, I test a new approach, which utilizes 4-minute video-based tasks, to map language and speech brain regions for patients undergoing brain surgery. Results from 35 subjects have shown that the video-based task activates Wernicke’s area, as well as Broca’s area in most subjects. The computed laterality indices, which indicate the dominant hemisphere from that functional task, have indicated left dominance from the video-based tasks. This study has shown that the video-based task may be an alternative method for localization of language and speech brain regions for patients who are unable to complete the sentence-completion task.

WAKING (TO) THINKING BEING: A STUDY OF EDUCATION, METAPHYSICS, MIND, AND LANGUAGE

This dissertation articulates the basic aims and achievements of education. It recognizes language as central to thinking, and philosophy and education as belonging profoundly to one another. The first step is to show that although philosophy can no longer claim to dictate the foundations of knowledge or of disciplines of inquiry, it still offers an exceptionally general level of self-understanding. Education is equally general and faces a similar crisis of self-identity, of coming to terms with reality. Language is the medium of thought and the repository of historical mind; so a child’s acquisition of language is her acquisition of rational freedom. This marks a metaphysical change: no longer merely an animal, she comes to exercise her powers of rationality, transcending her environment by seeking and expressing reasons for thinking and doing. She can think about herself in relation to the universe, hence philosophize and educate others in turn. The discussion then turns to the historical nature of language. The thinking already embedded in language always anticipates further questioning. Etymology serves as a model for philosophical understanding, and demonstrates how philosophy can continue to yield insights that are fundamental, but not foundational, to human life. The etymologies of some basic educational concepts disclose education as a leading out and into the midst of Being. The philosophical approach developed in previous chapters applies to the very idea of an educational aim. Discussion concerning the substantiality of educational ideals results in an impasse: one side recommends an open-­ended understanding of education’s aims; the other insists on a definitive account. However, educational ideals exhibit a conceptual duality: the fundamental achievements of education, such as rational freedom, are real; but how we should understand them remains an open question. The penultimate chapter investigates philosophical thinking as the fulfillment of rational freedom, whose creative insights can profoundly transform our everyday activities. That this transformative self-understanding is without end suggests the basic aims of education are unheimlich. The dissertation concludes with speculative reflection on the shape and nature of language, and with the suggestion that through education reality awakens to itself.

From labelling to social aid for immigrants in the 21st Century

Migration is as old as humanity, but since the 1990s migration flows in Western Europe have led to societies that are not just multicultural but so-called «super-diverse». As a result, Western towns now have very complex social structures, with amongst others large amounts of small immigrant communities that are in constant change. In this paper we argue that for social workers to be able to offer adequate professional help to non-native residents in town, they will need balanced view of ‘culture’ and of the role culture plays in social aid. Culture is never static, but is continually changing. By teaching social workers about how to look at cultural backgrounds of immigrant groups and about the limitations of then role that culture plays in communication, they will be better equipped to provide adequate aid and will contribute to making various groups grow towards each other and to avoid people thinking in terms of ‘out-group-homogeneity’. Nowadays, inclusion is a priority in social work that almost every social worker supports. Social workers should have an open attitude to allow them to approach every individual as a unique person. They will see the other person as the person they are, and not as a part of a specific cultural group. Knowledge about the others makes them see the cultural heterogeneity in every group. The social sector, though, must be aware not to fall into the trap of the ‘inclusion mania’! This will cause the social deprivation of a particular group to be forgotten. An inclusive policy requires an inclusive society. Otherwise, this could result in even more deprivation of other groups, already discriminated against. Emancipation of deprived people demands a certain target-group policymaking. Categorized aid will raise efficiency of working with immigrants and of acknowledging the cultural identity of the non-natives group. It will also create the possibility to work on fighting social deprivation, in which most immigrants can be found.

Being impolite while pretending to be polite. The rupture of politeness conventions in electoral debates

This paper is a part of a larger research that pursues a global understanding of impoliteness in face-to-face electoral debates. That research distinguishes three essential axes, three complementary analytical perspectives: functional strategies of impoliteness, linguistic-discursive mechanisms to implement them and social impacts of impolite acts. In this frame, the present work develops an in-depth analysis of a special category of mechanisms, namely the rupture of politeness conventions, a subgroup within postliteral implicit mechanisms. This subgroup acquires its identity by the fact of carrying out a linguistic action that is conventionally associated with a polite attitude, but doing it in a rhetorically insincere way: the consequence is that apparent politeness becomes impoliteness. Relevant aspects in the characterization of ruptures are isolated and, on this basis, it is developed a detailed analysis of three specific kinds of mechanisms in which ruptures take shape: using ironic statements, developing different forms of overpoliteness and adopting a falsely collaborative attitude toward the interlocutor. The analysis of that group of mechanisms takes into account, simultaneously, the other two axes of the main research, strategies and social impacts.

Who is in charge? An L2 Discourse Intonation Study on Four Prosodic Parameters to Exert the Pragmatic Function of Dominance and Control in the Context of L2 Non-specialist Public Speaking

This paper reports the findings from a study of the learning of English intonation by Spanish speakers within the discourse mode of L2 oral presentation. The purpose of this experiment is, firstly, to compare four prosodic parameters before and after an L2 discourse intonation training programme and, secondly, to confirm whether subjects, after the aforementioned L2 discourse intonation training, are able to match the form of these four prosodic parameters to the discourse-pragmatic function of dominance and control. The study designed the instructions and tasks to create the oral and written corpora and Brazil’s Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English was adapted for the pedagogical aims of the present study. The learners’ pre- and post-tasks were acoustically analysed and a pre / post- questionnaire design was applied to interpret the acoustic analysis. Results indicate most of the subjects acquired a wider choice of the four prosodic parameters partly due to the prosodically-annotated transcripts that were developed throughout the L2 discourse intonation course. Conversely, qualitative and quantitative data reveal most subjects failed to match the forms to their appropriate pragmatic functions to express dominance and control in an L2 oral presentation.

By our tongues united? Irish and Scots language contact in rural Ulster

This article suggests that the impact of long-term language contact between the languages of Irish, Scots and English in the province of Ulster led to a hybridisation of accent which challenges traditional ethnolinguistic differentiations - namely, the myth that Catholics and Protestants can be differentiated by their accent. The digitisation of archive recordings from the Tape Recorded Survey of Hiberno-English (TRSHE) permitted a detailed phonetic analysis of two speakers from Atticall, a rural townland in the Mourne Mountains with a unique geographical and linguistic setting, due to the close proximity of Ulster Scots and Irish speakers in the area. Phonological features associated with Irish, Northern English and Lowland Scots were garnered from previous dialectological research in Irish, English and Scots phonologies, which aided with the interpretation of the data. Other contemporaneous recordings from the TRSHE allowed further comparison of phonological features with areas of Ulster in which linguistic interaction between Scots and Irish was expected to be less prevalent, such as Arranmore, Donegal (primarily Irish) and Glarryford, Antrim (primarily Scots). Accommodation theory and substrate/superstrate interaction illuminate patterns of phonological transfer in Mourne, Arranmore and Glarryford English, supporting the conclusion that accent in contemporary Northern Ireland is built upon a linguistic heritage of contact and exchange, rather than political or ethnolinguistic division

EuroClonality/BIOMED-2 guidelines for interpretation and reporting of Ig/TCR clonality testing in suspected lymphoproliferations.

PCR-based immunoglobulin (Ig)/T-cell receptor (TCR) clonality testing in suspected lymphoproliferations has largely been standardized and has consequently become technically feasible in a routine diagnostic setting. Standardization of the pre-analytical and post-analytical phases is now essential to prevent misinterpretation and incorrect conclusions derived from clonality data. As clonality testing is not a quantitative assay, but rather concerns recognition of molecular patterns, guidelines for reliable interpretation and reporting are mandatory. Here, the EuroClonality (BIOMED-2) consortium summarizes important pre- and post-analytical aspects of clonality testing, provides guidelines for interpretation of clonality testing results, and presents a uniform way to report the results of the Ig/TCR assays. Starting from an immunobiological concept, two levels to report Ig/TCR profiles are discerned: the technical description of individual (multiplex) PCR reactions and the overall molecular conclusion for B and T cells. Collectively, the EuroClonality (BIOMED-2) guidelines and consensus reporting system should help to improve the general performance level of clonality assessment and interpretation, which will directly impact on routine clinical management (standardized best-practice) in patients with suspected lymphoproliferations.

Individual differences in speech and language ability profiles in areas of high deprivation

Speech and language ability is not a unitary concept; rather, it is made up of multiple abilities such as grammar, articulation and vocabulary. Young children from socio-economically deprived areas are more likely to experience language difficulties than those living in more affluent areas. However, less is known about individual differences in language difficulties amongst young children from socio-economically deprived backgrounds. The present research examined 172 four-year-old children from socio-economically deprived areas on standardised measures of core language, receptive vocabulary, articulation, information conveyed and grammar. Of the total sample, 26% had difficulty in at least one area of language. While most children with speech and language difficulty had generally low performance in all areas, around one in 10 displayed more uneven language abilities. For example, some children had generally good speech and language ability, but had specific difficulty with grammar. In such cases their difficulty is masked somewhat by good overall performance on language tests but they could still benefit from intervention in a specific area. The analysis also identified a number of typically achieving children who were identified as having borderline speech and language difficulty and should be closely monitored

Towards a grammar of the senses: perception in Lushese (Olussese)

The thesis presents the grammar of the Eastern African Bantu language Lushese (Olussese), spoken in Uganda, and gives information on the historical background that caused the today´s highly endangered status of the language (chapters 1 & 2). Focussing on the semantics of the verbs of perception, the thesis presents the use and meaning of various linguistic means for expressing perception in general and further for the expression of physical, sensory, emotional and cognitive experience in Lushese (chapters 3-5). The findings in Lushese provide insights of the use of language in the light of social interaction and include information on the ways cultural and social values impact the choice of linguistic means (chapter 6). With respect to the theoretical issues concerning the language of perception the data in Lushese show that the way people speak about the environment and use language to express categories of perception are rather a matter of innate cultural interpretation regarding the human body and the environment than a matter of the human body and the environment as given by biological and/or physical conditions.

Tourism Media Dynamics: Narratives of the Nation-State

With the premise that the tourism promotional video “China, Forever” provides a crucial access to understanding how tourism engages in a wider circle of socio-culture formation, this dissertation research approaches tourism by examining communicative practices initiated by “China, Forever”. In doing so, it seeks to reveal two dialogues – firstly, between the discursive construction of tourism representational language and China’s nation-state ideology; secondly, between interpretations from overseas Chinese audiences and nation-state narratives delivered via the tourism media. In analyzing the first dialogue, this dissertation reveals that the pursuit of collective and monolithic national imagery has caused a representational violence – one that is committed by the nation-state ideology operated through the organization of tourism language. The very representational coercion itself, however, signifies the nature of tourism media as a vehicle mediating the global gaze and China’s self-representation; illuminating the fact that China’s nation-state building is only to be understood as deeply-grounded in the complexity of postcolonial politics. Furthermore, in a dialectic view, such finding consolidates the nature of “China, Forever” as a cultural product that actively exists as a component in the overall social fabric, co-creating a wider circle of culture politics together with other genres of media products; thus, calling for a more comprehensive understanding of tourism media at large. In the second approach, this dissertation seeks to understand how the tourism video “China, Forever” mediates the relationship between tourism narratives of the nation-state and overseas Chinese individuals; thus bridging together tourism media and ongoing life experiences of the audiences chosen. The analysis reveals that audiences’ interpretations heavily concentrate on resisting and fragmenting the hegemonic nation-state language in “China, Forever”. While some interviewees seek to decentralize the nation-state perspective from aspects of aesthetics, representational style, and representational subjects in “China, Forever” by incorporating their individual memories and past experiences, to some others, the over-polished glorification of China in the mediated tourism discourse is only coercive to China’s social realities experienced by the individual interviewees - the disheartening contrasts of poverty and affluence as well as other social inequalities. From the perspective of the audience group, the Chinese scholars and students at the University of Illinois interviewed for this dissertation research constitute a cohort of exiled audiences for the tourism video “China, Forever”. The audiences subject themselves to voluntary interpellation, a process in which they find themselves defending, negotiating, and resisting the nation-state representation of China – even though they are not its intended audience and have had no input into its production. Nevertheless, such process is one of identification, in which viewers articulate a subject position from which to speak of their own experiences, dilemmas and desires. The usefulness of tourism media discourse in mediating the nation-state narratives and the individual experience is amplified.

Heritage Language Maintenance and Biliteracy Development for Immigrants' Children: A Study of Chinese Immigrants' Family Language Policy and Biliteracy Practices

This study reports on research that examines the family language policy (FLP) and biliteracy practices of middle-class Chinese immigrant families in a metropolitan area in the southwest of the U.S. by exploring language practices pattern among family members, language and literacy environment at home, parents’ language management, parents’ language attitudes and ideologies, and biliteracy practices. In this study, I employed mixed methods, including survey and interviews, to investigate Chinese immigrant parents’ FLP, biliteracy practices, their life stories, and their experience of raising and nurturing children in an English-dominant society. Survey questionnaires were distributed to 55 Chinese immigrant parents and interviews were conducted with five families, including mothers and children. One finding from this study is that the language practices pattern at home shows the trend of language shift among the Chinese immigrants’ children. Children prefer speaking English with parents, siblings, and peers, and home literacy environment for children manifests an English-dominant trend. Chinese immigrant parents’ language attitudes and ideologies are largely influenced by English-only ideology. The priority for learning English surpasses the importance of Chinese learning, which is demonstrated by the English-dominant home literacy practices and an English-dominant language policy. Parents invest more in English literacy activities and materials for children, and very few parents implement Chinese-only policy for their children. A second finding from this study is that a multitude of factors from different sources shape and influence Chinese immigrants’ FLP and biliteracy practices. The factors consist of family-related factors, social factors, linguistic factors, and individual factors. A third finding from this study is that a wide variety of strategies are adopted by Chinese immigrant families, which have raised quite balanced bilingual children, to help children maintain Chinese heritage language (HL) and develop both English and Chinese literacy. The close examination and comparison of different families with English monolingual children, with children who have limited knowledge of HL, and with quite balanced bilingual children, this study discovers that immigrant parents, especially mothers, play a fundamental and irreplaceable role in their children’s HL maintenance and biliteracy development and it recommends to immigrant parents in how to implement the findings of this study to nurture their children to become bilingual and biliterate. Due to the limited number and restricted area and group of participant sampling, the results of this study may not be generalized to other groups in different contexts.

The Essentials of Narrative: A Synthesis of the West and the East

This is a study on the nature of narrative in light of a narratological theory inspired by a comparison of narratives in the West and the East, and which tries to reach a deeper understanding of narratives in their particular cultural milieus as well as the nature of narrative per se. The macroscopic structure which the subject itself demands gives coherence to the study of elements which do not solely belong to narrative texts but nevertheless are essential for a text to function as a narrative. The essentials under investigation are the narrator's perspective (which gives a narrative its internal structure), language (which both enables and affects the formation of narrative), and the notion of genre (which plays a crucial role in the interpretation of narrative). These elements were selected after a consideration of theorles postulated by Erich Auerbach, Northrop Frye, Fredric Jameson and Mikhail Bakhtin, as well as of the key properties of narrative as traditionally treated in Chinese scholarship on narrative. After the initial chapter, each chapter consists of a theoretical discussion on the main topic, followed by an analysis of a particular aspect of the subject as revealed in an American novel and in a Chinese novel. These subjects in elude the internal structure of narrative, fictionalization, the objectivity of language and the diversity of voices, the potentiality of language and the elosure of narrative, plot and the ordering of a narrative, and fragmentarity and the perceiving of a narrative. In theoretical discussions, the essay challenges theories proposed by Wayne Booth, Michel Foucault, Umberto Eco, Stanley Fish, Roman Jakobson, Jacques Derrida, Jonathan Culler and Tzvetan Todorov. The major texts discussed are Henry James's The Portrait of a Lady, Luo Guanzhong's Three Kingdoms, William Faulkner's Absalom. Absalom!, Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber. Edgar Allan Poe's "Ligeia," and Liu E's The Travels of Laocan. The central idea of the research is to question such assumptions as made by Anthony Burgess in his article on the novel in The Encyelopaedia Britannica (15th ed) that "novelists, being neither poets nor philosophers, rarely originate modes of thinking and expression."