Theme and thematic patterns in Spanish and English history texts

The aim of this research project is to compare published history textbooks written for upper-secondary/tertiary study in the U.S. and Spain using Halliday's (1994) Theme/Rheme construct. The motivation for using the Theme/Rheme construct to analyze professional texts in the two languages is two-fold. First of all, while there exists a multitude of studies at the grammatical and phonological levels between the two languages, very little analysis has been carried out in comparison at the level of text, beyond that of comparing L1/L2 student writing. Secondly, thematic considerations allow the analyst to highlight areas of textual organization in a systematic way for purposes of comparison. The basic hypothesis tested here rests on the premise that similarity in the social function of the texts results in similar Theme choice and thematic patterning across languages, barring certain linguistic constraints. The corpus for this study consists of 20 texts: 10 from various history textbooks published in the U.S. and 10 from various history textbooks published in Spain. The texts chosen represent a variety of authors, in order to control for author style or preference. Three overall areas of analysis were carried out, representing Halliday's (1994) three metafunctions: the ideational, the interpersonal and the textual. The ideational analysis shows similarities across the two corpora in terms of participant roles and circumstances as Theme, with a slight difference in participants involved in material processes, which is shown to reflect a minor difference in the construal of the field of history in the two cultures. The textual analysis shows overall similarities with respect to text organization, and the interpersonal analysis shows overall similarities as regards the downplay of discrepant interpretations of historical events as well as a low frequency of interactive textual features, manifesting the informational focus of the texts. At the same time, differences in results amongst texts within each of the corpora demonstrate possible effect of subject matter, in many cases, and individual author style in others. Overall, the results confirm that similarity in content, but above all in purpose and audience, result in texts which show similarities in textual features, setting aside certain grammatical constraints.

Riots and Reform : Burgh authority, the languages of civic reform, and the Aberdeen riot of 1785

Peer reviewed

Modern foreign languages get a voice: the role of the journals

This chapter investigates the significance of specialized journals for the development of modern language teaching. It begins by explaining the development of language journals up to the point at which language teaching reform really took off with the emergence of the so-called Reform Movement in the 1880s. The principal journal for this movement was Phonetische studien [Phonetic Studies] founded in 1888 and renamed Die neueren Sprachen [Modern languages] in 1894. The style of the early issues of this journal allows modern readers an insight into the discourse practices of that community of language scholars and teachers, the opportunity to hear its characteristic ‘voice’ and recreate the means by which modern foreign language teaching became an independent discipline.

The Japanese History Textbook Controversy Amid Post-War Sino-Japanese Relations

The relations between China and Japan are strained and continue to foster negative emotions partly because of China’s grievances about Japan’s actions during World War II and the allegedly false historiographical accounts found in Japanese history textbooks. This study will utilize historical analysis of the events leading up to the Nanjing Massacre in December of 1937, examine the Japanese Ministry of Education’s (MEXT) critical and contentious role in the selection of textbooks, used for primary and secondary schools, and will also juxtapose the controversial 2001 Atarashii rekishi kyōkasho with current Japanese history textbooks. The study will also include a syntactical analysis of key terms through my own original translations of multiple Japanese history textbooks, which are currently used in the Japanese school curriculum, to reveal that the textbook publishers, MEXT, and regulation councils are involved in adjusting the content causing the information to reveal various degrees of whitewashing.

TEACHER TRAINING: THEIR READING HISTORY

Abstract This article aims to show an overview about how the elementary schools are working on reading in school environment in the last decades in Mato Grosso do Sul.   To achieve this goal, twenty three students´ reports enrolled in the second year of Languages at a Federal University were analyzed.  The reports were prepared by the students after they have read the Irandé Antunes text "The reading and its functions", this text was used as mainstay of corpus establishment on this study because Antunes discusses about the problems related to reading in school environment. This work is justified because, although several searches related to reading theme developed in many universities in the country, we noticed that old practices prevail in most schools regarding Portuguese lessons. Based on the reports in which students describe their reading histories in the period they were enrolled in the elementary and secondary school, it was possible to describe the problems that arise in school environment related to reading work. We use as theoretical assumptions Irandé Antunes, Sírio Possenti, João Wanderlei Geraldi and Ezequiel Theodoro da Silva´s words. We brought to the fore matters involving the reading and its relation to the family, grammar supremacy in favor of reading, the neglect of reading in school environment, the textbook presence, and last, indications of reading strategies that we consider successful in school where Portuguese lessons happened according to the Languages´ students in the period they studied elementary and secondary school. KEY-WORDS: Reading; School; Teacher

Initial training of Portuguese teachers for Speakers of Other Languages at UTFPR-CT: integrating theory and classroom practice

The purpose of this article is to analyze the initial training of foreign language teachers within an extension project, whose goal is to promote teaching Portuguese for Speakers of Other Languages ​​(PFOL) in the Federal  University of Technology- Paraná ( UTFPR), Curitiba Campus. Thus, a brief history about the activities developed in the program  will be presented as well as its relevance within the university. Also, an analysis of the program and its current status within the Language and Literature undergraduate course - UTFPR will be discussed. Finally, concepts of reflective teaching  (Perrenoud, 2002) and  teaching based on the indissociation between practice and theory (GIMENEZ, 2005) will be brought up.