Using Blogs to Promote Student Interaction and Learning in EFL Classes

Using Blogs to Promote Student Interaction and Learning in EFL Classes

Author(s): Izela Habul-Šabanović / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Keywords: Blogs; EFL; Student Interaction and Learning; Online Learning Community; Students' Attitudes and Perceptions;

This paper addresses the application of a class blog in an EFL (English as a foreign language) teaching context in order to promote student interaction and learning. A weblog, or blog, is an interactive homepage easy to set up and manage, which permits publishing online. Although it was not initially provided for pedagogical purposes, a blog has a great potential to be used as a tool in EFL classes, especially to motivate students to engage in online exchanges, thereby expanding their language study and learning community beyond the walls of a physical classroom. This small scale action research explores the usefulness of incorporating a blog project into an EFL class as it provides an effective means of facilitating greater learner interaction and reflection on language skills development. A class blog was envisaged as an out-of-class project aimed at motivating students to practice language skills and communicate with others via this new computer-based learning platform outside the classroom. The participants for this study were the third and fourth year students (n= 52) of the Pedagogical Faculty in Sarajevo attending an EFL elective course. The research mainly focused on the students' attitudes and perceptions of using a class blog to support their English language learning and foster student interaction in an online learning community. The project lasted for two semesters and data were collected from students through a questionnaire at the end of the term. The results of the questionnaire reveal that students had an overall positive attitude towards using a class blog as an appropriate medium for practicing both their language and social skills.

Transnational Identity in Robyn Rowland’s Australian/Turkish Poems: This Intimate War: Gallipoli/Çanakkale 1915 - İçli Dışlı Bir Savaş: Gelibolu/Çanakkale 1915

Transnational Identity in Robyn Rowland’s Australian/Turkish Poems: This Intimate War: Gallipoli/Çanakkale 1915 - İçli Dışlı Bir Savaş: Gelibolu/Çanakkale 1915

Author(s): Catherine Akca / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Keywords: Gallipoli; Anzac; Turkey; Identity; Rowland; Poetry;

World War I was a cataclysm. Such global carnage, devastation and waste could not but result in international, intranational and individual change. One of the premises upon which war is sustained is the otherness” of the enemy, attributed to various national, ethnic, geographical, social or cultural factors. This presupposes that the opposing force perceives its own identity as different from that of the enemy in some crucial way, sufficient to negate any variety in group affiliations within its own ranks, and to obscure the significance of characteristics held in common with the antagonist.The intensity of the experience of war, the need to validate the sacrifice involved, political imperatives and contingent propaganda all tend to reinforce perceptions of self-identity and “otherness” during the conflict, and in its aftermath. Where war is international, issues of national identity will predominate. During WWI, the Gallipoli Campaign set Allied invaders against Ottoman Turks. Between 1915 and the evacuation of the Allied troops in January 1916, both sides sustained terrible casualties and horrendous loss of life. The history, memories, commemoration and mythologisation of the Anzac troops, from Australia and New Zealand, and of the Turks at Gallipoli were to contribute to the forging of the post-war national identities of their respective countries. However, identity is both a multi-facetted construct and a process in flux, in which the present interacts with the past. Imperatives change, perspectives too. Cultural identity, the sense of belonging to a particular group, may transcend national boundaries; myths may be reworked. A century after the Gallipoli campaign, this paper examines poems from Robyn Rowland’s This Intimate War: Gallipoli/Çanakkale 1915, in the light of the contemporary trend to move away from the mythologizing of the Gallipoli story on a national basis towards a more inclusive transnational approach based on shared experience and values.

The Rise and Fall of the European Dream

The Rise and Fall of the European Dream

Author(s): Joseph W.H. Lough / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Keywords: Europe; European Dream; Hegel; Robert Lucas; Karl Marx; Capitalism; EU; European Central Bank; WTO; World Bank; IMF;

The European Dream is often portrayed as the benign if not benevolent counterpart to the fading American Dream. Yet, as economic historian Joseph Lough shows in this essay, the European and American dreams are linked by more than their shared embrace of free market capitalism. In this essay Professor Lough exposes the darker side of the European Dream, a side first expressed in the 1990s, but now fully revealed in Europe’s conflict with Greece. As Professor Lough shows, this dark side of the European Dream was already present at its birth in the 19th century, when GWF Hegel allegorized its birth and diffusion through a story about the Self-Moving Substance that is Subject. This story has received mathematically rigorous validation through convergence theories of today’s neoclassical and neoliberal economists. Yet is total domination by this Self-Moving Substance inevitable, much less desirable? Professor Lough shows how Europe could adopt an alternative, more sustainable European Dream to meet today’s pressing challenges.

The Development of Language Competences with Future Croatian Teachers within Croatian Education System

The Development of Language Competences with Future Croatian Teachers within Croatian Education System

Author(s): Katarina Aladrović Slovaček,Anita Mazej,Anđelka Ravlić / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Keywords: Teaching of Croatian Language; Language Competences; Eight Key Competences; Primary School Teachers; Motivation;

In the document "Eight key competences for life-long learning" the first and the most important competence is communication in the mother tongue. If we have good knowledge of mother tongue, then we will be better in the process of foreign language learning. Language competence means to know the language on the level of phonology, morphology, syntax, lexicology, orthography and orthoepy. We have linguistic competence (knowledge about language) and communicative competence (using of language). At this moment, when we speak about European society, it is very important to have good competences in ICT and foreign language speaking. For these reasons, we made this research about language competences in mother tongue (Croatian language) and English in primary school and the attitude of children to Croatian and English language and the way they learn them or not. The research includes 3 primary schools in Zagreb (N = 120) in the first two periods of learning (1st - 6th class). Our aim is to measure linguistic and communicative competence in Croatian and English and how pupils are different in terms of sex, age and attitude. We expect that children in the first two periods of primary school have better developed linguistic competence (theory of language) than communicative competence (using language in everyday situations). It is expected because of methods of teaching and learning. Croatian teachers are more focused on theory than functional literacy in the process of teaching and learning of Croatian language. It is easier with English because teachers of English are more focused on using English in different situations. Also, we expect better results from girls than boys, from older than younger pupils as well as from pupils who have more positive attitudes to Croatian and English language.

Decision Making via Systems Thinking in Management: Educational Issues

Decision Making via Systems Thinking in Management: Educational Issues

Author(s): M. Kudret Yurtseven,Walter W Buchanan / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Keywords: Systems Thinking; Decision Making; Management; Education;

The aim of this paper is to provide a critical view of the educational issues related to teaching decision making in management studies and to provide a general framework is proposed that will serve as a basis designing new courses, covering some methodologies for handling complexity in decision making. At present, the widely spread approach to teaching the subject matter is mostly restricted to the traditional OR/MS (Operations Research/Management Science) paradigm. This paradigm is based on a set of mathematical tools and suitable for solving well defined decision making problems; it fails in “messy” or complex situations. Systems-based approaches are more promising in complex situations since they provide the decision maker(s) the opportunity to address the problematic situation in its full system context. The framework proposed in the study attempts to complement the traditional OR/MS paradigm rather than replacing it.

Miss Julie: A Psychoanalytic Study

Miss Julie: A Psychoanalytic Study

Author(s): Sonali Jain / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Keywords: psychoanalysis; slave-master; sado-masochism; narcissism; hysteria; culture; psyche;

Sigmund Freud theorized that ‘the hero of the tragedy must suffer…to bear the burden of tragic guilt…(that) lay in rebellion against some divine or human authority.’August Strindberg, the Swedish poet, playwright, author and visual artist, like Shakespeare before him, portrayed insanity as the ultimate of tragic conflict. In this paper I seek to explore and reiterate the dynamics of human relationships that are as relevant today as they were in Strindberg’s time. I propose to examine Strindberg’s Miss Julie, a play set in nineteenth century Sweden, through a psychoanalytic lens.The play deals with bold themes of class and sexual identity politics. Notwithstanding the progress made in breaking down gender barriers, the inequalities inherent in a patriarchal system persist in modern society. Miss Julie highlights these imbalances.My analysis of the play deals with issues of culture and psyche, and draws onFreud, Melanie Klein, Lacan, Luce Irigaray and other contemporary feminists. MissJulie is a discourse on hysteria, which is still pivotal to psychoanalysis. Prominentphilosophers like Hegel and the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan have written aboutthe dialectic of the master and the slave – a relationship that is characterized bydependence, demand and cruelty. The history of human civilization shows beyondany doubt that there is an intimate connection between cruelty and the sexual instinct.An analysis of the text is carried out using the sado-masochistic dynamicas well the slave-master discourse. I argue that Miss Julie subverts the slave-masterrelationship. The struggle for dominance and power is closely linked with thetheme of sexuality in the unconscious. To quote the English actor and directorAlan Rickman, ‘Watching or working on the plays of Strindberg is like seeing theskin, flesh and bones of life separated from each other. Challenging and timeless.’

The role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence

The role of socioeconomic differences and material deprivation in peer violence

Author(s): Vesna Bilić / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Keywords: SES; deprivation; bullying; poverty; family;school;

In schools around the world in the 21st century the dominant and worrying problems are: an increase in the number of poor and financially and materially deprived and a continuous increase in violence among peers, which brings us to the intriguing question whether there is a connection between these two phenomena.Therefore, the theoretical part of this paper analyzes the increase of peer violence in the context of socioeconomic inequalities of different societies which students live in and socioeconomic family factors. The aim of the empirical part is to determine which variables of socioeconomic status and material deprivation of children predict the status of perpetrators or victims of peer violence. The study included 610 (44.8% M; 51.6% F) primary school students, with average age of 13,88 years from different regions of the Republic of Croatia. For data collection the socio economic status questionnaire, scale of material deprivation of children in school and scale of victimization and violence among peers were used. The results indicated that 34.8% of respondents have acted violently toward peers because of their poorer financial status, and 45.7% were victimized for the same reason. It was also found that the analyzed SES variables and material deprivation do not predict committing violence against peers. Living in unfavorable socioeconomic conditions is associated with the role of victims, lower education of mothers, lower work status of the father, child’s experience of fear because of the family’s poor financial situation,and material deprivation in school are statistically significant predictors of victimization. It is suggested that practitioners, the public and policy makers pay attention and assist the growing number of children from socioeconomically disadvantaged families. They must be in focus of all school preventive programs, especially due to the increased risk for those children of being exposed to peer violence.

Are We What We Buy and What We Consume?: Crisis of Identity in Hanif Kureishi’s The Decline of the West

Are We What We Buy and What We Consume?: Crisis of Identity in Hanif Kureishi’s The Decline of the West

Author(s): Ali Guneş / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Keywords: Capitalism; consumer culture; materialism; financial crisis; identity;

This paper explores in Hanif Kureishi’s short story The Decline of the West the harsh economic recession or what he calls in the story “a financial crash” and its inevitable crippling negative impact on the social life in general and on individual life in particular, especially in the wake of the collapse of Wall Street back in 2008,which has obviously changed the way of living for millions of people across the world, specifically in Western societies in Europe and North America. In so doing,the paper is divided into two parts. In the first part, it debates that the capitalism as an economic system has radically transformed not only the traditional commercial and financial system, but it has also given rise to the construction of consumption culture, which has eventually altered the ways people across the world used to live, together with their perception of life and identity. This view of identity has closely been related to personal happiness, satisfaction, comfort, and freedom, along with the social status and prestige in one’s life. As the second part of the paper argues, however, this view of identity has faced far-reaching crisis in the wake of the economic downturn since 2008 as represented in the life, view and identity of Kureishi’s fictional character Mike in the story after he is fired from his job in a bank. Having lost his job, Mike finds himself financially unable to keep his personal material comfort and satisfaction, meet the demands of his family and maintain his social status and prestige as in the past. Hence his sense of self and stability falls apart; he loses his soul, as well as his vision of “the future”and eventually wants to “die” to rid of his psychological frustration and chaos.

Teachers' Competences for Educational Work

Teachers' Competences for Educational Work

Author(s): Antea Čilić,Anita Klapan,Maja Prnić / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Keywords: competence; teacher; student; educational process; evaluation; quality schools; academic achievements;

Competence is a combination of knowledge, skills, attitudes, motivation and personal characteristics enabling individuals to act actively and efficiently in a certain (specific) situation. In the time of large social and technological change teachers’ role change as well. Modern changes in the u overall nurture and education system require teachers to take new roles. The aim of this paper is to explore teachers’ competence in the nurture-education process. The results show that teachers are very satisfied with the functioning of working with students. Most of them plan to work in accordance with the objectives and outcomes of each subject, using appropriate methods and techniques, they are satisfied with the training courses, cooperation with parents and the process of evaluating student achievement. A competent teacher should affect their work on improving the overall quality of the school as it would not only be a place of acquisition and reproduction of knowledge but also a place of interaction, communication, tolerance, and freedom of expression and critical thinking.

What does the European Union’s (EU’s) New Approach bring to Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H)?

What does the European Union’s (EU’s) New Approach bring to Bosnia and Herzegovina (B&H)?

Author(s): Edita Đapo,Ognjen Riđić / Language(s): English / Issue: 2/2015

Keywords: EU New Approach; Economic reforms; Compact for Growth and Jobs; Bosnia and Herzegovina;

Bosnia and Herzegovina has been lacking the collective political power to address the reforms that were necessary for progress towards EU over the years. The B&H politicians could not agree upon any effective coordination mechanism on EU issues. The lack of coordination mechanism has negatively affected the country’s interaction with the EU. Beside the coordination mechanism the other political issues could not be resolved. The EU Commission intensively facilitated resolution of the Sejdić-Finci ruling of the European Court of Human Rights that B&H has to implement, but without any success. The political actors have also been unable to agree upon countrywide strategy required for Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance, in sectors, such as: agriculture, energy, transport and environment. These negative developments led to a substantial reduction of funding in these areas. Political disagreements have caused economic stagnation on moving towards European standards. In February 2014, widespread, citizen-led protests have occurred. These protests have underlined the fragility of the socio-economic situation. The EU Commission has launched a New Approach for B&H towards EU aiming to shift the focus towards economic reforms and issues of direct concern to citizens. This included development of a ‘Compact for Growth and Jobs’. The Compact is supposed to be the yardstick for the necessary economic reforms. In this paper we will explain the importance of the New Approach for B&H, as well as what ‘Compact for Growth and Job’ brings to B&H.

Editor's introduction

Editor's introduction

Author(s): David Weaver / Language(s): English / Issue: 16/2016

Journalists, PR professionals and the practice of paid news in Central and Eastern Europe: An overview

Journalists, PR professionals and the practice of paid news in Central and Eastern Europe: An overview

Author(s): Henrik Örnebring / Language(s): English / Issue: 16/2016

Keywords: journalism; PR; paid news; professionalism; Central and Eastern Europe

This article maps the practice of paid news in Central and Eastern Europe using a review of previous research and a set of explanatory semi-structured interviews with journalists and PR practitioners across 10 post-communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe (N= 164). Paid news refers to the practice of journalists and/or news organizations taking money (often offered through the intermediary of a PR professional or PR company) to write puff pieces for business or political interests without indicating that the content is in a fact paid for, i.e. a form of corruption of both journalism and PR. This presentantion suggests that the existance of the practise is to a great extent systemic, as both journalists and the PR professionals are part of common “culture corruption” and thus the continued existence of the practice is also a de-professionalizing influence on both occupations, where representatives of both spheres have strong incentives to keep utilizing paid news.

Forms of local media relations in local communities – case studies

Forms of local media relations in local communities – case studies

Author(s): Sylwia Męcfal / Language(s): English / Issue: 16/2016

Keywords: local media; local relations; confilct of interest; symmetrical relations; non-symetrical relations

The local media market in Poland developed in very particular conditions, conditions which Nowak (1979,1981) described as a “social void”. As a result, it might be presumed that it was more likely that the new forms of society (including local media) were formed on the basis of the “bounding” type of social capital rather than the “bridging” type. This might be one of the reasons why tight and coplex relationships between the local media and the other social actors still exist. On the basis of my own qualitative research (case studies conducted in four small towns in Poland), this article shows how complex the local relations are and describes the involvement of local journalists and local media owners in these networks of relations which might often be a cause of condlicts of interest (individual or institutional) or media bias.

Facebook as an alternative public space: The use of Facebook by Ukrainian journalists during the 2012 parlimentary election

Facebook as an alternative public space: The use of Facebook by Ukrainian journalists during the 2012 parlimentary election

Author(s): Daria Orlova,Daria Taradai / Language(s): English / Issue: 16/2016

Keywords: Ukraine;journalism;Facebook;social media;public sphere;media freedom

As the social media increasingly proliferate and shape media consumption in the present-day world, journalists growingly turn to them in search of direct access to their audiences. Under conditions of restricted media freedom, such access suggests a great asset both to journalists who can engage into an open discussion with a wider public and to the very public. In Ukraine, both trends had been vivid in recent years proceding the Euromaidan: on the one hand, media freedom had been deteriorating, but on the other hand, journalists had been utilizing social media more actively. The article examines how Ukrainian journalists communicated with their audiences via Facebook. In particular, it analyzes patterns of interaction during the 2012 parlimentary election campaign. The results of the study show a substantial level of confusion among Ukrainian journalists regarding the role of public debate on Facebook in 2012-2013. While journalists tended to dismiss users’ comments as mostly irrelevant, the did consider themselves to be providers of important information or viewpoints for the formation of public opinion. Although such interaction between journalists and other users does not satisfy the normative criteria of the public sphere, analysis of content and interviews with journalists showed that Facebook did suggest an evolving alternative public space in Ukraine, in contrast to the ever more controlled space of mainstream media during the presidency of Yanukovych.

Who defines the narrative of a crisis? The case of an Estonian online boycott campaign against an international supermarket chain

Who defines the narrative of a crisis? The case of an Estonian online boycott campaign against an international supermarket chain

Author(s): Päivi Tampere,Kaja Tampere,Scott Abel / Language(s): English / Issue: 16/2016

Keywords: crisis communictaion;social media;boycott;media relations;issues menagement;definition hegemony

This study examines the impact of social media activism in the form of a boycott case through the analysis of online and mass media news articles. The article reviews a conflict between a supermarket chain and its Estonian customers in April 2010, and focuses on definition hegemony (the process by which the crisis is defined), the reaction of journslists and consumers to the case, and its impact on a company’s crisis communication. It examines the role of social media in formenting a crisis and keeping it active. The analysis of social media and mass media texts, as well as press releases, suggest that citizens have power over corporations because of their ability to raise questions, be critical of company behaviour, and in defining the crisis narrative. The findings indicate that who is able to define the crisis can significantly affect its course.

Internet meme as meaningful discourse: towards a theory of multiparticipant popular online content

Internet meme as meaningful discourse: towards a theory of multiparticipant popular online content

Author(s): Jakub Nowak / Language(s): English / Issue: 16/2016

Keywords: Stuart Hall;internet meme;popular culture;communication theory;model of communication;internet

Departing from the cultural studies semiotic approach, this chapter seeks to analytically reviews shifts in roles of media users given increasingly participation-oriented media tools. Drawing upon the re-interpretation of Stuart Hall’s seminal encoding/decoding model of communication, the author proposes a theoretical concept of internet meme perceived as multiparticipant popular online content combining modalities of traditional (vertical and cultutre industry-orginated) and new (horizontal and peer-reproduced) modalities of media production and consumption. The author problematizes this concept by recontextualizing several aspects of Hall’s theory: 1) theoretical appropration of four stages of Hall’s “chain of discourse” (messages’ production, circulation, use, reproduction) to a new – highly converged – media environment; 2) ambiguous status of internet meme’s authorship; 3) new contexts for analyzing internet memes, including: online pop-culture modalities, different strategies of “old” and “new” culture industries, Intellectual Property Rights policies.

Internet media as the digital public sphere: Possibilities and problems

Internet media as the digital public sphere: Possibilities and problems

Author(s): Jakub Parnes / Language(s): English / Issue: 16/2016

Keywords: digital public sphere;civil deliveration;citizens’ online discourse;digital exclusion;relative anonymity of online discourse

This article tries to diagnose possibilities and limitations of the online media as a digital agora – a virtual space for citizens’ deliberation which could potentially strenghten and enhance democracy in Poland, as well as in other Central European countries. Considering the key features of the public sphere indicated by Habermas (inclusiveness, rationally, autonomy, lack of hierarchy), the analysis focuses on three problem areas. The first one includes the impact of digital exclusion upon avaiability of the digital public sphere for citizens. The second part of the study is devoted to rationalitly and interactivity of online discourse. The last part of the analysis adresses the impact of the relative anonymity of online communication on the equality and autonomy of citizens’ deliberation on the internet.

The unlikely advocates of media literacy education: Jean-Jacques Rosseau and John Stuart Mill

The unlikely advocates of media literacy education: Jean-Jacques Rosseau and John Stuart Mill

Author(s): Anamaria Neag / Language(s): English / Issue: 16/2016

Keywords: media literacy;media education;Jean-Jacques Rousseau;John Stuart Mill

Media literacy is defined as a set of competencies that helps people critically analyze, understand and create media messages. Teaching children to become media literate emerged as a new field of education in second half of the 20th century. While the pioneering work of Dewey, Freinet, Gerbner, Hall and Whannel (as cited by Cappello et at., 2011) was influential in the developement of media literacy, this article argues for the importance positioning media literacy in a broader theoretical context. Therefore, this article presents an analysis of media literacy education by relying on two of the founders of modern social though: Rousseau and Mill. The article demonstrates how Rousseau’s treatise is as timely as ever when it comes to understanding the importance of media literacy education not only in school curricula, but also in many other aspects of social life.

Media and the sacralization of history

Media and the sacralization of history

Author(s): Krzysztof Wasilewski / Language(s): English / Issue: 16/2016

Keywords: history;collective memory;discourse;religion;sacralization;media

This article presents an analysis of the process of sacralization of history in the media discourse. Certain events and figures from the past are incorporated into the sphere of sacrum which excludes and discussion and maintains the domination of one narration of history. The process of sacralization may take places directly and indirectly. The first relies on direct inclusion to the discourse of certain words, wchich are associated with religion. The indirect sacralization takes place when episodes from the past are changed into universal stories of fight between the good and the evil. The analysis is performed on printed media discourses concerning three events from Poland’s contemporary history: the 1920 Warsaw Battle of Warsaw, the 1944 Warsaw Uprising and the post-war armed underground.

Journalism around the world in the 21st century – Interview with Professor David H. Weaver

Journalism around the world in the 21st century – Interview with Professor David H. Weaver

Author(s): David Weaver,Adam Michel / Language(s): English / Issue: 16/2016