Standard English is defined not as a language, a style, an accent, but as standardized grammar and vocabulary with different accents. And from a linguistic point of view, Standard English is no more correct than any o...Standard English is defined not as a language, a style, an accent, but as standardized grammar and vocabulary with different accents. And from a linguistic point of view, Standard English is no more correct than any other form of English. Yet it is most prestigious, and a desirable educational target. However, different varieties of English should also be taught for international communication.展开更多
The films Catch-22 （1970） and The English Patient （1996） are based on literary novels, and set in the specific time and place of World War II Italy. Each work uses the topic of the war to raise the issues of ident...The films Catch-22 （1970） and The English Patient （1996） are based on literary novels, and set in the specific time and place of World War II Italy. Each work uses the topic of the war to raise the issues of identity and loyalty that loom large during wartime, when nations place huge demands on their people. Both works explore these issues as relevant to their own time. In the 1960s, Catch-22 elevates loyalty to self as a value and challenges the dehumanizing conformity demanded by the bureaucratic states of the postwar world. Twenty-six years later, The English Patient honors loyalty to people rather than to nations. Both movies end in hope, with Yossarian＇s escape in Catch-22, and the end to the European war in The English Patient. This paper argues that Michael Ondaatje＇s novel, The English Patient, goes beyond the issues of identity and loyalty and the hopeful Hollywood ending as seen in the movies. By giving Kip＇s and Hana＇s points of view, which were not shown in the film--the view of a brown man in a world controlled by whites and of a woman who understands the horrors of the atomic bomb--Ondaatje offers the possibilities of a new sense of identity and loyalty, one more in tune with issues of a post-colonial 21 st century world展开更多
Given the fact that cultures are a distinct way of identifying the mores and customs of a people, culture-specific units such as proverbs could serve as veritable teaching tools to pass on otherwise difficult language...Given the fact that cultures are a distinct way of identifying the mores and customs of a people, culture-specific units such as proverbs could serve as veritable teaching tools to pass on otherwise difficult language concepts to students, especially in the context of acquiring a foreign language. Proverbs can actually be viewed as succinct sayings that convey semantically-laden units expressing a people＇s worldview. In this paper, an attempt is made to illustrate the effectiveness of using culture-specific units like French proverbs to teach challenging grammatical features to English-speaking students in a French class. For example, grammatical aspects like verb conjugation French syntax, etc., can be effectively tackled. Translational techniques could then serve as pedagogical tools to bring about a better grasp of the foreign language being acquired, and in the process, exposure to a larger world culture would be achieved展开更多
The paper offers a three-dimensional linguosemiotic study of similes, which implies integral analysis of their semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic aspects. Such an approach to the study of similes is quite new as they ...The paper offers a three-dimensional linguosemiotic study of similes, which implies integral analysis of their semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic aspects. Such an approach to the study of similes is quite new as they have been hitherto considered either from a literary viewpoint as one of the stylistic expressive means of language or in the philosophy of language in correlation with metaphor. The three-dimensional linguosemiotic methodology of research has enabled us： （1） to reveal the cognitive, psychological, and metaphorical essence of similes and work out the invariant conceptual model which remains unchanged throughout their structural-semantic variation in the text; （2） to single out pragmatic features of similes, the set of which defines their linguistic status as a language-in-use construct, i.e., textual phenomenon; （3） to study the denotational-cognitive aspect of similes pointing out the parameters according to which similes have been differentiated into semantic types and subtypes and （4） to generalize the syntactical aspect of similes and define the set of their structural modifications in the text conditioned both by the intralinguistic regularities and by pragmatic factors. Therefore, we have worked out an interdisciplinary theory of similes implying the synergy of the data of linguistic, literary, cognitive, and psychological studies展开更多
This paper reports the design, implementation, and outcome of an action research. The research aimed to examine and improve college students＇ attitudes towards varieties of World Englishes through a mild intervention...This paper reports the design, implementation, and outcome of an action research. The research aimed to examine and improve college students＇ attitudes towards varieties of World Englishes through a mild intervention in an intercultural communication class. Viewing education as a means to facilitate Intercultural Communication Competence （ICC）, of which language attitude was an integral part, the study designed a four-step pedagogical intervention to help students become more open and critical of their attitudes. The four pedagogical steps included language attitude elicitation, deconstruction, reconstruction, and creative solutions to communicative problems. The study found that students largely had conservative language attitudes and prejudices to start with. After the intervention, over 40% of the students acquired more open language attitudes, while some remained ambivalent about embracing linguistic diversity, and a small number of students maintained their previous conservative attitudes. Challenges of attitude change and language attitude education are discussed.展开更多
This study, with the help of the International Corpus of English, contrastively explores uses of relative clauses by students in Hong Kong, Singapore and British English within the framework of world Englishes （Kachr...This study, with the help of the International Corpus of English, contrastively explores uses of relative clauses by students in Hong Kong, Singapore and British English within the framework of world Englishes （Kachru, 2005, 1989; Kachru ＆ Nelson, 2006）. First, in the Hong Kong data, there is probably a tendency to use restrictive relative clauses led by WHICH in places, where non-restrictive relative clauses led by WHICH are normally expected. Second, there is another tendency in the employment of non-restricted relative clauses led by THAT in Hong Kong university students＇ written work and it is interesting to note that this phenomenon seems to be more widespread in Hong Kong student writing than in Singapore student writing and no such cases were found out in the British subcorpus. Given that some distinctive patterns traditionally considered as developmental errors in the language learning process may also be seen as evidence of linguistic variations, second language teachers may need some tolerance towards this variation and compromise between ＂autonomy＂ and ＂grammaticality＂ in today＇s society of world Englishes （McKay, 2008）.展开更多
文摘Standard English is defined not as a language, a style, an accent, but as standardized grammar and vocabulary with different accents. And from a linguistic point of view, Standard English is no more correct than any other form of English. Yet it is most prestigious, and a desirable educational target. However, different varieties of English should also be taught for international communication.
文摘The films Catch-22 （1970） and The English Patient （1996） are based on literary novels, and set in the specific time and place of World War II Italy. Each work uses the topic of the war to raise the issues of identity and loyalty that loom large during wartime, when nations place huge demands on their people. Both works explore these issues as relevant to their own time. In the 1960s, Catch-22 elevates loyalty to self as a value and challenges the dehumanizing conformity demanded by the bureaucratic states of the postwar world. Twenty-six years later, The English Patient honors loyalty to people rather than to nations. Both movies end in hope, with Yossarian＇s escape in Catch-22, and the end to the European war in The English Patient. This paper argues that Michael Ondaatje＇s novel, The English Patient, goes beyond the issues of identity and loyalty and the hopeful Hollywood ending as seen in the movies. By giving Kip＇s and Hana＇s points of view, which were not shown in the film--the view of a brown man in a world controlled by whites and of a woman who understands the horrors of the atomic bomb--Ondaatje offers the possibilities of a new sense of identity and loyalty, one more in tune with issues of a post-colonial 21 st century world
文摘Given the fact that cultures are a distinct way of identifying the mores and customs of a people, culture-specific units such as proverbs could serve as veritable teaching tools to pass on otherwise difficult language concepts to students, especially in the context of acquiring a foreign language. Proverbs can actually be viewed as succinct sayings that convey semantically-laden units expressing a people＇s worldview. In this paper, an attempt is made to illustrate the effectiveness of using culture-specific units like French proverbs to teach challenging grammatical features to English-speaking students in a French class. For example, grammatical aspects like verb conjugation French syntax, etc., can be effectively tackled. Translational techniques could then serve as pedagogical tools to bring about a better grasp of the foreign language being acquired, and in the process, exposure to a larger world culture would be achieved
文摘The paper offers a three-dimensional linguosemiotic study of similes, which implies integral analysis of their semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic aspects. Such an approach to the study of similes is quite new as they have been hitherto considered either from a literary viewpoint as one of the stylistic expressive means of language or in the philosophy of language in correlation with metaphor. The three-dimensional linguosemiotic methodology of research has enabled us： （1） to reveal the cognitive, psychological, and metaphorical essence of similes and work out the invariant conceptual model which remains unchanged throughout their structural-semantic variation in the text; （2） to single out pragmatic features of similes, the set of which defines their linguistic status as a language-in-use construct, i.e., textual phenomenon; （3） to study the denotational-cognitive aspect of similes pointing out the parameters according to which similes have been differentiated into semantic types and subtypes and （4） to generalize the syntactical aspect of similes and define the set of their structural modifications in the text conditioned both by the intralinguistic regularities and by pragmatic factors. Therefore, we have worked out an interdisciplinary theory of similes implying the synergy of the data of linguistic, literary, cognitive, and psychological studies
基金part of the post-funded project"Language Attitudes and Identities of English Users,"supported by the National Social Science Fund of China(14FYY001)
文摘This paper reports the design, implementation, and outcome of an action research. The research aimed to examine and improve college students＇ attitudes towards varieties of World Englishes through a mild intervention in an intercultural communication class. Viewing education as a means to facilitate Intercultural Communication Competence （ICC）, of which language attitude was an integral part, the study designed a four-step pedagogical intervention to help students become more open and critical of their attitudes. The four pedagogical steps included language attitude elicitation, deconstruction, reconstruction, and creative solutions to communicative problems. The study found that students largely had conservative language attitudes and prejudices to start with. After the intervention, over 40% of the students acquired more open language attitudes, while some remained ambivalent about embracing linguistic diversity, and a small number of students maintained their previous conservative attitudes. Challenges of attitude change and language attitude education are discussed.
文摘This study, with the help of the International Corpus of English, contrastively explores uses of relative clauses by students in Hong Kong, Singapore and British English within the framework of world Englishes （Kachru, 2005, 1989; Kachru ＆ Nelson, 2006）. First, in the Hong Kong data, there is probably a tendency to use restrictive relative clauses led by WHICH in places, where non-restrictive relative clauses led by WHICH are normally expected. Second, there is another tendency in the employment of non-restricted relative clauses led by THAT in Hong Kong university students＇ written work and it is interesting to note that this phenomenon seems to be more widespread in Hong Kong student writing than in Singapore student writing and no such cases were found out in the British subcorpus. Given that some distinctive patterns traditionally considered as developmental errors in the language learning process may also be seen as evidence of linguistic variations, second language teachers may need some tolerance towards this variation and compromise between ＂autonomy＂ and ＂grammaticality＂ in today＇s society of world Englishes （McKay, 2008）.
