UWAGA

Egzamin z teorii literatury

(dodatkowy termin)

dla osób, które przedstawiły

zwolnienie lekarskie

za termin czerwcowy lub wrześniowy

odbędzie się 24.10.08 o 9:45

w sali 602 A

Joanna Maciulewicz

Department of Sociolinguistics and Linguistic Pragmatics (IFA) and IFA Gender and Language Group invite everyone to two guest lectures by

dr Louise Mullany, School of English Studies, Faculty of Arts, University of Nottingham

Corpus approaches, mixed-methodologies and gender in business English

Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 11.30, room 601

Negotiating practical relevance: Language, gender and the workplace

Wednesday, 22 October 2008, 17.00, room 101

Corpus approaches, mixed-methodologies and gender in business English

Current work within sociolinguistic language and gender studies highlights the need for researchers to produce research which combines quantitative and qualitative methods in order to move the discipline forward. The methods of corpus linguistics have most recently been draw upon in this field in order to further the quantitative exploration of sociolinguistic data. This paper explores the integration of corpus linguistic techniques with qualitative discourse analysis in order to investigate how speakers in the Cambridge and Nottingham Business English Corpus (CANBEC) talk about gender in their everyday workplace interactions. CANBEC is a one million word dataset of spoken business discourse, consisting of meetings, office talk and telephone conversations from a number of commercial organisations based in a range of geographical locations including the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Germany and Japan.

Negotiating practical relevance: Language, gender and the workplace

This presentation will explore the complexities involved in the process of data collection when conducting language and gender studies in the workplace, focusing in particular upon research in professional settings. In order for sociolinguistic research to be of political value, a process of careful negotiation between the researcher and the researched needs to take place (Sarangi and Roberts 1999; Mullany 2007). Politically important and practically relevant research questions need to be collaboratively decided upon, and academic researchers may need to ensure that they produce accessible, understandable work with clear practical implications for those who have been researched.

This complex process of negotiation has a significant impact on the selection and implementation of research methodologies. The practicalities of combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies for data collection will be explored, and the value of a flexible, multi-method approach will be presented. Whilst this paper focuses in particular on the professional workplace, it is the intention that the overall principles discussed will be applicable to language and gender research in a wide variety of institutional settings.

The Department of the History of English invites all those interested in linguistics with a historical bent to the inaugural meeting of the HELL Reading Club. If you want to talk about history of English or just sit back and listen, you are welcome to come to 612A at 16.45 this Thursday (16.10.2008). The article to be discussed is Alcorn, R. (2008) 'To him vs. him to: The variable syntax of pronominal prepositional objects in Old English' See you on Thursday

First IFA Friday Lecture: Prof. Diarmuid Johnson (main), Dwight Holbrook (support).

Prof. Diarmuid Johnson

Where does the poetry come from? Aspects of insular poetics, medieval and modern.

In 2008, I was invited to spend time at the Cove Park centre for artists in Argyle, Scotland. My stay there resulted in a body of work, samples of which I would like to present to the School on Fri. 24th, with a view to informing an exploration of aspects of the poetics which underpin verse in the broader Celtic tradition, in particular, together with my own, that of R.S. Thomas (1912-2000) and Seán Ó Ríordáin (1917-1977). Matters broached in this presentation will include discourse, idiom and literary inheritance, as well as the capacity of a text, when resonant and unencumbered by redundancy, to vehicle primary expression of human experience of the world.
 

Dwight Holbrook

Role of the Observer

Role of the Observer is a peregrination through different disciplines in the scholarly literature, pointing to what is here contended to be the most important direction the philosophy of mind has taken in recent decades: i.e., the shift to the observer's role in knowledge making, with a corresponding shift from "objective truth" to experience.  The paper journeys from Susanne Langer's 1944 seminal piece on signs, to Searle's classic Chinese Box argument, and then to the scathing review of Searle's latest book, written by critic and quantum physicist Henry Stapp.  The journey continues to radical constructivist A. Riegler, with references to Wąsik, Quine, Szwedek, Fabiszak, Fojt, and Heidegger, and ends with a trump card – Lakoff and Nunez and their "Romance of Mathematics", with a footnote on Ewa Ciszek's published work on word derivations that was passed around at the general meeting. 

The motive force behind all of this is to demonstrate that "thing", "objects", and "objectivity" are mere metaphors that have fooled us into believing that we know more than we really do (and perhaps less than we ought to).
 

17.10.2008

MGR EWA DYNAROWICZ

GODZ. 11.30, S. 601A

Tytuł rozprawy: TRANSFORMACJA W RPA: KOMISJA PRAWDY I POJEDNANIA I LITERACKIE REPREZENTACJE PROCESU NEGOCJOWANIA I (RE)KONSTRUOWANIA TOŻSAMOŚCI

Promotor: PROF. DR HAB. JERZY KOCH

7.11.2008

MGR ANDRZEJ CIROCKI

GODZ. 11.30, S. 601A

Tytuł rozprawy: EXTENSIVE READING APPROACH TO LITERATURE IN THE EFL SECONDARY SCHOOL CLASSROOM. A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Promotor: PROF. DR HAB. TERESA SIEK - PISKOZUB

Teaching and learning EFL in the virtual world of Second Life was the theme of professor Sobkowiak's (Wlodek Barbosa in SL) one-off lecture offered to 2nd year MA extramural students in IFA on October 18th at 14.15 in lecture hall C1.  After a general introduction into the pedagogical aspects of Second Life, the audience was taken in-world, to the island of Virtlantis, the home of SLEnglish, a friendly group of language teachers organizing FLT tuition in Second Life (blog and website).  Some didactic resources of the island were inspected and an interview conducted with SLEnglish founder and facilitator, Kip Yellowjacket.  Finally the audience had a chance to relax in Wlodek Barbosa's home in Virtlantis.

Here is the abstract of the presentation:

0. Preface: distance learning, e-learning, LMSs
1. Introduction to SL, based on "Happiness I hadn't felt before", czyli nauka języków obcych w Drugim Życiu" (paper to be published in an ICT in FLT volume, edited by Mirosław Pawlak and Bartosz Wolski)
2. Some SL links: http://wa.amu.edu.pl/~swlodek/Second_Life.html
3. Educational uses of SL: a videoclip
4. Virtlantis, the island of SLEnglish: overview, resources, interview with Kip Yellowjacket, founder & facilitator
5. Relaxing at Wlodek Barbosa'a home in Virtlantis: slurl.com/secondlife/Virtlantis/219/223/24/
 

Interview with Kip Yellowjacket, 18th Oct 2008, in Virtlantis
(This was done in voice; the following is KY's write-up)

1. Could you please briefly introduce yourself, SLEnglish and Virtlantis?

I am known as Kip Yellowjacket in Second Life, but my real life name is Kip Boahn. My wife and I own a language school in Germany called the Oxford School for English. I am originally from the US but have been living in Germany for the past 8 years.

Second Life English is basically a free resource and community for language teachers and learners in the virtual world of Second Life.  We try to facilitate the learning and teaching of foreign languages by offering various free resources and support and cultivating a sense of community.

The name Virtlantis was taken from another e-learning project in which my wife and I are currently involved.  Virtlantis.com is a digital storytelling platform which presently focuses on teaching native German speakers the Enlish language by use of digital storytelling. It is also a 2D world.  I initially joined Second Life because of my desire for a more immersive, 3D component.

2. How is SL as a Virtual World better for EFL than dedicated distance e-learning systems?

I don't think the question should be whether a virtual world such as Second Life is BETTER than other e-learning systems or platforms.  Virtual worlds simply offer us an immersive  3D component which can be viewed as an add-on to any existing e-learning or distance learning system.  Virtual worlds will need to be further developed before they can be seen as being stand-alone e-learning solutions.
 

3. What are, in your opinion, the main downsides of SL as an educational platform?

I think SL is a perfect platform for a learner who already possesses a voracious appetite for learning.  The initial learning curve which one confronts in SL can be a bit intimidating for those who quickly grow impatient during the learning process.  Those who struggle with new internet technology, and are not especially tech savvy, will find likely find a virtual world experience such as Second Life frustrating.  User experience in SL also varies from user to user.  Hardware insufficiencies, lack of technical troubleshotting skills, and overall
platform unreliability can lead to a lot of variation in user experience.  More development is needed to make virtual world platforms such as Second Life more stable.  Stability and a predictable user experience are crucial elements in any e-learning strategy.

4. Which pedagogical resource in Virtlantis are you particularly proud of?

I am particularly fond of our "launchroom concept".  Launchrooms allow teachers to have a private space in which to experiment and hold lessons and/or meetings.  We try to encourage teachers to view these spaces primarily as "launch pads" for launching or teleporting to other locations in Second Life.  The idea we are trying to promote with this concept is that all of Second Life (and even the internet) can be viewed as "the classroom".  This differs from the more traditional stationary model of teaching which encourages the idea of always learning and teaching in the same static place.  In SL, a teacher is equipped with the power of a portable inventory.  This means a learning experience can easily take place anywhere in SL, and a teacher
does not have to worry about not having the right materials or tools.  The needed materials and tools can simply be retrieved from the inventory when desired.

5. How do you see the future of Virtlantis and SL in the educational context?

I think virtual worlds are still very much in their infancy and that we will see a lot of development and progress in the very near future.  I predict that virtual worlds will eventually be stable and developed enough to be able to act as stand-alone e-learning systems.  The sense of immersiveness will become even more real and we will see more overlap with real life.  I suspect it will soon be possible to wear a headset or pair of glasses
in real life which allow us to have multireality experiences.  I don't think we are far  from being able to sit on a mountainside in Poland in real life while simultaneously experiencing a real-like virtual connection with someone in China.  The seeds for such technology have already been planted.
 

 WS

ATTENTION!!!!

STAFF MEETING

October 3rd, 11:30, C1

ATTENDANCE OBLIGATORY!!!

!!!!!!!!!! UWAGA !!!!!!!!!!

William Shakespeare's
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

ACTORS
and
EXTRAS
NEEDED

Rehearsals:

Tuesday, Sept. 30^th

Wednesday, Oct. 1^st

Thursday, Oct. 2^nd

Friday, Oct. 3^rd

6:30 p.m. 601A or 610A

We are kindly inviting students and staff to take part in the production. This is supposed to be fun: if you have no time, you can read your part, and if you have no guts, you can be an extra or help with the stage set.

We would like to draw your attention to a conference for BA, MA and PhD students organised by Poznań School of English students in 2009. The *Young Linguists' Meeting in Poznań 2009* will take place on 24-26 April 2009 in Poznań.

Follow this link http://wa.amu.edu.pl/ylmp/ to find out more.