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WA Distinguished Professors' Lectures: Language and Complex Systems in Text Analysis by Prof. William Kretzschmar, Jan 17, 2020, 11:45 a.m., Sala Górna, Coll. Heliodori

Submitted by tomski on 13 January, 2020 - 16:36.
2020-01-17 11:45
2020-01-17 12:15

WA Distinguished Professors' Lectures Series features internationally renowned scholars visiting the Faculty of English to share their research and professional expertise with the faculty and students. This time we have the honour to host a world renown linguist, Professor William Kretzschmar (University of Georgia, Athens) who is staying with us as a Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Humanities and Social Sciences. He will deliver a lecture on Language and Complex Systems in Text Analysis that will take place on January 17 (Friday), 2019, at 11:45 a.m. in Sala Górna, Collegium Heliodori.

 

 

Language and Complex Systems in Text Analysis

by

Professor William Kretzschmar

Friday, January 17, 11:45 a.m.
Sala Górna, Collegium Heliodori

The basic elements of speech (i.e., language in use, what people actually say and write to and for each other) correspond to what has been called a “complex system” in sciences ranging from physics to ecology to economics (Kretzschmar, Language and Complex Systems, Cambridge UP, 2015). I will introduce the principles of complexity science in a non-technical way, and then apply properties of complexity to text analysis. Complex systems shows us, through its property of scale-free nonlinear distributions, the special features of language in any author's work or any group of texts. Common statistical techniques from Natural Language Processing, as in Sentiment Analysis, do not address nonlinear distributions and so they often fail to provide convincing results. The key is to use comparisons effectively, between one author and a group of authors, or between a group of texts and a representation of common language. The everpresent nonlinear curve gives us a good visual means to identify important results. Thus, we can apply the significance of frequency distributions and scaling to problems we need to address with corpora, and do so without having to use highly technical math or statistics.

Culture Vultures meeting: American Regionalism by Prof. William Kretzschmar, Jan 16, 6:30. p.m., room 341, Collegium Heliodori

Submitted by tomski on 10 January, 2020 - 18:18.
2020-01-16 18:30
2020-01-16 20:00


The Culture Vultures reading group has the pleasure to invite everyone to a talk on American Regionalism by Prof. William Kretzschmar (University of Georgia), Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Humanities and Social Sciences. Thursday, January 16, 6:30 p.m., room 341, Collegium Heliodori. See you all there.

WA Friday Lunch Talk, Jan 10, 13:15-14:15, Sala Górna, Coll. Heliodori: "Definitions of suicide. A discourse analysis" by prof. Dariusz Galasiński

Submitted by tomski on 5 January, 2020 - 15:30.
2020-01-10 13:15
2020-01-10 14:15

WA Friday Lunch Talks are monthly meetings with presentations of current research results or research in progress by WA faculty, staff, or PhD students. Each talk is of 45 minutes (+15 minutes for discussion). We welcome all to a talk "Definitions of suicide. A discourse analysis" by prof. dr hab. Dariusz Galasiński (Friday, Jan 10, 13:15-14:15, Sala Górna, Coll. Heliodori).


prof. Dariusz Galasiński
Department of Sociolinguistics and Discourse Studies

Definitions of suicide. A discourse analysis

ABSTRACT


Mainstream suicidology has for years been criticised for failing to engage with contextual, social and individual aspects of suicide. Such critique has usually focused on the positivist, quantitative paradigm of dominant suicidological research. In this paper I suggest a new dimension of such critiques by focusing on dominant suicidological discourse – dominant definitions of suicide. My argument is three-fold. First, I argue that, in the definitions, suicide is constructed either by its result (death) or as an event which happens outside any agency or any spatial, temporal or social context. Second, that those who kill themselves are systematically backgrounded in the definitions. Finally, I contextualise my findings by juxtaposing them with representations of suicide in genuine suicide notes, which, in contrast, constructed suicide as primarily social.

Self-regulation in study abroad contexts - A questionnaire for students

Submitted by mjekiel on 18 December, 2019 - 10:42.
2019-12-18

We would like to invite the following groups of students to complete a questionnaire on their study-abroad experience:

  • students from Poland who have studied abroad
  • students from abroad who are currently studying in Poland

The questionnaire is an outcome of collaborative effort in Working Group Four (Individual differences) of COST SAREP. It is intended to provide data on the self-regulation strategies used by students who currently are on study abroad or have already completed their study abroad experience. Specifically, it focuses on how such strategies are employed before, during and after the sojourn abroad. It also aims to provide information on self-efficacy beliefs and motivated learning behavior as well as a range of demographic variables. Collecting data in many different contexts will allow us to identify mediating influences on autonomy and self-regulation manifested by study abroad students.

Participation in the project is anonymous and voluntary.

The questionnaire can be accessed here.

Thank you for your cooperation and support!
Kata Csizér & Mirosław Pawlak

Culture Vultures meeting: Meet WA foreign students, Dec 10, 6:30. p.m., room 235, Collegium Heliodori

Submitted by tomski on 8 December, 2019 - 21:58.
2019-12-10 18:30
2019-12-10 20:00


The Culture Vultures reading group has the pleasure to invite everyone to a meeting with Erasmus and other foreign students who study at our Faculty. They are from the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, Taiwan and Ukraine. Let’s learn from them about their countries and about their perception of Poland. Tuesday, December 10, 6:30 p.m., room 235, Collegium Heliodori. See you all there.

WA Friday Lunch Talk, Dec 6, 13:15-14:15, Sala Górna, Coll. Heliodori: "Bogus ideas and pedagogical myths in FL research: a case against Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences" by dr Jacek Rysiewicz

Last updated by kprzemek on 2019-12-08. Originally submitted by tomski on 2019-12-05.
2019-12-06 13:15
2019-12-06 14:15

WA Friday Lunch Talks are monthly meetings with presentations of current research results or research in progress by WA faculty, staff, or PhD students. Each talk is of 45 minutes (+15 minutes for discussion). We welcome all to a talk "Bogus ideas and pedagogical myths in FL research: a case against Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences" by dr Jacek Rysiewicz (Friday, Dec 15, 13:15-14:15, Sala Górna, Coll. Heliodori).


dr Jacek Rysiewicz
Department of Applied English Linguistics and Language Teaching

Bogus ideas and pedagogical myths in FL research: a case against Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences

ABSTRACT


In 1983 Howard Gardner in his Frames of mind: The theory of multiple intelligences proposed a new way of looking at human intellectual capacities. His theory was received with a certain amount of interest in psychology, then was quite warmly embraced by researchers in pedagogy, and finally, at the end of 80’s was imported into the field of second language acquisition/learning where its reception was more than enthusiastic. The theory, which arose as a reaction to unitary, general factor theories of intelligence and which was generally viewed as a more democratic and fair account of human learning potential, has ever since cherished an unabated interest in SLA theorising as well as in more practically oriented L2 teaching/learning accounts. While Gardner’s suggestion was generally dropped from psychological research agendas after having been found an unpromising line of investigation MI theory still forms a strong and stable notion in SLA. Innumerable articles, papers, conference presentations, and scholarly theses have been published in the field with the MI theory as a focal perspective of theoretical and/or practical investigations. In the talk I will discuss major criticism levelled against the theory as well as ponder its unquavering appeal to FL/L2 researchers.


WA Friday Lunch Talk, Nov 29, 13:15-14:15, Sala Górna, Coll. Heliodori: "The role of rhythm in language and music" by Prof. Dr. Richard Wiese, University of Marburg

Submitted by tomski on 27 November, 2019 - 08:02.
2019-11-29 13:15
2019-11-29 14:15

WA Friday Lunch Talks are monthly meetings with presentations of current research results or research in progress by WA faculty, staff, or PhD students. Each talk is of 45 minutes (+15 minutes for discussion). We welcome all to a talk "The role of rhythm in language and music" by Prof. Dr. Richard Wiese, University of Marburg (Friday, Nov 29, 13:15-14:15, Sala Górna, Coll. Heliodori).

Prof. Dr. Richard Wiese
Institut für Germanistische Sprachwissenschaft
Philipps-Universität Marburg

The role of rhythm in language and music

 
ABSTRACT
Rhythm is a phenomenon which is obviously present for both language and music. Couched in more recent neurocognitive terms, rhythm is part of the predictive structure for language as well as for music. However, it is unclear whether the term “rhythm” has the same meaning in these two domains, and both musicologists and cognitive scientists have disputed this. In the present contribution, I argue that there are central aspects of rhythm which are shared between language and music. Empirical evidence comes from a series of studies (corpus-based and experimental) demonstrating that regular alternation is preferred in the perception of language, making rhythm in language closer to rhythm in music than sometimes thought.

Prof. Dr Richard Wiese is a phonologist from the University of Marburg in Germany. His research scope is broad: apart from phonology his research has also embraced morphology, psycholinguistics  and orthography. He is the author of several books on phonology and numerous high impact-factor papers on languages such as German, English, Polish, Chinese, Turkish and Arabic. His most recent intrerest are focued on rhythm (and music).


The Fulbright Program and Higher Education in the United States - a talk by prof. William Kretzschmar, Nov 22, 12:00, Sala Górna, Coll. Heliodori

Submitted by tomski on 22 November, 2019 - 11:59.
2019-11-22 12:00
2019-11-22 13:00

The Faculty of English invites everyone to a talk on The Fulbright Program and Higher Education in the United States by Professor William Kretzschmar (University of Georgia), Fulbright Distinguished Chair in Humanities and Social Sciences, November 22, 2019, 12:00 in Sala Górna, Collegium Heliodori. The talk is one of the 2019 Fulbright International Education Week events.

 


The Fulbright Program
and
Higher Education in the United States

November 22, 2019
12:00, Sala Górna


This session will introduce the Fulbright Program for Polish students and scholars who want to go to the United States. It will feature the experience of the presenter in various American higher education settings: state universities of different kinds, private universities, research collaboration.

Culture Vultures meeting: Hollywood revisits Black history: BlacKkKlansman, Nov 21, 6:30. p.m., room 156, Collegium Heliodori

Last updated by kprzemek on 2019-11-21. Originally submitted by tomski on 2019-11-18.
2019-11-21 18:30
2019-11-21 20:00

 

Culture Vultures reading group invites everyone to a meeting commemorating the 400th anniversary of arrival of the first enslaved Africans in English colonies in North America: Hollywood revisits Black history: BlacKkKlansman. The discussion will be moderated by dr Elżbieta Wilczyńska. Recommended to see: BlacKkKlansman (dir. Spike Lee, 2018). Thursday, November 21, 6:30 p.m., room 156, Collegium Heliodori. See you all there.


 

WA Friday Lunch Talk, Nov. 15, 13:15-14:15, Sala Górna, Coll. Heliodori: "Audio description, Universal Design and the future of audio describer training" by dr Iwona Mazur

Last updated by kprzemek on 2019-11-15. Originally submitted by tomski on 2019-11-13.
2019-11-15 13:15
2019-11-15 14:15

WA Friday Lunch Talks are monthly meetings with presentations of current research results or research in progress by WA faculty, staff, or PhD students. Each talk is of 45 minutes (+15 minutes for discussion). We welcome all to a talk "Audio description, Universal Design and the future of audio describer training" by dr Iwona Mazur (Friday, Nov 15, 13:15-14:15, Sala Górna, Coll. Heliodori).

 

dr Iwona Mazur
Department of Translation Studies

Audio description, Universal Design and the future of audio describer training

ABSTRACT


Audio description (AD) is a type of intersemiotic translation whereby images are translated into words (cf. Jakobson 1966). Although its primary aim is to make visual content (such as films, theater plays, opera performances, museum exhibitions or sports events) accessible to blind and visually impaired people, a number of recent studies have shown that it can also benefit sighted persons (see e.g. Mazur 2019). Traditionally, AD has been created for finished products, for example, in the case of films at the post-production or even distribution stage. However, following developments in Universal Design (UD), there is now a call for AD to be accounted for already at the stage of production of (audio) visual content (e.g. Fryer 2018; Romero-Fresco 2019). This, coupled with the recently adopted legislation in the form of the European Accessibility Act (2019), is likely to significantly increase the demand for professional audio describers in the near future.    
In order to address this demand, a group of AD researchers and professionals from six European countries came together under the umbrella of ADLAB PRO: A Laboratory for the Development of a New Professional Profile, a three-year (2016-2019) European project financed under the Erasmus+ Programme. The project’s main aim was to create flexible, fully customizable audio description training materials that would be available online to train prospective audio describers.
In the presentation I will first briefly go over the AD process and the concept of Universal Design including in relation to AD, and then discuss the ADLAB PRO project with its main Intellectual Outputs (IOs), with a special focus on the AD training landscape and training materials. The presentation’s secondary aim will be to shift the audience’s perception of disability and promote the idea of an inclusive society.

References:
Fryer, Louise. (2018). The independent audio describer is dead: Long live audio description! Journal of Audiovisual Translation, 1(1), 170-186.
Jakobson, Roman. (1966). On linguistic aspects of translation. In R.A. Brower (Ed.), On Translation (pp. 233-239). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Mazur, Iwona. (2019). Audio description for all? Enhancing the experience of sighted viewers through visual media access services. In D. Abend-David (Ed.), Representing Translation: Representation of Translation and Translators in Contemporary Media (pp. 122-150). New York: Bloomsbury Academic.
Romero-Fresco, Pablo. (2019). Accessible filmmaking: Integrating translation and accessibility into the filmmaking process. London: Routledge.


 

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