Panel 5: New methods and approaches
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15:30 -16:45
​Natalia Parker
15:30 - 15:55
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Key words
Language teaching, grammar, second language acquisition, Russian
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Biography
A keen educator and a language practitioner, throughout my career, I have been advancing learning and searching for more effective ways of teaching. Trained in Foreign Language Teaching in Russia, I held a full-time teaching post at the Tula University, which I left to set up one of the first non-state non-profit-making schools implementing more up-to-date teaching. At the age of 27, I became a Head of School. After moving to the UK, I taught Russian for a number of years, developing a new teaching methodology. I returned to Higher Education in 2016, doing an MA at Sheffield.
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Supervisor(s)
Dr. James Wilson and Dr. Clare Wright
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Spiralling Russian Grammar: a way of integrating with communication practice
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In the present global context, learning languages structurally different from English is very topical (British Council Report, 2014; MLA Report, 2007). This PhD project, focusing on Russian language teaching, investigates effective ways of teaching morphologically complex grammar to English speakers.
Traditionally, Russian grammar is taught in a way described as “linear” (Howatt, 1974), when each noun case, for example, is presented as a whole paradigm with numerous endings, which learners notoriously struggle “to internalise” (Ellis, 2006) in their speech. My new teaching methodology is based on spiralling, which is a different way of introducing learning material, put forward by the American psychologist Jerome Bruner (1984). It involves structuring information so that ideas are taught at a simplified level first and then re-visited in more detail later to consolidate previous input. For Russian grammar, this means splitting the paradigms and feeding the endings into learners’ speech one by one. Thus, in accordance with Second Language Acquisition research (see Loewen & Sato, 2018, for a review), grammar instruction is combined with communication practice.
This methodology has been successfully piloted during my MA, applying spiralling to teaching Russian pronunciation. In my PhD project I will test its application to teaching cases, by conducting a series of interventions, experimenting with different variables. At the end of each instruction period, learners’ acquisition of case endings in speech will be tested, and the results will be compared to establish the most effective variables.
This project has the potential to make teaching Russian to English speakers much more effective, thus improving the standard of learning within HE. With the ab-initio student market being the largest in language learning, this research can impact on the training of thousands of students worldwide. Moreover, this methodology is seminal to research into teaching other morphologically rich grammars.
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Bruner, J. S. 1984. In Search of Mind: Essays in Autobiography (Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Series). New York: Harper Collins.
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Ellis, R. 2006. Current issues in the teaching of grammar: An SLA perspective. TESOL quarterly, 40(1), 83-107.
Geisler, M., Kramsch, C., McGinnis, S., Patrikis, P., Pratt, M. L., Ryding, K., & Saussy, H. 2007. Foreign languages and higher education: New structures for a changed world: MLA ad hoc committee on foreign languages. Profession, 234-245.
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Howatt, A. 1974. Linear" and" spiral" syllabuses. The Edinburgh course in applied linguistics, 3.
Loewen, S., & Sato, M. 2018. Interaction and instructed second language acquisition. Language Teaching, 51(3), 285-329.
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Tinsley, T., & Board, K. 2014. Languages for the future: which languages the UK needs most and why. British Council.
Reflections on Critical Reflections: Exploring the Ontological and Epistemological Underpinnings of the Current Frameworks of Interculturality
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Porpora claims that “sociologists are good at calling on others to recognise their presuppositions … because [they] underlie and shape everything we do” (2015, p. 1). In so doing, sociologists often succeed at attaining the major aim of raising individuals’ awareness, criticality and reflexivity. However, He adds that “what we (i.e. sociologists) do not do much of is critical reflection on our critical reflection” (p. 2). This tendency towards taking paradigms for granted and as mere tools to justify researchers’ positionality feeds into what is known as normal science. Building on this argument, this paper endeavours to delineate the most relevant frameworks recurrent throughout the interdisciplinary field of intercultural studies. It attempts to discuss the different critical frameworks along with their theoretical and philosophical underpinnings. This comprehensive outline proves to be beneficial for deciding about the initial direction and the set of assumptions underlying the research that I intend to carry out. Ferri argues that “while intercultural communication is theorized from a number of ontological and epistemological positions, the possibility of defining its contents, aims and characteristics […] remains at the centre of attempts to delineate the often-blurred contours of this field” (2018, p. 17). In this respect, I intend to focus on three main paradigms that seem to shape much of the research conducted in the field of intercultural studies: Positivism (Hofstede, 2001); Postmodernism/Constructivism (Holliday, 2018; Holliday, 2011) and Critical Realism (Zotzmann, 2017; Porpora, 2015). In so doing, I plan to highlight how culture and interculturality are approached and dealt with in each paradigm along with my own position as a researcher.
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Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Ferri, G. (2018). Intercultural Communication: Current Challenges and Future Directions. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Holliday, A. (2011). Intercultural communication and Ideology. London: Sage.
Holliday, A. (2018). Understanding intercultural communication: Negotiating a Grammar of Culture. 2nd ed. London: Routledge.
Porpora, D. V. (2015). Reconstructing Sociology: The Critical Realist Approach. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9781316227657.
Zotzmann, K. (2017). Intercultural research: a critical realist perspective. In M. Dasli, & A. Díaz (Eds.), The Critical Turn in Intercultural Communication Pedagogy: Theory, Research and Practice (pp. 73-90). (Studies in Language and Intercultural Communication). Routledge.
​Ramzi Merabet
15:55 - 16:20
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Key words
Culture, Intercultural Studies, Ontology, Epistemology, Research
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Biography
I am a postgraduate researcher and teaching assistant at the University of Leeds. My current research explores the narratives of Mobility and Interculturality that study abroad students from two mobility schemes tend to produce before, during, and after their stays abroad. I intend to employ a qualitative research approach by means of interviews, focus groups, critical discourse analysis and auto-ethnography. I hold both MA and BA degrees in Anglophone Language, Literature and Civilization from 8 Mai 1945 University, Algeria. I currently teach a module in intercultural studies (undergraduate) and deliver workshops in different UK schools and colleges (ArtsOutreach). I am also working as a PG Communication Intern at the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies (UoL).
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Supervisor(s)
Dr Haynes Collins and Dr Alexander Ding
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​Abdulrahman
Alqahtany
16:20 - 16:45
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Key words
Quran Translation, Coherence and Cohesion
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Biography
Abdulrahman Alqahtany is a first-year PhD student whose research revolves around the theme of coherence and its application within the domain of Quran translations. He nurtures a keen interest in an array of research areas including philology, linguistics, and Translation of the Quran.
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Supervisor(s)
James Dickins
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Coherence Transferability in the Translation of the Quran
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Whilst the conveyance of meaning in the word level is important, it may not be the most primary aim of translation. Since the text is in essence an interconnected cluster of ideas and concepts inseparable from the outer world, the coalescence of words into forming set of complete conceptual themes and the integration thereof within the reticulum of the apperception on the part of the text reception is what brings value to the coherency of the text as a whole.
Hence, it is the aim of this research to examine how this holistic approach be achieved in the translations of the Quran.
Tabrizi, A.A. and Mahmud, R., 2013, February. Issues of coherence analysis on English translations of Quran. In 2013 1st International Conference on Communications, Signal Processing, and their Applications (ICCSPA) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Farghal, M. and Bloushi, N., 2012. Shifts of Coherence in Quran Translation. Sayyab
Translation Journal (STJ), 4, pp.1-18.
El-Awa, S.M., 2006. Textual relations in the Qur'an: Relevance, coherence and structure. Routledge.