Habilitationsschrift--Bonn. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-255).

Habilitationsschrift--Bonn. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-255).

<p>A critical analysis of Zola's La Joie de Vivre together with certain biographical ïnformation and details of Zola's methods of composition.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

Anthropology and literary criticism can interact fruitfully in the investigation of theoretical, general and specific issues concerning literature. Anthropological concepts of magic and ritual are useful to account for those fictions which defy neat labels and sit at the crossroad between the fantastic and the mimetic impulses. Furthermore, the reading process of such fictions can be interpreted as a liminal experience, whereby the reader’s consciousness is ritualized. Adopting a phenomenological stance and a socio-anthropological methodology, the thesis presents the author’s auto-ethnography of reading, also integrating the latest findings of cognitive linguistics and psychology of fiction into the theoretical reflection. Other conceptual tools, such as ideas concerning performative language, the hero quest and epiphany, metaphor and symbolism, are elaborated in order to illustrate the reading of ‘hybrid’ fictions, and how the reader is actively involved in the process. Moreover, three sample novels are analysed in the light of concepts of magic from a thematic and structural point of view, as texts which posit the issue of the de-reification of the real and of the imagination itself as a critique of the discourses of modernity. Overall the thesis supports an ecological view of the (literary) imagination, conceived as a relational process whereby nature and culture are seen as co-extensive and not in opposition to each other.

Code switching involves the interplay of two languages and as well as serving linguistic functions, it has social and psychological implications. In the context of English language teaching, these psychological implications reveal themselves as teachers’ thought processes. While the nature of code switching in language classrooms has been widely studies, as yet little if any attention has been paid to the relationship between such switching and the beliefs of the teachers involved. This study is designed to respond this gap in current research. In the study, I worked with five student teachers undertaking their teaching practicum at a private school in Turkey, aiming to investigate their thinking in relation to code switching in their classrooms by using the analysis of classroom interactions, individual interviews and stimulated recall interviews. The first step of the research involved video recording lessons taught by the five student teachers within the framework of their university Teaching Practice course. This was followed by individual interviews with the student teachers focusing on their views of code switching during their teaching experience and their general views about language teaching. The last stage involved stimulated recall interviews with the student teachers based on selected extracts from their lessons chosen after an analysis of spoken interaction in their classes. The data were then analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that code switching is more than merely a linguistic matter; it is also indicative of a number of other dimensions including how teachers define themselves professionally, teacher beliefs, teacher identity, affective factors influencing teachers, and their relationships with supervisors. This study suggests that code switching could usefully be included as a topic in teacher education programmes and in supervisor/mentor training.

No description available.

The introduction of regional language bilingual education in France dates back to the late 1960s in the private education system and to the 1980s in the public system. Before this time the extensive use of regional languages was forbidden in French schools, which served as ‘local centres for the gallicisation of France’ (Blackwood 2008, 28). France began to pursue a French-only language policy from the time of the 1789 Revolution, with Jacobin ideology proposing that to be French, one must speak French. Thus began the shaping of France into a nation-state. As the result of the official language policy that imposed French in all public domains, as well as extra-linguistic factors such as the Industrial Revolution and the two World Wars, a significant language shift occurred in France during the twentieth century, as an increasing number of parents chose not to pass on their regional language to the next generation. In light of the decline in intergenerational transmission of the regional languages, Judge (2007, 233) concludes that ‘in the short term, everything depends on education in the [regional languages]’. This thesis analyses the development of language policy in bilingual education programmes in Alsace; Spolsky’s tripartite language policy model (2004), which focuses on language management, language practices and language beliefs, will be employed. In spite of the efforts of the State to impose the French language, in Alsace the traditionally non-standard spoken regional language variety, Alsatian, continued to be used widely until the mid-twentieth century. Whilst Alsatian has been spoken, the traditional language of writing and reference has been standard German. Today Alsace is a region of north eastern France, but it has existed under the political control of Germany for prolonged periods of time in the past, changing hands between the two countries five times between the seventeenth and twentieth centuries. Since the mid-twentieth century a significant language shift away from Alsatian has occurred in the region, with estimates that over 90% spoke the language variety in 1946 in comparison with only 43% of the population in 2012 (OLCA 2012a). Regional language bilingual education programmes were introduced in Alsace in the early 1990s in the private and public education systems. In both systems the language-in-education policy supported has primarily promoted the learning of and through French and standard German. The case study that forms the central part of the thesis seeks to examine current language policy in practice. It will analyse the place of Alsatian in the modern regional language bilingual classroom and examine the language beliefs of the key actors in the bilingual education programmes (namely parents, teachers and policy-makers at regional level). Finally, it will discuss what this means for efforts to reverse the language shift in twenty-first-century Alsace.

This doctoral thesis is an investigation into the process of translation performed by “natural” translators in comparison to MA Translation Studies students, hereon after will be termed trainee translators. “natural” translators were defined following Harris and Sherwood understanding of “natural” translation as: “the translation done in everyday circumstances by people who have had no special training for it” (1978: 155). The research examines bilinguality and diglossia in the context of Kuwait and how these two factors influence the translation process. The research examines the participants’ working units as well as the most commonly used strategies in the translation of culture-specific items and in the translation of English passive voice into Arabic. The study also explores the cohorts’ perceptions of translation and of the role of the translator drawing from Tymoczko’s call to look beyond Western conceptualisations of translation. The study uses think-aloud protocols (TAPs) to monitor and understand the process of translation. Different levels of working translation units were identified among the cohorts which further highlights the importance of translator training. Trainee translators worked on larger segments, mixing different levels of translation units. On the other hand, natural translators worked primarily on smaller units, although some worked on larger units. In terms of strategies, the research explores how time restrictions and the observational method might influence the strategies applied in a translation task. In terms of strategies there were general similarities in the types used, trainee participants and “natural” participants used global and local strategies to complete the task within the time frame. The participants were observed to advocate for an active role of the translator in some instances, however, the authority of the text was also an important aspect that was taken into consideration during the task. This project aims to contribute to existing literature in process-oriented research by comparing the process of translation with that of “natural” translators to academically instructed translators. This research also sets out to make an empirical contribution to the research in translation from English to Arabic.

This thesis employs multiple methodologies in order to explore Hungarian fiction in contemporary English translation as a distinct body of literature. It comprises three interrelated contributions: a bibliography, three case studies, and a translation. A bibliography of English translations of Hungarian novels published between 2000 and 2016 is presented in Appendix A, and Chapter 1 contains an overview of contemporary Hungarian-to-English fiction translation based on the bibliographic data, including a description of the assembly process. Chapters 2-4 focus more closely on a selection of these texts, tracing publication histories as well as target culture reception and interpreting translation shifts. Chapter 2 considers the language of Seiobo There Below by László Krasznahorkai (2013, tr. Ottilie Mulzet) in relation to the author’s vernacular oeuvre, and offers meta-artistic commentary on the target text. Chapter 3 investigates the concept of corporeal writing in Parallel Stories by Péter Nádas (2011, tr. Imre Goldstein), arguing that the organising principle of the source text is compromised in translation, which produces a fragmented work. Chapter 4 uncovers and categorises translation shifts in Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb (2002, tr. Len Rix) as an example of a recently translated Hungarian classic. Chapter 5 connects the analytical section of the thesis with the creative component that follows it. It departs from traditional academic discourse and uses a more reflective, lyrical mode of writing to explore the subjectivity of the translator and introduce the new text to its English-language readership. Finally, my English translation of the 1967 Hungarian novel Győzelmes Gábriel by György Méhes is presented under the title Gabriel the Victorious.

Nearing the end of my career as a secondary school Modern Languages (French/Spanish) teacher, I wanted to reflect on some of the problems I had encountered. The most obvious, I felt, was that male secondary school students persistently seemed to perform less well in this subject area than female students. This led me to investigate the social construction of gender, learner identity and the ideologies surrounding MFL. I did this by investigating the role of language and discourse in the construction of culture, identities and ideologies. The research paradigm is interpretivist and the design is case study, investigating the cultural meanings students construct in the context of MFL. The methodology combines classroom observations and interviews across student population samples in Key Stages 3 & 4. Findings show that MFL learning is a cultural activity, ideologically constructed in discourse. Secondly, findings show that a positive learner identity towards MFL contributes to a greater cultural involvement within the language, rather than solely to its external economic goals, and to an emerging MFL cultural identity. This learner cultural identity is more typically, although not exclusively associated with girls as an absolute since gender is seen as a social construction rather than a priori. Further findings also show that some socially constructed male identities tending towards ‘laddishness’ can disadvantage boys in MFL and the implications for this are for a wider discourse exploring notions of cultural diversity not only in MFL but also in personal identities.