This paper reports on a qualitative study of dictionary use at the School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, during which nine students were given look-up tasks with the online Merriam–Webster Learner’s Dictionary. The study employed a combination of research methods: semi-structured oral interviews and the researchers’ direct observation of the participants as they looked up words. As the students completed these tasks, they were observed and questioned about their habits of dictionary use, their lookup experience, and their perceptions of the utility and quality of the dictionary definitions and examples. The results provide insight into the efficacy of the specific dictionary used. In addition, the study reveals much about how these students regard dictionaries and how they approach their use. Many of the participants had no relationship with dictionaries and no real understanding of their purpose. Their comments demonstrate that they are “demanding” users with very firm ideas and high expectations about the type of information they wish to receive in an online dictionary – and how they prefer to have it delivered. Some recommendations are made for those involved in learner lexicography concerning the improvement of part-of-speech information to make lookup easier, improvement of dictionary examples and improvement of the way dictionary information is presented. This paper also discusses what the takeaways are for concerned dictionary makers; in particular, it will reflect on how students should be taught about dictionaries today – if we still want them to use dictionaries tomorrow.
{"title":"Reflections on the Slovenian Dictionary User Study of 2018: What does it tell us?","authors":"Alenka Vrbinc, Donna M. Farina, Marjeta Vrbinc","doi":"10.24053/aaa-2024-0004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24053/aaa-2024-0004","url":null,"abstract":"This paper reports on a qualitative study of dictionary use at the School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, during which nine students were given look-up tasks with the online Merriam–Webster Learner’s Dictionary. The study employed a combination of research methods: semi-structured oral interviews and the researchers’ direct observation of the participants as they looked up words. As the students completed these tasks, they were observed and questioned about their habits of dictionary use, their lookup experience, and their perceptions of the utility and quality of the dictionary definitions and examples. The results provide insight into the efficacy of the specific dictionary used. In addition, the study reveals much about how these students regard dictionaries and how they approach their use. Many of the participants had no relationship with dictionaries and no real understanding of their purpose. Their comments demonstrate that they are “demanding” users with very firm ideas and high expectations about the type of information they wish to receive in an online dictionary – and how they prefer to have it delivered. Some recommendations are made for those involved in learner lexicography concerning the improvement of part-of-speech information to make lookup easier, improvement of dictionary examples and improvement of the way dictionary information is presented. This paper also discusses what the takeaways are for concerned dictionary makers; in particular, it will reflect on how students should be taught about dictionaries today – if we still want them to use dictionaries tomorrow.","PeriodicalId":518754,"journal":{"name":"Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik","volume":"13 20","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141233347","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This contribution aims to provide an overview of current concepts of film literacies in the (English) language classroom in Germany. Against the background of a working definition of film literacies, three central models are being discussed with regards to their general composition, highlighted aspects, and potential blind spots. These models are Blell and Lütge’s (2008) notion of Filmbildung; Blell, Grünewald, Kepser and Surkamp’s (2016b) comprehensive study of film in language education; and Viebrock’s (2016) concept of film literacy in English language teaching. In addition, this contribution also takes into account further contributions to the discourse on film-based language education, with a particular focus on multiliteracies-informed approaches and approaches to cultural learning with films. To conclude this overview, the article highlights central insights gained from the discussion and points to open desiderata in the field.
{"title":"Concepts of film literacies in (English) Language Education","authors":"Ricardo Römhild","doi":"10.24053/aaa-2024-0005","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24053/aaa-2024-0005","url":null,"abstract":"This contribution aims to provide an overview of current concepts of film literacies in the (English) language classroom in Germany. Against the background of a working definition of film literacies, three central models are being discussed with regards to their general composition, highlighted aspects, and potential blind spots. These models are Blell and Lütge’s (2008) notion of Filmbildung; Blell, Grünewald, Kepser and Surkamp’s (2016b) comprehensive study of film in language education; and Viebrock’s (2016) concept of film literacy in English language teaching. In addition, this contribution also takes into account further contributions to the discourse on film-based language education, with a particular focus on multiliteracies-informed approaches and approaches to cultural learning with films. To conclude this overview, the article highlights central insights gained from the discussion and points to open desiderata in the field.","PeriodicalId":518754,"journal":{"name":"Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik","volume":"3 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141230617","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Nada Šabec, Slovene Immigrants and their Descendants in North America: Faces of Identity. Maribor: University of Maribor Press, 2021","authors":"Walter Grünzweig","doi":"10.24053/aaa-2024-0007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24053/aaa-2024-0007","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":518754,"journal":{"name":"Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik","volume":"6 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141235048","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
English as it is taught in German schools (Schulenglisch) is often perceived to be radically different from natural English, as used outside the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Previous corpus studies have confirmed that individual lexico-grammatical features are indeed often misrepresented in EFL textbooks used in Germany. This study presents an empirical multi-feature and multi-dimensional (MDA) analysis of the language of three series of EFL textbooks (15 textbook volumes) used at lower secondary school level in Germany, as compared to three target language reference corpora. Principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to identify the defining linguistic characteristics of Schulenglisch along three dimensions of linguistic variation: 1) ‘Written informational vs. Spoken interactional’, 2) ‘Fictional narrative’ and 3) ‘Didactised vs. Real-life English’. The distributions of texts on the first and second dimensions show that Schulenglisch is characterised by an underdifferentiation of register-based variation as compared to ‘real-life’, extra-curricular English. Mixed-effects models show that this finding is consistent across all three textbook series. Intra-textbook variation is mediated – to varying degrees on each of the three dimensions of the model – by text register, the proficiency level targeted by the textbooks, and interactions between these variables. In line with lay beliefs about Schulenglisch, the largest gap between Schulenglisch and extra-curricular English is observed in the conversation register. This gap persists even as textbook proficiency level increases. Compared to transcripts of natural, everyday conversations, Schulenglisch conversation significantly underrepresents key features of spontaneous, interactional spoken English, such as discourse makers, fillers, negation, contracted verbs, demonstratives, and it-pronouns. At the same time, it overrepresents features more typical of written, informative writing such as nouns, prepositions, and high lexical density and diversity. Across all registers, linguistic features that are typical of Schulenglisch, especially at the lower levels of proficiency, include imperatives, can as a modal, politeness markers and question forms.
{"title":"Schulenglisch: A multi-dimensional model of the variety of English taught in German secondary schools","authors":"Elen Le Foll","doi":"10.24053/aaa-2024-0001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24053/aaa-2024-0001","url":null,"abstract":"English as it is taught in German schools (Schulenglisch) is often perceived to be radically different from natural English, as used outside the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom. Previous corpus studies have confirmed that individual lexico-grammatical features are indeed often misrepresented in EFL textbooks used in Germany. This study presents an empirical multi-feature and multi-dimensional (MDA) analysis of the language of three series of EFL textbooks (15 textbook volumes) used at lower secondary school level in Germany, as compared to three target language reference corpora. Principal component analysis (PCA) is applied to identify the defining linguistic characteristics of Schulenglisch along three dimensions of linguistic variation: 1) ‘Written informational vs. Spoken interactional’, 2) ‘Fictional narrative’ and 3) ‘Didactised vs. Real-life English’. The distributions of texts on the first and second dimensions show that Schulenglisch is characterised by an underdifferentiation of register-based variation as compared to ‘real-life’, extra-curricular English. Mixed-effects models show that this finding is consistent across all three textbook series. Intra-textbook variation is mediated – to varying degrees on each of the three dimensions of the model – by text register, the proficiency level targeted by the textbooks, and interactions between these variables. In line with lay beliefs about Schulenglisch, the largest gap between Schulenglisch and extra-curricular English is observed in the conversation register. This gap persists even as textbook proficiency level increases. Compared to transcripts of natural, everyday conversations, Schulenglisch conversation significantly underrepresents key features of spontaneous, interactional spoken English, such as discourse makers, fillers, negation, contracted verbs, demonstratives, and it-pronouns. At the same time, it overrepresents features more typical of written, informative writing such as nouns, prepositions, and high lexical density and diversity. Across all registers, linguistic features that are typical of Schulenglisch, especially at the lower levels of proficiency, include imperatives, can as a modal, politeness markers and question forms.","PeriodicalId":518754,"journal":{"name":"Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik","volume":"18 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141233862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Heuberger 2003 analyzed monolingual English (learners’) dictionaries with regard to anthropocentrism, an ideology that regards nature primarily from the viewpoint of its usefulness to human beings. Focusing on reference works published in the mid-1990s, that article identified strong anthropocentric biases concerning animals within definitions. 20 years later, the present article revisits the learners’ dictionaries examined in said study and investigates whether the treatment of animals has become more objective in the current editions.
{"title":"Anthropocentrism in monolingual English learners’ dictionaries – Revisited","authors":"Reinhard Heuberger","doi":"10.24053/aaa-2024-0003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24053/aaa-2024-0003","url":null,"abstract":"Heuberger 2003 analyzed monolingual English (learners’) dictionaries with regard to anthropocentrism, an ideology that regards nature primarily from the viewpoint of its usefulness to human beings. Focusing on reference works published in the mid-1990s, that article identified strong anthropocentric biases concerning animals within definitions. 20 years later, the present article revisits the learners’ dictionaries examined in said study and investigates whether the treatment of animals has become more objective in the current editions.","PeriodicalId":518754,"journal":{"name":"Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik","volume":"17 8","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141231874","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Benjamin Franklin and Gottfried Achenwall, Amerika 1766. Anmerkungen über Nordamerika, und über dasige Großbritannische Colonien. Published and commented by Heinrich Detering and Lisa Kunze. Wallstein, 2023","authors":"J. Sattler","doi":"10.24053/aaa-2024-0006","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24053/aaa-2024-0006","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":518754,"journal":{"name":"Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik","volume":"21 2","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141233889","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Günther Sigott, Samuel Hafner, H. Cesnik, Theresa Weiler, Kristina Leitner, Eva Dousset-Ortner
At secondary level, great importance is put in teaching and assessment on the ability to write texts that meet the conventions of text types. For the Austrian school system, descriptions of text types for German, English, French, Italian and Spanish are available. However, the text types differ across languages. This study focuses on English. It uses a set of 23 descriptive statements, derived from text linguistic theory, to empirically investigate their suitability to characterise the constructs held by practicing teachers for eight text types for L2 English. This approach has already been applied to German as the language of instruction (Sigott et al. 2020) and can be applied to all other languages. The results for English show that the suitability of the 23 statements varies considerably across text types. A subset of statements turns out to be suitable as dimensions for comparing all the English text types. In addition, statements are identified which are suitable to characterise individual text types and statements which should not be considered in describing text types and, therefore, not used in formulating assessment criteria. This is valuable information for teaching and relevant for assessment practice. These results are presented in a polarity profile for each text type.
在中学阶段，教学和评估都非常重视写作符合文本类型惯例的文本的能力。在奥地利的学校系统中，有德语、英语、法语、意大利语和西班牙语的课文类型说明。然而，不同语言的文本类型各不相同。本研究侧重于英语。它使用了一套源自文本语言学理论的 23 个描述性语句，以实证的方式研究它们是否适合描述实践教师对英语第二语言八种文本类型所持有的建构特征。这种方法已经应用于作为教学语言的德语（Sigott et al.对英语的研究结果表明，23 个语句在不同文本类型中的适用性差别很大。结果表明，语句子集适合作为比较所有英语文本类型的维度。此外，还确定了适合描述个别文本类型特征的语句，以及不应考虑用于描述文本类型的语句，因此也不应用于制定评估标准。这些信息对教学和评估实践都很有价值。这些结果将在每种文本类型的极性简介中列出。
{"title":"Text types in the Austrian Standardized National School-Leaving Exam for English","authors":"Günther Sigott, Samuel Hafner, H. Cesnik, Theresa Weiler, Kristina Leitner, Eva Dousset-Ortner","doi":"10.24053/aaa-2024-0002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24053/aaa-2024-0002","url":null,"abstract":"At secondary level, great importance is put in teaching and assessment on the ability to write texts that meet the conventions of text types. For the Austrian school system, descriptions of text types for German, English, French, Italian and Spanish are available. However, the text types differ across languages. This study focuses on English. It uses a set of 23 descriptive statements, derived from text linguistic theory, to empirically investigate their suitability to characterise the constructs held by practicing teachers for eight text types for L2 English. This approach has already been applied to German as the language of instruction (Sigott et al. 2020) and can be applied to all other languages. The results for English show that the suitability of the 23 statements varies considerably across text types. A subset of statements turns out to be suitable as dimensions for comparing all the English text types. In addition, statements are identified which are suitable to characterise individual text types and statements which should not be considered in describing text types and, therefore, not used in formulating assessment criteria. This is valuable information for teaching and relevant for assessment practice. These results are presented in a polarity profile for each text type.","PeriodicalId":518754,"journal":{"name":"Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik","volume":"117 21","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141234637","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Exploring paths to mental health in English Language Education","authors":"Daniel Becker, Frauke Matz","doi":"10.24053/aaa-2023-0009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24053/aaa-2023-0009","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":518754,"journal":{"name":"Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik","volume":"11 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140527871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How about a little noise?","authors":"Jens-Folkert Folkerts","doi":"10.24053/aaa-2023-0013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24053/aaa-2023-0013","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":518754,"journal":{"name":"Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik","volume":"26 9","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140528027","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The role of digitality for neurodivergent English language learners","authors":"Carolyn Blume, Jules Bündgens-Kosten","doi":"10.24053/aaa-2023-0012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24053/aaa-2023-0012","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":518754,"journal":{"name":"Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik","volume":"397 ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"140528405","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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