Search results for "Language"
showing 10 items of 16993 documents
I segni parlano. Prospettive di ricerca sulla Lingua dei Segni Italiana
2008
I segni parlano perché cominciano a farsi più visibili nella società italiana: le ricerche sulla Lingua dei Segni Italiana (LIS) – avviate in modo sistematico in Italia dagli inizi degli anni ‘80 – sono aumentate rispetto a diversi anni fa, così come è aumentata la consapevolezza dell’importanza di questa lingua, non solo per le persone sorde. È una lingua infatti che sempre più persone – familiari, amici e colleghi di persone sorde, operatori, insegnanti, studenti – desiderano apprendere ed utilizzare non solo per necessità ma per avvicinarsi a nuove modalità comunicative. Una lingua che purtroppo ancora oggi sente il peso del pregiudizio e fatica a liberarsi di quel senso di inferiorità r…
Lo spazio sociale della sordità: da individuo a comunità
2009
Lo studio analizza le caratteristiche della cmunità dei sordi in relazione alla maggioranza udente.
Stakeholder salience for small businesses : a social proximity perspective
2017
This paper advances stakeholder salience theory from the viewpoint of small businesses. It is argued that the stakeholder salience process for small businesses is influenced by their local embeddedness, captured by the idea of social proximity, and characterised by multiple relationships that the owner-manager and stakeholders share beyond the business context. It is further stated that the ethics of care is a valuable ethical lens through which to understand social proximity in small businesses. The contribution of the study conceptualises how the perceived social proximity between local stakeholders and small business owner-managers influences managerial considerations of the legitimacy, …
Multilingualism in (Foreign) Language Teaching and Learning
2019
I am an applied linguist who considers language learning to be a socially constructed practice. In fact, I would rather talk about applied language studies than applied linguistics, as I understand this area of inquiry to include any language-related research that bears a strong connection to societally significant phenomena. In that broad palette of research, my own work would be placed at the interface of the areas of language learning and teaching, on the one hand, and discourse studies and sociolinguistics, on the other. I have always worked with students who wish to be language teachers. Over the years, I have seen hundreds of students entering working life that is in constant turmoil.…
‘The will to not be empowered (according to your rules)’: Resistance in Finnish participatory social policy
2018
Participation has increasingly become a means and an end for successful and ‘empowering’ social policy. Building on previous governmentality critiques of participatory initiatives, this article investigates practices of resistance in the context of Finnish participatory social policy. I adopt a Foucauldian counter-conducts approach as my lens to study critical speech as a form of resistance in initiatives that invite marginalised people as ‘experts-by-experience’ in social welfare organisations. I illustrate how practices of governing and resistance are intertwined and mutually dependent in a much subtler and more practical manner than allows the often-used analytical dichotomy between domi…
ICAnDoiT: the impact of computerised adaptive corrective feedback on L2 English learners
2016
The present dissertation examines the impact of (computerised) adaptive corrective feedback, that is, feedback dynamically adapting to learners’ abilities, in English as a second/foreign language (L2) and explores the ways to maximise this impact. The study was inspired by the sociocultural perspective on development, which had implications for the interpretation of the results, including those obtained through statistical data analyses. The dissertation comprises five articles and a synthesis. In the first article, a positive effect of adaptive corrective feedback on the learners’ ability to formulate L2 English wh-questions is established. The second article explores how learners’ beliefs…
Teacher as creator: Orchestrating the learning environment to promote learner development
2022
Sociocultural theory (SCT) is a powerful basis for exploring and guiding L2 (second/foreign language) learner development. For the most part, however, the focus of classroom SCT-L2 has been on single activities, for example, teacher mediation of learners’ writing process or peer scaffolding. In this paper, we expand on these studies, building on Vygotsky’s (1997) metaphor of teacher as a creator of learner development. We propose how activities (1) where agency for guiding development lies with learners, (2) where the teacher takes the lead in guiding learner development, and (3) where opportunities for development emerge in dialogical interaction between the teacher and learners can be or…
EFL Teacher Education in Finland : Manifestations of Professional Agency in Teacher Educators’ Work
2020
English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teacher educators play a key role in the development of university-based teacher education and the preparation of preservice EFL teachers. However, the professional agency of EFL teacher educators in developing their work remains understudied. Employing a Vygotskian sociocultural theoretical perspective, this research considers the individual and collective professional agency of eight EFL teacher educators at two Finnish universities. Findings demonstrate that individual professional agency is enacted in the expression of professional identity and the development of professional relationships, and in offering and receiving professional assistance. Findin…
Linguistic, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic competence as criteria in assessing vocational language skills: the case of Finland
2010
The content of the assessment criteria used in assessing vocationally oriented language competence in the Finnish Competency-Based Qualifications was examined. The data consisted of the National Core Curricula, eight education providers’ assessment criteria used in rating performances in the Qualification of Business and Administration, and thematic interviews conducted with 12 language teachers and four workplace experts. The data were analysed qualitatively. The results showed that on the lower levels of language competence, sociolinguistic and pragmatic competences were considered important in compensating for lacking linguistic competence. The findings will be useful in further defining…
Way better than the original!! Music video covers and language revitalisation : A sociosemiotic view
2016
The development of the social media has opened up new spaces and genres for minoritised languages. As argued in previous research, access to new media spaces can contribute to the revitalisation of minoritised languages by generating new functions and values for them. Combining sociolinguistic and sociosemiotic approaches and bringing together data from four minority language contexts, Irish, Welsh, Sámi, and Corsican, this study addresses the potential of music video covers on YouTube to contribute to language revitalisation. The investigation suggests that music video covers in minority languages can have significance in language revitalisation in both language ideological and practical t…