Volume 3 (2013) Issue 2
pp. 7-8
Foreword to the Issue
The second issue of the
fourth volume of JLLT comprises five academic articles, one
university report and four book reviews. The thematic scope ranges
from aspects of general language teaching via language learning and
language awareness, and further on to one determined language
competence, i.e. translation, which completes the articles written in
English. The thematic range in this issue
continues going on towards applied linguistics in a German article
and to linguistics in a Spanish one.
The first article by Patricia
Anesa (Bergamo, Italy) focuses on a new medium for instruction.
In this article, the author explores users' reactions to the use of
interactive whiteboards in the setting of teaching English for
specific purposes. Despite the fact that interactive whiteboards
have become increasingly prevalent in other educational contexts,
they are still relatively rarely used in academic contexts. Patricia
Anesa's investigation, carried out in ESP courses on the language of
economics held at an Italian university, points to the principal
advantages of whiteboards such as interactivity and availability of
information. An interesting aspect taken into account in this article
lies in the fact that both students' and lecturers' reactions are
documented and analysed.
Examining
an important aspect of language learning competence, Katalin
Doró
and Anita
Habók
(both Szeged, Hungary) present a study on language learning
strategies by elementary school students (275 fifth and sixth
graders) with respect to their age and gender. The Strategy
Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) served as the empirical basis
of the study.
Among the six categories of strategies analysed, meta-cognitive
strategies turned out to be the most frequently used ones,
compensation strategies being the most rarely employed ones.
Throughout all the six categories, girls proved to use the six
relevant strategies more functionally than boys, which meant that
gender did play a role in the study, whereas the students' age was
found to be of no significance.
Following
a multilingual approach, Inez
De
Florio-Hansen
(Kassel, Germany) investigates the potential benefits which
translation studies can provide for foreign language methodology. In
the context of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR),
translation and interpretation were revalued to represent important
aspects of communicative competence whereas they had previously been
regarded as simple learning tools only. Although oral and written
mediation is gaining
increasing importance
in professional contexts, in language instruction, translation and
interpretation are mainly used in informal contexts. The
author hence proposes that advanced
language learners acquire basic skills in translation and
communication for their future professional lives. In this respect,
foreign language methodology may benefit from the definitions and
methodologies developed by translation studies. For this purpose, a
revised model of mediation competence is presented.
On
the basis of an applied linguistic approach, presented in German, Bok
Ja Cheon-Kostrzewa
and Frank
Kostrzewa
(both Karlsruhe, Germany), present a contrastive analysis of
conjunctions in Korean and German, deducing potential learning
difficulties of Korean learners who acquire the German conjunctional
system. The
authors point out that these
difficulties are predominantly occasioned by typological differences
in the two languages, with German conjunctions being used as
connectors and Korean conjunctions being added to the respective word
stems. The polyfunctionality of postverbal conjunctions represents
another source of learning difficulties. The authors illustrate their
reflections with a multitude of examples.
In
her purely linguistic article written in Spanish, Sara
Quintero Ramírez
(Guadalajara, México)
presents the finding of her study of three TV baseball emissions.
These live emissions are characterised by the fact that the reporters
are under time pressure, having to present the events of the game
almost in real time. Apart
from the mere description of events, the reporters are expected to
offer the audience their professional expertise by analysing and
comment the games. It is found that the reporters use a
considerable number of metaphors, metonymies, hyperboles and also
similes, whose usage is documented in the article in detail.
The
articles of this issue are complemented by a university report in
which Thomas
Tinnefeld
(Saarbrücken, Germany) reports the Second Saarbrücken Conference on
Foreign Language Teaching which took place from November 7th
to 9th,
2013, at Saarland University of Applied Sciences in Saarbrücken
(Germany). The conference featured the topic "Language Knowledge
and Language Skills - Prerequisites, Relativity, Methodology"
and comprised six sections covering linguistics, methodology,
languages for specific purposes, communication and interculturality,
Internet and multimedia, and product-oriented presentations. It
presented one keynote speech and hosted 52 section talks, many of
which were international ones, held by presenters from Europe,
America, Africa, and Asia. Around 130 participants who came from 23
countries attended the conference.
The
present issue of JLLT
is rounded off by four reviews on recently published books. Mikaela
Petkova-Kessanlis
(Sofia, Bulgaria) reviews a book on contrastive media analysis,
Magdalena Ziemba
(Czudec,
Poland) reports on a publication on standards of intercultural
competence for language teachers, Christine
Mathews
(Saarbrücken, Germany) evaluates a book on language teaching which
links linguistic theory with practice, and Veronica
Smith
(Klagenfurt, Austria) reviews the new edition of a very well-received
German grammar book.
As
usual, Editor and Editorial Board thank all the contributors and wish
the regular and new readers of JLLT
a pleasant read full of inspiration.
Thomas
Tinnefeld
JLLT
Editor