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ISSN 1556-6757 |
SJI |
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| Volume
1, Issue 1, 2007 |
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Can Written
Second Language Grammar Improve Without Explicit Instruction?
Julie Whitlow
Abstract
This study
provides evidence that extensive reading and writing improves accurate
use of verbs in second language writing without explicit grammatical
instruction or focus on form. Over the course of a 15-week semester, 19
college-level ESL writers from varying language backgrounds
significantly reduced verb-use errors without explicit grammatical
instruction. This contradicts many prior studies that assert that
“form-focused” instruction is necessary to ensure grammatical accuracy.
Many of these studies provide questionable results, however, as they do
not gather longitudinal data; they do not use spontaneously produced
language to document effects of input and output; and they employ
special methods, instructors, tasks, and equipment to the learners. As
this study does present limited quantifiable evidence that naturalistic
language data does result in improved syntactic form in second language
learners, further investigation is necessary to understand the classroom
practices that best lead to the long-term mastery of second language
structures.
Full Article
Sartre and Camus:
Nausea and Existentialist Humor
Richard
E. Baker
Abstract
This essay
examines Jean-Paul Sartre’s notion of the absurd, first in his
philosophy and then in his novel Nausea, in relation to Albert
Camus’s seminal work The Myth of Sisyphus. After basic links are
made to three layers of the absurd—the in-itself and for-itself; the
past, present, and future; and facticity and transcendence—a historical
perspective is given in terms of Sartre and Camus’s personal history.
This history centers on their famous quarrel in 1952, and connections
will be made to show that Sartre will take on certain characteristics
apropos of the character Anny in Nausea whereas Camus will do the same
in regard to the character of Roquentin. This comic analogy will
circumscribe a basic tenet of existentialist humor—historical
irony—which links to Sartre’s discussion in Nausea of the absurd, bad
faith, vaudeville (an historical form of absurd humor), nausea,
adventures, and creativity. The powerful and distinctive shape of these
two men’s literature and their lives certainly exemplifies and
reinforces this basic tenet.
Full Article
Abstract
This paper explores the
notion of homosocial space in the Victorian Era as it pertains to
canonicity issues in literature. Homosocial space simply means that
space which men set aside, such as in men.s-only clubs or situations
such as the relationship of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, in which
women play a limited role, if at all. Yet, this notion of men-only
spaces created problems for the works vying to become canonical literature.not because of
the exclusion of women, but for the ambivalence felt toward this
separation of the sexes. Underlying this ambivalence is a fear of
homosexuality; yet, these spaces also violate Matthew Arnold.s and Thomas
Carlyle.s views toward industry. Often, the men in these novels fail to
act, whether
heroically or
artistically. Matthew Arnold.s works .The Function of Criticism at the
Present Time. and .The Study of Poetry. usefully navigate the trail
toward canonicity, at least for the Victorian Era. Using Arnold.s notion
and the prevailing social attitudes toward masculinity and enterprise,
this paper examines the problems of canonicity for Oscar Wilde.s
The Portrait of
Dorian Gray, E.M. Forster.s Maurice, and John
Buchan.s
The Thirty-Nine Steps.
Full Article
Brian G. Kennelly
Abstract
How to
engage students to reread Arthur Rimbaud’s 1886 poem “Mouvement”
differently? What can they learn about the poem and in the process about
themselves as readers of literature through its various versions and
English language translations? Might rereading for difference hold
pedagogical promise? How might a comparative study of the poem’s various
versions in French and in English translation favor active reading and
help students embrace the poem as differently meaningful because of its
modernity?
Full Article
Hashim
H. Noor
Abstract
By approaching syntactic processing
through the Competition Model research paradigm, the present study
examines how Arab university students assign the subject to the sentence
of their mother-tongue (Arabic). Overall, bilingual Ss displayed better
performance as compared to their monolingual peers. Although, there were
no significant effects for word order, other significant effects such as
animacy have shown up primarily in NVN sentences in the performance of
the bilingual Ss. When the two sentences have animate nouns, our
bilingual Ss scored significantly higher on both VNN and NNV. This
result shows that bilingual Ss used the benefit of their knowledge of
the L2 to better process these sentences. The bilingual Ss showed more
preference only for N1 subjective in VNN than did the monolingual group,
when we speak about case ending factor.
Full Article
Abstract
This study compares the morpho-syntactic
properties of the reciprocal and associative markers in Shona, against a
background of the reciprocal and associative markers in Bantu. The study
goes beyond previous studies both in Shona (e.g., Fortune 1982), and in
Bantu (e.g., Kimenyi 1980) by making a comparison of the reciprocal and
associative. The goal is to contribute to a better understanding of the
reciprocal and the associative and to language typology. The study
concludes that the reciprocal and associative markers are:
(i) in complementary distribution; (ii) closely related semantically;
(iii) have the same grammatical functions; (iv) have different
distributional properties.
Full Article
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