DSpace collection: 36 期 (2010)

Destroying Walls: A Strategy to Stimulate Intercultural Conversation Between East and Wes

Wed, 18 May 2011 04:01:16 GMT

title: Destroying Walls: A Strategy to Stimulate Intercultural Conversation Between East and Wes abstract: Problems of intercultural communication are an everyday occurrence in the increasingly globalizing world. Many people in Asia report a difficulty in chatting with westerners, despite having a good knowledge of grammar and a broad vocabulary. A strategy is proposed to make intercultural communicative acts less strained by: recognition of how deep the cultural divide is; assumptions from the philosophy of language; and a methodology from semiotics and cultural studies. The hermeneutical approach focuses on the work into illocutionary acts of J.L. Austin (1975), and speech acts by J. Searle (1969). Their analysis of communicative acts shows how shared conventions between the protagonists are essential for successful conversation. These shared conventions correlate with modern definitions of culture. By understanding Searle’s shared conventions as overlapping cultural identity and values a vehicle for overcoming the problem of cross-cultural conversation is identified. Once the problem and the solution are determined the analytical codes of semiotics and cultural studies are used to highlight and propose specific topics for successful conversation between east and west.

Figurative Language: Metaphor

Wed, 18 May 2011 04:01:15 GMT

title: Figurative Language: Metaphor abstract: This paper aims to demonstrate a number of main theories of metaphor used in identifying and analysing metaphorical expressions. The study provides a brief theoretical overview of the key metaphor models, with particular reference to those of substitution, comparison, interaction, categorization, cognition, and blending in an attempt to show a picture of metaphor. With a consideration of metaphor theory in a historical context and an evaluation of advantages and disadvantages of each metaphor theory, the paper hopes to provide a conceptual framework for people who are interested in metaphor.

The Whores that Shall be Dead: The Fluid Images and Predicament of Female Characters in Shakespeare’s Othell

Wed, 18 May 2011 04:01:14 GMT

title: The Whores that Shall be Dead: The Fluid Images and Predicament of Female Characters in Shakespeare’s Othell abstract: The paper aims to discuss the three female characters Desdemona, Emilia, and Bianca and their predicament under the accusation of whoredom in Othello. Although similarly accused of whordom, the three female characters display different characteristics and causes of “whoredom”. On the other hand, the three female characters similarly reveal the fact that the female image can be easily molded and twisted by males. Through the relationship between the male characters and females, this paper discusses the ambiguous images that Shakespeare creates for the three female characters and their frail female beings. Moreover, the paper also focuses on the male misogynic attitudes toward the three female characters and the relation between the misogyny and their tragic endings. Also, the theory of the Mirror Stage, its relation to the Other and desire are applied in the discussion of the female sexuality and the multiple images of each female characters that are presented. Finally, I’d also like to discuss that death for the three female characters represents not only the inevitable result of misogynistic hatred but also the ambiguous “whorish” image that they display.

Testing Focus on Form with Taiwanese College Students: A Study on the Acquisition of English Simple Past Tense Verbs

Wed, 18 May 2011 04:01:13 GMT

title: Testing Focus on Form with Taiwanese College Students: A Study on the Acquisition of English Simple Past Tense Verbs abstract: Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) has been popular and accepted almost universally in the late twentieth century (Richards & Rodgers, 2001). However, non-native language (L2) learners’ inaccurate output under CLT has been criticized (Celce-Murcia, Dörnyei, & Thurrell, 1997) and the demands for form-focused instruction have been called for accuracy, besides fluency, in L2 production (e.g., Doughty & Williams, 1998a; Ellis, 1993; Long, 1991; Williams, 1995). Accordingly, this study was to investigate the effectiveness of focus on form (FonF) instruction with an EFL reading and writing class at a technical university in southern Taiwan. A mixed methods research design was adopted to collect quantitative and qualitative data via a pretest, posttest, and questionnaire. Thirty-seven students participated in the current study of FonF instruction along with typographical input enhancement (Sharwood-Smith, 1993; White, 1998) and other FonF techniques. The results of the pretest and posttest show significant increase in gains, indicating that FonF instruction appears effective. In addition, the participants’ answers to Likert scale questions and short answers to open-ended questions reveal their positive perspectives of the FonF approach. Limitations of this research are pointed out; further studies are proposed; and pedagogical implications for EFL context are suggested.