Colloquia - British Association for Applied Linguistics

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BAAL Conference 2004 37 th Annual BAAL Meeting children. Analysis is done of how these language elements facilitate the parents‟ enculturation. Through children the parents may get to know more about the language itself. On the other hand, the study seems to suggest how language helps new immigrants acculturate themselves to the mainstream society even when their English is proficient enough to work professionally in the UK. More importantly, the study is intended to draw implications for the second or foreign language education. Re-thinking the grammar of spoken and written English Prof Susan Hunston Centre for English Language Studies, University of Birmingham s.e.hunston@bham.ac.uk In recent years there has been a considerable amount of interest in exploring the differences in grammar between written and spoken English, much of this using contrasting corpora of the two modes. Work has been done by, among others, Halliday (e.g. 1985), Carter and McCarthy (e.g. 1995), and Biber et al (1999). Whilst all the observations made by these researchers are pertinent, the implications for teachers are not always clear, and their relevance has been challenged (Cook 1998). This paper will propose that the results of research into spoken and written English can usefully be regarded as belonging to three categories: a) differences in quantity, proportion and probability. The preference in written language for nouns and in spoken language for pronouns belongs to this category. b) differences in acceptability in spoken and written English. The prevalence in spoken language of utterances consisting solely of a subordinate or relative clause, which in written English would be considered to be incomplete, belongs to this category. c) features of spoken English which do not constitute a different grammatical system but which are the result of processing constraints. False starts and grammatical blends belong to this category. The paper suggests that the term 'grammar' has a different meaning when applied to each of these categories. Furthermore, each category has different implications for the teacher of English. This needs to be taken into account when proposing that language teaching materials incorporate research findings of this kind. References Biber D., Johansson S., Leech G., Conrad S. and Finegan E. (1999). Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman. Carter R. and McCarthy M. (1995). 'Grammar and the spoken language' Applied Linguistics 16: 141- 158. Cook G. (1998). 'The uses of reality: a reply to Ronald Carter' ELTJ 52: 57-64. Halliday M.A.K. (1985). Spoken and Written Language. Geelong, Vic.: Deakin University Press. Republished 1989. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Graduates' gratitude: the structure of dissertation acknowledgements Dr Ken Hyland School of Culture, Language and Communication, Institute of Education, University of London k.hyland@ioe.ac.uk The neglect of acknowledgements in the EAP literature is perhaps surprising given their importance in the scholarly communication process. While unrelated to the important academic goals of establishing claims and reputations, the significance of this optional genre is confirmed by its widespread use and the role it plays in the academic practice of reciprocal gift giving. Acknowledgements are almost universal in dissertation writing where they provide writers with a unique rhetorical opportunity not only to convey their genuine gratitude for the intellectual and personal assistance they have received in completing their research, but also to promote a competent scholarly identity by displaying their immersion in scholarly networks, their active disciplinary membership, and their observance of the valued academic ideals of modesty, gratitude and appropriate self-effacement. This paper discusses the importance of this genre and examines its generic structure and key features based on interviews with students and the analysis of the acknowledgments accompanying 240 PhD and MA dissertations written by Non-Native speakers of English in a variety of disciplines at five Hong Kong universities. The analysis reveals a three move pattern which is mediated by disciplinary preferences and strategic career choices, reflecting one way in which way postgraduate writing represents a situated activity. It helps reveal how acknowledgements are sophisticated and textual constructs which bridge the personal and the public and allow writers to present themselves as enmeshed in a network of academic and social relationships. King‟s College, London 9 – 11 th - 14 - September, 2004
BAAL Conference 2004 37 th Annual BAAL Meeting Sojourners in cultures: interpreters in the political asylum process Moira Inghilleri Department of English and Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths College ens01mi@gold.ac.uk In the past decade, throughout Europe, the issue of immigration has remained amongst the highest of priorities for government policy and in popular opinion, extending from national concerns about border controls and quotas to more local reactions to changing communities. One of the most politically charged areas of immigration at the present time centers on the rights of refugee and asylum seekers fleeing persecution, many from within Europe itself. This paper will consider how asylum seekers in the U.K. communicate their right to be granted asylum in their accounts of persecution presented in interpreted appeal hearings. Based on on-going ethnographic research into interpreted asylum interviews, the paper will discuss the observable patterns evident with respect to the cultural arguments made for or against the credibility of an asylum claim and consider the potential impact of the interpreter within the exchange. It will consider the view, frequently appealed to in interpreting studies, that interpreters act as cultural intermediaries, occupying an effectively neutral space between different cultural/linguistic practices. This trope of inbetween suggests that the 'intercultural spaces' in which interpreters are located are ideological voids, with the interpreter as the channel that enables the two sides to discursively 'connect'. This paper will consider an alternative view. It will theorise the space between as an inherently heterogeneous and hybrid place where cultures and meanings overlap. It will argue that, in the asylum hearing, any cultural explanations presented on behalf of an asylum applicant's claim, as well as their acceptance or refutation by the judiciary, must be viewed within the context of the asylum system within which they serve a particular individual, social and/or political agenda. Polish Agritourism: Bilingualism and New Internationalities Adam Jaworski and Sarah Lawson Centre for Language and Communication Research, Cardiff University jaworski@cardiff.ac.uk lawsons@cardiff.ac.uk This paper examines discourses surrounding Polish agritourism within the framework of the expanding European Union and Eastern Europe's shift to market economy. Our data come from seven semistructured interviews with Polish agritourism 'farmers' conducted in 2001 and 2002 to unravel the tension between the global positioning of tourism in general, and the largely local consumption of Polish agritourism. Our interview protocol included questions on contacts with foreign visitors, hosts' ability to speak foreign languages, and hosts' views on the desirability of Poland joining the EU. At the time of the interviews the issue of Polish accession to the EU was hotly debated in public and private domains. Although the 2004 referendum delivered a 'yes' verdict, the majority of the Euro-sceptics tended to be rural, relatively less well-educated and older, in contrast to the urban, better-educated and younger Euro-enthusiasts. It was thus expected that the interviewees who run agritourism businesses and continue to make a living as farmers would be more apprehensive about Polish accession to the EU than those who have converted their farms solely for the purpose of running holiday businesses. The interviews confirm these general demographic patterns of Euro-sceptics and Euro-enthusiasts. Furthermore, the subjectivities of agritourism farm operators seem to be affected rather significantly by the types of interactions they enter with their paying guests. We demonstrate that Polish agritourism farmers' identities undergo change when their businesses expand from catering mostly for Polish tourists to hosting foreign tourists and becoming bilingual. We also suggest that the 'new' international identities of the operators running Polish agritourism businesses embracing cross- European differences may be a contributing factor to their increasing bilingualism. This is in contrast to the more traditional, 'old' nationals, whose primary point of reference lies in their indexing their sameness with other Poles and remaining monolingual speakers of Polish. Interestingly, both Eurosceptics and Euro-enthusiasts, or 'new' internationals and 'old' nationals, invoke Polishness as a central point of reference in discussing 'Europe' (cf. Wodak et al., 1999 for a related discussion in the case of Austria). Reference Wodak, Ruth, Rudolf de Cillia, Martin Reisigl and Karin Liebhart. (1999). The Discursive Construction of National Identity. Translated by Angelika Hirsch and Richard Mitten. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. King‟s College, London 9 – 11 th - 15 - September, 2004
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