‘Only Brooks of Sheffield’: conversation, crossover writing, and child and adult perspectives in David Copperfield and its juvenile adaptations

This article examines the role that conversations between children and adults play in Charles Dickens’s David Copperfield (1850), and late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century adaptations of it for a child audience. First, I show conversation as an important vector in Dickens’s exploration of child and adult knowledge in the original novel. The rules of conversation are suspended in mixed-age companies, as is most powerfully expressed in my titular example: an adult joke turning on the child David’s non-comprehension of a remark by Mr Murdstone. Nonetheless, other conversations show sensitive adults mitigating power differentials between child and adult, and present the child David as unusually perspicacious (in line with his overall characterization). Second, I turn to juvenile adaptations of David Copperfield by writers including Dickens’s granddaughter Mary Angela Dickens. I argue that these works minimize not just the number of conversations in direct speech, but also the process by which David makes conversational inferences; the (now third-person) narrator often fills conversational gaps for the child reader. In the final section, I argue that the relative unimportance of conversation in the adaptations, as opposed to Dickens’s novel, cannot be attributed to concerns with suitability or intelligibility alone. Instead, Dickens’s preoccupation with conversations between adults and children relates to David Copperfield’s original status as a crossover or cross-written text that would have been read by a mixed-age audience. Once this dual address is removed in the adaptations, age-levelled knowledge positions are of much less concern. As such, conversation in David Copperfield metaphorizes the labour (and ethical responsibilities) of the cross-writer

Use of an agile bridge in the development of assistive technology

Engaging with end users in the development of assistive technologies remains one of the major challenges for researchers and developers in the field of accessibility and HCI. Developing usable software systems for people with complex disabilities is problematic, software developers are wary of using user-centred design, one of the main methods by which usability can be improved, due to concerns about how best to work with adults with complex disabilities, in particular Severe Speech and Physical Impairments (SSPI) and how to involve them in research. This paper reports on how the adoption of an adapted agile approach involving the incorporation of a user advocate on the research team helped in meeting this challenge in one software project and offers suggestions for how this could be used by other development teams

Identity performance in a TESOL classroom

Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00

ENCOURAGING CHILDREN IN LEARNING ENGLISH COMMUNICATIVELY BY USING SOME FUN ACTIVITIES IN THE CLASSROOM

This paper is talking about the interesting and fun way in teaching children as the young learner in English. It refers to an approach that is called the functional approach that focusesin the method of communicative language teaching. In this method children are not onlytaught English structurally, but also the communicative aspect of learning English for secondlanguage. By using this method it is really hoped that the children will not only learningEnglish and practicing in the classroom. Later, the children are asked to practice theirEnglish in real life situation, therefore, the material and the atmosphere of teaching andlearning English must be fun and bring the children as if they face it in the real life. So, theEnglish teacher must give some task and activities that support this method, it can be in theform of games, role play, projects, and telling stories

'Things ain’t what they used to be’: Marvin Gaye and the making of “What’s Going On”

Born 1939 in Washington, D.C, Marvin Pentz Gay Jnr (who later added the “e” to his name) was one of four born to a mother he remained devoted to throughout his life and a father whose cross-dressing tendencies he reportedly found both humiliating and confusing. A minister for a small Hebrew Pentecostal sect, according to his daughter, Marvin Gay Snr. was not one to “spare the rod” when it came to his children. Violence coursed through Gaye’s life (in a BBC Radio 2 documentary to commemorate the 40th anniversary of What’s Going On, Gaye also alluded to frequent scuffles with Motown boss Berry Gordy), culminating in his violent death at the hands of his father in 1984

Sensitizing a Gifted Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder towards Social Cognition: From Assessment to Treatment

Social cognition difficulties are well documented in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This clinical case study reports on social cognition assessment and treatment of a gifted child, SC (9 years), with ASD and an extraordinarily high verbal IQ (146). The assessment of theory of mind, emotion recognition and pragmatic abilities showed some weaknesses in these areas. The 4- month treatment was divided into 14 sessions and was aimed at helping SC to improve his abilities to recognize emotions and comprehend mental states. The main technique used in the intervention was “social reading” with video clips. The initial assessment was repeated after the treatment and in a follow up session. The results of this case study suggest that “social reading” can be considered as a beneficial technique for children with high-functioning ASD, and especially in giftedness conditions

Mobile Informal Language Learning: Exploring Welsh Learners’ Practices

Mobile devices have great potential in supporting language learning, through providing access to vocabulary, lessons and resources, and supporting interactions with other speakers. There may be particular advantages, however, in using such technologies for learning minority languages. Welsh is a minority UK language spoken by around 611,000 people in Wales and there is considerable interest among adults in Wales and from Welsh families in learning Welsh. However the small numbers of speakers and their uneven distribution make it difficult for learners outside Welsh speaking “hotspots” to hear and practice Welsh. Mobile learning therefore has great potential for Welsh learners by providing resources wherever the learner is and by supporting web-based learning communities. The study reported here investigates whether this potential is being exploited in practice. It employed interviews and a small survey to study the practices of Welsh learners at all levels. It was found that learners used mobile technologies widely, to access a wide range of resources, although not always on-the-move, and also that many were using courses, in particular one online course. Learners’ practices in using digital technologies for their Welsh language learning are discussed, and also the implications for both learning other minority languages and for informal mobile learning more generally

Interpreting in Palliative Care: A Continuing Education Workshop

Offers a curriculum for a daylong course for interpreters about palliative care, including lesson plans, handouts, presentation slides, and videos