Model of the Development of Language Competences for Tourism

AbstractThe article describes a proposed concept and implementation of individual intensive personalized language courses, such as Course of Meetings and Guiding in Eco and Geotourism, for the students of Management of Tourism within the project of Interdisciplinary, information-cognitive, linguistic and modular development of study (IKLIM) run at the Faculty of Informatics and Management in Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic. The author explores aims, identification of participant's needs, content, study materials development, distribution of study materials and evaluation of the individual courses in compliance with the requirements of the Common European Reference Framework for languages and overall project goals. All these highly specialized courses are run in three different languages: English, German and Spanish

Syntactic-semantic Classification of Sentences

AbstractThe purpose of the paper is to focus on the analysis of compound and complex sentences in the abstract parts of scientific texts. Small-scale research includes 45 abstracts written in British English. The syntactic-semantic classification is based on Quirk (1985). The types of the compound and complex sentences are recorded by registering the conjunctions and other connectives occurring in them. The criterion for distinguishing the simple sentence from the compound and complex sentence is the number of finite verbs contained in a sentence. If the finite verbs share the same complement, they are regarded as one compound or complex sentence. Findings should be of interest to the writers of such documents and textbook writers

Making academic writing real with ICT

AbstractThe aim of the article is to explore the potential use of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) as a tool that supports and improves students’ skills of formal written English in the context of higher education. The article begins first by explaining how ICT is implemented in an optional course on academic writing taught at the Faculty of Informatics and Management in Hradec Kralove for 5 years already. Therefore, a short introduction to the concept of blended learning is mentioned. Furthermore, referring to the corresponding research literature, main pedagogy theories connected with the use of ICT are described, i.e. constructivism and activity theory. In addition to that, it shows how students’ newly acquired knowledge and skills of formal written English result in real electronic publishing. Finally, students’ end products of their half-semester effort are demonstrated and benefits of such work examined

Detecting the Development of Language Skills in Current English Language Teaching in the Czech Republic

AbstractThe current English language teaching (ELT) is based on the communicative principle whose aim is not only the acquisition of language knowledge but mainly the acquisition of the ability to make oneself understood in everyday situation. However, this communicative method should not be overestimated because there should be always a balance between the acquisition and learning of foreign language knowledge and skills so that pupils could achieve corresponding communicative competences. In addition, the four language skills should be integrated in ELT classes so that pupils could focus more on functional use of language. Therefore, the purpose of this article is firstly to evaluate the use of communicative method in present ELT; secondly, to explain the importance of communicative competences; thirdly, to explore whether all four language skills are well-balanced and/or whether some of these skills are more preferred in ELT in the Czech Republic or not; and finally, to propose methodological approaches to the successful development of the productive language skills

Analyzing Second Language Written Summaries at University Level

Objective: The objectives of the study are to identify and categorize non-native students´ errors in the written summaries, to see which research instruments – the mobile reading app (experimental group) or internet-based article (control group) are more effective, and to determine if language proficiency of students will improve. Methods: This study uses an analysis of linguistic-stylistic errors as a research method on the written performance of 29 EFL Slovak students in 29 written summaries. Findings: The findings indicate that the most problematic areas in writing summaries were grammatical (determiners), followed by stylistic (text coherence, slang words, and punctuation), lexical (word collocations), and lexico-stylistic errors (prepositions). Overall, students´ proficiency in both groups rose from B2 to C1 level by 38% of the students (11 students). Therefore, both methods – the reading app and internet-based articles are effective. Novelty: The novelty of the study consists in enriching the existing literature by pointing out errors of EFL Slovak students making in writing summaries by exploiting modern technology in the writing process. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2021-01322 Full Text: PD

Nitrendipine and Dementia: Forgotten Positive Facts?

Nowadays, there are about 50 million people suffering from dementia worldwide. In 2030, it is expected that there will be 82 million people living with dementia and in 2050, their number should reach 152 million. This increase in the number of people with dementia results in significant social and economic problems. Therefore, researchers attempt to reduce risk factors causing the development of dementia such as high blood pressure. Epidemiological studies have shown that hypertension increases the risk of dementia at an older age. It can, therefore, be assumed that hypertension therapy will reduce the risk of dementia. However, previous clinical studies have shown that the efficacy of different antihypertensive drugs differs in this respect. The drug group that appears to be the most effective in these analyses is calcium channel blockers (CCBs). The most significant preventive efficacy in terms of protection against dementia has been demonstrated with nitrendipine. Its use is, therefore, particularly advantageous in elderly patients with systolic hypertension who are at high risk of dementia. The purpose of this study is to restore the discussion on the prevention of vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s dementia with nitrendipine in indicated hypertonic patients. The authors performed a literature search of available sources describing the issue of dementia, hypertension and its treatment with nitrendipine. In addition, they made a comparison and evaluation of relevant findings. The results of the detected research studies indicate that nitrendipine is able to reduce the incidence of dementia [Alzheimer’s disease (AD), vascular and mixed] by 55%. The treatment of 1,000 patients with nitrendipine for 5 years may prevent 20 cases of dementia. However, what has not yet been explained is the temporal link between hypertension and dementia due to the long-time intervals between hypertension and the development of dementia

Basic Motions of Human Life and Innate Education

AbstractIn connection with the concept of the basic motions of human life according to Jan Patocka (a motion of acceptance, a motion of self-prolongation and a motion of self-understanding), solutions of the innate education, which is multiperspective, related to the innate human forces, and which overcomes common institutional education focused on successful life in technocratic and bureaucratic relations of Euro-American civilization, will be expressed. This concept of the innate education also contains a hope for future. Moreover, Rorty's approach is mentioned. This approach emphasizes an importance of solidarity, interpersonal reciprocity and tolerance, face-to-face to this rugged and chaotic world. The result of the article is a depiction of information and communication technologies and their role in the innate education

Learning a Foreign Language: A Review on Recent Findings About Its Effect on the Enhancement of Cognitive Functions Among Healthy Older Individuals

Currently, there is an increasing number of older population groups, especially in developed countries. This demographic trend, however, may cause serious problems, such as an increase in aging diseases, one of which is dementia whose main symptom consists in the decline of cognitive functioning. Although there has been ongoing pharmacological research on this neurological disorder, it has not brought satisfying results as far as its treatment is concerned. Therefore, governments all over the world are trying to develop alternative, non-pharmacological strategies/activities, which could help to prevent this cognitive decline while this aging population is still healthy in order to reduce future economic and social burden. One of the non-pharmacological approaches, which may enhance cognitive abilities and protect against the decline in healthy older population, seems to be the learning of a foreign language. The purpose of this mini-review article is to discuss recent findings about the effect of foreign language learning on the enhancement of cognitive functions among healthy older individuals. The findings, divided into three research areas, show that the learning of a foreign language may generate a lot of benefits for older individuals, such as enhancement of cognitive functioning, their self-esteem, increased opportunities of socializing, or reduction of costs. However, as Ware et al. (2017) indicate, any intervention program on foreign language learning should be well thought of and tailored to the needs of older people in order to be effective and avoid accompanying factors, such as older people’s anxiety or low self-confidence. Nevertheless, more empirical studies should be done in this area

Determinants Affecting the Use of the Internet by Older People

Objectives: The purpose of this study is to detect and analyze some factors which hinder or contribute to the positive use of the Internet by older people living in Central Europe, specifically in one region of the Czech Republic. Methods: The key method is a questionnaire whose results were processed by using a model of logistic regression. The research sample includes 432 seniors from senior houses, municipal ICT courses and the University of the Third Age, all coming from the region of Hradec Kralove in the Czech Republic. Findings: The findings of the proposed model confirmed that the key determinants in the Internet use by older people were age, previous experience with IT in their past occupation and active use of IT enhanced by some kind of training, in this case attending IT courses of the University of the Third Age. Education and gender have not proved to be significant determinants in this study. Novelty/ improvement: The introduced model of logistic regression enriches current literature on the subject by emphasizing the possible factors that influence the use of the Internet by seniors in the region. The survey also investigates which factors in comparison with each other act more and which less, and which factors are significant within the model and which are not. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2021-01317 Full Text: PD

PPI Long Term Use: Risk of Neurological Adverse Events?

The purpose of this review study is to reveal a potential threat of one type of such widely used and freely distributed drugs, which are proton pump inhibitors that might be the cause of the onset of both dementia and depression. The authors performed a literature review of available studies on the research topic describing the adverse effect of proton pum inhibitors (PPIs) (omeprazole, esomeprazole, lansoprazole, dexlansoprazole, rabeprazole, pantoprazole, dexrabeprazole, ilaprazole). For a long time, PPIs were considered to be completely safe drug substances for both short and long-term use. In recent years, there have been a few contradictory studis of absolute safety, especially in patients, who have long been using PPIs. At this time when depression and dementia are rising in the population, this is a very worrying fact that needs to be highlighted, and which needs to be carefully studied and evaluated, ideally trying to prevent it. The findings of most research studies described in this review indicate that there is a direct association between the onset of dementia and depression on one side and the long-term use of PPIs on the other