Social education through the lens of Bakhtinian theory

A review of Bakhtin in the Fullness of Time: Bakhtinian Theory and the Process of Social Education, Edited by Craig Brandist, Michael E. Gardiner, E. Jayne White and Carl Mika. L.: Routledge. 2020. 160 p. The review of the collection of articles Bakhtin in the Fullness of Time: Bakhtinian Theory and the Process of Social Education represents an analysis of the perspectives, main trends, and interpretations of key points, ideas, and concepts of M. M. Bakhtin in the contemporary theory and practice of Social Education. The book’s nine chapters are grouped within three problem areas, researched by the book’s contributors. This is, in the first place, a re-establishment of those philosophical and sociological sources that trace back to the roots of Bakhtin’s early views that had defined the nature of his responses to the challenges of his time in his early philosophical texts, books about Dostoevsky and books about bildungsroman. Another field of examination is Bakhtin's late dialogue with his contemporaries. Sometimes this dialogue is active and obvious, as it happens in the situation with the latest aesthetic and literary trends in Russia at the beginning of the 1920s. Sometimes this dialogue turns out to be ambiguous, therefore researchers can only guess how to reconstruct it, basing their views on the complementarity of Bakhtin’s ideas and Lev Vygotsky or Paulo Freire’s ones. An equally important aspect of this collection is a number of articles devoted to how Bakhtin's theory is transformed into "classroom practice", whether it concerns the use of dialogue and its capabilities in interaction with foreigners, providing educational opportunities to the most economically vulnerable segments of South African society, or communication with preschoolers in kindergarten. The authors of the book managed to create a convincing picture of how Bakhtinian theory is becoming one of the most important elements of contemporary theory and practice of education. At the same time, not only Bakhtinian ideas, primarily the concepts of dialogue, polyphony, carnival, and chronotope, are important, but also that free polyphony, which puts into effect any creative practice

Problems of social-psychological adaptation of students of the first course for university (on the example of the students URFU them B.N.Eltsin)

Актуальность темы исследования обусловлена обострившимся противоречием между потребностью общества и государства в высоком качестве высшего профессионального образования и недостаточной готовностью абитуриентов, потупивших в ВУЗ. Для эффективного обучения, студенту необходимо чувствовать себя комфортно в среде вузовского образования.Topicality of the research is determined by the sharpened by the contrast between the demand of the society and state in high quality higher education and insufficient preparedness of the applicants admitted to the UNIVERSITY to study in the new conditions of interaction with educational environment Of the University. But, as is known, for effective learning, students need to feel comfortable in the new environment, in environment of higher education

The development of gluten - free sourdough bread technology with rowan powder

ArticleA new form of technology was developed which focussed on gluten - free bread with gluten - free sourdough and rowan powder (from the botanical species Sorbus aucuparia ). This new form of technology allows organoleptic characteristics to be improved, along wit h structure, texture, microbial spoilage resistance, and the shelf life of gluten - free bread. The gluten - free dry microbial composition with lactic acid bacteria was developed as a starter for sourdough. The lactic acid bacteria, L. brevis E38 , was experim entally selected for dry microbial composition on the basis of its antagonistic activity against ropy bread disease pathogens ( B. subtilis and B. licheniformis ). The dependence was revealed of the accumulation of acetic acid and lactic acid in the sourdoug h on the microbial composition during fermentation. A gluten - free sourdough technology was developed which involved a new starter, rice, and soy flour at a ratio of 0.2:2:1. It was shown that the use of soy protein slows down the fermentation process in th e sourdough. An increase – in acidity levels of between 7.5 – 9.5 times higher in the dough with sourdough and rowan powder when compared to dough without sourdough. Sourdough usage allowed compressibility of the crumb to be increased by between 1.8 – 2 times, with a specific volume of 19.0% and a porosity of 9.8% and 11.5%, and for the sensory characteristics to be improved as perceived by consumers. It was proved that microbial composition with a lactic acid bacteria, L. brevis E38 , inhibits ropy disease and mould development in bread. The results of the present study showed that the addition of sourdough and rowan powder can be used to improve the quality of gluten - free bread

Digital platforms for regional economic research: a review and methodology proposal

Relevance. This article addresses the need for a comprehensive approach to the analysis of socio-economic data on territorial units. The existing statistical observation system provides a vast amount of data on the socio-economic development of countries, macro-regions, sub-regions, and municipalities. Despite the wealth of data available, research efforts often remain narrowly focused on specific scientific tasks. In the field of regional economy, many research methods have been developed, but there are almost no approaches to the combined use of these methods. Digital research platforms can solve these problems by providing a mechanism for complex analysis of data.Research objective. This study aims is to examine the essence of platformization in scientific research and to present a detailed overview of the functionality of existing digital research platforms on regional and spatial development to substantiate the methodology of distributed regional research. The authors examine and systematize the features of 40 digital platforms worldwide that are related to regional research, using methods such as comparative analysis, extended case method, and cross-case analysis.Data and methods. The authors examine and systematize the features of 40 digital platforms worldwide that are related to regional research by using methods such as comparative analysis, extended case method, and cross-case analysis.Results. The proposed methodology includes a system of criteria and a typology that includes five main types of platforms for regional research: information and communication platforms, distributed work and data storage platforms, service platforms, computing platforms, and transaction platforms. These types are described and their advantages and disadvantages are highlighted.Conclusions. Digital platforms should become the key form of organizing scientific research in the field of regional economics, as they allow for a comprehensive analysis of socio-economic data and scenario experiments on the "digital twins" of regions. The study proposes a general methodology for conducting distributed regional studies. This methodology provided a foundation for RegScienceGRID platform. Overall, this study highlights the potential of digital research platforms in regional studies and provides a useful methodology for evaluating and utilizing these platforms

Multimodal аnalysis in genre studies: Semiotics of the tourist booklet

The paper discusses the complex genre of tourist booklet as a fixed type of multimodal text that serves in a communicative situation of promoting a tourist product. This genre is a semiotically complex phenomenon, which conveys information through different semiotic systems. The methodological issues are posed as to a perspective model of genre analysis that would take into account the multimodal nature of genres. The author points to major hindrances that an analyst faces when doing multimodal analysis. The study focuses on discovering mechanisms of the interplay between verbal and visual components on semantic and formal levels, as well as showing how the elements of multimodal analysis can be targeted at various genre parameters. The booklets (85 items) for the study were collected in 2007–2019 in Australia, Great Britain, Germany, Poland, Russia and other countries. Methodologically, the paper draws on speech genre theory, semiotics, critical discourse analysis, and multimodal analysis. The claims are advanced that the tourist booklet has both obligatory and optional features, the visual component being obligatory. It is revealed that the colours of visuals can have factual and modal meanings embedded in them; photos convey precedent meanings; while using different semiotic codes, visual and verbal elements join the convergence relations and, thus, provide for genre coherence. The complex genre includes intertextual links between genres in its structure. These links may be of cross-code nature, since they are established between the elements of different semiotic systems, verbal and non-verbal. The conclusion is drawn that a consistent analytical model for multimodal genres has to be designed

Ken Hirschkop’s “new Bakhtin” for the English-speaking students

A review of Hirschkop K. The Cambridge Introduction to Mikhail Bakhtin. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2021.  xvi, 250 p. (Cambridge Introductions to Literature). Speaking today about the importance of Mikhail Bakhtin's ideas for the humanities is restating the obvious. The book by the renowned Canadian literary and cultural studies scholar Professor K. Hirschkop, The Cambridge Introduction to Mikhail Bakhtin (2021), aims at a systematic description of M.M. Bakhtin's scholarly legacy for the English-speaking reader, primarily for students. In our view, in this edition, the author solves both the traditional tasks of a textbook-reference book, written in the genre of "Introduction," and the research tasks. The Russian thinker's theory and practice analysis is presented based on the texts of his Collected Works, which, according to Hirschkop, form an image of a "new" Bakhtin. The tried and tested scheme of the Cambridge Introduction enables the author to draw a concise sketch of the scholar's life, outline the main sources and contexts of his scholarly quest, analyze key ideas and works, and describe the process of Bakhtin’s reception in the English-speaking world

Metapragmatics of Administering Justice in Russian and English Judicial Discourse

This paper is intended as a contribution to a body of research on metapragmatics in courtroom settings, particularly in Russian and English judicial discourse, and presents the results of functional analysis of metapragmatic elements. In the article, I claim that meta-utterances are inherent in judicial discourse and perform specific functions that are essential for practising judicial power and discretion in court as well as administering justice. The paper discusses functions of meta-utterances as they are presented in recent scholarship and offers a three-group classification of metapragmatic elements in judicial discourse, according to the types of reality distinguished in (Gibbons 2003). The first group contributes to constructing the primary reality, i.e. the reality of the courtroom; the second group assists in framing the secondary reality, i.e. the reality of the crime or misdemeanor; the third group deals with framing the legal reality. Altogether, these groups of metapragmatic elements construct an organizational frame for the trial. Data for the analysis are drawn from a few trial transcripts of modern Russian and English cases (1998-2008). By using Russian and English data for the analysis, it is demonstrated that the principal functions of judicial meta-utterances are marked by parallelism in Russian and English, while minor differences discovered are related to some other pragmatic categories, e.g. politeness, that are more nationally and culturally specific

The Tourist Booklet as a Genre of Professional Discourse: Interaction with the Customer

This paper discusses touristic communication practices, specifically the tourist booklets as a genre of professional discourse. Using the framework that is informed by discourse analysis, multimodal discourse analysis, genre studies and professional discourse studies, the author views a tourist booklet as a complex multimodal genre and sets the goal to reveal how booklets construct interaction between professional agents and non-professional customers. Using a set of tourist (predominantly English language) booklets collected in 2005-2019 around the world, the author discovers professional agents seeking to strike a balance between their image as experts in tourism and the need to construct rapport with the customers. These goals are achieved through the employment of various strategies, which are implemented through a range of linguistic and visual techniques. The validity of the professional image relies on such discursive mechanisms as providing expert knowledge on the touristic objects and services, explicit indications of expertise, presentations of professional agents as law-abiding and formally recognised businesses, and references to socially important values. The meanings evoked by the linguistic resources are reinforced visually. To mitigate the asymmetry of sta-tuses, rapport with the customers is developed by means of offering biographies and interviews with the company representatives, the demonstration of attention to the customer, the construction of common emotional space, and the conversational style strategy. The customer is also involved in cognitively entertaining or challenging activities. Thus, the study shows that professional-to-layperson communication is a multi-faceted phenomenon, whose complexity is predetermined by the combination of various intentions and multimodal resources that help implement these intentions discursively. © Tatiana V. Dubrovskaya 2021.The study is supported by Russian Science Foundation, Project No. 20-68-46003 ‘The Semantics of Unity and Animosity in Russian Lexis and Phraseology: Language System and Discourse’