Learning language, learning culture: Constructing Finnishness in adult learner textbooks

Learning a second language can be considered a primary example of what Berger and Luckmann call ‘secondary socialisation’. Through careful decisions concerning what to include and what to omit, textbooks have the power to direct what a beginner can and should say in their target language. Additionally, textbooks have the responsibility of representing the cultures that speak the language. Much of a language learner’s initial understanding of a national culture in its own language is dependent on the constructions of that culture in their learning resources. This article examines how two widely used series of Finnish language textbooks for adult learners construct ‘typical’ Finnishness and the implications of these constructions for contemporary debates about national identity. Through an application of a version of critical discourse analysis, we show that the hegemonic image of Finnishness conforms to the stereotype of a modern, advanced and nature-loving people. But the image is also middle-class, White and conventional (even conservative) in terms of gender equality and sexuality. We argue that the textbooks have a key role in creating an inclusive sense of the host culture and that this inclusiveness is an asset for language acquisition, although at the moment they fall short of this aim

Carbonate Assimilation at Merapi Volcano, Java, Indonesia: Insights from Crystal Isotope Stratigraphy

Recent basaltic andesite lavas from Merapi volcano contain abundant, complexly zoned, plagioclase phenocrysts, analysed here for their petrographic textures, major element composition and Sr isotope composition. Anorthite (An) content in individual crystals can vary by as much as 55 mol% (An40-95) across internal resorption surfaces with a negative correlation between high An mol% (>70), MgO wt% and FeO wt%. In situ Sr isotope analyses of zoned plagioclase phenocrysts show that the 87Sr/86Sr ratios of individual zones range from 0·70568 to 0·70627. The upper end of this range is notably more radiogenic than the host basaltic andesite whole-rocks (< 0·70574). Crystal zones with the highest An content have the highest 87Sr/86Sr values, requiring a source or melt with elevated radiogenic Sr, rich in Ca and with lower Mg and Fe. Recent Merapi eruptive rocks contain abundant xenoliths, including metamorphosed volcanoclastic sediment and carbonate country rock (calc-silicate skarns) analysed here for petrographic textures, mineralogy, major element composition and Sr isotope composition. The xenoliths contain extremely calcic plagioclase (up to An100) and have whole-rock 87Sr/86Sr ratios of 0·70584 to 0·70786. The presence of these xenoliths and their mineralogy and geochemistry, coupled with the 87Sr/86Sr ratios observed in different zones of individual phenocrysts, indicate that magma-crust interaction at Merapi is potentially more significant than previously thought, as numerous crystal cores in the phenocrysts appear to be inherited from a metamorphosed sedimentary crustal source. This has potentially significant consequences for geochemical mass-balance calculations, volatile saturation and flux and eruptive behaviour at Merapi and similar island arc volcanic systems elsewher

Winter 1979

Clubhouse Plants (page 3) Massachusetts Pesticide News (6) The Alsea Report on 2,4,5-T (8) Better Pest Control (10) Acid Rain: Something Else to Worry About? (11) UMass Turfgrass Research Update (13) 1979 Preemergence Crabgrass Control Tria

Scattering map for two black holes

We study the motion of light in the gravitational field of two Schwarzschild black holes, making the approximation that they are far apart, so that the motion of light rays in the neighborhood of one black hole can be considered to be the result of the action of each black hole separately. Using this approximation, the dynamics is reduced to a 2-dimensional map, which we study both numerically and analytically. The map is found to be chaotic, with a fractal basin boundary separating the possible outcomes of the orbits (escape or falling into one of the black holes). In the limit of large separation distances, the basin boundary becomes a self-similar Cantor set, and we find that the box-counting dimension decays slowly with the separation distance, following a logarithmic decay law.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, uses REVTE

Magma-Carbonate Interaction Processes and Associated CO2 Release at MerapiVolcano, Indonesia: Insights from Experimental Petrology

There is considerable evidence for continuing, late-stage interaction between the magmatic system at Merapi volcano, Indonesia, and local crustal carbonate (limestone). Calc-silicate xenoliths within Merapi basaltic-andesite eruptive rocks display textures indicative of intense interaction between magma and crustal carbonate, and Merapi feldspar phenocrysts frequently contain crustally contaminated cores and zones. To resolve the interaction processes between magma and limestone in detail we have performed a series of time-variable decarbonation experiments in silicate melt, at magmatic pressure and temperature, using a Merapi basaltic-andesite and local Javanese limestone as starting materials.We have used in situ analytical methods to determine the elemental and strontium isotope composition of the experimental products and to trace the textural, chemical, and isotopic evolution of carbonate assimilation. The major processes of magma^carbonate interaction identified are: (1) rapid decomposition and degassing of carbonate; (2) generation of a Ca-enriched, highly radiogenic strontium contaminant melt, distinct from the starting material composition; (3) intense CO2 vesiculation, particularly within the contaminated zones; (4) physical mingling between the contaminated and unaffected melt domains; (5) chemical mixing between melts. The experiments reproduce many of the features of magma^carbonate interaction observed in the natural Merapi xenoliths and feldspar phenocrysts. The Ca-rich, high 87Sr/86Sr contaminant melt produced in the experiments is considered as a precursor to the Ca-rich (often ‘hyper-calcic’) phases found in the xenoliths and the contaminated zones inMerapi feldspars.The xenoliths also exhibit micro-vesicular textures that can be linked to the CO2 liberation process seen in the experiments.This study, therefore, provides well-constrained petrological insights into the problem of crustal interaction at Merapi and points toward the substantial impact of such interaction on the volatile budget of the volcano

Dissipative chaotic scattering

We show that weak dissipation, typical in realistic situations, can have a metamorphic consequence on nonhyperbolic chaotic scattering in the sense that the physically important particle-decay law is altered, no matter how small the amount of dissipation. As a result, the previous conclusion about the unity of the fractal dimension of the set of singularities in scattering functions, a major claim about nonhyperbolic chaotic scattering, may not be observable.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, revte

The 2011 submarine volcanic eruption in El Hierro (Canary Islands)

Forty years after the Teneguía Volcano (La Palma, 1971), a submarine eruption took place off the town of La Restinga, south of El Hierro, the smallest and youngest island of the Canarian Archipelago. Precursors allowed an early detection of the event and its approximate location, suggesting it was submarine. Uncertainties derived from insufficient scientific information available to the authorities during the eruption, leading to disproportionate civil protection measures, which had an impact on the island's economy-based primarily on tourism-while residents experienced extra fear and distress. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, The Geologists' Association & The Geological Society of London.Peer Reviewe

Diffusion in normal and critical transient chaos

In this paper we investigate deterministic diffusion in systems which are spatially extended in certain directions but are restricted in size and open in other directions, consequently particles can escape. We introduce besides the diffusion coefficient D on the chaotic repeller a coefficient ${\hat D}$ which measures the broadening of the distribution of trajectories during the transient chaotic motion. Both coefficients are explicitly computed for one-dimensional models, and they are found to be different in most cases. We show furthermore that a jump develops in both of the coefficients for most of the initial distributions when we approach the critical borderline where the escape rate equals the Liapunov exponent of a periodic orbit.Comment: 4 pages Revtex file in twocolumn format with 2 included postscript figure

The 2011 submarine volcanic eruption in El Hierro (Canary Islands)

Forty years after the Teneguía Volcano (La Palma, 1971), a submarine eruption took place off the town of La Restinga, south of El Hierro, the smallest and youngest island of the Canarian Archipelago. Precursors allowed an early detection of the event and its approximate location, suggesting it was submarine. Uncertainties derived from insufficient scientific information available to the authorities during the eruption, leading to disproportionate civil protection measures, which had an impact on the island's economy-based primarily on tourism-while residents experienced extra fear and distress. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd, The Geologists' Association & The Geological Society of London.Peer Reviewe