Lithuanian Translation of the Discourse Marker And in Social Media Texts

Purpose: Discourse markers spark the attention of many linguists and researchers, so linguistics applies computer science in order to study and understand discourse marker use. The problem with discourse markers is their possible ambiguity and polysemy, as the same discourse marker can perform distinctive functions and express different types of discourse interfaces (Sweetser, 2002; Aijmer, 2002; Zufferey & Degand, 2017). Therefore, this research exhibits that and is not only used solely for connecting idea units, but also expresses conditional, causal, temporal, and other types of discourse relations. The aim of the research is examine the translation of the discourse marker and from English to Lithuanian language in TED-ELH parallel corpus. To achieve the research aim, the following objectives are set: identify sentences with and in TED-ELH parallel corpus; manually annotate sentences with and in English and in Lithuanian, and indicate instances where they are used as a stand-alone marker or in a group of multiple discourse markers; and analyze how discourse marker is used in the source language and target language

Processing Multi-Word Discourse Markers in Translation: English to Hebrew and Lithuanian

Purpose: It has been proved that multi-word expressions are of key importance in language generation and processing. They also could perform a function of discourse organization, and certain multi-word expressions operate as discourse markers. The purpose of the current research is to examine multi-word expressions used as discourse markers in TED talk English transcripts and compare them with their counterparts in their Lithuanian and Hebrew translations, identifying if English multi-word expressions used as discourse markers in social media texts remain multi-word expressions in Lithuanian and Hebrew translation and searching for reasons for the changes of discourse markers in translation. We follow the research question of how English multiword discourse markers are processed in Hebrew and Lithuanian translation

DIAL4U: Digital Pedagogy to Develop Autonomy, Mediate and Certify Lifewide and Lifelong Language Learning for (European) Universities

Purpose: This presentation will introduce the advances of the work performed by seven European Universities jointly involved in the DIAL4U project, funded under Erasmus+ KA2: Strategic Partnership. The COVID-19 crisis and the unplanned shift to online content have exposed the gap in digital technologies to fully support high-quality and inclusive education facilitating creative and collaborative student-centered learning. The informal language learning validation and recognition process investigated in the DIAL4U project tackles this gap, as the informal learning question is intrinsically linked to the digital transition: many informal language-learning practices are digital, and their successful articulation to formal learning and recognition will be improved with digital tools

Mokymasis bendradarbiaujant dalykinės užsienio kalbos mokymo kontekste

Teaching ESP (English for Specific Purposes) or professional language is essential at the university level. It focuses on the language largely specific to a subject and contains context-bound items used by learners in the classroom to express and understand curricular concepts. However, researchers continue to provide evidence showing that eventually productive language skills (speaking and writing) and comprehension skills (reading and listening) are not all mastered equally in ESP classroom. Sometimes students may not have enough chances to initiate a conversation in the classroom setting. A cooperative approach might seem to be the solution that enables enhancement of interaction and communication. Interaction in the classroom influences academic, cognitive and social development of students. Participation in group discussion provides students with opportunities to use content based language in a meaningful context. Through discussion and negotiation they have a chance to paraphrase and explain the key concepts which aid in their learning. Students also relate the newly received information with acquired information. Group discussions enhance the cognition processes through thought provoking and challenging exchange of ideas. Students have to react immediately, shape ideas in their cognition processes. In addition, group work helps to increase motivation while creating real life situations where opinions are shared and shaped. In the process of group dynamics students focus on peer interaction, learning social skills (active listening, giving opinions, encouragement, etc.) which shapes their interaction with the teacher as well. To sum up, teachers can improve students’ competences immensely in ESP classroom by implementing cooperative learning.Profesinės užsienio kalbos mokymas(is) aukštajame moksle yra orientuotas į specifinę tam tikros srities užsienio kalbą, kurioje daug su kontekstu glaudžiai susijusių kalbinių vienetų, išreiškiančių studijuojamos srities svarbias sąvokas ir reiškinius. Tačiau atsiranda vis daugiau tyrimų, rodančių, kad profesinės užsienio kalbos kurso metu kalbėjimo ir rašymo įgūdžiai įvaldomi prasčiau nei skaitymo ir klausymosi įgūdžiai. Mokymosi bendradarbiaujant metodas suteikia daugiau progų bendravimui ir komunikacijai, o tai turi įtakos akademiniam, pažintiniam ir socialiniam studentų tobulėjimui. Dalyvavimas grupės diskusijose leidžia studentams panaudoti kalbą reikšminiame kontekste, perfrazuoti, aiškinti(s) reikšmines sąvokas ir pagelbėja įsisavinant studijuojamą medžiagą. Diskusijos grupėje skatina pažinimo procesą, naujų minčių iškėlimą ir pasikeitimą nuomonėmis. Grupės dinamika leidžia susikoncentruoti į studentų tarpusavio bendravimą ir socialinių įgūdžių vystymą (aktyvus klausymasis, nuomonės pateikimas, skatinimas ir pan.) ir tuo pat metu tai keičia studentų bendravimą su dėstytoju. Apibendrinant galima teigti, kad dėstytojas, taikydamas mokymosi bendradarbiaujant metodą, gali stipriai prisidėti tobulinant studentų kalbines ir socialines kompetencijas profesinės užsienio kalbos studijose

Terminology in Media Discourse: A Case Study of Terms Denoting Phobia Types in English, Lithuanian and Norwegian News Media Sites

The paper presents the trilingual (English – Lithuanian – Norwegian) analysis of the terms denoting phobia types in mass media discourse. The aim of the paper is threefold: to perform conceptual categorisation of the terms, establish the term formation patterns in the investigated languages, as well as to determine which phobia types were most often discussed in the selected news media sites (“The Guardian”, “DELFI” and “Dagbladet”) over a 10-year period. For the purposes of the research, a trilingual comparable corpus was compiled, from which 268 terms were manually extracted, matched and investigated. The findings of the research provide important information on conceptual, linguistic and social aspects of the phobia terms which may contribute to terminology research in the psychiatry domain

Social media in adult education

The edited book „Social Media in Adult Education“ presents the results of the international research carried out within the framework of Grundtvig multilateral partnership project “Institutional Strategies Targeting the Uptake of Social Networking in Adult Education (ISTUS)” focusing on the use of social media in adult education. The ways how institutions of adult education envision social media application to improve teaching/learning processes are analyzed in the book. The project team aimed at researching the multiple phenomenon of the use of social media in adult education, as a phenomenon of our living world, revealing the multifaceted nature of the phenomenon. The main contradictory aspects are distinguished in the analysis of the research results which open up new perspectives for further research

An Exploratory Analysis of TED Talks in English and Lithuanian, Portuguese and Turkish Translations

CC BY 4.0This paper contributes to the question of how discourse relations are realised in TED talks. Drawing on an annotated, multilingual discourse corpus of TED talk transcripts, we examine discourse relations in English and Lithuanian, Portuguese and Turkish translations by concentrating on three aspects: the degree of explicitness in discourse relations, the extent to which explicit and implicit relations are encoded inter- or intra-sententially, and whether top-level discourse relation senses employed in English differ in the target languages. The study shows that while the target languages differ from English in the first two dimensions, they do not display considerable differences in the third dimension. The paper thus reveals variations in the realisation of discourse relations in translated transcripts of a spoken genre in three languages and offers some methodological insights for dealing with the issues surrounding discourse relations

Practices of Online Language Teaching and Learning: A Survey in Lithuania

Purpose: The findings of the Commission’s public consultation observed that the COVID-19 crisis and the subsequent shift to online content have caused an unprecedented move towards digital teaching and learning practices. However, the situation has also revealed a gap in digital technologies fully supporting creative and collaborative student-centered learning and facilitating inclusive education. It should be stressed that language teaching and learning mainly take place through interaction and usage, so the question arises as to how efficient teaching/learning interactions can be maintained at distance. It was observed by White (2006) that the use of digital technology provides a shift away from the classroom and makes the learner experience central as well as digital transition blends in a diverse range of formal and informal practices. In this context, this research aims to identify good practices of taking up digital technologies and open pedagogies in language teaching and learning. This is related to the goal of the DIAL4U project to co-develop an innovative approach and digital tools in order to: facilitate mediation in all dimensions of the language learning process (taking into account both formal and informal situations); build the capacity and autonomy of all language learners; and develop the digital/blended pedagogy competences of language educators

Implicit Offensive Language Taxonomy and Its Application for Automatic Extraction and Ontology

Purpose: In this current study, we intend to explore varying forms of implicit (mostly figurative) offensiveness (e.g., irony, metaphor, hyperbole, etc.) in order to propose a linguistic taxonomy of implicit offensiveness (and how it permeates explicit forms), and an ontology of offensive terms readily applicable to fine-tuned, pre-trained language models (word and phrase embedding). Offensive language has recently attracted great attention from computational scientists (e.g., Zampieri et al., 2019) and linguists alike (e.g., Haugh & Sinkeviciute, 2019). While in NLP scholars focus on ways of automatic extraction of what is generally and most often referred to as toxic language, in linguistics the concept of hate speech is frequently explored. Implicit offensive language, however, as opposed to explicit offence, has received little scholarly attention which so far has focused solely on single and unrelated concepts/terms. This paper aims at proposing an overarching model where varying subtypes of implicitness used in the context of offensive language are conceptually linked (Bączkowska et al., 2022)