Sounds Serbian? Acoustic properties of Serbian EFL students' speech

This paper presents the findings of a study of the acoustic properties of Serbian EFL students' vowels. The participants were 12 junior-year students of the English Department. Their vowel production was recorded in three different contexts, i.e. speaking tasks: reading words in citation form, reading a text aloud, and speaking. The acoustic measurements included vowel duration and F1 and F2 formant frequency values. The results showed that neither the production of vowel qualities nor the duration differences used by the students were without problem

Pre-Service EFL Teachers as Reflective Practitioners: Student Portfolios as Evidence of Emerging Professional Identities

The purpose of the present study is to get a better understanding of the reflection process of pre-service EFL teachers at the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš during their theoretical TEFL Methodology course, before entering the EFL classroom. An important element of students’ individual work in this course is their portfolio which consists of the students’ views and opinions on the most important principles of TEFL, recorded at the beginning and the end of the 12-week course, as well as a reflective essay on how and why their beliefs have changed during the course. This qualitative case study employs an in-depth content analysis of these reflective portfolios collected in 2020 and 2021, aiming to identify the themes pertaining to the participants’ emerging teacher identities as well as examine changes in their beliefs about various aspects of language teaching and their own professional development. The findings suggest that reflective thinking should be an essential component of pre-service teacher education courses from the very beginning, and not only during the teaching practice

Sinalbin degradation products in mild yellow mustard paste

Sinalbin degradation products in mild yellow mustard paste were investigated. The analyzed material consisted of a mild yellow mustard paste condiment and ground white mustard seeds which were originally used in the mustard paste production process. The samples were extracted in a Soxhlet extraction system and analyzed by gas chromatography - mass spectrometry (GC-MS) technique. The only sinalbin degradation product in ground mustard seeds was 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl)acetonitrile. The most abundant sinalbin degradation product in yellow mustard paste was 4-(hydroxymethyl)phenol. Other compounds identified in this sample were: 4-methyl phenol, 4-ethyl phenol, 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)phenol and 2-(4-hydroxyphenyl) ethanoic acid

Sustainable Travel Decision-Making of Europeans: Insights from a Household Survey

The purpose of this study is to research the antecedents of the sustainable travel decision-making of European travelers and thereby identify important lessons for the transition towards sustainable travel and tourism. The study is based on data collected through a representative survey, conducted in five European countries, with a sample of n = 5024 respondents. The results of descriptive statistics, EFA (Exploratory Factor Analysis) and FA (Factor Analysis) are presented in order to explore sustainable travel decision-making through environmental (policy-related and personal) attitudes and travel mode decision priorities in the European context. Furthermore, the study provides new evidence regarding the under-researched phenomenon of the attitude–behavior gap by presenting a model for the sustainability-oriented decision-making of travelers, including attitudes and travel mode priorities as antecedents. The results confirm the existence of moral licensing in travel decision-making, thereby extending the relevance of this theory into travel and tourism, which has not been done before. The denial of environmental issues is also being researched as regards its interaction with positive environmental attitudes, environmental travel mode priorities and non-environmental travel priorities, thereby advancing our understanding of the interplay between these categories. The interplay between the four categories furthers our understanding of the perplexity of travelers in terms of sustainable travel decision-makin

METODIKA NASTAVE ENGLESKOG (KAO STRANOG) JEZIKA I OBRAZOVANJE BUDUĆIH NASTAVNIKA NA DEPARTMANU ZA ANGLISTIKU

The paper outlines the development of the TEFL Methodology courses in the English Department curriculum over the past fifty years, from the foundation of the Department at the Faculty of Philosophy in Niš in 1971 to date, as well as the many curricular and extracurricular aspects of work related to the pre-service education of prospective EFL teachers.U ovom radu predstavljen je razvoj Metodike nastave engleskog jezika u studijskom programu Anglistike u proteklih pedeset godina, od osnivanja Departmana na Filozofskom fakultetu u Nišu 1971. godine do danas, a isto tako i mnogih aktivnosti od značaja za obrazovanje budućih nastavnika engleskog kao stranog jezika, od koji su neke bile deo studijskog programa a neke vannastavne

Discourse Intonation - Making It Work

Discourse Intonation (DI) (Brazil 1997; Chun 2002) seems to be particularly well suited for use in the EFL classroom, much more so than the rather complex traditional models (e.g. O’Connor and Arnold 1973) or some recent phonological theories. Yet if L2 teachers are to be provided with clear guidelines on how to incorporate DI into communicative language teaching, much more empirical research is needed with L2 students of different L1 backgrounds to uncover the specific problems they face. The small-scale study presented here examines how 15 second-year students of the English Department in Niš manage intonation in a reading task. The analysis focuses on the components singled out by Chun (2002) as crucial for language learners: sentence stress (nuclear tone placement), terminal contour (direction of pitch change) and key (pitch range at transition points)

Strategic Family Winery Brand Launch in the Vuca (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity) Market: Three Case Studies from Serbian Market

The purpose of this study is to extend previous research on brand innovation by uncovering the process of family winery branding in relation to the new product launch in the VUCA market on the case of three Serbian wineries. The study deploys qualitative oriented and empirical approach in presenting a multi-case study. Three semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with owners and/or managers in these three wineries. The results demonstrate that all three family wineries are offering high-end product for the domestic market with smaller one still experimenting with strategic direction of innovating for high-end market while the two larger ones putting focus either on autochthonous grape varieties with eye-cathicng labels or authentic brand identity with strong storytelling. Another important aspect identified is the frugal nature of product launch in the family wineries due to limited resources. The paper presents is among only few studies on new product development in wine business literature

KRITIČKO MIŠLJENJE I SAVREMENO VISOKO OBRAZOVANJE

This paper discusses the concept of critical thinking and its place in university education today, internationally as well as in the Serbian and regional Balkan contexts. As an illustration, the second part of the paper offers a review of Gordon Asher’s chapter in Writing Your Thesis: A Guide for Postgraduate Students, a coursebook which incorporates the conception of criticality in higher education, from the perspective of Critical Pedagogy. We highlight the importance of embracing a broad, epistemological understanding of critical thinking, not only as an applicable pragmatic skill, but, rather, as a way back to a more humanistic view of  education as emancipation and whole-person development of individuals, for the benefit of both the individual and the society. Lastly, we discuss the importance of methodological tools in teaching for critical thinking.Ovaj rad nudi prikaz različitih shvatanja koncepta kritičkog mišljenja i njegovog mesta u današnjem visokom obrazovanju, kako u međunarodnom tako i u domaćem, srpskom i balkanskom kontekstu. U drugom delu rada, diskusiju ilustruje prikaz poglavlja Gordona Ašera u udžbeniku “Pisanje teze: Vodič za posledipsomske studente”, koji na značajan način inkorporira koncept kritičkog mišljenja u visokom obrazovanju, iz perspektive Kritičke pedagogije. Autorke u ovom pregledu ističu značaj širokog epistemološkog shvatanja kritičkog mišljenja, ne samo u smislu primenljive pragmatičke veštine, već pre svega kao osnove za humanističko shvatanje obrazovanja kao emancipacije pojedinca i celovitog razvoja ličnosti, na korist i samog pojedinca i društvene zajednice. Autorke se osvrću i na značaj metodičkih pristupa i sredstava u podučavanju za kritičko mišljenje