This is tom = /ZYZYS’tom/ pronunciation in beginners’ EFL textbooks then and now

The textbook appears to be one of the most fundamental elements of all formal-setting foreign language teaching and learning. Textbooks function in a foreign language classroom in many capacities (Cunningsworth 1995), one of which is the provision of text, used as a model for language practice, including practice of pronunciation. The changing methodological trends in EFL pedagogy over the decades affect EFL textbook pronunciation treatment in a variety of ways. In this paper a simple feasibility study is presented whereby a few beginners’ textbooks are compared with respect to their handling of pronunciation in the first unit of the course. Four textbooks come from about ½ century ago, and three are sampled from among those currently available. On the descriptive level, some analysis is offered of the phonetic (and especially phonolapsological) characteristics of the sampled texts, as they changed through time. On the level of application, it is claimed that, while the lexico-grammatical and pedagogical limitations on the content of the first lessons/units in EFL textbooks leave authors little space for phonetic control, a modicum of such control is feasible if attention is paid to such variables as pronunciation difficulty and L1 transfer. The Phonetic Difficulty Index (PDI), which is briefly introduced in the paper, can be used to measure and control some of these variables and give the textbook authors and users a useful teaching/learning instrument

Tryptophan metabolism via the kynurenine pathway in selected rheumatic diseases: A review of the literature

In chronic inflammatory diseases, as a result of pro-inflammatory cytokines, the enzyme indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) is excessively activated, resulting in increased tryptophan metabolism via the kynurenine pathway (KP). Both IDO and metabolites of the KP affect cells of the immune system, mainly T lymphocytes. In this way, they exert an immunosuppressive effect, reducing inflammation. Also in rheumatic diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoporosis, osteoarthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, there is excessive activation of the KP. This publication reports on disorders of tryptophan metabolism found in the above-mentioned disease entities

Choroba Pageta kości

Choroba Pageta kości jest drugą pod względem częstości występowania, po osteoporozie, chorobą metaboliczną kości osób w starszym wieku. Z uwagi na różnorodny obraz kliniczny i bezobjawowy przebieg w początkowym okresie choroby prawidłowe jej zdiagnozowanie może nastręczać trudności. W niniejszej pracy przedstawiono przypadek pacjentki, u której od czasu zauważenia pierwszych objawów w postaci deformacji kości sklepienia czaszki do postawienia rozpoznania minęło kilka lat. Tymczasem usytuowanie ogniska choroby w obrębie czaszki to nie tylko problem jej zniekształcenia. Efektem ucisku zmienionej chorobowo kości na nerwy czaszkowe mogą być także poważne powikłania, takie jak pogorszenie wzroku czy głuchota, a szybkie wdrożenie terapii bisfosfonianami u pacjentów z objawami choroby może prowadzić do uzyskania remisji. Forum Reumatol. 2018, tom 4, nr 4: 238–24

Paweł Topol, Intermedialne nauczanie języka obcego, Wyd. Nauk. UAM, Poznań 2003, ss. 140

Recenzje i sprawozdania z książe

Five years in Second Life, or: Phonetically Augmented Virtuality in Second Life English as a Foreign Language

In this book I narrate some of my personal and professional experience of Second Life (SL), one of the few hundred Virtual Worlds now in existence. I mostly talk about my teaching of English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) pronunciation in an educational community called Virtlantis. This pro-bono community service lasted four (school) years, from September 2008 to June 2012. I conducted 163 weekly meetings of 'Pronunciation with Wlodek Barbosa', with students from all over the (physical) world. In the book I report in detail on these meetings, as well as append thirty actual activity notecards used during the lessons. In those activities I used Phonetically Augmented Virtual objects (PAVed objects), i.e. interactive objects constructed in SL which contain some phonetic content in them, such as sound files, phonetic transcription, test questions about pronouncing problems, etc. My main argument in the book is that such PAVed objects, modeled on Augmented Reality found in the physical world, could provide some genuine added value in SL (language) teaching and learning. Learning with such objects could leverage situational/embodied teaching methods and techniques, which have been found to be especially effective in SL. It could help reify some abstract linguistic concepts, such as stress, syllable or juncture, into virtual 'tangibles' of especial appeal to kinesthetic and visually minded learners. Theoretically, this augmentation could be extended to all objects created in SL, so that the entire world would function as a linguistically augmented Multi-User Virtual Learning Environment (MUVLE). This kind of augmentation appears to add educational value to SL over and above what is possible in face-to-face classroom language teaching/learning in the physical world on the one hand, and on online e-learning platforms, such as Blackboard or Moodle, on the other. Other issues discussed somewhat less in-depth in my book include: SL educational affordances (especially learner immersion/presence), the key SL skills necessary for language teachers, EFL teaching and learning in SL (with particular emphasis on pronunciation) and my own life story in SL. The thirty lesson scripts available in the Appendix are of direct use to EFL pronunciation teachers and learners, whether in a virtual or physical world. Interested readers may go into SL for their own copies of my games and activities with PAVed objects. The book is illustrated with fifty snapshots taken in SL and showing various aspects of my life and work there: from private life, through PAVed teaching, to teachers' workshops and language education conferences. The principal message of the whole text is: Second Life is a wonderful virtual environment for foreign language teachers and students. With or without linguistic augmentation, it offers many unique educational affordances for fully immersed, situated, exploratory and collaborative learning

Paweł Topol, Intermedialne nauczanie języka obcego, Wyd. Nauk. UAM, Poznań 2003, ss. 140

Recenzje i sprawozdania z książe

On some /n/-final prefixes, boundaries and nasal assimilation

1781998Studia Anglica Posnaniensi