Market Lingos and Metrolingua Francas

© , Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. Drawing on data recorded in two city markets, this article analyzes the language practices of workers and customers as they go about their daily business, with a particular focus on the ways in which linguistic resources, everyday tasks, and social spaces are intertwined in producing metrolingua francas. The aim of the article is to come to a better understanding of the relationships among the use of diverse linguistic resources (drawn from different languages, varieties, and registers), the repertoires of the workers, the activities in which they are engaged, and the larger space in which this occurs. Developing the idea of spatial repertoires as the linguistic resources available in particular places, we explore the ways in which metrolingua francas (metrolingual multilingua francas) emerge from the spatial resources of such markets

Lingoing and everyday metrolingual metalanguage

While the ways in which people talk about their everyday language use suggest that they live in a languagised world (a world in which language labels and enumerations are the common stuff of everyday language talk), their understanding of what those language labels mean may be both diverse and flexible. It is important not to make top-down assumptions about the meanings behind language labels. In this paper we are interested in the metrolingual metalanguage people use to describe everyday language use. This is not a question of a disjuncture between a delanguagised realm of academic analysis (such as the recent move towards translingual terminology) and a languagised realm of everyday metalanguage (where languages are named and labelled along normative lines), but rather a call to make visible what lies beneath such everyday terms and linguistic labels. Through an analysis of various discussions of everyday language use, we argue that although people often appear to talk in terms of fixed languages, such accounts are often flexible, negotiable and contestable. This is not therefore best understood in terms of a polarity between fixity and fluidity but rather as a flexible array of entangled language ideologies

Helicity sensitive terahertz radiation detection by dual-grating-gate high electron mobility transistors

We report on the observation of a radiation helicity sensitive photocurrent excited by terahertz (THz) radiation in dual-grating-gate (DGG) InAlAs/InGaAs/InAlAs/InP high electron mobility transistors (HEMT). For a circular polarization the current measured between source and drain contacts changes its sign with the inversion of the radiation helicity. For elliptically polarized radiation the total current is described by superposition of the Stokes parameters with different weights. Moreover, by variation of gate voltages applied to individual gratings the photocurrent can be defined either by the Stokes parameter defining the radiation helicity or those for linear polarization. We show that artificial non-centrosymmetric microperiodic structures with a two-dimensional electron system excited by THz radiation exhibit a dc photocurrent caused by the combined action of a spatially periodic in-plane potential and spatially modulated light. The results provide a proof of principle for the application of DGG HEMT for all-electric detection of the radiation's polarization state.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure

Total gastrectomy with simultaneous pancreaticosplenectomy or splenectomy in patients with advanced gastric carcinoma

A splenectomy or distal pancreaticosplenectomy is often performed simultaneously with total gastrectomy in the treatment of gastric carcinoma to facilitate dissection of the lymph nodes around the splenic artery and splenic hilus. However, the negative impact of splenectomy and pancreaticosplenectomy has also been reported. A retrospective analysis was performed to evaluate the outcomes of distal pancreaticosplenectomy and total gastrectomy, splenectomy and total gastrectomy, and gastrectomy alone in the patients with advanced gastric carcinoma without distant metastasis. Prognostic factors were examined. No significant differences existed in 5-year survival in the patients who underwent gastrectomy with splenectomy, gastrectomy with distal pancreaticosplenectomy, or gastrectomy alone. Neither splenectomy, nor distal pancreaticosplenectomy were prognostic factors. However, distal pancreaticosplenectomy was an independent predictor of pancreatic fistula. In conclusion, the addition of distal pancreaticosplenectomy or splenectomy to total gastrectomy for gastric cancer increases the risk of severe complications, but does not improve survival. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaig

Chromospheric Anemone Jets as Evidence of Ubiquitous Reconnection

The heating of the solar chromosphere and corona is a long-standing puzzle in solar physics. Hinode observations show the ubiquitous presence of chromospheric anemone jets outside sunspots in active regions. They are typically 3 to 7 arc seconds = 2000 to 5000 kilometers long and 0.2 to 0.4 arc second = 150 to 300 kilometers wide, and their velocity is 10 to 20 kilometers per second. These small jets have an inverted Y-shape, similar to the shape of x-ray anemone jets in the corona. These features imply that magnetic reconnection similar to that in the corona is occurring at a much smaller spatial scale throughout the chromosphere and suggest that the heating of the solar chromosphere and corona may be related to small-scale ubiquitous reconnection.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figure

Are ‘advanced’ Japanese language programs sustainable? A look at Australia, New Zealand and Singapore

Economic, strategic and cultural connections to Japan have never been stronger and more students across the breadth of our education system, primary through to tertiary, continue to be interested in studying Japanese. But what, beyond Demon Slayer and Pokemon, motivates them and how can that knowledge help universities to build effective and engaging language programs? Japanese is one of the most popular Asian languages taught at tertiary institutions around the world. According to the Survey Report on Japanese-language Education Abroad 2018 (Japan Foundation, 2020), the number of learners outside Japan reached 3,851,774, the second highest on record, and the number of institutions and teachers was the highest since the Foundation’s 1979 survey. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, enrolment in Japanese language subjects has remained relatively strong, even in 2021. Oceania (the majority from Australia and New Zealand) has the highest number of learners per 100,000 population globally. However, as the authors of this article, we have become increasingly concerned about the sustainability of advanced Japanese language programs in our region—specifically Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. Language education policies (at the governmental and institutional level) and diminishing investment into language education in the higher education sector have put many Japanese Studies/language programs under strain. Advanced-level subjects generally have lower enrolment numbers than beginner- and intermediate-level subjects, and so are most at risk of being merged, cut back or dropped altogether. According to the US Foreign Services Institute (FSI), Japanese is considered to be one of the ‘super-hard languages’ that require English native speakers three times as long as French or Italian to attain ‘professional working proficiency’. This means that without students’ long-term commitment (retention to advanced levels) and well supported, quality education, there can be no sustainable future for Japanese language programs producing highly advanced users of Japanese in those nations. Against this backdrop, we recently launched the Network for Teaching Advanced Japanese Project (上級日本語Network), supported by a Japan Foundation Sakura Mini Grant 2020. This project provides a platform to collect data through surveys and interviews to better understand the current state of advanced Japanese language programs at university level in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore, and advocate for communities of practice and ongoing support across the sector. This collaboration involves countries that are members of the Commonwealth. Not only are their universities’ medium of instruction English, but they also share similar program structures. The Network for Teaching Advanced Japanese Project approached colleagues from universities in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore in 2020, gathering data on Japanese language programs at 25 institutions in total (Australia 19, New Zealand four, Singapore two). In total, 76 participants responded to the survey and among those respondents, 38 teachers (34 from Australia, two from New Zeland and two from Singapore) participated in online interviews between December 2020 and January 2021. Our survey results show that the ‘advanced’ level was broadly defined by: the stage of progression at the institution, a proficiency level equivalent to external criteria such as the Japanese Language Proficiency Test or the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages; and the demonstration of specific skills through engagement with types of learning activities or resources (eg progression through language textbooks). What emerged from this is that there is a disparity in what is categorised as constituting the ‘advanced level’ within different institutional frameworks. Although this may seem merely a comparison with European languages these definitions have significant impact on institutional support for Japanese language. If institutions only support languages through to what we as teachers define as intermediate then it becomes harder for us to graduate advanced users of Japanese. We found that there are subjects with similar content and resources (for example the same textbook) that are called ‘advanced’ by some universities and ‘intermediate’ by others. It is common practice that in a three-year university degree program, students who start as beginners can progress to an ‘advanced’ level in their final year of study, but in many cases, realistically speaking, this ‘advanced’ level of study is nevertheless perceived as an ‘intermediate’ level of language acquisition by tertiary teachers of Japanese. The majority of students from the institutions we surveyed usually have three to four hours of class per week (five to six hours at most) during the semester or term. This gives them an average of around 100 class hours per year, and a total of around 300 over their three-year university degree program. It is clear this is insufficient when compared with 2,200 class hours deemed necessary to reach ‘professional working proficiency’ for Japanese in the aforementioned FSI estimate (for French and Spanish 600-700 and for German 900 class hours). It should be noted that ‘class hours’ here may assume that language learning does not occur beyond the classroom. Thus, the need to take account of the fact that tertiary students in Australia, New Zealand and Singapore increasingly engage in language learning outside the classroom, for example doing online tasks as part of a blended-learning curriculum, watching Japanese dramas or participating in in-country studies. Our project also found that there is a tendency for the teaching of Asian languages to be adapted to the framework used in the teaching of European languages. It is for example, common practice for universities to offer Levels 1 – 6 in each language with Levels 5 – 6 defined as ‘advanced’. This ignores the fact that students progress differently in different languages. The proficiency level reached by students in Japanese language programs at the official ‘advanced’ level may well be behind those in European language programs. All three countries involved in this project—Australia, New Zealand and Singapore—operate in an English-speaking context associated with the UK tradition of language education which may explain why European languages (which share the Roman alphabet based writing system with English) tend to be privileged in the institutional frameworks. There has been enthusiastic promotion of Asian language education (including Japanese) by the Australian and New Zealand governments since late 1990s, and the ongoing social commitment to multiculturalism. Australia, for example, has released several strategic plans such as the National Asian Language Studies in Australian Schools Strategy (NALSAS, 1995-2002) and recommendations on Asian language studies in the Australia in the Asian Century White Paper (2012). The New Zealand government implemented the Asian Language Learning in Schools (ALLiS) program in 2014, and have committed to a total of $10 million over five years, aiming to support schools by setting up new Asian language learning programs, or strengthening existing ones. In Singapore, mainly in response to industrial demand, the Ministry of Education established their Foreign Language Centre in 1978 to offer couses of French, German and Japanese for secondary school students (the Centre expanded to Ministry of Education Language Centre to offer language couses in wider age groups). Universities and polytechnics in Singapore also established Japanese language programs from the1980s. The development of Asian literacy can be better supported with a less Eurocentric and less English-monolingual mindset. A recent report (May 30, 2021) on the current state of school language programs and assessment in the Australian state of New South Wales suggests European languages such as French are advantaged over Japanese and Arabic, pointing to just such a bias. Further, the dominance of English in the global arena is creating a societal apathy for learning languages other than English. Despite acknowledgement that languages provide a key pathway to fostering ‘generalised national multilingualism, social harmony, and economic prosperity’ as noted by scholars Shannon Mason and John Hajek, representations of language education in the media can often exacerbate the precarious position of language education in Australia by presenting only superficial, narrow and negative editorial debate