Are writers committed to what they report? A taxonomy of reportive verbal expressions in the British and Spanish press

The degree of writer’s commitment or the way in which the stance towards the truth-value of the reported information is suggested in reporting verbs, has been the centre of analysis in various linguistic studies (Thompson 1996; Chen 2007). This paper examines this parameter by means of a corpus-based survey, starting from the understanding of commitment as a graded phenomenon, as well as the value readers’ intuition has to judge when evaluating the signals embedded in reporting verbs. The results uncover the subtle interplay of voices in the quality press, without adversely affecting the supposed intertextual impartiality of the text.Depto. de Estudios Ingleses: Lingüística y LiteraturaFac. de FilologíaTRUEpu

Perspectives and Good Practices in English Language Teacher Training. Alonso, I., Criado, R., Luque, G., & Torres, L. (Eds.) (2022). Editorial Síntesis, 180 pages, ISBN: 978-84-1357-163-8

This book review evaluates Perspectives and good practices in English language teacher training by Isabel Alonso, Raquel Criado, Gloria Luque, and Laura Torres. This volume is a valuable source for both pre-service and in-service teachers, by providing practical guidelines for their professional development. This book includes current topics about EFL teaching and contains valuable ideas and activities to promote meaningful learning. This review first offers an introduction to the scope and targeted readership. Then, the major points of each chapter are summarized, highlighting the timely contribution to the existing literature on this matter.This book review evaluates Perspectives and good practices in English language teacher training by Isabel Alonso, Raquel Criado, Gloria Luque, and Laura Torres. This volume is a valuable source for both pre-service and in-service teachers, by providing practical guidelines for their professional development. This book includes current topics about EFL teaching and contains valuable ideas and activities to promote meaningful learning. This review first offers an introduction to the scope and targeted readership. Then, the major points of each chapter are summarized, highlighting the timely contribution to the existing literature on this matter

Expresiones citativas y reportativas: análisis contrastivo inglés-español de la prensa de calidad

Tesis de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Facultad de Filología, Departamento de Filología Inglesa (Lengua y Lingüística Inglesa), leída el 27/06/2017The language embedded in quotations in newspaper reports is a powerful tool that can influence readers’ thought, in particular their position towards the state of affairs and/or the participants included in the quote (Fowler 1994). This thesis, entitled ‘Reporting expressions: an English-Spanish contrastive study of quality press’, investigates the subtle ways by which the media restructures the world in the discourse, which jeopardises its efforts to configure itself as an objective and unbiased information medium. Thus, this study aims at answering a broad research question: is news industry impartial or evaluative? To this end, I will analyse the linguistic features embedded in reporting expressions that may lead to ideological variations, thus provoking distortions of meaning of what was originally uttered by the information sources.The parameters that will be studied in this investigation are the following: reporting style; reporting verb, which comprises tense, aspect, voice and writer’s commitment; the source of information, considering the specificity and gender factors; reportative evidentiality; news values; and, finally, the prominence parameter, which addresses the study of headlines...El lenguaje incluido en las citas periodísticas es una herramienta poderosa que puede influir en el pensamiento de los lectores, en particular su posicionamiento hacia los hechos y/o participantes incluidos en la cita (Fowler 1994). Esta tesis, titulada ‘Expresiones citativas y reportativas: análisis contrastivo inglés-español de la prensa de calidad’, investiga las maneras sutiles por las cuales los medios de comunicación reestructuran el mundo en el discurso, lo cual compromete sus esfuerzos por configurarse como un medio de información objetivo e imparcial. Por lo tanto, todo este estudio tiene como objetivo responder a la siguiente cuestión amplia de la investigación: ¿la industria de las noticias es imparcial o evaluativa? Para tal fin, analizaré los rasgos lingüísticos inmersos en expresiones citativas que puedan llevar a variaciones ideológicas, provocando así distorsiones de significado de lo que fue originalmente dicho por las fuentes de información.Los parámetros que serán estudiados en esta investigación son los siguientes: estilo citativo; el verbo citativo, que incluye tiempo, aspecto, voz y la implicación del escritor; la fuente de información, considerando los factores de especificidad y género; la evidencialidad reportativa; los valores de las noticias; y, finalmente, el parámetro de la prominencia, que aborda el estudio de los titulares de prensa...Depto. de Estudios Ingleses: Lingüística y LiteraturaFac. de FilologíaTRUEunpu

Gender Asymmetries in News Reports

Women have traditionally been defined in journalistic studies as the ‘unaccessed voice group’ due to their underrepresentation in most media coverage, a fact commonly described in linguistics as ‘symbolic annihilation’ (Caldas-Coulthard 2002; Armstrong 2004). Although many scholars state that linguistic stereotypes have been weakening over time, there is a prevailing view that women are still experiencing linguistic discrimination in the age of digital storytelling. This paper discusses gender inequality by means of an in-depth study of females as sources of information in newspaper discourse, based on a corpus of 68 online news items published in four broadsheet British and Spanish newspapers: The Times, The Guardian, El Mundo and El País. The research mainly focuses on the possible relation between the gender of the source and that of the news reporter, as well as the tendencies in the depiction of female sources in reporting segments. The analysis reveals a continuing underrepresentation of women, though less noticeable in the Spanish news group. Contrary to possible expectations, both corpora coincide in defining female sources on a professional basis. The results also suggest that the predominance of male sources of information, rather than being tied to the ‘familiarity’ criterion, is institutionally biased.Tradicionalmente las mujeres han sido definidas en estudios periodísticos como ‘la voz inaccesible del grupo’ debido a su infrarrepresentación en la mayor parte de la cobertura mediática, un hecho que se ha descrito comúnmente en lingüística como‘aniquilación simbólica’ (Caldas-Coulthard 2002; Armstrong 2004). Aunque muchos expertos afirman que los estereotipos lingüísticos se han ido reduciendo con el tiempo, hay una postura predominante que establece que las mujeres todavía están experimentando discriminación lingüística en la era de la narración digital. Este artículo aborda la desigualdad de género por medio de un estudio exhaustivo de las mujeres como fuentes de información en el discurso periodístico, basado en un corpus de 68 noticias online publicadas en cuatro periódicos británicos y españoles en línea de gran tirada: The Times, The Guardian, El Mundo y El País. La investigación se centra principalmente en la posible relación entre el género de la fuente y el del periodista, así como en las tendencias en la representación de las fuentes femeninas en los segmentos citativos. El análisis revela la continua infrarrepresentación de la mujer, aunque este hecho es menos evidente en el grupo de noticias españolas. En contra de posibles expectativas, ambos corpus coinciden en definir las fuentes femeninas según su profesión. Los resultados también sugieren que el predominio de las fuentes masculinas de información, en lugar de estar ligado al criterio de la ‘familiaridad’, se debe al sesgo institucional

Gender asymmetries in news reports

Women have traditionally been defined in journalistic studies as the ‘unaccessed voice group’ due to their underrepresentation in most media coverage, a fact commonly described in linguistics as ‘symbolic annihilation’ (Caldas-Coulthard 2002; Armstrong 2004). Although many scholars state that linguistic stereotypes have been weakening over time, there is a prevailing view that women are still experiencing linguistic discrimination in the age of digital storytelling. This paper discusses gender inequality by means of an in-depth study of females as sources of information in newspaper discourse, based on a corpus of 68 online news items published in four broadsheet British and Spanish newspapers: The Times, The Guardian, El Mundo and El País. The research mainly focuses on the possible relation between the gender of the source and that of the news reporter, as well as the tendencies in the depiction of female sources in reporting segments. The analysis reveals a continuing underrepresentation of women, though less noticeable in the Spanish news group. Contrary to possible expectations, both corpora coincide in defining female sources on a professional basis. The results also suggest that the predominance of male sources of information, rather than being tied to the ‘familiarity’ criterion, is institutionally biased

Spanish efl teachers and ict tools. A survey-based analysis

In the last few years, teachers in Spain have experienced numerous changes in their methodology due to the implementation of ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) in education. This research provides a survey-based analysis of EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers that assesses their attitude towards digital resources and the current state of affairs in Spain concerning digital tools. Results indicate that despite receiving training in digital skills, teachers still need more support from their educational centres and that the technical equipment available is limited. Besides, they use more often ICT tools for practicing listening and evaluate favourably collaboration among teaching staff and the figure of the ICT coordinato

Perspectives on the Effectiveness of Madrid’s Regional Bilingual Programme: Exploring the Correlation between English Proficiency Level and Pre-Service Teachers’ Beliefs

This study aims to examine the opinions of prospective pre-primary and primary teachers about Madrid’s regional Bilingual Programme in Spain, assessing the correlations between their self-perceived level of English and their positioning concerning the effectiveness of the regional programme. Although there is a growing body of research in the field of education on how CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) provisions impact in-service teachers’ attitudes concerning bilingual education, there is a dearth of literature on the way student teachers depict the teaching reality. Thus, this paper explores pre-service teachers’ beliefs towards the Bilingual Programme via an ad hoc questionnaire, administered to a non-probabilistic sample of 170 undergraduate students at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. The data collected were explored using Chi-square and Somers’ D tests. The results show that the self-perceived English level, greatly determined by prior bilingual schooling, has a strong influence on their perceptions about the Bilingual Programme. The findings also indicate that, although the learning experience at the pre-primary stage is valued positively by students, the acquisition of curricular contents in primary education is seen as negatively affected due to English medium instruction

As provas no discurso. Estabelecer os limites

Despite the extensive search that has been done on the phenomenon of evidentiality in the discourse, i.e. the coding of the information source, there are still terminological and conceptual discrepancies that need to be laid out. The present paper presents a theoretical framework of evidentiality. It starts with an examination of the scope of evidentiality in terms of grammar and semantics, ending up with a full understanding of the notion as a functionalconceptual domain. The discussion also focuses on the relationship between evidentiality and epistemic modality since this is still an open-ended issue in the field. We support that a thorough study of particular evidential forms, such as reportative evidential, would be needed as a vibrant continuation of this theoretical revisionA pesar de la investigación extensa que se ha hecho sobre el fenómeno de la evidencialidad en el discurso, es decir, la codificación de la fuente de la información, todavía hay discrepancias terminológicas y conceptuales que necesitan ser consideradas. El presente artículo presenta una discusión teórica de la evidencialidad. Comienza con un examen del ámbito de la evidencialidad en cuanto a la gramática y semántica, terminando con una comprensión completa del concepto como un ámbito funcional-conceptual. La discusión también se centra en la relación entre la evidencialidad y la modalidad epistémica, dado que todavía es un tema abierto en el campo. Apoyamos que un estudio exhaustivo de formas evidenciales concretas, tales como los evidenciales reportativos, sería necesario como continuación dinámica de esta revisión bibliográficaMalgré les recherches approfondies qui ont été menées sur le phénomène de la preuve dans le discours, c'est-à-dire le codage de la source d'information, il existe encore des divergences terminologiques et conceptuelles qui doivent être prises en compte. Cet article présente une discussion théorique sur la force probante. Elle commence par un examen du domaine de la preuve en termes de grammaire et de sémantique, et se termine par une compréhension complète du concept en tant que domaine fonctionnel-conceptuel. La discussion se concentre également sur la relation entre l'évidence et le mode épistémique, car il s'agit d'une question encore ouverte dans ce domaine. Nous soutenons qu'une étude exhaustive des formes concrètes de preuve, telles que les preuves de signalement, serait nécessaire en tant que continuation dynamique de cette analyse documentair

Models on Teaching Effectiveness in Current Scientific Literature

Knowing what defines ‘effective teaching’ contributes significantly to the appropriateness and validity of the instruction provided to pre-service teachers during their initial training. This may help them to perform as expert teachers before finishing their university training. This study aims to reflect upon the most significant models and theoretical contributions of each of the five most common methods for investigating teaching effectiveness in the current scientific literature. To that end, the main scientific sources within this field of study have been obtained on the Internet through the Web of Science (WoS), Scopus and ERIC. The sources were selected for their relevance to the topic, which was determined by assessing the citations generated by the academic works and the impact of the journals in which they were published. The results show that the key and most central factor salient in teaching quality is related to the teachers themselves and their training. Thus, any educational model that seeks educational excellence must focus foremost on ensuring care and respect for teaching professionals, beyond economic investment, resource availability, or any other factors