School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications
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ItemIt's a word isn't it? Language affection as an outcome of language programmes.(School of Languages and Linguistics, 2000)Structural linguistics has a particular view of the integrity of language which may be detrimental to the construction of appropriate language maintenance programmes for small indigenous languages. In this paper I outline ways in which ‘affective’ use of language may be the most useful target of language programmes in some situations, based on my experience with Australian indigenous languages. Fluency in a language may not be the achievable outcome of a language course for a number of reasons, not least among them being the enormity of the task perceived by learners of the language. For languages with few or no speakers we should be able to construct language programmes in which the use of a small number of terms in the target language, for purposes of identity, is a sufficient and realistic outcome.
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ItemThe Aboriginal Studies Electronic Data Archive (ASEDA)(De Gruyter, 1995)
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ItemIn Search of a New Rationale for the Prose Translation Class at University Level(Brussels Translation School, 1992)In view of labour-market demands, greater flexibility is required of translators. This includes active translational competence in their foreign language(s), especially in domains where oral communication is more important than written communication. The present study investigates how to give a new rationale to prose translation classes, in the wake of a long-standing tradition whereby prose translation was given an ancillary status as a didactic means in foreign-language teaching. The increasing presence of foreign exchange students in translation classes creates an excellent opportunity to increase the importance of A-B directionality. The prose class (thème, traducción inversa, Hinübersetzung) is ostensibly involved with teaching translation from the students’ mother language to the students’ second language (A-B). However, it has traditionally been little more than a rather laborious way of checking on B language acquisition, surviving as a relic from the days when translation was itself taught as little more than a mode of language learning. This traditional background creates serious problems when, as in Spain, prose classes exist in specialist translation institutes at university level. Although the old model would appear to be no longer valid (since translation students are now supposed to learn translation, not just languages), little thought has been given to the development of a new rationale. Indeed, most contemporary theories talk about translation as if directionality were not important; even theoretically developed syllabus projects like that of Amman & Vermeer (1990) give scant attention to directionality, preferring instead to consider “the translational problems of language pairs” where exercises are presumably to be carried out indifferently both to and from the mother language. This indifference on the level of theory might itself indicate the demise of the traditional rationale. But it leaves three very basic questions unresolved: [74] 1. Should one conclude that the prose class within the university translation institute has permanently lost its traditional specificity? 2. What relation might such classes have to the professional practice of trained translators? 3. Is there any correlation or contradiction between these two aspects? If a new rationale is possible, it will depend on coherent answers to all three questions.
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ItemHOW MUCH OF AUSTRALIA FITS INTO SPAIN(MEANJIN, 1989-06-01)
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ItemSelling Your Design: Oral Communication Pedagogy in Design Education(ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD, 2005-01)Good design skills are the main focus of assessment practices in design education and are evaluated primarily by drawings and models. In some settings, design studio pedagogy tends to reflect only these content-oriented assessment priorities, with minimal attention paid to the development of oral communication skills. Yet, in many professional contexts, architects need both sets of skills: design competence and the ability to articulate designs for an audience. This paper explores two approaches to oral communication pedagogy in design education - a public speaking approach and a genre-based linguistic approach - and then applies one particular linguistic approach to novice design studio presentations. Based on the findings of this study, we argue that the linguistic, genre-based approach can best offer language-based, discipline-specific description of performance strategies, rhetorical structures, and the linguistic realizations of such structures. Such information can contribute to improved pedagogical practice in the design studio.
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ItemThe integration of images into architecture presentations: A semiotic analysis(Intellect, 2006)In the discipline of architecture, images are central in the development of ideas and the communication of designs. This article focuses on the role of visual communication in a spoken academic genre – the architecture presentation. A set of analytical techniques drawn from linguistics (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996) was used to investigate ten first-year architecture presentations in an attempt to understand first, the role of images and second, how novice students cope with the demands of a multimodal semiosis, namely the integrating of images, words and actions into a unified speech. The analysis was focused on three areas: the conventions and rhetorical effects of individual images; the composition of simultaneously displayed images; and the interaction between speakers and their images. The third stage was pivotal in distinguishing successful from unsuccessful presentations. It is argued that a semiotic analysis of architectural presentations can contribute to improved pedagogical practice in the architecture studio, and has broader implications for an understanding of visual-oriented discourses.
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ItemCommunity languages and LOTE provision in Victorian primary schools: Mix or match?(John Benjamins Publishing, 2007)Primary school languages education continues to be a challenging issue for all states in Australia. In Victoria, LOTE study is provided at the primary level to address the needs of linguistically diverse communities, as well as to provide an enriching learning experience for monolingual speakers of English. The challenge remains to ensure that programs that are run are effective, address the needs of the community and are embraced as a valuable and enriching component of the school curriculum. This study looks at the provision of LOTE in 2003 in Victorian primary schools and in particular, through an analysis of the geographical location of community groups and primary LOTE programs, how effectively community needs are being met. We also analyse the nature of LOTE programs through an examination of teachers’ qualifications, time allotment and program type. Factors identified by some schools as impinging on LOTE study at the primary level, such as literacy concerns and multilingual diversity, will also be examined.
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ItemThe Vihuela Book ‘El Parnaso’ by Esteban Daza(University of Western Australia, 1976)
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ItemShortcomings in the historiography of translation(John Benjamins Publishing, 1992)A l'heure où les relations internationales subissent de profonds changements, l'historiographie de la traduction réveille un nouvel intérêt. Or, les méthodes qu'elle utilise sont-elles à la hauteur des circonstances? Nous voudrions, dans cet article, formuler une hypothèse sur l'effet historique des traductions, non pas pour la justifier empiriquement mais afin de voir comment certaines approches contemporaines pourraient la vérifier. Nous constatons que, du point de vue de notre hypothèse, ces approches comportent sept inconvénients méthodologiques: a) l'accumulation archéologique de données qui ne répondent à aucune problématique explicite, b) la dépendance générale du matériau anecdotique, c) la périodisation indiscriminée, d) les traductions vues comme expressions plutôt que comme facteurs de changements historiques, e) le privilège axiomatique accordé aux cultures cibles, f) des hypothèses infalsifiables, g) peu d'espace systémique pour l'interculturalité du traducteur.