English idioms: Simplifying the acquisition of idioms for learners

Idioms are regarded as particularly challenging when it comes to learning a second language. And yet, the comprehension and appropriate use of these expressions can serve to demonstrate greater linguistic proficiency. An Austrian-Russian project is now set to explore how English language learners from two different linguistic and cultural backgrounds approach the challenge of learning idioms. The project is funded by the Austrian Science Fund FWF.

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English Language Teaching Today: Trends and Challenges

Guest professor Irena Vodopija-Krstanovic has many links to the University of Klagenfurt. She is an alumna, had a guest professorship in the English Department in 2014 and co-organized an Alps-Adriatic-Adriatic-Anglistics conference with a colleague of the Department in Klagenfurt. We had a lot to talk about, including her current guest lecture “English Language Teaching Today: Trends and Challenges”.

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Online Guest Lecture: Gender in a Psychotherapeutic Interaction

Guest lecturer Prof. UAM dr hab. Joanna Pawelczyk
Faculty of English at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan

In this talk we will discuss how gender ‒ as one of the most salient social categories ‒ can be examined in language and interaction and how it emerges and matters in an interaction between a practitioner (a psychotherapist) and a client.

In the first part of the talk we will consider how gender can be studied in language and communication from an interactional perspective. Here we will focus on the ethnomethodological approach adopting the participant’s perspective and social constructionism following the analyst’s position. We will then apply these approaches to the professional context of psychotherapy to discuss how gender becomes relevant yet often an invisible category for the participants of the psychotherapeutic interaction.

Due to the current COVID-19 restrictions, the talk will take place online and can be joined via the following Zoom link:

https://zoom.us/j/97784664308?pwd=ODlSL1VVUnNubG1IZmpVN0tHcVdydz09

Meeting-ID: 977 8466 4308

Kenncode: 009176

Workshop: Why is English spelling so weird? A diachronic perspective on the orthography of English

It is a truth universally acknowledged that both first and second language speakers of English struggle immensely with its spelling. In this workshop, we will look at how English came to have the spelling system it has today and the ways in which orthography reflects widespread pronunciation in previous times as well as various accidents of history. We will touch upon some serious issues English spelling presents for its users and trace variation in spelling in informal genres from historical letters to modern texting practices.

 

About the presenter:

Monika Kavalir is Associate Professor (docent) at the Department of English at Ljubljana University. Her research focuses on historical linguistics, sociolinguistics and transcultural communication. In co-operation with the University of Klagenfurt, a recent project of hers tackled the translation of contemporary Slovenian poetry into English and German: Monika Kavalir & Gregor Chudoba (2020) Indirect literary translation and intercultural communication: crossing borders in the Neighbours with a Go-Between project, Language and Intercultural Communication, 20:6, 546-560. https://doi.org/10.1080/14708477.2020.1825462

 

Date: Tuesday, May 4,2021

Time: 12-1.30 pm

ZOOM: https://uni-lj-si.zoom.us/j/92088358051

 (Please let us know you’ll join by sending an e-mail to daniela [dot] werdnig [at] aau [dot] at, subject line: Workshop Kavalir, May 4)