Diverse Texts Research Articles

A New Model оf Intercultural Education Based оn Cultural Diversity In Secondary School: Intercultural Learning: Navigating The Multicultural Maze In Literature Instruction

In an increasingly globalized world understanding and appreciating cultural diversity through literature has become paramount in educational settings. This paper explores the intricacies of intercultural learning within the context of literature instruction, positioning it as a crucial component in fostering global awareness and empathy among students. By examining various approaches to integrating multicultural literature into the Curriculum this study highlights the challenges and opportunities educators face in navigating the multicultural maze. It argues for a deliberate, thoughtful incorporation of diverse texts that reflect a multitude of cultural experiences, thereby promoting an inclusive, empathetic, and comprehensive educational experience. Through qualitative analysis and review of current pedagogical practices, this paper aims to provide insights and strategies for educators seeking to enhance intercultural competence and cross-cultural understanding through the medium of literature.

Grade 10 Students’ Experiences with Catch-Up Fridays

This study investigated Grade 10 students’ experiences with Catch-Up Fridays at Prosperidad National High School during the 2023-2024 academic year. Utilizing a phenomenological approach, the research aimed to understand how students engaged with the program and its impact on their reading proficiency. A total of 30 Grade 10 students from Prosperidad National High School in Prosperidad District I, Agusan del Sur, were selected through purposive sampling for in-depth interviews. The study employed thematic analysis following Braun and Clarke’s (2006) guidelines, beginning with detailed readings of interview and focus group discussion transcripts. The findings revealed both challenges and benefits associated with the Catch-Up Fridays program. Students encountered significant issues with time management and task overload, which led to stress and decreased academic focus. The lack of engagement and relevance in some activities further diminished motivation, while limited teacher support exacerbated these difficulties. However, the program also demonstrated notable benefits, such as improved reading skills, increased engagement with diverse texts, and enhanced motivation and attitudes toward reading. These outcomes were consistent with the Theory of Student-Driven Learning, which emphasized the importance of student autonomy, relevant learning activities, robust support systems, and peer collaboration. The study highlighted the need for balancing workload, tailoring activities to student needs, ensuring effective support, and fostering a collaborative learning environment to improve the effectiveness of Catch-Up Fridays. Future research should explore integrating structured peer collaboration to enhance the program’s impact on student learning and confidence.

Watery traces and absences: sensations and speculative histories of an ancient well and a carse landscape

This paper explores how mighty earth processes, aquatic agencies and human practical, political, religious, technological, commercial and environmental interventions have shaped and reshaped a now obscure Scottish holy well and the carse landscape to which it belongs. More specifically, I detail the historic pagan rituals, vigilant religious policing, romantic redesign and extensive terraforming that have informed the changing uses and symbolic associations of these watery realms, demonstrating how they testify to ceaselessly changing human-water relations. I explore how an awareness of particular historical events garnered from diverse texts can be supplemented with affective and sensory engagements with the non-human agencies, vestiges and absences of place. Together, they foster intimations and speculative imaginaries that conjure up speculative watery histories and conjectural futures.

Afrofuturist Values for the Metaverse (Extended Abstract)

Many emerging technologies, such as the immersive VR and AR devices forming the metaverse, are not just reminiscent of but inspired by devices found in popular science fiction texts. Yet, the stories that these technologies are drawn from do not often center marginalized communities and people of color. In this article, we propose that builders and users of these technologies turn to diverse creative texts as inspiration for the ethical codes that will shape the ways that these technologies are built and used. A study of 39 speculative fiction texts, including 20 that we identified as Afrofuturist, revealed three overarching themes that serve as recommendations for the creation and maintenance of a diverse and inclusive metaverse: Collective Power, Inclusive Engagement, and Cultural Specificity. We outline each recommendation through a textual analysis of three Afrofuturist texts – Esi Edugyan’s Washington Black (2018), Roger Ross Williams’ Traveling While Black (2019), and Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther (2018) – and specify the undercurrents of collectivity and co-production that bind them together. We suggest collaborative and critical reading methods for industry professionals and community members which may help to shape democratic processes governing the future of AI.

#consented – A semantic consent code to facilitate consistent documentation and implementation of consent in collaborative medical research

IntroductionIn German and international research networks different approaches concerning patient consent are applied. So far it is time-consuming to find out to what extent data from these networks can be used for a specific research project. To make the contents of the consents queryable, we aimed for a permission-based approach (Opt-In) that can map both the permission and the withdrawal of consent contents as well as make it queryable beyond project boundaries. Materials and methodsThe current state of research was analysed in terms of approach and reusability. Selected process models for defining consent policies were abstracted in a next step. On this basis, a standardised semantic terminology for the description of consent policies was developed and initially agreed with experts. In a final step, the resulting code was evaluated with regards to different aspects of applicability. ResultsA first and extendable version for a Semantic Consent Code (SCC) based on 3-axis (CLASS, ACTION, PURPOSE) was developed, consolidated und published. The added value achieved by the SCC was illustrated using the example of real consents from large national research associations (Medical Informatics Initiative and NUM NAPKON/NUKLEUS). The applicability of the SCC was successfully evaluated in terms of the manual semantic mapping of consents by briefly trained personnel and the automated interpretability of consent policies according to the SCC (and vice versa). In addition, a concept for the use of the SCC to simplify consent queries in heterogeneous research scenarios was presented. ConclusionsThe Semantic Consent Code has already successfully undergone initial evaluations. As the published 3-axis code SCC is an essential preliminary work to standardising initially diverse consent texts and contents and can iteratively be extended in multiple ways in terms of content and technical additions. It should be extended in cooperation with the potential user community.

Strategies to Improve English Reading Comprehension

This study explores strategies aimed at enhancing English reading comprehension. With the backdrop of a complex information era, where proficient reading skills are crucial for accessing and applying information, the study focuses on interactive reading techniques, vocabulary acquisition, prior knowledge activation, and reading fluency as key components. The research adopts a literature review approach, synthesizing findings from existing studies to identify effective strategies. The primary objective is to ascertain which methods best contribute to improved reading comprehension in educational settings. Findings indicate that interactive techniques such as group discussions and role-playing, coupled with explicit vocabulary instruction and prior knowledge activation strategies, significantly enhance comprehension levels. Furthermore, fostering reading fluency through repeated reading and guided oral sessions positively correlates with improved comprehension abilities. The study concludes that a holistic approach integrating these strategies is essential for developing proficient readers who can engage effectively with diverse texts and contexts.

A Multi-Scale Natural Scene Text Detection Method Based on Attention Feature Extraction and Cascade Feature Fusion.

Scene text detection is an important research field in computer vision, playing a crucial role in various application scenarios. However, existing scene text detection methods often fail to achieve satisfactory results when faced with text instances of different sizes, shapes, and complex backgrounds. To address the challenge of detecting diverse texts in natural scenes, this paper proposes a multi-scale natural scene text detection method based on attention feature extraction and cascaded feature fusion. This method combines global and local attention through an improved attention feature fusion module (DSAF) to capture text features of different scales, enhancing the network's perception of text regions and improving its feature extraction capabilities. Simultaneously, an improved cascaded feature fusion module (PFFM) is used to fully integrate the extracted feature maps, expanding the receptive field of features and enriching the expressive ability of the feature maps. Finally, to address the cascaded feature maps, a lightweight subspace attention module (SAM) is introduced to partition the concatenated feature maps into several sub-space feature maps, facilitating spatial information interaction among features of different scales. In this paper, comparative experiments are conducted on the ICDAR2015, Total-Text, and MSRA-TD500 datasets, and comparisons are made with some existing scene text detection methods. The results show that the proposed method achieves good performance in terms of accuracy, recall, and F-score, thus verifying its effectiveness and practicality.

Editorial Introduction: Ten Recent Diverse Texts in Welsh (and English) by Global Majority Authors

Editorial Introduction: Ten Recent Diverse Texts in Welsh (and English) by Global Majority Authors

Subtitling Hong Kong Code-Mixing and Code-Switching

Translation has largely been considered a process involving only two languages, source and target. However, plurilingual audiovisual content has proliferated over the last few decades, reflecting, as a result, the world’s linguistic intermingling. Such a plurality complicates both theoretical categorizations and translation practices. Even though multilingualism in the media has received scholarly attention, more explorations are needed to ascertain the translation processes and methods adopted to handle linguistically diverse source texts in the streaming era. The present piece of research tentatively explores the treatment given to Cantonese and English code-mixing and code-switching present in Hongkonese films and TV shows currently streamed on Netflix, the video-on-demand platform. This article probes a selection of such content and compares the original dialogues with official Chinese, English and Spanish subtitles. Preliminary results point towards a loss of linguistic diversity and nuance caused by subtitling processes. The differentiated roles that both languages originally play in creating comedic, stylistic, or emphatic effects are rarely retained, possibly affecting viewers’ reception and appreciation. This article argues that further attention should be paid to the translation and adaptation of code-mixing and code-switching present in Hongkonese creations, both by the industry and academia, if such a multilingual reality is to be portrayed successfully via subtitles.

Multimodal Contrastive Transformer for Explainable Recommendation

Explanations play an essential role in helping users evaluate results from recommender systems. Various natural language generation methods have been proposed to generate explanations for the recommendation. However, they usually suffer from two problems. First, since user-provided review text contains noisy data, the generated explanations may be irrelevant to the recommended items. Second, as lacking some supervision signals, most of the generated sentences are similar, which cannot meet the diversity and personalized needs of users. To tackle these problems, we propose a multimodal contrastive transformer (MMCT) model for an explainable recommendation, which incorporates multimodal information into the learning process, including sentiment features, item features, item images, and refined user reviews. Meanwhile, we propose a dynamic fusion mechanism during the decoding stage, which generates supervision signals to guide the explanation generation. Additionally, we develop a contrastive objective to generate diverse explainable texts. Comprehensive experiments on two real-world datasets show that the proposed model outperforms comparable explainable recommendation baselines in terms of explanation performance and recommendation performance. Efficiency analysis and robustness analysis verify the advantages of the proposed model. While ablation analysis establishes the relative contributions of the respective components and various modalities, the case study shows the working of our model from an intuitive sense.

Перцепцията на аористни форми с тематична гласна -а- вм. -о- (ново изследване)

This paper presents and analyses the results of a non-representative survey on the perception of aorist forms with an unstressed thematic vowel -a- instead of a thematic vowel -o-. My primary objective is to validate the hypothesis that the ability to identify errors of this nature in spoken language depends on the individual's perceptual style. The study encompasses diverse texts that vary in the level of concentration and attention exhibited by the listener. Four perceptual styles are employed: listening to a brief, coherent text; a simple sentence; a three-word list; and a single word. The analysis also evaluates the accuracy of the hypothesis concerning the relationship between respondents' sociodemographic characteristics and their success in identifying the error in aorist forms with an unstressed thematic vowel -a- instead of -o-.

Bridging Worlds Through Comparative Literature

This study emphasizes the critical role of comparative literary studies in understanding the modern literary process. Traditional literary analyses often overlook the rich intercultural dynamics that comparative studies highlight. Our research aims to bridge this gap by developing a theoretical framework that comprehends literary aesthetics in a globalized context through a qualitative analysis of diverse literary texts. Initial findings reveal that such a comparative approach not only deepens our understanding of universal literary themes but also enhances the appreciation of diverse cultural expressions. This work underscores the importance of integrating comparative literary studies into mainstream literary education to foster a more inclusive understanding of global literary phenomena. Highlights: Illuminates universal themes across cultures Develops new comparative literary framework Advocates comparative studies in education Keywords: Comparative Literature, Global Literary Dynamics, Contact Genetic Comparison, Aesthetic Analysis, Cultural Expressions.

AUTOMATED TEXT ANALYSIS OF HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS USING MACHINE LEARNING TECHNIQUES

This paper presents an innovative approach to the automated analysis of historical documents through the application of advanced machine learning techniques. The problem background in automated text analysis of historical documents using machine learning techniques is efficiently processing large volumes of diverse historical texts to extract valuable insights and patterns, enhancing historical research and understanding. Leveraging the power of natural language processing, this study proposes a comprehensive framework that encompasses data preprocessing, feature extraction, and model training, enabling the efficient extraction of valuable insights from vast collections of historical texts. By utilizing cutting-edge algorithms, including deep learning and sentiment analysis, the research demonstrates the potential of this approach in uncovering hidden patterns, sentiments, and semantic nuances within historical documents, thereby facilitating a deeper understanding of the past and shedding light on critical historical events and societal developments.

The impact of children's and young adult literature courses on teachers' selection of global and culturally diverse texts for the classroom

AbstractThis large‐scale survey study examined how teachers select and integrate global and culturally diverse children's and young adult literature for their classrooms. Results from the survey captured self‐reports of the selection process, suggesting if and how teachers were selecting and integrating this literature and reflecting possible influence from children's and young adult literature courses taken in teacher preparation programs. Taking general children's and young adult literature courses, and specific courses on diverse literature and global literature was found to be related to teachers' responses to questions centered on selecting, evaluating, and integrating global and culturally diverse literature. These courses may be pivotal to increase the needed integration of global and culturally diverse children's and young adult literature into secondary and elementary classroom instruction.

Использование поликодовых текстов в пособиях по подготовке к лингводидактическому тестированию на I-II сертификационные уровни по русскому языку как иностранному

The aim of the study is to determine the prospects of using visual materials for teaching Russian as a foreign language to university students based on the analysis of the dynamics of polycode texts presentation in test collections over the past 15 years. The paper provides the results of a content analysis, comparative analysis, and statistical analysis of 11 preparatory materials for testing at the First and Second Level Certificate in Russian as a foreign language (B1 and B2) published from 2008 to 2020. The scientific novelty of the study lies in analysing preparatory materials for Russian as a foreign language testing to identify the use of polycode texts, classifying the discovered polycode texts by type, exploring the dynamics of their development and proposing methods to expand their application. The findings indicate a general trend towards an increase in the quantity and variety of polycode texts in preparatory materials for Russian as a foreign language testing. In test collections for levels B1 and B2 published from 2008 to 2013, polycode texts are used only as black-and-white illustrations accompanying texts and diagrams with test tasks. Furthermore, tests for level B2 contain references to video materials for preparation for the Speaking and Writing subtests. In test collections released from 2013 to 2020, there is a significant number of diverse polycode texts for both B1 and B2 levels.

Reflection and projection: Inclusive and diverse texts in the English Language Arts curriculum

AbstractEngaging students in the reading process is challenging when they are unable to connect to texts. It is important to provide inclusive and diverse texts (IDTs) in the language arts curriculum. To promote a positive reading experience, all students need to read IDTs with non‐stereotypical depictions of girls, women, people of Color, and more. This is challenging when obstacles such as limited resources, a lack of teacher preparation to meet challenges, and stakeholder opposition to “non‐traditional” literature may hinder educators' efforts to include IDTs. Using effective instructional strategies, increasing home and school literacy connections, and providing focused teacher training can help overcome these obstacles. Literary texts that reflect multiple identities will promote a more equitable representation of all students within the classroom community. This paper discusses possible strategies and approaches for including and engaging with IDTs and resources educators can use to address instructional challenges and find high‐quality texts.

Developing an empathic analysis: Using critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry with literature to explore the issues with gender labels

AbstractBook banning and censorship in the U.S. prompts necessary conversations on how critical literacy, dialogue, and inquiry are used in various school and library settings. We share guiding questions alongside three examples of textual analyses centering on gender fluidity with three young adult novels. We believe that English language arts teachers will benefit from seeing examples of how we responded to these texts with critical analysis questions that require students to analyze gender representation and identity within the stories. By developing an empathic analysis, students can engage in this critical work within classrooms and libraries, where reading diverse texts is encouraged.

UTILIZING CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS ON DEVELOPING STUDENTS' DIGITAL LITERACY SKILLS: AN ACTION RESEARCH

In today's digital era, students need digital literacy skills to critically navigate, evaluate, and analyze a large amount of online information. Digital literacy uses digital technology to obtain, evaluate, create, and communicate information in various contexts. This research aimed to investigate the impact of CDA in improving students' digital literacy, explore the role of CDA in enhancing students' digital literacy, and identify the lecturer's strategy in using CDA for enhancing students' digital literacy. This current study used classroom action research as a research design which consisted of two cycles. The participants in this research were college students at STIE Gentiaras Lampung. The instruments of this research consisted of tests and non-test. Quantitative data was taken from students' digital literacy tests, and qualitative data were taken from observation and interviews. The findings show that CDA can improve students' digital literacy. Moreover, there were five roles of CDA in enhancing students' digital literacy: fostering critical thinking, promoting media literacy, enhancing textual analysis, encouraging social awareness, and cultivating responsible digital citizenship. The last finding is the teacher employed three strategies to improve students' digital literacy: acquainting them with the fundamental principles of CDA, selecting diverse texts for comprehensive CDA analysis, and encouraging classroom discussions. According to the findings, policymakers can consider integrating CDA into educational curricula to enhance students' digital literacy skills.

Understanding the Role of Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT) in Improving Learning Quality and Practices

Generative Pre-trained Transformers (GPTs) are an artificial intelligence model gaining popularity in educational technology development. GPTs are models that are massively trained on diverse texts and can generate texts with structure and meaning. The utilization of GPT in education offers great potential to improve the quality of learning, both inside and outside the classroom. This study aims to understand the role of GPT in improving the quality and practice of learning. This research uses a qualitative research method with a case study method. Data collection techniques in this research include literature study, interviews, and observation. Thematic analysis will be used as the main data analysis technique. The results show that GPT has the potential to be a supportive and interactive tool to increase student motivation in the learning process. The participants perceived GPT as a convenient and efficient means to access information, complete assignments, and receive personalized content tailored to their interests and learning styles.

Building a Parallel Corpus for Chinese Folk Songs Translation Studies: A Case Study of Northern Shaanxi and Hua’er Folk Songs

Folk songs, collaboratively created by the public and transmitted orally, have gained widespread popularity. The translation of folk songs primarily centers on lyrics translation, a subset of literary translation. Recent advancements in corpus technology have highlighted the significance of corpus-based research approaches for the analysis of literary translation. The corpus method, now employed as a hybrid research approach, enables the generation of quantitative data for descriptive translation studies. Scholars are increasingly using parallel corpora containing both the source text (ST) and the target text (TT) to explore translation universals across diverse texts. Despite the growing body of literature on the translation of Chinese folk songs, most studies have involved straightforward analyses of a limited number of translated texts without the utilization of quantitative approaches. This article aims to bridge this gap by presenting a prospective study on the creation of the Chinese-English Parallel Corpus of Northern Shaanxi and Hua’er Folk Songs (CEPCNSHFS). The study covers essential aspects such as sampling, corpus structure, corpora selection, and corpora processing. Moreover, to assess the practical utility of the CEPCNSHFS, a pilot study was conducted. The primary contributions of this article reside in the potential of the CEPCNSHFS to support diverse research topics, including the exploration of translation language characteristics, styles, and methods employed in translating Northern Shaanxi and Hua’er folk songs, both of which hold significant positions within Chinese folk song traditions.