English Blogs Research Articles

ФОРМУВАННЯ АНГЛОМОВНОЇ КОМПЕТЕНТНОСТІ В ЧИТАННІ УЧНІВ 10-ГО КЛАСУ ЗАСОБАМИ БЛОГ-РЕСУРСІВ

Background. The article explores the effectiveness of utilizing English blogs as a tool to enhance reading competence among 10th- grade students in a secondary school. Drawing on insights from literature and lesson observations during teaching internships, it is noted that Ukrainian 10th grade students face significant challenges when applying their knowledge of English vocabulary and grammar to speaking activities. Purpose. The primary objective of this paper is to investigate the pedagogical essence and practical value of incorporating blogs into English language classes in secondary school, to establish methodological principles for the formulation of a comprehensive set of tasks and exercises aimed at enhancing blog reading skills among 10th-grade students. The methodology relies on the critical analysis of existing research on the topic and the authors' personal experiences in utilizing blogs for teaching reading. The formulation of tasks and exercises with the goal of enhancing English language competence in reading for 10th-grade students is grounded in a synthesis of research insights. Specifically, Pahomova and Halchenko's work on types of reading (Pahomova, Halchenko 2015), Campbell's blog typology (Campbell, 2003), and the discerning selection of content developed by Bax (2003) collectively inform this initiative. The integration of these research perspectives is harmonized with the stipulated guidelines of the Ministry of Science and Education of Ukraine. This comprehensive approach ensures a scientifically rigorous and pedagogically sound framework for the advancement of reading proficiency within the specified educational context. Results and discussion. In the context of learning English as a foreign language in secondary schools, the use of blogs has emerged as a valuable language learning tool. However, the effective integration of blogs within an instructional framework and the current research findings on their use as a learning tool pose unresolved challenges for teachers. Therefore, this paper provides a comprehensive review of research on the use of blogs in English learning contexts. The study introduces blogs and establishes a theoretical framework for their utilization within the parameters of complex and competency-based approaches. The literature review on the discussed topic reveals that blogging, as a communicative activity, is advantageous for developing reading competence in 10th-grade students, provided it is not excessively employed in the classroom. A set of tasks and exercises designed for reading blogs in the 10th grade must incorporate contextual communicative situations, augment students' lexical repertoire, cultivate grammatical competence, and facilitate the training of intricate phonetic instances. Blogging encourages students to express themselves, fostering self-confidence and providing an opportunity to practice social behavior rules during communication. Furthermore, this technique enhances students' creativity and fluency through active participation in various communicative situations presented in the English language class. Research confirms that employing English blogs in teaching reading to secondary school students can effectively modernize the educational process and motivate learners for intercultural communication. The potential for further research lies in developing a set of tasks based on the national curriculum for 10th- grade students.

The effect of using english blog on students’ writing ability in narrative text at tenth grade of MAN Labuhanbatu

The objective of this research is the effect of using English blog on students’ writing ability in narrative text at tenth grade of MAN Labuhanbatu in the Academic Year 2020/2021. This research is quantitative experimental research methods. The design used in this research quasi experimental and used the Nonequivalent Control Group Design model. The sample used is purposive sampling from 4 classes X MIPA. The sample was used is X MIPA 1 as experiment class and X MIPA 2 as control class which has a subject 71 students. Instrument for collecting data were the tests namely pretest and posttest. The results of this research show that used of using English blog was there is any effect on student’s writing at MAN Labuhanbatu in the academic year 2020/2021. The researcher found out that increasing of experimental class which got mean 65.8 on pretest and got mean 74.4 on posttest. Because t count value higher than t table (2.969 > 1.667), means it Ha is accepted and Ho is rejected. Keywords: Using English Blog, Writing Ability

Мобильные технологии в развитии межкультурной компетенции студентов-международников в рамках занятий по иностранному языку

This article provides qualitative and quantitative data to establish the effectiveness of virtual tools as a means of developing intercultural competence in students of international relations at foreign language classes. Intercultural competence is known to be crucial for this field of studies. However, no teaching technologies exist for its development at foreign language classes, and available research publications on this issue fail to take into account the current state and mechanisms of global communication. The empirical part of this study involved a survey of students of international relations during the first term of 2021–2022. The author compared their performance in class and during extracurricular activities, where they had to maintain an English blog. A total of 93 second- and third-year students (experimental + control groups) took part in the trial training, and 50 people (28 students, 22 teachers) participated in the independent assessment of the technology. The blog operating process was divided according to types of virtual intercultural communication (oral-written, mixed, and oral) and followed the academic program. The independent assessment was performed by academic staff and students who didn't participate in the experiment, but were able to observe. They unanimously approved of the new technology and defined the prospects of its further implementation. Blogging in a foreign language proved to be an efficient technology for developing intercultural competence in university students majoring in international relations.

Гендерные особенности передачи экспертного мнения при оказании речевого воздействия в англоязычной интернет-коммуникации в период пандемии

The article is devoted to the identification of gender peculiarities in applying the strategy of expert opinion demonstration as one of the ways to manipulate recipients on the Internet. On the basis of linguistic analysis of English blogs with expert content selected by the method of continuous sampling, specific speech tactics which express gender identity in the process of expert opinion presentation are characterized. The interdependence between the functional load of the blogs and the speech tools used by the bloggers is established and analyzed. It was revealed that female experts implemented the tactics of uncertainty, justification and intimacy expressed in conditional sentences, just to convey hesitation, means of semantic hyperbolization of speech, appeal to another person's opinion and the results of other people's research, quotes, dialogicity of utterances in the blogs. The blogs created by male experts featured implementation of the tactics of we-community, knowledge demonstration, intimidation, beliefs with high degree of textual cohesion, description of negative scenario in case of the expert's recommendations ignoring, rhetorical questions and adverb instead embedding, negative constructions and verbs in the imperative mood. The identified tactics and speech means used for these tactics implementation are qualified as gender markers of manipulative influence on the user through the expression of expert opinion.

Advances in real-time social listening for an adaptive public health response: WHO’s EARS platform

BackgroundCOVID-19 pandemic was accompanied by an Infodemic (overabundance of information, including misinformation and disinformation, both online and offline); in response to this Infodemic, WHO launched the EARS platform (Early AI-assisted Response with Social Listening), showing real-time information about how people are talking about COVID-19 online. This information is intended to serve health information professionals to understand narratives and needs of the general public, in order to inform policy or communications decisions.MethodsData is collected daily from online conversations in publicly available sources, including Twitter, online forums, and blogs in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, for 20 pilot countries. Once the data is collected, it is processed and classified into 39 categories, according to a set of pandemic public health taxonomy. The classification is made based on semi-supervised machine learning.ResultsTop 5 categories across regions are Covid-19 vaccine, Transmission settings, Personal measures, Testing and Industry (industry refers to the impact of the pandemic on the economy). We find that conversations around Covid-19 vaccines usually rank in the second or third position in all regions and represent 9%-12% of the conversation.ConclusionsThe configuration and application of the EARS platform has enabled progress towards more scalable and sustainable social listening to inform Infodemic management and response, compared to previous methods which were more manual, required data scientists in the team, or had fewer analytics capabilities. Future work will focus on gradually adding more data sources which can expand coverage and representativity.Key messages Discuss social listening methods for greater accountability to affected populations.Formulate insights into how digital media and information technology can be better utilized for more rapidly responding to the evolving needs of communities.

Contents and quality of travel tips on malaria in English and Spanish travel blogs

BackgroundEurope has about 10,000 imported cases of malaria each year, or around 80 cases per 100,000 trips to endemic areas. Non-use of chemoprophylaxis in travellers remains the main reason for this. The proliferation of online travel blogs as a source of advice (sometimes the only one used) for preparing a trip to an endemic area may play a role in the decision to use chemoprophylaxis. The aim of this study was to analyse the information offered on malaria in the main travel blogs in English and Spanish.MethodsFive hundred travel blogs in English and 100 in Spanish, considered highly relevant were analysed. The relevance were according to different metrics: (1) Alexa Rank; (2) social networks (RRSS) measuring the total followers of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube; (3) number of monthly visits using the SEMrush tool; (4) domain authority; and (5) number of backlinks or incoming links using the SEMrush tool.ResultsOf the included travel blogs, 57% of those in English and 64% of those in Spanish offered information on malaria, and 79 and 75%, respectively, featured a discussion on malaria written as a blog post or in forum comments. Information on chemoprophylaxis was available in 56.1% of English-language blogs and 10.7% of Spanish-speaking blogs, while its side effects were discussed in 38.6 and 68.8%, respectively (p < 0.001). Content analysis revealed that the information was usually insufficient, incomplete or, more seriously, inaccurate. In many cases, this could discourage users from taking appropriate preventive measures.ConclusionsTravel blogs in English and Spanish provide low-quality information on malaria. The so-called “travel influencers” must communicate reliable, verified and quality information on malaria on their channels in a way that could contribute to reducing the burden of the disease in travellers.

Binary background model with geometric mean for author-independent authorship verification

Authorship verification (AV) is one of the main problems of authorship analysis and digital text forensics. The classical AV problem is to decide whether or not a particular author wrote the document in question. However, if there is one and relatively short document as the author’s known document, the verification problem becomes more difficult than the classical AV and needs a generalised solution. Regarding to decide AV of the given two unlabeled documents (2D-AV), we proposed a system that provides an author-independent solution with the help of a Binary Background Model (BBM). The BBM is a supervised model that provides an informative background to distinguish document pairs written by the same or different authors. To evaluate the document pairs in one representation, we also proposed a new, simple and efficient document combination method based on the geometric mean of the stylometric features. We tested the performance of the proposed system for both author-dependent and author-independent AV cases. In addition, we introduced a new, well-defined, manually labelled Turkish blog corpus to be used in subsequent studies about authorship analysis. Using a publicly available English blog corpus for generating the BBM, the proposed system demonstrated an accuracy of over 90% from both trained and unseen authors’ test sets. Furthermore, the proposed combination method and the system using the BBM with the English blog corpus were also evaluated with other genres, which were used in the international PAN AV competitions, and achieved promising results.

EFL Student Writers‘ Engagement Strategies in Technology-Mediated Communication

The pivotal role of readers/audience in helping shape students’ writing has led to attempts to engage them in their composition. This reader awareness is further enhanced with the integration of Web 2.0 technology, say blogs, into writing pedagogy. This study aims to investigate the engagement strategies EFL writers employ in their blogs, and the readers’ responses toward the strategies. In this content analysis study, twenty-seven learning English blog entries retrieved from three student bloggers were analyzed using Hyland’s (2005) and Myers’ (2010) engagement strategies. The findings reveal the student bloggers’ use of almost all the eleven engagement strategies proposed in the model albeit the extent of which varied depending on the type of the blog post, their personal background, and writing purposes. The use of such strategies as “Pronoun” and “Image” drew numerous comments from readers on the blogs, implying a strong sense of readership. It is thus recommended for EFL writing teachers to introduce varieties of engagement strategies within digitally-mediated writing environments to their students to enhance reader/writer interactions.

Metaphorical Analysis of Discourse on Early Saudi Attempts to Include Women in Unconventional Work Environments

Objective - This paper examines empirically the discourse on social change as represented in gender-related posts on English blogs written by Saudi bloggers. Slightly more than a decade ago, Saudi women were allowed and encouraged by the government to work in unconventional work environments (outside the fields of education and health care); this stirred controversy across the country. Methodology/Technique – This analysis is based on an understanding of discourse as both shaping and being shaped by social and cognitive contexts. In so doing, it approaches the data from a socio-cognitive perspective with a focus on the mental models underlying the discursive representations at hand. The adopted methodology is based on metaphor analysis due to the inherently cognitive nature of metaphors. Consequently, an eclectic approach combining insights from conceptual metaphor theory and critical theory analysis is used. Finding – Data analysis reveals two main findings. First, change is constructed cognitively as challenging and demanding for both women aspiring to work in unconventional professions and their supporters on authoritative and non-authoritative levels. This, however, clashes with the second finding, as in these blogs women are metaphorically constructed in an objectifying and victimizing manner. Novelty – Such a mismatch calls for a careful examination of some gender constraining cognitive constructions as they are, surprisingly, constructed and reproduced even within discourse attempting to empower women. Type of Paper: Empirical. JEL Classification: M14, Q56 Keywords: Social Change; Critical Discourse Analysis; Women’s Empowerment; Metaphor Analysis Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Maghlouth, S.A. (2021). Metaphorical Analysis of Discourse on Early Saudi Attempts to Include Women in Unconventional Work Environments, GATR Global J. Bus. Soc. Sci. Review, 9(1): 01 – 09. https://doi.org/10.35609/gjbssr.2021.9.1(1)

INSIDE OUT OF A TRAVEL BLOG: THE ROLE OF METONYMY THROUGH THE ASPECT PART-FOR-PART IN TEXT GENRE TRAVEL BLOG

This paper discusses travel blogs as informative textual genres that convey to the reader a range of attitudes, feelings, impressions, and actions of the author in the author's own words. The analysis of travel blogs as a text genre offers insight into the schema and structure of texts that reproduce tourist experiences by reconstructing their stories for their readers. The study presents a brief text linguistic analysis of 10 travel blogs classified into the text type Assertive, sub-type Informative. As an introduction to the schema and structure of travel blogs, a very brief analysis is conducted at the communicativepragmatic and thematic levels. The main aim of this research is to identify and investigate the role of metonymy in the textual genre of travel blogs. The analysis of the examples is based on the definitions of contemporary cognitive linguistics research. The examples of metonymy were extracted from the selected corpus of 10 travel blogs in English about the travel destination Dubrovnik (https://alittleadrift.com) and the metonymic situation part -for-part metonymy in the action domain- tense for a particular action was analyzed and described by the following occurrences: a) Present perfect for a perfective action; b) Present simple for a factual state; c) Past simple for a completed action. The results show that predicative adjectives in travel blogs perform the function of a predicate or relative clause. Metonymy Part-for-part relations in the tense system lead to conventionalized use of tenses. The metonymic use of tenses in the travel blog text genre is based on conventions, syntagms and lexical units used in tourism communication. The role of metonymy in the cases described was to activate the aspect of an action represented by predicates, thus enabling a more accurate understanding of the actions described in the travel blogs.

Online Social Networks and Writing Styles–A Review of the Multidisciplinary Literature

In recent years, author identification has become an active research area, where the major differences are caused by paper or online medium, mode of entry and target audience. Much research has been devoted to analyzing writing styles in handwritten, word-processed and online social networks (OSN) texts. Word processing editors that typically include spell and grammar checkers may influence the writing style as it allows an individual to edit a piece of text to perfection. Thus, similarities may exist between OSN and word-processed texts. Moreover, none of the studies to date have made a detailed comparison of the writing styles across multidisciplinary factors. This paper attempts to close the gap between the writing styles in pre- and post-Internet periods as well as provide an in-depth comparison of the writing styles in OSN texts across three major factors: demographics, personality & behavior, and cybersecurity. The aim is to learn from past literature as we advance these techniques to OSN texts. Thus, in this paper, we also propose a novel machine learning prediction model based on tense morphology, to classify age and gender from English blogs, and the PAN 2013 dataset. This model achieves an accuracy of 94%-98% and 95%-97% for age and gender, respectively.

“Mijn stoma is een #superstoma”

Abstract In this article we present a micro-analysis of 27 English blogs of people who reflect on their illness experience and the ostomy surgery they had to undergo as a result of that illness. We adopt an approach based on two related perspectives: conversation analysis and discursive psychology. Both perspectives consider language as a tool for social action. Our findings demonstrate that the discourse of the blogs serves three important social functions. First, the bloggers are able to describe how they have managed their ill-health for a long time, and how ostomy surgery became an inevitable next step. Second, bloggers can demonstrate their acceptance of the ostomy bag in embodied and personified ways (e.g., naming their bag) as well as emphasizing a return to a new normal. Third, ostomates present their stoma as a transformational occurrence. They do so by emphasizing extraordinary achievements in their lives after their stoma surgery and by displaying a strong normative claim to act as a role model. With this micro-analysis we have attempted to uncover how ostomates engage in identity work vis-à-vis their illness and how this is accomplished in the discourse of their blogs. This fine-grained analysis may be of importance to fellow ostomates and medical professionals, as it highlights the main concerns of ostomates in their experiential account of ostomy surgery.

Academic bloggers, commenters, lurkers and non-bloggers: how and why in-service English teachers blog

ABSTRACTTwenty-first-century literacy skills require teachers to engage students with digital tools in meaningful ways – it is also imperative that teachers utilise these skills themselves to enhance their abilities to address these skills effectively in their classrooms. In this article, the researchers disseminate the results of a qualitatively driven study in which eight National Writing Project in-service English teachers were interviewed and lesson plan data were collected with a focus on blogging practices. Ultimately, the results of this study are structured to showcase how teachers used blogs for professional development and how this participation influenced their definition of twenty-first-century literacies and their instructional practice. The results indicated the need to emphasise the collaborative and communicative components of twenty-first-century literacy skills and the need for teachers to engage in these practices.

ОСНОВНЫЕ ЛИНГВОКОГНИТИВНЫЕ ОСОБЕННОСТИ ДИСКУРСА ТРЕВЕЛ-БЛОГОВ: СТИМУЛИРОВАНИЕ ПОЗНАВАТЕЛЬНЫХ ИНТЕНЦИЙ, САМОПРЕЗЕНТАЦИЯ, САМОКОММУНИКАЦИЯ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА)

In the article, the author reveals some aspects of the linguo-cognitive peculiarities of travel blog discourse, substantiates the relevance of studying these features in the light of current researches and analyses domain databases and conceptual spheres. Attention is focused on linguistic ways of implementing strategies to stimulate cognitive intents, ways of a person’s self-presentation in travel blogs, as well as on some aspects of self-communication. Theoretical propositions are illustrated by examples from the most popular travel blogs in English.

Linguistic Marking of Interactionality of Stance in the English Blog Discourse

The present article approaches the notion of stance as an interactive and dynamic discursive phenomenon that is constructed in the process of communication through a sequence of contributions by stance-takers. The linguistic resources (lexical, grammatical and stylistic) which the speakers have at their disposal for articulating their stances have been examined and classified according to their social and pragmatic potential. The material of the research is based on online written messages taken from popular American blogs.

A Multidimensional Analysis of Pakistani and U.S. English blogs and columns

Abstract The present study is a Multidimensional Analysis (MDA) of English blogs and newspaper columns originating from Pakistan and the U.S. using MDA dimensions reported in Grieve et al. (2010): (i) Informational versus Personal Focus; (ii) Addressee Focus; (iii) Thematic Variation; and (iv) Narrative Style. The aim is to examine regional and/or functional variation among Pakistani and U.S. English blogs and columns and its possible causes. The results show that Pakistani and U.S. columns differ significantly from each other, while blogs have less significant differences. Further investigation into sub-categories of blogs reveals significant differences among technology blogs, while news blogs and individual blogs differ less significantly. An examination of possible causes shows that geographical origin, the situational characteristics of the register, and the internet as a medium play a role in variation. It is further suggested that internet registers might be evolving rapidly with the fast-changing landscape of products and services on the internet.

Charlie Hebdo’s controversial cartoons in question: stances, translational narratives and identity construction from a cross-linguistic perspective

ABSTRACTCharlie Hebdo, a synonym for the universal cause of liberty and freedom of the Press, gained international attention after the terrorist attack of January 2015. However, Charlie Hebdo through its particular humour, which is both culture-bound and ideology-oriented, triggered anger and indignation, mainly after the publication of cartoons portraying little Aylan, the symbol of refugees’ tragedy, and in particular, the one which depicted him as “an ass groper”. This article sets out to investigate from a cross-linguistic and cross-cultural viewpoint reactions that the most controversial cartoon triggered, while considering both the socio-political context of the event and examining the crisscrossing and competing narratives it gave rise to. In doing so, the study draws heavily on the narrative theory of translation [Baker, Mona. 2006. Translation and Conflict: A Narrative Account. London: Routledge, Baker, Mona. 2007. “Reframing Conflict in Translation.” Social Semiotics 17 (2): 151–169, Baker, Mona. 2010. “Narratives of Terrorism and Security: ‘Accurate’ Translations, Suspicious Frames’.” Critical Studies on Terrorism 3 (3): 347–364] and uses concepts and methods from Critical Discourse Analysis, and semiotic approaches to cartoon translation. Working with a trilingual corpus composed of articles from various French, English and Greek online newspapers and blogs, it first delineates the theoretical framework, the methodological approach applied and then it proceeds with the analysis of stancetaking as deployed in headlines and examines from a contrastive viewpoint the competing translational narratives in English and Greek data.

The Use of Blogs in Learning English as a Foreign Language

Accepted: 30.03.2014 Within the context of English as a foreign language (EFL), using blogs has emerged as a language learning tool. However, how teachers effectively incorporate blogs within the confines of an instructional framework and what the current research shows about using blogs as a learning tool remain unsolved issues. Thus, the current paper presents a review of the research on the use of blogs in EFL learning contexts. The study first introduces blogs and a theoretical framework for the use of blogs within the borders of the constructivist approach. Then, in accordance with the studies reviewed, the research is divided into the following five sections: effects on (1) the awareness of the target culture, (2) interaction and communication, (3) basic language skills, (4) learners’ motivation, perceptions and attitudes, and (5) autonomous learning. In conclusion, while the current literature reflects that using blogs is a valuable and effective technique that can be readily used in the context of EFL, more research is necessary. Finally, the paper ends with practical recommendations for EFL teachers and researchers.

Appraisal PageRank for Arabic and English Blogs: Comparative Study

comparative study is made between Arabic and English Blogs. The difference between Arabic and English blogs starts with their Pagerank. The question to answer in this paper is Do the Arab blogger benefits from the search engine optimizer properties or not? In other words does the user cares for Pagerank? This question rises after the fame that the social media in general and blogs in specific have played during the political changes in Middle East region. Using a corpus of Arabic & English blogs, their content & link properties that effect the Pagerank score to answer the question (to prove or deny whether our assumption is true or not). The results obtained showed that there is a huge difference between Arabic & English blogs in terms of Page rank and content.

The impact of blogging on Hong Kong primary school students' bilingual reading literacy

&lt;span&gt;This study looked at the types of blog consulted by 1,298 Primary 4 students in Hong Kong and whether such consultation influenced performance on standardised tests of Chinese and English reading comprehension. When students were asked if they consulted Chinese and English blogs, 42% said they looked at Chinese blogs and 19% said they looked at English blogs. This difference was anticipated since Chinese is the mother tongue of most primary school students in Hong Kong and English is a second language. The themes of sites consulted were categorised into types: the Chinese blogs being able to be categorised into three types, and the English blogs into two. Boys and girls differed in their choice of Chinese and English blog topics and the strength of the students' Chinese and English reading proficiency clearly had some influence on the choice of blogs consulted. Factor analysis was used to group together types of blog and analysis of variance was applied to test differences in performance. With over half of the students saying they did not consult either Chinese or English blogs, it is unwise to draw weighty conclusions about the influence of blogging on reading standards. There was little evidence that regularly consulting the Internet was associated with high grades on either Chinese or English reading tests. Given the large number of students who said they had never consulted blogs, discussion of the analytical outcomes and conclusions are guarded but recommendations are offered.&lt;/span&gt;