COVID-19 – A SOURCE OF THREATS OR OPPORTUNITIES FOR LINGUISTIC EDUCATION?  (click to view)
Volume 2021-1(5), 80 pages
* Intro
* Contents
* Authors
* Reviewers
INTRODUCTION
Has the pandemic been a blessing or a curse for linguistic education?
The pandemic has undoubtedly reshaped the way we now perceive education. It has imposed a need to pursue new ways of learning and teaching, novel (online) educational trajectories, and â maybe most significantly â radically different forms of how we now communicate âat schoolsâ and use our language(s). What is particularly crucial to ERL Journal, though, it can be argued to have had its silver lining in that it has brought closer the two âworldsâ of linguistic and educational specialists. The former have come to view their reality in pedagogical terms as they were forced to struggle for contact with their students online and to think of ways in which their interlocutors can best be prompted and turn on their cameras and actively participate in lessons kept remotely. The latter, on the other hand have been â consciously or not â caused to reflect on issues to do with language, be it the gap between language reception and production, elicitation techniques, intralanguage, etc. Hence, the educational world of the two groups in question has substantially changed and been enriched with conceptual and didactic categories which are bound to be of use following the pandemic.
Thinking of the impact of the pandemic even more specifically, we observe that it has generated a wide range of questions intersecting pedagogy and linguistics. Many of these questions which have been posed by students themselves and they prove to encompass all the educational (ERL) domains â be it their reflection along the lines Whatâs the point of speaking (if I can just be quiet) (language(-)beliefs), How to present in words what my school friends cannot see offline? (language(-)activity), How do the others think about the way I say things online? (language(-)affect), or Can be learn all the subjects just by discussing them through the net? (language(-)thinking). Reflection on these issues has possibly raised the studentsâ language awareness, especially if their teachers have happened to render such questions and the issues they address explicit in particular classroom contexts. This being the case, we can observe here room for inevitable emergence and amplification of interdisciplinary linguistic identity across and within all school subjects and disciplines. What follows is that the remote education triggered by COVID-19 can be viewed as an opportunity to develop and extend studentsâ awareness of their linguistic identity on the axiological, psychomotor, affective, and cognitive strata.
Having exerted far-reaching impact on the entire educational world, the pandemic has taken its toll on the ERL Framework and ERL Journal itself just as well. With the ERL (live) Conferences having been put on hold till international gatherings cease to pose any threat to the participants, ERL (online) Sessions have been held, which yielded in due course some of the papers included in this volume. Prior to its publication ERL Association has hosted four online sessions. the last two of them took place in spring 2021 and concerned, respectively, threats and opportunities generated by COVID-19 for linguistic education (the very same title as that of this very volume) and linguistic well-being (which, in turn, is going to constitute the essence of Volume 6 to be published later this year). Although all four ERL Sessions attracted participants from multiple places in the world (and to enable this, each session was scheduled for two days, with the first one being more convenient for European academics, and the other â for those joining from the other hemisphere), most of the attendees reported on their struggle with teaching dominated throughout the pandemic by long hours of online classes and excessive computer work, which has made them less willing or less able to do research and produce as many scholarly papers as they had done prior to the times of the pandemic.
And yet, we have managed to compile this volume, which, despite being shorter than all the four published earlier, partially reflects the course taken by ERL Framework. It strives, as the title implies, to seek balance between the negative and positive effects of the pandemic and reflects a host of issues that COVID-19 has caused us to face on the level of language in education. On the whole, all the texts included in it jointly serve two functions: first, they emphasise the salience of the pedagogical component brought to the fore by the pandemic as noted above, and, second, they outline selected issues appearing relevant to linguistic education at the times when education comes to rest of modern technology and nearly solely online communication. At the same time, we view the set of papers and reports included here as a natural continuation of the eponymous issue of the previous ERL Journalâs volume â (Re-)Shaping Oneâs Identity with Language, with the pandemic imposing on all academics, teachers, linguists, and students a need to redefines themselves on the educational level and to start using the language(s) they know well in novel ways â through a channel they had not exploited earlier for these purposes, and by the form of Internet interaction which forces them to overcome various barriers they had had, not only technical, but also interpersonal, methodological, pedagogical, and/or linguistic.Â
CONTENTS
LOSES AND GAINS ON THE PEDAGOGICAL STRATUM
3. Laura GusiÄ – Learning language online â interaction without interaction
4. Gabriela Nedelkoska – PhD data collection challenges due to the Covid-19 crisis â a report
CHALLENGES AND PERSPECTIVES ON THE LINGUISTIC STRATUM
5. Jens Haugan – Pros and cons of teaching dead languages to black screens
8. BoĹžena HorvĂĄthovĂĄ, Martina GalbovĂĄ – Fostering function of speaking talk as performance
List of Volume 2021-1(5) Authors
List of Volume 2021-1(5) ReviewersÂ
AUTHORS
Anisa EminoviÄ-Ljevo orcid.org/0000-0002-5165-8692: BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, International University of Sarajevo. She graduated from the University of Sarajevo and obtained her BA degree in 2008. She defended her MA thesis and obtained the title of Master of Arts in English Language and Literature in 2012. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in the field of English language and literature at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the International University of Sarajevo where she has been working for the last thirteen years as an English language instructor and level coordinator at the English language school and as an adjunct instructor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences where she has been teaching Freshman English courses since 2018. aeminovic@ius.edu.ba
Martina GalbovĂĄ orcid.org/0000-0001-6745-6051: SLOVAKIA, ZĂĄkladnĂĄ ĹĄkola s materskou ĹĄkolou Ĺ˝abokreky nad Nitrou. Martina is a former student of the English Language and Literature, which is provided for university, graduates at the Department of Language Pedagogy and Intercultural Studies at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. She holds a Masterâs degree in Teacher Training of English Language and Literature from the Faculty of Education at Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra and currently teaches at a primary school. galbova.martina@gmail.com    Â
Laura GusiÄ orcid.org/0000-0003-2235-1357: CROATIA, Josip Juraj Strossmayer University of Osijek, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. Laura is an undergraduate student of the English language and literature and German language and literature. She is interested in writing and sees herself working in the English language rather than her mother tongue. gusic.laura@gmail.com
Jens Haugan orcid.org/0000-0001-9708-2038: NORWAY, Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Education, Department of Humanities. PhD (doctor artium) in Norwegian/Nordic linguistics. Jens works as an assistant professor with research mainly related to the role of Nynorsk (âNew Norwegianâ) in education and society. His main research association and network is the Educational Role of Language. jens.haugan@inn.no
BoĹžena HorvĂĄthovĂĄ orcid.org/0000-0002-0611-2623: SLOVAKIA, Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Faculty of Education. BoĹžena is an Associate Professor at the Department of Language Pedagogy and Intercultural Studies PF UKF in Nitra. She is an English and German speaking scholar, who focuses on research in applied linguistics, language pedagogy, language learning strategies, methods in researching and teaching language learning strategies and implementing language learning strategies into foreign language textbooks. bhorvathova@ukf.sk
Emina LagumdĹžija orcid.org/0000-0003-0502-8152: BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, International University of Sarajevo. She graduated from the University of Sarajevo and obtained her BA degree in 2002. She defended her MA thesis and obtained the title of Master of Arts in English Language and Literature in 2013. Currently, she is a PhD candidate in the field of English language and literature at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the International University of Sarajevo where she has been working for the last fourteen years as an English language instructor and level coordinator at the English language school and as an adjunct instructor at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences where she has been teaching Freshman English courses since 2018. elagumdzija@ius.edu.ba
Luisito M. Nanquil orcid.org/0000-0001-8501-0731, PHILIPPINES, Bulacan State University. Luisito is an associate professor of language and linguistics. He teaches professional courses in education and linguistics at Bulacan State university. His research interests are TESOL, educational leadership, language and culture, curriculum and instructional design, and educational linguistics. He holds doctorate degrees in Educational Leadership and English Language Studies. Furthermore, he obtained TESOL Diplomas from London Teacher Training College and Concordia International College. luisito.nanquil@bulsu.edu.ph
Gabriela Nedelkoska (orcid.org/0000-0002-5529-4902): NORTH MACEDONIA. Gabriela is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Foreign Languages, FON University. She graduated from the Faculty of Philology âBlaze Koneskiâ, âSs. Cyril and Methodiusâ University, Skopje, and obtained her MA at the same institution. She is currently working on her PhD thesis entitled Vocabulary Learning Strategies Used by University Students in an ESP Context at the New Bulgarian University, Sofia. Her research interests are mainly in the field of EFL methodology, focusing on crosslinguistic influence, individual learnersâ characteristics and their cognitive development. She teaches Modern English, Contrastive Analysis, English for special purposes, British and American civilization etc. gabriela.nedelkoska@fon.edu.mk
Eva PechoÄiakovĂĄ SvitaÄovĂĄ https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7201-6691: SLOVAKIA, Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Faculty of Economics and Management. Eva is a member of the Department of Social Sciences. She deals with Sociology, Ethics, Business Ethics, Philosophy and Ecophilosophy in educational process. Besides lecturing, she participates at domestic and international research projects, domestic and international conferences and creates study texts. In teaching as well as in the research projects, she pays attention to social-philosophical questions and moral problems of societies where economies are based on market economy, as well as to the global education, multicultural education in order to achieve more complex preparation of future economists for responsible actions in a globalizing market, as well as to the social and moral problems of youth at countryside. eva.svitacova@uniag.sk
Robert P. Yagelski orcid.org/0000-0001-9564-5204: USA, University at Albany (State University of New York), School of Education, is the Dorothy G. Griffin Professor of English Education in the Department of Educational Theory and Practice. He is also an affiliated faculty member of the Department of English. He directs the Program in Writing and Critical Inquiry and teaches in the PhD programs in English and in Curriculum and Instruction. His current research investigates the ontological dimensions of writing and the connections between writing and well-being. He has also studied revision strategies and formal error in the writing of adolescent students, the uses of technology in writing instruction, and the analytical strategies college students employ in their writing. He is the author of two scholarly books, six college writing textbooks, and numerous scholarly articles on writing theory and pedagogy. ryagelski@albany.edu
REVIEWERS
Anita Bright (Oregon, Portland State University)
Ivana Cimermanova (Slovakia, University of Presov)
Oumaima Elghazali (Morocco, Mohammed V University)
Antonia Estrela (Portugal, Higher School of Education of the Polytechnic School of Lisbon)
Viola Gjylbegaj (United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi University)
Tatjana GluĹĄac (Serbia, University of Novi Sad)
Yasunari Harada (Japan, Wesada University)
Lulzime Kamberi (North Macedonia, University of Tetova)
Valerija KriĹžaniÄ (Croatia, University of Osijek)
Byeonggon Min (South Korea, Seoul National University)
DionĂŠia Monte-Serrat (Brasil, University of Campinas)
Marija SabliÄ (Croatia, University of Osijek)
Maria Sagrario Salaberri Ramiro (Spain, University of Almeria)
Agnieszka Szplit (Poland, The Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce)
Alina Tenescu (Romania, University of Craiova)
Dorothy Valcarcel Craig (Tennessee, Middle Tennessee State University)
Ana Werkmann Horvat (Croatia, University of Osijek)