Sustainable Multilingualism / Darnioji daugiakalbystė

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS FOR MANUSCRIPTS

2023-11-29T16:56:17+02:00

Articles are submitted electronically at the following address https://ejournals.vdu.lt/index.php/SM/

Articles follow the 7^th edition of Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA[1]) and are subjected to double peer-review and selected for publication on the basis of the following criteria:

the study is thematically relevant to the aim of the journal;
original, previously unpublished, not submitted to other journals during the evaluation process, ethical parameters highlighted;
presents empirical analysis or in-depth theoretical consideration;
contains basic structural elements:

o Empirical study – introduction, background, aim, research parameters (sample, method, instrument), ethics, findings, discussion, conclusions, implications, references.

o Conceptual study – introduction, background, aim, method, ethics, reflection and discussion, conclusions, insights, references.

focuses on an acute research problem;
is of adequate stylistic and linguistic quality.

[1] https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/

LIP SYNCHRONY OF BILABIAL CONSONANTS IN THE LITHUANIAN DUBBED LIVE-ACTION FILM A DOG'S WAY HOME

2023-07-22T15:24:04+03:00

This article explores the intricate nature of lip synchrony in dubbing as an audiovisual translation mode, highlighting its significance beyond aesthetic considerations. Often overlooked during the translation process for dubbing, the mismatch between auditory and visual signals caused by unsynchronized lip movements can have a negative impact on speech perception. Moreover, with the constant rise of audiovisual content, achieving satisfactory lip synchrony remains a crucial challenge that demands attention. Although scholars such as Fodor (1976) and Chaume (2012) have recognized the importance of bilabial consonants in maintaining lip synchrony, there is a notable research gap specifically focusing on this aspect within the Lithuanian dubbed industry. To address this gap, this study investigates the lip synchrony of bilabial consonants in the Lithuanian dubbed version of the live-action film A Dog's Way Home (2019). By employing a comparative research approach that integrates qualitative and quantitative analyses, the study draws on theoretical perspectives presented by McGurk and MacDonald (1976), Fodor (1976), Chaume (2004, 2012), and Koverienė (2015). The analysis of the cinematographic shots reveals that only a small percentage (19%) of the bilabial phonemes in the source language utterances were visually prominent instances, and consequently chosen for detailed examination of lip synchrony. This finding suggests that strict adherence to lip synchrony may not be crucial in numerous instances, allowing translators to have greater flexibility in their approach. The target language utterances demonstrate a relatively high percentage (approximately 76%) of synchronous cases for bilabials, particularly in proper names and international words. However, the research also reveals additional 94 instances of bilabials in the target language that were not found in the source language utterances, leading to dischronemes. Therefore, audiovisual translators are urged to consider not only how to maintain the lip synchrony of bilabial consonants in the target language, but also how to avoid the emergence of new bilabials.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN LANGUAGE EDUCATION: A BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS

2023-06-25T14:15:17+03:00

Artificial Intelligence (AI) occupies a transforming role in education, including language teaching and learning. Using bibliometric analysis, this study aims to overview the most recent research related to the use of AI in language education. Specifically, it reviews the existing body of research, productivity in this field in terms of authors and countries, co-authorship, most cited references and most popular journals that publish on this topic. Furthermore, the study also analyses the most common keywords and extracts relevant terms that reveal trending topics. For the period between 2018 and 2022, 2,609 documents were retrieved from the Web of Science database. The results showed that each year a consistent number of publications on the application of AI in language education appears. Scholars from China and the USA have been revealed to be most productive. Computer Assisted Language Learning contains the highest number of publications. Within the research on the use of AI in language education, the most targeted language-learning aspects were acquisition, motivation, performance, vocabulary, instruction, feedback, and impact. The analysis of the most common keywords related to AI-based solutions showed that mobile-assisted language learning, virtual reality, augmented reality, elements of gamification, games, social robots, machine translation, intelligent tutoring systems, chatbots, machine learning, neural networks, automatic speech recognition, big data, and deep learning were most popular.

ANALYSIS OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHERS´ ATTITUDES TOWARDS DIGITAL TEACHING IN THE EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES

2023-09-25T12:54:06+03:00

In the present era, both learning and teaching, including foreign language learning (FLL) and teaching, are being radically influenced by a massive implementation of digital technologies. The purpose of this study is to analyze foreign language teachers’ attitudes towards the use of technologies in foreign language teaching across Europe and to identify clear implications for their efficient implementation. The methodology of this study includes a mixed-method research design (quantitative and qualitative) with a survey conducted with altogether 234 foreign language (FL) teachers from different universities across Europe. The results clearly show that FL teachers generally have a positive attitude towards the use of technologies in their classes and that they frequently use them in their teaching since they can make students more engaged in learning a foreign language. In fact, the FL teachers have always been at the forefront of innovative approaches to teaching and learning. In spite of this, they admit that they would welcome more professional support from the management of their home institutions and demand training in the use of new technologies. The results of the research also indicate that special attention should be paid to the lack of personal contact, students' reactions, and the expression of emotions, which is difficult and almost impossible to achieve through the use of digital media. These findings are unique since they aim specifically at current FL teachers´ attitudes and needs across Europe and can be utilized by stakeholders and FLL course designers. Moreover, they can also be extended to a larger scale, i.e., the global level.

EDITORIAL

2023-11-29T16:46:14+02:00

Dear Sustainable Multilingualism community,

Welcome to the 23rd issue of the journal. The period between the last two issues of 2023 was marked by several significant moments in the history of the journal, from tragic, unexpected, and sad—reminding us of the impermanence of life—to moments of accomplishment, allowing us to experience a sense of acknowledgement, success, and achievement.

On the 29th of May 2023, the world lost an inspirational and courageous fighter for justice, equity and language rights, promoter of linguistic diversity and advocate for the rights of marginalized communities, an eminent scholar, prof. dr. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas. Professor was an honorable member of our Editorial Board since 2017, when both renown defenders of linguistic human rights in the world – Tove Skutnabb-Kangas and prof. emeritus Robert Phillipson – gave their keynote speeches in our international conference Sustainable Multilingualism 2017 and published their research in the journal in 2018. Her active involvement in “indigenous people’s and minorities’ struggle for linguistic human rights and in counteracting linguistic and cultural genocide, linguistic imperialism, and substractive spread of English” (Tove-Skutnabb Kangas, 2023), incredible corpus of research, published worldwide and translated into over 60 languages (see more at www.tove-skutnabb-kangas.org/), as well as her personal commitment and energy, refusal to compromise while solving language preservation issues is the greatest legacy for future generations. The Tributes received from a countless number of people worldwide and shared with us by courtesy of prof. Robert Phillipson (personal correspondence) witness that “She will forever be remembered as a fierce advocate of the wretched of the earth and a prophetic voice against injustice and suffering”, as a “giant intellectual who spoke her truth fearlessly”, and “a source of inspiration and energy” not only to the scholars of linguistic human rights but also to “the speakers whose linguistic rights were restored, even partially, by her thoughts and actions.” As Tove-Skutnabb Kangas wrote in the Afterword: Pursuing Linguistic Human Rights for the Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights (2023, p. 679–687), a recent landmark publication exploring the intersection of human rights and languages, “showing the way forward is a primary goal of the Handbook of LHRs” so was her life, showing the way forward, to all of us.

During this period there have been some changes in the membership of the Editorial Board. Michael Kelly, Emeritus Professor of French at the University of Southampton, a member of the Editorial Board since the first issue of the journal, decided to withdraw from the Editorial Board, having admitted being no longer close to the current academic and policy debates after the retirement from full-time academic duties. Professor expressed his delight that the journal had progressed so well and wished us “every success in the next phase of your exciting venture” (from personal correspondence). We are grateful for the support and contribution received during these ten years and wish our dear professor Michael Kelly all the best in his future endeavors.

Despite this, there is some bright news worth sharing. Three renown researchers have accepted our invitation to become the journal’s Editorial Board members. It is my pleasure to congratulate Enrica Piccardo, a professor in the Languages and Literacies Education Program and the Director of the Centre for Educational Research in Languages and Literacies, University of Toronto – an internationally recognized researcher in Second/Foreign Language learning and teaching, plurilingualism and mediation, known for the impact of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) on language teaching and assessment, complexity theories, and creativity in language acquisition; professor dr. Ina Druviete, the Vice-rector of the Humanities and Educational Sciences in the University of Latvia, a researcher in the Latvian Language Institute of the University of Latvia, whose research focuses on education policy, language policy, sociolinguistics, Latvian language and ethnopolitics as well as language use in higher education; and Ugnius Vizgirda Mikucionis, assoc. prof. dr. at the Department of Language, Literature, Mathematics and Interpreting of Western Norway University of Applied Sciences, whose research areas include Norwegian and Scandinavian linguistics, Old Norse literature and mythology, teaching Norwegian as a foreign language in different contexts. We hope that our new colleagues will bring the latest cutting-edge ideas to the journal policy and will contribute to maintaining and increasing its high standards.

Another significant moment that will have an imprint in the journal history was the 7^th international conference Sustainable Multilingualism 2023, which was held on June 9–10 at Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania and provided a common platform for researchers, language policy makers, language teachers, students, and anyone interested in discussing and sharing their expertise in the key issues of multilingualism, including but not limited to such themes as “Multilingualism and Society,” “Language Education and Plurilingual Competence Development”, “Multilingualism and Professional Practice”, “Contemporary Lithuanian Language Studies”, and others. The conference attracted over 150 participants from over 20 countries of the world, who presented around a hundred presentations (see “Book of Abstracts”) on their current research and participated in conference discussions, including a Round Table discussion “The Importance of Language in Higher Education Teaching”, as a part of the multiplier event of Erasmus + APATCHE (Adding Plurilingual Approaches to language Teacher Competences in Higher Education) project. Many researchers who presented their findings in the conference have submitted or intend to submit their manuscripts to be published in our journal.

The articles chosen to be published in the issue 23/2023 have been distributed into four subsequent sections, the first being Language Education in Multilingual and Multicultural Settings.

Life goes on, even during the war. Russia’s military aggression, full-scale invasion of Ukraine, started on 24 February 2022, has destructed the educational infrastructure, paused the educational and research processes, and traumatized the young and the old. But the courageous nation, fighting for their homeland, tries to maintain life however and wherever it is possible under such circumstances. Thus, the article by Kapranov and Voloshyna “Learning English Under the Sounds of Air Raid Sirens: Analyzing Undergraduate EFL Students’ Sustainable Learning Practices” is of utmost value, presenting students’ reflections on their “sustainable practices related to the ways the participants learnt English during the Russo-Ukrainian war” and concluding that “the development of multilingualism in the time of crises is feasible and sustainable” if coupled by internal, psychological and external, institutional support.

We live in the times of global free and forced migration and mobility, when even our hitherto monolingual European countries and/or institutions are increasingly becoming multilingual and multicultural; when due to open website resources, increased international collaboration and cooperation, our students and staff are becoming plurilingual. All this brings new challenges to education, including language education which is in need of innovative approaches that involve students' plurilingual repertoires in language teaching, as monolingual teaching methods in foreign language classes have been proved to be no longer valid. Cvilikaitė-Mačiulskienė, Daukšaitė-Kolpakovienė, Gvazdikaitė, and Linkevičiūtė discuss translanguaging in teaching and learning English at a higher education, revealing the attitudes and experiences of Ukrainian students studying in a Lithuanian university and their teachers towards the use of other languages in the English classroom. The study is supported by a solid theoretical background on the necessity to switch from monolingual to a more holistic paradigm in language teaching. According to Převrátilová, “plurilingualism goes beyond the mere ability to use multiple languages; it emphasizes the interconnected nature of languages within an individual's linguistic competence”, the author of “One Mind, Many Languages: Czech as an Additional Language in Plurilingual Repertoires”. Silvie explores the interplay of languages in the plurilingual repertoires of international students, learning Czech as an additional language. The research, based on the Perceived Positive Language Interaction framework (Thompson, 2016), reveals perceived positive interactions not only among some of the students’ studied languages within language families but also across typologically different languages, such as between Czech and German. The study concludes that students can significantly benefit from their previous language learning experiences when learning an additional language.

Pundziuvienė, Meškauskienė, Ringailienė, and Matulionienė present their research into the role of linguistic and cultural mediation in learning the host country’s language, i.e., English in the UK and Lithuanian in Lithuania. The study revealed that mediation applied as a language learning method in language classes can improve students’ use of non-linguistic competences, thus reducing linguistic and cultural barriers, encourage collaboration among language learners, and enrich their competence in translanguaging; however, careful guidance on the part of a language teacher is needed. Rapún Mombiela and Tramallino analyze the influence of multilingual learner repertoires from a linguistic perspective in their study “Acquisition of Spanish Adverbials by Multilingual Estonian Learners”. The study concentrates on the difficulties Estonian students face with Spanish time adverbials, specifically, prepositions and articles. The findings emphasize the importance of language proficiency levels and crosslinguistic influence in the acquisition of third languages. The study by Mambetaliev presents the analysis of the attitudes toward English and preferences for language policy models expressed by international applicants to Hungarian universities. Research participants expressed their positive attitudes towards English as a medium of instruction, but show preferences for multilingual language policies depending, emphasizing the importance of preserving their native languages.

The second section – Digital Technologies in Language Education – presents two studies – a thorough bibliometric analysis and a study on the teachers’ views on the use of technologies in education. The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in all spheres of our life has been growing exponentially, and it plays “a transforming role in education, including language teaching and learning” (Jaleniauskienė, Lisaitė, and Daniusevičiūtė-Brazaitė). Using bibliometric analysis, the authors present an overview of the most recent research related to the use of AI in language education: productivity in terms of authors and countries, co-authorship, most cited references, most popular journals, and most common keywords. The results show that each year a consistent number of publications on the application of AI in language education appears. Another article presented in this section by an international group of researchers (Klimova, Pikhart, Fronckova, Sanchez-Stockhammer, Stukalina, Iruskieta, Okumuş Dağdeler, Lejot, Parmaxi, Rodríguez, Pareja-Lora) deals with foreign language teachers’ attitudes towards the use of digital teaching in the EU countries. The results of their research show that foreign language teachers have positive attitudes towards the use of technologies in their classes and frequently use them to engage students in language learning; however, they need more training in the use of new technologies and expect professional support from the management of their home institutions.

Languages in Societal Discourse section contains the study by Anča who explores the nomenclature of traditional ornaments, characteristic for the Latvian and Lithuanian ethnographic regions, as an essential part of traditional Baltic culture. The research compares the ornament naming traditions in both countries and highlights the main parallels and differences, revealing more diversity found in the spectrum of ornament nomenclature at the beginning of the 20th century in Latvia than it is now; “that it is common for Latvians and Lithuanians to view ornament as a pattern rather than separate graphic elements and that geometric, plant, animal, artefact and celestial body denominations dominate the nomenclature of both languages.

Traditionally, we try to publish articles on Issues in Translation which are important for preserving languages and sustaining multilingualism in the times when some domineering languages are gaining momentum in the world. Koverienė investigates the “intricate nature of lip synchrony in dubbing as an audiovisual translation mode, highlighting its significance beyond aesthetic considerations”, and presents recommendations to audiovisual translators.

Welcoming the 23rd issue of the journal, I would like to take the opportunity to express my gratitude to all contributors: the authors who chose our journal for sharing their valuable research, diligent reviewers who provided valuable constructive feedback and ideas for manuscript improvement, and the whole editorial team: executive editors and the technical support group (proofreaders, layout designers, and translators) whose conscientious efforts, thorough work, and belief in the mission of the journal allow us all to pursue the goal of sustaining multilingualism.

Prof. Dr. Nemira Mačianskienė, Editor-in-Chief

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0412-9584

References

APATCHE (Adding Plurilingual Approaches to language Teacher Competences in Higher Education) project. http://www.apatche.eu/

Mačianskienė, N., & Žiūraitė, V. (Eds.). 2023. Sustainable Multilingualism 2023: Book of Abstracts. The 7th International Conference. https://doi.org/10.7220/9786094675720

Skutnabb-Kangas, T., & Phillipson, R. (Eds.). (2023). Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights. Wiley-Blackwell.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781119753926.

Skutnabb-Kangas, T. (2018). Linguistic diversity, language rights and language ecology. Sustainable Multilingualism, 13(2018), 14–59.

Phillipson, R. (2018). Language challenges in regional and Global Integration. Sustainable Multilingualism, 12(2018), 14–35.

LEARNING ENGLISH UNDER THE SOUNDS OF AIR RAID SIRENS: ANALYSING UNDERGRADUATE EFL STUDENTS’ SUSTAINABLE LEARING PRACTICES

2023-09-24T19:47:57+03:00

The article presents a mixed-methods study that examines how undergraduate students of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) sustain their practices of learning English during the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war in 2022–2023. In total, 33 undergraduate EFL students (henceforth – participants) took part in the study. In order to gain insight into their sustainable learning practices, the participants were requested to write a short reflective essay titled “My Thoughts on How I Learn English during the War”. The participants were instructed to write their essays in English within a one-week timeframe. Seeking to identify and classify a range of sustainable practices related to the ways the participants learnt English during the Russo-Ukrainian war, their reflective essays were analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. The analysis of the participants’ essays revealed the following learning practices that, according to the participants, helped them to sustain their EFL learning trajectory in the wartime EFL contexts: (i) participation in online EFL courses, (ii) communication with the native speakers of English on social networking sites (e.g., Instagram), and (iii) the combination of EFL learning activities offered at the participants’ university. The findings are discussed in detail further in the article through the lens of sustainable multilingualism development. Specifically, we argue that the development of multilingualism in the time of crises is feasible and sustainable, especially if it is coupled with an EFL learner’s inner psychological factors that are further facilitated by the external support offered by the digital learning environments that are (i) institutionalised and systematic, and (ii) extra-mural and unstructured (in other words, digitally wild).

TRANSLANGUAGING IN TEACHING AND LEARNING OF ENGLISH AT UNIVERSITY LEVEL: THE PERSPECTIVES OF UKRAINIAN STUDENTS AND THEIR TEACHERS

2023-07-16T15:31:14+03:00

Classrooms at all levels of education are becoming more diverse, as they include more and more multilingual and multicultural students. Their teachers start understanding that, especially in foreign language classes, monolingual approaches to teaching and learning are not effective anymore, and search for other pedagogical techniques and practices that would involve their students’ linguistic repertoires as an asset in their classes. This study aimed to learn about the attitudes towards and experiences of the use of other languages in the English classroom by including the perspectives of English teachers and their Ukrainian students who, having fled their home country due to the war against Ukraine or having chosen to participate in student exchange, came to study at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. Two online questionnaires including open and closed ended questions were used to gather data. Thus, the study was both quantitative and qualitative. Even though several literature review sections in this article describe a switch from monolingual to a more holistic paradigm that includes translanguaging, this and other terms employed to describe the use of other languages were not introduced to the research participants. The English teachers’ and their Ukrainian students’ attitudes towards and experiences of the use of other languages in the English classroom are first looked at separately and then compared in the concluding section. The findings revealed that both Ukrainian students (58.3%) and teachers (84.2%) have experience of other languages being used in their English classroom. They also agree that translation into the language that students understand is used as a strategy helping the students to understand grammar and vocabulary, yet the students indicated gesturing as a strategy used to explain unknown vocabulary. Other strategies related to the use of other languages were also mentioned and described. The teachers and the students pointed out that Russian and Lithuanian were the most frequently employed other (than English) languages in their English classroom, even though the teachers believed they used mostly Russian, whereas the students believed their teachers mostly used Lithuanian.

ACQUISITION OF SPANISH TEMPORAL ADVERBIALS BY MULTILINGUAL ESTONIAN LEARNERS

2023-09-20T13:11:14+03:00

This article focuses on the temporal structures used by multilingual Estonian students when expressing the hour in Spanish. Learning linguistic structures related to time is crucial in the early stages of foreign language acquisition. However, these structures can be complex and vary across languages, as they are highly idiosyncratic in terms of vocabulary and syntax. This study concentrates on the difficulties Estonian students face with Spanish time adverbials, specifically prepositions and articles. The paper aims to answer several research questions related to the repertoire of temporal expressions in the students' interlanguage, the difficulty posed by typological differences between their native language and Spanish, the influence of English, and the impact of English proficiency on Spanish production. The analysis of a corpus of interlanguage texts from Estonian students is conducted to identify idiosyncratic structures and patterns, distinguishing them from standard structures. The findings reveal that the use of articles improves with higher proficiency levels, while the use of prepositions remains challenging. Furthermore, the study explores the influence of English and Estonian on the students' Spanish production and highlights the importance of crosslinguistic reflection and attention to functional words for enhanced accuracy and fluency. The article concludes by emphasizing the significance of language proficiency levels and crosslinguistic influence in third language acquisition and suggesting areas for further research.

ONE MIND, MANY LANGUAGES: CZECH AS AN ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE IN PLURILINGUAL REPERTOIRES

2023-09-18T11:05:07+03:00

Plurilingualism goes beyond the mere ability to use multiple languages; it emphasizes the interconnected nature of languages within an individual's linguistic competence. In line with the European language policy, university students are becoming users of several languages, and international university students in Czech universities often learn Czech as their fourth language or beyond (L4+). Understanding how their linguistic competencies interact can impact their language acquisition experience. Learners may perceive interactions among the languages within their linguistic repertoire. The concept of Perceived Positive Language Interaction (PPLI, Thompson, 2016) pertains to the perception that languages previously studied are interrelated in a positive way, ultimately enhancing a plurilingual's ability to acquire additional languages. This study explores the relationships between Czech as an additional language and the learners' prior languages. The research aims to answer three main questions: Do learners of Czech as L4+ perceive positive interactions among their learned languages? In what areas do these interactions manifest? How does Czech relate to their other languages? The study was conducted at a Czech university that provides optional introductory Czech courses (A1/A2), primarily to students in the Erasmus+ program. Fifty-four international students filled in an open-ended online questionnaire over two consecutive semesters. The analysis revealed that while students perceived positive interactions among some of the languages they had learned, especially within language families, interactions across typologically different languages occurred, particularly between Czech and German. The participants' mother tongue also emerged as a significant factor. While language instruction often follows a monolingual approach, where the target language is the primary mode of classroom interaction (Woll, 2020), learners may significantly benefit from their previous language learning experiences when learning an additional language. Despite the relatively limited research sample, this study suggests the didactic potential of positive language interaction in language teaching and learning and highlights further research opportunities.

THE ROLE OF LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL MEDIATION IN LEARNING THE HOST COUNTRY’S LANGUAGE

2023-07-10T09:48:21+03:00

The need to reconsider the value of mediation in language teaching/learning has been highlighted due to such processes as globalization and migration in the contemporary world. The importance of a language learner's entire plurilingual repertoire has been emphasized in The Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR) Companion Volume (2020) and students’ linguistic and cultural backgrounds have been recognized as useful teaching resources to enhance language learning (Piccardo & North, 2017). The application of translanguaging has become an innovative method applied in language teaching and is now seen as a tool for increasing learners’ commitment and self-belief (Duarte, 2020). A survey was conducted to explore the role of mediation in learning a host country's language in the UK and Lithuania. The study aimed to investigate the use of non-linguistic competences to reduce linguistic and cultural barriers, encourage collaboration among language learners, and improve their competence in translanguaging. The survey included 23 English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) students (levels A2 and B1) and 15 Lithuanian as a second language students (levels A1 and A2). A quantitative and qualitative research methodology was used to analyze their language learning experiences during mediated lessons of the target language. The results of the surveys and short semi-formal interviews showed that learners had developed various non-linguistic competences and demonstrated the ability to use other languages for learning a new language. Although most of the research participants agreed that such a way of learning had helped them to successfully learn the target language and preserve their national identity in a foreign country, a careful guidance provided by a language teacher is necessary in order not to be misguided among the variety of similar or different languages.

LANGUAGE ATTITUDES AND POLICY PREFERENCES: INSIGHTS FROM INTERNATIONAL SCHOLARSHIP APPLICANTS TO HUNGARIAN UNIVERSITIES

2023-03-28T18:43:55+03:00

This study examined the attitudes of individuals seeking scholarships to study abroad, exploring whether their views on languages and language policy models vary based on gender, study programs, and countries. An online survey was administered to approximately 130 Hungarian government scholarship applicants from diverse nations. Statistical methods were employed to analyze responses, revealing variations and correlations between demographic and attitudinal variables. Participants expressed preferences for multilingual and monolingual language policies, aligning with their attitudes. The findings indicate that most participants pursued language learning with instrumental motivation, aiming to achieve educational and career objectives. Most participants expressed a desire for a multilingual language policy model in their home countries. While many embraced the proposal to adopt English as the medium of instruction, others maintained a critical perspective, acknowledging both the positive and negative impacts of English and multilingualism. Additionally, participants underscored the significance of preserving native languages in their respective countries.

THE NOMENCLATURE OF TRADITIONAL ORNAMENTS IN LATVIAN AND LITHUANIAN

2023-08-29T10:51:58+03:00

The traditional ornaments, characteristic for the Latvian and Lithuanian ethnographic regions, are an essential part of traditional Baltic culture. Since the 19th century researchers have studied their technical aspects and semiotics (Brastiņš, 1923; Dzērvīts, 1925; Celms 2007) but little attention has been paid to empirical terminology. The name is an integral part of the sign, it often carries semantic information helping to reveal its usage and significance. In Latvia, the names of traditional signs have been influenced by the work of Brastiņš and dievturi (“Keepers of Dievs”) who attributed the names of Baltic mythological deities to ornaments linking them to the manifestations of the deity mentioned in the denominations. While these denominations are very popular in Latvia, in Lithuania very similar ornaments are called and interpreted differently. This research focuses on collecting and analysing Baltic ornament nomenclature published in Latvia and Lithuania in the first half of the 20th century. It compares the ornament naming traditions in both countries and highlights the main parallels and differences. It also reviews previous research of ornament in Latvia and Lithuania where significant differences can be seen – while semiotic research dominates in Latvia, in Lithuania more attention has been paid to the nomenclature, although in both countries the nomenclature has often been viewed separately from the visual form, making the research of ornament evolution and typology difficult. It has been found that the spectrum of ornament nomenclature at the beginning of the 20th century in Latvia was more diverse than it is now; that it is common for Latvians and Lithuanians to view ornament as a pattern rather than separate graphic elements and that geometric, plant, animal, artefact and celestial body denominations dominate the nomenclature of both languages. Symbols appearing in Baltic culture are also present in ornament nomenclature.