This study investigates the impact of a Task-Based Speaking Language Program (TBSLP) on English language anxiety (FLA) among STEM undergraduates in China, addressing the prevalent issue of "deaf-mute English" where students excel in reading but struggle with oral communication. Drawing on Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) principles, the 12-week program was implemented with 50 sophomore and junior STEM students at a Chinese University, utilizing pre- and post-program surveys (adapted from the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale), and attendance tracking to measure changes in anxiety levels, speaking confidence, and willingness to communicate. Results indicated a significant reduction in FLA (p < 0.05), with participants reporting increased comfort in real-world speaking tasks and enhanced motivation for English use in STEM contexts. The findings underscore TBLT's efficacy in mitigating anxiety through authentic, collaborative activities, offering practical implications for EFL curriculum reform in Chinese higher education to better prepare STEM graduates for global collaboration.
Apesar de não ser materialmente impossível que à China do século VIII tivessem chegado vestígios da literatura cultivada em Roma nove séculos antes, essa possibilidade não passa de uma fantasia da imaginação. A dupla distância — temporal e geográfica — tornam-na por demais inverosímil. Dito por outras palavras, Li Bai, um dos mais notáveis poetas chineses de sempre e que viveu no século VIII da nossa era, não poderá ter tido qualquer notícia da existência de Horácio, o poeta da corte de Augusto, ou seja, poeta de Roma no século I a.C. Acontece, entretanto, que uma leitura da obra do poeta chinês revela surpreendentes proximidades temáticas com a obra do poeta latino: a fugacidade da vida, o subsequente apelo à fruição do tempo, o modo de celebrar as estações do ano, o canto dos prazeres da existência, são apenas algumas das afinidades temáticas entre ambos que não deixam de causar, senão alguma perplexidade, pelo menos uma certa admiração ou surpresa. Essa é a reflexão proposta neste trabalho, a documentar a universalidade da literatura e dos seus temas, a despeito da enorme diversidade dos seus autores, situados em tempos e em geografias (espaciais e epocais) muito distintas.
History of the Greco-Roman World, Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
Le epistole cristiane sono state oggetto di numerosi studi storici, filologici, retorici e letterari. L’analisi qui presentata intende individuare l'incidenza dell'intenzione co-municativa e il valore della ripetitività di alcuni termini e concetti rari, fino ad oggi parzialmente trascurati dalla critica. In particolare ci soffermeremo sul nesso oculus petulans presente nell'epistolario di Gerolamo: attraverso letture e confronti anche con espressioni simili e confortati da alcune interpretazioni proposte riguardo alla petulantia cristiana, verranno messi in luce temi ricorrenti sulla sessualità, sulla reli-giosità e sull’elemento femminile nell'Epistolografia dei Padri (ma non solo), che confermano il forte valore unitario del messaggio cristiano e il valore strategico del mezzo epistolare.
History of the Greco-Roman World, Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
Forty years after the first edition of the Greek poem Bessomachos by G. Pascoli, composed during his teaching period in Matera (Lexis, 1, 1988), some lesson plans and testimonies are presented here that contribute to a better understanding of the educational project in which the poem was included, and to identifying some germs of the Garibaldian patriotic epos that accompanied the poet in his last years.
Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature, History of the Greco-Roman World
Nuestro objetivo es abordar desde el texto original griego los términos con que Basilio de Cesarea expresa los conceptos de “humildad” y “orgullo” en su Homilía 20 Sobre la humildad contrastando la parquedad del primero y la abundancia de sinónimos existentes para el segundo, y sus múltiples posibilidades
de traducción.
Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
Most people who use the word ‘Latin’ as the name of a language in antiquity (not Medieval or Neo-Latin therefore) seem unaware that Latin was a continuum made up of many different varieties, Classical Latin (which they identify with Latin) being only one of them. So when they talk of spoken Latin they mean spoken Classical Latin, no other variety from antiquity being available that is suitable to be spoken. This is ironic on two counts. First, the overwhelming majority of native Latin speakers did not speak Classical Latin at all. Secondly, the small minority of people who did speak it did not do so routinely as a language of everyday conversation, but only on certain formal occasions and in certain public situations. They spoke routinely the appropriate form of their first language, the form that was used by a social, cultural and educational elite. This was not Classical Latin, which was not an acquired form of Latin but one that was learned as if it were a second language. What the language they did speak routinely was like we do not know, and no doubt it comprised several different registers, as languages do. Whether they realise it or not, people who engage in informal conversations in formal Classical Latin today are not re-enacting any authentic experience that was to be had in the ancient world.
En este trabajo ofrecemos la traducción del latín al castellano del Prólogo al Liber disputationum contra Symonem iudeum (c. 1208) de Pedro de Cornwall, única sección del texto que se encuentra actualmente editada gracias a la labor de Richard W. Hunt. A ella se le suma, a modo de anexo, el breve intercambio final entre los personajes de Pedro y Simón que Hunt transcribió en la introducción a dicha edición. Ambas traducciones están precedidas por la presentación del autor y de la obra en su conjunto, y de un breve estudio crítico del texto tanto en sí mismo como en relación con su contexto de producción: los diálogos literarios de disputas interreligiosas que florecieron entre finales del siglo XI y principios del XIII.
Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
In 2020 the international philosophical community celebrates the 250th anniversary of the birth of G.W.F. Hegel. This anniversary provides an excellent opportunity to once again reconsider to the iconic works of the great German philosopher, among them, special attention should be paid to The Phenomenology of the Spirit, which is universally considered as one of the most famous works of world philosophical literature. Being the first of Hegel’s major works and, at the same time, the first and only part of the early version of his system of absolute idealism, this book, largely due to the efforts of the French Neo-Hegelians, acquired the status of one of the most famous philosophical works. Meanwhile, The Phenomenology of the Spirit is rightfully considered one of the most complex philosophical texts, which does not cease to attract attention, including due to the intricacies of its style. Being called by K. Marx “the true point of origin and the secret of the Hegelian philosophy,” this work, among other numerous “secrets” and “mysteries,” undoubtedly hides the mystery associated with the terminological and stylistic features of Hegel’s writing. Noting the serious difficulties encountered in reading The Phenomenology of the Spirit, the author of the article shows that Hegel wrote it, developing a new philosophical language, creating a range of linguistic innovations, also using Germanized Latin and Greek terms. Along with Spinoza’s Latin terminology, he borrowed some concepts from his compatriots (Wolf, Kant, Fichte and others), deliberately altering their meaning. The article also shows that, being an extremely complex (both in stylistic-linguistic and structural aspects) philosophical work, Hegel’s The Phenomenology of the Spirit had a huge impact on the development of intellectual culture of the 20th century, and not only due to its conceptions. Its language itself greatly contributed to the formation of special philosophical terminology and anticipated a number of significant changes in the structure and composition of philosophical texts.
Benito Arias Montano (b. c. 1525/27–d. 1598) was a Spanish humanist, censor, polymath, and chaplain to King Philip II, as well as librarian for the royal library at El Escorial. He is best known for having produced the Polyglot Bible—also known as the Biblia Regia (Royal Bible)—printed by Christopher Plantin in Antwerp, a monumental undertaking for which it was necessary to move physically to the Netherlands for an extended period of seven years. There he became an agent of international book culture by virtue of his work on the Inquisitorial Index of prohibited and expurgated books, as well as an acquisitions broker for the Spanish royal library and a circle of prominent Spanish intellectuals including Fernando de Herrera and Francisco Pacheco. In addition to printing the Royal Bible, Plantin also received a contract from the Spanish Crown to print other devotional literature (prayer books, breviaries, missals, books of hours, etc.). Arias Montano supervised this publishing program too. The “Rey Prudente” trusted his judgement enough to request his input on important political decisions after he distinguished himself as part of the Spanish delegation to the Council of Trent, the multi-year gathering which launched the Counter-Reformation. Educated in theology at the Universities of Seville and Alcalá, he also became a Knight of the Order of Santiago. He wrote poetry and prose in both Latin and Spanish on a wide range of topics including medicine, geology, physics, architecture, botany, and even painting. His epistolary correspondence with a transnational network of merchants, diplomats and intellectuals is voluminous. In addition to the above-mentioned languages, he was also fluent in Greek, Hebrew, Italian, and French. His probable converso origins might explain some of his activities as a Hebraist, mostly focused around providing a more literal translation of the Bible than the outdated, but still standard, Vulgate.
Carl Barks, the most influential chronicler of the Duckburg universe and the creator of such memorable characters as Scrooge McDuck, only very rarely made references to classical antiquity in his comic stories. Nevertheless, there is a striking resemblance between ideas propounded in "Plutos," Aristophanes’ last extant comedy of 388 B.C., and “A Financial Fable,” a story by Barks published in 1951. Both stories feature protagonists wishing for universal wealth, and in both this financial utopia is contrasted with a demonstration how such a state of affairs would inevitably bring all human productivity to a halt. Such parallels, even if not the result of direct reception, lead to a set of questions regarding the political coloring of humor and its ideological implications.
History of the Greco-Roman World, Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
This paper takes as its starting point an analysis of three inscriptions dating from the second quarter of the 2nd century BC, related to matters of international politics within the micro-Asiatic Hellenistic world: the treaty of alliance between Pharnakes I and the polis of Chersonesos (IOSPE I2 nr. 402), the treaty of alliance among Plarasa-Aphrodisias, Kibyra and Tabai (Milner 2007), and the (possible) foundation act of the Kibyratic Tetrapolis (I.Kibyra I nr. 2). What is most interesting about these major political agreements is that all the contracting parties make a common commitment not to undertake anything contrary to the Roman decrees or interests; in addition to this, they set it as a condition for the validity of the acts and express it by using much the same wordings. These texts are not addressed to a Roman audience; notwithstanding, they betray a common need to display an undisputed loyalty to the Roman cause. Accordingly, there is a strong case for supposing the action or the presence of the Roman Senate behind them. Indeed, it is telling a comparison to some Roman inscriptions dated to the 2nd century BC, whereby similar phraseologies figure in the words of the Romans themselves. Such coincidences demonstrate the sharing of a highly codified language by different political actors and can be related to the stress put by the ancient narratives (notably, the Histories by Polybius) on the necessity to obey Roman orders in the aftermath of the Third Macedonian War. Thus, we can recover an element of the script of the philo-Roman diplomacy in a specific historical and geopolitical context; it reflects the manner the Romans looked at their own imperium after Pydna, when a radical shift took place in the power relationships within the Hellenistic world.
In this contribution, we report on the educational theatre production Olymp.ja! at Staatstheater Darmstadt from 2017, which dealt with the connection between the current phenomenon of sport or rather lifestyle and that of ancient myths. Through themes like self-overcoming, crossing borders, the search for glory and honour, solving seemingly unsolvable tasks and so one, in this production, we drew a line between these two ranges of topics. On the one hand, these themes were negotiated on an intellectual level, on the other hand by the physical commitment of the participants. The work created with a group of amateurs showed the complexity of both fields, but also what ancient myths mean today personally to the individual player of this staging.
History of the Greco-Roman World, Greek language and literature. Latin language and literature
This article examines how a number of teachers of Classics at secondary school level say they deal with sensitive topics, such as violence, religious belief, death and sex and sexuality. In the secondary school original texts are read partly for improving the students' understanding of the language and partly for the study of other aspects of the ancient society, such as the subject matter and the process of a legal case, for example. Therefore, sensitive topics often arise incidentally during the reading of a text rather than because they are the particular feature of the reading. Should teachers brush past such an topic for fear of causing offence or getting into trouble with school authorities or parents, or should they use the topic to develop their students' understanding of the topic at hand – and if the latter, how far should they go?