A Review of: “Engaging Technology in Theological Education: All that We Can't Leave Behind”

Voice is critical to youth; yet discerning and claiming a public religious voice is complicated, especially as youth encounter values that include or exclude them based on personality, ethnicity, religion, gender identification, ability, social class, or sexual orientation. Drawing from interviews, we analyze influences on youth to discover and speak their religious voices in public spaces, and to claim religious motivations for their public personas and actions. The study uncovers complex relationships among young people's religious awareness, social contexts, inner dynamics, and public religious expressions. These relationships suggest directions for religious education in faith communities, schools, and other public spaces.     

论《檀香刑》摹声词修辞效果的英译得失

莫言的作品《檀香刑》里的“声音”独具特色,摹声词是小说的“声音”中不可或缺的一部分,它们摹声绘音,修辞效果十分明显。不同语言间的摹声词存在着较大的差异,葛浩文在对《檀香刑》进行译介的过程中,灵活运用各种翻译策略,力求从拟声的角度去再现原文的风采,达到理想的修辞效果。     

Implementation and evaluation of computer-aided Mandarin phonemes training system for hearing-impaired students

A computer‐aided Mandarin phonemes training (CAMPT) system was developed and evaluated for training hearing‐impaired students in their pronunciation of Mandarin phonemes. Deaf or hearing‐impaired people have difficulty hearing their own voice, hence most of them cannot learn how to speak. Phonemes are the basis for learning to read and speak in Mandarin. Thus, the main purpose of this study is to use voice‐recognition techniques to develop a Mandarin phoneme training system for the self‐training of hearing‐impaired people. The system analyses the spoken Mandarin phoneme of a hearing‐impaired person, compares it with the phonemes database, and shows the results on the computer monitor. Our CAMPT system helps hearing‐impaired people pronounce Mandarin phonemes, and the system automatically gives the learner a percentage score for each phoneme. In other words, learners can receive instant feedback from the system. Experiments conducted among high school students diagnosed with hearing impairment revealed that our system can help students learn the Mandarin phonemes with a neural net recognition algorithm for different users. After five months, most learners can pronounce 95% of the phonemes correctly.     

Negotiating school-university partnerships: Participants' voices in co-reform

Although many educators recognize the importance of voice, fostering voice in those who have traditionally been voiceless has been difficult. This article, like the program that it describes, tackles that challenge by having participants speak for themselves. Specifically, the participants speak about their involvement in the first year of an alternative teacher education project. In describing their involvement, the participants focus on their roles and relationships as well as the type of partnership and collaboration that emerged from this project.     

“Accidental Racist”: Stumbling Through the Motions of Racial Reconciliation

This article examines country star Brad Paisley’s controversial musical dialogue with rapper LL Cool J about race. First, I compare “Accidental Racist” with “Ebony and Ivory” in light of McPhail’s notions of rhetorical coherence and complicity. Second, I interrogate Paisley’s problematic construction of racial division in light of Gresson’s work. Next, I consider how the inclusion of Cool J’s voice at least partly challenges Paisley’s southern White perspective. In light of Hatch’s theory of reconciliation, however, Paisley’s pseudo-apology proves self-serving and Cool J’s forgiveness is cheap. In the end, their contrived country/hip-hop dialogue dances to the tune of neoliberalism and fails to resonate with either of their core audiences, despite their well-meaning intentions.     

‘If they don't listen I shout,and when I shout they listen’: Hearing the voices of girls with behavioural,emotional and social difficulties

Young people, particularly girls, constructed in the education system as having behavioural, emotional and social difficulties are amongst the least represented voices in research. Frequently denied a place to speak from, we direct attention to the importance of hearing girls, who are troubled and troubling—deviating from the rules of school and the norms of their gender—speak about their dis/engagement in education. We argue that participatory research methods can provide meaningful ways for girls to construct and better understand their own narratives. In so doing we draw on our ongoing research in England with teenage girls excluded from mainstream provision. Findings from analysis of their narratives are discussed in relation to voice, space, audience and influence. This process reveals the significance of hearing and responding to the multilayered complexities of girls’ voices in purposeful ways.     

Making diversity safe for democracy: American pluralism and the presidential local address, 1885–1992

Research suggests that modern U.S. presidents increasingly use the local address to speak to voters where they live, both literally and figuratively. Yet most explanations of these speeches suggest that their political efficacy is limited to winning votes. Here I call for a reconsideration of the local address as part of rhetorical presidents’ responses to U.S. citizens’ diversity. Specifically, I provide a historical‐critical account of why presidents may have been able to use the local address to manage American pluralism and then offer a reading of how they might have done so, using examples from 1885–1992.     

Persona Design: Representativeness and Empathy through Cultural Integration

Persona design aims to increase students’ ability to understand their target users and address their needs. Yet, there is a lack of conceptual frameworks that help students systematically conceptualise user needs, specifically the two key requirements of persona design: representativeness and empathy. In this study, we find an alternative method using cultural dimensions to ensure that students conceptualise personas by reflecting representativeness and empathy in a systematic way. We justify cultural dimensions and engagement aspects and suggest a classified table for representative and empathetic persona design. In a design course, we analyse personas created by students in two different groups with the table (Group 1, n = 16) and without the table (Group 2, n = 17) through comparative thematic analysis to evaluate the qualities of representativeness and empathy. As a result, the cognitive aspect of engagement is predominated in Group 2, whereas the cognitive, emotional, behavioural, and social aspects of engagement are evenly distributed in Group 1. 11 cultural dimensions are identified in Group 2, whereas 20 cultural dimensions are identified in Group 1. In Group 2, a particular dimension is predominant (44.4% of individualism), whereas, in Group 1, the rate of the most used dimension is 12.2% (femininity and collectivism). The study results indicate that the method allows students to diversify and deepen their understanding of user needs and thereby conceptualising personas in in-depth and analytical ways. From instructional perspectives, it can be used by educators to help students systematically conceptualise user needs in design activities.     

人格面具与自我迷失——探究《长日入夜行》的人物悲剧性格来源

尤金·奥尼尔晚期的自传性家庭悲剧《长日入夜行》,被视为美国20世纪最伟大的戏剧。剧中四位主人公蒂龙一家对话时呈现出多种面孔,情感复杂,关系忽远忽近。对于剧中人格面具的探索将进一步加深对于剧本的心理层面分析,帮助我们挖掘探索四位失魂落魄的主人公性格悲剧的根源——在畸形社会意识形态下现代人的精神堕落和自我认同的丧失。     

Finding a voice – thinking with others: a conception of action research

The main theme of this article is that action research is about seeking a voice with which to speak one's experience and one's ability to learn from that experience. It is also about helping others (our students, our patients, our clients) to find their own voices. Action research is decentralising the production of knowledge. To begin with, the theme is given a historical context by presenting a general contrast between pluralism and managerialism, and the next section articulates the nature of action research by contrasting ‘participatory’ with ‘hierarchical’ structures of knowledge. The next phase of the argument is that an ‘educational’ model of action research (emphasizing continuous self-questioning) does not mean that action research lacks ‘criteria’. The final section makes some suggestions about action research’s inherent criteria by showing how the overall purpose of ‘finding a voice’ and of ‘thinking with others’ requires a particular formulation of the main phases of the inquiry process.     

Doing Feminist Educational Theory: A post-modernist perspective

This paper arises from my work as a teacher of courses in feminist educational theory in a New Zealand university. Students usually encounter educational theories as disembodied abstractions scattered in fragments in various, often seemingly unrelated, courses. In a crowded curriculum there is little space for them to create their own educational theories or to reflect on the processes of educational theorising. In this paper I speak with two voices as a means of modelling - for students and teachers of feminist courses - a process of doing educational theory. It is written in two columns. In the left-hand column I speak with an academic voice. I begin by reviewing some theoretical writings of post-modernist theorists who have drawn attention to the ways our educational and social theories are generated by our circumstances - biographical, historical, cultural, generational, and geographical. I then argue that post-modernists have seldom practised what they preach - their abstract, and often inaccessible, writings remain severed from the lived realities at their base. In the right-hand column I speak with a more personal voice. I introduce some everyday experiences which are usually rendered invisible in academic writing in order to demonstrate how a few moments of 'lived reality' can be generative of feminist educational theory. The paper also contains ideas about how its unorthodox form can be used to trigger multiple and idiosyncratic readings and as a trigger for students' writing.     

“Voice” and “voicelessness” in rhetorical studies

This essay begins with the observation that the term “voice” is frequently used in rhetorical studies literature. Interestingly, rhetorical “voice” means different things to different scholars. This essay seeks to accomplish two tasks related to “voice.” First, it clarifies the conceptual confusion regarding “voice” found in the literature by relating it to a tension between “speaking” and “language.” Second, to avoid this tension, this essay presents a case study in which a notion of “voice” is posited that is constitutive of the public acknowledgment of the ethical and emotional dimensions of public discourse.     

Hurricane Katrina and the chōric object of rhetorical studies

This essay reads former New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin’s infamous radio interview given during the aftermath of Hurricane to rethink both the popular narrative about the federal response to Katrina and, more broadly, the displacement of rhetorical objects both popularly and within rhetorical scholarship. Drawing upon Julia Kristeva’s early work, I advocate for a turn to a particular understanding of chōra, which positions critics in provisional relation objects of rhetorical study. Finally, I tender a reading of Nagin’s post-Katrina radio interview. The essay ultimately argues that: (1) the chōric function of Nagin’s interview simultaneously spurred political change and displaced the appearance of having done so; and (2) if rhetorical studies is to avoid remaining complicit with the politics of such displacement, scholars should attend carefully not only to what counts as rhetorical, but also to those objects that do not count but nevertheless function rhetorically. Reconsidering the object domain of rhetorical studies in this way not only opens up new objects for study but also accounts for how they might function outside of already established narratives.     

Latinx Parents’ Literacy Practices and Concientización in Petitioning Their Local School Board Regarding Funding Priorities

A case study of a Latinx parent-school engagement program is presented illustrating how immigrant parents became collective political actors providing input into their California school district’s formulation of its Local Control Accountability Plan (LCAP). The LCAP was part of newly adopted statewide Local Control Funding Formula policy providing supplemental funding to schools in support of services needed by students who were identified as low-income, English Language Learners (ELLs), and foster-care. The study investigated how Latinx parents developed a face-to-face understanding of the LCAP policy and planning process, and their rights and collective power as advocates for their children’s education. Focused attention is given to one parent group advocating for summer academic programs and how parents negotiated rhetorical and linguistic formulation of arguments in their letter petition to the local school board. In so doing, parents drew on their cultural funds of knowledge and developed sensitivity to the communicative practices of school boards, and to the need of parents to present their voice and stances persuasively and assertively indicative of their rights as community members. The study helps ground theories of political action in the face-to-face world of parent engagement programs.     

从反问句产生机制看其核心语用功能

反问句的语用功能定义为说话人使用反问句的目的和用途,可以分为核心功能和衍生功能。反问句的核心功能指由反问语气决定的功能。从反问句的产生机制看,反问句的核心功能不是“强调”和“辩驳、埋怨、责怪”,而是“否定”。     

Socio-sexual education: a practical study in formal thinking and teachable moments

In this paper, the notion of ‘doing boy’ through performance is explored. The point is made that singing is a potential gender performance but the treble voice of the 8‐year‐old to 14‐year‐old boy is a biologically determined as well as socially constructed feature of young masculinity. A complication is the degree to which the boy's treble voice is traditionally associated with sacred music. Recent attempts at widening participation in singing by cathedrals are evaluated for their potential to increase male participation in the arts through more eclectic forms of repertoire and the sharing of musical expertise. The under‐representation of males is seen as a problem in the study and boys' choices not to sing during the 8–14 years because of uncertainty about the gendering of the high voice is presented as the major issue. Different sexualities can attach to vocal performance by young males, and these are explored. The changed voice of the ‘boy band’ is associated with explicit performances of heterosexuality in the tradition of hegemonic masculinity. The unchanged treble voice, through its strong association with sacred music, can represent innocence, but such innocence may be related to other forms of masculinity than the hegemonic type. This makes for continued ambivalence over whether boys' singing is a ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ form of masculinity.     

A bricolage exploration in genkan space: tengu and adjunct TEFL in the Japanese university context

This paper reports on research focusing on a group of adjunct teachers of English employed in Japanese universities. Grounded in interpretive epistemology foregrounding constructionist traditions, this research employed bricolage as way of inquiring into, then representing, these teacher’s experiences utilising multi-perspectival, multi-theoretical and multi-methodological approaches. Employing elements of Turnerian liminality and blending these with Japanese cultural mythology, this paper explores participants’ experience, knowledge and identity. Through interviews and focus groups, participants (n = 43) gave voice to their lived world in Japanese universities locating their ‘place’ as simultaneously inside and outside the boundaries of mainstream Japanese society and universities. As ‘liminal personas’, participants likened themselves to a ‘necessary evil’ in the context of internationalising the curriculum. Thus, their condition is understood to be both ambiguous and paradoxical. The Japanese university is likened to genkan (a common architectural feature in Japanese houses resembling an entrance hall or transitional space between inside and outside worlds) space and employing Japanese mythology, it is argued these teachers share features attributed to Tengu (Tengu are goblin-like monsters in Japanese mythology with long noses and bright red faces who traditionally act in mischievous, disruptive ways).     

Negotiating Voice Construction Between Writers and Readers in College Writing: A Case Study of an L2 Writer

Voice is co-constructed, a result of the “text-mediated interaction between the writer and the reader.” The present study, using the context of U.S. college writing, explores the complicated process by which an L2 novice writer—one who has a growing awareness of, yet peripheral access to, discourse practices—constructs a voice. Through interviews and a close analysis of a text, a comparison is made between the voice the L2 writer wished to project in an assigned paper and the voice constructed by two readers in the course of their anonymous readings of the paper. The significant gap between the L2 writer’s aims and the readers’ responses suggests that a writer’s view of her voice stems from the ways in which she conceptualizes discourse conventions, in association with her particular linguistic, social, and cultural background. The pedagogical implications of the L2 writer’s process of negotiating identity, and her struggles to learn discourse expectations, are discussed.     

普通话水平测试之应试问题分析及其对策

普通话水平测试的四项内容是字、词、朗读和说话。应试人在应试这四部分时,首先要注意了解测试范围及形式。应试字词部分时,注意找难点音,注意形近字、多音字,注意语速要均速,声音要坚实;应试朗读和说话部分时,朗读要注意语速、节奏及停顿;说话要思维清晰流畅,还要注意话题的选择及拟定说话提纲。     

Black women’s bodies,ideology, and the public curriculum of the pro- and anti-choice movements in the US

This paper explores how opposite sides of the abortion debate employ a discourse of endangerment to mobilise political support for their ideologies about black women’s bodies. I examine the role of black women within that rhetorical strategy through various rhetorical artefacts. To analyse these artefacts, I employ the theoretical framework of ideological or ideographic criticism. This framework helps us see how the artefacts used by both pro and anti-choice movements ‘condition’ the audience not merely to adopt a set of ‘beliefs and behavior, but a vocabulary of concepts that function as guides, warrants, reasons, or excuses for behavior and belief’. Though the two sides of the abortion debate differ in their overt political views, they turn out to share an implicit ideology about black women. This ideology prevents the voices of black women from being heard and valued in a debate that is nonetheless focused on black women’s bodies.