Rhetoric between orality and literacy: Cultural memory and performance in Isocrates and Aristotle

The essay argues for a reconsideration of the role of the “literate revolution” in the disciplining of rhetorical practice in the fourth century BCE. Specifically, the argument addresses the tension between oral memory and literate rationality in Isocrates and Aristotle to illustrate two divergent possibilities of appropriating oral linguistic resources of a culture. Aristotle's literate classification of endoxa (received opinions) and pisteis (proofs) depoliticizes the oral utterances and maxims of contemporary Greek culture, thereby rendering discourse a mere accessory of a political agent. By contrast, Isocrates conceives of rhetorical performance as constitutive of political agency and civic identity.     

Coherent speech features of over-Fives in the context of communication with equals and adults

The purpose of this research is to study the coherent speech features of over-fives with the general speech underdevelopment (GSUD) in the context of communication with their equals and adults in the kindergarten. Discussion is the leading research method. Speech coherence and independence levels are taken as the main parameters of the experimental analysis. This research involved 30 children at the age over five (5 years 3 months to 5 years 7 months). This research has shown that the goal of developing coherent speech in a kindergarten is set and achieved mainly through reading the fiction, but not in detail when it comes to fairy tales. Research results can be used by speech therapists, teachers and parents developing the coherent dialogical and monological speech in over-fives with the GSUD, as well as for drawing up specialised education programmes for children with the GSUD.     

Promoting intercultural competence in diverse US classrooms through ethnographic interviews

To meet the demands of contemporary society, students need to develop the ability to interact effectively with people from different cultures. To advance this goal, a project involving ethnographic interviews was introduced to an intercultural communication course. Participating students’ attitudes toward other cultures were measured on a Likert scale at the beginning and end of the project. The findings show that through the interviews, the students developed greater awareness of their own cultures and of themselves within their culture and deepened their knowledge of other cultures. Yet, the majority of the students did not show greater interest in learning a foreign language at the end of the project. Further, even though the students did learn about other cultures, their responses to becoming more open to other cultures were inconclusive. The article discusses possible reasons for these outcomes and outlines future research directions.     

Understanding Digital Literacy Practices: What Can Be Learnt with Visual Methods?

Digital technologies are increasingly used by children and adults in their everyday lives and these practices have attracted researchers’ and practitioners’ attention. However, everyday digital literacy practices are difficult to examine. They require appropriate research methods and visual methods have potential here. Although some visual methods are actively used in the field of Literacy Studies, participant-generated digital photography and photo-elicitation remain under-employed in the research of digital literacy practices. Drawing on a qualitative study, this article argues that these methods allow in-depth insights into digital literacy practices to be gained. They offer comprehensive understanding of practices by illuminating what is involved in practices, how practices happen and why people engage in them in particular ways. However, the use of these methods is also associated with a number of challenges. The article concludes with the discussion of the implications for researchers and teacher-researchers who wish to use visual methods to examine digital literacy practices in different contexts.