<abstract><title style='display:none'>Summary</title> The present study examines humour in the tenth season of the TV sitcom Friends and its translation from English into Lithuanian. With humour often believed to be culture-specific, humour translation presents a notorious issue in translation practice, as jocular content in the target language is often criticised for being poor and vague. Grounded in Raskin’s (1985) theory of verbal humour and adopting Schjoldager’s (2008) inventory of translation microstrategies, the article examines the components and mechanisms of humour in the source language and analyses the strategies applied to humour translation, focusing on whether the intended humorous effect is preserved in the target language. The article also seeks to establish to what extent humour as used in Friends is culturedependent. The study was conducted at two levels. First, we briefly presented the essence of Raskin’s model of humour, which centres around the notions of script and incongruity, and later applied it to the selected series to identify and analyse the data in the source language. We then supplemented the findings with the identification of jokes in the target language and assessment of translation microstrategies employed in rendering humorous instances in Lithuanian. The findings of the study are believed to further the theoretical and practical domains of translation from English into Lithuanian in particular and, more broadly, contribute to the discussion on the culture-specific worldview.</abstract>

Analysis of Humour in Tv Series Friends and Its Translation Into Lithuanian

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Summary</title>This paper examines Harold Pinter’s late play <italic>Mountain Language</italic> as a depiction of political oppression specifically rooted in linguistic oppression. The play presents a “mountain people” who have been forbidden to use their “mountain language” by a coercive state authority. The play contrasts the brutality of the officers and guards with the humanity (represented through two still-life ‘tableau’ scenes) of the victims, the “mountain people.” The paper notes, however, that there is an unsettling linguistic twist to the play, in that the “mountain language” and the “language of the capital” are both English in performance. The paper suggests that this is partly motivated by Pinter’s expressed desire to make the play disturbingly recognizable to western audiences, thus removing the spectator’s or reader’s ability to judge such oppressions as being exotic, irrelevant, or encountered only in distant unstable countries. The paper argues that Pinter’s focus upon linguistic prohibition, linguistic discrimination, and linguistic denigration is rendered unexpectedly universal through the reliance of the text upon English as the medium for both the prohibited language and the language of authority.</abstract>

’Your Language is Forbidden’: Language Negation As Political Oppression in Pinter’s Mountain Language

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Summary</title>Most school systems around the world prioritize the teaching of languages and aim to develop bilingual or multilingual proficiencies among their students. However, in a large number of contexts, schools also systematically and intentionally <italic>undermine</italic> the potential of immigrant-background and minoritized students to develop multilingual abilities. This undermining of multilingualism operates either by explicitly prohibiting students from using their home languages (L1) within the school or through ignoring the languages that students bring to school (benign neglect). In some cases, exclusion of students’ L1 is rationalized on the grounds that maintenance of L1 will hinder students’ integration into the mainstream society. In other cases, exclusion is based on the conviction that there is competition between languages and use of the L1 either in school or home will reduce students’ exposure to the school language (L2). The validity of this time-on-task argument is critically analyzed in the present paper. I argue that the research shows no consistent relationship between immigrant students’ academic achievement (in L2) and use of L1 in the home or in the school. By contrast, several research syntheses have highlighted the positive academic outcomes of bilingual programs for minoritized students and also the feasibility of implementing multilingual or translanguaging pedagogies in the mainstream classroom.</abstract>

Should Schools Undermine or Sustain Multilingualism? an Analysis of Theory, Research, and Pedagogical Practice

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Summary</title>All literature reflects the existing discourse in a given community, and translation –as a process of rewriting texts– is a readily accessible tool which linguistic minorities can use to shift power dynamics in their society or, at least, suggest new paradigms and new discourses. In this paper we analyze the key role which translation plays in the cultural systems of minority languages and how translation helps revitalize these languages. The aim of the paper is to defend this key role of translation in the revitalization processes of all minority languages and, at the same time, to highlight the main obstacles one may come across and to try to establish some basic guidelines which may be applied throughout all these processes to maximize their results. Therefore, this paper deals with language standardization, language planning, choice of texts to translate, source languages of the translations, target audience of the translations, diglossia, actual bilingualism, language orientation in translations and the dichotomy between originals written in the language and translations. In order to do so, we will first picture the theoretical frame upon which this paper is based and we will go on to discuss translation into Basque. Finally, we will establish a set of guidelines for other minority languages.</abstract>

The Role of Translation in the Revitalization Process of Minority Languages: The Case of Basque

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Summary</title> Since textbooks are one of the integral components of the learning process, their evaluation is important to improve their correspondence to the learners’ needs and goals. Particularly, in societies in which English is used as a foreign language, ESP textbooks play a crucial role in developing students’ skills of English in job-related situations. The present paper discusses the quality of ESP textbooks by performing a case study of an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) textbook “English for the students of Visual Arts (Painting, Graphics, &amp; Sculpture)” developed and published by SAMT as the pioneer in developing ESP textbooks in Iranian academic setting. The study tries to investigate the overall suitability and pedagogical value of the ESP textbook and the features which make it distinguishable among its global counterparts. The study was carried out by drawing on a model proposed by McDonough and Shaw (2003), with an intention to evaluate the present quality of the Visual Arts ESP textbook critically. Both visual and content-based aspects of the book were thoroughly evaluated to identify their general pedagogical value by using the method of qualitative descriptive analysis. In that way, the Visual Arts textbook was analysed on the basis of the framework and guidelines suggested in the available checklist. In addition, semi structured interviews with graduate students, English instructors, subjectspecific instructors, and experts in Visual Arts Courses such as Painting were performed to clarify their opinions about the need for ESP and to analyze their perceptions of English language in general and English for special purposes in particular. The findings of the present study have revealed that there is a fundamental necessity for revision and development of future ESP textbooks in Iranian context. Moreover, the findings imply that traditional materials and frameworks are not responsive to students’ needs and genre knowledge in majors of the Visual Arts.</abstract>

Critical ESP Textbook Evaluation: The Case of Visual Arts Textbook

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Summary</title>In a global and multilingual society, indubitable is the importance of a reflection on the Self and the Other as defined by language. This interdisciplinary study aims at investigating, the narrative reinvention of the theoretical principles involved in the definition of the anthropological identity as expounded by Francesco Remotti. Specifically, we analyse a centenary trend in European literature identifying a peculiar form of multilingualism with the non-human and the lack of identity. From Dante’s <italic>Inferno</italic> to Joyce’s <italic>The cat and the Devil</italic>, the netherworld, its inhabitants and captives are characterized by the use of several (usually not intelligible) languages. According to this literary <italic>cliché</italic>, while the clarity and precision of a single language contributes to define a human identity, the plurality of languages is often a sign of a lost identity and of not being human anymore. It is not by chance that the verses of Dante ‘There sighs and wails and piercing cries of woe/ […] Strange languages, and frightful forms of speech,/ words caused by pain, accents of anger, voices/ both loud and faint’ are echoed in Primo Levi’s <italic>If This Is a Man</italic>. Multilingualism is the central point in Levi’s memories from the time spent in a concentration camp where ‘languages absolutely not understandable [...], the orders shouted in languages [we] were not able to recognize’ and the ‘endless Babel where everyone is shouting’ symbolize the lost human condition. Both the damned souls and the prisoners of the camp are not human anymore because they have lost their language and, with it, their identity. In our study, the comparative and hermeneutic analysis of the narrative and lexical choices adopted to represent multilingualism in European literature reveals a strong connection between human identity and the purity of language intended as a manifestation of human rationality. On the contrary, a number of recurrent diegetic choices and figures of speech seem to define the non-human as a multilingual world characterized by sighs, wails and strange languages, like the Bellsybable of Joyce’s devil.</abstract>

Identity and Multilingualism. An Anthropological Reading of the Representation of Alterity in Literary Katabasis

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The relationship between globalization and translation is one of the new areas of research in Translation Studies. Globalization has led to unstoppable spread of the English language across the globe. Yet, contrary to expectations, not only has the need for translation services not diminished, but it also has increased. This, according to Pym (2003), sounds paradoxical since as the global use of English is on the increase, the need for translation should be waning. In other words, in spite of the fact that the use of English is triumphant and English is already considered the language of the global village, not only has the number of translations not decreased, but the demand for them is increasing. The present study was an attempt to investigate Iranian translators’ views on this paradox. In other words, the study sought the perspectives of translators in the periphery on the paradox to see how the paradox proposed by Pym can be explained from the point of view of Iranian translators. Using snowball sampling, twenty-two translators (all holding an MA or a PhD in Translation Studies) were selected. To collect data, semi-structured interviews were conducted. Interpretive analysis of the data revealed that there are numerous reasons that raise the status and role of translation and translators in the Iranian context, which were categorized under three broad categories, namely the limited target language (English), a preference for Persian over English and ideological issues. As regards the limited English language knowledge, the in-depth interviews showed that the younger generation’s proficiency is mostly confined to oral skills and cannot cover all aspects of the English language. In other cases, technical differences between the two languages were pointed out, which was taken as a barrier for feeling at ease with using English. Additionally, the pervasiveness of English words and phrases in society, and especially technological tools, makes people with little English proficiency feel the need for the translation of these foreign words and phrases. Another broad category concerns the preference of Iranians for Persian over English. Throughout the interviews, even PhD holders pointed out that they were not that much at ease with English, and some mentioned in the interviews that if they had both the English and the Persian version of a text, they would probably prefer the Persian version. Another reason for such preference was shown to be their lack of confidence in their knowledge of English even though they had an advanced level of understanding English texts/talks. The final category dealt with ideological issues at both macro- and micro-level. At the macro-level, some participants referred to the government policy that prioritizes the Persian language over foreign languages in society. At the micro-level, one participant believed that some individuals intentionally use Persian words and phrases to prevent the marginalization of the Persian language.
</abstract>

Need for Translation Services in the Globalized World: A Periphery-Informed Explanation

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The aim of this article is to analyze the situation of foreign language teaching and learning at the Institute of Foreign Languages of Vytautas Magnus University (VMU), within the framework of the promotion of multilingualism in the European Union and the language policy of VMU. Knowledge of the mother tongue and at least two foreign languages at a sufficient level for effective communication is an aspiration set out in the European Union documents. In this study, we examine how the university’s language policy contributes to the goal of EU multilingualism and the challenges posed by its implementation. For this purpose, data on language teaching at VMU Institute of Foreign Languages over the last ten years are analyzed. In addition, a survey conducted in spring 2022 is presented which aimed at finding out which factors influence the students’ learning of other languages. The results of these two investigations reveal that, while students acquire the proficient user level in English, there is a steady decline in the interest to study other languages apart English, and the number of students who choose other languages has been decreasing. Only a small percentage of them reach the proficient user level (B1–B2 on the CEFR scale), whereas the majority of them become familiar with a new language and end their studies at initial levels (A1–A2 on the CEFR scale). The students’ responses suggest that there is room for improvement in the university system to promote multilingualism; the lack of awareness of the importance of languages, the increasing predominance of English and the lack of motivation, as well as the negative experiences associated with learning, have a significant influence on the decline of interest in other foreign languages, thus constituting a major threat to the implementation of multilingualism policies.
</abstract>

Dynamics of Language Teaching at the Institute of Foreign Languages of Vytautas Magnus University: Challenges and Perspectives

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
This article aims to answer the following questions: what is the distribution of dual pronouns in original and translated Lithuanian fiction texts; what English language patterns are rendered by Lithuanian dual pronouns; and how Lithuanian dual pronouns are translated into English. In line with the unique items hypothesis, it is hypothesized that dual pronouns, as a characteristic feature of the Lithuanian language, should be less frequent in translations, as English texts do not have an obvious translation stimulus. Corpus based methods were used for data extraction and analysis. Firstly, from the morphologically annotated ORVELIT corpus, all occurrences of pronouns in original and translated fiction were identified, and all dual forms were extracted. Parallel concordances of dual pronoun translations were obtained from the Lithuanian-English Corpus of Prose LECOP and the Parallel Corpus (English-Lithuanian translation direction) using the ParaConc software (Barlow, 2009). The most frequent forms of personal pronouns were chosen for further analysis: <italic>mudu, judu</italic> and <italic>jiedu</italic>. It has been found that differently from initial prediction, Lithuanian translations have similar or slightly higher numbers of dual pronouns in comparison to original Lithuanian texts. The data from English-to-Lithuanian translations shows several patterns rendered by dual pronouns, for example, when English plural personal pronouns describe two referents or when a combination of a personal pronoun and another referent is used with the conjunction <italic>and</italic>. When translating duals from Lithuanian into English, translators choose English plural forms of pronouns or use the formula ‘pronoun + referent/referent + pronoun’. To compensate for the loss of information about the number of referents or their proximity, translators use the number <italic>two</italic>. In original English texts, unlike in translated English texts, this usage was not frequent or common.
</abstract>

A Corpus-Based Study of Dual Pronoun Translation

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
In recent years, teachers have had students from diverse language and cultural backgrounds in their classrooms due to increasing human migration in many countries. Therefore, multilingual learning and teaching have become a widespread phenomenon. Research on English language teaching and learning in multilingual contexts has gained great importance. However, teaching languages other than English and foreign language teachers’ practices in this specific context have received little attention so far. Teaching the highly contextualised Japanese language poses challenges in multilingual classrooms, and teachers more frequently resort to using English as the medium of instruction. To shed light on Japanese non-native teachers’ practices, the study explored and analysed two hundred and seventy-four teachers’ responses to the questionnaire “Teaching the Japanese language in multilingual classrooms – English medium instruction approach (EMI)”. The research attempts a worldwide study on using EMI in teaching Japanese as a foreign language (JFL). It examines a broad geographic scope of JFL teachers’ practices from fifty-seven predominantly non-Anglophone countries. The present article focuses on investigating various factors affecting JFL teachers’ willingness to use EMI that can be classified into <italic>demographic</italic>, <italic>linguistic</italic>, and <italic>contextual</italic>. The results revealed several factors of significant influence, such as JFL teachers’ work experience, the highest education level attained, educational stage, geographic region, native language group, Japanese language proficiency, and knowledge of other languages (multilingualism). The factors that appeared to be of insufficient influence were age, study of teaching methods/linguodidactics and level of Japanese taught. The factor of JFL teachers’ language proficiency (both English and Japanese) falls into a separate category of influence, where a significant difference was noted for proficient and near-native levels.
</abstract>

Possible Factors Influencing the Willingness to Use English in Teaching Japanese as a Foreign Language by Non-Native Speakers

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The paper describes a study on the most common English mistakes among Lithuanians in written tasks on the topic of business and finance. The study was conducted with high school students and university students, and the effectiveness of error feedback in reducing the occurrence of errors was also examined by comparing 2 written texts of each participant. Grammatical errors related to the use of articles and punctuation were found to be the most common types of errors, and feedback on errors was found to be an effective tool in increasing learner motivation and understanding, reducing common errors but not reducing the most common types of errors. The research showed that detailed, personalized feedback can help minimize mistakes in writing assignments, especially if it can be accessed during or in between tasks. However, it is uncertain whether this method will have long-lasting benefits or if improvements are dependent on continual feedback reference. Participants were advised to keep their error feedback forms and utilize teachers’ feedback as a constant guide for improvement. We plan to utilize data on frequently occurring errors to conduct additional research on tackling and enhancing language errors that have become ingrained, employing various strategies. Based on the findings, directions for future research were identified. In the future we intend to carry out a study, using controlled texts with a pre-determined number of errors in diagnostic testing. This would allow us to more precisely analyse learners’ improvements in the use of given structures, through a more extensive research.
</abstract>

An Analysis of the Most Common L1 Interference Grammar, Vocabulary and Syntax Errors of Lithuanian Learners in Written English

<abstract>
<title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Over the past few decades, increasing attention has been devoted towards the study of formulaic language, both in Lithuania and abroad. It is assumed that stable word combinations, rather than single words, are preferred in speaking and translating processes, which makes this study increasingly relevant. The idea of formulaic language is well reflected by light verb constructions as one of the collocation types, therefore this article aims to describe the use of these constructions in the analytic Spanish language. The article provides a theoretical overview of light verb constructions, their identification using the <italic>Sketch Engine</italic> computer program, and their usage in a representative-size corpus, compiled from the EUR-Lex database of documents from the original Spanish texts of the Advocate General’s Opinions of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The analysis of the use of Spanish light verb constructions in the analyzed text provided large objective data on their use, revealing the light verb constructions and their patterns typical to administrative Spanish. It has been found that the grammatical meaning of these light verb constructions is mostly represented by the following support verbs: <italic>tener</italic>, <italic>poner</italic>, <italic>dar</italic>, <italic>tomar</italic> and <italic>hacer</italic>. In combinations with nouns, these support verbs mark grammatical aspects such as mood, tense, person, and number. The frequent repetition of light verb constructions in the corpus indicates a standardized lexicon within the Spanish administrative language. In general, the high number of light verb constructions in the corpus reveals their importance in analytic Spanish, especially in the administrative legal language of the Advocate General‘s opinions.
</abstract>

The Use of Spanish Light Verb Constructions in the Advocate General’s Opinions of the Court of Justice of the European Union

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Summary</title>The Syrian civil war affected Turkey so much that approximately three and a half million Syrians live in Turkey. Ministry of Education implemented an inclusive approach to schooling of Syrian asylum-seekers’ children by educating them in public schools with their Turkish peers in the same classrooms in 2016 in order to address their educational needs, integration into the Turkish culture, and to prevent generation gap. Education, as a basic human right and as a way of integration into the Turkish society, is provided for free at all levels of education in Turkey. The inclusion of Syrian students in the Turkish school environment is quite a new experience for Turkish teachers and if the inclusion process is not managed properly, it may have negative effects on both students and their teachers. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the experiences of teachers teaching Syrian students in the city of Kilis, where the number of asylum-seekers outnumbered the local population and almost one-fifth of the students in public schools are Syrians. The guiding question of this research was “What are the lived experiences of primary and middle school teachers educating Syrian children in culturally inclusive classrooms?” Five teachers from four different primary and middle schools were interviewed. The six open-ended interview questions allowed the participants to reflect on their experiences. The data were collected during the spring semester of 2017. The interviews were analyzed according to thematic methods. Three themes emerged: language barrier, lack of family support, and teachers’ lack of pedagogical skills to teach asylum-seeker students.</abstract>

Teaching Syrian Students in Turkish Schools: Experiences of Teachers

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Summary</title> The paper presents the findings of the research carried out among the participants of the project ”Development of Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in Education” (2011-2013) that aimed to upgrade the competences of subject teachers enabling them to implement content and foreign language integrated learning approach in general education and vocational training. The data obtained through a survey indicates that the project participants developed a positive attitude towards the CLIL approach and positively assess the competences acquired during the programme. European Framework for CLIL Teacher Education proves to be a useful tool when designing training courses for specific target groups of qualified content teachers and a fifty hours' programme seems to be adequate to get acquainted with the fundamentals of CLIL. The project participants were most positive about their CLIL methodology competence development during the project and ability to identify appropriate subject content for teaching by using the CLIL approach. The weakest point identified by the participants involves languagerelated issues, such as ability to support language learning in content, balancing the target language used between the learners' and teacher's linguistic ability, and overall insufficiency of linguistic competences. One more issue indicated by the respondents is the absence of standards, guidance and administrative support, as well as quality assurance (content delivery, materials and assessment) in CLIL.</abstract>

CLIL Teacher Competences and Attitudes

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