Issue 4, Year 4, July 2023

Table of Contents

IDENTITY MANIFESTATION IN REAL, VIRTUAL AND HYBRID COMMUNICATIVE ENVIRONMENTS

Author: Ivanka Mavrodieva
Key words: Identity, Real and virtual communication, Hybrid environment
Abstract: Identity has manifestations in many spheres: personal life, profession, society, hobby, and is made meaningful at different levels. Identity can be personal, national, European, professional, gender, religious, political, ideological, etc. The dynamic development of the Internet, social networks, platforms, software and applications create, on the one hand, conditions for quick access to information resources and as a result identity manifestations can inhabit relatively new user environments. On the other hand, there are new communicative situations that result from the development of artificial intelligence and a person being an active participant in virtual communication using digital tools. The hypothesis is that the dialogue is now not only on social networks, virtual forums, echo chambers, etc., but it is between human and chatbot, between chatbot and user, even between chatbots in different micro communities in a virtual environment. This raises the question of the identity of the individual and it can be a subject of research through an interdisciplinary approach. The focus of this paper is on presenting directions for future research on the identity of the individual while delineating new research fields on linguistic and communicative levels. Research methods for cyberethnographic observation and content analysis are suggested as adequate to the proposed study.

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SPEAKERS’ ERRORS IN THE USE OF THE ‘COUNT FORM’ IN BULGARIAN NUMERAL PHRASES: POSSIBLE SOURCES OF THE DISTANCE EFFECT

Author: Penka Stateva, Julie Franck and Arthur Stepanov
Key words: Numeral, Syntactic dependency, Processing, Working memory, activation, Bulgarian
Abstract: In Bulgarian, numerals such as pet (‘five’) assign a special ‘count form’ feature to the noun: this assignment takes place across any number of intervening modifier phrases, thus forming a long-distance syntactic dependency. In colloquial speech, speakers often erroneously substitute the count form for regular plurals. Previous corpus and psycholinguistic research established that the ratio of such errors correlates with the distance between numeral and the noun in terms of the number of intervening items. In this note we briefly review this line of inquiry and outline two possible explanations for the distance effect: (i) the cost of maintaining and/or retrieving the numeral in the working memory, and (ii) cumulative activation of the plural markings on the intervening adjectivals.

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Modernization of the Forms of School-Family Cooperation in the Terms of General Inclusion

Author: Nare Hovhannisyan
Key words: Interaction, Support, Parent, Teacher, Family environment, Joint work, Trust
Abstract: In the conditions of general inclusion, it is essential to modernize the content and forms of school-family cooperation, because by implementing inclusive education, the school faces new issues, including students and parents in school life, getting a full understanding of children and providing them with appropriate support. Our goal is to present the existing forms of school-family cooperation and propose a new one based on the research done, contributing to increase the efficiency of that cooperation in the context of general inclusion. School-family cooperation helps parents understand children’s difficulties, develop their positive qualities, promote self-determination, develop common requirements, educational and upbringing goals, and facilitate the organization of teacher-parent activities. Based on our research, we identify a new option of cooperation “secret room” or “safe room” that promotes school-family interaction, designed to organize teacher-family cooperation in a unique way. It will serve the feeling of security of each family member, to trust professionals, to speak up about problems, to find solutions. Contributing to family-centered cooperation, work will be carried out with both the parent/s and all family members who have direct participation in the education and upbringing of a child with special educational needs, and in the development of personality.

Women’s Involvement in the Politics of Post-Soviet Georgia

Author: Manana Darchashvili and Tina Tskhovrebadze
Key words: Women in Georgia, Politics, Equality, Involvement
Abstract: Human rights and liberty are one of the most essential values of democracy in modern society. The statement made at the international level that women possess half of the potential abilities and skills of humankind and their low involvement in the decision-making process is the loss of the entire society is well understood in the Georgian political reality and the evidence is represented by the political history of Georgia. In the Democratic Republic of Georgia (1918-1921) women had both passive and active election rights. The paper explores how women’s participation in the political processes developed after redeclaring the independence of the Georgian Statehood in 1991. What rights and circumstances do Georgian women face while being involved in the politics of Georgia? The research combines analysis of empirical data, scientific works, and official documents and bases on desk research, methods of historicism, and monitoring of the political events in Georgia. In the last years, the government and NGOs actively raised the issue regarding women’s involvement in politics in the political agenda of Georgia. As the official data show, in Georgia on all levels of government women are represented less than in accordance with the commitments made by Georgia.

Vague Language Markers: Politeness-scale Levelers in Oprah Winfrey’s Shows

Author: Mariam Hakobyan
Key words: The paper explores some pragmatic functions of vague markers from the perspective of politeness in formal and informal settings. The pragmatic value of vague markers lies in the capacity of making utterances more tentative and acceptable within the bounds of social and cultural norms and behavior. Vagueness serves as an effective tool to show lack of exactness and accuracy for the sake of politeness the appropriate level of which can only be determined in a specific situational context. Mastery of this language shows one’s level of communicative competence which, in its turn, considerably contributes to the improvement of sociolinguistic competence, both being equally important in presenting the propositional content into a coherent whole. The aim of the current research is to demonstrate the pragmatic significance of linguistic and extralinguistic means of expressing vagueness and to study its communicative value and various manifestations through revealing the most striking features. The research lies in addressing the question of correlation between the pragmatic interpretation and semantic representation of vagueness in spoken communication from the politeness perspective. Vague language is viewed from a completely new angle in directive speech acts. Thanks to this approach, vagueness is analysed in light of form-meaning-use correlation act as a politeness-scale leveler, thereby allowing to draw a clear-cut demarcation line between its pragmatic interpretations in terms of the appropriateness, tentativeness and acceptability of polite behaviour in different situational contexts. Incorporating sufficient evidence from various reviews and TV Shows, this study is an attempt to demonstrate contextually-driven fluctuations in the illocutionary force of vague markers which may lead to different pragmatic interpretations due to both linguistic and extralinguistic factors.
Abstract: Vagueness, Face, Positive politeness, Negative politeness, Speech, Context, Maxim, Pragmatic value

Challenges and Solutions for Trust Building in Virtual Multicultural Teams

Author: Hristina Sokolova
Key words: Cultural diversity, Communication management, Trust building, Multicultural teams
Abstract: The paper explores successful approaches to communication management of culturally diverse virtual teams. Virtual team leaders often face challenges when building trust among team members. The text presents how cultural diversity in teams influences communication practices, such as active listening, taking turns in conversations, negotiating agreements and following instructions from the team leader. The author suggests five solutions for global team managers: 1) creating common values that all members agree on; 2) observing and moderating discussions to ensure full participation; 3) managing time using a time-converging approach; 4) incorporating hierarchy perception when moderating discussions; 5) using translanguaging approach to maximize mutual understanding between participants.

Implementing the Flipped Classroom Approach in Teaching Writing to Young Learners of English as a Foreign Language

Author: Tsvetelina Harakchiyska
Key words: Flipped classroom approach, L2 writing skills, young EFL learners
Abstract: Flipped classroom instruction is a methodological approach which is becoming more and more popular in the recent years due to its consistent implementation in various educational contexts. A consistent number of researchers have focused their attention on investigating its effectiveness in the teaching of English as a foreign language to secondary school and university students. However, the number of studies devoted to exploring its implications in the foreign language training of young learners is limited. Therefore, the aim of the current study is to examine the effect of the flipped classroom approach in the L2 writing of 52 Bulgarian young learners of English. Based on data obtained from the descriptive statistical analysis it was established that flipped classroom has a positive impact on the L2 writing performance of the study participants.

The Interplay between Semantic Fluency and Learner Creativity in L2 Acquisition

Author: Tsvetelina Harakchiyska
Key words: L2 creativity, semantic fluency tasks, L2 verbal production, young L2 learners of English
Abstract: Creativity in L2 acquisition is an issue which has received considerable attention in domains related to the study of individual learner differences, lexical item memorisation and retrieval, bilingualism, teaching strategies. Despite that the interdependence of L2 creativity and verbal production of young English language learners has not received considerable attention so far. The aim of the current study is to examine the relationship between creativity and L2 word production fluency of a group of 52 10-11-year old Bulgarian primary school speakers of English. The performed descriptive statistical analysis of the data gathered revealed a strong interdependence between creativity (in its three dimensions – fluency, flexibility and originality) and the target language verbal production of the study subjects.