Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Salad Days, Alixa Brobbey

BYU Studies Quarterly

There used to be smoke standing on every corner and hovering just behind each shoulder, sitting politely at round tables ordering food from teenaged waiters.

Of Scorpions, Vipers, And The Assassin’S Drug, D. Morgan Davis

Insights: The Newsletter of the Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship

Twelfth-century Cairo was a vibrant place. The legendary Saladin, who had recaptured Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187, had established himself there and was actively transforming it from a royal resort into a cosmopolitan center of power, commerce, learning, and culture. A pious Muslim, Saladin chose for his physician at court a Jew who had been twice exiled—first from his hometown of Cordoba, Spain (Andalusia), and then again from Fez, Morocco (al- Maghreb)—by the fanatical Almohad regime of Northwest Africa.

“By Study And Also By Faith”, J Gordon Daines Iii

BYU Studies Quarterly

At their inception, universities were places where all branches of learning—both the sacred and the secular—were studied. At the great medieval universities, for instance, faith and academic excellence were intertwined,¹ and this strong connection continued in the universities of the New World. Most American research universities began as religiously affiliated colleges whose missions were to develop Christian character and foster faith in order to prepare men for the ministry or work in the government.² But, beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing over the course of the twentieth century, the vast majority of these research universities abandoned …

The Power Of Principles, Tad R. Callister

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

On 15 July 2017, the Karl G. Maeser Memorial Building on the campus of Brigham Young University became the site for the first annual conference of the LDS Educators Association. The purpose of the association is to challenge LDS educators to consider the relationship between their sacred covenants and their professional practice. It provides a place to discuss critical contemporary issues in the context of faith, encourage educators to consider the unique aspects of LDS doctrine, and network together in finding the most effective ways to strengthen learning in all settings.

Questions In The Book Of Mormon, Holt Zaugg

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Questions are the catalyst that drives learning, providing a focus on what an individual wants or needs to know. They are the drivers that move knowledge acquisition to realms of greater understanding and wisdom. Karen Brown, a professor at Dominican University, describes questions as the heart of learning and the impetus for building knowledge. Teachers and students use questions to vet information and allow them to develop the ability to see when change is coming and to manage changes when they occur. Questions help people to zone in on important details that help to sharpen and refine their thinking.

Defining The Accessibility Of A Literary Text: Contemporary Russian Literature In A Cefr B2 Russian As A Foreign Language Classroom, Sofya Yunusova

Russian Language Journal

In the last three and a half decades, a considerable number of publications in foreign-language methodology have addressed the use of literary texts (LTs) in foreign-language classrooms. While at the beginning of the twentieth century learning a foreign language still meant a close study of canonical LTs for linguistic and humanistic purposes following the grammar-translation method (Kramsch and Kramsch 2000; Iatsenko 2017b), by the middle of the century, literature was replaced by more functional models of learning (Carter 2007). The 1980s opened new perspectives on the didactic role of L2 literary reading, which are commonly associated with the confluence of …

The Effect Of Teaching Vocabulary In Semantic Groups: A Study In The Russian Language Classroom, Kate White

Russian Language Journal

A long-standing assumption in the field of second language acquisition research is that learning new vocabulary items in semantic groupings has a positive effect on acquisition and retention (Finkbeiner and Nicol 2003). This assumption is common among researchers and instructors of second languages, as it seems to fit intuitively with the most popular current communicative approaches to teaching. However, researchers have begun to question this assumption, as it has not been supported by empirical evidence (Altarriba and Mathis 1997; Finkbeiner and Nicol 2003; Papathanasiou 2009). Previous research is not conclusive on the topic due to differences in methodology and design. …

My Observations Of Danish Innovation In Doing Science, Learning New Things, And Living An Interesting Life, Eugene S. Takle

The Bridge

I have had the very good fortune to interact with a number of Danish scientists and scholars over my career, and much of the scientific success I have enjoyed is directly related to these interactions. My career has taken me to Denmark several times for a variety of personal as well as professional reasons. Although my contacts have been, in some cases, somewhat episodic and mostly professionally driven, it has been my experience that once strong connections with Danish people are made they persist and do not diminish in spite of the lack of continuous tending.

Individualized Project-Based Reading And Its Effect On Students’ Reading Habits And Beliefs, Filip Zachoval

Russian Language Journal

In recent years, a number of empirical and conceptual studies about Project-Based Learning (PBL) have presented consistent arguments rationalizing this approach to language learning and teaching. However, there are no known studies available on PBL in the Russian language classroom. This article presents the results of a qualitative research study that investigates incorporating an individualized reading project into a third-semester Russian classroom. Within the movement of studentcentered pedagogies, the overall purpose of this study was: (a) to implement a reading project into a third-semester university Russian language class and (b) to provide an analysis of some of the educational gains …

Toward A Theory Of Interdisciplinarity: An Example Of Conceptual Integration/Blending In Teaching And Learning In Russian And East European Language-Based Area Studies, Anna Pleshakova, Kathleen M. Quinlan

Russian Language Journal

Most of problems in everyday and professional life are interdisciplinary, though most of our academic scholarship is contained within disciplines. To understand and solve such interdisciplinary problems, we must cross disciplinary boundaries. Yet, “the need to identify a method or/and logic of interdisciplinarity has, however, proven to be much easier to proclaim than to meet.”

The Influence Of Prior Language Learning Experiences On Learning Of Unrelated Or Distantly Related Languages, Ewa Golonka

Russian Language Journal

Existing research provides evidence that learning one foreign language, and learning it well, makes learning another much easier. Learning another foreign language as an adult is easier both for those who acquired a second language (L2) in childhood and for those who acquired a second language as adolescents or adults in school. The learning of multiple languages within school settings in European countries, such as Benelux, Germany, Switzerland, and Austria, is a common experience. In the United States, deliberate adult third language (L3) instruction—which accounts for learner’s knowledge of other foreign languages—has been primarily in U.S. government training institutes. 2 …

The Actr Nationwide Survey Of Russian Language Instruction In U.S. High Schools In 2009, Dan E. Davidson, Nadra Garas

Russian Language Journal

Adequate access to extended sequences of instruction across a range of world languages in the U.S. K‐12 system can provide the “early start” in language learning, which is essential for a new generation of Americans who will compete in the highly globalized economy of the 21st century.2 The study of Arabic, Chinese Japanese, Persian, and Russian have attracted particular attention among U.S. policymakers, given the importance of these and other major world languages for long‐term U.S. national security interests, scientific and cultural exchange, mutual understanding, and the preservation of U.S. economic competitiveness around the world.

The Online Language Learning Environment: New Roles For The Humanist, James S. Noblitt

Russian Language Journal

Thomas Edison played an important role in improving the technologies needed for the telephone. He was said to have been excited about the educational potential of the new instrument and speculated that it would soon be found in every classroom.

Well, he was right about the educational potential of information and communication technology, but he was wrong about the form the new technology would take.

This chapter raises questions concerning the role humanists will play in determining the development and implementation of information and communication technologies for educational purposes.

A Longitudinal Survey Of The Language Learning Careers Of Actr Advanced Students Of Russian: 1976-2000, Dan E. Davidson, Susan Goodrich Lehmann

Russian Language Journal

In 1976, the American Council of Teachers of Russian (ACTR) began sending American college students to Russia for advanced training in Russian language and literature. The original ACTR program was open to qualified students from any U. S. institution and represented one of the very few opportunities available to American students, graduate students, or faculty to pursue advanced language training in Russia, in this case, the newly established A. S. Pushkin Institute of the Russian Language in Moscow. Admission to the program was competitive, and, in practice, the ACTR program accepted for the most part graduate students and immediate-post BA …