Research Trends in Modern Linguistics and Literature 3: 68-89,, 2020
This article explores the relationship between discourse and action by examining the role of expe... more This article explores the relationship between discourse and action by examining the role of expert advice in everyday parenting practices. Drawing upon the notions of dialogicality (Bakhtin, 1981), intertextuality (Kristeva, 1986), and repetition (Tannen, 2007) and incorporating insights from Mediated Discourse Analysis (e.g., Scollon, 1998; Scollon and Scollon, 2007; Norris and Jones, 2005), this work analyzes instances in which the actions of parents in three American families can be traced back to various public texts on parenting. Such relationship between text and action is identified as intertextuality in action (Tovares, 2005, 2020), or when public texts serve as resources for the verbal and non-verbal everyday actions of parents. It is further suggested that by adopting a positive, childcentered approach to parenting from literature and trained childcare professionals, parents themselves are socialized into the contemporary Discourse (Gee, 1999, 2015) of parenting. The analysis of the "repetition" of the words of experts in family (inter)actions also illuminates the dialogic relationship between the public and private spheres.
The present work synthesises the self-talk literature and constructs a transdisciplinary self-tal... more The present work synthesises the self-talk literature and constructs a transdisciplinary self-talk model to guide future research across all academic disciplines that engage with self-talk. A comprehensive research review was conducted, including 559 self-talk articles published between 1978 and 2020. These articles were divided into 6 research categories: (a) inner dialogue, (b) mixed spontaneous and goal-directed organic self-talk, (c) goal-directed self-talk, (d) spontaneous self-talk, (e) educational self-talk interventions, and (f) strategic self-talk interventions. Following this, critical details were extracted from a subsample of 100 articles to create an interdisciplinary synthesis of the self-talk literature. Based on the synthesis, a self-talk model was created that places spontaneous and goal-directed organic self-talk as well as educational and strategic self-talk interventions in relation to variables within their nomological network, including external factors (e.g. t...
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this... more Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at <http:// dnb.ddb.de>. British Library and Library of Congress ...
This article investigates YouTube metalinguistic comments about language varieties in Ukraine as ... more This article investigates YouTube metalinguistic comments about language varieties in Ukraine as a “light” practice to demonstrate how knowledge and identities are negotiated online against the backdrop of larger sociopolitical discourses that circulate in and about Ukraine. This work adds to our understanding of online, or “light”, identity construction by suggesting that taking up epistemic stances and overtly asserting epistemic statuses are often a part of such identity work. Furthermore, deliberate linguistic choices not only serve to index identities but also create (dis)affiliations and thus can be deployed as a means of inclusion or exclusion from a particular online group, often shifting between (and integrating) local and global themes and audiences. The analysis shows how by drawing on repetition, deixis, pronouns, and lexical choices, YouTube commenters police, reify, and contest the extant language practices and underlying ideologies and in so doing create a foundation ...
International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM), 2021
The unprecedented expansion of wireless technologies and the global pandemic of 2020-2021, which ... more The unprecedented expansion of wireless technologies and the global pandemic of 2020-2021, which forced many educational establishments out of traditional face-to-face and into online instructional environments, have created an urgency for achieving a better understanding of the various education-related uses of mobile phones, and students’ attitudes toward them, worldwide. We conducted a questionnaire-based study to explore college undergraduate students’ perceptions and uses of mobile phones, with a focus on instructor-student communication and classroom use, across three diverse cultural contexts: Ukraine, Oman, and the United States. Based on our findings, we suggest that conceptualizing mobile phones as cultural tools and situating their use within cultural discourses illuminates how – and explains why – mobile phones are not “the same” tools for all students. The findings offer insights into students’ (developing) perspectives on uses of mobile phones, and provide grounds from...
In this chapter, by focusing on a specific type of intertextual repetition, I demonstrate how the... more In this chapter, by focusing on a specific type of intertextual repetition, I demonstrate how the public and the private are intertwined moment-by-moment in family interaction. Considering the relationship between the public and the private as essentially dialogic helps to demonstrate that family discourse is not private per se; rather it is a complex combination of the public and the private. By incorporating elements of television texts into their discourse, family members blend the public and the private into a dialogic unity. This chapter also shows that television viewing is a key site for studying the interrelationship between the public and the private, and that television texts can be understood asthe other or a social mirror (Bakhtin, 2000) that links family members with the world that lies outside their circle of family and friends
Abstract : This report documents the intersection of computational social network analysis and so... more Abstract : This report documents the intersection of computational social network analysis and sociolinguistic research aimed at discovering how social intent is communicated through online bilingual speech acts in African cultures. Researchers from the US Army Research Lab (ARL) and Howard University (HU) exchanged information, data, and analyses to examine the feasibility of using automated text analytics software to provide contextual understanding within a text corpus. This effort extends the Army Research Office Partners in Research Transition program titled Extracting Social Meaning from Linguistic Structures Involving Code-Switching in English (and French) with Selected African Languages led by HU. It also provided test and evaluation opportunities for ARL prototype software designed to extract relational networks and sentiment from unstructured Tweets. This collaboration was driven by the realization that more social input is needed to refine context for sociolinguistic analysis and also by the increasing importance of modeling social issues for military decision making. To address social communication acts, we focus on using Twitter for sharing individual and collective opinions. Social media services in general have gained popularity in recent years and are frequently used for discovery and analysis of social intent. We examine the sociolinguistic features that can be used to discover social intent, discuss how social network analysis can be used to inform contextual nuances in which that intent is communicated, and describe how automated tools can be used to support sociolinguistic analysis. We conclude with future research directions that can extend the rich connections between computational social network analysis and the study of sociolinguistics.
In this paper we discuss language-in-education practices, along with the ideologies and attitudes... more In this paper we discuss language-in-education practices, along with the ideologies and attitudes that undergird them, in the two countries. The focus is on the ideology of development, the essence of which is captured in the second epigraph: An education through the medium of English brings about employment, literacy, and development, personal success and upward social mobility. We discuss these presumed outcomes in the context of Kenya and South Africa, and argue that the language remains accessible only to a select few, the elite, and so do literacy and socioeconomic development. Where would I be employed with my Zulu degree in the world? [. .. ] Zulu is as important as all other languages, but then, with English being the language that you need to succeed as a person, it's better to learn in English (Rudwick & Parmegiani 2013: 102). Professor, what you are proposing [prestige planning for African languages] will not work. Let us move on. English has brought us development; it has brought us jobs; it has brought us education; it has brought us literacy; but what have African languages done for us? Nothing! Let us just move on! (Kamwangamalu 2013).
RESEARCH TRENDS IN MODERN LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE, 2020
This article explores the relationship between discourse and action by examining the role of expe... more This article explores the relationship between discourse and action by examining the role of expert advice in everyday parenting practices. Drawing upon the notions of dialogicality (Bakhtin, 1981), intertextuality (Kristeva, 1986), and repetition (Tannen, 2007) and incorporating insights from Mediated Discourse Analysis (e. g., Scollon, 1998; Scollon and Scollon, 2007; Norris and Jones, 2005), this work analyzes instances in which the actions of parents in three American families can be traced back to various public texts on parenting. Such relationship between text and action is identified as intertextuality in action (Author, 2005, 2020), or when public texts serve as resources for the verbal and non-verbal everyday actions of parents. It is further suggested that by adopting a positive, childcentered approach to parenting from literature and trained childcare professionals, parents themselves are socialized into the contemporary Discourse (Gee, 1999, 2015) of parenting. The anal...
This book discusses the various definitions of media and guides readers through the process of wr... more This book discusses the various definitions of media and guides readers through the process of writing about them. How to Write about the Media covers the process of writing research papers and professional reports, beginning with the selection of a topic and ending with the submission of the final draft. This writing process includes the development and application of research skills. Professional, thoughtful writing about the media demands discipline in how information is found, evaluated, organized, and presented in a well-written research paper or report. How to Write about the Media also offers a section on style, basic grammar, and punctuation; sample pages formatted in APA, MLA, and Chicago styles can also be found in the book. Tips for ESL (English as a Second Language) writers, along with a checklist writers can use before submitting their final drafts, are also included
Research Trends in Modern Linguistics and Literature 3: 68-89,, 2020
This article explores the relationship between discourse and action by examining the role of expe... more This article explores the relationship between discourse and action by examining the role of expert advice in everyday parenting practices. Drawing upon the notions of dialogicality (Bakhtin, 1981), intertextuality (Kristeva, 1986), and repetition (Tannen, 2007) and incorporating insights from Mediated Discourse Analysis (e.g., Scollon, 1998; Scollon and Scollon, 2007; Norris and Jones, 2005), this work analyzes instances in which the actions of parents in three American families can be traced back to various public texts on parenting. Such relationship between text and action is identified as intertextuality in action (Tovares, 2005, 2020), or when public texts serve as resources for the verbal and non-verbal everyday actions of parents. It is further suggested that by adopting a positive, childcentered approach to parenting from literature and trained childcare professionals, parents themselves are socialized into the contemporary Discourse (Gee, 1999, 2015) of parenting. The analysis of the "repetition" of the words of experts in family (inter)actions also illuminates the dialogic relationship between the public and private spheres.
The present work synthesises the self-talk literature and constructs a transdisciplinary self-tal... more The present work synthesises the self-talk literature and constructs a transdisciplinary self-talk model to guide future research across all academic disciplines that engage with self-talk. A comprehensive research review was conducted, including 559 self-talk articles published between 1978 and 2020. These articles were divided into 6 research categories: (a) inner dialogue, (b) mixed spontaneous and goal-directed organic self-talk, (c) goal-directed self-talk, (d) spontaneous self-talk, (e) educational self-talk interventions, and (f) strategic self-talk interventions. Following this, critical details were extracted from a subsample of 100 articles to create an interdisciplinary synthesis of the self-talk literature. Based on the synthesis, a self-talk model was created that places spontaneous and goal-directed organic self-talk as well as educational and strategic self-talk interventions in relation to variables within their nomological network, including external factors (e.g. t...
Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this... more Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Bibliothek Die Deutsche Bibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National-bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at <http:// dnb.ddb.de>. British Library and Library of Congress ...
This article investigates YouTube metalinguistic comments about language varieties in Ukraine as ... more This article investigates YouTube metalinguistic comments about language varieties in Ukraine as a “light” practice to demonstrate how knowledge and identities are negotiated online against the backdrop of larger sociopolitical discourses that circulate in and about Ukraine. This work adds to our understanding of online, or “light”, identity construction by suggesting that taking up epistemic stances and overtly asserting epistemic statuses are often a part of such identity work. Furthermore, deliberate linguistic choices not only serve to index identities but also create (dis)affiliations and thus can be deployed as a means of inclusion or exclusion from a particular online group, often shifting between (and integrating) local and global themes and audiences. The analysis shows how by drawing on repetition, deixis, pronouns, and lexical choices, YouTube commenters police, reify, and contest the extant language practices and underlying ideologies and in so doing create a foundation ...
International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM), 2021
The unprecedented expansion of wireless technologies and the global pandemic of 2020-2021, which ... more The unprecedented expansion of wireless technologies and the global pandemic of 2020-2021, which forced many educational establishments out of traditional face-to-face and into online instructional environments, have created an urgency for achieving a better understanding of the various education-related uses of mobile phones, and students’ attitudes toward them, worldwide. We conducted a questionnaire-based study to explore college undergraduate students’ perceptions and uses of mobile phones, with a focus on instructor-student communication and classroom use, across three diverse cultural contexts: Ukraine, Oman, and the United States. Based on our findings, we suggest that conceptualizing mobile phones as cultural tools and situating their use within cultural discourses illuminates how – and explains why – mobile phones are not “the same” tools for all students. The findings offer insights into students’ (developing) perspectives on uses of mobile phones, and provide grounds from...
In this chapter, by focusing on a specific type of intertextual repetition, I demonstrate how the... more In this chapter, by focusing on a specific type of intertextual repetition, I demonstrate how the public and the private are intertwined moment-by-moment in family interaction. Considering the relationship between the public and the private as essentially dialogic helps to demonstrate that family discourse is not private per se; rather it is a complex combination of the public and the private. By incorporating elements of television texts into their discourse, family members blend the public and the private into a dialogic unity. This chapter also shows that television viewing is a key site for studying the interrelationship between the public and the private, and that television texts can be understood asthe other or a social mirror (Bakhtin, 2000) that links family members with the world that lies outside their circle of family and friends
Abstract : This report documents the intersection of computational social network analysis and so... more Abstract : This report documents the intersection of computational social network analysis and sociolinguistic research aimed at discovering how social intent is communicated through online bilingual speech acts in African cultures. Researchers from the US Army Research Lab (ARL) and Howard University (HU) exchanged information, data, and analyses to examine the feasibility of using automated text analytics software to provide contextual understanding within a text corpus. This effort extends the Army Research Office Partners in Research Transition program titled Extracting Social Meaning from Linguistic Structures Involving Code-Switching in English (and French) with Selected African Languages led by HU. It also provided test and evaluation opportunities for ARL prototype software designed to extract relational networks and sentiment from unstructured Tweets. This collaboration was driven by the realization that more social input is needed to refine context for sociolinguistic analysis and also by the increasing importance of modeling social issues for military decision making. To address social communication acts, we focus on using Twitter for sharing individual and collective opinions. Social media services in general have gained popularity in recent years and are frequently used for discovery and analysis of social intent. We examine the sociolinguistic features that can be used to discover social intent, discuss how social network analysis can be used to inform contextual nuances in which that intent is communicated, and describe how automated tools can be used to support sociolinguistic analysis. We conclude with future research directions that can extend the rich connections between computational social network analysis and the study of sociolinguistics.
In this paper we discuss language-in-education practices, along with the ideologies and attitudes... more In this paper we discuss language-in-education practices, along with the ideologies and attitudes that undergird them, in the two countries. The focus is on the ideology of development, the essence of which is captured in the second epigraph: An education through the medium of English brings about employment, literacy, and development, personal success and upward social mobility. We discuss these presumed outcomes in the context of Kenya and South Africa, and argue that the language remains accessible only to a select few, the elite, and so do literacy and socioeconomic development. Where would I be employed with my Zulu degree in the world? [. .. ] Zulu is as important as all other languages, but then, with English being the language that you need to succeed as a person, it's better to learn in English (Rudwick & Parmegiani 2013: 102). Professor, what you are proposing [prestige planning for African languages] will not work. Let us move on. English has brought us development; it has brought us jobs; it has brought us education; it has brought us literacy; but what have African languages done for us? Nothing! Let us just move on! (Kamwangamalu 2013).
RESEARCH TRENDS IN MODERN LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE, 2020
This article explores the relationship between discourse and action by examining the role of expe... more This article explores the relationship between discourse and action by examining the role of expert advice in everyday parenting practices. Drawing upon the notions of dialogicality (Bakhtin, 1981), intertextuality (Kristeva, 1986), and repetition (Tannen, 2007) and incorporating insights from Mediated Discourse Analysis (e. g., Scollon, 1998; Scollon and Scollon, 2007; Norris and Jones, 2005), this work analyzes instances in which the actions of parents in three American families can be traced back to various public texts on parenting. Such relationship between text and action is identified as intertextuality in action (Author, 2005, 2020), or when public texts serve as resources for the verbal and non-verbal everyday actions of parents. It is further suggested that by adopting a positive, childcentered approach to parenting from literature and trained childcare professionals, parents themselves are socialized into the contemporary Discourse (Gee, 1999, 2015) of parenting. The anal...
This book discusses the various definitions of media and guides readers through the process of wr... more This book discusses the various definitions of media and guides readers through the process of writing about them. How to Write about the Media covers the process of writing research papers and professional reports, beginning with the selection of a topic and ending with the submission of the final draft. This writing process includes the development and application of research skills. Professional, thoughtful writing about the media demands discipline in how information is found, evaluated, organized, and presented in a well-written research paper or report. How to Write about the Media also offers a section on style, basic grammar, and punctuation; sample pages formatted in APA, MLA, and Chicago styles can also be found in the book. Tips for ESL (English as a Second Language) writers, along with a checklist writers can use before submitting their final drafts, are also included
Uploads
Papers by Alla Tovares