Anastasia G. Stamou

The effect of nature documentaries on students’ environmental sensitivity: a case study

Despite the potential educational value of nature documentaries, the contribution of such films to environmental education is largely unknown. In the present study, we attempt to delineate the role of nature documentaries to the environmental sensitivity of students when the films are simply introduced to the class. More specifically, the present study experimentally checks whether students who have been exposed to a nature documentary on insects develop a greater level of environmental sensitivity towards those animals compared to students who have not. Moreover, we explore whether nature documentaries of a distinct type (i.e., verbal vs. non‐verbal) have a different effect on the students’ sensitivity. The results suggest that traditional nature documentaries have a positive effect on students’ sensitivity, while the non‐verbal, less conventional documentary is more effective in the development of environmental knowledge and feelings about insects. However, the non‐conventional approach is equally effective in the change in attitudes and beliefs as the verbal, ‘traditional’ one. Finally, the study discloses that students in general report more positive emotional reactions to insects than perceived knowledge and understanding. Although nature documentaries seem to improve all components of environmental sensitivity, they do not subvert the predominance of emotion over knowledge about insects.

A literature review on the mediation of sociolinguistic style in television and cinematic fiction: Sustaining the ideology of authenticity:

A shift of contemporary sociolinguistic research towards media and pop cultural discourse has been observed (e.g. Lopez, 2009; Meek, 2006). Despite the proliferation of studies, there has not been a systematic attempt to chart this field of research. In the light of this, in the present article I review research on the representations of sociolinguistic style in TV and film fictional discourse. The review reveals that although the epistemology of social construction has privileged the analysis of fictional data, the paradigm upon which most of the reviewed studies have drawn remains a traditional one. Similarly, a view of fiction as a reflection of sociolinguistic style is still a dominant conceptual framework from which many researchers tend to interpret their analyses. In conclusion, it is suggested that this research strand tends to confirm the ‘artificiality’ of fiction, by eventually sustaining the ideology of sociolinguistic authenticity.

Representations of Linguistic Variation in Children's Books: Register Stylisation as a Resource for (Critical) Language Awareness.

By drawing upon the dialogic theory of Bakhtin, I consider how register variation is represented in the childrens books by the popular Greek writer Dr. Eugene Trivizas, with the aim to explore whether, and in what terms, it could be exploited for the raising of (critical) language awareness. Most sociolinguistic studies which have used literature as data have focused on more or less ‘accurate’ representations of linguistic variation. The present study indicates that strategically deauthenticated depictions of register variation exploited for humour could still be used as a resource for raising childrens (critical) language awareness. Register humour as a case of stylisation involves a reauthentic linguistic behaviour, since the reader should have recourse to shared scripts about what a specific register involves and under what circumstances it is employed, in order for him/her to resolve the script opposition, and hence, to appreciate humour. Stylisation is extensively employed by the cultural products of postmodernism. Moreover, it contributes to the adoption of a reflexive stance towards linguistic conventions, which is necessary for their critical use on the part of future citizens.

The discourse of environmental information: representations of nature and forms of rhetoric in the information center of a Greek reserve.

In the present study, the textual material disseminated in the information center of Dadia forest reserve is examined. Adopting the theoretical framework of Critical Discourse Analysis, environmental information is seen as “discourse.” By employing a two-plane analytical framework (content analysis and systemic-functional linguistic analysis), the focus given on scientific rhetoric is unveiled. Consequently, the management regime proposed for the forest reserve removes the local community, constructing science (as represented by WWF [World Wide Fund for Nature] Greece’s scientific staff) as the only legitimate voice to speak about and manage the forest. Moreover, the systematic suppression of human interventions blurs and diffuses responsibilities for the environment.

Representations of youth (language) in Greek TV commercials

Drawing upon evidence from Greek TV commercials, we explore how youth language is mediated and what the ideological role of such depictions is regarding young people as a social group and the speech styles they employ. Given the fact that consumption is a major index of late modern (youth) identities, the way young people and their speech styles are represented in advertising has important implications for the identification process of young people and those who feel young. The analysis is made with the use of an analytical framework developed for the mediation of sociolinguistic reality in mass cultural texts (Stamou 2011). It consists of four components (a ‘linguistic’, a ‘sociolinguistic’, a ‘semiotic’, and an ‘ideological’ one) and is premised upon the framework by Coupland (2007) on ‘style’. In the TV commercials analyzed, one could easily detect the dominant constructions of youth as a homogeneous social and cultural experience, framed in contrast to adulthood. Consequently, although the particular TV commercials are supposed to be about and for young people, being produced by (adult) advertisers, they do not escape from perpetuating, albeit often implicitly, the dominant construction of youth as incomplete adulthood.

Representing protection action in an ecotourism setting: a critical discourse analysis of visitors' books at a Greek reserve

The implementation of a protection scheme is central to ecotourism. Drawing upon the theoretical framework of critical discourse analysis, the present study accounts for the way protection action is represented in visitors books at a Greek reserve (Dadia forest). Specifically, proceeding to content analysis and considering a wide range of linguistic features (vocabulary, syntax, ergativity, aspect, and temporal and illocutionary indices), we study whether visitors, through the way they construct protection acts in their texts, display knowledge about and concern for environmental issues within an ecotourism context. The analysis suggests that visitors seem not to be particularly concerned or informed about the protection action undertaken for Dadia forest. With the green aspect of ecotourism rather neglected, this research empirically verifies that ecotourism conceals a consumerist essence under a green wrapping, functioning ideologically. Moreover, the present study offers qualitative insights into ecotourism research, disclosing how the ideological function of ecotourism is evident in the way visitors represent protection acts, since the version of protection action they construct diffuses their responsibilities for the environment.

Representations of disability from the perspective of people with disabilities and their families: a critical discourse analysis of disability groups on Facebook

Contrary to the growing body of research into views about and attitudes towards disability which has focused on the perspectives of non-disabled people, recent disability studies have been directed to the voices of people with disabilities and/or their families, by acknowledging an ‘epistemic privilege’ to them. In the present study, we use the posts of sensory and physical disability groups on Facebook as a lens to uncover the voices and experiences of people with disabilities and/or their families. The critical discourse analysis of the posts of disability groups on Facebook suggests that people with disabilities and/or their families do not constitute a homogeneous group of people being connected because of their common (bodily) condition. On the other hand, different representations of disability also suggest a different use of Facebook.

Young Children Talk about Their Popular Cartoon and TV Heroes' Speech Styles: Media Reception and Language Attitudes.

Considering the role of popular cultural texts in shaping sociolinguistic reality, it makes sense to explore how children actually receive those texts and what conceptualisations of sociolinguistic diversity they form through those texts. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to examine Greek young childrens views on sociolinguistic diversity in popular cartoons and TV series. Drawing upon a framework of media reception, we explored how attention to the ways children at age six interpret mediated representations of sociolinguistic difference might provide a methodological addition to tools used for investigating language attitudes and ideologies. From the analysis of childrens interviews, it was found that they can easily distinguish between different dimensions of sociolinguistic difference, showing an enhanced sociolinguistic awareness. On the other hand, their reading positions seemed to be in acceptance with the meanings conveyed in the texts. Moreover, our findings suggest that children tended to make hegemonic readings of popular cultural texts, premising many of their evaluations on the ways in which sociolinguistic diversity was represented in the text (e.g. plot, characterisation). The implications of these findings for the role of popular culture in the shaping of childrens language attitudes are discussed.

A comparative study of representations about disability in primary school children's drawings: a sociosemiotic approach

Over the past few years, perceptions about disability – at least at the theoretical level – have been shifted toward a more progressive approach, which stresses the social aspects of the construction of disability (social model) rather than personal limitations, as supported by the traditional disability approach (medical–individual model). Drawing upon the sociosemiotic approach as developed by Kress and van Leeuwen, the present study examines from a comparative perspective the representations about disability and people with disabilities, as emerging from the drawings produced by 4th grade Greek primary school children. The sample consists of two groups of children. Group A does not share the same school environment with schoolchildren with special education needs, while group B shares the same school surroundings with students attending a special education needs School. The comparative analysis of their drawings indicates that children of both groups reproduce the dominant meanings they receive from their direct social environment.

'Linguistic Diversity on TV': A Program for Developing Children's Multiliteracies Skills

In this article, we present a program designed for and carried out with young children, which was based on the four-stage multiliteracies model: experiencing, conceptualizing, analyzing and applying creatively. The main purpose of the study was to develop children’s critical awareness of linguistic diversity through popular culture texts in a collaborative, creative and multimodal educational environment. The program was carried out for two school years: a) in the first school year, an intervention was implemented to 2nd grade children of a Greek primary school, and b) in the second school year, a similar intervention was applied to children of the 1st grade. In this article, we report on the results of the first school year’s intervention. The results revealed the positive impact of the program on children’s ability to easily distinguish between different types of speech styles due to geographical, age and socio-economic factors. The children understood – at least to some extent – that the texts of popular culture tend to display language diversity in a distorted and stigmatized way. The results of those implementations were very encouraging; a fact that stimulates our interest in continuing respective ventures by involving a wider sample of students and incorporating a greater range of popular culture texts.