Anna Niżegorodcew’s research while affiliated with Jagiellonian University and other places

The aim of this paper is to reflect on the role of old postcards from L’viv in preserving the material and spiritual heritage of the past and to discuss the implications of the reception of the postcards by the contemporary inhabitants of L’viv. The old postcards from L’viv are part of the material culture of a multilingual bygone city. A contemporary reception of old postcards shows the impact of past multilingual and multicultural heritage in two ways. One way is the awareness of particular historical monuments presented in images and captions. The other is a holistic impression created by images rather than by captions. This small-scale research indicates that contemporary Ukrainians are not fully aware of the multicultural and multilingual heritage of L’viv but they are holistically impressed by the images on the postcards.

The purpose of this chapter, written for the volume in honor of a colleague in the field of applied linguistics and English Language Teaching (ELT) is to view through personal lenses the “missionary” aspect of ideas and behavior of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and teacher trainers. The inspiration for this paper has been drawn from Bill Johnston’s (2017). However, while Johnston uses the term mission in a literal religious sense of the word, I am using it more metaphorically, as the imposition of one’s ideas and practices upon one’s colleagues. This chapter is a case study based on a few accounts of encounters with native and non-native ELT professionals, which serve as illustrations of “missionary” approaches in our field. It focuses, firstly, on the perceived “missionary” approaches of ELT activities of the British Council in Poland in the 1990s, secondly, on the inherent “missionary” aspects of an intercultural EFL project carried out by this author in Ukraine and, finally, on a recent cooperative ELT to senior students project, in which we have liberated ourselves from the “missionary” approach.

The objective of the present paper is to provide psycholinguistic profiles of senior students attending a course of English as a foreign language at a Third Age University. The analysis consists of the teacher’s reflections on the course, and the participants’ accounts of their life experiences in foreign language learning, as well as of their motivation to study English in senior years. The analysis of the accounts and the teacher’s reflections indicate that senior students are differentiated both in terms of the length and intensity of studying English as well as in their cognitive strengths. However, their motivation to study English has a common thread, which is senior students’ desire to socialize and to take advantage of their knowledge and experience.

This paper presents a Polish-Ukrainian educational project. Its outcome is a volume including texts focused on Ukrainian and Polish cultures accompanied by intercultural tasks. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the process of conceptualization, writing and editing of the volume. In particular, initial assumptions of the project are identified and juxtaposed with their later modifications. One of the main assumed goals of the project, co-construction of the common knowledge in the community of practice through the use English as a lingua franca, is discussed from the perspective of the underlying values of the partners’ cultures. Some misunderstandings between the project partners are reflected upon. Those misunderstandings are interpreted in the light of Geert Hofstede’s (1991) model of intercultural dimensions and differences and similarities in the national indices of intercultural dimensions between Ukrainians and Poles, such as power distance, individualism versus collectivism, masculinity versus femininity, uncertainty tolerance versus uncertainty avoidance, long-term versus short-term orientation and low context versus high context. The author concludes her paper by formulating the claim that the project has contributed to an increased intra- and intercultural awareness of its participants and that the main benefit of the project was in the process of negotiating with each other the participants’ local cultures and their underlying values.

This chapter focuses on the perception of English as a lingua franca (ELF) by a group of Polish MA English Philology students, following the implementation in class of a project on intercultural communication between two English Departments, one in Poland and the other in Ukraine. The described small scale study involved the students’ answers to three study questions: 1. The subjects’ awareness of the concept of ELF and their treatment of the role of English in the world. 2. The subjects’ awareness of the influence of ELF upon other languages and national identities. 3. The subjects’ level of aspirations in studying English. The results of the study indicate that the subjects are familiar with the concept of English as a lingua franca and they understand it as a language used for communication with other English users. English is viewed as a language of opportunity and success. Only a few subjects notice negative aspects of using English as a global language. The majority of the subjects are concerned about their own desired native speaker proficiency in English. Also only a few subjects prefer to be recognized as non-native speakers of English. A general conclusion which can be drawn from this small scale study is that in the eyes of Polish students of English, ELF is definitely an asset rather than a threat.

This chapter presents a case study in which the author focuses on her role as an evaluator of the abstracts to be selected for presentation at an international conference. This chapter mainly aims at a re-evaluation of the negatively assessed abstracts in applied linguistics and second/foreign language learning and teaching in order to discover reasons for their negative evaluation and finding the minimum criteria of acceptability. They are as follows: an adequate level of proficiency in English, a clearly formulated purpose of the presentation and a relevant choice of the research area, taking into account the conference audience. The model of more or less legitimate peripheral participation in discourse community (Lave and Wenger 1991, Wenger 1998) is used to account for the applied evaluative approach.

This paper presents the intercultural reader Developing Intercultural Competence through English: Focus on Ukrainian and Polish Cultures (in short DICE) (Niżegorodcew, Bystrov and Kleban 2011) as the outcome of a joint project of two Departments of English Studies: the English Studies Department at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and the English Philology Department at the Precarpathian University in Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine, and its implementation in class in Ukraine and in Poland. The authors and editors’ intentions are confronted with the interpretation of some of the texts and tasks by Ukrainian and Polish students. A striking difference has been observed between Polish and Ukrainian perception of the English language. The English language is perceived by Polish students as a language for international communication, while for Ukrainian students there is a strong link between the English language and target cultures. The conclusion of the paper is that the mere use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) is not sufficient for the students to assume the position of intercultural mediators or to build up a community of ELF users. In using an intercultural reader, the teachers and students have to critically assess the authors’ intentions and their own text implementation in class, which results in a double life of the texts—their various uses and interpretations by teachers and students in different educational contexts.

This Chapter focuses on the use of English as a lingua franca (ELF) in international educational projects in Europe. Firstly, it discusses functions of language as a lingua franca from a sociolinguistic perspective, in particular considering the concept of the ownership of ELF. Secondly, it draws on sociocultural theory of second language learning. In the situated learning approach second language learning is viewed as a functional and regulatory process in attaining an identity of a member of a community of practice. Such a view is applied to ELF and is exemplified by three international educational projects: an MA blended learning project under this author’s supervision and two larger international projects, one involving two partner countries and the other—eight partner countries. The MA project and the international projects (The European Master for European Teacher Training Project—EMETT and a Polish-Ukrainian project on the Development of Intercultural Competence through English—DICE) serve as illustrations of the claim that English is used nowadays by non-native users of English first of all to suit their own purposes. What is of primary significance is communication between the international participants and implementation of the project goals. It is argued that non-native ELF users in international projects can be empowered in their use of English by their sense of legitimate ownership of English that stems from their necessity to use a common language in oral, digital and written communication. Implications are drawn for English language teaching and learning in Europe.

This chapter describes a small scale survey study on the motivation of adult ELT course participants. The motivation of two groups of course participants of two private language schools was compared as far as three considerations are concerned: why the participants had joined ELT courses, why they had chosen School A or B, and why they continued their courses in those schools. On the basis of the results of the survey, it seems that the decisive factor in the success of the courses in School A is a high level of motivation of those who join them, combined with a well-advertised method of EFL teaching based on the Audio-Lingual Method and having very little to do with authentic communication in English. The paradox is that the course participants approved of the method. The conclusion reached on the basis of the survey makes us realise that in spite of the disillusionment with foreign language teaching methods, including the Communicative Approach, a well-advertised and implemented teaching method may be appealing because it does not require much cognitive effort from course participants, giving them an impression that they will be able to speak real English very soon.

This paper presents cultural conceptualisations of emotions on the basis of an intercultural Polish-Ukrainian anthology of texts. The texts are accompanied by intercultural tasks and are focused on Ukrainian and Polish cultures. The aim of this paper is to present cultural conceptualisations of emotions of pride and shame in the two cultures and to reflect on the initial assumptions of the Polish-Ukrainian project and its outcome. The authors assumed at the initial stages of the project that English as a lingua franca (ELF) could help them acquire a more critical attitude towards their own culture, leading to a raised awareness of cultural diversity and tolerance of the other culture, that is, become successful intercultural mediators. They became aware later that the use of English as a lingua franca was not sufficient to build up a community of English as a lingua franca users. It was concluded that in intercultural communication different cultural conceptualisations should be patiently clarified. In order to build up an intercultural community of non-native ELF users, both sides need to become aware of the underlying values of their partners’ cultures, involving their cultural conceptualisations of emotions. The self-conscious emotions of pride and shame belong to the most important cultural conceptualizations which should be analysed in the process of intercultural mediation.