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Jolanta Szpyra-Kozłowska : Successes and failures of teaching the pronunciation of Polish as a foreign language. Comments of an outside observer
This paper analyses and evaluates the present
state of teaching Polish pronunciation to foreign learners,
points to its strengths and weaknesses, and indicates
directions for future development. The author regards the
importance attached to the phonetic training of language
teachers and auditory training of foreign learners, the
competent employment of exercises based on minimal
pairs, tongue twisters, poems and songs as well as
techniques taken from speech therapy and speech training
as significant merits of Polish pronunciation teaching.
She criticizes the small number and low quality of
publications devoted to teaching pronunciation, the lack
of pronunciation syllabuses for different levels of language
learning, the marginal place of phonetics in Polish
coursebooks, no integration of pronunciation teaching
with the remaining linguistic subsystems, too narrow
scope of taught phonetic and phonological issues, the
improper use of analytic techniques of pronunciation
teaching, the lack of studies on the acquisition of Polish
pronunciation by foreign learners and on the perception
of foreign-accented Polish that are an empirical foundation
of phonetic instruction, and the insufficient use of
pronunciation teaching techniques developed for teaching
pronunciation of other foreign languages in the Polish
pronunciation teaching materials.
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Elżbieta Awramiuk : The contemporary Polish spelling: between the standard and the usage
This paper is devoted to discussing the causes
of violating the codified spelling standard in the
contemporary written texts in the context of correlations
between the rules generally adopted in spelling
dictionaries (the standard) and the spelling habits of Poles
(the usage). Deviations from the spelling standard occur
as a result of unfamiliarity with the standard, divergence
of the standard from the usage, difficulties with applying
the standard, existence of an unestablished standard,
and conscious violation of the standard. The enumerated
types of relations between the standard and the usage
are discussed with the illustration of authentic examples
derived from the contemporary written texts, mainly
from the Polish nationwide press. The paper is concluded
with a reflection on standardisation activities.
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Joanna Zawadka : The evaluation of selected graphic errors found in papers written by foreigners learning the Polish language
This paper presents a proposition for describing
graphic errors according to a division into four types
of realisation of the allograph – grapheme connection
(incorrect, untypical, innovative and episodic realisations)
and provides an evaluation of such representations
by applying the existing division into spelling, inflectional
and syntactic errors.
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Marta Kotarba-Kańczugowska : Plurilingualism in the discursive fi eld of teachers of a small child. References to own research
This paper presents the results of individual
in-depth interviews conducted as part of the research
project titled Różne języki w przestrzeni edukacyjnej
[Different languages in the educational area]. The research
is related to the experience of plurilingualism and the
teachers’ attitude to plurilingual competence at early
stages of education. These issues have become a part
of the plurilingual teaching stream promoted by the
European Union.
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Konrad Kowalczyk,
Magdalena Madejska : The same issue differently, that is the language of the press towards sexual minorities
The subject of this paper is the variant of the Polish
language present in press articles related to sexual
minorities. The authors analyse the differences in the
manners of giving account of the events concerning sexual
minorities on the basis of publications from three major
Polish nationwide dailies which present diverse attitudes
towards such minorities. The prepared material provides
multiple examples of characteristic features of the
language of a given daily; the specificity of the applied
lexical code; the systems of value to which journalists
refer, as well as stylistic devices aimed at convincing
the reader to a particular attitude. Additionally, excerpts
of publications referring to the issues that are crucial
for sexual minorities – among others, partnerships – and
to the moments when sexual minorities enter the public
space, e.g. equality parades, are compiled in this paper.
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Kinga Banderowicz : Equivalents (?) of specialised consultations – prevention and diagnosis of illnesses by patients (on the example of medical articles in women’s magazines and comments on the Internet)
The author of this paper intends to focus on the
analysis of headlines of texts being medical advice and
give some attention to the Internet manners of
conceptualising an illness and its diagnosing by patients
assuming the role of experts. The aim is to describe the
methods of popularising medical achievements related to
prevention of various illnesses and manners of treatment,
as well as to present the register of linguistic devices used
in relation thereto. They serve making the communicated
messages more attractive and accessible.
The senders of messages – assuming the position of
authority (in glossy magazines and Internet forums) –
share their knowledge most frequently arising from their
own experiences. These, however, are not specialists and
therefore their advice should not be treated as equivalent
to a specialised diagnosis. The power of persuasion of the
analysed texts is high although the relations between the
sender and the recipients are equivalent (non-specialists).
Due to the above there is no need to neutralise these
relations and hence both parties use unofficial and nonspecialised
vocabulary that is adjusted to one’s own
perception capabilities. Certain pieces of advice fulfil their
primary function because they are instructive in nature
and have an ambition to inform the recipient in a reliable,
even if unprofessional, manner.
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Emilia Danowska-Florczyk : Do payers of compliments always pay compliments? (about “risky compliments” on the Internet portal nk.pl)
The author of this text makes an attempt to answer
the question about the topicality of descriptions devoted to
the Polish politeness and etiquette. She discusses this
issue in the context of one speech act – a compliment,
which is particularly expansive in the language written on
community portals. However, from the compilation of over
one thousand seven hundred posts and responses
to comments placed under the photographs of the nk.pl
portal users she selects those which deviate from the
typically complimentary ones.
In the further part of the text she presents the
mechanisms that may lead to the so-called unfortunate
compliments and she demonstrates the differences in
the evaluation of these comments in the real and virtual
worlds.
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Edyta Manasterska-Wiącek : What is striking in weather forecast?
This paper is devoted to the analysis of the
language used by weather forecasters. The research
material is constituted by units derived from television
weather forecasts. As noticed, weather forecast is not
distinguished as a separate journalistic genre. The
contemporary weather forecasts inform, on the one hand,
and are supposed to make the viewer interested and
amused, on the other hand. Hence, the author’s intention
is, apart from classifying numerous linguistic and stylistic
errors, to distinguish such characteristics thereof that
could be used to compare it with other related genres and,
possibly, to be able to treat weather forecast as a separate
journalistic genre. The conducted research allows the
conclusion that weather forecast is an example of
infotainment, which is aimed at informing while
entertaining, which assumes the creation of a certain
show, and which shatters the classical typology. Apart
from the extensive group of linguistic and stylistic errors,
certain characteristics distinguishing this type of live
programmes are observed in the language used by weather
forecasters, ones that may constitute its genre indicators,
such as: repetitions, vividness, inclusion of elements of the
colloquial language, neologisms, strong exhibition of the
weather forecaster’s own opinion.
