Antipodean Theory for Educational Research

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Authenticity, Culture and Language Learning

In philosophy, authenticity has been used with two meanings: one entails the notion of correspondence; the other entails the notion of genesis (Cooper, 1983: 15). As in certain branches of philosophy, language teaching has perhaps clung too long to the first of these notions of authenticity at the expense of the other. This paper reviews four key conceptualisations of authenticity which have emerged in the field of applied linguistics: text authenticity, authenticity of language competence, learner authenticity and classroom authenticity. If any of these types of authenticity is couched exclusively in terms of one usage or the other, it can lead to an impoverishment and objectification of the experience of language learning. Text authenticity can lead to a poverty of language; authenticity of competence can lead to a poverty of performance; learner authenticity can lead to a poverty of interpretation; classroom authenticity can lead to a poverty of communication. This paper proposes that a pedagogy of intercultural communication be informed by a more hybrid view of authenticity as a process of subjectification, derived from the Heideggerian concept of self-concern

Properties of Multimode Optical Epoxy Polymer Waveguides Deposited on Silicon and TOPAS Substrate

The paper reports on the fabrication and characterization of multimode polymer optical waveguides. Epoxy polymer EpoCore was used as the waveguide core material and EpoClad was used as a cladding and cover protection layer. The design of the waveguides was schemed for geometric dimensions of core 50 μm and for 850 nm and 1310 nm wavelengths. Proposed shapes of the waveguides were fabricated by standard photolithography process. Optical losses of the planar waveguides were measured by the fibre probe technique at 632.8 nm and 964 nm. Propagation optical loss measurements for rectangular waveguides were done by using the cut-back method and the best samples had optical losses lower than 0.53 dB/cm at 650 nm, 850 nm and 1310 nm

The RESET project: constructing a European tephra lattice for refined synchronisation of environmental and archaeological events during the last c. 100 ka

This paper introduces the aims and scope of the RESET project (. RESponse of humans to abrupt Environmental Transitions), a programme of research funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) between 2008 and 2013; it also provides the context and rationale for papers included in a special volume of Quaternary Science Reviews that report some of the project's findings. RESET examined the chronological and correlation methods employed to establish causal links between the timing of abrupt environmental transitions (AETs) on the one hand, and of human dispersal and development on the other, with a focus on the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic periods. The period of interest is the Last Glacial cycle and the early Holocene (c. 100-8 ka), during which time a number of pronounced AETs occurred. A long-running topic of debate is the degree to which human history in Europe and the Mediterranean region during the Palaeolithic was shaped by these AETs, but this has proved difficult to assess because of poor dating control. In an attempt to move the science forward, RESET examined the potential that tephra isochrons, and in particular non-visible ash layers (cryptotephras), might offer for synchronising palaeo-records with a greater degree of finesse. New tephrostratigraphical data generated by the project augment previously-established tephra frameworks for the region, and underpin a more evolved tephra 'lattice' that links palaeo-records between Greenland, the European mainland, sub-marine sequences in the Mediterranean and North Africa. The paper also outlines the significance of other contributions to this special volume: collectively, these illustrate how the lattice was constructed, how it links with cognate tephra research in Europe and elsewhere, and how the evidence of tephra isochrons is beginning to challenge long-held views about the impacts of environmental change on humans during the Palaeolithic. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.RESET was funded through Consortium Grants awarded by the Natural Environment Research Council, UK, to a collaborating team drawn from four institutions: Royal Holloway University of London (grant reference NE/E015905/1), the Natural History Museum, London (NE/E015913/1), Oxford University (NE/E015670/1) and the University of Southampton, including the National Oceanography Centre (NE/01531X/1). The authors also wish to record their deep gratitude to four members of the scientific community who formed a consultative advisory panel during the lifetime of the RESET project: Professor Barbara Wohlfarth (Stockholm University), Professor Jørgen Peder Steffensen (Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen), Dr. Martin Street (Romisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Neuwied) and Professor Clive Oppenheimer (Cambridge University). They provided excellent advice at key stages of the work, which we greatly valued. We also thank Jenny Kynaston (Geography Department, Royal Holloway) for construction of several of the figures in this paper, and Debbie Barrett (Elsevier) and Colin Murray Wallace (Editor-in-Chief, QSR) for their considerable assistance in the production of this special volume.Peer Reviewe

The properties of free-standing epoxy polymer multi-mode optical waveguides

The paper reports on the fabrication and characterisation of free-standing multimode optical epoxy polymer waveguides consisting of a core made of EpoCore and EpoClad polymer cladding and cover protection layers. The 50 × 50 μm2 rectangular waveguides are intended for short-reach optical interconnection and optimised for an operating wavelength of 850 nm. The waveguides of the proposed shapes were fabricated by a standard photolithography process on a silicon substrate provided with a Poly(vinyl alcohol) thin layer. The free-standing structure was then achieved by peeling the deposited EpoClad/EpoCore/EpoClad structures of that substrate. The optical scattering losses of the created planar waveguides, measured by the fibre probe technique at 632.8 and 964 nm, were 0.30 dB cm−1 at 632.8 nm and 0.17 dB cm−1 at 964 nm. Propagation optical loss measurements for rectangular waveguides were performed by the cut-back method and the best samples had optical losses below 0.55 dB cm−1 at 850 and 1310 nm

Flexible multimode polydimethyl-diphenylsiloxane optical planar waveguides

The paper reports on the fabrication and characterization of flexible optical multimode silicon-based organic elastomer planar and rectangular waveguides, where polydimethyl-diphenylsiloxane (PDMDPS) was used for the waveguide core and polydimethylsiloxane was used for the cladding and cover protection layers. We measured waveguiding properties of PDMDPS planar waveguides deposited on glass substrate using the prism coupling technique and the optical scattering losses of the waveguides by the fiber probe technique at the wavelengths region from visible to infrared. The design of the rectangular waveguides was planned for the geometric dimensions of the core 50 x 50 A mu m(2) and the proposed shapes were realized by the doctor blade technique into a nickel mold. Insertion optical loss measurement of rectangular waveguides was done by the cut-back method and the best samples had optical losses lower than 0.35 dB cm(-1) at 532, 650, 850 and 1310 nm. The main virtue of the waveguides is their flexibility, suitable in particular for optical connections in a wide range of the wavelengths

The Divided Poet: Translations of Pablo Neruda into German by Erich Arendt and Hans Magnus Enzensberger

peer reviewedThe West and East German authors and translators Hans Magnus Enzensberger and Erich Arendt both extensively contributed to the reception of foreign literatures after 1945 by translating Latin American poets. This article explores the asymmetrically intertwined literary conditions of the two authortranslator figures with regard to the poetics and politics of translating Pablo Neruda. In this context, the terms intertextuality and transculturality provide a promising methodological and theoretical framework with which to reveal the dialogic potential of translation, that is, the ways in which engaging with a foreign text on the one hand opens up a perspective on the author/ translator's own poetology, and on the other hand on the literary discourse of post-war Germany. The article argues that Neruda translations by Enzensberger contain traces of the recontextualizing language of a postmodern condition, whereas Arendt's language evokes the notion of time-transcending totality. This gives rise to the image of a divided Neruda whose textual manifestation, as formed in the act of translation, transgressed existing styles, genres, and discourses. © W. S. Maney & Son Ltd 2012