English-language writing instruction in Poland: Adapting to the local EFL context

This paper is intended to foster reflection about the development of a locally-suitable approach to English-language writing instruction in Poland. In order to provide background information to contextualize a subsequent discussion of English-language writing, the paper starts with a brief overview of the history of L2 writing instruction, including an overview of the four most influential approaches to teaching ESL composition in the U.S. from 1945–1990: Controlled Composition, Current-Traditional Rhetoric, the Process Approach, and English for Academic Purposes. This is followed by a discussion of the concept of a „needs analysis,” where it is noted that needs analysis is complex in foreign language contexts such as Poland, where students may not have obvious, immediate needs for writing in English after graduation. The notion of needs analysis is illustrated with an example drawn from the English Institute at the University of Łódź. The needs analysis indicated that some students of English had negative attitudes and/or anxiety towards writing in English, but some had positive attitudes based on previous experiences with creative and expressive writing. Additionally, it was determined that students needed to learn many skills for writing academic papers that they had not learned in secondary school and that require extensive instruction and practice. Based on the needs analysis, it was determined that the purposes of a new writing course for first-year English majors should be to foster and develop positive attitudes toward writing and to support students’ academic work. The assignments and activities for the course are described. Additionally, a description is provided of the possible purposes that Polish students in general might have for writing in English, the goals that instructors might pursue in assigning writing, and the types of writing teachers might assign. Recommendations are provided for responding to student writing

Logarithmic degenerations of Landau-Ginzburg models for toric orbifolds and global tt^* geometry

We discuss the behavior of Landau-Ginzburg models for toric orbifolds near the large volume limit. This enables us to express mirror symmetry as an isomorphism of Frobenius manifolds which aquire logarithmic poles along a boundary divisor. If the toric orbifold admits a crepant resolution we construct a global moduli space on the B-side and show that the associated tt^*-geometry exists globally.Comment: 40 page

Laurent Polynomials, GKZ-hypergeometric Systems and Mixed Hodge Modules

Given a family of Laurent polynomials, we will construct a morphism between its (proper) Gauss-Manin system and a direct sum of associated GKZ systems. The kernel and cokernel of this morphism are very simple and consist of free O-modules. The result above enables us to put a mixed Hodge module structure on certain classes of GKZ systems and shows that they have quasi-unipotent monodromy.Comment: 34 page

On the bb-functions of hypergeometric systems

For any integer $d\times (n+1)$ matrix $A$ and parameter \beta\in\CC^d let $M_A(\beta)$ be the associated $A$-hypergeometric (or GKZ) system in the variables $x_0,\ldots,x_n$. We describe bounds for the (roots of the) $b$-functions of both $M_A(\beta)$ and its Fourier transform along the hyperplanes $(x_j=0)$. We also give an estimate for the $b$-function for restricting $M_A(\beta)$ to a generic point.Comment: 14 pages, several figures. Typos correcte

ESL and EFL Writing Instruction: Challenges and opportunities

Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00

Low-Mass Dielectron Production in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb Collisions with ALICE

The ALICE Collaboration measures the production of low-mass dielectrons in pp, p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions at the LHC. The main detectors used in the analyses are the Inner Tracking System, Time Projection Chamber and Time-Of-Flight detector, all located around mid-rapidity. The production of virtual photons relative to the inclusive yield in pp collisions is determined by analyzing the dielectron excess with respect to the expected hadronic sources. The direct photon cross section is then calculated and found to be in agreement with NLO pQCD calculations. Results from the invariant mass analysis in p-Pb collisions show an overall agreement between data and hadronic cocktail. In Pb-Pb collisions, uncorrected background-subtracted yields have been extracted in two centrality classes. A feasibility study for LHC run 3 after the ALICE upgrade indicates the possibility for a future measurement of the early effective temperature.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, Proceedings of Hot Quarks 2014 workshop, September 21-27, 2014, Las Negras, Spai